May 2022: Life in Fire?
/ای برادر تو همان اندیشهای
ما بقی تو استخوان و ریشهای
"Oh, it is your ideas that enrapture your essence; the rest of you is only bones and flesh!"
~Rumi
Source: Mathnawi II, 277
Translated by Dr. Fariba Enteshari
© Rumi Educational Center
Reflection on the Quote:
A message from Dr. Fariba Enteshari, Founder & Executive Director
Sometimes, there are tough patches on the path of life that we have to walk through.
Rumi tells a story about a King drunk with his own power asking to be worshipped! He commands his people one by one, “Worship me or jump into this pit of fire!”
One by one, the people started to choose to worship this tyrannical king until it was the turn of a wise woman with her child in her arms. She was given the same order, “Worship me or jump into this fire!” The woman hesitated for a moment only to witness that her child was snatched from her arms and thrown into the flames! Distraught, starting to kneel, she heard a voice coming through the fire: “Mother, jump,! This fire is so much better than this mad king.” The woman jumped and joined her child. The people who witnessed what had just happened also chose the fire and jumped.
اندر آ ای مادر اینجا من خوشم
گر چه در صورت میان آتشم
Come, oh Mother, I am happier here though I am in the midst of the fire!
Source: Mathnawi I, 786.
Choosing the tough path of standing up to difficult problems changes us profoundly. Witnessing masses of brave people making tough choices changes us, too.
Following the path of meaning, while not easy, awakens us to an understanding that the meaning of the life we live is far more important than the act of living. Life brings us sometimes to a point when we have to consider which form of life is worth continuing to live and which is not. The voices of Ukrainian people who travel back to Ukraine in this time echo in my being—they want to go back home even though home is on fire…
-Dr. Fariba Enteshari