Dear premies, I'm doing this tour of Europe, and the purpose behind this tour is to make premies understand something that sometimes we all sort of lean back on, to make premies up-to-date -- and this really helps us in our life, to be completely up- to-date. Especially in the path of Knowledge.

Because everything is so hard. And the reason for that is that this world is not exactly set up for everybody to be just completely harmonious.

There's a lot of thorns. There's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of craziness in this world. So although a premie does receive Knowledge and does realize the tranquility, does understand the Peace, does experience the Peace, if he walks out, it's not all going to remain like that. There's a little bit of difference, and that just starts becoming more and more as we go into this world, as we go away from this path.

We need some inspiration. And that is what we call satsang. Satsang is something that can really inspire us, can really make us understand, can really fill up those little links, those little gaps that we have set up for ourselves. And that is why when we all sit down to have satsang, we should really, really concentrate, and really try to understand what is being said.

This is the third place (on this tour), and it's like, we all really have to come together. We really all have to understand that we are all sharing an experience. See, it isn't so easy to understand Knowledge. It isn't so exactly just "Boom!" to do it. Because it takes a lot. It's a give-and-take process. The Love that is asked as a price of this Knowledge is sincere and true Love. It's not some love that we have been giving all of our lives. This is a completely different kind of Love that is asked of us.

And so we have to really open up our heart. We have to really open up ourselves before we can even get to the point where we can start repaying for this Knowledge. And really then that fills us up, that really brings in the beauty which is inside of us, not outside, and just completely fills us up with it. And then we really start feeling that Love. Then we really start feeling that beauty. Then we really start feeling that experience that we have been trying to get. Then we really start understanding a lot of things. Then we really start knowing that we're not just something out of somewhere, but we are a part of that Knowledge; that we, in fact, are a part of that Peace; and that we in this lifetime can be in such a place where there is complete Love, where there's Love inside and there's Love everywhere; that in fact we can create an environment around us which will completely fulfill us.

And so, before we can even do this trade, what has to happen? Well, this is the example I've been giving the last two programs. You just don't go out and buy everything. You just don't go out and buy the whole department store. You only buy what you really require. You have to see a necessity for that object that you want to purchase. And then your interest grows in it, and then you acquire that object.

When you go into a department store, you see so many, so many, so many things. And of course, you can get them. They're all for sale. But then you have to really see that you really don't need all those things, so therefore you don't want to have all those things. And that brings about a change, because then you see, "Well, wait a minute. Do I …

Then we have to evaluate. If somebody lives in Lisbon, and somebody is driving down the street and he sees this big hotel, he just can't turn around to himself and say, "Maybe I should go and check in. Maybe I should go live in this hotel."

But for a tourist, because he has realized the necessity, he has just come into Lisbon and he wants a place to stay, he says, "Okay, well let's see if this hotel is appropriate for me, and if I can check into it."

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What happened was that first the necessity was there. And so first of all, we have to realize for ourselves: Do we even want the Knowledge? Well, do we even want Peace? And that is one question that comes up first.

Now okay, if I am Joe Blow or somebody, and I hear satsang, and I'm told about this Knowledge, I'm told that there is a beautiful experience that exists, and that in fact I can plug myself into it, then I go, "Well, why do I need it? I mean, why do I need to have Peace? What will it do for me?"

And then, of course, we realize that Peace is something which is different from everything that is happening in this world. And therefore we can say, "Yeah, well we don't exactly need all the things that are happening in this world. We need Peace." We have to really sincerely still ask ourselves that question: Do we need Peace or not? Because if we don't ask ourselves that question, then we really can't take Knowledge seriously. And if we, in fact, cannot take Knowledge seriously, then the value, then our effort, then our concentration, drops, which really produces a fluctuation in our life.

It's like if you buy an object, if you get something, or if you are given something as a gift, and you really have no use for it, you really don't need it, then you just put it away somewhere and it doesn't mean anything. And it just sits there and probably rots away.

It's like garbage. Every day we get up, clean our house, we take all this garbage out of our house, and we just throw it away. We don't realize any necessity of the garbage. Therefore we say, "Well, we don't need this garbage, so throw it away."

But the thing is, somebody else does realize the necessity of that garbage. And they come and they pick it up. As a matter of fact, that is one of the ways that they live. This is how they make their living. So garbage to them is very important. No garbage, no job. No job, no pay. No pay, no food. And then it becomes work for them; it becomes actually a job for them. They want to go out and they want to collect garbage, while we all sit there in our houses throwing garbage out. And then, that garbage is taken, there's a lot of landfills that

Prem Rawat aka Guru Maharaj Ji On Stage With Daughter 1978

are done with it, and it's utilized in different things.

But see then, this is the same way -- maybe it's not exactly the right kind of an example to give, to give an example of garbage, concerning Knowledge -- it's not similar. But the way it works is that if we really don't realize the necessity of Knowledge in our life, then we are not going to even try. We're not even going to try to gain that

experience that Knowledge has to give us. That use becomes obsolete. The Knowledge itself then starts becoming obsolete in our life.

And then, as you must have heard in my satsang, vegetables are very nice things. We eat them every day. But if you bring tons and tons of vegetables in your house and don't eat them, they will rot. And when they rot, they won't be very healthy, and they will just really smell bad.

And Knowledge is the same way. It's beautiful. But you have to utilize it. If you let it sit, it's just really going to start deteriorating inside of you. It's like, we have something so precious, and we're not using it. And that experience is just going to start becoming worse and worse and worse.

So before we can even get to that point, we have to understand, "Do we really need Peace?" And it's like: Yes, we need Peace. We really need that experience in our lives. Why? Because it is a part of us.

If we have lived in a place for a long, long time, and we learn all the streets in the city, and then we are taken and put somewhere else in a completely different city, completely different state, completely different country, and then after years and years and years and years, we are sent back to this place, we are not, offhand, going to remember all the streets. We'll need a brushing up. It just depends how far and how long we have been away from this place, how much brushing up we will really require, how much brushing up we will really need. And the further we have been away from Knowledge, the more it takes, the more effort it takes.

And we really have been far away from Knowledge. It is something that is keeping us alive right now. I mean, of course there are lots of excuses. You can say, "Yes, of course my breath is keeping me alive." And definitely your breath is keeping you alive. And yes, your heart is beating, and that is what is keeping you alive. Yes, in fact when your blood is circulating, that is what is keeping you alive.

Okay, that is true. Because if your blood stops circulating, you will die. If your heart stops pounding, you'll die. And if you stop breathing, you'll die. But then the thing is, what makes the breathing go breathing? What makes the heart go "poom-poom"? What makes the blood run about? There is something there. When man goes, something goes. Something is not there. He is perfectly okay.

I was reading this National Geographic magazine, and they had just dug up this Chinese lady. She died and they had buried her in this tomb. They dug her out. Her body was still okay, the skin was still elastic-like, all her joints moved. And she had died a long, long, long, long, long time ago. And yet everything was there. Her hair was there; everything was there. But there was something missing which made her die. And what is that "thing"?

What is that? We can say "thing," but we know it's just not some "thing." There's a lot more to that "thing." But to refer to that matter, we use the word "thing." So we have to really evaluate. What is it? And that is what we try to do.

A lot of people read the scriptures. Well, that's okay. But scriptures are just something that try to direct us in a direction. It's like if you went to somebody and said, "Where is Marino?" Or, "Where is Arthur?" And somebody says (pointing), "There is Arthur." And you say, "Oh! Hi, Arthur!" (to his finger). I mean, that is the same thing. Because scriptures are trying to describe to us an experience, that there is something like that, that it is actually a documented fact that … I mean, we

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can really imagine you'll have to be extremely telepathic -- you'll have to be extremely something -- a person will have to sit down and try to understand that, in fact, there was Jesus Christ.

And it's like today, we read Bible, we read scriptures, and all the facts are right there. Yes, in fact there was Jesus, and John, Matthew, Luke, and all those people did realize something. They did understand. They did in fact see him, and they noted it down. But that is not Jesus Christ. It is stating a fact about him.

And okay, we read scriptures. We try different methods. But we really don't get contented with it a lot of times. We really don't get satisfied with it a lot of times. And then what do we do? We're stuck. We have just about done everything we want, and then we say, "Well, wait a minute …" There is something which makes this whole world tick. There is something that we have to realize.

And then a Perfect Master comes. A person comes who can show us the way to that Truth, to that experience that we have been wanting to get. And so, that realization then starts gaining more and more importance in our life.

Some people are extremely moody about things. All of a sudden they feel thirsty. They say, "Can I have a glass of water?" The glass of water is brought in front of them, and they say, "Now I don't want it." That's okay.

A lot of times there's an example given in America. It's like God said, "Do you want any brain?" And you thought he said "train," and you took the first one, and you're stuck without them. Those are jokes. Those are okay. There's nothing wrong with that.

And you say, "I want food." And then all of a sudden you say, "No, I'm not hungry." That's okay.

But if somebody comes to you and says, "Do you want life? Do you want an experience of life?" You just can't say yes, and when the time comes say, "No, I don't want it." You just can't do that.

And that is where our own decision has to be made. That is where a very personal thing has to happen. It's like, are we, or are we not? Are we really going to, and do we really in fact in our lives feel the necessity of realizing Knowledge, of

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji the Perfect Master or Satguru

realizing that experience, or don't we? And if we don't, that means that we have got it all too easy, that still we need to go through a few more things to realize that, "Yes, in fact, we need something like that."

It's just like the example where a man says he's happy. And you say, "Well, how come you're happy?"

And he says, "Well, I'm happy. I've got a wife. I've got a kid. I've got a car. I've got a house. I've got everything. I've got a nice-paying job. I'm happy." He tells all his friends that he's happy. And in fact, he is happy. Because he sees his happiness in that thing, and he has all of that. But then there's one moment in his life where all that just changes. It just all becomes different. He sees the instability of things. And then he realizes, "No, wait a minute! This is not the happiness I am looking for. This is just one of the types of happiness, this is one of the bodily fulfillments I'm looking for, but this is not true happiness."

And then it just all starts snapping together, that "Yes, I need an experience. Yes, I need a way to Truth. And that Truth, in fact, is my answer that can give me that experience, that bliss, that Truth, that tranquility, that I'm looking for outwardly."

And then we realize it. Then we try to understand what it is. And that's what Knowledge is. Knowledge is the experience that we all are looking for. And by Grace (I wouldn't say it's sheer luck, but by Grace; and if it is just luck we have tons of it) -- it's actually by Grace that we get to realize it. Now, what is our duty? Where are we? What do we do with it? Here we have this experience, which is very, very beautiful. Here we have, in fact, committed ourselves to it. Now what do we do?

And that is the stage that you are at. And if you're not, then you should try to get yourself to that stage. Because there is a commitment. And, again, I'd like to go back and explain to you a little bit about commitment, because when Bob was just finishing up, that's what he was saying, that in fact, you didn't like the idea of mahatmas (initiators) saying that we should cut our heads off -- are we going to be prepared to cut our heads off?

Well, you can have my personal guarantee that I'm never going to ask you to cut your head off. But then, it really makes sense that if in fact you had to jump off a cliff or cut your head off, it would be very easy. That would be very, very easy. All you need is a nice, high cliff that goes straight down, and a moment's worth of decision. All you need to cut your head off is a long, nice blade, sharp, and a moment's worth of decision, and you just go kkkk and you're dead.

And you're not going to live to find out the great experience you had. You just can't come back and say, "Yeah, I died; it was really neat." Or something like that. And you can't just sort of jump off the cliff and go up there and say, "Listen, send me back. I didn't want this kind of an experience. This hurt me. I want to go back." And boom, all of a sudden you're all fallen in pieces at the bottom of the hill, and you snap together and you're up. You know, it just doesn't happen.

But with Knowledge, it's very, very difficult. I mean, that is a really difficult part. Because jumping is not exactly that bad, but it's almost like jumping off a cliff every day. It's like you have to really sit there and make that decision that "Yes, I'm going to really let Knowledge take effect in my life." And it is not an easy decision. "Yes, I'm going to do service. Yes, I'm going to do meditation. Yes, I'm going to listen and give satsang."

It's just constant, constant effort. It's not an effort of one second; it's not an effort of one day. It's constant effort that we have to constantly keep making. And we can do it. We really can do it.

And then the part comes: service. How do you really do service? Like I was explaining in Madrid, yes, there are three very important things which I emphasize, which are satsang, service and meditation. And of course, if you realize the importance of the Knowledge, if you realize the importance of the Truth, then you in fact are going to do meditation. If you don't realize the importance of it, then you're not going to do meditation. If you have taken that part seriously in your life, that yes, you want Truth, that you want Peace, that you want that experience, then you're going to work for it.

And it's just very common. Sometimes you are very thirsty and you're sleeping at night and you want a glass of water -- maybe it takes you 20 minutes to get up and actually be able to go and get a glass of water -- but you do it. Because you see a necessity there.

And so, if we see the necessity for Knowledge, which --as I was saying before, first we have to realize the importance of Knowledge, and then we will be able to plug ourselves more into it. And it's just not one second's importance. "Oh yes, Knowledge is great. Oh yes, Knowledge is going to give me Truth, and that's about it." No, this is what I was trying to explain. This is no joke. It's not like saying, "God said 'brains' and I said 'train,' and I took the first one out." You know, it's not that way. It's not that simple. It's just like, yes or no. And it's like a decision that you have to continue. And so, that's meditation.

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But then comes service, because there's satsang, service and meditation. That's meditation, and then comes service. Now what is the part? Why do we even need to do service? I mean, where does service fit in? And it's very fine. It's very beautiful, but very fine. Because the whole idea, the whole basis, is on surrender. And if we really and truly surrender ourselves, then what do we become? We become a servant. And it's not a servant of Mr. Joe Blow, but it's servant of Lord, servant of Almighty. If we surrender ourselves, then we become servant, and when we become servant, then we can do service. And if we have realized, it just all fits, see?

It's like a puzzle. And when you have found the right piece, then you can put it all together. If you don't find the right piece, you can't. You can't just take one piece and try to make it fit with the other one by effort. It just doesn't work this way. It's very hard to do it that way. I mean, it'll be virtually impossible for you to do it that way. It's like somebody trying to skip on service and satsang, saying, "Listen, I've got meditation, and I'll just sit down and do meditation, and that's it."

But it's like a loop. And we have to really, really continue that loop. If we don't, if we break it, then the whole, whole thing starts breaking up. And that is why I said it's very easy to cut your head off, and very easy to jump off a cliff … But do you see what I'm trying to explain that it's like? It really takes our dedication.

And at the point when you received Knowledge, if you were serious - I mean comedian or no comedian, if you like jokes or if you don't like jokes, you never pull a joke on yourself. I mean, I don't think any comedian pulls a joke on himself. It's just always on others. So it's like at that point, we should have made the decision right then and there. And if we have the decision, and if we are trying, then remember one thing: Your effort is not going down the drain. As a matter of fact, not

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji the Perfect Master or Satguru

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 Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji at Holi Festival 1978

even a small piece is going down the drain. All of your effort is actually adding up.

Can you imagine a bank system where, when you put money into the savings account -- can you imagine this kind of a system -- you take $100 and you put it into the bank, and you get the interest every day of however much you put in, plus you get $100 sent to your house every day? So it's like, on $100 you get $200 interest. And more it happens … So when you get $200 in your bank account, then it goes to $200 more interest, and $200 are sent to you. It's just constant multiplying; it's just constant multiplying.

I mean, can you imagine? I'm pretty sure it would drive all the banks completely bankrupt if they did this. But this is the system of Knowledge. This is the system of satsang, service and meditation. This is the system. This system exists. When we put our little effort in, not only that very day it comes back to us, but it adds up. So when we put a little more effort into it again, that effort and that effort combine and we really can feel it.

Premies who have put effort in it … And what I mean by "effort" is effort! It's not a joke. It's not the effort of trying to open a Coca-Cola bottle. It's not an effort of trying to open a pickle jar. No! This is true effort. And if we have in fact put it in, then we are going to get this interest, and we are getting this interest. And premies who have, know what I'm talking about.

And so, like I was explaining, where does service fit in? Well, if we have in fact made that decision, and in fact we are doing meditation, then we are surrendering ourselves.

That doesn't mean that we have to be completely flat on the ground to Guru Maharaj Ji 24 hours a day and 12 months a year; completely take everything we have, including ourselves, gift-wrap ourselves and make ourselves a gift. I mean, if you wanted to, you could do it. You could make yourself a nice coffin, and put yellow ribbon around it, and tie yourself up, and say, "Here, I surrender myself." And if you have any intention of doing it, please don't do it, because that's not surrendering.

That's just playing a big hoax on yourself, or trying to play a big joke on me. That's not surrendering. Surrendering is true. Surrendering is within you. Surrendering is something you have to do yourself.

And then if we have surrendered, if we are surrendering, then we are servant, servant of Lord; and if we are a servant of Lord, then we can do service. Then there is no problem.

But see, if any of four things break down -- if we stop doing meditation, then we can't surrender. If we can't surrender, then we can't be servant. If we can't be servant, then we can't do service. And if we can't do service, then satsang, service and meditation are completely gone; their effect is completely gone. That link doesn't happen.

It's like, can you imagine a bridge all the way from London to New York, New York to Los Angeles -- I mean, of course going through Panama Canal and everything -- and from Los Angeles all the way up to Hawaii, Hawaii to Tokyo, Tokyo to India … Coming all the way through Europe, it goes everywhere all over the world. And it goes to Paris, and they both come together, and there's about 50 feet of it missing. It's like building all that bridge all around the world, and right between London and Paris 50 feet of it's completely missing. I mean, that's how good it'll do to you to drive; if you wanted to drive from Paris to London through that bridge, you wouldn't be able to do it. And say, if somebody really wants to come to Paris using that bridge -- I mean, of course you can drive, take a boat, fly -- but if you want to use that bridge, you'll have to come to Paris via New York, through India, through all of Europe, and then end up in Paris. Why? Because 50 feet is missing, and you can't use it.

And how much is 50 feet compared to all that mileage around the world? It's nothing. I mean, if they can build a bridge around the world through the Indian Ocean, through all these oceans, through Atlantic, everything, they can definitely build 50 feet of bridge. But if that is missing, then it's like so much is missing.

And then everything is like, the light fixture without the bulb in it. It's just something misses. And maybe we don't realize it. It's like a camera without film. Well, there's a lot of cameras without

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film. And sometimes when you've taken your picture and you want to store away your camera, then you don't put the film in it, so that whichever condition of lighting you'll be shooting at, you can put that kind of film in. But by doing just that, the camera is good for nothing and the film is good for nothing. Their importance is completely limited. Neither can that camera take a picture, nor can the film take a picture. But when both of them are combined, what happens? Does the film change? No. Does the camera change? No. The film stays film and the camera stays camera. It's just not something where the film is a liquid that you drop in the camera, and you give the camera a big shake and it just all dissolves and becomes a third thing. But there is something which, as a matter of fact, we can't even put our finger on. What is that thing that happens when we put the film in the camera that makes the camera capable of taking a picture, and film of actually storing it?

That very thing is so fine, so minute, we can't ever put our finger on it. But it is there. And without that one link, the whole process just doesn't work; the whole effort, the whole concentration, the whole energy, is just like going, going out.

It's just like building a very, very, very big swimming pool, okay? And putting all these tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of water in it, and having a hole at the bottom about an inch big. And you say to the person, "What's that hole doing at the bottom?" And he says, "It doesn't matter. There's so much water in here, if a little bit leaks out, doesn't matter." And that's exactly what's happening. Because how much is it going to really leak out of an inch worth of hole? But in

about a week, all of it's going to go out. And so we just really can't have that link missing.

Again, that emphasizes the part that it's much easier to cut your head off -- and that doesn't mean that you cut your head off and you have the same experience. No. But here, it's constant effort. It's constant energy. Then when we do something, and when we really do service as a servant who has surrendered, because he realized Knowledge, who wants to in fact have that true experience in this lifetime, then what we do becomes service, and we really start understanding. We just really start becoming clear about it.

And so then when we are told to go give satsang, or when we are told to, in fact, do this service, clean the car or do anything, it'll be really clear for us. It'll be really understanding for us. It won't be like, "Gee, I've never cleaned a car. Ah, why should I clean a car?" The questions and interruptions -- then everything just won't be there. Everything will be much more clear. Then the service that we do now in this lifetime is just accounting for so much.

And then comes the part: satsang. Well, where does satsang fit in? It's like, as I said, we're so lucky to be able to get satsang. Because when we go out and we purchase a house, usually when you buy a house, you don't get any carpeting with it, you don't get anything with it, just get a bare, nice house -- well, then what do you do with it? There's a lot of things that have to happen. And in this example, the effort that you put into it becomes service, and the necessity that you want a house becomes like meditation, because you realize the necessity that you in fact wanted a house, so you went and got a house, and now you have to do work on it.

And it's like, that is service. It's like, Knowledge is a house. We first have to find out where we want it. And then we have to just like open ourselves up -- so that we will be able to accept it. I mean, this is the funny part. This is why we have been away too long. It's like we have been too, too, too many years away, too much time has gone by, and we have completely forgotten the streets of our own land, the streets of our own city. And that is the funny part about it. Remember: Knowledge is not going to adapt to us. We have to adapt to Knowledge.

That is where the funny part comes in. It's always been within inside of us. And it has! But we have

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been so far away, we have been away for so long that now, when finally the time comes, we have to work so hard. Because it doesn't all fit together, it doesn't fit right. And so, what is satsang? Okay, well in this house, we take the house, we buy the house, we decorate the house, and then what happens? Well, because everything is not perfect, it starts breaking down. It's like the plumbing goes down, lights go out, the door flies open, the door breaks down, the windows crack open, house needs paint, and just small things start happening. And then you have to go and start repairing it. And that is what satsang is. To be able to fill in all those gaps, to be able to inspire us, to keep us completely up-to-date. Because if we're not up-to-date, then it is like the whole house is made out of silver, but the silver has oxidation on it. It's completely black. Then we are this beautiful, beautiful, beautiful house, which has never been painted.

I mean, burl or walnut is very, very beautiful wood. And a lot of people would like to have a desk made out of it. But if you ordered it from a factory and you said, "Can you make me a desk out of burl," and they take the whole burl tree, cut it on both sides, put four legs on it and give it to you, and say, "Here is your burl tree that you ordered …" You just look at it, and it'll be all this bark sitting on it; you won't be able to write anything on it. It'll just look like a piece of tree cut from both ends with four legs on it. I mean, if you saw that in a showcase, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't go to buy it. Because there's no use for it. There's no necessity for it. Although it is that wood, it hasn't been put into shape.

And it's like taking the bark out, putting a shape to it, and putting polish to it, then just really cutting it out really nice, sorting it out, and just

really, really polishing, really making it beautiful, is what brings in the beauty. And this is what we have to do in our life, too.

And the most beautiful thing is that this Knowledge, that that perfection, is now with us, is now. It's like, when would there have been a more beautiful time to understand this Knowledge?

When would there have been a more precious time, more perfect time than now, when everything's just constantly collapsing, constantly collapsing? One person builds a boat; the other person builds something to destroy it. One person makes an airplane; the other person makes an antiaircraft gun. One person makes a bulletproof vest; the other person invents another kind of bullet that can penetrate it.

I mean, it's a constant struggle, it's a constant war that constantly keeps on going, constantly keeps on going in this world. I mean it was like, when I was in India, I heard about the big bomb, the cobalt, the big atom bomb. And I said, "Well gee, that's just really great, they invented this. At least they won't go anywhere from this point." I mean, what else more can you invent? A bomb that's capable of destroying the whole place -- that's got to be the ultimate weapon. I mean it's like people coming to get you, you just boom and the whole thing is gone.

But that wasn't it. That was just nothing! Then they started making the radio control bomb. And just constantly it has been going, constantly it has been going, constantly it has been going. And now it has reached to stage where they're inventing laser, they're using laser, they're making a modifying laser to be able to destroy a bomb in the air. I mean, why go through all that trouble? It's almost like if somebody wants to clean his car, he takes it out, and gets it dirty to be able to clean it. That just doesn't make very much sense. If you want to clean your car, well, clean it. If it's clean, leave it alone. But to take it out, to throw sand on it, dirt on it, mud on it, everything on it so that you can turn around and clean it, doesn't make very much sense.

And this is what has happened. For peace, for peace, for peace, for peace man has gone so far out, and now he wants to contract back again to be able to get where he was. Things are changing. You know the petroleum price is going high with the shortage and everything. One thing that came up was that at one point there were all wooden products. Man started off with wooden bowls,

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wooden everything. And then he got into metal. And today, man has gone into plastic: plastic this and plastic that. And wood has become really, really good. If you see a plastic box and if you see a wooden box, it's like, "Wow, that box is made out of real wood. And that box is made out of plastic."

But with all the petroleum prices going high, and this shortage, you know what's going to happen? There's going to be a time where the man is going to say, "Listen, that box is made out of pure plastic. I mean, look at it. That's complete beauty, that's complete plastic!" And this is what it's going to come to. And more and more it's just going to keep on evolving, it's just going to keep on happening, where everything is like so crazy.

There are a lot of people who are good people. They have good intentions. But it just doesn't seem to be working right. It just doesn't seem to be taking place. Peace just doesn't seem to be constant. It's becoming more violent. And at this time, where like peace is such a farfetched word -- Knowledge, Truth, are just such farfetched words -- it's like, "You're crazy. You're talking about peace; you're just completely … You don't have any brains. What are you talking about peace for?" It's like man has taken that word and knocked it up for such a long period that it's almost like, "Peace? What peace? What peace? What kind of peace? What are you talking about?"

You know what peace is today to people? If two countries are fighting and they both stop fighting, that's peace! If in fact two countries are not fighting, they're both in peace. I mean, this is what peace has become. Now you tell me, before the countries were made, any other countries were made, before man was made, what was the form of Peace? Was the form of Peace: no men, nothing is being made? Everything is in Peace? No Earth has been created, no word has been created, no stars have been created, no universe has been created: everything is in Peace?

Well, there had to be Peace. There had to be satisfaction. Man has had glimpses of it. And that is why it constantly tries to recognize it and control it, so that it can have it constantly. Man has been trying to do so much to be able to control Peace. And it's like the whole sense has sort of emerged in something else, into something else, into something else, and lost the real meaning to it.

And so, now if you look at the whole system, if you look at the whole world, how fortunate we really are to be able to have the Knowledge which can give us Peace. I tell you, it really depends on the way we look at it. Because you can look at it from 360 degrees, and at every bit of the degrees, it'll look different.

What is the use of this hall, of this ballroom, to somebody out on the street? Nothing. He doesn't care about it. But to this hotel, this has a lot of use. And that's why they completely upgrade it, completely maintain it. What is the use or what is the importance right now of a microphone to a lot of people? What is it? Well, if you don't have a microphone, that's definitely not going to kill you. But it might kill me. And that's a practical thing right there, because if I don't speak into a microphone, I'll have to scream so loud for 50 or 60 thousand people, and then I'll be completely exhausted. And after a three-day program, I'll be probably right on the bed, flat. And after four-day program or something like that, I'd probably kick the bucket very soon. But to me it becomes of use; to other people it's of no use. It definitely will not kill them.

Today I was drinking this water, and it just didn't taste right. And I said, "Gee, this water doesn't taste right. It smells funny." To me the water didn't smell right, to me the water didn't taste right, so I threw it down the drain. But to a guy who's stuck in a desert, it doesn't matter to him

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how it smells so far as it's good water. If it's just water, that's good enough. And the importance changes, the value changes.

It's like, we have to really look at Knowledge from our point of view and really realize in our life: How much do we need Peace; how much do we need that? Because if we don't really need it, then to us it's going to be a very funny sort of situation, of having Peace. But really, we have to look at it also realistically, that we do in fact need Peace. That we do in fact need that. And that Knowledge can do it. And we have Knowledge.

And so it's up to us now. It's our effort. It's an individual effort. If we want to do satsang, service and meditation, we can. Because believe me, there's a lot of people who have realized Knowledge, and they don't do any of the three things. And of course, they're not content. I mean, they're not realizing that thing, that Peace, that Truth, that satisfaction.

And so here we are with everything that we could have asked. It's like, we talk about Aladdin's lamp. You talk about genie. That's nothing. Man can do any of that himself. Maybe it takes a little longer.

Maybe it takes a little more effort. And I'm pretty sure Aladdin or genie won't be able to give you Knowledge. And man today, being today, is even one step ahead of that. We have Knowledge; we can have Peace. We can have satisfaction. But it's completely up to us. If we try for it, then we can get it.

It's our effort.

And so, I don't know when I'll be passing through Lisbon again, through Portugal again. But it's like you can constantly keep trying. You can make that environment; you can make it happen. You can actually make that happen that you have always dreamed. You can, in fact, be at the point -- 24 hours, constantly -- where you're completely coming from a clear point. I mean, none of that is impossible. You can do it. And it's your effort.

What am I really going to say, except what I have said? Because I can only say so much. I can't take your head and virtually grab it and say, "Listen, you do this, otherwise I'm going to beat you up." It just all ends up in your effort, in your try. And if you don't give it a try, you're really going to miss out on something very beautiful.

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji the Perfect Master or Satguru

 Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji at Holi Festival 1978

And this is the time. We can't just say, "Listen, it's okay. It's okay. If I don't eat today, I can eat tomorrow." Well, that's good. You'll probably end up losing a little weight, but the problem is you just can't say, "Oh, it's okay, I don't want any life. I'll just wait for the next train. I don't want to breathe for six hours. Too hard for me to do so, I'll just skip thislifetime." You just can't do that.

Because it's now. It's an uncontrollable experience. There's one factor, and the factor is that being alive is also one of the requirements of this Knowledge. Because it's very, very, very hard for dead people to understand it, for dead people to realize it. As a matter of fact, it's so hard, that it's virtually impossible.

But we are alive now. That's a Grace. And that's a very beautiful Grace. And then we can in fact receive Knowledge, and that's another Grace; that's a very beautiful Grace. And that in fact we can meditate; that's Grace, and that's a very beautiful Grace. And that in fact we can realize the experience of all the experiences in this lifetime, and that's a Grace, and that's a very beautiful Grace. And so, if you add them all up, it's a Grace. And it's a very, very, very beautiful Grace, left to us.

I mean, isn't that even beautiful if you look at it one way? That all that experience is completely left at our disposal. And as I was saying at the other satsang, that's probably the only thing that the Lord didn't do right. He left that experience to man's discretion. If he wants to have it, he can have it. If he doesn't want to have it, he doesn't want to have it. That's something that's not right. Why? Because every man should be entitled to this.

And He made him entitled, but it's just that it would be beautiful if it were compulsory, completely compulsory. Because then man would realize that it is very beautiful. Then man would realize that beautiful, beautiful gift. But now, today, it's not compulsory. It's not necessary for man to … He can just keep on living for 25, 26, 27, 30, 40, 80 years without realizing Knowledge. And that even makes him more and more lost.

I mean, you can just imagine that if to live you had to realize Knowledge, it would be just really so beautiful.. It would be like, you'd never get lost. And today that's the problem. That's why I have to go from city to city, door-to-door, telling people, "Listen, if you forget all the streets, you're going to be completely lost when you get back there. And you are bound to get back there."

It's really beautiful that people are waking up to that fact. And again, okay, well, service, satsang and meditation will bring you that experience. What will it do for the whole humanity? If you are a humanitarian, well, you can say this to yourself -- which is completely true -- that you can help the whole world realize Knowledge. You can take the whole world and turn it into a place where wherever you walk in there's just premies. It'll be like an enormous festival ground. Everybody lives everywhere; it's just really beautiful, and just that beautiful vibration everywhere. And it can happen.

Again, it is your effort that is going to make you do that. But then, you can also really blow it. You can also really goof it. You can also make it very, very hard for this world to understand Knowledge. And it's like that is why I'm emphasizing, this is why I'm doing a premie tour. Because believe me, I could have been doing a "non-premie" tour right now, where premies wouldn't get to hear that kind of satsang, and really realize the importance of satsang, service and meditation, but it'd all be really directed to the people who haven't received this Knowledge. And why am I doing this tour? To make premies clear, to fill up those links.

Because if premies are not coming from a clear place, you know what can happen? I'll give you an example. Say I am a person. I am a premie. I live in an ashram. I do meditation. I do satsang and I do service, barely at the line where you could say I do those three things. I mean, I don't take any interest in it. I just sit down right up against the wall, go to sleep, and all I do is just sit like this and go to sleep. And for satsang, I just chitchat. I just talk to people, "Hey that's a nice street, nice

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day, huh? Really nice outside. Look, I'm going to do some service. I'm going to go out to the beach and just lie down there. And it's like, just not really doing anything. And I'm completely unclear."

And then Guru Maharaj Ji comes and says, "Listen, you guys should go out and give satsang to people." And I say, "Wow, that's a really direct agya, a direct inspiration. So I'm going to go out and give satsang to people." So I have a whole stack of leaflets in my hand. I go out on the street. And there's a guy waiting for his bus or his taxi, and I hand him a leaflet. He looks at it. He just wants to have a little conversation to pass his time, and says, "What is this all about?"

You say, "Listen! This is really beautiful. You know, Guru Maharaj Ji has come."

And he says, "What?"

You say, "Guru Maharaj Ji has come to reveal us Knowledge." I mean, that's true, Guru Maharaj Ji does come to reveal us Knowledge; but he's not understanding it, you see. It's like if I started giving you satsang in Hindi, how much would you understand it? For you to actually be able to understand satsang in Hindi, you will have to go, learn Hindi, then come, then listen to satsang -- so that you know what Hindi is. And I mean, that'll be a very hard thing for that person to do.

And you're telling him all these things that, you know -- some are true and some really aren't. And you're just confusing him.

Then he says, "Well who is Guru Maharaj Ji? And what does he do? And what is Knowledge?"

And you say, "Listen, haven't you ever heard about Guru Maharaj Ji? He speaks 24 languages." (And I definitely do not speak 24 languages!) You say, "Well, Guru Maharaj Ji speaks 24 languages, and Guru Maharaj Ji does this, and Guru Maharaj Ji does that," and it's like the guy is standing there saying, "Man (groan) this must be completely nuts. This person must be completely nuts."

"And what is Knowledge then?" And it's, "Oh, Knowledge is this really, really beautiful experience. And you know, we people who have realized it, we can cut our heads off for it."

And he just looks at you like, "C'mon, you know, why don't you just go on, keep on going?"

And then he's got this leaflet. He's got the address right there. Then he goes back home, he gets comfortably dressed, and he goes to have dinner. And there's his wife, there's his kids. And it happens to be the very Sunday night when the premie went out and gave the leaflets out, it happens to be the very same night when the guy has invited his whole family over -- his brothers, his sisters, his kids who have been married -- and they all are sitting at this dinner table.

And the guy says, "Listen, something very funny happened to me today. I met this kook, and this guy was completely crazy. He was saying all these things that their guru, or somebody, speaks 24 languages, and he does this and he does that, and that those guys were getting ready to cut off their heads for this thing, and that's happening and this is happening."

I mean, of course, he doesn't exactly say what really happened. He puts pepper, salt, chili, butter, lemon, everything on it, and so it's all piped up. He's saying, "Listen, those guys are completely nuts." And then, everybody says, "Well, who was this guy? For which organization was he?" And the guy looks in his pocket and says, "Oh, he was from Divine Light Mission."

And I mean, the poor Divine Light Mission had nothing to do with that conversation. It just got caught in the middle. That's what you call an innocent bystander.

And then, everybody has a nice laugh at it, and everybody compliments him on his joke and how great it was. And he says, "Listen, this was no joke; this was a fact." And then all of those people go out, and they start talking about how Divine Light

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Prem Rawat aka Maharaji aka Guru Maharaj Ji the Perfect Master or Satguru

Mission members are completely crazy, they're completely off the wall. And those people hear it, and then they tell it to other people and those people hear it, and then they tell it to other people and then those people … So it's like, one person has just done a very heroic deed of making about two to three hundred people, who have every potential to realize that Knowledge, completely confused.

And after a little while an initiator, a mahatma, comes to the place, and he happens to be on this airplane sitting right next to a person who happens to be this guy's cousin who was just given this off- the-wall satsang. And he says, "Hey, where are you from?" He just wants to make conversation.

"Oh yes, I'm from Divine Light Mission."

And the guy says, "Oh, no! I have to sit right next to a cuckoo person."

And the mahatma's done nothing wrong. He wants to explain everybody the right thing. And so, see how much -- from not coming from a clear place, how much confusion was created. And this is why we have to always be clear, and always be coming from a right place.

So premies, this is the time to really understand, to really open ourselves up, to really sincerely -- for ourselves, for our sakes -- do satsang, service and meditation. I do meditation; that's for me. I do satsang; that's for me. I do service; that's for me. You do your service for yourselves. You do your satsang for yourselves. It's just completely individual. And satsang is an experience that we share with each other, but the rest is just all individual. And so you have to really, sincerely, give it a go; sincerely try it; sincerely understand it, for yourselves.

And of course, if you have not been joking with yourself all this time, you are going to sincerely try. You are really going to put all your effort in. And if you have been joking, then why don't you get a big laugh out of it and just forget about it, and just go sit off somewhere and just completely … That'll do you no good. Except that Knowledge will sit within inside of you. And as I said, it's a beautiful vegetable; but if you don't eat it, it'll be bad. And that's what'll start happening within inside of you.

Then every day you'll get up and say, "Am I lost? Am I in the right place? Am I lost? Am I in the right place?" And it's just, more and more of that will start happening.

So now is the time to really get clear and understand. So blessings to all the premies, and thank you very much.

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