Hans Rawat aka Shri Hans Ji Maharaj

Supreme Peace

This satsang was given by Shri Maharaj Ji in February, 1964, in Delhi

Dear Gentlemen, people living in and out of India have different customs, and therefore different opinions of me. Some think that I am Christian; some think that I am Mohammedan; some think that I am Yahudist; still others think that I am a Buddhist or a Jain. Their ideas and names are all simply the results of customs or culture. Let me ask you: where were you and what were you before you were born? Were you Christian, Buddhist, or Mohammedan then? And when and what will you be after you have left this body?

Do you think people should be despised because of their color, their job or because they are rich or poor? I tell you that with the practice of true meditation, all differences disappear. Do not think that true meditation makes everybody One. It is not possible to do this because we are already One. Through meditation, we realize this Oneness and it is our duty to come to this realization, just as it is the duty of our eyes to see and our ears to hear.

You talk of the Age of Darkness, but do you know what it is? What are the Ages of Man? It is said that in the Age of Truth, righteousness has four pillars and sin one. Therefore sin remains in the form of a seed. In Treta, there are three pillars of righteousness and two of sin. In Dwapara there are two parts of righteousness and three of sin, and in the Age of Darkness, there is one part of righteousness and four of sin, which means that righteousness remains in the form of a seed. Nevertheless, good people are increasing and the bad are decreasing. Just as a huge tree puts out tiny seeds, and although the mature tree will soon fall or be cut down, many new trees will be, at the same time, springing up all around it.

To start spreading good, we must understand Dharma, that is, righteousness. What is righteousness? Righteousness is meditating upon God. All men, regardless of caste, color or creed, should do this, for what is the use of a changeable religion, a religion which depends on such outward things as the color of your skin or where you live? We can only use something which is permanent, eternal and unchangeable, and that is the power of God. Righteousness means to realize God. This is for every living man. Every living man wants peace and happiness. Nobody can deny this. Anybody who wants peace and happiness and the realization of God can take this Knowledge and attain this thing.

Once I went to the Russian Ambassador in India, and he told me that the Russian people do not believe in God. I told him that we can't "not believe" in something which has no existence. The mere fact that we say we do not believe in God proves that God is and that we're just not accepting Him. I told him that he did not believe in God but accepted peace. He said yes, he did believe in that which is called peace. I then told him that this peace is the very thing which we call God. Our scriptures refer to Him as "Supreme Peace" and "Supreme Happiness".

God is full of bliss, pure consciousness and truth. Being omnipresent, He is present in every atom, in all life, and in our hearts. But in ignorance, we search for happiness outside our hearts, just as the thirsty deer, wandering in the desert in search of water, chases a mirage. The more the deer runs, the thirstier it gets, until finally, the sun sets, the mirage disappears and the deer gives up hope and dies of thirst.

A similar example is the young boy who thinks that grownups are happy. He thinks that he will be happy when he is married. He gets

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The Name Of God is indestructible. It alone is the true giver Of happiness. You will feel this happiness when you remember the Name Of God and fix your mind there. Shri Maharaj Ji

married and still is not happy. He then thinks that raising a family will bring happiness, or acquiring grandchildren. A man starts out with two legs. When he becomes involved with marriage, he has four legs, like crushing out the sweetness in sugar cane. When a son comes, he has six legs. When his son is married, he has eight legs, like a spider which spins a web from within itself and gets entangled in that web. When grandchildren come, he gets thirty-two legs, like a centipede which bores in and must be removed with a hot iron or by sugar.

Thus the real happiness lies within and we will never get it by searching outside. Happiness and peace are within. God is within. His Name is within. This is reality. Just as there is a difference between a natural flower and an artificial one, there is a temple constructed by human beings and there is the natural temple.

The Name of God is indestructible. It alone is the true giver of happiness. When will you feel the happiness? You will feel this happiness when you remember the Name of God and fix your mind there. I can only taste a glass of milk if I drink it. Remembrance of the Name turns poison into nectar. Tulsidas says that Rama could save the lady of stone by touching her with his feet, but this Name, which is in the heart of everyone, is such that it gives salvation to millions.

Remembrance is reality and we can only come to know this through practice. A man who has Knowledge and does not practice, will find no advantage in it. Some people read the Gita, the Koran or the Vedas. Which is better - to read the scriptures or to fix your mind on God? The whole aim of the scriptures is that the mind be fixed on God.

In what form should our remembrance be? It should be independent of all externals. For instance, you must sit some place to read the Gita, Ramayana, Upanishads or to perform evening prayer. You must sit some place to tell a rosary. If you want to be in a religious place, you have to journey thither. But the true Name is such that its remembrance may be performed no matter where you go or how you get there.

But one thing you must relinquish before seeking this Knowledge is all form of fraud or deception. Kabir says that those persons are blind who attempt to cheat the Guru. If the Lord is angry, the Guru can intercede and forgive the offender, but if the Guru is angry, who can save a man?

Once a seeker went to the Satguru of the time and said that he wished to see God with these mortal eyes. The Satguru made him understand these matters. There is one path, and however many times it is questioned or brought into ill repute by false devotees, it is still the single path to God. The seeker must receive Knowledge from the Guru and see God with his divine eye.

Harmony should be followed and fraud given up; if not, the result is always bad. Why should anyone deceive or waste the time of a Guru? He does so because he desires money, women, children or other worldly things. Think a little about where your mind goes, for where it goes there is your attention fixed. What is the point of fixing the mind in worldly affairs if you have a Guru? Obey the orders of the Guru and fix the mind in the Name of God. If the mind wanders, fix it again in the Name of God. Try to make the mind understand that all other things are temporary.

Hence be engaged in the practice of Knowledge after acquiring it. This is the goal of existence.

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Hans Rawat aka Shri Hans Ji Maharaj