quoteandImeanquote!

"'The word that was lost' is a symbolical phrase of the mystics which has existed in the East and among the wise for ages. Many spiritual and mystical schools have been formed to try to understand this particular problem; but it is a fact that whoever has solved the problem says very little about it afterwards.

...The followers of various faiths and religions, those who have different opinions and different ideas...Do they dispute and differ in the realization of truth? No. All the differences and disputes are caused by the various facts that are all different from one another. There are many facts and one truth; there are many stars and one sun...The light of truth falling upon the facts makes them disappear.

...The difference between science and mysticism is very slight; it is only that one goes a certain distance, but the other goes further... It is the work of biology and other sciences to explain in detail the gradual development of creation...But in studying the whole process, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal kingdom, and man, the seer finds something that was missing but that appears as development goes on further. What is it that was missing? It is expression and perception; and it is this which the mystics have pointed out in their symbolic phrase, 'the word that was lost'.

The whole process of manifestation suggests that it is working towards one and the same object...And what is that purpose toward which every aspect of creation is working? What is it that the woods, the trees are waiting for? What moment? What object? What is it that all animals are seeking for besides food? What is it that is giving importance to every activity of man, and after the fulfillment of each activity draws him on to another? It is one object, but covered under many forms. It is the search after that word, the word that was lost.

...Although every person, every soul suffers pain to a certain degree, and every soul will describe the cause of that pain differently, yet beneath the different causes is one cause, and that cause is the captivity of the soul. In other words, that the word has been lost.

Souls at different stages of evolution try to search for this word that was lost in the way in which they are accustomed to search. Ways have been made to search for this word that have become right ways and wrong ways, sins and virtues. For this reason the wise person is tolerant towards all, for he sees that every soul has its own way of following its purpose. But in the accomplishment of all these purposes there is one purpose, and that is in the finding of the word that was lost."
-- Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Music of Life