M6:571 — چون گریزم زانک بی تو زنده نیست / بی خداوندیت بود بنده نیست

Translation: How can I flee, for without You, there is no life; / Without Your Lordship, there is no servant (being). Meaning: Mowlana asks how he could possibly escape from the Beloved, asserting that his very existence and identity are entirely dependent on the Beloved's presence and sovereignty. His being is intrinsically tied to his servitude to God.

In this verse, Mowlana engages in an intimate dialogue of love with God; a conversation that, in my estimation, is utterly unreserved and devoid of any shame or shyness. Even his complaints here are those of a lover. He had previously lamented the ruin of his shop and home, and the vexation of his heart by divine grace, but immediately concludes that there is no escape. He asks: How can I flee, when a true and meaningful life is impossible without Your presence? My very being is not, in any way, tied to a life beyond You.

Mowlana then deepens this existential relationship: 'Without Your Lordship, there is no servant (being).' The word 'bandeh' here carries both the meaning of 'slave' or 'servant' and 'existence' or 'being.' He states that without Your Lordship and mastery, there is simply no 'servant' existing; meaning, my identity and existence are entirely and wholly dependent on Your Divinity. My being is servitude at Your threshold. This servitude is not a weakness, but the very essence of power and identity.

This expression by Mowlana points to the deeper concept of 'dying' in the path of love, which he had previously articulated: 'Die, O companion who sacrifices life!' In the station of a lover, the seeker empties themselves of their 'I' and their 'agency.' As I pointed out with the example of 'Zayd died' (māta Zayd), when 'Zayd died,' the agent has vanished, not that an agent performed an action. In divine love, too, the servant, through self-annihilation, reaches the truth of servitude and loses their independent identity before God. Thus, 'no servant exists' refers to that moment of the lover's self-effacement, where they claim no separate identity for themselves, because their identity has dissolved into the Beloved's. This letting go of oneself, and becoming weary of 'farzānegī' (wisdom) and 'farhang' (stratagem or cleverness), is the only path that leads one to God.

Key takeaways

• For Mowlana, servitude (bandagī) is not merely unavoidable but the sole path to his life and identity.
• The mystic's true life, without the Beloved's presence and Lordship (khodāvandī), is meaningless and devoid of truth.
• This verse is an acknowledgment of the seeker's ontological dependence on Absolute Being; an existence sustained by the Beloved.
• The phrase 'no servant exists' points to the effacement of the self in the Beloved's presence, where the lover's 'I' vanishes.
• The lover's intimate complaint to the Beloved in Masnavi signifies ultimate closeness and candor; even in the Beloved's destructive grace, escape is impossible.