The Movie Of Your Life - Maharaji July 21 1979

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979

Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang from Guru Puja, Miami Beach, Florida, on Saturday, 21st July, 1979.

So, dear premies, we listened to quite a bit of satsang today, from our very well-known "philosophers" to our not-so-very-well-known "philosophers." And I was also listening to the satsang. And one by one the initiators would get up there and they would talk about their own experience, their own necessity in their lives, something that they have seen.

And what they were saying, in fact, is true. It's really true that we need to really understand that, we really need to have that consciousness, that we really need to know what Guru Maharaj Ji is doing. We really need to open up our eyes and look around us and really see that what Guru Maharaj Ji is saying is really true, is not a fake. He's not trying to give us a line or he's not trying to just scare us, but in fact, yes, there is a big gaping hole in our dinghy. And there are a lot of fins around. Some look huge, some look very big. Already there is a frenzy starting to happen. Already the water is starting to froth.

Sometimes this issue comes up. "What's going to happen about this gas crisis? What are people going to do?" People can't drive cars and yet people are going to drive cars no matter what, even if they have to get the gasoline from corn. They call it 'gasahol' and it's alcohol and gasoline mixed together.

I was born in 1957, and my classmates used to talk about cars and how when we would grow up, we would have cars. It's like a dream everybody has and all of a sudden somebody says, "No. You can't do it." Unless there is another substitution. You just say, "Okay now, you can't have your car but you can have your airplane." Then that's a good compromise. Start selling airplanes at the same cost as cars and then people might go for that. But even that's not going to make a difference. Our dreams, everything that we work for almost instantly gets shattered without any previous warning - it becomes very difficult.

This is our dinghy. We make our dinghy, our little boat that we think is going to carry us across, our little ideologies, our little concepts, our little thoughts that we think are going to do it in this world. And all of a sudden something happens. We realize something. So all of a sudden something starts to click.

One initiator was giving satsang and he was talking about these musical groups that call themselves "punk rock." And it's incredible. There is, in one way, no difference between them and the well-suited executives who drive in twenty-foot limousines. There is no difference. Because those well-suited executives are flying in their hotrods, driving in their big lengthy limousines, doing their own number every day, going to a place, and getting into this whole rut every day. What is the difference? They're trying to strive for something, too. They're trying to achieve something, too. And these people who play "punk rock" really go through trip. Their music is a completely different kind of music and sounds like it. Much more random. And they do colour their hairs and they do look very abnormal.

But the thing is we are all trying to strive for something. We are all trying to successfully reach something, gain some-thing in our lives. Everybody gets up; everybody goes to work: They know that they're going to get twenty dollars, ten dollars, five dollars, six dollars - whatever they want, whatever their job pays them. They're going to get that and from that they'll be able to live. This is their liveli-hood. This is their means. This is their means of support. This is how they're going to live. And this is a rut.

Look. Nobody alive now invented this at this point. This started a long, long time ago. Why do you think they used to have clowns in the courts? Why would a guy have these weird hairs and listen to this weird music and do this and do that?

Because they're trying to strive for some-thing one way, in a particular way. They used to have these clowns. They used to wear these weird hats, put on weird make-up and weird costumes and do flip-rolls and stuff like that in the courts. What was that? What was that clown trying to achieve? He was also trying to achieve something.

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979We always want to get to something.

We always want to pursue something. We always want to - I don't know if the word "acquire" is right. I don't know that. But it seems like it is. We want to acquire something. If it isn't a ten-foot dinghy then it's a twenty-foot boat. If it isn't a twenty-foot boat it's a thirty-foot sailboat. If it isn't a thirty-foot sailboat it's the forty-foot yacht. Or if it isn't a house, it's a palace. Something always. It's like this crawling motion. We always want something.

And all of a sudden this is the way the world is. This is the way the world has been for so many years. Thousands of years. This world lives on the principle of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Doesn't it?

I'm pretty sure a lot of you have jobs. What does that mean? You do something for the owner of the company and the owner of the company will do something for you. You hammer in a few nails every day and he will give you the means to buy your bread. You scratch his back, he'll scratch yours. And it's this daily routine, this daily thing going on in our lives. Every one of us.

And all of a sudden somebody comes and says, "Wait a minute. There's more to it." And it's very, very difficult to understand. How can there be anything more to it? What more is there to it? For person who gets up every day, the reason why he brushes his teeth, the reason why he takes a shower, the reason why he gets dressed, the reason why he owns a car, is to go to this job.

On Sundays, the typical American thing is you just lie down in your bed and stay asleep till something wakes you up. Unless you intend to go on a vacation. Just lie there. Have your remote-control TV and "half-sleep", reach to it and turn on a Bugs Bunny cartoon or something like that. But most of the people who don't like to see all the rap going on the television on Sunday morning just stay asleep. (A lot happens on Sunday morning on television. Everybody's out there. Everybody's got something to say. And the thing is that every single channel is right. Everybody's telling you something.)

Then somebody comes in this world and says, "Look. You have whatever you have. That's there. I'm not asking you to put it all down." Jesus came in this world and he didn't go in front of the king and say, "Listen. I want you to demolish this whole castle of yours; your whole palace."

I mean if Jesus would have said that to him I can understand where Jesus could've

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji with child 1979 been hated by that king. "How dare you ask me to demolish my palace!"

Somebody comes in this world and just says a very simple thing indeed; that okay, whatever you have, whatever you have built, is there. But the problem is like, if you got in a car accident - you're driving along the highway and all of a sudden, bam! Your car blows a tyre or something. All of a sudden you find yourself twisted in the highway divider. And here comes an ambulance. Here you are, completely strapped in your car, you can only move your fingers and your mouth. Your steering wheel is up against your chest and glass is shattered all over the place and you're cut and you're bleeding bad; the policeman comes and says, "Can I help you?"

And you go, "Call the ambulance." And this paramedic comes and he says, "I can't help this guy. You have to get a surgeon right away."

So they get a chopper and this surgeon flies right there. And meanwhile this guy is bleeding. All they have done is stick an I.V. in him. And he is still strapped and there is this whole scene going on. The highways are blocked. The flares are everywhere and this impressive helicopter lands right in the middle of the highway.

And here you are watching all this happen. Out comes this surgeon with his nurse and takes his tools, walks over there and goes up to the guy and instead of trying to help him, instead of trying to coordinate a rescue, he goes, "Why did you ever get into this mess? What happened? You're pretty badly injured there, you know. Did you notice the steering wheel is right up against your chest? Did you notice you're bleeding badly? I bet it hurts." Here the surgeon is standing there with his foot on the car, thinking about it and just talking to this guy.

What do you think? If you were that person, what do you think your reaction would be to that surgeon? You can't move, so what would you say to him? A few kind words? Or a few very nasty words? First of all it would be complete amazement.And this is the same thing when this Perfect Master comes in this world. We are already in an accident. The accident happened a long time ago. It just didn't happen now. You know there are people who call themselves very intelligent. Smart. People who developed the automobile. People who developed calculators. People who have modified math. Geniuses. Einstein.

All of them put together couldn't figure out a simple thing, that at one given point this Earth wasn't there and then at one given point there were only so many dinosaurs. And after so much time all these dinosaurs died. So all this calculation, and this Earth is only so big and of this Earth, as big as it is, only a certain percentage of it is useable. Because if you start to go too deep in, there won't be anything there because it's hot, molten lava. Intense heat.

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji with child 1979 There would be no crude oil there. And it would be a very simple calculation. It would be an approximate calculation but a very simple calculation. You take the surface of the Earth and of that surface you delete the surface that's too close to the molten lava where the crude oil couldn't have existed anyway, and then that's how much oil you have. And from that you subtract a few things that were under the ocean where there were no dinosaurs.And that's what you've got left.

And today we're running out of oil. There is this thing called "energy crisis." You tell me a time in our lives when there wasn't a crisis. You know everybody's bothered about crisis. First there was World War I, then there was World War 11, then there was the Vietnam War, then comes the first energy crisis. Everybody gets hit. "Oh my God, how are we going to survive?" People's reactions. This is it to them.Their whole dinghy just had a hole in it. Something popped a hole in their dinghy. "What's going to happen? My God!" No more airplanes. No more cars. No trans-portation. "You mean I have to ride that funky bus to my job? What is all this?" There was a time during World War II when people were taking all the gold they had to buy a loaf of bread. All that gold that they hung on to so dearly could only buy them one loaf of bread. That was it. And Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world and he doesn't… Okay, we listen to all the satsang about how miserable this world is. We all know this world is miserable. It's our creation. It's our Frankenstein monster. Here we have it. All of it. And Guru Maharaj Ji has the compassion. Guru Maharaj Ji has the mercy, to come into this world and show us a way out. I'll tell you, there is one simple question I have for you. All the world leaders can get up and say. " Tomorrow we can have a war." The world leaders can get up and say, " We're going to war." World leaders can say, " Listen, man. We have a serious energy problem." World leaders can get up and say, "Higher taxation." The world leaders can get up and say, " No homes for you people." The world leaders can get up… look what happened in India. All of a sudden there was mass sterilization. "No more babies." World leaders can get up, " We're going to annihilate you." But tell me one simple thing. Does anybody show a solution? Does anybody offer a solution? This whole debate, this childish debate was on television - childish debate.

We used to have better debates in our school, unorganized. At the end of the class everybody would go to this hall and kids would just get up and debate about whatever they wanted to debate. That was better debating than this whole U.S. net-work thing where it was such a childish game. These guys were supposed to be intelligent and smart and what-have-you. And they were talking about the SALT II treaty. And they were saying, "Man. This

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979 treaty is no good because it's going to give Russia more arms and Russia will develop all these things and they'll destroy us." Well that's very simple to say. " Russia will destroy us." How do you think Americans are talked about in Russia? All the Russians say the Americans are in trouble. America has had it. So to create all the problems and to offer it on a silver platter to us - what good does that do? "Here. Eat it."

And this is what's so different when Guru Maharaj Ji comes. He doesn't offer a silver platter. He just says it very simply, "Come to me. Come to me and I will give you the solution. I will give you the freedom. Knock and it shall be opened unto you."

Does any world leader say that? "Knock and your car will be filled with gasoline. Knock and you shall have lower taxes." I am not only talking about America. Look at India. This whole seeming chaos occurred. And you know why? (I have been checking up on the different situations of different countries that involve the world tour. Otherwise I could not care less.) There is a gaping hole in your boat. What are you going to do about it? Stick your foot inside of it? Dance on it? Think about bailing out. Because if the ship goes down and you're on it, you will definitely get it. And in India, this whole thing happened and then definitely this new Prime Minister is elected and everybody goes, "Yea! A new Prime Minister is elected." And just recently they told him, "Why don't you resign?" So he resigned. And now there is going to be a new Prime Minister.

What is all that? What is all that? Problems after problems after problems. Very easy to create. Very easy for all that to happen. But there is only one person in this world who comes up with solution.

Everybody throws questions at you. Everybody questions you. Everybody says, "No,

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979no, no." No is the first word. Like I say, "You cry, you cry alone and when you laugh, you laugh alone." I laugh. Nobody laughs with me. You laugh. Nobody laughs with you. It's a proven theory. Because everybody is boggled by their own things. Everybody has got his foot into his mouth.

And Guru Maharaj Ji comes and he doesn't throw problems at us. Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't come and say, "And you are not going anywhere. You have to rot here. You have to burn in the hell you have created." Why not? Why shouldn't Guru Maharaj Ji say that? It would be only fair and right and justified.

You know if Guru Maharaj Ji in this world … Every time a Perfect Master has come in this world, if Perfect Master said that, everybody would listen to him.

Because it makes sense. That's what everybody says. What do your newspapers tell you? Everybody reads newspapers and everybody believes in those newspapers as if God himself printed it. God's the Editor-in-Chief, the Supreme Editor. And really, when that mind comes and tells us, you are going to burn here, you're going to rot in hell, we listen to it. "Yeah. You're right. This life is miserable."

Who's saying that? Who taught us that? Who put those words in our mouth? "Life is miserable. God, I have had it."

Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world and says, "Wait a minute. Wait." Guru Maharaj Ji says, "There is a way out. Let me take you. You don't have to burn here. You don't have to burn." mean it's such practical thing. If there were a boat and you went on a cruise on a boat and all of a sudden all the crew members on the boat started yelling, "Abort ship! Abort ship! Abort ship!" And all of a sudden everybody started getting life vests and everything (and it's a hoax. Nobody is going anywhere.) People are jumping left and people are jumping right and there ischaos going on and all of a sudden a crew member comes and says, "Oh yeah, I know. We put out the fire. It's okay now. It was just a little fire in the engine room. We have put it out and there is no danger." And still everybody is yelling, "Abort ship! Abort ship! Abort ship!"

Who are you going to listen to? The one guy who is trying to yell, "Don't. Everything is okay", or to the hundreds of those crew members who are going, "Abort ship! Abort ship! Abort ship!" Are you going to listen to the hundreds of those crew members? Because that is tuned into your fear. "Abort ship." It just tunes right in. They have these movies and they come out with a sequel. Airport 77. What is that aimed at? It's aimed at that crucial fear that everybody has of flying. "Oh my God." It's such a thing. And then they have jaws. And that attacks you. That prevents you from going into the ocean. "Eeee. There's sharks in there." And if you manage to survive and forget about jaws and you like skiing, they have jaws II where this girl's skiing and all of a sudden she gets chewed up. And not only is it aimed at those people who like to ski, but also at the driver of the boat who's pulling the skier. Because he also gets chewed up. And then the whole thing is, don't go out in the ocean. Go in the fresh lakes. There's no sharks there. Then they have the movie Piranha. Aimed right at your guts. And when you see it, you get sick. When you see it once that fear taps right into you. Tuned for you. Tailored for you.

Even it goes so far that sometimes they use subliminal cuts. And subliminal cuts are what they do in a movie - they used to do this until they outlawed it - when the time would come for the break in the movie, they would put this one picture of a tray with soda on it or whatever they were selling. And you're watching this movie at a drive-in or something like that and all of a sudden …

You see, because it's only one frame on the film and the film is moving so fast (twenty-four frames per second or thirty-six frames per second) that you can't actually see that one frame, but what it does is, it makes an impression in your brain. Food. And you get hungry. And then everybody, when the movie breaks, gets out of their cars and goes to the stands and buys something to take back to their cars.

This whole incredible game that man plays on man. There's no sincerity involved. There is no realizm involved.

And that's why it's such a great shocker when Guru Maharaj Ji says everything contrary to what you think it's supposed to be. Here in the world of Jaws and in the world of Piranha and in the world of what-have-you, Guru Maharaj Ji shows a movie which is completely different and you go, "What is that movie doing here?" Guru Maharaj Ji shows you a movie of your life. Guru Maharaj Ji shows you every flower that blossoms. Guru Maharaj Ji shows you every sun that rises.

Now you imagine this. You pay your five dollars and go to see Star Wars, All of a sudden, half way through Star Wars, when they walk into that bar where all these ugly creatures are, the movie stops and all of a sudden you see this daisy blooming and this sun rise and the beautiful ocean and you see these beautiful formations of clouds and you see love and you see life and you see that beautiful… I mean, first of all you wouldn't realize what's going on because you would think that's still a part of the movie. After a little while you will notice that it's not and what would your first reaction be? "My God, what's going on? Hey!" Everybody will start going, "Hey!" Everybody in the drive-in starts honking. And that's the same reaction Guru Maharaj Ji gets.

What is this whole relationship of premies and Guru Maharaj Ji? Very beautiful subject. Very intriguing subject.

If Guru Maharaj Ji wanted, he could just come in this world … If I wanted - when I first came to America and Los Angeles International Airport, there were a lot of reporters. And in the new Élan Vital you will see this picture of me, where I have my left hand raised, palm open, and there is a CBS microphone. And at that point when I first arrived in Los Angeles there was a whole bunch of reporters everywhere.

I could have just taken two minutes and made a very simple statement. "Here I am. My job in this world is to give Knowledge to people, to give Truth to the people. And this is the Truth." Give them the techniques and say, "You meditate on this for an hour each morning and every night and whenever you get a chance to. Service is a selfless action prescribed in the such-and-such chapter in Gita and … satsang is come-and-talk-about-it fan club meetings." Technically more people would have had Knowledge by now.

Same thing with Shri Maharaj Ji. Shri Maharaj Ji could have just said, "Look. Here is the thing. Here is my Knowledge. This is the Truth." And he wouldn't be lying. Nor would I be lying. That is the Truth. "I am your Guru. Here is the Knowledge. Do a selfless action every day like the Boy Scouts do. Help an old lady across the street and talk about it and when you feel like it, have your input-output meetings and you're fine. You have reached your realization."

Jesus could have done the same thing. When he went to be baptised he could have just called everybody who was there and said, "Listen, folks. Before I do get baptised I've got a little message for you. Now hang loose and here it is. Here is your Truth and … here it is! Talk about it and do a selfless action every day and you ought to feel better in twenty-four hours." Mohammed could have done the same thing.

So why not? Why is it that every time a Perfect Master had to come in this world he had to have disciples, he had to have premies? Because he reveals something more than we can comprehend. Truth. People call Truth, "truth." Truth. People don't know what Truth is. People have a word for Truth. They don't know what Truth is.

Now you tell me. If you take a lemon up to somebody on the street and say, "I say that this is a lemon. True?" The guy opens it up, tastes it and he goes, "True." And then you go, "I have just revealed you the truth."

There was this guy called Dattatrya who had - I don't know - some outrageous amount of gurus. And the way he used to make his gurus is he'd be going along the street and he would see this guy catching butterfly. He would say, "How are you doing this? How are you doing this? How are you catching a butterfly?"

And the guy would tell him. And he would go, "You're my guru. You have revealed something to me that I didn't know." He'd be going along the side and somebody would be farming. "What's that?"

"Well, I'm farming." "Oh, you're my guru. You have revealed something to me that I didn't know before." But when Guru Maharaj Ji comes nobody has an idea of what Guru Maharaj Ji is going to reveal. When a Perfect Master comes, nobody knows what Truth is. Because when that Dattatrya finally found his Guru Maharaj Ji he gave up all his gurus. Because he realized that they weren't gurus. That was just one blind man leading another blind man. But in fact the one who has really revealed the Light, who has really revealed the Truth, is that Guru. Who in this world, who has an idea of what the Truth is, what God is, what Love is, what Peace is when you have never experienced it in your whole life? I mean, "God." Everybody sitting here, if asked to make a portrait of God, would make it differently. "God." Some would draw a light. Some would draw a beard. Some would draw a moustache. Some would draw long hairs; some would draw short hairs. The way that you would like your "God" to be. And when Guru Maharaj Ji comes… You see it's not a matter of just taking a piece of Truth from your pocket and throwing it at people. Truth isn't something… what Romans used to do. They would surround the castle - this whole town - and block them of their supplies of water and food. And after a little time when everybody would get really hungry, what they would do is they would throw food at them and everybody would concentrate at one area. And then when everybody would be concentrated at one area they would start

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When you become a devotee, when you unconditionally surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, when ifs, buts and doubts go away, when that for one change when you say I give you my heart, for when you really mean when you say you are my all, my Lord to me, that's when Guru Maharaj Ji becomes happy

throwing rocks at them. Smart. Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't just come and say, "Hey, everybody! Here is the Truth. Here is the Love. Here is the Peace. Here is your God."

Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world for just such a reason. He doesn't say, "Listen. I'm going to reveal you the God described in the Koran. I'm going to reveal you the God described in Gita. I'm going to reveal you the God described in the Bible." No. Never. "I'm going to reveal you the Truth. I'm going to reveal you the Knowledge. I am going to reveal you the Noor Elahi, the Divine Light, the Bhargo, Divya Prakash." Unanimously.

But all Perfect Masters came and said, "I'm going to reveal you something above and beyond." Because there is no context. There is no context. What a Perfect Master has to reveal is perfect. Self-contained. I was reading today the meaning of "perfect." Perfect. I was actually looking for another word - parameters - and I came across 'perfect." And it said, something that's self-contained, something that is total, complete. Something that doesn't need anything else.

And that's what a Perfect Master is. Because what he reveals is something that doesn't need anything. Do you think it would be worthwhile for a Perfect Master to get up on a stage in front of people, take a Gita and say, "Here. Come Hindus, I'll reveal you your God." Or, "Come Christians. Let me cite you your God. Let me cite the God of Hindus to you, all Christians."

What he is revealing doesn't need any justification. (I mean, not that we would understand it anyway.) In the course of his satsang or in the course of what he is trying to explain he might use Gita and say, "Look. It's been said like that." He might use Ramayana, "It's been said like that." But so far as the essence of Truth is concerned, the essence of Truth isn't there. Listen. It's very difficult for a printer to believe that there is an essence of Truth in it. He knows. He knows that he has taken that paper, by his own hand, that had nothing on it, slipped it into the press and here it comes out. And all of a sudden it has essence, Truth, in it? Wherever they print

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979 the Bible, I'm pretty sure they have a lot of rubbish pages there. Pages that don't come out right. Misprints. Double prints. The proof-reading copies. It's got exactly the same contents. But it doesn't have the essence and a leather-covered one does? Same thing with Gita. Same thing with Ramayana.

But because in our concepts, by reading all these scriptures, we get a concept, "Okay. This is what the Perfect Master is going to reveal to us. This is what a Perfect Master is going to give to us. This is what Knowledge is."

I was talking to these two priests a long time ago. And I just said, "What do you think is meant by, 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God?"

And they said, "The Bible, of course." They looked at me like, "Don't you know?"

And I said, "Then why do they say the Word? Why don't they say, 'In the beginning was the Bible, the Bible was with God and the Bible was God.? Why do they say the Word?"

And it's such a simple story that these people come together. They write of their experience that they have, their experience that they've had of their Master, how he revealed them that Knowledge, how he revealed them that Truth that inspired them to write about it.

And Guru Maharaj Ji needs to have disciples so he can take them to that place of the experience. Because we can't conceive. How do you know what Knowledge is?

How do you know what Truth is? By reading scriptures you can find out what Truth is? What are we doing here? Ninety degrees outside. What were we doing in Lingfield? Raining, cold, windy, muddy. But Guru Maharaj Ji is there and he lines up… Guru Maharaj Ji is the Source and he lines up those individuals who are keen to receive what the Source has to offer. And when that's all lined up he makes, through devotion, that ultimate joint happen; through that love, he makes that ultimate joint happen.

He, through that love, through his mercy, through his blessings, connects the two individuals so that he can reveal to those who are fortunate, those who want to know, those who need to know, the essence of their life. The Truth.

Because there has to be faith. If there is no faith in Guru Maharaj Ji, if there is no faith in Perfect Master, then how do you suppose the Knowledge is going to work? How do you suppose the cables can link up?

What Guru Maharaj Ji has to reveal to you is so sacred. What Guru Maharaj Ji has to reveal to you is so beautiful, what Guru Maharaj Ji has to reveal to you is so incredible. It's so easy for us to sit in our chairs and say, "Wait a minute. Guru Maharaj Ji has something to offer me. And I should pay attention to Guru Maharaj Ji." Sometimes our thinking is completely reverse from that. It's like, "Oh yeah. Here I am. What's Guru Maharaj Ji got to say about that?" Our little confusions.

I'm pretty sure that every single community has another thing brewing every day. Something is happening in every community even if it's nothing. The new way of satsang, the new way of meditation, this type of ashram experiment, that type of experiment, this type of a trip, that type of a trip, new timings for satsang. Because we have got it all figured out. But the difference is that all of a sudden…

You know, here we are, okay. And I know two languages, Hindi and English. I haven't spoken Hindi for a long time but I can still hack a few words out of it. The coordinators who have coordinated this program have a few translation facilities, but approximately 75 per cent of you sitting here do not have a translation facility. Why not? Because you've got it all figured out. Guru Maharaj Ji is going to come here and Guru Maharaj Ji is going to give satsang in English. And what if I start blabbing away in Hindi? There's going to be a lot of surprised faces. I can do it. I can do it right now. I'm just trying to give you an eample of how we have it all figured out. Backstage, right behind this wall, there is a television monitor and whichever camera is on, on the signal, it's going all through the backstage. There's also a monitor here. When they know that I am coming they take this camera and point over there because they've got it all figured out. I'm going to come from that side. What if I come from this side? What if I climb up from down there? Or, what if I just don't show up at all? See. You've got it all figured out. It's okay if I go from there. Doesn't matter. And it's okay if I come from there. Doesn't matter. And if I come from down there, doesn't matter. But if I don't come at all, like, "No." Why? Simple thing. You've got it all figured out. All this figuring out that you have, all these assumptions that you have drawn, are the exact things that are delaying you from your effort. These things that you have all squared up are the things that are becoming an obstacle between you and me. It's so simple.

You have it figured out how much effort you are going to make, what Guru Maharaj Ji means by effort, what Guru Maharaj Ji means by surrender. This initiator got up and gave satsang. Every word he was saying was "right" but the only thing I can recommend to him is that he should listen to his own satsang. And if he will, he will be shocked, perhaps. Because sometimes you don't remember what you just said. And he should definitely take the twenty minutes to listen to his own satsang. (I mean that goes for everybody.)

We have to be open to Guru Maharaj Ji. Open from our heart. We have to open ourselves up. We use these different terms. Guru Maharaj Ji is not caught up. Guru Maharaj Ji isn't caught up in, okay, 'this is the way it all has to happen'. Shri Maharaj Ji's Guru Maharaj Ji used to travel in his car. He had a Dodge. Very luxurious, and he used to travel place to place to place. And he would have a whole tour set up. Three days in one place then three days in another place and two days later, three days at the other place. And he would come to one place and there would be all these devotees and he would stay there one day and have satsang or stay there two days and have satsang, stay there three days and have satsang and stay there the fourth day and have satsang.

And at the next point all his devotees would be ready, expecting Guru Maharaj Ji, when a messenger would say, "He isn't coming."

And Guru Maharaj Ji would stay there for two or three weeks and nothing would happen. He would just stay there at one place. And whoever wanted to come, had to come from wherever they were to come to see him. And then when everybody was there, he'd decide, "No, let's move on." And he would go to the next place.

See, you've got it figured out what your effort is. "I'm going to go to my community and man, I'm not going to let this mind come in again. I'll go to my community and I am going to listen. Next time this mind comes around I'm going to let it have it." And the sad part is, you see, you haven't got it figured out. Your mind has it figured out for you. And that's what makes those little things big obstacles.

If you can imagine, there is a certain line and you are on one side of the line and Guru Maharaj Ji is on the other side of the line, and Guru Maharaj Ji is three million miles away. And you are four steps away from this dotted line. And Guru Maharaj Ji is saying a very simple thing. "Take your three steps and I'll take my three million." But the problem is, you have to understand there are no obstacles, there are no obstacles from that dotted line till the three million miles - Guru Maharaj Ji. There are no obstacles. That's clean road. That's a grand highway. Your obstacles are from three steps to the dotted line. On your side of the dotted line, on your side of the road, on your side of the path. Community centres. There was a time when there was no community centre. There was a time when we came - you know, incredible. When I think about it, it's incredible. Came to Los Angeles and this premie picks me up in his father's car, drives me to this house and there is the press … I've just come from London to Los Angeles. That's a long flight on a 707 and I land there and there are press reporters at the airport, and then everybody is invited to the residence. Things don't happen like that any more, where all the press reporters and everybody at the airport who is intrigued is invited to the residence.

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979

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And Guru Maharaj Ji has the compassion. Guru Maharaj Ji has the mercy, to come into this world and show us a way out.

And in this residence - beautiful place - there is this huge house and one room of this huge house is for me. And there is this little room and the window faces the side of this hill about two feet away from it. You can't see anything. And this guy is a lawyer, and he is into maya all the way, 99.999 per cent. He's got his throttles gunned right in there. He's got his Ferrari and I mean, just really into it - girls everywhere.

So the first day I don't even know where North or South is, how big the house is. I don't even care. I'm tired. Anyway, this satsang happens and I'm taken to my room. And then just this whole thing starts happening, and less and less premies start coming there, and different halls are at a different place, and we start going to different satsang halls. And one day an incident happened that… that was enough for me. And I said, "let's go away from here." It's just like there was a lot of maya happening at that house.

And so we left the house and I said, "Don't you have an ashram here?" And the premie said, "Yeah. We have an ashram here but it's not suited for you to live in it."

I said, "I don't care. Show it to me." And it was beautiful. It was this nice room and it had a beautiful view and I said, "This is the place. Let's move in here." And the walkway was very incredible. One side was a very steep, long walkway. And if you were smart, the way to do it was you came to this top entrance, took the elevator up, walked down to the house and then when you had to go out, you kept walking down and at the other end you would have a car. Sometimes that wouldn't happen. It would be going up both ways. Very, very steep walk.

And it was really beautiful. The premies there got me a waterbed. I got hold of a pin. I was very intrigued. To me, if they can make a waterbed, definitely it isn't going to leak. I poked it. And all the water started flooding out.

And at that time there were no community centres. That's what everything was. And this house had an incredible layout. It was just one room, one living room, and then one little dining room right next to it and then three other rooms and one bathroom. I had one room and it was in this hall where everybody hung out. The door would be open twenty-four hours a day and if people were looking for a crash pad they were given that address and people would come at nighttime, go to sleep, wake up in the morning and split.

Propagation began and every morning I'd come out there and there would be people. Questions after questions after questions. And the people were asking questions like they didn't even know what they were asking about. They just woke up or they were very hungry or stoned or something like that. And then, slowly and slowly and slowly, the propagation started growing.

And then the whole thing happened in Boulder. I remember this tepee very distinctly. And everything would happen in this tepee. I would sit there and the premies would be there and all day long there would be this thing going on of everybody asking questions and some satsang happening. "What about this and what about this and what about this?" You could've written a thesis. There wasn't a question left out. And you can see that there was no concept. There was no concept about anything. And yet there were a lot of concepts.

And then more premies and then more premies and then more premies, till today this is a normal sight. Incredible. If this many people would have shown up at one single program at that time, someone would have had a heart attack. Couldn't cope with it. I mean, "Oh my God, where are these…?" Because usually after a satsang I used to say, "And if you have any questions, please, here is the address, come on down and…" Nine thousand people want to ask a question, that would be it.

Ad now we have communities. Now we have ashrams. We have all these different facilities. But that figuring out hasn't stopped yet. Putting things into your own square corner hasn't stopped yet. "This is the way it should happen. This isthe way Guru Maharaj Ji wants it. This is the way it's got to happen." That hasn't stopped yet. And unless we realize that Guru Maharaj Ji has got to take our leashes, unless we realize that Guru Maharaj Ji has got to be on top of us, not us on top of us, that we have to make an identification between our mind and ourselves…

Okay, if you don't want to call it mind, don't call it mind. That thing that drives you nuts every day. Somebody has to draw a barrier between that thing and you.

Because as far as this world is concerned, it is a big dream. Who knows what is the reality? Who knows what is the Truth? Nobody does. You can wake up and sometimes it's such a dilemma.

It reminds me of the story where there was this king. This king had a dream. He dreamt that he was fighting a battle against his neighboring king and he lost. He lost the battle and he was fleeing for his life. And he was running and running and running. And he was hungry and he was wet and he was thirsty.

Everything was bothering him. All the elements were bothering him.

So he sees this hut in the distance. He goes over to the hut and knocks on the door and says, "Do you have anything that I could eat?" And this old women comes out and says, "No. I don't have much that you can eat but you can prepare yourself something." So she gives him some lentils and some rice, and so he goes and gets some wood and the wood's really wet and smoke is coming out and his eyes are watering and he is in complete agony, in essence. And he prepares his little food, whatever he wants to eat, and then all of a sudden two bulls come by fighting and mix everything that he had completely into the ground.

And at that point he feels such a shock. He is in such despair, that he wakes up. He wakes up and he opens his eyes and he's still in his palace and he doesn't seem to be hungry and if he wants anything to eat he can have plenty of it. And he's not in a jungle and there is no smoke, and so on and so forth.

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979And then Guru Maharaj Ji comes to him. He puts this challenge out, actually. And in essence, when Guru Maharaj Ji reveals him, he realizes. But he has to put out this challenge. "What I experienced in my dream - was that the Truth, or is what I am experiencing right now the Truth? What is the dream and what's the reality?" And everybody tries to offer their explanations and nothing satisfies him until Guru Maharaj Ji comes. There is a whole scene involved in that. There is a whole story about it. Cutting it short, Guru Maharaj Ji comes and reveals him something and says, "Listen, king. That dream was not a reality because that dream was a dream, but what you see in front of you isn't a reality either. None of these things are a 30 The Golden Age

reality. There is only one thing that is real. And by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace you can understand that, too. You!"

Unquote the story. I'm talking to you, sitting in this auditorium. You can understand that reality, too. Because yes, everything else is real. We get up and say, "This isn't real and this isn't real." It probably sounds pretty stupid. "What are you talking about? It's not real? Of course it's real."

No it's not. It's as simple as that; no it's not. If it's real then it would be real all the time. If you are real then you would be real all the time. Why the grey hairs? No. None of that's a reality. Your teeth fall out and you get fake teeth put in. What is the real teeth? What is the reality? The real?

Unfake? The truth? The unshaved? The real?

This whole world passes. This whole world is a slave of time by nature. This whole Earth is a slave of time. This body is a slave of time divided into three dimensions. It's a slave. This whole thing, everything we see, is very, very finite. And that's not the bad part. The bad part is, it's been reconquered. It's been repossessed by something called the mind. And that's what makes it horrible. You've got the time against you but you also have mind against you. And time and mind - if one doesn't eat you the other will.

This love that Guru Maharaj Ji wants, that Guru Maharaj Ji has for you, is nothing to be taken advantage of. It isn't a duty of Guru Maharaj Ji to sit in front of you and give you a satsang. It isn't. If you think it is, tell you what; You're wrong!

It's not Guru Maharaj Ji's duty to sit in front of you and give you satsang. Guru Maharaj Ji is not bound in your concepts of duties. This is what I was saying before. You thought I was going to come, didn't you? The music starts playing faster and everybody thought I was coming. Right? And then this curtain didn't open up. Half of it was open. And then there was a long delay. And I'm pretty sure everbody was like … And then all of a sudden they started playing another song.

No, you have to understand. To some people it's like, "Well it's Guru Maharaj Ji's duty, man, to give us satsang."

What do you think? What do you expect? "Guru Maharaj Ji's got to give us satsang." If you were ever wrong, if you ever were wrong in your life, you're wrong when you say that. It's not. It just simply isn't. It's Guru Maharaj Ji's mercy. It's Guru Maharaj Ji's compassion that Guru Maharaj Ji comes and gives you satsang.

Lord Ram, when he became the king, came back. He was standing in front of all the citizens of his kingdom and he stands up and says, "To all of you, I fold hands to all of you, that without the realization of this Knowledge, this life is not worth anything. That without that dedication, without that love, without the realization of Knowledge, there is no value to this life."

"What makes me really happy from my heart
is when I see my premies making an effort.
When I see that something that I said,
something went through. I don't expect all of it
to go through. And yet how wonderful
it would be if it all did."

You think Jesus came and everything he did, he did it because there was a compulsory necessity for him to do so? Absolutely not. Why? Because when we think in those terms we bring it down to our level, something that we can relate to. There is …

You see we can't relate to Guru Maharaj Ji. That's our problem. We can't relate to Knowledge. We can't relate to Guru Maharaj Ji. But the thing is we can't do anything with something that we can't relate to. So what we do is we grab that thing from where it is and pull it down to our level. To our position, to our thinking, to our understanding, so then we can relate to it. "Oh yeah. Guru Maharaj Ji likes this. Guru Maharaj Ji wants this. Guru Maharaj Ji is going to come. Guru Maharaj Ji is going to have a program. Oh, I can't wait for Hans Jayanti."

And Guru Maharaj Ji is saying, "No. We have to go on."

Kabir says that you can take this whole ocean and turn it into ink and you can take all the wood and turn it into pens and you can take all the land and turn it into paper and you still cannot write the glory of Guru Maharaj Ji. Why not? Because what Guru Maharaj Ji is, is opposite of what you think he is. Guru Maharaj Ji cannot be … this is the problem. This is the problem you have every day.

Your mind can't figure out what Guru Maharaj Ji is. Your mind can't. You can - by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, by Guru Maharaj Ji's blessings - you can figure out when you make that effort. When you merge with Guru Maharaj Ji that's the day you'll figure it out - for one second - and then you'll be merged. And yet your mind can't figure it out. Your mind can't put Guru Maharaj Ji into one of its slots. Where does Guru Maharaj Ji go? In hotels, behind the check-in counter, they have these little boxes for mail. And the guy grabs a whole bunch of mail that comes in and reads the name and throws it in the boxes. If he gets one eight-ball letter what's he going to do with it? And that's exactly the case of mind.It will have a little section called "miscellaneous." The cleanup boy comes every day and pulls all theletters out of it and does something with them. And this is exactly the story with mind and Guru Maharaj Ji.

"0 Guru Maharaj Ji, you are my mother. You are my father." Which one? Mother or father. "You are my brother. You are my friend. You are riches. You are wisdom." I mean this kind of stuff starts happening. And the mind starts popping like popcorn. Have you ever thought what it all means? "You are my mother." Okay, fine. But that's only a comma, you know.

"And you are my father. You are my brother. You are my friend. You are riches. You are wisdom. You are my all, my Lord to me."

And this is where mind just says, "What's all my all? What's all that?"

"I give you my heart." We all sang it last night. And I see they're ready there again. And they have got their lines down right. There's some aspirants here who will, when they receive Knowledge, be given a pamphlet in which there is Arti.

A Mahatma from India who is here cannot sing Arti in English. I don't blame him. But he tries awfully hard to "lip-synch" it. And he stands up and squints his eyebrows and every time I look at him it makes me laugh. Because he doesn't know the Arti. He doesn't know one word of it. And yet he sits there and he's just moving his lips. He's just "lip-synching." I had to throw that in. Because that made you all laugh. If you can laugh at that example then you're laughing at yourself. Because you're also "lip-synching." That's what you're doing, too, every time you sing it.

Do you really give your heart? "I give you my heart, for in you it will mellow. Maharaj Ji, my Lord, my life is your play."

All you're doing is "lip-synching." Really, is this life really Guru Maharaj Ji's play? Have you really given your heart to Guru Maharaj Ji so it'll mellow? Is Guru Maharaj Ji really …

"You are my all, my Lord, to me." I see absolutely no difference between what he tries to do and what you do. It's called "lip-synching." Anybody can sing that. Brahmanand wrote this Arti originally and this is a translation. And it's a word-to-word translation. Everybody sings it. It goes, "Twameva mata, cha pita twameva. Twameva bundu, cha sikha twameva. " And word to word it's a perfect translation. "You are my mother, you are my father. You are my brother; you are my friend." It just goes on. But when is it going to gel in our lives? We seem to be the kind of freezers that can never make ice. We can get the water in there and it gets cold enough but for some reason the water never turns into ice. And that's our purpose, for that experience that Guru Maharaj Ji gives, for it to really make it gel in our lives, something in that experience to penetrate and really hit home. Home. The real home.

How can Guru Maharaj Ji listen to anybody's suffering? If we complain to Guru Maharaj Ji, then we are wrong. Because Guru Maharaj Ji has already offered the solution to us. How can you complain to Guru Maharaj Ji? You know, the case is, Guru Maharaj Ji already has his hands out and is saying, "Come on in." How can you knock on a door that's already open?

And yet in our imagination, in our dreams, there is a door. And that door is locked. And you are doing everything right, but it's the other end - it's Guru Maharaj Ji - that's goofing everything up, because that's the way your mind has it figured out.

Maybe Guru Maharaj Ji one day is going to come around to every nine thousand or ten thousand seats in this auditorium and - bam! bam! bam! - kick everybody in the butt. We're going to stand up and fly, and it will be the ultimate thing, some cosmic experience. Something similar to the beginning of the movie Who is Guru Maharaj Ji? - the psychedelic footage. All these lights and all these things happening. (In the original version of that movie, it was really something.) Our cosmic experiences.

What is cosmic? It's easy to look it up in the dictionary but it's kind of hard to attain it. Cosmic experience.

It's so incredible that these guys spent billions of dollars and got themselves a spaceship and went all the way to the moon. God! Moon. Moon is something like,

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979"Go shoot the moon." An expression. "Go take a walk on the moon." Moon is an expression of something that people know is impossible. And they spent billions of dollars and got up there. And they trotted along. And they stuck a flag up there. And they said, "We claim this piece of land. A great step. One step for man, one great step for humanity." Whatever speech he made up there. He didn't have any cosmic experience. Yeah. He had a little nervous experience, of course. Standing on the other side.

You can go ten thousand feet up in the air and say, "I hope I can get back on land." But you're on the other side. You are on land but …There it is. Your cosmic experience. He had it. The stars, the moon. No gravity. "Boing-boing" everywhere. Your magicians, your magic. Throw a rope in the air and it just stays there. The ultimate dream of a man: flying all by himself. Yes. Little jump and you're off in the air.

But it didn't give him a realization that Guru Maharaj Ji is offering you now. Here. But you know something? Everyone sitting in this hall would be more intrigued if you were asked, "How would you like to go to the moon?" You'd be ready to pack your bags. "Alright. Go to the moon. Far out, man." You look back to Earth. "I always wanted to go to the moon when I was a little child. Moon. Alright. Alright, let's go."

And what Guru Maharaj Ji's offering you is of what the moon is made of, what Mars is made of, what the sun is made of. Guru Maharaj Ji is offering you an infinite experience that you will never get on moon, nor sun, nor any planet other than what Guru Maharaj Ji is offering you right now. The ultimate experience of everything.

Guru Maharaj Ji is offering you a Knowledge that, that's it! That's all you need to know. The ultimate experience of something.

And you know, you have to really make that separation happen in your life. You have to really, somewhere, cut that line and say, "Yes. I surrender. Yes. What I say in Arti, I am going to Guru Maharaj Ji, make me do it. Let me surrender to you." Surrender.

What does surrender mean? Surrender. Hands up. "I give up. I give up." But you see, you have already surrendered. And this is why it's such a big battle. You have already surrendered to your mind. And your head at this point lies on the platter which mind holds in it's hand. Your head is on the block that is in the territory of mind. Mind may wish whatever it wishes to do. And you have to lift your head out of there and your body and bring it to Guru Maharaj Ji. You have surrendered to the wrong thing. You haven't surrendered to the Creator. You haven't surrendered to where you should really surrender it to. Every one, every one of us in this world, is a slave of the mind.

Ice cream. I was talking before and I said, "It's easy not to eat ice cream. It's very simple. Just don't eat ice cream, and you won't be eating ice cream, right?"

But it's very, very hard to stop thinking about it. "Ice cream now. That would be so good." It's very easy not to drink water. Just don't drink it. Just don't drink it. But it's very, very difficult to stop thinking about it. And this is what Maya is all about. It's all up in your head. It's all an illusion.

And this illusion becomes a reality. And it becomes a reality in, and still stays, an illusion. It's an illusion to begin with, becomes a reality - but still in the realm of illusion. It's more like in the words of a saint, in the words of a Perfect Master: there is this world. First of all, there is good and there is bad. There is good and then there is bad. And under the bad section is this world. And in that bad section there is good and there is bad. But what is good is still under the bad. That "good." What is "good" and what is "bad"? In India and even in desert places it's incredible. It's incredible. They have this well system. They don't have any pumps so they can't pump water out of the well. So what they do is they have a big garland of little buckets and there's a little rod that drives a gear which drives the buckets. And at the end of this thing there is a little stream that runs off into the fields and when the bucket comes up at a certain point it gets tilted and all the water dumps out.

And what they do is they tie a little handkerchief over a camel's eyes and the camel walks all day long, around and around and around. I bet when the camel opens his eyes and finds out that he has gone nowhere, I bet he is surprised. Because all day long he has just gone around and around and around.

That is the same condition we have. That's our case, too. We are a part of that crime too. All our life long we just go around in a circle, around in a circle, around in a circle, around in a circle. And when we wake up this is it. We were born in this world; we die in this world.

As I was saying the first day, is our life really just a slash in between the two dates? That's all the people in this world will come to find out? What did the saints do? What did John do? What did Jesus' disciples do? What did Mira do? What did

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979

Radha do? What did Arjun do that made him so famous? Go to the moon? No, man. The day it becomes a common thing to go to the moon, nobody's going to remember the names of the astronauts. Do you know the names of the Russian astronauts that have been to the moon? Too many of them have gone up there. You just don't bother thinking about it. And the day they're going to have the space shuttle Enterprise running up and down, back and forth, who's going to keep track of it?

Do you know the names of all the aircraft manufacturers? The Wright brothers were the first ones. But do you know the names of the rest of them now? Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, Cessna, Piper are just so many manufacturers. (Nobody goes in the history books the same way the Wright brothers did.) All the achievements are the same going around the circle, going around the circle, going around the circle. No accomplishment is ever gotten from it. And when devotees have that love for that Guru Maharaj Ji, when devotees have that realization, then such a barrier is fulfilled. Such a gap, such a bridge, is fulfilled for ever and ever. Guru Maharaj Ji wants to show you an experience. Guru Maharaj Ji wants to give you an experience. That's number one point. That's it. That's where Guru Maharaj Ji stops.

Now you tell me. How many pages will it take you to write down your causes why you can't accept that simple statement? Ten? Twenty? Thirty? Forty? Your reasons why you cannot accept that simple statement. Why can't you execute when it is so simple? Guru Maharaj Ji wants to reveal you an experience. What's the block in it?

We have to get up every day. Fine. I get up every day. Have to brush your teeth. You don't brush your teeth, you're not going to smell so good, you'll get cavities. You'll have to go to the doctors. The doctors are going to yank all your teeth out. It's a good idea to brush, so brush your teeth. Okay. And there's other things you have to do, too. If you don't do these things you're going to end up in hospital. Constipated. There's no problem with that. I mean that's a daily routine, something that you have to do. I can understand that. But I can't understand if you go into the bathroom to brush your teeth and all day long all you're doing is brushing your teeth. Those things. You get a bum teacher in a class and it's a bum subject. What the favourite thing of the kids is to get their hands up, because they want to be excused. They get excused. They go to the bathroom and spend forty-five minutes there. The period is over and then they come back.

Okay, you have to go to your job. Fine. While I was in Miami I was going to the warehouse. I went a couple of times to where they were building this. I talked to the initiators a couple of days. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to your job. Sure. Go to your jobs. But don't stay in your job all your life long. Don't brush your teeth all your life long. And, in essence, don't sit up on top of the toilet all your life long either. Finish your business and get out of there. Bathroom isn't the place where you live.

And yet how do you justify it all? How do you justify it all? You start living this world. This world is there. I have no intentions of destroying this world. I don't want to destroy this world. There are worlds in this world. One's the man-made world and then there is the world that

Creator has created. And what man has made, there's no problem. It's going to destroy itself soon enough. And what the Creator has created, Creator will take care of it. So I don't make any point of destroying. There is no point in destroying it.

But there is also an essence in this life. This life you can live. Fine. You can go to your job. You can have your suits. You can have your cars. You can have your bungalows. You can have your houses. You can have your boats. (That's if you can afford it all.) It's fine to go water skiing. But it's kind of awkward if to even go in your living room the boat has to go in front of you and you have to constantly be walking on your skis following the boat. Can you imagine that? Walking like that in your dining room?

It's one thing to go skiing and to hold on to the rope very tightly but it's another thing to be glued to it and the skis and the rope and the boat. So that's it. For the rest of your life, you're stuck to your boat.

Wherever the boat goes, you go. Trotting through. Go to your office. Go to a shopping market and the boat goes through first. And then you zip along next to it.

You see, because this world is so different. Always it's so different. What is it to it? I was reading a book a premie gave me. And the title of the book was something like "Wasn't the Future Wonderful?" And what it had in it were the concepts of people. People had all these concepts. This fantastic airport right in the middle of the city. A round airport. Airplane lands on it round and round and then it has all these underground hangars.

And you know this amazing thing. A long time ago this guy invented it and you look at it and you laugh at it. And I saw three or four things. There was this

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979 television in this thing. Actually it wasn't a television. You put in five cents, you press button and there was a projector. And this projector started showing the movie and you put your eye to it and you can watch a movie. And I started laughing about it. It's like, how stupid can you get? And then all of sudden I realized, well, wait a minute. They have that. That's been invented. At airports you sit down, pull a television over, put a dime in it, and click-click-click, change your channels. And it's like all these ideas. At that time I bet people laughed at it.

This flying boat - a boat that can fly. "Wow. My God. How is that ever going to happen? This guy is a genuine idiot." They have a flying boat. It's called a Hovercraft. It's a boat. Has to go on water. It goes right above it.

And so premies, this world is constantly changing. This world is constantly changing, just like the ocean. You can be on your boat and say, "Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to watch this wave and if this wave doesn't move, that means I am not moving either." Can you do that? "If this wave doesn't move then I'm not moving either." That's impossible. The waves are constantly moving.

You have to take something that is stationary and then anchor to that. You have to take in this world, in this constantly changing world, something that is there always, that is there constantly and merge with that. Then you get that constant experience of Knowledge. Then you get that constant understanding. Then your life becomes constant.

And that's the problem in this world. Because this world is here one minute, isn't one minute. And Guru Maharaj Ji has offered us this experience. I feel in one sense it's not just our option; "Guru Maharaj Ji, tell you what. I'll take it." It's

34 The Golden Age

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979not like that. Guru Maharaj Ji is not a person who has got his vending machine and he goes down the street and says, "Knowledge anybody? Knowledge anybody? Knowledge anybody?" And it's your obligation whether you choose to practice in your life or you don't. Can you just take it or leave it?

Is this another mantra? Is this another religion? Is this another philosophy just like the other thousands of them? Take this; you can leave this one, take another one. No. This is not a mantra. This is not a cult. This is not a religion. This is the company of the Perfect Master. This is the company of Guru Maharaj Ji. That's what this is. It's not a religion. And it's very, very uncommon, extremely uncommon. It's unique. It's odd. This is not common.

Was it common when Jesus Christ came into this world? Was it common when Mohammed came into this world? Whenever there is something that happens which is real…. This Knowledge is real. This Knowledge is not a mantra you can go chant in your house. It's not like a rosary. Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't say, "Listen, kid. Meditate for thirty years of your life. When you die I tell you what. You might go to heaven." There are all these people who tell you, "Don't ever commit a sin; otherwise you are going to go to hell." And then they go into the confession booths and they hear these guys out. As if they can make a difference in there.

This is exactly what happened with Jesus. They were going to completely stone a woman. She had done a crime. She had committed a sin. And what did Jesus say to them? He said, "Okay. Go ahead. Stone her. But only that person who has done nothing wrong in his life may pick a stone and throw at her." It's a great philosophy. You can't lose with it. "Don't do anything in your life. You'll be there." Sounds wonderful.

But who can say it? Who can execute that? One lie to yourself … Even when you get down on your knees to pray and say, "God bless my mother" when you don't mean it is technically a sin. You just told lie. You didn't mean it. You don't want your mother to be blessed. Because she just did something nasty to you. Didn't give you the candy you wanted - a kid's temperament, a kid's temper.

It's very easy to say, "If we can defy gravity we can all fly." Right? If we can defy gravity we can all fly. There's no problem in that. That's a perfect theory. The problem is, why is it still theory? It's very, very hard to defy gravity. That's why it's a theory. If we can defy it, then who would need airplanes? Who would need cars? You just get up, turn around and blow, and you'll be there.

That "neat and clean life." "Look. You just follow the track and you'll get there." That's what a lot of people were living. Or they thought they were. They were the priests. What did you think those high priests were doing? Committing sin? Yes, they were. But they didn't think so. They thought they were living according to the Good Book. Right on the button. Don't you think they thought for one moment that really whatever they're doing is going to get them to heaven? Of course. But that's not what's going to, you know. That's not what's going to get you to heaven.

Jesus came in this world and offered an experience. And that experience - when Jesus revealed it to his devotees, nobody had to wait to go to heaven. The heaven came to them. They knocked; it was opened unto them. They asked and it was given. It was revealed to them.

And yes, oh yes, Guru Maharaj Ji comes. Guru Maharaj Ji has said this, not now, but thousands and thousands and thousands of times. "Come to me. Come to me."

I can understand if he says go to some initiator or another. I can understand. Maybe you don't jive with an initiator. Maybe he told you something that you didn't like.

Guru Maharaj Ji isn't saying that. Guru Maharaj Ji is saying, "Come to me." How simple can you get? "Come to me. And I will reveal you your life. I'll reveal to you an experience that you want to know.

Something that you are thirsty for. Something that this whole world wants to know." Forget about the whole world. People get up and talk about the whole world. You're not the whole world. What about you? Are you a sheep? If this whole world is on its way out, you're going to follow them out, too?

You know it seems so evident that by now everybody would understand, that everybody would understand all the mistakes human beings have made in the past with the Perfect Masters and would not commit the same mistakes again. Too many stories and too many examples. The cost of every living Perfect Master who has incarnated into this Earth. Look at Krishna. Look at Ram. Look at Mohammed. Look at Buddha. Guru Nanak.

What is it? What is the experience?

You know, we think there are so many experiences out there. But every living Perfect Master has come to reveal one experience. After all, there is something behind it. Isn't there? And how simple does Guru Maharaj Ji make it?

Tell me, how simple did Jesus make it when he came? Tell me. Did he say that you have to go to Mecca, go three times around the building, leap it once, dig under it three times? "Come to me from the other way around the world. I shall face you the way you leave but you approach me from my back." Really? That's simple, you might think. But he didn't even ask that for that love. He offered that experience of love, Truth, bliss, of Knowledge.

What did Buddha say? "Go away. You have to pass the thing that the old pirates used to do. Tie a guy's hands, tie his legs and pass him from the bow and they have to come up by stern, the aft. If you live, then it's fine." There used to be this law. When they used to hang a person and he didn't die, let him go. Is that it?

Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't ask all that. Perfect Master, when he comes into this world, doesn't ask all that. Very, very simple thing. "Look at me. Come to me. Open up to me. You will find no place in this world that you seek shelter in. There is no place that this world has to offer you. This world has nothing to offer to you." What can this world offer you? It doesn't know. Doesn't know what to give you. It's all a man-made monstrosity anyway. And this world doesn't ask you to come to it. World sucks you in.

Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't say, "Physically come to me." Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't say, "Come to me. I'll shake your hand and …. ta-da! You'll have it." But Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Come to me with your open heart. Heart. Open your heart." Not this heart that pumps, but the real heart. The heart that wants to know, the heart that wants to understand, the heart that wants to experience. Open it up. How do you open your heart?

Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Empty your bucket then I shall fill it." It just seems such a strange thing. Everybody is walking with their buckets full and saying, "Hey, Guru Maharaj Ji! How about some water? Fill my bucket up, Guru Maharaj Ji. Fill my life up, Guru Maharaj Ji. Give me your experience."

I mean here we are already stuffed with our experiences. Everything that we get into is for an experience. And Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Empty out those experiences because those experiences are exactly the things that are taking you around the circle. Those things aren't going to get you anywhere."

So many people came to Jesus. Only a few were able to recognize his message and only a few were able to recognize him. Are we going to be a part of that statistic, too? Do we want to be a part of that statistic? Do we want to be a statistic of a hundred to one? Hundred people came and one became a devotee and realized Jesus. Realized his Guru Maharaj Ji. Realized he's a Perfect Master. No. I don't think so. I think if we all, in our hearts, let our hearts come through, let ourselves come through, truly there is something there that wants to reach out to Guru Maharaj Ji, that wants to reach out to that experience.

Don't hold back. Don't hold back. You are the ones who are going to lose. If you think it's compulsory for Guru Maharaj Ji to give you Knowledge, you're absolutely wrong. It's not. If you think that all your little boxes that you have created neatly fit, you are wrong.

Look at these initiators. In the ashram meeting I was having today, I asked everybody a question. I said, "Who has applied to be an initiator?" And so many hands went up.

And I said, "How many of you do want to become initiators?" And so many hands went up. And then I just asked a question, "How many of you are initiators?" And some of the initiators raised their hands. What makes you initiators? Ask them: what makes them initiators? A piece of card that's not even valid anymore? That has no purpose? An expired driver's licence? (It looks like one anyway.) What makes them initiators?

Why did you think that they are initiators? It's those neat little boxes. Every time a letter comes for them, they get chucked in "201." There is "their box." And all these little boxes that we all make - for you, they're initiators. For them, they're initiators. And yet I can see that they're nothing. They have to make every bit of that effort, too.

You know, we used to have conferences after every program and I used to come to those conferences. In Tucson, we had a week-long conference. In England one day I woke up and we started talking about the conference set-up for the next program. And I said, "Listen. We have a four day program or we have a three day program and we share so much satsang. If they can't understand anything in those four day programs, they're not going to understand anything in a one day conference." And I said, "Forget it. I'm not going to go there and waste my time."

And so we haven't had a conference yet. I haven't. (They still come together and rap about things, I presume.) Because to me, my message is to everybody. I don't think these initiators are saved. I don't think you are either. You have to make that effort; they have to make that effort. And then even after making all that effort if Guru Maharaj Ji has that mercy upon us … Why do you think that devotee said, "0 Guru Maharaj Ji, to you there are many of us. But to me, there is only one of you"? When we make that effort, when we have that humility, when we have that surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, then Guru Maharaj Ji's compassion comes through. Then Guru Maharaj Ji's compassion comes through. Then Guru Maharaj Ji's mercy comes. Then Guru Maharaj Ji takes those three million steps. Then Guru Maharaj Ji picks you up. Not when you doodle on your chairs and say, "Come on, man." Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't do it then. But when you approach.

So premies, I hope you understand something, because I don't know. I don't know why I am sitting here giving you satsang. Again, I don't have to. But I know one thing. I feel good when I see a premie make an effort. Makes me feel wonderful. You know, you can buy me thousands of Rolls Royces if you want. I know. You can do that. And you can buy me yachts. I know. And you can buy me airplanes after airplanes after airplanes. I know that. All the premies in the world get together. That doesn't make me happy. Okay, you see something. That's another thing.

But what makes me really happy from my heart is when I see my premies making an effort. When I see that something that I said, something went through. I don't expect all of it to go through. And yet how wonderful it would be if it all did. That's what makes me happy. When I see that you make an effort, that you make that little effort.

When you make that little effort then it makes me happy. You make a bigger effort, it makes me happier. And when you really, really make that effort from your heart and succeed, that's what makes me laugh. Not jokingly, but it makes me so happy that I can laugh. You can get me whatever you want to. Sure. I'll accept. But for one time when you do what I ask you to do, that's what makes me really happy.

What are cars? Nothing. They have never meant much. Nothing. Cars are cars. This and that. Here with this elaborate stage. What is this elaborate stage? When I was young - you saw the film. When I used to give satsang I used to stand. What is all this elaborate stage?

Your effort - when you become a devotee, when you unconditionally surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, when "if," "buts" and doubts go away. When for one change you say, "I give you my heart." When you really mean it when you say, "You are my all, my Lord to me." That's when Guru Maharaj Ji becomes happy.

The formula for it is very simple. It's all been said. And yet it's still your feet and your steps.

So, fortunately we still have another day of satsang, and so I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you and good night.

The Golden Age 35

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Guru Puja (worship) 1979 Guru Maharaj Ji is offering you an infinite experience

"This world passes. This whole
world is a slave of time by nature. This
whole Earth is a slave of time. This body
is a slave of time divided into three
dimensions…
And what Guru Maharaj Ji's offering
you is of what the moon is made of,
what Mars is made of, what the sun is
made of. Guru Maharaj Ji is offering
you an infinite experience that you
will never get on moon, nor sun, nor
any planet, other than what Guru
Maharaj ji is offering you right now.
The ultimate experience of everything."