To Him we shall return

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as an animal, and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar with angels blest; but even from angelhood, I must pass on. All except God, death perish. When I shall have sacrificed my angel-soul, I shall become what no mind has ever conceived. Oh, let me not exist! For non-existence proclaims in organ tones, ‘To Him we shall return’

~ Rumi

Questioner: Acharya Ji, can you please help me understand more deeply what Rumi is saying in this beautiful poem? What does it mean when Rumi says, “When I have sacrificed my angel-soul”?

Acharya Prashant (AP): It is the journey of consciousness that Rumi is talking of. There is the mineral, the soil with no consciousness of its own, at least no consciousness as the soil appears in our consciousness. The soil that we are talking of as per our consciousness…