Fitzgerald made a great mistake when he translated the songs of Omar Khayyam literally, and many people in the West thought Khayyam was a drunkard and had written these songs in praise of wine. The wineshop is the temple, the lover is the master, the guru, and the wine is none other than the wine of God. When he speaks of wine he is speaking of the wine about which Kabir is speaking: Omar Khayyam was a Sufi fakir, a Sufi saint. He read the Rubaiyat and tried to understand it with the help of a dictionary. He also took the word `lover’ literally, and did the same with `wineshop’. He took the word `wine’ literally, for example.

Edward Fitzgerald, who did an admirable rendering of Khayyam’s songs, was not a Sufi. The songs of Omar Khayyam were translated by Western writers, but were not correctly understood. But there is no need to feel guilty, there is no need to be repentant, there is no need to do penance and torture yourself. If you feel it hurts somebody, don’t do it again. Whatever you do - if it is not right, don’t do it again. What he means simply is that you should not feel guilty. He does not mean that you should commit sin. If it spreads among human beings and everybody starts rejoicing in life, what will happen to the priests? What happen to the saints? What will happen to their mythologies of hell and heaven and god? All will disappear in thin air.Īt least with me, Omar Khayyam is one of the enlightened Sufi mystics, and what he is saying has immense truth in it. Whenever a copy was found, it was burned by the priests, because this man was teaching such a dangerous idea. Omar Khayyam’s book was burned in his day. The priests approached him and said, “What kind of things are you writing? You will destroy people’s religiousness! Create fear in people, tell people that God is very just: - if you have committed a sin, you will be punished.

He was a famous mathematician too, renowned in his country. How much sin can you commit in seventy years of life? - in comparison to his forgiveness, it is nothing.” When the priests discovered that he was writing such sacrilegious things, that he was saying, “Don’t be worried, go on doing anything you want because God is nothing but pure compassion and love. When the priests came to know about his book - because in those days books were written by hand, there were no printing presses…. My sins are very small his forgiveness is immense.” I am going to commit every kind of sin because I trust God is compassionate - he will forgive. One great Sufi poet, Omar Khayyam, has written in his RUBAIYAT, his world-famous collection of poetry: “I am going to drink, to dance, to love.

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