Dear lovers of God, lovers of the teacher, spiritual brothers, sisters and everyone,
repeatedly, Victory to God with love.
I know that today you all have gathered here for my birthday celebration. I am a
renunciate. I have renounced the world and have accepted renunciation in order to free
myself from the bondage of birth. If birth is bondage, then what is the importance of a
birthday celebration? Nothing! But this is my viewpoint, not yours; I am not celebrating this
occasion, it is you who are celebrating. I am your invited, loving guest. The scriptures of
the Way of Eternal Ethical Action [the Way of Righteousness, the Way of Religion] freely
praise the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of the incarnations of God and
teachers of truth. The scriptures have ordered that they be celebrated, and this is correct.
The worship of the truth teacher is the worship of God. The difference between the teacher
and God is in name and physical appearance only. Their soul is one. It is also correct to
say that the truth teacher is the physical body and God is the soul. The worship of the
teacher is not only the worship of an individual, it is the worship of virtue and good
character. It is paying homage to virtuous conduct, and it is respect for knowledge. Those
families, societies or nations who cannot worship virtue will never prosper. Worship of
virtue is the only sure way to progress. Worship of virtue must be spontaneous and loving.
There are two aspects of celebration: external and internal. The external aspect is food.
The internal aspect is the discussion of the principles of spiritual books, the study of the
holy life of the teacher, which is like drinking nectar, repeated prayer [repetition of a sacred
text, of a name of God], devotional chanting, chanting of repeated prayer, and meditation