Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan

Born in London in 1916 to renowned Sufi master Inayat Khan and Ora Ray Baker (second-cousin to Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science), Pir Vilayat was truly educated in an East / West inclusive manner. In addition to completing his studies at Oxford University and the Sorbonne, he pursued the guru hunt—the search for meaningful contact with enlightened spiritual masters, and was eventually initiated in the same order as his father had been: the Chishti Order of India. He was eventually named a Pir (guide) in that order. Pir Vilayat, as he was commonly known, went on to lead a movement his father had created specifically for Westerners, the Sufi Order of the West, which taught a universalist approach to Sufism thought most suitable for those in the West (as well as globally-minded people). Pir founded the Abode of the Message, a residential community for Sufis in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. His close students, inspired by his holistic teachings, in turn founded the Omega Institute, a leading holistic adult learning center in Rhinebeck, New York. Pir Vilayat died in 2004. His son, Zia Inayat Khan, succeeded him in leading the Order, which was recently renamed the Inayati Order.