return to index
The Message Volumes of Hazrat Inayat Khan
VOLUME VII

WILLPOWER

When the mind inquires into the nature of willpower, it becomes a question whether it is a power of the mind, a power of
thought, or a power of the brain. Those who cannot see beyond the power of the brain, call it brainpower; those who cannot
see beyond the mind, call it a power of the mind. Those who cannot conceive of the existence in man of anything above the
feelings, consider willpower to be a power of feeling. A Sufi understands it to be the divine power.

It is the Divine Will that is manifested throughout the whole universe, which has created the whole universe; and it is part of the
divine will that manifests itself through us. Everything we do in life is governed and directed by that power. Were it not that
there is but one power to govern and direct, how would it have been if one foot determined to go the North, and the other to
the South? Our two eyes might have turned in opposite directions, one to the West, the other to the East, had there not been
one willpower behind them to direct their gaze towards one object. When lifting a certain thing, one hand might have gone up
and the other down, had there not been one willpower to govern both, and cause them to join in the one movement. This
shows that each individual has one willpower, which governs several organs of our physical existence as well as our thoughts
and imaginations; all are directed consciously or unconsciously by the one power. We could not have accomplished one single
thing in life had willpower not been at work.

But there are two ways in which the willpower works: firstly, when it is lighted with the light of intelligence; secondly, when it is
not so lighted, but works by itself. When it works by itself, we call it accidental. We do things accidentally which we have not
intended to do. But when willpower makes our mind and body work consciously, then the light of intelligence is followed and
the willpower is acting consciously. This is the difference between various happenings. In the one we are conscious of what we
are thinking, we are conscious of what we are speaking and of what we are doing in proportion to our willpower and to the
light that is thrown upon it from the light of our intelligence. But we have acted without willpower when we have to say, "I have
done something I should not have done; I have said something I should not have said; I have thought something which I should
not have thought." When a person says, "What I did is terrible, I said something I should not have said," it means that during
the time he said or did it the willpower was there, but the strength and light of intelligence had not fallen upon it to the extent to
which they should.

There are two aspects of our being: the willpower or governing power, and the vehicles, the mind and the body. Both are
governed and controlled by that one governing power. In one aspect of our being we are king, in the other aspect we are
minister, and in a third aspect we are servant. We are minister when our mind works, and we are servant when the body
works. We are king when the willpower works.

When this power loses its control over the mind, then our thoughts become disordered. They dwell in any regions and wander
on any lines, even those which our moral standard has perhaps not drawn for them. And our body also works in a disorderly
way when the power of the will is lost. Therefore all illnesses, all failures, all disappointments and faults in life are caused by just
one thing: weakness of willpower.

Man, not knowing this, sometimes considers the will-power to be a power of thought and mind. He does not know that behind
mind there is something else. When the will is behind it, the body is powerful too. There was a well-known Indian fakir who
was able to lift an elephant. How can a man lift an elephant? However strong he may be, what comparison can there be
between the two? What power is at work? It was his willpower that was greater than the elephants.

The great and wonderful things that man has done in this world that we see around us, are all the outcome of man’s will.
Animals, with all their strength, have not that will. Therefore puny man stands before the elephant and says, "Sit down," and the
elephant sits down; "Stand up," and the elephant stands up. With all the strength in its body, still the elephant listens to him.
That is how the fakir lifted the elephant. Man makes tigers, lions, horses work; he even makes his thought and will act through
inanimate things; even through objects his will-power can be manifested. But when man does not realize its effect upon living
creatures, how can he experience his power over objects?

Jelal-ud-Din Rumi, in his Masnavi, speaks of fire, air, water, earth, and ether as beings, while man calls them things. To man
they are things, to God they are beings, obedient servants. Whatever He wishes, they do. As the servant acts according to his
master’s desires, so these elements act as God desires. Further, not only does the will of God work through elements, but the
will of man also, in proportion to the power of his will. A loaf of bread given with willpower can cure a man’s disease more
successfully than a medicine, if there is enough willpower with it. The lesson of Christ, that if one has faith even as a grain of
mustard one can remove mountains, can be understood after one has realized that it is the willpower which does the work.

In the East there are superstitions which have a mystical meaning. When a person goes into a new business, or goes on a
journey, his relatives give him flour or rice in his hand, or some betel nuts, with the wish that he may meet with success. The
token itself is nothing; but behind it there is willpower, and the person who received it has believed; therefore he has responded
to the willpower attached to the gift. There is a harmony. The one who wishes to have good luck receives it.

Nevertheless, it is not to be inferred from this that a man should be prepared to believe in superstitions or become
superstitious. Is it to show that he must know the value of willpower, and use it in his profession, his business, his home, in all
things. It is not a desirable thing to have willpower; is it not desirable to have physical strength? If we are satisfied with
feebleness of body, it may be that we are also satisfied to be without willpower.

All light is for us, inspirations is for us; why not use it as long as we know how to use it to make the best of life? If one wishes
to abuse power, one may abuse bodily power, fighting everybody, boxing and wrestling. But that is another part of life. Power
is necessary and should be developed; but when man is anxious to develop power, either of body or of mind, he ought to
remember that the will power is behind it all; that if the will is developed the physical and mental power can easily be obtained.
The willpower governs the body and the mind.

Now coming to the question of the will of man as opposed to the will of God: which is which? We understand the difference
when we perceive that the nature of willpower differs only according to whether it exists in its fullness, or whether it is limited.
The willpower in its fullness is divine power; the willpower in its limited state is the individual will. And if there is anything that
can be called the source of the whole creation, it is the divine will, it is the will of the absolute Being. If we do not desire to call
it will, we may call it force, strength, or might. But force, strength, might, energy, are all dead words. Force can be without
intelligence, energy without intelligence, mind without intelligence; but will means force, energy, might, with intelligence.
Therefore it is called divine will instead of divine energy. A person with a materialistic mind would call it energy. But why
energy? Is our intelligence energy? It is beyond energy. Is our will only energy? It is energy with intelligence. Therefore divine
will is energy, but with divine intelligence. In all there is intelligence.

If we observe nature keenly, we see how divine wisdom is working. The animals and birds of tropical countries have fur and
feathers, which differ from those one finds in the Himalayas and other cold region. They have suitable bodies, suitable skins;
their life, their whole existence is adjusted to the place where they live.

Man’s desire, the desire of his senses, is matched by the possession of every sense, every organ of sense, each suited to gratify
the desire of his being. The eye meets the requirement of the sense of sight. With all our intelligence and great research no one
can make a new eye so adaptable and fitted for the purpose. This wisdom makes us understand and believe that behind all this
there is an intelligent God and Creator, not only a life or energy of force. It makes us ask why anyone should want to call Him
force or energy, and not God.

The light which we see of the stars and planets is not their own. It is the light of the sun, which illuminates the planets and is
reflected from them. It is the same light that they receive which they reflect. So it is with man. It is the will of God that is
reflected in man. Although every star is not necessarily a sun, yet its light ultimately comes from a sun. If man has divine light in
him, why should he commit sin or do evil, and why should there be anything that we call wrong or a sin? If it is God’s will, how
can it be sin? We understand this when we consider the difference between wrong and right, sin and virtue, good and evil.
These differ with different people. It depends upon the standards of each one’s evolution; it depends on the goal or ideal,
which each one has placed before him. That is why the Prophet said, "The religion of each person is peculiar to himself." It is a
great fault on our part when we accuse another person of an untrue or false belief, an untrue or false religion. We do not know
that perhaps he has a religion, which is suited to himself. His evolution or attainment in life, his temperament, his standard of
morals are different. Therefore we ought, if only we could, to keep to our own religion. The standard that we believe in for our
own good is quite enough.

Our intelligence and experience of this life on earth create within us a world of experiences; and these experiences teach us, by
comparing one with the other, that this one is for our happiness; that one is not. That, which is for our happiness, we call virtue;
and that, which does not contribute to our happiness we call vice. In this way the world which we make into our own is a
world of personal experiences, either in our own lives or seen through the lives of others. Therefore it is quite natural that a
person in Tibet should have a different religion from a person in France; and a man in Persia a different one from a man in
Colombo. Although mankind is the same everywhere, a man’s religion is his experience in life, and therefore his own evolution,
his own experience, added to the temperament of the people with whom he lives. He can see what is good for him, and what is
not; what is right and what is not right; what gives him happiness, and what keeps him from it. The world itself becomes a
scripture or book to the soul. If he does not consult it, he is thoughtless. But the one, who consults with the world that he has
created within himself, is wise. Sometimes, in his world he has decided a certain thing is a sin or evil, and yet when it comes to
an action, thought or speech, he cannot follow the moral he has already made for himself, either because of the weakness of his
mind or body, or because of the weakness of his will. He fails to fulfill the law of his own world, of his own scripture that he
has written. Thus he falls, and that is considered by him to be sin. It is the same with virtue. We have our own sins, our own
virtues, which we have made from our own experiences.

If a child throws a knife at somebody, it has not committed a crime, because it has not yet set that action down as a crime in its
world of experiences; it has not gathered it into that world. It only becomes a crime when the child knows it to be criminal.
After that it becomes responsible for its deed. Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be
judged. We judge others according to our world of good and bad; the same world, the same scripture that is our religion
judges us also, when we do wrong. And no one would do wrong if his will-power helped him to do right, for how could he do
something which the scripture of his own heart tells him to be wrong, had not his willpower failed him? Therefore those who
repent after their crimes, faults, and failures show thereby that it is not that they wanted to do or have these things, but that their
willpower failed them. The willpower was not strong enough to help them to carry out their own standard of good, as it should
help all men through the journey of life.