13. The Message of God
Religious Gatheka
by Hazrat Inayat Khan
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, 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 cannot 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 recognize him if they do not recognize Christ in their hearts first?
Everything is recognized 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 recognized the pearls. Man recognises the pearls and distinguishes 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 honored 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 practice 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 recognize 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.
Daily reflections on the following points in Religious Gatheka 13
Point One: Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan in this lecture says: 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.
Contemplation: What thoughts and ultimately what words arise in my own heart?
Point Two: Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan in this lecture says: 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.
Contemplation: This is a potent teaching Murshid gives us. Let us examine our hearts and minds regarding complexities and complexes that keep us unaware of our Christ-spirit and the truth of our being.
Point Three: Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan in this lecture says: 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!
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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.
Contemplation: By examining our hearts and minds we can assess our inner and outer life in relationship to this aspect of the teaching. Then the next step is to "take of the covering" separating us from our Christ consciousness.
Point Four: Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan in this lecture says: 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.
Contemplation: Here Murshid is teaching us the significance and benefit of our spiritual practice.
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