All praise be to Thee, O my God! Thou behold my helplessness and poverty, and bear witness unto my woes and trials. How long wilt Thou abandon me among Thy servants? Suffer me to ascend into Thy presence. The power of Thy might bears me witness! …I beseech Thee, O Thou Who art my Companion in my lowliness, to rain down upon Thy loved ones from the clouds of Thy mercy that which will cause them to be satisfied with Thy pleasure, and will enable them to turn unto Thee and to be detached from all else except Thee. …From everlasting Thou hast been clothed with transcendent greatness and power, with unspeakable majesty and glory. There is no God beside Thee, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Ever-Forgiving.

The Bahá’i Faith rests on three core principles: unity of God, unity of religion, and unity of humankind. Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh. "Magnified be Thy name, O Lord my God! I know not what the water is with which Thou hast created me, or what the fire Thou hast kindled within me, or the clay by which Thou hast kneaded me. The restlessness of every sea hath been stilled, but not the restlessness of this Ocean which moves at the bidding of the winds of Thy will. The flame of every fire hath been extinguished except the Flame which the hands of Thine omnipotence have kindled, and whose radiance Thou hast, by the power of Thy name, shed abroad before all that are in Thy heaven and all that are on Thy earth. As the tribulations deepen, it waxes hotter and hotter. Behold, then, O my God, how Thy Light hath been compassed with the onrushing winds of Thy decree, how the tempests that blow and beat upon it from every side have added to its brightness and increased its splendor. For all this let Thee be praised."

We now continue with our selections from Meister Eckhart’s sermons, which encourage us to find and get closer to God’s essential nature. Just as fire infuses its essence and clearness into dry wood, so has God done with man. He has created human soul and infused His glory into it, and yet in His own essence has remained unchangeable. It is essential to God to give, for His essence is His goodness and His goodness is His love. God brings forth His Son in thee, whether thou likest it or not, whether thou sleepest or wakest; God worketh His own will. Whoso will hear the wisdom of the Father must dwell deep, and abide at home, and be at unity with himself. The man who abides in the will of God wills nothing else than what God is, and what He wills. The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God’s eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. May God and the Eternal Wisdom grant us to remain equally immovable and unalterable with Himself. Amen.

Eckhart von Hochheim, widely known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic who lived in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Today we present selections from the venerated Meister Eckhart’s sermons, through which we will realize how precious it is to find God within us. "I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and presence of God. He is also near things of wood and stone, but they know it not.…For this reason man is happier than the inanimate wood, because he knows and understands how God is near him. His happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase and diminution in his knowledge of this. His happiness does not arise from this that God is near him, and in him, and that he possesses God; but from this, that he knows the nearness of God, and loves Him, and is aware that 'the Kingdom of God is near.'"

Today, we present to you an excerpt from Chapter 13, “Heavenly Tao” from the teachings Chuang Tzu. "The virtue of emperors and kings is to take the Heavens and the Earth as their Lord, to take Tao (the Way) and Te (morals) as their guiding principles, and to take non-action as their norm." "Those above must be without actions in order to use the world. Those below must take actions in order to be used by the world. This is the unchangeable principle." "'The virtue of emperors and kings corresponds with the Heavens and the Earth. 'This is the way to jump on the chariot of the Heavens and the Earth, harness all living things to it, and make use of the joint efforts of everyone." "In the transformations and growth of all things, every bud and feature has its proper form; and in this we have their gradual maturing and decay, the constant flow of transformation and change. Thus, since Heavens and Earth, which are most spirit-like, are distinguished as more honorable and less, and by precedence and sequence, how much more must we look for this in the way of men!

The great enlightened Master Chuang Tzu lived from approximately 369 to 286 BC. He is considered one of the greatest literary and philosophical figures of China. His philosophy is contained in the book bearing his name, Chuang Tzu. His teachings were true to "wu-wei," the Taoist doctrine meaning to refrain from action contrary to nature. Today, we present to you an excerpt from Chapter 13, “Heavenly Tao” from the teachings of Chuang Tzu. "The Way (Tao) of Nature is to continue moving without stopping to accumulate anything, thus all living things flourish…. One who understands clearly the Way of Nature, the Way of Sages, and is perfectly familiar with the virtue of emperors and kings, acts and lets things act spontaneously from themselves. Even when in the dark, they would invariably remain calm."

"The cosmic vision left many permanent lessons. By daily stilling my thoughts, I could win release from the delusive conviction that my body was a mass of flesh and bones, traversing the hard soil of matter. The breath and the restless mind, I saw, were like storms which lashed the ocean of light into waves of material forms - earth, sky, human beings, animals, birds, trees. No perception of the Infinite as One Light could be had except by calming those storms. As often as I silenced the two natural tumults, I beheld the multitudinous waves of creation melt into one lucent sea, even as the waves of the ocean, their tempests subsiding, serenely dissolve into unity." "For months I entered the ecstatic union, comprehending why the Upanishads (Vedic scriptures) say 'God is rasa,' 'the most relishable.'"

Since its first publication in 1944, the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” has inspired countless Truth seekers around the world. In particular, it was through this book, originally written in English, that many Westerners were introduced to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga. The autobiography contains the exceptional life story of the renowned Indian yogi and enlightened Master Paramahansa Yogananda, who was born in 1893. “What one does not trouble to find within will not be discovered by transporting the body hither and yon. As soon as the devotee is willing to go even to the ends of the earth for spiritual enlightenment, his guru appears nearby.” “An oceanic joy broke upon calm endless shores of my soul. The Spirit of God, I realized, is exhaustless Bliss; His body is countless tissues of light.”

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. This is my prayer to thee, my lord – strike, strike at the root of penury in my heart. Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows. Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service. Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles. And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.

The first Nobel Prize winner for Literature from Asia, Rabindranath Tagore, is renowned for introducing new prose and verse forms, plus the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, instead of adopting the usual traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. “Gitanjali” (Song Offerings) contains Tagore’s English prose translations of religious poems from several of his Bengali verse collections, which resulted in him winning the Nobel Prize in 1913. “Ah, my master. …I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts, knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind. I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower, knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inmost shrine of my heart.”

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a master of realistic fiction who wrote the acclaimed novels "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," plus many more. His works and ideas about peace and fulfilment of God's will, greatly influenced 20th-century leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "A Grain as Big as a Hen's Egg" is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy in 1886. In the story, a king was curious about the origin of a very big grain and was seeking the answer to it. And the grandfather answered: "My field was God's earth. Wherever I ploughed, there was my field. Land was free. It was a thing no man called his own. Labor was the only thing men called their own."

If you want peace and love and Heaven within, you should devote your time one or two hours every day, so that you know the Heaven inside. You stay at your house and meditate – enjoy the peace and bliss within yourself. The same as we have to save some time, reserve some time to enjoy the food and enjoy the drink. We must save some time to enjoy the bread and water of life – heavenly bread. So, meditation is just to reserve some time to enjoy God’s blessing. The more we enjoy God’s blessing, the smoother our lives, the more healthy our mentality, the more intelligent we become.

Chapter XXII SPIRITUALITY “A state of spirituality denotes conduct indicative of man’s spiritual nature. To live a spiritual life, then, is to be governed by aspirations, urges, and inclinations originating in the Divine self, and as expressed by the dictates of conscience. It is also the use of these higher powers and faculties of which man is aware. There are, therefore, certain noble virtues which are characterized as being spiritually endowed. Such virtues, if not practiced by all men, are at least known to them. A few of these are truth, justice, modesty, and mercy. These, of course, can be applied to daily life, its labors and its habits. If we accept the viewpoint that the noble virtues are the quintessence of spirituality – as well as that observance of such commandments as the various sacred works and the different religions expound – then a man who is discerned as displaying them is spiritual.”

The Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, also known as the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, is a worldwide cultural, educational, and philosophical organization that is perpetuating the profound and practical teachings of the Rosicrucians. Today, in honor of the birthday of the esteemed Harvey Spencer Lewis, who founded the Rosicrucian Order in 1915, we will present excerpts on “Mastership and Perfection” from the book “The Sanctuary of Self,” written by his son, Ralph M. Lewis. "Mastership is not only the ability to advocate a way or procedure by which something is to be done. It also consists of the personal power of accomplishment. …Mystic mastership or mastery of mysticism is therefore the finding of the God Power within oneself. Its practical application consists of learning the usage, to the fullest extent, of these powers and forces with which the Cosmic has endowed us."

The Venerated Socrates was born in Athens, Greece circa 470 BC. Many people consider him to be the father of Western philosophy. Now, we present a selection of Socrates' dialogue with the young scientist Theaetetus. "I am about to speak of a high argument, in which all things are said to be relative; you cannot rightly call anything by any name, such as great or small, heavy or light, for the great will be small and the heavy light - there is no single thing or quality, but out of motion, and change, and mixture all things are becoming relatively to one another, which "becoming" is by us incorrectly called being, but is really becoming, for nothing ever is, but all things are becoming."

Most of the information about Socrates, His life and His philosophy, was transcribed after His departure by two of His students, Plato and Xenophon. Today we present an excerpt from one of the sophisticated and intriguing dialogues of Socrates with His friend mathematician Theaetetus. The Venerated Master interestingly talks about knowledge and perception. "Some of them appear dull enough at first, but afterwards, as our acquaintance ripens, if the god is gracious to them, they all make astonishing progress; and this in the opinion of others as well as in their own. It is quite dear that they never learned anything from me; the many fine discoveries to which they cling are of their own making. But to me and the god they owe their delivery."

Today we continue with Chapter 15 titled “The Embassy” up to Chapter 16 titled “I Greet You” from the Gospel of the Toltecs, featuring the Venerated Quetzalcoatl’s timeless wisdom. “The time has come to an end. I have chosen to march forward. Friends, do not stop me, do not increase my pain. I am going to the House of Mystery, to the precious Scale. I am going to the edge of the Divine water where the green jade is.” “Did You fulfill the ancient promises? Did the signals that we were waiting for turn to flesh in You, so that we might have You as a Prince and as a God? I greet You, oh Penitent! Now Ometeotl (Supreme Being) has called You and it is time for farewell and weeping. Do not allow Your people to remain behind! Wherever You go, guide us on Your good path.”

The Venerated enlightened Master Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl was born in the 10th century. Known as both a powerful king and a holy Saint who was in communion with the Divine. Many loved Him and followed Him to become His disciples. We now present the heart-and eye-opening teachings of the Venerated Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, excerpted from Chapters 13 to 15 of the Gospel of the Toltecs. "Do not deceive yourselves. The dead ones do not die; they wake up. We who live here are not really living; we are dreaming. To die is to become a god, a sun, a moon, a star, the wind, the sea, the land. Understand this: The dead ones wake up from this life’s dream. Be they wise men, nobles, or slaves, they all go to the Land of Mystery."

You may possess empires, vast estates, authority over others, and the enjoyment of myriads of pleasures; you may have delightful and beautiful gardens, and issue unquestioned commands; you may have enjoyments and entertainments of all sorts and kinds, and continue to enjoy exciting pleasures – and yet, if you do not come to remember the Supreme Lord God, you shall be reincarnated as a snake. You may possess vast riches, maintain virtuous conduct, have a spotless reputation and observe religious customs; you may have the loving affections of mother, father, children, siblings and friends; you may have armies well-equipped with weapons, and all may salute you with respect; but still, if you do not come to remember the Supreme Lord God, then you shall be taken and consigned to hell! You may have a body free of disease and deformity, and have no worries or grief at all; you may be unmindful of death, and night and day revel in pleasures; you may take everything as your own, and have no fear in your mind at all; but still, if you do not come to remember the Supreme Lord God, you shall fall under the power of the Messenger of Death.

The peaceful and loving path of Sikhism has appealed to many devotees around the world. We present today an excerpt of the magnanimous teachings of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji from the Holy Sri Guru Granth Sahib, pages 69-72. "Those who take the Truth as their food and the Truth as their clothing, have their home in the True One. They constantly praise the True One, and in the True Word of the Shabad (inner Heavenly Sound) they have their dwelling. They recognize the Lord, the Supreme Soul in all, and through the Guru’s Teachings they dwell in the home of their own inner self." "The True Guru teaches the Word of the Shabad; without the True One, there is no other at all. Those who are linked by the True One are linked to Truth."