BEYOND ALL MIRACLES

GURU MAHARAJ JI
Milwaukee Wisconsin
October 10, 1979 -- Evening

So, again a little bit of opportunity to share some more satsang, to experience some more satsang. It's been really a nice day. Because we haven't been focused on something, like we always do, that sort of starts up and that sort of finishes up -- ends. We have been trying to focus on an experience that keeps on going.

And yet you know that even though this program will probably come to a stop after the announcements are finished (by that time everybody's gone anyway, before they end), yet you know that you can make that little effort and you can make that little surrender happen in your life which will bring this experience again and again, which will make this experience a constant experience, which will make this experience a reality. For all of us.

We really don't realize what an opportunity we have been presented with. It's very sad, in fact, that we don't realize that when Jesus came, I guess his devotees were very blissed out and everything to see Jesus every time he came or to hear his satsang or whatever. But I don't think they really experienced him as much after he had gone. Because after he had gone, everything that he had said had to be made a reality. Everything that he said was so precious. He became very precious. Same

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker 1979
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji in 1979 When He Was Guru Maharaj Ji the Lord Of The Universe
Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker 1979
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji in 1979 When He Was Guru Maharaj Ji The Perfect Master

thing with Krishna; same thing with Mohammed.

I mean, look at Mohammed. His whole life, he went from one place to another place to another place. Surviving on whatever was possible, really being thrown around, in one sense. And then when he left, when his physical form left, then all of a sudden the devotees became very aware of what an opportunity it really was.

And it's happened time after time with Perfect Masters. Because we get so lost, we take so much for granted, and we get so lost in our own concluded things that we can come so easily to these conclusions, "Well, that's always going to be there and that is always going to be there." Someday we realize that these things that we take for granted, there is no guarantee that it is for granted, that it can all go away from our hands, that this is an opportunity. It's a lifetime opportunity.

How and where it all happened to Us -- it's not a matter of concern, in one way. It's happened. But now that we have this moment, but now that we have this Grace that has been given to us -- it's explained that there is one Grace that we are even born. That we are alive is another Grace. And then just to be here in this world and to have the Grace to be able to receive this Knowledge, to be able to have an opportunity to dedicate our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji, to dedicate this life, to surrender, to have faith to Guru Maharaj Ji is a wonderful Grace.

And how many Graces is it going to take, how many "Grace extensions" do we need before something is going to click in us and say, "Now I really have to do it"?

A lot of times initiators give satsang. And to me, I've seen sometimes what

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker Dancing On Stage 1979 happens in the hall. The premies are just walking around. Somebody's doing this: somebody's doing that. It's the environment of a lot of people sitting in one place, I guess. Everybody has his own way of throwing things. And the initiator is just trying to hack it, just going at it, whatever his experience is. And you know that it isn't even making dent anywhere.

And what he is saying also has to become a reality in his life. That's why I call it a philosophy. That's why sometimes I call them philosophers. A philosopher is the guy who can get up there and say whatever he feels like saying, but then doesn't even get affected by it himself. Because everything will stay a philosophy, everything will be a theory, everything will be a dream, everything will be an illusion.

Listen. Tulsidas is the one who said, "till wherever you can see with these eyes, it's all an illusion." But then he saw his Guru Maharaj Ji, when he saw Ram, that was no illusion to him. The very book he wrote about, the very translation he did -- because everything was an illusion. Everything in reality is an illusion.

Only to a devotee …

There is a song that goes, "We are the richest, we are the traders of this Holy Name. And some people trade in gold and some people trade in copper and some people trade in something else. But we trade in this Holy Name. And we are the richest. Our treasure is endless. And we give this to every human being that desires it from his heart."

Guru Maharaj Ji comes into this world -- of course, I don't think there is anybody living at this point in this whole world that understands Guru Maharaj Ji. Because to us, we have a concept of God. And then when somebody tries to tell us what a Perfect Master is -- just as we have to acquire, for some reason, a concept for everything and I don't know if it's necessary or not, but somehow we end up having a concept about everything -- we also end up having concept about Guru Maharaj Ji. What Guru Maharaj Ji is, how Guru Maharaj Ji is, what Guru Maharaj Ji does. Because it is too hard maybe, or to difficult maybe, for us to make sure that surrender really happens that Guru Maharaj Ji's talking about and see Guru Maharaj Ji the way Guru Maharaj Ji wants us to see him, the way really Guru Maharaj wants a devotee to look at him, to see him.

Because what will it take? Well, it'll take everything. It'll take us. It'll take our constant effort, our real effort. We can play games with everything in this world. Everything is a game. People can play games with their wives, people can play games with their jobs, people can play games with their lives, people can play games with everything they want. But you can never play games with Guru Maharaj Ji. Because the day you start playing games with Guru Maharaj Ji, you become the football. You become the article which is the victim. And then where is one left?

Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world. First of all, why does Guru Maharaj come into this world? There is absolutely no reason why Guru Maharaj Ji should ever come into this world. In scriptures it's very clearly said that Guru Maharaj Ji is the Creator, is the Sustainer, and is the

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Destroyer and is that One who will take us away from the darkness and bring us to Light -- controls all the elements in this universe.

Now for a power, for an energy, that controls all the elements in this universe, well there is absolutely no question that -- in our rationalization -- that would be absolutely stupid for a person like that to ever come on this Earth. Because this is the stupidest place you can get to. Go to the moon; it's quiet. On the moon, even if you weigh two hundred pounds, you only weigh -- I don't know that -- almost nothing. Go to the moon! Quiet, peaceful, nothing to bother about, no people to come and pester or anything. Just nobody there, except a dune buggy that they left there. Drive around. Have fun. And once in a while a few Russians and a few Americans pop up there. That's about it. Or go somewhere else, for that matter.

But Guru Maharaj Ji comes. And we try to see Guru Maharaj Ji the way we want to see Guru Maharaj Ji. Always. We want to see things the way we want to see things. We look at things the way we want to. And when Guru Maharaj Ji comes in our lives, that's the same thing we try to do again. We try to look at Guru Maharaj Ji the way we would like to see Guru Maharaj Ji.

And yet Guru Maharaj Ji is above and beyond all that, above and beyond all our questions, all our reasonings, all our doubts, all our confusions. Because we get confused, does Guru Maharaj Ji get confused? When we say a "Why?" does the reality of Guru Maharaj Ji get questioned? No.

We remove ourselves from the Grace that Guru Maharaj Ji wants to give us in this life. So many times we remove ourselves from the Truth, that reality that Guru Maharaj Ji has to offer us. Guru Maharaj Ji isn't offering a ticket to ball game. Guru Maharaj Ji isn't offering you a five-dollar coupon. But what Guru Maharaj Ji's offering you is a lifetime experience, a lifetime experience to enjoy for a life time also, not a lifetime experience I enjoy now and give up later. Not like a five-dollar gift certificate. Not like a ball game.

But the experience that Guru Maharaj Ji wants to give us is not only for now, but for now on and on and on in our whole life -- and beyond. Whatever is beyond.

You can sit there and you can question, "Well, is there life after death? Is there life after death? Or is there death after life, and life after death and death after life and …" -- doesn't matter which way you put it. What control do you have over your life? If you say the opposite of "Rama," which is "Mara (death)," and keep saying "Mara, Mara, Mara, Mara," you end at "Rama." So it doesn't matter which way you say it. If you say "Rama" you will end up with "Rama," if you say "mara" you will still end up with "Rama." Seems like the same thing. Whether life or whether death -- if there were going to be life, there is going to be death. If there were a life after death, then there is a death after life. And if there were a life after death, then there is a death after life.

It's just a stupid chain that keeps going: death, life, death, life, death, life. And we can go through it. We can try to experience. Whether or not we will have any experience out of it is totally out of the question. What experience are you going to have? After all, you are alive now. What control do you have over your life? What control do you have over your life? Absolutely none. You couldn't pick the day you were going to be born. You couldn't pick your sex -- you were going to be a boy or a girl -- you couldn't pick what colour hair you were going to have. You're stuck with whatever you've got. The best you can do is have them dyed.

And what can you do? Can you make yourself happy the instant you want to make yourself happy? Can you make yourself sad the instant you want to make yourself sad? Absolutely not. When you are happy, you're happy. When you're sad, you're sad. When you're sad, you can't

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker Dressed As Krishna On Throne 1979
Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji Onstage 1979
become happy. When you're happy, you can't become sad. You're like a useless robot, really, in this life.

And yet people still sit down for ages and ages and ages and try to figure out what life is and what can you do with it. You can't do anything with it. You live it, day to day. You get up every morning and walk into the bathroom. You've got no choice. Drink a lot of coffee. For every cup, the more of the toilet you're going to see. It's not as though you have all these options in your life. It is not as though you can hit a button and that's the way it's going to happen. Life is definitely not like a Cadillac, where you can reach over and set the thermostat on it, or hit a button and the window will go down, hit a button and all the doors will lock, or hit a button and the trunk will pop open. It isn't like that.

There is an obvious purpose. And the way millions and billions of people are living their lives, do you think there is anything on it, anything with it, anything for it? What is it? What is this world that we live in? Is it worth it?

Look. There are people in Washington at the Pentagon, okay? And these people are generals and colonels and you name it. They believe in war. That's why they're generals. If they didn't believe in war, do you think they would be made a general? Can you imagine an army of soldiers who didn't believe in war? That would be the most useless army any nation could ever have. Or a tank that didn't fire? Or a gun that popped out flowers?

Well, that's all wonderful. That's all wonderful and that's all great. But that's not the way it is. There's a lot of people who can try to live in a fantasy that that's the way it is, that every time that shell fires out of that tank it's not really shell that's going to ruin them, but is in fact just a bouquet of flowers falling off.

There's a lot of people who have taken hand grenades and held them and blown their hands off. So you live in a world where there are people that have this ultimate authority to go out and kill other people. They just have a war. And they have this whole game -- it's just like a game -- and they have these big tables. I don't know. I've never seen the place, but this is the impression you get. They have these big tables. They have these big radar screens, they have their airplanes, they have their navy -- just like chess. You have the pawns, then you have the castle, then you have the bishops, then you have the queen, and then you have the king. And then castle can only move a certain way, a bishop can only move a certain way, a pawn can only move a certain way, a queen can only move a certain way, a knight can only move a certain way -- just like a big, stupid game.

And the thing is, this time those little things that get thrown off the chess board aren't little pieces of wood or marble or metal, but human beings. You and I can sit here and say like millions of people do -- I mean, I think you and I are doing something a lot better, something that this life is made for -- but there are millions and millions of people right now either sitting there watching television, smoking their fat cigars, or whatever they're doing:

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker 1979
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji in 1979 When He Was Guru Maharaj Ji The Perfect Master

travelling to make money, making money … There are people who are killing each other right now. There are people who are getting sent to prison. There are people who are leaving the prison. There are little babies probably who just got born about now. There is somebody who just died -- you imagine, it's all happening around this world. A boat just struck another boat. Another boat ran aground. An air plane just had an engine failure or … you name it! I mean, what isn't going on in this world? In a day, what doesn't go on in this world?

And yet everybody takes for granted -- even those soldiers who live in the barracks -- that they aren't going to get it. Here we are, living to die. Living, not knowing, and yet living. And living what? Not even knowing that.

We have, by whatever reason -- it doesn't matter. And it isn't a matter of now but it is the matter of centuries and centuries. There has never been a time when man has been safe. There was the Ice Age. Before the Ice Age, man's ancestors used to fight. Then finally the ones who developed the arrows and the axes and hatchets and everything -- spears, what were they for? Not only for animal hunting, but for those animals that came to get those animals -- they were also going to get it.

And it's been an endless saga. Not from now. It isn't a matter of today. It isn't a matter of the colonels and journals today. But it's all back from beyond Roman days even.

I don't know when the idea was conceived. But for every human being who could possibly get lost in this world, for the same exact human being there has been a hope to be saved. For every possible mistake, for every possible error that every one of us makes, there is also a hope to be saved. For every bad thing we do, you might say, there is also a hope that there could have been a good thing done. You

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker 1979 just would have been doing the good thing instead of the bad thing.

And yet Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world. And that's the same thing -- not from just now, Guru Maharaj Ji is not new thing. To Americans or to Europeans or to a lot of people in the Western hemisphere, "guru" is a new thing. Guru is a new thing. But so are their wives, so are their children. To them, everything is so unfamiliar . sometimes, that they don't know what's going on.

Even in India. I mean the word is a Hindi word, of course, but its meaning is about as old as it can ever get. "Guru Maharaj Ji," the Perfect Master who comes in this world, isn't bound by any of those barriers. He's been coming into this world again and again and again and again, to save us all, to take us beyond these limits that we always get tied into so much.

We are placed in this puzzle, taking, accepting the challenge to be able to solve this puzzle, and every time getting stuck, every time getting in a jam, every time coming to a dead end. And this opportunity is presented to all of us, is given for us to be able to once and for all come out, get away from this dilemma of back-andforth, from this dilemma of darkness and darkness, this dilemma of what you say is "bad." to become consistent, to be with Guru Maharaj Ji, to be in Guru Maharaj Ji's world. As far as happiness is concerned, the real happiness or any experience of happiness is with Guru Maharaj Ji, in Guru Maharaj Ji's world -- to live there, to be there, to experience that which is constant, that which is forever.

And how many centuries is it going to be before we, for ourselves, figure out that that's where we want to be: in Guru Maharaj Ji's world? And so desperately that we are going to make that effort? That's the big clincher. We sometimes don't make that effort to enter Guru Maharaj Ji's world. That door is open always. But where does our effort go, where does our effort disappear? Where does our effort dissipate into? Why does all of a sudden everything else have priority

except Guru Maharaj Ji? Why does every thing all of a sudden become much more important than Guru Maharaj Ji? Why does all of a sudden, when preparing or trying to prepare or becoming very strong -- "Yes, you're not going to buy into mind" -- how come all of a sudden the mind comes and takes you over? Doesn't it always seem to be this kind of an endless battle going on? And yet, is that where Guru Maharaj Ji wants you? Caught up tied up in an endless battle?

If that's where Guru Maharaj Ji wanted you, believe me there would be no more satsangs, because you're there. There would be no need for more inspiration. You have then in fact reached your destination: be confused, get caught up in your mind, let the mind come in and handle the show.

But all this -- again, this opportunity that is being provided is for us to get out there and just completely let go to Guru Maharaj Ji.

You know, that prayer really has to come from our heart -- not just a rhythm or song, or something like that -- but really from our heart that prayer has to come. "Take me -- what I am -- and make me

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what you want me to be. By my endless and grave errors, I have made myself what I have made myself and yet your power and your omnipresence can make me what you want me to be. And so I surrender to you. But … I want to be yours. I let go to you. I want to be with you."

And then we can be there in Guru Maharaj Ji that way. Not like sitting in a bus. opening our window and saying, "Hey, Guru Maharaj Ji, here I am." And the bus takes off. Or like what sometimes people do to hitchhikers. There's a poor guy who's trying to hitchhike. They pull up their cars about ten, twenty paces from them, "Come on." And then these hitchhikers run and they take off.

Who are we? What are we so proud or? Have we really looked at ourselves in a mirror and gone beyond our face, our skin, our bones, our blood, our flesh? Gone beyond all that and really looked in? Have we really looked at ourselves, how much we need to be in fact saved? It just seems that every day we just come to a barrier, we just come to a point and we just get stuck there. Maybe that's where we want to be, because we know there -- we have been there -- and maybe, perhaps, we can cope with it all. Sometimes it's, "Oh yeah. This is it. This is my limit."

And Guru Maharaj Ji calls out again and again and again, "No, keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming." Because the experience that I want to give to -- because see, we try to imagine the experience Guru Maharaj wants for us, and then somehow that experience that we imagine that Guru Maharaj has to give to us becomes our experience. And when our imagination runs out, so does our experience. Because we sort of have it all figured out. We give our thoughts the fuel and when the fuel runs out, our thoughts run out, our experience runs out, everything runs out.

To pray to Guru Maharaj Ji from the heart -- sometimes even we get down to pray and you know where we get stuck in our prayers? "Hey, is Guru Maharaj Ji going to listen to us? Is Guru Maharaj Ji really going to listen to this prayer?" And really the only answer to that is, "Are you praying?" If you are praying then Guru Maharaj Ji is going to listen to that prayer.

I have seen things that, for this world, would be miracles. I don't care a toot about miracles. To me, you know what miracles are? A perfectly good tire blows up. That's a miracle. There's no reason why it should blow up and it just blows up. A perfectly good light bulb that's been glowing and giving light goes off. That's a miracle.

You know what else is a miracle? Once in England we were at this house and it was right across from a graveyard. And at nighttime, the doors used to open and close and the floors would creak. There'd be probably premies or somebody walking around, but it just -- that's a miracle! No electric motor, no bungee springs, no hydraulic systems, no pneumatic systems. But the door opens and closes.

The way we have taken these miracles and clung on to them -- everything is a miracle. This is a miracle. These guys take a picture; it's a miracle -- freeze everything right there.These guys can play music; it's a miracle. For that matter, what isn't a miracle? I see so many premies here are wearing glasses and some of you are probably wearing contacts, too. That's a miracle. Your eyes go a little funny and you put these things on and you see straight again.

Time, by which -- the factor that we have accepted, that does everything in this world, time that heals the wounds -- is right on my wrist: a "tick-tick" that tells me what the time is.

But what Guru Maharaj Ji does is his Grace, which is beyond all miracles. Miracles don't stand up to Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. Miracles …where miracles stop, at the farthest end, that's where Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace begins. And we get caught up in so many miracles.

In Shri Maharaj Ji's satsang, he was saying that one day he locked himself in a room and he just said, "If you are really

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker Dressed As Krishna 1979
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji Going Onstage 1979
Guru Maharaj Ji, if Guru Maharaj Ji is really real …" -- and this was before he was Guru Maharaj Ji and he had his Guru Maharaj Ji -- he said, "If Guru Maharaj is really real … "I guess for him devotion was that strong, his love for his Guru Maharaj Ji was strong, that even when he prayed from his real heart, "I want to see you," Guru Maharaj Ji came and gave him darshan in that way.

What is a miracle? You cannot call this a miracle. You have to call it Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. Because it is a little bit one step beyond it. It is a phenomenon. For that stupid, scrupulous mind it's a coincidence. But for that devotee who can see beyond that, it is no coincidence. It's Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace.

There is this one story that Shri Maharaj Ji used to really like to tell. One day he was travelling. He was just walking and he had to go from this one place to the other place and he was walking through this pretty dense jungle. All of sudden it was nightfall. And so he came to a place where they had a well and a little hut. So he stopped off in there. And he didn't have a rope and he didn't have a bucket for the water and he didn't have any food and he was hungry. So again, he asked his Guru Maharaj Ji, requested his Guru Maharaj Ji. And do you know what happens? Two premies come walking through there.

One was a soldier and the other, his wife. And they had food and they gave their food to Guru Maharaj Ji and they had bucket and they had a rope and they got some water out of the well and had satsang. It was really beautiful.

In our little sectors, all this doesn't belong, all this doesn't happen. Yet remember one thing: that that Guru Maharaj Ji, who is creator, who is the Sustainer, and 'who is the Destroyer, has love enough for his devotees to come onto this Earth for his devotees; then absolutely, unquestionably, there are no bounds to what can happen. All we have to do is to become that devotee, to have that devotion.

That's all: that faith, that surrender, to Guru Maharaj Ji, that love that is sincere, that comes from our hearts for Guru Maharaj Ji. Not in our imagination, but in reality. If we can become a devotee …

If there is Guru Maharaj Ji and then a devotee, when they join, then there is devotion. And it is said that when that happens, when Guru Maharaj Ji and a devotee are bound together by devotion, then the purpose of that soul that devotee has been completed. That's it. There is no more to be done. There is

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker 1979
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji Going Onstage 1979
nothing left to be done. It has received the stage beyond liberation. It has received, it has joined, it has merged in the state which is beyond, above and beyond -- joined its Creator. It has joined its Owner. It has joined where it came from; it has joined back to its own.

Like a drop of water merging into the ocean, there is no more. There is no more identity, there is no more to be -- that drop doesn't have to fall. That drop now doesn't have to be a drop. That drop now doesn't have to go through the consequences of perhaps hitting a hot place and cold place and evaporating, or hitting a cold place and becoming a drop of snow … nothing. It has now the satisfaction -- if you can simply imagine the satisfaction -- of that drop joining the ocean.

For such a continuous cycle that drop went thousands of miles as a cloud and rained somewhere and became part of river. And then as soon as it joins that ocean, in itself it becomes the ocean. That tiny little drop becomes the ocean, because there is no more to distinguish it. You cannot distinguish that drop from that ocean anymore.

In our lives, to have this completion, to be what we are here for … because your imagination can only go so far. Your imagination can only carry you to a certain extent. After that, the stupid imagination just quits. And that's it. You can't use it for any good purpose or any bad purpose.

And for so long we come to that point and just stop. And that's where Guru Maharaj Ji picks us up. That's where we have to let Guru Maharaj come in our life. Now. For how long are we going to be lost? Guru Maharaj Ji is offering us that opportunity for which the saint says that you can take all the pens -- all the wood in the whole world and turn it into pens -- and take all the oceans and turn them into ink, and take all the earth and turn it into paper and try to write the glory of Guru Maharaj Ji: you cannot!

Even our arti, the way we sing, "You are my brother, you are my father, you are my … you are my everything." And we have to make that a reality. Guru Maharaj Ji really has to become everything to us: our friend, our life. We have to somehow disappear.

And that is the only way we can disappear: by our devotion, to be completely locked in Guru Maharaj Ji's love; by our devotion, to completely merge in Guru Maharaj Ji.

And so then comes the part of, "How do you have devotion?" Again, devotion is the miracle which is beyond all miracles. Devotion is that thing that so many saints and so many people have constantly thirsted and thirsted and thirsted for.

When Hanuman and Ram were there, Ram asks Hanuman, "Okay, I grant you a boon. Ask what you would like to ask. Would you like something? Would you like salvation? Would you like liberation?"

And all Hanuman could say was, "What am I going to do with salvation? What am I going to do up there? I want to be with you. That's where I shall find my salvation, that's where I shall find my liberation: in your Feet."

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Look. For so long as we try to run our own show. It isn't a matter of one year or one. show. It's a matter of how many years: ten years, twenty years, thirty years. We try to run our own show and every show that we run it, it's a failure. Don't you think it's about time we let somebody else run the show? Isn't it about time somebody else gave us that inspiration?

We all talk about experience. Grow up: "That's an experienced guy." That's an experienced guy and he has this experience, he has that experience. All these experiences.

And I guess, since we are very little, we always try to experience things. We have to touch things. We have to touch the fire to experience it's hot or touch the ice to experience it's cold, stick our fingers in the outlets to experience that's no-no -- whatever. We figure out that sharp things cut us.

And all these experiences that we go through are always negative, negative, negative. I know that you can walk up to people and ask them to tell you a joke. They might not have a joke. You don't even have to ask them for a joke. You can ask them for a funny incident or a happy incident in their life sometimes. They might not remember a happy incident in their life. But if you ask them to tell you about a sad incident in their life, they shall. They will.

Because we become so familiar with a negative experience. Just like when something nice happens we smile, but remember, we cry a lot more sometimes than we smile. Because we get so familiar with it. It is one after another after another. It's just negative experiences. Even in this world, to try to make us more idiotic than we really are even, sometimes, or to increase our stupidness, there is that saying, "Cry and you cry alone. Smile and the world will smile with you."

Now whoever said that didn't know what was going on. He got the crying and the smiles confused with each other, I think. As a matter of fact, the fact is he didn't know what was going on at all.

Because you can cry as much as you want and nobody will cry with you. And you can smile and you can laugh your head out, and still nobody will laugh with you. Because we come in this world alone, we go from this world alone. We dream up. We try to do things -- nothing. Becomes such an empty affair.

We try to save our lives for those little tiny moments that we felt were pleasant. Almost a lifetime of misery -- lifetime of misery perhaps -- for four moments of happiness. Still you see people -- fifty years old, thirty years old, sixty years old -- "The nicest thing that ever happened to me …" and they'll name one. For sixty years -- one thing that happened that was the nicest thing? That's it?

When it really comes down to it, what is it all about? So we can look and see all that. It can make sense to us, that opportunity Guru Maharaj Ji is talking about. It is an opportunity: to surrender, to fulfill our purpose.

And all Guru Maharaj Ji is asking of us is to make that little effort happen. That's a little effort. It's that little faith, it's that tie of devotion to Guru Maharaj Ji -- not into this world. And for an instant experience: now. For that experience that our heart yearns and yearns and yearns for.

Why is it so easy to get lost in the world and why is it so hard to pull out of it? Have you ever noticed that? And if that is really true, then it resembles a trap. You know what a trap is all about? Easy to get into, but impossible to get out of. And it's like we are these people who keep walking everywhere and hearing these clicks. "Click, click, click."

And it never dawns on us to ever look down and ever try to figure out what those clicks are all about. And Guru Maharaj Ji comes along and says, "Hey, try looking down a little bit, too. You're in traps." And even sometimes, even then, it never dawns on us. Sometimes we become so involved in these reflections that we forget where the real thing really is.

It's like that example of this queen who

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker With Initiators 1979

lost her necklace. And so she went to the king and said, "Well, I want my necklace back."

The king said, "Well, we can have a necklace made for you just like that."

And what happened is she took her necklace off and hung it on a hook while she was drying her hair and a crow came, picked up the necklace and took off. And the queen became very frustrated and very mad and very upset and said, "No, I want that particular necklace back."

And the king has everybody looking for it. Finally he announces, "Whoever can find that necklace can have half of my kingdom."

And here were two travellers, just walking down near the city sewage river. They look down and, "Hey! Look at that! There is the necklace!" Pow, jump right into it. "I want half the kingdom" Jump right into it and try to grab for the necklace. But can't. So they get out and they see it again. They jump again. They get out and see it again and jump again, thinking to themselves, "Man, that's a clever thief. Because every time we get out we can see it, but then when we get into it. it disappears."

Just like this maya, just like this illusion. Here we are: everything looks great. Jump into it: there is no experience. Isn't it like that?

I mean, sitting there it's like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll be great; it'll be wonderful. It'll be great; it'll be wonderful. It'll be great; it'll be wonderful." And then you end up in it. "Oh God, I want to get. out."

How many of us have fallen prey to that? So easily. And not once, but again and again and again this same thing keeps happening.

And so finally the general comes and he sees these two guys jumping up and down in and out of the river, and he says, "What are you doing?"

They say, "Well, there is the necklace and we want it."

And the general figures, "Well, if I go in there and get it, I'll own half the kingdom." So he jumps in there.

And the king comes by, and king sees the general going in and out of the river and says, "What are you doing?"

He says, "Well, there is the necklace …"

And the king figures, "Well, why don't I jump in and get it? That way I won't lose half of my kingdom." So he jumps in.

And, as it should end, Guru Maharaj Ji comes walking by and says, "What are you guys doing? Can't you see that that's just a mere reflection? The thing that you're looking for is up there."

Again and again, we look for some kind of pleasure, we look for some kind of a happiness in this illusion, in this maya. We keep jumping in and out, in and out, in and out until sometimes we even make an idiot out of ourselves. And Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Look. All You have to do is surrender to me and you will have that

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Prem Rawat Inspirational Speaker Dressed As Krishna 1979
Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji Onstage 1979
happiness. The source from where all this happiness derives, I can give to you."

It's like that: always wishing and desiring, always wanting, wanting, wanting. And then when it comes down to it, just spacing out at the last moment. Because that opportunity Guru Maharaj Ji is giving to us right now. All we have to do is take it. All we have to do is just take it. Surrender.

We surrender to everything. Can it really be that hard to surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji? Can it really be that hard to have faith in Guru Maharaj Ji? Can it really be that hard to love Guru Maharaj Ji? Can it really be as hard as we make it sometimes for ourselves to have devotion for Guru Maharaj Ji? I mean, aren't we humans? And isn't it all for us, to have faith?

And we can. It's just that we have to get on the right track. We have to quit looking out so much.

Sometimes they tie these two flaps on either side of a horse's head. And sometimes I feel this is what we all need. Because the reason they do that is so the horse can't look everywhere. All he can see is straight ahead. If he looks that way then he can see, but if he tries to look this way or that way, he can't see anything because it's all covered.

Because all of a sudden in our lives, when we hate everything -- "God, you know, this world is nuts" -- it almost reminds me of somebody going out, ready to commit suicide from this bridge. They're just about ready to jump and out comes Guru Maharaj and holds him. "What are you doing? I can give you an experience that you have always wanted and could never have from this world."

And he hands him that experience. And because that guy was so fed up with this experience of this world, he wanted to end his life. Now that he has the experience that he was looking for, he wants to go back into this world, which in the first place drove him nuts.

Sometimes, maybe, to a lot of us, it feels good to be driven nuts. But if it does, there is something awfully wrong with you. Because that's not what we are here for.

So premies, all I can say is to make that effort really happen in your life. I'm telling you, it's not that difficult. It isn't. It's the "most simplest" thing. Perhaps it's even oversimplified. And all we have to do is try from our heart. All we have to be is sincere when we say that prayer to Guru Maharaj Ji. "Take me. Do with me whatever you want. Take me to the place where you want to take me."

And so, premies, make the effort.

I don't know, it's nice to just come here, to be able to have satsang. Wonderful. It's just incredible. Satsang -- just to be here, not in the state fairground -- feels so much like home, so much at home. All we have to do is make that effort as sincerely as we can. That's all.

And anyway, I guess there will be tours happening more and more -- whatever. And Hans Jayanti is coming up. It's very close. So, I guess, I'll see you all at Hans Jayanti. It's going to be a big festival, as you all know. Just don't let go, whatever you do.

Thank you very much and blessings to all the premies.

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