So dear premies, again some more opportunity to listen to some satsang. Because what we have to understand is that perhaps, if we were making all the effort we should, if we were the premies we claim to be, if we were the devotees, if we have devoted our lives, if we really have truly given our mind, body and soul; then there is absolutely no necessity, perhaps, to listen to satsang.

But the fact is, we are far from it. And satsang gives us that inspiration, satsang gives us that energy, that realization, through which perhaps we can proceed to realize, to make that effort more.

After my afternoon satsang, some initiators got up and gave satsang. And they were trying to explain as well as they could what they really felt. They were trying to explain their understanding of effort. And in one sense it's not as simple as that, you see, because anybody can get up and talk about effort. That's simple. Anybody can get up and talk about Knowledge. That's simple. Anybody can get up and talk about, as a matter of fact, whatever they feel like. But there is a vast difference between philosophy and the reality, and that's where the difference is: to be able for ourselves to experience the experience of Knowledge, for ourselves to be able to experience the experience of Guru Maharaj Ji, and for ourselves to be able to make that effort in our lives.

Until we have made that effort, what good is it? What good is it to even sit up and talk about it? Until we really start to make that effort in our lives, do we really think we are moving, moving in any direction, moving in any way?

The purpose of calling any festival together is so the premies can come and listen to some satsang, have an opportunity to have darshan, or have an opportunity to do some service. And sometimes satsang is just one of the things that we do when we come to a festival. Mostly, perhaps, it's the most important thing we do when we come to a festival: satsang.

But there are a lot of sidelines that we get involved in when we come to a festival. We bring together our problems. We bring our grievances with us. We bring our confusion with us. And it's almost like having a big load that you carry with you, perhaps to be able to dump it when you come to a program: just unload it on somebody - find a nice initiator who's willing to listen to you.

And sometimes, even initiators get smart to that fact. "Try me tomorrow," or, "I'm busy right now. Why don't you find another initiator?"

But as I was saying this afternoon, all these obstacles that we have created are our own doing. Absolutely our own doing. All the things that we get into every day are absolutely our own creation. Well, why do we create these things? Why do we get into these things? Why can't we simply look away from all our problems? Why can't we simply look away from everything else?

There are a lot of intellectuals. And they say, "Look, you have to face the problem. You cannot simply look away from a problem." And to me, that's interesting. That's all, that's interesting. Because if somebody starts to kick and scream and yell while they're sleeping because they are having a nightmare, what advice can you possibly give them? "Wake up. Don't do that. Don't kick. Don't scream. Don't yell." If somebody were coming towards you and had a big kitchen knife in his hand, and all of a sudden you hear some noise or something and you wake up and you look and this guy has his eyes closed and he's coming right towards you

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with this big knife, what possible advice can you give this person? Yell, so you can wake this guy up and possibly he'll realize and will not kill you.

And that's really true. Because to this guy, the experience he's having in his nightmare is really real, is really true. And it's a fact that for him it might be true, but it's really not true.

Of course there are problems in this world, but these problems are of this world. And the more you keep sticking to this world and the more real this world is to you, the more real your problems are for you.

And Guru Maharaj Ji says very simply that you cannot look towards any of these things. That is the message of Perfect Master. You cannot look towards these things and call them a reality - any problem of this world. A lot of people used to come to Shri Maharaj Ji and say, "Well, there are people who are diseased. There are people who are sick. There are people who need food. People who need clothes. What about them? Here you are, trying to preach a Knowledge. But what about the immediate necessities of these people?"

And Shri Maharaj Ji used to say, "Look. Perhaps I can give food to one person today. But what about tomorrow? They'll still be hungry. I can give clothes to one person today, but what about after a week, what about after a month? They'll again need clothes."

The problems of this world are never-ending, because this world is never-ending. And yet in fact are those problems really problems, or a mishap - another nightmare in a nightmare, another nightmare in a dream, another illusion in a delusion? And that's the point.

Everything feels so real. We are in such a delusion that we can actually, in the delusion, think we can afford to see the illusion, somehow. And everything feels real. This whole world feels real. And yet every premie who has really understood that this world isn't real, every premie who has understood that this is just another trap, another entrapment, they have very, very smartly left that world aside and looked at Guru Maharaj Ji for guidance, looked at Guru Maharaj Ji for which way to walk. Because they know with Guru Maharaj Ji there is a destination, with Guru Maharaj Ji there is a fulfilling of a destiny.

But with this world, what is there? Chaos after chaos after chaos. Is it ever going to get better? For how long has this world promised us … look at it. How long has it been, since the time of Caesar and the time even before that, with whatever king was there? He wanted to make this world a better place to live. And even today people are trying to make this world a better place to live. And yet not one of them has succeeded in making this place in fact a better place to live, because the fact is you can take clay and mold it into a statue, but you cannot take water as a liquid and try to make a statue out of it. Because water will flow. Water will keep flowing.

It's the same thing with this world. How can you make a reality out of an illusion? And this world is an illusion and peace and happiness are a reality. So can we, somehow, turn our heads from this world and just look at Guru Maharaj Ji? Can we not also have that experience like all those devotees had in their lives? Can we not for one moment just turn around and grab Guru Maharaj Ji, instead of every trip in this world that we hang on to? I mean, trip after trip. That seems to be the only thing. Look at how many trips premies get into. How many rumors do premies get into?

Sometimes when I walk in backstage there are all these things scattered all over the place. And my first question is, "Why did they get all this stuff?" And then the question goes back down. It's like, "Why did you get all this stuff?"

"Well, isn't that what Maharaj Ji wants? Isn't that what Maharaj Ji likes?""Powdered sugar?" There was a rumor once that I liked sugar. There was a rumor that I liked chocolate. There's a rumor that I like ice cream. "Oh, Guru Maharaj Ji likes this," or "Guru Maharaj Ji wants this."

So many times you see things labeled, "Guru Maharaj Ji requested this." And you open it up and it's something that you can't believe that you could have ever requested, even if you were talking in your sleep.

And the simple thing is, because we become a premie, somehow we feel, "Okay, now that we are premies we are sheltered." But that's not the case. Where is your shelter? What is your shelter? The way it goes is, if you dedicate your life to Guru Maharaj Ji - if you dedicate your life to Guru Maharaj Ji - then you are sheltered by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. And the thing is, we have to ask ourselves the question: Have we dedicated our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji? Have we really given our lives to Guru Maharaj Ji? As simple as that. And are we truly qualified to be a recipient of that Grace, to be a recipient of that shelter of Guru Maharaj Ji? Of course not. Because we get out of one big trip from this world …

Whatever it is. Maybe it's smoking dope. Maybe it's LSD. Maybe it's something else. And this whole thing becomes another trip for us. One initiator was saying all these things today. In one sense it's really true. He was talking about this being the weirdest religion. I think all religions are weird, for that matter, not just this one. But this is not a religion. It's really true that we get into all these trips. Because without Guru Maharaj Ji, wherever you go, there will be trips. Without Guru Maharaj Ji, there will always be confusion. Without that Knowledge in your life, without the practice of Knowledge in your life, there will always be problems. Without that experience, you will constantly be, and will always be, indulged in the idiosyncrasies of this world. What can this world offer any one of us? What does this world have to offer? What is this world? It's a

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great big fancy fair that we create.

You might say that at the time of Adam and Eve, there were no automobiles. It isn't like they went necking in a car somewhere in a nice spot. There was nothing. There were no cars; there were no drive-ins. There were no signs anywhere saying, "No necking. No kissing. No parking at nighttime." There were no gardens. There were no parks with fountains. There were no restaurants. There were no hotels. There were no tents. There was no electricity. There was nothing.

And we come into this world and here it is. There are all these things in front of us. And it's all man- created. And who created these? Was he a Perfect Master? The guy who created electricity, the guy who created tents, the guy who created automobiles, the guy who created everything that is in this world - was that person a Perfect Master? Did Perfect Master create all this? If Perfect Master created all this, then it's like, "Oh yes, we should really indulge in it, because this is a gift from a Perfect Master to us."

^But some idiot created it by mistake. Everything that's been created is all by mistake. This guy was just looking at his mother's kettle going up and down and all of a sudden he got an idea about how to make a steam engine. People were always trying to pursue something else, and all of a sudden, by mistake, tumbled over something. And it's like, "Hey, look what I've got." And that became the invention.

In this world maybe the justification is, "Oh, we really need all these things." Do we?

This world doesn't need to collapse. This world can be. But if we are stuck in it, then we are victims, then that can be potentially dangerous for us. And how many of us are stuck in that world? How many of us are really indulged in the world, in the idiosyncrasy or the craziness - whatever have you - of this world?

And every day, we get stuck more in this world. It's like quicksand. The more we get stuck in this world, the more misery. And that's the only thing it can possibly create for us. And every time, it's more miserable and more miserable and more miserable. Doesn't seem to have any bounds for misery.

Finally sometime in our life we realize that, look, there is no point in having all this misery. There has to be something better. There has to be something greater. There has to be something more beautiful in our life. That's when we pray to Guru Maharaj Ji. That's when we pray to our Perfect Master. Then that's when our heart cries out. It's like, "Get me out of here. Get me out of all this misery."

And that's when Guru Maharaj Ji comes, to sincerely save us. We need to be saved constantly. There is no other way. We have to have that faith and trust in Guru Maharaj Ji.

What are you going to do? Try it out to see if there is any other way and come back? And what if that's too late? I mean, how many traps of mind are we to fall prey to before we will open up our eyes and say, "Guru Maharaj Ji, help me," sincerely? When are we going to be really sincere? When are our jokes going to stop and truly the only thing becoming in our lives is Guru Maharaj Ji? When is that going to happen? When are we going to really say, really in our heart, "There is no other alternative for me except to follow Guru Maharaj Ji's agya. If I want the experience that I want, then I have to follow Guru Maharaj Ji's agya"?

Why does Guru Maharaj Ji even give us agya? What is the necessity, what is the value, of agya in our lives?

You see, mind gives you agya every day. Mind gives you agya every day. And every day you fall in the pits. Mind tells you, "Now have some ice cream." While you can eat something, you can perfectly fulfill that accomplishment mind tells you. Eat and eat and sometimes you are eating like a pig. Mind tells you, "No, you really need something in your life." Mind says, "No, you really need a wife." Mind says, "No, you really need a girlfriend." Mind says, "No, you really need this, you need that."

And you say, "Yeah, yeah. I really need this."

Mind says, "You don't need satsang today. Take a break." And it's like, "Wow. That's incredible."

Because we know what agya is. The only thing is, we follow mind's agya. And the day we start following Guru Maharaj Ji's agya, that's when the whole process of misery starts being reversed. And when that process of misery starts being reversed, that's when happiness starts to come in. Guru Maharaj Ji bails our misery out and then fills this heart with that joy and happiness. Guru Maharaj Ji comes and cuts the strings that we are so attached to, cuts the strings of this maya, cuts the strings which lead us, which keep us in that quicksand, completely miserable, just trying to fight and struggle and struggle.

And what will be Guru Maharaj Ji's agya? For our own benefit. The mind doesn't care whether it's for our benefit or not. Mind doesn't care either way. But Guru Maharaj Ji does. And that agya, following that agya, the joy and the satisfaction that is in following that agya, you will never find it in following the agya of mind. Because that agya is real. That joy is real. That bliss is real. The Grace is real. The experience manifested from that is real.

And mind isn't real. And what it leads us into isn't real. And the experience it brings us isn't real. As long as we are going to keep playing games with ourselves, there can never be that communication between us and Guru Maharaj Ji, there can never be that channel set up properly, through which Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace can really enter our lives.

And we play so many games. Every kind of game you can possibly imagine. We play political games. We play bureaucratic games. We play idiotic games - every kind of game that we get into, every kind of a new fashion trip that

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we get into, new kind of fad that keeps coming into the trip. And why?

When Guru Maharaj Ji is there, can't we just be satisfied with Guru Maharaj Ji? And we know we can be. Every devotee who has had the experience of Knowledge has been able to be satisfied with just Guru Maharaj Ji, never having another necessity in life for anything else - just that experience of Guru Maharaj Ji is all they tried to make real, and that's what became real. And life itself became real when Guru Maharaj Ji became real, when they really plugged in.

There is a reason - and that's why it's been said for such a long, long time - to dedicate your mind, body and soul. Because all this mind brings us is that trouble, is that trip, is that craziness, which is going to be a new trap, that's all. As I was saying, it isn't a matter of, "When are we going to fall?" Definitely that's guaranteed: We are going to fall if we stay with this mind. The only question is: where? Which step are we going to take that's going to be fatal to this life, that's going to be fatal for this experience?

And why do we play such a game with our lives? Why do we hang ourselves by this fine, fine wire, when there is an incredible amount of experience waiting? See, Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world, Guru Maharaj Ji manifests in this world, for his devotees. Period. And he tells his devotees the way out. And if devotees do not follow, can they even be called the devotees? When Krishna came, his devotees, his gopis, were completely blissed out. They didn't care about anything else. To them, every experience that Krishna had to give them was welcome. They waited for that experience: to play, to dance, to sing. Because there was a real experience. They could have gone back into this world.

Look at Mira. She didn't care. She was the wife of a king. She didn't say, "Well, where am I going?" In the

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Indian culture, a shoemaker in the caste system is supposed to be the lowest. And she found Guru Maharaj Ji. Her Guru Maharaj Ji had manifested for her in that form. And she went. She didn't care. And she completely got lost, she got completely blissed out.

Even one time her husband sent her a cup of poison and said, "Here, this is the charanamrit from your Guru Maharaj Ji. Drink this." And she did. And it was. (I'm not saying that that's what you should go out and try - that's the trial. That never happened in the time of Krishna. Nobody sent Arjuna a cup of poison and said, "Here, drink this.")

But it's that Grace. It's that love. And the gopis weren't going into a trip right and left,

right and left, right and left. And that's why they could enjoy Krishna so much. Mira wasn't going into a trip right and left, right and left, right and left. That's why she could enjoy her Guru Maharaj Ji so much. Because the only thing to her was one thing. Not herself, as we hold on to our dear selves so preciously, so intimately. "Us, us, us." Always "us." Whatever happens, it's "to us." And yet to just let ourselves be given to Guru Maharaj Ji …

If we sincerely have that love, if we sincerely have that faith, then we can do that. And then all that'll come our way is that bliss, is that love, from Guru Maharaj Ji. And that's it.

But sometimes I feel it doesn't matter what we try to do. Sometimes I feel like we take a little twig and start digging in and somebody comes along and says, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm digging a hole here for Guru Maharaj Ji's well."

Okay, you are making an effort. What kind of an effort is that? You think you will ever successfully be able to make a well? By the time you probably make it one foot deep, or one foot wide - whatever - the twig will be broken. Then what are you going to do?

To surrender. Now. You cannot wait forever. Who knows what'll happen to us at any moment? I mean anything can happen, any time. Here we are. We depend on everything we create - our world. And then, poof! One day, that's it. We are gone, finished. Done.

All the experience - one of the greatest experiences, I guess, to this world is death. Tragedy, you know. But not in Guru Maharaj Ji's world. The experience is of life. The experience is of living. The experience is of Truth, of what is real, of life itself, of the Truth itself.

If this world needs anything, there's only one thing this world needs and that's Guru Maharaj Ji. And yet when Guru Maharaj Ji comes, we take off every which way we have to go, every which way we want to go. That's not the way it's going to work.

Yes, of course Guru Maharaj Ji is compassionate. Yes, of course Guru Maharaj Ji has mercy on us. But how much? It's almost like the things we do, we will drain Guru Maharaj Ji's mercy out of him. Every second we are prone to making mistakes. Because we don't really make any effort anyway. Every second all we enjoy doing is getting confused. It's almost as though we say to ourselves, "Ah, the bliss of confusion."

Sometimes we end up knowing confusion better than we know anything else. And it isn't like that. That isn't what is going to get us through. This is an endless ocean. And we have to cross it. The number of circles and crossings and things that we have taken, and the way we are lost, we don't know where we are. And there is absolutely no way we can find out where we are, indeed. We struggle. We pray. And when that person, when that guide, really comes, there is only one thing to do: surrender and follow him, whatever he says.

Look how easy it's been made in this century for us. What would it take for Guru Maharaj Ji to decide, "Okay, well if anybody wants Knowledge they have to wait ten years. If anybody wants Knowledge then you have to definitely, like it says, 'Swim the greatest ocean; climb the biggest mountain.' Then you can have the Knowledge, the experience of Knowledge." Then what are we going to do? Where will we be left?

Guru Maharaj Ji never asks us to climb the greatest mountain. All he says is, "Surrender. Let go." The "most easiest" thing in the world to do, really. Because that's the path we were made for. I feel like, in reality, the way it is is that we are so big, like we are three feet big, and this world is only two feet big. And we struggle. Constantly struggle. On each side we are being squished.

And when we come into Guru Maharaj Ji's world, when we walk the path that Guru Maharaj Ji wants us to walk, it's made for us. It's made for this body. It's made for this soul. It's made for this human being. And we walk. And it's so beautiful. It's so natural. It's so incredible. Because it's real. It's there for us; it was meant for us.

This world that we rely upon so desperately, this world that we believe in so desperately; where does it take us every day? What does it give us every day? This world is like candy. Yeah, you can eat it and it feels good, till you have to end up in front of a dentist. And then when those teeth start to be pulled out or all that drilling happens in the cavity, you wish you had never, ever eaten that candy. Because it isn't worth the trouble we go through.

And yet, in one way, how can you even blame this world? Because that's the only thing it knows. Misery is its happiness. Misery is all we have ever experienced. Happy misery and miserable misery again. We laugh only to cry. The world has to invent jokes to make us laugh. Funny things. Amusement parks. Because we can't be amused. There is nothing in this world that can amuse us. That's why we go into an amusement park. And we go through these rig-

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maroles, these rides, see ourselves in different shapes - I mean, what does it take for us to squeeze a laugh out of ourselves? This is how unhappy we become in this world.

And Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't say this path is easy, but this path isn't difficult, either. All you have to do is open your eyes and implicitly obey Guru Maharaj Ji. Let him take you. Just follow him. Don't follow your ego; don't follow your mind. Just follow him, and it'll be as simple as "A-B-C-D."

To me, Guru Maharaj Ji's compassion is his nature. And that's beautiful. And Guru Maharaj Ji's mercy is his nature and that's beautiful. And Guru Maharaj Ji loves us; that's his nature and that's beautiful. But I don't want to try any one of them out. What if there were something there that I don't know about? How am I going to take a chance? No. I have to do, I have to be, what he wants me to be, what he tells me to be. That's all. If Guru Maharaj Ji showers his mercy upon a being, then that's our fortune. Then we are fortunate. That's beautiful; that's incredible. But we cannot keep on going on the wrong path, cannot afford to keep making mistakes all the time and say, "Oh, maybe Guru Maharaj Ji … because Guru Maharaj Ji's always merciful, what can he do to me?"

So premies, I really feel that it's time to make effort, not to play games. It's time to really take that step forward. It's time to really understand. It's time to open our eyes and see Guru Maharaj Ji for the first time. It's time to forget about our grievances, forget about our differences and as every individual, approach Guru Maharaj Ji, come to Guru Maharaj Ji, with an open heart. And pray and request for that Grace. Pray and request him to lead you on, that you are ready. That's all.

And Guru Maharaj Ji will take you. Guru Maharaj Ji will take you to a place beyond your wildest dreams - to that place of love, to that place of peace, to that place of bliss.

After all, that's all you can do: just let go to Guru Maharaj Ji. And let him take you. Stop following that mind and start following Guru Maharaj Ji. Stop being miserable and start enjoying the bliss and the Grace of Guru Maharaj Ji.

So I just hope tonight when you sit down in meditation you really make that effort. And tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after tomorrow … for as long as you live: make that effort. Just surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji.

So premies, thank you very much, and good-night.

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