POETRY: Rumi - poems in praise of God

Sometimes a lover of God may faint in the presence. Then the Beloved bends and whispers in his ear, “Beggar, spread out your robe. I’ll fill it with gold. I've come to protect your consciousness.

Where has it gone? Come back!” This fainting is because lovers want so much. 

A chicken invites a camel into her hen-house, and the whole structure is demolished. 

A rabbit nestles down with its eyes closed in the arms of a lion. There is an excess in spiritual searching that is profound ignorance.

Let that ignorance be our teacher! The Friend breathes into one who has no breath 

 

A deep silence revives the listening 

of those two who meet on the riverbank. 

Like the ground turning green in a spring wind, 

like birdsong beginning inside the egg, 

like this universe coming into existence, 

the lover wakes and whirls in a dancing joy, 

then kneels down in praise. 

 
God has given us a dark wine so potent that,

drinking it, we leave the two worlds.God has put into the form of hashish a power

to deliver the taster from self-consciousness.

God has made sleep

so that it erases every thought.

God made Majnun love Layla so much

that just her dog would cause confusion in him.

There are thousands of wines

that can take over our minds.

Don’t think all ecstasies

are the same!

Jesus was lost in his love for God.

His donkey was drunk on barley.

Drink from the presence of saints,

not from those other jars.

Every object, every being,

is a jar full of delight.

Be a connoisseur,

and taste with caution.

Any wine will get you high.

Judge like a king, and choose the purest,

the ones unadulterated with fear,

or some urgency about “what’s needed.”

Drink the wine that moves you

as a camel moves when it’s been untied,

and is just ambling about.

Everyone is a child

except the one who’s intoxicated with God.

God has said, Knowledge that isn't from Him is a burden.

like a woman’s makeup, it doesn't last.

Be cleansed of the (false) self’s features, and see your pure Self:

Know the mirror of the heart is infinite.

Either the understanding falls silent, or it leads you astray,

because the heart is God,

or indeed the heart is He.

Everything, except love of the Most Beautiful,

is really agony. It’s agony

to move towards death and not drink the water of life.

Fiery lust is not diminished by indulging it,

but inevitably by leaving it ungratified.

Anger is a king over kings,

but anger once bridled may serve.

No joy have I found in the two worlds apart from You,
 Beloved.
Many wonders I have seen:
 I have not seen a wonder like You.
They say that blazing fire is the infidel's portion:
I have seen none, 
save Abu Lahab, excluded from Your fire.
Often have I laid the spiritual ear at the window of the heart:
I heard much discourse, but the lips I did not see.
Of a sudden You did lavish grace upon Your servant:
I saw no cause for it but Your infinite kindness.
O chosen Cup-bearer, O apple of mine eyes,
the like of You
Never appeared in Persia, nor in Arabia have I found it.
Pour out wine till I become a wanderer from myself;
For in self-hood and existence I have felt only fatigue.
O You who are milk and sugar, 
O You who are sun and moon,
O You who are mother and father,
I have known no kin but You.
O indestructible Love, O divine Minstrel,
You are both stay and refuge:
a name equal to You I have not found.
We are pieces of steel, and Your love is the magnet:
You are the source of all aspiration,
in myself I have seen none.
Silence, O brother! put learning and culture away:
  'Till you named culture, I knew no culture but You.

Who is at my door?

He [God] said, "Who is at my door?"
I said, "Your humble servant."
He said, "What business do you have?"
I said, "To greet you, O Lord."
He said, "How long will you journey on?"
I said, "Until you stop me."
He said, "How long will you boil in the fire?"
I said, "Until I am pure.
"This is my oath of love.
For the sake of love I gave up wealth and position.
" He said,
"You have pleaded your case but you have no witness."
I said,
"My tears are my witness;
the pallor of my face is my proof.'
He said,
"Your witness has no credibility;
your eyes are too wet to see."
I said,
"By the splendor of your justice
my eyes are clear and faultless."
He said,
"What do you seek?"
I said,
"To have you as my constant friend."
He said,
"What do you want from me?"
I said,
"Your abundant grace."
He said,
"Who was your companion on the 'journey?
I said,
"The thought of you, O King."
He said,
"What called you here?"
I said,
"The fragrance of your wine."
He said,
"What brings you the most fulfillment?"
I said,
"The company of the Emperor."
He said,
"What do you find there?"
I said,
"A hundred miracles."
He said,
"Why is the palace deserted?"
I said,
"They all fear the thief."
He said, "Who is the thief?"
I said,
"The one who keeps me from -you."
He said,
"Where is there safety?"
I said,
"In service and renunciation."
He said,
"What is there to renounce?"
I said,
"The hope of salvation."
He said, "Where is there calamity?"
I said, "In the presence of your love."
He said,
"How do you benefit from this life?"
I said,
"By keeping true to myself."

Now it is time for silence.
If I told you more about His true essence
You would fly from your self and be gone,
and neither door nor roof could hold you back!
  

Lord, said David, since you do not need us,

why did you create these two worlds?

Lord replied: O prisoner of time,

I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,

and I wished this treasure to be known,

so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;

its darkened back, the world;

The back would please you if you've never seen the face.

Has anyone ever produced a mirror out of mud and straw?

Yet clean away the mud and straw, 

and a mirror might be revealed.

Until the juice ferments a while in the cask,

it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright,

you must do a little work.

My King addressed the soul of my flesh:

You return just as you left.

Where are the traces of my gifts?

We know that alchemy transforms copper into gold.

This Sun doesn't want a crown or robe from God's grace.

He is a hat to a hundred bald men,

a covering for ten who were naked.

Jesus sat humbly on the back of an ass, my child!

How could a zephyr ride an ass?

Spirit, find your way, in seeking lowness like a stream.

Reason, tread the path of selflessness into eternity.

Remember God so much that you are forgotten.

Let the caller and the called disappear;

be lost in the Call.

Moses heard a shepherd on the road, praying,
"God,
where are you? I want to help you, to fix your shoes
and comb your hair. I want to wash your clothes
and pick the lice off. I want to bring you milk
to kiss your little hands and feet when it's time
for you to go to bed. I want to sweep your room
and keep it neat. God, my sheep and goats
are yours. All I can say, remembering you,
is ayyyy and ahhhhhhhhh."
Moses could stand it no longer.
"Who are you talking to?"
"The one who made us,
and made the earth and made the sky."
"Don't talk about shoes
and socks with God! And what's this with your little hands 
and feet? Such blasphemous familiarity sounds like
you're chatting with your uncles.
Only something that grows
needs milk. Only someone with feet needs shoes. Not God!
Even if you meant God's human representatives,
as when God said, `I was sick, and you did not visit me,'
even then this tone would be foolish and irreverent.
Use appropriate terms. Fatima is a fine name
for a woman, but if you call a man Fatima,
it's an insult. Body-and-birth language
are right for us on this side of the river,
but not for addressing the origin,
not for Allah."
The shepherd repented and tore his clothes and sighed
and wandered out into the desert.
A sudden revelation
then came to Moses. God's voice:
You have separated me
from one of my own. Did you come as a Prophet to unite,
or to sever?
I have given each being a separate and unique way
of seeing and knowing that knowledge.
What seems wrong to you is right for him.
What is poison to one is honey to someone else.
Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship,
these mean nothing to me.
I am apart from all that.
Ways of worshiping are not to be ranked as better
or worse than one another.
Hindus do Hindu things.
The Dravidian Muslims in India do what they do.
It's all praise, and it's all right. 
It's not me that's glorified in acts of worship.
It's the worshipers! I don't hear the words
they say. I look inside at the humility.
That broken-open lowliness is the reality,
not the language! Forget phraseology.
I want burning, 'burning'.
Be friends 
with your burning. Burn up your thinking 
and your forms of expression!
Moses,
those who pay attention to ways of behaving
and speaking are one sort.
Lovers who burn 
are another.
Don't impose a property tax
on a burned-out village. Don't scold the Lover.
The "wrong" way he talks is better than a hundred
"right" ways of others.
Inside the Kaaba
it doesn't matter which direction you point
your prayer rug!
The ocean diver doesn't need snowshoes!
The love-religion has no code or doctrine.
Only God.
So the ruby has nothing engraved on it!
It doesn't need markings.
God began speaking
deeper mysteries to Moses. Vision and words,
which cannot be recorded here, poured into
and through him. He left himself and came back.
He went to eternity and came back here.
Many times this happened.
It's foolish of me
to try and say this. If I did say it,
it would uproot our human intelligence.
It would shatter all writing pens.
Moses ran after the shepherd.
He followed the bewildered footprints,
in one place moving straight like a castle
across a chessboard. In another, sideways,
like a bishop.
Now surging like a wave cresting,
now sliding down like a fish,
with always his feet
making geomancy symbols in the sand,
recording 
his wandering state.
Moses finally caught up
with him.
"I was wrong. God has revealed to me
that there are no rules for worship.
Say whatever
and however your loving tells you to. Your sweet blasphemy
is the truest devotion. Through you a whole world
is freed.
Loosen your tongue and don't worry what comes out.
It's all the light of the spirit."
The shepherd replied,
"Moses, Moses,
I've gone beyond even that.
You applied the whip and my horse shied and jumped
out of itself. The divine nature and my human nature
came together.
Bless your scolding hand and your arm.
I can't say what's happened.
What I'm saying now
is not my real condition. It can't be said."
The shepherd grew quiet.
When you look in a mirror,
you see yourself, not the state of the mirror.
The flute player puts breath into a flute,
and who makes the music? Not the flute.
The flute player!
Whenever you speak praise
or thanksgiving to God, it's always like
this dear shepherd's simplicity.
When you eventually see
through the veils to how things really are,
you will keep saying again
and again,
"This is certainly not like
we thought it was!"
 

 
He is the first, He is the last, He is the outward, He is the inward;
I know none other except "Ya Hu" [Yahweh]
and "Ya man Hu" ["O He who is"].
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 You,
From that time and from that hour I repent of my life.
If once in this world I win a moment with You,
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.




 

Who is in the house of my heart,
I cried in the middle of the night.
Love [God] said,
"It is I, but what are all these images that fill your
house?"
I said, they are the reflection of Your beautiful Face.
Love asked,
"But what is this image full of pain?"
I said, it is me lost in the sorrows of life
and showed Love my soul full of wounds.
Love offered me one end of a thread and said:
"Take it so I can pull you back,
but do not break the delicate string."
I reached towards it but Love struck my hand.
I asked, why the harshness?
Love said,
"To remind you that whoever comes to Love's holy space
proud and full of himself,
will be sent away.
Look at Love with the eyes of your heart."

We are all powerless by Love's game.
How can you expect us
to behave and act modest?
How can you expect us
to stay at home, like good little boys?
How can you expect us
to enjoy being chained like mad men?
Oh, my Beloved, you will find us every night,
on Your street,
with our eyes glued to Your window,
waiting for a glimpse of Your radiant Face.
  

My head is bursting
with the joy of the unknown.
My heart is expanding a thousand fold.
Every cell, taking wings,
flies about the world.
All seek separately
the many faces of my Beloved.
  

By day I praised you and never knew it. By night I stayed with you and never knew it. I always thought that I was me--but no, I was You and never knew it.

 

You wreck my shop and my house and now my heart,

but how can I run from what gives me life?

I’m weary of personal worrying, in love

with the art of madness! Tear open my shame

and show the mystery. How much longer

do I have to fret with self-restraint and fear?

Friends, this is how it is: we are fringe

sewn inside the lining of a robe. Soon

we’ll be loosened, the binding threads torn out.
The Beloved is a lion.

We’re the lame deer in His paws.

Consider what choices we have!

Forget your life. Say God is Great. Get up.

You think you know what time it is. It’s time to pray.

You've carved so many little figurines, too many.

Don’t knock on any random door like a beggar.

Reach your long hands out to another door,
beyond where you go on the street,
the street where everyone says, “How are you?”

and no one says How aren't you?

Tomorrow you’ll see what you've broken and torn tonight,

thrashing in the dark.
Inside you

there’s an artist you don’t know about.

He’s not interested in how things look different in moonlight.

If you are here unfaithfully with us,

you’re causing terrible damage.

If you've opened your loving to God’s love,

you’re helping people you don’t know

and have never seen.

Is what I say true? Say yes quickly,

if you know, if you've known it

from before the beginning of the universe.