We are One

You may install idols and worship them. But do not forget the inner significance of all that worship. All external activities are necessary only to help you to get the spirit of non-duality and experience unity in diversity. Love and sacrifice are very important. Where there is pure, unsullied, selfless, sacred and sublime love there is no fear at all. Giving and not getting is the underlying principle of spiritual sadhana. Your heart is full of love, but you are using it only for selfish purposes instead of diverting it towards God. God is in the heart and not in the head. The heart is full of love. Every day, remind yourself that God is one; all religions uphold the same principle of 'One God, who is omnipresent.' Do not have contempt for any religion, as each is a pathway to God. Fostering love towards your fellow-beings, receive the blessings of the Divine. This is the goal of life.

Swami mentions here the worship of idols, and it is a help to remember the divine, but he is as well telling us that it is only okay as long as we do not

forget the inner meaning. What is the difference, how do we know if the inner meaning is present and when it is not present? It is important for us to be able to make that difference. Swami mentions that external actions are necessary to make the experience of non-duality and to experience unity in diversity, therefore, no matter what; the goal is unity, the experience of non-duality.

Today is the day when Swami left the body. He is as well telling us that the highest and pure love does not know any fear, and it is the basic principle of giving and not taking as our spiritual exercise or sadhana and it is said that the heart is full of love, but we use it for selfish purposes instead of focus on God. The question is what is selfish and how do we know the difference?

He reminds us that God is in the heart and not in the head, with other words; he is inside and not outside or in our imagination. The head imagines things, but the heart feels love.

Whether it is an idol or based on our imagination in the mind or whether we pretend to see it, it is still a form. It is for us important to get aware of it, because there are people taking advantage of it, telling us that they see Swami as a light form.

The principle of the Divine is 'I am that'; it is alive in all of us and transcends the form, but it needs to be realized. How can we get aware of the difference?

We do not see a ghost form and follow it, that is not oneness, unity means, we are one, 'I am that' and 'you are that' and 'all are that,' we are the same light, and no difference.

We can use a simple example, if we are looking all together at a drop of water, in the pure water the light is reflected. The drop is the body, the water is the mind, the reflection of the sun is the Atma and it can be self-realized as, 'I am that '.

The difference is only in the quality of the water, it can be either clear, transparent and pure and the light is reflected in the water and if it is not pure, dull and cloudy, the light cannot be seen in it.

Everyone sees the same reflection, there is only one, it is a universal principle of love as the light that is reflected as 'I am that', and in this principle we are all the same, the divine light that is reflected in us. There is only one God, but he is in many forms. In the quality of the water is the difference and whether it is sathvic (pure), rajasic (passion) or tamasic (dark). There is no difference, we are all part of the whole and divine.

It is the same reflection of pure love in all of us. It is the same for everyone. During devotional singing we can feel it, the heart melts in that divine love and we are one, it is love for the divine, no difference.

Thus, unity is not a person claiming to see a light form, that cult is in contradiction to oneness, there is difference and not unity. It has to be the realization that we are all one and the same light that is reflected in us, there is no difference between us and we are all God. The cult with the light form is based on one person claiming to see it and it is not a question of oneness and no help to experience unity. What Swami mentions here is not present, it is not about oneness and non-duality as Swami is telling us here, but something else. It is not in harmony with Swami's message if it doesn't help to experience non-duality. Swami is telling us here, whatever we worship as an idol and form, it had to be a help for experiencing unity.

We are all one, the higher self, reflected as Atma, and in that reality thinking ends and feeling begins. There is only one, not two, there is no question as we are all one. It is enough to be aware that we are one, we don't worship the divine outside, but as oneness inside, outside is just a help of getting to the right experience. We are the same. It is what happens when we melt and merge by singing devotional songs. There is no need to imagine it in the head, we are one and we sing together for God and merge in the divine, pure love. It is the heart that melts in the experience of divine love.

We should always remember that God is one and he is present everywhere. Every religion is a way to God to promote the love of fellow human beings and receive the blessings of the Divine; that is the goal of life.