It is human nature that we love to interpret every subject according to our own situation. Whatever the topic, we apply it to ourselves in some way or other. If Hazrat Inayat Khan tells us that there are three paths to spiritual attainment, those of the Master, the Saint and the Prophet, we naturally wonder which one we ourselves are treading, although we may not show in the least the qualities of any of the three. If we read a text on the seven levels of heaven, we make a quick estimate as to which level we might be allowed to enter—assuming of course that we do not go in another direction. And when we read, in the first portion of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teaching of the Law of Action, that the law given by the prophets is related to ‘the people of that period in their particular evolution,’ it is not surprising if we ask, ‘Yes? Then, what is the nature of our evolution now, and what ‘law’ could be given to us?’

The prayer Salat speaks of the messenger who comes ‘as a dove from Above when Dharma decayeth.’ Dharma is a word that is used variously in the East; one possible meaning is the behaviours that are in accord with the order that makes life possible, or ‘right living,’ especially as given by religious teaching. Throughout history, messengers or teachers have come to one group or another and given counsel in a form that was comprehensible to that community. But, just as the tone of even the purest bell slowly fades, so also the effect of the teachings, or the dharma, slowly decays, and society becomes less and less attuned to the divine ideal.

Each time the message is given, it comes as a response to the need of the day, and for that reason, it may appear to some to be a different message, but in truth there is merely a difference in tone. This is the point of the recently posted story about the birth of Jesus, and Satan’s recognition that the methods of the devils would have to change as a consequence. The goal —and the enemy— both remain the same.

No doubt Hazrat Inayat Khan faced many obstacles in his effort to spread the message, such as cultural differences for example, but the one which he mentioned repeatedly was the growing materialism of the world. By this he meant not only an obsession with material wealth, but also the resulting and wide-spread lack of awareness of the finer aspect of life, or the spirit. To many today, all must be explicable in material terms, as for example, to scientists who puzzle over how consciousness can arise from the complicated jelly we carry between our ears. From the mystical point of view, the brain helps to focus consciousness in a certain way, but consciousness existed long before the brain was formed and is in fact eternal.

Then, if the illness of our age is materialism, what can be the remedy? We are lost in the darkness of the labyrinth and we need to rediscover the gateway to the world of light; that gateway is of course the heart. When the heart begins to open, our understanding of life changes completely, as any lover will tell you. And what is it that awakens love? The perception of beauty. And in homage to beauty, we strive for harmony. Therefore we have been given the message of love, harmony and beauty, and blessed indeed is the person who can make it a reality in their life.