Marriage

Marriage is the most sacred of all sacred things. It is certainly not in the first place a contract, a business; when we look at marriage from a higher point of view, it appears that marriage is the fulfillment of life.

From a physical point of view, this life which is full of struggle and strife can be met with greater strength and greater courage and greater capability when two harmonious forces are united together. There is a saying of a Persian poet, 'When two hearts unite, they become powerful enough to remove mountains.' Life is a continual struggle. And in order to become capable of meeting this struggle, it is necessary to be strong and powerful. When two hearts are united they are more capable, more powerful, and greatly blessed.

Looking at marriage from a mental point of view, no matter how wise, how strong, how courageous, how powerful a person is, he still lacks something. Every individual, after all, has defects. No matter how many merits he has, he needs something better: at the time of doubt, conviction; at the time of anxiety, support from another source; at the time of confusion, a little light; at the time of sorrow, a word of consolation, of happiness. No matter what a person has - wealth, power, rank, position - this will not balance his life. If there is anything that will balance his life, it is another soul to provide that which is missing at the moment when he needs it in his life. Therefore from a physical point of view marriage is a power, and from a mental point of view it brings balance.

Lastly there is the spiritual point of view. Among the ancient people the wise gave an answer to the ever-recurring question as to why the world was created; and this answer was that God felt lonely. And no matter how many rays of the light of wisdom we may throw upon life, we shall always receive this one answer as the reason for creation: that if anything exists it is only one Being, and that is God. Therefore the whole of manifestation which is created by Him, is in Himself. If God created it, it was only because He felt lonely. It is the same idea that can be seen symbolically in the belief of the ancient people, that Eve was created out of the rib of Adam. It only means that this world was created out of God Himself; that it is God's own manifestation. He wanted to see, in order to remove the monotony of being alone; and if it was the need of God to create something and put it before Himself to remove the monotony of being alone, it is natural that every human being has this inclination too. But this inclination leads to what? To greater perfection; because an individual man is limited, no matter how powerful, how great, how wise and learned he may be, and in order to become greater he must become another person.

Marriage is the first step towards becoming another person. The one who formerly thought that he would attain pleasure, comfort, happiness in life, and enjoy it for himself, from the moment he is married thinks first of his wife and of how he can give her comfort; for without her he can no longer enjoy life.

When this outlook comes to a person, his consciousness changes. It rises and expands and becomes the source of all revelation and bliss. Why is it so? Because by this expansion the spirit of God becomes awakened in man. It removes what stands between his limited and his unlimited self, and gradually raises him to a stage where he fully realizes the One who is his source and goal, who is the essence of his being.

As Rumi says, "Whether you have loved man or whether you have loved God, if you have loved enough you will be brought in the end into the presence of the supreme Love itself."

From a spiritual point of view, therefore, marriage is a step forward on the path to perfection, that path by which the ultimate purpose of life is attained.

Seeing ... part 5

Finally there is the question of seeing and not seeing. This is understood by the mystics as being able to see at will, and also being able to overlook. It is not easy for a person to overlook, it is something one must learn. There is much that man is able to see and that he must see; and there is much that he should not see, that it is better he does not see. If we cannot see, that is a disadvantage; but there is no disadvantage in not seeing something that we should not see. There are so many things that can be seen that we may just as well avoid seeing those we should not.

The one who is held by what he sees lacks mastery. Although he does not want to see it, he cannot help seeing it; but the one who has his sight under control, sees what he wants to see, and what he does not want to see he does not see. That is mastery. And as it is true of the eyes, that we see what is before us and we do not see what is behind us, so it is true of the mind: what is before it, it sees and what is behind it, it does not see. Naturally, therefore, if this objective world is before a person's eyes, the other world is hidden from his sight, because he sees what is before him and not what is behind him. And as it is true that what is behind us we can only see by turning our head, so also it is true that what the mind does not see can only be seen when the mind is turned the other way. What is learned in esotericism and in mysticism is the turning of the mind from the outer vision to the inner vision.

One might ask, what profit do we derive from this? If it is profitable to rest at night after a whole day's work, so it is profitable to turn one's mind from this world of variety in order to rest it and to give it another experience which belongs to it, which is its own and which it needs. It is this experience which is attained by the meditative process. A person who is able to think but not able to forget, a person who is able to speak but not able to keep silent, a person who is able to move but not able to keep still, a person who is able to cry but not able to laugh - that person does not know mastery. It is like having one hand, it is like standing on one foot. To have complete experience of life one must be able to act and to be still, one must be able to talk and to keep silent.

There are many precious things in nature and art, things that are beyond value, yet there is nothing in this world that is more precious than sight; and the most precious of all is insight, to be able to see, to be able to understand, to be able to learn, to be able to know. That is the greatest gift that God can give, and all other things in life are small compared with it. If there is anything that one can do to enrich one's knowledge, to raise one's soul to higher spheres, to allow one's consciousness to expand to perfection, it is to do everything one possibly can to open one's sight, which is the sign of God in man. It is the opening of the sight which is called the soul's unfoldment.

Seeing ... part 4

There is still another side to this question, and that is from which height one looks at life. There is one view when a person looks at life standing on the ground; it is different when he is climbing the mountain, and it is a different outlook again when he has reached the top. And what are these degrees? They are degrees of consciousness.

When a person is looking at life and says, 'I and all else', that is one point of view; when a person sees all else and forgets 'I', that is another point of view; and when a person sees all and identifies it with 'I', that is another point of view again. And the difference these points of view make in a person's outlook is so vast that words can never explain it.

Reaching the top of the mountain means entering what is called Nirvana, cosmic consciousness; the idea of communicating with God is symbolized by a person who has climbed a part of the mountain, and who therefore already has a less clearly defined idea of I and you, and of he, she, and it than the one who is standing on the ground.

Spiritual progress is expansion of the soul. It is not always desirable to live on the top of the mountain, because the ground also is made for man. What is desirable is to have one's feet on the ground and one's head as high as the top of the mountain. A person who can observe life from all sides, from all angles, will have a different experience from each angle; and every side he looks at will give him new knowledge, a different knowledge from that which he had before.

Seeing ... part 3

Then there is long sight and short sight and medium sight. There are some who can see far beyond, or long before events, and there is the person who only sees what is immediately before him and what is next to him; he sees nothing of what is behind him. His influence reaches only as far as the thing that is just beside him, and it is that which influences him. But there is another person who reasons about what he sees; his can be called medium sight. He reasons about it as far as his reason allows. He cannot see beyond his reasoning; he goes so far and no further. Naturally if these three persons meet and speak together, each has his own language. It is not surprising if one does not understand the point of view of the other, because each one has his own vision according to which he looks at things. No one can give his own sight to another person in order to make him see differently.

If the spiritual people of all ages taught faith, it was not because they wished that no one should think for himself but should accept everything in faith which was taught him. If they had had that intention they would not have been spiritual people. Nevertheless, however clever a person may be, however devoted and enthusiastic, if he is without faith the spiritual souls cannot impart their knowledge to him, for there is no such thing as spiritual knowledge in the sense of learning. If there is anything spiritual that can be imparted to the pupil, it is the point of view, the outlook on life. If a person already has that outlook on life, he does not need spiritual guidance; but if he has not, then words of explanation will not explain anything to him, for it is a point of view and it cannot be explained in words.

However much a person may try to describe the light that he saw when he was on top of a mountain to the man who has never climbed that mountain, that man may refuse to believe all that the other says; but perhaps, if he trusts him, he will begin to listen to his guidance. He may not see it, but he will listen, and he will benefit by the experience of the one who has seen the light from the top of the mountain. But the one who goes to the top of the mountain will have the same experience himself.

Seeing... part 2

A seer is the one who has not only looked, but who has seen. And how has he seen? By controlling the impulse of walking too quickly, by resisting the temptation of going to the right or to the left, by going steadily towards the object that he wants to reach. All these things help to make one a seer.

The seer sees more than for instance the astrologer; much more. There is no comparison. But the seer does not speak about what he sees; if he did he would become just like the astrologer. To the seer every person's soul is just like an open letter; but if he were to divulge its secrets his sight would become dimmer every day because it is a trust given to him by God. Spiritual trust is given to those who can keep that trust and who are able to keep a secret.

There are many wrong interpretations of the word seer. Sometimes people think that a seer is a clairvoyant or a spiritist, but that is a different kind of person and not a seer. The seer need not see the unseen world; there is so much to be seen here in the visible world! There is so much that man could see in this objective world, but which is hidden from his eyes, that if he were to concentrate all his life upon seeing all that is to be seen he would find more than enough to think about. It is childish curiosity on the part of some people when they want to see something that they think no one has seen before. It is also vanity, for the sake of telling that they see something which others do not see. But the world seen and the world unseen are one and the same; and they are both here. And when we cannot see the world unseen, it is not because it hides itself from our eyes, it is because we close our eyes to it.

Seeing... part 1

One can see, one can look, and one can observe. These three words denote the same action, yet each word suggests something different. By observing we understand something about what we see; by seeing we take full notice of it; but by looking we glance at it without necessarily understanding it or taking notice of it. And so there are three conditions: looking at the surface of a thing, looking at a thing properly, and looking at a thing with real observation and understanding it at the same time.

Everyone notices things in one of these three ways. That which interests a man most, he observes most keenly; that which attracts his mind, he sees and takes notice of; and that upon which his glance happens to fall, he only looks at. And there are, therefore, three different effects made upon man by all he sees: a deeper effect of that which he has observed fully, a clear effect of that which he has seen, and a passing effect of that which had just caught his glance. This is the reason why there are seers, thinkers, and those who have only their two eyes.

There is another side to this question: a person who is walking gains a certain kind of impression of the route he takes; one who drives the same way in a motorcar has a different kind of experience, and the experience of the one who flies in an aeroplane is different again. Perhaps the one who was walking was not able to reach his goal as quickly as the one in the motorcar or the one in the aeroplane, but the observations that he was able to make, the sights that he saw, and all the experiences that he had there, were far beyond those of the other two. And in just the same way our mind works. There is one man whose mind works at the rate of an aeroplane; there is another man whose mind works like an automobile; and there is a third whose mind works at the speed of a man walking. The one whose mind, is working at that speed will not perhaps react as quickly as the others, but what he thinks he will think thoroughly; what he sees he will see thoroughly. It is he who will have insight into things, it is he who will understand the hidden law behind things, because the activity of his mind is normal. Thinking does not always depend upon quickness of the mind; sometimes it is the quality of the mind which is more important.

An intelligent person thinks swiftly too, but that is another thing. There can be a great difference between two stones, for instance between a diamond and a pebble. They are both stones, but one is precious and the other dull. In the same way there are two different qualities of mind: one man thinks quickly and intelligently, the other thinks quickly but is very often mistaken. He is mistaken because he thinks quickly, while in the other case it is the quality of mind which even in quick thinking makes that person think rightly. Nevertheless the rhythm of thinking has a great deal to do with one's life. When the three who have traveled the same way on foot, in the car and by aeroplane, meet together and speak of their experiences, we shall find a great difference in what they tell; and this explains why people who have gone through the same life, who have lived under the same sun, who have been born on the same earth, are yet so different in their mentality. The reason is that their minds have traveled at different speeds. Their experiences are quite different though they have traveled the same way.

Harmony....part 3

Life in the world has a constantly jarring effect, and the finer we become the more trying it will be to us. And the time comes when the more sincere and full of goodwill, the more kind and sympathetic a person is, the worse life becomes for him. If he is discouraged by it he goes under, but if he keeps his courage he will find in the end that it was not disadvantageous, for his power will some day increase to that stage, to that degree, at which his presence, his word, and his action will control the thoughts and feelings and actions of others. Then his rhythm will become powerful and will cause the rhythm of everybody else to follow it. This is what is called in the East the quality of the mastermind. But in order to stand firm against the inharmony that comes from without, one must first practice standing firm against all that comes from within, from one's own self. For one's own self is more difficult to control than other people, and when one is not able to control oneself and one has failed, it is most difficult to stand firm against the inharmony outside.

What is it that causes inharmony in oneself? Weakness. Physical weakness or mental weakness, but it is always weakness. Very often, therefore, one finds that bodily illness causes disharmony and inharmonious tendencies. Besides there are many diseases of the mind which the scientists of today have not yet discovered. Sometimes people are considered sane whose mind in fact is ill, and as not enough attention is paid to the defects which are inherent in the diseases of the mind, man has never had a chance to notice them in himself. He is continually finding fault with others; whether he works in an office, somewhere in a good position, at home, or anywhere else, he causes inharmony. Nobody realizes this, for to be treated as insane one must first be recognized as insane.

The cause of every discomfort and of every failure is inharmony; and the most useful thing one could impart in education today is the sense of harmony. To develop harmony in children and to bring it to their notice will not be as difficult as it appears; what is needed is to point out to the young the different aspects of harmony in all the various affairs of life.

Harmony....part 2

The tendency towards harmony may be likened to a rock in the sea: through wind and storm the rock stands firm; waves come with all their force and yet it still stands bearing it all, letting the waves beat against it. By fighting inharmony one increases it; by not fighting it one refrains from adding fuel to the fire which would otherwise increase and cause destruction. But no doubt the wiser we become, the more difficulties we have to face in life, because every kind of inharmony will be directed towards us for the very reason that we will not fight it. We should realize, however, that all these difficulties have helped to destroy this inharmony which would otherwise have multiplied. This is not without its advantages, for every time we stand firm where there is inharmony we increase our strength, though outwardly it may seem a defeat. But one who is conscious of the increase of his power will never admit that it is a defeat, and after a while the person against whom one has stood firm will realize that it was actually his defeat.

The Sufi avoids all unrhythmic actions; he keeps the rhythm of his speech under the control of patience, not speaking a word before the right time, not giving an answer until the question is finished. A contradictory word he considers to be a discord unless spoken in a debate, and even at such times he tries to resolve it into a consonant chord. A contradictory tendency in a man finally develops into a passion, until he will contradict even his own idea if it happens to be pronounced by another. The Sufi in order to keep harmony even modulates his speech from one key to another; in other words he falls in with another person's idea by looking at the subject from the speaker's point of view instead of his own. He makes a basis for every conversation with an appropriate introduction, thus preparing the ears of the listener for a perfect response. He watches his every movement and expression, as well as those of others, trying to form a consonant chord of harmony between himself and another.

The attainment of harmony in life takes longer to acquire and more careful study than does the training of the ear and the cultivation of the voice, although it is acquired in the same manner as the knowledge of music. To the ear of the Sufi every word spoken is like a note which is true when harmonious and false when inharmonious. He makes the scale of his speech either major, minor, or chromatic, as the occasion demands; and his words, either sharp, flat, or natural, are in accord with the law of harmony.

Harmony....part 1

Harmony is that which makes beauty, beauty in itself has no meaning. An object which is called beautiful at one time or place may not be beautiful at another. And so it is with thought, speech, and action. That which is called beautiful is only so at a certain time and under certain conditions which make it beautiful; so if one could give a true definition of beauty it is harmony. Harmony in a combination of colors, harmony in the drawing of a design or a line, that is what is called beauty; and a word, a thought, a feeling, or an action which creates harmony is productive of beauty.

Whence comes the tendency towards harmony and whence comes the tendency towards inharmony? The natural tendency of every soul is towards harmony, and the tendency towards inharmony is an unnatural state of mind or affairs; the very fact that it is not natural makes it devoid of beauty. The psychology of man is such that he responds both to harmony and inharmony. He cannot help it, because he is naturally so made; mentally and physically he responds to all that comes to him whether it be harmonious or inharmonious.

The teaching of Christ, 'Resist not evil', is a hint not to respond to inharmony. For instance a word of kindness, of sympathy, or an action of love and affection, finds response, but a word of insult, an action of revolt or of hatred, creates a response too, and that response creates still more inharmony in the world. By giving way to inharmony one allows inharmony to multiply. Where does all the great unrest and discord that one now sees pervading the world come from? It seems that it comes from the ignorance of this fact that inharmony creates inharmony, and that inharmony will multiply. If a person is insulted his natural tendency is to reply by insulting the other person still more. In this way he gets the momentary satisfaction of having given a good answer. But he has responded to that power which came from the other, and these two powers, being negative and positive, create more inharmony. 'Resist not evil' does not mean to take evil into oneself. It only means: do not return the inharmony that comes to you, as a person playing tennis would send back the ball with his racket. But at the same time it does not suggest that one should receive the ball with open hands.

Divine Wisdom... part 3

There was a Brahmin who was worshipping his idol, and a man came along and said to him, "How foolish! You are a high-caste Brahmin, you have such great culture, and yet you worship a God of stone which you have made with your own hands!" The Brahmin said, "If you have faith this god of stone will become a real god to you, and if you have no faith even the formless God who is in heaven is nothing."

The idea behind this is that we do not know and see the reality of God because we have made real all that is unreal before us. We are impressed by it, we live in longing for it, we pursue it, we live in it; and so from morning till evening we are, so to speak, wrapped up in this world of illusion, in all that is unreal and that covers our eyes from reality.


In order to find goodness one must find wickedness to compare it with. When we have found both, then both become clear; wickedness will show what goodness is. In order to find reality we must gather the knowledge of what is unreal, and this is not difficult. In our ordinary language we use the word false; false is that which is not real. All that is subject to change and destruction may be something in appearance, but it is never that which it pretends to be. All this existence which is before us and which is subject to change and death is not reality; it cannot be reality; but we can only see this when we have acquired some knowledge of reality. If we do not look at it as unreal, we shall not have the desire to find what is real. We must find out what is unreal and acknowledge it as unreal; then alone can we go on to the next step which will be to find reality.

Divine Wisdom... part 2

Now the question is, how does man communicate with his self? By self-analysis. No doubt there is a danger in self-analysis. When a person is always wondering how wrong he is, how bad he is, how wicked he is, or how stupid he is, he will never stop worrying and troubling about himself, and the further he continues in this way, the more he will find in himself the spirit of wickedness or stupidity; perhaps throughout his whole life he will find that same spirit in himself. The mystic delves deeper in himself in order to discover what it is in him that gives him the sign of existence, what it is in him that lives and what it is that dies, what it is in his being that is limited and what it is that is beyond limitation. By meditating on this a mystic communicates with his self. And in order to communicate with others he removes the barrier which stands between one person and the other, between "I" and "you."

As to the religion and the moral of the mystic, the mystic has one moral and that is love; and he has one aim in his religion and that is to make God a reality. Therefore his God becomes a greater God than the God of millions of people who only imagine that there is a God somewhere; to him God is a reality.

How can one make God a reality? Since we are able to make what is unreal a reality, it is very easy to make reality real.

Divine Wisdom... part 1

Nothing in the world can bring us happiness and satisfaction except divine wisdom. All other things which seem to suffice our needs will show their importance for a moment, but after that moment has passed there will be the same longing. It is only in divine wisdom that our life's purpose is fulfilled.

The basis of mysticism is to be found in that saying of the Bible, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added unto you." Thus the search of the mystic is for that kingdom, for God, and in that search what does he find? In the search for God he finds his self.

Mysticism teaches communication with the self and enables the self to communicate with life. Also, the way to learn mysticism is quite different from the way in which one learns other things. In learning these one communicates with things, but in learning mysticism one communicates first with one's self, and this enables man to communicate with the outer life. It is not only a legend of the past that saints and sages spoke with trees and plants, with animals and birds. A soul that can communicate with life, with the self, can communicate even today with animals and birds and trees and plants.

Often people picture a mystic as a dreamer, as someone who is intoxicated, a drunken man; but in reality to the mystic everybody else is intoxicated, for the knowledge of mysticism is soberness. The mystic's consciousness makes him sober, for he begins to see things more clearly. Mostly he cannot speak about it, because his language is not always understood. People have reason to consider a mystic to be like a drunken person: he does not take notice of things that everybody else takes notice of, he does not attach any importance to things that everybody else considers important, he does not give as much thought to himself as everybody else does, he does not look at everyone in the same way as other people do, he does not judge people in the same light as everybody else judges others, he does not think of God and man in the same way as every other person does. Naturally it becomes difficult for the mystic to live in the world where his language is not understood, while he understands the language of all others. Before we have spoken to the mystic he has heard us speak; before we have expressed our thought he has read it; before we have expressed our feeling he has felt it. That is why a mystic can be in communication with another person better than one could ever imagine, and thus the best definition that can be given of mysticism is that it is communication with life.

No doubt a mystic is born a mystic; it is a certain type of mind which is born mystical; but mysticism can also be acquired. A soul who is born a mystic will from his cradle show mystic tendencies; but mysticism which is acquired is a greater achievement, for then one has made a normal progress towards divine wisdom.

Truth...part 6

What the Sufi calls riyazat, a process of achievement, is nothing else than digging constantly in that holy land which is the heart of man. Surely in the depth man will find the water of life. However, digging is not enough. Love and devotion, no doubt, help to bring out frequent merits hidden in the soul, as sincerity, thankfulness, gentleness and forgiving qualities, all things which make man a true man, all things which produce an harmonious atmosphere, and all things which bring men in tune with life, the saintly life and the outer life. All those merits come, no doubt, by kindling the fire of love in the heart. But it is possible that in this process of digging one may only reach mud and lose patience. So dismay, discontentment may follow and man may withdraw himself from further pursuit. It is patient pursuit which will bring the water from the depth of the ground; for until one reaches the water of life one meets with mud in digging. it is not love, but the pretence of love, that imposes the claim of self. The first and last lesson in love is, "I am not - Thou art", and unless man is moved to that selflessness he does not know justice, right or truth: his self stands above or between him and God.


There is a well known Eastern legend giving the idea of a soul who had found truth. There was a wall of laughter and of smiles. This wall existed for ages and many tried to climb it, but few succeeded. Those who had climbed upon it saw something beyond, and so interested were they that they smiled, climbed over the wall and never returned. The people of the town began to wonder what magic could be there and what attraction, that whoever climbed over the wall never returned. So they called it the wall of mystery. Then they said, "We must make an enquiry and send someone who can reach the top, but we must tie him with a rope to hold him back." When the man they had thus sent reached the top of the wall, he smiled and tried to jump over it, but they pulled him back. Still he smiled, and when the people eagerly asked, "What did you see there?", he did not answer, he only smiled. This is the condition of the seer. The man who in the shrine of his heart has seen the vision of God, the one who has the realization of truth, can only smile, for words can never really explain what truth means.


The nearest explanation one can give is that truth is realization. At every step of man's evolution his realization changes, but there is a stage where man arrives at the true realization, a realization which is a firm conviction that no reason or logic can change or alter. Nothing in the world can change it any more, and that conviction is called by the Sufis iman.


The realization which is attained is that there is nothing to realize any more. The process of this attainment is a sincere research into truth and life, and the understanding of "what I am, and what the other one is", together with the contemplation of God, a selfless consciousness, and a continual pursuit after the receiving of the knowledge of God.


Question: Is suffering beneficial?
Answer: Suffering is always a blessing. If it is for higher ideas, for God, for an ideal, it takes a person at once to the highest heaven. If it is for lower ideas, for the ego, for pride, for possessions, it takes a person to the lowest depth of hell. But there, after much suffering, after a long, long time, he loses these ideas and is purified. That is why the Christian religion shows the symbol of the cross, of suffering. How high our ideal may be, how low our ideal may be, in the end each pain has its prize.

Truth...part 5

It is the receptivity of our heart and the passivity of our mind, it is the eagerness, the thirst and hunger after truth, it is the direction of our whole life to that Ideal from who all light and truth come, that alone can bring to us truth and the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the earth is as clouds covering the sun. It is the breaking of these clouds and the clearness of the sky, or in other words the purity of heart, which give the capacity for the knowledge of God.


The question may be asked: Is any effort required for realizing the truth? The answer is: Yes, there is a work that one can do which is as the work of a farmer: it is to cultivate the heart. But where man makes a mistake is that, when he cultivates the heart, he wishes to sow the seed himself instead of leaving the sowing to God. As to the way how to cultivate the heart, the first condition is explained in a story. A young man went to a great seer in Persia and asked him for guidance on the spiritual path. The seer asked him, "Have you loved in your life?" "No", said he, "not yet." The seer answered, "Go and love. and know what love is. Then come to me."


According to the belief of a Sufi the heart is the shrine of God, and when the doors of the shrine are closed it is just like a light being hidden under a bushel. The pupil sees that God is love. If He is love He does not stay in the heavens; His earthly body is the heart of man. When that heart is frozen and when there is no love but bitterness, coldness, prejudice and contempt, unforgiving feelings and hatred - which all come from one source: want of tolerance, the feeling, "I am different and you are different"- then that spirit and that light of God, that divine essence that is in the heart of man, is buried as in a tomb. The work that one has to do is to dig it up, as one would dig the ground until one touched the water underneath.

Truth...part 4

How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be horse and rider at the same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the secret of mortality and immortality: it is the mortal being that, through illusion, claims immortality.

It is more important to find out the truth about oneself than to find out the truth about heaven and hell, or about many other things which are of less importance and are apart from oneself. However, every man's pursuit is according to his state of evolution, and so each soul is in pursuit of something - but he does not know where it leads him. The first sign of realization of truth is tolerance towards others. There are the words of Christ, "In the house of my Father are many mansions", and those of the Prophet, "Each soul has its own religion." This means that according to his evolution so man knows the truth and the more a man knows, the more he finds there is to learn.

The mystics have in all ages recognized the virtue of purity which is represented by innocence. A man filled with earthly knowledge - and what he calls learning is often only the knowledge of names and forms - has no capacity for the knowledge of truth, or of God. It is the innocent and pure soul who has a capacity for learning. When a person comes to take a lesson on any subject, and he brings his own knowledge with him, the teacher has little to teach him, for the doors of his heart are not open. His heart that should be empty in order to receive knowledge is occupied by the knowledge that he already had acquired. In order to know the truth or to know God earthly qualifications and earthly wisdom or learning are not necessary. What one has to learn is how to become a pupil.

We often start our lives as teachers, and then it is hard to become a pupil. From childhood on we start to teach our parents; there seldom are souls who have more inclination for pupilship than for teaching, and there are many whose only difficulty in life is that they are teachers already. Man thinks that perhaps his reading or study of different religions and doctrines has qualified him and made him capable to understand the truth and to have the knowledge of God, but he forgets that there is only one teacher, and that is God Himself. We all are pupils, and what we can do in life is to qualify ourselves to become true pupils.

Truth...part 3

Man, absorbed from morning till evening in his occupations which engage his every attention to the things of the earth and of self interest, remains intoxicated. Seldom there are moments in his life, brought about by pain or suffering, when he experiences a state of mind which can be called soberness. Hindus call this state of mind sat, which is a state of tranquillity. Man then begins to become conscious of some part of his being which he finds to have almost been covered from his eyes. When we look at life from this point of view we find that an individual who claims to be a living being is not necessarily living a full life. It is only a realization of inner life which at every moment unveils the soul, and brings before man another aspect of life in which he finds fullness, a greater satisfaction, and a rest which gives true peace.

Can he speak about this to his fellowmen? And if he does, what can he say? Can he say, "I am purer", or "more exalted than you", or "I understand life better than you"? As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes when he loses himself in the vision of God.

In the terms of the Sufis this is called fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to the true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing of oneself in God.


Then the question arises: How can one lose oneself in God? The body is a person, the mind is active, there are feelings of joy, pleasure, love and hatred, and there is the existence with which we identify ourselves and which we call by a certain name and where we feel pain and pleasure. How can one deny oneself and lose oneself in God?

There also is another question which arises from the heart of the intellectual: "How can I even accept the idea that there exists a Deity? How can I lose myself in someone whom I do not know and cannot point out?" By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that every part that constitutes our being has its own name - the hand, the foot, every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a separate form - what is it then in man which says "I", and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says "I", nor is it the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says "I" and "mine" and knows itself to be the person who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have called avidya.

Truth...part 2

In past ages people have rounded new religions, formed in the name of God; they have built churches, founded in the name of God and truth; they held their scriptures in esteem and honor, and revered the names of their leaders, of the prophets and seers of the religion to which they belonged. And with all his progress man does not seem to have progressed any further than the religions as known to-day. Bias and bigotry exist in the followers of different creeds, in their temples and churches, in the houses of their prayers, in their congregations of particular communities.

The consequence is that religion and the religious spirit has been enfeebled. This even has reacted upon the minds of others who stay away from religion and yet partake of that tendency towards difference, definition and separation which divides mankind into different sections called nations, races or communities. The reaction culminates into results still worse than the action. All wars, disasters and unhappy experiences that humanity has seen, are the outcome of this spirit of intolerance, division and separation, which naturally comes through lack of wisdom and understanding and through the ignorance of truth.

Then the question arises: what is the way to attain the truth? Can it be attained by study? The answer is that the source of realizing the truth is within man - but man is the object of his realization. There are words of Hazrat Ali, saying that the one who knows himself truly knows God.

Truth...part 1

We generally confuse truth with fact, and we often use the word fact for truth. When we look at it from the mystic's point of view we find that words are too intricate ever to explain what is truth. All that is given to man as truth and that he has received as truth in all ages has been a kind of re-echo of the realization of truth, which language has always limited and made subtle. In reality everything is subtle and complex, but nothing is simpler than truth. Things are complex and difficult because man makes them so. Truth is simple and plain.

In the Sufi terminology there is one word, Haqq, which means God and also truth. This term itself explains that God is truth and truth is God. Truth is that which cannot be pointed out, because all things that can be compared have their opposite, but neither God nor truth has an opposite. Names are to point out forms, and words are to distinguish one thing from another, while definitions come from the pairs of opposites or at least from differences. That which is all-pervading and is in all things and beings, that which every word explains and yet no word can explain, is God and is truth.

Men have differed in all ages because they have called their Deity by different names. There have existed wars, fights and family feuds for ages, men dividing themselves merely for the difference of the names they gave to their Deity. Man always sees just what he sees; he cannot see beyond it. With the ideal of his Deity, with the separate names of man's Deities, with all the different attitudes of worshipping his Deity, man remains separate from God, for God is truth and truth is God.

The Privilege of Being Human...part 3

Be it love, be it wealth, be it attention, be it service, be it comfort, be it happiness, be it pleasure, be it rank, position, power, honor or possession in life, the more man can receive the more he wants. He is never content, he will never be content. The richer man becomes - richer with everything, with anything - the poorer he becomes, for the bowl that he has brought with him, the bowl of want, can never be filled, and is never filled.

The only secret of attaining happiness therefore is to learn how to appreciate our privileges in life. If we cultivate that sense of appreciation we shall be thankful, we shall be contented, and every moment we shall offer our thanks to God, for His gifts are many and enormous. When we do not see them it is because our wants cover our eyes from seeing all with which we are blessed by Providence.

No meditation, no study, nothing can help in that direction, except one thing and that is to keep our eyes open to appreciate every little privilege in life, to admire every glimpse of beauty that comes before us, being thankful for every little love, kindness or affection shown to us by young or old, rich or poor, wise or foolish. In this way, continually developing the faculty of appreciating life and devoting it to thanksgiving, we arrive at a bliss which no words can explain, a bliss which is beyond imagination: the bliss that we find ourselves having already entered the kingdom of God.

The Privilege of Being Human...part 2

Once a dervish came before Sekandar, the great king, with the bowl of a beggar and asked him if he could fill it. Sekandar looked at him and thought, "What is he asking of an emperor like me? To fill that little bowl?" The dervish asked, "Can you fill this little bowl?" The emperor immediately said, "Yes", but the bowl was a magic bowl. Hundreds and thousands and millions were poured into it but it would not fill, it always remained half empty, its mouth wide open to be filled. When Sekandar began to feel poor while filling this bowl he said, "Dervish, tell me if you are not a magician. You have brought a bowl of magic; it has swallowed my whole treasure and it is empty still." The dervish answered, "Sekandar, if the whole world's treasure was put into it, it would still remain empty. Do you know what this bowl is? It is the want of man."

The Privilege of Being Human...part 1

Our happiness and unhappiness depend upon one thing: how we look at life, whether we appreciate and value all we have or depreciate and underestimate all we have. If we think of what we have not in life, we shall find that there is so much that we have not got, and it will then seem that what we have got is not even as big as a bubble in a vast sea. And if we try to realize what we have, there also will come a time when we shall see that what we have not is like a little bubble in a vast sea. It is a matter of looking at it. The general tendency is to see what we have not got in life, and rarely a soul is so blessed that he is awakened to appreciate all he has in life and to be thankful for it.


When we think of what we lack, there comes a flood of that lack and it drowns the whole universe; we find ourselves entirely lacking everything that it is possible to have. If we begin to realize what we have, it will be increased and be completed by abundance, so that in the end of our realization we shall be able to find that, really speaking, we have all. It is in this that lies the secret of spiritual attainment. The saying of Christ, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you", has the same meaning: when by our thankfulness, by our appreciation of life we arrive at the fullness of life, in that bliss we shall find the kingdom of God, and once the kingdom of God is realized all else will be added.

The Realization of the True Ego...part 4

How many souls are searching for some outer thing that can make them spiritual: dogmas, phenomena, experiments, anything but the exploring of the self! Willing to become confused, ready to be puzzled, happy with the riddles of life, contented to go into the dark caves in order to find something! Man never values plain words, he always wants subtlety. He is pleased with something he cannot understand and thinks that it must therefore be mysticism. If one realized that spiritual development depends upon the awakening of the false ego to its true existence, its own reality, how simple the way to spiritual perfection would become! Is it not true that we make our own difficulties? Where one step is needed we would like to go a hundred steps. It is for this that the Hindus asked simple worshippers not to go directly into the temple, but to go around it a hundred times before entering, so that they felt that they had walked sufficiently to be entitled to go in.

Such is the picture of human nature. The path of the mystic is the quickest path for the very reason that he takes the path of simplicity, that he tells the truth in plain words. And yet is it really as simple as it appears to be? The beauty is that in the simplicity of the mystic there is the greatest subtlety; sometimes a thing which looks all too gross may in the end prove to be most fine.

Belief in God helps one to annihilate one's false ego; but in order to believe in God the seeker must first believe in the one who believes in God, in whom he places his confidence, in other words in his teacher. If one cannot fully believe in one's teacher one can never believe in God. That is the first step in learning to believe, and the second step is believing in the ideal. It is not necessary for the ideal to exist on earth in the form of a human being; this ideal may be in one's heart, in one's mind. And thirdly one comes to believe in God, and in that belief one loses oneself, so that God covers the believer and all there is. In this way one arrives at the perfect realization of the true ego, which is the pursuit of the mystic.

The Realization of the True Ego...part 3

The Sufis recognize four stages in the development of the ego.

1. The ordinary ego is called Ammara, which means a mechanical reaction of mind, the mind which is conditioned to react against something to the same extent: tooth for tooth and measure for measure.
2. And when either suffering has developed the ego, or a person has learned to be different in life, then he becomes what the Sufis call Lauwama, which means self-disciplined. A person who wants to talk back, but thinks that it would perhaps be better if he did not; a person who would like to hit back, but at the same time thinks, "Better let it go this time", shows that he is not acting mechanically but by exerting his will. Even when he does exactly the same as the other he shows he has a will; his action is directed by his will.
3. When the ego is developed still more it becomes Mutmaina. This is a certain rhythm of mind; where the mind has risen above chaotic motion and the mentality has become rhythmic, and where the reaction of the mind is not only a control, but a deliberate control. This condition of the mind is like a calm sea; all agitation that belongs to the ego has been suppressed. Suffering is the greatest teacher of the ego, and those whose personalities have become a source of consolation for others, a source of healing and upliftment, are those souls whose ego has risen above all agitation.
4. When the ego is developed still further it becomes Salima, which means peaceful. According to the mystic this is the normal state for a person to be in, though if we took that point of view we would not be able to find many normal souls! In this condition we find that the world no longer has a jarring effect on us; we are above irritation, and all manner of agitation is removed. Peace is not something that can be found outside; it is within ourselves, though it is buried under the false ego. The false ego is like the tomb of a living being, not of a corpse. The living being is buried in this tomb which is made of the thoughts of "I" and "myself" and "what I am" and "why I am so." The life thus covered is suffocated, and there is a natural agitation, irritation, and unrest; for the peace which is in the depths of our being wishes to manifest to view, and the awakening of the soul depends only on the manifestation of this peace.

The Realization of the True Ego...part 2

All the methods by which humanity tries to bring about better conditions fail if the psychology of the ego is not studied. Hardly anyone gives it a thought. In working for the construction of a new civilization many efforts are being made regardless of this principal secret of life, and in the name of reconstruction a great deal of cruelty is taking place; yet all think that they are doing it for the best for humanity. But no false ego can ever do anything for the best for humanity. One person who has risen above the false ego can do much more for the good of humanity than a thousand people blinded by their false ego, pretending to do good. Today many people, before having any idea of what to do about it, come forward and say that they want to do something good for humanity; and everybody's way of doing good is different. This may seem strange, yet if we look at life with open eyes we see a thousand examples of it. In the name of reconstruction, of bringing good to the world, of changing life's conditions, what methods people adopt! The reason is that they have begun the work of doing good too soon; one must know what kindness is before trying to be kind.

The Realization of the True Self...part 1

The process of mystical development is the annihilation of the false ego in the real ego. Sufis call the false ego Nafs. The soul, coming from the highest source but having identified itself with a smaller domain, the domain of the body and the mind, has conceived in itself a false idea of itself; and it is this false idea which is called Nafs.


In all people the ego appears in different degrees of intensity. Where it is most intense a person appears to be egoistic; the one in whom it is less pronounced seems to be unselfish. The false ego with its greater intensity becomes not only hard on others, but also on the man himself. The lion is not only cruel to other animals, but it is also very restless itself because of the intensity and strength of its ego, whereas the lamb is much less hard on others and therefore it is not hard on itself. All manner of trouble and torture, of deceit and treachery, of cruelty and tyranny is born of the false ego.


In its intensity the ego becomes blind, blind to justice. An intense ego is also devoid of life, and therefore of love. A curious trick of the ego is that the egoist sees in every other person a pronounced ego. "Why has this person beautiful clothes?" "Why has he got a higher rank than 1?" "Why is he more distinguished than others?" that is his continual thought. He always sees another person as having something that he ought not to have; and by this trick the false ego makes him believe that others are egoistic, when on the contrary it is he himself who is most egoistic, because his ego is hurt by the sight of the others' ego.

The Word...part 4

You may ask: "Has the language any relation to the power of the word? Does it matter which language one uses? Must the word be Latin, or Hebrew, or Zend, Eastern or Western?" The answer to this is that in the East each keeps to his own language. Brahmins offer their prayers in Sanskrit, although this is no longer in everyday use; all the same they use Sanskrit for their mantras. A Parsi may live outside his original country, but he repeats his mantras according to the tradition of ancient Persia, though their religion almost passed away a thousand years ago. So you see it does not matter to a mystic what language he is using. He sees the source of all languages in the human heart. Whatever the language - Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian, Hindi - it is still human. The more you study this subject, the more you will see how the source of all languages is one. Even the English language contains words related to Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. Many names would never be suspected of being Persian in origin, and yet they are. So many names are Semitic, so many are Sanskrit. People never suspect how many of their own words belong to other languages. No language in the world today can claim to be so pure as to have no admixture from others. Any language is really a mixture of many languages.

It is unfortunate that every later language is just a corrupted form of a former one. Hardly anyone would understand me if I spoke of Dar-es-Salam*, but if I say Jerusalem everyone can.

We see how true this is when we study some words of the Bible. Alleluia, for instance, is really Allahu. The order of the letters is changed, and this makes it seem a different word; the spelling is altered because different countries spell their words differently. The vowels and the vibrations, therefore, change to a certain extent, and so the mystics prefer, when possible, to adhere to the original form of the word. It is not because it belonged to a certain language of the past, but because there is actually more benefit to be obtained by using the word in its original form.

The Word...part 3

As to the word, we see that there are vowels and consonants. Each vowel represents one of the five elements: earth, water, air, fire and ether; and there are the companions of the vowels which together with them make words. Every letter is related to the planets and the planetary influences. Besides, words have a practical effect, a scientific power working on the body, especially on its different centers as recognized by the mystics: the head, the breast, the solar plexus, et cetera. The consciousness must be awakened to each center. For instance, a musician accustomed to the piano seems to have his consciousness in his hands; the violinist has his in his finger-tips, so that it seems as if the whole of life comes through them. This shows how our consciousness, energy, and life can be directed to a certain place, so as to make the best use of that part of our being. Every center of man's being is a vehicle for perceiving the life within as well as the life without. Thus it is possible at will to send this consciousness and energy to that particular center. One can then gain more insight into life, and one can gain more hold, more control over life. Then, when the person repeats the word, its vowels and consonants have some connection with a particular part of the body.

When we consider the part played by the mind we come to see that every word spoken with the mind has a greater action and effect. Furthermore, there is the value attached to the meaning of the word. A person may continually call his son or daughter "Wise"; if they keep on hearing him call them "Wise", they really will become wise. If, however, he calls them "Stupid", the very fact of hearing this makes them stupid in the end. The repetition of the word suggests it to them. That is why it is a great mistake to give nicknames which either have no meaning or only a silly meaning. Even when given in fun, as a joke, they still exert their influence.
We see then that the meaning of a word has a great deal to do with its action, and when both the word itself and its meaning are used for contemplation they become very powerful.

The Word...part 2

There are two things to consider: the mastery of the mystery itself, and the insight into the mystery, its perception. To gain insight into things the mystic enters into the depths of the whole mechanism of the universe by educating his senses to be keen enough to see and hear the working through it all, throughout the whole cosmic system. Taking these two senses as his means of investigation he dives deep into the universal life. But there is another way to take, and that is by the power of the word that one utters, which by means of its vowels and consonants enables the mystic to master life.

How is it that he can master life by this means? It is because this is the only source of creation. Everything that has been created, and then constructed or destroyed, has come into being through vibration and through sound. So the mystic considers that this is the chief means for accomplishing everything.

All the religions of the past have used this, but they have only given the outcome to the world without making its mystery known. It has been a cult in every religion. The great mystics who understood it did not impart this knowledge to the masses. It would not be wise to give a loaded revolver to a person who might lose his temper in a moment of time. One needs to be sure that he has such control that he will only use it in the best way. So it has been with the mystics. They do not give initiation until they know that they can trust a person that he will make the best use of it. It is not that they are afraid of somebody stealing the mastery they possess. If it were only that, the mystic would be no different from any worldly man who is clinging to his possessions. The mystic must be more generous with his knowledge than anyone else. He is aware that everyone can attain to his knowledge, and he must always help others. Out of the goodness and kindness of his heart he will deny no one his help in every possible way.

The Word...part 1

In the East it is believed by the Vedantists that the creation originated from what they called word, or sound. The same idea has prevailed among the Semitic religions from the earliest times. This word is described as Ismi Azam.

The fact that the mysterious always attracts, leads some people to make things out to be mysterious which are not, and thus they profess to know a secret which others cannot know. Here there is the greatest opportunity for deluding the unwary, but when one has come to understand the mystery of this word one understands the mystery of all religion, for all religion lies in this one word Ismi Azam.

Modern science is coming nearer to understanding this. On the one hand Professor Bose spoke about pulsations and showed that vibrations exist even in the vegetable kingdom, so that they can be recorded in graphic form. On the other hand investigators have demonstrated the forms which different vowels make on a glass plate, so that one sees various designs. The forms of various plants and their leaves can be shown in this way. On a recent visit to Paris I met Professor Frossard, who for years has been investigating the effect of the vibrations of the voice upon different parts of the human body, and has been able to demonstrate scientifically how these effects vary with different vibrations.

However, Yogis had worked with sound before any such researches were thought of or undertaken. The school of mantrayoga is concerned with this science. The one belief that started this was that vibration is creative and that the whole universe was produced by sound, by the word; as it is said in the Bible, first was sound and then was light. Herein lies the thought of the mystics that one may understand vibrations in two directions: when audible they become intelligible, and when taking form they become visible. Even if the word were neither audible nor visible it would have the capacity of being both. If our power of sight and hearing is not enough to help us, it is because the reality is beyond and beneath the range of our sight and hearing, and therefore it is not intelligible to us. We are not aware of it, but if our sight and hearing allowed us to hear and see it, we should know that all life is vibration.

There is another consideration. Whatever is continuous disappears from our perception, whereas anything that is momentarily tangible becomes visible to us. This is shown when we start on a sea voyage. At first the noise of the engines is almost unbearable, but as we go on we get accustomed to it, so that after four or five days we find that we do not notice the noise any more, while at the same time we can hear the least whisper of a friend speaking to us. The continuous noise is now no longer audible unless we stop, to pay attention to it.

It is just like this with the whole mechanism of the universe. It is audible all the time; it is visible both externally and inwardly - but we are so concerned with our own activities, with the things we ourselves are interested in, that our consciousness can only retain these and pays no attention to all the other things, loud as they are.

The Power of the Word

Phrases to be repeated ten or twenty times at fixed times every day

• Bless, Lord, my life with Thy divine blessing.
• I am well and happy in the life and light of God.
• Guide me to the purpose for which I am born on the earth.
• My balance is secure in the hands of God.
• Grant me, Lord, Thy wisdom, joy and peace.
• Providence has blessed me.
• Success is my birthright.
• Bless my life with every bliss.
• Help my life to fulfil its purpose.
• Complete my life by the grace of Thy divine perfection.
• My body, heart and soul radiate the healing spirit of God.
• Balance my life, that I may know and act aright.
• May my life become powerful and harmonious.
• I seek my supply in God.
• Grant me to have all power and wisdom, that I may best fulfil my life's purpose.
• Give me, Lord, Thy divine influence which I may spread among my dear ones.
• Help me to serve Thy cause.
• O Spirit of Guidance, throw Thy divine light on my path.
• Open my heart, that Thy spirit it may reflect.
• My life is changing and taking a better turn.
• My mind is still, my thought is steady, my sight is keen, my life is balanced.
• Harmonize my soul, Lord, with all people and with all conditions.
• My body is healed, my mind is fortified, and my soul is illuminated by the grace of God.
• Fortify my heart.
• Give me a new life and new inspiration, that I may see in life Thy divine inspiration.
• Make my heart Thy divine temple.

Mental Purification part6

Attitude towards self

Purification of the mind therefore means to purify it from all undesirable impressions; not only of the shortcomings of others, but one must arrive at that stage where one forgets one's own shortcomings. I have seen righteous people who have accused themselves of their errors until they became error themselves. Concentrating all the time on error means engraving the error upon the mind. The best principle is to forget others and to forget ourselves and to set our minds upon accumulating all that is good and beautiful.

There is a very significant occupation among the street boys in India. They take the earth from a certain place and they have a way of finding in that earth some metal such as gold or silver, and all day long their hands are in the dust. But looking for what? Looking for gold and silver.

When in this world of imperfection we seek for all that is good and beautiful, there are many chances of disappointment. But at the same time if we keep on looking for it, not looking at the dust but looking for the gold, we shall find it. And once we begin to find it we shall find more and more.

There comes a time in the life of a man when he can see some good in the worst man in the world. And when he has reached that point, though the good were covered with a thousand covers, he would put his hand on what is good, because he looks for good and attracts what is good.

Mental Purification part5

Attitude towards others

The right attitude depends on how favorably one regards one's own shortcomings. Very often one is ready to defend oneself for one's faults and errors, and is willing to make one's wrong right. But one has not that attitude towards others. One takes them to task when it comes to judging them. It is so easy to disapprove of others! It is so easy to take a step further and to dislike others, and not at all difficult to take a step further still and to hate others. And when one is acting in this manner, one does not think one does any wrong. Although it is a condition which develops within, one only sees it without; all the badness which accumulates within, one sees in another person. Therefore man is always in an illusion; he is always pleased with himself and always blaming others. And the extraordinary thing is, that it is the most blameworthy who blames most. But it is expressed better the other way round: because one blames most, one becomes most blameworthy.

There is beauty of form, of color, of line, of manner, of character. In some persons beauty is lacking, in other persons there is more of it; it is only the comparison that makes us think that one person is better than the other. If we did not compare, then every person would be good; it is the comparison which makes us consider one thing more beautiful than another. But if we looked more carefully we should see the beauty that is in that other one too. Very often our comparison is not right for the very reason that although today we determine in our mind what is good and beautiful, we are liable to change that conception in a month's, a year's time. That shows us that when we look at something, we are capable of appreciating it if its beauty manifests to our view.

There is nothing to be surprised at when one person arrives at the stage where he says, "Everything I see in this world, I love it all in spite of all pains and struggles and difficulties; it is all worth while"; but another says, "It is all miserable, life is ugly; there is no speck of beauty in this world."

Each is right from his point of view. They are both sincere. But they differ because they look at it differently. Each of these persons has his reason to approve of life or to disapprove of it. Only, the one benefits himself by the vision of beauty and the other loses by not appreciating it, by not seeing the beauty in it.

By a wrong attitude, therefore, a person accumulates in his mind undesirable impressions coming from people, since no one in this world is perfect. Everyone has a side which can be criticized and wants repairing. When one looks at that side, one accumulates impressions which make one more and more imperfect because they collect imperfection; and then that becomes one's world. And when the mind has become a sponge full of undesirable impressions, then what is emitted from it is undesirable also. No one can speak ill of another without making it his own; because the one speaking ill of others is ill himself.

Thus the purification of the mind, from a moral point of view, should be learned in one's everyday life; by trying to consider things sympathetically, favorably, by looking at others as one looks at oneself, by putting oneself in their position instead of accusing others on seeing their infirmities. Souls on earth are born imperfect and show imperfection, and from this they develop naturally, coming to perfection. If all were perfect, there would have been no purpose in their creation. And manifestation has taken place so that every being here may rise from imperfection towards perfection. That is the object and joy of life and for that this world was created. And if we expected every person to be perfect and conditions to be perfect, then there would be no joy in living and no purpose in coming here.

Mental Purification part4

Purification by Attitude

The third way of purifying the mind is by attitude; by the right attitude towards life. That is the moral way and the royal road to purification. A person may breathe and sit in silence in a thousand postures, but if he does not have the right attitude towards life, he will never develop; that is the principal thing. But the question is, what is the right attitude?

Mental Purification part3

Purification by Breathing

The second way of purifying the mind is by the way of breathing. It is very interesting for an Eastern person to see how sometimes in the West, in their inventions, people unconsciously apply the principles of the mystical realms. They have got a machine which sweeps carpets while sucking up the dust. This is the same system inside out: the proper way of breathing sucks up the dust from the mind and ejects it. The scientist goes so far as to say that a person exhales carbon dioxide; the bad gases are thrown out of the body by exhaling. The mystic goes further, saying it is not only from the body, but from the mind also. If one knew how to remove impurities, one could remove more than one would imagine. Impurities of mind can be thrown out by the right way of breathing; that is why mystics combine breathing with posture.
Posture helps the stilling of mind, breathing helps the cleansing of mind; these two go together.

Mental Purification part2

Purification by Stilling the Mind

The first way is the stilling of the mind, because it is very often the activity of the mind which produces impurities. The stilling of the mind removes impurities from it; it is like tuning the mind to its natural pitch. The mind can be likened to a pool of water: when the water in the pool is undisturbed, the reflection is clear; and so it is with the mind. If the mind is disturbed, one does not receive intuition, inspiration, clearly in it. Once the mind is still it takes a clear reflection, as the pool of water does when the water in the pool is still.

This condition is brought about by the practice of physical repose. By sitting in a certain posture a certain effect is created. Mystics in their science know of different ways of sitting in silence, and each way has a certain significance. And it is not only an imaginary significance; it produces a definite result. I have had, both personally and through other persons, many experiences of how a certain way of sitting changes the attitude of mind. And the ancient people knew this, and they found different ways for different persons to sit. There was the warrior's way, the student's way, the way of the meditative person, the way of the business man, of the laborer, of the lawyer, of the judge, of the inventor. Imagine, how wonderful that the mystic should have found this out and have had the experience of it for thousands of years--the great effect that sitting in a certain posture has on a person and especially on his mind.

We experience it in our everyday life, but we do not think about it. We happen to sit in a certain way and we feel restless; and we happen to sit in another way and we feel peaceful. A certain position makes us feel inspired, and another way of sitting makes us feel unenergetic, without enthusiasm. By stilling the mind with the help of a certain posture, one is able to purify it.

Mental Purification part1

Becoming Natural

In as much as it is necessary to cleanse and purify the body, so necessary, or perhaps even more necessary, is it that the mind be cleansed and purified. All impurity causes diseases as well as irregularity in the working of the physical system. The same applies to the mind.

There are impurities belonging to the mind which may cause different diseases, and by cleansing the mind one helps to create health both in body and mind. By health I mean the natural condition. And what is spirituality but to be natural?

Very few think like this. So many people think that to be spiritual means to be able to work wonders, to be able to see strange things, wonderful phenomena; and very few know how simple it is, that to be spiritual means to be natural.

Mental purification can be done in three different ways.

The Moral of Love...Sins Against Love

Though love is light it becomes darkness when its law is not understood. Just as water, which cleans all things, becomes mud when mixed with earth, so love, when not understood rightly and when directed wrongly, becomes a curse instead of bliss. There are five chief sins against love, which turn nectar into poison.

1. The first is when the lover deprives the beloved of freedom and happiness against her desire, because of his love;
2. the next is when the lover gives way to a spirit of rivalry and jealousy or bitterness in love;
3. thirdly, if the lover doubts, distrusts, and suspects the one whom he loves;
4. fourthly, if he shrinks from enduring all the sorrows, pains, troubles, difficulties, and sufferings that come in the path of love; and
5. finally, when the lover pursues his own will instead of complete resignation to the beloved's wish.

These are the natural failings of a loving heart. As maladies are natural to the physical body, as lack of health makes life miserable, so lack of love makes the heart wretched. Only the lover who avoids these faults benefits by love, and arrives safely at his destination.

The Philosophy of Love... part 5

When love is centered in one object, it is love. When it is for several objects it is named affection. When it is like a cloud, it is called infatuation. When its trend is moral, it is devotion. When it is for God, the omnipresent and omnipotent, in fact, the whole Being, then it is called divine love, the lover becomes holy.


There is no greater power than love. All strength comes with the awakening of love in the heart. People say, "He is tenderhearted, he is weak," but there are many who do not know what strength springs from the heart that becomes tender in love. A soldier fights on the battle-field for love of his people. Every work that one does in love is done with all strength and power. Fear and reason, which limit power, cannot stand against love. A hen, timid as she is, can withstand a lion for the love of her young ones. There is nothing too strong, too powerful for a loving heart.


The power of love accomplishes all things in life as does the power of dynamite that conquers the world. But when dynamite explodes it sets everything on fire, and so it is with love: when it is too intense it becomes a wheel of destruction, and everything goes amiss in the life of the lover. That is the mystery that accounts for all the pain and misery in the life of a lover. Still, the lover is the gainer in both cases. If he has mastered the situation he is a master; if he has lost everything he is a saint.


Love is above law, and law is beneath love. There is no comparison between them; one is from heaven and the other from earth. Where love dies law begins. Therefore law can never find a place for love, nor can love ever limit itself within law, one being limited, the other being as unlimited as life. The lover can give no reason why he loves a certain one, for there is a reason for everything except love.
Time and space are in the hands of love. A journey of miles will become a few yards in the presence of the beloved, and yards become miles in his absence. A day of separation in love is equal to a thousand years, and a thousand years of the beloved's presence are not even as long as a day.


If there is any protecting influence in the world, it is no other than love. In all aspects of life, wherever we find protection, its motive is always love, and no one can have trust in any protection, however great, except the protection that love offers. If a giant were to frighten a child, the child would say, "I will tell my mother." The strength and power of any man is too small in comparison with love's protection which the mother affords her child.


Love can heal better than anything in the world. There is nothing like a mother's touch when a child is in pain. There can be no greater cure than the presence of the beloved in the illness of the lover. Even cats and dogs are healed by a little pat of love.
For thought-reading, for sending and receiving telepathic messages, people try psychical processes in vain. If they only knew that the secret of all occult and psychical phenomena lies in love! The lover knows all: the pleasure, the displeasure, the happiness and unhappiness, the thoughts and imaginations, of the beloved. No time, no space, stands in his way, for a telepathic current is naturally established between the lover and the beloved. The lover's imagination, thought, dream, and vision, everything tells him all about the object of his love.


Concentration, which is the secret of every attainment in life, and the chief thing in all aspects of life, especially in the path of religion and mysticism, is a natural thing in love. The loveless will strive for years in this path, and will always fail to center their minds on one object; but love compels the lover, holding before his admiring view the vision of the beloved. Therefore the lover need not concentrate his mind; his love itself is his concentration which gives him mastery over all things in the world.



The lover attains the object of his love by the power of concentration; and if he does not attain the object, then he rises beyond it. In either case the lover has his reward.

The Philosophy of Love... part 4

The love of the parents for the children is much greater than the love of the children towards them, for while the parents' thought is all centered in the children, the children's thought is for themselves first.

Someone asked the Prophet, "Whose love is greater, the children's love for their parents or the parents" for their children?" He said, "The parents" love is greater, for while they do all things with the thought that their children may grow and be happy and will live after them, as if they expect to live in the life of their children after their death. Even worthy children think that some day the parents will die, and with this thought they render them what little service they can."

The questioner asked, "Of the parents, whose love is greater?" The Prophet said, "The mother's; the greater respect and service is due to her, for heaven lies at her feet."

The love of the parents is most blessed, for this love is clear as crystal.

The Philosophy of Love... part 3

All this shows that creation has evolved from mineral to plant life, from plant to animal life, and from the animal to the human being, showing a gradual development of love through every stage.
The Sufis say that the reason of the whole creation is that the perfect Being wished to know Himself, and did so by awakening the love of His nature and creating out of it His object of love, which is beauty. Dervishes, with this meaning, salute each other by saying, "Ishq Allah, Ma'bud Allah", "God is love and God is the beloved."

A Hindustani poet says, "The desire to see the beloved brought me to earth, and the same desire to see the beloved I am taking with me to heaven."

As love is the source of creation and the real sustenance of all beings, so, if man knows how to give it to the world around him as sympathy, as kindness, as service, he supplies to all the food for which every soul hungers. If man knew this secret of life he would win the whole world, without any doubt.


Love can always be discerned in the thought, speech, and action of the lover, for in his every expression there is a charm which shows as a beauty, tenderness. and delicacy. A heart burning in love's fire has a tendency to melt every heart with which it comes in contact. Love produces such a charm in the lover that while he loves one, all love him.

The magnetism of love is thus explained by a Hindustani poet: "Why should not every heart be melted into drops before the flame that my heart has sustained all through my life? As I have all my life shed tears with the pain of love, the lovers make pilgrimage to my mournful grave."

It was to teach this lesson of love that Christ said, "I will make you fishers off men."

"Everyone is drawn to me, to become my friend, but none divines what it is in my heart that draws", said Jelal-ud-Din Rumi.

Love is inherent in every soul. All the occupations of life, however important or unimportant, in some way or other tend towards love; therefore no one in the world can be called entirely loveless. Love is the only thing that every soul brings to earth with it; yet after coming to earth man partakes of all the qualities of loveliness. If it were not so, we would have been as bitter, as callous, as angry, as full of hatred when we were born as we are now. The infant has no hatred. A little child that we have scolded will in a few minutes time come and embrace us.


To love, to adore, to worship someone with whom we are connected neither by birth, race, creed, nor in any worldly connection, comes from the love of the soul. Sometimes people fall in love at first sight, sometimes the presence of someone draws a person like a magnet, sometimes one sees a person and feels, "I might have known him all my life", sometimes one speaks with another person and finds an intimacy of understanding as if the souls understood each other; all this is accosted for by the idea of soul-mates.


A heart lightened by love is more precious than all the gems and jewels of the world. There are as many different kinds of hearts as there are different substances in the world. 1)There are hearts of metal which take a long time and much fire of love to heat, and when once heated will melt and may be molded as you wish for the moment, but soon afterwards turn cold. 2 )There are hearts of wax which melt instantly at the sight of the fire, and if there is a wick of ideal, they will keep their flame until they become non-existent.
3 )There are hearts of paper which are set alight by a slight touch of the fire and turn into ashes in one moment.


Love is like the fire; its glow is devotion, its flame is wisdom, its smoke is attachment, and its ashes detachment. Flame rises from glow, so it is with wisdom, which rises from devotion. When love's fire produces its flame it illuminates the devotee's path in life like a torch, and all darkness vanishes.


When the life-force acts in the soul it is love, when it acts in the heart it is emotion, and when in the body it is passion. Therefore the most loving person is the most emotional, and the most emotional is the most passionate, according to the plane of which he is most conscious. If he is most awake in the soul he is loving, if awakened in the heart he is emotional, if he is conscious of the body he is passionate. These three may be pictured as fire, flame, and smoke. Love is fire when in the soul, it is a flame when the heart is kindled by it, and it is as smoke when it manifests through the body.

1. The first love is for the self. If illuminated, man sees his true benefit and he becomes a saint. In the absence of illumination man becomes so selfish that he becomes a devil.
2. The second love is for the opposite sex. If it is for love's sake it is heavenly; if it is for passion's sake it is earthly. This, if it is quite pure, can certainly take away the idea of the self, but the benefit is slight and the danger is great.
3. The third love is for the children, and this is the first service to God's creatures. To reserve it for one's children only is like appropriating to oneself what is given to us as a trust by the Creator, but if this love expands to embrace the whole creation of the Heavenly Father, it raises man to be among the chosen ones of God.