If you cannot find the truth where you are,
Where do you expect to find it?
Truth is not far away; it is ever present.
It is not something to be attained
Since not one of your steps leads away from it.
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One evening people saw Rabia – the fakir minstrel - searching for something on the street in front of her hut. They gathered together — the poor old woman was searching for something. They asked, ‘What is the matter? What are you searching for?’ And she said, ‘I have lost my needle.’ So they also started helping.
Then somebody asked, ‘Rabia, the street is big and night is just descending and soon there will be no light and a needle is such a small thing — unless you tell us exactly where it has fallen it will be difficult to find.’
Rabia answered, ‘The needle has fallen inside my house.’ The people responded, ‘Have you gone mad? If the needle has fallen inside the house why are you searching here?’
And she said, ‘Because the light is here. Inside the house there is no light.’
Somebody said, ‘Even if the light is here, how can we find the needle if it has not been lost here? The right way would be to bring light inside the house so you can find the needle.’
And Rabia laughed, ‘You are such clever people about small things. When are you going to use your intelligence for your inner life? I have seen you all searching outside and I know from my own experience that that which you are searching for is lost within. And your logic is that because your eyes can see easily outside, and your hands can grope easily outside, that’s why you are searching outside. Why are you searching for bliss in the outside world? Have you lost it there?’
They stood dumbfounded and Rabia disappeared into her house.
