WHETHER THE consciousness sees without eyes, or whether it needs the eyes to see, is a question that comes to the mind of all metaphysicians. If the consciousness can see alone, without the help of the eyes, why were these eyes created? There are people who can see things that are happening at a distance of many hundreds of miles and things that will happen many years later. They see what may be happening not only in their sleep but at all times.

Some time ago there was in Delhi a murshid whose name was Shah Alam. One day he was having his hair cut, and was looking in a little looking-glass while the barber was cutting his hair. In India the haircutters use such little looking glasses. Suddenly God knows what he saw in it – the murshid dashed the mirror on the ground so that it broke into pieces. His mureeds who were with him were astonished; the barber also was amazed, wondering what had caused him to throw down the mirror with such violence.

At that time one of his mureeds was traveling by sea from Arabia to India, and his ship was in a great storm and in great danger. He called upon his murshid for help; the murshid saw his peril and saved him. Afterwards the mureed told the others what had happened.

In Hyderabad there was a dervish who had the habit of smoking very strong hashish. When he let the smoke out of his mouth he used to look into it and to answer any questions that were put to him. If someone asked him, 'Where is my uncle at present?', he would say, 'Your uncle? Calcutta . . . such and such bazaar . . . now I turn to the left . . . the second house. Your uncle is sitting in his room. His servant is at his side and his child is standing before him'. Whatever he was asked he answered. Did he see it without eyes? No, his consciousness had not its external self before it and therefore it was able to see through the eyes of another – through the eyes of the uncle or any other.

When I was in Russia there was an African, a very ordinary man, not a man of any education. His condition was such that at night when he was asleep, he knew who came into his room, what they said, what they did. This was because his soul was in and about the house and it saw through the eyes of whoever came there.

In the same way the universal Consciousness sees through the eyes of every being on earth. It is looking through the eyes of all the millions of beings upon earth at the same time. The thief may steal something, hide it, carry it off and think, 'No one sees me'. He cannot escape the sight of that Consciousness which is within himself, looking through his eyes. It is not that God from a distance looks down and sees all creatures upon earth. No, he sees through the very eyes of the beings themselves.

The faculty of seeing exists in the Consciousness from the beginning. Therefore among the names of God are Basir the Seer and Sami, the Hearer. Basarat, the faculty of seeing, becomes more definite, exact and concrete the nearer it comes to manifestation.

One may ask, 'Is God not limited by this, made helpless, dependent?' If it seems so to us it is because we deduct from God a part of His Being. We occupy a part of the ground and call it ours, our self. Really it is all God, the One Being. A Hindustani poet has said,

What shall I call 'I'?
Whatever I see it is all Thou.
Body, mind, soul – all are Thou.
Thou art, I am not.

checked 04-Nov-2006