The epic of inness – Rumi, Ferdowsi and contemporary man

Modernity emerged after the Renaissance and the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries andinfluenced the life of contemporary man to a large extent. Man today seeks his happiness outside of himself and is oblivious to the world within. The epic within or the soul finds a special meaning in the domain of philosophy and religion. Philosophically, soul refers to the body whereas in essence it is independent of the body.Soul is the same thing as the inside, sometimes it belongs to the body and sometimes it has a spiritual sense. From the point of view of religion, soul is the light emanating from the divine light which descends to the human body. The soul can be interpreted as the psyche and the inside, which has put modern man at the crossroads of tradition and modernity causing his bewilderment. Industry instead of providing his comfort, creates more obstacles.   This descriptive-analytical study is an attempt to find common grounds related to the human psyche in the epic Poem of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh and the mystical poem of Rumi's Masnavi to express how contemporary man confronts his long tradition and background with the modern world. In mystical epic texts inside is referred to as the heart, soul, psyche and inner soul. Ferdowsi uses   psyche instead of the inside. According to Rumi, contemporary man can create an epic through battle with his self and open a new horizon by traveling from the material world to the spiritual world to find meaning. Ferdowsi, on the other hand, considers the human psyche as a means of man’s wisdom and happiness.