Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang over the telephone to the Atlanta community in Georgia, U.S.A., on January 7, 1978.

Dear premies, the first thing I guess I have to say or I should say, is "Happy New Year". But there is something that really can make this new year really happy for all of us, and that is the same thing that brought us more towards that happiness that we really wanted in 1977: satsang, service, and meditation.

There was quite a bit that went on in this residence during the time of Christmas and the New Year's. But really it all comes down to one small point. Right after the New Year's I was working on the Initiator Development Program, and there was like so much going on. There was so much happening. There was just so many people, and there were just so many things. And you could take one aspect of the whole thing and just try to broaden it into one crazy sight and say, "Okay, well, this has got to happen, and that's got to happen," and "This is crazy, and that's crazy." And yet you could see very clearly, right through the fog, right through the smog, right through everything. Right through craziness that existed that made everything so difficult; that really, the only solution was really satsang, service, and meditation. That really, nothing really mattered so long as everybody was really plugged into satsang, service, and meditation and was really understanding what service, satsang, and meditation really meant to their lives.

There are so many ups and downs in this world. There are so many waves we can flow through. There are so many - I mean, it's not like every wave that crashes on the beach is going to be exactly the same; is going to be identical to the first one. Every one of them is different. Every one of them varies. Every one of them is somehow different. And yet you have a boat. And you can tug along. And it doesn't matter, in one way, how big the wave is, how small the wave is, what kind of wave it is, and what it is. If you've got the right kind of boat, you can just tug along. And the tugging-along action, crashing through the waves, breaking the waves open, going through the waves, is identical action, as through every wave that we go through. It doesn't matter.

And in our own lives we have to experience the same thing. Because there's something that is so important. And that most important thing - it really is like on one hand you've got the mind. In one hand you've got all these situations. In the other hand you have the most powerful weapon. You have the most powerful, most incredible, most gracious, most fantastic thing, and that is Knowledge. And there is nothing in this world …

I mean, it's like giving the comparison to a tidal wave. Even if that tidal wave was to come, this boat of satsang, service, and meditation; this vessel of Knowledge, of Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, could crash so easily right through it, could just break that biggest wave, just open up and ride through it. Because there's such an incredible weapon that we have received in this world.

You know, to a lot of premies it's like they really don't understand. "Well, what happens? What happens?" It's just like there was an incredible thing that happened in Rome. And we still talk about it. And what happened, anyway? And just designing, or trying to just put out all the programs on a piece of paper, how many programs we're going to have this year, was so incredible. Because every time you looked back and you saw that that last program that we had in '77, the Hans Jayanti program, was so incredible. But what happened?

I mean, it was so fast; it was so quick. It was so incredible; it was so fantastic. It just came and went for those five days. It just came and dissipated, dissipated into our own lives, dissipated into our own experience of Knowledge. And whoever had that experience of Knowledge really understood what was going on. Really understood, and really experienced it.

And for those people who really didn't understand what that experience of Knowledge was, it was just a real big mess. It was just a real big place where you went there and: "Why had it to be in Italy?" "Why did it have to be there?" And so on and so forth. And we had all these questions.

And yet, Knowledge is the solution. Because every time when everything else breaks down, every time when everything else fails, every time everything else just gives out, there's one thing that exists and comes through all the time again and again and again, and that's Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. And when we are practising Knowledge, and we have that Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace every time, it doesn't matter. It can be the biggest tidal wave; it can be the smallest tidal wave. It can be the smallest wave, and we can ride through it; and it can be the biggest wave, and we can ride through it without any hesitation, without any discomfort, without anything. But we have to have that understanding. We really have to have that faith in Guru Maharaj Ji.

Because, after all, what is Guru Maharaj Ji? And I know that there was a book written, Who is Guru Maharaj Ji? And yet that question itself was so obsolete: "Who is Guru Maharaj Ji?' And I have not read Shastras, and I have not read Bible, and I have not gone through all that. And yet I know that none of that, none of those scriptures could ever describe who is Guru Maharaj Ji.

Because Guru Maharaj Ji is the revealer of Light. He is the revealer, is that person who can actually bridge that gap between our finite world into the most infinite thing. And yet we don't understand what's that infinite thing. And we don't

understand what's finite. And therefore we just can't understand what's the bridge all about. Because we don't understand what is infinity. And we don't understand what's finite.

I mean to us, it's just like, "Wow! It's a huge world." I mean to us there's such an incredible thing. I mean, you just read one magazine after another magazine after another magazine after another magazine and it's just like, "Wait a minute! What finite world? This world is so gigantic! This world is so huge!" And yet, you look at this whole world and it's just nothing but a tiny speck in the whole incredible, colossus universe that exists. And we are so bridged to it in such a way that we think, "This is it! This is it, this is it, this is it, this is it." And yet, there's a much more incredible thing that we have to bridge to. And that's that incredible, infinite thing. And it's just like, how can somebody understand a bridge, when they can't understand the two parts of it that it connects? How can they understand it?

It's just like trying to explain to somebody what a bridge is. And then they ask you a simple question, "Well, what is a bridge?" And you say, "Well, a bridge is a thing that connects you from one point to the other point." But in their own imagination, in their own experience, they don't understand what is point A and what is point B. What is this bridge going to connect? They don't understand the substantiation of point B or point A. Well, what is point A? What is that thing that is going to connect us to it? People is this world just don't understand that! And they don't understand another thing: the world that they're living in.

After all, you can understand that there are so many things, so many things have happened in 1977. And there's so many, so many things that are going to happen in 1978. And then - is that the end? No! There's so many things that are going to happen in 1979, and 1980. And it's just such a progressive thing that's going to go on. But yet we don't understand those two points that have to be bridged up. And because we don't understand those two points that have to be bridged up, we just miss a whole series, a whole array of things. What is Knowledge? That's why people in this world cannot relate to Knowledge, because to them this world is perfect and they can't understand what is infinite!

I mean, if they could see, and - or if they could even for a moment realize that something like infinite exists - infinite. Something magnificently in its own majesty, something magnificently never-ending. You know? Never-ending. Never-ending. And to people in this world it's just very, very hard to imagine: Never-ending. "Well, what is that that never ends?"

It's just like your warranty ends on your new car, or so on and so forth. And I mean, everything that we deal through, it's just got to end. It's just got to end. It's just got to end. And that's what everybody is bothered about: It's got to end, it's

got to end, it's got to end.

You talk about nuclear warfare. You talk about automobiles. You talk about world. You talk about - I mean, you talk about anything. I was just reading a magazine of the Smithsonian Institute. And there was an article in there that the world might freeze. It might be fire or it might be ice that might be the desolation, that might bring the ending of this world. Okay? And it's just like, everything is ending, ending, ending, ending, ending, ending. And it's such a negative point.

And then you look at this other thing that you can't even imagine, that's so positive, that's so incredible. And it's just like the human brain, and this "human brain," cannot possibly comprehend a bridge, an actual, walking place; an actual connecting point, between this very, very finite nothing, into very, very infinite everything! And I think that in the confusion everybody just gets so lost. And there's only one thing that brings that understanding together. Because to understand both things you have to be elevated. You have to be at a point where you can really understand, where you can really see, where you can really feel the difference. And there's Knowledge. There's Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. Because without Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, you cannot understand Knowledge.

A lot of people just say, "Well, Knowledge is Knowledge, what's Guru Maharaj Ji got to do with it? What's Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace got to do with it?" And there's so many people -not so many people, but there have been quite a few incidents where people have gone ahead and revealed Knowledge to other people. And it's so incredible, because when they go ahead and do it, the other person who receives the Knowledge gets completely confused, including the person who reveals it. Because the Grace is not there. And I mean, it's such a significant factor. And this has happened, in instances that I know of, about twenty times. And every one of those twenty times, every one of them, that person has been confused who receives the Knowledge, and that person has been confused who gives the Knowledge.

Because when there has been Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, nothing happens. It's just so beautiful. Knowledge gets imparted and the person really understands it. And it just flows right into his life. So it's like, you have to understand that Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace can really bring us there, to the point that we really want to be at, to the place that we really want to be at. And yet, we don't know what place we really want to be at. And then, again we have to rely on Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace to bring us to a point so that we can even realize the fact that: where should we be at?

So maybe, to some people who are just right down into their rat holes: period, it's a colossus. It's a "magnum thing." It's a "magnate" of confusion. And yet to those people who can understand one simple thing, one very, very, very simple thing - and that's Guru Maharaj Ji - to them that problem dissipates. To them, that confusion disappears. Because they can see it. They can clearly focus. They can really understand: "Well, look, wait a minute. This is the way it is! There is Guru Maharaj Ji, and by his Grace we can relieve ourselves from the misery that we are into, and by his Grace receive that Knowledge that we really want to receive. The thing that we really want. That bridge between the going-down minus, to the ever-going plus."

So premies, it's just so important for us to always remember to just really have that faith. And maybe to a lot of people that's even a bigger question:. "How can we have faith in Guru Maharaj Ji?"

But you know, it's amazing. There is Guru Maharaj Ji in this world, and he has come to give us Knowledge. He has come to bring forth that experience. And then that one person who has come to bring us that most wonderful experience - we have a question about faith. The rest of our lives we go around doing things, putting our whole life dependent on it. That's completely absurd!

I mean, we go around from airplanes to this, to that, to cars. And I mean it's like, "Okay, that's my automobile. The brakes might fail on it, but that's my automobile. I've got to have my faith, my trust, and my everything in there." Why? Just simply why? Because it's going to get you from point A to point B, right? From Malibu to Santa Monica, or from New York to Long Island, or from Atlanta to Georgia, or from Houston to Dallas, or something like that. But we trust in that, airplane, this and that.

And yet, the thing that is going to really, really, really bring us to the most magnificent place from the most un-magnificent place, we don't have any trust in that.

And all I can say, in all sincerity, to this humanity, is that the people don't understand! And when people cannot understand a simple thing, we call it stupidity. Because that's exactly what it is! People can't understand; people can't relate. And why can't they relate? Because they don't understand! And why don't they understand? Is because in their own colossus world, in their whole web of this magnificent world that they so-call, that's the way things have to go. And if they don't go that way then it's wrong. It's absurd; it's obsolete. It's wrong.

So premies, the most important thing is to have faith in Guru Maharaj Ji. Because by having faith in Guru Maharaj Ji, that Knowledge is going to come through for you. And by that Knowledge coming through for you, it's going to bring you from that most negative point in your lifetime to the most positive point in your lifetime; from the very, very finite world that you live in to the most infinite world that you can't even imagine.

So there's a whole bunch of programs that have been planned for this year. And I don't exactly have the dates right in front of me in this little diary here. I don't exactly want to release them. And the reason for that is because we're still looking for halls.

We have a program planned for January. We do have a program planned for February, too. And then, after that, we have Holi. And, I mean, we have a lot of programs planned for this year. But I'm not going to give you the dates simply because we haven't found the halls yet. And I think a lot of premies are working on that. And so I hope I see you at the first program which is, I believe, going to be in January.

So just keep that faith up, you know? Just really understand what I'm trying to say.

Thank you very much.