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Returning:
P.R. Sarkar's Model of
The Six Spokes of Progressive Development

From Divine Remembrance ~ Winter 2002/Spring 2003

In this part one of a two part series, Sheikh Din Muhammad Abdullah al-Dayemi explains in detail the six modes of expression the spiritual aspirants will need to fulfill in order to complete themselves or "return" on the Spiritual path.

I would like to speak about submission and surrender in the context of what in Sufism and Qur`anic wisdom is called "the Return." There is an ayat (line) from the Qur`an that says, Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi  rajiuun. This means, From Allah do all things come and unto Allah do all things return. This is the recitation that is most often recited by Muslims when reminded of death, as in the passing of a loved one. It's also the incantation contemplated by the Sufi regarding one's own temporal nature, as well as the impermanence of creation. The ayat reminds us of our common point of origin. It gives us insight into the temporary sustenance that maintains our limited existence, and finally, it has us face the ultimate destination of all created things. In addition, if you listen carefully and understand the adhan (call to prayer), you will hear reflected all of the precepts of our path. I'm not going to explain each phrase of the adhan, but I want to focus for a moment on those phrases that correspond to this concept of "returning."

Toward the end of the call to prayer, the adhan exclaims, Haya ala-s-salah! Haya ala-l-falah! Come to pray (to sanctify or to consecrate)! Come to success (completion)! Here the salah is being declared, but salah in the perspective of this declaration isn't "prayer" as typically thought of among the many religious supplicants who petition God for benefits or favors. The salah, among the Muslims, is a form of "prayer" that declares and praises Allah's Greatness. This type of prayer is an affirmation. The word "salah" has more to do with being sacred and sanctifying oneself. In other words, the adhan might be thought of saying, "Come, get holy!" Why? Haya ala-l-falah! Come to success (completion)! Within the context of Qur`anic wisdom, success is attained through one's completion or fulfillment of life's purpose. Therefore, if one is complete, one is successful.

Participate in life's process. Make holy. Come and be sacred, and in sacredness, you will have come to completion, to success. Herein resounds the echoing importance of the return as expressed in the adhan. Complete yourself. From the moment that creation has become manifest, Allah calls the creation to "Come back," to return. In due course, everything finds its destination in its return, which in the long run is the return into the completion of destiny - life's cycle.

Within the scope of our personal lives, wherein lies the evidence for a common final destination? Ultimately, the evidence is the existence of death (change) as a reality. Death is the absolute; it is entirely unavoidable. In addition, the evidence exists within us as our unending spiritual longing. It would be safe to say that outside the individual particularities of why any group of spiritual aspirants gathers together, the one thing that all individuals have in common is spiritual longing. Longing for what? Longing for union.

Union is very abstract and philosophical. Our spiritual longing can be recognized; however, what we are longing for is rather indefinable and unspeakable. Yet we feel it, know what we're talking about when we speak of it, and in the sangha (collective), we share it. Union is the success, the completion where there no longer exists longing, and, therefore, we find ourselves "returned." Remember the good of American slogan from The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home"? Home is peace, the satisfaction where there is no longer a dilemma. Home holds no more aching tension to have more, to become more, to know more or to be more. Home is where and when we arrive completed. We have returned. Falah!

You know what it's like to have a project that you've initiated, but the project doesn't feel complete. In other words, you haven't finished it. You also know that as long as the project feels incomplete, there will be something tugging inside you to finish it. This tugging takes place over the smallest of personal matters like chores, as well as predominates and confronts us in all our life's issues.

There is often a gap between our intellectualization of a subject and our ability to live the understanding as a reality in the common actions of daily life. Everybody knows the tension that I'm talking about - the difference that exists between knowing about something and realizing it. Doesn't this tension create a feeling of incompleteness? Doesn't incompleteness tug inside you as you try to expand and grow beyond your previous limit? Isn't that tugging feeling akin to longing? And doesn't that longing have you feel like you want to return . . . to something? What are you longing for?

We experience longing in the dissatisfaction of how thin or how fat we are . . . by the wanting to gain or lose weight. We face our longing in how patient or impatient we are when faced with those things that we cannot change. We feel it in childrearing. We feel it in our jobs. We find that from the moment Spirit has expressed itself as us (human), there is an urge inside of everyone to return. This urge to return is amplified and given a voice in the adhan when it calls, Haya ala falah! Come to completion!

The Divine Creative force causes creation to come into being through the existence of the quintessential elements or factors. As described among the mystics, these elements are: earth - corresponding to the solid factor, water - corresponding to the liquid factor, fire - corresponding to the factor of light, air - corresponding to the factor of material space, and ether (akasha) - corresponding to a substance more subtle than space that is actually a dimension of consciousness. Everything in the creation is composed of these five fundamental elements or factors. It doesn't matter whether you go to Venezuela, the moon, Saturn or to some far off planet circumambulating one of the stars in the Pleiades; whatever exists in manifest reality is composed of these five material elements.

Among these elemental factors, there appears to be an infinite variety of creative combinations. How many species are there on this planet? How many species are there in the universe? How many points of light shine on this planet? How many stars are shining in the sky? From one-cell organisms, all the way up the food chain to plants, fishes, amphibians, birds, animals, mammals, as well as humans, how many different expressions are there? Uncountable.

You could say that all of these expressions are in the process of realizing falah, completion. They must exist in peace or seek to return to their appropriated mode of balance. Allah's creation exists as a matrix, a whole dimension, and each and every thing has its place and position. From the advent of creation, each expression is trying to complete or return itself. Among every created expression there is a mode of eating, sleeping, procreating, protecting, governing and staying organized. Within human beings you also find these modes, not as gracefully expressed have you, but you will find them.

Allah is the creative, initiating impetus that simultaneously calls the creation to return. Allah is the destined repository of all created things that simultaneously causes creation and procreates variety. Allah is One while expressing Allah's own Self with infinite diversity. The creation (universe) is one, a whole and complete matrix, but appears as different expressions.

This Divine Paradox of Being, which is simultaneously One and different, exists in the human being as well. To live a spiritual life means to have a holistic life. To be truly an illumined, enlightened, fully self-realized, liberated practitioner, you will have had to encompass some part of every expression of life. I have defined the enlightened person, as well as the enlightened collective (social system), as containing six different spokes or ways of expression:

1. Personal Expression - The personal expression is the domain of one's individual self and one's individual growth. It's the domain that we relate to most often, and unfortunately, it's the domain that we become most obsessed and fixated on -ourselves. It cannot be avoided; after all, it is through myself that I am having a human experience. So, I must start my enlightenment process here. Spiritual life, as well as spiritual completion, cannot be without the expansion or growth of the individual self, but we very quickly find out that when trying to satisfy our desire to return and become complete, we can't do it alone. Nor do we exist alone. Even if we don't like people, we can't do it alone. Even if we can't stand people, and we can't stand living here on Earth, we can't do it alone. None of us has knit their own shirts, and barely any of us has even cut their own hair. More often than not, we have not cooked our own food, let alone grown and harvested it. People, by in large, cannot get past their desires and attractions for others, whether they're sexual, emotional or physical. Even if one doesn't want to depend on others, others' influences still predominate upon the individual. Here is where the second spoke appears.

2. Interpersonal Expression - Relationship is the domain of the interpersonal expression. After my growth expands from the limit of my individual self, relationship is how I connect, relate and engage with others and the world around me. Of course, it starts out small with one other person. It expands to a unit like a family, and as it continues to expand it becomes a collective, a township, a city, a state, a nation and, finally, the globe. Relationships and interpersonal expression cannot be avoided.

When individuals express themselves through relationship, the relationships become colored (influenced) by how they are expressed. Look around. See the various styles? See the differing forms of costumes, clothes, food, songs, music, poetry and dance? If you look beneath all these forms, you will find that in reality, it is the interpersonal relationships that are trying to be expressed.

3. Cultural Expression - The action taken to express the deep, profound and unspeakable experience of being human is cultural expression. Culture is how people express what they love, believe and experience in their network of relationships. This movement is the need to "try to get it out" somehow. When we're down, we sing the blues, trying to get it out. However, the blues isn't always a relatable music genre for all. Others are singing ragas (Indian melodies) according to the time of day and the season. There are many different modes of human expression, and again, it is these modes of human expression, experienced through the forms of interpersonal relationships, that have come to be known as cultures. Baba Anandamurti once said that he wasn't prepared to admit that there were different cultures on the planet. He said that fundamentally there is only one human culture. I agree with that, however, I am creating a subtle distinction to this point by saying that the variety and diversity of how humanity expresses itself form what appear to be the different cultural conditions.

We cannot separate the urge and longing to personally grow from the urge and longing to expand our personal growth into interpersonal relationship, nor once we find ourselves in relationship, the urge to express our culture. This is all part of the enlightenment process, part of becoming a whole human being.

4. Environmental Expression - What is the container that the differing cultural expressions of humanity live within? It's an environment, an ecosystem of sorts.

In addition to the environment being our ecology, it also includes the continuum of time and space. The environment (time/space phenomenon) is also the very same container for the five fundamental elements (factors). The environment necessitates that there be a balance, so all things can exist and so that life can live. Without it, life and material existence fail. Without environmental balance, even inanimate life, such as minerals and stones, cannot survive. If it becomes too hot, things melt. If it becomes too cold, things crystallize, shatter and eventually decompose. So, human culture must pay attention to its natural environment.

For other species or expressions of life, coexistence is graceful. Animal species know not to "shit their nest." Plants and animals eat, consuming only the required amount of food needed for survival. Then they are satisfied. Species other than human protect themselves by killing only for survival. There exists an innate sense in creation, in accordance to the season, when it's the best time for the organism to procreate. Species other than human sleep when they are tired and are awake when they should be awake. Being nocturnal means to be awake at night and sleep during the day. Otherwise, sleep at night, and awaken during the day. This balanced reality is not so much so with human beings, especially given the remarkable quality of human consciousness that heralds self-reflection and free will.

Within this majestic gift of free will, it seems that humanity is given temporary self-governance. Human beings can literally operate against the natural course of the environment if they so choose. People would like to "procreate their brains out," not just reproduce to ensure the wherewithal of the species. Others don't know when to stop or start eating. They can't even stay on a diet after they have overeaten. People don't know what food to eat that is properly nutritious, let alone where the food comes from. How little or how much sleep is appropriate? When depressed, people sleep too much, or when depressed and anxious, they can't sleep at all. Then they act out.

Through the abuse of our interpersonal relationships, we create defense systems that take great environmental toll. It is within our environment that we lash out against others when we don't feel complete, successful or fulfilled. We take out our tensions on our kids, spouses, friends, and ultimately, ourselves. All of these actions, if not seen in their proper spiritual perspective, become the equation for material greed. Greed has had people "commoditize" the environment for their own personal use. What is the result? Poisoned water, poisoned air, poisoned soil and a gigantic hole in the ozone. Human greed and imbalance have disrupted the natural environment.

It is the environment that is absolutely necessary for humanity to have the human experience. A healthy environment is required to live, so that we might perform our function and purpose and eventually fulfill the true meaning of life - falah. Without a healthy environment, there ain't gonna be no falah for human beings.

Allah has created the environment. This fourth spoke proves that in order to be a complete and whole spiritual person, we must also protect, maintain, preserve and steward the environment. Realize that part of being an illumined person in this day and age is to be an environmental activist, so to speak. You cannot neglect the environment that you live in, nor can you separate it from your individual spiritual practice. You are connected to it. How do we organize ourselves to be in alignment with each other and our environment?

5. Political Expression - This is the means of organizing the individual within the collective (relationships) to be in harmony with the environment. It is popular now to despise organizations. There is currently much resistance to organized religion, organized politics and organized education. Everyone just wants to be free, but we have smashed into a dead-end personal and social wall of not being able to be free. In addition to the limitations of spiritual disease, our imprisonment is also contributed to by the way humanity avoids being in relationship. Remember that relationship, interpersonal expression, is the second spoke.

Human expression necessitates the need to be coordinated, both on a personal basis, as well as on a social scale. Even in something as simple as washing our clothes, we must protect the environment from where the dirty water goes. Human movement, especially social movement, needs infrastructure. We need ways to communicate with each other. We've invented telegraphs, telephones, megaphones, cell phones, faxes and email. All of these devices are for a single purpose. We attempt to communicate with each other, so that we might organize our ideas and experience into a collective movement.

If you're going to satsang tonight, who's going to provide childcare? In our Community we have a seva coordinator. At each meeting she stands up and announces the tasks required for fulfilling the Community's functions - those items needed to take care of each other, i.e., Who's going to pick up Isa? Who's taking care of the kids tonight? Is there gas in the Community vehicles? Oh, by the way, how do you get the gas into the car? Where did the gas come from? How do you get the oil out of the ground? What's an oil rig look like? How much are all of these activities going to cost in time and money?

So, you see, we are constantly organizing. If you are going to be a human being and be fully expressed in this world, in the same way that Allah has expressed the entire universe, you must do it with a sense of organization. The sun rises and sets on time. The moon waxes and wanes in phase. The moon circumambulates around the earth, causing the tides to change. The tides change predictably: high tide, low tide. Alas, here come the seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall. Atomic particles couple together in molecules, and then through relationship, organize themselves into structures. Everything takes place on time and in a Divinely organized way. This means that to be a fully enlightened, illumined, liberated and self-realized human being, one has to attend to organizing one's environment.

Organizing is politics. The true meaning of politics is in how we organize. It's not what you've come to know politics to be: bi-partisan power struggles. The essence of politics starts with how we organize ourselves. In the early seventies the Women's Movement came out with the profound slogan "The personal is political." In life, you must face the meaning and reality of organization. Uncovering the significance of what it means to be in concert with your environment, your relationships and yourself, means getting political. My teaching is this: In order to be a fully illumined person, you also have to complete yourself politically. You can't avoid it.

We are living and organizing in a common environment. Why are we organizing? For the purpose of supporting our relationships. What is the purpose of our relationships? For reflecting and acknowledging our personal growth. What's the purpose of our personal growth? To complete one's self. What is completion? It is the graceful and honorable return to Allah, which is the natural state that is called God-realization, illumination, enlightenment or liberation. Yet, how are we going to "pay" for it all? What will maintain us in the process?

How much did it cost to purchase your shirt? How much does it cost to put the formula in the baby bottle? And that oil that we pumped out of the ground that has become such an issue of global politics; what is its worth?

6. Economic Expression - Our means of trade, the value that we assign to distributing the world's resources, is the economy. An enlightened spiritual person cannot be devoid of the economic reality that human behavior, and how we assign value, has had a serious impact on the environment. Human politics have become skewed by how we assign value. If we destroy our environment with false value, we will no longer be able to support our relationships. If we can't support our relationships, we will forfeit our own individual, personal growth. Thus, the economy is tied directly to spiritual growth.

Go to the top of the Himalayas and interview the yogi who has decided to renounce the world by slipping into a cave. "The world is Maya, the ensnared trap of attachment!" he exclaims. However, when he steps outside the cave, you will notice a few issues that must be attended to. He will have to deal with clothing himself - to whatever degree. Then there is the issue of food - acquiring, preparing and eating it, even if he is a breatharian! What about waste? Even if the holy man is so pure that he only urinates and poops three little balls once on the new moon, where does it go? Inside the cave? I guarantee you, he won't do that inside his own cave.

The highland pine trees that grow around the mountains are starting to look a little brown and wilted. Why? Acid rain. The poisons that human industries have created are belching gases into the atmosphere, which when particulated through the rain and snow, have landed on the secret cave's hiding place. Sadly, even the remote mountain plants can't grow naturally anymore. Oh, by the way, global warming has changed the course of the seasons, so the cave life is different than it used to be centuries ago. Winds blow atomic poisons directly to the cave door after incidents like the Chernobyl disaster. These disasters happen because of our need to produce power and sell it for a profit.

Even the monk, yogi or renunciate can no longer be reclusive. There is no "away" from here. There is nowhere to go, not anywhere, not anymore.

You will find it necessary to fulfill yourself in these six modes of expression in order to be a fulfilled and completed human being. Allah has called you to completion and Allah completes Allah's Own Self with these same six modes.

The container in which all things exist, the organization and natural process that they have to go through, and even the means of production and economic exchange, are part and parcel to our return - our completion. Everything in life is connected to everything else. From Allah do all things come and unto Allah do all things return. This message is tawhiid and is contained in the sacred phrase, La illaha illa Llah.