As the Hurricane Katrina blasted through Louisiana and Mississippi leaving all that devastation in its wake I, like many, watched the news feeling intensely sorry for the people who had to now deal with all of this destruction. Since it was so much closer, my psyche was naturally more affected than it was by last year’s Tsunami in SE Asia. And that affected me greatly. Normal human reaction I suppose. I was curious to know what Hazrat Inayat Khan might have said about these natural phenomena and found the following:

“When one looks at the cosmos, the movements of the stars and planets, the laws of vibration and rhythm - all perfect and unchanging - it shows that the cosmic system is working by the law of music, the law of harmony. Whenever that harmony in the cosmic system is lacking in any way, then in proportion disasters come about in the world, and its influence is seen in many destructive forces which manifest in the world. If there is any principle upon which the whole of astrological law is based - and the science of magic and mysticism behind it - it is music.”

Wow. That doesn’t look so good does it? It seems to say that we create the psychic conditions that demand hurricanes or tsunamis. Some will even see these conditions with a certain delight. “See, I told you so!” That sort of thing. So, those of us with, what we might think of as, a slightly broader point of view can point at those whom we think of as creating this untenable situation with blame on our minds. Or, we can let our vision grow even broader and wonder what God is thinking about all of this.

Whenever I see things like this I am reminded of something that I read of Hazrat Inayat Khan’s about war. I can’t find the quote right now but what he essentially said was that to us war is total devastation to God war is interesting. Does God see war as rebalancing too do you think?

So, my question to you is; how do you see all of this? Do you feel a certain sense of glee or excitement in knowing that these conditions might have been self generated? Do you think that there were no hurricanes during the Jurassic period for instance? Can you conceive of what might have been the balancing necessary then? Let’s see what we can come up with.

Much Love, Musawwir

Thank you, everyone, for your comments.

It is truly exciting to see the possibilities of this medium.

So far we have had comments from the US of course, but also Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia. Still to be heard from are Australia and Canada.

Can you imagine what this means? Sufism, or any spiritual path for that matter, is no longer restricted to a town or village where the teacher resides and anyone who wants to be with him or her must travel there. Now we can gather together on the internet and learn with one another. Naturally this means that one must have access but I think that almost everyone on my list has a pc. The second ingredient is participation. It is well known that less than 10% of people on a list will actually post. Understandable I suppose. Now, unlike what you may be expecting, I do not really care if you post or not. That is entirely up to you. What I do care about however is whether or not people are aware that there is a vast community out there that we all belong to. You may participate directly or you may simply keep all of your brothers and sisters in your heart.

Here is my first post, to which you can reply with your comments. I am currently very interested in just what it means to be spiritual, to be a Sufi. I am thinking more and more that it has little to do with what others say it is and really is comprised of one's personal experiences, whatever they may be. Comments?

Musawwir Gowins