LET THERE BE HARMONY AMONG ALL RELIGIONS
When a person talks of spiritual tradition, then traditions could become dogmatic. There, conflicts arise that one would say, I am from the Christian tradition, I am from the Muslim tradition, I am from the Buddhist tradition, and I am from the Hindu tradition.
When we study history, so much dogmatism has occurred in the name of religion and tradition that it has closed people’s minds. So many wars have been fought in the name of traditions where rivers of blood have flowed because of tradition that my tradition is proper, and your tradition is wrong. Always a conflict, and speaking, underlying all these traditions is the true tradition, meaning the essence of all religions, but when man goes beyond traditional values, does man know the true essence of tradition, the universal tradition?
Let there be harmony amongst all religions because, basically, all religions’ truths are the same. It is like rivers coming from different directions and ultimately becoming one in the same ocean. So, I speak from a position where all traditions are harmoniously. At one moment, I will quote the Vedas to you; at one moment, I will quote the Bible to you; at another moment, I will quote some of the truths in the Koran.
WE TRY TO FIND THE ULTIMATE TRUTH THAT IS CONTAINED WITHIN ALL RELIGIONS AND TRADITIONS
We try to find the fundamental truths, or the ultimate truth, that are contained within all religions and all traditions. I have spent twenty-five years in a Western country to learn about Western traditions. I have spent the balance of my lifetime in the twenty-five years of understanding and learning; I go back and forth to India and visit my gurus and what have you all the time to learn the various ways of life, the multiple ways of life which form a universal tradition.
There is a lovely little story about how these conflicts arise. Four blind men were going through a forest, and they came upon an elephant here in it. The one caught hold of the tail; the one grabbed hold of the leg, the ear, and the trunk. So, the one that got hold of the tail said, “Ah, I have found God; he is like a rope.” The one holding the leg said, “I have found God; he is like a tree stump.” And like that, these four blind men started arguing and fighting. Speaking, each of them had found an aspect of truth, and that aspect of the particular truth they found formed the basis of their tradition.
EVERYTHING I TELL YOU COMES FROM MY INNERMOST BEING, FROM MY HEART AND SOUL
We try to go beyond or transcend all traditions, and when one transcends the boundaries of tradition, one speaks from direct cognition. Direct cognition supersedes all traditions. If someone asks me, “Are you a Christian?” I say, “Yes.” If someone asks me, ‘Are you a Hindu?’ I say, ‘Yes’. If someone asks me, ‘Are you a Muslim?’ I say ‘Yes’. If someone asks me, “Are you a Buddhist?” I say, “Yes.”
Yes, I am all of those, why not? Because there are so many beautiful things in all those traditions, we can go beyond all those traditions, which direct perception of truth can give you.
So, my authority is based on my direct experience and communication with that which is within me. I am a Yogi. That is the authority that I speak from. Everything I tell you, Beloveds, is not from what I have read in books. Everything I tell you comes from my heart, soul, innermost being, and things I have experienced. What am I doing here, six thousand miles away from my home and living in a suitcase? Although the English people have been so kind to make me feel comfortable, they have gone out of their way to share this beautiful love. I have come here to share that love and bliss I have experienced with one and all. That is my dharma, and that is my karma-conditioned dharma.
I AM JUST A VERY HUMBLE CHANNEL OF DIVINE MELODIES
I am not the powerhouse or storehouse of divine energies. I am just a channel. Through my karma, I am just a channel that has developed the ability to draw upon universal forces and pass them on to the person who learns to meditate on our techniques. It is just as simple as that. I am nothing special, nothing at all. I am as ordinary as you are, absolutely ordinary, and even more humble than you are. Because that is what I have been striving for, utter, utter humility, and this is something one does gain by becoming one within oneself; by finding that integration, you become so humble that you can identify yourself with the meanest little creature that crawls on the ground or the highest evolved man. One of the signs of self-integration is that it brings humility within us. So, I am nothing but a hollow reed that could be made into a flute, and there is that divine source that blows through it, those eternal melodies that will pierce your ears, your minds, and your hearts. It is not me.
A TRUE GURU IS A DOCTOR OF THE SPIRIT
It is not me. Knowing me is beneficial only to the extent that I have developed or acquired the ability to become a doctor, physical doctor, mental doctor, or spiritual doctor. By having developed insight or humility, I can identify myself or attune myself with the meanest crawling creature or the highest developed man, which means an identification. So, when I go into meditation, I can attune myself to your evolutionary status, and in attunement with that evolutionary status, I can assess the imbalance within you.
We must not be discouraged about that because ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, I can go on and on, percentage of people are not balanced people. There would be no suffering if there was that balance between body, mind, and soul. Only the self-integrated man, the self-realized man, has no suffering. So, here, the doctor of the spirit analyses assesses. His instrument, his stethoscope, can hear the vibration as the physical doctor hears the heartbeats with his stethoscope. The Guru, with his stethoscope of the mind, from the level beyond his mind, can analyze, assess, and evaluate a person’s spiritual status. By evaluating and assessing the person’s spiritual status, he can prescribe a technique whereby his progress towards realizing the divinity within him would be a straight road, a direct road.
If we want to reach London from here, many roads might lead to London. One road might have a lot of traffic lights and a lot of motorcars, and that would make your journey, through trial and error and all the stumbling blocks, more arduous and lengthy, perhaps, and it might take more time. But then you might have this motorway that could take you directly to London smoothly, without any hitches, and you would reach there quicker. Do remember, the distance to travel is the same. Say London is a hundred miles from here. So, the distance is the same from our present evolutionary status to our destination of finding the divinity within us. But there could be a direct path that could lead us there quicker. And that is what happens when a person’s evolutionary status is evaluated and prescribed specifically by specific practices. So I am nothing but just a spiritual doctor, that is all. Nothing more, nothing less. And that is how our system works. That is how our system works.
THE PURPOSE OF THE EXTERNAL GURU IS TO AWAKEN THE INTERNAL GURU
For a man to be directly in contact with divinity, he does not necessarily need a guru. However, during one of our talks, we mentioned that when a person is in kindergarten, he might need a teacher to teach him the ABC, and once he has learned that, the child will start reading on his own. So the purpose of the external Guru is to awaken in man the internal Guru that is forever there. When the internal Guru is awakened within man, the external Guru can be discarded. He has served his purpose, and that is the process. So, there is no contention that I am the storehouse of spiritual energies and that only through me can man benefit. There is no such contention because to say that would be very contentious. It is wrong.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1976 – 10
