Many Names

I say my prayers on beads of love, strung together with everlasting threads of devotion.
I hold to no single Name - God, Spirit, Brahma, Allah, Heavenly Father, Divine Mother - for All are Thine.

I invoke Thee sometimes as Christ, Krishna, Shankaracharya, Mohammed, Buddha, Moses and other prophets; for I know Thou hast delighted and wilt ever delight, in revealing Thyself in different forms.

In Thy cosmic play on the stage of the centuries, in Thy myriad appearances, Thou didst take many Names, but Thou hast only one Nature: Perennial Joy.

                                     ___________________________________

The diverse religions are branches of Thy one immeasurable tree of truth.  May we enjoy the luscious fruits of soul realisation that hang from the boughs of scriptures of every clime and time.

Teach us to chant in harmony the countless expressions of our supreme devotion.  In Thy temple of earth, in a chorus of many-accented voices, we are singing only of Thee.

O Divine Mother, lift us on Thy lap of universal love.   Break Thy vow of silence and sing us the heart-melting melody of human brotherhood.

                                      ___________________________________

O Spirit, I worship Thee in all shrines.  Into the temple of peace come Thou, O Lord of Joy!  Enter my shrine of meditation, O Bliss God, Sanctify me with Thy presence.

Eternal Allah, hover over the lone minaret of my holy aspiration.  The mosque of my mind exudes a frankincense of stillness.

On the alter of my inner vihara I place flowers of desirelessness.  Their chaste beauty is Thine, O Spirit!

In a tabernacle not made with hands, I bow before the sacred ark and vow to keep Thy commandments.

Heavenly Father, in an invisible church built of devotion granite, receive Thou my humble heart offerings, daily renewed by prayer.

Attributed to Paramahamsa Yogananda (1893 - 1952) - founder of the Self-Realisation Fellowship.