Anand Krishna’s Speech at Sufi Night

 

 

At such beautiful night, we were so blessed to have Mr. Anand Krishna’s speech about Sufi. To him Sufi has already been there since very long time. Sufi means God as the Devine Mother. So Sufi is for those who believe in God, means that we are all Sufi. Whether you believe in God or not it does not matter, you still believe in something, so you are also a man of faith.

 

Mr. Anand told the audiences about how Sufis were running away after a traumatic story of Anna al Haqq had occurred. Sufis now have to come down to the market place of the world.

 

Mr. Anand also mentioned that his father came from Sindh (the source of Sufi) but had lived in Indonesia. After India and Pakistan had separated, his father went back to his hometown which became part of Pakistan. His father was very sad and disappointed where he found that everything was different, and because there were many religions in his family so his family had been separated as well. One midnight, his cousin warned him to leave the country right at that time or otherwise something very bad would have happened. He did not go to India but went back to Indonesia. At that time, all Indian and Pakistani who were living or working legally abroad were given options to live in India, Pakistan or England, but his father had chosen Indonesia.  Mr Anand told us that he once asked his father why he chose Indonesia not England. His father said that in Indonesia there was no problem about religion because we were all human beings. But unfortunately not now is the case. In Bali we are still better, but at other places since early ages children at school have learned that they are different with each other based on religions. Mr. Anand also mentioned that Aceh was very peaceful when 3 generation of Sultana (woman ruler) had ruled Aceh. Before and after that, Aceh had been suffering. Mr. Anand said that leaders and politicians must have Sufi heart, everybody must have Sufi heart. Sufis must come down from mountain top to be right here the middle of the world. In one of Mr. Anand papers presented in the Sufi World Conference in Singapore, he promoted that Sufi can solve any problems in the world.

 

Before he ended his speech, Mr. Anand said that his Sufi teacher was Sheikh Baba who was an ice vendor. But the one who introduced him to Sufi for the first time was his father. His father always sang Sufi’s song 3 times a day at that time, and his mother also sang different song from Hindu religion which reminded everybody about death. When he asked about such song to his mother, she told him a story from Kabir saying that “truth is bitter”, nobody is prepared to hear the truth.

 

Mr. Anand realized that he was given 19 years bonus of life up to now after his almost certain death in 1991. So he is going to use it properly and speak out the truth. He said that he is ready whenever God takes his life. He also told us about his vision “One Earth, One Sky and One Humankind”. He reminded us to share our bounties, not consider our resources as commodities. Those are Sufi’s ways of thinking.

 

At that opportunity, Mr. Anand said that he was very happy to see many Sufis there, and he also mentioned that he only has known Prof. Wadud (one of the speakers of the event from America who is Muslim-red) for just more than a month but she reminded him about a beautiful woman “Rabbiah”, one of the Sufis in the past. He also thanked to all audiences and participants of the International Bali Meditators Festival 2009 and he closed his talk by singing some beautiful songs followed by all the participants.