Lovers of Poverty

Someone said: “In Khvarizm, no one falls in love, because in Khvarizm there are many beautiful women. No sooner do they see a beauty and fix their hearts on her, than they see another still more beautiful, and the first one is forgotten.”
Rumi said: If there are no lovers for the beauties of Khvarizm, then certainly there are lovers of Khvarizm, itself, seeing the many beauties in that land. But the “Khvarizm” I speak of is poverty, where countless mystical and spiritual forms show their faces. Each one you turn to and find comfort in, leads to yet another more beautiful, so that you forget all before. On and on this leads— ad infinitum. So let us be lovers of poverty, where such true beauties are found.
Fihi Ma Fihi - Discourse 42