In the previos post, Hazrat Inayat Khan spoke of the power of the mind giving power to the word spoken.
Besides this, the word will have power in accordance with the illumination of the soul, because then that word does not come from the human mind, that word comes from the depth, from behind; that word comes from some mysterious part that is hidden from the human mind. And it is in connection with such words that one reads in the scriptures of ‘swords of flame; or ‘tongues of flame’.’ Whether it was from a poet, or whether it was from a prophet, when that word came from his burning heart, then the word rose as a flame. In accordance with the divine Spirit which is in the word, that word has life, power and inspiration. Think of the living words of ancient times, think of the living words that one reads in the scriptures, the living words of the holy ones, illuminated ones! They live, and will live forever. It is as a music, which may be called magic, magic for all times. Whenever such words are repeated they have that magic, that power.
Those words which the illuminated souls of all ages have spoken have been preserved by their pupils. In whatever part of the world they were born or lived, what they let fall as words has been gathered up like real pearls, and kept as scriptures. Therefore, wherever one goes in the East one finds that the followers of different religions keep the words of the illuminated ones whenever they pray, and they do not need to put them into their own language. Words spoken by the great ones have been preserved for ages, in order that they might be used for meditation.
There is a more scientific and still greater mystery in the word. It is not only what the word means, it is not only who has said the word, but the word in itself has also a dynamic power. The mystics, sages and seekers of all ages, knowing the mystery of the sacred word, have always been in pursuit of it. The whole meditative life of the Sufis is built upon the mystery of the word. For the word ‘Sufi’, according to the explanation of the initiates, is related to Sophia which means wisdom. But not wisdom in the outer sense of the word, because worldly cleverness cannot be called wisdom. The intellect, which man very often confuses with wisdom, is only an illusion of it. Wisdom is that which is learned from within; intellect is that which is acquired from without.
Wisdom is a form in which the souls that have come to realization have tried to perceive and interpret to themselves the word they found in life. Wisdom is the interpretation of life, made by someone whose point of view has become different by looking at life in the sunlight. One arrives at this point of view not by study alone, but by association with those who have that particular point of view. Besides, by diving deep into life one comes to the realization of truth, and for diving deep into life there is a way or process. It is possible that either with some difficulty or with ease, one finds a place one is looking for in a town. One may look for it in different directions and at last find it, but by asking somebody who knows, one can find it sooner.
The source of wisdom is above, the source of intellect is below, and therefore it is not the same method, it is not the same process which one adopts in order to attain wisdom, as that which one adopts to acquire intellect. In short: the attainment of that wisdom is achieved in various ways by various people, but the great mystery of attaining divine wisdom lies in the mystery of the word.
The word is in itself mystery in every sense, and all scriptures have considered the mystery of the word – even compared to all other secrets of life – as the most profound. In the scripture that is best known to the Western world we read that first was the word, and the word was God, and then again one reads that it was the word which was first and then came light. These sentences convey to us two things. The first conveys to us that, if anything existed, and if we can express what existed, we can only express it by the term ‘word’. And when we come to the second sentence it explains another phase of the mystery which is that, in order to enable the soul surrounded by the darkness of the world of illusion to come to the light, first the word was necessary. This means that the original Spirit was in the mystery of the word, and that by the word the mystery of the Spirit was to be found.
When we come to the Vedantic scriptures, which existed many thousands of years ago, there also we realize the same thing. For instance, there is a phrase in Sanskrit, Nada Brahma, which means: the mystery of creation was in nada – in the word. In the Quran one reads in the Arabic words, Kun fa yakun – that first was the exclamation ‘Be!’, and it became. The One who said ‘Be’- and it became – was not a mortal being. He was and is, and will be all the life there is. If that is so, then the word was not the mystery of the past, but the word is a continual and everlasting mystery. And at this time, when man has engaged himself in the material phenomena and has progressed very far, compared with the past, in industry and commercial activities, this aspect of discovering the might which lies hidden under the word is still unexplored.
To be continued…