Rome 1980 Ashram Satsang Transcript (Part 1)

Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang to ashram premies - 25th June 1980 - Rome, Italy

Quite a few ashram premies, huh. Well the purpose of this ashram meeting is to see how you're doing. How you doing? Fine, that's good, OK. You know, it's becoming more and more apparent that we cannot live in this world, I mean we can live in this world without the inspiration of Knowledge, sure, but that life is quite meaningless, that life is very purposeless and Knowledge brings us that inspiration home, brings us that contentment in our life through which we can live life. Through which it has a meaning, through which it has a purpose, through which it has a reason, through which it can motivate us inside to exist for a purpose. It brings us love because without love, life itself would be quite meaningless. And yet, where does that love come from, that can truly inspire us within? Where does that love come from that can show us where we need to be every moment of our lives? It becomes so easy to get disattractive in the different modules of this world, you know, I mean there are so many trips and I see these trips are just like modules in a computer. And you want it to do a certain function and you go to your closet, pick out module. Plug it in and then your computer is rigged to do just that. When you're over with that function you can take out that module and plug a new module in. And yet none of those things can really have a meaning, can have a purpose because when we come in this world, we come for a reason. We live, we exist, we breathe, we have this entire world around us to give it all a meaning, to give us a meaning, to give us a purpose, to give us a motivation. And when we get into all these different trips, the true essence, the true meaning is lost and then all that exists is a very barren life. I mean I, you know, you see so many people out there. What do they do every day? They've got their routine, they get up, get into their routine, come back home and their whole life is just a routine, there is no deviation from that routine, it's just one simple thing, that's all. They don't enjoy it, they can't enjoy it and nobody who else around them enjoys it either. You know it's like, you know, it becomes such a, it can become such a devastating experience and we have to recognize that opportunity in our lives which Guru Maharaj Ji gives us to have a meaning, to have a purpose.

To me, it's like here we are. We have been given, you know this is a very big difference and we have to realize this and we have to understand this. There is a difference between you accepting an initiator application, there is a difference between you accepting, choosing to be in an ashram because that's the way I think a lot of people see it. I chose to be in the ashram. I'm now in the ashram, I've moved into the ashram as though really it's on your own accord that you can do it and the truth of the matter is that it's not like that at all. It's not your own wish and will and yes, OK, I'm gonna be in the ashram. You can go to a vending machine and insert a dime and push a button and there you will have it an ashram package through which you can move into an ashram. It doesn't work like that.

It's an opportunity, it's a gift that's given to Guru, by Guru Maharaj Ji to all the premies, to be able to have that understanding, to be able to have a chance to dedicate and devote this life and you have to understand what ashram is all about. Forget for a moment that the word 'ashram' even exists, just eliminate it, if you can do that you're doing pretty good, ha ha. Because the word 'ashram' has no significance, the word 'ashram' has no significance, it's just a I don't know actually what it would fall under, whether it would be a noun, a verb, I don't know what it would be called. But it's an Hindi word, or a Sanskrit word, well of course Hindi is a derivative of Sanskrit, it's one of those things and that's all it is and yet what is the meaning that is conveyed to us by that world. I think the word sort of comes from the word 'ashray' which means shelter. To provide us a shelter, to give us a shelter and yet that shelter has to be given to us because somehow in our lives we feel that we need that shelter, we need that shelter of Guru Maharaj Ji from this world. If we do not have the recognition, for instance, one of the basic things in an ashram is to dedicate your life, to devote your life. Truly. And yet if you cannot understand in your own life what Knowledge is, if you in your life don't have an understanding of who Guru Maharaj Ji is then who are you going to dedicate your life to? I mean your life has to be dedicated to some thing, to somebody. Has to have a purpose of even dedicating, has to have even a motive that can inspire you to do so and what is that going to be? First and foremost our practice of Knowledge, our understanding of Guru Maharaj Ji has to be right there, has to be impeccable.

You know there is a lot of problems in ashrams sometimes, people get confused or people wander away or the little things that are seemingly stupid become very, very adventurous you know that ice-cream cone, a football game, a few channels on television. Even though they don't have a purpose, even though in your own life if you had to bear it yourself, you would never do it because it would be a waste of money and it'd be a waste of time. I mean, you know, really there is a lot of people who don't have television. You see them walking around and they watch television, you know, you can see them in England, they always look at the television through the display. A whole bunch of televisions there, you know, and they're just looking at them all the time. They can't hear the sound, it's that, it's, you know, alluring, they come there every day and they watch this television and they perhaps get lured and then they, you know, because after a long while it probably gets to them, you know, because they see the, see the picture but they never hear the sound. And then after a little while they get lured enough so they go out and they buy their own television so they can also hear the sound and of course when they buy it how many televisions do you think there are for sale today? A lot cause then you get sick and tired of it, that's it. That's the way a lot of things are in this life be it that ice-cream cone that you will never make it, that will flip out of your hands upon the floor. Be it anyone of those things that can become such an adventure for this mind, become such an ordeal for this mind, become such a thing for this mind and we get plugged into it and that, that's all that becomes for us, that's all that then exists for us, to accomplish something like that. How can I do it, how can I go watch a movie, you know. And I'm not saying you never have to go and watch a movie, and I'm not saying you have to go and watch a movie. Very neutral. And I'm not saying you never have to watch a television and I'm not saying you have to watch a television. Neither, nor. What do you have to do? You know, what has to happen? You see when it rains in a whole area, there is a lot of drops that fall that are never gonna become a part of that ocean. They just fall and they get evaporated, just this tiny little speck, burnt, absorbed, never ever to become, really, a part of that entire ocean from which it originated. But then there is these drops that are gonna fall in this one particular place, in this particular area, through which it definitely they will become a part of that river which will then carry them to the destination which is their ocean.

Where do we fall? You know it's very simple to get your act together. You're in the ashram, because, in our, in our, in our consciousness that becomes that part of what's a good premie? Join the ashram and every time the initiator comes by, grease him a little bit. Really, you know when he asks for water, be there, bring him the water. When he feels like chit-chatting, support him in that. You have to understand that initiators are regular, ordinary, dumb human beings, just like you and me, they have no difference in them, they have not been, you may say, blessed in any way, they have not been knighted, they don't have the, don't have any lordship attached to their name, they're not knights, they're not soldiers, they're nobodies. And in their very basic training, you may say, they're taught one simple thing, what is to be an initiator? That's one of the starting questions of the candidate progam. They're asked and they say Oh I wanna do this and this is, this is being an initiator and why do you wanna be an initiator and one of my opening statements is "Well, you're gonna have a very tough life being an initiator if that's what you think an initiator is. An initiator has to be nobody, you have to lose yourself, your identity, yourself. And I can say very openly, they haven't. It's going to take them years at hacking away, hacking away, hacking away, hacking away. I mean Grand Canyon wasn't made overnight, you know. And yet, you know, when they, their mind comes in and they want to chit-chat, there you are, so to get in the good, good white book of an initiator, you know, and then once you have that, you have all the areas covered and then you are the quote good premie, never argue with initiator, every time he asks for water, cover the glass, you know, just be around him, act good, play it straight while he is in town after that, you can, you can do anything you feel like. To me that is not a definition of a premie. What is a premie? In this day and age, what is a premie?

A premie is not just somebody who has received Knowledge. The word 'premie' again is a Hindi Word and in India if you were to get up and give satsang, you would call everybody premie, premie mean lovers, and you figure if these guys have managed to somehow haul themselves in the peak heat of the day, sit there on the barren ground, right? They must be premies, you know. Who else would do it? They must have some kind of a love towards satsang, but what is a premie? What is, what is a premie in this day and age and what has been a premie since ever since a human being was created? What is a, what is a premie, what is the definition of a premie? And the definition is one, you know, who has received the gift that Guru Maharaj Ji has bestowed upon that being, practices that gift, has that love, has that faith, and has surrendered in his heart towards Guru Maharaj Ji, towards the living Master of this day. Then you may say that's getting close enough to a definition of 'premie'.

There are certain qualities, definitely there that are gonna make you a premie. For you to understand, understand what Guru Maharaj Ji has given you, what is the meaning of Guru Maharaj Ji in this, in this world today, not a mass production thing OK well since hundreds and hundreds of, you know, people have received Knowledge, why not me too? Since the trend is to be in the ashram, why not me too? That's stupid. That, that won't get you anywhere. There's very, very specific things that have to happen in your life. To be in an ashram is not a joke, I can tell you that. And it isn't all that simple, I can tell you that too. And you know not everyone is gonna be in the ashram and I can tell you that too. Very few people and in fact I'm not gonna point my finger and say it's gonna be you and you and you. It could very well be everyone of you sitting here, everyone of you because when your inner determination, your own understanding is deep enough of ashram, of Guru Maharaj Ji, Why am I here? Cause lot of people don't know why they're in the ashram. What is the purpose of the ashram? How does it fit into the propagation? What is the meaning of the ashram? You know.

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25th June 1980 - Rome, Italy