Volume
Vol. 1, The Inner Life
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The Object of the Journey
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God as Beloved
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Vol. 1, The Inner Life
The Object of the Journey
God as Beloved
And the man who makes God his Beloved, what more does he want? His heart becomes awakened to all the beauty there is within and without. To him all things appeal, everything unfolds itself, and it is beauty to his eyes, because God is all-pervading, in all names and all forms; therefore his Beloved is never absent. How happy therefore is the one whose Beloved is never absent, because the whole tragedy of life is the absence of the beloved.
And to one whose Beloved is always there, - when he has closed his eyes the Beloved is within,
- when he has opened his eyes the Beloved is without.
- His every sense perceives the Beloved;
- his eyes see Him, his ears hear His voice.
When a person arrives at this realization he, so to speak, lives in the presence of God; - then to him the different forms and beliefs, faiths and communities do not count.
- To him God is all-in-all;
- to him God is everywhere.
- If he goes to the Christian church, or to the synagogue, to the Buddhist temple, to the Hindu shrine, or to the mosque of the Muslim, there is God.
- In the wilderness, in the forest, in the crowd, everywhere he sees God.
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