• Rubaiyat Introduction
• Verses:      1       2      3      4      5      6      7      x      8      9      10  

Rubaiyat Introduction

Rubaiyat is a collection of Medieval Persian quatrains (verses of four lines).

Yogananda's commentary of the Rubaiyat bored me so. By steps I found out why, and here I share it with you, and also a verse from The Rubaiyat of A Persian Kitten by Oliver Herford.

There are somewhere between 1,200 to over 2,000 quatrains (poems) attributed to the Persian mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam (1048-1123). Translations of these poems differ, in part depending on one's interpretation of Khayyam's stand as to life. Some find him to be a nihilist, others an anarchist, and still others a Sufi (Islamic mystic). Interpreters do not agree whether Khayyam was for or against alcohol either.

The best known English version (in five editions) was made by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-83). Four editions were published by him while he was alive, and the fifth edition was edited after his death on the basis of manuscript revisions he had left behind. As has been noted, Fitzgerald's versions are noted more for freedom than for fidelity to the original. Fitzgerald did not strive for any literal translation at all, and his work is of only some hundred four-lined verses.

Edward Henry Whinfield published his second edition of a literal translation of 500 verses in 1883.

Arthur Talbot published his translation of 158 verses in 1908, from the prose translation of Edward Heron-Allen.

Robert Graves and Omar Ali-Shah published their alleged translation of the Rubaiyat in 1967. Their work purported to be a translation of a twelfth-century manuscript in Afghanistan, "where it was allegedly used as a Sufi teaching document. But it proved impossible to produce the manuscript, and British experts in Persian literature had no difficulty in proving that the translation was . . . based on a study of the possible sources of FitzGerald's work by Edward Heron Allen." [Wikipedia, sv "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"]

There are many other translations too. The works of Fitzgerald, Whinfield, and Talbot can be compared on-line. [◦Link]

Fitzgerald and Yogananda

In the following I will compare a few verses of the Fitzgerald version with the Graves-Shah work. And why? The famous, Americanised guru Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) furnished a "spiritual commentary" of tall stock phrases on Omar Khayyam, while basing his judgements on the first of Fitzgerald's liberal and limited renditions. Graves and Ali-Shah on the other hand stuck to "the possible sources of FitzGerald's work". Other translations - including that of A. H. Whinfield - can be surveyed by following the link just given.

Several problems almost spring to the eye: Many of the phrases and key terms in Fitzgerald's work are missing in the original Persian, as may be ascertained by comparing some translations with one another.

• Fitzgerald produced four more editions of his work. When an author or translatorfinds it fit to make changes, the experienced commentator bases his work on the last of those editions. That is normal procedure. However, Yogananda found it fit to act otherwise, thereby overrriding FitzGerald's matured sentiments and versions.
• When we consult the fifth Fitzgerald edition, and a few translations of the Rubaiyat, we do not find all the imagery contained in Fitzgerald's first edition, the one Yogananda hinged his commentary on. At the same time Yogananda purports to have tuned in to the secret meanings of the poem and the poet by the less likely translation/rendering. The word "baloney" comes to mind.

What we are faced with at first is this: A "commentary" of stock phrases that draws heavily on words and phrases that are in part missing in Rubaiyat translations attributed to Omar - and in the last editions of FitzGerald's work too.

Second, there are today two often differing, independent versions of Yogananda's commentary. It is not wise to feel terribly confident that you have got the true wordings of Yogananda either - after essentials of Khayyam perhaps have been done away with or distorted by Fitzgerald with Yogananda's Fitzgerald commentary in his wake. Even if I don't say "regrettably" to this, I mean it.

If you want to hear a horse neigh, go to the horse and listen, and shun the one that improvises and renders neighing as he wants to. If you want to know the Rubaiyat poem, go to the poem, at least a renowned translation or more, and do not mistake the poem for the poet either. It may be unwise, for they are different!

Yogananda's defence of his approach

Against sound folk wisdom and other wisdom of going to good sources first and foremost, there is Yogananda's defence of his approach.

First, he was told "long ago in India", that the poetry of Persia often has two meanings, one inner and one outer. And then, one day he concentrated on the pages of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, and saw "the vast inner fortress of golden spiritual treasures" in it, that "previously invisible castle of inner wisdom," "this dream-castle of truth," he tells. [ix]

So he wanted to present the "deep philosophy" of Omar against misinterpretations of many translators (basing his work on Fitzgerald's first edition), since "Omar, by a very large number of Western readers, has come to be regarded as a rather erotic pagan poet, a drunkard interested only in wine and earthly pleasure," as Charles F. Horne is quoted to say in Yogananda's work. [ix]

Yogananda further goes for that the Persian poem's passionate praise of wine and love is a metaphoric device or two: (1) the wine is the joy of the spirit, and (2) the love is the rapturous devotion to God. Horne is quoted for both of these. [x]

Yogananda, further:

"With the help of a Persian scholar, I translated the original Rubaiyat into English. But I found that, though literally translated, they lacked the fiery spirit of Khayyam's original. . . . I realized that FitzGerald had been divinely inspired to catch exactly in gloriously musical English words the soul of Omar's writings. [Thus, FitzGerald was more "divinely inspired" than the guru, the guru indirectly states. Interesting!]

Therefore I decided to interpret the inner hidden meaning of Omar's verses from FitzGerald's translation rather than from my own or any other that I had read." [x]

The publisher adds a note, informing that Yogananda chose FitzGerald's first edition, saying that the poet's "first inspiration -- being spontaneous, natural, and sincere -- is most often the deepest and purest expression." That is not why SRF has edited and edited Yogananda books after his death, including his Whispers from Eternity. [xn] [More]

I have decided to go through eleven Rubaiyat verses in the following. Along with the different versions and translations that are offered, you get a sort of lowest common denominator of each verse, called Bare Bones. All of that sets the scene for Yogananda's glossary of each of the eleven FitzGerald verses. Afterwards some gist is given in most cases. The first few interpretations of Yogananda are not condensed, though.

This is all to say, "See for yourself." And even though I for my part silently put the text away as boring, others praise it. It may in part be a matter of "different strokes for different folks," but more goes into these matters than that.

Some say they like Yogananda's book

Opinions differ, and some reviewers are less informed than others. That needs to be taken into account. Amazon.com [sv "The Wine of the Mystic"] is the host of the following comments and others.

Yogananda made the fatal error of believing that . . . he, himself, could discern it [the only religion etc.] in all religions. He did that with the Bible. He does this here with a Sufi poem . . . But Yogananda's Self-Realization Fellowship was and is Hinduism . . . So this book is an Islamic poem as interpreted by a Hindu. [Bill Butler]

One person finds Yogananda's commentary "irresistable immediately upon opening its pages".

Another finds "Yogananda's commentaries on these poems will bring every scholar on mystical Islam to shame . . . I would love to recommend this piece of timeless art to all the Muslims in this sordid world . . . no one is in a better position than Yogananda (except for those souls who have God realization), to interpret these poems the way Khayyam had intended it to be understood."

A third person: "This wonderful book is . . . a collection of deep spiritual discourses."p class="n"> I would not rule out that some of these guys are followers of Yogananda and just eager to present their guru's work as tall, nay, outstanding, instead of keeping their thoughts to themselves for a time - those deep and pondering "good soils", if that is what they are:

A guru went out to sow his seed. Some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop. [Cf. Matthew 13:3-8]

He who has ears of corn, let him gear (adapt). There is reason to do better than to make much of shallow soil, soon parched soil, and thorny guys. [Cf. Matthew 13:9] From this I learn:

The scorched guys that easily wither, are not supremely rooted.

He who has ears of corn, he has perhaps withstood much untoward, and can make food, then.

He who can lend an ear may also reap the successes that are talked of.

The First Verse (Quatrain)

Many who read form wrong opinions. The forlorn ones seem to hail sayings and works that lack credibility.

Below is Yogananda's commentary to verse 1 in Edward Fitzgerald's adaptation-poem Rubaiyat, so you can see in detail how Yogananda made his book The Wine of the Mystic. I throw the Whinfield translation into the bargain too. Fitzgerald did not actually translate the poem, he wrote an adaptation.

FitzGerald inflicted liberties on his purported source. A considerable portion of the very unliteral "translation" is in fact FitzGerald's own creation. "Many quatrains are mashed together," he informs. Many of the verses are paraphrased, and some of them cannot be confidently traced to any one of Khayyam's quatrains at all.

The content and phrasing of Fitzgerald's translations change with his evolving editions. I bring his verse 1 from five editions to document it.

Yogananda makes use of the first Fitzgerald edition to "interpret Omar". Yogananda claimed he peered through the free-standing poem adaptation of Fitzgerald into the thoughts of the Medieval Persian author Omar Khayyam. Can that interesting claim be substantiated too? Much evidence goes against the guru's ideas.

Yogananda's claims must be ascertained in the light of this:

1. Fitzgerald's later translations do not all include the words Yogananda uses.
2. The sources of many Fitzgerald verses are obscure, and may be lacking too.
3. Other versions - translations - do not contain key words from Fitzgerald's first edition either, the edition that Yogananda uses to "psych Omar", purportedly - by what is essentially a yogic interpretation.

Yogananda's Approach

Yogananda inspiration from ideas that are FitzGerald's poetic inventions and hardly those of Omar Khayyam - at any rate not in the Graves-Shah work - is out of the blue, or, as we say, by yogi associations. There is no denying that Yogananda has some good points of his own too, and such points seem mostly imposed on the medieval poem, regardless of what could have been meant back in Persia.

Yogananda approaches the Fitzgerald verse by fixing Hindu meanings meanings to some phrases and terms to promote some pivoting ideas that are easily found in other works by him too. In other words, he uses many FitzGerald inventions as symbols of what Omar had in mind when Omar expressed himself differently . . .

It matters to know that many of the phrases that Fitzgerald concocted, are not found in other translations, literal and other ones, and correspondingly, some of them hardly take us straightway to Omar's poetic talk either, and could represent his suggestive meanings rather poorly, if at all.

Graves and Ali-Shah make a case for wine as love, as Yogananda does too; they think that Khayaam treats wine as a metaphor of the ecstasy excited by divine love [p. 4] They also think the drunkenness Omar writes of, is ecstacy. [8, 9]

Omar Khayaam's Rubaiyyat is a collection of - in the words of George Saintsbury - "a jumbled ragbag of discarded Oriental verse". Out of some eight hundred and odd quatrains, and Fitzgerald and Yogananda use just one eighth of that corpus. And FitzGerald gave himself the "the widest licence of paraphrase, omission and addition", says Saintsbury further. [10, cf. 16]

Some have looked in vain for the original of several of FitzGerald's lines, although "He has been applauded for imposing his own structure of thought on the Rubaiyyat". [11, 16, 23 etc.]

Yogananda in turn uses Fitzgerald's first edition and makes strong claims on behalf of his own intuition.

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 233

⊕⊕⊕⊕

The blue sentences in the following lack back-up from the Graves-Shah translation. In my added remarks, "Lacking" means "lacking in the Graves-Shah translation" at least. There are other valuable versions of the text than theirs.

Yogananda Glossary, verse 1

• Morning: Dawn of awakening from delusive earthly existence.
• Bowl of night: The darkness of ignorance, which imprisons the immortal soul in mortal consciousness.
• Stone: Spiritual discipline.
• Stars: The attractive twinkling of material desires.
• Hunter of the East: Eastern wisdom, a mighty slayer of delusion.
• Sultan's turret: The sovereign soul.
• Noose of light: Divine illumination of wisdom.

Lacking: Bowl of night, interpreted by the guru as "darkness of ignorance". That interpretation stands on his feet. We find no such mention in the Graves-Shah translation.

In fact, there is no mentioning of night and darkness and bowl in a translation of Omar Khayyam's first verse, and therefore no reason to bring in Yogananda clichés about "darkness of ignorance" either. As you may glimpse below, Yogananda ends up with a cliché-ridden collection of phrases.

Lacking: Stone of spiritual discipline. And Yogananda interprets the 'Fitz stone' as 'spiritual discipline' at random it seems. Enjoy a little discussion around it here: [◦Link].

Lacking: Stars "the attractive twinkling of material desires". A Fitz image is made into another random Yoganandic metaphor, seemingly. It is not good enough.

Lacking: Hunter of the East somewhat arbitrarily taken to mean "Eastern wisdom, a mighty slayer of delusion" where 'the Sun' would suffice - and here is where propaganda sets in to some, sadly enough.

Sultan's turret - Yogananda's "the sovereign soul" - is not in the Graves-Shah translation, which has "city roofs". Whinfield has "the roofs".

Noose of light becomes "shaft of light" in later Fitzgerald editions. Instead of Yogananda's quite elaborate "The divine illumination of wisdom, which destroys the captive darkness surrounding the soul" - what is talked of is after all early morning sunshine.

SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION BY YOGANANDA

The inner Silence sings:
"Awake! Forsake the sleep of ignorance, for the dawn of wisdom has come. Hurl the hard stone of spiritual discipline that breaks the bowl of dark unknowing, putting to flight the pale stars of mock-lustered material desires. "Behold, the Eastern Wisdom, the Hunter and Destroyer of delusion, has caught the proud minaret of the kingly soul in a noose of Light, dispelling its imprisoning mortal darkness."

FitzGerald's later editions do not speak of "bowl of night", "flung the stone", "hunter of the East". "The sultan's turret" is intact in the five editions, though. Others translate the original into ""roofs" or city roofs", as you can see.

The Graves-Shah verse involves a hailing of the dawn and sunlight in a direct and simple way.

And Whinfield's take is in short: "A new morning. Arise, and drink! Oh, drink today!".

How sensible is it to interpret "drink" spiritually? Opinions differ, as mentioned in the introduction. Should we adjust to what Yogananda puts into Fitzgerald's verse? Among Yogananda's key ideas are: Eastern wisdom, darkness of ignorance, spiritual discipline, soul, divine illumination. The fact that he elaborates on these pivotal concepts does not make them appear in any original text . . .

PRACTICAL APPLICATION BY YOGANANDA

Most people, though apparently awake, are really asleep in delusion. [That is not the main issue. - TK] Pursued by the compelling commands of their hounding habits, they have not yet been awakened by [sunlight - TK] wisdom to walk its pleasant pathways. Where life is in danger for lack of watchfulness, it is not safe to sleep. So it is unwise to slumber in the dark doorways of evil habits, which invite the danger of possible death to wisdom and true happiness.

Destroy false pride. [Unfounded - TK] Awaken the soul [yourself] and remain ever wakeful, striving each day to be different and better in all ways. Your soul was not meant to be a prisoner of passion, sleeping behind bars of ignorance. Jerk yourself from sloth; race forward with progressive activities, and catch success in the net of soul creativity.

No substantial basis for most of Yogananda's elaborate oration is found. And what does that suggest?

Yogananda "spawns" already established ideas over an adaptation of a Medieval poem. Actually, such essentially Hindu ideas carry much of his commentary. Now think of how many of the Yoganandic "key symbols" in the poem are missing in a translation.

Yogananda source: Wm 3-4.

Now Yogananda did not seek the help of Oliver Herford's Rubaiyat of A Persian Kitten of 1904 - an illustrated parody it is. Its first verse:

Wake! For the Golden Cat has put to flight
The Mouse of Darkness with his Paw of Light:
Which means, in Plain and simple every-day
Unoriental Speech---The Dawn is bright.

The Second Verse

Reminder. Yoganana's attempts to explain FitzGerald's first edition of the Rubaiyat, from 1859, saying it catches Khayyam's original intent. However, FitzGerald made many changes in later editions, a point that Yogananda chose to ignore, just as he undermined the value of his own translation, which was done with the help of a Persian scholar: Yogananda found that FitzGerald was better "divinely inspired" than himself (!) Yogananda's ensuing method was to pick seemingly central words and terms from FitzGerald's work and claim he had got to Khayyam's deep meanings through them. But quite a lot of these "central words" are missing in FitzGerald's later editions, and also in several Rubaiyat translations. Besides, much of Yogananda's work is greatly cliché-ridden.

As a result Yogananda's work may feel little rewarding, even boring. There are two divergent versions of Yogananda's commentary too, by two different publishers: Crystal Clarity and Self-Realization Fellowship As with verse 1, there are only few and perhaps rudimentary connections between Yogananda's outpourings and later Fitzgerald editions, and to somewhat related original Khayyam poems.

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield 1, 136, 200, 233

At dawn a cry through all the tavern shrilled,
"Arise, my brethren of the revelers' guild,
That I may fill our measure full of wine,
Or e'er the measure of our days be filled."

Life's caravan is hastening on its way;
Brood not on troubles of the coming day,
But fill the wine-cup ere sweet night be gone,
And snatch a pleasant moment, while you may.

When false dawn streaks the east with cold, gray line,
Pour in your cups the pure blood of the vine;
The truth, they say, tastes bitter in the mouth,
This is a token that the "Truth " is wine.

The sun doth smite the roofs with Orient ray
And, Khosrau like, his wine-red sheen display;
Arise, and drink! the herald of the dawn
Uplifts his voice, and cries, "Oh, drink to-day!"

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Fitzgerald at times combined several Persian quatrains to form one of of his. That explains why four correlated Whinfield poems are given above.

Yogananda Glossary, verse 2

Yogananda's glossary is based on FitzGerald's 1st edition. The blue sentences in the following lack a certain back-up in FitzGerald's mature takes, his second, third, fourth and fifth edtion. Also, they are hardly supported by one or more translations. Whinfield's brings examples.There is more on that right below the verses.

1. Dawn's left hand: The first yearning to solve the mystery of life. Not supported. Further, Fitzgerald has "false morning" in later editions.
   
2. A voice: Intuition of the soul. However, note that Winfield (233) says it is the reddened sun who cries "Drink!".
   
3. Tavern: Sanctum of inner silence. Well, taverns are not exactly quiet places. In such a light, Yogananda's interpretation seems strained.
4. Little ones: Undeveloped thoughts, earliest intuitions of life's purpose. Not supported.
5. Fill the cup: Fill the consciousness. Fitzgerald 2-5 abandons this term. Winfield has a similar expression.
6. Life's liquour: Life's vitality. Not fully supported.
7. It's cup: The human body. Not supported.
8. Be dry: Vanish. Hardly supported.

The keys that are missing in later FitzGerald editions and Whinfield are marked blue.

The informal stats: 2-3 out of 8 key terms with Yogananda are there in later FitzGerald editions and the translation of Whinfield. Yogananda's "in flagranti hit score" as to sustained key terms is somewhere between 25% and 38%, which is not good. In other words, there is awfully much in Yogananda's take that is not supported in later FitzGerald's and translations. Further, key parts in Whinfield's translation are wholly missing in FitzGerald's first edition too.

What to drink? Whinfield (200) suggests that wine is truth. As shown previously, he is not the only one who thinks thus.

Some say the world is an inn, and we are the travellers. Inside that tavern, some like to drink a lot and look at tits, in part like the two brothers of the Ashlad and heroes of many folk tales. They tend to get lost in an inn. Others strive to do their duties instead of drinking a lot, and others again seek to combine drinking and toiling.

Yogananda source: Wine of the Mystic, p. 7 ff, and Self-Realization Magazine, Spring 1972:31-32.

Verse 3

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 81, 258, 295

Whoe'er returned of all that went before,
To tell of that long road they travel o'er?
Leave naught undone of what you have to do,
For when you go, you will return no more.

See! the dawn breaks, and rends night's canopy:
Arise! and drain a morning draught with me!
Away with gloom! full many a dawn will break
Looking for us, and we not here to see!

Yogananda Glossary, verse 3

The emphasised Yogananda words (they have a little background colour) are his interpretations.

1. Cock: Wisdom, says Yogananda. If drinking is wise, or if it is wise drinking that is referred to, his interpretation is OK. However, there are many meanings of the cock, rooster or cockerel. They include fanning out with brilliance; the cock as a solar symbol and sign of illumination; the messenger of the Underworld, screeching out warnings. Other attached meanings include courage, arrogance and flamboyance.

   One of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, the Rooster is a Chinese symbol of honesty, and physical, moral fortitude and bossiness.

   Hearing a Rooster's voice in our dreams may indicate we need a wake-up call.

   The cockerel is a symbol of France too.

   In slang it refers to the penis. Depending on your interpretation, the imagined meanings of the verse change.

2. Tavern: Bodily life. It is a yogi's interpretation.
3. Door: Portal of inner silence. If a tavern of drinking people is ever quiet. A body door (opening) is meant, if the other guru interpretations are fit.
4. Little while we have to stay: The short span of bodily life. It could be, although the guru may seem to stretch the meaning much at first glance.
5. Once departed: Having left this earth forever, after acquiring wisdom. The essential Yogananda at this place is hardly: Drink so that you grab the cock - Drink for cockiness, and be annoying. If it is a cock of wisdom, it is a cock of wisdom. But it is not clearly stated in Fitzgerald's verse, is it?
6. May return no more: Need never again reincarnate. Perhaps, if "grabbing the cock" helps that much.

All in all, the guru's interpretation tells of his view of life with up to consistency in appointing and interpreting verse symbols this time. But were else does the cock serve as a symbol of wisdom? A better interpretation of the poem is likely to seek sane moderation and not farfetched symbol-making. And there are many options. Yogananda's sections called Spiritual interpretation and Practical application can be boiled down to this:

Proper wisdom may awaken you: Make the best of this present life.

Keep awake to life's highest duties: Meditate to gain bliss.

By comparing it with the "lowest common denominator" of the verse(s) we may end up with an inkling of what is Yogananda-inferred. It is quite a lot. I won't say his interpretation is bad; only that there may be room for other, consistent interpretations.

Verse 4

⊕⊕⊕⊕

The New Year is of spring and eagerness, and not winter-time: The first day of the Persian New Year is called Nowrus, and is celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, which is ca. 21 March. [Wikipedia, s.v. "Nowrus"]

Whinfield, v. 116, 201

Now is the time earth decks her greenest bowers,
And trees, like Musa's hand, grow white with flowers!
As 'twere at 'Isa's breath the plants revive,
While clouds brim o'er, like tearful eyes, with showers.

Talbot, 13, 80

The sweet Spring-breezes now the world adorn,
In hope of rain its eyes salute the morn;
The hands of Moses whiten many a spray,
The breath of Jesus moves the thrusting corn.

Yogananda Glossary, verse 4

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. New year: New dawn of wisdom.
2. Old desires: The age-old longing of the soul in quest of Spirit.
3. The thoughtful soul: The soul that reasons and discriminates.* It is explained that "the soul . . . has no need to reason or discriminate." [p. 10].
4. Solitude: The inner silence of spiritual consciousness.
5. White Hand: Purified consciousness.
6. Bough: Universal wisdom; Christ Consciousness.
7. Ground: The cosmic delusion of mortality.

Musa is Moses and Isa Jesus.

Verse 5

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 5

Yogananda Glossary, verse 5

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. Iram: Outward or sense-conscious state of man's mind and life. Iram: A fabulous garden supposed to have been planted in Arabia by Shaddad bin Ad. "Iram, planted by King Shaddad, and now sunk somewhere in the Sands of Arabia," says Heron-Allen in a verse note. [p. 29]
2. Rose: Temporary sense pleasures. Roses are ancient symbols of love and beauty. Ancient Greeks and Romans identified the rose with their goddesses of love, Aphrodite, also known as Venus. The rose can symbolise much else, and has been used as an emblem of silence. The Hidden Meaning of Dreams further says that Freud considered the red rose to symbolise the female genitalia. [Hmd, s.v. "Rose"]
3. Jamshyd: The soul's kingly consciousness of Infinity. Jamshed was a king of the Kainian dynasty.
4. Sevin-ringd cup: The cerebrospinal receptacle with its seven ring-like centers of consciousness and life. Through these seven plexuses the soul's life and consciousness descend from Spirit into the limitations of the body, and must ultimately ascend into the freedom of the Infinite.* Jamshyd's Seven-ring'd Cup was was a Divining Cup, and typical of the 7 Heavens, 7 Planets, 7 Seas, and so on, explains Heron-Allen [p. 29].
5. Where no one knows: The average person is unaware of the existence of the spinal centers and of their spiritual significance.
6. Vine: Soul.
7. Ancient ruby: The age-old soul-bliss (the fruit or "ruby" grapes of the soul-vine). The ruby in the wine is a phrase or image that occurs in several quatrains, Whinfield shows. The ruby is a symbol of passionate love, according to The Dreamer's Dictionary [Ddu].
8. Garden: Self-realization, blooming with spiritual qualities.
9. Water: Wisdom.

Yogananda's lengthy "serenades" and so-called interpretations of each verse are perhaps tedious, but even though some of them may not seem related to the poem, especially the medieval quatrains in translation, there are still good observations in them to think over. But if you mean that "A word to the wise will suffice, a thousand never will," then Yogananda's many thousand words may seem boring. The guru is into such themes of living. Below are mainly guru extracts:

There is a good reason for reasoning and discriminating well and enter the Presence. Souls have entered, found wisdom and freedom.

Garner the blossoms of success where they are found: Retire often to plan your life.

Being thoughtful and adequate is no sin . . .

Verse 6

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 119

Yogananda Glossary, verse 6

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. David's lips are lock't: The voice of the Infinite is outwardly silent.
2. High piping Pehlevi: The lofty language of divine wisdom. As Pehlevi (Pahlavi) is the tongue of the heroic age of Persia, so divine wisdom is the language of the Infinite.
3. Red wine: Spiritually vitalizing divine bliss.
4. Nightingale: Intuition. As the nightingale regales man with songs at night, so in the darkness of inner silence, wherein all material phenomena are obscured, truth sings through the devotee's intuition.
5. Yellowcheeked rose: The spiritual aspirant, once rosy-cheeked and enthusiastic, whose life has paled with the severity of self-discipline and self-denial.
6. To incarnadine: To crimson or vivify life with divine bliss.

Yogananda says a nightingale sings divinely, truly, wisely. Most birds do, as fit for their kind.

A wise man develops a sensitive taste for life's finer joys, and is in time awarded by the divine law for cultivating superior joy fruits. Compare Buddha's karma teachings.

Verse 7

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 59, 212, 425

Ah! thou hast snared this head, though white as snow,
Which oft has vowed the wine-cup to forego;
And wrecked the mansion long resolve did build,
And rent the vesture penitence did sew!

Each morn I say, "To-night I will repent
Of wine, and tavern-haunts no more frequent";
But while 'tis spring, and roses are in bloom,
To loose me from my promise, O consent!

Talbot, v. 16

Yogananda Glossary, verse 7

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. Fill the cup: Fill your consciousness.
2. Fire of spring: The warmth of spiritual enthusiasm.
3. Winter garment of repentance: The soul-bliss-freezing regret that follows sense indulgence.
4. Bird of time: Fleeting, ever-changing human life.
5. A little way to fly: Only a little time remains.
6. The bird is on the wing: Life is flying away without any definite purpose.

"Bring me wine; I do not care for words," says Omar, feeling sorry for wrong-doings [cf. Arthur Talbot's translation, Qo, v. 16]. Well, if you don't care much for Yogananda wordiness, "Waste not a precious moment", but fill your mind with positive stuff.

The life of the ordinary man flies away swiftly and erratically, you can glimpse if you care to.

Verse x

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Explanation: FitzGerald included a verse 8 in later editions. It was not in his first edition, but is in the translations of Graves and Ali-Shaw, Whinfield and Talbot.

Whinfield, v. 134

Talbot, v. 47

Yogananda Glossary

None (because the verse is missing in FitzGeral's first edition).

Verse 8

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Neither Whinfield nor Talbot seem to have any matching verses.

Yogananda Glossary verse 8

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. Blossoms: Good and bad qualities that bloom in and around the soul.
2. Day: Awakening of wisdom.
3. Woke: Manifested.
4. Scatter'd into clay: Destroyed by wisdom.
5. First summer month: Spiritual ardor, and the ecstasy of deep meditation.
6. Rose: Self-realization.
7. Jamshyd and Kaikobad: The spiritual sovereignty of realized souls.

When a man meditates deeply and finds the rose blooming in his house, so to speak, his duty as a gardener ceases, says Yogananda, for such a rose is free to roam. Other lovely flowers may die in the arms of time while such a rose blooms along and is not compelled to live on earth.

That is his teaching. The rose is a figurative element here. The body house is too.

Verse 9

⊕⊕⊕⊕

Whinfield, v. 455

Yogananda Glossary, verse 9

The emphasised Yogananda words are his interpretations.

1. Old Khayyam: Age-old wisdom that brings soul liberation.
2. Kaikobadand Kaikhosru: Forgotten souls once incarnate on earth.
3. Rustum: Potentially great soul who wastes life in temporal pleasures.
4. Hatim Tai: The worldly-minded man who intently pursues mundane duties.
5. Cry supper: Unthinking attachment to material activities.

What Yogananda thinks

Merely mourning the lot of others will not save you from a fate like theirs.

It is seldom wise to imitate the ways of those who are bound for grave disillusionment.

Never mind the fools who are indolent or engrossed in mundane life. You can cultivate wisdom which gives happiness.

The rich and powerful while away their time and death.

People eat breakfast, lunch, and supper, pursue their material duties; yet they die like gold-laden mules, unaware of much else.

The divine philosopher is the truly happy man. Therefore, cultivate wisdom which gives happiness.

Verse 10

⊕⊕⊕⊕

A garden or oasis, a place to drink and sleep beneath the trees: You may not have thought about it, but kriya "quitet gasping" has something in common with whisky drinking too.

Talbot, v. 151

Yogananda Glossary, verse 10

The highlighted Yogananda words are interpretations.

1. Strip of herbage: Narrow plot of superconsclousness, the soul's evernew wisdom, hidden between subconsciousness and waking consciousness.
2. Divides: Subtly separates.
3. Desert: The desolate subconscious mind, where the fresh daily experiences of the conscious mind are lost and buried.
4. The sown: Atmosphere of material civilization cultivated by the conscious mind.
5. Slave: Subject to instincts, illusions, and distractions of the subconscious mind.
6. Sultan: Powerfully developed material consciousness.
7. Pity Sultan Mahmud on his throne: Feel compassion for those who vainly seek happiness in temporal power.

Yogananda based

The dreary desert of delusion, wrong, ensnaring actions may be teeming with people who are lonely even in a crowd, and joyless in the middle of false pleasures.

Sleep can do you good, but may be crowded out during the busy wakeful state. Free yourself by deeply rejuvenating sleep. Deep sleep and beyond it to the experience of pure consciousness, turiya, which is neither a dreary waste nor a cultivated centre of restless living. [More on the value of sound sleep]

The Wisdom of Yogananda

In the previous eleven verse glossaries, Yogananda reads wisdom into eleven different things:

• Hunter of the East (verse 1),
• noose of light (1),
• cock (3),
• New Year (4),
• New dawn (4),
• high piping Pehlevi (6),
• day (8),
• bough (4),
• water (6),
• old Khayyam (9),
• strip of herbage (10).

For some reason Yogananda does not talk of "the oasis of wisdom in the dreary desert of sand" here.

Now it does not pay to despair if you feel he is not just thinking carefully in his appointing of wisdom symbols where he needs them to adapt the poem to his teachings. And do not despair if you sense that Yogananda's appointed symbols look arbitrary or haphazard; after all, "Everything represents Wisdom" if the Creator takes the responsibility for his "well done work of Creation". If. However, the Flood came to counteract that hope, according to Bible teachings, and fools discredit it a lot too.

There is also plain wisdom in "What the mouth is full of, the mouth runneth over with."

Ay: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1st ed. New York: Philosophical Library, 1946. Online. [oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk12.html]

Ddu: Robinson, Stearn, and Tom Corbett. The Dreamer's Dictionary: Understand the Deeper Meanings of Your Dreams. London: Element, 2003.

Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.

Hmd: Hamilton-Parker, Craig. The Hidden Meaning of Dreams. Ill. ed. New York: Sterling, 1999.

Qo: Talbot, Arthur B. Quatrains of Omar Khayyáám. London, Elkin Mathews, 1909.

Rup: Herford, Oliver. The Rubaiyat of A Persian Kitten. New York: Charles Schribner, 1904. Online Gutenberg E-text. 2008.
www.gutenberg.org/files/24258/24258-h/24258-h.htm

Sq: Khayyam, Omar, et al. The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam in Definitive Form. London: M. Walter Dunne, 1903.

Sus: Graves, Robert and Ali-Shah, Omar: The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam. Cassell. London, 1967.

Wm: Yogananda, Paramahansa. The Wine of the Mystic. Paperback. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1996.

Wikipedia information