Monday, July 12, 2010

Ascending Soul - a poem by Rumi

I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Yet, once more, I shall die as man, to soar
With angels blessed; but even from angelhood
I must pass on; all except God doth perish.

When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind e’ev conceived.
Oh, Let me not exist! For Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones, “To Him we shall return.”


In the first part of this poem Rumi celebrates himself for his evolution from mineral state to the state of being born as human being. The realization of the fact of his own evolution gave him the sound basis for having unwavering faith in still better possibilities lying ahead.

In the second part of this poem Rumi says that when one dies to one’s mean and small ordinary psychological self (lower-self), and is reborn - the angelic qualities of unconditional love, compassion, child-like pure godly wisdom, etc becomes his very nature - one soars with angels blessed. But, he continue to say, except the Absolute (Akshar-Brahm), such relative immortality (existence after death as angel or god) comes to an end at some point of time, however inconceivably long may be such existence in angelic self.

In the third part of this poem Rumi says that realizing this (mortality of relative immortality) he sacrificed the attachment (the sense of oneness) with the bliss and enlightenment of angel soul, and became fana in Him. (To be fana means to lose, that is, to totally disregard one’s angel-self before the vastness, source-ness-of-everything and glory of The God). Then, he experienced the state, which no mind (even the mind of angel soul) can fathom. And that fana-state proclaimed “To Him we shall return”.