One virtue is more powerful than a thousand vices.

-- Hazrat Inayat Khan

He who is afraid of vice is subject to vice; he who is addicted to vice is its captive; he who acquaints
himself with vice is the pupil of vice; he who learns his lesson from vice, who passes through it and
rises above it, is master and conqueror.

The real secret of virtue is strength, is life. Vice is weakness; vice shows the absence of strength and
of life. Virtue is born of the true self, vice is the offspring of nufs; this is the only standard for meas-
uring vice and virtue. Although mankind often selects particular moral and legislative codes, these
are only scientific and sure insofar as they harmonize with those highly spiritual codes given by Mo-
ses, Rama and the other great lawgivers. There is no great virtue in praising law and there is no
great sin in breaking law; the merit comes from understanding law, while lack of understanding
keeps one back on his or her journey.

One virtue can stand against a thousand vices.

I have seen myself that if in a family there is one spiritual, one very good person, the whole family
will feel his influence. I have seen in a family of fifty or sixty persons living in one house, there was
one very spiritual person, and every young person in that family, every thoughtless person, at a
moment when he was inclined to be led astray, would feel something like a rein holding him back.
And when this person was gone, in this family, which for forty years had been growing in every
way, increasing in reputation in goodness, first drunkenness was introduced. It spread from one
person to many; and then all in the family were at variance, one against the other.

By association with a good person the bad may, once in a hundred times, do good actions, and by
association with an evil person even the good may once in a hundred times, become bad. There is a
Gujerati saying, "By the virtue of one, thousands may be saved, liberated; by the vice of one, thou-
sands may be lost." This is what is meant when it is said that Christ saves his followers from their
sins. By the goodness of one, thousands may be benefitted and by the evil of one a whole land, na-
tion, may be ruined. But we should not depend upon another to save us. Our soul is the same as the
soul of the Prophet, of the Pir, of the Murshid. We must not say, "I cannot be as they."-

He who is afraid of vice is subject to vice; he who is addicted to vice is its captive; he who acquaints
himself with vice is the pupil of vice; he who learns his lesson from vice, who passes through it and
rises above it, is master and conqueror.

Under a mantle of beauty there may be hidden something desperately evil, while a revolting mask
sometimes covers a gem of pure loveliness. The difficulty of touching upon the hideous aspects of life
lies in the fact that different social classes are so cut off from one another as to be quite ignorant of
each other. Each has its virtues, covering the vices due to its own conventions of life. And to each the
vice it does not know appears more intolerable and more unnatural than the vice it is acquainted
with.
I remember the words of my murshid, who said, "Every moment that God is absent from one's con-
sciousness is a moment of sin," and when God is continually in one's consciousness, every moment is
virtue.

Therefore when a person has arrived at that pitch, he lives in virtue. For him virtue is not a thing
which from time to time he expresses or experiences, but his life itself is virtue; what he says and
does and what is done to him is all virtue; and that shows that virtue is not one little experience. Vir-
tue is purity of life. Really I would not consider virtue a worthwhile thing if it came and went away.
It is only worthwhile when it lives with us, when we can depend upon it and when we can live and
move and have our being in it. That is worthwhile. If it only came for a moment, and if it visited us
for one minute, it is not a virtue and we would rather not have it. We would rather prefer poverty to
the wealth which came for a moment and went away. Therefore, this is the stage when man begins
to understand what virtue means. He begins to see a glimpse of virtue. What he knew before he
thought to be virtue, but now life in its entirety becomes virtue to him; he lives in it and life to him
means virtue. Properly speaking, it is lack of life which is sin.

We have seen what it means to purify the life of the body and of the mind. But there is a further puri-
ty which is the purity of the heart, the constant effort to keep the heart pure from all the impressions
which come from without and are foreign to the true nature of the heart, which is love. And this can
only be done by a continual watchfulness over one's attitude towards others; by overlooking their
faults, by forgiving their shortcomings, by judging no one except oneself. For all harsh judgments
and bitterness towards others are like poison. To feel them is exactly the same as absorbing poison
in the blood: the result must be disease. First disease in the inner life only, but in time the disease
breaks out in the physical life; and these are illnesses which cannot be cured. External cleanliness
does not have much effect upon the inner purity; but inner uncleanness causes disease both inwardly
and outwardly.

Then after this third stage has been reached, and the heart has been attuned by high ideals, by good
thoughts, by righteous actions, there comes a still greater purity in which all that is seen or felt, all
that is touched or admired, is perceived as God. At this stage no thought or feeling may be allowed to
come into the heart but God alone. In the picture of the artist this heart sees God; in the merit of the
artist which observes nature, in the faculty of the artist to reproduce that which he observes, such a
one sees the perfection of God; and therefore to him God becomes all and all becomes God.

When this purity is reached man lives in virtue. Virtue is not a thing which he expresses or experi-
ences from time to time; his life itself is virtue. Every moment that God is absent from the conscious-
ness is considered by the sage to be a sin; for at that moment the purity of the heart is poisoned. It is
lack of life which is sin: and it is purity of life which is virtue. It is of this purity that Jesus Christ
spoke when he said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."

Man seeks happiness in pleasure, in joy, but these are only shadows of happiness. The real happiness
is in the heart of man. But man does not look for it. In order to find happiness, he seeks pleasure.
Anything that is passing and anything that results in unhappiness is not happiness. Happiness is the
very being of man. Vedantists have called the human soul Ananda, happiness, because the soul itself
is happiness. That is why it seeks happiness. And because the soul cannot find itself it is always look-
ing for something that will make it happy. But what it finds can never make it really happy, perfect-
ly happy.

Sin and virtue, good and bad, right and wrong, can be distinguished and determined on this princi-
ple. Virtue is what brings real happiness. What is called right is that which leads to happiness. What
is good is good because it gives happiness. And if it does not do so it cannot be good, it cannot be vir-
tue, it cannot be right. Whenever man has found virtue in unhappiness he has been mistaken. When-
ever he was wrong he has been unhappy. Happiness is the being of man. That is why he craves for it.

If man has divine light in him, why should he commit sin or do evil, and why should there be any-
thing 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 per-
son is peculiar to himself." It is a great fault on our part when we accuse another person of an un-
true 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 the-
se 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 tempera-
ment 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.

There is a virtue which the Sufi calls 'Muruwwat', a virtue which is too delicate to express in words.
It means refraining from certain actions out of respect for someone else, whether in consideration
for his age, position, knowledge, goodness, or piety. Those who practice this virtue do not do so only
towards someone important or pious, for when this quality develops it manifests in one's dealings
with everyone.

Muruwwat is the opposite of bluntness. It is not necessarily respect; it is something more delicate
than that; it is both consideration and respect together. In its full development this virtue may even
become so intense that a person out of consideration and respect tries to bear with the lack of the
same virtue in another; but when one arrives at that stage the human manner ends, and the saintly
manner begins. Man is not born into this world only to eat, drink, and make merry; he is born in
order to perfect the human character. The way he realizes this is by great thoughtfulness and con-
sideration; otherwise, with all power, position, wealth, learning, and all the good things of the
world, he remains poor if he lacks this richness of the soul which is good manner.

What is God? God is love. When His mercy, His compassion, His kindness are expressed through a
God-realized personality, then the stains of one's faults, mistakes and wrong doings are washed
away, and the soul becomes as clear as it has always been. For in reality no sin or virtue can be en-
graved or impressed upon a soul; it can only cover the soul. The soul in itself is divine Intelligence;
and how can divine Intelligence be engraved with either sin or virtue, happiness or unhappiness?
For a time it becomes covered with the impression of happiness or unhappiness; but when these
clouds are cleared from it, then it is seen to be divine in its essence.

Love is the stream which when it has risen up falls again like a fountain, each drop forming a virtue.
Virtues taught in books have not the same power, but virtues springing naturally from the spring of
love in the depth of the heart are love itself. There is a Hindu saying, "No matter how much wealth
you have, if you do not have the treasure of virtue, it is of no use." True riches are the ever- increas-
ing fountain of love, from which all virtue comes.

It is not necessary for the Sufi to offer his prayers to God for help in worldly things, or to thank Him
for what he receives, although this attitude develops in man a virtue that is very necessary in life.
The whole idea of the Sufi is to cover his imperfect self even from his own eyes by the thought of God.
That moment when God and not his own self is before him, is the moment of perfect bliss. My
murshid, Abu Hashim Madani, once said that there is only one virtue and only one sin for a soul on
this path: virtue when he is conscious of God and sin when he is not. No explanation can describe the
truth of this except the experience of the contemplative, to whom, when he is conscious of God, it is as
if a window is open, which is facing heaven, and when he is conscious of the self, the experience is the
opposite. For all the tragedy of life is caused by consciousness of the self. All pain and depression are
caused by this, and anything that can take away the thought of the self helps to a certain extent to
relieve man from pain; but God-consciousness gives perfect relief.

* The Liberal and the Conservative Point of View *

There are two points of view open to one in everything in the world: the liberal and the conservative.
Each of these points of view gives a person a sense of satisfaction, because in both there is a certain
amount of virtue.

When a man looks at his family from the conservative point of view, he becomes conscious of family
pride and acts in every way so as to keep up the honour and dignity of his ancestors. He follows the
chivalry of his forefathers and by looking at the family from this point of view he defends and pro-
tects those who belong to his family, whether worthy or unworthy. In this way he helps to keep up a
flame, lighted perhaps years ago, by holding it in his hand as a torch to guide his way.

When one looks at one's nation from a conservative point of view it gives one the feeling of patriot-
ism - which today is the substitute for religion in the modern world. It is no doubt a virtue in the
sense that one begins to consider one's whole nation as one family: one cares not for one's own chil-
dren only, but for the children of the nation. Man gives his life when occasion arises to defend his
nation, the dignity, the honour, the freedom of his people.

The conservative spirit is the individualizing spirit, which is the central theme of the whole creation.
It is this spirit which has functioned as the sun; otherwise it was the all-pervading light, and it is the
power of this spirit working in nature which keeps many branches together on one stem and several
leaves together on one branch. It is again this spirit working in man's body which keeps man's
hands and feet together, thus keeping him an individual entity.

But there is always a danger that this spirit, if increased, may produce congestion. When there is too
much family pride man lives only in his pride, forgetting his duty towards mankind and not recog-
nizing anything that unites him with others beyond the limited circle of his family. When this conges-
tion is produced in a nation it results in all kinds of disasters, such as wars and revolutions with vio-
lence and destruction. The nightmare that the world has just passed through was the outcome of
world congestion produced by the extreme of this same spirit.

This shows that it is not true that virtue is one thing and sin another. The same thing which once was
virtue becomes sin. Virtue or sin is not an action; it is the condition, it is the attitude which prompts
one to a certain action, and it is the outcome of the action which makes it a sin or a virtue.

Life is movement, death is the stopping of the movement; congestion stops it, circulation moves it.
The conservative spirit is useful in so far as it is moving, in other words: as it is broadening itself. If
a person who first was proud of his family, after having done his duty to his people, takes the next
step forward which is to help his fellow-citizens, and the third step which is to defend his nation, he
is progressing. His family pride and his patriotism are no doubt a virtue, for they lead him from one
thing to another, better than the former.

Congestion comes when a person is set in his interest. If his family causes a man to be so absorbed in
his pride and interest in it that nobody else in the world exists for him except his own people, or
when a person thinks of his own nation alone - nothing else interests him, others do not exist for him
- in this case his family pride or his patriotism becomes a veil over his eyes, blinding him so as to
make him unable to serve either others or his own.

In selfishness there is an illusion of profit, but in the end the profit attained by selfishness proves to
be worthless. Life is the principal thing to consider, and true life is the inner life, the realization of
God, the consciousness of one's spirit. When the human heart becomes conscious of God it turns into
the sea and it spreads; it extends the waves of its love to friend and foe. Spreading further and fur-
ther it attains perfection.

The Sufi message is not necessarily a message of pacifism. It does not teach to make peace at any
and every cost; it does not condemn family pride or patriotism; it does not even preach against war.
It is a message to make one conscious of the words of the Bible: "We live and move and have our be-
ing in God" - to realize this and to recognize the brotherhood of humanity is the realization of God.
The natural consequences of this will bring about the spirit of brotherhood and equality and will re-
sult in preparing the outer democracy and the inner aristocracy which is in the nobility of the soul
whose perfection is hidden under the supremacy of God.

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* Nafs (Nufs) [Arabic] the individual, the petty self, personal identity, ego; mind; human being; soul,
breath (of life).