The Mystic

Hazrat Inayat Khan

The mystical path is the most subtle path to tread. The relation between the teacher and pupil is too subtle for words to express. Besides the language of a mystical teacher is always illusive. You cannot, so to speak, pin him, not his words. You cannot ask of him to clearly say that it is so and so, that it is such and such; and if a mystic does it, he is not a mystic. If he is a mystic he cannot do it. For [the] mystic may seem standing on the earth, but he is flying in the air. Neither the air can be made into a rock, nor a mystic can be made into a gross entity. Neither his yes means the same as the yes of the other; nor his no means the same as the no of the others. Mystic language is not the language of words. It is the language of meaning. It is to the greatest distress of the mystic that he has to use the words of everyday language which are not his words; he cannot express himself in these words and the same care, the same manner you will find in the action of the mystic. Every outward action of his will not express to ever be the meaning which is behind it. Perhaps that meaning is much more important with the insignificant action outward. The teacher therefore tests continually his pupil. He tells him and he does not tell him. For everything must come in its right time.

Divine knowledge has never been taught in words, nor ever will it be taught. The work of a mystical teacher is not to teach, but to tune, to tune the pupil so that the pupil may become the instrument of God. For the mystical teacher is not the player of the instrument, he is the tuner. When he has tuned the instrument, he gives it in the hand of the player whose instrument it is to play. The beauty of the mystical teacher is his service in this direction as a tuner. Is dispute any good with a spiritual teacher? Not at all, for the pupil may be speaking a different language. The teacher speaks another language. If there is no common language, how can the dispute be profitable? Therefore in the path of mysticism there is no dispute. Are there any rules in this path to follow? No fixed rules. For every person there is a special rule. Yes, there is one law which applies to all things of life. Sincerity is the only thing which is asked by a teacher, for truth is not the portion of the insincere. There may be several initiations he gives to the pupil, that the teacher has taken in his hand, but it depends upon the pupil to progress. Teacher, [just] as the parents are anxious, is naturally anxious to see the advancement of his pupil. There is no reason for the teacher to keep any pupil back, [just] as there is no reason for any parents to keep their child back from success. For as in the happiness of the child there is the happiness of the parents so in the advancement of the pupil there is the happiness of the teacher.