Our Inner Treasure

There is an old Sufi story that talks about how God tricked the human ego in order to keep a divine connection between God and all humankind….

One day, God decided that since the Creation is so good, and that I created humanity as being very good, I will have to devise a way to keep the connection to the Creation and to humankind. I will place a flame of inner love or spiritual recognition on Earth as a sacred treasure.

God pondered where this spiritual treasure could be hidden. God thought that because the human ego is so inventive, I will have to hide it in a place that will be hard to reach, so I can protect it from being exploited. So God decided to hide it in the depths of the ocean….

On second thought, God said, no, that will not do because mankind will find some way or devise some machine that will locate it…. And then try to use it for some selfish gain. Now this went on as God considered it the highest mountain, and even putting it on the Moon!

Finally, it came to divine awareness…. I will hide the treasure of true identity where human beings fear to look-deep within themselves. I will place a fire of love, devotion, and connection to ME in the human heart-only those who sincerely look for me there will find me- the others who would be selfish or self-serving will never think to look there!

And so it was, that God took a piece of divinity and hid it in every human heart, and left it there for each of us to find, to feel, to know, and then, to rejoice!

God Is Beneath All Forms

Within Sufi lore and legend, there is a story of a dialogue between God and the great prophet Moses, who had just scolded an ordinary person for addressing God in simple language and in human terms. Mortified, the person shrinks away in shame…

God then appears to Moses and says:

“You and your actions have separated me from one of my sons! Did I make you into a prophet so that you can unite me to my people or to sever me from my people???

I have given each and every one of my prophets a unique way of seeing, knowing, and stating that knowledge. What seems wrong to you, is right for him.

Spiritually speaking, what is poison for one can be honey to another. Purity and impurity, sloth and diligence in worship mean nothing to ME. I am, in truth, apart from all that.

Ways that humans worship are not to be ranked better or worse, just different. Hindus do what Hindus do. Dravidian Muslims do what Dravians do. All is praise, and all is all right. After all, it is not Me that is truly glorified in worship. It is the worshipers themselves!

For I do not hear the words themselves, I look for the light inside each person, I look for their humility, their sincerity, their passion. Forget phraseology! What I want from people is burning, burning…. I want them to burn up all false thinking and forms of expression! I want a burning desire for ME!

Moses… Those who pay attention to external ways of behaving and speaking are one sort of person. Lovers who burn, are another.