The Drowned Book: Ecstatic and Earthly Reflections of Bahauddin the Father of Rumi by Coleman Barks and John Moyne
Great. I see that I have a new moniker. Anyways, The Mystical Baker will blog a mystical book.
As the title explains, The Drowned Book is written by Bahauddin, the father of Jelaluddin Rumi, the Islamic mystic poet of the 13th century. The title comes from when Rumi was teaching something from his father’s writings by a fountain to his students, and Shams of Tabriz, a crazy wandering dervish that had an intimate friendship with Rumi, pushed the copy of the book into a fountain. Rumi gets pissed, but Shams says that when he reaches in the fountain to get the book, it’ll be dry. Of course, the book comes out dry and not ruined, and Rumi learns the lesson that he can’t be bound by his dead father’s teachings and that there are higher planes of experience.
Basically Bahauddin’s book was a private journal that he kept, with everything from mystical experiences written down, to meditations on the Quran, to wild sexual fantasies which would’ve scandalized the community, to tips on treating nausea and gardening.
I appreciate his realness as a person–he was a man who had appetites–sexual and spiritual, and his love for God wound both together. Some of the spiritual wisdom he offers is a bit tedious to read though, but not enough to make me dislike the selections all together.
And I have to admit that I prefer the poetry of Rumi than to his father’s writings, but Bahauddin is a delight in his respective ways too.
The Mystical Baker has blogged.