The Teaching of Hazrat Inayat Khan      

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Volume

Sayings

Social Gathekas

Religious Gathekas

The Message Papers

The Healing Papers

Vol. 1, The Way of Illumination

Vol. 1, The Inner Life

Vol. 1, The Soul, Whence And Whither?

Vol. 1, The Purpose of Life

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound and Music

Vol. 2, The Mysticism of Sound

Vol. 2, Cosmic Language

Vol. 2, The Power of the Word

Vol. 3, Education

Vol. 3, Life's Creative Forces: Rasa Shastra

Vol. 3, Character and Personality

Vol. 4, Healing And The Mind World

Vol. 4, Mental Purification

Vol. 4, The Mind-World

Vol. 5, A Sufi Message Of Spiritual Liberty

Vol. 5, Aqibat, Life After Death

Vol. 5, The Phenomenon of the Soul

Vol. 5, Love, Human and Divine

Vol. 5, Pearls from the Ocean Unseen

Vol. 5, Metaphysics, The Experience of the Soul Through the Different Planes of Existence

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

Vol. 7, In an Eastern Rose Garden

Vol. 8, Health and Order of Body and Mind

Vol. 8, The Privilege of Being Human

Vol. 8a, Sufi Teachings

Vol. 9, The Unity of Religious Ideals

Vol. 10, Sufi Mysticism

Vol. 10, The Path of Initiation and Discipleship

Vol. 10, Sufi Poetry

Vol. 10, Art: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Vol. 10, The Problem of the Day

Vol. 11, Philosophy

Vol. 11, Psychology

Vol. 11, Mysticism in Life

Vol. 12, The Vision of God and Man

Vol. 12, Confessions: Autobiographical Essays of Hazat Inayat Khan

Vol. 12, Four Plays

Vol. 13, Gathas

Vol. 14, The Smiling Forehead

By Date

THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS

Heading

History of the Sufis

Sufism

The Sufi's Aim

The Different Stages of Spiritual Development

The Prophetic Tendency

Seeing

Self-Discipline

Physical Control

Health

Harmony

Balance

Struggle and Resignation

Renunciation

The Difference Between Will, Wish, and Desire

The Law of Attraction

Pairs of Opposites

Resist Not Evil

Judging

The Privilege of Being Human

Our God Part and Our Man Part

Man, the Seed of God

Evolution

Spiritual Circulation Through the Veins of Nature

Destiny and Free Will

Divine Impulse

The Law of Life

Manifestation, Gravitation, Assimilation, and Perfection

Karma And Reincarnation

Life in the Hereafter

The Mystical Meaning of the Resurrection

The Symbol of the Cross

Orpheus

The Mystery of Sleep

Consciousness

Conscience

The Gift of Eloquence

The Power of Silence

Holiness

The Ego

The Birth of the New Era

The Deeper Side of Life

Life's Mechanism

The Smiling Forehead

The Spell of Life

Selflessness

The Conservative Spirit

Character-Building

Respect and Consideration

Graciousness

Overlooking

Conciliation

Optimism and Pessimism

Happiness

Vaccination and Inoculation

Marriage

Love

The Heart

The Heart Quality

The Tuning of the Heart (1)

The Tuning of the Heart (2)

The Soul, Its Origin and Unfoldment

The Unfoldment of the Soul

The Soul's Desire

The Awakening of the Soul (1)

The Awakening of the Soul (2)

The Awakening of the Soul (3)

The Maturity of the Soul

The Dance of the Soul

Sub-Heading

-ALL-

Vol. 8a, Sufi Teachings

The Spell of Life

One sometimes wonders why God made man so weak that he is often liable to be bad, and one may even think that this is very unjust of God. But it is not so, and this point is very well explained in a story from the Arabian Nights.

There was a king who had a servant who was a great drunkard. Once, wishing to amuse himself, the king told the other servants to give the man a lot to drink and to put him into his own bed when he was completely overcome. When the day broke, there were musicians playing, as was the custom, and ten or twelve girls were singing in the king's room to waken him.

When the servant awoke he thought, 'What has happened to me? Last night I was a servant; now I am in the king's bed and everything is kingly! Am I a servant or am I a king?' When he looked at the girls, they all bowed. Everyone called him 'Your Majesty'.

He got up and went out. Then he came to the Durbar. There he was seated on a throne and all the vizirs came, bowed before him, and presented their addresses. He thought, 'I must be a king. If I had only been a king in the bedroom, it would have been nothing, but here too everyone bows and says "Your Majesty!"'

The whole day he enjoyed his kingship. But in the evening his wife came. The night before, when he did not come home, she had thought that perhaps he was lying drunk somewhere. She looked for him everywhere, and when she could not find him she went to the palace. No one stopped her, because the king had given his orders. When her husband saw her he looked at her as if she were death; he thought, 'I cannot be a king, because if I were, my wife would not be here. I shall have to go with her!'

She said, 'What are you doing here? You did not come home; I have had no food, and you are enjoying yourself here. Come with me.' He said, 'I do not know you; go away.' But she said, 'You are my husband, come with me.' And she dragged him away, while he kept on saying, 'I am a king, I am a king.'

It is the situation we are in which makes us believe we are this or that. Whatever the soul experiences, that it believes itself to be. If the soul sees the external self as a baby it believes: I am a baby. If it sees the external self as old it believes: I am old. If it sees the external self in a palace it believes: I am rich. If it sees that self in a hut it believes: I am poor. But in reality it is only: I am.

This is the spell of life, by which man is spellbound.

"Hafiz says, 'Before our birth, Thou gavest us a draught of wine."

And Jami says, "O Saqi, wine-giver, forgive me, it is my youth. Sometimes I embrace the wine-bottle and kiss it. Sometimes I throw it away."

So are we all. A child's doll is sometimes embraced and kissed, and at another time it is thrown on the floor and broken, and something else is taken up instead. At one time we say that a person is our friend, and at another we say he is our enemy. At one time we say that we like this nation, that race; at another it is our enemy. According to our childishness we change.

Man in his dream of life is always running after the passing clouds. And when does he awaken? When the wife comes. And what is the wife? The wife is the destructiveness of nature; and when she comes as death he sees that all that he has and all that he calls his own will be left behind: his name, his fame, his possessions. Everything is for those who live, and for him there is only the grave. He can take nothing with him. Then he realizes that none of these things can give him everlasting peace and satisfaction, and he looks for something which can give him these.

It is only a question of his ego, his consciousness. There is a saying in Hindustani, 'The humility of the wise is not lost. The seed goes into the dust to become a plant.' When the wise man has humiliated himself in the dust, this dust will make him flourish. This is not the same as mastery, although it prepares him for the higher grades.

The Hadith says, "Mutu qabla an tamutu." Die before death.

The Sufi dies before his death, and experiences in life what the condition will be after death. In other words, he invites his wife to visit him, and welcomes her through his kingship, so that he may not have to be dragged away by her but may even enjoy life with her, with his wife on earth; in other words: he becomes living dead.

When a person has understood intellectually that all this manifestation has come from one Being, he is inclined to say, 'What should we worship, what should we adore, if we ourselves are all? Or whom should we fear?' But he forgets his own person; if he is composed of so many different organs and different atoms and planes and yet can be a person at the same time, why should not the whole Being be a person?

We know intellectually that all are one. But when someone insults us, we cannot bear it, we no longer think that he is the same as we are. When someone has done us harm, we blame him; we do not stop to think that he is the same as ourselves, so why should we blame him?