Discourses of Rumi

278 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIYou say this because you want the ecstasy tocontinue. When someone induces ecstasy, youlook after them to continue your experience. Thisis like shouting to a sleeper, “Arise! It is day. Thecaravan is off.” Others say, “Don’t shout. She isin ecstasy. You will drive her ecstasy away.” Youanswer, “That ecstasy of sleep is destruction, thisecstasy of wakefulness is birth and growth.” Theysay, “Don’t make a confusion, for this shouting isdisturbing.” You answer, “This shouting willmake the sleeper think. How can she think whilesleeping?”So shouting is of two kinds. If the shouters aregreater in knowledge, their shouting will cause anincrease in thought. Since they are people ofknowledge and of wakefulness, when they awakenothers out of their slumber they show thesleepers their own world and draw them higher.However, when the awakener is lower in awarenessand awakens others, the gaze of those sleepingis pulled down. Since the shouter’s knowledgeis lower down, inevitably the gaze of those shoutedat drops downward to the lower world.