The Search for
Harmony Pir Vilayat
Inayat Khan President,
International Order of Sufis THE REVERED
Sant Kirpal Singh Maharaj Ji, the revered Fuji Guru, Your Holinesses,
Excellencies, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have not come here simply to demonstrate a wish for peace but we have
also come in order to find a way of overcoming all the obstacle to peace. There are people even today who are living
in terror in a condition of oppression terrified by those who have power over
them. There are people who are ruling
the lives of people and there is tremendous conflict in the lives of
people—even in families between husbands and wives or father and children—or in
all realms of life. Where ever you look
there are conflicts. There are
conflicts within the mind of a person too. What are the
obstacles? How can we remove them? We
must understand that everyone is pressing forward; there are conflicts between
the interests of human beings. Just
like in a crowd, everyone tries to push the other to get forward. Now there has to try to be come kind of
composition between the wills of people.
And it takes a higher consciousness to accept another person as good as
oneself. It is a matter of respect for
the dignity of the human person. We
have to find a way of composing the different forces that are conflicting in
the world. War is not the only scourge that is to be found deeply rooted in the
hearts of men. This can only be done by
accepting this law which has been promoted by the religious people of all
different denominations and which may be expressed in that Hindu word vairagya,
detachment. I think that we have to
learn how to be in the world and yet not of the world. We have to learn how to apply the rules
of the Sanyasin, but in life. We are now living in a time when these greater
values are beginning to break through with tremendous force. This is the meaning of the birth of the new
age that we are attending now. A
conference like this wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago. It is the expression of the desires of those
selves of humanity as a whole that want to compose together, want to find a way
of harmony, want to find a way of understanding. This can only be done by extending tolerance to the intolerant. It is easy to tolerate the tolerant but the
great challenge is to be able to tolerate the intolerant, and even with those
who oppose you, find a way—a way of dignity—in which you can assert your right
and at the same time respect their right.
There is a way of doing it, and in the course of the panels we are going
to study the different draft resolutions whereby we hope to be able to
implement the desire of this steaming mass of humanity which is a small
fraction representing perhaps the whole of humanity…Thank you |