Çilingir Sofrası 21 / Hint İrfanı - Nirvana (with english subtitles)

0:00Çilingir Sofrası 21 / Hinduism - Nirvana ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***

0:01So that is what we mean by ‘Temple’ (see Cilingir Sofrası 20)

0:04But look at what is happening today.

0:07Nowadays it is all about asking for donations

0:10But we don’t know where those donations go

0:17Serhan: They say help us, please make donations

0:21Serhan: Those who make donations end up running the place as directors, general managers

0:24So yes, we are aware of such developments but we know what we are talking about

0:29Now, we said that a person who has manifested his or her abilities

0:36Sinan: has acquired a reputation, a name

0:38But now we say: give up that name!

0:43Subhanallah!

0:46Sinan: Exit

0:48Whoever gifted you all those abilities,

0:53whether you think it is God, or nature.

0:56Sinan: Whatever

0:58This time offer yourself,

1:01not just bananas!

1:04So in temples, we see that some people devote their lives voluntarily to service,

1:10leaving behind the lives they led before.

1:14They wear their orange tunics, they shave their heads, they have become voluntary servants

1:18Sinan: They have no expectations

1:20Yes, those people are dervishes.

1:24They don’t know whether they will be able to eat tomorrow

1:26Sinan: there may be food today but not tomorrow.

1:32This is the ethics of abdication.

1:35They say, from now on I will live in service to others and offer all my abilities and talents to others

1:43This seems like craziness in our modern world

1:46Sinan: Somebody wrote a book about how he sold his Ferarri, gave up his Ferrari!

1:49They might claim that they have given up everything while earning money from publishing!

2:02I am not saying that we should live like the Buddhist monks.

2:06Some people think I am advocating such a life. No, I am not.

2:08What we are talking about is that before you were born, you were nobody.

2:14Because you weren’t even born. After you were born, you were a person but

2:19we didn’t yet see your abilities so you were ‘anybody’ and later you became ‘somebody’

2:24Now you have a name, you are practicing your talents, abilities

2:28Lets’ say you are called a hairdresser or a tailor. Your abilities, your talents have become your name.

2:33So you have manifested your talents and now you are visible.

2:35You attracted the attention of God. Priests called you and they said

2:40You have established yourself, you have gained a great deal. Now let it all go!

2:47and become a servant of God, offer your talents to others.

2:56Now you will do everything for the sake of God in service. We will give you a place to sleep. Can you do this?

3:04We are not forcing you at the point of a gun.

3:07Serhan: Will you share with others what you have acquried or learned?

3:10Sinan: No, that’s not the point. This is a question just for you.

3:13This is a question for the individual.

3:18So for example, Serhan, you are someone who has a good reputation as a musician. You make money.

3:23You are popular and receive requests to perform your music.

3:26You have a name.

3:31Suppose, someone asked you to come to their temple and said: come live with us and show your talents here. What would you say?

3:35Serhan: What would I do in a temple?

3:38They are not asking you to do anything except

3:41to practice your art, your gifts there.

3:46Come do it here, we are not asking you to do anything else. We are not going to pay you

3:53There will be no concerts, no one will applaud you.

3:58This is a higher request because this time there won’t be any spectators.

4:04Who will applaud you. Only God will.

4:10You have to make sure that God approves of you. Will you do it?

4:15You might ask: what will you give me in return? They say, well, you won’t go hungry.

4:18That’s even questionable, you may not have any food tonight.

4:23Sinan: you will sleep on a straw mat.

4:26Now I am reminded of Aziz Mahmut Hudayi

4:33When he visited Omer Fakirullah, what was there to eat? No guarantees.

4:39There is no guarantee that you will find food. We will talk about that later.

4:43Serhan: I am reminded of Yunus Emre’s life. He led a life of service at the Tekke.

4:49Serhan: For example, he was ordered to cut wood, but he couldn’t bring logs that weren’t cut straight.

4:54Serhan: That’s what came to my mind.

4:57That’s a different topic, we will get to that later.

5:08We are talking about Indian wisdom and about priests who lead a life abdication.

5:14If you can reach "Zero."

5:16If you really do this,

5:18That’s what we call Nirvana.

5:20What is Nirvana?

5:22It is zero but not zero.

5:24What is it?

5:25It is the uterus.

5:28You won’t find this in the literature.

5:31Nirvana means ‘rebirth’. But not to be born out of a body.

5:38Buddha says that when we leave Samsara, we don’t go back to the body. The point is to die in the body, and to be born in spirit.

5:44If you have left the circle, the ‘determination’, you don’t go back to the body.

5:49Your body dies, but you are reborn in spirit

5:53Sinan: Mûtû Kable En Temûtû

5:58Yes, that’s Christ’s story

6:01who said, I was born so that you could kill me.

6:03As he was crucified, he said that I was born for this day He was thankful.

6:10elhamdülillah

6:13Why? So that he could be reborn in spirit

6:15You have to crucify me, Christ said

6:19Serhan: Ismail Mashuki said the same thing: please kill me. That is my salvation.

6:26My salvation is in this act of crucification.

6:33RIght.

6:36If committing suicide was permissible, many people might have done it.

6:40Serhan: Everyone would have committed suicide!

6:42Sinan: It would have led to chaos

6:44But it was prohibited

6:48God said, pray to me, yearn for me!

6:53Do it through others, through people!

6:56Mansur Al-Hallaj did the same thing

7:00Few people know his story.

7:02They think he said “Enel Haq” (I am God) and it was all over

7:06It is assumed he wanted a higher station, but no.

7:16Sinan: Was he going to say “Enel Batin”? Of course not.

7:21Look Serhan, Mansur Al-Hallaj goes to Hajj with three hundred murids

7:28They undertake the Hajj rituals

7:37He then speaks to the people and says

7:39Dear people, this is who I am and my murids here know me well

7:47I have not followed the shariat in the following ways

7:54You are ordered to protect the shariat

8:00Therefore you are obligated to kill me

8:06in order to protect it.

8:10Do Muslims know about this?

8:14Sinan: He requested people to kill him

8:16He literally requested to be killed, that was his salvation

8:22Serhan: So in order to save Islam, you must kill me, he said.

8:25Isn’t that strange?

8:31Serhan: Ismail Mashuki did the same thing

8:33Right

8:35This is the station of Jesus Christ.

8:38Serhan: Pir Sultan Abdal did the same thing

8:41We think that we should have saved them

8:44but they say, no, we are born for this day.

8:48What does this mean?

8:51It means returning what you were given back to its owner

8:57My teacher said a prayer

9:02He said: My Rab, I am here because of you, and now, I am offering what you gave me back to you.

9:12But I can’t offer you what you already gifted me,

9:15therefore I am submitting to you.

9:17This is the meaning of Islam.

9:20Let’s see how many Islams there are.

9:23We all need to look at the mirror, including myself, and see if we are really practicing Islam.

9:27Were we born for the day when we are ready to give ourselves up?

9:31What I am trying to say is

9:33there is great pleasure (zevk in Turkish, zauq in Arabic) on this path but as we get closer,

9:38we begin to burn.

9:42You get closer and closer and the fire starts to burn you.

9:45As we get closer, our nafs starts to become afraid and starts to tremble

9:48Oh no, I am going towards the fire, am I going to have to give up everything?

9:56But aren’t we going to die anyway?

9:59We haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t die yet.

10:03Don’t we know that every living being will die?

10:06So why are we crying?

10:08Everyone will experience death.

10:11We are fine when we are given this life and never ask why we are given this life

10:16or are not thankful to the One who gave it to us

10:19No one thinks of thanking God for our lives, but

10:25when He is taking it away, we ask, why do you take it away?

10:28He says: It was mine anyway, who are you to ask?

10:38This is a trap.

10:43So when we give up ourselves and become empty,

10:47that’s when we arrive at ‘Atman’

10:51Isn’t Atman an interesting term?

10:55Sinan: It sounds Turkish

10:56Yes, it is ‘Ataman’

11:01What does ‘Ataman’ mean?

11:03It means ‘Divine Man’.

11:06'Man’ is Turkish and has spread to other languages from Turkish and and means man, human being

11:16What does Ata mean?

11:23It comes from proto-Turkish.

11:25I am not saying this to claim superiority of the Turkish language.

11:28That is the reality.

11:35Ataman means both ‘Adam’, the root human being "Ataman"

11:46But also means ‘Ot man or ‘Od’man,

11:54In Anatolia ‘d’ was softened and pronounced as ‘t’

11:58meaning Fire man

12:00So Serhan, what we mean by Nirvana is emptying ourselves

12:07and arriving at zero in order to be reborn.

12:12This is called ‘die before you die’ - mutu kable ente mutu

12:18So you ended up in zero, but something remains.

12:24What remains are your talents, abilities and the self that offers those.

12:30In other words, what you have gained in terms of your abilities, your gifts remains

12:35What has been emptied is the content

12:41Serhan: The content that has been placed afterwards is emptied?

12:46For example, let’s say you have learned to drive a truck

12:52You drove somewhere with a full truck.

12:57Someone there asked you if you would take their goods and deliver them to another location.

13:04You ask what the weight of the goods would be. So many tons, okay, that would work.

13:12How can you carry those goods? Only by emptying what is already in your truck

13:17You empty all the goods in your truck, but your ability to drive your truck remains

13:23What you get rid of is what is heavy, the goods you carrried but your expertise is still there.

13:29So the point is: gain an expertise, but don’t carry the weight of what you used to gain that expertise.

13:36In old times, in Anatolia, they said that you have a ‘gold bracelet’ if you have acquired a craft.

13:41So wherever you go, you will never go hungry because you have that craft.

13:44Sinan: Like a gold bracelet.

13:45You don’t own anything but you have a craft.

13:49If you owned goods, what happens if they disappear

13:52as a result of a flood or earthquake?

13:54You might see that tradespeople,

13:58when they go bankrupt, or when they encounter a natural disaster, they might commit suicide.

14:02But a craftsperson does not commit suicide

14:05Their house may be burnt down, they might lose everything they own but they still have their craft.

14:09What we mean is you can empty what you have, but what remains is your ability, your talents and that is ‘Atman’.

14:19They translate this word ‘Atman’ as Ruh (Spirit) in Turkish.

14:22But that is not right. Atman really means “Divine Man”

14:26What is left is ‘God-Man’.

14:34And your ego does not own this, it owns you

14:40Because when you reach ‘Atman’ you will see that

14:44it is ‘Brahman’.

14:50This is the wisdom of India. You see, I am reading from the Upanishads,

14:54The highest level of discourse in Sufism is already right here in the Upanishads,

15:03Sufis who have reached the higher levels talk about such discourses

15:08Here it is, at the beginning of the Upanishads – right in the second paragraph

15:17With such a mystical consciousness, the spirit supercedes all pain

15:23it is saved and reaches ‘Brahma’ and therefore does not deign

15:30to come back to this world.

15:34In other words, Samsara, the world of life and death is left behind.

15:37Instead, what do we think of immediately when Hindu wisdom is mentioned?

15:40Reincarnation

15:42We say Indians believe in reincarnation, we ask each other ‘do you believe in reincarnation?’

15:48And someone might say that in my past life I was the last grandson of the Pharaoh!

15:52This is all because of our ignorance.

15:55The Indians are saying: if you are coming back to this world over and over again

15:58then, you are an animal.

15:59Only those that are human will leave the circle of Samsara.

16:03What does Subhanallah mean?

16:05It means ‘negative’, that something is not.

16:15We can’t know God in the positive sense

16:18Why? Because whatever you think of God represent your own assumptions.

16:21Serhan: So those are ‘not God’, therefore negative

16:30So God is not how we think of God Or how we see God

16:36You are saying God is not how I imagine God

16:40When you realize that none of your assumptions are God,

16:47That is ‘la ilahe’ there is no god (whatever you think is not God)

16:53La Ilahe means being devoid of gods (small g) or devoid of idols

17:04Illalah: Then what remains is God! Only then what remains is “Allah’

17:06Ilah is a part and

17:08Allah is the whole.

17:10Ilah is a part and Allah is the whole.

17:14Let me put it another way for the sake of clarity

17:21There is something very interesting in the English language

17:23We say a man or the man

17:26A man means any man, not a specific man

17:31Sinan: in other words, a man is without a name, we don’t know him

17:35A man, yes it's a human but who, we don't know.

17:42The man means a specific man.

17:47"The" is very interesting in English.

17:50T-H-E are the letters.

17:53‘The’ comes from ‘Teo’ or ‘Dio’ (God, the Divine)

17:59We specify a word with the name of God.

18:03Just like “Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim”.

18:06We specify everything with the name of God

18:09When we say ‘the glass’, we are specifying it with the name of God

18:14This is already in the language itself

18:16A modern English man does not know this.

18:19but of course they know Shakespeare.

18:23Çilingir Sofrası 21 / Hinduism - Nirvana ***Translated by Prof.Dr.Nükhet Kardam***