Member-only story
Redeeming The World
One day I was walking in a city and met a dervish with a wonderful personality. He was dressed in a patched robe, but his speech, his voice, his thought, his movements, his atmosphere, were all most winning. At that time I was very young in the pursuit of philosophy. Youth is a time when pride has full play. So as we were walking along, and he called me ‘Murshid’, I was very glad. He addressed me as Murshid every time he spoke to me!
Presently we met another person, who seemed to be without any education, without any knowledge of philosophy or religion or anything out of the way, but he called him ‘Murshid’ too. My pride was hurt, especially when next he came across a policeman whom he also called ‘Murshid’.
So later I asked my teacher what could be the meaning of all this, and he said, ‘Your dervish showed you the first step towards recognizing God: to recognize all beings as your teacher. A foolish person can teach you, a wise person, a learned person, a student, a pious or a wicked person, even a little child; everyone can teach you something…
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
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A pearl in the shell does not touch the ocean.
Be a pearl without a shell
~ Mevlana Rumi
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