Discourses of Rumi

discourse 70Rumi said: Some people say that in the humansoul is an evil not found in animals and wildbeasts, but this does not mean that people areworse than beasts. Rather, this evil character anddarkness of soul in the human being hides a secretessential element. The more precious and noblethat element is, the greater the veil to hide it, andsuch veils cannot be removed without great effort.These struggles are of various kinds. The greatestis to spend time with friends who have turnedtheir faces to God and turned their backs on thisworld. There is no more difficult combat thanthis, for the very sight of them dissolves our egoand worldly desires. That is why they say that if asnake has seen no human for forty years itbecomes a dragon, since it has seen no one whocould stop the growth of its own evil nature.Wherever men or women put a big lock, that isa sign of something precious and valuable. Just