Hazrat Inayat Khan
Vol. 8, Health and Order of Body and Mind
Health
Just as for every illness there is a remedy, so for every disaster there is a reconstruction. Any effort, in whatever form and however small, made towards reconstruction or towards the betterment of conditions is worthwhile, but what we need most is the understanding of that religion of religions and that philosophy of philosophies which is Self-knowledge. We shall not understand the outer life if we do not understand ourselves. It is the knowledge of the self that gives the knowledge of the world.
What is health? Health is order. And what is order? Order is music. Where there is rhythm regularity, cooperation, there is harmony, there is sympathy. Health of mind and health of body therefore depend upon preserving that harmony, upon keeping intact that sympathy, which is going on in mind and in body.
Remember that life in the world, and especially if lived amidst the crowd, will test and try our patience every moment of the day, and it will be most difficult to preserve that harmony and peace which are all happiness. What is the definition of life? Life means struggle with friends and battle with foes; it is all the time giving and taking, and it is most difficult to keep the sympathy, to keep the harmony which are health and happiness.
Where are we to learn it? All education, learning and knowledge are acquired, but this one art is a divine art and man has inherited it. Absorbed in outer learning he has forgotten it, yet it is an art which is known to his soul, yet it is his own being, it is the deepest knowledge of his heart. No progress in whatever line will give a man that satisfaction his soul is craving for, except this art which is the art of life, the art of being which is the pursuit of his soul. In order to serve the reconstruction of the world the only thing possible and the only thing necessary is to learn the art of being, the art of life, for oneself and to be an example oneself before trying to serve humanity.
What is Sufism? It is that art which has just been spoken of, the art through which the music and symphony of life can be preserved, and through which man can enable himself to become the proper servant of God and humanity.
Health is an orderly condition caused by the regular working of the mechanism of the physical body. The regular working of the physical body depends upon the weather, diet, the balance between action and repose, and the condition of the mind.
Many think that it is some deformity of the body, a curve in the spine or a cavity in the brain, that affects the mind; few realize that very often the mind produces an irregularity in the spine or in the brain, thereby causing an illness. The ordinary point of view regards an illness as a physical disorder which can be cured by means of material remedies: Then there is another point of view: that of people who think deeply and who say that by not taking notice of an illness, or by suggesting to oneself that one is well, one can be restored to health.
This point of view can be exaggerated, when some people claim that illness is an illusion, that it has no existence of its own. The ordinary point of view can also be exaggerated when one thinks that medicine is the only means of cure and that thought has little to do with actual illness. Both these persons, he one who looks at it from the ordinary point of view and the other who sees from a deeper point of view, will find arguments for and against their idea. Some people go as far as to say that medicine must not be touched by those who have faith, and some affirm that an illness is as real as health. It is in the absence of illness that a person can easily call pain an illusion, but when he is suffering, then it is difficult for him to call it an illusion.
The question who is more subject to illness, a spiritual person or a material person, may be answered thus: a spiritual person who discards physical laws is subject to illness as much as a material person who discards spiritual laws. No doubt a spiritually inclined person is supposed to have less chance of being ill, because his spirit has become harmonious through spirituality. He creates harmony and radiates it; he keeps to the realm of nature, in tune with the Infinite. Nevertheless, a spiritual person's life in the midst of the world is like the life of a fish on the land. The fish is a creature of the water; its sustenance, its joy, its happiness are in the water. A spiritual soul is made for solitude; his joy and happiness are in solitude. A spiritual person, set in the midst of the world by destiny, feels out of place, and the ever-jarring influences of those around him and the continually striking impressions which disturb his finer senses, make it more likely that he will become ill than those who push their way in the crowd of the world and are ready to be pushed away.
A spiritual soul is an old soul according to the Eastern terminology. Even a spiritually minded young person shows the nature of the aged, but at the same time spirituality is perpetual youth. A spiritual person admires all things, appreciates all things, enjoys all things to their fullness. Therefore if one says that the spiritual person is like an old person it is true, and if one says the spiritual person is like a young person it is true also.
People have lost the conception of normal health these days when the standard of normal health is below the real conception of health. To be healthy is not only to be muscular: to be really healthy is to be able to enjoy and appreciate life fully. To be healthy means to be thoughtful; the one who can feel deeply shows the sign of health.
It is not surprising if a material person becomes ill, nor is it amazing if a spiritual person is unwell. The former becomes ill because he has lost his rhythm, the latter is ill because he could not keep to a rhythm which is not his own. Be one spiritual or material, since one has to live in the midst of the world, one shares the conditions of all those who are far and near, and one subjects oneself to the influences, desirable or undesirable, coming from all around. One cannot close one's eyes, nor can one close one's heart, to the impressions which continually fall upon one. The best one can do is to keep a careful watch against all that comes upon one causing irregularity, inharmony and disorder, to be resigned to all one has to pass through, and to be courageous in order to overcome all that keeps one back from health and perfection.
Health is a most important subject. There is a Hindustani proverb: Health is a thousand gifts. The other interests of life should sometimes be sacrificed to health.
If the veins and tubes of the body are stopped up, this causes disease. If they are stopped up by water, it causes colds and coughs. If they are stopped up with air- that is by poisonous gases - one gets rheumatism and similar diseases. If they are stopped up by a sort of rust, these are the germs that cause disease. There are surroundings, there are circumstances, there are germs that may cause disease, but the disease comes in proportion to the welcome one gives it.
One way is giving it too much sympathy. If a child has a headache, and the mother says: "Oh, poor child, you must lie down on your bed and I shall bring you an apple and an orange", the apple and the orange are brought to the headache, the bed and the sympathy are given to the headache to welcome it. If it is given such a welcome, it will make its abode there. There are some people who love their self so much that they say, "Oh, poor self, what a pity it is that you should be ill, that you should suffer." Self-pity is a great cause of disease.
Then there is fear. If there is a dog in your street, and you show the dog that you are afraid, it will attack you. So it is with disease. I know this through my own experience. When I used to go about in India to give concerts, I used to think, "What will happen ill have a cold on the day of the concert? If it comes before it does not matter, but if it comes on the day of the concert, it will be terrible." And on the day of the concert the cold came and went into my throat. Until I learned the way of it the cold would always come. Another thought is, "What will become of me? I am well this week, but how shall I be next week? I may be ill. I am well this year, but next year I may be ill. I must take some precautions."
A rich lady whom I knew in Paris once wrote to me saying, "Murshid, I cannot come to your lecture." I went to see her, expecting to find her very ill. She said, "I cannot go out of the house or see anyone; the doctor forbade me." I asked, "Have you any pain?" "No", she answered, "I do not know; but the doctor told me not to go out." I said, "Is your doctor a god, is he a prophet or a messenger of God, that he has brought you a message of sickness?"
Question: Why does illness come upon us?
Answer: Illness comes because we allow it to come. We allow it either consciously or unconsciously, and it stays there where it finds a welcome, sympathy, a bed prepared for it, a doctor to attend to it.
Illness always comes from something bad: bad atmosphere, bad food, bad surroundings.
Physical Condition
I once asked a very great Murshid which was best suited for psychic and occult powers, strength or weakness of the body. No doubt there are people who, when they were sick and weak, found themselves able to see things which, being well, they could not see. But this kind of psychic power has no scope for development, because there is no strength. We sometimes think that in order to have psychic powers we should become ethereal, delicate and weak, but physical strength is needed. If it were not so, God would not have manifested Himself as man. If this physical world were not needed it would never have been created. At whatever time of life, a person, whatever his constitution, should spend twenty minutes a day developing his bodily strength. How to develop physical strength is a very extensive subject and it would take a long time to study it.
Physical weakness produces many bad effects and prevents a person, however great his spiritual progress may be, to do what he wishes. There is weakness of the heart, of the body and of the brain. Weakness of the heart makes a person at one moment very happy, at another very sad. Small things make him instantly very joyful or very sad. To make the heart strong one should eat living food: that is fresh food. By drinking alcohol, which is dead matter, the worst matter is put into the heart, and its condition becomes very bad.
Weakness of the body makes a person unable to keep still, to have repose. To make the body strong a balance of activity and sleep is needed, a balance of work and repose, and physical exercises should be done. When you work there must be activity and no slowness, and when you rest there must be slowness and no activity. How many useless words do we speak, how much energy do we waste in useless actions. We should expend our energy on what is worthwhile, and not waste it in useless actions.
Good and righteous actions, good feelings - all the things people teach their children - are necessary. In reality it does not matter to God whether you are good or bad, righteous or unrighteous, but by a pious and good life man keeps himself, his body and brain, in good condition.
Weakness of the brain produces heat. In such a condition, however nice, however good a person may be, he is at one moment very hot-tempered, then cold as snow, then hot again. To worry very much, to repent very much, to sorrow very much, to think that life is a great burden upon us, to make a great thing out of every small event, of every small responsibility - it all weakens the brain. Normal deeds and actions and normal rest strengthen the brain.
Remember that all things pass. If worry comes - it is a passing thing. Keep it away, and if it is already there, help it to go; do not hold on to it. If you are good, the world will not understand you, and the better you become, the less the world will understand you. So you have a choice: to be like the world, or to be good and let the world misunderstand you. Let your joy and your satisfaction be within you.
The Sufis have ways of exciting the heart and making it quiet..They excite it when there is benefit in exciting it; they make it quiet when there is benefit in making it quiet. They let the brain be active, and let it rest.
Physical Culture
There are two tendencies: the tendency towards activity, which has brought man from the Unconscious to the manifestation, and the tendency towards inactivity, which takes him back there. It is a mistake, often made by ascetics, to give all attention to the inactive tendency and to neglect the physical altogether. Our physical body is our means of experiencing this world, and it is necessary to keep it in good order. To do this three things are needful: one is to keep the circulation in good order by physical practices, another is purification, and the third is development of the muscles.
It is very necessary to keep the circulation in good order. There must be balance: so much activity, so much sleep; so much eating, so much activity. If there is too much activity, the circulation cannot be good. There must be a balance of activity and repose, and there must be a balance of eating and work. I do not say, "Eat very little", I say, "Eat much and do much work."
It is a mistake to think out of an idea of delicacy that by eating little we shall become very wonderful. We should not think that we can only eat at certain hours; if it is wanted, we should be able to eat at any hour. We should not think that we cannot eat certain things; we should not think, "This is too heavy for me, I cannot eat it."
We should do whatever movement occurs in the course of our occupations, not thinking, "I shall be tired", but thinking that we are able to do it.
It is necessary to keep our life pure, and the five purifications should be done very carefully: the purification by air, the purification by water, the purification by earth, the purification by fire, and the purification by ether. A person is often inclined to neglect that which does not bring an immediate result that he can see with his eyes. But these purifications should be done very exactly. Washing face and hands is not enough: every tube and vein of the body must be kept clean. The postures and positions that are taught, the posture of the dhikr, of the fikr, of shaghal, have the effect of making the blood flow through certain veins. If this is done there is no disease.
The muscles develop during the whole of life, while the bones do not continue to grow. They become solid, while the muscles develop. Whatever your age may be, you should have ten minutes or a quarter of an hour a day in which to do physical exercises. All physical practices, like standing on the hands or on the head, on both feet or on one foot, taught by the Sufis, are taught for this purpose.
Control of the Body
A person's body usually goes quite out of control. If he wishes to hold up one foot, his foot will not obey him; for one moment it will go up, but after that it will not obey any more. If he goes to the photographer who says, "Steady", he begins to move at once. The word "steady" alone makes him shake, because it reminds him of his helplessness. Without the word "steady" he was all right, but his word brought his weakness before him, and weakness of the body expresses weakness of mind.
In India you will see people standing upon their heads, walking upon their hands, standing on one foot for hours. A person may say, "What a crazy practice! Of what use can this be? They must be mad." No, they have seen the madness of the whole world, and they try another madness. Their "madness" is knowledge. They remain in the same posture for hours and hours. If one of them folds his arms, he remains for hours with his arms folded. If he holds up his hand, he remains holding up his hand for hours. If he closes his eyes, he remains with his eyes closed for hours. If he does not speak, he does not speak for days and days.
When a person has been alone for some time, he begins to move. He moves his foot or his hand, or he drums on the table. He wants to feel that he is alive, and the consciousness realizes that it is alive by its activity, the activity of the body and of the mind. When the activity of the body is made to cease and the activity of the mind is stopped, then the consciousness has a chance of realizing that it is alive without the life of the body and of the mind. When the body is brought under control, and when the mind is controlled so that we can keep it on one thought as long as we like and make it blank as long as we like, then the soul, which is imprisoned in the body, is set free; it is not bound to mind and body. The whole world is open for it.
Then we realize that we are not this limited self, that we are not separate from God, not different, but that we are the same as God, that we have the same existence, the same immortal, unchanging life beyond all the changes of this material world. In this way we can become perfect, as the Father in heaven is perfect.
Balance
When looking at the world with the eyes of the seer, we shall see that people who are called wise and people who are called foolish are much nearer to each other than they are ordinarily thought to be: because of their unbalanced state their different occupations are much nearer to each other than they usually appear. The person who sees the good in others will see more and more good. The person with a fault-finding tendency will see so many faults that at last even the good seems bad in his eyes; the eyes themselves are bad.
There is much more chance of a fall for a person who is running than for one who is walking. The activity itself brings about a fall; the activity tends to grow more and more, and by this balance is lost. Sometimes a person has no balance in telling the truth. He says, "I tell the truth", and he is regardless of whether it is harmonious with his surroundings, whether people are prepared to receive it. He says, "I tell the truth, and I want to fight with everybody because I tell the truth!" Therefore the lesson of repose is the most important one to be learned.
Philosophy itself- the greatest, the highest thing in the world, the knowledge of God - has often been lost through lack of balance. This is why in the Bible, in the Vedanta, in the Quran the truth, told so plainly, is nevertheless told in a veiled manner. If the prophets, the masters had spoken the truth in plain words, the world would have gone to the left instead of to the right. It has been my own experience that philosophy, when plainly expressed, is understood quite differently than when it is expressed in a veiled manner.
When we speak we become inclined to speak more and more, and we become so fond of speaking that we speak regardless of whether anyone wishes to listen. We say what we do not really wish to say; afterwards we think, "Why did I insult that person? Why did I tell my secret to somebody else?" Saadi the great Persian poet, says, "O, intelligent one, of what use is thine intelligence, if afterwards thou repentest?"
Whatever we do, whether good or bad, increases in us more and more. If one day a person thinks about music for five minutes, the next day that thought will continue for half an hour. If one day he thinks about poetry for ten minutes, the next day that thought will continue for an hour. If a person has a little thought of bitterness, unconsciously the thought will grow until his mind is full of bitterness. Every sin comes about in this way. Zarathustra distinguishes three kinds of sin: the sin of thought, the sin of speech and the sin of action. To have a thought of bitterness, the thought of evil, is like doing evil; to speak evil is like doing evil, and when a person commits an evil action, then the evil is concrete.
We have balance of thought, when we can see things not only from our own point of view, with the ideas and the feelings in which we are trained, but from all sides. The one-sided person has no balance.
Suppose you are very patriotic and see everything from the point of view of patriotism, and you go to an ironmonger and demand that he should sell you some things at a certain price. But the ironmonger is a poor man and, even for a patriotic purpose, he cannot sell the things at that price. After all he is an ironmonger and he thinks of his trade; he cannot be expected to see with your patriotic eyes. One person thinks only of patriotism; another says, "God save the trade." A third, who is a musician, says, "They are mad, crazy! Music is the only thing that matters." The poet says, "Poetry is the only thing in the world." Each thinks only of that in which he is active. A pious person exaggerates his piety so much that there is nothing in him but piety, which at last becomes hypocrisy.
One will ask: What is balance, and how can we achieve it? First there is the balance of activity and repose, of sleeping and waking. If a person thinks that by sleeping very much he will become great and so sleeps very much, he will become a monster instead of a man, because the body, which is given in order to experience the world, is not used. If one does not sleep at all, in a few days one will have a nervous breakdown. If one fasts very much, certainly one will become very ethereal, one will see into the other world, into the other planes; if one has learned the way of inspiration, inspiration will come. But this body, these senses will become weak, so that one will not be able to experience the world for which they were given. Extremity is undesirable in everything, whether good or evil. The madzubs in India are those mystics who go to the extreme of spirituality. Their external self is so much forgotten that they leave the experience of the world altogether.
To sleep and wake, to eat and fast, to be active and to be still, to speak and to be silent - that is to have balance. The Sufi teaches control of the activity of the body, the balance of the body, by pose, posture and movements, which include namaz, wazifa and dhikr. He teaches the balance of the mind by concentration. To sit at home and close the eyes is not concentration. Though the eyes are closed, the thoughts go on. The right object of concentration must be chosen.
By concentration and meditation a person experiences ecstasy, the greatest happiness and bliss. Guidance of the Murshid is needed for this, otherwise the balance will be lost.
A disciple was taught a practice by the Prophet Muhammed through which he experienced ecstasy. After some days he came bringing fruit and flowers which he offered to the Prophet, thanking him greatly and saying, "The lesson that you taught me has been of such great value to me; it has brought me such joy. My prayers, which used to last a few minutes, now last all day." The Prophet said, "I am glad that you liked the lesson but, please, from to-day leave it."
By control of the self a person experiences the higher plane in which all beings are one. The guidance of the teacher, the Murshid, is needed; no one can accomplish this by himself. And if anyone could, he would become so much interested in what he experienced there, that he would become absent from this world; absent-mindedness, even lunacy and many other evil consequences would result.
Ecstasy is the greatest happiness, the greatest bliss. A person always thinks, "I am this which I see; this small amount of flesh and blood, bones and skin is I." By ecstasy the consciousness is freed from this body, from this confinement; it experiences its true existence above all sorrow, pain and trouble. That is the greatest joy. To experience it, and to keep control of the body and the senses through which we experience all the life of this world - that is to have balance. That is the highest state.
It is not only strength or nervous energy that enables man to stand on the earth; besides muscular strength and nervous energy there is balance. It is balance which enables man to stand and walk without falling. In the absence of balance man will not be able to stand or walk in spite of his muscular strength and nervous energy.
When we think of the mind - is it reasoning, is it far reaching imagination which makes man thoughtful? No, it is balance. There are many whose imagination reaches so far that they can float in the air for hours together, and there are others whose reason is so powerful that they can go round and round and round, and end nowhere. If there is anything that makes man thoughtful, it is not great reasoning or far-reaching imagination: it is balance.
Is it the deep feeling of the heart, or is it living in a spiritual ecstasy that makes a person illuminated? No, neither of these things. A person can be in ecstasy, see visions, phenomena, and yet he may not be called spiritual. A person may have religious ideas, he may live a pious life, have lofty ideals, and even then he may not be called an illuminated soul. This shows that in order to make the body as it ought to be, to keep the mind in order, and to maintain it to that pitch, it is balance that is necessary.
When we study nature, we find that the growth of plants and the life of trees all depend upon balance. And when we think of the cosmos and study the condition of the stars and planets, the main thing we realize is that the one holds the other, thereby producing balance. All destruction caused in nature, such as volcanic eruptions, floods, earthquakes,...comes from lack of balance. As long as nature holds its balance, the abyss in the heart of the earth can remain as it is; people can walk over it without any damage. Storms and famine, all the difficult conditions caused by nature, show that balance is missing; all the different plagues that come to mankind are caused by the lack of that balance which is the security of the health of humanity.
What we call art also comes from a balanced sense of line and color, and what we call genius in science comes from the balance between perception and conception.
What do we learn from all this? That the secret of the existence of the individual as well as of the whole cosmos lies in one thing, and that is balance. lt would not be exaggerated if I said that success and failure are caused by balance and by the lack of it. Progress and lack of progress can be explained as coming from balance and lack of balance.
There is another idea connected with what we call balance. Life is movement, balance is something that controls it, but perfect balance controls movement too much, bringing it to the pitch of inertia. For instance, if the strength of the right hand were equal to the strength of the left hand, if the right leg and the left leg were equal, man would not be able to work or to walk. If each of the two eyes had the same power of sight, a person would not be able to see. In this way balance controls everything, but too much balance destroys it, because too much balance brings stillness. The ordinary balance, which is not complete, brings about success.
Now the main idea is to know how balance is to be obtained and to be retained. In answer to the first question, how balance is to be attained, I would say that balance is naturally there, so there is no need to attain it. The question is only how to maintain balance and not how to attain it. The influence of our way of life in this active world always puts us off balance. No matter what direction we take in life, no matter what our occupation, our business in life, there is always difficulty in maintaining balance.
The Sufis therefore have found a key to it, and that key is to isolate oneself within, and thereby to gain a complete balance within oneself. I have already said that perfect balance means destruction of action, but when we think that from morning till evening our life is nothing but action, we naturally cannot keep that balance. By keeping a few minutes for a process of meditation, of silence, we can touch that complete balance for a moment, and then, naturally, in our active life a balance is maintained. Very often people make the mistake of thinking that by the help of meditation or silence they can bring about success in activity. If it brings about a successful result, it is only because complete balance in meditation makes one capable of maintaining the balance necessary for activity.
Success, failure, progress, standstill, one's state of being, it all comes from the condition that a person is experiencing within himself. A man of common sense will say, "For this reason or for that reason you have met with success or failure." A person who is clairvoyant will say, "Because a spirit or a ghost has said this or that, the conditions must be worse or better." The astrologer will say, "Because this star is in its house or not in its house, you are experiencing such or such conditions." But according to the Sufi idea the condition of life around one depends absolutely on the condition of one's inner self. So what is needed to change the conditions in outer life, or to tune oneself, is to work with one's inner self in order to bring about the necessary balance.
Once balance is lost, it is very difficult to bring it about again. In the first place it is often difficult to keep balance in everyday life, and once it is lost there is little hope of success, of happiness, or of progress. It is just like a clock getting out of order; it cannot work as long as it is not brought into a proper balance again - and the same is true for the condition of the soul. If a person has lost his wealth, has become a spendthrift, has become thoughtless, all these things are signs of his loss of balance. To be too sad, to be too busy, to be too lazy, all these things are signs of lack of balance. All that can be called too much, is always out of balance.
Balance is the security of life, not only in our outward life, but even in maintaining meditation and contemplation. People in the East have always considered balance to be the principal thing to maintain in life. All different exercises they have prescribed, whether in the form of religion or in the form of devotion, whether in the philosophical or in the psychical realm, are all meant to maintain balance.
Balance must be maintained between what is physical and what is eternal by being conscious of both. One must not dive so deep into eternity that one does not know what time it is, nor be so immersed in the physical that one is unaware of immortality. As there is night and day, so there is the change of consciousness from the physical to the spiritual, and from the spiritual to the physical. By keeping a balance between these two conditions a person leads a complete life.
Balance is something which is as rarely found among mystics as among others. When we become interested in something, it is our nature to want more and more of it, whether it is spirituality or something material. If we become very spiritual and are not material [enough], we lose the world. If we were not meant to live in this world, we would not have been sent here.
Balance in Solitude
All the prophets, all the great ones have sought solitude. Christ was in solitude for a long time in the caves of the mountains. Moses was in solitude on Mount Sinai. Buddha had to have solitude for a long, long time before he could give his message to the world. The Prophet Muhammed was for a long time in solitude on Mount Hira. Why this solitude?
You may see by the experience of your own life what solitude does. If you try to go out all day to talk with acquaintances and friends, you will find that each day so much is gone from your speech; first because of your exaggeration, for if you speak you begin to exaggerate. Then, if you speak to amuse people, you may say what is not true: you add to what you are saying. Then out of politeness you embellish what you say: you say what you do not mean.
To everyone the wish comes to go home, to be with one or two people whom one likes, or to be alone. When you are silent thoughts are less, feelings are less, and the mind has a rest. When people come - people whom you like or undesirable people - the impression of their words and actions falls upon you and your peace of mind is broken.
A part of your time should be given to solitude. The more you cultivate solitude, the more you will like it, but when very much time is spent in solitude, people become unbalanced. The madzubs in India are very great people, often they are Nabi or Qutub. They attain a very high degree of spirituality, they have control over the elements, but part of their power, as the world demands it of them, is lost to the external world. I think that it is most desirable to be well-balanced: to spend so much time with others, and so much time in solitude.
Balance in Greatness
One way of being great is to take all we can. The more we take the greater we become, and all the world will call us great. Another way is to give all we can. In the Bible we read, "If a man takes away your coat give him your cloak as well."
The question arises: How much can we give? The more we give the more will be taken from us. When Shams-e-Tabrez had given his skin, the worms and germs also took his flesh and blood. They did not say, "This man has given his skin, let him have the comfort that he may still have"; they took all.
We who are giving the message of liberty cannot give a message from which the world will run away. If we say, "Give all", the world will run away from such a message. The world will say, "Ill give all, I shall have nothing to eat, I shall have nothing with which to cover myself. I must at least have something to eat and I must be covered."
There is a story told of our Murshid Farid Shakr Ganj who was worshipping in the jungle. His way of worship was the ascetic way; he hung himself up in a well by his feet, head down, and in this way he practiced. The animals did not come near him, but the birds came and ate his skin and his flesh. He let them eat, because he was practicing this moral, but when they came near his eyes he warded them off with his hand and said, "O bird, I would also give thee mine eyes, if thou wouldst bring them first in the presence of the Beloved, that they might have a glimpse. Then thou couldst eat."
We must not give away the soul, the intelligence, the power of distinguishing. If we give these, we are like the tree: everyone may eat its fruits. Our arms were not given to us that we should fold them, but that we should work; our feet were not given to us that we should be motionless, but that we should walk. Our power of distinguishing is given to us that we may distinguish, and by distinguishing we also may learn not to distinguish. We must take a middle course: we must distinguish when to give, when not to give, to whom to give, to whom not to give.
Life's Mechanism
By life's mechanism I mean environment. Life's mechanism has a great deal to do with one's success or failure. This is not unknown to individuals who think about it. Nevertheless not everyone thinks deeply enough to know to what extent it has its effect upon his life. The mystic always teaches that one should treat oneself as a patient and cure oneself of one's weaknesses, but condition is something which is to be thought of also from a practical point of view. This is not only a practical ideal that I give you, but it is supported by the words of Christ. One should not wonder why a man cannot accomplish soon enough what he wishes to accomplish in life, when it is even difficult for the Creator to do so. It is to teach this philosophy and secret that Christ has said, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What does it mean? It means: Thy will is easily done in heaven, and I wish people would help so that it should be done as easily on earth.
If one had to swim across the sea, to journey by swimming, it would take great courage, great perseverance and great faith to make that journey, and one would not even know when one would arrive at one's destination. But when a ship is made it becomes convenient to journey; then one does not need to exhaust one's faith and perseverance to such an extent: there is a means enabling one to attain one's object. A mechanism, therefore, is the most necessary thing for the attainment of every object. If one wishes for comfort in the home, one wants a mechanism for it. If one has a business or an industry, a certain amount of organization improves the conditions. In a state a government answers the purpose of keeping order and peace. When it is cold one needs warm clothes, while in summer one needs a different environment.
Now that is easy to understand, but it is most difficult to make the right mechanism. In the first place there are so many who do not have their object clearly in mind. They will go on day after day not knowing what they really want, thinking differently every day about what they want. That deprives them of the mechanism which can only be produced after knowing one's definite object in life. Then again by too much enthusiasm, by too much arranging of the mechanism, one spoils one's affair, defeats one's purpose. And at other times through lack of mechanism one falls short, for the mechanism does not answer the purpose one holds.
No one can ever say that he has sufficient knowledge of this subject, for in treating oneself one must have one's own knowledge, but in arranging a mechanism one has to deal with many different natures. And how much more knowledge of human nature and of life must one possess in order to make the right mechanism! People have often come to me and said, "I have been able to manage myself as I was instructed, and I have been able to keep up my concentrations and meditations as I was told, yet I am not near to reaching my purpose." What is lacking is not practice or self-training, but what is lacking is the mechanism - which is another necessity. For instance if a person says, "I have been able to discipline myself, and now I can meditate fairly well. Shall I now sit at the seaport and meditate that I am in New York? Shall I arrive there?" Or a person with self-discipline will meditate, "All the wealth that is in the bank will come into my house." Will it come? Even if he continued for a thousand years to meditate upon the bank he will not get its wealth.
In this objective world there is a necessity of an objective mechanism in order to produce certain results, and if people going on the spiritual path will not see this side of it, with all their goodness and spirituality they will prove to others their lack of balance, and then the practical man has a reason to laugh at the mystical-minded person.
Therefore the work of the Sufi movement is not only to guide souls towards the higher ideal, but also to keep their eyes open on the way in order that they may see it with open eyes. We shall only give an example to those who have no belief in spiritual ideas by striking a balance throughout our lives. A person may take good care of himself and concentrate upon good health, and yet his environments may cause him illness. That cannot be helped; it is not lack of spirituality in that person: it is lack of materiality. Does that not show that we ought to balance the two? There is no great exaltation when a person has become so spiritual that he levitates in the air, if he is then no better than a balloon. If he can stand very well on the earth, then he has accomplished something. It is not of every man that we can say that he stands on his own feet. Nothing is worse in this world than to be dependent, and if spirituality will make a man more dependent - in other words, at the mercy of other people in the practical things of life - then spirituality is not to be wished for. Spirituality is mastery, both materially and spiritually to be able to manage oneself and to be able to keep the mechanism right.
Now what I have to say to my mureeds is that it is very easy to make your Murshid contented and pleased - even with as small a number as we are just now - only by knowing that it is our sacred duty and our spiritual responsibility to make ourselves as much as we can an example of the teaching that the Sufi movement wishes to spread. In order to become examples of this I do not ask you to work wonders, or to be so good that it would be difficult for you to live in the world. Only, as an example, you should strike a balance. You should talk about higher things standing on the earth, standing upon your feet. It is then that people will listen to you, and then they will trust the movement.
At this time when a reconstruction of the world is necessary it is our humble service at this juncture to contribute what is most needed for this reconstruction. Therefore we should all consider ourselves soldiers for this cause, discipline ourselves and make the mechanism in life which is necessary for the attainment of our object. For the very reason that we are few we are more responsible for our existence. We must stand by one another, we must do for one another all we can in every way, that we may not easily be blown away by the wind. In order to arrive at that balance and force and stability we must not only meditate, but we must practice these things in our everyday life.
Harmony
It is harmony which makes beauty; beauty in itself has no meaning. An object which is called beautiful at a certain place and time is not beautiful at another place or at another time. And so it is with thought, speech and action: that which is called beautiful is only so at a certain time and under certain conditions which make it beautiful. So if one can give a true definition of beauty it is harmony. Harmony in a combination of colors, harmony in the drawing of a design or a line is called beauty, and a word, a thought, a feeling, an action that creates harmony is productive of beauty.
The question arises from where comes the tendency to harmony and from where comes a tendency to disharmony. The natural tendency of every soul is towards harmony, and the tendency towards inharmony is an unnatural state of mind or affairs. The very fact that it is not natural makes it void of beauty. The psychology of man is such that he responds both to harmony and inharmony. He cannot help it, because he is naturally made so; mentally and physically he responds to all that comes to him, be it harmonious or inharmonious.
The teaching of Christ, "Resist not evil", is a hint not to respond to inharmony. For instance, a word of kindness, of sympathy, an action of love and affection finds response, but a word of insult, an action of revolt or of hatred creates a response too, and that response creates more inharmony in the world. By giving way to inharmony one allows inharmony to multiply. At this time one sees in the world the greatest unrest and discomfort pervading all over. Where does it come from? It seems to come from ignorance of this fact that inharmony creates inharmony and will multiply inharmony.
A person who is insulted. has the natural tendency to think that the proper way of answering is to insult the other person still more. By this he gets the momentary satisfaction of having given a good answer, but he does not know what he has done by his good answer. He has given response to that power which came from the other and these two powers, being negative and positive, create more inharmony.
"Resist not evil" does not mean: receive evil into yourself. "Resist not evil" only means: do not send back the inharmony that comes to you, just as a person playing tennis would send back the ball with his racket. But at the same time it does not suggest that you should receive the bail with open hands.
The tendency toward harmony may be likened to a rock in the sea: through the wind, through the storm the rock stands in the sea; each wave comes with all its force and yet the rock remains still, it stands, it bears all, letting the waves beat against it.
By fighting inharmony one increases it, by not fighting it one does not give fuel to the fire which would rise and cause destruction. No doubt the wiser you become, the more difficulties you have to face in life, because every kind of inharmony will be directed at you for the very reason that you will not fight it. However, with all these difficulties you must know that you have helped to destroy that inharmony which would otherwise have multiplied. This is not without advantage, for every time you stand against. Inharmony like the rock in the sea, you increase your strength, although outwardly it may seem a defeat. But the one who is conscious of the increase of his power will never admit that it was a defeat, and as time passes the person against whom he has stood firm will realize that it was he who was defeated.
Life in the world has a constantly jarring effect. The finer one becomes the more trying it will be, and the time comes when, if a person is sincere and good-willing, kind and sympathetic, life becomes worse for him. If he is discouraged by this, he goes under. If he keeps his courage, then he will find in the end that it was not disadvantageous, because his power will some day increase to that stage, to that degree at which his presence, his word, his action will control the thoughts and feelings and activities of all. He will get that heavy rhythm, the rhythm that will make the rhythm of everybody else follow it. This is the attribute which in the East is called the quality of the master-mind.
In order to stand firm against the inharmony that comes from without, one must first practice to stand firm against all that comes from within, from one's own self, for one's own self is more difficult to control than other people, and when one is not able to control oneself and one has failed to do so, it is most difficult to stand firm against the inharmony from without.
Now the question arises: what is it that causes inharmony in oneself?. It is weakness; physical weakness or mental weakness, but it is always weakness. Very often, therefore, one finds that it is bodily illness that causes inharmony and inharmonious tendencies. Besides, there are many diseases of the mind which the scientists of to-day have not yet discovered. There are two cases: a person, who is perhaps very ill, is considered insane, and, on the other hand, illnesses of the mind are not taken into account. Persons who suffer from these illnesses are considered sane, and no attention is given to the defects which come from these diseases of the mind. So they never have a chance to notice the disease in themselves, and they are continually finding faults with others. If they are in an office, if they are in a good position, if they are at home, everywhere they cause inharmony. Nobody understands the cause, for to be treated as insane the person must first be recognized as insane.
Health of the mind is so seldom discussed. In fact, as there are more solicitors, more lawyers, more barristers, more courts and more judges, so there are more cases. Consequently prisons increase, and what is the outcome? After a person has gone to prison and has come out of it, he has forgotten where he was; he follows again the same path, for the disease has not been found out. In court a person is judged, but what is the matter with him psychologically, what caused him to do what he did, is not discovered. There are thousands of people in prison, because something is wrong in their mind. If they were kept in prison for a thousand years they would not improve. Nothing but injustice is awarded to them by putting them in prison. It is just like putting a person in prison because his body is ill.
The cause of every discomfort and of every failure is inharmony. What would be the most useful thing in education at the present time is to give the sense of harmony to children, and to develop it in them. It will not be so difficult as it appears to bring harmony to their notice. What is necessary is to point out to the youths the different aspects of harmony in the different aspects of life's affairs.
The work of the Sufi message, a message of love, harmony and beauty, is to awaken in humanity the consciousness of the true nature of love, harmony and beauty. The training which is given to those who become initiated in the inner cult is to cultivate these three things which are the principal factors in human life.
Question: How should we deal with criminals?
Answer: I would suggest that those who are accused of a certain fault should first - before being brought before the judge- be taken to a jury of psychologists in order to see what is the matter with them. Then, after a person is judged, he should again be taken to this jury.
Question: In what way could they be cured of their fault? Answer: Instead of being sent to a prison, I think that they should be sent to a special school intended for criminals.
Question: At what age should we begin to develop harmony in a child? Answer. At the very beginning of a child's growth.
Question: By what means does one develop the sense of harmony in a child? Answer: I would develop harmony in a child's manner, in his action, in his speech, first believing that he naturally has love for harmony. The inharmony he shows is not in his nature, and it is not difficult to put out what is not in his nature. With my personal experience - not only with children but with persons of all ages and of great variety I should like to say that never for one moment I think that anything wrong belongs to anyone's nature. I think that it is only something outside which has got hold of him and which can be taken off some time or other. Therefore I believe that there is hope for everyone, and if a person were accused of being the very worst individual yesterday, to-day I would look at him with hope and think he had gone far from yesterday.
Besides, I consider that to accuse a person of a fault, or to think of a person that he is wrong or inharmonious, creates in him that which you are thinking of. But I must tell you that it is difficult even for me. It is denying something which is before you, and which is not only standing still but active. It is just like saying of a person, who is cross by nature and who is cross with you, "No, he is not cross."
Question: That will change it?
Answer: It is the same with Christian Science. Of course a person who practices Christian Science likes so much to put his science into words that he makes people revolt against him. But as far as the idea goes, it is a most splendid idea. Denying a thing is destroying a thing, and to admit a certain thing is giving it a root. Even saying, "I have an enemy, and he is so bad to me", is really giving that enemy a strength from your own spirit. But when you put it out of your mind thinking, "Well, I have a good wish for everyone, I do not wish to look at anything that is disagreeable", it does not give the other that strength.
Question: Could you please give us a more definite idea about the way in which harmony in reasoning and action should be developed in children?
Answer: There are two faults that a child commits in speaking, not knowing that they are faults. One fault is that it sometimes likes to reason in a way in which a child should not reason: when there is no consideration of manner. In that way it creates inharmony, because it says something in a form in which a child ought not to speak. Secondly the child gets into a habit of saying something which psychologically is not right, which has no good results. This idea is very much considered in the East, but it is an idea that should be considered wherever humanity exists. There are many words which have power behind them, there are many words which cause bad effects. A child in its play does not consider what it says. It simply says things and does not feel backward to reason about somebody's death or illness, which psychologically may be wrong, besides being suggestive. If in play a child says to another child, "I shall cut off your head", another will perhaps take a knife and do it!
Now as to action - a child is full of activity, and in a moment one child is like a hundred children. He is always active, without knowing what to do. So he is destructive, he spoils things. If you stop him from doing one thing, he goes to another, and in order to stop that in him which is destructive and would make him do wrong things, you should awaken the desire for harmony in him.
Besides, for a child to consider others, the comfort of others, the importance of the word of others, are all necessary things. There is a saying in the East: good manner in a child means good luck, bad manner means bad luck. One can easily understand the reason of it: good manners attract love, affection and goodwill from all sides, and that helps the child to be good. Whenever a grown-up person sees a child with good manners, his first impulse is to think, "May he be blessed, may he succeed in life." That goodwill coming from grown-up people is not taken by a child if he disturbs them; he is deprived of that blessing.
It seems to me that the first lesson of religion should teach children to consider another, the friend, the well-beloved people at home. If children are not trained in this, they cannot understand religion when they grow up. I mean religion in the true sense of the word, not a special form of religion. Religion in the world of to-day is the betterment of the soul. A good time will only come when the coming generations will try to strive after the improvement of the soul.
Mastery
If you are the master of a great factory, and all the machines work by your will, are you happy, restful and peaceful when you come home? You may be the master of a whole army, or of a whole nation, or of many nations - when you are at home, are you peaceful and happy? The answer is "no", and this shows us that another mastery is needed. A man may be the master of a whole army, but if he has a stroke of paralysis all his mastership is gone and he can do nothing. It shows us that this mastership is passing. Mastery of the self is needed. It is not more difficult to gain than the other mastership, but a man will never give as much will-power and spend as many years to master the self, as he does to master a factory, because the results are much less tangible. A factory means: so many pounds tomorrow. The results of the other mastery are much subtler, much less perceptible.
This mastery is taught to those who are born to be masters, to those who are inclined this way; it is taught by repose and by control of the activity which keeps everything in this universe in movement.
This mastery is difficult to gain in the world. At every step it becomes more difficult, but you cannot run away to the caves in the mountains; you must stay where you are. If you ran away and lived in the caves in the mountains, the attractions of the world would draw you back again. In running away there is no safety; you would try to be content in the mountains, but your eyes would long to see the world again, your taste, which was used to different food, nice food, would not be satisfied with leaves and fruits.
Life in the world, which brings a person into contact with all sorts of undesirable people and affairs, makes spirituality more difficult, but at the same time it affords a test of the will and of spirituality. One may be more spiritual in a cave in the mountains, in silence and in solitude, but there one will never be able to test one's spirituality: whether it is strong enough to bear the contact of a contrary environment. To be ready for all responsibilities and all activities, to have a family, friends and cares, to pay attention to friends, to serve friends and enemies, to say to the worldly person, "I can do all that you do, and more than that", and at the same time remain spiritual - that is the greatest spirituality.
To be without cares or occupations may make spirituality easier, but when the mind is not occupied, very undesirable thoughts and desires come. It is mostly those who have no work and no occupation who lead an undesirable life. Those who have an occupation, or who have a master whom they must please, have less opportunity of following what is not desirable.
Reading the life of Shiva, the Lord of all the Yogis, one will see that after a long, long time of Yoga he was tempted. Likewise Vishvamitre Rishi, after a very long time of Yoga in the wilderness, was tempted by the fair ones from Indra, the decree of whose court has always been to hinder the advancement in spirituality of the rare ones. Though Machandra was a very great Yogi, he also was tempted and taken away from the desert by Mahila, a Hindu queen. Brought to her court he was married and made king, and among the flattering surroundings and luxurious environments he lost all his great powers achieved in the heart of the wilderness. It is easier to gain mastery in the wilderness, away from all temptations, but the mastery you gain in the world is of much more value; for the former is easily thrown down by a slight stroke, while the latter, achieved in the crowd, will last for ever.
The world will always call you away, because whatever a person does he wants to take his friend with him. If he drinks, he will say, "Come and drink with me." If he gambles, he will say, "Come, let us gamble together, and enjoy ourselves." If he goes to the theater, he will say, "Come with me, let us go to the theater, we shall enjoy it." So the world, busy with its selfish, unimportant occupations, will surely drag you towards itself.
This can only be overcome by the will. A person must have a will, and he must have confidence in his will. This idea is pictured by Hindu poets as a swimmer swimming against the tide. They picture the world as Bhavasagara, the sea of life, and the swimmer in it is the mystic, who attains perfection by swimming against the tide, who in the end arrives on the shore of perfection.
In all our business and occupations we should keep our thought fixed upon God. Then, in all our business, whatever it is, we shall see only God. Our mistake is that we take responsibility for the sake of responsibility, and recognize cares and business as ours - losing the thought of God.
The Sufis, considering their life as a journey toward the spiritual goal, recite in order to awaken their group to this idea, "Hash bar dam, nazr bar gadam, khilwat dar anjuman" which means: let the breath be God-conscious at each swing; watch thy steps and realize who walks, keeping thine eyes lowered that the tempting world may not attract them; realize thyself amid this crowd of the world of variety.
Self-Mastery
There are three things which we must master during our everyday life and three ways of achieving them.
Consider the power of half an hour concentration compared with the weakness of giving in all day. We must use concentration during the whole day. Then we can control ourselves in all the requirements of the body and of our senses, and the mind must give permission to every demand on their part without being confused in the matter. There is the beginning of the act, there is the act itself, and there is the result of the act. These three stages in the life of self-mastery or self-control bring increasing happiness and satisfaction. There is satisfaction in the thought of granting some particular desire, there is satisfaction during the time it is being granted, and there is satisfaction after it has been granted. When there is no confusion, or depression, or despair, or remorse, or repentance, then the happiness increases. There is no other proper way of directing one's life.
The various practices recommended by the mystics all have the same purpose, whether it be fasting, or stretching out the hands, or clasping the fingers, whatever it be. The mystic holds a posture for a moment, perhaps for half a minute or for fifteen minutes. Nature wants to set in motion; so, when we stop that desire and sit straight and erect, the mind at once sets a grasp on the whole body, because the whole body is now under discipline. When the body obeys the mind - that is discipline. That is why all through life our mind should be in control of all things.
The next thing to consider is the character. We must take care never to do anything that we consider a mistake, or undesirable, or actually foolish when we see another person doing it. If it is something of which we do not approve, something we cannot tolerate if another person does it, we must resist the inclination to do such an undesirable thing ourselves. This resistance to impulses is the way to control ourselves.
A more perfect way of behaving is the religious way. We must realize that the essence of every religion is to regard the God whom we are worshipping as our goal. He whom we seek is nowhere else than in the human heart. Reflecting on this thought, we come to recognize that whatever kind of person we meet - be he foolish or wise, weak or strong, poor or rich, wicked or virtuous - we are in the presence of the Lord, before whom we all bow; for if He is anywhere it is in the human heart, even in the heart of a wicked person.
Say to yourself, "My ideal, my religion, my desire is to please my Lord before whom I bow my head. So when I am before anyone I am before my Lord, my God. I must take care always to be considerate and thoughtful, lest I hurt my God." That is the real religion. If you take care not to hurt a loved one, a friend, but do not mind hurting a servant, or a wicked or foolish person, that will not be real religion. Love will recognize the ideal of love, the divine ideal, in every heart, and will refrain from using words which will make another unhappy: words expressing pride, thoughtless words, sarcastic words, any word which will disturb a person's peace of mind, or hurt his sensibilities.
Therefore, when developing fineness of character, we learn to consider another person's feelings. You may consider yourself very sensitive and so you do not wish that another person should hurt or insult you, or be rough with you. You think, "That person talks too much, he annoys me", or you think, "How badly he dresses." There is a person whom you know to be sensible and understanding, whereas of another person you think that he is not so. But you must forget what you yourself think, and bethink yourself of what another person thinks. It shows a great fineness of character not to give grounds for offence to another person, but it is very difficult to attain this state.
There is no benefit in making your own life so regular and orderly that it offends every other person. It is in the consideration of another's feelings that lies the real religion.
Self-Discipline
Everyday Practice
What counts most in the path of truth is self-discipline, and without this our studies and practices cannot produce great results. This self-discipline can be distinguished in many different aspects. By studying the lives of the ascetics who lived in mountains and forests, in the wilderness, we learn that those who have really searched after truth have done their utmost to practice self-discipline; without it no soul in the world has ever arrived at the realization of truth. No doubt it frightens people accustomed to the life of the world even to think of self-discipline and, when they think of it, they imagine it in its extreme forms. It is not necessary for us to go to the caves in the mountains, the forest, or the wilderness in order to practice self-discipline. In our everyday life we can do so.
The different ways in which self-discipline is practiced are chiefly four.
1. Position
One way is the physical way: the practice of standing in the same position, of sitting in the same posture for a certain time. When one begins to do it one will find that it is not so easy as it appears to be. A person may sit in a same posture or stand in a same position without knowing it, but as soon as he begins to practice it, he finds great difficulty in doing so. When this is achieved then there are different positions of holding hands or legs or eyes or head; these practices develop the power of self-discipline.
2. Eating and Drinking
Then there is another aspect of self-discipline which is connected with eating and drinking: to avoid certain things in one's everyday food or drink, and to make a practice of being able to live without them, especially things that one feels one cannot live without. So you will see that there are adepts who live on a fruitarian or vegetarian diet without certain things that one is accustomed to drink, and are without these for days or weeks or months.
3. Thinking and Forgetting
Another aspect of self-discipline is the habit of thinking and forgetting: to be able to think of the same thing of which one wishes to think, to continue to think of it, to hold that thought - and to practice to forget things, that the thoughts may not get a hold over one's mind. By doing so one becomes the master of one's mind, in the same way trying to check thoughts of agitation, anger, depression, prejudice, hatred. This gives moral discipline.
4. Free of the Environment
After one has practiced these three aspects of discipline, one is able to arrive at the fourth aspect which is greater; it is greater, because in this way one arrives at spiritual experience. That discipline intends to free one's consciousness from one's environment. This is the experience of the adepts who have worked at it for a long time in order to achieve it. In the old schools of the Sufis, and even to-day, there is the custom that, when they arrive in the room of meditation, or when they go out of it, one of them is there to suggest this idea in words. He says, "Solitude in the crowd", which means: when you are in the midst of the crowd, even then you can hold your tranquillity, your peace; you are not disturbed by the environments. It is this which enables one to live in the midst of the world and yet progress spiritually. It takes away that necessity which compelled many souls in ancient times to go to the wilderness in order to develop spiritually.
It is difficult no doubt, yet at the same time it is simple and in a small way everyone experiences it, but automatically. A person engaged in something that interests him most or that occupies his mind altogether, often is not conscious of his environment. A poet, a writer, a composer, a thinker, when he is entirely absorbed in something he does, is for that moment not conscious of his environment. It happens very often that one is so absorbed in something one is doing or thinking about, that one is not conscious of one's own body or one's own self. Only that which a person is conscious of, that alone, exists, not even his self. This is the stage which is termed by Sufis fana. The word nirvana, of which so much has been spoken, is simply to be understood in this manner: it is only an experience of consciousness. In other words it is freedom of the soul, it is being able to arrive at a stage where one is not thinking about oneself, where one is not thinking about environments that surround one.
One might ask: is this not dangerous in any way? And many may think so. But I should say: everything is dangerous in this world. If we think of it, there could be a danger every moment: in eating, in drinking, in going out and coming in. It is dangerous to go into the water, but when you can swim, that acts against it. It is even dangerous to walk in the street, but if you can walk and run, that acts against it. It is in being able to meditate and to raise the consciousness above environments that lies the secret of spiritual development.
Complaints Cease
The practice of self-discipline no doubt will seem difficult in the beginning, but later it becomes easier and, once a person is accustomed to it, it does not take long to experience its beautiful results. It is a complaint of everyone that the person who stands by his side does not listen to him. Every soul complains, "The others do not listen to me." One rises above this complaint, because one begins to realize that "it is myself who does not listen to me." Then the thief is caught, one finds the mischief-maker; it was not the other person, it was the self.
Mastery Over One's Kingdom
As one begins to get power over the self one begins to feel a great mastery, a mastery over one's kingdom. It is a feeling of kingship. Then, naturally, one begins to experience in life this phenomenon that little by little all things begin to be easy.
A Question about Fasting
Question: Do you advocate a long fast from 30 till 90 days in order to purify the body for spiritual attainment?
Answer: I am not an advocate of asceticism, but at the same time I see the good work that many ascetics have done and I do not wish to depreciate it.
Coming to the question of fasting, I think that fasting is one of the ways by which the denseness of the body can be diminished. And when one knows the right way of fasting, when one is under the direction of someone who really knows when a person should fast, and why and how he should do so, and how he could gain the benefit of his fasting, then great benefit can be obtained by it. Surgeons keep a person without food for so many hours or days knowing that it will help them to heal quicker. In the same way spiritual teachers may prescribe a fast to their pupils: sometimes being without cereals, sometimes without eating meat, sometimes without bread, sometimes living on milk, on fruits, and sometimes, for a certain limit of time, without anything. They see the capacity of the pupil: what he can endure and how he can be benefited by a particular fast.
But, to tell the truth, I am the last person to prescribe fasting. I only give some advice if persons themselves wish to fast, for I know a story of a disciple who went to a teacher and was told, "In order to begin the practices you must start with a three days" fast." One day he felt so hungry that he ran away from the city in order never to see the teacher again!
There is always a meaning if a teacher prescribes a fast; he has a reason for it. There is an amusing story of a great Sufi who lived in Baghdad. There are many stories of his wonderful achievements. He had told a young pupil of his to live on a vegetarian diet. The mother of this young man, having heard that since the boy went to the teacher he had grown pale and thin, came to give the teacher a little talking to. He was at table when she came and there was a chicken dish on the table. So the mother said, "You are teaching your pupils to live on a vegetarian diet, and you yourself are enjoying chicken!" The teacher opened the dish and the chicken flew away. The teacher said, "The day your son can do this too, he can also eat chicken"!
Self-Control
Self-control is the most necessary thing to be learned; a person may have great spirituality, illumination and piety, but in the absence of self-control this is nothing. Self-control also is the only way of happiness and peace. Often we hear or read that persons of great repute in the world for their spirituality and mysticism do something that astonishes us very much, or make a quite childish mistake. It is want of self-control that makes them commit a mistake, against which they themselves have spoken and written many times.
The spiritual student learns self-control in three ways: by postures, by tasawwur-visualization- which is concentration, and by amal, which is the highest practice. After this there is samadhi, which is meditation and which is called by the dervishes masti; it means illumination, to halt in illumination. The difference between meditation and concentration is that concentration is done on a form, on an object, and meditation without form or object.
Repose and control of the body are taught by postures and positions. When a person has been still for some time, he will begin to move. There is no need for him to move but he moves his foot or his arm, or he drums on the table with his fingers, or he chews his lips, or blinks his eyes. The activity increases more and more until at last a person jumps in his sleep; when the first sleep comes, he starts and jumps. To control the activity of the body, to sit quiet in the postures and positions is the first lesson.
However, there must not be stillness only. If a person has kept his hands still for a long time and then wishes to play the piano, he will not be able to. He must make his fingers active enough to be able to play the piano well. As much stillness there is, so much activity there must be.
Sleep and do not sleep; eat and do not eat; walk and do not walk; speak and do not speak. This means: if you sleep every night, sometimes do not sleep; if you eat every day, one day in seven do not eat; or if you eat all month long, one or two days in the month do not eat. This gives a mastery that you cannot gain by renunciation alone. It does not mean that you should starve. The body must be given good food, fresh food, and all its needs must be satisfied. This is better than that it should always long for what it sees before it. You must give the body what it needs, but you must control its needs, and not be controlled by them.
After this comes control of the thoughts, which is the second step, control of the body coming first. Thousands of people have found that they can sit in the postures for hours, but cannot keep their mind still. This has to be learned by degrees. A person cannot control his mind by willing to think of nothing; that will never be possible. First let the mind hold whatever thought interests it, any thought of love, of goodwill - whatever interests it. Check its tendency to jump from one thing to another. When you catch the mind jumping from one thing to another, bring it back and hold it. You must say: I am greater than my mind, my will is greater than my mind, and I will make my mind obey my will.
Then comes mastery of the feelings, of the heart. There must be no feeling of revenge, of unkindness, of bitterness against anyone in the heart. When such a feeling comes, one must say: this is rust coming into my heart. When all such feelings are cleared off the heart, it becomes like a mirror. A mirror without rust reflects all that is before it; then everything divine is reflected in the heart, then all inspirations, intuitions, impressions come, and what we call clairvoyance. There is no need to go after such things; they come of themselves.
After this there is only one thing more to be done: to keep from the soul all the thoughts that come from others and all the thoughts and feelings that arise within the self. Keep away even all feelings of love and goodwill whilst you are in this meditation; then, as a matter of course, come ecstasy, rapture, and peace.
Many people ask: How can we control our thoughts? What can we do, if our thoughts do not obey us, if our mind does not obey us, if our body does not obey us? How can we like a thing, if we dislike it, or dislike it, if we do like it? It seems to us impossible! To a person who has gone beyond likes and dislikes this sounds like a child's question, because he does not know of opposites.
The way to gain self-control is first of all to do the reverse of what your inclination would lead you to do. If you feel inclined to eat, sometimes do not eat, control the hunger. If you feel inclined to drink, do not drink, control the thirst. If you are inclined to sleep, do not sleep; at another time, when you are not inclined to sleep, sleep. There are a thousand inclinations, each sense has its inclinations. Do not give way to these inclinations, rule them, that they may not govern you. This is called by the Yogis hatha yoga, and the Sufis call it nafskushi.
I have seen the Nizam of Hyderabad stand for seven or eight hours, if he wished to stand, although he was a king and had all things ready in his house. If he wished not to sleep, he did not sleep for seven, eight, nine and ten days. By this he became such a master that he mastered the secret of curing snake bites. In India there are many snakes; while the Nizam lived he advertised all over India, and if anyone was bitten by a snake, people wired to him. When the Nizam said, "He is well", the person was healed.
When one has learned to control one's inclinations, the second lesson is to govern the inclination in the act. Do not eat whilst you are eating, do not drink whilst you are drinking. When a person has learned this, he is master of the solitude and the crowd. He does not need solitude to be spiritual; he is spiritual in the crowd too.
Question: How to gain self-control?
Answer: By doing the reverse of that which one's inclination would lead one to do. If you are inclined to eat, do not eat; if you are inclined to drink, do not drink; if you are inclined to be active, be still; if you are inclined to be still, be active; if you are inclined to speak, be silent. Eating is not a sin, but if you sometimes try how long you could do without eating, it would be good. Drinking is not a sin, but if you sometimes try how long you could do without drinking, it would be good. Sleeping is not a sin, but if you sometimes try how long you could do without sleeping, it would be good.
Faqirs take the opposite way. They like what they dislike. That is the reason why you may read that Mahadeva, Shiva, drank poison and wore skulls and bones around his neck, because no one would like to be in a grave among the dead. A snake is always pictured around his neck; by this the conceit, the ego, the nafs, is crushed. To every little man, to every boy faqirs say "father", thinking, "He is the father and I am the son." To every little woman they say "mother", thinking, "She is much greater than I am." To all they say, "I am your servant, I am your humble servant, your obedient servant."
Develop the will by slowness of movement, by slowness of speech, by slowness and control of thought, for activity tends to make us move faster and faster.
No thought or feeling should arise without our will. When we have gained mastery over the self, we have mastery over all things. The saints and sages have commanded a withered tree to become green. How was it done? By their mastery over the self.
The self-controlled ones are the only possessors of divine wisdom; those who have not mastered this in life are imperfect. Though they may have all riches, comfort and power, yet all this is as dross when the self is not under control. This can be learned by noticing how many virtuous people are at times drawn into sin, and how foolishly the wise sometimes act. Dominant natures often become enslaved, and even the healthy become diseased through lack of self-control.
Self-control is an attribute which distinguishes man from the animal; both have their appetites and passions, but it is man alone who can control them. It is therefore not surprising if Sufis are sometimes seen submitting themselves to most awkward and uncomfortable practices. At first sight it may appear strange, yet on closer observation it becomes obvious that they prescribe this for themselves in order to gain self control, which alone gives the assurance of a dependable and lasting happiness.
Self-control is mainly achieved by abstinence, which acts against the constant demands of the mind, the senses and the body. The control over each plane is won gradually by special practices of pose, posture and movement, adapted to this purpose. Every motion and action, even each organ and muscle of the body must work under the control of the will. All the powers of the body, whether in absorption or rejection, should be mastered by self-control. For both absorption and rejection control of the breath is necessary, and by the same power all things are controlled.
Control of the mind consists of control of imaginations, thoughts, emotions and feelings. Emotions are the outcome of thoughts and feelings, the vibrations of which are always ringing in the sphere of the astral plane. The scattered clouds in the sky join and separate, at every moment forming various distinct pictures. In like manner the will- as a magnet - gathers these vibrations in the astral sphere from different directions, forming them accidentally or intentionally into a picture which is either a thought, an imagination, an emotion or a feeling. Just as clouds do not remain unscattered in the sky, so the pictures formed in the astral world are liable quickly to be dispersed, except when the sky is overcast, or when the atmosphere is overwhelmed with depression or joy.
Vibrations of the same element will group themselves together, for they are naturally attracted to each other. Pictures are often impressed upon the mind and are reflected from the mental plane upon the astral. The vibrations ringing through the astral sphere may be called, in other words, the atoms of the mental plane which are singly or collectively impressed by the names and forms of the external spheres.
The same vibrations appear as different names, forms, things and beings in the dream plane. They seem much more real there when the senses are at rest, but in the waking state they become mere imaginations. What is considered as imagination in the waking state becomes a world of reality in the dream state. All the things and all the beings seen in the dream are a world within ourselves, reflected from the external world and produced by the power of our will.
So the Judgement Day in reality is not the resurrection of the whole creation, but of the world produced in each individual for his trial. The power of the will gathers and controls the desired vibrations through concentration, and it is when control is lacking that, instead of the wished for imaginations, various other pictures are formed, either agreeable or disagreeable - whatever the vibrations may happen to form through their contact with each other. In other words, through self-control man governs his fate, otherwise he is governed by it.
Lack of will-power causes involuntary happiness and sadness. The disturbing thoughts which crowd into the mind during concentration can only be dispersed by the power of the will; otherwise the mind will become occupied with agreeable or disagreeable impressions from the external world against our desire.
The way of strengthening the will is knowing how to group and to scatter mental vibrations at will. This can only be done by forming a mental picture of the grouped vibrations, making every possible effort to hold this picture steady, keeping the mental plane so occupied with its reflection that no impression from the external world can enter. Only those who by will-power can scatter the mental vibrations find the way towards the Universal Spirit, and to them the divine light is disclosed which is hidden behind the mind. This light can be found in every creature.
Uncontrolled imaginations form the veil covering the divine light and cause darkness which produces delusion. When the will is able to scatter the clouds and allows the inner light to spread forth its rays, then there is still one more step to be taken. That is the absorption in the light: to become so lost in it that the false ego may become unconscious of itself, which in other words may be called the state of Eternal Consciousness.
The astral plane, the seat of which is the heart, which is situated in the midst of the body and the soul, can only be controlled by a strong love or devotion. Just as the horse is controlled by the will of the driver, in the same way a man whose will controls both driver and horse can hold the rein over his action, speech, thought and feeling. The mind is prone to different temptations and, uncontrolled, it wanders about like a wild horse in a jungle. The will produces an object of love and directs the heart to follow the right path, the path of love, along which one journeys resisting all temptations met with on the way.
The Sufi idealizes the pangs of love by which the heart is warmed. The fire of love melts the heart, no matter how cold and hard it may be; when once it is warmed it can be molded in whichever way desired. Ice, the frozen condition of water, cannot reproduce the reflections of which it is capable in its melted state.
The resisting of temptations during the period of love helps to expand love, till the object of worship becomes the whole universe. Then self-control could be gained by even resisting the idea of the lover and the beloved. In other words, "I and you" finally becomes love in its pure essence.
The Control of the Spirit
A complete realization of the spiritual plane is difficult for everybody, and only an earnest mureed arrives at this stage through perseverance in the control of breath under the guidance of a Murshid, when all the senses can be opened or closed at will. The vision he sees and the phenomena he experiences there are unknown to the average man. This state is incredible to those who have received a worldly knowledge, but have not followed the mystic way.
Only he can control the self, making it rise above the physical plane, who loses himself in the phenomenon of the abstract plane. The mureed, holding this phenomenon in his meditation, becomes so absorbed in it that in the end neither he nor the phenomenon remain, but only the consciousness of being.
The Control of the Consciousness
This is the control which liberates the consciousness from its attachment to the lower planes. That attachment keeps the consciousness deluded and confined to the earth; by self-control it can be liberated. Self-consciousness grows through lack of self-control. Man attaches such importance to his life that his slightest joy or sorrow becomes of worldwide importance to him, and thus he becomes a prey to every form of weakness; for it is a natural law that a single atom of depression gathers clouds of gloom, and a slight pain reflected in the consciousness grows into a mountain.
Self-control is the way by which the Sufi makes the consciousness free from all worldly reflections, hereby attaining the blankness out of which the whole world was manifested. This perfection can only be attained by absolute self control.
Physical Control
Life may be recognized in two aspects: the known and the unknown. What is generally called life is its known aspect as its other aspect is unknown to many. The unknown aspect may be called the immortal, the eternal life, and the known aspect may be called mortal life. What we generally know of life is its mortal part; the experience we have through our physical being gives us the evidence of life, and therefore the life we know is the mortal life. The immortal life exists, but we do not know it; it is our knowledge which is absent, not the immortal life.
In this life known to us everything we have, whether an object, a living being, a thought, a condition, a deed, or an experience - all break and die away. Each of these things has birth and death; sooner or later what is composed must be decomposed, and what is visible now will disappear.
This shows that there is a struggle between what we call life and the life which is behind it. In Sufi terms we call these two aspects of life qadha (Kaza) and qadr (Kadr): qadha the unlimited aspect of life, qadr the limited aspect. Qadr draws upon the life of qadha for its existence, and qadha wakes with its mouth open to swallow what comes into it. Therefore the thinkers and the wise men, those who are called mystics or Sufis, have discovered the science of how to withhold the experience of life - which alone gives us the evidence of life from the mouth of qadha, the ever assimilating aspect of life. If we do not know how to withhold it, it will fall into the mouth of qadha; for qadha is always waiting with open mouth. As an illness awaits the moment when a person is lacking in energy, so in all different forms qadha is waiting to assimilate all that comes to it, and which then is merged in it.
The question arises: how can we withhold, how can we keep something from falling into the mouth of qadha? And the answer is: by controlling our body and our mind. Much is known about physical culture, but what is known is what can be obtained by action, by gymnastics, by movements. Very little is known about what can be obtained by repose, by poise and posture.
I have seen in the East a man lifting a heavy stone on one finger. One might think: how can a man's little finger - these fine bones - stand such a heavy weight? It is the power of will alone which sustains the heavy stone, the finger is only an excuse. I have seen myself those who experiment in the field of spirit and matter jumping into a raging fire and coming out safely, cutting the muscles of their body and healing them instantly. It is not a story that mystics know how to levitate; the demonstration of this has been seen by thousands of people in India. I do not mean to say that this is something worth learning or following, I only wish to tell you what can be accomplished by the power of will. And in order to obtain the reign of will over the physical body the first thing necessary is physical control.
Among the different kinds of physical culture known to the modern world there is nothing that teaches the method, the way, the secret of sustaining an action. For instance, to be able to sit in the same posture without moving, to be able to look at the same spot without moving the eyes, to be able to listen to something without being disturbed by something else, to be able to experience hardness, softness, heat, or cold, keeping even vibrations, or to be able to retain the taste of salt, sweet and sour. Since all these experiences come and go, man has no control over his means of pleasure or joy. He cannot enjoy any experience through any sense as long as he wishes to enjoy it. So he depends upon all outer things, and has no control sustaining the experience he has. If there is any way of sustaining experience, it is through control.
There is another side to this question. Being unconsciously aware that every experience which is pleasing and joyous will soon pass away, man is over-anxious and, instead of trying to retain the experience, he hurries it and loses it; so for instance his habit of eating hastily, or of laughing before the mirthful sentence is finished. He is over-anxious that his joy will pass away, but so his joy is finished even before the mirthful sentence ends. In every experience man loses the power to sustain it because of his anxiety about losing the pleasure it gives.
The great joy of watching a tragedy in the theater lies in experiencing it to its fullness, but some people are so thrilled that they have already shed their tears in the beginning, and then nothing is left for afterwards. Once the zenith is reached, there is no more experience to be had and so, instead of keeping it away from the mouth of eternal life, man throws every experience he makes, without knowing the secret of it, into the life behind.
The mystics, therefore, by sitting in different postures and by standing in different poses, have gained control over their muscles and nervous system, and this has an effect on the mind. A person who lacks control over his nervous and muscular systems has no control over his mind; he eventually loses it. But by having control over one's muscular and nervous systems one gets control over the mind also.
The means by which life draws its power is breath. With every breath one draws in, one draws life and power and intelligence from the unseen and unknown life. And when one knows the secret of posture, and draws from the unseen world energy and power and inspiration, one gets the power of sustaining one's thought, one's word, one's experience, one's pleasure, one's joy. Thought-power is necessary with both posture and breath in order to gain physical control.
One must rise above one's likes and dislikes, for they cause much weakness in life. When one says, "I cannot stand this, I cannot eat this, I cannot drink this, I cannot bear this, I cannot tolerate, I cannot endure" - all those things show man's weakness. The greater the will-power the more man is able to stand all that comes along. It does not mean that one has no choice; one can have one's choice, but when one gives in to one's choice then life becomes difficult. There is a false ego in man, called nab by the Sufis, and this ego feeds on weakness. This ego feels vain when one says, "I cannot bear it, I do not like it, I do not look at it." All this feeds the ego and its vanity. It then thinks, "I am better than others", and thereby this ego becomes strong, and so man's weakness becomes strong. But the one who has discrimination, distinction, choice, while at the same time having these all under his control, the one who enjoys sweet but can drink a bowl of something bitter,- that person has reached mastery.
Someone asked a wise man what was the cause of every tragedy in life. The wise man answered, "Limitation; all miseries come from this one thing, limitation." Therefore the mystics have tried by exercises, by practices, by studies to overcome limitation as much as possible. There is no worse enemy of man than helplessness. When a person feels, "I am helpless, I cannot help it", it is the end of his joy and happiness.
Impulses also weaken a person, when he helplessly gives in to them. For instance, when he has an impulse to go to the park, instead of waiting till it is the right time to go to the park, he quickly puts on his hat and goes along. He follows his impulse immediately and loses power over himself. The one who subordinates his impulses, controlling them, utilizing them for the best purpose, attains mastery.
Besides, indulgence into every comfort, seeking convenience, always looking for the path of least resistance, also brings weakness. However small the work may be, if a person takes it seriously and finishes it with patience, he gains much power over himself. Patience is the principal thing in life, although patience is as bitter, as hard, as unbearable as death. Sometimes one prefers death to patience.
It is a great difficulty that the people in this land of America are losing this quality of patience more and more every day, because Providence has blessed them so much. They have conveniences, they have comforts, they are the spoilt children of Providence, and when it comes to having patience, it is very hard for them. Individuals have to practice this spirit, for we do not know what may come to follow. We live in this world of uncertainty, and we do not know in what condition we may be placed tomorrow; if we have no strength of resistance we may easily break down. Therefore it is most necessary for the human race to develop patience in all conditions of life, in all walks of life, in all positions in life. Whether we are rich or poor, high or low, this is the one quality that must be developed. It is patience that gives endurance, it is patience that is all-powerful, and by lack of patience one loses so much. Very often the answer to one's prayer is within one's reach, the hand of Providence not very far off- but one has lost one's patience and so lost the opportunity.
All such things as mastery and patience are acquired by physical culture. Physical control can build a foundation for character and personality, a foundation to be built in order to bring about spiritual attainment.
Question: Would you, please, explain something more about posture?
Answer: The fantasy of the whole creation lies in the direction of every movement; it is. in accordance with this direction that its fantasy takes form. Where do all the opposites such as sun and moon, man and woman, pain and joy, negative and positive, come from? Since the source is one and the goal is one, why such differences? They belong to the direction; the secret of every difference is direction. It is an activity, an energy working in a certain direction which makes a certain form. So it makes a difference whether you sit this way or that way, whether you sleep on the right side or on the left; whether you stand on your feet or on your head makes a difference.
Mystics, therefore, have practiced for many, many years, and have found out different postures of sitting while doing certain breathing exercises. They have made a great science out of this. There is a warrior's posture, an artist's posture, a thinker's posture, an aristocratic posture, a lover's posture, a healer's posture: different postures in order to attain different objects. By those postures it becomes easy for man to attain these objects, for then he has arrived at the science of direction. Posture does not denote anything but direction.
Questions about Vaccination and Inoculation
Question: Will you, please, tell us if vaccination is desirable? Answer: All things are desirable if properly used, and all are undesirable if abused. In fact, the idea of vaccination comes from the same theory which is taught by Shiva - or Mahadeva - as Hatha Yoga.
It is said of Mahadeva that he used to drink poison, and by drinking it he got over the effect of poison. Mahadeva was the most venturous among the ascetics; one can see this by his wearing a serpent around his neck - now, would you like to do that? If one can be such friends with a serpent as to keep it round one's neck, one can no doubt sit comfortably in the presence of someone one does not like. That hatred, prejudice and nervousness, felt in the presence of someone one does not like, will not arise if one can wear a serpent around one's neck, if one can take a bowl of bitter poison and drink it - which is against nature. Once the soul has fought its battle with all that makes it fear and tremble, shrink back and run away, then that soul has conquered life. It has become the master of life, it has attained its kingdom.
No doubt the methods which Mahadeva adopted are extreme methods. No one could recommend them to his pupils and be thought sane in this modern world!
Vaccination is related to fear; fear of germs which might come and enter our body: we might breathe them in or take them in with our water or food. Vaccination is partaking of this poison which we fear and which might come to us some day in some form. Such a method may meet with a great deal of opposition and prejudice, but there is a very strong reason for the principle behind it. This brings us to a higher realization and to a great conception of life. It makes us think that even that which we call death, if it were put into a cup and given us to drink, would bring us to life.
Question: Would you, please, tell us something more of the Shiva aspect in life?
Answer: This is a very vast subject and difficult to explain in two words. However, the aspect of destruction can be easily understood by something we see in science, by the method of inoculation. By putting that destructive element one fears in one's body one makes the body disease-proof. That particular disease is no longer a disease but the nature of that person. This is the method of the mystic, it is destruction from a spiritual point of view.
Death is death as long as man is unacquainted with it. When man eats it up, then he has eaten death, and death cannot eat him; then he is master of death. This is the mystery of the message of Jesus Christ who, from beginning to end, spoke of eternal life. And the mystery of eternal life is that once a person has eaten death, he has eternal life.
In little things one person says, "I do not like to touch vinegar, it harms my health"; another says, "I cannot bear eating cream, I cannot digest it"; yet another says, "I cannot stand sugar in my tea, I do not like it." For the latter sugar is poison. If he took poison and made it part of his nature, the same poison would become sugar. But by making things foreign to his nature a man makes his nature exclusive, and by becoming exclusive he subjects himself to them in a way. There comes a time when they rule him, a situation in which he is in their power may occur. A person may say for instance, "Quinine is too bitter, I cannot stand it." But when he is in a fever the doctor says that he must take it. The patient dreads it, but his condition forces him to take it.
It is for this reason that the way of Shiva was always to work against his weaknesses. He counted these tendencies as weaknesses, he did not count them as his nature. What is nature? All is in our nature. But what we cannot stand we make foreign to our nature when we separate it, and a time may come when we become so weak that we cannot help becoming subjected to our weaknesses. There are snake charmers who, by making snakes bite them a little at a time, have gradually become inured to the poison. They catch the snake in their hand, and if it bites it does not hurt them. It was the same with Shiva who is pictured with a cobra around his neck. Out of death he had made a necklace. There was no more death for him.
One can go to extremes in this way, but still it is a law which should be studied and known. The only mystery it teaches is not to consider anything foreign to our nature: if it was not in us we would not know about it. That is the way to overcome all the destruction which is the source of fear, pain and disappointment.
Question: If nothing is poison, does that mean that there is no good and bad, no moral?
Answer: No, it does not mean that. Good is good and bad is bad. But one can rise above badness or one can be submitted to badness. One can become weak before evil or become strong. The idea is to become strong before evil instead of weak.
Question: How to understand the sentence from the Gayan: The only thing that is made through life is one's own nature?
Answer: One makes one's nature by one's likes and dislikes, by one's favor and disfavor. When a person has said that he does not like a certain edible thing, he has built a nature in himself. If afterwards he would eat such a thing it would disagree with his nature. It is not because it was not meant to agree with him, but because he has built up the idea that it would not agree. It is the same when one says, "I cannot endure it, I cannot stand it."
One makes one's nature either agreeable or disagreeable. Either one makes one's nature so hard as a rock which will not allow anything to enter; or one makes one's nature so pliable as water, through which all boats and ships can pass without hurting it. Water gives way for all to pass, and it is there just the same.
Man, by his thoughts, makes his nature. When he says, "I cannot agree with this", he will not agree with it; he has made a wall before himself. When he says, "I cannot bear that person", once he has said it, he has created something in himself which makes him sick when that person comes to him. That person becomes his master. The man wants to run away from him; wherever that person comes, he makes him ill. It is not because that person brings him illness: the man has brought that illness upon himself.
Breath
Questions about Breathing
Question: Should we observe a certain form of breathing?
Answer: There are five different things to consider in connection with breath:
- the far reach of breath,
- the depth of breath,
- the volume of breath,
- the centralizing of breath, and
- the rhythm of breathing.
If the breath is not far-reaching it causes weakness; if it is not deep enough it is a cause of weakness too; if it is not centralized it creates uncertainty in life; if it has no proper rhythm it causes lack of balance; if it has no volume it takes away vitality. Therefore breath must be trained in these five different ways: it must be rhythmic, centralized, deepened, it must reach far, and its volume must be spreading.
Breath must have the quality of coveting a large ground. The atmosphere of one person is felt, of another person it is not felt. A person may have so much atmosphere that it may fill a large horizon; it is the breath which gives that atmosphere. Besides, in the atmosphere of some person you may feel uneasy, restless, out of rhythm, because he has no rhythm in his breath, his breathing is not right.
Question: How is rhythmic breathing acquired?
Answer: This is a science in itself. We are far away from a natural life. We have to run after tram-cars and taxi-cabs, we have to catch our trains; a thousand things like these disturb our rhythm. Do you think that in the East a sage, or an adept who practices meditation will run after a tram-car and spoil his rhythm? All these things disturb the rhythm of breathing. What we think natural is not natural; from morning to evening our life has no rhythm.
Question: Do you recognize a system which includes positive and negative breathing?
Answer: Yes, it is just like the two wires in the electric lamp a negative and a positive one; if one wire is absent there will be no light. In order to have light there must be two currents, and these two currents make positive and negative energy. They have a relation with the rising and setting of the sun: the current of the breath changes. And if it does not change in accordance with the time, if it is not in consonance with the rising and setting of the sun, then either a person is ill, or unbalanced; something is wrong with him.
Question: What means centralizing of breath?
Answer: In music we have many notes, but we call one note the key-note. Really speaking, every note can be a key-note, and there must be a central point for everything. For a plant it is the root which is the center, and for the breath there is a seat in the body. If the breath is properly seated there, it is just like a plant which is well-rooted into the ground and will grow nicely and bear fruit. If the plant is not rooted well there is always a chance of its being destroyed. So in the life of man, if the breath is not centralized in its center, in the seat where it ought to be, then it is doubtful whether the person will live long and be happy.
In the East sages know for six months or a year before their death that their time has come, and they know it from this one secret: they find that their breath no longer centralizes in the place where it ought to centralize. My spiritual teacher told his family a year beforehand that he was to leave the earth. Sages know this, because they practice every day. Therefore breath for them is an object they feel, see and know.
Not every person can feel whether he is breathing from the left or the right nostril, but those who practice know it instantly. There are times when one breathes through one nostril, and there are times when one breathes through two nostrils. Breathing through the two nostrils is a passing moment, and then the breath goes from one nostril to the other; it is a critical moment.
Question: Does the position of the body during sleep control the breath?
Answer: Yes, this also concerns posture. Whichever side you lean or lie upon, every direction towards which you strike with force, all bear upon the rhythm and the direction of the breath. But the subject of breath is a deep one, and it is not only related with health but with the affairs in life.
Question: Can everyone have the power of far-reaching breath?
Answer: A certain condition is necessary for far-reaching breath; it is just like the wireless. Far-reaching breath is the most wonderful thing there is. As far as your breath reaches, so wide is your kingdom.
Question: Do you mean by breath: as far as one can blow? Answer: What we call breath is not all the breath that is there. For instance, what we call voice is only the voice that reaches so far and is not heard any farther. At the same time, on the wireless it travels farther. This shows us that the voice which reaches as far as it is audible to the ears, is limited; in reality it reaches far beyond. And so the breath is far-reaching; if only we experimented with it we would be surprised. Others cannot readily believe it, it should be experienced by ourselves, and we should keep quiet about it. To speak about it will create difficulties. Many disbelieve, or have wrongly experimented; therefore mystics have kept this for the initiated. That is why initiation is given.
The Mystery of Breath
Breath seems to be the sign of the beginning and the end of life. With the first breath that is drawn the body is said to be alive, and when the breath departs, the body is spoken of as dead. It is for this reason that the Yogis have called breath prana, meaning the very life. Besides this, all slight changes that take place in man's body come from an alteration in the mechanism of breath. That is why physicians in all ages have observed the signs of a person's condition in different illnesses from the beat of his pulse, which is caused by the breath.
Mental changes are also caused by breath. For instance, there are people with whom it is better not to talk when they first rise from sleep; they are excitable and irritable at that time. Again there are others who listen better at that moment than at any other time. Some people coming home from their work or their office in the evening are irritable and difficult; if one lets them rest for an hour or so they gradually change. All this shows that the condition of the breath changes the mental condition of that moment. Immediately after concentration upon work the rhythm of the breath is very rapid and exercises its influence on the mind. After a while this rhythm changes and becomes normal; so the condition of the mind changes also. In sleep some people work up the rhythm of breath and the condition of mind becomes unsettled and disturbed, but as a rule sleep helps the breath to be normal and its influence produces tranquillity of mind.
It can be seen how various emotions, passions and sentiments change the rhythm of breath. Sometimes breath goes out of man's control in emotions such as anger, passion or fear; he then has no control over his words or actions. When man loses control over himself, the first thing he loses is control over breath.
It is the basis of this philosophy that by gaining control of breath man can gain control over himself; the one who controls his breath is the ruler over his mind and body. How few really know how to breathe aright and what are the methods of keeping the channels of the breath clear and in order! Breath, uncontrolled, is dangerous.
In mystical terms the two different directions of the breath have been called by different names, and have been considered to be like the sun and the moon, representing the positive and negative aspects of the power and influence of breath. How few really know how many times in the day and night the breath changes its direction, and how it works through different parts of mind and body producing different effects and results. How often mans's ignorance of the science of breath makes him act or think or speak against its influence - which is like swimming against the tide. We often notice in life that at one time success is achieved by the least little effort, and at another the greatest effort produces nothing but failure. Shiva, the great Lord of the Yogis, said, "He who has the knowledge of breath knows the secret of the whole universe."
What we generally know as breath is that little inhaling and exhaling which we feel through the nostrils. We think that is breath and attach little importance to it, while in reality breath is a life-current running through the innermost part of man's being towards the surface. It would be no exaggeration, according to the mystical point of view, to say that breath connects heaven and earth. It is the mystery of breath which shows the mystic that life is not the material part of man's being, but consists of the part of his being which is unseen. Breath is the bridge between soul and body keeping the two connected, and the medium of their action and reaction upon each other.
In the Quran it is said, "We have made man to be king of Our creation", which in other words means that man himself is the dominion as well as the king of that dominion: that dominion being man's body and mind, and the king being his spirit, his soul. As a horse can be controlled and directed by getting the rein in hands, so life can be controlled and directed by gaining control over breath. Every school of mystics has, as its most important and sacred teaching in the way of attainment, the control and understanding of the mystery of breath. Modern science has discovered the importance of physical culture and correct breathing, and for all diseases of the lungs there is no greater or more beneficial remedy than sending the patient to a place suitable for breathing freely. Psychologists will some day come to realize that for all illnesses and disorders of the mind the way of breathing also is the best remedy.
For the mystic breath is not only a science, but the knowledge of breath is mysticism, and mysticism to the thinker is both science and religion. The mystery of breath is not a thing that can be comprehended by the brain only. The principles of mysticism rise from the heart of man. They are learned by intuition and proved by reason. This is not only faith, though it is born of faith: it is faith with proof.
Therefore study and practice of breath have been kept a mystery - not in order to monopolize them for a certain school, for no true mystic can be without generosity. The first sign of a mystic is that he is ready to give to everyone. The first and last lesson is to give - to give to the end, to give everything one possesses. There is no end to the giving of the mystic, as there is no end to the inspiration he receives. If breath has been made a mystery, it is only as one would keep an object of glass from a little child, fearing that he might break it, hurting himself and others.
Think what an intoxication life is in this world! Realize what are man's needs, temptations and desires! What would he not do to attain them? Man is so absorbed in striving after all these things that he does not know what he really wants or how rightly to obtain it. He does not know what harm he may cause to himself or others; he uses power not knowing what will be the result. Therefore, to give mysticism to all is like giving a sword, unsheathed, to a drunken man. One does not know whom he will kill, or how he may wound himself. But apart from mysticism, it is necessary that everyone should know how to live a balanced life, a life of power and tranquility, and how to use and control the power of breath that he may be better fitted to manage his life.
If we consider the conditions of life to-day, we see that, however much man thinks he has progressed, certain aspects of life are neglected in the way of health, repose, balanced thinking, and in the way of kindness and love to one another. All these things are lacking, and the spirit of the present time seems to be going in quite the opposite direction. Selfishness seems to be so much on the increase; real religion, the spirit of forgiveness, generous giving, regard for old age, refinement, culture - all seem to be disappearing. Man in general does not know even if there is a God or Truth. If this is the spirit, how can we expect to find that harmony, peace and love which make heaven upon earth?
It is useless to discuss the peace of the world. What is necessary just now is to create peace in ourselves that we ourselves become examples of love, harmony and peace. That is the only way of saving ourselves and the world. Let man try to become more considerate of others; let him ask himself, "Of what use am I in the world? Am I born for a certain purpose?", and then try to train himself to self-control by the mystery of breath, the best means for accomplishing that purpose.
The Science of Breath
The nature of every creature can be known by his breath. Animals such as the lion, tiger, or bear, who kill and eat other animals, show from their breath strength, power, and yet an upset condition which gives them upsetting of mind, temper, jealousy, a fighting nature, greed and a tendency to bloodshed. Other creatures like the cow, sheep and goat have a settled breath which keeps them thoughtful, considerate and social to their own kind, which is proved by their living together in herds. They content themselves with feeding on grass, avoiding the presence of cruel animals.
Among all creatures a change of breath can be found through their spells of passion, anger and fear. The breath of man likewise shows his nature. A man who works and is always busy with material things has a noisy breath, similar to that of the animals, and the irregularity of his breath shows the unsettled condition of his life; the breath of a thoughtful person is much more rhythmic and fine. Of course more physical energy makes breath grosser, and a person becomes thoughtless. When his breath is normal, man becomes thoughtful. When the energy is less, a person becomes still wiser, but incapable of making a right use of his wisdom, owing to the weakness of the means: his physical body.
The value of breath is more than all wealth and power one can have in life, for every breath gone has lessened that much life. Suppose a person is made with the energy of a hundred breaths - he may take them in one hour and die, or by controlling them through rhythm he may finish a hundred breaths in a day. It is just like a clock: if its tick goes slower it will last much longer than the hours of its limitation, and when the beat is quicker it will stop long before its winding hour.
When lying down the breath is least strained, by sitting it is more strained, by standing still more, and by walking and running still more again. The influence of passions quickens it most; for this reason the life of celibacy has been practiced by ancient mystics, and that is why the Sufi finds it necessary at times to lead a secluded life, which settles his external self as well as his mind. This does not only help to create peace and harmony in man, but even to prolong life much longer than the allotted time.
There is a vast distance between the finer plane and the grosser; they are linked by only one source and that is the breath. The nature of breath is just like the air; when the air is farther away from the earth it becomes finer, and in the same way it becomes heavy when nearer to the earth. Such is the case with the breath: when it enters the body, it materializes itself and becomes audible during sleep and even when awake, according to the fineness or grossness of a man's nature. But when breath approaches the spirit it loses its weight. That is why the average person feels his breath to a certain limit, beyond which he cannot even imagine that it could flow. Breath in its highest reach spreads all over, and in its lower flow it is confined to the least portion of time and space.
Breath is a chain which links the Infinite with His manifestation. In other words, it might be called a lift in which the Infinite descends to earth in order to experience life, and again through the same lift He makes His return journey to His origin. The speed of the journey depends upon the power of the breath and its control. Breath can reach every being, thing and atom of the universe, regardless of time and space. It is also the source of all inner and outer communication. In fact, as the length of breath joins the Infinite with the manifestation, so the width of breath connects the whole universe. Lack of consciousness keeps man in limitation; otherwise, through breath, he could expand his knowledge to the whole universe.
Breath is vouchsafed to the senses as far as their reach of perception goes. Breath makes a complete circle within the body, entering through the nose, passing through the brain and down the spine, ascending again through the abdomen and lungs, going out through the nose. When breath reaches the higher spheres, the senses, unless developed, cannot follow it there. Though one circuit of the breath takes a circle through earthly and heavenly planes, yet to an average person it seems as if some air goes out and comes in. But the mystics follow this chain of breath in the pursuit of the Infinite and, by holding on to it at the sacrifice of all earthly temptations which lead one on to death, they drive their lives towards immortality.
When this condition is brought about by a mystic of his own will in meditation, then he becomes the controller of his life, and death becomes his servant. By dying every day in meditation and again experiencing this momentary life the mystic becomes familiar with that state which every man fears and calls death. The greatest punishment that man can inflict on man is death - which to a mystic becomes his everyday playground. Thus he gets beyond the interest of this life and the fear of death. The difference between the mystic and another person is as that between the swimmer who would quite fearlessly swim and dive into the water and the non-swimmer who would die with fear even before sinking. That which is a comfort to the one becomes death to the other; so death, most alarming to the average person, is peace to the mystic. In all religions, directly or indirectly, this secret of mysticism is suggested,. Of course the truth cannot be revealed plainly before everybody; that is why the study of breath is kept secret and is termed mysticism.
The Philosophy of Breath
As the books, the precepts and doctrines of a religion are important to the follower of that religion, so the study of breath is important to the mystic. People ordinarily think of breath as that little air they feel coming and going through the nostrils, but they do not think of it as that vast current which goes through everything, that current which comes from the Consciousness and goes as far as the external being, the physical world.
In the Bible it is written that first was the word, and from the word all things came. But before the word was the breath which made the word. We see that a word can make us happy, and a word can make us sorry. It is told that once a Sufi was healing a child. He repeated a few words and then gave the child to the parents saying, "Now he will be well." Someone who was antagonistic said to him, "How can it be possible that by a few spoken words anyone can be healed?" From a mild Sufi an angry answer is never expected, but this time the Sufi turned to the man and said, "You understand nothing about it, you are a fool!" The man was very much offended; his face was red, he was hot. The Sufi said, "When a word has the power to make you hot and angry, why should not a word have the power to heal?"
Behind the word is a much greater power: breath. If a person wishes to study the self, to know the self, what is important is not the study of mind, thought, and imagination, nor of the body, but the study of breath. The breath has made the mind and the body for its expression. It has made all, from the vibration to the physical atom, from the finest to the grossest. The breath, a change of breath, can make us sad in the midst of happiness, it can make us joyful in the saddest, the most miserable surroundings. That is why without reason in some places we feel glad, in other places a melancholy comes over us. It is the air that makes us so. One may say, "How can breath do all this? How can it make the body?" I have seen people in the course of years become as their breath is. What exists in the breath is expressed in the form: as the breath is, so the child becomes.
There are three sorts of breath: there is the stronger breath, jelal, and the weaker one jemal, and there is the breath that unites the jelal and jemal, and by uniting them destroys, annihilates both: this is kemal. By uniting jelal and jemal the breath forms a circle. This explain the circular form of guns, shells and cannons: the circle is the form of destruction.
All elements - earth, water, fire, air and ether - are in the breath, according to the direction it takes. We can taste them in the breath. There are five directions, four outward and one inward. You may ask, "What influence can the direction have?" I shall answer that if you take a ball and throw it in every direction, the ball will not go equally far at every throw; it will sometimes go farther, sometimes not so far. Even in our words the direction of the breath has its effect. Sometimes we say, "Yes, I see", directly. Sometimes we say, "Yes", sarcastically, "I see", and our head is thrown back, the breath comes obliquely; the effect is quite different. If you say, "We cannot feel, we cannot perceive the elements in the breath, we do not know where they are", I shall say that this is a science. It cannot be understood in a moment; it is a study.
You may ask, "Is the direction the only thing that has influence upon the breath?" There are two other forces that influence it: uruj and nuzul, the rise and the fall. In the jets of water in a fountain some of the jets rise very high, others less high, others rise only a few inches, according to the force by which they are predestined. So it is with the breath.
The Control of the Breath
Reading books cannot give anyone control of the breath: practice is needed. Reading the theory of music cannot make anyone a composer, a singer, a piano player. Ask composers, singers, violinists how much they have to practice. The practice of breath is very difficult and arduous. We see Yogis sitting or standing for hours in the same position, practicing for hours in the night or before dawn. Through control of the breath all things are gained. If a man is a great writer, it is because his breath holds the thoughts that are in his mind. Sandow, through control of the breath, developed ideal muscles. Before control of breath is learned, control of the body must be gained by the practice of postures and positions. For instance, if a small child is trained once a day to sit still for four or five minutes, not to run about, if it is trained not to begin to eat at dinner until everybody eats that will give it control.
The ways of control of the breath are many. It must be done by realization of the self. But as long as we think that this body is our self, we cannot realize our self. And often we not only think that our body is our self, but we think that our overcoat is our self! If it is miserable we think that we are miserable; if it is very grand we think that we are very grand. It is natural to think that what is before our view is our self. We always remember the words of our great poetess Zeb-un-Nisa, "If thou thinkest of the rose thou wilst become the rose; if thou thinkest of the nightingale thou wilst become the nightingale. Thou art a drop, and the divine Being is the whole. Whilst thou art alive, hold the thought of the whole before thee, and thou wilst be the whole."
The mystic always consults his breath in the evening and in the morning in order to know whether it is harmonious with the sun, with the moon and with the planets. He is always conscious of the breath. This is achieved through concentration; the Sufi gives a lesson to teach it, which is called filer. My spiritual teacher, my Murshid, once said, "People say that there are many sins and virtues, but I think there is only one sin." I asked him what it was, and he said, "To let one breath go without being conscious of it."
The Control of the Breath
We say that the hand is in control, when it can grasp something and hold it in its grasp. The fingers we say are in control, when they move up and down the piano, when they strike B when B is wanted - not striking E. Control is both in repose and in activity. Sometimes we find that we have become angry, we have become impatient, we have lost control over our mind, but before losing control of the mind we had lost control of the breath.
Since I have been in the West, people have said to me more than a thousand times, "We cannot control our mind, we cannot keep our mind fixed on one point." The first step is to lessen the activity of the mind; then thoughts come more slowly. One should first control the breath, and make it slow and regular. By this the health of the body is improved as well as the health of the mind.
People have invented a fan to purify the air by fanning it very rapidly. By the practices of qasab and shaghal breath also is fanned, and this rapid fanning changes it from one element into another and purifies it.
In the Quran it is said, "Surely, We revealed it on the night of power." What was the night of power to the Prophet whose whole life was revelation? It was the sending of the breath within. It is natural that we always look outward. The breath is directed outward. We see what is outward, we hear what is outward, we taste what is outward, we are touched by what is outward. When the breath is sent within, then a person sees what is within, he hears what is within, he tastes within, he is touched by what is within. When this is done and the breath is purified, the mystics see forms and colors in it which reveal past, present and future to them. They know the past, present and future of every person whom they see. But if the control of breath tells them past, present and future, it is too little, it is not worthwhile. It must tell them more: from this limited being it must bring them to that unlimited existence, from this mortal being to that immortality.
In the account of the rniraj it is said that a buraq was brought for Muhammed to ride, an animal like a horse with a human face. This buraq was the breath: the horse whose rein is in the rider's hand.
If a person exercises the breath and practices concentration with a scientific idea only, he soon becomes tired. He thinks, "Why take so much trouble? For what result?" If it is done with the thought of God, with the repetition of the names of God, then- by the thought of the idealized God in whom is all perfection, all beauty, who is the Friend to whom we can tell our sorrows, all our sorrows, all our troubles - a happiness comes, a bliss. Saadi says, "In the thought of God is the blessing that it draws us every moment nearer to Him.
The Power of Silence
From a scientific point of view I shall say that speech is the breath of breath. In the Vedanta breath is called prana, which is life. It may be said that breath is the chain that links body, heart and soul together, and is so important that the body - so loved and cared for, kept in palaces, its slightest cold or cough treated by doctors and medicines - is of no more use and cannot be kept anymore when the breath is gone. Speaking being the breach of breath means that, when one is speaking, one takes ten breaths in the time which would be normal for one breath. One says, "Where are you going?", and for these four words one takes three breaths.
Breath is like the hoop with which a child plays. According to the force of the blow from the stick, so many turns the hoop makes, and when the force is spent the hoop falls down. It is like the ticking of the watch. The watch goes on for the time for which it is wound; it may be for three days or for twenty-four hours, or for a week or a month. Longer than that period it cannot work, because it was not wound for it. Breath is like a child's top. According to the strength with which it is spun so many turns the top makes, each turn helping the other, and when the force is expended the top falls down. In accordance with the first breath, so long will life last: so many breaths.
By speaking we take away so much of our life. A day's silence means a week longer of life and more, and a day's speech means a week less of life. From ancient times there have been mystics in India who are called muni; they never speak. They have, of course other characteristics as well, but they are called muni because of their abstinence from speech. They often have lived very much longer than we live in the present time: three hundred, five hundred years and more.
By not speaking the breath is not interrupted, it is regular and even. Mystics have always attached great importance to breath, and have made its study their first object. Those who have mastered the breath have mastery over their lives; those who have not mastered it are the ones who have consumption, paralysis and all kinds of diseases. There are some who have mastered it unconsciously, such as boxers and wrestlers, and also the people of a righteous life.
In the present age we have become so fond of speech that, when a person is alone in the house, he likes to go out if only to find someone to talk to. Often, if a person is alone, he speaks to things. Many people speak to themselves, if they have no other person to speak to. If it were explained to them, they would understand how much energy they really lose by each word spoken. There are other great benefits that are gained by silence but, if it were only for the energy and vitality one gains, its power is very important.
Now speaking from a moral point of view, I shall say that many benefits are obtained by silence. Most of our follies are follies of speech. In one week, if we commit one folly of action, we commit a thousand follies of speech. Often we offend someone, we hurt someone, only by speaking too much; if we had refrained from speech we would not have hurt him. There are families where always some quarrel is going on, only because they speak too much.
A story is told about a woman who went to a healer and said to him, "My husband is very bad tempered. Every evening when he comes home he scolds me and there is a quarrel that ends in a very disgraceful manner. Can you give me a remedy for it?" The healer said, "Certainly", and gave her seven pieces of candy, explaining, "These are charmed pieces of candy. When your husband comes home, put one of these in your mouth." She did so, and that evening there was no quarrel: such a miracle, after ten years of continual quarrelling! The next day the woman went to the healer, thanked him a thousand times and told him that he had done such a miracle. She said, "I do not know what to do to thank you. I want you to give me a big box of that candy which might last for some time." The healer answered, "The candy is not necessary, silence is needed." This teaches us that often we quarrel only because of our speech. Silence is a great peacemaker. "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Then there is exaggeration; idealists, admirers, exaggerate everything. If such a person has gone out and has seen on a poster that a Zeppelin is coming, he wants to frighten his friends. At once he says that twenty Zeppelins are coming. His friends are alarmed, and he feels satisfaction. Idealists, if they take a fancy to a person, tell him that he is the sun and the moon and the heavens. There is no need to say all this.
By speaking a person develops a tendency to contradiction. Whatever is said, he wants to take the opposite side to it. He becomes like a boxer or a wrestler: when there is no one to box or wrestle with, he is disappointed; he has such an intense inclination to speech. I have many times had this experience, and will tell you about one.
I was at a reception at a friend's house and someone was there who disputed with everybody, so that all were tired. I avoided him, but my friend put me forward to speak with him, so I had to go and meet him. When he heard that I was a speaker and a teacher of philosophy he thought, "This is the person I want", and said, "I do not believe in God." As it is the work of the Sufi to harmonize, to unite, I said, "Do you not? But you believe in this manifestation and in the beauty of this world of variety, and that there is some power behind it which produces it." He said, "I believe all that, but I do not call it God." I said to him, "You believe that every effect has a cause, and that for all these causes there must be an original cause. You call it cause, I call it God; it is the same." "I believe in that", he said, "but why should I worship this personality, why should I call it God?"
I replied, "There is some officer whom you salute, some superior before whom you bow, there are your father and mother for whom you have a feeling of respect, there is some fair one whom you love and adore, some power before which you are helpless. How great must be that Person who has produced and who controls all these, and how much worthy of worship!." He answered, "But I do not call that divinity, I call it a universal power, an affinity working mechanically, harmonizing all." When I tried to fix him on one point, he ran to another corner, and when I followed him there, he ran to another until at last I ceased, thinking of the words of Shankaracharya, "All impossible things can be made possible save the bringing of a fool's mind to the point of truth."
The tendency to contradiction grows so much that, when a person hears even his own idea expressed before him, he will take the contrary point in order to prepare a position for discussion. There is a Persian saying, "O silence, thou art an inestimable bliss. Thou coverest the follies of the foolish and givest inspiration to the wise!"
How many foolish things we say only through the habit of speech! How many useless words we have to speak! If we are introduced to someone, we must speak, if not we are thought impolite. Then come such conversations as, "It is a fine day", "It is cold", and one tells how the season is: speech without reason which in time turns into a disease, so that a person cannot get on without emptying the head of others by saying useless things; he cannot live one moment without speaking owing to his self-interest. A person becomes so fond of speech that sometimes he will tell the whole story of his life to a stranger, preventing him from speaking himself, and boring him so much that he would like to say, "What do I care about all that!"
Also people give out secrets that they afterwards repent of having told. Yet during the spell of this passion for speech they say things which they may never have wanted another person to know; yet at that time they do not care. Under the same spell a person shows impertinence in his words, pride and prejudice, for which afterwards he repents. Lack of power over speech causes all that.
A word is sometimes prized more than the whole world's treasure, and again it sometimes is a word which puts a person to the sword. And there is a saying, "Sweet tongue is a sword which conquers the whole world."
There are different ways of receiving inspiration, but the best is silence. All the mystics have kept silence. All the great people I saw during my travels through India and other different places kept silence for two or three hours a day, or at least for one hour.
In Hyderabad there was a mystic called Shah Khamosh. He was called so because of his silence. When he was young he was a very clever and energetic boy. One day he went to his Murshid and as usual had some question to ask, as is natural in an intelligent person. The Murshid was sitting in ecstasy and did not wish to speak, so he said to him, "Be quiet" (Khamash!) The boy was much struck; he had never before heard such a word from his Murshid who was .always so kind and merciful and willing to answer his questions. This lesson was enough for him for his whole life, for he was an intelligent person. He went home and did not speak to his family, not even to his parents. His Murshid seeing him quiet did not speak to him. For many years Shah Khamosh never spoke and his psychic powers became so great that only to look at him was enough to be inspired. Wherever he cast his glance he healed. This happened not very long ago, perhaps twenty-five years ago.
Nowadays activity has increased so much that from morning till night there is never any repose owing to our daily occupations which keep us continually in movement. At night we are so tired that we only wish to sleep, and the next morning activity begins again. In this way life is much destroyed. Man does not think of life; he is so eager for his enjoyments that he does not think of the life that is there for him to enjoy. Every person should have at least one hour in the day in which to be quiet, to be silent.
After silence of speech comes silence of thought. Sometimes a person is sitting still without speaking, but all the time his thoughts are jumping up and down. The mind may not want the thoughts, but they come. The mind is let out to them like a standing-room, and they dance around in it. One thought then must be made so interesting, so important, that all other thoughts are driven away by it.
When thoughts have been silenced, comes silence of feelings. You may not speak against some person, there may be no thought against him in your mind, but if there is a bitter feeling against him in your heart, he will feel it; he will feel there is bitterness for him in that heart. Such is also the case with love and affection.
The abstract is that existence beyond this world where all existence commingles, where it all meets. The sound of the abstract is there, and when that sound is silenced too and a person goes beyond it he reaches the highest state, Najat, the eternal Consciousness. Of course a great effort is needed to attain this state.
Silence is surely the remedy for much, but a person living in the world cannot practice it continually. He must keep watch over his words and remember that for every word he will be awarded heaven or hell.
A Question about Feelings
Question: Is there need of explaining things in words to one's Murshid, or is it sufficient to keep all one's thoughts and feelings in silence?
Answer:. The truth need not be spoken; the existence speaks louder than words. Still the law of life in the world is such that words give a fuller expression to one's thoughts and feelings, resulting in a greater satisfaction. Therefore the best thing is to say what can be said, and not to try to put into words what can never be expressed in words, trusting in one's own sincere devotion and in the sympathy of your Murshid that nothing will remain not understood.
I think that, by expressing a thought or a feeling in words, one makes a clear picture of them which, in an abstract form, can be perceived only by one who is greatly evolved. But it must be remembered that there are certain sentiments, unexpressed and yet solid and living. Such sentiments in time become personalities, and they live as human beings, filling their place in life. For instance, a thoroughly sympathetic person not only has sympathy as his attribute, but he has sympathy as a living spirit, moving and walking about with him, and going with him wherever he goes.
Life is far more productive than man can think, productive of good and evil, of right and wrong, of joy and sorrow. It depends upon the person what he wishes to produce. Life for me is a place where every person is given a piece of ground one person a larger piece, one person a smaller - and he is told, "Now you have the ground, and here are seeds: grass, weeds, corn and good fruit, flowers and poisonous fruits. Sow what you like, sow all that interests you and produce, or do not sow at all - but still the ground belongs to you."
So is the life of an individual in this world: every person has his farm. There are some who sow thorns, and when the thorns have sprung up and become painful, they say, "Why did we do this", or they say, "I am so tired of this farm, I wish I were not here." They wish they could be taken away from that farm and placed in a farm where flowers and fruits are already growing, without having to take the trouble of sowing. But that is against the law. Man is intended to live on his farm, and all through life he is sowing what will be his hereafter.
Heaven and hell are not made ready for a person after his life on earth. The same farm that is given to man is hereafter turned into his heaven or hell. So man must build heaven now on the farm that is already his possession. He must put into it all that he likes and loves, and remove from it all that is hurtful, harmful, or disagreeable, making now, while on earth, his farm of the nature of heaven -- which in the hereafter will culminate into a perfect heaven.
The Control of the Mind
Five Faculties
In sanskrit the mind is called mona and from this word comes raanu which means man. Also the word man is much the same as manu, and from that we gather that man is his mind. Man is not his body, nor is he his soul; for the soul is divine, it has no distinction, and the body is a cover. Man, therefore, is his mind.
Once we begin to look into the minds of men we begin to see such a phenomenon that no wonder in the world can be compared with it: looking in the eyes when they are afraid, when they doubt, when they are sad and want to hide it, when they are glad; seeing how men from lions turn into rabbits, when they have a guilty conscience. As flowers emit fragrance so minds produce atmosphere. Apart from seeing it in the aura, even in the expression of man we can clearly see the record of his mind. Nothing can show man's mind better than his own expression. Mind therefore is the principal thing. We distinguish men as individualities, and it is the culture of the mind which develops individuality into personality.
The difference between mind and heart is that the mind is the surface of the heart, and the heart the depth of the mind: they are the two different aspects of one and the same thing. The mind thinks, the heart feels. What the heart feels the mind wants to interpret in thought; what the mind thinks the heart assimilates expressing it in feeling. Neither is the mind the brain, nor is the heart a piece of flesh hidden under the breast. Those who do not believe in such a thing as the mind think that thoughts and impressions are in the brain, that a person thinks with his brain. It is not true. The brain only helps to make impressions clear to man's material vision.
The mind does not belong to the same element as the body; the body belongs to the physical, the mind to the mental element; the latter cannot be measured or weighed or made intelligible by physical instruments. Those in the world of science who are trying and hoping one day to produce machines which make thoughts and impressions clear, if ever they are successful, will only be so in the sense that the impressions of thoughts affecting the physical body will be felt by their instruments, but not the thoughts from the mental sphere; for the mind alone is the instrument that can take reflections from the mind.
The mind can be seen as five different faculties working together: in thinking, remembering, reasoning, identifying (ego) and feeling.
Thinking
Thinking is of two kinds: imagination and thought. When the mind works under the direction of the will there is thought, when the mind works automatically without the power of the will there is imagination. The thoughtful person is he who has a rein over the activity of the mind; an imaginative person is the one who indulges in the automatic action of the mind. Both thought and imagination have their place in life. The automatic working of the mind produces a picture, a plan, which is sometimes more beautiful than a plan or an idea carefully thought out under the control of the will. Therefore artists, poets, musicians are very often imaginative, and the beauty they produce in their art is the outcome of their imagination.
The secret that is to be understood about imagination is this: everything that works automatically must be prepared first, then it works; just like a watch must be prepared to work automatically. We must wind it up, then it can go on; we need trouble no more about it. This shows that we need prepare the mind to work automatically to the best advantage in life. If people become imaginative without having prepared their mind, it leads them at least to an unbalanced condition, and maybe to insanity; for when an imaginative person becomes unbalanced, and has no control over his mind, it may lead him to insanity.
Now the question arises: how to prepare the mind? The mind is just like a film taking all the photographs to make a moving picture, and it produces the same that was once taken in. The one who is critical, who looks at the ugly side of human nature, who has love for evil, love for gossip, who has the desire to see the bad side of things, who wishes to find the bad points of people, prepares a film in his mind. That film projected on the curtain produces undesirable impressions in the form of imagination.
The great poets who gave us beautiful teachings in moral, in truth, where did they get them from? This life here is the school in which they learned, this life is the stage on which they saw and gathered. They are the worshippers of beauty in nature and in art. In all conditions of life they meditate upon beauty and find good points in all those they see. They gather all that is beautiful, from the good and the wicked both. Just like the bee takes the best from every flower and makes honey from it, so they gather all that is beautiful and express it through their imagination in the form of music, poetry and art, as well as in their thoughts and deeds in everyday life.
I began in my early life a pilgrimage in India - not to holy shrines, but to holy men, going from one place to another and seeing sages of different natures and characters. What I gathered from them all was their great love-nature, their outgoing tendency, their deep sympathy and their inclination to find some good. In every person they see they are looking for some good, and therefore they find it in the most wicked person. By doing so they themselves become goodness because they have gathered it: we become what we gather. In their presence there is nothing but love, compassion and understanding - of which so little is found in this world.
In our domestic life, in our social or political life, in business, in commerce, in national activities - if we had that one tendency, it would make life different for us, more worth living than it is to-day for so many souls. The condition to-day is that people are rich, they have all convenience and comfort - but what is lacking is understanding. Home is full of comfort, but there is no understanding, there is no happiness. It is such a little thing, and yet so difficult to obtain. No intellectuality can give understanding. This is where man makes a mistake: he wants to understand through his head. Understanding comes from the heart; the heart must be glowing, living. When the heart becomes feeling then there is understanding, then you are ready to see from the point of view of another as much as you can see from your own point of view.
The other aspect of thinking is thought, which is heavier, more solid, more vital than imagination, because it has a back-bone which is will-power. Therefore, when we say, "This is a thoughtful person", we make a distinction between the imaginative and the thoughtful person. The latter has a weight about him, something substantial; one can rely upon him. The imaginative person one day may come saying, "I love you so much; you are so good, so high, so true, so great", but it is just like a cloud of imagination which has arisen. The next day it is scattered away, and the same imaginative person, who yesterday followed this cloud, would try to find some fault, and nothing is left in his hands. How very often this happens! Those are angelic people perhaps, but they ride on the clouds. For this dense earth they are of no use, one cannot rely upon them; they are as changeable as the weather. The thoughtful person, on the contrary, takes his time to express both his praise or his blame. The mind of the thoughtful is anchored and under control.
The one who learns how to make the best of imagination and how to control his thought shows great balance in life. How is this to be achieved? By concentration.
In India there, is a sacred Hindu legend relating that two sons of God were in a country where the younger one saw a horse which was set out free by the government. The one who would catch the horse would become king of that country. This youth was so attracted to the horse, and to the idea that was behind it, that he ran after it. He could not catch it, for the horse would sometimes slow down, but run away as soon as the youth nearly reached it. His mother was worried and asked the elder brother to go and find him. Then the elder brother came and saw that his brother was pursuing the horse. So he said to him, "That is a wrong method. You will never be able to catch the horse in that way. The best way of catching it is not to follow, but to meet it." Instead of following the horse the youth met the horse, and so caught it. The mother was very pleased and proud that her son had been able to catch the horse, and he became entitled to the throne and crown of his father.
The horse in this story is the mind. When the mind is controlled then mastery is gained and God's kingdom attained. The younger brother is the pupil, the elder brother the guru, the teacher. The way of controlling the mind is not by following it, but it is by concentrating: by concentrating one meets it.
It is also told that a Sufi had a pupil who said to him, "Teacher, I cannot concentrate on one thing. If I try to concentrate on one object, other objects appear; then they become so muddled that I do not know which is which. It is difficult to hold the mind on one object." The teacher said, "Your difficulty is your anxiety. The moment you begin to concentrate, you are anxious that your mind might wander away. If you were not anxious about it, your mind would have poise; your anxiety makes it more active. If you just take what it gives you, instead of looking behind it in order to see where it goes, if you change this tendency and meet the mind face to face, seeing how it comes to you and with what it comes, you will be able to concentrate better."
From this story a great lesson is to be learned, for this is always the case! The moment one sits down to concentrate the mind changes its rhythm for the very reason that the person is anxious to keep it under control. The mind does not wish it; it wants its freedom. As you stand for your right, so the mind stands for its right. The best way is to greet the mind as it comes to meet you. Let it bring what it brings when you stand face to face with your mind, and be not annoyed with what it brings. Just take it, then you have the mind under control, for when it comes to you, it will not go further; let it bring what it brings. In this way you make a connection with your mind, and as soon as you begin to look at it, you have your mind in hand. The photographer has his subject in hand when he has focused the camera on his subject. It is the same thing with a person and his mind: as soon as he has focused himself on the mind he has got it under control.
Concentrations can be considered as different stages of evolution.
- The first concentration is on a certain designed object and is divided into two actions. One action is making the object and then holding it in the mind. It is just like a child who takes little bricks, pillars and different things making a little house out of them. The first action is this making of the house, the second action is looking at it. This is one kind of concentration, and another kind is that there already is an object which the mind must reflect by focusing itself on that object.
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The next stage of concentration is improving on the object. For instance one imagines a tiger, and then one also imagines the background of the tiger: rocks behind it, a mountain, trees, a forest, a fiver. That is improvement: holding at the same time the background and changing it according to the activity of the mind. Even if the tiger changes, it does not matter as long as one has that particular kind of concentration.
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The third concentration is on an idea. The idea has some form which is inexpressible - but the mind makes it.
Feeling
Now coming to the realm of feeling - feeling is such an important thing in our lives that our whole life depends upon it. A person, once disheartened, sometimes loses enthusiasm for his whole life. A person, once disappointed, loses trust for his whole life. A person, heart-broken, loses self-confidence for all his life. A person, once afraid, sustains fear in his heart for ever. A person, who has once failed, keeps all through life the impression of his failure.
In the East they love bird fights. Two men bring their birds to fight, and as soon as a man sees that the bird of the other man will win in the end, he takes his bird away while it is in the action of fighting - before it has accepted defeat. The man admits defeat while the two birds are fighting, but he does not allow his bird to go as far as to be impressed by defeat. Once impressed by it the bird will never fight again. This is the secret of our mind, and once we learn to take care of our mind -just as the man took care of his bird - going to any sacrifice but not giving the mind a bad impression, we will make the best of our life.
Besides this, we read of the lives of great heroes and great personalities, how they went through all difficulties and sorrows and troubles, and yet always tried to keep their heart from being humbled. This gave them all their strength; they always escaped humiliation. They were prepared for death, wars, suffering and poverty, but not for humiliation.
I will tell you an amusing anecdote. I once was in Nepal, near the Himalayas, and I wanted a servant; so I sent for one. He was of the warriors caste, Kshatriyas, of a fighters" tribe in the mountains. I asked him what work he wanted to do, and he said: "Any work you like, anything you like." I asked: "What about the pay?" "Anything you will give", he answered. I was amused to find that he wanted to do any work I would give him and to accept any pay. "Well", I said, "then there is no condition to be made?" He said: "One. You will not speak a cross word to me." Imagine! He was ready to accept any money, willing to do any work, but no humiliation. I appreciated that spirit of the warrior beyond words; this was what made him a warrior.
Friends, our failure and our success all depend upon the condition of our mind. If the mind fails, failure is sure, if the mind is successful, conditions do not matter: we shall succeed in the end.
Q & A
Question: Is it possible, when humiliated, to spare our mind the injury of humiliation by seeing that the person who humiliates us is beneath us?
Answer. That is not the way, because as soon as we accept humiliation we are humiliated, whether we think it or not. It does not depend upon the other person, it depends upon ourselves. No sooner do we admit humiliation, there is humiliation. If the whole world does not accept our humiliation, it does not matter as long as our mind feels humiliated, and if our mind does not accept humiliation, it does not matter if the whole world takes it as such. If a thousand persons come and say to a man, "You are wicked", he will not believe it as long as his heart says, "I am not wicked." But when his heart says, "I am wicked", if a thousand persons say, "You are good", his heart will continue to say, "No, no, I am wicked." The heart keeps him down just the same. If we ourselves give up, then nobody can sustain us.
Question: Is it possible then to develop a state of mind that lifts us out of humiliation?
Answer. Well, the best thing would be to avoid humiliation, but if a person cannot avoid it, then he must be as a patient who must be treated by a physician, then he needs a person powerful enough to help him, a master-mind, a spiritual person. He then can be doctored, attended to, and get over that condition. When a person is a patient he cannot very well help himself. He can do much, but then there is the necessity of a doctor.
Question: Can that condition be treated by counter-irritation? Answer: Yes, it can be met with that.
Question: What to do when the feeling of humiliation has entered the mind?
Answer: To take it as a lesson, to take poison as something that must be. However, poison is poison. What is put in the mind will grow. It must be taken out. Every impression, if it remains, will grow: humiliation, fear, doubt. When it is there it remains; there will come a time when the person will be conscious of it. It will grow, and because it is growing in the subconscious mind it will bear fruits and flowers.
Question: Would the study of mathematics be good for an imaginative person?
Answer: Yes, it can bring about a balance. I have seen this in the case of one of my pupils who was extremely imaginative; he could not stay on the earth. But later on he got into a business where he was obliged to count figures, and after some time he obtained a great deal of balance.
Spirit-Mind
I have given this [word mind] as a title in order to make my idea intelligible, but when explaining the subject, instead of using the word mind, I shall use the word spirit. The word mind comes from a Sanskrit root which means mind and also man. In this way the name itself explains that man is his mind. Since the word mind is not understood in the same way by all those who use it in their everyday language, I think it best to use the word spirit instead.
The spirit can be defined as consisting of five different aspects: mind, memory, reason, feeling and ego, and each of these five aspects is of two kinds.
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The mind is creative of thought and of imagination. Out of the work of the mind, directed by the will, comes thought, and out of the automatic working of the mind comes imagination. So the thoughtful person is different from the imaginative. Thought is concrete because it is constructed, it is made by will power. The thoughtful person therefore is dependable and more balanced, because he stands on his own feet. The imaginative person, on the contrary, floats in the air; he rises and falls with his imaginations. He may touch the heights of heaven, and he may fall deep down on to the bottom of the earth; he may float to the north, the south, the east or the west. However, both thought and imagination have their proper places.
The automatic working of the mind which produces imagination has its power, inspiration and beauty peculiar to itself. Poets, musicians, painters, sculptors create out of their imagination, and they reach further than the ordinary man. This only shows that the power of the automatic working of the mind is very great, although there is always a danger of being unbalanced. So often one sees a great genius, a composer, a poet, a great artist with a wonderful skill, and yet unbalanced, because the imagination makes the spirit float in space. The one who by floating takes the risk of falling, also has the chance of rising further than anybody else. To a practical and thoughtful man of common sense an artist or a composer, seems to be very unpractical, sometimes he seems to be very ignorant and childish. And looking at them from this point of view he is right, for however large a balloon may be, it is a balloon, it stays in the air. It is not a wagon one can rely upon to stay safely where one has put it. A balloon will fly, one does not know where it will take one. Nevertheless, the wagon remains on the earth, it never touches space; it does not belong in the air. Being a wagon, it misses the joy of rising upwards.
Thought has its place; it is solid, it is concrete, it is distinct. A thoughtful man seldom goes astray, for he has rhythm, he has balance. Maybe he cannot fly, but he walks and you can depend upon him.
Now as to the spiritual aspect in connection with thought and imagination, there are two kinds of seekers after spiritual truth: the thoughtful and the imaginative. The imaginative at once jumps into religion; he does not walk, he jumps into it. He revels in superstitions, he cherishes dogmas and beliefs, he interests himself in amusing and bewildering stories and legends connected with religion, he maintains beliefs that are impressed upon him. And yet, with all faults and weaknesses, the imaginative person is the one who is ever able to make a conception of God and of the hereafter. The one who has no imagination is not able to reach the zenith of the spiritual and religious ideal. Often an intellectual or materialistic person without imagination stands on the earth like an animal compared with a bird: when the bird flies up the animal looks at it and wishes to fly, but it cannot, it has no wings. The imagination therefore is as two wings attached to the heart in order to enable it to soar upwards.
The thoughtful seeker after the spiritual ideal has his importance too, because he is not led by superficial beliefs and dogmas. One cannot fool him, he is thoughtful and every step he takes may be slow, but it is sure. He may not reach the spiritual ideal as quickly as the imaginative, but if he wishes to reach it he will arrive there, slowly and surely.
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The second aspect of the spirit is memory, which again has two sides. There are certain things we need not look for; they are always clear in our memory, such as figures, and the names and faces of those we know. We just have to stretch out our hand and touch them; we can recall them at any moment we wish, they are always living in our memory. But then there is a second side to the memory which is called by some the subconscious mind. In reality this is the depth of the memory. In this part of the memory a photograph is made of everything we have seen or known or heard, even just once in a flash. This photograph remains located there, and some time or other, maybe with difficulty, we can find it.
Apart from these two sides of our memory there is still a deeper sphere to which it is joined. That sphere is the universal memory, in other words the divine Mind, where we do not only recollect what we have seen, or heard, or known, but where we can even touch something that we have never learned, or heard, or known, or seen. All that can be found there also; only for that the doors of our memory should be laid open.
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The third aspect of the spirit is reason, of which there are two kinds. One kind is affirmation, and the other is both affirmative and negative. Affirmative reason is the one we all know. When a person is bankrupt we have reason to think that he has no money for the very fact that he is bankrupt. When a person shows his bad side we know that he is wicked, because people call him bad. Every apparent reason makes us reach conclusions that things and conditions are so and so. This is one kind of reason.
The other kind is the inner reason which both contradicts and affirms at the same time. This means that, if a person has become poor, we say, "Yes, he has become poor - and rich." If a person has failed we say, "Yes, he has both failed - and gained." Here is a higher reason which one touches. The higher reason weighs two things at the same time. One says, "This is living", and at the same time one says, "This is dead", or one says, "This is dead and at the same time living." Everything one sees gives a reason to deny its existence and at the same time to affirm its opposite - even to such an extent that when one has a reason to say, "This is dark", by that higher reason one may say that it is light.
When one arrives at this higher reason one begins to unlearn - as it is called by the mystics - all that one has once learned to recognize as such and such, or as so and so. One unlearns and one begins to see quite the opposite. In other words, there is no good which has not a bad side to it, and nothing bad which has not a good side to it. There is no one who rises without a fall, and no one who falls without the promise of a rise. One sees death in birth, and birth in death. It sounds very strange and it is a peculiar idea, but all the same it is a stage. When one climbs above what is called reason one reaches that reason which is at the same time contradictory. This explains the attitude of Christ. When a criminal was taken to him he had no other attitude towards him than that of the forgiver; he saw no evil there. That is looking from a higher reason.
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Feeling is the fourth aspect of the spirit. Feeling is different from thought and imagination; it has its own vibrations and its own sphere. Thought and imagination are on the surface, feeling is at the depth of the spirit. Feeling also has two sides: one is likened to the glow, and the other to the flame. Whether one loves or whether one suffers, there is intense feeling, a feeling which cannot be compared with the experience of thought and imagination. A feeling person has a different consciousness, he lives in a different sphere. A person who is feeling has a different world of his own. He may move among the crowds and live in the midst of the world, and yet he does not belong to the world. The moment feeling is awakened in man, his consciousness becomes different. He is raised up, he touches the depth, he penetrates the horizon, and he removes what stands between man and the deeper side of life.
Is there anyone in this world who will own that he has no feeling? And yet there are hearts of rock and of iron, of earth and of diamond, of silver and of gold, of wax and of paper. As many objects as there are in this world, so many kinds of hearts there are; one heart is not like the other. There are some objects that hold fire longer, there are others which burn instantly. There are objects which will become warm and cold in a moment; others, as soon as the fire touches them, will melt, and others again one can mold and turn into ornaments. So is the heart-quality. Different people have different qualities of heart, and by the knower of hearts each is treated differently. But since we do not think about this aspect of feeling, we take every man to be the same. Although every note is a sound, all notes are not the same, they differ in pitch, in vibrations; so every man differs in pitch, in the vibrations of his heart. According to the vibrations of his heart he is either spiritual or material, noble or common. It is not because of what he does, nor because of what he possesses in this world - he is small or great according to how his heart vibrates.
All my life I have had a great respect for those who have toiled in the world, who have striven all through life, and reached a certain greatness, even in a worldly sense, and I always have considered it a most sacred thing to touch their presence. This being my great interest, I began to make a pilgrimage to great people in the East, and among these wonderful visits to writers, sages, philosophers, and saints I came in contact with a great wrestler, a giant man. Since I had this admiration for great toil, I thought that I should go and see this man too. And would you believe it: this in appearance giant-like man, with that monstrous muscular body, had such a sympathetic outgoing nature, such simplicity and gentleness connected with it, that I was surprised and thought, "It is not his giant-like look that has made him great. What has made him great is that which has melted him and made him lenient."
Feeling is vibration. The heart which is a vehicle, an instrument of feeling, creates a phenomenon, if one only watches life keenly. If one causes anyone pain, that pain returns; if one causes anyone pleasure, that pleasure returns. If you give love to someone, loves comes back, and if you give hatred, that hatred comes back to you in some form or other. Maybe in the form of pain, illness, health, success, joy, or happiness - in some form or other it comes back, it never fails. Generally one does not think about it, and when a person has got a certain position where he can order people about and where he can speak harshly to them, he never thinks about those things. Every little feeling that rises in a man's heart, and directs his action, word and movement, causes a certain reaction and rebounds; only it sometimes takes time. But do not think that you can ever hate a person - even have the slightest thought of it - and that it does not come back; it surely comes back some time. Besides, if you have sympathy, love, affection, a kind feeling for a person, even without telling him so, it returns in some form or other.
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The fifth aspect of the spirit is the ego, and again there are two sides to the ego: the false and the real. They are just like the two ends of one line. If we look at the line in the center, it is one line; if we look at the line on the ends, it is two ends. So the ego has its two sides: the first is the one we know, and the next the one we must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say "I." What is it in us that we call "I"? We say, "This is my body, my mind, these are my thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life." We identify our self with all that concerns us and the sum-total of all these we call "I." In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity. If the hand is broken off, or a finger is separated from this body, we do not call the separate part "I", but as long as it is connected with the body we call it so. This shows that all that the false ego imagines to be its own self is not really its self.
Besides, it must be remembered that all that is composed, all that is constructed, all that is made, all that is born, all that has grown, will be decomposed and destroyed, will die and will vanish. If we identify our ego with all these things which are subject to destruction, death and decomposition, we make a conception of mortality, and we identify our soul which is immortal, we identify our self, with all that is mortal. Therefore that is the false ego.
Now coming to the most important truth about spiritual attainment: those who are thoughtful and wise, those who go into the spiritual path, do not take this path in order to perform wonders or to know curious things, to perform miracles or other wonderful things. That is not their motive; their motive is to rise above the false ego and to discover the real. That is the principal motive of spiritual attainment; for no one will consider it wise to be under a false impression, to be under the impression that "I exist", when one has nothing to depend upon in one's existence. Therefore striving in the spiritual path is breaking away from the false conception that we have made of ourselves, coming out of it, it is realizing our true being and becoming conscious of it. No sooner do we become conscious of our true being and break the fetters of the false ego, than we enter into a sphere where our soul begins to realize a much greater expansion of its own being. It finds great inspiration and power, and the knowledge, happiness and peace which are latent in the spirit.
The Mystery of Sleep
We see in our daily life that the greatest friend of the child is the one who helps him to go to sleep. However many toys we may give him, however many dolls and candy, it is when the child is helped to go to sleep, that he is most grateful. When the mother with her blessed hands puts him to sleep, it is of the greatest benefit for the child; it is then that he is happiest.
Those who are sick and in pain, are happy if they can sleep; then all their pain is gone. If only they can sleep, they say they can endure all else. They ask the doctor, "Give us something, anything to make us sleep." If you were offered a king's palace and every enjoyment, every luxury, the best surroundings, the best dishes, on the condition that you should not sleep, you would say: "I do not want it, I prefer my sleep."
What is the difference between the happy and the unhappy one? The unhappy one cannot sleep. His sorrow, care, anxiety, and worry at once take sleep away from him. Why do people take to alcoholic drinks and drugs of all sorts? Only for this: when a man has drunk alcohol, because of the intensity of the stimulant, a light sleep comes over him. His feet and hands are asleep, his tongue is asleep; he cannot speak plainly; he cannot walk straight, and falls down. The joy of this sleep is so great that, when he has drunk once, he wants to drink again. A thousand times he decides that he will not drink any more, but he does it all the same.
There is a poem of our great poet Rumi where he says, "O sleep, every night thou freest the prisoner from his bonds!" The prisoner, when he is asleep, does not know that he is in prison, he is free. The wretched is not wretched, he is contented; the sufferer is no more in pain or misery. This shows us that the soul is not in pain or in misery. If it were, it would also be so when the body is asleep. The soul does not feel the misery of the body and the mind, but when a person awakes then the soul thinks that it is in pain and wretched. All this shows us the great bliss of sleep.
This great bliss is given to us without a price, like all that is best: we do not pay to sleep. We pay thousands of pounds for jewels, for gems that are of no use to our life - bread we can buy for pennies. Man does not know how great the value of sleep is, because the benefit it gives cannot be seen or touched. If he is very busy, if he has some business that brings him money, he will rather be busy in that and take from his sleep, because he sees, "I have gained so many pounds, so many shillings"; he does not see what he gains by sleep.
When we are asleep we generally experience two conditions: dream and deep sleep. The dream is the uncontrolled activity of the mind. When we are awake and our mind works without control, it shows us pictures that come from its store of impressions, and we call this imagination; when we control the activity of the mind, we call it thought. The imaginations that come during sleep we call dreams. We do not call them real, because our waking state shows us something different, but as long as we are not in the waking state the dream is real.
During the deep sleep a person is usually conscious of nothing. When he wakes up, he feels refreshed and renewed. What are we doing while we are fast asleep? The soul then is released from the hold of body and mind. It is free, it goes to its own element, to the highest spheres, and it enjoys being there. It is happy, it experiences all the happiness, all the wisdom of those spheres, it enjoys all bliss, and peace.
Besides the dream and the deep sleep there are visions. These are seen when the soul, during sleep, is active in the higher spheres. What it sees there the mind interprets in allegorical pictures. The soul sees the actual thing plainly, and the mind takes from its store of impressions whatever is like that which the soul sees. Therefore it is seen as a picture, as an allegory, a parable which the wise one can interpret, because he knows the language of those spheres. If he sees himself going downstairs or walking up a mountain, he knows what it means; if he sees himself in rags or very richly dressed, in a ship, or in the desert, he knows what it means. The ignorant one does not know what it means, he thinks it is merely a dream, it is nothing.
In a vision a person sees either what concerns himself, or what concerns others in whom he is interested. If he is interested in his nation or in the whole of humanity, he will see what concerns his nation or the whole of humanity.
In a dream a voice may be heard, or a message given in letters. This is the higher vision. Sages and saints see in the vision exactly what will happen or what the present condition is, because their mind is controlled by their will; even in sleep it does not for one moment think that it can act independently of their will. And so, whatever the soul sees, the mind shows it exactly as it is seen. Sages and saints see visions even while awake, because their consciousness is not bound to this earthly plane; it is awake and acts freely upon the higher planes.
Besides the dream, the vision and the deep sleep, the mystics experience two other conditions: the self-produced dream and the self-produced deep sleep. To accomplish this is the aim of mysticism. It is so easy that I can explain it to you in these few words, and it is so difficult that I should like to bow my head before him who has achieved it. It is accomplished by concentration and meditation.
Can you hold one thought in your mind, keeping all other thoughts away? Can you keep your mind free from all thoughts, from all pictures? We cannot: a thousand thoughts, a thousand pictures come and go. By mastering this the mystic masters all. He is awake upon this plane and upon the higher plane; then the one becomes sleep and the other the wakeful state.
People may say that mystics, Sufis, are great occultists, very psychic people. That is not their aim; their aim is the true consciousness, the real life, the Consciousness which lies beyond: Allah. When this Consciousness is open to them, then all wisdom is open to the soul and all the books, all the learning in the world become to them mere intellectual knowledge.
You might say, "Then lazy people who are always sleeping are all saints." No, the soul also must have experience on the earth. It must learn what virtue is, it must learn to be virtuous.
By sleep we understand the covering of ourselves from the world of which we are conscious, but we do not realize that, when we are awake, we are covering ourselves from another world which, in fact, is more real; it is the self which is covered. The difference between the sleeping and the waking state is that, when we cover ourselves from what, in fact, is real, we say, "I am awake" and, when we cover ourselves from what is unreal and illusion, we say we are asleep.
The reason for this is that in the state in which we are conscious of all things around us we are able to point to things about which we have no doubt. We recognize the objects around us, therefore we say that we are awake, and during the time of sleep we think we are dreaming, we do not know where we are or what we are doing. In reality that is the very time when we are experiencing our real life.
What does our real life consist of?. Our real life consists of natural happiness, peace and purity. By purity I mean that our heart, our mind, our intelligence are pure from all worries, anxieties, pains and tortures, from bitterness or sweetness, such as we experience in the world. Otherwise our heart reflects on these things all the time and accordingly brings us suffering.
How valuable is the peace we obtain in sleep! We cannot realize this until we long for sleep which will not come. At such a time we shall realize that everything we possess in the world is worth sacrificing for the peace which sleep brings and the happiness we experience then. All the pleasures in the world afford only a glimpse of that happiness which is within us, in our innermost being. In our everyday external life that happiness is as buried. If there is a time when happiness is experienced by the soul, it is the time during which we are asleep. The little happiness we experience in this world is not real, but only a shadow which we call pleasure, whereas the true happiness which we experience by our natural life we do not call happiness, for we do not know what it is. Only its after-effects remain with us, and we feel happy when we come to the wakeful state after having had a good sleep.
The peace we experience during sleep cannot be compared with the peace we experience in the form of rest in a comfortable chair or on a couch, in the form of material comfort at home or elsewhere. The life we experience during sleep is outside a wall, a prison-wall; the pains and diseases of this world are within the prison during this time. In the waking state we are in the prison, our life is unhappy; when fast asleep we are free. The moment sleep comes to a person who is in pain and suffering all his disease is left behind; at that moment he is above all suffering and pain. This shows that during sleep we experience a life which is beyond this mortal existence.
Although man experiences sleep every day, he never realizes it as the greatest blessing of his existence, until he suffers from lack of it. Man disregards all natural blessings, and not regarding them as blessings he remains discontented. A person who can see the blessing which is in life itself will be so thankful that whatever may be lacking in his outward life will seem insignificant. The inner blessing is so much greater, compared with what is lacking in the outer world, that, indeed, there is no comparison between them.
All this shows that what develops a person and helps him to advance along the spiritual path, should be sought no further than along the natural lines of the mystery of sleep. Once this mystery is solved, the deeper question of the inner cult is solved as well. The explanation of things is so near to us and yet, at the same time, it is so far beyond our reach!
Five Stages of Consciousness
In Sufi terms there are five stages of consciousness: Nasut, Malakut, Jabarut, Lahut and Hahut.
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Nasut is the consciousness which depends upon our senses. Whatever we see by means of the eyes, or hear by means of the ears, whatever we smell and taste, all these experiences which we gain by the help of the material body, prove to us that this is a particular plane of consciousness, or a particular kind of experience of the consciousness.
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Malakut is a further stage of consciousness working through our mental plane. By means of this higher consciousness we experience thought and imagination - which are beyond our senses. Very often it happens that a person does not notice a passer-by, so deeply is he thinking upon some subject. You may speak to him, but he will not listen, so deeply is he absorbed in his subject. Though his ears are open he cannot hear, though his eyes are open he cannot see. What does this mean? It means that at that moment his consciousness is experiencing life on a different plane. Though he is sitting before you with open eyes and ears, his consciousness is on another plane, working through a different body.
The plane of Malakut is experienced by every person not only when absorbed in thought, but also in dreams. While the different sense-organs are resting, the mind is free to work, and it works with the aid of the same mechanism which it has collected during the experience of the Nasut condition. In other words, all the experiences which a man gathers during the day are assembled during the night, and the mind works with that mechanism; whatever has been collected during the day is at work during the night. Therefore, if a person has acquired an impression of fear, fear will manifest itself in the dream in different forms; if a person has acquired an impression of love, love will appear in the dream in various forms; if of success the dream will show success in different forms. So the mind prepares a cover for every impression it receives, it prepares an outward appearance for it: that is what accounts for the meaning of dreams.
Suppose that a person goes to a wise man saying, "I have seen flowers in my dream. What will be the result of it?" The wise man will answer, "Love, happiness, success." Why? Because the wise one knows that the mind disguises itself and the impression it receives into something beautiful, when something beautiful is going to happen, and into something ugly, when something bad is going to happen.
It is, however, not only so that the mind adorns itself with a certain form in order to tell you that you are going to have a good or a bad experience. There also is the natural outcome of things, there is action and reaction: what we take from the outer world is prepared in the mind, and it reacts again in another form. This gives us a sort of key by which we can understand what the next step will be. In that form the dream is a warning.
There is no need to take it as a warning in a spiritualistic form, and claim that a spirit, a ghost or an angel came to tell you the future. It is your own mind which disguises itself as a spirit, a ghost or an angel, in whatever form you wish it to come to you, or in whatever form you are accustomed to. It will never come in a form strange to you, such as you have never known; it will only come in a form to which you are accustomed. For instance, if you were to see a dog with wings, it would still be the form of a dog with which you are familiar; only the mixture or combination of forms is curious. Although wings are attached to the dog, the form is not actually new; you are seeing something which you recognize.
In the dream the state of the mind has two different aspects. When the mind is not expressive but responsive and is not acting in a positive but in a negative rhythm, then it becomes visionary. That mind is visionary which is apt to catch the reflection of whatever other mind falls upon it. Thus it may catch the reflection of a living person's mind, or of a deceased person's mind, of a spiritually advanced person, or of a very ordinary person. That mind lies open like a piece of uncultivated ground which a person may turn into a farm or into a garden; in that soil he may sow seeds of flowers or only seeds of thorns.
This accounts for people having different experiences in their dreams from those they had in their waking life. When people say, "I learn something from my dreams, I am inspired by them, have received new ideas, new lessons in my dreams", it is because their mind was exposed to the given impressions. However, a mind open to impressions in this way may reflect a satanic as well as an angelic impression, a wrong one as easily as a right one: it is open to whatever comes into it. Such a person is as likely to be led astray as to be helped. The result, therefore, is only good as long as the impressions to which the mind responds are good ones.
What then is the way in which one can be sure to have the mind focused upon good things, and so to receive only good impressions? There are three considerations.
First, one must be able to keep all the ever-moving thoughts away which come into one's mind. One must develop that mental strength, that will-power which will keep all thoughts away which come into one's mind during concentration and take one's mind away from the object on which one focuses it.
Secondly, the mind will always focus itself upon the object which it loves. If one does not have love for the divine Being, for God, if one does not have that ideal, then it will certainly be difficult, for it cannot be done by the intellect. The person who only uses his intellect keeps asking, "Where shall I direct my mind, on what object shall I focus it? Please, picture it for me, and point out where it is." It is the lover of God whose mind cannot wander anywhither, save always directly to God.
Then, purity of mind is necessary. The mind must be pure from all fear, worry and anxiety, and from every kind of falsehood, for all this covers the mind from the vision of God. When the mind, full of faith, love, purity and strength, is focused upon the ideal of God, man will receive teaching, inspiration and advice directly and for every case he meets with in life.
The simple teaching of all the religions during every age, the essence of all religion and philosophy, is contained in these words: Go and stand before God in simple faith, being as a little child before God. At that moment you will say, "I know nothing, I have not learned anything, I am only an empty cup waiting to be filled. I have only love to offer You, and because my love is too insufficient, I ask to be given more. I have only faith, and yet that is insufficient; so I ask that it be strengthened and developed so that it will be strong enough to hold me before You. Purity I need, but I do not have it, or at least, if I have it, it is only Your own essence which is within my being, and I wish to keep it as clean as possible. With these three things I come, as a simple child, with no knowledge of my own, leaving aside all doubts and questions or whatever can come between us." Here is the essence of religion.
It is so simple that even a child could do it, should he wish so. He does not need much learning to be able to do it; once it is explained to him he will understand it. We need not have learning or great intellectual knowledge to be able to do it.
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The next stage, beyond the plane of Malakut, brings us to Jabarut, the plane of consciousness where the experience is like that of a person in deep, dreamless sleep - who is said to be sound asleep. The blessing here is greater still. In this higher experience there is God's own Being through whom we experience the life, peace and purity which are within us. Moreover, whilst anyone may experience this blessing during sleep, the person who follows the path of spiritual development will experience it while awake. Yogis call this state Sushupti. This joy of life, peace and purity the mystic experiences with wide open eyes, wide awake; others can only touch it during deep sleep.
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A still further experience of consciousness is Lahut. This raises a person from the material to the immaterial plane. In this plane the state of being fast asleep is not necessary. There is greater peace and joy, and nearness to the essence which is called divine. In Christian terms this stage is called communion. In Vedantic terms it is called Turiyavastha, and the further step to this is called Samadhi which may no doubt be described as merging in God. In other words, in this stage we dive into our deepest selfhood; God is in our deepest self. In this state we have the ability to dive so deep as to touch our deepest being, which is the home of all intelligence, life, peace and joy, and where worry, fear, disease or death do not enter.
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Hahut is the experience which is the object of every mystic who follows the inner cult. In Vedantic terms this stage is called Manan; the equivalent in Christian terminology is atonement.
From these considerations it may be seen that the work of the Sufi is to aim at ennobling the soul. When initiated into the Order we take the path of ennobling the soul - there is no wonder-working, no communication with spirits, no performing of miracles, no developing of magnetic or psychic powers, no clairvoyance or clairaudience, nor anything of the kind. The one single aim is to become humane, to live a healthy life, to try and better the moral conditions of our life, to ennoble our character, and to meet not only our own needs, but also those of our neighbors and friends. Our work is to try and develop that spark which is in every soul, whose only satisfaction lies in the love of God and in approaching towards God, with the intention of one day having a glimpse of that truth that cannot be spoken of in words.
Dreams
The Nature of the Dream
There is a Hindustani saying calling this world the dream of life. In the Vedanta this world is called the dream of Brahma, the dream of God. It makes a person afraid to think that all our affairs, to which we give so much importance, should be unreal, should be a dream. When people came to talk to me, I have several times experienced their great disappointment when they said, "Do you mean to say that all this is a dream, that it is not real? Now here you are standing, I am sitting, you are speaking. Is it all a dream?" They meant, "What a foolish idea to call this life a dream ." To him who has experienced only materially through his five senses, without even a glimpse of an idea of something else, this life seems real and we cannot blame him for thinking it real. It is only when he awakens from this life that he sees that it is unreal. If, while you are dreaming, someone comes and tells you, "Do not believe it, it is a dream", you will never believe him, you will think it is real.
The dream is recognized as a dream because of its contrast to physical life, as everything is recognized by its contrast. We recognize woman because there is man; day is recognized because there is night, but to find the contrast to the dream of life is very hard. Let us see what makes a dream to be called a dream. There are three things: its changing character, its momentariness, and its deluding nature. Life in this world has the same attributes. If we consider ourselves - our body, the body of another - we see that at every moment we are changing. At one moment we find ourselves so angelic, so good, so mild, at another we find ourselves so rebellious that we would fight with Satan. As to the momentariness, the transitory nature - where are those who were so great as Dara (Darius) and Sikandar (Alexander the Great) whose glory promised to last always?
Nothing is left. Then, as to its deluding nature, how jealous are we if our rival gets what we hoped for. It may be a passing joy; tomorrow the joy and the rival may not be, but whilst they last how jealous we are! If great riches come into our hands, we think it so great a thing; it promises us all. It all passes away, but while it is there we are so happy or so sad. This is life's deluding nature.
Why is this world called the dream of Brahma, the dream of God? Because each of us experiences only a part of the dream, and only God, the Whole Being, experiences all the time the whole of the dream.
God lost in the manifestation is the state which we call waking. The manifestation lost in God is realization. In my language I would call the latter awakening and the former a dream.
In the physical world you are here, everything else is outside of you, and you are contained in space. In the dream all you see is contained within you. You may dream that you are in Paris, but if you really were in Paris, the Parisians would know that you were there. If they knew nothing of it, then you were not in Paris. Paris and everything else in the dream is within you. In that state you are so great - but you call it a dream, an imagination, and you think that imagination is nothing.
Question: Is it better to be always in a dream or always awake? Answer: This is a very interesting question and one that should be asked of great people. If a person wishes to be always in a dream, he should go to the caves of the mountains, to the wilderness, because in the world people will not only take all he has, but they will eat his bones, his skin, his flesh. We see at what point people have come by being always awake! If such a person wishes to eat, the thought comes, "What can I gain, what business can I do", and will not let him eat. If he wishes to sleep, the thought, "What benefit can I have", will not let him sleep. The politician who is always thinking, "What office can we take, what territory can we gain, how can we get more than others", can never have any rest.
The best course for those who are seeking the truth - not for everybody, but for those who are on the way of truth is to be just so much awake as is needed to carry out their responsibilities in life, not allowing themselves to be quite trodden upon, and to be so much in the dream as they can without neglecting their life's responsibilities.
How Dreams are Formed
Let us now consider how the dreams that we dream every night are formed. Our mind is made of vibrations, or let us call them atoms. These have the property of receiving impressions; they are just like a photographic plate. They are continually receiving impressions: impressions of heat or cold, of friends or enemies. These are stocked in the storehouse of the mind - so many thousands, so many millions of impressions, more than can be counted. When you are asleep, when your body is resting but your mind is active, these pictures appear before you, just like a moving picture on a screen. Then, when your mind is fully exhausted, deep sleep comes.
Some pictures we develop very much by keeping them often before us; the pictures of enemies, for instance, or of friends of whom we often think. Other pictures are very little developed, they just come and go. That is why sometimes in the dream we see the faces of our friends just as they are, sometimes we see forms that seem familiar but whom we do not recognize, and sometimes we see pictures that seem quite strange. Two or three of the pictures that are little developed join and form one picture which seems familiar.
If asked whether we can dream of what we have never seen, I would say: No, all that we dream we have seen. The jinn, who have never manifested themselves on earth, cannot form a picture of things of this world. The imagination is just the same as the dream.
Dreams go by affinity, which means that like attracts like. If at the beginning of the night we have a sad dream, all night sad dreams come. If at the beginning of the night we have a joyful dream, all night pleasant dreams come. If there is one tragic dream, then all night tragedy goes on. If there is one comic dream, then all night comedy goes on.
Question: Is there any means of keeping an undesirable dream away?
Answer: There are a thousand ways of keeping an undesirable dream away, but if it is a warning then it will be very difficult to keep it away, or if one particular dream is kept away, another unpleasant dream will come.
Dreams are of Three Kinds
The dreams we dream every night are of three kinds; there is a fourth sort of dream, but that is more a vision.
There is a dream in which a person sees during the night what he has been doing during the day; when his mind has been very much engaged in all thoughts, occupations, and cares of the day, these appear before him in the dream. This dream is called Khwab-i khayali. It does not have much effect upon the mind, because it is not very deep.
The second kind of dream is Khwab-i ghalti, in which one sees the opposite of what really happens: when one sees someone dead that person recovers from his illness, or one sees someone as one's enemy who in reality is one's friend. When the mirror of the mind is distorted, then the image falling upon it is distorted too, just as in some mirrors everything appears reversed: if you are thin, you appear as fat and round as a ball, and a short person appears as tall and thin as a column.
The third kind of dream is Khwab-i ruhi, in which events are shown exactly as they are. This dream comes to the upright, pure mind, to the righteous, pious person. It is seen either in a dreaming or half-waking condition. If something is lacking in the person's piety, he may see something reversed in the dream. He may see the death of the father when it is the death of the mother, or the illness of the daughter when it is the illness of the son, but if he is absolutely pious he sees the exact event. This dream comes only to the few, to the chosen ones, but we should remember that in all of us the soul is the same; it is only its cover that is different. So we may all dream this dream at times.
Many years before the Prophet Muhammed came forward as a master, as a prophet, his wife knew he was a prophet, because every morning he used to tell her what he had dreamt in the night, and it was always that which happened the next day. Whilst he himself was not yet sure of his message, she believed that he was the chosen one, and she encouraged him. If there was a first disciple of Prophet Muhammed, it was his wife.
The three kinds of dream are the most wonderful subject of study in life. The kind of dream, which is the exact picture of a reality which a person may sooner or later experience in his so-called real life, teaches us that the incidents which we experience unexpectedly in life were pre-ordained for us. It also teaches us that, although here in the physical plane we appear to be separate one from the other, in the plane of the dream the whole world exists upon the surface of the individual's mind. He who is one single being on the physical plane inverts into the whole world on the plane of the dream, although even there where he is alone he still holds fast his individuality.
The nature of the second kind of dream, in which everything appears to be the reverse of what may happen, is the opposite of manifestation: a person seen dead in this dream will have a long life, and the sickness of a friend seen in the dream would, on the contrary, bring him good health. It is because of their negative nature that things like the printer's block, the photographic plate, and all other things of negative character, will show their opposite before they produce the right image.
The kind of dream produced before the view of man, in which he sees what he has been doing during the day, is of little consequence. It is either caused by unbalanced activity of the mind, or by physical disorder. Such dreams as a rule have no importance and, although they create before man a moving picture, they are surely a waste.
This kind of dream, caused by the activity of his mind, is given to each person in his everyday life. The second kind generally manifests itself before the view of those who possess the attribute of humanity, who first think of the world and its responsibilities, together with the thought of God. The third kind of dream generally is vouchsafed to the spiritual person; it is, of course, seldom seen by the average man.
The first thing that happens in the spiritual development of a person is that his dreams change. First he dreams a thing and the contrary happens. Then he dreams a thing and that thing happens exactly as he dreamed it. Then God gives him warnings in pictures, just as the first writings were picture-writings. Then, when his soul discloses itself more, he hears a voice and he sees angelic beings. Then, when his soul opens still more, he realizes the true being of God. When the true being of God is realized in the waking condition, then he is a saint.
Spiritual Healing
All through the long history of the human race there are records of the practice of healing by magnetic, mental and spiritual methods. The great messengers have practiced the art themselves and have enjoined it upon their disciples. Even among the most primitive races we find traces of such ministration.
It is true that there was a time, when to be ill and weak was accounted a sign of saintliness, when those who were seeking to tread the spiritual path neglected and ill-treated their bodies, starved and ill-used them until they were living skeletons, reduced to the lowest possible state of misery and distress, and quite incapable of constructive thought and action. These days are past, wiser counsels now prevail, the mind of man has come to a saner and wiser opinion. He realizes that the body, which is the temple of God, should be a fitting habitation for its heavenly Guest, and that the instrument through which man functions should be as perfect a machine as possible.
The engineer in charge of a delicate piece of machinery sees to it that it is kept clean, well oiled and free from dust in order that it may fulfil his will and carry out his commands. He well knows there is danger unless these conditions are fulfilled; yet man, who is using as his instrument the human body, the most delicate piece of machinery that has come from the hands of the great Engineer, often neglects and misuses it and fails to keep it in good working order.
It is often asked why people are ill. Many answers might be given; probably none of them will satisfy the engineer wholly, until he can hear within his heart the "still small voice" telling him in no uncertain language the cause of the trouble in his own case. It is certainly true that at the back of every apparent cause there is lack of harmony; some part of man's being is out of tune, and the jarring note sets up vibrations which affect the whole system. It may be that there is some habit or weakness in his life which is poisoning the springs of his being. No one who is holding in his consciousness anything which falls below his own ideal can be in a state of harmony, for all the time - whether he is aware of it or not - the struggle for mastery between the higher and the lower self is going on.
But then it may be asked why people, who are quite frankly living a life devoted to material pleasures, are so often well and happy, while they deny themselves nothing that will minister to their own physical and emotional satisfaction. May not the answer be: because in their case there is no struggle, the soul is not yet awake, the higher consciousness is sleeping. They are travelling along the line of least resistance, there is no conflict as yet for them.
Then again it is asked why so often good people are ill, and we may perhaps answer that question by asking another: What is goodness? Some people who are called good are very negative; they allow their minds and bodies to be open to every sort of influence that comes to them from without. The garden of their soul is not guarded and tended by the wise gardener, and the winds blowing from north and south, from east and west, carry all sorts of seeds: seeds of weeds and thistles and thorns which fall upon the soil, take root and spring up very quickly; often they choke the flowers that are also growing in that garden, and then, in a sensitive personality, there is struggle for mastery. Disharmony results from it and consequently weakness and illness.
Let us strive for wisdom, that we may know what to take in and what to cast out; for when wisdom guards the threshold we shall become strong and steady like the waterwheel which revolves at such a rapid rate that it resists and throws off any object, however heavy, that is thrown against it.
Above the portal of a small convalescent home in an English country village these words are written, so large that all who enter may read them and take heed:
For good may ever conquer ill health think with God.
We read in the Christian scriptures: "Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are holy, whatsoever things are of good report - think on these things." Thought is creative, thought has a dynamic power: "as a man thinketh so is he." We are taught that every thought has its birth and death, and that the life of every thought is far longer and more enduring than the life of the human being.
Hundreds of wireless messages are passing by us during every hour of the day, but only the instrument that is tuned to the right note can receive them. The discovery of wireless telegraphy has been to the thinker a most illuminating example on the physical plane of what is always happening in the spiritual spheres. Distance is no longer any obstruction, and just as in the physical world a receiver is necessary, so also in the spiritual world; for the law is universal both in the spiritual realm, the realm of reality, and in the physical world, which is only the shadow of the real one.
Let us see to it that our hearts and minds are tuned to the higher vibrations, so that only those things that are good, pure, holy and of good report can enter and dwell there. Let us keep out the idle thoughts, the unkind thoughts, the envious thoughts that come knocking at the door of the heart and which, if we admit them, will result in speech and action, and produce in our bodies illness, weakness, weariness. Then when this happens, man in his ignorance of the true cause goes to the doctor or surgeon who perhaps performs an operation, and often the patient may be no better but rather worse, for the real cause of the trouble is untouched.
One may ask: is pain always an evil thing? - and I would answer: far from it. Sometimes pain comes to us as a kindly warning. It is the moving finger pointing to us and bidding us to give heed to our ways, to take account of our doings. There are different kinds of pain: pain of the body which is often hard to bear, pain of the mind which is far worse, and pain of the heart, the deepest part of man's being, which may be agony. Yet the cry of agony which comes from the depth of the heart may be a sound of the greatest beauty, for pain has its beautiful aspect. Think of the pain expressed in the most perfect music, the finest poetry. There are moments of intense feeling when pain and joy meet, and one cannot distinguish where one ends and the other begins; they have their meeting place in the heart of man. Pain is like the herb in the hands of the great Transmuter, the divine Alchemist; failing on the melted silver of the heart it turns it into the purest gold, and renders the heart of man more fitting to be the altar of God.
Who are those to whom people go for sympathy when they are in trouble? Surely to those who have suffered much, those who, having gone through great tribulation, have overcome and have learned by experience that true happiness comes from within and is independent of outward circumstances. They can feel not only for others but with others, and out of the depth of their own experience teach them how to find courage and faith and hope. They can help them to bind up their wounds, and heal their broken hearts. If suffering can develop in us the blessed gift of sympathy, then surely we have not suffered in vain; we may well thank God for every pang which we have endured.
What of the pain endured by all the great Saviours and Masters of humanity? We feel here that we are touching a most sacred mystery which words cannot express - but may we not reverently believe that, by taking to themselves the burden of pain of all the world, they transmuted it by the process of alchemy, and sent it out as a fountain of love and power springing up into everlasting life?
However, while pain is one thing, disease is quite another thing. Disease must always be contrary to the divine Will, and it is our duty to combat it by every means in our power and to order our lives along the lines of sane, healthy living, obeying the laws of health in matters of diet, sanitation and clothing. Disease is largely the product of over-civilization. People of less highly evolved civilization know how to keep themselves in health by simple nature remedies, such as herbs. It is said that the North-American Indian, when he comes home tired after a long day's hunting, will fling himself down upon the ground, relax every sinew and muscle, and draw into himself fresh stores of energy from the magnetic currents of the earth, so that after an hour's rest he is ready to rise up and to go forth again, if necessary, with renewed strength and vigor.
Among wild animals in their natural state there is very little disease. They die of old age, of accidents, or of the attacks of enemies stronger than themselves.
We in the West have lost the knowledge of the use of simple nature remedies, and there is scarcely one who really knows how to relax. We should do well to try to get back this lost knowledge, for health is more likely to be gained in this way than by the use of drugs or the surgeon's knife. Man is the microcosm of the macrocosm; every substance in the earth is to be found in the body of man, even to the lately discovered radium. Therefore it is in a very true sense that we speak of Mother Earth, and the closer we live to nature, our great mother, and the simpler we make our manner of living, the healthier shall we surely become.
What is health? Health is surely wholeness of body, heart and mind, complete harmony of the whole being. Wholeness is also holiness. Nothing short of this should content us, if as Sufis we are endeavoring to tread the path which leads to the culmination of love, harmony and beauty - that perfect trinity which is the goal of all life. God alone is the Healer; those who minister will only truly heal when they keep this truth always before them, for it is not the solid wood that makes the flute, it is the empty reed. The healer is only the instrument which God Himself is using and, only in so far as he can put aside his own lower personality and dedicate and consecrate his life to the great service, will he be successful in the work he has undertaken. He should endeavor to cultivate an attitude of calmness, serenity and poise, of harmony within and without; for just as the waters of a lake, when tossed to and fro and broken up by the winds of a great storm, cannot reflect the clear blue sky, neither can the heart of the one who is disturbed and distracted by the turmoil of the world and confused by the sound of earth's many voices, reflect the will of the God and Father of us all.
It has been said that we grow into the likeness of that which we habitually contemplate. Therefore constant and habitual contemplation of the perfect ideal, dwelling in thought upon the attributes of divine beauty, keeping the heart tuned to the note of love and harmony, and making this the practice of daily life, the mind still and calm, the heart pure and open so that it can reflect the perfect Will - this should be the aim of life of the one who aspires to serve humanity as a spiritual healer.
We are told that one of the properties of radium is that, if for a time you shut up certain substances in an appropriate receptacle with even a tiny portion of radium, these substances will acquire some of the properties of the radium and will show its power. After some time they lose these properties and have to be replaced close to the radium in order to be recharged. We read of the great masters that, when exhausted after days of teaching and ministering to the sick, they retired into the mountains and forests to commune with Almighty God, and came forth again charged with fresh power to resume their work of healing and inspiring. If even for the great ones these times of quiet were necessary, how much more for us. The action of the radium is a parallel of the Almighty Father's power, it speaks to us of the refreshment which comes from quiet communing with the Supreme.
What should be the attitude of the patient? He must have a living faith, he must do his part in the work. We read of Jesus Christ that in one place even he could do no mighty works because of the unbelief of the people, and again in another place people came to him with all manner of diseases and he healed them all. The patient must believe in the power of God to heal and he must have confidence and trust in his healer. God holds His blessings out to us, but we must take them from His hands. If we refuse to co-operate in the work of healing, we cannot receive the blessing; if we set up obstacles, we can obstruct even the river of life itself.
So the patient must have confidence and trust in the healer; he must open himself to receive the healing currents for the conveyance of which the healer is only the channel, for life and health are the gifts of God Himself.
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