M6:3563 — مست و بی‌خود این چنین بر می‌شمرد / تا که مستی عقل و هوشش را ببرد

Translation: Drunk and beside himself, he recounted in this manner, Until intoxication carried away his reason and consciousness. Meaning: This verse describes a person so overwhelmed by a spiritual experience that while recounting it, he loses consciousness again due to intense ecstasy and self-forgetfulness.

This beyt vividly portrays the state of the pāymard (the intermediary or proxy) who has just awakened from a profound, revelatory dream. He is so utterly consumed by the intensity of this experience—the encounter with the deceased man, the unveiling of hidden secrets, and the palpable sense of deep connection to an unseen realm—that he begins to recount it in a state of sheer ecstasy and self-surrender. He is mast u bīkhud (drunk and beside himself), entirely detached from his ordinary rational faculties. This is not a mere recitation; it is an uninhibited, spontaneous outpouring from an overwhelming and boundless inner state.

Mowlana, with profound dramatic skill, depicts this pivotal moment. The pāymard speaks guft u guft (he spoke and spoke), utterly engrossed in the narration, until this very masti (intoxication or ecstasy) ʿaql u hūshash rā biburad (carries away his reason and consciousness), causing him to collapse in the middle of the house. This descent into unconsciousness is not presented as a flaw or a failure; rather, within Mowlana’s philosophical system, it is a moment of profound ascent and transcendence.

This immersion into unconsciousness is, in essence, an enactment of the principle of azdād (opposites or antinomies) that Mowlana so frequently emphasizes throughout the Masnavi. God, as the now-conscious man himself states, has nihāda hūshhā dar bīhūshī (placed consciousness within unconsciousness). This implies that within the heart of self-forgetfulness and the dissolution of conventional reason, a portal opens to a deeper form of awareness and understanding. As the ancient philosophers posited, lawlā al-taḍādd mā ṣaḥḥa dawām al-fayḍ ʿan al-mabdaʾ al-jawād (were it not for opposition, the continuous flow of divine grace from the generous Origin would not be sustained). This intoxication that seizes reason is not a weakness but a power, a vehicle for entering realms of unmediated knowledge. Self-forgetfulness itself becomes a stepping stone to union.

What we witness here is an apparent paradox and a profound inner harmony: a man awakened to articulate a truth, who, in the very act of voicing it, relapses into a state akin to sleep or unconsciousness. Yet, this unconsciousness is no longer born of heedlessness; it emanates from a state of wiṣāl (union) and nazdīkī (closeness). It is as if his soul is so utterly saturated with the burden of these truths and divine manifestations that the vessel of ordinary reason cannot contain it and shatters. This is precisely the state in which truth manifests so powerfully that verbal and rational forms are inadequate to encompass it, and only through the absence of reason can its complete presence be perceived.

Key takeaways

• Ecstasy-induced unconsciousness is a pathway to deeper awareness, not a deficit.
• Mowlana uses dramatization to convey profound inner spiritual states.
• The loss of conventional reason (ʿaql-i juzwī) can lead to the embrace of universal wisdom (ʿaql-i kullī).
• The cosmic order is built upon azdād (opposites), encompassing 'consciousness within unconsciousness'.
• This verse illustrates how overwhelming spiritual experience can shatter the capacity of the ordinary mind.