My father who was also my master once told me that it is better to be devoted to a cat than to nothing at all. Actually, the Persian word he used was eradat, which is somewhat different in meaning from the word "devotion." Devotion has a much broader application than eradat as it can be used to mean profound dedication to people, ideas, jobs, goals and even to one's garden. Eradat, however, is reserved only for devotion to a living being, mostly another human being where the object of one's eradat interacts with one in a profound way.
Broadly speaking eradat is the state whereby, through the power of love and sincerity, one gives precedence to another person's wishes and desires over one's own. This definition, however, does not completely capture the meaning of eradat. For example, we do sometimes put our children's wishes above our own because of the love we feel for them, but one does not say in Persian that parents have eradat for their children. Rather eradat conveys a spiritual significance, and is commonly used to describe a quality one must bring to a relationship with a spiritual guide to whom the devotee intuitively surrenders his or her own egotistical inclinations. It is based on the principle that to reach the Truth one has to act against one's ego by following someone who manifests Truth.
Eradat is also much more profound than trust. You can have trust for someone without loving them, but eradat is unwavering and unconditional trust intertwined with love. However, eradat, like trust, is a reciprocal relationship. The person who is the object of one's eradat must not act out of self-interest. The recipient of eradat must be able to redirect towards God the eradat he or she receives from the seeker and thus avoid becoming a hindrance between the person showing eradat and the Truth. Put another way, the recipient of eradat must not create a cult of individual worship around himself or herself.
Rumi in his Mathnawi explores the concept of eradat through the story of the King Mahmud and his servant Ayaz, which is summarized below:
One day the king took out a precious jewel from his pocket and gave it to his vizier and asked him how much it was worth. The vizier replied that it was worth more than 100 tons of gold. Then the king asked the vizier to break the jewel in pieces. The vizier declined to obey the king's order, saying "I am the treasurer of your kingdom and trustee of all your wealth. How could I break such a jewel? I am here to protect your treasures."
Then the king took the jewel from his vizier and gave it to his trusted advisor and asked him the same question. The advisor replied that the jewel was worth half of the king's kingdom. The king then ordered his advisor to break it into pieces. The advisor refused, saying that if he were to break such a precious jewel he would be the king's enemy, not his friend.
Then the king gave the jewel to all his generals and ministers one by one. One after another they all excused themselves from the task, giving the king similar excuses.
At last the king gave the jewel to his servant Ayaz and asked him how much it was worth. Ayaz replied that it was worth more than anything he could imagine. The king then ordered Ayaz to break it apart. At once, Ayaz took out a big stone from his pocket and smashed the jewel into pieces. All those present at the king's court cried out in protest whereupon Ayaz turned to them and said, "Which is more worthwhile, the king's order or the jewel? You are mesmerised by the jewel and not by the king. I do not worship a stone. I am the follower of the king." Upon hearing these words, all the king's companions lowered their heads in shame.
The king then tells all the courtiers that they have all disobeyed his command for a piece of stone. He declares that they are not worthy to be his companions and expels them from his presence. Ayaz then further humbles himself before the king and asks the king to forgive the courtiers.
Here it is important to stress that Ayaz was not duped or brainwashed into acting the way he did. Ayaz fully understood the value of the precious stone before he smashed it. He also knew who the king truly was which, it seems, was hidden from the others. After the king dismisses the courtiers Ayaz begs the king to forgive them, pleading that the courtiers are ignorant as they do not know who the king is and the ignorant should be excused. Ayaz's eradat enables him to see the sovereignty of the king and to value the king's judgment over his own intellect.
This story can be read on many different levels. Though Rumi sometimes gives a symbolic interpretation of his stories, he does not offer one here. Perhaps he thought the message of the story is clear enough. My own interpretation is that the king represents the spiritual guide; Ayaz represents the spiritual seeker; the courtiers represent the intellect and the jewel represents the ego. The relationship between Ayaz and the king represents the seeker's eradat towards a spiritual guide. Thus the dominance of the seeker's ego can only be eliminated through complete eradat to a spiritual guide.
It may be difficult for most people to identify with this story. As inhabitants of Earth in the 21st century we are asked to think for ourselves and value our individualism. To our modern minds, the relationship between the king and Ayaz smacks of tyranny and dependency of thought and behavior. We may even see in it the basis for religious fanaticism and all the evils that are associated with that. Most of us would not act like the courtiers if presented with a similar situation. We use our minds to reason and we rarely go against our intellect or truly consider something that seems to us to be blatantly false.
It is important to recognize that the application of the act of eradat is only relevant in the spiritual realm and within spiritual discourse. If one is in pursuit of understanding any of the human disciplines, one must take a critical stance towards the subject and question one's teachers and mentors. To truly understand physics, for example, one needs to question all the theories and explanations given by one's predecessors including one's teacher. Having eradat towards your physics professor is not going to help you understand relativity.
The notion of eradat relates to the mystical-ethical realm. Eradat guides us to live in accordance with moral principles that are higher than the narrower goals of dogmas or the intellect. "How should I live?" is a fundamental question that most people come to ask at some point in their lives. Some people rely on sacred texts or traditional dogmas for answer. Others who are not satisfied with dogmas seek answers by relying on their own intellect but neither of these provides a satisfactory answer to this question. Religious dogmas do not, by and large, satisfy our intellectual curiosity and the applications to our everyday lives may not be emotionally fulfilling. The intellect too does not provide an answer to this question because in our interactions with others our mental faculties and rational thinking are not designed to help us to make the right choices.
Our minds and powers of reasoning are primarily designed to preserve our own self-interest. In any given situation, we think of the consequences of our actions in relation to ourselves first before considering others. "How is my course of action going to affect me?" is the first question we usually ask—perhaps subconsciously—before deciding to do something. But we know in our hearts that actions based on our own self-interest are not usually the right choices. One look at the state of the world at the present time reveals that the choices taken after hours of deliberations by the best minds in a number of different governments have turned out to be ill-conceived.
Ayaz understood that his intellect alone could not lead him to make the right choice because it is intrinsically biased. As he had complete eradat in his king, he fulfills the king's request unquestioningly. He knows that the king's suggested course of action is far better than his own because it is not solely based on the power of reasoning. The king possesses compassion, fairness and mercy in dealing with others, and his judgments are not clouded by self-interest.
In valuing his beloved's command over his own intellect, Ayaz opens his own heart to compassion. He understands why the courtiers had taken the wrong course of action and he sympathises with them. Instead of dismissing them as enemies of the king, he pleads with the king to forgive them. Through eradat to another human being we can grow spiritually and develop compassion and love for others.
My father's remark that it is better to be devoted to a cat than to nothing at all was made in the context of advising me not to insist on my opinion and my preferred course of action. That was his way of letting me know that I could not know or choose what was right unless I completely devoted myself to him. It is through eradat to another human being that we let our hearts open to compassion, mercy, self-effacement, fairness and, most of all love and sincerity. We need all these qualities to be good human beings and to make the right choices in life.
My father who was also my master once told me that it is better to be devoted to a cat than to nothing at all. Actually, the Persian word he used was eradat, which is somewhat different in meaning from the word "devotion." Devotion has a much broader application than eradat as it can be used to mean profound dedication to people, ideas, jobs, goals and even to one's garden. Eradat, however, is reserved only for devotion to a living being, mostly another human being where the object of one's eradat interacts with one in a profound way.
Broadly speaking eradat is the state whereby, through the power of love and sincerity, one gives precedence to another person's wishes and desires over one's own. This definition, however, does not completely capture the meaning of eradat. For example, we do sometimes put our children's wishes above our own because of the love we feel for them, but one does not say in Persian that parents have eradat for their children. Rather eradat conveys a spiritual significance, and is commonly used to describe a quality one must bring to a relationship with a spiritual guide to whom the devotee intuitively surrenders his or her own egotistical inclinations. It is based on the principle that to reach the Truth one has to act against one's ego by following someone who manifests Truth.
Eradat is also much more profound than trust. You can have trust for someone without loving them, but eradat is unwavering and unconditional trust intertwined with love. However, eradat, like trust, is a reciprocal relationship. The person who is the object of one's eradat must not act out of self-interest. The recipient of eradat must be able to redirect towards God the eradat he or she receives from the seeker and thus avoid becoming a hindrance between the person showing eradat and the Truth. Put another way, the recipient of eradat must not create a cult of individual worship around himself or herself.
Rumi in his Mathnawi explores the concept of eradat through the story of the King Mahmud and his servant Ayaz, which is summarized below:
One day the king took out a precious jewel from his pocket and gave it to his vizier and asked him how much it was worth. The vizier replied that it was worth more than 100 tons of gold. Then the king asked the vizier to break the jewel in pieces. The vizier declined to obey the king's order, saying "I am the treasurer of your kingdom and trustee of all your wealth. How could I break such a jewel? I am here to protect your treasures."
Then the king took the jewel from his vizier and gave it to his trusted advisor and asked him the same question. The advisor replied that the jewel was worth half of the king's kingdom. The king then ordered his advisor to break it into pieces. The advisor refused, saying that if he were to break such a precious jewel he would be the king's enemy, not his friend.
Then the king gave the jewel to all his generals and ministers one by one. One after another they all excused themselves from the task, giving the king similar excuses.
At last the king gave the jewel to his servant Ayaz and asked him how much it was worth. Ayaz replied that it was worth more than anything he could imagine. The king then ordered Ayaz to break it apart. At once, Ayaz took out a big stone from his pocket and smashed the jewel into pieces. All those present at the king's court cried out in protest whereupon Ayaz turned to them and said, "Which is more worthwhile, the king's order or the jewel? You are mesmerised by the jewel and not by the king. I do not worship a stone. I am the follower of the king." Upon hearing these words, all the king's companions lowered their heads in shame.
The king then tells all the courtiers that they have all disobeyed his command for a piece of stone. He declares that they are not worthy to be his companions and expels them from his presence. Ayaz then further humbles himself before the king and asks the king to forgive the courtiers.
Here it is important to stress that Ayaz was not duped or brainwashed into acting the way he did. Ayaz fully understood the value of the precious stone before he smashed it. He also knew who the king truly was which, it seems, was hidden from the others. After the king dismisses the courtiers Ayaz begs the king to forgive them, pleading that the courtiers are ignorant as they do not know who the king is and the ignorant should be excused. Ayaz's eradat enables him to see the sovereignty of the king and to value the king's judgment over his own intellect.
This story can be read on many different levels. Though Rumi sometimes gives a symbolic interpretation of his stories, he does not offer one here. Perhaps he thought the message of the story is clear enough. My own interpretation is that the king represents the spiritual guide; Ayaz represents the spiritual seeker; the courtiers represent the intellect and the jewel represents the ego. The relationship between Ayaz and the king represents the seeker's eradat towards a spiritual guide. Thus the dominance of the seeker's ego can only be eliminated through complete eradat to a spiritual guide.
It may be difficult for most people to identify with this story. As inhabitants of Earth in the 21st century we are asked to think for ourselves and value our individualism. To our modern minds, the relationship between the king and Ayaz smacks of tyranny and dependency of thought and behavior. We may even see in it the basis for religious fanaticism and all the evils that are associated with that. Most of us would not act like the courtiers if presented with a similar situation. We use our minds to reason and we rarely go against our intellect or truly consider something that seems to us to be blatantly false.
It is important to recognize that the application of the act of eradat is only relevant in the spiritual realm and within spiritual discourse. If one is in pursuit of understanding any of the human disciplines, one must take a critical stance towards the subject and question one's teachers and mentors. To truly understand physics, for example, one needs to question all the theories and explanations given by one's predecessors including one's teacher. Having eradat towards your physics professor is not going to help you understand relativity.
The notion of eradat relates to the mystical-ethical realm. Eradat guides us to live in accordance with moral principles that are higher than the narrower goals of dogmas or the intellect. "How should I live?" is a fundamental question that most people come to ask at some point in their lives. Some people rely on sacred texts or traditional dogmas for answer. Others who are not satisfied with dogmas seek answers by relying on their own intellect but neither of these provides a satisfactory answer to this question. Religious dogmas do not, by and large, satisfy our intellectual curiosity and the applications to our everyday lives may not be emotionally fulfilling. The intellect too does not provide an answer to this question because in our interactions with others our mental faculties and rational thinking are not designed to help us to make the right choices.
Our minds and powers of reasoning are primarily designed to preserve our own self-interest. In any given situation, we think of the consequences of our actions in relation to ourselves first before considering others. "How is my course of action going to affect me?" is the first question we usually ask—perhaps subconsciously—before deciding to do something. But we know in our hearts that actions based on our own self-interest are not usually the right choices. One look at the state of the world at the present time reveals that the choices taken after hours of deliberations by the best minds in a number of different governments have turned out to be ill-conceived.
Ayaz understood that his intellect alone could not lead him to make the right choice because it is intrinsically biased. As he had complete eradat in his king, he fulfills the king's request unquestioningly. He knows that the king's suggested course of action is far better than his own because it is not solely based on the power of reasoning. The king possesses compassion, fairness and mercy in dealing with others, and his judgments are not clouded by self-interest.
In valuing his beloved's command over his own intellect, Ayaz opens his own heart to compassion. He understands why the courtiers had taken the wrong course of action and he sympathises with them. Instead of dismissing them as enemies of the king, he pleads with the king to forgive them. Through eradat to another human being we can grow spiritually and develop compassion and love for others.
My father's remark that it is better to be devoted to a cat than to nothing at all was made in the context of advising me not to insist on my opinion and my preferred course of action. That was his way of letting me know that I could not know or choose what was right unless I completely devoted myself to him. It is through eradat to another human being that we let our hearts open to compassion, mercy, self-effacement, fairness and, most of all love and sincerity. We need all these qualities to be good human beings and to make the right choices in life.
