Faith Brings the World Together . . .

The scriptures tell us that God is like light. He cannot be grasped, cannot be touched. God has no bones or flesh, no limbs or form. He cannot be known, only felt—and even that, only after great effort. How would an illiterate poor farmer understand or comprehend all this? For him, God is like a friend, a person of flesh and blood.

Just such a farmer has been deeply restless for days now. He keeps saying, O God! Where are you? Come before me, let me serve you. I will anoint your hair with fragrant oil, I will massage your shoulders and feet. If you do not show yourself, if I cannot touch and hold you, how am I to serve you?

A learned scholar of the scriptures happened to pass that way and heard the farmer saying these things. He went to the farmer and said, What is this you are saying? Have you lost your mind? To speak like this is sin! You will go to hell! God has no hair, He needs no oil. Your audacity knows no bounds—you want to touch Him! What sense possesses you to massage God's body? Even to wish such a thing is sin! Do you have no fear of sin? His light can perhaps be sensed from afar, and even that only if one is sufficiently virtuous. No one can ever come closer than that. Stop this mad prattle of yours!

The poor illiterate farmer understood none of these words. He went on with his mad devotion, desperate to have God near him, just as before. All the scholar's knowledge never reached his ears.

The scholar grew so exasperated with the farmer that he left without saying more. That night, in a dream, someone came to his house and said to him, Why did you berate my devotee so harshly today? Your endless knowledge brings me no satisfaction. You know me, but you do not know me. This devotee of mine yearns so desperately to serve me, and here you are, criticizing him! After reading countless scriptures, have you ever felt such love for me, such simple, aching longing? Why do you wish to confuse my true devotee with the illusion of knowledge?

This story is for those who make too much fuss about the manifest and formless aspects of worship, about worship with and without form. Tell me yourself: who is experiencing God most intimately and deeply? The scholar steeped in scriptures, or the illiterate farmer? We merely debate and follow rituals; because of our endless chatter, God hides Himself in silence. The scholar has known God; the farmer has found Him.

Where the farmer has already arrived, the scholar is only now learning the way. Is there only one path? Google Maps is full of maps of roads, but the roads themselves are not there.