Gul
Baba , Budapest, Hungary
.
Budapest
is the capital city of Hungary and the country's principal
political, cultural, commercial, industrial and transportation
center.
Budapest
has approximately 1.7 million inhabitants, down from
a mid-1980s peak of 2.1 million. Budapest became a
single city occupying both banks of the river Danube
with the amalgamation on 17 November 1873 of right-bank
(west) Buda (Ofen in German) and buda (Old Buda or
Alt-Ofen) together with Pest on the left (east) bank.
It is the seventh largest city in the European Union.
The
easiest thing you can do after arriving in Budapest
is to buy a map of the city as the shrine of Gül
Baba is given on it. You can also ask how much it
is to get a day ticket or a week ticket for bus, tram
and the metro (these are also given on this map).
You
will know that Budapest consists of two parts called
Buda and Pest, which are divided by the Donau river.
The shrine is to be found in the part called Buda.
Gül Baba lies buried in a small Turkish building
on the eastern slopes of Budapest's Rose Hill. It
was not difficult to find Roszadomb, the hill on which
Gül Baba lies buried. There are several bridges
across the river. The one nearest the shrine is connecting
a street called Krt. Margrit (tram 4 and 6). Across
the river it takes you to the left after some time,
but the shrine is more to the right at a short distance
taking a small alley upward a hill. From the point
across the bridge to the shrine was about 15 minutes
walking. The nearest railwaystation to the shrine
is called Deli. I don't know if it is the possible
to arrive there directly from
Brussels, but from the trainstation you arrive in
Budapest you could take a subway to the Deli railway
station. From there to the shrine it is a longer walk
than the other possibility. You have to buy a ticket
to enter the shrine. The caretaker mentioned to us
the name of a very nearby hotel.
The
entrance to the shrine of Gul Baba, Budapest
Inside the shrine of Gul Baba, Budapest
Our
own travel has been presented in the following words:
THE
ROSE OF BUDAPEST
We
have stayed for a short time in a wooden house in Weidling,
which is in the hills near Vienna. All of this has beenmade
possible,
because our Austrian friend, invited us to come and stay with
her. Vienna is a city with lots of culture, so we were able
to see
exhibitions of Michelangelo, Raffael, Goya, Klimt and Schiele.
As Thursday is a good day for starting a travel we took a
journey by
train to Budapest to visit the shrine of Gül Baba in
Budapest. Gül Baba is a Bektashi Sufi who died on
Friday, 2 September in 1541 in Hungary. Legend has it that
when Gül Baba died a scent of roses could be smelled
all over Budapest.
Gül
Baba lies buried in a small Turkish building on the
eastern slopes of Budapest's Rose Hill. Gül Baba's
name means Rose Father. He is said to have been a
lover of roses and he always wore a fresh rose in
his conical dervish hat. Among the Sufis the rose
is the symbol of the inner knowledge obtained about
the Beloved. It was not difficult to find Roszadomb,
the hill on which Gül Baba lies buried. The well-kept
building is surrounded by a garden and of course roses
can be found there. The grave itself has been covered
with a green cloth with embroidered Qur'anic verses.
At the place above the head the taj (lit.crown, but
here: the Bektashi hat) can be seen. Gül Baba
arrived in Budapest in the 16th century C.E. in order
to create a Sufi centre dedicated to love in order
to compensate for the military presence of the army
of Sultan Süleymân.
When
we were sitting there two western people entered.
After reciting some prayers they opened their bags
and took out an Arab lute and a tambourine and to
our delight started to sing some verses of Yunus Emre:
A
longing took hold of me,
Look and see what love has done to me,
I've started a struggle with my intellect;
Look and see what love has done to me.
The
two people, who were called Haider and Ilyas, belonged
to a Sufi order guided by Oruj Guvenc and who have
a centre in Rosenau in Austria. They practice music
therapy. This implies that they visit hospitals in
Vienna and Budapest in order to play Sufi music for
the mentally handicapped, for people in coma and for
other patients, like people who are autistic. It has
been discovered by modern scientific means that this
music therapy has a positive effect and reduces stress
and pain of the patients. By means of music and by
means of humour they try to make contact with the
sometimes severely mentally handicapped children who
enjoy it very much to participate in the playing of
music. The two Austrians told us about a young man
who became very ill because of the death of his mother
and who responded positively to the music therapy.
After taking some food in a Hungarian restaurant Haider
and Ilyas offered us to give us a lift back to Vienna.
A
few days later we visited their Sufi centre in Rosenau,
which is in fact a farmhouse in the midst of the beautiful
countryside of Austria. It has a beautiful garden
and a music room (containing all kinds of Turkish
musical instruments) where music is played under the
guidance of Oruj Guvenc who was also there. It was
a real meeting of hearts, which took place as here
we met no-nonsense people, implying people who behaved
normally, who liked to laugh and who were hospitable.
A Turkish singer called Gülten came and sang
only for us, so for an audience of only 3 people.
It did not matter to her, as she was a true singer
who enjoys singing. She told us that when she is singing
"she is no longer there". She sang a song
about her hometown and explained to us that the song
also expressed her desire to return to the origine
she has come from. She was also singing at the feast
that started the next day. We, however, betrayed our
Dutch natures by leaving before the feast started,
as we had to return home.
