Sufism is more relevant today than in the past, say writers

MYSORE: Writers and researchers participating in a seminar on Sufism organized as a part of the national theatre festival Bahuroopi consensually felt that Sufism was an off shot thinking of Islamic preachings integrated with Indian mysticism and it is more relevant for the society today than any day in the past .
Most of the speakers centered their opinion on the finer aspects of Sufism and tried to eliminate the prevailing misconceptions in the peoples mind about it .
Speaking on the occasion writer Jagadish Koppa said if one peeps back into the world history , always progressive elements and thinkers has been strongly opposed by orthodox elements and this is also true in case of Sufism. Sufism which originated in Persia then faced a stiff resistance from the orthodox Islamic scholars and tried to eliminate the Sufi saints, but Sufi saints withstood the tormentors and continued to spread their ideology of combining religion with mysticism, he said .
Koppa said Sufi saints who came to South India were left impressed by the mysticism preached and practiced by the Indian saints and philosophers . Especially the mysticism of 12 ^thcentury saints left an indelible impression on the mind of the Sufi saints who migrated from Turkey and Persia, he said and this made the Sufi saints to look like people deviating from Islamic thinking .
"Sufism is nothing but they tried to relate themselves directly to god through a guru" he said and added: the theme of Sufism is people staying midst of world pleasures should remain detached from these pleasures. " Many times even some orthodox elements misrepresented and misinterpreted the couplets of Umar Qayam" he said quoting a couplet of Qyam himself a Sufi saint.
Noted rationalist G K Govindarao in his speech said one should desist from defining Sufism as it will lose its meaning if it is deduced to a definition . "Sufi saints studied and practiced the finer and inner aspects of Islam and Hinduism" he felt and said Sufi saints definition and practice of love crossed all barriers of physical relations of human beings. Rangayana director H Janardhan said Sufi saints contribution to society's harmony is immense and unfathomable. " But people of South Karnataka have failed to understand the Sufism and Sufi saints" he claimed and said many in the South are under the impression that Sufi saints are another lot Muslims .