The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship

A short talk given by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen from Questions of Life, Answers of Wisdom Volume 2.

Questioner: Could Bawa say something about the structure, contents, and limits of the eighteen thousand universes?

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen: The twelve openings in your body constitute twelve universes. Within each of those there are many more universes. And so many universes exist within the five elements of earth, fire, water, air, and ether. Even within mind and desire there exist countless universes. In all, there are eighteen thousand universes. Arrogance, karma, mäyä (illusion); tärahan, singhan, süran (the three sons of mäyä); desire, anger, miserliness, infatuation, fanaticism, and envy; intoxicants, lust, theft, murder, and falsehood—these constitute seventeen universes. The eighteenth is the realm of the powers of God’s dominion, the station of the ‘arsh, the throne of God.

If you open each one of these universes and look within—as you go on opening and looking—you will find a thousand universes, each containing a thousand energies (sakthis) or miracles. There are millions upon millions of them. They are the karmic connections that bind us.

If one can understand the seeds of the eighteen thousand universes and overcome all these karmas, he will come to know the eighteenth universe—the state of God’s divine rule. That is just one point, one letter (alif), one dot (nuqtah), which remains with Allah. Everything is contained within that one. Only when a man has conquered or understood all the other universes can he go to that eighteenth one—the one he is not aware of now.

You must come to understand the place out of which you came when you were born. You must also understand fecal arrogance (the anus). You must understand the navel—the poisonous qualities. You must understand each of the seven openings that are above [two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth]. You must know the ‘arsh and the kursï.¹ These make up the twelve openings. You must understand them.

After that you must understand the five qualities—earth, fire, water, air, and ether. That makes seventeen. Within each of these seventeen, how many universes there are! As we open out each one we will find many, many universes of illusion, many hells within. If we can understand the seventeen, we can understand what lies beyond. We can come to know the one point. That is what we have to understand.

Footnotes

1. ‘arsh (A) The throne of God on the crown of the head.
    kursï (A) The eye of wisdom in the center of the forehead.