Hidden Light: March 1975

The Delicate Commodity

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I've been realizing the value of meditation this week more than ever before. Unless I am remembering that single point of perfection every moment, I might just as well not be alive. The satsang that is happening is about meditation. Everyone tells me that they just want to be inspired to do meditation. It seems that most premies here are zeroing in on this single item.

And really it is true, if we get this one little item together constantly, everything else will come together. If we just trust Guru Maharaj Ji and follow his agya, everything will fall into place. Service has to start from the inside and come out. There is no artificial means by which we can cause service to happen. First that heart must be touched with satsang, then it must stir with deep, meaningful meditation and then premies can express the love they are feeling. If love is not felt, it cannot be expressed.

Our community and the mission is the same way. It really does act as one person. When it is meditating, it expresses love. That spark, though, starts with satsang that directs our energies deeply within and inside of ourselves. Our community and the mission is a highly flamable product and this spark can cause a good blaze in no time; and meditation will lead to greater satsang and greater satsang will lead to greater meditation.

And when this is expressed in service, that service if highly pointed and extremely effective. The mission deals in a commodity that is so delicate that it can only be expressed to the public in one way and that is with love.

And actually it goes a step beyond this. We as premies cannot survive without this love. And premies are the foundation to the whole mission. I've found that even with money, if it isn't given out of love, it doesn't do the mission any good. If we want the mission to survive and if we want to survive ourselves, we all need to dive into the depths of Knowledge, and live those depths as well.

Then the satsang will be there, and it will come from such a spot that every heart will stop and stand at attention. If our mission is for propagation of Knowledge, then the first thing we need to do is to really get to know the product. Isn't this why we received Knowledge in the first place?

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Guru Maharaj Ji was quite clear in the wave of recent events, I mean He's always been very clear on this point to me, but like I asked Him for more definite statements to make to the premies in relationship to the events that had been taking place in the past few weeks about just what is the story on "inner agya". And Maharaj Ji said, "There's no such thing as inner agya." That if there was such a thing as inner agya, then there would be no need for Him to be here in this world. That's probably the reason He's always been here in this world because otherwise we'd have everybody going by inner agya and we'd have a real problem on our hands.

But fortunately Guru Maharaj Ji is in the world; and so there is a source of agya that we can depend on. And He says even people who have dreams and who have visions and He appears to them and He tells them something, an inner agya is for the inner life. Never try to translate an inner agya into outward action--doesn't have anything to do with it. If you're going to try to translate an inner agya into outward action, you'd better confirm it through the channels that He's set directly to Guru Maharaj Ji in this world, in this outer world because that's what He's there for. And otherwise you'll be running into difficulty because you don't know what that inner experience really is. Maybe..it's your mind.

Maharaj Ji once described it like that you're sitting in the audience and you're watching the screen and you're having the experience of what's going on on that screen and you have to be sitting in the audience really to be having the experience of what's going on on that screen, but up there in the projection booth something is on which is projecting that image and maybe there's a couple of different projectors there. And one of them is coming from your soul , and one of them is coming from your mind, and you don't know which one is turned on as long as you're sitting down there in the audience.

And so, that's how the dilemma of inner agya goes…you don't really know where it's coming from, so in terms of this movement, there's no such thing as inner agya that gets manifested into this world because what we have to do is depend on Guru Maharaj Ji for our direction. And sometimes that direction that He gives is a lot more simple, a lot more straightforward, a lot more down-to-earth, a lot more defined in terms of time than some of our dreams, but that's just because it's real. Real things have a tendency to be down-to-earth.

SATSANG OF CAROLE GREENBERG, DIRECTOR OF PROPAGATION

Maharaj Ji kept stressing one point. We are not here to develop an empire or a superorganization; we are organized in an organic fellowship based on our understanding of who we are serving, and why we are here. And that the reason for banding together is not for any other reason than to serve humanity, through propagation.

One analogy which Maharaj Ji made recently starts with a piece of hardened steel, rock solid. Now, if you thrust that steel into a hot fire, after a while it will begin to change color, perhaps turn bluish at first, then orange, red and finally it will become white–so intensely hot that it seems as if it's going to burst. But it doesn't burst; instead it begins to become soft, it begins to melt. This is what Maharaj Ji is doing to us inside and He is using all of the external situations which we come up against each day to apply some heat to our hearts. Sure, at times it gets intense, but it's got to--we were rock solid, and now we have got to become putty in His hands. He is opening us to a wellspring of love inside, but we can't use our old road maps to love to get there. This is His path, and so we have got to let Him lead us. If we are really just puppets on a string, then we have to surrender to the puppeteer. It only hurts when we resist, when the strings are trying to move us in one direction but we are trying to run off in another. What a life: It's Grace to be alive.

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It is to provide the missing ingredient that the Lord incarnates forth from time to time in human body.
For without obedience for and surrender to Him, one can never receive the Holy Knowledge.
It is simple and logical.

A man comes in this world, stays a little moment, and goes away. It's like an inn. He comes into an inn, he goes to a room, he does little activities, he sleeps, he gets up, maybe he eats there, and all that, and then one day he just completely checks out.

This is how it is with a man: He comes into this world, he's there, he's living, he's doing everything, and then finally a times comes where he completely checks out of this world, and he's gone. But in the period, in the moment, in the time that we have come into this world, and until we go, there is definitely some purpose that has to be achieved; there is definitely some kind of aim, there is definitely some kind of destination that we have to make. Until we have achieved it, the mission is uncompleted. We have come here into this world to complete a mission, to solve a mystery. Now, if we come, and do not do that---we came, had the most beautiful body, had everything for us, and went away without doing the job, without doing that thing we were supposed to do…

It's like, you are a spy; and you have come up, and you are going to play a double role. In one role, you have to favor your mind; on other side, this is the person you are actually working for. Your actual task is you have to completely demolish the whole mission of this mind. So you go. But the whole problem is, since you are not a very good spy, you get mixed up so much with mind, that instead of trying to demolish the whole mission of this mind, you try to accomplish it -you try to make it much stronger. And then, the person who you are actually supposed to work for, you start double-crossing him, when you are supposed to double-cross the other guy, the mind. That means you are not very faithful, you are not a very good and smart spy.

This is the condition with every human being, every every human being. There is a little child. He comes into this world, and when he comes' he starts crying. When he goes, he also cries. It's like, right from the time a person comes into this world, and he goes, all he is really doing is he's in misery; he's crying, he's crying, he's crying, he's crying. How is he going to ever find happiness in that misery?

Really, whatever we think is happiness in this world, is the most miserable thing. The food that tastes the best is junk, because you are eating so much topping on it. All you end up eating is salt and chilis, or sugar: And it's really junk.

A man that thinks that he is in happiness is just completely full of junk. He goes, he tries this out, he goes to that, and then finally he ends up to a point where all that he did doesn't do him any more good. That's the point of frustration. That is the point that they are unhappy at; that's the point they start doing every kind of thing. They start just doing all the things that they think of: "Well, this will give me peace," or, "This will give me peace."

It's like, he gets to such a point, that he is a prisoner of war. And he is put into a cell. Usually, if somebody is put into a cell, he'll try to figure a way to get out of the door or out of the window. But this guy is so desperate inside, that he is knocking on all four corners; he is knocking at every centimeter of the wall, trying to find a leak out of that jail.

This is how man becomes so desperate to get out, that he completely starts trying this and this and this and this and this, and then, suddenly, somebody comes along and knocks on the door.

And, it's like, mind is the guard. But finally somebody comes along and he opens up the door. You see him, now you want to get out, but sometimes, because you wanted a name and fame for yourself so much, you say, "Look man, I know you are doing me a great favor by opening the door for me, but forget it, okay? Lock me back in, because I want to make a name for myself. I want to get out of this jail by myself. But not through the door, through some hole I'm gonna find, through some leak I'm gonna find."

So the person says, "Well, suit yourself. Okay, I go." And he goes away. The man is there all his lifetime, just trying to find a place to get out, place to get out, place to get out. And he ends up as a skeleton in that jail.

This man who comes and opens up the door is the Perfect Master that everybody is really looking for. He comes along, and he says, "Do you want to get out or not? If you don't, suit yourself. But if you do, you are most welcome."

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You know, we all relate to different things--young people relate to young people, older to older, Blacks to Blacks, musicians to musicians, but those of us who are premies know that inside we're all the same. So really, satsang should be for everybody, but at this festival, we have it broken down so that those people who have not received this Knowledge will be able to hear from people that are older, like myself.

My name is Stan ?????; I live in Beachhearst, New York, and I'm an insurance agent for a large insurance company. I've had Knowledge about a year and a half. What we're having now is a festival, and what is that? That's a love affair with Guru Maharaj Ji for anybody who is a premie, because for most of us, it changed our lives unbelievably, and that's what satsang really is. Satsang is a spiritual love-in; it's somebody speaking without any notes, nothing prepared, from their heart. Because once any of us have received this Knowledge, almost immediately we become itinerant preachers; we want to tell everybody about it because it's so beautiful. And really, that's the only way we can get even, because somewhere along the line, somebody told us about it. See, all over the world, people are all crazy. They're doing all sorts of weird things, and everyone is screaming for the world to change, but nobody really thinks about how about me changing--because that's how the world changes: by me changing, by you changing. That's the only way the world ever will change, and this is exactly the way Guru maharaj Ji is going to bring peace to the world: by changing each one of us.

A year and a half ago, I noticed a remarkable change in my son ; he was like a normal young man--running around crazy, not knowing what he wanted, going to Europe with a pack on his back--completely undecided what he wanted to do - all the bad habits that young people get into. Why? Trying to escape this crazy world. And in a short time, I noticed such a remarkable change in him. All the things that I wanted him to be, all of a sudden he became, and in such a short time. But I was at the point where I was moderately successful - I was relaxed, I was living the type of life that all my life I had dreamed about. My kids were grown, they were in college - nothing to worry about. And all of a sudden, I got very upset. I discovered that my son was following a guru.

Now, most of us don't expect deep devotion for our children, in no matter what religion we bring them up, but almost everyone of us expects loyalty. And this upset me very much, but being cognizant of the fantastic change in him, I had to follow it up; I had to make sure that he wasn't getting involved in something evil, although by this change in him, I couldn't possibly believe it could be that. This time in a young person's life is the wildest time. They do all kinds of crazy things; they're trying to experience every single thing in life--every single source of pleasure from our lower selves. They know nothing of the spiritual self - the upper self - and most of the world doesn't. And all of a sudden, in such a short time, for a young person who is heavy in this, to give this up, to change, to mellow, to quiet down, and to be loving--wow! It just knocked me out. So I had to follow it up. And I did, and Iris very fortunate that at that particular time there were mahatmas all over New York giving programs in the various colleges, so I went, and the more I heard, the more I was convinced that this is the Truth. This is what we call the real essence of what religion really is. Instead of religion re-uniting the world, filling us with love, it doesn't do that. And yet, for various reasons, we're so frightened to leave it--out of prestige in our community, loyalty, superstition--whatever. We're afraid to talk about anything outside the realm of what we grew up as. But what Maharaj Ji gives us is so beautiful that it isn't anything you have to read about, it isn't anything that you have to have rules about, because it's an experience that you know is true. Because like any experience, you're a part of it and you realize it through your senses as you experience life. One of the most beautiful moments of my whole life was around three or four months after I received Knowledge. Like most people in a Knowledge Session, I had a subtle experience of

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"THIS IS NOT A KID'S THING. THIS IS AN EVERY MAN'S THING."

the light and the music, but I had no idea of what the Holy Name of God was--what the Word was. And it's a marvelous yet funny thing--what happens when Maharaj Ji opens up that spiritual eye. I was driving home from a business meeting--it was like two or three in the afternoon, and all of a sudden, the Word of God filled my whole body; a real vibration. The same thing that gave every saint, the same thing that gave every prophet that self-assurance to go on and do what they were so reluctant and afraid to do. "Though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil." What's this little kid with a slingshot going out against the mighty Philistine army?

How could he do that?--"For Thou art with me." That is the Holy Name of God--the Word

of God. That is why a young little French girl led the big French army. That is why an old man, Moses, a fugitive as a murderer from a country, who was a physical man, who knew nothing of talking to people--how he was able to muster the courage and to lead a people away from evil. But the beautiful part of all this is that for any good person, this is your natural birthright. This is why we're called the crown of creation. If we just live and eat and drink and raise a family and then die, we're just like any animal on this planet. What makes us different? What makes us beautiful? It's these emotions that were taught to suppress all our life to be successful in this world…Love, compassion--a man has to put them aside, because he's looked upon as a weak person if he expresses a human emotion. And from the second we're born, what happens to most of us through our training--living in this world? We start to become de-humanized; we come from this place of perfection when we're born into this place of imperfection, and for the rest of our life, knowingly or unknowingly, we're searching again for that perfection, and so often we can't find it.

And then, by dumb luck--which is the New York expression for Grace--we find Guru Maharaj Ji. We find Guru Maharaj Ji, and its the weirdest thing, especially for people who've been educated, who've made a success on this ego, to be told about a little sixteen-year-old boy revealing, revealing this beautiful truth that great men throughout history have been revealing, and that we read about in the scriptures. And the same thing always happens: these people come here, they tell us about this inner beauty that is inside every person; they tell us there's a way to hook up to that energy, that soul, God--whatever you want to call it--how you can do this every day, every minute of the day, and how you can live your life as a human being, as the crown of creation. And that's what this Knowledge is all about. Maharaj Ji, through these ancient and beautiful techniques of meditation, throughout history, that people have been using--small groups of people in every religion--reveals these same ancient techniques, so that you see this energy, that you hook up to the beautiful sounds of goodness which is inside of you, and that your whole life changes.

Different people come to Knowledge out of many, many different reasons. The young people for their hang-ups, the old people--could be nuts or food-nuts or alcohol kooks, or whatever. We all have our own selfish reasons; we might be just looking for peace; we might be searchers. And then afterwards, we also have our selfish reasons for following the Knowledge. Maybe we want a light trip, or a cosmic thrill, or whatever. But the funny thing about it is whether you're getting this experience or not, even though you meditate, you might not be getting that experience, because doing these techniques of meditation is all we can do; we can have the tenacity to stick to it, but the experience that we derive from it is Grace. And that--we have not control of. So you can go for a long period of time, but the thing is, this thing is so powerful that your life starts changing. Things that you never did before you start doing. And what is that? Thinking of somebody else. Not having your whole life full of self-indulgence and doing things for yourself, which is the normal thing. So these programs are to have people here, various ages, who are in the outside world, to tell you: this is not a kid's thing. This is an every man's thing. And as weird and far out as it may seem, myself and everybody that is up here--we're not professional speakers, we're just ordinary people in life--we're here to testify that it's the truth, and it's the most beautiful thing.

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VINE OF LOVE

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS, MONDAY, MAR. 10, 1975, DENVER, COLO., ENTITLED "GURU MAHARAJ JI'S WIFE GIVES BIRTH TO DAUGHTER."

Guru Maharaj Ji, the 17-year-old spiritual father of six million followers around the world, Sunday became the worldly father of a bouncing, eight-pound eight-ounce girl.

His wife, the former Marolyn Lois Johnson, gave birth to the couple's first child at 12:47 p.m. in the Divine Light Mission Retreat in Malibu, California, just south of Los Angeles.

The couple were married last May 20 in a ceremony near Genesee Mountain west of Denver. The former airlines stewardess, was then the gurr's secretary.

'IT'S JUST ECSTASY'

"It's just ecstasy. Everybody is just so pleased, so happy." Joe Anctil, the guru's press secretary said of the birth. Jublilant well-wishers telephoned their congratulations from around the world, he said.

The guru, spiritual leader and "Perfect Master" of the Denver-based Divine Light Mission, participated in the delivery "as the couple used the Bradley technique of natural childbirth," Anctil said.

Dr. Ronald Peters, the family physician from Denver, described the birth as perfect and reported both the mother and the child in excellent condition following the 12-hourlabor.

VINE OF LOVE

The brown-eyed, brown-haired baby favors the guru, "and he named her Premlata, which means Vine of Love," said Anctil.

During the delivery, Durga Ji, the name given to the guru's wife – it means Benevolence, Essence of Good – remained awake and aware without any sedation, while the guru coached her breathing.

There was also another coach, Marge Hathaway of Sherman Oaks, Calif., who instructed Mrs. Rawat – the guru's legal name is Prem Pal Singh Rawat – in natural childbirth methods during the pregnancy and helped during the birth.

Judith Osborne of London, a registered nurse, was the midwife.

The happy couple rested and posed for family photographs later Sunday afternoon, Anctil said.

Followers in 185 cities around the world were to hold parties Sunday night, but the major celebration of the baby's birth will be held on Easter weekend, when the annual Divine Light Mission "Holi Festival" will be held, he said.

JOYOUS BIRTH,

"The joyous birth will be celebrated by millions of Guru Maharaj Ji's followers around the world during the Easter weekend," Anctil said. The guru's remarks at that time will be broadcast to celebrating groups throughout the United States and Canada, he said.

"All the followers come together anyway then, for the Holi Festival, and it's a good time to celebrate the birth internationally," said the press secretary.

The followers will congregate in 7 major United States cities, including Denver, and other cities around the world for the Easter celebration, he said.

The guru has about six million followers, mostly in his native India, but there are some 200,000 outside India, including about 55,000 in the United States, said Mike Donner of Denver, national director of the Divine Light Mission.

Donner said he talked to the guru by telephone Sunday morning during the labor. The master, he said, was "obviously really excited. He said he couldn't believe the experience of participating in the birth of his own child - it was really an incredible experience."

The guru and his family will probably stay in the Los Angeles area until the baby can travel, Donner said, adding the baby will probably go along on trips to planned religious festivals in Venezuela in July and Germany in August.

South American followers, he said, are particularly excited because the appearance of the baby there will coincide with the first festival to be held there.

Robert Mishler, the mission's international president, called the group's headquarters in various countries on Sunday morning, asking all the followers to gather in formal meditation and pray for the safe birth of their master's child.

Following the birth, he called all the headquarters again and announced the happy outcome. Donner also made some of the calls from Denver.

"The reactions among the followers, Donner said, ranged from "dropping the phone and going around the room to tell everybody" to simply expressing their joy. "Everyone sent their warm love and congratulations," he said.

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"WE ARE SO BUSY WORRYING WHAT TIME TAKES AWAY, THAT WE FORGET WHAT TIME GIVES US."

Recently in Los Angeles, Guru Maharaj Ji described God-realization as the acceptance of the Superior Power. He explained that there always have to be problems that occur in our daily lives in trying to accomplish things, but there doesn't have to be disharmony and lack of working together. He said the only way to go beyond the problems is to be in complete cooperation and harmony.
--from the October 1974 English newspaper Premies

LORD KRISHNA SAID: "THOSE SINFUL ONES WHO COOK FOR THE SAKE OF NOURISHING THEIR BODIES ALONE EAT ONLY SIN."

IT'S IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT WE TAKE CARE OF OUR BODIES NOT FOR THE SAKE OF THE BODY WHICH IS FINITE, BUT FOR THE SAKE OF REALIZING AND SERVING THIS PERFECT KNOWLEDGE.

PRAYER OF A DEVOTEE

Dear Lord
My life in your hands
My heart at your feet
My mind in your Name.
Please make us all One
Make us understand and
Truly Love.
I'm tired of resentment and miscommunication.
Please help us to unite
Thru this Love which you have shown us.
Help us to stop feeling
separation in our lives
and favortism in our love.
I need to feel your Presence
In my heart, because I'm
lost without it. I'm like
a sailor in an unknown sea.
All we want to be is your
humble servant, and not a
servant to that ego.
Pride is the most dangerous
and the most painful pitfall.
Help no my Guru, I'm helpless
without your Love.
Help us to help you help the world.
Your devotee.


FROM THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS
84: 5-9, JESUS WAS RECORDED AS SAYING:
"I WILL GIVE YOU
WHAT EYE HAS NOT SEEN
ND EAR HAS NOT HEARD
AND HAND HAS NOT TOUCHED
AND WHICH HAS NOT COME INTO
THE HEART OF MAN."


THIS POEM WAS WRITTEN BY SANT JI MAHARAJ IN HIS SCHOOL DAYS
The Creator of all, the Creator of soul
You are my all, You are my all
I am lost in wood, I wish you would
Save me from this material world.
Please save me, Lord,
You would and should.
My heart, my heart that pants to drink
The nectar of Thy flute.
Please grant me such a Grace that it may suit.
I place myself at Thy lotus feet
Oh, let it lie!
Or let the eagles eat.

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