"A moment comes when these two spaces are not two any more. They have lost their boundaries, just like a dewdrop slipping from a lotus leaf into the lake. Will you call it a relationship between the dewdrop and the lake? It cannot be called a relationship because the dewdrop has become the lake, the lake has become the dewdrop.

"One of the great mystics, Kabir says:

Herat herat he sakhi, raha kabir herai –

"I was searching and searching and searching, and a miracle happened – the searcher disappeared, and that was the moment when there was no seeker, no searcher – that it was found.

"It is a far more profound and pregnant statement than Jesus' statement: 'Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given unto you, knock and the doors shall be thrown open to you.' That is very primary.

"Kabir's statement is: 'I was seeking and seeking, but because I was there as a seeker I was not finding it…I was the problem – not that it was far away, not that it was arduous. It was just in front of me! It was all around, it was everywhere. There was no need to seek and search, but because my eyes were closed by my ego – the seeker itself was the hindrance – that's why I was not finding it. But a moment came when the seeker evaporated and it was there, in all its beauty and benediction.'

"There is another beautiful story about one strange mystic woman, Rabiya al Adabiya. She used to pass from the marketplace every day just to purchase some vegetables, some fruits for herself. Just in the middle of the marketplace was the mosque. She never went in, she never used to visit the mosque, she never participated in any kind of religious ritual. She always saw a man who later on became a great friend and disciple of Rabiya – his name was Hassan – praying in front of the mosque every day, a very heartfelt prayer, tears rolling down from his eyes, hands raised toward the sky – and he was calling just like a lost small child for the mother."