“Eat the divine, drink the divine, cover yourself with the divine, wear the divine, wake up in the divine, sleep in the divine – live the divine! Too many prayers have been said, too much worship done – offerings, fire rituals, oblations, so many of them have been made and nothing has been accomplished. Live! Food is God. Taste him. In eating too, remember – it is he. Talking to someone, remember – it is he. Slowly slowly the recognition will become constant. Slowly, slowly your life will be overwhelmed by his beauty: the beloved will be seen.” ~OSHO

“Where is this “we” and this “I”?  By the side of the Beloved. You made this “we” and this “I” in order that you might play this game of courtship with Yourself, and finally drown in the Beloved.” ~Rumi

The general theme of Rumi’s thought, like that of other mystic and Sufi poets of Persian literature, is essentially the yearning for union with his beloved (God) from which/whom he has been cut off and become aloof — and his longing and desire to restore it.  Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dance as a path for reaching God.  For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected.