Why is one person called a seer when we all have eyes and the power of sight? What else is needed to be a seer than a doctor's certificate that our sight is keen?

There are some people who take in everything the contrary way. While everybody stands upon his feet with his head up, in India you may see faqirs and Yogis who stand upon their head with their feet in the air; they wish to know what experience they may have by seeing in this way. Everybody is born with an inclination to certain things, an inclination to sleep, to eat and to drink, an inclination to comfort; in this too these faqirs take the contrary way. They sit or stand in one position for hours and hours; they fast, they do not drink for days and weeks; they torture themselves in these ways. It is not that there is any virtue in this, it is not that God is pleased with their torturing themselves, nor that their self, their ego is pleased with it. It is only that they wish to see what experience they get by this.

We all have the tendency to see faults in another; they try to see faults in themselves. They see virtue in sin, and sin in virtue. The world says, "That man is bad, he has done this, he has done that." They do not call anyone bad, they see what good there is even in the one who is called bad. Therefore Christ, because he was a dervish, did not condemn the sinner. He said to those Jews who thought themselves righteous, "Your father is the devil" that is: the nafs, the ego. In every virtue, in everything appearing in the garb of virtue, there is sin, or at least conceit: "I am virtuous, I am moral, I am religious." This is the worst of virtue. Therefore Hafiz says, "Show me the way of the free-thinkers. Suitable it appears to me, for the way of virtue and piety seems very far off and long."

We all like to be honored, to be esteemed, to have attention paid to us; these faqirs and Yogis wish to know what experience there is in disgrace. They call the living dead and the dead living. Praise, consideration from people is nothing to them; they think it is praise from the dead, creatures of four days. The plant, the fire, the wall, things that to us are dead, speak to them, reveal everything to them. In the jungle every tree, every stone speaks to them.

If there is a chair, a table, a piano in the room, we say there is something; if not, we say there is nothing. To them this space which we call nothing is full of everything; in it is everything. They call everything nothing, and in what to us is nothing they see everything.

What is learning without seeing? Christ did not have a degree from a university-he saw. Learned people are always disputing. One says, "There are five elements;" after ten years another comes and says, "No, there are twenty elements;" after twenty-five years another comes and says, "I have discovered the true thing: there are seventy-five." Seers from the first day till now have never differed in the truth which they all hold.

The seer sees more than the astrologer can see; he sees much more; there is no comparison. But the difference is that the seer does not speak about it. If he did so, he would become just like the astrologer. For the seer every person's soul is just like an open letter, but if he would begin to say this his sight would become dimmer every day, because it is a trust given to him by God. If he were to divulge it, it would become dim. With spiritual trust they are entrusted who can keep the trust, who can keep a secret.

Does the Consciousness See with the Physical Eyes?

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 travelling 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.