GURU MAHARAJ JI in Los Angeles, California, February 8, 1975
Dear premies, I guess it's been a pretty long time. And, you know, that does not matter so much, if I'm away in England or in India or somewhere doing prachar. But what really matters to all the premies at this time is that they understand what this Knowledge is. This is a pretty old story, but I am going to tell you again. You've heard it a long, long time. Every time we come down here, we start off with, "Dear premies," and end up with the same old story. But, what is important for us is to realize why we are here. I mean, there is a definite purpose of this human life that has been given to us. Everything that happens in the world - everything - right down to deaths, accidents, any good progress, any bad progress, and now this depression coming up, anything that happens, is a lesson for a human being, that after all that, where are we? Where have we gone? Where have we reached? What have we actually achieved in our life? A man is born, a soul is born in this world; he is brought up; he has his ups mid downs. It's like when all the premies start talking about when they were a little kid. Their mother used to do something to them, or their father used to spank them. Or they talk about what they did, how they were really, really naughty, or whatever they did. But when they were little kids is just a memory. And that's how it is. That's all it stays as. And man proceeds on. But after all that cycle, after all that presence of a human being in this planet, where has he gone? What has he really achieved? It is a very strange question, because there is no immediate answer to it, just a slow reaction. It's like, a thing is said, and it doesn't ring the bell. But then after a little while, it starts ringing huge bells inside you. Then is when man really tries to realize, "Wait a minute. I am here for a certain reason. What is it?" And then his search begins. Then when we search, and we realize something, when we attain something, we know something, we feel something, we believe that.
It's not just like, "Okay, buddies, this is what it is, and that's the end of the session; beat it! All you've got to do now is come to satsang and split; just go to wherever the satsang programs are." This is not it. That is not the trip. It's something else. It's the realizing of it. It's the actual knowing of it, the actual believing of it, actually trusting it.
Because you see, in this life we could do so many, so many, so many, so many, so many things. But we have to sit down for one moment, and we have to realize, "Now wait a minute. There's got to be an easier way." I mean, after all, man comes into this world, and he goes through the whole suffering, the whole cycle, which is pretty similar. It might differ at various points just a little bit. Maybe the one guy was born in the hospital, other guy was born in the house. Or he grew up on a ranch, and somebody else grew up on 33rd Street. That doesn't matter so much. But it apparently seems like everybody's pattern is just about the same. They went through this, and then they went through that. It's so amazing. Like, John Miller would be sitting there, and Kathy Cituk would be sitting there, and then sometimes Bob comes along, so he would be sitting there, and they'll start talking. And they all say, "Yeah, I used to do that. Same here." That's what John Miller says, "Same here."
UNDERSTAND THE GOAL
It's so strange. It's like, we come in this lifetime, and we go away from this lifetime. We enter, and we leave. Really, that's the way the whole thing has to happen. And then eventually we are told that, "Wait a minute. This is not it. We grew up a little bit, some senses hopped into us, and we finally realize, "Wait a minute. We've got to do something." And that thing is that we have got to more and more understand and to realize what God is, to realize what this Knowledge is and to realize what our goal, our aim, is. Then start going through cycles. Then the big machine starts turning.
Premies, that is point that we all reach to, really, if we sit down and think about it for a second, say "Wait a minute. There's just got to be an easier way really, there is an easier way, in the realization of God. And now, what
And now, what can be told to you what can be said to you, except one thing realize Knowledge, understand more and more what the Knowledge is. Don't think just because you have done meditation for 6 months, or a year, you have had it, or you have got to the point. No! A premie can serve for seventeen years, for eighteen years, for twenty years, for a hundred years if he wants, and bingo!, in a quarter of a second, gone.
Let me tell you something. How much does it take to make milk? I mean just go through the whole process of how much it has to go through, and then just take a drop of lemon and put it in that milk. It's all gone; it's all disappeared. I mean, it's no more milk. You can't use it for your coffee, and neither can you use it for your tea. It's gone! And that's it.
So premies, we have to understand the goal, the one thing that we are on the earth for. It's like, there was a man, and he always used to wear a mask. It doesn't matter what he did, but he used to have a mask on. One day, he looked up into the sky, and God looked at him and said, "So why are you wearing a mask when I have given you such a beautiful face? Why are you hiding my creation?" And the man said, "But it doesn't matter. I still have it." God said, "But I'm objecting. I can't see your face; people can't see your face."
The man says, "But neither can I see Your face. I don't know what You look like. You always wear this big, blue mask on top o' You." God says, wait a minute. I am infinite. It doesn't matter if I wear this or not, because I really don't have a face. I cannot be put into a limited something. You know I am completely everywhere. I cannot take a shape, because I am infinite.
So the man says, "Well then, what troubles You? I mean, I wear a mask on my face. You have given it to me. You have given this body; it's at my disposal. Now what troubles You?" And so God said, "Wait. Look, the thing is the mask that you are wearing does not trouble me. The presence of that mask on your face troubles me." They sound pretty similar, but then the man thinks and he thinks, and thinks, and then he realizes, "Yes, that is true. The presence of it. The mask has got nothing to do with it. Mask is mask. And my face is ???
But the presence of that mask on my face affects it." This is what mind is. Mind is mind. And that mind is there for premies who are really beautiful and who are really meditating, it's there, but then it doesn't trouble them because the presence of that mind does not exist.
The mind is something we named. Because, see, this is the trouble with man, he has to always have a scapegoat. So he starts throwing names at things. And when he starts throwing names at things, he comes to a point where he says, "Yeah man. My mind troubles it." So that's it; that's his scapegoat. But that don't mean anything. But the presence of it, because of what it can do to you, is very important. Because it is very, very bad.
I really think that words are something that man is getting more and more and he is also getting into trouble more and more. It seems like the more words he uses, the more troubles he uses. But really, by the Grace, we have realized that Knowledge within inside of us. And now this is what we should meditate on. This is what have got.
Man, in this world, if we really look, if we just stop for a minute and really and really try to understand in the world what we got that we can hang on to? What have we got that we can really call our schtick? There is only one thing, and that is this Knowledge, this Truth, this perfect Knowledge. This is what we should all be doing now, and that is meditation. As soon as we have a chance, we will have another satsang in Los Angeles, but it's going to be the same old story: do meditation, and satsang, and service.
LEARNING TO DRIVE
It's like this. A guy goes to buy a car. He looks around, and he has someone to take the hood up. He goes through the brochures, he goes through the whole ??? and finds out what the car has got. It's got automatic transmission and everything. I mean, it's got everything in it! It's a very expensive car, so he buys it. The whole payment is made.
Then the dealer comes and he opens the gate up for the guy. The guy says, "What are you doin?" He says, "Well, I'm openin' the gate for you to get in." He says, "Well, nobody told me that. You didn't tell me that I'll have to get into the car to drive it! You just told me how good it was; you just told me that it had automatic transmission, and automatic windows, fuel injection, and that and that, and da-da-da. You didn't tell me I had to get in."
And, the dealer is like, "Uh, this is the first one like this." But he somehow convinces him, and says, "Well, just try it." And so the guy gets in. Then the dealer takes out the three sets of keys, and he says, "Well, here are your two ???, and here is one for you." He's got a nice keychain on it and everything, and he says, "Here it is."
The man says, "What's this for?!" He says, "Well, this is how you drive, you know. This is for your ignition. This is how you'll start it." So, the guy says, wait a minute, man. You never told me that! You told me that the engine had fuel injection in it and everything, but you never told me I have to put a key in the thing to start it up." Well, anyway, the guy convinces him. He says, "Wait a minute. Just try it. We put this thing here for your own needs so that nobody will steal your car." Somehow he convinces him, and he puts the key in, and turns it, and the car fires up.
The dealer is very, very happy, because he says, "Oh brother! This is it, and now he's gonna split." And so the dealer turns around, closes the gate, turns around and goes back in his office. It comes to the lunch hour, and he still sees this car sittin' right out on this driveway. And he says, "Sir, you're supposed to be, you know, leaving. You're supposed to be gone!" The guy says, "You never told me that." Somehow he convinces him that, "Look, you have to drive this car away from here, because it's illegal." It's his car now, and he is trespassing on the dealer's property. So the guy says, "Alright." And he says, "The trouble is, I don't know how to drive the car, because you never told me that."
So, it's like, a man goes through all these things, and he says, "I'm not supposed to do that," and "I am not supposed to do this," and, "This is not supposed to happen to me." And finally, when the whole trouble is gone through, the whole trouble has happened and everything is done, you find out this guy doesn't even know how to drive a car. Poor fella! How can he drive the car?
But, that is something that he should have done before he bought the car. Because I know when I used to fly, there used to be all these beautiful twin-eingine airplanes sitting. And the dealer would come out, and say, "Yeah, how are you doin?" and stuff, and sometimes I would ask, "Is that airplane for sale?" He'd say, "No. It's just been bought by somebody." I'd say, "Oh! It's a beautiful airplane." He'd say, "Yeah, but the guy who bought it doesn't even know how to fly it."
So it's like, we have bought this automobile, and it's a beautiful automobile. I mean, I'll tell you, I shouldn't even say it's an automobile. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. And then, we sit in it, here we are, you know, we're understanding everything but … "We're not supposed to do this; we're not supposed to do that." At that time, that's when we start freaking out. In the words of a saint, we "flip out". Because we cannot understand, we cannot comprehend what is perfect.
YOU WIN THE GAME
You know, many premies come to me about all the different rumours that are going on, that this has happened, and that has happened, and, well just a bunch of rumours. And they are very, very confused. They say, "Well, we heard that this has happened." They come with all these big problems and rumours, and there's only one answer. Look, you got your meditation, you got this Knowledge; do meditation, do satsang and do service, and split. That's all you've got to do; that's all you need. You know?
Here are premies, and they think, "But, well, let's see. What about that?" They are like young kids who go out in the streets at about two o'clock in the morning asking for trouble. They go around and knock on people's doors, and crack the store windows, I mean asking for trouble. That's what some premies do, believe it or not.
A FEW WORDS FROM THE COACH
With meditation, it's like, "Well I would do it if I could. But I don't like to do it." I mean, excuses just like this. So when they sit down to meditate, their mind says, "Well, bababababababum, babababababum." Because, I tell you, mind is a tape-recorder. It doesn't even have a power switch, all it takes is to press one button, and bingo, there we are. It goes, "babababum, babababum." They sit, and they think and think and think and think and think and think, all day, all night long. They get these black things under their eyes; they can't even go to sleep! "What's gonna happen?", and, "This is gonna happen." Then I get all these letters in the morning. I open them up, some are very beautiful letters, and others are so strange: "Guru Maharaj Ji, I have this problem, dadadanananan," and "I been meanin' to write to you." All I can say is, "Poor premie." You know?
I also know if I write them an answer, that's it for me. There'll be piles 'n piles 'n piles 'n piles of letters from that particular premie. So it's like, I am here for one purpose. See, I am your instructor. My job is to make sure you do everything okay. My job is not to go and play in the field for you. I am not going to do that. You are the team. You team up; you play; you win the game. I am just a coach. That's all my job is. But if you want me to play out there, forget it. There is no way. I have had my time, I have played. Now I am coaching you.
There are all these funny examples, and this and that. But the very main important thing is, like, a premie comes up to me, or rather, look at it this way - a computer comes up to me. And he says, "Make me perfect. I wanna understand who I am. I wanna know who I am. Make me understand me. Make me connected to the perfect source, so I can gather all the information that there is in this world, so I can know what is not."
So I say, "Are you sure? You know, if you can gather all the information from the big computer, you are going to blow up in five seconds." He says, "Yes, I am sure." "Alright. If that's the way you want it." So I give it to him, and I plug it in.
Then he starts taking information. First it is easy. Second, it's a little bit hard. Third, it's a little bit harder, because it's a bit too fast. Fourth information, and then he goes, "How do I stop me! Stop me! Stop me! Stop me! Stop me! Stop me!" Bingo, they're gone. All this is gone.
It's like, I say, "Look. Do you want to realize that perfectness? Do you want to be hooked up to the perfect source? You are! But this big cable coming out of you has to be cut out. Because this cable was made so that you could communicate to the other imperfect computers like you. But now, if you want to be hooked up to the perfect computer, then we must cut out this cable and remove this circuit from there, and you will work fine!"
Well, some premies really work on that. They do go ahead, cut that big cable out, and take that circuit board out, and they work beautiful. Because that's the way they were planned; that's the way they were programmed. But for other people, it's like, "Uh-uh! I want both!" I mean, it would be the most, most gorgeous thing to have two engines in a car so if one goes wrong, you've got the other one. But do you know what's going to start happening if you end up with two engines? First of all, one engine is going to go around twenty-four hours because of the other engine's load. And then the other engine is going to go a around because of the load of the other engine twenty-four hours on it. So they both don't work out. But there is a way. Make it good; tune it regularly; take it to regular service; let it be checked; let it be supervised; and drive good. You don't have to bother! And see, this is the thing.
REACH THAT POINT
But if you are one of those drivers who all they do is drive their car from their home to the office, and back, and they don't care … I mean, there are people who drive, and their car quits, and they call and say, "I don't know what's wrong with my car." The guy comes, turns on the keys, and there is no gas in the car.
So this is what we have to really understand, if you want to reach to that point. And this is really the time to reach to that point. I tell you, premies, it doesn't take much to go wrong. Two degrees of your flying can result in two miles off your final destination. You know how much two miles means? If it's fog? Especially if you are in New York? You might just end up in the ocean
So it's those two degrees. I mean, what is two degrees? Who cares about two degrees? But those two degrees can lead you to where you just don't want to be. Even one degree!
Premies, what I can do to help you is, very, very limited. Because you are the player. You've got to get in there, and you've got to play. It really is a perfect example, because what does a coach do? Blow whistles. And that's what I do when I come here, blow whistles. That's about it. But, if you can really gather, if you can really understand those whistles, and really, really, really understand, then it's really beautiful. Everything becomes s clear; everything becomes so perfect. This is where we want to be.
So premies, realize, understand and do service. Because service is something. It's like, the connection is made out of three things. One is ground - Okay? and one is negative, and one is positive. And this is not - remember this - this is not your little refrigerator which you can disconnect the ground out of. If you disconnect the ground in this machine, you are going to have the shock of your life when you go to touch it. If you disconnect the negative it's not going to work; if you disconnect the positive, forget it. Three things: service, satsang and meditation. You lose one of those, you've had it. It's like, two is better than one, and three is better than two. Right? And four is better than three. But in your car, if you lose a tire, it doesn't matter which one, you are going to go. And that's the way it is.
So realize, try to understand; because this is very, very beautiful Knowledge. How can I tell you how beautiful If There is no description for it. But the extremely gorgeous Knowledge. This is extremely, extremely beautiful Knowledge! And it's here for us to understand, for us to realize. So realize it. Because it's completely up to you I have done my part; you gotta do yours.