Maharaji in Dublin PWK-020 2007-07-25

Maharaji in Dublin July 25, 2007
Passion PWK-020

Hello Ireland. (whoops and shouts) I'm glad this event could take place in Ireland and there's a lot of aspirants here as well. Today I'd like to just talk about one particular topic that we all like to hear about and maybe I can get you to think about it because if you can think about it a little bit and see its importance in your life, maybe it'll make some difference. And the topic is passion. Now I have to say that I have been observing how people use words and there has been a shift for sure.

Love, like. Where the word should be like, people start using the word love. And those are just words, what difference does it make? But if you start believing it, just by virtue if you say it enough times, I love my car, I love my car, I love my car, I love my car, maybe you start believing you really love your car. But you can't really love your car, you can like your car. Car is an innate [inanimate] object. And in the same token, where there needs to be a passion, and where there needs to be a real passion, people have substituted it for what should be just hobby. You ask people, what is your passion? Oh, I just love gardening. That's my passion. Okay, that's your hobby, you like it. You know, it isn't like if you were dying, you would go, no, no, I've got to be in the garden, take me to the hospital. You like it, you enjoy it. And I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy it. Some people like building models. Fine, they spend hours building plastic, gluing, I used to do that too. So it's not like I'm saying you shouldn't do that. In fact, one time I remember I built this model, quite a big model of a fighter jet. And you know, putting it together doesn't take very long, but doing all the detail work, all the decals, and painting, and all the dials, and everything, takes a tremendous amount of time. So I finally finished it, and I gave it to my eldest son, like here, you know. And I was hoping he would take it and admire it, and just like, wow, this is neat. And instead, he took it, he held it like this, and went. Of course, it landed and shattered in about a thousand pieces.

But passion. What do you have passion for in your life? Truly. What can you have passion for? What can truly ignite the fire in you to admire? To admire something so incredible, to want, to think about, to be passionate about, to love. What can that be? And there's so many things in this world. So many ideas in this world. Their are books. And once again, I'm not against books, believe me. But what do I read, written by somebody else, somebody else's feelings? Maybe I'm different. Because if I read Kabir, I want to feel that, what he felt. I admire beautiful paintings. In my photography, when I take pictures, light is everything. But when I see that beautiful painting, and if it inspires something in me, then I want to do something that also inspires that in me. To me, just to read the words is a little bit like having a sticker on your refrigerator, smile, it's a wonderful day. No, no. I want to smile because I want to smile. And it is not so much that I want to smile, but I want something in my life that makes me smile.

That I want, in my existence, something that I can truly be passionate about. I like flying. And I think that even if you have had a perfectly wonderful, perfect, perfect flight, next time it can be done better. But what is it? That all those things that are in my life, what can I truly be passionate about? So here, I'm not the only one talking. Many, many have said that if you want to be passionate in your life, then be passionate about something that is so special, so amazing, so real. You cannot be passionate about imagination. So just something that is in your imagination. It cannot be, oh, I love dragons. Yeah, you know. I like dragons, I guess as much as the other guy, but, you know, they're neat, they're powerful, they're great, they can fly, they can breathe fire. But I can't touch one. I can't go talk to one. What do I do? I mean, whatever it is that I need to be passionate about, I need for that thing to be really real. Not a figment of my imagination. Not a bunch of reasons coming together and saying, okay, here it is. Fall in love with this.

You know that if you need to sit down, one of the things you do is you check it out, wherever it is you're going to sit down, make sure it's like, you know, it's going to support your weight. You can't sit in air, you'll fall through. So what is it? What is it that's truly real? That's amazing.

That's incredible. That's not imagination. That's a lot of strong tests to pass. It has to be real. And not only does it have to be real, but it has to be amazing. And then, to unleash. Because I feel that it isn't, passion isn't one of those things that you generate. No, you unleash. It's already there in you. And you open the gates. And it comes pouring out. It's there. So what do you want to be in love with? What is it in this whole world that is worthy of your love? Maybe you have never even loved something with that amazing passion that you can love with. You have tried to love people, you have tried to love things. But everything has a vague way of changing infinitely. Just changing, changing, changing, changing, changing, changing. And it somehow never lands the same way. Is there something that I was born to love? If there's an ability in me, if there's an ability in you to love, what is the extent of that ability? How big is it? How big is it? Do you know? I mean, we see, we read a fairy tale.

And in the fairy tale, it's the guy and he's got a shiny armor. He's got a white horse. He's a knight. Oh, you're my knight in shining armor. Everybody, oh, you're my knight. They even have cards that say, oh, you are my knight in shining armor. See that? Remember, this is a fairy tale. And in fairy tales, they just end and they live happily ever after. And when I was very young, I used to love to listen to stories. I just if it took all night long, I was fine. And every night it had to be a new story. I really liked it. And when they would say, and then they lived happily ever after, I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. Keep going. I want to, I want to know what this happily ever after was. Because then you had to make a big assumption. Okay, and then what? They just kind of freeze, just like, and it's done, it's finished. The reality is locked up.

What happened? So we're going to talk about passion. Maybe we can begin with clearing a few assumptions. That every human being has a capacity to love. I'm talking about not just love, the ultimate love. That every human being has this capacity. And that all the things placed in front of it, all the things placed in front of it may inspire some amount of love, but the right thing placed in front of it would make it dynamically just explode. Infinite passion, if you will. This is every single human being's capacity. We have traits. We have certain natures. Every single human being has those. We have the ability to feel pain. When something painful is placed in front of us, what it triggers is pain. When our hopes, and our dreams, and our ideals, and our little castle of sand, when somebody comes and plays with it, we like it. We like it. When hope is taken away, we like it. When hopelessness is placed in front of a human being, it just triggers pain. A lot of people think, well, and a lot of people, so many people think that, well, you know, if you had money, that would take care of everything.

And one of the examples I have been giving recently at my events is, how do you explain to a penniless Indian farmer, penniless, why Paris Hilton is crying? You see, because he feels his pain. He has family, perhaps, and he sees that they have to go hungry, and to all his problems, there's a solution. And the solution is wealth. And Paris Hilton has lots of it. But she's crying too. Now, how do you explain this to this guy? That it isn't wealth that takes away your pain. I mean, I'm not trying to demean Paris Hilton. I like her. I haven't met her, but I like her. And I think she got dealt a few rock hards. But that's a whole another story. But it is, it doesn't matter. All the wealth in the world doesn't matter. And I'm sure that if anybody wanted to get an appointment with Paris Hilton, except for the period when she was in jail, where she had plenty of time, that you couldn't get an appointment with her, because she's busy doing this, doing this, going there, going there. Because not only she has an incredible inheritance coming, she's wealthy in her own right. So, how do you explain? You can't. What the person thinks that if I have this, this and this and then all my problems will be taken care of. Sorry, that's not what happens in real life.

Next time you want solutions to your problem, give it a thought of what solution are you looking for? What are you looking for? What do you want to get away from? And go where? It is not sufficient, my friends, to just desire I want to be here. It doesn't work like that. In nature, you can desire you want to be here, but you also have to desire where are you going to be? Because just saying I want to be there, where do you want to be? If you are, well, I want to be there. If you decide that I want to be there, then that will automatically happen. You have to worry about that. But most people have a nice long list of what they want in their lives and a zilch list of what they do want in their lives. That's not how things work. People, I want pain. Okay, fine. I agree. But where do you want to be? Because wherever it is that in your head you have decided you want to be may be more painful than what you're getting out of. You know that. You know that. It's like being in a bog. And you're sinking and you go, I want to be over there. That's even more liquidy over there. You will sink faster.

What do you want? Do you know what drives you? Do you know your nature? Do you know what inspires you? Do you know what is this thing that doesn't like pain? Do you know that? Do you know this thing that wants you to feel in peace? And not a conjured up peace, not a peace that is of somebody's imagination, but real peace. Why? Why are you attracted to truth? What truth? What truth? What is this truth business? This microphone is black. The chair I'm sitting on is gray. Is that truth? Of course it's true. Right? Wrong? What? So you felt peace? You felt that salvation? That truth is supposed, did you feel free? Were you freed in that moment? When I said this microphone is black, let me add, this microphone is flat black. This chair is almost neutral gray. Almost, not quite. So are you free? You feel free now? Did you see God? You see? This may be true, but that's not the, the, the truth will set you free. This truth is irrelevant. So what if this chair was black? Big deal. What if this chair was red? I probably wouldn't sit on it, but big deal, big deal. The truth, very big deal. And where is it? And what is this freedom business? Why do human beings like the idea of freedom? To be free.

You feel imprisoned? Are the very ideas of how you will be free imprisoning you, stopping you from being free? Resounding, yes. That's what's happening. Our definitions of how we will be free are the very things that entrap us because we sit there and argue with each other of what freedom is, of what truth is, of what God is. You think God, and I'm talking about the Almighty, that one that is omnipresent, without whom a grain of dirt in this universe does not move. That power needs to be defined by us so it can fall in the right box, right proportion, so it can have a right postcode. That's what they do, they? They take the counties and they take the cities and they divide it up and they give a different postcode so your letter will get to that and this is what people do.

Take that power, they put their grid back on and say, here, let me define what God is. Let me define what heaven is. Let me define what hell is. And let me define how you can get out of hell. And let me define how you can get into heaven. And you put all those ingredients together and bingo, you have religion. Those are the key ingredients, you need those key ingredients. It's like Indian food. You need those certain key, there's no way without those certain key ingredients you're gonna have Indian food. No, you need those key ingredients and they're common to all religion. And mistake me, I'm not saying you shouldn't follow religion. If you wanna follow religion, follow religion. But do Hindus really drink water a different way? When it gets to their mouth? I mean, there may be hundreds of ways to get the water to your mouth, up to your mouth. But once it's in your mouth, what do you do? There's not too many ways, are there? And you try to get fancy with it, you're probably gonna choke.

How many dishes are there in this world, do you think? I know. Millions? Different variations? Cooked by different people, differently, this way, that way. But then once it gets in your mouth, and now people have different kinds of teeth too. They can get gold teeth, porcelain put on their teeth. One guy, I was watching a documentary, actually has them filed. So they're all pointed, like a cat. And he's even got his whole body tattooed like a cat. Okay, so maybe the art of chewing is different too. But then, when it has to go past this point, are there different ways? No. Swallow. I've seen Japanese do it. I've seen Indians do it. I've seen Americans do it. And I've seen people who didn't do it. And were very sorry.

So we live, some live in tall towers, some live underground, some live in cheap housing, some live in expensive housing, some live in good areas, some live in bad areas, some live here, some live there, some live in Ireland, some live in America, some live in Canada. But when it comes to breathing, do we not all need air? Are we really so different? Are we? Are we that different that we say, no, no, no, your God, my God, this God, that God. And you know, they say about Indians, they say, oh, they believe in so many gods. No, they. They really. There is a mistranslation. This is a fluke of translation. And Indians believe in one God. And they literally believe in the three elements of God, which is generator, operator, and destroyer.

Three things that God does. Creates, sustains, and gets rid of. Or transforms. Recycling bin. And all the other ones, they're just deities. One for traveling. One for wealth. One will bring you good luck. One will help you out with this. One if you travel by ship. One if you travel by road. One if you travel by horse. I mean, but they're not gods. Indians do not consider them gods. And they pray to them in the same way that they pray to God. I mean, God's the tops. But if you're traveling, you say, God, help me. And to ensure that, you get a good word with the guy in charge of that department. And offerings, you know, look at the whole Indian culture. It works on, you have to grease somebody's hand for something. So a little side, you know, here. Here's some bananas for you. Do my job. Does it work? Well, sometimes. And the other times, no. The bus falls right off. Even though everybody gave good, good bribes. Sometimes it's on the way there. Sometimes it's on the way back. So those people who got successfully, see, it worked. And those who slept, they have much of a say. But it's like, oops. Didn't work. Any different than anywhere else in the world? No.

All the reasoning that we have, in this reasoning, we haven't reasoned our nature. We have not incorporated our nature. That there indeed is such a thing, that if it was connected with us, if our consciousness was plugged into that, that it would bring, not just joy, but supreme joy. Joy unparalleled. And me thinks we should be. That if we were, the floodgates would open. Reasonings would not be needed. But to understand the ultimate truth, because the ultimate truth is so simple, my friends, it's so simple, that you have to be utterly simple to be able to understand it. Incredibly simple. How simple? How simple? With the heart of a child. What does a child have that you? I mean, you know, you have more of everything. You're older, more hair. Some. I mean, what? What does a child have that you? Because it's been, and I'm not the one that's saying this, this has been said many, many times before by many, that if you want to experience that, you have to have a heart of a child. What possibly could a child have? You're sophisticated. You have a lot of ideas. You have a lot of concepts. You've seen the world. You've been under the hammer a few times. A little bit seasoned behind the ears.

Gosh, I would think that you would be far more suited. But what is this? What is this? You're not called into it. But quite the reverse. Someone with a heart of a child. So what is this thing that a child has that you? That's it. What is it? The child has simplicity. You, therefore, you do not qualify. So if you want, if you want to experience that passion, you will have to have a heart of a child. That means not doing, uh-uh, it means undoing. But people think it must be doing because everything in your life is doing. Want to become simple? What do I do to become simple?

Doctor, I cannot fall asleep. What do I do? You know, that's why you can't fall asleep. If you want to do something, forget about doing and just be. Close your eyes. Do something? Of course it's do something. I've got to do this. I've got to do this. I've got to finish my report. I've got to finish my homework. Do, do, do, do, do. I got to call that person. I got to call that person. Oh my God, what's going to happen if I call that person? Oh my God, what's going to happen to me? I mean, my life, you know, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. And really the trick to fall asleep is do anything. And you will fall asleep. Undo. Which book? What book do I read? Give me a book quick. I got to go to that self-help section and find a book so I can do something. Isn't it about doing? No, it's about not doing. It's about undoing. Look at your bag.

All your life you have gone, picked up things and put in that bag. Picked up things, put in that bag, picked up things. But have you actually ever opened the bag and taken a look at the contents? Because I guarantee you that if you were to look at the contents of that bag, probably 90% is garbage. I'm being conservative here. I want to really hurt anyone's feeling. So I threw in 90%. You got a 10% margin. There's precious things in there. I mean our nature. My God, our nature is to accumulate junk. Good things, I know why we accumulate them. Junk, absolutely. One day I packed my briefcase and I lifted it and it was really heavy. First it wouldn't close properly. It was really heavy. So that was it. I opened it, pulled everything out. Everything out. Got a vacuum cleaner, cleaned it, and then started going through all the paper that was in there. Two-year-old schedules were in there. Garbage.

Totally unrelated things. They were in there. Expired letters were in there. And I'm like, shredder, shredder, shredder. I may need this. And that's it. That's it. Tell me, traveler, do you really know where you're going? And this is why you have an accurate idea of what it is that you're going to need? Or just a wild guess. Because one day this bag will become not an asset, but a liability. You won't be able to pick it up. And you won't be able to leave it behind. This is what happens.

Freedom is there. It does not need to be created. It is from the very things that we have placed, the burdens that we have placed upon our very own shoulders. No one else did it. We did it ourselves. Are the very things that bog us down on this path of life. And is this road straight? Is this road hilly? Is this road what? What kind of road is life? What kind of road is life? Then let me tell you. Some parts are definitely hilly. And some parts are just flat. And some parts actually have a nice gentle slope. And some parts way too much slope. Slippery. And no, bring 10 pair of shoes. That's not what you want to do. That's not what you want to do. Walk, and the key to walking is not measuring how fast you are walking. And the key is not to measure how many miles more to go. And not the key is not to measure how many miles you have come. But the key to walking this walk is to enjoy every single step you take. No, no. Not one. And not two. And not three. But every single step you take, you've got to enjoy it.

This is how it is. And walk so fast that it tests your endurance. Because in reality, my friends, there are no benches on the side of the road. You do not get to sit down and rest. Where you refuse to walk, it will drag you. Because there is this thing called time attached to this existence. And this is why passion becomes important. Because without that passion, this life, and what is it said? It's like food. And actually the saying goes, food without salt. But really what is being meant here, since people are salt sensitive, we should all have reduced salt. Food without taste. That's what this life becomes. Food without, you cannot enjoy it. You can eat it. You can chew it. But you cannot enjoy it.

Of course, this all begs this question, what is this enjoying stuff anyways? Why should we have to enjoy everything? Why should we have to enjoy this life? Why? What is so wrong about pain once in a while? Maybe it keeps you honest. You know, maybe there are reasons. And one could reason away. But that's not your nature. You hate it when you enjoy. You hate it. You hate it. When you were young, you were in the car, trapped. When are we going to get there? When are you going to get there? And your dad would say, shut up! And you'd start crying. I mean, you just hated it. I mean, what you hated, you really hated. I was watching this show on TV. And this is about everything that goes on in an airport. And there was this little kid. He must have been five, six years old. And it was his first flight. And he was scared. And he didn't want to get on the airplane. And they brought him. And every step of the way, there was a fight. They brought him to the stairs, and he's like, no! And they talked him into it. And he went up the stairs, and there he sees the airplane. And I want to go! And they got, talked him in. I mean, everything. He just hated and hated, until he kind of fell asleep. And when you hated something when you were young, you were told, shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Be quiet.

If your parents were respectful, be quiet. And if they didn't think a whole lot of you to begin with, shut up! And he started crying, and the dad would go, cry, otherwise I'll give you something to cry about. You know, things didn't change. The message got through to you. Shut up. So like a good little kid, you shut up. But the hate didn't go away. And what you hated, you still hate. You just cry and stiff upper lip and take it. You're a man. You're grown up. You can do this. Human being is an incredibly fine, sensitive, experiencing instrument. I mean, first of all, here we are. And this biggest organ, which is on the outside, our epidermis, our skin, feels. Oh, it doesn't just feel. It feels different things differently. I mean, there's our fingertips. Then there's the palm. The palm feels a little differently than the fingertips. The back of the hand feels, too, but different.

And then we have eyes… And you know what they do? What do eyes do? They see. They react to light. And do you know what you do? You take that light that is falling into these eyes, and you convert it into a feeling, an experience. I like that. Ooh, that's gross. Everything. An artist takes some strings made out of metal, wires them on a piece of instrument with a key, and then strums. And as he strums, he touches that string in different places, creating different octaves, just noise. You know, in fact, have you ever heard white noise? A lot of times when there's no signal on the TV, and that noise… That's very close to white noise. By the way, you know what's special about white noise? It encompasses all the noise you can hear. That's what white noise is. It's got… Most of the listening spectrum is there. And that guitar sound of that string playing in beautiful octaves with nice slides, with expression, is in that white noise. Ah. But it doesn't feel the same, does it? Ah, so the ears… They just hear. Of course they do. But you know what you do? You take that hearing, and they go, Ah, that is sweet. You know, nothing is so fine-tuned to taking everything… Oh, yeah, the taste? Mmm.

Food, I mean, food. Oh, no, no, but… No, no. You have all the logic in the world, and your logic should say, Hey, it doesn't matter if it tastes good. What you need is these nutrients, and this, and this, and this, and… No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not human beings. We do completely the most illogical thing you can possibly imagine. We want that wheat to taste as good as it can. The fields, and the water, and the tea. You need tea. You. But you found… Not you, but your ancestors somewhere. Our ancestors found this leaf, that if you dried it, and then boiled it, and put just the right amount of sugar, and the right amount of milk, and the right temperature, it tasted really good. And when that good taste went in your mouth, you went, Mmm. That's how it is. The Italians, finicky about the pasta. Al dente. Why? You know what's going to happen to this stuff? And when it comes out, it doesn't matter if it's al dente. Oh, no. But when it's going in here, it has to be perfect. Why? Because it feels so…

That's the tool you are. Place in it that truth that resides in you and it will sing out for the most incredible ecstasy. It's the ultimate, ultimate. Place this instrument. You can play the nuances, unbelievable. This resonance, this gratitude, contentment, peace, joy. These are the notes of this instrument when it's played right. When you play it right, that's what happens. Gratitude, peace, contentment, bliss. Understanding, ring out. Literally just ring out of this instrument. So if you have not heard the song, it's not because of the instrument. You haven't played it with the passion it deserves. Play it with the passion it deserves and you too will hear sounds emanating from this that you have been yearning to hear all your life. Fortunately or unfortunately, till you play it, that yearning will never go away. And if you do play it, that yearning will simply increase. And in my book, when something is like that, that without it, the yearning never goes away and with it, the yearning increases, then this is the most accurate description of true passion. And that's the passion you need in your life. Anything else is short-changing this instrument, short-changing this instrument. It's fine, it's beautiful, it's incredible, it's sensitive. It feels, it feels, it feels, it feels during the day, it feels during the night. When you feel good, it just wants to feel good. And when you feel good, it wants to feel good even more. Then this is the passion you should have. Do not compromise. One life, one life, one life.