Hazrat Inayat Khan now speaks of the way that the prophetic soul receives the divine message. The previous post in the series is here.

A question which is always asked is how the prophetic soul receives the message of God – in what form? Does the angel Gabriel bring it, as it is said in the scriptures of Beni Israel? Does it come as a voice? Does it come in a form which is visible? And the answer is that everything which has been said about it in the ancient scriptures has much truth in it, but very often some of the symbolical ideas are misinterpreted by the uninitiated. The idea of Gabriel as a messenger is partly imagination. The real Gabriel is that Spirit of Guidance which is the soul of the prophets. Its voice is intuition, but to the attentive mind of the prophets this voice is sometimes so distinct that it becomes much louder than what is heard through the ears, for in their hearts a capacity is produced. In other words, their hearts become like domes which echo every word. The heart of the ordinary person does not give that echo, so the inner voice becomes inaudible to one’s own soul. Just as a voice is necessary, so is hearing necessary also. Without hearing the voice is inaudible. The hearing is the capacity in the heart. When the heart becomes like an ear, then it begins to hear the voice that comes from within.

Then there is the question whether Gabriel manifested to the prophets in a certain form. That is also true. There is nothing in this world which is devoid of form except God, who is formless, although the form of some things is visible, and that of other things invisible. Even thoughts and feelings have forms. One may call them results, but form is always a result. The heart which can hear the inner voice louder than the spoken words can certainly see the form, even the form which is not seen by every soul. In fact, the eyes of the prophet do see a form; for what the heart sees fully is also reflected in the eyes. It is not seen from without but from within, and yet it is seen. Not everyone can conceive of such an idea, for most are accustomed to see and hear only what comes from outside. But to the wise it is as clear as day that the eyes and the ears are not only the organs in which the impressions from the outer life are reflected, but that even impressions from the life within are also reflected in them.

It matters little to a prophet whether his ears hear or his heart hears, whether his eyes see or his heart sees. He knows that he hears and sees, and that is sufficient evidence for him of a living God. One may ask if this means that God is so personal that He speaks and manifests as a phantom to a certain soul, but if this were so it would only be limiting God. The limitless God cannot be made more intelligible to our limited self unless He is first made limited. That limited ideal becomes like an instrument, a medium of God who is perfect and who is limitless.

To be continued…