New York 10th November 1982

In 1981 Rawat's voice was shrill and often rose to a shriek in incongruous parts of his speeches and on this night he was exuberant, probably too exuberant for an audience that did contain some non-devotees. His speech format is as per usual, there is little continuity and even less logical progression and his English contains grammatical and pronunciation errors. It was a public program ie devotees were encouraged to round up friends and family and bring them along and so the devotees knew not to shout "Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai" and Rawat would know to tone his speech down somewhat. One person who was there remembered that this was the first time he'd ever been to hear Maharaji speak where he allowed questions from the audience. They were probably questions taht had been decided upon beforehand and asked by people he trusted.

He does talk about one of his pet ideas, the energy that is keeping us alive but somewhat incoherently, "because we are alive, there is something that sustains us, there is something that has made us, there is something that keeps us alive and that power obviously that keeps us alive is not a piece of joke (junk?), it's nothing trivial, it's nothing small and to be able to experience, to know the manifestation of that omnipresence we repeat it every day. Omnipresent God. Omnipresent power. That incredible thing, that incredible energy that is everywhere, that is omnipresent, omnipresent, omnipresent meaning being everywhere. Present everywhere. Omnipotent. Powerful, all powerful."


Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji Speechifying New York 10th November 1982

First uh I'm gonna say what I have to say ha ha and then we'll think about the questions. I know that many of you that have come here really might have questions, I mean, questions are questions, everybody has questions and the questions really come from (clears throat) that place where we just don't know and to me if we can look at it this way you can almost divide the category of questions in this life, in this world. There are some questions that people might have and whether they get answered or they don't get answered really doesn't make much difference. The question might be which is the best pizza place? Doesn't make any difference. Uh the question might be uh anything which has no significance to that real life, to the meaning and understanding and the existence and the enjoyment of that true pleasure, that real pleasure, that is inside this human being, this human body.

And when the somehow we come to that point, we come to that crossroad, that simple place where we start looking. You know many people don't even look. To them everything is okay, everything is fine, there is nothing to look, there is nothing to be had, there is no such thing as an experience of this life. Fine. But to me it seems that there is something so incredible happening, so incredible happening, I mean I look out the window in New York and it always fascinates me to see these incredible tall buildings. Wherever I go I see these tall buildings, not all the same but every place has tall buildings, all downtowns and the point is I hate tall buildings (clears throat). First of all they look really strange, they're hard to maintain I mean can you imagine cleaning a window in your house is such a simple job. You take your Windex in one hand, you have your paper towel in the other, your window gets dirty and you just squirt squirt and wipe it off. Never a life-threatening thing is it? When he got those tall buildings and those windows really need to be washed believe me you better think twice about it before you go out there because uh even standing close to the edge can be a very hairy experience and why has all that manifested?

Why has that all come about? Human beings. If there was no human beings you wouldn't have New York Empire State building. If there were no human beings you wouldn't have the World Trade Centers. We always marvel at the Eiffel Tower. We always marvel at these incredible pyramids that were built in Egypt. We marvel. We marvel at New York Empire State building, an outrageous piece of building ha ha ha ha and so is the World Trade Centers. I mean for somebody to really come up with an idea, come up with the engineering, the understanding, the construction, the design, everything that is required to be able to come up with such a fascinating thing. I mean it's really quite a feat. But why? Nobody ever looks or stands in front of the Empire State building and says "Wow, look at this building" and this building has come about because of human beings, the miracle of modern science as we call it quote unquote.

Tomorrow, supposedly, barring any delays or anything like that the space shuttle Columbia is gonna take off and this time it's gonna have a real payload. It's gonna take up satellites, they're pretty much convinced their testing is done. We look at that space shuttle Enterprise or space shuttle and we say "Wow look at that thing, look at that incredible piece of machinery" but nobody and you know when it takes off from Florida there's this area where all the people come out with their mobile homes and everything and they just camp out there to wait until that thing goes off and then every day, every time people are gonna follow that thing all its little progress. It's gonna be in the news now and they're gonna see and I'm sure you've already seen it twice or you see the space shuttle take off when all this huge fire come out the bottom and it's quite a spectacular scene going up and never ever yet, never ever yet have they stopped that scene with the space shuttle taking off and uh look into these incredible blue skies and all this fire coming out the bottom and stop that scene on ABC news and say "Thank you God, my Creator, our Creator because because of what You have done we have today been able to do this."

We, many leaders in this world look at world peace, world peace so far I'm concerned there's plenty of peace in the world. The trees, they're never jumping around, getting bothered and you look at the oceans and you you look at the skies oh everything is in harmony with itself, the only thing seems to me really needs the peace is as odd two legged object that has infiltrated and taken over everything. That is the thing that really needs that peace to be in that harmony, to find because after all what am I suggesting here that is so bad also different or so unique. All I am saying is that folks whilst you're alive since you are whilst you are alive enjoy it. Enjoy being alive. For some people this is a revolutionary concept. Wow.

I don't see why - because we are alive, there is something that sustains us, there is something that has made us, there is something that keeps us alive and that power obviously that keeps us alive is not a piece of joke (junk?), it's nothing trivial, it's nothing small and to be able to experience, to know the manifestation of that omnipresence we repeat it every day. Omnipresent God. Omnipresent power. That incredible thing, that incredible energy that is everywhere, that is omnipresent, omnipresent, omnipresent meaning being everywhere. Present everywhere. Omnipotent. Powerful, all powerful. These are words you see these are words and their meaning and their explanation only makes so much sense to us. If this was to be said to kids in kindergarten obviously they would say "What?" Wow omnipotent. Omniscient. I bet you the kids are gonna ask you "Omni what?" There's a magazine Omni and in Miami they even have a huge building Omni and all the kids hang out there, they have all this one floor kinda dedicated to the carnival stuff that happens out there, the rides and this and Omni? Omni? Omni? God has something to do with Omni? No, God has nothing to do with Omni but here we are intelligent supposed we've been to schools at least or at least know the word of or the meaning of the word 'omni' present, omniscient, omnipotent. To now we know but do we know on the basis of our experience that God is omnipotent and what does that mean? Not in the textual sense or do we merely know this because somebody told us that, omni, omniscient, omnipresent.

To me it's like when I was in school I was given this smaller Bible, very tiny and little Bible and the of course the thing was you know you did really well and you would get this little Bible and I wanted the little Bible so I did really well. I got the little Bible and we also every morning for 15 minutes of the whole periods that we had 15 the first 15 minutes of our school that started was dedicated to Moral Science, that's what it was called, Moral Science and we had a book called the ABC of the Moral Science and believe me that is the first time I ever heard that word omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. I wasn't in a high grade and so when I read these words they were huge words to me and this is what I am saying to you that there is a big difference in us and going and repeating the words omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient and so on and so forth, God. Everybody says God, well not everybody but at least I'm hoping that the people that are here at least are familiar with that word, God. What does it mean to us? Is it something that has been passed on or do we have an experience of such a thing? Do we know this thing to exist by our own experience or by the information that has been passed down to us from generations after generations after generations.

You see it becomes very simple, for somebody who was alive at the time of Jesus Christ did not need no miracle nor no proof nor no pastor nor no religious leader, nobody, nobody, you know that there was Jesus and Christ, well the Christ part only those knew that who had that experience. They saw that he could with what he had to offer and what he had to give through what ever that we now know to be as a miracle could save, could take us from darkness into light. What does that mean? Well? Or let's put it the other way, could show us that stream, that treasure, that well in which lied that incredible pleasure, that incredible joy of the life itself. Showed us or showed those people that thing that is termed as Divine Light. A light that is not ordinary and not simple, not a bulb, not a candle but something truly divine and it these are not things that I'm just making up here, these are things that you read in Bible here and there, a little quote "the divine light" or "the light" or the thing that people saw.

So they definitely did not read in the proof but today we living in this century, in this year, in this age, my gosh we need all kinds of proofs don't we? I mean somebody has to be constantly on our tails convincing us about God, about that Jesus came and that he was a Christ and there is something like that heaven that we need to have that we desire. Heaven, always a fascinating subject. I always find it fascinating. I was talking to you about 15 minutes every morning we had to study our moral sciences. We also had to say this prayer "Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come thine will be done on earth on earth earth right here as as it is in heaven. Thy Kingdom come, thine will be done on earth as it is in heaven." So if I was to say, if I was to extract a very simple statement from this I won't be off the wall by just saying that if somebody is suggesting (knowing laugh) somebody is suggesting that there can be heaven on this earth, slight possibility, it's feasible, it's possible because most of us thinks it's impossible "How can you have heaven?" Look we are here, we live, we work, we dedicate our lives to a career, to accomplish something, to be something. It's habit-forming, you go on and on and on and on and on, accomplish something, to be somebody and then why? What happens when you reach the top of that plateau?

You you listen to some of these mountain climbers and I always find it fascinating, they climb and they climb and they climb and they climb and they climb climb climb climb and sweat, dangerous everything they face and then they get on top and they have the commercial you know they get on top and they undo their six pack, pop it open (clears throat) and there they are. All this to enjoy a sixpack (laughter) or some people actually don't do that, some people actually do it, they get up there, they look down "Wow this is incredible!" What a feeling, very proud, what a feeling, what an accomplishment, what an achievement and I was looking at it in this sense so are you gonna stay up there now? Well this is what you wanted. You started climbing mountains and I don't know how many times you probably sprained your knees and buckled your elbows and and and and fallen off ropes, had blisters on your hands, everything that you've done and you climb this mountain and you gonna have this incredible experience at the top and are you gonna stay there? Just, this is it or are you in fact after you have your heart's fill that true happiness, wanting that.

You know you see so many actors and they're getting married or something like that and not all actors are like that but some of them have a track record for this (mumbles) and they say "So I'm very happy and this is it. I and so-and-so are definitely in love and I know we gonna have a wonderful marriage." They get married, a few months later just the way guys, just the way he shaves, it's off, you know it's it's it's every time he shaves he turns the hot water on fogs up the mirror and then when she comes in it makes all her hairs go flat which she curled all my long with all the steam in the bathroom. Too much and so I don't want no part of it, goodbye John Doe and uh forget it this is never gonna work. Then the little time lapses in between and then you see them again "Oh, this is it, this is it." I mean I'm not saying that actors are the only people who do this, anybody can do this "This is it" and then it changes and it changes and it changes at it changes and it changes.

So many people you know just looking for a job right now, just a job, I mean for goodness sake, if they could just have a job. I understand that (long pause) I'm out of a job too (laughter), I've never held a job actually and uh the point being so many people would just like to have a job, fine. Does it end there? You have a job, then you want a little promotion, you do, a little pay rise to keep up with inflation. A little Rolls-Royce (laughter) to fill the garage, I mean you have this big garage, what are you going to do with it? You gotta put something in it.

So that is the situation on one side of the world than there are people who are offering you solutions and who are saying "Look all these desires that you have, to go on in your life, to be something, to be somebody, to have all his careers, to have all these things, this is all completely wrong, that it doesn't matter if you're Lee Iacocca or anybody, just quit, go to the Himalayas, find a nice secluded cave, lock yourselves in it and see if you can find God. Interesting but I'm not sold on that one. What do you do? Go from door to door knocking "Are you God? Are you God? Are you God? Are you God?" Or do you merely look up and say "God, I'm out of a job, I'm over 65, I wanna meet you now, I'm ready." What's 65 got to do with God? What is that, a magic number? I know of people who are much older than 65 and that they are going stronger than the people who are 21.

I mean it fascinates me that we live in a social atmosphere, in a society in which everything is divided in nice neat little boxes. You are a kid, you are in the stage of adolescence, you are adult, you are middle aged, now you are old and now you belong in a retirement home. The society has it all cut out for us. What is our choices? Where are our options? The factor of the basic thing of being a human being doesn't exist. This one guy was talking about nuclear explosion you know if somebody for some reason there was a big nuclear bomb they were saying that probably the old ones wouldn't survive and that they would practically in themselves would make no attempt any help to help them along. What they really needed was the young guys who could rebuild the part of that world or the world itself. They needed to be ??? I found that very fascinating. There was no factor of human being I went wait a minute, where human beings, let's not put this social grid on ourselves and say this is what I really am, this is the hat I wear, this is my little part in the play. I mean that this is what happens, here we come, we are children who are backstage, we are taught and we have trained to be the actor, to be a good, professional actor and then one day in our life somebody opens the curtain up, we're supposed to go out on a stage, with both the act, act, act, act, act and then someday somebody is supposed to say "Act is over, drop the curtains" and you're supposed to just go right backstage and sit down in your rocking chair and ease your life out as though it was a mixing board, you faded in and you faded out. I'm not trying to be antisocial, this is just the way I see it ha ha, that's all. Again time after time after time time after time I see this.

I'm not against education, my kids four of them, they'll all be educated of course. One, the eldest one, she goes to school in her regular hours. The second one, he has to get motivated ha and that takes a long time, it's like the old uh automobile you know just once he gets fired he's okay. Once he gets fired he's okay and the third one can't get off playing when she goes to school so it becomes a very difficult for her to study because she can only do either play or study but she will you know she's a little bit (mumbles) and to me I find all this very incredible because that's not the point here that I I'm trying to be antisocial. I'm not saying everybody should give up their job, give up their careers, that's not my deal either. To me it's beyond all this social acting or social peripherals or whatever we have lies another thing completely virgin, completely untouched, completely incredible which whoever has seen or experienced has called it reality because they're not, they're not saying everything we see is unreal.

I can't say this microphone is not real, it is real but its existence is questionable all I have to do is take this stand and just twist it a few times, the wires will break and then ha or undo the microphone, I think it comes out somehow then it will be only a stand the microphone will be gone or I can break it, I can throw it away, I can put it in a trash compactor. See the cars ever in a junkyard (sucks snot up nose) they were sweet somebody's sweethearts you know and then they broke down, unfixable and so they're taken to the junkyard (bangs dais) where they're separated I mean you can't call them cars anymore, can you? Junk.

So there is this whole world and the point being that whoever, not me I'm not the first one coming out holding this banner of saying "This is the reality, this is it" but from the very beginning anybody who has been able to see this other thing, the other parallel of life that constantly exists no matter what happens in this arena what happens and what goes on this arena has nothing to do with that reality and that is why it stays a reality, that's why it remains a reality and that is why its existence is always be, because it is that ultimate, it is that perfect and now let me say the magic word, the Truth. Truth. If to people what is troot? (sic) Not lying is truth

(End Side One)

If you do not lie then you are truthful. That's fine, that's fine, that's true but that is not the Truth.

Being righteous, following a religion, look at it, how many religions there are, let's just take a quick look at it. In Christianity many people are taught don't look at other religions, that's not a nice thing to do. Do you know something? That's what every religion says (sneering laugh) don't look at other religions. Hindus really don't go to church, go to a temple. I used to go to church, really because where I used to live there was a school very close by which was the convent of St. Mary's and then that was only good for the kindergarten and then I was sent to St. Joseph's Academy which was Catholic but there was a church and a saint in this convent and I used to go there sometimes. I would sit down, they had a beautiful statues everywhere and ifs if I was ever to tell anybody that "What were you doing in a church?" To me going into a church is not a crime, not a sin. To go into a mosque is not a sin, to go into a temple is not a sin but here is where it all gets very tricky. What about this temple? All temples, all mosques, they're man-made.

This one, this temple isn't man-made. Somebody else did that, the design, the carving, the intricate, incredible stuff of this temple created by that Creator Himself and in this for sure I know that that Creator dwells because I have experienced it. I have experienced it. So regardless of all things and I'm not against religion this may come out to be and some people may assume that that I am against religions, I'm really not against religions, really, that has nothing to do with me. That's fine, if people even want to be in religions that's fine, that's okay, if you want to be a Christian, go right ahead. If you want to be Hindu, go right ahead. See I deal with everybody, I deal with Christians, I deal with Muslims, I deal with Buddhists, I deal with Hindus, I deal with everybody. To me we are first human beings. In that Creator eyes we are human beings. Believing or not believing in that religion then it comes upon us in what we can experience. If we can experience something through our religion we go on to believe that religion. If we do not experience something in that religion then we do not go on to believe in that religion and again it is a very important part of our social grid to have that religion, to have some form of appeasing, pleasing and believing in that God but to me the authentic experience is that Creator really exists to I have to believe that Creator exists on the merits of the pastor or the pundit because he says so. How does he know? How did he ever become to be such an important authority on this?

This is the same way here. I'm not asking you to believe in God because I told you to believe in God. You see, when I was very little this was a puzzle to me. God, creation, school, teachers, homework. It was a really big puzzle. Now if you can take it into account at that time that's all I didn't have a job so I had my homework and and my school and my teachers and my bosses and you can relate that whole thing into a situation in in your adult life where you have your bosses and you have things to do and your chores and your everything that has to happen around you but here I was in and in the middle in the midst of everything that was happening somewhere I would listen I would understand. My father, he would go out and preach and he would say, he would talk about God, he would talk about the ultimate reality and of course it makes for a fascinating conversation to think about at least if nothing to talk about is what about God? Where does this all fit into me? And it was like a puzzle that in no way could I solve.

There was no way in the world that I could solve this puzzle and then something happened. Now what are you expecting for me to say? Ha ha, some people are probably expecting and then I was sitting in my living room and I got hit by 200,000 static volts and boom, the puzzle was put together. No folks, that didn't happen to me. Maybe you're expecting that I was sleeping and an angel came in my dreams and told me all this stuff. No! That didn't happen too actually as (sighs) you know that didn't happen to me. No angel came in my dreams. So what happened? Somebody was there on the face of this earth claiming that they could show me, they could show me, see I didn't need any proof.

I didn't need any proof that homework was a drag, I knew that. I didn't need any proof that the teachers were teachers because never there would be a role reversal ha ha where I'd be stand sitting on the other side of the desk and the teacher would be sitting in my on my desk going like this teachers are the ones that never bring the books with them you know its view that brings the books so always ??? you don't know anything, they know everything, fine and school there was never any question I was uh I still remember the first day I cried when I had to go to school, all little children do sometimes. There was once I cried so I had no, I had no illusions or any doubts or questions in my mind about what this was or that was what this is or that is.

The only question I had was what about this ultimate thing because if I could understand what this ultimate ultimate thing was then the whole thing the puzzle would fit in the way the puzzle would fit would would have been like this that here I am, I do whatever I have to do and I go on doing whatever I have to do but this is not my life this is not where the experience of my life gener comes from or is generated or will be ever sustained. So because then it becomes very simple because homework is a drag and then the whole life becomes a drag, right? That happens to people who get fired. I've never held a job so I don't know but I've seen it in movies. Nobody's ever fired me yet so I don't even know but I know what I've seen it in the movies and what happens? The people get very very disappointed, disappointed in themselves, it's a failure and uh the way psycholol psychologists put it, it's it's a very degrading failure because they see it as them being failures in this life, them being failures in this world and becomes a very depressing thing. I understand that. I can understand that, really I can.

So then what is left. If this isn't my life than I could simply understand that look this goes on, this goes on, I'm a part of it, this is the physical aspect of me being alive in this world but then there is something which is Truth, which is God, which is reality, which is beautiful and that is going to be my source of that bliss, that true entertainment that I am looking for. Then there would be a very simple clarity, there would be that nice dividing line on the highway, left and right and it would become simple because then I can go on, then I can be, then that everything that happens around me I am not stuck in it, I can go I can fluff (?). I am a part of something which is much more real, something that is much more incredible, something that is much more beautiful.

You know they have these commercials about people getting cold and they really make them look miserable and then they're supposed to go in front of a mirror and they say "Aargh, I look miserable, I feel miserable, I am miserable." Well, too you could say "I look miserable, that's true hah and I feel miserable, that's true but I am miserable?" This is where something else steps in. That no, I am a part of that more greater and incredible thing.

So here we are and I'm sure some of you have questions and I was gonna give you a quick explanation and that turned out to be fairly lengthy but ah never mind. A little said and a little said is better than nothing said I suppose and the point simply being here that of all the questions that you might have liked what should you do when your car won't start in cold weather I tell you I can't really help you with that. Don't be disappointed, I can't help you with that. Am I supposed to know 24 languages? I don't know 24 languages. This guy asked me this in Australia. See, he knew I didn't know 24 languages but he has to ask me did I know 24 languages. I said I know English and I know Hindi, that's about it and if I had to I could say words that nobody would understand and that's nothing magical about it you just make up your own silly words, right? And you can get away with that but no I don't know 24 languages.

I am not Solomon, I don't claim to be Solomon, I don't look like Solomon, I don't wanna be Solomon. I'm living in this age. There's not too many Solomons around this place, this age you know but I'm happy with who I am. I find that there is something for me to be thankful about in understanding who I am and so if you have all your questions that are concerning your cars and aeroplanes and houses and your heating system and your Catholic uh heaters for your wood fireplace I can't help you with any of that garbage. What I can help you with is if you want some information in having that experience of that ultimate reality and to decide, you decide. I'm not gonna force it upon you, this is what you have to believe I am. I don't care what you believe, that's irrelevant. I'm not trying to sell myself. To me it's not like "Hey believe that I am so-and-so first." No. That's not, that's not the point here at all. You you experience it for yourself what is. Is this a club you have to join? No.

Side 3

How does this, how is darkness bad? Why is darkness wrong? Why is darkness off? And this is where people hardly even pay any attention. Why is it bad? It's not bad for a mice or a cockroach. Believe me, that's when they come out when you turn off all the lights. They can see with their little antlers and their little look at owl, look at an owl. He is completely programmed to see at night, to be, to be in that environment. He can do it, he can pull it off so let me simply draw this conclusion that the reason why darkness is not so healthy for human being is because we can't see in darkness, because were not adapted to see in darkness and we do want to see and when we can see that we are not in darkness be it by the virtue of the lights or be it by the virtue of the sun, does it matter? Of course not. It's not like the only way you can read newspaper is if the light is coming from a fluorescent source so you go out in the park with a small generator in your pocket and you pull it out, turn it on and have a little lamp sticking over your, your hat or something so it's shining on and it's a beautiful bright sunlit day, I mean not a cloud in the sky and there you are sitting on a park bench which, which doesn't have shadow for miles and miles around it and there you are in the middle of the afternoon as bright as it can be, everybody squinting, you've got this little generator fired up with a little fluorescent lamp or two little lamps stuck on your head reading a newspaper. Doesn't make sense.

So we become very ??? to this negative experience and positive experience. Negative experience is the experience we don't like. Why very simple isn't it and positive experience is the one that makes the little antlers tickle, makes us feel good. So the point again being is that positive on one side, negative on one side, the experience of that reality has to be experienced in the realm of beyond positive and negative because of that reality itself is beyond positive and negative.

Does sun know darkness? You know there was there's a little story that goes one day the darkness came to the Creator, the Lord, the God and said "God, I'm really offended by the sun because wherever that sun goes it chases me away, never even gives me a chance this is a hypothetical story and and God said "Well this is terrible at least you should have a 50-50 percent fighting chance, a sporting chance." So call the sun, the sun comes and and God says "You know this is not fair for you everywhere you go you chase the poor darkness away." And the son said "Lord I really wouldn't except I've never even seen it yet. If you would please bring the darkness in front of me I will humbly apologize and next time try not to chase it away." And of course there was no name of darkness in that.

So when you can I mean in one sense okay this is a pretty straight strange way of saying it but in one sense you can interpret that experience as a positive and negative energy in this like you're having an experience of a reality that in itself is complete, that in itself is beautiful, incredible, outrageous, perfect and then you are taking whatever that experience that it is generating in you to interpret it. "Well I like this experience" or "No, there's something amiss, I don't like this experience." And to me it is that when we go to experience the experience of that energy we have to be beyond those little barriers and accept and understand and experience that thing for our very own self not sit there and interpret that "Hey that is negative vibes" and the people talk about vibes, good vibration, bad vibration and vibration you know I have felt vibrations aah I felt vibrations umm once I had this chair when I used to be in California it had a massager built into it and they would really vibrate when you would turn it on and it had all these that's one that's that's that's one kind of vibration I have felt and uh when I do not look for that negative vibration I know what you're talking about when you say negative vibration (questioner says something) I know what you're talking about when you say negative vibration it's the motor itself that's the problem??? . No. Uh I know what you're talking about when we say negative vibration but in that negative vibration I'm not looking for negative vibration if there is such a thing like that. I'm not out there seeking hey I want something negative, I'm not looking for something negative. I want that positive, I want the experience of the positive and let me submerge in that experience which is right, which I feel is right, which I experience to be right and so tell your friends it's all in them because that's the way it is. You would love to help them but you're caught up in the same battle sometimes and they can help themselves because they have every single tool needed to help themselves to be in that place where they can have that beautiful experience and that experience becoming consistent and constant. Yes?

Earlier on you asked, you said you asked for Knowledge that I think that the problem I've had for so long is that uh I am not able to ask. What can I do?

Anything said in the Bible can't be all that simple sometimes you know. Uh there's a catch to it. No there is no catch to it really. Sometimes it becomes hard to ask for you see here is the thing I am not going to come out and give it to you. I'm not gonna come out and show you the I mean I have to give you nothing out of my pocket of course and it's not like it comes in a carton, box or something that I hand it to you. Of course it's inside of you and the thing is I'm not gonna just go around saying blah blah blah blah I mean just like picking daisies or something, that here one here and one there and one there and ah it's incredible. No! You have to ask because when you ask you place yourself at that threshold in which you are ready to have that (brushes microphone).

That's as simple as it is and sometimes due to the many fears one fear that I know everybody who doesn't have this experience comes through is "What is it like?" What is it like? People scratch their heads I mean just like God you know just like being so close like biting your fingernails being so close and uh the so close and just so far. I mean like what is it like people sometimes sit down in front of you and say "Just tell me what it's like. Just tell me." I say "I can't." Sometimes they think I'm teasing them I'm not being nice to them because I'm not telling them what it's like but I can't. I mean how can you tell what sugar tastes like. Sugar tastes like sugar. Fine. Is your mouth sweet? Sugar. You feel the sweet incredible taste in your mouth. Of course not.

You know pain! Pain! Even the doctors know that there is no way you can describe pain. Nobody can I mean the the way people describe pain is fascinating you know that? It throbs! Throbs! I mean what throbs? Have you seen anything throbbing? E T throb I don't know. It throbs. It's a deep deep deep deep deep deep pain or sometimes it's "Oh God it really hurts." What? Where? It's all over. It is very very difficult to describe you know when you sit in front of your doctor you try to tell him hurt hurt. He wants to know isn't it just enough for him to know it hurts? And he wants to know everything about the pain and then you are sitting there well it's deep or it's shallow it's just throbbing or it's tingling, it comes and it goes and it's just very narrow and I mean all the million ways we can describe pain. So obviously it's like I can't describe this experience to you, there's no way I can. It's wonderful, I can say it's wonderful, it's it's incredible, it's beautiful, it's outrageous, it's fantastic but that's not the limit of it and that's not gonna do you any good and I know that. I mean that's like teasing you more and the idea isn't to tease you nobodies out here to please you at least I'm not out here to tease you but those fears that whatever tho fears you may have.

I mean sometimes the people have the fears "Is this gonna change my life?" Well how would you like it put? Next time somebody asks me that question this is what I am going to ask them. "How would you like it put? Yes or no." If you're already perfectly happy with your life what are you doing here anyway? Well anyway uh if you're already perfectly happy with your life then you don't want it changed. Right? If you're not happy with it, it is miserable of course you want it changed.

What about the life style? What about my life style? Well that's again another question. If you I mean if for instance it is all you eat every day is beans and then for lunch you eat beans and two Alka-Seltzer's and or or for dinner you eat the the whole plate of beans and three Alka-Seltzer's then of course you need to change your lifestyle for goodness sake. If it's slowly killing you because you don't know what you're having more the beans or the Alka-Seltzer of course you need to change but if you are perfectly okay you don't need to change so people have these fears because what they're ever they hold precious to them they don't want that to be taken away and the point is that cannot be taken away, it won't be taken away.

"Do I have to be involved in some weird practice?" Like we all put on a helmet with two horns sticking out at something like that and there's a guy well I'll just join a circle and there'll be a guy beating a drum in the center and we're all going round and round the circle. Of course not, that's not going to happen. Any weird religious practices? No weird religious practices. Is this a cult? This is not a cult. What is a cult? A cult is a religion that has not yet become a religion, that's what a cult is (laughter and applause) and it's very simple for me because I don't intend for this to become a religion so this is not a cult we're not heading we're not I'm not a religious leader. When I saw that everybody calls me a religious leader except myself. I'm not a religious leader. I don't wanna be a religious leader. There's already too many religious leaders. I would be fighting a losing battle in the compet competing field so I'm not a religious leader. I'm not here to form a religion. This is not a cult, we're not here to do weird things.

Then the other question "Do I have to give up my religion?" Tell me something if you were going by 63rd Street and you were really thirsty and you saw lemonade and it said cold homemade country style lemonade $.25 and that just exactly what you felt like of course you maybe you were dressed in boots and a hat and from old country and it was just like you really did feel just like that good old glass of homemade country lemonade. Are you going to be standing in front of that thing looking at your cross and saying "Is this it? Will this change my religion? Will this change my life?" Have you ever seen anyone do that? Standing in front of a lemonade stand going "My God, I can't, fighting this battle" only in soap operas, only in soap operas, never in real life. So this is as easy as that, this is as simple as that.

Look at me. I mean people have this thing "Do I have to give up everything? Do I have to give up my religion?" No of course you don't have to give up your religion. Are you a Christian, go right ahead being a Christian. Love Jesus Christ. One person who never did receive this Knowledge did make a comment to me. He had been with me and then and it and uh uh finally he had to leave and he left and the only thing he said, he said "By being with Maharaji, I am a better Christian now." And he never had this Knowledge that was just being with me so can you imagine I mean it's not like I'm out to to to take away people's Christianity or take away people's Buddhism or Mohammedism (sic) and and all these things this is not my purpose, this is not why I am here. It's very simple.

There is something, there is something inside of you an essence and there is something also inside of you that desires the experience of that essence. When two and two are put together you've got being go, that's it you hit the jackpot. You have it. It feels wonderful, it feels great, it feels nice. It's always within you. Maybe during the course of what I have been saying I have said things like uh maybe I give it to you or something like that. It's nothing I have to give, really. Nothing in my pocket except a handkerchief.

I mean you'll many people get fascinated when I tell them you know look nobody rehearses my speeches for me or nobody writes my speeches for me or I don't rehearse my speeches and they ??? and they go "How is that possible?" That's really true. Nobody sits down and write speeches for me, I don't sit down and write speeches for me. It's not like I sit there with this giant thing in my in my in my pocket reading the cards of looking at them "Wow this is it now we gotta talk about truth, now we gotta talk about police, now we gotta talk about God." No there's nos nobody out there holding cue cards the only thing I see is this Español and that's about all I see is this Español the other one is hidden by the bar and that's not that's not a cue card that's that's that's where they're Españols are sitting ha ho that's all that's happening out there.

So! Change! People do not want to change and people have fear of changing. Well if you don't want to change, fine! Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid and let me say, let me add this one last thing here. If you like what you experience, fine. If you don't like what you experience, you don't have to experience it anymore. It's okay, you can stop experiencing it but the thing that you're going to be experiencing isn't gonna go away cause it's that saying that you're gonna experience is right now within inside of you. Whaa! ??? Whaa! (Laughter) My God! You believe that? It's already within inside of you whether you like it or not so tough luck ha. (Laughter) Uh and and you can't and you can't chase it away. You can't chase it away and it's there at all we need is a way to be able to go inside not not like to put a boroscope (sic) or anything like that just to be able to reach inside and experience that power that that has that's sustaining us right now, as simple as that. That's what really needs to happen and that's all that that and I mean I know and I respect people's fear really aagh is always I mean when I get into a strange car I'm afraid of it sometimes it's like "God look at this thing, it might fall apart on me" but I mean you take your little chance and and and and and so on and so forth and but here you don't have to take any chance.

Get rid of that fear first then it is going to be very easy. Maybe you don't identify that as a fear, maybe you identify it as something else maybe it's just too hard for you to stop, maybe you're too much of a self-made man to ask somebody for anything. Well it has nothing to do with you being self-made or your pride or whatever and and and you know the point is you can just ask it this way "You reckon I could have this?" (Laughter) A ha ha you can ask it that way you don't have to ask "Uh I'm asking for it" or but I mean anyway you know any way you slice the watermelon the better it is I mean it doesn't matter so far you get to eat a piece of it. It's very simple and then that happens look I'm here and uh anytime you feel like asking for it just ask and uh that's when the process starts. Yes.

(Hi to attempt to attempt to receive Knowledge do you have to put any skepticism that you might feel aside and totally surrender a part of that intricate part of yourself?)

What is the skeptsicism (sic)?

A form of disbelief, of not totally believing.

What is disbelief? Not knowing, right?

Not knowing.

So we're back to square one. We don't know ha and that's what we want to know. If we knew we wouldn't have any disbelief would we? (I don't believe in you - shout from the audience) That's all right that doesn't uh that doesn't seem to make any difference. I don't see this is I have said this many times (scattered applause) before I don't want just people going around and believing me because I am sitting here and saying this. You know there has to be a belief on the merits of an experience and then there's a different story. Square one again. Everybody comes to square one uh believe it or not. (End of side three)

So. Yes.

Uh Maharaji I'd like to ask you what is devotion?

Definition to me of devotion is to have that love, the love that has no reason to be. To me the devotion is not blind love, that's not devotion. Devotion isn't umm I mean we can call it unquestioned faith but my God who's going to have unquestioned faith. Our questions keep coming up more often than there are seconds in a minute ha ha so what is devotion? To me the version then becomes very simply that love, love that flows between two people I mean there is I love my wife very much but I can't say I'm devoted to her. I love her very much and she loves me very much I know that and I love my children very much and they love me very much but I also know that when my children start giving me a hard time like uh my uh my second daughter she likes to wear high heels. She's only so big but she likes to wear high heels, put some lipstick I mean if she just devastates her face in one sense but she just loves it, puts sparklers all over her face and throws on lipstick and she can't really do it right so it goes all over the place. I am mean sometimes she can look really nice and sometimes she's got purple lipstick on, black nail polish and big eyelashes sticking out and this and that and yesterday she stepped on my toe. The devotion was over ??? awfully fast, believe me. Um I said I mean I didn't hit her or anything I don't like to hit my children, I don't feel that that's a good idea, capital punishment that's no good and I just said to her "Oom, you shouldn't have done that. (Laughter) Why are you wearing high heels in the house?" Umm you know sometimes I'm waiting to go somewhere and my wife isn't dressed and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm still waiting. I am going to very frantically say "Come on! We're getting late!" So what happens to that devotion?

So devotion has to be a love ultimately between two people that is not dependent upon something. Unbiased, unchanged and that love can only happen when somebody can see and appreciate what I have showed them than on the basis, on the basis of what they experience, of what they see. Really, they will love me and that is the love that I call beautiful. That is the love, that is the love between two people.

You know there are people who I know love me, I know I love them and they have never seen me. So I mean you have to say "My God why do I love them?" You know there's this is one person umm and and and I know this person loves me every time and every time goes into that part of the world I have to ask "Well how's that person doing?" I've never seen this person before I don't even know what the person looks like but there is a, there is a bond, a connection and the connection is whatever that love comes from that person on the basis of what I have shown them of the appreciation that love and I love them because they appreciate what I have shown them. I mean it's its but natural for a teacher, for an instructor to be happy with that student who has seen it, who understands it, who shows that he understands it and and it becomes a very beautiful and natural bond so that is, that is what it's all about.

Uhh I come, I go to places, I like people and I want to I don't wanna say I want to help people ah that sometimes comes off very wrong that I want because I have experienced an incredible thing I want to show people what I have experienced. I go from place to place so I mean I've already been around the world once and I'm going out there again and it's a very long, big, involved tour and around and around and you realize that's all I do is go around the world, around the world and do you realize I don't even go out to see the places. That's not what I go out, people go out to front and they carry their camera, they'll take a picture of anything that moves and in France they'll take a picture of anything that doesn't move and hasn't moved for centuries either but me? Doesn't matter, that's not what I'm there for. France, it's a lovely place, it really is, really is nice place but I don't go there to see it, I've already seen it. I go there to help again not help but to show people that beautiful thing that I have been able to experience myself. Why do I do it? What am I anticipating from it? Really, what am I expecting from I mean here are people obviously you've heard about them I mean there they are they they they don't have this experience, maybe they want this experience maybe they're people who have just come here for the very first time.

What am I, what do I want from you? I don't want your money. This is people's biggest fear maybe you want my money. I don't want your money you know maybe people am I gonna get brainwashed? Of course you're not gonna get brainwashed. How can you wash a human being's brain (laughter)? Really. How do you do that? Take it out and put it in the washer, two cycles for two minutes with Borax -- no of course not. People are afraid, people come up "Oh my kid, my my child got brainwashed. Anybody sitting here is more than I mean any time you wanna stand up and walk out perfectly okay. Anybody wants to do anything I mean just wanna walk away. Fine. Will it hurt me? (laughter) We could talk for another 10 hours about that one. Well but again to me it's not likely that anybody has a has bonded for their life. No of course not. You wanna walk out go right ahead. Wanna pursue a career? Go right ahead. I'm not here to brainwash people. I'm not here to stick them in something. They have an experience and they wanna spend time with me then you have of course no right to tell them that they can't do what they feel like doing then you are brainwashing them. ???? You can't you can't you can't have either brainwashing it's gonna be straight and simple. Let's keep it straight and simple so I'm not here and nobody is obliged and I'm not here to take your money, to take your car, or to take your children, to take your wife or take your hospital to take your dentures to take your earplugs I don't wanna nothing! Really?

I just wanna offer you an experience, if you like it fine. If you don't like it, good luck! (laughter) Not tough luck I can't say it tough luck, I say good luck. Somehow try to enjoy that sixpack. What else can I say? You know so that's if you have the sixpack, if you don't have the sixpack's try the nonalcoholic sixpack, I mean anything, try to enjoy this life. It is a beautiful experience. It is a beautiful life and its something really to be enjoyed. I enjoy myself very much. I really do. Everywhere I go. It's not my enjoyment isn't based upon "Well I am in Paris." No. That's not what my enjoyment is based on. New York. New York. "Why man you're in New York." (Possibly meant to be New Yorker accent) That's not what my, my pleasure is based on. Me. Inside of me there is a very beautiful thing manifesting every second and when I can experience that, that's when I can enjoy myself.

Nothing. Nothing even, nothing even comes close to that entertainment better than any movie they can ever produce. CBS eat your heart out. They'll never come close to this one. Spielberg or anybody berg, never come close to this one. Never can be produced, never could be produced. And uh that's just the way it's been for centuries and centuries and centuries. So if you can't enjoy yourself, the real you at least, try to enjoy some part of you. Right? And if it's your eating you enjoy, well eat, eat away ha ha. If people like to jog, to run -- run away. Whatever it is that I know a way to really really really enjoy and this life and I know there is a few other hands I see standing up in here, here and there. All I can say is um time is getting very late, I'd love to answer your questions and um maybe the next time you can ask me what ever you have to ask. If you have your simple questions you wanna ask just for your want, well it's possible it can happen, it will happen. So I have certainly enjoyed myself being here tonight very much. I hope you enjoyed it too (applause) I hope you have a wonderful life.