No. 34, November 1976

Beyond the dream

Guru Maharaj Ji speaking in San Francisco, California on 17 July 1976.

Dear premies,

We have all assembled in this hall today to understand about something which has become a very important part of our lives. What is it? It all dates back to the point where we were looking for what life is all about: what are we all about; what is the aim of this life? Maybe it occurred to us in many different ways. Maybe we didn't exactly ask ourselves the question, "What is this life about?" Maybe we just said, "Who are we? What is happening?" But anyway, there was a question that existed which brought forth a lot of curiosity amongst all the premies, amongst all the people, that after all, we are here on this earth and there's so much going on and we have to adapt to it all, we have to become a part of it all.

It's like Premlata. She can grow up and she doesn't really have to learn all the things that are there in this world to learn, because nobody says that those things are compulsory. Nobody draws that line. Except us. We decide to experience this world more and more. We say, "No, wait a minute, I gotta find out a little bit more. There must be a little bit more to this earth." And so we just go around experiencing more and more. As we experience more and more, we want to grab that experience inside of us, and there's so much to learn. Then we grow up and we see that this world isn't exactly just what we think it is. It isn't all just fruits and bananas and nuts. This is really tough, this is really hard, this is really something that we have to try to cope with, because it isn't exactly natural.

It isn't exactly natural what's happening around this world. I mean, that's something that you can understand by looking at the Bible. When Adam and Eve were there, there was an apple, but not the bullet. There weren't any airplanes either; there wasn't exactly all the technology that we have right now. So we come to ask ourselves that question, "Well wait a minute. In my life I have to live for so many years and I have to cope with all this. Maybe a lot of people think that this is crazy, and maybe a lot of people don't think that this is crazy. But I have to cope with it. And after all, what is the reason, why should I cope with all the situations? I mean, why do I have to?"

There's a lot of people who just say, "Okay, I don't have to cope with it," and they're cut off from society. But I don't think that is the way to go about understanding the meaning of this earth, the meaning of this world, by getting cut off or cutting somebody off. The real way to understand the meaning of it is to actually find out why we are here, why we have all come. That is the whole question, that's the whole process which starts us on this search, and finally we end up at the point where we receive Knowledge.

Today we all are gathered here in this auditorium to understand more about this Knowledge, to hear a little bit more about something, because this is such a beautiful process, such growing process, that whatever we understand about this process can't be too much. We just can't say, "Well, this is it. I've learned the bottom of the line here." No, there's more, there's so much more to this. And this is why we are called premies and why we open up our hearts to understand something like this, and why we are growing more and more.

For such a long time this growth has been promised to a lot of premies, and this is the reason why I'm doing this tour. I'm taking great pleasure in doing this tour, and the reason for that is because this time I'm not trying to explain to premies how horrible everything is. I'm not trying to explain that one day you're going to end up in hell, and I'm not trying to explain to you the pros and cons about heaven and hell, good and bad, and things like that. I'm here to actually tell you how beautiful everything is, I'm here to tell you that what has been promised to you is really, really happening. What was being said about this Knowledge, what was really being promised to us about, "Yeah, man, this Knowledge is really going to manifest within inside of us," is happening. There is truth. There is our life. Waiting for Tinkerbell

Before it was all just a dream stage, it was all concepts, it was all taken in different ways, because just the way a person imagined it, that's the way he took it. To a lot of people, realising Knowledge, realising this consciousness, realising that truth meant to completely merge. And so to be able to completely merge into a nonphysical level, you had to wait till you died. Then something within inside of you would leave your body and completely merge. A lot of premies were going around just having this concept, this idea, in their head, saying, "Oh well, one day …" You know? Like I was explaining in Denver, and it is really true, a lot of premies are just waiting for Peter Pan and Tinkerbell to come along and shine some gold dust on them. It's like they're saying, "Gee, that's what's gonna happen. When we hear that little ding-ding-ding-ding, we'll know we have achieved the point of salvation, we'll know we have got truth." To a lot of people, it's, "The day we really realise truth by the process of this Knowledge, everything will become white." I mean, they had an idea of just being colour-blind, so that everything you see is white, everything is full of light, everything is that perception. Maybe they're funny, but I tell you, if there are about 50,000 premies, then there are 50,000 concepts of what people believe realisation to be.

So we have to sit down and say to ourselves, "What are we trying to realise in this life, anyway? What are we trying to realise from this process in our own lives?" Because it's all right there. I mean, really it is. Why think about or even try to look into the external means and so many means that exist? I'm talking about people looking for pleasure, people looking for the truth,

The Golden Age

people looking for experience. That's something you do. But no, this experience of truth that we are looking for is in our lives themselves. It's just that the whole thing is a big mess right now, because we have gotten it mixed up. It isn't exactly that much of a mess, but we think it is, because we have taken our lives and made believe that it is miserable. But this is what my saying is: "Believe me, life is not miserable, misery is miserable." Don't mix those two together, because they just don't go together. Life is pure. Life is that understanding. Misery is misery, and we are miserable sometimes, but that is because of what we conceptualise around us. If we think, "Darkness, darkness, darkness, darkness, darkness, darkness, darkness," we have almost stamped the name of darkness on everything we think. Then even if the light comes to us, it's gonna have darkness stamped on it's forehead, because that's what we have stamped out everywhere all around us.

We have to really look within inside of us and say "What are we looking for?" Are we looking for the experience of truth? Or are we looking for some concept that we think is truth? There is such a vast difference there. This is why a lot of premies did get so confused when they did, because they thought truth, that consciousness, was a certain way. Believe me, because you think it should be a certain way, the truth or consciousness is not going to customise itself for you. It's going to come and be the way it is. And when premies started doing meditation, I mean, it was just so beautiful because there it was - Knowledge really started to manifest, Knowledge really started to show its cards.

Before, they were looking for purple, blue and yellow, and Knowledge was just completely something else. They said, "Oh this is not what I want. I want this. I want gold dust on my forehead. I want…" I mean, it's just a certain very, very very definite way that we have conceptualised truth. Of course, we were being helped by the fact that we were reading so many scriptures and so many books. But we have to really understand that that person experienced it himself. If you have ever gotten into a car wreck, try to write a book about the experience of hurt, of the pain. Say the driver behind you wasn't looking, he was looking to the side and going about 20 miles an hour, and you were stopped at a stop light. What was the experience when that car hit you from behind going 20 miles an hour? Of course you had whiplash. But what was it like? It's just an experience. It's just there. You know? And that is such a physical experience, that is such a tinite experience, and that is such a bad experience. We are talking about something which is really truth, which is really beautiful, which is really solid, which is really the immortal, primordial vibration which sits among all our hearts. So how can we conceptualise it?

It's so beautiful now and this is why I'm taking such pride in doing this tour - because now this isn't a concept any more, now this isn't a dream any more, now this isn't just something that somebody from India is supposed to tell you, but this is truth. This is really manifesting, this is really happening, and premies slowly and slowly are really, really starting to realise the experience of that truth. It's just all changing; it's just all very slowly, very, very slowly, but for sure, becoming more and more beautiful every day. It's all really, really starting to materialise. But it's only materialising for those people who are sincerely trying to adapt this process into their lives, to really look at this process and really plug into it, and not in a hypocritical way, not just because Guru Maharaj Ji says so.

And who is Guru Maharaj Ji? Some people think, "Guru Maharaj Ji is this Indian fellow who comes from the East and he just happend to come at the right time. I mean, it was just a game, it's a conceptualised concept. I just happened to be looking for a guy who would be around 15 years old, Indian, and followed by all these crazy people. I was looking for somebody who I could just completely get into, and I got it!" But the problem for those people is that it changed. And then they said, "No wait a minute. We're just trying to make believe." It's just like that businessman who calls his chauffeur into his office and says, "Pull my car out." So the chauffeur takes a seat right in front of his boss and makes believe he's driving a car. He goes, "Vroom, vroom, vroom," making believe that he is driving a car, but he is just sitting right there.

Wild imagination

There are a lot of premies who are like that. When they were asked, "Well, go, do satsang, service and meditation," they would just sit down in front of you and try to do satsang, service and meditation the way they thought satsang, service and meditation really was. But to those people you can turn around and say, "Well no, wait a minute. We're trying to look for truth. Truth is so holy, so high, such an incredible experience. And once in our lifetime we have really taken that chance, that opportunity to really, really put our energy into realising the truth. So now that we have that opportunity to realise truth, and now that we have really plugged ourself into this, how can we make a joke of it? How can we just sit and do whatever our mind tells us to do? Of course, by "our mind" I'm not talking about the thing that thinks, I'm talking about the wild imagination that people have. That is our enemy, that wild imagination, because it's the imagination that makes us believe, "The ocean is a hard, hard surface. Just keep on walking on it." And then we find ourselves drowning very soon. That is that wild imagination. That is what I've been trying to say for such a long time, that that wild imagination is our enemy, it is really the thing that is going to stop us from understanding Knowledge. So get rid of that wild imagination. And not just imagination - wild imagination; the imagination that just really drags us along into these nooks and crannies. You know?

I'll give you an example. This happened the very last time I was in San Francisco. I drove over from L.A. and at that time Ron, this premie, was driving me. This other premie had written these instructions on a piece of paper, and they were supposed to be the instructions, just the right instructions. So Ron took them and he was reading them off, "Oh, now you make a left." He made a left, made a right, and all of a sudden he found himself in the middle of nowhere. We were supposed to have crossed this bridge about five minutes before and he was 15 minutes on this street which took you to no bridge. He was just going round and round and round and round in circles. It was just getting really, really late for the program, but finally he found his way, and he was driving really, really fast over the bridge. Before you knew it, there were a lot of flashing red lights right behind us, and the officer pulled him over. Ron said, "Listen, I'm lost here." So anyway, he was very nice and escorted us over to the program and then gave Ron the ticket.

That is what wild imagination really is. Wild imagination is that piece of paper upon which we rely so much. We really think this is it, we drive around, and then all of a sudden we find ourself in the middle of nowhere. Then we have to really, really stop for a second and look. Ron relied so much on that, that he thought it would take him exactly where he wanted to

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No. 34, November 1974

go. And, in fact, the person who was writing it out was so confident in himself, that, "I'm doing it just the right way. How can he miss that big eucalyptus tree?" But he never wrote that in the instructions, he just remembered it in his head: "Yeah, when you make that left turn, there's a big eucalyptus tree and that's the marker." But he never wrote it down. So both parties were as confident as they could be, but there was something missing between them, and that was a realism on the part of both parties. Were they both really being realistic? Was Ron, in fact, being realistic in relying on that piece of paper the way lie did? And was that premie who wrote on that piece of paper being realistic in the way he wrote it? So, though there were instructions, there was a wild imagination which grew out of the unrealism.

In the same way, maybe a lot of people who have been on drugs for a long time have hallucinated a lot. And maybe to them so many different kinds of experiences exist. So here you are thinking about those experiences. But how real are they? And how real are you in thinking that that is that experience which is truth? That is the difference with Knowledge. Knowledge is going to lead your life so that it can bring you to that realism which is missing.

The process for truth

When is this really going to happen? How this happened to the premies it has happened to is when they have really, really taken themselves and made that dedication to be able to do satsang, service and meditation. Because that is the process and that is what Guru Maharaj Ji has given us. That is what Guru Maharaj Ji has shown us, that this is the process if you want to experience truth. I have never, nor am I going to, go into trying to explain what the experience of truth really is. As far as I can go into that is to say that there is an experience of truth, and it's beautiful. My desire, my will, and this is my service, is that I want you to see, I want you to, for yourself, experience that experience of truth. This is what everything is all about, this is why we are premies, this is why we do satsang, this is why we do service, this is why we do meditation, because we want to experience that truth.

Like I was saying, this isn't a phenomenon. This isn't the mystic thing any more. This isn't what Joe Blow says, because he has stayed with Guru Maharaj Ji five more years than we have or he received Knowledge in 1948, therefore he is bound to know the experience of truth, so let's all go gather around him and ask him what the experience of truth is. And this Joe Blow never did meditation in his whole life. Yet we rely so much upon him. We sit down around him and say, "Okay," and he explains to us the experience of truth. That's really wierd, that's really fake, that's really not truth. Truth has to be experienced by each of us individually. I mean, this is what's so beautiful, you know?

It's like, what if we did have a metabolism where one person ate and everybody was full? If we lived on one block, all the people of this block would just go out and do whatever business they had to take care of, and they wouldn't have to bother about lunch, breakfast, dinner, or anything. There's just one guy that you appoint from the block, and you pay him a certain amount of money. Every time it's breakfast time, he has breakfast and it fills up everybody in that block. And every time it's lunch time, he has lunch and that's it. And every time it's dinner time … That way, you can get up about 4:00 o'clock in the morning, take your toothbrush and tooth- paste and a glass of water with you, and that's it. You don't have to bother about coming back home at a certain dinner time, or for lunch, for for breakfast. You can just be out there doing it. That might be a good system for a few people, but to me I would completely miss out on the joy, the taste of eating food, and so would the people of that block. The one guy who gets to eat all the food, he'll be blissed out if it's good food, because he gets to eat it all.

So to me, we're really, really fortunate that this is an individua experience, that just one person doesn't do meditation and boom, everybody realises that experience. This is individual and that makes it … I'm not gonna put the word 'adventurous' or 'exciting' on it. But it makes it so beautiful, so neat, we can really, ourselves, experience that experience of life, that experience of joy. And it's growing, it's just all growing for the premies who are really putting their energy and their effort into doing satsang, service and meditation.

Let me separate those three for you for a second, because there are a lot of people who think, "Satsang, well okay, satsang. So we gotta go give satsang." They come on stage, stand in front of a microphone, say, "Dear premies, jai satchitanand, very nice of you to come here. Gee, I don't know what to say to you. Thank you very much, and jai satchitanand," and they walk off. That's all they say to you, that's their experience of satsang, because what is satsang? Satsang is the company of truth. It's an experience that a person has to experience. But if that person has not been doing meditation, if that person has not really been doing service, then what is his experience really going to be? What can he really tell you?

And then there's service. A lot of people say, "Oh, service. You gotta work, huh? We'll show them," and they take a little piece of cloth, always keep it in their pocket, and any time there happens to be a community director, or whoever they're trying to please, Guru Maharaj Ji, community director, anybody who seems to be passing by, they pull out their cloth and just start dusting. As soon as the guy leaves, they put it back in their pocket, and sit back and relax. That's their service. Okay, well, they're going to have some kind of experience, but you can understand what it is going to be like.

And then there's meditation. Of course, the greatest joke about meditation is that you sit down for meditation…. I've told this joke in front of just a few people and they've all laughed, and that's what's really funny, because they've all laughed and then all of a sudden turned red, completely red, because they say, "Wait a minute, that's what I do. I sit down under a meditation blanket and pretend that I'm doing meditation," and they just do nothing. You see, we're not trying to practise something which is fake. This is what we have to understand first. I mean, you car sit down in your car and drive all day long, San Francisco I believe is big enough to do that. And if that doesn't please you, you can drive all the way to San Diego and the tip of Baha, or drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway for the rest of your life if that is it. But you just don't get into your car every morning and drive aimlessly. You have to have an aim in front of you. What is it all about? Where do you want to go? Everything has to have a motive. And this is what you have to find out first. What is your motive? Why are you trying to do satsang, service and meditation?

If your motive is because you're looking for an eastern trip, believe me, this is not an eastern trip. If you're looking specific-

No. 34, November 1976

ally for a trip that comes anywhere from the area of Delhi to Dehra Dun, then this isn't it either. If you're looking for a trip which is the trend of young Americans, well, this isn't that either. This is truth. If you want the experience of truth, it's way different than any trip in the whole world. If you're looking for truth, if anybody in this place is looking for truth, then you are at the right place, and if you're looking for a trip, you're at the wrong place all together. This is all different.

So this is what we have to really ask ourselves: "What am I doing? What am I doing?" You don't have to sit down and ask yourself, "Why am I eating?" or, "Why am I sleeping?" You don't all of a sudden wake up in the middle of the night and say, "Why am I sleeping?" Or find yourself very, very hungry and then all of a sudden you find yourself eating, so you stop and ask the question, "Why am I eating?" No. Maybe if you are fasting, you want to ask yourself that question, "Why am I eating?" And if you're on some kind of a fast and you don't want to ever go to sleep, and all of a sudden you find yourself sleeping, you can get up and ask yourself, "Why am I sleeping?" But the point is, as far as this Knowledge is concerned you have to ask yourself the question, "What am I trying to do? Am I really looking for a trip? Or am I really looking for Knowledge? And if I'm looking for Knowledge, am I really sincerely doing this, or am I just making fun of myself? Am I making a clown out of myself?"

Listen to yourself

This is a very deep question. Maybe it's five or six words, maybe it's simple enough to ask, maybe it has some jazz to it and you can just ask it like that, "What am I doin? Am I doin' the right kind of thing or not?" And that might be the end of it. But no. Go into the deepest root of this question and actually say to yourself, "What am I really doing? I mean, here I am, and I've been told to do satsang, service and meditation. But what is this all about? What am I trying to accomplish?" Sincerely answer that question from your heart, and really take that answer to your heart, not just think it's this and that and just throw it in the waste-paper basket. Really listen to yourself and find out what your answer really is. Because believe me, if you are looking for a trip and over the years of doing satsang, service and meditation you have found out, "Well, wait a minute. This has really got something going. This satsang, service and meditation is maybe a little bit better than what I was thinking my trip would be," then stop, pause, and really switch over from the question of a trip to: "No, no, wait a minute. I have just realised I'm not looking for a trip, I'm looking for the truth," and then begin.

For the people who are looking for a trip, it's too bad, it really is, because there's such an experience in this Knowledge. If you're looking for a trip, then you can sit down and try to do satsang, service and meditation and believe me, it's just not going to manifest for you. It's just really not going to manifest because you're not open to it. You are doing something, you are trying to make an effort, but you are just like that chauffeur who was asked by his boss to pull his car out of the parking garage and he just sat down right in front of him and pretended he was driving a car. Oh sure, he's shifting gears and he's putting a lot of energy into it, and oh sure, he's trying to concentrate and imagine he's looking out of the windshield; and oh, of course, he's got his hands like this, like he's holding onto a steering wheel, but believe me, that's not going to take you anywhere, except to tire you out after a little while. So it's all up to us, it really is.

So here we are and say we are really looking for truth. Then we have to wait for a second and find out, okay, what do we have available? What is there? What are the instruments that we can really use? Then it's just so beautiful. That's where the beauty really comes, because first is that determination that we really have to have and then comes the second part, where it's like, "Okay, I really want to do it, so what have I got to do, what have I got available?" That's just so beautiful because when you can come to that point, then you'll find out, "Well, wait minute. I've got satsang, and I've got service and I've got meditation, and I can do satsang, service and meditation. I've also got a person who knows this system inside out, who knows this process very well, and if I have any problem, I can go up to him. That's Guru Maharaj Ji. So I have satsang, service and meditation, I have Guru Maharaj Ji, and I have my brothers and sisters whom I can look to." We have satsang, and we have every tool that exists available to us. We really do. We have the joy of just being as brothers and sisters and really realising ourselves as brothers and sisters. And we have this life itself, because if we were dead, it wouldn't do us much good. But here we are, and we have this life. We have it all. It's just up to our determination. Our determination can really do it.

How strong has that determination got to be? What I am about to tell you may scare you a little bit, but it's as easy and as hard as you would think it is. It's like, there was a question being brought up about the initiators, that they ask people, "Would you be ready to cut your head off, would you be able to jump off a cliff if Guru Maharaj Ji asked you to?" That's question that really shattered a lot of people that, "Gee, Guru Maharaj Ji is gonna ask us to cut our heads off, or jump off a cliff?" Well, okay, I understand that may be a wrong kind of question to ask, because I'm not going to ask you to cut your head off or jump off a cliff. So that completely rules that question out. But the thing is, that question was being brought up, and it's like, wait a minute. The answer to that is that to cut your head off and to jump off a cliff is really, really easy. Find a nice cliff and jump off it. That's all it takes, just jump off it. And to cut your head off, well, that doesn't take much either. Take a sleeping pill and lay down on a railroad track and you'll be completely asleep. Or why do that. Find yourself nice sword, a nice, long, thin sword and just do it. That's it. But that's nothing. To cut your head off or to jump off a cliff is nothing. What takes even more determination than that is to be able to do satsang, service and meditation every day of our lives. I think that's even more difficult than just cutting off your head or jumping off a cliff.

As I said before, maybe this scares you a little bit. You know, wait a minute. To do satsang, service and meditation, to have that determination is harder? Well, sure it is. Because it's your determination. In the same way, for a person who is coming from a wrong consciousness to think about Lord, to think about a creator, is as difficult as that, because there is no real drive for it. You really have to put yourself to it. You really have to put yourself to the point of saying, "Yeah, man, I'm really going to do satsang, service and meditation because I want to realise what this Knowledge is, I want to really experience what this life is." I mean, look at it. The Creator made us. And He made so many things. For whom? For what? There is just so much, there's just so, so, so much, and it's all for us; it really is. Here we are, we pride ourselves as being the crown of creation and so on and so forth, and it's all for us. What are we for?

The Golden Age

The crown of creation?

I was talking to Bob in Denver, and I said, "You know, sometimes it makes me wonder. People say they are the crown of creation and that's what has been said about the human race, but I really wonder if it really is the crown of creation."

Because here is man, he comes, and he has so many chances.

I mean, definitely you have more chances to realise this Knowledge than that little moth that only lives for about half an hour. You know that is a fact. There's this moth, he comes into this world, and all he does is reproduce and then he dies. That is what makes this cycle of moths live. There's a constant reproduction and they just come and go, come and go, come and go, that's all. That's all they do. Definitely man has more chances than that little moth to realise the purpose, the goal of life. But we have to ask ourselves what are we really doing by having this life? What are we really trying to do? What are we really trying to say? What is really motivating us?

It's such a vast question. But here we are and it's really beautiful, and this is what we have to realise. We have to really realise that opportunity, that we can, in this body, today, now, really experience that process, really experience this life we have, because it's about the most beautiful thing we can experience. People talk about miracles, they want to see miracles happen. To me, this is the greatest miracle. I mean, what more of a miracle would you like to see? This is, to me, the greatest miracle. And here we have it, right there, available to us. We can just completely go on wasting our time, or we have our option of really getting ourselves together and maybe realising what satsang, service and meditation can do to us and really realising the chance we have been given to realise this life, because it's so beautiful.

And so premies, there's so much to say, but it all ends at one place. You know where it ends? It ends where we've got to begin. Just as individual human beings. Forget about Mr. and Mrs. and Miss and son and daughter. Nothing. Just us. Me. You. As individuals, down-to-earth individuals. Not as the human race, but me. It just all comes down to us. This is where satsang ends, this is where any verbal thing ends, and we, as individuals, begin, because that's where effort comes in. This is where we have to really start from.

Still, everything is really changing, and everything is really happening which is beautiful, so at this point we can just really sort of relax instead of saying, "Gee, I've got to have 1500 hours before the 18th on my satsang, service and meditation, otherwise I'm not going to make it to heaven." You know? There's so many concepts about salvation, about hell and about heaven. To me, that's such a controversial subject. Maybe there is heaven, maybe there is hell. I mean, you haven't got a certificate of guarantee that tells you that it all exists over there. It's just what has been told to you. But to me, the guarantee, if you're looking for a guarantee for hell and heaven, is right now. If you're in heaven right now, then I know we've got a guarantee to it all the way through. And if we are in hell right now, I know we've got a guarantee that we're gonna be in it all the way through, too. So it's now. It's really all of us and now. And it's just so beautiful.

It's all growing

I can't really explain to you, but it's really beautiful, because we, just as brothers and sisters, are really starting to realise that this isn't hocus-pocus any more, this is Knowledge and this can really happen. This really has that experience behind it, this really has that potential, this is really true. Guru Maharaj Ji isn't just somebody who makes us feel good by telling us that all these experiences exist. This is really true and we are really trying to realise that, and it's really starting to manifest in our lives. And if we are at that point, to me, how can we stop? But we still ought to keep on truckin'. We got to truck all the way through. You know? It's just so beautiful, because we are truckin' all the way through.

I guess for so many years I've given satsang, and this is the first time, as I've said, that I'm not trying to explain the misery of this world, but I'm trying to explain how beautiful everything is. I'm not trying to explain, "Oh listen you, if you don't do this you're gonna end up here, and if you don't do this you're gonna end up there." No, it's the first time I can really open up and say how beautiful everything is and that this Knowledge is really manifesting for premies, and it is really happening. But

I guess for so many years, I've got this habit of saying, "satsang. service and meditation." I guess I've just formed a habit and I think it's a very good habit, because we still need to keep on going, we still need to keep on doing satsang, service and meditation, because that's what has trucked us through so far, and that's what's going to truck us through 'til time immemorial. But it's just so beautiful, because it can really happen. It's up to our determination. If we don't have it, we don't have it; if we have it, we have it. We just have to keep on truckin', we have to just go.

It's not a matter of conditioning any more, because there is an experience that really exists there. If a person has really for one moment in his life truly done meditation, then he knows that the experience exists. If that person for maybe even one moment of his life has done service, then he knows that experience exists. If even one moment of his life, he has heard the right satsang … because again, in Orlando I drew the line between chit-chat and satsang, and there's a lot of chit-chat, believe me. But if, even for one moment we have listened to satsang, then we know the experience of that. It's just all so beautiful.

And I'm there, but I'm not going to keep picking you up every time you drop. I'm only going to pick you up when you really need picking up. I don't want to become that person because of whom you lose that determination. I don't want to have premies have an idea, "Oh well, there's Guru Maharaj Ji there, so everything is okay; I don't need to do satsang, service and meditation." No. That's completely wrong. Because I am there. you need to do even more satsang, service and meditation. I mean, it's just because I am there. You have an opportunity an I'll help you along where you need help, but believe me, I will not help you where you do not need help. Because where you don't need help, you don't need help. You just have to get-back on your feet, you have to really do this.

For so many years, premies weren't on their feet, premies weren't really doing what they were supposed to be doing, they were relying on this person and that person. But you know what was really happening to those premies who were just looking at this person and that person and this person and that person? They weren't getting any experience of satsang, service and meditation. They were just getting the experience of this person and that person, and they got it, and that's what didn't exactly satisfy them so they said, "Oh all these people are completely nuts!" and they left. No, it is for us to really

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No. 34, November 1976

experience what this is all about, and to all get together and really help Guru Maharaj Ji. Because if we have realised this Knowledge, then we also know the necessity of this Knowledge being spread. And then we can all get together and really help get together Maharaj Ji in his job, in his task.

"Spreading the word"

Let me tell you what happens to people who believe in this person and that person. A person has just heard Guru Maharaj Ji's satsang, and Guru Maharaj Ji said let's all get together and help each other, let's go spread this word. The next morning he can't wait to get this stack of leaflets and spread them out on the streets, because to him, he'll be spreading the word of Guru Maharaj Ji. So he gets out there early in the morning as fast as he can, grabs all of those pamphlets and gets on the street, and there's this guy who's almost a sitting victim. He's waiting for his bus to go back home, he's just finished night duty, and he wants to go back home, and he's just sitting there. All of a sudden this excited premie, who just wants to spread Guru Maharaj Ji's word, because he's heard so on Saturday evening, hands him a leaflet and starts giving him satsang. That's where it all begins.

The guy says, "What is this all about? What is Divine Light Mission, what do you guys do?" He just wants to have a friendly conversation while he waits for his bus. He's just passing his time. He knows the bus will come and pick him up, so he's just having this conversation. But this is all this premie has been waiting for. He bursts open and he says, "You know something, you know what this Divine Light Mission is all about? This Divine Light Mission is about truth. And you know what this is? This is satsang. What I'm giving you is satsang, and when you have darshan of Guru Maharaj Ji you're really going to understand and you're really going to have that psychedelic experience." This person has been up all night long, he doesn't want no experience, all he wants is friendly conversation and a nice sleep. That's all he's looking for. And here's this premie trying to spread Guru Maharaj Ji's word, and then he says, "And you know, when we dedicate all our lives, all our money, all our bodies, soul and brain, everything that we have to Guru Maharaj Ji, we receive liberation." The guy goes, "Geez, this guy's gonna buy me out or sell me out." First he wanted, maybe not as a brother but just as a person, to have a friendly conversation, to just pass that time. But now he can't wait for that bus to come and pick him up. Before it was okay, but now, that's all he wants.

Then he goes back home, and he keeps the pamphlet. His wife asks him, "What was your night like?" And he says, "Geez, that was beautiful, but this morning I met this clown in the street and I tell you, you see this name right here? It says 'Divine Light Mission'. If you see this poster anywhere, if you hear anybody saying that name 'Divine Light Mission', turn around and run as fast as you can. These guys are after our money, our body, they want to separate you and me, and they're just gonna get our house, and, and, and this is what they're gonna do to us."

Because that premie doesn't have any experience of Knowledge, he has experience of this man and that man, he's got a lot of experience of this guy and that guy, that is what he's telling that person. No. It's completely wrong. You're not helping me in my work by doing that, by coming from an unclear place, a confused place, and confusing others. You're not helping me, believe me. Now if that person ever meets me, if lie happens to be sitting in first class right with me and I say, "Oh yeah, I'm chief executive of Divine Light Mission," lie's not going to have good flight at all. I wouldn't be able to even communicate with him, to explain to him what I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to give him some experience of truth, and what I'm trying to do is make him realise what his life is all about, give him the true experience of truth. I don't want his money, I don't want him to separate from his wife, I don't want his house. I just want him to understand what this experience of life is and as hard as it may sound, that's all I want him to know. But the premies who are confused, what have they done? There is the example in front of you.

So premies, let's just all really come together, let's really all become clear, so we can really do what we want to do, so we can really, really, be clear. Not confused, not completely have this whole life figured out by hours and seconds and minutes, or figured out by our concepts, but really be open and really just experience what this life is, really be clear for once. Because it's so beautiful. I mean, if you've never been clear, I guess you don't know what the experience of being clear is, but if you've once been clear, it's really beautiful. And be clear, everybody has to really understand.

Understand what? Not understand Hindi. Not try to understand Sanskrit. Not try to understand economics. Understand what you are all about, understand what this Knowledge can really do to you to bring forth that determination and clarity so you can understand the experience of your life, so you can experience the experience of your life yourself. That's all I want. And then everything will be really beautiful. This is what is happening and I just want to insure that this process keeps on going and doesn't just puff up like a balloon of hot air and then go down. I want this to keep on going, because this is what I promised you. This is what I want, and this is what you want too. And so, thank you very much.

'Go into the deepest root of
this question and actually say
to yourself, "What am I really
doing?" Sincerely answer
that question from your heart,
and really take that answer
to your heart.'