Hafiz says: "You who do not come out of this age-long habit of being ignorant can never realize the Self as infinite."

It is truly said that God has no beginning and no end. Think this over. If He had no beginning, what was there before God? The answer is God. You cannot in imagination reach where no beginning was. The answer can only be God. What will be there after billions of years? God. Always God. This means that in eternity there is no time. Nothing has ever happened, and nothing ever will happen. There is no time factor. Billions of years ago you were; today, you are here, ever afterwards you will be. Today, all that is happening is not happening, although this does not appear to be so now.

When one has experience of eternity, one knows that God is. To say that God was, is, and will be, is wrong. All eternity is now present at this moment. So I say, God IS.

Mona [Malcolm Schloss' wife who had recently died] was once here with you; she is no longer with you. The meaning is that she never was here with you; she always was in eternity. Even I cannot express this, but I try to do so as far as possible. It is beyond the intellect. What happened yesterday has produced a temporary effect; but the actual happening of yesterday has stopped, which means that nothing happened yesterday. The temporary effect is illusion. So it goes on; God and illusion running parallel. Illusion says everything is happening, God says nothing happens.

When you are in the grip of the false I, which identifies itself with what happens, illusion governs you. But when you know the Truth, you do not identify yourself with it. All we see, hear and experience in the world is not God. Whatever you can understand is not God. Whatever is explained is not God. Whatever is expressed is not God. The poet says:

The lover says to the Master: You have taught me something that has made me forget everything. You have created in me a desire that says do not desire anything. You have given me that One Word which says: words mean nothing.

And the lover says: O Master, I was seeking God and thought Him this and that. Now, you have given me something of which even my imagination cannot produce its shadow.