One night, a bat said: “How is it that I cannot look upon the sun in any way, even for a single instant? All my life long I have endured a hundred despairs, so that I might be lost in Him for one instant. I wander with my eyes closed for months and years, and at last I come here.” A contemplative of penetrating insight said to her: “O thou who art intoxicated with pride! Thou hast yet thousands of years to travel before reaching the sun. How wilt thou, who art astray, be able to make this journey? Will the ant that has remained in the well reach the moon?”
“I feel no fear,” said the bat; “I wish to fly, in order to discover some trace of the matter that occupies me.” And indeed she pressed on for years, drunk and without tidings of the sun, until she had neither strength, nor wing, nor feather left. At last, her soul consumed and her body dissolved, she remained helpless, having neither wing nor feather. As she had received no tidings of the sun, she said to herself: “Perhaps I have passed beyond the sun.”
“I feel no fear,” said the bat; “I wish to fly, in order to discover some trace of the matter that occupies me.” And indeed she pressed on for years, drunk and without tidings of the sun, until she had neither strength, nor wing, nor feather left. At last, her soul consumed and her body dissolved, she remained helpless, having neither wing nor feather. As she had received no tidings of the sun, she said to herself: “Perhaps I have passed beyond the sun.”
An intelligent bird said to her: “You are doubtless dreaming, for you have not even caught sight of the road; how, then, could you have taken a single step upon it? And just now you said that you had left the sun behind, and that this is why you are deprived of your wings and feathers!”
This discourse bewildered the bat, and she was utterly annihilated. In her helplessness, she at once turned toward the sun and said to Him in the language of her soul: “Thou hast found a clear-sighted bird; go no farther now.”
This discourse bewildered the bat, and she was utterly annihilated. In her helplessness, she at once turned toward the sun and said to Him in the language of her soul: “Thou hast found a clear-sighted bird; go no farther now.”