The Bowl of Saki Commentary
Commentary for:
Joy and sorrow both are for each other. If it were not for joy, sorrow could not be; and if it were not for sorrow, joy could not be experienced.
Commentary from Hazrat Murshid SAM (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, Samuel L. Lewis):
The Bowl of Saki Commentary, copyright © 1981, 2012 Sufi Ruhaniat International. All rights reserved.
The heart from its very nature expands and contracts, grows warmer and colder. After contraction, the very nature of life tends to make it to expand again, and there is sorrow, there is a tightening of processes, a deadness and dullness. Pain accompanies the escape from sorrow, but the end of pain is expansion in the spirit, which surely leads to joy.
At the same time, if one becomes so rapt in joy, if one in such moments becomes attached to the self, the joy in turn will lead to further sorrow. The purpose of spiritual development is to understand the nature of life beneath joy and sorrow and so find peace in every experience regardless of its fruits.