On a Wednesday evening in late April of 1926, Hazrat Inayat Khan spoke to an audience in Chicago on the subject of the soul. The Master had been visiting the United States for more than four months by then, and he knew that the country was racing ahead commercially and industrially; it was becoming thoroughly ‘modern,’ meaning that people seldom had time for what they saw as the antique furniture of religion and ‘God.’ Nevertheless, he also found a strong search for spirituality, though it was often restless and unfocused. Here he endeavours to show the way from the materialistic science of the outer world to the inner reality. As the lecture is quite lengthy, it will be posted in instalments.
The Soul, its Origin and Unfoldment
Beloved ones of God,
My subject of this evening is the soul, its origin and unfoldment.
When we look at life and the process of development, either from the mystic point of view or from the scientific point of view, we shall find that it is one life developing itself through different phases. In other words, there is one vital substance, call it energy or intelligence, call it force, call it light, call it God or spirit, which is forcing its way out from the most dense aspect of nature, coming to the finest aspect of nature.
For instance, by the study of the mineral kingdom we shall find a life there forcing its way out. When you look at it scientifically, you will find from the mineral kingdom come substances such as gold and silver and precious stones. That means there is a process by which it becomes finer and finer and finer till it begins to show that the spirit is radiance, intelligence is beauty, that it even manifests through the precious stones. That is a scientific point of view. And when you come to a mystical point of view, if you go among rocks, if you stand in the mountains, if you go in the solitude where there is no one else, and you are alone there, you begin to feel an upliftment, you begin to feel a sense of peace, a kind of at-one-ment with the rocks, hills and mountains. And what is it? It is the same spirit which is in you, the same in the mountains and rocks. That spirit is buried in rocks, not so much in ourselves. But it is the same spirit. For that reason, we are attracted to mountains, although mountains are not so living; therefore, they are not so attracted, we more. Besides, what can we give to the mountains? Lack of peace, discord, our inharmony, our limitations. What can the mountains give us? Harmony, peace, a calmness, a quietness, a sense of patience, endurance. What do they inspire us with? The idea that they have been waiting perhaps for thousands of years for an unfoldment which comes by the development of nature from rock to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to man. And it is all this gradual unfoldment of the spirit which is buried in all these different aspects of nature. And at each step, from rock to plant, from plant to animal, and from animal to man, the spirit is able to express itself more freely, able to move itself more freely. In this way the spirit finds itself in the end.
What does it show? It shows that there is one purpose working through the whole creation. The rocks are working out the same destiny as man, the plants are growing towards the same goal as man. What is that goal? Unfoldment. That the spirit is buried in them and wants to make its way out. That at each step of evolution there is a new unfoldment, a greater opening. Darwin has given to the scientific world scientific ideas. From the animal, as Darwin says, man has come. It might seem to a person that it is a new scientific discovery. It is not true. There are proofs in the books of the Persian poets, a poet who existed seven hundred years before Darwin, who says in his poetic terms, in religious form, that God slept in the rock, dreamed in the plant, awoke in the animal, and realized himself in man. Perhaps he has not said it in detail and as plainly from where man has come. But the outlook is given by a poet so many hundred years before. And fifteen hundred years before,* Prophet Muhammad in giving Qur’an says the same thing. That first was the rock, and from that came the plant, and afterwards animals, and from that man was created.
Now the difference between the biological and scientific point of view and the mystical and prophetic point of view is this: a material scientist looks at it in this way, that here is rock; by a process of development a kind of life has come into it; then vibrations increase and from animals comes man; man is a developed animal. So from perfect denseness intelligence has developed. The mystical conception is different. A mystic does not trace the origin of life in the rock. He traces it in spirit. You may say, “What is spirit?” The spirit is intelligence. But one might think that, “We don’t see intelligence in the rock, in the animals.” The answer is that we must first distinguish between spirit and matter, what difference there is between these two. The spirit is finer matter; the matter is the dense spirit. In other words, the water is snow and the snow is water. When the water is not frozen it is water. When it is frozen it is snow. When again it is heated, again it is water. The same thing with spirit and matter. There are many in this world inclined to say, “Matter does not exist.” It is easy to say, but difficult to prove. Besides, is it not a conception? Others say, “Spirit does not exist.” What is needed is to understand the relation between the two and the difference between the two. When I was travelling in the ship, a young Italian was travelling with me. Looking at me, he thought I was a priest. He, a young atheistic man, began to say, “What is your belief?” I said, “Nobody can say his belief; it cannot be put in words. But may I ask what is yours? Perhaps you can better say than I do.” “Well,” he said, “I believe in eternal matter.” I said, “My belief is not very far from your belief. What you call eternal matter, I call it eternal spirit. The dispute is over the words.” If you don’t stick to preconceived words, there is no difference. Many in this world argue over words. If you get to the sense, there is no dispute left. If he sees the eternal aspect in matter, which is ever-changing, let him call it eternal. It does not matter. It is the eternal aspect of life we are looking for.
To be continued…
*This is not an exact date. According to Muslim belief, the revelation of the Qur’an began in 610 CE.