Good News / MetaFaith

Learning the Art of Life
by Hazrat Inayat Khan 23.02.2006, changed 21.03.2006

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Character is not born with a man; his character is built up after he comes here. Even if a person can call himself a human being, he has still to know that greater art which may be rightly called a true religion. For there is another grade to strive for, and that grade is the personality of God.

As soon as one seeks for the personality of God, one sees that it is different from a human personality. With the personality of man, man can only take a human point of view, whereas with the personality of God, man has to take God's point of view. And it is those individuals with God's point of view who, whenever they have come on earth, have not only taught humanity, but have given an example to humanity by their lives. They came and went— some known, some unknown —but each of them was accepted by some and rejected by others. None of them was accepted or rejected by the whole of humanity. Yet in spite of that, truth will prove by itself victorious, for victory belongs to nothing else. Victory which comes from falsehood is a false victory. Only a true victory belongs to truth, and as man probes more and more into the depths of life and its secrets, he will realize this more fully.

Falsehood, whatever its apparent success, has its limitations and its end. For at every step the false person will feel falseness; and with every step a person takes towards falsehood, he will feel his feet growing heavier and heavier when he encounters the truth, while those who walk towards the truth will feel their feet becoming lighter with every step they take. And it is by learning the art of life, and by practicing it, that one is led on the path of truth to that goal which is the longing of every soul.

[Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from ART, YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND TOMORROW, by Hazrat Inayat Khan, as published on Wahiduddin's Web.]