Local Shrine Of A Sufi Saint

Site 1 

Location:  Kamla Nehru Ridge Park

near Pul-Bangash Metro Station

North Delhi

Sufi's are Islamic wanderers who came and settled amongst the people long before the later barbaric invasions of the Turks. As Sufis were loved by local communities they served for the vital missing link between two great civilizations and religious ideologies. Where although being theistic both Hinduism and Islam were in many ways opposite. As Dara Shikoh the elder brother of fanatic Aurangzeb called this clash of two religions in India as 'The Meeting Place Of Two Oceans' given as the tittle of the book written by him meant for private viewing of his ruling Mogul family contained a synthesis of teachings from both the religions and which eventually cost him not only his Crown but also his life.

Sufis helped in making bridge over the gaps within these lines of worship. Being present right amongst there listeners they had clarified number of doubts over these philosophies and had their own experiences to share with the the downtrodden of this land. It was the caste system which led to the conversation of low caste/slaves of Hindus into Muhammadans or should I say adopted Islam identity & grown up to be a dignified population of Indian Muslims. Their are "low cast settlements or Dalit Basti(s)" near this park. This Shrine is visited by many such converts and Dalits for devotional purposes of keeping up the Faith. The auspicious day for all such shrine are Thursday's.

This site area is surrounded by ridge at one of the sides, making this spot at an end of a forested area stretching over some kilometer and on the other side it has got one of Asia's biggest whole sale market and an ancient one too known as Sadar Bazaar and put this location at the beginning of a chaotic and noisy neighbourhood. With all such contrast in hand this shrine shall soon get an EARTH WORK done in its compound with an intention to channelize the worship element & tilt 'devotion power' of the believers into more active & fruitful public participation by approaching nature with appreciate the resources of it in hand and such that we rightly value ecosystem without fail as Biodiversity is on the brink of serious damages & as considerable loss has been already caused.

The variety of birds in this portion of the park is quite overwhelming. Minutes within you come at this shrine and start to notice many life forms will appear all busy in their own courses. This place has got countless birds of many types, squirrels, monkeys, rodents and snakes. Bird variety here is truly overwhelming. This place was rather found by me then discovered while in search of a shade from the Sun. The nearby Kabir Basti is famous with many potters family leaving in their. They manufacture, wholesale and retail their mud pots and stuff. The mud pots I have used for constructing my work piece here and otherwise are bought from these traditional skill full but economically poor & socially devalued caste potters. I had to wait for my order of mud pots to come and so decided to explore the greenery and birds and I reached this particular site. My residence place is also near to this place. I remember coming into this park in my childhood with my parents on the last days of Dushera festival. Their used to built and still is made huge effigies of 'Ravana' the mythical character of Epic Ramayana the effigy is then burnt symbolising his defeat. The fun part is watching the bursting of variety of crackers filled in the effigy. For all similar mandatory rituals and on the festival of Diwali 'The festival of light' which is celebrated partly for the return of the same fiction king "Ram" of mythological legend who killed 'Ravana' during his forest exile and returned back home on this day after 14 years and partly by holding up a "Pooja"/ceremony for pleasing Goddess of Wealth & God of Fortune at Hindu houses of Northern India and is signaled or symbolised through lighting the door ways and else with small earthen pots filled with saturated oil made from cow milk. For my house these earthen "diya's" has always came from the same 'Kabir Basti'. The basti is inhabited by many other lower castes and Muslims. The low caste of independent India were actually "Untouchables" for centuries ago. Oppressed for centuries these so called impure human beings were denied all powers and even basic rights according to the Hindu scripture like Purana & Vedas and according to the brahamanical social order of "varnashram" founded by a weirdo called "Manu" and the book of law which established this system of slavery and unjust is popularly known as "Manusmriti" (literally means- Remembering Manu). Not just touching even the shadow or sight of these were forbidden in Hinduism.

It is important to talk of all this here because this was a huge factor which allowed Sufi's with a chance to spread the words of Allah to this breed said to be born by the feet of the Hindu creator God Brahma the older guy amongst the fiction philosophy of the Trinity God "Brahma Vishnu Mahesh/ Creator Preserver Destroyer/CPD) of Hindu mythical beliefs. Sufi's were a hope of light for all who suffered the brutal caste system. It is also important to mention that in fact the first Muslim converts of "Hindustan" [as called by middle-easterners literal meaning "the land of Hindus" but as they miss the letter 's' from their vocabulary so they could only call it "Hindustan" instead of "Sindhustan" the land inhibited by people of Sindhu (Indus) valley] were "Fakirs" the monks of Islam. As it permitted them to beg for food.

One such Fakir is the care taker or this peaceful shrine.

The conversion to Musalla Dharam/Imaan was so much that it had to be countered by then Hindu Gurus uniting with a task revolution called 'bhakti movement' where bhakti means devotion (to God) and let's forget not there are many lakhs of Gods including kings as God's Incarnation & husband as "Parameshwar" (Supreme God) to viewing God as a lover to seeing lover as 'the God'. It was during this period when appeared for the first time in the long history of Hindu suppression of the native communities that we see few "Untouchable saints" come into existence. This indicated availability of the Hindudharma to "adharmi's" however was only a political tool for stoping their conversions. Soon after this, Shudra position deterred more till they were dehumanized, as per the recorded data "untouchables" had instructions to whistle or carry a bell and ring before their entry into any crowded place so that people can avoid their "impure shadows" from falling on any "Brahman"(creator & follower of his imagined creation 'Brahma- the God of creation.) Not just this they had to tie up brooms on there back such that it can erase the marks of their foot-steps which causes the earth to get impure and no, no spitting on the ground so better wear a bowl in the neck or your own kidnapped Mother Earth will be infected from what disgust a "made of shurda sperm" carries the curse of birth till the day of judgement. Every thing was according to the laws of Manusmriti & also as per indicated clearly in Vedas what all the ranges of punishment these Hindu slaves deserves for being so. Such was the time of great "peshwa's". Anyways, It was the Bhakti period of Hindu history when a weaver by profession and poet by heart " Sant Kabir" Great Slave as his name suggests went on to became a voice for the dignity of tittled Low Cast native slaves and thus was loved by both Musalmaan and Shoodr. It was the Sufi's like Kabir who praised none of the two religions and gave a common ground of communal harmony based upon the sayings of wise men and appeals of God to men from both of their Godly Law Books. Sufi's to me appear like "Buddhist Mohammedans" walking on "the middle way" of wisdom. Neither being a "lakir ka fakir" a blank follower of many meaning rich lines of Quran or Ved-Puran nor being an insecurely baffled of "if in any case" becoming a minority brahmin or minority musallmaan.

There is a long Indian history of Sufis, travellers and traders coming from West Asia, China, Persia, Middle East, Greece, Syria and so on. Each one giving his coat of layer of culture over existing lump of traditions both orthodox & lineant and more customs.

The shrine is a functioning worship place attracting number of families of nearby localities till date. Their are also volunteers which look after this place. Everything from cleaning the place to keeping it abundant in food material is maintained by 'The Faith' of such devotees.

What fascinated me to work at this site and dug 'a word' alongside this Sufi saint lying in the grave is that the underlying idea of this phase of USN project matches perfectly with what is seems to be the theme he (saint) opted for his memorial. I mean the place was alreadys filled with feeding spots for number of animals and birds. The pit made in the stone here stores water which supports inhibiting this many living beings. This water pit is more like a miniature pond attracting almost all of the passer byes from monkeys to parrots to squirrels to rats and also dogs. There were sweets for ants, seeds for birds, bread for rats, medicinal grass for monkeys, something for dogs and everything for crows and more. It is indeed "A Paradise".

It is the same idea of sharing and loving all equally which was opted by the Sufi's to be liked by the pupil and yet helped them been accepted by local religious authorities of the times. The very act of sharing a small portion of one's food supply with muted animals open a window into heavenly nature.

The place was also a useful site for noticing types of and degree of relation each specie share with another. It was consuming to find the friendly flocks and superior kinds in the hierarchy of animal kingdom and bird tribes all maintaining peace with others and also within their respective communities.

Sufi's made friends with people and also as they see God as a friend. so they didn't advocated fear from almighty follow his wishes butrather allowed to all those who were interested in getting in tune with their spiritual side a relief of been talked to, listened to and fearlessly with compassion and respect. Admiring nature or a friend or the friend's faith are all very similar.

Filming Bird life and other small beings definately was comfortable. The place was peaceful and had many of bird animal activity constantly taking place. The shade under the trees and the very same 'miniature pond' of this portion of the forest gave an enjoyable

view of many life-forms regular to the water source coming and providing an insight into their world. Noticing their behavioral patterns, their responses to each others, various sounds of calls, playing amongst themselves and teasing some was all soothing the mind and glance full for the eyes.

Many small film clips taken during this time will be one of the many building block of the complete narration to this whole art activity, my experiences, findings and summary of the whole art making experience. 

From left to right: Rat, Squirrel, Jungle

Babbler, Squirrel again & a pair of Myna

s'Baba care-taker' of the shrine is a friendly guy. He was inquisit-ive of purpose of our visit &relevance of doing what we were doing to his sacred place was another of his grave concerns. But myself been belonging to a nearby location helped alot in winning his trust and getting his permissions. He was illetrate but unsuperstitious. It is this leniency which is necessary to prevent religions from becoming plastic and burden. Their should always be allowed discussions, open debates, questions, solving up of the problems in the philosophy of religion which is yet not upgraded with technological advancements, new historical findiings and fresh scientific conclusions and theories in process of evolution.

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next page: Interaction with Siberian migratory birds and analysing the nutritional life of sacred Yamuna's water...read more

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