Lesson 2: The Story of the Greengrocer and the Parrot

Meaning: Do not measure the actions of the pure by your own standard, even though shér (lion) and shír (milk) are written the same way (in Persian).

Meaning: The whole world has gone astray for this very reason of measuring the pure against themselves, and few came to know God's saints (the Abdāl or Substitutes).

Meaning: They presumed themselves equal to the prophets and assumed the saints were just like them.

Meaning: They said, 'We are human, and they are human; they and we are both bound by sleep and food.'

Meaning: Yet in their spiritual blindness, they did not see the endless difference between themselves and the saints.

Meaning: For instance, both species of zanbur fed in the same place, yet one (the hornet) gave a sting, and the other (the bee) gave honey.

Meaning: Both deer species fed on the same grass and water, yet one produced dung and the other pure musk.

Meaning: Both reeds drank from the same water source, yet one remained hollow while the other filled with sugar.

Meaning: Look at hundreds of thousands of such outward resemblances, yet know that the difference between them is as great as seventy years of road apart.

Meaning: One (the misguided and deniers) eats, and from it filth and impurity are discharged; the other (the prophets and saints) eats, and its entire being becomes the light of God.

Meaning: One eats, and of him only envy and miserliness are born; the other eats, and of him only the light of the peerless One shines forth.

Meaning: One is pure, fertile soil while the other is barren and corrupt; one is a pure angel while the other is a devil and a wild beast.

Meaning: It is no wonder if they both appear alike in outward form, for bitter water and sweet water share the same clarity.

Meaning: Who but a person of true taste can discern the difference? Find such a one, for only he can distinguish sweet water from the brine.