Khawaja and the Hindi Parrot
Men in power beseech compliance and hail flattery in love of authority. Men of honor but prefer humility. Whoever is the head of state, his head is at stake. Any moment, it may be beheaded both of life and respect, and just a sling of rope is left hanging in the air, waving like a pendulum to remind people of the destruction it may cause over time.
The body is like a cage, a thorn in soul (1)
Bearing alone cunningness of people
To one, he says, I’m close to your heart
To others assure, we’ll never fall apart
To one, he says, there is none like you
In brilliance, generosity, or in virtue
To Him, he says, you’re the king of worlds
Indebted to you for life, our body bears
To one, he says, rejoice and celebrate
To others, it is time to drink and felicitate
The king, seeing servants so devoted
Walks in pride, all resilience aborted
Hundreds like him do not understand
Thrown to water on Satan’s command.
Worldly favors beguile are but tasty meal (2)
Taste it not! Fire it is full of does not reveal
The fire is hidden, and the taste is inviting
The smoke it lets out in the end is prowling
Don’t ever say that I do not favor flattery
I deem people, in due self-interest, praise me
Who now praises when cursing you openly?
Thy heart shall grieve of insults certainly.
You know, deprived he says such things
The lust, the greed, the curse may bring
The effect carries with you for long
The state typical in praise do throng
Similarly, the impact on thee does sustain
Pride for the soul’s deception brings disdain (3).
Praise is sweet, thus palpable to the heart
Criticism is bitter, so one throws apart
It is but a laxative; must you take a bitter pill
Displeasing and upsetting you not to chill
The taste of sweets does not for long endure
Eulogy soon vaporizes, bringing no cure
Sweetness hidden in taste does not reveal
Reckon the difference between the opposites
Sweetness churns effect in a silent factory (4)
After a while, unleash cancers too deadly
O sweet soul, the laxative and pill you take
Surely cleans up your interior of all waste (5)
Egotism has extolled, Pharaoh, you become
Be modest and humble, seek not throne
Be a servant and not just the king
Be a bearing ball, not bat-hitting
When you’ll no longer be obliging or giving
Your friends will get sick, soon leaving
The people, all life, kept you in deception
Shall declare you a phantom on perception
Knock at their door, perplexed they shall be
Knowing the morgue is out of the grave; see. (6)
Men idolize young lads, like gods devoted
Ensnare them in the wickedness they’ve hosted
When evil hath caught him in the beard
Satan itself ashamed, may he care (7)
Satan approaches men, task to spread evil
It targets no one worse than the devil
Till you were human, Satan was endearing
Serving wine to one intoxicated bearing (8)
Alas! When thou hath reached mastery
Satan has quit, but thy abject slavery
Who has been locked in your embrace tight?
From you have fallen apart with all its might (9)
A window to Mathnavi Maulvi Ma’nvi
Translation and Commentary Seema Arif
Further Links for Rumi
- The body and material world and its luxuries are dear to one as a soul-mate, and they invoke friendship as they are forever partners. The person indulged in the gratification of bodily needs or serving exoteric religion neglects the craving of heart, which is one’s real friend and company forever.
- Whether uttered in praise or a curse, the effect of words said is always enduring.
- Denial of truth. One is hardly prepared to accept reality as it is and goes to either extreme to torment or exalt oneself.
- Diabetes mellitus, which is the mother of all ailments, acts silently. When it thrives fully, it may produce sores in the body, which are incurable, and surgical amputation is the only resolve.
- A large intake of heavy food and refined sweets is never well digested, and lots of waste is accumulated in the body. If they are not excreted with the help of laxatives, the body may get sick and suffer. The pill is the master’s admonition, which guides the path. Laxative is the master’s support, which helps solve complex problems and issues. Devouring knowledge and just reading masters without any guidance shall not make any man wise. Knowledge has to be carefully taken and absorbed in mind. One must inhale bitterness and exhale eulogy. Truth is bitter to heart, but it saves one from serving prison to logic and reason. The truth is established in one’s heart when one learns to distinguish things by countering the facts or recognizing their opposites.
- The love and respect you had enjoyed were due to the obliging position you had to benefit your friends and thus the authority to govern their hearts. You are dead to them as you lose the capacity to serve their guile needs. They have sucked you up to the last breath. Living avoid the dead, as they might take them to the land of the dead.
- When young lads have begotten the evil of homosexuality, and it begins to reflect in their appearance and manners, their molesters bereave them. Satan itself does not own evil; it likes to keep reflecting it in human beings, as it belongs to human nature. Once a person is drenched with evil, Satan withdraws himself because man now is more evil than him. First, he was the target; now, he is the cause.
- Your self corrupted with egotism is charged with feelings of self-importance and self-worth.
- The bee buzzes around the fresh flower, and the moth hovers around a young flame. No one dares near the flowers when their freshness and beauty are bygone.
The darkness is always ready to consume light, the evil the good, the ignoble the noble, and the astray the righteous, the wicked the innocent. It is the opposites that attract each other and destroy each other. The separate question is who loses, who is the dacoit, who is the target, and who benefits; the problem is that society faces the ugly consequences, and humanity suffers from destruction.
Taking too much sweet makes your body lazy and your spirit lofty. The result in this world is dysfunction and disorder of the human body resulting in Diabetes mellitus, and the requital for life hereafter is the fire of Hell.
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