As long as man is striving for power, as everyone is striving in some way or the other, without the knowledge of that power which is all-sufficient, there will always be a disappointment, for he will always find limitedness. His ideal will always go forward and he will find himself short of power. It is only by getting in touch with the almighty power that he will begin to realize the all-powerful and the phenomena of the almighty. And the question is, how should one get in touch with that almighty power?

As long as before one stands one's little personality, as long as one cannot get rid of it, as long as one's own person and all that is related and connected with it interests one, one will always find limitations. And that power is touched only by one way, and that is the way of self-effacement, which in the Bible is called self-denial.

People interpret it otherwise; self-denial means, they say, to deny to oneself all the happiness and pleasures of this earth. If it was to deny the happiness and pleasure of this earth", then why this earth was made? Only to deny? If it was made to deny it was very cruel. For the continuing seeking of man is for happiness. Self-denial is to deny that little personality which creeps up with everything, to efface this false ego which prompts one to feel his little power in this thing or that thing.

And how is it to be attained? It is to be attained not only by prayer or by worship or by believing in God. It is to be attained by forgetting oneself in God. Belief in God is the first step. What is to be attained by the belief of God is forgetting oneself in God.

If one is able to do it, one has attained then a power which is beyond human comprehension. The process of attaining this is called fana by the Sufis. Fana is not necessarily a destruction in God. Fana results into what may be called a resurrection in God, which is symbolized by the picture of Christ.

The Christ on the cross is narrative of fana, which means: I am not." And the idea of resurrection explains the next stage, which is baqa and which means "Thou art," which means the rising towards the almighty. Divine spirit is to be recognized in that rising towards almighty.

This fana is not attained by torturing oneself, by tormenting oneself, by giving oneself a great many troubles, as many ascetics do, for even after torturing themselves, they will not come to the realization if they were not meant to. It is by denying one's little self, the false self which covers one's real self, in which the essence of divine being is to be found.