I'm glad the band finally finished. I was waiting for it. Every time it seemed like they were going to stop they would begin again. So nevertheless, just a little opportunity here to come and have some satsang.

We have to understand our basics - not philosophies, not ideas, not concepts. Because those things obviously aren't going to take us anywhere. For anybody to get involved in their concept, for anybody to get involved in a philosophy, is very simple. Anything can become a philosophy. Anything that mind can put together can be basically a philosophy. Anything that ego can infiltrate can be a philosophy. Anything that is not a part of Guru Maharaj Ji can be a philosophy. And in this philosophy - it can be about anything from what color to paint a road to what tint the sky is. Is it in fact blue? Or how dogs see - black and white or color? Anything. It's endless. The list is completely endless.

Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world not to give us a philosophy, but to completely go beyond that, to completely take us beyond all the philosophy, all our ideas, all our concepts. And sometimes we try to perceive Guru Maharaj Ji and try to perceive Guru Maharaj Ji's Knowledge through concepts, through philosophies, through ideals, through ideas. Because this is what we have been doing all our lives. When we had to understand something, we had to figure it out. We had to rationalize it, what it was. If we couldn't rationalize something, it literally didn't exist.

It's like a UFO. Whether it exists or not, that's not the question. The question is who can ratify it. Who can in fact come up with the explanation that yes, it exists. Nobody's concerned about whether they do exist or not.

And it's the same way with Knowledge; it's the same way with an experience. Sometimes we forget the experience of Knowledge. We forget the experience of Guru Maharaj Ji. And we try to somehow ratify Guru Maharaj Ji and Knowledge. And you can't do that. Because the scope of Knowledge - where does the experience of Knowledge begin? When we stop. It's a very simple theory that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. As long as we are going to be there, then Guru Maharaj Ji's experience can't come in, the experience of Knowledge cannot manifest. When we let go of our concept of trying to rationalize everything - because this is what man has done from the very beginning: created a wheel, created so many things. "Why does the sun come? Why does the sun go?"

When the first eclipse happened, everybody was really scared. And somehow they have been spending all that time, and even now, they are exploring those things so they can have a reason for every single thing that happens in this universe. Not that it's going to do anybody any good. You can go to the moon; you can go to Mars. You can go to the sun; you can go to - I mean it's completely conceivable - completely conceivable - that a hundred years from now man might decide to go to the sun and execute a completely successful landing, too.

But what is that going to do? Man's already been to the moon. What has that done? Absolutely nothing. Not a single thing has happened. All the unsatisfaction has grown on its own steady but solid pace. Everything is exactly the same. But now we know what the moon is all about. All the rationalizations have been now stamped. Because there are the pictures.

Once I saw a movie. It was completely incredible. There were these guys who were supposed to go to the moon. And right in the middle of the whole program, the whole program was canned. And so what they did is they created a whole facade of the moon. And they took these people and they stuck them in this studio where they were to stay for this whole period of time that they were supposed to be on the moon. And I was just watching it and they were doing their whole trip - radio communication and hopping around. It was a studio. It looked very much like it. (Maybe that's all they did and didn't go to the moon.)

But you can see that of all those rationalizations that we have to go through every single day - "Why this?" and "Why that?" and "Why does that have to be this way?" - one thing that's completely making it absent is a whole process that in fact has to take place, that we are not even aware of. You see, for a devotee there can be only one thing. It's very obvious and it's very clear. And the only one thing there can be for a devotee is devotion. That's it. A state of salvation is for a being. But a devotee isn't a being. A devotee is beyond being a being. A devotee is one who has accomplished the purpose. Salvation …

It's like a buffalo can dream of being white because it's

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black. But a devotee isn't a being. A being is full of ideas; a being is full of desires. And to have salvation is a desire. It's not a natural thing of mankind. It's not your natural thing of a being.

We have desires; we live with desires. That's because we are beings. But a devotee isn't just a being. Devotee is one who has been totally consumed in the experience, one who isn't any more because he has dedicated himself completely. And for that person there is only one thing, which is devotion. That's the only thing that can flow out of a devotee towards Guru Maharaj Ji. If a devotee will think of something it'll be Guru Maharaj Ji. The complete spectrum around him then becomes satsang, service and meditation. To do satsang …

So many times I've given that example. Until my birthday there were all the initiators here. And there would be a little place right here where everyone would get up and give satsang. And you have to completely be tuned in. You have to be completely focused in. You have to be completely merged in. If somebody went out there and got a ticket while they were on their way to satsang here and they walked in through that door, and then somebody said, "Would you like to give satsang?" it's more like, "No, I'd like to do some meditation first. Get tuned in. Get my gears synched up a little bit."

Because everything then becomes what we have to do. We have to do satsang. And we have to do service. Because we are at a point, consistently, that we can skip that, that we can be under the pretenses that we are doing service, but we might not in fact be doing service at all. And it happens so many times. Then also there is of course no experience manifested.

And in the same way, we have to do meditation. Meditation isn't flowing - although meditation is constantly flowing. But to submerge in the experience of meditation we have to do something. Guru Maharaj Ji. We have to somehow be able to approach Guru Maharaj Ji. Somehow we have to think about Guru Maharaj Ji. Somehow we have to figure out what Guru Maharaj Ji's going to say to us, and if we ever get an opportunity to say something to Guru Maharaj Ji, what are we going to say to Guru Maharaj Ji? Or to write a card: "What am I going to write in a card to Guru Maharaj Ji?"

All these things become "do's" because they're not natural. See, it's a phenomenon, in one sense, that always a river starts from a high point and merges with the ocean. It's a phenomenon. The reason it's a phenomenon is because, if you look, some of the mountains buried under the ocean are even higher than the mountain from which the river starts. Some of the valleys buried in the Pacific plate are gigantic, are enormous. Higher than the Himalayas. And they're buried under there completely. And yet that water has neutralized that effect of gravity completely. And so, in fact, the water is actually flowing into something that's even higher - an altitude in that depth - than itself.

But it's completely natural. There are no questions asked because that process has been established that that water is going to rise, is going to rain, and it's going to flow right into the ocean - unquestionably - by whichever means. It's going to come; it's going to merge. It's going to join. That's the cycle.

I was reading some of the stuff about what's buried down there in terms of these mountains. And it's incredible. Some of these valleys that are actually buried under the ocean are incredibly gigantic. Huge. And these little islands - even these great, gigantic islands - are just the tips of mountaintops. (Maybe the Himalaya has a little peak, like a little snowcone on top of it.) And you see this huge sandy beach, and underneath it it's just a complete, incredible thing happening.

And the same way for a devotee. We are what we are. We are human beings, and it's a granted fact that we are lunatics. We are crazy. Doesn't matter which religion you come from; doesn't matter which country you come from. Doesn't matter what your background was - whether you were rich; whether you were poor. But one thing is definite: We're all completely nuts. We're completely crazy. And that's the starting point. That's where you have to start from.

And then the whole scene begins which is to reach the destination. And the path is exactly the same: to become a devotee, to completely dedicate, to completely be dedicated and to completely let go of this life, to that one source which can then take it back to where it has come from. And the process of devotion while we are alive - people live their lives, breathe, or live every moment. And yet in a basis, that's what everything is for a devotee. People live in this world to maybe be with their wives, to maybe be with their children, or maybe to have a lot of money, or to maybe enjoy the things of this world. And if one day all those things disappear, people find absolutely no reason to live.

It's the same thing with a devotee. Devotee lives for only one thing and that's devotion. Because in the way of devotion, the devotee receives that love that completely fulfills him. Devotee gives that love that also completely fulfills him. More he gives, more he

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receives. And more that love flows from a devotee, more that love is poured into a devotee by Guru Maharaj Ji.

And the only reason of existence then is to be a devotee. And the only thing that ever happens is devotion. And then when somebody speaks it is automatically satsang. Then there is not a concern about chit-chat. Because the mind is not there. And this mind, body and soul are completely focused - in the sense of mind, body and soul - completely focused on one thing and that's devotion to Guru Maharaj Ji. It's total linkage. It's completely linked.

It's like having those Christmas lights. If every one of those Christmas bulbs is linked to the wire and the wire is linked to the electricity; it doesn't matter in the row, in which sequence, where that little bulb is - at the very end or at the very beginning or in the middle - it'll light up. Completely. And that's the only thing it can do. It only has two options. One is it's lit; one is it's not lit. And it becomes that complete phase that when it's energized, when for a human being that devotion becomes real and that being becomes a devotee, then you don't have to sit there and do satsang. Because satsang naturally flows. What you speak is satsang. Because you are in the company of Truth.

If a dog has just jumped into a swimming pool, for five minutes after that, wherever he walks will be wet. It's the same thing. Because you are completely submerged in the company of Truth, then whenever … It's like eating garlic. When you eat a lot of garlic, you "shriek" of garlic. When your heart is completely full of the devotion then you "shriek" of devotion. Then you completely emanate - when the Light's completely inside of you, then you emanate Light. Then when you say something you are not under the influence of mind - that the chit-chat will come out - but the chit-chat is not an option and it can become satsang. Then the service - automatically it will become service. Because then you're focused and dedicated to your Guru Maharaj Ji. Your actions then are dedicated to Guru Maharaj Ji. And then you will be doing service. Every action. Not because of our own reasons, not because of our concepts.

Look. It can be very simple. Say Guru Maharaj Ji tells you to do something. Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Paint this pole purple." Guru Maharaj Ji says that. Out of the blue, somebody comes - just anybody. What is the first thing that's going to happen? The first thing that's going to happen is you're going to take your key, slip it into the ignition of the mind and crank it. And if it doesn't crank you're going to crank it again and crank it and crank it and prime it and choke it, till it starts up. You will even go to an initiator to be able to ratify, to be able to properly ratify, what your mind has come up with.

"What shade of purple am I going to paint it? How did Guru Maharaj Ji want it? When did Guru Maharaj Ji want it?" I face this every day. I come to that area. "Do this." And it's like, "Well, how do you want it done? Where is it?" That happens to so many premies. I think it'll happen to anybody. And how far removed is that from the experience of that devotee, that Guru Maharaj Ji turned to him and said, "Look. You are not going to eat ashram food." And he stopped.

If it would have been for us, we would have tried to somehow ratify that - "What did Guru Maharaj Ji mean?" - and take it into an intense philosophy. "What could Guru Maharaj Ji have meant? Food?" And we would define food. What is food? There are dry foods. There is wheat. There are all these things. So, "Perhaps the lentils will be fine." Or, "Liquids are all I'm going to stick to." Somehow that happens. Ask yourself. Isn't that somehow the case? That somehow - however it happens - you end up in that one place.

For my birthday I got this pinball machine. I had a pinball machine a long time ago in Denver and when the whole Denver house was sold, the pinball machine was sitting here, I guess. Then I had it brought to the residence. Then the new pinball machine is completely out there. It makes all these noises. It's all electrical and it's all solid state, instead of having all the things going wrong with it. It's all solid state.

And there are all these little things, all these little attractions that you can shoot for and win. And everything is such a trap. Because though it looks like, "Oh yes, I can shoot for this. Oh yes, I can go for this," I have to realize that the whole entire pinball machine is first of all tilted. It doesn't matter how much I try to shoot up, all that ball's going to do is roll down. And when it does roll down, even though the flippers are there, there is a space in between the flippers that even when both flippers are up, that ball will still pass through. And it's a complete trap. Because it doesn't matter how hard you keep going. There is definitely going to be that one point, somehow, where that ball's going to slip. And when that ball slips, that's the end of the game.

It doesn't matter how many little traps, how many

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little options, there are built in. But that option is also built in. And how easy it becomes to forget that it's a trap. It's a trap to get the ball down, to stop it, to cut it, to finish it. That's what the machine is fighting against, and that's what you're fighting against. The goal of the machine is to stop the game. Because it's tilted. As soon as the ball goes in - five chances. And after the five chances it'll stop, completely.

And yet that becomes the constant battle of life, that becomes the constant thing of life. And we have to understand that all these things that we go and start doing on our own - perhaps forgetting that our odds against the mind aren't so good - that one single mistake and this mind can sweep us off our legs so fast we wouldn't know what hit us. And it happens. It isn't a matter of it can never happen to you. Of course it can happen to you. And if you don't watch it, it's imminent that'll happen to you. Because that's the way it is. If you don't watch it …

That's why Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world. That's the purpose of darshan. That's the purpose of service. That's the purpose of meditation. That's the purpose of going and seeing Guru Maharaj Ji. That's the purpose of inspiration.

And the only way you can avoid it completely is to bring that ball to a point where it just sits there. The game is still on - the first ball, you know. Maybe you'll score no points. In this world, maybe you'll score no points. But then the game will never end either. It'll always be on. And it's the same thing. We try to score points in this world and we shoot the ball. The game ends and that's it. We are all amateurs. It doesn't matter if there is reincarnation or all that stuff. We don't have any experience from the past of how to avoid accidents. It isn't like we had four lifetimes and that means we have died four times and now we will become an expert on how to dodge death.

We come in this world. We have an option. Either we try to score points - and it doesn't matter how many points you score. The first day I had the pinball machine, I scored a million and some-odd points on it. The ball was really hot and just went and … The highest score set by the factory was 450,000 points. I went completely over, scored a million and some-odd thousand points, and it didn't remember the million points, because it just went right over, disregarded it, and all it remembered was 450,000 points.

That's exactly what you call being a sucker in this world. And that's sometimes what we become. And what Guru Maharaj Ji says is, "Wait a minute. Don't play with that ball. Leave it. Surrender it! Let go of it! Don't try to score points in this world." The more points you try to score in this world, the sooner it's going to be that the game is going to be over. One little error, one little mistake - that's all it's going to take. All your odds are open. There are three possible openings at the end of that pinball machine through which the ball can go. Only one entrance and three exits. And those three exits are imminent. After the ball's gone through you can't do anything about it. It won't come back.

If we just surrender ourselves to Guru Maharaj Ji, if we surrender ourselves to that experience, if we just

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become a devotee and have devotion, that's all that's needed. Not your incredible philosophy, not your ideas, not your concepts - you can take your concepts, do whatever you feel like with them and those concepts aren't going to do anything. That's not an experience. There is no experience in concepts. There is no experience in philosophy. There is no experience in ratifying things.

What it is like is like this madman - this insane being - that's taken and placed inside an asylum. And maybe this person isn't even insane. But he gets driven insane by placing him in the asylum. Why? Because he knows he can't get out of there. He can try as much as he wants. He can try and he can try but he can't get out.

And it becomes the same thing for us. We'll be driven completely insane, we'll be driven completely mad, by this world. And only if we focus completely on one thing … and that's devotion, because that's the only thing a devotee can accomplish in this world. There is nothing else a person can accomplish. There is nothing else a human being can in fact accomplish in this world. He cannot become a professor. That's fake. And you cannot become a doctor. I heard there's one brother who was a doctor. He's into herb medicines or whatever and he was in the ashram. He was resting because he was sick.

And it's the same exact thing in that sense. We cannot become musicians. There is no such thing as that at all. These guys try and they try and they always go slightly off-key. Because it's completely generated from them, by them.

And yet the music that is within inside of us never goes off-key. Because it's the music that Guru Maharaj Ji plays within inside of us. That's completely endless. It cannot go off-key. It can never stop. It is always there. And for us to tune into that is far more blissful. It is right, because there is an experience. There is an experience … It's like, "Experience, experience, experience, experience," and it's a very well-used word sometimes. "To experience this; to experience that." But truly the word experience - there's only one thing we can experience. And that's that devotion for Guru Maharaj Ji.

Look. There are so many people who tried to write the Gita. And what happened? What happened after they wrote the Gita? Nothing. Didn't make any difference. Not one single ounce of difference. The war still happened. People were killed. Arjun was enlightened. But that was absolutely regardless of the Gita. Everything happened that happened and the Gita had nothing to do with it. And not one single person yet has been enlightened through the Gita. Because right in the Gita itself it says that if you want this Knowledge, if you want that essence, if you want that Word, you have to go to the Perfect Master of your time, who will enlighten you, who will give you this, who will reveal this Knowledge.

And yet you can see that one thing that - I mean, Tulsidas wrote the Ramayana. What difference did it make? It was this whole scene. First of all Valmiki sits down and writes the Ramayana. This whole scene happened where Sita was kicked out. Ram came and Sita was brought back and they went back to their country and somebody said, "Well, you know … blah, blah, blah about Sita, and Ram said, "Get out," and kicked her right out.

And they were having this ritual through which they were going to have a white horse and wherever this white horse was going to roam, it was going to be declared Ram's kingdom there because anybody who wanted to challenge it would have to fight with the army that followed the horse, which was Ram's army. And there is this whole thing going on. Ram's own two sons come and sing the entire Ramayana right in front of him and tell Ram it's completely unjust. It didn't make any difference. You can become a fortune teller. Nothing is going to change. If you can change a fortune, then you don't know the fortune at all. Then that's not the fortune.

What can you accomplish? Because everything is so finite. You also stay finite in the experience of finite things. Only an infinite thing can bring you an infinite experience, not an infinite experience of a finite thing. That doesn't exist.

And there's only one thing that's infinite. And that's that devotion. Hanuman accomplished something. Definitely. Hanuman accomplished it. And what he accomplished was devotion. He became a devotee. What did Arjun become? What did he accomplish? He became a devotee. And that's what we can all accomplish: devotion. Be a devotee, become a devotee and stay a devotee. And everything else in this world that we can try to accomplish will never, ever happen. Because it's easy come and easy go. It's finite. Our experience is always going to be that short, our experience always is going to be that small.

And so, to completely cut ourselves from these strings and the cords that we attach ourselves to this maya with into this world, into our concept … What

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kind of concept don't we have? Everything. From A to Z. How does Knowledge work? How does Knowledge work? At every program it's said, "Oh yes, Guru Maharaj Ji is going to come to a program." It's all neatly wrapped in a box. There's a convention center booked. Blah, blah, blah. The dates are spread out. Someone gets on the phone and tells all the communities there's a program happening. Everybody takes an airplane, walks into the convention center. Everybody goes hammering, builds a stage, and Guru Maharaj Ji's supposed to come at a certain time and start the satsang.

It's all beyond that. That's completely a concept. Those people who are completely tied into that never even have an experience of the satsang that happens there. Only those who come because Guru Maharaj Ji is coming. Not because a festival has been called. A festival can be called one time, two times, three times, a thousand times, and it'll still be a festival. And sometimes there is not much difference between that festival - if the satsang isn't happening - and a festival that happens in Mexico where - whatever they do. You have all these fiestas in Mexico.

But truly what makes that difference for that devotee is that flowing devotion. A devotee will follow their Guru Maharaj Ji wherever Guru Maharaj Ji goes and not be involved in anything else. When some of the devotees of Shri Maharaj Ji - he did most of his prachar in that part that's now Pakistan. That was before there was a difference between India and Pakistan.

After a little while the whole division happened and Pakistan became Pakistan. And sometimes those premies wanted to have Shri Maharaj Ji's darshan. Of course, there was no Prem Nagar. They didn't know where to reach him, so they'd try looking. In the whole of India, they'd try looking for where Maharaj Ji went, going village to village, trying to follow him, asking people, "Have you seen him? Have you seen him?"

At that time there were very small programs. Try tracing him down. A week, two weeks, three weeks -then they would just go to his village where his home was and wait there, for as long as they had to wait, till they had their darshan.

I'm not saying that everybody should crowd around the residence. That's not my idea at all. But to be in that flow that Guru Maharaj Ji is, to be Guru Maharaj Ji's devotee …

After all, remember. We're not trying to devote ourselves to ourselves. And that's what we do. We become our own devotees. We devote ourselves to ourselves. We do service for ourselves. We give satsang to ourselves and we do meditation just for ourselves. And we become very selfish. And all that's existent is us. And then ego comes in. And then what happens? We become the same ache we were to begin with. We become the same mad monster we were to begin with.

But when we become just that humble devotee, who is not bound by concepts - whose reason to live, whose reason for existence isn't because of his ideas, isn't because of what's going to happen in two days, isn't because of what's going to happen in three days -but is because he is a devotee of Guru Maharaj Ji, because he is devoted; he experiences devotion. That's his reason to live. That's his purpose to live.

And to keep on having that experience, and to be completely surrendered to Guru Maharaj Ji - and as long as Guru Maharaj Ji will give him that experience he's accepting it. However Guru Maharaj Ji gives us that experience and we accept it, not in our rationalizations. Because we try to rationalize. Sometimes something will happen maybe that's not so nice and we will say "Oh, that was just Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace." What does Grace have to do with it? Sometimes it's a direct, direct hit in the back. And we call it, "Oh, what Grace!" And how did that happen? There's a little jigsaw going and we take our hand and slip it right through it. Your hand falls off in two pieces: "Oh, that was completely Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace."

That's not Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. That's your own stupidity. And there's a vast difference between your own stupidity and Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace is that power that pulls you out, not gets you into, trouble. Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace is that power that saves a being, not throws him back into the ocean.

And when we become a devotee, only then are we even capable of receiving that Grace. Grace just doesn't tumble over, all over the place, everywhere, hitting everybody on the head - "How are you today? Here I am," - but is that power, is that blessing, of Guru Maharaj Ji. And the ones who deserve it get it. When those devotees, those beings who have recognized their Guru Maharaj Ji, those beings … And once I was just reading that statement of Kabirdas. And he says, "People who consider Guru Maharaj Ji something else are definitely bound to hell." There's no and's, if's and but's about it.

Now is our opportunity to really focus in, to really

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take that opportunity. Look. This goes on. And some initiator will get up and he will say the same thing. "Oh, what a fantastic opportunity." Right? "Opportunity, opportunity, opportunity." The fact is, it is an opportunity. And we have to grab it. We have to take it. We have to accept it. We have to let go to it. To me, it becomes so obvious: where we are at, where Guru Maharaj Ji is, what happens to time, what happens to everything.

And there was this one poem that Kabirdas wrote. And it's incredible. It says, "When there was Guru Maharaj Ji, I wasn't there." It takes one second to realize what it is. And if you can realize it, you can understand it. It completely makes sense. "When I was existent, when I was there, there was no Guru Maharaj Ji. And now Guru Maharaj Ji is there but I'm not there."

To me, it really made sense in a very simple way. Because here we are in this world, whoever we are. And we have our energy and we have our everything set out. And yet we have no reason, have no purpose. For us, Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't exist.

And when Guru Maharaj Ji becomes existent for us, all that enthusiasm goes right down the drain - flushed. That's it. That's the satsang I was giving in Orlando. "Do not forget that enthusiasm, that inspiration" - to those aspirants - that they have within them. Because that's a moment when they are there too and Guru Maharaj Ji is there too. And there can be an incredible connection. Same thing for every one of us. There can be an incredible connection. We have to be there as a devotee and Guru Maharaj Ji will be there as Guru Maharaj Ji. But it's not that we are not a devotee and we don't even know about Guru Maharaj Ji and then when Guru Maharaj Ji comes, when we finally recognize in our life, "My God. What have I been doing all my life?" - finally recognize Guru Maharaj Ji - then what happens to us? We disappear. There's nothing left of us. And somehow that has to change. Somehow that has to stop.

The way it goes on is that the street of love is too narrow; two cannot be accommodated at the same time. Well, that's fine. It's too narrow. Just follow Guru Maharaj Ji. Be right behind him. You don't have to be side to side with him. Just follow. Just be behind him. Be that devotee who is there. Just don't get lost. Because mind is very powerful. Mind can come in any way, any direction. Mind can manifest in any way it wants to manifest. You have absolutely no choice in how your mind is going to manifest.

It's very simple. It's very simple because there you are. There's Guru Maharaj Ji. Be a devotee, have the flow of devotion, and that's all. Period. No doctrines, no dogmas, no nothing is involved. That's all that's ever required for you to be a devotee. Guru Maharaj Ji is Guru Maharaj Ji. Guru Maharaj Ji always will be a Guru Maharaj Ji. You, the variable factor, have to stabilize, and become a devotee and stay a devotee.

As long as that can happen there is nothing else left to be done. There is nothing more to be accomplished. No shastra goes beyond that. No scripture goes beyond that. There is nothing more. Absolutely nothing.

And so, just to have that focus straight in our lives - and keep it straight in our lives, not every single time the wind blows, not every single time the mind comes, you get sucked in. You can't be that vulnerable! Guru Maharaj Ji has given you the strength. Guru Maharaj Ji digs the pole and you have to hang on to it. That pole that Guru Maharaj Ji digs: that's what we have to do.

I was just reading in one of the books that the South Pole - the little actual pole - is actually not where the South Pole is. There's a pole. They have a pole. But it's

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not where the South Pole is. In fact, where the South Pole is is a dinky little pole - a very small tiny little pole that says "South Pole" on it. And everybody who goes to see the South Pole doesn't go to the South Pole. They go to this other pole. And people who really want to go to the South Pole have to go to this other pole that doesn't look like the South Pole. And that's very tricky but that's where it's at.

There are poles of maya. There are poles of ego. There are poles of philosophies. There are poles of concepts that look sturdy, that look gigantic. They look like they have definitely an excellent foundation and they're definitely not going to blow. It's the same thing to us. Why? Because to us a movie set looks very real. And that's about as fake as anything can get. We sit down in front of a television and we watch all that scenery, all that facade. We watch and we get carried away and we do all those things. It's completely fake!

And this is how vulnerable we are. We can be carried away by a completely fake thing. We know it's fake. And yet when it comes down to it, we push that idea completely out. We don't sit there and go, "It's fake; it's fake." I remember a long time ago when this premie used to watch those Dracula movies. She would jump a foot. She knew it was fake. Everybody knows it's fake. But … it's real. Because that's the power of mind.

And to what Guru Maharaj Ji has to give - maybe that tiny little stick - you say, "Man, that'll never support me." And yet we stick on somehow to these other poles and wind comes and blows us right over. And if we stick to that little pole - that's everything. Because that pole doesn't have a foundation because that pole is the foundation of the entire universe. That is that primordial foundation. If that pole which Guru Maharaj Ji tells us to attach ourselves to disappears, so will the entire world. It'll be just like that example. You flush your toilet and the whole world just goes "poof!" but this time the toilet included. And the seat and you in it. All will be completely gone. There'll be nothing left: absolutely nothing - nothing whatsoever.

And that's it. That pole doesn't need a foundation. It is the foundation of the entire universe. And that's what we have to attach ourselves to, completely. And then nothing will happen except devotion, except that love, except that understanding, except that experience.

That's where it all has to be. That's where it all has to be.

So premies, anyway, today is Christmas. I don't even know if they know when Christmas was to tell you the truth. Those three wise men ran around like fools for a long time before they figured out what was going on, because they kept following the North Star and went around in circles. And … actually they were pretty stupid. Because they found the Lord. They should have just stayed there. What's so wise about finding him and then they split with their camels? Does that even make sense? But that's Christianity. It's all rationalized in there, somewhere.

Today, before I came here, someone called me from Australia and said, "Merry Christmas." Of course I couldn't grab his collar through the phone. I know it's "Merry Christmas." But the essence of Christmas isn't in "Merry Christmas."

What is there in Christmas to be merry about? Nobody understands; everybody has completely lost the essence, completely lost the complete essence of everything. They have it completely a hundred and eighty degrees around. Look at Santa. What is Santa? Santa is exactly a commercialism originated from a religion. You take a commercialism and you make it a part of the religion. And this little Santa Claus goes in front of some department store and stands there and rings a little bell and all the little kids come to him and he says, "And what do you want for Christmas?" There are all these different ideas. Because that's all that's left of Christmas. Nobody thinks about why Jesus came into this world. Nobody thinks of that: what's really true of Knowledge, why Jesus came as Guru Maharaj Ji for those devotees, revealed that Knowledge to them, gave them that experience - I mean, a wonderful experience. Nobody remembers that.

But all the little kids are frantically running around so they can hide under their beds, so Santa can come through the chimney - whether or not they have a chimney - under the Christmas tree. (The Christmas tree has nothing to be thankful about. It's been cut. That's it.) And they put all the presents under there and then the kids go wild at it and everybody picks out their presents and it's just a whole thing. "Merry Christmas."

And no! Look! There is another essence to it. You have the same opportunity now and you can take advantage of that. You have something more precious, which is "Sat-Chit-Anand," which is way beyond "Merry Christmas." And it makes a lot more sense than "Merry Christmas."

Because Christ came. His purpose, to be even

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saying "Merry Christmas," was for sat, chit and anand. That's it. Nothing else; nothing more. What he came in this world for, what he revealed in this world, was this Knowledge, that love, that devotion - that's all that happened. All the philosophy that we read was written forty, fifty, sixty years later by some people who sat down and said, "Well, let's get into it. Let's write this and let's write that."

That's all. And yet even the glimpse of that is very, very simple. The Lord came, the devotees were there, and they had a ball. In essence, that's it. And Pilate fried and everybody fried. They did this and they did that and they criticized. They went to one extreme. And that has happened all the time. That happened all the time. That happens every single time in this yuga. And the yuga before and before and before. Probably will happen in the one after and the one after and the one after that.

Because what's good is followed by what's bad. You just have to stay one step ahead in the race. If you stay in that good, if you stay in that devotion, if you stay in that love, then that's what your experience will be. If you stay one step behind the line, then that's what your experience will be: "What's evil? What's bad? What's nothing?"

To me, that's the essence. Knowledge is the essence, now. That "Sat-Chit-Anand," that Grace, and being now, to have this opportunity - that's something to be merry about. Because in this inconstant world, Indians aren't celebrating "Merry Christmas." It doesn't mean a darn thing to them, at all. It doesn't mean anything whatsoever. They won't decorate their houses. They won't do anything. Of course there are the Christian Indians that'll be doing their thing, but the Muslims won't do anything, just like the Jews don't do anything. To them it's "Happy Hanukkah," not "Merry Christmas." That does not exist, right? That does not exist.

And "Happy Hanukkah" doesn't exist to the Christians. So it goes around and around in this whole religious circle.

And yet beyond all that there is Knowledge, there is Truth and there is reality. And that's what we have to plug ourselves in to: what's real - to that Grace, to what's sat - what's Truth - to what's chit - this life, this consciousness - and to what's anand - what's bliss. In the essence of that is what we have to lodge in. In that there is every experience of life. In that there is that result of life, that love of life, that understanding of life.

So many people are going to die tonight. Their houses will burn down. They'll be lighting a fire and a little spark will jump all the way over to the Christmas tree. Christmas tree will catch fire. The little extension cord will short out and poof! Up will go the whole thing. And then the guy who's Jewish and on top of the other storey, the guy who is a Muslim, and on top of another storey, the guy who is Hindu - everybody will get it up the line.

But completely away from that, for a devotee it will always be "Merry Christmas" because there is never a time in this world when Guru Maharaj Ji isn't here. Always. Every single moment. And that's completely something to be happy about. Because then you have a chance to be saved, to be. So premies, I hope you enjoyed your dinner and it was just really beautiful to be able to come and have some satsang. I was very glad the band stopped when they did. Because I was standing right here, then I moved over there. I went over by the door. Then I came back and I stood there and I stood there. They just seemed like they would end it and they would begin all over again - faster and faster and faster till they finally did end it so I could come out. They're getting good at it.

So I hope something digs into you - not the dinner but that satsang, that little understanding - and stays with you.

So thank you very much and good-night.

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