Monarchs are ever monarchs, be they crowned with a jeweled crown or clad in a beggar’s garb.
Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Related Material by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan
Compiled by Wahiduddin Richard Shelquist – wahiduddin.net
Those crowned with beauty are always monarchs, even if they are in rags or sold as slaves. A true monarch is always a monarch, with or without a throne.
I arrived at a cemetery where a group of dervishes sat on the green grass, chattering together. They were all poorly clad, some without shoes and others without coats; one had a shirt with only one sleeve and another lacked them both. One wore a robe with a thousand patches and the next a hat without a crown. This strange group attracted my attention and I sat there for some time, noticing all that was going on yet feigning to be utterly indifferent. … When the Murshid arrived at the assembly of his disciples each one greeted the other, saying, ‘Ishq Allah, Ma’bud Allah! – God is love and God is the beloved! … The solemnity of the sacred words they uttered found their echo in my soul, thereupon I watched their ceremonial with still greater attention… The queer patches on their garments reminded me of the words of Hafiz, ‘Do not befool thyself by short sleeves full of patches, for most powerful arms are hidden under them.’
The dervishes first sat lost in contemplation, reciting charms one after the other, and then they began their music. I forgot all my science and technique while listening to their simple melodies, as they sang to the accompaniment of sitar and dholok the deathless words of the Sufi Masters such as Rumi, Jami, Hafiz, and Shams-i Tabriz. … the most amazing part of the proceedings came when the assembly was about to disperse. For one of the dervishes arose and, while announcing Bhandara or dinner, addressed them in the following terms, ‘O Monarchs of Monarchs! O Sovereigns of Sovereigns!’ This amused me greatly at the time, while I regarded their outward appearance. My first thought made them merely monarchs of imagination, without throne or crown, treasury, courtiers, or dominions – those natural possessions and temporal powers of sovereignty.
But the more I brooded upon the matter, the more I questioned whether environment or imagination made a monarch. The answer came at last: monarchs are never conscious of their monarch-hood and all its attributes of luxury and might, unless their imagination is reflected in them and thus proves their true sovereignty. … And it also reveals how fleeting time and the changes of matter make all the monarchs of the earth but transitory sovereigns, ruling over transitory realms; this is because of their dependence upon their environment instead of their imagination. But the sovereignty of the dervishes, independent of all external influences, based purely on their mental perception and strengthened by the forces of their will, is much truer and at once unlimited and everlasting. Yet in the materialistic view their realms would appear as nothing, while in the spiritual conception they are immortal and exquisite realms of joy.
Verily, they are the possessors of the realm of God and all God’s seen and unseen treasure is in their own possession, since they have lost themselves in God. … Thus I compared our deluded life with the real, and our artificial with their natural being, as one might compare the false dawn with the true. I realized our folly in attaching undue weight to matters wholly unimportant… I felt that we were losing the most precious moments and opportunities of life for transitory dross and tinsel, at the sacrifice of all that is enduring and eternal.
Commentary by Murshid S.A.M. (Sufi Ahmed Murad)
Samuel L. Lewis
This may be paraphrased as “Ruler is one who is ruler over oneself.”
None can be called a sovereign whose subjects do not obey them. Who and what are the subjects of the sovereign? They are not only the personalities who give real or pretended obeisance; they include the thoughts and passions of the personality, and the real or potential control over affairs.
Thought-concentration on a monarch or by a monarch over their dominion subtly connects the breath with the affairs of the domain. This means that there is a strong karmic link between all movements, inner or outer, of the monarch, and those of the realm. This is true for all individuals, free or slave, whether they bow to others, have others bow to them, or neither bow nor are bowed before.