Maharaji, Amaroo-Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Australia, September 25, 2006

Maharaji: The Importance of Joy

It seems that an important new concept Maharaji's PWKs must learn is that of 'loops.' Apparently overconfident PWKs who swear they'll never leave Maharaji and his Knowledge are the very ones who do. The must be humble, there is nobody who won't leave the lotus feet (if I may use that expression) if they think they never will. Maharaji explains, that it's okay, he expects you to run off, even St Peter denied Jesus thrice though I doubt Maharaji knows that. They must learn the art of "getting back on track" and to do that they must be taught the concepts.

Maharaji makes the absurd claim: there are no assumptions here. People are not told "Hey read this." - No, they are told "Hey, listen to this and this and this and this and always the one and only speaker. "It's not a bunch of assumptions that you have to first agree with and then you proceed" - There are so many assumptions that have to be made before you even accept the possibility of his claims. No amount of his repetitious obfuscations and deflections can change that.

Maharaji, Amaroo-Ivory's Rock Conference Centre Australia, September 25, 2006

The Importance of JoyThe Importance of Joy

But today there's a few things I'd like to talk about. You know, in this life, you can either try to make it. You can try to make it, so you never derail or you can get good and if you do, you get back on it. Now it's something to think about. It's something to think about. There is a manoeuvre and you're learning how to fly. They have you go through this and it's called stall. And it literally is where the wings are not producing any lift anymore. The air over the wings has stalled. And the stall can happen in many shapes and forms. It doesn't have to be any one shape and form. You can get an accelerated stall, for an accelerated stall, all you have to do is be flying just fine and just pull it really hard. And all of a sudden you change the angle of the wing so severely that the wind, the airflow over the wing gets disrupted. It's called an accelerated stop. And the thing is that they make you go through this every time you go, every six months or so on. They make you go through these manoeuvres. And the idea isn't that you want to get good at stalling the aeroplane. But the idea is to see it, recognise it and correct it.

Now all I can relate to from that analogy is how wonderful it would be if I could do that. To recognise. "Hey, I'm going off. It's not right" and correct it. Not sit there and revel in it. But correct it. And amazingly enough, we have that, we have this built into us. If we only pay attention because something from the inside is gonna say "What are you doing?" On the outside, there's going to be ramification, explanations. "This is the right thing." And on the inside it's gonna be "No. This doesn't feel right. This is wrong." Because what do I want in my life? It goes back to that simple basic thing. What do I want in my life? Don't try to define what the thirst is for. What is the thirst? Because people get into that "I think I'm thirsty for this. I'm thirsty for that." No. What is the thirst? What is the thirst telling you? What is the thirst addressing in your life? Did you want to be in that beautiful place to feel that joy. No more. No less. No big explanations. No analysis. No definitions.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006Somebody said to me, "You know, help me go towards salvation." The salvation is always inside of you. The freedom is always inside of you. The joy is always inside of you. These are the things that you want. And these are the things, the very things that you desire are the very things that are inside of you. All you have to do is acknowledge and turn within. Go within. And hence there are the techniques.

But in your life you cannot approach the path of Knowledge with uncertainty, with doubts, with non clarity. The path of Knowledge you have to approach it with certainty, with clarity This is what I want in my life. Then the whole equation comes to life. It isn't about staying on the tracks all the time. It is about, if you get off being able to get back on the tracks. Because this is what this world has you believe. You should be so that you never get off the track. It's not a happening thing. Why? Because you are not rigid. You are a human being. You are a human being and being human, things are going to happen. And the wisdom, wisdom is to be able to get back on that track on that road that leads to that simple beautiful place inside. Bring back in your life clarity.

I know because you have seen it too many times. I've seen people go for loops. That's what I call them. Loops. The reason why I call them loops is because they do come back. That's why I salute. I've also seen people go non-loop. Phweet. (Points up into the distance) It does not loop back. You see in the wisdom of a child. He does not want to be separated. The child does not want to be separated from the parents. But the allure of all those things in that ground are so tantalising, looking at them. This separation may occur. Those people who say "This will never happen. I will hold on to the hand so tight" and this is how they start and they go "This will never happen" are in for a disappointment. People say to me and then short terms what they're really saying is "Don't let me go for a loop" and it's a big one in India. This is a big request people have whenever they get a chance to talk to me. Immediately it's "and please don't, you know, let me go" and I say "that's not up to me. That's up to you" because it takes that conscious effort. Do you understand that? To understand that, that yes, I have the I have the flexibility. I have the privilege to stay on that road, to stay on that track. And if I get off, I wanna get back on. If I get off, I wanna get back on.

Not this whole thing that people start doing "I'll never get off." No. Best of them will get off because it is the human nature. And that's for something. I mean, if you understood that, in a way it sounds like "Wow that's bad." But it's so beautiful. It is so beautiful that, yes, you can come back on track, that you don't ever have to find yourself in that desperation "Now what?' You never have to ask yourself "Now what?" and those people who say "Well I'll never get off the track." They ask themselves that question because they're not prepared to get back on the track. They don't know anything about it. All they have discovered is they're off the track and that's it. That's the end of their world. That's the end of their story. That's the end of their saga because they cannot afford to say "Now what?" but that's exactly what they end up saying "Now what?" and that person who knows, that person doesn't say "Now what?" he says "I get back on. I don't have to ask that question." These are the possibilities in the realm of Knowledge, in the realm of life indeed. Learn, just like everything in this nature. It maximises everything it's got. Maximise, not minimise Maximise.

They're birds that take this incredible flight and they'll go up north during the summer. And you think "Like why?" They don't have clocks. They have their natural clocks. Their intuition that nature has planted into them from generation after generation after generation and they go up north because they can eat as much as they want. Food is available 24/7 and that's what they do, because they gotta raise their young and that's what they do. They're maximised. To a human being this would not make sense. It's like "Hey wait a minute. Let's not go up north, let's go to the equator. It's nicer there you know." And no but they figured it out, the food that they need there's plenty of it available up there and being summer, the sun doesn't set. They got light and they got food and it's a perfect situation to be in, to raise their young, to go on.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006
Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006

Do you know how to maximise? Because people always complain "I don't have enough time. I don't have enough time to practise Knowledge." You haven't maximised. You haven't seen the benefit of what this is.

Most people, most people when they approach Knowledge they approach Knowledge as a fix. If you are a traveller and you travel a lot, then one thing you carry in your cosmetic bag perhaps is aspirin or Tylenol or something. Whatever. Just in case you get a headache, you can take on. Most people think that's what Knowledge is. In case you get a headache, in case you have a problem, in case you have to cope with this world, you need something to make your, you know, life tolerable because you're going - you know because you're going to slam your fingers in the door again and again and again and you don't want to feel the pain, hence Knowledge. Because you're gonna slam your fingers in the door again and again and again and again and again and again and you don't want to feel the pain. Hence yoga. That's what people think.

But from my perspective. That's stupid. Because if you don't wanna feel the pain, stop slamming your fingers in the door and don't have to worry about it. Anything. Because that's what Knowledge isn't. It isn't a fix. It is about a innate thirst, a desire, like you have a desire to breathe. Do you know you have a desire to breathe? It doesn't surface till you're getting choked. But when you're getting choked, all of a sudden you realise you have this incredible desire to breathe. And at that moment, if somebody says "Wanna win a lottery?" and it's like "I wanna breathe."

You know it's like that joke. Somebody fell off a cliff on their way down. They grabbed this branch. When they grab the branch they looked down and it was thousands of feet below. Nothing. They were gonna die. So they started praying "God please, don't let me fall" and all of a sudden this incredible tendering voice came from the sky and said "Okay, as a sign of faith to me let go and I won't let you fall." The guy thinks for a minute and goes "Anyone else up there?"

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006So much, so much is - we don't understand what our real needs are cause we live in a world. We live in a society where the value of water is nothing. Look at a map. Look at a map and look at some of the ancient cities. Look at look at Delhi. Delhi has been around forever. Is one of those ancient cities. Really is. And why? Why there? And why there? Water. That's why there. You look at so many of these places where people settled and one of the most important requirements was to be able to have water. Akbar had a whole city built for himself. It's not too far from Delhi. Fatehpur Sikri it's called. Amazing place. But it never got occupied. You know why? No water. They couldn't solve the water problem. Had to abandon it.

Today we don't think what water like that. We get thirsty. We open our refrigerator. We got taps. What I'm driving at is that does not mean the. we don't get thirst even though we never allow ourselves perhaps to feel the thirst because everything is right there. Maybe there are people sitting here who have never felt that desperation of thirst and to them this is only something that they have seen in a movie. You know like the flight of the Phoenix or something where somebody is dragging themselves through through the desert going water, water, water. There are people, I know there are people sitting here, that when I say 'thirst' to them, an image appears in their mind from a screen from a movie that they have watched rather than a personal experience of such desperation of thirst that they were at the blink of life and death. But not too far in your own past from your ancestors, they probably have and would have understood what that means. How important must have been that whole little setup, to be able to carry water, to be able to carry food because it was understood.

What is the value of life for us? Zilch! And people might say "Well, no it's not zilch." Look at it. There's no respect for that life. People come up with what "We need to fight. We need to attack and off they go." Because in our daily routines we don't come across what life really means. What we come across is frustration. What we come across is anger. I am sure that there are people in some cities, some big cities, that do not know what it is like to be without anger. Anger is 24/7, year round, hour after hour. That's what it is. Frustration, anger, hopelessness, all of those things This is what they experience every single day. But that's not you. You have a need in you, a need in you, to be fulfilled. And in the past, in the past, this need was identified by the Masters and people were told "This is what is driving you. This is everything in your life. Your desire, your need to be fulfilled and you need to be fulfilled.

In this day and age it is hard to explain to people because they see other needs. People have brought other needs in front of them. Other responsibilities have become greater. And this is why I keep saying "Okay, so we live in this world, you know, here we are 2005 and we've got gadgets and we've got all of these things that we have and we have aeroplanes and we have GPS and we have cell phone technology and we have computers and you know the world's gonna take another jump as soon as those, what is it? 300 gigabyte hologram discs come out for memory usage. Everything is gonna change in a very peculiar way when little tiny chips that can hold amazing amounts of data right on a device like your phone and as soon as somebody really comes out with a superconductor that can operate at room temperature. world will really change. But, will you? No that's the point. You stay the same your attributes of being a human being do not change and that's why what was even written a thousand years ago, 2000 years ago, is completely valid for you now because you think you you think that the world has changed because outside objects have changed and therefore you have changed and that is wrong.

Objects have changed. This is correct but you have not changed because you are still a human being and the needs and necessities that you have are exactly the same. The desire to want to be fulfilled has not changed, to be satisfied has not changed, to be in peace has not changed, to be in that joy has not changed. So when I say that Knowledge is not a fix, you see what I'm alluding to. I'm alluding to that fundamental need as important as to breathe. That's how important the need is to be in peace. Because when you are removed from that it can have an effect on you that is unimaginable. I know that when people are placed in that turmoil they stop eating, they stop sleeping and their health starts to deteriorate. Without peace, so many saints have said that without peace, a human being is fish out of water. Try relating that to today. Only somebody who understands can say it is still true that without that peace without that joy. I am like that fish out of water. All my focus. All my attention is to get back to where I am content, where I am happy. I am in that joy.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006They've come up with a new television. This is gonna be great. I mean this is gonna be great. I just can't wait. What this is gonna do. They've taken the pixels on the TV and they have arranged them so that if you are watching the TV from the left side you see one entirely different picture. If you're watching it from the right side you see an entirely different picture. This will end the remote control wars. (laughter) So your wife or your girlfriend or your husband or whoever can be on one side of the bed and be watching a totally different programme whilst the other one is on the other side watching a totally different programme. Imagine your child, if you have one, sit in the middle going "my parents are crazy. What are they watching?" (He really laughs) 27:46 But we take that reality and we switch it in such a way that it's subtle, but it's a fact, are horrible, are horrible, and that reality can never be askewed. Who am I? I am that being on the face of this earth, with a limited time. However long it may be? It is however limited. I do not need to be concerned about it. I just need to keep it somewhere. Give it perspective. Note, not let things skew. And what can I accomplish? What can I do? What can I do? Well, what can I do? There are so many things I'm capable of doing. I'm a human being. We're capable of doing amazing amount of things. But there's one thing that we can do is be in peace. There's one thing we can do is we can be enjoyed. And if you can understand that and not let the reality be askewed then let everything fall, where it falls.

Yes, you have your responsibility. Yes, you have this. Yes, you have that. But yes, you have this too. And that's what it takes. That's what it takes. If you are sleepy and you are driving a car and you're getting sleepier and sleepier and sleepier and sleepier and sleepier. By turning on your windshield wipers and washing the windshield with the washer system. What good is that gonna do? Mainly for a few seconds it might wake you up? But that would be true if you itched your ear or slappped yourself. Cause then it is not the windshield that is dirty here. It is another influence of sleep. If you're, if you're wearing glasses and you're driving in your glasses are really, really dirty. How many times would you need to wash the windshield of a car before you could see clearly out? This has happened to me. It has, sometimes, specially flying westbound. It's the worst. In the evening because the in the cockpit the sun is just right there and it's glued. It's not going down very fast. So you put on your glasses and then you land and you get below and all of a sudden it's dark and and I have this has happened so many times to me or not I'm like "God it's dark." (laughter) At one time I remember in the Lear Jet I was flying and I commented to the copilot, I said "God, it got dark early" and we both looked at each other and I could see he had his glasses on and he saw I had my glasses on and I jokingly said "Hey you've got the glasses on" and he said "yeah you got your glasses on." We took off our glasses and we had a good laugh because it was like "Wow, now it's bright again."

This is what's important, to keep that perspective, to keep that focus, to know, to understand what is important in this. This is not tradeable. This is not negotiable. This is the process of Knowledge. You go somewhere else if you want to understand a religion or a new thing or whatever it is. You have to read up on philosophy, what are the contained sources, that rest of the assumptions are made in and if you agree with the root assumptions, you may be qualified enough to join them but there are no assumptions here. People are not told "Hey read this." People are told "Feel your thirst." Its not a philosophy. It's not a bunch of assumptions that you have to first agree with and then you proceed because as soon as you can feel your thirst, need I say more. (he paused for applause but no) That's all I need to say. Then once you once you are there that you can feel your thirst. Do you understand, that for something this incredible, the water that it's thirsting for is also inside. This is something you have known all your life.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006The techniques, incredibly simple. Do them as a privilege because you want to, not in this thing of "Oh my God. You know, who's got an hour?" This (points at watch) is the greatest liar in the world. It lies to you. One by its shape. It's round. So the hands go round and round. But life doesn't go round and round. And if it is you're in trouble. One day, and this happened to me. I was in Malaysia and I had a watch, put the watch on looked at it. "Okay, that's the time." And, you know, I wanted to go and look at a few things. So I called up and said, "you know, what time does that shop close?" And they go, "Ohh, it closes at, you know, 7:00 o'clock" and this should have been my cue, "but they'll stay open longer if you want them to." This should have been my cue. It was not. Look how nice But, you know, as I was, this is what I'm thinking. They don't have to stay open. I'll be done before that. And what had happened is, this watch operated on a battery, and the battery had gone flat. Did not have second hand. Time was stuck and everything was fine. And so I go out and, you know, sure now I go to this place, and there's nobody else there except the shopkeeper. And then, no, no, we do whatever to look at. And then I come back and it's like, I'm like, God, we still got lots of time. And I was like, already past 9:00 o'clock. And was I tired? Yes. But the Great Liar said, "you can't be, this is early evening." And so it goes. When I took that watch off. Once I came back, I realised what time is it. What happened? This thing isn't working. No batteries. Get a new battery in that.

So all of these things in our lives that we welcome so much skew our reality. We do not safeguard against it. It becomes imperative. Imperative for somebody to constantly hone in and say, hey, reality. Reality. Reality. Reality. You are a evolving process. Hence your understanding becomes an evolving process. Knowledge becomes an evolving process. Your acceptance becomes an evolving process. The joy in your life becomes an evolving process and everything becomes an evolving process. This whole thing, this whole premise that people have, "I received Knowledge" is not valid. It would only be valid if you were static. But you're not. And because you're not static, you receive Knowledge every single day. You have to receive Knowledge. Bring it into your life, every single day. Now people say (actually unintelligible) because it was like to them. It's like it's done. It's like stamping a passport, done. It's not like that. You're not like a passport. Just wanna let you know. You're not like a passport. You are a totally different person today than you were yesterday. Now nothing major happened in your life. You may be similer.

Of course. When one of those major things happens? You know it's different. But you are evolving. Hopefully, you are evolving. So many people are watching Keys and enjoying Keys and I hope that, you know, because the Keys make it straight. It's not like trying to beat around the bush or this or that, its like no, this is needed. This is needed. The element of participation is needed. Why is it needed? Because what good is it? You know, in England, actually started off, we were in Florida. One day after the event, came back to the house and we wrote like 4 or 5 songs, just boom boom boom. One after another, one after another, then we were gonna do these songs, some of these songs and listen and then one night, I was sleeping and this song came so I got up and I wrote it down and went back to sleep. I'm I'm glad I did and that's what service is too, to be able to put it where, because there is the joy, because what you feel in your life from Knowledge, to be able to express it, because if it doesn't get expressed then it is a painting that never got painted. Then it is a song that never got sung. Then it is an instrument that never got played. Then it is the perfect relationship in which it was never expressed that you love the other person. One can make the same argument. I mean if two people are together, they love each other. Why do they have to say I love you? But if you don't, you're not getting your next meal. (laughter) No, I'm just kidding. But if you don't you're in trouble but that feeling has to be expressed. Love has to be expressed and that is important.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006

That is very - just like and this one I know you are very good at, anger has to be expressed because you make no shorts about expressing your anger. Somebody cuts you off on the freeway. Dang. You don't have to do that. You know you can still be perfectly behaved. You don't do that. Fingers come out. Gestures start flying, comments get made, horn goes on and little little little observations like idiot. Just casual observations. But you know how important it is for you to do that because you feel so good afterwards. And love is the same way. And gratitude is the same way. Gratitude is the same way, "Thank you."

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006And that's what service is. That expression of gratitude. Now a lot of people, you know, and I know a lot of people get into it, where "I don't like service. No, it's so complicated." No, no. You have to remember now, its not service that's complicated. It's people that are complicated and of course people will always make anything simple complicated because they can do that, really easily. This is what they've practised all their lives. Because life is simple, isn't it? Really. When you look at it, life is simple and people go out of their way and they practise how to make it complicated every single day. So they have become good at it. And so they take something as simple as gratitude in expression and they make it complicated. My way or highway. We are doing this. We are this, we are that, this comes, that comes, this comes, that comes, this comes, but in that you can never lose the respect for what service is, because it is an expression of that gratitude.

And any human being on the face of this earth, when they feel that feeling inside of them, how can they not have the feeling of that gratitude? It has to be. It can be simple. It should be simple. But that's what it is. Because we need to hear, we need to see the person we love. You know, as a human being, you can't just love a person. See them once and go "good enough." It doesn't work like that, does it? To see that, to be reminded again and again and again. It is an important part of us being who we are. We need that. We need that in our lives. So understanding what is being said, practising this Knowledge, practising this Knowledge. So important. Not making excuses. You made excuses all your life. This is one thing you don't have to make, make an excuse about. Take that time and practise this Knowledge and to participate. If you can do that. Do it easily. Simply. You will find Knowledge is really easy. Really, really easy. And it is all the way, all the way. This is for life.

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006

Maharaji aka Prem Rawat, September 25 2006