Catalog

Excerpt from The Dervish Secret of Eternal Youth

Rumi and the Soul of the Goddess Samadeva

   In his time, Rumi was considered to be the greatest poet, philosopher, and scholar of the Persian language; but up until then, his religious puritanism had prevented him from becoming interested in the apparently more superficial manifestations of art, like music, dance, and song. One day he was walking through the streets of Konya when he saw a man dancing the Sama, the whirling dance of the dervishes. It was Shamz of Tabriz, who was to become his Master. Watching Shamz turn and practice his dancing exercises, Rumi fell into a state of ecstasy. He then had the following extraordinary vision: while Shamz was turning, Rumi saw a dancer step out of his body and rise toward the heavens, and he knew that this was the soul of Shamz. From this moment dates Rumi’s conversion to the whirling dance of the dervishes, which he was later to make the very heart of his teaching. Rumi’s state of ecstasy lasted so long that by the time it had ended, Shamz had already disappeared. Distraught, Rumi went out in search of him. He walked the alleyways of the souk, one after the other, and passing by a goldsmith’s shop, heard the crystalline patter of a tiny hammer tapping on gilded metal. He entered the shop and perceived, beside the goldsmith, a young girl hammering an object she was holding in her hands. Coming closer, Rumi saw that she was sculpting a dancer, the perfect replica of the dancer he had recognised earlier as the soul of Shamz of Tabriz. Once again, Rumi fell into ecstasy and felt his own soul as it, too, began to whirl. He who had never danced before, who had never practiced the Sama, began whirling in the goldsmith’s shop. For the first time, he recognised his own soul, which, like the soul of Shamz, rose from his body, lifting him up toward the heavens. After the state of ecstasy had come to an end, Rumi remained for a time with the goldsmith and his daughter. He learned that she was sculpting the dancer Samadeva, one of the Hindu goddesses of the dance  According to the legend of Samadeva, the human soul is naturally beautiful and joyous, but imprisoned, as it were, in the physical body with all its limitations and illnesses, and prisoner also of many negative and conflictual emotions. The Samadeva dances and exercises liberate this soul. Man’s thoughts become clear, his emotions positive, and his body young and healthy once again. Such is the tale of the dancer Samadeva, recognised as the goddess of the dance by the wandering dervishes, the Malamati dervishes of South India, the brotherhood to which Shamz of Tabriz belonged. The mystical dancers say that by turning, by practicing these dances, the dancer is united with the soul of the dance, with the goddess of the dance, with Samadeva.