
THE INNER LIFE
The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
The Realization of the Inner
Life
The principle of the one who
experiences the inner life, is to become all things to all men
throughout his life. In every situation, in every capacity, he answers
the demand of the moment. Often people think that the spiritual person
must be a man with sad looks, with a long face, with a serious
expression, and with a melancholy atmosphere. Really speaking, that
picture is the exact contrary of the real spiritual person. In all
capacities the one who lives the inner life has to act outwardly as he
ought in order to fit the occasion;he must act according to the
circumstances, and he must speak to everyone in his own language,
standing upon the same level, and yet realizing the inner life.
For the knower of truth,
the one who has attained spiritual knowledge and who lives the inner
life, there is no occupation in life which is too difficult; as a
business man, a professional man, a king; as a ruler, a poor man, a
worldly man; as a priest or monk, in all aspects he is different from
what people know and see of him. To the one who lives the inner life
the world is a stage; on this he is the actor who has to act a part in
which he has sometimes to be angry and sometimes loving, and in which
he has to take part both in tragedy and comedy. So also the one who
has realized the inner life acts constantly; and, like the actor who
does not feel the emotions he assumes, the spiritual man has to fill
fittingly the place in which life has placed him. There he performs
everything thoroughly and rightly, in order to fulfil his outer
commission in life. He is a friend to his friend, a relative to his
relatives. With all to whom he is outwardly related he keeps the right
relationship with thought, with consideration; and yet in his
realization he is above all relationships. He is in the crowd and in
the solitude at the same time. He may be very much amused, and at the
same time he is very serious. He may seem very sad, and yet there is
joy welling up from his heart.
Therefore the one who has
realized the inner life is a mystery to everyone; no one can fathom
the depth of that person, except that he promises sincerity, he emits
love, he commands trust, he spreads goodness, and he gives an
impression of God and the truth. For the man who has realized the
inner life every act is his meditation; if he is walking in the street
it is his meditation; if he is working as a carpenter, as a goldsmith
or in any other trade or business, that is his meditation. It does not
matter if he is looking at heaven or at the earth, he is looking at
the object that he worships. East or west or north or south, upon all
sides is his God. In form, in principle, nothing restricts him. He may
know things and yet may not speak; for if a man who lives the inner
life were to speak of his experiences it would confuse many minds.
There are individuals in
the world who from morning until evening have their eyes and their
ears focused on every dark comer, wanting to listen, or to see what
they can find out; and they find out nothing. If someone were to tell
such people wonders, he would have a very good occupation, the whole
world would seek him. But such is not the work of the self-realized
man. He sees, and yet does not look;if he were to look, how much he
would see! There is so much to be seen by one whose every glance,
wherever it is cast, breaks through every object and discovers its
depth and its secret. And if he were to look at things and find out
their secrets and depths, where would it end, and of what interest is
it to him?
The inner life,
therefore, is seeing all things and yet not seeing them; feeling all
things and not expressing them, for they cannot be fully expressed;
understanding all things and not explaining. How far can such a man
explain, and how much can another understand? Each according to the
capacity he has, no more. The inner life is not lived by closing the
eyes; one need not close one's eyes from this world in order to live
it, one can just as well open them.
The exact meaning of the
inner life is not only to live in the body, but to live in the heart,
to live in the soul. Why, then, does not the average man live an inner
life when he too has a heart and a soul? It is because he has a heart,
and yet is not conscious of it; he has a soul, and knows not what it
is. When he lives in the captivity of the body, limited by that body,
he can only feel a thing by touching it, he sees only by looking
through his eyes, he hears only by hearing with his ears. How much can
the ears hear and the eyes see? All this experience obtained by the
outer senses is limited. When man lives in this limitation he does not
know that another part of his being exists, which is much higher, more
wonderful, more living, and more exalted. Once he begins to know this,
then the body becomes his tool, for he lives in his heart. And then
later he passes on and lives in his soul. He experiences life
independently of his body; and that is called the inner life. Once
mart has experienced the inner life, the fear of death has expired;
because he knows death comes to the body, not to his inner being. When
once he begins to realize life in his heart and in his soul, then he
looks upon his body as a coat. If the coat is old he puts it away and
takes a new one, for his being does not depend upon his coat. The fear
of death lasts only so long as man has not realized that his real
being does not depend upon his body.
The joy, therefore, of
the one who experiences the inner life is beyond comparison greater
than that of the average man living only as a captive in his mortal
body. Yet the inner life does not necessitate man's adopting a certain
way of living, or living an ascetic or a religious life. Whatever his
outer occupation be it does not matter; the man who lives the inner
life lives it through all. Man always looks for a spiritual person in
a religious person, or perhaps in what he calls a good person, or in
someone with a philosophical mind, but that is not necessarily the
case. A person may be religious, even philosophical, he may be
religious or good, and yet he may not live the inner life.
There is no distinct
outward appearance which can prove a person to be living the inner
life, except one thing. When a child grows towards youth, you can see
in the expression of that child a light beaming. out, a certain new
consciousness arising, a new knowledge coming which the child has not
known before. That is the sign of youth, yet the child does not say
so; he cannot say it, even if he wanted to, he cannot explain it. And
yet you can see it from every movement that the child makes; from his
every expression, you can find that he is realizing life now. And so
it is with the soul. When the soul begins to realize the life above
and beyond this life, it begins to show; and although the man who
realizes this may refrain from purposely showing it, yet from his
expression, his movement, his glance, his voice, from every action and
from every attitude, the wise can grasp and the others can feel that
he is conscious of some mystery.
The inner life is a birth
of the soul; as Christ said, that unless the soul is born again it
cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore the realization of the
inner life is entering the kingdom of heaven; and this consciousness
when it comes to the human being shows itself as a new birth, and with
this new birth there comes the assurance of everlasting life.
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