Hazrat Inayat Khan taught a message that he described as one of love, harmony and beauty. We respond easily to the word ‘love’ and we may light up at an impression of beauty, but perhaps less compelling is the word ‘harmony.’ For many, it seems to be not a front member of the band but more of a backup vocalist. How could the spiritual seeker relate to this term which is apparently as important to our journey as are beauty and love?

If two voices sing together, they may sing the same notes, in unison; they may sing unrelated notes, probably resulting in a cacophony; or they may sing notes that have their own melodic integrity but which form pleasing intervals with each other – which is to say, in harmony. Similarly, in a painting the forms and colours may respect each other while each retains its own integrity. In this way the composition gains life. Evidently, harmony is not an absolute quality but is something that arises from the relationship between elements. Indeed, the word harmony comes from a root which means ‘joined together’.

Often, we are more aware of harmony by its absence than by its presence. Some situations are difficult, and for most of us there are some people with whom we find it difficult to get along. If we look beyond our own horizon to the wider world, the disharmony between groups and nations seems to grow more painful and more visible every day, Therefore we might easily agree with Hazrat Inayat Khan that the world Message should include this essential quality. Surely everyone would wish for more harmony – but are we ourselves harmonious? Before there can be harmony in the world, we must learn to be harmonious, and that must begin by finding harmony in ourselves.

It is a very common assumption that each person represents a single, coherent point of view, but this is seldom the case. Hazrat Inayat Khan said that if we examine ourselves carefully, we discover that we are made of many lives; every cell of our body has a life and ultimately a death, and recent science has shown that the microbes that live within us, although apparently separate lives, affect our health and mood. The thoughts that pass through our mind also have a life, and often they are in conflict. If we scrutinise our thoughts carefully, we may recognize that there are even some voices in our consciousness with which we completely disagree. Sometimes we are unaware of this, assuming that whichever thought is speaking most loudly at the moment is ‘me,’ but a useful description would be to say that each person is like a crowded city, and if all the parts of that city are not in harmony, then our will is inevitably divided and we have little possibility of achieving the purpose of life.

It is a useful discipline to observe carefully our thoughts and feelings, and try to keep them focused on one goal, but we will not attain harmony by force – it can only be found through love. This is expressed in Gayan Boulas this way : Love develops into harmony, and of harmony is born beauty. The alchemical power of love dissolves our barriers and allows us to see wholeness; when our horizon widens, we understand more easily the inter-relation of parts, and helping them fit together becomes a pleasure. From that cultivation of harmony grows the plant of beauty. But the first, essential element is love, and so the spiritual seeker should begin with these questions: what do I love? How strongly do I love? Can my love be strengthened? The one who asks these questions sincerely will come to know the truth of this saying from Gayan Chalas: True happiness is in the love-stream that springs from one’s soul, and the man who will allow this stream to flow continually, in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness that truly belongs to him.