' Nature Speaks '...

Nature speaks louder than the call from the minaret.

Bowl of Saki, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

One may ask, what should one study? There are two kinds of studies.
One kind is by reading the teachings of the great thinkers and
keeping them in mind, the study of metaphysics, psychology, and
mysticism. And the other kind of study is the study of life. Every
day one has an opportunity for studying; but it should be a correct
study. When a person travels in a tramcar, in the train, with a
newspaper in his hand, he wants to read the sensational news which is
worth nothing. He should read human nature which is before him,
people coming and going. If he would continue to do this, he would
begin to read human beings as though they were letters written by the
divine pen, which speak of their past and future. He should look
deeply at the heavens and at nature and at all the things to be seen
in everyday life, and reflect upon them with the desire to
understand. This kind of study is much superior, incomparably
superior, to the study of books.

The deeper we look into life the more it unfolds itself, allowing us
to see more keenly. Life is revealing. It is not only human beings
who speak; if only the ears can hear even plants and trees and all
nature speak, in the sense that nature reveals itself, reveals its
secret. In this way we communicate with the whole of life. Then we
are never alone, then life becomes worth living.

Just as there is a communication between persons who love each other
very much, so the sympathy of a person whose soul has unfolded itself
is so awakened that not only every person but even every object
begins to reveal its nature, its character and secret. To him every
man is a written letter.

We hear stories of saints and sages who talked with rocks and plants
and trees. They are not only stories; it is reality. It is also told
of the apostles that at the moment when the Spirit descended upon
them they began to speak many languages. When they understood so many
languages, they understood the language of every soul. It means that
the illuminated soul understands the language of every soul. And
every soul has its own language. It is that which is called
revelation.

All the teachings that the great prophets and teachers have given are
only interpretations of what they have seen. They have interpreted in
their own language what they have read from the manuscript of nature:
that trees and plants and rocks spoke to them. Did nature only speak
to those in the past? No, the soul of man is always capable of that
bliss if he only realized it. Once the eyes of the heart are open,
man begins to read every leaf of the tree as a page of the sacred
Book.

In the promise of the dawn, in the breaking of the morn, in the
smiles of the rose,
Beloved, I see Thy joy at my homecoming.