We Are as the Flute
We Are as the Flute - meaning Summary
Self as Instrument of God
Rumi uses simple metaphors—flute and music, mountain and echo, chess pieces, and lions on a banner—to insist that human existence, action, and identity depend entirely on a divine source. The poem denies autonomous being, portraying people as moved by an unseen wind (God) whose qualities produce victory, sound, and life. It is a devotional claim about dependence, contingency, and the presence of the absolute behind apparent motion.
Read Complete AnalysesWe are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee; we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee. We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat: our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely! Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls, that we should remain in being beside thee? We and our existences are really non-existence; thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable. We all are lions, but lions on a banner: because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment. Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen: may that which is unseen not fail from us! Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift; our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.
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