Let The Grace Come
Dear premies, it's really beautiful to be able to come together for this festival. It really is incredible. And it's so beautiful. Because I remember just recently I said that - well, that this was our biggest festival. But it's so much Grace that this is now our biggest festival. And this is the biggest festival I think we have ever had in West.
So first of all, I'd like to welcome all the premies for Hans Jayanti festival. And I think everybody will have to bear with this not-so-incredible system of P.A. around here. But I think if everybody really can just sit down and be really calm, maybe it'll work.
Basically, there is not much to talk about. Because what we are feeling is much more beautiful, much more incredible. Because you see, when I first came here, in the hall - at the residence I knew that the P.A. system wasn't working. And then when I came here, they said it's going to be out for the whole day. And I said, "What are we going to do about that now? Because all the premies are here and this is our first night!" So anyway, they got this hooked up to the hall P.A. system, the home system. It works. Well the thing is, I figured that if none of this was going to work, I was just going to come out here anyway (applause), and just share a lot of that experience that is flowing within us.
So premies, you know there are premies from all over the world here, over 50 countries. There are premies from India; there's premies from everywhere that have participated in this festival. And it's just going to go on, and this is just the first night. It's going on. And this is so beautiful, because when you think about it, this is the first night. Then still tomorrow there is going to be satsang. Then there is going to be darshan. Then there is going to be satsang again. And then there is going to be satsang again. And it's just so beautiful.
But here is something that we can really see; here is something that we can really understand. You know, before, a lot of people wanted to know a lot of phenomena; a lot of people wanted to know: "What is this Knowledge?" I remember in Prem Nagar a lot of people used to ask those questions: "What is this Knowledge? What happens?" And I quite clearly remember in the hall, in the Prem Nagar hall, sitting there with a blackboard and trying to sketch out a picture of what really happens.
But premies, overall this is what happens. This is Knowledge. This is what Knowledge does: Knowledge brings that tranquillity, brings that harmony, to all human beings of every type, of every age. And it doesn't matter what their background is. It doesn't matter what they are up to, but it just brings them all together because of that harmony inside, because of that understanding inside, because of that Love inside.
And so it's like, this is what happens. I mean you can just really feel, you know, you can really - maybe not see. What I can see from here is faces about this big, all over the place, just scattered. Or maybe what I can see is a lot of different colored shirts and stuff. But I can feel something that has no color. I can feel something that has no face. I can feel something that is so beautiful. And Knowledge brings that out - by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace only, of course - but Knowledge brings that out, brings that out so we can be in harmony with what we are supposed to be in harmony with.
Because there is that thing. There is that - if we want to call it perfection, then it is perfection. If we want to call it … I mean, whatever we want to call it. It tunes us to that thing. And it is only possible by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, and by Guru Maharaj Ji's Knowledge which he reveals to us. And then we all come together.
Because right now - I mean I remember in a lot of satsangs I used to say, "And this world situation is deteriorating, you know; it's just going bad. And it's deteriorating more and more, faster and faster."
And believe me, so far that is concerned, I haven't got any good news for you, either. It's still deteriorating. It's still going bad. Maybe a little bit faster. But I have one good news: that there is hope. And the hope is this Knowledge, hope is that Love, hope is that understanding. Not the personal differences that the world is sharing, the
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personal differences that everybody is so into, the personal differences that everybody is so caught up to. And it's just like they won't let it go.
And I mean, you see all around the world. Somebody is saying something; the other person is saying something. One person says, "Look man, there is no other way but this way." And that's not about Knowledge; he's saying about war, or this or that. And another person is saying, "No, that's not true." And it's just like, this is the kind of fight that didn't start in 1977. It started a long time ago. I mean, you see all the records of - I mean, every period, every era, and something like that crazy thing has happened, of people just having so much difference, of people having so much non-understanding, of people having so much difference between each other, between all the people, between their own brothers and sisters. And now, what is the solution?
I mean, it's just like you go on saying, "Well, maybe we can all sit together. Maybe we can all sit down in one hall. Maybe we can sit down like this, maybe we can sit down like that, and try to come to a compromise. Maybe we can do this, and this will make the whole world better. Maybe we can do that, and it will make the whole world better. Yes, definitely we should do this, and definitely we should come out with a bigger weapon, and maybe we should definitely come out with something that is even more powerful."
But all these things - what do they lead to? All those things - what do they end up as? All those things - where have they brought us now? To even more and more and more dissatisfaction. Because that dissatisfaction grows. And the thing is, you see, that nobody knows. Everybody is so dissatisfied. Everybody is so dissatisfied.
It's like five people trying to count five people. And every time they count, they are so dumb that they forget to count themselves. There are five people, and the guy goes, "One, two, three, four."
And then he says, "Wait a minute. There were five to begin with; one person is missing."
So the other people say, "Well, let me count." So this one guy goes, "One, two, three, four. You're right. One person is missing."
It's like, all those five people consecutively take that time to count. But they always forget themselves. And what is it? What it literally means is that everybody is so dumb that nobody in that group of five can figure out: "Wait a minute. Somebody's making a mistake." And that mistake is that they're not counting themselves.
Same way, premies, in this world everybody goes out and tries to say, "Oh yeah, this person is definitely dissatisfied. Oh yeah, this will bring the answer."
But everybody is so dissatisfied that when they start counting other peoples' dissatisfaction, they don't understand that the answer to dissatisfaction does not come from another dissatisfaction. But the answer, the solution to that dissatisfaction, comes from satisfaction. That person's dissatisfaction is going to go away when he is going to have satisfaction.
Now people start looking for satisfaction, and what do they look for satisfaction in? In what? Well you see, it's like this - you know, I mean, we can take examples of Lord Ram. Or we can take examples of Jesus Christ. And he used to travel on a mule; he would go place to place. He had a mule, and therefore he had a property; he had an
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asset. But it wasn't like he was completely attached to this mule. It wasn't like he was saying, "Man, if this mule goes away, I don't know what I'm going to do." It wasn't that kind of a situation. The situation was: There it was. And that's what it was, and that's where it stayed at, and that was it.
So premies, it's like not having that understanding that this whole thing that we seek satisfaction from is only our own substitute that we have generated from our dissatisfaction; therefore the present satisfaction, in any way that man seeks for it, is a product, a top-quality product, of his own dissatisfaction. And so therefore it is such a puzzle. It's such a rigamarole. You go from one point, and that leads you to the same point. If you go to that point, it puts you in another point. So it's like, it doesn't matter what you do or where you go. You're going to end up at one of the points that seem to be at the same place at the same time - at all the places.
So premies, really, if you look at it, we are so fortunate. We are so lucky. We are so - I mean, what are the words? I guess fortunate, lucky … I guess if somebody knows more highfalutin English, they
probably have some more words. But we are just so lucky to be here in this world. Because maybe a hundred years from now the world is going to be even more crazy. Or two hundred years from now, world is even going to be more crazy. But definitely there is one thing: We won't live to see it. So right now, the way it is, I think it's crazy enough for us.
And in this crazy world - and it's just such a beautiful thing. Because there it is - pitch darkness. And you are walking through this park, through this jungle. And you stumble, you know, and it's pitch dark; can't see anything. And you stumble, and you feel what it is, and you feel a headstone. You feel a whole graveyard there. Then you walk by a little bit more, you step on something; you see a big stone there. Something scratches you on your cheeks; you feel that there is a barren tree there. And slowly and slowly, just in your own imagination (and not even imagination - even in the reality of how grotesque that place really is), you start to feel it; you start to know about it.
And when that starts to happen, a fear, a danger starts to grow in your own mind, or in your own heart. And it's just like you are thinking of so much stuff, because you can't see anything. And you are walking - I mean, you just don't know, you just don't know. And maybe you are very strong, but yet it's that fear of unknown that's just bothering you, that's just getting you.
And in all this craziness, all of a sudden you hear something coming, something approaching. And then all of a sudden it just lights up the whole place. Such a bright light lights up the whole place. And you see that yes, this is a graveyard. The things you were feeling were grotesque. But you also see that there is no need to fear. There is no need to be afraid. And you can clearly then just be who you are, be what you are supposed to be, and enjoy the further beauties, than to completely be so scared and not know.
And this is the way this is. In this world we tumble, we stumble, we fall down, and we feel things, you know. And it's just - we don't know what it is. We just don't know. And it's just like, fear grows in our heart. And this is what I was saying: Maybe it is your imagination. But definitely, only to some extent. Because in reality there is a lot of grossness to what you are feeling. In reality there is a lot of dissatisfaction.
Because I mean, yes, I can come down here and I can give you satsang for two hours on just one thing: how gross this world is. You know, that's one thing that's really incredible - that you cannot run out of words for how gross it has become, you know. And it's just like, you can say that you just feel like packing up your sleeping bag and just taking off to some cave, to some mountain, where there just won't be anything. And yet, you can see that this is what probably all the saints, all the mahatmas, all the sadhus used to do. They used to just say, "Man, this is weird." And they used to just split and go somewhere where it was nice.
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But this is the advantage, this is the privilege: By Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, that mountain, that cave that has so much peace in it, we can have it right in the middle of - let's give an example of having that very beautiful, very peaceful cave in-some beautiful mountain, right in the middle of New York downtown. And that's the way it is. Where there is everything happening. Everybody's yelling and screaming and driving and honking, and the scene - in the middle of all that, you see this beautiful mountain. As soon as you step on it, it's just peace, it's silent and quiet.
And what you hear is what you are supposed to hear. What you see is what you are supposed to see. You drink what you are supposed to drink. And you feel what you are supposed to feel. And it's just so incredible. And this only happens by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace. And Guru Maharaj Ji can bring us that satisfaction. Guru Maharaj Ji can bring us that through Knowledge.
But to attain all that I have talked about, it's our own love, it's our own surrender, that we have to surrender ourselves to. We have to surrender ourselves to Guru Maharaj Ji. And maybe a lot of people have this question: "Why? I have my life."
This is the reasoning. And maybe I'm going to give you a few reasons. But maybe none of these reasons you yourself think. But maybe they are close enough.
"I have my life. I was given this life. Why should I surrender it?"
Or maybe you think, "Why should anybody surrender? If there is this thing to be given, this Knowledge, this thing to be given, why should it be given only when you surrender? Why can't it just be given as it is?"
Or maybe you think, "Well, surrender is just not possible. It doesn't exist."
Or maybe you think that it's too hard for you to do.
But let me just take it again. First of all, for people who think it's really their lives, they should think about it twice. It's not. If it is, well how come one day you just split? Mr. Joe Blow, whoever there is, is just sleeping there. The only difference is, this time he's not breathing anything.
So if it is really your life, then why didn't you just pick a nice time to get born? Why did you need anybody? And just do whatever you want to do. No troubles; nothing involved. And then, you don't ever have to leave because it's yours; it's your property.
But really, I mean you look at this whole creation, you look at this whole world. and when God made this whole creation come together, when everything was put there - and you must have seen maps of people owning lands and plots and something like that. It just looks such a -- you can see all the Earth. And then they have all these lines drawn, "902, 905, 904," have little names of people on them.
I'm pretty sure that before God created this Earth, He flipped a big sheet of paper and said, "Well, of course I'm going to make this Earth round, but let's see how I'm going to subdivide it. I'm going to give this little plot to this guy, and I'm going to give this little plot, 902, to this guy …" So everything was there, and He just sent everybody down. And with that came your photostatic machines, you know. We just took a photocopy of what God had planned already up there and just: There you are. It belongs to you. You own it.
I mean, does that make sense? No. It does make sense that they have pieces of paper like that, in which people have their different names. They have pieces of paper where all these plots and stuff like that are subdivided. But overall, it just doesn't make sense that God did it. No. He just made one beautiful Earth for everybody to enjoy. Not for just one person. But for everybody to enjoy. Then how do you own something? Well, you know, you go to somebody and you say, "You own this, right?"
And he says, "Yes, I own this. And you are trespassing on my property. Get out of here."
And you say, "How do you own it?" "Well, I bought it."
So you figure, why did God go through all the hassle of printing out lire and dollars, and pounds and rupees, and all these currencies? Why didn't He just make one currency and just hand it to everybody, and say, "Period. This is it. If you just deposit this at My treasury, you can have your land."
No. I mean, all that just doesn't even make sense. And the reason why it doesn't make sense is because that's not the way things happen. God didn't make dollars. God didn't make cents. God didn't make lire. God didn't make all those things. It's us. We have come together. We have put ourselves in a position where we have made all these things into such subdivided places.
But above and beyond, I don't quite see in about 50 years, or something like that, everybody giving up everything. I mean, that I don't foresee. I don't foresee
that maybe people will just say, "Okay,
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it's all everybody's." It's going to go pretty haywire!
But there is only one solution. And what that is is surrender. But that's why I'm saying you should look twice. You don't own your life. This has been given to you for a specific purpose.
But the thing is, what is the purpose of car? What is the purpose of a train? What is the purpose of an airplane?
Well, the purpose is to take you from one place to the other place. But premies, the thing is, if you don't put any petrol in the car, how is it going to go from one place to the other place? If you don't put any coal in the train, in that engine, or diesel engine, or whatever you have - electrical engine, or whatever you have - if you don't give it any power, how is it going to get from one place to the other place? If you don't put any fuel in the airplane, then how are you going to get from one place to the other place?
How are you going to get from where you are now to what your object really is in this life? You have to put the fuel in. You have to first of all bring your life about, bring yourself about, to where really you belong; to where really, really you should be. And then, once you have done that. it is much easier. It's much more beautiful. It's much more simpler to accomplish the purpose of your life, why you are here. And at the same time, it takes you there. Such a beautiful thing that not only just makes it easy and makes it simple, but it actually takes you and does accomplish the purpose of this life, why we are all here.
Maybe a lot of people are going to say, "Wow, this is completely so complicated." But it's not, you know. You must have read that satsang where there is this boat. And you have to be on this boat. And I know that a lot of people give this example that Guru Maharaj Ji is the sailor, is the person that if you hop on his boat, he can take you from one end to the other end.
Okay, and I'm pretty sure you have taken ferries at one time or the other. If you're taking a ferry and it's supposed to bring you from one end of the river to the other end of the river, but you jump off, how is it going to take you from one end to the other end? I mean, you have to make sense. It just doesn't work that way.
If you just jump off, that's where you are going to stay. You're probably going to drown. And if there's a current coming, it's just going to sweep you away. And then maybe, after you die, you're going to become really buoyant, and then it'll just take you and put you ashore somewhere.
But you have to stay on that ferry. You really have to stay there, when you want to go from one end to the other end. If you don't, you're just not going to get there. And that's how simple it is. That's really, really how simple it is.
And by Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, all that on that boat - it's open. It's there now. And all we have to do is just to stay on that boat, to let Guru Maharaj Ji carry us on that boat, to let Guru Maharaj Ji - because it's so beautiful. It's not like Guru Maharaj Ji's saying, "Look! You, you, and you cannot get on my boat."
Guru Maharaj Ji's saying, "No, everybody who sincerely …" The only sign maybe on this boat is No Freeloaders. People who are just going to go for a little boat ride - no.
But if you have a sincere desire to go from this end to that end, you're most welcome. You can come in. You can enjoy it. It's possible. But if you just want to say, "Well, I'll just go along for the ride …"
I just want to say - I know that there is just about every kind of person sitting here in this auditorium. And I'm pretty sure there are people sitting here in this auditorium who just say, "I just want to know what Knowledge is. I just want to know what Guru Maharaj Ji is."
Well, if you're here just to know things, go read a book! But if you are here to be with him - not to know, not to find out,
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not to make a beautiful experience subject to scrutiny of mind - but if you're here to really enjoy it, if you're here to let it really go, then of course the experience is going to manifest for you. You're most welcome on the boat. You're most welcome to be here. You're most welcome to listen to satsang, to enjoy what is going to go on here.
And you know, there's another thing. In this hall, though just about everybody, I hope, can hear what I'm trying to say, and though maybe just about everybody can see me in this hall, and though maybe just about everybody can - I mean, whatever is going on maybe is being shared by everybody. But only those people who have a sincere desire for this Knowledge, only those people who have a sincere desire to be sailed across that river, are going to actually enjoy what is happening in this hall. Otherwise the other people, though maybe they are sitting here, it's not going to make any difference to them. They won't be able to enjoy it.
So premies, of course, so far so good. It hasn't broken down on us so far, this P.A. system. But I sure hope that the people who are - premies who are working at it will have it together by tomorrow at least, you know, so we can have some satsang, some more satsang. And there are so many initiators. And there are so many new premies receiving Knowledge, you know. Maybe it doesn't sound like too much, but right now, with the amount of initiators we have, there's 12.999 (something like that) people receiving Knowledge every day in this whole world. And these people who are receiving Knowledge, you know, it's so beautiful.
Because sure, you know, we have all these initiators, and we can just tell them, "Go out now. Just give everybody Knowledge."
Well, some of them seem to be pretty strong, so they could probably grab some people off the street, throw them in a basement and just slap it on. But that's not going to do any good. That's not going to be advantageous. But these people who are really receiving Knowledge - well I at least hope that they are really, really taking advantage of this Knowledge, that they are really, really understanding.
So you see, the thing is, all the chances in this world can come all the time. But the chance to have a chance can only come once in this world in our lifetime. Because there you are. And once you have the chance, then chances and chances and chances and chances and chances are going to be there again and again. But it only comes once where we can even have the key to that door, so that we can have all those chances.
So premies, it's just like Knowledge. Everything can he there; everything can come, and everything can go.
But the opportunity to understand Knowledge, the opportunity to understand that Grace, the opportunity to understand that experience, only comes once in our life. And when it does, we have to really open ourselves up to it. When it comes, we have to really let ourselves go.
So what can I say, except welcome to Hans Jayanti and enjoy yourself while you are here. I'm not specifically talking about Coca-Cola or popcorn or movies. I'm talking about the Love. That true meaning of when somebody goes Jai Satchitanand to you. And that's what I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about: "Enjoy it. This is Rome. You know, people always want to come to Rome." No. Nothing is out there that's as beautiful as what's within inside of us.
And it's just so incredible, because I used to just at one time live right across the street from this hall. Those apartments there. And I used to stay there. And we used to - we could see the top of this whole hall. And we used to say, "Yeah, someday it'll be really nice to have satsang there." And Mahatma Gurucharnanand Ji also, when he came to Italy, he saw it and said, "Yeah, this is really nice to have a satsang program in."
And at that time, you know, it was such a thing. Maybe we would have never filled this hall if we called everybody, including all the premies from the world. And that was a long time ago. If we would have called every premie from all over the world, which wouldn't have been quite possible, of course - at least the people who would have been able to make it- we would have to do some extravagant, extravagant, extravagant amount of propagation in Italy to be able to fill this hall.
But now it's just so beautiful, because all the people who are sittting in here are premies. Or if they are not premies, they are here to understand Knowledge. They are here to have satsang. They are here to have darshan. They are here to just let themselves go for five very beautiful days where satsang, satsang, and satsang is going to go on; where we'll be able to just really come together. It's just like such a beautiful thing.
So premies, I know the way things go is either you make it, or you blow it. And I know that, well of course, all the premies who have been working are only humans. And of course, like they just finished the stage, and after they finished …
At first, it was like maybe the stage wasn't going to get finished. Well, I'm glad it did (laughs) - somehow. And then, I'm pretty sure the sound system was working really, really good while the stage wasn't finished. Then as soon as it looks like the stage got finished and the program finally got underway, the P.A. system blew out. And then, I know that maybe all the hotel accommodations and all the things aren't completely satisfactory to everybody's needs. And I also know that there's about a couple of hundred premies that are just standing over there that don't have seats.
So I know that you can be very, very mad at this time, thinking, "What's going
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on? This is just a joke, and I'm just getting frustrated." That's how I call it "blowing it."
Maybe you don't have a hotel room. And maybe you don't have a seat. And maybe you don't have anything going for yourself, and had bad luck all the way through. But if you are right now there grinding your teeth, you're blowing it.
The only thing to do is to make it, you know, is to make it. And making it is to just let yourself go. Surrender. This is a nice opportunity to do so, you know. Let the Grace come and show some strength, how it works.
You know, premies, it's really something. Because at the place where I am staying, you can see from a distance all these airplanes going by. And I know that we were going out and we were looking at all these airplanes, and it was just such a thing. It's like, "Wow, I'm pretty sure that all these premies who are coming in all these group flights and stuff can see this residence. But they don't know. And it's just such a beautiful thing."
You could just see all these premies just coming in. And you could almost feel - of course, so far as the jet was concerned, it was blowing out a big thick line of black smoke behind it, and making a real ugly noise. But you could feel that there was something really beautiful inside of that airplane. And there were just premies, you know. And you could just feel all the premies coming. And you could just feel all this program happening together.
Because I know that if this P.A. system hadn't come through - this is the house system - and if it hadn't come through, I know that if we would have just sat here … it's just that I have always talked about that: Just sit down, and what is there to talk about? And yet, it's so beautiful to have satsang. But if we would just sit over here and just let that energy go, I'm pretty sure we would have this big spaceship going up somewhere, way up high.
But the most important thing, premies, is to let yourself just surrender. Let yourself just go. And enjoy these beautiful, beautiful five days of program.
And so, it's just really, really nice to see you all here. Though I can't see your faces very big, I can feel them. And it's just so nice that all the premies made it. And it's so nice that all of us just come together here. This hall is really set up for boxing (laughter). No, it really is. There are lights up there that aren't on, and they just all sort of focus down to one center point. Then everybody just sits here, and you see this boxing ring in the center, and they are punching each other … and everybody is going, "Yay!" And one guy loses and one guy wins. And the guy that wins, everybody cheers up and goes down, it's just, "Yay!" And the people who lose - they go "Shucks, what's going on?"
But this is so different, to be able to come here. There is no boxing ring here. And we have all just come together.
I mean, you could have thought of this. We all could have been not premies and just happen to be spectators coming to watch a boxing ring, and watch boxing.
But it's so beautiful. And maybe there is no reason in the world why it should be beautiful. But I think it sure is beautiful for us all to be able to come here to have darshan, to have that satsang, to have that Grace, to have that time with Guru Maharaj Ji. And it's so beautiful for me to come here, to have that time with all the premies, to be able to give you satsang. And it's just such an incredible saga, the never-ending saga.
And yet, every time we have a satsang, it just becomes more and more and more beautiful, you know, every day, every time. And more and more premies are coming to it.
So premies, I just hope you enjoy yourself, and I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you very much.
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