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evolution of consciousness...


According to his evolution, man knows truth.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Every person's desire is according to his evolution. That for which he is ready
is desirable for him. Milk is a desirable food for the infant, other foods for
the grown-up person. Every stage in life has its own appropriate and desirable
things.

When one realizes the ultimate truth, one comes to understand that one single
underlying current to which all the different religions, philosophies and faiths
are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same truth, and it
is the absence of that knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many
different sects and religions.

In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind men
were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind man one day took them to see
one. There, standing by its side, he said, "Now, here is the elephant, see what
you can make of it." Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant
looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its
appearance. One said, "It looks like the big pillar of a palace," another said,
"It looks like a fan." And so they differed and discussed amongst one another,
then they quarreled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said,
"I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it." Then the man who took
them to the elephant came and said, "You are every one of you right, but you
have each seen only a part of the elephant."

So it is with the religions. A person says, "This religion is the one, this
doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible." That shows a
lack of knowledge of the ultimate truth. As soon as one comes to the realization
of the depth of truth, one begins to discern that it is the same truth which the
great ones have tried to express in words. They could not put it fully into
words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point
at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.

Somebody can be praised by one and hated by another, and ten people may all have
a different idea of the same person, because each understands him according to
his state of evolution. Each sees that person according to his own point of
view, each looks at him through his own eyes, and therefore the same person is
different to each being. In the mind of one the person is a sinner, in the mind
of another he is a saint. The same person who is considered gentle and good by
one is considered the opposite by another. If this can be so in connection with
a living being, it is equally possible that various ideas of the deity should be
formed in each heart, and that each soul should mold his own deity according to
his own evolution and according to his way of idealizing and understanding.
Therefore the deity of every heart is different and is as that person has
imagined; but the God of every soul is one and the same, whatever people
imagine. It is the same God that they all imagine, but their imaginations are
different and it is the lack of understanding of this that has caused the
differences in religion.


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