On finding a spiritual guide

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

It is often said in spiritual circles, you cannot choose a murshid (guide), but that the choice is mutual, or it is also said that if the mureed (disciple) is ready the murshid will appear.  I think both ideas are not different, but facets of the same truth.

A case in point is the oft-quoted story of Amir Khusrow finding his murshid Hazrat Shaikh Khwaja Syed Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya of the Chisti order.

Legend has it that at a tender age, his mother took him to the khanqah of Hazrat Nizamuddin to be inducted into his spiritual group. As they reached the gates, he did not enter, choosing to sit outside and try to gauge the stature of his would-be murshid. To this effect, he composed the following lines in his heart :

تو آن شاهی که بر ایوان قصرت
کبوتر گر نشیند "باز" گردد
غریبی،خسته جانی از در آمد

بیاید اندرون یا باز گردد؟ 

Tu aan shahi ke ber aiwan-e qasrat
Kabutar gar nasheenad, baaz gardad
Ghareeb-e khasta jaaney az der aamed
Be-yaayad andaroon, ya baaz gardad

You are a king at the gate of whose palace
Even a pigeon becomes a falcon.
A poor traveler has arrived at your doorstep,
Should he enter, or should he return?


Barely had he finished composing the lines above, one of Hazrat Nizamuddin's disciples came out to greet him at the door, with a message from the murshid:

بیاید اندرون مرد حقیقت
که با ما یک نفس همراز گردد
اگر جاهل بود آن  مرد و نادان
ز هر راهی که آید باز گردد

Be-yaayad andaroon mard-e haqeeqat
Ke ba ma yek nafas hamraaz gardad
Agar jahil buvad aan mard-e naadan
Azaan raah-e ke aamad baaz gardad

Oh man of reality, do come inside
That you become for a while my confidant
But if the one who wishes to enter is foolish
Then he should return the way he came.


Hearing this, Khusrow was ecstatic, knowing that he has found his murshid and he uttered some lines to his mother in the form of a song that has become famous in Sufi circles in South Asia- known as Rang-e-Khusro or Range Khusrow and can be found around the Web for example here.