Author: Hazrat Inayat Khan
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 291
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120806891
Description
This is the ninth volume of the Indian edition of all the works of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great Sufi mystic who lectured and taught in the western world. This book and other volumes in this series contain his lectures, discourses and other teachings as taken down in shorthand.
The complete series contains fourteen volumes. Each volume is complete in itself, and therefore may be read without any necessity to study following or previous ones. However, one may get a spiritual and mental appetite to continue reading . One will find that a meditative way of reading will convey not only the words but also the spiritual power emanating from them, tuning mind, heart and soul to the pitch which is one's own.
This book, ‘The Unity of Religious Ideals’, may lead you straight on the path to your ideal, discover for you the religion, in whatever form it may appear, waken in yourself the longing for the Light and the Goal, and thus you may find the Self, as a pearl hidden in the shell of your heart. In six parts the whole field of religion is covered from the point of view of the mystic, the philosophy of religion, the concept of God and the God-ideal, the spirit of guidance and the spiritual hierarchy; then various religions and messengers are discussed, followed by a presentation of some religious symbols and their explanation. Finally, the concept of the divine message is presented, followed by an exposition of the role of universal Sufism, and what contribution it can give to the development of the individual and of humanity at large.
All Religions are essentially one: since there is only one God and one truth it cannot be otherwise. This is one of the principal tenets of Sufism, and is one of the most important elements of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s message.
Towards the one
The perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty
The Only Being
United with all the Illuminated Souls
Who form the Embodiment of the Master
The Spirit of Guidance
This invocation by Hazrat Sufi Inayat Khan represents the truth behind this book, in extremely subtle and meaningful words.
Contents
Preface to the Series
Preface to Volume IX
PART I
Unity and Uniformity
Religion
The Religion of the Heart
The Coming World Religion
Seeking for the Ideal
Law
Prayer
Belief
PART II
The God-ideal
God the Infinite
Deity and Divinity
PART III
The Spiritual Hierarchy
The Master, the Saint, and the Prophet
The Prophet
The Spirit of Guidance
The Prophetic Soul
PART IV
Hinduism
Rama
Krishna
Buddha
Jainism
Abraham
Moses
Zarathushtra
Jesus
Mohammad
Idolatry
PART V
The Symbology of Religious Ideals
PART VI
The Message and the Messenger
The Sufi Message
Sufism
The Spirit of Sufism
The Sufi’s Aim in Life
The Ideal of the Sufi
The Sufi Movement
The Universal Worship