GO BEYOND MIND

Guru Maharaj Ji's Satsang via telephone from Malibu, California, August 13, 1978

So dear premies, I think we all very much enjoyed the last program. And the reason, I guess, why we all enjoyed it was because - I can't speak for all the people, but at least a few had a very beautiful experience. Because Knowledge - everybody says, "Knowledge: satsang, service and meditation." And a lot of times we feel, "Oh yeah, man, we have to really try to let that in; to let that satsang, service and meditation manifest in our lives."

That's not the way it works, though. Because it's not like satsang, service and meditation appear and disappear. It's not like Guru Maharaj Ji appears and disappears. Guru Maharaj Ji, the experience of sat- sang, service and meditation, is constant. But what does appear and disappear is us - our level of understanding, our level of consciousness.

And in this world, just the way everything is going, just the way everything is starting to happen - even more and more and more craziness that's starting to come in - there is just no excuse to just space out into the three dimensions of mind. There is just no excuse to completely get spaced out, to completely get lost in the three dimensions of mind. Because once we get entangled …

There is a song in Hindi and the song goes, first we are very young. We're just kids and we play and we're all happy and it's just our little local environment. That's all that really matters. The whole world can be happy; the whole world can be sad. That doesn't affect us.

And then slowly we start to get older and we get more and more involved. Other people's happiness affects us; other people's sadness affects us. Other things start affecting us. And then slowly and slowly we become even older and get involved in the world.

Because first we can just look at the world and it just doesn't matter. We're too young. It's like you can go up to Wadi and say, "Wadi, the whole world is going to end tomorrow," and she'll say, "Oh." It's like, "So what?" Because the association is really not there. And yet, as this song goes, we get more involved and more involved and more involved.

But the way the song ends is that it's his own web that the spider gets caught in. The web is made so that other things will get caught in it. The web is made so that other animals or other insects will get caught in it, and then the spider can eat them. But the spider itself gets caught in its own web.

And it's quite apparent and it's quite obvious what happens in all of our lives. We build this web to catch happiness. We build this web just to build this web. It just becomes a fundamental part of everybody's life. No explanations are given why it should be that way, but it just becomes a fundamental part of life: "Oh, yeah, you have to do this and you have to do this and you have to do this," and then very soon we realize that we are ourselves caught into that web! And then it's all over.

Because the idea of the web is that if something gets caught in it, it can't escape. And then we try and we

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struggle and we struggle and we struggle - just in vain. It just doesn't matter. But Guru Maharaj Ji - by the Grace, by the mercy - has given us this experience to be able to get out of that whole cycle where we even have to build the webs, to get out of the complete - what do you say - this whole fundamental world. Because this whole fundamental world is just a big concept.

When Jesus came into this world I'm pretty sure he definitely did not appreciate some of the happenings that were happening at that time. And he wanted people to be humble and he wanted people to realize that experience of Knowledge. But people were just completely involved in their own heads.

And whenever a Perfect Master comes in this world, he creates his own world and he wants people who are interested to move into this world. Because this world is more valuable. This world is perfect. This world is not bound in concepts.

Because where are the concepts going to take us? Where are the concepts going to put us? Concepts are like a person who pretends to be your friend. And then he becomes your friend and you start really relying on him and he takes more and more of your reliance and becomes really close to you, becomes a part of you. And then comes a point in your life where you really need it and it doesn't exist.

That's the way mind is. We really rely on that mind. Because, really, look at it. How many times do we rely on that mind? How many seconds out of a day? How many minutes out of a day? How many days out of a year? How many months do we rely on that mind? Constantly. We're so involved in it.

And then Guru Maharaj Ji comes, and the only purpose Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world for is he offers us Knowledge and says, "Well, come to this part." Because I know maybe a lot of people have, again, other concepts about this whole thing. But Guru Maharaj Ji's world is for everybody. Guru Maharaj Ji's world is for those who are young in heart, those who are old in heart; those who are young in age, those who are old in age. Everybody! Because Guru Maharaj Ji's world comes from where, fundamentally, everything comes from. It's not a discrimination: "Oh yeah, after sixty-five you have to retire, you have to walk out of this world." Because it's the Knowledge, it's the Truth, that makes us alive, that sustains us.

And we get so spaced out because getting spaced out is such an easy thing to do. And the whole problem is, we are getting spaced out and we don't even realize that we are getting spaced out. And it's okay. For one day, two days, you can conceivably say, "Well, how is it going to hurt you to space out one or two days?" But the thing is, it's not a question of one or two days. It seems to be the question of all your life long. It seems to be the question of sixty seconds a minute, 365 days a year. It seems to be century after century, year after year after year after year, completely being involved in that mind, and completely forgetting the experience of Knowledge that really manifests.

Because it's like this: I just feel that there's a lot of Grace that happens. But the last program happened and it was just really a beautiful, beautiful, incredible experience. Then everybody went back home. As soon as the program ended and everybody walked away, a certain amount of that experience was just left somewhere. I don't say it was left in the city. I can't say it was left in the hall. But it was absorbed by something, by the mind.

And then every day that goes by, that experience deteriorates even more and even more. And is it really deteriorating or is it that we are giving something an opportunity to absorb that experience? And mind keeps absorbing it and eating it up, completely ruining that experience.

If everybody has to wait till Hans Jayanti, that's a long, long, long time to wait to be able to have a program. Because this mind is a strong thing. Because what is that experience that really manifests for us in satsang program? It's just that we let go, we open up to that fact, even for a moment, that yes, Guru Maharaj Ji's there; that yes, I'm not supposed to jump out of this boat.

Because what is going to happen? That mistake is made. Everybody keeps jumping off the boat. And what good does it do anybody to jump off the boat? Nothing. And there are people constantly doing it. Because so many concepts - again, so many concepts - are involved. "Oh yeah, but if I jump out of the boat, at least …"

"This boat is rocking," they say to themselves maybe. "This boat is rocking and if I jump off the boat then there won't be any boat to rock!" Yeah, but there won't be you there, either, to be rocked! And you would just disappear. You'd be all gone. And when

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Guru Maharaj Ji talks about the ocean, when Guru Maharaj Ji talks about the boat, Guru Maharaj Ji is not talking - I'm not talking about just an ocean, the ocean of what you have a concept of. Just imagine if this whole ocean were made out of acid. And as soon as you even touched it, it would just eat you up. That was it! But that's the ocean that I talk about.

And that's why it's so important never to have that chance, never to give mind that chance, to absorb that experience. Because we do that and we do that. And the more we do that, who gets the disadvantage? Mind just goes, "Ha, ha, ha, here you are, stuck in a jam again. Try to get out of this one!"

The experience of Knowledge is constantly there for us to merge in, for us to grab on to, for us to completely have that experience of Knowledge manifest for us. And this life - what are we going to do with this life? What is going to happen in this life?

On Saturday I was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway and not even a mile from where the resi-

dence is there was a really, really terrible accident. And there was one car and another car. People were lying all over the place. And there was broken glass everywhere. And the accident had just happened. Just the fire department was there. We passed the paramedics and we passed the ambulance going the other way.

But to these people, they came to enjoy themselves on Saturday. And as a matter of fact it was kind of amazing because it was all fogged up. And these people took the slightest hope, the slightest chance that, "Oh, maybe by the time we get there if the day warms up a little bit the fog will disappear." For that enjoyment, to be able to enjoy that ocean or to be able to be on the beach or to be able to sunbathe or whatever they speculated that, "Oh, by the time we get there …" And yet, that speculation completely turned adverse, and they were lying there. I don't think that they really intended to commit suicide that way. And then they were just lying there and that was

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it! I don't know what happened afterwards, but that was it.

And so for a slightest joy we can speculate so much and put our whole life as a risk. We can risk our whole life for a very momentary joy. And yet, what is the experience of this Knowledge? What is the joy of this Knowledge? It's incredible. It's definitely superior to trying to go to any beach. It's definitely superior to the most incredible thing you could ever do in this world. And yet, how much of ourselves do we really put into it?

And the thing is, there is no standard set that you do so much and then you can say, "Okay, yeah, I did enough so this is fine." There's never enough. Because, remember, we always have to keep on trying. Because who knows how deeply embedded we are? Who knows how deeply down in this hole we are, how deep we really are? And we have to just keep trying till that experience constantly manifests. And not by concepts. Not by saying, "Oh yeah, really now I'm really understanding Guru Maharaj Ji. I'm really really …"

Because when you come to the point of understanding Guru Maharaj Ji, you go beyond words. You just don't sit there, "Oh yeah, yeah. I understand Guru Maharaj Ji very well now because this experi ence happened to me. I got hit by a car from behind and now everything is fine." No!

It's so incredible. It's just this life and the speculation and everything and then this whole experience of Knowledge, put together. It's just no match. There is no ratio.

Today I was just lying in my bedroom and all of a sudden everything started to shake. The lights started to rattle and there were a few things here and there and they all started rattling. And all of a sudden I felt this tremor. So I sat up, and it was like, "Wow! Is this the San Andreas fault? What is this?"

Okay. Then it passed and I came down and I said, "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah, we felt it a little bit."

And I guess it wasn't as bad down here, but it was pretty bad up there. It was 4.7 on the Richter scale.

That experience is constantly manifesting, and yet, who's grabbing it? Who's eating it? Who's really merging themselves up with that experience? Only the lucky ones.

There's an Indian saint - I think it's Kabir. Kabir says that only those people who are really ready, only those people who have that open heart, only those people who really want to have that try, who really want to have that experience manifest for them, will

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this experience in fact manifest for. Brahmanand said the same thing, that what I am talking about, what I am trying to say, only a very few people can understand.

Kabir says, "In the water the fish is thirsty. And every time I hear that, it makes me laugh." And then he goes on, "Only those people who have that understanding will be able to understand me. Only those people who have that openness, only those people who have that realization, will be able to understand."

I mean, okay, not trying to be pretentious: "Yes, yes, I really understand," a philosophical way of it, or this and that. Because when I was in school, in our Hindi lesson, which was for about forty-five minutes a day, our teacher would come up and there would be all these poems written by Saint Kabir, Saint Tulsidas, Brahmanand. And they would teach them to us. And they would have this philosophical explanation for them.

And I had heard all those poems in Shri Maharaj Ji's satsang. And his explanation was not philosophical. His explanation was not based upon the idiosyncrasies of the word. His explanation was not based upon, "Oh yeah, because this is how it …" - his experience. His explanation was completely based upon his experience. And to me, that made every sense rather than trying to have a literate meaning of something.

Because Kabir himself didn't write poems to show the world that, "Yeah, in 1978 when people read my poems, they're going to say, 'Yay for Kabir. He was such a graduate person.' " As a matter of fact, he didn't know anything. He was not graduated at all! And it's so incredible that Kabir is really right. In the ocean, in the water, the fish is thirsty.

Now, okay. Maybe somebody has some real idiotic, scientific explanation: "How can a fish be thirsty? Fish don't feel thirst." It's speculation, as if they live with fish and they would talk to fish every day, "Yeah, you don't get thirsty." But he's just trying to make a simple point come across: wouldn't it be funny if you heard that? Wouldn't it be funny if that were a phenomenon, that the fish became very thirsty? And the reason why they died, in water, was because they became very thirsty. We would all say, "Wow, can you imagine that?"

And that's all Kabir's trying to say is that in this world where Knowledge really exists, in this world where Guru Maharaj Ji's present, we are thirsty. We are lacking. When Knowledge exists really within our hearts, we are thirsty. And it's so true!

Because why should we be? There is no reason to be thirsty. That thing that's going to quench our thirst is right there, above us, beyond us, below us, in front of us - everywhere! It's omnipresent. And Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world only for one reason: to try to give that Knowledge, to try to give that experience, to those people who really need it. And who doesn't?

If people think they don't need it, does it mean that

they really don't need it? I don't "think" people need it, I know people need it! It's not a concept of mine, a "philosophical theory." No. It's not a philosophical theory. It's my experience. I'm not speculating that if you were to put two with two and put an add sign in between, it should amount to four. It's not a theory. It's not a "way." It is the way. Because this is what I have experienced. This is what I have really realized.

Because when I received this Knowledge that was the experience that manifested, an experience that really needed to manifest. And the tranquility that comes from that experience is - I know that this is exactly what everybody's looking for in this world. And they can't get it. And the reason they can't get it is, of course, as Kabir puts it, "If the fish is thirsty in the water -" that makes him laugh every time he hears it! And of course that's good phenomenon.

And so, premies, we have to make that effort. No third person is going to make that effort for us. When we hear satsang, we hear satsang as ourselves.

I know that there is a famous saying, "Oh yeah, why don't we come together and 'share' some satsang?" One can give, others will receive. And in that sense of the meaning, that might be "sharing" satsang. But you can't just share satsang like "share" satsang - evenly spread, like butter on toast. "Now, here. Everybody gets a little piece of it." Because I can be giving sat- sang and nobody might be listening to me. How can I share satsang then? How can I share a piece of toast with myself?

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Satsang is an individual experience. When you give satsang to somebody, you don't give some satsang to somebody because their experience will be greater, you give satsang because your own experience will manifest even more. Because you don't know if the other … I mean, it's not like there are two lights on everybody's forehead, one green and one red, like these cursors on computers. If a cursor starts to blink, it's ready for input and it just goes on. So there is no indication.

Right now, I don't know. I'm pretty sure there are some people just spacing out in the back of the hall or in the back of the room, just talking or doing this or doing that - somewhere. Somewhere that must be happening because mind is a very strong thing. And I'm not saying, "Forget about mind, eliminate mind." I'm saying, "Go beyond mind, where mind can't bother you." And that effort has to come from us as individuals. Not "us" us. "We the people." Everybody gets together. But everybody, as individuals. Because we're all individuals in this world. We come individually; we go individually. And this is what we have to realize, that the opportunity is now.

There can be hundreds of Hans Jayanti's, there can be hundreds and thousands of Guru Puja's. There can be millions of programs, and believe me, that's not going to make any difference. Nothing. It doesn't mean anything. Because until we open up to that experience, until we say, "Yes, I'm going to really make that effort . ." And maybe our effort is just to let go! Maybe that's what it is. Just to let go. Because we hold on to so many concepts.

I know that concepts become a favorite thing: concepts, concepts, concepts. "If I do this, this will be better. If I do this, this will be better." It's "always different." Concepts - every step we go …

Concepts are these friends that we have. We rely on our concepts: "Oh yeah, I know this road really well."

"Oh yeah, I can fly an airplane." If somebody really does know how to fly the airplane he can say that, but what if a person doesn't know? "Oh yeah, I can do anything in this world, so I guess I could fly an airplane."

We build so many concepts. And not only do we build these concepts, we manufacture them, seal them properly, package them properly, and then just stick them in our pockets. We really rely on them. They become our feet! Then when we need them for something - again, the concept to have a concept so that we can use it some day. When we go to grab it, it's gone. It's finished. It's not there.

And the only thing, really, a premie can have in this world is Guru Maharaj i. Because I was listening to

Shri Maharaj i's satsang and he was praising the glory of Guru Maharaj i, saying, "Oh Guru Maharaj i, you are, to me, what a stick is to the blind man. You protect me." Because that stick protects that blind man from walking into a tree, from walking into a ditch, from making that mistake. So, "Oh Guru Maharaj i, you are to me like that stick - you protect me. You protect me every moment. You protect me every second. And without you, it wouldn't be worth it."

And so the only thing a premie really has to grab in this world is the experience of satsang, service and meditation. The only thing that a premie can grab in this life is Guru Maharaj i. Because from Guru Maharaj i comes the experience of satsang, comes the experience of service, and comes the experience of meditation.

Without satsang, service and meditation - without the experience of Knowledge, without the experience of Guru Maharaj Ji - we are like this wonderful, wonderful dream - right? - that's never going to come true. Oh yeah. That's what we are.

Maybe in this dream this manifests and that manifests. One premie had a dream once where he had a beautiful car with a long wheel base. The next day, he was really excited about it. And yet, it's not around.

And that's exactly what we would be. We would be like an ocean which wouldn't have any water. We would be like a sunset that wouldn't have any light. I've experienced that before. When I was in Sweden, the sun came up for a very short period. And I guess there are places where it just stays dark for a long, long time. And so maybe technically, according to your watch, there should be a sunset happening. But it's not. And so what's the beauty? It's pitch-dark all the time.

So premies, we have to enjoy that experience. It's for here. It's for us. It's for us because we are made for it. And that's it. Yes, of course, you can put it, "Oh yeah, here it is for us to enjoy it. Oh yeah, great." But definitely it's not like eating ice cream. It's definitely not riding around in roller coasters. It's definitely not munching on popcorn. It's not that kind of enjoyment.

Knowledge is here for us and it's simple, because we are made for it. We need Knowledge. We need Guru Maharaj i. Guru Maharaj Ji's here for us because we are here for Guru Maharaj i. And we have to let that embed in our heads just like everything else is embedded in our heads, that mind has helped us so much to hammer that nail in, to hammer that concept in.

And so just keep doing satsang, service and meditation, stay in that focus, and make that effort that you have to make. Thank you very much.

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