Continuing with his theme, Hazrat Inayat Khan explores the subtle relationship between consciousness and manifestation, between weakness and strength, and between accident and intention. The previous post is here.
The reason for all manifestation is that manifestation is God’s nature. By this He obtains His satisfaction through the fulfillment of the purpose of the whole creation. But God’s satisfaction is not something He is only conscious of; it is something which belongs to Him but is brought to fulfillment. Joy is something which belongs to us, but it is aroused by a certain emotion, a certain action; so this whole creation, which is an action, brings to God the satisfaction for which it was created. It does not bring anything new to God; it only makes Him conscious of what He is.
It is most interesting to understand how the action of God works in manifestation. For instance, sometimes a person begins to walk about the room, or starts drumming with his fingers, or looks up and down without there being any need for it. Why does he do it? Because the absence of action has the effect of paralyzing the activity of the mind, and when the absence of action has paralyzed the mind the soul begins to feel lonely and begins to wonder whether it is living or not. But when it begins to walk or to stop, then it realizes that it is alive, because then it lives in the outward consciousness of life. If we think about this more, it opens a vast field of knowledge.
Naturally not all motion is caused by restlessness, for there are two states: weakness and strength. When a person is weak, once put in motion he will act and go on acting without any control; the other aspect, however, is strength, and that is quite different.
Manifestation takes place in time and space. The sun, the moon, and the planets all have their influence. Morning, noon, evening, night and every hour of the day each have their special influence too. The children of one father and one mother are very different from each other in height, in breadth, in appearance, in every way, because they are born at different times. If one brother is fifteen years old and the other five, the difference between them will be very great. Twins are very much alike because there is little difference in the time of their birth. Lambs are all much alike because they are born in the same season; and fishes of the same kind are almost exactly alike because thousands of them are produced at the same moment.
This gives rise to the variety, in which the art of the Creator is shown. Since the beginning of the world there have been no two faces alike. Every artist will draw some faces that are similar; how great then must be the art of that Creator who has made all this variety!
All manifestation is made by the two forces of accident and intention, and by the creative and responsive forces. We can see the forces of accident and intention at work in our lives. For instance, if we intended to go for a walk in the park but met a friend who said, ‘You must come to my house,’ and he took us there, we had the intention of going to the park, but accident took us to the home of the friend.
Everything in the world is creative or responsive. When someone speaks he is performing the creative part; those who are listening are performing the responsive part. The sun and the moon, male and female, the fruit and the flower, all represent nature’s creative and responsive forces.
Is the Creator then not master and able to make everything work as He wishes? The mastery is there, but its working out is in accordance with the impressions, which are received from the external world.
To be continued…