M2:1932 — اژدهایی خرس را درمی‌کشید / شیرمردی رفت و فریادش رسید

This couplet opens a new scene in the story of the man who befriends a bear. Before their fateful friendship begins, the man first saves the bear's life. Rumi introduces the rescuer not as an ordinary man but as a shir-mard (lion-man), a term for a spiritual hero or saint, someone embodying divine courage and compassion.

The subsequent verses (M2:1933-1940) immediately generalize from this specific act of rescue to the universal nature of such saintly figures. They are described as the world's hidden pillars and physicians, who, like God's own mercy, rush to the aid of any suffering being without cause or condition. The lion-man's intervention is not a calculated act but a spontaneous expression of his essential nature, which is to seek out pain (dard) in order to be its remedy (davā).

This opening sets up the story's central tragic irony: the man who acts out of pure, selfless compassion will ultimately be killed by the foolish 'gratitude' of the very creature he saved.