Lecture Lahore — Page 5
5 for the believers many paths to knowledge and awareness about God, which causes them not only to desist from sin, but, when they have seen the beauty and glory of the Di- vine, to fall in love with Him so completely that to them even a moment of separation seems worse than the tor- ments of Hell. Deliverance from sin and love for God is undoubtedly the highest object of man’s existence, and forms the true hap- piness that is also called Bliss. Conversely, every desire that goes against the will of God, and every life spent in the pursuit of such desires, is like the fire of Hell. The question now arises as to how man can find deliver- ance from such an infernal existence. God has told me that salvation from this abode of fire depends solely upon true and perfect awareness of Him. The lure of carnal pas- sions, which is destroying faith like a flood, can only be countered by something equally powerful. So, in order to attain salvation, we need perfect knowledge and complete awareness of God, as only diamond can cut diamond. It doesn’t require a lot of arguments to show that only true God-realization— Ma‘rifat— can inspire love or fear. If a child is given a diamond worth millions, it will not cher- ish it any more than it cherishes a toy. And if a man is given honey which has been poisoned without his knowl- edge, he will eat it with relish and will not realize its danger. On the other hand, no one will ever consciously endanger his life by thrusting his hand into a snake pit or swallowing poison. Why is it, then, that people do not fear