Having spoken about the voices that a place may acquire, Hazrat Inayat Khan now begins to explain about the giving and receiving of impressions.

There are many ancient places where one finds stones engraved and wood carved with some artistic designs. Sometimes there are letters engraved on the rock of a mountain, or on a stone; letters which today no one can read. Yet one endowed with the gift of intuition can read them from the vibrations, from the atmosphere, from the feeling that comes from them. Outwardly they are engravings; inwardly they are a continual record, a talking record that is always expressing what is written upon it. No traveler with intuitive faculties open will deny the fact that in the lands of ancient traditions he will have seen numerous places that, so to speak, sing aloud the legend of their past.

One sees the same in the atmosphere of the trees in the forests and in the gardens. This also expresses the past – the impressions that have been given to them by those who sat under them. Often people have superstitions about a tree being haunted, and this one finds much more in the East. Actually, a vibration has been created, consciously or unconsciously, by someone who has lived there, who has taken shelter under the tree and pondered upon a certain thought, upon a certain feeling that the tree has taken on and that the tree is expressing. Perhaps the person has forgotten about it, but the tree is still repeating the thought that has been given to it, for the tree can express the voice that was put into it more clearly than a rock.

In tropical countries, where in ancient times people used to travel on foot through the forests and woods and take shelter under a certain tree, all that they thought and felt has been taken up by the tree. Those with intuitive faculties open have heard it more clearly than if they had heard it from a living person.

One finds the same thing among the animals, the pet animals who live and partake of thought and feeling through their contact with people. There especially exists a superstition about horses. Those who know horses are very particular in buying one that has good vibrations, apart from considering its health and breed. Often, a horse of a very good breed and perfectly sound may prove to be unlucky. The reason is that the disappointment of someone who has been riding upon this horse has been left there, recorded upon the heart of the horse. Perhaps the condition of the person has changed, but that which the horse has kept is still continuing.

I myself was once very impressed in Nepal by seeing a horse and an elephant who were kept only for the Maharaja of Nepal to ride on. It seemed as if those two animals were conscious of their rider. One could see from their dignity that they knew they belonged to the Maharaja. In every movement of the horse, in the look that the elephant gave, one would feel the presence of a Maharaja. Not only that, but all that belonged to the Maharaja, as pain or pleasure, as life and experience, all seemed to have been recorded upon the horse and the elephant. The most surprising thing was that the elephant was not larger than other elephants, but was even smaller, and most often it is the size that gives dignity to the elephant. Nor was the horse any larger than other horses, but the size did not count. It was the spirit in those animals, a life that one could see, expressing the feeling they possessed in their heart.

This wakens us again to another field of thought, and that is what association can create in us – the association of a sad person or of a happy one, of a foolish or a wise person, the association of a noble-minded person or one who is low. The associate partakes of the one he associates with and vibrates what he partakes of. You can almost hear it spoken in the atmosphere of that person, in his expression, in his thought, speech and actions. A person, however happy, will have a line of melody of wretchedness if he has associated with someone who is miserable. It continues, it sings its song separate from the whole symphony. It has its peculiar tone, one can always distinguish it. A wise person who has associated with a foolish one has kept a line; it is quite a different melody, it is in a different key, it has a different pitch from his original song. In a person who has associated with someone who is noble minded, someone of high quality, in spite of all his shortcomings one will see a line marked, distinctly audible to the hearts who listen.

To be continued…