Attainment

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Sufism

World

One can see the beginning of the spirit of brotherhood when one looks at flocks of birds flying together in the sky, or at the herds of animals in the fields and the swarms of insects all living and moving together. No doubt this tendency of brotherhood is more pronounced in man, for man is not only capable of realizing the spirit of brotherhood, but also of fulfilling the purpose which is hidden in this natural tendency. There is one secret behind all this diversity which we call good or bad, right or wrong, sin or virtue; and it is that all that leads to happiness is right, good, and virtuous; and all that leads to unhappiness is wrong, bad, and evil; and if there is any sin, it is the latter which may be called sin. Brotherhood is not something which man has learned or acquired; it is something which is born in him, and according to his development of this spirit he shows the unfoldment of his soul.

Coming to the religions which have been given to the world, we read for instance in the Bible the words of Jesus Christ, admonishing us from beginning to end to love our fellow-man, our neighbor. It was the moral of brotherhood that the Master taught and repeated constantly. If one studies what is the central theme of all the different religions which exist in the world, with their millions and millions of followers, we will find that it is brotherhood: to love one another, to serve one another, to be sincere to one another.

But while man is capable of loving his friend, he is still more capable of hating his neighbor. The first tendency, that of brotherhood, of love, brings satisfaction to him and happiness to the other. The other tendency of hating his brother brings dissatisfaction to lure, and unhappiness to the other. Brotherhood creates happiness, and the spirit which is contrary to it produces sorrow.

When we read the scriptures of the great world religions, whether the Bible, the Kabala, the Qur'an, the Gita, or the Buddhist scriptures, we find that in some form or other, in the manner best suited to the people to whom the religion was given, it was the same moral, the same symphony, it was the same music which was performed before there. Were the great teachers specially engaged in giving mystical or occult teachings to the world? Were they engaged in discussing philosophical problems? Not at all, although they were mystics and knew philosophy and occultism, that was not the principal thing that they had to give. What they gave to the world was that simple philosophy which is never new to anyone and which even a child knows: to love one another, to be kind, to be sincere, to serve one another.

But if it is such a simple thing, so simple that even a child knows it, when was it necessary for the great ones, the godly souls, to come and teach it? Life is most simple and yet it is most difficult to live, and man will not accept any teaching from someone who does not live it, or if he accepts it, he will not hold on to it for long. Therefore they came on earth with the love from above, and they lived that simple moral, that simple philosophy of brotherhood. A Mogul emperor, Ghasnavi, who was a great poet, wrote, "Born in a palace, and having reigned from the first day that I came on earth, I saw nothing but thousands and thousands of people bowing before me. But on that day in my life when I learned my first lesson of love, my proud head bowed as a servant before every slave that I saw standing before me. Then I felt that I was their slave." What does this show? It shows that coldness of heart hardens one's feelings and closes one's eyes to that light which illumines the path of brotherhood.

There are many relationships, there are many connections in this world, by blood and also by law, but the greatest relationship is friendship; and it is the culmination of friendship which is called brotherhood. Brotherhood means perfect friendship.

But now comes the question: how may this principle of brotherhood be lived, how may it be practiced? It is very difficult to teach this principle to anyone. The best way of teaching it is by living it oneself. The parents, either father or mother, who show their children that feeling of brotherhood, can best express themselves to their children in this way, and the children too are able to express themselves best to their parents through this feeling. A father may be most kind, a mother most loving, but as long as he or she maintains the attitude of considering himself or herself only as father or mother, as beings which are different from the child, it will perhaps grow to love them but it will" never look upon them as friends. The child will look for friends elsewhere. And a teacher may be respected by his pupils, he may bear himself with great dignity before his pupils, but at the same time there cannot be established that communication of inspiration, of love, of sympathy, of understanding until he has practiced the manner of brotherhood with his pupils.

In what way did the great ones, the prophets, the seers, the mystics, treat their pupils, their disciples? The story is known to all of Jesus Christ calling the fishermen to come and sit and talk with him. The Master never felt comfortable when they called him good. He said, "Call me not good." What he meant was, "Do not consider me superior to you, I am one of you." Think then of the Master washing the feet of his disciples; what does it teach us? It teaches us brotherhood. No miracle, no great power, no great inspiration, occult or mystical, can equal the phenomenon of that humility, of that fraternity, of that brotherhood with which the great ones have become one with all men.

The world appears to be going from bad to worse; it seems that the suffering that has been caused to humanity has not yet ended. No doubt life in the world is so intoxicating that man hardly stops to think about this; life such as it is just now has so many responsibilities; everyone, whether rich or poor, is so absorbed in his affairs that he hardly has a moment to think what is going on in the world. Nevertheless illness is illness, and the world is ill. A person may neglect his illness and engage his mind in something else, but if that illness is not attended to, it remains just the same. When we look for the cause of all these disasters we may be able to find a thousand causes, yet there is one principal cause and that is the lack of brotherhood.

One could have endured the absence of anything else; but the world can never be happy, nor can order or peace ever be maintained, in the absence of brotherhood. This brotherhood can be learned, and every person has facilities for learning it in his life. The master who is kind and loving to his servant, who considers his servant as his brother, is blessed. A family in which all the members, whatever be their relationship, realize the idea of brotherhood in sharing pain and pleasure with one another, how happy, how blessed that family will be! How blessed would be a nation, in which, whatever its government, whatever its constitution, there were this spirit of brotherhood between people of different position, of different rank or occupation. From whence does injustice come, from whence unfairness? It all comes from the lack of brotherhood. Think of the conditions today, the courts full of cases, the prisons full of prisoners! How many disagreements there are between people and inharmony between nations, all caused by the lack of brotherhood.

When we consider this question from a still deeper point of view, we shall find that in the spirit of brotherhood is hidden a way to illumination. A man who may live by great principles, or who prays all day or meditates in the caves of the mountainside, if he does not show the spirit of brotherhood, is no good to himself or to others, because brotherhood is the way to develop spirituality. It is not exclusiveness, it is not running away from the world which is the way of the really spiritual ones. Their way is to consider one's obligations, to keep one's word, one's honor, and to prove sincere in whatever minor capacity one may be working, faithful to friends and true to everyone. These are the merits which develop by themselves when the spirit of brotherhood has matured in man.

But when we come to the metaphysical point of view we see that an element attracts its own element. For instance two streams of water will be attracted to one another. But although there will come a time when they join together, efforts will have to be made by both. When fires start at two sides of a certain place, each fire will be attracted to the other and in the end they will meet and become one. In the same way an artist is attracted to an artist, a thinker to a thinker, a scientist to a scientist, and the man of action to the man of action. They are not only attracted because there is the same element in both of them, but because there is a comfort, a happiness in being attracted by the same element. Think of the joy when two people of the same thought meet together. It is greater than a joy, greater than a satisfaction, it is that happiness which is promised in heaven.

But behind all this world of various names and forms there is one life, there is one spirit. This spirit which is the soul of all beings is attracted towards unity, and it is the absence of this spirit which keeps the world unhappy. To a person who has just had some unpleasantness with his brother or sister, his food is tasteless, the night without sleep, the heart restless, the soul under a cloud. This shows that we do not necessarily live on food; our soul lives on love, the love that we receive and the love that we give. The absence of this is our unhappiness, and the presence of it is all we need. Nothing in the world is a greater healing power, a greater remedy, a greater happiness, than to be conscious of brotherhood and to be able to give that feeling to one's child, master, neighbor, and friend.

The humble efforts made by the Sufi Movement in the service of God and humanity, are towards brotherhood. In the form of devotion, of philosophy, of mysticism, of metaphysics, art, or science, in whatever form the Sufi Movement presents the ideal to the world of which the central theme is always brotherhood.

Friendship is a word which we all use in our everyday language, and yet it could take one's whole life only to realize its meaning. However learned a person may be, however pious, spiritual, or experienced, if he has not learned the nature and character of friendship he has not learned anything. This is the first and the last thing we have to learn. We so often use this word lightly, calling every acquaintance a friend, or professing to be somebody's friend; but the more we realize the meaning of it, the less we are able to claim friendship. For everything in life we are tested, examined, and tried, but to pass this examination of friendship is the most difficult thing in the world.

What is the reason for this? Why is it so difficult to be a friend? One would think that it was the easiest thing there is! The reason is that there is something in ourselves which is always against our being friendly. It is the self, the ego, which the Sufi calls Nafs. As long as this ego is standing and lives, a man cannot claim to be anybody's friend. And when he is not somebody else's friend he is not even his own friend, for one learns friendship by being a friend to another. A selfish man may seem to be a friend to himself, but it is on the surface, not in reality. He has not yet learned how to be a friend to another, so he cannot be a friend to himself. In our pursuit of truth we want to learn a great many things: the nature of life, the secret of life, the character of life; and to understand the meaning of friendship seems so easy and simple that we never trouble to think about it, nor about the responsibility of being a friend.

The great error we make in our lives is that we begin to claim friendship before we have learned the meaning of friendship. In this world of illusion, where at the end of the examination we find everything to be of little importance, of little worth, if there is a sign of reality, of something that one can depend upon, and in which one can recognize a sign of eternity, it is in the constancy of friendship. Man, absorbed in the active life of this world, has a desire for friendship, though he never practices it. Yet this tendency to friendship can be found even among the animals.

There is a story of a hunter who was shooting birds one day in the forest, and saw two birds sitting on a branch of a tree. He shot one bird and it dropped to the ground. As this man was at a distance it took him some time to arrive at the spot, and while he was walking towards it he saw that the other bird had come down to look at its mate. It touched it with its beak and found that it was dead, and by the time the man arrived he found both birds dead. "From that day," he said, "I gave up shooting, for I had seen a friendship among birds which one cannot find among mankind."

It is a simple lesson, and it is a lesson that we have to learn; today when nations are against nations and races against races, when communities are against communities, and one religion against another, it is now that friendship is so much needed. Besides, friendship is the first lesson of spirituality that one can learn. One may think that friendship, a personal friendship, means nothing; that one does not become spiritual through a personal friendship. But one does. A person begins his spiritual accomplishment by learning how to be a friend. For one who is really treading the path of friendship need not go anywhere to learn morals. Friendship itself teaches him sincerity, gratitude, sympathy, tenderness, appreciation; all these things that we must learn in this world, friendship teaches us. And once a man begins to learn these things through friendship with one person, he will naturally show to others the same virtues which he has acquired by going along this path; just as someone who has learned how to sing beautifully will naturally sing every song that is given to him beautifully. The one who has cultivated his heart through friendship will naturally be inclined to be friends with others.

It is not belief in God which leads us to the goal, nor is it the analysis and the knowledge of God that bring us there. It is the friendship of God. For someone who learns the lesson of friendship in this world, this lesson develops in the end into friendship with God. But when a person exacts in return from his friend all that he does for him, then it is not friendship, it is business. It only means: I give you a shilling and you give me twelve pence. When a person judges his friend, then the spirit of friendship is not awakened in his heart, for a friend never judges. When a person talks to another about his friend, when he blames him, when he criticizes him, he does not know what friendship is. The meaning of friendship is too sacred to realize. All other relationships and connections in this life are empty if friendship is not at the back of them to strengthen them. The relationship between mother and daughter, father and son, brother and sister, husband and wife, teacher and pupil, all these connections need a spirit behind them; and this spirit is the spirit of friendship.

When a daughter says, "I am friends with my mother", there is something beautiful about it. It makes the connection between a mother and a daughter a different thing, it makes it living. In every relationship it is the same. When there is friendship to bind the relationship it makes it secure, it gives it life. Love is life, and life is symbolized by water. When one wants to bring water up out of the ground one has to dig for it, and the first thing which one finds is mud. And if one is disappointed by that, one has fooled oneself, for beneath the earth is water; it can be found but one must have patience to dig for it, to dig deep enough to find the water.

If one has made a friend it is not something that one has made to order, that must just fit in according to one's expectations and wishes. Every individual has his own characteristics, and as long as the spirit of forgiveness is not developed, friendship cannot last. It is a continual forgiveness that helps friendship to endure. Much can be learned by study, but not unselfishness. Unselfishness can be learned by one thing only and that is by treading the path of friendship. And it brings beauty into one's life; a friendly person, whether in business or in a profession, in whatever capacity he stands, gives one a feeling of warmth; in other words an atmosphere of life. One is always glad to meet a friendly person in a shop, in a factory, in an office. When this spirit is awakened one can feel in his words, in his voice, in his expression, in his atmosphere, that he is a friendly person, that there is something that goes out to meet others, a continual tendency to harmonize with others.

Once this spirit is developed the ever-complaining tendency vanishes. If it is not developed then this world is full of thorns that prick. Then one will have no peace, no happiness, whatever one's position in life. If a person wants to make his life easy, if he wishes to create happiness in his life, he must try to crush that ego, that Nafs, that thought of self which keeps one continually absorbed in one's own thoughts and in one's own affairs. By rising above it he will learn the spirit of friendship. And then for him the same path which was full of thorns will become full of roses. For some souls that same world which can be hell to many others, is heaven. For friendship changes man's point of view.

An unfriendly man, as soon as he sees another person, sees him from his own critical point of view. He has his preconceived ideas, and therefore he is not allowed by Providence to see the good side of the other. But the one in whom the friendly spirit is awakened always overlooks little errors, faults, mistakes; his sympathy and his love naturally help him to rise above the faults of man. That is the story of Jesus Christ, the friend of humanity, before whom the greatest sinners were brought; but the attitude of the Master was always forgiving. Those who brought them were unfriendly; the Master was friendly.

Life is as we look at it. If we wish to find faults we can find faults in the best person in the world, and if we wish to find good points we can fund good points in the worst person in the world. It is as we see life.

Someone went to Jami, the great seer of Persia, and asked him if he would accept him as his disciple on the spiritual path. Jami asked him, "Have you loved, have you learned the manner of friendship?" He said, "No, not yet." Jami said, "Go into the world again, and learn it."

The first lesson on the spiritual path that one has to learn is the manner of friendship. Once that is learned then all other parts of the spiritual journey will become easy. Where do all the disturbances, such as wars, revolutions, disagreeable experiences among nations, fights among parties, come from? They all come from lack of friendship. And the most extraordinary thing is that one party may perhaps have been fighting another party for years, but if we investigate their particular ideas we find that they are not even friends among themselves, for fighting against the other party produces and develops this unfriendly spirit in them. It is a kind of intoxication. In education, in religion, or in anything else, the best thing one can do is to introduce the spirit of friendliness. And how can we introduce it? This is something which cannot arise only by reading some books about it. There exist innumerable societies and institutions of brotherhood everywhere, but they prove to be anything but brotherhood. Therefore that is not the way.

The way is for an individual to be brought to understand fully that the essence of morals and of religion and of education is one, and that one essence is the manner of friendship. Sufis of all ages have named it Suluk, which means divine manner, beneficence. That is why the best education is beneficence: how to bring pleasure and happiness to another; and one can begin to learn this by understanding fully what friendliness is and by practicing it at the same time.

And if I were to explain what we human beings are and what God is, I would say that our relationship with God is the same as that between the rays and the sun. Every soul is a ray of the sun which is God. It is not our body or our mind which is the ray but the soul, whose nature it is to attract a garb from whichever sphere it touches in order to cover itself so that it can live in that particular sphere. It is this garb which the soul has borrowed that we call our physical body, a clay which has been kneaded for many centuries to make the body of man, a clay which was once a rock, which once manifested itself as a tree, which once appeared as animals and birds. This same clay, in its finished form, has given the soul of man a garb which he calls his body.

Therefore the Sufi establishes his relationship with God as the relationship between him and the Beloved. His worship of God is the expansion of the heart; his love for all beings and for every being is his love for God. He cannot find anyone to love except God, because he sees God in all. If his love is shown in devotion to parents, to wife, to children, if it is shown to neighbors, to a friend or in tolerating enemies, the Sufi considers this as an action of his towards God. In this way he fulfills in his life the teaching of the Bible, "We live and move and have our being in God.'

We can have many friends in the world, but a friend whom we can really trust is hard to find. And if during our life we have found one, we should be most thankful to have one friend who can keep our secret. Ordinary people apart, kings and emperors who have to deal with thousands and millions of people, have great difficulty in finding one person whom they can trust completely, in whom they have confidence, and they consider themselves most fortunate if they do. And it is the power of assimilation which enables one to keep a secret and prove worthy of confidence. The one who has the power of assimilation is the treasure-house of all those who confide in him. It is such a one who arrives at the stage of the Master.

A very important thing in character-building is to become conscious of one's relationship, obligation, and duty to each person in the world, and not to mix that link and connection which is established between oneself and another with a third person.