01/10/2024
Here is a powerful poem from the great 13th-century Persian mystic and poet Rumi with an explanation of each line. Read this and contemplate it as it refers to you and your life. Feel every word of it in your being. Its powerful .
1. "Friend, is sugar sweeter or He who makes the sugar? Friend, is the moon fairer or He who makes the moon?"
Which is greater, the sweetness of the sugar or the creator of sweetness itself? The beauty of the moon, or He who gives it light? This points to the idea that all things we desire or admire in this world are just reflections of a far greater divine reality.
2. "Forgo sugars, forgo moons; He knows something other, He makes something other."
Let go of these earthly desires—sugar and moonlight are insignificant compared to the greater mysteries of the divine. He knows and creates beyond what we can imagine.
3. "In the sea are marvels besides pearls, but none like the Monarch who makes the sea and the pearls."
Even the treasures of the sea, like pearls, are insignificant compared to the greatness of the Creator. The sea, the pearls, and all marvels of creation pale in comparison to the Monarch of existence.
4. "Besides the water is another water springing from a marvellous waterwheel; without flaw and unsleeping It provides sustenance to the heart."
Beyond the physical waters (earthly desires), there is a spiritual water, a deeper, eternal source of life and nourishment for the heart. This represents the divine flow that sustains us in ways beyond the material world.
5. "Without knowledge it is not possible to fashion an image of a bath; how shall be that Knowledge which makes intellect and awareness?"
Just as it takes knowledge to create something simple like a bath, imagine the magnitude of the divine knowledge that created human intellect, awareness, and the soul.
6. "Without knowledge you cannot extract oil from fat; consider then that Knowledge which makes sight from fat."
If we need knowledge to extract oil, consider the profound divine wisdom that allows us to see through the fat in our eyes. This points to the divine intelligence behind every aspect of creation.
7. "Souls are distraught, without eating and slumber, on account of the marvellous feast which He makes at the time of dawn."
Our souls are restless, yearning not for physical sustenance but for the divine banquet—this is the spiritual nourishment, the divine revelation that comes with dawn (a metaphor for spiritual awakening).
8. "Happy dawn, when that despair of every moon makes His two hands a belt around my waist!"
The true joy comes when the light of the divine wraps around us, more precious than the light of any moon. It symbolizes the embrace of divine love and guidance.
9. "Yonder sky laughs at the mustachios of that deluded one; that laughingstock makes himself an ass in the train of two or three asses."
The divine realm looks upon those who are foolishly focused on material things, mocking their blindness. The fool who chases worldly desires is compared to an ass, unaware of the higher realities.
10. "That ass flings himself into gold as if into barley; he is heedless of the King who makes gems of stones."
This person seeks material wealth (gold) as though it’s mere barley, unaware that the true King turns even stones into gems. The real treasure is the divine, not the material wealth we blindly chase.
11. "I have made enough, enough, I have quit exhalation; the rest that Darling will speak, who makes of the ear an eye."
The speaker is done talking, realizing that all speech and expression are incomplete compared to the revelations of the divine. The divine ‘Darling’ turns hearing into sight—enlightenment comes when we stop speaking and begin to listen and perceive with higher awareness.
