In part I of this series Hazrat Inayat Khan began by speaking of the first aspect, the natural, spontaneous initiation.
With every step forward that the soul takes on the path, it naturally comes closer to God. Coming closer to God means inheriting or drawing towards oneself the qualities of God. In other words, the soul sees more, hears more, comprehends more and enjoys more because it lives a greater, higher life.
The teachers and prophets who had to give a message to humanity, who had to render a service to humanity, had such initiations even in their childhood. There is a symbolic story that the heart of the Prophet Muhammad was opened and some substance was taken out of it. People take this literally; but the real meaning is that a cover was torn away and the soul was allowed to reach upward and go farther on the path. There may be many such initiations, perhaps one or two, or six or seven, according to the state of evolution of the initiate.
Life as we live it today is very difficult for a person whose outlook is thus suddenly changed, for the world lives nowadays at a certain pitch, and it cannot tolerate someone whose pitch is below or above the ordinary pitch of life. People dislike such a one, they make difficulties for him, they disapprove of him and of his ideas. If he does not have any friend or guide on the path, then he may linger on in the same plane of thought till nature helps him, for everything else pulls him backwards.
Some people think that saints, masters or sages have no need for initiation, but they forget that no soul can go farther on the path without initiation.
What is the result of this natural initiation? Bewilderment, extreme bewilderment. But this bewilderment is not the same as confusion. There is a vast difference between the two. In confusion, there is an element of doubt; but when a person is bewildered, he says, ‘How wonderful, how marvelous! Words cannot explain it, it is a miracle!’ It may appear quite simple to someone else, but to an advanced person, it is a miracle. And there may be others who say, ‘How foolish, I do not see anything in what you have seen!’ But what one has perceived is so marvelous that it cannot be explained.
Such is life. It is a difference of outlook. One person sees a wonder, a splendor; and another says, ‘What of it? It is quite simple, it is nothing.’ And the one who says this thinks that he is superior because to his mind it is simple, while the one who wonders has the outlook of a child, for a child wonders at everything. No doubt it is childlike, but it is the child’s soul that sees; it sees more than the soul of a grown-up which has become covered by a thousand veils. In infancy, the child can see the angelic world, it can talk with unseen entities, it can see wonderful things belonging to the different planes. It is easy to say of something that it is childlike, innocent, or ignorant; yet it is the most wonderful thing to be childlike and to have the innocence of an infant. There is nothing better to wish for, as in this all happiness and beauty are to be found.
To be continued…