With this post we begin the first of a three part series in which Hazrat Inayat Khan clearly elaborates a number of structures to help us understand the consequences of all that we think, say and do.

           To say that results are according to deeds sounds simple, for almost everyone knows it, but not everyone always follows it; and the reason is that knowing a law does not necessarily enable man to observe that law. Besides, the nature of life is so intoxicating that, absorbed in the activity of life, one mostly forgets this rule. It is natural, however, that this most simple thing should be very difficult to practice, because one generally neglects to think seriously about it. In order to prove this theory, that the results of a deed are similar to the deed, one need not go far. One can see numberless examples in one’s own life and in the lives of others, for it is like an echo; what one does has an echo, and in that echo is the result.

            Zarathushtra says that actions may be divided into three kinds: deed, speech, and thought. One may not do wrong, but one may speak wrongly. One may not speak wrongly, but one may think wrongly; and the wrong is done just the same. And how many people excuse themselves by saying, ‘I only said it, but I did not do it!’ A person can even excuse himself by saying, ‘I did not say it, I only thought it.’

No one can do, say, or think anything for one moment
which will become non-existent.

            According to the ideas of the mystics, the world in which we make our life is an akasha, and akasha means capacity. It is pictured by them as a dome; and whatever is spoken in it has its echo; therefore no one can do, say, or think anything for one moment which will become non-existent. It is recorded; and that record is creative. It is not only what one does, says, or thinks that is recorded in the memory or in the atmosphere, but that record also creates at every moment, so that every line and letter of it becomes the seed or the germ that produces a similar effect.

            I once heard a sculptor say that every man is the sculptor of his own image. Not only is this true, but every man is also the creator of his own conditions, favorable or unfavorable. The difficulty is that man never has the patience to wait till he sees the result, for the result takes some time to manifest, and before that he may meet with contrary effects. For instance, a man who has just robbed another person may have the good luck to find in the street a purse full of gold coins. Naturally he will think, ‘What a good result after good work! Now that it is shown that I have done good work, I must continue it! It is the simple ones who say things against it, but I have seen the good results in my own experience!’ Life is so intoxicating that it gives man no time to think that the result of one’s deed is perhaps waiting; that which happens today may be the result of something else further back.

            When we consider the law of action, we see that it can be divided into five different aspects. One aspect is the law of the community, for this law is made for the comfort and convenience of the members of that community. Another aspect can be called the law of the state; it is the law by which different classes of people and different communities are governed as one whole. No doubt this aspect of the law is as limited as the mind of man. Naturally, therefore, many laws are rejected, and many new laws are made and brought into practice. And as time goes on people will see that the members of the community or the state will always wish for changes to be made in the law. This has always been and will always be.

            The third aspect of the law is the law of a Church, a law which perhaps comes from tradition, a law that people accept, not only because it is a law by which they are governed, but because it is a law that is concerned with their faith, with their belief, which is sacred to them. It is this law which builds a conscience, more than any other aspect of the law.

            But then there is another aspect and that is the law brought by the prophets from time to time. And what is this law? It comes as an interpretation of the hidden law which a prophet has been able to see; but a law given by a prophet is also related to the period in which he lived, to the people of that period in their particular evolution. Thus this law is brought about by two actions. One action is the condition of humanity at that specific time, reflected in the heart of the prophet; and the other is the light of God, shining from above to make that condition so clear that a solution can be found for it; it is this solution which can be called the divine law, given by the prophet.

To be continued…