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THE RELIGIOUS PROBLEM IN INDIA
They teach that He alone is true Being and that all else is non-being, and that man who is Himself can by illumination rise from non-being to Being and return whence he came. Ah! see how they have sung of His love, the devotion which breathes in the poetry of Persia : Thon art absolute Being; all else is but a plantasm, For in Thy Universe all beings are one. Thy world-captivating Beauty, in order to display its
perfections, Appears in thousands of mirrors, but it is one. Although Thy Beauty accompanies all the beautiful, In truth the unique and incomparable Heart-enslaver
is one.* And again : Not-Being is the mirror of absolute Being, Whence is apparent the reflexion of God's splendor. When Not-Being became opposed to Being A reflexion thereof was at once prodnced. That Unity was manifested through this Plurality; One, when you enumerate it, becomes many. Numeration though it has One for its basis, Hath, notwithstanding, never an end. Since Not-Being was in its essence clear, Through it the hidden Treasure became manifest. Repeat the tradition: “I was a luidden Treasure," That thou mayest plainly behold the hidden mystery. Not-Being is the mirror, the universe is the reflexion,
and man Is the personality concealed in it like the eye in the
* Jami.
