I
used to think this perception is found only in the western society, that only
the westerners are of this opinion that they are already connected and they do
not need a Spiritual Guide who may connect them to God. However, having met
with many people from many religions including Islam, Christianity, Judaism,
Hinduism, Sikhism and even our own people, I realised everybody is under this
false perception that they are connected with God.
Two weeks ago one of the ASI (Anjuman
Sarfaroshan-e-Islam) associates was brought to our office in London and he was
talking to me and he was asking me whether I have Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi in
my heart, and I told him that I do have the Lord in my heart and I can help you
bring the Lord in your heart also. He said to me, no I already have the Lord in
my heart. Then we found such people in New York and in Los Angeles, and in many
other places, Singapore, Australia, even the Christians and Jews; we were
distributing images of Lord Jesus Christ and I was speaking to this man about
Jesus and I offered to help him bring Jesus in his heart and he said he already
had Jesus in his heart.
Almost everybody who practices a
religion or practices a set of beliefs, or faith, they perceive and they assume
that they are already connected [to God] by ritual practice and by study of the
religion, or the spiritual knowledge. But that is not true. Connecting with God
is not easy. You do not know the whereabouts of God. Sometimes human beings say
stuff that appears to be completely ridiculous and they ridicule their
intellect and themselves. We know for sure that there have been Saints of God,
not the elite ones, saints like Baba Guru Nanak, Ba Yazeed Bastami and so many
other saints and they did not know the whereabouts of God. Only those were able
to see God who had the ability to enlighten a very important soul which lies in
their head and the knowledge of that soul was granted to Prophet Mohammad.
Before the arrival of Prophet Mohammad nobody was able to see God. Nobody would
ever imagine if it was at all possible to see God rather than claiming that he
has seen God. Moses was the first one who spoke with God and people really had a
difficult time believing the fact that Moses, a man himself, was able to speak
with God. Most people at the time of Moses would take a mickey out of this,
they would say, ‘Oh you speak with God? What did God say? How is he?’
It is not easy and it is not
difficult at the same time to connect with God. The thing is you need to have
so many things together before you are able to be connected with God. First you
must be a chosen one for this connection. If you are not one of those who were
chosen by God to be connected then no matter what you can do you will never be
connected with God. There are so many things that you have to do together and
only after those things one is able to be connected with God. Human beings are opportunists
and very quick in jumping to conclusions, and to seek God and obtain Gods love
is something which has always been very rare in this world. There are more
temptations in this world for non-Godly things; luxury and comfort. It's very
unfortunate that in this day and age people are using God's name for their personal
indulgence and they are using religions as instruments. They are selling God's
name and selling religions, everything is commercialised. Whether it is in
America or in Pakistan, whether its Hinduism or Christianity or politics,
everything is commercialised and everything has a price tag. Sincerity has lost
its presence in this world. This message from His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi,
the message of God's love, pure spirituality, enlightenment of the heart,
purgation of the self, illumination of the soul, does not fit in the agenda of
many millions of people today. Especially those who are very religious and spiritual
because the practice of spirituality and religion for many people is not a
means to obtain God's love, it is to give others the impression that they are
very godly. And having established this impression that we are very godly and
divine they want to make a business out of this. Whereas, becoming godly and
becoming divine requires from an individual to almost sacrifice everything
including his personal comforts, luxury, time, privacy, kids, parents,
everything. You have to put everything on the stake and even then there is not
a 100% chance that you will definitely be able to obtained God's love. So,
nobody is connected and those who are connected to God they want to sit with
all spiritual people, who are connected.
What is the Divine Plan?
You have to go back to the Day of
Anointment, the day of promises, the day when God created the souls, on the day
of the creation of the Souls. God did have his complete will in whatsoever he
shaped the creation. Human beings have no authority over anything, they have no
choice. You can safely call God 'Absolute Power' because he did what he wanted
to do. This power in God gave him authority and plenty of room to manoeuvre with
an abundance of choices that he made without being answerable or accountable to
anyone, and he did do what he had in mind, what he had conceived in his mind,
he did that. The Divine Plan as it appeared by the way he created souls and by
the way he exhibited negative and evil forces and forces of love. And then a majority
of souls were designed to be bad, diabolical and then in proportion to the
number of diabolical souls a lesser number of souls were designed to do good. The
ratio between bad souls and good souls is not the same; there have always been
bad souls in majority, in all times, in all ages and in all eras. Good people
who are good by souls have always been in small quantities and this is how he designed
it. If today we see the world is really bad, it's not because we have made it
bad it’s bad because God made it bad! If you are blind by birth it's not your
fault, this is how God wanted it to be.
I always say to people it is very
strange and astonishing to me that you do not go to a school or university to
learn how to hate people, however in order to love in order to be able to love
somebody you need to have an institution, you need to make an abundance of
sacrifices. Although, you will hear in this world people leisurely use the word
love. The feelings of infatuation or cupboard-love are often mistaken and they
label it with 'sincere form of love'. For example, love of parents for their
kids. Do you think a mother's love is sincere love? I do not think so. There is
always a reason for all types of love. Mothers think their love for their kids
is sincere and kids think their love for their parents is sincere, which is
very rare but this is not love.
I tell you something very
strange, it is evil to have the desire of being loved, but it is divine to be
able to love, because this desire that somebody loves you is very common. Everybody,
Muslim, Jew, Christian or Hindu, everybody wants to be loved. If you are being
loved it will really make your character stained with bad evil traits. If
somebody loves you, you will think you are somebody and the feelings of
superiority will develop and you can see there is no human being on earth that
doesn’t want to be loved, even the animals. When you have a baby you give that
baby a little bit of love, but when you have the second baby your attention is
diverted and you begin to give a little more love to the other baby. The baby
which is 2 years of age will feel the fire of jealousy; they don’t want to
share. Who created this is feeling? God. So to be loved is an evil game but to
love is divine. Now it's vice versa of course, when you are a novice, when you
want to be a Momin (Enlightened Believer), you are not allowed to be loved. You
are taught to love and in order to be able to love you are required to make a
lot of sacrifices and purgate yourself and demolish the statue of ego inside
your body because this feeling of, this desire of being loved is for God only
and those who have God in them. When you have God in you then people will love
you for God. When you have nobody in you and people still love you that love
will bring the devil in you.
To receive love there is a
criterion, a prerequisite also. If you want to receive love you must have God in
you otherwise do not receive love/give love. Only those should be loved who
have God in them. If you do not have God in you then you should not be loved.
This is the core of truth. This is why the concept of love is present in all civilisations,
religious or non-religious, secular or spiritual, all sorts of people acknowledge
the presence of love. Then there are different types of love; love for women, love
for luxury, love for money, love for power. To be loved is a form of ultimate
luxury because when somebody loves you they sacrifice everything for you and
you are receiving those benefits without deserving it. Now, because you do not
deserve it and you do not have the ability and capability of adorning that love
around your heart that is why it is a sin.
In the schools of Spirituality
the first lesson which is given to you is that make sure nobody loves you
because that love will keep you away from God.
For example, if you massage somebody’s
feet it’s very comforting and it’s very soothing for them, but in ten minutes
you will become short of breath. It's not luxury for you. Similarly to love is
not a luxury; to love is a labour, to love is hard work and to be loved is a
luxury. This is why one-sided love is punishment and mutual love is enjoyable. The
path of love is paved with pain and sacrifices.
One night Ibrahim bin-Addam saw
an angel and he was holding a notebook, he asked him, 'What are you writing in
this book?' The angel said, 'I am writing the names of people who love God,' He
asked, 'is my name written?' And the angel said, 'No, I'm sorry I don’t see
your name.' Then the following night he came again and he was holding a
notebook and he was writing some names but this time Ibrahim bin-Addam was
showing to be a little modest and out of fear he was quiet and he didn’t ask
the angel as to what he was doing, but the angel asked him, 'Are you not going
to ask me what am I doing tonight?' He said, 'No, I'm okay,' the angel said 'Let
me tell you. I am writing the names of those whom God loves and your name is on
top of the list.'
To be loved or to have the desire
that somebody love you is in everybody and this desire comes from the Nafs
(Self/Ego). Therefore everybody wants to be loved. They always say, where there
is love there is jealousy. That is true but that love which comes from the
Nafs, the evil Nafs will have jealousy not Divine Love.
So there is no comfort in love
unless you are loved you can be loved but it not allowed. Some people think
sweet talk is love. No, this is not love. Love is a bond and you see the
connection between us and the food is hunger. We are tempted to eat; when you
are hungry and the food is in front of your eyes the food will pull you towards
itself. That is the bond between the food and our hunger. In a similar way,
there is a very invisible spiritual string, a spiritual rope, which is between
the two hearts, the human heart and the Divine Heart. There is a passage of
spiritual gravity and that spiritual gravity that comes from God will keep
pulling you towards God. For example, when somebody is kidnapped, what happens?
You pull somebody without their consent and because you are so powerful you
take that person away unwillingly. That person is not willing to go with you
but because you are more powerful you pull that person away. Similarly, when the
bond of love is developed and you are connected with God, there is a sense of pulling
from God, towards God and that spiritual string will keep you intact with God.
That bond is love and God will not love you unless you have God’s presence in
you. Only God can love himself. Nobody else can love himself.
Therefore, it is free and it is
evil to have the feeling of being loved. People do not have the desire to love but
everybody has the desire to be loved. To love is divine and you can only truly
love once you have the Divine Presence in you.
Farah Naz, the Beloved Daughter of His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi, issues her statement: