Although the Christmas season is fading now, the following message may still be welcome. It is the text of a radio address made by Hazrat Inayat Khan in New York, December 25, 1925.

As a call of heaven to the earth, as a kiss of the sun to the moon, as a word of God to man is the message of the East to the West. What does it bring to you, friends? It brings to you good tidings, with gushing streams of love and goodwill, flowing from the East to the West, with the promise of the breaking of the dawn. East and West, which are as the two hands of the same body, shall come closer together in sympathy and in understanding. While one hand was holding the thinking head, the other hand has been busy at work. It is the exchange of thought and action between the Orient and Occident which will balance the world.

What does thought mean? Penetration of mind through spirit and matter. What does it bring about? A communication between the knower and the knowledge, between man and life. The intellectually developed person sees but the one side of life. This is what makes the difference between a clever person and a wise man. Wisdom that is gained by learning is only worldly wisdom, but that wisdom which is spiritually gained widens the horizon of man’s outlook, deepens his thought, gives him that heavenly joy which earthly pleasures cannot give, and brings to his heart that peace which is not experienced on earth.

Spiritual wakening does not mean to be religious, nor does it mean to be virtuous in the worldly sense of the word. It means to realize self to its greatest height and deepest depth. This realization makes one feel the whole universe within, and one finds all that one seeks after within oneself. As it is said in the Gayan, “When a glimpse of our image is caught in man, when heaven and earth are sought in man, then what is there in the world that is not in man? If one only explores him, there is a lot in man.”

The East must adopt the Western methods of invention, of commerce, of industry. The West must attain to the spiritual realization with lofty ideals of the East. So East and West both will appreciate one another’s fruits of labour. The ignorance which has kept mankind divided in sections of caste, creed, race, nation, or religion will clear away like the mist in the sun, and a bond of sympathy will be established between man and man.

Is the world at peace now? Is humanity really progressing? Is matter all that is there? No. Peace in the world must be brought about; real progress will be made when humanity will advance spiritually. Matter is not all that is there. There is something higher than this. That is the domain of greater realization of the higher consciousness. Will man neglect this, and if he did, how long will he remain contented without it? Sooner or later there will come a time when individuals and the multitude, bound by their predisposition, will search after truth that stands beyond facts. Has the time of slumber ended with the end of the year? Let us hope so. We shall look forward to that day when industrial and commercial development will not alone be the sign of civilization, but when in the realm of spiritual culture civilization will manifest.

What education will be given to the coming generations? The ennobling of the soul, the widening of the outlook on life, the raising of consciousness. What will this make of them? Not ascetics, not orthodox, not religiously bigoted people, but souls conscious of brotherhood who will regard the pleasure and displeasure of God in the pleasure and displeasure of man. Their strife will not be a strife only after the treasures of the earth; their minds will think, their hearts will feel, their souls will see life within and without. Will they be worldly people, will they be heavenly souls? They will be both. They will give to the world what is due to the world, and they will give to God what is due to God.

There must come a day when the followers of all different denominations, be they Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or Jews, will feel themselves at home in the other’s place of worship as they would in their own church, and so they will inaugurate Universal Worship. As the Sufi says,
A church, a temple, or a Ka’ba stone,
Qur’an or Bible or Martyr’s bone,
All these and more my heart can tolerate,
Since my religion now is love alone.

Now I raise my hands heavenwards and wish:
May God grant you,
Thought that expandeth,
Feeling that deepeneth,
Friendship that lasteth long,
Love that changeth not,
A treasure that ever groweth,
Happiness that endeth not,
Faith that reason cannot shake,
Devotion that endureth all tests,
Light that continually burneth,
Life that liveth for ever.

God bless you.