Light and Truth...

All earthly knowledge is as a cloud covering the sun.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Truth is the very self of man. Truth is the divine element in man. Truth is
every soul's seeking. Therefore as soon as the clouds of illusion are scattered,
that which man now begins to see is nothing but the truth which has been there
all the time. He finds that the truth was never absent; it was only covered by
clouds of illusion.

Man brings unhappiness upon himself by holding in his hands the clouds of bad
impressions, which fall as a shadow upon his soul. Once a person is able to
clear from his mind, by whatever process, the undesirable impressions, a new
power begins to spring from his heart. This opens a way before him to accomplish
all he wishes, attracting to him all he requires, clearing his path of all
obstacles, and making his atmosphere clear, for him to live and move and to
accomplish all he wishes to accomplish.

As there are times when the sun becomes covered by clouds, so there are times
when the God-ideal becomes covered by materialism. But if for a moment the cloud
covers the sun, that does not mean that the sun is lost; and so the God-ideal
may seemed to have disappeared in the reign of materialism, yet God is there
just the same. ... We find that during the past few years all over the world we
have come to a phase when the God-ideal has seemed entirely forgotten. It does
not mean that the Churches have disappeared, it does not mean that God does not
exist, but that a light that was once there has been covered and has ceased to
illuminate us.

Now the time has come that humanity, after its contemplation on material gain,
must contemplate on another gain. Material gains are taken away in a moment's
time and leave man in his grave alone without any of them. ... This does not
mean that the knowledge of the world is useless, but the knowledge of the world
does not suffice the whole purpose of life. There is only one thing from which
true satisfaction can come, and that is the knowledge of the deeper side of
life, the knowledge of the source and goal of all things.

It is the receptivity of our heart and the passivity of our mind, it is the
eagerness, the thirst and hunger after truth, it is the direction of our whole
life to that Ideal from who all light and truth come, that alone can bring us
truth and the knowledge of God. All knowledge of the earth is as clouds covering
the sun. It is the breaking of these clouds and clearness of the sky, or in
other words the purity of heart, which give the capacity for the knowledge of
God.