Following his introductory lecture on voices, Hazrat Inayat answered some questions fro the audience.

Question: When many people have lived somewhere for a long time, would there not be a confusion of voices, or would one voice predominate?

Answer: There is a dominating voice which is more distinct than the other voices. At the same time, as one feels what a composer wishes to convey through the whole music he writes, through all the instruments, so even the different voices which are going on together make one result, and that result comes as a symphony to the person who can hear them together. A collective thought comes when one can perceive it, especially in a town, in a new city. It is a kind of voice of the past and a voice of the present, the voice of all as one music. It has its peculiar and particular effect.

Question: Would the thoughts of people coming afterwards prolong the initial thought?

Answer: No, it would add to it. For instance, if there is a flute, then a clarinet, a trumpet or a trombone added to it will make up the volume of sound; however, there is always one instrument that plays the first part. The main voice stands as a breath, and all the other voices attracted to it build around it a form. The breath remains as life. The form may be composed and decomposed, but the breath remains as life.

Question: Does the duration of the impression that Abraham made upon the Ka’aba stone depend upon its intensity, or upon the sacredness of the thought?

Answer: When the thought comes from an evolved person, this has a greater power than the thought itself, than what the thought contains, because the person is the life of that thought. The thought is the cover over that life. Perhaps Abraham would not have been able to engrave any other stone with that same power he had when he came with his fresh impression after his initiation. At that time the impression was perhaps more intense than at any other time of his life, before or after.

Abraham said, ‘This stone I set here in memory of initiation, as a sign of God to be understood as One God. This stone will remain forever as a temple.’ He was not a king or a rich man. He could not build a temple, he could only put up this one stone. However, this stone has remained for a much longer time than many temples built with riches.

This is only one example, but there are numerous examples to be found. There is the atmosphere of Benares, and there are the vibrations of Ajmer, where Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti lived, meditated and died. There is the tomb of the saint where a continual voice is going on, a vibration so strong that a person who is meditative would sit there and would like to sit there forever. It is in the midst of the city, and yet it has a feeling of wilderness because in that place the saint sat and meditated on saut-e sarmad, the cosmic symphony. Through his hearing that cosmic music continually, cosmic music has been produced there.

There was a wonderful experience during the lifetime of the Khwaja of Ajmer. To visit this saint, a great master, Khwaja Abdul Qadir Jilani, who was also an advanced soul, came from Baghdad. A remarkable meeting took place between them in Ajmer. Now, the latter was very strict in his religious observances, and the religious people would not have music. So naturally in order to respect his belief, the Khwaja of Ajmer had to sacrifice his everyday musical meditation. But when the time came, the symphony began by itself. The great master felt that, without anyone playing, the music was going on! He said to the saint, ‘Even if religion prohibits it, it is for others, not for you.’

To be continued…