Life of Rumi
Reason is powerless in the expression of Love. Love alone is capable of revealing the truth of Love and being a Lover. The way of our prophets is the way of Truth. If you want to live, die in Love; die in Love if you want to remain alive.
I silently moaned so that for a hundred centuries to come,
The world will echo in the sound of my hayhâ1 hayhâ and hayhât, a corruption of the same term in Persian means 'alas' or 'woe to me!'
It will turn on the axis of my hayhât
(Divan, 562:7)
The name Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi stands for Love and ecstatic flight into the infinite. Rumi is one of the great spiritual masters and poetical geniuses of mankind and was the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order, a leading mystical brotherhood of Islam.
Rumi was born in Wakhsh (Tajikistan) under the administration of Balkh in 30 September 1207 to a family of learned theologians. Escaping the Mongol invasion and destruction, Rumi and his family traveled extensively in the Muslim lands, performed pilgrimage to Mecca and finally settled in Konya, Anatolia, then part of Seljuk Empire. When his father Bahaduddin Valad passed away, Rumi succeeded his father in 1231 as professor in religious sciences. Rumi 24 years old, was an already accomplished scholar in religious and positive sciences.
He was introduced into the mystical path by a wandering dervish, Shamsuddin of Tabriz. His love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in a surge of music, dance and lyric poems, `Divani Shamsi Tabrizi'. Rumi is the author of six volume didactic epic work, the `Mathnawi', called as the 'Koran in Persian' by Jami, and discourses, `Fihi ma Fihi', written to introduce his disciples into metaphysics.
If there is any general idea underlying Rumi's poetry, it is the absolute love of God. His influence on thought, literature and all forms of aesthetic expression in the world of Islam cannot be overrated.
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi died on December 17, 1273. Men of five faiths followed his bier. That night was named Sebul Arus (Night of Union). Ever since, the Mawlawi dervishes have kept that date as a festival.
The day I've died, my pall is moving on -
But do not think my heart is still on earth!
Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"
You fall in devil's snare - woe, that is awful!
Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial -
For me this is the time of joyful meeting!
Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave -
A curtain is it for eternal bliss.
You saw "descending" - now look at the rising!
Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?
To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;
The coffin seems a jail, yet it means freedom.
Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?
Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?
What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?
Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?
Close here your mouth and open it on that side.
So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!
Schimmel, Annemarie. Look! This Is Love: Poems of Rumi.
Boston, Mass.: Shambhala Publications, 1991.
Wirling Dervishes
As waves upon my head the circling curl,
So in the sacred dance weave ye and whirl.
Dance then, O heart, a whirling circle be.
Burn in this flame - is not the candle He?
The Mawlawi rites samâ symbolise the divine love and mystical ecstasy; they aim at union with the Divine. The music and the dance are designed to induce a meditative state on the love of God.
what is samâ? A message from the fairy, hidden in your heart;
with their letter comes serenity to the estranged heart.
The tree of wisdom comes to bloom with this breeze;
The inner pores of existence open to this tune.
When the spiritual cock crows, the dawn arrives;
When Mars beats his drum victory is ours.
The essence of the soul was fighting the barrel of the body;
When it hears the sound of the daf it matures and calms down.
A wondrous sweetness is sensed in the body;
It is the sugar that the flute and the flute-player bring to the listener.
(Divan, 1734:1-5)
Translated by Fatemeh Keshavarz,
'Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi',
University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Whoever has heard of me, let him prepare to come and see me; whoever desires me, let him search for me. He will find me - then let him choose none other than I.
Shamsuddin of Tabrizi
What is to be done, O Moslems? for I do not recognize myself.
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Gabr, nor Moslem.
I am not of the East, nor of the West, nor of the land, nor of the sea;
I am not of Nature's mint, nor of the circling' heaven.
I am not of earth, nor of water, nor of air, nor of fire;
I am not of the empyrean, nor of the dust, nor of existence, nor of entity.
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin
I am not of the kingdom of 'Iraqian, nor of the country of Khorasan
I am not of the this world, nor of the next, nor of Paradise, nor of Hell
I am not of Adam, nor of Eve, nor of Eden and Rizwan.
My place is the Placeless, my trace is the Traceless ;
'Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
I have put duality away, I have seen that the two worlds are one;
One I seek, One I know J One I see, One I call.
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except 'Ya Hu' and 'Ya man Hu.'
I am intoxicated with Love's cup, the two worlds have passed out of my ken ;
I have no business save carouse and revelry.
If once in my life I spent a moment without thee,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with thee,
I will trample on both worlds, I will dance in triumph for ever.
O Shamsi Tabriz, I am so drunken in this world,
That except of drunkenness and revelry I have no tale to tell.
From Divan-i Shams
Mathnawi and Divan on a CD
Rumi's Works
From the Introduction to "The Sufi Path of Love",
William Chittick, Albany, 1983.
Rumi's major works are the Diwan-i Shams-i Tabriz-i (The Works of Shams of Tabriz - named in honor of Rumi's great friend and inspiration, the dervish Shams), comprising some 40,000 verses, and the Mathnawi of about 25,000 verses. Additionally, three collections of his talks and letters have been preserved.
The Diwan is made up of some 3,230 ghazals totaling 35,000 verses; 44 tarjiat, poems composed of two or more ghazals, a total of 1,700 verses; and 2,000 rubaiyat, or "quatrains". Its creation spanned a period of almost thirty years, from sometime after the arrival of Shams in Konya (Turkey), until Rumi's death. This is an important point, for it is often forgotten that much of the Diwan was composed concurrently with the Mathnawi, during the last twelve or fourteen years of Rumi's life.
The Mathnawi comprises six books of poetry in a didactic style (designed or intended to teach; intended to convey instruction and information as well as for pleasure and entertainment). Whereas the Diwan contains Rumi's individual ghazals and other miscellaneous poems arranged according to the rhyme scheme, the Mathnawi represents a single work which was composed in its present order.
Biographers state that Rumi began the Mathnawi at the suggestion of his then-favorite disciple, Husam al-Din Chalabi, who knew that many of Rumi's devotees also studied carefully the didactic poetry of Sanai-i and Attar, two masters who had preceded Rumi. Such works present Sufi teachings in a form readily accessible and easily memorized, and are better suited to the warmth and fellowship of Sufi circles than the classical textbooks labored over by savants.
When Chalabi presented Rumi with the idea that he should write a work in the style of Sanai-i and Attar, to complement his other poetry, the story is told that Rumi responded by taking down from his turban a slip of paper containing the first eighteen lines of the Mathnawi. From then on Rumi and Chalabi met regularly, Rumi composing and dictating, and Chalabi writing and editing. This work began around 1260 A.D. and continued with certain delays until Rumi's death in 1273. The sixth book of the work breaks off in the middle of a story, indicating that Rumi apparently died before completing it.
Like the Sufi teaching collections before it, the Mathnawi is a rambling collection of anecdotes and tales derived from a great variety of sources -- from the Koran, from folktales, from jokes, and from ecstatic experience. Each story is told to illustrate some point, and its moral is discussed in detail. The subject matter of the anecdotes and more particularly of the digressions, runs the whole of Islamic wisdom, with particular emphasis upon the inward or Sufi interpretation. In contrast to the Diwan, the Mathnawi is relatively sober. It represents a reasoned and measured attempt to explain the various dimensions of spiritual life and practice to disciples intent upon following the Way. More generally, it is aimed at anyone who has time to sit down and ponder the meaning of life and existence.
Rumi dedicated the Mathnawi to Husam Chalabi, claiming that he was the only one who understood the vast and secret order of that work.
Rumi was born on the Eastern shores of the Persian Empire in 1207 (in the city of Balkh in what is now Afghanistan), and finally settled in the town of Konya, in what is now Turkey. His life story reads like a fairy tale. A genius theologian, a pillar of Islam, a brilliant sober scholar, meets a wandering wild darvish by the name of Shams of Tabriz, and almost overnight is transformed into an enraptured lover of God. It seems that the universe brought these two opposing characters together to remind us for eternity that it is never what you expect when it comes to mysticism. It is impossible to know where your next inspiration may come from, or who will become the conduit for your transformation. For Rumi the life of mystics is a "gathering of lovers, where there is no high or low, smart or ignorant, no proper schooling required." Rumi and his spiritual friend Shams left an undying legacy of the way-of-the-heart triumphing over intellect and logic.
Excerpt from Shahram Shiva's book
Hush Don't Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi (Jain Publishing, 1999)
The Growing Phenomenon of Rumi
Rumi, the 13th century Persian mystic poet, has been called the greatest mystical poet of any age. His Spiritual and literary influence is so pervasive in the East that his name is often prefaced by the reverential term "Moulana" (Our Master). During a period of 25 years, he composed over 70,000 verses of poetry -- poetry of divine love, mystic passion and ecstatic illumination. Scholars of his work today believe that Rumi is one of the greatest poets of all time, and that his work is comparable to that of Dante and Shakespeare.
One reason for Rumi's popularity is that "Rumi is able to verbalize the highly personal and often confusing world of personal/spiritual growth and mysticism in a very forward and direct fashion. He does not offend anyone, and he includes everyone. The world of Rumi is neither the world of a Sufi, nor the world of a Hindu, nor a Jew; it is the highest state of the human being, an ensaan-e kaamel, which means a complete human. And a complete human is not bound by cultural limitations; he touches every one of us. Today Rumi's poems can be heard in churches, synagogues, Zen monasteries, as well as in the downtown New York art/performance/music scene." says Shahram Shiva. The new age author Andrew Harvey says Rumi is "not only a supreme poet, but also an essential guide to the new mystical renaissance that is struggling to be born today. He is the spiritual inspiration for the 21st century."
Rumi's work has been translated into many of the world's languages including Russian, German, French, Italian and Spanish, and is appearing in a growing number of formats including concerts, workshops, readings, dance performances and other artistic creations.
Why Rumi? Here are 12 Reasons
- Non-Intellectual:
They found Rumi to cater to their hearts, emotions and instincts rather than intellects.
2- Levels:
They found many levels in Rumi's poetry. The more they learned about Rumi,
the more they appreciated his depth and were encouraged to dig deeper.
3- Unity:
They found the sense of unity and universal siblinghood in Rumi's poetry to be very attractive.
4- Friend:
They found him to be a friend.
5- Personal:
Reading Rumi for them is a personal process. They associate themselves with him.
6- Grace Descending:
Every time a Rumi poem was recited they felt Grace descending.
7- Longing:
They associated with the sense of longing in Rumi's poems.
8- Love Affair:
Rumi was like a lover to some of the participants.
9- Religious Bridge:
They found Rumi to form a religious bridge for the Moslems in this country.
Through Rumi some Moslems found a new acceptance in the U.S.
0- They Don't Even Like Poetry:
Some expressed that they don't even like poetry but they love reading Rumi poems.
1- Participate in the Process:
They found Rumi extremely expressive and found themselves participating in Rumi's own process.
2- ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
8- Love Affair:
Rumi was like a lover to some of the participants.
9- Religious Bridge:
They found Rumi to form a religious bridge for the Moslems in this country.
Through Rumi some Moslems found a new acceptance in the U.S.
0- They Don't Even Like Poetry:
Some expressed that they don't even like poetry but they love reading Rumi poems.
1- Participate in the Process:
They found Rumi extremely expressive and found themselves participating in Rumi's own process.
2- Guide:
They found Rumi to be a spiritual guide for them.
I am a bird from the kingdom of heaven, not made of dust
For a short while my body is a cage which my soul shall bust
Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammed Mowlavi Rumi is a heavenly bird, a celestial angel, the elite among men of ultimate spirituality. He belongs to the entire human race; he is God's grace upon all nations and peoples. He is not from a tribe or a cast, a land or a country, a religion or a sect. He is a luminous torch directing and guiding all human generations of yesterday, today and tomorrow. His spiritual journey spans the unbounded iinfinite space of sufism. He is not bound by time or space. He so aptly confesses:
What do you suggest, O Moslems!, for I do not recognize myself
I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Moslem
I am not of the East, nor West, nor of the land, nor of the sea
I am not of Nature's mine, nor of the circling heavens
I am not of India, nor of China, nor of Bulgaria, nor of Saqsin
I am not of the kingdom of Iraq, nor of the land of Khorasan
Rumi's all-absorbing oneness with the cosmos permeates his whole being:
My place is nowhere, my trace traceless
'Tis neither body nor soul, for I belong to the soul of the Beloved
I have put duality aside, I have found the two worlds to be One
One I seek, One I know, One I see, One I invoke
Rumi has constructed a ladder, reaching the sky, by which we may ascend to high heaven and fly upon the pinnacle of spirituality. About his magnum opus, the Mathnavi, he says:
This discourse is the ladder reaching the sky
He who climbs it shall land on the roof
Rumi incites us to become, as he is, the sky and the cloud showering grace and blessing upon the human race. He says:
Come to the sky, develop into clouds and discharge rain
A downpipe discharges water too, but in vain
While the rain water brings many colors to the garden
The downpipe invites the neighbors to quarrel
Is it fair then to attempt in vain to make this heavenly element swoop down from high heaven to the earthly low ground merely to be imprisoned in a tiny cage?
What is the essence of Rumi's humanity? He says:
My life may be summed up In three phrases
I was raw
I matured
Then I burned
Mevlana's writings are valuable for all ages, all times and all cultures.
The skill with which Mevlana has outlined the condition of human ignorance and the remedy for it, is of a divine order. The Mathnavi especially was composed while whirling (i.e. in the sema), written down by his close devotees. He clearly describes the condition in which we live our lives, ignorant of our true origin.
The Mathnavi acts is a mirror to our soul. This requires us to learn more about our daily attitude or state of mind. By a daily reading, the mind penetrates deeper into the philosophy of Mevlana.
THE TEACHINGS OF
MEVLANA JALAL UD DIN RUMI
THE POETRY
These are scriptures for all ages and all faiths. This is so because they address those things which are common in all times and in all cultures which ever religious background supports a community. In the various books there are references which relate to Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Islamic stories etc. etc. common to all religions.
The area of human life which Mevlana's writing is aimed at is where language is normally is deficient. The skill with which Mevlana has outlined the condition and the remedy of human ignorance is of a divine order. It is because he was in both worlds while dictating the works.
HOW IT IS ACCESSED
The Mathnavi was composed while Mevlana was whirling (i.e. making the sema), written down by his close devotees. Therefore the Mathnavi is linked to the condition of the human psyche generated during whirling, i.e. contact with the physical world simultaneously with the inner world of pure consciousness.
The deeper meanings in the Mathnavi require the human psyche to be similar to the whirling condition so that understanding may arise.
This condition is most readily made available during the Mevlevi sema, but also may be generated by other means. The understanding of the Mathnavi becomes a realisation of the condition in which we live our lives in ignorance of our true origin.
HOW IT IS USED
The Mathnavi acts, as it were, a mirror to our soul. In addition to this the Mathnavi provides us with the means to remove the clouded condition. For this to happen we each need to apply the teaching to our own condition. This requires us to first learn more about our daily attitude or state of mind.
A cyclical reading is necessary to unlock the deeper meanings. Reading the first book after the sixth it becomes clearer. If by daily reading, all six books are repeatedly read the mind penetrates deeper and deeper into the subtleties of the philosophy of Mevlana.
The teachings of Mevlana require the nature and psychology of the reader to become deepened, so that it can be understood. The shallow attempt to read and comprehend Mevlana's words will only apply a correspondingly shallow meaning to the teaching. In the mistaken belief that the real meaning has been understood the life of the modern Western reader gains only a veneer of the spirituality, which is soon lost when some other subject of interest comes along.
The tradition of the Mevlevi has been to change the dervishes life to accord with the teachings. The appropriate expression comes from Swami Vivekananda, "Change yourself not the traditions." Making Mevlana a subject of popularity and a source of wealth and fame cheapens and destroys the real value for those who take this approach.
Rumi's Words
by Jillian Shulman
References to mystical ideas fill the poetry of thirteenth-century writer Jelaluddin Rumi. Rumi himself was a mystic, and his belief in the unity of all people and all things surfaces in his verse. In his poems, he often becomes frustrated, finding that he can't explain in words the ecstatic knowledge he possesses. Much of Rumi's work expresses this realization of the insufficiency of words to convey mystical truth and emotion.
Rumi sees that words themselves are meaningless; it is the objects or ideas which words represent that have actuality. "Do you know a word that doesn't refer to something," Rumi inquires of his reader. "Have you ever picked and held a rose from R, O, S, E? You say the NAME. Now try to find the reality it names" (73). According to Rumi, "the world is too full" (8) for words to express everything in it. Rumi acknowledges the irony of his work; that he who admits the insufficiency of words attempts to communicate his ideas through them. He apologizes for this inconsistency, saying, "If I could wake completely, I would say without speaking why I'm ashamed of using words" (41).
Rumi advocates silence in place of inadequate words. He believes that unity and understanding can never truly be reached through words, "but we have ways within each other that will never be said by anyone" (11). It is through these mystical, silent ways that we are united. Rumi states that "silence is also wisdom, a flame hiding in cotton wool" (36) and encourages his reader to become a part of this wisdom:
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower. (50)
Rumi also emphasizes the importance of actions rather than words. To talk about what should be done is useless, "like stamping new coins" (28). The words "pile up, while the real work is done outside by someone digging in the ground" (28). Rumi has much more respect for the digger than for the talker. He believes one should "spend less time with nightingales and peacocks. One is just a voice, the other just a color" (15).
Rumi often ends poems on other topics by referring back to the insufficiency of words, as if he suddenly realizes his efforts to express emotions are futile and feels he must hastily conclude. These final words often have a tone of exasperation:
So much for words which have to be written down,
or not contained in the mouth. If you were to
open every living particle, you could make
a mouth of each. (59)
Free to Live
by Sadhna Vora
Take someone who doesn't keep score,
who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing,
who has not the slightest interest even
in his own personality: He's free. (8*)
A man can attain freedom only when he ceases to pursue it. We desire many things that, in out minds, would liberate us from life's ordeals; however, the desires themselves serve as our true limitations. Ambition, our personalities, and competitiveness, all products of ego, detract from the fullness of life's experiences. A recurring theme in Rumi's poetry is the dissolution of ego as the key to a greater appreciation of life.
Ambition causes us to battle with situations in life that we otherwise could have embraced. If one is not concerned with his status or appearance, is not hampered by vainglorious expectations, is able to learn from mistakes and failures, he is not afraid to live and has thus accepted freedom. Furthermore, Rumi insists that our personalities act as boundaries. They disconnect us from the unified existence comprised by all the living. Therefore, striving for self-improvement actually has a detrimental effect because it is an indicator of our separation from the rest of creation. Our ambition matches us against a force that we otherwise would have been part of.
Personality as an obstacle to a full life is a theme that can be traced through other poems by Rumi. Personality defines the "self" that we are trying to shed. Rumi advises us to "be melting snow," explaining that we must "wash [ourselves] of [ourselves]" (50). To overcome the hurdles supplied by the self, we must become one with the force that permeates existence, the force of life. If we stop worrying about ourselves, we'll be taken care of. Our personalities prescribe and proscribe specific behavior and emotions, but when we break free from these constraints, we can expand our range of experiences and live fuller lives.
Ego inspires competitiveness, which also qualifies our freedom. Rumi writes:
Inside the Great Mystery that is,
we don't really own anything.
What is this competition we feel then,
before we go one at a time through the same gate? (21)
As in the previous poems, Rumi de-emphasizes the value of self-centered aspirations. Life is not about individuals striving to surpass one another. Rumi points out that in the grand scheme of things, our achievements and possessions become trivial, and thus the satisfaction they bring is ephemeral. Competition is futile also because we are all destined for the same fate. Thus, if we extend our joy past our own personal triumphs to encompass those of all humanity, we are constantly rejoicing in simply "being" rather than being ahead. True happiness does not grow from external conditions but lies within.
Rumi's poetry suggests that our egos drive us to separate ourselves from life, precluding our full appreciation of it. If we ever cease to chase after our whims, if we ever lose the distinction between ourselves and our surroundings, if we ever forget who is ahead of the pack, then we will prosper. Life will unfold for us in all of its splendor, and we will be free to enjoy it. Therefore, as Rumi notes, we must "learn from the lame goat" to "lead the flock home."
Out of the Womb and into the World
by Mark Hixson
Rumi was a Persian poet who lived in the 13th century AD. He mainly wrote on topics such as human experience, life, free will, love and nature. The poems not only show Rumi's appreciation for these themes but also give insight into his culture and society. Rumi's themes of not being materialistic, experiencing life, and love still hold true for many people in today's highly technological society. The poem titled "Walking Out of the Treasury Building" (#?) deals with a few of these themes: experiencing nature, experiencing life, being open to people, and love.
The first paragraph of "Walking Out of the Treasury Building" discusses nature and different aspects of it. Rumi seems to think that the beauty of nature is "straight from the mysteries from within the inner courts of God." This idea is consistent throughout Rumi's poetry that we should not try to explain everything like a book but to experience it; live it. He goes on to describe nature as, "free medicine for everybody." Rumi is continuing to show the goodness of nature; it is something for everyone. Nature is one of the truly free things which is enjoyable, at least in his time. The next few lines, "The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise, the first blue violets kneeling..." could be interpreted in different ways. In one sense nature could be praising life, showing how beautiful life is and how it is a product of God. The plants praise their creator with their beauty. Another way to interpret the line could be that the plants are symbolic of how people should be praising God or how they do when they enjoy nature. The final line of the first paragraph tells how when people are caught up in experiencing, they do not think of other things; the material world is obsolete in the world of experience.
A man is first thrust into the world of experience at birth. Rumi states in the poem that a man "sees his birth pulling separate from the others." The man is not really pulling away from people but moving into the world of experience from the world of material wants and desires. A man who makes this movement has a profound influence on the world around him. Everyone benefits from his own beauty and joy: "He fills with light, and colors change here./ He drinks it in, and everyone is wonderfully drunk,/ shining with his beauty." The one who experiences life does not the see the pain but the good. He is not caught up in limitations brought on by the body, but he is engrossed in experiencing, and "the whole world seems so sweet."
When people feel a certain way they influence others differently; "Face to face with a lion, I grow leonine." If a man goes through life experiencing and living happily, he will be a good model for others to do the same. The line might also mean that when a man encounters a situation, he can learn from it. If someone encounters a problem, he can experience that problem and learn about its weaknesses and defeat it. Another topic is that in life a man must be generous. Since possessions should not be important when compared to experience, men should give them away if they are needed by another. One reason a man may not be able to experience and love life or give freely is that he would be self-conscious of himself. Finally, Rumi states that a man should not only talk about life: "If we eat too much greenery, we're going to smell like vegetables." Rumi is saying that if people talk too much or read too much instead of experiencing life that their lives will only be based on books. They will be like a book and have no independent thought based on experience; instead their ideas are only based on someone else's thought.
The title of the poem is a symbol for an idea that could be carried throughout the poem. In one sense the treasury building is a symbol for the womb or the time before life. When a man walks out of the treasury building, he is born into the world. Some people are born into good lives with great riches and some are born into lives of poverty. When people walk out the treasury building, they too can come out rich or poor. Rumi says in the poem that it does not matter what someone comes out of the treasury building with, but it does matter how that person lives his life. As the person comes out of the treasury building, he should breath in the outside world and experience it and not be caught up with his financial wealth or material wealth. Babies are not concerned with their material wealth or money; those are foreign concepts to them. For a year from birth babies only know of love and basic instincts such as hunger. Rumi is saying that the true model for how to live is in children and babies.
Meaningless Words
by Philip Diamantis
Ideas and experiences are the reality of life as we know it. In order to express ourselves the means of communication was developed. The most common form of communication is language because it is quick and easy. However, we learn in Open Secret by Rumi that there is a drawback to speech. Speech may be abundant, but it has many shortcomings in lack of complete expression. It usually cannot ever get the entire idea across to another in the manner it was experienced. One way to break the limits of communication and go beyond the confines of language is to learn to read energy and interpret it carefully. The fact is the universal language of the mind is unseen, and only a trained mind can interpret its treasures.
One must first know a person well enough to read them and feel their energy. This means mentally connecting to someone in order to experience their reality. This reading involves much practice and a thorough knowledge of the person read. This phenomena may occur with a less known person in a lower state. The effects are the general, less specified feelings. The gut impulse traded between people with a nominal status of connection is explained by this theory. Emotions and feelings tend to be contagious when one enters a group that has a similar state. Basically "do not sit long with a sad friend" (21*) for he or she will have a negative impact on your own state. This contagious nature of the mind goes for many other feelings as well. If one is sad, a particularly happy group will have a positive impact on his or her mind state. It is this ground level of mental energy that tends to be felt in a group that determines the average state of being.
Quite possibly the deepest level of mental communication is between lovers. It is this deep mental as well as physical connection that enables one to experience someone fully. Rumi portrays this perfectly by writing:
A head has one use. For loving a true love.
Legs. To run after. (28)
The minds of lovers are somehow deeply connected and it is their bodies that enable them to find their love. The only power that can affect their bond is themselves.
One of the overlooked problems in language is the lack of words for experiences and ideas. Words tend to be two dimensional, and communication through the mind tends to be three dimensional. It is the lack of exploration in the latter that tends to make conversation lacking in expression. The only way to fully understand and comprehend the ideas of another is through an intense journey of thoughts through the mindscape of their inner eye.
Understanding through Drunkenness
by Jason Lockrow
In many of the poems in Open Secret, Rumi speaks of being drunk or the state drunkenness, although it is probable that Rumi never drank a glass of wine in his life because of the strict code of the Koran that the Sufis follow. Rumi therefore uses drunkenness as a metaphor. Rumi is connecting the happy and carefree parts of being drunk with the supreme happiness found with the true level of understanding and unity with the god, Allah, that Sufism teaches.
In Rumi's ode "Now That I Know How it Is," the first stanza is as follows: "I'm here by the gate./ Maybe you'll throw open a door and call./ I'm drenched with being here,/ rambling drunk. Things dissolve around me,/ but I'm still sitting here." When Rumi becomes drunk, he is filled with the understanding of God. This drunkenness is the ecstasy he feels when he comes under the realization that he has united, and is one with, the almighty God. He has been illuminated with the eternal knowledge, and the possessions of the world are left behind, as he ascends, at least while he is drunk, to heaven.
The last stanza from this same ode concludes like this: "Why live some soberer way and feel you ebbing out?/ I won't do it./ Either give me enough wine or leave me alone,/ now that I know how it is/ to be with you in constant conversation." This sober world that Rumi speaks of is the earthly world, a world opposite from the drunken, unified state talked about above. This sober world can cause a person to fall away, or ebb, from God. Rumi does not want to follow the path that leads away from God, the path of sobriety, but instead wants to immerse himself in the drink of God, the drunkenness that leads to unification and "constant conversation" with God.
One of Rumi's quatrains says "Drinking wine with you, getting warmer and warmer,/ I think why not trade in this overcoat/ made of leaves and dirt./ Then I look out the window./ For what? Both worlds are here." As Rumi becomes drunk with God, he abandons his clothes and belongings of the world. When he abandons these things he, understanding, is unified with God, and he realizes that he has now ascended into the higher world. In another quatrain Rumi writes: "I am insane, but they keep calling to me./ No one here knows me, but no one chases me off./ My job is to stay awake like the nightwatchman./ When they are drunk enough, and it's late enough,/ they recognize me. They say, There's daylight." Rumi is the nightwatchman because, unlike the others, he understands. This understanding causes the others to think he is insane. It is not until these men have become drunk enough that they realize what Rumi has realized and understand what Rumi has understood.
These two quatrains, along with many others by Rumi, support what was said in the ode "Now That I Know How it Is." This ode explains the path, at least in Rumi's point of view, to true understanding and unity with God. This path is traveled by leaving the world of earthly possessions, called by Rumi the sober world, and entering the drunken world. Only through entering this world can we, as spoken by Rumi, stay in "constant conversation" with God. Rumi's drunkenness is ecstasy on all levels, for it is carefree happiness, it is a way to escape the world, and on the highest level, it is the path to the true enlightenment of all things.
The Benefits of Optimism
by Stephanie Harrington
Mevlava Jaluddin Rumi, the great mystic poet, lived in a dreamy, happy state of mind. Judging by the voluminous collection of Rumi's works we have, we can tell that he had lots of time to meditate and think daily. I was even told that to have written so many poems, he must have written ten or twelve works a DAY, for several years. As you will read more of his poems, you might find a recurrent theme: optimism.
A great many of these works of his have this theme. One which echoes my thesis is the following quatrain.
"Do not sit long with a sad friend.
When you go into a garden, do
you look at thorns or flowers? Spend more time
with roses and jasmine" (21)
When Rumi warns us against spending time with a sad friend, he uses a sad friend as a personification of that feeling or attitude which is oppressive. Instead, he believes we should look for the silver lining in every dark cloud. When he talks of 'going into a garden,' he means life. When we go through everyday rituals, we can choose our perspective. We can see the roses in life-- the happy events that make us feel good, the beautiful sights for sore eyes-- and we can turn our eyes from the thorns and dying plants. 'Spend more time' implies that indeed the thorns are necessary, and we must have downs to life. If he had said 'spend ALL your time,' we would live in a state of oblivious joy.
To close, I say that Rumi's quatrain is a revelation of truth even in its brevity. Everything is defined by its opposite; he restates this idea in another of his quatrains, "Greed and Generosity."
"Take this town with its stores and everyone rushing around,
some with a lot of money, some without any" (35).
The town would undoubtedly cease to exist if all of its inhabitants were rich or everyone were poor. We would have no appreciation for the 'ups' in life if there were no downs.' Rumi suggests that although the downs will always be important, we shouldn't focus on them.
Unity Without Boundaries
by Jay Jenkins
Rumi's life consisted of much contemplation and of many attempts at explaining the mysteries of this world. Rumi's thought is evident throughout Coleman Barks' and John Moyne's translation of Rumi's poetry, Open Secret: Versions of Rumi. The one idea that tends to stand out in Rumi's works is the representation of unity with a beloved person or greater being. This belief is present in many of his works, and the loved one for which Rumi has great feelings for is left open for the reader to decide. Rumi's poetry seems to be universal in offering advice to the world through his own wisdom and knowledge.
Rumi's thought of unity with a loved one can be seen throughout his poetry. For example, quatrain # 921 conveys the best message of unity with a loved one. From within the context of this quatrain, there is a unity between the writer and some other being, possibly another person or even a form as high as God. The line, "Unless we breathe in each other, / there can be no garden" (14), best resembles the idea of unity with a lover. Another quatrain which also manifests the idea that God is the beloved one to Rumi is # 747. In this quatrain, Rumi creates a beautiful picture of nature, and he begins to see that everything around him is so beautiful. After being engulfed by the beauty of nature, Rumi asks himself, "Is the one I love everywhere" (13). If nature reminds one constantly of the one they love, then it is very possible that the one they love is the creator of all beautiful things, God. Although these two quatrains represent a love for God, it is very possible that the love could be for something else.
A different type of unity in which lovers are together before they even meet is portrayed in other quatrains. The lover depicted in these particular pieces appears to most likely be a companion instead of God; however, it could be either. In quatrain # 1246 Rumi presents his idea of how a lover is not something that one can search for, because they are predetermined by a greater being. He may have this belief because of his religious background or because of his own experiences in life. Rumi's belief about love is that they are in each other all along, and they will eventually come together at some point in their life. Another idea Rumi creates in his poetry is the idea of how there are no boundaries to love. Rumi makes clear references to this idea in quatrain # 511. When Rumi writes, "There are no edges to my loving now" (10), he is referring to the limits of his love for some specific person. The line Rumi writes means that the love he can have has no boundaries, thus no limits. The remaining lines of this quatrain show the idea of unity by saying that two minds should always be open to each other as long as no limits are ever set on a relationship. Once that limitation is set, neither person in the relationship knows what to think.
One of the most obvious things that can be seen from Rumi's works is his great knowledge for things in this world. He takes the concept of unity and how there are no boundaries between lovers, and he presents them in a very thoughtful way. The reader gains much knowledge from his intellectual thought and a new way to comprehend life and more exactly relationships with God or a beloved person.
Pathos
by Ross Walker
A fundamental part of Rumi's philosophy that is expressed in his poetry is the idea of experiencing life rather than observing it. This theme is prevalent in some of Rumi's more beautiful poetry, that shows Rumi's incredible passion for life. Rumi urges us to participate and have experiences rather than sitting idly while life moves around us.
In Quatrain #82, Rumi tells the reader to avoid the mindless observation about other people's affairs or beliefs, but to experience and rejoice in life:
Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument (7).
In Rumi's eyes, life is there for the taking. Why waste time learning about it when you can seize it?
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of way to kneel and kiss the ground (7).
Many people enjoy other's beauty, but Rumi says to become that beauty, to live it. Each person has his or her own way to praise life, and it is our responsibility.
In Rumi's poem "Like This," Rumi repeatedly poses questions with the theme of "Have you ever wondered...," Rumi will then answer with the suggestion "Like this." Rumi is trying to steer us away from observing life and wondering about experiences and instead to live those experiences. This poem is full of flavorful or extreme ideas which Rumi expresses as tangible moments, real, possible experiences waiting for us to realize them.
These poems shows the core of Rumi's philosophy about life and learning. Rumi places activity much higher than structured or formal learning. It is hard for our society to fathom things like these, but the practicality of this lifestyle in Rumi's age is apparent in his writings. Questions of civil evolution abound from this-is it more advanced to have our technology and productivity or to live each moment fully, to never take our eyes from the beating heart of the Earth? For most this isn't even a serious question. Many people live between paydays working overtime just to eat. This is why it is so important for those who can not to get caught up in the mundane existence of our everyday lives. Rumi would certainly agree that there is a common theme in much of Eastern Literature stressing the importance of spontaneity. Lao Tsu, a well respected mystic, says: "Act without Acting." This quote is a good representation of Rumi's advice.
Even though it is only recently that the Western world has been able to read Rumi, Rumi's poetry is not too far behind the times to benefit from. Rumi has valuable insights that are applicable to everyone's lives. The same fire burns in the hearts of all. Some choose to stoke it, some choose to shy away from their primal natures. The scholars and sages that spend all their time debating never live, while the spirit of those who breathe the sweet night air into their lungs and marvel at the wonders live on in the hearts and minds of those we love.
The Reality of Rumi
by Tyler Herrald
Rumi's poem "The Name" (73*) is a poem about the names people give to things in the world. Rumi believes that people know only the names of things, but they don't know what the things really are. The themes in Rumi's poetry exhibit the Sufi belief in a perceived reality of the world and a true reality.
The first line, "Do you know a word that doesn't refer to something," is a straightforward question. The answer to this question is no. The purpose of a word is to refer to something; otherwise the word has no meaning. Rumi then asks us in the second line if we have ever held a rose apart from the word naming it, and looked upon its true self. "You say the NAME. Now try to find what reality it names." Here, Rumi is challenging us to find the reality of the things that we observe behind the perceived reality of the name. "Look at the moon in the sky, not the one in the lake." In this line Rumi is telling us to look at what is real and not at a reflection of reality. Rumi sees the reflection in the lake as the perceived reality and the moon as reality. The next two lines suggest to us that if we want to be free of the words which limit us, we must take a step back and look at things differently to see them as they have not been seen before. "There's no self, no characteristics,/ but a bright center where you have the knowledge/ the Prophets have, without books or interpreter." These last three lines tell us that in all of us there is an inner core that can see through the perceived reality of the world and look upon life and the things in the world as they were meant to be seen.
The theme of a perceived reality and an actual reality are prevalent in many other poems by Rumi. "Privacy" (56) states that "The world is a mirror." The interpretation of that line in "Privacy" is that Rumi sees the world as a reflection of the true reality that remains hidden to the common man. In "The Ocean Moving All Night" (53) Rumi says in the second stanza: "The spring we're looking for/ is somewhere in this murkiness." The spring that Rumi is searching for is the true reality and the murkiness is the perceived reality of the world as Rumi sees it. Both of these excerpts demonstrate that the theme of the world being an illusion appears frequently in Rumi's poetry.
Throughout Rumi's, poetry the Sufi belief in a perceived reality and reality is a recurrent theme. Rumi feels that the world we see is an illusion that can be penetrated by mystics such as himself. Rumi's message to us in "The Name" is that the names we give things are the perceived reality of the world, and the things themselves are what is real. In all of Rumi poetry the world is seen as a veil that covers reality with illusion, and it is the job of the Sufi to pierce that veil.
Living in the Present
by Brent Goulart
The theme of living in the present is recurrent in many of Jelaluddin Rumi's poems. This concept of living in the present, or just being, is the essential meaning in quite a few of Rumi's works:
Today, like any other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. (Open Secret 7*)
This poem is essentially made up of the theme of living in the present. More specifically, however, it concentrates on the idea that if one is to live in the present, he or she must "Take down a musical instrument" and live through experience rather than opening "the door to the study and begin reading" and thus living through observation. "Let the beauty we love be what we do" means that we should experience and be apart of what we love rather than observing it second hand.
Another belief that Rumi has is that people should live active lives:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill.
Where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep. (Open Secret 7).
This poem deals with living in the present, and especially living an active life. "The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you" and "You must ask for what you really want" indicate that one must be active and willing to search before one can truly learn and understand the secrets that life holds. "Don't go back to sleep" is saying that one cannot learn life's secrets if he or she lives an idle life.
In many of his poems, one of these being , Rumi also addresses the way in which people should choose to live their lives:
In this poem, Rumi is again talking about life and the ways people should choose to live their lives. Rumi says that life is "fire," and that each person's life and the way in which one lives is "firewood." Just as firewood in a fire, our lives aren't everlasting. The better we choose to live our lives, the more we contribute to the fire. We must live in the present and use the energy that is contained in us all in the "business" of life, and if we do not, then we are not truly living.
The theme of living in the present is just one of the many themes that are found throughout Rumi's works. One can sense the spiritualism in Rumi's writing, and one can also sense that the concepts that Rumi is trying to convey are pertinent to our lives. Rumi's message goes beyond, and is more powerful than words. "This wave of talking builds. Better we should not speak it, but let it grow within" (71).
I Am You
by Lorri Eberle
A common theme in many of Rumi's poems is the idea of man and his lover as one. This lover can be another person or it could be God: the two are often interchangeable in the poems. Rumi believes that all people are looking for happiness and a peace that is found within. Often what one is looking for is found where he least expects it in himself.
God is always there inside each person. However, whether each person knows he's there and accepts him is another story. Rumi expresses this in one of his poems:
A drop of water constantly fears
that it may evaporate into air,
or be absorbed by the ground.
It doesn't want to be used up
in those ways, but when it lets go
and falls into the ocean it came from,
it finds protection from the other deaths. (Barks 102)
Each person is a drop of water and God is the ocean. The one is essentially a part of the whole, but it becomes separated. When it is separated it is frightened, uneasy, and constantly searching for an escape from sure death. Once the drop returns to its source, what it truly is, it becomes safe and secure. People need to return to God. The ocean has been part of the drop all along, and all people need to do is free themselves; they just need to let go and fall back into the ocean.
Another way of looking at this idea is that each person is not just one person separate from all other people but instead is made up of more than one person. Think of two lovers. They can become so close that without one, the other is not himself. In one of his poems, Rumi said, "During the day I was singing with you/ At night we slept in the same bed,/ I wasn't conscious day or night./ I thought I knew who I was,/ but I was you"(Moyne 18). The greatest and most intimate love comes only when a person stops thinking of his lover as separate from himself. The two become so close and so entwined that they cannot be distinguished from each other.
The kind of love and lover that it takes to have this intimate relationship is not easy to find. It is what people are searching for their whole lives, and the reason it is so hard to find is that they already have it within themselves. Rumi says, "Lovers don't finally meet somewhere./ They're in each other all along"(Moyne 19). It is not just random luck to find someone and fall in love, and chance does not lead to God.
People are like pieces to a puzzle. Each piece alone is incomplete, but when two pieces that connect finally come together they make a whole. They fit together so tightly that the two pieces can no longer be distinguished, and all that can be seen is the whole. The way to find a missing piece is not to look away from oneself at the other pieces, because all you will see is the pieces that do not fit, and you will waste your time trying to make them fit. Once one looks within himself, he sees that the missing piece has been there all along, but it did not fit because all the other pieces were in the way. This is the reason why people say that they find what they want as soon as they stop looking for it. They stop focusing their attention on other things and just give up. They begin to focus on themselves and their needs. When they do this, they see that what they have been so desperately looking for they have had all along.
*All red page numbers are from John Moyne and Coleman Barks' Open Secret: Versions of Rumi (Putney, Vermont: Threshold Books, 1984). (back to text)
Contact Improvisation
in Relation to Rumi
by Lauren Hale
A major theme that Rumi writes of in his poetry is the unification of one spirit to another. He sought to know Allah and Shams so truly that their separate spirits would mold into one spirit. Rumi writes:
During the day I was singing with you.
At night we slept in the same bed.
I wasn't conscious day or night.
I thought I knew who I was,
but I was you. (18)
He also writes in "Be Melting Snow:"
Lo, I am with you always, means that when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you.
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower (50).
In these passages, Rumi teaches that to annihilate the barrier between your self or soul and others is to know something or someone truly. You are them. The ultimate bliss for the Sufi is unification with God which can come through prayer, dance, or music. Contact improvisation is a modern dance form that perfectly exemplifies this unification between people. The purpose of contact is for however many different dancers to become one dancing body. The individual becomes nothing and the body everything. Each person is the dance.
The Life and Spiritual Milieu of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi
In the last decades of the Twentieth Century the spiritual influence of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi is being strongly felt by people of diverse beliefs throughout the Western world. He is being recognized here in the West, as he has been for seven centuries in the Middle East and Western Asia, as one of the greatest literary and spiritual figures of all time.
Different qualities of Rumi have been brought forth by a variety of new translations that have appeared during the nineteen-eighties. He has been presented as both refined and sensual, sober and ecstatic, deeply serious and extremely funny, rarefied and accessible. It is a sign of his profound universality that he has been so many things to so many people.
Rumi's Life
Jalâluddîn Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh in what is today Afghanistan. At an early age his family left Balkh because of the danger of the invading Mongols and settled in Konya, Turkey, which was then the capital of the Seljuk Empire. His father Bahauddin was a great religious teacher who received a position at the university in Konya.
Mevlâna's early spiritual education was under the tutelage of his father Bahauddin and later under his father's close friend Sayyid Burhaneddin of Balkh. The circumstances surrounding Sayyid's undertaking of the education of his friend's son are interesting: Sayyid had been in Balkh, Afghanistan when he felt the death of his friend Bahauddin and realized that he must go to Konya to take over Jalâluddîn's spiritual education. He came to Konya when Mevlâna was about twenty-four years old, and for nine years instructed him in "the science of the prophets and states," beginning with a strict forty day retreat and continuing with various disciplines of meditation and fasting. During this time Jalâluddîn also spent more than four years in Aleppo and Damascus studying with some of the greatest religious minds of the time.
As the years passed, Mevlâna grew both in knowledge and consciousness of God. Eventually Sayyid Burhaneddin felt that he had fulfilled his responsibility toward Jalâluddîn, and he wanted to live out the rest of his years in seclusion. He told Mevlâna, "You are now ready, my son. You have no equal in any of the branches of learning. You have become a lion of knowledge. I am such a lion myself and we are not both needed here and that is why I want to go. Furthermore, a great friend will come to you, and you will be each other's mirror. He will lead you to the innermost parts of the spiritual world, just as you will lead him. Each of you will complete the other, and you will be the greatest friends in the entire world." And so Sayyid intimated the coming of Shams of Tabriz, the central event of Rumi's life.
At the age of thirty-seven Mevlâna met the spiritual vagabond Shams. Much has already been written about their relationship. Prior to this encounter Rumi had been an eminent professor of religion and a highly attained mystic; after this he became an inspired poet and a great lover of humanity. Rumi's meeting with Shams can be compared to Abraham's meeting with Melchizedek. I owe to Murat Yagan this explanation: "A Melchizedek and a Shams are messengers from the Source. They do nothing themselves but carry enlightenment to someone who can receive, someone who is either too full or too empty. Mevlâna was one who was too full. After receiving it, he could apply this message for the benefit of humanity." Shams was burning and Rumi caught fire. Shams' companionship with Rumi was brief. Despite the fact that each was a perfect mirror for the other Shams disappeared, not once but twice. The first time, Rumi's son Sultan Veled searched for and discovered him in Damascus. The second disappearance, however, proved to be final, and it is believed that he may have been murdered by people who resented his influence over Mevlâna.
Rumi was a man of knowledge and sanctity before meeting Shams, but only after the alchemy of this relationship was he able to fulfill Sayyid Burhaneddin's prediction that he would "drown men's souls in a fresh life and in the immeasurable abundance of God... and bring to life the dead of this false world with... meaning and love."
For more than ten years after meeting Shams, Mevlâna had been spontaneously composing odes, or ghazals, and these had been collected in a large volume called the Divan-i Kabir. Meanwhile Mevlâna had developed a deep spiritual friendship with Husameddin Chelebi. The two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside of Konya one day when Husameddin described an idea he had to Mevlâna: "If you were to write a book like the Ilahiname of Sanai or the Mantik'ut-Tayr'i of Fariduddin Attar it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts form you work and compose music to accompany it."
Mevlâna smiled and took from inside the folds of his turban a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines of his Mathnawi, beginning with:
Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
how it sings of separation...
Husameddin wept for joy and implored Mevlâna to write volumes more. Mevlâna replied, "Chelebi, if you consent to write for me, I will recite." And so it happened that Mevlâna in his early fifties began the dictation of this monumental work. As Husameddin described the process: "He never took a pen in his hand while composing the Mathnawi. Wherever he happened to be, whether in the school, at the Ilgin hot springs, in the Konya baths, or in the Meram vineyards, I would write down what he recited. Often I could barely keep up with his pace, sometimes, night and day for several days. At other times he would not compose for months, and once for two years there was nothing. At the completion of each book I would read it back to him, so that he could correct what had been written."
The Mathnawi can justifiably be considered the greatest spiritual masterpiece ever written by a human being. It's content includes the full spectrum of life on earth, every kind of human activity: religious, cultural, political, sexual, domestic; every kind of human character form the vulgar to the refined; as well as copious and specific details of the natural world, history and geography. It is also a book that presents the vertical dimension of life -- from this mundane world of desire, work, and things, to the most sublime levels of metaphysics and cosmic awareness. It is its completeness that enchants us.
His Spiritual Milieu
What do we need to know to receive the knowledge that Rumi offers us?
First of all, it needs to be understood that Rumi's tradition is not an "Eastern" tradition. It is neither of the East nor of the West, but something in between. Rumi's mother-tongue was Persian, an Indo-European language strongly influenced by Semitic (Arabic) vocabulary, something like French with a smattering of Hebrew.
Furthermore, the Islamic tradition, which shaped him, acknowledges that only one religion has been given to mankind through countless prophets, or messengers, who have come to every people on earth bearing this knowledge of Spirit. God is the subtle source of all life, Whose essence cannot be described or compared to anything, but Who can be known through the spiritual qualities that are manifest in the world and in the human heart. It is a deeply mystical tradition, on the one hand, with a strong and clear emphasis on human dignity and social justice, on the other.
Islam is understood as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian or Abrahamic tradition, honoring the Hebrew prophets, as well as Jesus and Mary. Muslims, however, are very sensitive to the issue of attributing divinity to a human being, which they see as the primary error of Christianity. although Jesus is called the in the Qur'an "the Spirit of God," it would be thought a blasphemy to identify any human being exclusively as God. Muhammad is viewed as the last of those human prophets who brought the message of God's love.
In Rumi's world, the Islamic way of life had established a high level of spiritual awareness among the general population. The average person would be someone who performed regular ablutions and prayed five times a day, fasted from food and drink during the daylight hours for at least one month a year, and closely followed a code which emphasized the continual remembrance of God, intention, integrity, generosity, and respect for all life. Although the Mathnawi can appeal to us on many levels, it assumes a rather high level of spiritual awareness as a starting point and extends to the very highest levels of spiritual understanding.
The unenlightened human state is one of "faithlessness" in which an individual lives in slavery to the false self and the desires of the materials world. The spiritual practices which Rumi would have known were aimed at transforming the compulsiveness of the false self and attaining Islam or "Submission" to a higher order of reality. Without this submission the real self is enslaved to the ego and lives in a state of internal conflict due to the contradictory impulses of the ego. The enslaved ego is cut off from the heart, the chief organ for perceiving reality, and cannot receive the spiritual guidance and nourishment which the heart provides.
Overcoming this enslavement and false separation leads to the realization and development of our true humanity. spiritual maturity is the realization that the self is a reflection of the Divine. God is the Beloved or Friend, the transpersonal identity. Love of God leads to the lover forgetting himself in the love of the Beloved.
