Bowl of Saki for March 12

THE SOURCE OF TRUTH IS WITHIN MAN; HE HIMSELF IS THE OBJECT OF HIS
REALIZATION.--Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Hazrat Samuel L. Lewis (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti):

It is the discriminating faculty of the human mind which makes life
so interesting, causes all this diversity and diversion, yet at the
same time makes for every sort of difficulty. The highest vibrations
and the lowest are as one in principle, but through the analytical
faculty of intellect appear different and thus render it difficult
or impossible for man to realize unity. It is this realization which
takes him above all discrimination and distinction, and when this is
accomplished he at once realizes his unity in essence with all
things, and with all thingness. But this also takes one above the
realm of words and thoughts; these distinguish and define and are
not of the nature of absolute unity.


--

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

In point of fact truth is simple; it is man who makes it difficult for himself.
For all other aspects of knowledge he has to get from outside, but truth is
something which is within man himself. It is something which is nearest to us
though we imagine it to be farthest; it is something which is within, though we
imagine it to be outside; it is knowledge itself we want to acquire. Thus the
seeker is engaged in a continual struggle: struggle with himself, struggle with
others, and struggle with life. And at the end of the journey he always finds
that he has traveled because it was his destiny to travel, and he discovers that
his starting-point is the same as his final goal.

--


Then the question arises: what is the way to attain the truth? Can it be
attained through study? The answer is that the source of realizing the truth is
within man. But man is the object of his realization. There are words of Hazrat
'Ali, saying that the one who knows himself truly knows God.

Man, absorbed from morning till evening in his occupations which engage his
every attention to the things of the earth and of self interest, remains
intoxicated. Seldom there are moments in his life, brought about by pain or
suffering, when he experiences a state of mind which can be called soberness.
Hindus call this state of mind sat, which is a state of tranquility. Man then
begins to become conscious of some part of his being which he finds to have
almost covered his eyes. When we look at life from this point of view we find
that an individual who claims to be a living being is not necessarily living a
full life. It is only a realization of inner life which at every moment unveils
the soul, and brings before man another aspect of life in which he finds
fullness, a greater satisfaction, and a rest which gives true peace.

--

Heaven is not a country or a continent; it is a state, a condition within
oneself, only experienced when the rhythm is in perfect working order. If one
knows this, one realizes that happiness is man's own property. Man is his own
enemy: he seeks for happiness in the wrong direction and never finds it. It is a
continual illusion. Man thinks, 'If I had this or that I should be happy for
ever', and he never arrives at happiness because he pursues an illusion instead
of the truth. Happiness is only to be found within, and when man tunes himself
he finds all for which his soul yearns within himself.



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