Prem Rawat (Guru Maharaj Ji) / Providence / July 3, 1976

Dear premies, we are all gathered here to listen to satsang and to understand what we are really doing, what point we are approaching, what our destination is and how we are going along. I'm pretty sure that a lot of you here have received Knowledge, so I'm taking the time here, doing this tour, to ensure that everything is fantastic, that everything, in fact, is really okay.

We always sit down in a program and talk about how miserable this world is. It has its ups and downs. And we can sit and discuss the misery of this world. But that will really lead us nowhere. Because it's difficult to remove all the misery of the world in a day. And we already have realized that misery. That's why we have come to the point of receiving Knowledge.

After we receive Knowledge, we start on this process of understanding and realization because we know everything out there isn't dandy. And we want to understand something. Why are we here? Why did the Creator take so much pain to create us? What is the reason behind it? We have life and it's so beautiful that we are alive now and that we are here and have such beauty to enjoy, such a life to enjoy. But it takes this Knowledge to really bring the purpose of this life out. It actually cleans and shines the life that we have.

Over the years we have completely suppressed our life by all the artificial means that we live in today. But now we are here and I'm doing this tour just to say that everything is going beautifully. Premies are doing service and people are understanding this Knowledge. In fact, premies are having that realization that it's all there. Because it is all there.

What does this Knowledge really do to us? Does it bring another life into us? Life is there. Everything is there. Nothing is brought; nothing is taken. It's just placed in the right position and made clear, shined up, so that it sparkles, so that it's really clean, so that it's really beautiful. This is what this Knowledge really does to us. And then we are like a little child.

It's all so simple; it's all nice. We look at a child and we appreciate how beautiful he or she is and how happy that baby really is. Because the baby hasn't taken his life and completely boggled it down in concepts. But, we are alive, too. There is a force, there is this life within inside of us, and it is beautiful. But we don't realize that.

A lot of people say, "Life is miserable." My answer to that is, "No. Misery is miserable, not life." Life is spic and span and clean. But over the years, it's been taken and made completely hopeless. Why? Is it hopeless itself? No. Definitely not.

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Take this microphone, for example. This microphone has all the potential to do whatever it's doing right now, to actually be able to amplify sound so many times. But if you take this and bury it something like ten feet under the ground, what is it going to do? Nothing.

And in the same way, there's this life and it's capable of everything that people dream about. People go into all these concepts and go into all these ideas about "God," about "life," about "realization," about "Truth." It's all there in some format. But why have we been given this kind of life? We could live for 50 seconds or a minute, and then the next minute we could be in some other consciousness and then again the next minute we would go into some other consciousness. But we have this life and this life is constant. And there is a meaning behind it. There is a reason for it.

There's a lot of concepts that people have. They go into dream stages. They think, "Oh gee, Truth is something like … um …..People think that one day they'll be doing this meditation and all of a sudden they'll get up and everything will be round. We present this concept to ourselves and say, "One day we're gonna wake up and be two feet off the ground-in the middle of the room and wherever we walk, we're just not gonna touch anything."

Or we say, "All of a sudden we are going to wake up and the floor is going to be where the ceiling is and the ceiling is going to be where the floor is. Or all of a sudden we'll wake up and we will be like Peter Pan." But really, is that the way life is? No. Life is a very constant thing. Life is really beautiful. We, by our own concepts - you can't really blame anybody for it, I guess - have taken the most precious and most beautiful gift and have not realized it.

We talk about miracles. We see a magician take a dove and make him disappear into his sleeve or pull a dove out of his sleeve or take his handkerchief and make it disappear in his ear. We all applaud. We think that's fantastic. Tell me, can you even compare the miracle of your life to what he pulled out of his sleeve? Does it even compare? It's like trying to weigh an ant against an airplane. They're completely two different things. It's just that we, because of our concepts - because we don't see how much beauty really exists there - go around looking for outside miracles, outside pleasures, outside things. But it's all there in our own life.

And this is why so many people have a concept about Guru Maharaj Ji. They think he does something to you. They think that he takes this big hammer and clobbers you over the head with it or they think he completely kicks you into outer space.

Knowledge isn't like that. Knowledge reveals who you are, what you really are. Because there is a beauty in existence. Just as you are - a human being - your presence indicates an infinite amount of beauty in this world. There's so much behind it.

If a guy walks over to this counter in a big department store and sees his wife behind it and doesn't even recognize her, you would say, "What kind of a husband is he? He's completely nuts. He's blind. He doesn't realize his wife is standing behind the counter." But it's the same way. We take so many turns in our lives. We do so many things outside. There are a lot of people who are trying to look for Truth in different things. And it's like, how can you do this? It's all right there. Everything is right there. Just open up to it. Just really make it shine. Really look at it. Because it's beautiful.

So why do we need Guru Maharaj Ji?

We need a person who has mastered this subject of polishing our life. It's like a painter. You can take a brush and paint your car with it, but you can imagine how it'll come out. It's going to have streaks all over it and big drops of paint drooling out the side or something. Take some Joe Blow who hasn't seen a spray gun in his whole life, hand him a spray gun, and tell him to paint the car, and there's going to be all sorts of psychedelic designs on it. He's going to be painting and all of a sudden he'll get too close and the paint will just splatter all over the place.

Or, you can take it to a person who really knows everything about that paint job. You can really go to a person who has mastered this, who has done this before. Take your car to him and he will do it right. He'll sand it down. He will put the right

There is a beauty in existence. Just as you are -
a human being - your presence indicates an infinite
amount of beauty in this world. There's so much behind it."

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layers of paint on there and then buff it right, all along the way. You can't have your car painted and bring it back home and try to wax it or buff it, because if the paint is soft underneath, you're going to end up completely smushing it.

So from the start to the finish, you need this person who really knows what he's doing. That's why a lot of people are in business. We go to them for that purpose. There's computers, there's this and there's that. We go to them for the same reason. We need somebody who has mastered this process of realization, of Truth, who can really guide us and show us and tell us if we are doing something wrong. Because this is no joke. As simple as it may sound, there is a vast importance, there is a vast necessity, for such a person. And this is why we all look towards Guru Maharaj Ji, this is why we always look towards a Perfect Master. This is what the true explanation for Guru Maharaj Ji would be: The revealer and the advisor is really what the Perfect Master's role is in our life. He first reveals this Knowledge to us and then he advises us along the way.

We have to look back and see how fortunate we really are to have everything that we need. All we have to do is just open ourselves up because everything is on standby. Guru Maharaj Ji is on standby. The whole process is just sitting there waiting for you and it's the chance of your life. It's just the opportunity of your life that you are able to really open up to, and really realize, what this gift is. The miracle of all miracles, the joy of all joys that exist, is only a matter of opening.

It's simple. I know it sounds too simple; it sounds almost so simple that you would think it would be impossible. But remember, Truth has to be simple. Truth cannot be complicated. Why? Because it's opponent - the faults, the illusion, the dilemma that we live in - is very complicated. The illusion, whatever is the opposite of Truth, is really complicated. Therefore, we know that Truth is not going to be complicated. It is going to be simple.

It has to be simple. You can go on explaining why it has to be simple, then you can get into the question of why you need Truth, but the fact is, it is there.

Truth is just a name. You might call it "verb" and you might call it "noun," but it exists there. It is there. And there is a vast amount of experience, an infinite amount of experience, behind it that we can completely plug into, that we can really focus upon, that we can really get together with.

And so, all I have to really say is that all the premies - you might make an exception here and there - are doing just great. Premies are really progressing along, and it is really materializing. It isn't a matter anymore of you coming to a hall, listening to Guru Maharaj Ji first tell about all the miseries of this world and then say how fortunate we are to have Knowledge. Okay, that's true. But this time, all I have to say is that we're all doing just really beautifully. What Guru Maharaj Ji promised us, what this Knowledge promised us, is really materializing in our hearts. We are really understanding the process of satsang, service and meditation. Every day of our lives we are realizing more and more of its importance.

And you might as well call me somebody who is really strict about this. I'm still going to emphasize how important satsang, service and meditation are even though you're progressing along fine. I'm still going to say, "You need satsang, service and meditation, because that is The Way. It is a process. It is the process." You can't whack these three things out of balance either: satsang, service and meditation. If you give too much importance to meditation, nothing is really going to manifest because you're not doing satsang and service. This is the way it is laid down right on the line. Not just by me, but from Perfect Masters all along. They just laid it right on the line: satsang, service and meditation.

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It's just as simple as a chain. There are three links. If you take out one link, it's not going to be a circular chain anymore. You won't be able to put it on your bicycle and ride. You have to have those three links. You really do. I mean, if that is all the chain has, those three links, and you take out one, it's finito. You need those three links. You want those three links.

Let me explain to you. If you've never eaten Mexican food but you get to taste some Mexican food when you go to somebody's dinner or something and you like it, what do you do? Never eat that again? No. You say, "Oh that was great. This was excellent. We should try to make this at home." You want to eat it again and again, unless you have a bad experience, and then you'll say, "Forget it." So if you have realized the joy and the pleasure behind satsang, service and meditation, then you will want to do it again and again. It is there. You have experienced it and you want that experience. Why do you want that experience? Because it's the experience of your life.

I'm not saying that you are God. But God is within you. I'm not saying you are the ultimate power. But that ultimate power is within you. And you have to really realize this is a completely self- sufficient system that is within inside of you. There's so much to discover. There's so much in there that the more we go along, the more beautiful it becomes, the more flowing it becomes. The more we go along, the more we really start to understand what this life is really all about. Because without that understanding, as I said, people take misery and life and mix them together, put them in the suitcase, and every time they open it, they find out that life and misery are together.

No. Life is really not misery. Take that misery away. And the special compound that you need to take the misery away is satsang, service and meditation. By applying this process again and again, the shinier life starts getting and the more it's cutting into that misery. Then finally what is left is life itself, which is so beautiful. And that is when we really get ourselves together. That is when we really understand that, yes, there is a purpose.

It just occurred to me that we go around saying, "The aim of human life." If you don't know what life is, why would you even want to accomplish the purpose of it? We talk about the aim of life. Well, it's more important to understand what life is. Because if that is not clear …

It's not as simple as because you want to go to England and you make up your head that you want to go to England, and then you sit down in your living room and that's about it. No! You have to find out which means you will be taking to England. You have to find out if you're going to be flying, walking, swimming, or going on a ship. You have to say, "Okay, I'm going to fly. That's the easiest." Or, "No, I've got plenty of time. I'm going to take the ship." (If you are completely nuts, you say, "Oh I'll swim over there.") But you have to find out which method you're going to use to try to accomplish the aim.

First you have to understand life. As soon as you have experienced life, as soon as you have really seen what it is, the aim is not very far away. The aim is right then and there. That is the aim: to realize yourself, to realize what it is within inside of you. And so, we have to just completely get together in ourselves and really realize the importance of this, that we want to get our lives together, that in fact we do want to get clear about our lives, because this is something we are living day after day.

Look, everything in this world is about life. You can start from a person going out and doing the craziest thing and go to the person doing the greatest thing. There are people who are selling things. There are people who are buying things. You go to work. It's just all about life. We're doing so many things. But do we realize what life is? Maybe after we realize what life is, we'll find out that the way we are doing things is not the way we're supposed to do it.

But for that, first you have to find out what life is. I'm positive you'll find out that you don't have to be this crazy to live a life, that you can be really simple. You can be really experiencing that relationship, that process that is life. You'll find out that life itself is really beautiful and you can just flow in that experience.

What this takes is determination and your dedication. You know, in Denver we were talking about the whole subject of initiators saying, "Will you be ready to cut your head off if Guru Maharaj Ji asks for it?"

Well, of course I'm not going to ask you for your head. You can be positive about that. I'm not going to ask you to jump off a cliff, either.

But then the idea came, that: Wait a minute. To jump off a cliff or to cut your head off is simple. All you have to do is find a nice long sword that's got a nice sharp blade on it and just do it. It'll only take you about half a minute. Less than that. And to jump off a cliff is just nothing. Go find a nice steep cliff and just take one more step after you reach the edge of it and that'll be it. Believe me,

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after you've cut your head off or jumped off a cliff, you won't be talking to yourself, telling yourself how crazy you are. It'll be all finished.

But this is what people say. "Well how come these initiators say that?" Well, it's simple. I'm not going to ask you for them, but I think it's simpler and easier to cut your head off or jump off a cliff than to have that strong determination to keep on doing satsang, service and meditation every day of your life. This is how complicated it is and that's how simple it is. And that takes determination.

It's no joke. But if you think that this is a joke, then that's the way it's going to stay for the rest of your life: a lot of ha-ha's and nothing but that. But this is a fact. Life is an experience. Life is a fact. Life is a truth. And I am here to open up that gate, to provide you with a process through which you'll be able to clear it up and really experience it in the form it is. That is what happiness is. Because it exists right there.

People think happiness is something that they can pull out of their pocket and stamp on themselves. In this world a lot of people have simulated happiness. A lot of people have completely taken it upon themselves to ask, "What is happiness?" And then they have completely built an environment around themselves that they think is happiness.

But that's not true. We have done everything in this world to find happiness and to achieve happiness. Tell me. To what extent do we actually get it? And how much of that is just completely simulated?

To us happiness maybe is a nice cool room. I mean, there's all these things that you can take one by one and say, "Isn't that just simulated happiness?" Well, of course it is. In the pursuit of that true happiness, man has completely built a monster. And the monster exists today. The monster really is there today and you just can't deny it. There's this thing that's completely out of everybody's hands. People are doing things, people are saying things without realizing what it all is. In fact, man has involved himself so much in that simulated happiness that he has forgotten any taste of what happiness really is.

He has completely forgotten. But through this process, through this Knowledge, everything gets straightened out. Everything gets really beautiful. And now we are at a point which isn't something that a lot of people thought Knowledge was. A lot of people thought that you do meditation and satsang and service all your life long and at the very end of your life, you sort of get this kick in your head, you see a lot of light, and that's it.

To me, that option is too far away. I'm not going to waste all my life just for that. I want that Truth, I want that experience, now. A lot of people think, "Well, what this all is, is that one day you're just going to get up and everything is going to be different." They think that you keep on doing satsang, service and meditation all your life long and you don't have to have an experience about anything. This is just a free ticket to salvation. This is a free ticket to heaven. You've just got to work on it.

This is the kind of doctrine that was, in fact, being preached by a lot of people. But this is not true. My question is, "Have you got a zipper in the sky that you can open up and look at heaven and hell?" And all these roads that people talk about. To me, maybe they exist and maybe they don't. I'm not going to say they do exist or they don't exist. Because it's completely debatable.

What about now? As far as heaven and hell are concerned, all you have to do is get there to find out and all you have to do to get there is have a little patience. You're going to get there some day. You're bound to. But what about now? If you can realize and really have that salvation now …

I'm just saying it's "salvation," but it's really experiencing the true life. Now. I think if something like salvation exists, you've got a free ticket to it, without a doubt. And if it doesn't, it's just really beautiful because it's all now and here.

What kind of a business deal would you make if somebody told you that if you gave him ten dollars a year for the rest of your life, you might receive a coffin at the end? You don't have to sign any papers. You'd say, "Listen, you're going to make this business deal with somebody else."

Yet that's what a lot of people think this Knowledge is. But wait. If that's what you think this Knowledge is, then you're mistaken. Because this Knowledge is immediate. It gives you an immediate result. The only thing is, you've really got to do satsang, service, and meditation, from your heart; not sit under a blanket and say you're doing meditation, not keep a dust cloth in your pocket and every time I or somebody happens to walk into an ashram, you're seen dusting off these chairs. And as soon as the guy has slipped by, you put the dusting cloth in your pocket and you just sit there. No, that's not service.

And if you don't have any experience, what kind of satsang are you going to give or hear? Well, the kind of satsang you're going to give is that you'll come up on the stage and you'll say, "Dear premies, Jai Satchitanand, nice to see you today.

Well, gee, I really don't have much to say. Thank

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you very much and bye now."

You don't really have any experience to talk about so what are you going to talk about? "Gee, it's nice to have you here. Bye-bye." That's all you're going to talk about. Can you imagine if you came from wherever you have come from, got this whole place together, sat for so many hours, and then I came and said, "Dear premies, how are you today? Thank you very much," and then I walked right off? That would be really stupid.

But I have an experience and I can talk to you about it. If a person really has that experience, then he can talk to you about it. He can really explain his experience to you. He has something to back it up with. He's got something to talk about.

Of course there are the great fakers who will come and they'll chit-chat with you for the rest of their lives if they have to, or at least until all the lights burn out in this hall. The PA system will completely fry, but they'll still be talking. But that's a complete "blah, blah, blah" from your mouth. That's not an inner experience. And that's got nothing to do with it. That's not the true experience. The true experience is the true experience. You can differentiate between satsang and chit-chat just like that. Satsang is flowing, satsang is about this experience. And it's beautiful. Chit-chat is just steady blah.

So, let us come together now. Let us really understand and put ourselves at a point to be able to realize and to be able to spread this realization to other people in this world. Because if you have realized this realization, if you have experienced any bit of it, then you know that other people in this world also need it and bad. (It's getting worse every day.) So we all have to come together and put our effort, put our energy, into helping the person who has helped us. And that is Guru Maharaj Ji. We have to all come together from a clear place, from a clear head, and really put that energy, put that potential that we have, behind all of us, into spreading this Knowledge.

Let me explain one more thing about this, because a lot of people might say, "Oh great, man, let's get a lot of posters and spread them out on the street." I'm not talking in that sense. I'll give you an example of what really happens, or what used to happen.

What makes things really so difficult is that a person would get a bunch of these leaflets and he would carry them into the street, find a sitting duck somewhere (someone is just waiting for his bus or something) and give him a leaflet. The guy wants to be friendly and nice, so he starts a conversation to find out what this is all about. He says, "Oh, Divine Light Mission. What is that all about? Is it a health organization, or is it a spiritual group? What is it?"

That is what this premie has been waiting for. To "explain" to him everything he knows. What does he know? "We have this organization. It's called Divine Light Mission. And we have all these

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satsang programs."

The poor guy doesn't know what satsang means. He really doesn't. And then you tell him, "And there are all these premies that come together and they have so much power. They have so much potential." But the guy still doesn't understand you, because he doesn't know what premies are.

It's as if you were to go to India and talk English to people. They will say "yes" and "no" to you. That's about it. Because that's what they know. There's jokes about how the Westerners go to India and ask for tea. The guy says, "Yes." And they say, "Can I have some?" He says, "No." "You have some tea?" "Yes." "Can I have some?" "No." This is what they're going to keep on saying to you, because that's all they know. They don't understand what you're saying.

It's the same way here. The words may have a beautiful meaning but that person cannot relate to you. And then you go around telling him how Guru Maharaj Ji knows 34 languages. "This is it, man. You receive this Knowledge and you've almost got a ticket to everywhere and you're going to be saved. If you don't receive this Knowledge, you're going to go to hell for sure and this is going to happen to you and that's going to happen to you. And to realize this Knowledge, you have to dedicate everything you have, completely. Just completely surrender. And man, the most beautiful thing that's going around in the Mission right now is to become a mahatma. Shave your head and put saffron clothes on and get out there."

That person feels, "Great. Boy, just what I wanted. What are you guys?"

Why am I trying to make this point? Because that person does not understand. If you were to take him to India, give him a house, give him a nice car, give him a guide who would take him around everywhere for about three or four years, have a school set up for him where he can understand and speak Hindi, then he will be able to better understand what you're talking about.

Really, Truth is different. What we are trying to give isn't a money-making business; this isn't a cult. This is that movement which wants to give people that experience of Truth which people have been waiting for. It's different. It's not a religion. It's not a cult. It's not a philosophy. Those names don't even touch the subject. It's different. And that is why people sometimes can't accept this. Because they aren't waiting for this kind of thing. They're waiting for an incredible religion. They're waiting for an incredible cult. They're waiting for an incredible philosophy. This isn't any of those. So when you go to a person and say, "Do you want Knowledge? Do you want Truth?" it's too hard for them to believe. (And on top of that, you put all these things on it.) So what happens? The person goes back home with this pamphlet in his hand, sits at the dinner table, pulls out this pamphlet, and says to his wife, "Listen, if you see any of these guys, get out of there fast. If you don't, they'll completely rip you off."

This is what people think about us. What happens is that that premie has just confused a bunch of people. Then, of course, the wife is going to talk to her son about it. And her sister. And before you know it, hundred people, for no apparent reason, are going to take one look at a premie and turn their backs and run.

All I'm saying is that that effort is needed but you have to come from a clear place. You have to be able to relate to them. If you were to go out and give a pamphlet to a Greek person who doesn't understand one word of English, how great would that conversation be? Probably all you could do is give him the pamphlet and walk out of there.

To be able to relate to a person in order to be able to explain things properly to him is so important. Because remember, people are not going to believe what you tell them. It's too difficult. As I said, people are waiting for a religion. People are waiting for a cult. This is none of those. This is just straight Truth. That's how simple it is.

I guess when you sit and talk to somebody about an airplane who has never seen one and you say, "Oh, it's got wings and it flies," the person probably would picture these huge metal wings that flap or think about cartoon in which they have these birds under the airplane wings. I mean, he can have all these concepts. But when he takes

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