Hazrat Inayat Khan concludes this brief series with a look at the way in which psychology is neglected in our present age. The previous post is here.

Among Hindus there is a custom, a custom which still exist, that when a marriage is contemplated a Brahmin is consulted, a special priest, and he comes with his books of horoscopes. And after he has made his calculations he decides whether the marriage can take place or not. But in reality the drawing of the horoscopes is an excuse. He is a psychologist, and he considers the question whether the two who are to be married have the same qualities.

The Brahmins conceived of three qualities: manushya, deva, and rakshasa, which means the human quality, the angelic quality, and the animal quality. The one left out was the devilish quality; maybe they did not have it at that time! And then they saw if the two young people who were going to marry both belonged to manushya, deva, or rakshasa; and if they found that for instance the girl was of the angelic quality and the man of the animal quality, then they thought, ‘It will never go right’; and they advised against the marriage. But if they thought that the man was of human quality then they allowed it, because then there was only a difference of one degree, not of two degrees. The great and countless difficulties that are experienced today in marriage come from lack of consideration of these qualities. There is now a kind of false conception of equality; everyone says ‘I am as good as you,’ but therefore there is no chance to be better. 

I shall always remember an old man in India telling me, ‘The moment you think you are good, learned, wise, you close your heart’s door to goodness, learning, and wisdom.’ The spirit of today is that a child begins to say, ‘I know what you do not know.’ There is no regard for the idea that another knows more, there is no appreciation of it. It is because something is missing in education; the children are not taught that way. What they are taught is self-pride, and even that is a false quality. True pride should be based upon a stronger foundation: the nobility of the soul. False pride must break one day or another. That is why the consideration of individuality seems to be lost.

A poet once said, ‘Lord, let me not live in a world where camphor, cotton, and bone are all considered white.’ Now our world is becoming more and more like that every day. If there is a distinction, it is of money, of rank, of position, but not of human quality. The real distinction is not recognized; if there is any disparity it is what sort of house one lives in, what position one holds, or how much money one has in the bank. Therefore, instead of evolving, mankind is losing its opportunity.