(This article first appeared in The Indian Express on June 6, 2022)
I once asked Pandit Bhajan Sopori about the pain that he carries within, caused by his relinquishment of Kashmir, the home of his sufiayana gharana. His response was a Rumi couplet translated into English: “He said: Tell me what you hold inside it? I said: Pain and sorrow. He said: Stay with it. The wound is the place where the light enters you.”