So, by the Grace we have another opportunity to realize something, to open up to something, just to try to even understand something.
You know, more and more it's becoming quite obvious in this world that what this world needs is not another president, not another nuclear warhead, not another mind-baffling game of ego and power and all the games that there are. But what this world very desperately needs is a solution- a solution to its problems.
I don't know how many presidents there have been and I don't know how many presidents there are going to be in this entire world. And yet no one person has been able to bring that solution to people. No one person has been able to bring the answer. Everybody asks a lot of questions. That's all there is in this world: questions. An entire array of questions. But nobody has the answers. Everybody who is trying to answer question is actually only creating another question. That's all.
And yet I know that in a political turmoil, in a situation where people were non-believers, in a situation where people were motivated by exactly the same things as we are today … In this world, when Jesus came, he had an answer for a few people. He had a solution. It wasn't a game. It wasn't a concept. It was a reality.
Because everything I see around me is somebody's idea. Even this stage is somebody's idea. Even the way the lighting is done - it's my idea. That's all it is: somebody's idea. An idea after another idea after another idea - and that's all this world is comprised of. And as these ideas start to melt away, so will the world. It's based on a house made of wax. And when it gets hotter, the wax starts to melt and every shape, every little detail, that that house has will just disappear. That's the way I can see it now.
And where is that solution for every human being? Not a solution for the birds and not a solution for the alligators and not a solution for the gorillas. A solution for human beings. If we have our answer, then we can live in peace. If we can live in peace, I'm sure the gorillas and the birds and everything else can live in peace. Because we are the ones who are making them so unhappy. We are the ones who are taking the entire ecology and turning it upside down. We are the ones who are taking nature and ripping it apart.
We try to tackle all our problems on the face of it, not by trying to go to the root. Unless we do that, unless this human being understands what his problem really is, unless this human being really understands where that solution lies, there is chaos written all over the place. There has been.
1
I was in Rome for the Holi festival and I had a chance to drive past the Coliseum. It was the first time I had really looked at it from a very close view. And I was fascinated. I was really fascinated. Because in one sense it looked like any modern stadium that had been ruined: the same exact arches and structures and stairs for people to walk to different levels, and basically the same exact concept that everybody will come and the center of events will happen in the center of the stadium. Everybody will watch. Same thing - steps all over the place, so people could climb to different levels.
Then I saw this guy driving a new car. It just flashed in my head that there was a time when people walked to this Coliseum - obviously the good ones got the first row seats and all that. And then the peasants probably used to go all the way to the top, where they couldn't really see all the gory scenes so well.
And there the whole concept must have been to promise a chariot to everybody. "One day everybody will have a chariot. One day everybody will have a house. One day people will not be poor." Then you see this guy who's really a nobody - the guy who at that time would have had a seat at the very top - driving in his little chariot.
The civilization of that time is finished. It's gone. Those people, that clothing, the concepts, the ideas, their ways of doing things, are all finished. It's all gone. It's all disappeared. There's nothing left of it. Just vague memories. History books.
And yet today here we are in this civilization. What do you think? This civilization is going to last forever? Obviously not. It can't. No civilization can survive forever. Just like those civilizations, this civilization is going to go away, too. We human beings that have come and created everything on the face of this Earth will disappear. We have to. Why? That's just the way it goes. The Earth goes around and around and so do the civilizations, so do the human beings, so does time, so does everything.
And yet that solution that those people were looking for - a certain state of mind, a certain state of being happy … that was the entire purpose of the Coliseum, so people could go and entertain themselves. Watch poor little slaves get eaten up by the lions - whatever their entertainment was.
We have the same thing. They're called boxing matches. You see two human beings fight each other, get into it, punch each other. They punch to the point where their faces are bloody red and one guy goes flat on the ground and, "This guy is the champion!"
And what they were looking for at that time is what we want today. Because it does not matter what civilization brings to us, we as human beings do not change. That is the fact. Our basic necessities - very, very basic necessities - have been exactly the same since time immemorial. You eat; they ate. The Romans ate, the Aryans ate, everybody ate. Had to. That's a very basic necessity. Breathe air; drink water. And they wanted to be happy, wanted to be content, wanted to be in a state of peace, in a state where they were not bothered.
That's obviously how houses came about. People used to sleep anywhere they felt like. And they were very uncomfortable, because anybody could attack them: another race of people or lions or saber-toothed tigers - whatever. So they climbed up the trees. And that wasn't good enough. So they borrowed somebody's cave - a bear or somebody was living there - borrowed their cave and never gave it back. And from there we now have mansions, halls - what have you. And it all started off as somebody's cave.
And to be happy, to be in a state which can be described in so many ways: not to be bothered, to be content … all in all - very simply - to be happy. Happiness. We all want happiness. Things bother us. Everything bothers us. Drink too much coffee and the whole world goes edgy. There is that commercial on television. This guy is really cranky. Another guy comes up and says, "How come you're so edgy?"
And he says he drinks coffee and goes, "I like real coffee. I have to drink real coffee. Makes me edgy."
And the other guy goes, "Have some decaffeinated."
And the first guy drinks the decaffeinated coffee and he says, "Oh, yeah! It's a whole new world for me." (Don't pay him one time and he'll be about as edgy as when he did drink coffee. Because all he is doing is making a commercial.)
Look at it in this world. We are programmed about every single thing. We are programmed. We are programmed to do everything. You sit there in front of televisions and there are all these people. All they want to sell you is what you can eat or drink.
And we sit there and we get completely programmed. This is what it is like. "Ah, it's a hot day. I need my cola." Go there and fetch a soda, pop it, and drink it. That's all well and fine, till you have to look for a bathroom and can't find it. It's a constant chain reaction.
Because in one state we weren't happy when we weren't having it. Now that we've had it, we have to get rid of it. And if we can't get rid of it, we are still not happy. It goes around and around in fanatic circle.
And is that it? Is that what we need? Or is there something within us - very, very deep within us - that wants something else? Something that's not in food and not in houses and not in clothing and not in anything of this world that we have created - a very basic necessity.
If a person is hungry, you can give him food. Sure. And that person will then be satisfied. He'll eat. His satisfaction is so temporary that within twelve hours he will have digested his food and want food again.
Satisfying something that you can never satisfy to begin with cannot tackle any problem in this world. There are people starving. Why are they starved?
I was reading a really interesting book. There was this whole thing. In America you see so many ads about all these people that starve - "no milk." So the
2
Americans decided they were going to send a whole shipment of powdered milk to these countries in Africa - the "good-deed doers."
So they did. They sent a whole bunch of powdered milk. And of course these people started drinking that stuff and they're not used to all this junk. To them, milk is a white substance derived from a cow and does not come as a powder and does not need any water. (As a matter of fact, they don't even drink milk.) But here comes this good deed and good milk. Everyone who drinks it gets sick.
So what do they do? You'll find a lot of white huts there. The kids took that powder, put some water in it, and plastered it all over their houses. It made an excellent plaster for their huts.
I mean in one way you have eventually satisfied these people. Right? They were hungry so you gave them milk. But instead of using it as milk they used it as plaster for their houses.

Prem Rawat (Maharaji) With Cheesy Grin On Stage In Armani, 1980
And are people really happy? Are people really satisfied? India - "the spiritual land." The land of holy religion. The land of spiritual beauty. Are people in India happy? No. It's incredible. Americans want to go to India and the Indians want to come to America.
In all this, who is happy? What is in it? I mean millions and billions of dollars are spent every day for sterilization. "Sterilize the milk, sterilize the water, sterilize everything." In India nobody sterilizes anything.
We were staying at a hotel in India and everyone was really careful about the water. We didn't want to drink the tap water. So we ordered this bottled water from the hotel. And it was really fascinating for me, because I never had bottled water before.
So we drank all this bottled water - seemed really good. The next day I decided to take a walk about the hotel. And there was this little guy sitting next to the tap, filling all the bottles up. Obviously he wasn't going to ship all these bottles from the middle of nowhere to a factory where the water would be sucked out by a pump, go through a distillery process and be put back into bottles and sent out to the public.
And it was really fascinating because here everybody was feeling okay. But they were just drinking regular good old tap water.
So whatever it is that we think will satisfy us is in fact not going to satisfy us. I've seen it. I have seen it. I have walked down the streets and I've seen empty faces. I don't know. Anybody walking down the street is also seeing those empty faces. Yet I know why they're empty. I can feel why they're empty. I can see why they're empty.
And one thing that makes me feel good is that I can give them something that isn't going to make them feel empty, that's going to fulfill them, that's going to fulfill their lives, that's going to give them a meaning to live, that's going to give this human race a purpose to live, to exist, to survive, to be, to exist in harmony.
And that thing is Knowledge. That thing is that consciousness - to be within. That thing is that experience of being within. Something so incredible, something so free, something so standard - something so, so, so standard - it was built right within inside of us from the day we were born on this Earth.
And the chance to be happy … Happiness doesn't come from a tree. Happiness doesn't come from any place. Happiness is within us. If we go to that level where we can be, then we will be happy. The level of this world that we live in every day is the level where there is constant chaos. Constant chaos.
Look at everything. Everything is going down the drain. There used to be a time when people used to like to drive their cars down the highway. It's not a pleasure to drive down the highway anymore. You have to sit there, honk your horn; sit there, watch your car overheat. If your tire blows everybody honks
3
at you. It's a stressful experience. It's not a pleasure.
Those beautiful countrysides that you could go down and see and really be in - no. It's not a pleasure anymore to see them. Because they don't exist. All the industry, all this, all that - everywhere.
What has man become? What has a human being become? A robot by his own accord. The human being is so caught up in his own game - so, so, so caught up in his own game - that even if he wanted to get out tomorrow, he couldn't. A human being is such a robot of society.
What our truth is, what our reality is … A premie in Rome gave me this present. It was really nice. It's a talking clock. It talks. It's completely solid-state. There are no moving parts inside it. You just press a button and it tells you the time in a.m. or p.m. You set the alarm and it tells you the time. Then it plays Beethoven's music. And five minutes later, if you don't turn off the alarm, it comes on and tells the time and says, "Hurry, please," and then plays this music. It's quite advanced for its time - a little portable thing.
And I was talking to this premie this morning. And I said, "You know, it's really incredible. Maybe in ten years,
since they have this human speech thing, what they can do is program a computer to translate what whales are talking about. Whatever the whales say, it'll automatically take it, understand it, convert it, and talk it out
the way a human being speaks. And if a human being wants to say something to the whale, he talks into this machine. It takes it, converts it, and puts it out in beeps and squawks and the whale will understand what you're
talking about."
I said jokingly that the first thing the whales are going to say is, "You idiots out there! What do you think you're doing out there, anyway? Been wanting to tell you this for a long, long time."
And in the whole conversation, it came up that these whales don't want to tell a lie. It was really incredible, because it occurred to me, "Wait a minute. Their truth is different. Their truth is completely different." Because our truth in this society is a social truth. The reason we speak truth is because of a fear. And the reason we don't lie is because of a fear. And the fear is that if we do lie, we'll be sent to hell.
A whale doesn't have to bother about that. Why does a whale have to bother about it? And yet in its own sense, its truth is not a social truth. Its truth is completely different, on a completely different level. Because it only needs to communicate a feeling. We need to communicate so much more than a feeling. Because we are such blabbermouths. Really, I feel that the whole human race is.
And our truth … Because what is Truth? What is Truth? If somebody doesn't believe in God, he's an atheist. For him, hell doesn't exist. For him, heaven doesn't exist. For him, death has a completely different meaning. And we become so socialized in our cultures that our truths take on different meanings. For a Muslim, truth is completely different than for a Hindu. Sins take on a different meaning. Good deeds take on different meaning. Everything takes on a different meaning.
And yet the real Truth - the real, real, real Truth - is so true that it cannot be associated with a lie. You cannot say that that Truth is the absence of a lie. Because it in itself is. It does not need justification. It does not need something's absence.
Darkness is the absence of light. But you cannot say it the other way around: "Light is the absence of darkness." That is not a correct statement. Even though it is a logical statement, I don't feel it is a correct statement. It's not justified. Light is, within itself, everything. It is through which we can perceive color, through which we can see. It isn't an existence that results from the absence of anything. It is what it is. Same thing with that Truth.
When society tells us to tell the truth … The governments control everything: what we do, what we wear, what we speak, what we want, what we don't want, what we need to have, what we don't need to have, what is good for us, what's bad for us. They control our destiny. They control whether we are to be isolated from the rest of the human race. They control whether we are going to live or die.
Do we even understand that? It's incredible, but that's the way it is. You do not have your destiny any-
4
more. It is all a big part of a game that you're stuck in. This whole world is. You do something wrong and you shall be annihilated. That's it.
Our existence is always based on a third something - a concept, our ideas, our rights and wrongs. And I just feel one thing, that literally everything we end up doing is the ultimate wrong. Because we don't find our existence in it. We don't find ourselves in it. We don't find the Truth in it or an experience which is true, which is so real that it will motivate me to express my feelings, to communicate to you the way things should be communicated. Something so real, something so fascinating, something so incredible, which in itself is everything, which in itself does not need a justification, which in itself does not need anything, which in itself is so complete that it doesn't have an opposite - it's so real!
That Knowledge, that Truth - yes, when that Truth … What kind of a truth is it? When Jesus came, he was speaking
about the Truth. Yet that one society would not permit him to speak about the Truth. Because according to the laws of their culture, laws of their religion, laws that their society permitted them, that was not a truth, that
was a lie. He just was the wrong person at the right time.
And even today - that Savior that comes in this world … What will be that Savior's number one enemy? What will he have to fight? I mean, he doesn't have to fight you and me. He doesn't have to fight human beings. If he starts fighting human beings, whom is he going to save? What does he fight? He fights with our concepts. He fights with our ideas. Because we have all these ideas, "This is the way it should be. If it is not that way, then it isn't what it should be."
And all our truths wilt away. All our truths become irrelevant. All our truths automatically aren't truths anymore. Suddenly they're not the real thing anymore. Because it's not related with a direct experience. It's not related to any experience.
And yet the Truth is. The real Truth is related to an experience - an experience that's real, an experience that's complete, an experience that's alive, an experience for you and me, an experience for all of us, an experience for human beings. That's His Truth.
And to go beyond, even for a moment, all our limitations that we place in front of ourselves: "Well, I can't do that, I can't do that and I can't do that." For one minute, just to go beyond all that, and accept … I know that it's really hard to accept. It's really hard to accept.
Driving here, the premie who was driving missed the turn and took the next turn. I had timed the trip yesterday. I drove here. It was seven minutes and thirty-five seconds. And I said, "It's seven minutes and thirty-five seconds. I drove according to the speed limit and that's how long it took me."
And then when he took the wrong turn I said, "Well, I didn't come this route, so I don't know how long it's going to be. Probably it's going to be more."
I mean, everybody realized and that premie realized, "Yes. The wrong turn had been taken." But it was very hard to accept. It was very hard to accept. I mean even one of the remarks was, "Well, isn't it better to go around the thing so nobody will know where you're coming from?"
This is always hard for us to accept. I make a mistake and it's very hard for me to accept. You make a mistake, it's very hard … It's like that for all of us. We are lost. We get lost. And it's like, "Oh, no. I know my way. I know my way. We'll be here in a minute." Ten minutes later you find yourself exactly in the same place. "Oh, I know, I know."
And yet, one simple thing: "I don't know. I don't know. I am lost." Open your window. Ask somebody. As simple as that. Because I definitely believe in it. "I did not hear," "I did not understand;" very basic acceptance. But in our society, of course, if you can't understand, if you can't hear, if you can't do this: "You're dumb. You're this and you're that. How stupid can you get? Don't even know your way around."
No. We are all human beings. We're all human beings. We make mistakes. And that's it. And one simple thing for all of us to see, for a person to ask himself for one minute, is, "Just maybe what I am
5
Prem Rawat (Maharaji) Dances On Stage In Armani, 1980
doing in this world, caught up in this game, caught up in this idiotic world - maybe that's a mistake. Maybe I need
some directions - how to be," and then go to that person who can give you that direction. Accept.
In a millionth of a second even, what are the chances of our getting lost in this world? Million, trillion, zillion times. Literally uncountable. For us to be completely lost, for us to be completely taken away from that reality that we all belong to, for us to be motivated towards something that isn't going to bring us that peace, that satisfaction, that love that we all desire …
It's like an animal. An animal has love. We got this new puppy in England. And it's a beautiful little puppy. Really nice nature. Doesn't want to eat you up and isn't scared of you or anything like that. And every time this little puppy sees anybody, she just starts jumping up and down and gets really happy. Really, really happy. She wants to play, wants to accept. She doesn't just go, "Hmm. My tea, please. Oh dear, I'm not going to eat the filthy biscuit out of your filthy hands. Where is my clean plate?"
That's what you and I do. And obviously, if we walk to a restaurant and the guy spits on a plate to clean it and throws it in front of you, what are we going to do?
"What kind of restaurant is this?! What do you think you're doing?"
Every place you go, the whole trip is: "Look at me." I'm so sick and tired of people having this attitude - "Look at me; look at me" - that I finally decided I was going to get a car that was so simple, that was so common, that when I drove in it nobody would notice it. I had some dark windows put in it so nobody could see inside. And obviously it turned out the other way, because people in England had never seen a car with dark windows. Everybody looked at it.
But obviously they can't see in, and they have their vibes. "Why are you driving in a thing like that?" Because they can't see who's in it. They don't know what's going on. Very blank faces are all you see, just moving by.
But "look at me" is the whole trip. "Look what I'm doing, look what I'm doing, look at what I'm doing." And for one moment, stop and say, "Wait a minute. Maybe what I am doing is all wrong."
Because for that dog, doesn't that dog experience love just like a human being does? I know every morning that the little girl wakes up and comes into the room or something, I get really happy. And I just start to talk to her and say, "How are you doing, Daya?"
6
And she is really happy and starts to talk. "What's your name, Daddy?" She actually says people's names when she asks what their name is.
And isn't that dog feeling some kind of something, that it's hopping up and down, expressing every way it can? Usually they wag their tails. And it is wagging that tail back and forth so fast - really exceeding the maximum structural limits - and jumping up and down and doing everything possible to express that love, to express that joy.
I mean, the puppy was in a little square of sofas. And people would come by and she'd jump and start doing the whole thing. Then they would leave and she would sit down again. And they'd come by again, and the same love again and again and again.
What is it? Hatred? Does that little dog want to chew me up? Is that why it's doing it? Obviously not. But then why is that love so sincere? Why is that in such a strange way? Why can't it be that way for you and me, too?
Because we are so lost. We are so "tracked off" from our original track. The whole world lives in such a social way. Everything is society's game: who marries who, how, when, where.
You look at the whole scene. I mean, I look at the whole scene. I see this very grim, grey picture of this world.
Maybe there is a theory from Darwin that that's not the way it works. It's a very simpleton thing. All these creatures get together and they were in some other form, then they have come now and the evolution and the illusion happens and the whole world's there somehow.
To me it's very obvious, it's very clear, that Somebody has a purpose for all this. Somebody has created all this. The same Creator Who has created that Mars and created nothing - what about your evolution there? No. But everything has its own meaning, its own purpose, its own thing, in this world, and is fulfilling that purpose in its way.
Except the human being. We have a purpose, but we are not fulfilling it. And how do we fulfill this purpose?
We can try to smile. We can say, "Oh yeah, I'm smiling. Look. I'm happy." And you see these people who are really trying to be happy, who are caught up in this game of smiling. "Oh yeah, I'm okay and I'm this and I'm that." Inside, that smile lasts only as long as the brain says "smile" and the impulse goes to certain muscles and says "pull." As soon as the subconscious comes in, it doesn't say "smile." It says, "Get frustrated. What are you doing? What's happening around here? Everything is wrong. Everything is wrong! Nothing is right."
And what we need - truly, truly, truly need - in this lifetime, for all of us, is a Savior. And for premies, it's incredible. Really, I can sit here and I can say to you, "We don't do satsang, service and meditation, and we don't do this and we don't do that." Well. We have Knowledge. It's the most incredible thing for a human being, to be fulfilling the purpose of this human life. What more can be expected of a human being?
Be that premie. Have that inspiration for satsang, have that inspiration for service, have that inspiration for meditation: be. You don't have to climb mountains. You don't have to swim the deepest seas. You don't have to do anything. You just have to be. Be who you are. Enjoy that Knowledge, enjoy that beauty that's within you.
How fortunate really we are that we have Knowledge, that we have a solution, that yes, we are saved.
7

Prem Rawat (Maharaji) Getting Up Courage To Dance Dressed As Krishna with Mala, 1980

Prem Rawat (Maharaji) Getting Up Courage To Dance Dressed As Krishna with Mala, 1980

Sure, we can get into a lengthy discussion about everything else. No. I feel it's totally unnecessary. The only discussion we really need is to recognize how fortunate we are.
In this world, somebody comes for us in that way, in a way we can understand, we can see, we can hear, we can look at. I mean what if … it's such an incredible thing. If Guru Maharaj Ji really did come as some of us may have expected, what would our attitude even be? "Oh my God, what is this?"
And yet a Master comes in this world for you and me. The Master comes in a human body, just like yours and mine. Comes in that body so we can relate, we can understand, we can speak to him, be heard, and hear him, understand him. There is no mystery. There is no mystique.
We make the mystique; we make the mystery. What does a kid do when he wants to read a comic in a classroom? He takes a regular textbook, puts the comic behind it - engrossed in deep thought - looks at it and reads the comic. Even if a funny joke is cracked, he cannot laugh. Because if he laughs, he'll be caught. So he has to be very serious and really engrossed. Flip the pages and make it look right.
That's the game we play, too. Our mystery, our mystique - all we're doing is reading a comic behind the textbook. Because there is no mystery. There is no mystique. It's about as plain and simple as A-B-C-D - and that's sophisticated. It's even simpler than that.
Because it's for us. We're not learning a cat's language. We're not learning a whale's language. We're learning, we are experiencing, something that was meant to be for us - just for human beings, just like you and me: to experience love, to experience that joy, to experience bliss, to experience a state of being, a state of contentment, to be content.
And it's so incredible, so fortunate, that we have that opportunity now in this age. In this age where everything is half berserk already and is progressing on its way faster and faster toward being even more berserk and more berserk …
There is this presidential race going on in the U.S. I was here in the United States when the president won last time. Everybody was surprised. Everybody was
10
shocked. What has happened? Is everybody happy? Is everybody blissed out? Did everybody find the purpose to their lives, the solution of their lives?
I really don't expect that, in fact, even if there's a new president, anything really incredible will happen. Or ten more presidents, or twenty more - I don't. It's not predicated on that. It's predicated on one simple thing: that when we realize who we are, when we know who we are, when we have that incredible experience within - then! Then the society becomes incredible. Then we don't need each other to govern. Then we live. We live our lives. Nobody needs to sit there with a great old big whip saying, "Do this; do that. Do this; do that. You are right; you're wrong. You're right; you're wrong."
I don't sit here and say, "Oh yes, we are all sinners." I've heard a lot of people say that. "We're all sinners and we all have to be saved from sins." We are human beings. We are human beings and we need to be saved, period. Sinners or no sinners.
Don't you think that out of all the human beings there are in this world, you could at least find ten that haven't sinned yet? Don't you think they need to be saved? Is a Savior going to come in this world and shake hands with them and say, "Congratulations. And by the way, don't feel obliged to me. I'm not here to save you. You haven't done any sins"?
We are human beings. A Creator has created us to be. He has given us life. He gives us breath. He gives us a reason to live in this world. And that's what we have to recognize - sinners or no sinners. I don't know. I don't think a human being is a sinner to start with. He is put in this world so that Creator can come and be, in this incredible game of hide and seek. "I hide; you find Me."
I see what a human being needs is love. We don't need to be told how we have sinned all our lives. We don't need to be told we have to … it's so incredible. I find it extremely curious, extremely peculiar, that to enjoy heaven we have to all die.
Why should we die to enjoy heaven? Why can't we enjoy heaven right here? I mean, what is heaven? Heaven is a concept of an ultimate pleasure. You can fly around. For all the ones who've always wanted to fly but didn't have the pilot's blood in their veins, slap those wings on and do your dives. Have a whole bunch of halos.
I tell you, there are so many different - I mean, most of you here have read the Bible and have a concept of heaven and hell. I have seen pictures depicting heaven. And in some pictures you're lying there on a sofa and all this is happening.You don't have to come out and say, "thank you." But just be happy. Because I have given you something that has made you happy, and that will make me happy. That will. That's it. That's all I want is for everyone in this world to be happy. To be really happy - not happy because somebody is telling you to be happy, but because you are happy. And I just really feel that's what we all want.
There was a movie about this. This guy dies and he doesn't know he is dead. He wakes up and everything he's always wanted is around him. Everything he wants is right there. He wants girls and he has girls. And he wants the best food and the best mansion and plenty of money to gamble with - everything he wants is right there. Our concept of heaven.
And this whole game is being played with him. And there is this friend who provides him with everything. And he likes that. It's incredible. He's really blissed out. After a little while he starts getting sick and tired of the whole thing. He says, "I want out of this. I want out of this! I don't want this."
And the guy just laughs at him and says, "You're stuck in here. This is your hell. You have died and gone to hell and this is it. Enjoy it. You're stuck in it!"
I don't know where all these concepts come from. To me, here is my life. This is a precious life. Jesus came to save the ones on Earth, not in heaven and not in hell. On Earth. A Savior comes to save us right here. Those Perfect Masters that have come, have come to save human beings. To me, this is the heaven and this is the hell. This is it. This is everything. This is where we live. This is where we come. When we are unsatisfied, we are in that hell. When we are satisfied, we are in heaven.
In one day, yes, this whole picture can change its face. In one day the whole thing can become incredibly different. You feel a love for people. You understand something. You can feel that love. It all changes.
And I'm not even arguing the fact. I'm saying, how about now? How about enjoying yourself now? Now. In this lifetime - something that you don't have to die for, something where you can enjoy being alive, being here in this creation that the Creator has created for us. Enjoy this life. Enjoy that experience of being. Enjoy that love that's meant for us: a love that does not have a reason behind it, a love that is not based on "I love you because of this," or "I love you because of that." I love you because I love you.
A premie came to me today and was doing some service and he just said, "You know, Guru Maharaj Ji, I can't thank you. 'Thank you' is a very small word. You have made me so happy."
And my reaction was, "Well, I am happy if you're happy. That's what makes me happy."
So premies, it's wonderful to be here, to have this opportunity. I know "opportunity" is a misused word. These days everything is an opportunity. But this really is something special for all of us. This festival. What it has to signify means something. It's really a festival of premies.
I know of course the name Guru Puja started in India, but I find it's really beautiful to know what it means. Just some devotee's wish: a desire to worship, to worship their Guru Maharaj Ji. And it really is a festival in which we - we - can really benefit: through that sat- sang, through that service, through that meditation.
And so hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. Until then, good-night.
11