Hazrat Inayat Khan now speaks of the long tradition in many religions of repeating words and scriptures. The previous post is here.
The idea of the power of the word is as old as the Vedas of the Hindus. The modern world is now awakening to it through what is called psychology, and since there is an interest in psychology there is a possibility of exploring that ancient treasure which seekers after truth have developed for thousands of years in the East.
Man today looks at psychology as a side issue and as something that can help medical science. But there will come a day when mankind in this modern world will look upon the science of psychology in the same way that the people in the East have looked upon it: as the main thing in religion and spiritual development.
As to the power of the word, a new idea has been coming from various places under different names, and it is that the repetition of a certain word or phrase is of great use in curing oneself of certain illnesses. Psychology in the Western world is discovering this today. But what about the Buddhists who, for so many centuries have repeated the different mantras, sitting in their temples, repeating them two thousand, three thousand times a day? And what about the Hindus who have preserved their age old sacred mantras and chants? Even though the language is extinct, they have preserved these ancient chants up till now. And what about the Jewish people, who still preserve the sacred songs, which they inherited from the prophets of Beni Israel? And what about the Muslims, who for ages have repeated the Quran daily for so many hours, and who still continue to repeat the verses of the same book today? And think what secret there is behind the repetitions of the priests and Catholic mystics!
The Zoroastrians, the Parsis, whose religion dates from perhaps eight thousand years ago, have still maintained even up to the present time their sacred words, and they chant their prayers several times a day, repeating the same words every day. But modern man, who reads a newspaper today, throws it away and tomorrow he will ask for another newspaper!
No doubt there is great value in the fact that millions of people have been clinging to those mantras, repeating them day after day perhaps all their life and never becoming tired of doing so. If it were, as it is sometimes called, a religious fanaticism, then nobody could continue those repetitions, as no intoxication can continue longer than its influence lasts; then it goes and a person is disillusioned.
To be continued …