Having begun his consideration of the problem of the day by looking at such points as food, hygiene and lifestyle, Hazrat Inayat Khan now turns his attention to the mental aspect of the subject. The previous post is here.

When speaking of the question of the mental development of humanity, I should like to say that what is mostly needed in these critical times in the world is the right mentality. Every kind of degeneration follows the wrong mentality. Wrong mentality is the wrong attitude.

It is upon attitude of mind that the whole life of man depends – his rise, his fall, his success, his failures, his happiness or unhappiness, all are mostly caused by the mentality. In these times when commercialism is reigning over the world and when competition has become the central theme, when one is desirous of getting the best of [i.e. triumphing over] another, the man sees nothing else but his own benefit for which he struggles along through life.

At such a time for the law of evolution what is most necessary is the right attitude of mind. ‘Going astray,’  the orthodox phrase, means wrong attitude, and once the mind has taken a wrong attitude, the mentality is wrong. To that person everything seems wrong because his mentality has become wrong, and all reflected in a wrong mentality becomes wrong.

For an instance, when a thief travels in the train, he looks with suspicion at the person who travels by his side, suspecting him to be a thief. A selfish person can never understand that there can be such a thing as unselfishness. Just as a person who has suffered all through life – he cannot say that there exists happiness in the world. And the person who knows what is joy, to him the whole life becomes beautiful. It shows that the whole world becomes favourable, unfavourable, pleasant, unpleasant according to one’s mentality.  All manner of degeneration, such as not honouring one’s word, no care of keeping one’s promise, no desire for self-respect, no wish to maintain the dignity, all such things come from the wrong mentality.

Now the question is what causes the wrong mentality?  The wrong mentality is like an obsession, which is caused by a certain absorption in a certain direction of this dense earth.  If one is entirely absorbed in collecting wealth, he does not think for one moment of anything else in life. His whole mind, his thought is concentrated upon it, his every effort is directed to it. Then he knows nothing else but his object, which blinds him, making him  regardless of all virtues of love and beauty to his fellowmen, of righteousness, regardless of his obligation to his dear ones, to those who are near him, and of his relation and duty to God.

Not only one thing; there are many such things – love of power, of rank, of position, fighting for all things of this world. When a man is fully absorbed he loses his balance.  But by this it does not mean that wealth is not for man, that position or rank is not for man. It does not mean that earthly comfort, convenience or advantage is not for man. It is all for man if he does not lose his poise over it, if he does not allow himself to be wholly absorbed in it.  If he only keeps his balance and sees that there is something else also in life…  

To have a right mentality, it is does not mean that a person should leave the life of this world. If he left it, it would not be the right mentality. Right mentality is to have a direction through life which leads to the object of one’s mind, of one’s heart, of one’s soul. By having the right attitude of mind one strikes a path in life which is the path. Life becomes easy, one’s working life becomes easy and peasant, all needs of the world – wealth or power, or position – they all lead one to a higher life, for all help one instead of hindering one’s path, if one would only strike the right road.

To be continued…