LETTER OF COUNT GALARZA OF SANTA CLARE WRITTEN TO THE AUTHOR OF HAYATH-E-WARI ON HIS MEETING WITH SARKAR WARIS
Dear Sir,
I take great pleasure in answering your question about Waris Ali Shah, and telling you all that I know about him. My meeting with this ascetic was an important event in my life, and it can only be valued by reading the outline of my biography. I love to record it, and when I do so, I feel the fond grasp of gratitude, one of the sweetest Devine attributes.
My connection with Waris Ali Shah is the only one between myself and a human being which has not been marred by natural imperfection. He was my dearest human friend and he filled heart even more completely than my mother. In face my greatest wish with regard to her was that she might reach his degree of detachment, and thereby by delivered, after her death, from any limited future existence. He summed up all my feeling and lived within me as a vague ideal long before the day in which I met him in the outer world. The pure consciousness and the heavenly detachment of which he was an expression were already on the horizon of my subconscious self when I was thirteen years old and asked H.H. the Maharaja of Kashmiri if there were still any true yogis in India. I heard of him for the first time in 1902 or 1903, in London. Towards that date Sheikh Habeeb Ahmed, of his own, an astrology and philosophy which failed to satisfy me. So the Sheikh told me that if I wanted a higher light I might get it from his Master, Waris Ali Shah. This name immediately became for me lovely centre of attraction, a sign of the spiritual degree that was more or less consciously my got at that time. I therefore conceived the firm intention of going to meet the Master. One year before, I have obtained from my parents the permission of spending the winter in Egypt, and I have enjoyed there the solitude to a Sufi method, which Sheikh Habeeb Ahmed had explained to me. Consequently, I was allowed to go again to Cairo under the care of Hassan Askri, my teacher of Arabic, I knew that my parents would refuse to let me travel as far as India, so I took my passage secretly up-to Bombay, on the MARMORA of the P & 0 intending to return quickly to Egypt in order that my mother might not he anxious. I rested in Bombay, then in Lucknow, mediating for at last Seven hours daily in dark room as it has been my habit to do since one or two years.
From Lucknow, I started for Dewa Sheriff in a carriage together with Hassan Askari, and before noon, I was trembling with emotion on the threshold of Waris Ali Shah’s house. I had never seen anything like an India village and Fakirs in yellow robes, as the whole place found was transferred, in my mind, from the world of sense to a stage above dreamland, where meaning and material objects are transmuted into each other. Leaning on two of his followers, the tall ascetic figure of Waris Ali Shah appeared. Blue eyes as deep and transparent as the sky, a very high and straight forehead, regular features: a white complexion and white beard the innocent Hayat-e-Waris
and buoyant smile of early youth. I ran up to him quickly with daring of rapture, and pressed my head on his heart. He folded me in his arms, and said, “Muhabbat, Muhabbat” (this is love). We sat down on mats. Hassan Askari translated his questions, where does he come from? What is his religion (millat)? I gave Askeri no answer to this last question, because I had none to give, however, Waris Ali Shah said something about the Unity of the aim in all religion which I cannot exactly remember, because my attention was concentrated on the one thought which I want to express. Askeri told him that I have come to India for the sole purpose of meeting him not to see any famous places of monuments such as the Taj Mahal. Has he any wish? There was the question I expected from him and there was the thought in which I was concentrated. Yes, I said, I wish to be yourself. He smiled, looked round paused a little before answering and then uttered some Urdu words which were better than all blessings to me, “Ham or tum wahan eik jagah houn gay”. “I and you, there beyond, shall be in the same place.” Like a calm sleep after a long strain, these words produced a quite satisfaction in my heart and mind. It seemed to me that the aim of many yearning was entirely attained. I then presented a yellow cloth which Waris Ali Shah put on as a robe, giving me in exchange the grey one which he was wearing.
After that, Aughat Shah, a disciple of the Master, led me into the guest house. I remained half lulled. Then I slept and meditated. In the evening, Aughat Shah, through Askeri, told me many things about the Teacher, and related some almost miraculous events of his life, but any attention was not very keen because the most interesting words had already been heard by me never to be forgotten. I can remember that something was said about the early age at which Waris Ali Shah entered the path, I think it was nineteen, I also recollect that Aughat Shah mentioned the well known Sufi precept:
Die (to the world) before your (Physical) death, and that he was acquainted with the method of counting on one’s figure, during the practice of divine names, which I used to follow. Later in the evening a singer called, I think Muhammad came in with two music and sang some mystic songs of love and tears.
Next day we took leave of the Master and I thanked him with poor ds, the inanity of which I felt somewhat bitterly.
I returned to Egypt by the same ship the Marmora, and stayed in Helouman, near Cairo, at the Tewfik place. I chose the place where I had been the year before because it is surrounded by the desert. My own self was now more closely surrounded by the worlds great desert that it had ever been, and my favour in repeating daily some divine names, for many hours, was increased.
Two or three months later I had a dream, or more precisely and inward vision. I saw Waris Ali Shah alone looking at me and holding a large red fruit in his right hand. I tried, in the vision, to recognize what fruit it was. I fist “Tomato” then in German, “Paradiesapfel” (Apple of Paradise). Waris Ali raised his hand, ate one half of the fruit, and then presented me with the Hayat-e-Waris
other half which I took. At the same instant he vanished and Aughat Shah standing before me, said. The Master is dead, “I sobbed violently but I was happy, as if I did not know whether I was crying with sorrow or joy. In that state I awoke, rather passed into subconscious ness. And I understood that the fruit was his heart, and that he was sharing it with me on the threshold of death. Two or three days later, a telegram came from Sheikh Habeeb Ahmed, who was in London saying “The Master is dead.” Askeri was much impressed by the strangeness of vision and its co-incidence with the telegram, I was not very astonished, but I was awed and grateful, and it seemed to me that the vision expressed again the blessed Urdu phrase which I heard at Dewa.
For several years I kept that gray garment of Waris Ali Shah under my pillow and always kissed it before going to sleep.
In 1907, I began to acquire a summary, higher knowledge of all things through a Being that does not belong to the world of sense. The thought of that Being transcending all forms, superseded in my mind, the particular form of my dearest human friend Waris Ali Shah. However, I can’t always find the meaning of his form in m inmost consciousness and nameless self.
I hope, dear, that this answer to the question you put two days ago may be considered complete. It is all that I know about the pure ascetic of Dewa Shereef.
Your Sincerely
Galarza, the Viscount of Santa Clare
Aal-e-Qutub Aal-e-Syed Abdullah Shah Ghazi 