The Purchasers of Words

"These sayings have come down in order to make people ardent in serving God, that God may take the hands of those who have lost hope and deliver them.
You continually work yourself to death in the service of worldly kings, yet they are ignorant of the difference between treachery and honesty...
If anyone gives you a tiara, yet God gave you the head that bears it.
Abandon the state of being loved by the audience, and adopt the practice of loving God, O you, who think you are excellent and pre-eminent.
O you, who are really more silent than night, how long will you seek a purchaser for your words?
Your hearers nod their heads in your presence for the purpose of assenting to you; your time is wasted in the passionate desire of attracting them.
Instruct yourself in love of God and spiritual insight; for that is like a design engraved on a solid mass of stone.
Your own self is the only pupil that is really faithful to you; all the others perish; where will you seek them, where?
Behold your true lovers behind the veil of the Divine Bounty, crying aloud to you continually.
Be the lovers of those unseen lovers: do not cherish the lovers who last no more than five days."

Rumi (Vol.5 3127-3203)

Commentary: The spiritual work that matters is between you and God...and it is not a performance...