Incredibly Prem Rawat manages to use the word 'surrender' 62 times in this speech.

Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang at a premie program in Mendoza, Argentina on 11 January, 1976.

How did we ever come to receive Knowledge? It's a really interesting subject when we go back and look at it. Everybody has a different story. Maybe you were walking down the street one day and somebody came up to you and gave you satsang; or your son or your mother or your father received Knowledge, and then you did. Those are things that just happen. But the most important thing is what made us receive Knowledge. We know that within inside our hearts there is always a thirst that leads us to the point of receiving Knowledge. This is the true thirst, the power that's making the world go round and round and round.

There was a point in our lives when we said to ourselves, "What is the aim of this life?" Because it's a little bit more than what Darwin said, that it's all just evolution, that it all just evolved from one thing to another thing to another thing, and that's life. And it's a little bit more than, "Life is here because we are here, so eat, drink and be merry." Life is a little bit more than that, and we came to the point of understanding that life is definitely not just eat, drink and be merry, but there is a purpose, a certain reason why we even exist. That's when it all starts happening, that's when we really start moving towards receiving this Knowledge.

Then once we receive Knowledge, things change. Because of Divine Light Mission, because of the organisation, because premies are premies, we help each other, we give satsang to each other. All the premies get together and there's a lot of power, a lot of energy generated, and it helps us. It's really beautiful and really blissful. But then what do we do? Basically it's satsang, service and meditation. And yet, we have to realise at each step: why satsang, why service, and why meditation - what is the necessity of meditation, what is the necessity of satsang, what is the necessity of service?

The way a human being is, unless he understands the importance of something, he doesn't care for it. When rich people take food that's left over and throw it in the garbage can, what is the importance to them of the leftover food? But poor people go into the garbage can and pick out that food, because they see an incredible importance in it. So it's a matter of seeing the importance, of realising the importance, and not just throwing something away. As a matter of fact, if that rich person were to get poor tomorrow he also would not throw away his leftover food; he would save it.

We throw away so many things. In America, when people don't want their cars anymore, when their car has had it, they take it to the dump. They take out whatever is still good in the car, and then they have these big machines that take the whole car and make it very small by squeezing it from all sides. What is the importance of this to the person who owned the car? Nothing. He didn't get any money or pay any money. He just left the car in the dump. There was probably some importance in it to the person who was working on that machine, because it was his duty, his job, to compress the cars and make them so small, but not even he gives too much importance to it.

But then a very interesting thing happens to those cars. And that's when they become really, really important. That little piece of metal is shipped to Japan, melted and made into cars, and those cars come back to America. So if

I had a car, and I threw it into the dump, and some time later I went to buy a new car, that new car might have the same metal my old car did, if I buy a Japanese car. You see? What was the importance to me of that old car? The importance was made. Now it's my new car, and it's very, very important to me. So everything has importance, yet everything does not have importance; it just depends on which way we put it.

There are three very important things in our life. First we receive Knowledge. I think you already know the importance of Knowledge. If I start describing its importance, or the importance of this grace that has been bestowed upon the human race in this century, this age, this time - it's going to take years. There are so many scriptures in the world. One scripture wasn't enough, so the second one had to be written; the second one wasn't enough, so the third one had to be written; the third one wasn't enough, so the fourth one had to be written. And now that they all have been written, people are still trying to clarify them, still trying to define them. The Ramayana is about the life history of Ram. At one point, even Tulsidas, the author, stops and says, "To what extent can I sing the glory of this Holy Word? Not even Ram himself can sing it." Because this Knowledge is so incredible.

So the first thing that we have to individually understand and realise is the importance of this Knowledge. I am pretty sure that you have eaten corn. There are many people in this world who eat corn, and they like it, they love it. But if I eat corn it gives me a stomach ache. So it depends: what's medicine to one can be poison to another. So we really have to individually take to heart the importance of this Knowledge. This Knowledge works for us individually, because we are individuals. Not understanding that is why there is so much craziness in this world today. A husband thinks, "I own my wife," or the wife is very dominant, and she says, "I own my husband." If parents are really crazy, they say, "We own this child." But do we? Do we own each other? When we come down to really looking at the situation, there is only one true thing: every one of us who has a body and who is living, is an individual.

When one person gets a headache, it doesn't mean the whole world gets a headache. It's like, we might have physical relatives, but what does that

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mean? First the body and its relations are there; then the body is gone, so we go the graveyard with a bunch of flowers, and say, "This was my uncle." Not, "This is my uncle," but "This was my uncle," because it's finished. This individuality proves one thing: we have to realise Knowledge individually. As I said before, to realise Knowledge, we have to see the importance of it in our own heart. Why? Because if we don't, then we just might throw it away. We might say, "Oh, we don't need this Knowledge. We are happy." Or, "I filled out the Divine Light Mission form. I don't need to practise," or, "I don't need to meditate on this Knowledge." Yet, that is not the way it goes.

Satsang - Direct to you.

Receiving Knowledge is only the first phase. After that, there are three most important aspects to our lives - satsang, service and meditation. Now why do we need satsang? If you ask yourself that question, maybe you'll say, "I don't know," but then, look around. You are sitting in a hall and you are listening to satsang. You have come from distant places, so satsang is important to you, and you know that, but maybe you don't realise the importance right away.

In Orlando at the last Hans Jayanti Festival, there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people. If they asked themselves the question, "Why should we listen to satsang?" or "What is the importance of satsang?" the answer was right in front of them. They had to listen to satsang. Without satsang, a premie really cannot thrive.

When our heart stops, we are officially dead. But then the doctor comes with his fist and goes "p000!" and it fires right back up again; we start living again. That's what satsang is like. If we were perfect from childhood, if we had realised Knowledge and had perfected this Knowledge as soon as we were born, then maybe we wouldn't need to listen to satsang so much. But since we have this really bad heart disease and our heart keeps on failing, just keeps on failing and failing, that is why we need satsang.

Satsang is something which is very, very direct, from Guru Maharaj Ji, from the doctor, to you. It's a direct cure; not just prescribing you medicine, it's a more direct thing. Premies come, sit down, and Guru Maharaj Ji comes and gives satsang. Even when anybody else is giving satsang, maybe they are just the nurses, or the assistant, but they can help you too. That is why satsang is important.

If somebody is very, very sick, and he doesn't want to live, all he has to do is not to go to the doctor and he'll die. He'll die sooner than he needs to. But the doctor can help him. Our mind is just a little bit different than a sick heart, because we want it dead, we want it to be out of business. But occasionally it keeps popping up and affecting us, and we don't want that. That is why satsang becomes so important to us. Meditation and service help you along the same lines, but satsang is a direct jab. As soon as the mind comes up, you go "boom!" and just keeps him quiet. That is why satsang is so important - to keep our mind where it should be, so that it's not affecting us the way it usually does.

We know that the world is so crazy. I mean, look around. This world is so, so crazy. Why? What's the reason? What's wrong with man? Nothing really. He's just like a small child. If you take a snake and put it before a small child, to the child it doesn't matter what it is. He will probably pick it up and put it in his mouth, and the snake will bite. To the child the snake looks very innocent, but it's not innocent.

This is the way the world is. To the world, mind is just a part of it. Mind is very innocent. But then look around. Is it? Consider the fact that there have already been so many world wars. When people came out of the First World War, they thought it was pretty good to have gotten rid of a lot of crazy people. But then everybody saw people being butchered and said, "Oh God. Help!" Mind sort of calmed down a little bit after that and everybody said, "Okay. This is over and we are never going to have one of these wars again." They made a lot of laws and treaties, but before you knew it, there was a Second World War.

There were a lot of premies in India who were in the Second World War. After the war was over, they said, "Okay, great. I'm very glad the war is over, and we are not going to have another one. This is crazy." More strict treaties were made, stronger laws were made, internationalisation was done, this was done, that was done, peace communities were made … and look at it now. Already there have been quite a few wars. The world is still very bananas and as cuckoo as before, ready to go and fight another war. Why? Those are men, those are beautiful people, but apparently there is something wrong with them. They are human beings, just like you and me. They have a nose, eyes, feet … they're men. I mean, they are human beings. So what's wrong? They are missing that true understanding, that true meaning of life. And not just one person or one leader; it's everybody in this world! If everybody understood the aim of their life,they would go towards it - not, not, not towards the crazy things that man is going towards.

It's such a long cycle, such a big circle, but that is why satsang is important: to keep the world from going crazy, to keep ourselves from going crazy. I think it's going to be a little while before the whole world receives Knowledge. Still, we are all working so that this whole world one day can receive Knowledge,

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because we understand, we realise that Knowledge is beautiful and exactly what this world needs. Without a doubt, that's what this world needs: Knowledge.

Meditation and Knowledge

So, let's come to the next thing, and that is meditation. Well, meditation is meditation. It is hard to explain meditation, but once we have understood the importance of Knowledge, then it'll be very, very easy for us to understand the importance of meditation. I can put a beautiful, beautiful plate in front of you with garbage on it, and say, "Here. Here is your dinner." I could put papers and Styrofoam, and batteries, and paint, and brushes, and clothing, and watches on it, give it to you, and say, "Here, eat." It doesn't matter how beautiful the plate is. you won't be able to eat, because the –food" is not edible, it's no good for )-on. But when I put beautiful, beautiful food on only tinfoil, it's excellent, it's beautiful, it's great. You can eat it. So what matters? The plate? What made you eat the food? The plate or the tinfoil? It's not the tinfoil or the plate: it's the food, and it was edible even when it was on tinfoil.

We have to understand the importance first. Once we do understand, when we really are clear about the importance of Knowledge, then and only then can we really do meditation. Believe me, meditation is not what some people think it is: to just go under a blanket and go to sleep. I have seen that happen. There are so-called, extremely blissed-out premies who are supposed to be in meditation twenty-four hours, and you walk up to them in the morning and they are snoring. Sometimes I cannot blame them, because they do very hard service. Sometimes they are doing really, really, really hard service. They were working all that night and they only got one hour sleep. Well I can understand that. But sometimes they sleep all day long and all night long, and when the time for meditation comes, they still go to sleep.

To some premies it's a very egotistic thing, "Let's show 'em how long I can sit for meditation." They go and they sit by a wall, prop themselves up, put the baragon so that their hands will stay up, and go to sleep. They get so good at it, that they don't even have to have a blanket on them. They will be sitting just like they were doing meditation, but they will be asleep. All that is really not meditation.

Meditation is something which is also an individual experience, and also has to be done individually. I can't say, "I'll do meditation for you." No. That won't work. It'll work for me, but it won't work for you. Someone else can't say they'll do meditation for me. It just won't work. It's a very, very individual thing. Why? Because you're an individual.

When we do meditation, it's like a big

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meal, a big dinner, in front of us. What good is it to us if we don't eat it? So what is more important - eating, or the dinner? Both are equally important: without eating, the dinner is no good; without dinner, eating is no good, because what are you going to eat? They both have the same importance. So which is more important - Knowledge or meditation? Without Knowledge, you can't do meditation, and without meditation you can't realise Knowledge. So if you really want to realise Knowledge, that's what you have to do.

Then comes the third part, which is the most important part, I think. Well, I can't say it's the most important part. If you put a car in front of you and ask, "Which is the most important part in the car?" Well, if you take out the carburetor, it won't run; but if you take out the battery, it won't run either. You can't put your finger on only one thing and say, "This is the most important thing in the car." Without something even as small as a steering wheel, how are you going to drive?"

I had a practical experience of this when I bought the Mini Cooper, which is a very small car. Premies were fixing it and they fixed the engine, made it really super fast, and put a nice interior in the car, but they forgot to put the nut on the steering wheel. They brought it over to the residence, and as I was driving it, I pulled the steering wheel towards me, and it came off in my hands!

So how are you going to say, this is important and this is not important? It's all equally important. Therefore I am not saying that this is important, and that's more important, and that's the most important. I'm not saying that service is important and meditation is more important and satsang is the most important. No! They are all three important. Without all three, we can't run, we can't work, we can't function properly. You know? We can't really be a premie; we can't really be a devotee; we can't really surrender ourselves to the point where we want to surrender ourselves.

Service

I was talking about service. How does service fit into our life? You know, we have to work. You can't take a man and put him into a cell and lock him up for all of his lifetime. No. He has to function. Even if he is locked up in a cell, he'll probably clean himself or do something. He has to keep on doing something. The Creator has given us the power to function, the power to work, and we realise that. Well, I can't think of a more suitable person to work for. When we have surrendered to our Lord, really surrendered to him, then there is not another person in this whole world that it would be more beautiful to work for. When we realise this Knowledge, realise our Lord, and we surrender ourselves to him, realising and surrendering at the same time, who could be more suitable in this world to work for than him? Then whatever action we do, by his grace, by his agya, by his order, is service. That's what we have to really become clear on.

Without surrender, you cannot really realise this Knowledge. Without surrender, you cannot really listen to satsang. Otherwise, you are listening to satsang and your mind is going, "That was a wrong spelling. That's not the way you pronounce that word," or, "Is she translating right?" or, or, or, or … Mind just runs and runs and runs and runs and runs. But when we are surrend-

ered, it's very difficult for the mind to run while satsang is going on, because we have surrendered ourselves, we have given ourselves to him, we are one with him. Then it becomes very hard for the mind to run. Only then does the mind stop running about all over the place.

What is man right now? Man is a servant of mind. He has surrendered himself to the mind, and whatsoever mind tells him to do, he does. We just have to change the story a little bit; instead of surrendering to mind, surrender to Lord, our Creator, whom we are supposed to surrender to. We are surrendered to him all the time, but when we don't realise it, we act really crazy, really funny. You know? So surrender.

Surrender

How do you surrender? What is the proper way to surrender? It's not to write "surrender" on your head, or to get yourself stamped "surrender". No, no, no. That's not surrender. It's not to just sit down on a chair and say, "I surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, I surrender to my Lord, I surrender to my Lord." That's not the way to surrender. That's the perfect way to surrender to mind, and maybe even more so than you have ever surrendered before in your life.

The most perfect way to surrender is to just surrender. We can't just take our necks and go, "k-k-k-r-r," and we have surrendered. It is something that happens, something that flows when we let it; we surrender when we let ourselves surrender. If you are all tense, what is relaxing? Just being is relaxing. And, what is sleeping? How do you sleep? What do you do to go to sleep? Do you close your eyes really tight? No. You just relax, sleep comes through you, and you go to sleep. It's as simple to surrender as it is to go to sleep.

But you know what we are doing? We are lying there with our eyes wide open, saying, "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep … " We're never going to go to sleep that way. That'll wake us up, even if we are trying to go to sleep. We have to just surrender, and surrender is surrender. When we say, "Go to sleep," we mean, "Go to sleep." Go to sleep is to go to sleep, and surrender is surrender. That is the most important thing, and you know it. If you don't sleep one night, the next day you are haywire - your eyes are

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burning, and you are all spaced out, knocking things all over the place. You don't know what's happening, or what day it is, and you go completely bananas. That's after only one night of not sleeping.

Can you imagine how haywire we can go after one second of not surrendering to our Lord? We already have been not surrendering to our Lord for just about our whole lifetime. So you can imagine how haywire we must be - thinking that we are doing everything perfect? And here we are doing everything just absolutely wrong. We really have to surrender, to understand the importance and surrender.

How do you surrender? As I explained to you - just surrender. There's no outward sign, though it will project. There was an article written in Denver on premies, and it said, "If you see a young man walking down the street with short hair, wearing a suit, and with light coming out of his face, if he is beaming with light, he is a member of Divine Light Mission." I mean, a suit's a suit. There are about a thousand Denver businessmen who wear a suit, and have short hair and wear ties. You know? But Knowledge is not an outward thing. When an initiator gives you Knowledge, he doesn't stamp on your head, "You have now received Knowledge." But then automatically, when you really practise, when you really, really practise Knowledge, it just starts beaming.

When you are at a big festival, you can pick out premies from non-premies so easily. It's just so beautiful, so incredible. It is not supposed to be an outward thing, but then it automatically does become an outward thing. Because it just starts flowing through you, and you become light all over. If we light up this hall, we are doing it so the hall will be lit. But if we open up the curtains, then automatically the light will go out too. It's the same way: when we are filled with light inside, somehow it just leaks out. The same thing is true with surrendering, which is a very inward thing. It takes place inside, but then, if we have really surrendered, it leaks out. You can really, really, pick out a person who has surrendered.

I can give you satsang, but then again, what good is satsang if you hear it in one ear, and let it go out the other, or hear it in the other ear and let it go out this one? It's a very subtle process where you understand satsang. If there were a person who didn't know anything about Knowledge and he came here, he would not understand satsang, he would not understand the communication, he would not understand what I am talking about, though he might understand

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English. But premies can understand.

What happens is, you receive Knowledge and all of a sudden there is an automatic communication. There was a time when you were out on the street and you hadn't received Knowledge. If at that time you had come to listen to satsang, you would not have understood a word of it. But as soon as you receive Knowledge, something happens and you can understand. It's as subtle as that with surrender, with meditation, with Knowledge, and with service.

Satsang and the thief

So premies, really understand. What I am saying, what I am advising you, is not ill-advice. It is not meant to harm you, but to benefit you. It won't harm you at all, and really, the many ways that satsang can benefit you are incredible. I don't want to drag this out too long, but I'll give you just this one story, how one word of satsang can make such a difference in a person's life.

Once there was a thief who had a son, and when he started dying, he called his son over to him and said, "Look. In a little while I am going to be dead. But the whole last generation of our family has been thieves, so I don't want you to do something else. I want you to steal; I want you to be a thief. These are a few words of advice that you should understand. Take them into your heart, practise them, and you will become a perfect thief: never listen to satsang, because it might encourage you to give up this work. So, never listen to satsang" He gave him some other advice, too: "Never admit that you have stolen anything - even if they kill you. Always be a great devotee of Kali, the goddess of thieves."

His father died, so the son took care of the body, and then started stealing and he got good at it. First he stole a pen, a dollar, and he just kept on going, kept on going, until one day he was a pro, a genius. He decided, "What can I steal that'll certify me as a thief? What great theft can I do?" He finally said, "Okay. I'll go and steal the queen's necklace."

He started off to the palace, and on the way, something got stuck in his foot. While he was limping and taking it out, Guru Maharaj Ji was giving satsang nearby. The thief just happened to hear a few words from an example: "Goddesses never blink their eyes, and they don't cast shadows." The thief saw Guru Maharaj Ji sitting with his premies, so he took the thorn out, put his fingers in his ears, and ran away, because his father had told him never to listen to satsang. He went to the palace, stole the queen's necklace, then came back and buried it. The queen came out later and found her necklace missing. It had a sentimental value for her and was very, very expensive, so she just freaked out. Soon she even stopped eating and said, "Until I get my necklace back I will not eat." The king was concerned, so he told his general, "If you don't bring me that necklace by tomorrow morning I'll kill you." The general didn't have any choice, so he got a hold of every suspicious looking character around and started beating them up and beating them up. He also caught the thief, and took him to jail and started beating him up, too.

According to his father's instructions, the thief was not supposed to admit that he had stolen, so he didn't. He was really young, and when the queen saw him being beaten up, she was very sympathetic. That night she said to herself, "What can I do to find out if he is innocent or guilty?" She thought, "I have a trick. I know all thieves respect Kali. So I'll dress up like Kali, go down and ask him." So she dressed up like Kali, she went down that night and when the thief saw this Kali goddess, he immediately got up and did pranam. He said, "How gracious of you to come and give me darshan in prison. I am just helpless and … " Kali (the queen) said, "Yes, yes, I know. This is really terrible, so I have come here to liberate you from this hell, this prison. Just tell me where you have hidden the necklace."

He thought to himself, "Wait a minute. What does she want with the necklace?" So he looked at her eyes and they were blinking, and he looked on the ground and there was a shadow. He remembered the words he had heard when Guru Maharaj Ji was giving satsang, that goddesses do not blink their eyes or cast shadows. He was a very smart kid, so he said, "Okay goddess, you are the goddess, you are omniscient, you know everything. If I have stolen it, then tell me where it is." That sent the queen for such a whiz that she said, "Wow, this man hasn't stolen anything. If he would have, then he would definitely have told it to me." So, because of satsang, his whole life was saved.

Just a few words of satsang, taken to heart and practised, might save your life. I don't know if you are a thief or not, but it's really important that we listen to satsang and realise this Knowledge.

I don't know when I'll have the chance to come again to this part of the country, and give all you premies satsang, but there are other people around. So, listen to satsang. Blessings to all the premies, and thank you very much.

When we realise this Knowledge, realise our Lord, and we surrender ourselves to him, realising and surrendering at the same time, who could be more suitable in this world to work for than him? Then whatever action we do, by his grace, by his agya, by his order, is service. That's what we have to really become clear on.

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