Rumi²

The two poems below, written by Persian mystic Rumi 800 years ago, seem to transcend Islam and speak to a more universal religion.  In particular, the last four lines of "Flood Residue" and the opening of "As Ripeness Comes" sound quite a bit like Hinduism:

 

Flood Residue
from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks ©2004
 
The taste of today is not that of yesterday.
A pot boils over.
 
A watchman calls down the ladder,
Did you hear the commotion last night
from the seventh level?
 
Saturn turns to Venus and tells her
to play the strings more gently.
Taurus milk runs red.  Leo slinks from the sky.
 
Strange signs, because of a word
that comes from the soul
to help us escape speaking and concepts.
 
I answer the nightwatchman,
You will have to assign meaning
For these ominous events.
 
I have been set free from the hunt,
the catching and being caught,
to rest in these dregs
of flood residue, pure and empty.

As Ripeness Comes
from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks ©2004

What souls desire arrives.
We are standing up to our necks
in the sacred pool.  Majesty is here.

The grains of the earth take in something
they do not understand.

Where did this come from?
It comes from where your longing comes.

From which direction?
As ripeness comes to fruit.

This answer lights a candle
in the chest of anyone who hears.

Most people only look for the way when they hurt.
Pain is a fine path to the unknowable.

But today is different.
Today the quality we call splendor
puts on human clothes, walks through the door,
closes it behind, and sits down with us
in this companionship.