Ever since it came to him in a dream, the mind had failed to be still. Maybe it was important, maybe this too was part of a test. Maybe this too was a lesson yet to be learnt. Either way, lip quivering, mind unresting and with eyes of new found look of curiosity, the dervish set out to meet her. And so came to be the story of how a wise and wandering dervish from the wilderness of the forest set out to meet the prostitute, to learn the art of love.
As soon as he reached the courtyard, he scanned the place and caught glimpses of their eyes. All this while, he had taught himself to lower his eyes with a bowed head when looking at women. However, there was one among them he found himself looking directly at. The promise that hid in her glance was unmistakable. He had found her.
He walked gently through towards her and then followed her into the secret grove. With her back still facing him, he felt a strange dizziness envelop him - her sweet scent and body odour were beginning their work. "Im here to learn from you, the art of love" he said, trying to gain control."Are you sure, o dervish?, you may want to keep your distance as i'm unclean today" she said trying not to meet his eyes. "Besides, why would someone as divine as you want to learn from a prostitute like me?"
It was now dawning upon the dervish that lessons were to be learned at both ends. With a comforting look, he nodded for her to continue.
"I have to cover myself and take precautions for being a woman at your manly places of worship. Worse still, because I'm also a prostitute, have to also bear the beatings and kicks for entering the places sometimes."
"But i try. I keep trying" she said with a sad feeling rising and apparent on her face. "Because there's still a hope that He's not all that wretched as we've been told about Him"
The dervish rubbed his forehead and extended his arm to show the sweat on his palm."Your state or Menstruation is as natural as the beads of sweat from my forehead. There's no need for you to be embarrassed about it. If people find your state unclean then tell them we are all unclean most of the time. Any God who judges the bodily state of His creatures before any act of worship, is not worthy of godliness" he said calmly and looking deep into her eyes, lovingly.
"The deeper significance behind these can never be comprehensible to bigots and since the world is mostly full of them, even at places of worship, the rules do not apply" he continued.
"As for entering the places of worship, if the presence of a fairer sex is a distraction to some men, then maybe they are the ones who should be disallowed entry and not otherwise.""Keep clinging on to that hope, fair one. The divine femininity along with the masculinity lies within every being, be it male or female, for it to be recognised. This recognition of balance of the energies unravels everything that you have sought to know and you will finally understand what peace truly means" with this he closed his eyes and began to bow in front of her.
"My purpose here was to learn your art but i now see that you had to learn from me first in order to teach me better."
"I look forward to learning from you, someday" he said as he turned and walked away.Never had she heard this version of the truth. She stood there a long time, watching him walk back and doubting if she could ever teach him the art, for she knew that she was falling for him.
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