Majnun Takes Refuge in the Wilderness

February 2006
Meherabad, India

Majnun flees from the world where men perceive him to be mad because of their ignorance of Real Love.

The wild beasts can understand Majnun’s tormented heart torn by grief and they console him.

Excerpted from Nizami’s: “Leyli and Majnun”:

“…He had come as a stranger into their realm, yet had not hunted them. He had crept into their caves without driving them out. Just as they, he was afraid and fled whenever men approached. Did Majnun, therefore, appear to the animals like an animal himself? Not entirely: they sensed that he was different. He possessed a strange power, unlike that of the lion, the panther or the wolf, because he did not catch and devour smaller animals. On the contrary, if he found one of them caught in a trap, he stroked its fur, talked until it had calmed down, and then released it. Why? What kind of a creature was he? Who could understand him? He fed on roots, grass and fruit — but even of these he ate sparingly — and showed no fear of the powerful four-footed beasts of prey which could so easily have torn him to pieces and devoured him. Yet they did not do so. To everyone’s surprise, Majnun was never threatened by any of the beasts that hunt in the steppe and the desert. They became used to his appearance; he even attracted them. Catching his scent from afar, they came flying, running, trotting, creeping, drawing narrowing circles around him. Among them were animals of every kind and size, but — what a miracle — they did not attack each other, and lost all fear, as long as this trusted stranger stayed in their midst. They seemed to forget their hunger and became tame and friendly.”

Please contact Laurie Blum for details.