What if someone said to an embryo in the womb,
‘Outside of your world of black nothing
is a miraculously ordered universe;
a vast Earth covered with tasty food;
mountains, oceans and plains,
fragrant orchards and fields full of crops;
a luminous sky beyond your reach,
with a sun, moonbeams, and uncountable stars;
and there are winds from south, north and west,
and gardens replete with sweet flowers
like a banquet at a wedding feast.
The wonders of this world are beyond description.
What are you doing living in a dark prison,
Drinking blood through that narrow tube?’
But the womb- world is all an embryo knows
And it would not be particularly impressed
By such amazing tales, saying dismissively:
‘You’re crazy. That is all a deluded fantasy.’
One day you will look back and laugh at yourself.
You’ll say, ‘ I can’t believe I was so asleep!
How did I ever forget the truth?
How ridiculous to believe that sadness and sickness
Are anything other than bad dreams.’
Republished with permission from
‘Rumi Wisdom – Daily Teachings from the Great Sufi Master’
by Timothy Freke