THE FUN THING ABOUT EXPLORING DIFFERENT RELIGIONS is that you can explode your limited images of the divine. Whatever god or God is, it surely isn't graspable by our wee minds. All we can work with are images which is not a bad thing at all; they are all we have. We must not forget that they are images and they change as we change and different people have meaningful pictures of their ultimate reality or divinity. We can learn from each other.

Last month we explored the notion of a person having a natural spiritual bent or inclination toward a particular religious or spiritual pathway. You might be a natural Buddhist but you were born into a Jewish family. You might be a Christ-follower but you were born into an atheistic family. Perhaps you are a nature-lover and some of the pagan or wiccan practices would be attractive to you, if you knew about them. Chances are slim on even finding out about such practices if you were raised as a Roman Catholic. If you were born into a Hindu family, you might be hungering for a monotheistic faith to which you could commit yourself single-mindedly and wholeheartedly. We can enjoy some of the fruits of selected paths by allowing our hearts to open to the different names and characteristics of the Divine in some of the great religions. Here is a sample which may surprise you:

Hindu: Existence as in the world, Pillar of religion, Self-born, Who is possessed of glory, Naturally free from sense desires, Of pure Mind, Never turning back in war, Unconquered by anyone, Knower of all deeds, Life giver, Support of breath, Quickly benefiting, Most auspicious.

the Evolver of all, the Sincere of all sincere ones, the Remover of useless pain, Fit to be attuned with, Fit to be known, the Unforgetting, the Unsorrowing, the Undeceiver, the Evolver of all, the Utmost helper in achievements, the Entire good brilliance.