With this post we begin a series of teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan on the profound mystery of vibration and the Divine Word.

We find in the Bible the words: ‘In the beginning was the word, and the Word was God,’ and we also find that the Word is Light, and that when that light dawned the whole creation manifested. These are not only religious verses; to the mystic or seer the deepest revelation is contained in them. 

The first phrase conveys to us that if anything exists that we can express, we can express it only by what we term ‘Word’. The second phrase explains another aspect of this mystery, which is that to enable the soul, surrounded by the darkness of this world of illusion, to come to the light, first the word was necessary. This means that the original Spirit was concealed in the mystery of the word, and that in in the mystery of the word, the mystery of the spirit was to be found.

Here is a thought, which may be pondered over for years, each time with fresh inspiration. It teaches that the first sign of life that manifested was the audible expression or sound: that is the Word. When we compare this interpretation with the Vedanta philosophy, we find that the two are identical. All down the ages the Yogis and seers of India have worshipped the Word-God, or Sound-God, and around that idea is centered all the mysticism of sound or utterance. Not alone among Hindus, but among the seers of the Semitic, the Hebraic, races the great importance of the word was recognized. The sacred Name, the sacred Word, were always esteemed in the Jewish religion. Also in Islam, that great religion whose mysticism the West is only beginning to discover, one finds the doctrine of Ism e-asm which translated is the ‘doctrine of the mystical word’. The Zoroastrians, who had their religion given to them long before the time of Buddha or Christ, and who have lost many of their teachings through the changes of time and conditions, have yet always preserved their sacred words. Sanskrit is now considered a dead language, but in the Indian meditations called Yoga, Sanskrit words are still used because of the power of sound and vibration that is contained in them

The deeper we dive into the mystery of life the more we find that its whole secret is hidden in what we call words. All occult science, all mystical practices are based upon the science of word or sound. Man is a mystery in all aspects of his being, not only in mind and soul, but also in that organism which he calls his body. It is his body, of which the Sufis say that it is the temple of God. This is not a mere saying or belief, for if man studies his body from the mystical point of view, he will find it to be much more subtle and far-reaching, and much more capable of doing, understanding and feeling, than he believes it to be.

To be continued…