Every November since 1967, the birth day of Guru Maharaj Ji's father has been honored by a mammoth celebration held in India. This celebration is called Hans Jayanti and has for the past three years marked a radical shift in human consclousness.

If God is omnipresent, He cannot leave. The Perfect Master is His embodiment; he also cannot leave. Hans Jayanti is a celebration of the soul. It is a festival of worship for that spirit which is continuous upon the earth, that energy which is bound by neither birth nor death, the life force of the perfect Master.

It is Shri Hans Ji Maharaj (Shri Maharaj Ji) in whose honor the Hans Jayanti Festival is held. Late in 1966. Shri Maharaj Ji left his mortal body, haying dedicated every breath to spreading the Knowledge of God. The time had come for that perfect energy to manifest in full power and glory. It chose the body of an eight-year-old boy, Balyogeshwar Shri Sant Ji Maharaj, son of Shri Maharaj Ji. The new Perfect Master did not waste any time.

A man who falls asleep on board a train is likely to be surprised when he awakes and finds himself at his destination. When a twelve-year-old boy announced, "I declare I shall bring in the Golden Age of Peace to the whole world," not very many people believed him. Most of the world preferred to wait and see, and to take a quick nap in the meantime. There were a great many, however, who decided that they had better investigate. Hundreds of thousands were present when Guru Maharaj Ji promised world peace at the Hans Jayanti Festival of 1970. The longest procession ever witnessed ended in the largest peacetime assemblage of people in recorded history. The parade stretched fourteen miles and would have taken ten hours to pass by your front door. These people felt very fortunate to be in the same space and time as Guru Maharaj Ji. They felt his power.

Dynamite. That's what it felt like as Guru Maharaj Ji arrived in Delhi's Palam Airport on November 7, 1971, after his first World Peace Tour. Most of the 100,000 people there had been waiting all night. Some had been waiting all their lives. Guru Maharaj Ji's World Peace Corps held hack the crowd as he stepped up to his throne.

Somewhere in the crowd were 350 awestruck Westerners. They had come to celebrate Hans Jayanti, 1971. The new disciples had come to this strange

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land as followers of a boy whose identity they had only begun to suspect. All they really knew was that they had been shown their souls, and that was enough. Ram Lila Grounds is a ten acre vacant lot in the middle of India's capital city. Colorful tents were raised there for the housing of foreigners and the countless disciples who had come from the villages of India. Food was provided free; everything was taken care of by the Indians. All that the new disciples were allowed to do at Ram Lila was to meditate and listen carefully to satsang.

The devotion of the Indian disciples amazed them. During the day the Indians worked constantly and then at night sat packed together by the hundreds of thousands, hour after hour, to listen to the words of Guru Maharaj Ji and his family. Finally for two days straight, the Indian disciples stood in line under the hot Eastern sun for a chance to touch the feet of their Lord.

For the Western disciples, the real celebration began in a Garden of Eden situated at the foothills of the Himalayas. They arrived in the middle of the night to find that the heavy air of Delhi had given way to perfume, and that the feet which had left crowded streets to board buses, now stepped down in Prem Nagar ashram, Guru Maharaj Ji's home.

As suitcases and back packs were unloaded, silent children passed through the seven arched gates of Prem Nagar. Every stone that has been layed there and each seed planted has been put there by the hand of someone in love. The fruit of that labor is indescribable. Anyone who wishes to realize the meaning of selflessness need only sit in meditation within the gates of Prem Nagar.

The structure itself is enormous. All of the 350 guests were housed within its walls, if you count those who slept on the roof. For two months they were to live in extremely tight quarters with people they thought were strangers. They would eat food that didn't please their minds, and to keep clean, there were only snow-cold waters of the Ganges. By the end of one month however, they would have discovered why it is called Prem Nagar, City of Love.

Truth is more easily recognized when there is no other refuge. Without cars, television sets or ice cream, the new disciples were given a chance to learn once and for all that the experience of God is complete. Every day their consciousness would he assaulted by one fact: Heaven is not up and hell down; neither is in the future. Both dwell in the same space and time - the here and now. Prem Nagar was a training ground, a time to freak out and then become strong. Guru Maharaj Ji was there to help: "I mean to say something, and I mean to say meditation." - Prem Nagar 1971.

The Word has enough power to unify the Universe. It was not difficult for that one eternal vibration to bring together 350 head-strong minds. When finally a fresh and purifying wind began to rush through the maze of their thoughts, the lost children found themselves looking into the face of their Father. There was not much time left to be with Guru Maharaj Ji. The second half of the Hans Jayanti Festival was to be held in Patna. From there the Westerners would return to their own countries. On the last night of their stay in Prem Nagar. Guru Maharaj Ji spoke to them.

"I am leaving for Patna. Maybe we can have a couple of hours in Patna to talk, but it is very busy there. So regularly do meditation. This is a very important point. Maybe you do not understand it now, but when you leave me, when I am away, then you will understand how significant meditation is.

May Guru Maharaj Ji bless you at a single moment, and may you stand erect and go. My blessings are always with you and grace too. So go along, don't be afraid of anything in the world. A man who has got my blessings has nothing to be afraid of in the world. Don't be afraid."

Eight abreast, the procession of 750,000 people walked through the streets of Patna to the Gandhi Grounds. One hundred floats supporting paintings of past Perfect Masters two times life size were drawn by water buffalo. A line of fifty elephants, with their babies clinging to their tails, and twenty camels followed. Next in line was a marching band which announced the swan chariot of Guru Maharaj Ji. It was some parade.

At the first night's program, a few gun shots were heard. It was rumored that a young militant group, the Arya Samaj, had decided to disrupt the festival. The American disciples were the subject of special hostility as a result of the Indo-Pakistani war. At one point the wiring for the light and sound equipment was cut and the crowd of one million people was plunged into darkness. Later it was learned that eleven people had been killed and several badly beaten.

The contrast was mind-blowing. One week earlier, the young disciples had been in a heaven on earth. For two months, they watched each other be molded from separateness into love. They had established peace by meditating upon the Word of God and by playing as children with their common Father. Now all around them there was darkness and chaos. From a circle of light given off by torches. Guru Maharaj Ji spoke to His disciples:

"There is something that people need, something they require. Everybody knows it, every single man. Maybe he is Indian, maybe he is American, maybe he is Japanese, maybe he is Chinese, maybe he is Russian; but he requires something and he understands this. What it is that he requires, he has never understood. He knows very well that, yes, ee all want something. We really need something very badly. But what? He wants to know the Holy Name. No one has told him, so he doesn't know. He can't even guess about this Knowledge.

If you have known this Word, then it is your first and foremost duty to spread this Word, to tell people that, Yes, they really have to he elevated and they must know it. Craziness is prevailing in every man. There is no problem. You have such a firm faith, such a firm foundation that nothing, nothing can shake you."

The next day stones were thrown at disciples as they boarded the train to return to Delhi and their homes.

In 1972, a total of 3,300 devotees from all seven continents gathered together in India to celebrate Hans Jayanti. Even the Arya Samaj came to

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sit in wonder and listen. It was obvious that something which had never happened before was taking place now, under the guidance of Guru Maharaj Ji.

As each Jumbo full of Guru Maharaj Ji's disciples arrived, the "citizens" were absorbed into the smoothly functioning organization of the "town." Sanitation crews, kitchen workers, peace officers and town councilmen were established on a voluntary basis. The town was moved twice to follow the Hans Jayanti Program - from Punjabi Bagh Ashram to Delhi, and from Delhi to Prem Nagar. It was demolished and resurrected in one day each time. If you have ever been camping with even a family of six, you know that that is no easy task. In India, considering the transportation system and the tools you have to work with, it's impossible.

At Hans Jayanti, 1972, Guru Maharaj Ji's disciples created an efficient and peaceful international community. All the barriers that separate a man from his brothers were overcome. For everyone there, the realization that the Knowledge made world peace possible was not surprising. They had already witnessed its power to bring peace to their own lives. From Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America, the United States, England, and all of Europe, disciples united to create a living example of harmony. World peace had begun.

In the past year, the three thousand disciples who formed that community last November have not been idle. This year's festival will propel the whole world into a new Age. And so this year's Hans Jayanti festival is appropriately named Millennium '73. For the Millennium means a thousand years of peace, for people who want it.

The first years of Millennium are apt to be unsettling.

"When you start to clean a room at first the dust is thrown all about. We see more dust in the air, and it must seem uncomfortable and confusing. But soon the dust settles and everything becomes crystal clear."

Soon the Kingdom of Heaven will be a reality. It has to be -- that's the only end this fairy tale universe will allow.

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