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Nasrudin and the Professor

Sep 01, 2004 07:00 AM
by Morten N. Olesen


Hallo all,

My views are:

"My Beautiful Seed"

Mullah Nasrudin gave spiritual instruction to his students in his
apartment on Thursday evenings. Among those who came was a professor of
comparative religions. The professor was very learned and in every way
treated Mullah Nasrudin with great respect. 

However, every time that the Mullah began to give some history about his
teaching, the professor would correct the Mullah filling in minute
details and historical facts. Whenever Mullah Nasrudin would begin to
tell a Sufi story, after the first line, the professor would begin to
laugh and say, 'This is a good one!' 

After one such class Mullah Nasrudin thought to himself, "Why has this
man come to me? He obviously is more knowledgeable about what I am going
to say than I am and yet he comes here every week. He is more polite
than all of the rest of my students put together and yet his input,
interesting as it is, disrupts my teaching. Why has he come and what am
I to do with him?" While Mullah Nasrudin was contemplating this
situation he was looking out of his window at a flower stand across the
street and the thought to himself, "That's it!" 

Mullah Nasrudin invited the professor to come a little early for the
next meeting. When the professor knocked at the door and when Mullah
answered it he asked, "Professor, would you mind to do me a favor?" 

"Not at all." Said the professor. 

"Then please go across the street for me and buy me some flower seeds
and whatever I might need to grow them." Said the Mullah 

"Certainly!" said the professor and off he went. 

Soon the professor returned with the flower seeds, a pot and everything
needed to grow the flowers as Mullah Nasrudin had requested. Mullah
opened the bag of seeds and spread them out on the table, "Ah!" he said,
"This is the most beautiful of all my seeds. I would say that this one
has the most potential so I am going to treat it in a very special way."
He showed the seed to the professor and said, "Isn't it a lovely seed?" 

"Yes." Agreed the professor. "It is a very nice one." 

" I have something very special that I want to do with it. Please plant
the others in that pot." Said Mullah Nasrudin as he went off to another
room. 

When he came back, the professor had just finished planting the other
seeds. And Mullah Nasrudin asked the professor, "Professor, I grew up in
a very arid area. There we do not waste our precious water just to grow
things for their beauty and their interesting form so I am most
inexperienced at growing things such as flowers. Do you suppose that you
could stop by for a moment everyday to check on these flower seeds for
me and take good care of them?" 

"Yes, I would be happy to stop by for a moment on my way home from work.
But what do you intend to do with that other seed?" asked the professor. 

Mullah Nasrudin had a book of scriptures in his hand which he placed on
the table. When he opened the book there was the seed that he had kept
apart from the others. He lovingly stroked the little seed with his
fingers saying, "What a beautiful seed." then Mullah Nasrudin walked
over to his kitchenette and got a funnel and a flashlight and then
returned to the book on the table. He asked the professor to turn on the
flashlight and shine its light onto the seed. Then Mullah Nasrudin held
the wide end of the funnel to his mouth and the narrow end of the funnel
over the seed and began reciting from the scriptures. The professor
stood there holding the flashlight with a look of amusement on his face
but said nothing. When Mullah Nasrudin had finished he 
took the flashlight from the professor, thanked him and lead him to the
door saying, "I'll see you tomorrow." and the professor left. 

Day after day, the professor came to water the seeds and to hold the
flashlight for the Mullah as he read scriptures into the funnel over the
seed. Soon the other seeds in the flower pot were sprouting and growing
and before too many weeks some were beginning to flower and all along
Mullah Nasrudin put all of his attention on that one seed to which he
had been reading and kept in a book of scriptures. 

Then one day when the professor stopped by, the last of the seeds in the
pot had bloomed. Mullah Nasrudin looked at the flowers and then went
over to the book where the seed was kept and inspected the seed very
closely. He picked up the seed and placed it in the professor's hand. 

"Look at this seed professor. Nothing seems to have happened. It is
still as it was when we began. Surely, this seed is a thousand times
more knowledgeable than all of the other seeds put together. I have read
all of the words of Life to it, we have shined on it the light of
intelligence and still it does not grow. What can have gone wrong?" 

The professor looked at the seed and then at Mullah Nasrudin and tears
started to stream down his face and fell onto the seed. "I am this
seed." Said the professor, "All of this has been to open my heart and
now, finally, I understand." The professor closed his hand around the
seed and wept. 

Mullah Nasrudin took the professor in his arms, held him and whispered
into his ear, "You have just sprouted my beautiful seed." 

-------

Now we can not say, that Theos-talk or any theosophical group harbours a similar professor, can we?
>:-)


from
M. Sufilight with peace and love...

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




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