Poetry Chaikhana
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"I" and "You" -- What is Shabistari talking about here? "I" and "You" is the normal perception of separation. Here "I" stand, and "You" are a separate entity over there. It is the perception of duality in which we see the entire universe as a fragmented existence of separated beings and objects. On the one hand, that perception allows one's self to feel supremely important in contrast to all else, but it also isolates us and imprisons us in a physicalized notion of reality. Even when we touch, we never quite make contact. The heart ever yearns for real unity.
To show us the way out of this perceptual trap, Shabistari has given us an image to contemplate: a lamp surrounded by latticework. The lamp shines with a single light, but the lattices divide up the radiance into several individual shafts of light. He tells us the world of separation between "I" and "You" is like that -- one light divided into many rays.
Think about this image a little more. So long as we look outward, we continue to only see separated beams of light reaching through the air patterning the wall. But the moment it occurs to us to instead follow the light, we turn around and discover the single light that is its source. Finally seeing that single light, we then know that there has only ever been that one light. Does the lattice somehow create many lights of the one light? No. It is still the one light, but expressing itself through the many beams. To prove this to ourselves, all we need do is remove the latticework ("lift this veil"), and then the light shines everywhere, undivided. And the whole time the light itself has never changed its action or nature.
Shabistari makes an interesting shift in the second verse. The separation of "I" and "You" is expanded to be understood in the realm of the world's religious divisions. And the metaphor of the lamp's lattice has become a veil (which, of course, covers the face of the Beloved). Even the many sects and religions are one -- when we finally look inward toward the light that shines at the heart of each tradition. To one who has lifted the veil and witnessed the underlying Beauty, the distinctions of each tradition and theology no longer separate them. Instead, we can say that the best of each religious tradition adorns the Face differently -- but it is the same Face.
Lift this veil...
...and separation is lost, the soul's isolation ends. And every place becomes a place of worship.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2011 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
![Mahmud Shabistari, Mahmud Shabistari poetry, Muslim / Sufi, Muslim / Sufi poetry, poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, poetry](images/Shabistar_sm.jpg)
