Maharaji, (Prem Rawat) Wembley England 21st April 1988 Video Transcript

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.

I have to admit that it was a little difficult to determine how well Prem Rawat performed back in the 1970's and early 1980s because there weren't too many other dwarfish lumps of lard waddling around ranting, raving, screaming, frothing at the mouth, shouting that everyone should surrender to him, worship him, pray to him, obey him, donate to him and kiss his feet because he was the Guru Maharaj Ji, the Perfect Master, the Lord of the Universe, the Living Master, the Creator Incarnated in human form, God Incarnated in human form, the Satguru, the Manifestation of the Energy that is Keeping You Alive come into this earth and probably some more I've forgotten. He was pretty well unique and though he appeared to be an incompetent laughable nasty greedy stooge it might have just been because it is so hard to fill those divine shoes. I mean maybe Jesus had a lisp and farted in public, who knows?

But by the time he gave this speech in Wembley England before 2,500 people, some of whom were seeing him for the first time, one could get a better perspective on his talents because he believed he had metamorphosed into a comedic and inspirational raconteur à la Garrison Keillor, Billy Connolly or Robin Williamson and a polymath showing off his enormous and erudite vocabulary as does Stephen Fry and this had all happened during the 1980's after he had closed the Divine Light Mission ashrams, stopped the nightly satsang meetings of his followers and changed his public name and his title and his organisations' names.

  • He tells 2 jokes: one is about fucking in heaven like a jack rabbit.
  • Rawat lingers longest talking about a quote from Kahlil Gibran's "The Soul" which he claims to love. He introduces it with a typical simplistic sneer at the great religions, that they believe that their God is different to the God of other religions and then goes into a long supposedly humorous rant that is the antithesis of the atmosphere Gibran had created and jeers his way through attempting to use it to bolster his shallow theology of constant happiness.
  • Every story he tells is a nasty putdown.
  • Maharaji criticises the educations system: "Same thing being taught to everybody" - He teaches the same thing to everybody, something that can be learnt in 5 minutes for free
  • He then claims to not be interested in making money and that if he sold His Knowledge rather than giving it away he'd be very rich. However, people would not pay to be told to squeeze their eyes, poke their thumbs in their ears, think about their breathing and stick their tongues back up their throats. They have to be convinced beforehand else when they're actually "revealed" the techniques they'll just go "You're kidding!"
  • He makes a reference to reincarnation, first saying there is no way of knowing if there's another life and then saying it doesn't work like that as if he does know and he certainly said he knew when he was younger.

Wembley England 21st April 1988Maharaji, (Prem Rawat) Wembley England 21st April 1988 Video Transcript

Tim Gallwey Introduces Maharaji at Wembley 1988

Hello, my name's Tim Gallwey and in the video you're about to watch Maharaji presents a unique perspective on human life and offers a unique way to fulfil it. He's addressing an audience of over 2500 people at Wembley Conference Centre in a suburb of London, England on the 21st April, 1988. Many in the audience have come to hear Maharaji speak for the first time.


(Applause) I'm sure that uh everybody's rather intrigued, at least, half of us who are here tonight what we're gonna talk about, what Knowledge is all about, why the word Knowledge? But before we dig into the subject of Knowledge let's put that aside. Let's ask the fourth question cause he only asked three. The fourth question, why Knowledge? Why do we need this? And here a whole other door opens up, a door that sometimes perhaps we are very reluctant to open and for a moment let's back off from our situations, let's back off from our curiosity, let's take a look what we got here and I know that our MC feels that I travel a lot, I do travel a lot and umm what do I see? I mean you arrive at the airports and everywhere it's the same thing, they wanna know who you are, where you're going, how long you're gonna stay here and after all the formalities are done they allow you to go in. Highways, roads, cars, people driving cars, this is the same thing that's going on everywhere. There's a routine, a set routine, more or less. People have jobs, there are little kids that go to school, around lunchtime everybody seems to get hungry and head for the restaurants, cafés, cafeterias. Then when that's all over everybody goes back to work and then of course in the evening you have your typical rush-hour and the fascinating thing about that is that you'd think there'd be some places where this wouldn't happen in, the people have something else going on but that's not true. Everywhere, every single country has rush hour, problems and all the rest of it that comes with it so then the obvious question is, is that what everything is all about?

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

As a human being, what are you? Is there something more to you than simply everything that we see day to day. Now, I'm not putting it down, I don't have to put the rush hours down, everybody hates them. I'm not trying to put down any particular thing, I'm just forcing an issue and the issue is should we take a look at this stuff and say "Isn't there more or is it that it?" Because certainly if there is something more than what is it besides these daily routines, the science and our problems? I mean it is amazing, there are even people who look alike, just different color, different clothes, they even look alike. You know there's probably, not quite your clone, but similar to you somewhere out in India. I mean I was just there a few days ago. We had a wonderful meeting, 167,545 people showed up. I don't know how they got to the last numbers but approximately 167,000 people and of course you can't even make out their faces when they're sitting that far away from you and yet is there something more? And this is where I have to say and, and at this point in time I guess you have to take my word for it but I'm not just speaking tonight I have talked about this subject for a long, long time since I was very young and I have spoken to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people, millions in fact about the subject that there is something more, that it isn't just the time that we are born and we are put into the system.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

You go to schools and, and the teacher tries to make the same thing out of everybody I mean that's the teachers job. Same education, hopefully same grades and then you pass on to the next one and you just go through this little system. You emerge out of it, maybe you're lucky enough to get to the university. The same system, same thing, same thing being taught to everybody, this is what Socrates did, this is what this guy did, this is what this guy said, this is what this guy said and it's fascinating that everybody is familiar with Socrates and is familiar with the fact that Socrates said "Know thyself" and this is in fact taught in our educational institutions but what does it mean to know thyself. What's he talking about? It's one of those things that is just passed over, it's just thrown away. Right, know thyself, you should know yourself, you should know whether you're strong or you're weak and you know one thing that fascinates me is that even though Knowledge has nothing to do with psychology and I'm not a psychologist by any means nor do I have any desire to be one, I just love the stuff they come up with. I mean I just love it you know, it's just fascinating to me. They've got categories, groups of people, people who will make it and the people who won't and people who might and people who never will and I, I think about this, it's like gee whizz what? Why? Because nobody is particularly born with a set of papers saying right you belong to group A and what is the k, what is the standard of making it and in this world is a very odd thing, if you don't have a Rolls-Royce then all your life you wish you had one and if you have one you wish you didn't and it's one of those things. You know you got an expensive car, where are you going to take it? One little scratch, one little bump and then every time you drive it on the highway everybody's going to look at you. You know and people it's like what do you do? Which group do you belong to? And people sit there and they read these magazines and they read these papers and right, I wanna be the doer. I wanna, I wanna succeed. Succeed in what?

If you look at it perhaps very superficially, we're all born and we all die. Now the testament to this happens to be a graveyard where it proves the fact that we all do die and then you go and have these lovely headstones, "To our beloved Henry, born 1943 then a little dash and then 1988, 1987. Do you know what that dash represents? That represents your entire life, that represents all your frustrations, that represents all your successes, that represents all your failures, that represents all your everything you are is a dash. I mean you know sometimes I see these graveyards and I see this specially there is one in America, it's next to an airport and sometimes when I go there I can see this, just this mega graveyard. These little little little little little headstones all over the place, it's an army graveyard, it's like all these people died because of this and because of that but they're all dead and you know the, the curious thing is I wonder what they look like, I wonder what they did this for, I wonder what was going on in their lives but that's, that's all you have now is this little white stone that says somebody lies here. Fine. What about you? What about me? What about you? What about me? Do I accept the fact and I know I'm going to die you see, death is one of these things we don't talk about. Well frankly you don't have to talk about because it'll come regardless of that. Death is one of those things you don't have to make an appointment for. You don't have to really worry about it too much, it'll just come and the fact is, this is, I love this little joke, I think this is a it's a little joke that plays on human beings, you just don't know when it's gonna come, you know, you know it's gonna come but when it's gonna come? Because it would be so convenient if you knew when it was coming. That way you could set everything up. In America people plan for this. After they retire they go and buy a lot overlooking the beautiful view. I'm not kidding you, you drive around the United States and you see these bus stops, specially in this one particular area they've got these adverts and uh you know beautiful cemetery, beautiful view, I mean who's gonna look at it. I mean but that's the way it is and they go and then they then they give each other these presents on the anniversary. The husband gives it to the wife "Honey I bought you a little piece of land. It's all yours" and "Yes sweetheart for your next one I'll buy you a little piece of land and there we shall lie together, looking, overlooking this beautiful view." 11:49 I mean okay these are sentimental things and people have every right to do this but nonetheless that's what's gonna happen to us and we know we are already born so the clock is already ticking. That's er that's one of those things that people think how wonderful it would be if we could stop everything and start all over again. I agree. Certain things you could change but you can't. The day you were born, the clock started ticking and it's still ticking and every moment that goes by is actually bringing you closer and closer and closer to the point where you shall no more be. Now, what are you doing? What's going on in your life? It seems to me the problems are identical only the names are changed to protect the innocent and then you wonder well who's the innocent since they are our problems and we look at these problems, we try to deal with these problems and we and this is it and then still the impending question.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

Because if we look at it there are certainly those people who believe that everything goes on in this world as it does and it must and then there have always been some people amongst us who have tried to point out another reality. That there is something more, that there is something greater, that fundamentally each human being regardless of their psychological group tries for quality.

I mean even if you look at somebody who does a sloppy job, say he is painting a house and he's been hired to paint this house and he is doing a really sloppy job. I mean he's since the house is white and it's being painted white again he doesn't care. From the owner's perspective, yes this person is doing a terrible job, a job with no quality however from this person's perspective who is painting he is striving for something, to get more time off and this person sees that if he could have more time off than he could do something with it that he likes, he enjoys whether it is to go down to a pub or to sit on top of a house and whistle at every girl that goes by but that's his time and he can enjoy it and so even in that area he is striving for quality too. Agreed that it's not that kind of quality that benefits the owner of the house but it certainly benefits that worker so we are all striving for something the question is what are we striving for?

People say love your job but you can only love it so much. Love your family, families are great, I have one, four kids, wife, house, two dogs, the works. What I don't have is a station wagon but the rest I do have both families, let's face it, can be very trying. You wake up in the morning or sometimes what happens that I've been on a tour and I come home and I'm very tired, I'm trying to sleep and the youngest one he has decided that day that he doesn't want to go to school. Of course, he kinda has made that decision every day, but he perseveres and he does do and some days there is more of this decision that he doesn't want to go and he knows that everybody in the household will try to quiet, quiet him down so he I'm not woken up and he will start crying and I mean it's like a little blackmail but then I wake up and it's like "What's the matter?" "Daddy, I don't want to go to school today." "Oh, come on, not this again. I mean we've been through this 100s of times." You know sometimes you feel like saying "Okay with me you know" but then I also, they know, there's, there's all these parts. It's like "Yeah, go back to sleep and let me go back to sleep. If you don't want to go to school you know it's no skin off my back" and then the parent thought comes in "No, it's my responsibility to make sure that my child goes to school." And specially when your time it's four o'clock in the morning or three o'clock in the morning and you have two make this ultimate decision between being a parent and just a human being. It's very tough, it's very tough and it's like you're constantly in this, in this position with your family and you have to give to everyone what ever it is that they are looking for from you. Sometimes they'll come in my office and "Daddy, I can't solve this problem" and it's like when I went to school they didn't have those problems. They just came up with these problems after I left the school and so I have to sit down and figure this one out and there was one problem nobody could solve it, nobody in the whole house could solve it. Finally you know my eldest daughter she came up to me and she said "Well, what'll we do?" And I said "Okay, sit down and we'll solve it. I finally solved it for her but it's like amongst all these things, what about me? ???

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

To some people that's very selfish thing to say "You shouldn't think about yourself. You shouldn't even talk like that. Just give, don't worry, just give to everybody else but who is this person that's gonna give? I mean how can you give something that doesn't exist and at some point in time, not being selfish, but after all you do have to accept the simple fact that you are here and you are here as an entity. You can think for yourself. You can, you are, we all are these this incredible being, we can, we can look at something and we can say "Ah that's good."

You see we take this for granted but you believe me rabbits simply can't do that no matter how many schools they go to they simply can't figure this out for the life of them. A donkey, no way. I mean the thing the the amazing difference that I find and in India they have these wells and what they have is instead of having an engine that's gonna drive the pump they have this whole assembly and it's a big wheel on top of the well and there's a big chain and this chain has buckets and then there's a shaft that's connected to an other gear which is driven by an oxen or a donkey or a camel and they sometimes will start in the morning pumping this water out and what happens is that the camel goes around and around in a circle and what they basically do so that this camel doesn't figure out that he's not going anywhere they cover his eyes and then don't forget that behind this camel is a human being who's constantly prodding the camel along to move and so both of them are going around in a circle. Not just one, both of them, the human being and the donkey or the camel all the oxen. What's the difference? What's the difference? The difference is for the camel absolutely nothing is being accomplished, so far the camel is concerned he may as well go park himself under the treaty or find a good-looking camel, and other good-looking camel or something like that which may be hard to do but camels have a unique way of doing it but for this guy who's also going around in circles all day long, he is accomplishing something. This water is going to now grow the crops which are going to feed him and in the water, more water is coming out and that's good and this man can be behind the camel, driving this camel and saying right, "I've got this problem I have to solve it. I've got a debt of 200 rupees and I must make the camel go a little faster so that more water will come out, more crops" and so on and so forth while the camel, what is going on in the camel's head? What could possibly be going on in the camel's head? Now, I'm not going to place myself in the camel's position because that's, that's ridiculous. I mean there's no way to confirm it but there is a great distinction in all the rest of it and you. I mean people look at chimpanzees and they say "God, chimpanzees are cute. Cute they may be but you can't live your life with a chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are very smart but face it, not as smart as you are.

You, what are you all about? What am I all about? What is this thing that has been bestowed upon me called appreciation? That I can look at a sunset which believe me I have nothing to do with because the sun isn't really setting but I call it a sunset nonetheless and I can look at this wonderful fiery display of colors which I understand is not very common in England but it does happen, I have witnessed it and you look at something like that and you can stop for a minute to say "God, that's beautiful."

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

I have never seen rabbits do that. They come, they eat, they eat, eat, eat, eat, eat then they do something else, you know, and then they go back to eating again and then what we consider to be this incredible thing is a joke and it goes there is this man, he died so his friend one day somehow managed to get in touch with him and he said "Tell me, what is it like up there?" He said "Well, it's, it's different" "So tell me, what do you do?" "Well, all day long I eat eat eat eat eat and then whenever there is a little time I go on with the activities of procreation. I do that for a while and then I eat eat eat eat eat and then I go back and do that some more." The man on earth said "God, you must be in heaven." He said "No-o-o-o, I'm not in heaven, I'm a jack rabbit in Arizona." (Pretty poor laughter, deservedly so) and I mean of course you can make that joke much saucier. I'm not trying to do that because you're not here to hear jokes.

I'm here act, I'm supposed to provoke some thought, not provoke you, but provoke some thought about the possibility of something more. So when we look at all of this stuff there has to be this feeling that we are the ones that can appreciate it. We are the ones who can enjoy I mean just look what we have done with food. If we were only spent as much time as we spent on food er on solving other problems of this world I'm sure we would have solved 'em. I mean look at the things people do, the most amazing things. Like the other day I was watching this guy on TV, he was putting pears and plums and apples together with things that I couldn't imagine and it's like I wonder if he's tasted this stuff you know I mean he's giving out recipes that I wonder if he's tasted it and I saw that yeah we have a flair for appreciation but in this appreciation of course we can appreciate sunsets, of course we can appreciate a good dinner, of course we can appreciate wonderful things in life but in this appreciation do we also appreciate our own selves or not?

Come the question of course is, is there something within us to appreciate? I mean after all you've looked at your face enough times and it's hard to look at yourself changing you know unless you've got pictures to compare cause you look at yourself every day. You know that when you wake up in the morning you're an absolute mess. You know this, I mean that's why bathrooms have locks (laughter) and everybody locks 'em. You know (mumbles) oogh and then the procedures start one after another, cleaning, cleaning, grooming, cleaning, grooming, cleaning, grooming, cleaning, grooming, cleaning. I mean can you imagine this life without mirrors? We would all go nuts. Every so many minutes we have to make sure our tie is straight. Every so many minutes we have to do this, we have to do-I mean it's like this tie for instance, this is my tie but who is it for? Me? This is my tie but who is it for? Well, can I see this tie? No, not unless I look like this. Now can you imagine the walking on the street like this? (Laughter) Who is this tie for? The best part of this tie is right here, the knot. This is what makes it look really good. Can I see this knot? No, I can't. Not unless I have eyes right here so who is this tie for? It's for you but you can't have it, (laughter) it's mine and that's the way we go around in this world. This is this tie is for you but it's mine. Who am I wearing it for? You. Absolutely! Before I came here I was having a game of tennis, was I wearing this tie? Of course not. Would I wear this tie if I was not doing a function or something like? Of course not. I'm not a tie a freak, nobody is. Everybody hates these things. You know and and and of course men aren't the only one. I mean how can woman ever see their lipstick? It's their lipstick but for us and on and on it goes but

Is there something real that you can appreciate about your own self and this is where many more theories can be presented. Now here comes experience. Why am I here tonight? What gives me the authority to stand behind his podium and talk to you? Do I have a credential? No. Do I have a certificate? No. What? I have experienced something. I have found that yes there is something inside of me and inside of you and in fact in every human being that is most admirable and it's not emotion and it's not behavior.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

You know I've been thinking about angry you know getting angry and and I realized that sometimes I do get angry and when I get angry I don't even know I'm angry. It's only afterwards you realize you've been angry but then other people you know what is the most unconvenient (sic) thing about being angry and what I have realized the most unconvenient thing about being angry is this or that the other people get greatly unconvenienced. They're the ones who come to me and say "You shouldn't have gotten angry" because it is very unconvenient for them to watch me get angry, especially when I am in a firing mood. You're fired, you're fired, you're fired, you're fired. Everybody is fired. That's very unconvenient for people I mean jobs are scarce these days so it's, it's more inconvenient for the other people than in fact it's for me. but then of course once I've gotten angry I feel guilty. What makes me feel guilty is the voices of other people that I hear "You shouldn't have gotten angry. It's not good for you. You'll get ulcers that way." But the problem is still I haven't figured out what is the red light that comes on just before you get angry. There is none. You just simply blow up and then then you realize "I blew up." It's one of those things

Like the British weathermen you know I have a lot of sympathy for them. I, I just, every morning that I watch news I just get the biggest kick out of them because the weather they give, it doesn't matter what it is, it may be raining there, it may be sunny and I understand exactly what their problem is. There you you happen to be sitting in an area where you got the jet stream blowing and so the weather changes very rapidly and it's very, very hard to predict and nonetheless it would be easier for them to say "Well, we'll let you know tomorrow what happens." You simply can't do that. I mean that would be no good. You know that in India they do that, they tell you the temperatures of yesterday. They're very accurate, they're deadly and

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

I just see yes, there is something that we can truly admire from my experience not that I have gone out and read a book, not that I am talking about following a particular religion, no this is not true and in one sense, one ought to really start by telling people what this isn't all about rather than what it is. Well no, it's not a religion, it's not a sect, it's not a cult. This is a basic human response, responding to your own selves not so that you can become a better person. Self-help groups, you know, join us and you can become a better person. Well no this is something very different than that as well because I am saying "Look, you are already the best" not that you need to be better. You are the best, all you need to know is find that out for yourself that you are the best, incomparable, millions of years of genetic engineering has gone into creating you and you alone. Millions of years of genetic engineering, flaws, mistakes, boo boos, whatever you want to call it so that you can be as you are. Somebody who can appreciate, somebody who can think, somebody who can understand, somebody who can laugh, somebody who can cry and I mean after all think about this that not only have we been given the capacity to be able to see but we have also been given the capacity to appreciate that which we see. To see would be great, think about what goes into seeing, my God the sophisticated system, a system with all the technology people still haven't been able to duplicate. How smooth it is, how well it works, a good system.

Sunglasses automatically built in, light regulation, zoom, you name it, autofocus you name I mean you know these Japanese they come up with autofocus and it's autofocus everywhere. I mean can you imagine if I put labels on me of all the features I have? You know you you go to these Japanese, these, some of these stores and they go autofocus and auto color and auto white balance you know. Look at me, auto smile, auto cry, auto here, auto focus, auto touch, auto taste, auto walk. I mean scientists are having incredible time trying to make a robot walk. It falls off every few steps and it just falls flat on its face and here we are a mean not that we have totally mastered it but we do a fairly amiable job of it, just basically walking. Toes, oh my God. Gyroscopes, now people talk about gyroscopes, sensitive gyro-I've got I've got the finest, finest balancing systems, one of the finest balancing systems I mean there'd be too many labels on me but that's what I am and within the capacity, the capacity to accept, the capacity to understand, the capacity to enjoy has to be one of the greatest things because for a computer to be able to perform a mathematical calculation of 4+4 = 8 may be easy but whether the computer enjoys it while it's doing the calculation or not is a whole another thing all we can enjoy it or procrastinate. Sit there and complain "Oh no, 4+4 again." Computers can't do that but we can and let's not look at these things and look at them as our shortcomings but look at these as incredible investment that has been made in each human being.

Then obviously the next question is if there is this capacity within us to enjoy these tremendous things and if there is something high why aren't we already in touch with it? Why we, why do we need to be at Wembley Conference Centre? All right, let's talk about that too.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

There's a him and quote that I really love, I love this quote, I can't shake it. Kahlil Gibran's quote, I don't usually like to use other people's material but the fact of the matter is whatever I am saying tonight, I haven't prepared any material for at all, you know, I'm just speaking to you, there's no speech down here or I didn't sit down and figure out what I was going to say here tonight but nonetheless I love this one. Kahlil Gibran, he wrote about many beautiful things, some things that are easy to understand and some things are rather difficult to understand and this one is about medium but it but human beings I think we can relate to it and he says that when God of gods, when Creator and this is beside the fact whether you believe in one or not, lemme just give you the quote because some people don't, they believe in another one you know after all every religion has their own God the only problem is everybody knows there is only one God but only their God is the right God so let's for a moment create a neutral situation where there's just one, is really one and he is not Hindu and Muslim and Christian and all the rest of the stuff. He's just him and or her or it or (laughter) not that it makes any difference so God of God Kahlil Gibran says created the soul and within, within this soul he says God placed a cup of joy.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

Well that sounds about typical, God would do some nice thing like that create a soul and put a cup of joy in it well (mumbles) and he God do all kinda nice things and this is another one of those nice things he did, very unselfish thing to do but he did and then before he finished sewing it back up he placed a condition, he placed a condition and he said you, and that means all those people who have souls, you, you may not drink of this cup of joy at night. Now everything makes sense. Right, this is typical of God, isn't it? I mean isn't this what we're talking about. If, if, if there is this higher thing within each human being, why aren't we already in touch with it? Well, God of God, he created the soul placed a cup of joy and then he said "You may not drink of this cup." Fabulous, now what do we do? Then he placed a condition, he said "Except, you may, except, now here's the condition, that you forget the past and renounce the future. Aargh, just great. I mean this is what 1988 is all about, isn't it? I mean do you realize what, what we do? Ever? I mean there's not too many people in this world who don't have a camera. What does a camera do? Why cameras? Cameras are there so when you go on a vacation you can record those moments so years down the road you could be reminded of the past. I mean this is what it's all about and here Kahlil Gibran is saying "You must forget the past and renounce the future." Tell that to the Japanese industry, they'll hit the roof. You know it should be really funny to say it to the Japanese because of the Japanese don't like to say no. There is a wonderful culture, it really is, very polite and I love uh whenever I go to Japan I love it, you know especially at the airport and you arrive they won't tell you "No." You ask them for anything "Could we have that airplane over there please?" (pause, laughter) They will not say no to you, it's very disrespectful so you can tell them but that's not what they're working on, they're working on the future. I mean everything is in the future, this is the future they say, the future, future where you can be rich, future where you don't have to do anything, the future, the future, the future. I mean all those couples buying those lots overlooking Los Angeles they're not buying it for the past, they're buying it for the future. Our pension plans, future. Retirement fund, future. House security, future. Mortgage loans, future. Banking, future. Technology, future. Automobiles, future. Road, future. Food, future. Clothes, future. You name it, it's future even hair cuts, future. You go to a hairdresser you say "Give me a haircut that'll last two weeks." That's what I do. That's what I do. I figure out how long I'm having to be gone and I say "Well, give me a haircut the last me three weeks, two weeks, whatever." The future, I mean we can't live without this stuff. I mean look at it how many clothes do you have at home even if you have one suit, you have two ties. Why did you buy two ties? Maybe you were victimized and given the ties but it's entirely possible that you went out and bought the ties. Why? So that some day when you wear the suit and you go to an occasion you might wear this one or that one or do it this way. What do you think wristwatches are all about? You can tell time. Even though it tells you the present time it gives you a scale of calculation for the future or the past and I see this incredible discrepancy that we have ultimately placed ourselves in a situation where it is absolutely impossible to fulfill that one requirement. I wonder if that is what Khalil Gibran had in mind when he wrote that since he knew that nobody would follow it why not write it? I mean isn't that what philosophers are all about? Say things that will never be done and that's what makes them unique.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

I mean if Socrates or whatever said "Drives thy car" I don't think they would be reading about him. He says "Know thyself" and everybody is scratching their head wondering what he meant by that and so you know I mean it's like I mean how many mother's literature is published or literature published about mothers I mean here the mother had been saying "Eat thy peas" and not big thing made out of it. Every mother says in your green "Eat thy green" you know otherwise "Thou shall have no dessert." (laughter) There's no literature written on it, there is no-this is not taught in universities. This is just common stuff and the kids say "It's fine, I hate your dessert anyways." (Laughter) Or if you're really smart, you'll start crying, that will see you through. You won't have to eat your greens and you'll still get your dessert you know and and to me it becomes a question of then what does he say.

Now here comes the good part. Then he says "And then God also placed in the soul a cup of sorrow." Now we're talking. You see this pathetic world out there and everybody is-everybody hates this world. I wonder sometimes why they live here? I mean if you hate it so much leave! Go somewhere else. You will really hate that other place then. Can you imagine living on the moon? That would be horrible. It's dusty, you would be bouncing all over the place, there's no-o-obody to talk to and if something showed up you would be so scared. I mean that is a horrible place to be, it's good to look at but you wouldn't want to visit there. Everybody hates this world and everybody lives in it, you know, I wonder why, this is a love-hate relationship and to me then he says "God also placed a cup of sorrow" and everybody can relate to this, right? That's cause we feel a lotta sorrow and he says "And God said" here's and other condition, this is not really a condition, this is normal stuff and then he says "God of gods placed a cup of sorrow and he said drink" now that makes a lotta sense. No limit you know no prohibition, don't require a license, drink. "Drink so that you may understand the meaning of joy" So the way the whole poet goes is "God of God created the soul and within the soul he placed a cup of joy and said 'You may not drink of this cup except that you have forgotten the past and renounced the future' and God also placed within the soul a cup of sorrow and he said 'Drink so that you may enjoy, so that you may know the meaning of the cup of joy.'"

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

Now what happened? I know exactly what happened or at least the good calculated guess. Well when, when the guess is over 50% calculated you know and to me it's like ok him and okay I know exactly what happened and so human beings started drinking from the cup of sorrow and pain he drank because it's free, no no limitation, drink so you may understand the meaning of joy so they just sat there and they drank and they drank and they drank and they drank and they drank. They drank so much they got addicted to this stuff. Now somebody comes and says "By the way, what about joy?" and so "Who needs it? I mean we got this stuff, this is really great, it's fine, don't worry me." Here we are, whether it is that all of that which exists in this world today, whether we accept it or not it doesn't make any difference. Whether we belong to category A, B, C or D, it doesn't make any difference either. What makes a difference, if it does, is to respond to that basic call which every human being has inside of them to address first the very basic and fundamental thing and that is you. Your existence, you are here and you are you and you are a treasure chest and there is infinite amount of treasure, of joy, of beauty that is buried inside of you. When you love someone that love does not come from the other person, that love comes from within you.

You may say the food tastes good but remember the taste is not in the food, it's in you. You are the one who tastes, you are the-it's your tongue, the front end of the tongue tastes salty food, the back end of the tongue tastes sweet food. You can't mix 'em up either. It's very particular about it but remember when you have a milkshake and you go "Ah, that was good." That wasn't in the milkshake, that was in you and you are the treasure house.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

Within you is the treasure chest and I'm not saying this to impress you because frankly I have nothing to do with it, I didn't put it there. You know people, people obviously think, like everybody else, does things for monetary gain in this world. I wish I was doing this for monetary gain, I'd be very rich, I would be very rich and it would be very simple for everybody too. You pay your 50 bucks, you know, 50 pounds or whatever and you bang you've got the key your treasure chest and off you go but that's not the way it is cause sometimes there are certain things in this life that are done of quality, that have done of earnest desire, that are done because somebody wants to do it and that is the reason why I do what I do and today I feel it is my privilege to have been here, to have presented something to you, something that I hope will at least provoke some thoughts within you that yes we live in a marvelous, marvelous world and yes we truly all of us don't be envious because Leonardo da Vinci could paint better than you could.

I had an experience once. I was at this airport, I was waiting for my flight and it was early, early in the morning and the airplane was sitting there and it was at 45° to the terminal building. The terminal building was all black glass and as the sun came up from behind and if you looked at the airplane it looked like the window was missing because there was a dark reflection of the terminal building falling in the cockpit window and I was sitting there waiting for the flight and this gentleman came, he was an elderly gentleman with his wife, with his son and his daughter-in-law what appeared to be and he came over to the big window and he looked at the airplane and he goes "God! The window is missing in that airplane" and then he said "Oh boy, I wouldn't want to be that pilot. That pilot's gonna be cold." It was freezing temperatures outside and I just, right off the top of my head, I just said "God" you know to my own self, I said "This guy is stupid." I know how to fly airplanes, I've flown jets and I still fly jets and I know 737, I mean I know that there is a minimum equipment list MEL for all airplanes and I don't know if they, if they even mention this because it's such a ridiculous item it's like obviously you're not gonna fly without a wing and your not gonna fly without a window, it would not pressurize. I mean there would be all sorts of problems the, the plane flies so fast that even if the pilot wanted to sit there and look out the window he couldn't and this, this reaction almost stopped me, it grabbed me and I looked at him and I said "No, he's not stupid, he's probably a farmer and he I mean this is the area Lincoln, Nebraska. It's full of farmers. He can plow a field better than I can. I may be able to fly that jet down there and I may know more about this jet than he does but he knows about something that I don't and he's not stupid because if I was given a plow I wouldn't know which end is up what. No, nobody is stupid.

Yes there is a Michelangelo and all of you are Michelangelo's and yes you all are Leonardo da Vinci's and yes there is a little bit of Socrates and within all of you and yes there is an incredible, admirable beauty within inside of you that only you can admire. So, why Knowledge? Very simply, Knowledge is that thing that can put you in touch with that beauty inside of you. Very simple. That's, that's what it's all about. Why call it Knowledge? Very simple, because it's a know how so you can get in touch with it. Is it available? Yes it's available. How do you get it? Well, if you haven't gotten a card when you came in maybe you can try to score as you go out, see if you can find one. It's got the addresses, so on so forth, come.

Maharaji (Prem Rawat) at Wembley 1988

If you don't like what happened today, if you hated this, came here because of your friends, can't wait to get out, don't worry, pubs will still be open. (laughter) You know some people probably sit there and think of a big Guinness you know like the ads they have, it's tough to be a dolphin and the the the so it's like maybe you came here to fulfill an obligation to your friend. Fine, I know one thing that the day that the search because every human being is searching. You know, I know that every human being is searching. To some the search is unconscious, to some the search is conscious. The day your search becomes conscious you will start searching too but everybody is searching. Some are searching and they know, some are searching and they don't know but everybody is searching and everybody has their own time and maybe this is not your time, maybe it is. It's offered free of charge, no monetary things involved here and most importantly enjoy.

Enjoy this precious life that you have. Don't sit there and try to calculate whether there will be another one because you simply don't know. People ask me, "Will there be another life after this one?" I said "Well I'm still alive, I don't know. When I die give me your number if there's a phone up there I'll give you a call. I have no idea, I have no way of knowing if there's another one and I can I know I can blow this one away thinking about another one and I don't want to. You know I can say "It's okay I can make all the boo-boos now and then I'll, I'll straighten out you know in the next one." No it doesn't work like that.

Enjoy. Enjoy what you have because it's yours and nobody can take it away from you. This is one thing that you will always have and this is one thing that you will have till the day you die. It's all yours. Is God-given, nature given, whatever you believe in, it's given to you. I want to thank you, thank you for hearing me out, for what I have to say and hope that you've learned something, if nothing else maybe you had a good laugh, that's good for you too, that's more oxygen into your system and if nothing else think about it because I think that there's some something of substance that has been said tonight. Good night and thank you very much. (applause)