When he said this, someone clapped. Frowning, Baba reminded him that this was a sahavas, a deeply significant occasion where such displays were inappropriate.
The qawaal resumed singing:
You don't know when I find or lose You, or become lost in You. I am physically asleep, but my mind remains awake in Your remembrance!
"It would have been better if the mind also slept!" Baba quipped, and all laughed.
He continued: "The whole universe that you see is a dream, and at present you all are dreaming. Suppose you are sleeping and I appear in your dream and tell you: 'What you see and experience now is all a dream!' But you don't believe it. But when you are awake, you know that what I was saying was quite true. Similarly, whatever pain or pleasure you experience is in reality a dream. This qawaali singing, your hurrying here in the hot sun, and my telling you all this, is in truth only a dream. But as long as I don't open your [inner] eyes, you won't believe it."
Baba turned to the qawaal, "Enough of praise, now let's hear something about love."
When the qawaal was about to begin, Baba interrupted him and began explaining about divine intoxication: "As the seeker progresses on the spiritual path, he loses his worldly consciousness, resulting in the mast state. Here he has no consciousness of the world. He eats, drinks, clothes himself, covers his body, but has no thought of it.
"When this state becomes limitless, the person attains the state of a majzoob . Very, very few regain gross consciousness and begin to act in a worldly manner after reaching this state. To recognize a person in such a state is virtually impossible. It means losing all and gaining all."
Humorously, Baba commented: "Long, long ago I lost everything and became God, but thank God I didn't lose my sense of humor!"
The qawaal resumed with another couplet:
In my one form are contained all these innumerable forms. Whom to take as a sinner, whom to believe in as a saint?
After the ghazal, speaking on haal , an emotional state, Baba commented, "Once my old companion and disciple Munshiji arranged a qawaali program here in Bombay. A Muslim boy named Alimuddin in a paroxysm of devotion began jumping up and down. In the course of the singing that day it happened a few times. Even when the ghazal was over, Alimuddin was in the same emotional state. This is called haal or bhav . When a devotee turns into a real lover, he is devoid of this state. In his love, he simply burns within, which cannot be observed outwardly."