Dear premies, Happy New Year!

Back in 1977 or 1976, I had some cards printed up. And I was going to sign all these cards and we were going to send them out to all the communities around the world. And I started signing them, and signing them, and signing them, and I signed quite a few of them. Never quite finished the whole bunch. Everybody was saying, "Let's get a stamp or something." And I said, "No, I'll just go ahead and sign them myself." And then the thing came, "Okay, well, maybe I should finish these cards and then we can send them out to all the communities in the world." And then it was like, "Okay, well this is the way we should express the new year to all the premies. What is the best way to do it?"

And you could look at a lot of things, and yet there was nothing more perfect than just having a program and just coming together and sharing that experience, sharing that Love, and sharing that understanding that we develop by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, by the Grace of Knowledge. And there is really no other way in this whole world to come together and to say -- and yet not to say -- to say it, to mean it, truly mean it -- and yet use no verbs, to use no language, to use no expression except what really is there in our hearts, which really grows within us. And to just communicate that between each other and to this world. And to come together to just see what Knowledge does - what is the experience of Knowledge? Where does it really bring us?

It was an immaculate festival in Rome. And I know that not everybody quite could manage, could afford to get there. The same thing with this festival a little bit. And still, there's a few premies that have been stranded at some airports because of these gusty winds and storms and stuff like that. And yet it's just so beautiful, because in one way (well, it's not beautiful when you look at it as them getting stuck at the airport, but if you look at it in a very broad way), you see that there's just that much more time, waiting for that airplane, to just sit there and have the opportunity to just do meditation, to listen to some more satsang, to share some more satsang.

And I know that mind is such a thing that it broadens our perspective so much. Mind is such a thing that it tells us what to do. Because for so long, for such a long time, that's all we have been doing: obeying that mind. For such a long time we have been complete slaves of that mind. And we live with it, we deal with it. That's it. That's our world. That brings us our world. That brings us our life. That takes away our life. It gives us happiness in the life; it gives sadness in the life. And that's even so-called happiness, not the real happiness. And this is what mind does: creates an illusion of everything.

So much has happened in this world and so much has happened just looking at 1977; so much has happened in the technological fields. The Life magazine people, Time-Life people put out a magazine, and it's The Year in Pictures, I believe it's called. And you look in there and there is this "Enterprise," this spaceship, and they're just towing it with a big rig. And it really looks neat. It's like you go back and you look at "Enterprise," the Star Trek program, and you say, "Okay, well this is really far out; this is really neat. This is really futuristic." That's in sets behind the stage. Camera, tricks, so on and so forth. Science fiction.

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And then on the next hand, this is not science fiction. When they were just doing that first initial flight, a lot of people commenting on that were saying, "Yeah, Star Trek and all this is fiction, and yet this is not fiction, this is real, this flies, this does this and this does that, and it's going to bring us out and back and forth into space!"

And yet, when we look at it, this is the way the world is. I mean, this is the way everything is. When I went back in 1972, back to India, there were projectors. And a premie brought a projector and he brought some cartoons, super-8 cartoons. And I put them on, and the premies would sit there and watch these cartoons, and think that that's really real! And then they would turn around and ask, "Well, this is how people look in West? The premies that actually went to India were the premies who could go, who were humans. But that's what really the people look like in West?" And you would see Bambi, and they could talk, and you would see Bugs Bunny, or you'd see a rabbit that doesn't quite walk on its four legs but just on the two hind legs.

And so, just coming down to the fact that there is so much illusion that we create and that we live in, and then we think it is "it." We forget where the reality really is. We forget what is that point in our lives that we have really come here for. And then out of all that illusion, out of all that craziness, out of all that dense jungle and dense fog and dense craziness, Guru Maharaj Ji brings us into reality, what's real.

And just looking at the two developments that have been taking place, one development has been in the illusion, in the field of illusion. And this development has been -- of course, is what this world is doing out there. I mean, it was like in 1977 things were just getting so good in illusion. Cameras were getting better and tape recorders were getting better, and better and better specs were coming out. And this was getting better, and that was getting better.

At the same time a very incredible thing was happening. While there seemed to be so much progress in an artificial thing, there was also some real progress happening in the real thing. And that was within premies. And it was so incredible.

And I guess it just hit, after we came back to Los Angeles, what that festival really was like, of what that whole thing was. And it was incredible! It was so incredible. It was so immaculate. It was so fantastic that it's very, very hard to describe.

There it was! And there were 15,000 people just sitting in front of you, experiencing that Knowledge, and experiencing that Grace, and experiencing that Love and that affection so constantly and so flowing and so beautifully. On one hand you could say, "Okay, well,

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that was a big festival. And it was nice and everybody came, and so on and so forth." Or to some people it was like, "Well, okay. So what?" And those people are the people who don't really understand the reality of the whole thing. Those are the people who really don't understand that what those premies were feeling for the first time in their life wasn't because they were told to feel that. They weren't feeling it because they were tripped out on something. Or they weren't feeling it because it was completely an illusion.

They were feeling it because it was a reality. And they were submerging into a reality. And it was real. It wasn't like hocus-pocus. I mean, its hard to put it in words. But it wasn't like this automobile or this "Enterprise," or this new development that is bound to crumble some day. No! It was incredible. It had such an impact. I mean, it was so powerful. And yet there was nothing new about it. And I know I've just said, "for the first time." Well, for the first time on such a large scale. And yet, it was so flowing, it was so smooth in people's understanding that it's incredible. And you just run out of words after a little while to try to explain what Knowledge can really do.

We lost so much into this world. And everyday what do we do? We just go out and get more spaced out into this world. We go out, and get even more spaced out into this world. And that's like our hobby. That's like our trip. That's like the trip of mind. And the mind wants to space out, wants you to space out, and so it spaces out and you go with it! And that happens again and again and again and again.

It's like that example of getting sick on the boat. You take one trip on the boat and here comes this guy who says, "Look. Look out there." And it's going up and down, and up and down, and up and down, till you get sick! And here you are, really, really sick. And I guess when somebody gets sick on a boat, the only thing they want to tell themselves is, "Jesus, I never want to be on this thing again."

And then you get back there, on there again, and then you know. When you are actually throwing up, right after that relief of throwing up, when your head pulls together a little bit, you come to that sense that, "Wait a minute. If I would have just flowed with it, and not just sat there stiff and gone up and down, and up and down, and back and forth, and up and down, that I probably wouldn't have gotten sick! But it was my own trip that I really concentrated on one thing, and that was back and forth and back and forth, and up and down, and getting sick."

It's really incredible, because you take these cruises in these boats. And then the captain tells you, "Listen, just don't think about it and you'll be okay. You start thinking about it and you might get sick." And so that's the way it has to manifest in our lives.

For how long are we going to keep getting sick in this boat? For how long is this "unmanifestation" of surrender going to exist? For how long are we just going to think that: "Ta-da!" For how long are we going to keep on faking that what we see, what we touch, what we feel our there in the world is really true?

It's really something. Because you just notice that so much progress has happened in this world. And yet, a lot of people say, "Okay, there's going to be a doomsday." And a lot of other people say, "No. There's not going to be a doomsday." And then a lot of people say that "Wait a minute. The world might just freeze like it froze once. It just might freeze again! Just be completely frozen from north to south.- And then the other people say, "No, well, that's physically impossible." Then some people say, "Well, there's San Andreas Fault running down.- Some people say one thing; some people say other thing.

You know, it's really been raining in Malibu, in Los Angeles. It's really going at it. And I've never seen that much rain in Los Angeles. And it was incredible, because every time we would drive down the Pacific Coast Highway there was this house and it sits on a cliff. And I guess before there must have been a little bit of ground in front of it, but one of these nice rains, I guess, chopped it right off. And there it is, sitting barren on a cliff, and you can see it.

And there's so many forecasts going on. There were so many things going on. People were talking about the

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rain. And I guess evolving from that, people were talking about these people from Denmark and they have this whole thing that they're getting into, where they're putting in all the data that they can find from the resources, from the trees, from the ground, from the ocean beds, and everything, into computers, trying to find out what it was really like 18,000 years ago, and to try to simulate a day in August 18,000 years ago.

You just see all these things and in discussing it with somebody you just say, "You know, they were talking about this, and they were talking about, well, maybe the whole world will just freeze, or so on and so forth.- And then you see these waves starting to thump on the beach, and you hear all this news that they're bringing in sandbags and putting sandbags on all these beach houses. Then you see a little newsreel of this living room, and it's just all wet. This one big wave came in and got everything wet.

There is this idealism. There is this concept that people are dealing with. Okay? And this concept takes so much out of these people, takes so much dedication in their lives to be dedicated to it completely. Because these people go into freezing weather, they go into rough oceans, try to get some samples out of the ocean. They go into all these different places to try to score something so they can predict what's going to happen to Earth.

And here are these newscasters, and they have to keep on top of everything. They have to compete with the other channel. Then there is the whole weather forecast station. It has to step up a satellite and get satellite pictures and put it through computers, and compute it and predict where the weather is going, which way the clouds are coming, and how dense it's going to be, how much rain it's going to be, what kind of storm is coming.

And between all this crystal ball that people have tried to create, there's one reality for these people who are living on the beach. And you know what the reality is? That their windows are getting knocked down, and their living room is wet, and their bedroom is wet, and their houses might be swept away. So, there it is!

And there's so much conflict in between just that fakeness that we live in. There is like almost a fake in a fake in a fake in a fake in a fake in a fake. It's like those dolls. The outside doll -- the wooden dolls? -- look that big and then you open one, and there's a smaller one. Then you open one; there's a smaller one. Then you open one; there's a smaller one, till you get to the one that's about this big. And that's the way these concepts and these things that we get into are.

And yet, out of all those things, completely separate from that, completely with an incredible barrier between both, is Guru Maharaj Ji, is Guru Maharaj Ji's world. It's that devotion, that Love, that Knowledge, that surrender, that service, that satsang, that meditation. It's all that.

And we want to get there, and we want to be there. Every time we listen to satsang there's one thing that's so often repeated: "Do satsang, service and meditation. Surrender. And just let go!" And we want to do that. Well, all I can say is I hope premies want to do that.

And yet, we want to do it our own way, at our own time, at our own pace. We want to do it custom, "customized for Mr. So-and-so-and-so." I mean, you're looking at something called liberation. You're looking at something called ultimate Peace. You're looking at something that was preached by Jesus, preached by Mohammed, preached by Krishna, preached by Ram, preached by all the Perfect Masters in this world. Customized! Well, what do you think it is, a Buick, or a Cutlass, or a Cadillac? No! It's not that.

Jesus didn't come into this world and say, "Why don't you buy a Cadillac? That's the ultimate thing." Or it's like, when we were just driving down from the residence to here there was a big sign, "It's the Real Thing." What? After a little while it flashed, "Coke." "Coca-Cola. It's the Real Thing." I mean, is that what all the Perfect Masters came to preach in this world? No!

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And yet, we just get so lost. Shri Maharaj Ji used to give one example. He said, "Some people in this world are like rock. They can he submerged in the bottom of the ocean. They can be submerged in a flowing river for years and years and years and years and years and years and years. And take them out, and within an hour on a sunny day, they'll dry right up as if they were never there."

And some people are like that. To them, the history, everything, is right in front of them. The proof that they need - I mean, what is the biggest proof in this world? Everybody in this world is looking for charisma, looking for a miracle. And to me, okay, if there is a miracle that happens in this world, what kind of a miracle are we looking for? What are we looking for? What kind of a miracle is it going to be?

Not going into any other subject except to just point out one thing: You can get into such a mind trip about this. Or you can get into such a definition about this. For instance, if dead people are going to rise from the grave - okay? The so-called "resurrection" is going to manifest. Then, what are those people going to look like? Are those people going to look like the movie, The Walking Dead? Or are these people going to be just the way they looked like 100, 200, 300 years ago? And then what's going to happen to those people who got buried and then there were new buildings put on them? Or what's going to happen to those people who died centuries ago, and then this whole thing happened, and the plants were growing on them and so on? What are they going to come out of? Is the tree going to manifest? Are they going to manifest? Or what's going to manifest? Is the whole building going to start walking? Or what's going to happen?

I mean, you can get into that kind of a thing about it. What kind of a miracle are we looking for? And I'm pretty sure that if somebody was to do a survey and go around asking people to tell them what kind of miracle they like, if they were into ghettos they would say, "Well, we would like everything to be changed into a nice palace. Our apartments would get nice and clean. And we'd have a can of beans, and every time we eat out of it, more comes."

Or you go to people who are in a desert. "Yes, we want this whole desert to become rich, fertile soil." And then you go to people who are power maniacs, and they say, "Yeah, I want to take over the whole world." And you go to a photographer and he'll say, "Yeah, I want a perfect camera with a zero to an infinite lens that can focus onto anything, have the quality that's completely incredible, and it can take any kind of film, and the film never dies on it, and you just don't even have to process it, and the resolution is completely perfect, where you don't have to focus it, you just aim -" and so on and so forth.

And you can go from one place to other place to other place; from person to person to person; and your charismas will change, your miracles will change. You know why? The reason why they will change is because people are looking for this one miracle to happen. What is this big miracle that's going to happen? What is it going to be? A great big destruction ball sweeps through the two World Trade Centers in the world, and misses it by about a quarter of an inch? I mean, what's going to happen? A great, huge ball is going to drop down from heaven and swing, and just scrape the two red lights on the World Trade Centers? Is that what the miracle is going to be?

realistically speaking, there is one miracle that is already here. And it is the greatest miracle. Yes, of course, you just pick that baby up, and you give it a nice, tight, gentle slap in the back, and it goes, "Wah!" That's it to that doctor. To him, he delivers so many babies a day. ''Do this, do that, bring the forceps, slap that baby out, and thump! It's on. Congratulations." Go wash his hands, take off his gloves …

And yet when you look at that, such an incredible thing takes place. Such a thing starts to happen. Such an immaculate perfection starts to flow. To that child, before, the ocean is frozen, it's dead, it doesn't exist. This Earth doesn't exist. Sun doesn't exist. Moon doesn't exist. Stars don't shine. Sun has no radiance, no heat. Water doesn't feel cold, wet, warm. There is no sound. And there is nothing! And when that life comes into that thing, into that "it" what we call, it's like an

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immense ocean starts to roar. An incredible sun radiates its light. An incredible Earth starts to move. Incredible trees start to become green. Incredible fruits and vegetables -- and everything starts to happen in that one "glivering" second, that we cannot even sit down in our whole life and put it down on …

You can have the world's biggest, colossus computer, and it would take it for the rest of its life, whatever that is, to describe one perfection of what it really is worth. Not like just describe an apple tree in terms of "Oh yeah, it's got chlorophyll in it, and it's got apples, and apples grow out of this. And apples have seeds inside, and they're green in color and they become red," and so on and so forth. But to describe what takes place, what happens. It's so incredible! It's such a perfect manifestation.

And yet, when we are having conversation, when we talk to people, and they're just sitting down and they're generally talking about something … And supposedly somebody was going on the highway, and they were going that way and there's a truck turned over there. It's on the opposite side of the highway. And there's police cars and everything. And there, two people are traveling the same direction, and have to slow down and everything. And you come down and you start talking. And the one guy says, "Did you see that truck turned over there?" And the other guy says, "Ah, no. I didn't notice anything."

"How could you have missed it, man? There were flashing lights, the truck was turned over, there were policemen everywhere. How could you have missed it?"

"Well, I didn't see anything.- And then you go back, and the whole conversation goes on to confirm the time that you passed there and "did you see any red flashing lights" and everything, and you come to a point where you can't believe -- after you've confirmed that yes, the truck was turned over at that time when he passed there -- and you can't believe that that guy didn't notice a huge truck turned over, with about three police cars there, with red flashing lights, and so on and so forth.

And yet, what's three police cars, one truck turned over, and red flashing lights, compared to that sun, the moon, the uncountable stars that there are?

Once Marolyn was telling me that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand in the beaches. And that's kind of hard to believe. But surpass all that, surpass everything in this world that there is, and to think about some stupid truck that turned over with three red police cars, with three flashing lights, and: "How could you miss that?" And yet, you're missing the greatest thing in your life. That experience that's so incredible, that's so immaculate, that's so perfect.

And so premies, really, it's such an opportunity. And really what is the New Year's resolution? You can do it one way. You can have it all typed up, da-da-da-da-da, and you can do it that way. Or you can go out and make a resolution for New Year's. "Yes, what is the resolution for New Year's?" People have all these different kinds of resolutions for New Year's. "Uh, we're going to have a tax cut this year." That's people's resolution. Or, "Yeah, I'm going to buy a new car," and that's the resolution. Or, "I'm going to get a better job." That's the resolution. Or, "I'm going to get married.- That's the resolution. Those are the resolutions, the worldly things. "This is the resolution for one year," as though one year is just a second, and that's the thing that just goes by. It's just incredible. And we just pass all that, just pass it down, and to really see what should be our New Year's resolution. And not only one year's new resolution, but time-after-time-after-time-after-timeafter-time-after-time-after-time-after's resolution. Not for 1978, 1979, or 1980, or 1981, but as long as we exist in this world, to constantly surrender, to really get into that effort of satsang, service and meditation.

Because when I say satsang, service and meditation, to a lot of people it just clicks in a very computed manner: -satsang, service and meditation." And each has a reaction. "satsang. Yes, we are listening to satsang. Merge in satsang. It's really good. You come together. You sit down. You have satsang, and it's really beautiful." You go into service. "Oh, yeah, service is really beautiful, you know, but -- yeah, I just gotta have more time to do service" -- whatever your problems are.

Some people who have not been doing service, they got into the trip of, "Yeah, man, I just really should start doing a little more service." Or the people who have been doing a lot of service and are just getting little lazy about it, or their mind is spacing out, to them it's like, "Yeah, man, but I do a little bit too much service." And it's just like you go into the whole computation. And then you go into meditation and you go into this trip, "Oh yeah, but I'm having problems with this," or "I'm having problems with that." Or, "Maybe I can, while I'm at this program, have a Knowledge review." Or something like that.

And yet those aren't the ways to look at those things. There's a lot more behind them. There's a lot more that exists behind satsang than what meets the eye, and that's literally the way to put it.

Here we have a stage and there is an audience. This could have been just maybe baseball going on in here, or a roller ball going on in here, or something like that. I mean, this could have been just anything. And if somebody walks in here, to them it's just like, yeah, I'm giving a lecture on spirituality. But this is no lecture. I know what "lecture" means, but I don't know what maybe the dictionary says it means. But this is no lecture. What I'm talking to you about is what I am

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experiencing; there's nobody back there with cue cards. And that's what satsang is. Satsang is your own experience. And yet, how does that experience actually come there unless we have that experience?

See, satsang takes two parts: parts to be received, and parts to be given. If you're in your own head, and you really don't want to listen to anything, or you have just come in here to just listen to the band -- or you have come in here to listen to satsang. Maybe you received Knowledge a few years back. You haven't been actually practicing. Your friend says, "Look, this is New Year's in 1978, and it's frozen in New York and it's going to get worse" -- or from Chicago, Ohio, wherever you are from -- and "let's go listen to satsang." And you're here to check out the scene. Your friend's been telling you a little bit too much about things, so you're just here to check out really what has changed in satsang, and what's going on, and really what premies are like now, and so on and so forth.

And if that's what's in your head, then it's like this: a phone on one end, and a phone on another end, with a wire running across from one phone to the other phone, okay? But snipped in the middle. That's the thing. You are there, I am there, satsang is happening. And yet, it's like phone is there, phone is there; wire is there and wire is there; and yet it's snipped. It's cut. So I mean, that's the way it would be, and that's the way it is. Though there is that thing, there is that experience of satsang. But if you're here to check out the scene, then check out the scene, period. And that's all you're going to do. Check out the scene.

And I should say I've seen better halls than this. And that's the scene you want to check out. Yeah, there are no mountains. I haven't seen the stage, the view you are looking at, but I'm pretty sure it's pretty nice, and so on and so forth. But is that it? Is that the scene? Is that the scene in your life?

And then you have to be open, you have to really understand. You have to come to that point to just really say, "Okay! I have to listen. I have to understand. Let me grasp -- or let me grab what he is saying!"

It's like that example that used to be given a long time ago about this king. And this king had a beautiful kingdom, huge kingdom. He was very powerful. And one day this merchant sailed into his kingdom. And to please the king, he took a little bit of assortments of all different kinds, fruits and jewelry and clothes and everything he had been collecting, and he went to the court. And to please the king he offered him this huge tray of all these different items. And the king was very happy, very pleased, and, "Okay, now you can keep your ship two more days in the harbor."

And then I mean, it came down to the point where it was like this one thing, and it was a mango. And this king had never tasted a mango. And so he was very, very curious about it. So he called all his courtiers and said, "Well, why don't you analyze what this is?" And they started talking about it, "Oh yeah, we've heard something like this. It must be a mango, and in Hindi they called it an am" and da-da-da-da-da. And they went on into their conversation, and the king wasn't satisfied. So he said, "Why don't you taste it?" He told one of his courtiers, "Why don't you taste it?"

So he took a little piece and he tasted it, and he said, "Yeah, well, it tastes sort of like a little bit of sour and sweet, and it's got a really nice texture to it, and it tastes like this!" And the king just wasn't satisfied. And they just kept on going to one minister, to the other minister, to the third minister, fourth minister, fifth minister. And the king wasn't satisfied until this one minister said, "I know the perfect solution. I know the

---

"What's happening in here
-- every square inch of
it is real. What's happening
out there is
about as real as the second
that just went by."

---

perfect way that you can find out what it is!'' So he took two fruits, two mangos. He took one and he cut it up real nice for the king, and he put the next one right next to it and said, "That's what it looks like, and that's what it tastes like. Here it is. Taste it for yourself." And then the king tasted it, and he knew exactly what it was.

Now, mango is not all that important in our lives. Maybe it doesn't make all that much difference. Really it's not going to buy us a ticket to heaven or anything like that. Or it's not going to stop us from throwing up or anything like that. But there's a significance in this story. And the significance is: For those people that don't want to taste -- if they would never taste this, this Knowledge, if they would never taste the experience of satsang, if they never will taste the experience of meditation, of service, then they will never understand, no matter how much they hear about it. And it doesn't matter how much they talk about it, because it's an experience. And I've said it time after time after time: It's an experience!

So how do you explain the experience when you can't

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even explain a simple experience of sugar? Okay, what's sugar? Sugar is sweet. Now, that's simple, right? Because everybody has tasted sugar. But the point is that if you were to go in dark Africa and say to the people there, "Sugar is sweet, sugar is sweet, sugar is sweet" -- if you were to walk into this tribe where they didn't speak English, and they haven't seen anybody except those in their tribe, and you go there and say, "Sugar is sweet, sugar is sweet, sugar is sweet," they'd probably go, "Bwana." They'd say, "Sugar is sweet, sugar is sweet." When the next guy comes along. They'll probably think that means some kind of greeting.

And yet, what you're saying to him is: "Sugar is sweet." And sugar is sweet. And its a very simple explanation -- that's what you think it is. No. It's very difficult. Because unless you taste the sugar, then you cannot experience it.

 

And this is the same way with Knowledge; same exact way with Knowledge. But you have to really, sincerely try. You can't be like those two ants. And you must have heard the story about the ant who had the sugar in his mouth, and wanted to go taste salt. He says, "What's the difference between your salt and my sugar? Tastes alike." You find out that he had a piece of sugar in his mouth. Had the sugar spit out, and he tasted the salt, and he could know what it was.

So I mean you have to let go of the goop, of this silly stuff, of this mind, and open up to that perfection, to be able to experience that perfection. In tasting mangos, for that example, you go back, then you say, "Analyze it." If you were to pick a raw mango and taste it, you probably wouldn't like it. And as a matter of fact, it would probably give you a fair-size stomach-ache.

So I mean, you can't just go down and take a little dusting cloth in your pocket every time, and every time the national coordinator walks by you, you just start scrubbing the floor. As soon as he's passed, you put it down, pull the remote control for the TV out of your pocket, snap that on, and start watching the show: You just can't do that. You just can't fold your legs, put your arms in one position, and go, "Oh yeah, I'm doing meditation," and be actually completely asleep. And you just can't sit down in a satsang and be like that rock.

Okay, so you're here. And you can now officially say that you have attended the satsang. But it depends. Have you?

I'm pretty sure there's quite a few premies here that went to Rome. Did you? And then, again, it splits up into two. Well, did you? Did you really attend what was going on there, or just attend a mass gathering of people? What did you attend? And there's a difference.

So you have to really be at that place, and taste it, as it is. And that's why you have to bring yourself to that point to be able to taste it the way it is. And then to be able to experience, and then to be able to flow with it,

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and to be able to actually say, "Yes, that's what it is."

Because in this world, there's craziness in this world. And I don't really think that this craziness is going to go away. I think, like Shri Maharaj Ji used to say, "The seed is never destroyed." I think even if everybody got Knowledge in this world, there's going to be a little bit of craziness left. There's going to be a few cuckoo premies around doing a few cuckoo things all the time. And we have quite a variety of premies and it would probably take days to explain. But it's just that those premies who are completely going into that one thing -- satsang, service and meditation -- and really having faith in Guru Maharaj Ji, and really having that urge to surrender, are the real premies, and are the people who are going to make it in this boat -- period!

Maybe after the festival in Rome, people went through different stages of saying, "Well, wow! He's not kidding! This is not a club after all! This is the real thing!" And maybe some people went through that. And, "Can I do it?" Well, sure you can do it! It's possible. And it's happening.

And every day, just a little bit that it opens up, just a little bit that it opens up, just a little bit that it opens up, it gets more and more beautiful, more and more beautiful, more and more beautiful. And either we can be that one person who just completely says, "Nah, that's not it; that's not what I want," or be that person who doesn't necessarily say anything. Just be quiet and experience and let it go. Or whatever language you speak, say "Wow!" in it. And that's it: expression, period. Doesn't do anything for the real explanation. Doesn't do really anything for the real experience. And yet, that's all within you, and that can all manifest. And it's just like so incredible, by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace.

I've been sitting down and after my birthday there was so much stuff that was piled up, and there was so much stuff that has to start moving for 1978. It was incredible to just sit down and take the year planner, and make plans for all the tours. And I do definitely want to try -- at least, I'm going to try my best, to try to go to Australia this year. And then try to have a tour of North America, try to have a tour of South America, try to have a tour of Europe, to try to let that experience flow between all the premies, to just have as much satsang as possible.

And then, I've got all these maps in my office in Malibu pulled down. And it was really incredible, because you look at this whole world and the way it's divided. And you take that, and you take a grease pencil, and you divide it your own way. Like it doesn't matter. It says, "New York State, Buffalo, New Jersey," and all these states and different things going on there. But you just take a grease pencil and you just go -- Chtttt! "That's our premie population there, that's our population there, there's our premie population there. We haven't done a program there, there, there, and there. So let's do a program there, there, and there, and there." And it's just completely different than to try to go into some kind of a trip about it.

And the same thing with Europe. "Okay, we did a program in Rome. That was fantastic. There's such a follow-up that has to happen. Inspiration has to just flow more and more and more. Let's do a program there, there, and there, and there.- Same thing with South America. "Let's do a program there, there, there, there."

And it's so incredible, because it just comes so fast. And then you just start thinking about all the different programs. And you just start thinking about how incredible it's going to be, and you start thinking about how beautiful it is, and you start thinking about all the experience that premies are having, and there's such a chain reaction. It's like miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of dominoes. And you just kick one and it just goes really fast, and it just starts to go, and just like that. And you start thinking about all the premies that are in this world, and all those premies who just really want that one experience in their lives.

And then you just start seeing that there must have been premies (you know, maybe they were called something else, but there were premies) in every Perfect Master's time. And you just start to then feel how beautiful it must have been to have premies in some odd century, just having satsang. Because that's what it was. And just to have more and more satsang, and that was the whole goal. And just to have that Knowledge, and to flow with that experience, and to flow with Guru Maharaj Ji of that time, the Perfect Master of that time.

And I mean, really, in this century, maybe in our own ways we've got to face more things. Maybe there are more "dis-attractions" for us. But the goal ultimately is the same.

And propagation is going to grow. It's just growing more and more, more and more, more and more, more and more. And then you stop for a second and wonder about another thing: "Well, what's the press going to do? What's the 'sleeping lion' going to do? Is he going to really roar at you this time or snap at you, or what's going to happen?" I mean, it's just like so many lies, so many lies, so many lies. You know, that's what I've been through. You pick up a piece of newspaper, and after a little while you start to get a few shady feelings about them: The rest of the stories are true or not? It's like a lot of times a lot of premies in the residence come, "Well, look at this article, Maharaj Ji!" I said, "Did you read that article?" And then they go back and they say, "Yeah, well …" So it's like, what's going to happen? It's a big question.

And yet, it's so clear what's going to happen: A lot of satsang, a lot of service, a lot of meditation, and a lot of

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manifestation of that Grace in our lives is what's going to happen. And a lot of that Grace is just going to spread and flow. And that's what's going to really happen.

And how much do we want to be a part of it? And that's completely up to us. Because we can either go with it, we can either really flow with it, we can really Leconte a part of it, or, you know, say, "Good-bye." Because both ways …

Okay, there is one destiny maybe a man has to fulfill. But what does that destiny really mean? And yet, there's one way that man can fulfill one destiny, and yet fulfill the greatest destiny for so many years that man has really wanted to accomplish, that man has really wanted to prove, that man has really wanted to know. The answer, the solution of all the solutions. And premies, it's possible. It really is.

I can say for myself, that just corning to Kansas City -- ah, personally about Kansas City, it's pretty cold. Because when we started out in California it was a clear day -- a few clouds here and there -- it was pretty clear. There was a nice, fresh wind, and it was nice and warm. And then we flew and came over to Kansas City, and it was very cold. It was at nighttime, and as soon as the door opened you could just feel this chilling air; as soon as you stepped out. And then we came to the residence, and of course it's got the ancient heating system, which is the radiator system, and it's just dry, really dry. It's all incredible. And within all that, there's something so incredible happening right there.

And in this world out there, today is Friday. And out there, there are people who are just saying -- well, about Kansas City, there are people who live around this area: "What about my cattle!" Or "What about this?" Or "having a ball." Or doing this or doing that. Or people coming back and loosening their ties: "Ah, today's Friday. Where can we go? Are we going to go anywhere?" And so on and so forth. And the kids just waiting to see the cartoons tomorrow.

And there's so much happening out there. And yet, there's so much happening in here. And what's happening in here -- every square inch of it is real. What's happening out there is about as real as the second that just went by. It just came and went. That's what is out there. That's what that scaffolding, the ceiling, and those lights, and the stage, and these microphones, and all this, is all about.

It's not those cameras. It's not this microphone, believe me. This microphone has heard a lot of satsang firsthand, and it's still a microphone. So it's not this microphone and this chair. This chair has also heard lot of satsang. But it's still a chair. And it's the same way. But you and me are experiencing something. Maybe this microphone is getting blissed out, but you and me are experiencing something that's completely incredible,

---

"And every time,
to just want more and
more and more and
more! And well, of course,
I want to give more and
more and more.
Because to me this is
incredible, too."

---

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that's completely something else. It's something beyond all the concepts that we go through. Something that's so beautiful. And every time we hear satsang, that experience to let go, that feeling of just knowing how beautiful it is. I personally feel blissed out. And I feel a lot of love coming from the premies. And I feel a lot of Grace. And I feel it's just all so incredible that it's just like …

It's not even a thing where you can just stand on one side and wonder about it: "Ah, how beautiful it is," and so on and so forth. It's so incredible; the only thing you want to do is to jump into it and stay there. It's one of those things.

It's so clear, so beautiful is this water. And so fresh, so freshening that you don't want to be so stupid as to get out of it and stand somewhere else and say, "Oh, oh, how nice it is." You just want to play and play and play and play, and be in here, and to just experience how clear, how beautiful, how refreshing it is.

And for instance, with just satsang, we come into festivals, and we have festivals, and it's just like you look at it and its really something, what some premies must go through. You have to take off on vacation. And we'll try to end the program early on Sunday. We'll start it early and try to end it early, so premies can go back. But then they go back on Monday and they're tired or something, or they get in there late and there's this boss and they're just looking at them, and, "Where have you been? You been to that Guru again?" Or something like that.

I'm pretty sure after the premies got back from Hans Jayanti they got it! Quite a few of them. And it's like all that craziness in this world that really exists. And this year, Grace willing and everything else, we're trying to hold Hans Jayanti for an even longer period of time than we had last year. We're trying to hold it for a week instead of five days, see. We got to break it easy; can't hold it for a month right now, got to break it easy. Got to let everybody understand, let the bosses get used to it, and "This guy will be away for a month," get your vacations together and stuff like that.

But anyway, the point is that it's so incredible to leave just every one of those. And I know there's a few premies who can't pay for the registration, and a few premies can't pay for the hotel, and there's this and that, you know, this worry and that worry. And then, it's cold, it's freezing out there. And you're going to get out and you won't have a place to stay, and you'll probably try to find out, and …

You know, this is the first night, and I'm pretty sure there's some premies, their luggage is right next to them or just somewhere around; they've just arrived. And there's all that. (And maybe I shouldn't even have reminded you of all this. But there's all that.) And yet there's one Peace. You can just let go. Forget about everything back there, and just relax and completely surrender and just let go, just feel how beautiful it is to be without all that. How incredible really it is to be away from that fear or that "afraid-ness" or that "goop" that we build into our lives: to just completely listen to one thing, in that glory of satsang.

Your beds will come together somehow. It will be okay. Everything will be okay. But to just come to these programs, and just to let go and to surrender, and to let that experience just flow through you -- it's just so immaculate; it's just so incredible.

And every time, to just want more and more and more and more! And well, of course, I want to give more and more and more. Because to me this is incredible, too. And so that's the only reason .

Names? You know, you might find the name a little awkward: "New Year's Celebration Festival" -- or whatever it is on the registration cards: "A New Year's Celebration." But the reason is because Bill asked me what we should name this festival. I said, "I don't know. We are not going there because it's got a particular name to it." And so I guess that's the one they picked up. I said, "Well, this is like a substitute to a New Year's resolution, the most beautiful substitute, to be able to just come and attend satsang, instead of right now reading some newspaper or something like that."

And so premies, that's the way it is, and that's the way its going to be. And this Knowledge is just going to sail us so incredibly, so fast, and so beautifully that … Just stick with it. Just be there, and it'll be incredible. If you just be there. Just be there.

You know, you can get lost so easy. It's so easy to get lost. It's so, so, so, so, so easy to get lost. And yet, the question is: Is it really hard to stay on the track? No. If getting lost is really easy, then the other part has got to be as easy as that, at least. And it is really, really easy.

It's just like such a big question in our lives that we face. And that faith and that trust and that experience really brings it together, really brings it into one piece. The greatest puzzle, put together, really brings it into one piece. The greatest puzzle put together -- snap -- just like that. And really this is happening! And it's really manifesting now. Now, in our lives.

Who cares about 1978, '77, '76, '79, '80? To me it was no different. Yeah, we had a nice celebration and everybody went, "Okay, Happy New Year!" And that was it: "Happy New Year. Get ready for the program!"

That was it. That's it, really in our lives. Because I mean, what are we going to shoot for? What are we going to shoot for?

And it's just like the last satsang I had with the IDPs. In our lives we have all these different concepts. And some people have this concept, "Okay. Well, now I'm

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