This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.

The quote by Rumi, “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet,” speaks to the transcendent and transformative nature of love. It suggests that love, in its purest form, transcends the physical and material world, taking the lover to a higher, almost spiritual plane. The secret sky symbolizes the unknown or divine realm that love leads one toward—an inner world of deep connection and enlightenment that is beyond ordinary experience.

The phrase “to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment” represents the process of revelation and self-discovery that love catalyzes. In many spiritual traditions, veils are seen as obstacles or illusions that obscure the truth. Love, according to Rumi, is the force that helps strip away these veils, revealing the divinity and truth hidden beneath. Each veil that falls brings one closer to a purer and more profound understanding of the self and the universe.

Rumi’s reference to “letting go of life” and “taking a step without feet” suggests a surrendering to the unknown and the unseen. To love, in Rumi’s mystical view, is to abandon the conventional boundaries of reason and logic, and to enter a state where faith and intuition guide the way. The idea of stepping without feet indicates a leap of faith or a journey where physical limitations no longer matter, and the soul moves freely toward higher truths and experiences of unity.

The origin of this quote lies within Rumi's deeper exploration of mystical love and spirituality. As a Sufi poet and philosopher, Rumi viewed love as the ultimate path to spiritual union with the divine. His works reflect an understanding of love not as mere emotional affection but as a profound, all-encompassing force that transcends both the physical world and the self. For Rumi, love was the means of breaking through all that separates the human soul from its divine origin.