DYINg In Ecstasy

 

One day they told the Exalted Mevlana that so-and-so ney player died while in the state of ecstasy. Mevlana responded thus:

“Give thanks that he didn’t stay here, and he died in ecstasy. Because if he had stayed and come to his senses it wouldn’t have been good. Even as in the rose season if a nightingale warbles with such a cry and wail in front of the rose that it looses its senses, and if a cat takes advantage of the bird’s state and eats it, that nightingale will be in ecstasy for all eternity, and will face the Last Judgment like that. Even as they say you will die as you live, you will face the Last Judgment as you die.”

Poem:

I have said this much; think about what follows.

If your thought is lifeless go and litanize God.

Litanizing brings thoughts to life.

Make your litany a sun to this frozen thought. 

Ahmet EFLAKI – Legent of The Saints (Volume I, Chapter 3, Section 146)

Translated bu Carole J. DOUGLAS OKTEN