With this post we conclude the talk by Hazrat Inayat Khan in 1926 begun here and continued here.
And now I come to the question of the soul’s natural unfoldment to spiritual attainment. Spiritual question apart, every stage in one’s life, infancy, from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to middle age, at every step further there is a new consciousness. Childhood is quite a new consciousness compared to infancy. Youth is quite a different consciousness compared to childhood. And if that is true, then every soul, no matter what stage of life he is in, has gone on through so many different unfoldments. Whether he knows about it, whether he thinks about it or not, but he has gone through so many different unfoldments, which have given him a new consciousness every time.
And now there are experiences such as failure in business, or misfortune, or going through an illness, or a certain blow in one’s life’s affairs. Whether it is an affair of the heart, or of money, or a social affair, whatever it may be, there are blows which fall upon a person, and a shell breaks, a new consciousness is produced. Very few will see it as an unfoldment, very few will interpret it as such, but it is so. Have you not seen among your friends a person with a disagreeable nature, most uninteresting, that you were never attracted to, and that person, perhaps after a blow, a deep sorrow, after some experience, wakens to a new consciousness and attracts you suddenly because he has gone through a process?
After the war [the First World War –ed.] a beautiful story was produced in the moving picture, that a woman who was always displeased and who never felt at-one-ment with her husband. Once, when her husband was in the war (and she was quite detached by that time), she was called to be a nurse. And it happened that she was working in the same department where her husband was brought when he was wounded. And his eyes became blind. She happened to be his nurse. He did not know it. At that time she began to feel an attraction to him such as she had never known. All ideas of separation vanished. A new outlook came to her, to serve him his whole life. There was no other plan which she thought about but that one plan, that, “I shall serve him for his whole life.” That was the change of consciousness. There was something in the woman that was changed, and a greater harmony was established. And so, as at every step in our life we unfold, so with every experience, the deeper the experience touches us, the greater the unfoldment. And in this way we unfold gradually toward that which is called perfection.
And now coming to the question of spiritual unfoldment, which is the ultimate goal of every person. This spiritual unfoldment comes at a moment when a person begins to be more thoughtful. And when a person begins to remember or to realize this yearning of the soul, consciously or unconsciously a feeling comes: “Is this all I have to do in my life, to earn money? If that is all, whether it is a high rank or position, it is all a play. I have become tired of this play; I should think of something else. There is something else I have to attain to.” That is the beginning. That is the first step on the spiritual path. As soon as a person has taken that first step, his outlook is changed, the value of things becomes different and things to which he had attached greater importance, they become of less importance. Things with which he concerned himself so much, he does not any more concern himself with. A kind of indifference comes. Nevertheless, a thoughtful person keeps to his duty just the same; on the contrary, he is more conscientious. It brings about a greater harmony because he begins to pity others.
And one step forward he goes, there comes bewilderment. He begins to wonder, “What is it? Much ado about nothing.” As once it gave me a great thought to think about, when I saw once in India a sage whom I knew to be very deep, a man of high attainment. He was laughing at nothing. I wondered, “What is he laughing at?” Then I stood there and looked at things myself, thinking I must see from his point of view what makes him laugh so much. And I saw persons hustling and bustling–for what? Is it not laughable? Every person thinks it is that particular point of view which is most important. He pushes others away because he finds his action the most important one. Is this not the picture of life? It is the way of the evolved and unevolved. And toward what do they reach? Toward nothingness. Empty-handed they leave this world. They come without anything, and they go without anything. It is this outlook which gives the soul a bewilderment. He does not feel proud to laugh at others, but at the same time it is amusing, no doubt. As much he is amused at others, as much he is amused at himself. The same way.
And when one goes a step forward, there comes an understanding, and that changes the outlook and manner of the person. Generally what happens is this, from morning till evening a person reacts against every good and bad thing. But good he sees very rarely, he always sees bad things. Or he meets a nervous person, or an excited person, or a dominant person, or a selfish person or something. Therefore, there is all the time a continual jarring effect from everyone a person meets. Then his continual action, without knowing, is of despising, of hatred, of the thought to get away. That is all the time before him. If a person can say that, “I don’t like,” “I dislike,” he can say it from morning till evening with every person he meets. There is rarely one about whom a person does not say such a word. And this reaction one expresses in words, or thought, by feeling, by expression, or action. And when one reaches this third stage of understanding, one begins to understand instead of reacting. Then there is no reaction, but understanding comes and suppresses it. It is just like a boat which is anchored. It produces tranquillity, stillness, weight in the personality. It does not move with every wind which is blowing, but it stays like a heavy ship on the water, not like a light ship which moves with every wave that comes. That stability a person gets in this third stage of unfoldment. He is ready to tolerate, to understand, the wise and foolish, all.
Is it not very amusing to think that the foolish person disagrees more with others than the wise? One might think that he knows more than the wise, but it is not so. The wise agrees with foolish and wise; the one who disagrees most is the foolish, not the wise. The wise is ready to understand everybody’s point of view. It may not be his idea, his way of looking, but he is capable of looking at things from the point of view of others. It is not one eye that sees fully. To make the vision complete, two eyes are needed. So the wise can see from two points of view. And if we do not keep away our own thought and preconceived idea, if we cannot be passive and desirous of seeing from the point of view of another, we make a great mistake. That third stage gives a tendency to understand every person one meets.
And then again there is a fourth stage of the unfoldment. In that fourth stage you do not only understand, but you sympathize; you cannot help but sympathize, for you can see that the life in the world is nothing but limitation. Whether a person is rich or in a position, or in a wretched condition, whatever condition he has or whatever the person is, he has to experience this limitation. And that itself is a great misery. And therefore, every person has his problem before him, and you cannot help. When you begin to see every person on this earth with a certain problem and weight to carry through life, you cannot help but sympathize. The one who can wake to the pain of mankind, whether it be his friend or his foe, he cannot help but sympathize with him. Then he has a tendency of outgoing, he has always the feeling to go out to each person he meets. Then naturally, by his sympathy he looks for good points. When one looks at a person without sympathy, he will always touch his worst point.
And if one went a step further still, then a way is open to communicate. As there is a communication between persons loving one another most, a person with soul’s unfoldment, his sympathy is so wakened that not only every person, but even every object begins to reveal its nature, character and secret. To him every man is a written letter before him. We hear stories of saints and sages who talked with rocks and plants and trees. It is not only a story, it is reality. And again there is a story of the apostles, that in a moment when the spirit descended upon them, they began to talk so many languages. It does not mean they spoke French, English, German, Italian and Greek. I have seen many who knew three other languages. Were they saints and sages? No. The apostles, when they understood so many languages, it means they understood the language of every soul. It means, in other words, that the illuminated soul understands the language of every soul. And every soul has its own language. It is that which is called revelation. All the teachings that the great prophets and teachers have given are only interpretations of what they have seen and have interpreted in their own language from what they have read from this manuscript of nature, that trees and plants and rocks spoke to them. Did they only speak to those in the past? No. The soul of man is always capable of that bliss, if it only realized. Once the eyes of the heart are open, it begins to read every leaf of the tree as a page of the sacred book.
God bless you.
Amaaazing! Step by step. So clear.