از کی بگریزیم از خود ای محال

از کی برباییم از حق ای وبال

“From whom do we run away?

From self? Can you?

From whom do we take away?

From truth? How criminal!”

~Rumi

Source: Mathnawi I, 970

Reflection on the Quote:

A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director

If we ask ourselves how we create imbalances in the world, this verse from Rumi would be a good quote to remember!

What I love about the books of Mathnawi is the wisdom of Rumi who could bring a few words together in such a profound way in order to show us the pitfalls of human nature. Mathnawi is a manuscript of self-reflection. With each story, the readers learn something about themselves and what they need to face.

“Come together and study Mathnawi since it describes the story of your soul”, says, Rumi. In the inner journey of self-study what we need to understand is our egos and fear patterns. Self-discovery and self-identification are two important tools of our inner journey which lead to understanding ourselves better.

Only then, do we have a chance to be able to understand others. To uncover the authentic self is the goal. The dignity and responsibility of the individual are the heart of Rumi’s teaching. For achieving this goal, Rumi devoted some of his stories towards how to resolve and avoid our difficulties on the way.

One of the pitfalls is that it is easy for us to criticize others and to cover up our own mistakes. Sometimes we get so good at this that our weaknesses stay hidden even from ourselves, thus we think we cannot perform any wrongdoing. Rumi knows that we have the tendency to run away from our own mistakes even though there is no where to run. Still, the pressure of our shortcomings piles up and if we do not learn how to deal with our negative attributes we become a ticking bomb that sooner or later can explode, destroying everything in our way. To avoid this lack of inner insight into our own behavior and the foul personality, Rumi has advice for us.

He recommends that we talk about our mistakes and shortcomings so that we may open ourselves up to someone who knows how to help us to come out of our own limitations. He also warns us that the more we delay in dealing with our impediments the stronger they become like thorns in our souls. It becomes harder to remove these thorns as we get older and become weaker. In other words, the window for reaching out for help and for attending the situation closes with every passing moment…and it becomes almost an impossible task to find our way to more serene and meaningful living. The journey of becoming fully human is hard. Growing up is not easy for any of us and growing awake is even harder.

Just imagine a person with some talents, who is admired by many people, never being corrected or criticized for questionable behavior until it is too late for this individual to learn anything about self. We have a tendency, when we hit a wall, to regress but do we ever run away from who we are? I doubt it. It is virtually impossible to overcome our shortcomings without having knowledgeable, caring, and loving people around us. No one can walk the path of life without those who love and care for us.

People who are not reflected by others accurately in a safe and loving way usually cannot face themselves. Often people who cannot face themselves find themselves, resorting to manipulating reality. They are no longer able to bend themselves to what is. Creating an alternate reality becomes the only way of living for them. And this is what Rumi calls “criminal”. In other words, if the world and collective reality is not to your liking, good luck to you in understanding “The Real”. You have become the source of committing the criminal act of self-deception and attempting to deceive others. Many fragile egos who are well known throughout history have tried this already. If the truth were breakable, we would have counted its pieces long ago. Instead, history is full of the names of those who have tried, the criminals, and dictators.

-Dr. Fariba Enteshari

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