The different candles which are lighted in the Universal Worship signify our adherence and our respect to all different teachers, different religions, and different scriptures. Therefore this universal worship, the Church of All, is in reality all churches. It is a service, it is a worship, and at the same time it is a training of our mind to tolerate the religions of different people. If he reads the history of religions, how the followers of different religions have had battles and wars against one another for the defense of the outer forms of religions, a person with a just mind will admit that the followers of the great teachers have not followed the belief or the teachings of the great ones thoroughly.

This universal worship, the religion of all those teachers who have come and gone. This was the message of Jesus Christ and all other great teachers of humanity. Therefore it is not a separate line; it is the same line and the same message which is being given to the world. It is the continuation of all the great religions which have come from time to time, and a unification of all, which was the desire of all prophets. In reality the wish of the great teachers of humanity is fully gratified in this worship, because it was this that was their idea: to come -- as the result of their teaching -- and give the message to humanity. Although we are very few whose destiny it is to serve God and humanity in this direction, we ought to feel ourselves blessed. In the strength of that blessing, we should feel fully encouraged and helped to serve God and humanity.

The Sufi movement is a preparation for world service, a world service chiefly in three directions.

One direction is the philosophical understanding of life;
another direction is bringing about brotherhood among races, nations, and creeds;
the third direction is the world's greatest need, which is the religion of the day.

Now you may ask, "What need is there for a new religion?" The answer is that it is not a new religion, it is the continuation of the same old religion which has always existed and will always exist, a religion which adheres to all the great teachers and all the great scriptures accepted by large numbers of mankind. On its altar are the scriptures of the Hindus, the Hebrews, the Zoroastrians, the Buddhists, the Christians, and the believers in Islam; candles are placed representing all the different religions of the world.

Can it be ever called a new religion? Are these new religions; are these scriptures new scriptures? It is the unification of religion which was the dream of Jesus and the inspiration of Muhammad, which was the object of Abraham and the desire of Moses. What the prophets of the past could not bring about, owing to the difficulty of conditions at the time of their coming, is brought about today as the granting of their prayers which have been made for thousands of years in the past.

Therefore, although the Sufi movement is in its infancy, yet it is servant of God and the whole humanity, and the fulfillment of the object of this mission is the world message. The blessing that we receive in this service is the blessing of all the great teachers and prophets and Illuminated Souls, all in one.