DIARY OF A DARVESH…A MYSTIC TRAVELER

  By  - Dr. Khalid Sohail

I have been traveling for years, decades, centuries,

In search of myself

In search of knowledge

In search of freedom

In search of truth

In search of wisdom

I have been traveling

In the North as well as the South

In the East as well as the West

Trying to find the centre

The centre of the universe

The centre of myself

In that journey

In that search

I have discovered

There are no destinations, only milestones

A wise man said, ‘ truth is a pathless land’

In these travels

I met many wise men and women

Who were kind and gentle

Who were caring and compassionate

Some followed religious traditions

Some followed spiritual traditions

While others followed secular traditions

They had a few things in common

They were in search of their truth

And followed their conscience

The most sacred thing on Earth

They followed the path of love

The most precious passion in life

They had compassion in their hearts

The most special feeling in the universe

They liked to win hearts not arguments

Their company made me aware

I am human

And

I have inherited all those traditions of the world

After all those travels

I am back in my hut

Sipping green tea

Reading books

Talking to my dear friends

When I pick up the phone

I hear the age-old message

Darvesh has gone in search of himself

Feel free to leave a message

If he is successful, he will return your call

Someone had left a message

If you are successful

Why would you come back home?

And I wonder

What do we consider home?

The place we were born

Or

The place we want to die

Or

The place we feel at home?

I am a mystic traveler

The whole world is my home

The whole humanity is my family

The believers and the non-believers

The saints and the sinners

The children and the elderly

The Whites and the Blacks

The poor as well as the rich

Men as well as the women

The able as well as the disabled

The happy as well as the sad

The literates as well as the illiterates

We are all in search of truth

Wanting to drink

From the fountain of wisdom

To quench our thirst

                                                                                      Dec 19, 2007