The following was written in one of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s personal notebooks in 1922, and has only been published in the Complete Works series, the so-called brown volumes. Devotees will find it very moving, for it gives insight into the awesome demands that fall upon the shoulders of a soul called to deliver the Message.

Message

To be so fine as to keep tuned to that high pitch that He may at any moment find his lute ready to strike and at the same time to be as strong as the steel to endure the constant wear and tear of this earthly life. It is to be in heaven and at the same time on earth, which is beyond the power of every man except the one with the supernatural power who beareth the Message from above and walketh on this earth. He walketh on the thorny path barefooted, over doubts, suspicions, criticisms, oppositions, treachery, deceit and all evils the human nature breeds.

He fighteth every fear, risketh every danger of life and yet unshaken in his faith and with unbroken courage, with closed eyes and open heart, he passeth unimaginable distances, on the land, in the water, through the air toward the sky.

He who is seen by all and yet not seen, known to all and yet unknown, living amidst all and yet far away, speaketh to all and yet perfectly silent, walketh most gently and humbly on the earth, such is the being of the Messenger. To the eyes of men he is a man and in the being of God he is God.

Most attached and yet detached, most interested and yet indifferent, sad and yet most joyful, rich and yet so poor, comrade of the old and friend of the young, Master of both worlds and yet the servant of all. Himself a beautiful personality, yet a worshiper of beauty, Himself the singer of heavenly lore and yet a great lover of song, Himself a prophet, yet enjoying all poetry, the Messenger is born of beauty, he lives in beauty, he spreads beauty all over and yet the same he must renounce.