"Whoever you love more than Me, I will take away from you!"

Rumi’s Spiritual Master was Shams-e Tabriz. Shams made Rumi Perfect—God Realized. They were sitting at a chess board. Shams always won and that day was no different. Rumi turned over his king and said, “I have lost again!” However, Shams replied, “No, today you have won!” And right there, at that very moment, Shams made Rumi Perfect—Qutubiyat.

Anyway, an online posting of an English translation of an excerpt taken from Rumi’s work, The Divan-e Shams, caught my attention. The excerpt began;

God says;
“Whoever you love more than Me,
I will take away from you.”

It got me thinking, I have heard some refer to God as a jealous God—was this statement an expression of God’s jealousy, or something else, or something more? It’s difficult for me to fathom that God could be jealous—at least not in the usual human way. I mean, who is God to be jealous of? God is everywhere and in everything; there is nothing and no one beyond, before, or other than God, so really, there is no one for God to be jealous of but Himself. Can God be jealous of Himself?

The Perfect Masters have often reminded us that along God’s journey of awakening—the journey of God’s consciousness from the Deep Sleep State of the Beyond the Beyond—upon reaching the human form, the work, so to speak, is not about acquiring more consciousness, but rather, in divesting consciousness of what it has necessarily and unnecessarily acquired along the way—divesting that consciousness of the dust of its own journey—sanskaras— but without disintegrating that same consciousness—like cleaning an old pot without destroying the pot.

This process of divesting—the unburdening of consciousness—goes on in the Dream State of God—the state between God’s Deep Sleep State and God’s Real Awake State. If you identify yourself as a human being—a man or a woman—black or white—rich or poor—Christian or Jew, etc., God as you are experiencing His Infinite Eternal Self as finite, vulnerable, and limited. This is the Dream State of God.

Now look at the statement again:

“Whomsoever you love more than Me,
I will take away from you.”

Rather than jealousy, it is a statement of God’s Mercy, for when God takes away from Himself all that is not Himself—more exactly His own infinite false-thinking—false consciousness—formerly necessary, now unnecessary sanskaras, then what is left behind is God’s Consciousness of Himself! Here is the rest of the quote:

And He tells us;

If you say; ‘I cannot live without her.
I will make you live without her.’

If you say; ‘I cannot live without him.’
I will make you live without him.

And the season passes.

The branches of the shade tree become dry.

Patience runs out.

The one whom you think of as a part of you turns out to be a stranger.

Your mind startles.

Even your friend turns out to be your enemy and your enemy turns out to be your friend.

The person whom you love more than your life betrays you.

Such a strange world!

Whenever you think, ‘It never occurs,’ it occurs.

You say, ‘I do not fall.’ Yet you stumble.

You say, ‘I do not get amazed.’

Yet you get amazed.

The strangest thing is this;

You keep on saying, ‘I died.’

Yet you continue to live…”

Truly is a strange world indeed!”

“Beloved God, help us all to love you more and more, and more and more, until we become worthy of union with you! And help us all to hold fast to Baba’s daman, until the very end!” – Avatar Meher Baba dictated this prayer 8/25/1959