𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐁𝐚𝐛𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐤𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚'𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟔 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 ...

Excerpt from Baba Muktananda's talk 

from the 1976 Christmas Meditation Intensive. 

Sadgurunath Maharaj ki Jai!

I have read many scriptures, many philosophies and each one says that it is greater than the others. After I read all the philosophies I lost my devotion and I began to wonder, "Is there any God?", because I read all these philosophies and they all said their philosophy was the greatest. Then I thought to myself, let me give up all these philosophies because they are nothing but a heavy load on my head. So I gave up reading the philosophies and went in search of saints. I began to look for great beings.

After great deal of search I met such beings as Bhagawan Nityananda, Zipruanna and Sai Baba who were not conscious even of their bodies, who had lost themselves in God. I was in their company for a long time. I listened to their words and I put those words into action. Then the doubts that I had, "Is there any God?" went away, left me completely, and I was convinced that God dwells within the heart.

I personally respect all the religions you find in this universe but I myself am without any religion. I don't have any religion because for me the Self is the greatest religion. Through the knowledge which I attained from my Guru I meditated and went deep in meditation and I attained God within my own Self, and when I attained God within my own Self, I no longer had any religion.

There was a great being, a great Siddha called Kabir. In his poetry he says, "I was looking for the truth outside and I was searching and searching. I got fed up with searching outside and then I turned within me. When I turned within I saw the same truth just within me. And after I saw the truth within me all the conflicts of centuries past and the conceptions which I had were all removed by my Guru and he showed me the truth. I have experienced that love, that divinity, that greatness of God, but I can't explain that experience in words. All that I can do after experiencing God is, just smile within my own Self."

And that is what Jesus also said. The kingdom of God lies within your own heart, and this understanding is the real Christianity. This is the understanding which you get after reading the Bible. This is the path on which you can go and meet God. Therefore, to enter within your own Self, to find God's kingdom, we meditate and if we meditate and if we find God's kingdom, then we are also Christians.

Today [Christmas] is a very auspicious day. In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord says, "Oh, Arjuna, whenever there is unrighteousness, whenever people give up the path of God and take to other paths, at that time God takes birth in this world." When such a person takes birth in this world the earth begins to dance with delight, thinking "Until now I have been without a child, and now I have a child."

Gods and angels also dance with great love and joy to celebrate the birth of a great being. When people were suffering from agitation, when people were very sad, Jesus took birth to give them good instructions, to give them love. And it was his work to show the path of God to the people and to release them from their suffering.

All those people who show a good path, a path which gives you happiness, they all come from the same family. It is the same one Self which takes birth in different bodies. When that Self is born it doesn't belong to any caste or creed, or any religion or country, it is pure Self. But as the child grows up you give it a name, and then you say, "this child is from this caste and this child belongs to this sect," but it is the people who make the child like that, not God. When it comes from God it is very pure.

If you were to meet God and ask Him, "Have you met a Hindu?", He would say: "What Hindu? What are you talking about?" If you say, "Have you met a Jain?", He would say, "What is a Jain?" If you ask the same God, "Have you met a Christian?", He would say, "What do you mean by a Christian?" Because God doesn't know all these differences. All these religions are created by man.

In politics you find so many parties, communist and socialist, and they are all made by man. The fact is that when you go to God's house you can't take your sect or party or your customs or manners with you. You have to leave them all behind. When a seed is sown in the mud it gives up its I-ness and becomes one with the soil and after a while a big plant grows from that seed. If you want to attain anything in this world you have to give up your I-ness. As long as you don't give up your ego, if you hold on to it tightly then you can't reach God's house, you can't reach the place of peace.
We should take our ego and put it on the cross and then we can experience peace. If we put the ego on the cross, what remains will be peace. If the ego leaves us than each and every one is an incarnation of that same Jesus. The great sages of peace taught man to destroy his ego and experience the supreme bliss within his own Self.

If you really want to live in the message of Jesus, you have to be aware that God's kingdom is within your own Self, each and every one has God's kingdom within themselves. I welcome you all with my heart, being aware that you are all one Self.

Baba Muktananda, Christmas 1976