In 1910, the highly accomplished but still young professor of music Inayat Khan received an invitation to give some lectures in the United States of America. It was the opportunity he had been waiting for; together with his brother Maheboob and his cousin-brother Ali Khan, he promptly set sail from Bombay  Later, viewing the date of his sailing as the beginning of his work for the Message, he named it ‘Hejirat Day,’ which means the day of going forth from one’s country.  Here from his Autobiography is a glimpse of the currents that surged within him during that voyage.

I was transported by destiny from the world of lyric and poetry to the world of industry and commerce on the 13th of September 1910.  I bade farewell to my motherland, the soil of India, the land of the sun, for America, the land of my future, wondering: “Perhaps I shall return one day,” and yet I did not know how long it would be before I should return.  The ocean that I had to cross seemed to me a gulf between the life that was past and the life that was to begin  I spent my moments on the ship looking at the rising and falling of the waves and realising in this rise and fall the picture of life reflected, the life of individuals, of nations, of races, and of the world.  I tried to think where I was going, why I was going, what I was going to do, what was in store for me.  “How shall I set to work?  Will the people be favourable or unfavourable to the Message which I am taking from one end of the world to the other?” It seemed my mind moved curiously on these questions, but my heart refused to ponder upon them even for a moment, answering apart one constant voice I always heard coming form within, urging me constantly onward to my task, saying : “Thou art sent on Our service, and it is We Who will make thy way clear.” This alone was my consolation.

This period while I was on the way was to me a state which one experiences between a dream and an awakening; my whole past in India became one single dream, not a purposeless dream but a dream preparing me to accomplish something toward which I was proceeding.  There were moments of sadness, of feeling myself removed further and further from the land of my birth, and moments of great joy, with the hope of nearing the Western regions for which my soul was destined.  And at moments I felt too small and little for my ideals and inspirations, comparing my limited self with the vast world. But at moments, realising Whose work it was, Whose service it was, Whose call it was, the answer which my heart gave moved me to ecstasy, as if I had risen to the realisation of Truth above the limitations which weigh mankind down.