Here is the conclusion of the talk, begun here, given by Hazrat Inayat Khan in January 1926 to a group of mureeds in New York City. These were the Master’s parting instructions to the group, as he then travelled on to other cities in America.
And now about your attitude to those around you. What should you think about those who do not value your point of view, who do not appreciate your efforts in the spiritual path, who cannot understand you, and yet you are placed in their surroundings, in your home or in the place where you work, or they are your friends around you. You must not urge upon them your point of view, not show your attitude. That is a wrong tactic. To show in every way that you are more evolved than they, that you are different from them, that your ideals are loftier than theirs, to be exclusive, is not the right thing to do. If your ideal is loftier, if your feelings are deeper, if your thoughts higher, be thankful that you have them. But do not show your treasures, saying “look at my diamond” or “my ruby” or “my emerald”. If it is appreciated you do not need to say this diamond is so valuable. You do not need to talk with others about it, you may just as well not show your ideals if they are greater or have better qualities. By acting as they all do, by being friends, or a chum or an equal, certainly you will win their heart’s affection. And that will do much more good than by keeping aloof and exclusive, thinking ourselves different from others. The more we are evolved, the more we must bend like a fruitful tree. The tendency of the tree that bears fruit is to bow low.
And now your attitude to those to whom you have a certain duty. If you consider it only a duty, it is nothing but captivity, slavery. But if duty becomes your pleasure, then it is a virtue. Then if you please others, you satisfy yourself. But one might think, ‘If I do not consider it my duty?’ You must awaken to the fact that it is your duty. It is of no use ignoring that there is such a thing in life as duty. But if you will say, “Why? I do not need to consider my duty to those around me,” then what about others? And my answer is you have a duty towards all, not only to your relations and to your friends, but to strangers and to everyone you meet in life there is a duty; to all those with whom you have to do in life, whether they seem more living or fixed in a place, you have to take it all smoothly and with great pleasure. Then you will look at it differently and find pleasure in duty. It is very easy to say, I do not like duty, I go away from it. It is also easy to say, I do not consider my duty towards this person. But that does not take you away from the fact that somewhere you are bound by duty. It only means a regard, a regard to what is right. And if one asked, Well, but what is right? The answer is that whatever you consider at a certain time right is right; the right of today is not the right of tomorrow. Therefore, for today there is a right and for tomorrow there is another right which tomorrow will be just. In this world we are evolving every day, from one conception of right to another. It is not necessary that the right of today is the right of tomorrow. As sincerely as we see a thing to be right, then that is right just now.
And now coming to the question of our attitude toward those who belong to the Sufi Movement, the members. This attitude should necessarily be more tender, more gentle, and more sympathetic for the very reason that destiny has brought us together. That is the reason behind it. Destiny has not brought us together without purpose. And our sympathetic attitude towards one another shall become a power. We should not look for struggle; life itself is struggle. And if we allow the struggle to be greater, it only means that we are going backwards. Among mureeds there is this opportunity of practising right manner, right attitude. You will find some who appeal to you, others who do not come up to your ideal; there will be some who will seem to have shortcomings, some will think much of their talent, of their evolution. But you will think that they all have gathered together to be benefited by one another’s evolution. If you are more evolved you will be thankful that they may share your evolution. If you are less evolved, you will share their evolution.
The sign of the evolved one is modesty, humility, gentleness. By that a person shows evolution, not by saying that I know this or that, that I have read twenty thousand books, nor by disputing about all those matters. Sympathy is the key to all things. And if we waken that heart quality within us in everyday life, we shall be profited by it so much that words cannot explain. Because by sympathy and goodwill we partake of all that is worthwhile in this world; from morning till evening we are making a profit, we do not know what it will amount to. A person can calculate the interest that comes from his money in the bank, but he does not know the interest from a sympathetic attitude that is shown to all those around him from morning till evening. No wealth can be compared with it. No one can steal it, it is your own; you can depend upon it. It is a living wealth which is a phenomenon itself.
My mureeds, therefore I wish to emphasize again to you that this is not a movement of occult powers or of psychic phenomena. Those are all secondary things, and we are not pursuing them. But we have united together in the initiation of the Sufi Order in order that we may come to that stage one day, quickly or slowly, as it may happen to a person, to that stage where we begin to express that divine personality, the spark of which is hidden in our hearts. If we have attained this, we have fulfilled the purpose of being human beings, and what else do you want? We do not wish to perform wonders; that is not our wish or aim. It is to become what our deepest feeling wants us to be one day. We must become that to which our soul is guiding us and yearning to be one day. We must work towards the fulfilment of that particular desire.
Yes, you will continue your practices, your meditations and studies, and use them in your everyday life, and know that the blessing of your Murshid is always with you.
God bless you.
Very enlightening, thank you very much Murshid. I just have a grammatical doubt in a phrase in the penultimate paragraph: ¨…where we begin to express that divine personality, the spark of which is hidden in our hearts…¨. It is maybe ¨the spark of God which is hidden in our hearts…¨, or it is about the spark of the divine personality. Thank you so much for your patience Murshid Nawab.
Dear brother, thank you for the question. There is a wide latitude in the word personality, but Hazrat Inayat Khan used it to mean something high, something evolved. One might say: there are many members of the human species, but not so many ‘persons.’ And what we admire in an evolved personality does not come from the limited being but from the Divine – qualities such as grace, kindness, generosity, modesty and so on are expressed in an approximate way by people but have their origin in the Source of all perfection. We could say, therefore, that there is a Divine personality. the perfection of all of these qualities, and we each have a spark of it hidden in our hearts. If we can help it to glow more brightly, it might even burst into flame, giving light to our lives and making all clear to us.
Beautiful, thank you very much Murshid Nawab for your kind reply. Allha Hu