The phenomenon of reflection is such that every action, every thought, is reflected in oneself, and there starts a production. Something is produced, something which gives a direction to one's life and which becomes a battery behind everything one does, a battery of power and of thought. There is a saying that man's real being speaks louder than what he says. It shows that in this phenomenon of reflection every person is exposed to all the mirrors, and there is nothing in the world which is hidden. What one does not say one reflects. So therefore there is no secret.

The words used by Solomon, "under the sun", are for both night and day. The real sun is the intelligence; and in the light of that sun all mirrors, which are human hearts, reflect all that is exposed to them without any effort on the part of man. This is the reason why the desire of a person, if it is a real wish, becomes fulfilled sooner or later; for it is reflected, and through that reflection it becomes living. That reflection gives it a life, because it is not in a dead mirror; it is in a living mirror, which is a human heart. It is nothing to be surprised at that if a master of a house wished to eat fish, the cook had the desire to bring it. It is natural. It is nothing to be surprised at if you have just thought of a friend and the friend happens to come to meet you while you are going to do something else. It is unexpected outwardly; inwardly it is arranged, because your reflection rising in the mind of your friend has arranged your meeting.

Someone asked me once, "In the hereafter shall we meet those around us here?" I answered, "Yes, we shall meet in the hereafter those whom we love and those whom we "hate." He was rather pleased with the first thing, but much displeased with the other. Then I explained further: "You think of two persons, the one whom you love most and the one whom you hate most; you cannot help thinking of them. You can either be praying for the friend or cursing the enemy, but you will be thinking often of both. And the most wonderful thing is that those whom you love or hate in life, you meet unexpectedly; without any intention on your part you attract them."

He asked, "What shall we do?" I said, "The best thing is not to hate anyone, only to love. That is the only way out of it. As soon as you have forgiven those whom you hate, you have got rid of them. Then you have no reason to hate them, you just forget."

It is this reflection which we see in the success and failure of business. When one person goes to another on some business, he reflects. If he has failure in his mind, he reflects failure in the other person. From all around, what comes is the condition of bringing about a failure for him.

If a person goes with success in mind, he reflects success in the heart of every one whom he meets, and nothing comes out of it but success. Therefore it is those who are obsessed by failure that have failures; those who have the impression of success that have success. We read in history that there have been heroes, generals, kings who had success after success; and there are many examples to be found in our everyday life of those who have failure after failure. There is no end to their failures. Everything they touch is shattered. Why? Because destruction is there. They have it in themselves; it is only reflected in all things that they touch.

The great Hindustani poet Amir says, "My eyes, you have the light of the Perfect One, and you cannot see. It is not the lack of light in you; it is only because you keep covered."

Man is continually seeking for a clear vision, wanting to see light, and yet he covers his very eyes, the sight which has divine light in it, by covering his heart.

No one can teach anyone, nor can anyone acquire that power of seeing clearly. Man is naturally a seer. When he does not see it is surprising. The seers do not only see an individual when the individual comes before them; they are capable of seeing, if ten thousand persons are sitting before them, all as a multitude and each as an individual. The reason is that the larger a mirror becomes, the more reflections it accommodates in itself and therefore in one person a multitude can be reflected at one and the same time, the hearts, and souls, and minds, and all. No doubt it begins with seeing the reflection from one; but as the heart expands, so it takes the reflection of the multitude.

It is in this that there is the mystery of the spiritual hierarchy; it is only the expansion of heart. Do we not see this in our everyday life? There is one person who says, "Yes, I can love one person, whom I love; but then I cannot stand the others." It is only the limitation of the heart. There is another person who says, "Yes, I can love my friends; those with whom I feel at home and feel a contact; but not the strangers; I cannot love them; before them I am closed." And he really is closed before strangers. He may be a loving person, but in the presence of strangers his love is closed.

In proportion as the heart becomes more free of this limitation, naturally it becomes larger; because the capacity of one's heart, as Asaf has said in his verse, is unimaginably great. Asaf says that if the heart of man were expanded, it would accommodate the whole universe in it, just like a drop in the ocean. The heart can be so large that it can hold the whole universe--all. And the heart that can hold all, can see the reflection from all; because the whole process of evolution is getting larger. Getting larger means getting freer from limitations, and the outcome of this condition is that the vision becomes clearer.

How can the minds of the multitude be reflected in the heart? In the same way that the picture of a group is taken on the photographic plate. There may be a crowd, but the photographic plate will take them all; if it cannot take them, then it is not large enough. The heart is capable, like a photographic plate, of taking reflection; if it cannot take them, it means it is limited, it is too small. The whole of life is an absolute intelligence, it is a mirror-land in which all is reflected. When we think of it deeply, we find that in the daylight we close our eyes and sleep.

Vol. 4, The Mind-World

5. Reflection

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Vol. 4, The Mind-World

5. Reflection