Juliet Hollister, President of The Temple of Understanding, an international interfaith organization based in the United States, has come to see Maharaj ji. During their conversation, she asks him how old he was when he had his first spiritual experience. He answers:

            I don’t know but I had no beard. I had pangs of love, of attraction toward Him. I never read any book, never went to any holy place. When He appeared in vision, I didn’t know who He was, but I knew He was most loving. There was ecstasy in His presence. Throughout my life, I spoke from what He said to me.

            I sat for hours in meditation. I didn’t want to get up.

            My inner feeling was that Jesus is love, so we celebrate his birthday. We celebrate the holy days of all prophets, but not to impress anyone. There was the feeling that the Prophet Muhammad is love, and if you love him, you receive love. Moses’s message is also love. What I felt was vairag (inner attachment only to Him, with detachment from the world)—Vairag like an ocean. If someone asks me, “Must you be Christian to love Jesus?” He told me to say, “No—just love him.” I so often questioned: For instance, should I adopt certain ways in order to love Moses? The answer was, “No, just love him.” As a child, I kept asking, “To love the Prophet Muhammad, must one be a Muslim?” The same answer came, “No. Just love him.” “To love Buddha, must one be a Buddhist?” “No, just love him.”

            In answer to my questions, He said, “I have created people only. People created religions.” A person who has ego and jealousy cannot speak about religion. People created hatred and fear of others, not God. 

            I don’t want to send this message to one country only: If you have love, compassion, and desire to serve, then our society and our neighbours will all be happy.

            We should make God our Mother and Father. When there are quarrels in the family, the mother will never be happy. To keep that Mother happy, we should keep our family happy. Our family is not just our close relatives. We can consider our country our family, all of humanity our family. If you hurt others’ feelings, whether you go to church, temple, mosque, or gurdwara, it’s of no use.

            Leave anger, become human beings, and walk together. Whatever prophet came, came for us all, for all countries.

            Guru Nanak called God “Mother.” He said, “You are the Creator. You think about the sustenance of the whole cosmos.”

            May God bless you and give you Love. Please make people happy.

Judith Hollister looks at Jaap Sahib that Maharaj ji has given her.