HDE Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by H.H Younus AlGohar at the Mount Shasta Heart Activation Event in August 2019. The address was given to an audience of spiritual seekers from diverse backgrounds and traditions.

Religion and Its Corruption

When religion is pure, it is a pathway to God — a structured framework that guides human beings toward their Lord. But history shows us what happens when religion is seized by those whose intentions are other than divine.

"When religion is corrupted, it turns into a monster."

The great religious institutions of the world — which were once centres of genuine spiritual transformation — have, in many cases, become instruments of control, division, and even violence. This is not a statement against religion itself, but an honest acknowledgement of what religion becomes when the inner, spiritual dimension is abandoned in favour of outward observance alone.

The corruption of religious institutions has caused widespread harm — not only to the followers of those traditions, but to the very concept of spirituality. Many people today have been so deeply wounded by religious institutions that they have rejected the idea of God altogether. This is a tragedy, because what they rejected was never God — it was the distortion of God's message.

The Heart as the Gateway

Every authentic tradition has understood, at its deepest level, that the primary instrument of spiritual experience is not the mind, not outward ritual, not even scripture — it is the heart.

The heart is the primary gateway for divine connection. Not the physical organ that pumps blood — though that organ plays its role — but the subtle, interior faculty that the spiritual traditions have always pointed to when they speak of the deepest human capacity for knowing and loving God.

In the Islamic tradition this faculty is called the Qalb. In Christianity, the mystics speak of the apex mentis — the summit of the soul. In Hinduism it is the Hridayam. Different words, different cultural frameworks, but the same reality: a capacity within every human being for direct, immediate, unmediated encounter with the divine.

True Spirituality Transcends Religious Boundaries

True spirituality transcends religious boundaries and denominational divisions. It does not belong to Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or any named tradition. It is the birthright of every human soul — available to any sincere person who seeks it with an open heart.

Think of the different religious paths as different highways. You may travel the Islamic highway, the Christian highway, the Hindu highway — each has its own signs, its own landmarks, its own culture of travel. But if you stay on any of these highways long enough, if you travel deep enough, they all converge on the same destination.

The problem arises when people mistake the highway for the destination — when they become so attached to the particular road they are travelling that they forget where they were going. At that point, the highway becomes a boundary rather than a path. It keeps people in, and keeps others out. And the destination — God, divine love, the beatific vision, however you name it — recedes further and further from view.

Heart Activation — The Practical Path

Heart activation is essential for connecting with the divine. Without it, all religious practice remains on the surface — sincere, perhaps, but unable to reach the depths where transformation happens.

"When the heart is activated, you will find yourself in the presence of God."

The methodology taught by HDE Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi offers a direct, practical approach to this activation. It involves the synchronisation of the divine name with the heartbeat — a practice that, when sustained with sincerity, transforms the entire being. The heart begins to beat in remembrance of God, not just during formal prayer times, but continuously — in every moment, in every activity, in sleep and waking alike.

This is not a new teaching invented by any modern figure. It is the restoration of an ancient method — one that was taught by every prophet, practised by every genuine mystic, and that has, in most traditions, been obscured or forgotten over time.

Practice Over Theory

Practical spiritual practice matters more than theological study. One can spend a lifetime reading books about swimming and still drown the first time one enters deep water. Theology, philosophy, and religious study all have their place — but they are not substitutes for the actual practice of the spiritual life.

The heart does not open through argument. It opens through love, through sincere seeking, and through the grace that flows through an authentic spiritual connection. If you want to know whether this teaching is true, do not merely analyse it. Seek the experience itself. Apply the method. And see what happens in your own heart.

The invitation that was extended at Mount Shasta — as it has been extended at every Heart Activation Event around the world — is not to a new religion, not to a new set of beliefs, not to a new identity. It is simply an invitation to go deeper: deeper into your own heart, deeper into your own tradition if you have one, and deeper into the love of God that is waiting, always, for anyone who sincerely seeks it.