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Do not think that you possess only negative qualities. You are a human being, and all creatures are fundamentally the same. All are the light of God; all possess the feeling of love. No one desires to be unhappy. Observe a little ant, active day and night in its search for happiness, running here and there. We, too, move towards where we feel happiness. All beings, all creatures, are searching for happiness. The distinction between other creatures and the human lies in intellect. The human possesses a most powerful tool: the intellect. Human intellect requires education; it can be educated endlessly. Through that intellect, we know ourselves as a higher being, and therefore we understand that you are not a sinner. You committed no sin, and if you did, you did it out of ignorance. That is not your mistake; it is God's mistake. Why did He give us ignorance? I am always complaining to Him. When I saw Him, I said, "He said, 'I've seen it; people have seen it.'" I said, "Not people, God." He said, "What did you say to me?" I said, "Yes. Lord, it is your mistake." What do you think? I said, "Why did you give them ignorance? Give knowledge, and there will be no sin." God said, "You are right. That is why I sent you there." It was in 1978, I think, in Slovakia; people received a mantra. One man, a very deep believer—a Catholic—received a blessing and a mantra the next morning. This is a real story; it is not a joke. From four o'clock in the morning, he was waiting in front of my hotel door. The security people came, and he explained to them, "I am doing no harm; inside my master is sleeping. I have only one question to ask him, but I do not want to disturb him. When he comes out of the hotel room, I will ask him." In the morning when I came out, he greeted me nicely. He could not speak English, so there was a translator. He said, "I could not sleep the whole night, Master." I said, "Why?" "Because I believe in Jesus, and now you are my guru; I respect you. Now what will Jesus say to me? That I am not faithful to him." I said, "Yes, that is a very good point, but do not worry. Jesus is my colleague; I have now the office hour, so it is okay." He said, "Really?" What I do is in favor of Jesus; we believe in all God's incarnations. He went peacefully. So, you know, sometimes we think we are sinners and that God will punish us. This is a human weakness. In one way it is good: it prevents humans from doing foolish things; at least they have fear of doing bad things. But God is not like that. We are the most fortunate ones to be born as humans. God is most gracious to us; He gave us a beautiful human life. A human is created as a protector, not as a destroyer. To love and protect—that is our duty, and that is the purpose of human life. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. Therefore, do not think that we have only negative qualities. However, our negative qualities are sometimes visible, while good qualities are not so visible. When we plant a tree, a lot of weeds grow around it, though we do not want them. Similarly, it is very difficult to preserve one good quality. But do not worry; we make mistakes because we do not know. That is why Lord Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He prayed for those soldiers who were crucifying him; he prayed for them, not for that reason, but because they are suffering. So, if we do something wrong, God will not take notice. I always give a very beautiful example: we are in the lap of God. Let us say God is a mother, and we are in her lap. She is holding us and giving us milk, and we, little children only a few months old, are kicking the mother's face with our little legs on her chin and here and there. The mother is not angry that you kick with your feet; she is happy and gives milk to you. That is it. So, God loves you as you are. There was a great saint in Turkey, in a city called Konya, Mevlānā; his name was Mevlā, I think, and he was a Sufi saint. He said, "Come to me as you are; I welcome you as you are. Do not think that you are holy or a sinner, or bad or good, or learned or not learned." Where there is love, there is no rejection. So, come as you are. Let us go to God with a pure heart as it is. That will create world peace, that will create sustainable development, that will unite humans again. Otherwise, the present situation in the world is very critical. There are differences of religion, cultures, nationality, color, and caste: "I am a learned one; I am high society; these are uneducated people." You know how much problem we have? Some people say, "Oh, we are the learned ones," and these people who are sitting and hear them—you know, for many people, spiritual people are a burden. Yesterday someone told me, an Indian, they conducted research: people who have more money and what they call high society do not care about God. Farmers and people who are poorer pray to God. I said yes. That is why Jesus said, "Do not collect. Do not carry with you. Simple life and higher thinking." So people told me, "Swāmījī, are you preaching the Bible?" I said yes, because that is your holy ground, Guru Bhakya. We Hindus do not make a difference between the Bible and the Rāmāyaṇa or the Gītā. We Hindus do not make a difference between the Qur'ān and the Bible. That is the greatness of Hinduism, to respect and adore all holy books of the world and all holy incarnations. And that is the path to unity. So, knowledge, knower, and object. Between object and knower, the target and yourself, there should exist nothing. Only that love. The willpower, that knowledge. We are standing down at a mountain, and on top there is a hut. While thinking, we are already there. But still we have not realized it. Step by step, slowly. When you are there, then the distance disappears. There is no distance. There is only you, feeling very well present there. So every one of us has our aim, and I bless you that you will realize your aim. You will get that love. But you have to become one with that. If there are some obstacles, then you cannot. So the holy Sufi saint said, "Come to me as you are." A small child comes to its mother; it does not matter how it is. Clean or dirty, crying or smiling, kicking mother and father with its legs, and the parents are more happy and love them. So God will never punish us. God will never punish us. God will love us always, as He is loving. Who is punishing us is our own stupidity. That is it. So we should be careful. Recording location: Czech Republic, Prague, Weekend seminar