M6:1456 — پس بگو کو جنبش و جولانتان / بحر افکندست در بحرانتان

Translation: So tell, where is your movement and your bustling? The sea has cast you into your crisis. Meaning: Rumi, speaking through the voice of death, confronts those who were engrossed in worldly activities, asking about their former zeal. He answers that the sea of ultimate reality has now plunged them into a profound, undefended crisis.

In this powerful verse from the Sixth Book of the Mathnawi, Rumi poses a poignant, rhetorical question from the perspective of death itself; from that ultimate Reality which casts aside all forms and appearances. This utterance follows his profound meditation on the Prophetic tradition, 'The departed do not regret death, but the missing of opportunities.' Here, Rumi addresses the bodies now laid in graveyards, which he metaphorically calls mere 'foams' on the shore of truth, and says:

Before, you were immersed in the 'movement and bustling' of this world, in that ceaseless 'zeal' and 'rushing around' for inheritance, wealth, and status. But now that the 'Sea' of existence has detached you from the superficial shore of this world and thrown you into its depths, where has all that clamor gone? That incessant activity to which you dedicated your entire life?

The 'Sea' (bahr) here denotes not only death but also absolute Truth itself; that same Sea that Rumi calls the 'Sea of Gnosis' (bahr-e maʿārif). Those who spent their lives on the 'foam' (kaf) of the sea, meaning the forms and outward appearances of this world, and did not pursue the 'water' and 'meaning' beneath it, have now fallen into 'crisis' (bohrān). Crisis, according to Rumi, is that severe and critical state one feels at the peak of illness, on the verge of destruction. This Sea, this immense Truth, has now mercilessly cast you into this abyss of helplessness, without your ever having learned to swim in it.

I have often stated that the mystics of the world, including Rumi, invite us to swim in the Sea of Meaning. The one who spent a life in heedlessness, clinging only to 'forms' (naqsh-hā) and 'outward appearances' (ṣūrat-hā), will find himself on the brink of perdition when confronting the 'Sea' of Truth. He is neither a skilled swimmer nor has he a path to return, and it is here that the regret for 'lost opportunities' consumes him more than the fire of hell; a regret in which there is no hope for rectification, making this truth all the more merciless.

As Rumi states in the following verse, they respond to us not with lips but through their very state: 'Ask this question not of us, but of the Sea!' For they consider themselves as foams that arose from the Sea and ultimately returned to it. Rumi's message is clear: do not stop at the external appearance of the world; look into its depth and meaning. As I have said, 'We are all eyes; the rest is but skin.' It is this penetrating 'gaze' (naẓar) that saves one from the crisis after death and renders him worthy of 'swimming in the world of meaning'.

Key takeaways

• Worldly attachments are transient foams on the Sea of Truth; ignoring this reality leads to eternal crisis.
• All worldly 'movement and bustling' becomes meaningless and futile when confronted with death and ultimate Reality.
• The 'regret of lost opportunities' (ḥasrat-e fowt) is one of the severest torments, as no chance for rectification remains.
• Rumi invites us to 'swim in the world of meaning'; only this readiness saves one from the post-mortem crisis.
• The importance of 'gaze' (naẓar) and seeing the inner dimension of things is the key to transcending appearances and reaching profound existential truths.