At the conclusion of the previous instalment in the series, Hazrat Inayat Khan gave the illustration that different materials are fit for different purposes, that metal, for example is more resonant than wood, and is better suited for a musical instrument.

The mind is a much better vehicle for the intelligence than the body. Therefore, though the mind experiences life even through the material organs of the senses, yet it is itself more perceptive, and can experience life in its different aspects apart from the body. In other words, the mind can see for itself; it can even hear without the ears, for the mind has its own eyes and ears. Though it needs the physical eyes and ears to see and to hear, yet there are things which the physical eyes and ears cannot see and hear; the mind sees and hears these. The more independent the mind is made of the outer senses, the more freely it perceives life and becomes capable of using the outer organs of sense to their best advantage.

To the question if the mind has a form, it may be answered that the mind has the same form as that with which the soul is most impressed. And what is the form with which the soul is most impressed? One’s own. That is why, when man says ‘I’, he identifies himself with the form which is most impressed upon his mind, and that is his own. But the mind is a world within itself, a magic world, a world which can be very easily changed, very quickly altered, compared with the physical one. The phenomenon of the mind is great, and wonders could be performed if only one had the key of the mind in one’s hand. The difficulty is that man becomes so fixed in his physical body that he hardly realizes in life that he has a mind. What man knows of himself is of the body, through the mind; verily man is his own mind.

The mind is not only the akasha which contains all that one learns and experiences through life, but among five different aspects of the mind, each having its own work, there is one aspect which may be specially called the mind and which shows the power of the creator. All that we see before our eyes, and all objects made by the skill of man, every condition brought about in life, whether favorable or unfavorable, all are the creation of the human mind, of one mind or of many minds. Man’s failures in life, together with his impression of limitation, keep him ignorant of that great power which is hidden in the mind. Man’s life is the phenomenon of his mind; man’s happiness and success, his sorrows and failures, are mostly brought about by his own mind, of which he knows so little. If this secret had been known by all, no one in this world would have been unhappy, no soul would have had failure, for unhappiness and failure are both unnatural; the natural is what man desires; the only question is: how to get it? The words of Emerson support this idea: ‘Beware of what you want, for you will get it.’

The whole of life is continual learning, and for the one who really learns from life, the knowledge is never enough. The more he learns, the more there is to learn. The secret of this idea is in the Quran: ‘Be! He said; and it became.’ The Seers and Knowers of life do not only know this as theory, but by their life’s own experience.

To be continued…