Day 1: A Just-Finishing Candle
A candle is made to become entirely flame.
In that annihilating moment it has no shadow.
It is nothing but a tongue of light describing a refuge.
Look at this just finishing candle stub
as someone who is finally safe from virtue and vice,
the pride and the shame we claim from those.
What do I make of this?
The beauty of Rumi is that we, each, make something out of his verse depending upon where we are in terms of life's circumstance, life's experience and wisdom.
To me, the candle is I. I, not as in Parampal but as in the sense of self or ego - the sense of consciousness that separates me from others. I think that what Rumi is trying to say is that when the ego is annihilated or destroyed, what is left is pure brightness or a union of the individual with the universe. The 'refuge' that he talks about is the physical body that is illuminated by Universal Light when the ego is annihilated. And when does the ego cease to exist? When one accepts that one is charged with the energy of the larger Whole (...a candle is made to become entirely flame).
The 'just finishing' candle stub is the person who is maturing. As a person matures, he/she becomes wiser. Wisdom brings the ability to see things are they are without getting affected by them...deriving no pride nor feeling any shame from either virtue or vice.
What do you make of the poem? Let me know in the Comments section below! Always happy to learn from you.
To me, the candle is I. I, not as in Parampal but as in the sense of self or ego - the sense of consciousness that separates me from others. I think that what Rumi is trying to say is that when the ego is annihilated or destroyed, what is left is pure brightness or a union of the individual with the universe. The 'refuge' that he talks about is the physical body that is illuminated by Universal Light when the ego is annihilated. And when does the ego cease to exist? When one accepts that one is charged with the energy of the larger Whole (...a candle is made to become entirely flame).
The 'just finishing' candle stub is the person who is maturing. As a person matures, he/she becomes wiser. Wisdom brings the ability to see things are they are without getting affected by them...deriving no pride nor feeling any shame from either virtue or vice.
What do you make of the poem? Let me know in the Comments section below! Always happy to learn from you.
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ReplyDeleteJust to add to what you had already discovered, poem is about knowing the true self which is beyond the form that is represented here by candle. It is this form - the self-consciousness - the ego - the inner tendencies that binds us to all to the worldly pursuits and we mistakenly identify this ego as our true self. 'I' or the candle here, in that sense, is the falsehood that we live in. But as we start understanding the deepest conscious self (which is represented by a flame here) and cease to be self-conscious of the forms and the structures we believe in (from which arises a duality like pride or shame/ virtue or vice), we start moving towards liberation and then candle disappears. Now come to think of it... this is quite similar to Samkhya school of Indian philosophy.
ReplyDeleteI quite agree. Thanks for contributing!
DeleteI agree and can't it be about God? The annihilating moment is when the we realize God is not like the way we thought, not that shadow (it has no shadow). It's toung of light, its actually made to show us light and describing us refuge, not a place of judgement for hell and heaven, and once we explore God like this way, he is finally in a safe place! From virtue (confused about vice,maybe when he is not able to give us what we want,or when we question about the mistakes of rules and patterns and systems), the pride (glorifying) and the shame (disappointing) we claim for those.
ReplyDelete