ONE GOD: BASIC TRUTH OF ALL FAITHS - Swami’s Discourse on 25-12-1985

[Guest guest]

A recollection of Swami’s earlier Christmas day messages-2:

Om Sri Sai Ram

ONE GOD: BASIC TRUTH OF ALL FAITHS

Swami’s Discourse on 25th December 1985 at Brindavan

All religions, all scriptures, all spiritual teachings point only to one

truth--the Unity of Divinity. You may profess whatever faith you like. But you

should not disparage another's beliefs. It is a travesty of devotion.

The propaganda indulged in by some propagators of Christianity, casting

aspersions on other faiths, does great harm to the personality of Jesus.

Oh man! Through good deeds and sacrificeFoster the feeling of Love

Get rid of evil trails and lead a worthy life.

Embodiments of Love!

There is nothing more precious in the world than Time. You should not waste even

a single minute of it. Men today tend to waste their time in selfish pursuits

instead of devoting it to selfless service. They are eager to receive help from

others, but have no desire to render help.

There are two types of human beings--the degraded and the sublime. The degraded

are those who seek or receive things from others and not only forget to repay

the obligation, but even try to harm those who have helped them. The sublime

are those whose natural trait is to go to the help of others. If they give a

word they will try to honor it whatever the difficulties and obstacles. They

will not go back on their pledges, regardless of what others may say or do.

Journey to the Divine

The Bharathiya Culture which laid emphasis on the four Purushaarthas (the basic

aims of life---Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha), looked upon life as a journey

to the Divine--the attainment of Moksha (Liberation). But how can men caught up

in the quest for wealth and sensuous pleasures develop the desire for Moksha?

Man today makes no attempt to discover his true nature or his real destiny.

Forgetting the great truths

given to the world by Bharathiya sages and seers, men are leading utterly

meaningless lives, unaware of the potentiality of the human to become the

Divine.

There is, for instance, the simple gesture of folding hands when one greets

another in offering "Namaskar." What is the inner significance of this gesture?

For one thing, the coming together of the two palms is a demonstration of the

unity that subsumes the multiplicity. For another, it represents the offering

of the five sense organs and the five organs of action to the Lord as an act of

surrender. The Muslims use the term Salaam as form of greeting. What does the

word mean? "Sa" refers to "Sat", the Lord who is the embodiment of Truth,

Awareness and Bliss (

italic">Sat-Chith-Ananda); "La" means "layam" (mergence). Salaam means merging

in the Supreme who is also the embodiment of Truth and Bliss. The Christians

also have similar expressions for indicating submission to the Divine.

The Basic Truth

All faiths have emphasized one common factor that there is only One God and

Truth is His form. There are no differences between Hindus, Muslims and

Christians on this basic concept. All religions, all scriptures, all spiritual

teachings point only to one truth--the unity of Divinity. Instead of realizing

this, men are lost in wrong paths.

Jesus sacrificed his life for the regeneration and welfare of mankind. Today

there are some who exaggerate the so-called differences between different

faiths and, for their own selfish purposes, exploit these differences and

thereby bring a bad name to the great founders of these religions, who were

spiritual giants. No prophet or messiah asked his followers to hate other

religions or the followers of other faiths. Every religion has declared that

God is One and that the Divine dwells in every being. Jesus also proclaimed the

truth that the One Spirit resides in all beings. When Jesus was addressing the

Jews, an ethereal voice declared: "Ail lives are one, my dear Son. Be alike to

everyone. When Jesus was being crucified, the same ethereal voice declared that

the human body is only vesture for the

Spirit. The body is subject to constant change. But the indwelling Spirit is

immortal. This was the truth proclaimed by Vedanta when it said: "The body is a

temple in which the Eternal Spirit resides as the Indweller." The inner meaning

of this is that wherever you may go, the Eternal Spirit remains with you. You

must regard the body as the temple of the Spirit; bear in mind that Divinity is

ever within you. Only when you realize this truth can you begin to experience

the Divine.

Do not decry other religious faiths

Whether in Hinduism or Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism, Christianity or Islam,

Divinity is One and ONE ONLY. Those who profess great love for their particular

religion are indulging in make-believe when they assume that their religion is

superior to that of others. Hindus regard Hinduism as the greatest religion.

Wherein lies its greatness? If you declare that the God of all religions is

One, why claim superiority for Hinduism and decry other religions? Does that

bespeak your love for Hinduism? This applies also to those professing

Christianity. They say: "We are Christians. We believe in the unique divinity

of Jesus. There is no other divine Savior". One may claim that Jesus is Divine.

But is he entitled to deride other religions? No religion should allow decrying

of other faiths. It is not a religion at

all that cavils at other religions. It is a form of arrogance. The great saints

who worshipped Christ or Rama or Krishna or Allah were inspired by their

profound teachings. But how many of the followers of these faiths live up to

these teachings today? If the teachings of the Founder of a religion are not

followed, can it be called a religion? Those who, in the name of religion,

further their selfish interests are bringing discredit on the founder of the

religion.

The first thing to be learnt is that THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD. Men may be different

in form and name and color and their country and historical circumstances may

vary. But, God has no such differences. Hence, you should not cavil at any

religion or attack it or deride it. You may profess whatever faith you like.

But, you should not disparage another's beliefs. It is a travesty of devotion.

Sri Krishna says in the Gita that the mark of a true devotee is absence of ill

will towards anyone (Adweshtaa Sarvaboothaanaam). We must respect the divine

that is in every creature.

Religious intolerance

It is a characteristic of the Kali Age that one religion is pitted against

another. This only reveals the small-mindedness of the followers and is not the

fault of the founders. It stems from envious intolerance and egoistic conceit.

These afflictions prevent one from understanding his own religion, while

condemning that of others.

No one should cast aspersions on the deities or founders of other faiths. All of

them are worthy of worship. It is narrow-minded pettiness to say Jesus is great

and Rama or Krishna is small or vice versa. Such misguided propaganda is

puerile and demeaning. It is not an index of true devotion. It is a kind of

mental aberration.

We are all aware of the kind of selfless service which birds, animals and trees

are rendering to man. But we see many men who out of selfishness are not only

ungrateful to their community, their parents and their Gurus, but even to God.

Such persons can never come to anything good. They do not realize the truth of

the saying, "As you sow, so shall you reap." If you have good thoughts and do

good deeds, they multiply like good seeds sown in a well-manured field. But if

you fill your heart with bad feelings, bad thoughts will multiply many-fold.

The meaning of true devotion

You must make continuous effort to cultivate your heart on right lines. Karma

Yoga and Jnana Yoga are considered important for this purpose. But these

disciplines are not easy to practice. Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion, is

superior to these. The devotee seeks to enjoy the bliss of continuous

contemplation of the Divine and does not even desire Moksha - mergence in the

Divine.

Devotion means giving up all other desires and dedicating all actions and

thoughts to God. When you offer every act of yours to God, it becomes worship.

Everything you do must be done as an offering to God. The body has been

described as the temple of God. You must fill yourself with the feeling that

God is in you, beside you, around you, and with you

wherever you go. When you love God with this consciousness, the love results in Self-realization.

There are two forms of Love. One binds you to God. The other binds you to the

world. The mind is responsible for either of these states. It is like a lock.

If you turn the key to the right, the lock opens. If you turn the key to the

left, it gets locked. The heart is the key to the lock of the mind. If you turn

the key towards the world, you have attachment (bondage). You must see that

desire and hatred do not get lodged in the mind. Bear no ill will towards

anyone. Avoid the company of those who are evil-minded. By cultivating the

company of the good, you can raise yourself, because your bad qualities get

diluted by association with the good, like sewage water when it enters the sea.

Good company takes one near to God

In the Ramayana, we see that by his association with Hanuman, Vibhishana, the

brother of Ravana, was transformed into a devotee of the Lord. On the other

hand, Kaikeyi, because of the influences of the evil-minded Manthara, brought

infamy and widowhood upon herself and estranged herself from her noble son

Bharata.

In the Mahabharata, we have the example of Dharmaraja, who had to endure many

difficulties and humiliations because of indulgence in gambling with dice

during a brief association with the wicked Kauravas. Association with the

evil-minded can lead to endless troubles. Pay any price to avoid the company of

the bad. Pay any price to acquire the company of the good. The company of the

good takes you near to God. Sadhana makes you dear to the Lord. When you are

near and dear you become one with God. When you have realized God, you have

secured everything. Without God, everything else is valueless.

There are many who are deeply devoted to Jesus. Their duty is to glorify the

great message of Jesus. The most important message of Jesus is the

establishment of "Peace on Earth and goodwill among men." Without peace,

mankind cannot achieve progress in any sphere--- material, spiritual or moral.

Jesus’ vital message to mankind

In the Treta Yuga, Sri Rama came to establish the reign of Sathya and Dharma

(Truth and Righteousness). In the Dwapara Yuga, Sri Krishna came with the

mission to promote Prema and Shanthi (Love and Peace). In the Kali Yuga (the

present yuga), Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi and Prema are the purposes of the Divine

Mission. Hence you must make these four the guiding principles of your life.

When you adhere to these four principles, Ahimsa (Non-violence) issues as a

natural result. There is no use in merely invoking the name of Jesus and

praying to Him without regard to His most vital message: "God is in everyone.

Do not revile anyone. Do not cause harm to anyone." This was Jesus's greatest

message.

At present there is a growing tendency among propagators of the Christian faith

to cast aspersions on other religions. Money is being spent lavishly to spread

Christianity. None of you should have any part in such activities. This type of

propaganda does great harm to the personality of Jesus. Jesus was a supremely

pure and sacred person. To forget Jesus’ teachings and to profess love for Him

is no love at all. You must all remember: "God is One. Love is God. Live in

Love." Only by this means can humanity, despite the many divisions that exist

at present, be unified.

Absorb the teachings of all the great seers and prophets. Do not despise anyone.

Everyone is entitled to accept what is good from any source. Differences of

creed and caste are irrelevant. There is only one caste, the caste of humanity.

There is only one religion, the religion of Love. There is only one language,

the language of the heart. There is only one God, He is omnipresent.

Develop a broad outlook

No quarter should be given for propaganda which sets up one religion against

another. All the diverse communities in the nation should be united. Mankind

should become one family. The world will then become a paradise. If differences

are allowed to grow, the nation will disintegrate. It is said that atom bombs

will reduce the world to ashes. But those who are promoting religious bigotry

and hatred are doing worse damage than what the atom bombs can do. They are

destroying the love and compassion in human hearts. They are breaking up

mankind into fragments. There is no greater sin than this.

What the world needs today is the redeeming and unifying force of love -- love

which continually expands and embraces more and more people. By giving up

narrow ideas regarding one's religion, nation or caste, by developing a broad

outlook and cultivating the company of the good, you can elevate your life and

make it meaningful and satisfying. Many of you have come from distant countries

at great expense. You must make good use of your stay here by cultivating good

company, imbibing good thoughts, developing a large-hearted attitude towards

all, taking to heart the wise words of elders and trying to put into practice

at least some of their teachings. Otherwise, you will have wasted both life and

money.

I wish you all happiness.

Sent with Sai love

Sai brothers – ‘’

 

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