117 - The Universel / The Message

If we ponder a moment about the teaching which we have shared throughout the years, it becomes evident that we have been training mureeds in meditation skills with a view to helping them introduce further dimensions into their lives, to consequently unfurl latent potentials, and to be better able to meet the challenges of their lives by applying the insight gained through spiritual awakening in real life situations. Thus we have been obviating the danger of the fallacy of the "Spiritual Bypass", of which many spiritual groups have been accused, by making their disciples otherworldly and therefore unable to deal with their personal problems in the world in our day and age.

On the other hand there are other issues in our life than our personal problems: the need for adumbrating our personal beings through transpersonal spiritual values, an attunement to the sacred. A movement is erupting in the Sufi Order, particularly amongst the more long-standing Representatives, for the universal dimension of our teaching. This beckons us to eschew our personal concerns and transcend our personal identity.

The false ego is what that ego has wrongly conceived to be its own being. It is not that the false ego is our ego, and the true ego is the ego of God, it is that the true ego which is the ego of God has been reduced to a false ego in us.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

It is the notion of God as the antipodal pole to our personal ego that shifts our identity from its constraint in our personal dimension. The personal pole of our being - commonly called our ego - figures in our psychological defense system. It protects us from the egos of others, and can lead us to try to dominate others to upholster our self-esteem. It has been bequeathed to us by our conditioning, devised in the course of evolution in its primeval stages. To evolve, one needs to substitute for this level of conditioning the higher modes of programming of the universe, and this is where we find freedom from the more primitive modes of conditioning.

The only way to wean ourselves from this bumptious notion of ourselves (however incongruously flawed it may be by a sense of inadequacy) without incurring psychological withdrawal symptoms, is to discover and eventually identify with the higher levels of our being, which correspond to higher attunements of our consciousness of sublime spheres of the universe that we ascribe to God. When we have negotiated this step, we realize that the deep thrust behind all our teachings is the Message. Personal development is only a component of the fulfillment of our being.

Just as at one time there was a call from everywhere to guard self-interest, now the moment has come for the message to be given for men to understand and consider one another. The happiness and peace of each individual depends on the happiness and peace of all. The complete joy is in sharing one's joy with another. The selfish one enjoys himself and does not care for others. Whatever he enjoys, things of the earth or things of heaven, his enjoyment is not complete. In this third stage, following, the message is fulfilled, when he has heard and pondered upon it and passed the same blessing to others.

The Sufi Order, or Esoteric School, was the school for training to open the door to the spirituality of the future, called the Message.

Our activity in the line of religion - which is a side activity, considering the Esoteric School and esotericism as the main activity - is still the answer to the cry of the whole humanity, not the Esoteric School. Before the soul has expressed its cry, it has reached the heart of the messenger.

Pir-o-Murshid clarifies that the Sufi Order is not a sect:

The Sufi Order is a school that represents the embodiment of all the schools, and is answering the need of the present day. The Sufi Order, therefore, is the body composed of those interested in spiritual attainment who have been initiated in the Sufi Order which was formed in 1910, when the Sufi message was brought to the Western world.

To reach out beyond the boundaries of the personal self, one needs to be concerned about others, about the human family, about the Planet. By dedicating ourselves to service, we nurture the cosmic outreach of our own being. Here lies the step transiting between the Esoteric School - the Sufi Order, and the Message.

The whole humanity is as one body; and any organ of that body, hurt or troubled, can cause trouble to the whole body, indirectly.

This can require sacrifice of personal greed beyond personal need, also self-abnegation, ambition, conceit, (which may require us to forfeit status).

When Pir-o-Murshid founded the "Universel" in that historic ceremony of Hijerat Day on September 13th 1926, he was doing more than placing the cornerstone of a temple of all religions...

The other need just now is the need of a Temple for the Universal Worship. When your Murshid was brought here, destiny settled him here. Spirits were moved to take this piece of ground, that a temple be made here. But now that destiny has made your Murshid settle here in Suresnes, not very far from here, in this vicinity a miniature Temple may be erected; and on such a model, however small, that it may be copied in the different countries.

...but announcing the next step: the Universel emerging out of the Sufi Movement.

I wish to say a few words on the subject of our efforts in constructing something [The Universel]. We have come together, brought together by destiny in friendship, in sympathy, in love, and this must have a special meaning. And that special meaning is that we are constructing something, we are building something in the air. And this building is not a building for a certain time. This building is built for centuries to come.

These statements made by Pir-o-Murshid as he was approaching the fulfillment of his life bear testimony to two last wishes: First, that a temple of all religions be built in Suresnes...

Someone asked me, "But why must it be in a place like Suresnes? If the Sufi message sought from a practical point of view what is best for its earthly progress, certainly we should ignore that mystical significance which is working behind our efforts. There is a mystical outlook, there is a mystical significance, there is a mystical point of view which is different from that which we call a practical point of view. Things of great significance are beyond what we call our practical point of view.

. . . and second, that conjointly a temple be built of people dedicated to serve the message of unity.

It is our thoughts and our feelings which will serve in this temple as stones and bricks and tiles, and it is our feelings which will hold this temple for centuries to come. My earnest mureeds are the trustees of what is given and will be given; to collect it, to guard it, to protect it, and preserve it for future generations. This opens up a different thought before my mureeds; every mureed has a contribution to make to this temple, and the best contribution he can make is his devotion, his faith in the message, his sincere service to the Cause, his sympathy, his friendship with Murshid.

We feel the urgency of doing something for others rather than for ourselves. Pir-o-Murshid was a pioneer, sensitive to the pulse of the trend through which our human family has and is going. Listening to what he called the cry of humanity, he pointed out to his fellow beings where a crucial fallacy is causing suffering and misery at a world scale, to meet a dire need.

There is lightning, there is thunder, and the rain falls; and there are wars and disasters before the message comes. Storms are very often warnings of what is to follow, and the different kinds of battles and revolutions are often warnings, before the coming of peace the deeper the sorrow, the higher the voice of the heart rises, until it reaches the throne of God; and that is the time when the answer comes. And at this time when the world is upset this message conveys to the world the divine message... The Divine message is the answer to the cry of souls, individually and collectively.

Pir-o-Murshid sounds an alarm that resonates with our own concerns in our day and age, and beckons us to rise to the call. Only a change in thinking can bring this about individually and collectively. There are intonations erupting though the words spoken by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan that bespeak the cosmic dimensions that mark the stature of a prophetic message.

There is something in the whole creation, which is like an alarm clock set for a certain time to make a sound, so that one may awaken. That clock sounds through all the activity of evolution, and when a certain point of evolution is touched man is awakened by the alarm: that is the word that was lost. It has its echo in the longing. When a person cannot wake up in the morning of his own accord, then the alarm clock awakes him. The prophets were this alarm.

Pir-o-Murshid diagnosed the malaise in an area that affects millions, billions of people: religion.

People think that the reason for war is mostly political, but religion is a greater warmonger than any political ideas. It is often for no other reason than clinging to the personality of their particular teacher, claiming for him superiority over other teachers, and degrading a teacher held in the same esteem by others, that people have separated themselves from one another, and caused most of the wars and factions and contentions which history records among the children of God. Rejection of the stranger, and belief only in the one whom he has once acknowledged, has kept man in darkness for ages. Man has held fast to one prophet and ignored the others, because although he knew his religion he did not know the message. He has taken the book as his religion without recognizing the message.

There is a tendency in the human race which has appeared in all ages: it leads man to accept every expression of the message which has been given him, to be won by it, blessed by it, and yet to fail to recognize who the messenger is. The followers of each form of the message profess devotion to their Lord and Master, by whatever name he had in the past, but they do not necessarily know the Master. What they know is the name and the life of the Master that has come down to them in history or tradition; but beyond that they know very little about him. If the same one came in another form, in a garb adapted to another age, would they know him or accept him? No, they would not even recognize him, because it was not the message but the form that they accepted in the past; a certain name or character; a part but not the whole. Man refused to believe the Masters and their teachings, whether of the past or future, if their names were not written in the particular tradition he believed, or if he had not heard their names in the legends handed down for ages among his people.

Therefore the people of that part of the world who have acknowledged the Hebrew prophets do not for instance recognize Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, or Vishnu and Shiva simply because they cannot find these names in their scriptures. The same thing occurs in the other part of humanity, which does not count Abraham, Moses or Jesus among its Devatas, as it does not find those names written in the legends with which it is familiar. Even if it were true that Brahma was the same Devata whom the Hebrews called Abraham, and if Christ was the same Master whom the Hindus have called Krishna, yet man would not recognize as one those whom he has distinguished as different, having a higher opinion of one of them and a lower opinion of the other.

The work of the Sufi Order is to give the combined theory of the Semitic line of mystics and of the Hindu line of mystics, the two joined together. By Semitic I mean not only the line of Moses, but it included Christ also. There are also two distinct mystic lines, and both are joined in what is called the Sufi message. Besides this, to interpret this in a modern form is the meaning of the message.

The premises of religious unity were already present in Islam and particularly in Sufism.

We have sent our messengers to every part of the earth.

Qur'an

This calls for a particularly relevant statement recorded as a Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad in Muslim's Sahih:

On the day of the resurrection, God will show Himself to His servants in a form that they have not known. It will not be the form of the God of their faiths, but some form from among the divine determinations in which other determinations have known their God. Then the servant will deny and reject Him and take refuge in God against this "false" God, until at last God discloses Himself to them in the form of their own faith. Then they would recognize Him.

Cf. H. Corbin, Creative Imagination According to Ibn 'Arabi, Routledge & Kegan Paul, p 199.

Also W. Chjittick: The Sufi path of knowledge, State of NY University Press 1989.

In this same vein, the Sufis recognize the differences in the faiths of people.

The God who is in a faith (says Ibn 'Arabi) is the God whose form the heart contains, Who discloses Himself to the heart in such a way that the heart recognizes Him. Since the form in which He discloses Himself in a faith is the form of that faith, the theophany takes the dimension of the receptacle that receives it, the receptacle in which He discloses Himself. That is why there are many faiths. To each believer the Divine Being is He who is disclosed to him in the form of his faith. If God manifests Himself in a different form, the believer rejects Him. And that is the reason why dogmatic faiths combat one another.

H.Corbin, opus cit. p. 197

Every instant the Loved One assumes a new garment.
He became Noah and went into the ark when at his prayer the world was flooded.
He became Abraham and appeared in the midst of the fir, which bloomed with roses for his sake.
Then he became Jesus and ascended to heaven and glorified God.
In brief, it was He that was coming and going in every generation thou hast known,
Until at last He appeared in the form of an Arab, and gained the empire of the world.
The lovely Winner of Hearts became a sword in the hand of Ali.
No, no, it was even He that cried in human shape "Ana 'l Haqq".
There is no transmigration, nothing is transferred,
Rumi has not spoken and will not speak words of infidelity; do not disbelieve Him!

Rumi: Selections by Reynold A. Nicholson, George Allen & Unwin, London1964.

To understand what is meant by the Message, our minds need to grasp the meaning of perennity: a continuity in change.

Those who limit Christ to the historic period of the life of the prophet of Nazareth surely limit the message, in spite of his open declaration that he is the first and the last. Christ also said, "I have not come to give a new law, but I have come to fulfill the law", which means that no new religion has ever been given, although the world has taken it so. Those who came with this message of religion have given it in diverse forms, in accordance with the evolution of the people at that particular time, but the religion was one and the same.

These are the premises that have flowered in the message announced by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan.

We are living at a time when the world is gradually, though sometimes reluctantly, weaving itself into a whole. Many welcome this message of mutual understanding and respect while recognizing the differences. The Universal message is not syncretism: 

The Sufi does not say this religion is greater than the other, nor does he come out and say this religion and that religion are equal. He leaves it to the individual to think as he thinks. He only holds his service as the proof of admiring all the teachers and respecting all the scriptures, which are respected by humanity.

It makes it easier to understand another religion to one's own if one sees how they emerged in the course of history.

To every individual, nation, and race, there is a special message. Every prophet had to speak in the manner of the time in which he lived, and according to the evolution of that time. Also, the custom of each country differs from that of other countries; the manners and life differ. If the messenger is born in one country and has to give his message in another country, surely he has to consider the way in which the people there look at life, and to give his message accordingly. That the Messengers came successively did not mean that they were to give different Messages, but that they should correct the corruption made in the message of the past by its followers; and also to revive principles in order to suit the evolution of the period, and to recall the same truth to the human mind which had been taught by the past Masters but had become lost from memory.

Their messages differ from one another in their outer appearance, each message being given in accordance with the age of man's evolution, and also in order to add a particular part in the course of divine wisdom. Certain laws and principles were prescribed by them to suit the country where the message was given, the climate, the period, customs, manners and requirements. For instance when wealth was esteemed the message was delivered by King Solomon; when beauty was worshipped, Joseph, the most handsome, gave the message; when music was regarded as celestial David gave his message in song; when there was curiosity about miracles Moses brought his message; when sacrifice was highly esteemed Abraham gave the message; when heredity was recognized, Christ gave his message as the Son of God; and when democracy was necessary, Muhammad gave his message as the Servant of God, one like all and among all; this put an end to the necessity for more prophets, because of the democratic nature of his proclamation and message.

He proclaimed: la ilaha illa 'llah (none exists but God). God constitutes the whole being, singly, individually and collectively, and every soul has the source of the divine message within itself. This is the reason why there is no longer the need for mediation, for a third person as a savior between man and God. For man has evolved enough to conceive the idea of God being all and all being God, and has become tolerant enough to believe in the divine message given by one like himself, who is liable to birth, death, joy, and sorrow, and all the natural vicissitudes of life.

The purpose of the Sufi message embodies a growing feeling amongst many well advised people in our time to eschew sectarianism, one of the calamities of our times, the cause of so much intolerance and violence.

The Sufi Movement will try to avoid sectarianism, which has divided man in all ages of the world's history. The Sufi message is not opposed to any religion, faith or belief; on the other hand it is a support of all religions; it is a defense for religions which are attacked by the followers of other religions. At the same time the Sufi Movement provides humanity with the religion which is in reality all religions. The Sufi Movement does not call man away from his belief or church - it calls man to live it. The Sufi Movement, therefore does not stand as a barrier between its member and its own religions faith, but as an open door leading to the heart of his faith.

The positive side is that it is not just tolerance. It is all-encompassing and thereby announces the emergence, out of the spectrum of diversity, the perspective of a world religion.

Sufism is not a new religion or community. It does not want to add a community to the world. At the same time the Sufi Movement provides humanity with the religion which is in reality all religions. It is the world message and that religion which will be the religion of the whole humanity, a religion which does not distract the mind of any person from his own religion.

When it comes to recognizing the one initially transmitting the Message, Pir-o-Murshid's response is even more enigmatic, for good reasons, and challenges the commonplace mind beyond its limits in once more reconciling the irreconcilables - the continuity in change. Pir-o-Murshid often quotes Christ:

The key is in the words, 'I am Alpha and Omega ... I am the first and the last.' Can that mean, 'I came only for a time, and then I was called Jesus, and only then did I give a message; I spoke neither before nor after that time'?' Alpha and Omega means First and Last; always, continually present; never absent from the beginning of creation to the end If one could only see that spirit hidden behind different personalities, one would be constantly in the vision of Christ.

Pir-o-Murshid points out that in the past the voice of the message needed to make a claim:

There was a time when the world was not capable of seeing. Humanity did not have enough realization to recognize the message, which is why the claim of prophecy had to be made. But now the world can recognize, sooner or later, what is right and what is wrong. The warner, the master, the messenger of today will not claim; he will only work. He will leave his work to prove for itself whether it is true or false.

Besides the message is not heard, not understood, not received until the messenger has disappeared.

We are living in different times:

Each prophet had a mission to prepare the world for the teaching of the next; each one prophesied the coming of the next, and the work was thus continued by all the prophets until Mohammed, the Khatim al Mursalin, the last messenger of divine wisdom and the seal of the prophets, came on his mission, and in his turn gave the final statement of divine wisdom: 'None exists but Allah.' There was no necessity left for any more prophets after this divine message, which created the spirit of democracy in religion by recognizing God in every being.

We are living at a time when several spiritual leaders have laid claims to be the prophet or avatar.

The messenger never makes claims. Thousands will listen to those who claim to be messengers, but the wind of the spirit will destroy all that is false. It is not the claim that makes the messenger, it is the message. The being of the prophet, the work of the prophet, and the fulfillment of his task are themselves the proof of prophethood. He lives as a human being, subject to love, hate, praise, and blame; he passes his life in the world of attachment and the life that binds with a thousand ties from all sides. Yet he does not forget the place from whence he has come.

It requires wisdom on the part of those fired by the power of this universal message to avoid deterring people who perceive proselytism in our enthusiasm, especially at a time when guru-worship has proven so deceptive.

I may warn it is never enough, and that is to keep in control your appreciation, your enthusiasm, and your sympathy for Murshid, and for the Cause, and always take care so as not to make the message conspicuous in the eyes of the world. I very well know the feeling of my sincere mureeds, who at the moment of appreciation of the Message, of the blessing, wish that the whole world could share with them.

Moreover from past experience, people have become (quite rightly) wary of sects.

The Sufi Order is not a community and not a religion; it is a nucleus of the human brotherhood which is the inner call of every soul without any intention of forming an exclusive community, but to unite in this service the people of all different religions. The Sufi Movement is not supposed to take the whole humanity in its arms so that they should become members of the Sufi Movement, but on the service of the whole humanity is the fulfillment of the Sufi Mission.... It will share with them and it is sharing with them unconsciously; but the ideal of its members is to invite humans to become members of humanity....

However when appraised of such a powerful thought, so important at the present transit through which humanity is going, the need for workers is felt as it was indeed in the time of Pir-o-Murshid.

It is natural that it is difficult to have workers in a world cause sufficient to provide everywhere there is need. But still this must be understood, that as many workers in the Cause we possess, so more facility and strength comes to the spreading of the Cause. Although very few whose destiny it is to serve God and humanity in this direction, we ought to feel ourselves blessed. In the strength of that blessing, we should feel fully encouraged and helped to serve God and humanity. Are the workers of this message priests? No, they are the soldiers of the army of peace, the army which is working to bring about peace in the diverse religions of this world, which have disputed, argued, and kept themselves away from one another, looking upon one another's religions as wrong.

We have been working on a curriculum for the Sufi Order - the Esoteric School, but what could be the curriculum or the Universel - the Message? Most of Pir-o-Murshid's teaching opens a perspective on the wide vision of the spirituality of the future. The second installment of the curriculum is on its way, showing parallels point by point between Pir-o-Murshid's teaching and that of the Sufis. There can be no doubt that the message emerged out of Sufism. So where is the dividing line? Upon deep reflection and meditation, it avers itself that it is absolutely not definable, but a matter of growing to the realization of the vast spiritual outreach that Pir-o-Murshid reconnoitered.

People mostly think that the spiritual message must be something concrete and definite in the way of doctrines or principles, but that is a human tendency which does not belong to the divine nature, which is unlimited life itself. I do not wish to give any particular teaching to my mureeds on the subject of the Message, because it is something which must come from themselves, a realization which must spring from their own heart, that the soul may become convinced from itself, and from within, without outer teaching. Only as my mureeds will grow in the realization of the Truth, so they will realize the importance of the Message, the sacredness of the Message, and their own responsibility in the delivery of the message of the time.

During those last years when Pir-o-Murshid was walking on the Planet, a Siraj had suggested setting up a school of comparative religion for the training of cherags. Pir-o-Murshid saw that this was not the answer. For one thing, comparative religion is a matter for scholars, and even most of these need to specialize in one religion. The reason for Pir-o-Murshid's attitude is that the message is not syncretism. It would not do justice to their rich contribution to our spiritual heritage.

Unity is not uniformity.

Efforts of comparing their tenets or dogmas show contradictions and incomparabilities. It is easier to compare their methods of meditation because here they prove to be complementary rather than contradictory, here we are talking about experience rather than belief.

Instead of doing as the theologists in colleges who only want to find what is the difference between Moses and Buddha, one should look behind all religions to see where they unite, to find out how the followers of all the different religions can be friends, how they can come to that one truth. To say that the whole world must belong to one Church, one religion, is as absurd as for all people to wear one kind of dress. The world would become uninteresting; the difference between them existed only in those principles and rituals which were given to the people of that time and harmonized with their standard of intelligence and evolution. Let the people have Churches, beliefs, faiths, let them have different conceptions of things as long as they are brought closer to the realization of truth. Then they will naturally understand better that it is true wisdom, which is the real light, that it is the central wisdom which brings them together and which is the inspirer of humanity. It is in self-realization that the mystery of the whole of life is centered. Belief is a thing, but faith is a being.

Even most of the followers of religions do not know their own religion let alone that of others.

Does every Christian understand the Bible? Does every Muslim know the Qur'an, or every Hindu the Vedanta? No, they may know the words of the verses, but not always the real meaning. Among the Muslims there are some who know the whole Qur'an by heart, but that does not fulfil the purpose. The whole of nature is a secret book, yet it is an open book to the seer. How can man translate it? How can man interpret it? It is like trying to bring the sea on to the land; one can bring it, but how much?

Besides, Pir-o-Murshid warned us against the bias that our interpretation may incur by our very enthusiasm for the Message:

When they give an interpretation of these secrets to others, they become limited, for they take the color of his own personality and the form of the thought of those to whom the message is given.

Syncretism freezes one in static conceptualization. Life moves on - thoughts evolve.

Advancement or progress is not standing still and stopping at one ideal or principle. The work of the Sufi Movement is not to collect all the rainwater in its own tanks, but to work and make a way for the stream of the message to flow, supplying water to the fields of the world. The greatest progress is a constant expansion of the divine spirit, expansion in any direction so long as the ideal of unity is applied.

However, are there not certain thoughts which - although already articulated in the religions of the past and particularly in our Sufi transmission that Pir-o-Murshid highlighted - that might serve as guidelines for those enthused by the Message?

The Sufi message is the awakening of humanity to the divinity in man (not just personal awakening through meditation).... The note, that the Sufi message is striking at the present time, is the note, which sounds the divinity of the human soul - to make human beings recognize the divinity in the human soul. It is the spirit of all souls, which is personified in all ages as God. The Sufi sees the vision of God, the worshipped deity, in His immanence, manifest in nature, and life now becomes for him a perfect revelation both within and without. What did the spiritual message bring? It brought to the world a living God. The limitless God cannot be made more intelligible to our limited self unless He was first made limited. That limited ideal becomes as an instrument, as a medium of God Who is perfect and Who is limitless.

The advanced views offered by the message cannot fit into the framework of the commonplace mind and therefore cannot avoid being paradoxical. It was imbedded mysteriously in the dogmas for the beings of enlightenment; as the thinking of humanity evolves, it needs to be articulated:

God is in man and man is in God, yet God is God and man is man.

In what way can this help those who are fired by the perspective of the message and wish to spread it to their fellow beings? 

Warning comes in time as intuition to the soul. Nothing can answer the purpose of humanity save the process of sages and of the wise of all ages which leads souls to self-realization.

Since it is not proselytizing or propagating a doctrine, it can only arise out of a deep experience and attunement.

In this experience the consciousness touches a sphere from whence it cannot get an impression of any name or form. The impression it gets is a feeling, a feeling of illumination, of life, of joy. What message does it give? It gives a message of God, which comes directly to every soul. And what is this message? God says to the soul, 'I am with you, I am your own being, and I am above all limitations, and I am life, and you are more safe, more living, more happy and more peaceful in this knowledge than in anything else in the world.

This is where we need to prepare ourselves through the realizations arrived at in the meditations we learn in the Esoteric School.

The spiritual man reaches higher than the human plane, touches the divine plane, and brings the message from the divine to the human plane. In this way, instead of remaining on the divine plane, he arrives among his fellow men, for their welfare... Then one knows that language which is the language of heaven.

Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan's final bequest:

Every person possesses this faculty in some form and to a limited degree; but the spirit of guidance is found among few indeed of the human race. Every soul has the source of the Divine message within itself. This is the reason why there is no longer the need for mediation - for a third person as a savior between man and God.

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* all quotes are from Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan unless otherwise noted.
