Hazrat Inayat Khan
THE SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS
PHILOSOPHY 1
God Consciousness
When speaking of the world of the unseen and who can know this unseen world, I will say that it can be known by God and by the God-conscious at the time when he is God-conscious. One part of the Unseen Being is unconscious. That part does not know whether we are in sorrow, in trouble, in happiness. The other part, the conscious part, is so conscious that all our affairs, all our troubles, all our sadness and our happiness is much better known to Him than to ourselves. One part is so far away that there is no way of letting our cry reach Him, and one part is experiencing through us all the joy, all the affairs, all the sadness of the world.
With regard to the God-conscious, it is God Who discloses and hides knowledge. If He discloses it, it is His merit, because it is by His favor. If it is hidden, it is our fault, that we do not see it. It is always there. In this, there is idealization also.
When Jacob had lost his son Joseph, for many years he did not know where his son was, and wept for him, until his disciples asked him saying, "You are a prophet. You see the unseen, and yet you are sad for your son and you do not know where he is."
To say,"I know the future," is the work of a fortuneteller. It is not the work of a mystic. At one time you may know the future, and may tell another person. Another time that person may be depending upon your word and you do not know the future. To know and to say nothing is the work of the mystic. To know and to help. To say to another, "Take care. There is a pit." But it is better to say, "Take care because there is a pit," than to say, "Take care, I see you falling." Even that knowledge it is better to hide.
Therefore, if you see anything, it should be told to the Murshid, where there is a chance for its correction and interpretation. It should not be told to others. Is God conscious at the same time of the resting state and the active state, or is He conscious of them alternatively, like a person waking and sleeping? And is someone who is God-conscious conscious of both states at once?
That active part of the Consciousness that has produced the whole manifestation cannot be compared to the Eternal Consciousness, the Ahadiat. It is so small a part that there is no comparison at all. The active part is like the scenery placed before a curtain, which is the blank part. The curtain is always there. The scenery varies. Every person who attains to God-consciousness is conscious of the inactive part. But this consciousness is very slight. All the consciousness is in the manifestation. When he becomes fully conscious of the unconscious state, this is miraj, the highest state, Sidratu'l-Muntaha, which Muhammad experienced, as is told in the Qur'an.
It is only in entering into this state and in coming out of it that such a one is conscious of it. It is the state of very deep sleep, which we all experience unconsciously. When someone has attained to God-consciousness, he experiences all the activity of the world. He experiences everything as the self of each being. If an elephant comes before him, he is the elephant. Whatever comes before him, he is. When the consciousness of the external self is gone, then whatever appears before him is his self.
I know a Madzhub in Baroda, who was walking in the street at night, and a policeman, who was watching the street, said to him, "Who are you? Are you a thief?" The Madzhub said, "Yes, I am a thief." The policeman took him to the police station and there the Madzhub spent the night, enjoying his experiences. In the morning the officer came and said to the policeman, "This is a Madzhub whom you have arrested, not a thief." The policeman said, "He said himself that he is a thief." When the officer spoke with him, he recognized him as a Madzhub, and he set him free.
When he was asked, "Are you a thief," he said, "Yes," because whatever name or form comes before the consciousness of one who is lost in the Whole Being, he realizes as his self. This is the highest reach of mystical attainment. When the voice of God spoke with Moses or Muhammad and when the voice of God speaks with a person, what is the voice of God that speaks? The voice of God is the consciousness of the Whole Being that speaks to him who is God-conscious. God has no voice with which to speak to man, and therefore He speaks to those who are not able to hold communion with Him by the voice of him who is in communion with God. Such a one at that time is not conscious at all of his external self.
When Muhammad was in that state the horse could not carry him and the camel could scarcely carry him with difficulty. When a person is dead, the body at once becomes very heavy, because the life, the consciousness, that lifts it, is not there. His consciousness had quite left his body and therefore it became very heavy.
Once, when Muhammad was in this state, his wife, Bibi Ayesha, came into the room in which he was, and he asked her who she was. She said, "I am Ayesha." He said, "I am Ayesha. " She thought that the Prophet never joked, and she said, "I am Ayesha, daughter of so-and-so," naming herself, in the Arabic manner "daughter of so-and-so." He said, "I am Ayesha, daughter of so-and-so." She continued to name herself as the daughter of so-and-so, son of such a one, son of such a one, and at every name she spoke, he said, "I am such a one, and such a one." He was moved at that time into the consciousness of the Unlimited Being, the Consciousness of all who live, and all who have been.
That One Being which lies beyond all things we have called God, and we have idealized as God. We say Allah-ho-akbar, God is great. Thou art great. Al hamdu l'illah. All praise be to God, glory to God. The religious person says, "We must worship God, we must pray to Him," but can give no reason for his blind belief. The worldly person says, "Why should I worship what I neither see nor hear nor touch nor perceive by any sense?" The religious person's blind belief will one day be lost. It lasts just so long as his hope lasts. When that is gone, his belief is gone also.
How can we attain to knowledge of God and why do we not know Him? Because, from morning till night, we are busy in the external world, and when night comes, we are tired and only wish to sleep. If we can close ourselves to the outer world, we shall see the inner world. If we can close our outward senses, our mind will turn inward. We see through the eyes, but it is not the eyes that see. The mind sees through the eyes. And the consciousness sees through the mind.
The consciousness is all the time busy looking outward. If the eyes can be closed and the mind held quiet, the consciousness will turn inward and will see itself. It will see that God Who is within itself. It will realize: "I am not that external self, but this." It will turn to God. The feeling, "I am lonely, I am miserable," will disappear. It will realize that it is never alone. It will realize that God from Whom it is not separated, but Who is its own being.
Coming now to the question whether God is satisfied. God in one condition is experiencing the consciousness alone. In that condition He is so happy that nothing can compare with the happiness He experiences. This is called Vahdat. A very small part of the Divine Being causes the activity of the world, so that God rests apart, while His activity produces the universe. He has no weariness and no activity. To us all this world is very important. To Him it is not important. And even to us, when we have realized, it is not important at all.
Why is that which manifests always greater than that which is manifested? The root of the rose tree produces many thousands of roses. They blossom and fade, but the root remains. The root is called greater, but if it had not produced the roses it could not be called great. That from which all manifestation comes, is greater than the manifestation, but if it were not for all the universe, it could not be called great, the Allah-ho-akbar.
The Attraction of the Divine Being
In the Bible, in the Qu'ran, in all the religious scriptures, we read that there is an attraction by which the Divine Being draws all creatures to Himself. This is in two ways. The chosen ones of God are drawn towards God during their life, consciously. And, for every being comes its destruction, when it is destroyed, and is lost. Everything in the world is fani, that is, awaiting annihilation. For every rock, every tree, every being that we see the day will come when it is destroyed.
Our body will not remain with us. Each element in it will be attracted to the like element, the fire to the fire, the water to the water, the earth to the earth. When the body is destroyed, the mind remains. In the mind also the elements are, though we cannot see them. They are in the vibrations. Anger brings heat, which makes the eyes red and all the body hot. Peace comes, the water element. The elements in the vibrations also are drawn each to its own element. If anything remains it is the soul, the nur, the light of God. Everything in the world wishes to live. No-one wishes to die. And if someone, under the influence of some sorrow says, "It would be better if I were dead," when the spell is passed, if he is asked, "Do you wish to die now," he will say, "No."
We must see what in us is fani, to be annihilated, and what is baqi, life, what will remain with us and what will not. We realize as our self that which dies, that which is not ours, and therefore we are afraid of death. Our coat will not remain with us. It is not ours. Therefore Christ said, "If a man sue you for your coat, give him your cloak also." Because neither is yours. The coat belonged to the sheep first and it will pass from us, etc. We see that we are always attracted to our like, to someone who is from our country, of our race, from our school. God is that which will never die. His nature is life. Our true affinity is with Him. He is our real friend.
Duality in Nature
All philosophies have recognized the duality in nature. However much we may differ on the surface as to principles and opinions, those who go below the surface, the divers for truth, have always found the same things. The Vedanta calls the two forces purusha and prakriti, the creator and the created, the creative and the responsive forces, by which the whole manifestation has been made. In the religious language it is called Shiva and Parvati. In the Hindu inscriptions and books you can see the picture of Shiva, with two faces, a man's face and a woman's face, showing the creative force and the responsive force that Shiva possessed. There are many other pictures in these inscriptions, pictures such as that of an animal's body with a man's head, of which the meaning is that man's body is animal; it is his head that is man.
And why? Because of the senses, the eyes, the ears, all the senses by which man perceives. The animal also has ears, but he cannot understand the language that he hears. The animal has eyes, but it cannot understand what it sees. In those times there were few who could read and write. The Prophets themselves could not read and write. They had not diplomas from universities. For that knowledge no study is needed. It is always open. Therefore the philosophers were obliged to express their meaning by art, by engraving pictures upon the stone. The greater part of the Buddhistic philosophy has been lost. The four most important books of Buddha were stolen and have never been recovered. The religion remains, with all its beauty. But that from which it had come cannot now be known.
Leaving the religions aside, and coming to the scientific part, I will explain how two have come from one. All has come, not from the square, not from the triangle, but from the dot. The line has come from the dot. You cannot measure the dot. You may say: "If the dot were very large, perhaps we might measure it." You cannot measure it unless you make a cross, a line this way and that way. The line has two poles, it can be measured. When the dot moves, it becomes a line, it becomes two. In this way everything has come from one. First there was one eye. The two eyes have come from one eye. First there was one ear. The two ears have come from one ear. The two nostrils have come from one and the two lips from one.
If you look attentively at the spark of fire, you will see that it throws out a ray on one side, and at once a ray comes out on the other side. Then two other rays are thrown out between these and this forms a cross. Then two more come out and this forms the star, from which all creation has come. The two poles of the spark form the moon. The star and the moon together are the two forces that have made the whole universe. It is this that our Sufi emblem shows, the star with the moon. In our face the eyes and the nose are the star, the lips the moon.
As soon as there is manifestation there are these two forces. The forward swing of the pendulum has its backward swing. The forward swing comes with more strength, the backward swing is finer. These two forces are everywhere and in each thing there are both forces. We see these two forces everywhere. The sky is creative, the earth is responsive. Fire is creative, water is responsive. Although man and woman are typical of these two forces, yet in every man there is a female element, in every woman there is a male element. On every tree there are male and female leaves, male and female flowers, male and female fruits. If there are two kernels in the shell of an almond, we see that one has formed the other from itself. This is why it is said that Eve was formed from Adam's rib.
This is the secret of all harmony in life, the harmony of the creative and responsive forces. In life, we meet some people who are creative. Then, if we do not respond, we have failed. We meet some people who are responsive. Then, if we do not create, we have not performed our part. If there are two creative together, it is bad; if there are two responsive, it will not be good. Man and woman can harmonize, but if two women spend their life together, they will quarrel; if two men live together, they will fight. This is the reason of the present war. Two responsive together is bad, but two creative together is worse.
The manifestation is formed by duality, and God has His dual aspect. In one aspect He is untouched by experience, unaware of His creation, the Consciousness alone. This is why He is called Allah. In the other aspect He is all the manifestation. His creation is a very small matter to Him. If He be called God, the Good, it is a very beautiful name. He is good, there, above the world. Here on earth, at the other pole, the good becomes bad. What was good when it starts from there, here becomes bad. A thief, for example, is moved either by love for himself, or by love for his children, his wife, by the wish to support them. The love comes from heaven. The impression of the earth says: "The easiest way is to take somebody's purse." Then more shadows of the earth say: "At Piccadilly Circus or near the Ritz are many people with well-filled pockets." All the bad comes from the shadows of the earth. What comes from the other pole is only goodness. By withdrawing ourselves from the impressions of the world, by meditation and concentration, together with honesty, purity of life, we can reach to the other pole.
But this name (goodness) is not enough. We must rise above the good and evil, to that Unity in which we are all united. We are always quarrelling about what is virtue, what is sin. God includes all, both poles, and embraces, is beyond all. Why is Buddha always portrayed sitting with his legs folded? It shows unity, the going from duality to unity. The Moslem in his prayer folds one hand over the other. He thereby says: "from two I become one." The wise goes from the two to unity. He rises above good and evil, above virtue and sin, to the One.
In Christianity we read: "I and my Father are One." Duality, first the Father, the Creator, then the created. Trinity came afterwards. The third is hidden under the two. Those who understand music will understand that, if I beat quadruple time: 1,2,3,4, and then triple time: 6/8, (two groups of three beats covering the same length of time) the second and third beat of triple time are hidden under the second and fourth of the quadruple time: two beats of quadruple time are equivalent to three beats of triple time (6/8).
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It may be thought that the idea of Trinity appeared first in the Christian religion. The conception of Trinity existed long before. It is found in the Hindu religion also.
In Islam, although the teaching is especially the unity of God, the two forces are recognized, Zat and Sifat. Zat is the creative force, Sifat the responsive force. To this is given the name Muhammad. Mah means great, Ahmad the knower, the mind. The great knower, Mahatma, is the same thing. God bless you.
PHILOSOPHY 2
A Universe in Man (1)
We can best understand a universe in man first by comparing a drop of water with the sea. The water has the same tendency of responding to the air, whether it be in the ocean, the sea, in a river, or in a glass of water. Even in the glass of water it responds to the air, and if there were room there would be waves. In the river there are waves, in the sea there are bigger waves, in the ocean they rise much higher still. The same tonic, properties, that doctors find in the water of the sea we can find in the drop of water. The microbes, the germs that exist in the ocean, live also in a drop of water.
So we see that the water in the ocean, in the sea, the lake, the river, is the same as it is in a drop of water. The best way to explain what the ocean is like to a child that has never seen it, would be to show him a little pool and tell him, "It is like that, all water." He at once imagines what it is like. From the part he imagines the complete. All that is in God, the Whole Being, is in man. Because it is seen in man, we understand that it is in God. If man had no mercy he would not know that God is merciful. If man had no wisdom he would never have known the wisdom of God.
Therefore it is no exaggeration to say that man is made in the image of God. If a person wishes to know what the Taj Mahal is like, he can go to the Victoria and Albert Museum and see the model. That shows him at least what it is like. It is only man who is made in the image of God. It is not the lion, the elephant, however big and strong a creature he is, who is made in the image of God.
Someone may say: "Why is it man who is made in the image of God? Why is not the lion, the elephant, the dog made in the image of God?" If you take the model of a turret or a roof of the temple at Benares, that cannot give you the idea of the whole temple. In man's physical constitution the elements of which the whole universe is made, are found. In the bones the earth element, the rock. The flesh is made of the water element a little solidified. The fire-element is the heat in man's body, the glow, the expression in the face. When the fire is less, the expression of the face becomes faded. The skin shows the effect of the air element. It changes in accordance with the effect of the air upon it. The ether is shown in the hair, which is much less sensitive than any other part of the body. If we cut the skin or the flesh, we feel pain. When the hair is cut we feel nothing.
Poison is also found in man. In all animals, in the fishes, there is a small bag of poisonous substance which is taken out before the meat is cooked. Otherwise it would all become poisonous. In the snake there is poison in its teeth. It is a great mistake that people often make, and the sciences such as phrenology, physiognomy, and so on, encourage them in this, that they say: "I have not this attribute, it is not in me. I am not musical, I have no musical gift," not thinking that it is all in him, if he could bring it out. And by thinking that he has not the faculty, he makes it less and less. There are some whose thoughts are like jewels. They are collected and treasured and valued more than diamonds. Sometimes a thought brings us a peace, a joy, in whatever difficulties or sorrows we may be. There are others whose thoughts are like pebbles. When he speaks his wife is annoyed, his friends want to fight with him.
There are the feelings of love and sympathy. These are in the soul. This is the angelic world in man. Muhammad said: "At every moment man creates an angel." One may think, "How can man by his thought create an angel?" But to me the thoughts are more living than the living beings. We may say: "If the whole universe is in man, then Shaitan must be in us too." He is. The thought that we are something different from others, better than others, and deserving all that is best, looking down upon others and thinking: "they are foolish," or "he is a thief," not thinking that these same attributes are in us, that is all Shaitan. If they were not in us, we should not know what they are. If you ask a little child what a thief is, he does not know, because that quality is not yet developed in him. There is no pride in saying: "This bad attribute is not in me." There is no wisdom in saying: "I have not this faculty."
It is that which prevents our being sociable, being kind. It is this that makes us unhappy. Have you known what it is to give your meal to another and to go without yourself? It gives a happiness that no dinner eaten by yourself can give. Have you known what it is to give your coat to another and do without it yourself? It gives a joy that the satisfaction of your own wants cannot give you. Even that perfect peace and calm which is the eternal life is in man and can be attained by man.
A Universe in Man (2)
The perfection of God's manifestation is man. When man reaches perfection His manifestation is perfect and without man's perfection God's manifestation would not be perfect. Perfection is reached when man becomes altogether human. This is what we are, the dogs of the world. The nature of the dog is that where he sees some food, some bone, there he runs, and if another dog comes near, he wants to bite him. He does not want the other dog to share his bone. And if you give a dog food, he wants to snatch it out of your hand before it is given. We are like this. Where we see some benefit, there we run. We do not walk, because we might lose time. And we do not want another to share our benefit.
God's desire to realize Himself fully evolved and produced man. The rocks, the planets, the animals were all produced in order that man might be made. If we look at the pattern that the designer draws for the wallpaper, the flowers that he has drawn, we see the outline of man's face. If we look at the veins in the marble, we see man's face. If we look minutely at the sun, you will see in it, indistinctly the face of man.
In America even, there are rocks that show man's face, (in Springfield). If you look into the flowers, you will see in them the face of man. All this shows us that the aim of the whole manifestation was to produce man. Through the mineral, the plant, the animal, the soul reaches the stage of man. In man it has reached its final, its ideal expression. The Qu'ran says: "Man is made in the image of God." In man God's desire to know Himself is accomplished, and in man all the universe is united. He is mineral in his bones, vegetable in his hair, animal in his passions, man by his realization.
To be man is the greatest privilege. In the Sermon on the Mount it is said: "Ye are the salt of the earth." That means Ye are the greatest of creation. A Hindustani poet has said: "Man was created for sympathy. For worship the angels were enough in heaven. And for cruelty the animals were enough on earth." The angels are always ready to worship God and animals ready to fight and kill. Man is made for sympathy, for feeling. Man's heart is the most feeling. What man is it of whom God is proud? In Persian there are two words for man, insaan and adami. Insaan is the man who is man in mind and man in form. Adami is the man who is man in form only, but not in his mind.
Man has two natures, the angelic and the animal. The angelic nature is only his kindness, his love, his sympathy, and his desire for knowledge. His desire to eat, to drink, to sleep, his passions, his anger are from the animals, and his jealousy, his fear of one stronger than himself, his envy of those better than himself. A Hindustani poet has said: "We created man for feeling, for sympathy, if not, for Our praise the angels were enough in heaven." There are two ways open before man. He can develop his angelic qualities. Then he becomes angel, and he becomes God. Or he can develop his animal qualities. Then he becomes first animal. He wishes then to satisfy his animal desires which the animal qualities enjoy. Soon he wishes to satisfy them by whatever means, at whatever cost, at the cost of others. Then he is worse than the animal. He becomes devil. He becomes such that the very Shaitan runs away from him, because Shaitan is from the angels. He has not the animal qualities. Therefore the Qu'ran says:"Guide us in the right way, and guide us not in the way of those who go astray."
The liking of the soul is to become human. To become an angel is not very great, to be an animal is still easier. to be human is very difficult. A great Hindustani poet says: "What shall I tell you of the troubles of life, since it is even difficult for a man to be human." We are human and yet we cannot rightly be what we are. Why is it so great a privilege to be man? There is a legend which explains this very clearly.
The angels once rebelled against God, saying: "Why should man be made higher than all other creatures? Man has the animal attributes. Man needs to eat. We do not. Man needs to drink. We do not. Man needs to sleep. We do not." God said: "We will decide this question after a trial." and He said to one of the angels: "Go upon earth and see what man's life is."
The angel flew down to earth. He saw a tree. He was so delighted with the tree that he climbed down upon it and he began to eat its fruit. He was so enchanted that he thought: "This is the best place to live. I was a miserable creature when I did not have this." Then he saw a young girl passing beneath the tree selling fruit. He was charmed by her beauty and asked her to sell him the friends; they became lovers; they married and had children.
At first the angel was very, very happy; but when the freshness, the newness went, the charm and the happiness wore away. He began to find that those who had been his friends yesterday were not his friends today, that those who had been kind once were kind no longer. Life became very difficult. All the burdens and cares of life fell upon him. He felt oppressed, suffocated, and he grew very unhappy and complained of his life on earth.
Then God said to another angel, "Go and see what your brother is doing." The angel went down to earth. He too was delighted with the earth, its trees and fruits. But when the other angel told him of his life and all its difficulties and troubles, he flew back, and so was saved from these experiences.
When the angels appeared again before God, God said, "When even the angels are tempted by the earth and forget Me, should I not be proud of man when he, having all the troubles and difficulties and burdens of life on earth, sometimes remembers Me, thinks of Me?"
This shows us that our wish to become ferishta, angel, to become godhead, is a false wish. Our wish to become animal is folly. What we must wish is to become human. This is the most difficult. All else is easier.
Q. Is man a divine being, or does he by participation in the divine nature be or become a diving being? A. Man has two natures, haivaniat and ferishtagi. Haivaniat is man's body, and that nature that needs food and drink and sleep and the satisfaction of all its passions. In this man is the same as the animals. Ferishtagi is that nature by which man is different from the animals, which goes back to its source. It is not his intelligence. The animals also have intelligence, but the animals' intelligence cannot ask, "From where have I come? And for what purpose am I?" When man knows this, when he recognizes his origin, then he is a divine being.
Satan
Why have all religions taken the symbol of Satan, considering Satan as a separate entity? The idea has often been laughed at. It is laughed at by a Hindustani poet who says: "How ridiculous man is. He does wrong and then he blames Satan." Yet the religions have always taught this idea. God is always given all the credit, and Satan is given all the blame. We cannot say that there is one atom or one vibration that is apart from God. No-one whether Sufi or not, who has risen to inspiration and revelation has ever thought that there was anything apart from God, only it is covered over.
No-one likes what is wrong. However low, however foolish and ignorant a sinner he may be, if you explain before him what virtue is and what right is, he will like it. This is because his real self does not like what is wrong. The nature of the self is to like what is good, to do good. The religions have called this spell Satan, that we may recognize its deluding nature.
It is always there all our life, waiting to delude us. While we are lying comfortably in bed, we can never appreciate another's troubles. If we are full of pudding, we cannot feel for another's hunger. No-one has risen above the delusion of this life without giving up some of the habits, some of the inclinations, some of the tendencies of our everyday life in the pursuit of truth. If God were a third person, man would have idealized two other beings, Rahman and Satan. God bless you.
Kismet
The question is always brought, "Is there a power which rules the universe and controls all our actions? Or, are we free to do what we please, and are our situations the result of our good or bad deeds? Or are our actions and situations governed by the influence of the planets?" In answer to this, I will say first the contradiction of each. If God makes us act, then we are not responsible. Then it is all God, and we have no responsibility. If we are quite free, then, I will say, you are your own well-wisher. No-one will be his own ill-wisher. Then, whatever you wish for, success or riches, or whatever it is, you will have it. But it seems that it is not so. If happiness and good fortune were the result of good actions, then every-one would be good, no-one would be bad. And we see that many very wicked people are very fortunate. Every day a wicked deed, and every day a good fortune. And many very good people are always unfortunate and in difficulties. Christ had so many difficulties, and all the prophets and saints have had great adversities.
If everything is the influence of the planets, then I will say that you should stay in the room when there is a planet that is unfavorable to you. You should do nothing. And when there is a planet that is favorable, you should do nothing, because the planet will bring you everything by itself. I have told you the contradiction, now I will tell you the truth of each principle. There are four great powers that govern the world, Kadr and Kaza, Jelal and Jemal. Kaza is the power that governs the whole. The king governs the whole country, but power is given to viceroys, and governors. The governor governs a whole province, but power is given to a commissioner. The commissioner governs his district, he knows more about its affairs than the governor knows, and the governor does not interfere in his district. Each human being is given a power. This is Kadr. Just as the mother allows the child to go as far as the end of the room, but no further. From here as far as the end of the room, let it destroy as much as it pleases, but no more than that.
There is a Hindustani saying: "We see a wicked person very happy and we may think, Has God forgotten him?" No, but his jar is not yet full. When it is overfilled it will overflow and bring destruction to himself and those about him. Sometimes a very good person is very unhappy in life. But when the jar of his good actions is overfull, it overflows and brings happiness to him and to those about him. We have some power, but our action is so limited, our power of seeing is so limited. We are very small.
The forces of jelal and jemal are the creative and the responsive force. We are sometimes creative and sometimes we are responsive. The jelal is creative and the jemal is responsive. The singer is creative and the one who hears and enjoys is responsive. All our troubles are owing to our lack of the creative or the responsive power. If we are in a situation which is difficult for us, which is hard, which we dislike, this is owing to our lack of creative power to make another situation for ourselves. When the situation, the opportunity, would benefit us and help us, and we are not benefitted, it is owing to our lack of response. Everything in the world is creative or responsive. The benefactor is creative, and he who is benefitted is responsive. But I would say, however interesting, however attractive these things are, the name of God is much greater. Without the study of the name of God they are nothing. This is the only thing that is great, the only thing beautiful, the only thing of value, the only thing worthwhile.
Q. What quality or power in the planets gives to each its peculiar influence? A. The soul before coming on earth passes through the sun, the moon and the planets. As there is only one sun and one moon, each soul passes through sun and moon. There are many planets, and each soul passes through one planet, not through all. This gives to the soul an affinity with a certain planet, and by this affinity the planet has its influence upon the soul, the individual. There are of course, in man's life, many other circumstances and influences, besides that of the planets, and the other influences, man's will, also may be stronger than the planet.
The soul on its return journey has also to pass through the planet, the sun and moon. The creation was made by the activity of the consciousness. You will say: "How is it with predestination?" What is predestined is not predestined, but as it has gone one way, it goes that way again. It is as if someone went to Tottenham Court Road. The first time he goes to Tottenham Court Road. The second time he thinks: "I should stop at Bond Street." The third time he thinks: "I should go to Oxford Circus." The fourth time he thinks: "I shall see Hyde Park." Because he had started on that way.
The question is always asked, When someone is told from the cards or from the smoke, or in whatever way, what he will do in his life, and he does it, does this show that it is predestined for him? Some people tell the future by the tea-leaves, and some by the cards, or by the smoke, or by looking in the sky, or by looking in the corner. I know someone who was such a great person in this, that when he smoked a big cigar, an Indian cigar, he then looked at the smoke, and told the whole course of a person's life. When the things happen as they were told, this may be that the words, the telling, has impressed the mind of the person. The fortune-teller makes the program for your life, and you perform the program. People have become heroes by reading the lives of heroes. They were impressed by what they read. Or it may really be predestined. Then it is revelation. This revelation comes also in dreams. Sometimes, if a misfortune is going to happen to us or to those near us, we dream of it. Or if some good fortune is going to happen we dream of it. The warnings and signs are revelations.
Q. Is there such a thing as fate or kismet and can it be avoided? A. Every person has his fate, but, if he has enough knowledge, and if he has the possibilities of avoiding it, he can avoid it. God bless you.
PHILOSOPHY 3
Illusion and Reality
The problem of illusion and reality can alone be solved by the study of nature, in nature especially is the realization of the self. The wise understand that the consciousness is covered under all the garments of man's planes of existence. In fact the sources such as mind and body, which build up the personality of an individual, are changeable and liable to destruction, therefore neither the body nor the mind can be called a reality, as such is the nature of their functions, their work and their outcome.
The nature of illusion is such that the facts of nature lose their importance after passing from their present state. For instance you are not suffering the pain which you may have suffered yesterday or you may not feel the comfort you may have experienced formerly. And if your past condition is of no importance to you just now, the joy or sorrow that you may be experiencing just now will not be with you to-morrow. Such is the case with every moment of life, that which at present seems a reality, when passed becomes a dream and an illusion. This shows that there is nothing within or without which you may call a stable state of existence but in consciousness alone, that is, the consciousness you can recollect you had, the faculty of consciousness when a child, although now childhood may have become a dream to you, and everyday's joy and sorrow in life came and passed.
The loss and gain in life performed its part, and disappeared, did good or bad, and was finished with. The one came and the other passed away from your sight. If you can say that anything ever remained with you constantly it would be no other than consciousness. Although it is difficult for every person to know even what is meant by consciousness, because of its mind-like nature, it has no color or form by which it may be distinguished. The consciousness is the only function by which a person experiences all planes and phases of life and being occupied with names and forms reflected in it, it loves its own sight just like a mirror which shows the object reflected in it instead of its (own) existence, which witnessed all coming and going and yet it is as it has ever been.
Therefore the Sufi centers his delight in consciousness, the permanent beloved, instead of running after passing shadows, but consciousness also shows its limitation, its time of becoming conscious and again its nature of ceasing to be the same. This shows that its origin must be in its opposite state meaning unconsciousness which is called eternal consciousness by mystics and darkness in the Qur'an. This state can be realized as the most real, steady and unchangeable one existence. The seekers of this never cast even a glance towards illusionary existence. "We shall lift the veil from thine eyes and thy sight shall be keen." Qur'an. This shows that the lifting of the veil of illusion is the illumination or the keen sight. "Come o friend from thy illusionary prison, if thou once happenest to be here thou wilt enjoy it so much, that thou shalt never more desire to return to the same illusion."-Bedil.
The spirit of consciousness has formed all things and beings from negative to positive existence out of nothing else but its own essence. This shows that all the capable and incapable things of analysis are the manifestations of consciousness. But the positive existence can be analyzed by the material self of man. But that self is unable to analyze the negative things and beings for it is out of reach. The Sufi therefore attains the freedom of his consciousness first, and thus liberating his view he can analyze both by staying apart from them. This idea is taught by Christ in the phrase, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to thee. "
The Philosophy of Form
The activity in the plane of consciousness produces vibrations which clashing together produce sound and become audible, and sound in its next step towards manifestation becomes light which brings the audible manifestation to the visible state. The sparks of light grouped together by the power of their innate affinity make the inner light, the torch of guidance. The concentrated reflection of the same in the physical world is the sun, which so long had been taken as the substitute of God, which people worshipped calling it Sun-God.
The concentrated reflection of the sun is the moon. It is the sun which is reflected in parts, the light of which grouped in greater or smaller portions and settled at longer or shorter distances which has illuminated the whole cosmos. The sun is not the origin of the whole solar system, but the maker of all the forms of the universe which are its manifestations.
A certain degree of light shining in a certain direction before different views produces the illusion of a certain color as it may happen. In fact all colors are the different aspects of light, but the degree of light and the ever active nature of the variety of the manifestation change it into different aspects.
The whole space contains forms and all forms occupy space. Yet all negative forms become invisible in the presence of the positive. Again every positive form becomes negative in the presence of a still more radiant one. For instance if there be a blazing fire in a room, we practically notice nothing else, no matter how many objects there may be because our eyes are attracted by the radiance of the fire. In the same way, if there be any bright objects in the room our eyes are attracted to them before anything else in the room. The objects as we see them we believe them to be, that which owing to the limited power of our sight we cannot see we say does not exist, but that there is only an empty space. Therefore if anybody happens to see any such forms which are not visible to all, people at once begin to accuse him of lunacy.
The view of every thing depends upon three things: 1) the radiance of the object, 2) the grade of light thrown on it, 3) the power of our sight. The pearl in the shell, the uncut diamond fresh from the mine, or rusted gold however precious cannot show their value at first sight, for their value is in their radiance, and as the radiance is brought out so precious they become.
To the view of some people the petals of a flower, even the veins of the leaf show clear, while to those of weak sight even to distinguish a flower or to discriminate one leaf from the other is difficult and according to the sight of each individual the object is differently seen and recognized. The normal power of the light gives a balanced view of things, a very dazzling light takes away the beauty of some objects while it enhances that of others. So it is with dimness of light.
Further in its view it manifests each time differently under the influence of light and shade. If a person would stand amidst ten mirrors and his photograph be taken from each mirror, each of them will differ from the other. Again if a person will pose for a photograph a hundred times in the day in the same pose a hundred photographs will be produced, and although of the same pose, yet differing the one from the other owing to the difference of light and shade.
Each substance may be called the grouping of the like atoms, for like attracts like. Nature's power of affinity brings each atom closer to its similar one; however far apart they may be. The sole purpose of each atom is to approach and join its own element. This may be seen in the forest and the desert, in the former where there is one tree in time many others grow, and in the latter where there are none, there perhaps never will be. The same is the case with the different minerals, gold is found with gold and coal with coal; all grouped together attracted by their affinity for ages. The atoms of a substance in their finer form being a vibration, this law applies to them. The power of affinity groups the vibrations similarly which is felt and perceived by the mind which we may call thought or feeling. Although the thought has such vibrations which are on their way to being transformed into atoms, every such formation either of spirit or of substance naturally makes a form either fine or gross, even or uneven.
The influence of each element has a tendency to help make a particular form owing to the peculiar nature of their manifestation and direction they take. The earth element spreads and takes a straight course, while the water has a tendency to flow downwards. Fire rises upwards while air moves in a zigzag direction, ether blurs. All these elements make different forms according to their nature and direction, and all forms of the universe show one or more element in their formation to the eye of the seer. It is this which has guided the ancient discoverers of healing properties in herbs and drugs.
If we look at the sky and see the naturally formed pictures made by the clouds floating about and grouping differently, we can easily understand the nature of form, seeing how an elephant formed in the clouds turns suddenly into a horse, and how from a horse changes into the form of a camel or of some human being, or into the form of a bird or beast. It is nothing, but the grouping and the scattering of the atoms of the clouds, and the proportion of light or shade falling on them helps to distinguish forms.
This fact may again be seen by watching the fire, that each group of ashes that surrounds the burning coal, produces a shade and thus the combination of light and shade makes out of it a form or picture of whatever it may be, and at each moment the dropping of the ashes and its increase both produces various forms in the light.
The various forms are differentiated from each other by reason of time and space. The leaf produced yesterday changes its color and form today, thus differing the one from the other, but both having the same source.
If it had not been so, all beings of the universe would have been alike, being the manifestation of the One and only Being. The difference of likeness among the races during different periods, and the difference of the features and natures among children of the same parents shows that the cause of all difference has been time and space. There is a greater resemblance between twin born children owing to their birth taking place so near together. Yet in this case the difference has the same cause. Germs, insects, birds, and beasts resemble each other much more closely than human beings, birds more so than beasts, and germs more so than insects, because so many of them are born at the same time.
The difference between the inhabitants of the different parts of the universe is as great as is the space between them. For instance the Chinese resemble the Japanese more closely than an Egyptian, while the Persians resemble the Turks, owing to the nearness of their native land.
The difference in appearance and nature between the inhabitants of East and West is as great as is the space between, and the time between the birth and growth of their race, although man is the same all over the world. The difference of science, art, customs, manners and ideas, their progress and degeneration all are worked out under the law of time and space. Not only this but even man's fate in life depends much more upon the time of his birth and the influence of the planet ruling at the time.
On the model of the earth the Heavens were built. This reveals the mystery of form that it is the impressions gathered on earth which enable the soul to make different forms. A turmoil caused by external activities naturally upsets the harmony and rhythm of the creative activity within. There it works as a sound, as light, then it turns into feeling and thought, then in the end it manifests through form, figure, and especially through feature and expression. Speaking in brief it may be said that every action done on the surface is as ringing the bell in the church tower, evenly rung it sounds rhythmic, unevenly rung produces an unrhythmic impression.
The finer forces of life are holding in their hand the rein of external elements and according to their sound and rhythm the external elements work. It is in this way the change of features is brought about, upon which beauty or ugliness depends. The one who knows the secret of this can mold his form and produce his ideal in his children. In this the mother's part is more important than that of the father.
Form may be seen even in a phrase, in a poem, and it may be seen in imagination, thought, even emotions and feelings have their forms, and those who see only with the physical eyes can see no other than the material form, and it is so to speak a kind of eye that opens which sees the forms of ideas and feelings. The Prophets who heard the inner voice have given to that divine language a form and tried to picture that form in their words which the world has taken as a sacred book. It is the nature of mind to adorn every idea, thought and feeling with a suitable form according to its capability in which lies the whole secret of vision. Symbolism is a language of the idea hidden under a cloak of a form It is a natural tendency of a developed mind to express an idea in a symbol or to read an idea from a symbol, which proves that behind every form there is a spirit and behind all these fine and gross forms there is God.
Kismet
There are always two ideas understood in general about the nature of existence. One is that there is some power behind, named God, Who creates beings and moves them according to His will. The joy, pain, riches, poverty, success, failure, all He makes previously and prepares for man at the formation of his soul, and afterwards He makes changes in accordance to man's good or bad actions which are given in man's power, he being made responsible for them. There is another idea that man makes his own fate, or mars his own fortune, and that there is no other power hidden behind which has any influence on his life.
In all these three different ideas an argument arises: if the hidden power or God, the Almighty does control man's every action and deed, why should then man be rewarded for his virtues and punished for his sins, since he has no choice in the matter. In the second idea an argument arises that: if man makes his fortune, then why every man cannot obtain all he desires and what is it that hinders at times the path of his accomplishment?
In connection with the third idea a question arises that if the planets have influence upon every individual why should anybody try for success, and why should he strive for good ends, if they are under a planetary influence they must come just the same without any effort on his part.
The explanation of the above named fact is that God the Creative Power has a purpose already intended before He manifests each atom, just like a carpenter would know before making a chair that it may be used for a sitting purpose. This can be understood by studying man's anatomy how, for keeping this external machine right, one organ is made to help the other, as for instance eyelids as a protection for the eyes. Man blinded by witnessing every thing with his eyes fails to see the Creator's wisdom, but calls Him wise just the same.
Of course there are two tendencies, the creative, and the responsive and very often, the creative tendency cannot accomplish its aim owing to the lack of responsive tendency. For instance a person would throw an arrow to kill the tiger, but the arrow might fail to accomplish its purpose, or a cow might run into it and the tiger may be saved at the expense of the cow. God, the Creator, sends every soul on earth to reach the ideal aim, but the lack of responsive tendencies keeps man astray until at last he may be dragged towards his origin, after going through all sufferings and pains in life.
Although man is limited in his choice of affairs for the purpose for which he has been created, yet he is made responsible for his deeds, because of his also being given free will to command through his limited sphere in life. Thus man makes or mars his fortune. His will is called Kadr, and the will behind it which embraces the will of all individuals is Kaza.
Of course the planets have their influence upon man's life, for his soul having existed in the planet partakes its conditions and shows it in man's life on earth. At the same time each period is reflected by an influence of a planet. In fact it is the cosmic universe which distinguishes time to our view, if not man would never have been able to know either the day of the week, a month or what time of the night or day it may be. Therefore each time has its influence in connection with man's life. "There is a time for each happening." (Qur'an).
What in Man Lives and What Dies
The answer to this question is very simple: it is the false, the unreal self of man that dies, his real self is always alive. The question arises, "What is man's unreal self and what is the real self?" There are these two beliefs, one that God made the world and remains outside of it, apart from His manifestation, and the stronger belief is that God made all from Himself. Then the question arises, "Why is that which is made of the real unreal and perishable? We do not expect a truthful man to tell a lie."
God is more than real, more than true, but we have only the words "real", "true", to express it. Man exists at one pole of his being as the universal consciousness, calm, silent, unconscious of its own existence. You may say, "How can this be consciousness?" It is consciousness, intelligence, light. In Sanskrit it is called Chaitanya, intelligence. In the Qur'an it is written, "We have made thee of Our light and of thy light We have made the whole universe." This is supposed to be said of Muhammad.
In the Bible it is said that first was the word and the word was light and from light all things were made. There are these three lights: God, the light of the Teacher and the world. The Consciousness made from itself the other two lights by which it experiences life. This is the meaning of the Christian Trinity, though there are very few people who understand it, in thousands one may find one. My definition of light is: that which appears. All that appears can only appear by the light that is in it, by the radiance.
The inclination of the intelligence is always towards its own element, the consciousness. The inclination of each thing is to its element. If there are two streams of water near together, the stronger attracts the lesser and they unite. If there are two flames they unite. If a fire is lighted in the strong sunshine it will not burn for long. It seems that it has gone out, but really the fire element has been attracted to the sun. This can easily be observed in tropical countries, where they light fires out of doors. In one pole of our being we are self-sufficient, in the other man is dependent upon all other beings, not self-sufficient. From the king to the poor this is so. And all unhappiness in life comes from that, that we are not self-sufficient.
If we watch closely we shall find that in the twenty-four hours there is a time when we were absent, we did not know where we were or what we were. In this is the whole mystery of being, though it seems very simple. This is the state in which the Consciousness is unconscious of all save of its own existence. In the Hindu scriptures this state of consciousness is called Mukti, freedom. It is a very high state. In Islam it is called Najat, liberation. The mystics experience this state consciously; the ordinary person experiences it in deep sleep, when he does not know where he is or what he is.
The Consciousness is not conscious of itself, because we have not given it the habit of being conscious of other things. The desire of the Consciousness is to live. It is from this desire that a man does all that he does. The soul remembers its original state from which it has come and it wishes to experience the world, but it longs also to return there, to that calm and stillness. There is this longing in every soul, and in the beasts, in plants and stones.
If you ask an artist, a painter, why he works, why he does all that, he will say that it is for the sake of beauty, for the sake of art, or for the sake of earning, but behind it all is the desire of life. The soul always wishes to be alive. No one wishes to be dead, and if anyone says, "I wish I were dead," "I wish I had never lived," it is said when the spell of emotion is upon him, or else in a fit of anger or sadness. Or the soul that feels itself captive in the mind and body, may wish to break these prison bars and to exist as it existed before, it does not know where or how, somewhere, somehow.
All that is born, built, sprung or made must one day or other be destroyed. When the soul loses what it has thought its life, its physical body, this is its greatest disappointment. When in the East the saints and sages go to the jungle and to the caves of mountains, leaving all behind them, do you think that they do it in order to acquire a great psychical power or great occult power? Not at all. It would not be worth renouncing so much for that. They do it for the sake of this freedom, the freedom of the soul.
When a person has gained this freedom and has realized what really is important, then all the troubles of life become unimportant. Then the fear of death is gone and all ignorance. A person who cannot swim is afraid of the sea; the waves frighten him. But the swimmer is not afraid; he swims out into the sea, and dives, as he pleases. Joy and sorrow are the two ends of the same rod. There is no such thing as sadness or joy. It is only that seeing one end of the rod gives man that illusion. God bless you.
PHILOSOPHY 4
The Aim of Life (1)
This is the question that every-one asks, as soon as the intelligence develops, "Why am I here? What is the object of my life?" Every being has a different idea of what is the aim of life. Some] think that the aim of life is to be virtuous and by the practice of virtue to be happy. But then, what is virtue? That which may seem to us very virtuous may not seem virtuous to others. What in one case is virtue, in another case may be sin. What seems outwardly very virtuous, inwardly may be very different.
If someone is sitting with a rosary on the steps of a sanctuary, the world will say, "He is very virtuous." If another is walking in the slums, or sitting in the cafes, he may be inwardly very virtuous, but from the mere fact of his walking in the slums, the world will never say that he is virtuous. There are the lovers of God, and there are the sellers of God. If there is one with a rosary and a long beard, sitting in the shrine, all the world will go to him, a holy being. He makes a show, a trade, of his piety. And there are the lovers of God. They do not make any profession of love of God. ] says, "Inwardly be a friend and outwardly it does not matter." This manner is little found in the world.
We see that the lovers in the beginning of their love, hide their love. She does not take his name before others. He does not take her name before others. How much more will he who begins to love God hide his love from others. He does not speak the name of God. Some think that the aim of life is power. But we see that some desire power and others do not at all desire it. It is impossible that the aim of God, of Life, should be that which is not desired by some. And, if power were the aim of life, the most powerful should be always happy. The tiger, the lion are the most powerful animals. If we go in the jungle where the tigers are, we see that the tiger is always restless, always moving up and down. His power is so great that it leaves him no rest. If we go amongst the lambs, who are weak, innocent, helpless, we see that the lambs are playing. One lamb never wants to tight with another. If you frighten it, it hangs its head, it hides itself. If you feed it, it comes at once and eats, it trusts you.
When it sleeps, it sleeps quietly. In the jungle where the tiger and the lion are, all night long there is roaring. The tiger will not let another tiger be near him. If another tiger comes, they will fight until one is killed and one is left. By day, if you go near them, you will see that the breath is always coming and going quickly. The breath that makes others quiet and calm, gives him no rest. He has no peace, no calm, no rest. Go to the tigers cage and see.
If power were the aim of life, the most powerful nations should be the happiest. Is this so? Some think that pleasure is the aim of life, to eat, drink, and make merry, for tomorrow we die. This is every person's idea when he finished his school education. "Let us be gay and merry, for tomorrow we may be dead." But he can never be satisfied. If today we go to a cafe, tomorrow we want to go to a much grander restaurant. If today we go in the bus, tomorrow we want a motorcar of our own. We want all the theaters, all the restaurants, to amuse ourselves in. And who has the health for all this enjoyment, or his pocket always full? The kings, the rich people, fail. How short a time the pleasure lasts. It is not possible that something so short, so imperfect, should be the aim of God.
Turning now to the traditions, we find that the Qur'an says, "Know thyself and know God ", and another Sura, "Know God in nature." But in nature we find nothing perfect, nothing that we can call God, no perfect man, no perfect woman. If he is very learned, he is not brave. If he is very brave, he knows nothing. If he has great imagination, he will not know how many pence there are in a shilling, and he is defective in this way. If she is beautiful, she has no intelligence or learning. If she has learning, she has no beauty. If she has a very great personality, she has no intelligence. If she has much intelligence, she has no charm of personality.
In what nature, then, can we see God? In your nature, in the ego, in the self. How can we see God in the ego? If, leaving the tradition, we see with our scientific view, we see that this self consists first of all, of flesh and blood, bones and skin and the breath that keeps all together. The breath is the life. When the breath is gone out of the body, the life is gone. The breath has formed the body.
And what is the breath? The breath is the sound. When it is heavy, it is a sound that our ears can hear. When it is light, it is a fine sound that our ears cannot hear. When a person is fast asleep, we hear the snoring, the breath. If you go near a horse or a cow and listen attentively, after a little while you will hear a fine sound, the breath. This shows us that the breath is the sound and that by the sound all has become. This is why by the Hindus it is called Wada Brahma, the sound--God. In the Qur'an it is said, "Kun faya Kun ", "Be, and it became."
But besides the breath if we look into ourselves, we see that there is something else. There is something that witnesses the breath. That is the consciousness which, in its individual aspect, we call soul. Then a person knows through his intellect that he is an invisible being. Then he says to his soul, "You have been so long deluded by this body. You have thought that you are the body. You are not. You are an invisible being."
But then the thought comes, "Perhaps I am not an invisible being. Perhaps it is an imagination. If I were an invisible being I could go to Russia, I could go to New York. I cannot go to Russia or New York, I must take the steamer and the train. If I want news, I must send a telegram." This is the perfection of which the Gospel speaks. "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect", means this: that the spirit is conscious of the body, and the body is conscious of the spirit. When this is so, then man is perfect. The soul gives him everlasting life, the body becomes the means of experience for him. But men are either conscious of the body only or if they are conscious of the spirit they are conscious of the spirit only.
How to become conscious of the spirit? Our great Sufi poetess, Zeb-un-Nissa, says, "Thou art a drop in the ocean. But if thou wilt hold the thought of the ocean, thou wilt be the same." If we are conscious only of our self, we are like the animal, seeking all for ourselves, taking all for ourselves. There are some who are conscious of their little group, or of their family. Their family, their little group adores them. There are some who are conscious of their nation. Their nation adores them. Their nation's welfare is their welfare, their nation's downfall is their downfall. Some, the Masters, have the whole humanity always before their eyes. They are conscious of the whole humanity. They think, "If I have not eaten, but my brother has eaten, it is all right. It I have had nothing, but my brother has had, it is all right." By the consciousness of the whole, the soul gains its freedom. It is not bound to any place or any condition. The more we open ourselves, the more we fulfil the aim of life.
I myself have known in Hyderabad a judge, who was sitting all day in the law-courts, and at luncheon heard a boy singing in the street. In India the boys are very fond of singing in the street. The boy was singing a very vulgar song. The judge sent for the boy and made him sing the song. He made him sing it a second time, and then a third time, and again and again, a great many times. The song was a very common song. The words were not made by a poet, and the music was not made by a musician. It was a lover singing to a girl, "You look at me as if you would eat me up," a very vulgar expression. The judge saw all day how in the world each one tries to devour the other, to get the best of him, and the song moved him so much that from that day he took a life of retirement. He gave everything away, and became a dervish.
So that the judge interpreted that the world, the girl, looks at him as if it will eat him up. That means, the attractions and temptations of the world are such that finish a person's life before he could awake to realize the truth of his life. But this is not the true aim of life. The aim of life is liberation. That illumination only is important. That only is worth while. The time of life, all the effort should be given for that, to realize, to recognize God Who is within.
A Hindu poet, Hali, says,"O eyes longing to see God, look within, the God Whom you worship everywhere is within." That means, the eyes should be turned inward, to see God within ourselves. Man's aim should be to recognize that God. and by realizing Him, be free. To realize his life, independent and immortal, free from death and decay, free from the troubles and cares and sorrows of the world.
The Aim of Life (2)
Life itself directs man towards its aim, and it is man's fault when he cannot realize his life's aim. It is a confusion that arises on the awakening of the soul after man is born on this earth, by seeing the world of variety. He becomes puzzled and cannot make up his mind towards a certain direction with certainty, thinking that that is the right path for his journey. Therefore from youth to age, very often, man keeps in this puzzle. He sometimes thinks that the spiritual path is his path, sometimes that the commercial path is his path, sometimes the political, sometimes one, sometimes another. But at the same time this is not the fault of life or of that guiding spirit which is constantly guiding. In reality in the cradle and as an infant man begins to be shown his path in life, the way is shown in childhood. Confusion arises as man grows up, by his becoming attracted by various things in life, and then he does not know what is what, what is right, what wrong.
No doubt the first impression the world gives is the impression of falsehood. The child opens his eyes in truthfulness, and the first impression is that of falsehood. That confuses him, and he begins to take the course of denying even what is right and is against every religious truth. This is the revolt not of one person but of thousands and millions. The child denies, because the first impression is that of falsehood. He grows up in it and does not know what is right and what wrong, and sometimes this confusion lasts till the end of life.
On this subject, of distinguishing what is the object of a person's life, Sa'adi has a very instructive verse: "Every soul that comes on earth comes with a light already kindled in him for his work on earth", and if he does not know it, it is the fault of the world that surrounds him, not the fault of nature and the spirit.
If you inquire into the greatest and worst tragedy in life you will find there is no greater tragedy than this. All the happiness, all the wealth, all that this world can give is all nothing. The soul is constantly striving to find its way, and when the soul finds its way closed, all that the world can offer is nothing. All this gives us an illusion, -power, possession-, we think that the person possessing these, is blessed. But nothing the world can offer can suffice. What really suffices is the blessing of Heaven, that light by which man begins to see his path in life.
Before we judge the attitude of another person we must stop and think what right we have to judge whether he is going the right way or a wrong way. We can only judge ourselves as to whether we are going a right way or a wrong way, when we can see our own way before us. As Jesus Christ has said, "Judge not." According to the ideas of the Hindus there are four seeming objects toward which man generally feels attracted, feeling that this is his way: Dharm, Ardh, Karm, Moksha .
1) Dharm, duty. A person sometimes gives his whole life and all he has for someone he loves, a brother, a sister, mother, father, son or daughter, a prophet, teacher, inspirer, someone towards whom he considers he has a duty. For the nation, in war, he gives his life; that he considers his virtue. Perhaps the same way may be a right, desirable good and virtuous path for one, for another the same path is wrong. But has anyone the right to call the path of another wrong? However evolved a man may be, has he the right to judge the way of another? He cannot have the right to do so, for everyone has to solve his own puzzle in life.
2) Ardh, earth, all that the earth can offer, wealth, possessions, position or power, all that the world can give, a person works for it, strives for it. He thinks, "This is the wide way, the practical way, the other does not know the wise way, the right way!" And if we can see the other side, the greatest charities come from those who have worked in this way and then given. How can one judge and say that is not the right way. Perhaps that way by which one has risen to that position or wealth from which he commands for the generality of humanity cannot be called wrong.
3) The way of happiness, comfort, pleasure. A person who seeks after happiness, pleasure, comfort, very often thinks of others, for such a one at least understands about others' wants. One who is sleeping in the forest on stones does not know what the world wants, but that person who seeks for happiness can share his happiness with others. A person who is torturing himself cannot share happiness with others, because he is torturing himself. If we can see from this point of view, tolerance and forgiveness will arise in us towards all.
4) That to which all religious, pious people advance, Moksha. They strive for some reward, some happiness in a future life. They think, "If the life in this world is discouraging, if our devotion, our service cannot be of use here, in the hereafter there will be a reward." To whatever religion, to whatever faith they belong, so long as they are keeping to their path, no doubt they are accomplishing something, perhaps more than the person who is awaiting a reward to-morrow. Think of the patience they have and the good deeds they do. And while a person who does good and expects a reward here may leave the good path, on the contrary he who expects a reward hereafter keeps on his path.
The words of Christ, "Judge not," come to help us in probing the depth of this problem. The more insight we have the more we see that the paths are according to temperaments. One goes on one path, one on another, but all are going towards one goal. The goal is not different, the path is different. And those disputes and fights between people of different religions, each saying, "My path is right," how can that be right, how can that be the idea of Christ? As soon as we have judged a person we have broken, not only the teaching, but the life of Christ. He not only taught, he lived it. People with all different kinds of faults were brought to him, to all he showed tolerance and forgiveness. He said, "Call me not good."
The greatest responsibility we have in life is to find out our own path, our own object in life, instead of bothering about others. Suppose a person has a better object in life, if he happens to be our friend, we need not pull him back. If a person has what seems to be a worse object, let him have it, we need not pull him towards us. If it seems to us at the moment a wrong object, never mind, even from a wrong object, perhaps, he has his lesson to learn. We learn in life much by our faults and mistakes. If a person falls, he learns by his fall. If a person has thought of an object wrongly, if the object is followed sincerely, surely in the end he must arrive at the goal towards which the soul directs every individual.
One thing must be understood. It is that as a rule man shows childishness in his nature. That childishness is dependence. He wants another person to tell him what is his object in life, what is good. In the first place, another person has no right to tell him. And if, by chance, that person happens to be his father, mother, or teacher, then the first duty of that person must be to awaken in him the spirit of realizing what is his life's aim, instead of telling him. "This is your life's aim," for the soul is free. Jelal-ud-Din Rumi says, "The soul is imprisoned in the mortal body, and its constant aim is to be free and to experience that liberty which is its very nature." And as long as a person in the position of a father, or mother, or teacher, or guardian has not understood this one principle, that every soul must be free to choose, he really does not understand how to help another.
Besides the childish nature there is another fault in human nature. It seems a natural fault, no doubt. Man generally does not know what is the matter with him. If you ask a physician he will tell you that out of a hundred patients hardly one knows what is the matter with him. They leave it to the physician to find it out, which is an impossible thing. No other person can know one's own want, pain, ambition, desire, one's constant longing. The work of one who helps, advises, guides another must be to make that person capable of knowing himself. A thorough physician will make that person capable of telling, of perceiving, of realizing what is really the matter with him. As long as man has not fully realized what is the matter he cannot be really helped.
And finally, what does this subject teach and suggest to us? That we must cultivate in ourselves that sense which can realize our need, our trouble, our work, our aim. No doubt the different objects, whether they be good or seem bad, are passing objects. The true object is the one object and goal of all souls, whether they be good or seem to be evil, whether they be wise or seem to be foolish, there is that inward longing and the soul's impulse towards the one single goal, the achievement of the spiritual ideal. A Hindu poet says, "There is nothing in the world which will satisfy you perfectly, although there are things which will satisfy you momentarily." Therefore the perfect satisfaction, or the final satisfaction, remains always dependent upon the spiritual ideal. And what does it matter by which name it is called, whether God or Bhagwan? He is the one Spirit, by Whom and in Whom we live and move.
And if we take that spiritual ideal as our recognized aim, that ideal will help us in all our wants and needs and all our troubles, and at the same time it is that ideal that will raise us from the denseness which at times keeps one bound. It does not matter by what way the soul is progressing, whether by devotion, by religion, or by another way, as long as that spiritual ideal is before us we have really that port before us to which all boats go, that peace, constant happiness, that Friend never separated, that Father, always a Father here and in the hereafter, that Mother, the Mother of all humanity, that Ideal of perfect beauty. And keeping that ideal before us, that in our heart that ideal may be reflected, is really the best method of accomplishing the real object of human life.
The Journey Towards the Goal
"Every being is from God and will return unto Him." This Sura of the Qur'an tells us the fact that for all, good and bad, wise and foolish, believers and unbelievers, pious and infidel, there is one goal in the end, that which has been the origin of all. You may call it God, consciousness or the first cause of all causes. Also the above Sura explains that the journey from the original source to the manifestation is as necessary as the return from manifestation to the origin. Either by an effort or without it the circle will be accomplished by both willing and unwilling, developed and undeveloped, the difference only lies in time, in sooner or later, which seems not different and yet it makes a vast difference.
The various aspects of the manner of reaching or attaining can be described as a person journeying on foot, or on horseback, or on a bicycle, or in a motor, or in the electric train, or in a balloon, or he may reach his destination in an airplane. There is no fixed period for the time of arriving, for some it needs but a moment of time for their upliftment, while for others a thousand such lives would not be sufficient. The speed of accomplishment depends alone on the proportion of one's illumination. Generally speaking there are five paths chosen by the seekers after truth: devotion, morality, wisdom, power and annihilation.
Although each one of them is equally important and necessary, yet the attainment of self-realization is necessary, and without self-realization they are not of great use for perfection. Of course one helps the other, the heartfelt devotion causes morality to spring forth in the nature, and the development of morals illuminates a person, making him wise and it is wisdom which gives unchallengeable power and it is that power which fights against delusions and conquers the mortal self.
This Sura explains that the original source, the true self of all the selfs has journeyed through different planes in order to manifest in the universe, and its necessary re-action is the journey back towards the goal. Therefore man, beast bird, insect, all things and beings are attracted to Him. All are journeying toward the goal unconsciously, with the exception of man, and yet man has to go also without the knowledge of his journey for some time through life until he has found the true cause of his life's miseries. There is an innate yearning for something comforting, agreeable and beautiful, but at first man seeks the object to satisfy his yearning among the seeming objects on earth. This goes on until at each earthly attainment he experiences either a momentary satisfaction or a disappointment for certain. He then chooses the freedom from dependence upon the objects without and seeks the true object which always attracted and which was within himself. God bless you.
PHILOSOPHY 5
The Knowledge of Truth
This subject can be studied according to five various points of view; the love of truth, the search for truth, the attainment of truth, the realization of truth, and the expression of truth. In the first place, the love for truth is inborn when the soul is mature, and the love for truth is a natural outcome of one's whole study. Very often people ask, "What is the nature of truth, is it a theory, a principle, a philosophy, or a doctrine?" All theories, philosophies, principles, and doctrines are only a cover over the truth. The ultimate truth is that which cannot spoken, for words are too inadequate to express it.
It is as difficult, not to say as impossible, for a person to explain the truth in words as it is to try and point out God. That is why Sufis have called God "the Truth," and truth "God." In the Sanskrit language, truth is called Sattya; and Sattya is the highest attainment for the seeking souls. The knowledge of truth is the ultimate object of all religions; it is the seeking of all philosophies; it is the spirit of all doctrines. But it is the nature of man that he becomes disappointed with these forms of truth; he wants to find truth outside him when it is really hidden within him in his own heart.
The fact that man learns everything by study and observation causes him to think that the knowledge of truth is also to be gained by this method. But no. Another method has to be applied in the case of truth, a method which is quite contrary to the methods we adopt when acquiring knowledge about the external world. All that which is before us, which we recognize by name and form is the opposite of what may be called ultimate truth. Therefore if it is by study that we have to search after knowledge about all that has name and form, it follows that some other means altogether has to be adopted when seeking to attain ultimate truth.
Every soul exhibits a love for truth to a greater or less degree. Every soul wishes others to treat him fairly, and wishes others to be honest with him; every soul wishes his fellowman to act truthfully towards him. But when it is his own turn to act in that way, he will not do it. That is his own fault, for it is his nature that he should seek for the truth. It is in the very nature of man that he should love and admire and idealize the truth, and the truthful souls. That is why people have followed great Teachers, such as Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, or any other great Teacher of this world. It is the love of truth that accounts for this. Wherever a man has found the spring of truth, he has been attracted and impressed by it, and has remembered it. The impression of ultimate truth has been kept in the human soul for ages. In every soul there is a constant search for the truth. At first it manifests as simple curiosity about the secrets of the nature of things. In this way, he gradually gains the knowledge which is called "science."
After seeking out the law which is hidden under the visible objects, the next step in the search after truth consists in the endeavor to realize the hidden law of human nature. Man first begins by ascertaining the law of human character and human personality. Then he arrives at a time when he experiences the need to solve the mystery behind birth and death: why man comes, roams about for a while, and then departs, whither he goes, and whence he came. And since the quest springs from the soul, he begins to seek for religion. "What is the true religion?" he asks.
But unless a person tries to find out this ultimate truth from within himself he will never succeed in finding it. He cannot find it out from the objects and things at which he looks. It is because of the absence of the knowledge of the ultimate truth that man gropes in the darkness, has many beliefs, many different faiths and lights for his own religion, saying, "Mine is the right religion, yours is the wrong one: my doctrine is right, yours is wrong." When one realizes the ultimate truth, one comes to understand that one single underlying current to which all the different religions, philosophies and faiths are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same truth, and it is the absence of that knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many different sects and religions.
In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind men were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind man one day took them to see one. There, standing by its side, he said, "Now, here is the elephant, see what you can make of it." Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its appearance. One said, "It looks like the big pillar of a palace," another said, "It looks like a fan." And so they differed and discussed amongst one another, then they quarrelled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said, "I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it." Then the man who took them to the elephant came and said, "You are every one of you right, but you have each seen only a part of the elephant." So it is with the religions. A person says, "This religion is the one, this doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible. "
That shows a lack of knowledge of the ultimate truth. As soon as one comes to the realization of the depth of truth, one begins to discern that it is the same truth which the great ones have tried to express in words. They could not put it fully into words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.
Religion is the help to realize the truth, whereas it is made into the truth by people who do not see that the means to attain an object is not the very object itself; that the path cannot be the goal. The goal is further still. The path is the means of reaching the goal. But when people argue over the path they take, and dispute over the differences, when can they reach the real realization? Life is an opportunity, and this material frame is the means which enables the soul to come to a realization of the ultimate truth. If one does not make use of this frame - that is, the human body - for the purpose for which it was created, then whatever one attains by living on this earth, will only be an utter disappointment in the end, because that is not reached that which the soul has always longed for and searched after. If there be an object to be really called the real object of every soul, it is just this very "seeking after truth."
Although one cannot explain and point out the truth, at the same time even a faint shadow of the truth makes it appeal to human nature. Think what effect sincerity has upon mankind. The personality of a sincere man, so to speak, emits a fragrance which one can feel, assuring you that "here is a sincere person." His reliance can give you ease. What is the explanation? It is that we have in him not the ultimate truth, but a shadow of the truth.
Think, too, of what an honest person brings you - the sense of confidence, the desire to trust. It draws out from you yourself something which even the falsehood of humility senses in your nature, namely, the readiness to trust, the willingness to give someone confidence. What an ease then comes into one's nature, and that is just a little glimpse of "truth." That which we call real, or imitation, simply in regard to objects - for instance, real gold compared with imitation gold, a really precious stone compared with an imitation one - think of the difference one experiences in looking at them.
What impression a really precious stone makes as compared with the impression on the soul produced by an imitation gem. Can we ever compare an imitation with a real flower? It can never give the same satisfaction because our soul is always seeking for truth, truth in all things, in objects, in personality, in character, in everything. Consciously or unconsciously, man seeks the reality in all things, and it is the reality, which is the only answer to the soul. The man who is insincere, or dishonest or keeps truth far away from him, never gives comfort either to himself or to others. He cannot give ease to others, still less to himself.
This all shows that the secret of happiness, the secret of peace, and the secret of everything that man seeks, is "truth." But the truth which we see in the form of honesty, sincerity, goodness, trustworthiness, is like the horizon, the further we go towards it, the further it recedes. So with ultimate truth, all things which appear as ultimate truth are steps to it only; they lead us to the ultimate truth, but ultimate truth is still greater; it is the greatest of all things.
Now coming to the subject of attainment of truth. No doubt as already mentioned, the first step to the attainment of the truth cannot be taught in books, or be imparted by a teacher. It must come spontaneously, namely through the love for truth. The next step is to search for it; The third step is the actual attainment.
How can one attain? In order to attain truth one must make one's own life truthful. This is life in its moral aspect. The more truthful one is in one's every day life the more one practices this moral despite its great difficulty, the more one approaches the only religion which there is. But it is the most difficult to practice this moral in this world of falsehood, where every move one makes is touched by some unreality which impresses one. Every moment of a person's life is touched by falsehood which is likely to impress him.
The love of truth gives one an appreciation of truth, and all the little shadows of truth become reflected in such a person's heart more and more until at length he expresses trueness in his nature. Seeking after truth enables one to learn to appreciate all that comes from truthful hearts. Passing from the state of natural man, through the state of being a lover of truth and a seeker after truth, one begins to express truth.
The intellectual side of this is that when one loves the truthful life, naturally the intelligence, - the torch by which to see both the world seen and the world unseen, - begins to help one, and the clouds of illusion within and without begin to become scattered. Man then begins to see with his own light in his hand. It is a hint towards this process which we find in the words of Jesus Christ, "Raise your light high, let no one keep his light under a bushel." The act of raising the light on high is to hold the torch of intelligence in one's hand in order to see into the external world, - that which is seen, - and also into the world which is within and unseen.
As has already been said, truth is the very self of man. Truth is the divine element in man. Truth is every soul's seeking. Therefore as soon as the clouds of illusion are scattered, that which man now begins to see is nothing but the truth which has been there all the time. He finds that the truth was never absent; it was only covered by clouds of illusion. By changing his own nature, by making himself more truthful, he disperses the clouds of falsehood within and without, and begins to see life as it really is both inwardly and outwardly. From this time onwards, the meaning of religion becomes clear.
One begins to understand what the great teachers have taught. Then one becomes tolerant to the various religions. Nothing seems strange any more. Nothing surprises. For now one begins to know the innermost nature of man; one sees the cause behind every action. Therefore tolerance and forgiveness and understanding of others come naturally. The person who knows the truth is the most tolerant. It is the knower of truth who is forgiving; it is the knower of truth who understands another person's point of view. It is the knower of truth who does not readily voice his opinion, for he has respect for the opinions of others.
When man gains insight into himself, he also gains insight into the hearts of others. All this desire for learning occult or mystical powers or psychic powers now disappears, because he begins to see all this power in one truth, - loving truth, seeking truth, looking for truth, living the truthful life. That it is which opens all doors. He does not need to learn how to read thoughts. He does not need to learn secret or occult powers or psychic powers in order to penetrate into the heart of man. The heart of every person is open to him.
When our heart is closed, it is shut to all other hearts. It is the lack of knowledge of ourselves which makes us ignorant of them and closed to us. To say a person "does not open his heart" means that his heart is not open. Were he to understand himself, that understanding would itself help him to understand another. Once he is open himself, the other person no longer seems closed. It is the action and reaction between two hearts. The opening of the one heart has an influence on the other, and it opens. When one's own heart is closed, the other person's heart, though open, will also close.
Lack of reality and lack of truth causes one to wander away from truth all the time, but at the same time there is a great desire to understand and learn truth. But though prompted by that desire, when the person comes to search for truth, he seeks to find it in complexity of things, things which he cannot understand. The simple words of great teachers as Christ and Buddha are too simple for many, who say,"This is only something we have always heard in churches, something which the old people have always said." He thinks it is not new, and he can only give his mind to something that is new and complex, something that he cannot understand. So he gropes on into darkness, into one subtlety after another. It is like going into a maze. Children enjoy going to a place where they cannot find their way, for they know they are safe with their parents all the time. So, too, the soul which is not mature, continues to seek after complexities, and is not satisfied with the ultimate truth.
If one were to describe the truth in simple words, they would reply, "That is too simple," "We know that," "We know it already." But though the real knowledge of truth is already within every person, everyone is not conscious of knowing it. If he is made conscious of it now, one is after all only making him conscious of something which is already there; that is why he does not think that what he hears is something new. It is true. It was there already all the time.
True spiritual teaching does not consist in imparting something to another, but in awakening a sense within him which requires to be awakened. No spiritual teacher imparts new knowledge to his pupil unless he wants him to play with a puzzle Parents often make a great game for their children by perplexing them with puzzles.
When a person really wants to find the way, it is not very far from him. It depends on the sincerity of the desire to find it whether it is far or not. What is necessary for finding it is not much reading, or discussion or argument, but a practical study of self. One questions one's own self: what am I? Am I a material body, or a mind, or something behind a mind? Am I myself or my coat? Is this object "me," or something different? Is this body my cover, or myself?
Truth can be attained by reflecting thus, "For what am I toiling from morning till evening? What is the purpose of my life, to work for wealth, or for honor, or for position? If that is my life, how shall I be able to hold it? Shall I part from what I have gathered together? If that is so, then it does not belong to me; so it is not really my own property. That which can be snatched from my hand is not really my property, and therefore I must seek something - in myself, perhaps - which can be depended on, and is also valuable." Once a person realizes the falsehood of things, he will cease to consider them important; their color fades, and their real values appear. It is just like a child going into a theater and seeing a palace on the stage.
He thinks, "How beautiful; I would like to live there in that palace." But take him in the day-time, and let him see it was really only a painted curtain, and not a palace at all. Then he will lose the value he attached to that scene. So it is with all things. Everything we value, all we long for and toil for, from morning till evening, all these things so often cause us to lose sight of honesty and truth. We are very often placed in positions in which honesty and truth are lost, where one person plots against another, and where there is reciprocity in falsehood. One's whole life becomes folded up and covered in by falsehood. The soul must be unfolded so that reality can come to view.
This does not mean that we are obliged to give up everything that seems false and everything that seems real. That would be impossible. We cannot live in the world and overlook its need and all that is necessary for life. We must work for such things. But at the same time we must have a realization of the true and the false, we must discriminate between what is our soul's need and what our body's need, what our soul seeks for and what will always stay with us, and what will leave us. It is a matter of discriminating between the true coin and its counterfeit. It is not a matter of retiring away from the world and "going to live in a forest."
Lastly, there is the question, "What is the expression of truth?" "How can truth be expressed?" The psychology of life is such that every soul expresses what it is impressed with. If a soul is impressed with grief in its surroundings, it will express grief, sorrow, disappointment in action, thought, speech and atmosphere. If a soul is experiencing joy, it will express joy. That shows that the law of life is always action and inaction. Whatever we experience during the day we see at night in our dreams, which shows that our soul may be compared with a gramophone-record; it produces whatever is placed upon it. So if the record made is one of illusion and falsity, it will produce only falsity and illusion. There is nothing to be done but take that record away and commence another.
Again, it is as a person holding a sunglass before the sun. It immediately partakes of the heat of the sun. Immediately it responds to the sun and reacts in the same way as the sun. So with human nature. In the Bible it is written, "Where your treasure, there your heart." If the heart is exposed to the world of illusion, to the impression of things which come and go, then it will always reproduce the same complaints, sorrows and disappointments. One's life's real need will never be satisfied by things which cannot be depended upon; such things must always bring disappointment. At any hour of the day one may meet human beings with a thousand complaints. How is this? It is because the heart is constantly exposed to a world of falsehood, one hears falsehood. One expresses the same falsehood because it is reproduced upon the record of the mind. Therefore such a person does not make others happy, nor can he himself be happy.
There is also the teaching of Christ, "seek ye the kingdom of God first, and all things will be added." What does that mean? It means that we are to focus the heart upon that spiritual ideal which is the perfection of truth; let that reality be reproduced in the heart, so that in its turn it may sing the song of reality. In the terminology of the Sufis, there is what is called shari'at - "the divine moral." This divine moral cannot be learned or taught; it can only come spontaneously. A person may lay down the principles of this divine moral, saying that "this particular attitude or method of working in life is the right thing, the divine moral." When the heart is exposed to God, like the sunglass is exposed to the sun, the divine moral comes into it. When the heart partakes of the divine outlook and divine attitude and divine love, then it expresses them externally, either as an action in the outer world, as a manner, as a glance.
Some people say Christ was divine, others say he was a man. Both are right and yet both only understand half. Strictly speaking, in the human there is the divine. He is human who has the divine expression. Therefore if it is right to say Christ was human, it is also right to say Christ is divine. The soul of every human being is divine, could we realize its real nature. The mission of the Sufi, the Sufi Message to the world, is the realization of this principle, the understanding of the divinity of the human soul. Did man realize that although his external is human and limited his inner being is divine and unlimited, and if man knew how to dive deep within himself, he would find God. For God is not far away, as people of various religions believe; He is closer to us than anyone else. Such a person will realize that God is the one end of a line, and he himself is the other end. One live has two points; one life has two points. The one is man, and the other is God. God bless you.
MYSTICISM I
The Life of the Sage in the East (1)
The life of a sage in the East would be, I think, the most astonishing thing to a European, because in Europe, if any saintliness has been recognized it has been recognized in the garb of religion. In the East the saints and sages have been in the garb of religion and without it. Then, too, the West is the sphere of uniformity. All who are doctors, for instance, have the same medical diploma, all practice in the same way, even in their manner of living there is uniformity. In the East this is not so. The saints and sages appear in every guise and in every way of life.
The sage may be a religious person, a priest or an ascetic, he may be a king with crown and throne, he may be a speaker or a singer, he may be a poet, he may be a saint in the guise of a beggar, or the man who sweeps the street. Whatever he may be, he is a saint all the same. Therefore in the East humility, modesty, consideration is shown towards everyone, for they think that they do not know under what guise there may be an illuminated soul. Therefore I have wished to speak upon this subject before you few, who tread the path of spirituality, in order to show this moral of meekness, gentleness, humility.
There are in the East three sorts of sages, the Buddhist, the Hindu and the Sufi. The Buddhist sage is mostly, or always, a religious person, a priest. He lives in or near the temple, and there he teaches. He is always very humble, very mild. He is not sociable and does not care to associate with other people, but his presence sheds light and peace. Often someone speaks to us and we wish that he would be quiet. If the presence of someone gives peace and illumination, is that not better than that he should be sociable and talk very much? He is very considerate, and among some of them, the Jains, a very great consideration is shown even to the smallest lives.
In these times when man is standing against man with the sword in his hand, those among you who value civilization in humanity will think that they too had some civilization in them. The Buddhist wears a yellow silken robe. He has no wife or children, no home, often no property of any kind, nothing belonging to him. He goes from place to place, everywhere welcomed and revered. People do not bother him with questions, they think it enough to have his presence. A kind glance from him is a blessing to them.
Among the Hindus there are many different sorts of sages. There are the followers of Shankaracharya, there are those belonging to some sect of before the time of Shankaracharya, and there are those belonging to different groups that have arisen among them later. Some are priests, some are ascetics. Some live far away, in a remote seclusion, others are seen in the crowd, their bodies covered with ashes, with hair reaching sometimes to their knees, sometimes beyond. We have a saying in Hindustani "Khilvat dar anjuman" - seclusion in the crowd. They are among the crowd, but they are not of it. Those who have been in India may have seen some of them, and written of what they have seen, and have not understood at all.
Sometimes they may be seen always standing, some with one arm stretched upwards, without moving. As I do not in any way represent the Yogis here, I may say that they have their reasons for everything that they do. By this they gain command of their body. Their thought is that they should rule their body, not be ruled by it. And the body is the first kingdom of God. By this they gain that bliss that is spoken of by Christ. They wear yellow robes, or apricot colored, as you see me wear, or white.
Some are always silent; they are called Muni. Of course their power is very great. Some are silent for some hours in the day. Some speak for two hours in the day. There are the Sanyassi, the Vairagi, those who have renounced. They have renounced family, relations, all desires, all that could bind them. They are as much revered by them and more revered than their priests. Shankaracharya, after giving his message with all his great inspiration and power, after his great work of years and years, when the inward wish for renunciation had become very strong, went to his teacher and asked him whether he might now lead the life of renunciation.
His teacher said, "First go and ask your mother whether she consents to your renunciation." He went to his mother and asked her consent, and when she gave it, he then renounced all. Often after years of home life they ask their family, their mother, their wife, whoever it may be, for their consent to their renouncing all, and when they give it then they say, "Yes, we understand your wish, you are free, from this moment you are nothing to us, we are nothing to you." From that moment their family is nothing to them, they have nothing in the world, then they are ready to serve humanity.
Among the Sufis, whom I represent here, there are different schools, called Qadiria, Nakhshibandia, Chishtia, and Suhrawardia, but in the manner of their life they are of two kinds, the Rind and the Salik. The life of the Rind would be the most astonishing to a European. The life of the Hindu sages has some religious appearance, but that of the Rind has none at all. He appears in every guise, in any company, he thinks no-one too bad. He is found in the cafes, in the wineshop, in the places where they are gambling, anywhere. He is the enemy of orthodoxy and of a pious semblance. And with all this he is a sage all the same.
The Salik is not so extreme, though he too is not bound to one way of life, but all are open to him. Some lead the life of renunciation, others have family, friends and all things, because renunciation is always for a purpose. It is to kindle the soul, that there may be nothing to hold the soul back from God, but when the soul is kindled the life of renunciation is not a necessity. Some are with crown and throne like Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad, whom I have seen, a great sage with both power and inspiration.
Others are beggars, their livelihood dependent upon what they beg, or the man who sweeps the street, and in all these guises he is a sage all the same. One may be given to silence, living in retirement, one may be a speaker, a teacher, a singer, some without property or possessions, dervishes. And if any-one could go among the dervishes, he would find the most perfect likeness with the life of Christ. That toleration of all that there was in Christ, that forgiveness for all, that readiness to be in all companies, among all associates, calling no-one wicked, condemning none, all this that you read in the life of Christ can be seen in their life. And wherever he goes every honor is paid to him, and he is never in need, because in the East, everyone before he himself eats, looks to see whether there is not someone in his neighborhood whom he should call, for he does not like to eat while another is without food.
There is always someone who brings the dervish some food or a few flowers, some offering, and says, "Maharaj, will you not eat this? Will you not take this?" And there is nothing they will not tolerate from a sage. If he comes in the house and his feet are dirty from walking in the dust, the ladies of the house think it an honor to pour water over them. There is nothing, nothing at all, that they would not tolerate. Friends, everything in the world is changing in all countries, but this little glimpse of spirituality in the East is still maintained and it is this that I have wished to show to you, not with the thought that you may follow this, but with the view that you may understand.
The question at once comes, "If there are so many sages there why are they not the greatest people in the world?" When they reach that evolution their ideal is quite different from that of the ordinary person. We look at things from our own point of view. They do not desire any worldly gains or greatness. There are many of them to whom all mankind is equally near, all the world is their brother, a European is just as near to them as their countryman, a Chinese is just the same as one from their own home.
The Power of the Word
There is nothing more important as a means to raise one's consciousness than the repetition of the right word. It is therefore that we read in the Bible that: "First was the word and the word was God." There is nothing that can be of greater use and importance in the path of spiritual attainment than the repetition of the word. When we look in the traditions we find that from the time of the ancient great Hindu teachers, who lived many thousand years before Christ, the sacred word was in practice. And so you will find in all the great periods when a religious reform came to different countries, that the power of the word was considered to be of immense importance; during the Jewish religion at the time when it was given, and also in the Christian religion when it began.
It is the misunderstanding of certain words of Christ which has confused many followers of the Christian religion in understanding the importance of the word. For instance, when it is said to keep from vain repetitions, a person in the Western world when he reads repetitions, just makes a literal translation, he does not know what is meant by it. The condition was this, that the word God had become so much used in common affairs that in everything that one wanted to convince another person of, - whether true or a lie -, he used the word God. If one wanted to buy or sell to anybody, in order to convince of his own idea, he used to attach the name of God to the object he wanted to sell.
And when anyone did not believe the custom was to tell him, "By the name of God it is true." It is therefore that this phrase was said, "Do not make vain repetitions of the sacred name; it is too sacred to be used in trade or business." But then those who could not understand the idea behind it, they said that it was the repetition that Christ did not want. If they would only think that even at the last moment the Master has used the repetition of the sacred name. And it is the same sacred words which from the ancient times till now are given from one Teacher to his pupils.
Mystical words may be used in different languages, but they do not belong to any language. Now for instance, some of you have been given the practice of Dhikr. It is to be found to-day used in the Arabic language; one might think that it is from Arabia. But then it is used in the Persian language also; one who does not know its existence in Arabia might think that it comes from Persia. But then it is used in the language; one who does not know its existence in two languages might think that it is Hindu. It also exists in the Hebrew language. It is the same word which has been repeated by Christ himself as the last word. But also those before Christ, mystics whose origin was the ancient school of Egypt, they also repeated the same. There are sufficient proofs to prove this fact, that during the time of Abraham, who was initiated in the school of Egypt, this word was used.
Now coming to the Buddhistic and Vedantist religions and philosophical schools, we find the words that have been used for many thousands of years, the same words even to-day are used. For the Hindus it has been a kind of science, the science which they called Mantra Yoga, the science of the word, the dynamic power, the vital power that lies in the repetition on certain words. I have spoken about it in the "Mysticism of Sound," yet it is never sufficient, there is so much that can be spoken on the subject.
And now the modern psychology is beginning to waken to the same idea, although it is searching for something in darkness and it has not yet found the secret of it. Nevertheless, what little it now perceives, when it believes in the power of word and its repetition, that gives a hope that some time it will come to the realization that the ancient people have realized.
Now the work of the Sufi Order, therefore, is to give the combined theory of the Hebrew line of mystics and of the Hindu line of mystics joined together. By Hebrew I mean not only the line of Moses, but also Christ included. But there are two distinct mystic lines; and both those distinct lines are joined in what is called the Sufi Message; besides this, to interpret in the modern form; that is the meaning of the Message.
Now one might want to know, "What is it in the word that helps, and why does it help?" In answer to that I should say that there is no expression of life more vital than words, because the voice is an expressive manifestation of breath, and breath is the very life. Therefore the effect of the word that one says does not only make an effect on another person, but it also makes an effect upon oneself. Every word that one says has its effect not only upon one's body but upon one's mind and one's spirit. A tactless word does not only offend another, but a foolish word uttered can prove to be of a great disadvantage to oneself.
Many times a person in a pessimistic mood may, in a kind of disturbed condition, wish for death, wish for failure, wish for anything. If they only knew what an effect it has they would be frightened. I would advise a person that, even in pain, if he can refrain from saying, "I am in pain," he would do a great good to himself. If a person who has met with a misfortune, would even avoid saying, "I am experiencing a misfortune," it would be the greatest thing. For when a person acknowledges the existence of something he does not want he only gives it a greater life. In the same way when a person acknowledges something that he wants he gives that also life. But when a person says, "Oh I have waited and waited and waited but my ship will never come," he is keeping his ship back in the sea, his ship will never arrive in the port.
But the one who does not even see it, but says, "It is coming, it is coming," he is calling it, it will come. Now that is the part of the meaning of the word I have said. But then the mystical word has a greater value than the word that one uses in one's everyday language or mystical words have come from three distinct sources: scientific, astrological and intuitive. Intuitive words have come as sudden expressions from God-realized souls. Souls that have become tuned to the whole universe, whatever comes from their mouth, that word or that phrase is something which has a much greater power than the words that everybody says. But a spiritual person apart, even in your everyday life, do you not see that one person perhaps among your friends, among your acquaintances there is, his one word has a weight, has power, another person says a thousand words that go in at one ear and out at the other? Because in one person his mouth speaks, in another person his heart speaks, in another his soul speaks.
There is a great difference. One might say: "How can a spiritual person intuitively bring out a word which has a power?" And the answer is that there is a possibility of a soul's becoming so much in tune with the whole universe that he hears, so to speak, the voice of the spheres. Therefore what he says, it comes like the reecho of the whole universe. For instance, why should any little thing not serve as a wireless machine, why has one to have a wireless machine. In the same way the person who is in tune with the universe becomes like a wireless instrument, what comes from him is the voice of the universe.
Leaving the personal aspect aside, coming to the scientific and astronomical aspects, I should like to say that a deep study of human anatomy will explain to a person that there are delicate nervous centers that can only be affected by certain vibrations upon which centers the equilibrium and the health of mind and body depend. Very often by such scientific words used by people they have been cured even of illnesses, because it has given that vibration to that certain center which was wanted to bring about that life which was necessary. If one goes deeper in the science of the word one will find that every vowel and every consonant has its certain effect upon one's mind and body. Very often you will find that, before seeing a person, by knowing his name you get a kind of impression what that person is like. It all shows that the name makes such a great difference in a person's character.
Besides, when we come to the astronomical subject it is a very vast subject and it has a connection with every existing art and science, and vowels and words have their connection with the astronomical science. By invoking a certain word one invokes a certain planet; either in order to diminish its influence, if it is unfavorable, or to increase its power, if it is favorable. Therefore in the astronomical science of the Hindus whenever the name is given to a person, it is given according to the astronomical science.
Now only a few words of advice that I would like to give to my mureeds: that it is most essential that initiation in the Order be not mentioned before others. Besides, all the exercises given to them, they are given individually and must not be told to another. Its action upon you, upon your life, upon your character, even, must not be spoken before the others. For others cannot understand it and it would be of no advantage in any way. The mystical path is a secret path, and a mureed is more and more trusted on his proving to be worthy of the trust, which he can prove by developing the power of keeping secret. Because with every desire of the Teacher to help a mureed, he cannot do much if the pupil does not show depth in himself. Therefore the two great qualifications necessary to be developed are to keep secret all the teachings that are given, and to be sincere in the path every day more and more. For as I have always said: Truth is the portion of the sincere ones. God bless you.
MYSTICISM 2
The Mystery of Sleep (1)
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, however many dolls and candy, when the child is helped to sleep, it is then that he is the most grateful. When the mother with her blessed hands puts him to sleep, it is the greatest benefit. It is then that he is happiest. Those who are sick and in pain, if they can sleep, are happy. Then all their pain is gone. If they can only sleep, they say they can endure all else. They say to 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 sleep."
The unhappy - what is the difference between the happy and the unhappy? Only this. The unhappy cannot sleep. The sorrow, care, anxiety, the worry that he has, at once take sleep 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 upon him. His feet, his 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, but he does.
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, is contented. The sufferer is not in pain and misery. This shows us that the soul is not in pain nor in misery. If it were, it would be so also when the body is asleep. The soul does not feel the misery of the body and the mind. When a person awakes, then the soul thinks that it is in pain and wretched. All this shows us the great bliss of sleep.
And 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, 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 and 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.
During the fast sleep ordinarily a person is 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 the body and the mind. It is free, it goes to its own element, to the highest spheres, and it enjoys there. It is happy. All the happiness, all the wisdom of those spheres it experiences. It enjoys all the bliss, happiness and peace.
Besides the dream and the fast sleep, there are the visions. These are seen when in sleep the soul is active in the higher spheres. What it sees there the mind interprets in allegorical pictures. The soul sees plainly the actual thing, and the mind takes from the impressions, whatever is rather like that which the soul sees. Therefore the thing is seen as a picture, an allegory, a parable which the wise can interpret, because he knows the language of those spheres. If he sees himself walking up a mountain, he knows what it means, if he sees himself in rags, or very richly dressed, or in a ship, or in the desert, he knows what it means. The ignorant does not know. He thinks it is merely a dream, nothing. A person sees in a vision either what concerns himself, or what concerns others in whom he is interested; if he is interested in his nation, or in the whole humanity, he will see what has to do with the nation or with the whole humanity.
In a dream a voice may be heard, or a message given in letters. This is the higher vision. The 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. It does not for one moment think, even in sleep, that it can act independently of their will. And so whatever their soul sees, it shows exactly as it is seen. They see visions even while awake, because their consciousness is not bound to this earthly plane. It is awake upon the higher planes.
Besides the dream, vision, and fast sleep, the mystics experience two other conditions, the self-produced dream and the self-produced fast 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. They accomplish this 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, they master all. Then he is awake upon this plane and upon that plane. Then this becomes sleep, and the other the wakeful state. People may say, the mystics, the Sufis are great occultists, very psychic people. That is not their aim. Their aim is the true consciousness, the life, which lies beyond. Allah. When this is open to them, then all wisdom is open to the soul, and all the books, all the learning in the world becomes intellect before them. You may say: "Then the very lazy people who are always sleeping are all saints. " "No." The soul must experience on the earth also. It must learn what virtue is, it must learn to be virtuous.
The Mystery of Sleep (2)
By the word 'sleep' we understand '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 is in fact more real. The difference between the sleeping and waking state is that when we cover ourselves from what is real we say, "I am awake," and when we cover ourselves from what is unreal, and illusion, we say we are asleep. It is the self that is covered.
The reason of this is that in the state during which we are conscious of all things we are able to point to this or that, to things we have no doubt about. That is why we say at that time that we are awake: We recognize the objects around us. But 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, mind, intelligence is pure from all worries, and anxieties, pains and tortures of mind, bitterness or sweetness, such as we experience in the world. Our heart is otherwise reflecting on these things all the time, and brings us suffering accordingly. How valuable is the peace we obtain in sleep! One cannot realize it until one longs for sleep which will not come. At such a time, a person will realize that everything one can possess in the world is worth sacrificing for the peace which sleep brings, and the happiness we experience there.
All the pleasures in the world afford only a glimpse of that happiness which is within us, in our inmost being. In our everyday external life that happiness is buried as it were. If there comes a time when happiness is experienced by the soul, it is the time during which we are asleep. The little happiness which 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 light, we don't call happiness, for we do not know what it is. Only its after-effects remain with us, and a person feels happy when he comes to the wakeful state after having had a good sleep.
The peace we experience during sleep cannot be compared with the peace we experience under the form of 'rest' in a comfortable chair or couch, or material 'comfort' in the house or elsewhere. The life we experience during sleep is outside a wall, a prison wall, the pains and diseases of this world are during the time in prison. In the waking state we are in 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 man experiences a life which is above this mortal existence.
Though man experiences sleep every day, yet he never realizes it as the greatest blessing of his existence until he suffers from lack of it. Man disregards all natural blessings. Not regarding them as blessings, he remains discontented. A person who can see the blessing there is in life itself, would be so thankful that whatever may be lacking in the outward life would seem insignificant. The inner blessing is so much greater compared with what is lacking in the outer world. There is indeed no comparison between them.
All this shows that the development which helps a person to advance along the spiritual path is to seek no further than along the natural lines of the mystery of sleep. Once this mystery solved, and the deeper question of the inner cult is solved also. The explanation of things is so near to us all the time, and yet at the same time it is so far from our reach.
In Sufi terms, there are five stages of consciousness: Nasut, Malakut, Jabarut, Lahut, Hahut.
1. Nasut. This is the consciousness dependent on our senses. Whatever we see by means of the eye, or hear by means of the ear, 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 consciousness. We call it "nasut."
2. Malakut. This 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 object. You may speak to him and yet 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 that mean? It means that at that moment his consciousness is experiencing life in 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. This, in Sufi terms is called "malakut."
3. Jabarut. Here the experience is like that of a person in deep, dreamless sleep. He is said to be 'sound asleep.' The plane of malakut is experienced by every person not only when absorbed in thought, but also in dreams. At the time when 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 experience which man gathers during the day is collected 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, the fear will manifest 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 that every impression which the mind gets, it prepares a covering for, it prepares outward appearances for. That is what accounts for the meaning of dreams. For instance suppose a person went to a wise man saying, "I have seen flowers in my dream. What will be the result of this?" The wise man will answer, "Love, happiness, success." Why? Because the wise man knows that the mind disguises itself and its impression into something beautiful when something beautiful is going to happen, something ugly, when something bad is going to happen.
But it is not only that the mind adorns itself in a certain form in order to tell you that you are going to have a good or a bad experience, it is the natural outcome of things; it is an action and a reaction; what we take from the outer world is prepared in the mind and it reacts again in another form which gives us a sort of key by which to understand what the next step will be. In that form, it is a warning. There is no need to take it as a warning in a spiritualistic form, and claim that a spirit, or ghost, or angel came to tell you the future.
It is your own mind, and it disguises itself as spirit or ghost or angel or whatever form you wish it to come to you, or in whatever form you are accustomed to see it. It will never come under a form strange to you, such as you have never known; it will only come in the form to which you are accustomed. For instance, if you were to see a dog with wings, it is still the same form; you are familiar with a dog. It is only that the mixture of combination is curious. Though wings are attached to the dog, the form is not actually new; you are seeing something which you recognize.
Therefore, really speaking, the dream is the state of the mind.
There are two different aspects of the matter. On the one hand, when the mind is not expressive but responsive, it is acting not in a positive but in a negative rhythm, then that mind becomes visionary. Visionary mind is that which is apt to catch in itself the reflection of whatever mind falls upon it. Thus it may catch in itself the reflection of a living person's mind, or of a deceased person's mind, or of a spiritually advanced person, or of a very ordinary person. His mind lies open like a piece of uncultivated ground which a person may turn either into a farm or a garden. A person may sow seeds of flowers, or only seeds of thorns upon the soil. This accounts for people having different experiences in their dreams to what they have in waking life. People say, "I learn something from my dreams, I am inspired by them. I have received new ideas, new lessons, in my dreams." That is because the mind was exposed to the given impressions.
A mind open to impressions in this way may as well reflect a satanic as an angelic one, a wrong 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 is therefore 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 receive only good impressions? There are three considerations:
a. One must be able to keep away all the ever-moving thoughts which come into one's mind. One must develop that mental strength, that will-power, which will keep away all thoughts which come into one's mind during concentration, and take one's mind away from the object on which one focuses.
b. The mind will always focus itself upon the object which it loves. If one has not love for the divine Being, for God, if one has not that ideal, then it is certainly difficult. It cannot be done by the intellect. The intellectual person keeps asking, "Where shall I focus my mind, what object shall I focus, please picture it for me, and point out where it is." It is the lover of God whose mind cannot wander anywhere save always directly to God.
c. Purity of mind is necessary. The mind must be pure from all fear, worry, anxiety, and from every kind of falsehood. For all this covers the mind from the vision of God. The mind full of faith and love and purity and strength, once focused upon the ideal of God, will receive teaching and inspiration and advice directly, and in the case of everything he meets with in his life.
The simple teaching of all religions during every age, the essence of all religion and philosophy, is contained in this: go and stand before God in simple faith, as being a little child before God. For that moment you say, "I know not anything, I have not learned anything, I am only an empty cup waiting to be filled; I have only love to offer You, and because that too is insufficient, I only ask for more; I have only faith, and yet that is insufficient, and so I ask that it be strengthened and developed in order to have it strong enough to hold me before You; purity I need but have it not, 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, and leaving aside all doubt and questions or whatever can come between us..." Here is the essence of religion.
It is so simple that even a child can do it should he so wish; he does not need much learning to be able to do it. Once explained to him, he will understand it. We also need not have learning or great intellectual knowledge to be able to do it. A little further on beyond this plane of malakut brings us to the plane of consciousness which I have explained as being like the experience of deep sleep. The blessing here is greater still. In this higher experience there is God's own Being, by which 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. The Yogis therefore call it 'sushupti,' this joy of life and peace and purity which the mystic experiences with open eyes, while wide awake, though others can only touch it during deep sleep.
4. Lahut. This is a still further experience of consciousness. It raises a person from the material plane to the immaterial plane. In this plane the state of being fast asleep is not necessary. There is a greater peace and joy and nearness to the essence which is called divine. In Christian terms, this stage is called 'communion.' In the Vedantic terms it is called 'Turiyavastha.' The further step to this is called 'samadhi,' which may no doubt be described as 'merging into God.' In other words, in this stage we dive into our deepest self-hood, God is in our deepest self. Here there is the ability to dive so deeply as to touch our deepest being, which is the home of all intelligence, life, peace, and joy; and here worry, fear, disease or death do not enter.
5. Hahut. This 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 'at-one-ment.' From these considerations it may be seen that the work of the Sufi Order is to aim at ennobling the soul. When initiated into the Order we take the path of ennobling the soul, not wonder-working, communicating with spirits, or performing miracles, or developing magnetic or psychic powers or clairvoyance or clairaudience or anything of that kind. The one single aim is to become humane, to live a healthy life, try and better the moral condition of one's life, ennoble one's character, and meet not only our own needs but also those of our neighbors and friends. The 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 toward God with the intention some day of having a glimpse of that Truth which cannot be spoken of in words.
About the Five Planes
We exist on five planes. Of three of these planes everybody is conscious. Of the other two only those are conscious who have developed themselves. The lowest plane is Nasut; the material world, of which we are conscious by the sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. In this plane we live in the physical body.
When we are asleep our body is lying in bed here, but our mind may be in Paris, in America, in Russia. It may go to the North Pole or to the South Pole. This shows us that our mind is independent of the physical body. Its attachment is only caused by our physical experience, which makes the mind dependent. When we awake we find ourselves in the same room in which we were before we went to sleep. We call this real and the dream unreal, because this remains, and the other comes and goes. When we shall be without our physical body, in what we call death, the dream will remain, and the physical world will go from us. That will be our reality. This is Malakut, the mental plane. In this your higher self is independent of the body. You see, hear, smell without the eyes, ears, nose.
When you are so fast asleep that you are not even dreaming, yet if someone calls you, you at once answer 'Yes,' this shows that though you are not conscious of any names or forms, you are conscious of being. This is Jabarut, the astral plane. The other two planes are Lahut, the spiritual plane, and Hahut, the plane of consciousness. Everyone experiences these planes also, but ordinarily a person experiences them for a very short time, so that he is not conscious of them. These states come and go so quickly that a person is not conscious of them. The mystic holds them.
A person may be sitting still, and for a few moments he falls asleep, and by a voice, or by a symbol or by actual sight, something is shown to him. A poem is revealed to a poet, music to a musician, or a message, or an object is revealed. It is not only the mystics who experience this, but musicians, poets, artists, inventors, the people who have made the great factories. The musicians, poets, artists, experience this, and the mystics after their development. This is sometimes called inspiration .
Sometimes, while you are sitting or standing with your eyes open, for one moment you do not see what is before your eyes, or someone speaks to you, and you have not heard. You may be sitting here, and a child or a dog may come and destroy something, and you have not seen. A person feels: I am blank, but before he has time to say, "I am blank" the state is gone. This is Hahut, the plane of consciousness, where there is consciousness alone, without form and without name. This is the highest state, in which the consciousness is free from the self. This is liberation, towards which you are going, for which you are trying. Everybody in the world in twenty-four hours experiences all those states. Our waking state lasts much longer than the dream. The dream lasts much longer than fast sleep. The fast sleep lasts much longer than the state of Lahut. The state Lahut lasts longer than Hahut.
The mystics take the contrary way. Ordinarily we like to be conscious physically longer than in the dream, and we like to be in the dream longer than in the fast, because there is a great joy in dreaming. The mystic holds fast the consciousness of the highest planes, and makes that last longer. God bless you.
MYSTICISM 3
The Evolution of the World
Some say that the world has evolved since creation, as it is the law of nature to evolve. And others say the reverse, seeing the conditions of the world falling back every day. When the Buddhists say that the universe is always progressing, the Hindus contradict this by pointing out that virtue and truth have been diminishing with the growth of the world, during the periods called Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and the present Kali Yuga, the golden silver, copper and iron ages.
There seem to be some who seeing the comfort and convenience of modern life together with its new inventions and wonderful researches, admire evolution. There are others who praise the past saying how great were the past ancestors who were so high in their morals and ideals and who had such a comfort and peace in their natural life, until gradually everything became so degenerated that all virtues have become a prey to the selfishness and artificiality of so-called civilization.
According to the standpoint of the Sufi, both are right, and yet both are wrong. For he applies the law of vibration in his understanding of the world, that each note has its finish at the octave. So there are an ascending and a descending scale. Each strong accent in anything has its weak part to balance it. The sun rises as well as sets and the new moon develops to the full and wanes until it is again new. Each wave of the sea which rises high is drawn back and each helpless child is again helpless when old. This is the nature of evolution. A certain direction of life develops for a certain period and before it has fallen back another direction of life begins to evolve.
An individual's view is deluded by seeing that evolution seems to him a straight evolution and every fall seems to be a continual fall. After a person has developed in his body and when that is finished perhaps the thought might begin its development. If he views the reduction of the body he will feel involution and if he notices the development of his thought he will realize his evolution. In fact in both ideas he is right which only depends upon his point of view.
One can study this fact by looking at a fountain where one jet of water is rising to reach its height, the other is returning from its utmost reach. Neither is the rise constant for the former, nor is the fall lasting for the latter. This is the way of progress and degeneration of science, art, race, religion and nation. Even the world as a whole has its circle to accomplish and everything therein has its own time of rise and fall. At the same time the rise is for the fall and the fall again is meant to rise.
Man's Life
As man is ideal among the lower and higher creatures among the visible as well as the invisible beings, his life is among all beings of the universe a great privilege to experience. Man goes in life through two periods, that of light and that of darkness. During the period of darkness he ceases to think wherefrom he has come and where he goes to, and why he is sent here to wander for a while, whether he is sent by someone, or whether he came of his own will, and whether he will be here forever, or if some day his life will be extinguished.
Where he was before he knew himself and where he will be hereafter. Man by his experience of life through his senses, binds himself by a spell of greed. What he enjoys once he wants to have it over and over again, and he develops this greed so much that he sacrifices others for neighbors and neighbors for surroundings and surroundings for the self. Thus he lives for self, works for self, until darkness overwhelms him so much that he can neither satisfy others nor himself.
The Masters of humanity have prescribed only one remedy to remove this darkness and that is by charity, by the practice of which a person's sympathy is broadened from his own self to the whole world. He then becomes the friend of all. In this way man journeys towards the light, and before his eyes the truth of existence is revealed. Every thing and being in life speaks with him and he knows the language of man, beast and bird and even of all things in the universe. Then he realizes the illusion of his self and of the universe. His enlightened soul wants to be purified from this illusion, therefore a Sufi by practicing wisely abstinence and control with the help of sound, journeys gradually towards the eternal goal.
A mureed has to journey from the human plane to the animal plane which he shows by his strength and power which he absorbs from the sphere. He feels much more vitality and experiences perfect health. He is naturally more inclined toward all material activities. A slight cause of annoyance causes him irritation and anger. He is ready to fight for what he considers true. Then he becomes like a herbivorous animal, he serves another like a horse or a camel, not asking by what right he is controlled, and then grows even like a sheep or a goat, living in a herd, hanging his head down by the weight of his thought, ready at any time to be sacrificed for the benefit of another. He then develops a bird-like nature and floats in the spheres of imagination quite unconscious of the earth and its surroundings.
He seeks the society of those of a like interest just as a bird would be with a bird, and makes his home on high, in the world of thought, just like the nest of a bird in the top of a tree. He advances still further and becomes as an insect, admiring the Immanence of God in nature and absorbing rapture from divine wisdom, just like a bee gathering honey from the flowers. And he like a moth concentrates on and hovers round the light until his self is sacrificed in the vision of his love. He in the end becomes like a germ, an object to be lying at the feet of the walker, anybody may walk upon him who may so choose. He cares for neither light nor knowledge for he has passed far beyond all that.
A mureed then carries on his return journey through the vegetable kingdom. He adopts harmlessness, usefulness, the medicinal and healing properties, and self-sacrifice for the purpose of another, all such qualities of the vegetable. He shows in his personality the sweetness of the fruit, the perfume, color, and delicacy of a flower, Then he acquires the quality of the rock when it has no effect upon him for what purpose he may be used, whether to crown a dome, or for the base of a building. Neither climate, nor day nor night can make any difference to him, neither sorrow nor joy can touch him, he becomes free from all affects. Then a mureed arrives to a condition where he sojourns in a star, planet, moon or sun, in other words he himself becomes soul. His star quality brightens him, his planet-quality produces within him a world of his own, his moon-quality becomes the receiver of all Divine Light and his sun-quality produces in his voice, word and glance the power of illumination.
The Sufi in his further journey also acquires the quality of Insan, for every man cannot be Insan until he realizes the nature of the world and the motive of life. Then he attains the life of Jinn, experiencing joy in knowledge, becoming free from lust. Afterwards he adopts the quality of Gulman when he creates the vision of Heaven within himself. Afterwards he acquires the all-pervading quality of sound, communicating with all hearts and souls in the universe, with whom he would wish. He also becomes a spirit in all its aspects.
Then a Sufi acquires the quality of consciousness, conscious and awakened in every phase of life until he acquires the quality of unconsciousness when he can become unaware of all signs of life. Generally on the way of a Sufi stand many obstacles during his journey. The tendency for comfort and desire for lust, diseases, conceit and lunacy followed by an extreme interest in ecstasy besides a curiosity for phenomena, the desire for the world's attention, and adoration from the surroundings, a tendency for a spiritual appearance, a habit of foretelling and readiness in healing, all hinder a Sufi's progress.
A desire for name and many followers, a leaning upon the group of the faithful, a tendency for argument and discussion are most to be avoided for a Sufi. A simple abode in solitude and as few things to go through life as possible and most simple food which could be served among any number that may be present at the time, is necessary. The life of seclusion, silence, abstinence, and a less tendency for all earthly comforts is desirable. Charity, independence, forgiveness, indifference, tolerance and detachment are most useful attributes. Resignation to the will of God with fasting and contentment together with a continuous stream of love and a constant vision of God are the qualities most necessary during his journey towards the goal. An impartial justice, a sense of harmony and a real inclination for peace are the qualities necessary for the traveller on this path.
The Destruction of Ideals
The man who has never had an ideal may hope to find one; he is in a better case than the man who allows the circumstances of life to break his ideal. To fall beneath one's ideal is to lose one's track of life, then confusion rises in the mind, and that light which one should hold high, becomes covered and obscured, so that it cannot shine out to clear one's path. The fall of Napoleon may be dated from the day that he abandoned Josephine. With the breaking of the ideal, the whole life cracks and dissolves. As soon as a man begins to think, "I have done wrong to such and such a person, or such and such a principle," he ceases to be a king within, and cannot be a king without. This does not mean that the good succeed in life, and that the evil fail, but rather that man progresses alone through sincerity to his ideals, for the good of each man is indeed peculiar to himself.
Religion is the school that has developed man; and the ideals that religion presents, form a path that leads upward to perfection, that innate and yearning desire of every soul. The difficulty arises when man sees his principles as his goal and not simply as a means to his goal; for when he begins to worship his own principles he becomes a simple idolater, he destroys the essence and the life of his ideal.
Can anyone point to a date in history when man first gained wisdom? Wisdom is the property of humanity. The expressions of this wisdom differ at different times, to suit different peoples; and it is the differences that have always been noticed and not the similarity. Man is apt to insist on the external forms--"my religion, my scripture, my custom is different," he says; and thus in endeavoring to enforce his ideal, he departs from the very spirit which produced that ideal; and acts upon some primitive impulse which he despises himself, whenever he recognizes it. He may say, "I wish to reform and to reach,' when he is simply driven by a blind and animal impulse to inflict pain perhaps, or to tyrannize, or perhaps to assert his personal power. This element of falseness and treachery in human motives proves to many truthful observers, that there is nothing in life worthy of devotion, and no cause worthy of allegiance.
But the wise of all ages have taught that it is the knowledge of the Divine Being that is life, and the only reality. Although a human activity consists of a number of complicated motives--some of which are base and gross--it is the aspiration towards divinity, the desire towards beauty, which is its soul, its life, its reality. And it is in proportion to the degree of the strength or weakness of his aspiration towards beauty that a man's ideal is great or small, and his religion great or small.
Analysis
Suppose we grant that cream is the reincarnation of milk, and butter is the third step of the reincarnation of milk, and its fourth reincarnation may be called ghee. The question arises, Whose reincarnation is the milk? There are chemical substances which form milk, and its chemical arrangement changes the name, savor, smell and effect. Butter cannot be called milk, nor is ghee cream. If there is any substance which seems to be existing through all the manifestation of the milk, it is the inner ruling current which groups and scatters atoms, compelling them to change, which may be likened to the soul. God bless you.
MYSTICISM 4
The Certitude of Life in the Hereafter
Beloved ones of God,
I would like to speak a few words on the question of the certitude of life in the hereafter. This is a question which occupies every mind. Sooner or later in life a person begins to think if there is such a thing as a continuity of life. There are many who by their pessimistic idea think that there seems to be nothing afterwards. And there are others who owing to their optimistic idea think: whether there is something or whether there is not something, it is just as well to think that there is something. Nevertheless this thought is most painful, when a person thinks that there will be nothing after death. And how many reasons he may have at the support in his belief, that belief itself is worse than death. There are some who through different phenomena wish to get the proof of the life in the hereafter.
But they meet with ninety nine disappointments and perhaps one reality. And when we come to the idea of the Sufi, his idea is that life lives, death dies. In other words: to life there is no death, and to death there is no life. But his way of attaining to the certitude of life is not only an intellectual one. Because a person may study all the philosophies, all the metaphysics all through his life which may in every way prove by reasons that there is the continuity of life, still this realization gained by the effort of mind will not give that feeling of certitude which one wishes to have.
The Sufi therefore practices that process through which he is able to touch that part of life in himself which is not subject to death. And by finding that part of life he naturally gets the feeling of certitude of life. It makes him more certain of life than of anything in the world. Because he sees in all things changeability and limitation. For everything that is composed is subject to be decomposed: everything born is subject to death. But he finds in finding that life that was his self, and that was the real life, and all else that he knows about life that begins to lose its importance.
And now you will say: in what way does he discover that life in him which was never born and will never die? By self-analysis; but according to what mystics know of self-analysis. To understand what this vehicle what we call 'the body' is to us, what relation we have to it. And by understanding what this mind, which we call mind, consists of. And then by knowing that: "Am I then, am I this body, am I this mind?" There comes a time when he begins to see that he himself is the knower of the body and the mind.
But to this realization he only arrives when the body and mind he can hold in his hands as his objects which he uses for his purpose in life. Once he has done this, then the body and mind, these two things, become as the two cords which the person puts on himself in order to swim in the water, and there is no danger of drowning. The same body and mind which, at least in his thought, cause man mortality, the very body and mind then become the means of his safety from being drowned in the water of mortality.
In reality mortality is our conception, immortality is reality. We make a conception of mortality because we do not know the real life. By the realization of the real life the comparison between real life and mortality makes one know that mortality is non-existent. Therefore it would not be an exaggeration if I said that the work of a Sufi is an unlearning. What he is accustomed to call or recognize as life he then begins to recognize as death. And what he is accustomed to call death he then begins to recognize as life. And therefore life and death both are not for him conditions to which he is subject, but are conditions which he brings about upon himself. A great Persian Sufi, Bedil, he says: "By myself I become captive, and by myself I become free." If I were to interpret it in a simple language I would say that: "By myself I die, and by myself I live." But why does a Sufi say this? Why does everyone not say it? Because for a Sufi it is a condition which he brings about; for another person it is a condition in which he is helpless.
And now you will ask me: in what way this realization is to be brought about? The first thing is that one must learn in every little thing in life the way of unlearning. For the difficulty in my own work I find greatly when a person comes to me and says: "Now so far I have learnt, will you add to my knowledge more?" And in my heart I say: the more you have learnt, the worse it is for me. And if I would like to add to it, it would not be adding, it would be taking away from it in order that I may unburden you from all you have learnt, that you may be able to unlearn first, and that through this unlearning what will come will be the true learning. But one might say: "Then is it all useless for us to learn what we learn in life?" And the answer is: "No, it is all useful, but for what? For that object which you are searching after.
When you wish to search after the secret of life, the learning which one calls learning, that is the first thing to unlearn. No doubt it is something which is a difficult thing for everyone to understand. And yet when we read the life of Rumi, a great Teacher, and his Teacher, Shams Tabriz, the first lesson he gave to Rumi was that: unlearn all that you have learnt. And now you may ask me: is this unlearning forgetting all that one learns? Not at all. It is not necessary. This unlearning is: to be able to say with reason, with logic, the contrary to what one knows. When you are accustomed to say: this is wrong, this is right, this is good, and this is bad, this is great and this is small, and this is higher and this is lower, this is spiritual and this is material, this is up and this is down, and this is before and this is behind, if you can use the opposite words for each with reason and with logic, naturally you have unlearn what you have once learnt.
It is after this that the realization of Truth begins, because then the mind is not fixed. And it is then that one has become alive, for his soul has become born. It is then that one will become tolerant, and it is then that one will forgive. For he will understand his friend and foe both. He never then has one point of view; he has all points of view. You might say: is it not dangerous to have all points of view, then I have not my point of view. It is not necessary. You may have one room in the house, or you may have ten rooms in the house; you may use each as you like. As many points of view as one can see so large is his point of view.
But all this is attained by meditative process, by tuning oneself, by bringing oneself to a proper rhythm, by concentration, contemplation and by meditation, and by realization; by dying and living both at the same time. In order to rise above death one must die first. In order to get above mortality one must know what it is. But this is certain, that if there is a greatest and most important thing that one wishes to accomplish in life it is one, and that one thing is to rise above the conception of death.
Q. How can you rise above the conception of death? A. As I have already said, that the most necessary thing is to play death, and to know what death is. And it is a great learning how to play death. For what we do is a very false thing, and that is we play life when we are subject to death. If we played death it would be a real thing, it would not be a hypocrisy. And it is out of that that we shall discover life. For we experience death by playing life, and we experience life by playing death. What we call death is a death of this body.
But if we attach ourselves to this body as ourselves, then it is death. A simple man asked a person: "How can I know that I am dead?" "Well," the man said: "It is very easy. When your coat has become rotten and torn and worn out, then it is a death." Of course, when the coat was worn out and torn, then this man was thinking that he was dead, and he was weeping bitterly. And some thoughtful person came and told him: "It is your coat that is torn. But how can you cry, you are still alive." It is exactly the condition of the mystical idea. For the mystic the body is a garment. But it is no use realizing it intellectually. Because if one says intellectually: body is my garment, but then what am I, and where am I' And as I have said: by the meditative process one finds where one is and what one is. And therefore this does not remain as a belief, it becomes a faith, even greater than faith: it becomes conviction.
Q. In what way can we play death? How can we do it?
A. There was a king who thought that he would give up his kingdom, and he would become a mureed, that is to say to become a disciple of a Teacher, and to give up all the worldly things, and just go in the spiritual thought. And when he went to Bukhara under the guidance of a Teacher, the Teacher gave him the probationer's work. The work was to sweep and clean the whole house where all the pupils lived, and to collect the garbage and to take it out of the village.
Of course, the pupils were very much in sympathy with this man, and they were very shocked for this man who used to sit on the throne and be a king, - this is a thing which he was never accustomed to do; it must be a terrible thing for him ! No doubt the Teacher knowing the object that he had before him, could not do otherwise. He said: "He must do it, for he is not yet ready." Once all the disciples went and they said: "Teacher, we are all in sympathy with this man, and we think he is so fine and so nice and so cultured, and we would so much like if you would relieve him of this duty." And then they said to the Teacher: "It is a long time now; he must be relieved of it."
The Teacher said: "we shall have a test." One day when he was taking his garbage-pail outside of the town, somebody knocked against him and all was spilled on the ground. He looked back and said: "Well, it is not the days of the past, what can I tell you?" And when the report was brought to the Teacher he said: "Did I not say that the time has not yet come?" And next time a test was made again, after a little time. And when the same thing was done, this man looked at him and said nothing. The Teacher said: "Did I not say that the time has not yet arrived?"
And the third time when he was tested he did not even look at the man who spilled his basket. He took all that was there in the basket and carried it along. The Teacher said: "Now is the time, now he can play death."
All the teaching that Christ has taught, that: "If one will strike you on one side of the face, give the other side; if one will ask you to go one mile go still further; if one asks you for your overcoat give your cap also," when we think of it all, what is it? Is it not the teaching to play death? Therefore at any time if the Teachers of Truth have prescribed to their pupils any process of behavior with their fellowmen, that process can be called nothing else but playing death. But one might think that it is very hard, it is very cruel on the part of the Teacher.
But the instructor had to go through the same cruelty once at a certain period in his life. But sometimes the greatest cruelty is the greatest kindness. It is hard, but the hardest path can be conquered by this. And if I were to speak about it in simple words it is in this way: how many times we take to heart unnecessary things, how many times we cause or we take interest in disharmony which could just as well not have been avoided. How often we resist evil which could just as well not have been resisted. This is all playing life, and what I have said before is playing death. When we play death we arrive at life. When we play life we arrive at death.
Q. Is it not sometimes to become insensible to the pain of others to just look at them and not share with them? A. But I have said: playing with death is rising above sensible and insensible. Because sensible and insensible has a certain stage. One can rise above that stage; then all is sensible. Besides, you can always find among those who play death or who have played death, they have been the most sympathetic and the most open to the pain of others. Because when they are playing death, automatically they are playing life too. And therefore although they are as dead to all the wrong things that come to them, they are alive to everything that can go from them to the others.
Q. May I ask, in what consists that state where at certain days and at certain hours one no longer feels one's body, and only the thought is alive and awake? A. It is a condition. As I say, any condition that automatically comes is not a normal thing, even if it be a high condition. But if it automatically comes it is not normal. The normal thing is to be able to experience any condition one wishes to. To be able to experience death, to be able to experience life, that is the right thing. The one who always experiences death and does not experience life, that is abnormal too.
Q. How to have a balance? A. To have a balance one must do everything, from morning to evening, that is balanced.
Man, the Seed of God
Man may most justly be called the seed of God. God the Infinite, most conscious within Himself, embraces His nature full of variety, in this way He is one and He is all. The whole manifestation is just like a tree sprung from the divine root. Nature is like its stem, and all the aspects of nature are like the branches, the leaves, the fruit, and the flowers, and from this tree again the same seed is produced - the human soul - which was the first cause of the tree. This seed is man, his spirit, and as God constitutes the whole universe within Himself, being single, so man constitutes within himself the whole universe, as His miniature. Therefore neither can God be anything other than what He is, nor can man, for the very reason that He is one and at the same time He is all. This applies to both. Neither can man be reincarnated nor can God.
The scientists of today have admitted the fact that all the skin of man is changed in so many years, and they have been able to discover that each atom of man's constitution changes so many times in life, renewing his body each time. If the body is subject to change, so is the mind and these are the only identification of man's person. Again, in our food and drink we live upon so many small lives, and so many lives, small germs, live upon us, dwelling in our blood, veins, tubes, and in the skin, all of which constitutes our individuality. Again, in the mind our every thought and feeling is as alive as we, even such beings as the elementals, demons and angels, which are created within us, from us, and yet may as fittingly be called individuals as we. So in the end of the examination it is hard to find whether we exist as one or as many.
In our dreams all the inhabitants of our mind resurrect, forming a world within ourselves. We see things and beings, a friend, a foe, an animal, a bird, and they come from nowhere, but are created out of our own selves. This shows that the mind Or an individual constitutes a world in itself, which is created and destroyed by the conscious or unconscious action of the will, which has two aspects, intention and accident. We experience ourselves in this world of mind even while awake, but the contrast between the world within and without makes the world without concrete and the world within inconcrete. Someone may ask: "If all that we see in the dream are we ourselves, then why do we see, even in the dream, ourselves as an identity, separate from all other things before us in the dream?" The answer is: "Because the soul is deluded by our external form, and this picture it recognizes as I, and all other images and forms manifesting before it in the dream stand in contrast to this I; therefore the soul recognizes them as others than I."
Therefore, if it is one individual that reincarnates, should we hold our changeable body to be an individual, or our mind, which both appear to be one and at the same time many? One might ask Jack, "Which part of yourself is Jack, the eye, the nose, the ear, or the hand or foot, which each of them have a particular name? Or are you thoughts and feelings Jack? They are numerous, changeable, and diverse. You name them as such an imagination, such a feeling." This shows that Jack stands aloof as the owner of all the finer and grosser properties that have grouped and formed an illusion before him, which, reflected upon his soul, makes him say: "I, Jack," the owner of all that he realizes around and about him, and yet each atom and vibration which has composed his illusionary self is liable to change, to a separate birth and death for itself. Also, if Jack has reincarnated as John, or John has reincarnated as Jack, what were both in the beginning? Were they two, or one? If one became two, then one could become thousands, millions, and still he is one only.
Logic
The shooting forth of the soul from Consciousness can be symbolized as an arrow. The arrow shot up in the air goes up as far as the will and power of the sender has predestined it, and when it reaches its almost height, there comes its return. The death of the physical life is the return of that arrow back. Of course, on its return, it may be detained on its way, perhaps, as the arrow is sometimes caught in the branches of a tree, but it has its return some day or other to the earth, its own element. It does not go up again from there by any means. So it is with the human soul, which, after finishing its purpose on earth, returns to its origin, bound by its drawing power. God bless you.
MYSTICISM 5
Mastery
The difference between a scientist and a mystic is that the former analyses the things he is interested in, studying them by different methods in order to ascertain as much information about them, the ways in which they can be of benefit, their uses, and their nature. The mystic does the same, but instead of using some technical instrument or special scientific process, he first aims at lighting that light within himself by which he can see in this world of darkness and illusion. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God." Therefore his first task is to light the candle within.
The story of Aladdin illustrates this truth. Aladdin could only attain to the princess when he first obtained the lamp or candle which she desired. He goes out into the world but cannot find the candle there. So he goes into the forest, and there he meets with someone who is able to show him the way to reach it. This person cannot himself give it to him. This means that just emotion does not suffice to bring it. No, he is told to go to a certain mountain, and repeat certain words which will cause the side of the mountain to open. He does this, and the caves open up, but when he is within them he begins to suffocate because there is no air. Nevertheless he goes on into the caverns perseveringly, and in time he comes upon the lantern.
It is with this "candle" that the mystic gains the knowledge within himself. As soon as he has possession of this candle all things disclose their secret, and he gains a wisdom greater than that possessed by any scientist. It may be thought that a mystic could not find out all the scientist knows. Yes, the details found by the scientist may appear different, and yet the mystic perceives the same truths which the scientist is seeking for. He does not use the same words or terms; he does not know about the same processes in the same way as the scientist, yet he finds the outlines of the whole of what the scientist gets to know by his laborious methods.
It has happened that some scientists are Sufis, Avicenna was one, Lokman the Greek was another, and their knowledge was greater because of their having the candle. Perhaps even without the technical information, the mystic may have more knowledge. He may not know exactly how to make a chemical substance like the scientist may claim, but he can see the secret behind every object, and the purpose which underlies every object.
The mystic can analyze the whole world very easily and understand it through the vehicle of one individual body. It is true he cannot realize all things at once, but if he sets about knowing some particular thing he will do so much sooner than anyone else can, because he has the light within him.
His method is meditative. It is like opening oneself; opening the vehicles - the senses and the various unseen faculties of the mind, the abstract faculties which are beyond the perceptive faculties. These vehicles are opened by way of meditation and now the soul works through all parts - seen and unseen - instead of only blindly through one part of the being, as hitherto. Even the bodily senses become more sensitive.
The sense of touch becomes more acute; the sense of sight becomes more keen, as also the sense of hearing. Taste becomes more keen. In fact, activity as a whole, vigor of action, enthusiasm, all increase after meditation. When the bodily energy and its sensitiveness are greater, it shows that the other faculties which are not seen are also increased - reason, imagination and its power of creation, memory and its power of retaining thought. The ego is also developed. Then after all these have developed, development of a still higher part of the being begins - the abstract being, which is linked up with the others. The person's mind becomes the mind of another person, his thought becomes the thought of another person, and the mystic is now beginning to work through objects and not merely through the people around him. From this time on, the objects work as he desires them to work.
The mystic's experiences are now more than phenomena; his dreams are a phenomenon and so when a thought comes to him, it grows to something more than mere imagination, and is a force acting through his mind to achieve an effect - be it constructive or destructive. Whatever arises in his mind becomes a reality. The further he develops the more real does his kingdom become.
It is better to receive personal help than to practice yoga; there can be no system of training in which each pupil receives the same, for each needs a different method which is adapted to his condition of life, his type of mind, his environment, his age (young or old), his education, the spiritual development to which he has attained, and his devotional tendency. Is devotion the best method, or is study, or is a practice best? This depends on the pupil's needs and capabilities. It is exactly as when a physician prescribes for a person, he must use different medicines according to the individual type and personality. Patent medicines will not do!
Man must realize that he has a power in him which is greater than all other powers - and this power is his will. Anger is a power, for it is a part of the energy that manifests as anger. Excitement, passion, and other emotions are manifestations of one energy, yet all such powers are in the hands of one single power - namely the will. They are ruled, controlled, and utilized by it. A person cannot be angry unless his will is at the back of it. He has to have the will-power to defend himself, otherwise the anger would be helpless. The anger is there, but the will-power is greater. If the will-power is not behind it, the faculty will not work, even if not suppressed. As long as the will-power does not help, the faculty, though present, is ineffective.
This one power, the will-power, is within. Should the power work with the consent of wisdom, everything becomes allowable - anger, calmness, war, fighting, peace, love, hate. For instance, there is a time when anger helps; there is a time when peace helps, when calmness helps. We have to understand the rhythm, for, as in music, if we do not keep the time right it is because we do not understand the rhythm. But when we understand that, it will not matter what we do, things will come out all right. All is right when wisdom, counsel, and will-power are harmonious.
But if the will is under the control of anger, passion, etc, so that they manifest regardless of wisdom, and come into play at their own time (which depends on the person's habit) then a person will get cross every day! He gets cross because he has made it a habit, and his will has submitted. If this happens every day for eight days, it will happen on the ninth, or else perhaps he may fall ill. The power which should be obedient to the will controls it instead, and so the will works without wisdom in spite of the fact that wisdom is the only reliable power which God has given man.
There is a passage in the Qur'an which says: "awake in the midst of the night, before the dawn, or at the dawn when the sunrise is not near, and repeat the name of the Lord. Then the word will be taken and thy enemy will be crushed. Thou wilt then be taught that which thou hast never before known." What speculation this passage has aroused!
The solution of its mystery is this: desire for comfort controls the will so much. The will-power has become so subjected to the desire for comfort that comfort controls the will. The will is a slave to the experiences of the joy and pleasure that we obtain out of all manner of kinds of comfort. The joy and sense of pleasure make the will into a slave. For instance, there is no greater comfort than sleep. So when you have to get up before dawn, you do not wish to get up to repeat the name of the Lord; you fight the greatest comfort you can experience each day. Once you begin to fight you begin to crush the power (that is, pleasure, comfort) on the surface. It is I his ego, fed on pleasures and comforts of all kinds which is your enemy. Therefore, once you crush this ego, your will becomes the ruler over your pleasures, and when the will is master, you are master. The variety of your past life is now submitted to the unity of your being. There is one part of your being which you can call "myself,'' and that one part must control the many beings - the nose, eyes, ears, etc - which belong to you. Once they have come under control you can proceed without interference by them; you can keep them out whenever you please. From that time, light comes, and you come to know and understand all the things you never knew before. The light has become disclosed to you by God!
Imam Al-Ghazzali has said, in his "Alchemy of Happiness," that "the spiritual path is like shooting an arrow into the darkness." You cannot know where it falls or what it strikes. You are going along blindly, knowing not what you really seek, or what you have achieved. There is only one commendable procedure. If your walk along the spiritual path makes you feel stronger on your feet, you will be able to realize what can be accomplished by patience and by hope. If you only paid attention to this all your life long, and you watched what you do, you would see your own progress, and what encouragement that would be! Another person keeps complaining that nothing is ever manifested to him on his spiritual path - no forms, no "ghost," no color, no voice, no word. Even if he had had such manifestations they would have been no help to him, but he is discouraged because of not having received any. His teacher might easily lead astray from the Path, simply because he is aiming for things that do not matter, and a real teacher will not encourage him to seek such things.
The words "no, it does not matter" form a sort of principle to adopt in one's life. Of course there are things which obviously do matter. It matters a great deal if you do not follow your ideal; if you make a slip of the tongue, or any other shortcoming. But it does not matter if somebody else is not following the same ideal. You cannot alter his plan of life or his opinions, so they cannot matter to you!
The spiritual path may be natural, and it may be unnatural. When man attaches his thought and mind to the external world, he comes to partake of earth rather than of heaven, of matter rather than of the spirit. By partaking of the qualities and habits and limitations of matter, he forgets all the qualities of the spirit. Whatever qualities he partakes of, those qualities draw man to the substance to which they belong, and such a man is therefore drawn more to earth than to heaven as he proceeds. Such persons would not go to heaven, but would prefer to stay on earth, in spite of all its struggles, difficulties, and illnesses that belong to life on earth. Man is so attached to it! He does not know the joy, the peace, pleasure and happiness and comfort of the other side, because he has no experience of the spirit whatsoever.
All the same, there are some people who feel a kind of a call from the spirit, and yet they are attached to the objective world in so many ways. It is as if they are woven into the web of this world so intimately that it is very difficult to get away from it. For every step that he takes towards heaven, he is drawn backwards ten steps to the earth. Whoever sets out on this path is therefore in a constant warfare. He has to encounter trouble from his relatives, from his friends and acquaintances; he experiences troubles from those who misunderstand his aims; they misuse him they misjudge him, and blame him for doing things and thinking in a manner for which he is in reality justified.
Think of Christ, whose thoughts were so contrary to the religious thought of that time. What a difficulty to pass from the thought of an ordinary person to the thought of Christ. What difficulties there are to face! But once you fight this difficulty, and the further you advance, the more you are drawn to the Spirit by the Spirit. This goes on up to a certain limit, and all this time the difficulty is so great. Once you reach the limit, everything becomes easy. If only the will-power is under control, it will overcome the inertia. Here is an anecdote about dervishes, who sometimes do humorous things. There was a certain dervish sitting in the shade of a tree, who was always very kind and helpful to those who came to see him. But one day a young man, a soldier, was passing by and he said something to the dervish which made him cross. So they had a few words. From that the soldier began to bully him, and give blows on his back and neck, without the dervish making any protest. The soldier then went on his way.
A wise man sitting near by was thinking to himself: "what a funny thing, for this dervish is always good and kind and hospitable. So why should that soldier be so cross as to punch him in the neck and over the body." So he observed attentively, and noticed the dervish saying to himself, after several blows, "is it enough, or do you want some more?" Then the wise man asked himself: "what does he mean by: 'do you want more?' " The explanation is that the ego always wants feeding, and the more you feed it the more energy it has. What are you feeding him with?
You feed him by your inclinations, by getting praise from people, attention from people, benefits, help, love. Whether these come justly or by injustice, rightfully or not, this ego is never satisfied; it keeps on wanting attention. As a result it begins to rule over the higher faculties of inspirational power, spiritual power, wisdom, reason, justice - all the beautiful faculties. This nafs or ego or Satan (for the ego is Satan) governs all these faculties, and a man cannot become saintly until he has crushed it. The only way to crush it and annihilate it is by starving it. There is no other way than this whatever. The saintly personality cannot come into being until all this is achieved.
But how can we walk along this path in the course of our practical life, with all the responsibilities inherent in life in the world? The servants take advantage of a saintly person. Selfish people and those who are wicked and blind to justice take every advantage of a person who behaves kindly and considerately and helpfully towards people. Well, the answer is very simple. This development is really for yourself. Once you have attained, the course of action is in your hands. For example, suppose you are taking the part of a king on the stage, and your part calls on you to become angry with a servant, you do not really become angry. You just play the part of the king who is cross. You can be cross without being actually angry. It is just like that in the development of the saintly personality. Once the nafs is crushed, you will never find it necessary to be angry. But you can act the part of an angry person, and pretend to be angry. So, if it is necessary to show anger, this does not mean the fire of hell for you as it would be for others, because you are only using an instrument, and that instrument is not your master. In the same way, you are justified in whatever course you find before you in life, as long as you have really freed yourself from control by the nafs.
Here is a story about a great Sufi Master who lived in Arabia. During a certain war, one day an enemy was fought. Now in those days battles were hand to hand fights. This man's enemy was in his hand, and he was about to kill him. But before he did so, the enemy spat in his face. The teacher immediately withheld his hand, and did not kill him. The enemy was greatly surprised at this and said: "you were about to kill me. Why did you not do so?" He replied: "one reason is that you have done such an action that it would rouse my anger, and if I had killed you while under the influence of anger I would have been acting against my principle. Therefore, as soon as I caught myself in this fault, I became unable to carry through my first intention." This shows how a person can even fight and yet keep control over his anger and pain. As long as he is the master, he can be blamed for nothing.
But that is just the question - to be the master! Suppose a person is cross, and we get cross with him. It may bring a certain satisfaction to give outlet to that anger at the moment. But if only you discover the joy of being able to smile when the other person is cross - what a difference from the satisfaction of the other act! The joy is so much greater because you keep buoyant. It is just like not giving more fuel to a fire.
Sudden outbreaks of emotion are controlled by developing the habit of exercising one's will-power suddenly, promptly. If we return anger or jealousy or hatred or prejudice or any other bitterness, we only keep the flame of that emotion lighted. It is just the same when one keeps love in another heart by adding a little affection and love all the time. If we withhold it it will die, because there is nothing to stimulate it. When a person is always offended or dislikes this or that, he is keeping up the fire, whereas once you pass it by and smile, you raise yourself above it, and it will die out, for it has no more food to live on.
"Resist not evil," the scripture says. The resistance to evil lies in the other person. Do not become angry with him. When you foster the same evil emotion, you add to his, and also increase the same fire in yourself. It is like taking a contagious disease into yourself instead of curing it. Anger and bitterness will die out in time.
There was a small group of people in London who were working along spiritual lines. They felt a sort of rivalry against my little society and began to try and do harm by telling stories against us, and setting others against us. My helpers came to me to tell me how we were being damaged in this way, and asked:"shall we not do something to stop this?" But I answered, "the best thing is indifference." "Take no notice." But they insisted "still, it will do us great harm." The answer to this was: "not at all; the only harm it could do would be if we allowed this to enter in. It is we who allow the harm! Let them do as they like and let us go on doing what we are doing." As the years went on, they never heard us say a word against them. On the contrary, we welcomed them, we helped them, we served them in whatever way we could. In time this resistance all vanished. We have been going on, and they still stand where they were. Just a little indifference was enough!
We cannot expect all people to be just. When they are children, how can we expect them to behave as the grown-ups? We cannot expect all kinds of fruit to ripen at once. It takes time. In time, they will be sweet. So wait with patience and it will be plain to them in time. Why blame others when they are not up to our ideal? How can this disagreeable person be agreeable, if his evolution prevents him from being otherwise, and wisdom does not permit him to act differently? Help him in whatever way you can without expecting him to be different. Why should you ruin your own life over it? Your own life is very precious. When you do not worry about others, or judge them, you can meditate, think, be silent, and be serviceable to the world. There is plenty in our own selves to judge, enough to keep us fully occupied all our life long!
"Mansions": "many mansions," places of being, paths of attainment, roads to travel on. Once you are on the real road, you will keep on learning every moment of your life - not only during sleep (in dreams) but at any time. An owl cannot see in the daytime; it is in the night that he learns of this and that. But that is only a partial inspiration. The mystic gains experience in every aspect of life - when eating, sitting, walking; in all actions. All these are channels of learning. The real road is to be followed at all times, and it is the one who has seen the Master who is really the one being taught. Once you have linked yourself with love, a flood of inspiration is revealed to you - whatever the subject, whatever the problem in life may be. Whatever it be that your eye casts its glance on, it will disclose itself. Then you are on the real road. What a joy that is!
A breadth of heart is what is needed for all this. The weapon is the thought "nothing matters." It takes bravery to say "nothing matters." It is the breadth of his heart that makes a man great, whereas it is narrowness of heart that makes him small. The great heart does not think "how troublesome that person is," "Why should I be bothered like this?" It is only the narrow heart that thinks "I will cause him some trouble." It may be right, but still it is a narrow thought. The one of broad heart thinks: "this is a small thing, I can put up with this; there won't be much harm coming from it."
Nizam wrote this verse; "the width of the land and the water cannot be compared with the width of man's heart. If man's heart is wide enough, there is nothing greater than that." The heart becomes wide by forgetting self, but narrow by thinking of the self and pitying one's self. To gain a wide and broad heart you must have something before you to look upon, and to rest your intelligence upon - and that something is the God-ideal. This is the prescription for killing the self. Then , keeping your self before your consciousness, and by resting your consciousness on God, God, who is unlimited, will come to you. And so your knowledge, and your powers, will become unlimited also.
God bless you.
MYSTICISM 6
The Path of the Mystic
There are perhaps mystics in all peoples, and there is a mystic side to all religions. This shows that mysticism does not come from the East or from the West, it is a human inheritance and belongs to the soul. Every religion: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, has a mystic aspect, and this shows that mysticism belongs to every religion, and it also shows that religion needs a mystical aspect to manifest in its fullness.
In its last stages, the world has passed through so much, so many centuries of materialism, that when one nowadays speaks of mysticism, it is looked upon as something vague and incomprehensible. Mysticism has always existed as a human inheritance, but the waves of materialism have effaced it. We should understand the difference between religion, morality, mysticism and philosophy.
Religion is a law of beauty given to humanity by the masters of life. Morality is a prescription of principles adopted by a number of persons at a given period. Philosophy is an explication of names, forms, conditions and circumstances which are known by logic and knowledge. Mysticism is a way that is incomprehensible to most people, because it is a way of getting to the center of life and things, which the other ways take centuries to get to. The source where mystics get their knowledge from is the Divine Source, of which Christ says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you." The ordinary person cannot understand that by sitting down and closing his eyes a man can get knowledge. He also cannot see how one can get knowledge without learning from exterior sources, because all his life he has been used to that.
And so it is that no religious man or philosopher however good and pure can get at the knowledge of the mystic, because the mystic's knowledge is the greatest of all. Just as a man standing on the mountain sees more than he who stands at the bottom. Or, can a man who wants to see the moon see it by looking on the ground? The words of Christ, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" are so simple, and yet understood by so few. The Christ-spirit is the mystic spirit. Even before Christ mysticism has always existed. Buddha, Krishna, Moses and Mohammed, all walked the path of the mystic. Can you tell me of Krishna going to an academy to learn? Or Christ or any other teacher learning from outer sources? No, their knowledge came from the Divine Source. (Note: In the place ("prescription") and ("explication") there were open spaces in the original text. These two words were added, and therefore are not authentic.)
Of course it makes the materialist wonder: What can be the source where all the knowledge of the world is accumulated. There is a very interesting story about Firdausi, the great Persian poet, who has written the Shahnama. One shah of Persia once desired documents of the ancient history of Persia which no one could find; there was only this poet who offered to do so. Everyone wondered how that could be done, but he said: "Wait and you will see." He went to the solitude for ten years and then he came back to the court with his book called Shahnama.
As he was still linked with the current of his solitary life he was not quite himself; and when one of the knights who was very critical asked where one could find that knowledge, Firdausi called him and said: "Come and sit by me, and close your eyes and see." And then that skeptical man saw all the pictures of the ancient past pass before his eyes. But a man may say: "If one is to become a mystic for the knowledge that mysticism gives, it is not worth while, because there is already so much knowledge in the world." But it is not only knowledge that the soul seeks, there are other things. and one is the longing for a lasting happiness which man never has. Whatever his condition or occupation there is always something to complain of.
And this means that the home of the fish is water, and on earth, even on a even on a tray of gold, it is not happy. The real home of man is the spirit of God, and elsewhere he will never be satisfied. Man cannot understand this, because he gets a little substitute called pleasure. Another thing is that this pleasure is momentary, and he must always suffer to get it; there is always pain attached to pleasure and one must pat a good price for it. The true happiness is never experienced by man until he has touched that happiness that lives in his own heart. If you ask me what that happiness is like, I will tell you that it is impossible to explain to someone who has never tasted sugar, to know what sugar is like. So one cannot explain this happiness except to someone who has felt it.
There is another thing mystics experience, and this is ecstasy, and this cannot either be explained to one who has not felt it. As there are many people who profess to be mystics, the real mystic keeps his experiences to himself. As now in the Western world these thoughts are coming to be known, many people make a profession of clairvoyance and spirit communication, a degeneration of real mysticism, which is the greatest thing. In the East these things are under the protection of religion.
Think of what loss the world has to face when mysticism degenerates into these forms becoming commercialized and a sacrilege. Ecstasy is a well of light and love which rises from the bottom of man's heart, and so high that it washes away all worries and troubles of life. The condition of man's heart depends on its reflection of this Divine Light, as the condition of the sea depends on its reflection of the Cosmic Light. The cosmic changes make the sea agitated or calm. In one's heart there are moments of calm so great that it charges the whole atmosphere, and moments when the forces rise in man, and wash away all troubles and worldly things. A poet or a gifted musician feels the same, and if you ask me why, I will say that it is that he could not create beauty, unless he were an instrument of Divine Beauty, which is the greatest creator.
Of course a mystic who dives deep, and makes his heart an instrument of the Divine Being, experiences a greater ecstasy. And as the sea responds to the cosmos more than the land, so the heart of the mystic responds to the Divine Light more than the heart of the average man. His heart is liquid, and that of the average man as frozen snow. Where does this freezing come from, since snow is also water. It comes from the thought of "I", "my father, my mother, my beloved, my friend, mine, and separate from yours." Whereas the first lesson of the mystic is, "Thou art, and not I." It is not only complete surrender to God, it is self-effacement. And what does the symbol of the cross explain? That "Thou art, not me, my hands are not for me, my feet are not for me, my head is not for me, they are all Thine."
The saying of the Qur'an, "Die before death," does not mean suicide, it means the death of the "I", the separate self. It is an error of man to call his tent his home. It is not a home, it is a tent. The body is also a tent which is temporary, he calls it I, but it is not "I." The pleasures of life make him forget what it is in him that says "I." Think only of the helplessness, sickness and death of the body. Man never thinks of it, but acts as though he should live thousands of years on the earth. There is no condition, rank or wealth that can secure man's life. What is it that makes him think he is something when he is really nothing? If he can only think of what is nothing, he will realize that what was, is, and shall be is one Being, God.
Living with God is immortality. The Bible from the beginning teaches us to look for immortality within ourselves. Therefore the mystic's path is not one of study, but of meditation. In eastern language this is called Yoga, which means connection, yoke, and this is to connect oneself with the Divine Spirit. And what disconnects one is the realization of one's separate entity, and what connects one is the thought of God. Sufis, as all other mystics have had their schools in all ages of this inner cult. And it must be considered a privilege that East and West are coming closer together, that the poetry and music and philosophy of East and West are becoming known to each other. And the happiness of humanity lies in friendship and harmony between East and West. And there are many ways of doing this, but there is none better than the thought of God, and love between men. It is the essential spirit, and by this all can unite.
The Message of the Sufis has been given in America, France and England, and is now being given here in Switzerland, and all are welcomed, because in the love and light of the path of God, there is no distinction or difference. No doubt the Movement of the Sufis is working to bring about a better understanding between races and peoples, but its essential work is to open the inner eyes of man.
Knowledge of Past, Present and Future
There are two ways of knowing the past, present and future: one is the mystical way and the other is the esoteric way. One is difficult and the other is easy: the mystical way is difficult and the esoteric way is easy.
Those who know the past, present and future by the esoteric way know it by their spiritual development. They are the sages, the prophets. They have told the story of the prophets of the past, of what happened ages before. They had not read the records of those times. They looked into the past and knew it, or into the future. They do not explain how they know it. They do not care to give a proof that would satisfy the world. If they are asked and they give an answer, their answer is so complex that a simple person cannot understand it.
If they say, "I am the beginning and the end," people will say, "You are not yet very old, how can you be the beginning?" In the mystical way of knowing past, present and future, there are numberless manners of knowing it. There are people who can tell it by looking in the fire, or in a cup of tea, or by coffee-grounds, or by laying cards, by looking in the crystal, or by asking a spirit or a god.
There was at Hyderabad a dervish who used to smoke hashish and who could tell everything by looking at the smoke. He did not want people to pay him anything and if they gave him anything, it was hashish. Someone came and asked him to tell him about what his uncle was doing. The uncle lived in Bombay, where this dervish had never been. He blew a cloud of smoke and looked into it and said, "Now I am going to Bombay, to such a street, the number of the house is such, the house is like this. Now I am going to the drawing-room. Your aunt is there, but your uncle has not yet come. Now your uncle comes." And so on.
There was another man to whom people went to ask questions and he gave them a right answer to every question. Out of curiosity I went too. He was sitting in a room and before him were the silver coins that people paid him. There were so many silver coins before him that it might tempt any-one. He told each one what questions he wished to ask. To one he said, "You want to ask four questions, one question about home, one about your business, one about your friend and one about your health." The man was very much astonished that he should know the questions he wished to ask. Once the brother of the Rajah went to see him, to ask him questions and put him to the test.
He said, "Ah, you have come to test me? I do not like that, but, as you have come, I will answer you. You wish to ask me what the Rajah will say to you, when you see him today." Then he wrote something on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope and closed it. He gave the envelope to the Rajah's brother and said, "Open this after your conversation with the Rajah." He opened it after he had seen and spoken with the Rajah and found in it the whole conversation. What he had said, and what the Rajah had said, all had been written down.
There are some people who can tell all that has happened to a person and that will happen to him from the lines in his hand. In India there are some extraordinarily clever palmists. And there are some who can tell everything by the means of anything and everything that they see. They look in the air and they see, or they look at a plant, or at the shapes they see in the fire, and from the forms of the lines in the hand and from many other things they can tell the past and future, according to their concentration and their intuition. By concentrating his attention a person sees the forms, and by his intuition he tells their meaning, their language, for everything has its own language. There is the language of our words, and there is the language of forms.
When I was at Hyderabad there was there, walking along the streets, a man carrying a bottle of spirituous liquor and a glass. He wore no clothes, nothing but a few rags wrapped about him. At every few steps he stopped, poured the spirits into the glass and drank; then he took another few steps, poured the spirits into the glass and drank again. A crowd of little boys followed him, and he put his hand into his rags, took out a handful of silver coins and scattered it among them, and went on a little further and did so again. Wherever he put his hand, he found the coins. Another day he would be seen in another street, in the same way. I had the craze of a curiosity for such things, but one would not like to go and speak to him, for everyone in the street was staring at him.
So I sent a boy from our house, who said, "If you would like to hear music, our sahib wants you to come, he will sing to you." He was very pleased, he was in that mood. He came. There were some of our friends sitting there, they were all well-to-do people. He sat and began to say to one, "Blackguard. You are angry and complaining that you have been dismissed from your post. Why did you muddle that money that was in your charge?" To each one he spoke in this way. Among them was a boy to whom he said, "You failed in your examination, in mathematics. Your answer that you had written on your slate was quite right, but then you thought perhaps it was wrong and you looked what another boy had written on his slate and copied from him. That was why you failed." The boy was delighted that he had found out his fault. To all he spoke, scolding them. Only to me he said, "Bless my soul."
There was a dervish living outside the town, in the jungle. People used to go to him to ask his help in their troubles. Once a man went to him and said, "I am in a great difficulty. I am to be tried in the law courts and I have no money even to pay a barrister. My case is coming on tomorrow. Pray help me." The dervish said, 'What have I to do with it. Go away!" He said, "No, you are my refuge, help me." The dervish wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to the man. The words were, "I have looked into this man's case, and I find that there is nothing in it, and therefore I dismiss the case." When the case came up for trial, these were the very words the judge said.
Coming now to the esoteric way. One who knows the esoteric way loses interest in the mystical way. The mystical way is limited. It can tell that this form means that and this number means that. In the esoteric way everything is revealed. To him who has this revelation, everything speaks. Everything tells him its secret. He knows all. Hafiz says, "To him to whom it is revealed, every leaf of the tree is a book."
All is one life and one light. When by concentration of thought and feeling upon the condition of a friend a person has opened up a way for the light, he is connected with that friend and knows all about his condition. You will say, "If all is one then we should be always sad and suffering from the unhappiness of others!" It is one light, but there is the shade between, isolating each and therefore we are not so much aware of the unhappiness or joy of others. And yet unconsciously its effect is felt. During the war the bloodshed was going on at the front, but he who could see, could see its effect here and everywhere.
He knows it because when he looks at any being, he looks at him thinking, "This is I," and as he knows about himself, so he knows all about every being. In the physical existence we see so many different forms, but behind this physical existence there are not many lives, but one life. By living in this one life, in this one God, he knows every being and thing. There is God in the thing also, in the plant; only in the plant He has not opened His eyes.
There is a beautiful saying of a dervish, "God slept in the rock, dreamt in the plant, awoke in the animal, and became fully conscious in man." Those who are awake are the beings and those who are asleep are the things. And among the human race how few are beings, how many are things.
In this esoteric way the first lesson is not study, it is love, that "I am not, you are." By this a person's self expands. He may expand it first to one person, then to many, then perhaps to the whole world, or even to the whole universe. There are some beings who are in themselves the universe. Outwardly man sees their small earthly form, but within they are as vast as the universe. By expanding to the vastness of God the mystic experiences the greatness of God in every form, as a god, as a human being, as an animal, as a devil, or from a god to a devil, and he keeps his veneration for man, for man is the image of God.
Now I would like to say a few words on what we call mysticism. Mysticism is a means to an end. Mysticism is not the goal, but through it one arrives at the goal. If you ask me: "What is Sufism, is it a philosophy, is it mysticism?", The answer is: "It is both." This evening I would like to speak a few words on the mystic side of Sufism. The mystic side of Sufism may be recognized as seeing and as hearing. To see further than one sees, to hear keener than one hears. In other words: to see what the eyes cannot see, to hear what the ears cannot hear.
This experience brings to realization: to see without eyes, to hear without ears. No doubt, for the mystic seeing and hearing, these two words, have a different meaning. When we say seeing, we mean what we see through the eyes; when we say hearing we mean what we hear through the ears. But for the mystic seeing is not only through the eyes, but even without eyes. Hearing for the mystic is not only through the ears, but without ears. There happens to exist a word in English language: 'seer.' It means some-one who with eyes and without eyes can see.
Now the question comes, if there is such a seeing and hearing, every soul would be most happy to attain to it. For it would be just like having wings to fly. Who would not? Everyone will. And if there is this possibility to see and hear, why is not everybody seeking after it? The reason is that not everybody believes it, that, which can only be attained by belief, never without it. Therefore it is that something every soul seeks after, every soul doubts about. And if a soul believes, the question is if he has patience enough to go through it. For it is patience which is required in this way because a certain preparation is necessary to hear and see.
For everyone would like to see and hear, but if he were open to it, would he be strong enough to endure the disadvantages? For an instance: mankind, as ready as it is to criticize its fellowmen, if it could see faults still more, what will you do? A man who is absorbed in life's interests, if he sees a terrible thing coming upon himself, upon his dear ones, will he be able to endure? -A person who is ready to give the secret of one to another, if he knew by this power the secrets of his fellowmen, what a terrible thing he would do. -A person who is affectionate, afraid of any harm or hurt touching his dear ones, if he saw it coming, his nerves would be shattered to pieces.
Therefore we see that though there is a possibility of seeing and hearing in every soul and every soul would be too delighted to attain to this power, yet not every soul is ready to have it nor would it be good for every soul to have it. Naturally for that reason it is called mysticism. If there is any secret in it, that is the only secret. Before a person has developed his outlook, he must not hear, he must not see. Therefore, not in order to make one see and hear, but to change the outlook, the Teacher gives initiation. But when the pupil says, "I come to see and hear," the Teacher says:"You wait.
For I will tell you my own experience: before looking for my Teacher I began to have the faculty of seeing developed. It is that which gives the desire to seek for a Teacher, for the Teacher can give the explanation of life. I did not tell my Teacher about this faculty. For I was too impressed, too respectful to say what I could see and hear. But one day, after association with my Teacher, I ventured to speak about it. And what was his answer? "I am sorry." I was expecting a word of encouragement. Following to it, he said:"it is not seeing or hearing, it is to acknowledge it that hinders one's progress."
When there is this hearing, they call it clairaudience, this seeing: clairvoyance. How badly today these words are used. Anyone who is troubled in his mind, who wants to know about the future and speaks about it, is called clairvoyant. How surprising it is to hear a person say: "I am clairvoyant." In reality this gift of seeing and hearing is a gift from the Divine Being. Someone who has this power is trusted with the secret of life. The more he claims, the more he attracts people, the more he sins against the law of divine nature.
It must be understood, when this seeing and hearing begins, from that time an initiation is given and man becomes responsible for the secrets revealed to him. Besides, if man was not prepared, if he had not reached a certain point, what is the benefit? As once I was amused to hear from a man: "The condition of our country? We have so much freedom that we do not know what to do with it." The same thing with the person who can see, and hear, he finds so much to see that he does not know what to do. The Sufi therefore is grateful for what he sees and hears and grateful for what he does not see and hear. He learns resignation in the path of the Divine Voyage.
Now one might ask: "What kind of preparation?" The answer will be: "It is a moral preparation." But not in the sense as we understand in everyday life the word:moral. What we understand is selfish because we judge another with our law instead of considering him with his law. The moral according to the Sufi idea, in this preparation specially, is another thing: it is consideration of the law of friendship, of the relation to one's elder or superior or younger or inferior. Although it is a simple thing to consider friendship, it is most difficult to practice. If one knows the principle of friendship, one does not need the moral of the world. When instead of his own profit and laws, man considers the profit and laws of another, then he begins to see his soul. As long as he sees the other as a separate being different from himself, he will see him wrongly.
Therefore, friends, what Sufism offers, is a facility of becoming acquainted with these ideas. After this acquaintance naturally the soul unfolds. And as a natural consequence of the soul's unfoldment, one gradually hears more and more. God bless you. Now I shall be glad to answer if there are any questions. Q. May one seek for this power? A. Food is for the hungry. If you are hungry you must seek for food. If you wish, you will naturally see more. But if you do not wish it, it does not matter. It is according to the appetite. If there is appetite there must be food. If it is a sin to see more, it is also a sin to see with the eyes. The eyes are given to see, the soul to see further. Nevertheless, to seek for extraordinary powers, for phenomena, is going backwards instead of forwards. If one goes in the path of beneficence, all that is to be given, will be given. But as I say, if we live a life of friendliness, there is nothing better we can live for.
Q. ? A. The idea is this, as long as one understands the principle of friendship, one will find what is necessary and what not. If a Sufi has relations who belong to the Catholic Church, who would be too delighted if he went to the Church also, if he considers the law of friendship, he will go to the Church but will not let it take away Sufism. He does not disturb all the ceremony of those who love it. Why should he? Wisdom is not to separate, it is to unite. - I will tell you a little story. When I was travelling in the ship from a French port to New York, three services were given. I attended to all those three services. Nobody expected me to be there, I went there not to please anyone but to please myself. Not in one service I felt worshipping God less. I felt in all three services the worship of the same God. But suppose a person did not go to the service and only went to the dance after dinner, would he be less a Sufi therefore? He would also have done a worship - as much as in the service.
MYSTICISM 7
The Life of the Sage in the East (2)
When I reflect on the English word 'Sage,' it seems to me that it must come from two different roots - one root is in the Sanskrit language, namely 'swaga,' the other in the Persian language, 'safa,' or 'saga.' The first root means 'heavens,' which suggests that the one who tries to become a sage is the one who tries to attain heaven or himself become it. The other root suggests that a sage is a person who wishes to construct; a person who is constructive. But, of course, there is no such word as 'sage' in the Eastern language. There is a similar word in the East, 'satha,' or 'sant.' This is the same word used in the West as 'saint.' But the word 'sad'h' means 'mastery': that is, 'one who masters life.'
Now there are two different temperaments - the one which is always inclined to be contented with things; to accept everything as it comes; willing to live a sort of retired life - resigned to everything that may happen. Indeed we see this temperament more or less in everyone. The other temperament is one which wishes to master things; the desire to master every situation; to master another person; to master an affair; to act with will-power and courage.
There is good and evil in both temperaments, of course. The person who is always retired and resigned and contented with things is not necessarily all good, without any evil in him; nor is the one who controls others and masters circumstances always an ideal one. It is just that there are these two temperaments, and everyone is more or less one or the other. The two words 'sadhu' and 'sant' represent these two temperaments. The sadhu controls and masters things; the 'sant' is resigned and contented in all situations, and under all circumstances of life. He chooses a life of retirement and resignation.
If you were to ask which of the two is superior, I would say that neither is superior or inferior. If you work according to your temperament, that is the natural work for you, whereas if you work against your temperament it is like knocking yourself against a rock, and there is then no hope of progress. But if you do what you are fitted for, and act according to your temperament, there will always be progress. The temperament is neither a virtue, to be acted with, nor something to be overcome, so that one acts against one's own nature. The sage recognizes these two temperaments and uses them accordingly, giving them more rein, and rendering them more evident to the eye of the seer.
He studies how they operate in people's lives, and no doubt it is very interesting to study the lives of the sages in the East from this point of view. Of course, to a stranger to these countries it is mystifying how the different behaviors can belong to sageliness or saintliness, because in the West, people have the idea that a sage must be kindly, retiring, a renounced being, or perhaps even a 'wonder-worker.' Then when such a thing is not evident, it might seem there is something wrong about the sage. To gain a deep understanding of what the saintly life means, much patience and tolerance are required, before one can form a reasonable opinion about the sages in the East. People are apt to be disappointed when they judge from appearances.
We will first take the sages among the Hindus. This race is naturally sage-like. So a Hindu sage may be a Brahmin, a Kshatriya, a Vaisya or even a Shudra (caste). There is a tendency to develop into a sage among all these castes in India. The idea has been worked out in India for thousands of years. It is in the people's blood, in their veins, and the tendency can be seen even in a child. I might tell you how in my own childhood there was the pleasure at being in the presence of a sage. At a time when others liked to play ball, and play with kites, and pigeons, I yearned for retirement. It is as if such a desire had been carried through thousands of years; not only have the sages made their impression on the race, but the race has also been impressed by sageliness. The people have the greatest respect for a sage, the greatest admiration, whether they are in business, or in a profession, or students, or whatever walk in life they follow.
Their greatest joy is to be at the feet of a sage. It is as if one were at the feet of the Deity. So the greatest thing in the world, the highest ideal of life, is to be able some day to become a sage. Not only does the Brahmin feel thus, but also the laborer, the shudra, has the desire some day to be free of his toils, and get a glimpse of that beauty which is hidden in the sage. There are two kinds of Hindu sages: Burhai and the Sant. One is ascetic; the other is like a sage or a saint.
The life of the Burhai is very surprising, very strange, and is a great puzzle to those who meet him. You would be quite afraid of a man who was lying down with ashes rubbed all over his face and body, perhaps sitting almost in a fire. His very appearance looks so strange. He may be living in a grave-yard outside the city, and he goes into the city only to obtain food for himself or his friends, who are Burhais like himself. At other times he goes off into the wilderness and lives there. He spends most of his time in meditation and also gives a great deal of time to the mastery of self. The paths which the Hindus follow are the yogas, of which there are four kinds. There is the path of abstinence, and in this the Burhai strives to develop his spiritual life by abstinence. In following this path, practices may be carried out which seem hideous, or at least very strange to those who do not understand the philosophy or the idea. Whatever it is he does, the object is to reach the spirit by killing everything that hides that spirit from his sight.
One might say that he considers he is the enemy of himself; so he crushes everything that is not spirit, everything that interferes with his spiritual progress. He seeks to kill everything that is mortal within him, realizing that in this way he can attain to a higher and more powerful life. No words can ever describe the experiences which he gains. No one else but himself can possibly understand the experience. It is like asking a child who has never eaten sugar "what does the word 'sweet' mean?" Only those can understand the idea of 'sweet' who have experienced sweetness. So a Burhai is very powerful, as everyone knows. To perform a 'wonder,' all he has to do is to make a flick with his left hand.
His whole life seems to stand before him as his obedient servant; he who sees the Burhai knows he is the master of life. Once one is master of self, one is master of life. The self is what makes our life limited, so when we master it, we master life, all life, in proportion to the extent to which we have attained mastery. Such a one is master even of plants, and trees, and any living being. He has mastered everything. We cannot appreciate this because it is quite unintelligible until one has oneself developed that mastery in one's own life. Then it is possible to see how life seems to be obedient in all manner of relations.
Do we not see, even in our own little experience, how things go wrong when we have become weak in will, or mind, in one affair or another? It is not possible to master the conditions of life until we have learnt to control ourselves. Once we have mastery over self, everything will go right. It is just the same as when a rider has no strength in his fingers, so that he cannot hold the horse's reins. His fingers must obey his mind before the horse will obey. This is true for all circumstances of life with the various conditions around us, our relations, our friends. We may complain that no one listens; that one's servant does not do what we wish him to do; that one's assistants do not carry out our wishes. One may blame them when all the time it is ourselves who are to be blamed, because we have not mastered ourselves first. After that, they would obey.
The Burhai learns this lesson mainly by abstinence. Why is this? Because things go wrong just because of our own weakness; we do not do what we wish to do; we consider ourselves so little that we cannot achieve our own wishes. There are many 'wonder-workers' among sages of the Burhai group. But do not think that they will step out onto a platform and 'perform.' Anyone who gets on a stage to show off 'wonders' is false, not real. The real Burhai aims at his own mastery, and is not concerned with doing 'tricks' for the world to see; so no one sees them. The Burhai's whole life is a 'wonder' in himself, but the whole world is a wonder to him. His vision, his power, his inspiration is so great. But the life is a very hard one. It is a great renunciation.
The other kind of Sage is the Sant. He also grows through four stages. First, the Brahmacharita-ashrama, or stage of study. He uses the intellect. He learns about life by both study and practice. This is an intellectual attainment of knowledge. From this he passes to the Grihastha-ashrama, in which the aspirant goes beyond a service just of one's family. His self-consciousness comes to realize that all he has done for his family so far, has been done for himself, his wife and children. Now he must live for others, for the people of the town, of the country, of the nation, of the race. "I must even do what I can for the whole world." This is the service of humanity; the path of duty.
Finally he arrives at Sanyassi-ashrama, which is a life of retirement and solitude. This is the life of a 'retreat." The man who has lived a life of honesty, virtue, goodness, service, is recognized by wife and children and they appreciate that "now you must be allowed to follow the life of your own choice." They realize it is time for him to go into retreat. He must go into Sanyassi-ashrama. But he does not do this unless his family consents. Before describing this life, I must explain why it is necessary. Why should one not always be 'in the world?' Why the necessity for retirement at the last part of life .
This retirement is only too necessary. In the first place, the man has given up all his life, all his time, all his energy, to the study of worldly things; secondly, he has done all this in the interests of his family, or, perhaps for many people around him. It is right that he should have a rest some day. We ourselves feel justified in resting when Saturday comes, so why should he not have his Sunday after working all his life - a life that is nothing but continual conflict through every moment - proving himself to be wise, and kind and gentle, true, honest, virtuous through it all testing as it does his patience, his virtue, through all the temptations to which he is exposed, through all life's dangers, and difficulties, and humiliations and responsibilities that have to be faced, this man is justified, on reaching the fourth stage of life, in having a little peace - no worries or responsibilities of business, or profession, or even his family. The world should leave him alone to think and meditate and let his muscles, bones, body and mind be at rest.
This is all natural. So you cannot imagine anyone in the East, and especially in India, not longing for the time when he can become a sage, from the time he was born. Whatever he has been doing - profession, business, trade, family - he will have been longing for that moment when he can become a Burhai at last; when he can cast off the load of responsibility that has been on his back all those years. So he has longed for the time when he can give himself to thinking about Truth, having now peace, and rest, and opportunity to communicate with the Eternal Being. He has all the time been hoping for the desire to be granted when "I may have a rest, with time enough to think of God and live that life wherein one becomes capable of being one with God."
However good and beautiful life in the world is, yet how true it is that it leaves so small a margin in which to give oneself to the thought of God and Truth. The daily duties take up every moment of one's time; and even if there is anything left over, there is no end to the worries, and there is disease, and pain and suffering and all manner of other troubles. A good man must have more patience; he has to give in to people more and more. But his troubles will be there all the same. A wicked man has twice the trouble. For he has not only the trouble that comes to a good person, but he has also the trouble that his own wickedness brings about. The load is double.
Seclusion, silence, thoughtfulness, meditation, gentleness - all these make the rhythm of one's life appropriate for receiving inspiration, revelation, communion, for at-one-ment with God. Perhaps you have noticed how things vary on some days. You are busy, enthusiastic with your work on such days, whilst on other days you do not feel spiritually or religiously inclined, because everything you do is a struggle - you feel quite different. On other days you feel more religiously inclined, more desirous of seeking after Truth. The troubles and worries of the world do not bother you so much. Divine things, and higher aspirations, come more natural. How is this? It is just rhythm - your mind, your body, and whole being go through a certain rhythm, called 'Shubhtal.'
There is one rhythm whereby your mind, body and soul comes to feel an exaltation, an inclination toward higher aspiration. It is just like the rising of a wave. A heart frozen by cold, by selfishness, has become liquid through some emotion or affection, or love, or distress, or sorrow, or despair. It becomes like an ocean when the waves form. The waves make the rhythm. This rhythm soothes the mind. It gives you joy and peace, and a feeling of inclination towards higher Truth. This is the life of the sanyassi - the life adapted for higher aspirations, for higher thought, for communication with the Higher Life. At other times the work of the Sanyassi is quiet. He is silent. Yet sometimes he does speak, to guide those who come wishing to be guided through their worldly struggles. He becomes their guru. Most gurus belong to the ranks of the sanyassins, those who have adopted the retired life, and while living that life, give teaching to pupils.
Then there are the Buddhists. Their life is different again. The Buddhist sage can begin his kind of life from the very first. He can become a sage at any age. He becomes a 'chela' and his living comes to him wherever he goes. The house of any Buddhist is open to a sage. No one ever closes his doors to such a one. So he never worries himself about his food, for he will get it wherever he goes. The same respect and honor is paid to the Buddhist sage as to the Hindu, for he is a renunciate just like the Burhai or the Sant. His life is devoted to teaching good morals to people and to make their lives happy. Buddhist people make great celebrations all through the country to commemorate their sages. They never consider them as dead; they are so sure they have gone to a new and better life. And this is certainly true.
Lastly, we come to speak of the Sufi sage. Here also, we find two kinds - the path of Rind and the path of Salik. The people called fakirs by Western writers, all belong to the Rind. Their life consists in learning to disregard all worldly things. A person fears most being without these things, and this makes him a hypocrite all his life, for one fears the things of the world. So this is the first thing to learn to disregard. That is why the poetry of Hafiz, Jami, Rumi, Sa'adi, and Omar Khayyam so much speak of wine. The country where they lived and died was Moslem, and wine was despised and abhorred. So they chose that word, and many other words which were representative of things abhorrent to the religion, and used them in their poetry to express the philosophy of human nature, while incurring the displeasure of the people in general. They hid the action of God and of man within these words - wine, jar, glass, roses etc.
Then, among these, are the 'dancing dervishes.' The idea is that dancing implies motion; motion means life. Dancing expresses the joy of life. And what is joy? Joy is the sign of a good soul, of a good heart. You always notice that when a jovial person, a good soul, a person with a good heart, comes into your life, he brings delight to all. Whenever he speaks, it is in good humor, and he brings pleasantness and joy. Being joyous himself, he makes others pleased. It is not hypocrisy. He is alive; he is joyous.
Take another person who comes weeping. He gives you the same inclination. Wherever he goes he brings gloom; he is taking misery along with him, and so he makes everyone else miserable and despondent too. Now what does that mean? It just means that in the depth of his heart there is some decay. He is not enjoying full life. The sign of life is having goodness, beauty, strength in your disposition, which means you have some joy, and are conscious of beauty, of goodness, of joy. Having joy in your nature and disposition you bring it to everybody you meet. Well, that is the state of the dervish. He says to himself, "If I may not dance, what shall I do?" Having the joy of the presence of his Beloved, he feels the sublimity of nature; he is conscious of all the motion going on throughout nature. It intoxicates him like wine. So naturally it comes out.
True, there is a certain ritual among some dervishes, and they trace it to the time of Jelal-ud-Din Rumi, our great Persian poet. They relate how once this poet, absorbed in the thought of all life as one beauty, in the thought of the motion and rhythm of life, he turned himself in a circle, he circled around; and the movement which the skirt of his garment made as it whirled, brought such a beautiful picture before him and his pupils, that they stored it in their memory ever after. So the dance celebrates this memory.
The teaching of Christ will be found among the dervishes; indeed, not just the teaching, but His life also. If you wished to see a living example of Christ's life you could see it among the dervishes, for among them you will find some who have taken the vow of poverty and chastity, as in the most ancient times. There is no sort of compulsion about it. They do not have to follow this life. It depends on whether they wish to follow the Christian life. So you can find the Christ-life in the dervish. Wherever you travel in India or Persia, whenever you meet a dervish, you will see the same kind of life that Christ lived.
The other form of the Sufi path is that of Salik. The Salik is a person who believes he can be a sage at the same time as he follows his worldly occupation. His work is one of making his life (earning his living) amid the responsibility of everyday life, and at the same time he does it for a higher purpose; his mind is fixed on higher aspirations, even while 'in the world.' Then, every act in all the affairs of life is directed to higher aspirations. Finally every thought in everything he is doing is directed towards that higher aspiration. So you find that the Salik is a worldly man, with responsibility of home, of profession, of business, of trade, and yet when he has attained to that height, he can be made a Murshid; he can be a teacher. It is not necessary to make a renunciation of 'the world' and be a monk. He can still be a Murshid, even though he is still working in the world.
The idea of 'a Murshid' is not a case of giving his knowledge to someone else. It is not possible to give one's knowledge that way. So he does not pretend to be able to do that or profess to do that. His work is to help another person to find out for himself; to develop himself; to discover for himself what is true and what is not. There are no doctrines to impart. There are no principles to lay down. There are no tenets to which the lives of his pupils must be restricted. He is just a guide along the path. He is the one who kindles the light that is already in the pupil. He does not stand before the pupil as a priest; he is as a brother, colleague, friend. Being just a human person he is limited exactly as the pupil is; he is as liable to make mistakes and to have failures as anyone else. He enjoys no special authority, nor is he as one apart in holiness. "I am not more holy than such and such a person. If he is not holy, no more am I." He is not distinctive in such a respect. No, the Murshid is the friend of the mureed; he is a friend on a path which the mureed has not yet trodden.
So he can advise him if the mureed desires to be guided; he can be his friend when the mureed desires him to be a friend. He can solve his problem. He can show him how to understand for himself what life is; he can show him what Truth is and how to attain to it. The sage in the East is everywhere regarded with respect, whether he be a Murshid, a sadhu, a sanyassi, or sant. The name is of no significance. You will hear that Hindus and sanyassins and Buddhist sages are all different from one another. Well, that is true. They can be different just as in Western countries there are differences in the churches. For all that, there is really no difference between sadhu, sanyassi, and sant. Both Hindu and Moslem will bow before the sage, whether he be Buddhist, Vedantic, or Sufi.
No one makes any distinction. Every sage is just a person 'on the path of Truth,' and so 'we respect him.' The feeling which one receives from them may be a little different in each case, but they all bring with them a light and inspiration which is very peculiar, as I may relate from my own experience. When one is in the presence of a Burhai everything seems faded and pale; as if nothing in life had any value; it seems as if one had risen above all weakness and above all earthly good. One receives a feeling of kingliness, as if one were above everything. It seems as if everything was just a hindrance. That is the feeling one has. In the presence of a sanyassi, the feeling is different again; one has a sense of inspiration, of revelation.
All problems of life seem to be settled at once in his presence. It is like a light illuminating you, so that you begin to feel things and look at them differently. The feeling one gets when in the presence of a Buddhist is a moral feeling, a feeling of self-sacrifice, a feeling of gentleness, goodness, and sympathy for every living creature. When you are in the presence of a dervish of the Sufis, one gets a feeling of ecstasy, which Omar Khayyam calls 'wine'; it is an atmosphere charged with magnetism; there is a sense of intoxication, a spiritual intoxication, which could never be compared with any effects of wine of the world.
Lastly, when one is in the presence of a salik, one feels as if an eye had been opened so as to perceive all the beauty there is in the world - the beauty of inner planes, the beauty of outer planes, the beauty of the whole manifestation of life. It is as if the curtain had risen upon a stage as soon as you had arrived, and you found the stage full of every imaginable beauty. Some wonderful beauty had hitherto been hidden, and now it is all opened out before you. For those who expect wonder-working from a sage, to prove that he is a sage, I say that it is the very presence of a real sage which brings such a great joy and deep peace. You need never seek a greater wonder than that evidence that you are in the presence of a true Sage. God bless you.
METAPHYSICS I
The Journey to the Goal
Man has the tendency to expect in his spiritual journey experiences akin to those of the earth. If he had these, then only could he believe that he is journeying. But on this journey there is at each step less to be seen until he arrives at the highest state, where there is nothing before his sight, that is, neither before the eyes, the mind, the heart, nor before the soul. Although the faculty of seeing is there, there is no object to be seen. There is the consciousness alone, the pure intelligence, in its own essence.
'Journey' makes one think of a journey in time and space, like the journeys of our everyday life. This is a journey not in time or space, and yet in time and space. If we go to Brighton, it takes so many hours. If we go to Paris it takes so many more hours. If we make a journey to India, it takes such a long time. This journey cannot be measured in the everyday time. It may take much more time. It may be done in a second. If a person sits here and closes his eyes, he may journey in thought a thousand miles. Yet he has not moved. This shows us that this journey has nothing to do with space.
We measure the time by ourselves. Because we are limited within a hundred years, we count a hundred years, and a thousand years, and we cannot easily count much more. We cannot count the great cycles. When we are sad or sorry, the time goes so slowly. One moment seems an hour, and an hour seems a whole year. And when we are happy or joyful, the days pass so quickly, that ten years are gone, and we do not know where they are. This shows us that there is no time. The journey may take very, very many years, and yet it has not been a long time, because it was not felt to be long.
All the space that we measure is from here to there, so many yards, so many miles. There is another space, within which this space is contained. The nature of this higher, or inner space is that its least little sparkle can contain all the sun, moon, and planets. The space upward and inward, the planes. This space has been produced from that. The higher planes have turned themselves from vibrations into space. If I drop any object, it will fall down. If I pour water from a pitcher, it will fall down. The flame goes up, and the smoke goes up. If you have a chimney, you will see that the flame leaves behind whatever earth substance it has for the earth to take, and when the smoke has become quite pure from the earth, it goes up as ether, as the pure spirit.
This shows us that the lower elements go down, and the higher elements go up. The higher planes are up, above. Christ is always depicted with his finger pointed upwards. Some have said, "Is Heaven then up in the sky?" The higher life, to which Christ points, is above. When you feel sad or sorry, you feel heavy, and drawn down to earth. Then you feel depressed. When you feel a joy, you feel light. What sadness is there in illumination? This is why the Parsis have worshipped the fire, the sun, as the purest element, the symbol of God. It was worshipped until it was said, "Do not worship the sun, the symbol, worship man, in whom is God Himself." But rather than worship men like themselves, men worshipped the elements, less than themselves, because there was not the jealousy of men.
How can these planes, which are greater, be contained in the space, which is less? Our eyes teach us a great lesson. These eyes, not an inch wide, can contain not only all the countries and seas, but also the universe, the sun, the stars. Man, who is so small in one respect, and so limited in another aspect, is so great that he is himself the whole.
In one way we are so poor, poor is small, smaller than a tree, smaller than the big animals even, than an elephant, a camel, a horse, so poor in every way, a drop of water in the sea, a thing not to be counted, and, in another, so vast, that we are ourselves the whole. There is a poem of my Murshid, where he says:
"I, the poor, have such a strength,
That if the eyes had eyes,
They could not see the rapidity of my steps,
If the eyes had their utmost power, they could not see the
rapidity of my paces. This is the strength of the strong."
Khwaja Nizamuddin Chishti says: "The boat in the sea, and the sea in the boat, Oh what fun that the sea is in the boat."
He expresses this philosophy, that man - the boat - is borne up by the whole, the sea, and the whole - the water - is borne up by man - the boat. In the first step of manifestation, there is consciousness only. He is conscious, but He does not know, "What am I. Where am I. What is my work." Then by the activity, consciousness becomes sound. Here, before me, there is nothing, but, if I wave my hand, vibrations and sound come. This shows that all comes from activity. As the activity increases light comes. Then He thinks that He is sound and light. Because He has no body, He recognizes Himself as that of which He is conscious. A little child recognizes himself as his physical existence, because he sees his hands, his body.
The light forms the ideas, because it is the property of light to divide. Variety is the property of light. All activities are made by one activity. Just as in a watch all the wheels are made to go by one wheel. So all our activities are made to go by one, by the breath. The breath makes all go, and when that ceases all the activities cease. Every cause has a cause behind it. All causes originate from One Cause, call it the First Cause, if you will not call it God. Every soul is a ray of the Consciousness.
In this way the Consciousness, by many stages, about which if I were to speak, I should speak for many hours, through many planes, by many experiences, by increase, by reduction, becomes man. So the life goes through many planes, through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. In man the return journey begins. In man the manifestation is perfected. Man is the seed of God. Why is it never said in any scripture that a cat or a dog may be the son of God? Why is it said only that man is the son of God? Because in man are all the attributes of God. What is the matter with him is only that he is deluded. He sees this physical world and he thinks, I am this. It seems so solid, so real.
To be conscious of that state where we are all is the return journey. It has six planes, and the starting-point, that makes seven. For one it may take thousands of years and more, for another it may take one instant. That depends upon the traveller, upon his courage, endurance, energy, and chiefly upon his confidence. Everything in the world has been done by "I can" and all our lacks come from "I cannot." With what did Alexander, who is still called the Great, conquer so many countries? With "I can." This whole world has been manifested with "I can."
The return journey is made through the same planes as the way toward manifestation. Man is the seed of God. From man he must become God, by the thought of God, by the repetition of the name of God. Shams Tabriz says, "Say God, God, God, and God you will become." And again I say, You will become God. His unreal life has become real to man. When he attains to the consciousness, when he reaches the goal, this life becomes unreal to him, and that becomes his real life, his true life, as it is. Whatever we do, whether we live as a saint, whether we make a sacrifice, it is for our own happiness that we do it. And if someone wishes only for peace, it is because his happiness lies in peace.
The world was made for the happiness of the Creator. He felt the power to manifest, and where there is the power to do a thing, there is happiness in doing it. It is as if someone had made a bazaar and then one came to him and said, "There is no shade in my shop," and another said, "I have made a contract, and they have not given me the whole of my contract. They have given me only part." And another said, "The thieves have come in the night, and have taken everything." And another said, "My husband quarrels with me." And another said, "My wife is very bad. This is the wife you have given me." And the man had become so wrapped up in all this that he did not know what to do, and he began to think, "What am I? What have I been? What shall I be? I am not this bazaar that I have made." This is what cannot be spoken before the uninitiated because it goes against the religions. He himself became so involved in this existence that He forgets what He is.
When man seeks to clear himself from all these vibrations that he has gathered around him, this is Sufism, this is initiation. Then he places himself in the other swing. This is rebirth. Then he is a Brahman, who knows Brahma. And also "Brahman durj." Durj means reborn. Christ also said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." Then he passes from this self to that Self.
In the Arabian Nights there is the story that a man loved a princess. His love increased so much that he thought that if he could see her only once that would be enough for his whole life. It was very difficult, for she was a king's daughter, and you know that the zenana is a place that cannot easily be entered. He went to a mystic and said to him, "I do not want to learn any philosophy nor any metaphysics nor anything. I only want to know how to reach my beloved." The mystic said: "That is very difficult. She is a king's daughter. But you can put your soul into the person of someone else, and so be near her." The man said, "How can I put my soul into someone else, and into what person?
A human being will not be able to go where she is. There are the beasts and birds, but they cannot approach her." He thought a bird would be best. There was a very beautiful parrot that had just died. He entered into the body of the parrot, and he flew straight to the king's palace. When the princess saw the beautiful parrot she at once had it put into a cage and stroked and caressed it, and fed it on sugarplums. One day he was very happy. Two days he was very happy. Three days he was very happy. But then he began to think, "I was a man and I am a parrot. I am in a cage. I cannot speak with the princess.
She is different and I am different. If only I were a man again, even away from the princess. And perhaps by this time my body is buried and I can never be a man again." He escaped from his cage, and flew back to the mystic. The mystic had been preserving his body, thinking that he might want it. He said to the mystic, "I want to be a man again. But what can I do?" The mystic said, "Let me cut off the parrot's head." He cut off the head and the man became man again.
People may say, "What a foolish story. What a fable." To a philosopher its meaning is very great. It shows us some very great lessons. It shows us that at first no intellectual knowledge nor philosophy is needed, only love, devotion, the love of God which makes a person desire to draw near and see God. Until love is developed in him, he cannot see God. In order to do this he becomes a bird. What does this mean? It means that he becomes a man of imagination and thought. The bird flies. The nature of thought is that it flies. It flies into the realm of imagination, of beauty. He becomes an idealist, that is, he worships God in His manifestation.
Think what the world would be if there were only manufacturers, traders, accountants, bankers, scientists, politicians. Where would be the beauty of life? When the musician feels the beauty of sound, he composes beautiful music. When the poet feels the beauty in words he writes beautiful poems. When the sculptor feels the beauty of form, he makes beautiful statues. When the painter feels the beauty of color, he paints beautiful pictures. When the architect is awake to beauty, he erects beautiful works.
But then, devotion is not enough. He desires union. And for this he must lose his external self, his parrot self. When that is gone, then he realizes that there is no other, that I am all and everything. Now I will explain its meaning as to the purpose of life, which is even more interesting. When God became manifest, He was deluded by the beauty of His nature. He felt, there is some beauty in My nature, and He wished to see and enjoy it. This whole manifestation was made for God's admiration. The whole thing is the ideal of God, not the ideal of one person, or any persons, but the ideal of the Whole Being. To enjoy it He became first angel, then djinn, then man. Its meaning is very great. It gives the whole purpose of life.
The princess is this world. When He had become man, He had become the parrot. His desire as a man was to eat with the princess, to speak with the princess. But he is in the cage. What she gives him to eat, he eats. He likes the princess, but he is a parrot. He has become the servant of this world, so much that when the fever comes, he wishes to lie down. He does not control the fever, it controls him. He thinks, "I desire that this princess should be my servant. I do not desire to be her servant. I desire that she should be in my control. I do not desire that she should control me." He wishes to control his temper, his jealousy, his anger. He wished to control this outer world, but he cannot. He is its servant, in the cage. He is a limited being.
God desires perfection. He desires that He should be fully satisfied. And there is this nature also in us. Therefore when we desire anything, we desire much of it, and more. We desire to be fully satisfied. In the stage of parrot He loses His true perfection. Therefore in the next inversion He perfects Himself by losing the mortal garb, which He had first adorned for the same reason, thus God arrives to Godhood from man, as the man was parrot and again the parrot returned to man. This is the perfection of which the Bible speaks, 'Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.' This perfection is the Abundance, the Amplicity.
The thought comes, "If I were God, I would say, Let a million dollars come, and a million dollars would come. I would say to this house, Fall down, and it would fall down. I am not God." This illusion comes. Then the thought comes, "Thou art God and I am man. Thou art different and I am different." But the thought comes, "Something there is in me, I do not desire subordination, I desire freedom, I desire perfection. I desire to have all my wishes fulfilled.'' Then he realizes, that "I am in the cage." When this wisdom has come, then the princess, however charming she is, however great her attractions are, does not please him. He runs from her, that is: he renounces.
He renounces his self. He renounces all that makes him greedy, all that makes him selfish. Then when he has renounced all the world he takes away the self that remains, after that self has died by the Dhikr, he looks at himself and says, "I am not, but Thou art." By the Fikr he looks at his mind and says, "I am not, but Thou art." In this way he takes away all his external self. He goes again to the mystic. That means, he returns to his pure intelligence. When that is there, without any stain, without any impression of the world, then he enjoys the pure existence of God.
This is why the mystic's work is very great. For man to remind the Whole Being that He is God, what could be greater. The mystics are called saints, they are called sages. In the East great names are given to them. Their grade is very high. There are the words of Christ, "Ye are the salt of the earth, and if the salt hath lost its savor, wherewithal shall it be salted?" This is the meaning: the mystics are the salt of the earth. If wisdom is not found in them from where can it be brought? Can it be brought from the dog, from the cat? Their work is great. It is to say, You are not man, but God. He says, "You have been man. You are not parrot. Become man again." That is, You are God, not man. In order that you may recognize it, let me deaden the external self. He deadens it by inactivity.
Repose, peace, rest, these are the things of death. The dead man never moves. The self-controlled man never moves. The dead man never speaks. The self-controlled man never speaks. The dead man never thinks. The self-controlled man never thinks. The dead man never feels. The self-controlled man never feels. Activity, thought, feeling, when these three things are taken out, then the external self is dead. Then nothing but God remains. This is why the Qur'an says, Mutu Kubla anta mutu. Die before death. God bless you.
(Note: Bazaar -- In the East a bazaar is a street with shops only. Generally such a complex is a gift of a prince or a rich person, after whom that bazaar is then called. The Emperor Akbar, who never allowed the ladies of his court to appear in public, understood that those ladies too liked to go shopping now and then. Therefore at certain times he let the ladies themselves make a bazaar in the inner gardens of his palace. The princesses and their friends each had a shop or stall and sold their wares themselves. Akbar and the people of the court came to buy. Akbar's Mina bazaar was very famous.)
Enkessar
Selflessness does not only beautify one's personality, giving grace to one's word and manner, but it also gives a dignity and a power with a spirit of independence, which is the real sign of a sage. It is selflessness which often produces humiliation in one's spirit, taking away the intoxication, which enriches the soul.
Independence and indifference which are as two wings which enable the soul to fly, spring from the spirit of selflessness. The moment the spirit of selflessness has begun to sparkle in the heart of man, he shows in his word and action a nobility which no earthly power or wealth can give. There are many ideas that intoxicate man, many feelings there are which act upon the soul as wine, but there is no stronger wine than the wine of selflessness. It is a might and it is a pride that no rank of the world can give. To become something is a limitation, whatever one may become: even if a person were to be called the king of the world, still he is not the emperor of the universe.
If one is the master of the earth, he is still the slave of Heaven. It is he who is no-one who can be all. The Sufi therefore takes the path of being nothing, instead of being something. It is this feeling of nothingness which turns out of the human heart an empty cup, in which the wine of immortality is poured out. It is this state of bliss which every truth-seeking soul yearns to attain. It is easy to be learned, and it is not very difficult to be wise; and it is within one's reach to become good, and it is not an impossible achievement to be pious or spiritual. But if there is an attainment which is greater and higher than all these things, it is to be nothing. It may seem frightening to many, the idea of becoming nothing. For human nature is such that it is eager to hold on to something and the most he holds on to is his own person, his individuality. Once he has risen above this he has climbed the Mount Everest, he has arrived at the spot where earth ends and Heaven begins. God bless you.
METAPHYSICS II
The Mysticism of Color and Sound
Both from the point of view of the Sufi and that of all mystics, the original state of the whole creation is a vibration, and the vibration manifests in two forms or stages. In its original condition the vibration is inaudible and invisible, but in its first stage toward manifestation it becomes audible, and in its next step visible. In its audible stage it is called 'Nada' in Vedantic terms, a word which means 'sound'; or 'Nada-Brahma' which represents 'sound the Creator,' 'sound the Creative Spirit.'
The next stage is called 'Jatanada,' a word which means 'the light.' It is the different degrees of that light and their comparison with one another which gives rise to the various colors. Colors are only the different shadows of light. Compared with one another they are colors. But in reality the light constitutes all color. This is shown by the light of the sun, which has no particular color of its own. But the light of which plants partake, they manifest in the colors of their flowers. These colors seem to be the colors of flowers, vegetables and leaves, whereas in reality they are the colors of the sun. Moreover, in the case of souls also, we may realize that the manifestation of such a variety among them is also an illusion. One forgets that all the various and endless faces and forms of human beings belong to one Spirit, and are the manifestations of that one Spirit. When one begins to understand the theory of color and sound, one can begin to understand that also.
For instance, what is sound? The different notes are the various degrees of breath, human breath or the echo coming from a vessel or instrument or bell, for that also is breath; the breath of human beings as well as the breath of objects; from the one breath many sounds manifest. So that takes one back to the idea of unity again. All this variety of colors and forms and sounds proceeds from one single Source. Associated with this there is the question of the mysticism of number. This is the idea of rhythm. Every movement must have its rhythm. There cannot be movement without rhythm. By rhythm we imagine the intervals of time, such as 'hour' or 'minute,' or in music 'crochet,' 'quaver,' 'semi-breve,' for all these arise from our habit of dividing time into a rhythm. We do this because our life itself depends on rhythm. Our self is full of rhythm. The beating of the pulse, of the heart, in the head, all show life's rhythm.
The science of number comes from the science of rhythm. A certain number comes to denote a certain duration of time. Every action or movement requires a certain time, and has a corresponding effect. Every effect which is produced by color, sound, or number depends on the harmonious or inharmonious effect of that particular thing. For instance, if the sound is not harmonious, it has not a desirable effect upon us; if a color is not harmonious, it also has an undesirable effect. This shows that it is not the particular number or sound which gives the desirable effect, but the harmony. That is why a knowledge of the effect of sound, color or number is insufficient without a development of a sense of harmony in oneself, so that one can understand the harmonious effect of these things.
The mystics have seen five 'tatwas,' or elements, working behind both the sound and the rhythm, although musicians consider seven notes in a scale. The original scale known to the mystics had five numbers. And there were five kinds of scales among ancient people, with five different classes of rhythm. They took the five colors to represent the five elements. People often say, "This color is lucky and that is unlucky," "This number is lucky and that unlucky." But it is not the particular color or number in itself. It is the harmony of the situation. In what relation does that particular color and number stand to you, your life's affair, your own constitution, your stage of evolution. If it stands in harmony with your life, then it is harmonious and lucky. If not, it is inharmonious and unlucky. But it does not mean that the particular color is harmonious; it is just how it stands in your life that decides whether it is harmonious or not. So it is with sounds.
But the power of sound is greater than the power of color. Why is this? It is because sound arises from the depth of one's being, and because sound can also touch the depth of one's being. The Mantra Yoga of the Hindus is based on this principle. The Sufi term for this is 'Dhikr,' that is the use of words for the unfoldment of the soul.* But it is not merely for bringing about any desired result that words can be used in Dhikr. People often make the mistake of using the word without any spiritual ideal behind it, simply for the attainment of some magical power. The Sufis of all ages have warned against this mistake, and have constantly taught that here is only one object worth striving for, the essential object of life, namely God. It is only when the science of words is being used for the attainment of Truth, for the attainment of God, that it is being used in the right manner. To use it for any other purpose whatever is just like paying out pearls to buy pebbles.
We must remember the teaching of Christ, how He says, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that belong to God." In other words, give to the world that which belongs to the world, and give to God what belongs to God, namely: love, worship, reverence, devotion, trust, confidence. All those are due to God; so give them to God. That which belongs to the world is: wealth, money, service, sympathy, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness. All these are due to the world, so give them to the world. We only make a mistake when we give to the world what is for God, and when we do for God what belongs to the world. For instance, when a man flatters another man, and when man depends upon a human being instead of depending upon God. All those things which belong to God, and are due to God, we fail to give Him and give them to man instead. (Note: Mantra Yoga is the repetition of sacred words or phrases which remind one of God. The word "Dhikr" means: "remembrance." When Murshid says here that the Sufi term for Mantra Yoga is "Dhikr," then this is correct. On the prescription-papers however, Murshid uses the word "Dhikr" for: "la-e-la-ha-el-al-la-hu," while indicating other repetitions as "Wazifa," "Fikr".)
When all things which we gain are used for a selfish purpose, we at once become confronted with difficulties, troubles, and disappointments. That is why the same mystical science may be used as a means of attaining God, or may be abused by turning it into a way called 'black magic.' It is not that there is something special called 'black magic,' or that there is something else called 'white magic'; magic is all one and the same. It is how we use it that makes the difference. It is the use of it which makes it right or wrong, good or bad.
A question may be asked, regarding the mysticism of color and sound: "Can we get our individual color and note?" The answer is that in the first place it is not a matter of our own color being good for us. It is whether a number or color is in harmony with us or not, that makes it good or not. In the second place, at every moment of our life, our evolution changes. A person who was a thief yesterday is not a thief today. So also a given number or color belonging to us at one moment, does not belong to us a another moment; it changes every moment. Therefore, to restrict oneself to a certain number or color is like tying one's feet with a chain so that no more progress can take place.
In the third place, were we to settle upon a particular number or color, we might induce a tendency to superstition in our nature, and this we must always avoid. We would always be thinking: 'what is the number of the house we are going to live in'; 'what is the color of the room I shall occupy'; 'what is the color of that dress'; and so on. What would it be then if the person were obliged to live in that particular house, or were obliged to occupy that room in the hotel. If the number were inharmonious he would think everything would go wrong while staying there!
While it is always well to learn everything one can, it is not good to give in to a superstition. Otherwise it would be better never to have known such things at all. The whole aim of the Sufi is to reach to reality, and anything savoring of superstition must be avoided. And what is color after all? It is an illusion. What is number? It is an illusion. What are forms? They are illusions also. It is interesting to a certain extent to know about these things and distinguish them; it gives you a certain knowledge. But since they are all illusions, how can it be worthwhile to give oneself absolutely to them and so neglect the unfolding of the self, besides at the same time neglecting the search for the reality, the only aim of the soul? Therefore all other knowledge and all other pursuits must be given a secondary place. Our main pursuit must be after Truth, believing as we do that in the Truth there is God.
The Mystery of Color and Sound
The attraction that one finds in color and in sound, makes one wonder if there is a mystery hidden behind it, if there is a language of color and sound that could be learned; and the answer is that the language of color and sound is the language of the soul, but it is our outward language which makes us confused as to the meaning of that inner language. Color and sound are the language of life. Life expresses itself in all different planes of existence in the form of color and sound; although the outward manifestations of life are so rigid and so dense that the secret of their nature and character becomes buried underneath.
Why is the world called an illusion by the mystics? For the very reason that I the nature of manifestation is such that it envelops its own secret in itself, and stands out in such a rigid form that the fineness and the beauty and the mystery of its character are hidden within itself, and therefore the seekers after the truth of life, the students of life, strike two opposite paths. One wishes to learn from its external appearance; the other wishes to find out the secret which is hidden behind it. The one who learns from the external gets the knowledge of the external, which we call science. The one who finds out from within, that which is hidden within the manifestation, he is the mystic. The knowledge he gains is mysticism.
The first question that comes to the mind of the intelligent person is: "What is it in color and in sound that appeals to man?" I will answer: "It is the tone and rhythm of color, as well as of sound, which have an influence on the tone and rhythm of our being." Our being is our capacity for the resonance of tone and rhythm that comes from sound and color. This capacity enables us to be influenced by sound and color. Thus, some have a liking for a certain colors others have a liking for another color. In the way of sound, some are attracted to a certain kind of sound. In the form of voice, some are attracted to the baritone or bass voice, others are attracted to the tenor and soprano. There are some to whom the deep sound of the cello appeals; there are others who are interested in the sound of the violin; some can enjoy even the thick sound of the horn and trombone; others can enjoy the flute. What does this show? It shows that there is a certain capacity in our hearts, in our beings, and it depends upon that particular capacity what kind of sound appeals to us.
At the same time, it depends upon man's grade of evolution, his character, his nature; whether he is gross or fine; also his temperament; if he is of a practical nature or if he is dreamy; if he loves the drama of life; if he is absorbed in the ordinary things of life. According to man's condition, his temperament and his evolution, color and sound have their effect on him. And the proof of this fact is that so often man changes his fancy in color; there is a time when he is so fond of red; there are times when he longs to see purple; there are times when he dreams of mauve. And then there comes a time when he takes a fancy to blue; he craves for yellow, for orange. There are some who like deep colors, others light colors. It all depends upon their temperament and their grade of evolution.
Music of every kind appeals to someone. The best or the worst, somebody likes it. Have you not seen how children enjoy themselves with a little tin can and a stick? The rhythm comes within their capacity of enjoyment. Human nature is such, when you put it all together, it takes in everything, from the highest to the lowest. It has such a wide capacity that there is nothing left out. All has its place and all is assimilated by human nature. But at the same time there is action and reaction. It is not only the grade of evolution which makes man change his fancy to different colors and tones, but it is different colors and tones that help him also in his evolution, and they change the speed of one's evolution.
Very often man gives a great importance to color and tone, so much so, that he forgets something which is behind it, and that leads man to many superstitions, fancies and imaginations. Many people have fooled the simple ones by telling them what color belonged to their souls, or what note belonged to their lives. And man is so ready to respond to anything that can puzzle him and confuse his mind; he is so willing to be fooled. He enjoys it so much if somebody tells him that his color is yellow, or green; or his note is C, D or F on the piano. He does not care to find out why. It is like telling somebody that "Wednesday is your day and Tuesday is some other person's."
In point of fact all days are ours; all colors are ours. It is man who is the master of all manifestation. It is for man to use all colors and tones; they are at his disposal, for him to use and make the best of. It would be a great pity if we were subject to one color or tone. There would be no life in it; it would be a form of death. The staircase is made for us to ascend, not for us to continue stepping in one place. Every step is our step, if only we take it.
Now coming to the mystical point of view. The first aspect that makes intelligence conscious of the manifestation is sound; the next aspect is light, or color. The proof of this can be found in the Bible as well as in Vedanta. The Bible says: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God." And in another place it says: "First was the Word, and then came Light." What is color? It is an aspect of light. And when we come to read the Vedanta, there it says: "The first aspect of the Creator, the Source from which the whole creation was made, was sound." In the Qur'an it is said: "The first command was, 'give us a sound', and all became manifest . "
All the mystics and prophets and great thinkers of the world in all periods of history, in expressing the history of creation, have given the first place to sound. And the scientist of today says the same thing. He will call it radium, atom, electron; and after going through all the different atoms of substance he gets into the substance he calls movement. Movement is vibration. It is only the effect of motion which we call sound. Motion speaks, and speech we call sound, because it is audible. When it is not audible, it is because there is not sufficient capacity. But the cause of sound is movement, and movement is always there; which means that the existence of the movement does not depend upon capacity.
And what is color? Color also is movement. And its capacity makes color concrete to our vision. At the same time, although we may say that this is green or red or yellow, every color is different to each person; in fine shades of color, people do not see alike, because the capacity is different in each. The tone is according to the capacity. In other words, it is not the tone or color which in its value is different; it becomes different when we sense it, when we feel it. In its relation to us it is different.
The conception of the five elements, which the mystics have held in all times, cannot be explained in scientific terms, because the mystics have their peculiar meaning. Although it may be called water, fire, air, earth, it must not be taken as such; its nature and character, according to the mystics, is different, but as words are few, we cannot give different names to these elements, although in Sanskrit we have different words for these elements. And so 'ether' is not ether as the scientists mean it. It is capacity. Water is not water as we understand in everyday language; it is liquidity. Fire is understood differently, it means glow or heat or dryness or radiance, all that is living. All of these words suggest something more than we mean by earth, fire, water, etc.
Now, the working of these five elements is distinguished by different color and sound. The five elements are represented by different color and sound. The five elements are represented by sound. In the musical scales which are called 'ragas' in India and China, the raga of five notes is considered the most appealing, and I myself have experienced that the scale of five notes is much more appealing than the scale of seven notes. The scale of seven notes lacks some vital influence that the scale of five notes possesses. In ancient times, the scales by which miracles were performed were mostly the scales of five notes.
And now one sees that there is a relation between sound and color. The first tendency a man has, is to open his eyes when he hears something, to see if he can see the color of it. That is not the way to see it. Color is a language. The very life which is audible, is visible also; but where? It is visible in the inner plane. The mistake is that man looks in the outer for it. When he hears music, he wants to see the color before him. Every activity of the outer world is a kind of reaction, in other words a shadow, of the activity which is behind it, which we do not see. And there is a difference in tone.
There is an activity which has passed twelve hours before and it is now in color in the outer plane, and the same is the reason for the question of the effect he will see in the morning, or next week, and therefore this shows that there is some activity which takes place behind the scenes and it is reflected on the outer life, according as the activities of the outer life are directed.
This is the reason why a seer or mystic is able very often to know beforehand his own condition, and the condition of others; what is coming, or what has passed, or what is going on at a distance. For he knows the language of sound and color. And now the question is: on which plane does he know the language of sound and color? In what way does it manifest to him? One cannot restrict it under a certain law, and at the same time it has a certain law. And where does he see it? He sees it in his breath.
Therefore, the whole culture of spiritual development is based upon the science of breath. The yogis, the mystics, what made them see happenings of the past, present and future? Some law behind creation. A certain working of the mechanism which is a finer mechanism. And how can it be seen? By opening one's vision to one's self.
According to the mystics, there are five capacities of one's being, which may be called five 'akashas.' The one capacity which everybody knows and is conscious of, is what may be called the receptacle of food, which is this body. And the other which is more or less recognized, is the receptacle of sense, which is in the senses. And the third capacity is called the receptacle of life, and this capacity is a world in itself, where one is conscious of the finer forces of life which are working within himself. They can convey to him a sense of the past, present or future, for the reason that they are clear to his vision. He sees them. But you may ask: "How can he find out the condition of another?" It is not because he can know more about others, for one is made to know most about himself, but many are unconscious of the third receptacle, that of life.
The one who is conscious of his receptacle of life, he is able to empty the capacity he has and give a chance for the life of another person to reflect upon it. He does it by focussing upon the life of another, and by that he covers the past, present and future. Only he has to make the camera stand in the right place. It is exactly like photography. The plate is there; it is clear because he is able to empty his own capacity; and the black cloth which the photographer puts over the camera and over his own head, is concentration. When man has mastered concentration, he becomes the photographer. He can use all the light upon one spot. It is all scientific when we understand it in that way. It becomes a puzzle when it is put before us as a mystery. All is mystery when we do not know it; when we know it, all is simple. The true seekers after truth are lovers of simplicity. The right road is simple, clear, distinct. There is nothing vague about it.
And the more one follows this path of the mystery of life, the more life becomes revealed to him. Life begins to express its secret, its nature. What is required of man is an honest following of life's law, and nothing in this world is more important than the knowing of human nature and the study of human life, and that study lies in the study of self, and it is the study of self which is really the study of God. God bless you.
METAPHYSICS III
Impressions Gathered by the Soul Before Coming on Earth
The strongest point which the reincarnationists hold in support of their doctrine is the traces of unusual genius or gift found in a child who does not seem to inherit the same from his ancestors, nor can he learn from his surroundings. The soul before its coming on the face of the earth for a very, very long time on its way to manifestation, gathers the impressions of those souls whom it meets on its way and takes on their attributes. In this way the attributes of the past ones are manifested again, it may be the impressions of one soul or of a few souls or of many souls. Sometimes in the slums a child is born which has great poetical genius which could not be found in its father or mother nor in its forefathers, or a great musical gift which could not be found in its father or grandfather or ancestors.
The soul on its way toward manifestation may meet the soul of a genius in poetry or music, and take with it these impressions. When some very great, or very good, or philanthropic person has died, you will find that soon after a child of like qualities will be born, to balance the world. A child may be born with the qualities of Alexander the Great. This is because the new soul, coming out towards manifestation, has met the soul of Alexander, and has become impressed with all his qualities or part of his qualities as much as it could absorb. Such a one may claim, "I am the reincarnation of Alexander." But it is not that the soul of Alexander returns. If it were so, then every soul that has left this life would return, everyone would know of his former lives. Much of the difference of understanding is the difference of words. If someone says that the soul is the world of impressions which the consciousness holds before it, and spirit is the consciousness, then he may say that the soul returns.
When the child of the unpoetical sings, making up words of its own, this shows the impression of the poetical soul. The soul that comes to the surface is responsive. It is not creative, because it has nothing to give. The soul on its return is creative; it gives its experiences there. For instance, an unused photographic plate is ready to respond to the object before it, but the used plate gives its impression on the paper. Suppose, the soul of Vishnu meets a soul on its way to manifestation, this powerful soul might impress the other with all its attributes. Then that soul may say, "I am Krishna, the reincarnation of Vishnu." Whatever comes before the soul, with that it is impressed. Sometimes children of quite ordinary parents may be so impressed by a great person in whose presence they are that they themselves become great, and as man's personality is nothing but an agglomeration of his thoughts and impressions, the inheritor of that may be called the reincarnation of the past one, although his soul is his own.
Sometimes a child appears to see and understand very much of what is going on in his surroundings, from his infancy. Sometimes a young man sees and understands more than an old person. These are supposed by the average person to be old souls, and the reincarnationists take it as a proof of the doctrine of reincarnation. But, really speaking, knowing and understanding do not depend upon learning; knowledge is the soul's quality. The knowledge of the spirit has been man's in all ages. An old person does not need to read many books in order to know that he was once a little child; he has experienced it. So the soul knows its own experience; it needs only a little awakening to make it self-conscious. And if God wishes to awaken the soul, He can do so directly.
When the Shah of Persia wished to have the History of Persia written by some literary person, there was no one found who could do it, until the mystic poet Firdausi said that he would write it. And he wrote from his inner knowledge the Shahnamah, the history of the Shahs of Persia. If he has this knowledge from the recollection of his own previous lives, he must have reincarnated repeatedly in Persia and in Persia only, uninterruptedly, endowed each time with the same degree of intelligence, so as to acquire and retain all this knowledge
There is nothing which the soul cannot know, for the whole objective existence is made by the soul for its own use, and therefore it is not astonishing if man possesses great qualities without inheritance, and if everything is revealed to him without learning. It is astonishing only when he lacks the same, and this is owing to the globes upon globes of the objective world covering the light of the soul.
The Philosophy of the Soul
The soul in Sanskrit is called Atma, in Persian it is called Ruh. When Muhammad was asked, "What is the soul?" he said, "An action of God," meaning an activity of God, Umr'illah. The soul, in its first state, before it has formed the mind and body, is just like a bubble in the water, but the better simile would be a ray of the sun. "Will you say that the ray is not the sun?" The ray is the sun, but we distinguish the sun as apart, distinct within itself. If you ask me how the ray has been formed, I will say: by the activity, springing out of the consciousness. If the sun were inactive, there would be no ray. We distinguish the ray as longer or shorter, now stronger, now fading away, according to the state of activity in it.
Does the soul, in its life on earth and after, change its place? The soul does not change its place. The soul occupies not only the whole universe, but also the whole of space. It changes, not its place, but its consciousness. The soul, from whence it comes, has no weight. On its way it has gathered around it vibrations which weigh it down. Those measures, which we call one yard, or two yards, or three yards, we fix as we please. The soul cannot be measured by such measures.
The best comparison is with our eyes. How many buildings and countries, and big animals, and churches and cathedrals, our eyes have seen simultaneously, and yet eyes are scarcely an inch in length and width. The soul which is so great, sees and perceives through man, who is so little. The soul of man who seems to be so small a being, is incomparably great, its space being within. The universe cannot contain it, and yet, in the universe there are many souls, the souls of the bees and ants and the souls of all the animals, and the souls of all men and women.
The soul is neither sad nor joyful. On the soul are reflected the happiness or misery, the joy or sorrow of the external. If you stand before the mirror clothed in rags, the mirror holds the reflection of your rags. It is not itself in misery. If you stand before the mirror covered with pearls and diamonds, the reflection of your pearls and diamonds falls on the mirror. But the mirror itself is unchanged, it does not turn into diamonds. Therefore neither is the soul a sinner nor is it virtuous, neither is it rich nor poor.
The external self, the mind and body have formed the individual self. The mind sees the body and the soul sees the body and the mind. The body cannot see the mind, neither the body nor the mind is able to see the soul. The only possibility that remains is for the soul to see itself. But the soul cannot see itself without a mirror, just as the eves cannot see themselves without a mirror. Our soul has always looked outward. That is why the eyes are outward, the nose is outward. It is our mind and our body that attract our soul outward.
It is the greater intelligence that sees the lesser. We see, we understand, what is in the child's mind. The child does not know whether we are glad or sorry, joyful, unhappy, disturbed, well or ill, because here the intelligence is developed, and in the child it is not developed. If the reflection from the lamp falls upon the wall and I am asked, "Is that a light on the wall?" I shall say, either, "It is nothing," or, "It is the reflection." Supposing, take the consciousness as a wall, and the reflection from the body and mind fallen upon it, a part of the consciousness is confined by the reflection. You may call it something, or you may call it nothing. If it were not confined, it would be the pure consciousness, but in its confined state it is the soul.
It is as great a mistake not to know where our soul is, as it is to believe that we have no soul at all. The soul is like a piece of cloth round which a line is drawn, confining a part of it, and making it distinct from the rest of the cloth. The best simile is this: if we stand with a small lantern before a curtain, the light of the lantern will be reflected on the curtain, and will form a round patch. So the impressions of the mind and body are reflected upon the soul, but when the mind is dispersed, no impression will remain upon the soul, nothing will separate it from the whole of the consciousness.
The body is the spectacles of the mind, the mind is the spectacles of the soul. It is not the eyes of the body, or the mind that see, but the soul. The soul is accustomed to see what is before it, and so it cannot see itself. We see what is before us, and it is therefore that we can easily see the disease, the mistake, the fault of another, but we do not see our own. What is it that makes the soul an individual, distinct thing, separate from God, the Whole Consciousness? I will say: two things, its activity, and the shadows fallen upon it. The activity in one part of the consciousness makes that part project itself forward towards manifestation, and when it has gone forward, the shadows of the two worlds falling upon it, make it a separate being.
If not, we should know all, what is going on in the war, what is happening in India. But the soul is occupied with the shadows, it sees only the shadows and therefore we know that "I am cold," "I am uncomfortable," we do not know when another is uncomfortable. It the eyes are closed, do you think that the soul sees nothing? It sees. If the ears are closed, do you think that the soul hears nothing? It hears. This shows that it is the soul that sees and hears.
In the meditative life by viewing the Ansar and Anvar a mureed realizes this fact that there are objects which, without the help of the eyes, the soul can see, and there are sounds which, without the ears, the soul can see, and there are sounds which, without the ears, it can hear. Now as to what is the concentration of the soul with the body, the great poet Kabir has said, "What a play it is, that the blind reads the Qur'an, the deaf hears, the handless are skillful and industrious, the footless dances." This refers to the soul which, without instruments, has the capability of working the same.
The scientific proof of the soul is the anaesthetic. When the anaesthetic is given, first the activity of the organs ceases, or is diminished, then the senses no longer respond to the soul. The soul has lost its telescope by which it experiences the external worlds. It becomes blank. Whatever is done to the body, whatever operation is performed, is not felt at all. This shows that it is the contact with the soul, which makes the body feel. What is the condition of the soul when a person is asleep and not dreaming? The soul, when a person is fast asleep, does not lose its contact with the body. If the soul lost its contact with the body, the person would die, the mind would be dispersed, the collection of thought would be scattered. It would be like a volcanic eruption. This is the secret of sleep of which a more detailed explanation cannot be given and of which cannot be spoken before any but initiates.
The ordinary person knows that after deep sleep, he is calm, he feels repose, his feeling is better, his thought clearer. The condition of Samadhi, the highest condition, is the same as that of deep sleep, the difference being only this, that it is experienced consciously. The difference between the perfect person and the ordinary person is only this, that the perfect person experiences consciously what the imperfect person enjoys unconsciously. God gives the same joy to all, but most people experience it unconsciously. Does the soul sleep? As the body sleeps and the mind sleeps, so the soul sleeps. The soul does not always sleep at the same time as the body and the mind. The body may be awake and the mind may be awake and at the same time the soul may sleep. This is seen only by the mystics, who are conscious of this experience in themselves, and so can recognize it in others. The body sleeps very much, the mind sleeps less, the soul sleeps much less than either mind or body.
Sleep, the unconscious condition, is the original condition from which all has come. Activity has come from sleep and returns to it. The consciousness has become mind in order to see and hear more. It has become body, in order to see and hear more. You may ask, "If all is consciousness, then why does the soul see and perceive, why does not the body see and perceive" I will say, "The whole body is the self, yet it is the eyes that see, the feet do not see." It is the work of the soul to see, and it is the work of the mind and body to be seen yet they in their turn also see and hear what is external to them, as the consciousness works through them also.
The soul sees the play of thought in the mind. The mind perceives the pains and sensations of the body. The body is conscious of heat, cold and touch. Its consciousness may be seen when something accidentally is falling upon it. Before the mind could think of a plan for safety, the exposed part of the body at once contrives its escape at the moment. It is often said that the brain produces thought. The brain does not produce thought. It receives thought. Just as the heart does not produce feeling, but feeling is reflected first upon the heart. Joy and sorrow are felt first in the heart, not in the head.
All that we eat and drink contains a narcotic, even pure water. Therefore, after eating and drinking, a sort of sleep comes upon us. The soul feels a relief. It feels a little detached from the body. The soul takes pleasure in the experience of the senses, in eating and drinking, in every experience. It indulges in this and the more it indulges, the more it becomes bound to this. It cannot be free from the body and the mind. Its real joy is to attain peace by being free from experience. But it has forgotten this.
Therefore people take to strong drinks, hashish, opium, drugs, and all such things. After drinking the troubles of the body are less felt and the thoughts are blurred, the soul feels relieved. But still it is a transitory happiness, because it is dependent upon matter instead of upon spirit.
Q. How does the soul adorn the body? A. The soul and the body are the same essence. The soul has formed the body from itself only. The soul is finer, the body is grosser. What in the soul may be called vibration, in the body turns into atoms. Thought is finer, speech is grosser. Feeling is finer, action is grosser. By the example how thought turns into speech, we understand how the finer becomes the grosser. A thought arises in the mind of an infant, or of an animal, a bird. The thought increases in intensity, it controls the breath, and the breath coming out of the body, produces sounds. These are the first words. Every animal has sounds by which it expresses its joy and sorrow. The language composed of these natural sounds may be called sacred.
Q. What is the soul of a young infant experiencing? And has it a conscious recollection of its experience in other planes? A. This physical existence is so concrete, so radiant, its light is so dazzling, that it wipes from the soul of the child the recollection of its experience in the higher planes. It has been said by some intellectual philosophers that we are parts of God. This is not so. They have said this because they have seen the parts of God. This is not so. They have said this because they have seen the physical body. What can the intellect see? In the physical existence each individual is distinct and separate. But behind this physical existence all are one, the soul is one. If it were not so, we should not be able to understand one another, neither the face of another nor the voice, nor the language. We know how the friend is. If he is in Japan or in America and we are here, we know if he is ill, whether he is sad or happy. And not our friends only, but everything is known to the soul.
The Soul After Death
The soul, on its journey to the Infinite, cannot turn back half way. And when it reaches that goal, it experiences only the light, the wisdom, the love of God, and it loses two things: it loses all the marks of the experiences and thoughts of its manifestation, and it loses its individuality, and is merged in the infinite, divine Consciousness. If an earthen thing is thrown into the water, it has a tendency to go to the bottom, to its own element. If water is accompanying fire on its journey, its water-part still drips down as steam. When fire travels with the air, it takes its smoke so far, but in its higher spheres it gets rid of the fire. When ether turns into spirit, it drops its contact with the air element. In the same manner it is with the soul.
On its return journey it gives all the above properties to their own source, thus lightening its load on its way toward its own element. The earthly body goes to earth, its water part to the world of water, its heat to the kingdom of heat, its air to the spheres of the air, its ether into the ethereal regions. Its impressions, thoughts, feelings, merits, qualities go as far as they can reach, and remain at their stations, wherever they are meant to be. Then it is the soul in its own essence that is left, merging into the ocean of Consciousness where nothing of its previous property remains.
Personality Compared to a Bubble in the Water
Our personality is just like a bubble in the water. As little probability as there is of a bubble once merged in the sea, coming out again composed of the same portion of water, so little probability is there for the soul once merged in the ocean of consciousness to come out again formed of the selfsame portion of consciousness The bubble may come back in the same place with the same portion of water, or it may be another portion of water. There may be half of the first drop of water in the second bubble, there may be a small part, or there may be some portion of water added to it. If one bubble comes, and we call that bubble Mr. John, then we call the other Mr. Tom and another Mr. Henry; yet they are all the same water.
And if we call the water Mr. John, they are all the same Mr. John. All is the same spirit, the same life, involving itself into all the forms and names. According to this point of view there is no I, no you, no he, no she, no it, in the light of reality; all are but the differences of a moment. Every bubble loses either reflections or any properties it possessed during its existence, as soon as it merges in the water, and if once in a thousand chances it came formed of the selfsame portion of water, it does not retain its previous property.
In the same way, supposing as a groundless assumption that the selfsame portion of consciousness, which in the first place is not so solid and stable as water, could possibly appear again on the surface, without any addition or deduction, still it is utterly impossible that it should possess its past qualities and impressions, for it has been absolutely purified by sinking into the Consciousness. And if even a drop of ink loses its ink property in the sea, why should not the ocean of Consciousness purify its own element from all elements foreign to itself? If Hinduism teaches the belief that bathing once in the Sangam at the uniting of the two rivers can purify men from all life's sins, how can it deny that this bath of the soul, sinking into the Consciousness even once, purifies the soul from all the properties it has gathered during its previous life? In the first place, the nature of absorption itself in the Spirit is purification from the material state of being, and the very nature of manifestation is for the soul to come new and fresh. God bless you.
METAPHYSICS 4
Unity
The breath is one, and all else is two. The eyes are two, the ears are two. The breath is one in all mankind, and in all animals and birds. This shows us the unity of God. What is one in the unmanifested state becomes two in the manifested state. The eyes are two. The ears are two. There are the two nostrils, and the two lips. Though the tongue shows one, yet there is the palate to make two. There are the two hands, the two feet.
When a person wishes to rest, he folds his arms. If he wishes to feel peaceful, he closes his eyes, and a peace comes. Though the eyes are two outside, inside they are one. If the ears had covers, like the lids of the eyes, a person would close them. When a person is in the crowd, in a great noise, the thought comes: "I should go away into the solitude." If anyone is sleeping, he will want to cross his legs. If he is sitting, he will want at least to put one foot over the other. When they meet, people shake hands.
All this shows that the going from duality to unity is a bliss. The two arms and the two legs are restful when they are folded, because they have been one before and they want to be one again. If I ask you to hold your five fingers apart for six hours, you will say, "No, thank you." If I ask you to keep your hand closed for six hours, you will consent more readily. If I ask you to remain six hours with arms outstretched, you will decline. If I ask you to keep your arms folded for six hours, you may consent. If I ask you to keep your lips parted for hours, you will not be willing to do so. If I ask you to keep your lips closed for hours, you will consent.
The soul has been one with the 'consciousness,' and it longs for its union with the Consciousness. By the manifestation two have come from what was one. The soul wants to manifest. It also wants to return to the Consciousness.
The Culture of the Soul
Beloved Ones of God,
My subject this evening is "The Culture of the Soul." There are many in the world who perhaps do not believe that there is a soul. Some think there may be a soul, others believe there is a soul, but do not know what it is. Man's life can be divided into two aspects. One aspect is the part of his life which is comprehensible to himself, and the other that part of his life which is unknown to him, that is the soul. The eyes cannot see themselves, but as they can see all other things we know that we have eyes to see. So the soul is our real self, and the soul which sees all things cannot see itself, but the very fact that the whole universe is reflected in it must prove to a deep thinker that there is a soul.
No doubt people of different nations and the followers of different religions imagine and explain the soul differently, and no doubt that for a student to know more about the soul by the study of different scriptures and books is difficult, almost impossible. When somebody went to the Prophet Muhammad and asked him for an explanation of the soul, the Prophet replied, "The soul is an activity of God." It is so true and yet it explains nothing to a person who wishes for the explanation in words.
All things that are comprehensible words can explain, but for the soul which passes beyond human comprehension, words are too inadequate to explain fully. But the question, "How can a person then realize his soul?" can be answered, "By the inner culture."
There are two ways of learning. Learning from within, and learning from without. What we learn from without is called 'learning,' and what we learn from within 'the inner cult.' People very often confuse intellect with wisdom. Often people use the word 'wisdom' for 'intellect' and 'intellect' for 'wisdom.' Also people confuse 'clever' with 'wise' and 'wise' with 'clever.' In point of fact the wise can be clever, but the worldly clever is not necessarily wise. While wisdom is learnt from within, intellectual knowledge is gained from without. As it is necessary to live in the world so intellectual knowledge must be attained, but it is still more necessary to satisfy our soul's longing, to attain inner knowledge which is called wisdom. As eyes without the power of sight are blind, so without illumination of the soul intellectual knowledge is but a mist.
When a soul is born on earth it brings from above the sight, which is the light of the soul, but as the infant grows in the world so his intelligence, covered by impressions coming from the external world, covers the light, until, instead of simple curtains the volumes of impressions so to speak build a wall, covering man's eyes from his own light, the light which man inherits as his divine inheritance. In the Bible it is said, "Raise your light on high, nobody should cover the light under a bushel."
Man's external being becomes in time as a tomb upon the light which is within him, covering it from his own light and leaving him in the darkness. The pursuit of the seekers after Truth is the pursuit of this light; the best known of the stories in the "Arabian Nights," Aladdin, in pursuit of a lantern, is symbolic of this idea. What is necessary first in the pursuit of this light is to waken the faculty of love which generally becomes frozen by the disagreeable experiences of life. No doubt love is divine, it is a divine stream; but if a person has lost his patience before touching this divine stream, which is in the depth of the earth he finds himself in the mud, for the water is still deeper. The first lesson of love is selflessness, and it is the awakening of love in the heart of man which is the re-birth, the true beginning of his life. The story of Aladdin says that he had first loved the princess, and it was she who desired that lantern to be brought, that led him in the path of light.
It is the love element which should be awakened instead of an intellectual research after Truth. How many there are who are searching for Truth in books. Let them study in libraries, there are more books than they can read throughout their whole life. Others are seeking after phenomena, wonder-working. Some wish to communicate with spirits, others wish to acquire some magnetic or some magic power to accomplish their life's purpose. They are not seeking after Truth, they are seeking after the things which often make man more selfish, more superstitious, more confused, more covered and more stupid.
The only longing the soul has is to touch its own depths, to find its own beauty, its riches, its own happiness and its peace. It is as if the soul had possessed a domain and this domain had been taken from it. It is said in the story of Aladdin that after setting out on the journey in the path of love, he found a Dervish sitting by the wayside, and he asked him gently where that lantern was, and how he could reach the place. That explains that the spiritual guide and teacher, who is called in the language of the Hindus 'Guru', is needed for one to proceed in the pursuit of the light. No-one in the East would think for a moment of journeying in the spiritual path without guidance.
How many in the Western world, working on their own by reading books of Hindu Yoga, have lost their track and confused their minds, for there is always the danger of losing one's mind when a person plays with the great cult without the personal guidance of a teacher. Even in order to sing the producer of voice must be consulted; when ill a physician's advice is necessary. Man himself is not self-sufficient, in every walk of life guidance is necessary. But there comes another important phase which has little to do with the teacher, it is the responsibility of the pupil. The teacher shows the way, but the pupil must journey. If the teacher shows the way and the pupil sits still, after a thousand years he is still there where he was, and it is not the fault of the teaching.
In the spiritual cult, first faith and confidence is needed, trust is needed first in the self and next in the guide who shows the way. Then comes a period of mist when one does not know if the train is going forwards or backwards, and it is possible that when it goes backwards it seems to go forward, and when it goes forward it seems to go backwards; and it is natural that when it is standing still one feels that it is going, and when going it may seem to be standing still. Man too anxious about his progress, will lose his battle, but the one who trusts and hopes, who is firm and steady, not curious but serious, who goes into it wholeheartedly, must sooner or later win his battle.
Once the light is gained, once the lantern of Aladdin is in hand then the path in this world and the next is clear, a path which is full of thorns, full of pits, full of dangers of all kinds, a path full of difficulties for rich and poor, strong and weak, for the sensible and for fools, that path then becomes easier, strength comes by itself. Life at every step seems more in one's control, and at every station of the journey there comes a new hope, new experiences, new life, new strength, besides the light, beauty, joy and peace, which are so to speak, the kingdom of man's soul.
Consciousness, the Only Personality
When we look at the world we see that everything makes a circle. The plant grows from the seed to its developed state and returns to dust. Man grows from childhood to youth, to maturity, then to old age. This, it is said, is an argument for our passing through many lives. But it is not the circle that journeys, but the point which journeying forms the circle and returns to the place from which it started. It is the Consciousness that performs the journey at all times, and not the individual soul.
The drops of water in a fountain go up, some higher, some lower, some go a very little way, some rise very high. When each drop falls down it sinks into the stream, flowing away with it, and does not rise again, although the water of the same stream rises again and falls again in drops, which proves to us the fact that the water has a continual rise and fall, not the drop, yet apparently it rises and falls as drops though the portion of water in every drop is different.
The wheel of evolution is such that the consciousness gradually evolves through rock, tree, animal, to man. When it reaches man it cannot manifest further toward the surface, because through this journey all its force is spent. Man is the most active being, he has to do with most things. A rock has very little activity; it lasts long. A tree has a little more activity, and its life is not so long as that of the rock. There are many animals which live much longer than man. Man has the most activity, and in him the consciousness reaches the highest point of manifestation.
The Influence of Character and Fate on Our Surroundings
Our influence is felt and remains in those places where we live, where we sit, where we walk. A person's influence is felt in the room, in which he has been, in the chair in which he has sat, even in his belongings, his coat, his shoes, in all his things. Our influence on our belongings is not absolute. If it were, the Prophets would not have had all the difficulties they had in life. But it is very great. A person's influence is felt by all his surroundings. People's dogs and cats, even become like them. In the families where there is always a quarrel going on, the dogs and cats are quarrelsome.
There was a sage who said: "A person's character shows in every object belonging to him."
I have myself always been very sensitive to people's influence. After learning mysticism, I could by the spiritual practices throw off every impression, so that no one's influence affected me at all, but before, as a musician, I felt the thought of every person in the audience, who liked my music, who did not, if anyone was antagonistic, and if there was anyone present who was hostile, the whole program was spoiled.
The influence of others acts even upon the great sages. A sage was sitting in concentration. He said, "There must be some person from outside in the room." The disciples looked, but they could see no one. They saw only the familiar faces, there was no stranger among them. The sage said, "Look again, there is some disturbing element in the room." They looked, and found a stick that had been left there by a visitor, a person who was hostile. Even his stick had the power to disturb and prevent the concentration.
The wider a person's influence extends, the greater is his power. One person's influence may be only over his family, another may be over the persons in his employment, another may have power over his whole country, his whole race.
I have seen myself that if in a family there is one spiritual, one very good person, the whole family will feel his influence. I have seen in a family of fifty or sixty persons living in one house, there was one very spiritual person, and every young person in that family, every thoughtless person, at a moment when he was inclined to be led astray, would feel something like a rein holding him back. And when this person was gone, in this family, which for forty years had been growing in every way, increasing in reputation in goodness, first drunkenness was introduced. It spread from one person to many; and then all in the family were at variance, one against the other.
By association with a good person the bad may, once in a hundred times, do good actions, and by association with an evil person even the good may once in a hundred times, become bad.
There is a Gujerati saying, "By the virtue of one, thousands may be saved, liberated; by the vice of one, thousands may be lost."
This is what is meant when it is said that Christ saves his followers from their sins. By the goodness of one, thousands may be benefitted and by the evil of one a whole land, nation, may be ruined.
But we should not depend upon another to save us. Our soul is the same as the soul of the Prophet, of the Pir, of the Murshid. We must not say, "I cannot be as they." Our soul is the same. And why, having the beautiful essence within us, should we not be loved? We should think that there is in our soul the same power, that our influence extends to others. If we have not a family, we have friends, if we have not friends, we have acquaintances, if we have not these, there are the people about us, who may be influenced by us. This is a great responsibility, and very few people think of it. A father rarely thinks: "My child may be influenced by my feeling, my thought," a mother seldom thinks of this. Only man has the sense of responsibility. It is not the dog, the cat, or the horse that has it.
There are four ways that people follow.
- One is when a person enjoys all by himself, taking no heed of others.
- The second way is to enjoy oneself and share with others.
- The third way is that a person renounces his own benefit and advantage for others.
- The fourth way is that a person returns good for evil, kindness for ill-usage, friendliness for insults. By this way he becomes saintly and prepares himself for the spiritual path.
God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY 1
Magnetism (1)
The subject of magnetism as interesting as it is from a scientific point of view, so interesting, or still more interesting, it is from a mystical point of view. For in the first place a magnet and something which is attracted to the magnet have a relation. The magnet represents the essence, a part of which that object which is attracted holds. Very often one does not find the trace of that essence in the object that the magnet attracts. But at the same time the essence is there, and that is the logical reason why it is attracted, because its blood relationship is an influence of that recognized by them.
In the East this blood relationship was always signified by the magnetism which exists between two persons who have the same blood. And a deeper study of this fact will certainly prove that there is an unknown attraction between two people having a blood relationship between them. An incident that occurred lately was an experience of it. A person from Stockholm was visiting London, where he thought he had no relations, or that if there were any relations, they were perhaps a century ago. And while walking in a part of London he met someone who called him by his name. When he turned back, this person excused himself saying, "I am sorry, I have made a mistake." But this man asked, "How did you know my name?
The name you said is mine." And when they spoke together they found that they were cousins, but cousins only if they studied genealogy. We do not give much attention to this subject. But the more we give attention to it, the more proof we can find of this element which is drawn to its similar element. And Sa'adi, the great poet of Persia, says, "Element attracts element, as a dove is attracted to a dove, an eagle is attracted to an eagle." But do we not find the same thing in life every day? A gambler when he goes to another country, by the help of Providence - one does not know how - attracts another gambler very soon.
A person who does not know what "thief" means, perhaps does not know of a thief; but a person who is a thief, it will not take him any time to find another thief in a country where he arrives. It is not only that when two persons of the similar element see one another they are attracted to one another, but even conditions, life itself brings about their meeting, life itself draws them together. And therefore it is natural that a person who is very sad, naturally attracts a miserable one to join together with him; the one with joy, with happiness, naturally attracts happiness. And in this way magnetism is working through the whole creation; and in all aspects you will see the phenomena of magnetism, in the physical world as well as in the mental spheres.
No doubt one cannot always say that it is an element which attracts the same element; but also the element attracts what it is lacking, what is opposite to it. And when we think of friendship, we see that with some we feel inclined to be friends and others we feel inclined to keep away from. And the most interesting part is that those whom we feel disinclined to be friends with, they have also some who are drawn towards them in friendship. This takes us to find the truth which lies in musical harmony, how two notes have a relation with one another and their combination brings about a harmony.
Now coming to the question of the practical use of magnetism, whether you are in business or in industry, whether you are in domestic work or in the political work of the State, in whatever condition, you will always find that magnetism is the secret of your progress in life; and as to qualification, to which we give such a great importance, you will find that numberless most qualified people do not make a way through life because of the lack of magnetism. Very often there may be a most qualified man, but before he speaks of his qualification the person to whom he has gone, has enough of him.
And personality takes such an important place in life that even the absence of qualification is tolerated when the personality has magnetism. Especially in these times, when materialism is on such an increase that personality is given much less importance in society and at such a time when heroism has no place in life, automatically magnetism works and proves to be the most essential thing even now, and will always prove to be so. Only when there comes the question of magnetism a person does not go deeper into the subject and he only recognizes a personal magnetism by the attraction that he feels.
But when we think of the personal magnetism, we divide it into four different classes. The one kind, the ordinary kind of magnetism, is what is concerned with the physical plane, and this magnetism has to do with nourishment, with hygiene, with regular living and with right breathing; also this magnetism depends upon the regularity of action and repose; besides, this magnetism works with the age, as the ascending and descending of notes in an octave. This magnetism may be likened to the season of spring, which comes and which goes; and at the same time this magnetism is dependent upon all things of this physical world, since this is a physical magnetism.
Now we come to the magnetism which is called mental. Naturally a person with a sparkling intelligence becomes the center of his society. The man who perceives well, who conceives well, it is that man who is liked by everyone. The person who has wit, who can express freely, who can understand quickly, that is the person who always attracts others around him. The person who has knowledge of human nature, who knows of things and conditions, it is that person who naturally draws people towards him. And in reality this is qualification, if there is any qualification; and without this qualification no other qualification can be of very great use.
But this sparkling condition of intelligence is born with a person. It is this person who becomes a genius, and it is this person who accomplishes something, if ever anyone accomplishes; and it is this person who helps others to accomplish something, for on his mind others depend. It is this person who can guide himself and direct others. And with all our thought of equality in which we are so much absorbed, we shall find that it is this person who will win the battle in life, and it is this person who stands above the masses, and it is this person who leads, and without him many are lost.
Now coming to the question: how can this magnetism be developed? This magnetism is developed by study, by concentration, by a keen observation of life, and by the knowledge of repose. Very many intelligent persons without knowing how to concentrate and how to take repose in their lives, in time blunt their intelligence; because there is a certain fund of energy which is reserved and which is limited, and when there is too much pressure put upon that limited energy, in the end what happens? A person becomes less and less intelligent, and his power of mind will decrease every day. And whenever you will find a most intelligent man becoming every day more dull, that always proves that the amount of energy that has been there has been spent.
It is, therefore, when one knows how to reserve one's energies by repose, and when one knows how to concentrate and sharpen one's intellect, that this magnetism remains in a right condition. What generally happens is that it is the intelligent person on whom a great responsibility falls. Much more is asked of him than of others who lack intelligence. If he does not give a rest to his mind by knowing the manner of repose, and if he does not concentrate and by it sharpen his intellect, naturally, just like a knife which is always used, it will become blunted; naturally the continual use of intellect will make him short of funds.
Now coming to the third aspect of magnetism. Perhaps this aspect of magnetism may be called a higher kind than the two which have been explained before, for this magnetism is more profound and it touches another person more deeply. This is the magnetism of love, of sympathy, of friendliness. A person who by nature is sympathetic, a person who tolerates, who forgets, who forgives, a person who does not keep bitterness in his mind, nor malice in his mind against anyone, a person who admires beauty, who appreciates beauty, who loves it, who loves it in art, in nature, in all its forms, and who goes out to his friend and foe, to the acquaintance, to the stranger, to all, the person who can endure and who can suffer, and who has the power to have patience through all conditions of life, who feels the pain of another in his heart and who is always willing to become a friend, it is that person whose magnetism is greater than all different magnetisms that we know of.
We do not need to go far to see this. If only we look for good things in persons, we shall find this. Among our surroundings we can find many people in whom we can appreciate that quality. One day a man, who had travelled very much, saw an Indian mystic, and he said, "We heard so much and we have read so much about the saints and sages and mahatmas and Masters that lived in India. But after having gone there I found no one;" and the mystic told him, "You need not have gone so far. The souls who are worthwhile, the souls who love one another, are to be found everywhere. What do we seek saints and sages for? They are to be found everywhere." This Indian mystic said, "I am here, away from home all this time. Do I not find them? I find them everywhere." If we can appreciate, we can find them; but if we cannot appreciate, if an angel came, we could not find these qualities in him. Nevertheless, call him a saint or a sage, call him a prophet or a mahatma, if there is anything that draws man towards man, it is the love element that he pours out.
Now the question is how can one develop this quality? And the answer will be: by one thing. By studying, by knowing, by practicing and by living the life of a friend. By contemplating this thought from morning till evening: 'toward everyone I meet, toward those who love me and those who hate me, do I practice in my life that thought of friendliness, that outgoing, that pouring out of sympathy and love. If I do it, that is quite enough.' And besides this, apart from the magnetism that one gets from it, when we consider life as it is, with all its limitation, with all the pain and troubles and responsibilities that it gives us, if there seems to be anything worth while, it is only one thing, and that is the thought and impression that we have done our best to be gentle, to be tender to those whom we meet in our everyday life. If there is any prayer, if there is any worship, if there is any religion, it is this. For there is no one there to please; if there is anyone to be pleased and whose pleasure it is worth while to earn, it is here, it is man; and it is in the pleasure of man, if one understands it, that there is the pleasure of God.
And now we come to the fourth aspect of magnetism; and this aspect is magnetism itself. The lack of magnetism means that this aspect is hidden. And that magnetism is the soul of man. To define what the soul is, it may be said: the soul is the self of man. But which self? That self of which he does not know. As there is a humorous Indian story that some peasants were travelling, but it was the first time in their life that they went to travel, and, being worried about one another, they thought that next morning they must count if all the peasants were there. They were very disappointed after having counted, for they counted nineteen, and it was understood that twenty peasants had left home.
And so each peasant counted and each said, "There are nineteen", and they could not find who was missing, for everyone was there. In the end they found that the one who counted forgot to count himself. That is the condition of the soul. It sees all selves, but it does not see itself. And the day when the soul realizes itself, that day begins a new life, a new birth. It is the self-realized soul which grows, which expands. So long as the soul has not realized itself it does not develop, it does not grow. Therefore it is at the moment when the soul begins to realize itself, that man really begins to live in the world. But it must be understood that the magnetism of the self-realized soul is greater than any magnetism one could ever imagine. It is power, it is wisdom, it is peace, it is intelligence, it is all. It is this magnetism that heals, heals bodies and heals minds; and it is this magnetism that raises those fallen into difficulties, in pains and sorrows.
It is this magnetism that takes out those in confusion in darkness. It is by this magnetism that the illuminated souls spread out their love, attracting thereby all beings. It is of this magnetism that Christ said to the fishermen, "come hither, I will make you the fishers of men." It is with this magnetism that the great ones, such as Buddha, such as Moses, Muhammad, Christ, came and attracted humanity. And humanity for ages has forgotten. It is that magnetism that, after their having gone to the other side, has held millions and millions of people in one bond, of brotherhood, of sympathy, of friendship. The immense power that the soul-magnetism gives represents a divine magnetism. It is a proof of something behind the seen world.
Magnetism (2)
Magnetism can be explained as affinity, which has power of attraction, it attracts its own element. This affinity may manifest in any aspect in the world of things and beings. It is the power of this affinity which has held the whole universe together. The atoms of water held together make the sea and the atoms of earth held together form the land. So it is with each element and every being. Had it not been for this affinity, the whole universe would have broken to pieces. The stronger part attracts the weaker, and that is why God, the One and Only Power of this affinity, is considered as the Beloved because He attracts all to Himself.
Some call Him the Lover, for He loves His manifestation. But in reality this affinity itself becomes Love, Lover and Beloved, and is idealized by the wise as God, the Only Being. The subject of Love, Lover and Beloved which is most found in the Sufi literature, only reveals the above mentioned fact. That is why the Sufis have worshipped the beauty in nature, the full moon, the rising sun, the rose gardens, the fragrance of the flower and the color of the leaf, and the wine of love, youth, beauty and the Beloved. That, which the ascetics have rejected by self-renunciation, afraid of being tempted or deluded, the Sufi has embraced, recognizing all beauty, from the unseen to the seen, from spirit to matter, all names and forms are nothing but the symbol of God, and thus he worships them in all aspects, high and low, good and bad.
The reason why the magnet attracts the steel is because it has the element of steel within it, as well as more energy. If the steel had more energy, it would have attracted the magnet. Such is the case with everything. The tree attracts the rain, and in the desert there is hardly a shower. This shows that trees have in them the element of water which attracts water and the desert has not this quality. The same is the case with a person who may attract many, and may be attracted by someone. In another case a person may become an object of attraction to some and a subject hate to others. In both these cases it should be understood that the person who has attracted many, has done so by that attribute which he possesses in a stronger degree than others, and in the other case where he is attracted he may be weaker in that aspect of energy.
In other words a singer who may win the applause of thousands may be carried away by the verse of a poet. The attraction between things and beings, as the fondness for diamond, ruby, fruit and flower, dog and cat etc., as well as the attraction of the sexes, this is all based upon the law of attraction. This explains the mystery why independence or exclusiveness has so great a power of attraction, because it represents strength. God is the center of attraction for the whole world, and its proof is no other than His independence and remoteness. Abstinence, seclusion, silence, concentration, perseverance, perfection, dignity, self-respect, modesty, thoughtfulness, gentleness, mildness, meekness, and cheerfulness, all these help personal magnetism.
The law of attraction has much to do with the principle of harmony. No matter how unattractive people may be, yet a group where they are all of the same element, they attract each other. Seeing this the Sufi attunes himself to the same key in which another person, with whom he may come in contact, may be. Magnetism is either inherited or developed. In both cases it is energy, from which magnetism is created by balanced development. If a person has magnetism as an inborn attribute, it is a great assistance to him in his spiritual progress; if it is not innate it takes much effort to cultivate it. Yet everybody has power of magnetism to a greater or lesser degree.
There are five aspects of magnetism, which manifest through the various planes of existence.
1) Physical magnetism which depends upon the physical system, the circulation of the blood and a balanced development of the muscles together with cleanliness of the body both internally and externally, and the refinement of movements, pose and posture. During childhood the freshness of the body together with innocence has attraction and during youth its development is attractive, during middle age the cultivation of mind has the power of attraction. But in old age, neither freshness nor development of the body remains the same, nor does the power of mind. If then there is any attraction it is only the illumination of the soul which has a great magnetic influence over man's surroundings. If this is absent, then nothing remains for him in life, and he becomes a burden both to himself and others.
2) Mental magnetism, which depends on the power and harmony of thought. This can be obtained by being fully absorbed in beautiful and harmonious thoughts, and by suppressing all irritable tendencies, such as anger, passion, greed, attachment, jealousy and pride. The reason why an artist, poet, musician and sculptor, or a thinker proves to have a more arresting personality than a politician or a businessman is because his interest keeps his mind absorbed in the thought of beauty, love, and harmony. While several other occupations of life distract the mind from these thoughts. Just like physical culture brings new life to the body, so in the same way thought culture brightens one's personality.
3) Magnetism of heart is a still greater and more miraculous magnetism. If the heart is tuned properly by kindness and love then magnetism itself gushes out and attracts every being coming in contact. There is a well-known story of Halim, the most eminent Sufi of the past, who became so well-known that the world began to revere him for his generosity and love. Once the King of Persia became jealous of him, seeing him so adored by everybody, and he promised the chief of the assassins some part of his territory if he would cut off the head of Halim and bring it to him. The assassin left this country with great pleasure expecting the reward. After many days' journey he arrived in the city where Halim lived. Halim, as was his custom, went to see if there were any stranger in the city whom he might in any way assist.
It chanced that evening that he met the assassin, and seeing him, a stranger, he invited him to stay the night with him as his guest. He brought him to his house. The guest was quite touched with the hospitality and kindness which he received. The next day when morning broke and everybody began to go about on his daily pursuits, Halim very kindly asked his guest if he would stay with him until he had become familiar with the city, and if he could help him in any way with any matter that he wished to accomplish. The guest said, "but you are too kind to be able to help me in my purpose." Halim answered, "but you can tell me and I will try my best to at least advise you."
The man softly whispered, "I have come here to cut off the head of Halim and take it to my king. For doing so I am promised a large portion of territory and if you will help me in this I will give you also a share." Halim answered, "O, it is very easy, I thought you had something more difficult." He entered the house and fetched his shining sword, giving it into his hand, he said, "Here is the sword and this is the head of Halim." The would-be assassin was so startled to see that such persons are really living on this earth, who are ready to sacrifice their life for others, when he, the most cruel of men, had come to take the life of such a person for a transitory reward. He knelt at the feet of Halim and broke into emotion and said, "I would rather prefer to be thy slave, than to have the territory of the king." Such is the magnetism of the heart. When the heart is developed with love, it wins God as well as man.
4) Spiritual magnetism is produced in man when he, at the command of his own will, becomes absorbed in the abstract, making his senses controlled and inactive, enjoying the undertone of the universe on which all the music of the universe is based. When he views the light of God within himself the forms of this world are nothing but its shadows. Then he becomes that which he sees beyond the body, mind and heart.. Thus he rejoices in ecstasy and feels one with the whole universe, harmonious with friend and foe, tolerant to good and bad alike, innocent towards high and low. This state of ecstasy then attracts just like an electric current all who may come in contact with him either consciously or unconsciously.
5) Divine magnetism is still greater. It does not only attract man, but both beasts and birds, Peris, Houris, Jinns and Angels. Even things are attracted by it. For the person becomes the center for all attraction. To this thorough perfection a person can only come by renunciation and annihilation of the individual self. The Sufis call this state "Kutubiyat." With this are crowned the most chosen ones of God. There are five grades of annihilation and in each grade a new step on the path of perfection is taken, until one arrives at the last grade called Rasul, complete annihilation in God, the Only Being. God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY 2
Toward the One, the Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty, the Only Being, United with All the Illuminated Souls, Who form the Embodiment of the Master, the Spirit of Guidance.
Science and Psychology
The day when science and psychology will come to a certain understanding, on that day the knowledge will become complete. But when I use the word psychology, I mean psychology in the sense that I mean, not in the sense as is understood by everyone. For the psychology which is known as a new philosophy it is in its primitive condition. What I mean by psychology is that which bridges material science with esotericism. In order to get further in this subject I should mention first that the name "matter" and "spirit" are for our convenience. As far as we perceive life as something tangible we call it matter.
And what is not as tangible as a substance, but perceivable, then that we call spirit, the knowledge of which we call psychology. But esotericism is that knowledge which is gained not by perception, nor by tangibility of substance, but by revelation. And so we can divide the three different aspects of science in these names: science, psychology, esotericism. Science cannot be complete without psychology, nor psychology can be complete without esotericism. It is these three that make knowledge complete. And it is by these that one can hope to understand life more fully.
There is a vast field of knowledge in the realm of psychology. The knowledge of imagination, and the same turning into thought; the knowledge of feeling and the same turning into emotion; the knowledge of passion and the same turning into expression; the knowledge of impulse and its outlet; the knowledge of impulse and its suppression; the knowledge of attraction and the knowledge of its contrary effect; sympathy and antipathy, their origin and source, all these belong to psychology. Therefore psychology is a knowledge of tangible things, yet not of solid things that one can touch. And therefore it is more difficult to explain the laws of psychology in words than explaining the laws of the material science. A perception must be developed in order to understand psychology better.
And insight into life must be obtained in order to understand psychology better. It is the understanding of a law working behind the screen which is real psychology. It is the understanding of cause and effect in everything, in every action, in every aspect. And it is a stepping-stone towards esotericism, because it is psychological attitude which leads one to esoteric knowledge. If a person cannot see the truth of esotericism or mysticism it is because he is backward in psychology. If a person is not able to see the hidden law he will not be able to see that hidden love which is called in the Scripture 'God'. Esotericism therefore is quite a contrary process of learning to the process by which science is learnt. For science is learnt by analysis; esotericism is obtained by synthesis. If a person, while wanting to obtain esoteric knowledge, turns things into bits he is analyzing them. As long as he is analyzing them he will never come to the understanding of esotericism.
Psychology needs two things: analyzing and synthesizing. And by understanding psychology better, when one has accustomed oneself to synthesize as well as to analyze, then he prepares himself to synthesize only in order to understand esotericism more fully. Therefore it is quite different to acquire esoteric knowledge from acquiring the knowledge of science. It is like going to the North for acquiring one thing, and going to the South for acquiring another thing. The ancient people therefore made the knowledge of science, of psychology, and of esotericism as one knowledge, and they called it alchemy. And it was very convenient to explain to the simpleton. They said: turning steel into gold. Therefore many who sought gold in life they went into the pursuit of learning this alchemy. And some who went to the end, instead of finding gold they became gold.
There is a story told in the East, which explains this idea in an interesting form. A king was anxious to find some man who really knew alchemy. Many came, but in the end of examination they found that they could not make gold. In the end someone told him that: there is in a village a person living who is simple, most unassuming, but they say that he has the knowledge of alchemy. The king sent for him immediately; and he was brought in the presence of the monarch. When he was brought in the court the king expressed his wish of learning alchemy. And he told him whatever he will ask for it will be given to him. "No", said that man, "I do not know any such thing as you ask." The king said: "Everyone told me, everyone said that you are the person who knows it." "No King", he said, "You have found the wrong person, I am not the person who knows it." "Look here", said the king, "I am going to give you a sentence for your whole life in prison." He said: "Whatever you wish to do you may do. You have found the wrong person for what you want."
"Well", said the king, "I will give you six weeks to think, and till then you will be in prison. In the end of the six weeks I am going to have you put to death." He was put into prison. And every morning the king came to the prison and said: "Now have you changed your mind, can you teach me? Now death is approaching, take care, give that knowledge to me." He said: "No King, go to someone else, who has got what you want; I am not the person that you are seeking for." And at night, every night the king went as a porter and swept the floor and dusted the room, and took food for him, and sympathized with him, and did everything he could do for him, as a servant could do for him. He asked him: "Is your head aching? Can I do something for you? Are you tired? Can I make your bed for you to lie down? Shall I fan you to sleep?
It is hot, it is warm!" Everything that a person could do he did at that time. And so days passed, and one day remained, the next day of which was appointed for this man to be beheaded. The king visited him every morning and told him: "Now you see there is only one day remaining before your death. And this is your last opportunity of saving your life." He said: "No King, you are looking for someone else, not for me." But at night when that porter came this man said, putting his hand on his shoulder, he said: "Poor man, poor porter, you are so sympathetic. I will whisper in your ears a word, a word of alchemy, and that alchemy will change you from steel to gold."
This porter said: "I do not know what you say: alchemy. I only know to serve you. And only I am sorry that tomorrow you will be beheaded. That is the one thing that tears my heart. I only wish that I would give my life to save yours. I would be most thankful." The alchemist said that: "It is better for me to die rather than give alchemy to the unworthy. It is the same thing which I give you just now in sympathy, in appreciation, in love, which I do not give to that king who will now tomorrow take my life. Why is it? It is because you deserve it; the king does not deserve." He whispered in his ears the words of secret. Instead of making gold he became gold. In the morning the king came to give him the last warning. He said: "Now there is your last chance. Now that moment has come that you must be beheaded. Now you must give or you go to the place where you ought to be beheaded." He said: "No, no." The king said: "Yes, you have already given me." He said: "Did I give you? I did not give to the king; I gave to the porter."
This beautiful story gives us an insight into the idea. That process through which the king went as a porter, it is that process through which the knowledge of esotericism is to be gained. The other process, through which the king demanded, that was not the right way of acquiring that knowledge. That knowledge never comes through that process. The difficulty of esoteric knowledge at the present time is only this, that man trained in science is not yet capable of attaining to the esoteric knowledge, unless he went through the process of psychological knowledge. In order to enter the gates of mysticism the first thing for man is to understand what feeling is, what service is, what sympathy is, what sincerity is.
It is a great fault of the learning today that sentimental side is kept apart, which is the most important side. It is like wanting a person to come, but not with his life, but as a corpse. In order to educate a person the life should be taken out of him, and turn him from a living person to a dead one. Therefore we find the death of heroism, therefore we find the death of idealism, therefore we find the death of souls who have made impressions upon humanity and which have lasted for thousands and thousands of years. What is to be revived in the present generation is the capacity of feeling. It is the thinking which is developed today, but not the feeling, after feeling comes seeing. And it is this seeing which is known in the English word "seer."
Q. What is the best way in education to develop that feeling in children? A. I think people at home are more responsible for it than at school. Because this is the first work of home. But if at home such education is given and at school it is spoiled then of course there is an disharmony. For instance I will give you an example. A nurse was telling the children that: "You must keep your toy; you must not take away the toy of another child", when they were quarrelling over one another's toys. The nurse taught them: "No, each of you have your own. The other one has not the right to touch the toys of the other." It was just, but it was not love. Then another one came who knew about it and who said to each child: "No, all the toys belong to all of you.
And the best thing is to give one's toys to the other, that you play with each other's toys. Do you not like to see your brother or sister playing with your toy? You ought to be delighted to see that your brother or sister is playing with it." Well, that is the feeling that must be developed. This crude way in which sometimes people want to work up high ideals by troubling and fighting, that is not the way. The best way is the way of love, of harmony, of sympathy. And for that feeling must be developed instead of thought. The present generation has made a great advancement in thought. But that is not enough. Now what is needed is that battery which stands behind thought, and that is feeling.
Imagination
It will be asked where the imagination is. It is in the mind. And then the question comes, where the mind is. Whether it is in the body, or out of the body. Whether as some scientists and naturalists have said, it is the brain that produces mind and that is all. If that is so, the mind exists as long as the brain exists, and when the brain is destroyed, the mind is finished. If this were so, all a writer's work of three or four months, so many pages and books, and all an artist's work of ten years, a studio full of pictures would be in the brain. And where, in the little brain, would there be room for all this?
It will be said that when a person thinks, his eyes show his thoughts. When he is sad, his eyes and eyebrows and his forehead change; and when he is glad, the eyes and the forehead smile. We may keep back our smile, but the forehead smiles. If we think very much, our brain becomes tired. Sometimes a feeling of depression comes, and a heaviness, especially in the chest and in the left side. If a joy comes, a feeling of lightness is felt in the heart. This is because, as thought has its organ, the brain, so the heart is the organ of feeling. With the blood, it sends its vibrations to every pore and every atom of the body.
The mind is thought of as something small, because we say: "My mind, in my mind", and that which is called 'my' always seems small, like: "my purse", or "my grip", smaller than the material body, something that can be carried about in a grip. Really the mind is much bigger than the material body. The shadow of the body is much larger than is generally known. By the practices of mysticism you may learn how very far it reaches. And the mind is much larger than the shadow. I may be sitting here, and I may send my thought to Paris. But then, it may be asked: "If I am here, and my thought is in Paris, am I separated from my mind? Can I go out, and leave my mind in the house, and come back and find it again?" No, the mind has wings that stretch from here, not only to Paris, but to New York, or to Russia, to Japan, to the North Pole, the South Pole and much further still. If from here I send my thought to a friend in India, if I send it without letting anything interfere with my thought, he will feel it in his life, something good will happen to him on account of this good thought.
There is a couplet by my Murshid: "I, the poor, have such a strength, That if the eyes had eyes, They could not see the rapidity of my steps, If the eyes had their utmost power, they could not see the rapidity of my paces. This is the strength of the strong." If a person reads this, who does not know the hidden meaning, he will not understand. The step means the step of thought.
We are so contracted in this material body, because it is the nature of matter to contract. But even here, in this material body, we can expand a little. We can move our hands and arms, and though we are so little, we can walk many miles. This shows the expanding tendency within us.
Thought and Feeling
Let me first explain what is thought and what is feeling. We often speak of thought and feeling as being much the same as the other, but they are as different as fire and air, or as earth and water. It is sometimes said: "My mind is my thought and my thought is my brain."
Some scientists have said that the brain is a substance that produces thought. But the brain could never be large enough to contain the whole of thought. The brain receives the vibrations from the mind invisible, and the heart receives the vibrations from the mind invisible. If we think very much, we hold our head. The head becomes heavy. Scientists do not give the heart any importance as an organ of feeling. They say that it is simply an organ that helps in the circulation of the blood. Really the physical heart receives the impressions from the heart invisible. A feeling of joy or pleasure is not felt in the brain. It is felt in the chest, and especially in the left side, where the heart is. A feeling of fear is not felt in the brain, but in the place of the heart. A feeling of depression or sadness causes a heaviness in the chest.
A dull person will understand less of what is said to him than an intelligent person. If two people are sitting next to each other, and someone is speaking to them, one may understand much less than the other. The vibrations come to both in the same way, but one brain is better able to receive them than the other.
The brain and heart also change. We find a person moved, touched, and shedding tears at the smallest thing that has to do with love or truth, and five years later he may not show any sign of being moved by the greatest joy or sorrow. So also we may find a person very indifferent and cold, and then, three or four years later, he may show a tender and melting state of heart. This depends upon the physical condition of the brain and heart, and this has to do with the subject of physical culture. The Brain and heart may be developed. This is why the Dhikr and Fikr and the various practices of the Sufi are done in connection with the heart. The Sufis give great importance to the cultivation of the heart.
Thought comes from feeling. In the next inversion, thought may create feeling. The thought of an enemy may produce a feeling of sadness and revengefulness. One may be feeling very joyous and a picture of a friend not seen for a long time may produce a feeling of sadness. Still, it is feeling that has creative power, and thought is responsive. A person may be sitting in a room full of people, and may be laughing. Though he may hide his laughter, and it may not be seen, the tendency to laugh will arise in others. A person who is sad or gloomy may come into our presence, and, though he may say nothing the tendency toward sadness arises in us.
If you look at the sky and watch closely, you will have solved a great problem. You will see that there is a small, white cloud somewhere. It is joined by another cloud, and its form is changed. Then another cloud meets them, and its form is again changed. Then one part is taken away, and two parts only remain. Then it grows to ten times its size, and then nine parts are taken away. So it is with thought. It changes constantly like the clouds. The mind is the sky. It is the sun that disperses the clouds, and the soul that disperses thought. In India and other countries where the sun is very strong, the clouds are quickly dispersed. When the soul's power is great, the clouds of our thoughts will be scattered.
People often say: "Hold the root of the thought, hold the feeling which creates it." If a person has the feeling, 'I want money,' the feeling will grow and grow. He will watch every cent and collect, and he may become a millionaire. If a person has a spark of anger against an enemy, it will grow in his thought and feeling, until he feels bad not only towards his enemy, but towards my friend, only to my enemy", but in time, we shall feel full of enmity towards the friend also.
Thought is much greater than all the material objects that it has made. The thought of Shakespeare is alive today, his body has disappeared. The thought of Beethoven lives on the paper, though there may not be an atom of his body remaining. The thoughts of Jelal-ud-Din Rumi, at the time when his soul was longing for its liberation, move the heart of him who reads them. People often say: "I said it, but I did not mean it." That is never true. If you said it, you thought it, and if you thought it, you felt it. You may be in a hurry, and say 'cat', for instance, instead of 'hat', or you may not know the language very well, but to say a thing you have not thought, is not possible.
If a thought comes that: "I want some roses", and the thought repeats itself in my mind over and over again, one of two things will happen, either my thought will make me go out and buy some roses, or else it may make someone else bring them to me. If you think that you want fish for dinner, and the thought makes its circles in your mind, the cook will bring fish. It is not that the cook wished to bring fish, but your thoughts make him bring it. It is by the power of thought that the black magicians can kill a person, or make a person go mad. I have known some so great that they make boxes in a house catch fire and burn without anyone going into the house.
And yet they cannot be called saints or sages, because they do what they do without renunciation, not by the power of the soul, but by the power of the thought. If this power can be used for a better purpose, that is more desirable, but practice it in your own affairs first. If it can be used for others, with renunciation, with love, that is most desirable. From morning till night we think how to make our house more comfortable, how to have a nice dress, a nice motor car, and we do not think of him who lives in the house, of the personality. We want incense in the house, we do not want a bad smell. Of what use is it if the motor car runs well, if the motor car of the mind does not run smoothly? First take care of him who lives in the house.
If we can say to our soul: "You are my real self. Shine in my mind. To you all this that surrounds me is a show, whether I like it, or whether I do not like it. To you it is an experience. See it, even if it be sad or unpleasant. But you are not moved or affected by any of these things. You are much too great for them to leave any stain upon you. You are always the same, always unaltered. And you are also the soul of all else. You are the light of God." This is what is meant by, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God." The Kingdom of God is the soul. It is the light of God. If we can say this, whatever our circumstances may be, our depression and sadness will be dispersed like the clouds before the sun and we shall be in the light and peace of our soul.
Q. If all knowledge is in the Consciousness, what need is there of thought? And if thought is drawn from the external world, how could the universe be created without thought? A. The Consciousness contains all knowledge. Thought is the activity of the consciousness impressed by the external world. Thought is needed to control the activity of the consciousness. God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY III
The Art of Personality
Beloved Ones of God,
I will speak this afternoon on the subject of "The art of personality." There is a difference between individuality and personality as there is a difference between nature and art. As much as nature is near to man's soul, art is closer to his heart. If it were not so, man would have preferred to live in the forest, he would have roamed about in nature and would have been quite satisfied in the wilderness, he would have found the greatest charm in the beauty which is to be seen in the forest. But instead of all that, man has created a world for himself, a world which he has made for himself and in that world he has made a nature of his own imagination, a nature which he calls art. If that is art, then on art much depends. People may say: "Is it not an imitation of nature?" Yes, it is an imitation of nature. You might say: "Then it is not as great as nature." But I say: "Both nature and art, both are made by the same Artist." Nature is made directly by the Artist and art is made indirectly through the pen of the artist. Nevertheless, art is the finishing of that beauty which begins to manifest in nature. A person who has not come to this conception of art he does not yet know the divinity of art.
And now coming to the question what art has to do with personality. Personality is art itself and the greatest art. Once a person came to me and said: "My parents brought me up just like a plant in the wilderness, naturally growing." I said: "It is a great pity," and she was surprised. What is education, what is culture, what is Self development? It is all art, it is all the way for individuality to culminate into personality. In the ancient times, the religious education and human culture in every form, mainly had personal culture as the central theme of education. And today we are expected to learn mathematics, geography, history and something else, and never the art of personality which is of greatest use in life.
Apart from its spiritual significance, in our everyday life we see a salesman who is pleasant, who is courteous, whose manner is well, be a successful salesman. If a seller lacks manner, if he is repellent, he may have all beautiful things in his shop, he will have no success. If a clerk in the office, a secretary, an assistant, a supervisor, if his personality is charming, if he has a kindly manner, if he has a sympathetic attitude, he will win the affection of all, everything will be light, everything will go smoothly. If a person lacks the art of personality, with all qualifications he may have, the most capable person he may be, yet things will not run smoothly. And so it is at home.
A person may be a barrister, a solicitor, a doctor, a most qualified person; but if there is no art of personality, if that art is not developed, he will be disagreeable and unpleasant in his own home and in all walks of life. The art of personality is the main thing to develop, and if that is not developed, a person has missed a great deal. And if the love of this art has not been given, then what happens? The human being becomes not any better than the lower creation. Is a human being greater because he possesses wealth, or because he has read many books, or because he has learnt much? Is he therefore greater as a human being? No. Man is greater when from an individual he has become a person. Very few of us distinguish between individuality and personality. Individuality is that which we have brought with our birth. We are born as a separate entity; that itself makes us an individuality. But personality is something that is acquired; it has not come with us; it is something we gain.
If a tree from the forest grew in the garden in the same way, the gardener would say: "You are not welcome here, you do not fit in with the surroundings here; this is a garden, this is not a forest." But besides that, the art of personality is not only something that a person should learn in order to become pleasant to others, the art of personality fulfills the purpose of life. And now comes a question: What is the art of personality? Do you call the art of personality, mannerism, is it putting on different ways of expression, an extra politeness, a society rhythm? Not at all. That is a falsehood that people adopt being unnatural and acting unnaturally. Instead of giving a better impression, they give a worse impression. It is something which spontaneously expresses itself. You do not need to act in a certain way, you do not need to put on something. It is the expression of your self which is the art of personality.
Besides, it is the sign of the great to express the art of personality. Whether knowingly or unknowingly a person may have developed himself to that manner and it is wonderful to watch. In India I was very fond of seeing the celebrities known in our country. And one day I heard that a great wrestler was visiting our town. I never had approved of something that makes one win and the other fail, but because this man was a celebrity, I wanted to see him. One could have expected very little from the personality of a wrestler. But in this personality instead of all strength, muscular and nervous strength, there was such a kindly manner, such a sympathetic look, such an outgoing attitude, and there was such a serenity, that I thought, even a wrestler who does the most material and physical work, could show that it is his personality and not something material which has made him great; it is his personality.
One might ask: "If a person has a personality, why must he develop it?" But even a diamond must be cut. It has the light in it. Yet cutting is required. It cannot show that glow and that brilliancy before it has been cut. The same thing with personality. Then one may ask: "How is personality regarded, in how many different aspects?" The first aspect of personality is the action, the movement. Very often, before a person has spoken a word, he has achieved a movement which has caused a jar upon the delicate sensibility of a person who sees it and who may have formed an opinion of that person, before he has known about him, only by his movement. In one movement a person shows his state of mind, unless he has the power to control. One can show stubbornness, weakness, foolishness; all things can be traced when a person walks, or sits, or stands up. Those who can recognize a person in the twinkling of an eye, for them it is not necessary to study physiognomy. One movement to them shows whether a person is evolved or unevolved. And when his movements are not directed when this science is not taught, not understood, a person may make such movements that will make an impression upon his spirit and turn his whole being into wrong. Very little attention has been given to this by education.
And now coming to the other aspect of personality which belongs to speech. The more we understand about this, the more we shall know that for every word there is a time and for every word there is a place. And everything you say in its own place and which is a fitting thing, it will be good. It becomes wrong when it is spoken in a place which is not its place. People generally do not think about it. Very often people are outspoken, they do not mind when they speak, what they speak, where they speak. A person who has no control over his speech becomes like a kind of machine which goes on and goes on and goes on, without any will at the back of it.
Remember that not only they do not gain the affection of others, the approbation of others, but they repel others, they cannot keep any secret because they have to say it, they have the habit to say, they have no control about it. Once a woman went to a healer and said: "Can you help me, I am in a distress." The healer asked: "What is the matter?" She said: "When my husband comes home, he is in such a state that there always is a disagreement." "O," said the healer, "that is the easiest thing to do. I will just give you these magnetized lozenges. When your husband comes home, you take one in the mouth and keep it." When the husband came home, tired and fatigued, he was inclined to war as usual, but she was quiet and did not answer. He was grumpy for a little while but then became quiet. And so the home became more harmonious. Then, before the lozenges were finished, she went to the healer and said :"Give me one more packet of these," and he answered: "Lady, learn from this that it is not the lozenges, it is the keeping quiet, it is the closed lips. When your husband is tired, he does not know his mind. And when you do not encourage him to quarrel, he will not quarrel."
The art of personality is not so difficult to learn. It is to learn to be thoughtful. Those who say much, very often say so little. Others who say little, they say much. It depends upon how it is said. In the Bible is said: "First was the Word and the Word was God." That shows what power the word has. If we control our speech, if we know how to use a word, we know the chemical science of life and use it to the best purpose in life. Sometimes a person can change a situation by one word and others cannot change it by a hundred hammers. There is a way to hammer and break a rock and there is the way of the water. If the rock is in the way, the water will not hammer; the water will surround it, will run smoothly over it and make its way on the top of the rock and in this way the waves will proceed.
If one only knew the art of personality. If a person is upset, among ten people who want to console him, there are nine who will upset him more and there is rarely one who will console him. That also belongs to the art of personality. And then we come to another aspect of the art of personality and that is sympathetic and right thinking. By right thinking all that one says and does naturally becomes right, because the root of every speech and action is in the mind. Naturally by right thinking one speaks rightly and acts rightly, one cannot do otherwise. But what generally happens is that one never thinks about right thinking in connection with oneself, always one thinks about it in connection with others. If there is any wrong, it is in the other one. And the most wonderful thing is that the one who is most in the wrong, is the one who sees most the wrong in others.
That person who is full of wrongs, you will see, that person knows thousand wrongs about a thousand people. Besides, our experiences make us so pessimistic that if anyone said: "I have seen someone, such a nice and kind and good person," we begin to doubt; unconsciously our first thought is: "Can it be true, it cannot be true; there is no such a thing as good in the world." And as soon as a person says: "I have seen such a wicked person", everybody is interested, because they believe it. That shows that we hardly expect any experience that can ever be right.
And now coming to the fourth aspect of the art of personality, which is feeling. The great drawback of modern civilization is that man today thinks what is balanced and what is practical, is to think with the brain, to reason out things. But to feel with the heart, he thinks: that is not practical, that is not common sense. Therefore today a normal and balanced person is the one who lives in his brain and the one whose heart is developed, is called a fanatic or unpractical. Imagine, after reading in the Bible that God is Love, we come to realize that the one who has less God in him is more practical and who has more God in him, he is good for nothing. When there is a discussion among intellectual persons it is understood to keep apart sentimentality: "just discuss on the point, that keeps your reasoning clear." But this takes away the beauty of life.
The art of personality is in that profound deep feeling which directs every thought, speech and action of man. When Jesus Christ said to the fishermen: "Come hither and I will make you the fishers of men", He spoke to those who were absorbed in catching fishes at the sea shore: "Come here, I will teach you, (in other words), the art of personality." It is therefore not a subject which I bring before you, it is a subject which Christ taught. It is the art of personality which the Prophets proved in their own lives to be of the greatest importance. The impression Buddha has left upon millions of people in the East who keep his image in the temple and see the expression of God in Buddha, what is it? Is it the theories and dogmas and teachings he has given? No, it is his personality which has given such a deep impression upon people that for centuries they have held it sacred. It has proved to be more precious than anything in the world.
It is not a subject of which one can say: it is no better than any other subject. On the contrary, it is a subject of the greatest importance. There are millions of Muslims, on hearing the name of the Prophet, their eyes are full of tears. What is it? Is it the teaching the Prophet has given? What touches is the personality of the Prophet; his personality has given the deep impression which never can be erased, which remains there still. The art of personality therefore is a magic. The fishermen among whom Jesus Christ had to walk were incapable of knowing the greatness of the Master and not ready to understand the Message He had brought. And yet they used to stand spellbound in the presence of the Master, they used to be deeply impressed by the personality of the Teacher. What was it? It was not a new teaching they received. It was the example before their eyes.
The Sufis of all ages considered the art of personality of the greatest importance. The yogi-theory of asceticism has nothing to do with it (the art of personality). It is another thing. But the wise of all ages who taught that God Himself has manifested in the form of man who from an individual develops into a person, they see in this the fulfillment of life's purpose.
And now one might ask: how does one learn the art of personality? In the same way as one learns the art of painting or drawing. In the first place one learns how to draw a straight line, a horizontal line, a circle, a curve. And in learning the art of personality it is the same. How to say a thing, and how not to say a thing, and how to avoid to say a thing, and how to say a thing without saying it.
Then one learns the art of light and shade which is the next thing. And that light and shade is how to hide a certain part in conversation and to make the other part brought to prominence. And then there is coloring. There is a great variety of colors. Every feeling, every thought, every idea has its particular color. And when a person knows how many of these colors there are and when he composes with them all he says and does in life, then it becomes an art of personality. It is nothing if a person has collected diamonds, or if he has got pearls or if he has got rubies. What is it if he has not developed in his personality that precious quality which makes a person precious. What is it? All those things are nothing.
There are four grades through which one develops in the art of personality. One grade is when a person has become thoughtful. Then he begins to observe his thoughts, to see his actions. The second grade is that not only he observes his thoughts and sees his actions, but is able to control them. The third grade is that a spontaneous outflow of sympathy comes from the person, that it is natural; that his attitude is outgoing, that his personality attracts and that his personality becomes a blessing. And the fourth grade is a grade where no effort has to be made by the artist to make the art of personality. In this grade the artist becomes art itself and whatever he does, it all becomes a beautiful picture.
Is Man the Master of His Destiny?
My subject this evening is "Is Man the Master of his Destiny?" Often a person wonders if man was meant to be the master of his destiny, for life's experience has taught men to say, "man proposes, God disposes", but I will still say that man is the master of his destiny. For the very reason that man may be resigned to destiny, but he cannot be happy with that destiny which he does not wish to have. If man was meant to be the slave to his destiny, then he would have been content with it, he would have been happy in it. For the very reason that he does not wish to be contented, for the very reason that he cannot be contented with his destiny shows that he is seeking mastery, and it is in order to get the key to this mastery that man strives through a right way or a wrong way.
By going the wrong way he has the same motive, but he does not accomplish it because then, in that way, he goes through an illusion. He thinks that he is striving in order to master his destiny, but he goes the wrong way. The one who goes the right way, he finds that key to that mastery, the mastery over his destiny. Well, now is the question how far is man granted that power of mastering his destiny and how far he stands in this life helpless? And the answer is, that it differs with every man. Every man has a certain degree of that power. But this must be seen in this way. That a soul is born on earth helpless, and out of this helplessness it grows, and then learns to help itself. As a soul grows from infancy to youth, from helplessness he becomes able to help himself, so is the soul; the person as he evolves, so he develops to help himself.
Do you not hear sometimes a relation or a friend say about his friend 'he is a child.' 'He is a child' means that he is still helpless. And this shows that in man there are both things, there is a part of his being which is helpless and there is a part of his being which has the mastery. The external part is the part which represents the helplessness of man, it is the inner part of man which represents the mastery. And since every man is conscious of his external being and rarely one is conscious of his inner being, so rarely is man a master, but everyone experiences helplessness through life. And after all, it is the consciousness of a thing which makes the person possess it, and if the person is not conscious of it, it may belong to him and yet he does not possess it. For an instance, there may be a large sum of money put in the name of a child in the bank; the child still does not possess it, he is not conscious of it, he cannot utilize it - it belongs to him, not to others - to him it is nothing, it does not belong to him.
And now you will ask me what explanation have I to give about that belief which has always existed and believed by the wise and foolish, that there exists some such a thing which is called "predestination." And I will explain it. That there was an artist and he planned in his mind, he made in his mind, planned that he wants to produce it on a canvas. And no sooner he took the colors and brush in his hand and began to paint his picture, every line he made and every color he put, it suggested him something, and that altered altogether his plan; the very plan with which he began then became an obscurity to his mind, and what was produced before him was quite a different thing than he had thought before.
What does it show? This shows the three stages of the picture. The first stage of the picture is that plan which, before bringing on the canvas, the artist had designed, the artist had planned; and the other aspect is that action of producing that picture which went as changes, right and wrong and right and wrong, and so on it went; and the third aspect is the completion of that plan, the completion of that picture which stood quite different from the plan first conceived. Therefore, what may be called "predestination" is that plan which is made beforehand, and what may be called "Karma" as they say in the Hindustanic tongues, is that process through which the picture is made; and the completion of that picture is what may be called "mastery."
It does not always happen that the picture is altogether different from what it was planned, and yet it often happens. And however much different the picture may be from the plan yet the foundation remains there as first planned. And therefore, how much different the life may be from that mark of predestination which was before, and yet the life is built, the life is erected upon the same plan which has been first made. No doubt the astrologers and the fortune-tellers, the future-tellers, the prophets will not always say the thing that is really coming, they may make a mistake, and yet the predestination is there; the mistake is in their reading, not in the predestination.
And still that saying of the old that the feet of the infant tell what he is going to be will always prove true. It is the lack of seeing, that men cannot see, but the one who can see, can see from infancy what the child is going to be. And that old saying that the fate of the child is written on his forehead, it is the same in reality; every part and particle of the infant is expressive of what he is going to be. The one who can read the eyes and the ears and the features and the forms as letters, he can read an infant - a human being - as a letter.
He need not consult with planets and mathematics; he need not know other sciences; that intuitive sense can see what the soul is going to be like. And the eyes which are open to see this, they are also open to see the process, that middle part of life's journey, how the person is developing, how the person is going through changes. They can see in the failure of a person a success; there can be in the success of a person a failure. And the one who is capable of doing this, also can see that how, when this picture will be complete, what sort of picture it will be. What the picture is going to be, he can see it beforehand.
And in order to support the argument of the fatalist we do not need to go far to find examples. Everyone has examples near him. There are men most qualified and yet fail; there are people most clever, and yet always lose. In order to support the argument of the one who thinks freewill is something, there are reasons too, because it is the active, it is the persevering, it is the courageous who attain to the success, and those who lack it can sit and wait, and wait forever. And this teaches us that it is a great mistake to divide destiny from free-will, because behind destiny there is a free-will, and behind a free-will there is destiny. What we call destiny is a kind of cover upon the free-will, it is the free-will working in the form of free-will and yet the spirit of destiny is working.
I am now coming to a question, how does a mystic look upon this question? The mystic thinks that in the being of man there are two aspects: one aspect of his being is like a machine, the other aspect of his being is like an engineer. The machine-part of his being is dependent upon climatic changes, upon what is given to it, what is put into it, upon what it depends in order to keep in working condition. And there is another machine of fine mechanism which works as the inner part of this machine, that is finer than its outer part. And that fine part feels atmosphere, feels vibrations, feels pleasures and displeasures, enjoys comforts and rejects discomforts; every kind of feeling exists there.
Then the mystic looks on life in this manner: that this machine is made for the use of the other part of one's being, which is the engineer. But as long as that engineer is asleep, and that engineer is unaware of this machine, he does not run it, it is just left to conditions and environment; they run it. And so it means illness, with depressions, with fears, with his failures, with his helplessness, when this engineer-part of his being is asleep and the outer part of his being is subject to conditions. On the day when this engineer-part of man begins to waken, that day he begins to feel mastery over this machine; he begins to know on that day that this machine was made for him to work it to the best advantage.
I am coming to a still deeper side of metaphysics. We shall find that God Himself, for His own experience, manifests and experiences life through all its aspects, and specially through man. For what is this whole manifestation? This is nothing but the sublime vision of Divine Being. And with all the beauty that one sees in manifestation, the greatest and the most important thing is the fulfillment of this whole creation, and that is to be found in man. And this object is only fulfilled when man has wakened to this part of his being which represents the Master; in other words God Himself. But as long as man is interested in borrowing all that is necessary for this mechanism, which he calls his mind and body, from the external world, he depends upon it and he lives in it.
And since this becomes his occupation, and this becomes his nourishment, this outer world, then he becomes mortal. In other words: the immortal being becomes mortal by borrowing all that he needs from the mortal world. The more he depends upon the external life, the more he forgets the inner life, and there comes a time when he entirely forgets that there can exist a life which is above, which is beyond this external life. We do not need to go to see the example of this very far, when we see just now the condition of the world. We see that, with all this progress, there is materialism every day on the increase, and all the suffering that humanity has gone through, and just now humanity is going through, has been caused by this ever-increasing materialism.
What man believes in is in all that is external, that which he can touch, which he can see, which he can possess externally. In connection with him it may be said, quite contrary to what is said in the Bible, that he lives and moves and makes his life with what is in the material world. And when a person will live like this, his eyes will keep closed to that part of mastery which needs blowing, and by hat blowing it can be risen to a blaze which can lighten, which can illuminate the path of man's life.
Therefore, the object of the Sufi Movement just now in this world, and its work, is only to waken in humanity the importance of that side of life which is much more important than the earth-side of life. The Sufi Message, therefore, is not a Message of a particular creed, it is the Message of understanding life better. And the question how can one attain to it, is to be answered that it is not one day's work, or two days' work. It is the work of a whole life. As every art and science is the same if one says that "in ten years I will accomplish learning music", he does not know what music means. If a person says "in ten years I will be a great poet", he does not know what poetry means. A whole lifetime is not sufficient.
If these things are so difficult to attain, one cannot suppose to attain in one day the knowledge of the deeper side of life, and there are some enthusiastic persons who will talk enthusiasm one day and another day will run away, because they did not see something wonderful. When a person takes the spiritual path he must understand first that he has taken a path for eternity. If eternity he does not know, he should not take his first step, because he is not entitled to take his first step in the spiritual path. And the one who wants to seek that truth, he must not seek it superficially, for truth is not sought, it is discovered. For truth is not something that is to be attained or to be possessed. Truth is the self of one's own being, and it is one's self that is to develop into truth.
Very often people think that sorrow or pain, that is the sign of spirituality. One must not mistake spirituality for sorrow or pain. Yes, in many cases sorrow or pain becomes a source or a process of attaining quickly spirituality, but for that one must not ascribe to oneself a sorrow or pain, for life has enough sorrow or pain. Why does man seek for happiness? Because in reality his real self is happiness. He has lost that self and therefore is unhappy. The greatest tragedy in life is helplessness, limitedness, and the idea is to rise above this limitation in every way possible. And this rising is climbing towards spiritual ideals from materialism. It is the summit of this spiritual ideal which must be climbed, and in the climbing there is the fulfillment of life's promise.
Metaphysics
The mind is not only the Akasha which contains all one learns and experiences through life, but among five different aspects of the mind each having its own work, there is one aspect which may be especially called the mind which shows the power of the Creator. All we see before our eyes, all the objects made by the skill of man, conditions brought about in life favorable or unfavorable, they are all the creation of human mind, of one mind or of many minds. Man's failures in life together with the impression of limitation which man has, keep him ignorant of that great power which is hidden in the mind. Man's life is the phenomenon of his mind. Man's happiness and success, man's sorrows and failures, are mostly brought about by his own mind, of which man knows so little.
If this secret had been known by all, no person in this world would have been unhappy, no soul would have had a failure. For unhappiness and failure both are unnatural. The natural is all man wants and wishes to have. No doubt first one must know what one wants, and the next question is how to get it. The words of Emerson support this argument: 'Beware of what you want, for you will get it'. The whole life is one continual learning, and for the one who really learns from life, the knowledge is never enough. The more he learns the more there is to learn. The secret of this idea is said in the Qur'an: " 'Be', He said, and then it became." The seers and knowers of life do not know this only in theory but it is their life's own experience.
There is a story told among Hindus about a magic tree. A man was travelling in the hot sun towards the woods. He became so tired that he felt like sitting under the shade of a tree. Then he thought: if there were a little mattress to sit on, it would be better than stones; and as he looked he saw the mattress already there; then he thought the tree is so hard to lean against, and when he turned he saw there was a cushion already existing. Then he thought: this mattress is too hard, if I had a cushion to sit on at the same time now I am so tired; and it was there. Then he thought: If I had some cooling syrup to drink, it would be very nice; and then he saw some one bringing him syrup. He was astonished and very glad.
Then he thought: This tree is not enough, it would be nice to have a house; and a beautiful little house was there. Then he thought: Walking in the woods is very tiring, I must have a chariot; and the chariot and the horses were there. Then he was very astonished and could not understand. Then he thought: Is this all true, or is it only imagination; and then everything disappeared, only the hard stones remained and the tree above. That is the story of the mind. The mind has the power to create, it creates everything. But out of what does it create? Out of mazing maya, a substance subject to change, to death and destruction. However the power of the mind is beyond question; and does not this teach us that mostly our unhappiness and our failures are more caused by our own minds than by the mind of another, and if caused by the mind of another then our mind is not in working order.
The knowledge of the power of the mind is then worth knowing. When the moral conception of life is understood better, when man knows what is right, and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad and judges himself only, he sees these two opposite things in his own life, person and character. For man sees the folly of another and wishes to judge another, when his sense of justice is not wide awake. Those whose personalities have brought comfort and healing to their fellowmen were the ones who only used the faculty of justice to judge themselves, who tried to correct themselves of their own follies; and being engaged in correcting themselves had hardly time in their life to judge another. The teaching of Christ: "Judge not, lest ye be judged", will always prove the greatest example to be followed.
The mind is a magic shell, a shell in which a design is made by the imagination, and the same imagination is materialized on the surface. The question 'then why does not all we think come true, why is all we wish not always realized,' may be answered, that by our limitedness, we, so to speak, bury the divine creative power in our mind. Life confuses us so much that there is hardly among a thousand one person who really knows what he wants, and perhaps among a million there is one who knows why he wants it. And even among millions you will not find one with the knowledge why he should want it, and why he should not want it. With all the power of the mind one thing must be remembered: "Man proposes, God disposes", will always prove true, when man's desire stands against the will of God Almighty. Therefore the path of saints in life has been to seek with resignation the will of God. And in this way to swim with the tide, so that with the accomplishment of their wish, the purpose of God may be fulfilled. God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY 4
The Law of Heredity (1)
Heredity has been considered among all peoples and in all ages. If we look at the animal kingdom we see that the lion cub is never the child of the snake, nor any storks hatched from pigeon's eggs, the oak tree will not produce dates, nor will roses spring from thistles.
We see in the East that of all breeds of horses the Arab horse is the best. One slight touch will make it leap any obstacle, cover any distance, while there are other horses, donkey-like horses, upon whose back dozens of lashes are laid, and they put one step forward and stop, again twenty lashes, and one step forward. The Arabs value their horses so greatly, that they preserve the breed, never allowing it to be mixed with any other strain. These horses are very devoted to their master. An Arab was once riding in the desert, and he was overcome by illness, so that he fell from his horse and lay on the ground, unable to move. Days and days the horse remained beside him, though it could easily have wandered away.
It never left him, until at last some travellers came near and were attracted to the place, seeing the horse standing there. They took care of the man, and so his life was saved. There are very many stories of Arab horses. Among dogs, there are some who will follow anyone. Whoever gives them a bone is their master, and if another gives them meat they leave the first and run to the other. And there are some who follow only one master, who obey only one, and even sometimes, sacrifice their life for him. It depends upon the breed, the heredity.
In the East they have considered this subject of heredity very much and have given great importance to it. We have always seen that the son of a poet will have the poetical gift, the son of a musician is expected to be a musician. Even now, if anyone comes forward to speak upon religion they will say: "Are you the son of a priest, or are you qualified yourself?" A great many of the words of abuse have more to do with the parents than with the person himself, and a great many words of praise have to do with the ancestors, not with the person. It was for this that Christ said: "My Father in Heaven", because he recognized his origin from the Divine. The son of the miner will never do the work of a shepherd, and the son of a shepherd will never do the work of a miner. In India we have one family of poets who have been poets for ten or fifteen generations. They are in Rajputana, and are all of them great, wonderful poets. They are called Shigrakair, improvisors, and were at the court of the kings.
There is also the inheritance from the minds of those who have left this earth. When a soul on its way to the earth meets a soul coming from this world, it receives the impressions of that soul, if it is attuned to it. For instance a soul meeting the soul of Beethoven, receives the impression of Beethoven's music. Then it is born with the musical qualities of Beethoven. The believers in reincarnation say: "He is the reincarnation of Beethoven." The Sufi says if it is meant that Beethoven's mind is reincarnated in him it may be said true. But, because the spirit is from the unlimited; he says: "It need not necessarily be called reincarnation." Therefore a soul with poetical attributes may be born in the family of a statesman, where there never before was a poet.
Each soul is like a ray of the sun, or of any light. Its work is to project, to go forth as far as it can. It is creative and responsive. It creates its means, its expression, and it is impressed by whatever comes before it, in proportion to its intention. If we go to the Tottenham Court Road, if we are interested in carpets, we shall not stop before the nut and fruit shop. We stop before the shop with nuts and fruits only if we are hungry, if we are capable of being interested in them. The mental attributes inherit by impression upon the mental plane. Every physical atom of the parents becomes radiant, and its qualities are imparted to the child.
In the case of a father who has liked drink, the child of course is born without the tendency for strong drinks, at that moment. But as it grows and develops, the calls of its body being the same as those of the father, they may have the same craving for drink. The soul is much stronger than the body, and all inherited defeats and infirmities may be overcome, if only the person has a will strong enough for him to cure himself, or to be cured by the help of another person. That which is more outside is given in heritage more than what is more inward. A man may not be like his father in looks or in nature, but he inherits his property. The state will give the property to the son. It is inherited because it is more outward. The attributes of the body are inherited more than those of the mind, because they are more outward.
Coming to the question whether more qualities are inherited from the paternal side or from the maternal side, I will say that the qualities inherited from the father are more deep-seated, while those inherited from the mother may be more apparent, because the father's inheritance is the substance, the mother's is the mold. A child may be very like his mother in appearance, yet the quality is the father's. For instance if the father is very generous, but a rather crude person, and the mother is finer, the child perhaps will be generous and finer. In this way the evolution of the world goes on, by the intermixture of nations and races. Those families who keep themselves reserved, in the end become weak and very stupid, diseased also. For this reason the Prophet in Islam allowed all races and castes to intermarry, because the time had come for the human race to evolve in this way.
Sometimes a person may be very like his paternal uncle or his maternal uncle or great-uncle. This is because in the parents these qualities of the grandfather, which although they were in him, had no chance to show themselves, while they could show themselves in his brother. Also heredity is made by vibrations, there must be harmony in the number of vibrations, as color and sound are made by the harmony of vibrations. Therefore a person may be like his grandfather more than his father. The grandfather may have been a poet, the son may not be a poet, but the grandson again is a poet, because the number of the vibrations corresponds.
Then the thought, the feeling, of the parent are inherited by the child as a quality. If the father is in the thought: "I should build an orphanage", the child will have the philanthropic disposition. If the father is thinking: "This person is my enemy, I should revenge myself upon him", the child will have a vindictive disposition. If the mother admires something very much, if she thinks: "How beautiful these flowers are," the child will have that love of beauty in its nature.
How important it is that people should know that their passing thought or feeling makes the character of the child. In the schools geography, history, astronomy, are learned. But it is most important that this should be learned also. It is not that the old people should read and know it, but the young people should learn it. It is true that genius is transmitted through heredity, and develops at every step, but it is sometimes found that the child of a very great person happens to be most ordinary; sometimes the child of a most worthy person proves to be most unworthy. This may be explained in this manner, that every genius has its three courses, uruj, kemal, and zawal, ascent, perfection, and descent. When the genius is ascending in the ascendent it develops progressively, when it is in perfection it surpasses all the former geniuses in that family, if it is in the decline it shows gradually or suddenly the lack or loss of genius. It is so with families, nations, and races.
A child need not partake the attributes and qualities of his parents, because the soul has no father and no mother; no one can claim to be the parent of a soul. Among very worldly people without a thought of anything but pleasure, a very spiritual child may be born, or from very saintly persons a very devilish child. For those who are walking in the path of truth, there is no heredity. By realizing their divine origin they free themselves from all earthly inheritance. As Christ said: "My Father in Heaven." They realize their origin from the spirit, and by their concentration and meditation, clear all earthly influences from their soul.
The Law of Heredity (2)
This evening's subject is to explain the question whether more attributes are inherited from the father or from the mother, or whether more are brought by the soul itself, or are the original attributes of the soul, or are God-given. The soul acquires attributes and qualities throughout life. A coward who is enlisted for the war, by hearing always of bravery, by living with soldiers, may in time think: "I should go to the war, I should fight." A joyous person, from being in the society of serious people, may become serious, and a sad person from being with cheerful people may become cheerful. Those qualities which were first impressed upon the soul are the strongest, and those attributes which are acquired later are the more active.
When the soul first starts from its original point, it comes first to the world of the angels, and is impressed by the angelic qualities. The work of the angels is love for light, to live in light and sound. Therefore the infant always loves light and sound. They do not distinguish good and bad, high and low. Their work, too, is to admire beauty. The infant will always turn to what appears to it radiant and beautiful. There are two sorts of angels, those who have never manifested as man, Fereshta, and those who upon their journey to the infinite, have reached the world of angels. These are called Hur and Malak. Love, light and lyric are the attributes of the Hur and Malak. From them the soul receives these impressions. Devotion, service and worship are the attributes of the Fereshta.
In the world of angels, the soul for years and years enjoys these experiences. When the desire for more experience urges it on, it goes forth, and comes to the world of djinns (peri and gulman), that means the astral plane. In the Bible we find that Adam was driven out of paradise. This means that the wish for more experience makes the soul leave the world of angels, and go to the astral plane and the physical plane. The work of the djinns is to imagine and to think. The djinns are of two sorts. There are those who have never manifested physically, and there are those spirits who have left the earth with all the load of their actions and experiences upon them. From the first sort of djinns, those who have not manifested physically, the soul receives the impressions of imagination and thought.
The soul that leaves the earth can take to the world of the angels only whatever little love, whatever little nice feelings and kindness it may have. Even its love and kindness and its nice feelings it cannot take higher than to the world of the angels. This is still too heavy for the higher plane. There is a higher plane, and on that plane there is no individuality, nothing but the infinite consciousness. All the rest the soul must leave in the astral stock, and until it can leave all the evil that it has gathered it must remain there; it is too heavy to go higher.
This earth is just like a street, where someone is walking with a bundle. He says to the soul: "Will you take this bundle?" The soul is inexperienced. It says: "Yes. Is it a nice bundle? Has it a good sound, or a perfume?" It takes the bundle, and receives these impressions. Every soul has the best qualities. However wicked a person may be, be assured that his soul has the best qualities, as a spiritual inheritance but they are covered up by all that has been gathered afterwards. And so there is always possibility of spiritual progress for every soul, even the most wicked.
The soul goes always to what appears to it radiant and beautiful, and so it goes on and on, and finds different qualities and different experiences, and collects them around it until at last it finds the mother's womb. The soul of the saints and murshids has remained long in the world of the angels, more impressed by the world of angels, and it brings with it angelic qualities. When it is said in the Bible, the son of God, and the son of man, it means that son of God is he who has recognized the eternal spirit as his parent, and son of man, is he who has recognized himself as the son of his parents, who are as limited as he. We recognize our father and mother as our origin. The parents claim the child as their own, and so they delude themselves. The soul has no father and no mother. Its origin is the universal spirit. And in this we are all brothers and sisters, without distinction of high and low, of race, caste, creed, or religion.
Now the question comes whether the soul inherits more qualities from the father or the mother. The soul has many more attributes of the father, because these are the fundamental original attributes. The attributes of the mother are added to these. They are the more active, because they are the later attributes. From the society, from the training, from the contact of the mother, very many attributes of the mother may be acquired. A man may not like the attributes of his father and may hide them. A small child may have a face just like its mother, it may be just like its mother, but, in its life, on some occasion, it will be so like its father that it is surprising. A coward, by association with brave people may become brave. He may go to the war, but then, when he hears the guns, the cowardice which was the original attribute of his soul, will show itself.
You will ask me: a child is often like an uncle, an aunt of the father's or mother's. Why is this? This has two aspects. Either the father or mother may have the qualities of this relation, though they may not show, or the grandfather or grandmother, or other relation, even five, ten, or a hundred generations back, may have so much attachment for that grandchild that he may watch and impress with his qualities the child that is born in that house. Also the relatives and surroundings of whom either of the parents think the most, their qualities and features also are impressed upon the child.
You will say: "Then, if we inherit the attributes of our father, our mother, acquire the attributes of the djinns and angels, how can we help how our character is?" A man may say: "I am an angry person, because my father was an angry person." "I am a moody person, because my grandfather was a moody person." "I cannot help this, it is my character." This is half true, but it is developed by belief. The soul acquires only those qualities in which it is interested. If the soul is not interested in the qualities, it will never take them. And the soul keeps only those attributes in which it is interested. If it is not interested in them, it loses them. However wicked a person may be, however many undesirable attributes he may have, he can lose them all if he does not approve of them.
You will say: "But can we change our physical body? Can we change our face?" We can. People become like those of whom they think strongly, or with whom they associate. I have seen herdsmen who live with the cattle and the sheep, and from association with the cattle and the sheep, their face had become very like. Have you seen the pictures of the Prophets, of Christ, of Zoroaster, of Moses, and of the other Prophets? If you have seen them, you will say: "They are made from imagination. The painters had not seen them. They were not alive." I will say: "They are alive. And is not the mind greater than the camera? I could show you in India the pictures of our murshids, of the Order to which we belong, from Khwaja Moin-ud-din Chishti, the pictures of ten or twelve murshids and their mureeds are all alike. If it were imagination, why should not imagination produce different pictures, differing from each other, for the nature of imagination is more to differentiate than to unite.
The Attitude
All affairs of life depend upon man's attitude, and the mechanical work that is psychologically done is such that before man steps forward to work, he sees his attitude being reflected on his affair. For instance, a person starts to do something with doubt in his mind; on that affair he sees the shadow of doubt; when a person wants to do something which he knows is not quite just, before he begins the work he sees the phantom of injustice before him.
The heart of man, as Sufis say, is a mirror; all that is reflected in this mirror is projected upon other mirrors. When man has doubt in his heart, that doubt is reflected upon every heart with which he comes in contact; when he has faith, that faith is reflected in every heart. Can there be a more interesting study and a greater wonder than to observe this keenly in life? As soon as man is able to watch that phenomenon in life it is just like a magic lantern that is making all so clear to him. How foolish in this light would appear to man the cleverness and the crooked ways of the dishonest, who for a moment thinks that he is profiting by it, and who for a moment may seem to be benefitted by it.
Worldly gains which are snatched from one hand to the other, are not worth making the heart be reflected by the element which is foreign to it. This life on earth upon which we cannot depend, even on the morrow, only that which is comforting and consoling through all this life of falsehood is that feeling of purity in one's own heart, when one feels that one's own attitude in life is right and just. The one who experiences it, will certainly say that it is greater than all the wealth of the world. It is the knowledge of this philosophy which seems to be lost from the heart of humanity at the present time. It is therefore that all things go wrong. And if there is any preventative which can be used against it, it is to make one's own life as much as one can an example of one's ideal; although to make it perfectly is most difficult. There is nothing like trying, and if once failed, another time one may be successful.
There are some who will say: "Yes, for certain errors here now a suffering has come; I shall bear it." No doubt he is brave and just; but I personally would prefer that man who would resist against suffering by realizing that his birthright, as a divine right, is happiness alone. And pain and suffering is foreign to his soul; it does not belong to it, he does not want it, he will not have it.
Q. Is suffering necessary for evolution? A. Suffering is helpful to evolution, not necessary. In addition therefore; we must not seek suffering in order to evolve. We must avoid suffering. Every failure to a wise person is a teaching. But it is better if he avoided learning in that way.
Q. Would it be possible to gain the same degree of evolution in life without suffering? A. Certainly possible, but most difficult.
PSYCHOLOGY 5
The Mystery of Shadow
In speaking on this subject I recall a poem of Shams Tabriz. He says: "When the sun-faced One had arisen, each atom of the two worlds arose. When the light of His face sent its shadow, by this shadow various names became. The things, what were they? The pictures of the names. The atoms, what were they? He, in reality. The waves, what were they? They were in reality the sea." He explains clearly in this the mystery of shadow. What an astonishing thing it is that a thousand years ago someone should have explained this clearly, not as a belief or as a religion, but as a science. Much earlier still in the Vedanta this science has been explained fully. Puruah Shastra it is called.
Let us now consider the sparkling things lying on the carpet. Is the light contained in them? No. There is no light in them, but they reflect the light from the gaslight. The wood of the mantelpiece reflects the light. Its purity makes it able to reflect. If there were some other dark substances here, they could not reflect the radiance. If I take this brass cup and hold it against the light, its shadow will be very thick and dark. If I hold my handkerchief against the light, its shadow is not so dense. The substance of the handkerchief allows the light to pass through it. If I were to hold a glass against the light, its shadow would be very light. This shows us that the more the particles of any object group and collect together, the less it allows the light to pass through it. From this we see that it is not God's fault if one is wise, another foolish, one is virtuous, another a sinner. The light of God is always shining there, but according as we allow it to pass, we reflect its brightness less or more.
As I am sitting here, each one of you holds my reflection in his eye, and each one has a different reflection, according to the position in which he is sitting. This shows us how everything in the world is formed by the reflections and shadows falling according to the situation. In the East they have a great many superstitions connected with the shadow. They do not allow a child to look at the shadow, nor to see its reflection in a looking-glass. In Malabar a Brahman going to his bath, will never allow the shadow of another person to fall upon him. If someone is walking on the same side of the road as he, he will cross to the other side, rather than allow that person's shadow to fall upon him. Now they have given up these customs very much. They say, we have lost the true meaning, and we are ridiculed. But there is a great meaning behind.
According to our situation, our shadow is long or short, narrow or broad, it falls to the right or to the left, and all these things have a significance for the work upon which we are engaged. If we can compare the shadows of different people, we shall see that they differ from each other. Some are darker, some are lighter. It is very difficult to note the degree of depth of shadow, just as it is difficult to distinguish which of several shades of a dark stuff is the darkest. But if there were some machine which could register the depth of the shadows, we should be aware that they differ. All the historians of Muhammed's time agree in saying that his shadow was never seen. This is found in Bukhari Sherif, and no contemporary historian contradicts him. In the strong sunlight of Arabia, the Prophet's shadow could not be seen. This was the living miracle of his existence. Nur, the light of God, was already shining in him. The light was there, the Prophet was not there. How should not the light of the sun shine through Him?
The reflection in the looking-glass, the shadow upon the earth, the reflection in the water, are different from one another. The shadow upon the earth is dark, because the earth has no light, is dark. These are the external shadows. There are also the shadows and reflections within. What is called clairvoyance is to allow the light within to pass through one so that these reflections are seen within. The shadow falls upon the earth, it falls also upon the space. And there it is much clearer. In the space the colors of the elements are reflected. It is very difficult to see this reflection in the space, because our eyes are so much accustomed to look at the things of the earth that they have become material, and they do not see that which is finer. The mystics, the Sufis, have ways of developing the eyes. They show you ways of looking into the space, that make the eyes capable of seeing what is reflected there. From these reflections the past, present, and future can be told, and all that surrounds a person.
Then there are the internal shadows, the shadows that fall upon the mind, all the shadows of the earth. These make our joy, our sorrow, our happiness, our misery, all that we are, according as they fall upon us. What is spoken of as inspiration, revelation, is to make oneself open to the light, to allow the light to pass through one. Then everything becomes known to the soul. The soul sees everything. It is the nafs, the self, that darkens us, and makes us unable to see. The more we group the atoms composing our self, the more solid we make it, the less the light is able to shine through us. The light is always there, but we do not give it a way through. The more our self is dissolved, the more the light of Allah will shine within us.
The Mystery of Telepathy
To some, this is a mysterious phenomenon, but to those who understand it, it is as easy and natural as ordinary conversation in our everyday life. Everyone can understand that thoughts have existence, and many scientists now perceive that thoughts are vibrations. The ancient mystics and sages throughout the ages have understood that thoughts are made of vibrations. As the physical body is made up of physical atoms, so is our mind composed of vibrations, every activity of mind is "thought." Now thoughts are of two kinds:
1) Imagination. This is an activity of the mind, as thought is. But in imagination, the activity is not controlled by the will. When a person is resting in a chair without specially thinking over a subject, the mind has a habit of wandering about. In this respect it is like a wild or untamed horse which runs off into the jungle at will. It goes off without knowing whither or why, for it is its habit just to wander about. So the imagination is not specially directed, and goes about on various lines just as it pleases, but following the lines to which the mind has been accustomed.
That is why a musician's imagination naturally dwells on music and musical things, an artist's imagination dwells on artistic things: a thief on how to rob; a writer on the direction he has followed in writing. This is all imagination - that is, it is not controlled by the will. It is this that is the case with the average mind. From morning till evening, the will is actively working on those lines to which the mind has been habituated, the lines which the mind has already formed. For example, consider a person who is always thinking of construction - how to construct a factory, how to build up a certain type of business. During this time he has been forming lines in the area of his mind, or mental being. These lines are open for the imagination, and so the mind goes on working along the same lines which his thought has previously been following, even when he is not specially thinking of those subjects. We still follow the same line we have been thinking on. The line which the will has made in the thoughts are the directions along which the imagination unconsciously travels. "There your heart, there the treasure."
2) Thought proper is where the power of the will is directing the activity of the mind. This explains the words "thoughtful", "thoughtless." The thoughtful person is one whose will directs his mind - whether he is doing a thing, or speaking, or thinking. So people call him a thinker. But the one who does not control his action, speech, and his thoughts by his will is thoughtless. So his thought is really imagination; his speech does not make sense, his actions become thoughtless or inconsiderate. In brief, these three things - thought, speech, and action - reveal the character of the thought. If they are controlled by the will, they show thoughtfulness; but if not so controlled, they are thoughtless, the person is called thoughtless.
Now we have been given two main faculties of perception: 1) the sense of touch, smell and taste - the lower senses, 2) Samee, the hearing faculty, and Basir, the seeing faculty which are the higher or principle senses. These two groups work with the physical body, with the ears and eyes. One sees, the other hears, but they work in the mind. It is the mind which listens and sees. The mind is listening when it is aware of things without people telling us. We perceive that a person is displeased. A person may say "Thank you", and yet the mind perceives that he does not really thank you, but is using the words out of formality or even out of sarcasm. So it is the mind which discriminates; the ears of the mind listen. The more developed the mind, the more it can listen even without the help of the ears; it listens to another person's thought without utterance of sound. The mind can see the form of the thoughts and discriminate between them; it is a seer. However, it is easier for the mind to perceive by hearing than by seeing.
This brings us to the subject of "concentration." A person who is sitting with closed eyes is not necessarily concentrating - he may be just resting; he may be asleep. If he is dreaming, that is not concentration either. Concentration is an act of the will during which the mind actually sees, during which the seeing faculty of the mind acts, and also the hearing faculty of the mind acts. Whereas our physical being uses five senses to perceive things, our mental being uses only two - seeing and hearing. When we visualize, we see things by the help of the mind.
It is not everyone that can visualize. When there is no power to visualize, it is because things seen that way seem so vague and unsubstantial compared with the things which we see in the external world. We can never think of such visualized things as real. Everything that is before your eyes and ears - that is what we consider the real thing, whereas whatever comes before the mind's "eye" we regard as imagination, something passing, a dream. It is the same mind that perceives and hears the things of everyday life, yet what it perceives, the other way, we think is just imagination - for all that, it is these that are the realities!
To a mystic, the "reality" of the external world is not more real than the reality in the mental plane, because, as this is subject to change, so all things in the mental plane are subject to change too. Two conditions must be fulfilled before external vibrations can be audible. You hear me speak because there is no wall between myself and you. A wall prevents communication. The second point is like a person speaking out in the open with the same pitch of voice as I use at this moment. You cannot hear the voice so well out in the open because the house we are in gives sound a place to echo in and be audible clearly.
These then are the conditions: a current must be established, a channel or opening along which or through which the sound or words can reach another person. Secondly, the sound must not be able to scatter in all directions, but must be directed and concentrated towards the other so that it can reach the inner or mental sound which we call thought. If we wish to retain thought, and transmit thought, we must learn the process of throwing "the ball" to hit a certain aim. We must direct our aim right, and we must put enough force in it to enable it to reach the goal. It is the force of the will that sends the thought to reach another person. The aim whereby the first person focuses his mental eye upon the other, in telepathy, is concentration. In brief, two things are necessary for telepathy - strength of will, and power of concentration.
The Story of the Hyderabad Sage
Once upon a time there lived a certain sage in Hyderabad, and people used to go to him for help. But he never came out to see them unless he was in a mood to do so. So after a while people got to think of him as so disagreeable, that only those would seek an interview who had great faith and confidence in his power. One day a person came and said; "My case is going to the court, but I have no money, and so if I lose the case it will be hard for my children." So the sage asked him "tell me what you are going to say to the judge." The sage then wrote on a piece of paper, "I see nothing in this case, and will dismiss it." Then he told the man to go home and not trouble himself any further. In due time the man went to court and answered all the questions put to him. The judge asked various questions of the barrister on the opposite side, and finally wrote down his opinion - using the selfsame words which the sage had written! What had the sage done? He had engraved on the mind of this judge the selfsame words that he himself had written down.
What a wealth of power is latent in man, and yet his lack of confidence bars him from it! Sometimes he is afraid to offend his religious belief; sometimes he is afraid of unknown dangers; sometimes he may think he is offending friends, enemies, people in high places. But we are in this world not just to roam about, and eat, and drink, and sleep, and amuse ourselves, without ever getting to know and understand this world around us, to understand ourselves, to understand life, the powers latent in us, the inspiration and unused power. We may have become wholly absorbed in some power in our daily life, but this does not mean we are to go no further towards the realization of our real self. No, if on the road along which we pursue our real self, we meet with some realities and powers not before suspected, surely it is worth our while to take notice of them, to understand them and use them for a good purpose.
Mystics understand that a certain moral evolution is necessary before a person can attain a certain power. So they do not teach it indiscriminately - not out of desire for monopoly, or to hold something back in their possession. What will a child do if you give him a loaded rifle to play with? He does not understand what killing means. Yes, if we stop to examine our aims, aspirations, pursuits in life to which we attach so much importance, perhaps we shall discover that we are not very far removed from the children. The world as a whole is not prepared or ready to use spiritual powers. The sages and mystics will ask: "will he do real justice to the power if he had it?" This explains why they select a few awakened souls, and leave the children to go on playing. They think it is a sin to take little children away from their play when they wish to go on playing - why make them grave, serious, anxious, sorrowful? Surely, it is better just now to give them more toys - the occupations they are so engrossed in, the sports they so much love.
In the East, it is regarded as a sin to wake a sleeping person. Let him rest. He is comfortable. It is not time yet for him to wake up. So, if you went and woke him up you would make him unhappy, and even resentful. Let him go on sleeping till the time comes when he will wake up naturally. A person is asleep when he says there is no such thing as telepathy, no such thing as heaven, no such thing as God, and so on. Let such a one be. He is not ready. So mystics do not openly talk about mysticism, but keep their knowledge for the few who have woken up. And when a person wakes up he will see for himself. The only purpose which the sage or mystic fulfills is to take his hand when this happens. "It is now his time to wake; I must give him help." This is called, "initiation," and from that time a person is ready to go into the mysteries of life.
A person may ask: "What is the sign that one is ready to awake from sleep?" It is this: When a person begins to think "all I have learnt and understood seems so unreal; there are some realities which I am vaguely aware of, and yet compared with them all I have studied and done seems to be of no account!" As the dawn comes after the night of darkness, so he sees light coming; but he has not yet seen the sun! He is only beginning to be awake. People think life is simple; the things that are good they think good; the things that are bad just seem "bad", and so on. But the time comes when a person asks himself in a bewildered manner; "Are those really bad, are they really good? Is the ideal of these people really high, or really low?" He is beginning to see things in a different light. He sees joy in sorrow, sorrow in joy, right in wrong, wrong in right, low in the high and high in the low.
At this point, he does not know where to turn, so he has to speak to himself, and unlearn what he has learnt all his life. He discovers that there is some knowledge in the light of which everything appears the opposite to its previous appearance. In fact, everything is different. He is like a person who admired the theatrical performance, and finds how different everything is next morning. On wakening to the day, how different the view of the world! Before the awakening, the person with his little knowledge thinks he knows so much, but now his pride is finished. He finds that all he has hitherto known is useless. He has to begin all over again. But this is the very time when inspiration and power both come. The power of concentration is the means by which to acquire not only the power of telepathy, but will-power, moral power, inspirational power, moral courage, mental strength, physical strength, and so for all the different kinds of development in life it is the first stage, and maybe it is the last stage, when the person's eyes open to real light.
There are three different steps in concentration: observation, concentration and vision. Observation is developed by singleness of glance. For instance, if I look at a person, I can see that one person much better than if I looked at many persons. It is like this with everything in life. The first step in learning mysticism is just this to develop our observation. We are always looking at a hundred thousand things around us, and never study one properly at all. To understand and know a thing better you keep looking at it. If you keep looking at everything, you look at nothing! Such is the "law of observation."
The next step - concentration - implies steadiness of mind. You cannot concentrate until you have made the external part steady. Just think! Can you keep your eye in one place for a few moments, without moving it? Can you sit in one posture without fidgeting? Why, you cannot sit still even for a photographer. This shows us that the vehicle given us to control and utilize is not completely in our power. If the lowest vehicle we have is not in our power, though this is the simplest thing to control, how can our mind be in our control? How can we acquire more pure and more powerful thoughts? Various postures have been recommended to enable a person to acquire control. The body has to be made one's obedient servant first. When the body has been subdued, the mind will learn obedience from it, because order teaches order. The inner self cannot be in order if the external self is not in order - for our mind is always affected by the body.
The third step is vision. When concentration has been mastered, the vision is clear. When the vision is clear, you can aim clearly, like a person who has learnt to aim a ball at a certain spot, and hit it. If he does not throw the ball properly how can it reach the goal? To hold the ball in one's hand and aim it at and hit the desired goal, one must master three things - observation, concentration and vision.
Q. Should everybody learn mysticism? A. The only difficulty in this is man-made. It is not of God's making. The higher life is so much simpler than life on the surface of the earth. But man does not know what he is. He does not know he is a drop on the surface, and yet that he is an ocean in his innermost part - that there is nothing that is not in him. A person who says to himself; I do not possess that faculty; I cannot put up with that; I am sorry but I could not think of such a thing; and so forth - well, all these ideas are his imagination, part of his confusion of thought, and his lack of understanding what he is. If a person understood what he is he would never say "I cannot do that." Instead, he would become the real man, - what man ought to be. The mystic says "cannot" only rarely, and believes the word still less often. This is the one thing he does not believe in: "I have not", "I cannot." When God is with you, everything is with you; when God is in you, everything is in you - inspiration, knowledge, light all things are within you.
But if you confuse yourself; if you put yourself into darkness; if you find joy in confusion, - you may do so. But you inherit from the heavenly Father His inspiration, His light, His power. You inherit might from Almighty God; you inherit light from the Light of the Universe. Therefore you are blessed with both if you can only open your eyes and see the Blessing! God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY 6
Conditions of the Mind
The mind has three conditions, Jelal, Jemal and Kemal. Jelal is that state when a person thinks of what he will do, when he is planning what to do, when he thinks, "I should start a soap-factory," or "I should learn this thing." Then the mind is in its full force, there is the strength of the thought. Jemal is when a person thinks of what he has done. He thinks, "I went to the British Museum and I saw so many beautiful jewels and books and beautiful statues."
Kemal has two conditions. Either there is no thought at all in the mind. This is for the mystic only, because he practices it. Or no thought is intentionally formed and we take the first thought that comes into the mind and do that. If we could always do this we should need no other guidance, we should not need to learn very much, we should know all things directly, because this knowledge comes direct from the Universal Consciousness. Do you not think that He Who has the experience of all things and all ages, can know more than any person can learn in his short life?
The Will
The activity directed by the intelligence is the will. When there is no intelligence guiding the activity, there is blind impulse. Where there is no activity there is no will. The will can be strengthened by practicing it, by exerting it to overcome obstacles without and within, by acting contrary to our inclination, by holding impulses in check, not allowing them to go to the full length of their swing, by refraining from any action or expression to which we may be inclined, by not allowing ourselves to be overcome by a fit of anger, of laughter, of tears, by extreme joy or sorrow, or whatever mood, and either changing the emotion to its opposite, anger to mildness, laughter to sorrow, tears to joy; by checking the emotion and effacing it, or by, while letting it have its course, yet holding it in our control.
To know when to persist in our own will, when to allow the will of others, is often difficult, and sometimes we think it most difficult to know what is the will of God and what is our own will. Sometimes, six months afterwards, sometimes a year afterwards, or years afterwards, we see clearly what we should have done in a certain case, what course we should have taken, which at the time we could not discern, although we tried to. If at the moment of difficulty, we were as calm, as free from these thoughts of the pleasure, the happiness, the discomfort or the loss that will result to ourselves, we should see as clearly in that moment and perceive plainly the will of God.
Vairagya
The word Vairagya comes from the Sanskrit Varaguia, and means indifference. Indifference is called by the Sufis Fana, and is shown in the cross, the symbol of the Christian religion. This indifference comes to every being, and it is the first step to its annihilation, because not one atom can have its evolution without annihilation. The lower beings, the mineral, vegetable and animal evolve towards the higher, and, because man is the highest creation, there is nothing for him to evolve to, but this indifference, when it comes, opens a way for him to God, from Whom he came.
It comes to the child when it realizes that its dolly is not so interesting as it thought, and that it would be more interesting to play with other children, who, at least, are alive. Then the dolly is thrown away. But, before that, the child takes the dolly, and loves it, and carries it about. And, if the dolly's hand is hurt, the child wants some remedy, and a bed is needed to put the dolly in, and a carriage is needed to take the dolly out. But when the nature of the dolly is understood, the dolly is thrown away, and the child realizes that to play with children of its age is better than those dollies who never speak.
Such is the case with us, the children in the world. Our likes and infatuations have a certain limit, when that is expired the period of indifference commences. When that water of indifference is drunk, then there is no more wish for anything in the world. The nature of the water that we drink in this world is that the thirst is quenched for so long, and then it comes again. When this water of divine knowledge is drunk, then the thirst never comes again. It comes when the nature of the world is understood. It is the higher knowledge. Then is understood that all these objects to which we attach so much importance, that we strive to attain, to achieve, are not important.
Before that a person attaches too much importance to his joys, to his sorrows. If he is sad, the whole world is full of sadness. If he is a little joyful, the whole world is full of joy. As if the sun rises and sets by his joy and sadness. But indifference must be reached after interest has taken its course. Before that it is a fault. A person becomes exclusive, he becomes disagreeable, without interest in life. It must come after all experience. Interest must end in indifference. He must not take the endless path of interest; the taste of everything in the world becomes flat. Then he realizes that all that we seek in all the objects we run after, all beauty and strength is in himself, and he is content to feel all in himself. This may be called the kiss of the cross. Then his only principle is love.
Vairagya means satisfaction, the feeling that there is no desire more to be satisfied, that there is nothing on earth that is desired. This is a great moment, and after that comes that which is the Kingdom of God. Why is God satisfied with the world when even man, when he reaches a certain grade of intelligence, is not satisfied? Or is God not satisfied? There are two sorts of dissatisfaction. The first is when a man has so given in to the external self that the world cannot give him satisfaction. The other is when the desire for more experience, for more enjoyment ceases. This is called in the Hindi language Vairagya. This is indifference. Such a person is not unhappy. He is happier than others. He has lost only that intense interest in the world.
There is a story told of a comedian who every day disguised himself and fooled the king, the Badishah, at whose court he was. But the king recognized him in all his disguises. Then the comedian thought that he should disguise himself as an ascetic. He went to a cave in the mountains, and there he lived with two disciples, also comedians. He fasted very much, thinking that he should disguise himself well. After forty days, people seeing his disciples, began to speak of the sage living in the cave of the mountains. They brought him presents, a hundred, two hundred dirhams.
But he refused all, saying, "Take it away. The sage does not want money or presents." His fame spread more and more, and the king heard of him and became anxious to see him. He went to the cave, but for a long time, the disciples would not let him enter. At last he was allowed to come into the presence of the sage. He said, "I have been kept waiting very long, before I could see you." The sage said, "The dogs of the world are not allowed to enter the house." The king was very much insulted. He thought that this must be a very great person. He gave him a piece of paper, saying, "This is a parvana for the support of your disciples." A parvana means a grant of land. The sage said, "If it is a parvana, its place is in the fire", and he put it into the fire, which was burning before him. Parvana has two meanings, it means also a moth.
The king went away, and the comedian got up, thinking, "Now I must tell the king how well I have fooled him." Then a Voice came, saying, "Your feigned indifference has brought the king before you, if it had been real indifference, We ourselves would have come before you. "
Influence
Perhaps you have read the story of Daniel in the lion's den, therefore you can understand that there is no greater sign of spiritual advancement than man's personal influence; this is an example of advancement in spiritual life. People want to know whether they are progressing or going back. One need not see how much one has read or learned to find out if one has advanced. The principal thing is: if one attracts people or if one repels them, if one is harmonious or inharmonious. This can tell us how far we have advanced. No doubt one day is not the same as the other. One day one may perhaps have more influence than the other. Life is like water, and it will have its waves rising or falling. Sometimes there are conditions or influences which are contrary. By keen observation we can find out if we are advancing. Another sign of advancement is that we must become modest, kind, and respectful to others.
Another sign is that we must have wisdom and power; if one has both these things one will create beauty in life. Now a question is how to attain this advancement. Practices and exercises are the main things. We must have faith and trust in the practices we do. According to our faith we will succeed. Mind and body must be kept in a proper tune. For instance, one moment of excitement takes away the advancement of six months. It is like a person who is making a necklace of pearls; if the thread breaks, he must do it all over again. If we get excited and our mind and body are out of tune, we spoil the practices of six months' time. For those who walk in the spiritual path it is of great value to keep themselves tuned to the pitch which is necessary. The difficulty is to endure all the time many things which upset one, conditions which excite and exhaust one's patience. We must have the power of endurance in spite of all. Life is a continual battle to fight; and in order to keep fit one must keep one's power reserved and preserved. This is done by keeping tranquil and equable in mind. Practices, concentrations, meditations and prayer will win the battle of your life.
Innocence
The way of attaining spiritual knowledge is quite opposite to the way by which one attains worldly knowledge. As the sky is in the opposite direction to the earth, so the source of knowledge of spiritual things is opposite to the knowledge of the world. As man becomes intellectual, he knows things of the world; but this does not mean that he becomes spiritual; on the contrary, he goes further from spirituality by his thought: "I understand worldly things." What is the best way of attaining spiritual knowledge? First, one must develop in one's nature that little spark which is divine, and which was shining in one's infancy, showing something pure, of Heaven.
What attracts us most is innocence, it is innocence which gives an impression of purity. But, we must not understand this wrongly, knowledge of the world is necessary, more than necessary; it is necessary to live in the world, to make the best of one's life, to serve God and humanity; it is not necessary to attain spiritual knowledge, innocence is necessary for that. One sees among friends, relatives, something which attracts one most, perhaps this is the side of the nature which is innocence. People forgive those who are dear to them, they tolerate their faults. They say: "He is wrong, but he is innocent." There is a purity which is divine, and which attracts everyone. Innocence is like a spring of water, purifying all that is foreign to heart and soul.
How can one attain innocence? Innocence is not foreign to our nature, we have all been innocent. By being conscious of this nature, we develop it; in admiring that nature, appreciating it, we also develop it. All things which we admire become impressions. Those who have a bad nature, but who have collected good impressions, will in time turn their nature.
During my travelling in India, the purpose of which was to pay homage to the sages of that land, the thing which appealed most to me was that the greater the soul was, the greater was the innocence. One sees in them innocence, not simplicity. The one who is simple does not understand; we see this in everyday life, he closes his eyes. Innocence is to understand and rise above. Every person sees another through his own glasses, prejudice stands often between. For insight unity is necessary. When that attribute is developed one has attained spirituality. Man becomes wise after having been intellectual, he rises above the intellect, he sees cause behind cause, and understands the way of his enemy. Would it be practical to live altogether according to this principle? A principle is to be used, not to guide our life. When people make of principle a chain, it becomes captivity. Life is freedom. One cannot force oneself to innocence. Can there be any sign of piety or spirituality? There is no better sign than innocence with all understanding. God bless you.
PSYCHOLOGY 7
The Nature of the Dream
While speaking on this subject I should quote a Hindustani saying, they call this world, 'the dream of life'. In the Vedanta it is called, 'the dream of Brahma', that is 'the dream of God'. It makes a person afraid that all this should be unreal, that all our affairs to which we give so much importance should be a dream. Myself, three or four times I have experienced great disappointments, in America, and in places where people came to talk to me at the receptions and lectures. They said, "Do you mean to say that all this is a dream, that it is not real? Now you are standing, I am sitting, you are speaking. Is this all a dream?" That means, "What a foolish idea to call this a dream." Really to him who has experienced only materially, by his five senses, without even a glimpse of an idea of something else, this 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. While you are dreaming, if someone would come and tell you, "Do not believe it, it is a dream," you would never believe that, you would think, "It is real." The dream is recognized as a dream, because of the contrast of the physical life, as everything is recognized by its contrast. You say, "Woman," because there is man. Day is recognized by night. But the contrast of the dream of life is very hard to find. Let us see what things there are that make a dream be called a dream. There are three things, its changing character, its momentariness, and its deluding nature.
This life has the same attributes. If we consider ourselves, our body, the body of another, we see that at every moment it is 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. Then its momentariness, its transitory nature. Where are those who were so great, like Dara and Secundar, that such might promise to last always? Nothing is left.
Then its deluding nature. How jealous we are 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, but while it is there, we are so happy or so sad. This is its deluding nature. And why is it called the dream of Brahma, the dream of God? Because we each of us experience a part only of the dream, and only God, the Whole Being, experiences, all the time, the whole of the dream.
How Dreams are Formed
Let us consider now how the dreams that we dream every night are formed. Our mind is made of vibrations, or call them atoms, if you will. These have the property of receiving impressions. They are just like a photographic plate. They are continually receiving impressions, impressions of heat, of cold, of friends, of enemies. These impressions 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, and your body is resting, but your mind is active, these pictures come before you just like the moving pictures on the curtain. Then when your mind is fully exhausted, deep sleep comes.
There are some pictures that we develop very much, by keeping them much before us, the pictures of the enemies, for instance, or of the friends of whom we often think. Some pictures are very little developed. They just come and go. That is why, in the dream, sometimes we see the faces of our friends, just as they are, sometimes we see forms that seem familiar, but we do not recognize them, 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.
When we ask,'can we dream of what we have never seen?' I will say, "No." All that we dream, we have seen. The Jinns, who have never manifested on earth cannot form the picture of the things of this world. The imagination is just the same as the dream. The dreams that we dream every night are of three sorts. There is a fourth sort of dream, but that is more a vision. There is Khwabi Khayali, when a person sees in the night what he has been doing in the day. When your mind is so much engaged in all the thoughts, the occupations, the cares of the day, that these appear before you in the dream. This dream has not much effect upon the mind, because it is not very deep.
The second sort of dream is Khwabi Ghalti. In this you see the opposite of the real happening. Your friend may be ill, and you may see him well, but when you see him ill, he will be well. We see someone dead and that person recovers from his illness, or we see that someone is our enemy who in reality is our friend. When the mirror of the mind is distorted then the image falling upon it is distorted also, just as there are some mirrors in which a thin person appears very fat, a tall person appears short, everything appears reversed.
The third sort is Khwabi Ruhi, vision. In this the happening is shown exactly as it is. This dream is seen by the pious persons, by the pure minds. It comes only to the few, to the chosen ones. But we should all remember that the soul is the same in all of us. It is only its covering that is different. It is the same pure essence, and so we may all, at times dream this dream. Khwabi Ruhi is seen either in the dream, or in a half-waking condition. If there is something lacking in his 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. Many years before Muhammad came forward as a Master, a Prophet, his wife knew of his being 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. So that, if there was a first disciple of Muhammad, it was his wife.
We can help the fulfillment of the dream ourselves. If we see something bad, some misfortune, we can take it as a warning. If we see a success in some country, we should go to that country, because it was there that the success was shown. The effect is shown first in the dream, because that is the first world, then it is produced here. As to the time when the event shown will happen. The dream seen in the early part of the night will take long for its accomplishment, a year or more. The dream of the midnight will take a few months. The dream before sunrise will be accomplished very soon. The reason is simply this, that the effect upon the mind of the dream of the early part of the night is taken away by the sleep, and its result is not accomplished so soon. The impression of midnight is fresher and it is fulfilled sooner, and the impression of the dream of early morning has nothing to take away its effect, and so it happens soonest. We may dream of what is going to happen, or we may dream of a friend, and then receive a letter from him, or we may dream of a friend whom we have not seen for a long time, and the next day we may see him.
Q. Is there any means of keeping away an undesirable dream? A. There are a thousand ways of keeping away an undesirable dream, 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. The first thing that happens in the spiritual development of a person is that his dreams change. He dreams a thing, and the contrary happens. Then he dreams a thing, and that thing happens exactly as he dreamt it. Then God gives him warning in pictures, just as the first writings were picture-writings. Then, when his soul discloses 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.
Dreams go by affinity, that means, like attracts like. If at the beginning of the night, we have a sad dream, then all night sad dreams come. If, at the beginning of the night, we dream 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 there is the comedy going on. In the physical world, you are here, and everything else is without you. You are contained in the space. In the dream, all that you see is contained within you. You may dream that you are in Paris, but if you were really in Paris, the Parisians must know that you are there. If they know nothing of it, then you were not in Paris. Paris and everything else in dream, is within you. In that state, you are so great, but you call it dream, an imagination. Imagination is nothing.
Q. Is it better to be always in the dream or always awake? A. This is a very interesting question and one that should be asked of great people. If a person wishes to be always in the dream, then he should go to the caves of mountains, to the wilderness, because in the world people will not only take all from him, but they will eat his bones, his skin, and his flesh. By being always awake, we see to what point people have come. If such a person wishes to eat, the thought, "What can I gain? What business can I do?" comes 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 do? What territory can we gain? How can we get more than the 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: Be just so much awake as is needed to carry out your responsibilities in life, and not to allow yourself to be quite trodden upon, and so much in the dream as you can without neglecting your life's responsibilities. 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 that awakening and this a dream.
The Dream
The dream is the most wonderful subject of study in life. It has its different aspects.
In one aspect the dream is the exact picture of reality which one may sooner or later experience in his so-called real life. This again teaches the fact that the incidents which we experience unexpectedly in life were pre-ordained for us. It also teaches us that here in the physical plane though we appear to be one separate from the other, in the plane of the dream upon the surface of the individual's mind the whole world exists. He who is one single being in the physical plane, inverts into the whole world in the plane of the dream, although he holds still fast his individuality even there where he is alone.
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The second aspect of the dream has the opposite nature of manifestation as everything in it appears to be the reverse to what may be going to happen. For instance a person seen dead in a dream will have a long life, and the sickness of a friend seen in a dream would on the contrary bring him good health. It is because of its negative nature everything, either the printer's block, the photographic plate, the humorous glass and all things of a negative character will show opposite before they manifest aright.
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The third aspect of the dream is of little importance, just like the birth of a child who after living only a week, has died. The same is the case with the dreams produced before the view of man either caused by the unbalanced activity of mind or by the disorder of the health. Such dreams have as a rule no importance, and they are surely a waste although they create before man a moving picture.
- The first aspect of dreams is generally manifest to the spiritual person, of course seldom they are noticed also by the average man.
- The next aspect of the dream generally manifests 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 aspect of the dream is vouchsafed to each person in his every day life, caused by the activity of his mind.
A dream is an inspiration, according to the point of view of the Sufi. There are four kinds of dreams.
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The soul dream. That dream is the actual vision of something that has passed, or that is going to happen, or that will happen.
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The heart dream. In this dream there is a feeling more dominant than when one sees. The feeling itself is expressive of what has happened or will happen.
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The symbolical dream, the mind dream. This dream comes to a man of artistic mind or mystical spirit, when, in the language of dreams, so to speak, he knows the past, present and future.
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The dream of the mind. Whatever the mind is impressed with during the day, the mind goes on repeating it, and the dream is the same kind of impression.
Every person has that kind of dream, either clear or confused. But the mystical artist dreams the dream which is symbolical. The dream of a person who is tender, kind and sympathetic [is the heart dream]. The soul dream comes to a spiritual person. At the same time to some persons some of those four dreams happen, or each of these dreams may be manifested to him.
If I were to define the cause of dreams it would take perhaps a long time, but what I mean to say just now is, that
according to the state of man's spiritual development he receives the knowledge of the unseen world.
Dreams
When considering the idea of dreams, one finds, that although it is something which is known to everybody, this subject leads to the deeper side of life. Because it is from dreams that one begins to realize two things; one is that something is active when the body is asleep. And to the deep thinker this gives faith in the life hereafter. For this gives the proof that when the body is not active, even then the person is active, and he seems to be no less so than in the physical body. And if he finds a difference, it is a difference of time. For here he may pass from one country to another in two hours, instead of doing it in a month. In no way is he hindered; the hindrance on the physical plane is far greater. From England to America he jumps in one moment. He flies there. The facility of that plane is much greater.
There is no difficulty of changing the condition from illness to health, from failure to success, in one moment. People say: "Yes, but it is imagination, a working of the mind." But what is mind? Mind is that in which the world is reflected; Heaven and earth are accommodated in it. Is that a small thing? What is the physical body compared to the mind? It is a world in itself. The physical body is like a drop in the ocean. It is for no other reason than ignorance that man does not know that there is a kingdom in himself. If only he were conscious of it. Why is he not? Because he wishes to hold; only then something exists for him. He does not wish to admit the existence of sentiment, for he says: "It is of no account, it is nothing." So about thought, they say: "It is only imagination, it is nothing." But science and art come from imagination, from the mind, - not from a rock, not from the physical body. The source of all knowledge is the mind, not an object. Mind means "I." It is the mind which identifies, the body is an illusion. When the mind is depressed, we say: "I am sad." Not the body, but the mind was depressed. So the real identification is the mind, not the body.
If in a dream man is able to see himself, what does that show? That after what is called death, man is not formless, that nothing is lost, that only the freedom is gained which was lost. The absence of this knowledge makes man afraid for this physical body, makes him have a horror of death. But what is death? Nothing but a sleep. A sleep of the body, which was a cloak. One can take it away and yet be living. Man will realize after all the talk about death, that he is alive, that he has not lost but gained. Man is in the physical world to learn.
Besides this the dream teaches that law is working, that all that seemed surprising, accidental, a sudden happening, was not sudden, no accident. It seemed accidental because it was not connected with the conditions. There happens nothing which does not go through the mind. Man has turned his back on it, he is open only to the manifestation. It was no surprise, it was only preparing. Did they not say in all the countries when the war came: "We did not know." Yes, it was so to those who slept, but the awakened had seen the preparation. In all things we see this.
Every accident, pleasant or unpleasant has a long preparation before it; first it exists in the mind, then on the physical plane. A dream shows the depth of life, through a dream we see things. One may ask: "What is the meaning, has every dream a meaning?" Every dream has a meaning. Only the thing is this, there are those in a country who do not know its language. So it is with minds. Some minds are not yet capable of expressing themselves; so the dreams are upside down, a chaos. They see a goat with the ears of an elephant. The mind wanted to express itself, but was not able to. There is a meaning in what the child says, but it has not yet learned, it has no words; it can only cry or make a sound, yet this has a meaning. So it is with dreams which are not expressed correctly. But you may say: "How can the mind learn to express itself?" It has to become itself. Often the mind is disturbed, inharmonious, restless. When a person is drunk, he wants to say, 'Yes', and he says 'No.' So is the expression of the mind in a dream.
It is a marvelous thing to study the science of dreams. How wonderful that the dream of the poet is poetical, of the musician harmonious. Why is this? Because their mind is trained. Their mind expresses itself in the realm of art. Sometimes one marvels at the dreams one hears of, experienced by poetic souls. You will see the sequence from the first act till the last. You will see that every little action has a certain meaning. More interesting still is the symbolical dream, to see the meaning behind it. It is a wonderful thing that to the simple person comes a simple dream; when the person is confused then the dream is confused. So you see a person in the dream with fear, with joy, with grief; or the dream shows sadness. But this is not a small thing, this is not a pastime, it was not a dream, it is as real as life on the physical plane.
Is this life not a dream? Are the eyes not closed? The king has forgotten his palace. Man says: "Oh, it is a dream, it is nothing." But this dream can be the whole life of the past, this dream can be tomorrow. It is only on the physical plane that it was a dream. The condition into which the mind has passed makes it only a dream. But man says: "Yes, but when we awake we find a house, therefore this is reality. If we dream of a palace we find no palace." This is true and not true. The palaces which are built in that world are as much our own, are much more our own. As soon as the body dies, this is left; that is always there. If it is a dream of pleasure, the pleasure will come. If it is a dream of light, of love, then all is there. It is a treasure you can depend upon; death cannot take it away. It is a glimpse of that idea where it says in the Bible: 'Where your treasure is there is your heart.' We can find glimpses of that by comparing dreams with the wakeful state. Whatever we hold, the longer we have held it, the more firmly it is established. And it can be more firmly established than what we hold in our hand. Than we create a world for us to live in. This is the secret of the whole life. How can words explain it? God bless you.
BROTHERHOOD I
The Work of the Sufi Brotherhood
When one does at this time see so many different movements working for brotherhood, one might ask what is the Sufi Brotherhood doing among all those movements of Brotherhood. And in answer to this question I say: "if there were 20,000 more movements of Brotherhood it would not be enough for the need of today." Besides, to the point of view of the Sufi Brotherhood, whatever is the form, whatever the society, this form, this society is our ideal. We think it a privilege to give our humble service in the great Cause of the World-Brotherhood. We do not think our brotherhood superior to others, there is only one Brotherhood. No doubt one service will be done by different souls; we work according to our own individual method; so we are best able to serve humanity. We consider it absurd to say: "Your method is wrong, ours is right." As long as we are doing our best, that is all we want and all we do.
And now I should like to speak a few words on the work and the ideal we have before us. There is no doubt that everywhere in the world seems to be wakened a desire toward spirituality, and there is no doubt that all over the world lives a desire for Brotherhood, for cooperation. That being the case every effort is made to answer the call of humanity, every effort is made by right and by wrong. And as there is no apparent proof, as the proof is in the result, the right and the wrong naturally are confused. For an instance, instead of Brotherhood communities, have come trade - and business-communities, and thereby fight and opposition, because of their thinking differently. They say: "we are against war," making a financial war. Besides they have only the name of the thought or the ideal, mostly they fight each one another.
They have a disposition to fight. This has occupied our thought for a long time, what is the way to avoid it? We have tried our best till now and will try always to avoid forming a community. Yes, we could not help forming a nucleus; as it is necessary to sail in the sea to have a ship, it is necessary to have a form by which you are best able to serve humanity. We tried to do our best to remain without a name, but even cats and dogs have names. People called it old, higher, new thought, and that became their name. But is there any new thought? Can there be an old thought? Every old thought is new. Besides it is difficult to discriminate between the higher and the lower thought. We have tried to do our best not to give an importance to name.
As long as one has sentiment for humanity we stand by his side. But the question comes: how must brotherhood be taught, what can help to become brothers? In every house the parents teach their children to be brothers, and it is not even in their power to produce brotherhood in their own house. And preachers go out and say:"become brothers." But it is not only by preaching that you become a brother, because you have thousand arguments against it, even poetical ones, and grudges and prejudices. When each one will remember what has been done, how can they become brothers? It is useless to preach even for years and years, it cannot suffice. Only one thing is necessary: to produce understanding. And what does give understanding?
Not the knowledge of a fact, but eternal Truth; through it we unite. So we come to the essence of religion, to the thought of uniting in Truth. The central thing is that Truth. In order to make one tolerant to another, we must not say, but waken, that he may understand. This reminds me of an amusing incident. Once I had a new pupil to whom I was giving instructions, and the last thing was, that before retiring every night he had to send thoughts of love and compassion to all living beings. This pupil was instantly horrified at the idea, and said: "yes, all, but not my neighboring country." I did not resist, took it tolerantly, understanding his sore heart. Would arguing have helped? No. So I said: "you are quite right. Forget the neighbor while thinking of humanity." The pupil smiled, he had expected an argument. Yet he felt not satisfied, and after six months he was able to think of the whole humanity. It is not preaching that is needed, but the hammering on the hearts, so that they naturally will understand.
Another abuse of this ideal is the desire to be spiritually awakened. But how do they want to be awakened? Do they want to see psychic phenomena, to have occult powers? But have we not seen great countries, ancient countries as Egypt and Northern India, possess magic, occult and mystical conceptions? What did that do? The same in their way as the scientific inventions during the war, as they used the magic powers for the benefit of their own ego. Therefore being absorbed in the attainment of the material world, trying to do things with magic to one another, has been the cause of ruined nations, of great distress to humanity in all ages.
Prophets and Saints of all ages have warned against it, in their words one finds simple things as could be taught to children. Therefore today to the intellectual seeker of complexities, the ancient Scriptures mean nothing. The accustomed thought of today is the thought of the purse of gold, and if the cabinet is favorable with one. Imagine what a great scope to evil, to lead astray. It hinders true service, respect, love, consideration for one another. But in spite of the difficulties are we not trying to do our best? I am thankful to say that in different countries we have joined together in this humble activity, an activity nearer to our heart than anything else.
Now the question is: what is the way of attaining to that Truth which teaches by itself brotherhood? That Truth is pictured in the symbol of the cross. The perpendicular line suggests diving deep in oneself, from the outer in the innermost consciousness, man reaching from the point of human to that point of the divine. And what does the horizontal line suggest? Expansion. That is the thought: "I and my neighbor are not only friends, we are only one." Then there is no doubt that the same interest exists for the neighbor as for oneself. No doubt, without rising to that conception it is very difficult to understand this. Man must realize it by meditation. When he touches the innermost self of his being, then he sees in another person himself.
And it is only then that real sympathy comes. It is as the love from a mother for her child. The mother naturally rises to that conception. She does not only know the child as her own, but sees in him her own being. And she lives in the pleasure and the happiness of the child; in the absence of happiness of the child there is no pleasure and happiness for her. What is it after all, the love of the mother, developed without consciousness: it is the realized oneness with the child. From love and continual devotion is born unity, is born oneness.
Now there is another question: a person may say, 'must we teach that, must we lecture about that, which is difficult to learn'? The answer is: the outer knowledge is not enough. It is not sufficient to say: "my neighbor and I are one," that is only imagination. There are two things: conception and conviction. Conception is the crescent, conviction is the full moon. What is learned by study is conception, but that is not sufficient. The conception must be deepened as the moon rises. As conception is deepened it results into conviction. The working of the Sufi Movement with students and workers is the idea of deepening the conception till conviction results.
The World Brotherhood
A few words I would like to say to say to explain to you a little more about this our activity which is called the World Brotherhood. Today it is more than necessary that the activities in bringing about a brotherly feeling in humanity are of more value than any other activity in the line of culture. And although there are many societies and institutions which are established and working along this line of Brotherhood yet our contribution to this great service of God and humanity has its peculiarity owing to its ideas being based on spiritual ideals. We believe that the brotherhood brought about by coming to an understanding of exchanging the good of one another in the interest of one another is not sufficient. The reason is that the nature of life is changeable, where there is a day there is a night, and there is light and darkness, and therefore the interest in life is not always even. If two persons are friends to one another and they make a condition that we shall be friends and we shall love one another, if each wishes to regard justice, they will quarrel a thousand times a day. Because who is to be the judge?
When two people quarrel both are just, both think they are on the right. And a third person has no right to interfere. Therefore brotherhood cannot be brought about to satisfactory results only by teaching the law of reciprocity based upon self-interest. Because even if they said: "I will give you a pound in gold and you will give me in return a pound" and the exchange is made there is a dispute. Because, "I gave you the pound in gold and you gave me the pound in notes." A friendship which is based upon selfishness is not secure, it is not dependable. Because seemingly they may be friends, in reality each is wanting for himself. They are not the friend of the other, they are the friends of themselves.
However they greatly show friendship to one another, in reality they are showing friendship to themselves. No, the brotherhood from spiritual point of view that may be learned is the brotherhood of rivalry in goodness, in kindness. It is not weighing what good have they done to me, but it is trying to do more for another and not thinking what he will do for me. The ideas of the Sufis in all times have been different from the man in the world and yet not too different for a man to practice. The Sufi ideas are that when one does an act of kindness to another it is because he wishes to do it. Because the action itself is his satisfaction, not a return even in the form of appreciation. Any form of appreciation or any return he thinks consumes, takes away that act of goodness or kindness that one has done. And when one thinks that one does some good expecting that another must return it then it is a business. And a person who thinks that 'perhaps I shall do twice more good to another from whom I received half from the good I do for him' he is in a very bad situation, for sooner or later he will be disappointed because he shares goodness which cannot be shared in this way. As soon as man begins to think that 'has another person treated me like a brother, why should I treat him as a brother', he does not know what brotherhood is, he will never be able to act as a brother.
The Sufi point of view is that man must be concerned with himself, if he does right that is what he is concerned with and not whether another person takes it right. The trouble at this time when humanity is so vastly divided is that brotherhood seems so very difficult to bring in practice. And yet I do not think, if we saw the idea of brotherhood in this light, that it would seem very difficult. For no sooner man says: "If another person will do as I wish," he creates his displeasure, but the one who says: "I will do what I think right and good and I am not concerned with the other person, whether he takes it rightly, I have determined to do what I can", that is quite sufficient.
Universal Brotherhood of Humanity
Although the word 'brotherhood' seems to be easy, there are several points of view. If it were as simple as it seems the world would not have gone through the great catastrophe which it has gone through. The cause of all the troubles is the Teachers of humanity. If the great Teachers have given a Message to humanity it is no doubt the Message of Brotherhood. In plain words: "God is love; you must love your enemies."
No doubt simple things to human beings are too simple; too many people who have studied think that they must no longer learn anything. It is too easy; yet if they would study it closely they would see it is the most difficult thing in the world. The necessity of life is a spiritual necessity from a metaphysical point of view. In other words brotherhood is the nature of man, and the secret of brotherhood is centered in the idea that like attracts like. Some animals go in numbers; they are attached to each other, and they abide in harmony.
But other animals, such as lions, tigers, do not like to be together; their passion is their own enemy; they are never contented, because they have not that spirit of harmony for which every soul longs. Human beings show that tendency of harmony more pronouncedly by living together in villages or cities, by recognizing people of their own nation; and, no doubt in this way are born virtues, like family pride, which sometimes engaged families in long quarrels. In the traditions of East and West humanity is the same, and has shown virtues which seem right and wrong (both are so close together), so that it is very difficult to distinguish which is which. Family pride developed into national quarrels.
The old tradition of Persia explains those quarrels between men, tribes, and so on; for instance, if the chiefs of two different tribes were struggling together, the stronger one became chief of the two tribes, yet as long as the feeling of brotherhood remained, it was a virtue in itself, and it was living. All that is moving is living, and that which is still is dead, and that which is dead is useless in life because it brings about death. In the great war we have gone through, there was a dead element; the patriotic spirit, so long as it was progressing it was a virtue, but when it ceased to expand itself then it became contrary to what brotherhood should be.
Any individual in society has to trouble himself about his own interests; a greater virtue is the care for a whole family, the endeavor to do all one can to please one's friends. But that virtue is surpassed by the individual who does not only think of himself and his family, but also of the people in his own village or town. One may even see a man considering himself as nothing, because his outlook is greater and he considers the nation first. As long as that heart-quality is progressing there is a great blessing in society; but as soon as that spirit becomes still and is not given a chance to progress, then it ceases to fulfill its purpose; it is hindering the progress of human life; and, if it cannot expand it brings about the greatest catastrophes that have been experienced in the world.
From a philosophical point of view the whole world is one family; and if we look at the way in which the world is working, we see that everybody is seeking his own interests. Men, however, are interdependent. A man, living in a family cannot expect to be happy so long as one member of the family is unhappy. According to a mystical point of view the whole world is one body; and, if there is a weakness in any part of a body, the whole body will be affected by it. Life, at the present time, is like a child's game; every child is trying to get the other child's toy, but he does not know how to keep it. Things in the world are changeable; they are not to be relied upon.
Man sees the vanity of the world; but if he does not see a reality in contrast, he remains intoxicated by the unreality, and tries to get some pleasure from his life, even for a moment. The happiness of this world is something we cannot keep; it is just like the horizon - the nearer you go, the farther it goes. As soon as you get it, you see it is not the thing you wanted. That discontent continues its work till we have found and understood the manifestation of God, in which is hidden the Divine Spirit. God cannot be found in temples, for God is Love; and love does not live in temples, but in the heart of man, which is the temple of God. The true religion would be to recognize it so and to tolerate, to forgive and to love each other. No doubt there are difficulties; we are not angels and we cannot expect to act like them. Many have no clear vision before them as they are indulging in the life of intoxication. Perhaps the time will come when everything we depend upon will be taken from us; the best would be to consider life from a philosophical point of view. Then we really should be able to smile at life; today this thing is most necessary.
The Work for the Cause of Brotherhood
I have a great pleasure and happiness in opening today the Brotherhood section in Geneva. I would like to tell my mureeds what responsibility it is and what an opportunity it is to be on the soil of Geneva to work for the Cause of Brotherhood. This place, the soil of Geneva, is not only the place which is chosen by all the nations to form a League of Nations to work for the humanity and for peace, but also destined by God that the center of this universal harmony and peace from a spiritual point of view may also be formed here. It is therefore our privilege, which is our blessing, to be here together and to think of forming this league of friendship beyond all the differences and distinctions of faiths or beliefs.
What is the meaning of the word Geneve? The meaning of the word Geneve in Sanskrit language is the sacred thread. And who must prove the meaning and the value of this sacredness? It is us who are serving in this sacred Cause to bring about harmony and peace for humanity. We unite here on the soil of this land, coming from different countries, born in different lands, and yet come here with that brotherly love to do good for one another, and we are welcomed by the people of this land with open arms to discuss the affairs of the world and the affairs of humanity for the benefit of which all the people are anxious and eager.
Now what benefit there is in store for our Movement? From the spiritual point of view it is destined, it is promised, that the Message must spread, that the Message must reach all the parts of the earth. But the other benefit which is attached to the center being here on the soil of Geneva is that people coming from all different nations with the idea of uniting the world, bringing about better understanding, harmony or peace, the atmosphere that we shall create of love and of sacredness and of spirituality will envelop all the souls coming here or passing here from the North to the South, or from the South to the North. Therefore, however small the number of our group, still its responsibility, its privilege and its blessing is indeed great. But from a mystical point of view number is not counted, it is the depth, it is the sincerity, it is the solidarity of the faith which is the thing and which is counted.
Now I should like to explain a little more what work we have to do in the Movement of Brotherhood. Is it political work? Not at all. We have the League of Nations here to discuss it, we do not need to discuss that matter. Our love for humanity, our good will, our desire for fraternity, that itself will spread as an atmosphere congenial to those who will come to discuss matters in the League of Nations. Then are we to discuss socialism? That is also not necessary. There are several unions and there are various movements working on that question. That is not our purpose, that is not our work.
Then are we to discuss the difference of the faiths and religions? Not even that. The problem that is before us is that problem, that when that problem is solved, the Divine Light will manifest. And that problem is what purpose is behind this whole creation, what purpose is behind the life of an individual. And how we can best solve this problem, that is the subject of our study, and it is the work of our practice. When a person has studied perhaps for his whole life, what result, in the end, does he come to? He arrives at one stage, and that stage is the stage of brotherhood. What does it show? It shows that the first lesson that we have to learn in this world is brotherhood, and the last lesson, after learning all philosophy and mysticism and after all our efforts, is brotherhood.
Then remember my friends, that if you studied Sufism for twenty years, all the problems of metaphysics and philosophy, and if that spirit of brotherhood were not developed in you, you must be sure that progress has not been made. Or if you meditated for thirty years in a solitude, and if you communicated with God, and yet if the spirit of brotherhood is not developed in you, no progress is made. A person who is loved by everybody in the world, and yet if he has not loved anybody, he has done nothing. A person who has possessed the wealth of the whole world, but if he has given nothing, he has not earned. A person honored by everyone in the world, but if he has not respected, he has not lived.
What does it mean? It only means that what we gain is nothing, it is what we give that counts. It is nothing what has been done to us, if only we did all we wished to do, that is what counts. Either learning or wisdom, position or power, or wealth, all these things gained are very small compared with what one can give to the others. Therefore, my friends, it is not talking about brotherhood, nor discussing about this subject, that does much good. It is living that brotherhood, and realizing that one Source of all which is the Father, and in whose Fatherhood we observe brotherhood. Let us therefore all unite together in silence with the intention of doing what little we can in endeavoring to serve and promote the good work of Brotherhood; and let us pray to God to bless us all to do our little part in this big scheme of life. God bless you.
BROTHERHOOD II
Human Brotherhood
The tendency of brotherhood is instinctive in living beings, not only amongst men, but even among birds and animals. In the lower creation where the ego begins its work and where the ego rises against its brother, even in that stage there are birds and animals which can be brought together. At the same time by studying the lower creatures we can understand that in the lower stages even the destructive creatures can unite; and that gives us an idea that even in the lower stages there is already a tendency towards a higher stage of evolution.
When we think of the higher creatures we see that brotherhood can be developed and this brotherhood has developed in man. The proof of this we see in the life in towns, that people would rather live together than live scattered in the forests. There are large cities, such as New York, London, Paris, where there is difficulty in finding housing accommodation; and on the other hand the vast open spaces, woods and forests; yet people prefer to live together. This is, however, no virtue; for nothing is a virtue which is not consciously acted up to. Therefore when human beings live together this is no great thing; but when they consciously live together, then begins the tendency towards human brotherhood.
Now the conscious recognition of brotherhood requires a link; and that link awakens a feeling of brotherhood. For instance, in ordinary language when someone says, "This is my brother" it means only that the other is born of the same parents. There can also be a brotherhood of professions; there can also be a brotherhood in ideas, and a brotherhood of those born in one city; and to the extent that a person is conscious of the link that binds one with the other, so far will one realize brotherhood. If he does not feel conscious of that link, even if they are brothers, they will feel strangers. So that the strength of brotherhood does not lie in the claim, but in the consciousness of that link; not in the profession that brotherhood exists, but in the conscious recognition.
The idea of brotherhood has manifested differently in the East and the West. In the East it has manifested in unity in God; in the West in national feeling; it has appealed in the East to religion, and in the West to national feeling. But at the same time in the East, when Hinduism was predominant, especially in India, religious restrictions were taught in connection with hygiene, so that people ate and drank separately, so that the wife even had to prepare her own food separately; things are different in the West, where there also exist hygienic questions, and life is different from that of the East, where it did not prove in the end the ideal life; and the degeneration of the Hindu race began when the different limitations began.
There were four castes among Hindu: Brahmans, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras; the caste of the student, the caste of the warrior, the caste of the merchant, and the caste of the laborer. Nobody can deny that there was great wisdom in this division; for there are four different tendencies in man. But in the end it resulted in disaster; the people became weak owing to these divisions, and the link of brotherhood was destroyed. This example of the Hindu race is in itself an example for human beings in the reconstruction of the world.
In ancient times Arabia and Persia were split up in parts, each part with its own gods and goddesses, and many different gods and goddesses; and as the Hindu race was most blessed by Shankaracharya, their teacher, so the Arabs were enlightened by the coming of Muhammed. And one can see that even fifteen hundred years ago there existed the tendency of forming a human brotherhood by the teachings of Muhammed, that tended to form a universal brotherhood. The various families amongst the Arabs began to live together and began to eat together, to shake hands, and worship together in the same house of God. There is a story of Khalif Omar, that he was greatly hated by a certain criminal; and on a certain day this man came to the town and asked where Omar was. He was told that the Khalif was in the forest, looking after his cattle.
The assassin thought this a splendid opportunity to accomplish his plan. As he approached Omar he saw no warrior there to protect him, but he was sitting alone clad in a worn out robe. The assassin could hardly believe that the Khalif was so near and within his power; he could not trust his eyes that the Khalif whom he had pursued so long was now so near, unprotected. But the nearer he approached, the more nervous did he become, so much so that when he was quite near the dagger fell out of his hand. Omar said. "Peace be unto you; what do you want?" to which the assassin answered, "Tell me why I tremble before you." Omar said, "Just as I tremble before God when I think of doing wrong, so dost thou tremble before me." Another story told about Omar is that after a war, at the peace negotiations Omar represented the armies of Islam.
The enemies were told by their astrologers that they must make peace when Omar arrived. But as the enemies had never seen him before, they asked "How shall we know him?" The reply was: "You can recognize him when you see a slave on the camel, and Omar walking at the side." In fact he came as had been foretold; and the first question put to him was, "Why were you walking and your slave on the camel?" to which he replied, "I have not walked all the way. The first part I rode; and the second part it was my slave's turn to ride and mine to walk." And when one thinks of this one realizes the beauty of the human heart, this perfume which resides in the human soul.
There is another example of human brotherhood. When the Prophet Muhammad was waging war against some people, the Prophet was compelled to flee three times from Mecca, and each time a great deal of harm was done to his family; and even he himself had scars and was bleeding from various wounds when he fled. But later, when the Prophet was victorious, these enemies were brought before him, and he asked them, "How shall I deal with you?" They answered, "Deal kindly with us." Muhammad said, "Yes, I will deal with you in the same way in which Joseph dealt with his brethren." And at once they shook hands, and were friends, and all the feelings of hatred were forgiven. By this I wish to say that it is not the intellectual teachings of the great ones that we need, but the example of their lives which is so important to us.
Now, the effect of that example can be seen even down to this day in the peoples of Arabia. The Bedouins, who spend their lives in fighting and robbery and are found everywhere in the deserts of Arabia, - if two of them are found fighting and on the verge of killing each other, and if a third person says, "Unite, in the name of the Prophet Muhammad", immediately they throw away their weapons, shake hands, and become friends. How much do we wish that what such wild people do would be followed by us the so-called civilized nations? If people can move from one country to another and cannot find the link which binds them to each other, what use is that to us? This does not mean that we have to ignore national distinctions; but that we have to ignore the narrow boundaries of the nations.
Any person with some heart will wonder, and say, "Will there ever come a time when hearts will become united, and the barriers be removed, and so men will become united in some higher link which binds them all together?" Considering the question from the psychological point of view we shall find that no family can be happy where there is a difference of feeling, or a feeling of reciprocal ill will. The atmosphere of such a house can cause all manner of diseases and all sorts of misery. Where there is disagreement, disharmony, perhaps one is in a better position than the other, but the suffering will be divided amongst them all, and each will have to bear |
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