Baba Faqir Rumi: The Disciple is Genuine Even If the Guru is Not
Below are some delightful and insightful words from Rumi about how, in a world of illusion and pretense, the genuine spiritual seeker will, despite some detours along the way, ultimately reach their destination.
"It takes a long time for the hidden mystery (reality) of a man to become more or less evident so that we may know whether under the wall of his body there is a (spiritual) treasure, or there are holes of ants (of carnal hankerings), snakes (of envy and spite) and dragons (of temptations, attachments, hubris, wiles and guiles). And by the time the seeker discovers that he is an imposter, it is too late to make amends.
"Sometimes, though rarely, a seeker sincerely trusting a meretricious imposter and believing that he is someone in particular, by means of his trust, attains to a spiritual state which the imposter has not even dreamt of.....
"Sometimes, though rarely, the disciple (of a false guru) because of the sincerity of his quest for God may derive spiritual benefit even from that false guru (literally, 'the falsehood of the imposter may turn out to be profitable to the seeker.'). Due to his own honest intention he ascends to a higher spiritual region (not because of but despite the pretender whom he imagined to be the 'soul' but who turned out to be only 'flesh'.) Such a sincere seeker may even have spiritual experiences which his worthless guru may not have had in ages."
-- Mathnawi of Rumi, Volume I, M.G. Gupta Translation, M.G. Publishers, Agra
