Unity in Variety

O grosser Geist, dessen Stimme ich in den Winden vernehme
und dessen Atem der ganzen Welt Leben spendet, höre mich.
Ich trete vor Dich hin als eines Deiner vielen Kinder.
Ich bin klein und schwach. Ich bedarf Deiner Kraft und Weisheit.
Schenke mir Weisheit, damit ich die Dinge, die Du mein Volk gelehrt hast,
und die Lehre, die Du in jedem Blatt und jedem Felsen
verborgen hast, erkennen möge.
Nicht um meinen Brüdern überlegen zu sein, suche ich Kraft,
sondern um meinen grössten Feind bekämpfen zu können - mich selbst.
Mache mich immer bereit, mit reinen Händen und geradem Blick zu Dir zu kommen,
damit mein Geist, wenn dereinst mein Leben verblasst wie die untergehende Sonne,
ohne Scham zu Dir kommen möge
.
Anrufung der Sioux-Indianer

To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree
is a page of the holy book that contains divine revelation,
and he is inspired every moment of his life
by constantly reading and understanding the holy script of nature.
But behind all this world of various names and forms
there is one life, there is one spirit.
This spirit which is the soul of all beings is attracted towards unity,
and it is the absence of this spirit which keeps the world unhappy.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Know nature and Spirit, both also beginningless,
and know the modifications and qualities coming from nature.
Concerning the doer, the doing, and the instrument,
nature is said to be the cause.
Spirit is said to be the cause in the experiencing of pleasure and pain,
for Spirit situated in nature experiences the qualities born of nature.
Attachment to the qualities is the instrument
of its birth in good and evil wombs.

Bhagavad Gita XIII

A Story of a Farmer's Boy

There is a story that a farmer´s boy, who was taking care of his father´s cattle in the jungle, had heard a teacher of religion in his village. This teacher was teaching about God and glorifying the name of God. The young boy was so impressed that when he went to the jungle next time he experienced that innate tendency to worship someone, and so in the jungle he began to say aloud, "Oh, God, I have heard so much about You; You are so good and kind that I feel that if You were here by me I would take such good care of You, more than of all my sheep, more than of all my fowls. In the rain I would keep You under the roof of my grass-shed; when it was cold, I would wrap You in my blanket, and in the heat of the sun I would give You a bath. I would put You to sleep with Your head on my lap, and I would fan You with my hat, and I would always watch You and guard You from wolves. I would give You bread of manna, and buttermilk to drink; and to entertain You I would sing and dance and play my flute. O God, come and see how I would tend You".

Then Moses, the Messenger of God, came up and heard all that the boy said, and answered, "Oh boy, how foolish is this conversation! God, the unknown and unseen, who is in the heavens, the one before whom there is no might, no strength that can stand, He is almighty; the power is all His. He is beyond form and name and color; He is beyond the perception and comprehension of man." The boy was disheartened, and afraid of what he had done.

But the next message from God to Moses was, "We are very displeased indeed with you that you have alienated a devotee who did not know us. If he did not know us as you do, at least he knew us as far as his mind could grasp. All our devotees picture us in different forms and according to different qualities of love, and we receive their love through whatever form or garb it is directed to us. They are all our creatures and we receive it even if they worship the sun. We have sent you to unite our children to us, and not to separate them from us."

How we would hesitate to air our wisdom did we but realize that the first step of approach to God is sincerity and earnest love for Him! We should never call anyone heathen or pagan. We should never consider anybody in this world as unworthy. We do not know in what form a person is worshipping God. We do not know the earnestness in a man´s heart; yet that is what is really important.

Then do we awake to the religion of nature, which is the only religion.
And the more we understand it, the greater our life becomes,
and the more of a blessing will our life be for others.

Hazrat Inayat Khan, 'In an Eastern Rose Garten - Natur's Religion'

The complete text, 'In an Eastern Rose Garden - Nature´s Religion',
by Hazrat Inayat Khan can be
downloaded here.