Rumi’s Love Poems

Question:

Hello, this question is regarding your book the love poems of Rumi. I cannot express how important this question is to me. The most important thing in the world to me is finding my twin flame....it is why I breathe, it is what I painfully long for. When I used to read Rumi's poetry, I would think this guy understands me. He knows what I am talking about. That he was talking about a lover instead of god. But I saw an interview of you on YouTube, and you seemed to express that his poetry is about the love for god. So I am asking is the love for the twin flame the same as loving God...or is that love just for God....and do you believe in twin flames....I hope your answer is what I want it to be.....

Answer:

Rumi is talking about the ecstatic love of the soul seeking union with the Divine. He is the preeminent Sufi poet in this long tradition of relating to God as the Beloved.

The spiritual path of love tries to describe the very abstract and ineffable experience of merging with the universal consciousness in ways that the human heart can relate to. This is done according to the strongest bonds of love that we know in society. So we have the traditions of seeing God as a child sees her Father, and Mother. We also have that relationship described as Lord and servant, as well as Brother and Friend. But the relationship that conveys the most poignant sense of longing and the ecstasy of Divine embrace is knowing God as the Beloved. Rumi is using the experience of our deepest emotions of lovers as a way to point toward that that spiritual union of the soul with God.

But it works the other way too. The power of love that we feel in our human relations reflects the intensity of our soul’s love for God as well. So if Rumi’s poetry is describing Divine love in human terms, he is also describing our human love in Divine terms as well.

Love,

Deepak