SOUK - 19oct09 - soul & angels

19th October 2009
We are following a series of teachings given by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat
Khan on the soul's manifestation, the soul towards manifestation. These
teachings were all incorporated in the book "The Soul Whence and Whither."
We talked about the origin of the soul. The soul coming from the divine sun,
of which our physical sun is a physical expression, a physical
manifestation, which is why the sun religions exist, and also there were
moon religions worshipping the moon and earth religions worshipping the
earth. Now we are beginning to realise God is also hidden in his/her glory
as the divine sun. The Zoroastrian, when they called the sun Prince Hurash
what they meant was the divine sun. We are all a ray of that light, the
esoteric light. We also spent some time seeing how that ray of light
manifests as a soul - we call that soul an angelic soul. Now we are
beginning to look at little more detail, what we mean about angelic soul.
E.g. what about male or female, what is it like to be such a soul in the
world. Every soul has gone through this incarnation. There are no souls that
have not been through this journey. It is just that some souls remember it,
either implicitly through their attunement, their attitude, their interests
and inclinations in life, and the other types of souls are the ones that
have forgotten. No crime, because each soul is different. Some souls are so
attuned to the angelic spheres that that was such an impression, they carry
that impression into this world, this life. Other souls were not so
impressed. Not because it is not impressive, but because they are different.
being different does not mean inferior, better or the same, it is just
different. We must be clear about that. There are some souls which are earth
soul who feel this is really where it is at. This is what is reality. That
is fine. But some souls, possibly some of us, all of us seek otherwise. We
are the oddballs. There is a term created by Colin Wilson who wrote a book
called "The Outsider". He expanded the idea of the outsider which includes
other types of souls too, which are called jinn-souls, but basically such
souls - it is not that they are rare, it is not that they are special, it is
not that they are more spiritual - they have a different attunement. In
other words, they are likely to be misunderstood. let us first of all talk
about what we can do about that.
"The soul towards manifestation, which is still in the angelic spheres, is
free from all differences and distinctions which are the conditions of the
soul's life on earth. Are angels male and female? This question can be
answered that dual aspect starts even from angelic spheres. God alone is
above this aspect but in all other conditions and aspects of life, this
aspect is to be seen, though this difference is more distinct on the earth
plane. In the angelic plane it is not distinguishable.
"And now there is another question: if the angels are in touch with people
on earth. And the answer is that their life does not necessitate any
communication with human life on earth, except some who are destined to
perform a certain duty on the earth."
Some souls that come to the world seem to have a special connection with the
angelic sphere; that is extremely rare.
"There is mentioned in the ancient Scriptures that an angel came with a
message to the prophets of Ben Israel. But the explanation of this from the
metaphysical point of view is quite different from what an ordinary person
could imagine. No man on earth is capable of communicating with the angels
in Heaven, nor an angel of the Heaven is able to communicate with man. But
in the exceptional lives of the prophets, what happens is that they rise
above all the planes which keep man removed from angelic plane and by doing
so they are able to touch that angel plane and, being charged by the
everglowing fire of inspiration from the angel spheres, where they come in
touch with angels, they descend on the plane of the earth and it is then
that their words become tongues of flame, as spoken of in the Scriptures,
which means every word of theirs becomes a torch in the hands of those who
listen, to illuminate their path through life."
This is quite a statement that there are souls whose mission or purpose in
life is to receive a message from such beings and the message they receive
is a divine inspiration. It is not something they think about. It is
something that came as a vision, a revelation, as a spiritual experience,
and it was so powerful they could not but share it.
"Especially in the lives of the Great Ones, who have given a divine Message,
a religion to the world, their soul has never been disconnected in any form
with the angel world and it is this current which linked their soul with
those of the angels, always kept them in contact with the Heaven and the
earth both."
One thinks of e.g. Krishna in the Hindu tradition. There is the story that
Krishna was supposed to be a naughty little boy and always partial to
butter. When his mother one day said "Have you been eating butter?" He said
"No." His mother said "Open your mouth" expecting to see butter, but she saw
the stars in the heavens. it was like a vision. She realised this was a
profound spiritual experience with a being that had incarnated as a
prophetic being. In the East they did not call them prophets. In the West we
did, because it is the line of Ben Israel, the sons of Israel. In the East
they call them Avatars, Buddhas, and so on. One thinks of the life of
Mohammed who was a shepherd and never leaned to read or write. He was first
visited by dreams in which the angel Gabriel spoke to him, then by waking
dreams. He got so frightened he wanted to run away. he spoke to his wife
what he was supposed to do. She said to him that this was his mission. Of
course Mary was visited by angel Gabriel and foretold the birth of Christ.
We have many examples from different traditions which illustrate this point.

"The soul of the prophet therefore is a link between Heaven and the earth;
it is a medium by which God's Message can be received. Then there are some
pious souls who have the experience in their lives of having been warned or
helped by an angel. It is such souls who have kept a thread unbroken, which
they had brought with them from the angel world. They may be conscious of it
or not, but there is a telegraphic wire which connects their soul with the
souls of the angels and they are conscious of having had a contact with the
angel."
There are experiences in the life of some souls where at a certain moment
they hear something of the angelic spheres, through sound like beautiful
music, or they experience a vision of an angel. In other words, there is a
sympathetic link between that soul and that world. It does not mean to say
that such people are prophets, it does not mean to say that they have a
message to bring to the world.
"When many cannot experience something which is rare, they think the person
who experiences has gone crazy."
People may have experiences of miraculous healing - there was a case in a
newspaper where a man was within days of death from a brain tumour. He was
sent home to die. He did not die. The brain tumour shrank and he got
better,. They said the explanation must be that 18 months ago he had radio
therapy. The rational mind always wants to have a reassuring explanation
that confirms their own thesis. Gnosis is beyond thesis. Thesis is of the
mind. Gnosis is a spiritual experience. Unfortunately you cannot convince
people.
"Therefore it is the law of the mystics to see all things, to experience all
things either of the earth or of Heaven and yet say little; for the souls
incapable of understanding the possibility of their reach, will only mock at
them."
"There is another aspect of the contact with the angel and that is at the
time of death. Many have seen in their lives the angel of death but at the
time when death's call comes, some have seen them in a human form. Some have
not seen them but heard them speak. The reason is that there are some souls
who have already departed from the earth plane, though breath is still
there, connecting the soul with the body, and such souls experience while
still on earth the angel sphere at the time of their death. They see angels
garbed in the form of their own imagination and hear their words in their
own language. "
Our society's view of imagination is such that it is not real. Imagination
is said to be something that is akin to fantasy. But there is a big
difference between imagination and fantasy. Imagination is the medium by
which we connect with the inner world and the spiritual spheres, not with
our thinking capacity, not with our cognitive mind. It is the imagination
that enables us to dream, to have visions, to see the light of the spheres
and to see angels. This is the phenomenon that the angels appear in a form
familiar to you. At the time of death, sometimes a person is open to life
after death and they begin to recognise souls or beings that are present as
they die.
"The reason is that it is necessary for a person who has lived on the
earthly plane, to clothe a being on the higher planes in earthly garments
and to interpret immediately the language of the higher sphere in his own
words."
For example you need to understand a dream through your own metaphors, your
own language.
"For instance angel Gabriel spoke to Moses in Hebrew language and to
Mahommed in Arabic. One would ask, what was the language of the angel
Gabriel, Arabic or Hebrew? Neither Arabic nor Hebrew was the language of
Gabriel. His language was the language of the soul and the soul knows the
language of the soul. It is when the soul interprets what it hears even to
itself, then it garbs the words into his own language."
You can have an experience of seeing a vision written in a language you
cannot read, but as you progress it comes to you in your own language.
"There is a story in the Bible when the spirit descended upon the twelve
Apostles and they began to speak all languages. The interpretation of the
story is quite different. The meaning of this is that when the Apostles were
inspired by the angel world, by that Divine Sun or the Holy Ghost, they knew
the language of all languages for it was the language of the soul, which
means they heard man before man spoke to them, in other words, they were
able to hear the voice of every soul on having that inspiration. It would
not give credit to the Apostles if one said they knew all the languages that
are in the world instantly, for there are people just now to be found, whose
genius in being linguist is so great that they happen to know more than 30
or 40 languages and even then they do not know all languages. There is only
one language which may be called 'all languages' and that is the language of
the soul. Before the illuminated souls all souls stand as written letters."
(All quotes: Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan - Lecture "The Soul towards
Manifestation" given at the Suresnes Summer School on 14th August 1923 from
the Complete Works of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan - Original Texts:
Lectures on Sufism, 1923 II: July-December)
It is like being with someone, in their presence. In spite of what they say
you know something about the nature of their soul that comes to you. One
learns that language by first being in touch with your own soul. If you
wanted to write about this for a newspaper they would not publish it. One
starts to feel inadequate, because what one values is not valued by society.
Even in close relationships, they might totally misunderstand. It becomes an
alienating experience, which is why Wilson called it "Outsiders".
Some people try to adapt, and in that adaptation, deep down, they are very
sad. Some try to adapt through addiction. Some people drop out. Some people
turn to religion. Some seek.
What we are lead to is self-acceptance, accepting your own nature. If you
can learn to accept your own nature you need to learn honour it. If you deny
your deepest nature, how can you reach self-realisation? It is a sacrilege
to avoid self-acceptance. The first step is turning within. That can come
with many difficult feelings. This is not a call to become unworldly or to
emphasise your differences, but to recognise who you are. One of the
important teachings is to accept your deeper nature.