
Make-Believe World
Excerpts from Prem Rawat's satsang on 29, 30 August 1975 in Essen, Germany.
Dear people, in this world it's hard to experience love. It's extremely hard to go out and try to assess love, to evaluate love. And that is because we don't realize one thing: that love is a standard feature which is built in inside of us when we come into this world. You see? It's a standard feature, you don't pay anything extra for it, and you don't have to request it. It's always there.
That love, that very subtle experience, that very beautiful experience is what we all want to experience. But it's hard for us to really understand what love can be, because all our lives we have tried to evaluate love, we have tried to say that the experience is going to be a certain way. All our lives we've searched for it; all our lives we've tried to feel it. We have used all our bodily senses trying to experience that beauty, that joy, that perfection, that ultimate experience.
If you look at this whole world today, something really mind-blowing is happening; something that just whacks us right on our face. We just couldn't expect it, couldn't imagine it, and couldn't understand it, either. And we call it "the energy crisis". This world was going and going and going and going, expecting all these things, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, there is an "energy crisis". I tell you, people don't know what to think about it.
Yet that energy crisis has really taught us one lesson - that there is something else. In this whole world, whatever we experience, there is something which is different, something that is more, something that we don't understand but that we need to and want to understand.
This world is going nuts, this world is going totally bananas over, "Oh no! What's gonna happen? The gas prices are too high," and this and this and this and this. But go to a mirror and look at yourself. You're still there. And it's so beautiful. Because what puts you together, that energy that sustains you, is different. It's not having a crisis. It has not gone away yet. I tell you, that's such a reassuring feeling. That's such a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful feeling. And it's that energy that we have to understand.
This whole world is perishable; it's going to perish one day. What do we expect - to live forever? Yet nobody sits down and really tries to figure out, "What are we doing in this world anyway?"
Here we have a human body, so perfect, so intricate, so divine. We have this earth all to ourselves, and it's so beautifully engineered. I mean it beats anybody else's engineering. We have everything, we enjoy everything, and we use everything every day. But do we ever in our lifetime just pause for one second, turn around, and say, "What are we doing here?" There are very few people who do that.
There is so much motion, but nobody is understanding it, nobody is relating to it, nobody is finding out what is that thing which is motionless and still makes everything move in this world. When people experience that is when people realize.
When that beautiful, beautiful experience comes to us, when we realize it, understand it, know it, and feel it, we call it, "getting blissed out". Because that's what it is. That's what bliss is, that subtle, very, very fine experience of this Knowledge.
So don't be like a baby who sits down and imagines everything. He imagines that this is going to happen, and that's going to happen, the big monster is gonna come, and he is gonna pick up his papa's rifle, shoot at the monster, and the monster is not gonna get stopped, and … I mean, he imagines and he imagines. And he does things because of that imagination. He builds a little but for himself, a little hideout place. He makes a little house out of cardboard boxes so when the boogie- man or the big monster comes at him, he can hide there.
He gets into it so much. He thinks about it, thinks about it, thinks about it, thinks about it, and thinks about it so much, so much, that it becomes real to him. It becomes fact for him. And therefore there is a monster coming. He takes out his papa's rifle, cocks it, loads it, and he aims it at that so-called monster. He does everything.
But does anything really happen? No. And this is what we do in this world, but the other way around. We imagine happiness. We say, "Well, how is happiness gonna come to us? It just might come to us if we have a good dinner." So we go and have a good dinner, but we don't get happy. Then we say, "How is happiness gonna come to us? Maybe if we buy a new watch?" We go out, buy a new watch, and then say, "Naah, this is not it. Maybe we should do this," and we do that.
31

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji In Germany, August 1975
We make-believe in ourselves, something. And for that something, we do everything. See? This is what the world is all about. Peek out of your windows, and you will see that whatever there is in this world, from that ten-story shopping center to that little Volkswagen, is make-believe. It is no different than that little child's world. The only difference is the scale, the proportion it's done in is so big, so huge, that there is so much worthless energy put into it, that man just wastes this beautiful lifetime.
You know, there are so many sad things to talk about. We can sit here and get to a point where everybody will start crying - not because of happiness, but because of sadness. But wait. I've just told you about this world's misery, and I have told you that man has just built a make-believe world, and in such a gigantic proportion that it's incredible. And it's no good; it's no use. It's like when this little boy Aaron came to my house in Los Angeles, and we were moving. We had these big boxes which we threw out the door. Well, what he did was he got in there, took his knife, and he made little windows and little doors. I saw it, and I was really pleased. I said, "Aaron, you got a pretty good house there." But I couldn't imagine doing that to the real house, going in there and making a hole in the wall, trying to dig out a window and a door, and everything. Yet this is exactly what happens.
From that little box, which by itself was okay to build, man's crazy mind has taken him to the point where he is now. But wait. The most beautiful part is that we can experience the Knowledge. That means we have got it made. That means we are home safe. It's beautiful, because in spite of all that, whatever is in this world, if we have experienced this Knowledge, if we have experienced this Truth, everything is okay.
It's so beautiful that we have all - young, small, big, old, all of us - paused for a second and understood that there is a purpose to being alive, that there is a reason why we should be here, there is definitely a reason. And now we have to realize that reason, and that reason is this beautiful, beautiful, incredible Knowledge. That's what's so beautiful. That's what's so incredible. When you have experienced it, you are back home safe.
You know, when I first came to England, I remember I came out of customs in Heathrow Airport, and the press was there. They said,"Mr. Guru, what do you expect to do in the West?" I said, "Try to accomplish peace." They would all go, "Come on, man. What are you talkin' about? What's that funny word?" But they would be writing it down. Funny enough, exactly the same thing happened when I arrived in Los Angeles. There was a long walkway, and there was a lot of press. They said, "Well, what do you hope to accomplish? What do you think you're gonna accomplish in America?" I said, "Well, I am going to try to make it so that all the people in this world realize this Knowledge and are in peace." They said, "Come on. You've got to be kidding." And they just gave a funny grin.
But now, it's so beautiful, because you can see for yourself. Now I don't need to go out there and scream like I used to. I can just sit back and say, "Mm-hmm, look at this. Everything is so beautiful. Look at this love, look at this experience that people are having."
And you can be there, too. You can be in that experience, in that bliss where we are supposed to be. I mean, it's going to happen. It is happening. No ifs, ands or buts, and no question marks - it's happening. And it's happening boom, boom, boom, boom. What I'm talking about is universal love. It's really happening, it's really coming together. It's the motive of our life. It's so beautiful. So much love, so much Grace, so much beauty, and so much perfection is in this Knowledge. And we are sharing it between all of us. We are understanding why we have this world, why we have even come into this world, what is the reason, what is the purpose for us to be in this world. And it's so beautiful. I mean, that's the reason why we are here, and that's exactly what we are doing.
So, it's like, there is everything to say, but there are no words you can say it in. That experience, that love, that joy that we share, we know it; we have experienced it, and we experience it. But there are no words that can describe that.
If we could describe this experience to other people, they might be able to understand a little bit faster what we are all talking about. But see, when you come to the end of the line and you have that experience, the words finish; there are no more words left. You know? So just merge into it, just jump into it. Experience that experience of experiences all the time. Experience the greatest, the greatest experience. And realize. It's so beautiful. That's the most commonly used word, "beautiful", "incredible", because that's what it is. It's incredible, it's beautiful.
I'll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was this bird - actually this was a movie I saw on the airplane when I was coming here. It was a beautiful movie. In this movie, you see this ship come into dock in New York. The quarantine officers come on board, and they say, "Well, has anybody been sick or acting strange or funny? Should we let 'em in, or should we not let 'em in?"
33
This one guy is sitting there, and he's really mean looking. He's a mean old sailor and he says, "I don't know what's gone wrong with the captain. He used to be harsh." They show a shot of the captain with a whip in his hand. He is whippin' these people, and yelling, "Gyiiaaa! You do the things that I tell ya or I'll throw you overboard!" The old sailor says, "This is the way the captain used to be, and now look at him."
They show the captain and he is dancing and singing; he is really beautiful. As a matter of fact, everybody on this ship used to be really, really mean. But now they are all so beautiful, except this one person who worked down below in the engine room. When the change came, when everybody became really beautiful, he did not become beautiful.
So he is sitting there, and he is telling the quarantine officers, "All these guys have gone mad." The quarantine officer asks, "Well, what happened? I mean, how come you think they have gone mad?"
The sailor says, "You know, one day we were cruisin', and this bird landed on our ship. As soon as this bird landed on this ship, it became strange. Everybody got happy, everybody was just laughing, and loving everybody. Love came into people's hearts, and everything became beautiful."
The quarantine officers freaked out. They said, "Man. I don't know what kind of virus this bird has got that makes people happy," and they put the whole ship in quarantine.
Meanwhile, the captain has the bird in a little cage. They are going to come and take the bird away and experiment on it, but the captain says, "They can't. They won't do this to this bird." So he opens up the cage and lets the bird go. And the bird flies into New York.
There is this bunch of people, and they have totally changed their whole lifestyle. They are up at nighttime, they go to sleep at daytime, and some of them wear sacks. I mean, they are just weird people. They live in this building together, and their solution to life is to live against the light.
"Well, this bird goes and knocks at their little window, breaks the window, comes in, and flies around the room. And all of a sudden this one guy changes. He is supposed to be really mean, just really, really mean, but all of a sudden he becomes very happy. His friends freak out, and they say, "What's gone wrong with him? He is happy. He is not supposed to be happy. He is supposed to be mean, sad. This is our way of life."
Slowly and slowly, that bird starts flying from one house to another, and people start freaking out because people are getting happy. It's so funny when you see it! You can really see what's happening. People just start becoming so simple. But then all these guys go to the mayor of New York, and they say, "You've got a really big problem on your hands. There is this bird that has flown in from a foreign ship. It's got this virus, this virus is spreading like crazy in the city, and everybody is becoming happy. Do something about it."
The mayor says, "No, I won't do anything about it, because they might vote for me if they are happy." But one guy says, "They might not even vote. They are so happy they might not even vote." "Oh! Then I have really got to do something."
Next the whole New York police force is up to catching this bird. But all of a sudden they go near the bird, and they become very happy. This problem is so intense that they have free masks on the street that you wear so that you won't breathe the virus, so you won't get happy. Then everybody in New York City is wearing these masks so that they won't get happy, so they wouldn't breathe this virus of happiness inside!
It goes on and on and on, and finally the problem-solver of the country comes in from Washington. He is wearing this spacesuit, because he doesn't even want to get the virus on his skin. He comes in and he goes directly into this sterilized building where there is no virus, nothing. But nobody can understand what this virus can be that makes people happy. People just start loving each other. There is this cop who walks up and down the street giving tickets to everybody, and saying, "Yaah, you're jaywalking," and all of a sudden the bird flies right next to him, and he is so happy, he says, "Hi there. How are you doin' today?" People turn around and they say, "What's the matter with him? He has got the virus!" And they run, they get out of there.
Finally, they did an experiment, and supposedly they found an antidote to this virus. This was a spray that they would go around and spray New York with so everybody would become sad, which is normal. But they found out that it was not a virus. It was just people realizing what it is to be happy.
So what I am trying to say is that in this world so many people realize this Knowledge, and we become happy. Because we are happy, we may seem weird. We have got that virus. But really, that bird who comes on the ship and everybody becomes happy, and then he gets off the ship, and he goes around spreading the virus and makes people happy, that bird is this Knowledge.

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji In Germany, August 1975