I knocked at the Beloved's door

A new translation of ode 436 by Maryam Daftari and Ali Arsanjani as a gift for the New Year 2010:

He asked who is at the door?

It is I, your humblest servant

He asked What are you here for?

I said, only to bid you "good health"

He asked, how long will you continue?

until you summon me, I said

He asked, how long will you be fervent?

I said, until the Day of Judgement

I made a case for my love

And I swore many a time

From love I repulsed your

dominion and your courage

He said, to make a case,

the judge needs a witness

My tears are my witness

And the paleness of my face

He said, your witness is unsuitable

Your eye's skirt; it is still wet

I submit to the magnificence of Your justice

The witness is just; without recompense

He asked who was your companion

I said, only thoughts of you, my King

He asked, who summoned you here?

I said, the fragrance of your soul

He asked, what are you determined to do?

I said, loyalty and companionship

He asked, what do want of me?

I said, your all encompassing grace

He asked, where is the merrier place?

I said, the king’s palace

He asked, what did you see there?

a hundred miracles, I replied

He asked, why, then, is it empty?

for fear of plundering, I replied

Who is the plunderer? he asked

This sense of remorse, I replied

He asked, where, then, is safety?

In forbearance and self-restraint, I said.

He asked, what is self-restraint?

the path of wholesomeness, I said.

He asked where is this malady?

I said, winding on the road of your love

When you are there, how will you be?, he asked

I will be unwavering, said I.

Silence. For if I utter the meaning of His words

You will forfeit yourself, and have no roof or door

Rumi on Love: Part 4:

Love is apparent when there's a malady of heart;
No malady compares to that of the heart.

The malady of the Lover is beyond normal cause;
Love is the Navigator, through the mysteries of God.

Even if your love, shifts from this to that,
To that True love it will finally lead!

However hard, I strive, to describe,
elusive love;
When I come to it, I am still filled with shame.

Even if my words bring clarity,
Yet clearer indeed, is Speechless Love!

Hastening, in its path of writing, the Pen,
It broke in two when it came upon love!
[Hastening, the Pen, when in its path,
it came upon Love, it split in two!]

A stallion, thrashing in quicksand,
the Intellect in vain seeks to describe:

[for] the story of lovers and their love
             can only be told through love itself!

The dawn and the faint crescent

The faint glimmer of light yawns upon the world, asleep, dormant
the moon gazes down upon the light and smiles
smiling, takes its own shape
"how welcome the light, but only if it shines on me and through me", it thinks.
My light does not come from me but from the Sun,
I reflect the powerful light of the Sun
So in the grand presence of the Sun, I bow
and recede into the background....

Creation from that Faint Wisp of a Thought

"To nadani bahre andishe kojast"

You know not where the ocean of thought resides...

In the distance, like a crescent,

it approaches:

Nothingness.

Coming into being

but from the form of a thought,

Nearly Nothingness,

the thoughts flowing through our mind

riding on a thought, behold -- a world

From a single thought;

their peace and their war

and from a thought,

their honor and disgrace

Those thoughts

the traps of

those close to the Divine

reflect the pictures

of those beauties,

moon-like,

of the garden of God

Manavi - Book I, Verse 70-76

The Ocean of Divine Mercy starts to Flow

During his storytelling, Rumi has the welcome habit of providing you with additional insight using what we would in modern times, possibly call a sidebar: a small divergence from the main story to explain a principle that is to be encountered now within the story.

This insight is very helpful in understanding some of the profound concepts on which he is giving us practical guidance.

In the King and the Maiden, when the King reverts to deep and desperate prayer to save his beloved from sickness that none of his renowned physicians have been able to cure. He hastens to prostrate and pray, to sing praises of divine gratitude and glory, to beseech the Lord for guidance and relief; he gets a response when "the ocean of self is drowned in the Self" as Rumi puts it aptly; "then the ocean of mercy starts to flow".

Falling asleep, he dreams of a physician, divinely sent to guide and to cure his ailing beloved. The next morning he gets up and sees someone faintly visible in the horizon, knowing, as was told to him in his dream that this indeed is sent by the Lord, a potent healer of mind and body.

And then Rumi breaks out in a sidebar.... talking of the faint Idea, the "Khial"; the thought...

The Full Moon

Throughout the ages, the fullness of the Moon has attributed to various elements of the mystical path.

Rumi is born

September 30, 1207 marks one of the significant milestones in the development of human thought. Ruby was born to a family of scholars. He himself was a renowned scholar. When he encountered his master, Shams, he gradually and systematically began to shed the artificial burden of erudite scholars. This was not necessarily a conscious decision on his part. By analyzing his writings we see that this process was an inner transformation that was based grounded in experience. He was not merely the adoption of a worldview, but rather letting go of the ego. This letting go of the ego, is characteristic of many traditions of mystical philosophy. In Taoist traditions this is marked as a wuwei or nonaction, as it is often translated to. It is actually the relinquishing of our bondage to the results of the action we perform. In the Vedic tradition this moksha or liberation occurs when one is no longer bound by the fruits of action as depicted in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Formerly, as well as other great seekers of truth, the direct realization of the divine was not just the ultimate goal put the needs to an even deeper experience of the divine.