Yet I cannot tarry longer.
The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.
For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mold.
Fain would I take with me all that is here. But how shall I?
A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether.
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.
Now when he reached the foot of the hill, he turned again toward the sea, and he saw his ship approaching the harbor, and upon her prow the mariners, the men of his own land.
And his soul cried out to them and he said:
Sons of my ancient mother, you riders of the tides,
How often have you sailed in my dreams. And now you come in my awakening, which is my deeper dream.
Ready am I to go, and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind.
Only another breath will I breathe in this still air, only another loving look cast backward,
And then I shall stand among you, a seafarer among seafarers.
And you, vast sea, sleeping mother,
Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,
Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade,
And then I shall come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean.

Almustafa says:

…I cannot tarry longer.
The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.

This is the experience of all those who have become awakened to their reality, who are realized spiritual beings. Their work on themselves is complete; they need not tarry any longer in the dark valleys of life. But they tarry as long as existence allows them.

The reason is transformation: the moment you know yourself, your passion – the same energy that was dragging you down and down – becomes a new force. Hence the word compassion – passion has become compassion, lust has become love. Passion has a thousand and one problems; compassion has only one problem.

I am reminded of Gautam Buddha. It is said… The words are not important but the meaning is the most beautiful and the most significant one can experience. When Gautam Buddha became enlightened, it was a full-moon night. For the first time he faced a new question. He had faced many questions – and because he was able to dissolve all those questions, he was not even aware before that this question, the last one, would also arise at a certain moment in the journey toward the stars. It was compassion.

As he became enlightened all his own worries, anxieties, disappeared as if they had never existed before, as if he had been asleep and it was just a nightmare. Now that he was awake all those dreams were not there. But a new thing – so new that he had not even dreamed of it – suddenly became his whole being.

Compassion is the name of that state. The whole energy that was involved in passions is purified, refined. It no longer goes downward – it opens its wings and is ready to fly. But what about those millions and millions of people who are still wandering in darkness, in blindness? Can he simply be so selfish that he can forget all about them? Friends and enemies, lovers and those who hated him, people who nourished him all his life and the people who wanted to destroy him… But when compassion arises, the difference between the friend and the enemy disappears. Now it is just a whole caravan of humanity – fellow travelers.

Should he look back or just go ahead and disappear into the universal bliss? He has come to the point from where there is no barrier for him. He can move and fly like an eagle into the open sky of truth, beauty, goodness – satyam, shivam, sunderam.