Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
(1900? - 1986)



Bawa Muhaiyaddeen was a Sufi Muslim saint from the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon) at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. He gained a reputation early on as a holy man, and many people from all faiths on the island would come to receive his teachings.

In the early 1970s, he came to the United States and settled in Philadelphia. There, he continued to teach a universal understanding of all religions.

In the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution when the US hostage crisis arose in 1980, Time magazine interviewed him to gain a Muslim perspective on the situation. He was later interviewed in Psychology Today and several newspapers, sharing a wisdom and sense of unity that transcended religious sectarianism.

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen wrote extensively on spiritual practices and religious harmony. He also wrote some poetry...


The things that change are not our real life.

The things that change are not our real life.
Within us there is another body, another beauty.
It belongs to that ray of Light which never changes.
We must discover how to mingle with It and become one
with that Unchanging thing.
We must realize and understand this treasure of Truth.
That is why we have come to the world.
Within your heart in a space no bigger than an atom,
God has placed the 18,000 universes