Unity in Devotion: All Paths Lead to God

Somebody at the office asked me today because in front of me I have a picture of Hanuman Ji and Sita Ma. So he had this expression on his face saying, 'You know, what is happening? How can you be so...' I just told him, 'But I follow all religions.' So he said, 'How can anyone follow all religions?' So I said that if we were in different states of India, as we seem to be, and in Canada, Bhagavan was called something else, in Tamil he was called something else, in Telugu he was called something else, in Malayalam he was called something else, and everybody in their own devotion, in their own love, found different ways to get to Him.

And then when these people started meeting—because the worlds, the continents, were very far apart earlier, you see, so it was difficult to spread—but suppose that then these state people were all in their different, different states and suddenly then transportation came and they started meeting and then they started fighting. 'You say Bhagavan, I say this, I say that,' you see? Then we would call that stupid, isn't it? Because they're all praying to the same one. Is it? So this is the problem of the human condition, that we've invented all this separation. But all true religions at the heart of it is the realization of the presence of God. One calls it Atma, one calls it Holy Spirit. So if that one who's sitting with the Holy Spirit, is that one different from the one who's sitting with the Atma? So we say, 'No, no, that your way is wrong, my way is right.' This, because of the language 'Holy Spirit' and 'Atma', this is sheer stupidity.

And a very beautiful thing happened this week, yesterday or the day before, where the Pope said that all religions are the pathways to God, you see? Which is very rare for the Catholic Church to say so. And he's been facing so much flack from the Catholics. They're just like, 'He's denying Jesus, Jesus is the only way,' and all of that. So I'm so glad that somebody in his position can openly say that finally. It is so important for us to recognize that God blesses everyone equally with the opportunity to find Him. Everyone has the opportunity to find Him. It doesn't matter which family you were born in, which religion you were born in, you see? And we must get over these small, small things. In India also, we are spreading all this nonsense too much.

So if you call it God, or you call it Bhagavan, or you call it Allah, you call Him any of these things, or Her any of these things—you call Her Devi Ma—are we going to kill each other for what words we're using to call God? That's really stupid. And most of us are just so busy being proud that we don't actually find time to pray. So that's why to return to the innocence of a child, it's very beautiful.

I'm never going to leave Ram Ji. Stuck with Him for life, He's stuck with me for life. But does that mean that I cannot bow down to Jesus Ji and Allah Ji? Every sweet name of God. There is no chance, nothing can keep me away from every sweet expression of God I want to use.