Hi all; welcome back from the holiday. Mine was a great holiday, in so many different ways. As you all know, before the holidays, I had been going through a rather rough patch of several weeks of ‘purification’ but I was able to get through this last period, far better than any other period that I remember. In fact at the second session of the music energy that we anchored, I was given one of the most beautiful silent initiations I have ever received. I knew that it had come, because I had gone through this period having applied all that I had been taught, all that I am learning. It was a period of "put your money where your mouth is. Let’s see if you can do it. Are you only spouting or you actually living it? " And it was tough, believe me. It is so easy to spout. It is so difficult to actually live it. And I knew the initiation had come because every moment I was aware that I was living my truth. And going though my process without any resistance. And though it was tough, it was not really painful. And having done that, I knew I had risen myself up to a new level energy, which then deserved the initiation. And it was so beautiful, because for the very first time I acknowledged sitting here in that chair "Hello!! ‘They’ are not initiating me, I am initiating myself. I have earned this. I deserve this moment of rising to a new level of energy." And I can’t tell you the joy that one feels at that moment of realization. It is a joy completely free of ego. And it is in that moment that one realizes that the thrill that one feels out of vanity and ego is in no way even comparable to this feeling of elation. And both have to be experienced in order to know the difference. And through the years, I have experienced so many moments of vanity, that this huge moment of just sheer joy, completely separated from ego was just wonderful. I think my holiday started on that day.

The next morning I went off to Pune. I met some of the most beautiful people. People I had known as acquaintances, but whom I had not made an attempt to reach out and touch. And suddenly what I received from this one week in Pune, I have not received at any other time because, along with everything else I have tried to overcome one of my greatest fears, and that is fear of meeting new people. Every time I met a ‘stranger’ and had a wonderful meeting of energies, I would return saying "why did I think of this person as a stranger?" Every person who came into my life added to my energy, and I pray that I have added to theirs. And it taught me a big lesson. "Welcome the new in your life." I like old familiar people, because it doesn’t constitute ‘change’. When there is newness, you yourself have to undergo a change. The energies that were added in Pune by these new people who came into my life were just amazing.

Welcome new people into your life. It is the most enriching experience. We all tend to be in small cliques and groups. In fact have you noticed; when someone new comes into our ‘group’, there is always a sense of resentment, "why is this person here? This person doesn’t belong to my group." We don’t allow ourselves to be ‘touched’ because of that resentment. When you open up, every new person touches you with something new which is so enriching.

And that brings me to our very brief lesson for today from The Prophet.

All that you think, all that you say, all that you do, is your religion. It’s not an ‘ism’, its not a body of truth which I am challenging one against the other. Its you. You are The Prophet. You are the Christ, you are The Buddha, you are Tao. You are all of these walking living beings. All that you do, all that you say, all that you think. ‘Religion’ are the moments of wonder and glory, are moments of surprise of how wonderful we are, are moments of surprise of how beautiful the universe is, how perfect everything is. All that is religion. And does one have to stop living for that? No. You till the soil, that’s your religion. You are making money, that’s your religion. You’re having fun, that’s your religion. You are being ALL, perfect and imperfect, because imperfection is only an illusion. The truth is that all that we perceive as imperfection is actually just as it should be. And that is religion.

How many times have the Masters told us, meditation is not sitting for two hours at a certain time and place? Are you only going to give a few moments, a few hours, of your day to access universal energy? To touch it, to feel it, to live it? Then that energy has been wasted. But when you use those two hours to touch that energy, and then imbibe it, let it flow into your very cell memory, and for the remaining 22 hours, live out of that energy that you have imbibed, that is religion.

I always wondered at people who spend lacs of rupees in building a temple because God has saved a favorite one from the mouth of death and I wonder, how many others would be saved from the mouth of death, had this money gone into erecting ‘human’ temples. What does the stone and brick and mortar do? Yes, it houses a deity, which sometimes is very powerful but does the deity only dwell there? Can it not dwell in your heart? In the hearts of the human temples that you can erect? And that is religion.

How many of our so called moral standards have changed just by being here? Those are the morals that we live by, we judge by. And anyone who doesn’t fit those ethics, those moral standards, is condemned. And what are morals really? In the Elizabethan times, it was fine to wear cleavage, but you couldn’t show your ankles. And today you can show as much leg as you want but try not showing the …… too much. (Laughter!!!)

Moral ethics, is that religion? Is there a standard we live by? And who fixes those standards? Have you ever considered that? Are they really your standards? If they are then live by them because you are the standard bearer. But if they are not then question, "Why am I so comfortable following a standard set by someone else in society? Why am I giving up my power to society, allowing society to tell me who I am , what I should do, what I should wear, how I should think and how I should behave? And does that then make me religious? Or passive and submissive?

Not only your best but the worst that you can be, too. Take ALL that with you. A temple is not only the place where you have the best that you can worship. It’s a place where you can honor yourself for having had the courage to choose the worst in yourself, knowing that it is this rocky path that will eventually take you to be the best that you are. So enter that temple, everyday with your ALL.

Have you ever wondered about the caste system? I have my own little take on that. The shudras are the untouchables. The ones who touch the dirt, the filth, the ugliness. Is that really an external mirror of all the filth in ourselves we don’t want to touch? Some of us in our energy structure, are Brahmins. We love moralizing, preaching, teaching, spouting truths, Brahmins. Some of us are like the Kshatriyas; very aggressive about our truth and if they are spiritual truths we are even more aggressive. Some of us are the Vaishayas, the traders. We are the ones who are willing to share our fruits, but with the expectation of some profit. And then there are the Shudras. And each one of us is that. And that is why we don’t allow them into our lives. Because all that you don’t allow into your lives is something you don’t want to see.

Learn from nature. Nature does not discriminate. Whether you are a king, or a sweeper in the king’s palace, both are given as much shade by the beautiful banyan tree. The mango tree gives its fruit to both equally. It’s we who put a price on it. Ever wondered why we have boundaries for our land? "Its mine, I have paid for every small square centimeter. You can’t enter without my permission." John Lennon sings that song "Imagine." Such a beautiful song. I would say don’t only imagine what Lennon has sung, live it… and that is our religion.

A world without boundaries where all are welcome into our hearts. Where we share of ourselves, knowing that it is so much more difficult to share of yourself than it is to share of your possessions. That is why I spoke earlier about ‘coming out of our little comfortable boxes’ and welcoming new people into our ever increasing circle of friends. When you are ‘open’ to all (and by that I don’t mean being a mere social butterfly), genuinely admitting them into your circle, into your heart, you show that you are ‘open’ to ALL that you are. When you are ‘closed’ to new persons becoming a vital part of your ‘friends’ circle’, your circle of giving and receiving, of sharing, you are showing, without a shadow of doubt, that you are closed to several parts of YOU.

They say charity begins at home. What does that mean? It begins at home. (Pointing to the heart) Not being ‘charitable’ to others but to yourself first. It’s only when you can wake up every morning, kiss your I AM and welcome all that goes with it, then your heart gets larger and larger and not only one energy resides there, but all energies as one.

That is religion.