What is the Real Thing?

Dear brothers and sisters, in this age we all want to talk about peace and we all do talk about peace and you are all here to listen to me talk about peace. But the first thing is, what is peace?

Many people haven't seen the Taj Mahal in India, and if I talk about it they just wouldn't understand it, would they? It's the same thing here. People have not understood peace for so long. So many years have passed, and so many saints have come in this world and tried to explain peace to people. But really people have not been able to fully understand what peace is.

See, peace is not a bird, peace is not an apple that grows on a tree, neither is peace two fingers. Peace is within inside of us; it is that which is vibrating the whole world today.

You see the whole world existing? It's due to something. You see yourself alive? It's due to something. You see a car moving? It's due to something. You hear the P.A. system working? It's due to something. What is that thing? I think this is the biggest question in the world. The BIGGEST question: what is it that makes everything survive, everything vibrate? It is the primordial vibration that is within us which is vibrating and making us survive. When that vibration leaves this body, goes away from us, we are called dead.

See, we love someone. People used to love Mr. Kennedy. The police people and military people used to salute him, and other people used to really love him, right? Then something happened to him, he was shot, and after that, something happened to him, and people buried him. Why did you bury him when you loved him so much? Where did the love go? Did it disappear or something? What did you love in Mr. Kennedy? His body, maybe a skeleton now, is lying there; when something went away from him, you just left him.

It's like a tape recorder box. You bring a tape recorder in a box, you take the tape recorder out and throw the box away. Now what is that thing that we really love in someone? Not understanding it, yet loving it? You have never felt it, you have never seen it, you have never experienced it, that's why you don't know what it is you love.

There is something that makes a person survive, and we love it. But what is that thing that makes us alive? What is that Knowledge? What is that Word that is existing in all human beings equally, that thing that we all have in common within us? "Today people think maybe it's money. It's not money, because then there's more with the rich man than with the poor; it's not equal. But this Knowledge that is within inside of us is equal in proportion. It doesn't matter if someone is rich or if someone is poor. Maybe a man is a king or maybe he's a slave. It doesn't matter. It's just to be realized within inside of us; it's right here.

You see, there has been a whole, galaxy of saints coming into this world trying to tell us about this Knowledge. Nothing else, just telling about this Word, telling about this peace. Maybe they didn't call it Knowledge, maybe they called it peace; maybe they didn't call it peace, maybe they called it the Word; maybe they didn't call it the Word, maybe they called it something else. But what did they want to establish on this earth? What did they want in this world? Why did they come?

They didn't come to see the world, because really there is nothing in this world to see. Really, there is nothing. You know, people think there is a lot, but there is nothing. You think there is a beauty–remember friends, that beauty was mud. You don't love mud, do you? Do you love mud? You don't–if someone throws mud on you, you will go running to a police station and file against him or try to box him. No, you don't like mud. But all that you see is made out of that. See? And not realizing that thing which is making it survive, you just blindly love it, and love it, and love it.

And that's why the real perfect love, I think, has disappeared from the world. Why? Because suppose all my life I was putting faith in this microphone. I loved it. I loved it because it worked beautifully. I saw quality in it and I loved it, I loved it like anything, and I had a golden case with a beautiful sponge made for it. Then one day I am speaking or I am giving satsang and it quits. I take the microphone and smash it on the ground. Where is my love? Where has the love disappeared?

One day a couple says, "We love each other." They go to church, they confess, they say, "Yes, everything is all right." And they go into the house and the guy says, "Where's the file that was in my briefcase?" She says, "I just threw it away." And he says, "You…," and they both start fighting. Where is the love? Now, is it that file you are loving, or is it that person you are loving, or what are you loving?

See, we have never been able to experience the perfect vibration, the perfect love, and that's why we have been lost. We don't understand what a real thing is in the world. All those things in the world that we are looking for as real are not real. People think Pepsi-Cola is the real thing in the world, but it's not. Because the real thing in the world cannot be bought by artificial things. Money is artificial, it's produced, it's not real. It goes, it comes; it is with you a moment, it is not with you a moment. But the real thing is with you all the time.

The real thing is what is making us survive. It just sounds

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very fantastic, talking about this Knowledge, talking about this peace, talking about the vibration sounds very fantastic. And to some people it also sounds ridiculous–for some reason. Why?

I gave this example the other day. I looked all around for a Batman Comic, I didn't find it. So I went shop to shop, I didn't find it. Then I went home to home, I didn't find it. Then I went place to place, I didn't find it. I found it nowhere. So instead of entertaining myself with a Batman Comic, I just sat at one place.

Then suddenly I see this small kid pulling up to me and he says, "You want Batman Comic?" I say, "What?! You have Batman Comic?! That's ridiculous. I looked everywhere, I went everywhere, and there is no Batman Comic." See? The first thing I'll say is, "WHAT?!! You have Batman Comic?"

Suppose that photographer right there told you that he owned a 747 or a Concorde plane. What would you say? "What? You own a Concorde plane?!" Or the best example is if he goes to you and says, "I saw a spaceship landing…saucer, flying saucer and little Martians coming out of it." You would say, "WHAT?!" Why do you say "what?"?

Because you knew they were not going to come. You probably had expected them, and you sat watching those movies and reading those comics and reading those books about little Martians, trying to see them in your dreams, or trying to see them landing in your courtyard. And they never landed, so you think they aren't there. Then suddenly some guy pulls up to you and says, "Well, they're right here."

This is the condition of the world. People go and look for peace here and there; they don't find it. They think it's hopeless to try. They think, "We can't find peace." Talking to many people I have been able to see that when I say to them "peace," they say, "No, come on, don't be ridiculous. There is nothing that is peace, somebody just was mistaken about that word."

But what is it? See, peace is a peace of this world, of the whole creation, that is making the whole thing survive. And we have to understand it, we have to realize it. Maybe what I am saying is funny to you, a joke for you. Right? Maybe you don't even understand what I am talking about to you. But if you come into the practical, if you touch and see the Knowledge, you can feel the vibration within inside you that you are looking for outside.

Even if thousands and thousands of suns came at one time, you wouldn't be able to see even one sun. To see one sun, just one bright sun, you have to wear glasses. We have these Polaroid glasses, we have these tinted glasses in our cars, we have these big huge and black dark glasses so that our eyes won't hurt when we see the sun. Right? But that light which is within inside of us, right now, right now, is brighter than thousands and billions and trillions of suns.

This Knowledge is so fantastic that I really can't tell you. Can you tell me the experience of pinch? You might say, "It hurts." A slap can hurt, accident hurts, but what is the experience of pinch? You can't discriminate it, you just can't say, you just can't tell it. You have to come up to me and pinch me to tell me the experience of pinch. But you see, this Knowledge is so fantastic, and so many people have realized it and have understood it within their hearts, within their souls. Because it is by all means realizable, it is by all means possible to realize.

You know, I've been able to see God within me. And I have been able to realize peace within me. And I have been able to figure out many things in this world, But one thing I can't figure out. You know what that is? WHY won't people take Knowledge? I just can't figure out why not. We don't ask for money, we don't ask of your time, we don't ask of your religion. Whatever you are right now, the Knowledge is within you. We have to just reveal it to you.

If I bring a mirror before you and tell you that in this mirror you are going to see your face, you say, "All right, yes, go ahead. Put the mirror before me." And viewing yourself in the mirror does not change your shape, does it? Each time you go into a mirror to see yourself, your nose or ears don't become long, do they? No, they don't. And that's why you have no objection watching yourself in a mirror. Right? This Knowledge is the same. It just reveals the primordial vibration within inside of you.

Many people say we ask for money; we don't ask for money. We don't want a single thing like that. Because it's just like giving you a true thing and you giving us a false thing. It's like if someone pulls up to you with a Rolls Royce limousine and tells you to exchange it with your motorbike that was made in 1939, all rotten up, silencer is broken, pistons and timing's out, no headlights working, no speedometer, all the chains hooked up to the accelerator are broken, no carburetor, no spark plugs, no tires. And a guy pulls up to you and says, "Come on, will you exchange that for this Rolls Royce limousine?" You say, "What do you mean?" He says, "Yes, I mean that."

And we don't even ask that, we don't even ask for your rotten bikes! We say, "Just take it, take this limousine, just take this limousine." See, because let me clear one point: we are not giving you the Knowledge. We are not giving you the Knowledge, we are revealing the Knowledge to you. Now you figure out the difference between revealing it and giving it, all right? Giving it means that it is not with you and I have to give it to you; revealing is something that is already with you but you do not know about it. So get my point? We have to reveal it to you, not give it to you. See? We can't give you Knowledge, it's just not giveable. We just can't give you Knowledge. It's just so infinite, how can we put that infinite thing into our pockets which are finite, of course? But this Knowledge is infinite, and you see, we are vibrating at a different frequency, all right?

Or like you have radios in your houses. Everyone has operated a radio, I believe. Now suppose you want to get a station. What you have to do is time into that station. What does it mean by tuning into that station? It means that right now your tuner is ready to receive one frequency and the radio station is vibrating at a different frequency, and when both frequencies are synchronized the radio works. And that's what's called "tuning in," right?

Or you go to a mechanic to fix up your car. He takes a computer, and as he turns the screws in or out, the computer tells when it's a perfect setting: car's tuned, car's perfectly tuned. And that's what it is. Right now you are operating at a different frequency and that frequency is of the world. You came into the world, you are into the world, and you are being deluded by the world. Because whatever you think is real is not real.

I'll tell you a story. Now maybe you heard this story a long time ago when I was here giving a satsang program in this auditorium. Once there was this boy and he was called Ash tavakr because all his limbs were crooked. One day he was playing and the fellows he was playing with said, "Get out of here. Now you should just see yourself. Your father is in prison, and you try to play with us! Get out of here!"

He went crying to his mom and said, "Mother, where is my father?" Mother said, "Why do you want to know where your father is? What does it matter? What difference does it make to you? Just play!" And he said, "No, Mother, I want to know where my father is." And then his mother told the whole story.

One day the king of this country was sleeping, and while he was sleeping he had this dream that he had lost all his kingdom, everything was lost, and he is trying to escape acid he is running.

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He goes into a jungle where he thinks he is quite secure, and he feels hungry. He goes to a hut, knocks on the door and an old woman comes out and says, "What do you want?" He says, "Mother, I'm very hungry and I want some food." The old lady says, "All right, I don't have ready-made food, but you can take this." She gives him some provisions to make food, so he goes out, takes two bricks, puts the pot over them and tries to burn the fire. But, you know, it had been raining and all the wood was soaked up in water, and he's trying to burn them, and all this smoke is coming up in his eyes, and it's horrible.

Anyway, finally, after some time his food is half cooked and half raw and he puts some on a big leaf to cool, and he puts it on the ground. Then two oxen come fighting with each other, and they just mix the food with the mud. There he is, hungry, there he is, so near to his destination, and then suddenly everything is mud, thrown away; and he cries. When he weeps two tears fall out, and because they're hot he's awakened. Then he sees that everything is there: he is a king, he has a golden bed, he has night guards, he has everything.

It's like that dream someone had that he was a butterfly going from one flower to another. When he woke up he was in the confusion that, was butterfly having a dream that "I am man," or was man having a dream that "I am butterfly"? What is true?

That's the same confusion that king had. So he went to the court the next day and said, "I have a question. And whoever can answer my question can have my whole kingdom."

The question was, "Was I that poor guy who had no food to eat and all that happened – was that true? Or is this true, that I am a king? Or is this false? What is true and what is false? I – I'm just very confused." So very rich, very learned people came to give the answer to this question.

"And sonny, your father also went there and he wasn't able to give the answer."

It's like that dream someone had that he was a butterfly going from one flower to another.

When he woke up he was in the confusion that, was butterfly having a dream that "I am man," or was man having a dream that "I am butterfly"? What is true?

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Ashtavakr said, "All right, I'll go."

She said, "What do you mean, you'll go? You can't give that answer."

He said, "Why not?"

And anyway, he went there. There were two thrones arranged, one was a higher throne and one was a lower throne. Anyone who sat on the lower throne and gave the answer got the whole kingdom. But if he couldn't answer, he got life imprisonment. If someone sat on the higher throne and couldn't give the answer, he was beheaded at once. If he could answer the question, the whole kingdom was his.

So all these learned people were sitting in a row, and this boy just walked up and sat on the big throne and everyone started laughing. This boy shouted from the throne, "0 King, why have you invited me to the court of shoemakers?" That's considered a real strange job in India, because you have to deal with hides. Everyone ceased laughing and the king asked, "Why do you say that they're all shoemakers?"

Ashtavakr said, "They are seeing my body, which is crooked, and they laugh. A shoemaker only has a better choice, a better preference, more knowledge in hides. Wherever he goes he always looks at skins."

You see, if three people go to a car exhibition, one is a driver, one is an engineer, and the third is one who deals in leather and everything, the driver will say, "This is the best car to drive." The engineer will say, "This is the best technically advanced car." And the one who is dealing with the hides will say, "Well, this has a beautiful interior." See? Because the three of them have different ideas, yet all three are professional, so whatever they are in they try to get those points across.

So this is the thing. Ashtavakr said, "Now, so what's your question?"

And that king asked that question, "Which am I–I had a dream, and may I know, which is a dream and which is.… I am confused."

Ashtavakr said, "O Raja, what you saw in the dream was false, it was not true. But what you are seeing now is also false, this is also not true. What you saw in the dream was a dream and what you are seeing now is a dream, too. Before you, who was ruling this kingdom?"

"My father."

"Where has he gone?"

"He is dead now."

"How much of the kingdom has he taken?"

"None."

"When you were seeing this dream, didn't you have torn robes?"

"Yes."

So Ashtavakr asked him, "Where are the torn robes now? Where are they? Show me."

He said, "Nowhere."

"In the same way, that was a dream and this is also a dream. What you are seeing now is all a dream because this will finish one day. But what is the one true thing? That is within us. That is what all the sages have been teaching you."

So what is the means to get this true thing, how to get this peace? There are so many scriptures in the world, and they are still making "keys" to scriptures, like a small booklet, an "Introduction to the Scripture," and this and that. Why? Because people are not satisfied with scriptures, and they will just make more and more of these things. So it's just not scriptures.

It's not religion either, because religions have existed in the world for a very, very long time. At the time of Hitler there was a religion, and now there is a religion. It didn't do any good. You know it didn't do any good. It didn't do any good to Hitler, it hasn't done any good to people today either. Now you know this, you understand this, you have practical proof of this, and you can't put it out of your mind for some reason: religions weren't able to bring peace; scriptures weren't able to bring peace.

That's why always a Messiah has to come into this world–to bring peace. I don't say I am a Messiah, mind you. I just say I am a servant of God trying to preach this Knowledge to you. If you want this Knowledge, the only thing I request, the only thing, is love towards it. That's all. I don't want to throw the golden seeds into a rock where they won't grow. Never. I don't want that. I only want that you must have a sincere love for this Knowledge. That's all. Nothing else. I don't want money, I don't want anything, just a sincere love for this Knowledge. And you can get it, by all means. Knock and it shall be opened, ask and it shall be given unto you. And that's the way. That's the way the whole thing goes. You don't have to change your religions, you don't have to do anything.

Yesterday I was here and I was giving this example to one of the guys who was driving me, Mr. Harry. If you go buy glasses and they rub your head right here, you wouldn't buy those glasses, would you? Would you buy those glasses? If the guy says, "Well, if you want these glasses they will have to rub your head, they're too small," you wouldn't buy them, would you? No matter what they are, right?

If this Knowledge has to change you from religion to religion – well, of course this Knowledge has to change you, has to bring you peace. But many people are afraid to leave their religion. All right. Whatever religion you are believing today, if by receiving this Knowledge you have to change it, I don't think that you have to receive this Knowledge. But you see, you have to receive this Knowledge. You have to, one day you will have to.

Because the greatest person you believe in, Jesus, came into this world for this purpose. He didn't come here to see you, or to show himself to you. He came here to reveal the Knowledge of God. That's what he came here for. And that's what he did. And that's what people praise him for. There were people probably more intellectual than him at that time. But why do we praise him? Because of the Knowledge he was preaching to us. That's why we love him. He did a great thing to us. He did a great thing to us. And he saved us. And that's why we love him. And we can love him. And we have to love him because he did do a great thing to us.

So I want to just tell you, understand the Knowledge, understand the peace, and get it. Whatever interpretation you have about anything, it doesn't matter. Whatever you think, it doesn't matter. If you think that you are not standing on the earth, it doesn't matter to me. It just matters that you must receive Knowledge, and you must have peace. That is, if you want it.

You know, if you don't want peace, it doesn't matter. I don't care. I am doing what I can, my best. If you don't want peace, it doesn't matter to me because I am trying my best. It's like I am driving a car and I am trying to overtake another car, and I press the gas all the way down. If the car can't go any faster, I can't get out of the car and start pushing it faster. I can't do that. I just wouldn't be able to catch him with it.

This is the same thing. So if you want Knowledge, if you want peace there is an ashram here. And what is ashram? You see, ashram is a Hindi word for a center, a place where people meet. Spiritual brothers and sisters meet and live–that's called ashram, a mere description, that's what it is. And we have one here in Boulder, and if you want to receive Knowledge come there, and if you have any questions you can ask, and then receive Knowledge. Thank you very much. And peace be with you, yes?

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