Hazrat Inayat : The Coming World Religion pt II

At the conclusion of the first instalment of his lecture, Hazrat Inayat Khan was speaking of the forms of worship around the world and the differences which may be observed in these.

No doubt the world is moving towards uniformity, and just as we now see no very great difference between the forms of everything, of different customs of greeting, of dressing, and many other things, so people too are coming to a certain uniformity. At the same time, when we look at it from a different point of view, we shall find that uniformity very often takes away the beauty of life. In the countries which are civilized and advanced, where the architecture and houses are all on the same plan, where all are dressed in the same way, one becomes so tired of them that one likes to go to a different country and see houses which are different from the other, and people also.

The method of writing music and the form of notation is the same for the whole western world, but the distinction between the music of the French, Italians, Germans, and Russians gives a stimulus to the lover of music; and so it is with the distinctions of all forms. To want to make all people live alike and to act alike means to turn all people into the same form and give them the same face, and what would happen then? The world would be very uninteresting. It would be like tuning all the keys of the piano to the same note. It is not necessary to change the notes of the piano; what is necessary is to understand harmony, to know how to create harmony among the different notes.

The third aspect of religion is the religious ideal, the Lord and Master of religion, the Lord and Master that a soul esteems as its ideal. It is something that cannot be discussed, something about which one cannot argue. The less it is spoken of, the better it is. It is the outcome of the devotion of a sincere heart, which gives birth to an ideal too sacred to mention, an ideal, which cannot be compared or explained. And when the followers of different religions come to this question and dispute over their ideals, the sacred ideals which they have not known but have only heard about, and wish to prove one better than the other, they merely waste time and they destroy that sacred sentiment which can only be preserved in the heart.

The religious ideal is the medium by which one rises towards perfection. Whatever name a person gives to his ideal, that name is for him, and is most sacred to him. But this does not mean that giving it a name limits the ideal. There is only one ideal: the divine ideal. Call this Christ if we will, and let the same Christ be known by different names, given to him by various communities. For instance a person who has a great devotion, a great love and attachment for his friend, may speak about friendship in lofty words. He may say what a sacred thing it is to become friends; but then there is another who says, ‘ Oh, I know your friend and what he is; he is no better than anybody else.’

The true answer in such cases, is given by Majnun, in the story told by the ancients. When someone said to Majnun, ‘Laila, your beloved, is not so beautiful as you think,’ he said, ‘ My Laila must be seen with my eyes. If you wish to see how beautiful Laila is, you must borrow my eyes.’ Therefore if we wish to regard the object of devotion of whatever faith, of whatever community, of whatever people, we have to borrow their eyes. We have to borrow their heart. It is no use disputing over each historical tradition; they have often sprung from prejudice. Devotion is a matter of the heart, and is offered by the devotee.

To be continued…

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