Good News / Mystic Traditions

The Work of a Farmer
by Hazrat Inayat Khan 01.06.2005, changed 30.06.2005

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The question may be asked: Is any effort required for realizing the truth? The answer is yes. There is a work that one can do, which is as the work of a farmer, it is to cultivate the heart. But where man makes a mistake is that when he cultivates the heart he wishes to sow the seed himself instead of leaving the sowing of the seed to God.

As to the way how to cultivate the heart, the first condition is explained in a story. A young man went to a great seer in Persia and asked him for guidance on the spiritual path. The seer asked him, 'Have you loved in your life?' 'No' he said, 'not yet.' The seer answered, 'Go and love, and know what love is. Then come to me.'

According to the belief of a Sufi the heart is the shrine of God, and when the doors of the shrine are closed it is just like a light being hidden under a bushel. The pupil sees that God is Love. If He is love He does not stay in the heavens. His earthly body is the heart of man. When that heart is frozen and when there is no love but bitterness, coldness, prejudice and contempt, unforgiving feelings and hatred (which all come from one source: want of tolerance) the feeling I am different and you are different comes. Then that spirit and that light of God, that divine essence that is in the heart of man, is buried as in a tomb. The work that one has to do is to dig it up, as one would dig the ground until one touched the water underneath.

What the Sufi calls riyazat, a process of achievement, is nothing else than digging constantly in that holy land which is the heart of man. Surely in the depth man will find the water of life. However, digging is not enough. Love and devotion, no doubt, help to bring out frequent merits hidden in the soul, as sincerity, thankfulness, gentleness and forgiving qualities, all things which produce an harmonious atmosphere, and all things which bring men in tune with life, the saintly life and the outer life. All those merits come, no doubt, by kindling the fire of love in the heart. But it is possible that in this process of digging one may only reach mud and lose patience. So dismay, discontentment may follow and man may withdraw himself from further pursuit. It is patient pursuit which will bring the water from the depth of the ground; for until one reaches the water of life, one meets with mud in digging. It is not love, but the pretence of love, that imposes the claim of the self. The first and last lesson in love is, 'I am not — Thou art' and unless man is moved to that selflessness he does not know justice, right or truth. His self stands above or between him and God.

[Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from a lecture on Truth by Hazrat Inayat Khan (as published on Wahiduddin's Web). The top photo is borrowed from The Gardner's Supply Company. The image of living water is from eBibleTeacher.Com.]