AMEN! per Baba Virsa Singh

AS ANY PROPHET EVER kept silent about the abuses
of institutionalized religions?

Every prophet was a radical reformer, challenging the distortions and power-seeking that creep into every religion as it becomes an institution rather than the living example and word of its prophet. Each prophet has come to remind us of the true practice of religion, the true path to realizing and serving God. Many have given their lives in this cause.

Consider the ringing words of the prophet Isaiah:

O my people!
Your leaders are misleaders;
They have confused the course of y our paths....
Says the LORD,
"I am sated with burnt offerings of rams
And suet of failings,
And blood of bulls ;
And I have no delight
In lambs and he-goats.
That you come to appear before Me—
Who asked that of you?
Trample My courts no more;
Bringing oblations is futile,
Incense is offensive to Me.
New moon and Sabbath,
Proclaiming of solemnities,
Assemblies with iniquity,
I cannot abide....
Your hands are stained with crime—
Wash yourselves clean;
Put your evil doings
Away from My sight.
Cease to do evil;
Learn to do good.
Devote yourselves to justice;
Aid the wronged.
Uphold the rights of the orphan;
Defend the cause of the widow."

Jesus boldly attacked the religious authorities of his times:

The doctors of the law and the Pharisees sit in the chair of Mo-
ses; therefore do what they tell you; pay attention to their words.
But do not follow their practice; for they say one thing and do
another. They make up heavy packs and pile them on men 's
shoulders, but will not raise a finger to lift the load themselves.
Whatever they do is done for show. They go about with broad
phylacteries and with large tassels on their robes; they like to
have places of honor at feasts and the chief seats in synagogues,
to be greeted respectfully in the street, and to be addressed as
"rabbi"....

Alas, alas for you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites that you
are! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in men's faces;
you do not enter yourselves, and when others are entering, you
stop them....

Alas for you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithes
of mint and dill and cumin; but you have overlooked the weight-
ier demands of the Law, justice, mercy, and good faith. It is these
you should have practiced, without neglecting the others. Blind
guides!...

You are like tombs covered with whitewash; they look well from
outside, but inside they are full of dead men 's bones and all kinds
of filth. So it is with you: outside you look like honest men, but
inside you are brim-full of hypocrisy and crime.

The very opening chapter of the Holy Qur'an, as revealed to the
Prophet Muhammad, pleads for true religious guides rather than
false ones:

Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom
Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace.
Those whose (portion)
Is not wrath.
And who go not astray?

Again and again, around the world, the prophets have pointed to
the hypocrisies of religious leaders. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna
warns Arjuna,

There are ignorant people who speak flowery words and take
delight in the letter of the law, saying that there is nothing else.
Their hearts are full of selfish desires, Arjuna. Their idea of
heaven is their own enjoyment, and the aim of all their activities
is pleasure and power.

The point of every prophet's teachings is the inner rather than outer
practice of religion. Buddha says,
A liar with a shaven head does not make a monk.
How can a monk be restless and deceitful?
But the man in whom evil, small or big, has died out,
He is the true monk, subduer of his passions.

The Hindu-Muslim saint Kabir says emphatically,

0 servant, where dost thou seek Me?
Lo! lam beside thee.
1 am neither in temple nor in mosque:
I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash;
Neither am I in rites and ceremonies,
nor in Yoga and renunciation.
If thou art a true seeker, thou shalt at once see Me:
Thou shalt meet Me in a moment of time.
Kabir says, "O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.'

Guru Nanak (1469-1539), first of the Sikh Gurus, undertook great
journeys, challenging leaders of the prevailing religions to remem-
ber their prophets' actual messages, rather than turning them into
hollow rituals. To Hindu pandits, he sang,

The sacred thread on the body means little
Unless there be divine light within thee.
Make remembrance of the Name [of God]
The mark on thy forehead and thy dhot....
With love in thy heart worship the Lord
And burn away love for wealth.
Seek only the One, seek no other


I can say from full inner wisdom that these boundaries will be
broken, that all these barriers will be removed,
because God wants it so.

He has been looking at these barriers, confined with-
in these boundaries for a very long time, and now He feels, "I
can no longer live within boundaries. "
God wants to enjoy, and
God wants you to enjoy yourselves. Now you will see: God will
break all these forts. We all will be happy for then His blessings
will fall upon all of us.
When a person breaks out of confinement,
he breathes fresh air and moves freely through Nature. When he
remains within confinement, he feels suffocated....
The public will be happy, but the religious authorities may ex-
perience some difficulties. They may be disappointed with God:
"We were enjoying ourselves—What have You done now? We
had concealed You until now, but now You are in the open. " God
will laugh: "I waited for a very long time, but you did not allow
Me to come out of the boundaries, so now I am going to manifest
Myself"
He will say, "Let the Light go forth!
Such a long time
has passed while you 'authorities ' were keeping a curtain be­
tween the Light and the people. "

-Baba Virsa Sing