Questioner:
What do you teach?
Swami Premodaya:
That going to God is more important than everything else—and should be the only item on your priority list. Everything else can wait. Everything else will get taken care of by itself.
Questioner:
What’s your definition of God?
Swami Premodaya:
It doesn’t matter. Whatever your definition is, is good enough. Because all I’m saying is, go there. I don’t care how you describe it, what you believe about it, what words you use for it, what it’s attached to, what it’s connected with—I don’t care what ideas you have about it. I’m just suggesting you go there for real.
And even if all the ideas are wrong, all the definitions are mistaken, if you for real are trying to go there, you’ll get to somewhere worth going to, you’ll get to something real.
So, when you’re talking about a “teaching,” you’re starting to get in trouble because you’re talking about “Well, do you like the word ‘God’?” “Do you like the word ‘Truth’?” “Do you like the word ‘Reality’?” Here [at ICODA], they’re all synonyms, it doesn’t matter. We don’t care about the words, we don’t care about who’s right and who’s wrong, what’s “more correct” than something else.
All I really care about is: Are you going to God, are you going to Truth, are you getting to Reality? Are you really, for real, moving in that direction? Everything else is just an elaboration of that. Everything else I say or suggest is just another way of saying that.
So Buddhists say it one way, and Christians say it another way, and Hindus say it another way. Even atheists say it in their own way. So I’m for all the ways. Just don’t mix and match. Because a little from this one and a little from that one will just drive you crazy.
Sound okay?
Questioner:
Yes. Thank you.