"We mean that existence is alive, throbbing with love, compassion, consciousness, conscience; that existence is intimate; that there is a possibility of addressing existence and there is a possibility of getting the response. When we say 'God is' we mean that existence allows the possibility of a dialogue. You can have a dialogue with it; you can call it 'thou' and it will not be meaningless; and you can be in such a state that prayerfulness becomes possible, that communion becomes possible.

"That's all the word God carries. Existence is not like a dead rock; it is an alive flower. It will respond to you. If you love it, love will flow toward you. If you move toward it, it will move toward you. If you seek it, it will seek you. Existence is not careless. If you are in love with existence, existence is in love with you. That's all that we mean when we call existence divine or when we say 'God is.' Remember it. It is a poetic way of saying a truth. It is not a fact. It is poetry, it is romance. And religion is romance with existence.

"Yes, it is more like falling in love rather than arguing toward a conclusion.

"That's why Kabir says God is within and without, but the journey has to start from the within. Unless you have known godliness within, you will not be able to comprehend it in the outside. Unless you have seen him within yourself, you will not be able to see him in the trees, in the birds, in the stars. How can you see him in the tree, in the rock, if you have not been able to feel him within yourself? Your center of being is the closest door to God. If you have not been able to enter from there, you cannot enter from anywhere else.

"God is within and without, both, because only he is; still, the journey starts from your innermost core. First you have to look withinwards. If from the very beginning you start looking for God in the outside, your God will be nothing but an imagination, a falsity.

"This point has to be understood very deeply."