46. The God-Ideal, Part 5
Religious Gatheka
by Hazrat Inayat Khan
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.”
Daily Reflections on the following points in Religious Gatheka 46
Point One: “In the terms of the Sufis the Self of God is called Zat, and His qualities, His merits are named Sifat.”
Contemplation: We can use the scientific construct of the “Big Bang” to draw comparative analogy to clarify this point. Zat is like the singularity from which all manifest qualities (Sifat) have emerged.
Point Two: “The purpose of the whole Creation is the realization that God Himself gains by discovering His Own Perfection through this manifestation.”
Contemplation: As a part of Creation we are participating in God discovering “His Own Perfection.”
Point Three: “The nature of unity is realized by variety.”
Contemplation: The nature of unity is realized by variety = It is all God!
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