The Mystic Trap

[Guest guest]

Rabia, the great mystic of Basra, was renowned for her ethereal

beauty. Once a rich young man from Iran came to Basra. He was in

search of something unusual and out of this world. He asked people if

Basra had any such thing?"

 

"Yes," They all told him. "We have the most beautiful woman of the

world!" The young man naturally became interested and he asked for

her address.

 

And they all laughed and said, "Well, where else? In a brothel!"

 

That repulsed the rich young man, but finally he decided to visit

her. And when he got there, the matron asked for an exorbitant fee.

He paid the fee and was ushered in. There, in a silent and simple

room, a figure was praying. What beauty she had!

He had never seen such beauty and grace, not even in his dreams. Just

to be there was a benediction, and the prayerful atmosphere started

affecting him too. He forgot about his passion. He was entering into

another kind of space. He was drugged. He was turned on to God.

 

An hour passed and he felt he was in a temple! Oh, such joy and such

purity! He went on feasting on her beauty. But it was no more the

beauty of a human being -- it was God's beauty.

 

And then Rabia opened her eyes, those lotus eyes, and he looked into

them, and there was no woman in front of him - he was facing God. And

this way the whole night passed, as if it were only a moment.

 

The sun was rising and its rays were coming through the windows, and

he felt it was time to go. He said to Rabia, "I am your slave. Tell

me anything, anything in the world that I can do for you."

 

She said, "I have only one little request."

 

He asked, "What is it?"

 

Rabia says, "Never tell anybody what you have seen and experienced

here. Allow the people to come to me. This beauty is nothing but a

trap set for them. I use it as a door for them to enter God. Please,

promise me that you will never tell others what you have experienced

here tonight. Let them come to a whore and a brothel, because

otherwise they will never come to me."

 

"Oh!" he said, "So this is the secret of this city. The whole city

clamours after your beauty, yet nobody tells me about his experience."

 

Rabia laughed and said, "Yes, I extract the promise, this promise,

from all of them."

 

Rabia used her beauty as a trap. Buddha used his words as a trap.

Krishna used his flute as a trap. Meera used her dance as a trap. You

have to be trapped. And you can only be trapped in ways that you can

understand. You have to be taken from the known into the unknown, but

the beginning has to be in the known.

 

You understand passion. The young man was not in search of God, but

he became interested in a beautiful body, in a beautiful woman - and

was trapped. He had gone there because of his passion. Once he was

there in the presence of Rabia, the passion started changing - it

became prayer.

 

from OSHO