QUESTION 1
| FIRST of all I am perplexed about my thought |
| What is that which is called "thought"? |
| What sort of thought is the condition of my path? |
| Why is it sometimes obedience, sometimes sin? |
Answer
| WHAT a light there is within the heart of man! | |
| A light that is manifest in spite of its invisibility. | |
| I saw it in the constancy of change, | |
| I saw it both as light and fire.1 | |
| Sometimes its fire is nourished by argumentation and reasoning, | 5 |
| Sometimes its light is derived from the breath of Gabriel, | |
| What a life-illuminating and heart-kindling light! | |
| The sun is nothing in face of a 'single ray of this light. | |
| Conjoined2 with dust, it is above limitations of space; | |
| Chained to the alternation of day and night, it is free from the bonds of time. | 10 |
| The calculation of its time is not through breath, | |
| There is none like it in seeking and discovering. | |
| Sometimes it feels exhausted and sits on the shore, | |
| Sometimes a shore-less ocean is in its cup. | |
| It is both the river and the staff of Moses, | 15 |
| On account of which the river is divided into two.3 | |
| It is a deer whose pasture is the sky, | |
| Who drinks water from the stream of the Milky Way. | |
| Earth and sky are its halting places, | |
| It walks alone amid a caravan, | 20 |
| Some of its states are: the world of darkness and light, | |
| The sound of the trumpet,' death, paradise, and Hourie. | |
| It gives both to Iblis and Adam opportunity to develop, | |
| And provides them, a chance of expansions.5 | |
| Eye is impatient at its sight, | 25 |
| Its charms even beguile God. | |
| With one eye, it sees its own privacy, | |
| With the other eye, it looks at its apparent lustre. | |
| If it closes one eye, it is a sin; | |
| If it sees with both eyes, it is the true condition of the path.6 | 30 |
| Out of its little stream, it produces an ocean, | |
| It becomes a pearl and then settles at its bottom. | |
| Soon it takes a different form; | |
| Becomes a diver and catches itself again. | |
| In it there are noiseless commissions; | 35 |
| It has colour and sound perceptible without eye and ear. | |
| There is a world hidden in its glass, | |
| But it reveals itself to us piecemeal.7 | |
| Life makes it into a lasso and throws it, | |
| To catch everything low and high. | 40 |
| By its means it ensnares itself, | |
| And wrings also the neck of duality.8 | |
| One day the two worlds fall a prey to it, | |
| And are caught into its beautiful lasso. | |
| If you conquer both these worlds,9 | 45 |
| You will become immortal even if everything else dies | |
| Do not set foot in the desert of search lazily; | |
| First, take hold of that world which lies within you. | |
| If you are low, become strong by conquering the Self. | |
| If you wish to seek God, get nearer yourself. | 50 |
| If you become proficient in conquering Self, | |
| Conquering the world will become easy for you.10 | |
| Happy is the day when you conquer this world, | |
| And pierce the bosom of the skies. | |
| The moon will prostrate before you,11 | 55 |
| And you throw over it a lasso of waves of. smoke. | |
| You will be free in this ancient world,, | |
| Able to fashion the idols to your purpose | |
| To hold in. the grasp of your hand all the world | |
| Of light and sound, of colour and smell; | 60 |
| To change its quantitative aspect, | |
| To mould it according to your purpose; | |
| Not to be captivated by its sorrows and delights | |
| To break the spell of its nine skies; | |
| To go down into its heart like the point of a arrow, | 65 |
| Not to exchange your wheat for its barley; | |
| This is indeed the-true kingly glory, | |
| This is the State that is linked to religion.12 |