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World

After a lecture, if anyone asked a question, there are some considerations in giving the answer. There are answers which you cannot give or which you must not give. In that case it is better to say that this is a question which can be answered privately afterwards. Then there are personal questions a person may ask, and the speaker must be wise enough not to commit himself; if not, he is gone. For instance: "What do you believe?" "What is your opinion about it?" "What do you think about it?" The speaker is not there to say his personal opinion or what he personally believes, or perhaps his belief is so great and so high that it cannot be put in words.

Therefore always avoid it. Say, "That is a personal question." One says, "What would you do in this case?" Always say, "Well, I would not advise you to do the same as I would do in this case, because every person must do what he would do, not what another person would do in that case; because it is not only the case, it is the person also to be counted."

Then there are questions in which people want you to commit yourself, and if you commit yourself, then you are the loser; if you do not commit yourself, then you have gained. It is just like a game, when there is a question and answer between the audience. Either the speaker can be caught or he can keep above it. To keep above it is never to commit oneself. As soon as once a speaker commits himself, hundreds of questions will come to bring him down. So you see, he must feel at the same time, "I must not commit myself." But now you may ask what committing oneself means.

Committing oneself means saying something which gives you in the hand of the other in such a way that he can contradict you, and you have no support of your own word (from your own self) remaining there to hold your argument high. Very often you may be right and yet you may commit yourself. That is the dreadful part of it. It is not by saying something wrong that you commit yourself, but by saying something right; it is by standing responsible for what one has said. That is what one has to be very careful of. Or committing yourself means that from your own principle, you say what is right, but from the principle of others you could be defeated. (But if you had not said it you would not be defeated).

For instance, a speaker has told a story. He says that when the saint was sitting under the tree and the thief came and said, "I want a place to hide in; the police are after me." The saint said, "Climb on the tree and sit on the branch." The police came and asked, "Have you seen that thief?" He said, "No."

And now the speaker has said it. The speaker appreciated on the part of the saint, and felt that is all right. The audience asks, "Are you of the same opinion as the saint? Was the saint not against the State?" or, "Did the saint not encourage him to thieve?" and, "The saint told a lie." The saint could be accused of three things. If the speaker were headstrong he would say, "But it was a saint." Then the speaker has done wrong, because he thought what the saint did was right, but the others do not think so. He stands guilty before the others.

That is the delicate point: The higher you evolve, the less you are caught be principles of the ordinary mob. But at the same time if you commit yourself, you are attacked by all, condemned by all. Someone may say, "But how could the saint encourage the thief and tell a lie?" The eyes of the saint did not see the thief. The eyes have only seen God and nothing else. If it was a thief, then everybody is a thief for the saint, in one form or the other. Only in one form it is not seen as a thief, in another form it is. He is above it. Therefore he can see from his point of view. If others follow his point of view, they will be wrong. If they will encourage it, they will do wrong.

For a speaker it is a difficult thing. The speaker's position is difficult. He is before the public. They can condemn him, and they can never understand his point of view. So the speaker must know the game. It is a game. You may just take one word and slip out; put one word as a screen and get out. The person is looking at the screen and the speaker is out. It is just like a juggler who says, "Look, look here," and the object is gone there.

When you speak before people, whether known or unknown to you, let your speech follow your silence.

During that silence, meditate on the thought of harmony, feeling that you harmonize with every soul who is there, that no one is against you, that no one is antagonistic to you, that no one dislikes you, that no one disapproves of you.

By this feeling either you will remove for the time while you are speaking, if not for long, their antagonism, their ill feeling, their disapproval, or you will rise above it while you speak.

This silence will work as a healing for those whose mind is not in order.

And if you felt that a current of antagonism anyone in the audience is still striking, then answer it with the thought of harmony again; and so you will be able to harmonize with all those before you, your friends or foes.

One practice is to breathe through the nostrils deep and to bring the breath from the diaphragm and then to exhale that breath by blowing it out by the mouth; and a hundred such breaths must be taken, either lying in bed or sitting on the floor cross-legged or standing.

Besides that, closing the eyes and looking at the five-pointed star, holding the thought of the star still and not allowing the mind to waver. These practices will help you to keep on your subject, on the subject that you are speaking. Every day for five minutes.

With closed eyes see the five-pointed star and repeat Wazifa at the same time, "Ya Wahhabo," inhale and exhale, repeat again. It means "Divine Flow of Inspiration," the sacred Name of God, the God who represents the flow of inspiration, or the flow of life. It is in many ways a very useful word in business, in profession, in reading, in writing. One must picture sometimes, with Ya Wahhabo, the flowing of life or running water, because that symbolizes progress in life. To do this the first thing in the morning.

Besides this there is a concentration which must be done just before you are speaking, and that concentration is, "With all those who are in this room I unite in God with my whole heart." There must not be a barrier: "This person who is sitting in that corner is my enemy," or "That person in that corner is my worst opponent." That thought must not be there. The thought must be, "All those who are sitting here are my friends, I wholeheartedly unite with them all in God." That produces a wonderful effect.

When you are one with all, there is no barrier. That is a great secret. That feeling, "Sometimes some people are very difficult to talk to," is not right. That feeling must be put out of one's mind. It would spoil your whole lecture. When there is a thought of antagonism the whole thing is spoiled. You may repeat in your mind, "You are all my friends. I sympathize with all and I unite with you all in God."

You may ask, "Does someone who is making a speech see the audience?" It depends. In my case, if there were a thousand persons in my audience, each person I see separately, not as he appears outside, but as he is inside, his attitude towards my lecture and towards me. I see each person individually.

The Prophetic Mission

The prophetic mission has had in all ages difficulties and trials to go through. It was not only that the Masters had to go through difficulties and trials, but also those who sincerely followed them and stood for the Cause. One reads in the life of Jesus Christ how it began with trials and difficulties, how the youth of the Master had been full of trials and difficulties, and they who followed him, what difficulties they had. The same thing happened at the time of Moses.

It was so also at the time of Mohammed. The difficulties had no end and how his pupils and defenders sacrificed their lives one reads in his life.

His most sincere devotee, Ali, on hearing that there was a plot made by his adversaries to assassinate him on a certain night, managed to get the Prophet away that night from home, and he slept in the bed of the Prophet that evening, that any danger that was to come on the Prophet he might take on himself.

And the bravery that the Prophet had shown at different times, that gives the proof what the prophetic mission means, and the pictures of its difficulties and trials.

Three times Mohammed was exiled from Mecca, and among those folk, his relatives and the lives of many devoted followers of the Prophet were sacrificed in this struggle. For they did not want to have one person left in Mecca who believed in the Message. They did not exile only Mohammed, but all his pupils, and not one single paper of his writings might be left in Mecca.

One day in exile, on the way, they heard the noise of many horses coming; and the Prophet had one disciple with him and there was a party of riders following them in order to assassinate the Prophet. When they heard they sat behind a large rock, but Siddiq, the pupil of the Prophet, was trembling. He said, "But they are many." The Prophet said, "And what are we?" The pupil said, "We are only two." "No," said the Prophet, "We are three, I, you, and God."

With this courage and strength the Prophet endured the struggle that the prophetic mission brought in his life. And do not think that Buddha or Krishna went smoothly through their prophetic lives and had no struggles; there were wars and battles and troubles of all sorts.

The Message in Our Time

Now, when we come to the Message which it has been the destiny of the Sufi Movement to give and spread, it has not less difficulties, it has difficulties of its own kind. In many ways the difficulties are similar, the difficulties with friends and the difficulties with foes. And therefore if we shall say that history repeats itself, it will never be an exaggeration. But at the same time we see that during all the times whenever the prophetic Message was given to the world there have been real sincere friends who have proved to be so during all difficulties and trials, whose names have been engraved in the history of the religion of the world, having stood through all difficulties and trials which have fallen upon the prophets, and after thousands of people came and turned their back to the prophet, they have not so, they have stuck.

When Jesus Christ was asked, "What is the evidence of your prophecy?" he said, "The devotion of my disciples." He did not say that it was his power of miracle or his qualification that was the evidence. No, for it is the friend of God who is the friend of his disciples, and that friendship, as my Murshid has once said, the friendship in the path of Truth and God, is greater than any friendship in the world. I should be very happy and I am happy to feel that among my mureeds there are some souls whom I can count upon in my times of difficulties and trials. I have not the slightest doubt about this.

But there is something which I should like to bring to the minds of my mureeds, and that is the importance of every moment of our lives in the world, how precious and invaluable is every moment of our lives, since we are blessed to strive in the path of serving God and humanity in giving the Sufi Message. We cannot, therefore, put off something which we can do today until tomorrow.

The Present Need

And now the greatest need that we have before us is the need of workers. Some of my mureeds may perhaps feel, "There are some who have already a charge given, it is their duty to work. We are only simple mureeds, why should we work hard? Perhaps when we shall be appointed to some certain work, then we will do it." But they must not think like this, they must know that, whatever be their position in life, if they at all intend to serve the Cause, they can serve it in some way or other.

And if they only know the greatest need of serving the Cause at the moment when it has come as an answer to the cry of humanity, and if they only knew every moment that is being lost, what loss it is, they would feel in the same way as I feel very often, my heart full of anxiety and eagerness for the way that the Movement is progressing and spreading. If I see this and at the same time the work that we have to accomplish, I cannot help being very much discouraged. If it was not for my trust in God and in His Message, it would have been most difficult for me to carry on the work. And now every day the time of the Message is becoming more precious, and I wish that my mureeds will remember that saying that "Life is an opportunity," and if this opportunity is lost, that which will be accomplished will be accomplished, but that privilege is lost.

Remember that I do not ask of my mureeds to give as a return for all they receive their service to the Cause, because that would be commerce, that would be business; but I wish that such mureeds who really have sympathy, devotion, feeling for their Murshid and the Cause, that they should understand how best they can be serviceable to the Cause. Imagine, there is one Murshid and a Message to be given to the whole world, how many places will he go to, one person limited in a physical body? Do you, then, not think that we want several speakers in our Movement?

The Need for Speakers

It is very easy for a person to say, "Well, I do not think that I have a gift of speaking, I cannot help it." All comes with belief. When you have the belief that you can speak, you can speak. When you trust in what Murshid says, when Murshid says, "Go and speak," that is enough for you. When the Prophet said, "Go and defend the Message," they went with their swords and risked their lives. If Murshid says, "Go before the people and speak of the Message," it is perhaps not so very difficult as going with a sword and fighting.

We ought to be thankful that today there is no need of taking sword, but at the same time the sword of words is necessary. Besides that, we want people to be engaged in translating the different books and Gathekas and different literature, that they may be heard by those who do not understand the English language. Then there are others who have some social influence; they, in their own society, among their friends, can spread the interest, in order that the Message may take root in the heart of people of their class. I shall be going out in different countries, I shall need some people to go and create interest. I will need some people, after I have given the Message to gather people together, form a group and to continue the work there.

I do not mean to say that you should all leave all your home responsibilities and activities in order to give all your time to the Message. Some of you may be able to do it, some not. But in some way or the other all my mureeds can help. If only they thought that their help is needed and badly needed, at this time when the Message should spread through the whole world. Now, for instance, I may be going to Italy, there may be some among you who may to going there too; I may be going perhaps to the North of Europe, may be that some of you may be going there. If it happens that you go before my going, you may, by visiting that place, create interest, so that I will have a facility when I shall be there; and perhaps you may be there at the time that I shall be there.

Holding the Atunement

You can be so useful to me in a place where there is nobody. Some of you may be staying after I have visited the place. You can always keep that gathering intact as long as you are there, and then give it in the hands of someone else. Then, besides this, one can always do something with one's friends; the one who wishes to serve the Cause, has every chance doing things for it. When travelling in the trains one can do so much, making a voyage in the ship one can do a great work. It all depends upon the idea that the Message must be given to any part of the world.

And I am sure if for one moment you gave thought to what difficulty it must have been in the life of the Murshid to have brought the Sufi Message to the point where it is now, something which was not known in the Western world -- have I not spoken before three people for six months continually? Have I not gone where people have called me, whether appreciative or not, poor or rich, to spread the Message when there was no trace of our Sufi Movement, no organization, no one knew, no friends except God? Even this feeling can create in your heart that sympathy for your Murshid. And now the time has come that your devotion can best be expressed in serving the Cause.

In speaking to an audience, you will keep in mind that your spirit is one, your thought is one, your purpose is one, that you must not let your mind be divided by the various persons sitting before you.

Center your gaze upon one object, be it a person, be it an object. If it be a person then that person must be responsive; if it be an object, that object must be beautiful, inspiring, life-giving. It is this that will give you all power and inspiration.

If you manage to make this thought clear to yourself, that there are not many, there is only One to Whom I am speaking, for Whom I am speaking, and from Whom I am speaking, then you will rise above antagonism and disagreeable influences.

Avoid looking at a criticizing person during your lecture; do not even let your mind think of him. If he is sitting to the North you must look to the South. Raise your eyes above him. By trying to look at him you will let him spoil your undertaking; by avoiding the meeting of your eyes with his you will build for yourself another atmosphere which he cannot touch. By taking notice of it, by acknowledging it you give life to antagonism, you give fuel to his fire. It is by rising above it that you will conquer.

The best way of speaking is to sit straight, not leaning on the table or on a balustrade.

Also, do not close your hands while speaking. Yes, close your hands when thinking, between your speech. For it is by the open hands that you will be able to send your magnetism all round the room.

Keep close to the central theme of each subject. Extemporize on the subject constructively, skillfully, artistically, tactfully, finishing it to the accomplishment of your purpose.

Do not be too conscientious in thinking what anyone will say or think, nor let yourself be too much carried away by your subject, so that you do not think of the psychology of the people to whom you are speaking. Strike a balance between those two things, then you will find it easy to speak.

Do not address a meeting from the side. Stand in front in the center. Do not speak standing in the middle of the audience, for that carries no power.

Speak simply, plainly, distinctly, not in too high a pitch nor too low, in your proper tone of voice. Anything unnatural in the voice or the way of speaking which is artificial will keep back your power.

Cast your glance, before you commence to speak, above the whole audience at once, so that no power will subordinate your spirit.

One must know how far to tell people about certain things, and how far he should refrain from putting things in words. Very often one can say more than should be said. The other rule is to keep to the point. No doubt by trying to keep to the point one would make the speech not interesting sometimes, because it would be the same stem -- touching that line. And therefore one may expand, knowing the proportion, the right proportion, that the branches of the tree must be so long and no longer. And therefore in improvising, in extemporizing the subject one must always keep to the stem. If one goes too far from the stem, then no doubt one makes a mistake.

The other psychological point is that when a person is speaking to the audience, he must not be talking to the walls but speaking to the audience. By talking to the walls, he sends out vibrations of his words into the space; they do not enter the people who hear. When a speaker speaks too fast he is not understood by others; and when he speaks too slowly he exhausts their patience. It is always advisable to break the monotony when speaking on a serious subject. The more powerful you will become, the more you will create a monotony by speaking on a serious subject. It is advisable always to break it by just putting a little story or a word of fun, a light phrase that will take away that feeling.

One must avoid saying something of which one is oneself not sure. How this takes away the power of words! As soon as a person says with doubt, that enfeebles the influence of his speech.

Then comes an etiquette, and that etiquette is not to show in one's words that one wishes to teach, not to exaggerate too much. A little exaggeration is allowable, just to give here and artistic touch. When a speaker, after having spoken a word, gets frightened -- "what have I said? What will anybody think?" -- at once his inspiration is closed. And therefore he must always think what is done is done. Never to be frightened by what is done, but to be careful that it will not be done again. No doubt the great quality that one finds in a speaker is that every word he says in his speech, he stands responsible for it, that he will always answer for it; and that shows that he knows what he said.

Speaking requires a great concentration and presence of mind. A speaker who extemporizes must feel the thought-waves coming to him, and respond to them in his speech. In this way he will be able to answer the ever-rising questions in the minds of his audience. Stage fright must be put away, and that sensitiveness of feeling antagonistic feeling of anyone in the audience. And if the speaker feels the antagonistic feeling of someone, the best thing is not to look at that person, always to keep the eye on some other corner of the room, where he gets sympathy. Because in order to look at that person you must close yourself; and if you did not close yourself, you will have to close automatically, and if you close, then the doors of inspiration are closed at the same time. However deep the subject may be, every now and then come to the surface, and make every effort that the subject may become intelligible to your audience.

There is a consideration necessary while speaking, and if one has that consideration, it will automatically work after some time. That consideration is the reaction that your words will produce in the minds of those before you. For all will not be of the same opinion as you in the audience, nor will they be in the same stage of development as you; perhaps they are more developed or less, and each one will have a certain reaction in answer to your words. And just take care that you will not cause that reaction to be inharmonious.

It is easy to speak, but is most difficult to win the audience; for that one must know the music, the law of harmony. One can bring about that inharmonious reaction without meaning to do so. Afterwards one may plead for what one has said, that it did not have any ill intention in it. "I did not mean it," one may say. But it is not in meaning, it is in saying it, that one may say something and not mean it, and yet may cause a disagreeable reaction in the mind of another.

But you may ask, how many things shall we remember while speaking? If we think of all these things, then the subject will be lost and then we shall not feel inspired. The answer is, let your subconsciousness be aware of your principles in speech, let your subconscious mind be considerate before you start to speak. Then you will see that there is a control gained on your own words. And this control will be useful to you in your everyday life, because there is one person among a thousand persons, but a thousand intelligent persons, who really is conscious of what he says at any time that he says something. Every word he says, he is responsible for it, and he feels strong also to have said something for which he is ready to answer; it is a power.

I will tell you one of my experiences the last time I went to Rome and I saw the Secretary at the Vatican, a very intelligent man and in a high position, a responsible position and who really knew his responsibility. Having talked with him for about fifteen minutes, every word he said he knew what he was saying, and he knew that he performed his duty as the Secretary of the Vatican. It is not always one sees such examples, that you are diplomatic, that you are polite, that you are intelligent, and that you serve the purpose for which you are speaking.

I thought if there was one person who has that intelligence, there must be many others also who are so intelligent. That is the need in our infant Movement, for that consciousness to develop. We need it more than anybody else; for our Movement is in its infancy, and from a thousand sides there comes a criticism of opposing influences. Many wish to test and try and examine what we say and do. Therefore in our public speeches especially it is most essential.

One must absolutely give up the fear what opinion others will form on one's speech.

One must not say anything that one is not sure of, and therefore what one says must be a word of power, because what one says one means. That is the only speech that will penetrate through those who listen.

Someone who begins to be a public speaker must formulate ideas beforehand, but not too long before -- just before speaking, so that they are fresh in one's memory. Those who keep ideas which they intend to speak for a week before the lecture, they wear out their memory; it is too much of a strain on the memory to hold that thought in it.

Once you are sure of what you are going to say and of the truth of it, then never mind the antagonistic attitude of others, but only garb your words in such a beautiful, form and soften them so much that they will not strike a person too much. For that, you will have to make a choice of words in the expression of thought; you will have to put a mute, and that mute is a touch of humor or a sympathetic touch together with it, that it will not strike too hard.

Consideration of human feeling must be always there in the speaker; that is the speaker's greatest responsibility, and it comes in a long time's practice. The speaker must know how far he must go, and that he must not go farther than that. The speaker must know how far he must assert himself and how far he must not assert himself; how much he must commit himself, and much he must not commit himself.

He must know that he is responsible for his speech, and at the same time he must stand above all that makes him anxious and that makes him self-conscious. The speaker must be so lost in his idea, the subject that he speaks upon, that he must not for one moment think of himself while speaking.

Anything that one has spoken that was not meant by one, one must not try to bring excuses for it, one must not try to correct it. By doing so, one will engrave deeper still the idea which he himself did not like. He must pass it by, he must not think about it; only to be careful for what he will speak then.

An intuitive speaker will certainly catch the thoughts of his audience, thoughts springing from their hearts as a question mark, and will automatically answer every question, that when they go from the lecture, they each have received their answer. This no doubt will interfere with his plan which was made first to speak before the audience, but he must put it so beautifully in it that it is woven like an embroidery work, that the work of embroidery seems that it was meant to be there, that it is not a patch.

Never utter a word of which one is not sure, and never say something only to please the others; it all weakens the power of speech.

Often a speaker is influenced by his own personal condition of mind to speak, and he may put in his speech a substance that will bring him forward before others, his weaknesses, his lacks, his deficiencies, his infirmities. He must be careful of it. In that way all that is stored in the mind will come.

Besides, if there is in the audience someone at whom the speaker wants to hit, that is still worse, because that is again personal and it ruins the lecture. A speech given before the audience must be above any personal feeling of oneself or someone in the audience.

The subject must be the central theme, and one's knowledge of the subject is the power behind it. The way one speaks is the skill of the speaker.

One must not concern oneself with the thought that one will interest or one will win the audience after having spoken. One must only feel that it is my destiny to give this talk, and by doing so sincerely and wholeheartedly I fulfill my duty. A little touch of indifference in this way will help the speaker a great deal.