The being of each person is a mechanism of body and mind. When this mechanism is in order, there is happiness and fullness of life; when anything is wrong with the mechanism, the body is ill and peace is gone. This mechanism depends upon winding. just as a clock is wound and then goes on for 24 hours, so also in meditation a person sits in a reposeful attitude, puts the mind in a condition of repose, and regulates the work of this mechanism by meditation. Like winding, the effect is felt all the time, because the mechanism is put in order.

Therefore the belief of a mystic is not an outward belief in a deity one has not seen; the mystic's worship is not an outer form, so that by saying prayers his or her worship is finished. The mystic makes the best use of the outer things, but at the same time the mystic's pursuit is logical and scientific. The mystic will, if possible, unite the outer form with the mystical conception. Mysticism is the scientific explanation and also the realization of things taught by religion, things which otherwise would have no meaning to an ordinary person.

An ordinary person reads about the kingdom of God and heaven, but does not know where heaven is; the ordinary person feels there is a God, but there is no evidence. Therefore, a large number of intellectual people who really are seeking the truth are going away from outer religion, because they cannot find the explanation; consequently they become materialistic.

The mystic says the explanation of the whole of religion is the investigation of the self. The more one explores oneself, the more one will understand all religions in the fullest light and all will become clear. Sufism is only a light thrown upon your own religion, like a light brought into a room containing all the things you want; the one thing needed was light.

Yet the mystic is not always ready to give his or her answer to every person. Can parents always answer every question of their infant children? No. There are questions which can be answered, and there are some which should wait until the person comes to a point of understanding. I used to be fond of a poem which I did not understand; I could not find a satisfactory explanation. After ten years, all of a sudden in one second's time, a light was thrown upon it and I understood. There was no end to my joy. Does it not show that everything has its time? When people become impatient and ask for an answer, something can be answered, but something cannot be answered; the answer will come in its time. One has to wait. Has anyone in the world been able to say fully what God is, all the scriptures and prophets notwithstanding? God is an ideal too high and great for words.

Can anyone explain such a word as love or say what truth is? Very often people ask what is truth. I often felt as if I should like to write the word truth on a brick in charcoal and put it into their hands and say, "There, hold this, then you can hold truth." If truth is to be attained, it is only when truth itself has begun to speak, which comes about in revelation. Truth reveals itself-, therefore the Persian word for truth is Khuda, which means self-revealing, for this word unites God with truth. So God is truth. One can explain neither the first nor the second word.

The only help the mystic can give is in how to arrive at this revelation. No one can teach this; one has to learn it oneself. The teacher is only there to guide one to this revelation. There is only one teacher, who is God. The great masters of the world were the greatest pupils: they knew how to become pupils.

How is it all taught or brought to the consciousness of those who tread the path of truth? By bayat: initiation. It is a trust from someone who guides to someone who is treading the path. The treader of the path must be willing to risk the difficulties of the path, to be sincere, faithful, truthful, and undoubting, not pessimistic or skeptical, else one's efforts will not reach one's aim. One must come whole-heartedly, or else not come. Half-heartedness has no value.

After that, what is necessary is some intellectual understanding of the metaphysical aspect of life, which some have, but not all. What is necessary besides are the qualities of the heart: love, which is known to be divine, as a first principle: then action, such action as will not hinder in the path of truth, such action as creates greater and greater harmony; and then repose, for that which is learned in the study of one year is also learned by the silence of one day. If one only knew the real way of silence!

Social Gathekas

19. Sufi Mysticsim, V: Realizing the Truth of Religion

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Social Gathekas

19. Sufi Mysticsim, V: Realizing the Truth of Religion