According to our evolution, we know Truth.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Every person’s desire is according to their evolution. That for which we are ready is desirable for us. Milk is a desirable food for the infant, other foods for the grown-up person. Every stage in life has its own appropriate and desirable things.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume VII – In an Eastern Rose Garden: The Journey to the Goal )
When one realizes the ultimate Truth, one comes to understand that One Single underlying Current to which all the different religions, philosophies and faiths are attached. These are all only different expressions of the same Truth, and it is the absence of that Knowledge which causes all to be divided into so many different sects and religions.
In India there is a well-known story exemplifying this fact: that some blind people were very anxious to see an elephant. So a kind person one day took them to see one. There, standing by its side, the person said, “Now, here is the elephant, see what you can make of it.” Each one tried to make out by touch what the elephant looked like, and afterwards when they met together they began to discuss its appearance. One said, “It looks like the big pillar of a palace,” another said, “It looks like a fan.” And so they differed and discussed amongst one another, then they quarreled so much as to come to a hand-to-hand fight. Each one said, “I have seen it, I know what it is; I have touched it.” Then the one who took them to the elephant came and said, “You are every one of you right, but you have each seen only a part of the elephant.”
So it is with the religions. A person says, “This religion is the one, this doctrine is the only one, this truth is the only truth possible.” That shows a lack of knowledge of the ultimate Truth. As soon as one comes to the realization of the depth of Truth, one begins to discern that it is the same Truth which the great ones have tried to express in words. They could not put it fully into words. They have done their best to help humanity to evolve and reach to a point at which it is able to understand what can never be explained in words.
( from The Supplementary Papers, Philosophy V: The Knowledge of Truth [ unpublished ] )
Somebody can be praised by one and hated by another, and ten people may all have a different idea of the same person, because we each understand according to our state of evolution. We each see that person according to our own point of view, we each look at another through our own eyes, and therefore the same person is different to each being. In the mind of one the person is a sinner, in the mind of another, a saint. The same person who is considered gentle and good by one is considered the opposite by another. If this can be so in connection with a living being, it is equally possible that various ideas of the Deity should be formed in each heart, and that all souls should mold their own Deity according to their own evolution and according to their way of idealizing and understanding. Therefore the Deity of every heart is different and is as that person has imagined; but the God of every soul is One and the same, whatever people imagine. It is the same God that they all imagine, but their imaginations are different and it is the lack of understanding of this that has caused the differences in religion.
( from the Sufi Message Series, Volume IX – The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part II: Deity and Divinity )
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
That is to say, to the degree that one’s heart opens, one knows Truth. Until this occurs, there may be knowledge of names and forms — this is not Truth. Until this occurs, one may be kind to everybody and have friends or disciples or happiness, but this is not Truth. All these are passing fancies whether of the seeming essence of knowledge or love. Until the mind-mesh is pierced and Reality perceived, it is not Truth. Truth is above all worldly knowledge and morality. It is we ourselves who are of the nature of Truth, and not anything outside can be called Truth.