1
August 1976
Divine Times

Everything is Beautiful … Keep on Truckin'

Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji aka Maharaji Guru Maharaj Ji in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 5, 1976

Dear premies,

There's a definite purpose for us all to assemble here in this hall. Let's try to understand something. You see, we have taken a step into a space, into a road, into a path, that is completely incredible. And it is something that is completely beyond anybody's concept, because concepts begin from a certain point and end at a certain point. It's way beyond that. Nobody could ever imagine that it would be like this.

I mean, after all, what is this all about? There's this whole creation, there's this whole nature, there's everything. There's man, and what is the reason for him being on this earth? There are so many theories, so many philosophies about this, but then somebody came along in our lives and told us, "Listen, there's an extremely practical answer to our biggest question." So we made a step forward to really understand what this answer was, and what this life is all about. And we have really, really been working hard to find this answer, and finally we have come to a stage that has inspired this tour. That is the reason why I'm here. Of course, we couldn't hold a big program at one place, but now what we did was just spread it around, and I think it's much more beautiful, much better this way. It makes it simpler and easier for premies and a lot more is said than in just one or two days of a function.

So, the reason why I look at it as a special tour is because I'm doing this tour to tell people how beautiful everything is. I'm not trying to tell premies how miserable, how horrible this life is, how horrible this world is. Like I said in my other two programs, this is the way it was always presented before, "Oh, life is miserable. Oh, this is all so bad. We have to just get out of it all and find something else." But what I'm trying to say now is, "No, wait, everything is beautiful. Our effort in satsang, service, and meditation has really started to bear fruit now. We can practically see that there is a fruit to this tree, that it is not fruitless, that in fact everything is really beautiful, everything is really okay." I mean, we already knew how miserable it all was. But as I say, misery is miserable; not life. Don't ever call life miserable, because it's got nothing to do with it. Life is life, life lives itself its own way. It is always so pure and so great and so fantastic, but misery is the thing that we put in there by our own efforts. And then we call life miserable. You know?

Continued on page 9.

9
August 1976

Divine Times


Everything is Beautiful …

continued from page 1

"Instead of sitting and explaining to you how you are going to end up in hell … what I have come to tell you is just that it's all fantastic."

It's like, if you have been driving a car and there is a bug on your windshield, don't call the whole car a bug. It's not a bug. The bug is only on the windshield, and as soon as you can take that bug off the windshield, your car will be exactly the same way it was. And this is what I'm trying to say to the premies. Don't take life as the worst thing. Because everything is, in fact, really beautiful. As I was saying, our satsang, service, and meditation have really started to bear fruit now. What was promised is really fantastic, and everything is really beautiful. This is the reason why I thought that I should do this tour. Instead of sitting and explaining to you about how you are going to end up in hell and how you are going to end up in heaven, and the pros and cons about everything like that, what I have come to tell you is just that it's all fantastic. By that grace, everything is, in fact, starting to manifest. And it's not only starting to manifest as somebody would see it through their concepts, but in fact it's starting to manifest and has started to manifest in a very, very practical form for the premies who have been doing satsang, service, and meditation.

That Beautiful Miracle

There was a time when I came to the United States, and it was an extremely small mission. I mean, it was as small as about three or four people. And out of even those three or four people, there are only about a couple of them around. But from there it all started to happen. And the whole promise was that, in fact, there is truth in this world.

Nobody can deny that there's truth in this world. There is truth in this world. And it is within inside of us. All we need is to just experience that life, because life does consist of truth. Life is truth. It is all there. It's just that it's all covered up. It's all covered up by our concepts, it's all covered up by our imagination, it's all covered up by what we have made it to be. We have just taken our lives and completely molded them into different forms. And that is why nobody on this earth right now is experiencing that beautiful miracle. Nobody in this world is really trying to experience the very seed of our existence, which is life, which is beautiful. What we are experiencing is what we have created, and actually what we have created is just a little monster. Actually, I shouldn't call it a little, because it's a huge monster that we have created for ourselves.

First it was all fun and games. It was like if you gave a little kid a paper and a pencil and said, "Draw a picture of the devil, draw a picture of a monster." And the kid sat there and drew these big teeth, a huge tongue coming out and huge pointy ears. I mean, he got completely involved in his concepts. All of a sudden, as soon as he finished the drawing and started signing his name, the whole thing came alive. And the kid didn't know what to do. It was like, he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to do this, but then it was too late.

That kid really got into the sophisticated things - like huge pointy fingernails and toenails and red eyes. I mean, he just got into his concepts. And today, this is really what man has done. The opportunity was presented to man to make everything beautiful. Believe me, there were two options for this earth, there were two options for the people of this world. One was what we are experiencing right now, and the other one was complete, complete beauty, complete peace, complete satisfaction, and complete tranquillity prevailing among all human beings on this earth. It was an empty piece of paper, and we had the pencil, but we ourselves drew a monster instead of that peace and beauty, instead of that tranquillity, and it came alive. That's what happened.

You have to think sometimes, sit down and just think, "Where do all these concepts come from? What is the devil?" Believe me, to a lot of people the devil is an extremely sophisticated form of the boogie man. He's supposed to come in your nighttime dreams, and if you are a naughty boy, he's supposed to pick you up and take you.

Simulated Happiness

Now wait a minute. We are completely in this world, living completely by our concepts, by what we think is right and what we think is wrong. And therefore, what we have in fact done is completely structure our lives. It's like, somebody wanted to go to his office, so he took exactly the way his office looked -wood panelling, desk, chair, carpet, bookshelves and everything -and made his living room look identical to his office, which is actually five miles away. Then, he took his car and made a simulator. So he sits down in his car every morning, but the car goes nowhere, because it's just a simulator. It simulates all the bumps, all the curves, all the traffic jams that happen from his residence to his office. He's even got t.v. monitors in his windshield. Then he gets out of the car and there's his office.

This is what we have really done. We have taken a concept of life - "Well, this is the way life is supposed to be." It wasn't our idea, maybe it was passed on to us, but we gladly accepted it, and that's one thing we have to be given credit for. We very gladly accepted it without any yes or no or why. And then, we completely took that idea of what life is supposed to be and placed it in our living room. We completely simulated the way that you're supposed to have a happy life. We made things that make us so, what we call, "happy." We manufactured so many things. I mean, look at this whole world. It is built so that it can make man happy. Well believe me, what man has simulated so far, that's not happiness.

Man has come to a certain development and that's fine. Man needs to develop. There should be and there is a very strong urge in mankind just to develop. But there is a fault in it somewhere. And the fault is that we take that development for our happiness. We take that development as the answer to this life. But that's not true. Development is okay. You know? To me, that's all nice because if there were no PA system, if there weren't a hall, and if there were virtually no way for us to be able to communicate and come together, then there are about 2,500 premies in this hall, and counting the couples and the little kids that I hear, maybe I'll have to give about 2,000 satsang programs. Which, you have to understand, would be virtually impossible for me.

So in man's development, there are a few good things, and then of course, you have to say that there are a few bad things. But if we take those two things and say, "Well, this is the way of life," then that's all wrong. On that basis, everything is false. Really, those things are just something that we want and therefore we create a necessity for them. Like, people sailed from London to America, you know? And then there were people who got out of New York and rode their wagons all the way out to the West. It would be kind of hard to do that now, because it'd take you centuries. But what I'm trying to say is that life is not all that, life is something else, life is really beautiful, life is all there. We're just trying to lead it by our own methods, by our own concepts, and really, life isn't that way.

Misery is Miserable

So then there is this process, which is so beautiful, of satsang, service, and meditation. By this process of realization, this process of clearing up those concepts that we have built for ourselves, we start to finally see that light, that hope, that yes, in fact, there is something like life, and that, in fact, misery is miserable, not life. Life is really beauti- ful. I'm not talking about the kind of life where somebody has got a Rolls Royce, a big, huge 747, and tremendous mansions all around the world, and he's got this and that. No, no, no. I'm not trying to say that. I'm talking about the life itself that is within inside us. We are a creation. God created us. The Creator created us. Why? I mean, there's a certain reason for it. He isn't Somebody who just all of a sudden got this craving to make human beings, so He started pouring them into molds. You know? I mean, there's a definite purpose, and that is why He created us, that is why we are here. And it's so beautiful.

We look for so many miracles, we look for so many things. I was saying at one of these programs that if all of a sudden, somebody pulls out a dove from his sleeve, that's a miracle. "Oh wow, he's a great magician!" To me, all those magic tricks, they're okay, they're good, but they're nothing compared to what this magic trick is, what this miracle is. This is completely fascinating. There's everything here. It's just that we really haven't seen it in its true form. How can we blame it? It's our fault. We haven't experienced it in its true form. But by the grace, by the process of satsang, service, and meditation, we are helped to see this light, to see this beautiful, beautiful life.

You must have heard me giving a lot more satsang, but I'm here today to tell you that everything is really going well, that premies have started to really, really realize that there is truth, and that the process of satsang, service, and meditation has a practical reason. It isn't just a concept anymore, it isn't just an idea, "Oh, receive Knowledge and lock yourself in an ashram closet and someday, man, boomerang! Someday a bell will ring in your ear and that'll be about it." No. It's really starting to manifest, it's really starting to happen.

It gives me such a pleasure just to see premies and to see how they're growing inside and how beautiful everything is. This is what I promised all the people who came to me, that yes, you're going to see the light, you're going to see the truth, you're going to realize it, you're going to actually experience it. Now I can't speak for all the people, because you've got to make some exceptions, but for the people who have really been doing satsang, service, and meditation, they are in fact starting to see that light. They really have started to experience this. That may come as a surprise to a lot of people. Believe me, there's a lot of people who just think this is an Indian trip. If you came to that Knowledge session that day thinking that you were getting into some Indian trip, you made a bad mistake. I his isn't an Indian trip. This isn't an Eastern trip; this isn't any trip. Even if you came just because you wanted to get into a trip, you made a bad mistake, you came to the wrong place.

And there's one more thing. You can't hang over the fence too long. All the premies who are hanging on that fence, you just can't do it. The guard's seen you, and he won't let you do that. So just stand up and make up your mind if you're going to land on one side or the other side of the fence. Try that. Do that effort now. Because, what are we trying to do here? I mean, this is what we have got to look at. This is a process. This Knowledge is for you! It's not for me. I have had this Knowledge and I'm getting a beautiful experience out of it. Believe me, when I do meditation, it does you no good. It does me a lot of good, but you no good. And when You do meditation, it does you a lot of good but doesn't do me any good. This Knowledge is for YOU! You want it, you make the effort. It's as simple as that.

You can go up to MacDonald's and order an orange drink or a shake. They'll give you one, but believe me, they won't say, "Drink it." They won't pour it down your throat. And it's the same way here. It's that simple. We're not going to force anything down your throat, but it's for you. You ordered it, you asked for it. You want it, you take it. You don't want it, there's the exit. It's like, I'm the guard of this perimeter. It is therefore my duty to insure that the people who are in the perimeter are safe and sound. There is a huge gate through which I will let anybody enter who wants to come in - with the right motive. But if you are hanging on the fence thinking all these things that people have been thinking about this Knowledge … I mean, I can't stop you from thinking anything. You can sit down and think just about anything you'd like to think, I guess. But I'll tell you one thing. This Knowledge is nothing but the process to realize truth. Truth is something that we really have to experience. We cannot bog it down with concepts. It isn't something that we can even think of beforehand and say if we would like it or not. Just the bare experience is all we can go by. Do we want it? Don't we want it?

If we want it, then that's what I'm all about, that's what this whole Mission is all about, and that's what all the premies are all about. And for the other people, if you just think that this is a Cadillac limousine and you want a lot of brochures about it and you wait to go see one and drive one and find out exactly if it handles or not, then just take your time. I'm not going to rush you into anything. Take your time. And when you have made up your mind that you want it, then come to me. We've got it. We've got the truth and we have got this Knowledge. And through satsang, service, and meditation we can really, really experience what this truth is all

August 1976
10

Divine Times


"By this process of realization, this process of clearing up those concepts that we have built for ourselves, we start to finally see that light, that hope."

about.

I could go on for a long, long, long time, but as I just said, everything is going beautifully. Everything is fantastic. It's like, when you're flying in the airplane and it's on auto pilot, if everything is okay, you don't go around moving your throttles or changing your course and everything. If you're flying fine, you just sit back and relax. Right? So I really can't go around and around turning a lot of knobs here and there, because everything is really going fantastic. But there's one thing that I have to keep saying. And this goes for both premies who are experiencing this Knowledge and premies who are sort of thinking this is just something where one day Tinker Bell is going to come and spray some dust on us and we're going to hear a lot of music. Keep on doing satsang, service, and meditation, because that is the key, that is the process, that is the path and that is the Knowledge through which we can really, really experience that truth, through which we can really focus ourselves upon that realization. Ten years, twenty years, thirty years from now, if I'm still around, that's exactly what I'm going to keep on saying. Keep on doing satsang, service, and meditation. Because that is the key, that is the way. And believe me, if you have really done satsang, service, and meditation in your life, you know that that is the key, that that is the way to really understand that truth, to really experience that truth.

It Comes Back to Us

So again, it still comes back to us. Remember, the higher we go, the harder we're going to fall. Imagine ourselves like a crystal saucer. If we are dropped from about half a foot, maybe we won't even break. From two feet, we might break, but we might break in such a way that we can be put back together. But the higher we go, the more careful we have to be, because the higher up we are the harder we're going to fall. And the harder we fall, the more unrepairable we get. That is why I'm taking this time now to tell the premies that, on the one hand, everything is really beautiful, and on the other hand, keep on truckin', keep on doing that satsang, service, and meditation to avoid any chances of falling. Because if you are really doing satsang, service, and meditation, truly, there's no way you can fall, and that's guaranteed.

So just really put that effort in, just really keep on truckin', because everything is really beautiful. I mean, it's just really fantastic. It's exactly the way I would have imagined it, exactly the way I dreamed about it, exactly the way I have foreseen it, the way it is right now. Everybody is really trying to experience it and everybody is, in fact, experiencing it. It isn't just the word "love." We don't even have to say it, because we are experiencing it in our hearts. It's not just the letters that exist anymore, it actually exists, and we now know the meaning of that. All that we usually talk about truly exists. We don't have to go around talking about it. You know? We are really experiencing it. So now we have to all really come together, all really come close in such a way as to be able to help Guru Maharaj Ji.

Guru Maharaj Ji is the one who gave this way to us, who revealed this way to us. And now, once he has revealed it, what is the reason for him to be around? I mean, this is the question that a lot of people ask. "Well, okay, he has revealed this Knowledge to us. Knowledge is the process and we can keep on doing service, satsang, and meditation.

So what is the purpose of Guru Maharaj Ji?" Well, wait a minute. At the same time that this process is so easy, it's also really, really difficult. As easy - as it is just to be able to do satsang, service, and meditation once you get into the flow of it, it's also that hard. It takes very strong determination; it really does. But it really happens.

So, in the heart of such a process which is quite unknown to us, we need a person who knows this process inside out, who knows all the difficulties that would happen along the way, who knows, if we ever do get into a predicament, what to do about it. We need a person like this, we need a guide, we need somebody, we need an instructor, we need an advisor, who can tell us, who can keep on telling us, "Okay, you're stuck here, but if you just do this, you can be out." And Guru Maharaj Ji is such a person. We have to just really look at the process, and then really evaluate it and say, "Okay, this is really a beautiful process." And then we can really know how to thank him, if we have really understood what he has revealed to us, if we really see what he has given us.

It's just like the story about the diamond. To the jeweler, it was incredible, it was a miracle, and all he could do was bend down on his knees and thank God for finding it. To the farmer, it was just a piece of glass that he didn't want in his way. He picked it up and threw it away. So we really have to be able to recognize how beautiful this process is, and that is why Guru Maharaj Ji is there - to just completely keep on helping us along this process, so we can become really good at it, so we can really understand it, so we can finally reach that goal that we want, through this process. This is the reason for Guru Maharaj Ji. He is the shower of this life, and after he has done that for us, after, in fact, he has given us that Knowledge, then he becomes our advisor, the one who advises us along the way, along the path, and just keeps on making sure that everything is beautiful. That's exactly what I'm doing right now. I'm just saying, "Everything is okay and everything is beautiful." Because it is.

Open-Hearted Premies

So premies, it's all really happening, it's all really starting to manifest. You can almost say, finally, that it's all starting to happen, because that's the way I'd look at it. Because, man, we've gone through a lot. I mean ups and downs and to the extremes of ups and extremes of downs. We have been called just about anything you can possibly imagine by the people who didn't know what we were. And for a lot of people there was so much doubt and so much confusion, so much. It would take books, after books, after books to truly write down the history of this organization and the faith and the trust that premies have put into it. It was so beautiful, because premies did put a lot of faith and a lot of love into this organization. You know. And that was really beautiful. It was very, very beautiful for me to see how premies were really, really doing it, how premies were just so open-hearted, how premies were really eager and wanted to really realize this truth, and how they were just putting their all into it. That gave me great pleasure, but it gives me even a greater pleasure now that I can, in fact, repay them in the sense that what I promised them is really happening. It's not just a dream, it's not just a dream world, but it's a realistic world for us now. It's not something that somebody used to come along and just talk about.

Let me explain. Some of the people really thought about us, and really thought about what this Knowledge was. They had built so many concepts, so many hopes, so many things in their heads of what this Knowledge really was, of what this thing really was. And that's why it didn't really manifest for them. Because a lot of people would sit down and try to meditate on those concepts that they had. But, you know, when you really give, when you really, really, really give with that sincere sincerity, then it really manifests for you. If you truly surrender from your heart, then it really manifests for you, then it really happens for you. And that is just surrendering our concepts, surrendering the ideas that we have created for ourselves. That is really the only problem that we have.

I'll give you an example. There was this guy who was just roaming about the streets and this other guy had a big pot of honey that he wanted to carry to his home. He couldn't find anybody around, but he finally spotted this fellow who was just roaming about the streets. He said, "Come here. Will you carry this back home for me? I'll give you a couple of dollars." And the first man said, "Oh sure, I'll carry this for you." Now, he was somebody you would call "stupid." Once you've heard the story, you'll find out how stupid he was.

So, he started carrying this huge pot of honey on his head, and he was thinking, "I'm gonna get two dollars for this. And when I get two dollars, I'm gonna go buy myself some chickens. And then they're gonna grow and grow and grow and grow. Then I'm gonna sell them all, and then I'm gonna buy myself some goats. Then they're gonna multiply, there's gonna be a huge, big number of them, and then I'm gonna just sell them all. And then I'm gonna buy myself some cows. Then I'm gonna have this huge herd of cows, and then I'm gonna sell them all. And then I'm gonna make myself a lot of money, I'm gonna buy myself a house, and I'm gonna get married, and then I'm gonna have kids."

So, this guy is just walking with the pot of honey on his head, and he hasn't even got two dollars in his pocket yet. He's just thinking all these things in his head, "And then I'm gonna have a lot of kids and then one day I'm gonna be sleeping on my hammock and one of my little kids is gonna come to me and say, 'Daddy, Daddy, read me a story,' and then I'm gonna say, 'Now forget id' " He was so much into his dream that he forgot about the honey, he just shook his head and threw his hand out, so the whole honey pot fell down on the floor and cracked open. The other guy got really mad and said, "What did you do that for? You've ruined my honey. I'm not gonna give you the two dollars." He said, "What are you crying about your honey for? You've ruined my whole house. You've ruined my goats, my chickens, my children. You've ruined my family. What are you talkin' about your honey for?"

He had just built up a lot of concepts. But see, if he wouldn't have had those concepts (and they were cuckoo concepts, they were crazy concepts, they were unnecessary concepts), then, in fact, he could have gotten a couple of dollars and he could have, in fact, done all that. But because of his crazy concepts, he completely locked himself into such a mode that it just didn't manifest for him. And this is what has happened to a lot of people, a lot of premies, because they've taken this Knowledge and completely conceptualized it, just completely turned the whole thing into concepts. "Oh, what is gonna happen to us one day? We're gonna be doing satsang, service, and meditation all our lives, and then at the last moment of our lives, just when we are ready to die, at the very verge of death, we're gonna just kaboom! blast off and we're gonna be in complete light." You know?

To me, that's completely crazy. Because, wait a minute, what about now? I mean, to me, that's kind of an odd guarantee, that if you work on this Knowledge the rest of your life, then at the last moment, you are guaranteed this experience. And if you don't get it, you won't even have a chance to turn around and say, "No, I didn't get the experience." To me, that's completely odd. But this Knowledge isn't this way. This Knowledge will give you that experience now, while you're alive, while you can, in fact, experience it. Now. You can have this experience always. And as far as salvation and life after death are concerned, I'm not going to get into that debate, because that can just keep on going for the rest of your life. For that, all we have to do is just wait. One day we'll find out about that, too. We're bound to find out about that. But now is the opportunity for us to really, really have this Knowledge manifest for us, and really, really experience this truth. And it's really happening.

Keep Your Head Together

So what else can I say, what more is there to say, except that everything is really, really beautiful. And I pray that it continues to be like that, that we just all keep our heads together, that we all keep coming from the right place and that it just keeps on manifesting more and more and more and more until it manifests for everybody. Because this is so beautiful, this is the truth, this is the way, this is the Knowledge. It's all we can hope for, for us to all come together under the right supervision from a very, very clear place.

It's not a matter of us all coming together like bees coming into their hives. It's a matter of coming together in such a way that we can really do that service in the right way, because the whole purpose behind it is to help Guru Maharaj Ji spread his message. So we haven't got to just come together and sit in a hall and do all the cuckoo things like a lot of people used to do out on the streets, but we have to, in fact, come together with a clear head, with a clear understanding, to find out if actually, this is the way we're supposed to do it. And then do it the right way so that other people can really, really understand. Then you'll be helping me. Otherwise, you won't.

I guess there's nothing else to say. Just keep on truckin', keep on going, and everything's turning out more and more beautiful every day. Thank you very much, and bless you.