The Essential Rumi

  In veils of anger all the light inside.

  THE FIERCEST BEAST

  Leave the nightingale, who is pure sound,

  Ignore the peacock stamping on the ground

  In ecstasy. His colours will waylay

  Your mind. Become the tiger stalking prey

  Or like the sun, the eagle from the East,

  Imitate the planet’s fiercest beast.

  BLUSHES

  Silent blushes came to my cheek

  Till you taught me to sing,

  Taught me to speak.

  In shyness I would decline

  The offer of life’s liquor

  Now you ply me with wine

  In forbidding solemnity I would pray

  Now children make faces

  And mock me in their play.

  THE COURT

  There is the age-old custom among kings

  That like the eagle, he should spread his wings

  With every feather on his left, a knight,

  And scribes and scholars, the feathers on the right.

  The Sufi masters have to stand before

  Him—mirrors of their souls, the open door

  Which lets in light to show kings who they are

  O king and courtiers, gaze upon that star!

  POWER OF A PRAYER

  Do not misuse the power of a prayer

  Out of bitter envy, defeat or despair

  God will not answer destructive whims

  He’ll either ignore it or punish you—beware!

  SUFI’S WISDOM

  To seek a sufi’s wisdom do not go

  To books or ink or pages, rather know

  That all his wisdom can be found within

  A human heart that is as white as snow.

  WOMAN

  A woman is of God’s radiance a ray

  Not just a thing with which man has his way

  When God created Eve, she was to be

  The source of all creative interplay.

  LIFE

  We came from Him, the one who is unseen

  From out the garden which is evergreen

  And hence to him my friend we must return

  This life is but a moment in between.

  TONGUE

  O tongue, you are the fount of countless gems

  The artisan of complex diadems

  You are also the spring of all disease

  The plague that withers roses on their stems.

  LIGHT ON RUBBISH

  Behold the light that falls on rubbish heaps

  Illuminating filth, and yet it keeps

  Its purity. So heaven’s radiance shines

  On humanity, which below it creeps.

  WISEST SCHOLAR

  O wisest Mullah that has ever been

  With the longest beard the world has seen

  Look in the mirror of the world and time

  Behold the timeless barber shaves you clean!

  FIND THE ONE

  If the touchstone of your heart and head

  Can differentiate the gold from lead,

  Then lead the way and spread the light

  But if it can’t—find one who can instead!

  THE FISH-HOOKED LINE

  The actions of your body should define

  If to the good or bad you do incline

  The body is a reel that must obey

  The mind that pulls it like a fish-hooked line.

  DAVID’S MUSIC

  The melodies of David’s lyre could

  Melt the hearts of those who understood

  But to the faithless and the faithless ear

  They were but twanging of strings on wood.

  ENMITY OF THE WISE

  The Sufi says the enmity of wise

  Men is preferable to the honeyed lies

  Of the fool, who professes all his love

  And pleads his earnestness with vacant sighs.

  THE ASS

  The ass will through his stubbornness

  Run into the wild

  His master seeks to bring him back

  Like a prodigal child

  Not simply because he can get

  More labour from the beast

  But to prevent him in the wild,

  Becoming a tiger’s feast.

  CONTRARY

  There are those so contrary

  They sicken from the cure

  So save your stories, Rumi,

  For seekers of the pure.

  THE BEYOND

  Sufi, seek not to understand

  The mind or will of he who planned

  This universe before which our

  Whole world is but a speck of sand.

  THE HEART SINGS

  So bear my body to the grave, my friends,

  But hear my heart whose singing never ends

  No time now for your wailing or your tears

  My death is not at all what it appears.

  The grave is not the sum of life complete

  It is the veil of lovers, their retreat

  Beyond the compass of logic and mind

  Leaving the chain of separateness behind.

  You saw the dust settling, now see it rise

  Think of me with Him and shut your eyes

  Locked beneath the earth my soul is free

  To be with Him for all eternity.

  SEED

  A seed in fertile soil can always grow

  A human caught in the eternal flow

  Of water, springing from the only source

  Believes that life and death will take their course

  But this is an illusory belief

  The mind has stolen truth, it is a thief

  A sinking sun is rising elsewhere too

  My grave is but the last door to the new

  World which is His abode, it is the place

  Beyond the flood where we are face to face.

  THE EVIL PLANTER

  He who spreads evil

  Is one who plants weeds

  Don’t waste your words

  Don’t sell him rose seeds.

  BEAUTY

  Whatever comes to beauty

  Is beauty’s reward

  For a good woman, the good man

  For the empty scabbard, a sword.

  Children of the light are born

  To help us see the way

  And they attract each other

  Emanating the ray

  Of that eternal fire.

  The passion of the world

  Will only leave some ashes

  Weightless, crumbling, curled.

  SURROUNDINGS

  Beyond Eden’s gate

  The horrors lie in wait

  Surrounding hell’s fire

  Are the things we desire.

  THE LOAD

  My friend, assist your neighbour with his load

  Easing his burden puts you on the road

  To heaven’s rest. Biting the bitter skin

  Of sugarcane lets out the sweet within.

  This world will put you to the test of pain

  This is the way of all spiritual gain.

  DISGUISE

  A veil of madness can disguise a saint

  What seems real could be canvas and paint

  True sight is not in the eyes but in the heart

  Beware of deceptions of both man and art.

  MOSES IN THE REEDS

  The Mother of Moses fervently feeds

  The child she will abandon to the reeds

  She puts a future prophet to the test

  And tears the crying infant from her breast

  She bends over and lets the cradle go

  This infant will eventually know

  Who he is, the secret of his birth

  As we recall the heavens from this earth.

  ENVY

  Envy is a poison

  An illogical distress

  The fact your neighbor has more

  Doesn’t mean that you have less.

  GRAVITY
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  God is like gravity

  All things fall

  Towards him. Homing

  To the stall

  The scattered pigeons

  Will return.

  He who can

  In a rock discern

  The face or form

  That it conceals,

  He has the skill

  Of the sculptor

  He reveals

  A shape and can hone

  The figure from the stone

  He has

  The gift, of God alone.

  ALEPPO

  “Does this road lead to Aleppo?”

  Your answer can be “yes” or “no”

  Your opinion doesn’t make it so

  Consult a map before you go!

  THE COMPASSIONATE EYE

  Many a tear falls

  From the compassionate eye

  The time has now come for it

  To see itself and cry.

  CLEANSED

  The bough is cleansed as the storm sweeps,

  The candle brightens as its wax weeps.

  ONENESS

  Don’t try to separate

  The stem from the root,

  Is not the flautist’s breath

  But a part of the flute?

  HE LISTENS

  There are no rules of worship

  He will hear

  The voice of every heart

  That is sincere.

  CHILD’S PLAY

  Say, “Goo-goo” and “glug-glug”

  Or sing a lullaby

  To hell with your high intellect

  The baby mustn’t cry

  So does the Sufi

  With no stain of condescension

  Bring the essence of Him

  To our frail attention.

  WILD DOG

  Stop the wild dog’s bite with a muzzle

  Love is the solution to that eternal puzzle

  What is your destiny? What is your duty?

  Give way to love, give way to beauty

  The trapper seeks the waterfowl in every stream

  The form of your beloved, haunts your every dream

  If you turn off your reason, switch off the light

  Will she step out of your dream?

  She might, she might!

  TO EACH IS GIVEN

  God never gave

  His bigger beasts a sting

  He gave it to the bee

  With an invisible wing

  And with the skill of storing

  Sweetness in the hive.

  The silkworm spins its gossamer

  In order to survive

  However large, the elephant

  Has no such subtle skill

  God gives to each his powers

  His wonders to fulfill.

  NAMES

  God taught the earthly Adam

  To name all things although

  He taught the angels only

  What he wanted them to know

  PEARLS

  You aren’t a single jewel

  You’re an ocean of pearls

  You can be a planet

  Which in its orbit whirls

  Around the sun. Or you shall be

  An angel and sprout wings

  And then come face to face

  With the maker of all things.

  THROUGH A GLASS

  He who looks at wine

  Through colored glass

  Knows not the color of the wine.

  Reflected light must pass

  Through the filter of the cup

  And yet the wine

  Remains what it is.

  God’s design

  Cannot be filtered

  Through the mind

  Or through your reason strained,

  Through patience and

  Surrender only

  Can it be attained.

  PAINTERS

  Greeks from the West and Chinese from the East

  Were invited to the Sultan’s great feast

  The Sultan being a man of many parts

  Was interested in Sport and in the Arts

  The rival painters from the East and West

  Began to argue about who could best

  Do justice to the senses. Who could paint

  The truthful artefact that would acquaint

  The beholder with Wonder. Painting should

  Seduce and teach if it were any good.

  “So leave behind your rivalry and start,”

  The Sultan said, “to demonstrate your Art.”

  He assigned to each group a studio

  And challenged each of them in time to show

  The skills they boasted. The Chinese asked the king

  For a thousand colors. The Greeks asked nothing

  But stuff they said they’d use to clean the rust.

  Then from their studio out came clouds of dust

  Each day. The studios were contiguous and

  Were separated by a heavy, bland

  Gray curtain. The Sultan did then assign

  To both the delegations a deadline.

  And finally arrived the judgment day:

  The king ordered in turn they should display

  What they had done, and so first the Chinese

  Unveiled their work; exquisite expertise

  Was portrayed on the walls for all to see

  The Sultan was impressed and publicly

  Rewarded these artists who could portray

  The earth, the sky and even winds at play

  The painting was an obvious delight

  That silenced speech and mesmerized the sight

  Of all who gazed upon it. Now the team

  Of Greeks were called even though it did seem

  That nothing could outclass that Chinese art

  The king ordered the curtain drawn apart

  And it was done. There was no paint upon

  The walls but they were polished and they shone

  Like mirrors made of silver, shiny, pale

  Reflecting the painting in each detail

  Perfectly. The Sultan could see this art

  Was like an installation of the heart

  Because the pure heart in reflection can

  Display the works of God and not of man.

  IN HIS WORKS

  In his myriad works

  Does the maker exist

  If you had no fingers

  You couldn’t form a fist.

  THE MAN WHO CRIED

  The man who cried, “O Allah”

  Each day in his prayer

  Was persuaded by Evil

  That God wasn’t really there.

  The proof was that every day

  He prayed to the Supreme One

  And each day didn’t he notice,

  That answer came there none?

  Hearing this the pious man

  Fell into deep despair

  And complained to Ezekiel,

  “God doesn’t hear my prayer.”

  Then Ezekiel said, “Pious one

  It’s not that he hasn’t heard

  When you call him ‘Allah’

  His answer is in that word.”

  ROMANCE

  It was stories that first gave me

  The idea of romance

  I kept my young eyes open

  Waiting for the trance

  That would fall on me, strike me,

  Heavenly Cupid’s dart

  Till I realized that you

  Were already in my heart.

  THE DIFFERENCE

  Together as one with you I lie awake

  Alone, I suffer this relentless ache

  Ecstasy and pain, all lovers have seen them

  Bless Him that we know the difference between them

  THE CAP

  A man gave me a cap

  You the brain that reasons under it

  A man made me a robe

  And you the form on which it proudly rests

  A man gave me g
old

  And you, the sense and hand that counts it

  A man gave me a horse

  And you, the reins and skill to guide it

  A man held up a lamp

  Where did I get the eyes to see its light?

  A man may bring me sweets

  Where comes the devouring hunger and the taste?

  Men can give me subsistence

  But He alone gives me the life that needs it

  Men gift me treasure

  You bring true blessings

  Men build a house

  You, the earth on which it stands

  And Yours is the house

  In which all are nourished

  You were the one who created the gold

  You the provider of gifts untold

  Yours was the hand that made men generous

  Teaching them the gift of giving

  Yours is the hand that kneaded clay

  And turned it into the world of the living

  And then from nothing

  The eternal sky

  And spread the

  Carpet of the earth

  You fashioned the

  Torches of the stars

  And in your image

  Gave us birth

  So man is a shimmer

  Of exaltation

  Reasons and Spirit

  Are his signs

  As over and in

  The passing water

  The moon reflected

  Nightly shines.

  WHEN IT IS REVEALED

  When that which is now hidden is revealed

  To you and beauty draws aside her veil