Discourses of Rumi

110 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIscent follows the musk, and goes wherever themusk goes.Fortunate is the person who finds the muskfrom following its scent and then becomes onewith the musk. They never die, but become aneternal part of the musk’s essence, imbued withthe qualities of the musk. They will carry its scentto the world, and the world is revived by them.Only the name of what that person used to be survives,as with a horse or any other animal that hasturned to salt in the desert, only the name of horseremains to it. In effect and in truth it has nowbecome a part of that great ocean of salt. Whatgood or harm can a name do? It will not bring itout of its saltiness. And if you give some othername to this salt-mine, it will not change its taste.So it behooves us to turn away from the pleasuresand delights of this world, that are the raysand reflections of God. We must not become contentwith this much, even though this much existsthrough God’s grace and the radiance of God’sbeauty. Still, it is not eternal. From God’s viewpointit is eternal, but from our viewpoint it isnot. It is like the rays of the sun that shine into