With this post we begin a short lecture by Hazrat Inayat Khan on the subject of desire and fulfilment.
If we have studied the chapter on the Silent Life in ‘In an Eastern Rose Garden’ it may seem contradictory to speak of the other aspect of life. We might ask: Why did creation take place? Why is man on earth? Is it to seek the silent life, or what is the reason of all this happening? Are we to throw out everything that we call life, our position, our rank, our strength and everything we have so far thought worthy of pursuit? Shall we continue to seek to attain these things, or should we discard them all in favor of the pursuit of the silent life?
The answer to these questions is found in the words of the Lord’s prayer: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We can extend this to: Thy perfect will be done on earth as well as in heaven, or: That which Thou desirest in heaven we must do on earth, or: I will do as Thou desirest me to do. Yet at the same time the mystic thinks, ‘My soul is not separate from Thy spirit; therefore my will is not separate from Thine; therefore my will be done on the earthly plane as Thine is done on the heavenly plane, namely on that of my mind. Thus that which I have been thinking to do will happen on the plane of the earth.’
Omar Khayyam said, ‘Heaven is the vision of fulfilled desire; hell is the shadow of a soul on fire.’ The fulfillment of desire, however small or great it be, is the first step towards perfection. Unfulfillment of desire, however high or low, is a going back.
We may ask: But what if the desires we have are not worthwhile? Our desires may indeed be imperfect ones; they may not be right; but what of it? We cannot desire things which lead to our destruction. Is there no good desire in our hearts? Is not the heart the vehicle of good through which one desires? So we see that our desire is God’s desire, and that creation’s whole purpose is the fulfillment of that desire. As the Vedanta say, this life is the dream of Brahma. The creative faculty or power desired what Brahma desired; it produced what He desired. This is why the Sufi regards as the first lesson to learn through concentration and meditation: that my desire shall be accomplished.
Religion teaches the same in the Lord’s prayer: Give us our daily bread. In another place the Gospel says: ‘Knock and it shall be opened unto you’, and again: ‘If his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone?’ If you tell yourself that you do not desire anything, you go back. Your progress lies in desiring whatever you wish. Fulfillment of your desire is the first proof that your concentration is successful. This is called Vilayat. A person may be able to see into things and yet not be the master; to be a master implies being master of all situations in life. Although a seer is one who can see, yet unless he has mastery also he can only see and nothing else. Mastery is greater than seer-ship, because the master both sees and accomplishes.
To be continued…