Near the conclusion of his article on the Message of Christ, Hazrat Inayat Khan tells us the purpose of our spiritual exercises : Every process of meditation and concentration is to wash the soul of the stains of earthy experiences. If we understand from this that the seeker on the path is in need of a good wash, it might help us to approach our daily practices with an appropriate humility. Practices are not intended to make us proud of our spirituality, nor are they given, like drugs, to stimulate unusual experiences. They are meant to hose off the mud and muck to which we are so accustomed that we think it is a normal part of life.

Hazrat Inayat also likens the process to that of an artist rubbing marks from paper, and this might bring up a question. There are some light marks that are easily removed, and other, stronger marks that are more stubborn. What is more, there are some that we notice but there are others that we overlook. Anyone who decides to give their kitchen a thorough cleaning, for example, knows that, when they finish, they discover many spots that are still startlingly obvious, and they wonder how they were missed.

When it comes to the soul, then, the question is, how can we be sure of removing all that does not belong there?

Certainly, we need patience and persistence; the humility of the seeker is in recognising that the practices are given for our whole life. We will never reach a point where we can say, ‘Yes, fine, now I am clean enough.’ A great soul like Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, in the last weeks of his life, with obviously failing health, insisted on regularly saying his prayers, and Bibi Fatima Sam (whose tomb is not far from that of Hazrat Inayat Khan) actually breathed her last as she prostrated in a prayer.

And the other great aid in removing stains is in the redirection of our focus toward the divine ideal. To use a domestic metaphor, instead of soap, we use light. In countries where the sun is strong, laundry hung outside can be bleached to a blinding whiteness, and in the same way, as we become more and more aware of the divine Light, the stains of our earthly experiences—some of which we may have been conscious of, but others of which we were unaware—all fade and are forgotten. In this context, of course, light means ever-expanding awareness and the flow of all-embracing love.

These are the best stain-removers, then: patience, diligence, and light.