Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat), Melbourne, Australia, 23rd March 1982 transcript PMT 227
His speeches were not written or prepared but they are certainly not unrehearsed. The speeches preceding his current one are the rehearsals and his speeches following evolve gradually using the same store of tales, premie gossip, clichés, life events, recent tv shows, stock phrases and buzzwords. He invariably garbles his first attempts at new "insights" and and it is these sections that were edited or removed when his speeches were published. His publisheed speeches have all been edited and give a false picture, His thinking is much more disorderd than they show. My transcripts are word for word and give a more realistic picture of his thinking.
This is the transcript of a speech (satsang) made by Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) to his Australian devotees on the 23rd March, 1982. It was recorded on audio tape for later sale to his followers. He was interviewed the following day in the Melbourne Age They were in a period of transition and had dropped off the 'Guru' but had not yet totally switched to 'Maharaji' and the crowd begins with a rousing "Bolie Shri."
Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat), Melbourne, Australia, 23rd March 1982 transcript PMT 227
Bolie Shri Satuguru Dev Maharaj Ki Jai! (crowd chant)
Well dear premies, we have this little chance here just to share some satsang just to understand, try to understand a little bit more because the experience of Knowledge only manifests for those who can truly go inside because that's where it is. It's like you know if I lose something in this world and I try to look for it try to find it somewhere I can look where I want to look but I will never find it until I look at the place where it is/. Cause the object itself is not lost, the object is there wherever it is and it's so much the same for that experience of Knowledge cause never, ever, ever does that ever get lost but we get lost, that's very easy to do. Ocean has millions and millions and billions of gallons of water and every time I will touch water it will get me wet but if I stand just uh one millimetre away from that ocean in all its power it won't be able to get me wet. Why not? Why isn't there just like an overflow because I'm so close why doesn't it, it just get me wet but it can't. A river that flows day and night with all that water just moving and moving and moving right along you know all I have to do is segregate myself, separate myself away from that river, just so far, just one millimetre or one one hundredth of a millimetre if I want to and it would be completely incapable of getting me wet. It's the same way with Knowledge. Knowledge is that river flowing beside, Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world to give us that Grace to give us that Knowledge so that we can go inside and experience the experience of this life, so that we can experience that truth, that reality.
Whenever we even try to take a look at it, you know, there is one grace that we are here, we're alive we've been born and there's one grace that we have that chance to be able to experience that Knowledge to be able to experience that Truth and then of course you know the way that it really goes is one Grace that we were born, one Grace that we're alive and one Grace that we have been or we can have Knowledge in this, in this life or we can experience this life itself. And yet there is one more grace, the grace that Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world to present us, to give us that Knowledge, to show us the experience of this Knowledge and so many people in this world really the first grace to be born we really have no control over it, it just kinda happens. And this morning I was even talking to somebody and they were just telling me about this little thing that happened. An initiator went to this person and and gave them some satsang and the guy said "Sure you know but Knowledge I can only receive Knowledge by the guru's grace." And I said "Why that's a really peculiar thing to say." because if he would have said uh you know in one sense if would have just said, "I, I don't have time for Knowledge" it would have been the same thing and why because we have been given the grace to realize Knowledge in this life and guru can give us the grace to have the Knowledge in this life, to have that experience in this life, all we have to do is ask. All we have to do is open ourselves up because yes it's true this heart, this, this, this soul is so confined and everything that, that, that we build around it is like a cocoon and in that cocoon really does lie that beauty, that beautiful, beautiful butterfly and when the time will come and when will that time come? When that grace is there, when we have opened ourselves up then by Guru Maharaj Ji's grace yes that cocoon will be separated and we can emerge from it truly the thing that we are, truly the experience that we are, truly the thing that we are made of and it's, it's so simple, it's so incredible but usually you know the thing is that we come to Knowledge the first day we listen to satsang or whatever it is and it's like yes I really, I really want it. I really want to have that experience and, and there's nothing, I mean no problems, anything, just that Knowledge, that Knowledge is given and that experience is imparted to that person and fine. It really is the truth and that is imparted. That way, that technique to be able to go inside and experience the thing that's within inside of us and yet sometimes we just get into our trips, get involved in our trips.
For instance it could be health food. People get really involved in health food. The health food eats them instead of them eating the food. And many occasions, I mean that's very sweet of the premies and very nice they have sent me cakes and I tell you they have sent me the cake and there it is and I lift it, I drop it, and it makes the sound like a big bomb went off or something. Those cakes are so natural that if you don't eat them right away you'll see things sprouting out of it (laughter) and uh for some people, you know, it's really like that way. If I can have my health food and if I can have my Knowledge and if I can have all these things, then I can be happy, then my experience will flow. The thing is, you know, I travel a lot and sometimes you end up in this place and ??? most of the places I go to, yes, there's premies and they can cook and everything is okay but sometimes I end up in this place where there's no premies and all you got is these soggy French Fries and God knows what and uh sometimes there's just one tomato in the soggy sandwiches and this and that or whatever it is and you know the incredible thing is as, as strange as it may seem when I eat those things that are, have nothing to do with health food they're completely out there in the whole sense (clears throat) it doesn't seem to deter the experience of Knowledge. (laughter) Isn't that ironic? It doesn't do it (some applause) and I wonder why not, just wonder.
As we get into our heads and then yes it will. There's no doubt about it. Once we get in our heads, No, no, no, wait a minute I really have to look at this, I really have to listen to this, I have, because, you know, people should eat food that's good, that's healthy, ??? shouldn't go round eating garbage, so often it is garbage. Everyone should eat good food, food that's healthy but treat it as food, not as the liberator of your soul, the gateway to heaven, this is it, if I can do this. You know, because sometimes you're eating some of that stuff and you can't keep it down, it won't go down, it just won't. It's too rough and it's too tough and it's too solid, it's uh too organic and the organs don't like it at all. They wanna kick it right back out. They say to you "Go plant this somewhere." And uh, I've seen it, I really have seen it, you know, the, the, the some housemothers will make the cake and then you see them trying to cut it and they've got the machete and the hack-saw and the hammers chipping away at this thing. Can you imagine what your poor tummy has to go through because it doesn't have the machete and the hammer and all these things. Sometimes you eat those things, you should eat a little machete and a little hammer and a little hacksaw so you can and work at it.
So then the point I am making. I mean, I've got nothing against, if that's the kind of cake you like to eat, it's fine with me, it's just uh watch out. The only thing, like I'm saying, what has that got to do with the experience of Knowledge? Nothing. Nothing that I can see. Nothing that I can feel. For so many of us, so many of these external lights have to be a certain way. For so many of us, things have to be a certain way. My little religion has to be just impeccable and then it'll all work for me. My vibes have to be right. People around me, their vibes have got to be right and I can spend my whole life tryin' to correct other peoples' lives. By that time I haven't been meditating and my light goes off and that's the end of the story. It's kaput after that. So, getting disattracted from that ????, from that thing that is real because nothing else yields experience, does it? I try, I mean I can say "Hey, goodness, I can't do this until the vibes are right." I can't wait for the vibes to be right. In half the places the vibes are really off but in me there is something that can make it right for me. I can be in that shelter I can be in that grace in which I am protected and that is the most important thing that needs to happen to me. Because what am I missing in my life? When did it all come together for me?
The day I received Knowledge and I had that experience then that was it. Then that was it. That capped it all off. I had everything that day, before that I had nothing and after that I had everything. I had me, I had myself. I had that Knowledge. I had Guru Maharaj Ji. I had that grace, I could see that grace, I could realize that grace. I could experience that grace. I could do everything. It's like before that I didn't have any arms and I didn't have any legs and, and I didn't have any head and then after that, all of a sudden, I had those arms and I had that head and I had the legs everything and now I could do anything that I want. Because that experience made me complete, made me real and that is the ult ultimate grace that ever can happen to a human being. Don't we ever sit down and realize that there is nothing more, nothing more. You know it's like we are the sometimes getting so much into that head, getting so much into that mind, people becomes in such a way that they go to heaven and they say "By the way, which way is hell?" And they've spent their whole lives trying to stay away from that fence towards which the hell is. You're in heaven and why are you thinking of that?
Do you realize that most people think more about confusion than the confusion actually thinks about them? Cause the first thing is, am I confused? Do you have to ask yourself every morning, "Am I confused?" The first interaction between two people is going to be, is that guy confused? Why, why is confusion such a big thing? There's so many people walk like they've had it, they've had it, they're confused. And why? Why are we confused? What is the cause of the confusion? What is making us? What is in this world more powerful that the thing that is inside of you that is keeping you alive? Nothing. When you have been given that grace, when you have been given that chance to experience, to be with the thing that's inside of you, why do you open the other doors and let that confusion in. Because yes, I have many opportunities, truly, to get confused, I see them right and left, really, really confused. Many, many chances are given to me to really get confused but I don't take them. I don't take them. I don't want them. Me, my reality and my world begins and ends with the experience that Guru Maharaj Ji has given me. Begins and ends with Guru Maharaj Ji. That is my world. What do I, what do I have to, what do I, what do I have to know, what do I have to not know?
Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world in a physical form. Why? Why, what is the reason why a physical form is taken? To be able to come in this world and help us human beings that look like human beings. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing outrageous, nothing, nothing. Just a human being to come to take that form to help every one of us. And where do we look? That is the biggest miracle, that is the biggest grace, that is the only thing that has happened because through Guru Maharaj Ji, through that grace of Guru Maharaj Ji, he can open that inside heart, he can open that lock and show us show us what really exists. Guru Maharaj Ji comes in this world to help us. Really, that is the reason, to help us right along because I think, this is my experience of my Guru Maharaj Ji that to just come in this world is not sufficient, I need to be shown. Somebody needs to open my heart and to show me. Just coming in this world is not sufficient by any means. And Guru Maharaj Ji comes and he shows me and after he shows me that's not sufficient either. That's not what the story ends. I need to be guided every step of the way cause I don't know.
I know in my imagination I can speculate and yet where is my speculation going to take me? Where are my ideas going to? I don't need to sit here and just have ideas after ideas after ideas or sit here and daydream of how it's going to be cause that is the source, maybe of my confusion. Why can't somebody come in this life for me and show me the direction I have to be, show me the path I have to be walking and make it as simple for me as that and that is exactly what Guru Maharaj Ji does, exactly what Guru Maharaj Ji does because all of the ingredients are right there, none of the ingredients are missing. You look at that sun, does the sun ever stop shining, does it really set? No, it doesn't set. Does it know darkness? No, it doesn't know darkness. But does the darkness know the sun? No, the darkness doesn't know the sun either. Both have never met, cause soon as that sun comes out the darkness disappears. And as soon as that sun goes away, the darkness just prevails. Nothing comes and nothing goes it seems, does it? It all just seems to be there. And a human being caught in those two realms, caught between the darkness and the light. Don't try to explain the sun what the darkness is and don't try to explain the darkness, what the sun is. Pick your choice and move. Move, move into that sunshine, move into that light and the light is there. Without that light, yes, everything is dark. Doesn't make any difference what exists in this world, I will never be able to perceive it even though I have perfectly good eyes. When the sun goes away, when it's dark I can look out and everything, I can't see anything. Everything looks completely different. And that sun comes out and then everything is there. Then I can see, then I can say "Oh my God, there is the thing and there is that thing and there is that tower and there is that tower and this is the way it is and everything is okay."
There is mountain ranges all around Brisbane. Mountains are huge pieces of of rock and earth who take ages to move those things, really would, cost probably billions of dollars to move them and yet the sun when it sets, when it disappears I can't perceive them. If they did exist, if they didn't exist, I wouldn't know the difference because I really at that point cannot perceive, cannot perceive that thing. This is the same way with the Knowledge, it's the same way with that reality. I cannot perceive, why cannot I perceive and it could be as much as my eyes are closed. That my eyes are closed to that grace that is ready to shine upon me, to show me the true colours of everything, to show me that thing the way it really is. Do I accept? Or do I simply move out. Do I accept that grace because I can't sit here and translate that grace for myself. I can't sit here and say "Now wait a minute, now, now this is how it happens, see. I know I've got Knowledge and and and and and I should uh do this thing and and I should do this thing and and I should, I should, I should try to come to satsang every night and then very soon what you have is this little requirement and then there are premies who are looking out for other premies making sure, making sure that they come and listen satsang. But these premies are too busy they don't listen to satsang themselves because they're too busy, making sure the rest of them are listening to satsang. You know it happened in in uh I was in Rome just this last, this this tour and talking to all the initiators and one initiator said "You know it's really a big problem to try to get the premies to come to satsang and it's much more convenient, they all come flocking in when you say there is going to be a Knowledge Review. So is it," basically it was something like it is okay to give them Knowledge Review after Knowledge Review after Knowledge Review after Knowledge Review. I said "No, don't do that cause what if they are in Tasmania or or or Borneo or some place and and and and and and they have to meditate and then they go oh my goodness I can't really do it because there isn't an initiator around who can give me the Knowledge Review and let them have an experience themselves also." So here they are, I mean we were talking about this very thing it's like okay should you, should you not, should you, I said listen, you know, really a premie has a problem with Knowledge go ahead, have a review and thoroughly make sure that the Knowledge, that problem is taken care of. And then he said "Well what about satsang?" I said this is what you should do, you should go around telling the premies there is going to be a Knowledge Review and when they all come give 'em satsang." (laughter)
You see, I'll give you this one example, not a very good example, I know that but I'll give it to you anyway. If you drink a lot of coffee, a lot of coffee, a lot of water for that matter, it goes down and after a little while it'll pass through your kidneys and it'll end up in your bladder and you're going to have an urge to go, to relieve yourself right and sometimes you might have drank a lot of water in the afternoon or the night time when you're having your dinner and you're lying there, you're completely asleep and all of a sudden you feel this urge to go to the bathroom and you say "No, I'm too tired, I can't do it, right, I'm too tired, I can't do it." So you lie down and the urge comes again and it's a little stronger, I know this is not a good example, it's a very compelling example and uh you say "No, no I'm way too tired, it's okay, go back to sleep" and you fall back and next time the urge comes and it's even stronger and that urge will drive you to the point where you'll hop out of bed at 4 o'clock in the morning and rush to that bathroom and relieve yourself and it doesn't make any difference how tired you are. Cause you've got to go, nothing will help anymore, you've got to go. You see, in one sense, I mean it's like I I said a very, very bad example, very bad example but it's very compelling. That is the kind of an urge where it's like no show, it doesn't make any difference how tired I am, it doesn't make any difference but I really have that thirst, really, really have that thirst for listening to satsang or doing meditation or doing service. Then yes, then something will manifest. Look at a plant, I mean look at this plant. What do I see, I see a pink rose but you know there is something else in there that I really don't see but I have to understand that it exists. If I, if I would never given water to this rose do you think it would have blossomed? No, for somewhere in there, there is a water too and if this would never have seen sunshine, it would have ever blossomed? No, in fact, it's beauty, it's design is in itself and yet it's beauty is being enhanced by the simple fact that there is water that has sustained it, has given it, enhanced it's beauty and the sun that has helped it along as well.
Knowledge, knowledge is the same way. Meditation, to many people "Well I have meditation, why do I need to listen to satsang, why do I need to do service?" But I need to open myself more and more and just like this flower, just like this flower it enhances me to go ahead and open up more so I can take in more of that experience of that meditation. So those two things may not be very apparent to you but they're there, they're there. Somewhere in that rose they exist as well yes. Plenty hours of sunshine, without it, it'd be all yellow and rotted and believe me, it wouldn't be sitting here. And so all we really have to do is open ourselves and look around, look at the grace that Guru Maharaj Ji is giving us every second, every minute of the of our life because you know to many people a simple confusion is "Does Guru Maharaj Ji really love me?" To some it's as simple as that "Does Guru Maharaj Ji? Guru Maharaj Ji can't really love me." Hey, if Guru Maharaj Ji doesn't, if Guru Maharaj Ji can't love then why is Guru Maharaj Ji here at all? There is that love, there is that love for every single premie, it's true. And this is why I come out and I try to help every single premie, this is what I want to do. Every human being cause that love is really there. Without it, it wouldn't work at all. The grace is there, the love is there, Guru Maharaj Ji is there, you are there, you got all the little pieces. Nothing more is needed. Everything can be taken care of. Cause when it comes down to it, so many times, neither do we have faith in Guru Maharaj Ji nor do we end up with any faith in Knowledge or do we ever end up with any faith that Guru Maharaj Ji loves us. And why not? Do we even try to ??? a reason why not? Why don't we have that faith because it's not a faith in which you even have to blindly just put your faith in but because it exists, to believe, to have, to know. To know that that grace really does exist, to know that that love really does exist. To open up those eyes, to open up that heart, to open up to that love to flow because it is that chain, it is that chain.
What is that devotion? Devotion for Guru Maharaj Ji, that love for Guru Maharaj Ji and that devotion is taken and turned right around and given right back to you. That is what that chain of devotion is. So all I have to do really is in one sense open those eyes up because yes, I mean whatever happens in this world, I can, I can keep my eyes open and try to examine what's happening in this world, what's happenin' but it's so ridiculous because whatever happens in this world isn't necessarily what is going to happen to me. And the way I see it this world is going nuts every minute. Completely nuts. And I definitely don't want to go nuts. I can be saved. That is that word "to be saved." Saved from what? Saved from which, which component of this universe do we need to be saved from? We need to be saved from that ignorance, we need to be saved where, where in that, from that realm in which we simply do not know. I don't know how many ages, how many times, you know this has happened and every devotee given this chance just to be, just to be in that place of experience, just to experience an experience, nothing else. And I don't know how many times that opportunity or that grace has been rejected by the people because of their ignorance and then I don't know how many times people have repented absolutely repented the fact that they didn't take that grace, didn't take that chance and it seems like time after time it just turns to becoming into a saga, a saga that's not going to end up anywhere.
And I don't think, I don't really think anybody can afford to let it happen again, to just cast ourselves into this incredible vast darkness of ignorance. Cast ourselves into this incredibly painful ocean of that ignorance when, when specially when Guru Maharaj Ji is holding on with the life preserver or with that light to just say "Come on in, to come in." Every time we've put our faith in ourselves, what do we get? Every time we try our own little experiment in this world, what do we get? Every time we try to do it, we try to make it, it's nothing but a total loss in this life. No matter how we even try to control this life, where does it come out to? And yet a small human being, a small human being standing in the face of infinity, this vast, vast universe of which he doesn't even know where it begins and where it ends, standing on the, on the face of total ignorance, complete ignorance where knowing doesn't even begin, where darkness has completely prevailed, and has prevailed for ages and ages and ages and in that time, in that space comes somebody to help, to help every single soul, to help every single human being, to uplift into that place where there is no more ignorance, where there is that light, where there is that love, where there is that grace, where there is that joy, where there is that heaven. Just what is our chances? We can't even fathom, we can't even fathom just looking out into the sky and saying "How far is that star? How far is that place?" We don't even know, I mean, here we are stuck in one part of this galaxy, we don't even know how many hundreds more exist out there. We don't even know where this universe begins, and where this universe ends and yet in one minute, in one second Guru Maharaj Ji shows us the beginning and the end of infinity right inside of us. He shows us the infinity, the thing, the very thing that keeps us alive. The Knowledge, to know, to know everything, to know and after that no more to wander and no more to just spend this life in that search and search and search but in one moment he turns this life around where it begins to become just to experience an experience an experience, experiencing that grace, and experiencing that love.
You know, when I received Knowledge it could have been very much like for me to say "Why this and why that?" It could have been very easy for me also to just get completely spaced out, completely spaced out even after being saved it's so easy to just jump right out. One time I remember, you know, I've given examples of it but one time I remember I actually saw it happen. We took a boat out into the ocean supposed to be this clear blue waters and uh really an ideal place to go diving. We took the boat out and it was very, very rough And the boat was just really doing its number, really going up and down and sideways and all around. And so, it was, it was quite warm outside, the water was quite warm and so we finally got to this one place where the diving was really good and you could really see the bottom, the water was really clear water but really big waves, really big waves and so a lot of people were feeling very queasy so they decided if they'd just go swimming they'll be okay, they'll be alright and so a whole bunch of people just jumped in there, in the water. And I was just swim, just sitting on the swimming step, I was just sitting there, my legs were dangling in the water and I could just feel the whole boat going like that and all the waves going and I tell you it was no comfort for them, it was no comfort. I didn't feel queasy, I didn't feel safe but it was no comfort for them, no comfort whatsoever to be in that water because now they could really see they were in the water and not only they were going up and down but the whole boat was going up and down and sideways and they standing there seeing this boat just rolling and poling everywhere and one second they could see land and the other second it would disappear and they were getting jostled around and it's like yeah well, doesn't that all make sense? It all looks so inviting and I would just stand there and I would say "Shark! Shark! Shark! Shark!" Oh no, no, none of us would come on looking around. And it did look like a place where there would be sharks anyway. I'm sure there's plenty, tons of them hang out there. And you in that grace, there is that grace given to me to protect me from that very thing happening and yet when am I gonna open up and accept it. When am I even gonna turn around and say "Yes, this is what I really need in my life. This is, this is what I have been waiting for." So when do I, when do I stop, stop wandering and start really finding myself, finding myself in that love, finding myself in the grace because this is where I exist, that's me.
So, anyway it's been um a beautiful tour of Australia and New Zealand, can't forget the New Zealanders, they're a little bit off that way but they exist and uh and I just hope, I dunno when I'll be coming around to this neck of the woods again ha but I hope it's soon. And I just hope that, sure, you know, it must be really different for the premies in Australia, you know, upside down and the other way around ??? try to look like that and mm it must feel "Oh Guru Maharaj Ji really doesn't like us or this or that, he never shows his face here. Well for a long time, you know, it was like Guru Maharaj Ji come to Australia, come to Australia, come to Australia, come to Australia, come to Australia. Well then one day I decided "Let's go to Australia" and that was the last year and then this year again and I don't know if there's gonna be another world tour happening or not but uh but you know that love is there and it isn't like you guys live in Australia so by that means there is any disadvantage. Actually I really do like Australia, ???, I really do, it's different, everything is. When they told me in Brisbane of the, the drains, when they drain they actually go around the other way, instead of the Northern hemisphere. It's quite amusing you see and um but most of all there is that Knowledge and most of all there is that grace. That's, that's your life saver, hang on to that, that's your line and you'll be okay. You'll be fine, there'll be no problems. You wander away from that, lots and lots of problems, too many problems. Little things become confusions unsurmountable mountains "Oh my God, what's going to happen now?" Nothing is going to happen, Nothing. So many people, so many people, you know, come up confused to me, "I am confused." And what is the cause of that confusion? They're confused about that too. How they'll get out of it? They're confused about that too. And what is that confusion? Really why? What it the necessity? Do you want to confuse yourself? Do you wanna be confused? I mean maybe, maybe some people um um I mean that they must because it takes all kinds, they must like to be confused I mean that's their thing. "Ah I am confused" and every initiator goes by and pats your back and says "It's all right" and the next minute "Ah I'm confused again." It's not nice to be confused and I just feel that nobody needs to be confused while I'm around, you know. There's all the ingredients are right there. So I hope I see you soon. Thank you very much. Blessings to all the premies. (Clapping)