We are honored to continue our interview with Antonia, a Costa Rican-Lebanese and family relative of Saint Charbel Makhlouf, as she shares more stories of the Saint. "He (Saint Charbel Makhlouf) is known as a thaumaturge, a wonderworker. But perhaps the greatest wonder is that He works miracles and wonders for Christians, yes, but He is highly revered by Muslims, who come to His grave a lot

Today, we are so honored to have Antonia, one of Saint Charbel Makhlouf’s family relatives, rejoin us and share more stories of the Saint. "Saint Charbel, or Mar Charbel, did not leave any writings, and very little is known about Him because He was an extremely private person. He never spoke. It is well known that when He was sent to attend a sick person, or to give extreme unction, or for the ano

Known as the “Miracle Monk of Lebanon” by Lebanese Christians, Saint Charbel Makhlouf was a 19th-century monk who lived in Lebanon. We are privileged to have one of His relatives, Antonia, with us to share some stories of Saint Charbel Makhlouf. Antonia is of Costa Rican-Lebanese heritage, and her family has a deep relationship with the Saint. "Since He was a child, He loved the countryside, He lo

Known as the 'Miracle Monk of Lebanon' by Lebanese Christians, Saint Charbel Makhlouf was born on May 8, 1828, as the fifth child of Antoun Zaarour Makhlouf and Brigitta Chidiac. The devout Maronite Catholic family lived in the Lebanese mountain village of Bekaa Kafra. As a youth, Saint Charbel Makhlouf was drawn to the exemplary lives of the saints and hermits. However, in 1851, at 23 years of ag

Abdu'l-Bahá was the eldest son of Bahá'u'lláh. Along with Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb, Abdu’l-Bahá, who staunchly persevered and worked towards the realization of His father’s mission, was canonized as the last of the three “central authoritative figures” of the Baha’i faith. Today, Abdu’l-Bahá’s discourses and writings continue to serve as a source of Bahá'í sacred literature. Abdu’l-Bahá was

Born on December 22, 1853, in Jayrambati, West Bengal, in India, Sri Sarada Devi was the wife and spiritual consort of 19th-century Hindu Master and Saint, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Sarada Devi is also endearingly known as the Holy Mother or Sri Sri Maa by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. A venerated woman Saint and mystic of the 19th century, Sri Sarada Devi was the embodim

Since love is at the heart of everything, the be-all and end-all of creation, Maharaj Ji Neem Karoli Baba’s doctrine was simple: “Love everyone, serve everyone, remember God, and tell the truth.” He followed this up by repeatedly saying “Sub Ek,” which means “All is One,” and continued with: “If you cannot love each other, you cannot achieve your goal,” for “the whole universe is our home and all

Maharaj Ji Neem Karoli Baba, known throughout North India as the “Miracle Baba,” was a unique and astonishing mystic who lived in Nanital, in the Himalayas. He was born around 1900 in the village of Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh, into an affluent Brahmin family. Named Lakshmi Narayan Sharma, He was unmoved by worldly attachments even as a child. He married at the age of 11 but left for Gujarat soon af

Venerated enlightened Master Socrates was one of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers. He showed how discussion and debate could help people understand difficult issues, issues that were superficially political, but deep down were moral questions about the meaning of life and goodness. One of his famous pupils was the venerated enlightened Master and philosopher Plato. Socrates was unlik

During a lecture in 1988, Supreme Master Ching Hai recounted the story of Saint Bernadette. “Her younger brother who always stole her bread asked her, ‘What did you see just now?’ Bernadette did not want to tell him at first, but her younger brother kept asking, so she said, ‘Okay! I will tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else.’ So she told both of them, ‘I saw a beautiful woman just now. and gl

Marie Bernarde Soubirous, a humble peasant girl, was known to all as Bernadette. Her life story has transformed Lourdes from a small market town in the Hautes-Pyrénées department into one of the most important sites of pilgrimage in the world. Young Bernadette was a compassionate sister and daughter, but because of the family’s situation and her own health, she did not have the opportunity to get

The Venerated Mahatma Koot Hoomi, also known as Kuthumi or K. H., is one of the great Masters of Ancient Wisdom. Incarnating again and again, the compassionate Savior’s mission is to aid humanity in their spiritual evolution. In His last incarnation as Master Koot Hoomi, He was instrumental in the founding of the Theosophical Society. Alongside Lord Jesus Christ, the Venerated Mahatma Koot Hoomi n

Renowned as “Sheikh ul Akbar,” meaning “the Greatest Master,” in the Muslim world, Hazrat Sheikh Mohye-ed-din Ibn ul-Arabi was an influential Andalusian Sufi mystic, philosopher, poet, and spiritual teacher. Born on July 28, 1165, in Murcia, Spain, Ibn Arabi provided a far-reaching understanding of Islam and spiritual Masters worldwide through his teachings and writings. Ibn Arabi wrote over 350 w

Babaji has appeared on Earth in many different forms and incarnations. He can form a physical body anytime He needs, without undergoing the normal process of being born into the world through a woman as a baby. The book “Babaji Neti Neti,” written by Sita Rami, records these descriptions of Haidakhan Babaji: “His eyes are dark and sparkling, laughing, full of bliss, endless in their depth; seeming

Shri Mahendra Maharaj, popularly known as Shri Mahendra Baba, was a Siddha yogi, an ascetic with supernatural powers. He travelled across the Indian subcontinent professing the coming of Shri Haidakhan Babaji, who was acknowledged as one of the manifestations of Shiva Mahavatar Babaji, the famous Immortal Saint who revived Kriya Yoga. Shri Mahendra Baba Ji had two subsequent visions. On his fifth

His Excellency Ben Ammi Ben-Israel was the beloved founder and anointed spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. After having a divine vision in the 1960s, he led a group of African American Hebrew Israelites on a pilgrimage, eventually settling in Israel, “the Promised Land.” In Dimona, Israel, he established the now-thriving Kingdom of God (or Yah) spiritual community. Driven by inner revelations and guided by biblical scripture, he immersed his followers in the compassionate ways of God. Throughout his lifetime, His Excellency Ben Ammi Ben-Israel lectured extensively and authored many books discussing different topics, from biblical prophecy to a healthy lifestyle, emphasizing non-violence and veganism as fundamental to a successful spiritual life. In February 1966, His Excellency Ben Ammi experienced a miraculous vision that would set in motion the beginning of a new life – physically and spiritually – for himself and fellow African Hebrew Israelites. One evening, as I lay there on my bed, and the Angel Gabriel came [and said]: “Bring the Word of God,” that it was time to start the journey back to the Promised Land and to establish the long-awaited Kingdom of God. And the year of the exodus would be 1967. In 1967, the first group of 350 African Hebrew Israelites left the United States and initially resettled in Liberia. His Excellency Ben Ammi and his followers endured two years in the harsh and challenging environment there, undergoing many trials and tests of faith. It was viewed as a cleansing period for the group. During this time, community members planned to have a ritual slaughter of a goat as per secular tradition. His Excellency Ben Ammi stopped the cruel practice from taking place, explaining that this was not the kind of sacrifice that God wanted, but rather it was their devotion. He implored them to be repentant in their hearts and expel their old unclean habits. In 1969, His Excellency Ben Ammi and his followers began to settle in Israel. The group founded the now-famed African Hebrew settlement at the city of Dimona, in the Negev Desert in central Israel. At Dimona, Israel, His Excellency Ben Ammi established the Kingdom of God, or Yah, settlement. The settlement is self-sufficient and run in accordance with the spiritual principles inspired by Genesis.

A venerated enlightened Master, humanist, poet, and theologian, Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi Rūmī, known simply as Mawlana in Persian and around the world as Rumi, embodies universal love and understanding that is unfettered by the bounds of tradition. Master Rumi’s early spiritual education was under the tutelage of His father Bahauddin, a professor of religious sciences. When the great scholar Sufi Burhaneddin al-Tirmithi arrived in Konya, Rumi studied under him for nine years. His training was based on the foundations of Sufism: divine love, worship, and consciousness of God with humility, austerity and abstinence, piety, and tolerance. Rumi learned that to serve others is to serve God. At the age of 37, Master Rumi met Shams al-Din of Tabriz, an enlightened Sufi mystic and Master Dervish who significantly influenced Rumi’s view and path in life. With Shams’ guidance, Rumi was able to awaken His deeper metaphysical nature. Master Rumi soon started His insightfully marvelous work, the Masnavi (Mathnawi), consisting of 26,000 verses of divine poetry. Master Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dancing as a path for reaching God. He believed music could help devotees to focus their whole being on the Divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was resurrected. It was from these inspirational experiences that the practice of Whirling Dervishes developed. Master Rumi taught that “Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians should be viewed with the same eye.” In the last few years of Master Rumi’s sojourn on Earth, He compiled His six-volume epic work Masnavi, as well as the Persian prose work called “Fihi Ma Fihi,” meaning “It is What It Is.” These timeless works continue to provide precious wisdom and guidance to readers worldwide. Master Rumi’s poetry expresses the secret of existence: God is absolute Love, and we must become that same Love in order to recognize God, to know God, and to get closer to God. With deep gratitude for His compassionate, uplifting teachings, we conclude today’s program with a beautiful reminder from Master Rumi: “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.”

In the early years of His time in Pondicherry, Sri Aurobindo reread the Vedas in its original Sanskrit text, discovering its true meaning: “…I found, first, that the mantras of the Veda illuminated, with a clear and exact light psychological experiences of my own, for which I had found no sufficient explanation either in European psychology or in the teachings of Yoga or of Vedanta.” Together with a group of disciples, Sri Aurobindo established an ashram in 1926 that still welcomes visitors today. It was envisioned as a vibrant place for the progression of humanity into a global community where even daily tasks were dedicated to the spiritual pursuit of oneness with the Divine. Since the founding of this spiritual community, the vegetarian diet was embraced as the optimal way of eating for wellness that benefits the physical and transcends to the metaphysical. Sri Aurobindo explained that cruelty-free plant-based foods bring peace and clarity, supporting the awakening of one’s spiritual consciousness while also refining and stabilizing one’s overall personality. Thus, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram serves only vegetarian foods. As Sri Aurobindo explained: “Life is life – whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage.” Sri Aurobindo taught that there are higher levels of consciousness above intelligence. He emphasized that humanity has come to a stage where a new level of consciousness is awakening, and we must assist that awakening. This will lead to a new type of humanity which will live in a Divine consciousness of oneness. Beyond the human mind, there will be a suprahuman, supramental consciousness. In “Sri Aurobindo on Himself,” the Master wrote: “The one aim of [my] Yoga is an inner self-development by which each one who follows it can in time discover the One Self in all and evolve a higher consciousness than the mental, a spiritual and supramental consciousness which will transform and divinize human nature.” Sri Aurobindo also explained that we are experiencing the current planetary crisis because the human mind cannot solve the problems. Only by rising above the mind into higher intuition and a supramental consciousness can we experience oneness with the world and resolve all the issues.

Sri Aurobindo was a 20th-century enlightened Master, poet, and writer. He founded Integral Yoga, a spiritual system that conceptualizes “all life is Yoga.” In His “Letters on Yoga,” Sri Aurobindo wrote about the practice: “[It] does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.” Sri Aurobindo presented all living creatures in the world as manifestations of God in different stages of evolution. Therefore, to progress spiritually, one must realize God while living in the world. According to Sri Aurobindo, one’s task is not only to realize God consciousness, but to exhibit it and to transform one’s entire life in God consciousness. We must experience God and express God in daily life. Therefore, in Integral Yoga, all facets of life are incorporated into one’s spiritual practice and in the realization of the Inner Master. In a lecture on March 21, 1989, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke of Sri Aurobindo’s enlightenment. “In the past, there was a great enlightened Master in India. When He was imprisoned, He just meditated. He continued with His spiritual practice and didn’t feel any lack of freedom. That’s because when we have a good meditation method, our spirits can go out during meditation. At night, we can leave our body sleeping in bed while our spirit visits Buddha’s Land or Heaven, so we don’t feel any lack of freedom. This Master’s name was Aurobindo. When the government released Him, He became an Enlightened Master immediately afterwards. And, of course, He had many disciples. He is very famous, internationally famous, not just in India. So sometimes, even when we are in such a situation, we can still turn the bad things into good ones.”

“That man, he was respected by the whole country – kings, officials, prime ministers, rich and poor people. And many of the monks, Buddha’s monk-disciples, were in awe of him. So when he pretended, he was sick... He may have manifested being sick. Maybe he was sick. Because he saved so many people, of course he got sick. And they came and asked him, ‘Why are you sick?’ For example, ‘If you are so great, why are you sick?’ He said, ‘I’m sick. It’s just like that. We get sick if we get this body and if we live in this world. But if all sentient beings are not sick, then my sickness will be gone. If they are not sick, then I’m not sick.’” “He was incredible. He was a great Bodhisattva. Many people were delivered because of him, liberated because of him. He was great. He had great, great eloquence, great power. Sometimes the Bodhisattvas are not born to be monks. But to be a layperson, so that… It’s doing a different job. Sometimes they’re born as prime ministers, kings, merchants, virgin boy, virgin girl, or any.” As we learn in the Vimalakirti Sutra, it is Prince Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Supreme Wisdom, who accepts Buddha’s request and makes His way to see Vimalakirti. Vimalakirti challenges the group of transcendent Bodhisattvas to give an example of non-duality. They each give an answer, but all of their examples are still dualistic, using a dichotomy or polarity to describe how one can enter non-duality. Finally, Manjushri asks Vimalakirti for an answer, but Vimalakirti remains silent, saying nothing at all. Manjushri applauds the wise lay disciple, saying, “This is indeed the entrance into the non-duality of the Bodhisattvas. Here, there is no use for syllables, sounds, and ideas.” Indeed, the ultimate Teaching is wordless, in silence. Through the legendary “Vimalakirti Thunderous Silence,” 5,000 Bodhisattvas entered the Dharma of non-duality and attained eternal liberation. Considered a “jewel of Mahayana sutras,” the Vimalakirti Sutra records Vimalakirti’s teachings as he addresses very advanced Arhats and Bodhisattvas from his sick bed. He clarifies the meaning of non-duality and many important themes in Mahayana Buddhism.