[p. 46]
THE past has flown away,
The coming month and year do not exist;
Ours only is the present’s tiny point.
Time is but a fancied dot ever moving on
Which you have called a flowing river-stream.
I am alone in a wide desert,
Listening to the echo of strange noises.
You have heard much of this world,
Yet what have you seen of this world?
What is its form and substance?
[p. 47]
What is Simurgh, and what is Mount Kaf?
What is Hades and what is Heaven and Hell?
What is that unseen world
A day of which equals a year of this?
Come and hear the meaning.
You are asleep, and your vision is a dream,
All you are seeing is a mirage.
When you wake up on the morn of the last day
You will know all this to be Fancy’s illusion;
When you have ceased to see double,
Earth and Heaven will become transformed;
When the real sun unveils his face to you,
The moon, the stars, and Venus will disappear;
If a ray shines on the hard rock
Like wool of many colours, it drops to pieces.
THE world is an imaginary figure,
A diffused shadow of the Infinite;
One breath created the worlds of command
And all living things.
[p. 48]
As they appear to come forth, so they appear to go.
Though there is no real coming and going.
For what is going but coming?
. . . All are one, both the visible and the invisible.
God most high, the Eternal One,
Creates and destroys both worlds.
. . . The varied forms you see are but phantoms of your fancy,
And by revolving quickly in a circle
Appear as one.
THE imagination produces phenomenal objects
Which have no real existence,
So this world has no substantial reality,
But exists as a shadowy pageant or a play.
All is pervaded by Absolute Being
In its utter perfection.
There are many numbers, but only One is counted.
[p. 49]
THE house is left empty, save for the Truth,
For in a moment the world has passed away;
Then you, rid of self, fly upwards
And are united to the Beloved.
Union is yours when this dream-world
Fades and dies away.