Petama Topic November

'Personalities of God's Servants - 3

from Hazrat Inayat Khan:

'Message Papers of 14. Juli 1925'

(see also Forum)

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Remember then, my mureeds, at the same time, that your task in holding this ideal will be very difficult because of the pioneer work, and a number so small as ours. But has anyone grown without being an infant - human or movement? Everything grows as something small, it develops afterwards to that width and to that height which is destined for it.

What is necessary for us is patient trust and a continual work to further the Message.

And  now coming to the question of the two points of view which the workers of the Sufi Cause show.

• Some have a point of view that something which is of a sacred nature, of some value and importance, must be kept hidden, and must be brought slowly and thoughtfully and with a very great consideration to humanity. If not, it can be spoiled, it can be broken.

• And there are others who say, ‘What we value, what we think is important, must be spread, must be brought before the public. What does it matter if they believe in it; is this not enough?’

Now there is some right and some wrong in both of these tendencies. The right is in this tendency that we must bring slowly and quietly before the world, that we can never be enough tactful and considerate in bringing something which is delicate and sacred, and which belongs to the inner truth. But they are wrong in thinking that it will be broken up.

What breaks cannot be true. What is true can never break, so they need not fear that it will be broken. If a thousand times it will be broken, a thousand times it will come right again. It will spring up; it cannot be cut. The tree of truth can never be cut. And therefore courage must be such that: ‘If everyone was against me, that I shall carry it out. I do not fear that it is something fragile, that it will break. No, the nature of this is that if it will break it will be made again.’ The symbology of it is the phoenix, that when it is burnt then there is the egg of the phoenix from which it comes again.

Then alone the worker will be able to keep on furthering the Message, when he has that faith. No matter what difficulty comes along and sweeps it away, the Message will not be swept away. It is meant to be given, and will be given. And nothing can destroy it. Only the loss will be on the part of the worker who, in spite of having all his good will, will lose that opportunity when something could have been done for the Message. But fearing that perhaps it will not be the right thing, he loses his opportunity of serving the Cause.

And the wrong about the person who says, ‘Yes, it must be done,’ is this: that when he is impatient, when out of his love and devotion for the Cause he thinks that all the spreading and all the completing of the work, and all the finishing of it, must be done today, he does not know - like an enthusiastic child, he is enthusiastic, but he does not know - that it takes time to arrive at a certain result. And this something, the real result of it, is further than the time we may expect it to be, although every day there is a result manifesting in some form or the other.

Therefore we have to be patient with it, to work and never be concerned with results. We must work for the sake of the work.

Then, of course, in outer working if a person urged upon his friend and upon his neighbors and his acquaintances, ‘Come here, listen to it, take it, believe it, follow it,’ he makes a person mad. For it requires great delicacy, a great tact and fineness. For the very people who today are great workers in the Sufi Cause, if they were not dealt with with due tact and consideration, would not even have come into our work. Today they are great workers.

And now there comes a question: ‘Then what course is it better to follow?’ And my answer is: the course that is suited to your individual self. If you feel courage that the work must be spread, you will take that course tactfully; but do not blame the other who has another inclination. And the one who will say, ‘I shall go slowly, I shall keep it back,’ if that person will try and do his best in that way, even that is of some value. If we shall not urge one another's principle on one another, then we can follow our own way of working in the Cause.

Only, we each must remember when working for the Cause that life is an opportunity. God Bless You.

Pine-trees, what do your branches signify?

- Hands stretched out from heaven to bless the earth.

Pine-trees, for what are you made?

- We are temples erected for the worshippers of God in nature.

Pine-trees, tell me your life's secret.

- We are the shadows of souls on the cross,

awaiting patiently the hour of their liberation.

Gayan - Tanas

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