This instalment completes Hazrat Inayat Khan’s brief discourse on duality in nature. The previous post is here.

This is the secret of all harmony in life, the harmony of the creative and responsive forces. In life, we meet some people who are creative. Then, if we do not respond, we have failed. We meet some people who are responsive. Then, if we do not create, we have not performed our part. If there are two creative together, it is bad; if there are two responsive, it will not be good. Man and woman can harmonize, but if two women spend their life together, they will quarrel; if two men live together, they will fight. This is the reason of the present war. Two responsive together is bad, but two creative together is worse. 

The manifestation is formed by duality, and God has His dual aspect. In one aspect He is untouched by experience, unaware of His creation, the Consciousness alone. This is why He is called Allah. In the other aspect He is all the manifestation. His creation is a very small matter to Him. If He be called God, the Good, it is a very beautiful name. He is good, there, above the world. Here on earth, at the other pole, the good becomes bad. What was good when it starts from there, here becomes bad. A thief, for example, is moved either by love for himself, or by love for his children, his wife, by the wish to support them. The love comes from heaven. The impression of the earth says: “The easiest way is to take somebody’s purse.” Then more shadows of the earth say: “At Piccadilly Circus or near the Ritz are many people with well-filled pockets.” All the bad comes from the shadows of the earth. What comes from the other pole is only goodness. By withdrawing ourselves from the impressions of the world, by meditation and concentration, together with honesty, purity of life, we can reach to the other pole. 

But this name (goodness) is not enough. We must rise above the good and evil, to that Unity in which we are all united. We are always quarrelling about what is virtue, what is sin. God includes all, both poles, and embraces, is beyond all. Why is Buddha always portrayed sitting with his legs folded? It shows unity, the going from duality to unity. The Muslim in his prayer folds one hand over the other. He thereby says: “from two I become one.” The wise goes from the two to unity. He rises above good and evil, above virtue and sin, to the One. 

In Christianity we read: “I and my Father are One.” Duality, first the Father, the Creator, then the created. Trinity came afterwards. The third is hidden under the two. Those who understand music will understand that if I beat quadruple time: 1,2,3,4, and then triple time: 6/8, (two groups of three beats covering the same length of time) the second and third beat of triple time are hidden under the second and fourth of the quadruple time: two beats of quadruple time are equivalent to three beats of triple time (6/8). It may be thought that the idea of Trinity appeared first in the Christian religion. The conception of Trinity existed long before. It is found in the Hindu religion also. 

In Islam, although the teaching is especially the unity of God, the two forces are recognized, Zat and Sifat. Zat is the creative force, Sifat the responsive force. To this is given the name Muhammad. Mah means great, Ahmad the knower, the mind. The great knower, Mahatma, is the same thing.

God bless you.