RUMI gives the analogy of a drop of water. When a drop of water is away from its source, the ocean, from where it originated, it is in constant risk of annihilation. It can easily get wiped out or get evaporated. Rumi was teaching this 800 years ago i.e. “If you are struck in the finite and you are away from your source, you will experience depression. You may have lot of gadgets or toys to play with, it doesn’t matter and you will still feel depression for the rest of your life.”
How can you go back to the source? Rumi says, “First you have to identify the barriers that impedes you from rejoining the ocean. The obstacles are ego, false identity, and the boundaries, based on selfishness. The springboard of selfishness is attachments to worldly things e.g. a house, fame, or even to your own self. How can we overcome selfishness and these limiting boundaries? Rumi says, “Its love. Love enables us to detach from these delusionary sources of happiness, beyond one’s limited self. It enables you to reach out to others. This is how Rumi solves the puzzle of salvation, by using the concept of love. For Rumi love is the recipe for salvation against all the evil that we experience in our lives. A rewarding life means to love and be loved by others.
Rumi considered himself a follower of religion of love. He says in Masanvi, “My religion is to live through love. The creed and denomination of lovers is God.” Religion of love is not the negation of any existing religions, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or the rest. The religion of love is a higher spiritual state that we can reach with any religious tradition. It is reaffirmation of the values, which any religion should promote. “I am so drunk; I have lost the way in, and the way out. I have lost the earth, the moon, and the sky. Don’t put another cup of wine in my hand, Pour it in my mouth, for I have lost the way to my mouth.”
The concept of divine love started in the second phase of Persian Islamic mysticism. When you come to Rumi and some of his predecessors, a new phase of mysticism emerges, which is a new relationship of unity between the Creator and His creation based on extreme love. Whereas, there can be no union between the fearful and the one who is feared; there can be union between the lover and the beloved. This idea of union is pervasive all over in Rumi writings. In one of his poems, he tells us that his main theme or focus is to sell the idea of union or unity with God, the rest is all-peripheral, a mere accident.
He narrates the story of the lover, who comes into the house of his beloved and knocks at the door. The beloved from inside asks,” Who is there?” The lover replies, “I.” She says,” Go, there is no place for raw on the table. He goes away and roams around in bewilderment and sufferings for one year. Rumi says, “What can cook the raw one except the fire of separation.” He comes back and knocks again and is very careful not to use the words, which may offend his companion. The beloved asks, “Who is it?” The lover replies, “It is you at the door.” The beloved says, “Since you are me, you can enter, there is no room for two me’s in this house. Unless the two Me’s become Ve, I cannot let you in.” Rumi says,
“Without love even the stars get eclipsed and extinguish. Love boils the ocean like boiling pots. Love pulverizes the mountains like grinding sands. From love thorns becomes flowers. From love, fire becomes light. Quench your thirst for love, Beloved is also always thirsty for a lover. Friends, if you could rid yourself just once, The secrets of secrets would open to you. The face of the unknown, hidden beyond the universe, Would appear on the mirror of your perception. Knock and love will open the door. Vanish and love will make you shine like a sun. Fall and love will rise you to the heavens. Become nothing and love will turn you into everything.”
Rumi takes the example of an onion in defining what Divine love is. He says, “Think of love as an onion which has a multi-layered structure. In the inner most layer resides the love of one own self. This does not mean pride, but it can be termed as self-respect. If one does not have self-respect, one is incapable of loving others. The second layer is love of family members. The third level of love is love of neighbours, members of our community and ultimately the people of our own nation. Some people can experience even greater love; they can love all human beings, all humanity. There is yet another layer, love of all creatures and love of nature. Take all these layers and put them together and this is divine love.”
Most of us however are struck in the first and second layer. The artificial boundaries that we erect around ourselves debar us from experiencing divine love. Divine love is God’s love for his creation. It is undiscriminating and is readily available to all creation. A person whose heart can grow that big and his capacity to love, if it grows to this level, will have a divine personality and will experience divine love. Rumi says, “Human love and heavenly love are not contradictory, but reinforce each other.” At another point Rumi says, “I have lost myself in God, and now God is mine. Don’t look for Him in every direction, For He is in my soul.” —To be continued
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
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