QUESTION 5
| WHAT am I? Tell me what "I" means. |
| What is the meaning of "travel into yourself"? |
Answer
| EGO is the amulet for the protection of the universe. | |
| The first ray of its essence is Life. | |
| Life awakens from its sweet dream, | |
| Its inside, which is one, becomes many. | |
| Neither it develops without our expansion, | 5 |
| Nor do we expand without its development. | |
| Its inner core is a shoreless sea, | |
| The heart of every drop is a tumultuous wave. | |
| It has no inclination to rest, | |
| Its manifestation is nothing but individuals.1 | 10 |
| Life is fire and egos are like its flames; | |
| Like stars they are (both) stationary and moving. | |
| Without going outside, it looks towards others; | |
| Though in company, is yet in privacy. | |
| Just see its self- meditation, | 15 |
| It develops out of the trodden earth. | |
| Hidden from the eyes, it is in tumult, | |
| It is constantly in search of adornment. | |
| It is in perpetual activity through its internal ardour, | |
| As if it is at war with itself. | 20 |
| The world gets order through this strife of the ego! | |
| A handful of dust becomes translucent through strife. | |
| From its ray, nothing comes into being save egos, | |
| From its sea, nothing appears save pearls. | |
| The earthly garb is a veil for Khudi, | 25 |
| Its appearance is like the rising of the sun. | |
| In the innermost heart of ours is its sun, | |
| Our dust is illumined through. its potency. | |
| You ask to be informed about "I," and | |
| What is meant by "travel into yourself." | 30 |
| I informed you about the relation of body and so | |
| Travel into yourself and see what "I" is. | |
| To travel into self?-It is to be born without father and mother,2 | |
| To catch Pleiads from the edge of the roof; | |
| To hold eternity with a single stroke of anguish, | 35 |
| To see without the rays of the sun; | |
| To obliterate every sign of hope and fear, | |
| To sunder the river like Moses,3 | |
| To break this spell of sea and land, | |
| To split the moon with a finger.4 | 40 |
| So to return from this experience of the spaceless world, | |
| That it is within his heart, and the world in his hand.5 | |
| But it is difficult to unravel this secret: | |
| Here "seeing" is valuable and "describing" worthless. | |
| What can I say about "I" and its brilliance? | 45 |
| It is manifest from the Qur'anic text, "We proposed."6 | |
| The heavens are in terror of its glory, | |
| Time and space are in its grip. | |
| It sought refuge in the heart of man, | |
| And has fallen to the lot of this handful of dust. | 50 |
| It is distinct from the other and yet related to it,7 | |
| Is lost within itself and yet conjoined with the other. | |
| What kind of aspiration this handful of dust has | |
| That its flight is. beyond the limitations of time and space. | |
| It is in prison8 and yet free! What is this? | 55 |
| It is the lasso, the prey, and the hunter! What is this | |
| There is a lamp within your heart; | |
| What is this light which is in your mirror? | |
| Don't be negligent, you are its trustee, | |
| What folly that you do not look within your self! | 60 |