M6:1857 — این نمکسار جسوم ظاهرست / خود نمکسار معانی دیگرست

Translation: This salt-marsh is for manifest bodies (josūm); But indeed, there is another salt-marsh for meanings (maʿānī). Meaning: This physical world, like a salt-marsh, homogenizes all manifest bodies into sameness. Yet, beyond this, there exists another, spiritual salt-marsh where even diverse meanings lose their distinctions and attain a profound unity.

My dear listener, this verse provides a crucial insight into Rumi’s meditations on unity and multiplicity, and it is undoubtedly one of those points where Mowlana reveals the profound depth of his vision. You know that, in Mowlana's view, colorlessness and formlessness are the very roots of all colors and forms; every multiplicity ultimately returns to a unity, and every outward appearance leads to an inner reality. To clarify this concept, Mowlana, in the first book, refers to a tale about Jesus, who as a child was said to be a dyer. He would pour various fabrics of different colors into a single vat, yet for each customer, he would retrieve the desired specific color. This 'vat of Christ's singleness' (خم یک‌رنگی عیسی) symbolizes the very unity from which all variegated colors emerge and to which they return.

Now, we come to the 'salt-marsh' (namaksār). Mowlana explores this concept on two levels. First, he states: This salt-marsh is for manifest bodies. Here, the salt-marsh serves as a metaphor for soil, or, more precisely, for the grave. You know that when any living creature falls into a salt-marsh, its body eventually decays, yet its form might sometimes remain, its essence transformed and salted. Mowlana also says in the second book: “If a dead donkey falls into the salt-marsh, it then sets aside both donkey-ness and deadness.” It is no longer a donkey, nor is it dead; it is salt—meaning it has become uniform. The soil performs the same function with our bodies. Diverse people (khalq-i rangārang), with all their outward differences—one white-skinned, another black-skinned; one weak, another strong; one beautiful, another unsightly—when they enter the grave, they all become alike. There, superiority and inferiority, or boasting, become meaningless; all lie dressed in a single shroud. This salt-marsh is for outward forms and bodies, effacing superficial distinctions.

But Mowlana does not stop there. He immediately moves to another level, declaring: But indeed, there is another salt-marsh for meanings. It is here that the deeper concept is unveiled. Beyond the salt-marsh of bodies, there is another salt-marsh for 'meanings' (maʿānī). It is in the realm of forms (ṣūrat) that many differences, antagonisms, and conflicts persist. However, there is a realm that also dissolves the differences of meanings, their variegated hues (talawwunhā), and their colorations (talvīnhā). This realm is the spiritual world where meanings too become uniform and attain unity.

Mowlana further elucidates a fundamental characteristic of this 'salt-marsh of meanings': That spiritual salt-marsh of meanings is / From eternity (azal) to eternity (abad) in newness (novī). This world of meaning is eternally new and never grows old. Oldness emanates from time; it is time that ages things and relegates them to the past. But that world transcends time; it exists on a supra-temporal plane that our philosophers called 'dahr'. In such a realm, oldness is meaningless, for time does not pass, and everything exists in an eternal state of unity and constancy. This perpetual newness is the essence of the world of meaning and the secret to liberation from 'ennui' (malāl).

Mowlana has a significant philosophy regarding ennui: “Every moment, a new form and a new beauty / So that from seeing the new, ennui might perish.” Ennui afflicts one who lives in oldness, sees no newness, and perceives the world as static and repetitive. Yet, the world is constantly renewing itself, and we are “unaware of renewal within permanence.” Mystics, because they are renewed every moment and perceive the world as new, do not harbor lasting ennui within them. This 'renewal' begins with the inner renovation of the self; it involves breaking habits, consciously employing 'free will' (ikhtiyār) for fresh choices, and discarding the rust and old superfluities. It is thus that the dust of ennui is cleansed from the human heart, and from the salt-marsh of meanings, newness and unity continually flow.

Key takeaways

• Unity and colorlessness are the ultimate source of all worldly multiplicity and colors.
• The earth functions as a 'salt-marsh for bodies,' effacing the superficial and physical distinctions among individuals.
• A higher realm exists as the 'salt-marsh of meanings,' where even spiritual differences and multiplicities converge into unity.
• This 'salt-marsh of meanings' is perpetually new and, being beyond time, never grows old or tiresome.
• To overcome life's ennui and weariness, one must grasp the constant 'renewal' of the world and the self, and break free from habitual patterns.