On a recent trip to Turkey, I got the chance to fulfil a long cherished dream of visiting Konya, the city of Mevlana Rumi. Standing before the tomb of the one of the greatest Sufi masters of all times was an exhilarating experience. I sat there for hours through the night and the day. Konya is a small charming town filled with spiritual energy. Rumi, an extraordinary poet has remained the most influential figure in Islamic mystical literature. His collection of poems in the Masnavi has been often referred to as the “Quran in Persian”. His works have been translated into several languages. Rumi continues to inspire thinkers, poets and mystics all around the world.
All of Rumi’s work is permeated with verses that praise God, speak of His grandeur and how it reveals itself in different aspects of life. Through poetry Rumi tell stories give us deep insights into human psyche and the spiritual path. He wrote about sublime concepts using everyday metaphors. One of Rumi’s most famous stories is about chickpeas being subjected to the fire for cooking. Raising a hundred cries, the chickpeas ask the housewife they are being turned upside down. Hitting them with a ladle, she says, “I do not burn you because of hate, but that you may get taste. I do this so that you become nutrients and mingle with the spirit”.
The housewife continues, “O, chickpea, did you not feed in springtime? Now pain has become your guest: so entertain him well, So that the guest may return home thankful and relate your generosity in the presence of the King. So that the Bestower of favours may come to you. Continue, O chickpea, to boil in tribulation, that neither existence nor self may remain to thee. If you have laughed in the earthly garden, you are the rose of the garden of the spirit. If you have parted from the garden of earth and water, you have become food in the mouth and has entered into the living”. The chickpeas then gladly boil till they are soft and worthy of being eaten.
Our hearts are like the chickpeas, hard and in need of being cooked in the fire of Divine love. Sufis understand the trial and tribulations of life as the burning needed to purify the heart of spiritual maladies. Being cooked requires getting rid of one’s ego, which is a painful process. Most of us stay raw or half cooked. Only when we annihilate our ego and commit to the Divine, do we become soft and worthy of being inside the heart of another human being.
