THERE IS NO BARRIER BETWEEN THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED

 
When Knowledge is gained, ignorance is banished, but for ignorance to go, Knowledge must be gained. On the one hand, God, and the capacity of man to see and become one with God, are always there. On the other hand, Truth remains hidden from man until he actually arrives upon the path or realizes God.

This apparent anomaly is due to two different factors: man's ignorance of Truth, and the fact that Truth is beyond the faculty of reason and far, far above the sphere of intellect.

The fact remains that man has become God and man can become God for the simple reason that, knowingly or unknowingly, man is God. Only so long as man's ignorance lasts will there seem to be no end to the plural diversity of illusory things. When Divine Knowledge is gained he realizes that there is no end to the indivisible oneness of God.

Under the illusion of cosmic duality the apparent separation between man and God is invariably referred to by masters in terms of the intervenient "Veil" and "Curtain".

Hafiz, who was a Perfect Master as well as a great poet, says:

Miyane ashiqo m'ashuq hich hayal nist;
Tu khud hejabe khudi. Hafiz, az miyan barkhiz

'There is no barrier between the lover and the Beloved;
Hafiz lift yourself aside, you are yourself covering over Self.'

Kabir, referring to the removal of the seven folds of the Veil, says:

Tere ghunghat ke pat khol, tujhe Ram milega

'Open the folds of your Veil, and you shall find God.'