Vilayat Inayat Khan

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, born in London in 1916 is the eldest son of Sufi Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order International. Pir Vilayat’s mother, Ora Ray Baker, was a cousin of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement.

Pir Vilayat is a teacher of meditation and of the traditions of the East Indian[?] Chishti Order of sufism. His teaching is derived from the mystical tradition of the East brought to the West by his father combined with his knowledge of the esoteric heritage and scholarship of western culture.

Vilayat Inayat Khan was educated at the Sorbonne, Oxford, and L'Ecole Normal de Musique de Paris[?]. During World War II he served in the British Royal Navy and was assigned the duties of mine sweeping during the invasion at Normandy. His sister, Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan served in the French Resistance as a radio operator.

After the war, Pir Vilayat pursued his spiritual training by studying with masters of many different religious traditions throughout India and the Middle East. While honoring the initiatic tradition of his predecessors, Pir Vilayat is continually adapting traditional Eastern spiritual practices in keeping with the evolution of Western consciousness.

Pir Vilayat has initiated and has participated in many international and interfaith conferences promoting understanding and world peace.

Bibliography

Toward the One, (Harper and Row, 1974)
The Message in Our Time, (Harper and Row, 1978)
The Call of the Dervish, (Sufi Order Publications, 1981)
Sufi Masters, (Sufi Order Publications, 1982)
Introducing Spirituality Into Counseling and Therapy, (Omega Press, 1982)
That Which Transpires Behind That Which Appears, (Omega Publications, 1994)
Awakening: A Sufi Experience (Tarcher Putnam, 1999)

External links

The Abode of the Message (http://www.theabode.net/about_us.html). The community he founded in an old Shaker Village in New Lebanon, New York
The official Pir Vilayat web site (http://www.pirvilayat.org)