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Sayings of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

GAMAKAS
(Feelings of a poet's heart, keyed to various notes)

I consider myself second to none since I have realized in myself the One alone.

All things that may seem to be exalting my position, they indeed lower me in my eyes; the only thing exalting for me is the forgetting of myself entirely in the perfect vision of God.

There is nothing that I consider too good for me, or too high to attain to; on the contrary, all possible attainments seem within my reach since I have attained to the vision of my Lord.

There is nothing that I feel too humiliating for me to do; and there is no position, however exalted, that can make me prouder than I am already in the pride of my Lord.

Neither does love exalt nor hate depress me, for all things to me seem natural. Life for me is a dream that changes continually, and when I withdraw my real self from the false, I know all things, and yet stand remote; so I rise above all changes of life.

It makes no difference to me if I am so praised that I am raised from earth to heaven, nor if I am so blamed that I am thrown from the greatest heights to the depths of the earth. Life to me is an ever-moving sea in which the waves of favor and disfavor constantly rise and fall.

To fall down does not break me or discourage me; it only enables me to rise to a still higher sphere of life.

I could not have enjoyed virtue's beauty if I had not known sin.

Every loss in life I consider as the throwing off of an old garment in order to put on a new one; and the new garment has always been better than the old.

I have learned more by my faults than by my virtues; if I had always acted aright, I could not be human.

My intuition never fails me, but I fail whenever I do not listen to it.

Patience is the lesson I had given to me from the moment I stepped on the earth; ever since I have tried to practice it, but there is more to be learnt.

I blame no one for his wrongdoing, but neither do I encourage him in that direction.

In bringing happiness to others I feel the pleasure of God, and for my negligence I feel myself blameworthy before Him.

Every soul stands before me as a world, and the light of my spirit falling upon it brings clearly to view all it contains.

Nothing seems either too good or too bad. I know no more distinction between saint and sinner, since I behold the one single Life manifested in all.

I consider my action towards every man as my action towards God; and the action of every person towards me I take as an action of God.

So long as I act upon my own intuition I succeed; but whenever I follow another's advice I go astray.

I work simply, not troubling about results. My satisfaction is in accomplishing the work which is given to me, to my best ability, and I leave the effects to the cause.

Life in the world is most interesting to me, but solitude away from the world is the longing of my soul.

I feel myself when I am by myself.

By respecting every person I meet I worship God, and in loving every soul on earth I feel my devotion for Him.

There is nothing in life which pleases me more than pleasing others, but it is difficult to please everyone.

I am ready to learn from those who come to teach me, and willing to teach those who wish to learn.

I regard every obstacle on my path as an incentive to success.

I would have either heaven or hell, but not purgatory.

I do not intend to teach my fellow men, but to show them all I see.

Hail to my exile from the Garden of Eden to the earth! If I had not fallen, I should not have had the opportunity of probing the depths of life.

At the moment when I shall be leaving this earth, it is not the number of followers which will make me proud; it is the thought that I have delivered His message to some souls that will console me, and the feeling that it helped them through life that will bring me satisfaction.

I have not come to change humanity; I have come to help it on.

If anyone strikes my heart, it does not break, but it bursts, and the flame coming out of it becomes a torch on my path.

My deep sigh rises above as a cry of the earth, and an answer comes from within as a message.

I am a tide in the sea of life, bearing towards the shore all who come within my enfoldment.