Drawing composed of lines from a Rumi poem by Seyed Alavi
Rumi is utterly overcome and overwhelmed. The rhapsodic rhythms of his songs unequal to the tower of emotion within him, he falls on his knees, takes refuge in simple words and writes:
You come to us-- from another world,
from beyond the stars and the void of space.
Transcendent,
Pure,
of unimaginable beauty.
Bringing with you the essence of love
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You personify - God's message.
You reflect the King's face.
There is nothing in the universe that you are not
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You transform all who are touched by you.
Mundane concerns, troubles and sorrows dissolve in your presence,
Bringing joy to ruler and ruled, to peasant and King.
You arouse me with your touch, although I can't see your hands.
You have kissed me with tenderness, although I haven't tasted your lips.
You are hidden from me, but it is you who keeps me alive.
Perhaps the time will come, when you will tire of kisses,
I shall be happy even for insults from you.
I only ask that you -- keep some attention on me
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From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face but today -- I have seen it Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, and the unfathomable grace of the face that I have been looking for Today I have found you and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry they were not looking as I did ===
I wish to see you with a hundred eyes I am ashamed to call this love human and afraid of God to call it divine I have become your sunshine and also your shadow Every fiber of my being is in love with you Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart. I am in the house of mercy and my heart is a place of prayer
As Rumi’s consciousness continued to unfold, he began to see the universe as the very expression of divine love. To him every atom and all matter, animate or inanimate is alive, conscious, responsive and most remarkably, expresses love actively.
Rumi tries to find simple ways to share his experiences and perhaps one reason for his wide appeal is that he is able to make accessible and tangible that which is hidden in everyone just beneath the surface.
The beauty of his poetry, however, can lead listeners to think he is speaking metaphorically, poetically or symbolically while all along he is describing very real, perceptible phenomena.
For example, he sees creation not as rigid, unbending or inflexible, but free, supple, elastic and he describes this resilient, ever-flowing and ever- changing quality of matter as-- a “dance”. He writes:
Wake up
Look
Atoms are dancing
Luminous with a light
That moves heaven and earth
They are souls in rapture,
Stomping, whirling, ecstatic
Shall I whisper in your ear
Why they dance;
Where they dance?
Every particle,
In bliss or in sorrow
Shines - like the sun -
Consumed in that blaze --it dances
Intoxicated with love
I too dance -Behind the veil - to the rhythm of
this shimmering world
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Every atom,
Whirling in space or hugging the earth
Honor it - -
It is you and like you is in love
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I’m at home wherever I am
Space my temple, Earth my prayer rug
In the company of lovers I can see with closed eyes
The beauty that dances