Mysticism and Devotion...

Mysticism without devotion is like uncooked food; it can never be assimilated.

Bowl of Saki, February 5, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

Knowledge and heart are just like the positive and negative forces; it is these
two things which make life balanced. If the heart quality is very strong and
intellect is lacking, then life lacks balance. Knowledge and heart quality must
be developed together. There are fine lights and shades in one's life that
cannot be perceived and fully understood without having touched the deeper side
of life, which is the devotional side.

Mystics of all ages have not been known for their miraculous powers or for the
doctrines they have taught, but for the devotion they have shown throughout
their lives. The Sufi in the East says to himself Ishq Allah Mabud Allah which
means 'God is Love, God is Beloved', in other words it is God who is Love,
Lover, and Beloved. When we hear the stories of the miraculous powers of
mystics, of their great insight into the hidden laws of nature, of the qualities
which they manifested through their beautiful personalities, we realize that
these have all come from one and the same source, whether one calls it devotion
or whether one calls it love.

Mysticism without devotion is like uncooked food and can never be assimilated.
'I am the heart of my devotees,' says Krishna in the Baghavat Gita. And Hafiz
says, 'O joyous day when I depart from this abode of desolation, seeking the
repose of my soul and setting out in search of my Beloved.' ... The life of the
mystics, both the inner and the outer, is shown as a wondrous phenomenon within
itself. He becomes independent of all earthly sources of life and lives in the
Being of God, realizing His presence by the denial of his individual self; and
he thus merges into that highest bliss wherein he finds his salvation.


Memorial Note:

Hazrat Inayat Khan - July 5, 1882 - February 5, 1927

Following a bout with pneumonia, Inayat Khan departed from this world on
February 5, 1927, at the Tilak Lodge, located along the river Yamuna near Delhi,
India. His burial tomb is in the Basti Nizamuddin neighborhood of Delhi. Inayat
Khan described the essence of his spiritual message with the following words,
which are offered here to commemorate his life and teachings:


Our sacred task is to awaken among those around us and among those whom we can
reach in the first place the spirit of tolerance for the religion, scripture,
and the ideal of devotion of one another; our next task is to make man
understand people of different nations, races and communities, also of different
classes.

By this we do not mean to say that all races and nations must become one, nor
that all classes must become one; only what we have to say is that whatever be
our religion, nation, race or class, our most sacred duty is to work for one
another, in one another's interest, and to consider that as the service of God.
...

The central theme of the Sufi Message is one simple thing, and yet most
difficult, and that is to bring about in the world the realization of the
divinity of the human soul, which hitherto has been overlooked, for the reason
that the time had not come.

The principal thing that the Message has to accomplish in this era is to create
the realization of the divine spark in every soul, that every soul according to
its progress may begin to realize for itself the spark of divinity within. This
is the task that is before us.

Now you may ask, what is the Message? The Message is this: that the whole
humanity is as one single body, and all nations and communities and races as the
different organs, and the happiness and well-being of each of them is the
happiness and well-being of the whole body. If there is one organ of the body in
pain, the whole body has to sustain a share of the strain of it. That by this
Message mankind may begin to think that his welfare and his well-being is not in
looking after himself, but it is in looking after others, and when in all there
will be reciprocity, love and goodness towards another, the better time will
come.