In the name of God, we have reached the eighteenth article titled "A Reflection on the Parable of the King and a Handmaiden (Masnavi Manavi) in Correspondence with the Levels of the Mind". This article is a descriptive-analytical article and can be remembered as an exercise. With attention to the definitions and foundations we laid down in previous articles, we can look at this article as an exercise and try to search for the titles and concepts we examined in the past in this parable and apply them in our analysis. The main characters of the story are the king, who has the role of the traveler and wayfarer, and the handmaiden, who is a symbol of the wayfarer's shaped experience. Other characters such as the goldsmith, the elder guide or mentor, and the physicians are also present in the story, but are considered secondary characters. In fact, the core of the story rests on the confrontation of the king, as the wayfarer of the path, with a shaped symbol. I hope you have studied this parable in advance; because our goal here is not to reread the poetry or address its literary points. As was said, our goal is to examine the semantic points of this parable based on the lessons and concepts we raised in previous articles. So it is suggested you read the poem once beforehand.
Text of the Article
The king is a symbol of the seeker or wayfarer, while the handmaiden represents shaped experience:
1. Attention to the element of time and space in the seeker’s journey.
2. Observing the handmaiden as an object or shaped symbol.
3. The Illusory Mind becoming engaged with the lure of pleasure, under the guise of love and affection, without any reference to cognition.
4. The demonstration of method of possession within the Shaped Space, enacted through the exchange of gold.
5. Possession and experience of Shaped Space, with emphasis on temporariness or transience.
6. Change in the appearance of the object and the failure of the Illusory Mind in attaining possession.
7. Seeking for help from other shaped or Illusory Minds in the form of physicians.
8. The Illusory Minds’ claim to solve the problem in return for royal gifts and promises.
9. The ineffectiveness of the Illusory Mind in discovering causes, and its undue interference under the name of treatment.
10. The dismissal of the Illusory Mind by the king or wayfarer and the turn toward the unconscious mind, the beginning of the presence of the heart.
11. The wayfarer benefiting from the unconscious mind in the realm of sleep and imagination, receiving the glad-tiding of the presence of a guide or mentor.
12. The manifestation of the unconscious mind as a guide in the Shaped Space.
13. Affirmation and emphasis on the ineffectiveness of the Illusory Mind and the corruption it causes within the Shaped Space.
14. A presentation of rational analysis or rational experience for the wayfarer, in order to examine evidence and proofs derived from shaped data, with emphasis on the psychological or semantic illness that has arisen for the object, which in turn becomes a subject for the wayfarer.
15. Attention to the state of the object, or the handmaiden, who is herself entangled in a shaped relation with the goldsmith.
16. Attention to the state of the goldsmith, who, bound by the Illusory Mind, seeks enjoyment and possessing of life’s appearances, lacks rational analysis, enticed by the king’s promise of gifts—goes to the palace or to his own slaughterhouse.
17. Change in the outward appearance of the handmaiden, due to her relationship with the goldsmith, becoming another subject for the wayfarer.
18. Change in the state of the goldsmith by means of the poison prescribed by the guide, and its effect on the handmaiden’s behavior.
19. Description of the superficial love and its dependence on outward appearances, in which the handmaiden becomes indifferent toward the goldsmith, and the goldsmith is slain by his own greed.
20. The king’s realization from his journey, which began with superficial love and concludes with the reception of true love.
21. The journeys of the king, the handmaiden, and the goldsmith, though interconnected, are in essence distinct from one another.
Explanation of the Article
1. Element of Time and Space The first point to pay attention to when entering the story is the element of time and space for the person of the king; that same "Time-Space Window" of which we spoke in previous lessons. The temporal window refers to the chain of events defined for each wayfarer, and the spatial window shows the seeker’s level of thought and reflection. What emerges from the story is that the king is a newcomer to the path of wayfaring; he is more or less aware of things, has possessions and wealth, and manages a kingdom around himself. This role can also be considered for any other individual, including ourselves; someone who stands in a position, is interested in concentration and confrontation with their surroundings, and now confronts the issue of shaped experience. This point can be considered the beginning of the wayfarer's work in this story.
2. Accidental Encounter with a Shaped Symbol Next, we see that the king meets a handmaiden; the handmaiden here is an object and a shaped symbol. The important point is that this encounter is accidental; the king himself was not in search of such a symbol, but confronted it. From this, one can guess that his method of encounter will be very basic; there is no cognition involved, there is no readiness, and everything happens simply, merely by seeing an object; as we said in previous lessons, seeing an object in itself brings about an Illusory Mental Space for human in which the individual operates.
3. Illusory Mind Engaging with the Desire to Get Pleasure What is seen throughout the story is that the king, though the main aspect of the issue is pleasure-seeking, tries to define it in the stature of love for himself. This behavior is not exclusive to the king; we also often, when confronting the objects around us, in our own Illusory Mental Space, do not target what is in essence pleasure-seeking, but make an aspect for it, construct a title for it, and put a garment on its body that does not fit it much; high-sounding but meaningless words, like "I fell in love, at last I found the one I wanted".
But what is absent in the meantime is cognition. In the story we see that the king only saw the handmaiden, and this very seeing aroused a strong desire in him; neither a conversation had been going on between the two for days, nor had cognition been obtained; he had seen the individual only in brief. So this desire cannot be called love; the use of the word love is incorrect here and it is this incorrect use that is taken to justification in the poetry. Therefore, the king is trapped in a superficial appearance, without any cognition being in place.
4. Possession through Purchase Another point that must be paid attention to is the king's method of connection with the handmaiden: his possession in the Shaped Space was through purchase; he gave money and coins and bought the handmaiden from her original owner. This shows that the king wanted to own her completely and obtain her. Another point is that it is not clear at all whether the handmaiden really wanted the king. Did she have the power to choose in that time-space position to say I want or I do not want? She was merely moved like a slave and there is no sign in hand that she was eager for this event; as becomes clear later, the handmaiden yielded to this union against her will.
5. Emphasis on Temporariness of Shaped Experience The narrator of the story quickly addresses a topic that had also been raised in previous discussions: what is shaped does not remain stable; this very instability is the foundation of the concept of "possessing shape". Because we have examined the axis of time earlier, we know that forms do not remain and they change. So we must wait and see with what problem the king, who has neither cognition nor criterion for choice except appearance, confronts in the continuation.
6. Witheredness of Handmaiden and Failure of Illusory Mind The king reaches the handmaiden, but the handmaiden, for an unspecified reason, from the very beginning and in those first days, gradually withers and loses her former shape. Here we confront a change in her superficial features and the failure of the Illusory Mind in obtaining possession. What the king wanted was to meet with form and he wanted to connect with those same shaped concepts; this is in itself a big error in the seeker's view, who thinks confronting that form will bring great success; but very quickly they realize that that form is not stable and their perception was incorrect.
7. Seeking Help from Other Shaped and Illusory Minds The king, instead of accepting this reality, tries to keep the form and flee from his belief. For this, he goes to other Illusory Minds and tools and summons physicians. But in the course of the story it becomes clear that the physicians themselves are trapped in Illusory Minds; in appearance they speak with pride and big claims, but in the end it is revealed that they too have low-level minds and are unaware of the real cause of the handmaiden's shaped collapse. They are only in pursuit of the king's satisfaction and receiving a reward, and since they have no cognition of the handmaiden's real situation, with the medicines they prescribe, not only do they not solve the problem, but by accelerating the process of collapse, they make matters worse.
8 and 9. Claims of Illusory Mind and Its Ineffectiveness The physicians make big claims due to greed for reward, but in practice they neither understand the core of the issue nor is their interference in place.
10. Beginning of the Seeker's Awareness Finally at this stage, the seeker enters the story again and realizes that what he has experienced so far was nothing but an illusion. This is where he realizes that he must knock on another door and must go toward the unconscious mind; he must adopt a process that is in pursuit of cognition and concepts; the same thing we said in previous lessons is possible with the presence of the heart and requires a guide; someone who pays more attention to concepts.
11. Receiving the Glad-Tiding The king makes all his effort and in the world of sleep and imagination, receives a glad-tiding that the guide will come. This too is in itself an exemplar of the common experience of humans: when we become disappointed with the commonplace and Illusory Mental Space causes around us, we usually remember a shapeless factor, go toward it, and seek help from it.
12 and 13. Appearance of the Guide The unconscious mind manifests in the form of a guide in the Shaped Space; that same elder who appears from afar and enters the story. When the guide enters the work, he emphasizes that the king looked at this story with an Illusory Mind and as a result, instead of solving the problem, has tightened its knot. He says that superficial tools and factors must be set aside and the seeker must step toward cognition. The guide, instead of commonplace treatment methods, proceeds to find the real cause of the handmaiden's illness; it becomes clear that the handmaiden was moving in another time-space chain. This point shows that temporal chains can pass alongside each other and for this reason we sometimes suddenly confront an individual whose cognition requires that our time-space window is wide enough so that we can perceive how they live. The elder of the guide is someone who knows those chains and in conversation with the handmaiden, in various ways encourages her to speak of her origin, of how she got acquainted with the king, and of the people she had been in connection with prior to that. Finally the guide realizes that the handmaiden is entangled in another superficial love: love for a goldsmith in the exemplary city of Samarkand.
14. Proposal of Rational Analysis The guide's movement at this stage is that he makes rational analysis and rational experience possible for the seeker. Relying on evidence and proofs, he emphasizes that this mental and semantic illness has a story behind it; the object the seeker is in pursuit of must be important to him not from the aspect of superficial shape, but from the aspect of meaning. The guide teaches the seeker not to pay attention to appearances and instead pay attention to the subject; to see what is reflected in him when confronting each phenomenon. The seeker realizes that that object he was in pursuit of, itself has a background and course; just as the goldsmith also has a separate time and place chain for himself. One must not place these elements of the story alongside each other without paying attention to their temporal chains; the master's work is this that clarifies these chains.
15. Goldsmith's State Now we address the goldsmith who is himself entangled in a shaped relation with the handmaiden. The goldsmith for years, despite having a family and life in Samarkand, has been in deviation and in connection with this handmaiden or other handmaidens; so his chain is a chain heading toward ruin. Due to the incorrect method of life and the Illusory Mind that is only in pursuit of enjoying appearances, he too finally experiences collapse. This collapse must not make us think that his summons to the royal palace and his encounter with the master and guide caused him harm; the goldsmith's chain of movement, from before, was heading toward decay and non-existence. Anyone else who chooses such a method of life, meaning sinks completely into appearances, remains so negligent of the situation around them that, due to that same low-level Illusory Mind and constant occupation with enjoying life's appearances, lacks any rational analysis. With the king's empty promises and receiving gifts, he goes to the palace without reflection; even if the story did not go to this side, he himself in a path toward decay would pass away elsewhere.
16. Master's Role Becoming Manifest At this stage, the master's movement becomes completely clear. All of a sudden, they summon the goldsmith to the palace and promise him that they will fill his pocket with gold and jewels. In meeting with the handmaiden too, the goldsmith does not perceive why this handmaiden, whom he knew earlier, is now in such a position and why he must be in connection with her in this state; but they place all facilities at his disposal. This is where another subject emerges for the seeker: he realizes that he himself was also attached to a superficial factor and deceived by appearance, and realizes to what extent he resembled the goldsmith behaviorally.
17. Goldsmith's Fate What is destined for the goldsmith sooner or later appears here in the form of consuming poison, recommended by the guide. Note that this work, the factor of the shapeless mind, sooner or later, in some form, would bring about for the goldsmith; whether with poison, or with any other method, and his end was being deleted and a humiliating death. But what we see in the story is that the master or guide plans this death in such a way that it also yields a fruit: the superficial shape of the goldsmith, which was paid attention to by the handmaiden, changes so that the handmaiden too realizes that superficial shapes do not remain stable.
With the gradual effect of the poison in the goldsmith and the regret that arises in him, in various parts of the poem we witness his lamentation; as if he slowly wakes up and sends curses upon himself that his superficial shape, negligence, and lightheadedness brought him where he is trapped in the trap of people around him like this, without perceiving that he goes to the slaughterhouse, not to the palace.
18. Influencing the Handmaiden The change in the goldsmith's outward appearance slowly wakes the handmaiden up from sleep too. In the beginning, the handmaiden's appearance, from seeing the goldsmith again, improved; but with the progress of the poison's effect and the state that arises in the goldsmith, the same influence is reflected in the handmaiden.
19. Peak of the Story: Superficial Love and Its End Here the story reaches its peak: the description of superficial love and dependence on shaped features is revealed. The handmaiden slowly becomes indifferent to the goldsmith and finally the goldsmith dies; his chain of movement ends. From now on, the narrator no longer addresses the handmaiden much, because the seeker himself realizes that same handmaiden who previously headed toward witheredness, found freshness again with seeing the goldsmith, and now that he has passed away, has become indifferent to him. This shows that the handmaiden was only in pursuit of superficial shape; in no part of this story is there any sign of real love and true cognition: the handmaiden wants the goldsmith because of his appearance; the goldsmith wants the handmaiden because of her appearance; the king also from the beginning was in pursuit of her appearance. The lesson of this part is that there is no love in this story, because real love arises from cognition.
20. King's Final Awareness The king in his journey obtains a reception: a journey that began with superficial love and ended in true love. In the story we see that the king slowly confesses that these superficial loves were disgraceful; that he found the goldsmith's end disgraceful and saw the handmaiden's behavior also very opportunistic and merely enjoying a passing appearance. True love is meeting with concepts. The king shares with his master, who is the exemplar of the unconscious mind, that his goal was always that guide and now he realizes he must move in pursuit of him; meaning from now on, even if he has an activity in the Shaped Space, he must consider content more.
21. Summary In the end, the journey of the king, the journey of the handmaiden, and the journey of the goldsmith, though they seem connected in the first look, are in essence separate from one another and what we observe in this story is the clash of temporal chains. We emphasize again that the goal of this article was never the literary interpretation of the poem; the goal was that relying on the data of previous articles, we perform an exercise so that we can in future studies apply the same definitions and concepts in our study and examine them. Goodbye.