Founders Of Religions

"The sun and moon, O Lord, are Thy lamps; the firmament Thy salver; the orbs of the stars the pearls encased in it. The perfume of the sandal is Thine incense, the wind is Thy fan, all the forests are Thy flowers, O Lord of light. What worship is this, O Thou destroyer of birth ? Unbeaten strains of ecstasy are the trumpets of Thy worship. Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form; Thou hast a thousand stainless feet and yet not one foot; Thou hast a thousand organs of smell and yet not one organ. I am fascinated by this play of 'l hine. The light which is in everything is Chine, O Lord of light. From its brilliancy everything is illuminated; By the Guru's teaching the light becometh manifest. What pleaseth Thee is the real worship. O God, my mind is fascinated with Thy lotus feet as the bumble-bee with the flower; night and day I thirst for them. Give the water of Thy favour to the Sarang (bird) Nanak, so that he may dwell in Thy Name."

"The impurity of the mind is greed, and the impurity of the tongue is falsehood. The impurity of the eyes is to gaze upon the beauty of another man's wife, and his wealth. The impurity of the ears is to listen to the slander of others. O Nanak, the mortal's soul goes, bound and gagged to the city of Death. All impurity comes from doubt and attachment to duality. Birth and death are subject to the Command of the Lord's Will; through His Will we come and go."

"They who wore beautiful tresses and the partings of whose hair were dyed with vermillion Have their locks now shorn with scissors, And dust is now thrown upon their heads. ….Eating coconuts and dates they sported on their couches, But now chains are on their necks and broken are their String of pearls. The wealth and beauty which afforded them pleasure have now become their bane. The order was given to Soldiers to take and dishonour them."

"Guru Nanak was also an eye-witness to the treatment meted out te the people by Babur when he invaded India in 1521. Nanak was at Sayyidpur, now called Eminabad, 80 kilometres from Lahore, in the Gujranwala District Babur ordered a general massacre of the people and thousands of persons were taken prisoners. The barbarous treatment of prisoners, in the camp, particularly of women, broke the tender heart of Nanak In his agony he even took God to task. He said: “Thou, O Creator of all things, Takest to Thyself no blame; Thou hast sent Yama disguised as the great Moghal, Babar. Terrible was the slaughter, Loud were the cries of the lamenters. Did this not awaken pity in Thee, O Lord? Thou art part and parcel of all things equally, O Creator: Thou must feel for all men and all nations. If a strong man attacketh who is equally strong, Where is the grief in this, or whose is the grievance? But when a fierce tiger preys on the helpless cattle, The Herdsman must answer for it.” (306-7)"

"The one Lord who created the world is the Lord of all. Fortunate is their advent into the world, whose hearts remain attached to God's service. O foolish man, why hast thou forgotten Him? When thou adjustest thine account, my friend, thou shalt be deemed educated. The Primal Being is the Giver; He alone is true. No account shall be due by the pious man who understandeth by means of these letters."

"Of a woman are we conceived, Of a woman are we born, To a woman are we betrothed and married, It is a woman who keeps the race going, Another companion is sought when the life-partner dies, Through a woman are established social ties. Why should we consider woman cursed and condemned, When from woman are born leaders and rulers. From woman alone is born a woman, Without woman there can be no human birth. Without woman, O Nanak, only the True One exists. Be it man or be it woman, Only those who sing His glory Are blessed and radiant with His Beauty, In His Presence and with His grace They appear with a radiant face."

"Nanak's religion consisted in the love of God, love of man and love of godly living. His religion was above the limits of caste, creed and country. He gave his love to all, Hindus, Muslims, Indians and foreigners alike. His religion was a people's movement based on modern conceptions of secularism and socialism, a common brotherhood of all human beings. Like Rousseau, Nanak felt 250 years earlier that it was the common people who made up the human race. They had always toiled and tussled for princes, priests and politicians. What did not concern the common people was hardly worth considering. Nanak's work to begin with assumed the form of an agrarian movement. His teachings were purely in Punjabi language mostly spoken by cultivators. He appealed to the downtrodden and the oppressed peasants and petty traders as they were ground down between the two mill stones of Government tyranny and the new Muslims' brutality. Nanak's faith was simple and sublime. It was the life lived. His religion was not a system of philosophy like Hinduism. It was a discipline, a way of life, a force, which connected one Sikh with another as well as with the Guru."

"Shri Babaji shows us the practical side of the teachings of great saints like Guru Nanak, who did not preach a particular religion or cult. He gave teachings of spiritual perfection, valid for all mankind. To follow these teachings is to realize good for all humanity and the unity of all humanity and the unity of the individual soul with the universal Soul."

"Guru Nanak 'called himself a Hindu. According to Janamsâkhî, he wore a sacred thread (yajñopavît) and had a lock of hair (chotî) on his head. After him till the fifth Guru, each had his sacred thread ceremony performed, were married according to Vedic rites, used to apply tilak and used to hear tales from Vedas and Puranas.'"

"Praise Him whose limit cannot be found. They who practise truth and perform service shall obtain their reward. He who knoweth divine knowledge is the learned pandit. He who knoweth the one God in all creatures would never say 'I exist by myself '. When the hair groweth white, it shineth without soap. King Death's hunters follow him who is bound by the chain of mammon. The Creator, Lord of the world, giveth sustenance to His slaves. All the world is bound in His bonds; no other authority prevaileth. He who hath renounced the singing of God's word, is arrogant in his language. He who fashioned vessels made kilns in which He put them and burnt them. The servant who performeth the Guru's work, who remaineth obedient to His commands, Who deemeth bad and good as the same, shall in this way be absorbed in Him. He who made the four Veds, the four mines, and the four ages Hath been in every age a Jogi, a worldly man, or a learned pandit."

"You shall everywhere mind the book of the Granth-Sahib as your Guru; whatever you shall ask it will show you."

"A good degree of the anger of the high-status Corinthians with Paul seems to have come from his refusal of patronage. ... To accept patronage would place an obstacle in the way of the gospel of free grace, for it would mean he was not offering it free of charge. ... Paul wanted to be free to identify with people up and down the social ladder, and working with his hands was one way to identify with those considered by the upper echelon of society to be "less honorable" or "weak.""

"No sooner had Jesus knocked over the dragon of superstition than Paul boldly set it on its legs again in the name of Jesus."

"Sex and marriage occupied far more prominent places in St. Paul's writings than they did in the gospels, and Paul became far and away the most influential authority in shaping early Christian treatments of these issues. Paul treated sexual behavior as one of the major sources of sin. Indeed, he thought that illicit sex was as serious a moral offense as murder. In his writings about sex, Paul developed an implicit theory of sexual sin that distinguished four types of offenders: prostitutes, adulterers, what he called "the softies" (1 Corinthians 6:10), that is people who used sex primarily as a source of pleasure, and men (but perhaps not women, since he did not mention them) who had sex with one another. Marriage in Paul's view, was good, but considerably less good than virginity, for a Christian. He taught that marital sex joined husband and wife together both physically and spiritually. It made them two in one flesh, just as a Christian's spiritual union with Jesus joined two persons in a single spirit. Precisely because martial sex was tinged with the sacred, any type of extramarital sex in Paul's view was worthy of damnation."

"Paul was undeniably sincere. He believed that in reinterpreting the Christian faith so as to make it acceptable to the Romans he was doing that faith a service. His make-up was imperial rather than democratic. Both by birth and training he was unfitted to enter into the working-class consciousness of Galileans. He was in culture a Hellenist, in religion a Pharisee, in citizenship a Roman. From the first strain, Hellenism, he received a bias in the direction of philosophy rather than economics; from the second, his Pharisaism, he received a bias toward aloofness, otherworldliness; and from the third, his Romanism, he received a bias toward political acquiescence and the preservation of the status quo."

"Saint Leo the Great (like other Fathers of the Church) goes so far as to call the two holy Apostles, with a wonderful image, the eyes of the mystical body, of which Christ is the head (Serm. LXXXII, chap. 7 – Migne, P. L., t. 54, col. 427). Bright and splendid eyes, paternal and merciful eyes, kind and watchful eyes, eyes that follow our spiritual journey, eyes that look down to encourage and animate, and up to intercede and implore grace for those who are still weary from the dangerous and harsh storm of life."

"Not only did this apostle refuse to recognize the religious differences between the parties of Peter, Apollos, Paul, and Christ, but — what is more important — he showed his converts that in Christ there can be neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor free, and that with God there is no respect of persons. Recognizing the diversity of gifts he resisted the ever-present tendency to find in diversity the excuse of division."

"Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before [the Lord], at peace. And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures. Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

"It was the test of loyal citizenship among the Romans to seek out in every part of the world that which was most rare and valued, and bring it back to Rome as a gift. Thus her sons went forth and returned laden with richest trophies to lay at her feet. They brought to her pearls from India, gold chariots from Babylon, elephants from interior Africa, high-breasted virgins from the Greek isles, Phidian marbles from Athens. Paul also would be a bringer of gifts to the Rome that had honored him and his fathers with the high honor of citizenship. And the gift he would bring and lay at her feet would be the richest of them all—a religion."

"Not disobedient to the heavenly vision, he was standing to this day to the call of God everywhere, which drew on him the hatred of the Jews, yet was it in full accord with what Moses and the prophets said should be. ... Arrived at the great city [Rome] Paul was suffered to abide by himself with the soldier that guarded him, and after three days called together the chief of the Jews, and explained the strange fact that for the hope of Israel he was a prisoner through Jewish accusation."

"The ninth chapter [of Acts] shows us the new step of sovereign grace in the conversion of Saul to be the witness of an ascended Christ, Who owns the saints as part of Himself, and calls the persecutor to be His chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, the deepest in truth, the largest in heart, the most abundant in labour of all the apostles. No wonder the gospel of Christ's glory marked him, who first saw and heard the Lord thus; yet a simple disciple baptised him who forthwith, in the synagogues, preached Jesus as the Son of God."

"A split, the first and probably the most important of many schisms in Christianity, occurred between Jesus' disciples Peter and Paul. Paul, whose original name was Saul, and Peter, who was originally named Simon, were both Jewish. But Paul, unlike Peter, was not one of Jesus' entourage and never knew him. While Peter was a fisherman in Galilee, Paul was a religious scholar from Asia Minor. And yet it was Peter, the fisherman, who wanted the followers of Jesus to remain Jewish and apply Jesus' teaching to the perfection of Judaism. Paul, the Hebraic scholar, wanted to open up Christianity to the world, pursuing converts wherever they were found, a most un-Jewish approach. Under Paul's influence the Christians moved further away from the body of Judaism, further away from everyone. They became an odd and distinct cult on the outer margins of society, uncompromisingly dedicated to pacifism. Even the pious and spartan Jewish sect known as the Essenes did not entirely denounce weapons."

"For St. Paul, the diversity of creation is less important than the unity of the creator. For me, it is the other way round. I do not know or particularly care whether the same God is working all in all. I care deeply for the diversity of his working."

"Now as Paul was saying these things in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice: “You are going out of your mind, Paul! Great learning is driving you out of your mind!"

"Commenting on Saint Paul's words, “the Spirit [also] helpeth our infirmity...” [Rom 8:26], the great Carmelitan theologian Thomas of Jesus writes: “These words clearly refer to the particular motion or aid of the Holy Spirit, and point to the need we have of it. ... It is the gifts of the Holy Spirit which make the soul promptly docile, entirely free, capable of overcoming difficulties, and wholly occupied with God in prayer and contemplation. This effect can not be produced even by the infused virtue of religion, nor by the theological virtues by themselves." This is as much to say that the life of perfection is an inspired life, and therefore a life which—perhaps in secret—infused contemplation nourishes and sustains."

"To the Carpenter, with his splendid worldliness, the premier qualification for character was self-respect, and the alertness and mastery of environment which go with self-respect. But to Paul the primate virtue is submissiveness—"the powers that be!" He sought to cure the seditiousness of the working class by drawing off their gaze to a crown of righteousness reserved in heaven for them—a gaseous felicity beyond the stars."

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

"Though women have always been close to words, they have often been barred from speaking: Saint Paul, in the Holy Scriptures, ordered women to be silent in church, thus censuring their means of public expression...Yet women have continued speaking their minds, often through the sacred language of poetry, where there is an abundance of intuition and the possibility of reclaiming power through language."

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do."

"Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching."

"Of whom the world was not worthy [...]"

"All of Paul's preaching, all of his theology, is characterised by the process of the collapse of a certain sacred structure, and by the slow discovery of the perspective given by a new focus on Yahweh, the Pauline equivalent of Elijah's still, small voice."

"Who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth."

"Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways."

"And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly."

"Even though I might have trust in flesh; if any other thinks to trust in flesh, I more; in circumcision, the eighth day, of the race of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to Law, a Pharisee;"

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

"For the desire of money is the root of all evils; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows."

"After Jesus had departed, the disciples scattered through the different parts of Israel and of the world, and the truth, hated of Satan, was persecuted, as it always is, by falsehood. For certain evil men, pretending to be disciples, preached that Jesus died and rose not again. Others preached that he really died, but rose again. Others preached, and yet preach, that Jesus is the Son of God, among whom is Paul deceived. But we - as much as I have written - we preach to those that fear God, that they may be saved in the last day of God's Judgment. Amen."

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

"The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian."

"For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

"And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age; in my race being much more a zealot of the ancestral traditions of my fathers. But when God was pleased, He having separated me from my mother’s womb, and having called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood,"

"At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality."

"I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

"So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself."

"Now I make known unto you brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to the [child] untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Whether then [it be] I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Yea, we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins."

"Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect."