The beginners always make the same mistake with Maulana: they ask what they should do in their lives.
In that moment they launch a dangerous signal to a being like Maulana, perhaps because they do not know yet that he is a true master and has no scruples qualms in applying his methods of teaching.
In answer to the classic question he might say, and he did it already with more than one brother, “Open a circus.”
He recommends intentionally to the disciple something that most likely it will not work. He will come back complaining that the circus did not worked, and then Maulana will hearten him saying, “Well, do not worry. Now open a chicken farm“.
Maulana once told to a brother to buy a thousand sheep. The young man followed the advise with great enthusiasm, he went to buy the sheep choosing them one by one, and brought them in his own land in the mountains. But Maulana had neglected to remind him that the poor animals must also eat.
The aspiring shepard lived in a rocky area where nobody was breeding sheep, of course. And he was sitting there, with his thousand sheep that eventually ate all his finances in hay.
Once a man asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) an advice on how to improve the harvest of his date palms. He followed the instructions to the letter, but the following year the harvest was abundant throughout the region except in his garden. He went back to Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), confused to ask why. “You are the expert of your own world, do not ask me tips about things you should have learned from your father and you should have figured it out by yourself“, was the reply.
To a master we should ask what we cannot know by ourselves. It is good to question him about our heart, not about this world. He has no interest to place us somewhere in the materialistic system. If we survive it is enough for him, but maybe it is not for us.
You have to proceed alone along that journey.
You have to ask permission to the Sheikh about travel, wedding and divorce. If you want to do something that touches his reign, a film about him, for example, then you need to consult him; but for the rest, it is better to try to manage it by yourself.
Otherwise the master will continue to propose situations more and more absurd until we learn to look inside our heart and to feel there his guidance, his voice, his eyes.
The master loves us, not for who we are or what we do.
He loves us and that’s it, because he is love.
