“The Diver’s Clothes Lying Empty
You’re sitting here with us, but you’re also out walking
in a field at dawn. You are yourself
the animal we hunt when you come with us on the hunt.
You’re in your body like a plant is solid in the ground,
yet you’re wind. You’re the diver’s clothes
lying empty on the beach. You’re the fish.
In the ocean are many bright strands
and many dark strands like veins that are seen
when a wing is lifted up.
Your hidden self is blood in those, those veins
that are lute strings that make ocean music,
not the sad edge of surf, but the sound of no shore.”
Rumi
“That has resulted in the inflated ego cascading down to mother Earth,
crumbling into the smallest speck of sand on the infinite beach of existence.
Trying to grasp the metaphysical, the metaphorical poem of Beloved Rumi
in a gasp of deep yearn soaked in feelings of surrender! Though the gist of the essence permeates my soul in slight,
Struggling to ascertain the meaning of every word with the tongue tied. To evince the depth of its meaning, would entail entering the apertures of Rumi’s heart
Without it, would make it dearly inconceivable to be his part;
Surely the words shall begin to inscribe upon my consciousness
As I commence to dive deep without the divers clothes
If the Lord permits shall share the pearls of the treasured wisdom and enjoin with the melody of the divine flute ( Murli) that resonates
in each one of us.” .
– Daduzen
If they understand the basic background which I have tried to explain the rest of it is simple English. He is in everything; He is everything; there is nothing else besides HIM. He is both immanent and transcendent. Can it be simpler than that? The human mind loves to make things complicated and looks for mind-numbing philosophy to satisfy the intellect. There is no need for “Zurfi Turfi”! The Truth is very simple. The only challenge is to realize it.
Kaushal Tikku
This is Rumi’s super human effort (effortless so far he is concerned)to verbalise the experience of “non-dual, ONE ALONE” experience which transcends “cause-effect” relationships. In Vedanta this state of consciousness is explained thru example of a river entering the ocean when effect merges in the cause and it rediscovers itself to be the ocean.
K.P.Daswani
Vedanta stipulates that Brahman (or God, Pure Consciousness, Sat+Chit+Ananda, Absolute Reality, or whatever label you wish to put on HIM ) is both Immanent (in Sanskrit, Sarvagata or Sarvavyapi) and Transcendent (Sarvatita). The former means that He is the invisible presence in everything in this world both sentient and insentient. The latter means that He is also BEYOND everything. In simple English, He is everything which is why our scriptures say that HE is ONE without a SECOND.
People like us will find it difficult to accept this because our consciousness is limited. Can a child understand Einstein’s Theory of Relativity? But this does not invalidate the Theory!
However, a long line of saints and sages in India from different traditions have testified to this on the basis of their own experience. If we are prepared to work at it we can also come to the same conclusion, although it may be a long and arduous journey.
The Sufi poem emphasizes the Immanence of God. Once you accept this basic principle it is easy to appreciate what the poet is saying.
Hari Om
“We are all destined to evolve beyond the nature of dualityduality which we understand in time and spaceThis Sufi is speaking of when leaving the physical body and on his journeyhome to the non physical plane of realityThis way he does not exist in dualismThe physical sense of being evaporates, left with no power in the realm beyond dualityonly perfection remains………The non physical level of reality is appropriate to one’s individual vibrational frequency once we leavethe physical earth plane”
Nari
I am that I am.
The strings of the flute, the veins in the wing, the front of the palm.
The sound of the ocean as right now – sit and watch the waves……
The ebb, the tide, the front of the ocean …
Is all ONE.
When I don the diver’s suit….
Ah! then alone I become thee diver…..
assuming an identity and a role.
Shariffa Keshavjee
SIKILADI’S VERSION OF THE POEM
This poem is nothing different from Shri Krishna itself.
Look within and there is nothing but the soul: The Ishwara element within…
The I is here and there and everywhere .. irrespective of the concept of time, space and matter
The I dwells in the five elements
It guides the five senses
It is the Chetna – the awareness that I AM!
In all substance, in all matter objects it is the divine I.
The I is with’in’ and with’out’ – being in each space, being in each existence.
The I is that which occupies space within an empty pot and it also occupies the water filled pot.
It is in being and without being ….. the vacuum and the object.
It is the sound, It is the music…
It is the Earth, It is the Sky, It is the In-between.
There is no conceivable, no imagination, no thought, no action devoid of the I = The Ishwara = The Atma
I is the Diver, I is the Suit, I is the music, I is the flute
I is the dark vein of distress, I is the blissful string of the lute.
I is the despair, I is the hope, I is the wing, I is the flying scope.
I is the disdain I is the entertain, I is the freedom, I is the tight rope.
I is the blood, I is the vein, I is the heart, I is the pain.
I is the The wave, I is the Ocean, I is the surf, I is the boat.
I is the bare, I is the garment, I is the body, I is the Coat,
I is the Fish, I is the whale, I is the net, I is the Fisherman.
All emerging from the ONE
All merging in the ONE
Sikiladi
Sikiladi 
Thank you Monica.
I am bewildered.
This instant I came from the ocean wide
On the beach the divers clothes I espied
They were there piled nowhere to hide
In trust of wind, sand, humans and tide
What pearls will he bring and so hide
Lest the pearls of wisdom on waves tide
Shared as Krishna, Rumi, Ishwar beside
Ishwar without, within and right inside
As I sit at 11 Pearl where do I reside ?
Monica you make me contemplate
For that I embrace your poetic template
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Shariffa’s poetic penchant
Words come out exuberant
She contemplates indeed
In Sikiladi she sows the seed
Of inspiration and Light
Transforming all poetry bright
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