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THE WORLD CRISIS
THE SPIRITUAL APPROACH
- Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
How can we deal with the outrage?
Is there anything that we can do?
What can we do?
We are all emotionally shocked and
outraged by the incredible cruelty, the horror, of what has happened: the
voice of despair reaching us from the air,
"Oh my God! Oh my God!" as brain-washed
kamakazies transformed passenger
aircraft into lethal bombs loaded
with human lives, wreaking heartless human
atrocity upon innocent people. The
mass destruction will resonate through
history as a portent of the vulnerability
of the constructs of our affluent
sophisticated civilizations in the
hands of a few brain-washed lost souls,
acting on a faulty interpretation
of their religion, who have never heard of
the pursuit of "the awakening of
humanity to the divinity of the human
status; the awakening of conscience."
How could a human being ever conceive
of inflicting such heartless atrocity
on fellow beings? Imagine people
jumping to their death out the window in
despair, being surrounded by flames
and smoke, roasted alive, unable to flee.
We could never assess the degree
of the wanton destruction of what has been
built by so much care and dedicated
work and skill! An affront to civilization! And now: the alarming prospect
of the millions of innocent people who may be sacrificed for the retribution.
Yet we cannot responsibly allow this diabolical abomination to reoccur.
In the present crisis, in our dismay
at a disturbed, faltering world
teetering at the edge of disaster
(or is it being afflicted by exceedingly
pernicious and hazardous birth pangs
announcing a brave new world?) as we
quiver at the threat of wreaking
further unimaginable escalating havoc upon
our erstwhile beautiful planet and
killing or causing excruciating pain upon
millions, perhaps billions, of innocent
people, our spiritual values are at
stake. We are tested as to whether
to retaliate for the atrocious cruelty to
people going about their daily work.
Is it helpful to kill masses of other
innocent people who are not responsible
for the barbaric act of terror to
assuage our outrage as vindication?
This would be slipping into primitive
feuds, vendettas, where it was customary
that an insult could only be atoned
by revenge to indemnify one’s honor.
Hazrat Inayat Khan :
'A person has a natural tendency
that if he is insulted, he thinks that the
proper way of answering is to
insult the other person still more. Yet he gets a momentary satisfaction
to have given a good answer.'
(The Sufi Message of
Hazrat Inayat Khan - SOCIAL GATHEKAS - Harmony)
Umpteen numbers of lives have been forsaken
in past wars motivated by
retribution when they could have
been spared by a more civilized sense of
honor. Moreover it rebounds upon
the avenger.
Hazrat Inayat Khan :
"A fire thus starts in that mind
that had been peaceful and by reacting it too
participates in this fire which
will burn oneself. It is giving fuel to the fire that rises for destruction
and causes further destruction.By giving way to disharmony, one causes
disharmony to multiply."
(The Sufi Message of
Hazrat Inayat Khan -The Alchemy of Happiness - Reaction)
Thus, spurred by our wounded emotion,
we tend to react out of anger with
bravado rather than act in a concentrated
way to control the situation. Let
us recall an incident in the life
of Hazrat Ali who released an enemy who
spat at his face. Whereupon the
enemy asked him why he did not kill him.
Hazrat Ali said: "I did not wish
to react in anger."
Christ’s teaching "resist not evil"
is a hint not to participate in and be guilty of the same evil.
Christ’s time honored announcement
on the Mount of Olives, valiantly and
bravely challenging the vituperations
of the Pharisees marked a radical
turning point in the course of history
from the law of retaliation to the
ideal of love. Kabalists had aptly
spelled the cosmic antinomy by opposing
Chesed (magnanimity) and Din (the
law) in the Sephirotic tree Ya Rahman
and Ya Wali.
"You have heard that it was said:
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you: do not resist
an evil doer.You have heard: you should love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say love your enemy and pray for
those who persecute you so that
ye may be children of your father in heaven."
Matthew 6 38,43
This is the ultimate exhortation
admittedly difficult to follow.
Gandhi:
It is non-violence when we love
those who hate us. I know how difficult it is
to follow this grand law of love.
But are not all great and good things
difficult to do? The objective
should not be to punish the opponent or to
inflict injury upon him. We must
make him feel that in us he has a friend. It
is a means to secure the cooperation
of the opponent consistent with truth
and justice.
How can we be the friend of a ruthless,
brutal killer?
Christ:
They do not know what they do.
Hazrat Inayat Khan:
The wise understands; for he
knows that the others are drunk and he cannot
expect better of them.
Vol. 6, Alchemy of
Happiness, Life a Continual Battle (2)
During the battle it is an intoxication;
[one] is battling but he does not
know where he is going, and at
the end of the battle, even if he is
victorious, he will find that
his victory is a loss.
Vol. 6, Alchemy of
Happiness, Life a Continual Battle (1)
But we cannot allow them to perpetrate
their deadly harm upon innocent people
or besmear the sacredness of our
ideal. Therefore we need to intervene with
might as a knight.
And having made a whip out of cords,
he chased them out of the Temple. St.
John’s Gospel
Hazrat Inayat Khan:
Love for a devil should be to
wish him to become better, but enduring his
mischief is like giving him a
hold upon us.
This was precisely the issue I discussed
with Noor as the Nazi cannons were
approaching our house. " We have
paid lip-service to the Message of unity,
respect of all religions, all races,
the sacredness of life. Are these just words? Now comes the acid test:
this ideal is being violated and obstructed
what are we prepared to do for it?"
We decided to volunteer, to engage
in the struggle heart and soul at the cost
of our lives, but without killing,
to save the victims of this violation of the values we stand for. We abandoned
our home, our security, but held our heads high.
Gandhi:
I do not mean meek submission
to the will of the evil-doer; but I mean the
pitting of one’s whole soul against
the will of the tyrant. I do believe that
where there is a choice between
cowardice and violence, I would advise
violenceBut I believe that non-violence
is infinitely superior to violence,
forgiveness is more manly than
punishment. Strength does not come from
physical capacity; it comes from
an indomitable will.
Hazrat Inayat Khan:
He who has enough self-control
to stand firm at the moment when the other
person is in a temper will win
in the end.But in order to stand firm against
this disharmony that comes from
without, one must first practice to stand
firm against the disharmony that
comes from within. For one’s soul is more
difficult to control that the
others. And when one fails to control oneself,
it is most difficult to stand
against the disharmony without.
Vol. 6, Alchemy of
Happiness, Life a Continual Battle (1)
So what are we to do? Are we just to
sit back, stick together as a family and
listen passively to the news? Fret
about the danger or hardships that could
befall us? Try to heal the wounds
in our souls? Or are we simply to preach
the unity of religions to people
blinded and deafened by despair? This was
precisely what Noor and I were discussing.
Hazrat Inayat Khan:
Suffering is our first call.
There could be more suffering in
store, much more suffering of innocent
people. Are we prepared to help
those victims of the situation in whatever
way we can? There will be a need
for food against mass starvation, for
clothing and medicines. There will
be a need to welcome and adopt distant and
unknown friends, to show love and
understanding as do the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, Amnesty International,
rescue operations.
Let us laud our heroes: the policemen,
the firemen, and the rescue workers
who sacrificed their lives in the
brunt of the catastrophe.
We are living the crux of the human
drama right here and now. The issue is
what are our values? And are we
prepared to uphold them? Rather than fretting
over the sword of Damocles hovering
over our own heads or fleeing it to save our lives, we need to involve
ourselves by offering a helping hand, to maintain order against abuse with
authority but without hate, to affirm authority by our solidarity in service
to our cherished ideal of a civilized people inspired by the divine ideal.
Notwithstanding, let our distress
not overshadow our faith in a better world and our joy of contributing
to it each in our way.
Rev. Martin Luther King:
We must make the pledge that
we shall march together.We cannot turn back.No, no! We will not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
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