Hello,
Namaste and welcome,
Assalamu Alaikum,
Namaste,
Hola,
Hello,
Greetings,
Love,
Thank you for being here.
So,
Fana means annihilation.
Fana means annihilation.
That's the meaning of Fana.
But annihilation is the annihilation of self.
It is the annihilation of this individualness or this separateness.
Because Sufis believe,
You know I am talking about Sufism,
Sufis believe that the self or the ego comes into the way of experiencing divinity or experiencing spirituality or experiencing oneness or experiencing love.
And that's why it becomes essential to transcend this ego or,
You know,
In the words of Sufis,
Annihilate this ego.
Now,
I want to be careful here because I don't want to imply that ego is something wrong.
It is wrong to have ego.
I am not implying that.
In fact,
Some of you might have done sessions with me on,
You know,
The death and the rebirth of the ego in which I talk about the concept of healthy ego.
That we don't have to like judge the ego.
We don't have to kill the ego.
What we have to do is we have to learn how to have that balance between selflessness,
Egolessness and having an ego and having this human experience.
The ego is the human experience.
Having a human experience is having an ego.
So we cannot deny the ego.
We cannot say ego is a wrong thing.
What we can do is create a balance between egolessness and ego and create a healthy ego.
So for that,
In that sense,
It's good to also experience this annihilation of the ego or transcendence of the ego.
Because as a society,
You know,
We stay a lot in ego.
Ego is a very dominant thing and it's not balanced.
It's very imbalanced.
Because it's also important to stay in the state of egolessness.
But we stay in a state of ego very much.
And our whole life is defined by that ego,
Right?
So think of this,
You know,
As we are born,
This ego is solidified very much.
That you are this separate person,
That you are this person,
You have this name,
You have this religion,
You have this nationality,
And now you have to defend this.
Now you spend your whole life defending this name of ours,
You know,
This identity of ours,
This religion of ours,
This nationality of ours.
And that's how our life is spent.
So then we do everything to fuel this ego.
You know,
We try to,
And that's how the modern society is structured.
Starting from the very beginning,
The schools,
The ego is solidified.
You know,
We are made to compete with other children,
That you have to become the best,
You have to become the topper of your class.
Right?
And then you have to find the best university and beat other students.
Other students should go in bad universities,
You should go in good universities.
And you should find a good job.
Others should find a bad job.
You should be better than others.
You should become the CEO of your company.
And you should have more money than others.
And you should,
You know,
And this is how the ego is solidified,
Made very,
Very solid thing.
And that's why we start thinking that it is a real thing.
And some people not only defend this identity,
Some people associate themselves with different kinds of identities.
You know,
It might be religion.
And then people spend their life defending their religion.
You know,
I am a Muslim,
I am a Christian,
I am a Hindu,
I am a Jew,
I am this and that.
And they become so identified to that,
That it becomes an illusion.
And,
You know,
We defend this ego.
We don't realize that it is false.
It is a construct.
We become attached to nationalities,
Right?
I am an Indian,
I am a Canadian,
I am an American,
I am an Israeli,
I am a Palestinian,
I am a Russian,
I am a Ukrainian,
Whatever that is.
And then we spend our whole lives defending that nationality.
Now,
Think about this.
Are these illusions,
Are these,
Is this ego,
Is this all these identities,
Are these real or are these merely constructs?
This is something which we have to really ponder upon and reflect upon.
And think about this,
Such a common notion of countries and nationalities.
We believe in this so much,
Right?
We are believing in this so much that we are fighting.
And you can see today it's happening right now,
Right?
This war,
These wars that are happening,
We are fighting with each other.
I am this,
You know,
This is my land.
This is my border.
This is my country.
And,
You know,
I will I will die defending this country of mine.
And,
You know,
This feeling of patriotism.
Our country is real.
Let's let's ponder over this question.
Our country is real.
Our religion is real.
Now,
Think,
Let's do this thought experiment.
Imagine that you are this astronaut in space and you're looking at this beautiful blue,
Blue planet Earth.
What do you see?
Do you see any borders?
Do you see America?
Do you see,
You know,
Israel?
Do you see Palestine?
Do you see Russia,
Ukraine?
Do you see India,
Pakistan?
Do you see or do you see anything like that?
Do you see any borders?
No,
There are no borders.
All these are human created illusions.
Do you see any religions when you look at the world from space?
Do you see any Muslim,
Jew,
Christian?
Do you see any,
You know,
Black or white people?
Do you see any all any divisions?
We see this one beautiful single planet,
United planet,
This one single organism,
Gaia.
We don't see all these divisions.
All these divisions are created by the human mind.
The mind has the tendency to divide everything.
We have this,
You know,
The mind is like this knife that cuts everything into pieces.
But all these are mind created illusions.
These are not real.
So that's what a Sufi wants to remind you.
That's what Sufism wants to remind us that there is no division.
There is no separation,
That we all are one.
We have created these false constructs.
There is not even this identity,
This name of mine that I keep defending for my whole life.
This name is just a thing that was given to me by my parents.
You know,
All this identity.
So all these are illusions.
And the act of Fana is to let go,
You know,
This practice of Fana.
Fana means again annihilation.
Annihilation of the self is to let go.
Go beyond all these identities and to realize that we are not limited.
That you are the universe.
That you are one with the divine.
You know,
Again,
Divine is just a word,
Whatever that means.
You can call it God,
You can call it universe,
Nature,
Collective consciousness.
Whatever you want to call that.
All these are just labels.
But there is no separation.
And this act of annihilating the self.
You know,
Living a life from beyond this transcendence of the ego.
That's what the life of a Sufi is.
And that's why you will see Sufis who let go,
They are rebels.
A true Sufi is a rebel.
Who transcends all these dogmas and divisions of society.
Who questions the way of the society.
And who lives a life from this place of transcendence.
And that's why when you look at a mystic,
When you look at a Sufi.
You will see this,
You know,
Kind of a mad man or mad woman,
Mad person.
Who is a whirling dervish.
Who is a wanderer.
Who is this person who would dance on the streets.
Who would just annihilate the self.
Who will go mad in music.
Who will go mad in love.
Who will travel the world.
Who will not care about society and money.
And,
You know,
Institutions.
And,
You know,
Marriage and family responsibilities.
And jobs.
A true Sufi,
A true mystic does not have all these limitations.
A true Sufi is,
You know,
Ben,
You are absolutely right.
Kind of a holy fool.
You know,
A wise fool.
Who lets go of all these society.
And who becomes totally in love with the divine.
Who annihilates the self.
Who becomes mad in love with the divine.
Who is love.
Who is an embodiment of love.
But we have created all these illusions.
And we are stuck in these illusions.
A true Sufi feels this freedom of the self.
The self annihilates and becomes one.
A true Sufi becomes God.
A true Sufi feels this oneness with the divine.
You know,
In this pure joy,
In this pure love.
A Sufi does not think whom to love.
Think about love today.
How we love as human beings.
We are so strategic in our love.
We are so,
You know,
We make these schemes of how to love.
We are schemers.
We are,
You know,
We are people who strategize how to love.
Who plan how to love.
Who decide whom to love and not to love.
You know,
I will love this person.
I will not love the rest of the people.
I will only love my family.
And I will not love others.
A Sufi does not love from the brain the way we do as a society.
A Sufi loves from the heart.
A Sufi loves,
Does not have any divisions.
A Sufi loves everyone.
Everyone.
A Sufi loves,
You know,
A Sufi loves a dog.
A Sufi loves an insect.
A Sufi loves plants and trees.
A Sufi is a tree hugger.
A Sufi is,
You know,
Who loves everyone in the society.
A beggar.
A prostitute.
You know,
A Sufi would love a mad man.
A Sufi would love someone who is lying down on the streets.
A Sufi would love even a rich man,
You know,
Or a sophisticated man.
There is no division for a Sufi.
A Sufi loves everyone.
You know,
There is a beautiful story of Rumi and Shams.
And Shams was this kind of,
This true Sufi and this wanderer.
Who was Shams of Tabrizi.
Shams of Tabriz.
And he was the lover of Rumi.
Now lover,
Again,
We have a very,
You know,
Very strict ideas around love also.
We think love was only as romantic love.
But for a Sufi,
There is no division between romantic love or other types of love.
For a Sufi,
Love is love.
So a Sufi will not feel this,
You know,
Embarrassment to call a friend a lover.
Or to call,
You know,
Another,
Whoever that person is to be a lover.
So for Shams,
Rumi was his lover.
And for Rumi,
Shams was his lover.
And so Shams was someone who would go into,
You know,
When he came to the place where Rumi was living in Turkey,
He would come there and he would go and he would meet everyone.
He would give love to everyone,
You know.
And in those times,
There was a lot of judgment.
And even today there is,
You know,
For especially for people who are into prostitution.
And there was a lot of judgment around that.
And they were looked at as lower class people.
But Shams would go and he would talk to,
You know,
All these people who are into prostitution.
And he would treat them,
Give them love and treat them with love.
And eventually they would get transformed.
So a Sufi does not plan how to love.
A Sufi's love is not fake love,
Which,
You know,
Our society,
And I'm sorry to say this,
But this is the truth.
Most of us,
We are practicing fake love.
Our love is not true.
We are strategizing whom to love and whom not to love.
We think that when we decide that this person is my partner,
Because this person has more money,
This person can give me security,
This person looks good on the outside.
And then we think that I love this person.
I'm sorry,
That is not love.
That is fake love.
A Sufi has unconditional love.
A Sufi does not decide whom to love.
Love can never be decided,
Right?
Can we really decide whom to love?
But look at how we are loving today as a society.
You know,
Look at how we go on dates today.
Someone going on a date constantly is evaluating the other person.
How much money this person has?
How successful this person is?
What job this person has?
You know,
How much security this person can give me?
What kind of,
You know,
What kind of clothes this person wears?
All these things,
We decide from the mind and we are thinking that we are in love.
Sorry,
That's not love.
That's fake love.
Love can never be decided.
Love happens.
Love is love.
It just happens.
You cannot decide whom you can love,
Right?
It just happens.
It happens.
And when it happens,
A Sufi acknowledges that.
A Sufi is not shy to acknowledge that.
So,
This is kind of this fana,
This annihilation of the self,
This annihilation of all these ideas of society,
All these limitations and all these dogmas,
And feeling this oneness with existence,
Feeling love for everything,
Not dividing I love,
Our love,
That I will love this person and I will not love this person.
This is not how love happens.
Love is love.
It just is for everyone.
It is unconditional.
So,
That's divine love.
And that's the surrender.
And that's the annihilation of the self.
This is what fana is.
To annihilate the self,
To annihilate all these identities,
Ideas,
And become one with the divine.
That's what fana is.
Take care.
Namaste.
Khuda Hafiz.
I will see you again.
