Prem Rawat Goes to England To Be Worshipped @

Olympia, London, Guru Puja 22nd August 1980

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 Rawat arrives in his chauffeur driven Mercedes 600 with personalised number plates: GM 99999. The 600 was the most expensive car in the world when it was introduced and was owned by Idi Amin, Ferdinand Marcos, Nicolae Ceausescu, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot and Kim Il-sung among others. The car was garaged at his Reigate Residence and driven by his personal chauffeur, Peter Lee, (see page 103, Without The Guru). It was also used for some of Rawat's travels in Europe. Mike Finch recalls this very day:

I was the 'hall liaison' for that Olympia Program, a very important person in the 'festival' (as we called them then) organization, more so that than the title 'hall liaison' would suggest - mainly because it was up to me to ensure Rawat's privacy from the hall staff.

I don't remember much of the actual event, or Rawat's talks, since I was most often scurrying around the backstage and elsewhere of Olympia (it was a huge place, like some enormous gothic maze round the periphery) trying to smooth Rawat's and our organization's impossible demands with a very conservative and unionized venue, where it took tedious negotiations even for us to move a chair somewhere as opposed to getting a union member hall employee to do it.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980
Mike Finch in light gray suit in front of Prem Rawat

Arranging that backstage area (of which you posted a photo) was a nightmare since we demanded of course absolute privacy for the Lord, and needless to say it was a huge area as well, where no hall employee was to enter. And that went for all the weird activities as well, like kissing his feet, and I seem to remember there were also satsang sessions that we demanded were absolutely private where no hall staff were to have access to, or to even see.

Nick Seymour-Jones (now sadly deceased) and myself in the end went to see the union boss and said we were a poor religious charity, and doing service was desperately important to our members, so that us moving the chairs etc was an act of worship. I remember almost being in tears, mainly because I imagined Maharaji *not* getting his privacy, and hall electricians (say) wandering through the darshan area, and Maharaji being really pissed off and demanding 'Who is the Hall Liaison for this event, why has he screwed this up for me?' and being cast into the outer darkness as a premie who wasn't surrendered or devoted enough and couldn't do his service.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980
Mike Finch in light gray suit behind Prem Rawat

Anyway, it seemed to work, my near blubbering clearly had an effect on this hard-bitten union boss, who did not want the bad publicity of his union messing up the religious worship of sensitive folk like me who was almost in tears. The word went out that we were to be left alone, and after that we were.

There were over 13,000 attendees there (and quite a few were new people, Ocker). It was the last of the old-style big festivals, where there was very large child-care and big backup stalls selling all kinds of things, all organized by the festival support, and it was a huge effort to stage the whole thing.

Makes me tired just remembering it.

-- Mike Finch recalls

 
Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980
Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 So, dear premies, again, that opportunity for all of us to try to go as little deeper within inside, to try to really understand a little bit more about this, about this thing, you know, this thing that surrounds us, this thing that we live in, this thing that's everywhere, this thing that we breathe in, this thing that we eat in, this thing that we live in. Every day we try to understand a very basic thing and yet somehow you know that that very basic thing escapes further and further away from you. Somehow you try to go a little deeper and yet you know that somehow slowly and slowly you're not going any deeper. You know, it's like trying to dig a well and you dig a well and a lot of inspiration, lot of concern, a lot of attention goes into it and people are very enthusiastic about digging a well. You try to dig a well and you go a little deeper and a little deeper and a little deeper and a little deeper. And the hopes get higher and higher. Obviously, the, maybe at some point we will hit water. And yet it's a strange phenomenon sometimes. Instead of hitting water, this liquid, this precious liquid that we really need, you know, something that's so incredible, we hit rock. Just solid rock and then what that does that mean for us, what does it become for us, what does it manifest as? You look around, look around London, look around any city in the world. Look at any situation, anywhere in the world, nothing is improving and I'm not obviously here to tell you how bad the whole situation is, I'm pretty sure you're way, well aware of that. I mean everything that you look at. This morning when we arrived in London I asked this person who was driving me, "You know, do you remember a time when there used, there didn't use to be so much traffic?" And he said, "Yes, I do. There was a time where we could go in about 40 minutes from one place to another place that now it takes literally an hour or over, over an hour." And I know that maybe that's the situation at this point, right now, and maybe we live wth it and maybe it's sure, it's okay, this is what you have to accept. Perhaps, that's it and yet don't we somewhere have a hope in us that some day, perhaps, it'll get a little better.

Don't we always hope that somewhere in our heart that maybe the situation will improve slightly. Maybe things won't be so bad for us any more. I know that every poor peasant has a dream. Every little worker you see out there has a dream, every little janitor, every little person, even, everybody has a little dream. And this dream obviously is that hopefully some day they'll become rich.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 Something will turn because what is riches represent to them, it's a, it's of being in a state in which they can do what they want to do. Being in a place they can accomplish, maybe being in a place simply so that they can be happy. Maybe that's it. People fall in love. Maybe it's simply because to be happy. People go on these tours to see the world. Perhaps, it's simply just to be happy, to fulfill a sense. People go to these incredible restaurants. Perhaps it's all to fulfill a sense, to be just happy. Maybe happiness, for us, means one particular thing and yet maybe, just maybe, we try to fulfill it in all our different ways. You know maybe happiness is a thing that we cannot achieve, maybe something far more, maybe something that's so far that our arms aren't long enough to reach it. And yet everything we try to do in this world is to be a little happier, to be a little happier, to be a little more focus more on what we want to really do. And obviously there was a time when this hall didn't exist. That was a long time ago I'm sure but there was a definitely a time when this hall just didn't exist. Maybe green land or rock or pond or dinosaur buried under here. Something. And perhaps people wanted to assemble in different places. Obviously Shakespeare had a theatre, built a theatre, people used to come, it was open. People get very intrigued in a play and then it start raining and everybody just split and here is Shakespeare who sat down and thought it all out, written it, got it in whole trip together and then the rain comes and obviously you know that the weather in England, I Europe, around the world, it's very unpredictable.

I really do sometimes sympathize with the weather man on TV. Because they must really think, I know, I don't know what they think people think of them. I mean they're always wrong, you know, it seems like they're always wrong. It's a show that they can almost do without, you know, and yet maybe there was a concept, maybe just an idea and yes maybe people can really come and not be bothered about all these different things, all the elements of snow and and and rain and hot and cold. Maybe we can close this place. For what? I mean somebody who invented a PA system. What was the purpose behind that they invent a PA system? So we can, I mean even a person who invented communications, just basic ABCD, communications. Why? So we can communicate, we can talk to each other, we can express ourselves. We can share what we are thinking. And yet I know all these things that do exist, perhaps to share, perhaps to just make us tiny little bit happy fail. Ultimately fail.

You know, it's like these people who've gone to the Moon, they've gone to Moon. I mean that's incredible. Something, you know, that the great knights couldn't do, something that the Roner, Roman emperors could only think about, something that Alexander could just stand on the earth and look at and admire and say "Maybe someday I'll conquer it", some dream, a fantastic dream to be in the Moon, on the moon.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 And I know there are very many stories written about that, how incredible the moon is and everything. And then you see these, some of these old movies, about, you know, some English movies about people trying to go to Moon and they have this gigantic bullet and they put everything in it and then they charge it and the it takes off and it goes to the moon and this incredible drama and I I do you ever realize what these guys are doing these days who went to the Moon? Something that we would just wish to do, they have done it, they have gone to the moon, I hope and I think, and they have been there, they have walked around and they have seen it, you know, the works and what is it? They're behind a desk, they're executives, they're executives. They have their tables, they have their chairs, they have their phones and they have their secretaries and they have their letterheads and they have their business cards and they have their television appointments and they have their business appointments and they have their dining appointments and they have their all these things, you know. Maybe they have a wonderful house, maybe they have a wonderful car, maybe they have all these things and for all of us and a very envious situation, you know, we all envy them, we wish we were them, you know. I don't know when they were going to the Moon in 69 or something I don't know how many people must have slept on their pillows dreaming that it was them ??? to the moon, you know, going on a space, on the on the on the Apollo.

And you know all that they have, it's true, they also have their problems, they also have their worries, they also have their headaches. I'm sure they take aspirin or a substitute, Tylenol, Aspirin, Alka-Seltzer, everything, the works. I'm sure that their medicine cabinet isn't just a a piece of the rock from the Moon but obviously it's filled with mouth wash, Listerine and uh, you know, Alka-Seltzer when they get indigestion when somebody said something to them or a headache they get in their office or something blew up on their face or something didn't happen that they anticipated, the works, just like you and me.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 And we go on in this world in a very particular style, in a very particular fashion, accepting, accepting, accepting, accepting the pain, accepting the misery. I mean, you know, just accepting it. It's all OK, this is it, this is my world. I am miserable, so what. Maybe we're not all so miserable. You know, maybe sometimes one has a tendency to get carried away. Maybe we're not so miserable after all. Maybe we're so miserable we think we're happy. I mean after all, what do you think is the substance in this world that can really make one happy? What do you think is the real true substance in this world? What is available to us? Which, which drug manufacturer has it available? A pill for happiness. Well obviously some people thought they had a pill for happiness. It was called, well a nice way of calling it, I think, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Pop a few of these and you can forget about your problems, you can forget about your worries, you can waltz it all away. Not true. Does not work. Do you realize that if we all stopped having indigestion, if we all stopped having indigestion what would happen to the drug manufacturers? What would happen to this latest line of Alka-Seltzer? You know, this latest line of aspirin is called Disprin or something like that. What would happen? And there is a, besides all this, you know, besides all this that exists, maybe to us it's not a problem, maybe it's fine, maybe we have lived, maybe we have gone through a change of evolution, you know, and somehow ended up as a chihuaha. See because I always see these dogs and a chihuaha dog and I cannot figure out where they come from, what do they look like, I mean what what are they? Don't look like a dog, they don't look like a rabbit and I hardly assume that it's possible to cross-breed a rabbit and a dog to try to get a chihuaha. It's obviously the chihuaha has gone through it's evolution and there he is and the way he looks like. Tiny little creature, you know, doggy little eyes. Whatever he is.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 And yet there is a greater achievement to be had. There is something fantastic that we can achieve. There is something incredible that we can achieve. And even to understand the realm of happiness, the happiness that I talk about we have to just sit down for one minute, just a moment, let go. Just like you have to do in a class, just like you had to do in a school, you know. You could only read the comic books so much behind your book, you know, have your comic books then have your real book, reading and the teacher looks very impressed and it works. But then came the time for the exam, you know. And I'm not saying that this is a education of any sort. I'm pretty sure a lot of people would be intimidated to be educated at this point in time.

Education. But I know that, you know I mean I I I've tried to teach myself so many things, you know. I was even interested in getting a curricular for high school and I uh sent out a person, you know, to see if they could find a curriculum for me and I know that a lot of times you can sit down and try to study something, try to read something and it'll never click, it'll never happen, it will not make any sense, it doesn't make any difference whether you read it or you don't read it, if you chuck it away or if you sit there and read it because it won't penetrate.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 You're thinking about something or you're watching your television, glancing an eye here, glancing an eye there, thinking about this, thinking about that, and then perhaps when it really comes down to nitty-gritty and it's almost like a thing where you want to kick yourself, you stop, wait, concentrate and click, click, click, it really goes. Same way, perhaps same way for us in this process we have to stop for one minute, we have to stop, I mean do you understand that one minute is just a matter of expression. You don't have to precisely time yourself for one minute but just to stop for moment, perhaps would be a better word, moment and say wait a minute, where am I? Am I missing something? Search within, yes I know, I mean it's like I can't sit down in front of you and ask you that question. You will never answer me. But there is this person who looks just like you, who looks just like you and in your very solitary moments this person comes to you and this person a lot of times comes to you in the morning when you go into your bathroom and you see this person. And this person is slightly different than you are. Obviously because you know the part may be is right here and this part is on this side. You may have a little mole on this side of your cheek but his is on this side. You know maybe it's this eye that you is bad but his is this eye. Slightly different but when you see him it's something that looks you right at your face. Comes in, asks you the very particular question. Addresses you, what now? What now? Let that person sit in front of you perhaps, let him ask the question. Or her ask the question. Am I, am I really as happy as I am? Is my life really complete? Or simply, or simply, is this something in this life that I can achieve that's better than all this.

And when nobody can answer that question I hope I can because the answer to that is "Yes, there is something." There is something very incredible, there is something very unique. It's unique for us and yes the most important thing, obviously the English language doesn't have a word for it, I don't think any language has a word for it, when the definition should read such as something very unique yet absolutely common. I don't know what the word would be for that but that's what, that's what it is, it's everywhere. It's within you, it's within me. It's what keeps me alive, and what keeps you alive. You know because I can believe, it's very easy for me to believe there is no God, it's very simple. There are people who believe there is no God, there is no such thing as primordial vibration, there is no such thing as primordial energy, there is no such thing as this incredible thing, you know, people want to talk about. It's just you and me, kid, that's it.

Ah, but that's fine to believe in when we're sitting on top of the world, just me, just you. Is it because, when you have an accident, when you have an accident and you were, you were the one, you know, you're driving your car along the highway and all of a sudden, bang, kabam, you know, the works happen and you find that the front end of you car has just hit the rear end of another car. Now legally that's your mistake, you're the one who's supposed to watch out. But the driver who gets out of that car will blame it on the driver who was in the front, "You idiot, why did you stop?" "You idiot, why did you stop?" The guy in front of you will say, "You idiot, why didn't you stop?" You know of course it, it'll have a very heated conversation at that point cause it's nobody's fault, right? And then the whole thing gets taken to the court and the court decides that you are wrong and obviously you don't want to believe that, that you are wrong it's always the other guy's fault who just stopped in front of you, you know. And perhaps it goes on and on and on and on and on and the whole saga and maybe at this one point you just feel like no, I mean this isn't right. I mean you give up, you let go, you give up! And you say "Okay, it was my fault."

I mean obviously things become a little simpler but what does it take for us, a complete 180 degree turn, a complete, perhaps it takes a disaster and when that disaster comes, when that moment comes, when there is nobody else, when you disappear, that you, that buddy of yours that always is under your right arm, the one that helps you, the one that talks to you, the one that coaxes you, the one that tells you all these things you could do, you can do. When he goes away, when he disappears, and there you are left holding the whole bash there's some incredible power that protects us, that saves us, that sustains us comes very uniquely, very definitely, very, very definitely comes alive for us. That same power that has been described by so many cultures in so many ways. The same power that, that the Christians believe in, the same power that the Indians, the Hindus believe in, the Muslims believe in, the same power that the Buddhists believe in, the Chinese, I mean everybody believes in it's existence and to have an experience of that power, to be connected to that power, to be within that cycle of that power, it is a joy. It brings us joy.

When a child is, is lost. When a child is lost and this child cries because he definitely feels that something is deficient. Maybe it's in a big market and the child is walking along with a mother or father and everything looks so attractive and everything looks so incredible and this I want this and I want this and I want this you know and perhaps for one moment, for one single moment the total attention is dragged away from Oh I better be with my mother or Oh, I better hold on to the hand or Oh, I better hold on to the finger and just maybe for a minute, for a second, for a for just for a flash that disappears and you end up in front of the shop and attracted by that same, exact thing, attracted by that same, exact thing. "I want this, I want that, this looks nice, this looks good, this is wonderful, this is what I've always wanted. The same mother, the same mother also loses that focus, also loses that aim, also for maybe a fraction of a second and they both depart, both separated and maybe they're just involved, everything seems fine, everything seems great. Somehow, even though nobody is holding onto that finger you know, see this is your intellect comes in, you know your child is there and yet one again, that one second of attention diverted again. Just one second is what it took to separate the mother and child takes again one second to realize that they're both separated. The child starts crying, the mother starts worrying, nothing is just fine any more. There becomes a needed necessity to be together, both have an incredible love, both want each other, need each other, want to be with each other. That's with us too. In our harmony we get distracted. In this world for maybe even a second we get disattracted. "Oh yeah, this world is wonderful." If you can tell me one single thing that this world has given anybody yet.

There is a story from India about Alexander the Great. Obviously it's not recorded in any of the other history books so we'll leave it at that, just a story. I mean Alexander, this powerful, incredible, I mean maybe it's just a story but maybe it has a little meaning for us, maybe a little meaning for us. And this incredible Alexander, you know, the Great, titled, been everywhere, conquered so much, an incredible power. Even he reflected that in his, in his, this incredible palace he had, he was having built and there was a king, every single king that he had, he had conquered, his picture was there, giving offerings to Alexander as a servant, to Alexander. And all along the great walls were all these paintings and these statues that were made. Anyway the story goes that he was dying and when he was dying he called all his generals, all his officers and said, "Look, I'm dying, When I die, take my hands, you know, as you carry me down, take my hands out of the coffin so the whole world can see that they're absolutely empty and when you bury me put a headstone. On my headstone write: Alexander the Great, he came empty handed in this world has gone empty handed from this world.

Maybe there's a little meaning for us. Maybe there's a life that we haven't started to live yet. Maybe somehow we're, we're missing in the spectrum of our life, maybe we are missing something after all. Missing a true pleasure, a true piece of contentment, true happiness. I don't mean contentment by you shall never again need a glass of water, of course you will. You shall never again need good, of course you will. You will be an human being except this time there'll be something more in your life to enjoy. For all of us to enjoy. Something greater, something more blissful, something more powerful, to recognize that power, to understand that power, to be thankful to that power. To merge with that power.

I know there's a lot of people, you know, who talk about life after death. Some people believe there is no death, some people disagree believe there is no death, that's just a whole bunch of rubbish they call it. Some people say no there is life after death. And there is somehow 84 million different lives you can end up with as an insect, a camel, you know, the works. Camel, a donkey, a pony, a horse, a pigeon, a bird, a eagle, a hawk and the works, you know anyone of those things. I'm sure that the variety is tremendous, even a bacteria, I suppose, you could end up as. And then, I mean, obviously different religions have their different theory of what could happen to you after you die. And that's every religion has to offer that. What has to happen to you, I mean you do all this and then if you've been a good boy, if you've been a good boy you'll go up, you know when you die, you'll go up to the the this one person's got the big white beard and big table and Parker pen and uh he'll look you up, look you up in the big books, see your name, who are you, what's your life, what have you done, have you been a good boy, have you been a bad boy and then if you've been a good boy he'll forward you to heaven and if you've been a bad boy you'll go straight to 'h', 'e', double 'l', you know.

You know and there was this, there is this joke, there is this story I'm sure one of you heard it. There was this one businessman and he died. It was a all his life he was a real miser you know and he died and he went up to heaven, to to this place of decision and there was this old person there with a long beard and a pen and he looked his name up and he said "Okay you have to tell me what good you have done so far. You know if you have done anything good then we'll let you go to heaven, if not, you don't go in there." And this businessman was extremely adamant about going to heaven, he says "Look, I belong in heaven, I have to be in heaven. I don't care what I have done, I mean I belong in heaven. This is it." And so the the guy informed the secretary of God that uh you know I'm pretty sure that whoever is the secretary of God is your honour, your worship, you you get bad terms with him, you've had it.

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980 And so you know God heard all the ruckus goin' on said, "What's, what's the problem out there?" He said, "Well there is this businessman, he is extremely adamant, he won't tell me if he's done anything good or if he's done anything bad but he's extremely adamant that he wants to come into heaven." Well I said, "Call him here, let me talk to him." And he's brought before Lord Almighty and he's questioned, "Well have you done anything good in your life?" And he says, "Well, one time, just one time I gave somebody a dime, you know, there was this poor orphan and I felt so pity on him and I gave him a dime." So God you know who created everything turns and says, "Is that all, I mean have you done anything better than that? I mean anything more?" He says, "Yeah, oh yeah, one time I was walking by and there was this poor old man and I gave him a nickel." "So anything else?" He scratched his head and he scratched his head and he scratched his head and says "No, that's about it." So the Creator said "Well, you've done a little bit of good things, you know, given a dime to one and a nickel to another one. I suppose he's done some good but it certainly isn't enough to enter the heaven on those grounds." So God turned to his secretary and said "Well, what should we do?" The secretary said, "Lord, I personally think you should give him his 15 cents back and tell him to go to hell. Just get out of here, that's it."

And this is so true, it could happen. There is all your good deeds, you know, the good karma and get outta here. Cause what is that good? What is that bad? You know, all the, all the things where we can be here in this life and we can, we can do all these things and then we die and we can enjoy all those things much like a savings account. Where we can save and save and save and save and save and save and save and then one day when we sort of retire we'll get all this money we'll have saved. It's more like the IRS is gonna come and knock at your door and take all your money away. You know and that's how, that's how sometimes it works out like that, pretty much like that. What is it, one bad mistake and you're your whole life? What is this life for then? I mean, can't we enjoy ourselves now? What about, what about that heaven now, heaven on earth. A prayer: "Our father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, mm, Thy kingdom come." Your kingdom, all this earth, shall prevail. Always has. Who else is the king? Tell me.

Has ever, has there ever been a doubt in anybody's mind that there has been a king almighty besides the Creator. We are in his kingdom and there is an ultimate heaven for us to just enjoy. Created for us, by that Creator. For everyone of us to just simply bliss out in now. In this physical body, I mean after all, this human body is made why? Why such a work of genius is created after all. Why so much goes into it. Why such an incredible creation? There's a very different, definite purpose to it. And if we can just realize that then this would become heaven for us. Now. Heaven now and heaven forever and heaven in eternity. But hell now and that's the way it'll always stay. Be miserable now, seem to stay miserable forever. Because that misery that eats us like termites from inside out. How much humanity do you think is out there in this world after all?

I mean in America all the candidates are going wild. I mean there was this, there was this whole wild surge you know that happened and everybody just completely went after uh to be nominated. Get nominated. Get nominated. Get nominated. Now all the nominations for the Democrats has finished anyway. Done. Now they can undo their ties a little bit and get geared up for the actual public campaign for the election of the President of the United States of America. I mean it happens in England you know I was, I was here when uh the time Thatcher and the other one were going at it. Just, you know, elect the Prime Minister for this country. "We'll do this for you. We'll make your housing better." Are those that have them better, are they any happy? I know housing is a terrible problem in England. I mean absolutely incredibly terrible. (some laughter) And that something should be done about it. Of course. But then you can't, then what? I mean Japan has even got a worse problem than England I suppose. I mean it really you know I mean it helps the Japanese to be short but only so much. (some laughter) And you know, it's it's incredible and that's how the world, the whole world is coming to.

I was, one day I was watching this report, there there's a program show in America and I was just watching it and all of a sudden this came on this report called the Doomsday. I got very intrigued. Let's see a, hear their version of Doomsday you know, I've heard a lot just one more to go perhaps, you know. And it was intriguing. The President of the United States of America had asked for a report to be done so what and the report was basically the way things are going, if they kept on going, what would happen in the next you know 20, 30 40 years. What, what would happen? And it was simply outrageous. They predicted, they predicted that a place like Calcutta, India, I mean they have something like uh 20 million people and now the cities will go completely berserk. That there will be so many people on the face of this earth there simply wouldn't be enough food to feed everybody properly. That if this kept on going the disease would increase, I mean it would, it would just be a chaos, it was just like, if you can take you know all the and I mean all the third world countries will get worse and worse and worse and worse because they'll even have to feed more people and their, they will not have any kind of economic growth that will help to generate enough income so they can support themselves.

And you look at that, you know, you just even try to realize that and I mean obviously after they had read the whole report and photographed the whole report they realized that it was much more like a Doomsday report than anything else. I couldn't agree with them any more. It doesn't all have to be a poof and a smoke and a whole bunch of bangs to be at the Doomsday. If people give up hope that will be the Doomsday. And where is that all gonna come from? For us to live, for us to survive, for us to be happy, for us to have a solution now, it it's pretty bad, you know. Where is that hope gonna come from us now? We need hope now. I believe every single human being needs that hope now and certainly gonna need it every single day, every single day, more and more and more I mean do you realize as we're having this uh uh uh uh this program there are a lotta babies out there just going "Wha, wha, wha, wha!" And this incredible fast moving world is just speeding up and speeding up and faster and faster and faster, do you realize I mean here we're sitting you don't see a single automobile but do you realize how many automobiles there are out there hustling and bustling and do you realize one just ran in the back of the other one? Do you realize one just ran off the road? Do you realize one just had the windshield smashed? I mean somewhere out in the world somebody got murdered. Somebody round the world died from an auto accident. Yeah, it's very safe to assume that. The only assumptions ???? such a fast pace is manifesting, such an incredibly fast pace is starting to happen.

But for us there is a hope, for everyone of us, not just sitting in this hall but everyone out there, everywhere, there is hope if that's what we want, if that's what we need. There is a solution for everyone of us if we can just go in for a moment and really look at, yes, we can all be, we can all have a purpose, we can all do satisfy a purpose of this life. We can, we can have all that. We can have something that's incredible in this life. Providing we even make a slightly small effort to understand that, to recognize that but without it, it doesn't make any sense. To me I know I mean I go to so many places sometimes, I see so many things sometimes that I know that without this Knowledge, without this inner satisfaction, without this inner hope, without this inner light to show the way, it's too dark. I couldn't tell my head from my foot. And I very strongly believe neither could anybody else. It's an experience, it's an experience of you. It's an experience of you with the ultimate. It's an experience that is ultimate and to be a part of this creation, to be here now, to be alive now, to have that understanding now can go a long way for us. Perhaps, like I said, maybe this is the time to enjoy, to really enjoy this life. Maybe we never have enjoyed this life, you know. Started off with a slap on our bum, upside down, you know, whang! You know that was our grand finale, our grand entrance into this world, "Here kid, this one's for you." Bam! "Now get going!" And that's the way it's gonna be from now till you die, upside down and a whole bunch of slaps.

Yeah. Sometimes it is like that, upside down and a whole bunch of slaps. In the hustle and the bustle, maybe, maybe that has nothing to do with it. It's just your inner feeling. Does it feel right? No. Does it give? No. Every little, every little, to even look for a sympathy, to try to even understand, to do, to, I mean, who has the guts in a school to go up to a teacher and say "I don't think I want to learn this subject." It's only that kid that has failed five years already who may have that much guts. But ??? only stick there for a year definitely doesn't have enough courage inside their stomach to go up to the teacher and say, "Don't tell me all this. I don't wanna know any of this. I've got it all figured out in my life, all I want to be is a mathematician. All I want to be is a businessman and all I'm going to be dealing in is the figure from one to zero. That's it 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, you know which is on a calculator, there is no ten, there's only a one and a zero. Just teach me that much, tech me the simple multiplication, teach me the subtraction, the addition, the division and that's all I want to know. I want to divide peoples' money, multiply a line and that's it. Don't teach me any of this garbage." And boy, he'd really have it you know. "Get on the corner, face the corner! Get out! Get out of the class." Be expelled and go to your parents and the parents, the parents will say "What is the matter with you? Don't you want to learn geography? Don't you want to learn history? Don't you want to learn this? Don't you want to learn that?"

It's like "No! I've got it all figured out. I'm gonna be a business man and all I need to know is these few simple things. That's it! Teach me how to use a calculator. Teach me how to fix one. That's all. That's it." And maybe you know and it's uh it's incredible because that's all we end up sometimes, that's all we end up sometimes. The calculator and one of us and di di di (mimics using calculator) and that's it you know. Perhaps for the other secretaries that's their whole life, IBM typewriter (mimics typing with vacant expression with sound effects) all day long, all morning long, he's looking at something and typing away (some laughter). And every time you make the silly mistake the stupid you know boss yells at you and that's about it (mimics typing, audience laughter).

And none of that, obviously, obviously, none of that is an experience of life and tell me what else does that secretary do besides that? Get up in the morning, you know, spend about half an hour putting the lipstick on, the make-up on, you know, the works and everything and then have the, go to the refrigerator and pull out the TV breakfast, you know, frozen thing and throw it in the oven and, or not even that, sometimes you just, you'll just eat at the office. Grab in your car, rush on to the office and try to be there before the boss so you can get up and say "Good morning, sir." You know, and and then the boss says "Come here! Here! Type the Encylopaedia Brittanica for me." (general laughter) "Here, that's your job for today." And you sit there typing the Encyclopaedia Britannica. (Rawat laughs) What else can you do, you can't argue with the boss, he'll fire you if you do that. And after that, tired, broke, your fingers feel like crackling up, you know, have already done that. Maybe everything went wrong at the office. The typewriter jammed up, the ribbon ran out, you know. Here you were, typing away, 30 pages and the ribbon was behind the printer and nothing came out and they can do that till they get so good at it, they get so good at it, they can just, they can just, they don't even have to look at the thing, you know, they can just type at it, you know, without ever looking.

Even times, that's the whole life, you know, and get so, perhaps a lot of the dreams just dwindle away and it's like "No, I couldn't do that or no, I couldn't do this now, no that's not for me any more." You know and then it comes to the, somewhere along the line you keep going and then comes the wheel chair and then comes, you know, this and then comes that and all these things just break apart and you know then all of a sudden maybe you are 80 years old, maybe 90 years old and you look back at your life and obviously who else remembers it better than you and somehow it went awfully fast. I mean there you were, a little child, in essence, child who was gonna be a, you know, I mean a businessman and now look what's happened. And I'm saying that look, besides all those little things in the life, be it a businessman, be it a lawyer, be a doctor, be a pilot, be anybody, doesn't make any difference. It doesn't make any difference if you've been to the moon, haven't been to the moon but there is a spectrum of life within us that we never get to enjoy. What is obvious about a rose is its looks and yet there is an incredible amount of that perfume, that scent, hidden within inside and perhaps to have that, to smell it, to experience that scent we have to maybe come a little closer. Maybe we have to take that rose and put it very close to out nose so we can sense, we can smell. Maybe that's what it takes.

And maybe that's the way this life is too. That maybe we live it all, live it all our lives long but miss a certain spectrum of life, a spectrum which makes us happy, a spectrum which perhaps makes us content, a spectrum that can give us that hope to exist, to be. Maybe it's just like a stick to us that we always need, we go lame. When we don't have anybody to lean on to be there for us to lean on. And perhaps all it is then is a guiding light for us because we all do need to be guided. We all need to have that guidance in our lives. Without that guidance, without that support, without that hope, I don't think we can be anywhere. I don't think we can really go anywhere. I don't really think we even can be and I don't think we can even be happy. And maybe this is just not an ABCD solution to everybody's happiness but it is because when people come and when people open up and when people see this spectrum cause it is buried in everybody's life who's alive. I definitely cannot promise it for a dead human being but for a live human being, yes, it's there. No, not a crocodile, not a gorilla, none of those, just human beings.

A human being and it's an incredible opportunity for us now to open up to that, to merge in that and perhaps then there will be an experience and I know there will be an experience. Do, you know, I mean it's the one sense you could go on and on and on, in the other sense I don't really want to resonate this hall too much (looks up at ceiling) so, it's very old and we have two more days ahead of us. Maybe if we try, maybe if we just let go, maybe we can learn something. Maybe uh may maybe there is a remote possibility that even we do know everything right? Maybe there is something we missed, something that our teacher didn't teach because he never liked us, remember, and you know something that our mother never told us because we took her nice dress and cut it up. And maybe it's something that we never, you know, our Dad never told us because we took all the air out of his car's tire. Maybe just for any simple reason, maybe we don't know. Maybe if we can just stop and let go a little bit. Maybe there is something we can learn, something that'll, that can make us happy. Some little thing, that's an incredible statement in itself, maybe there is something that can make us happy after all.

To me, miserable is so easy, just walk in front of any street. A car will run over your foot or somebody will honk at you and definitely somebody will cuss at you. "Why don't you watch where you're going?" you know. And maybe there is something in this world that's a little different, maybe there is a little hope for all of us and that's what we need to have. So, thank you very much and there's tomorrow there'll be darshan, hopefully. (applause) So thank you very much and good night (disorganized chant of "Bolie Shri Satgurudev Maharaj Ki Jai")

 

by Joe Creighton performed by "Heart And Soul" with Ross Hannaford on lead guitar. Neither of these two are still followers of Prem Rawat.

Who made these people?
Every woman, every man,
Who breathes this life
Who can make us understand?
Oh Sweet Lord
Teach me to understand
Every day bring me closer
To you.

Cause that's what I wanted
Just to be your friend
That's what I wanted
Someone that understands
That's what I needed
Knows no end
To let me be part of your world
Let me, let me love you

Solo

So let me be part of your world
Let me, let me love you
Let me be part of your world
Let me, let me love you

Prem Rawat, Guru Puja, Olympia 22nd August 1980© Divine Light Mission, 1980