Discourses of Rumi

FIHI MA FIHI V 283Twenty years of my life striving and seeking havegone to the winds, for I labored in the hope thatthere was another word beyond this. Now youhave destroyed my hope.” Though the Sufi hadalready attained the Word he sought, he said thisto arouse the grammarian.The greater the number of guests, the largerthey make the house, the more furniture theybring in, and the more food they prepare. This iswhy the stature of little children is small, and theirthoughts too, which are their guests, are appropriateto the house of their bodies. They knownothing except milk and their nurses. When theygrow older the guests, their thoughts, alsoincrease, and their house of reason, perceptionand discrimination expands. When the guests ofpassionate love arrive, they are too much for thehouse. They demolish it and build anew.God’s veils and God’s scouts and troops cannotbe contained in God’s house. God’s veils cannothide Its door. To accommodate infinite guests, aninfinite station is required. When God’s veils arehung, they shed light and dissolve all shadows, so