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Hazrat Inayat Khan was a Sufi
teacher from India who started "The Sufi Order in the West" (now called the Sufi
Order International) in the early part of the 20th century. Though his family
background was Muslim, he was also steeped in the Sufi notion that all religions
have their value and place in human evolution.
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Inayat was
born into a family of musicians in 1882. His grandfather was a well-known
musician respected as a composer, performer, and developer of a musical
annotation which combined a group of diverse musical languages into one
simplified integrated notation.
The house in
which he grew up was a crossroads for visiting poets, composers, mystics,
and thinkers. There they met and discussed their views (religious and
otherwise) in an environment of openness and mutual understanding. This
produced in the young man a sympathy for many different religions, and a
strong feeling of the "oneness" of all faiths and creeds.
Inayat would
listen to the evening prayers sung in his household with great interest, and
was impressed with the spiritual atmosphere produced by the chanting. From a
young age, he was interested in going beyond thinking about religious
issues. He wanted a direct "link with God".
He developed
considerable skill at the Vina (an Indian instrument). At eighteen, he went
on a concert tour throughout India intent on reviving some of the older folk
songs which were being replaced by more popular melodies. He felt these
songs carried a special spiritual quality which was being lost. This brought
him some critical acclaim, and he was invited to perform in the courts of
Rajas (the rulers of India's princely states who cooperated with the
British).
Inayat began to seek spiritual guidance at this point. He had seen the face
of a very spiritual bearded man off and on in his dreams for some time. One
day in Hyderabad, he had a premonition that something important was about to
occur. A short time later, the man he had seen in his dreams entered the
room.
Both teacher and disciple were immediately drawn to each other. The teacher
was Mohammed Abu Hasana whose family originally came from Medina, the sacred
city of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Mohammed was a member of the Chishti Sufi
Order that was introduced into India at the close of the 12th century A.D.
Inayat maintained close contact with his teacher for four years. During this
time, he experienced a level of realization that made God a reality in his
life. As his master lay dying, he told Inayat: "Go to the Western world my
son and unite East and West through the magic of your music". Two years
later, in September of 1910, Inayat sailed for America.
Inayat began
to teach and discuss his world view with different people who would ask what
to call this mode of thought. For a long time, Inayat refused to give it a
name fearing it would create barriers between people. He would say only it
was ancient wisdom from the one and only source. He emphasized how none of
the great spiritual teachers gave a name to their religious views. Finally,
knowing that a body of thought needs some identifier to unify it, he told
people it was Sufism.
Inayat began
to travel and lecture first in the United States and later in Europe. He
traveled widely between 1910 and 1920. He decided to do more intensive
teaching during the summer in France, and took up residence there near Paris
in Suresnes where he could hold his "summer schools". |
His teaching strongly emphasized
the fundamental oneness of all religions. He was deeply concerned that many of
the western religious traditions had lost knowledge of the "science of soul",
and the prayer and meditation techniques necessary to develop higher
consciousness in mankind.
This Sufi universalism, or
interest in and respect for different religions is reflected in a saying by the
thirteenth century Andalusian Sufi teacher Ibn 'Arabi. This respected scholar
and mystic who authored among other works the classic Sufi retreat manual
Journey To The Lord Of Power wrote:
Beware of confining yourself to a
particular belief and denying all else, for much good would elude you - indeed,
the knowledge of reality would elude you. Be in yourself for all forms of
belief, for God is too vast and tremendous to be restricted to one belief rather
than another. (Awakening - A Sufi Experience by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Jeremy
P. Tarcher - Putnam, New York, 1999, p. VIII)
It was at Suresnes that Inayat
developed the Universal Worship service that is now associated with the "Sufi
Order in the West". The ritual consists of an invocation, a reading from each of
the holy books of the world's major religions, and the lighting of a candle for
each tradition. A candle is also lit for all those individuals or religious
systems (unknown or forgotten) that have inspired mankind. The ritual continues
with a discourse, and ends with a blessing. One goal of the Universal Worship
service is to show people from different cultures the many common elements they
share in their religious traditions, and to create a sense of unity among people
from different cultures by teaching them to read each other's scriptures and
"pray each other's prayers".
Inayat said that he traveled a
great deal not only to introduce people to the teachings but also to "tune the
inner spheres of a country" to a "higher pitch of vibration". His disciple
Sirkan Von Stolk talks about these vibrations during his meditation with Inayat:
At those moments he attuned and
raised my consciousness to such a high degree that I could hardly stand it. The
rate of vibration- that is the only way I can describe it - was so fantastic
that it was almost too powerful for me, and I longed to return to the limited
security of my own personality where I could I go on living at my own rhythm!
(Memories of a Sufi Sage, Hazrat Inayat Khan by Sikar Van Stok with Daphne
Dunlop, East-West Publications Fonds B.V., The Hague, 1967, p.40)
Inayat was also concerned that
people who did esoteric practices and had deeper spiritual experience find ways
to harmonize with the larger religious community and society of which they were
a part. He wrote that a person deeply involved in the spiritual life could go to
church, mosque, or temple and act in harmony with their fellow religious seekers
though their paths might inwardly be very different. Thus, the Sufi at the
Mosque, the householder sadhu at the Hindu temple, or the saintly person at the
church would fit in with the larger community. Inayat recommended the such
people carry out their responsibilities and practice the group's rituals as an
ordinary member of their religious congregation. Such an approach conveys
respect and admiration for religious people regardless of how they choose to
practice their tradition.
In later life, Inayat went
through a three stage set of realizations which had such a profound effect on
him as to make him "almost unrecognizable" to those who knew him. Inayat claimed
that while his consciousness was far removed from the body, he was obliged to
pass through the different states of awareness that all human beings pass
through in their development. The experience was analogous to Dante's experience
of hell, purgatory, and heaven which concludes in the Beatific Vision of God.
Part of this initiation consisted
of an experience of Hell. Hell is a place that the living visit in dreams, and
the dead experience when their consciousness lives on to reap the results of
their negative actions in life. Inayat's view was that hell in the afterlife is
comparable to dreaming but much more intense.
The next vision was an experience of purgatory where souls suffer in an effort
to move beyond their attachments and limitations. This act of purification
requires a great effort of will.
The third vision was a stage of
bliss where the human element was purified and purged to the point of
illumination. Von Stalk describes Inayat as "cosmic" and as a being "now given
up to service as a superb channel for the divine" following this final
experience.
Inayat had been a tireless
teacher, writer, and lecturer traveling and lecturing almost continuously for
seventeen years. He had established his school in France, and a dedicated group
of disciples. But, his difficult schedule had weakened him over the years. He
left for India to see his homeland for the first time in seventeen years. He
hoped to rest and meditate but was asked to lecture and graciously consented as
was common. He died in New Delhi in 1927 of influenza.
Inayat's son Vilayet Khan, who
died in 2004, had continued to spread the message of Sufism in the west. He also
traveled and taught extensively and wrote several books. One of his disciples
was a founder of Omega Institute, a large "new age" teaching institute in
Rhinebeck New York.
The "dances of universal peace"
developed by Samuel Lewis in conjunction with the Sufi Order are known
throughout the world as a spiritual practice mixing meditation, song, and dance.
The essential nonsectarian message of the Sufi Order International is still
expressed in the Universal Worship service which honors all the world's major
religions by reading passages from their holy books.
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