In just a few concise paragraphs Hazrat Inayat Khan sums up the origin of dependence, the unreliability of depending on the material, and the necessity of learning to depend upon the spiritual, solving, as he says, ‘the problem of the false and the real.’
Dependence belongs to matter and independence to the spirit. The independent spirit becomes dependent through manifestation. When the One becomes many, then each part of the One, being limited, strives to be helped by the other part, for each part finds itself imperfect. Therefore we human beings, however rich with the treasures of heaven and earth, are poor in reality because of our dependence upon others. The spiritual view makes one conscious of this fact but the material view blinds man, who then shows independence and indifference to his fellow man. Pride, conceit, and vanity are the outcome of this ignorance. There are moments when even the king has to depend upon a most insignificant person. Often one needs the help of someone towards whom one has always been proud and upon whom one has always looked with contempt.
As individuals depend upon other individuals, so nations and races depend upon one another. No individual can say that he can get on without anyone else and no nation can really be happy while another nation is unhappy. But both individuals and communities depend most upon God, in whom we all unite. Those who depend upon the things of the earth certainly depend upon things that are transitory, and some day or other they must lose them, so there remains only one object of dependence, and that is God, who is not transitory and who always is and will be. Sadi has said, ‘He who depends upon Thee will never be disappointed.’
No doubt dependence upon God, which in Sufi terms is called Tawakkul, is the most difficult thing. For an average person, who has not known or seen God, but has only heard in church that someone exists in the heavens who is called God, and who has believed this, it is difficult to depend entirely upon Him. A person can hope that there is a God, and that by depending on Him he will have his desire fulfilled; a person can imagine that there can be someone whom people call God, but for him also it is difficult to depend entirely upon God. It is for them, that the prophet has said, ‘Tie your camel and trust in God.’ Daniel was not told to take a sword and go among the lions.
One imagines God, another realizes God; there is a difference between these two people. The one who imagines can hope, but he cannot be certain. The one who realizes God is face to face with his Lord, and it is he who depends on God with certainty. It is a matter of either struggling along on the surface of the water, or courageously diving deep, touching the bottom of the sea. There is no greater trial for a person than dependence upon God. What patience it needs, besides boundless faith, to be in the midst of this world of illusion and yet to be conscious of the existence of God! To do this, man must be able to turn all that is called life into death, and to realize the true life in what is generally called death. This solves the problem of the false and the real.