Iqbal’s philosophy of SELF or KHUDI is shifting the attention from outwards to inwards, from the divine to human or individual.
By Mushtaq Butt
Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s philosophy of KHUDI refers to knowing oneself and traversing this journey to reach the absolute, where an individual merges from self to absolute, finite to infinite and temporal to eternal. The concept of KHUDI, the focal point of Iqbal’s philosophy, provides a path to undergo a spiritual evolution to perceive the GOD. God has created humans the supreme species by bestowing him the spark of divinity in his body, synonymous with the soul.
To achieve this end, an individual has to know himself first. Knowing or realising oneself sets off the individual on the journey of KHUDI. In other words, Iqbal’s philosophy of SELF or KHUDI is shifting the attention from outwards to inwards, from the divine to human or individual. This kind of thought begins the journey of KNOWING THE SELF.
Instead, it is not an end but embarking on the journey from knowledge of self to knowing the ultimate. This knowing of SELF, in other words, is SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS. Without knowing THE SELF (KHUDI), an individual cannot begin his journey of absolute. The supernatural power to know the ultimate reality is love, passion, and strong emotions. It works as fuel for running the vehicle of SELF to reach the destination, that is, to know the divine, feel divine and absorb the divine. Iqbal emphasizes knowing the SELF, and once SELF is realised or an individual becomes self-conscious, his soul craves for the absolute divine. The SELF ultimately embraces the divine, or in other words, divinity embraces him.
After knowing the SELF, there are a series of goals that one has to pass successfully before reaching the zenith of reality. Iqbal’s meticulously designed path of KHUDI OR SELF consists of three important levels, which are –
1. KNOWING THE SELF
2. KNOWING THE SELF WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY.
3. KNOWING THE SELF WITH RESPECT TO THE DIVINE REALITY.
Therefore, Iqbal’s SELF forms the basic foundation of reaching the divine through constant purification, enriching, and nourishing the SELF. The SELF begins to achieve all capacities and spiritual forces to reach the destination. In other words, the SELF tends to perceive the ultimate reality; by doing so, the SELF undergoes a series of changes and gets refines itself before reaching the divine. Why Iqbal emphasises the SELF because without knowing the SELF, an individual cannot crave knowing the DIVINE. The concept of SELF has been explained beautifully in IQBAL’S BOOK {THE SECRETS OF SELF} and forms the crux of Iqbal’s poetry and philosophy.
- KNOWING THE SELF:
Knowing the SELF is the beginning of human life in this universe. It is to get known one’s capacities and spiritual faculties which enable a man to know the secrets of his body, mind, and soul, which finally direct him to excel on the spiritual evolutionary path to understand, perceive and absorb the ultimate reality.
This knowing of self is the lowermost level or grade in the journey of this spiritual evolution. At this level, an individual gets just conscious of his being in this universe. He gets awakened from his deep slumber by his reason for being in the UNIVERSE. The individual doesn’t think beyond himself, and he has to accomplish the basic sustenance needs, like food, wood, and cloth. An individual is not craving to know the reality at this crucial juncture but tries his best to get the needs of life.
2. KNOWING THE SELF WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY
After the basic needs of sustenance of an individual are fulfilled, the next higher level which THE SELF craves is social needs. When bodily needs are acquired ultimately, the individual seeks psychological needs to stabilize himself in society. This is achieved by forming different kinds of relations. The underlying force and passion of this aspect of stabilization is LOVE from the mental point of view.
Love is the binding force of an individual in the circle of society. Man gets modified in society by maintaining various kinds of a web of relations. By doing that, he feels safe and secure. Here Iqbal stresses living the SELF in the atmosphere of society, as an individual does not progress in isolation and is detached from society. Thus, Iqbal emphasizes society’s role in reforming the SELF and depicts the value and standard of living in society as well as the indispensable role of society in individuals’ SELF. Thus, in other words, Iqbal doesn’t believe in living a solitary and sedentary life.
3. THE SELF AND THE DIVINE REALITY.
After the bodily needs are fulfilled in the first level, and stability is accomplished in the secondary level, the SELF craves for the next higher level, that is tertiary level on the path of SELF REALISATION. This is the august and splendid level where an individual is refined and purified. Earlier in the first level of SELF, the bodily things are fulfilled, and in the secondary level, mental stability is achieved in society. The soul and body are still the thirsts for finding the ultimate.
At this third level, man is perfect from a spiritual point of view and begins to perceive the divine. In other words, the SELF acquires extraordinary supernatural powers and energy and tends to embrace divinity. And it is at this stage, Iqbal’s perfect man is born, which can imbibe the divine attributes. His hand acquires the divine characteristics, and his heart has the attributes of divinity. Like so, his eyes and ears acquire divine attributes. Now he is the perfect personality of which Iqbal’s philosophy maintains the central theme of SELF. In other words, this climax of spiritual evolution makes a man like a divine entity, and this is the level of SELF ACTUALISATION.
The individual now has the dire need of longing for some other thing that is real, pure, and unadulterated. It is at this stage a man has completely acquired spiritual powers. These are the same supernatural powers that govern the universe. In this backdrop, the highest place bestowed to a man by GOD, above all species on earth, that a spark of divinity was placed in the human body. This led to the prostration of angels before the first man ADAM. This spark of divinity has now fully bloomed on this tertiary stage, making a man with divine-like qualities. This is the stage of SELF REALISATION IN ITS TOTALITY. At this stage, man is close to ultimate reality and absolute.
THE LUMINOUS POINT, WHOSE NAME IS THE SELF
IS THE LIFE SPARK BENEATH OUR DUST
BY LOVE IT IS MADE MORE LASING
MORE LIVING, MORE BURNING, MORE GLOWING [THE SECRETS OF SELF P:323]
(The author is the recipient of the Sahitya Kamal Award from Literary Cosmos Society India and can be reached at [email protected]
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