This post continues a talk, begun here, by Hazrat Inayat on the need for a manifest form to spread the divine Message. It is being posted in instalments because of length.

And now there arises a question for us, as members of a pioneer Movement: what must we do? I say: we must leave the ‘must’ out from our mind. There is nothing we must do, but there is much that we will do. For ‘must’ means the subordination to a principle, even if we do not want a principle to subordinate us. But much we will do; that should be our main object. In the first place, through the practices which we do regularly we shall be in that power and inspiration which will help us in our everyday life and in our work for the cause. The neglect of these practices is just like a soldier who never does his drill, and when there comes a war he will have a difficult time. And the soldier has to fight perhaps once in a life-time, but we have our struggle every moment of the day. We are soldiers who never get a rest; from morning till evening we have to put up with those who do not know. There is no end to our struggle, and therefore there is no end to the inspiration and power we need to struggle through life. However humble and unimportant our life may be, our struggle is great. If one is rich, riches only give greater struggle. If one has nothing to do, that is a struggle; if one has much to do, that is a struggle, too. One cannot escape a struggle in life. And it is our meditations, our practices, which will enable us to stand firm in difficult times and to bravely face our struggles, whereas our neglect of them will bring us disappointment. It is like soldiers who are without arms in the middle of the war; it is an embarrassing* position.

            For us who have chosen the path of truth, our struggles are greater because we feel more deeply. Difficulties can weigh upon us more heavily than upon those who have no interest for spiritual things, for we become sensitive when treading the spiritual path. Our feelings become more tender, our sympathies keener, our conscience becomes more living, our sense of justice more pronounced. We are ready to take ourselves to task before we take another to task. That is why our life is more difficult in every way compared to that of an ordinary person, and therefore we must have a battery, the strength to withstand all things in our life; in other words, to give balance to our lives. The finer, the more tender, our feelings become, the stronger and the more powerful we must become in order to create a balance.

            Then there is another question, and that is that we are not meant to experiment with wonder-working. There are many societies who occupy themselves with spirit communications and psychic experiments, who are intellectually interested in the Mahatmas of the Himalayas and in past incarnations. We leave these things to the many people who are interested in them. Then what is our main object of interest in life? It is to express through our spirit, through our personality, the divine Being. And if we do not do that, then neither have we accomplished the other thing which excites so many people, nor have we accomplished this. They say in the East that the angels were created to glorify the name of God, and that the animals were made to eat, drink, and sleep. But what is man made for? He is neither created to live as an angel, praising the Lord every moment of the day, nor is he made only to eat, drink, and make merry, passing his life in that way. Man is made to express God, to develop in his spirit the divine, so that he may express God in his thought, speech, and action–in everything he says and does. That should be our main object, and that is the ideal which we have to work out in our lives. Spirituality does not mean to be a juggler or wonder-worker or story-teller; spirituality means the expression of the divine Spirit.

            And now coming to the question which attitude we must have towards others, our attitude towards those who sympathize with us should be one of appreciation, but we should also try to make strangers our friends and never turn friends into strangers. We must value friendship, and once we make a friend we must always try to continue the friendship. This is the secret of spirituality.

We need not urge upon others our faiths or beliefs, but we must prepare them to appreciate another outlook. Even if we accomplished this in ten years, even if in ten years one person looks at the Message from our point of view, it is something accomplished. But by trying to urge, we antagonize. Would you believe that in my experience in working for the cause I discovered that many of those who work with enthusiasm and sincerity, giving their thought and time to the cause, are apt to antagonize others, in spite of all their good intention of bringing them closer to the Message? And thus instead of good, a great deal of harm is being done.

*Embarrassing can of course mean giving a sense of social awkwardness, or shame, but an older meaning is, to make difficult or to complicate.

To be continued…