Table of Contents
Part I — Spiritual principles
- Spiritual principles
- Question: How can we know God's Will?
- Question: Quite often you speak of "light". What is it exactly?
- Question: Teilhard de Chardin spoke of an irreversible law of progression towards perfection. Do you agree with this optimistic view?
- Question: Your extraordinary creativity gives the impression that man has within himself capacities that are unexplored and unused. How can we awaken these capacities? Your disciples learn from you, but do they achieve the same kind of results?
- Question: What is the significance of your accomplishments in the fields of art and sports? Your fantastic results seem to prove that in your case the body is truly the instrument of the spirit. Is this true for everyone?
Part II — Global consciousness
- Global consciousness
- Question: Can God influence world activities in order to help mankind?
- Question: Is it possible for someone to raise the global consciousness just by raising his own individual consciousness?
- Question: Your spirituality does not require a hermit-like way of life, but instead favours a full participation in today's society. This implies that society, even structured as it is, contains the seeds of spiritual growth. Through meditation and spiritual practice can one become spiritual, irrespective of his or her social role?
- Question: What is your most urgent message for today's man — for the West, conditioned by its materialistic philosophy, and for the East, which, in many cases, is still struggling for life's basic necessities?
- Question: In your spiritual philosophy, what role do the poor, sick and aged have? What role do women have?
- Question: Will mankind survive the impending ecological disasters? How can our modern technological society be taught to respect our home, the planet Earth?
- Question: God is all Love and Goodness. Will He allow mankind, in its arrogance and greed, to destroy the world?
Part III — Religion
- Religion
- Question: Why do the different religions of the world often depict God in many different ways and ascribe to His Will such diverse opinions on fundamental world issues?
- Question: You have written: "Sri Krishna meditated and became God the divine Light. Christ meditated and became God the divine Compassion. God wants us to meditate to become God the divine Life." Why do you not also include Abraham, Moses and Mohammed here?
- Question: You are originally from a very old and classical religion, which has been tested through the centuries. What do you think of the new religions that appear frequently in the United States, which stress social-life activities?
- Question: Your disciples have come to you from many different religions — Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and others. You do not ask them to leave their religions when they join your spiritual path. Is this because you believe there is one God, and that every religion calls Him in their own language? Are all religions ways to provide us with the experience of God, independent of the historical appearance of the religion's message?
- Question: What has to prevail in religion — reason, or the sentiment of the heart? How can we identify a true religion?
- Question: What is your opinion of those religious sects which fight with other sects in the Name of God?
Part IV — Christ and Christianity
- Christ and Christianity
- Question: Do you recognise Jesus Christ as a prophet, as the Son of God or as a friend of mankind, historically engaged in raising its social and spiritual level?
- Question: In the New Testament Jesus says, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." Here we see faith in tradition; the Gospel was told to us, and we believe in it. But then we are called upon to believe in something higher: that we can actually experience God. Everyone has to achieve this within himself in his own way. Do you believe in this individual approach to God?
- Question: What is the path of the heart? Is it love, peace, devotion, sentiment, meditation and religious practice? What more?
- Question: Which is the most beautiful prayer: the prayer of praise and beseeching, where man sees God as omnipotent, or the prayer of acceptance — "Thy Will be done"?
- Question: We are supposed to become like God. "You shall be like God," the Bible says. And the New Testament states, "Be perfect like your Father in Heaven." You have also written, "The Supreme will be satisfied with me only when I become like Him, another God, because He wants me to become His companion, not His slave." How much of a metaphor are these sayings, and how far can they be taken word for word?
- Question: What does the Pope represent to you personally? You have met with Pope Paul VI. Did you have any significant inner experiences? What did you talk about?
- Question: Please express your views of the Catholic Church as an institution as well as your views of its dogmas and moral laws, its fight for the freedom of mankind and its work for the growth of mankind.
- Question: What does sin mean to you? How can man liberate himself from sin? Does your spiritual philosophy incorporate the Christian concept of redemption?
- Question: Are we ourselves meditating in the heart, or is God meditating through us? Are we like a vessel that God fills with His Consciousness and Knowledge, which then becomes ours? Does this bring us to union with God? Christian mystics describe an 'empty' state that God can fill with His Love, making His Home in our consciousness. Is this similar to what you are saying?
