Abstract:

Seeking meaning in life, the modus operandi of faith and religious dictum serve to provide a process, an algorithm whence the personal quest for the spiritual path receives guidance and direction. The practices, formulas, directives and approaches provided via the agency of sacred texts and enlightened sages are required to be comprehended and recognized by those aspiring the empyrean pathway—the celestial realm—the absolute transcendence as opposed to the mundane physicality of daily existence. The sage Nasir-i Khusraw (1004—1060) used poetry to project are analyzed for his ideas related to the pathway for transcendence. He viewed the word/s (Sukhn) as the construct of liminality, the threshold that kept the seeker at the edge, the boundary of the outside daily world and the inside celestial realm.

In my paper, 6 poems (from Diwan) which lead the seeker on the pathway of transcendence are analyzed. In the view of our sage, the supreme guidance of God via the Tanzil (revelation) of the words of the sacred Qur'an was bestowed to Prophet Muhammad via the angel Gabriel-- these works of God were then gifted to humanity. The words (Kalam) of God, both facile and complex-- requiring interpretation, elaboration, multiple explanations. The meanings and elucidation may be simple, referred to as Tafsir, or searching for deeper essence referred to as Tawil (going to the source) of the message. To understand the Tawil, virtue and goodness is required-- a clean existence, opens the mind to enlightenment and to the perspicacity and discernment of the soul.

Nasir is known for myriad genres in communication via words. Particular famous are his travelogue- the Safar-nama (Book of Travels), the philosophical-theological edification / didactic instruction doctrine - Gushayish wa Rahayish (Knowledge and Liberation), and collection of poetry -- the Diwan.

The Book of Travels contains information both alluring and informative, the text on Knowledge and Liberation is appropriate for the advanced scholar, the poems of the Diwan are geared to and offered to the general lay people.

In the Diwan, Nasir proclaims:

I am a shepherd for the Moses of our time, to a flock

which feeds on knowledge through the night of this world

No shepherd can go without crook or bowl;

my bowl is a book, my crook my tongue.

With colorful metaphors, steady discourse, lively composition -- Nasir's poems serve to enrich and enhance the neuroplastic transposition of the seeker on the path of virtue and transcendence.