Rumi

Moving Water

Moving Water - meaning Summary

Action from the Soul

This poem urges action guided by the soul rather than by ego or external pressures. Rumi contrasts the vitality of inner-directed deeds, felt as a moving river, with the emptiness and harm of willfulness that traps and punishes. He warns against following blind or predatory guides and invites readers to "reach for the rope of God" by relinquishing self-will. Imagery of confinement (jail, tied wings, dark well) versus liberation (spring, open field, a floating palace of harmony) sketches a spiritual journey from bondage to expansive, contained unity.

Read Complete Analyses

When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. When actions come from another section, the feeling disappears. Don't let others lead you. They may be blind or, worse, vultures. Reach for the rope of God. And what is that? Putting aside self-will. Because of willfulness people sit in jail, the trapped bird's wings are tied, fish sizzle in the skillet. The anger of police is willfulness. You've seen a magistrate inflict visible punishment. Now see the invisible. If you could leave your selfishness, you would see how you've been torturing your soul. We are born and live inside black water in a well. How could we know what an open field of sunlight is? Don't insist on going where you think you want to go. Ask the way to the spring. Your living pieces will form a harmony. There is a moving palace that floats in the air with balconies and clear water flowing through, infinity everywhere, yet contained under a single tent.

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