Chilla ( fa, چله, ar, أربعين, both literally "forty"), also known as Chilla-nashini, is a spiritual practice of
penance and solitude in
Sufism known mostly in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n and
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
traditions. In this ritual a
mendicant or
ascetic attempts to remain seated in a circle practicing meditation techniques without food for 40 days and nights in imitation of the
Arba'een
, duration = 1 day
, frequency = once every Islamic year
, observedby = Shia
, date = 20 Safar
, date2018 = 30 October
, date2019 = 19 October
, date2020 = 8 October
, date2021 = 28 September
, date ...
. The word ''chilla'' is derived from the Persian word ''chehel'' "forty". Chilla is commonly performed in a solitary cell called a ''chilla-khana''. The main purpose of chilla is to attain laser like focus and get rid of unnecessary thoughts in your mind.
Incidents of Chilla
The most famous case of chilla is found in the biographies of the 14th century Sufi poet
Hafez
Khwāje Shams-od-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī ( fa, خواجه شمسالدین محمّد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hafez (, ''Ḥāfeẓ'', 'the memorizer; the (safe) keeper'; 1325–1390) and as "Hafiz", ...
of
Shiraz
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...
.
In music
A practice similar to chilla is also performed by
Hindustani classical music
Hindustani classical music is the classical music of northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. It may also be called North Indian classical music or, in Hindustani, ''shastriya sangeet'' (). It is played in instruments like the violin, si ...
practitioners at an advanced level. It is called
chilla katna
In Hindustani classical music, Chilla or Chilla Katna (Doing the Chilla) is a stage of training or ritual where the student is fully isolated from the outside world and lives for music only. Some musicians spend long periods of their training in ...
.
See also
*
Khalwa Khalwa (Arabic, also khalwat; lit., "solitude"; pronounced in Iran, "khalvat"; spelling in Turkish, ''halvet'') has several meanings in Sufism, Islamic jurisprudence, and the Druze religion, which in some way derive from the concept of being alone ...
*
Meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
*
Sādhanā
''Sādhanā'' (; ; ) is an ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.
Sadhana is done for a ...
*
Shugendō
is a highly syncretic religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local f ...
*
Tabligh Jamaat
Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party")
is a transnational Deobandi Islamic missionary movement
that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant
and encouraging fellow members ...
References
Bibliography
*
* {{cite book, first1=Hermann, last1=Landolt, first2=Todd, last2=Lawson, title=Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Muslim Thought, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bq9zSbNr8gIC&pg=PA203, year=2005, publisher=I.B.Tauris, isbn=978-1-85043-470-2
Religious practices
Ritual purification
Asceticism
Sufism