I wanted to experience the being Baptized at the Baptismal site in River Jordan. My spiritual sister Dr. Karen Hollie Thibodeaux joined me at this holy site where Jesus was baptized.
It was a transformative experience, I felt a renewed and refreshed person in me who was free to embrace every human being without any reserve whatsoever. This is what following Jesus means to me or surrendering to Krishna means or submitting to the will of Allah means – it simply means subscribing to a system where all humans are treated with love, respect and dignity. That is the essence of the teaching of Jesus, Krishna, Muhammad or any one of the spiritual masters.
I challenge my Christian friends who claim to follow Jesus to shed the bias towards others, to drop the idea that they are superior to others, that their way of life is superior to others… all that non-sense superiority vanishes when you die, then what is the need to hate someone and be arrogant?
I challenge my Muslim friends who claim to follow Muhammad to treat every human with dignity, care for every one that God has created, to be kind, just and respectful. He said the best ones among you are those who care for fellow beings.
Now, if you judge Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Baha’i, Sikhs, Buddhist and others by the actions of a few, that is your problem and you are going to sulk in it. We have to follow the essence of their teachings and not necessarily rituals.
The Minister who was baptizing agreed to dunk me invoking the names of Jesus and Muhammad as my mentors and prophets. After hearing that two Imams followed my lead. The trip was organized by Middle East Peace Initiative of Universal Peace Foundation.