Maharaji, Because You Are Alive 2003-04-30 E170
Maharaji is as relaxed, happy and smug as I've ever seen him in this speech. Part of it was considered so inspiring and "cool" that it was used as the introduction to "a website WHOUR.org and a DVD titled "Who You Are" (WHOUR.org). HOw do you make Rawat cool and groovy? He takes of his ties, unbuttons his coat and exudes exuberance. The possibility of this new cool and groovy approach actually attracting a new wave of interested people looking for something more was possibly the reason he seemed so excited. Rawat asserted the uniqueness of his message, as always, but it is one of many countless similar claims by other gurus, charlatans and fraudsters looking for acolytes and is rather hackneyed and his message is not individualised, it is one speechifying straitjacket suits all. The speech was originally given at the University of California, Berkeley on 30th April 2003 as an early part of his Legitimacy Project and was distributed on a CD.
He goes into a rapid fire anaphoric stage where he repeats many phrases: because you are … it doesn't matter … whilst you … because you're alive … It all helps to deepen his followers trance states
- Some of his followers' witness expressions are quoted. They all mean the same thing. "I was unhappy, I was dissatisfiled, I wanted more"
- He claims he will help. Why? Because it is how he makes his living. All of his great wealth and even greater expenditure has come, directly or indirectly, by donations from other unhappy people who believe his spiel. He wants you to join them. He tries to defuse this obvious reason by claiming he has nothing to sell
- Rawat stresses that he won't judge you, "the breath" won't judge you, "the world" will judge you - He's paranoid about being judged … understandably
- "I go around, I talk to people." Rawat doesn't talk to people, "talking to" implies conversation, back and forth, speaking and listening in turns. Rawat only talks at people, from a stage, from a throne or at least a very expensive chair
- He uses anaphora as a rhetoric trick, usually to raise the intensity. In this speech he reaches a new record
- He doesn't bother to blacken his hair at the back as much as the front and sides.
Words of Peace: Maharaji: Because You Are Alive 30th April 2003 E170
Prem Rawat, widely known by the honorary title Maharaji, has been traveling the world for more than 30 years, bringing a unique message of peace. He gave his first public addresses at the age of three, and by the age of 13, he was responding to invitations to speak in the United States and Great Britain [as Guru Maharaj Ji, The Lord of the Universe]. His message is from the heart. He speaks about the possibility for each person to find peace within, regardless of circumstances. Addressing a distinguished audience at the invitation of the United Nations Association of Malaysia, he recently said, Peace is a fundamental necessity and begins with each individual. And yes, peace is possible. Through the Prem Rawat Foundation, he also spearheads significant humanitarian initiatives [rubbish:: TPRF gives aid of $0.5 million p.a.] aimed at improving the lives of people most in need. From large cities to remote villages, millions of people around the world come to him for inspiration and guidance. Even as his audiences increase, Prem Rawat's message remains directed to each individual. If you are looking for fulfillment and peace, he says, the solution lies within. If that is what you want, I can help.
Thank you. Sit back, relax. I'll do the talking. You just enjoy yourselves because what I'm talking about is very, very simple. In a way, it's about you. But not in a way that you have heard it before. Because people come and people address other people. And what is talked about is how it could be. And I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about how it is. See, there's a big difference in the two. Because we could sit here and we could dream, oh yeah, it would be nice if it was like that, and it would be nice if it was like that, and it would be nice if in my life I had this, and I had that, and you know, all those things. But what I'm here to tell you, that it is better than your wildest imagination. And everything you need to make that dream come true, you already have. And it is within you. And this is a wonderful and exciting reality. I'm not here to quote from books. Sometimes I do. I'm not here to tell you, yeah, you know, walk backwards three miles a day and everything will be fine. I'm not even here to tell you to lower your cholesterol. But recognize what you have been given.
And my analogy is a little bit like this. You're walking along, and everything is fine, and you've got nice shoes, and you really were looking forward to this walk, and everything is kind of going nice, and all of a sudden, a rock, a little rock, a little, little, little rock, somehow finds its way where it shouldn't. And it's in your shoe. Now, all of a sudden, every step you take, you feel this thing. And it would be easy enough for you to just sit down, take your shoe, take it out, shake it, get rid of the rock, and be on your way. But that's not what people do. Instead they go, hmm, what happened? How did this rock get in my shoe? I didn't invite it. Is it karma? Why me? Hmm. You know, I realize that the pain is getting very intense. So you pick up your cell phone, and you call home, and you say, you know, I've got a problem. My foot is hurting, and I'm walking, and I think it's a rock. I'm not sure. And I can't really verify that, because I haven't taken my shoe off yet, but I think that's what it is. Could you call the doctor and see what I can do about it? And of course, your next of kin calls the doctor, and this person is walking out there, and they've got a terrible pain in their foot, and the doctor says, can they take some Tylenol? And so, you know, your next of kin calls back, and says, I packed some of those in your first aid kit. Take some Tylenol. And all this time, this pain is just getting worse and worse and worse. And what are we doing? We're analyzing the pain. This is terrible. This is horrible.
This is absolutely disgusting. And you come across, walking on the same track, you come across somebody, and you say, can you help me? And the person says, sure, what's the problem? So I've got this terrible pain in my foot, and I think it's a rock. What should I do? And the person says, sit down.
Let's take the shoe off and take the rock out, and hopefully things will become better. And the immediate reaction is, well, how can it be that simple? After hours of research, after hour after hour of enduring this agonizing pain, how can you come along and belittle the situation by saying, just sit down, take off your shoe, and get rid of the rock, things should be better. This is oversimplification of such a complex problem. And you are wrong, sir. And then the limping begin, and the limping goes on. Now, it sounds funny. I didn't intend it to be funny. I'm not really a comedian. But you see, when you talk about life, there are things that are very funny about it. And the reason why they're funny is, one, they're true. And two, what is so simple has been made so complicated.
How does it all begin? Well, you really know, because you had no clue. You kind of appeared. And one day, you could look at something and go, fall. And one day, you could get up and take your little wobbly steps and make it somewhere. One day, of course, in retrospect, looking back, you remember that one day where you kind of found yourself to be. And from there on, it has been an onslaught. Do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. And it has been. Either do this, or do it this way. And how you do things wrong, and what did you do right, and approval, and pat on the back, and how you need that pat on the back, and the pat on the back is good. I'm not here to judge that. And certainly, nothing I can do is going to change that. Because the recognition of me existing does not exist.
Recognition of everything else existing, and me acknowledging that recognition definitely exists. You are my friend. You are my neighbor. You are my dog. You are my cat. You are my father. You are my mother. You are my uncle. You are my aunt. And what name do you have for you? The nameless. The one that will be. The one that was.
The one that is. The one that is not so easy to understand. Not even by you. That one. That has a cry, that has a desire, that has a want of its own. And the desire is no less than the desire to be happy.
Happy. Now, if you are offended by the word happiness, because some people definitely are. They think that trivial thing called happiness. I mean, look at this world, the situation in the world today. How bad it is. And here he is talking about happiness. So let's talk about fulfillment. Then there are people who are definitely offended by that. He's talking about fulfillment. And there's all these people who are unfulfilled. Well, let's talk about peace then. Because it is the same exact thing. And for you. To realize that peace exists within you. That this is a process of discovery. Not creation. This is a process of witnessing [not molding and folding excised ].
I thought that there has to be something more in this life than just getting degrees and after graduation getting jobs and do all the things that people do to live in this society. But there has to be some meaning in this life that I can actually feel that I live for this. Some kind of that feeling I wanted to have but there was nothing really that gives me that kind of feeling.
In my life there was a huge gap. It didn't seem to matter what I'd done. It felt like there was a hole in my life.
I really didn't have like a conscious quest for truth or whatever it could be. I wanted to be happy. I think everybody wants to be happy.
And really at that time I had a little feeling that it was not really possible in this world to be happy. And it was such good news when I first heard about Maharaji and when I first heard him speak that this hope appeared in my life that yes, it is possible. Because not just because of what he said, because maybe I had read similar things before but I could see it was true when he said it.
I felt it was possible. It created that hope for me. When I first heard Maharaji speak, I was very young.
It was in Linfield and I thought, wow, suddenly he makes sense with what he was saying. It wasn't to do with religion, it wasn't to do with one God, but it was to do with me. And even at the young age that I was at, for me it was an incredible message and I just continued listening and listening.
There is one thing that happens that is so incredibly simple and yet it happens and it happens and it happens and it happens and thank God it happens and it's called this breath. It comes without an appointment, thank God, because if it was only with an appointment that we would take this breath we would miss it many times. "Sorry I was a little late, I'm having a bad hair day." But it comes and it comes without any judgment. It comes when you have been good and it comes when you have been bad and it comes when you think about it and it comes when you do think about it. But, just for a second, think about what it brings you. What does it bring you? It brings you life. It comes and it touches you and you are alive. And
because you're alive there is everything else in the world
because you're alive you can scream and
because you're alive you can yell and
because you're alive you can stand there and say what a wonderful sunset and you
because you're alive you can smell a smell and go that smells really good and
because you're alive there's the color purple and
because you're alive there's the color red and
because you're alive you can smell the onions frying,
because you're alive garlic is good, but
because you are alive you feel pain but remember
because you're alive you can feel joy,
because you're alive there's inconveniences
because you're alive there is smooth sailing
because you're alive you can go up to the window and look at the rain and go when is it gonna stop?
What a gift, what a gift and what is this gift pursuing? What is this gift pursuing? what is the desire? what is the core desire? core desire the core desire is to be happy. When you're having a great time you're happy, you go "When is this going to be over?" but when you're having a miserable time, it's like "When is this going to be over?" This is not a learned thing, this is not a learned behavior it is innate and because it is innate, unless it is satisfied it will be a rock in your shoe. It doesn't matter how expensive your shoes were, it doesn't matter how good your cell phone is, it doesn't matter how many doctors you employ directly, it doesn't matter how many drugs you are carrying in your backpack to take care of your pain it, doesn't matter how many band-aids you put on top of the shoe. None of this is going to make a difference if that innate place is not addressed and that's what I'm saying, address that, feel the fulfillment within this life because this treasure called life is not by any stretch of the imagination a unlimited resource. It is a limited resource. What has to be done has to be done now, now, now, whilst you're alive, whilst you can feel, whilst you can say thank you, whilst you can smile, whilst you can feel, whilst you can understand, whilst you can touch, whilst you can explore, whilst you can discover, whilst you can say ah this is beautiful.
I was listening to a CD and in this CD one of the passage of this beautiful poetry was that this this life is a dream and like in a dream you may have dreamt that you have become really rich or in a dream you have dreamt that you have become really poor but then in fact when you wake up you haven't lost anything or for that matter gained anything. So I started thinking this is obviously very true that when I dream I dream, this is what I'm doing I'm dreaming when I wake up I may have dreamt that I fell down 30 stairs but when I wake up I find myself quite intact so obviously is it that there is no consequence or is there a consequence very interesting. I know one thing that when I have a nightmare and I wake up from it and even that nightmare I was bewildered then I wake up and I feel bewildered and even that dream I dreamt everything was incredibly beautiful then I feel beautiful even though if I if there was a car in that dream it's not like I have it sitting outside but the feeling I get to take the feeling from the dream I get to take the dream with me I get to take the feeling of the dream with me now if this life is a dream, you get to take the dream with you but you do get to take the feeling so it becomes very important this better not be a nightmare. I want to wake up in the freshness of life because that freshness I can take with me. I want to feel that joy the joy of fulfillment because that I can take with me.
For so many years, every time when I listen to Maharaji, he just tell me something new, tell me have more understanding, tell me deeper to see, to realize how precious this life is for me. He speak about the value of the breath, you know, something that we never as a culture, never, nobody tell me anything about that, about the importance. And suddenly you realize that really is there and it's very important, you didn't care a lot, you didn't care anything until that moment that somebody say, look, your breath is important.
When I started listening to Maharaji, he kind of made sense, he made me see things in a different way, almost with eyes that I never knew I had. Um, it answered so many of my questions, um, just basically made me feel as though settled in myself, content. That frustration of why, what, when, all that was easing for me.
We all share this need for love and kindness and understanding and respect and joy and all those finer qualities. And all I can say is that to me, Maahraji has enriched, he's brought those qualities out, he's enabled me to feel those qualities.
I go around, I talk to people. It's beautiful. A lot of people look at me and say, "Well I understand what you're saying." And I say, "Fine, it's okay. get bothered. Because I'm not here to sell you anything. I'm not here to sell you anything. I'm here to hopefully put you in touch with a thirst that you have in your life. A thirst for that fulfillment. A thirst for that beauty. A thirst that you have always had." Now people say to me, "Well tell us what it is." And I say to you, explain to somebody how to ride a bike. You got your first bike. And what was dad saying? Pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal.
Balance, balance, balance, balance. Look forward, look forward. And it was like hmm hmm. And then all of a sudden, one day, one moment, you had it. And you took off. And there was no looking back. And from that day, you have achieved that sense of balance. That balance. This is what I'm talking about. Achieving that sense of balance in your life. And if you want help with that, I can help. I'll do it for free. I can help. Why? Because it is the most wonderful thing to watch something so beautiful unfold in a person's life. If you say, well I want any help from him. Fine. That doesn't change anything. That doesn't change the thirst. That doesn't change the importance of the thirst. That doesn't change the breath. Nor does it change the importance of the breath. It doesn't. Get with it. Get with it. Get with the program. Because there is so much waiting for you.
