Sections of Prem Rawat's Speeches quoted in Sacred Journeys by James V. Downton
When I was a little boy, I was just like every other little boy going here and there, playing. When 1 was six, my father gave me Knowledge. I was given Knowledge and I didn't realize it right away. But I understood it was my duty and I began to meditate and in about a month I realized it. When I was eight, late Maharaj Ji left his body. He was very sick in Delhi. There were all these telephone calls. I was at home and it was time to go to school, so I went to school and I was sitting in the classroom and the driver from Delhi came and called the teacher out to tell her about Shri Maharaj Ji. The madame came back into the class and said to me, "Go."
I went home and everyone was weeping. I was just sitting there not weeping and something began to happen to me. I began to feel that I am not this body; that I could not move these lips. I always thought that the soul would leave by the mouth, but my mouth was shut. Still I felt like I was leaving my body and my soul was everywhere going out. And this voice came to me saying: "You are He, you are the one to continue."
Then I puzzled over the voice. Thirteen days later, I was doing pranam to my father's ashes and bones. You know, in India, they burn the bodies and thirteen days later you collect the ashes. I bent down to touch the ashes, and the voice came, "You are he, you are the one to go and give this to the world."
I didn't want to be Satguru. I would have been satisfied to be a mischievous little boy. I didn't understand why it is me. I would have been satisfied to be the humblest servant of the Satguru and not to be one myself. It was not my desire. But the late Maharaj Ji had left one letter when he was away. He sent his love to his oldest three sons and complete prostrations to his youngest. So they crowned me with the crown of Rama and Krishna and put the tilak on my forehead, and again the voice came: "This is the last I will tell you. You are He, you must take this Knowledge out to the world."
Then for the first time I did not give satsang. The satsang just came and I began to speak (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1974). 1
See, the whole world has been created out of vibrations, and the source, the primordial vibration, is the Word. If you clearly listen, if you can, sometimes when there is no sound at all, not any sound and you listen very attentively to the air which is blowing, you will hear the Word. Very attentively, if you listen to the air, you will hear this Word (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 1
The soul is actually an energy, a part of that energy which is vibrating within, inside of us. You see, everything is a vibration. My hand is a vibration of something. Everything is a vibration. And then there is a primordial vibration, which is, of course, the highest and the most beautiful vibration of all. One vibration is vibrating, that's why all the vibrations are vibrating (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 2
Meditation is the only medium through which you can increase your love and love will again spring forth, will make you one, and finally everything will be organized (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1975). 3
The world thinks, people think, God is a man. People think God has ears, nose, teeth, and he rises early in the morning, brushes His teeth, washes out His mouth, and He is an old man, so he brushes out His beard also. But no, God is energy. God is perfect and pure energy, and that is why scientists say that energy cannot be destroyed and cannot be created. This is Knowledge. This is the Word of God (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 4
One premie came to me and asked this question, "Why do you want us to leave these drugs?" I said, "Well, now you have to realize this Knowledge, haven't you?" And he said, "Yes." And I said, "Well, suppose you come to my home and you bring an automobile. Do you bring the automobile right to my room?" He said, "No, I leave it outside. And I said, "Same thing here. You used to take drugs, and you say apparently these drugs brought you to a point. But then you took Knowledge and that was beyond them. So now leave the drugs and proceed purely, proceed naturally" (Guru Maharaja Ji, 1972). 2
Many people think that by creating an external atmosphere, a special environment, that we will be able to get that peace. But no. External atmospheres are limited to external things, to external organs. You can get something externally, but when we want to experience that internal Knowledge, we have to create a completely peaceful atmosphere inside us (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 5
Everybody is concentrating on their stomachs. So how am I going to be able to give them the Truth, which is good for the heart? People are completely relying on their brains to get what they want, even if it is something beyond the brain's capacity to obtain. But the brain is not pure, and can never obtain the pure thing, the thing for which we are really searching. That is why we are so restless (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 6
Satsang means the company of Truth, and Truth is something you cannot see but you can realize. Satsang is also something that you cannot see but you can feel. This feeling when it is expressed outwards is satsang (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 1
These dual eyes are good for seeing the duality of the world, but to see the oneness of God, we need the one eye of Knowledge (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 2
If you come to me with a guileless heart, you will surely receive this most ancient spiritual Knowledge which, if practiced upon, will give us perfect peace of mind (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1973). 3
If you want real satisfaction, then it is the mind that has to be conquered; it is the mind that has to be satisfied. And the means to do this is by using a special Knowledge, a special way, a special system. And this is the system that has been described by all the saints. A thousand suns may rise and there will still be darkness. Man will still be in frustration; man will still know, but when a man finds the Guru then he will have the eternal Light. Three kinds of light-sun, moon, and fire-can be seen by everybody. Pigs, dogs, donkeys, and men, they can all see these three lights, but the Divine Light is the fourth light and only human beings can see this, and only those human beings who go to the Master and ask to be shown it (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 4
We don't claim that we are the only way, that only we can give this spiritual Knowledge. Instead, we tell you to search and find out what is the best way. But what we do say is that we have the spiritual Knowledge and we also will give it (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 6
How are you going to see who is the real Lord? It's simple! First of all, you are going to receive his Knowledge-what he gives you, and then you're going to see. If it is true, you are going to go ahead and bow down to Him and say, right you are my Lord, and if it is false, throw it way. I don't claim myself to be God. I don't claim myself to be any prophet, any Messiah, anything. I just claim myself to be the humble servant of God, and I have brought this message for you - I have brought this Knowledge for you. That's for you, not for me. I have realized it. It's okay with me now. It's for you, and you should receive it. If you don't believe me, okay, many people don't believe me. Maybe they think, "He is a child; he is kidding." But it is before you, and you can test it, you can see. If I am kidding, it's before you, and one million people have received it all around the world. How to receive it? Go to a source, I say I have it. You want? By all means you can take it. What you need is love. And not that love you give externally, but I seek a part of that love you give to God - Pure Love, that's all I seek (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 7
This is the mystery of nature, that there is a hidden Light in everything, and you have to realize what that hidden Light is, what that hidden thing is, what that hidden current is in you that is constant and can never die. These are the teachings of all the saints on record. That thing that is making things alive is the most constant thing in the world because it is the power of God, and this is making everything alive (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 1
There is a musk deer which has musk hidden in its belly button, always giving off a scent, and this scent intoxicates the deer. He is naturally attracted to it, yet does not know where it comes from. So he looks everywhere for the source and in the end in crazy frustration he jumps off from the mountain and falls and dies. You are just like this musk deer. You run around searching for the light, the source of your life, the abode of peace and understanding, and all the time it is inside you. But you don't know it. (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 2
Today, the guitar is played. We love it. Today, rock and roll music is played. We love it. Today, jazz music is played. We love it. Classical music is played. We love it. But there is a music going on inside of yourselves also, and God plays that music (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 3
'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.' The Word is an unspeakable vibration that's keeping us alive." This Word is hidden, and then it is just shown to you., You understand it, you catch it, and then you receive the satisfaction of mind, because to our mind this Word is a church (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 4
What is meditation? Perfect concentration upon a perfect thing is called meditation. Just remember that. For then you are making your soul and God into one, at that time you are receiving perfect communion with God. Because you have put all your mind into the Knowledge, into that peace which is God. Do you see? So you are doing everything at that time. You are worshipping, you are talking, you are seeing, you are listening, you are experiencing, you are touching, you are feeling, you are everything (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 5
From where is your breath coming? Who is making your breath alive there? Just observe it. You weren't breathing at night, were you? You never thought to take a breath at night. You never said, "Well, I am going to sleep, but yet I will be taking a breath." You just went to sleep. And still your breath was going on, the Word was helping this breath to go on ahead. If we realize that Word, it will be quite clear before us what is making us alive every moment. And what is making leaves alive. What is making birds alive. What is making animals alive. What is making the whole world alive (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1971). 6
Guru has got more significance than God. Why? There's a very logical explanation to it-how actually Guru is bigger than God. See, let me explain it from my way. When I was born, God existed, but I never saw God. I never knew Him. Either He was ashamed to turn up out of a hole, you know, or so on; I just never knew Him, until Guru Maharaj Ji came into my life; till Guru Maharaj Ji came in my way, and showed me and revealed me that secret. And the day he did that, there it was, I knew God. So to whom should I give significance? This is something that you can decide, to whom should I give significance? God was there, I was there, I was alive, God was alive, and God was right in my heart. I just never knew Him. To whom should I give significance at this moment? My guru, because he is the one who revealed me that, he is the one who told me. I never knew if God existed. My guru is the one who revealed God to me (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 7
As you know, many countries are fighting or trying to fight just because they think that they are enemies and that they must destroy. The idea should be brought out that people are not enemies, but are children of God. All have been made by God, and it's not good if a brother fights with a brother. You see, what I want to accomplish, or what I want to bring down onto the earth, is peace. That's my point, to give this Knowledge, this Word, this Light, which has been revealed by all saints (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 1
Guru always has to give His blessings to you, you need that, then you'll roll right on (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 2
All the saints have been trying to give something to people so that they might be in perfect union with God. Jesus came and He gave something. He gave the lesson of love, but He didn't speak only of love, He gave something that put people into love. I am doing the same thing now, giving something to people so that they might be in complete love, so that they might be in the true love which flows towards God rather than the love which flows towards materialism. Suppose I love this fan and this fan comes to an end. If it breaks, then my love will break. But God is something that can't break. Love towards God is very pure, and such love will increase and spread (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 3
If you don't meditate, you won't realize. And I must tell you one thing, and that is that you don't meditate for me. You meditate for yourself. You should get high. I am high enough; you should get high. You need this meditation because you need to get high. You must get to that point where you can also reach the infinite state. I have given you this Knowledge, therefore it is your duty to meditate upon it (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1972). 4
Knowledge is within, inside of us, but we have to understand the way to realize it. Our face is right with us, but we cannot see it until and unless we have a mirror in front of us. That's the thing. We have to have a mirror. The mirror is the Perfect Master. Like water, he is also known by different names (Guru Maharaj Ji, 1973). 5
If you want to stay in the world," he has said, "be like a lotus flower which stays in the dirty water. You can live in the world of concepts, but live in such a way so that they don't affect you." 12
That is 'I,' that is ego, and that has to be overcome. Ego come, delusion come, black light come. Opposite projection. Mind always brings duality, and what is the other word we use for duality? Individual? This is my individual property, that means this is mine, that is yours. Mind brings duality, soul brings reality. That's why there is delusion. Really there is no individuality. When everybody is one, there should be no individuality. Everything should be one. But ego carries the word 'I' with it. 'I' is the individuality, the mind." 17
"You think that your wife, your husband, your children will give you love? No. It is the love of selfishness. Baby loves mother because mother gives him milk, but not because they have a connection. No, just because of selfish love. In the same way, you love everything because of selfishness. But you love guru without selfishness. It is pure and perfect love; it is that love which cannot be disturbed by mind at all." 18
"As you know, when premies receive Knowledge, I become more involved with them, and every year it's been more and more. As a matter of fact, we've been thinking about putting in a few more programs. Why limit it to the dates of Guru Puja? We want to have them so that more premies can come and we can get more involved and that love can evolve around us more and more." 1
"They never really understood that the power of the Perfect Master is not a worldly power of dominion over people, but simply the power to bring peace and fulfillment to people's lives." 5
"So there's a common understanding that every one of us has to have with each other, and that relationship can only be formed when we have more satsang. Because what am I doing right now? I'm explaining something to you and I'm putting an idea into you, into your brain: 'What is this?' … I am giving you satsang. There is the Truth behind it, and I am trying to bring you into the company of Truth more and more and more and more. I am trying to bring you to real satsang so we can really understand." 6
"Don't expect that all these premies who are in the ashram right now are going to stay in the ashram. I hope they don't." 7
"only cosmetic and totally unnecessary. It's like trying to take a cow and put lipstick on it. You can do it, but its unnecessary in practical terms and in terms of any practical purpose. … Already these changes have severely affected the premies in America and these changes have also brought about questions that were put to me. … The changes were intended to make the organization more efficient. … I feel that the kind of approach that was taken was wrong, that it didn't bring efficiency. Actually, it brought deficiency into the system." 8
"There's a much better chance of efficiency in our kind of organization because we understand one basic thing. We understand one fundamental thing and that is Knowledge. … Divine Light Mission not only has its purpose but you have to imagine that without Guru Maharaj Ji, all of those purposes are totally useless. … If you ask the question, what came first, Guru Maharaj Ji or the Mission, the answer is clear as possible that Guru Maharaj Ji came and made the Mission. So whose Mission is this? It is Guru Maharaj Ji's Mission." 9
"Guru Maharaj Ji that gave me this Knowledge is my guru and that's whom I am referring to. Of course it's not physical. What I am actually referring to is that omnipotent power." Question: "You mean God?" Answer: "Well, we can't really harness Him down into words. It would be kind of hard." 10
Speaking to a conference of coordinators in Portland in 1977, he said: "This is really beautiful, you know, that everything is starting to happen over again, that premies are really understanding. But one of the things that we have to be sure about is that when premies do Arti, they understand what they're saying and that they mean it. Because there's no point to just sit there and blab about it and not even mean it. You have to really mean it. You have to really understand it. Because its a prayer. And the same thing with really listening to satsang."
Notes
Chapter 6. Growing Up
1. Edwin D. Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Study of the Growth of Religious Consciousness (London: Walter Scoot, 1914).
2. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: American Library, 1958).
3. Milton Mayeroff, On Caring (Evanston, New York: Harper and Row, 1971).
4. Armand M. Nicholi II, "A New Dimension of the Youth Culture," American Journal of Psychiatry 131 (April 1974), pp. 390-401.
5. Carl W. Christensen, "Religious Conversion in Adolescence," Pastoral Psychology 16 (September 1965), pp. 18-19.
6. Milton Rokeach, "Faith, Hope, Bigotry," Psychology Today 3 (April 1970), p. 58.
7. Victor D. Sanua, "Religion, Mental Health, and Personality: A Review of Empirical Studies," American Journal of Psychiatry 125 (1969), p. 1211.
8. Christensen, "Religious Conversion in Adolescence," p. 24.
9. Michael I. Harrison, "Preparation for Life in the Spirit: The Process of Initial Commitment to a Religious Movement," Urban Life and Culture 2 (January 1974), pp. 394-98.
10. George C. Anderson, "Maturing Religion," Pastoral Psychology 22 (April 1971), p.20.
Chapter 7. Psychedelics: Blowing Open the Doors of Perception
1. Guru Maharaj Ji : Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (a short collection of Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang, 1973), p. 25. Dates noted in the text next to Guru Maharaj Ji's name are the years when his satsang was given.
2. And It Is Divine (the U.S. Mission's main publication) (January 1973), p. 45.
3. Ibid. (March 1975), p. 39.
4. Guru Maharaj Ji. Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 4.
5. Francine J. Daner, "Conversion to Krishna Consciousness: The Transformation from Hippie to Religious Ascetic," in Ros Wallis (ed.), Sectarianism: Analysis of Religious and NonReligious Sects (New York: John Wiley,and Sons, 1975), pp.56-57. J. Stillson Judah, Hare Krishna and the Counterculture (New York: John Wiles and Sons, 1974), p. 135.
6. Armand M. Nicholi II, "A New Dimension of the Youth Culture," American Journal of Psychiatry 131 (April 1974), p. 397.
Chapter 8. Between the Sacred and Profane
1. Thomas Robbins, "Eastern Mysticism and the Resocialization of Drug Users: The Meher Baba Cult," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 8 (Fall 1969), p. 309.
2. And It Is Divine (April 1973), p. 63.
3. Benjamin Weininger, "The Interpersonal Factor in Religious Experience," Psychoanalysis 3 (1955), p. 33.
4. Guru Maharaj Ji: Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 4.
5. And It Is Divine (December 1972), p. 4.
6. Divine Light (a British publication of the Mission) (April 1972), p. 23.
7. Guru Maharaj Ji: Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 25.
8. Satguru Maharaj Ji (a pamphlet; date unknown, but c. 1972), p. 7.
9. John Lofland, Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Praselytization, and Maintenance of Faith (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1966), pp. 7, 44.
Chapter 9. Preparation
1. Divine Light (April 1972), p. 25.
2. Ibid., p. 24.
3. Divine Times (the Mission's U. S. newspaper) (February 15, 1973), p. 6.
4. Ibid. April 20, 1972), p. 3.
5. Ibid. (February 15, 1973), p. 7.
6. Divine Light (November 1972), p. 24.
7. And It Is Divine (December 1972), p. 7.
Chapter 10. Encounters with God
1. Divine Light (March 1972), p. 22.
2. Ibid. (April 1972), p. 23.
3. Guru Maharaj Ji: Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 5.
4. Divine Light (February 1972), p. 5.
5. Ibid. (November 1972), p. 18.
6. Guru Maharaj Ji: Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 15.
7. And It Is Divine (January 1973), p. 49.
8. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: American Library, 1958), p. 157.
9. E. T. Clark, The Psychology of Religious Awakening (New York: MacmIllan, 1929);
Joel Allison, 'Religious Conversion: Regression and Progression in an Adolescent Experience," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 8 (1969), pp. 23-38;
Leon Salzman, "The Psychology of Religious and Ideological Conversion," Psychiatry 16 (1953), pp 177-87,
William Sargant, Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brain-Washing London, Heinemann, 1957);
Theodore M. Levin and Leonard S. Zegans, Adolescent Idnetity Crisis and Religious Conversion: Implications for Psychotherapy, "The British Journal of Medical Psychology 47 ( 1974, pp. 73-82;
and Carl W. Christensen, 'Religious Conversion in Adolescence, Pastoral Psychology 16 (September 1965), pp. 17-28. 1(1. Christensen, pp. 27-28.
Chapter 11. Metamorphosis
1. And It Is Divine (March 1973), pp. 54-55.
2. Ibid. (December 1972), p. 49.
3. Ibid. (March 1973), p. 54.
4. Guru Puja (a pamphlet) (1972), p. 12.
5. And It Is Divine (October 1973), pp. 58-59.
6. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "Commitment and Social Organization: A Study of Commitment Mechanisms in Utopian Communities," American Sociological Review 33 (August 1968), pp. 504-5.
7. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "Commitment and the Internal Organization of Millennial Movements," American Behavioral Scientist 16 (December 1972), p. 238.
8. Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (Ness York: W. W. Norton, 1963).
9. James V. Downton, Jr., Rebel Leadership: Commitment and Charisma in the Revolutionary Process (New York: The Free Press, 1973), pp. 241-70.
10. J. Krishnamurti, Think on These Things (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), p. 98.
11. Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power (New- York: Simon and Schuster, 1974), p. 231.
12. And It Is Divine (July 1974), p. 34.
13. Krishnamurti, J., Think on These Things, pp. 43-44.
14. From a leaflet entitled "A Difficult Man."
15. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (New York: Weatherhill, 1970), p. 40.
16. And It Is Divine (January 1973), p. 48.
17. Divine Light (March 1972), p. 14.
18. Guru Maharaj Ji: Reflections on an Indian Sunrise (1973), p. 28.
19. Chogyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action (Berkeley, California: Shambala, 1970), p. 39.
Chapter 12. Changes
1. Satsang given to a conference of premies in Denver, January 25, 1976. (Downton wrote "later that year" but it was actually 11 months later, 18th & 19th December)
2. S. N. Eisenstadt (ed.), May Weber: On Charisma and Institution Building Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968).
3. Sophia Collier, Soul Rush: The Odyssey of a Young Woman of the '70s New York: William Morrow, 1978), p. 157, 162. (Sophia Collier had a particular animus agsinst Rawat's mother and eldest brother. There is no other evidence that Bal Bhagwan Ji was the source of the outlandish ideas about Millenium '73)
4. Communication from a Mission official. (Evidence that Rawat's mother and eldest brother were telling the truth about the guru was later revealed by many of DLM's managers)
5. Ibid. ( see For Your Inspiration)
6. Satsang given to a conference of premies in late December 1975. (In fact, it was not at a conference but at a surprise visit to a weekly community meeting)
7. Satsang given to a conference of premies in Denver, January 25, 1976. (Downton has taken this out of context. The following sentence is "Some day, when they really surrender and really realize this Knowledge, really realize the importance of service, they will go out into the world and tell people and make room for the other patients.")
8. Satsang given to a conference of premies in Lima, Peru, November 18, 1976.
9. Ibid.
10. Satsang given to a conference of premies in Denver, January 25, 1976.
Chapter 13. Defection
1. Armand L. Mauss, "Dimensions of Religious Defection," Review of Religious Research 10), Spring 1969), pp 1285
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