Maharaji:to the premies in Amsterdam, Holland, 5 June 1976

Dear Premies, we all come together for satsang and we all try to realize something. What we're trying to realize, what we're trying to understand, what we're all trying to experience in our lives is reality. At one point or another, we have all experienced that there is something in our lives which is empty. At that time, we come to a point where we really have to test everything out.

We grew up from little babies, to little children, and everything was just fun and games. First of all, it's nothing, it's just a little plastic bottle, or if you are being fed by mother, then it's mother's milk and mother. Then the child grows a little bit more and can actually understand that that's my mother, that's my father. That opens things up a little bit. But still there is no question of reality. Then slowly and slowly, it starts opening up where we can actually see a little bit more all around. So we just keep on growing, everything just keeps on developing around us, until we reach a point where we have to define things, and that's the stage called teenager. At that stage, you have to evaluate everything - what is really good, what is really bad - and this keeps happening.

To the little baby, everything is the same. It's like, Prem-

We are the ones who have to plug into Knowledge, not Knowledge that has to plug into us, because it already has. Knowledge is already there.

lata can pronounce, "hot," but that doesn't stop her from touching something hot. She goes, "hot, hot, hot, hot, hot," and puts her finger right in it. So she knows how to pronounce "hot " and she knows what "hot" is, but she still does not have the discrimination to know that she shouldn't put her finger in it, otherwise she's going to get burned. So, slowly, everything gets more defined for us in our lives until we come to the point where one day we end up sticking our finger in the electrical socket, and we find out that's a no-no. That keeps happening all our lives, until we grow up and all of a sudden we realize, "Well actually, there are stationary things that are no-no's for our lives."

But now that we are independent, now that, in fact, our mama is not right on our backs with a whip saying, "No, no, no," and, "Yes, yes, yes," or now that our daddy is not there telling us, "No, no, no," and we are about 24 years old, now we can say, "Well, wait, what is really good and what is really bad?" And in the search of what is good and bad, we come to the point where we have to understand, first of all, what is reality? What is the truth? Because once you have understood the truth, only then can you evaluate what is good and what is bad. Good and bad have both been derived from something, and you haveto understand, first of all, what that thing really is.

That point comes in our lives when we start to compare things, good and bad, good and bad. But what is good and what is bad? There is even a very famous saying, "One man's medicine is another man's poison." So one thing that is good can also become bad, and one thing that is bad can also become good. That happens. So first of all, we have to realize where good originates from. Because the absence of good is what is bad. But what is good? What is it? I mean, where does it even come from?

But really, this is what I've been saying throughout all my satsang on this tour: before we can even say that we are premies, first of all, we have to look at ourselves. And I don't mean go to a mirror and look at ourselves, or look at ourselves in a video projector, but look at ourselves in the light of, are we really premies? Or are we just somebody who has a little card that says, "Mr. Joe Blow, member of Divine Light Mission," signed, "President." Are we just that, or in fact are we really premies? That is a very subtle, very small, but very meaningful question. The reason for that is, if we are just that card, then the card itself is a premie, because it says right on it, "This card is to certify …" It's almost as if the card is as good as you. There's no difference, if that is all you are.

But if you are a premie, then you'll look at yourself and say, "Well, am I in fact doing satsang? Am I in fact hearing satsang? Or when I go to satsang, do I just sit there and say, 'Now wait a minute, that guy just said that word wrong,' or, 'That guy just didn't quite get his sentence through.' " When we sit in satsang, do we do that, or do we really try to grasp the meaning of what is being said? Because they're two different things.

In one case, it's like when the teacher starts picking up such minute mistakes from the student's words and everything, that it frustrates the student, so then the student turns around and every time the teacher makes a mistake, he gets his hand up and says, "Oh, you held the chalk wrong," "Oh, you wrote the whole line crooked," "Oh, you didn't quite get that word off the blackboard." And then what happens is that there's no education there; it just turns into what's called nit-picking. I was just reading the "Divine Times" about Joe Anctil's satsang when he said that there are a lot of premies who do nit-picking, and I have no patience with that. But it's really true that sometimes we sit there and do that. The reason for that is because we're really not premies, because we limit being a premie to just a card. We're not really opening ourselves.

We have to understand, do we want truth, do we want reality; do we want to understand reality or don't we want to understand reality? There are a lot of things involved; it's not as simple as people think. After all, what are you going to do with reality? Once you find out what reality is, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to gift wrap it? Are you going to put it in your pocket? I mean,these are all the concepts that a man has to go through.What are you going to do with reality anyway? Are you going to put it in your ears and it's going to cut down the noise? Reality is something to realize, something to experience. In fact, reality only becomes an experience to us when we realize that what is around us' is completely inconstant, that what is around us is not, in fact, reality, that reality exists somewhere else, that reality is something else.That's the difference.

There are a lot of people on the streets right now, and when you pronounce the word "peace" to them, they I say, "Another lunatic." But if, in fact, somebody was coming at them with a machine gun, just completely spraying bullets after bullets at them, the only things they'll say are, "Peace! Wait a minute, hold it, what are you doing?" How subtle, how fine that difference really is. But those people don't see any meaning in plugging themselves into any reality, those people don't see any meaning to truth, and that is why it's very irrelevant to them. But as premies, we ourselves have to see a difference. Because that is why we received Knowledge. When you go to receive Knowledge, you make that determination within yourself that you really do want peace, that you really do want truth.

And so for the premies who have received this Knowledge, now you have to find a way to really plug it in. First it was, "Yeah, yeah, let's go get peace, man. Let's realize something beautiful." We just said that yes, we are missing something in our life, so let's just do it. But now that we have done it, we have to find a way to really plug ourselves in so that what we have realized will actually manifest for us. This is the role of every premie around the world, to be able to do satsang, service and meditation, so we can, in fact, realize and plug ourselves in, so that the Knowledge will physically, very physically, manifest.

Knowledge is constant, Knowledge is always there, so just remember - and this is something we forget a lot of times - do meditation, do satsang, and do service. Knowledge is not going to come to our door, knock, and say, "Do you want me?" That is not the way it happens. Remember, if you recall when you were being given satsang, at the time when you had not yet received Knowledge, somebody must have told you that Knowledge is within inside of you. And so, Knowledge is always within inside of us. It's always perfect, it's always constant, and it's always infinite. It is we who are not constant, who are not perfect and who are not infinite. Therefore, we are the ones who have to plug into Knowledge, not Knowledge that has to plug into us, because it

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already has. Knowledge is already there. It's just that we have to develop ourselves, so that we can understand what Knowledge is, so that we can do it, so that in our lives Knowledge can then manifest.

Knowledge is always there and we have to approach it, we have to try to enter it, we have to try to become one with it. It is our effort. It's like, if you want to walk from here to that door, if you take only one step, that's how close you will be. And if you take two steps, that's how close you will be. And if you take three steps, then that's how close you will be. So how many steps you take is how close you will get to the door. You just have to keep on doing that until you get there, and it's your effort.

Now, if Knowledge is in fact perfect, then the question comes, "Okay, that all makes sense, but if Knowledge is perfect, then why do we even have to try to get into it? If Knowledge is in fact infinite, if Knowledge is everything, everywhere, omnipresent, omnipotent, then why do we even have to try to get into it?" Well, the answer is, there's a very, very big gap. I'll give you an example. If you took a man who was about 500 pounds in weight and his shoulders were really big, huge and enormous, say he's the biggest, heaviest person in the world, and if you took his jacket and tried to put it on Premlata, what would happen? She would probably go right through the sleeve, into the pockets, and out of them. But why? It's a jacket. She can wear a jacket. That's a jacket and she can wear a jacket, so how come the jacket won't fit? I mean, it's so simple and you're laughing about it, it's stupid, it's too much, it's a joke, but that's exactly the way it is. Knowledge is infinite; we are not infinite. Something which is not infinite has to go and match up to the standards of infinite. Therefore, there's a gap, there's a big barrier because Knowledge is perfect and we are not.

We have to make an approach from our side to get to something perfect. There is a gap, and that gap has to be filled. And that is where the whole process comes which we have to put together to fill the gap so we can walk across the gap and actually be one with Knowledge. That gap is filled by satsang, service and meditation. All I can really say is that it's your effort, because if you want Knowledge to manifest in your life, if you really want to experience it, if you really want to understand it, then you'll have to try it.

What I'm trying to do, what is my idea and what has always been my idea, is that, yes, we will take the whole organization and make an international staff. My idea was that, yes, I want to have a little button on a computer and as soon as I punch it from anywhere, it goes into one central computer and then it's fed all the way throughout the organization, so that by the time it ends up in some other country, it doesn't mean something altogether different, so that it means exactly what I want it to mean. Because that was the problem that I was encountering with a lot of people. A lot of people would go, "Yes, Maharaj Ji has sent us here by his personal agya," though they never saw me. And to do this, and to do that, would just get into a big jumble and poof! After a little while it would be a nice mess. But now, everything is just getting clear, everything is just getting really better.

And now, the functional part of the organization can all be taken care of; we can take care of it. But what does the organization consist of? Premies. And what is it for? It's for the premies. So until we're strong inside of us, somehow a whole complete cycle is not going to take place. It's like, if there is a very neat organization all set up, but if the premies are confused all around the world, then that organization will be no good, because all the premies are confused. And if all the premies are clear, but the organization set up is wrong, then that's no good, because what's going to happen is that, yes, all the premies are trying very hard, very hard, very hard, but there's nothing really happening.

So it's all growing, it's all on the run. Everything is going as fast as it was before, except for rumors and just a bunch of jokes that a lot of premies throw around for kicks. I don't know why. Sometimes I hear these rumors and it's like, "Who said that? Wait a minute, I didn't say that." It was as if I would ask for a glass of water, and I would end up with a Fanta or a Coca-cola. It would just go from one person to the other, "Oh, Guru Maharaj Ji wants something." First it was, "Guru Maharaj Ji wants water." Then the other person would say, "Oh Guru Maharaj Ji wants something to drink, get him a Coca- cola."

The reason why I'm saying this to you now is because everything is really beautiful, and everything is getting really clear, and if you're not clear, then you're going to miss out on a lot, because everything is really happening. So, all I can say is that if you want to realize that reality, if you want to realize that Knowledge, put your effort in now. And again, it goes back to the point that you have to really realize within inside of you how much you want it.

Man could do everything; he could plow the surface of the earth, then he would drain all the water out of the ocean, then I guess he could start whipping all the air, cut all the trees, melt all the ice, take all the mountains in the world and turn them into statues … he could do a lot, really do a lot. And for man it's always a question mark, because there are too many things to do in this world. But then, it's so beautiful because, by the , by Knowledge and by the help of a Perfect Master, it can all really unfold and become something which is very beautiful. It's more beautiful than we can ever even try to imagine with our own limited concepts. It can really becomes beautiful, it can really manifest the way we would never have imagined it, and it's all up to us, it's all at our disposal. This is the way it should be put: it's at our disposal, when we want to realize the true meaning of this life. It's just that simple and that beautiful. If we want to, we can; and if we don't want to, we just don't want to.

My job is to make you understand, to make you realize that there is a meaning, that there is a purpose for this life, there is a beauty that exists, and we can realize it, we can do it in this lifetime, so do it. Because once you do it, once you really understand, it all changes, it really does change. It all becomes beautiful. The dreams of man to be happy are realized. And then it really becomes a reality. What is now a man's concept of happiness, really, really manifests. So if you want to make your dreams come true, they can come true, by your own effort, by your own response to the Almighty, to that all- manifesting power that ever exists in this world.

What more can I say? It's all there. This is about all I should have said to begin with: it's all there. If you want it, take it. If you don't want it, you don't want it. But it really is all there, for us to understand, for us to realize. Thank you very much and blessings to all the premies.