Here is my interpretation of Rumi’s poem ‘The Seed Market’
Can you find another market like this?
Where,
with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?
Where,
for one seed
you get a whole wilderness?
For one weak breath,
the divine wind?
In this poem Rumi compares human life to a seed. He says that it is a truly wonderful creation this world – where a tiny seed of rose can ultimately grow into a multiple rose gardens. Similarly, a whole forest must’ve once started from one small seed eons ago. Similarly, for a human being – a single weak breath of a human can be enough for the human to get awakened and enlightened. If the last breath is taken with an intention to achieving Moksha – even the weak one can be converted into divine.
You’ve been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.
Now your waterbed lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.
But humans in general are fearful of death, they are attached to existence. The thought of this body being taken away scares them. But in the end, once the body has stopped living – every part is going to disintegrate into elements and will go back to it’s source.
It no longer has the form it had,
but it’s still water.
The essence is the same.
The body disintegrates, it disappears but the soul and spirit lives on. It moves from this 3 dimensional reality into another dimension.
This giving up is not a repenting.
It’s a deep honoring of yourself.
When the ocean comes to you as a lover,
marry, at once, quickly,
for God’s sake?
Don’t postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.
Rumi says that live your life in such a way, that when death is upon you and comes to take you as a lover – go with it. Happily, non-attached to this existence. Marry death. This will set you free – since you have no attachments and hopefully you are free of karma by then. This is the best gift existence can give you – the gift of liberation, Moksha, Nirvana.
No amount of searching
will find this.
A perfect falcon, for no reason,
has landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.
You cannot really achieve this freedom. It is not a thing to be achieved – it can only be reached by letting go and then letting go some more. It is symbolically, like a Falcon which has chosen you to land on – the Falcon symbolizes the third-eye chakra. This falcon i.e., your third-eye chakra opening is simply God’s grace. Use it wisely to achieve the ultimate human goal of liberation.
Taken from The Essential Rumi
translated by Coleman Barks
Image credit : http://earthsky.org/science-wire/plants-do-math-to-get-through-the-night
