From the beginning of this series, Hazrat Inayat Khan has been describing the journey of the soul towards manifestation. With this post he concludes that portion, and in the following posts he will speak about manifestation itself. The previous post in the series is here.
Souls who are impressed in the world of the jinns by the personalities of those they meet on their way towards manifestation receive different kinds of impressions. Some are deeply impressed by one personality, and some are slightly impressed by one personality. Some souls receive many impressions on that plane, and it is hardly distinguishable which impression has more effect and which less. However, it is certainly true that in reality one impression is predominant in every soul. The soul, so to speak, conceives this impression; an impression which is not only the outline of the personality which impresses it, but is the very essence of that personality. A soul cannot be compared with an object, for the soul is all the life there is; therefore it not only takes an impression like a photographic plate, but it becomes nurtured by it. The soul is creative; therefore it expresses all that it has absorbed on its way.
The question whether a jinn is sent on earth on a mission to human beings, may be answered by saying that whether it be angel, jinn or man, all are intended to play their part in the scheme of working of the whole universe; and all are used by the wisdom of God for the purpose for which they were created. No doubt the angels are primarily for the angelic heavens and the jinns for the sphere of the jinn, yet in a house the inhabitants of the second or third floor are sometimes sent to the ground floor on an errand when it is necessary. The most remarkable thing that one notices in all those planes of existence is that the beings of these separate planes are not imprisoned there by the Creator. They become captive themselves, just as a man who lives in a village passes his whole life in the same place, and when he is told of the history of the neighboring county it is another world to him. He never tries to leave his village, and the neighboring county is foreign to him. He has heard the name of the next village all through his life, but he has never tried to visit it.
It is this nature of the soul which arises from its ignorance that limits that which is, in point of fact, limitless. How does the soul of a jinn communicate with human beings on earth? It focuses itself upon the heart of man, and experiences all that the man experiences, and knows all that the man knows. It is easy for a jinn to do this, because its mind is clear like crystal, and it can accommodate and reflect all that falls within its range of vision.
One might ask, ‘If the souls on their return journey from the earth give their experience to the souls coming from above, what do the souls coming from above give to the souls on their return journey?’ They can do a great deal too; for they know the forgotten ways through which they have recently traveled, and the laws and customs of the way that the souls on the return journey need to learn. Besides this they give to them that light and life which is necessary to those worn out and withered souls, who have probably given most of themselves to the ever-robbing and consuming plane of the earth. In this way a man is helped towards his goal by the soul he meets on his own return journey.
The question in what manner the jinns can help man on the earth may be answered by saying that they are capable of inspiring man, not with a definite knowledge of things, but with the sense of the knowledge; especially of the knowledge of art, beauty, tone and rhythm; with knowledge of the inventive nature, and sometimes with a sense of knowledge that might help to accomplish great things in life. But though they meet as inhabitants of different countries, who do not know the language, it is the language of the heart which becomes the medium of communication; heart talks to heart, and soul speaks to soul.
To be continued…