
Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji the Perfect Master Answer Questions 1972
PREM RAWAT (GURU MAHARAJ JI) ANSWERS QUESTIONS IN DELHI, INDIA, during December, 1972.
What is your mission in the world?
Our mission is to bring peace, love and truth into this world. Man is supposed to be human, but actually he has lost his humanity. That's why there is so much frustration, so much jealousy, and so much hatred between human beings. We have started this mission and it's working very, very successfully distributing love, truth and peace so that the idea of brotherhood can come into the world.
All the saints have been trying to give something to people so that they might be in perfect union with God. Jesus came and He gave something. He gave the lesson of love, but He didn't only speak of love, He gave something that put people into love. I am doing the same thing now, giving something to people so that they might be in complete love, so that they might be in the true love which flows towards God rather than the love which flows towards materialism. The love which flows towards materialism is very limited because all materialistic things are limited. Suppose I love this fan and this fan comes to an end. If it breaks, then my love will break. But God is something that can't break. Love towards God is very pure, and such love will increase and spread.
As you know, many countries are fighting or trying to fight just because they think that they are
54
enemies and that they must destroy. The idea should be brought out that people are not enemies, but are children of God. All have been made by God, and it's not good if a brother fights with a brother. You see, what I want to accomplish, or what I want to bring down onto the earth, is peace. That's my point, to give this Knowledge, this Word, this Light, which has been revealed by all the saints.
Is seeing Divine Light the end goal of your Knowledge or just the beginning?
The point is, if I say that I own a Mercedes, someone can think I mean I own a 200-D, which is a very cheap car, right? Yet I might be owning a Mercedes 600 which costs about $15,000. If I say "sun," you can understand, because you can see the light of the sun. And when I say "Light," you at once think of the light you see daily. We always compare everything with whatever practical, experience we have of life. If somebody says, "I saw a tall man," you will probably try to imagine if he was as tall as the big fellow you saw or not. The point is that in talking of Light we just use the terminology "light" because there isn't any other terminology, and we don't want to just sit here and not talk about the experience we have gained. But actually this is an infinite experience and not like the light of the sun. So the point is that if you want to see God, if you want to be one with God, you will have to be as big as God is.
In New York there is an Empire State Building. If you are standing at the bottom of it and want to see all of it, you have to lean all the way back and still you might not be able to see very clearly, because it is so high. But if you reach to that height, if you are parallel to that height, you will be able to see what is there very clearly. In the same way, God is perfect, God is infinite, but we are all finite. If we want to reach to that level where we can see God and experience God, then we are forced to become infinite, and to get infinite is the process of Knowledge, of knowing what is unknown to us.
Now there are many things that are unknown to us, but there is one unknown thing that is inside of us. And the revealing of that unknown thing is called Knowledge. When we know it and when we understand it, we become infinite, and big enough to see God and be one with God. Because unless and until you have had that experience, it's difficult for you to say where it starts and where it ends. If I say that I have had a blessed experience, it means that I always think of that experience and it affects me in my heart because I have had it. But if I tell someone else that I have had a blessed experience, it means nothing to them. Until and unless they realize this Knowledge, it's just a word, it's just a sentence to them. It is impossible to understand theoretically.
Because there is an Old Testament, a New Testament, Jesus, so many priests, so many churches, so many different sects of Christianity, the people don't understand. Still people are fighting. Still people are ignorant of what the whole system is, because they are limited. If you talk theoretically, it's limited. But when you come to the practical experience, it's unlimited.
A student will learn definitions because if he doesn't he will get caning in school. He can learn the definition of the Archimedes Principle and recite it ten times. If you take another student and don't tell him to recite or learn anything, but instead have him perform the experiment of the Archimedes Principle, then immediately he will know what the Archimedes Principle is.
There was a time when the Bible was not written and then came a point when it was set down. There was a time when the Archimedes Principle wasn't known. It was existing, but it wasn't known to the people of that time. And then Archimedes experienced it and he wrote the whole book. He wrote the whole definition; he wrote the whole explanation. So this is why I want to speak less in theories and more in practical terms about the Knowledge and make people understand, because theory is not enough. If I talk about Knowledge, if I talk about Light, you can read the same ideas in the Bible, in the Ramayana, and all of those books. But the practical thing doesn't exist in those books.
Reading the Bible is not enough. Reading my physics book is not enough for me. I have to go to the lab and be practical, because that theory is not complete until I perform the experiment. When I perform the experiment, then I say, "All right, now I know it, now I understand it." In the same way, first you read, and then you come to the practicality of it. And then you can even understand how the theory came to be written.
And you can give the Knowledge to understand all this in just a short time?
To describe yourself would probably take you much time. You would have to tell me what color you are, how big your eyes are, what color your eyes are, what color your hair is, and so on, right? But if I put a mirror before you and you give an instant glance, you will be able to see who you are. It might take such a long time to explain this, but an instant glance won't
55
take much time, will it? It's instant because the whole thing is directly before you.
But first you have to get hooked up. You see, if there is an amplifier, a record player and two speakers, and the wires aren't hooked up, the record player can play infinitely but there won't be a sound coming out of the speakers. The speakers must be hooked up. That is why when Jesus was alive only those people who used to stay near Him experienced the Bliss of Him. They were blissed out completely and they understood Him. Other people, like the soldiers who were hurting Him, who got a cross and were killing Him and nailing Him, did not experience a single thing until it was all over,until it was too late for them to understand. This is the point.
If one channel is open you understand it that way. If another channel is open you understand it that way. And if all channels are\ open, then you understand it that way. If a man comes eager to know this Knowledge, he receives it one way. If a man comes as a press interrogator, he understands it in another way. It's an instantaneous process but the question is, how do we want to know? Are we directly hooked up?
What makes a person get hooked up or not?
You see, it's not in man's hands. A person by himself is nothing. Many people believe that they are this or that, but these people are nothing. There are some people who have many qualifications and are very educated, but there are other people who are also people but who are not educated and who are not qualified. They have brains, eyes, noses, they have everything, but still they are not so intellectual or intelligent. And then again there are some people who live for a hundred years, and other people who just bark and die. It's not in man's hands.
Men have made so many safety devices, but what has been accomplished? They have made these cars with 5 mph safety bumpers, with power brakes, with so many things, but still there are accidents. They have made airplanes, but still there are accidents, and even if a man does not ride in an airplane and just sits in his house, how can he ignore death?
See, God has three properties, Generator, Operator and Destroyer. G is for Generator, O is for Operator and D is for Destroyer. He has generated us, and that part is finished because we are already born. He will destroy us and that will also happen, it will be a sudden death. But there's one point, He is operating us, and that is the biggest point. That is the biggest "O." To some people it's just a zero and nothing more. It means nothing to them whatsoever, though they are living, though they are breathing.
What is the power that makes you breathe? It is very hard to make a self-generated unit, right? Or a self-complete unit. If we take a motor and hook it up to the electricity, hook it up to all the wires and so on, and get a generator working on it, and hook the generator bac'k into the motor, it won't work out. But man is a self-contained unit because of that energy, that power. What is it? Until and unless we know it, we are not satisfied, though we might think about it in one way or another.
Ask someone. Ask the people to whom God's "O," His middle letter, means zero instead of "O." They drink liquor just like water. Ask them why they do it. "We get pleasure." What is the pleasure? What is the meaning of pleasure? "We get happiness out of it." What is the meaning of happiness? Why do you go to a beach? Why do you want to look at the beautiful scenery? Because you get happiness. Why do you want to be happy? The saddest man wants to be happy, and the happiest man wants to be happier. Why? Why does man feel this happiness inside him? Just because there is a source that is activating the happiness. And we want to get infinitely happy.
But with these materialistic objects it is quite difficult, it is quite hard for us to get happy. Suppose we get a bottle of wine from our cupboard. We're very happy to see the whole big bottle before us, right? And then we empty it out. The happiness has gone in our stomachs, has gone to be digested, and after some time the effect is finished. People buy a new car or something and if it gets in an accident they say, "Wow, it's all gone!" For a while there's happiness, then craziness.
See, that thing which is activating happiness
56
within inside of us is infinite, because it always activates and makes us happy. If a worry comes along, why do we cry? Why do we want to be away from it? Just because we want to be happy. If we realize that thing inside we will always be happy, regardless of what happens to us. Then we can be in the nature of which Jesus spoke, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." "Love your enemies." Only then is it possible.
There are so many religious people in America, but still the war has gone on for such a long time. There have been so many revolts, but nothing has been accomplished. You see, they're crazy. Look at the whole world and you will see that they are not understanding anything. Because happiness is the thing that man wants to gain, and if he can just understand the thing that activates happiness and get into it, he will always be happy, because happiness comes from that.
Happiness is knowing yourself …
Knowing yourself and understanding yourself. Getting into infinity which has no end. Because why do you get sad? Happiness comes and it ends. And when the happiness ends you are sad. But if we get infinite there won't be any end to it. (This is the theoretical explanation.)
You see, God has been made into a balloon. People have been making many images for Him and trying to shape Him into them. Many people think God sits in a huge chair with a high back, like a judge with a long beard. That's how some artists imagine God. But who is God? What is God? See, there is a very thin membrane between us and God, and this is the membrane of illusion. A Guru has such a device that He can cut this membrane and it becomes practical and easy for us to see God. But it was very difficult for us at one time.
The Satguru is also called the Perfect Master in scriptures. All the scriptures say the same thing in different ways. I haven't read the whole Bible, but I've been able to learn some parts of John, and he says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." The same Word has been described in the Ramayana, in the Gita, in the Koran, and in all the scriptures, because it is Truth. The scriptures are all about one thing, and Truth is one. Once we have seen the Guru and have found that particular device with which we can cut through the thin membrane, it becomes very easy for us or for anyone to have God realization.
Guru just means the man who takes us away from darkness and puts us into Light. He takes us away from ignorance. It's like we don't know ABCD and He reveals ABCD to us. And whenever our Perfect Master has come in this world, He has never just stayed in the caves or in His room, but He has always come out and shouted before people, "Come and realize, come and know, come and understand." So whenever a Perfect Master has come into this earth, He has preached this, and it is our duty to understand. When the school has been opened, it becomes our duty to go there and receive education.
So realize the true idea, realize the Truth, and then we can cooperate to spread it. People say, "Oh, you've got only one cent, what can you do?" But they don't understand that one cent plus one cent plus one cent plus one cent can make millions and billions of dollars. One cent doesn't matter, but one zero zero zero zero zero zero zero may go to a billion, right? Remove one, and the zero zero means nothing. How much importance one has got! It's only one, but you can turn it into a billion, and if you remove it, if you remove the one, then there is nothing left. You can have millions and billions of zeros but they won't work.
In the same way, this Knowledge is such a great thing that we go, ask, beg, to have it given to us. We must not lose time, we must not waste time just because we are so concerned with these materialistic objects. It's okay if you think your hobby is to be connected to materialistic objects. It's okay, but connect yourselves to the Knowledge, realize the Knowledge also. You are giving food to your physical body, but try to give food to your internal spiritual body also.
57
This Knowledge is such a beautiful thing. If you are Christian, you can stay Christian and still realize the Knowledge. If you are Hindu, you can stay Hindu and still realize the Knowledge. No matter which religion you are following, you can stay in that religion and still receive the Knowledge and meditate on it. It won't change your religion but it will make you more strong in your religion.
This is a very precious gift. One farmer was walking in a desert and he saw a piece of glass. And he just said, "All right," and he threw it away. He thought, "Maybe it can hurt someone," so he threw it away. But a jeweler came and saw it, and he jumped, because it was a diamond, see? So man must be like a jeweler; he must pick up that diamond and start walking. Because there is some point to this Knowledge, there is some importance, there is some priority that has to be given to this Knowledge. Christ came, and then Rama, Krishna, and so many other Gurus came from the East, and there was some reason why they came and revealed this Knowledge. Because their teaching was to spread love, peace and truth, and they thought this was only possible through Knowledge. And it is only possible through Knowledge. Approximately five million people have received Knowledge by now, this is the latest count of all the followers, and all are in very good condition, you know? Now all have the idea of brotherhood.
Some people think there are other ways, like marijuana and other drugs, but no. Of those five million people, I think more than a million have taken drugs and found them useless. Because Knowledge is something that is built in within us. It is like an energy cell that is built in. It's not like an optional accessory. And marijuana is like an accessory that's lying outside, that you just take, right? But it's of no use, because there is a whole internal marijuana inside us. We try to get it from outside, but it is inside us.
And this won't make us go flat, you know, like marijuana and LSD do. They make us flat. We drive a car and see the road, but think it is something else. I was watching television in America and this movie came on, "Hawaii Five-O." And it showed all these people who take LSD, and this girl started driving her motorcycle but she just fell on the beach. She was seeing all the roads going wide and long. So there is no need of those things. The internal thing is excellent. The internal LSD is very powerful. There's no need to waste money, no need to waste time. Wherever you like, just take it, it's okay.
Like there is a saying in the Gita, Arjuna was told by Krishna on the battlefield, "Receive this Knowledge and fight also. Meditate on this
Knowledge and go on fighting." And if Arjuna had taken LSD he wouldn't have been able to fight. Because he would have seen his arrow getting so long…Arjuna had something internal, not like that drug. That's what I am distributing to people. That's what I am revealing before you. And it's really good, it's really something inside us.
When the school has been opened, it becomes our duty to go there and receive education.
Are you able to travel outside your body?
Outside my body? See, the question is, why should I? God has given me this body and even leaving this body for a second is not good. Because I won't get the body the next time. The human body is a precious jewel. Why should I leave it? God has given me this precious thing. I always try to stay in it and give peace to people, all right? Anything else?
There are so many teachers and gurus. How do we
58
solve the problem of knowing who has had God realization?
You see, suppose you want colors and you know a certain shop usually sells paints and enamels. So you go there, but even though the sign in front says they specialize in them, they don't have the colors at all. Then you try other shops, and finally you find the right shop and get what you need.
Do you think that there are a number of people who have come to God realization?
At least five million have realized God through Divine Light Mission. And now an average of about a thousand daily are realizing Him.
What are the different methods employed at different Divine Light Mission centers to bring people to God realization?
Well, there's only one method. First they are introduced to the Knowledge by someone. Then there is our literature which people read and understand that this is the practical Knowledge that is being offered, that this is the Knowledge that we are all interested in finding. And then it is a simple process, as has been described, "Ask and you shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you." They ask for it and they are given. The people working at the different centers are like apostles, like disciples. And some disciples are called mahatmas; they reveal this Knowledge, but they do not give this Knowledge. If it was a process of giving, it might be difficult for them. But it is a process of revealing, so it is very easy.
The whole world today is stuck. The scriptures say "God exists," but people are stuck on this point, that God exists. When a scripture says "God exists" it means God exists! Realize Him! He is realiz able. His existence is provable. Prove it to yourselves. Know it to yourselves. Understand it to yourselves. The whole problem in the world today is no matter what religion a person believes in, he must understand that God is realizable now, in this century, in this age of darkness. So this is the whole process to know God. This is the whole process to understand God. And once we approach the proper source, it is not at all difficult because He knows what to do. We just give ourselves into His hands.
The problem has been that God is infinite and a finite thing is not able to deal with the infinite. Until the finite becomes infinite it is quite impossible. Because a relationship between God and a human being is not possible. But Guru or Perfect Master - what is the meaning of Perfect Master? The man who teaches us math we call a math master. The man who teaches us physics we call a physics master. The man who teaches us perfectness we call a Perfect Master. He teaches us perfectness and then we become a master of perfectness. Not a Perfect Master, but a master of perfectness when we have perfectly realized the perfect Knowledge. And because perfection is infinite we also become infinite. Then the relationship between us and God is possible.
I would like to receive Knowledge. Is it possible tonight?
Yes, If you are ready, it is possible.
What must one do to be ready to receive Knowledge?
One should listen to the introduction. One should listen to more and more satsang, the discourses, which will provide the basic background or idea in his head of what Knowledge is. And then he will be able to compare whether this Knowledge will really help him or not.
When you go to buy a car, first you ask questions. What is the cost of the car? How many years is it guaranteed? How many years will it last? You want all the details about the car before you buy, it, right? In the same way, before you receive this Knowledge, before you become ready to receive this Knowledge, you should know all the basics, all the background of this Knowledge. You should know how this Knowledge will help you, and whether this will give you potatoes or this will give you lady fingers or this will give you tomatoes - what this will give you. If you know that eating tomatoes is going to give you peace, then you don't require this Knowledge, because you require tomatoes and this Knowledge won't give you tomatoes. But if you really require peace, then compare it, okay? "I require peace. This is perfect. Okay, I'll receive it." Right?
And you can do that once you have heard the introduction, once you have listened to more and more of the discourses, understand? So you just have to listen to discourses to become ready to take it.
How long does it take to receive it?
If a man is ready, very ready, he just has to be kicked and his engine starts, maybe in just fifteen minutes. But usually it takes five hours, because people have got layers and layers of doubts and questions, and those layers have to be taken out with a hammer and a nail and all that equipment. And finally everything comes out and the man receives Knowledge.
59