MASNAVI I:2653-5

THE PROPET reported that God said,
“I am not contained in the container of high and low.
I am not contained in the earth nor in the all heavens.
But I am contained in the heart of My faithful servant.
How wonderful! If you seek Me, seek Me there.”

DIVAN-I SHAMS 33569

REMEMBRANCE OF God instills in us a desire for the journey,
And makes us into travelers.

MASNAVI II:1286;1290-3

THE SENSUOUS eye is a horse,
And the light of God is the rider:
Without the rider the horse is useless.
The light of God rides the sensuous eye.
And then the soul yearns for God.
How can a riderless horse
Recognize the signs of the road?
God’s light enhances the senses:
This is the meaning of “light upon light.”

MASNAVI I:1741

WHILE THE thirsty seek water,
The water also seeks the thirsty.

MASNAVI II:688-9

TURN BACK from existence toward non-existence,
If you seek the Lord and belong to the Lord.
Non-existence is the place of income;
Do not run away from it.
This existence of more or less
Is the place of expenditure.

MASNAVI I:3245;3252

YOUR EARTHLY beloved eclipses the face of the Divine;
Your worldly guide drowns out the word of your true spiritual guide.
Do not despair: make yourself cheerful, call for help to Him who comes to the call.

MASNAVI II:746-7

IF you have a touchstone, choose; otherwise, go and devote yourself to one who is discerning. Either you must have a touchstone within your own soul or if you do not know the way, find a guide.

MASNAVIII:566-8

The reflections cast from good friends are needed until you become, without the aid of any reflector, A drawer of water from the sea.
Know that at first the reflection is jus imitation, but when it continues to recur, It turns into direct realization of truth.
Until it has become realization, Do not part from the friends who guide you –
Do not break away from the shell until the raindrop has become a pearl.

MASNAVI V:134-6

Until the cloud weeps, how can the garden flourish? Until the baby cries, How can the milk flow? A newborn baby understands: if she cries, a nurse will come.
But the Nurse of all nurses only gives milk when you cry out.

MASNAVI II:3312-14

Prophets and religious teachers are like sighs on the road, to guide spiritual travelers who become lost in the desert.
But those who have attained union with God need nothing but their inner eye and the divine lamp of faith; they need no signs of even a road to travel along.
Such people then become signs for others.

MASNAVI III:4302-8;4300

There is a famous river, full of the water of life.
Come, O heedless, thirsty one! Draw the water, so that the garden of your spirit may be nourished. If you can not see the water of life, let religious teachers guide you to the stream where it flows. Then blindly dip a jug into it, and when it becomes heavy, you will know that some water has gone from the river to the jug.
Time is passing by, and the abundant water is flowing away.
Drink ere, through your unrequited thirst, you fall to pieces!

MASNAVI I:3086

Every Prophet and every saint has a way, but all lead to God.
All ways are really one.

MASNAVI I:1974;1950

When a lamp has derived its light from a candle, everyone who sees the lamp certainly sees the candle.
Either behold the light of God from the lamps of the saints, or behold his light from the candle of those who have gone before.

MASNAVI III:978-80

Whether you are fast or slow, eventually you will find what you are seeking.
Always devote yourself wholeheartedly to your search.
Even though you may limp or be bent double, do not abandon your search, but drag yourself ever toward him.

MASNAVI V:1733-5

GOD has planted in your hearth the desire to search for him.
Do not look at your weakness but focus on the search.
Every seeker is worthy of this search.
Strive to redouble your efforts, so that your soul escapes from this material prison.

MASNAVI II:708-9

The Sunbeam fell upon the wall;
The wall received a borrowed splendor.
Why set your heart on a piece of turf,
O simple one? Seek out the Source
Which shines for ever.

MASNAVI II;1020-1

Know that the outward from passes away, But the world of reality remains for ever,
How long will you play at loving the shape of the jug?
Leave the jug; go, seek the water!

MASNAVI III:4581-3;4590-600

Every Blind wayfarer, whether righteous or wicked,
God is dragging, bound in chains, into His presence.
All are dragged along this way reluctantly, save those
Who are acquainted with the mysteries of divine action.
The command “Come against your will” is addresses to the blind follower; “Come willingly” is for the man molded of truth.
While the former, like an infant, loves the nurse for the sake of milk, the other has given his heart away to this Veiled One.
The “infant” has no knowledge of her beauty: he wants nothing of her except milk;
The real lover of the Nurse is disinterested, single minded in pure devotion
Whether God’s seeker loves Him for something other than He, that he may continually partake of His bounty,
Or whether he loves God for His Very Self, for naught besides Him, lest he be separated from Him, In either case the search proceeds from that Source: the heart is made captive by that Heart-ravisher.

MASNAVI 1:566-71

Plug your low sensual ear, which stuffs like cotton
Your conscience and make deaf your inner ear.
Be without ear, without sense, without thought,
And hearken to the call of God, “Return!”
Our speech and action is the outer journey,
Our inner journey is above the sky.
The body travels on its dusty way;
The spirit walks, like Jesus, on the sea.