The lover and the Beloved – Story by Rumi

The lover and the Beloved [Story from Maulana Rumi’s Masnavi 1.4.1]

A man used to write a letter and read it to his beloved, while she sat besides him. The letter were verses of praise, despair, longing and other pleas of desperation.

Once day the beloved said, “If these letter are written for me, reading them while I am there with you, is useless and waste of life”

“When I present right with you, why you read the letter instead? This is not attribute of a true lover”

The lover responses, “Although you are present here, it does not give me happiness that I felt when you were in youth

The beloved replied, “Your beloved was not me, but my state of youth

You were not seeker of me, but a part of me

I am not your beloved, but the house where Beloved [God] lives

True Ishq is not with outside form [money safe], but what’s in inside [actual money]

True Beloved is that is in one state. When you found Beloved, it is both Zahir [revealed] and Baatin [Concealed]

True beloved [God] is the master of all things, he can make body into soul whenever He states

You are the lover of my state [youth], one who can be happy or sad, sometimes good, sometimes imperfect

If you are alive, seek and find the Beloved, who isn’t born, neither gives birth

Else, you will be servant of different states. Remain thirsty until you reach the fountain of Beloved