GOD AND TRUTH ARE FAR ABOVE RELIGIONS

 
Think of me every day for five minutes only, at any time of the day. Of course, the best time would be at five in the morning when I remain almost everywhere. This little beginning of a mere five minutes will also be your first step on the spiritual path. Once you get interested in and attuned to the thought of God, you will have a constant urge to think of Him for a certain period every day. It is sincere thought I want. No amount of prayer and chanting would be of any value if done as a ritual. This five minutes of thought, meditation or concentration on God or the master are a thousand times better than any prayer. God wants love — pure, sincere love. He does not want to hear bombastic, jaw-breaking words and shlokas from the shastras and passages from the Avesta.

The prayer books of all the religions, the Avesta of the Parsis, the Koran of the Muslims, the Bible of the Christians, the Vedas of the Hindus and all other religious books are long treatises and have nothing to do with the truth. Zarathustra taught that you must burn your "heart" in love of God and the dasturs thereafter changed the meaning of it and altered it to mean burning externally with sandalwood. The religious dogmas and doctrines of the "Kasti" and other prayers in the Avesta have all been changed from time to time. Take one name sincerely, lovingly, devotedly for a few minutes without the thought of anything else and that is worth more than hours of mechanical prayers.

Zarathustra had fourteen disciples to whom he gave God-realization. Thereafter there was only one God-realized disciple, and from him the knowledge and experience of God enlightened the community for 700 years. This knowledge came down from father to son. The last true dastur was Azar Kaivan. Ever since, there have been false priests among the Zoroastrians who have given their own versions of the Avesta. From that period until today there has been no realized saint among the Zoroastrians. Whatever religious books the Zoroastrians have today are the works of those dasturs and not of Zarathustra.

However, to his special fourteen disciples he gave real knowledge and experience, and to the world he gave a way of life. As changes were made by the dasturs in the teachings of Zarathustra, so were similar changes made by the priests in Christ's Bible and Mohammed's Koran. Sometimes these changes came about inadvertently. Members of the Avatar's Circle would go out to different parts of the world and address masses of people. These lectures would be taken down by scribes and later attributed to the Avesta, Bible, Koran and the Vedas. As time passed, the changes became so complete that the original teachings were lost.

I therefore once again repeat that instead of wasting your time on religious discussions, reading and listening to doctrines and dogmas of different religions, love God and think of God. Meditation, concentration and the creation of a feeling of love in the heart are the essence and substance of all religions; all else is illusion.

The alphabet is taught to the beginner with a view to making him master of the language. But if the student merely learns the alphabet and does not make an effort to form words, he has learned nothing. Similarly, if an aspirant sticks to religious doctrines and dogmas, he will never achieve his ultimate aim, realization of the Truth. God and Truth are far above religions.