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Petama Topic September Rich and Poor - 1 from: Hazrat Inayat Khan: 'Vision of God and Human Being - Wealth' |
Two of the principal sources of pleasure in the physical world are good food and bodily comfort, yet one single beautiful thought or one charming mental image may provide more pleasure and joy than all the beauty there is in the whole physical world. So we can see that when we raise intelligence from the physical plane, and then even higher, we will come to a state of realization where we see that life is not really limited at all; that it too is unlimited. It is when our experience is confined to the lower planes of existence that we find that our life is limited. Herein lies the whole tragedy of life. So if we want to see happy people, full of joy and peace, people who are generous minded, people with a desire to serve, a desire for generosity and charity, we will find them if we look among those who keep themselves free of worldly wealth or fame or a great name. We will find them among the people who do not care for the world and its spirit; here we will find those who are kings in themselves. In the East they are called dervishes or fakirs or sannyasins. All these have lifted their intelligence above the sphere of limitation. ‘The Bowl of the Dervish’ A king wanted to grant a dervish his desire. The dervish said: ‘Please fill my bowl gold coins’. The king thought: ‘An easy thing’, and said to the servant: ‘Do fill it!’ But when they tried to fill it it proved to be a magic cup: it would not fill. The more money was poured into it, the emptier it became. The king was very disappointed and disheartened at the thought that this cup could not be filled. The dervish said, ‘Your Majesty, if you cannot fill my cup you only have to say so, and I shall take my cup back. I am a dervish, and I will go, and I will only think that you have not kept your word.’ The sovereign, with every good intention, with all his generosity, and with all his treasures could not fill that cup. So he asked, ‘Dervish, tell me what secret you have in this cup; it does not seem to be natural. There is some magic about it; tell me what is its secret !’ The dervish answered, ‘Yes, your Majesty, what you have found out is true; it is a magic cup. But it is the cup of every heart. It is the heart of human beings, which is never content. Fill it with whatever you may, with wealth, with attention, with love, with knowledge, with all there is. It will never fill, for it is not meant to be filled. Not knowing this secret of life human beings run on in pursuit of every object, or any object they have before them, all the time. And the more they get the more they want, and the cup of their desire is never filled.' A human being may have rank and position and a thousand qualifications, he may possess all the goods of the earth; but if he lacks the art of personality he is poor indeed. It is in this art that a human being shows the nobility which belongs to the kingdom of God.
Aphorisms (these E-book are free of all charge - use their treasures well!) |
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