In a recent post in the Glimpses department, we heard from Sirkar van Stolk about Hazrat Inayat Khan’s reaction to an eclipse of the moon, and the theme was explored further in this Letter to Mureeds. Here now is a brief but very profound text from Hazrat Inayat Khan which may throw additional light on the subject.

The external life is an expression of the inner life. The earth is but a shadow of the heavens, and all movements of the lights in the heavens influence the movements of the life on earth.

Every aspect of the life on earth is a duplicate of the life in Heaven. Not only human beings, but even animals and birds live under the influence of the planets and stars above. Even on the sea and rivers, on the hills and mountains, and on the trees and plants, the influence of the planets and stars is constantly working.

But as man is the master of creation, he is in some ways above all influences, yet not every man. There is a stage of evolution in which man is a machine; there is another stage of evolution in which man is the engineer who works with the machine. The man who has not realised the kingdom of Heaven within him, is as a machine, and the man who rises above that stage of evolution and reigns not only on earth but in Heaven, is an engineer.

Mastery does not mean killing the senses. Mastery means conquering the senses, to use the senses and not to be used by them.