M6:4074 — یا مظفر یا مظفرجوی باش / یا نظرور یا نظرورجوی باش

Translation: Either be victorious, or a seeker of the victorious; Either be a master of insight, or a seeker of insight. Meaning:* This verse underscores the necessity of a guide and master, particularly in spiritual journeying, asserting that one must either attain the status of a master and visionary or diligently seek such a one.

Mowlana, the great mystic and anthropologist, presents in this couplet a fundamental and pivotal teaching that is applicable both to our spiritual journey and our worldly life. This verse follows the famous couplet, “A blind person with a guide is better than lonely certainty / For the latter is a shame, and the former a hundred shames,” and effectively serves as its interpretation. I contend that Mowlana here offers a way out of wanderings and illusory certainties.

The verse proclaims: “Either be victorious, or a seeker of the victorious; Either be a master of insight, or a seeker of insight.” This means that in any domain—be it achieving victory or gaining insight and perspective—one has two paths: either one must oneself attain the station of the triumphant and insightful, meaning to be a master of success and vision; or, if one has not reached this station, one must inevitably seek it, meaning to find someone who possesses these qualities. This proposition is an existential and epistemological necessity that Mowlana repeatedly alludes to throughout the Masnavi.

You cannot be self-sufficient in every aspect of your daily life. When you fall ill and are not a physician yourself, you immediately seek one. Even if you are a physician, you consult your colleagues in specific cases. In surgery, you surrender yourself unreservedly to the surgeon, trusting completely. Mowlana extends this pattern to the realm of spiritual discipline. He states that the same rule applies to “spiritual medicine”; one must find the surgeons of the soul, and then a form of devotion and surrender is paramount. This does not mean abandoning reason or forsaking consultation, but a point is reached where one must submit to someone whose mastery and expertise are acknowledged.

I have said this repeatedly: relying on individual and delusory certainties is a hundredfold more shameful than entrusting yourself to a guide. Mowlana employs potent metaphors in this regard: “You flee from a gnat into a scorpion / You flee from a drop into an ocean.” This means that by escaping minor and limited discomforts, we cast ourselves into greater calamities. Or we flee from the harshness of a father and become entangled among ruffians. He even cites the story of Joseph, who, though cast into a well, was rescued by divine grace and paternal wisdom; but you, who are not guaranteed such fortune and grace, how do you cast yourself into peril without a guide?

Mowlana distinguishes between a “Pīr-e Gardūn” (a sage of the spheres, or merely old in years) and a “Pīr-e Rashād” (a guide of spiritual growth). A Pīr-e Gardūn is someone whose beard has merely turned white due to the passage of years and who has accumulated worldly experience; but a Pīr-e Rashād is someone who has matured and trodden the path of growth and guidance, reaching the destination. It is this ripeness and attainment that makes him worthy of leadership, not merely his age. Mowlana’s statement here is exquisitely subtle and profound: “Let there be no master or commander save a Pīr / Not a sage of the spheres, but a Pīr of guidance.”

Ultimately, Mowlana believes that if someone has not achieved progress on their path, has not experienced spiritual flight, feels no joy or vitality, and has not had their bonds unbound, they must change their course. They must “purchase a Pīr,” meaning to find a master in whom their liberation lies. This master need not necessarily be a contemporary or living individual. It can be Mowlana’s own Masnavi, which “has bequeathed its wisdom to us” and, in moments where our intellect falls short, bestows insight and steadfastness upon us. This guide delivers us from “conforming to the crowd” and the deception of fashionable words and antiquated notions, leading us to intellectual independence and deeper insight.

Key takeaways

• In any domain of life, one must either achieve mastery and insight or diligently seek such a guide.
• Relying on 'individual and delusory certainties' without credible guidance is far more perilous than accepting the leadership of a master.
• A true master is a 'Pīr-e Rashād' (a guide of spiritual growth), not merely a 'Pīr-e Gardūn' (one who has simply aged in years).
• Mowlana uses the analogy of consulting a physician or surgeon to illustrate the necessity of following 'surgeons of the soul' in spiritual matters.
• Freedom from confusion and conformity to contemporary 'fads and fashions' necessitates reliance on a steadfast anchor or pillar in thought and action, which a true master provides.
• Mowlana's Masnavi itself can serve as a 'Pīr-e Rashād' in the absence of a living master, acting as an anchor for the ship of our lives.