Yunus Emre - The path from God to his people.

There is not a lot of knowledge about the life of Yunus Emre, still a lot of questions have not been answered, but one thing I can defiantly say - my research showed me that he is a very much loved and cherished poet and Sufi mystic among the Turkish people.
Turkey is a place where religion takes a very important role in every day life. It is a spiritual place where you can feel the presence of extremely deep traditions and respect of Muslim lifestyle even if nowadays not every body actually practice religion. Because of that it wasn't surprising to find that Yunus Emre is still a big influence on Turkish literature.
As historians say Yunus Emre was born around the year of 1238. in Sakarya Valley. Saryköy, now called the village of Yunu Emre in the town of Mihalliççik, Eskisehir. From my point of view one of the biggest contributions to Turkish culture was that he actually spoke with people in a language they understood. We can see some examples in European culture that prove the importance of speaking to simple people in language that they can understand, for example - when a priest in a christian church started to teach the word of God in the native language of local people the history changed- Bible was translated, people started to understand what they are thaught, they started to think themselves not only obey. Before that the sermon was held in Latin and that created a distance between God and his people.
Yunus Emre was a contemporary of Rumi, who composed his stories and songs for well educated people in the literary language of Persian, of course there is no need to say, that the simple people could not understand or even be able to hear this kind of poetry. But Yunus Emre traveled and taught among the poor, singing his songs in the Turkish language of the common people. That made it possible for the simple people to go into the philosophy of the great poet.

From reading his poetry, unfortunately I can do it only in English and that means that it is just an interpretation of his work, I got a feeling that it really is for people, he doesn't put him self on a pedestal, he is one of those philosophers who supports the idea of educating people of leveling everybody the same. And he brings God to people in a way that they can relate to him, he teaches to be humane, he is trying to make the world a better place.

Knowledge should mean a full grasp of knowledge

Knowledge means to know yourself, heart and soul.

If you have failed to understand yourself,

Then all of your reading has missed its call.

What is the purpose of reading those books?

So that Man can know the All-Powerful.

If you have read, but failed to understand yourself,

Then your efforts are just a barren toil.

Don't boast of reading, mastering science

Or of all your prayers and obeisance.

If you don't identify Man as God,

All your learning is of no use at all.

The true meaning of the four holy books

Is found in the alphabet's first letter.

You talk about the first letter, preacher;

What is the meaning of that - could you tell?

Yunus Emre says to you, Pharisee,

Make the holy pilgrimage if need be

A hundred times -- but if you ask me,

A visit to the heart is best of all.