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| | | Book Name: Sufis - The People of the Path, Vol 1 | Previous Next | |
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he darted into a church where a revival meeting was in progress. At the sight of his Devil's costume, people began to scatter through the doors and windows.
One lady got her coat sleeve caught on the arm of one of the seats and as the man came closer she pleaded, 'Satan, I've been a member of this church for twenty years, but I've really been on your side all the time.'
But that's the situation of all ladies and of all gentlemen -- they pay lipservice to God but basically they are surrendered to the Devil. The Devil is deeper because the Devil has been repressed. Whenever something is repressed it goes deeper into your being; you become only a hypocrite.
By asserting the symbol of the animal Sufis declare, 'We are simple people. We don't know what is good and what is bad. We know only God, and whatsoever happens is his gift. We accept it. We are not doers on our own accord. ' This is the first meaning of the word 'Sufi'.
There is another possibility: the word 'Sufi' can be derived from 'sufa' -- purity, cleanliness, purification. That too is good. When you live a life of choicelessness a natural purity comes. But remember, this purity has nothing of morality in it. It does not mean pure in the sense of being good; it means pure in the sense of being divine, not in the sense of being good. Pure simply means pure of all ideas, good and bad both. Purity means transcendence. One has no idea at all, no prejudices. One trusts life so utterly that one need not have any ideas, one can live without ideas. When ideas are there in the mind they create impurity, they create wounds. When you are too full of ideas, you are too full of dirt. All ideas are dirty. Yes, even the idea of God is a dirty idea, because ideas are dirty.
For a Sufi, God is not an idea, it is his lived reality. It is not somewhere sitting on a throne high in the heavens, no -- it is herenow, it is all over the place, it is everywhere. God is just a name for the totality of existence.
Purity means a contentless mind -- so please don't be misguided by the word 'purity'. It does not mean a man who has a good character. It does not mean a man who behaves according to
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