Bowl of Saki for February 23

Truth alone can succeed; falsehood is a waste of time and loss of energy.

Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net

Falsehood, whatever its apparent success, has its limitations and its end. For at every step false people will feel falseness; and with every step taken towards falsehood, they will feel their feet growing heavier and heavier when they encounter the truth, while those who walk towards the truth will feel their feet becoming lighter with every step they take.

Truth is the divine element in humanity. Truth is every soul’s seeking. Therefore as soon as the clouds of illusion are scattered, that which we now begin to see is nothing but the Truth which has been there all the time. We find that the Truth was never absent; it was only covered by clouds of illusion.

By changing our own nature, by making ourselves more truthful, we disperse the clouds of falsehood within and without, and begin to see life as it really is both inwardly and outwardly. From this time onwards, the meaning of religion becomes clear. We begin to understand what the great teachers have taught. Then we become tolerant to the various religions. Nothing seems strange any more. Nothing surprises. For now we begin to know the innermost nature of humankind; we see the cause behind every action.

People speak about truth and falsehood, but once mystics have reached the Truth [ al-Haqq ], all is Truth to them; then everything is a phenomenon of Truth, a picture of Truth. For instance, a person looking at a picture may distinguish light and shade, but another instead of speaking of light and shade, will say, ‘This is a portrait of so and so, it is a very good picture, exactly like that person.’ Truth is like this; and so to mystics the whole of life is a picture of the Divine Beloved.

Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis

Truth metaphysically connotes all that is beyond the mental sphere, while falsehood is all that lives upon the shadow forms of the lower worlds. Truth is of the nature of light and therefore of energy, while falsehood is of the nature of passing or incidental phenomena. The cause of falsehood is the nufs, that thought of self; where it does not exist there can be no falsehood. Therefore angels always tell the truth, but there is no merit in it. The successful person is one who has the ability to cling to falsehood and does not, thereby becoming master of all the energy and dominating the three worlds.