This morning we had an interfaith prayer service at Unity Church in Dallas, and am pleased to share my presentation:

Greetings is the oldest form of initiating a conversation when two people meet, it is an acknowledgment of the existence of the other. From a Simple “Hi”  to “Hamazor Hama Ashobed”- meaning I am fine and hope you are too. The essence of greetings is “ I CARE” and this statement is flavored by religions, traditions and cultures - all mean goodness, pure goodness.

Allow me to greet you in the traditional greetings of different faiths

“ Alla Abho” -  meaning God is Glorious, that is a Baha'i Greeting –

God Bless “ Generalized Christian Greetings”

Namaste “ the go(o)d in me invokes the go(o)d in you”

Salaam Alaikum “ let you be peaceful and safe

Jai Jinendra, Shalom Alechum, Sat Sri Akaal and Hamazor Hama Asho Bed, the Zoroastrian greeting. All meaning "I Care about you and your well being" - isn't it beautiful?

I hope one day we could free ourselves from all the chains that Jail us,  and truly achieve the mukti to use these greetings as synonyms. It feels so good to be free, try it, you will not give it up.

• Have you ever felt the serenity, peace and joy linger in you all day when you help some one that morning?
• Have you ever felt the pain and suffering of others without regard to their faith, race, culture, ethnicity or any other uniqueness?

When you get to that point ‘with malice towards none’, the boundlessness in you and the sense of alignment you feel with the almighty is incredible. It is indeed liberating, it is true freedom, it is worth having it. This is what Jesus may have meant when he said “follow me” and Krishna “surrender to me” and Allah “submit to my will” and you will find the same essence in all spiritual traditions. When you follow, surrender and submit, you have acquired the qualities of God, you have become like him (her/it) all loving, all caring which removes the “you” and “me” barriers. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to the Universe, that’s the salvation Jesus had promised us, Krishna had guaranteed us, Ahura Mazda will supervise it and Allah will deliver it to us.

Pluralism is an attitude of accepting and respecting every beautiful way people have come to worship the divine, including but not limited to the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other systems of belief. The moment you believe yours is the only way, the ego takes over and kills the spirituality and the piety in you. Good riddance of ego for ones peace and tranquility is the summation of all religions.” Arrogance and Ego is the mother of all evil.

Prayer:
 

Dear God, help us keep the purity of our hearts, and help us achieve humility, help us learn to over come our prejudices, our anger and our jealousies, help us over come our ignorance about others of those that You have created.

 Dear God, help us believe that you treat all of us kindly and without discrimination. 

Dear God, help us not to think less of anyone that you have created.

Dear God, help us not to undermine the divinity of other ways of worshipping you. 

Dear God, help us recognize that arrogance and ignorance are the root cause of all evil and keep us away from them.

Dear God, help us to know that remembrance of you is the highest goal that humankind can achieve. 

Dear God, help us respect everyone's way of worshipping and honoring you, help us learn to hold individuals accountable for their wrongs and not their parents, their community or their religion, especially when they did not condone the wrongdoing.

Dear God, help us see that our salvation, our peace of mind, our nirvana, our moksha, our mukti,  our freedom and joining your kingdom, is directly dependent on living a life of following, submitting and surrendering to you and respecting everything that you have created.

Dear God, help us believe in the supremacy of you and the oneness of the family of humankind.

 Dear God, The world is a better place today because of spirituality.

All your religions are on the same side; that of goodness for humankind.

Dear God, we thank you for blessing us with so many way to worship you. 

Dear God, thank you for allowing us to reach this season, for sustaining us, and for bringing us together this evening for this event.

Dear God, help us remove the arrogance and the ignorance that, my faith is the only way to worship you.

Dear God, takes us from ignorance to enlightenment, from darkness to light.