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.
