REVELATION, INSPIRATION, VISION AND DREAM
I tell you truly that every door can be closed but the door of the descent of the Holy Spirit is never closed. Open the doors of your hearts so that it might enter into them.
There is no safeguarding-law through following which we can secure ourselves absolutely against mistakes. That is the reason why the philosophers, who framed the rules of logic and invented the ways of discussion and built the arguments of philosophy, fell continuously into mistakes and left as the legacy of their ignorance hundreds of false notions and mistaken philosophies and vain discourses. This shows that it is impossible to arrive at the truth of every matter and to determine the correct doctrines as the result of one's own research without making a mistake. We have never known any individual, nor heard of one or read of one in any book of history, who was free from error in the whole field of his vision and reflection. It follows, therefore, that it is impossible to find people who, through the study of the law of nature and putting their conscience in accord with the circumstances of the world, carried their research to the highest level of truth wherein no possibility of mistake was left....
Then if man cannot escape error through his own knowledge and God Who
is Gracious and Merciful, and is free from every mistake and knows the
truth of every matter does not help His servants through His true true
revelation, howcould we humble creatures emerge out of the darknesses of
ignorance and error and how could we be delivered from the calamities of
doubt and suspicion? I therefore affirm it with confidence that the wisdom
and mercy and sustaining love of God Almighty demand that from time to
time, when He deems it right, He should create men who should be recipients
of revelation for the purpose of ascertaining true doctrines and establishing
correct morals, and who should have bestowed upon them the capacity of
impressing their teachings upon others so that mankind, who have been created
for true guidance, should not be deprived of their needed good fortune.
(Purani Tehreerain, Ruhani Khazain, Volume 2 (London, 1984) pp. 20-21).
The Hidden World Of Revelation
God Almighty has divided His wonderful universe into three parts. First, the world which is manifest and can be felt through the eyes and the ears and other physical senses and through ordinary instruments. Secondly, the world which is hidden and which can be understood through reason and conjecture. Thirdly, the world which is hidden beyond hidden, which is so imperceptible that few are aware of it. That world is entirely unseen, cannot be reached by reason and is pure conjecture. It is disclosed only through visions and revelation and inspiration and not by any other means. As is well established, it is the way of Allah that for the discovery of the first two worlds that we have mentioned He has bestowed upon man different types of faculties and powers. In the same way He has appointed a means for man for the discovery of the third world and that means is revelation, inspiration and visions which are not wholly suspended at any time. Indeed, those who comply with the conditions for achieving them have, throughout, been their recipients and will continue to be such. As man has been created for unlimited progress and God Almighty is free from every deficiency, miserliness and holding-back, it would be an unworthy thought that He put into the heart of man the eagerness to learn the secrets of all the three worlds and yet has deprived him wholly of the knowledge of the means of acquiring knowledge of the third world. This impels wise people to believe in the permanent need of inspiration and visions and they do not confine revelation, like Aryas, to the four Rishis beside whom it is impossible for a fifth person to arrive at that excellence. Instead, wise people, believing in the absolute bounty of God Almighty, deem the door of inspiration ever open and do not confine it to any country or religion. It is true, however, that it is limited to the straight path by treading along which these blessings can be achieved, inasmuch as it is necessary for the achievement of everything to follow the rules and methods conformity to which is necessary for its achievement. People do not deny the wonders of the world of visions. They have to admit that the absolute Benefactor, Who has bestowed upon man faculties and powers for the discovery of every little matter in the first world, would not deprive man of the means of discovering the grand affairs of the third world through which a true and perfect relationship with God Almighty can be established, and true and certain understanding having been achieved the lights of heaven become manifest in this very world. This method is also open, like the methods of discovering the other two worlds, and true people adopt it forcefully and follow it and obtain its fruits. The wonders of the third world are numberless and in comparison with the other two worlds are like the sun in comparison with a grain of poppyseed. To insist that the mysteries of that world should be wholly revealed through reason would be like shutting one's eyes and insisting that visible things should become perceptible through the sense of smell. The wonders of the third world totally frustrate reason. No one need be surprised at the creation of souls for in this very world such mysteries are revealed to those who have experience of visions, that reason wholly fails to penetrate to their reality. On occasion a person who has a capacity to see visions can see someone from a distance of hundreds of miles despite numberless intervening obstructions. In fact on some occasions in a state of complete wakefulness he can hear his voice also, and even more wonderful it is that sometimes the other person can hear the voice of the first one. On occasion in a vision resembling the state of wakefulness he can meet the souls of those who have passed on. Very often such meeting is by revealing in vision the dwellers of graves. I myself have had such experience. This refutes entirely the doctrine of the transmigration of souls current among the Hindus. The greatest wonder is that sometimes one possessing the capacity for vision, through concentration, appears to another person, with the permission of God Almighty, at a distance of hundreds of miles in a state of complete wakefulness without his body moving from its place. Reason holds that a person cannot be at two places at the same time, yet this impossibility becomes possible in the third world. In the same way, a person of understanding witnesses hundreds of wonders with his own eyes and is surprised at the denial of those who altogether reject the wonders of the third world. I have witnessed the wonders and rare visions of that world with my own eyes approximately five thousand times and have experience of them happening to myself. It would take a large volume to record details of these experiences. One wonderful aspect of these experiences is that some matters which have no external existence come into being through Divine power. The author of Futuhat Wa Fusus and other great sufis have recorded a number of their own experiences of this kind in their compilations. But as there is a great difference between hearing and seeing I could not have obtained that certainty by merely reading these accounts which I have acquired through my own experience.
Some Attributes Of God May Appear In Human Form In A Vision
I recall that in a vision I saw that I had drawn up with my own hand certain Divine decrees which related to the future and then presented the paper to God Almighty for His signature. (It should be borne in mind that it often happens in visions and true dreams that some Divine attributes of beauty or glory appear in human form to the person seeing the vision and he imagines the form to be God Almighty. This experience is well known to those who are favoured with visions and cannot be denied.) On my presenting that document to God Almighty Who appeared in the form of a ruler, He dipped His pen in red ink and sprinkled it in my direction and with the ink that remained at the point of the pen He signed the document. Thereupon the vision came to an end and when I opened my eyes I saw several drops of red ink fall on my clothes and two or three of them fell on the cap of one Abdullah of Sannaur who was sitting near me at the time. That red ink which was part of the vision became materialized and became visible externally. I have seen several other visions of the type which it would take too long to set down, but whereby my own experience confirmed that sometimes a matter that is observed in a vision assumes external form by the command of Allah. These matters cannot be appreciated through reason alone. Indeed a person who is afflicted with the pride of his reason hears these things and affirms arrogantly that they are impossible and false and that the person who claims to have had such experience is either a liar or is mad or is self-deceived and for lack of proper research has not been able to penetrate to the reality. Such a one does not reflect that those matters which are testified to by thousands of the righteous from their personal experiences, and of which they undertake a demonstration to those who might keep company with them, are not to be lightly set aside. Apart from the wonders of the world of visions, reason has not been able to comprehend fully that which pertains to the world of reason and there are millions of mysteries which are still hidden beyond the reach of reason (Surma Chashm Arya (Qadian, 1886), Now published in Ruhani Khazain, Volume 2 (London, 1984), pp. 127-133, footnote).
Man Is Invested With A Hidden Faculty Of Receiving Revelation
As God has invested man with the faculty of reason for the understanding to some degree of elementary matters, in the same way God has vested in him a hidden faculty of receiving revelation. When human reason arrives at the limit of its reach, at that stage God Almighty, for the purpose of leading His true and faithful servants to the perfection of understanding and certainty, guides them through revelation and visions. Thus the stages which reason could not traverse are traversed by means of revelation and visions, and seekers after truth thereby arrive at full certainty. This is the way of Allah, to guide to which Prophets have appeared in the world and without treading along which no one can arrive at true and perfect understanding; but an unfortunate dry philosopher is so much in a hurry that he desires that whatever has to be disclosed should be disclosed at the stage of reason. He does not know that reason cannot carry a burden beyond its strength, nor can it step forward further than its capacity. He does not reflect that to carry a person to his desired excellence God Almighty has bestowed upon him not only the faculty of reason but also the faculty of receiving revelation. It is the height of misfortune to make use of only the elementary means out of those that God has, out of His Perfect Wisdom, bestowed upon man for the purpose of recognizing God, and to remain ignorant of the rest. It is foolish to waste those faculties through lack of use and to derive no benefit from them. A person who does not use the faculty of receiving revelation but denies its existence cannot be a true philosopher, whereas the existence of this faculty has been established by the testimony of thousands of the righteous and all men of true understanding have arrived at perfect understanding through this means (Surma Chashm Arya (Qadian, 1886), Now published in Ruhani Khazain, Volume 2 (London, 1984) Arya, pp. 39-42).
Non-Prophets Can Also Receive Revelation
Some ignorant divines go so far in their denial that they assert that the door of revelation is altogether closed and that it is not open to a Muslim to perfect his faith through this bounty and then to act righteously under the urge of his faith. The answer to those who think like this is that if the Muslims are so unfortunate and blind and are the worst of people, why have they been named the best of people by God Almighty? The truth is that those who think like this are thcmselves foolish and stupid. As God Almighty has taught the Muslims the prayer that is set out in the Surah Fatihah, He has also designed to bestow upon them the bounty that was bestowed upon the Prophets; that is to say, the bounty of converse with the Divine which is the fountainhead of all bounties. Has God Almighty merely cheated us with this prayer? What good can there be in a useless and fallen people who are even worse than the women of Israel? It is well known that the mother of Moses and the mother of Jesus were not Prophets and yet they were favoured with Divine revelation. Is it to be imagined that if a Muslim were to have such a pure soul as that of Abraham and were to be so obedient to God Almighty as to cast aside his ego altogether, and were to be so devoted in love to God Almighty that he should be lost to himself, yet he cannot be the recipient of revelation like the mother of Moses? Can any reasonable person attribute such miserliness to God Almighty? The truth is that when these people became the insects of the earth, and the only insignia of Islam left in them were their turbans and beards and circumcision and a few verbal affirmations and the formal observance of Prayer and fast, God Almighty deadened their hearts and thousands of dark veils covered their eyes and they lost all signs of spiritual life. They thus denied the possibility of converse with the Divine and this denial is in truth a denial of Islam. As their hearts are dead they do not realize their own true condition (Zameema Braheen Ahmadiyyah Volume V , Now published in Ruhani Khazain (London, 1984) vol. 21. pp. I42-I43).
O ye Muslims, beware that such thinking is sheer ignorance and stupidity. If Islam is such a dead religion whom can you invite to it? Will you carry its corpse to Japan or will you present it to Europe? Who would be foolish enough to fall in love with a dead religion which is bereft of all blessing and spirituality such as appeared in the religions of the past? In those religions even women received revelation, as was the case with the mother of Moses and the mother of Jesus, but your men are not equal even to those women. O ye stupid and blind ones, our Holy Prophet, our lord and master, peace be on him, was ahead of all Prophets in his spiritual grace. The grace of previous Prophets came to an end at a certain stage and now those peoples and their religions are dead. There is no life in them. But the grace of the Holy Prophet, peace be on him, continues till the Day ofJudgment. That is why it is not needed that a Messiah should come from outside for his people. To be brought up under the shadow of the Holy Prophet can convert a humble person into a Messiah, as God has done in my case (Chashmai Masihi (Qadian, Magazine Press, 1906) , Now published in Ruhani Khazain (London, 1984) vol. 20), p. 75).
Revelation Is The Highest Stage Of Divine Understanding
Our claim is true and is clearly established that by treading along
the straight path a seeker after truth can become the recipient of Divine
revelation. My own experience testifies to it. Besides, every reasonable
person can understand that there is no higher stage of the understanding
of the Divine in this world than that a person should converse with his
Glorious Lord. This is the stage where souls are completely satisfied and
all doubts and suspicions are removed. Having arrived at this stage a person
achieves the understanding for which he has been created. This stage is
truly the key of heaven which proves how close the True Creator is to His
weak creation. We have learnt of this stage by the light which is the Quran.
That light gives us the good news that the fountain of revelation never
runs dry. Any dweller of the East or the West, when he searches for God
Almighty and makes his peace with Him and removes the intervening veils
in between, will surely find Him; and when he finds Him truly and perfectly,
then God will speak to him. The Vedas have denied man this stage and have
confined it to the four Rishis, who, according to the Arya Samajists, are
the authors of the Vedas. This is an error of the Vedas like the other
great errors contained therein. It is obvious that all human beings are
alike in their nature and what is possible for one man is possible for
all, and the closeness to the Divine and His understanding which is permissible
in the case of one human being is permissible in the case of all, for they
all have the same nature. It is true that there is diversity in respect
of the degrees of excellence, but no one is shut out from the kind of excellence
which is open to others. Should there be a person who should not have the
slightest capacity to acquire human excellences then that person cannot
be included within the category of human beings. In short, there can be
a difference in capacities, but there cannot be a total absence of capacity
(Surma Chashm Arya (Qadian, 1886), Now published in Ruhani Khazain,
Volume 2 (London, 1984). pp .191-192).
The Gracious and Merciful Lord who has invested human nature with
the hunger and thirst of His own complete understanding has endowed human
nature with two types of faculties for the purpose of arriving at that
understanding. One type are the intellectual faculties the source of which
is the brain, and the other type are spiritual faculties the source of
which is the heart and the purity of which depends upon the purity of the
heart. That which cannot be discovered through the intellectual faculties
is reached through the spiritual faculties. Spiritual faculties can develop
such purity that the graces of the Source of Grace can be mirrored in them,
but the condition is that they should be eager for the acquisition of grace
and all intervening veils and obstructions should be removed so that they
might become the recipients of the grace of perfect understanding. Their
recognition of the Divine should not be limited to the affirmation that
there should be a Creator of this universe, but they should be able to
behold His countenance through having observed His great signs and should
thus be able to see that that Creator truly exists. But as the nature of
most people is not free from obstruction and they are afflicted with the
love and greed of the world, and pride and arrogance, and self-esteem,
and hypocrisy, and self-worship and other moral delinquencies, and are
deliberately neglectful of the obligations due to Allah and to His creatures,
and purposely turn away from sincerity and fidelity and love of God and
devotion to Him, and cut asunder deliberately from God Almighty, they are,
on account of all types of obstructions and veils and desires and passions,
not qualified that the grace of converse with the Divine should descend
upon them which should exhibit the lights of their being acceptable to
God. Yet the eternal bounty of God, which does not wish that human nature
should go to waste, makes it possible for most human beings to see occasionally
true dreams or to receive true revelation so that they should realize that
the way for their stepping forward is open. But their dreams and revelations
do not indicate their being acceptable to God and are not accompanied by
signs of the love and grace of God, nor are such people purified of the
impurities of their egos. They see these dreams so that they might be furnished
with an argument for believing in God's Prophets, for if they were to be
deprived altogether of the understanding of true dreams and true revelations,
and they should have no certain knowledge of them, they could plead before
God Almighty that they were unable to understand the reality of Prophethood
for they had no knowledge of it. They had no sample of it before their
eyes. Therefore, from the beginning it has been the way of God that irrespective
of a person being good or bad or righteous or disobedient, or being the
follower of a true faith or of a false one, he is shown true dreams or
is vouchsafed true revelation so that his conjecture which derives from
hearing of such matters may be converted into certainty and he may have
a sample in his hands which should help his spiritual progress. The Wise
Creator has so fashioned the human brain and has so invested it with the
spiritual faculties that it can see some true dreams and can receive some
true revelations. But these dreams and revelations are not an indication
of any spiritual rank or greatness, but are only a sample of the way through
which progress could be made (Haqiqatul Wahi (Qadian, Magazine Press
1907) , Now published in Ruhani Khazain (London, 1984) vol. 22., pp. 6-8).
Inductive And Deductive Arguments To Prove The Need Of Revelation
Arguments are of two types, inductive and deductive. An inductive argument
enables us to recognize that which is indicated, as for instance when we
observe smoke we conclude that there is fire. In the case of deduction,
one moves from the conclusion to the cause. For instance, we find a person
suffering from high fever and we believe that there is a cause for it.
We proceed to set forth first the inductive reason for the need of revelation.
There is no doubt that the physical and spiritual systems of man are governed
by the same law of nature. We observe in the physical system that whatever
desires God has planted in it He has also provided the means of their satisfaction.
A human body feels hunger and needs food, so God has provided various types
of food for the human body. In the same way man needed water to slake his
thirst and God Almighty has provided wells and springs and streams for
that purpose. Man needed the light of the sun or light from some other
source to be able to see with his eyes and God Almighty has provided light
from heaven in the shape of the sun and has provided light from other sources
on earth. Man needed air for breathing and for hearing the voices of others
and God provided air. In the same way man needed a consort for the propagation
of the species; so God created woman as man's consort and man as woman's
consort. In short, whatever desires God has planted in the human body,
He has also provided means for their satisfaction. Now it is worth considering
that when provision has been made for the fulfilment of the physical needs
of the mortal body, how much more must have been provided for the fulfilment
of the pure desires of the soul which has been created for the eternal
love and recognition and worship of God. That provision is Divine revelation
and Divine signs, which carry a person of defective knowledge to complete
certainty. As God bestowed upon the body provision for the satisfaction
of its needs, in the same way He bestowed upon the soul provision for the
satisfaction of its needs so that the physical and the spiritual systems
should be in accord.This inductive reasoning can be completed only through
deductive reasoning. That is to say, by a sample of revelation itself.
To feel the need for something is one matter and to find its fulfilment
is another....
You observe that food and water are provided for your body in this age also and were not available only in some past age, but when mention is made of revelation you refer to a past age upon which centuries upon centuries have lapsed and you are not able to refer to anything in the present. Then how is there an accord between the physical and spiritual laws of nature? Stop and reflect. You cannot deny that the provision for your physical needs is available to you all the time, but you have nothing with you in the way of provision for your spiritual needs except stories of the past. You know that the physical springs from which you take the water to slake your thirst are still running; nor have your fields become unculturable from the produce of which you satisfy your hunger. But where are the spiritual springs which used to slake your spiritual thirst by giving you the fresh water of Divine revelation? Nor have you available the spiritual food by eating which you could keep alive your soul. Thus you are in a desert where there is neither food nor water {Chashmai Ma’arafat ( Qadian, Anwar Ahmadiyyah Press, 1908) Now published in Ruhani Khazain (London, 1984) vol. 23., pp. 55-58}.
Revelation is a message from the hidden which does not depend upon
any reflection or deep thinking. It is clear and open feeling as a hearer
has about a speaker, or one beaten has about the beater, or one touched
has about him who touches him. The soul does not experience any spiritual
pain on its account. The soul has an eternal accord with revelation which
it enjoys as a lover finds pleasure in beholding the beloved. It is a delicious
communication from God which is called revelation {Purani Tehreerain,
Ruhani Khazain, Volume 2 (London, 1984) , p. 20}.
Revelation Is Not A Result Of Thinking
By revelation is not meant something that arises in the mind as a result of thinking and reflection, like that which a poet experiences in writing his verses. He writes a verse and reflects about the next one and it suddenly arises in his mind. This is not revelation; it is a consequence of thought and reflection which flows from the law of nature. Anyone who thinks about good things or evil things finds something arises in his mind in consonance with his thinking and his search. For instance, a good and righteous person writes some verses in support of truth and another one who is wicked supports falsehood in his verses and abuses the righteous. Each of them will produce some verses and it should be no matter for surprise that the enemy of the righteous who writes in support of falsehood may, on account of greater practice, write better verses than the other one. Thus, if anything arising in the mind were to be called revelation, a wicked poet, who is the enemy of truth and of the righteous and always abuses the truth and indulges in imposture, would be deemed the recipient of Divine revelation. Works of fiction contain many affecting passages and the minds of authors are able to produce a series of writings on purely fictitious subjects, but they cannot be called revelation. If revelation were the name of any idea arising in the mind, a thief could be called a recipient of revelation for he can think of expert ways of robbery and house-breaking and manslaughter. We cannot call all this revelation. This is the thinking of people who have no clear notion of the True God, Who comforts the hearts with His converse and bestows the understanding of spiritual knowledge on those who are not familiar with it. Revelation is God's converse in living and powerful words with a chosen servant or with one whom He desires to choose. When this converse starts in a satisfactory manner and is free from the darkness of false thinking and is not confined to a few scattered and incomplete phrases, and is delicious and is full of wisdom and majesty, it is the Word of God by which He desires to comfort His servant and through which He manifests Himself to him. Sometimes a communication is made only for the purpose of a trial and is not accompanied by all the characteristics of revelation. A servant of God Almighty is thereby tried so that by tasting a little of revelation he should adjust his circumstances to those of true recipients of revelation or might fail to do so. Then if he does not adopt true righteousness, he is deprived of the perfection of this bounty and is left with only vain boasting. Millions of good people receive revelation but they have not all the same rank in the estimation of Allah. Even the Prophets who are the recipients of clear revelation are not all equal in rank, as God Almighty has said: These are Messengers, some of whom are exalted above others (2:254). This shows that revelation is pure grace and is not the insignia of rank. Rank depends upon the degree of sincerity and fidelity which is known only to God. Revelation when accompanied by its blessed conditions is also a fruit of sincerity and fidelity. There is no doubt that if revelation takes the form of question and answer in a proper sequence and is characterized by Divine majesty and light and comprises hidden matters or true understanding, then it is Divine revelation. For Divine revelation it is necessary that there should be converse between the servant and his Lord as there is converse between friends when they meet. When the servant asks a question and in reply hears a delicious and eloquent speech from God Almighty, in which there is nothing of his own thinking and reflection and such converse becomes a bounty, then it is Divine speech and such a servant is dear to God. But this degree of revelation which is a bounty, and is living and pure and is clear and unsullied, is bestowed only upon those who go forward in their faith and in sincerity and in righteous action. True and holy revelation exhibits great Divine matters. On many occasions a brilliant light appears and along with it a majestic and shining revelation is conveyed. What could be greater than a recipient of revelation conversing with the Being Who is the Creator of heaven and earth? The beholding of God in this world is to converse with God. By this we do not mean that condition in which some odd word or phrase or verse might flow from the tongue of a person without being accompanied by a direct address. A person who has such an experience is being tried. He casts about like a blind one and does not know the source of the communication whether it is from God or from Satan. Such a one should have recourse to istighfar. But if a good and righteous person receives Divine communications without obstruction in the form of converse, a bright, delicious, meaningful and full of wisdom communication is heard in majestic terms and in complete wakefulness, and there has passed between him and God Almighty a series of at least ten questions and answers in the course of which God accepted his prayers a number of times and conveyed to him fine understandings and informed him of coming events, then such a person should be most grateful to God and should be wholly devoted to Him, inasmuch as God has of His pure grace chosen him out of all His servants and has made him heir to the righteous ones who have passed on before him. Such a bounty occurs rarely and is a matter of good fortune. Everything beside it is of no value. Islam has always produced people of this rank and station. It is Islam alone in which God comes close to a servant and talks to him. He speaks inside him and makes his heart His throne and draws him towards heaven and bestows upon him all the bounties that have been bestowed upon those who have gone before. It is a pity that he blind world does not appreciate how near a person can approach to God. They do not step forward themselves and when some one steps forward he is either dubbed a kafir or is deified and is put in the place of God { Islami Usul ki Philosophy pp. 123-127. Now prited in Ruhani Khazain (London, 1984) vol. 10 }
Revelation Provides Comfort In Distress
It is idle to assert that revelation has no reality and is a vain thing,
the harm of which is greater than its benefit. Such an assertion is made
only by a person who has never tasted this pure wine and does not desire
that he should acquire true faith. Such a one is happy with his habits
and customs and never seeks to find out to what degree he believes in God
Almighty and how far his understanding extends and what should he do so
that his inner weaknesses are removed and a living change takes place in
his morals and actions and designs. He is not eager to cultivate that love
which should make his journey to the other world easy and whereby he should
develop the inner quality of making spiritual progress.
Everyone can understand that in this heedless life which is ever pulling
a person downward, with his relationship with wife and children and with
the burden of honour and good repute, which are all like heavy stones pressing
him downwards, he is in need of a high power which, by bestowing true sight
and true vision upon him, should make him eager to behold the perfect beauty
of God Almighty. That high power is Divine revelation that provides comfort
in distress. It enables a person to take his stand joyously and comfortably
under mountains of misfortunes. That Imperceptible Being, Who confounds
reason and the wisdom of all philosophers, manifests Himself only through
revelation. He comforts the hearts of seekers and bestows contentment upon
them and revives the half-dead ones by saying: I am present. It is true
that the Holy Quran contains all the guidance, but when the Quran leads
a person to the fountain of guidance the first indication of it is that
he begins to experience converse with the Divine, whereby a revealing understanding
of high degree and a visible blessing and light is created and that cognition
begins to be acquired which cannot be achieved by blind following or through
intellectual theories, for they are all limited and full of doubts and
defective and incomplete. We need to extend our cognition directly, for
the greater our cognition the greater will be our eagerness. With a defective
cognition we cannot expect perfect eagerness. It is a matter of surprise
how unintelligent those people are who do not consider themselves in need
of that perfect means of approaching the truth upon which spiritual life
depends. It should be remembered that spiritual knowledge and spiritual
understanding can be acquired only through revelation and visions, and
till we achieve that standard of light our humanness cannot acquire any
true understanding or true perfection....