Part 2

 
This Message, this Light, has only ever had one method of transference — that is, the personal transference from master to pupil. This is the only way that the Light has been transferred in the dark periods of humanity. Khalif  Momin has given you a picture of lighting one lamp from another. He hasn't given you the picture of learning one from another. The message cannot be learnt, it can only be acquired directly from your teacher. If it could be learnt, all we would have to do is read books and we would have it, but we can read all the books in the world, papers of every scripture, and we would still not be one iota nearer Christ-consciousness.

Generally speaking, through history there have been two types of men — those who have the books and those who have the Light. This transference of Light comes about by the peculiar relationship which in Sufi terms is called "piri-mureed" which means "teacher and pupil". This relationship is peculiar because there is no other relationship, whether it be wife or husband or brother or sister or child or friend, which can compare with it in sweetness, in its knowledge, in its satisfaction to the soul.

People sometimes think they can get spirituality by being good, by obeying the law, by being a fair business dealer, by faithfully following some art or science, and Murshid [Inayat Khan] distinctly says that spirituality is a spring that rises in the human heart. I have met many people who lead good lives and do these various things, and I have met many people who have sincerely followed some art and think they, in popular terms, "have it." Think they are getting somewhere. That is their delusion and dream — which they will have to wake up from. Whether it takes them a whole lifetime to wake up from it or many lifetimes, it does not matter much.

We must remember that the possible scope in this dream world is almost infinite. It is 'almost' infinite because only God Himself is infinite, but it is so wide — the scope in the mind world in the dream conditions — that one can spend lifetimes expressing it, and some of the time being quite happy with one's discoveries, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with spirituality. Spirituality, as Murshid says, is a spring in the human heart. It is a Light, a lamp being lit from another lamp. It is that ineffable condition of Love's sweetness which is called "piri-mureed," and I hope God will bless you all to realize this condition."