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The Message Volumes of Hazrat Inayat Khan
VOLUME VII

THE ATTAINMENT OF POWER

The possession of power brings with it the desire to attain more. We can attain everything that we desire if we only know how.
No one attains a higher position unless he follows some hidden trend. The tendency to arrive at some perfection is that which
causes one to attain a greater perfection. Even if he attains wealth, a man is tending towards perfection. Napoleon attained
something hidden, which was great and wonderful, if we could only understand it. So a merchant may perhaps have begun by
selling empty bottles, and ultimately becomes wealthy enough to be able to found colleges, libraries, hospitals, and so forth,
which proves that there was an inclination to a certain perfection. Even though the ideal may not be so high, the very inclination
to attain power is a great force.

There is a spiritual, psychic, occult, telepathic power. How are we to attain to that? The soul feels, ‘I am a king, but in this
mortal casket I have become a pauper,’ or as Rumi expresses it, ‘I was created free, but in this flesh I am in captivity and have
become weak.’ From an almighty state of being we have become helpless beings. When we become conscious of spirit, we
become conscious of a mighty power hidden; and our spirit is then the expression of the Almighty Power.

The power is in unity, but is lost in variety. Thus, for instance, if we hold a thing in our hand, we can hold it with strength,
because all five fingers have united to hold the object. But if we try to lift it by one finger, this one finger may drop it, even
thought the finger belongs to the same hand. In all aspects of life unity is power. All religions show that power is in unity. This is
the secret of philosophy.

There are two aspects of unity. Firstly, the unity of variety; secondly, unity realizing itself. One is earthly, the other is heavenly.
One cannot serve two masters. Unity is the only source of happiness. Unity in realization is far greater than unity in variety.

‘When two hearts unite, they can break even mountains.’ As two fuse in love, the more does intuition grow, the more does one
understand whether the other is happy, or pleased, or displeased, whatever distance may separate them. This is nothing but
just the unity of the one person with the other. It is clairvoyance. The mother knows the condition of her son at the battlefront.
She can see him in her dreams. Hearts, which are united in love, perceive the state of mind of the loved ones. They do not
have to study mysticism or concentration, for they have natural concentration. The mother does not pretend to meditate; love
teaches her more meditation than a person who pretends to study it can attain. One cannot, however, hold an object in mind
when the heart has nothing to do with the object. Pebbles are not made to eat, and therefore one cannot eat them. The mind is
never so satisfied with either an object or a being, which it does not desire; therefore it is no use to concentrate especially on
what the heart does not desire. The heart, which does desire, needs no special concentration.

Nothing gives greater power of confidence than love. If one loves a person, one has confidence in that person. Hence the
mother is as a god to her child. The hen is the most timid of birds until she has chickens; at that time she is under the spell of
love, and would not hesitate to fight even an elephant if he were endangering her brood. This shows the power of love. Can
any charm or amulet be more powerful than this? The one with a loving heart will travel furthest.

Power can be attained artificially, by magic, or by the different laws of the power of sound, of words, or of concentration.
Such power can make a person ill, can make a person run away from the country, can make two hearts separate; many
wonders can be performed by the power of concentration.

We do not exist only as body; we exist as heart, as soul. If the heart is kept dead all our life, and we give the body all the
things it wants, soft cushions and comforts, is this all we need? The heart is still hungering. The heart wants to see that it is
living. The heart longs to be alive. It has been created to love, and it is not loved; it wants to melt. But though it wants all the
love and kindness to come to it, it withholds giving when the time comes for it to give.

We accept love when love is offered to us, but when the time comes to give we do not give. But can love really be given? Is
love trade? Until this is known, it is impossible to understand love.

To love is to possess a heart, but not as a demon possesses a human being. When a person ‘comes alive,’ this means that he
has become the possessor of a heart. Whose heart? Heart is that factor of our being, of our thinking, which feels with in itself, a
longing to express love. It is an awakening of love and to a feeling of love. This is the factor, which produces thought; this is the
factor, which produces feeling; in this lies the creative power. All the power, which one can possibly wish to attain throughout
life, is reached by this means.

How can power develop in the absence of unity? Suppose everyone had magnetic power. They would make all the money
they could from their clients. Would it be just for some to possess the power of making money, and for others to be
perpetually their victims? No, and that is why mysticism was kept hidden for the protection of these others. Those who are not
worthy of the hidden knowledge would use their power for selfish purposes, for themselves and for those who belong to them.
If ordinary people had this power, one could not even compare them with the devil. Rishis, saints, and sages have experienced
the selfishness of man. They know it would be bad for the world if this hidden knowledge were revealed. And who deserves to
be illuminated with this knowledge? He alone deserves it who develops his soul in the thought of unity; and he alone receives it.

The progressive steps of enlightenment in the use of power are shown when a man transfers his ambitions first to his family and
then from his family to his city, from his city to his nation, from his nation to the whole world, and from the whole world to the
whole universe. When the joy of every person he sees is his joy, when the pain of every person is his pain, then he becomes a
conqueror and attains power.