Rassa Shastra

Rassa Shastra illuminates the Sufi message of love, harmony, and beauty and applies it to the rewards and pitfalls of relationships. Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 - 1927) was born in India and is credited with having brought Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, to the West. His spiritual development encompassed an awareness of the oneness of all religions, which he communicated in his many discourses.

Rassa Shastra is especially important for us today in its honest discussion of sex and relationship. Of the sexes, Inayat Khan says: “...Each sex clearly perceives that each provides the other with what the other lacks. Each draws out something in the other that would otherwise be lost, and makes alive some part of the other that would otherwise be as dead. Each sex draws from the other a thoughtfulness, a consideration, the thinking nature. It is through this contrast that the loving nature in man or woman is awakened, so that the heart which was a grave of love becomes a fertile soil, where any seedling of affection will flourish, and bear flower and fruit.”

Sex and relationship have a sacred purpose and “true union” is one of the Sufi keys to perfection. Inayat Khan warns against the danger of misusing this most sacred of divine gifts and stresses that misunderstanding sex and sexual desire leads to the deepest problems between men and women.

The universality of Inayat Khan's message and his deep insight into human nature and consciousness ensure that his timeless teachings will benefit many generations yet to come.