M6:2273 — کی شود این چشمهٔ دریامدد / مکتنس زین مشت خاک نیک و بد

Translation: When will this spring, aided by the Sea, / Be veiled by this handful of good and bad dust? Meaning: This rhetorical question asserts that the spring of divine grace and truth, which draws its sustenance from the boundless Sea of Being, can never be obscured or blocked by the worldly dust of good and evil, regardless of human actions.

This couplet from Rumi is not a genuine question seeking an answer, but rather a powerful rhetorical affirmation of the impossibility of ever obscuring a spring that draws its sustenance from the boundless Sea of Being. Rumi speaks here of a daryā-madad (sea-aided) spring, meaning its life and effervescence do not come from rain or wells, but from the infinite ocean of divine truths and mercy. Such a spring is self-sufficient, spontaneous, and eternal, independent of any earthly or human intervention.

In contrast, he places the musht-i khāk-i nīk-o-bad (handful of good and bad dust). This dust is a metaphor for human aspirations, attachments, endeavors, and even the dualistic good and evil that, when compared to the grandeur and boundlessness of the Sea and the divine spring, are meager and insignificant. Humans, with their dust-laden hands, constantly strive to khushk-band (block dry) these springs, meaning they attempt to impede the flow of divine grace upon themselves and others through their worldly attachments and preoccupations. Rumi deems this effort futile. It is as if the sea-aided spring declares to this handful of dust: “I am closed off to you, but without you, I am eternally connected.” This signifies that even if humanity deprives itself, the spring will continue its eternal flow without them. Its existence and current are not dependent on human favor or rejection.

This is a crucial point, one I have emphasized repeatedly in my lectures: many humans, instead of turning their “face towards the treasure,” instead turn their “face towards suffering.” They spend their lives in fruitless, treasure-less suffering, imagining that by accumulating wealth and status, they increase their being. Yet, as Rumi says, “To seek aught but God from God / Is a seeming increase, but a total diminishment.” This handful of good and bad dust represents precisely this ‘other than God’ that appears as an increase but is, in essence, a decrease and erosion of the soul. People's temperaments have become ‘inverted’; they consume dust instead of drinking water, they make dragons their pillows, and flee from the prophets. But the spring of truth continues to flow; it is these people, with their inverted natures, who deprive themselves of it, mistakenly believing they have blocked the spring. This couplet is a clear expression of the absolute independence and self-sufficiency of divine grace.

Key takeaways

• The spring of divine grace flows continuously, independent of any human intervention.
• Human attempts to obstruct divine grace with worldly attachments (good and bad dust) are futile.
• The 'good and bad dust' symbolizes worldly clamor and distractions that blind humans to the true treasure.
• In seeking anything other than God, one diminishes their true being, even if they perceive it as an increase.
• The flow of divine grace is independent of human attention or inattention; 'without you, I am eternally connected'.