Discourses of Rumi

280 V DISCOURSES OF RUMIAlthough the masses of people in this world donot reach the spiritual states of the prophets, stillthis world derives strength from the saints, andgrows and finds comfort in them. In the sameway, an infant, not knowing or recognizing itsmother in detail, still finds comfort and derivesstrength from her. Just as the fruit is nourished bythe branch, becoming sweet and ripe, yet knowsnothing of the tree. So, the great saints, with theirletters and speech, though the masses do notknow them, still the people gain strength from thesaints and are nourished.There is fixed within soul—beyond reason, letterand sound—a macrocosm. But look at howmany seek out those demented gurus who makeoutrageous claims. People think, “what thesegurus say may be true. Such things might exist,even if they are wrong in this case. Not everythingcan be known by reason and logic.” But this doesn’tmean that everything outside of reason andlogic is true. “Every nut is round, but not everyround thing is a nut,” is a sign of that.Although a saint has a state that cannot beexpressed through words and writing, still from