The Golden Age

When The Impossible is Possible

Prem Rawat aka Maharaji at Bi-Centennary Luncheon February, '76 Shortly before his departure from Australia, Ira received this letter from initiator Bill Patterson, who has been touring in South America

Dear Ira,

Jai sat chit anand!

I've waited so long to write this letter that I almost don't know where to begin. I feel like it will just have to explode out. It's already more than a month since Maharaj Ji was here in South America, but it was such a beautiful and powerful experience that I can't think in terms of time or relate to it as a memory; it's a living inspiration now.

Here in Argentina there is a band called the Band of Love. The day before Maharaj Ji's program here I was having satsang with them about what it means to serve as an instrument for him, because the day before Maharaj Ji had been saying that musicians in his programs can't just play music, but have to play the music that is just perfect to fit the vibration of the programs and the feeling that he is trying to communicate. In other words, it's a matter of sensitivity and fine-tuning on every level. Then the day after the program Guru Maharaj Ji decided to record the band. He called them all together, asked them to get all their microphones set up, and get ready. They still had all the professional sound equipment from the night before and a professional sound technician who had been organising a very professional, high-quality sound system. And then Maharaj Ji showed up with his tape-recorder: a quadraphonic recorder with every imaginable accessory to produce perfect recording. The sound technician was stupified; he was almost shocked because the quality of this recorder was much more than all of his professional equipment. Maharaj Ji kind of scoffed, and asked if he was expecting a Sony cassette recorder or something?

Maharaj Ji is really professional. By the time he was done with recording the band, they were completely blissed-out; but more, I realised that Maharaj Ji had not only directed them, and tuned them and put them in his control, but he had also recorded the music perfectly. When he finally played back his recorded version of the music, it was much, much better than the original. Such is the mastery of our Perfect Master. He is a master of his instruments, whether it be a car, a stereo, a tape-recorder, or a premie.

We have such a precious opportunity now to serve him as an instrument; to be an instrument of his peace. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Guru Maharaj Ji explained in his satsang that every human being is a puppet in the hands of the Lord. For me it was really powerful. Every human being has to serve him. Every living thing has to serve him. Our decision, then, as human beings and devotees, is to decide how we want to serve him: consciously or unconsciously. The truth is that he is Master. Our choice is whether we want to be conscious of that truth and be in the joy which is the fruit of that realisation; or whether we want to serve him unconsciously and thereby experience the fruit of our unconsciousness, which is frustration and ignorance.

In Mendoza, Argentina, Guru Maharaj Ji was talking about surrender. He was talking about how there is satsang, meditation and service, but that without surrender, all these are nothing. He was explaining how simple it is to surrender.

My inspiration at this moment, and at that moment, and in many moments in between is that "Wow, it's really possible." Actually, I'm realising not only that it's possible to surrender, but that we have to surrender to even begin in our service to him. This is the basis; we have to surrender first of all. We have to realise Knowledge just to begin living. Guru Maharaj Ji said once that he has enough patience to turn carbon into diamonds. I hope he doesn't have that much patience for me. Or if he has to wait for me, I hope that his patience for me is like one of those machines that manufactures diamonds: it uses so much heat that in a matter of minutes it can transform carbon into diamonds. That's the

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patience I want Maharaj Ji to have with me. I just want to be an instrument of his peace.

Bill PattersonWhen Guru Maharaj Ji was giving satsang in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he started out saying, "Well, I know that there are premies here who have Knowledge and are practising Knowledge; and there are other premies that have Knowledge and aren't practising, and then there are other premies who haven't yet received Knowledge." I'd been feeling that for a long time -that really aspirants who are feeling the love and have connected themselves with the grace through satsang and service, are premies. But it was so nice to hear Maharaj Ji say that. It's like we now can enter into a whole new era of consciousness in which our limited ideas and concepts which have divided human beings for so long can be erased a little bit more. More and more I'm seeing the vastness and the depth of the realisation that Maharaj Ji wants to give us. We're talking now about perfection; the complete experience.

We're living in an age in which the impossible has become possible. To walk on the moon a hundred years ago would have been impossible to even imagine. But today it's possible and has been done. And there are computers, and airplanes, and skyscrapers, and television and radar. This is the age when the Perfect Master has come to do the impossible. His Mission Impossible. What I've understood is that we have to understand the effort that makes the impossible possible.

To get to the moon was not just an automatic process. The scientist and astronauts didn't just sit there and flow with it all and get to the moon. They flowed with the work and the effort. This is the age of the impossible, but is is also the age of the impossible effort. It isn't that Maharaj Ji is offering a perfection that is somehow less perfect and therefore easier to attain in this age. It is the same perfection. It's we who have to change; it's we who have to make all the effort necessary in order to realise the impossible. If we think that Milarepa, and Saint Peter and the others had to do a lot in order to have their realisations, how much do we have to do? We're living in the age when the Perfect Master is saying that he's here to do his job professionally. Which means, this is the main performance. If he's the conductor here to do his job professionally then we, his musicians, have to also do our job professionally. We have to be professional instruments for him.

So many times in seminars with aspirants and premies I have the opportunity to talk about dedication and the Active Membership Program, and I have a problem with this: how come I only have one life to dedicate to Guru Maharaj Ji? How fantastic it would be to be able to dedicate thousands of lives to him. Perhaps this is our service: giving the inspiration to premies so that thousands can realise how precious is this opportunity, so that thousands can dedicate their lives in love to Guru Maharaj Ji. How beautiful it is to be an instrument of his peace.

In every community in South America, we are having rebirths. I am conducting seminars with the premies, preparing them for the Knowledge reviews, explaining what it means to receive Knowledge: that Knowledge is dedication. For most of the premies it really is like receiving Knowledge for the first time. It's really beautiful to know that in this world of Guru Maharaj Ji at any moment we can open the door of our concepts and mistakes and unconsciousness and start anew. We can wake up each day and begin each day freshly. I'm experiencing now such a communication within this service. Communication with the aspirants is much more open, free of concepts and fears. Communication with the premies is more open, because I know that I have as much to learn as them, and we can share a mutual respect and work together in our common purpose. The highest form of communication is called love. There's lots of love in the world of Guru Maharaj Ji.

I remember talking with Doctor John, and he was saying that in a human being the memory is very strong, actually much stronger than the mind. It's just that the mind is in the way. Developing memory of the Word through constant practise of meditation means that this memory is going to grow to such a point that it can just overwhelm the mind. It's like crossing the sound barrier; or like Guru Maharaj Ji explained in our conference at Orlando, it's like the process of magnetising iron: there is a point in this process when it changes. It's still iron, but it's also much more, because it has all the qualities of the magnet. It's really an inspiration to meditate. Wow, such a deep and incredible experience.

Once you get started in satsang, it's hard to stop. I'm including a couple of photos from Maharaj Ji's programs here in Argentina. And also a little bit of inspiration from Saint Francis:

"Reason may understand a partial gift, a transient devotion; the heart knows only the entire sacrifice, and like the lover to the beloved, it says to it's vanquisher, "Thine alone and forever."

Cheerio! I hope all is well with you. Jai satchitanand!

Your brother in his shelter, Bill.

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