Everything that exists — every star, every thought, every breath you’ve ever taken — poured out of a single divine “Be.” That’s where Shabestari begins Garden of The Secret, and that’s where we begin too. This is Part 2 of the series. In the Introduction we met the mystic and the world he wrote in; now we step into the text itself, the Preface, and ask the question that quietly runs underneath everything: what is your true nature — and why can no one ever simply tell you the answer?
This is the second part of my writing on Garden of The Secret. If you haven’t read the introduction yet, please go check that out first.
I have translated some of the poems, and I’ll let you read them for yourself first, then I’ll write some interpretations on them for you. I suggest you read these in a calm, unhurried, and attentive manner — and contemplate the meaning as you go.
First Part of the Garden of The Secret — Preface
In the name of That which Thought the Soul to Think And illuminated the lamp of heart with light of the soul By his merit both worlds became luminous By his grace Adam's soil became a Garden The Mighty One, who in a moment Created from A and Z, Both worlds Once M of his Might blew into the Quill Thousands of patterns appeared from Nothing From that breath were created both worlds And from that breath manifested life in man Manifested in man intelligence and discernment Which enabled him to understand all things Once Man saw himself as an individual Questioned and thought "What am I?" From individuality, traveled he to unity And looked at the universe with a new perception He saw that this universe of diversity Is truly One that appears as many Universe commanded and created from one breath That Breath that came in, was the same that went out In truth there is no place for coming and going If you look, you'll see that coming is nothing but going Every thing returned to its origin Every thing Manifest or Unmanifest became One The Almighty Ancient one that with one blow (breath) Can Start and End both worlds Here, Universe was created as one One became many and many became one All the division that you see is out of your illusion As a Dot may look like a circle when circulating high speed In this Path the realized Masters Are protectors and guides In this Patch the Realized Master Have talked about their origin When they realized their own greatness They talked about knower and known One drowned in the ocean of unity and said "I AM GOD" Another talked about dimensions and details of the ship One only acquired the superficial knowledge So he talked about the beach and dry land One got the shell One passed through it and got the pearl One talked about forms and names Explained the Wine, Candle and Witness One talked about his existence One talked about rituals and idol worship As opinions became so many People became confused If one is wondering about all these Must understand what it means
Let’s now talk about the meaning. Instead of writing a line-to-line interpretation, I’ll try to explain the whole thing.
Whether you are an atheist or a theist or whatever you call yourself, almost everyone agrees on one thing — that some intelligence created this world, and created us. That intelligence created this universe, which is so vast, so sophisticated, so limitless, that even if it were limited, and the whole of humanity spent millions of years researching it, we still couldn’t understand a minuscule fraction of it.
That very same intelligence installed a unique intelligence in man — one that lets him analyze and understand things, to a certain limit, of course.
Unlike animals, humans have been given a unique type of intelligence for understanding things, especially when it comes to realizing themselves. This doesn’t mean the Self (the SELF, Soul, God, Buddha Nature, and so on) can be realized by thinking about it. It means humans are the only species that carry the dormant capability to realize their true nature.
What is your true nature? Let me tell you.
Nope. I can’t tell you. Nobody can tell you. Even if someone told you, it would only become a belief in your head — and beliefs won’t take you anywhere. Direct perception and experience of truth does.
There’s a difference between intellectualizing something and experiencing it. Direct perception is the fruit of experience. Belief is not.
When we talk about Spirituality, what we’re really talking about is experiencing “Spirit.” So what is Spirit? Something subtler than matter. Something that can’t be seen by human eyes — because it isn’t the object, it’s the subject. It’s your real You.
You can’t see yourself the same way you see and understand objects and people. In this context, the great Sufi Abu Saeed has a beautiful poem:
I asked him why are we apart He said there's a reason I can say I'm your eyes, no wonder you don't see I'm your soul, no one sees the soul
Only by direct perception of your true nature can you know it. This isn’t done by looking at something objectively — it’s done by experiencing your true nature, through spiritual practice and meditation. And probably not the kind of meditation someone with a weekend Yoga certificate is teaching at your local class or on YouTube!
Anyway — that intelligence that created the worlds, and gave man the ability to see things better than other creatures, is also present in man’s own heart, in the form of light. And once we connect to the light in the temple of the heart, the spiritual experience begins.
That intelligence is the light that makes the eyes see, the ears hear, the tongue taste, and the body move. Without that light, nothing can be realized or experienced.
Since it is limitless, it is not bound by the laws of this universe — not by time, not by space. That’s why Shabestari says:
The Mighty One, who in a moment Created from A and Z, Both worlds Once M of his Might blew into the Quill Thousands of patterns appeared from Nothing
A quick note on the imagery here, because it’s even more beautiful in the original. Where I’ve rendered it “A and Z,” Shabestari actually wrote Kaf and Nun — the two letters that spell Kun, the divine command “Be!” The entire universe is God simply saying Be — and it is. And the “Pen” (the Qalam) is the very first thing that intelligence wrote with — the first ripple of the One becoming the many. Creation isn’t a factory grinding away over ages. It’s a single Word, breathed once.
And that drowned one in the poem who cried “I AM GOD” — that wasn’t arrogance. That was Mansur al-Hallaj, who shouted Ana’l-Haqq, “I am the Truth,” and was brutally executed for it. The drop had simply dissolved into the ocean and forgotten it was ever separate. When the “you” is gone, only God remains to say “I.”
The Creator’s light — the energy of creation — created the whole universe and man. And not only that: it gave man the ability to understand and discern things, to tell good from bad, and to use that discernment as a tool to go beyond the limits of ordinary human experience.
This ability of discernment is mentioned again and again in mysticism, and especially in Yoga and Vedanta. It’s known by the Sanskrit word Viveka. It’s considered a necessary quality, one that must be developed if you want to grasp the highest truth of existence. Viveka has a layered meaning, but generally it means differentiating untruth from truth, the real from the unreal.
So what is “untruth”? This isn’t about verbal truth, telling lies and so on.
In all the spiritual traditions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoga, Vedanta, Daoism, Sufism, and the list goes on — this mundane experience is considered transitory and impermanent. In Sanskrit it’s called Maya, illusion. Just like a rope in the dark can look like a snake and nearly give you a heart attack — Lol! — Viveka is the light that lets you tell the snake from the rope. (And that rope-and-snake, by the way, is the very same image Adi Shankaracharya used to show how we mistake the passing world for something solid and real.)
Modern science agrees, in its own language. What we experience as “the world” isn’t really what’s out there — it’s the data our senses hand to us. For some animals the world is black and white; some don’t see with eyes at all, but by other means entirely. Our senses just translate vibration and feed us data in different ways. The world is a play of energy. (For more on the science of this, look into Dr. David Eagleman’s work on the brain.)
So Viveka basically means being Spiritual-Smart. It doesn’t mean you have to become a monk and stop doing anything worldly (which is basically impossible anyway). It means you should prioritize the spiritual goal over the mundane ones. Why?
Because worldly experience is transitory and impermanent. It won’t last. Things and people are all temporary, attachment to them brings suffering, and in the end you can’t take any of it with you.
Jesus explained Viveka in his own symbolic way:
“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Viveka, in a way, means being smart enough to know what the most worthwhile thing is — and then spending your energy on the highest goal. The ability to discriminate the low-value from that which has the highest value: that is the real power of discernment.
And what has the highest value? Self-Realization and Freedom. The goal of all true spiritual teaching is to help a human being know his true nature and become free — free from suffering, and free from the cycle of birth and death.
📖 Read the Full Series: Garden of The Secret
Introduction · Part 2 · Part 3 · Part 4 · Part 5 – Thought · Part 6 – The Right Thought · Part 7 – The Universe Became Man · Part 8 – Who am I?