All Masters who came said the same thing, “God is Light and we are all children of Light.” The same Light enlivens all creation. Just as bulbs having electric connection give light when the switch is pressed, the same way the Power of God enlivens all creation. When that Power withdraws from the body we have to leave this body. So you see we are children of Light, which is one and not two, the one Power that is our source and sustenance, called God, who is Light. Kabir has explained why we cannot see God. He says, “So long as we are identified with the Indriyas, the outgoing sense-faculties, we cannot see Him. When we rise above them, only then we can see God.” All Masters say the same thing.

Kabir further says in the same context, “I saw the all-pervading Light in me and in all
creation and all my doubts were dispelled”. Lord Krishna says the same thing in the
Gita, “He who sees me in all and all in me, he is dear to me”. So you see that we are all
off-springs of the same Light. All are equal, no high, no low. All are born the same way.
Is there any doubt about it? Where then is duality?

When a baby is born we cannot
recognize whether it is a Hindu or a Moslem. Let us take the example of foundling
homes where abandoned children are sent. When a child is received there, it carries no
distinguishing marks to show whether it is a Hindu or a Moslem child. It is a man, as
God made it. This is a fact and needs no reasoning.

So we are all one, no proof is required for that. Only we do not perceive Him in the
present state of close identification with body and outgoing faculties, and that is why
there is duality. We have made considerable progress, both physically and mentally. We
have a body and we have a mind but we are a conscious entity, the soul. With all our
physical and intellectual advancement we are unhappy. Because we do not know our
real self, that we are children of Light. Great is man.

The Supreme Being once wished, “I am one, let me be many”, and with one thought
wave of His the whole creation came into existence. As Guru Nanak says, “There was
one Source Eternal from which flowed countless millions of streams”. He is all Light
and we are children of that Light. When He can create countless millions of planets by
mere wish - a single thought wave - we, who are conscious entities and of the same
essence as that of God, can we not - by withdrawing our soul current from all outside
and concentrating within - create even a city? Masters who came from time to time, all
proclaimed, “Oh man, you are attached to outer labels, when the source of all joy and
happiness is within you. God, the Supreme Father, is in you. Father and son, both live in
the same house - the man-body - but you, the son of the Almighty, through
identification with the outgoing faculties, wander outside. Rise above the bodyconsciousness.”

As I said before, the Masters, one and all, laid stress on unity of man. For that, one
has to unravel this body and know oneself. This was the sole purpose of the labels of the
various formations that we carry on our bodies. We forgot that purpose and got attached
to the outer labels. The same light burns in the temples, in mosques and in churches.
Which light is good and which is bad? Why these conflicts and fights? We revere the
temples, the mosques and the churches, but fight each other. This is all due to the lack
of right understanding. We are already one, no proof is required for that. But we have
forgotten that unity. If you want to have a firsthand experience of that, go to a person
who has realized that unity within himself. He will put you on the way up and give you
a practical demonstration of it: that we are one, the children of light. He will open your
inner eye, and you will see that light within you.

What is knowledge? Gurbani, the Holy Scripture of the Sikhs, says, “By contacting
Naam, the God-into-Expression-Power within, one sees the Light of million suns.” That
Light is within you. All Masters say, “God is Light.” Kabir says, “Formerly, I had some
doubt about it, but when I saw that Light in all, my doubts were dispelled.” Why then
fight each other? If you strike two stones of different colours against each other, they
give the same spark which has the colour of fire. You may have a cow of any colour,
black, brown or red, the colour of the milk is the same - white. We may have labels and
badges of any shape and colour - we are all children of Light. But we have forgotten
ourselves. Masters come to awaken us that we are all one. We have to realize that unity.
We are man first; labels came afterwards when we became Hindus, Moslems,
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, and further we had labels of East and West and
became devotees of countries and nations. Unless we rise above these labels, we cannot
realize God.

During my third world tour I was asked in a TV interview, “How can we cement
unity?” I said, “When people will rise above ‘isms’ and the labels that they are carrying
and kings and presidents rise above countries.” Labels only indicate which school one
has joined for Self-knowledge and God-knowledge. Masters never gave any labels;
these came when, after their demise, social bodies were formed to keep their teaching
alive so that more people may benefit from them. They were formed with a noble
purpose, but the same good old custom corrupts itself, and with the passage of time
there was stagnation in the social bodies followed by deterioration. Masters come from
time to time to revive the same age-old teaching. They give the call, “Brothers, wake
up! You have forgotten yourself. How long will you remain asleep?” They see the
reality within and speak from that level; therefore, what they say, is hundred percent
true.
The outer preaching is all true, but without first-hand experience there is no
conviction. Remain in the formation to which you belong and keep your forms and
formalities. These are just to show that one should realize the purpose for which one has
joined a particular formation named after the Master one professes to follow. It is a
blessing to remain in a formation, otherwise there would be corruption; but while
remaining in a formation, one should keep away from parochialism and narrowmindedness
which in turn, lead to deception and delusion.

The basic purpose of this World Conference is to bring home to all the fact that we
are already one, but we have forgotten that. This is the basic teaching of all Masters and
the formations set up to keep alive their teachings. The highest knowledge is to realize
the unity which is innate in us. The various places of worship – dome-shaped temples,
made after the head, nose-shaped churches, forehead-shaped mosques and others - are
all modelled on the man-body, the true temple of God. They are just to remind all those
whose inner eye is not opened and who do not see the Reality, that such Light shines
within you and such Sound reverberates in each one of you. Those who realise it - the
twin-principle of Light and Sound, the manifestation of God-into-Expression-Power -
for them body is the true temple of God. And one can realise it at the feet of a
competent Master who has realised Him in the man-body.

This is what the Masters give us. They give us direct first-hand contact with Reality.
They come to make people see who do not see, and they who see outside may be blind.
Those who only see the outer physical phenomena are all blind from their point of view.
Don’t you feel it? If your mind were to be still for just a moment and all thoughts
nullified, you would feel this oppressive blindness. Ramakrishna Paramhansa once cited
the example of a tree with many birds sitting on its branches. If someone were to clap
his hands, the birds would all fly away. We have the Samskaras or impressions of
countless incarnations filling the reservoir of our mind. A few moments ago some
Sadhus were clapping hands on the stage. Let there be clapping of hands to nullify all
thoughts except this that we are all one. Is there any doubt about it in anyone’s mind? If
there is, let him seek a Master who has realized unity within Him. He will open your
inner vision and make you see, and that will dispel all doubts.
Let us all pray to God: Oh Lord, oh God Almighty, whoever You are, called by
different names! It is only through Your Grace that we can wake up from the deep
slumber of ages.

Kabir says, ”Wake up, oh sleepy head, wake up! It is no time to sleep.” This is the
lesson that is repeated before you. It is the message for the whole world and a panacea
for all our ills today. They asked me in the West during an interview, “How can we
evade the disaster of atomic war?” I told them, “When kings and presidents would rise
above countries.” They asked me if I would meet their president. I told them, “Well, this
is my conviction. And surely I would like to meet your president.” And I told them that
they should not only tend their own garden, but help others to keep gardens in full
bloom. It is a matter of right understanding.

Right understanding would lead to right thoughts and right thoughts would result in
right words and right actions. Remain in your own formations, but rise above bodyconsciousness,
rise into universalism and leap into the beyond, and know you are
already one. These three things have been put before you with one purpose - there is no
intention to break any existing formation or to build a new one. Masters do not interfere
with social bodies. “They come not to destroy but to fulfil.” The Masters after whom the
various formations have been set up, are all one. Their teaching is one and the same. As
I said this morning, let us pray to God to awaken us. Who can awaken a man from
sleep? God or God manifested in man, in other words, a God-man.

I have all love and regard for all of you who have come from India or from far-off
places. The teaching of all Masters who came in East or West is the same. I have love
and regard in my heart for all Masters who came, those here present now and those who
may come in future. They are sent by God from time to time to awaken mankind from
the slumber of parochialism and narrow-mindedness. Guru Nanak came in this context
and recently Swami Vivekananda. When he returned to India from his foreign tours, he
raised both hands and said, “Oh Hindus, oh Muslims, you are my own.” So what I say is
nothing new. I would request all of you to spread it, all that you have heard here,
wherever you go. Proclaim it from the house-tops that there may be peace and
happiness on earth. So I pray to God and you pray with me that He grants us His special
grace and provides for us to have first-hand experience of Reality. The ideal before us
is: That we are all one!

by Sant Kirpal Singh
World Conference on Unity of Man, 1974, Delhi, India