QUESTION 2
| WHAT is this ocean whose shore is knowledge? |
| What is that pearl which is found in its depth? |
Answer
| EVER-MOVING Life is a flowing ocean, | |
| Consciousness is its shore. | |
| What an ocean that is deep and surging | |
| A thousand mountains and deserts are on its bank. | |
| Don't talk about its surging waves, | 5 |
| For each had overflowed its bank. | |
| It left the ocean and imparted moisture to the desert, | |
| It gave to the eye the sense of quantity and quality. | |
| Whatever thing comes into its presence, | |
| Gets illumined through the grace of its consciousness. | 10 |
| It is satisfied with its privacy and is not inclined to association with others, | |
| Yet all things are illumined by its light. | |
| First it brightens it up, | |
| Then it ensnares it in a mirror. | |
| Its consciousness makes it familiar with the world, | 15 |
| The world made it aware of its potentiality.1 | |
| Intellect removes veil from its face, | |
| But speech reveals it much better. | |
| Yet it is not confined to this mundane world - | |
| It is only one of its stages in the path of evolution. | 20 |
| You look upon the world as existing outside you: | |
| These mountains and deserts, oceans and mines; | |
| This world of colour and smell is our nosegay;2 | |
| It is independent and yet intimately related to us. | |
| The ego bound them all by its one glance: | 25 |
| The earth and the sky, the moon and the sun. | |
| Our heart has a secret gateway to it, | |
| For every existent depends for its existence upon our perception. | |
| If nobody sees, it becomes contemptible; | |
| If anybody sees, it becomes mountains and oceans. | 30 |
| The world has significance through our seeing it - | |
| Its tree grows by our growth. | |
| The problem of subject and object is a mystery; | |
| The heart of every particle of matter is expressing its supplication: | |
| O observer, make me your object, | 35 |
| Make me existent by the grace of your sight.3 | |
| The perfection of the being of a thing lies in being present, | |
| In becoming an object for an observer; | |
| Its defect, not to be before our eyes, | |
| Not to be illumined by our awareness. | 40 |
| The world is nothing but our manifestation, | |
| For without us there would be no world of light and sound4, | |
| You also should crave help by associating with it, | |
| Discipline your eyes by its twists and turns. | |
| Rest assured that master-huntsmen | 45 |
| Have sought help in this matter from insects.5 | |
| With its help, keep a watchful eye on yourself; | |
| You are like Gabriel the truthful; take wings. | |
| Open the eye of intellect on this world of plurality, | |
| So that you may enjoy the revelations of the One,6 | |
| Take your share from the smell of the shirt, | |
| While sitting in Kan'an, get fragrance from Egypt and Yemen .7 | |
| Ego is the hunter, the sun and the moon are its prey; | |
| They are chained to the strings of his intellectual efforts. | |
| Throw yourself on this world like fire! | |
| Make an assault on the visible and the invisible worlds alike.8 |