Hazrat Inayat Khan explores the relationship between the bubble-like self of the human being and the infinite ocean of God.

Man’s relation to God may be likened to the relation of the bubble to the sea. Man is of God, man is from God, man is in God, as the bubble is of water, from water, and in water. So much the same and yet so different! The bubble is different and the sea is different and there is no comparison between them. So although God and man are not different, yet there is such a difference that it is immeasurable. As Hafiz says, ‘What comparison is there between earth and heaven?’ for the same reason, that man is small before God, the bubble is small before the ocean, and yet it is not apart from the ocean, nor does it consist of any other element than the ocean. Therefore divinity is in man as in God. The divinity of Christ means the divinity of man, although divinity itself is the ideal.

The word divine has its origin in the Sanskrit word Deva, which also means divine. And yet the root of this word means light, which explains that the divine is part of beings which is illuminated by the light within. Therefore, though in man there is light hidden, if not disclosed he is not divine. If the hidden light were divine, then the stone could be divine too, for the spark of fire is hidden in the rock. All life is one, without doubt, and all names and forms are of the same life. But the part of life from which light springs, illuminating itself and its surroundings, and bringing recognition of its own being, is divine; from this is the fulfillment of the purpose of the whole creation, and every activity is directed towards achieving the same purpose. How calmly the mountains and hills seem to be waiting for a certain day to come! If we went near them and listened to their voices, they would tell us this. And how eagerly the plants and the trees in the forest seem to be waiting for some day, for some hour, the hour of the fulfillment of their desire! If only we could hear the words they say! In animals, in birds, in the lower creation, the desire is still more intense and still more pronounced. The seer can see it when his glance meets their glance. But the fulfillment of this desire is in man: the desire that has worked through all aspects of life and brought forth different fruits, yet always preparing a way to reach the same light which is called Divinity. But even man, whose right it is, cannot reach it unless he acquire the knowledge of the self, which is the essence of all religions.

It is easy to claim, ‘I am God!’; but is it not insolence on the part of man, who is subject to illness, death, and disease? It is bringing the highest ideal of God down to the lowest plane. It is as if the bubble were to say, ‘I am the sea’, when its own consciousness, as well as everybody else, sees that it is a bubble. And again it is blindness on the part of man, however righteous and pious he may be, to say, ‘ I am separate, God is separate. I am on earth, God is in heaven.’ He may pray and worship a thousand years and not come near God. Since according to the astronomers it would take so many hundreds of years to reach a certain planet, how could one reach as high as the abode of God, which is supposed to be higher and farther off than anything else? No man has the right to claim divinity as long as he is conscious of his limited self. Only he who is so absorbed in the contemplation of the perfect Being that his limited self is lost from his sight, could say this, but in most cases he will not say it. It is at this stage that man closes his lips, lest he should say a word that might offend the ears of the people of the world. ‘O bird, cry gently, for the ears of the beloved are tender!’ says the poet. And if anyone, such as Mansur* has claimed divinity, it is only after having drunk that wine of divine life which intoxicated him, and in his ecstasy the secret came out as it comes from a drunken man, who if he had been sober would never have let it escape.

The wise realize the divine Being in the loss of the thought of self; they melt in Him and become absorbed in Him, and enjoy the peace that they can derive from the divine life; but they live in the world gently, meekly, and thoughtfully, just like any other man. It is the unwise who show themselves too wise. And with the increase of wisdom comes the beauty of innocence, which makes the wise a friend of everyone, both stupid and wise. It is the stupid who cannot agree with the wise, but the wise can agree with the stupid as well as with the wise. He can become both, while the stupid man is what he is.

*Mansur al Hallaj (858 – 922 CE) was a Persian Sufi and poet who is commonly remembered for saying, “Ana’l Haqq!”, ‘I am the Truth!’, a statement that was interpreted by religious authorities as a blasphemous claim of Divinity. After years of imprisonment, he was executed on the banks of the Tigris river.