Now we come to the difficulties on the spiritual path. What are the difficulties? It is always impossible to fathom my Original State of Reality on the spiritual path. Why? I shall explain the reasons to you. What does Hafiz say? He says: "Step out of the boundary of your nature." It means: "Go against your own nature." Your nature makes you think that you are hungry and want food. When you feel hungry, you demand food and eat. Hafiz wants you not to eat; that is going against your nature, that is to say, "stepping out" of your nature. If your nature says you are not feeling hungry, according to Hafiz, you must go against it and you must eat, and eat much. When you feel like sleeping, according to Hafiz, you must not sleep. This is what we understand from the couplet of Hafiz.
But does it really mean all this? No. I shall tell you what Hafiz really means. According to Hafiz, literally, if you want to see anything, you must not see. If you do not want to see anything, you must see. This is what is meant by stepping out of your nature. We can go on giving innumerable such examples of "going against one's nature."
Take another instance: When you run up an incline, you will pant for breath. In such a case, you must not pant; you should breathe normally. Contrariwise, when you feel normal, you must not feel normal; you must breathe hard or pant for breath. Therefore, it is almost impossible to step out of the boundary of your very nature, and it is therefore really impossible for you to realize me as I really am. Then what should we do?
Hafiz comes to our rescue and gives a solution. But that solution too is very difficult, impossible, but somewhat less difficult or less impossible. Hafiz says:
At this point, Baba asked Raosaheb to recite the couplet in Persian (which was later translated into Telugu and Gujarati) which means, according to Baba's rendering in English:
O you mad one! If you have that madness to realize God, then become the dust at the feet of a Perfect Master!