ZIKR LESSON 8.05.09.

THE DERVISH IS IN THE WORLD AND YET NOT OF THE WORLD.
“To develop a dervish outlook is to see all that is happening and at the same time know that things are not necessarily the way they look.”

The human being is a strange admixture of heaven and earth. His body is made of earth and his spirit is heavenly. He is in the world and yet not of it. We have our experience of life in the world and yet we do not belong to it. Our origin and our final return is not the world.

The Holy Prophet s.w said that one should be in the world as a traveler. Our life here is like the stopping of a traveler under the shade of a tree for resting awhile.

From the time of being born into the physical world, wearing a physical garb, till the time we take off this garment to return to our ultimate abode, we mistake the world of the five senses as our true and only home. The word “Dervish” means the one who waits at the “Dar” or threshold. The human being defined as a dervish is one who has realized his true state. He/She is one who understands the duality of his/her nature. He/She knows that although he/she has been assigned a physical form, but his/her reality outstrips that definition. His/Her existence precedes the physical identity and will outlast it as well. The human being is a traveler from another realm and will proceed there after completing his/her journey here. The one who recognizes this fact with all his being is a “dervish”.

The Dervish Outlook: Things are not necessarily the way they look. We may call this the ruse of the material existence.

“The Dervish was just like a receptive machine of the wireless telegraphy. The great seer and mystic of Persia, Jelal-ud-din Rumi, he says, that fire, water, earth, and ether are dead things to those who see in them no person. But before the creator they are all living beings.  They are his obedient servants. And the great thinker of the Hindus says in Sanskrit language that, this whole creation is the dream of Brahma, means the creator.” HIK.

“What Sufi thinks of the idea of the creator and the creation. Sufi sees both the creator and the creation both in man. The limited part of man's being is the creation, and the innermost part of his being is the creator.  And if that is true, then man is limited and man is unlimited both. If he wished to be limited he can be more and more limited. If he wished to be unlimited he can be more and more unlimited. If he cultivated in himself the illusion of being a creation he can be more and more that; but if he cultivated in himself the knowledge of the creator he can be more and more that.” HIK.

“Every kind of weakness, every kind of illness, every kind of misery, the more one gives in to it the more it comes upon one's back. And one goes into it even to such an extent sometimes the whole world falls on his back, and he is buried under it. And there is another person who gets out of it. It may be difficult, but at the same time it is possible.” HIK.

“Little by little, gradually, but with courage and patience he can get out of it, and stand upon the same world which would have otherwise crushed him under it. The former thing is going down, the latter thing is coming up.” HIK.

“Both things depend upon the attitude of our mind, and it is to change this attitude that is the principal thing in life, from a material point of view to a spiritual point of view. All that is taught in the Sufi esoteric studies and practises is to gain that mastery little by little, gradually, in order to arrive at that fulfillment which is called mastery. But you will say, it is a great struggle. But I will answer, the struggle is in both ways, in coming down and in going up, in both ways there is a struggle. It is just as well to struggle and come up instead of struggling and going down. And whenever a person goes down it only means that he is feeble in his thought. And why is he feeble in his thought?  Because he is weak in his feeling. If feeling protects thought, and if thought stands firm, whatever be the difficulty in the life of man, it will be surmounted.” HIK.

In the above paragraph when Murshid speaks of “feeling” he implies belief. Our belief or conviction creates our thought and if the belief behind the thought is strong then it has every chance of manifesting. All distress in life is the result of poor faith. The ones who are strong in faith are able to peel the covers of material suffering and see the shining light of the soul beneath.

The Dervish is one who belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven while doing his duty on earth.

“All things that belong to any person constitute his kingdom, be they great riches and power, or petty possessions. The Kingdom of Heaven means the perfect possession of anything, when the thing possessed is in itself sufficient.” HIK.

Murshid says that what constitutes the kingdom of heaven is the possession of that which is sufficient in itself. A dervish is one who possesses and is possessed by the Divine. Divinity is self-sufficient.

 “There was once a well-known dervish in Gwalior, Mohammed Ghauth, who sat in the jungle, unclothed, and only ate when food was brought to him. He was poverty-stricken in the eyes of the world, but was respected by all. Evil days came on Gwalior. The state was threatened by a powerful enemy, with an army twice the size of that belonging to the ruler who in his distress sought Mohammed Ghauth. The sage at first asked to be left in peace, but his help being further entreated by the Maharaja himself, he at last said, 'Show me the army that is threatening you.' They took him outside the city and showed him the vast host that was advancing.

Mohammed Ghauth waved his hand, repeating the word Maqtul [be destroyed].  As he did so the army of the Maharaja of Gwalior appeared immense to the oncoming army, which turned in fear and fled. This Sufi saint was the possessor of the Kingdom of Heaven. His tomb is now in a palace, and the kings of the earth come and bow before it.”

“The Kingdom of Heaven is in the hearts of those who realize God.” HIK.

 

“Sufi Sarmad, a great saint who was absorbed in the vision of the One, lived in the time of Aurangzeb, the great Mogul emperor. Aurangzeb demanded that Sufi Sarmad should come to the mosque. On his refusing to do so, he was beheaded at the command of the emperor. From that time dates the downfall of the Moguls. This story shows that the possessor of the Kingdom of Heaven has the power even when dead to overthrow the kingdoms of the earth.” HIK.

“The bubble does not last long; it soon breaks, but with its break it joins the mighty ocean. So with us. When by warmth of heart we can break our limited self, we merge in the One, the unlimited. When our limited kingdom is lost from our sight, we inherit the Kingdom of God.” HIK.

                                                Cause.

“There is an innate desire in every human being for knowledge. The child wants to know the cause of everything, and asks countless questions. The desire for knowledge, if our eyes were but open to perceive it, is even in the plants. It is this desire which develops the mineral into the vegetable, and the vegetable into the animal, and the animal into the human being. It is well developed in man, and fully attained in the master mind. The Sufis say that the whole of creation took place to satisfy the desire for knowledge.” HIK.

 
“With man this desire is never satisfied. He always wants to know more. There is ever a restless craving within him for knowledge. This is because he does not look for the cause in the right way; he only sees the external causes, and not the cause underlying the cause, and below that, the primal cause. For example, a man who has become estranged from his friend only sees perhaps the superficial cause, and calls his friend unkind; or he may even admit that he himself is at fault, or he may go still deeper and say that owing to a certain planetary influence they cannot be friendly; yet he has not probed the cause of this cause.” HIK.

“If we study nature aright, we shall find that its whole being is wisdom;life itself is wisdom. Look at the delicate structure of the eye, and the protection afforded it by the eyelid. Does not this prove that nature's wisdom is much more developed than the science and art of man? Has man ever been able to create what is not in nature? We know that the rain falls and waters the ground, and makes the plants grow, and we say that rain is the cause of all this, but if we delved deeper we should discover the cause of the rain. Even then the inner cause remains hidden." HIK.

To develop a dervish outlook is to learn the study of the Cause of all causes. When one opens oneself up to this wisdom then one develops in oneself the faculty of Insight or “Firasat”. Insight helps one to see beyond the veils and the illusory nature of the world becomes evident. This unveiling helps one to detach oneself from the world and to become fixated on the Real.