M6:732 — گرز بر خود زن منی در هم شکن / زانک پنبهٔ گوش آمد چشم تن

This couplet is part of Rumi's commentary on the famous Sufi directive, "Die before you die." The 'death' he advocates is not physical but the annihilation of the ego (manī, or 'I-ness').

Rumi uses a startlingly violent image: one must take a mace (gorz) to one's own sense of self. This is not a gentle process of self-improvement but a radical shattering of the ego-construct. The reason for this violence is given in the second line with a powerful synesthetic metaphor: "the eye of the body has become cotton in the ear." This means that our reliance on external, sensory perception—what we see with our physical eyes—actively blocks our ability to hear inner, spiritual realities. The physical world, perceived through the senses, deafens the soul.

In the surrounding verses, Rumi clarifies that this 'I-ness' is an illusion, a mere reflection (ʿaks) of the self that we project onto the world and then fight against. To break the ego is to stop fighting shadows and to dissolve the primary veil separating the soul from divine reality. This 'death' is a transformation (tabdīlī) into a new state of being, one of spiritual wakefulness.