Know Him While you Can

This Discourse was Given by Shri Mata Ji, Mother of Guru Maharaj Ji, on June 15, 1972, in Miami, Florida.

Dearest friends,

This is a very beautiful place. Miami is very beautiful with the sea all around. There are boats and ships running and airplanes flying overhead. There are fish and gardens and trees and so many beautiful things all around. But there is something missing.

Suppose a woman has all the comforts of life but has lost her husband. Or suppose a father and mother have lost their child. What will happen? Those physical comforts won't give any satisfaction. And that's what is happening to us. Everything is here, but something is missing, and as a result everyone is unhappy, desolate. So all these beautiful things don't suit you. You don't like them. You don't enjoy them, because they aren't real to you. Those things which are supposed to give you pleasure and joy and entertainment have become painful. So it is just like this, that when a woman has a husband she is happy with her comforts in the world, but the moment her husband dies she misses him so much that the rest of the things become tasteless, absolutely desolate.

And when we suffer we try to remember God. When we suffer, then we call Him. But when we are happy, we just don't think of Him at all. It would be much better if we would remember Him when we were happy so that we would never have any pain or suffering. The suffering and pain would not come if we remembered the Lord when we were happy. So we must all try to remember Him always.

When we were little babies, we didn't know anything in this world. We were ignorant and innocent. But then we learned to speak, we learned to discover, and we began progressing and progressing and progressing. But the thing is, this progress is not helping us at all. Look, we were little boys and girls, but now we have begun to get old. Our physical bodies are already falling apart, they are rotting. All our senses are losing their vitality; our skin, our eyes, our ears and all the other physical functions are gradually deteriorating. And still we haven't tried to reach anywhere, to gain anything real, because we have forgotten our real lives, and we are thinking that our bodies are our lives. So we think we live for only 70 or 80 years. But we have forgotten our real lives, and we must search for them. Look for them, please. Don't give up.

The saints say that this body is like a boat. You have boats here, and sometimes you go for a ride, you go out into the sea, way into the middle of the sea, and then you turn around and come back, because it is your own boat, so you are free to do whatever you like with it. Or some people haven't got boats of their own, but they can buy a ticket, sit in a boat, go for a ride and come back. But this body boat is not like that. It is all decided by God. He is the giver. He gives this boat and once it goes, it goes forever. There is no chance of your saying, "Okay, let it go, I'll have another one." Just try and do that! Now you have got this body and you may not get it again.

The people who have their own houses like them because they are their own, so they try to make them better.

But the people who have rented houses don't take care of them. They say, "Oh, well, I'll have to change anyway, so I don't care. I'll go somewhere else." But with this body you cannot just change like that. It is yours. God has given it to you and God can take it away from you anytime He likes. So it is very important that you do something with this human body.

He has given us everything, but it is up to us whether we use it or we just throw it away.

Once in India there was a man who used to clean teeth as a profession. One day he went to a village, sat down in the market place, and said, "Come on, I'll clean your teeth." And many people gathered around to have their teeth cleaned with tooth powder.

Now two friends came. One was having his teeth cleaned and the other one was standing and watching. And when he saw that his friend's teeth were really shining, he got tempted to have his teeth cleaned too. But he was such a miser that his mind was in great conflict over it. He had three pennies in his pocket, and held them in his hand while he tried to decide whether he should give up the money and have his teeth cleaned or not. But every time he was about to take the money out of his pocket, he changed his mind, saying, "No, no, I should save the money." And every time he looked at his friend's sparkling teeth, he said, "It's good, I should do it."And he went on and on, back and forth, until he had rubbed those coins in his pocket so much that he had rubbed the paint right off them. And the pennies had become nothing more than pieces of metal.

At last he decided, "Now let me do it!" and he gave the tooth cleaner his coins. But the man looked at the pennies and gave them right back, because they were just pieces of metal, there was no printing on them, and they had no value.

So that is what is happening with you now. God gave you this fresh body full of energy, full of strength, full of will power, but you have been hesitating about whether you should use it well or not, whether you should take the Knowledge and know God or not. When you see other people who are happy, peaceful, joyful, you want it. But then you draw back again. And ultimately your body gets rubbed off, all rotten. Your physical frame, your energy, your will power, everything becomes absolutely rotten. They don't work right. And then you think, "Well, I must think of God now." But then it is too late, because the instrument that God gave is rubbed off.

So do it! Do it right now, so that while you still have your youth, your energy, your vitality, your strength, you can utilize it all in the best way and get back to God before it rubs down, before it falls apart. Blessings and love to all of you.

44