=kit041.txt

KIT 41 - Miracles Do Happen

Musing upon the importance attached by the Sufis, particularly
Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, to achievement, I am trying to figure
out how these lofty theories would apply to living in our day and
age society.

The commonplace way of life relatively straightforward with its
ups and downs, bouts of joy or pleasure, disappointments and
despair. There are natural laws, of course: what you sow, you
reap. If you put energy into life, work diligently, the likelihood
is that there will be dividends. Slothfulness most predictably
will leave one indigent unless one has one of those rare lucks of
"making money as one sleeps", which also occurs. But a profit that
one has not attained by one's efforts is likely to be
irresponsibly squandered; what one does with one's assets may
prove disappointing.  There can be doubt that the leading edge
sought by the more progressive managers in our modern industrially
oriented societies is the pursuit of excellence. That the pursuit
of excellence is more psychologically rewarding than just cold
calculated money-making or aggressive profiteering is the
conclusion that a number of successful business men and women have
reached today. In the end, it proves even more lucrative.

Pir-O-Murshid attaches very much importance to achievement because
it releases potentialities, which he calls our divine inheritance.
Of course, a further step would consist in grasping the divine
nostalgia for actuation, you my call it existentiation (not just
manifestion) of the many splendored universal potentiates longing
for expression behind one's impulse. By linking up with the divine
springheads of our personal motivations, life gains a whole other
dimension. This is a typical Sufi way of looking at things and
does make for creativity in achievement , since one is injecting a
cosmic dimension into one's venture.

There is yet another step that lies still further beyond the
commonplace and therefore, bypass that middle range laws of nature
we just referred too. In fact, it looks as though there is a whole
hierarchy of laws ranging from the middle range laws to
transcendent laws, difficult to figure out by our finite modes of
thinking, something like synchronicity or the concatenation of
causes in the modern systems theory in physics. The Sufi, Ibn
'Arabi, refers to a causal chain moving down in the transcendent-
immanent vector of time rather than the arrow of time moving in
the process of becoming. These insights, evidencing other
dimensions of human understanding , are most perplexing; the Sufis
refer them as the "consternation of intelligence".

Since it is energy - whether physical or psychic- that triggers a
project or program (software) into actuation, we are indeed
speaking about power but a power that makes thing happen beyond
previsability or likelihood (in the conventional way of assessing
likelihood). This is what we coin a miracle. The Sufis call this
"divine power and so does Murshid. At the ultimate levels, even
the divine fiat is delegated, but only to selfless, the dedicated,
traditionally the renunciates. Pir-O-Murshid pinpoints the clue
when he clarifies that, albeit that achievement enhances one's
personal power so that one may undertake greater challenges,
however, the personal objective ( that is either the personal gain
in terms of money or prestige or even the practical format of that
goal) limits that power. Where as if one has renounced any concern
about gain, or even just the fact of being successful, then the
power one wields is infinite. This accounts for the fact that some
renunciates or sages are ascribed the power of making things
happens, sometimes quite miraculously, but it works for others,
not for themselves.

Perhaps you belong to that clan of being who are only successful
when you are doing things for others; no sooner do you try to
promote your own well-being or pursue your personal wishes that it
just doesn't gel. If so, you are with it amongst the blessed poor
in spirit!  Such altruistic sharing could consist in benevolent
donations to hospitals or study or rehabilitation programs or
research or competitions. Now a days, a progressive formula is
upgrading one's staff with advanced training . How this power
works is most intriguing. There was the case of Baba Farid Gang i
Shaker, our predecessor in the chain of the Chishti Sufis. He was
known to open doors to people who were destitute. He asked a man
who needed to look after his aging mother to give all his money to
the poor. Within a week, he got marvelous job!  But to the man who
shirked responsibility and asked for Baba Farid to help him, he
instructed to repeat a few surrogatory prayers; it didn't work.
Asked why, he said, " The first man needed help to help another,
whereas the other man relied on my power and did not believe in
God from whom my power derives!"

The secret behind this power is a covenant of fealty on the same
lines as the pledge of suzerainty undertaken by the vassal with
respect to his sovereign in the medieval traditions of chivalry.
In fact, the initiation in the Sufi Order is called Bayat, which
means the vow of serving as the Ambassador of the divine
sovereignty. Indeed, the sovereignty of a king depends upon his
recognition by his subjects. However, reinstating things in their
universal perspective, the Sufi Sahl Tostari says, "If you are the
repository or warranty of the divine sovereignty, the "Sirr ar
Robubiya" (the secret of his sovereignty) it is because He is the
secret of that secret  - "Sirr-as-Sirr-ar-Robubiya" - since the
power rests with Him ultimately.

What this amounts to is that that strange divine power that makes
things happen, the secret password that opens doors is the divine
sovereignty and actuate that pledge by selfless service and
kindness to their fellow beings. This is all very perplexing
because on one hand Murshid says, "To achieve, you need
enthusiasm, whereas to meet adversity, you need indifference."
That's the commonplace law which accounts for the fact that we are
pulled in two directions by both these imposes. But to insert
indifference into the pursuit of excellence, that is the ultimate
tour de force!

You do not renounce the world but you renounce yourself out of
love; you are in the world but not of the world. You become the
instrument of the divine fiat to help those beckoning for help in
their despair, and in so doing, you make God a reality in your
being.  

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