The following talk was given by Hazrat Inayat Khan on Sunday, June 1st, 1924, in the house on Anna Paulownastraat in the Hague. In all likelihood, it was given during a Universal Worship service.
Beloved ones of God,
I would like to say a few words on the subject of the need of religion in the life of man. Religion is of the greatest need at whatever period in the past or future. No doubt, according to the evolution of man, the form of religion has changed. Because the form depended upon customs, upon the manner of the country, also on the psychology of the followers of that religion. These different changes made in different religions, have they sprung from the intellectual spirit of man? No, not at all. For there is another part of man’s spirit, the divine part. It is the wakening of that part which raises a fountain, and that fountain is religion. In the ancient history of India there are a great many examples where people with stately position* wanted to bring another religion. But they never succeeded, for religion does not come from that source. Its source is divine.
Truth is God,
and unreal is all this nature
which we see before us.
If truth and falsehood are distinct and different, then what is the difference between them? Truth is God, and unreal is all this nature which we see before us. Therefore all that is from God is real.
But one might ask: Has man’s mentality done something in religion? Yes, it has done something. Every religion has come through man, when a new religion was needed, in that colour by which the mentality was expressed. But religion itself is from the divine source. Therefore the outside may be different, but the depth is the same.
At this age it seems that science is on one side, and politics on the other side, and that education is working to substitute religion. But nothing can replace religion.
There is a touching story of a scientist in France who did not believe all through life, who did not admit any belief in God, soul, or hereafter. But as he lived longer in the world, the need of religion was felt. But he could not accept it, as all his life he did not accept it. The wife, on the other hand, was devoted and religious. One day, stirred by a profound sentiment, they were talking heart to heart on the question of religion. The wife was anxious that he should accept it, and she asked him: “Do you ever feel that need of religion, of devotion which alone brings happiness?” The most touching answer was, “I do not admit it, yet I believe in your belief, I enjoy your sentiment. That is my religion, my only religion in life.” We do not know under what guise a person keeps his religion. It may be somewhere hidden in his heart; it does not show outwardly perhaps. No doubt, if everyone had had his religious sentiment unexpressed, there would be no communication. Therefore there is the greatest necessity in society that we communicate our deepest religions sentiments.
And what is belief in the God ideal?
It is belief in the incomprehensible
which is even found in a child’s soul.
Now one might ask: What is religion? What does it consist of? The answer will be: The main thing on which religion is based is belief in the God ideal. And what is belief in the God ideal? It is belief in the incomprehensible which is even found in a child’s soul. As man enjoys greatly to look at the wide space, to fix his gaze on the horizon, so there is a benefit to think on the incomprehensible, to have the desire to go in its pursuit. To supply this need, what have the wise of the world done? They have made the incomprehensible intelligible, limited in what man can easily grasp. Instead of telling of God, the Nameless, the Formless, who is beyond time and space, beyond comprehension, they made for man a form, as an artist makes a picture. They said the King, the Judge, because man knows what justice is; most Merciful and Compassionate, for man knows what is mercy and compassion. There is nothing wrong in what they have spoken to man, only God is beyond it. God cannot be spoken of. In fact, God is greater than thought can conceive, higher than ideal.
Another aspect of religion, most necessary for man, is to humble himself, for it is humility that tunes, that makes selfless. And the more selfless one becomes, the nearer one comes to reality. And before whom shall we be humble? Where is the one who deserves it as much as God? Man, by repeating his prayers to God, becomes selfless. Therefore by the performance of religious surrendering before God, man practises humility, and in this way he becomes selfless. For in selflessness the secret of life is hidden, the pearl of immortality is found. On the other hand, the harder the spirit of self, the more man goes wrong, and even becomes capable of cruelty. It is this that Jesus Christ hints at by saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
But besides God, man needs something else in a human being, the fine and spiritual attributes that the soul seeks for. That he finds in man who, so to speak, is godly, who reflects God. By thinking of that person, realizing that person who is so close to his heart, man rises above limitation, and comes nearer to the divine attributes. Jewish people see in Moses that godly man, Christians see him in Jesus Christ, Buddhists in Buddha, the followers of Krishna see him in Krishna. When men dispute over the ideal, giving supremacy of one ideal over the other, they are like children who say: My mother is more loving than yours. It is nothing, it is most childish, for each mother is good to her child. If the child understood, if he were grown up, he would consider that every mother is loving because of her motherhood. At the same time, at the back of all these great ones is one and the same spirit, called divinity. This spirit of divinity which was, is, and will always be, will always manifest when the need is there to look after the children of the earth.
We all, human beings, partake of the divine spirit in our heart. What exaggeration to say that Christ is in the one and not in the other. This dispute, which has lasted for a long time, is answered by Universal Worship, where all teachers are respected. This was in reality the hope of Muhammad, the wish of Christ, and of Moses, that the whole humanity under one roof should pray to God. The Sufi Movement in this way is bringing Universal Worship as the future religion of the world, realizing without doubt that truth alone is successful and that success belongs alone to truth.
God bless you.
*Hazrat Inayat is perhaps thinking here of the Mughal emperor Akbar, who in 1582 put forward a universal religion which he called ‘Din-i Ilahi,’ or the religion of God. It included what he considered the best of various faiths, but although the principles may have been laudable his creation did not flourish.
Maybe intersting to examîne why this religion of God did not flourish.
When i was young my expectation was that this sufi mouvement was going to be the new world religion.
It exist now for allmost 100 years.
What has happened
And what is there to do in order that the wish of Inayat and of many folowers can come true?
This blog would be ideal to gather ideas about this and to open up a change of ideas .