If I were to say to you that businesses that practice integrity prosper better than those that do not, what would be your reaction?

On the face of it most of us would wish for reputable businesses to prosper over less reputable ones.
 
Recent research that has been carried out in several universities, including the university of london by the Roger Steare group shows clearly that businesses that adopt a fair policy in handling customers fair much better than cut throat businesses. Furthermore, business that have a reputation of handling staff fairly prosper still better, a lot better.

Many business owners fall into the trap of trying to save the outlay of cash wherever and whenever possible. Obviously there are areas where businesses should take care to economise but where the human element becomes a factor, investment in this area pays dividends.

A lot of business owners and managers fail to realize that a disgruntled or fearfull staff can be responsible for up to 25% loss in revenue. Can You afford to loose 25% of your potential revenue?

By adopting negetive policies businessmen do not see that the restrictions that they place upon the investment in human relations, in the long run determines their level of far sightedness. They become embedded in small minded policies that sooner or later determine their downfall.

A business that handles people fairly, on the other hand is really investing in the happiness of those people and they will be rewarded for this. 

One of the pitfalls that business fail to recognise is that the total focus of their efforts should be upon the customer. keeping the customer happy is of paramount importance because, ultimately this will keep the customer coming back. On the other hand a lot of businesses pay too much attention to how competitive businesses are organized. This can go two ways, it can go in the direction of investing in the customer and the staff member or it can go in the other directing, that is, the direction of buying cheaper goods to get more profit margin, cutting back on staff and wages so as not to be exploited by your workers. Cutting back on customer service and after care to make it difficult for the customer to express concerns about faulty goods. Forging expiry dates on goods that have passed their expiry date is another shoddy practice that many adopt. All of these examples demonstrate how small minded managers see profitability. Their emphasis is first of all on not loosing money, not feeing exploited instead of simply providing a top quality service with true concern for the customers wellfare.

It is becoming evermore clear that better business earns more money. So why not join the ranks of better businesses or at least support only those businesses that treat customers and staff fairly. If asked by less ethical business why you prefer not to do business with their competitors, do not be afraid to state in no uncertain terms that you think that they have a shoddy ethical code towards customers and employees. Make it clear to them that their ethical competitors are profiting much better because their customer care and staff policies are much better. This is one practice that we can all use to improve ethical codes within our societies. Broad minded businesses do not mind investing in customer care and their staff becuause besides being more profitable, it is all tax deductable at the end of the day.  Support better business practice.  

Being true to onself is probably one of the most precious gifts that we can give ourselves. Sometimes for the sake of maintaining relationships we adopt a strategy of appeasement, we choose to say nothing or we agree with something when we really disagree.

Nothing could be worse. What we fail to realize is that if the person with whom we disagree is devoped within him or herself and has evolved enough to be enlightened and stable in his or her character , then his or her shoulders would obviously be broad enough to take our critisism without causing distress to that person. In fact the evolved person will not instantly react but will store the information given and digested when he or she has time to contemplate about the content. This soul searching, whatever the outcome, will be a strenghtening exercise.

So we should avoid appeasement strategies at all costs. Never live with the feeling that your integrity has been "short changed", especially not by yourself because your self esteem will be slowly but, oh, so surely eroded.

Many people in their past lives have been forcefully silenced by parents, grandparents, teachers or others. For them the use of the art of speaking out is repressed and under developed. It is difficult for them to speak out because inside themselves they always feel that they are doing something wrong. To them I would say, take heart, if you disagree with something simply say "I do not agree" with conviction and follow it up by saying calmly what is on your mind. To the rest of us I would say, have the courage to let others voice their opinion. Avoid the urge to take advantage of their timidness. It is not their fault and they know in their heart of hearts that they do have something worth while to say. So, as they draw on every ounce of courage to speak out, so you too should demonstrate that you also have enough courage to let them say what they will.

Blind loyalty is another fault that we must curb. In all matters we most use the power of our faculties to weigh up matters at hand and to decide on their merit independently of any inflence. We must weigh everything according to our loftiest ideals and resist the temptation to rationalize matters because if we do this we are compromising between right and wrong, thus creating a gap for exploitation to take hold.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Firstly, the light in the picture at the top of my blog is designed to help you to focus on the inner light within yourself. By focusing on it you can use it as an aid to reach your own personal light. To do this, once you have focused the light within the mind simply tranfer the focus to your own light within. Easier said than done, I know but with a little practice you'll get there. When it feels happy you'll know you are there.

No doubt, life is difficult for many of us, but very often we make it even more difficult for ourselves. When we do not understand the real nature and character of life we make our own difficulties. I can assure you that in every man's life five percent of his difficulties are brought about by the conditions of life, and ninety-five percent are difficulties caused by himself.

Now you will ask: When the difficulties come from ourselves, where do they come from? We do not like struggle in life, we do not like strife, we only want harmony, we only want peace. It must be understood, however, that before making peace, war is necessary, and that war must be made with our self. Our worst enemy is our self: our faults, our weaknesses, our limitations. And our mind is such a traitor! What does it? It covers our faults even from our own eyes, and points out to us the reason for all our difficulties: others! So it constantly deludes us, keeping us unaware of the real enemy, and pushes us towards those others to fight them, showing them to us as our enemies.

Besides this, we must tune ourselves to God. As high we rise, so high becomes our point of view, and as high our point of view so wide becomes the horizon of our sight. When a person evolves higher and higher his point of view becomes wider and wider, and so in all he does he strikes the divine note, the note which is healing and comforting and peace-giving to all souls.

We can begin our spiritual work by understanding the trials and tribulations of others and by putting our own difficulties into perspective based upon our findings we begin to develop compassion. Once I took a course designed by a chap called Harry Palmer and from his course book "resurfacing" I have chosen a little key that will enable you to get in tune with the lives of others, if you read it often enough. I carry these few sentenses around with me printed onto a piece of card in my wallet and I look at it whenever I get a few moments.

"just like me, this person is seeking  some happiness in his/her life"

"just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her life."

"just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness and despair."

"just like me, this person is seeking to fulfill his/her needs."

"just like me, this person is learning about life."

In the spiritual path we resurface onto a new plain of understanding our purpose here on earth. Before embarking on our spiritual course our perspective and point of view was much different. We saw things in a one sided way. This made us feel isolated, alienated, alone and left to fend for ourselves. We created a vision of ourselves and the world in which we lived that presented us with a distorted picture, causing us to make faulty descisions and adopt beliefs that did us more harm than good.


In this blog you will find the Gatheks, writings of Hazrat Inayet Kahn, a sufi from the 20th century who had great insight into the inner spiritual path that we must all walk sooner or later. He explains beautifully all aspects of the spiritual life. I hope you find these works as useful as I do.

God Bless you and keep you safe and in peace. 

Contents

Contents 1

1. The Religion of the Heart. 3

2. Belief in God 3

3. Religion 5

4. The Manner of Prayer. 6

5. The Present Need of the World. 7

6. "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven". 9

7. Religion 10

8. Prayer 11

9. Prayer 12

11/10. The way how the Wise make life in the World. 13

12/11. The Message 15

13a/12. The Message of Christ 16

13b. The message of God (cont.) 17

14. (Three aspects of the work of the Sufi Movement) 19

15. The Message 20

16. The Message 21

17. The Sufi Message 22

18. The Coming World Religion 24

20/19. The Message 27

21/20. CHRIST 30

22/21. BUDDHA 33

24/22. Zarathustra 34

25/23. RAMA 35

26/24. ABRAHAM 37

27/25. Mohammed 38

23/26. Krishna 40

28/27 Sufism is "the" religion 42

28. Universal Worship is a service, a worship, a training to tolerate 43

30/29. Sufi Movement a preparation for a world service. 44

31/30 The God Ideal 45

33/31. Moses 48

34/32. (The Universal Worship) 49

36/33. Religion 50

39/34 Winding the mechanism of thought 52

??/35.... 53

PAGE 1 missing....... 53

36. Belief and Disbelief in God. 54

43/37. The Religion of the Heart 57

44/38. The Religion of the Heart ( cont.) 59

45/39. The Message 61

46/40 The Message (cont.) 63

47/41. The Sufi Movement 65

42. The God-Ideal - I 66

49/43. The God-Ideal- II 67

50/44 The God-Ideal - III 68

51/45. The God-Ideal - IV 69

52/46 The God-Ideal - V 70

53/47. The God-Ideal- VI 71

54/48. The God-Ideal- VII 73

55/49 The God-Ideal-VIII 74

56/50. The God-Ideal- IX 75

57-58-59/51. Sufi Thoughts 76

60/53. The God-Ideal - 10 81

61/54. The real meaning of religion 83

62/55. .The Ideal 85

63/56. How can we make God intelligible? 87

64/57. Heaven 88

65/58. Divine Grace 90

66/59. The Sufi Religion 93

67/60. The Sufi Religion ( cont.) 96

68/61. The Message. 99

69/62. The Message (cont.) 101

 

For the record: The numbering is not according to the Dutch translated version. Where the chapter begins with two numbers the FIRST number is the Dutch number, and the SECOND the English number. Where there is only 1 number it means that both are the same. Missing are apparently the (dutch) numbers: 10-29-32-35-37-38-40-41.

1. The Religion of the Heart.

 

 

If anybody asks you: "What is Sufism? What religion is it?", you may answer:" Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which one thing is most important, and that is to seek God in the heart of mankind."

There are three ways of seeking God in the human heart. The first way is to recognize the divine in every person and to be careful of every person with whom we come in contact, in our thought, speech and action. Human personality is very delicate. The more living the heart the more sensitive it is; but that which cause sensitiveness is the love-element in the heart, and love is God.

The person whose heart is not sensitive is without feeling, his heart is not living, it is dead; in that case the divine spirit is buried in his heart. A person who is always concerned with his own feelings is so absorbed in himself that he has no time to think of another. His whole attention is taken up with his own feelings, he pities himself, he worries about his own pain and is never open to sympathize with others. He who takes notice of the feeling of another person with whom he comes in contact practises the first essential moral of Sufism. The next way of practising this religion is to think of the feeling of the person who is not at the moment before us. One feels for a person who is present, but often neglects to feel for someone who is out of sight. One speaks well of someone to his face, but if one speaks well of someone when he is absent, that is greater. One sympathises with the trouble of someone who is before one at the moment, but the greater to sympathise with one who is far away. And the third way of realising the Sufi principle is to recognise in one's feeling the feeling of God; to realise every impulse that rises in one's heart as a direction of God; realising that love is a divine spark in one's heart as a direction from God; realising that love is a divine spark in one's heart, to blow that spark until the flame may rise to illuminate the path of one's life.

The symbol of the Sufi Order, which is a heart with wings, is symbolical of its ideal. The heart is both earthly and heavenly. The heart is a receptacle on earth of the divine spirit, and when it holds the divine spirit it soars heavenward; the wings picture is rising. The crescent in the heart symbolises responsiveness; it is the heart that responds to the spirit of God that rises. The crescent is a symbol of responsiveness because it grows fuller by responding more and more to the sun as it progresses. The light one sees in the crescent is the light of the sun; as it gets more light with its increasing response so it becomes fuller of the light of the sun. The star in the heart of the crescent represents the divine spark which is reflected in the human heart as love and which helps the crescent toward its fullness.

 

The Sufi message is the message of the day. It does not bring theories or doctrines to add to those existing already, which puzzle the human mind. What the world needs to-day is the message of love, harmony and beauty, the absence of which is the only tragedy of life. The Sufi message does not give a new law; it wakens in humanity the spirit of brotherhood, with tolerance on the part of each for the religion of the other, with forgiveness from each other for the fault of the other; it teaches thoughtfulness and consideration, so as to create and maintain harmony in life; it teaches service and usefulness, which alone can make life in the world fruitful, in which lies the satisfaction of every soul.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Belief in God

 

It is the spirit of all souls which is personified in all ages as God. There are periods when this spirit is materialized in the faith of humanity and worshipped as God, the Sovereign and the Lord of the world as Judge, Sustainer and Forgiver, but there are periods when this realization has become less in humanity, when mankind has become absorbed in the life of the world more than in the spiritual ideal. Therefore the belief in God comes to humanity like tides in the sea. Every now and then it appears on the surface mostly with the Divine Message given as an answer to the cry of humanity at a certain period. So in the life of individuals at times the belief in God comes as tides in the sea, with an impulse to worship, to serve God, to reach for God, to love God and to long for God communication. The more the material life of the world is before one's eyes the more the spiritual impulse is closed; the spiritual impulse therefore follows times of sorrow and of disappointment through life.

The belief in God is natural, but in life both art and nature are necessary. So God, Who exists independent of our making Him, must be made by us for our own comprehension. To make God intelligible first man must make his God. It is on this principle that the idea of many gods and the custom of idol worship was based in the ancient religions of the world. God cannot be two. The God of each is the God of all, but in order to comprehend that God we each have to make our own God. Some of us seek justice, we can seek for God who is just. Some of us look for beauty, we must find it in the God of beauty. Some of us seek for love, we must find it in the God of mercy and compassion. Some of wish for strength and power, we must find it in the God Almighty. The seeking of every soul in this world is different, distinct and peculiar to himself, and he can best attain to it by finding the object of his search in God.

The moment one arrives at this belief no question need he ask for his fellowman, for the answer to every question that springs from his mind he finds in his own heart. The dwelling place of God, which is called Heaven, is then found in his own heart. The friend on Whom one can constantly depend, someone Whom one can always trust, someone Whose sympathy and love is secure, someone Who will never fail, someone Who is strong enough to help, someone Who is sufficiently wise to guide in life, he will find in his own heart.

Those who out of their materialistic view cannot belief in the God ideal lose a great deal in their lives. That ideal which is the highest and best ideal, the only ideal worth loving, worth worshipping, worth longing for, worth sacrificing all one has, and worth depending upon during the daylight and through the darkness of night, is God; and he who has God in his life has all he needs; he who has not God, he having all things of this mortal world, is lonely, he is in the wilderness even if he be in the midst of the crowd. The journey of the Sufi therefore, is to God. It is Divine Knowledge which he seeks, it is the realisation of God. It is Divine Knowledge which he seeks, it is the realisation of God consciousness which is his goal.

 

3. Religion

 

In the ancient Sanskrit language the word for religion is Dharma, which means duty. Now, there are two things in the world, one of which we may describe as free choice of action and the other as duty. Everyone follows either the way of free choice or the way of duty. As an example we may think of the child who sees the fire, and wants to touch it., and does so. This action will show a certain disagreeable result which teaches the child a certain thing. This teaching might also have come to the child as a warning from the parents, telling the child that the result of the action would be burning. The child might thus refrain from doing a certain action for the reason that it accepted the warning of the parent before burning its hand.

Every child is born in life a pupil, one who is willing to learn and willing to believe. As the Prophet Mohammed says: " Every soul is born on earth a believer, it is only afterwards that he turns an unbeliever."

It is certain if one had not been born a believer one would never have learned the language of one's country, because if anyone had tried to teach the words and one had refused to accept the teachings as true, one would never have learned the names and character of things. For instance, if it were said, "This is water," and one had not believed it, and had thought, "It is fruit," then one would never really have known what was water and what was fruit. Child is born with the tendency to believe and learn what it is taught.

The divine life has a certain capability to give life, and it gives this life as teaching to the children of earth, and this teaching is called Dharma, religion. Religions are many and different from one another, but only in form, for water is one channel which holds it and which it uses for the accommodation; and so the name water is changed into river, lake, sea, stream, pond, etc. So it is with religion; the essential truth is one, but the aspects are different. Those who fight about external forms will always fight, those who recognise the inner truth will not disagree, and thus will be able to harmonise the people of all religions.

Dharma has been given from time to time to the world, at times quietly, and sometimes with a loud voice; but it is a continual outpouring of the inner knowledge of life, and of divine blessing. Those who stick to their old forms, closing their eyes from the inner truth, paralyse their Dharma by holding on to an old form, while refusing the present stream that is sent. As life is the cause of activity, so such persons lose their activity; they remain where they are and are as dead. And when man has been thus paralysed and shut out from the spiritual progress, he clings to outer forms which are not progressing. There was a time when the message was given while the people were wanting a messenger to come. During the time of Jesus Christ there were thousands and millions waiting for a messenger to come from above. The Master came, and did his service, and went away. Some realised then, and some are still waiting. But the One Who claimed to be Alpha and Omega is never absent; sometimes he appears on the surface, sometimes he is reserving himself.

When directed by the new spiritual inspiration, law, morals, education, and all departments of life come to a new life; but if the spiritual current is lacking, then there is no further progress in the forms of life. People mostly think that the spiritual message must be something concrete and definite in the way of doctrines or principles, but that is an human tendency and does not belong to the divine nature, which is unlimited and life itself. The divine message is the answer to the cry of souls, individually and collectively; the divine message is life, and it is light. The sun does not teach anything, but in its light we learn to know all things. The sun does not cultivate the ground nor does it sow seed, but it helps the plant to grow, to flower, and to bear fruit.

The Sufi message, in its utter infancy, strikes the note of the day, and promise the fulfilment of that purpose for which, now and then, the blessing from above descends, for spreading love and peace on earth and among men.

 

4. The Manner of Prayer.

 

 

There are three kinds among those who are in the habit of offering prayer.

There is one who by praying fulfils a certain duty which he considers as one among all the duties of life. He does not know to whom he is praying, he thinks to some God. If he is in the congregation he feels out of necessity, to do as the others do. He is like one among the sheep who goes on, he does not know where and why. Prayer to him is something that he must do because he is put into a situation where he cannot help it. In order to fall in with the custom of the family or community, and in order to respect those around him, he does it as everybody else. His prayer is mechanical, and if it makes any effect it is very little.

And the second kind of person who offers his prayers is the one who offers the prayers because he is told to do so and yet is confused if there is any God, if his prayers are really heard.

He maybe praying and at the same time confusion may be going in his mind: "Am I doing right or wrong?" If he is a busy man he might think: "Am I giving my time to something really profitable or am I really wasting it? I see no one before me, I hear no answer to my prayer." He does it because he was told by someone to do it or because it might bring him some good. His prayer is a prayer in the dark. The heart which must be opened to God is covered by his own doubt, and if he prayed in this way for a thousand years it is never heard. It is this kind of soul who in the end loses his faith, especially when he meets with a disappointment, and he prays, and if his prayer is not answered, that puts an end to his belief.

Then there is a third person who has imagination which is strengthened by faith. He does not only pray to God but he prays before God, in the presence of God. Once the imagination has helped man to bring the presence of God before him, God in his own heart is wakened. Then before he utters a word it is heard by God. When he is praying in a room he is not alone, he is there with God. Then God to him is not in the highest Heaven but next to him, before him, in him. The Heaven to him is on earth and the earth for him is Heaven. No one to him is then so living as God, so intelligible as God, and the names and forms before him are covered under Him. Then every word of prayer he says, it is a living word. It does not only bring him blessing, but blessings to all those around him. It is this manner of prayer which is the only right way of prayer, and by this manner the object that is to be fulfilled by prayer is accomplished.

 

 

5. The Present Need of the World.

 

 

If one truly observes the present condition of humanity, no-one with sense will deny the fact that the world to-day needs the Religion. Why I say the religion and not a religion is because there are many religions existing to-day called a religion, but what is needed to-day is the Religion. And now coming to the question what the Religion must be. Must it be a new religion? If it were a new religion, it could not be called the religion; then it would be like many religions. I call the Religion that religion which one can see by rising above the sects and differences which divide men, and by understanding the religion, we shall understand all religions which may be called religion.

I do not mean that all the religions are not religion; they are the notes, there is the music, and that music is the religion. Every religion strikes a note, a note which strikes the demand of humanity in a certain epoch. But at the same time the source of every note is the same music which manifests when the notes are arranged together. In this way I want to explain that all religions are different notes and when they are arranged together they make music. You may ask why at each epoch all the music was not given but only a single note? In answer I say, there are times in the life of an infant when a rattle is sufficient, for the violin another time in life comes. During the time of the Chaldeans, Arabs, Romans, Greeks, different religious ideals were brought. To the few music was brought, to the many only a note. This shows this music has always existed, only that man in general was not ready to grasp it, and so was given only one note. But the consequence was that the person who was given the C note and another the G note, they fought together, each saying: " The note given to us is the right note." and there have always existed souls who have said: "G is right", and others who said: "C is right"; all are right notes and when they are mixed together then there is music. This shows that there is an outer substance of religion which is the form, and the inner essence which is wisdom.

When wisdom has blessed the soul, then the soul has heard the divine music. And the words of Christ: ‘I am Alpha and Omega' what do they mean? That it was only when he came as Jesus? No, that music belongs to Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.

Those who tuned their hearts to listen to music, who elevated their soul high enough, they heard the divine music.

But those who played with their rattle, their unique note, they disputed one with the other, they would have refused a violin, they were not ready for it, they would not have known how to use it.

To-day the world is starved more for religion than ever before, and what is the reason? The reason is that some simple souls, attached to the faith of their ancestors, held their faith with esteem, considering religion necessary in life. But many souls with intelligence and reason and understanding of life rebelled against religion as the child when grown up, he throws away his rattle since he no longer is interested in it. So to-day the condition is that religion remains in the hands of those who have kept it in its outer form, out of devotion and loyalty to their ancestor's faith. And those who are, so to speak, grown up in mind and spirit and want something better, they can find nothing. Their souls hunger for music, and when they ask for music, they are given a rattle, and they throw away the rattle and say they do not care for music, and yet there is the inner yearning for music, the soul's music and without it their life becomes empty. How few recognise this fact, and fewer still will admit it. The psychological condition of humanity has become such that a person with intelligence refuses the music, he does not want the music, he wants something but he calls it by another name.

I will tell you my own experience in the Western world. Travelling for 10 years I have come in contact with people of intelligence, thinkers, people of science, and in them I have seen the greatest yearning for that religious spirit. They are longing every moment of their life for it, for they find with all their education and science there is some space empty in themselves. They want it filled but at the same time if you speak of religion, they say: "No, no, speak of something else, we do not want religion. "This means they know only the rattle part of religion and not the violin part. They do not think such a thing exists which can be different from a rattle and yet there is a perplexity in themselves, a spiritual craving, that is not answered even by all their learned and scientific pursuits.

Now, therefore, what is needed to-day in this world is a reconciliation between the religious man and the one who runs away from religion. But what can we do when we see in the Christian religion so many sects, one opposing another; and besides the Christian and Muslim religion, the Buddhist, Jewish and many others, each considering their own and thinking the others not worth thinking about. To me these different religions are like different organs of the body, cut apart and thrown asunder. Therefore, to me personally , it seems as if one arm of the same person were cut off and rising to fight the other. Both are arms of the same person and this person is complete when all these parts are brought together; then there is the Religion.

Then what is the effort of the Sufi Order? To make a new religion? No, it is to bring together the different organs of the one body which is meant to be united and not thrown away.

Now you may ask what is our method? How do we work to bring about a reconciliation? By realising for ourselves that the essence of all religion is one and that essence is Wisdom; and considering that Wisdom to be our religion whatever be our own form. The Sufi order has persons belonging to many different faiths among its members. Do you think they have given up their own religion? No. On the contrary they are firmer in their own faith by understanding the faith of others. From the narrow point of view fault may be found because they do not hate, mistrust and criticise the religion of others. They have respect for the Scriptures that millions of people have held as sacred, though those scriptures do not belong to their own religion. The desire to study and appreciate other scriptures, and so to find out that all Wisdom comes from the one source: the Wisdom of the East and of the West. The Sufi Order is therefore not a sect, it can be anything but a sect.

And if it ever became one, it would be quite contrary to the idea with which it has been begun, because its main idea is to remove differences and distinctions which divide mankind.; and this ideal is attained by the realisation of the one Source of all human beings, and also the goal, which we call God.

 

 

6. "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven".

 

 

In the prayer of the Christian Church there is a sentence: ‘Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.' This gives a great key to metaphysics. It gives a hint to the seer - that his Will, which is easily done in Heaven has difficulty in being done on earth. And who stands against His Will? Man. And where lies the Will of God? In the inner most being of man. And what stands as obstacle? The surface of the heart of man, and this means struggle in man himself. In him there is the Will of God and in him there is the obstacle. In the sphere within him, there is the will of God, as in Heaven; and where there is the obstacle to it, there is the earth

By this prayer man is prepared to remove the obstacle which stands before the will of God. Now how can we distinguish between those two aspects of will: the Will of God and the obstacle, which is the will of man? It is easy for a person with a clear mind and open heart to distinguish, if he only knew the secret of it. For to that which is the will of God his whole being responds and in doing so His will, his whole being becomes satisfied. When it is his will only one side of his being is perhaps satisfied for a certain time and there comes a conflict in himself. he himself finds fault with the idea or action. He himself finds dissatisfied with his own being. The wider the scope in which he sees his idea or his action the more dissatisfied he will become. When in this manner by the ray of intelligence, one sees life, one begins to distinguish between his will and the Will of God. The Kingdom of God, which is in Heaven, then comes to earth. It does not mean that it disappears from Heaven, but it only means that not only Heaven remains as a kingdom of Heaven, but even earth becomes a kingdom of Heaven. The purpose behind all this creation is that Heaven may be realised on the earth. If one did not realise it on earth, he cannot realise it in Heaven.

One may ask: "What do I mean with Heaven?" Heaven is that place where all is the choice of man and everything moves at his command. Heaven is the natural condition of life. When on earth life becomes so entangled that it loses its original harmony, Heaven ceases to exist and the motive of the soul is to gain in life the kingdom of Heaven which the soul has lost. Nothing does one attain in life which will give that satisfaction which can only be attained by bringing Heaven on earth.

 

 

7. Religion

 

 

Is a certain religion an important thing or is living it an important thing?

Perhaps a person belongs to the best religion there is in the world, he does not live it, but he belongs to it. He says he is a Mussulman or a Christian or a Jew. He is sure it is the best religion but at the same time he does not care to live it, he just belongs to it, and thinks belonging to a certain religion that is an accepted religion, is all that is needed. And people of all different religions have made it appear so, owing to their enthusiasm and forced by their mission in life; for they have made facilities for those who belong to their particular religion, saying that by the very fact of their belonging to that particular religion, they will be saved on the Day of Judgment, while others with all their good actions will not be saved, because they do not belong to that particular religion.

This a man-made idea, not God-made. God is not the Father of one sect, God is the father of the whole world and all are entitled to be called his children, whether worthy or unworthy. And in fact it is man's attitude toward God and truth which can bring him closer to God, which is the ideal of every soul. And if this attitude is not developed, then whatever a man's religion may be he has failed to live it. Therefore what is important in life is to try and live the religion to which one belongs, or that one esteems, or that one believes to be one's religion.

But one always has to know that religion has a body and has a soul. But whatever body or religion you may touch you touch the soul, and if you touch the soul you touch all its bodies, which are like its organs. And all the organs constitutes one body, which is the body of the Religion, the religion which is the religion of the Alpha and Omega, which was and which is and which will always be. Therefore the dispute, ‘I am right and you are wrong' in the path of religion is not necessary. We do not know what is in the heart of man. If outwardly he seems to be a Jew, a Christian, a Moslem or a Buddhist, we are not the judge of his religion, for every soul has a religion peculiar to itself, and no-one else is entitled to judge its religion. There maybe a person in a very humble garb, without the appearance of belief in God or of piety or orthodoxy, and he may have a religion hidden in his heart which not everybody can understand. And there maybe a person who is highly evolved and his outward conduct, which alone manifests to people's view may appear to be altogether contrary to their own way of looking at things. They may accuse him of being a materialist or an unbeliever or someone who is far from God and truth, and yet we do not know. Sometimes appearances are merely illusions, behind them there may be the deepest religious devotion, the highest ideal, hidden, of which we know very little

For the Sufi, therefore the best thing to do is to respect man, his belief, whatever it may be, his ideal, whatever is maybe, his way of looking at life, even if it be quite different from our own way of looking at it. It is in this spirit of tolerance that, when developed, will bring about the brotherhood which is the essence of religion and want of the day.

The idea, ‘ You are different and I am different, your religion and mine religion is different, your belief is different and my belief is different', that will not unite, that will only divide humanity. Those who, with their excuse of their great faith in their own religion, hurt the feeling of another and divide humanity, whose source and goal is the same; they abuse religion, whatever be their faith. The message, whenever, at whatever period it came to the world, did not come to a certain section of humanity; it did not come to raise only some few people who perhaps accepted the faith, the Message, or a particular church. No, all these things came afterwards. The rain does not fall in a certain land only, the sun does not shine upon a certain country only. All that is from God is for all souls. If they are worthy they deserve it, it is their reward; if they are unworthy they are the more entitled to it. Verily, blessing is for every soul, for every soul whatever be his faith or belief belongs to God.

8. Prayer

 

 

If we can only know the joy of asking pardon even of our fellowman, when we realise we are at fault, however little it may be! And when we ask the Father of all to forgive our fault, joy beauty, happiness spring in the heart in a way unknown until it is experienced. And then to think we can ask pardon of Him Whose love is unlimited, while our errors are numberless and our ignorance limitless! Think of the joy of asking forgiveness from God! Every moment of our life, if we can see wisely, contains some fault or error, and asking pardon is just like purifying the heart and washing it white. Only think of the joy of humbling yourself before God! There is a story of Akbar.

He was mourning for the death of his mother and for a long time his grief was so great he could not overcome it. His ministers and friends tried to comfort him, telling him how fortunate he was, how great was his influence and power. He answered, "Yes, I know it, but one thing grieves me. I have everyone to bow before, but there was one, when I came in the palace, before whom I could be humble. I could be as nothing before her and I cannot tell you the joy of that."

Think then of the greater joy of humbling yourself before that Spirit, that Ideal, who is the true Father and Mother, on Whose love you always can depend; - it is a spark of His love which expresses itself in the earthy father and mother -

and in whatever manner you must humble yourself before Him, it can never be enough. To humble your limited self before His Perfection, that is to deny yourself. Self-denial is not renouncing things, it is denying the self, and its first lesson is humility.

And the blessing one can receive by prayer becomes a thousandfold greater when the blessing is received by some few who are united in the same thought and are praying together.

 

 

9. Prayer

 

 

Often mankind thinks, ‘Since God is the knower of the heart of every man what does it matter if prayer is recited and gestures or action made? Would it not be sufficient if one sat in silence and thought of God?' And the answer is that it is according to the extent of your consciousness of prayer that your prayer reaches God. If your body is silent and only your mind is working, part of your being is praying and part is not, for you are constituted by both mind and body. Therefore, when the mind is praying the body must pray too, to make it complete. In reality God is within you, and as he is within you, you are the instrument of God, through you God experiences the external world and you are the best instrument of conveying yourself to God. Therefore your thought, action and word makes prayer complete.

Then there is another idea. The next question is, when God already knows what we want what is good for us, what we need, why should we ask Him for it? He knows it. For this in the first place I would quote Christ's words: "Knock and it shall be opened unto you; ask and ye shall receive." In other words God knows your need, He knows what you want, but your want becomes clear when it is expressed not by the mind or the body only but by your whole being. That is the secret.

The question "Why does God need praise from us? Who are we that we should praise God?" is answered thus. We can never praise him enough, and our praise can never be sufficient, but at the same time our soul is blessed with the impression of the Glory of God whenever we praise Him. The soul could praise God every moment and yet be wanting to praise Him more. It is constantly hungering and thirsting to find the perfection of beauty. When to our utmost we praise the beauty of God our soul is filled with bliss. Even to utter the name of God is a bliss which fills the soul with light and joy and happiness as nothing else can.

 

 

11/10. The way how the Wise make life in the World.

 

 

It is not easy to learn, and after learning to practice how to make life in the world with harmony and peace. The desire of every person in the world is to possess all he wants, whether it belongs to him or whether it belongs to anybody else. He wants all things to last if they are any use to him, he wants all those dear and near to him should abide close to him.

All he doesn't wish to see must be exiled from the town, and at the same time even the whole nature must work to suit him, the cold must not be more than he wants, the heat must not exceed his desire, the rain must obey him, pain must not approach near. There must not be anything difficult in life and all things and people must be perfect in the perfection of God. Everybody must act in life as he wishes them to, he alone must be the engineer and all others his machines. They must have all the endurance he demands of them, at the same time all must be as sensitive as he wants them to be.

No one should move against his desire, nor even a bird must fly in the sky, nor even a leaf must make a flutter - all under his command.

He alone must live and all others must live, but under him. This attitude, I have not spoken of someone in the world, but every individual. The world is a place where every individual wishes to be king, so many kings and only one Kingdom.

The whole tragedy of life is accounted for by this.

The wise out of Wisdom make life easy. But among the wise there are two categories, one is the Master, the other is the Saint. The attitude of both in life is quite contrary. The attitude of the Saint is to feel sympathy for the others and to see the difficulties of the situation in life of others as of himself and to sacrifice his wants for the need of others, realising that he knows that life is difficult, and those who are void of wisdom have more difficulties as they know not how to surmount the difficulties in life. Out of his love, mercy and compassion he thus sacrifices his life to the service of his fellowmen by making life easy for them.

In the first place the sees the worst enemy of his fellowman in himself, knowing that the nature of every ego is hostile, and by being resigned to the will of his fellowmen. By sacrificing his life's advantages for his brother he feels he has given his fellowman some relief that he could give him on his part.

By practising this moral through life at every step that a wise man takes, he becomes a source of happiness to all he meets and with whom he comes in contact in life, and his spirit becomes deepened in saintliness. The spirit of a saint results in being tuned to the whole universe, he is in tune with the climates, with the weather, with nature, with animals, birds, he becomes in tune with the trees and plants, in tune with the atmosphere, with all human beings of various natures, because he becomes the keynote to the whole universe.

All harmonise with him, the virtuous souls, the wicked souls, angels and devils, all become in tune. He becomes in harmony with every object, with every element, with those who have passed from this earth he is in tune; those in the atmosphere he is tune with them and in tune with those who live on earth. The moral of a Saint is very difficult, but the spirit of the saint is a benediction to himself and a blessing to others.

Then there is the way of the Master which is quite opposite. He conquers himself, he battles with life, he is in war with destiny, he invades all that seems wrong to him, he finds the key to the secrets unknown to him. Instead of being resigned to all conditions, all things, all people, he turns them to the shape that he wishes and moulds as he likes the personalities which come in touch with him. He turns personalities in the tune which would suit his orchestration.

He has command over objects, he produces effects in objects which naturally are not there. He can even rise to a state where he can command nature. The spiritual hierarchy is made of Masters, for the world is ruled, it is governed. Although outward governments are different, inward government is the spiritual hierarchy. In the East such one are called Wali, whose thought, whose feeling, whose glance, whose impulse can move the universe.

And yet neither of them Saint or Master comes to claim before the world: ‘ Look at me - I am a Saint', ‘I am a Master', ‘I can do this' or ‘I am such a virtuous person or a good person'. They keep themselves in humble guise, one like everyone in the world. It is not a claim, it is an action which proves the Master. And yet what do they care in the world acclaims them a Saint or as a Master? What benefit is it to them? It is only a benefit to the one who is false, because he is glad to be something he is not. He who is all, he does not wish that everybody should recognise him as such.

A person with his riches knows that he is rich, he needs not put on fifty rings to tell everybody how rich he is, but the one who puts on fifty rings is seldom rich. There is a beautiful simile known in India, that it is the empty vessel that makes the noise, when it is filled with water it makes no noise. In short sincerity is the principal thing to attain in life. What little is gained sincerely and held unassumingly is worth much more than a great gain void of sincerity, for it is a hill of sand, once the storm will come and blow it away.

Verily, truth is the treasure that every soul is seeking.

 

12/11. The Message

 

There are two distinct paths opposite to each other, those of the Master and of the Saint. The path of the Master is a path of war, war with outer influences which prevent one from making one's way through life. The path of the Saint is also a battle, but it is a battle with oneself. No doubt in the path of the Master also battle with oneself is necessary, for if one did not fight with oneself one would not be able to make his way through life. But the path of the Saint has a constant battle with the self , for the nature of the world is such that from the good person more good is asked, from the kind person more kindness is demanded, from the person who is patient more patience is expected, from a person who is gentle more gentleness is asked. There is no end to the world's demand, all one gives to the world, and more is asked; and always do right, and it is always wrong. therefore there is no end to the battle in both the paths that the wise take, and it is the warrior in life's path who in the end becomes victorious. Those who have not that power remain wandering about in the same place.

The work of the Master is to comfort individuals and comfort the world; the work of the Master is to keep away all the disasters that might come about, caused by the disharmony of the nature of the individuals and the collectively; the work of the Master is to help the feeble but right, the weak but just, when he is in a situation where he is opposed by the powerful enemy. The work of the Saint is to console the wretched, to take under his wings of mercy and compassion those left alone in life, to bless the souls that come in their way.

But there is a third line of the wise in which there is a balance of the spirit of the Master and of the Saint. This line is called Kemal or perfect or balanced, and it is on this line that the destiny of the Prophet leads him. For the Prophet's work is more difficult and complicated than that of the Master and of the Saint. To the souls who ask from him that compassion which they would ask from the Saint, he gives it., to those who ask of him that power, that strength which is necessary to be able to stand through the sweeping waves of life, the Prophet gives that. But besides the Prophet is the Message-bearer, the Prophet is the master and the servant at the same time. The Prophet is a teacher and at the same time a pupil, for there is a great deal that he must learn from his experience through life, not in order to make himself capable to receive the message, but in order to make himself efficient enough to give the Message. For God speaks to the Prophet in his divine tongue, and the Prophet interprets it in his turn in the language of men, making it intelligible to them, trying to put the finest ideas in the gross terms of worldly language.

Therefore all that is not given, that the Prophet comes to give to the world, in words, but all that cannot be given in words is given without words. It is given through the atmosphere. It is given by the presence, it is given by great affection that gushes forth from the heart, it is given in his kind glance, and it is given in his benediction, and yet the most is given in silence that no earthy sense can perceive. The difference between human language and divine words is this: that a human word is a pebble, it exists, but there is nothing further, the divine word is a living word, just like a grain or corn. One grain of corn is not one grain, in reality it is hundreds and thousands. In the grain there is an essence which is always multiplying and which will show the perfection in itself.

 

13a/12. The Message of Christ

 

 

The words of Christ in the Bible are: "I am Alpha and Omega", which means ‘I am the First and the Last'. Would this then not mean. ‘I came to earth only when I was called Jesus, I gave the message and went, and never came again?'

If that were the meaning of ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega' it would have no meaning. Really the meaning is: ‘I was and shall be'.

Now about the question that arises in the enquiring mind: "Who may this Alpha and Omega be?" What he was before Jesus Christ? What would he be like after the time of Jesus Christ?" For those who put the water of the Ocean in a pitcher, that water is from the Ocean but really the Ocean is the Ocean. For those of the different creeds who have different forms of worship and dogma's say: " This is the teaching of Christ". Yes it is true, but it is not all the teaching of Christ. It is as true as to say : " This is the Ocean" as if one brought water from the ocean in a pitcher, it is true, but there is an Ocean. This shows that a shield called Jesus Christ brought the message. It was the shield that was Jesus. This is the secret of that Alpha and Omega spirit of Christ. If one can only see that spirit hidden behind different shields one would be constantly in the vision of Christ. In the smile of the innocent child, there is a Christ, in the warmth of the mother's heart for her child Christ is hidden. In that unselfish, self-sacrificing love of the father, there Christ shows himself. In the kindly attitude of a friend, you can see the spirit of Christ. What is there which has beauty, tenderness, gentleness, which has not the spirit of Christ?

From those who keep Christ away from them, He is far, but in reality they have covered their eyes themselves. It is not the fault of Christ, it is their own fault, not that of Christ who speaks in the whisper of the wise people of the centuries, who speaks aloud in the voice of the Prophet, the Warner who comes now and then; the same, coming sometimes, sometimes hiding himself, the same always. Man's doubt and scepticism prevent his seeing him. When Christ came in the form of Jesus those who saw him, did not recognise him.

Another side to consider is that the idea of miracles is attached to the person of Christ. In reality the greatest miracle of Christ that any wise man can see is the miracle of Christ's living heart; not wonderworking but the living God presented to the world. It was the lighted faith which helped the darkness to vanish, not dogma's or doctrines or theories, all that came afterwards. He went to the fishermen and said to them: "Come hither, I will make you fishermen of men."What does it mean? Does ‘fishers of men' mean fishers of money? No, he meant by this: 'Let love be alive in your hearts, that the whole world may become your customers.'

If you analyse what he said, what he taught was very simple. It was not elaborate words and theories, there was not any great literary skill. What was it? It was the depth of his being. In the Bible it is often said the revelation came with fiery tongue. What does it mean? If the heart is burning, the flame comes in a word.

 

 

13b. The message of God (cont.)

 

 

Where is God? God is in the heart of man. When it is the voice of God that rises in the hearts of man it is a divine word. The words of Christ are a tongue of fire that pierces the heart of man.

Christ's saying, ‘fishers of man' does not mean making yourself clever that you may take advantage of man. It is not cleverness. On the contrary the message of Christ is simplicity, sincerity, gentleness, innocence, which beyond and above all proves the purity of the heart. In the East the Christ attribute is called Mansumiat, innocence. It takes a different point of view from the ordinary one to see the value and power of innocence.

Every person when born on earth is born an innocent soul. He gets the experience of the world and becomes worldly. Then the more worldly he becomes the more the beauty and angelic attributes are covered by the knowledge of the complications of the world. As he develops he tries to learn still more and to bury the spirit of innocence as deep as possible, until the Christ-spirit is altogether covered. What he knows is what he has learned in this mortal life., this false life. And what can the knowledge of falsehood bring? Falsehood. The generality is seeking falsehood and gets falsehood. This can be seen by the simple fact that the man clad with artificial clothes is welcome in society. This shows that that man cannot stand the bare truth.

What were the prophets who came in all ages? Whose message did they bring? It was the message of Christ, the Christ-spirit spoke through them. The message has never been advertised. It has never been made an object of publicity. They sacrifice their lives to all the opposition on their path. The path of the prophet is the path of constant trouble. The question arises: If it was the voice of Christ in the words of the prophet, why cannot he speak now or why will he not speak in the future? It is only one voice calling all the time, but man closes the doors of his heart.

The explanation of what the prophet is, that the prophet is the artist. As the artist draws the picture of nature and brings its beauty before man in a form that man can tolerate and admire, so it is the work of the prophet to bring before man that bare truth that man cannot tolerate in a form that he can tolerate and can admire. Whether man understands it or not, that is another question.

Another work of the prophet is that he is all things to all men and for each one he has a special message. There is no world-message, there can not be a world-message. A world-message, yes, in the spirit, but not in the manifestation. In manifestation to every individual, to every sect, nation, race, there is a special message. Although the people of every sect have made the prophet their own, yet that is as absurd as to limit the sky to one's own country, as if Switzerland has a special sky, as if there were a special sky for England, one for France. How can one limit the sky? The earth can be limited, not the sky. Can the Musulman, the Jews, the Christians limit Christ? Can they say Christ was of the East, not of the West? Could the West limit Christ, as they say Christ was the Master of the West. This means limiting the spirit which was for the blessing of all. Limitation is in the shield that hides the spirit, not in the Christ self. In the same way people limit the spirit of Christ by saying it is only spoken of in one particular book. In the book it is kept as the water from the ocean in the pitcher, but to say that it is only there means that the ocean is only in the pitcher, there exists no ocean.

No doubt from everywhere in the world the answer of Christ will come if you call him. If you look above or below, Christ is before you if your eyes are opened. If everything is closed you do not know Christ nor does Christ know you. This shows there is a wall covering, separating man from Christ externally and inwardly. That means that if a person will find him within., he will find him without, but if he does not find him within, neither will he find him without. Those with closed hearts will implore Christ to come and will wait for thousands of years and he will not come. How will they recognise him if they do not recognise Christ in their hearts first?

Everything is recognised first in the heart. The pearls are pebbles before the swine. Have they no eyes? They have, but the eyes of the heart have not recognised the pearls. Man recognises the pearls and distinguish them from the pebbles. Do not think that there is not a gulf between man and man as between the swine and man!

Man can prove to be worse than the animal, man can act worse than the devil. The devil is a miniature of man's wickedness, as the angel is the miniature of man's greatness. It was the human being which was honoured by being Christ, it is the human being who is pictured in the form of Satan. Think what a gulf there is between man and man!

To take off the cover separating man from Christ a process is necessary. This process is the same that is taken to take away the stains and lines from paper by rubbing. The process is Safa from which comes Sufi. Safi means to clean, to wash, to erase and by this the soul is purified. This shows the mission of Sufism, and the work of the Sufi Order.

Every process of meditation and concentration is to wash the soul of the stains of earthy experiences. The real use of any exercise or practises is that the Christ-voice may become audible, that the light may manifest. Once a person has heard this voice, once he has seen the light, do you think that he hears or sees anything else afterwards? No, the ears are dedicated to Christ when once one has found Christ in one's own heart.

The principal teaching of Sufism is that the heart of man is the shrine of God, to recognise God in one's own heart, to feel His existence, presence, virtue, goodness, all manner of beauty. It must be remembered that the whole life around us is a life of falsehood.

The more you see and experience the more you see how false it is, how much disillusionment there is. The only way of getting over it is to light the lamp in the darkness of the night, and all will be cleared. The secret of life is this, to produce beauty in ourselves. When beauty is produced in the heart, then all that breaks the heart vanishes and the whole universe becomes one single vision of the sublimity of God.

 

 

14. (Three aspects of the work of the Sufi Movement)

 

 

Before the service commences I would like to speak a few words to introduce the idea of our movement. The Sufi Movement has three aspects of its work: the esoteric work, the devotional service and the third, the activity of brotherhood, the activity, the meeting which took place this afternoon and the religious activity you will see here. In spite of the different opinions of all the different people in the world, it is an undeniable fact that humanity needs religion greatly. But which religion does it need? Does it need the sectarian religions as of old? No. Mankind is getting tired of that idea of being confined in a sect. And the new generation to-day is beginning to see that there is no such religion in this world which can be considered inferior to its own and therefore that narrow outlook of the sectarians of the religions does not appeal to them.

Now the question, - if the Sufi message is a new religion. Certainly it cannot be a new religion. When Jesus Christ has said that ‘I have come to fulfil the law, not to give a new law'. It is the same religion which Jesus Christ has brought still continued further. It is one and the same stream which all prophets have brought and given to humanity, it is carried along. It is the same stream which is always there. The Message of the Sufi is the answer to the cry of humanity to-day, for it is in agreement with the science and it stands to defend all religions. The Sufi does not say this religion is greater than the other, nor does he come out and say this religion and that religion are equal. He leaves it to the individual to thinks as he thinks. He only holds his service as the proof of adhering all the teachers and respecting all the scriptures which are respected by the collectivity.

But with all its forms the Sufi ideal has also the formless ideal of worship. The form is to help the one who can be helped by seeing the form, because all education is an education in names and forms. If there was no form and no name we would not have learned the. The form is only suggestive of what is behind it, of the one and same truth which is behind all religions. Therefore this service is a teaching at the same time and yet every Sufi is free to take up a form or not take up a form; a Sufi is not bound by a form. The form is for his use, not to make him captive.

And one may ask, is there a priesthood in the Sufi Movement? Priesthood, not in the sense as it is understood; priesthood only to conduct the service and to answer the need of a priest which is always in everyday life. Those ordained in the Sufi Movement are called Cherags and by other names. There is no distinction between woman or man; the worthy soul is ordained, who has the desire to serve humanity by this, showing the example to the world that in all places, in the church, in the school, in the house of parliament, in the court, it is woman and man together who complete evolution. But at the same time every Sufi is a priest, a preacher, is a teacher and is a pupil of every soul that he meets in the world.

Since the only ideal in working is to qualify oneself in order to be a proper servant to serve the cause of God.

 

15. The Message

 

 

There are seven grades recognized by the Sufi of those in the spiritual hierarchy - Pir, Buzurg, Wali, Ghous, Kutub, Nabi, Rassoul. These are the degrees which come from the inner initiations - the inner initiations to which one becomes entitled to, after having had the outer initiations, which are necessary. It is beyond words to express what inner initiations means and in what form it is given. Those to whom the inner initiation is unknown may explain it as a dream or as a vision, but in reality it is something higher and greater than that. I can only explain it by saying that the definite changes which take place during one's journey through the spiritual path are initiations, and it is these initiations which include man in the spiritual hierarchy.

In the life of a Saint or a Master there are five degrees known, and in the last degrees the progress of the Saint and the Master is silent. But in the life of a Prophet these seven degrees manifest to view. For a Saint or a Master there is one facility, that he can do his work by avoiding the notice of the world. But the life of a Prophet necessitates his coming into the world, and thus as he progresses from grade to grade through his life, he cannot very well cover himself, however much he may want to, from the gaze of the world, though the sage of every category, saint, master or Prophet, and every degree, always prefers not being known to the world, and as he progresses so, that desire increases more. But it is not only out of modesty or humbleness, but also for it attracts dangers of all sorts, by being exposed to the common gaze.

All beauty is veiled in nature, and the higher the beauty the more it is covered. And that makes it easy for a wise person to find out the difference between a true Prophet and a false Prophet, for one beats his drums and the other tries to keep in the background, - if only his work in the world would let him keep back. It is his efforts in accomplishing something that bring him to the notice of the world. However, his longing is to be unknown, for the one who really deserves being known is God alone.

The work of the Pir is helping individuals toward the unfoldment of their soul. The work of the Buzurg is to help by the power of his soul those who wish to advance spiritually. The Wali controls a community, keeping it on the right track. The Ghous helps its spiritual well-being. Kutub spiritually governs a country, a nation. Nabi elevates individuals and bears a divine message. Rassoul is the one who has fulfilled the message he has borne.

 

 

16. The Message

 

 

There are three stages of action which the sincere followers of the message have to pass through, and the difficulty is that each stage has the tendency to keep back the followers of the Message from going on to the next stage. And the reason is that every stage that the sincere followers of the divine Message has to go through in his life has no end of interest and happiness in it. Another thing is that one stage is quite different from another stage and therefore each stage is a kind of contrary action to the previous stage.

Now these three stages may be called: 1) Receiving the Message, 2) Assimilating the Message and 3) Representing the Message. For a sincere mureed the first stage can be so interesting that he may think it is never enough, - that endless knowledge and the heart of the seeker after truth - which is never full, fill it, and there is still a place to fill - may receive for ages and it is yet never enough.

And when the receiver of the Message is in that stage then the activity of the further stages remains unaccomplished.

For the next stage, which is the stage of assimilation, is most necessary; very few can imagine how long it takes for the spirit to assimilate knowledge of truth.

One assimilates it by the power of contemplation, by pondering over the subjects that one hears, by practising the teachings in one's life, by looking at the world from the point of view which has been told, by observing one thing in its thousand different positions. Many, before assimilating the knowledge, wish to reason it, wish to discuss it, wish to justify it and see how it fits in with one's preconceived ideas. In this way they disturb the digestive fire of the spirit, for as the mechanism of the body is always working to help to assimilate the food, so the spirit is constantly working to assimilate all that one learns through life. Therefore it is a matter of patience and it is taking life easily without troubling the mind too much over things, and allowing the knowledge which one has received as a food of the spirit to have time to be assimilated. By trying to assimilate knowledge before the time, man looses his normal health; it is just like taking a drug to help food, which is not beneficial in the end.

But the third stage is also necessary, and those who care little for the third stage of representing

miss a great deal in life. A person who has seen something beautiful, who has heard something harmonious, who has tasted something delicious, who has smelt something fragrant alone, has enjoyed it, and yet not completely. The complete joy is in sharing one's joy with another. The selfish one who enjoys himself and does not care for the others, whatever he enjoys, things of the earth or things of Heaven, his enjoyment is not complete. So it is in this third stage that the following of the Message is fulfilled, when a soul has heard and has pondered upon it and has passed the same blessing to the others.

 

 

17. The Sufi Message

 

 

Beloved ones of God. My subject for this evening is the Sufi Message. The word message conveys a different meaning from that of an intellectual philosophy. There are two ideas prevailing in the world, the one is that man has evolved through years and centuries, and the other idea is that as Solomon has said, ‘there is nothing new under the sun.' And that explains to us that divine truth has always been and always will be the same. No-one can improve upon it and nobody can give a new Message. It is the Divine Tongue which at times has spoken louder, and at times in a whisper and it is the consciousness of the Divine Spirit which makes Christ say: "I am the Alpha and Omega." Those who limit Christ to the historic period of the life of the Prophet of Nazareth surely limit the message, in spite of His open declaration that He is the First and the Last. Also Christ said: "I have not come to give a new law, but I have come to fulfil the law," which means that no new religion has ever been given, although the world has taken it so.

Man divides, God unites humanity. Man's pleasure is in thinking and feeling, ‘I am different from you', ‘You are different from me' - by nationality, by race, in creed or religion. The animals do that. Did Jesus Christ come to form an exclusive community to be named Christian or Buddha to found a creed called Buddhism? Or was it Mohammed's ideal to form a community called Mohammedan? On the contrary the Prophet warned His disciples that they should not attach His name to His message, but that it should be called Islam - the message of peace.

Not one of the masters came with the thought of forming an exclusive community or to give a certain religion. They came with the same message from one and the same God. Whether the message was in Sanskrit, Zend or Arabic, it had one and the same meaning. The difference between religions is external, the inner meaning of all is one.

If only man had understood this, the world would have avoided many wars, for war has mostly been caused by religion. Religion given to the world to establish peace and harmony! What a pity that from the same source should come war and disaster!

The Sufi message is a reminder to humanity, not to anyone nation but to all, not to one but every creed, - a reminder of the truth taught by all the great teachers of humanity - that God, Truth, Religion are one, duality only a delusion of human nature.

Think then what a great service lies before the message. At this time when nation is against nation, race against race, when the followers of one religion are constantly working against the followers of another religion, class working against class; competition, hate, prejudice prevailing everywhere. What will be the outcome? What can poison produce? Not nectar only poison. The message is not for one nation, race or community, it is as already stated for the whole of humanity. Its one and only object is to bring about a better understanding between the divided sections of humanity by awakening the consciousness to the fact that humanity is one family. If one person in the family be ill or unhappy, certainly he must cause unhappiness in the whole family.

Even this is not the most appropriate simile. Humanity is one body, the whole life being one in its source and its goal, its beginning and its end. No scientist can deny this! If part of the body is in pain, sooner or later, the whole body is affected. If your fingers aches, your body is not free from pain. No action, race or section can be considered as a separate part of humanity.

To-day education, politics, all directions of life seem to be working with an individualistic view, but where must a tendency end, where will it lead humanity? If each says: "I must get the better of the other", where will be the harmony and peace for which all are longing, no matter of what race or religion they be?

No doubt this condition has been brought about by a long-continued materialism and commercialism, which have taught every soul the spirit of competition and rivalry, the whole life of each absorbed in guarding his own interests, trying too take the best in life for himself.

Life is one continual fight and only one thing can ease this fight - consideration for others, reciprocity, give and take of good instead of selfishness as the central theme. Progress will never lead to the soul's desire and aim. It must culminate in destruction and as at one time there was a call from everywhere to guard self-interest, now the moment has come that the message be given to men to understand and consider one another, for the happiness and peace of each individual depends on the happiness and peace of all.

There is an order of the Sufis, which is constituted of these who have the same ideals of service to God and to humanity, who have the ideal to devote a part of the whole of their life to the service of humanity, on the path of truth. This order exists throughout the world in most of the European countries and in America. This order has its groups, the members of which belong to all the different religions - all are welcome - Christians, Buddhists, Parsees, Muslims. No-one's faith or belief is questioned, each can follow his own church, religion, creed. No-one must believe in any special creed or dogma. Freedom of thought is given. At the same time personal guidance is given on the path, in the problems of life, and in the inner life.

Those who belong to the Esoteric school of this Order, besides personal guidance, are given the studies which are entrusted only to those who are fitted to receive them. There are subtleties of ideas, of spiritual, moral or philosophical ideas, which cannot be given to everyone at first, but can be given gradually to those, who are serious enough to walk in the path of truth. Every seeker after truth must remember one thing, that the first step on the path of truth is to become true to oneself.

 

 

18. The Coming World Religion

 

 

There are many prophecies and several beliefs on this subject, but in this lecture I have no desire to make any prophecy on the subject. I only wish to explain what religion means. The present religion or the coming religion, or the past religion is for those who divide the truth, which is one, into many. As a point of fact what was is, and what is will be. Was this idea not supported by Jesus Christ, who said: "I have not come to give a new law, I have come to fulfill the law"? If Jesus Christ said this, who else can come out and say: "I give you a new religion"?

There cannot be a new religion; one could as well say: "I wish to teach you a new wisdom". There cannot be a new wisdom, wisdom is the same, which was and is and always will be.

There arises the question in the heart of the enquirers, "Then what is this variety of religions which has engaged humanity for years in conflict with one another, so that most of the wars and battles were fought in the name of religion?" This only shows the childish character of human nature. The religion which was given for unity, for harmony, for brotherhood was used by the childish nature to fight and to dispute and to engage themselves in battles for years and years. And the most amusing thing for a thoughtful person is to think and to see how they have given in the past history a most sacred character to war, to battle, and called it sacred war or holy war.

And the same tendency of making war with one another which began in their religion, persisted in the time of materialism; the same tendency turned into war between nations. And at the same time the differences and distinctions which existed between the different faiths and beliefs still exist, and that prejudice and that difference and the bigotry which existed between nations still exist in a smaller or greater degree. What does it show? It shows that the meaning of true religion has not been understood by the majority. And therefore that mission that religion has to fulfill in connection with humanity still remains unfulfilled. And it is at that fulfillment that Jesus Christ has hinted: ‘I have come to fulfill the law, not to give a new law.'

Religion can be seen from five different point of views:

One :Religion which is known to us as certain dogmas, laws of teachings.

When we think and see the condition of the world, we see that the law is now given by the nation. Every nation now is responsible for the order and peace of the people.

 

The second aspect of religion is the church and the form of service. In this of course there are differences and there will always be differences; it is a matter of temperament, it is a matter of tendency and it also depends upon the customs and beliefs of the people who have inherited that tendency from their ancestors.

Some of them have in their house of prayer different forms and different ceremonies which help them to feel elevated; the others have a simple service. One appeals to one ant the other appeals to the other. No doubt the world is evolving to uniformity, and as now we see no very great difference between the form, the form of everything, of different customs of meeting, of dressing and many other things, so people are coming to a certain uniformity. At the same time when we look at the subject from a different point of view we shall find that uniformity very often takes away the beauty of life. The countries so civilized and advanced where the architecture and houses are all built on the same custom, all dressed in the same way, they become so tired that they like to go to a different country and see houses distinct and different one from the other, and also the people. For instance the method of writing music and the form of notation for the whole Western world is the same, but the distinction between the music of the French, Italian, German and Russian gives a stimulus to the lover of music. And so it is in the distinction of the forms. To want to make all people live alike and do alike means to turn all people into the same form and same face, and what would happen then? The world would become very uninteresting. It is like turning all the keys of the piano to the same note. It is not necessary to change the notes of the piano. What is necessary is to know the way of harmony, to know how to create harmony between the different notes.

 

The third aspect of religion is the religious ideal: the Lord and Master of the religion. the Lord and Master that a soul has esteemed as the ideal. It is something which cannot be discussed, something which cannot be argued upon. The less spoken about it, the better it is. It is the outcome of the devotion of a sincere heart which gives birth to that ideal which is too sacred to mention, an ideal which cannot be compared, an ideal which cannot be explained. And when the followers of diverse religions come to this question and dispute over their ideals, the sacred ideals of which they have only some tradition,

- which they have not known, but of which they have only had a tradition, - and wish to prove one better than the other, they merely lose time and they destroy that sacred sentiment which can only be preserved in the heart.

The religious ideal is the medium, the medium by which one rises towards perfection. Whatever name a person gives to his ideal, that name is for him, and that name is most sacred for him. But that does not mean that that name limits that ideal. There is only one ideal, the divine ideal ...call him Christ, and let the same Christ be known by different names, given to him by various communities. For instance, a person who has great devotion, a great love and attachment for his friend, is speaking of friendship in high words and he is saying what a sacred thing it is to become friends. But then there is another one who says: "Oh, I know your friend, what he is; he is no better than anybody else." The answer to this idea is given by Majnun, in the story told by the ancients, where someone said to Majnun, "Leila, your beloved is not as beautiful as you think." He said. "My Leila must be seen with my eyes. If you wish to see how beautiful Leila is, you must borrow my eyes." Therefore if you wish to regard the object of devotion of whatever faith, or whatever community, of whatever people you will have to borrow their eyes, you will have to borrow their heart. There is no use in disputing over the points of history, over each tradition in history; they are made by prejudice. Devotion is a matter of heart and is made by the devotee.

 

The fourth aspect of religion is the idea of God. There will always be fights and discussions that ‘The God of our family is one and the God of your family is another.' There have always been fights. In the old times there was a dispute between the people saying that the God of Beni Israel was a special God; and so every community and every church made its God a special God.

If there is a special God it is not only a special God of a community, but a God of every individual. For man has to make his own God before he realizes the real God. But that God which man makes within himself becomes in the end, the door by which he enters that shrine of his innermost being, the real God, which is in the heart of man. And then he begins to realize that God is not a God of a certain community or people, but God is the God of the whole being.

 

And then we come to another aspect of religion, which is not necessarily the law or ceremony or the divine ideal or God, which is apart from all these four. That is something living in the soul, in the mind, and in the heart of man, the absence of which keeps man as dead, and the presence of which gives him life. If there is any religion it is that particular sense. And what is that sense?

The Hindus have called it in the Sanskrit language ‘Dharma', which in the ordinary meaning of the word is ‘duty'. But it is something much greater than we know in our every-day life as duty. I do not call it duty. I call it life itself. When a person is thoughtful, when a person is considerate, when a person feels obligations that he has towards his fellowman, towards his friend, towards his father or mother, or in whatever relation he stands to man; it is something living, it is something like water which gives the sense of the living soul; the soul is not dead. It is this living soul which really makes a person alive. And the person who is not conscious of this, this tenderness, this sacredness of life, he lives but the soul is in the grave. You do not need to ask that man what is his religion, what is his belief, for he is living it; life itself is his religion and this is the true religion. The man conscious of honour, the man who has the sense of shame, who has the feeling of sincerity, whose sympathy, whose devotion is alive, that man is living, that man is religious.

And it is this religion which has been the religion of the past and which will be the religion of the future. Religion if ever it was taught by Christ or any other great ones, was to awaken in man that sense which is awakened when this religion is living.

Is does not matter in which house you go and pray, for every moment of your life there is religion. Then it is not a religion in which you believe, but it is a religion which you live.

What is the Message of Sufism? Sufism is the message of digging out that water like life which has been buried by the impressions of the material life.

There is an English phrase: ‘A lost soul'. The soul is not lost, the soul is buried, when it is dug then the divine life springs out like a spring of water. And then the question is: "What is digging? What does one dig in oneself?" Is it not true, is it not said in the scriptures that God is love? Then where is God to be found? Is He to be found in the seventh heaven, or is He to be found in the heart of man? He is to be found in the heart of man which is his shrine. But if this heart is buried, - the heart which has lost that light, that life, that warmth, what does this heart become? It becomes as a grave. There is a popular song in English, a beautiful line which says: 'the lights of life dies when love is done.' That living being in the heart is love. It may come as kindness, as friendship, as sympathy, as tolerance, as forgiveness. In whatever form this living water rises from the heart, it proves the heart to be a divine spring. And when once this spring is open and rising, all that man does as an action, as a word, as a feeling, it is all religion; that man becomes religious.

If there is any coming religion, a new religion to come, it will be this religion, the religion of the heart. After all the suffering that has been caused to humanity by the recent war, man is beginning to open his eyes. And as the time will pass he will open his eyes to know and understand that the true religion is in opening his heart, in widening the outlook and in living the religion which is one religion.

 

 

20/19. The Message

 

 

In the first place we must see whether it is an affair of individuals or a work that can be done collectively. To see the truth as a whole is beyond the power of the generality.

The ordinary point of view of life would be like that of a man in an forest, who would see horses running about, one to the North another to the South. If one could see the purpose of things behind things, every little coincidence in life proves this, that man often thinks about his free will and sees a kind of freedom and pride in what he calls free will, and the more he deeply thinks about it, the more he finds that ‘man proposes and God disposes'. Man, individually and collectively, tries to get all that is best in life, all happiness, wealth, comfort, power, all that seems to him worth while, and if free will really existed every one would have these things. yes, there seems to be free will, man feels it, because it springs from his heart, and as long as he understands that it is his own impulse that has come to manifestation, he cannot understand the real meaning of free will.

But the more one studies life, and the deeper one sees into life, the more one sees that all things adjust themselves. And perhaps it would confuse many and would seem exaggeration if I said, as any mystic would say, that all is truth and that truth is all. Of course it is a deep question and difficult to be understood by an explanation unless one rises above the generality and looks at life from a different point of view. Sa'di, the great poet of Persia said that each soul is created for a special purpose and that to fulfill this purpose a light is in his heart. This may confuse many of course. Some may say: "If I am created for a special purpose what is the use of progress. Why not stay where I am since it is my destiny?" One can help others to understand, but one cannot make them understand. If someone thinks he is a chair or a table, he will remain such, but if the thinks he is a living being, he feel that action is the object of life, and that everything adjusts to that, and that every part is made for a purpose, as for instance the parts of a the parts of a table or a chair. And if we think of life and the whole world and see into it deeply, we shall find that we live and move and have our being for a certain purpose. A person may say it is the ides of a fatalist that everything must go trough to its destiny. It is not the idea of a fatalist, it is the idea of a seer, of a mystic, because the fatalist makes human beings as chairs and tables, the mystic makes even chairs and tables living beings.

Jelaluddin Rumi says: " The fire and the water and the earth and the air are as dead things to every person, but before God they are His living servants, who work according to His command."

The fatalist makes the living dead and the mystic makes things into living beings.

Now coming to the point of view of the subject: ‘What is after all the purpose of life'? No doubt when we take an individual there is a separate purpose in his life and when we take the multitude we see that there is a common purpose, and looking at the whole we can see that there is a purpose for the whole of humanity. Every purpose whether for an individual or collectively has a certain value, but the purpose of all beings is beyond value, and when every individual is engaged in a certain purpose, and a group of individuals also and the whole is also accomplishing a purpose, this is under a direction, which is called a Hierarchy. What does a person who has not seen the four walls of his own village know of the North Pole? If we talk to him, he cannot understand.

How can one understand what the ocean is like if one has before him only a little tank of water? Friends, to see the planets we must raise our heads and therefore that spiritual direction that is working on the whole cannot be imagined by one whose whole life has been spent in worldly things. This is a subject which is studied by initiates who are trusted with life's mysteries. They are plain things but are called mysteries because the sneering world is always ready to laugh at that what it does not understand.

And again what is this direction? And how may one call it? It is the same direction that one may call Christ. But it has its work in all parts of the world and if people of some parts call it by another name, are they wrong? It is only another name. You may ask what determines the destiny of man to be included in this direction, his birth or his rank, his inheritance or a special education? Perhaps some may give you the reason of many years continual development from life to life.

But to avoid complications and make things simple, as is always the tendency of the mystic, I would say: " What determines one piece of wood to be made into the floor under one's feet and another piece of the same wood as the ceiling over one's head? Or if the keys of the pianoforte complained of their unequal places in the octave, what would you answer?" Jesus Christ gave a beautiful answer when asked why a person was blind, whether for his faults or the faults of his parents. He answered: "For neither, but that the works of the Lord may become manifest." The Koran says that man is egoistic and asks a question of the Lord of the Universe why this or that is so, being unjust and himself a slave of the law. It is as though a child watched a painter who has painted all his life and criticized him. The painter would answer: " I have done this all my life and you judge me according to your little experience, but I know what I am doing." Of course the wise are forgiving and tolerant and do not hurt the childish tendency in man, but always try to explain. Once an Indian child asked me: "Why should we bow our heads to the earth, when God is in heaven?" Could I answer with metaphysics or philosophy? I said that the head of the Lord is in Heaven and his feet are on the earth. And so the child understood, and thus humanity has been consoled and comforted through the ages. But the knowledge that consoles and comforts is only a step towards the knowledge that gives real peace.

There are different views about the Hierarchy. Some people think it must be either in Heaven or in the Himalayas or in Tibet. Now where is this Himalayas or Tibet? It is that place, that sphere, which is beyond the understanding of ordinary people. Friends, what is precious and inspiring, what elevates you and helps you, cannot be far from you. If it were, it would be the worst injustice. If the agency of conveyance such as steamers and ships and trains exists in all parts of the world, how is it possible that the agency of the conveyance to the peace, for which every soul yearns, is not also everywhere? The spiritual Hierarchy is constituted of those who are unseen - and they live among you in the crowd like every one. But people want a sign: ‘If you are a King show me your crown, if you are a millionaire show me your check book.' Man lives from morning till evening in this life of illusion, and his eyes cannot see the truth. There is a great expectation all over the world just now that the Teacher is coming.

 

 

And the expectation is such as though the Teacher will come directly from the sky and as though the whole world will be already accepting and expecting him on their knees; that the lawyers, scientists, materialists and teachers of the different sects will all agree at once, and He will come. If we will only think of the coming of Jesus Christ in that humble garb and that no-one accepted Him during life, in his unassuming life, preaching to some fishermen! Was he accepted as Christ or is he not Christ to-day? In looking at lives of different Prophets or Teachers: " Were they accepted at once?" Mohammed was three times chased out of Mecca and had to go in the night. Buddha had to leave India and go to China and Japan; and during the whole life's struggle of Moses, he could only work at the end, because of permission of the King. Krishna passed his whole life in Brindaban, unknown until the war of Mahabharata, when Arjuna asked for his blessing and fought. It was only then that the movement of the Message had come. Does the Messenger care whether the world recognizes him or not? The Messenger is dead, it is only the Message that lives in him. It is the dead harp that gives the music and not the living dog or cat, when one tries to play on them. The Cross is the symbol of annihilation and it is after the annihilation of the false personality that the Message of God comes. The Messenger never claims.

Thousands will listen to those who claim to be messengers, but the wind of the spirit will destroy all that is false. It is not the claim that makes the Messenger, it is the Message that does it.

 

 

21/20. CHRIST

 

 

The Christ ideal is unexplainable in words. The omnipresent intelligence, which is in the rock, in the tree, in the animal. In man it shows its gradual unfoldment.

It is a fact accepted by both science and metaphysics. This intelligence shows its culmination in the complete development of human personality and in the personality such as that of Jesus Christ, which was recognized by his followers to be. The followers of Buddha recognized the same unfoldment of the object of creation in Gautama Buddha and the Hindus saw the same in Sri Krishna. In Moses, the followers of Moses recognized that and maintained their belief for thousands of years. And the same culmination of the all-pervading intelligence was recognized in Mohammed by his followers.

No man has the right to claim this stage of development, nor can anyone compare very well two persons recognized by their followers as the perfect spirit of God. For a thoughtless person it is easy to express his opinion and to compare two people, but a thoughtful person first thinks whether he has arrived at that stage where he can compare two such personalities. No doubt a question of belief is different. Neither can the belief of the Muslim be the same as that of the Jewish people, nor can the Christian belief be the same of that of the Buddhists. However, the wise understands all beliefs for he is one with them all.

And the question if a person was destined to be a complete personality may be answered that there is no person who is not destined to be something. Every person has his life destined beforehand and the light of the purpose, for which he was born and to accomplish in life, has already been kindled in his soul. Therefore, whatever be the grade of a person's evolution, he is certainly destined to be so. Discussion of the lives that the different prophets have lived and of the superiority of one over the other seems to be a very primitive attempt on the part of man. Not knowing the condition of that particular time when the prophet lived nor the psychology of the people at the time when the prophet existed, he is ready to judge that personality by the standard of ideas which he knows to-day, does not do that personality justice. And when a person compares one particular teaching of a prophet with the teaching of another prophet, he also makes a great mistake, because the teachings of the prophets have not always been of the same kind.

The teaching is like the composition of a composer who writes music in all the different keys, and who puts the highest note and the lowest notes and all the notes of different octaves in his music.

The teachings of the prophets are nothing but the answer to the demands of the individual and the collective souls. Sometimes a childlike soul comes and asks and an answer is given appropriate to his understanding. And an old soul comes and asks and he is given an answer suited to his evolution. When two teachings are brought together, a teaching which Krishna gave to a child and a teaching which Buddha gave to an old soul, it is not doing justice to compare. It is easy to say: "I do not like the music of Wagner, I simply hate it." But I should think it would be better to become Wagner first and then to hate if one likes. To weigh, to measure, to examine, to pronounce an opinion on a great personality one must rise to that development first, otherwise the best thing is a respectful attitude. Respect in any form is the way of the wise.

Then there are simple people who hear about miracles, who give all the importance to what they have read, perhaps in the traditions about the miracles performed by the great souls, but that is the way how they limit the greatness of God to a certain miracle. If God is eternal, then His miracle is eternal, it is always there. There is no such a thing as unnatural nor such a thing as impossible. Things seem unnatural because they are unusual, things seem impossible because they are beyond man's limited reason. Life itself is a phenomenon, a miracle. The more one knows about it, the more one lives conscious of the wonderfulness of life, the more one realizes that if there is any phenomenon or miracle, it is man's birthright. Who has done it? It is man who can do it and who will do it. But what is essential is not a miracle, the most essential is the understanding of life.

The soul who realized before he claimed to be Alpha and Omega, is Christ. To know intellectually that life is eternal or that the whole life is one, is not sufficient, although it is the first step in the direction towards perfection.

The actual realization of this comes from the personality of the God conscious soul as a fragrance in his thought, speech and action and proves in the world as incense put on fire.

There are many beliefs, such as that of salvation through Christ, and the man who is agitated against religion closes the doors of his heart before having the patience to understand what really it means. It only means there is no liberation without an ideal before one. The ideal is a stepping-stone toward that attainment which is called liberation.

There are others who cannot conceive the thought of Christ's divinity. The truth is that the soul of man is divine and that divine, when with the unfoldment of the soul reaches the point of culmination then deserves being called divine.

And there is a great difference in the beliefs of people who have various opinion about the immaculate birth of Jesus. And the truth is when the soul arrives at the point of understanding the truth of life in its collective aspect, he realises that there is only one Father and that is God, and this world out of which all the names and forms have been created is the Mother, and the Son, who deserves by his recognising the Mother and Father, and by fulfilling the aim of creation, is the son of God.

And then the question of the forgiveness of sin. Is not man the creator of sin? If he creates it, he can destroy it also. If one cannot destroy, his elder brother can. The one who is capable of making, he is capable to destroy. He who can write with his pen, can rub it with his eraser from the surface of the paper. And when he cannot do it then that personality has not yet arrived at completeness, at that perfection to which we all have to go. There is no end of faults in man's life and if they were all recorded and there was no erasing them, life would be terrible to live, impossible to live. The impression of sin in the terminology of metaphysics maybe called an illness, a mental illness, not physical. And as the doctor is able to cure illness, so the doctor of the soul is able to heal. If people have said that through Christ sins are forgiven that can be understood in this way: that love is that shower by which all is purified. No stain remains.

What is God? God is love. When His mercy, His compassion, His kindness are expressed through a God-realised personality, then the stains of one's faults, mistakes and wrongdoings are washed away and the soul becomes as clear as it has always been. For in reality no sin nor virtue can be engraved or impressed upon a soul, it can merely cover a soul.

The soul itself is Divine Intelligence and how can Divine Intelligence be engraved either by sin or virtue or happiness or unhappiness? For the time it becomes covered with the impression of happiness or unhappiness and when these clouds are cleared, then it is divine in its essence.

And the question of the crucifixion of Christ, apart from its historical aspect, may be explained as such, that the life of the wise is on the cross all the time. The wiser the soul will become the more it will realise the cross, because it is the lack of wisdom which causes the soul to do all actions, good or bad. As it becomes wise, the first thing is that its action is suspended. And the picture of that suspension of action becomes a helpless picture, the hands nailed and the feet nailed. Neither can he go forward, nor can he go backward, nor can he act, nor can he move. And this inactiveness outwardly may show helplessness but in fact it is the picture of perfection.

There are two questions which come to mind:

What is then the meaning of the sacrament which is said to be symbolical of the flesh and blood of Christ? It teaches that those who give importance to the flesh and blood of the Master are mistaken, that the true being of the Master was bread and wine. If he had any flesh and blood, it was the bread and wine. And what is bread and whine? The bread is that which is the soul's sustenance, and the soul's sustenance is the knowledge of God. It is by this knowledge that the soul lives the eternal life. And the blood of Christ is the love element, the love principle, the intoxication which is a bliss and if there is any virtue, it all comes from that principle.

And there is another question: ‘Why Christ gave his life to save the world?'

It only explains sacrifice: No man in this world going toward a goal will escape from the test to which life will put him, and that test is sacrifice.

At every step towards the final goal to the attainment, he will be asked a sacrifice which will be a greater and greater one as he will continue on the path.

He will arrive at a point where there is nothing, whether it is his body or mind or action or thought or feeling that he keeps back, from sacrifice for others. And it is that by which man proves that realization of divine truth. In short the Christ-ideal, in other words, is the picture of the perfect man, and the possibility of the perfect man can be seen in the verse of the Bible:

‘Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven'.

 

 

22/21. BUDDHA

 

 

Buddha was the title of Gautama. He was called Buddha because his spirit expressed the meaning of the word Buddhi. The word Buddhi in Sanskrit means reason. In the Buddhist terminology The ‘Spirit of Guidance' is named Bodhisattva, which means the essence of reason. Reason in its essence is of a liquid form, it is the cream of intelligence. When it is crystallized it becomes rigid. Very often ‘intellectuality' explains a knowledge formed by reasons, most of them of rigid character. The fine reason is subtle, the finer the reason the less it can be explained in words. It is therefore that people with fine reason cannot very well put their reason into words. Reason in its essence is the depth of intelligence. The intelligence ‘knows', not because it has learned, it knows because it ‘knows'. In this higher reason the ‘Spirit of Guidance' is conceived and from that fountain of reason all the great Prophets have drunk.

In the teaching of true Buddhism Buddha has never been considered an exclusive personality. Buddha has been known to the Buddhists who have understood his Message rightly as a man who attained realization of that essence of reason in which is the fulfillment of life's purpose.

Worshipping Buddha doe not mean that the Buddhists worship the personality of his spiritual . master. He only means by this that, if there is any object that deserves worship most, it is a human being. It is the person from whose heart the essence of reason: Buddhi has risen as a spring. By this knowledge, he recognizes the possibility for every soul whatever be his grade of evolution of attaining that bliss, whatever be his grade of evolution, trusting in that the innermost being of every soul is divine.

The honey of life is hope. If the knowledge of God does not give hope to attain the divine bliss which is attained in life, that knowledge is of no use. Man may believe in God for years and yet may not be benefited by the spiritual bliss, for the spiritual bliss is not only believing but it is in knowing God.

Buddhi, which is subtle reasoning is the path which leads to the goal. The absence of that keeps a person in obscurity. As the sun is the source of light which shows outwardly things in life, so Buddhi is the inner source of light which enables the person to see life clearly, inwardly and outwardly. The true aim of the disciples of Buddha has been not to adhere Buddha, his name or his ideal, but by taking Buddha as an example before them; their idea is the secret of Sufism.

 

 

24/22. Zarathustra

 

 

The life and teachings of Zarathustra give an example to those who thread the spiritual path, of the manner in which to begin the spiritual journey. Zarathustra is said to be born of the Huma tree. The interpretation of this idea is that the "Spirit of Guidance; does not come direct from Heaven, he is born from the human family: The tree is the family.

It has been a great error of some religious people, that out of their devotion for their Master, that they placed him through their imagination on a pedestal., where they themselves could not ever prove him to be when it came to reasoning. It can only stand in the horizon of faith. No doubt faith is the foundation. Faith is the lamp which lightens the path, but reason is the globe over it to make the light appear.

The purpose of this whole creation is fulfilled in attaining that perfection which is for a human being to attain. All the saints, sages, prophets and masters of humanity have been human beings and they have shown divine perfection, in fulfilling the purpose of being human.

Zarathustra's spiritual attainment came by his communication with nature first. He appreciated, adored and worshipped the sublimity of nature and he saw wisdom hidden in the whole creation. He learned and recognized from that the being of the Creator, acknowledged His perfect wisdom and then devoted his whole life in glorifying the name of God. To those who followed him on the path of spiritual attainment, he showed the different aspects of nature and asked them what they could see behind it. He pointed out to his followers that the form, line, color and movement that they saw before them, and which attracted them so much, have been accomplished by an expert artist. It could all work mechanically and be perfect. No mechanism, however perfect can run without the help of an individual. Therefore he showed to them that God is not an object which the imagination has made, though He is molded by man's imagination outwardly. In reality God is the Being; such a perfect Being, that if compared to other living beings of this world. He is beyond comparison. He is the Only Being.

The way of worship taught by Zarathustra was to worship God by paying homage to Nature. For nature suggests to the soul the Endless and Unlimited Being hidden behind it all.

 

 

 

 

 

25/23. RAMA

 

 

RAMA, the great prophet and ideal of the Hindus was at the same time the example of the Godhead. The character of Rama is said to have been foretold by Valmiki. At the same time the training which was given to Rama by a great Rishi, whose name was Vashishta, was a training to bring out that kingdom of God which is hidden in the heart of man. In this respect Rama was not only an ideal of the Hindus of that particular age, but was a model to mould the character of those who thread the spiritual path in any age.

Rama was a prince by birth, but was given to be trained under a sage, where he lived the life in the solitude, the life of study and play together. He was not only taught to read and write, but he was trained in athletic exercises, in sports and had a training in all the manner of warfare. This shows what education the ancient people had, an education in all the directions of life. And being trained such Rama completed his course of study about the time of the prime of his youth.

The story of Rama has been always considered as the most sacred scripture for the Hindus, it is called Ramayana. The Brahman recites this story in a poetic form which the devotees of the master listen to for hours without being tired of it. For they take it as their religious training.

The most interesting part of Rama's life is his marriage. In the ancient times there was a custom that the husband was chosen. This custom came owing to the tendency to warfare. At every little trouble the princes of the tine were up in arms even in such matters as marriage..

In order to avoid war the father of Sita invited all the princes and potentates of his land and gave the right of selection to his daughter. There was a time appointed when they all gathered in the royal gallery, all adorned in their regal ornaments and garbs.

Rama lived a simple life. He had not yet known what princely life means, for he was being trained under a saint where he ate the same food as the sage did, wore the same simple clothes as the sage and lived in the woods in the solitude. Yet the brightness of the soul shines out even without ornaments. When Sita entered among this assembly, with a garland of flowers in her hands, her first glance fell upon Rama and she could not lift her glance from that ideal of her soul to anyone else, for her soul recognized the pearl in his heart. Without a moment's pause Sita came immediately to him and put the garland around the neck of that youth, so simple unassuming, standing with an innocent expression behind all the shining hosts.

Many marveled at this choice, but many more became as glowing fire with the thought of envy and jealousy. Among them, the one who was most troubled was the king of Lanka, Ravana. For Sita was not only known as the most beautiful princess of the time, but also was called Padmani, the ideal maiden. As Rama was an example in his character, so in Sita the ideal character was born. Then came the separation of the two: Sita, who had followed Rama in his twelve years Vandavasa, which means roaming in the forest, was once left alone in the woods., and Rama had gone to fetch some water. At that time Sita disappeared. After a great difficulty and a great grief the trace was found. She had been taken prisoner by Ravana. She steadily lived for Rama in this captivity and would not yield to Ravana's temptations and threatenings. In the end victory was won. Rama fought the battle with Ravana and brought Sita back home.

This story gives the picture of life being a struggle for everyone, in a small way or a big way. The outer nature of the struggle may be different for everyone, but at the same time no one can live in the midst of this world and be without a struggle. In this struggle, the one who wins in the end has fulfilled the purpose of his life, who loses in the end has lost.

The life of Rama suggests that, spiritual strife apart, the struggle in the world is the first thing to face; and if one keeps to one's own ideal through every test and trial in life, one will no doubt arrive at a stage when he will be victorious. It does not matter how small be the struggle, but victory won in the end of every struggle is the power that leads man further on the path towards life's goal. The life of a man, however great and spiritual, has its limitations. Before conditions of life, the greatest man on earth, the most powerful soul will for a moment seem helpless.

But it is not the beginning that counts, it is the end. It is the last note that a great soul strikes which proves that soul to be real and true.

 

 

26/24. ABRAHAM

 

 

Abraham, whose name seems to come from the Sanskrit root Brahma, which means the creator, was the father of four great religions of the world. For it is from the descendants, who were called Beni Israel that came Judaism. Christianity, Islamism, besides Zoroastrianism.

Abraham was the first to bring the knowledge of mysticism from Egypt, where he was initiated in the most ancient order of esotericism. And the place which on his return he chose to establish a center, with the idea that some place must be the world center, was Mecca, wither not only in the age of the Islam did the people make pilgrimage to, but at all times the sacred center of Mecca was held in esteem by the pious who lived before Mohammed. The family of Jesus Christ is traced in the ancient tradition from the family of Isaac and Mohammed came from the family of Ishmael.

The prophecies of Abraham have always been living words though various people made their different interpretations according to their own ideas. But to the mind of the Seer the prophecies of Abraham have a very deep meaning.

With his great knowledge of esotericism, he has been a great patriarch among his people. He was interested in everybody's trouble and difficulty. He was thrown in the midst of worldly responsibilities, to learn all he has learned from it and to teach his knowledge and experience to those who looked to him for the bread of knowledge. No doubt the stories of the ancient times very often strike our modern ears as most childish. But it was the way they were told and by the people who told them, which made a great difference.

In the first place there was such a scarcity of lettered people in those days, therefore the stories were told by the unlettered, and certainly they must have improvised upon every legend they told and pictured it according the artistic development of their particular age. Nevertheless truth is there if we only know how to lift the veil.

Abraham's life does not only make him a Prophet but a Murshid at the same time. He was a mystic who gave counsel to those who came to him in need. He examined them, treated their minds, healed their souls according to their needs. The most remarkable thing one notices in Abraham is, that besides him being a prophet and a mystic, he lived the life of an ordinary human being, ‘one with his fellowmen' in their times of pleasure and sorrow.

One story of the life of Abraham has been the source of great argument in the East is that is the sacrifice of Isaac. It is not only an argument in the East, but alarming to a Western mind. They can put a thousand questions forward, asking to give proper reason and justification to such an act. But at the same time if we looked from the ideal point of view, no sacrifice for a beloved ideal can be too great. There are numberless souls whose dear ones, their beloved mates, husbands or sons have been sacrificed in this recent war. They could do nothing else, they had to surrender their will to the ideal of the nation and offer the sacrifice for the cause of the nation, without thinking for a moment that it was unusual. When we think deeply on the problem of life, there is no path in the world whether spiritual of material which we can thread successfully without a sacrifice. Sometimes the sacrifice is great and sometimes small, sometimes the sacrifice is made before achieving the success and sometimes afterwards. As sacrifice is necessary in life, it is made by everyone in some form or other, but when it is made willingly it turns into virtue.

 

 

The greater the ideal the greater the sacrifice it demands, and if one saw wisely the process of advancement through life, in any direction of life, it is nothing but a continual sacrifice, and happiness comes from the understanding of this nature of life, and not being hurt or troubled by it, but knowing that it is by sacrifice made to the end, and that man attains the desired goal.

27/25. Mohammed

 

 

Mohammed is the one among the prophets, the account of whose life is to be found in history Born of the family of Ishmael, Mohammed had in him the prophetic heritage, and before him that purpose was to be fulfilled by the prophecy, which had been made by Abraham in the Old Testament.

The Prophet became an orphan in his childhood and had known what it is in the world to be without tender care of the mother and without the protection of the father, when a child. And this experience was the first preparation for the child, who was born to sympathize in the pain of others. He showed traces of the sense of responsibility in his boyhood, when looking after his cows. A cowherd came and said: "I will look after your herd and you may go to the town and enjoy yourself. And then you must take charge of my cows and I will go there for some time." Young Mohammed said: "No, I will take charge of your herd, you may go, but I will not leave my charge." The same principle he showed through his life.

Some say once, others say twice, others say three times that a miracle happened, that the breast of the Prophet was cut open by the angels and some say they took something away and instantly his breast was healed. What is it? It is the poison which is to be found in the sting of a scorpion and the teeth of a serpent; it is the same poison which exists in the heart of man.. All manner of prejudice, hatred, bitterness in the form of envy and jealousy are the small expressions of this poison, when it is hidden in the heart of man.

And when this poison is taken away in some form or other, then it is the serpent with its beauty and wisdom, without its poisonous teeth, and so it is with man. Man meets with hardships in life, sometimes too hard to stand for the moment, but often such experiences become as higher initiations in the life of the traveler on the path. The heart of man which is the shrine of God, once purified of that poison, becomes the holy abode where God Himself resides.

As a youth Mohammed traveled with his uncle, who went to Syria on a business trip. he knew the shortcomings of human nature, which have a large scope to play their role in the world of business; he knew what profit means, what loss means, what both mean in the end. This gave him a wider look on life where he saw how one is eager to profit by the loss of another. The human beings live in this world no better than the large and small fish in the water, who live upon each other.

When the time came to defend the country against a powerful enemy, young Mohammed stood shoulder to shoulder with the strong men of his land to defend his people in their most terrible strife. His sincerity in friendship and honesty in his dealing endeared him to all those far and near, who called him Amin, which means trusty or trustworthy. His marriage to Khatidja showed him a man of devotion, a man of affection, an honorable man as a husband, as father and as a citizen of the town he lived in.

Then came the time of contemplation, that time of the fulfillment of that promise which his soul had brought in the world. There came moments when life became to seem sad with all the beauty and comfort it could offer. He then sought refuge from that depression in the solitude. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, for weeks sitting in the mountains of Gare Hida he tried to see if there was anything else to be seen.

He tried to hear if there was anything to be heard, he tried to know if there was anything to be known. Patient as Mohammed was, he continued on the path of the search after truth. In the end he began to hear a word of inner guidance: ‘Cry on the sacred Name of Thy Lord' and as he began to follow that advice, he found the re-echo of the word his heart repeated in all things of nature; as the wind repeated the same name as he did, the sky, the earth, the moon, the planets, all said the same that he was saying. When once in tune with the infinite, realizing his soul, one within and without, the call came: "Thou are the man, go forward into the world and carry out Our command, glorify the name of God. Unite them who are separated, waken those who are asleep and harmonize one with the other, as in this is the happiness of man."

Often Khatidja found Mohammed had covered himself with a mantle, that he might not see himself, trembling at the sight of the responsibility that was thrown on him. But she kept telling him: "You are the man, a man so kind and true, so sincere and devoted, forgiving and serving. It is your part of work to perform. Fear not, you are destined to it by the Almighty, trust in His great power, in the end success will be yours."

The day when Mohammed gave his Message, to his surprise not only the enemies but the friends who were near and dear to the Prophet turned against him, would not listen to a new gospel taught. Through the insults and the harm and injury they caused him and those who listened to him, he still continued in spite of being exiled from home three times and proved in the end, as every real prophet must prove, that Truth alone is the conqueror and to truth belongs all victory.

 

23/26. Krishna

 

 

The life of Krishna is an ideal which gives the picture of the life of a perfect man. The real meaning of the word Krishna is God, and the man who was identified with that name was the God-conscious, one who fulfilled his Message in the period he was destined to give his Message.

The story of Krishna, apart from its historical value and interest, is of great importance to the seeker after truth. No one knows of the father and mother of Krishna. Some say he was of royal birth. It means of kingly origin from that King Who is the King of all. Then he was given in the care of Yashoda, who brought him up as his guardian-mother. This is symbolical of the earthy parents, who are the guardians, the real father and mother being God. In the childhood Krishna, it is said, he was fond of butter and he learned as a child to steal butter from everywhere. And the meaning is that Wisdom is the butter of the whole life. When life is churned through the wheel, then out of that comes butter-wisdom, is gained from it. He was stealing it, which means wherever he found wisdom he learned it; from everybody's experience he benefited - that is stealing.

Plainly speaking, there are two ways of learning wisdom. The one way of learning wisdom is that a person goes and drinks to excess, and then falls down in the mud, and then the police takes him to the police station, and when he recovers from his drunkenness he cannot find his clothes and he is horrified at his own appearance. This makes him realize what he has done. This is one way of learning, and it is possible that he does not learn. The other way of learning is that the young man is going in the street, he sees a drunken man and sees how terrible it is to be in this position; he learns from that. That is stealing the butter.

But then the latter part of Krishna's life has two very important aspects. One aspect teaches us that life is a continual battle and the earth is the battlefield where every soul has to struggle, and the one who will own the kingdom of the earth must know very well the law of warfare. The secret of the offensive, the mystery of defense, how to hold our position, how to retreat, how to advance, how to change position, how to protect and control all that has been won, how to let go what must be given up, the manner of sending an ultimatum, the way of making an armistice - the way by which peace is made - all this is to be learned in this life's battle.

Man's position is most difficult for he has to fight on two fronts at the same time; one for himself and the other is another. If he is successful on one front and on the other front he proves to have failed, then his success is not complete.

And the battle of each individual has a different character. The battle depends upon man's particular grade of evolution. Therefore every person's battle in life is different, of a peculiar character. And no person in the world is free from that battle; only one is more prepared for it, the other perhaps is ignorant of the law of warfare. And the success of this battle there is the fulfillment of life. The Bhagavad-Gita, the Song Celestial, from beginning to end is a teaching of the law of life's warfare.

The other outlook of Krishna on life is that every soul is striving to attain God, but God not as a judge or a king - but as a beloved.

And every soul seeks God, the God of Love in the form it is capable of imagining.. And in this way the story of Krishna and the Gopies signifies God and the various souls seeking perfection.

The life and teaching of Krishna has helped the people of India very much in broadening the thought of the pious. The religious man, full of dogmas, is often apt to make dogmas too rigid and expects the godly or the God-conscious to fit in with the standard of goodness. If they do not fit in with his particular idea of piety he is ready to criticize the. But the thought and life of Krishna was used by the artist and the poet ant the musician, and out of it was made a new religion, a religion of recognizing the divine in natural human life, and that idea of considering a spiritual person exclusive, remote, stone-like and lifeless ceased to exist. The people of India became much more tolerant toward all different aspects of life, looking at the whole life at the same time as an immanence of God.

 

 

28/27 Sufism is "the" religion

 

 

The question is sometimes asked whether Sufism is a religion. Yes, Sufism is ‘the' religion, not ‘a' religion. And it is the religion, it has always been and will always be. What we call Judaism, Christianity or Islam, it is all Sufism in its essence. And the question if the Sufis have a religion, a form or a dogma may be answered: "The Sufi is not subject to a form or dogma, but the Sufi uses the form and the dogma as the soul uses a name and a form." The one who questions the importance of a name and form must first come out of his body and then ask: "Why is there a form?" So he must become free from the name and form he has. A man carries in his heart his own name and says: " Anything that has a name, I am against it." But he has his own name.

In this world of names and forms it is absurd to say we do not need a name, we do not need a form. Therefore what a Sufi does with his realization of the essence of religion, is that he arrives at the understanding of the use of names and forms. He does not allow the names and forms to blind him, he takes names and forms to use them towards that purpose, the purpose which he has to accomplish through life. And the Sufi worship is a worship of all scriptures and all religions. But this does not mean we have a discussion or a debate on comparative religions by this worship. Neither by these scriptures which are there on the table, do we mean that we believe only in certain scriptures, that these are the ones to which we adhere and will respect and that we reject the other scriptures. And by kindling the lights in the name of the religions of the world we do not mean by this, that only these particular religions we have, that these are the only religions that we believe in and we reject the other religions. By this it is only meant that our religion is what may be called ‘the' religion, a religion which embraces all scriptures and all religions, a religion which recognizes the values of wisdom, and a religion the God of which can be found in truth alone.

 

 

28. Universal Worship is a service, a worship, a training to tolerate

 

 

The different candles which are lighted only mean our adherence and our respect to all different teachers, different religions and different scriptures. Therefore this universal worship, the Church of All, is in reality all Churches. It is a service, it is a worship and at the same time it is a training to our mind to tolerate the religion of different people. And if one reads the history of religions, how the followers of different religions have had their battles, wars against one another for the defense of the outer form of religions, a person with a just mind will admit that the followers of the great teachers have not followed their belief or the teachings of the great ones thoroughly.

It is this universal worship, it is this religion which is the religion of all those teachers who have come and gone.

It is this which was the Message of Jesus Christ and all other great teachers of humanity Therefore it is not a separate line, it is the same line, it is the same Message which is being given to the world. It is the continuation of all the great religions which have come from time to time and a unification of all which was the desire of all prophets. And in reality the wish of the great teachers of humanity is fully gratified in this worship, because it was this that was their idea. To come as the result of their teaching and of giving the Message to humanity, and although we are very few, whose destiny it is to serve God and humanity in this direction, we ought to feel ourselves blessed, and in the strength of that blessing, we should feel fully encouraged and helped, to serve God and humanity.

 

 

30/29. Sufi Movement a preparation for a world service.

 

 

The Sufi Movement is a preparation for a world service, a world service chiefly in three directions. One direction is the philosophical understanding of life, the other direction is bringing about brotherhood among races, nations and creeds, and the third direction is the world's greatest need, which is the religion of the day. Now you may ask: "What need is there for a new religion?" The answer is that it is not a new religion, it is the continuation of the same old religion which has always existed and will always exist. A religion which adheres to all the great teachers and all the great scriptures accepted by large numbers of mankind, an altar upon which there are the scriptures of the Hindus, the Hebrews, the Zoroastrians, the Buddhists, the Christians and the believers in Islam; an altar upon which are placed candles representing all the different religions of the world. Can it be ever called a new religion, are there new religions, are these scriptures new scriptures? It is the unification of religion which was the dream of Jesus and the inspiration of Mohammed, which was the object of Abraham and the desire of Moses. What the prophets of the past could not bring about, owing to the difficulty of conditions at the time of their coming, it is this which is brought about t-day as the granting of their prayers which have been made for thousands of years in the past. Therefore although the Sufi Movement is in its infancy, yet it is the servant of God and the whole of humanity, and the fulfillment of the object of this mission is the world Message and the blessing that we receive in this service is the blessing of all the great teachers and prophets and illuminated souls, all in one.

 

 

31/30 The God Ideal

 

God and the God-ideal may be explained as the sun and the light. And as there come times when the sun becomes covered by clouds, so there come times when the God-ideal becomes covered by materialism.

But if the cloud for a moment covers the sun, that does not mean that the sun is lost to you, and so if in the reign of materialism the God-ideal seems to have disappeared yet God is there all the same.

The condition of the world is just like the ever-rising and falling waves. Sometimes it seems to rise and sometimes to fall, but with every rising and falling wave the sea is the same, and so with all its changes life is the same.

We find that during the past few years all over the world there has come a phase, when the God-ideal seems entirely forgotten. It does not mean that churches have disappeared, it does not mean that God does not exist, but that a light that once was there has been covered, has ceased to light us. But at the same time, as there is night after the day so these changes of condition come in life, light and darkness.

In the age of science on the one side and materialism on the other and commercialism on the top man seems to have blinded himself in acquiring wealth and power and sees nothing else. It is not the search for light - it is the nature of every soul to search for light - but the great question is, how can the light come when nation is against nation, race against race, the followers of one religion against the followers of another? How can there be Peace and how can there come Light? The sign of the day is that all things are clear, and the sign of the night is that nothing can be found or seen, there are clouds. The most dreadful nightmare the world has ever seen has just passed away; and although that nightmare seems to have gone, its effect is still here, and the effect that is left is worse than the cause, for prejudice is worse than bloodshed.

And when man thirsts for the blood of his fellowman how can we say that there is light? If a man eat joyfully at his table when his neighbor is dying of hunger, where is the light?

That is the condition of humanity to-day. And what is the cause? It is because the Light, the God-ideal is not there.

I was once amused by a very simple answer from a maid, when somebody came to the door and knocked. The maid was not free to go at once but took her time and when at last she came the man was very cross and said: " Why did you not open the door quickly?" And then I asked the maid: "What do you think was the reason for the person being cross?" and she said with her innocent expression: "Because there is no God with him."(story)

Friends, the word of Christ is that God is Love and if God is Love then we, every one of us, can prove God in us by expressing God in our life. Yes, according to the external customs of different religions, one goes to church, one goes to the mosque, one to the synagogue, one to the temple of Buddha, but the inner church is neither in the mosque nor in the synagogue, but in the heart of man, where God abides and which is the habitation of Christ. With this divine element lighted in man's heart he will go to the house of prayer and then his prayer will be heard. There is a well known story in India, that a girl was crossing a place where a Moslem was performing his prayer and the law is that no one should cross where a person is praying. When the girl returned, the man said to her: "How insolent! Do you know what sin you have done?" "What did I do?" said the girl. And the man said that no one was allowed to cross. "I did not mean any harm," said the girl, "But tell me, what do you mean by praying?" "For me prayer is thinking of God", said the man. "Oh!" she said, "But I was going to see my young man and I was thinking of him and I did not see you; and if you were thinking of God, how did you see me?"

The idea, therefore, my friends, is that prayer becomes living if it is offered from a living heart; from a dead heart prayer has no meaning and is dead. There is a story of an Arab that he was running to the mosque where the prayer of God was being offered, but before he could arrive the prayers were finished. On his way he met a man coming from the mosque and asked him: "Are the prayers finished?" The man replied that they were finished and the other sighed deeply and said "Alas!" Then the man asked: " Will you give the virtue of your sigh in exchange for the virtues of my prayers?" And the other agreed. Next day the simple man saw the Prophet in a dream, who told him he had made a bad bargain, for that one sigh was worth all the prayers of a lifetime, for it was from the heart.

There are different human beings in different stages of evolution and it is natural that every human being according to his particular stage of evolution imagines God before he prays. And it is a question for anyone else to judge the one who prays and to say : "God is not this or that?" Persons who force their beliefs on others often put them against that belief even if that were the true belief. It requires a great deal of tact, thought and consideration to explain the belief or to correct the belief of another. In the first place it is insolent on the part of man to want to explain God, although man to-day would like not only to explain but even examine whether the spirit of God exists! The other day I was so much amused to hear that there are people who not only want to take photographs of the spirits, but even to weigh the soul! It was a good thing in the ancient times when the state had respect for the God-ideal and religion and taught that respect to humanity. To-day man wishes to use what he calls ‘freedom' in religion, even in the foundation of all religions, the God-ideal!

But then it must be remembered that it is not the path of freedom that leads to the goal of freedom, but the path of the God-ideal that leads to the goal of Truth.

The great personalities who have descended on earth, from time to time, to awaken in man that Love which is his divine inheritance, found echo in innocent souls rather than in great intellects. Man often confuses wisdom with cleverness and cleverness with wisdom. But these two are different; man can be wise and can be clever and man can be clever and not wise, and by cleverness a person will strive and strive and will not reach there. It is a stream, the stream of love which leads towards God.

 

There is a story that a king was traveling and hunting in the woods, and the king was hungry and stopped at the house of a peasant who treated him very kindly. When the king was leaving this peasant he was so touched with his kindness that without telling him he was a king, he said to him: "Take this ring and if ever you are in trouble, come to me in the city and I will see what I can do for you." After a time there was a famine and the peasant was in great trouble and his wife and child were dying , so he set out to come and see this man Of course, when he showed the ring, he was brought to the king and when he entered the room, he saw the king busy in prayer.

When the king came near to him, he said: "What were you doing?" "Praying for peace and love and happiness among my subjects" "So there is a greater one than you, to whom you must go for what you seek? Then I will go to him, who is greater and on whom even your destiny depends." said the peasant. He would accept no help, and at last the king had to send what was needed quietly to his home, first saying that no one must tell him that it came from the king. The idea is that it is not only belief but faith which is necessary. Belief is a thing, but faith is a living being. And the warners and teachers of humanity and the great preachers who have come from time to time when darkness prevailed, what message did they bring? Did they bring new religions or new theories to the world? No, when Jesus Christ said: "I have not brought a new law but I have come to fulfill the law", then who else at any time could bring a new theory? The scientist perhaps but not the spiritual messenger. Then what did the spiritual message bring? It brought to the world a living God, a light hidden beyond words. With the spiritual message God has sent His life and Light upon the world. What the work of the Sufi Movement is destined to do in the present epoch, is to bring about a better understanding among the followers of the different religions. The Sufi message is not a new message, although it strikes the note of the day. It is the re-echo of the same voice, the voice that we heard in all ages. At the present time when races and nations and the followers of different religions are all one against the other, this is a time when the word of unity and peace alone can unite all together in God. The Sufi Order is not a community and not a religion, it is a nucleus of the human brotherhood which is the inner call of every soul. The Sufi Message is given to all nations, it is a call to all races, to the followers of all religions. It teaches people to follow whatever religion they may profess, but to follow it truly and understanding it better; not only to believe in God and the words of Christ, but to have faith in Him and His Divine word.

We must think of the tolerance of the Master and of His forgiveness and what the world would be to-day if we had it too. If we follow the natural religion, that divine impulse that is in every heart, then we shall be living the true religion.

 

 

33/31. Moses

 

Moses, the most shining Prophet of the Old Testament gave to the world the divine Law, the ten commandments which in reality was the interpretation of the divine Law that he perceived, expressed in the words of those who stood before him at that time of the world's civilization.

It is interesting to notice the Sufi saying which come from the ages which says: ‘Be the follower of love and forget all distinction', for on this path of spiritual attainment that ‘I am so and so' is meaningless.

Moses was found by the river by a Princess, who knew not what family he came from or who was his father or mother. Only the name of God came to the mind of every thoughtful inquirer as to the Father or Mother of Moses. When people compare the teachings of different religions and readily form their opinion upon them, they are often mistaken; it is premature to make such distinctions. There comes a stage in the evolution of an illuminated soul who begins to see the law behind nature, the true psychology. To him the whole life reveals the secrets of its nature and character; and when he gives an interpretation of these secrets to others, they become limited, for they take the color of his own personality and the form of the thought of those to whom the message is given.

The story of Moses as told by the Sufis is most interesting and helpful to the traveler on the path. Moses has been the favorite character of the poets of Arabia and Persia, and in the poems of the Persian Sufis, Moses is often mentioned as Krishna is mentioned in the poetry of the Hindus.

Moses was walking in the wilderness looking for some fire. He saw from a distance a smoke rising on the top of a mountain, so he climbed to the top of the mountain in order to find that fire. But on arriving at the top of the mountain, he saw a glimpse of the lighting which was so powerful, that it went throughout his whole being. Moses fell down unconscious on the ground and when he recovered his senses, he found himself with illumination From that time the Mount Sinai was the place where he often went and communicated with God. The story is very enlightening when one can think that it is possible that all the illumination that is desired can come to a soul in a moment. Many think that spiritual attainment can be achieved by great labor; no, labor is necessary for material attainment.. For spiritual attainment what one needs is the seeking soul like that of Moses. Moses falling down upon the ground may be interpreted as the Cross which means: ‘I am not, THOU art.' In order to be, one must pass a stage of being nothing. In the Sufi terms it is called Fanà. When one thinks ‘I am not' (what I had always thought myself to be) . This is the true self-denial which the Hindus called Laya and in Buddhism the term annihilation. It is the annihilation of the false self which give rise to the true self: once this is done, from that moment man approaches closer and closer to God, and stands face to face with his divine ideal with whom he can communicate at every moment of his life. The Law of God is endless, as limitless as God himself, and once the eye of the seeker penetrates through the veil that hangs before him, hiding from his eyes the real law of Life, the mystery of the whole Life manifests to him, and happiness and peace become his own for they are the birthright of every soul.

 

 

 

 

 

34/32. (The Universal Worship)

 

 

What is this Universal Worship? Although in its infancy, it is the religion of the day and the faith of to-morrow. But what religion is it? It is the same religion of which Jesus Christ has said: " I have come not to give a new law, I have come to give the old law." Therefore this new Message, what is it? It is the same old Message that has ever been.

Are the workers of this Message priests? No, they are the soldiers of the army of Peace, the army which is working to bring about peace in the divers religions of this world, which have been disputed and argued, and have kept themselves away from one another, looking upon one another's religion as something wrong. Then what is our idea in this service? Our idea in this service is learning, we learn something here. We learn by this service that wisdom, wherever and at whatever time it came to the world, was one and the same Truth, the truth which is the only religion; and it is this Truth which will save. Is it not then the religion of Christ without limiting the Master only to a certain period and only to a certain book? To the thoughtful person it is the Message of Christ. But is it not also the Message of Buddha, is it not of Mohammed and Moses, of Abraham and Solomon? Have they come with many truths, or have they come with one truth. If they came with many truths, there must be many gods, and if there are many gods and many truths, then, if we cannot understand one another's language, beyond it, we cannot understand one another's heart.

But it is not so; we can understand one another's heart, even if we cannot understand one another's language. But what does it teach us? It teaches us that the world of variety, in this world of names and forms, where we see each other separated and divided, individually and collectively, by being different nations and religions, in that Spirit we are one and the same, and in that Spirit we can unite.

Can that be religion, for one moment which can separate the children of God from one another in the name of faith, in the name of religion?

Where lies true happiness? In the understanding of one another, in our unity with one another, in our harmony with one another. Imagine the troubles that humanity has gone through the past few years, - do these troubles seem to end? Not at all. If the troubles seem to end in one form, then in some other form they arise. It seems as a blood poisoning that if one wound is healed at some other place it takes its outlet. And how can the world be purified and rise above this difficulty? Not by political and financial activities. No, the religion is the healing of the world of humanity. And which religion? Not this or that religion. "The' religion, the only religion, the religion which is the religion of the Hindu, of Moslem, of Christian and of Jew, and of everyone.

For we all, whatever be our caste, creed, race, nation or religion, can only unite in One, and that is that one God, and in Truth. Our only happiness is in this unity which unites us in God and in truth.

 

36/33. Religion

Religion has its place in the world, whatever be the condition. from the beginning of civilization there has been some religion or other followed by people. Of course, whenever a new religion came the old religion was routed out. But what was routed out? Was it the religion or the corruption that was rooted out? The truth is the truth , religion is religion. The religion can never be routed out. That religion which is the need of the human soul; that religion has always been and will always be. It is only the outer form, its outer dogmas, which have perhaps been corrupted at times, which did not answer the purpose of humanity at that stage of evolution.

And not understanding that man has very often revolted against religion, not knowing that it was the revolt against corruption, not against religion.

Now the world as we find it to-day, it is like an intoxication. People do not know, when they are in revolt, whether they do right or wrong. When a person is cross with his friend, by seeing de defects or the faults of the friends he forgets his merits.

Therefore man to-day, intoxicated in a revolt against religion, - which means against corruption, - revolts also, ignorantly against God, or form, or prayer, or anything which asked the deepest of his being you will find that there is some place for religion. And what has this revolt brought about in the Western world just now? It has brought about a condition where it has become the fashion to be an atheist. There are people who wish to mention the name of God, and yet they are afraid whether it will be held against the fashion, the custom of the day. It is just as in the past, - an atheist in the past did not dare to say that he did believe; he had to respect the custom. The outcome of this condition is that man is absorbed in material gain, and the spiritual gain and heavenly inspirations are away out of his sight.

The Sufi movement is intended to play its part at the present moment in this condition of the world. And, however small and infantile, it has a wide horizon and a vast field of work before it. Its work is to bring to the world that religion which has always been the religion of humanity. That nature's religion: to respect one another's belief, one another's scripture, one another's teacher. It is not, therefore, only a Church, it is a school where we learn to respect, the religion of all the people in the world and their scriptures, and to pay homage to the teachers that they have esteemed the most. This was the object of all the great prophets, and it is at the present moment that this object, held by all prophets is being fulfilled. And in this way with us is the blessing, inspiration and the power of all souls who have for ages come in this world and wakened humanity towards that goal which is the longing of every soul.

This service of the Church of All is an universal worship. In this service a Christian service, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu service, - all services are included.

Therefore the blessings of Christ is given from the altar to the seeker of Jesus Christ's blessing; the one who seeks for the blessing of Moses, to him the blessing of Moses is given, the one who seeks the benediction of Buddha, for him there is the benediction of Buddha.

But those who seek the blessing from all these great ones who have come at different times, they are blessed by all. This service, therefore is the fulfillment of the desire of Christ; this is therefore the service which Moses would have had, if he could at those times; and this is the service which Mohammed had intended, for Islam was meant for all the religions of the world. No great teacher ever came on earth with the thought of dividing people into different sects and communities.

Our Movement, therefore, is busy rendering our service to God and humanity in this direction without any intention of forming an exclusive community, but to unite in this service the people of all different religions. This Movement, in its infancy, is commencing its work, but its culmination will be a world movement. It is the World Message and that religion which will be the religion of the whole humanity; a religion which does not distract the mind of any person from his own religion, but makes it more firm and enlightened, more sympathetic to this own religion; a religion which teaches tolerance towards the faith of another; a religion which opens a person's heart to the words of wisdom, no matter what direction they come from. This is not only a Church, but this is a school for us to learn, to learn the lesson of tolerance, a lesson for us to learn to adhere to all teachers and to respect all scriptures, a lesson which teaches us that we need not give up our religion, but we must embrace all religions in order to make the sacredness of religion perfect.

It is to learn this, to understand this idea that the Sufi Movement has this Universal Worship; that in this Universal Worship, whatever form a person has, it does not matter as long as he believes in God, he may come together with other human beings, without thinking his belief in this or that. This worship does not take away anyone from his own way, it only presents before everyone his own scripture. In this service one begins to train oneself to love one's own religion and to tolerate the religions of the others.

At this time when the world is divided into so many sections, one working against another, it is most necessary that humanity must at least unite in God. For there is no difference. he is the Father of all humanity, and we all go before Him as His children. This Universal Worship reminds us of this, and this Universal Worship prepares us to sympathize with one another and to be blessed by all forms of wisdom which have come to us by different great Teachers of humanity. There is one God, there is one truth, so in reality there cannot be many religions, there is only one religion. And it is by the realization of this truth that we shall be truly benefited by what is called religion

 

 

39/34 Winding the mechanism of thought

What does this service mean? The service, a religious service is a drill, a drill before the battle. And what is the battle? Our every day life. If the service only is the religion, then we can only have once a week the religion and seven days without it. But that is not the thing. This is the winding, it winds the mechanism of thought, the thought of unity of all religions, of all people. It is for the winding every week that we come to the service; the mind is wound just like a clock to continue for the whole week. What we receive from here is the idea that God is in us, truth is one, and the religion is one. There cannot be two religions; that is the confusion, the illusion of the human mind. When people cannot understand each other, the they say: "Your religion is different, my religion is different." But the difference does not belong to God, it belongs to the earth. We are on the earth, but we are not bound to the earth. We are bound to God. And in the realisation of God, and in the love of God what are we expected to do? We are expected to unite with one another in the thought of god, in the love of God. And now should we derive the greater benefit by this service we attend? By moving the idea all the time, from the time we leave here that idea must continue in our heart. If we are in the office or in the factory or in the market, the idea must be there; the prayer must continue in our heart.

And not only the prayer of glorifying the name of God but that lesson that we receive in that prayer, that all wisdom is from God; from whatever scripture, whatever religion, whatever form, it all comes from one source.

And again, remember that a person might ask, how can it be that all the scriptures and religions will be placed in the same place? For a Christian might ask: " What I consider of my religion, - how can the Buddhistic or the Hindu religion or the religion of the Hebrews be in the same place?" But he must first know that the Jewish person is thinking the same way, and the Buddhist and the Hindu also is thinking exactly in the same way, perhaps even more. And therefore the object of this Movement is the object of freedom. It is the democracy of religion, and at the same time not interfering with anybody's faith, ideal, idea or belief. For instance there is a Christian belonging to this Movement, who thinks most of his religion, of his teacher; and there is a Hebrew who is perhaps thinking most of his religion and he is perhaps, belonging to o the Sufi Movement; and there is a Buddhist, and he is also considering his religion most.

Do you think we have any objection about it?

Do we interfere with his ideal, with his devotion to his Teacher?

It would be absurd as for a person to think that a child should think of the mother of another more than of his own. And who has the right to place the great teachers or the scriptures by comparison in such and such a place? No one. It is our hearts' devotion to the ideal we adore, it is that place where we can place our ideal; and it is our affair, no one can interfere with it. A few girls were playing one day, and each girl said in turn that: "My mother is better." The other said, "No, my mother is better." And they were all discussing and arguing. But the girl who was wiser among them said: "Oh, no, it is the mother that is adorable, whether it is your mother or my mother."

Does the Sufi Movement, therefore interfere with anybody's devotion to his Teacher? Never. But at the same time it invites the souls to see the Source and Goal of all wisdom to be one, and it is in this truth that all the blessing that the soul is longing for will be bestowed.

 

 

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...not call a man's shadow the man. What is evil then? It is only a shadow. What is illness? It is another illusion. In reality there is only life, real existence. Illness is lack of life, it is a shadow, an illusion. The being of God is recognized by His Attributes. Therefore man speaks of God as the just God. He sees all power, all goodness in God. But when the situation is changed, when he sees God as injustice, he begins to think that God is powerless and to judge the action of God.

But one must look at this from a different point of view. Human beings are limited, imperfect, and from our own imperfect standpoint we try to judge the Perfect being or His perfect action. In order to judge, our vision must become as wide as the Universe, then we might have a little glimpse of the Justice which is perfect in itself. But when we try to judge every action by limiting God and by attaining the responsibility of every action to God, we confuse our faith, and by our own fault, we begin to disbelieve. The error is in man's nature, from childhood we think all we do and say is just and fair, and so when man thinks of God he has his own conception and by that he tries to judge God and His justice. If he is forgiving, he tries to overlook God's apparent injustice and find goodness in God and see the limitation of man.

This is better, but in the end man will realise that every movement is controlled and directed from One Source, and that that Source is the Perfection of Love. Justice and Wisdom, a Source where nothing lacks. But it is difficult for man to have a perfect conception of the God Ideal, and he cannot begin in a first lesson to conceive of God as perfect. So the wise must be tolerant of all the forms in which souls picture their God.

There is a story told of Moses. One day he was passing through a farm and he saw a peasant boy sitting quietly and speaking to himself and saying: " O God I love you so, if I saw you here in these fields, I would bring you soft bedding and delicious dishes to eat. I would take care that no wild animals could come near you. You are so dear to me and I so long to see you, if you only knew how I love you, I am sure you would appear to me."

Moses heard and said: "Young man, how can you dare to speak of God so? He is the Formless God and no wild beast or bird could injure Him who guards and protects all." The young man bent his head sorrowfully and wept. Something was lost for him and he felt most unhappy. And then the revelation came to Moses as a Voice from within, which said: "Moses, what have you done, you have separated a sincere lover from Me. What does it matter what I am called or how I am spoken to, am I in not all forms?

This story throws a great light and teaches that it is only the ignorant who accuse another of a wrong conception of God. Everyone thinks the other person must believe in and worship his God. Every one has his own conception of God and this conception makes the stepping stone to the true Ideal of God. Then there are others who believe in God, but do not show their belief in any outward religious tendency. People often misunderstand them and yet there is something very beautiful hidden in their heart, not understood, not known. there is a story told in the East of a man who used to avoid going to the house of prayer, who showed no outward sigh, so that his wife often wondered if he had any belief in God, and she thought a great deal about this, and was very anxious about it. Then one day she said to her husband: "I am very happy today." The man was surprised, and asked what made her happy and she said: "I was under a false impression, but now I have found out the truth I am glad." He asked: " What has made you glad?" and she replied: "I heard you saying the name of God in your sleep."

He said: " I am very sorry." It was to precious, to great for him to speak of, and he felt it was a great blow after having hidden his secret in the deepest part.

36. Belief and Disbelief in God.

 

 

Belief is natural, and disbelief is unnatural, for belief is born in man and unbelief is acquired.

If the child has been born with unbelief, he would not even have learned the language of the mother. If she had said: "This is water", the child would have answered: " No, this is bread." Every child born on earth is born with a tendency to believe what is told him, but the experience of the individual in this world full of falsehood teaches man to disbelieve. That shows that every soul comes from the world of truth, and opens his eyes in the world of falsehood. Every child comes into the world with that purity of heart whose natural tendency is to believe and later he acquires the tendency to doubt. The Prophet has therefore said: "Every child is born a believer, it is afterwards that he becomes an unbeliever."

The right explanation of unbelief would be that everything that is strange to man he explains by his reason, by the knowledge he has already acquired, and when it does not tally with what he already knows, he disbelieves. For doubt is earth-born and belief is heaven-born. Light is caused by the sun, and shade is caused by the earth. The light of the soul therefore is belief, and the mind gives unbelief. At the same time, in belief a hidden power exists, and that power is called self-confidence. The person who trusts another does not always trust the power and influence of another person, but by his own power and influence.

If it were in the power of the person to make another believe, then every great soul that came in the world would have made the world believe in him and his word. Belief is according to the power of one's self-confidence.

 

You find the tendency to trust in a brave man, in a wise man, in a great man; but the tendency to doubt and disbelieve you will find in the weak and insignificant man, who does not know what he believes. This shows that he who trusts himself will trust all, and he who does not trust himself cannot trust anybody. The person who trusts another and does not trust himself, his trust is an illusion, his trust is not alive. It may appear as strength, but it is weakness. he holds on to something he does not know and it seems trust. A person who cannot believe in himself, how can he believe in God, who is beyond the comprehension of man?

Now coming to the idea of the belief in God: Everything in this world, we each of us see according as our sight allows us to see it. Therefore one chooses for oneself a particular colour. One chooses blue, another red, another violet. If one colour had the same effect upon every person's eye and mind, everyone would choose the same colour. And so with form.

Then coming to feeling: Although we can understand words such as love, gratefulness, sincerity, beauty, yet the sense of love, sincerity, gratefulness or beauty in the heart of one person cannot in any way be compared with the same feeling in the heart of another person. Therefore each person's belief is particular to himself. It is not only that there are so many different faiths in the world, but in one particular Church how many differences! When you come to think of this subject still further, if you think of the person attending the one church, if you examine the feelings of each person, they are different.

Everything in the world that has a name is imaginable; the One and Only Being, the imagination cannot reach, is God. And yet as God is manifested in all things and in all beings, so in all things and in all beings there is always a part which is unimaginable. That it self is proof that God is not a separate God beyond comprehension, God is all and all is God. Man can reach God only as far as his imagination can take him. But the most sensible thing man can do in the pursuit of God is to humble himself and bend in all humility, and say: " Thou art farther than I can ever reach, and all I can do is to accept Thee in all humility." The one who, by understanding the idea ‘God in man' claims: ‘I am God', he, besides all errors, deprives himself of the great beauty of journeying from man to God.

Man in all ages have tried to imagine, and passed his imagination on to his fellowman, saying: " God is such and such." He has seen in the fire the purifying influence, he has worshipped it and believed in it and said to men: " I see God in this." He has looked at the sun as something which is standing before the world without protection and giving light. He has said: "I will worship it." Man has imagined God in nature, he has given sacredness to trees, to some birds and animals, and he has called the sacred and has worshipped God in them. That shows that there is somewhere the ideal of the divine in man, his tendency is to reach it, but he does not know where to reach so as to admire and worship. There have been times of the world's rise and fall, times of evolution and times of degeneration, and with these have come times when man has worshipped God in nature and times when he has worshipped God in animals. He has constantly striven to reach some Ideal, for the trying to reach, brings him a happiness that nowhere else he can find in the world.

When the tendency of imagining God reaches still higher, man found greater manifestations of God, not in animals or in nature, but in man. And as all things in this world of variety have superior and inferior degrees so the Divine is seen more at one particular stage of man's evolution. No doubt man is proud and has the spirit of rivalry and of jealousy. He never gives in to his fellowman, however spiritual and however greatly the Divine be expressed by him.

Man has always fought for what he calls the equality of man. All the keys of the piano produce sound, but if they were all equal where would the music be? Some are higher and some are lower, and all together make the music. There is a saying in the Hindu language, that the diamond does not require to tell its price; its nature, its light proves it. Those who came with the Divine Spirit gave light, the Message from Above, and their work proved what they brought. Man has always shown his childish tendency.

Man is not only a child when he is young, but often man is a child all his life. In every period of the world's history people have fought together, some for one Master or scripture and some for another. It is just like people from one country fighting people from another country, saying: "Your country cannot produce diamonds." or "On your coast there are no pearls to be found, but on our coast there are plenty." Man clings to the exterior form or scripture and teaching and has lost hold of the spirit, whose light pervades all over the earth. People have given up their religion, but still Churches exist and scriptures exist. What is lost? It is the Light which illuminates and gives man his belief.

Doubt acts as a cover over all things, right and wrong. To-day doubt is a cover over multitudes, over nations, over races and communities.

 

Can you remember one instance in history when one race distrusted not another nation, but a whole race. The friendship between men and races and nations and religions is all for interest. The central theme of the whole life is selfishness, not that confidence and belief that Christ has taught to man. Religion without confidence is a religion without foundation, but a religion based upon confidence is a true belief!

Belief can be explained as being in four different grades: One belief is that which comes by the strength of collectivity: ‘If my neighbour is of the same belief, of course that is the true thing, I must believe it also.' This is not different from sheep and goats, when one is walking all the others go with it. If the leader goes East, all go East, because the belief of one strengthens the others. Of course it cannot be helped, it is the nature of man, but if this collectivity is wrongly directed, it must result in disaster. For such a belief there are two ways open, the right way and the wrong way. One thing must be understood, belief is the path and not the goal. The one who stays on the path is at a lost, but the one who walks on the path will reach the goal. belief which does not raise man but keeps him in the same place is a dead belief, and the man who holds that belief is a dead believer. But the belief that opens a path for man, that belief leads to the goal.

The second kind of belief does not depend on collectivity, but upon man's reason. He reasons out his belief and he fortifies his belief by the strength of his reason.

This belief with reason can become a secure foundation, but at the same time reason is a danger to belief and reason can destroy belief. The one who makes his belief lead and reason follows finds his way illuminated, but he who makes his reason lead and his belief follow, finds that his belief has no existence. Belief is heavenly and reason is earthy; belief we have brought with us, but reason we have learned here.

The belief of the third sort is conviction. In this stage one believes not only from reasoning but by examples, not only by theories but by the experience gained by practice. One believes what one's soul apprehends, what one's own soul tells one. It is beyond the power of generality to arrive at this belief. Thus, for instance, two people may say: "We are one in spirit," because although they may not have the same joys and sorrows, they know that they are one in spirit.

To take another example, one may believe in the same way that the source and the goal are the same.

The fourth kind of belief is : actual realisation of what one believes. This belief cannot actually be spoken of in words; the ultimate belief is no more belief, it is reality. If it is sufficient for our life to believe what others believe, if we are content with that, then that is sufficient for our purpose. But if there is the desire in our soul to arrive at such a belief where doubt does not exist, where all is clearly as in the daylight, then we must seek for a way to advance in our belief.

Therefore what Sufism teaches and the Sufis thrives after is to arrive from the state of the belief of the collectivity to that state where everything is as daylight and everything is clear. We all seek light in an earthy form or in a heavenly form, the difference is which light we seek for. This proves that every heart is longing for the light. Wealth, power and position will not suffice his purpose and in the end man must attain the light of the soul if he wants to accomplish his purpose. At this time there seems to be a period of great degeneration that has ruined the world and the desire for light is in every heart.

Man is groping in darkness to find something to satisfy his need just now. Some are going after wonderworking, clairvoyance, spiritism. In whatever form one seeks for God one will arrive at the end. The difference is only that between the straight path or the path with curves which is much longer. The idea of Sufism is to bring humanity, nations and religions, now so torn apart, into harmony and unity by awakening the thought of unity in the souls. It is a Message not to one community or race only, but to the whole humanity; not a call to join a particular Church or religion, but a call to join in the human Brotherhood. The Sufi Movement does not consider it any profit that everyone should become a member, although it welcomes all who feel attracted to it. Its chief purpose is that of awakening the spirit of Brotherhood in man. Together with this aim exists a school of esoteric teaching, and for those who take interest in inner cult, for them it is a source of blessing. The Sufi Movement exists in America, France, England, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, it welcomes all who would wish to take interest in Inner Culture.

 

 

43/37. The Religion of the Heart

 

When we think of the different religions which are known to humanity we shall find that each of them brought to the world the message of love in some form or other. And now the question arises who brought religion in the world? And the answer is that religion has always existed in the heart of man.

Religion is the outcome of the heart, and among all the races, however primitive, a certain religion has existed, perhaps incomprehensible to people more evolved in different directions.

For religion is instinctive, and as it is instinctive, not only in the world of man but also in the lower creation, one sees a glimpse of religious tendency. For instance, one finds among pet animals, such as a dog, the cat, the horse, some such faithful creatures, and sometimes one has such experiences with them that one cannot to-day expect from mankind.

Besides this, the absorption that one sees among the birds, the little sparrows in the morning absorbed in the beauty of nature; so to speak, singing a song, a hymn to God, - that all is religion, if we can understand it. For man has made his religion so narrow that he is not able to appreciate the broad religion of nature. By being narrow he has named his creed a religion, or the particular place of worship religion, or the book religion, or the form of service, religion. If one would only think of religion when one goes in the woods, in the forests and stands alone in the forest near the silent trees standing in contemplation through the summer and winter, through all seasons! That silent contemplation, what does it give one, what thought arises? It lifts one up and makes one think that there is a religion.

One may call it a legend or a superstition or a story, but still there are experiences, - we have the experience in India with the cobras - they never bite unless someone hurts them. The affection and the attachment that the doves show to their mates, it is something to learn and to understand. And there are many instances, many experiences of thoughtfulness, of consideration and of the nature of attachment that one sees in the lower creation that makes one think that there is an instinctive religion.

But then, there are stories known in the East about the elephants. In the herd of elephants there is one who always leads the herd and he has a stem of a tree in his trump and he goes on feeling the earth - if there be a pit or if it be a good way for the elephants to pass. And if there were a pit, he gives a warning to his followers that they may not fall victims to this. When we consider the birds, we see that there is among them a leader who knows and understands the coming and continuing of rain and storm and according to that he guides them and the all follow him. By what is it all accounted for? This taking care of those who depend upon one, and then to yield, to respond, to trust someone who guides one; it is not only in the human beings, but even more in the animals. Man, who is always supposed to have a religion and thinks that he has a religion, has always opposed in all ages the ones who have served him, those who have wished to awaken him from his errors. The saints and the sages and the great souls who have continually tried to work for him, they always have to suffer and they were he ones who found opposition from all directions. And in this way man has shown a lesser tendency to religion than the animals.

But now coming to understand what is the religion of the heart, - It is said by the Sufis: "Ishq Allah, Mah'bud Allah", the same as one reads in the Bible, that "God is love". And if God is love, where is He to be found? Is He to be found in the seventh heaven or is He to be found in the heart of man? If He were so far away as to be in the seventh heaven then it is most unfortunate for man to be kept far away from the very life and the very reason of his being. And it is toward this realization that God is in the heart of man that all religions have taught in different ways and different forms.

But so many in this world only know the word ‘love', to understand what love is or to speak about it or explain it is impossible. For whoever tries to express love makes an effort in vain, it is like trying to express God in words. Neither God can be expressed in words nor love. There is a saying of an Persian poet who was an emperor: ‘I was destined to have so many servants serving me, but from the moment love was born in my heart I became a slave of my every slave'. The moment love is produced, that person does not need to go and find out where the Truth is, the Truth is born. For it is the loving one, the loving heart which is capable of understanding, of comprehending Truth. The reason is that truth is not outside of self, it is within us. For instance when a person's heart is melted by a terrible suffering in life, it is then that what he says or what he thinks or what he does, in all is a fragrance of love.

What is called in the Old Testament by words: "tongues of flame' or ‘words of flame' what are they? It rises when love has risen, it revivifies the thought, word and action.

What generally man knows about love is the give and take: ‘ if you give me 12 pence, I will give you a shilling'. For as long as one sees life in the form of business, in the form of given and take, he does not know love.

It is a great pity, when after knowing something of love, the heart has turned cold and bitter. And what reason is there? The reason is this: that when one digs the ground, one must dig until the water comes. But if one digs halfway, then there is no water, there is mud.

But what is love? Love is a continual sacrifice. And what does sacrifice mean? Sacrifice means forgetting of the self. As Rumi says in his poem, the Masnavi : " The beloved is all in all, the lover merely veils him. The beloved is all that lives, the lover a dead thing". But what is this death? The death in life is life. Can anyone say: ‘I practice in life to be good' or 'to be religious' without having the love element? But what use can his religion be if he is praying perhaps all day or seems to be all goodness, if there is no love in his heart? What use is religion to him?

There is a story told of a young girl who was passing through a farm, and there was a person offering his prayers to God. And according to the custom of the East, no one should cross the place where a person is offering his prayers; she did not mind but passed. And when she came back, this pious man was still sitting there and he called the girl and said: " How thoughtless of you, girl, here I was offering my prayer and you passed this place." This simple peasant girl said: What were you doing? To whom were you praying?" He said: "Praying to God." "Oh," she said, "I am so sorry. But I cannot understand how you, who were praying to God, at the same time could see me. I was going to see my young man and did not see you."

 

44/38. The Religion of the Heart ( cont.)

 

The power of love is seen in all things, and in whatever form it acts it shows in it a great virtue. And one does not know always what power love has behind it, that there is nothing in the world which is more powerful than love. Think of the hen with its little chickens. At the same time when they are so young that they seek her protection; if the horse came, if the elephant came she would fight in defense.

And how man has abused the word: love, how he uses in his false pretences the word: love! What happens is that man has made a false world and in this false world he is so absorbed that he cannot see the reality. It is for this that the saints and the sages and the up-raisers of mankind have been sent from time to time, because he is in a dream and cannot awake from it. And of what does he dream? He dreams of this false world that he has created.

And what is religion? Religion is what breaks away the barriers of falsehood and shows man, guides man toward the Truth. What we call kindness, helpfulness, gentleness, meekness or humility, where do all these virtues come from? Are they all not made of love? They are different forms of love That shows that there is only one stream of virtue and that is love, and all different virtues that man knows, they are all different drops falling in different directions. And the idea of right and wrong, good and bad, we can find among all different people in different ways, but in love we all unite, whether from East or South or West or North, for no-one who is thoughtful will argue on the question that cruelty is virtue and kindness a sin. Therefore from the point of view of love we can all unite in one conception of good and bad, of right and wrong. All that is guided by the principle of love has its virtue and all that is done by coldness is that which is wrong.

When we think of the condition through which humanity has passed in all different times - in the name of religion there have been wars and battles - one wonders if it was taught by the religion. Not at all, religion was the pretence, that men by this pretence wanted to cause bloodshed, absorbed in selfishness.

 

And if there ever has been a kind of accusation against any religion in the world, it is not against the religion, it is against the misunderstanding of that religion by the followers of that religion.

Think of the life of the great Master Jesus Christ who was the soul of religion. One sees that from the beginning to end there was nothing but love and forgiveness.

The best expression of love is that love which is expressed in forgiveness. Those who came with their wrongs, errors, imperfections, before the love that was all forgiving, there was always a stream of love which always purified.

If one had followed the idea of forgiveness and of tolerance, humanity would not have come to the condition to which it has come today. The hatred and prejudice and bitterness that exists to-day between nations is beyond words to explain. And if there were one religion or a thousand religions, if that was so, one doubts if there would be a religion. It seems that man has now the

possession of it, but what is needed is to live it. Why is humanity not coming together more? It is the lack of tolerance, the lack of forgiveness, it is the lack of love. And there may be a thousand different schemes that people will make in order to make the conditions better, and every effort made in that direction is worthwhile, but at the same time there remains a question what effort would be most worthwhile. It is the making of the divine spirit which is called love, which has been buried in the heart of man. There are political institutions, social institutions and moral institutions, but what is most necessary today is the wakening of the religion of the heart. It does not matter what religion they profess if they know the depth of the religion, which is love. And then, all the different forms, the forms of religious service and the forms of prayer, behind them what secret is there? The secret is to prepare the heart of that bliss which love only can give.

The school of the Sufis, in whatever age, has been the school of the mystics. Its religion has been the religion of the heart, and it is therefore that there is a verse of Abul Allah, who says: "Koran, the Bible or a martyr's, all these my heart can tolerate, since my religion is love alone." For the religion of love is the religion of tolerance, the religion of love is the religion of forgiveness.

The life in the world is such that it is as difficult for the rich as for the poor. A world such as this, made by falsehood, has its blows, continual blows, that a person of good heart has to withstand. There is only one safety from all these blows that might destroy the heart all together, it is to learn how to tolerate, to learn how to forgive. For everyone says or does or thinks only according to his own particular evolution, and he cannot do better. Why not, therefore tolerate? Why not, therefore, forgive? And if there is intolerance, then there must be a continual reciprocity, it is the giving and taking intolerance. It means killing the element of love and giving life to the element which is death itself.

If there is any inspiration, any revelation, that also, is attained by a loving heart. Life's purpose is to make use of this shrine which is the human heart and which was made for God. And if there is a shrine and no God, the shrine is purposeless. And if there is a heart and the heart has not yet attained to that ideal, the only ideal which is worthy of love, that heart has not yet attained its purpose. But no doubt it can be worthless if a person says: "I love God, but I do not love mankind." That expression is worthless. It is like saying: "Friend I love you very much, but I cannot look at your face." The creation is the manifestation of God. It is in the art of the artist that we recognize him. If we refuse to acknowledge the art, we do not know the artist. The man does not express his love, who does not forget himself in love, expressing it as a respect, tolerance, forgiveness, does not know religion.

Of course this is the first step, that one loves those one meets on the surface of the earth. Someone asked a great teacher if he would initiate him in mysticism. The great teacher answered: "Young man have you ever loved?" The young man said : "I have not." The great teacher said: "Then go and love first, then come to me, that is the second step."

No doubt the love of a human being which is not progressive and has not developed the love of God, is not yet perfect. For love is for the real Beloved, Who deserves it and alone deserves it. As children learn the lesson of home life by playing with the doll, so the soul that learns, learns in human love and completes his study in the love of God.

And the love of God is that which is the purpose of the whole creation, and if that were not the purpose, the creation would not have taken place. As the whole creation is from God., then it is of God. If it is of God, then the manifestation of love and the manifestation of God is purposed to realize the perfection of love.

 

45/39. The Message

 

There is a phrase in the Bible, ‘Knock and it shall be opened unto you.' The Message of God is an answer to the cry of humanity. Now, as to the instrument of the Message, - in reality the whole universe is an instrument, and every object and every being in it is an instrument; through whichever instrument He chooses He gives His message. One sees in one's life, and especially at times when one is deep down and in depression and sorrow, some answer coming to the difficulty of that situation. It may come from a friend, from a brother, from parents, from a beloved, even from one's enemy one may get what was necessary at the moment.

But you will say: " Why should a message come in the life of an individual in the time of pain or after a great sorrow? Why should a message not come every day for one's guidance? There are two reasons for it: One reason is that there is constantly a guidance from above, but man, so absorbed in his life's activities, does not open his heart to listen to that message and see where it comes from. The other reason is that the deeper the sorrow the higher the voice of the heart rises, until it reaches the throne of God and that is the time when the answer comes, when a person is drowned deep in sorrow and grief.

Now, the question what is pain may be explained thus: pain is the fullest aspect of life. And this is the reason why, however greatly afraid man is of pain, yet he always enjoys little pinpricks; he likes the tragedy of his own life or even the tragedy, performed on stage, rather than a comedy.

Plainly speaking, man's real being is his heart and in pain the heart becomes living and without pain man seems to be living on the surface. You will often see in life that people with an intolerable nature and manner, after having gone through the agony of pain in life, develop in them a finer nature. It softens their person - ability, just as raw vegetable are softened after they are cooked. There are also characters who are pictured in the Eastern language as sandalwood and incense. When the sandalwood or the incense is on the fire, its perfume rises and there are characters in the world whose good qualities and whose merits are hidden, just as the perfume is hidden in the incense and the sandalwood and they come out in the agony of pain.

There is a story in the great traditions of India called Ramayana in which the two sons of the Lord of the Hindus Rama were dwelling in the forests and in the mountains, and they happened to arrive, accompanied by their mother, in a town where they settled, and the younger son went to see the town alone. This lad while going about in the town, saw a beautiful horse, which was allowed to run about by the State. And he became so fascinated at the sight of the horse that he asked the people whose it was. And they said: " It is the custom in our State that whenever a king is needed for the State a horse is allowed to run about the town and however first catches the horse becomes king of the kingdom." This lad ran after the horse the whole day; and often he thought he had caught it. but as he approached it, the horse slipped from his hands. Many times he thought that he nearly caught it, but it always slipped away from him, and then the evening sunset approached. His mother became anxious as the evening approached and she asked the elder brother to go into the city and find where his brother had gone and had been lost for the whole day. When the elder brother came, he saw the lad running after the horse, - the whole day he had been running after it. He said: "What are you doing?" His brother said: "I will not come home until I have caught the horse." The elder brother said: "It was the work of a moment, but you have taken all day. Instead of running after the horse, you ought to meet it." He told him how and in a moment the brother caught the horse. Both brothers were brought before their father after receiving this great glory and the father was proud to seen them both having come to victory.

This story is the picture which represents the father God and the horse is this life in the world.

And the younger brother is the one in search or in pursuit of getting the victory over this ever-changing life in the world. And the elder brother is the one who has had experience of it. And he comes and tells the other brother: " That is not the way, this is the way." And all that man has ever learned he has always learned from his elder brother.

If one is fond of art or is a lover of science or wishes to learn a language or anything the world, he is successful only when he can go to a friend who knows about it and ask him, what is your experience? - And that which he could not have learned in many years he has learned in one minute. We all act on the stage f the world as younger brothers and at times as elder brothers. In regard to things that we do not know and things we wish to know we act as the younger brother, and in regard to things which we know and show to others we act as the elder brother. Each one of us has the elder brother and the younger brother in him and superiority belongs only to the father, whose pride and whose satisfaction it is that the elder brother and the younger brother should be both be victorious.

As the number of the aged and the very aged is few among us, so the number of the elder brothers also is very rare in all aspects of life. And in some souls there is a faculty, there is a spirit of elder-brotherhood born, just as even in a little girl who has no experience of life it seems as if the mother-spirit exists. It seems that in all different aspects of life and in all different creatures this spirit of the elder brother exists. Even among birds and animals one sees that one leads the flocks and the other follow. If he goes to the North, the others follow and go to the North; if he goes to the South, the others follow and go to the South.. At the same time, even among the lower creation this tendency of elder-brotherhood is not without purpose and is not without wisdom. In a flock of birds the one who leads knows when there will be a storm or a change of weather, or when there will be an abundance of food. The most interesting instance is that when a few elephants in the forest walk together, there is one elephant who takes the lead, and this elephant has in its trunk - held by its trunk- a stem of some tree, just like a staff and it walks examining the ground to check if there be a pit or a danger, and if it so happens it gives signal and all the other elephants run away. This tendency is pronounced and fulfils the greatest purpose of human life in man(kind). There is a man who is conscious of his own pain and pleasure, to whom his home is the only care. There is another man who feels responsibility not only for himself but for his children, for his family, perhaps even for his friends, for his neighbors. And there is a man who even feels for everybody in his little village or town. In their distress he is distressed, in their happiness he is happy; the children of the village are like his own children, and he seems to live with his village. Then there are souls who are conscious of the condition of their nation, there is nothing they would not wish to sacrifice for their people. There are others who are conscious of their race. There are others souls, blessed by God, who are conscious of the happiness, the peace of the whole humanity; the general good only can be happiness to them. And this expansion must come naturally, and man must experience it naturally. If one pretends to be so expanded, he cannot prove it when the time of test comes. For instance, humanity has always recognized with gratitude that Jesus Christ stood the test through his life to the last hour; in other words, gave his life in order to give life and to continue giving life to humanity. Whoever in this world has had this consciousness, that love for humanity, and has been taken by God as an instrument for His love and light, has stood the test to the last moment of his life. And therefore no one can falsely claim to bear the Message.

 

 

46/40 The Message (cont.)

 

As we all in this world, according to our little ability, serve God, consciously or unconsciously, we all perform that service, though it be without knowing it.

 

There is a saying of a great philosopher of Persia, Rumi: " Fire, water, air and earth are God's servants and whenever He wishes them to work for Him, they are ready to obey His command." If the elements are the obedient servants of God, and if the elements become the instruments of God, can man not be a greater and better instrument? In reality man must be the best instrument of God for the accomplishment of the purpose of His creation.

And in this way those who have been the instruments for a community He has used as instruments for the community; those who have been instruments for a nation He has used as instruments for a nation. And the souls who have been instruments for the whole humanity have been used by God for that purpose. In whatever capacity in life, as a king, as a prophet, as a reformer, as a preacher, they have served God. The great service of God is the work that is done by the Prophet to bring humanity closer to perfection. For every soul is born for this purpose and that every soul should reach, so to speak, the feet of God.

And since the Prophet brings the Message of God, it is the Message of God, it is the Message from the same Source whenever it comes. If it came a hundred thousands years ago it was His Message, and if it came two thousand years ago, it was His Message; and if it came today it is His Message. And how ignorant man has been through all the ages, and he shows his ignorance even today! For whenever the message has come, man has fought and disputed and argued. Man has held to one prophet and ignored the other; he esteemed one, and he despised the other. And the reason is that he knows the messenger but he did not know the Message; he has taken the book as his religion, but he does not know the Message. If that were not the tendency of the generality, then how could Jesus Christ with his most spiritual Message have been crucified? There had been prophecies and besides prophecies, the Master himself was the evidence of his Message, as there is a saying: ‘What you are speaks louder than what you say'. And how thickly veiled man's eyes must be by the religion, the faith, the belief he held for him to accept one Messenger and to reject the Message, not know that there is one message, that there cannot be two!

Yes, the ways in which it is given are different ways, because the mentality of humanity at each time. Every prophet had to speak in the manner of the time at which he lived, according to the evolution of that time. Another thing is that the custom of each country differs from that of other countries, the manners and life differ. If the Messenger is born in one country and has to give his Message in one country, surely he has to consider the way in which the people in that country look at life, and to give his Message according to that. But the Message is from God. This is the reason why the external study of Buddhism will make one feel that Hinduism is different than Buddhism; that external study of Christianity and Islam will make one feel that Christianity is different from Islam. But if one saw that underlying thread that connects all religions, one would see that all religion is one, as Truth is one, as life is one, as God is one.

 

Humanity has had enough wars, fight and disputes and differences. Now if you ask individuals of any country, of any race, they will tell you: "Enough, enough, now we would not have any war again." The recent war, that has just passed, has shown us the greatest tragedy that the world has seen. Although the teaching of Christ is peace: ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers', the innermost desire of everyone is peace, humanity does not know how to make peace; and in order to make peace it goes to war.

The message of Sufism is working towards the desire of individuals and the desire of nations to bring about that peace which every should desire and which is the teaching of Christ, and which is the nature of God. There are different activities now going on towards both peace and war. Every little activity which is working toward the unity of mankind is worth encouraging and worth helping. But it must be known that a religious peace must be brought about, because, directly or indirectly, a religious thought is working to bring about peace or war.

It is not the desire of the Sufi Movement to from a community, or to wish that the whole world should be of one religion. It is as impossible as that all the people in the world should have the same face.

But what is possible is this: that by knowing and understanding the secret of life, by understanding the nature of God, by studying and realizing the nature of life, men must surely become tolerant to one another, that man can surely rise and unite above the differences of race, faith, nation and religion.

By a personal guidance individuals are taught in the Sufi Order the problems of the deeper side of life and the methods of self-realization, in which there is the realization of God. And to this order, for study and practical guidance, all are welcome. Whatever may be their faith, or name, or nation, or religion, the Order does not interfere with it. It is not the desire of a Sufi to take anyone away from his religion, but that he should live his religion. Beyond and above all other objects that the Sufi Order has, the principal object is to draw together humanity (so divided in race, in classes, in creeds, in religions) in wisdom, in the knowledge of truth, that a human Brotherhood may be formed in the Fatherhood of God.

 

 

47/41. The Sufi Movement

 

 

One wonders what this movement is, - is it a religious movement, is it a philosophical movement or is it a social movement?- In reality this Movement is the answer to the cry of humanity. Whose answer? God's answer. If it is a religious movement, it is not a movement to make a propaganda for one particular creed. It is a religious movement in this sense that this movement is meant to bring about peace between the followers of all religions. It is a religious movement in this sense that we all may learn - whatever our belief or faith, whatever may have been the faith of our ancestors - that we may learn to respect the religion of another. That, eventually, by doing so we may rise to that state of understanding when to our mind comes one religion as the sum total of all religions. At that moment we rise above the differences and distinctions which come from the narrow outlook of man, from his limitation; and we begin to understand that this religion or that religion, its name and its form was only a cover; a cover over that religion which always was and which is and which always will be.

God is one, the truth is one. How can there be two religions? There is one religion, the only religion. It is from the smallness of human nature that he has snatched the credit from his fellow-man. If there was any religion, it was one religion at any time of the world, followed by any people or nation. Yes, we are living in different lands, but under one sky: So we have many churches but one God, many scriptures but one wisdom, many souls but one spirit, the only spirit of God

It is to understand this ideal, that we have this Movement; and we have several different ways in which we study and in which we practice this ideal. The devotional side of our Movement is this, this Service. These candles represent the light of the different religions known to the world, and on this altar you will see all different scriptures that the great ones have given to humanity from time to time. It is a form, and yet it is all embracing. There is the Githa of the Hindus, the Koran of the Moslems, the Bible of the Christians, there is the Kabala of the Jews on this altar. What does this mean? We put on our altar wisdom, not the name. What is Christianity? True wisdom, Christ-spirit What was the Christ-spirit? That spirit which always united humanity and which will always unite. If there is any Christianity that is Christianity: to rise above the distinctions and differences which separate humanity,- humanity which was meant to unite in one brotherhood in the Fatherhood of God.

 

We have among us some who perhaps enjoy a formless service. There is no restriction. Whether you come to the service with form or whether you come to the formless service, as long as God, who is the father of humanity, is pursued and the search for his truth, is does not matter.

Do we call the members of our Movement infidels if they went to any other church or attended another service? Never. To whatever service, whatever church, whatever ceremony they will go with the same feeling of universal worship, wherever they will go with the same sentiment, they will receive the benediction of God.

Does this not show that, as time after time, when the true religious ideal is confuse, then the Message has come to humanity, it is not for one community, it is for the whole world?

And the question: We are very few, may be answered: "Not in reality". The members of this particular Movement may be limited, but the members of our ideal are not limited in this world. We have millions and millions and millions of members in the world. When we go with our hearts open, with the thought of brotherhood, when we open our arms and welcome without asking: what nationality, what race, what faith, what religion have you? - then certainly we become the brothers of humanity and humanity becomes our brothers.

42. The God-Ideal - I

 

 

The existence of God is a question which arises in every mind, whether in the mind of the believer in God or in the mind of the unbeliever. And there are moments when the greatest believer in God questions His existence - whether there really is a God. He finds it, at the second thought, sacrilegious to have a notion such as this; and he tries to get rid of it. But often this question rises in the heart of the unbeliever: if it is really true; if there is such a thing as God. The idea of God is inborn in man. The God-Ideal is the flower of the human race; and this flower blooms in the realization of God.

As everything in the objective world has its tendency to rise upwards, so the tendency of the soul can be seen in human aspiration, which always soars upwards, whatever be the sphere of man's consciousness. The man who is only conscious of the material life, his aspirations reach as far as they can reach in material gains. And yet he proceeds higher and higher and remains discontented with all he achieves through life, owing to the immensity of life in every phase. This craving for the attainment of what is unattainable gives the soul a longing to reach life's utmost heights. It is the nature of the soul's constant longing to climb such heights which are beyond its power; it is the desire of the soul to see something that is has never seen; it is the constant longing of the soul to know something it has never known. But the most wonderful thing about it is that the soul already knows that there is something behind this veil, the veil of perplexity; that there is something to be sought for in the highest spheres of life; that there is some beauty to be seen; that there is someone to be known who is unknowable. This desire, this longing is not acquired. This desire is a dim knowledge of the soul which it has in itself.

Therefore disbelief in the God-Ideal is nothing but a condition which is brought about by the vapours arising from the material life of illusion and covering as clouds the light of the soul, which is its life. It is therefore that the unbeliever is not satisfied with his disbelief. yes, sometimes his vanity is fed by it, to think that he is wise in not believing in someone whose existence is believed in by numberless blind beings. So he begins to think: after all, to believe in God is not a difficult thing; any simpleton can believe in the God-Ideal. he takes, therefore, the opposite direction, of refusing to believe. He is not honest, and yet he is like someone who stands before a wall which hinders his path of progress.

If this world offered to one person all it possesses, even then the soul will not be satisfied. because its satisfaction is in its higher aspiration. And it is this higher aspiration which leads to God. The question: ‘Has man an aspiration because it is his nature, but at the end of the journey he may perhaps not find anything?' may be answered: there is no question which has no answer, and there is no desire the object of which is a miss. There is appetite and there is food; there is thirst and there is water; there is sight and there is something to be seen.

So there is aspiration and there is God. Man knows not what is not. There is no such thing which one knows and which does not exist. For one cannot know what does not exist; something must exist first in order that one may know it.

But there is a question: everyone does not know God, he only believes in some idea. - The answer is: what is the idea? The idea is that out of which all is born.

Science and art and music and poetry and religion and nation. all are born of the idea. If the idea is the source from which all comes, then why is the idea something insignificant, and why is God, Who is the Source and Goal of all, not found in the idea?

Seeking for God is a natural outcome of the maturity of the soul. There is a time in life when passion is awakened in the soul which gives the soul a longing for the unattainable. And if the soul does not take that direction, then it is certainly misses something in life which it its innate longing and in which lies its ultimate satisfaction.

49/43. The God-Ideal- II

 

There are different conceptions of God existing in various periods and known to different people. The people in all ages seeking for the Deity have pictured Him in some form or other. It is natural with man. If he is told about someone he has never seen or known, he makes a conception of that person and he holds his conception as his knowledge of that person until he sees him. There are some who make a conception in their mind of a person they have not seen, almost as real as the person. The human heart is an accommodation which conceives the idea of God and pictures Him according to man's mentality. The Buddha of China has Chinese features, and that of Japan has the eyes of Japan, The Buddha of India has the Indian likeness. Man cannot conceive of an angel being any different from a human being, except that he attaches two wings to the angel in order to make it a little different. If the angel were not pictured as man it would not be an attraction to a human being. Therefore it is natural that in every period people have conceived the personality of God as a human personality. And no better conception could they have given, for there is nothing in the world which is a more finished personality than the human personality.

People have called God He, recognizing the might and power of the Deity. People have called God She, recognizing in the deity that Mother-principle and beauty. And it is the differences of conception from which have come the many gods and goddesses. And it is true, too; for as many conceptions, so many gods. And yet many gods mean conceptions of the One Only God. By ignorance of this truth many have fought over their different gods; and yet the wise man in every period of the world has understood God to be the One and Only being. For the ordinary mind to feel the existence of someone in the idea is not sufficient. It is too vague. One wants to feel the existence of someone with his own hands, then only he can acknowledge something to be existent. The wise, therefore, have given different objects to such mentalities and pointed them out to the people as gods. Some said: see God in the sun and the person understood, He was not satisfied to think that God was in the idea; he was much more pleased to know now that God is seen by him, and God is incomparably even as the sun and that God is not reachable.

Some wise men have said: He is in the fire. Some said, to a simpleton who asked to see God: "Go in the forest and find out a certain tree and that tree is God." The search for that tree gave something for that man to do, which was the first essential thing. And the patience with which he sought the tree also did something to his soul. And the joy of finding a rare tree was also a pleasure. And in the end he found, for God is everywhere. Some have made images of different ideas, such as love and justice and knowledge and power and called them different goddesses, molded the into different images and have given them to man to worship. Some wise men have said the cow is sacred. Certainly it is sacred for a farmer whose farming depends on the cow. his life's sustenance comes in every form from the cow, - it is sacred.

The wise have pointed out different objects to man which will attract man's attention and become objects of concentration for man to still his mind, as in the mind which is still, God manifests. Then again, the wise have presented the God-Ideal to the people in the form of symbols. To simple beings a symbol was God and to awakened minds the same symbol of God was a revealing factor of the secret of the Deity. If one could only see how marvelously, in the diversity of the conception of the Divine Ideal, wisdom has played its part, guiding the souls of all grades of evolution towards the same goal, which in the end becomes spiritual attainment!

 

 

50/44 The God-Ideal - III

 

 

The conception of many gods has come from two sources. One was the idea of the wise to make every kind of power and attribute in a form of deity and to call it a certain god.

It was done in order to give the ordinary mind the most needed thought that God is in everything and that God is all power. Afterwards many misunderstood the idea and the wisdom behind it obscured. Therefore some wise man had to fight against the idea of the other wise men. And yet they did not fight wit the idea, they fought with the conception of it. But now at the present time, when there exists no such idea in Europe of many gods, many have lost their faith after the recent war, saying: "If God is all goodness, all justice, all-powerful, why has such a dreadful thing as war been allowed to take place?" If the same people were accustomed to see among their many gods, as the Hindus have worshipped for generations, Kali, the goddess of war, it would not have been a new thing for them to know that if all is God, not only peace, but even war is from God.

The mystics of all ages have therefore given God many Names. The Sufi schools of esotericism have possessed their different names of God, with their nature and secret; and have used them in different meditations along the path of spiritual attainment. Therefore the Sufis have not many gods but many Names of God, each expressive of a certain attitude. Suppose these Names which the Sufis have used were not the Names of God, - if they had only held in thought words such as: mercy, compassion, patience, - it would have been a merit, not a person. Merit is not creative and merit is only something which is possessed. Therefore attributes is not important, the important one is the possessor of the attribute. Therefore, instead of thinking of success, the Sufi calls upon the God of success. For him the God of success is not a different God, there is only one God. But only by calling upon that Name of God which is expressive of success he attaches his soul to that perfect Spirit of Success.

The other source from whence came the idea of many gods has come is the deep thinkers and philosophers, who have seen God in every soul and every soul making a God of its own according to its stage of evolution. Therefore there is a saying among the Hindus: "There are as many gods as there are strains of music." In other words, there are numerous imaginations and numberless gods. And if ever the idea was taught to the people, it was to break that ignorance of some people who made God confined to Heaven and kept the earth free from His divine presence. They waited for death to come, when they might be taken into the presence of God, Who was sitting on his throne of justice in the hereafter. By this they tried to show to the people that God is in every soul, and so as many souls, so many gods; some advanced, some not advanced, some further advanced and yet all gods. If there is a struggle, it is a conflict between gods, if there is harmony, it is a friendship between the gods. By these terms they wished to make man realize the most essential truth that God is all. No doubt those who misunderstand will always misunderstand.

This idea brought about corruption also, and made people who regard many gods interested in the legends of the past which narrated the wars and battles which took place among the gods.

Therefore the wise had again to come to their rescue and teach them again of the one God; that by this teaching they may again come to the realization of the oneness of life, which is best realized in the God-Ideal.

 

 

51/45. The God-Ideal - IV

 

 

Very often many who are ready to accept the God-Ideal, question the personality of God. Some say: "If all is God then God is not a person, for ‘all' is not a person, ‘all' is what is expressed by the word all. - "

This question can be answered, that though the seed does not show the flower in it, yet the seed culminates in a flower and therefore the flower has already existed in the seed. And if one were to say that in the image of the seed the flower was made, it would not be wrong, for the only image of the seed is the flower. If God has no personality, how can we human beings have a personality, who come from him, out of His Own Being, and we who can express the divine in the perfection of our souls? If the bubble is water, certainly the sea is water. How can the bubble be water and the sea not be water? The only difference between the human personality and the Divine personality, God's Personality is that the human personality can be compared; God's Personality has no comparison. Human personality can be compared because of its opposite, God has no opposite, so His Personality cannot be compared. To call God all is like saying: a number of objects all of which exist somewhere together. The word all does not give the meaning which can explain the God-Ideal; the proper expression for God is the Only Being.

 

The God-ideal is so enormous that man can never comprehend it fully. And therefore the best method which the wise have adopted is to allow every man to make his own God. By this he only makes a conception which he is capable of making. He makes Him the King of the heavens and the earth; he makes Him, Judge, greater than all judges; he makes Him Almighty, Who has all power; he makes Him the Possessor of all the grace and glory there is; he makes Him Beloved God, merciful and compassionate; he recognizes in Him all perfection. This ideal becomes as a steppingstone to the higher knowledge of God. The man who has no imagination to make a God and the one who is not open to the picture of God that the other man presents to him, he remains without one, for he finds no steppingstone to reach that knowledge which his soul longs for but his doubts deny.

Many would ask if it would not be deceiving oneself by making a God of one's imagination. Someone who is not seen by the objective world. The answer is that we are the germs of imagination, our whole life is based and constructed on imagination and all that is in this objective world , if it were put together,- there is only one thing which is more lasting in life, which is imagination. The one incapable, who has no value for imagination, is void of art and poetry, of music, manner and culture. He can very well be compared to a rock, which never troubles to imagine.

 

Man is not capable of picturing God other than a person, - a person with all the best qualities, the ideal person. This does not mean that all that is ugly and evil does not belong to the universe of God, or, in other words is not in God Himself. But the water of the ocean is ever pure in spite of all he beings that may be thrown in it. The Pure One consumes all impurities and turns them all into purity. Evil and ugliness is man's limited conception, in God's great Being these have no existence. Therefore he is not wrong who makes God in his imagination the God of all beauty, free from ugliness; The God of all the best qualities, free from all evil. For by that imagination he is drawn nearer and nearer every moment of his life to that Divine Ideal which is the seeking of the soul. And once he has touched divine perfection, in it he will find the fulfillment of his life.

52/46 The God-Ideal - V

 

The SELF and the MERIT OF GOD

 

In the terms of the Sufis the Self of God is called Zat, and His qualities, His merits are named Sifat. The Hindus call the former aspect of God Purusha and the latter Prakriti, which can be rendered in English by the words spirit and nature.

Zat, the spirit of God is incomprehensible. The reason is that which comprehends itself is Intelligence, God's real Being; so comprehension has nothing to comprehend in its own Being.

No doubt, in our usual terms it is the comprehending faculty in us which we call comprehension, but in this it is not meant so, for intelligence is not necessarily intellect.

Merit is something which is comprehensible, it is something which is clear and distinct, so it can be made intelligible. But intelligence is not intelligible except to its own self. Intelligence knows: I am, but it does not know what I am. Such is the nature of God.

Intelligence would not know something besides itself. So God knows Himself by the manifestation. The manifestation is the self of God, but a self which is limited, a self that makes Him know that He is perfect when he compares His Own Being with this limited self which we call nature. Therefore the purpose of the whole Creation is the realisation that God Himself gains by discovering His Own Perfection through this manifestation.

Then the idea that has existed in Christianity is also a riddle to solve in order to find out the truth of life. It is the idea of Trinity. What keeps the soul in perplexity is the threefold aspect of manifestation. As long as the soul remains the puzzle it cannot arrive at the knowledge of the One. These three aspects are: The Seer, Sight and the Seen, The Knower, Knowledge and the Known. Plainly explained, I would say: " These are three aspects of Life".

One aspect is the person who sees, the other aspect is the sight, or the eyes, by the help of which he sees and the third aspect is that what he sees. One, therefore, cannot readily accept the idea that: what I see is the same as myself; nor can he believe for a moment that ‘the medium by which I see is myself', for the three above said aspects seem to be standing separate and looking at one another's face, as the first person, second person and the third person of Brahma.

When this riddle is solved by knowing that the three are one, then the purpose of the God-Ideal is fulfilled. For the three veils which cover the One are lifted up. Then they remain no longer three, then there is One, the Only Being.

As Hegel says: "If you believe in one God, you are right. If you believe in two Gods, that is true; but if you believe in three Gods, that is right also, for the nature of unity is realised by variety."

 

 

53/47. The God-Ideal- VI

 

 

Why is God called the creator? Because the creation itself is the evidence of some wisdom working. No mechanical creation could result in such perfection as is nature. All the machines of the scientists are built on the model of nature's mechanism, and every inspiration that the artist gets, he receives it from nature. Nature is so perfect in itself that in reality it needs no scientific or artistic improvement upon it, except that, to satisfy the limited human fancies, man develops science and art. And yet it is still the creation of God expressed in art and science through man; as in man God is not absent but more able in some way to finish His creation which necessitates His finishing it as man. No better evidence is needed for a sincere enquirer into the Creator-God. If he only concentrates his mind upon nature, he certainly must sooner or later get an insight into the perfect wisdom which is hidden behind it. The soul that comes into the world is nothing but a divine ray. The impressions it gets on its way while coming to the earth also are from God.

For no movement is possible without the command of God. And therefore in all creation , in its every aspect, in the end of search and examination God alone proves to be the only creator.

 

The word Sustainer is attached to His Name. Jesus Christ said, "Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin; yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these." And Rumi explains it further in the Masnavi: " Even the spider is not neglected by God, but is supplied with its food." Even the smallest germ end worm, insignificant as it is, had depended for its supply upon man, who cannot even always supply himself, how would the creation have gone on? It seems that the creatures who do not worry for their supply, to their mouth their food is conveyed. Man's struggle for his supply, it seems, is greater than all other living beings in the lower creation.

 

But what makes it so? It is not God, it is man himself, who is selfish and who is unfair to his brother, absorbed in his own interests in life. In spite of all the famines the world still has sufficient supplies; but imagine the amount of food that has been sunk in the sea; how many years was the earth, in which man's food is prepared, neglected by men busy killing one another! If the result of this causes hunger and greater strife, is God to be blamed? It is man who deserves all blame. Sa'di very subtly explains human nature in regard to Providence - it is the most beautiful expression - : ‘ The Creator is always busy preparing for me the supply, but my anxiety for my supply is my natural illness.' Life is such a phenomenon, if only we dive deep into it, that we find no question without an answer. It never is so that we need something and are not provided with it. Only the difference is between what we think we need and what we really need. For the supply is always greater than our need. And therefore Providence is always a phenomenon. Sometimes we look at it with smiles, at other times with tears. But it is something real and living; and more real it will prove to be if we look at it climbing to the top of our reason.

 

God as Judge is spoken of by many prophets. And the man of reason and logic has tried to attribute justice to the law. But justice is not law, justice is above the law. Very often to our limited view things in the world appear unjust, and often it seems that there is man's law: what he wishes he does if he has the power to do it. But behind this illusive appearance there certainly is a strict justice and a real law. No sooner does the heart become living than this law manifests. One cannot but marvel at life and nature, to see how great is the justice of God, that it is: give with the right hand and take with the left, - all you give and all you take. And no soul has to wait for days or weeks or years, or for death to come for the law to manifest. Every day is a Judgment Day and every hour is the hour of justice. A criminal will escape from the prison bars, but he cannot go from under the sky! There is the Judge within and without. When his eyes are closed he is being judged within, when they are open he is being judged without. We are always in a court of justice. If we do not realize it, it is because we are intoxicated by life and we become like a drunken man in the court, who does not see the judge or justice.

 

But what we can marvel at most in life is to know that, in spite of His great justice, God is the Forgiver. He forgives even more than He judges. For justice comes from His Intelligence, but forgiveness comes from His Divine Love. When His Divine Love rises as a wave it washes away the sins of a whole life in a moment. For law has no power to stand before love, the stream of love sweeps it away. When before Christ the woman was brought who was accused by everyone of her crime. What arose from the heart of the Master? The law? No, it was love in the form of mercy and compassion. Even the thought of the love of God fills the heart with joy and makes it lightened of its burden. And if, as the religious have always said, once in a person's life he has asked whole-heartedly for forgiveness, in spite of his whole life's sins he will certainly be forgiven.

 

54/48. The God-Ideal- VII

 

God is called King of Heaven and of the earth, and of the seen and unseen beings only because we have no better words than the words we use for all the things of this world. To call God King does not raise Him in any way higher than the position He has, it only helps us to make his power and glory more intelligible to our mind. And yet there are certain characters which are kingly characters, and such characters may be seen in God in their perfection. it does not mean that every person has not that character. It only means that from a higher position a soul shows out that character more, perhaps, than in an ordinary capacity. And that character is love hidden behind indifference. In Sufi terms this character is denoted by a Persian word, Binayaz, which means hidden. It does not mean: the hidden God, it means hidden beauty. Love expressed is one thing and love hidden is another thing. Under the veil of indifference, love is often hidden and the Sufi poets have pictured it most beautifully in their verses, which are nothing but pictures of human life and nature.

There are examples in the histories of the kings which show this character. Sometimes a person whom the king favored the most was kept back from being the primo minister. This does not mean that it was not the wish of the king, it only meant that the king considered the sympathy and admiration he had for the person more than the prime-minister-ship. In other aspects one sees it: the king did not speak to a person for a long time; this did not mean that the king disfavored him so, it only meant that the king knew that he would understand. There are instances that the patience of the saints and the sages has been tried to the uttermost. The pain and the suffering has been greater than the average person's. Behind the indifference there are many reasons.

And the one sees the other part of kingliness: that those who the king, sometimes, cared little for were graciously received and amply rewarded. And the ordinary mind could not conceive the reason behind. The one who is responsible for his subjects is the king, he understood rightly, like a gardener who knows which plant to rear and which tree had better be out of the garden. In spite of all opposition from all around the kings, they have held their idea, conscious of their duty.

So it is with God.

But, king apart, even the manner and method of a responsible person is not always understood by another whose responsibility is ot the same. So how can man always understand the ways of God, the only King in the true sense of the word, before Whom all other kings are nothing but imitations? And it is the Kingship of God which manifests in the blooming of every soul. When a soul arrives at its full bloom, it begins to show the colour and spread the fragrance of the Divine Spirit of God.

 

 

55/49 The God-Ideal-VIII

 

 

The reason why the soul seeks for the God-Ideal is that it is dissatisfied with all that momentarily satisfies it All the beauty and goodness and greatness which man attributes to God is something he admires and seeks through life. He admires these things in others and strives to attain them for himself; and when, at the end of examination, he finds that all that he touches as good, great or beautiful falls short of that perfection which is his soul's seeking, he than raises his eyes towards the sky and seeks the One Who has beauty, goodness and greatness, and that is God.

The one who does not seek for God, he has, at the end of his journey of illusion, a disappointment. For through the whole journey he did not find the perfection of beauty, goodness and greatness on the earth and he neither believed nor expected to meet such an ideal in Heaven. All disappointments which are the natural outcome of this life of illusion, disappear when a person has touched the God-Ideal, for what one seeks after in life one finds in God.

 

Now the question is: all beauty, goodness and greatness, however small and limited, can be found on the earth, but where can the same be found in the perfection called God? This may be answered so that what is first necessary is the belief that there is such a Being as God, in Whom goodness, beauty and greatness is perfect. In the beginning it will seem nothing but a belief, but in time, if the belief is kept in sincerity and faith, that belief will become like the egg of the phoenix, out of which the magic bird is born. It is the birth of God which is the birth of the soul. Every soul seeks for happiness and after running after all objects which, for the moment seem to give happiness, finds out that nowhere is there perfect happiness except in God. this happiness cannot come by merely believing in God. Believing is a process. By this process the God within is awakened and made living.

It is the living of God which gives happiness. When one sees the injustice, the falsehood, the unfriendliness of human nature and to what degree this nature develops and that it culminates in tyranny of which individuals and the multitude become victims, there seems to be only one Source and that is the center of the whole life, which is God, in whom there is the place of safety from it all and the source of peace, which is the longing of every soul.

 

 

56/50. The God-Ideal- IX

 

 

The God-Ideal is meant to waken in the soul God, that he may realize his Kingship. It is this which is suggested in the prayer of Christ, where it is said: ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done.' It is on this realization that the kingdom of God comes; and what follows is that His Will is then done. But when a person does not know who is the king, he does not know what is the kingdom.

The Kingdom of the earth, from the time man has evolved so as to understand his affairs, have been established, where man has learned the first lesson when he first knew what a king means, what a kingdom means, he knew that there was someone whose command was obeyed by all, great or small, in the kingdom. who is the up raiser and the judge of all those who deserve honour and respect, who possess a treasure in the kingdom; who is as a Mother and a Father of his subjects. Once this was learned, it gave the person an education to understand what a kingdom means, as a child after playing with her dolls begins to understand the cares of the household.

 

The next step was taken on the spiritual path when the spiritual hierarchy was recognized. The prophet or the high-priest was recognized, representing the spiritual head. Then there was the hierarchy. And in this way the next step was taken with the realization that it is not the outer environments, money and possession, which make a king, but it is the spiritual realization which can make a person greater than a king with all his kingly surroundings. And this was proven to people when the king, who was accepted as the principal and head of the community, went with bend head, before the high-priest and knelt down in the p[lace of prayer.

This gave the next lesson, that the kingship is not in outer wealth but in spirituality, that even the king stands humbly at the door of the God-realized man.

When once this step was taken, then there was the third step. And that was to see that the high-priest - considered as such even by the king - knelt down and bent his head low to the Lord, King of humanity, showing his greatness as dust before God, to Whom alone belongs all greatness. When the greatness of God was realized, God was glorified and the purpose of aristocracy was fulfilled, for it was nothing but a rehearsal before the battle. Once man realized that it is God alone before Whom man should bow, it is God alone Who is rich and all are poor, it is God alone Whose wisdom and justice are perfect, then before him the kingship of the king and the holiness of the high-priest faded away;

before him remained only one King of kings; on Him he depended and under Him he sought refuge under all the different circumstances in life.

After one had taken these three steps towards the goal, he found that the goal to be quite different from the way that he had taken. And the goal was finding out the traces of that King within oneself; a spark of that divine light which is the illumination of one's own heart. a ray of the Sun which is the light of the whole universe. And so self-realisation developed in which the soul found that wisdom, illumination and peace which was the purpose of the God-Ideal.

 

 

57-58-59/51. Sufi Thoughts

 

 

1. ‘There is but one God, the Eternal, the Only Being, none else exists save he.'

The God of the Sufi is the God of every creed and the God of all. Names make no difference to Him. Allah, God, Dieu, Khuda or Bhagwan, all these names and more are the names of his God; and yet to him God is beyond the limitation of name.

He sees his God in the sun, in the fire, in the idol which divers sects worship; and he recognizes Him in all forms of the universe, yet knowing Him to be beyond all form; God in all and God to the Sufi is not merely a religious belief forced upon him but the highest ideal the human mind can conceive. The Sufi, forgetting the self and aiming at the attainment of the divine ideal, walks constantly all through life in the path of love and light. In God the Sufi sees the perfection of all that is in the reach of man's perception; and yet he knows Him to be above human reach. He looks to Him as the lover to his beloved, and takes all things in life as coming from Him, with perfect resignation. The Sacred Name of God is to him as medicine to the patient. The divine thought is the compass by which he steers his ship to the shores of immortality. The God-Ideal is to a Sufi as a lift by which he raises himself to the Eternal Goal, the attainment of which is the only purpose of life.

 

2. ‘There is One Master, the Guiding Spirit of all souls, Who constantly leads his followers towards the light.'

 

The Sufi understands that although God is the source of all knowledge, inspiration and guidance, yet man is the medium through whom God chooses to impart His knowledge to the world, - through such a man who is man in the eyes of the world, but God in his consciousness. It is the mature soul that draws blessings from the Heavens and God speaks through that soul. Although the tongue of God is busy speaking through all things, yet in order to speak to the deaf ears of many of us, it is necessary for Him to speak through the lips of man. This is seen in all periods of history in all ages. Shiva, Buddha, Rama and Krishna, on the one side and Abraham, Moses, Christ and Mohammed, on the other; and many more, known and unknown, have been examples of the Master who lives the life of God in human guise.

In other words, their human guises are the various coats worn by the same person, who appeared different in each, yet was one and the same person. Those who saw did not see the person, but recognized the coat, went astray. As people separated themselves from one another, clinging to the personality of the Teacher, claiming for him superiority over other teachers, and degrading the teacher held in esteem by others, so all the religious wars and splits among the children of God have been caused.

The Sufi recognized the person and not the guise and saw one Teacher only in all the different names and forms, coming constantly to awaken humanity from the slumber of this life of illusion and to guide man onward towards divine perfection.

As the Sufi progresses in this view, he recognizes his Master, not only in the Holy Ones, but in the wise, in the foolish, in the saint and in the sinner and has never allowed to disappear from his sight the Master who is one alone and the only one who can be and who ever will be.

 

3. ‘There is one Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.'

 

The Sufi, when the eye of his soul is opened and his sight is keen, reads in the manuscript of nature the divine law, which has been read from the same source and taught by the Teachers of humanity to their followers. Though language does not suffice to express the inner Truth, yet what little of it could be expressed in words has been inscribed by the pen and handed to posterity from time to time as a sacred book. man have fought and disputed over the authenticity of these books and would not accept any other book and losing the sense of it, have formed divers sects. The Sufi has respected in all ages all such books and has traced in the Vedanta, Zend Avesta, Kabala, Bible, Koran and all the other sacred scriptures, the same truth which he reads in the incorruptible manuscript of nature, the only Holy Book, the perfect and living model that teaches the inner law of life. All scriptures before nature's manuscript are as little pools of water before the ocean. To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree is a page of the Holy Book that contains divine revelation and he is inspired every moment of his life by reading and understanding the holy script of nature.

 

 

4. ‘There is one Religion, the unswerving progress in the right direction toward the ideal, which fulfils the life's purpose of every soul.'

 

Religion, in the Sanskrit language is termed Dharma, which means duty. the duty of every individual is his religion. ‘Every soul is born for a certain purpose and the light of that purpose is kindled in his soul.' Sa'di. This explains why the Sufi allows with tolerance everyone to have his own path and does not compare the principles of others with his own, but allows freedom of thought to everyone, since he himself is a freethinker.

Religion, in the conception of a Sufi is the path that leads man toward the attainment of his ideal, worldly as well heavenly. Sin and virtue, right and wrong, good and bad are not the same in the case of every individual, they are according to his grade of evolution and state of life.

Therefore to a Sufi the name the religion, or the place of worship is unimportant. All places are sacred enough for his worship and all religions convey to him the religion of his soul. ‘I saw Thee in the sacred Kaaba and in the temple of idol also, Thee I saw.'

 

5. ‘ There is one Law, the Law of Reciprocity, which can be observed by a selfless conscience together with a sense of awakened justice.'

 

Man spends his life in pursuit of all that seems to him profitable for himself and when he so absorbed in self-interest, he loses in time even track of his own interest. Man makes laws to suit himself, so that he can take the best of another and this he calls justice. He only recognizes injustice when it is done by another. He, therefore can never lead a peaceful and harmonious life with his fellow-men until the sense of justice is awakened in him by a selfless conscience. As the judicial authorities of the world intervene between two persons who are at variance, knowing that they have a right to intervene, when the two parties in dispute are blinded by personal interest, so the Almighty Power intervenes in all disputes however small or great.

It is the Law of reciprocity that saves man from being exposed to the Higher Powers, as a considerate man has less change of being brought before the court. The sense of justice is awakened in a perfectly sober mind that is free from the intoxication of youth, strength, power, possession, command, birth or rank. It seems a net profit when one does not give but takes, or when one gives less and takes more, but in either case there is a greater loss than profit in reality; for every such profit spreads a cover over the sense of justice within and when many such covers have veiled the sight, man becomes blind even to his own profit. it is like standing in one's own light. ‘Blind here remains blind in the hereafter.'

There are different laws taught by different religions, teaching how to act harmoniously and peacefully with one's own fellow-men, but they all meet in this one truth: ‘Do unto others as thou wouldst they should do unto thee.' The Sufi in taking a favor from another, enhances its value, and in taking adverse treatment from another, he makes allowance. in taking measures against someone, he leaves a margin, knowing that selfishness plays a part in it, and in doing a favor he adds to the degree to which he should do so.

For those who have renounced, a life in the forest is suitable; for the beneficent a life of seclusion is needed; but those who live in the worldly struggles a right sense of reciprocity is necessary.

 

6. ‘There is one Brotherhood, the Human Brotherhood, which unites the children of the earth indiscriminately in the Fatherhood of God.'

 

The Sufi understands that the One Life emanating from the Inner being is manifested on the surface as the life of variety, and in this world of variety man is the finest manifestation, who can realize, in his evolution, the Oneness of the Inner being even in the external existence of variety. but he evolves to his ideal, which is the only purpose of his coming on earth, by uniting himself with another. Man unites with others in the family tie, which is the first step in his evolution. And yet, families in the past have fought with each other, and have shown vengeance to one another for generations, each considering at the time its own to be the only true and righteous cause. Man, to-day shows his evolution by uniting with his neighbors and fellow citizens, and even developing within himself the spirit of patriotism for his nation. And yet men so united nationally have caused the recent catastrophe, which has no parallel in history; and this will be regarded by the coming generations in the same light in which the family feuds of the past are viewed by us to-day. there are racial bonds which widen the circle of unity still more; but it has always happened that one race has looked down on the other.

The religious bonds show a still higher ideal in man; but it has caused divers sects which have opposed and despised each other for thousand of years, and have caused so many splits and divisions among men. Even in such a wide scope of brotherhood the germ of separation exists. And however widespread the brotherhood may be, as long as it is separated man from man, it cannot be a perfect brotherhood.

The Sufi realizing this, frees himself from national, racial, and religious boundaries, uniting in the human brotherhood, which is devoid of the differences and distinctions of class, caste, creed, race, nation or religion and unites mankind in the universal Brotherhood.

 

 

7. ‘There is one moral, the love which springs forth from self-denial and blooms in deeds of beneficence'.

There are moral principles taught to mankind by various Teachers, by many traditions, one differing from the other; which are as separate drops coming from the fountain. but when we look at the stream that on falling turns into several drops, we find that there is but one stream. There are many moral principles, as many drops falling from the fountain, but there is one stream that is at the root of all, and that is love. It is love that gives birth to hope, patience, endurance, forgiveness, tolerance and to all moral principles. All deeds of beneficence take root in the soul of the loving heart. generosity, charity, adaptability, an accommodating nature, even renunciation are the off springs of love alone. The great, rare and chosen beings, who for ages have been looked up as ideal in the world, are the possessors of hearts kindled with love. All evil and sin come from the lack of love.

People call love blind, but love in reality is the light of the sight. The eye can only see the surface, love can see much deeper. All ignorance is the lack of love, as fire when not kindled gives only smoke, but when kindled the illuminating flame springs forth, so it is with love; it is blind when undeveloped, but when the fire is kindled, the flame that lights the path of the traveler from immortality to everlasting life springs forth and the secrets of earth and Heaven are revealed to the possessor of the loving heart, and the lover has gained mastery over himself and others and he not only communes with God but unites with Him.

‘Hail to thee, then, O Love, sweet madness, thou who healest all our infirmities, who art the physician of our pride and self-conceit, who are our Plato and our Galen!'- Rumi.

 

8. ‘There is one Object of Praise, the beauty which uplifts the heart of its worshipper through all the aspects from seen to unseen'.

‘God is beautiful and He loves beauty'- Koran.

This explains that man, who inherited the spirit of God has beauty in him and loves beauty, although that which is beautiful to one is not beautiful to another. Man cultivates the sense of beauty as he evolves and prefers the higher aspect of beauty to the lower.

But when he has observed the highest vision of beauty in the unseen by a gradual evolution from praising the beauty of the seen world, then the whole existence becomes to him one single vision of beauty. Man worshipped God, beholding the beauty of sun, moon and stars and planets, he has worshipped God in plants, in animals, he has recognized God in the beautiful merits of man; and he has, with his perfect view of beauty, found the source of beauty in the unseen, from whence all this springs and in whom all is merged.

The Sufi realizing this, worships beauty in all its aspects, and sees the face of the Beloved in all that is seen and the Beloved's spirit in the unseen. So wherever he looks, his ideal of worship is before him. ‘Everywhere I look, I see Thy winning face; everywhere I go, I arrive at Thy dwelling place.'

 

There is one Truth, the true knowledge of our being within and without, which is the essence of all wisdom. Hazrat Ali said: "Know thyself, and thou will know God." Is it knowledge of self which blooms into the knowledge of God? Self-knowledge answers such problems as ‘Whence have I come? Did I exist before I became conscious of any present existence on earth if I existed, as what did I exist? Did I exist as an individual such as I now am or as a multitude or as in insect, bird, animal, spirit, jinn or an angel?'

What happens after death, the change to which every human creature is subject/ Why do I tarry here a while? What purpose have I to accomplish here? What is my duty in life? In what does my happiness consist, and what is it that makes my life miserable? Those whose hearts have been kindled by the light from above begin to ponder over such questions, but those whose souls are already illumined by the knowledge of self understand them. It is they who give to individuals or to the multitude the benefit of their knowledge, so that even men whose hearts are not yet kindled and whose souls are not illuminated, , may be able to walk on the right path that leads to perfection. It is therefore that people are taught various languages, in various forms of worship, in various tenets in different parts of the world the one and the same Truth in divers aspects, to suit the people and the time. people, not understanding this, mocked at each other's faith, condemning others to Hell, and considering their to be the only true faith.

The Sufi recognizing the knowledge of self as the essence of all religions, traced in every religion the same Truth, has regarded all as one.

The Sufi, by understanding the self, realizes, as Christ did, that: I and the Father are one. The difference between creature and the Creator remains on his lips, not in his soul. This is what is meant by union with God. it is in reality the dissolving of the false self in the knowledge of the true self, which is divine, eternal and all-pervading. ‘He who attaineth union with God, his very self must lose'- Amir.

 

10. ‘There is one Path, the annihilation of the false ego in the real, which raises the mortal to immortality in which resides all perfection'.

‘I passed away into nothingness, I vanished; and lo! I was all living' all who have realized the secret of life understand that life is one, but that it exists in two aspects: first, as mortal, all-pervading and silent life and secondly as mortal, active and manifest in variety. The soul being of the first aspect, becomes deluded, helpless and captive by experiencing life in contact with the mind and body, which are of the next aspect. The gratification of the desires of the body and the fancies of the mind do not suffice the purpose of the soul, the purpose of which is undoubtedly the experience of its own phenomena in the seen and the unseen, but the inclination of which is to be itself and not anything else. When delusion makes it feel that it is helpless, mortal and captive, it finds itself out of place. This is the tragedy of life, that keeps the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, all dissatisfied, constantly looking for something they do not know.

The Sufi realizing this, takes the path of annihilation and by the guidance of a teacher on the path, he finds at the end of his journey, that the destination was himself.

‘I wandered in the pursuit of my own self. I was the traveler, and I am the destination.'-Ikbal

60/53. The God-Ideal - 10

 

God the Infinite

The Infinite God is the Self of God and all that has manifested under name and form is the outward aspect of God. When we take all the forms existing and all the names put together it becomes one form which is the form of God. in other words, all names are the Name and all forms are the Form of God. But as God is One, His Form is also one, and that is the sum-total of all names and forms; there is no thing or being which is not the being of God.

In order to teach this, the wise have said there is God everything, God is in every being. Many have wondered: ‘ If He is in everything, how does He live in everything and as what?; and if He is in man, where is he to be found and what part of man's being is to be considered God?' - Many answers may be given and yet no answer will satisfy. for the true answer is that all is God and God is all, none exists save He. And the question: "What are we then?", - may be answered by the phrase in the Bible: that ‘We live and move and have our being in God.' God is we. but we are not gods. The difference between God and our being is not of the Being; ‘in Being God' and ‘we' are one and the same. The difference is in our limitation and in the perfection of God.

How are we to conceive the idea of God the Absolute? We are not meant to conceive that.

We, as limited beings, are not able to know perfection, but perfection itself knows perfection.

We can imagine and make a God of our own, to make God intelligible to us, to make it easy for us to advance on the spiritual path. And as we advance, the Unlimited being working through us makes His own way and realizes His perfection. For in this realization, He realizes Himself, which is not at all difficult for Him.

Man thinks that religion or philosophy or mysticism, all this that he has learned as he has evolved. Yes, it is true. But the result of all this learning and evolution is realized to a certain degree, not only by un-evolved human beings, but even by the animals and birds. They all have their own religion and they all worship God in their own way. The birds, while singing in the forest, feel the exaltation even more than man feels it after he has worshipped God.

For all men who join in the prayers may not be so sincere as the birds in the forest; not one of them says its prayers without sincerity. If a soul were wakened to feel what they feel when singing in the forest at dawn, he would know that their prayer is even more exalting than his own, for their prayer is more natural. The godly, therefore, worship their God with nature, and in this manner of worship they experience perfect exaltation as the result of their prayer.

Man thinks he is able to meditate and that he can concentrate, but he cannot do better meditation and concentration than the animals and birds in the forest. The cobra attracts its food by a thought. There are many cobras whose food comes and falls into their mouth. They fast patiently for a long time, not worrying about the food for tomorrow. There are men, on the contrary, who are anxiously buy about their breakfast, they are not even certain of their luncheon. They have no confidence in their own power nor faith in the providence of God.

In short, spirituality is attained by all beings, not only by man, but by the beasts and the birds; and each has its own religion, its principles, its law and its morals. For instance a bird, whose honour it is to fly over the heads of those who walk on the earth, feels it beneath their dignity to be touched by an earthy being, it feels it is polluted. And he will not rest till they have killed it, for it is outcast for them; they dwell in the air and it is their dignity to be so.

The study of nature is not only of interest for the student of science; the one who treads the path of spirituality, for him, the study of nature is of immense interest. Man will find in the end of his search in the spiritual line, that all beings -including trees and plants, rocks and mountains - all are prayerful and all attain to that spiritual perfection which is the only longing of all souls.

61/54. The real meaning of religion

Whenever the name religion is mentioned, a person either thinks of the clergymen, or his church, or of the form of service he is accustomed to attend or of the Scriptures that he reads. it seems that life has been cut away from religion; religion has been put on one side and life on another side. We have divided religion from life and in this way humanity is not able to make use of it or to derive the fullest benefit from religion. If one understood the real meaning of religion, one would not divide religions, one would think that there was, there is, and there will be one religion and the same religion. One would also think that all the different names are the names of one religion. if I were to give a definition of the word religion, I would say religion pertains to five different things: Home, community, ideal, God and church.

If the home is not made into a church and if the home is not considered as sacred as the church and if the rooms in which one sits and writes and thinks are not considered a sacred sanctuary to meditate and make prayers, one has not understood the meaning of home. Is it home to rent a flat or to take a house and live in it with a little music or poetry? But even that is not to be found to-day. To-day there is no inclination for home. Every person, most of the people are desirous of living in restaurants, in hotels; they think it is less trouble, it saves so much expense, so much trouble in our life, it gives one time to think of many other things, it takes away the care. That is the wrong idea. In the first place, the food that is made for the generality, for hundreds or thousands of persons is not the same food which is cooked for the family. It has a different taste, it has a different influence, a different effect. Would you believe if I were to say that even to-day in the orient the Occultists prepare food for themselves by their own hands, that they see the importance of the magnetism and the influence of the food; that the food can be the greatest cure and the worst source of malady.

Besides, the one who is accustomed to sleep in a hotel one day and in another hotel another day, he does not know what it means to keep one's own atmosphere. A room where one sleeps, where one has created one's atmosphere, it becomes a religious place; you have said a prayer and then you have gone to rest; but all night long the prayer is repeated there, the atmosphere is praying for you and that gives a quiet, it is a harmony.

When a person lives in a home, he can naturally care, not only for its cleanliness but also for the purity of its atmosphere. The ancient people always printed symbols of a religious character before their doors. Every morning after cleaning the house there were prints on the staircase just before the door, that as soon as they went out they would see prints which reminded them of religious ideals. And then some twice and some three times, and sometimes five times, burnt incense in every room with the thought that the home may be purified from all undesirable atmospheres and influences. And those who came there and lived there, their atmosphere was cleared and every day there was a new atmosphere created in the home.

I will tell you an amusing experience I had once in Colombo. I was staying in a pension and I felt uneasy, restless. So I looked what was there and I found a bunch of hair in the cupboard. It said to the landlady: "How is it that I felt so bad in this room, who lived here before, can you tell me?" "Oh", she said, " Don't mention her, it takes my life out of me. As long as she lived, there was a quarrel." The atmosphere was still there. I said: " You have given me such a room!" This lady said: "Because I thought you were a prayerful man."

Besides this, whether it is nurses or it is physicians or whoever it is, those who are at home with you, in your illness, in your moments of despair they can help you no more than others.

It is therefore that in the East they always appreciated a family-life. I do not mean to say that there were no battles and wars in the family. It was just the same as it is now. But as the same time that tendency of serving another as being useful, it was a kind of small brotherhood in the house. Maybe the people could not live up to it as they would have wished, but at the same time there was a principle also to try to live up to it. When people are divided there is that sympathy of relations. The more they are apart, the more they are far away from another, the less sympathy they have, because sympathy grows as people are together.

That was considered once a part of religion, that all those who lived together had regard, consideration for one another and they grew in sympathy with one another, not only because they lived together but because Providence had arranged it so that they were together.

And when this ideal reigned in the house, then with the neighbor there was the same tendency. In the apartment-house a hundred persons are living, or perhaps three families are living there. One family does not go out, or the other family living just next door, their inclination is of turning their back, so that they may not go the same way as the other. It is in this way that we have taken away, what we called home-life, even if the people live in rooms or hotels or apartments, when they come home, there is not that feeling of home because the atmosphere has not been created.

Now we come to what is called a community. the community to-day is based not on the attitude of bringing happiness to one another but it is mostly arranged by their common interest in a certain profession or in a certain work. People are in the same community because they are all working in the mines, or because they are all postmen or all chauffeurs or all workmen. And mostly that community is specially formed in order to give a blow to another community, not for the love of one another. It is only that purpose. if their interest is interfered with, a blow is prepared; the stronger the blow the better it is. If the community was formed with a religious ideal in it that people will help one another spiritually, if there was friendship and sympathy .....???

Instead of that, the idea is how can we become strong as a community in order to stand for our own rights and to look for our benefit. There were times that communities were composed with a religious, with a spiritual ideal. That they were just like one family, that each member of the community was related to the other in the ideal of God, in the thought of the spiritual ideal, in the thought of serving one another, of being useful to one another.

The other day I have heard of a new community-system. Someone was saying that he was thinking about a reconstruction, that people must not have a kitchen in each home because it takes away much time and place, that each street must have one kitchen where hundreds or two hundred or five hundred houses will have one kitchen and in that kitchen all the food will be prepared and served. When it comes to that, then even the choice of food has gone and that sacredness of the food has gone and the atmosphere of the house has gone.

Already the people are living mechanically in different homes. But then the home only becomes a protection from the heat and the cold and nothing there will be to recognize in it the significance of a home.

In the same way the political parties are formed; that is another community. That is a community or workmen one side and of political parties on the other side. A community formed not because they love one another so much but because there is a certain rule they have to pass. It is for that purpose, for eight days they are united to pass that particular law.

Then there is another community in order to raise the prices of things that are sold. Besides this you seen no other communities that will join hands in spiritual progress and in helping humanity. It is such communities we need and it is such a community which may be called a religious community.

62/55. .The Ideal

Now we come to the subject of the Ideal. Ideal is something we are missing to-day.

The whole working of humanity to-day shows that ideal is entirely missing, when you look at it in education, in business, in industry, in politics. And if there is no ideal, there is no way of evolution, because it is by the ideal that mankind evolves and in the absence of ideal there is no other way of evolving. It was religion that taught the ideal in all ages.

And now coming to the idea of God. With the increase of intellectual knowledge, a person begins to wonder if there is some such thing as God; and then he begins to think that if there is a God, how must there be injustice; if there was a perfect God, why there would be imperfection; why if there was a God of goodness would there be so much wretchedness in the world; why if there was a God of power, there is so much ugliness?

And the answer is that it is God Who is needed, what is wanting, that is God. If there was nothing wanting, then there would not be God. Because there is limitation, there is somewhere perfection. perfection is wanting; there is only limitation and what is wanting is God. And when we look at it in this way, we begin to comprehend the idea of God and its need for humanity. There is a tendency to disbelieve or to refuse to believe in a personal God. But those who will not believe in a personal God, for them God is abstract. But what is abstract? It means nothing; and nothing means abstract; either call it nothing or call it abstract.

I have heard of hundreds and thousands of people who after they had studied the philosophy of Vedanta, of new Thought, of Advanced thought, their thoughtfulness had expressed itself in this manner. Either there is no God, or they think there is a God but it is an abstract God. Then why call it God? Call it space, which means nothing. And besides, what devotion has that man, who has an abstract God in his heart? In the first place he cannot have an abstract God in his heart, perhaps in his head. even his head cannot contain an abstract God. The abstract God is much larger than his head. What purpose is there in believing in a God who is nothing? That is where they arrive after having studied philosophies, and if one knew the mystery of God-Ideal one would solve this question. First of all we must know that by us praying God, praising God, we do not raise God higher than He is. By our praising God, we do not bring a pleasure to God. because God is perfect, our praise is imperfect. How must we praise God, we cannot use appropriate words.

The most we can say is: ‘The King of the Universe', but this is a very small word to name God. We say: ‘Forgiver', well, man can forgive. Any words we make use of for God, are inappropriate words and only make God limited. Therefore if there is a necessity of praising God, it is for ourselves and not for God. This is the first thing. The best thing would be to keep God's being apart and for our own benefit make a God Whom we can comprehend and this we can only do by trying our best to make God as great, as good, as wonderful as possible as we can conceive of. And that we cannot do if we did not make God a personal Being.

If a person wishes to become perfect by divine knowledge and if he begins to say: "I am God, because in myself is God", he is making God smaller than himself because what he thinks of is small. Therefore many people by taking the intellectual, philosophical way of understanding Go, go astray because they cover God by their small self. The best thing is to forget our small self and then see the perfection of God. Because what stands before God is our limited being. If we removed our limited being from our eyes and looked at the perfect God without our selves coming in between, then we shall have the vision of God.

Now the church. No doubt it is necessary that people having the same spiritual ideals, may meet together and may perform their spiritual adorations or services or worship together because this gives a greater strength and brings a greater blessing. The more people are together in one thought, the more they take the same form for their spiritual development, they will be helped more and more. because the prayer of one person helps another, the devotion of one person helps another and as you can see the principle to cause wars in the same way, they help one another naturally. Those inclined to receive spiritual blessings can profit by joining together in a worship.

The Universal Worship of the Sufi Order is inaugurated for this purpose, that the people of different faiths and religions may come together to give their adoration in one form.

And the need for Universal Worship is greater than one can imagine, for this reason that it gives a facility to the people of all religions. Besides, if we think of the wishes of the Prophets who have given different religions, we shall come to this same idea that their wish is that there would become a form of worship in which all different communities and nations would take part, and it is in this Universal Worship that their wish is being fulfilled. It is now beginning in the world, but before long this will become the manner of worship, the way of worship and this will become the source of a higher evolution of humanity.

In the first place there is the greatest need that East and West may be united together for the evolution of the whole humanity. If the East was left behind or if the West remained behind in their spiritual evolution it would keep them both back. East and West both should join hands in spiritual evolution and this can only be done if all come and worship together. And remember, ‘the day of Universal Worship' will begin in the East, you will see hundreds and thousands and millions of people will appreciate it and take it up and it will spread so widely because this is the pressing need of the whole world and humanity. And it is our tendency to establish it and to begin it and to present it to humanity and we should be thankful for the privilege.

 

 

63/56. How can we make God intelligible?

Sometimes the question is asked: "How can we make God intelligible?"

You can make a chair intelligible by touching, by looking at it and see how it is made. You make a house intelligible by seeing how it is made. You can make a tree intelligible by seeing how is, its stem, fruits, leaves, appearance, then what comes out of it.

The word intelligible means through our senses we feel a thing, we know a thing, we have a conception of a thing, that is to make it intelligible. to make anything intelligible is to make a concrete conception of it.

And now the question is how to make God intelligible? This is really impossible, to make God intelligible! But at the same time, it is in order to make God intelligible that the Egyptians made the Sphinx. It is in order to make God intelligible, that the fire worshippers offered homage to the sun; it is in order to make God intelligible that the people have made idol-worship and it is also in order to make God intelligible, that people esteemed their divine ideal with their devotion, as those worshippers of Jesus Christ. All these forms are attempts on the part of man to make God intelligible in the form that seems to him the best. That form must be seen by him, and must be imagined by him, and must be known by him, and must be imagined by him, and must be known by him. And he knows that form as a person, he calls it Christ, or some other name he gives to it. He makes him the King, because he thinks that the king is the greatest person. He gives him the throne and crown. He calls him the Master of the Day of Judgment, because he knows there is no justice in this world, so he thinks he must be the judge. He thinks all that is beautiful, surrounds him with angels, conceives the form of angels as human beings. He pictures God in the form of man. There have been attempts of putting all sorts of things on one being. The Chinese used to make a dragon, to which all things were attached, fish, lion, tiger, man, everything that existed, in order to make one form intelligible to serve as a symbol suggesting and teaching many things. Every effort is a failure, but every effort to make God intelligible is worthwhile.

Now we have two stages of making God intelligible. One stage was idol worship, and the other stage was ideal worship. One was the primitive stage, a stage in which God was made manifest in an unusual form, but at the same time intelligible. A further stage was that they made God an ideal. Instead of making him a God of forms, they made him a God of attributes. And then they said all the beauty, goodness, wisdom, justice belongs to Him. All things that we can conceive in our mind, we give those things to God and consider all those things in God in their perfection. That is the highest form of making God intelligible.

That all, that our intelligence, our mind, thinks as beautiful,. as good, as valuable to see all that in perfection, in one Being and to idealize that Being as the greatest and the highest of all beings.

That is what we call to make God intelligible. But at the same time, that is the first step on the spiritual path. On the religious path that is the last step, on the spiritual path that is the first step.

64/57. Heaven

 

 

Heaven can be defined in three ways. One way is the conception of creeds, as in Arabia, when the Bedouin came to the Prophet and asked him, what is Heaven? He said: "Heaven is a place where there are rivers of milk, tanks of honey, and emeralds and pearls and rubies and diamonds to be found, and all that is good and beautiful is to be found there." They said, that is the place we are looking for. And the Prophet said: "That place you will only enter if you will do good. But if you lie and thieve and rob you will go to the other place.", then he showed the other place with all kinds of torture. That is the place which is taught to the ordinary man.

Then there is a Heaven which is reached above. What is above us is Heaven. The plane where we stand is the earth and the plane to which we look forward to is Heaven. And we all look forward to something, not only human being, but also the earth is reaching upwards in the form of mountains and hills. The water is reaching upwards in the form of rising waves. Birds try to reach upwards by flying and the animals try to reach upwards by standing on their hind legs. And in this way every creature is trying to reach upwards, though he does not know where he wants to and what he wants to reach.

And we look upwards what do we find? We find stars and the moon and the sun. And it is more pleasant to look at it than to look at the earth with all its beauties.

 

And it is the climate in the Western countries which does not allow us to look at Heaven, but in the tropical countries you can sit for hours looking at it. That is the only thing which can lift you up and make you free from all the worries of this dense earth. What do we see? We only see light. The light inspires us, attracts us and gives us such a feeling of upliftment, what nothing can give. It shows us that light is the thing that we seek after, even light in its visible form as we see in the Heaven. But that is symbolical Heaven, real Heaven is where there is no light that our eyes can see, but there is light that our soul can see. And that light is the Grace of God, that light is the soul's unfoldment, that light is wakening to the secret of life, and it is that wakening which is Heaven.

And there is a third description, which is a description of Omar Khayam. That the heaven of each person is what gives him a joy; and in the Vadan it is said: ‘Whether you are the top of the mountain or at the root, if you are happy where you are, that is all that matters. If you are at the foot, you are as much in Heaven as when you are at the top. And if you happy at the top you are just as much in Heaven as when you are at the foot.' It is the soul experiencing something, awakening to a certain consciousness, which gives one joy. And that joy comes as a fulfillment of life. And it is that joy which can be called Heaven.

There is a story of the Ben Israel, that a very pious man was one day grieved over the injustice of life and said: "Well, all through life I have been a good person and I have done all that seemed right to me, and I have lived a religious life. And now I would like to know what will be the end of it all. Moses will you ask God this question for me?" Moses said: "Yes, when I come back from the top of the mountain I shall give the answer." This man, as busy as ever in his prayers and vigils, was waiting for Moses to come and give him the tidings. And as Moses went a little further there was a man sitting with a bottle and a glass by his side, and he said: "Moses come here, come, where are you going? I know you are going to ask for that man, will you not ask for me: "Where He is going to put me? Has He any place for me somewhere?" Moses was very astonished by the manner of his asking, but he was enjoying his little glass.

Moses went on the Sinai and came back with the answer.

 

Moses told this man, the pious man : "For you there is a good future to look forward to and therefore your prayer is granted." He said: "Well, that is something, after having done all this, if I look forward to something, that is something." Then Moses comes to the other man, who said: "What answer you have for me?" And Moses said: "For you the worst place in hell." The man said, "Yes" he got up and began to dance with his bottle and glass and said: "Thanks, Lord, that You have remembered me, a wicked person like me for You to remember. I thought that God, Who is the greatest, would not remember a wicked person like me. I do not care where you put me. If it is in the worst place. I am only glad that God knows of me. That is what gives me the greatest delight."

The result was contrary. And Moses wanted an explanation from God, why was the result contrary. And the answer was: "No piety nor goodness can be equal to our gifts. You cannot buy them by piety and goodness and spirituality. It is Our Grace. That man wanted to buy Heaven. It is too precious for all the piety that one can give for it. The other man, he was content, he was resigned to Our will. That is the way to come to Us. It is they who attain to it."

It is a great lesson. In the first place that our goodness and our piety cannot buy for us God's Grace or spiritual upliftment. It is good for us, that is all, but we cannot buy with it anything. It is too small a price for any great gift. It is a lesson also of resignation and contentment. And to be conscious of one's own smallness and faults and humbleness, if there is anything that brings upon us Divine blessing, it is that which brings it.

 

 

 

 

65/58. Divine Grace

There is a saying that the one who troubles much about the cause, is far removed from the cause. Many wonder: ‘If I am happy in life, what is the cause of it? If I am sorry in life, what is the cause for it? Is it my past life where I have brought something which brings me happiness or unhappiness, or is it my action in this life which is the cause of my happiness or unhappiness? And one can give a thousand answers to it and at the same time one cannot satisfy the questioner fully. When people think much about the law, they forget about love. When they think that the world is constructed according to a certain law, then they forget the Constructor, Who is called in the Bible: ‘Love, God is Love.'

In the first place, when we see from morning till evening man's selfish actions, whether good or bad actions, one sees that he is not entitled to any happiness or anything good coming to him. And that shows that it is not always that God exacts according to a certain law. He does not weigh your virtue on one side of the scale and His grace on the other, and exchange His grace for man's virtues. The Divine Being apart, man in his friendship, in his kindness, in his favor and disfavor, does he always exact what the other one is, or is doing? No. A friend admires his friend for his goodness and defends him for his wrongdoings. What is it? Does he not forget the law when there comes friendship? He forgets it. So man, instead of using justice and reason, overlooks all that is lacking and wrong. Something right comes forward to cover it all, to forget it all, to forgive it all. A mother whose son is accused of having done something wrong, she knows he has done wrong and she knows he is against the law. At the same time there is something else in her which wishes to lift up, to clear away. She would spend anything, lose anything, sacrifice anything in order that her son may not be punished.

If that is mankind, when we see that in everyday life, according to his evolution, man has a tendency to forget, to forgive, to look at things favorably, to cover all that is ugly. If this tendency is in man, from where does it come? It comes from the source which is Perfection. There is God. it is most amusing to see how people make God and His actions mechanical and how for themselves they claim free will. They say: "I choose to do this." or "I choose to do that" and "I have the free will to choose." This is man's claim. And at the same time he thinks that God and all His works and the Universe are a mechanism. It is all running automatically.

Man denies that God has a free will and he himself claims it.

People look at it in two ways. the say: "All that man does is recorded and in accordance to that it is adjusted. On the Judgment Day, either he has the reward of his good deeds or the punishment for his wrong deeds." Others who are more philosophical and intellectual say: " It is not God but it is the law, the automatic working which brings about a result in accordance to the cause and therefore, what man has done in his past life, he experiences in this life." And there is a third point of view, that there need not be the hereafter and that it need not be the life before, in order for man to have the experience and the result of his deeds, but that every day is his Judgment Day and that every day brings the result of his deeds. That is true also.

There is no doubt that the world is constructed on a certain law, that the whole creation works according to a certain law. And yet it is not all that. There is love beyond it, and it is the Prophets of all ages who have recognized that part of God's working and have given man that consolation and hope that in spite of our faults and shortcomings we will reach Heaven.

 

There is the Grace of God. Many know the Grace of God. And what does it mean? It means a wave of favor, a rising of love, a manifestation of compassion which sees no particular reason. One may say: "Does God close His eyes? Why must it be like this?" But in human nature we see the same thing. The Divine nature can be recognized by human nature. Ask a lover who loves someone: "What is the beauty of that person? What is in that person that makes you love her?"

He may try to explain: " It is because this person is kind or because this person is beautiful or because this person is good or this person is compassionate or intellectual or learned." But that is not the real cause. If really he knows what makes him love, he will say: " Because my beloved is beloved, that is the reason. There is no other reason."

One can give a reason for everything. One can say: "I pay this person because he is good for his work, I pay for this stone because it is beautiful, but I cannot give a reason why I love, there is no reason for it."

Love stands beyond law, beyond reason. The love of God works beyond reason, that Divine Love which is called the grace of God, no piety, no spirituality, no devotion can attract it. No one can say: "I will draw the Divine grace." God apart, can anyone say in this world: " I shall draw the friendship of someone." No one can say this. This is something which comes by itself. No one can command or attract it, or compel anyone to be his friend. It is natural. God's Grace is God's friendship, God's Grace is God's Love, God's Compassion. No one has the power to draw it, to attract it; no meditation, no spirituality, no good action can attract it. There is no commercial business between God and man, God stands free from rules which humanity recognizes. that aspect makes Him the Lord of His own creation. As the wind blows, as the wind comes when it comes, so the Grace of God comes when it is its time to come.

 

There is s story among the Arabs, that Moses was going to Mount Sinai, he saw a man praying and this man asked Moses: "Are you going to communicate with God?" Moses answered: "Yes." The man said: "Will you ask about me? I have prayed all my life and all my life I have been in difficulty; I feared God, I was always kind to man and yet what have I got? Nothing. A hard life always, nothing else?" Moses said: "Yes, I will ask about it" When Moses had gone a few steps further he saw a man who was fully drunken. the man called: "Come along, come here Moses. Will you take my message to God and ask Him what he thinks about me?" Moses was amused and he took the messages of these two men. Naturally the answer was: "Moses you know our Law. The man who has prayed all his life, he will be rewarded and the man who has been drunken will have his punishment." Moses comes back and tells this man: "Be sure and be happy. All you have done will be rewarded." "I have no doubt," said the man, "I am sure, I have always done good. God will not forget this." When Moses comes to the other man, he says: "You have well enjoyed your life, for you there is the worst place." The man said: " Yes? I am so happy, I do not mind where God puts me. But that God thinks of me! There is nothing better for me." Then he began to dance, he was so happy. The result was that these two men were quite in the contrary place than Moses had expected them to be.

And Moses asked God: "Why is it?" The answer was that all the virtues of this man were wiped away by that thought of conceit: ‘Yes, I deserved it.' Since that moment all his virtues were wiped away. The other man, he thought, ‘all the punishment there is, I have deserved it; his only happiness was that he was remembered by the Lord. This gives the picture. There is law and yet there is something beyond law and that is Love.

I have heard people say: ‘I am ill or I am suffering, or I am going through a difficulty or things go wrong because of my Karma of the past. I say: " If it is so or if it is not so, you thinking about it makes it still worse; everything that one acknowledges to be, it becomes worse because one acknowledges it." That Karma which could be thrown away in one day's time, by acknowledging it, will keep with a person all his life. Some people think that they suffer or that they go through pain according to the law of Karma. But when the thought of the grace of God comes and when one realizes the real meaning if the grace of God, one begins to rise above it and one begins to know that my little actions, my good deeds, all my good deeds I must collect in order to make them equal to God's mercy and compassion. His grace and Love, He gives at every moment. God's compassion cannot be returned by all life's good actions. The relation of God and man apart, can one return a real thought of love, all a friend has done to us? We can love that friend, his loving kindness and his compassion. But we never pay for it.

In all our life we cannot pay for it. And when we see the kindness and the compassion of God which is always hidden from our view, because we are always only seeing what is lacking, the pain, the suffering, the difficulties.

Man is so absorbed in them that he loses the vision of all the good that there is. We can never be grateful enough if we saw it like this: ‘That it is not the law, but that it is the Grace of God which governs our life.' And it is the trust and confidence in this Grace which does not only console a person, but which lifts him and brings him nearer to the Grace of God.

 

 

66/59. The Sufi Religion

 

Religion in the ordinary sense of the word, as known by the world, is the creeds.

There are not many religions in the world, but there are many creeds. And what does creed mean? Creed means a cover over the religion. There is one religion and there are many covers. Each of these covers is called either: ‘Christianity', or Buddhism', or the ‘Hebrew Religion' or ‘Muslim Religion' etc. and when you take off these covers, you will find that there is one religion., and it is that religion which is the religion of the Sufi. And at the same time a Sufi does not condemn a church or a creed or a certain form of worship. He says it is the world of variety. everyone must have his choice of food, his choice of dress, his choice of expression. Why must the followers of one faith think that the others are heathens or pagans? The Sufi thinks that we all follow one religion, only in different names and different forms; but behind names and forms there is one and the same spirit and there is one and the same truth. But the pity is that the orthodox priests and clergy disagree among themselves about it; even in the colleges and in the universities, when students study theology, they study without interest. A professor told me in Switzerland: "We have read many books of religion. I was a professor of theology. But we are taught in the college to study without taking deep interest in the subject or to be neutral."

But that is not the attitude to become inspired. Our attitude must be that of interest, of sympathy, of friendliness toward that religion and toward the teacher who has brought it.

I began to study the Bible in my early youth and my devotion towards Christ and the Bible was as great as that of any Christian or perhaps more. And so it is with all scriptures. if you have sympathy, if you have interest in all you study and read, then it is living, then it inspires you, you are benefited by it because of your love for truth.

The same truth is common to all, but the tendency of the academic study of religion is to find where is the difference. They would be most interested in knowing where Christianity differs from Buddhism, and where the Jewish religion differs from the Islam.

Their interest is in the difference instead of being interested in the synthesis, where we meet. It is in the meeting ground of different faiths that there is the sacred place of pilgrimage. In India, in order to teach this idea, they have made a place of pilgrimage where the two rivers meet. It is the same thought that every stream of Divine Wisdom which we call religion is sacred, but most sacred is, there where two streams meet. And when we realize that, we make the real pilgrimage in the spirit.

Now coming to the idea of what religion consists of. The first thing in the religion is the idea of God. What is God? Some say that: "My idea of God is that He is in the highest Heaven, that He is the Creator, that He is the Judge of the Last Day, that He is the Forgiver." And there is another one who says: "My idea is that God is all, God is abstract, all is God, and if anyone believes in a personal God, I do not believe it." Both are right and yet both are wrong if they see their own point of view. Both see the God-Ideal with one eye. One sees it with the right eye and the other with the left eye. If they see with both eyes, then the vision is complete. It is indeed an error on the part of man to limit God in the idea of a Personal Being, and it is wrong in the person who believes in the Absolute God, to efface the being of God from his conception of it. As they say, ‘To explain God is to dethrone God.' To say that God is abstract is like saying ‘ God is the space, God is the time.' Can you love the space? Can you love the time? There is nothing there to love. A beautiful flower would attract you more than the space. And nice music will attract you more than time. therefore the believer in the abstract God has only his belief, but he is not benefited by it. He may just as well believe there is no God as in an abstract God. Yet he is not wrong. he is uselessly right.

The most advisable thing for the believer of God is to first make his own conception of God. naturally man cannot make a conception which he does not know, of something he does not know. For instance, if I told you to imagine a bird that you have never seen, which is unlike any bird you have ever seen, you will first attach to the bird to wings, then you will see the head of the cow, and then perhaps you will imagine the feet of a horse, the peacock's tail. But you cannot imagine any form which you have not seen, which you have not known. You have to embody from your mind a form which you already know. You cannot make a conception which you have never seen or known before. Besides, it is the easiest thing and it is the most natural thing for man to conceive any being in his own form.

When man thinks of fairies or angels, he sees them in human form, and therefore if a person conceives of the God-Ideal, even the highest and best way of conceiving will be in the highest and best human personality. There is nothing wrong about it. That is all that man can do. God is greater than man's conception, but man cannot conceive Him higher than he can. Therefore any man's God is in his own conception. It is useless, therefore to argue and to discuss and to urge one's own conception upon another. For the best way a person can think of God is in the way he is capable of thinking of God.

And then the next aspect of religion is the ideal of the Teacher. One says that, ‘My teacher is the Savior of the world, the savior of humanity. My Teacher is Divine, my Teacher is God Himself.' And there is another who is ready to oppose it, saying that it is not true, no man can be called divine and no one can save the world, each one has to save himself. But if you look at it from the Sufi's point of view, the Sufi says: " What does it matter if a man sees in someone he adores and worships and idealizes, God himself? After all the whole manifestation is God's manifestation. If he sees that in that particular Teacher he sees the Divine, there is nothing wrong about it. Let him call his teacher Divinity. I am sorry for the one who does not call his Teacher the Savior." Besides that, we each have an effect of our deeds on the whole cosmos and if a high soul was called by someone, ‘The Savior of the World', it is not an exaggeration.

One wicked soul can cause such harm to the whole cosmos, and one holy soul by his life on earth can do so much good, directly and indirectly, to each being in the world, because each soul is connected with the whole cosmos.

But for the Sufi there is no dispute about it. If a Buddhist says: "Buddha is my Savior", if a Christian says that Christ is divine, if a Muslim says that Mohammed was the seal of the Prophets, if the Hindu says that Krishna was the expression of God, the Sufi says: " You are all justified; you each have your name, individually or collectively, you are calling my Ideal. All these names are the same of my Ideal. You each have your own ideals. I have all these names as the name of my Ideal. I call my Beloved: Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed. therefore all your ideals I love, because my Ideal is one and the same."

And now comes the third idea of religion and that is the idea of the form of worship. Perhaps in one religion there are candles lighted and there is a from of worship And there is another religion, where even a song is not allowed to be sung in the church. In another religion they call out the name of God and pray the Lord with movements. In another religion they have put a statue of Buddha on the altar as the sign of peace. There are different expressions of devotion. Just as in the Western countries by nodding and in the Eastern countries by raising their hands, they salute one another. It is the same feeling, but the action is different. What does it matter if one greets in this way or in that way, is it not a greeting? The Sufi says, so long as there is real devotion, it does not matter in what way it is expressed. For him it is the same.

Once I was traveling in England to the United Sates and the ship on Sunday there was a Protestant service, which I attended, and everyone thought I was a Protestant. Then there was a Catholic service and when I went to the Catholic service, people began to look at me, doubting if I was a Catholic or a Protestant. After that, there was a Jewish service and when I went, they began to think, if I was a Rabbi, why did I go to all these services? To me every one of these services was an expression of devotion, for me they were not different. The form makes no difference, it is our feeling. When our feeling is right, if we are in the church or on the market place or in the simple nature or in our own house, we always will express our sincere devotion. Therefore a Sufi's form of prayer is all forms of prayer and in every form he feels that exaltation which is the principal thing to experience in religious life.

 

 

67/60. The Sufi Religion ( cont.)

 

 

There is an aspect of religion which is what is forbidden and what is allowed, the moral and ethical conception.

One religion says, this is forbidden and this is allowed; another religion says another thing and another religion still another thing. But what is the law? Where does it come from? This law comes from the conception of the Prophets or law-givers which they have gotten from the need of the community. And therefore perhaps, one lawgiver was born in Syria, another in Arabia, another in India, another in China and each one saw a different need for the people of that time. And therefore if we gather together the laws the religious inspirer have given, they naturally will differ. If we dispute over them saying that, my religion is better and yours is worse because its laws are better and yours are worse. It is a foolish thing to do. If one nation says that, our law is better than your law and your law is worse than ours, there is no meaning in it, because nations make their law according to their needs. The needs of every race and community and nation are sometimes different. nevertheless, the fundamental principle is one and the same. To have consideration for another is the root of all the religious laws. to feel that, I am in the same position as another; if I act unjustly to another, the other is also entitled to act unjustly to me. I am exposed to the same thing. When this thought is wakened in man and sympathy is awakened for his fellowmen, he need not trouble and argue and discuss about the different laws.

Friends, love is a great inspirer of law, and the one who has not love, he may read a thousand books of law, he will always accuse the others of their faults and he will never know his own faults. But if love has wakened in your heart, then you do not need to study law, for you know the best law, for all law has come from love and still love stands above the law.

People say there will be justice in the hereafter and we shall all have to show the accounts of our deeds. In the first place, we ourselves do not know the account of our deeds. Besides, if God is so exacting as to ask you of every little evil everyone has committed, then God must be worse than man, because a fine man even overlooks his friend's faults, a kind man forgives a person's faults. If God is so exacting as that, He must be an autocratic God. It is not true; God is not Law, God is Love. Law is the law of nature, but God's Being is not Law, God's Being is Love. And therefore the right conception of life and insight into right and wrong, good and bad, is not learned and taught by book-study, as the Sufi says: "All virtues manifest by themselves once the heart is wakened to love and kindness."

Another aspect of religion is the sacred shrines. The importance one attaches to the church or the priest or clergyman or to a certain house of prayer, to the temple, pagoda, mosque or synagogue. For the Sufi, it is not the pace that is holy, but it is our faith that makes it so.

And if a person has faith that this pace, this synagogue, temple or church is holy, he will be benefited by it.

But, at the same time, the holiness is not in the house, the holiness is in his own belief. But what we have to learn from religion is one thing, and that is the knowledge of Truth. At the same time, Truth cannot be spoken in words. Truth is something that is discovered, that is not learned and taught. The great mistake is that people are confused between fact and Truth. Therefore they neither know about Truth nor about fact. Besides, there are many who are so sure of their truth that they hammer the truth upon another. They say: "I do not mind if you are hurt or if you are vexed, I just tell you the truth." Such hammered truth cannot be the Truth. It is a hammer. Truth is too delicate, too tender, too beautiful. Can Truth hurt anyone?

If Truth was so dense and gross, sharp and hurtful, it cannot be Truth. Truth stands above words. Words are too rigid to express Truth. Even fine feelings as tenderness, gentleness, sympathy, love, gratitude, Truth is above them. Truth cannot be explained. Truth is above all emotion, above all passion. Truth is a realization, a realization which cannot be put into words because language has no words to express it. What are facts? Facts are the shadows of Truth, they give an illusion of truth. And people dispute over facts and in the end they find nothing.

Now the question is, how can one attain Truth by what is called Religion?

And I say, all aspects of religion may help one to attain Truth if they are understood rightly. The first aspect is God, God is like a stepping stone, God is like a key to Truth and if a person keeps the ideal of God away and wishes to come to realization of Truth, he misses a great deal. in life. He may come to a certain conception of Truth, but he has taken the wrong way just the same, he has wandered about and he could have come by it, the right way.

The second thing is the thought of the Teacher whom one idealizes. Why must we not have a high conception of the Divine in man? It is the most beautiful thing one can have and the one who has not the high conception of a human being born in any age, in the past or in the present, that one is missing a great deal in life. It is the need of the soul to have a high ideal, an ideal which one can conceive of as a human being.

I will tell you a little experience I had in this matter.

A girl was working in a factory and she was so religious that she always had the Bible with her and the name of Christ would make tears come from her eyes. And the scientific director of that factory came to the girl, simple and devotional and knowing no science or philosophy. he said to her: "You seem to be very religious." "No," she said, " for me Christ is everything. That is all I know.'' And he said: "But there never was a man born as Christ. Look here, this is the book of a great clergyman." He showed it to her. He said: " You are what they call a religious fanatic. You will get a religious mania." And this poor girl did not know where she was and she did not know what to believe and what not to believe. She was, so to speak, lost in the mist. The idea of a religious mania!

A material man who has no religion, but believes only in science, he also has a mania. Is there not a material mania? For money is all that is. They have lost their religion and the brain and thought is for money. All their life they only know is making money.

And that is a mania, a material mania which is worse than the religious mania Religious mania lasts till after death, but the material mania cannot be cured by it. What the material people cannot understand is that they themselves suffer from mania and if you ask them if they know about themselves, you will find that they have a great mania which they do not know about. They know about everybody, but they do not know about themselves.

This girl from that day on gave up food, she could not eat, she could not go to sleep. She said: "I do not know where I am. This one thing in my life I believed in and looked forward to, has been taken away. Now I do not know what to believe and not to believe.." This girl was brought to me and when I told her that the one who said: "This is a mania.", he has a material mania, she understood.

I said: "No doubt your devotion has a greater reality than all the realities that are outside." and she understood. Thought and feeling are more real than what is outside. Therefore an object of devotion in religion is always a most comforting thing.

Then coming to the form of worship. We have a body and since we ourselves have a form, we cannot condemn the idea of form. Besides, the life we live, it is all form, although it is an illusion. But at the same time we cannot live without it. Since we have form for all material things, why may we not have a form for our prayer? There is nothing wrong about it.

And the fourth thing is the moral principle. It is natural that we must have a principle in our life whether this principle or that principle. we must have some principle for which we shall sacrifice our benefit in life.

The fifth thing is the realization of Truth. And that realization comes by itself once we give ourselves to the seeking after Truth, because Truth is our very Self. And it is the realization of Self which is the Realization of Truth.

68/61. The Message.

The peculiarity of the great Masters of humanity.

The life of Rama has been read by the Hindus for thousands of years and they are never tired of it. That shows that each time they hear the story of Rama they feel exalted and they derive some benefit from the story. As a young prince Rama had the education of spiritual and of ethical nature under the teacher-ship of Vashishta, the great spiritual Master of that time. So to begin with, in his life there was this great influence and under this influence of Vashishta, Rama grew to be an ideal young man.

Then there was a ceremony arranged, because there was the demand from every side for Sita, the maiden whose hand was asked for by all the different Maharajahs of that time. And Rama went there. The story is that all of the princes, all of the Maharajas were dressed with jewels and gorgeous dresses, except Rama, because he came directly from the school, which was the forest, so he was living a country life. And with all this Rama won in the end. It is Rama who struck the right note in the heart of Sita and all the Maharajahs who were present were against it.

Then for twelve years, as his father had taken a vow that he must go in the forest and live an ascetic life, a life of thought, before he could be entitled to rule the country, he was sent there and there Sita went with Rama. And Ravanna, the prince who was most opposed to Rama's success as a bridegroom, followed Rama to the forest and seized the opportunity which had presented itself. Rama had gone to bring some fruits and water and Sita was left alone and Ravanna seized Sita against her wishes and flew.

Now then there is a test: the one test is for a prince to be outside his country and the other test to have lost all he had, that was his bride. It shows balance, that instead of being distressed, instead of giving up hope, instead of being discouraged, he still trusts in her love for him, he still had trust in Providence. Instead of being disappointed he went on, searching for her. In the end she was found, a captive in the garden palace of Ravanna. Then it says, that he accepted the help of Hanuman, the king of monkeys. That also gives us a great key to the science of biology.

It was a monkey. Because they cannot find the missing link, therefore they say it was a monkey. It was a new race just sprung from the animals, a race which was to develop, a most primitive race, showing every trace of an animal. This again shows that in order to accomplish, or in order to wage a war against an earthly king, he had to seek an earthly help. He did not invite wise men to come and help him at that time. They would not have helped him, they would have said: "Have courage, be wise, have patience, sit down, calm yourself, cool yourself, have sense; she is not there, have a reason, it is impossible. The king has taken her away, she could not have gone if she was not willing." Every sort of reasoning clever people would have brought before him. But the primitive people were ready to give their lives in order to receive the spiritual soul.

And at the same time it shows how primitive minds can feel the spiritual soul more easily, more readily than the so-called clever. They sympathize with him. No one else came except the wild people of the forest. That shows the wisdom of Rama also, to control this group of people who were accustomed to go on to the East, another to the South, one creeping, one walking, another jumping. That was their spirit, to control the army of that kind of people and then to make a success in the war with a king, that again shows Rama's great balance.

Then as he had confidence that Sita was for him, Sita was his bride, he fought and the story is that they came in the airplane. The monkeys had to jump back, but Rama had the airplane.

How little we know of that time! How many civilizations came and how many civilizations went down and we do not know about it. How far back can we trace the history of the world?

Who can deny that there was once a greater evolution in everything: art, science, mechanics, even still more wonderful in its nature than we see to-day?

There are a thousand examples to be found in the Mahabharata, the ancient tradition, which has been handed down for thousand of years, that Rama came down in Imam, which means in the airplane. After this ordeal, after this trial, when Rama came back he was able to rule his country in an ideal way. Therefore balance is represented by the life of Rama; and all such things as courage, hope, confidence, trust, all these things come from balance.

But one might ask, this story does not tell us anything spiritual: it is only a bride, she was lost, Rama went there, he fought with them, he won, he became king. There were little difficulties, it was all smooth. I would answer: "Spirituality is not in words, spirituality is in acts'. Rama had acted and proved the power of spirituality."

And now when we come the peculiarity of Krishna, it is still more wonderful.

You have heard the story of Krishna. He danced among Gopis and he teased the milkmaids and he played in Vindavana as a boy. I should think that is the most beautiful thing that can exist. he was not a sad, serious, downhearted, depressed young boy. he was life itself. He was born with life, a soul that was to expand through the whole of the universe and give, attracted all those that lived in the country, even in his childhood. No doubt these are symbolical stories of Krishna. Perhaps Krishna was not so bad as they think him to be from stories. For instance, Krishna did not steal butter, although it is said in the tradition, and the Hindus most respectfully regard it. For butter is the essence of milk, and wisdom is the essence of life; therefore wisdom is likened to butter. His stealing butter was to churn the experience of life and take out of it its essence. But suppose it was not so symbolical, it was perhaps true.

Again here was the greatest test, that life could give to any Prophet, that was given to Krishna, for the reason that he was the Prophet, the Godhead. He was to give the philosophy of love, of kindness, of harmlessness. He was faced to help a prince whose kingdom was taken away, Arjuna. The most difficult situation for a Prophet, to have to stand by someone who must fight and yet be destined to give the message of God, - pulled from two sides. How beautifully he has come out, by giving us the Bhagavad-Gita. From the beginning to the end, you can touch every corner of wisdom. There is kindness, there is bravery, there is courage, there is wisdom, there is intellect, there is philosophy, there is mysticism, there is all.

In one book he has given the whole philosophy of life, from beginning to end.

69/62. The Message (cont.)

 

And now we come to the peculiarity of Shiva. Shiva has given an example of Vairagya.

Do not think it an asceticism. Very often people think it an asceticism. But it is not so, Asceticism is a crude interpretation of Vairagya.

The word Vairagya comes from Thiaga in Sanskrit, Thiaga means renouncing.

And when it is said Vairagya, it means success in renouncing.

Shiva showed it in his life. For years he did meditations; he stood for hours and for days; he stood on his head. For hours and for days he held his breath in; he went without food for days and months. All those things that one can do in order to master the matter and life, he did.

When one hears Shiva's philosophy it is all Thiaga: ‘Give it up, indifference, independence from all things: from food, water, air, breath, sky, from all things: ‘Renounce it, renounce it'.

And do not be surprised with all that, the best philosophy he gave us, was his consort Parvati.

She asked him questions and he answered her gently. Through all his asceticism he never gave a philosophy out, he lived it and by being an example.

It was only sometimes he opened his mouth, and Parvati took down, what Mahadeva gave.

There is always in the book a dialogue between Mahadeva and Parvati, Parvati took it all down.

That shows again balance.

He was ascetic, but he was not despising all that was beautiful and good. He was not ignorant of the devotion given to him. And it was he, who told Parvati, when giving the Science of Yoga, "Never give this science to the unfaithful, give it to the simple ones, give it to the poor ones, give it to good persons, wherever they may be, but never give it to the unfaithful."

It is often and often that this remark is made.

What is the attitude to the Guru? When in a Chela there is not the right attitude to the Guru, that Chela must not have the secret of life, he does not deserve it. One would think that when the Guru had renounced everything, what would it matter whether the Chela is faithful or not?

He knew that in faithfulness he will receive, that will do him good and that by unfaithfulness he will receive, it will burn him. It was for the good of the Chela.

Now we come to the peculiarity of Buddha.

Buddha showed the great Reason: he began with reason. His parents kept him closed, secluded in the palace till he was a grownup young man and never allowed him to see the misery of life.

He was quite unacquainted with life in the world. He only knew his servants, the royal comforts that he experienced in the palace. And then comes one day when the father says: "Now he must go out, how long shall we keep him in captivity?"

The first day when he goes out he looks around and says: "What is this?" They said: "He is a blind man, he cannot see."

"And what is this." "It is a poverty-stricken man, he has no money."

 

 

CONTENTS

1. SUFISM NOT PACIFISM

 
 

      Very often the Sufi Message, in its form of beneficence is taken to be what they call in these days pacifism, and those who are unfavourable to the idea of pacifism explain it as being "Peace at any price". Sufism does not teach that. Sufism does not mean goodness, kindness, or piety; Sufism means wisdom. All things in life are materials for wisdom to work with, and wisdom cannot be restricted to any principles.  

      Among Sufis there have been great souls who were kings, or else in the position of beggars, saints, and workmen, commanders, generals, business men, statesmen, prophets; in all different walks of life the Sufis of different ages have practised Sufism. This shows that no one can point out with the finger, "This particular belief, or tenet, is a Sufi doctrine". There are two things, sound and notes.  Notes point out the degree of the sound, but sound is all notes, not any note in particular. So is Sufism: it is all beliefs and no belief in particular.  

      There is no action which the Sufi calls right or wrong, for every action can become right and can become wrong; it depends upon the use or abuse of the action, its fitness or unfitness. Right or wrong depends upon the attitude and situation, not the action. This naturally gives the Sufi tolerance towards another, and makes him ready to forgive another and unwilling to form an opinion about the action of another person. This attitude keeps the Sufi far removed from saying that peace is good or war is good. The Sufi will say, "War is good at the time of war, peace is good at the time of peace."  

      But then you will say that if all things are right in their proper place then Sufism has nothing to do in life. In answer to this I will say that there is one principle mission of Sufism, that is, to dig the ground under which the light of the soul becomes buried. The same is the teaching of Christ, who has said, that no one shall cover his light under a bushel, also, "Raise your light on high." The condition of the world to day is such that humanity has become abnormal in these days. Man is not only frightened at badness, but also at goodness; man does not dread only war, but also peace, man is not only tired of enmity, but also friendship; man does not only suspect his adversary today but even his own brother. It seems as if the mind of the world were not only tired but ill: it seems as if humanity had a nervous breakdown.   

      Man, individually or collectively, does not know his life's purpose or goal. The Sufi Message warns humanity to know life better and to achieve freedom in life, it warms man to accomplish what he considers good, just and desirable, and before every action, to note its consequences, by studying the situation, by judging his own attitude, by studying beforehand the method which one adopts to act in life. It is true that Sufism does not only guide those who are religious, mystical or visionary, but the Sufi message gives to the world the religion of the day, and that is to make one's life a religion, to turn one's occupation, one's profession into religion, to make one's ideal a religious ideal.  Sufism has as its object the uniting of life and religion, which so far seem to have been kept apart.  

      Think, when, once a week, a person will go to church and all the other days of the week he will devote to his business, how can he benefit by religion?  Therefore the teaching of Sufis is to make everyday life into a religion, that every action in life may have some spiritual fruit. The method for world reform which different institutions have adopted today is not the method of the Sufi movement. We think that if ill is contagious, good must be more so. The depth of every soul is good; every soul is searching for good, and by the effort of individuals who wish to do good in the world much can be done, even more than what a materialistic institution can do. No doubt for the general good there are political and commercial problems to be solved and little can be done in that direction before several difficult problems have been solved.  But that must not debar individuals from progress, for it is the individualistic progress through the spiritual path which alone can bring about the desired condition in the world. 
 
 

1. OUR WORK IN THE LINE OF BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD

 
 

      In working in the line of brotherhood our main object is to bring about a better understanding among the different classes, the followers of different religions, and people of different races and different nations. But by this we do not mean to mix them up. If this were our idea, it would have been quite a different thing. We want to let the farms of wheat be farms of wheat; on the farms where rice grows, let rice grow; where there are woods, let there be woods; where there are gardens, let there be gardens; all things are necessary.  

      Our ideas have not reached to the extreme of cooking all things in the same dish. We do not wish to stretch the fingers so as to make them all even, for their natural size is the proper size for them. Our imagination of equality has not yet reached that idea. Only our motive is that East and the West, the North and the South, instead of turning their backs to each other, may turn their faces to each other. We do not wish that all people in the world should be of the same religion or the same education or the same customs and manners; nor do we think that all classes must become one class,  which is impossible.  

      We wish that all classes may blend into each other and yet every individual may have his own individual expression in life; all nations may have their peculiarity, their individuality, but at the same time they may express good-will and friendly feelings toward one another; different races may have their own manners and their own ideas, but at the same time they may understand each other; that the followers of different religions may belong to their own religions, but at the same time may become tolerant to each other. Therefore our idea of brotherhood is not in any way extreme. The motive is not to change humanity, but to help humanity on towards its goal. People may belong to one church and they may fight with one another. It is just as well that they should belong to different churches, and yet understand each other and respect each other's religion, and tolerate one another. People may belong to one institution and disagree with one another.  Then what is the use of that institution? Therefore, it is not at all the mission of the Movement to make the whole humanity followers of one special movement, but to give to humanity what God has given us, and destined it, that we may serve His cause. 
 

1. OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM

 
 

      Optimism represents the spontaneous flow of love. Also optimism represents trust in love. This shows that it is love trusting love which is optimism. Pessimism comes from disappointment from a bad impression which is there of some hindrance in the path. Optimism gives a hopeful attitude in life, while by pessimism one sees darkness in one's path. No doubt sometimes pessimism shows conscientiousness, cleverness also, and pessimism also shows experience. But in point of fact can we be conscientious enough if we only thought what difficulties one had before one in one's life. It is trust which solves the problem.     

      Very often the wise have seen that cleverness does not reach far, it goes so far and then it stands; for cleverness is knowledge which belongs to earth, and as to experience, what is man's experience, one is only proud of one's experience until one has seen how vast is the world. In every line of work and thought, there is no moment of experience that is not needed, but the further man takes the experience the more he sees how little he knows. The psychological effect of optimism is such that it helps to bring success. For it is by the optimistic spirit that God has created the world. Therefore optimism comes from God and pessimism is born out of the heart of man.  

      What little experience of life man has, he learns this will not succeed, that will not go, this will not come right.  For the one who is optimistic, if it does not come right in the end, it does not matter, he will take his chance. And what is life? Life is an opportunity, and to the optimistic person this opportunity is a promise, and for the pessimistic person this opportunity is lost. It is not that the Creator makes man lose it, but it is himself who fails to seize the opportunity. Many in this world prolong their illness by giving way to pessimistic thought.  Mostly you will find that those who have suffered for many years from a certain illness, that illness becomes so real that its absence becomes unnatural.  

      They believe illness to be their nature, and its absence is something they know not, and in that way they keep in themselves that malady. Then there are pessimistic people who think misery is their part in life. They are born to be wretched, they cannot be anything else but unhappy. Heaven and earth is against them. They themselves are their misery, and pessimism belongs to them. Man's life depends upon what he concentrates upon. If man concentrates upon his misery, he must be miserable. If he has a certain habit which he does not approve, he thinks he is helpless before it, for it is his nature. Nothing is man's nature, except what he makes for himself.  

      As the whole nature is made by God, so the nature of each individual is made by himself. And as the Almighty has the power to change His nature, so the individual is capable of changing his nature if he only knew it. Among all the creatures of this world, man has the most right to be optimistic, for man represents on earth, God; God as Judge, as Creator and as Master of All His Creation. So is man Master of his life, master of his own affairs if he only knew it. A man with optimism will help another drowning in the sea of fear and disappointment; but on the contrary a pessimistic person if to him some one goes ill, or downhearted he will pull him down and make him sink to the depths with him. On the side of the one is Life, on the side of the other death.  

      One climbs to the top of the mountain the other descends to the depth of the earth. Is there any greater helper in sorrow or misfortune, when every situation in life seems dark than the spirit of optimism that knows that all will be right? Therefore it is no exaggeration if I say that the very spirit of God comes to man's rescue in the form of the optimistic spirit.  Friends, it does not matter how hard a situation in life may be, however great the difficulties, they all can be surmounted; but what matters is if one's own pessimistic spirit is weighing one down low when already a person has come to low waters. Death is preferable to being weighed down in misery by a pessimistic spirit. Therefore the greatest reward there can be in the world is the spirit of optimism, and the greatest punishment that can be given to man for his worst sin is pessimism. Verily the one who is hopeful in life, he will succeed.          

1. HARMONY

 
 

      It seems that that which makes beauty is harmony; beauty in itself has no meaning. A certain object which is called beautiful at a certain place and time is not beautiful at another place or at another time. And so it is with thought, speech and action. That which is called beautiful is only so at a certain time and condition, which makes it beautiful. Therefore if one could give a true definition of beauty it is harmony. Harmony is the combination of colours; harmony is the drawing of a design or line, that is called beauty. At the same time a word, a thought, a feeling, an  action that creates harmony, is productive of beauty.         

      Now the question is from where comes the tendency to harmony and from where comes the tendency to disharmony? The natural tendency of every soul is towards harmony and the tendency towards disharmony is an unnatural state of mind or affair. And the very fact that it is not natural makes it void of beauty. The psychology of man is such than man responds both to harmony and disharmony. He cannot help it, because naturally he is made so, mentally and physically he responds to all that comes to him, be it harmonious or inharmonious.        

      And the teaching of Christ, "resist not evil," is a hint not to respond to disharmony. For instance a word of kindness, of sympathy, an action of love and affection finds response, but at the same time a word of insult, an action of revolt or hatred, that creates response too, and that response creates more disharmony in the world. By giving way to disharmony one allows disharmony to multiply.  At this time when one sees in the world the greatest unrest and discomfort pervading all over, where does it come from? It seems that it is from the ignorance of this fact that disharmony creates disharmony, and will multiply disharmony.  

   

      A person has a natural tendency that if he sees he is insulted, he thinks the proper way of answering is to insult the other person still more. By this he gets a momentary satisfaction, to have given a good answer, but he does not know what he has done by his good answer. He has given response to that power which came from the other and these two powers, being negative and positive, create more disharmony.         

      "Resist not evil," does not mean receive evil onto yourself.  "Resist not evil," only means this: do not send back the disharmony that comes to you, just as the person playing tennis would send back the ball with his racket. But at the same time, it does not suggest that you should receive the ball with open hands. The tendency towards harmony may be likened to a rock in the sea and each wave comes with all force and yet the rock is still, stands, bears it all, letting the waves beat against it.  

      By fighting with disharmony one increases it, by not fighting it one does not give fuel to the fire which would rise for destruction and cause destruction. But no doubt, the wiser you become, the more difficulties you have to face in life, because every kind of disharmony will be directed toward you for the very reason that you will not fight it. But at the same time one must know with all that difficulty you have helped that disharmony which would have otherwise multiplied, to be destroyed. It is not without advantage, for every time you stand against disharmony, you increase your strength, although outwardly it may see a defeat. But one conscious of the increase of his power will never admit that it is a defeat. And as soon as the time is passed the person against whom one has stood firm will realize that it was his defeat.         

      Life in the world has a constantly jarring effect and the finer you become the more trying it becomes to you. And the time comes that when a person is sincere and good-willing, kind and sympathetic, the worse life becomes for him. But if he is discouraged in it he goes under. If he kept his courage then you find it was not disadvantageous in the end. Because his power will some day increase to that stage, to that degree that his presence, his word, his action will control the thoughts and feelings and actions of all.  

      For he will get that heavy rhythm, the rhythm that will make the rhythm of everybody else follow it.  This is the attribute which is called in the east the quality of the mastermind. But in order to stand firm against the disharmony that comes from without, one must first practise to stand firm against all that comes from within, from one's own self. For our soul itself is more difficult to control than the others. And when one is not able and one fails to control oneself, it is most difficult to stand against the disharmony without.         

      Now the question is what is it that causes disharmony within oneself? It is weakness. Physical weakness or mental weakness, but it is weakness. Very often therefore one finds that it is bodily illness that causes disharmony and disharmonious tendencies.  Besides there are many diseases of the mind which the scientist has not yet found. Today in the world there are two things. One thing is that a person who is too ill perhaps, is considered as an insane person, and then there are all other illnesses which are not counted at all. These people are counted among the sane people and as notice is not taken of the defects which are of the diseases of the mind, man never has a chance to notice them within himself. He is constantly finding fault with others. If he is in an office, if he is in a good position, if he is at home, everywhere he causes disharmony. Nobody knows, for to be treated as insane he must first be called insane.         

      The health of the mind is a question so little talked about in these days. In fact as there come more solicitors, more lawyers, more barristers, more courts and more judges, so there come more cases. Consequently prisons increase, and what is the outcome? After a person has gone to prison and comes back, he has forgotten where he was. He goes again in the same path. For the disease is not found out. In court a person is judged, but it is not found out psychologically, what causes him to do this.  One can find in these prisons thousands of people with whose minds there is something the matter. And if for a thousand years they were kept in prison, they would not improve. Nothing but injustice is awarded to them by putting them in prison. It is just like putting a person in prison because his body is ill.

      

      The cause of every discomfort and of every failure is disharmony. And what would be the most useful thing at the present moment in education is to give the sense of harmony, to develop it in children. It will not be so difficult as it appears to bring harmony to their notice. What is necessary is to point out to the youths the different aspects of harmony, in different aspects of life's affairs.         

      The work of the Sufi Message, a message which is of love, harmony and beauty, is to waken the consciousness of humanity to the true nature of love, harmony, and beauty. And the training which is given to those who become initiated in the inner cult is to cultivate these three things which are principle factors in human life. 
 

1. HAPPINESS

 
 

      Does happiness depend upon the condition in life or upon an outlook on life? It is a question which is very often asked and it is most difficult to answer. Many with philosophical knowledge will say, this material world is an illusion and its condition a dream, but yet there are very few who can make themselves believe it. To know a thing in theory is different from practising it. It is most difficult in this world to rise above the effect that conditions produce. No doubt to rise above conditions there is only one thing that helps and that is a change of outlook on life and this change is made practical by the change of attitude.  

      In the language of the Hindus life in the world is called samsara. It is pictured as life in a mist. One thinks and says and does and feels and yet does not know fully why. If a person knows one reason for it, there is another reason hidden behind which he does not yet know. Very often conditions in life show a picture of captivity, often it seems as if one had to walk between the water and a pit, and to rise above conditions one needs wings, which not everybody has. The wings are attached to the will, one is independence the other is indifference. Independence needs a great deal of sacrifice in one's life before one can feel independent in life. Indifference against one's nature of love and sympathy is like cutting one's heart asunder before one can practise indifference through life. No doubt once the will is able to spread its wings then one sees the conditions of life far removed, one stands above all conditions that make man captive. There is no difficulty which cannot be surmounted sooner or later, but even if one has achieved something one desires in life, there is something else in life that seems to be unfinished and so if one went from one thing to another achieving all he desires, the object of his desire will multiply and there will never be an end to one's desire.  

      The more one has to do in life the more difficulties he has to meet with. If one keeps away from the life of the world then his being here is purposeless. The more important the task the more difficult to accomplish it. And so every evening follows the day and goes on till eternity. For a Sufi, therefore, it is not only the patience to bear all things but to see all things from a certain point of view that can relieve him for that moment from difficulty and pain. Very often it is the outlook on life which changes the whole life for a person. It can turn hell into heaven; it can turn sorrow into joy. When a person looks from a certain point of view, every little pinprick feels like the point of a sword piercing through one's heart. If one looks at the same thing from a different point of view the heart becomes sting-proof, nothing can touch it, all things which are thrown at that person as bullets drop down without having touched him.

       

      What is the meaning of walking upon the water? Life is symbolical of water. There is one who becomes drowned in the water, there is another who swims in the water, but there is another who walks upon it. The one that is so sensitive that after having one little pinprick he is unhappy all through the day and the night is the man of the first category. The one who takes and gives back and makes a game of life is the swimmer. He does not mind if he received one knock, for he derives his satisfaction from being able to give two knocks in return. But the one whom nothing can touch is in the world and yet is above the world. He is the one who walks on water. The life is under his feet, its joy and sorrow both. Verily independence and indifference are two things which enable the soul to fly. 
 
 
 

1. THE MISSION OF SUFISM TO THE WORLD

 
 

      The Sufi Movement has two missions to perform in the world, one as a duty to individuals searching after the truth, the next duty, to bring about a better understanding among people. Therefore these two missions depend on each other for their fulfilment. Without the progress of individuals the progress of humanity is difficult, without the progress of humanity in general the progress of the individual is also difficult. The Sufi movement is not political, because beyond the political to a Sufi there exists the mystical idea. In all ages in the past the spiritual message was given by the prophet, for the words of God came to humanity through the mediumship of a mystic. When the law has fallen in the hands of worldly intellectual people it will always prove imperfect. It wants seeing further than the average eye to see the actual condition of life, which those interested in life cannot see, for they cannot help being partial when there is a question of their own interest.  

      The principal thing that the Sufi message has brought to the world is tolerance for all faiths existing in the different parts of the world, followed by different people. This can be done by giving the idea of that one truth which stands as the stem of religion, and all different faiths as its branches. The true religion to a Sufi is the sea of truth and all the different faiths are as its waves. The message of God from time to time comes as tides in the sea, but what remains always is the sea, the truth. Those who consider another on the wrong track they themselves are also not on the right track, for the one who is on the right track finds every road leading to the same goal sooner or later. The Sufi mission does not make converts to a certain faith to the exclusion of all faiths. A convert to the Sufi orders means a convert to all faiths in this world and is bound by no particular faith. Faith to a Sufi is a free ideal, not a captivity.  

      The Sufi mission looks upon the whole humanity as one body, all races different parts of that body, all nations its organs, the people the particles which make this body and the spirit of this body, God. As the health and happiness of the body depends on each of its particles being in good condition so the happiness and peace of the whole world and the people therein depend on the condition of one another. The Sufi mission does not invite people to believe in superstitions, to take an interest in wonderworking or to increase power or to investigate phenomena. Its main object is the same which Christ has taught: love your neighbour. To individuals the Sufi mission has a different duty.  

      The Murshid as a physician, first treats the mureed, in order to make him better able to realize where he is, what he is, what he wants to do, and how he must work to accomplish it. What is worthwhile and what is not worthwhile, Murshid explains to his mureed. It is not only study but it is exercise that Murshid gives now and again as a prescription for the mureed. But still more important is the contact of the Murshid. A moment's conversation with him is more helpful than a whole year's study of books in the library for Murshid is to kindle in the heart of the mureed the divine spirit which is man's heritage. There is no particular discipline nor a particular faith which is forced upon mureeds. Every mureed is free to think for himself. Murshid's whole idea is to liberate the soul of the seeker after truth. 
 

1. SUFISM

 
 

      The word Sufi comes from an Arabic word Saf which means a purifying process. All the tragedy of life comes from the absence of purity, and what does purity mean? To be pure means to be natural. To lack purity means to be far from being natural. Pure water with no substance such as sweet, sour or milk or anything else mixed. Sterilized water means water made purer, in other words, natural. Sufism, therefore, is the process, of making life natural. You may call this process a religion, a philosophy, a science or a mysticism, whatever you may. It is true that all the religious teachers who have come to this world from time to time, have brought this process of purification in the form of religion.  

      It is therefore that Christ has said, I have not brought you a new law, I have come to fulfil the law. It is not a new process; it is the same old process that the wise of all ages have given. If there is anything new given in it, it is the form in which it is put to suit a certain period of the world. Now in the present period of the world it is given in its present form. A person may think by spirituality it is meant that one must learn something which one did not know before, or one must become extraordinarily good, or must attain some unusual powers or must have experience of a supernatural kind; but none of these things does Sufism promise, although in the path of a Sufi nothing is too wonderful for him.  

      All that is said above and even more is within his reach. Yet that is not the Sufi's aim. By this process of Sufism one realizes one's own nature. In a few words Sufism means to know one's true being, to know the purpose of one's life and to know how to accomplish that purpose. Many say, out of disappointment, "I shall perhaps never be successful in my life," not knowing the fact that man is born to do what he longs to do and success is natural, failure is unnatural. If man is himself, the whole world is his own, if he is not himself, then even his self does know what he is, where he is, why he is here on the earth; then he is less useful to himself and to others than a rock.  

      It is in self-realization that the mystery of the whole life is centred. It is the remedy of all maladies. It is a secret of success in all walks of life; it is a religion and more than a religion. And at this time when the world is upset this message conveys to the world the divine message. What is wrong with humanity today is that it is not itself and all the misery of the world is caused by this. Therefore nothing can answer the purpose of humanity save this process of sages and of the wise of all ages, which leads souls to self-realization.

                                                           
 
 

1. WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS TODAY

 
 

      The unrest which one finds throughout the world, the difficulties among nations, the hatred existing among people one for the other, a cry of misery which comes more or less from all sides, make one wonder what may be done to find a solution for the general cry of humanity? What is done today is that the different institutions try to extinguish the fire burning here and there, but that can never solve the problem of the world. 

    

      The first thing that should be remembered is that all activities of life are connected with one another, and if one thing is put in order another goes wrong. It is just like a person who is ill, who needs sleep and good diet; if he has sleep without good diet it will not do him good, nor will a good diet without sleep help him. While wanting to straighten up commercial difficulties political problems creep up, while considering the social question moral difficulties manifest to view.  

      Therefore in wanting to serve humanity in the work of reconstruction, which is the duty and responsibility of every sensible soul, whatever be his rank or position or qualification in life, first the question must be studied what will be the remedy for all the maladies that manifest on the surface of life today? There is one principal thing and that is the changing of the attitude of humanity, which alone can help in all directions of life. And the attitude can be changed by moral, spiritual and religious advancement. The work that the Sufi Message has to accomplish is in this particular direction. The Sufi message is no new religion, nor is it a particular system, but it is a method of changing the attitude in life, which enables man to have another outlook on life.        

      The chief thing that the Sufi Movement will try to avoid is sectarianism, which has divided man in all ages of the world's history. The Sufi Message is not opposed to any religion, faith or belief; on the other hand it is a support of all religions; it is a defence for religions which are attacked by the followers of other religions. At the same time the Sufi Movement provides humanity with the religion which is in reality all religions. The Sufi Movement is not supposed to take the whole humanity in its arms, but in the service of the whole humanity is the fulfilment of the Sufi Mission. The Sufi Movement therefore does not stand as a barrier between its members and its own religious faith, but as an open door leading to the heart of his faith. The member of the movement is a messenger of the divine message to the followers of the church or the sect to which he belongs. 

      The work of the Sufi Movement is not to collect all the rainwater in its own tanks, but to work and make a way for the stream of the message to flow, supplying water to the fields of the world. The work of the Sufi mission is sowing; reaping we shall leave to humanity to do for the fields do not belong to our particular movement; and all the fields belong to God. We who are employed on this farm of the world, to do the work, we must do, and leave the rest to God. Success we do not trouble about, and those who strive for it, let them seek in some other directions. Truth alone is our success, for lasting success is truth. 

1. DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

 
 

      There are two different points of view open to one, in all things in the world, liberal and conservative. And each of these points of view gives a person a sense of satisfaction because in both there is a certain amount of virtue. When someone looks from the conservative point of view at his family he becomes conscious of family pride and acts in every way so as to keep up the honour and dignity of his ancestors. He follows the chivalry of his forefathers and by looking at the family from this point of view he defends and protects those who belong to his family, whether worthy or unworthy. In this way he helps to keep up a flame which has been lighted perhaps for years, by holding it in his hand through life as a torch to guide his way. 

      When one looks at one's nation from a conservative point of view it gives one the feeling of patriotism, which today is the substitute of religion in the modern world. It is no doubt a virtue in this way that one begins to consider one's whole nation as one family. It is not for one's own children only that one cares but also for the children of the nation. Man gives his life when occasion arises to defend his nation - the dignity, the honour, the freedom of his people. 

      The conservative spirit is the individualizing spirit, which is the central theme of the whole creation. It is this spirit which has functioned as the sun, but for this it was the all pervading light and it is the power of this spirit working in nature which keeps many branches together - one stem and several leaves together on one branch. It is again this spirit working man's body which keeps man's hands and feet together, thus keeping him an individual entity. 

      But there is always a danger of this spirit, if increased, producing congestion. When there is too much family pride man lives only in his pride, forgetting his duty toward mankind and not recognizing anything which unites him with others beyond the limited circle of his family. When this congestion is produced in a nation it results in all kinds of disasters, such as wars and revolutions with violence and destruction. The nightmare that humanity has recently experienced has been the outcome of world congestion produced by the extreme of the same spirit. 

      This shows that it is not true that virtue is one thing and sin another. It is the same thing which was once virtue that becomes sin. Virtue or sin is not any action, it is the condition, it is the attitude which prompts one to a certain action and it is the outcome of an action which makes it a sin or a virtue. Life is movement, death is the stopping of the movement; congestion stops it, circulation moves it. The conservative spirit is useful so far as it is moving, in other words as it is broadening itself. If a person who once was proud of his family, after doing his duty to his people, he takes his next step to help his fellow-citizens, and the third step of defending his nation, he is progressing onward. His family pride, his patriotism, is no doubt a virtue, for it leads him from one thing to another which is better than the former. 

      Congestion comes when a person is set in his interest. If one's family makes anyone so absorbed in its pride and interest that nobody else exists in the world to him except his own, or when a person thinks of his people alone and nothing else interests him - others do not exist for him - in that case his patriotism becomes a veil over his eyes, making him blind so as not to be able to serve others nor yet his own. In selfishness there is an illusion of profit, but in the end the profit attained by selfishness proves to be worthless. Life is the principal thing to consider, and true life is the inner life, the realization of God, the consciousness of one's spirit. When the human heart becomes conscious of God it turns in the sea and it spreads - extends the waves of its love to friend and foe - spreading further and further, it attains perfection. 

      The Sufi Message is not necessarily the message of Pacifism, it does not teach making peace at any cost and at every cost, it does not condemn family pride or patriotism, it does not even preach against war. The Message is to make man conscious of the words in the Bible, where it is said, "We live and move and have our being in God", to realize this and recognize the brotherhood of humanity in the realization of God. And the natural consequences of this will bring about the spirit of brotherhood and equality and will result in preparing the outer democracy and inner aristocracy which is in the nobility of the soul, where perfection is hidden under the supremacy of God. 
 

1. THE JOURNEY TO THE GOAL

 

      There are two different stages in the human evolution. And these two different stages may very well be called the minor and the major stage. In the Hindu Puranic symbology these two characters are called the younger and the elder brother. Just as there is a stage of childhood, when the child only knows what it wants, and is only happy when it gets it, no matter what may be the consequence, the stage of that minor state of the soul is when man in reality desires only what he can see, hear, perceive, touch - beyond that he does not care - only that is desirable to him - he does not wish for anything else. 

      And the major state is that, when man has experienced life more or less, has known pleasure and pain, enthusiasm and disappointment, and he knows the variability of life, only then has he reached the stage of majority. Minor or major do not depend upon a certain age, nor do they depend upon a particular education. No, they depend upon the inner life. When one has gone into life as far as he could go and when he has passed the limit of the minor state, then he arrives at the major state. In the East there is a custom that has become a kind of religious etiquette, viz. not to wake a person who is asleep, but to let him sleep well; if this is not done it is considered a crime. In other words, you must treat the world according to nature and not to go against nature. Do not force the man in the minor state into the major; he must first sleep well before he can awake. 

      Now about progress specially for the spiritual path. There are two different characters on the spiritual path. The first is the man who says; "Yes, I like to go on this path, but where shall I arrive?" He wants to know all about it before he travels on this path; if his friends are going with him, and if they are not, he is not ready to go either, because he is no sure of the way; he will not go alone and wants to know when and where he will arrive, and if it is safe to journey on that particular path. When he travels on the path he looks back and tries to look forward, asking, "Shall I reach the goal? Is it really the right path?" A thousand times doubt comes, fear comes, he looks back, forward, around; if others could only tell him how far he has journeyed; he is restless, he wants to know how far he is from the goal. He therefore is a child still, although he has a desire to journey. For him there are toys, the mystical hints for mental research keep him busy that he may look at the map of the journey to see where he goes.       

      Now to come to the conditions of the major state. About his character the Bible says: "Unless the soul be born again, it cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." In the first place, if I were to say what the journey is and its object, it would be this, that the whole creation was purposed for this journey, and if it were not for this purpose there would be no creation at all. And before a person takes this journey, he practises it in some form or other, in play, how he will make this, but he has not yet started in reality.  

      For instance, a person desires to be rich, and he devotes all his time, his energy, his life, his thoughts to that object, and, so to speak, he journeys to that goal. If he desires power, he makes for that and gets it. If he wants position, he uses all his strength to reach his goal, naturally in a playing way. The proof of that is that every activity of which he is in pursuit, to attain the thing desired, brings him to the desire for something else. If he is rich, he wants to be famous; if he is famous, he wants something else; if he has one thing he strives for another and is never satisfied. 

      It shows that man, externally busy in the pursuit of worldly things, is not satisfied in his soul, but that he has a constant yearning in his soul for something more, which keeps him uneasy. A very good explanation is that which Rumi, a great Sufi Teacher of Persia, gives us in his book, the Masnavi. There he says, "What is it in the reed flute that appeals to your soul, that goes through you and pierces your heart?" And the answer is: it is the crying of the flute, and the reason for its crying is that it once belonged to a plant, from which it was cut apart. Holes were made in the heart. It longs to be united with its source, its origin. And so the soul feels a longing for its origin. In another place in his book Rumi says; "So it is with every person who has left his original country for a long time. He may roam about and feel very pleased with all he sees, but there will come a moment when a strong yearning is in his heart for the place where he was born." 

      One sees that those in the world who have really suffered, who have been disappointed, are broken hearted, do not wish to tell anybody their experiences, don't want any company, but wish to be alone. And it is then, as if there was some one waiting with open arms, waiting for that soul to come as a child comes to its mother. This shows that there is somewhere a consoler, greater than any in the world, a friend dearer than anyone in the world, a protector stronger than any earthly one. Knowing that the world is not to be depended upon, he looks for that great one in himself. 

      A friend who is a friend in life and after death, in pleasure and pain, in riches and poverty, one on whom you can always depend, who always guides aright, who gives the best advice, that friend is hidden in your own heart. You cannot find a better one. Who is this friend? Man's own being, his true, inner being. That friend is the origin, source, and goal of all. But the question arises, if that friend is one's own being, why then call him a friend, why not call him oneself? The answer is that no doubt, in this friend is really one's own being, but, when comparing the present realization with the greater self, one finds oneself smaller than a drop in the ocean. Man cannot very well call that friend himself, until man has forgotten himself, until he is no more himself. Until, and unless one has arrived at the state of perfection, he had better be quiet than insolent about that which he has not yet become. 

      All occult schools all over the world prescribe as the first lesson, quietude: no discussion, no dispute, nor argument. The conditions for those on the path are altogether different from those of the outer world. The true knowers of life have kept their lips closed about that subject. No method has been successful and profitable other than the method of the prophets of all lands, who give man the first lesson of love for God. Of course, religious authorities of different times have kept humanity ignorant of the knowledge of God, and only given it the belief in God. 

      Absence of knowledge has made the man of reason rebel against that which he could not understand. There remained no link between the two, and that is how the reign of materialism came to the world, a reign which is still spreading around. In such times of materialism there comes chaos in the world; all is confusion, unrest. All wish to do good, but don't know how. Such times Sri Krishna has called the decay of Dharma, when spirit has gone, and form only remains. No doubt, warning comes in time as intuition, to the soul, but the intoxication of life, the mist, is so great, that the message is not heard, not understood, not received until the messenger has disappeared. 

      Now coming to the journey: What are the manner and the method of it? We see that when a person rises above all things of the world, as power, wealth, possessions, all that gives pride and vanity, there comes a desire in his heart, a remembrance of his origin, of the perfection of love and peace. No one in the world can pretend to have arrived at this stage, because every moment of his life speaks louder of what he really is than what he says. His first tendency towards humanity is a loving attitude, a charitable attitude, to such an extent that forgiveness leads every action of his life. He shows patience in his actions, tolerance to humanity and considers that each one has his own stage of evolution. He cannot expect a person to act in a way better than his point of evolution permits. He does not make his own law and want others to follow it; he follows the law for all. 

      When a man's attitude is a loving attitude, a tendency to serve, to forgive, to tolerate, a reverence for all (good and bad, young and old) then he begins his journey. To explain what path this is: there is no better symbol for it than the path of the cross. No one without courage, without strength of will, and without patience, can go this path. When a person has to live among people of all natures, he must make his own character soft as a rose; make it finer, so that no one can be hurt by the thorns. Two thorns cannot harm each other. The thorns can hurt the rose, but the rose cannot tear the thorns. The journey begins with a path of thorns, and he must go barefoot. It is not easy to be tolerant, always to be patient, to refrain from judging others and to love one's enemy. 

      It is a dead man who walks on this path: one who has drunk the bowl of poison. The beginning of each path is always difficult and uninteresting, hard for everybody. Ask the violinist, the first days when he practises the scales and he cannot even form the tones: often he has not patience enough to go on, till he can play so well that he is satisfied. The first part of the path is permanent strife, a struggle with life, but as one approaches the goal, the path gets easier: the distance seems larger, but the path is easier, the difficulties less. The journey is achieved first by realizing in oneself: what am I, am I body, mind, or what else am I? Do I originate from earth or from where else? 

      As soon as one has started on the journey, one's lower nature rises up, all his follies and weaknesses want to drag one down to earth and the struggle of breaking these chains requires the strength of Samson. Then comes the struggle between beauty in matter and spiritual beauty. Beauty in forms is more realistic: spiritual beauty is hidden in mist, until one comes to a stage that spiritual beauty becomes the beauty which is a shining light. 

      Another struggle is that when man has acquired knowledge, power, magnetism: he is conscious of having a greater power than others, of knowing more than others, of being able to do more than others. To use those faculties rightly is another struggle. He must not pride himself on those accomplishments. There is an enemy who starts with him on the journey, and never leaves him: his pride and spiritual egotism. It stays with him as long as he is on his path. Think of the temptation on having received inspiration and power, when one can think: I can do, know, understand more than you. That is a constant struggle till the end, and every moment one falls and tumbles down.  

      Only the steady traveller will persist in rising up every time, as without patience he may lose the path. Those who journey on this path will get help. As Christ said: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all things will be given to you." The goal is the important thing, and the right attitude of the soul towards it, and not the things you meet on the path. The inner cult of the Sufi School which is now presented to the Western world is meant as a guidance on this path. Nobody in the world can carry a person on this path. The only thing is a little advice can be given by those who have journeyed on the path, to those who really wish to travel on it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. WORLD RECONSTRUCTION (1)

 
 

      Especially after the war and the pain that the world has experienced, people are beginning to think on the subject of reconstruction. But no doubt every mentality, and in this way the ideas about reconstruction of the world differ very much. Considering the condition of the world as it is today, in the first place when one thinks of the financial condition, which is most essential for order and peace, it is so confused and has become so difficult to solve that it seems that there are many with their intellect and brain and understanding, helpless before this most difficult problem. No doubt there are many who will tell us that there is no other remedy for the betterment of humanity than the solution of the financial problem.  

      But at the same time it seems that the financial problem is becoming everyday more and more difficult and bringing nations and races and communities to a greater and greater destruction, and before this problem is solved it is no wonder if a great deal of damage is done to nations. And although intoxicated by the absorption in his own problem of life, man does not think enough about these things; nevertheless in the end the world in general will realize the weakness, the feebleness, caused by this disorder and unbalanced condition of the financial problem of the world.  

      As long as nations and people profit by the loss of other nations and people, for the moment they may think that they are benefited, but in the end all will realize that we human beings, as individuals or as a multitude, all depend upon one another. For instance, if for the cause of one part of one's body the other part suffers, in the end it will prove an unbalanced condition, a lack of health in the physical body. What does health mean? Health means all the organs of the body in good condition, and so the health of the world means all nations, all people in a good condition. 

      When one leaves this financial condition and comes to the problem of education, in spite of all the progress that has been made in the educational world, no-one with thought can refuse to consider the little child, what is his age, what is his strength and what work is given him to accomplish. It seems that in the enthusiasm of making education richer and richer, a kind of load has been put on the mind of the children and what happens? It is like a dish which was meant to be ready after half an hour's cooking, made ready in five minutes time. What has happened? It is perhaps burnt; it wanted a longer time. The child knows too much for his age, what he does not require, what he does not value, what is a load to him, what is forced upon his mind.  

      And how few of us stop to think of this question that childhood is a kingliness in itself.  It is a gift from above that the child is growing and, during the time of his growth, that he is unaware of the woes and worries and anxieties of life. These are only days for experiencing the kingliness of life, the days when he should play, when he should be nearer nature, when he should grasp what nature gradually teaches. Imagine then that the childhood is devoted to study, study of the material knowledge. And as soon as the child has grown into the youth, the burden of life is put on his shoulders, the burden of life which is becoming everyday heavier and heavier for the rich and poor; and the result of this is that there are parties, there is disagreement between labour and capital, the life full of struggle to which the child opens his eyes and he has never the time to be one with nature, or to dive deep within himself, or to think beyond this life in the crowd. 

      When we leave the problem of education and come to the problem of nations one becomes still more perplexed. The enmity, hatred and prejudice which exist between nations and nations, and the antagonism and the utter selfishness which is the central theme of communications and connections between nations, that shows that the world is turning from bad to worse and unrest seems to be all pervading. There seems to be no trust between nations, no sympathy, except their own interest. And what is the outcome of it? Its impression falls as a shadow upon the individuals, turning the individuals also to that egoism, that selfishness. And the only thing in the world which was meant to be a refuge was religion. But at the present moment, with the increase of ever-growing materialism and overwhelming commercialism, the religion seems to be fading away. A silent indifference towards religion seems to be increasing, especially in the countries foremost in civilization today. That being the condition, where could man find the solution of the problem of the day? 
 
 

1. WORLD RECONSTRUCTION (2)

 

      Now looking at the question from a philosophical point of view. What is construction, what is reconstruction? A construction is that which is made already. A child born is a construction. But after a disorder in the health or in mind, there comes again a need of reconstruction. In the English language there is an expression: "To pull oneself together." The reconstruction of the world today means for the world to pull itself together. The education, the political, the social condition, the financial condition, religion, all those things which made civilization, seem to have scattered and in order for these things to come together there must be a secret of life to be studied. What is the secret of healing power? The secret is to make oneself strong enough to pull oneself together. And that is the secret of the life of the mystic. The world has lost its health, and when one can picture the world as an individual, one can see what it is to lose one's health. It is just like illness in the life of an individual. And as for every illness there is a remedy, so for every disaster there is a reconstruction. 

      But now there are different ideas that people have. There is the pessimist, he says, "Well, if the world has got to this state of destruction, who can help it, how can it be helped?" It is like an ill person who says, "Well, I have been so ill, I have suffered so much, I do not care. How can I be well now? It is almost too late." In that way he holds his disease and he keeps it, he cherishes it, although he does not like it. And then there is a curious person, who is very much astonished to see the newspaper and see that this money has gone up and that money has gone down, and to see that there is the probability of a war, there may be another war, and he will excite his friends about it.  

      Then there is another person who says, "Some committees must be formed, there must be some societies, some leagues, some congresses must be formed, we must do something definite." And in this way there are now so many societies and congresses formed and discussing, and so many more meetings, so many more discussions. But there seems to be no end to the discussions and disputes in order to find out the ways and means how the condition must be bettered. 

      I do not mean to say that any effort in whatever form made towards the reconstruction or towards the betterment of conditions is not worth while, however small. But what is most needed for us is to understand that religion of religions and that philosophy of philosophies which is self-knowledge. We shall not understand the life outside if we do not understand ourselves. It is the knowledge of the self that gives the knowledge of the world. The politician, the statesman, however qualified, will dispute about things for years and years, he will never come to a satisfactory conclusion unless he understands the psychology of life and the psychology of the situation. And so the educationist will try a new scheme and will never come to a satisfactory conclusion, unless he has the psychological knowledge of life, which will teach him the psychology of human nature, what is the manner to solve the problem. 

       What is today called psychology is not what I mean. It do not mean by the word psychology what they call psychoanalysis. I call psychology the understanding of the self, the understanding of the nature and character of the mind and the body. Friends, what is health? Health is order. And what is order? Order is music. Where there is harmony, rhythm, regularity, cooperation, there is harmony, there is sympathy. The health of mind, therefore, and the health of body depend upon the preserving of that harmony, upon keeping intact that sympathy which is going on in mind and body.  

      And remember that life in the world, and especially as we live it amidst the crowd, will test and try our patience every moment of the day, and it will be most difficult to preserve that harmony and peace which is all happiness. For what is the definition of life? Life means struggle with friends and battle with foes. It is all the time giving and taking, and it is most difficult in this to keep the sympathy, to keep the harmony which is health and happiness. 

      Now you will ask, "Where are we to learn it?" My friends, all education and learning and knowledge are acquired, but this one art is a divine art, and man has inherited it. But, absorbed in the outer learning, he has forgotten it, but it is an art which is known to the soul, but it is his own being, it is the deepest knowledge that he has in his heart. No progress in whatever line that man will make will give him that satisfaction which his soul is craving for, except this one, which is the art of life, the art of being, which is the pursuit of the soul.

      In order to serve the reconstruction of the world the only thing possible and the only thing necessary is to learn the art of being, the art of life for oneself and to be an example oneself, before trying to serve humanity. 

      What is the Sufi Movement? What is Sufism? It is that art of which I have just spoken, the art by which that music and symphony of life can be preserved, and by that man can enable himself to become the proper servant of God and humanity. 
 
 

1. BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD  (1)

 
 

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

      Coming to the religions which have been given to the world, for instance, when we read in the bible the words of Jesus Christ, what do we read? "Love your fellow man, love your neighbour," from the beginning to the end. If there is any moral that the master taught and repeated constantly, it was this moral, the moral of brotherhood. The different religions which exist in the world, the followers of which are perhaps millions and millions, if one studies what is the central theme of it all, it is the one and same: Brotherhood, love one another, serve one another, be sincere one to the other. 

       But as man is more capable of loving his friend, so he is more capable of hating his neighbour. The first tendency of brotherhood, of love, brings him satisfaction and happiness to the other. The other tendency of hating his brother brings him dissatisfaction, and unhappiness to the other. Brotherhood therefore is creative of happiness, and the spirit which is contrary to it, is productive of sorrow. When we read the scriptures of the great religions in this world, be it the Bible or Kabala, or Koran, Gita, or the Buddhist scriptures, in some form or the other in the manner best suited to the people to whom the religion was given, it was the same moral, the same symphony, it was the same music which was performed before them.     The great teachers of the world, were they especially engaged in giving the mystical or occult teachings to the world? Or were they engaged in discussing philosophical problems? Not at all, though they were mystics, they knew philosophy, they knew occultism. But that was not the principle thing they came to give. If ever they have done anything, or given to the world anything, it was that simple philosophy which is never new to anyone. Even a child knows, love one another, be kind, be sincere, be serviceable to one another. 

       And one might ask, "When it is a simple thing, and so simple that even a child knows it, what necessity is there that the great ones, the Godly souls have come and taught it?" It is most simple and yet most difficult to live, and man does not accept anything from someone who does not live it. And if he accepts it, he will not hold it for long. Therefore they came with love from above the world, and lived that simple moral, that simple philosophy of brotherhood. A Mongol emperor of Hindustan who was a great poet - -in history we read his name, Ghasnavi writes, "Born in a palace, and having reigned from the first day I came to earth, I saw nothing but thousands and thousands of people bowing before me. But the day in my life when I learned the first lesson in love, my proud head bent and bowed before every slave that I saw standing before me in attendance; and those who were standing before me as servants, I then felt that I was their slave." What does it show? It shows that coldness of heart hardens one's feelings and closes one's eyes from the light which shows the path of brotherhood. 

       There are many relations, there are many connections in this world, by blood and by law also. But the great relationship is friendship, which is called brotherhood. Brotherhood means perfect friendship.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. BROTHERHOOD/SISTERHOOD  (2)

 
 

      But now comes the question how this simple principle of brotherhood may be lived, how may it be practised. It is most difficult to teach this principle to anyone. The best way of teaching it, is living it oneself. Parents, either father or mother, who show to their children, besides fatherly love and motherly tenderness, that brotherhood, that feeling of a brother with his brothers, in this they can express themselves best to their children, and in this way the children are able to express their best to their parents. A father may be most kind, a mother most loving, but as long as he or she maintains the attitude of holding himself or herself as father, as mother; something different from the children, the children will grow to love them, but will never look upon them as friends.  

      They will look for friends elsewhere, because there is no brotherhood. And when we come to the teacher, a teacher may be respected by his pupils, he may bear great dignity before his pupils, but at the same time there cannot be established that communication of inspiration and love, of sympathy, of understanding till he has practised with his pupils that manner of brotherhood. When the soldiers, millions of them, gave their lives for the great kings and generals, it was not for the general, it was for the brother. No king, no general, no commander, whatever be his honour and his position, has been able to win the hearts of those who followed him - never. 

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

       To think, friends, about the condition that humanity has passed through during the last few years and what result has been achieved from all the prejudices and disagreement and disharmony which has come up between nations and between people, and it seems that even now it is not lessening, the world seems to be going from bad to worse--the suffering in every way caused to humanity, it seems has not yet ended! No doubt life in the world is so intoxicating that man hardly stops to think about it, and the life such as it is just now has so many responsibilities that everyone, rich or poor, is so absorbed in his affairs that he hardly has a moment to think what is going on in the world. Nevertheless illness is illness, the world is ill. Yes, a person may neglect his illness and may engage his mind in something else, but if that illness is not attended to, it remains just the same. And when we look for the cause of all this disaster we may be able to find a thousand causes, and yet there is one principle cause, which is the lack of brotherhood. 

       And the absence of anything one could have endured, but the world cannot be happy, and the order and peace of humanity maintained in the absence of brotherhood. The brotherhood which can be learned and that every person has the facility of learning in his life. Think of that master who is kind and who is loving to his servant, who considers his servant his brother, he is blessed. Think of that family, a family in which two members, or three members, or four, or five members, whatever be their relation, that they consider that idea of brotherhood in sharing with one another the pain and pleasure, how happy, how blessed that family will be! Think of a nation, whatever its government, whatever be its constitution, if there was this spirit of brotherhood between the people of different position, of different ranks or occupation, how blessed that nation would be! From where does injustice come, from where unfairness? It all comes from the lack of brotherhood. Think of that condition today, the courts full of cases, the prisons full of prisoners! How many disagreements between people, disharmony between nations, all that is caused by the lack of brotherhood. 

       Now when we consider that question from a still deeper point of view, we shall find that in the spirit of brotherhood there is the way of illumination. A man who lives by a great principle, or prays all day, or meditates in the caves of the mountains, if he does not show the spirit of brotherhood, he is no good to himself or others. Because brotherhood is the way to develop spiritually. It is not exclusiveness, it is not running away from the world, which is the way of the real spiritual ones. It is to consider one's obligations, it is to keep by one's word, one's honour, it is to prove sincere in every little capacity in which one may be working, faithful to friends, and true before everyone. Those are the merits which develop by themselves when the spirit of brotherhood has become mature in man. 

       But when we come to the metaphysical point of view we see that element attracts element. For instance, two streams of water will be attracted to one another. There will come a time when they will join together, but there will be efforts made by both to come together. Fire, starting from two ends of a certain line will be attracted, each to the other flame which is coming from the opposite end, and will meet and will become one. And so an artist is attracted to an artist, thinker to thinker, a scientist to a scientist, and the man of action to the man of action. It is not that they are attracted because there is the same element in them. No, no. It is because there is a comfort, there is a happiness there in being attracted by the same element. Think of the joy when two people of the same thought meet together. It is greater than a joy, greater than a satisfaction; it is that happiness which is promised in heaven.     

      But behind all this world of various names and forms there is one life, there is one spirit. That spirit which is the soul of all beings. That spirit is attracted towards unity. It is the absence of that spirit which keeps it unhappy. A person who has just had some unpleasantness with his brother or sister, to him food is tasteless, the night without sleep, the heart restless, the soul is under clouds. If one may ask, "What is the matter? What is closed before you?" He would give one answer if he knew, and that answer is, "That sunshine has been covered by clouds." What does it show? It shows that we live not necessarily on food. Our soul lives on love, the love that we receive, that we give and take. The absence of this is our unhappiness, and the presence of it is everything that we need. Nothing in the world is a greater healing power, that is a greater remedy, a greater happiness, than to be conscious of brotherhood and be able to give that feeling to one's child, master, neighbour, friend! 

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

1. THE PROBLEM OF THE DAY: HOME AND REFORM

 
 

      There has been a great upset in the world commencing from the time of the Reformation and culminating at the time of the war. It seems there is a continual unrest in every direction of life; in different departments of life there seems to be a great turmoil. In spite of all the progress which has been made in the last years, civilization seems not to have succeeded. The difficulty that there has been is the adjustment of the new idea, the idea of democracy to the foundation of aristocracy on which it was based. The outcome of the same is felt, now, after the war, more than ever before. There seems to be confusion and chaos rather than the understanding of living life to the best advantage. The reason is that the character of aristocracy and democracy is not understood by all men from the point of view of the mystic. And as long as the lack of understanding of this secret remains, a thousand democracies or aristocracies will always fail in the end. 

       When we study nature, we find the model of life made before us as a design to follow. The interdependence of the stars and planets, and how they are sustained in heaven by each other's magnetism. How the light of the sun functions in the moon and how the light of the sun is reflected by all the different planets, and at the same time, how the different planets differ in their light and character, and how every planet in the universe fulfils the scheme of nature. Call it aristocracy or call it democracy, there is a model of life that nature has produced before us. 

      The word aristocracy, very often, when not understood, becomes unpleasant to the ears of some. But the real aristocracy is not necessarily the picture of its abuse, its degeneration. And what is democracy? Democracy is the fulfilment of aristocracy; in other words, democracy means complete aristocracy. But when aristocracy has not been understood and democracy is sought after, then democracy is not understood fully, it is not complete. Man is born in this world ignorant of the kingdom which is within himself and to attain to that kingdom which is within him is the true aristocracy.  

      To recognize that kingdom in another person is aristocracy and to see the possibility of that kingdom in oneself and to try to fulfil that ideal in life is true democracy. Aristocracy means one king; democracy means all kings. But when a person does not know one king, he does not know all kings. What I mean by this is to understand that the object of life is not in revolt against someone who is more advanced than we and by this revolt to pull him down to one's own level; that is not democracy. Democracy is to see the possibility of advancing as the other; and trusting in that possibility, trying to advance to the same level, is the real democracy. 

      The question of the day must be studied by all sections of humanity and by all classes of humanity. It seems that, being absorbed in a more comfortable life, many have neglected their part in all different works of life, at home and outside, and there are certain different works of life, at home and outside, and there are certain classes who are unaware of certain works that life demands at home and in the world, and the time is coming and has come, when they meet with difficulties, because they find themselves more dependent on certain work which they have neglected in their lives, and they have always shown unwillingness to do certain things which seemed beneath their idea of dignity.  

      Now the time is coming when humanity is being upset and what has happened is that one class is going under the other class and the place of the one class is taken by the other class, and in this way, not more comfort, but chaos is being manifested.  And the way out of it would be to imitate some of the ideas of the old, and if they are not imitated, perhaps life will become settled in a certain way, but the home life will become a hotel life and there will no more be that joy and pleasure of experiencing what is called home life. The difficulties will bring about that situation before long when in every district there will be a kind of hotel arrangement and in that way that individualistic progress, culture and joy will become hampered. Man's individual choice will be sacrificed to the mechanism of living. 

      The method, of which I was saying, that it may be followed, is a method which was used in the ancient times by the Hindus, and even till now, some of the method exists. Among the community of Brahmans, the Brahman may be in a very high position and very rich, but he knows how to cook himself. The women in the household, in the home of a prime minister, attend to the kitchen themselves. There is nothing in the home which they do not like to do. They were trained in the ancient times to sew, to knit, to weave and to cook, keeping the house neat, decorating it, cleaning it, painting it, all these things were accomplished by every person. No one possessed a house who did not know at that time everything about taking care of the house, independently of the housekeeper. The perfection of life is perfecting oneself not only spiritually but in all different aspects of life. 

      The man who is not capable of attending to all life's needs is certainly ignorant of the true freedom of life. The more we shall study the problem of the day, the more we shall realize that it is the division of work, which is so distinctly made at the present time, that has made people helpless. What is most necessary today is to introduce in education the spirit of providing for oneself all that one needs and arranging for oneself all that is necessary in one's everyday life. The mechanical life today, though it shows a progress, yet is not a complete progress. Imagine a person being from morning to evening in a factory and making only needles. Perhaps he does this for twenty years and what does he know of life? Only how to make a needle. Perhaps the benefit goes to the head of the factory. But what benefit goes to this man who has perhaps all his life been making needles? 

      The secret ideal of life and its progress is to become self-sufficient; the key to the secret of democracy is self-sufficiency. No doubt it is a vast subject and difficult to explain in all its aspects in a few words, but at the same time, spiritual perfection is the second step and the one who has first made himself self-sufficient is entitled to the spiritual perfection in the end. 
 
 
 
 

1. THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING HUMAN  (1)

 
 

      Mankind is so absorbed in life's pleasures and pains that man hardly has a moment to think what privilege it is to be human. Life in the world contains, no doubt, more pain than pleasure and that which one considers as pleasure costs so much that when it is weighed against the pain that it costs, it also becomes pain, and as man is so absorbed in his worldly life he traces nothing but pain and complaint in life, and until he changes his outlook man cannot understand the privilege of being human. 

      Yet, however unhappy a person may be in life, if he were asked, "would you prefer to be a rock than a human being," his answer would be that he would rather suffer being a human being than be a rock. Whatever the condition of man's life, if he were asked, "would you rather be a tree than a man," he would choose rather to be a human being. And, although, the life of the birds and beasts is so free from care and troubles and so free in the forests, yet, if man were asked whether he would prefer to be one of them and be in the forest, he would surely prefer to be a man. This shows that when human life is compared with other different aspects of life then it shows its greatness and its privilege, but when it is not compared with other life then man is discontented and his eyes are closed to the privilege of being human. 

       Another thing is that man is mostly selfish and what interests him is that which concerns his own life, and not knowing the troubles of the lives of others, he feels the burden of his own life even more than the burden of the whole world. If one could only think in his poverty that there are others, who are poorer than he; in his illness that there are others whose sufferings are perhaps greater than his; in his troubles that there are others whose difficulties are perhaps greater than his. Self-pity is the worst poverty. It overwhelms man and he sees nothing but his own troubles and pains and it seems to him that he is the most unhappy person - more than anyone in the world. 

      There is a story of a great thinker of Persia, Sa'adi. He writes in the account of his life, "Once I had no shoes and I had to walk in the hot sand barefoot and I thought how very miserable I was; then I met a man who was lame, for whom to walk it was very difficult. I bowed down at once to Heaven and offered thanks that I was much better off than he, who had not even feet to walk upon." This shows that it is not the situation in life, but it is man's attitude toward life, that makes him happy or unhappy. And this attitude can even make such a difference between men that one in a palace would be unhappy and another in a humble cottage, could be very happy.  

      The difference is only in the horizon that one sees. There is one person who looks only at the condition of his life; there is another who looks at the lives of many people - it is the difference that the horizon makes. Besides this, it is the impulse that comes from within that has its influence on one's affairs. If there is an influence from within always working, if there is discontent and dissatisfaction in life, one finds its effect in one's affairs in life. For instance, a person impressed by an illness can never be cured by a physician or medicines. A person impressed by poverty will never get on in life. A person who thinks, everybody is against me and everybody troubles me and everybody has a poor opinion of me, wherever he goes will always find it so.  

      There are many people in the world, in business, in professions, who, before they go to their work, have as a first thought in their mind, "perhaps I shall not be successful." The masters of humanity, in whatever period they came to the world, always taught man to learn as his first lesson, faith; faith in success, faith in love, faith in kindness, and faith in God. And this faith cannot be developed unless man be self-confident. It is very essential that man should learn to trust another. If he does not trust anyone, life will be hard for him. If he doubts, if he suspects everyone he meets, then he will not trust the people nearest to him in the world, his closest relations, and it will soon develop to such a state of distrust that he will even distrust himself. But the trust of the one who trusts another and does not trust himself is profitless. Then, it is he who trusts another because he trusts himself who has the real trust, and by this trust in himself he can make his life happy in whatever condition he may be. 

         In the tradition of the Hindus, an idea is very well known, that of the tree of the fulfilment of desires. There is a story told in India that a man was told there was a tree of the fulfilment of desires, and he went in search of it. After going through the forests and across mountains, he arrived at last in a place, where, without knowing that the tree of the fulfilment of desires was there, he laid down and slept. And before he went to sleep he was so tired that he thought, "What a good thing it would be if I had just now a soft bed to rest upon and a beautiful house with a courtyard around it and a fountain and people waiting upon me!" With this thought he went to sleep. When he opened his eyes from sleep he saw that he was lying in a fountain and there were people waiting upon him. He was very much astonished, and he remembered that before going to sleep he had thought of all this. But then, as he went further in his journey, he thought on the subject and found, "The tree that I was looking for, it was under that tree that I slept and it was the miracle of the tree which was accomplished." 

        Now, friends, the interpretation of this legend is a philosophy in itself. It is man, himself, who is the tree of fulfilment of his desire and the root of this tree is in the heart of man. The trees and plants, with their fruit and flowers, and the beasts with their strength and power, and the birds with their wings, are unable to arrive to the stage that man can attain; it is for that that he is called man, which in Sanskrit means mind. The trees in the forest await, that blessing, that freedom, that liberation, in stillness, in quietude.  

      The mountains and the whole nature seem to await that unfoldment, the privilege of which is given to man. Therefore, the traditionalists say, that man is made in the image of God. You may call it this, that the most fitted instrument for the working of God is the human being. But from the mystical point of view, you may also say that the creator takes as his means of experiencing the whole creation, the heart of man. And that shows that no being on earth is more capable of happiness, of satisfaction, of joy, of peace, than man. And it is a pity when man is not aware of this privilege of being human, for every moment in life that he passes in this error of unawareness is a waste, and is to his greatest loss. 

1. THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING HUMAN  (2)

 
 

      But man's greatest privilege in life is to become a suitable instrument of God, and until he knows this he has not realized his true purpose in life. And the whole tragedy in the life of man is his ignorance of this fact. From the moment that man realizes this he lives the real life, the life of harmony between God and man. When Jesus Christ said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you," this teaching was in answer to the cry of humanity; one crying, "I have no wealth," and another, "life is difficult," another, "my friends are troubling me," another, "I want position, wealth." And the answer to all is, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you."   

      A person may ask, how, from a practical point of view, from a scientific point of view, can we understand this? The answer is, all that is external is not in direct connection with you, and is therefore unattainable in many cases. Therefore sometimes you can attain your wish, but many times you fail. But by seeking the kingdom of God you seek the centre of all that is within and without, and all that is in Heaven and on earth is directly connected with the centre, and therefore from the centre you are able to reach all that is on earth and in Heaven, but when you reach what is not at the centre all may be snatched away from you. 

       In the Koran it is written, "God is the light of the heavens and of the earth." Besides the desire to obtain the things of the earth there is that innermost desire unconsciously working at every moment of life, and that desire is to come in touch with the infinite. When a painter is painting, when a musician is singing or playing, if he thinks, "it is my playing, my painting, my music," perhaps he has a satisfaction, but it is like a drop in the ocean. But if he connects his painting, his music with the consciousness of God, if he thinks, "it is Thy painting, Thy music, not mine," then he connects himself with the centre, and his life becomes the life of God. 

      In life there is much that one can call good, and there is much to be contented with, and there is much that one can admire if one can only bring about that attitude, and it is that that can make man contented and make his life happy. Another thing is that God is the painter of all this beautiful creation, and if you do not connect yourself with the painter you cannot admire his painting. When one goes to the house of a friend whom one likes and admires, every little thing is so pleasant, but when one goes to the house of an enemy every thing is disagreeable. 

      Then your devotion, your love, your friendship for God can make this whole creation a source of happiness to you. In the house of a dear friend a loaf of bread, a glass of milk is most delicious and in the house of one we dislike all the best dishes are useless. As soon as one begins to realize that the many mansions of the house of the Father are this world with many religions, many races, many nations, which are yet the house of God, then, however humble and difficult the situation in life, it must become, sooner or later, happier and better, because we feel that we are in the house of the one we love, we admire, and all that we meet with we take with love and gratitude because it comes from the one whom we love. 

       Friends, if we can think for a moment of the condition of the world just now, how the nations, the communities, the churches, the religions, all divide humanity, the children one Father Who loves them all without distinction! Man with all his claim of civilization, of progress, seems to have fallen into the greatest error. For centuries the world has not been in such a state as it is just now, one nation hating another, looking with contempt on another. What can we call it?  Is it progress, or is it standstill, or is it worse than that? Is this not the time when thinking souls should open their eyes from sleep, and devote themselves to the effort, to the work of doing what good they can to humanity to better the conditions of the world, and when each one is thinking only of his own interest, to think of the interest of all? 

      The Sufi Message brings to the world the message of unity, of uniting in the Fatherhood of God beyond all differences and distinctions. The chief object of the Sufi Movement is to bring about a friendly understanding between people of different nations and races, to bring closer together people of different religions in one understanding, the understanding of the Truth.  Is it not then the message of Christ, the message which brought the tidings of the love of God and the unity of mankind in the love of God? There cannot be two religions, there is always one religion, and there cannot be a new religion, there is always only one, as Solomon has said that there is nothing new under the sun. Whenever the message of love and wisdom is given it is not a new religion, it is the revivification of the religion, to bring to man the realization of the truth of the religion he follows. 

       Therefore the Sufi Order does not bring a new religion, it brings that life and that light which is necessary to revivify that religion that has always existed. Those who have taken interest in the objects that the Sufi Order has set before itself are in America, England, France, and now some in Switzerland. Their idea is to study the questions that belong to the deeper side of life, also to receive personal guidance from the Teacher in the way of silence, in the way of meditation, in understanding the way of looking at life and of thinking of God. All are welcome in it, whatever be their faith, whatever their religion, since there is a strength to understand one's own religion and not an idea that could bring a man to leave his religion. 
 
 
 

1. SHAIKH MUSLIH-UD-DIN SA'ADI

 
 

      My subject this afternoon is Sa'adi, the great Sufi Poet of Persia. In point of fact all the poets of Persia were Sufi poets, not only the poets of Persia, but also the poets of India. The works of Sa'adi have been considered in the East simple and educational, and at the same time uplifting. And in India they begin the education of children with the works of Sa'adi. His "Karima" is taught to children of nine or ten, and at the same time it is not just a legend or an amusing story, it is like a seed sown in the heart of a child of that age, that in time it may flourish and bring forth fruits of good thought and imagination. "Karima" is a poem of thanksgiving.  

      In it the first lesson Sa'adi gives is to learn how to be grateful, how to express gratitude, how to appreciate; and so he teaches the lesson of gratefulness and appreciation for all in the world, for the kindness and love of mother and father, and of friend and companion, by teaching first gratefulness to God for all the blessings and benefits man receives. Sa'adi begins in "Karima" by saying, "Oh Lord, most merciful, I ask Thy forgiveness, for I am limited and in this life of limitation I am always apt to err." He teaches in the first lesson, that man should recognize his limited condition, and that this limitedness makes him subject to error, and at the same time he suggests the innermost desire of every soul is to rise above limitations and keep from error, to seek divine love and ask pardon, and to appreciate all the blessings he receives in life, in order to rise towards that ideal stage of the humane man. 

      And as we see life today it seems this is the very thing which is lacking. When children grow up without that tendency of appreciation, they often cannot understand what their mother has done for them, what their father has done for them, what their duty is to their kind friends, to older people, to their teacher. And when they grow without developing that gratefulness in their nature, the egoistic nature which naturally develops becomes terrible. A boy who does not appreciate in his childhood all that his mother has done for him, cannot then learn to be tender and gentle to his wife, for his first lesson he has learned with his mother. Everything that by nature springs up has to be refined, and in its fulfilment it has to become perfect.  

      In human nature there is a self-asserting tendency from childhood. Most pronounced in the nature of the child is I and of everything that he possesses he says my.  And if that is not changed, if the same attitude remains, when that child grows older, he becomes hard to those around him, for his I and what he calls my, becomes difficult for all those around him. 

      The whole religious, spiritual and philosophical teaching leads us towards the development of the personality. There is something that is made by nature in man, but there is something that the man himself has to make. Man is born as man, but man develops to become humane. And if man remains only man as he is born, and the same qualities with which he is born remain undeveloped, and without being refined, then he does not fulfil the object of life. With all the great Teachers and Masters of this world who have come from time to time, and whom we recognize as Saints and Sages, Masters, Teachers and inspired helpers, it is not always the philosophy they taught man, it is not always the dogmas or the form of religion they gave that was of the greatest importance. What has been of the greatest importance is their personality, their person. The teachings of Buddha are held by many millions, but more than his teachings is the life he lived and the wisdom he expressed in his life, for there is the fulfilment. 

      Man is born with a purpose, and that purpose is fulfilled in the refinement of his personality. This unrefined nature of the ego, when developed through life, has an effect like the sting of a thorn. Wherever, whomever, whatever it touches, it causes some harm or disturbance, some destruction. And so personalities in human beings, when they are not refined, and they have before them all temptations, all things that attract them, things they like and admire and wish to have, then they go against the conflicting activities of life, they rub up against everything like a thorn, tearing it to pieces. And what happens? No doubt when thorns rub against thorns they crush one another and they feel it less. But when thorns rub against flowers, they tear them to pieces.  

      If you will ask individuals in this world, in all walks of life, "Tell me, what is your difficulty in life?" Perhaps they will tell you that they lack wealth or power or position, but mostly the complaints will be that they are in some way or other hurt by others, by friend, or parent, or child, life-mate, or neighbour, or co-worker; they are disturbed or troubled and in difficulty from this thorn-like influence from morning to evening touching them and scratching them. And yet man does not seem to think deeply on this subject. Life is blinding, and it keeps man busy and engaged finding fault with others. He does not find the thorn in himself; he always sees the thorn in others. 

      Sa'adi, in simple language, has tried to give man a helping hand towards the development in his personality of that flowerlike quality; to train this personality which was made to be a flower and to help. His whole life's work has been to explain to man how life can turn into a flower. He has called his books "Gulistan" which means a flowerbed or a rose-garden, and "Bustan" a place of all sorts of fragrances, a place of fragrance. In this he has tried to explain to man how the heart can be turned into a flower. In reality it is a flower, it is made to be a flower, it is made to spread its perfume. If only you trained it and tended it, it would show the delicacy and beauty and fragrance of a flower; and that is the purpose of your life. 

      There is no mystification in Sa'adi's poetry. It is full of wit and intelligence, and at the same time original and the most wonderful thing that one sees in the poetry of Sa'adi is his humorous trend of mind. He is ready to look at the funny side of things and to amuse himself and enjoy. And how few of us in this world know what real, true mirth means, humour that is not vulgarised, not abused. It shows the rhythm and tune of the soul. Without humour life is dull and depressing. Humour is the reflection of that divine life and sun which makes life like the day. And a person who reflects divine wisdom and divine joy, adds to the expression of his thought when he expresses his ideas with mirth. 

      One day Sa'adi was sitting in a bookseller's shop, where his books were sold. The bookseller was absent, and someone came in and asked for one of Sa'adi's books, not knowing that he was speaking to Sa'adi himself. Sa'adi said, "What do you like about Sa'adi's books?" He replied, "Oh, he is a funny fellow." Whereupon Sa'adi made him a present of the book, and when he wished to pay for it, said, "No, I am Sa'adi, and when you called me a funny fellow, you gave me all the reward I wish." 

      He wanted life to be joyous. Spirituality is not in a long face and deep sigh. No doubt there are moments when you will sympathize with the troubles of others; there are moments that move you to tears, and there are times when you must just close your lips. But there are other moments when you can see the joyous side of life and enjoy its beauties. Man is not born into this world for depression and unhappiness. His very being is happiness. Depression is something unnatural. By this I do not mean to say that sorrow is a sin or suffering always avoidable. We all have to experience both in life, to accomplish the purpose of life. We cannot always be smiling. There is not spiritual evolution in ignoring either side of life. Spirituality is in every side of life. As long as one is not bound, it is no sin to stand in the midst of life. Man need not go into the forest, away from all people, to show his goodness and virtue. Of what use is his goodness and virtue if he buries himself in the forest? It is in the very midst of life that we have to develop and express all that is beautiful and perfect and divine in our souls. 
 
 

1. SHAIKH MUSLIH-UD-DIN SA'ADI (Cont.)

 
 

      Sa'adi has expressed a wonderful thought in his work called the "Gulistan," and in simple words. He says, "every soul was meant for a certain purpose and the light of that purpose was kindled in that soul." It is one little verse, but it is a volume in itself. What does this suggest to us? That this whole universe is like one symphony, and all souls are as different notes. There activities are according to the rhythm of this symphony, and their life is purposed to perfect this symphony. 

       People are anxious to do something, and wait for years and years, unhappy, in despair, waiting for that moment to come. It shows that the soul knows in its sub-consciousness that there is a note to strike, and the moment when it will strike that note, that soul will be satisfied, and yet does not know what note it is nor when it will be struck. What is life, and what keeps us living in this world of limitation, this world of continual changes, full of falsehood and full of suffering and trouble? If there is anything in this world that keeps us alive, it is hope, the honey of life. There is not one soul in this world who says, "Now I am satisfied, I have no further desire."  

      In everyone, whatever be the position of life, someone very rich or one very poor, one full of life and the other ill, in all conditions, man is continually yearning and waiting for something to come, he does not know what, but he is waiting. The real explanation of life is waiting; waiting for something. And what is it that man awaits? It is the fulfilment of the purpose of life, which comes when the soul strikes that note; that note which is meant to be his note. And this he seeks, whether in the outer plane or the inner plane. And man has not fulfilled his life's purpose until he has struck that note which is his note.  

      And the greatest tragedy in life is the obscurity of purpose. When purpose is not clear, man suffers, he cannot breathe. He knows not what is the purpose, what he must do. This life will present to him things that will interest him for the moment, but the moment he possesses that thing he will say, "no this is not it, it is something else." So man goes on, in an illusion, constantly seeking, and yet not knowing what he seeks. Blessed is he who knows his life's purpose, for that is the first step toward fulfilment.  And how are we to know life's purpose? Can anybody tell us? No. No one can tell us: for life in its very nature is self-revealing, and it is our own fault if we are not open to that revelation which life offers to us. It is not the fault of life, because the very nature of life is revealing. Man is the offspring of nature, therefore his purpose is nature. But the artificiality of life brings obscurity, which prevents him from arriving at that knowledge which may be called the revelation of one's own soul. 

        And if you ask me how one should proceed, I would advise you to study every object, whether false or true, which holds and attracts you, to which you are outwardly attracted and also inwardly attracted. And do not be doubting and suspicious. What Christ taught from morning till night was faith, but the interpretation of this word is not made clear. People have said faith in priest, in church, or in sect. That is not the meaning. The true meaning of faith is trust in one's self. A person came to me and said, "I wish to follow your ideas. Will you receive me? Will you let me follow you?" I said, "Yes, but will you tell me if you have faith?" This person looked perplexed for a moment, then he said, "Well, I have faith in you." I asked, "Have you faith in yourself?" He said, "Well, I am not sure." I said, "Your faith in me would be of no use to me. What I need is your faith in you." 

       Friends, what we must learn in life is first to trust ourselves. This wobbling tendency of mind, "shall I, or shall I not, is it good or is it bad," keeps man in confusion. And for years he may have the best intentions, but he will linger in the same place. He will not advance, for his own confusion will paralyse his limbs. He will not think he is going on, but he will be stopping in the same place where he is standing. 

       Our happiness depends on living right, and right living depends on striking that note; and the realization of that purpose is in the book of our heart. Open that book and look at it. All meditation, all concentration and contemplation is only to open this book, to focus our mind, and to see what purpose there is in our life. And no sooner do we see that our ultimate goal and our life's object and happiness, our true health and well being and or real wealth and welfare, are in the fulfilment of our purpose, then the whole trend of life will change.

 

1. THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF THE DAY

 
 

      The hustle and bustle of life leaves very little time to man to think of his general condition. The only news he receives in life is from newspapers, and so he depends upon the papers to have some idea, and the intoxication of life leaves him very little time to think about the meaning of life. When one looks around one and considers the condition of nations today, we find in spite of all the progress there is an ill feeling arising among nations. Friendship exists only for self-interest. One nation thinks about its own interest whether it has to deal with friend or enemy. And if we consider the world as a body, we could say that a poison has been put in the heart, owing to the feeling of hatred which arises from every person toward every other. 

       No period like this is to be traced in the history of the world, this age has accomplished a much greater destruction that ever before. It reminds one of a spider, which weaves its web in order to get comfort, but it cannot get out of the web it has made itself. And if we go to the root of the subject we see all these disasters, all this disorder has been caused by a spirit of materialism. Money seems to be the only gain and aim. It is undeniable that when one is continually thinking of such a subject all one's thoughts and energy will go in that direction. And in the end perhaps man awakes and finds that all his life he has given his thoughts to something which does not last, which does not even exist and is only an illusion. 

      No doubt this pessimism is a bridge from one optimism to another. This may be called disinterestedness: Vairagya. It is not the man who leaves the world, but the one who lives in the humanity, who is great. It is he who sees, not his little self, but the whole. Jesus Christ says, "Think of your fellowmen, love your fellowmen." And what do we see today? Difficulties arising between masters and workmen; peace conferences where nothing can be decided concerning peace. And all this because this point of view is not there, the point of view that, "I will do for you and you will do for me." "No," says everyone, "I will do for myself and you will do for yourself."  

      To serve one another, to love one another, to work for one another, that should be the aim of life, which man has lost hold of altogether. Look at the central theme of the education of today. Only a short time is given to the child to prepare him for the kingliness of life and the freedom of the spirit. And every year the child's intellectual burden is getting heavier, and the older the child grows the more he sees life before him as an ocean which he has to cross, as something dark awaiting him. And later on, the child, having become a man, gives all his time to work, to his office, and there is even no time for love or friendship, and yet, after all, he cannot even take all these things with him. After sacrificing all his life to these things, what has he really gained? By his external life in the world the complications of life have increased. 

       The more laws are given the more prisons are filled with criminals; the more contracts are signed the less peace and brotherhood are to be found among men; something more genuine in human life seems to be neglected. And yet no man is deprived of this human inheritance. There is a treasure in himself which has to be found. There is a religion which should have helped man on. The authorities of religion have very often failed to uphold the inner qualities of their religion. The question is not what religion one follows, but to live one's religion. When religion has lost its hold on inner life and faith, there is nothing else. Many people, especially among the intellectual ones, have lost their religion, and among the younger ones there are a good many who even fear the name of God. 

      Now what is needed today? It is the education which will teach humanity to feel the essence of their religion in everyday life. Man is not put on this earth to be an angel. He need not be praying in church all day long, nor go into the wilderness. He has only to understand life better. He must learn to take a certain time in the day to think about his own life and doings. He must ask himself, "Have I done an honest deed today? Have I proved myself worthy, in that place, in that capacity?" In this way one can make one's everyday life a prayer. Among politicians, doctors, lawyers, merchants it might be possible to have love as the battery behind every deed, every action and a sense of harmony behind all these doings. 

       We need today the religion of tolerance. In daily life we all cannot meet on the same ground, being so different, being in different capacities and different states of evolution, and with different tasks. In the homes we are not on the same state of evolution. So if we had not tolerance, no desire to forgive, we should never bring harmony into our soul. For to live in the world is not easy, every moment of the day demands a victory. If there is anything to learn it is this tolerance, and by teaching this simple religion of tolerance to one another we are helping the world. It is no use keeping the idea that the world is going from bad to worse. That germ of disease will spread and bring greater consequences. Every man's being is good, in the depth of his heart there is something certainly good. 

       There are teachings about healings, but the best way is the way of character healing, healing one's own character and instead of accomplishing miracles, in this way one's whole life