It is the fruit that makes the tree bow low.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Spiritual attainment is not a thing to be brought before people to prove that it is real, or as a show. What is real is proof in itself, what is beyond all price or value does not need to be made much of before people. What is real is real, and the precious is precious in itself: it needs no explanation, nor pleading.
The greatest lesson of mysticism is to know all, gain all, attain all things, and be silent. The more the disciples gain, the more humble they become, and when any person makes this gain a means of proving themselves in any way superior to others, it is a proof that they do not really possess it. They may have a spark within themselves, but the torch is not yet lighted. There is a saying among the Hindus that the tree that bears much fruit bows low.
As Amir says, ‘The one who has lost the limited self, has attained the High Presence.’ Do we not forget ourselves when we behold the vision of beauty? If we are blind to beauty we cannot see it, and then we cannot forget ourselves in the beauty and sublimity of the vision. But when we perceive the beauty of nature, we bow our head in love and admiration. As a poet said of nature, ‘I cannot study you, for you are too great, you are too beautiful. The only thing left for me to do is to bow my head in prostration at your feet.’
True worshipers of God see The Presence in all forms, and thus in respecting others they respect God. It may even develop to such an extent that the true worshipers of God, the Omnipresent, walk gently on the earth, bowing in their hearts even to every tree and plant, and it is then that the worshipers form a communion with the Divine Beloved at all times.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
True humility is characteristic of the wise ones who know, who have gathered the harvest. The proud ones have to hold up their heads; they stand not by themselves. But the wise ones, seeing the power there and recognizing that the power is the gift of God, surrender that gift back to the Giver of all good things.
From another point of view, fruit is a burden, whether that burden takes the form of wealth, knowledge, power, or friends. All of these have a purpose, but when that purpose is out of harmony with one’s spiritual unfoldment its burdensome nature becomes manifest.