Hazrat Inayat Khan explains that their power of a spoken word depends upon the power of the person speaking. The previous post in this series is here.
The effect of a man’s name has a great deal to do with his life, and very often one sees that a man’s name has an effect upon his fate and career. The reason is only that he is so often in the day called by that name. Is it not true that a man saying a humorous thing bursts out laughing, and a man saying a sad thing breaks into tears? If that is so, then what effect has every word that one speaks in one’s everyday life upon oneself and upon one’s surroundings!
One can see by this that the ancient superstitions about not saying an unlucky word, an undesirable word, has a meaning. In the East a child is trained to think before he utters a word, since it has a psychological meaning and effect. Very often people reading a poem or singing a song with great love, a song of sorrow or tragedy, are affected by it, and their life may take a turn and be affected by it too.
A person who speaks of his illness nourishes his illness by speaking of it. Often I have heard people say that if a pain exists, it is a reality, ‘and how can one deny it’?’ It is so amusing to hear them say this, because reality is so far away, and our everyday life is such that from morning till evening we do nothing but deny it. If one could only know where the truth lies, if one could only know what truth is – if one only were to know it and see it – one would understand that in reality all else is non-existent.
When one studies the secret behind this idea, one must admit the power of the word. This is a metaphysical science, which should be studied. The depth of the word of each person is very different. If a person has spoken a hundred words in one day, do you think that every word has the same power? No, the power and effect of a particular word depend upon the state in which that person was, and from what depth the word rises. Upon this depend the power and light of that word. For instance, with a person who has a habit of telling a lie, who is insincere, you will always find that his words are dropping down, his words have no force; while the one who speaks with conviction, who is sincere, who tells the truth, his word has a light, his word penetrates. Sometimes, from a person full of sadness and heartbroken, a voice comes, a word, full of sincerity; it has all the power to penetrate; it has such an effect upon the listener! Then there is another person who is light-headed, who is not deep, not serious enough in life; everything he says and does is always on the surface; he inspires no one with confidence, for he himself has no confidence.
To be continued…