With this post we begin a short lecture by Hazrat Inayat Khan on the philosophy of duality.

All philosophies have recognized the duality in nature. However much we may differ on the surface as to principles and opinions, those who go below the surface, the divers for truth, have always found the same things. The Vedanta calls the two forces purusha and prakriti, the creator and the created, the creative and the responsive forces, by which the whole manifestation has been made. In the religious language it is called Shiva and Parvati. In the Hindu inscriptions and books, you can see the picture of Shiva, with two faces, a man’s face and a woman’s face, showing the creative force and the responsive force that Shiva possessed. There are many other pictures in these inscriptions, pictures such as that of an animal’s body with a man’s head, of which the meaning is that man’s body is animal; it is his head that is man.

And why? Because of the senses, the eyes, the ears, all the senses by which man perceives. The animal also has ears, but he cannot understand the language that he hears. The animal has eyes, but it cannot understand what it sees. In those times there were few who could read and write. The Prophets themselves could not read and write. They had not diplomas from universities. For that knowledge no study is needed. It is always open. Therefore, the philosophers were obliged to express their meaning by art, by engraving pictures upon the stone. The greater part of the Buddhistic philosophy has been lost. The four most important books of Buddha were stolen and have never been recovered. The religion remains, with all its beauty. But that from which it had come cannot now be known.

Leaving the religions aside, and coming to the scientific part, I will explain how two have come from one. All has come, not from the square, not from the triangle, but from the dot. The line has come from the dot. You cannot measure the dot. You may say: “If the dot were very large, perhaps we might measure it.” You cannot measure it unless you make a cross, a line this way and that way. The line has two poles, it can be measured. When the dot moves, it becomes a line, it becomes two. In this way everything has come from one. First there was one eye. The two eyes have come from one eye. First there was one ear. The two ears have come from one ear. The two nostrils have come from one and the two lips from one.

If you look attentively at the spark of fire, you will see that it throws out a ray on one side, and at once a ray comes out on the other side. Then two other rays are thrown out between these and this forms a cross. Then two more come out and this forms the star, from which all creation has come. The two poles of the spark form the moon. The star and the moon together are the two forces that have made the whole universe. It is this that our Sufi emblem shows, the star with the moon. In our face the eyes and the nose are the star, the lips the moon.

To be continued…