Introducing Maharaji, 1994
This video is what Elan Vital were thinking would attract many new people to Maharaji. It didn't.
Put all your problems, agendas, everything aside and focus on your existence and you will find this is of no value in ameliorating those problems. If it did, no one would have any problems. But beneath the claimed simplicity of Rawat's message are layers of deceit,
- Maharaji offers a way to come into contact with the beauty of life - By holding your eyelids closed and applying pressure to the eyeballs, by closing your ears up with your thumbs, by thinking about your breathing and by turning your tongue backwards. No wonder it requires so much re-education
Introducing Maharji, 1994
To talk about life, and for a moment, put everything else aside. All your problems, all your agendas, everything, just put them aside. And to focus in, just on one thing. Existence.
Voiceover: For the last 24 years, this man has travelled extensively throughout the world, delivering a simple, yet intriguing message.
Something inside of you, wants to be in that state of equilibrium, which so many people call happiness, satisfaction, contentment.And when you are in that state of equilibrium, everything is fine. Everything is okay. There is joy. There is happiness and this happiness, this state of equilibrium, is extremely important to human beings.
Voiceover: The name on his passport is Prem Rawat. But since the age of 8, he has been more commonly known as Maharaji.
No external instruction can say, okay, now, be content. And that's where I'm driving to. Contentment. That's the miracle of life. That's the miracle. You see, we can be content. Not the kind of contentment that comes when your house is finished. Not the kind of contentment that comes when you have done your 9 to 5. But the kind of contentment that emanates from within the human being.
Voiceover: When Maharaji first came from India to the West in the early 70s, he was no more than a boy of 13, and attracted a lot of media attention. The city of Portland presented him with a plaque, and he was given a garden party reception at the Council Crest home of Henry Hazen soon after his arrival here.
He received recognition from local and national governments, and was presented with many civic awards for his contribution to humanity.
He received a literal and a metaphoric pie in the face from the hip counter-culture and Mahatma Fakiranand replied with a blackjack to the skull
Members of the Cabinet, members of the United States Senate, and House of Representatives, and distinguished guests, it gives me great pleasure to be with you on this occasion commemorating America's bicentennial. Although his talks interest people from many diverse cultures around the world, they are always directed to the individual. The question is within you. The question that you ask is within you. The answer is within you. The person who wants to know is you. And the person that will derive the benefit from knowing is also you. And the person who will feel the satisfaction from knowing is also you. Maraji is a family man.
While at home his hobbies and interests include computers, renovating cars, and cooking, he's an inventor, an artist, a poet, and a musician. His travels utilize his skill as a highly qualified pilot. I travel a lot, go around the world many, many times in a year.
I meet people. To me, this is fascinating, that the desire to be content is inherent in every human being. I see people. Not too long ago I was in Mauritius, in India, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Africa, North Africa, England, America, and I don't know of too many things that are universal. Language is not. You go from one country to another country, and you start to talk in one language, and people understand you or don't understand you. Currency is not universal. Some places they want it, some places they don't. Clothes are not universal. Thoughts are not universal. Ideas are not universal. But one thing is.
One thing transcends all changes, and that one thing is the desire to be. Question. What do we do? What do we do in one's lifetime to address just that? That one fundamental desire. What do we do? To be in that joy. To be in that place where it feels real. Not by definition. Not by somebody's philosophy. Not because it is written in a book. Not because somebody came and poured it in our head. But real because it feels real here. In our hearts. Within us.
What he teaches doesn't come from books. He speaks from his heart to the heart of the listener. Maharaji offers a way to come into contact with the beauty of life waiting to be discovered within each one of us.
This is what I do. I go place to place, and I talk to people about life. I talk about simple things. I do not talk about complicated things. People who are interested in feeling that feeling, I offer them a way to go inside, to take the attention that is always going out there, and to put it inside, and to feel the feeling that is within. That's all I do. Simple as that. As simple as that.