Hazrat Inayat Khan continues his teaching on the voice that may be encountered in places. The previous post in the series is here.

I once had an amusing experience during my travels in India. I happened to arrive at the place of the tomb of a most powerful person. I learned that often when a person visited this tomb, he came down with a fever. This amused me. I asked, ‘What is the reason for this?’ I was told, ‘This great personality was hot tempered. Although most spiritual, he could not tolerate anyone. He would keep everyone at a bamboo’s distance. So now, anyone going near this tomb gets a fever.’ I thought, ‘I must bow from a distance and leave!’

I also happened to see a place where a great healer, Miran Datar, used to sit. Throughout his life he healed thousands of patients, and many he healed instantly. In that same place, his grave was made, and till this day people are attracted to his tomb. Those who touch this place are healed instantly.

There is a story in the East of five brothers who were traveling and arrived at a place where they found that each one had lost his merit, for each was gifted in something. They were confused and disappointed, and they were wondering about the reason for such an experience. The wise one amongst them found, in the end, through the power of concentration, that it was the effect of the place. The place had lost its life, it was a dead place, and everyone who came there felt as if he had no life in him. The inner life had gone. We see this in land which after having been used for many thousands of years has lost the strength, the vitality of the earth. If outwardly the land can lose it, then inwardly the vitality, the breath of the land, can also be lost.

Often one feels most inspired in one place, and in another, most depressed. In one place they feel confused, in another place, dull. One finds nothing of interest, nothing to attract. One might think it is the effect of the weather, but there are places outwardly most beautiful in nature with a wonderful climate, yet one does not feel inspired there.

If an artist is born in a dead country, then his talent cannot be developed there. There is no nourishment, his artistic impulse will become paralyzed. Even a plant cannot live on itself, it must have air, sun and water. Yet a prophet can inspire a dead land just by passing through it.

 Jalaluddin Rumi said centuries ago that before everyone fire, water, earth and air are objects; before God they are living beings that work at His command. The meaning of what Rumi said is that all objects, all places, are as gramophone records. What is put into them, they speak. Either one’s soul hears it, or one’s mind, according to one’s development.

To be continued…