The Masnavi, Book Three
Page 22
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Mountains were Prophets through your revelation,
The Psalms, as experts in their recitation.*
A million inner eyes were granted vision
And, through your breath, could see realms that are hidden.
That miracle’s your strongest—it’s abided;
Eternal life’s the gift that you’ve provided.
This is the heart of every miracle—
It gives the corpse an everlasting soul.’
The killing of that wicked man too gave
Life to a world: each was again God’s slave.
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Explanation of how Man’s carnal soul is in the position of the murderer who made a claim regarding the cow, and how the killer of the cow is the higher intellect, and how David represents God or the shaikh, who is God’s representative, with whose strength and support it is possible to kill the wicked, and become enriched by sustenance that is neither earned through work nor calculated
Kill your self! Bring the world back from the dead.
It killed its lord; make it your slave instead.
The one who claimed the cow is self—take heed!
It dressed itself as a lord fit to lead.
Its killer is your higher intellect,
Your flesh’s slayer which you can’t reject.
This intellect’s held captive, and its wish
Is daily bread, without toil, on a dish.
What does its wish from God depend on now?
Slaying the source of evil: that same cow.
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‘How dare you kill my cow?’ the self will say—
The self’s cow is the body’s form in clay.
The master’s son, intellect, is in need.
The murderous self claims mastery’s right to lead.
What then is daily bread without toil, friends?
Prophetic mystic nourishment God sends.
Killing the cow is what this hangs upon.
The treasure’s in the cow—learn, curious one!
I must have eaten something strange last night
Not to hand all the reins now to your sight.
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‘I’ve eaten something’ isn’t really true—
All comes from secret precincts down to you.
We look at secondary causes—why
When we’ve learnt glancing from His flirting eye?
Above these causes are those that are higher—
Look only at those causes, which come prior.
Prophets came down to sever lower ones
And fling their miracles to distant suns.
Without need for a cause, they parted seas;
Without once farming, they brought wheat with ease;
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Through them, sand turned to flour fit for a feast,
Goat hair to silk as soon as it was fleeced.
Cutting the cause is the Qur’an’s aim, friend,
Through paupers’ gains and Abu Lahab’s end.
Birds each drop on an army one small stone,
Defeating all those troops by this alone;
The stones of those birds caused their elephant
To fall with wounds—that poor beast bore the brunt.*
‘Strike the slain man with that cow’s tail!’* God said,
‘So in the shroud he’ll come back from the dead,
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So you’ll see him jump up whose throat was slit,
Seeking revenge from that one who did it.’
In such ways, the Qur’an throughout so well
Cuts secondary causes off. Farewell!
The meddling intellect’s of no avail—
Become a slave to see this all unveil.
Philosophers are bound by reasoning;
The pure ride intellect just like a king:
Your intellect’s own intellect and it
Are core and husk which for a beast is fit;
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Husks don’t attract those seeking kernels, which
Are lawful for the good, the spiritually rich.
Your intellect needs proof, for it to see;
That intellect has constant certainty.
Your intellect fills notebooks very soon;
That intellect spreads light far like the moon.
That one’s beyond what’s black and white—to start
The light of its moon rises in your heart.
If power’s gained by what is black and white,
It’s from the Night of Power’s* star-bright light.
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A purse’s value is in gold like this,
Without which every purse is valueless:
The soul is what decides the body’s value;
The soul’s worth’s fixed by rays God shines upon you.
If souls without rays are alive, would He
Have said that infidels are dead?* Tell me!
Speak, for His eloquence digs out a river,
So water will reach generations after.
Each generation’s brought its own report;
Still sayings of past sages give support.
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The Torah, Psalms, and Bible testified
That the Qur’an contained the truth inside.*
Seek daily bread without toil, schemes, or price,
So Gabriel brings you fruit from paradise.
Better still, get it straight from God, my brother;
Don’t make the gardener sow or suffer bother.
Bread has worth since it is His gift to you;
Without the husk as means, it helps you too.
Bread’s taste’s hidden; its form’s like cloths we spread;
Without a tablecloth comes God’s Friend’s bread.
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How will the daily bread for which you’ve tried
So hard come down, except through your own guide?
When the self sees you walk in harmony
With him, it will obey then totally.
That slain cow’s owner finally confessed
On seeing David’s breath was specially blessed.
Higher intellect prevails, it must be said,
Over your self, with the guide’s special aid.
The self’s a snake with tricks of many kinds,
The guide’s face is the emerald that blinds.*
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If you want the cow’s owner to submit,
Drive his self like a donkey, goading it—
When to a Friend of God it should move near,
Its long tongue’s shortened, so we need not hear.
It has a hundred tongues, which each possess
Ten languages, much fraud, and cleverness.
The claimant of the cow’s the self: proficient
In using proofs, but they are all deficient.
He hoodwinks all the people gathered there,
But he can’t trick the king who is aware.
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The self holds the Qur’an in one hand, brother,
With a sharp dagger hidden in the other.
Don’t you believe in its hypocrisy!
Shun its Qur’an, avoid its company!
It takes you to perform ablutions to
A spring, then shoves you in without ado.
The luminous intellect seeks with such skill—
How can the dark self dominate it still?
Since it’s at home and intellect’s the stranger:
At its own door a dog’s a frightening danger.
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But such blind dogs will be obedient when
The mystic lions reach their home again.
Ordinary men can’t see the self’s deceit—
Heart inspiration’s needed for that feat.
He who is just like it is its associate,
But not your David-mannered guide who knows it:
He’s been transformed; whoever God should place
In the heart’s station leaves thei
r form and space.
People have flaws within that will jump out;
Flaws will attract each other there’s no doubt.
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Impostors claim, ‘I’m David for our people!’
The undiscerning man is their disciple.
The stupid bird hears hunters’ whistles and
Flies to them, as it cannot understand
Or tell what’s real from fiction—he’s astray;
Even if he looks spiritual, run away!
To him a graft and what grows naturally
Are one—he doubts, though he claims certainty.
Even if he’s the cleverest of his school,
Since he can’t now discern, he’s still a fool.
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As deer flee from a lion, run away—
Don’t rush to him like fools might do today.
How Jesus fled to the mountain-top from a fool
Jesus fled to a mountain as if he
Were being chased by lions ravenously.
Someone pursued him saying, ‘It’s okay!
No one is coming. Why then rush away?’
He kept on hurrying and due to haste
Gave no reply—he had no time to waste.
That man pursued him further, then he shouted:
‘For God’s sake, Jesus, whom we’ve never doubted,
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Please stop for just a moment! Won’t you, please?
Your fleeing gives me deep anxieties.
Running up there, from whom do you now flee?
No lion’s in pursuit, no enemy.’
‘I’m fleeing from a fool!’ Jesus explained,
‘I now must save myself, not be restrained.’
The man asked, ‘Aren’t you the Messiah then,
The one who heals all deaf and all blind men?’
Jesus said, ‘Yes.’ ‘And aren’t you that king who
Possesses spells from the Unseen Realm too?
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When you chant spells on corpses, suddenly they
Jump up like lions pouncing on their prey.’
Jesus said, ‘Yes, that’s I.’ ‘Don’t you create
Living birds from mere clay with power so great?’
Jesus said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Then, Holy Spirit, who
Can scare one who can do the things you do?
Who in the world could see these signs you gave
And not desire at once to be your slave?’
Jesus said, ‘By God’s holy essence, He
Who made our bodies made souls previously;
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And by His attributes and essence too,
Which heavens love the way that madmen do,
Since that spell and God’s greatest name, which I
Pronounced on deaf and blind men, ranks so high:
Their power made the mountain split in haste,
Tearing its cloak apart down to its waist;
They made a corpse revive in just an instant
And non-existents to become existent.
I have pronounced them over one fool’s heart
Numerous times, but healing just won’t start.
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He turned to stone and wouldn’t change—God knows
He is now sand from which not one plant grows.’
The man then asked, ‘Will you now make it clear
Why God’s name failed to be effective here?
There’s sickness here just like those sicknesses:
It healed before—why didn’t it cure this?’
‘Folly’s disease is God’s wrath,’ Jesus said,
‘Blindness and such aren’t wrath but trials He’s made;
A trial attracts God’s mercy to such woes,
But folly only can attract more blows.
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That which is branded on him God has sealed,
So such a person never can be healed.’
As Jesus did, from fools you have to flee;
Carnage results from foolish company.
The air steals flowing water bit by bit,
And fools make faith evaporate like it.
They steal your warmth to give you chills—beware,
They’ll sneakily put sharp rocks on your chair.
It wasn’t due to fear he fled from reach—
Jesus can feel secure; it was to teach.
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If frost fills all horizons with its chill,
It cannot harm the sun which rises still.
Story about the People of Sheba and their folly, and how the advice of Prophets has no effect on the foolish
Remember Sheba’s people’s woe: their breeze,
Through stupid fools’ breaths, filled up with disease.
Sheba resembled that huge city in
The children’s tales passed down among your kin.
Children like telling fables to each other,
But they hold hidden wisdom too, my brother.
In tales there’s idle chatter in some measure;
One also must search ruins to find treasure.
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There once was a grand city, they relate,
Which only was as big as a side-plate.
It was so huge and broad—what a dominion,
Extremely big, the same size as one onion.
The people of ten cities filled that place,
Totalling three, each with a dirty face.
Inside were countless people, but just three
Raw beggars were in that locality.
(The souls which to the Loved One do not race,
Though many, count as half through their disgrace.)
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One with good vision, but blind totally
To Solomon and ants’ legs equally.
The second could hear well, and was deaf too,
Treasure which has no gold inside for you.
The third was bare—his genitals he’d show;
His skirt had such a very long hem though.
‘An army’s nearing. Look!’ the blind one said.
‘I know how many. I see them ahead.’
The deaf one said, ‘I’ve heard the noise near me,
What they say openly and secretly.’
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The naked one said, ‘I’m afraid of them,
For they might want to shorten my long hem.’
The blind one said, ‘They’re close. Let’s not remain
For we’ll be struck and bound then with a chain.’
The deaf man said, ‘The noise is louder, so
My friend it is our last chance now to go.’
The naked one said, ‘They’ll cut my hem short.
I’ll be unsafe among that lustful sort.’
They went out of that city due to fear
And hurried to a village that was near.
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They found a bird there that was very fat
Without flesh on it—abject just like that;
A withered bird, which from firm blows from crows
Had bones like threads with which a tailor sews.
They ate it like three lions on a hunt;
Each felt as full as a huge elephant.
All three became fat due to what they ate,
Like three huge elephants all overweight.
And due to the degree that they’d grown fat,
None could be fitted in this world like that.
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With their huge size and big limbs, they escaped
Through small cracks in the door which now had gaped.
The way to death for creatures is unseen;
Since it has no place, it then can’t be seen.
Look, caravans now follow in succession,
Through this crack in the door that is so hidden.
You can’t find that door’s crack, for it’s so small,
Gateway to union, but invisible.
Interpretation of the blind, far-sighted one, the deaf, sharp-ear
ed one, and the naked one with a long skirt
The deaf one’s hope, which of your death has heard,
But of his own death has not heard a word.
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The blind one’s greed: all others’ flaws he sees
And speaks of them in all vicinities.
He can’t see his own flaws because he’s blind,
Though everybody else’s he can find.
The naked one fears his skirt will be torn,
But who would strike a man with nothing on?
The worldly man is scared and penniless;
Though he owns nothing, thieves cause him distress.
Naked he came and naked soon he leaves,
Yet he’s distressed and filled with dread of thieves.
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At death’s hour, dirges then will reach his ears
And his own soul will laugh at its past fears.