CALM YOUR MIND
Dear ladies and gentlemen, I think you are familiar with the word 'meditation.' This word is really in vogue these days. So is the phrase 'self knowledge,' and all these spiritual terms; they are all very much in fashion. People are interested in meditation not because they want to be interested in it, but just because it's a very popular thing to be into.
If you are in a restaurant, you hear, "Oh, what kind of meditation are you into?" "How interesting indeed." And then you talk about it. It becomes something to talk over, nothing more. But actually, it's something real. And that's what Maharaj Ji wants to teach us -- something real. He wants to teach us what meditation is all about, the real meditation.
There can be a billion kinds of meditation. Think of as many words as you can, and that many meditations can be created. You can meditate, concentrate your mind, on this mike, or on nothing -- on the flower, on the stem, on the Coca-cola bottle, on the Fanta bottle, on anything. You can meditate on just about anything, even your car.
But does that meditation really give us peace? Does that meditation really calm us down? Maybe momentarily.

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Raja Ji speaks
at a public program in
Minneapolis, Minnesota U.S.A.
2 October 1975
Maybe if I meditate on a certain car and I buy that car, I am happy for a certain amount of time. I am very proud I have this car. But after a certain time the car falls apart and I can't meditate on it anymore. The meditation has disappeared. It was a meditation, I was concentrating my mind, I experienced a little bit of peace, in small pieces, and that was it.
It's like people who are going to their offices, and they are five minutes late. They look at their watch, "I am five minutes late!" and they try and try and try to get to the office on time. As soon as they get to the office, "Oh, my God. Whew!" they experience 'peace.' They really calm down at that moment because they have made it to the office "only five minutes late."
Then they go to their desks and start meditating on when their coffee break is going to be, or when their lunch time is going to be and they can have some soup. And that's called meditation. But this is not the meditation Maharaj Ji talks about, this is not the meditation Maharaj Ji wants us to learn. This is not the meditation Maharaj Ji has taught to over one million people. He teaches a meditation which goes much deeper, much, much deeper than what we think meditation is all about. And that meditation he teaches gives us peace, satisfaction, everything internally that we have been looking for. It shows us that source of love.
Love is a really funny thing. What love is all about, we don't really know. We fall in love, and then that vibration is not there anymore, that thing which was keeping us together is not there anymore, and we are not in love anymore. But Maharaj Ji shows us the source of love, from where love is coming.
It's like oil. We can have oil in cans, but Maharaj Ji shows us, "This is the source." He gives you the source. Then you can have as much oil as you want - and it's all yours. We can have as much as we want. As rich as the Arabs are in money because of their oil, we can be rich in love, by the grace of the love inside of us.
But we have to experience it. And we have to utilize it properly. We have to go through the whole process of purifying the plant. The plant has to be clear, and then we'll really experience that source -- and the product of that source. And we'll get high. We'll get what probably they can't get. What they always dream of getting, we'll become. Because we have found the source of love. We have found the thing that everybody else wants to know. We will be happy, because we'll have found the real source of happiness within us.
You know, Saint Kabir says that people take a rosary in their hand and start repeating words. They take a certain mantra and go, go, go. But I can be repeating a certain mantra, I can be saying anything -- like, "Jai, Jai, Jai, Jai, Jai," -- and still my mind is saying, "What is the climate of the stock market in New York?" "It is up, down, plus two," whatever it is. I am not meditating on anything. My mind is nowhere. I am concentrating on Wall Street instead of concentrating on, "Jai, Jai, Jai, Jai, Jai."
So what we have to find is something to stop our mind. Because the mind is going really fast -- a bit too fast. We have to just calm it down; stop it. That's why Maharaj Ji says: "Give me your worries. Give me your mind." This technique, this meditation he shows us, can help us to get our hands on the mind, so that mind slows down, slows down. it's always the mind who wants a certain thing. Then you say, "I think I want that," because of the mind. It's not always you who wants that thing. Once you ease up on the mind, once you know the technique to control the mind, you're okay. Then everything can be beautiful. You can experience that real love, because there is nothing between you and the source of love. It's within you, and you experience it constantly.
But we have to make that channel really clear. That's why Maharaj Ji talks about knowing yourself. What is our self? Why did we come in this world? You know, you can ask people, and they don't even know why they came in this world. We came in this world to know our source, to know where we came from, where the source of love is -- to know what thing is responsible for the creation of the universe, that thing which is within us.
We are all the same. It's just our mind that says, "No, I am of this color and you are of that color. I am of this and you are of that." it's all our mind. If we can ease up that mind, we can recognize a certain thing which is common in us and through which we can really establish peace in the world. Maharaj Ji says that we can really establish peace in the world, we can really establish the brotherhood of human beings. How? By recognizing each other as human beings, by each of us recognizing that this world is a beautiful place to be in, and you have to enjoy it by recognizing each other's rights, by treating each other as human beings. But before we can tell this to anybody else, we have to experience it. And we can do that by receiving this meditation, concentrating on this Knowledge.
What is this Knowledge? What is this meditation? All this meditation is,
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There can be a billion kinds of
meditation. Think of as many
words as you can, and that
many meditations can be
created … But does that
meditation give us peace?
all this Knowledge is, is perfect concentration. Perfect. Not a single bit minus, not a single bit plus. Perfect concentration of all our energies, or whatever we can give, on that perfect thing inside us. That's what this Knowledge is. If we concentrate on it completely, that's it. We've got it made.
And how can we receive this Knowledge? We have to go to Maharaj Ji with the heart of a child. What is a child? He doesn't try to exploit anything, you see. And that's how we have to be. if we go to the Perfect Master of the time and ask him for the Knowledge, ask him for that gift with a childlike heart, he'll give it to us -- free. if you like it, take it, use it. if you don't, give it back to him. Tell him, "Thank you very much," for his courtesy, and you don't want it anymore. Then look for it again, look for it somewhere else. If you don't find it anywhere, come back and try Knowledge again. But have the sincerity. At least try to get into it.
There are certain things you have to get a feel for before you can handle it. It's like music. You have to sometimes hear a certain music again and again and again and again to really get into it. Once you really get into it, you'll love it. You can play the record a hundred times and you'll still like it. But you have to get a feel for it first. You have to practice it constantly, all the time, to get a feel for it. So have the sincerity to try it. Once you have tried it, I know you'll like it, because a lot of people did, and everybody loves it.
Because it's within us. it's a part of us. We can't live without it. And we can do it all the time. It's a constant process happening every day. We can live with it, and it can improve our life. It can improve everything we dream of improving. There is one devotee of Guru Maharaj Ji on the West Coast, and he has a tennis class called "The inner Game of Tennis." With the help of this meditation, he teaches people how to play tennis by concentrating their energy. And he is very successful. A lot of people go to him just to improve their tennis. They don't realize that he does this meditation, they go to him just to learn tennis. But slowly they get into the Knowledge. They are turned on, they receive Knowledge, they are devotees, and they are experiencing peace, they are satisfied, and everything is really far out. Even their tennis has improved.
All this meditation is, all this Knowledge is, is perfect concentration.
Perfect. Perfect concentration of all our energies,
or
whatever we can give, on that perfect thing inside of us.
That's just an example. You can improve anything you want. if you want to be a good driver, you can improve your driving by this Knowledge. if you are a skier, you can improve skiing -- anything you want. All you have to do is apply it. All you have to do is use it. It's a day-to-day process. it will be with me every day. I am doing it now. You can't see it, but it's happening. That's what Maharaj Ji means when he says he gives a Knowledge which is perfect. Nothing can be more perfect than me or you meditating on a certain thing all the time. And that's why we call Maharaj Ji Perfect Master.
You have to really experience this Knowledge within you. It's everything we ever dreamt of having. it gives us everything. It gives us satisfaction, which is one thing we really, really need. We'll try to look for it outside, but it is inside of us. Whatever we need, it can give us. If we want to establish peace in the world, this Knowledge is the only thing that's going to do it. But first you have to experience peace yourself. Charity starts at home, and that's our real home. That's where we have to start the charity first; that's where we have to realize peace first before we go and say, "Listen, this is peace." We can't tell anybody what peace is until we ourselves are in peace -- complete peace. Then we can say, "I have this certain experience, and it is beautiful. That's what I experience, a thing called peace."
It's the same with love. Up till now we have always wondered, "What is love?" We don't know what love is. Love is something we don't even know. Maybe sometimes we think we are in love, but then we stay with that person and it disappears. Where has it gone? It's inside of us; so we have to realize it from inside of us first. Once we have found the source, the love is always there. Then we can give somebody love, and our face will still be shining. Then you are not like the Arabs anymore, who are afraid of spending the oil. You can just keep on spending it. All you have to worry about is giving it away. The more you'll give it, the more you'll get. There is something really beautiful about it. All you have to do is share the experience. That's what we are doing -- sharing this experience with you. The more I share, the more I am going to get for myself. That's very selfish of me, I know, but I am a selfish person, and that's all. So I have to just share
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Raja Rawat, the Brother of Prem Rawat (Maharaji), and His 1970's Wife Claudia nee Littmann - Parents of Navi Rawat
this love with you.
Maharaj Ji says that this Knowledge is for everybody. Everybody can enjoy it. All we have to do is really get into it, really try to meditate on this Knowledge. But you have to receive it first.
This Knowledge is the Knowledge we have always been looking for. This Knowledge is the love we have always been looking for. This Knowledge is the satisfaction we have been always looking for in other things. if we want any of these three things, it'll give it to us. Because that's where they come from.
And once you receive it, then you think about other people, that, why shouldn't they have the same experience? That's why Maharaj Ji spreads this Knowledge. His aim is to establish peace in the world, and through this Knowledge he can do it. He knows. That's why he says that we have to help him. But we have to experience it ourselves first. He wants everybody, the whole world, to experience this Knowledge.
He has a really small family in comparison to the size of the world, and he wants that family to expand. He wants the whole world to be one family, because the whole world is a family. They just don't know it. So he wants the whole world to know that we are a big family, and that we can live like a family.
You know, there are some people who don't know what they are, who don't know where they have come from. We have to tell them where they come from, by realizing this Knowledge. Then everything can be okay, and we can really establish peace, in the real sense of the word 'peace'.
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