In the first post in this series, Hazrat Inayat Khan gives the example of two painters, one who only follows the initial plan of the picture, and another who lets the painting evolve in the course of creation.

One sees the same thing with a composer of music. He composes a certain melody in his mind; he ponders over it and wishes to put it on paper. But when he plays his composition on the piano, the music suggests improvements to him. He plays the same musical idea that he first had, but he is able to perfect and complete it when he has heard it with his own ears.

That is a picture of our life. There is one man who is driven by the hand of destiny, he does not know where he comes from, he does not know where he is going. He is placed in certain conditions in life. He is busy with something, occupied with something, and he cannot see any other way of getting on. He may desire something quite different, he may have difficulty in putting his mind to what he is doing, but he still thinks he must go on. That is the man who has not yet understood the meaning of this secret. But there is another man who even after a hundred failures is still determined that he will succeed at the next attempt. That man is the master of his success.

There are two parts in man. One part is his external self, which the soul has borrowed from the earth; and the other part is his real self, which belongs to his source. In other words an individual is a combination of spirit and matter, a current which runs from above and attracts to it the earth from below, shaping it in order to make it a vehicle. The human body is nothing but a vehicle of the soul which has come from above and has taken the human body as its abode. Thus an individual has two aspects of being: one is the soul, the other is the body. It is the meeting of the soul and the body which makes the mind; and these three together make an individual.

The external part of an individual can be likened to the outer form of a globe, while the mind takes the place of the finer inner machinery. This is the mechanical part of being. There remains the soul, which is the divine heritage, a spiritual current shooting forth from that Spirit which is the source of all things. Therefore the soul has in it a potentiality, a creative power as its divine heritage. On the one side man is limited and imperfect. On the other side he represents the unlimited and perfect. That is why Christ has said, ‘Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’ It means: one not only inherits from one’s earthly parents, but, one also inherits that creative power, which makes one’s life from the Father in heaven.

A soul is born with a mechanism which one calls mind and body. From infancy a soul naturally finds itself limited in captivity. All the tragedy of life comes from limitation. If you ask a hundred people what is the difficulty in their life, each one will name a different struggle that he is facing at the time. But in reality it will be the limitation of life which has caused the tragedies in every form. Man grows up in limitation, and this limitation suggests to him at every step that he is imperfect, handicapped, weak, captive, incapable. And it is because of this constant suggestion of imperfection that he begins to say, ‘I cannot endure it, I cannot stand it, I cannot bear it, I cannot forget it, I cannot forgive.’ A man begins to think all these things because he is imperfect, because of all the continual suggestions which arise in life and convince him that he is limited. Naturally, therefore, as the man goes on, whether he is successful or unsuccessful, whether he is more qualified or less, whatever his condition may be, his mind holds the thought that his power and inspiration, his knowledge and capability are limited. He cannot understand anything else but that, and he remains totally unaware of that spark which continually shines in his heart and which may be called his divine inheritance.

To be continued…