KNOWLEDGE AND IMAGINATION

 
On the one hand, Divine Knowledge (Dnyan or Marefat) is a thing which cannot be had even after going through numberless forms for countless ages; and on the other hand, when it comes, it comes. It would not be correct to say that Knowledge comes quickly. To say that it comes suddenly, or that it comes unawares and so on still does not correctly express the "Flash of Becoming" which is beyond description, because Knowledge is beyond the range of imagination.

Imagination has a tremendous range and an almost unlimited scope and man has a very strong imagination. For example, it would not be impossible for a man to imagine a rat having a million heads. The whole world is created and carried on by the force of the imagination. But in spite of being apparently unlimited, imagination reaches the limit when checked by Knowledge itself. By the power of imagination no man can ever understand or explain the beginningless beginning or the endless end. In other words, Eternity is beyond the reach of all imagination, and Knowledge is Knowledge of Eternity.

God is without beginning and without end, and there can never be any question of time and space in Infinity as, otherwise, that would mean a limitation against God's infinitude. No amount of imagination can, therefore, ever think of Infinity, because where there is no beginning, the very question as to what was in the beginning cannot arise at all.

For example, let us repeat that before God, there was God, and before that, there was God, and before that there was God; or repeat that after God, is God, and after that, God is, and after that God is: and all this would convey nothing to the imagination. That is why Knowledge is said to be even beyond the reach of Rishis and Munis (the advanced Saints). Hafiz also advises against the futility of trying to catch the "Falcon" of Knowledge when he says that nothing but "emptiness" can ever come in the "net of imagination."

Thus, the most powerful mind in imagination is entirely helpless against Knowledge, because it comes only after all power of imagination is completely and absolutely exhausted and ended. For imagination to go, mind must go; and for Knowledge to come, consciousness must remain. Only when the mind disappears does consciousness get freed of all imaginary "this and that" and "I and you." The moment consciousness is freed from all imagination, this "consciousness of nothing" is all at once transformed into the "Knowledge of Everything," i.e., Dnyan or Marefat.