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Abstract

Jalaluddin Rumi is one of those mystics, poets and thinkers who have taught the message of peace and love. His significance has been acknowledged globally, leading UNESCO, for example, declare 2007 as the “Rumi Year.” This paper discusses Rumi‟s approach to religious pluralism based on his poetry and prose. The paper examines how different subjective experiences without having a holistic picture of the same reality can lead to misunderstandings. Rumi demonstrates the dictum „we see things not as they are but as we are‟, through his symbolic stories two of which have been analyzed in the paper. Rumi‟s pluralistic worldview though has always remained important, but it has become particularly urgent in today‟s times of „clash of civilizations.‟ His wise counsel of not stopping at subjective and fragmented view of things, but trying to see a holistic picture, and from different perspectives can help better understand, our own as well as other, cultures and civilizations.