Showing that the system of the universe originates in the Self, and that the continuation of the life of all individuals dependents on strengthening the Self

November 17, 2011
Parent Category: English Translations
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THE form of existence is an effect of the Self,
Whatsoever thou seest is a secret of the Self,
When the Self awoke to consciousness.
It revealed the universe of Thought.
A hundred words are hidden in its essence:	190
Self-affirmation brings Not-self to light.
By the Self the seed of opposition is sown in the word:
It imagines itself to be other than itself
It makes from itself the forms of others	195
In order to multiply the pleasure of strife.
It is slaying by the strength of its arm
That it may become conscious of its own strength.
Its self-deceptions are the essence of Life;
Like the rose, it lives by bathing itself in blood.	200
For the sake of a single rose it destroys a hundred rose gardens
And makes a hundred lamentation in quest of a single melody.
For one sky it produces a hundred new moons,
And for one word a hundred discourses.
The excuse for this wastefulness and cruelty	205
Is the shaping and perfecting of spiritual beauty.
The loveliness of Shirin justifies the anguish of Farhad.³³
One fragrant navel justifies a hundred musk-deer.
'Tis the fate of moths to consume in flame:
The suffering of moths is justified by the candle.	210
The pencil of the Self limped a hundred to-days
In order to achieve the dawn of a single morrow.
Its flames burned a hundred Abrahams³⁴
That the lamp of one Muhammad might be lighted.
Subject, object, means, and causes—	215
All these are forms which it assumes for the purpose of action.
The Self rises, kindles, falls, glows, breathes,
Burns, shines, walks, and flies.
The spaciousness of Time is its arena,
Heaven is a billow of the dust on the road.	220
From its rose-planting the world abounds in roses;
Night is born of its sleep, day springs from its waking.
It divided its flame into sparks
And taught the understanding to worship particulars.
It dissolved itself and created the atoms	225
It was scattered for a little while and created sands.
Then it wearied of dispersion
And by re-uniting itself it became the mountains.
'Tis the nature of the Self to manifest itself
In every atom slumbers the might of the Self.	230
Power that is expressed and inert
Chains the faculties which lead to action.
Inasmuch as the life of the universe comes from the power of the Self,
Life is in proportion to this power.
When a drop of water gets of Self's lesson by heart,	235
it makes its worthless existence a pearl.
Wine is formless because its self is weak;
It receives a form by favour of the cup.
Although the cup of wine assumes a form,
It is indebted to us for its motion.	240
When the mountain loses its self, it turns into sands
And complains that the sea surges over it;
The wave, so long as it remains a wave in the sea's bosom.³⁵
Makes itself rider on the sea's back.
Light transformed itself into an eye	245
And moved to and fro in search of beauty;
When the grass found a means of growth in its self,
Its aspiration clove the breast of the garden.
The candle too concatenated itself
And built itself out of atoms;	250
Then it made a practice of melting itself away and fled from its self
Until at last it trickled down from its own eye, like tears.
If the bezel had been more self secure by nature,
It would not have suffered wounds,
But since it derives its value from the superscription,	255
Its shoulder is galled by the burden of another's name.
Because the earth is firmly based on itself,
The captive moon goes round it perpetually.
The being of the sun is stronger than that of the earth
Therefore is the earth fascinated by the sun's eye.	260
The glory of the red beech fixes our gaze.
The mountains are enriched by its majesty
Its raiment is woven of fire,
Its origin is one self-assertive seed.
When Life gathers strength from the Self,	260
The river of Life expands into an ocean