A Cherag is an ordained priest or minister sort of. I have been one for twenty years and I am not completely sure what exactly one is. We are part time clergy. Mostly we try to follow the Sufi path laid out by Hazrat Inayat Khan and continued by in our particular order by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, his son and not too far off in the future by Pir Zia Inayat Khan, his son. When we are going to do some cheragy stuff like perform a wedding or a funeral or a house blessing we prepare ourselves at least a day or so ahead. Of course, in order to be successful at it, one has to constantly prepare one's self.
Murshid, as we call Hazrat Inayat Khan and which means teacher or master, was the first one to establish a modern western order of Sufism. He founded the Sufi Movement in 1910 in France and build the organization and taught through out Europe and America until his death in 1927.
Over the coming years I hope to create
a record that will prove, at times inspirational, and at others, at the
least, informative.
From Khalid:
Cecil:
I did a random search on the net
with the words Hazrat Inayat Khan Sufi and
the second entry is your web-page.
Cool.
How's the family?
Lynne and Kendall are in India, coming
back in 3 days, have been gone a month. What an education for Kendall,
the 12-year old traveler. Lynne met her first cousin Sudhir and her
Aunt Shanti in Delhi. Sudhir is on e-mail, and when he printed out
a message from me to the girls, caught a bit of my note stating
that I had recently been Sufi dancing.
"Ohhh, Is your husband Sufi?" he asked, happily.
(I'd like to think so, but it doesn't matter what I think. I just do the work that my passions make necessary, and try to be mindful of what I'm doing)
Todd
Julia Donoho sent this to me:
IN THE BEGINNING [author unknown]
In the beginning there was the computer. And
God said
%Let there be light!
#Enter user id.
%God
#Enter password.
%Omniscient
#Password incorrect. Try again.
%Omnipotent
#Password incorrect. Try again.
%Technocrat
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Sunday, March
1.
%Let there be light!
#Unrecognizable command. Try again.
%Create light
#Done
%Run heaven and earth
#And God created Day and Night. And God saw there
were 0 errors.
#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Sunday, March
1.
#Approx. funds remaining: $92.50.
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Monday, March
2.
%Let there be firmament in the midst of water and
light
#Unrecognizable command. Try again.
%Create firmament
#Done.
%Run firmament
#And God divided the heavans. And God saw there
were 0 errors.
#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Monday, March
2.
#Approx. funds remaining: $84.60.
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Tuesday, March 3.
%Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto
one place and let
the dry land appear and
#Too many characters in specification string. Try
again.
%Create dry_land
#Done.
%Run dry_land
#And God divided the waters. And God saw there were
0 errors.
#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Tuesday, March
3.
#Approx. funds remaining: $65.00.
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Wednesday, March
4.
%Create lights in the firmament to divide the day
from the night
#Unspecified type. Try again.
%Create sun_moon_stars
#Done
%Run sun_moon_stars
#And God created the heavens. And God saw there
were 0 errors.
#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Wednesday,
March 4.
#Approx. funds remaining: $54.00.
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Thursday, March
5.
%Create fish
#Done
%Create fowl
#Done
%Run fish, fowl
#And God created the great sea monsters and every
living creature that
creepeth wherewith the waters swarmed
after its kind and every winged
fowl after its kind.
And God saw there were 0 errors.
#And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Thursday, March
5.
#Approx. funds remaining: $45.00.
#And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Friday, March
6.
%Create cattle
#Done
%Create creepy_things
#Done
%Now let us make man in our image
#Unspecified type. Try again.
%Create man
#Done
%Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of
the air and over
every living thing that creepeth upon the earth
#Too many command operands. Try again.
%Run multiplication
#Execution terminated. 6 errors.
%Insert breath
#Done
%Run multiplication
#Execution terminated. 5 errors.
%Move man to Garden of Eden
#File Garden of Eden does not exist.
%Create Garden.edn
#Done
%Move man to Garden.edn
#Done
%Run multiplication
#Execution terminated. 4 errors.
%Copy woman from man
#Done
%Run multiplication
#Execution terminated. 3 errors.
%Insert woman into man
#Illegal parameters. Try again.
%Insert man into woman
#Done
%Run multiplication
#Execution terminated. 2 errors.
%Create desire
#Done
%Run multiplication
#And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying
in Garden.edn
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
%Create freewill
#Done
%Run freewill
#And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying
in Garden.edn
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
%Undo desire
#Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
%Destroy freewill
#Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be
destroyed.
#Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
%Help
#Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
#Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be
destroyed.
#Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
%Create tree_of_knowledge
#And God saw man and woman being fruitful and multiplying
in Garden.edn
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
%Create good, evil
#Done
%Activate evil
#And God saw he had created shame.
#Warning system error in sector E95. Man
and woman not in Garden.edn.
#1 errors.
%Scan Garden.edn for man, woman
#Search failed.
%Delete shame
#Shame cannot be deleted once evil has been activated.
%Destroy freewill
#Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be
destroyed.
#Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
%Stop
#Unrecognizable command. Try again
%Break
%Break
%Break
#ATTENTION ALL USERS *** ATTENTION ALL USERS: COMPUTER
GOING DOWN FOR
REGULAR DAY OF MAINTENANCE AND REST IN FIVE MINUTES.
PLEASE LOG OFF.
%Create new world
#You have exceeded your allocated file space. You
must destroy old files
before new ones can be created.
%Destroy earth
#Destroy earth: Please confirm.
%Destroy earth confirmed
#COMPUTER DOWN *** COMPUTER DOWN. SERVICES WILL
RESUME SUNDAY, MARCH 8
AT 6:00 AM. YOU MUST SIGN OFF NOW.
#And God logged off at 11:59:59 PM, Friday, March
6.
#Approx. funds remaining: $0.00