Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan left an enormous treasury for those who feel the call of the Message – innumerable lectures which so often sound like our own heart speaking to us, and the divinely inspired prayers, for example. A lifetime seems insufficient to explore them all, but among his gifts one jewel that deserves particular attention is the collection of practices called the Nature Meditations. These are simple sentences which may be placed upon the breath, and although they are usually related to some aspect of what we conventionally think of as nature, such as the landscape, flowers, trees (with branches reaching upward or downward) or the sun and the moon, there are also some of a more spiritual level, focusing upon the godly person or saint, the prophet, the Messenger, and even upon God. We could see these meditations, therefore, as urging us to reconsider what ‘nature’ means, to look again at the nature of nature. Can it be more than the beautiful and intricate ecological webs of earthworms and elm trees and elephants? Then, where does nature end?

Amongst the meditations that Hazrat Inayat Khan has given upon God, there is one that sometimes causes confusion to the seeker:
Thou knowest all my needs, (inhale)
and Thou shalt grant them. (exhale)

At first glance, this seems to run counter to what Sufi wisdom has told us from the beginning of our journey: that we should remember God until God becomes a reality for us, and forget about ourself, since our self is the source of all our sorrows. But now in this meditation we seem to be coming to the Divine Presence not only with our own personal wish list, but a firm assertion that we will be given what we want. It seems an invitation to complacency and self-indulgence. How can we understand this?

If one spends some time with the practice though, a thoughtful person will surely begin to reflect upon the difference between what one wants and what one needs. A desire is very mobile and changeable, and typically there are many, simultaneous and overlapping. A child’s desires change from day to day – she or he may want a toy today, but six months later that toy may be forgotten, replaced by an intense desire for a pet or something else. And in the game of desiring, adults are simply grown-up children, for their desires also mutate, although perhaps more slowly.

As to our needs, they are fewer, and often overlooked. Our desires and our hectic race through the world to fulfil them intoxicate us, so that our real needs may be hidden from our view. But discovering the difference between desire and need is a step toward knowing who we really are – which is the real purpose of all our striving, although striving blindly brings little result. In Gayan Chalas we find this saying : If a desire is not fulfilled it means that the person did not know how to desire; failure is caused by indistinctness of motive.

And when we find that we do have a need, since our chase after one desire and another has taught us that the impermanent world can only lead to disappointment, then, as the meditation says, where else could we turn, if not to God, the Creator and the Sustainer, who knows all about us and knows what will satisfy us?

And what does fulfilment mean? There is fulfilment that must be renewed or repeated, as we know from our physical needs – there is no meal that will satisfy our appetite forever, for example – but in the spiritual realm there is the fulfilment that erases the need completely. Fulfilling the spiritual need means eliminating the separation from the One and from our own selves. It os no surprise that reaching this fulfilment returns us to the study of nature, and who we are, as we may learn from this saying in Gayan Boulas : In the complete unfoldment of human nature is the fulfilment of life’s purpose.