Be A True Devotee

Satsang given by Guru Maharaj Ji at Ventura, California on the 21st January, 1979.

So premies, here we are: 1979. I was listening at the residence to the satsang from here, and it was nice. And the whole thing was, that there is a feeling of understanding, a feeling of devotion. There's a feeling of clarity. There's a feeling of Knowledge, of Guru Maharaj Ji, that has to be very, very clear for all of us; that has to be very alive and very present for all of us.

And the thing is, it is. That feeling of devotion, of true devotion, only manifests when we open up to it; that feeling of Knowledge, of the experience o Knowledge … and you see, these feelings only come from the reality. These feelings are not simulated. You cannot simulate these feelings. And these feelings only come when there is something there to ignite them, when there is something there to actually make them happen.

And this is such a thing in all our lives. Because what we do a lot of times is, we see something and maybe that's what we want, that's what our goal is. There are people who are called "overnight millionaires". And they are people who will all of a sudden get an inheritance. And then - bam.

The first thing they will do with it is go out and acquire those things that would make them look like millionaires. And they go out and buy a Rolls Royce and a big mansion in Beverly Hills or something like that. They have all this and they're called millionaires. But they're only overnight. Because they blow all their money on that, and then the next day they find that they've got to get rid of all that stuff.

And the same thing sometimes happens to us. We read about devotion. There are these quotes on the calendar, Shri Maharaj Ji's quotes. And you somehow try to imagine, "Well, what is 'devotion? What is a perfect devotion? What is the perfect accomplishment?"

And that's because that is our nature. When you look at a person who drives a Rolls Royce, you automatically think he is rich. And it could be just a little janitor who is moving the car from one spot to the other spot, and because there is nobody there, he wants to take a spin around the block. He just happens to be in the car at the right time and

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the right space and there he is, and - bam. There is that feeling. There is that whole attitude that begins to happen.

But with devotion, with Guru Maharaj Ji, with Knowledge, it isn't like that. It isn't something that you say, "Well, okay, I have seen; I have felt. Someday in my life, somewhere along the line, I know what perfect devotion is. And all my life this is what I'm going to work for. I'm going to shoot for that perfect devotion. And it doesn't matter how it comes to me and it doesn't matter how it's getting accomplished, so far as it feels and seems like that thing that I really wanted, that I really like."

There was a house we went to see in England, and this guy had a huge indoor swimming pool. Because there is no point in having an outdoor swimming pool in England. (But, as a matter of fact, he did have an outdoor swimming pool, too.) And then he had this thing; it was these great big ultraviolet lamps all lined up. And I guess he used to lie under that every day, turn it on and get a suntan.

It would maybe simulate that feeling that he got when he was lying in the Bahamas on nice soft sand, with nice clear blue water and beautiful skies. And he lies there and gets hot under those lights. And they actually give him a tan. And then when he gets real hot he jumps into that pool, just like he would do if he were to be in a place like that, except he would jump into an ocean.

And maybe he simulated all these things. And maybe when he was doing that he knew that, "Look. I'm not getting exactly the same thing, but maybe this is close enough."

Because I like sun very much and I like just to be there and I like the ocean very much. And yet I don't sit under ultraviolet lamps. I know there's a lot of people who love sun and who love ocean, and if they can't have it for some reason, they don't go out and sit under ultraviolet lamps. There is a difference.

And the same thing happens to us. This is what I was saying about devotion, about Love, about that affection, about that reality. Somewhere we know there is a glimpse Of it, and we try all our lives to simulate it. So what is the perfect devotion? What is the perfect love?

"I want to be like that devotee." I mean, there are approximately 5,000 premies listening to this satsang. And by the time it hits Divine Times or Élan Vital or whatever have you, more people would have read it. And if satsang gets printed, they take that association and they say, "Well, this plus this. And this is what I want. I want to be a perfect … "

And I know that there are so many people who would like to be a perfect devotee, whether or not they have Knowledge. That's got nothing to do with it. But the thing is, you might say that's all okay. "What's wrong in that? What's wrong about that?"

I'll tell you what's wrong about that. Say in a week, Sunday again, it's your birthday. Okay? And you were really looking forward to it. You had a pretty dull life and you were really looking for some exciting thing to happen on your birthday. And you were maybe

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going back and forth, "Do I really want something exciting on my birthday? Aw, it's impossible. Who's going to give it to me? It's going to be the same thing again. My mother-in-law is going to send me a cake, and my friends are going to send me a candy, and blah blah blah. It's going to be the same old thing."

Then all of a sudden somebody walks up to you and starts talking to you, and starts leading you towards this whole fantasy that you are going to win a sweepstake. You actually were going to win a lottery or something like that. And the outcome of this is going to be a very, very beautiful yacht, filled with food, beautiful bedrooms, beautiful everything. I mean, there it is. There is this fantasy.

And this guy's imagination just (I mean, because what is there to stop his imagination?) starts building up.

"Yeah, yeah. What kind of yacht? Well, what kind of yacht would I really like?" Okay, so it has to be a certain kind of yacht. And maybe the guy even drives out where all the yachts are. "Man, I like that one. That's really nice. But I'd do this to my yacht. And I'd make it different here. And I'd do this …" and all these ideas come.

And then on his birthday, his friend comes up to him and says, "Well, let's go over and have a nice time on the dock. Let's just go over there."

He gets very excited. "Oh great. I really am going to get my yacht. Because this guy doesn't want to tell me because it's a surprise, but truly there is going to be a yacht there. I mean, otherwise why would he want to take me to the docks? Why would he do that?"

Well, they both end up at the dock, anyway. And there they are. There they are at this dock. Just before they get to the dock, actually, the guy is supposed to keep his eyes closed.

And by the time he is told; "Look, keep your eyes closed," there is no question in his mind that there is a yacht out there. So he gets even more perked up and he is happy, gets maybe queasy stomach and a spinny head, and he can't think straight, and he can't help but smile and all that stuff.

Then he goes out there, and he's told to open up his eyes. And he opens his eyes up and guess what he sees? Huge red wrapping paper; gigantic wrapping paper. And it looks like there is something underneath it. And it looks very much like a boat. And I mean, God! That's about it for him. He says, "Yay, man. I got it. What is it?"

Imagine it's this great big boat-shaped wrapping. A present that looks like a boat. Except it looks about 100 feet long and it's just immaculate. (Of course, you can't see what's underneath it because it's wrapped up.) And then there's a great big bow sitting on it, and you're supposed to pull the bow, and all the wrapping paper is supposed to fall down automatically.

And by this time all your relatives and all your friends have gathered there. You look around, you say, "Hello", and, "Hi", and everything. It's imminent that that's got to be your boat. That's it! There is no doubt about it.

So here's you, with all your heart and all your hopes and all your everything. You pull it down, and a big firecracker

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goes off up in the sky and lights go up and this whole thing. And this guy is looking up, and it writes out something in the sky or lights up real good.

He's looking up in the sky. And then he looks down, because by this time all the wrapping paper is supposed to have fallen off. And there's pieces of balsa wood floating everywhere, and pieces of styrofoam everywhere. There is no boat.

And he turns around in amazement. He is surprised by this time. And he looks to his people, he looks to his friends and they say; "Surprise! We surprised you, didn't we? We got you, didn't we? Wasn't that a really nice prank to pull on you?"

You can imagine the situation. You can imagine that poor guy. For weeks that's all he has wanted is a yacht. And it became so clear to him that that's what he's going to get. And yet when the moment of truth came, he was very surprised. But he was surprised in the negative sense. He wasn't surprised for good. He didn't laugh. He doesn't smile. Maybe he faints or maybe he just starts crying or just gets real brokenhearted or something like that.

Okay. So that's a real bad story. You'd like to just get hold of those guys who pulled that on him, and tell them not to do that, because that's really bad, because the guy's heart got really broken.

Okay, so where does this story fit in? This story fits in because, you see, a devotee cannot be a devotee. No person can be a devotee. Such as, everything in this world cannot become camera. A speaker cannot be qualified as a camera. Microphone cannot be qualified as a camera. A chair cannot be qualified as a camera. Because it's not a camera! Only certain things that are a camera, can in fact, qualify for a camera.

And so just because you are a human being, just because you're alive, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are a devotee.

And just because you have Knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that you are a devotee.

Because to be a devotee, there arc certain requirements. First of all, there has to be something that you can be devoted to. That's the most important thing. Because if that thing is missing that you can be devoted to, then forget about it. How can you be a devotee?

So, if you've got someone who you can be devoted to, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are a devotee. There was Krishna and he had his devotees. And these devotees were very, very devoted to Krishna. Or there was Jesus and he had his devotees, and his devotees were very, very devoted to him. They loved him. They liked him. There was devotion. And yet you know that they were not the only people in the world at that time. There were a lot more people.

There is the whole thing from the Mahabharata, which is actually where the Gita comes from. There are supposed to be millions and millions of people who are supposed to be standing in front of Krishna. And there are people ready to fight him. They are not devotees. There are only a few that are devotees, who have that devotion, who are in fact devotees.

So it doesn't necessarily mean that just because there were devotees, there were people who wanted to devote themselves to Krishna, and there was Krishna, who could, in fact, be devoted to … still there were a lot of people who were not devoted.

So first of all, you have to have something that you can be devoted to. Then you have to have yourself. But the most important thing is that you have to have devotion.

Because with devotion you can then be a devotee. Devotion is the tool through which you can be devoted: To Guru Maharaj Ji - or to whatever your devotion has to be.

And if we kid all our lives long…

Here we are and we pull a silly prank on ourself. Maybe it's not even a silly prank that we pull on ourselves, but it's our mind - our friend, our mate, our companion, our everything - that leads us up to a point of, "Don't you really want devotion? Don't you really want that love? Don't you want to be a perfect devotee?" ("Of course!") "Then do this and do this and do this." And it leads you up to nothing but a

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simulation of devotion sometimes, where it is picking up a rag and dusting and saying, "I'm doing service! I am a premie," and getting up and imagining yourself to be constant. "Oh yeah, man, I'm just completely in meditation."

And it's like acting up as a devotee, as a perfect devotee, and yet having nothing in there to substantiate that. It's like having wrapping paper wrapped up as a big boat - as a devotion - and then when it's opened, there is nothing in it. It's empty. Balsa wood was prying it up, making it look like a boat. There's your boat. Pieces of balsa wood.

So our devotion has to be real. Our devotion has to be true. Our devotion has to be complete.

I know there are premies and these premies get up and they do meditation, and these premies get up and maybe they do service and they have satsang. And yet doing satsang, service, and meditation - okay? Seven hours a day they are looking … they're doing satsang, service, and meditation, and yet they are looking for that opportunity to be able to do chitchat; mind; space out here a little bit, space out there a little bit. Do what mind tells you to do. And doesn't it happen? Don't we look for that narrow escape all the time?

Well what does he want to do? That guy just wants to split. That's it. It's all too boring for him. I mean, so far the songs and the ads are concerned, he has heard them over and over and over and over and over again.

It's like those people who are the newscasters. They definitely don't get a surprise when they read the news, as we do. They've already read the news. To them it's old stuff. To them that's that. That's how the world turns, and that's it. And here we are in front of the TV, and, "Yeah, yeah, what happened? Did he die? Did he die?" To us it's news. But when they are broadcasting news, is it news to them? Of course not. It's old stuff. They've read it 20 times and gone through it - all those guys who are watching the monitors to make sure everything is going okay.

So in the same way, premies, our devotion has to come from a point of reality. And believe me, there is no such thing in devotion as simulating the perfect thing. There is no such thing as that. But we can go on being led by mind into that darkness.

Why does Guru Maharaj Ji come? What is the purpose? Now where does Guru Maharaj Ji fit into all of this? Guru Maharaj Ji becomes the source so that we can do satsang, service and meditation.

I mean, you have to stop for a second and look at it. Because here you are doing satsang, service, and meditation only to be able to find a little crack in it all so you can space out, so you can leak out.

They have a "D.J.," a disc jockey, and he is the one who's got the microphone. So then there is this other guy who's got the mixing board. He doesn't want to be there. Because he's making that guy sound nice to everybody - doing the fade-ins and the fade-outs - doing this whole thing, so that the guy really sounds good. And yet he has no say over what that guy's going to say. He has got nothing to do with it!

And maybe the disc jockey is really into it. He's talking about this and talking about that. And that guy doesn't want to hear what he's saying. I'm pretty sure that there's a lot of disc jockey assistants who just don't think their job is the hottest or greatest job they could ever find.

Guru Maharaj Ji is that person who has the key. Guru Maharaj Ji is standing at the end of the hall with a whole bunch of keys in his hand. And he says, "Come to the door and I'll open it."

He doesn't want to open the door when you aren't even close to it, when he can't even see you. (You can't expect Guru Maharaj Ji to open up that door then.) And if you cross that door he'll go with you and he'll open up the second door and he'll open up the third door and he'll open up the fourth door and he'll keep opening those doors. But you have to be somewhere in sight and pretty much shooting towards that door, not everywhere else.

In front of hotels they have the people who open up the doors. If you pull up there, they open up the doors. And when you walk in they open up the doors. Do they do that to every car that goes by? I mean, they see a car that is passing by in front of the hotel. Do they just leap out and open the door

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up? They'd get killed that way! Or every person who's walking by in front of the hotel - do they see him and just pop the door open? Of course not!

They have the automatic doors at Safeway and all these places. And what they usually have is two railings in front of those doors. And the mat only extends out a certain distance. The whole idea is, that everytime somebody passes by, the door won't open. You have to be shooting right for that door, and when you hit that air switch, the door will then automatically open up and you can go in.

The same thing with Guru Maharaj Ji. Guru Maharaj Ji is not going to just see a person and say, "Okay, here. The door's open."

And so many times that example of the seed has been given. And Shri Maharaj Ji used to give that example himself. A lot of people would come up to him and say, "Well, if you think your Knowledge is so incredible, if you think your Knowledge is so great, why don't you just tell it to everybody in one of your meetings? Why don't you just let everybody have it?"

And Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Look. There is a farmer. And this farmer's object is to sow those seeds so that once he sows these seeds, he can actually reap it. But the thing is, do you ever see that farmer taking those seeds and just throwing them wherever he wants to? Over the rocks, in somebody else's field, into the river? No. I mean, why not? If he's going to sow, just take an airplane and dump a whole bagfull of them over the tar roads and everywhere. But that's not the way it goes."

The farmer, first of all, has to work very hard. And he has to plough and dig and get his land just right. And then he comes along with those seeds. He plants those seeds where it is right to plant. Not on the asphalt, not on tarred roads, not on top of the trees, not into the river, but where he has truly cultivated and made that space for those seeds to grow. Because it is not the matter of just throwing seeds into the ground, but also taking care of them and having the whole understanding of the welfare of those seeds, so they can in fact grow and be able to come to that point where then, in fact, they can be reaped.

And so premies, he said, "In that way, I'm a farmer." And my job is to plant those seeds in people's hearts so that it can grow into that manifestation of

Love, so that manifestation of Peace can actually manifest in those people's lives. But my object is not to just throw the seed at somebody and forget about their welfare, forget about that whole upbringing of that little plant, and watching it, and being careful with it, and bringing that plant to a perfect shape.

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And he said, "How can you expect that farmer to just throw his seeds wherever he wants to?" They have to be put on right so that they can grow. Because you can find a little hole or drill a little hole on a roof, fill it up with mud, put a little eucalyptus seed in there and it'll sprout. But do you really think that that tree, that plant, is ever going to grow into a tree, is going to ever grow into that thing that you really want? Because it can grow only so much, because your planning as to where you wanted to grow that tree was completely off the wall. And you're so much off the wall that it ended up on the ceiling! And where it needs to be, is in that place where it can grow.

So premies, in all our understanding, in all that Guru Maharaj Ji has given us, in all that Knowledge has given us, there has to be that real devotion. There has to be that true devotion: Not hog-wash. Not a lot of "Hot-talk." "Oh yeah, you know. This is me. This is the way I'm going to get things accomplished. Look at me. I'm a devotee, ain't I? Don't I go through the

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darshan line? Look, don't you see me doing service?"

And really and truly, I mean you look at the whole scene, and truly, if this whole path of Knowledge, if this whole path of devotion, had somewhere a leniency for mind, what would it be like? If somewhere on this path there was a little hole where the mind could sit, then what would this be like? It'd be crazy.

Because right now in our whole lives it's just like little holes of mind everywhere. And look where that brings us. Where does that keep placing us? Nowhere.

Every day, this world is getting more and more lost! There are so many new bills being proposed. Things are happening that are outrageous, completely outrageous.

When I first came to Los Angeles, it was really a nice place. There was pollution, but there wasn't that much pollution. And you could actually drive on Hollywood Freeway. You could actually go whenever you wanted to, and be able to come back home within a reasonable time. Actually, you could go to Disneyland and be reasonably private. But now, forget about the Hollywood Freeway; the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) is jammed all the time.

Just look at this world. And this is nothing. This is nothing. What is happening everywhere around the world is completely outrageous.

Well, what is man going for? What man is trying to accomplish is completely outrageous. Because there is absolutely nothing that man is trying to accomplish. Because there is nothing for him to accomplish. He doesn't see any goal. He doesn't see any motivation. He doesn't see anything.

And the way everything is going, World War III is imminent. You know, that's a heavy, heavy thing - super heavy. Because it's going to be super heavy. It's not going to be just send the military out and let it take care of it. It's going to be the military and the planes and the

missiles and the rockets and everything they've got. One by one.

You look at the whole situation of this world. America can't tackle anybody. It just can't! Because if America wants to tackle somebody, Russia is going to say, "Oops! Just a moment. Where are you going?" And if Russia wants to tackle with somebody, America is going to say, "Oops. One moment, sir. Where do you think you're going?" And I mean, this is what happens.

Somebody comes out with a missile and they say, "Wait a minute. Pull out the treaty." They pull out the treaty and they go, "Hey! That guy is not supposed to have that. It says so right here." And then they call him, or send a telegram up to them, or whatever they do. "Hey, wait a minute, you know? This is what you said the last time you were here.

"Uh, Mr. Secretary, there seems to be a little bit of misunderstanding. I thought that we had come to an agreement that we were not going to have weapons of such nature." The other guy goes, "Hogwash. I don't care."

And then it's very simple. Then they come together and they have an understanding that now that there's one more dangerous weapon that they just put out, it's okay for both countries to have it. So then both go out and get it. And the other one crawls up a little bit, the other one shoots right up there. It just goes back and forth and back and forth. And the level is being kept.

Tell me one thing. If there were an attack, if there were a raid, what would happen to this world? What would happen to the piece of land that we live on? They're very small as it is. And the ocean is just all over the place. (I mean there were some pretty good earthquakes. People from Los Angeles must have noticed them.) And it's like really incredible, the things that have been happening.

When we first moved out to Malibu, it was beautiful. Warm. Clear. Ocean was real nice. Not that many people. And all of a sudden - bam, bam, bam, bam. Before we moved into Malibu, the guy who used to live at that house had a gate put in way out there and he used to actually close that gate. He used to close that gate and it had a stop sign and "Do Not Enter." (And it still has it.) He used to lock the gate all the time. And now you can almost keep your front gate locked and that's pretty good.

And what's happening? There's this whole earthquake sequence and then this fire, and water and the …

You know, I just picked up some brochures about the earthquake. Incredible stuff. There's a fault that runs down and weaves in and out of San Francisco and in and out of the coast. It actually goes into the ocean and comes right back into the land and goes right out and comes right back. It goes all the way across. And then there are all these other little faults; "Saint this" and "Saint that." Well, the main one is called the San Andreas Fault. Well, Saint Andrea didn't like California very much, that's for sure.

But that's not only happening here. It's happening all over. Places are getting

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colder every year. I couldn't imagine that it snowed in Florida, that it actually snowed in Miami. Because every time I've been to Miami …

They have heaters, but most of these heaters are for show! They don't solve any purpose. They don't do anything. And usually, when you turn them on, there's all these bugs in there and smoke comes out and the whole place starts to really smell. Nobody has ever used them. It's like, "the real place." I mean, you look at everything that is happening. It's not so good.

Okay, these things that are happening aren't so good. But to me it doesn't all stop there. To me there is even a more obvious reason to look for the purpose of this life. There is even a more obvious purpose why we are here. And that's what we have to focus on. This is what we have to really fulfill. This is what we have to accomplish.

And that is why Guru Maharaj Ji is here.

But we have to make Guru Maharaj Ji manifest - you know, let Guru Maharaj Ji open that door for us. Let us walk up to Guru Maharaj Ji. Let us truly and truly head in that direction that Guru Maharaj Ji wants us to head, instead of always thinking about the direction that you would "like" to take.

See, there's a difference. The relevency of getting to the other end has nothing to do with what you would like to do! But you have to take that course of action. You have to take that path that Guru Maharaj Ji specifies. And that's the way it goes. You know? There are no 'ands', 'ifs' and 'buts' about it.

If somebody gets cancer, and the doctor prescribes a certain kind of medication, and he goes out and goes, "Well, I went to the doctor. The doctor wants me to have the medication. So, I'll have medication. I'll take some aspirin."

And 20 days later you come back to the doctor, and you're almost out there, at the verge of it all.

And the doctor says, "What happened? You're supposed to be feeling better. What about the medication that I prescribed you? Have you been taking that?"

"Yes, I have been taking medication."

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"What kind of medication?" Why would the doctor ask him, "Well, what kind of medication?" He knows that if he has been taking medication, the doctor would presume that it is the medication that he prescribed.

And that is the whole stupid thing; that there is that patient, there is that stupid patient, who's wanting to get better. And under the mere pretense of medication, he thinks that anything that he takes will suffice.

And Guru Maharaj Ji has very, very clearly made it - about as clear as it can become - "Look, have faith in me. Do satsang, service, and meditation. And have that line of devotion."

Not a "feeling." Not a mere feeling. A mere feeling is not sufficient. What we all need in our lives is the cord right inside of us. Because it is there. It is just sitting there for it to be joined up, for it to make contact. And Guru Maharaj Ji is saying, "Make that devotion, make that cord, work. Let it really happen. Let it really manifest. But manifest in the way I have told you."

That is why I guess whoever invented the word "guru," did invent the word "guru" - the person that can bring us from darkness into Light, from not-knowing, from illusion, from confusion. And tell me, how many of us are constantly into Light?

It's almost like taking a dip in a swimming pool that's full of tar. And then you go up to your room and you take a little cottonball, and dip it into oil and start cleaning. And all of a sudden you give up and you say, "Man, if it's one place, I can do it. But it's all over the place. What do I do?"

I know a lot of times I've walked on the beach, and the tar gets on my feet and I just have to sit there and clean it off! That's why I only walk on beaches that are nice. You sit there and you use alcohol and you use oil. You sit there. You just have to pour the rubbing alcohol on your feet; try to scrub it off or something.

Then it's at that point where you have made that commitment to clear yourself up of all that tar, of all that darkness, of all that illusion - you discover that it is way beyond your capacity to ever clean it up. It is everywhere.

And what Guru Maharaj Ji holds in his hands is the anti-tar solution. And he says, "Look. You don't even have to apply this stuff. Just take a sip. And it tastes great. Just take a sip and I promise you all your tar will just fall right off." And a lot of people don't believe him.

I mean, not that that's exactly what a Perfect Master comes out and says in his satsang. You see a poster of Guru Maharaj Ji holding a bottle - "Anti-tar Solution. All Natural." And the poster says, "Come to me if you've got tar all over you. Take a sip and it'll be all over." It doesn't happen like that. It happens in a very simple way. Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Come to me. I'll take your darkness away."

A lot of people go, "How are you going to do it?"

I mean, how stupid can you get? Here you are, hanging from a cliff with just barely two fingers over this rock. Everything is just dangling, and it's about 2,000 feet down, and you have just seen that the guy before you just got thrown off and that was it. And there's Guru Maharaj Ji right on top of you saying, "Come on! Let me help you!"

And you look up at him, and scratch your head. "How? What are you going to do?"

And I mean, there are your fingers just slipping, second by second.

"So tell me more about it. How are you going to help me?"

This is why Kabirdas says that if you see a person drowning, go help him! But if he starts drowning you, give him a good shove and get out of there. And of course that's very, very, very selfish. That's very bad. "Why would Saint Kabir say a thing like that? Aren't you supposed to help him?"

The point is, when he starts drowning you, you are already at a point where you can't help him any more. That's it. I mean, he's drowning you! That means you can't help him. If you could help him, you would have helped him. But this guy is clinging all over you and completely preventing you from swimming. And both of you are going up and down, up and down.

And another factor that you have to take into consideration is, that the guy who was originally drowning doesn't know how to save himself. So even if you say, "I'm going to make my great sacrifice," hold your nose, and dive under the water and give him a good push, nothing will happen because he cannot save himself. That's why he was drowning. And now that you have made that effort to save him - can't do it. So save yourself, at least, if you can't save him.

And it's not a very physical aspect at all. It's not a matter of a physical thing, where you actually visualize a river where there is a guy who is drowning, so you jump off, you help him, but if he starts to drown you, you give him a push and you take off.

But in the spiritual life, where you are trying to sustain yourself away from the river of ego, from this maya, from this illusion, and you go up to somebody to help him, and he starts drowning you, he starts making that stuff rub out on you; then it is very, very obvious that help will be on its way, but maybe you're not exactly the person who should help him.

And Guru Maharaj Ji has come to save exactly everybody, not one person. The people who cannot swim. The point is, if everybody could save themselves, would you really think there would ever be a word called "A Saviour"? The whole reason why there is a word "Saviour" means that there are people who cannot be saved, who would not be able to save themselves. And that is why there is a person who can save those people who cannot save themselves, called a "Saviour". But we have to have that trust.

We cannot be that stupid person who's hanging from that rock with his two fingers, about to fall down, who goes, "Well, how are you going to help me? Tell me more about it. Give me a full description of your whole thing."

And the guy's saying, "Look. Just grab onto my hand and I'll help you."

And you go, "Huh! You really think that'll work?"

But doesn't that happen to us; So often. So often, doesn't that happen to us? "Is that really going to work, Guru Maharaj Ji? Don't you think I'm trying

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hard enough, Guru Maharaj Ji? Don't you think all my effort is good and great and beautiful? You know."

And it's just like, Guru Maharaj Ji says, "You are doing everything right. It just depends what you are doing." If that guy wants to commit suicide, if that guy wants to fall off that cliff, what he is doing is perfectly okay.

Question. "How are you going to do it? How are you going to help me? Do you really think if I hold on your hand you will help me? You think everything will be okay?" See, that's fine. If he wants to jump off the cliff, that's the way to do it! And so what he is doing is right. But if you want to be saved, if you want to be rescued from that fall, then what you're doing is wrong.

You know, if you take a white shirt and put some blue ink on it, what are you doing? Is what you're doing right or wrong? Well, that just depends. If you want to dye this shirt blue, then what you're doing is perfectly okay.

There's a lot of people who take their jeans and cut if off right here, make them small pants. And it just depends. Is what they're doing wrong or right? Well, if they want pants that go all the way down to their feet, then what they're doing is absolutely wrong. But if they want small pants, what they're doing is absolutely right. So it just depends.

In our lives, it depends, too. If we are spacing out, if we are going away from Satsang, service, and meditation, is that right or wrong? Well, that just depends. If you want to go into the pits, if you want to go into that confusion, if you want to go into that maya, if you want to go into that illusion, then whatever you're doing is the best you could do! But if you want to be saved, if you want to be rescued, if you want to be in that shelter of Guru Maharaj Ji, then you have to think otherwise.

So premies, it's just so important for us to stay in that focus, to stay in that goal, to stay in that beauty that Guru Maharaj Ji has provided us; to stay in that path, to stay in that focus completely.

Yesterday I was reading this card some premies sent me. I opened it up and it's got this guy. And then it's got this whole story. It's a characterized story

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of this person who spaces out. And it's done pretty good and it's like … "Great. Fantastic." There is this guy and he is coming to satsang. And all of a sudden he decides that the person who is giving satsang is a bore, and this person isn't in the vibe, and they don't know what they're talking about and stuff like that. "I'm going to go back home and do some meditation."

He goes out to his home and he says, "Oh, I better go have something to eat, that'll keep my stomach quiet, and then I can have something to …" Then he goes on this whole thing and he has a checklist in his head. Are the white pajamas on? incense on? Lights off? Baragon - $50 baragon or something like that (and it had a really nice name called a "Clear Light" baragon). And there's all these things.

And then this guy gets into meditation. But then he dozes off and he leans against the wall. He goes to sleep, and he has a dream. And in this dream he has a monster. This monster is the mind. He's got this great big tongue sticking out. This guy's bald by now, he's got a sword. "I'm going to kill you. I can destroy you." And there is this mind. "I'm going to kill you, you monster!"

And the mind goes, "What are you talking about? I could just swallow you with my one concept."

And it's like, "No, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to murder you." And then the next illustration there is this monster with his tongue out, rolled up, and this guy right in the middle moving inside the monster's mouth!

And then all of a sudden the guy screams, "Help, Guru Maharaj Ji!" In the next illustration he's lying in front of the altar doing pranam.

What a great story, you know? All I could think of was, "Poor premie who had to go through all that." Because somebody got the idea from somewhere. And why did this premie have to blow so much time?

So that's the way it is, premies. Our faith has to be right there. it's the difference between a train and a highway. On a highway you have dotted lines here, and dotted lines there, and that's what makes one lane. Then you're driving down, and your car isn't as wide as those two dots, and you can go a little bit this way and hit the dots and come back, and go a little bit that way and hit the dots and come back. You've got a lot of tolerance. But can you imagine if a train started doing that? Going this way and going that way? It would just be derailed immediately.

And this path is perfect. And therefore, right there it says for itself that there are no imperfections in this path. No imperfections allowed on a path of perfectness. If there were imperfections allowed on the path which is perfect, then how could that path be perfect?

And it's so clear that Guru Maharaj Ji is giving us that Grace, Guru Maharaj Ji is giving us that Knowledge, Guru Maharaj Ji is giving us that Grace to completely fight off these weird things. But how much of that do we really use? How much chance do we give Guru Maharaj Ji in our lives every day?

I'll give you an example. I've heard this, I don't know if it's true or not. it's about the premies at the residence. And I am pretty sure that if you haven't been there, you at least heard of this place called "The Premie Kitchen." Famous, one and only, "Premie Kitchen." The place always smells for some reason. If one thing isn't going on, it's another thing. If it's not the food, it's the typewriters. If it's not the typewriters, it's all the closets. People walking in and out. A lot goes on in that premie kitchen. People's lives get changed. (People get confused, usually.)

And there is this hour and it's called, "the Lunch Hour." That's when all the premies get in that premie kitchen to have their lunch. It's very interesting. (Now that's the information I got. Anyway, I confirmed that yesterday.) And there are people sitting on the sofa, and there are people standing, and people behind the desk, and over the desk, and everywhere. Everybody's got a lunch plate, and everybody is eating away, talking as they're eating - I don't know about what. They only know about what.

But when you hear more than three people talk, my rule of thumb is, "It ain't satsang." Because in satsang, one person talks and the others hear. But when three people give satsang at one time, it's got to be something else besides satsang. Unless one of the premies is a very good ventriloquist or does a very good voice animation, there are more than three or four people talking at the same time; laughing and talking and doing this and doing that.

And everybody waits for that hour to manifest, and when that hour comes and everybody just goes in the kitchen. And the food is all there, and everybody grabs their plates and has a nice time. Well, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.

Or is there? it's a good question.

Because where can that lead us? Where can that possibly lead us? What does our effort have to be?

And I'll give you a little story. Once there was a saint. And this saint was walking by and in this big pond he saw a scorpion and this scorpion was drowning. So he went out there and he picked him up. As soon as he picked him up, the scorpion bit him! With the jolt, the pain and the surprise, he let it go. After a few minutes, the saint went out there and picked it up again. The scorpion bit him again. A few minutes later the saint goes out there and picks it up again.

And this kept happening and happening and happening and happening. And there was a farmer who was watching all this. He just couldn't keep it all together. So he went over to the saint, and he said, "What are you doing? This scorpion has bit you at least ten times and you keep rescuing it. Why do you want to make an effort like that? Let it go! Let it drown."

The saint said, "Look. The first time this thing bit me, that's exactly what I thought. But then I thought to myself, 'Well, why did this scorpion bite me? Why?' And I said to myself that the reason this scorpion bit me, is because that's what its reaction was. The scorpion didn't know that it was being saved. And so it was completely his natural reaction to sting me. How much of a brain can this little thing have?

"If it can stick to its natural effort, then why can't I stick to a little bit of commitment that I want to make in my life? My commitment is that I want to save this scorpion. And the scorpion's commitment is that it wants to strike me, to bite me. And yet, every time I see the complete determination of this little scorpion to stick with its feelings, to stick with its natural reaction, I can't help but be inspired by that to stick to my commitment."

And so the farmer said, "Look. There is a better way of doing it." So he picked up a leaf and chucked the scorpion the other way.

But anyway, the whole thing is, initiators get up or Raja Ji is giving satsang or Claudia or Marolyn or whoever. "Effort, premies. We all need to make effort." And I say that. Well, the question is, how much effort do we really need to make? How much effort do we need to make?

We need to make the amount of effort so that we don't have to make any effort anymore. And that's a lot of effort.

How much Light do we need so that the darkness will go away? And that's what we all need.

The stronger, bigger, more powerful, greater, that mind is, more that effort should be. Just learn from the mind. Mind is very committed. Mind is very determined. And if you could just have the same determination of mind, then there would be no problem kicking the mind over. Because the mind is so determined to get you, to just clobber you, to completely confuse you, that if you could just see, "My God, if I could be only as strong as my mind was, there'd be no problem."

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And that's true. At least you could have a fair fight. Right now you can't even have a fair fight. How can you have a fair fight? The mind is so many-fold stronger than you. And you are just a weak nothing in front of the mind.

What is Guru Maharaj Ji saying? Guru Maharaj Ji is not saying, "Look. No Knowledge for you. Nothing for you. First go out and fight the big monster." You know, the way you hear it in the Chinese stories or a lot of Indian stories? "And, yes, you can marry my daughter if you can go and kill the big dragon." If that's what Guru Maharaj Ji told us, it'd be all over for us. Who's going to kill the big dragon? Nobody can kill the big dragon. That's the news outside the country. Everybody knows that nobody kills …

And Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Look. Here is the tool. And this tool will You know the story about the nice prince who did something nice, and met a witch on the way, and the witch gave him a spear and two pairs of shoes and a bottle? And every time he used the spear, the thing was bound to die. He put on the shoes and he could fly anywhere he wanted to go. You know the stories, the way they go? It is the same thing.

Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Look. I've given you a tool. Use it. Make that effort for satsang, service, and meditation. That is the tool that is going to clobber the mind, instead of mind clobbering you all the time.

And what is mind? I mean, what is mind? By saying "mind" it's not the "mind" mind that we all think about: brain. (I guess you've seen pictures of a brain.) That's not it. But that darkness, that absence of Guru Maharaj Ji in our lives, of Knowledge in our lives; that absence of clarity in our lives, that absence of Truth in our lives: that's what mind is.

And it haunts us; it chases us. Because it is like that magnetic pull of both poles. And it's so funny. You just bring that one magnet in and it just doesn't want it. The closer you bring like poles, the more they'll repel each other. And it just keeps going further away.

And Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Wait and I'll give you the tool. Have faith in me. Believe in me. And you'll have that experience; you'll have that beauty. All your absence will go away. All your darkness will go away. All your illusions will go away. And nothing but the clarity is what would persist within you."

Instead of this life being a temple for illusion, being a temple for the craziness which you can obviously see reflected in this world, Guru Maharaj Ji says, "I can make this a temple for that Love, for that devotion, for that Truth that we were all born for." Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Look. You can in fact fulfill that purpose of your life."

So beyond all our questioning, past all our craziness, we have to see that that effort has to be really, really made. We have to see that we have no choice, that we have no option.

But the point is, it's not how many times I'm going to say it. it's when are you going to do it? When are you going to make that commitment happen? When are you going to make that effort manifest? That's when it's all going to become alive for you. That's when it's going to become a reality for you.

So premies, it's really beautiful to see you.

I remember when we were driving from Florida. And once in a while you would see a premie riding around. They'd look up and see the motor home. I mean, we drove all the way from Florida through Houston - yes, it's true! - came all the way to Los Angeles. And we stopped to replenish some groceries in Gainesville. And here comes a couple of premies marching down. Of course, a lot of times you know what happens is that premies who'll see me, like at this grocery store … (I wasn't in the grocery store. I was just in the parking lot.) I mean, you can see that they are premies. It's quite obvious when they're not looking at your motor home and they're looking at you. There's a difference.

But a lot of times premies don't know what to do. So they become real quiet, and they close in and hold their grocery bags harder than usual, and walk real straight, split real fast. They don't know what they should do! And that just makes me laugh.

There is a premie, here's an opportunity. Beautiful! And premies just split. They have this whole idea. Just walk right out like a robot. (Well, I shouldn't have said that. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. They'll be climbing all over the car - No. That's why I haven't been out for a long time.)

Till the next program, keep doing satsang, service and meditation. Make that effort. Be a true devotee. Not a devotee in your dreams. Not act as a devotee. But to be a real devotee. Have that real devotion. Have that cord of devotion.

So premies, thank you very much.

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