The Essence of All Religions   

Thus said Banda:
I want thee to awaken me.
Disciple I will ever be;
With thy words I do comply-
But there’s one thing I can’t deny:
I want to hear thee say direct
That thy path is for the elect.
I want the purest spiritual teaching,
Not the taste that’s shown in preaching.
Please now convince me of its stature:
I’ll follow it in grateful rapture.

Thus spoke Guru Gobind:
You place me in a delicate bind,
For know you, paths of any kind
Are fine if they to God do lead;
It matters not which name they heed.
The path I love’s universal in bearing;
For non-essentials, I have no caring.
Whate’er the mode one uses to start,
The path he keeps is one of the heart.
The variety of paths and creeds makes confusion
That only increases the people’s delusion.

Each sect claiming it’s truest and best
And putting itself above all the rest.
This nullifies their purpose for being.
Instead of the One, it’s difference they’re seeing.
The inherent truth that I always proclaim
Is that all paths to God are essentially same.
The variety we note on the surface is culture’s,
Yet critics swoop down upon it like vultures,
Picking at pieces of a religion’s body,
Condemning any aspect unique as shoddy-
As if the spirit of that faith could be affected
By the oddness or error in style they’d detected.

It matters not what the mode or the form
A religion may carry to comply to the norm
Of the era and culture in which it began.
And it matters not what the sect or the clan
One has when he’s born-we all have the right
To follow the path that leads us to Light.
Whatever good story or trapping inspires us
Can be the first step in a path that requires us
To finally let go of all such non-essentials.
When we look to the core of a system’s potentials,
We find hidden deep in its major teachings
Lessons more lofty and subtle than preachings.
There, beyond all of the surface conditions,
Past levels of rivalry, and superstitions,
Shines the one single core of spiritual verity
That is found by all seekers who look with sincerity
For the true inner meaning their faith does convey,
Despite any contrasts outer signs might portray.
When one reaches the heart of the path that he claims,
It is clear that no meaningful difference remains
Between his outlook and that of another
Whose method may differ from that of his brother.
There is only one purpose for the spiritual quest;
There is only one outcome: to be fully blest.

Why people want to fight over ritual
Has nothing to do with anything spiritual.
It is an unrighteous abomination
To think of a squabble as a laudation.
Could God or Reality really be pleased
By bickering minds with hatred diseased?
All paths I know of reach one thing for certain:
A negative mind that’s upset draws a curtain
Heavily hanging ‘tween the Divine and the person
Who with disturbed thoughts his condition does worsen.
The Divine can be known if the mind is composed,
But emotion-tossed minds are directly opposed
To the spiritual purposes of any seeker.
So it’s clear that one’s spiritual zeal becomes weaker
By allowing the mind to become so concerned
Over issues that from our mere custom are learned.
Our diverse ideas add texture to life;
They’re not to be used to create any strife,
And especially not by those ones who seek Truth.
That they would do something so low and uncouth
Is ample to banish them from their attainment
And strip them of whatever spiritual raiment
They had up to then been able to acquire
By their sincere efforts and lofty desire.

Now back to the question you did previously pose:
Is my path superior-is it highest of those
By which men aspire to divinely progress?
With no shade of doubt, I can answer you-yes!
For the path that I follow is the one beyond time,
The essence of all, beyond era and clime.
It’s the internal core of all paths that exist,
And its draw is so strong that no one can resist

But to search for it in every breath that he takes.
Even if the spiritual quest he forsakes,
He looks for its beauty in sensory delights;
He sees hints of its glory in success’s heights.
The compelling charm glowing forth from the sage
Is proof that another can reach to that stage,
To that highest peak to which he ascends
And upon which each of his wonders depends.
My path is the real essence found in all others,
Its beauty their density frequently smothers.
Yet those who dive into the depths always find it;
However they start, they eventu’lly unwind it.

All the great sages have taught this same way,
But distortions of others made them seem to say
Something different, when spoken by their rigid preachers,
Whose dogma did not come from their spiritual teachers.
Religions are man-made and subject to errors,
But spiritual paths are taught by Truth-bearers.
All the Sikh gurus have taught this is true,
And the Bhagavad Gita supports it too.
The saying of Jesus and Buddha and Sri Shankaracharya
Are expressed in the Koran, the Granth, and Kabala.
So don’t start comparing and condemning the ways
That your brothers use to make sense of their days.
Rejoice they can find one to which they are suited,
And follow the one that in your heart is rooted.