I am extremely happy to see you. I have been waiting for you since the time I got your letter. I am in search of such hearts, which carry this search within them. The time for fulfilment comes one day, when it is time for His Grace. It is an appointed time.
You eat food. Your hunger is satiated. But there is thirst, still, which must be satiated by water alone. For the body, there is the material world, for the soul there must be a world which is spiritual.
There can be no peace without a union–visaal–with God. The drop of water is separated from the ocean and is restless for union. There are various routes to the destination. Few are the moments when man begins to walk in that direction. But the time comes, all by itself.
Suppose you are asleep. No one will come to awaken you. Awakening shall come, of itself, at its appointed time.
I want nothing for myself–not even salvation. If I desired salvation, I would not be able to help anyone. A man who is studying himself, cannot teach the subject to others. One who has nothing to do for oneself, must exist for all. I am living only to serve you. And by doing this I am not doing a favour upon you.
If a guest comes to one’s house and partakes of food, he is merely taking his share. One must thank him for coming, otherwise his share would have to be taken to him. He grants one greatness by coming to one’s house.
I used to call myself the Servant of the Earth, but later I changed that to Ghulam i.e. Slave, because a servant can resign, while a slave cannot. I am serving you, not only through my words, but through my heart. The light of the Sun exists only for your eyes.
The torment of Separation within the soul must come to an end. There is but little time.
Jaane azeez kaabile sozo gudaaz nest
Een rishtaa raa masoz ki chand een daraaz nest
O Friend! Burn not his thread of life
For it is not long enough!
The past has gone and the future has not come. The present -zamaanaye haal- is less than a second. It is passing by with rapidity.
I am convinced there is no condition higher than that silence which comes of the abandonment of all latent desires.
I went to America, but not to bring anything. If I have no thirst, an ocean of water and a drop will have the same significance for me.
If you walk with your back to the Sun, your shadow will run before you and you will never be able to catch it. But if you turn your face towards the Sun, your shadow will follow you. This is the secret of success. The world is a shadow. It follows you, if you turn towards God.
‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’
If you look in the world, you will find a greater number of people who have died after eating than those who have died from starvation. The hungry are but few in number as compared to those who are being fed. But death lies in wait for all of them.
The past has gone, the future has not come, and each and every moment of the present is being drowned into the past. The future turns into the present, and the present into the past. Everything is passing away, with time.
There is no time–man must find God, now! Don’t despair. No one is sent away from his door. Go on searching, knocking.
Gumrahi khud manzile maksood ki hai raihnumaa
Khizr mil jaate hain jinko raastaa miltaa naheen.
Losing thy way is in itself a means to the destination,
For those, who have lost the way, must meet with a guide.
You must search. You cannot turn back. What you seek is Greatness itself. Wealth is nothing. If you want material wealth, ask of me–for I am a slave, I am working for the world, surely some earnings must be mine, which I can give to you.
Material wealth cannot give Peace of Mind. Maharaja Indore, who had a state worth three crores, came to me and said he was prepared to give up his State to secure Peace of Mind.
Man can only beg of God, and not seek to bargain. If the Maharaja’s State were a price for Peace of Mind then surely he could have found peace of mind within it, which he did not.
My life is meant for you. Milk is in the breast of the mother, but it is meant for her child–and particularly the child who is hungry. If the mother does not give the milk, she is guilty.
You have come to me because you think I am His. Even if I am not, you will get what you want. He shall give. There is no flaw in His scheme. I have no board outside saying that peace of mind is obtainable from me. A flower gives its fragrance by itself.
Aaj mubaarik din hai! Aaj Khushi kaa din hai! Today is a day of happiness, a joyful day! I have been waiting for you since the morning.
Ham ne bhee kholi hai yaan jinse Muhabbat ki dukaan
Ya Khudaa koyi khareedaare Muhabbat aaye
The shop that I have opened is a storehouse of Love
O God! Would that a buyer of Love come my way!
There is a desert and no water in sight. You come to a hut. The man inside asks for the most precious thing you have, a diamond, in exchange for a sip of water. You will be willing to part with the diamond, will you not?
The same water, which can ordinarily be had for the asking, becomes invaluable when it is not obtainable, and one is seized by intense thirst. Peace might ordinarily be with us, but when we need it desperately and it is not obtainable from anywhere, we are willing to pay any price for it.
You want light. Can you get it from the power house? No. Can you get it from the current? No. Only the bulb, which is connected to the system, can give you light. But the switch must be on.
Bulbs can be of various strengths–of one watt or a thousand watts. God has given as much power to any person as the amount of work He wishes to take from him. Thirst can only be satiated by water, and nothing else. If there be no ego, God shall come of Himself.
What I have to give is not in an experimental stage. I always wait for someone to come at some time and some place–and whoever comes shall receive what I have to offer.
Sohbate yak saayate baa auliyaa
Behtar az sad saalaye taayat be riyaa
One moment spent in the company of a man of God
Is better than a hundred years spent in meditation and prayer
Moths gather around a bulb. And the blub is filled with pride that it can attract so many insects to itself. The light is switched off–and all the insects go away. The bulb understands, then, that it was the glory of the light, and not its own, that had attracted the moths.
When you go to a spiritual preceptor, you must go to receive his Duaa, his Grace and Blessings, not intellectual knowledge.
Sometimes I must leave one person and go to a lakh of persons, and sometimes I must leave a lakh of persons to come to one.
Ye rishtaa daayami hai! Mubaarik ho! This relationship is permanent. I congratulate you. You have found a Ghulam, a slave. You have nothing, now, to do for yourself. You have simply to enter into a boat, and let the pilot take you across. Your own work is finished.
Your coming here is historical. Lakhs of people in various parts of India were waiting for me, but I didn’t go. How could I? I was waiting for you. You are not one but countless persons. One genuine seed can give rise to innumerable fruit.
I don’t want a name, I don’t want fame, I don’t want followers. My work is over. I exist now only for the service of mankind.
In order that a mother and son relationship be possible, some visible form, some face, is essential. In order to meditate upon someone, some portrait is necessary. There is a spontaneous love for the flame in the heart of the moth. Nobody teaches it to love. The love springs forth at its appointed time, the moment it beholds the flame.
A General came to me at Allahabad. While I was talking, he went into a deep meditation, tears streaming from closed eyes. I had to stop speaking. He was not listening; he was no longer in his body consciousness.
His state was like that of a man, who, for long had wandered thirsty in a desert, and who had found a fountain and drank from it, and had then fallen into a blissful sleep. He had entered into a new restful phase of consciousness. It was not a state of unconsciousness that had come over him. It was a state where ego had been completely extinguished.
O Lord, do unto me speak!
He says, “Enter thou into silence deep!”
I said to the General when he had emerged from this state: “General! You are brave, you can stand up to atomic and hydrogen bombs, but you could not stand before a divine touch.”
The definition of bravery is not to secure a victory, but rather to march onwards towards Death, to annihilate oneself. It was such a self-annihilation into which the General had entered.
“General,” I said, “these tears have washed your heart clean!”
Do you know what the word aanso-tears signifies? Aanso = aan + soo, which means in that direction i.e. those which fall in the thought of Him. The tears that fall for the sake of this world are Eensoo= een + soo i.e. in this direction.
Khaab kaa kaasaa gadaayi taajshaahi ek hai
Ye tannazul ye tarakki, dil teraa baihlaaye kyon
The begging bowl and the crown of thy dream are one and the same,
Let not your heart be entrapped in one or the other!
I once asked a Maharaja: “How can one recognise royalty?”
“By the crown on his head,” said the Maharaja.
“The crown is reigning supreme over you,” I said, “it is crushing you downwards by its weight. How can you become great by wearing it?
“Vo to aapko dabaa rahaa hai! Aap ussko paihan kar Maharaja kaise ban gaye!”
Remove it from your head, hold it upside down. Let it appear as a begging bowl. Pray to God. Let him come inside it. Then it shall be worthy. It shall have God inside, and diamonds outside.
I asked the General:
“What is in this room?”
And he pointed to as many things as he could.
“Anything else?” I asked.
He could not answer. So I said: “The air! It is invisible but it is around us all the time. You counted everything else but you forgot the very air which keeps you alive!”
“In a like manner, the blessings of a man of God remain around you all the time. You cannot see them, because they are invisible like the air. But they sustain your life all the time, the more so when you need them.”
When Dr. Zakir Hussain, the late President of India, met me, I said to him:
“Dr. Zakir Hussain, when you go before water, do you do so as a President, or a thirsty man? Quite naturally as a thirsty man.
For as long as one is in the presence of the All-Powerful, one must sit emptied of ego.
Your letter pleased me. In this vast universe there are some who care for me.
I said to Dr. Zakir Hussain: If the light is adjusted, and the lens is clean, and the camera powerful, and those, who would have their photograph taken, in a good mood, then what a beautiful portrait will be taken! However, if even one of these elements is missing, the picture will not be perfect.”
Dr. Zakir Hussain said: Hazrat, main aapki duaaon kaa mauhtaaj hoon. I depend upon your benedictions.”
He was a genuine seeker after truth, as you are.
I am grateful because you have come. My grandmother was always happy when guests came, because on such a day tasty dishes were prepared, and everyone partook of them. On other days ordinary food was made as usual.
Today, I am listening to my thoughts and words because of you. It is not my voice. It is His. When you listen to the Voice of America, the voice does not belong to the radio, it belongs to the person speaking at the radio station. Everything comes from Him. I shall always be with you. I will never leave you. You may or may not be aware of this but:
Ham to zindaa hain ke duniyaan men teraa naam rahe
Kaheen mumkin hai ke Saaki na rahe jaam rahe
I exist today so that thy name be made known,
Can there be no Saki, and there be only a cup of wine?
A man with sharp sight, and a blind man–both are alike in darkness. Eyes must depend upon light.
Sir Sultan Ahmed, the late member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy, always used to say: “Hazrat duaa farmaayiye. Pray for me.”
A flower has fragrance, and this must naturally go out towards all, by itself. Nothing can stop this fragrance.
I said to Dr. Zakir Hussain: “Allah has made you the President of a country. Your great reverence for me is a reverence for Him. A letter is posted in a letter-box but it reaches the person to whom it is sent. I am like a letter-box. Your reverence has gone to Him.
I am reminded of the Chief Engineer in Punjab, a Rai Bahadur, who came to me and said: “Sir, show me some easy way to God!”
And I said: “Rai Bahadur, it took you a whole lifetime to become a Chief Engineer, and you want to understand God in just a few minutes? Anyway, the answer is: Go on knocking at His door.”
“But what if the door never opens?” the Chief Engineer said, “does the man go on knocking forever?”
I said to him: “Rai Bahadur, your question is surprising, coming from an engineer. Were the door never to open, there would have been a wall in its place!”
Baihare yak nazzaaraa bar dare oo
Saal haa saal intazaar mi baayad kard
For a single glimpse of Him at His door
I can wait forever, year after year!
This life will pass away in any case–then why not for Him?
I said to Dr. Zakir Hussain:
“Harkujaa darde davaa aanjaa ravad
Harkujaa pasteest aab aanjaa ravad”
“A medicine must go where the pain is,
And water must flow where the slope is.”
You cannot forget me now. The more you try to forget me, the more you will have to remember me–so how can you forget me? I will never leave you.
Avval to iss kooche men koyi aanaa naheen paataa
Aur agar aa gayaa to phir jaanaa naheen paataa
It is difficult to come within this lane, if at all,
But having entered once, one cannot leave at all.
There are clouds in the sky. The rain falls. The drops touch the high peaks, but eventually settle down in hollow pits on lower levels. Though the rain touched the high peaks first, it did not settle down there, it could not exist in ego and pride. The peaks had no humility, no desire to hold the rain.
The desire for God enters spontaneously when ego has disappeared from man.
The hollow pits thanked the rain-drops for quenching their thirst. The rain-drops in turn thanked the hollow pits, for giving them a resting place.
Gadaa sultaan shaved gar zaan ke sultaan
Nishaanad bar sareere khud gadaaraa
A beggar cannot of himself sit upon the throne of an emperor.
But if the emperor leads him there himself, who can stop him?
There was Barrister Naseem, who came to see me–I hope I’m not tiring you? You are very dear to me. I saw my own face in your face. I was searching for you when you were searching for me.
Recognition comes from within.
Many years ago, I was speaking to Justice Girish Prasad Mathur of Allahabad who had come to see me in Mussoorie. I was sitting outside my house. A mahatma from Uttar Kashi arrived, along with his disciples. The mahatma said to me:
“We wonder how you live in the cities like a man of the world, keeping a control not only over your own mind, but also over the minds of thousands. We, in the solitude of the caves, find our meditation disturbed by the thoughts of the world we have left behind. The forgotten world of the wakeful state forces itself upon us in our dreams!”
I said: “Mahatmaji–when faced with an enemy, you can either conquer him, or else run away from him.”
And I continued: “Mahatmaji, tell me–does a fish have to learn how to swim from anyone?”
“No,” he said, “it knows how to swim from birth.”
And I said:
“A human being may swim very well, but he can never swim like a fish! In a like manner, I have been born for this task. I have not had to acquire this facility from outside. Perhaps, God has granted me this, Himself, right from birth!”
Coming to Barrister Naseem–who was an 82 year old man–he entered the house at the time I was with Justice Girish Prasad Mathur and the mahatma from Uttar Kashi.
I ran towards him to greet him and he said to me:
“You left your place!”
“No,” I said, “I have just come to my place!”“
He had walked uphill all the way to my house.
“Why did you take so much trouble?” I said.
“Sir,” he replied, “I am an old man, and old people never inconvenience themselves! Only the thirsty man goes to the well! I wish to know the secret of life. I am 82 years old now. I have been a renowned barrister. But now, at this age, I have obtained a pair of spectacles with which I see the world and everything I have earned, receding from me. That, which I had earned in this world, I must leave behind, and I have earned nothing for the place where I must go!”
“Naseem Sahib,” I said, “what can I do for you? Shall I pray for a long life for you?”
If you wish to go into the future, you must learn from the experiences of those who have gone ahead of you.
Vaaye naadaani ba vakte marg ye saabit huaa
Khaab thhaa jo kuchh bhee dekhaa jo sunaa afsaanaa thaa
The last moments of life revealed,
That all that was seen or heard, was a dream!
Roshani hogi jahaan, jaayegaa parvaanaa vahaan
Usse shamaye dairo kandeele haram se kyaa garaz
A moth shall fly wherever there is light,
It cares not whether it be in a Temple or in a Mosque!
Today you have recognised your own. My being in Mussoorie has found fulfilment.
Someone once asked me: “You are poorna, perfect, how can you be subject to happiness?”
And I said: “The ocean is complete in itself, but it is also subject to tidal waves and storms!”
Shabe tareeko beeme maujo girdaabe chuneen haayal
Kujaa daanand haale maa subuk saaraane saahil haa
The night is dark, the whirlpools threatening
What know they of our misery–those who stand on the shore
When one begins to feel a separation from Him, then only does one reach such a state. Others may drift into the solitude of their daily lives.
Naa thhee haal ki hamen jab apni khabar
Rahe dekhte auron ke aibo hunar
Parri apni buraayiyon pe joon hi nazar
To nigaah me koyi buraa na rahaa
Being not aware of what we had done,
We looked upon the faults of others,
But no sooner than our sight fell on our sins,
We saw not a one that was bad!
How can one look at the sins of the world? One’s own faults stand out as glaringly as a thousand lamps.
Whenever I am in Mussoorie, it is difficult to progress even a little way on the Mall. People stop me all along the way. There was the time when someone introduced a leading lawyer to me on the road. The lawyer was a Hindu. He said to me:
“What need do we have of God?”
“What need do we have of food?” I said.
“Hunger forces us to seek food,” said the lawyer.
“What need do we have of water?” I asked again.
“Thirst forces us to seek water,” said the lawyer.
“Similarly, sorrow forces one to seek God,” I replied.
“All right, then,” said the lawyer, “I shall go and dig a well when I am thirsty. Jab pyaas lagegi to kooaan khod loongaa.”
“I fail to see your logic,” I replied, “can a thirsty person find enough strength to dig a well? Kyaa pyaasaa bhee kooaan khod saktaa hai?”
“Dig a well before thirst comes to you,” I continued, “and drink from it when you are thirsty. That, alone, is wisdom. Jab pyaas naheen to kooaan khod len, aur jab pyaas lage to paani pee len!”
Time goes by. We never give a chance for anyone to put us on the right path. Do you know why a fly sits in one place and rubs its hands together? It does so out of remorse, out of sorrow for what it lost.
A fly heard of the nectar of life flowing from a fountain at a distant place. It resolved to drink of it and flew in the right direction. Along the way it saw a lump of sugar. It immediately settled down upon it, postponing the journey.
After the sugar had gone, it resumed its flight. But when it reached the destination, it was too late. The fountain had already stopped flowing. In its haste to secure the temporary, it lost the permanent essence of life. So it is with man. He runs after the temporary material things of the world and loses sight of his goal.
Where must one go? What is the journey?
And I said to Naseem Sahib: “Shall I show you the way? Shall I tell you how you must reach there?”
“No,” said the old barrister, “I have not come to ask you the way. I am too old for that. I would not have the strength to walk.”
Both, the mahatma and Justice Girish Prasad Mathur, who were sitting with me, were astonished at this answer.
I have the habit of leaving one subject and changing over quickly to another. I do not do this consciously. I am writing a letter, but suddenly an express delivery arrives, and I must leave the letter and attend to it, a telegram arrives, and then an urgent telegram, and I must leave each preceding communication and attend to the latest, most pressing one Thus it is that these inspirations and thoughts come to me, rapidly in succession!
They must go out where a need for them exists. I know of the great suffering of Death that must come upon all. I have experienced it upon my own body. You have read my book on the subject. It was published in America as well.
Sab tareef vaaste Allah
All Glory must go to Allah alone.
And I said to Barrister Naseem: “Tell me, then, what can I do for you? You will not let me show you the way, nor are you prepared to walk upon it, why, then, have you come to me?”
And the learned barrister replied: Do you see how old I am? I was a very successful barrister in life. I could barely climb this slope – but I thought of the great heights I must climb. There is no refuge in life from what is to come–no Sahaaraa. I have neither the strength for meditation nor for prayer–ibaadat or riyaazat.”
“God has given you a very high status spiritually–Khudaa ne aapko barraa tabakhtur de rakhaa hai!
Suppose you are walking down a bazaar which has many jewellers’ shops. You see a precious diamond. You cannot afford to buy it–but you know of its value. And your heart yearns for it.
When I was a child I had written the following verse:
Sozish hai ik dam ki aur raahate davaami
Parvaane kaa yeh mushkil kuchh imtahaan naheen hai
The burning is for a moment only, and the life, eternal
It is no difficult test, this, for the moth.
Parvaanaa neestam ke ba yak dam adam shavam
Shamaan ke jaan gudaazamo dam bhar nayaavaram
I am not like a moth that burns in a single breath,
I am like the flame that burns out its life, and breathes not a sigh of pain.
And the barrister continued: I had heard that on the top of this hill there lived a Sakhi, a Daanvir, a Generous One, a well-wisher of mankind–you! I have come to you. I have no strength left for myself. I pray you to grant me a little from the vast storehouse of your spiritual earnings – to get me across the ocean of life and death.
“Naseem Sahib,” I said, “your tears have purified your heart. A ship waits for you to carry you across the waters!”
Nawab Sahib–do not think of me only to the extent that I appear before you. I will go with you when you go from here.
When you are close to me, I can catch you by the hand; when you are far away from me, my thoughts, my feelings and my blessings will be with you. I shall reach you spiritually.
The world of materialism is constructing space-ships to reach the moon and planets. It is my desire that the hearts of men may reach God!
Main chaahataa hoon ke logon ke dil Allah-paak tak pahunche, aur pahunch rahe hain–and they are reaching Him.
Genuine Desire and its fulfilment are one and the same. Someone once asked me, “If this principle is true, then why can we not see the Sun in the middle of the night if we sincerely yearn for it?”
And my answer was: “When your eyes open in the morning, their spontaneous and genuine yearning is for light, and that is what they get. Any desire for the sun in the middle of the night cannot be genuine. You wake up in the morning–and genuine need finds its fulfilment. The Sun comes out.”
Let the desire for God come within the heart. The coming of such a desire means, in effect, a union with Him.
The clouds appear in the skies. No one can predict when the lightning flash will reveal itself.
A Rai Bahadur came to me and said: “I have not come here, carrying my status as a Rai Bahadur with myself–I have come to ask something of you, and that is Divine Love!”
And I said to him: “Rai Bahadur, you have obtained it already, for otherwise the desire for it would not have arisen with you!”
When your Master says something, keep it in your heart, regardless of whether you can understand it or not–the day will surely come, when you will understand it.
Aaj agar kul Kaayanaat jawaaharaat phenk deti to mujhe ye khushi na miltee jo aapke aane se mil rahi hai! – aaj ye kyaa khushi hai!
If, today, the entire Universe had showered pearls upon me, I would not have found as much happiness as I have found at your coming. What a strange bliss is this!
I was speaking to you about Sir Sultan Ahmad. When his wife died, I wrote a letter to him. It was a long letter.
“It gave me tremendous consolation,” he wrote back, and said, “my wife and I were a devoted couple since 56 years. While she was alive, I did whatever I could, for her. Where she is now–I can do nothing, but you can. You have something that can reach her–your blessings, duaa. Will you pray for her? Her going away bears ample testimony to the fact that I must go away as well. Can you pray for me that the last moments of my life be peaceful?”
There was a certain G.P. Bhutt in what is now known as Madhya Pradesh in Central India. He was an orthodox Brahmin by caste, but a confirmed agnostic otherwise. His wife, Gangabai Bhutt, felt a spiritual yearning within herself. She had to search for God. “You can marry again,” she said to her husband, “but I must seek my goal.”
Bhutt was considerate. He gave her permission to go and asked her to take his brother and a servant as escorts. She went to Allahabad and met several saints and sages. But her heart did not find the peace she sought.
She came to me in Lahore. I was distributing cardamom as prasad–tabarruk. I gave her two of these.
“I have come from a distance of a thousand miles to you,” she said, “I can get cardamoms in any shop here. If these cardamoms are two eyes, only then are they worth taking!”
“Sister,” I said to her, “these cardamoms are something I give to everyone, and hence I gave them to you as well. I assure you, these cardamoms cannot be had from a shop.”
She came back the next day, and there was a radiance on her face: “You have what I seek!” she said.
“If you have found what you wanted”, I said, “then return to your husband.”
“But my husband is not thirsty,” she said.
The day came when Bhutt had to come. He had refused to believe in God. “I will only believe in Him when someone shows a miracle to me,” he used to say.
Miracles! Is not the Universe itself a miracle! Is not your existence a great miracle! When one goes to the darbaar of a bazurg, a Master, one must be free of the desire for ordinary things.
Bhutt came to me. But he had no respect within for spiritual truths. If a glass is upside down, no water can be filled into it by the rain.
Mrs. Bhutt was despondent: “Bless my husband,” she said to me, “give him the gift of faith!
When Bhutt appeared before me, I said to him: “Mr. Bhutt, I love those who have a dislike for me!”
I placed my hand upon his back as he made a gesture of reverence–and something touched his heart and converted him.
Aanaa ki khaakraa banazar keemiya kunand
Aayaa bavad ke goshaye chashme bamaa kunand
Those who can change dust into gold in a single glance,
Would that they may cast their sight upon us.
One glance is enough if it comes from an Emperor.
“Forgive me,” Bhutt said, “I was oblivious of God!”
Later, when people asked him what had converted him and what miracles I had shown him to instil faith, he replied:
“Without showing any miracle to me, he took away the desire for miracles from me.”
Jab tak bande aur Khudaa ke beech men koyi bhee teesri cheez raihti hai visaal naheen hotaa.
For as long as any third object remains between man and God, there can be no union.
And Bhutt said to me: “Before I came to your darbaar, I was like a bulb in which the switch was off. My life was in ignorance. When the storms of life were rough, I cried, and when the ocean was calm, I laughed. But today, it is the same ocean, and it has its old habits–but nothing can shake my peace of mind. Regardless of whether the seas are rough or calm, I am always content.”
Later, when he became Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh, he said to me: “I don’t want this service–I want to serve only you. Let me be like the oil and wick that will aid your flame.”
“Bhutt Sahib,” I said to him, “go on doing your duty. You will find such satisfaction in it as mahatmas find in their meditation. Today, foreign nations think that Indian philosophy is one of renunciation–that one must renounce the world. I do not desire your services–go and serve the world through your duties in the world.”
“Will I be able to maintain a calm while doing my worldly chores?” he asked me.
“That is not your task,” I said to him.
And later, he wrote: “When I sit in my chair and deliver judgements in my worldly field of action, I find myself absolutely at peace within. It is a feeling which, perhaps, even mahatmas do not get in their meditations!”
“Bhutt Sahib, if that is the state of your mind then I congratulate you,” I said to him.
What can I do to serve you? Time is slipping by ever so swiftly.
A Guru came to me with his disciples, and after sitting with me for a while, said to his disciples: “Time does not exist here!”
Truly, where God exists, time does not exist.
It is not I who am speaking, it is you!
And a proof of this: when you were not here, I was silent, when you are gone, I shall be silent again. I am speaking only for as long as you are before me. Therefore it is you who are speaking!
You asked me for permission to visit me.
Behijaabaana daraa az dare Kaashaanaye maa
Ke kase nest vajuz darde to dar Khaanaye maa
Enter thou within these doors without hesitation,
For here there is only a waiting for you!
Lakhs of people are waiting for me–and I am here, alone, with you. My programme is like that of a dry leaf. Ask of it where it shall be tomorrow and it shall say: “Ask the wind.”
A relationship has been established between us. My strength has gone up, now that you are with me. Even when you have gone from here, I shall be with you. You shall experience this. Many have had this experience.
An American lady, Emma by name, who had read my book, “The Rays of Light” in America, desired to see me, but she could not come to India because of the war.
She wrote to me: One morning I saw you sitting in my garden chair, smiling. The vision was too real to be untrue.
I told her, It was a reflection of the image in your heart, which appeared before your eyes.
Whatever must come to be in the future shall appear before you with time.
Iss kadar teraa tasavvur kabhi bharr jaataa hai
Aayinaa dekhoon to mooh teraa nazar aataa hai
So absorbed do I become in Thee, at times,
That looking within a mirror, I find only Thy face,
I cannot part with persons who are so dear to me as you. A flower cannot take its fragrance anywhere–it is the wind that must do this.
I was impatient today, waiting for you. A moth said to a flame: “You have a golden light with you, I am an ordinary insect. I always come to you. You never come me.”
And the flame said: “Did you come to me without setting eyes upon me, or after seeing me?”
“I came after I saw you,” said the moth, “and in the path illuminated by your light. And finally I must plunge into you and burn away. Surely you have no care!”
“O moth,” said the flame, “you came only when my light reached you. I, therefore brought you here by going to you first, as light; I illuminated your path. Tell me, now, do you burn on a flame, that is burning or one that is extinguished? Only a flame that is burning. I burnt in my fire before you came; I shall burn along with you, and I shall continue to burn in sorrow long after you are burnt and gone.”
That is a measure of His Love.
Let me reveal this secret to you: You did not come to me. It was I who went out to your heart and brought you here. I went to you first, and you came to me later.
Come close to me and let me embrace you! Main aapko gale lagaaoon!
There are no limits to my happiness today. Since one-o-clock in the afternoon I had been peering out of the window, waiting for you.”
Nawabzada: “Aadaab!”
Shri Nathji: “Mubaarik ho. What a propitious day this is!”