There's some problems as usual. Well, sometimes they are with mind and sometimes, you know, they are created by it, accidentally or purposely. Actually it's really nice to be here on the East coast after a long time, you know? Change from the West coast. Well, I personally prefer the East coast, if well, there's a big if behind it - if Maharaj Ji was living here. And -- well, who knows? Things change. But anyway …

I have traveled. I had the opportunity to go with Maharaj Ji on this tour he did to Lima and Rio and then to South Africa, Swaziland and Frankfurt. All the time we say that through this Knowledge and by Guru Maharaj Ji's grace we can really meditate, no matter what culture we belong to, no matter how we develop this Knowledge culturally, and it always seemed okay to me. It makes sense, but it never really seemed to happen for me.

It's like, "Okay, it's far out. Makes sense, but I'm in the West and I'm pretty Westernized, and all the premies are, of course, Western. So it's okay. Or everybody's Indian, so it's okay. In England, everybody's rather English, but it's okay. In Paris, everybody's Parisian, so it's okay for them."

But it never really clicked until I went to Swaziland and it was a rather beautiful experience for me, because I saw these premies, you know, and there were Indians, as much as Westerners, coming in the darshan line. I was standing there with a camera clicking away, and I said, "Really, it works."

I don't know if you had this kind of experience, because these Indians were there who completely developed this Knowledge. I mean, satsang, service and meditation is the same everywhere but they have a different, let's say, concept of Maharaj Ji. They develop him in their own concept, as much as we do in our own concept, and it was really beautiful to see them - well, it blends perfectly, there's no difference. It's a perfect nucleus of all the energy. It doesn't matter what religion, or whatever, you come from. You can really develop this Knowledge. You can really culture this Knowledge perfectly well.

And it's really like, I was surprised that it works. There is a possibility because I see these mahatmas here, you know.

Sorry, I beg your pardon, initiators. And they are again Westernized. They wear suits and it's all different. And there I was caught by surprise, because, "Yeah, it really works!"

You know, it's like there are these Western people … because if you go to South Africa, because I was there and I went through the security testing zone, where they check you and say, "Do you have any firearms today?"

And Maharaj Ji goes, "No, not today."

You know, because - it seems rather vulgar. Rather barbarian I would say. But it doesn't matter. That's the way of their communication. But in Swaziland, just a step away from there there were no barriers. Everybody was there. Seven hundred to eight hundred of these premies were there and it was really beautiful because they could really communicate their love to Guru Maharaj Ji in the darshan line. And for me, darshan line is one of the most beautiful experiences a premie has with his Guru Maharaj Ji, with his Lord, with his love. Because coming down to it, that's what the relationship we have to Guru Maharaj Ji is like. Me and my Guru Maharaj Ji. And then what provides me with communication with him is that love, that satsang, service, and meditation I do. And if I don't do that, mind takes over. And the only way I can really snap out of it is by tuning in.

We came in a jet and I was sitting in the navigator's seat, and I said, "Let's see what happens." And they have all these different things to tune into And they have "Navigation 1" and "Navigation 2," and it's like one is the mind and one is Guru Maharaj Ji. So when you have enough of the mind, then tune to Navigation 1 to get the right course, and that's how they proceed.

It's like, "Okay, I've had enough of you." So, it's like driving a car. You go in the fifth gear and suddenly it turns the button and it's overdrive and, whish, it just keeps on going and that's it. You just ride smoothly, and that's how - but very few times you can really tell the difference. "Is it on overdrive or on the fifth gear?"

And that's the point. Is it the mind? Because the approach mind does, like Guru Maharaj Ji said, it's like, I mean, believe it or not, ninety-nine point nine percent of the financial aid mind has goes into developing and researching the new ways of finding how to freak you out.

It's like, "Okay, what is it? Let's find out what is it, how can I trick Raja Ji?" You know, it's like, okay, Raja Ji's mind says, "How can I trick Raja Ji into something?"

And it does. I mean, you know, seventy-five percent, maybe ninety-eight, who knows, maybe hundred percent -

Divine Times, March 1977    3

I'm always in my mind, you know, I mean, let's face it. Hopefully not now. And so, you never can tell, and so all you can really do is really try, you know, and really surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, and say, "Okay, all I have to do is click the switch on Navigation 1, 2, wherever you are." It's like being lost on a boat and you're completely lost. And you just turn the autopilot on and he just takes you wherever you want to go. He just takes you in the right direction, you know, he just takes you to the right harbor, to the right lighthouse you want to go, and guides you to the right direction. And that's what we want, but most of the time in our cases we can't tell which direction we are going. It's like we've always had this problem, "Where are we going?" And sometimes so many trips are laid on us, so many things are laid on us it's like, "Well, this is it and this is it," and so on, that we don't know which is what. We don't know which is service; we don't know what is love. You know, we get caught in that thing.

"Well, is this love or is this coming from Maharaj Ji or is this coming from that?" And, lo and behold, we are caught right up in the game.

It's like, there's this place in England called Hampton Court. And there's these bushes there, and you can get lost there. These go round and round, and it's like a hide-and-seek game, you can't get out of there once you get in. And that's how we get in. We think we are okay, but we are never really okay unless we are in the right channel to Guru Maharaj Ji, unless we are in tune with him. We have to really be in the same frequency with him, and if we are in the same frequency with him, we are really one with him, we can really communicate with him, we are really in synch. And, because we are in synch we are one, there is one less there, by this one premie; he is okay. But then when he has satsang with this premie "X," the premie is confused because he's not in synch, and then they have different ideas, different conceptions of the same person.

One says, "Well, I relate to Guru Maharaj Ji as a nice guy. You know, he is okay, he's far out, but I can't really get into this spiritual trip." And the guy says, "Hey, what are you talking about? I can't see that point." And that starts the whole game again. You know, one trying to convince the other, "Hey, Maharaj Ji is for real." But never can they meet at a point unless the other one, or this one, comes to the same point.

It's like the example Maharaj Ji always gives with these two ants. You know, one is from the salty mountain, one is from the sweet mountain, and one of them goes to the other and says, "How is the sugar?" And he goes, "I don't taste anything." And the other one tries to experience and experience and experience, and he doesn't experience anything, you know, there's nothing there, and he says, "Well, you must be in a trip." You know, that's how it goes. "You must be in your mind." I mean, one of them has to be in their minds, you know. Either way it doesn't matter. So, finally the one goes, "Open your mouth," and there's a piece of salt there, and that's why, that's the only reason why the one can't experience the sugar. And so they get the salt out and experience the sugar, and that's what we have to do is like dump our mind. Literally dump our mind.

It's like, "Okay Guru Maharaj Ji, you take care of it," because he's the only one. It's like mind putting so much energy, so much of his life, so much of his time into developing new programs, you know, it's like -- new things to con the mind into. It's like Maharaj Ji said in Hans Jayanti, that trick with "Jai Satchitanand. Isn't everything good? Isn't everything great?" And you slip right there, you know, it's like there's first a small slip, a better one, a better one, then you are right there. It's like, "Well, why can't I go and see a movie, maybe?" King Kong, or Jaws at that time, or whatever, and you go and see that movie and, well, there are sharks and everything, or King Kong, whatever, and then you go from there, "Well, maybe I'll see this other movie, it's very nice." And you go there, and eventually don't even have an hour.

Maharaj Ji was talking in one of the tours and saying, "Well, everybody says everybody should meditate an hour - an hour." And he said, "That's putting everything into brackets. That's putting everything into small boxes: meditation is only good for an hour. You have to only do it an hour." And what happens is, you want to do meditation only an hour, you sit down in your room, and maybe you are living in an apartment, your neighbor is playing the stereo system pretty loud, so you tell him, and you maybe have a nice stop watch, you know, those meditation alarm clocks. You turn it on, and you go to your neighbor and you say, "Okay, turn it off." So, that's ten minutes right there, you know. And he says oh, why don't you sit down and talk to him, and you're forgetting the whole reason that because you're going to meditate, he has to turn his stereo system a bit low. So ten minutes are gone right there, and then you go in, and it takes twenty minutes just for the mind to cool off, it's like, it doesn't matter how realized we are, man, I tell you, it takes twenty minutes for the mind to cool off. So there's thirty minutes right there, and then you have to think that you have to do four techniques, and you stop watch them, you know, "tick tick tick tick," and you don't get to do anything. It's neither this nor that. You don't even get to do the whole thing complete. Except maybe the Holy Name unless you are really really realized.

So, you know, there you go. That one hour made that half an hour worth nothing. You never really got to do anything because you were just waiting for those ten minutes to get over. The time has passed, the time is gone, and it will never come back again. Time and tide wait for none. They come, they are there, and they go.

And what we have to do, you know, that's why Guru Maharaj Ji has come at such a young age. He has heard. He hears us. And that's difficult enough. We talk about propagating him, this Knowledge, to the whole world, and it's difficult enough for him with 5,000 of us around the world maybe. You know, even really good premies, it's difficult enough for him to control us, because we never know when the overdrive goes off, we never know what happened.

I know for myself, seventy-five percent

4    Divine Times, March 1977

of the time I'm always thinking. I'm always thinking, "How could I do this, and how could I do this, and how could I do anything that I wanted to do." And most of the time it will be probably monetary matters. "Oh Raja Ji, how are you going to make a million dollars?" It's like a big question. How am I going to do it? And then I go in the plane and I read this article about this rich guy who has a private 707, and I think, "If he can afford a private 707, why can't I afford a private Concorde? Why not? I mean, everything is possible, everybody says that. Where there is a will there's a way. You can do it."

And then I go, "Well, that will be really good," and all this, you know, and "If I could have a Concorde, then why couldn't Maharaj Ji have one? And maybe I'll give him mine first. You know, he can use it, and I'll use it when I want to use it. And we'll just 50/50, you know, whatever."

And with that Concorde I start figuring out the interior. Maybe a nice bathtub, maybe a nice shower. A car inside , just to pass by, you know, really comfortable, and everything, and maybe it's all in a positive direction, but it's nothing to do with meditation. It's really not. It's like it's all really just the mind, coming his own way, telling me what to do, and there I am right under his thumb, you know - "Wow, a Concorde! That's a good idea. And you can do so much service like that for Guru Maharaj Ji, and you can travel, and then you can have this car in it, and make it really comfortable for Guru Maharaj Ji and then - but how am I going to do that?

Okay, it costs only fourteen million dollars, but that's not so much, but you have to have an oil reserve somewhere, right? And how can I get a country to …" And so on, you know.

And thinking all these things we completely lose the objective. The goal you always wanted to accomplish, you lose it and then you go into that thing. It's like, there was this film we had about this office. And the film was from this Middle Eastern country and it said how this artist was really a good artist, but his paintings were so expensive, or his sculptures were really expensive because he put so much energy into them, that he could never sell them, so he was really always poor. So in order to sell his paintings or sell his sculptures he had to lose his quality that he used to give his art. So he was no longer an artist; he was doing things for the commercial market just to make money, and he was rich on one hand, but he had lost his touch, he had lost the finesse he had, and that's like - and what we have to be careful of is not to lose that finesse.

For a premie, where there is a will there is a way, so a premie xyz, a person xyz in the world could accomplish, could be anything, literally anything he wants to become, I mean, our own president- elect, Mr. respectful Jimmy Carter, I mean, he was Mr. Nobody, and today he is the president-elect of America, and that's a pretty good goal to accomplish, I mean, he made it, you know? And he's going to be the president in a couple of days, first of January or twentieth of January he takes over and he is the president of America, and he made that effort. I mean, there was a will behind it, and then he found his way, and he did it, so that shows you, we can do whatever we want to do, but do we really want to do that? That's a good question.

I mean, if I want to become really rich, I mean, I can have that Concorde, no problem, but will I have the money to afford it? That's a good question. I'll have the Concorde first, then I'll have to have the money to afford it, and that will keep me busy 24 hours a day, busy enough that I won't have any time to meditate. Literally, I'll be thinking about how I'm going to do it, you know, how I'm going to have a million dollars so after next week I can meditate, how can I make a million dollars this week, so next week I'll have enough chance to meditate, and so on, you know, it's like, next week, next week, next week, and every week I make 500,000 dollars, not always one million, and the Concorde, like a big white elephant, drinks it, "Okay, thank you," like a glass of water. Goes in, goes out. You know, it's like, I take a flight from London to Paris and what happens? I go bankrupt. And then I have to work even more!

So actually I never really have time to meditate, never really have the time to concentrate enough that I can really have that relationship with Guru Maharaj Ji that's me and him, and no other person. And if only every premie in the world, you know, every one of us were able to accomplish that relationship; you know, me and my Lord, me and my Guru Maharaj Ji, me and my love and that's it. There's no telephone operators, you know. There's no - we don't need anything for that: me and Guru Maharaj Ji and that's it; Basta. And if you accomplish that, each premie for himself, it would be really beautiful, because there is a certain point where we are equal, because we are a lover of a certain thing, and we have established that communication, hopefully for the best.

Hopefully mind, in spite of all its power, will be never able to destroy it.

It's like Maharaj Ji was saying once in this satsang, it's like the holy family, holy all the way, you know, with all the holes in them. Everybody was there, and

Maharaj Ji said, "You know something? The more higher you are, the more you fall, and the more you fall, the more difficult it is for you to put it together - for him to put it together." So it's like, somebody is sitting high up there, he goes down, you know, there's not much.

If a cup just rolls on the floor, nothing happens, but if it's up there, goes down, maybe into five pieces, you can still put it together. You can buy that TV product, put it together, and it'll work. But if it goes a hundred feet and falls down, no way. It's like in or out, and that's it. Unless the cup is lucky, and it's a custom- made cup that falls and it bounces back up, you know, bionics in it or something like that - you never know these days. So it might work, but it's very difficult. One in a million chance that it will survive that fall.

And so I don't really want to get into anything. All I want to really say is there's only one thing really important for us. There's one thing, you know. All I want to tell you is that the only thing really important for you is your devotion, your satsang, service and meditation towards Guru Maharaj Ji. And nobody's going to come between that. And if somebody did come in between that, then you were not really doing it. It's your own connection, your own private telephone line, and how can somebody disturb it? It's like you having your own satellite, and having a telephone. Nobody can come in your way.

And then Maharaj Ji will give you whatever you want because you have that communication with him. And even if you're falling, he'll save you. Even if you are going down the line, he'll help you, if you have a strong enough connection, if you have a strong enough line with him to start with. And like he says, "If you take one step towards me, I'll take a million towards you. But don't sit there."

I say, don't sit there watching him. "Okay, Guru Maharaj Ji, you may be fast, but you're not that fast." You know, I can take one, and you take million, so you take 500,000, and I'll take one, and we'll see what happens. Well, let Maharaj Ji make the first step." But he doesn't need to. He has enough premies already, you know? And all he needs is their love and they're giving it to him. So, it's like each person's own effort to establish that connection.

Divine Times, March 1977    5