Hazrat Inayat Khan begins to explore what is revealed by sleep and by our need for it.

We see in our daily life that the greatest friend of the child is the one who helps him to go to sleep. However many toys we may give, however many dolls and candy, when the child is helped to sleep, it is then that he is the most grateful. When the mother with her blessed hands puts him to sleep, it is the greatest benefit. It is then that he is happiest. Those who are sick and in pain, if they can sleep, are happy. Then all their pain is gone. If they can only sleep, they say they can endure all else. They say to the doctor, give us something, anything to make us sleep. If you were offered a king’s palace and every enjoyment, every luxury, the best surroundings, the best dishes, on the condition that you should not sleep, you would say: “I do not want it, I prefer sleep.” 

The unhappy – what is the difference between the happy and the unhappy? Only this. The unhappy cannot sleep. The sorrow, care, anxiety, the worry that he has, at once take sleep from him. Why do people take to alcoholic drinks, and drugs of all sorts? Only for this. When a man has drunk alcohol because of the intensity of the stimulant, a light sleep comes upon him. His feet, his hands are asleep, his tongue is asleep. He cannot speak plainly. He cannot walk straight, and falls down. The joy of this sleep is so great that when he has drunk once, he wants to drink again. A thousand times he decides that he will not drink, but he does. 

There is a poem of our great poet Rumi where he says: O sleep, every night thou freest the prisoner from his bonds. The prisoner, when he is asleep, does not know that he is in prison. He is free. The wretched is not wretched, is contented. The sufferer is not in pain and misery. This shows us that the soul is not in pain nor in misery. If it were, it would be so also when the body is asleep. The soul does not feel the misery of the body and the mind. When a person awakes, then the soul thinks that it is in pain and wretched. All this shows us the great bliss of sleep. 

And this great bliss is given to us without a price, like all that is best. We do not pay to sleep. We pay thousands of pounds for jewels, gems, that are of no use to our life. Bread we can buy for pennies. Man does not know how great the value of sleep is because the benefit it gives cannot be seen and touched. If he is very busy, if he has some business that brings him money, he will rather be busy in that and take from his sleep, because he sees: “I have gained so many pounds, so many shillings.” He does not see what he gains by sleep. 

During the fast sleep ordinarily a person is conscious of nothing. When he wakes up, he feels refreshed and renewed. What are we doing while we are fast asleep? The soul then is released from the hold of the body and the mind. It is free, it goes to its own element, to the highest spheres, and it enjoys there. It is happy. All the happiness, all the wisdom of those spheres it experiences. It enjoys all the bliss, happiness and peace.

To be continued…