Religious Gathekas
#18-19 The Coming World Religion
The Message of Sufism
What is the message of Sufism? Sufism is the message of digging out that water like life which has been buried by the impressions of this material life. There is an English phrase, "a lost soul." The soul is not lost; the soul is buried; when it is dug out then the divine life springs out like a spring of water.
What is digging? What does one dig in oneself? Is it not true, is it not said in the scriptures that God is love? Then where is God to be found? Is He to be found in the seventh heaven, or is He to be found in the heart of man? He is to be found in the heart of man, which is his shrine. But if this heart is buried -- the heart which has lost light, life, and warmth -- what does this heart become? It becomes a grave.
There is a popular song in English which says, "The light of life dies when love is done."
That living thing in the heart is love. It may come as kindness, as friendship, as sympathy, as tolerance, or as forgiveness. In whatever form this living water rises from the heart, it proves the heart to be a divine spring. When once this spring is open and rising, all that man does as an action, as a word, or as a feeling, is all religion; that man becomes religious.
If there is any coming religion, it will be this religion, the religion of the heart. After all the suffering that has been caused to humanity by the recent war, man is beginning to open his eyes. And as time passes, he will open his eyes to know and understand that the true religion is in opening the heart, in widening the outlook, and in living the religion which is one religion.
|