(Wine and love as Sufi metaphors for divine intoxication)
Ever since, I have admired the beauty of the previously invisible castle of inner wisdom in the Rubaiyat. I have felt that this dream-castle of truth, which can be seen by any penetrating eye, would be a haven for many shelter-seeking souls invaded by enemy armies of ignorance.
“What then becomes of all his passionate praise of wine and love? These are merely the thoroughly established metaphors of Sufism; the wine is the joy of the spirit, and the love is the rapturous devotion to God….
To the man who habitually drinks wine to temporarily forget the sorrows and unbearable trials of his life, Omar offers a more delightful nectar of enlightenment and divine ecstasy which has the power, when used by man, to obliterate his woes for all time.
Omar distinctly states that wine symbolizes the intoxication of divine love and joy.
This Divine Love is what Omar advises as a panacea for all human woes and questionings.
Fourth: The Sufis who seek the knowledge of God not merely by contemplation and meditation [on the scriptures], but by purification of the heart and cleansing the faculty of perception from its natural impurities and engrossment with the body. When the human soul is thus purified it becomes capable of reflecting the Divine Image. And there is no doubt that this path is the best, because we know that the Lord does not withhold any perfection from [the] human soul. It is the darkness and impurity which is the main obstacle — if there be any. When this veil disappears and the obstructions are removed, the real facts will be evident as they are. And our Prophet (may peace be on him) has hinted to the same effect.
(Purification of the heart as the path to reflecting the divine)
So it is unwise to slumber in the dark doorways of evil habits, which invite the danger of possible death to wisdom and true happiness.
The wise man gives up false pride in self-perfection, the thought that “I am all right as I am.” Using the net of introspection, he catches delusion and destroys it.
To be drunk with the daily round of haunting useless habits, to be negatively the same every day for years, is a wasted experience. Destroy false pride. Awaken the soul and remain ever wakeful, striving each day to be different and better in all ways. Your soul was not meant to be a prisoner of passion, sleeping behind bars of ignorance. Jerk yourself from the stupor of sloth; race forward with progressive activities, and catch success in the net of soul creativity.
Everyone should make the best of his present life, for it comes but once to each soul. Even if you have to reincarnate, you will not be allowed to come a second time as the same individual.
Earthly blossoms brighten man’s mind for a while, but the petals of soul pleasures inspire eternally. All the pomp and power of man’s kingdom of life may fade away, and all receptacles and instruments of kingly pleasures may be taken from him; yet he can always find happiness when he roams by the healing waters of wisdom and understanding in the garden of soul-bliss.
(Joy, simplicity, and the limits of earthly fulfillment)
But by wisdom and discrimination man can learn that happiness is not dependent on external circumstances; rather, it is to be found in the simpler joys of life, and most of all in the ever-new bliss of deep meditation.
Happy are those who are wise enough to seek contentment by cultivating true joy and peace in a simple environment — a place that is neither a dreary waste nor a cultivated center of restless, driving, artificial living. Those who keep their life uncomplicated, and do not depend on material conditions for their happiness, possess more than the rich and powerful, who want for happiness amid material plenty and are friendless among self-seeking friends; who are lonely even in a crowd, and joyless amid false pleasures.
Neither human love nor the temporary oblivion of intoxication by wine can permanently erase sorrow and yield lasting happiness. The attainment of unending unalloyed joy is possible only by communing in deepest meditation with the Supreme Beloved of the Universe, as described in the spiritual interpretation of this quatrain.
Happiness cannot be found in a disorganized life that does not balance material pursuits with spiritual necessities. He whose concentration is scattered in moneymaking ambitions only, continues to feel restless unfulfillment in his soul, his true self. Octopus habits of peace-destroying worry accompany avid desire for wealth.
Only the ignorant man expects perfection and lasting fulfillment from this earth; and brokenhearted he enters the portals of the grave. The enlightened man, knowing the delusive nature of the world, does not build his hopes here. Remaining unmoved by earthly desires, the wise seek the lasting Reality; they enter the vastness of Eternal Fulfillment.