Santosh Rathod

When a honeybee searches for honey, it sits on flower after flower, trying to detect their nectar. Its whole intention is to obtain honey. It does not search for feces; its only love is for the honey, the fragrance, and the pollen. It does not need feces. It flies for long distances to find flowers. It sits on a flower and draws the honey, then carries the honey in its mouth and the pollen on its feet, returns to its hive and deposits them there. Little by little, it makes large quantities of honey. It does not search for anything else. If there is any other scent, whether it is the odor of feces or even the sweet fragrance of attar, it will not be attracted by them. It goes directly to a flower to take its honey.

In the same way, one who is truly searching for God, one who is searching for God’s grace and truth and qualities, flies to a sheikh as a honeybee flies to a flower. What does he need from that flower? He needs the wisdom and honey which is God’s grace. To obtain the honey of grace and God’s qualities and actions, he must sit by the side of the sheikh and extract them from the sheikh, just as a bee extracts honey from a flower. That is his honey.

The disciples must sit on the qalb, the innermost heart, of the sheikh and imbibe the honey. Around him there may be land, gold, women, treasures, feces, urine, gold, silver, or platinum. There may be silk and velvet. There may be wealth and happiness, house and property, families and tribes. There may be thrones and palaces and many treasures. All these and more may surround the sheikh, but the true disciple will never sit upon any of them because they do not have the fragrance he is seeking. They do not have that honey.

If he sits only on the heart of the sheikh, then he can obtain the honey of grace, the honey of gnanam, the honey of God’s light, the honey of the resplendence called Nur, the honey of the kingdom of God’s grace, the honey of God’s mystery. That disciple, that devotee, the one who does service to the sheikh, service to God, and service to all mankind, will sit on the heart of the sheikh and drink of his honey. He will not sit on the world.

On the other hand, those who prefer the gold, silver, wealth, women, land, races, religions, colors, gems, houses, properties, health, and happiness that surround the sheikh will never gather any honey, for those things all belong to the earth. What they think is gold is not really gold; it is earth. The precious stone is not a precious stone; it is hell. They will never find honey from any of these things. Anyone who places his faith in these things will perish with them. If it is something that belongs to the earth, he will go to the earth. If it belongs to hell, he will go to hell. If it belongs to maya, to illusion, he will go to maya. He will never be able to extract honey.

This is what a person with a great deal of experience in the world has said. That is what the Sufi sheikh has said.

There are many types of insanity in the world. We will talk about five common ones:

* The insanity originating in the brain,
* The insanity for women,
* The insanity for money,
* The insanity for intoxication
* The insanity for wisdom.

At a crossroads near a park, there was a shady tree. Five people with these five forms of insanity were sitting beneath the tree. They were talking to themselves. To the passerby, the five crazy people looked alike, but there were different reasons for their craziness.

The man who was mentally insane picked up all the scraps of paper and dead leaves on the ground and turned them around in his hands, jabbering to himself, “You went this way, you went that way.”

The one who was obsessed by women picked up all the scraps of paper thinking they were love letters. He muttered, “She wrote this, she wrote that. She said, I will come to you!”

The one obsessed by money picked up all the scraps of paper, looked at them, turned them this way and that, and mumbled to himself, “This bank, that bank. This amount, that amount. My bank.”

The one who was insane from drink stood up and staggered onto the road, bumping into people and things. Finally, he fell unconscious by the roadside, and robbers took his clothes. When he came back to consciousness he was ashamed, so he went home, fought with his wife, and blamed his family for his own faults.

But the one who was obsessed by wisdom took up a dead leaf and smiled wistfully. “What beauty you had when you emerged as a tender shoot. At first you were a lovely green color which soothed others. Then you became yellow, and now you are the color of earth. You are a dried leaf and you will go into the earth as fertilizer. Everyone and everything will suffer the same fate. Everyone and everything becomes food for the earth.” He laughed and cried, but not on the inside.

The man obsessed with wisdom laughed at his own explanation. He said, “What a life this is! O God, I search for You and become crazy. You are the only doctor who can cure my craziness. If You do not come, I will die like the leaf. You are the One who creates, protects, and sustains me. You are the One who understands and knows me. Give me Your medicine of grace, wisdom, and love and fulfill my needs. I am Your slave in this world.” His heart opened, and he surrendered to God.

The other four did not realize this. They were speaking of what was within them. But to the world, all five people looked crazy.

Son, understand these states. Do not follow the ways of the world. If you see one who truly understands himself, loses himself in the obsession for wisdom, and dies in God, you should respect him and learn good words and wisdom from him. That will make you exalted.