The Pearl of Wisdom - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

Search for God

Disciple: Swami. Show us a way to improve ourselves while living in this world.

Guru: Dear One. There are two ways. If you are to live in this world, there is a need for a woman. If you are to reach the Lord, there is a need for a Guru (Sheikh). A Guru is very, very hard to find.

Disciple: Swami, you mentioned Guru. How is such a Guru to be recognised? How is he to be searched for? How are we to associate with him? Teach it to me in detail.

Guru: Listen, child. Isn’t this the world? In it there are many movements. To be born a man, one has to perform several crores of meritorious deeds. To be born a man among men, one has to perform meritorious deeds many times over. Among them to be a human among humans, one has to practise much more severe religious austerities.

Disciple: Swami, how can one perform meditation before birth? It is said that meritorious acts are performed before birth. If that were so, how can one perform meditation before birth? In that event, is the world a happy place or a sorrowful one?

Guru: Oh, is that what you are asking? I shall tell you. Listen. It is true that to be born in this world is great.

1. The Motionless All-Pervading One is the Omniscient Silent One.

2. The world is a hypnotic fascination.

3. The mind is agitation.

4. The words of a Gnostic guru are a driving force.

These four are divided into sixteen divisions. I shall give you the meanings of these sixteen divisions later on. Now, I shall answer your question. Listen.

Disciple: Swami, O Guru, what is the Motionless One?

Guru: Son, the Motionless One is one who cannot be known. The Formless One pervades here, there and everywhere. He has no appearance, no shape, no name. no country, no wife, no child, no friend, no connections, no ownerships, no associates, no seed, no birth, no death, no destruction, no end, no temples, no ponds, no religion, no people, no hands, no legs, no mouth, no head and no abode of His own. He is far removed from human knowledge and even beyond that. He is the Motionless Ultimate One. Do you understand, Son?

Disciple: How is this Ultimate One to be reached? How can such a One who is formless, elusive, ruling here, there and everywhere, protect us? How will He give and take? He has no hands, no legs and no mouth. He will therefore, be unable to speak. How can we discover such a God?

Guru: Son, do you understand what I have been saying? You question me about His want of mouth and lack of hands. Do you not? Let me tell you about a tiny particle of a particle of the size of a speck of dust of His Greatness. Listen.

Gracefully He appears as the ripened fruit, without flower or bud,

He protects, not being a mother but akin to seventy mothers.

He speaks without mouth and enters the mind with grace,

He protects, questioning and listening to thy answers without ear.

He alone dwells in all of us without a mother,

He helps those who employ truth without insincerity,

He is the tongue less Lord who speaks through our hidden tongue,

Without a sceptre, He is the Guru Lord who rules everywhere as the One Umbrella,

Deathless He exists everywhere, ever giving and never abandoning us,

A King without a palace, He is the One who gives charity,

As the Resplendent Bright Flame, within and without,

With expectation of benefit from none.

As the Lord of those in seclusion and in distress,

In the middle of the night or during the day.

In religious experience and in religious knowledge,

He enters the living soul and body,

Without causing pain to those who live in harmless surrender,

To those maidens with hearts of kindness,

To the great ascetics, to virtuous men and pure women,

He appears gracefully as the wick of the Lamp of Faultless Guru Wisdom.

With perpetual grace, He is the Lord who vibrates within Love and Compassion.

If thou art aware of the words of such a Lord,

And submit to the advice of the wise guru,

Then ! What is distress? What is poverty?

Is there any parallel to this?

Know this O my son, so seek thou the right guru.

I have said so, my son,

He will certainly help thee.

God is the Motionless One. He is Allah!

Have you understood this my son, gem of my eyes?