Guru Maharaj Ji speaking in Portland, Oregon on 30 January 1977.

Dear premies, I have done a lot of satsang programs, but this one will have to go on some kind of record for something. Simply because in fact I was just across the border from California into Oregon, and I was just sitting there and I said, "Wow, it's been a long time since I have been to Oregon." There wasn't really any intention to do a program at that point, I just wanted to have a nice camping trip. And so we were up in Yosemite, that's where we planned to go from Los Angeles, and we went to Yosemite and it was just completely frozen up there. And we just decided to head back and come to the coast.

You really can't explain it, and there are just a lot of things that we just really can't explain. But we try to, because somebody along the line goofed and said, "This is the way things are going to happen from here on." And since that point, everybody has never asked a question, just followed it as if it was the Word of God - and it's like, as if it were, but it isn't - as if it were. And we just go on doing it again and again and again.

Anyway, it was just like it happened, and all of a sudden I just proposed to Bill Patterson, I said, "How about a program in Portland?" We were planning to go up to Eugene to see that retreat there, but we just kept on going after that, and here we are. And this program was really what you would say "whipped together," really fast. But it is just like Atlantic City you know, a program was pulled together and then I was called up and they said, "We are having a program Maharaj Ji," and I said, "Okay, here we go." And on this one, none of that happened, it just all came together and it was beautiful. Because what makes it beautiful is not an external sign, it is an internal sign. It is that unsmiled smile that really does something to us. It is just like so inside of us, so deep inside of us, that we realise it and that we understand it. And that is where we have to dedicate. And this is the thing that we really want to do, to have the determination to really really get into that constant love, to get into that constant smile that doesn't just break up on our lips, but breaks on our inner lips.

I know a lot has happened to premies, and I bet you anything you would like to know the secret to doing meditation. And there is a secret to doing meditation if you don't know about it, and the secret is: do it. It is the determination and the strong determination: if we have that, we can do it and nothing can stop us. But if we don't have that, then everything else will happen to us. And that is the secret. Just, we have to do it, we have to just really open ourselves up to Knowledge, we have to open ourselves up to what is really inside of us.

A lot of premies, I know, have gone through some extremely, extremely windy roads. And it reminds me of when we were coming up the coast, we took the scenic route. That was right above San Francisco, and boy, the road is just really something else. The premies who were following me in the party were saying that there was one sign and I came so close to it - somebody had already dinged it before, and if they hadn't have, I would have. And it was like to me, all right, we took a scenic route, but I was driving, and to me it was not very scenic, it was very rough. Maybe other people could look out the window, they could do a lot of things, but I had to keep my eyes straight on the road and just drive. And that is the situation, premies: sometimes we think we are the passenger. We are not the passenger, we are our own driver. Nobody is in a car, we are all individuals. And the point is, this is only a one-man car, you just can't stuff any other person in it. This is our own life, everybody is individual. And we take these scenic roads when Guru Maharaj Ji says, "Don't do that, it is really dangerous." Guru Maharaj Ji tells us, "Live this way, be this way, this is going to get you somewhere."

Now let's take that subject of ashram, or just doing satsang, service and meditation. You put up that question: "What about ashram life and what about … ?" and that is a question a lot of people have - "… what about doing satsang, service and meditation? What is service, what is satsang, what is meditation? What is ashram, what is all this?" Before you ask that question you should ask yourself one other question, before all that. "What is the purpose of this life? Why am I here? What am I doing here? What is it all about? Why has somebody taken so much time in creating me, putting me on this earth, making this earth suitable for me to live? What is the purpose, what is the motive? Am I just here," - this is the question - "Am I just here to live a certain way which I call 'luxury?"

A lot of people come up to me and say "Maharaj Ji, nobody can accuse you of living poorly." To me, that reminds me of when I was being interviewed in England, somebody said, "Well, what about these Rolls Royces?" and I said, "To me, Rolls Royce is just a hunk of metal, that is all it is, it's just a hunk of metal." And man himself has gone and put a price tag on it. That is the same metal that a Volkswagen is made out of, you see? I mean, they just came out with this new car, Rolls Royce came out with this car, it's super super expensive, it's only two-door, you might have heard the name of it - Carnage. It's got an engine, it's got everything, but man himself has taken it and put the price tag on it. It's just like in America, if you own a Cadillac, you are on your way to making it. If you want a Lincoln Continental, you are a nice old retired successful businessman. I mean, I read this article a long time ago where they go one by one - if you own a car with a vinyl top on it that means this, and if you don't, that means this, and they just went through it, on and on and on and on and on.

The way people live in this world at this point is one person in the corner goes "Boo!" and two seconds later you hear it coming from that corner, and it isn't an echo, it is somebody in the other corner actually saying "Boo!" It's just like a chain reaction, it just follows. And we have to really look, where are we? To me, Howard Hughes was very rich, but you tell me, was he in luxury? What is luxury? Luxury is where you can comfortably live. He was not living comfortably. And if it happens to be a case of a car and a nice bed and so on and so forth which you consider luxury, then that is not luxury -though it might be to someone living in a prison, which is where a lot of people live. It is here, it is in our own heart, that makes us the king and the beggar. It is in our heart that makes us the emperor of the whole world, or the prisoner of the whole world.

And this is why, premies, I am here, to reveal you this Knowledge, to give you the secret through which you can go inside and be what you are and not be subject to what every other person tells you you are. "You are a freak and you are a hippy," you know, and then before you know it, you are a hippy, because everybody calls you so. I mean I asked these premies, "What were you doing before you received Knowledge?" "Oh, I was a hippy." What makes you a hippy, what doesn't make you a hippy? Because somebody says so. What makes somebody a king? Because everybody tells him that he is a king, and everybody tells each other that he is a king, and so he becomes a king. I mean, you go and you vote, you elect a President. What you are really saying is "Okay, it's okay by me if he is the President." Everybody calls him the President and he becomes the President.

Here we go world

We live in a very fake world and I mean, when I first came to L.A. I would give some satsang like, "Man, this is just not happiness, this is all going to go away, this is not true, this is not sincere." And at that point, a lot of premies understood and a lot of people understood, but the majority of them just didn't understand what I was talking about. Well, here we go…

It is predicted that by at least 1985 our oil reserves are going to run out in the Middle East. In New York, the President goes, "Well, the situation of heating is not a temporary one, it is permanent." What do we have? All these orange crops got completely ruined in Florida: it was snowing in Miami. In the Bahamas it was blowing, there's not a fruit on the trees and there's not a leaf in the trees. Here we go world. Why don't we just call it that this is it? Because there are all these alternatives. Okay, you can run your car on solar energy. But what about these millions and millions and millions of cars that are supposed to run on gasoline? What is going to happen to them? I mean, what is going to happen? All these synthetics, all these petroleum clothes, polyester and all these. things, what is going to happen. - you are not going to have any polyester pants left. Here we go - and you were clapping, you won't have any cameras left either.

And here we are. And really, I am not trying to overstate anything or understate anything, this is what I have read and what I have heard, this is what is happening. And a long time ago, people did predict that we are going to run out of oil reserves, and if we were any smarter than anybody else, we would have known that. I mean, if we have read anything about geography, we know that this earth is not full of oil, it's got crusts in it, it is not just full of oil. And here we are.

So today we face a problem. The problem is that all this that we call our own, all this that we say brings us happiness, the main core of our happiness is running out. Very soon, we won't be able to drive our cars. Poof! There goes your nice Cadillac. Very soon … I mean I was just thinking about what a catastrophe it is going to be. What is going to happen when food cannot be transported from city to city, from farm to farm, because there are no trucks? What is going to happen? What is going to happen to all these crop dustings, because supposedly your plants go wild if you don't do that. I mean, here it goes. And the thing is, if everybody starts using nuclear power, it's going to be super super dangerous.

So premies, here we are. Your mind has taken you for a ride, and now it just so happens that you can very clearly see, where is the core of that ride, what is that happiness, what is that thing that you think is happiness. Because we live in this world, we boast about this and we boast about that. People say, "No! I am happy!" I would like to see them happy still in 1985 when we run out of oil, when they go to turn up the thermostat and it just goes click click, and nothing happens.

I wouldn't like to see them picking up the hammer and beating the thermostat up because it doesn't work. Going all over taking the ducts out: "What is happening?" In the United States, if 22,000 people - I don't know the exact figure, but it's around there - were to pick up the telephone at the same time, all the phones would go poof! Well, I am pretty sure at least that many are going to pick up the phone at the same time wanting to find out what is happening.

Here we go … "I work." "Why do you work?" "I work for my little tummy-tum, I support my family, so my child can have a good education … " Well in New York, schools are closed down, see all the schools are closing down because there is just no heat. So premies, really, we have to realistically look at it. Is that the meaning of life? And if this is the meaning of life, then God is unmerciful because he is not pouring more crude oil into the oil reserves. Or, he underestimated this century and didn't make enough dinosaurs.

So what is it? All I can say when premies come up to me and say, "Wow Maharaj Ji, we have been through this trip and we have been through that trip" is, I told you, that's what's going to happen. When we were coming here, I was talking to initiator John Hampton and Randy and I was saying "Wow man, it's like I tell premies 'Don't go over the cliff, don't go over the cliff!'" And people who do go over the cliff, their experience of going over the cliff and hitting the bottom is completely invaluable, because they know what it's like now. All these premies go out and get into all these trips, they get into their minds, they just get completely spaced out, and that experience that they gain after a little while when they 'decide, "Wait a minute, Knowledge is the only way," that experience is invaluable. But to me, that is kind of a hard way to find out, isn't it? You read all these articles, all these planes crash, crash, crash, so you buy yourself an aeroplane, go up in the air and crash it to find out what the experience is like. And that is exactly what a lot of people are doing. What it has become, truly, is it's just like you are playing a tennis game, right? You are hitting the ball around - what you are really doing is you are playing the ball. Then all of a sudden, it turns around and the ball starts playing you. Where-ever the ball runs, you got to follow it. And it all changes for

us. Instead of us being the hunter, we become the hunted. Why? Because that is exactly what mind does.

Now people ask questions: "Why is mind so terrible? What is mind?" and so on and so forth. Mind is nothing. It is absence, and that is what is so bad about it. Every lantern that lights up has shadow right underneath it; right underneath it's got shadow, and although there is light, shadow follows. And as a matter of fact, if it is pitch dark, there is going to be no shadow. Presence of light makes the shadow appear. But what do we follow? Instead of the light, we follow the shadow. And then what is going to be our destiny?

Service is an experience

So premies, going back to what I was saying, a lot of premies would like to know what service is. The point is, service is an experience. As I said, as I have given a lot of examples, it is not that you sit always with a dusting cloth in your pocket and every time the ashram supervisor goes by you pull it out and go like this, and he says, "Good boy," and pats you on the back about two times and you get all blissed out. That is not service. What am I trying to say by saying that? What I am trying to say is that it isn't that you work. There are a lot of working people. It is just like the example I gave a long time ago. There is the water man, he comes up to the Residence, okay, he takes the water bottles out of his truck and delivers them to the Residence. He puts them in a certain spot and then Merino goes, picks the bottles up and brings them inside. Now premies, you tell me, aren't both of those people doing service, both of the people repeating the same action? That person who came in, brought the water bottles … isn't Merino also bringing the bottles in? Isn't he delivering water for Guru Maharaj Ji? And isn't he delivering water for Guru Maharaj Ji? What is the difference? There is a lot of difference. The difference is - there's one way to put it - one difference is that one person is clear, he has no doubt about it, he is working for money, because that is his job. Maybe Merino is not so clear why he is doing that. That is one difference.

And that is the case with a lot of premies, obviously, you know: they work work work, "Let's go and do some service!" All right you're working; great, you're working. And as a matter of fact you are pretty crazy to be working, because you don't even know what you are working for. Service is an experience. When can you really do true service? You can do true service when you surrender. First you have to surrender . Surrender to what? Surrender to your Lord. Now why can't people get that that into their heads? Surrender, surrender to Lord, surrender to what is ultimate, surrender to what you really are.

Besides being John, Gary, whatever your name is, what are you is what you have to understand. And serve that purpose, serve that motive. Because what you are is far greater than what you think you are. And because you think what you are, then what is in you which is far greater than what you think you are, gets superceded. Because that's what you are always thinking … "Oh, I'm just not good" or "I'm just a bum" or "I'm crazy" or "I've just had it." No, there is something within inside of you that is really beautiful, and this is what the Knowledge reveals. By doing service to Guru Maharaj Ji.

What is Guru Maharaj Ji? People have to understand what Guru Maharaj Ji is. A lot of people have a lot of concepts about Guru Maharaj Ji. Okay, Guru Maharaj Ji is this certain person who comes and sits on the stage and gives us satsang, or Guru Maharaj Ji is that person who flies the kite, or Guru Maharaj Ji is this person or that person. If you really think that, you are crazy, you really are crazy. And one of the reasons why you are crazy is because, you tell me … If you went to a shop to buy a tape-recorder, and you wanted a particular model of the tape recorder and you went up to the shopkeeper and said, "Can I have this tape-recorder, what is its price?" And he says, "Well, this tape-recorder costs $40." And then you say, "Well, okay, I want to look around and I want to find a better price." You go to the next shop: "What is the price of the tape-recorder?" "$100." Go to the next shop: "What is the price of the tape-recorder?" "$140." And you say, "Good, that's the best price I've found, I'll buy it." I mean, that is pretty crazy, unless you want to just give them money, and that is the motive - then that's a different story, then this example doesn't apply. But if you are a regular consumer and you go to buy a product on the market, and that's what you do, then that means you are crazy.

And that's just exactly the same thing as what you are doing. You are hooked on Guru Maharaj Ji which you have conceptualised. Guru Maharaj Ji is far greater than that, why don't you understand that? Guru Maharaj Ji is this and Guru Maharaj Ji is that … No! Guru Maharaj Ji is beyond all that, because Guru Maharaj Ji is a part of that realisation that you want. It isn't just like a lot of people say: "Okay, well this is happening there, and this is happening here." Listen, it doesn't matter how great the boat is; if it doesn't have a skipper, it's no good, and that's the way it comes. If it hasn't got a skipper it's just no good. It doesn't matter how fantastic this whole world is, it doesn't matter how fantastic everything is, doesn't matter if you are leading according to your concepts - a perfect life; if you haven't got that skipper you have had it. Why? What is Guru Maharaj Ji? Who is Guru Maharaj Ji? It is not a question. It is a request, it is a thirst that you want to quench, to find out what is Guru Maharaj Ji. You cannot put that in questions. Guru Maharaj Ji is an experience. You tell me, what is the experience of drinking water? The experience of drinking water doesn't exist. The experience is of quenching your thirst, that is the experience. If you say, "What is the experience of drinking water?" then it is a wrong question altogether. It is not a matter a drinking water, it is a matter of quenching your thirst. That is the real question: how to quench your thirst, what is Guru Maharaj Ji? Not conceptualised by his activities, but what is Guru Maharaj Ji, what is it that makes him so potent, so powerful that he can reveal this Knowledge?

And to find that out, if you want to know that little trick to how to find that out, you have to find out who you are. And if you can find out who you are … this is a strange puzzle, this is a Chinese puzzle, all you have to do is pull out one stick and the whole puzzle will fall apart. And what the premies do is they have for a long period of time yanked on every other piece except that middle piece that pulls it out. And they have taken hammers, saws, and chopped the whole puzzle up in four pieces, brought it to Guru Maharaj Ji, "Is this it Maharaj Ji … ? Well what is it?" "It's the centre piece." And they go again and they hammer it, hammer it, hammer it, "Is this it Maharaj Ji?" "It is the centre piece." And Guru Maharaj Ji keeps telling us, "It's the centre piece, the centre piece," and we do everything else except what he has told us. And through that, by doing everything else except what he has

told us, through that is where we want to be, through that we want to realise perfection, through that we want to understand what everything is all about. When premies were living in the ashram, they would come up and say, "Well I'm really not having any experience with the ashram." They were sincere. They actually were not having any experience with the ashram. You want to know why not? The reason they were not having an experience with the ashram was because they were doing everything else except what they were supposed to do to be in an ashram.

How many hours a day do you let your mind run? You tell me. How many hours a day? 22 hours a day. And in two hours of meditation, you want to just get such a fantastic zap that everything will happen to you. All day long you let your horse horses run wild, and what you want is to blow a whistle and they come like puppy dogs right into their corral and tie themselves up. Haven't you asked yourself if that isn't asking a little bit too much, that that's just really not possible? But that is what happens, ask yourself. Do you in fact do more meditation on the Knowledge that you have been revealed, than you do in fact on your mind? You think, think, think, think, think, think, think, think, think, think. And then all of a sudden you just want to come into meditation and just get some TNT explosion or something like that. And it just doesn't happen, you know. And premies say, "Well Maharaj Ji, I sit down for meditation, but it's so hard." Yeah, if you let your horses run for 22 hours, they are not going to exactly stand right in front of the horse corral and graze, they are going to take off. And then that's how much time it's going to take you to find every horse if you want to put them in.

Nail it shut

And so premies, it's just completely really up to us. It is all there, but where is our determination? And by giving you all these examples, I want you to ask yourself a question: where is your determination, how determined are you? Because if you are not determined … listen, the way it works is the corral will grow. You have everything to make the corral grow. You are that cell, you are everything, but if you don't have a base, if you don't have a foundation, the corral won't grow, it just won't happen. And the foundation that you have to have is the determination. Like I was talking to this one premie, and I said, "Man, just slam the door shut behind you and slam it so hard, with the intention to never open it again." Nail it shut. A lot of people have slammed the doors, but never locked them. All you are doing there - slamming the door, never locking it - you're just ruining the door, because if you are going to use it again, it might as well be smooth for you. But the idea is to just nail it shut. Be there.

We can do everything that we want to do, live on a day-to-day basis, do whatever we want to do, and still be at that perfect place. But, we have to be on top of the situation, not under the situation. You can drive the car anywhere. It is like Guru Maharaj Ji makes this car. And this car will go on water, under the water, fly out of the water, in the air, it will go beyond earth's atmosphere, it will go to the moon, it will go to the sun, it will go to Mars - you name it, it will go there. It will go on land, it will go over everything, it will go anywhere. It will even drill inside the earth. But you are that person who has that automobile, admires it, wants to admire it. You are that premie who does come up to every program, and does come up at that darshan line and do pranam. You are an admirer.

You are not taking advantage of the situation, and believe me the situation is made to take advantage of. The car was made not to admire, otherwise there would have been no point in making and putting so much workmanship into it, if you were just going to admire it.

This is the thing: other people make these cars, okay? They slap a sticker on it saying it will go anywhere. They put it in front of you and say, "Sit there and admire it." "Okay, here's this mantra, here's this, here's that, just do that …" but see, there is a slight difference. Although they all look alike, they all have the same sticker, one sticker is the real one, one sticker is genuine. How to find it? Well, taste the fruit. Fly it, here it is. And this is what I am saying to you. I am not just trying to tell you, "Receive Knowledge, please, pay $10 for the registration ticket, and come to every program, and here is your $100 lifetime membership, do this and you are a member, now you have been saved, liberated and everything and I will make sure you get a ticket to heaven." This is not like that. Here it is like, let's do it.

Why should we do it? Because that is the goal of this human life, because that's the purpose of this human life. This is why we should do it. Why should we do it? Because we were made for this purpose, that's why we should do it. And when are we going to do it? Well, you tell me when we are going to do it. And if you say, "Tomorrow," if you say, "After I go back I'll give it a thought," then you don't even know what the purpose of your life is yet. Then you still think that it's just to eat, drink and be merry. Doesn't matter how many scriptures you have read, doesn't matter how many sacrifices you have made you really still don't understand.

Understand, open up. There is all this bliss just waiting to pour. Man, right now you are scratching for it. There is so much bliss waiting there you wouldn't know what to do with it. Really, I'm not kidding you, you really wouldn't know what to do with it. But you have to get at it, and really understand, and really open up. And this time I'm just not going to say "Understand." Understand what? That is what a lot of people get up and say, "Understand," and they leave it to your imagination, and imagination is maybe the problem-maker. The imagination says "Understand how to do this, understand how to get into these trips, understand … " No, I am saying understand the purpose of this life, understand why Guru Maharaj Ji is here in this world, understand why is a Perfect Master supposed to come into this world, what is the purpose - understand.

Why are we here? Why are we put here, and then a Perfect Master comes into this world, what is the purpose? It isn't to sell oranges, believe me it isn't. It isn't to give you a rap, it isn't. It is to reveal you peace. And obviously every time the Perfect Master has come, what has he done: revealed people peace, given people peace. Therefore, at least by now we should understand, as humble as I can be, that the purpose of our life is to be one with that perfectness. The purpose of our life … I mean, how many Perfect Masters are you going to wait out before you understand the purpose of this life is to receive Knowledge, is to really really be in that infinite love, is to really be one with that oneness, to really experience that unsmiled, physically unsmiled, but always smiling smile? How many Perfect Masters do you want to wait out? How many scriptures are you going to read? What are you going to do before you can enter it into your head that this is the purpose of your life, and that this is what we have to do.

And it's just like, I don't know, but maybe it feels like I've just been a little too strong. But to me, the time is running out. You know? You might be frozen in your little apartment in New York by the time the next satsang program comes along, who knows? But the time is running out, it sincerely is running out. We all don't have time to just sit around and think about it. What are you going to think about? Are you going to think about whether you should be happy or not, is this what you're going to think about? Are you going to think about is this right or is this wrong, when you don't even know where does right and wrong begin from? You want to buy a product, you don't know what is the necessity of the product, how it's going to help you, you don't know anything above and beyond that. You just want to stick with the product. Understand premies, what is right and wrong. Today everybody is dying to find out what is right and wrong. There is controversy, society is saying "This is right and that is wrong." So there is a society, and here it is, you know: changes, changes, changes, changes, changes, it never is constant. It dictates our lifestyle. Okay, today the society says, "Coloured people are going to be slaves," so the coloured people are slaves. Today they say, "No, let them go, they are one of us, let them go, they are one of us." You know? And how far is this going to keep on happening?

The complete elephant

It's like, four blind people come together and they want to show each other the way. A long long time ago, this example used to be given. And the example was - one time there were four blind people walking. And they came across an elephant. And the person who was riding the elephant said, "Will you please step aside, you might get stepped over by this elephant." They said,"Elephant, elephant, elephant … ah, that rings a bell. What is an elephant?" So they said "Could we just see your elephant?" And he said "But you're blind." "Okay, just let us feel him, touch him, we just want to know what an elephant is." He says "My pleasure," stops, gets off and says, "Here's an elephant." They all get from all four sides at it. One gets hold of the trunk, and goes like that then leaves. Another one gets hold of the ear and feels that and steps aside. Another one gets hold of the leg, and steps aside. And the other one gets hold of the stomach and feels all around and steps aside. So the guy says "Have you seen him?" And they say, "Yeah, thank you very much." As he was getting on top of his elephant, all these guys started discussing what an elephant was, and the first said, "Yeah man, that's real weird, isn't it?" I wonder how he walks, it's just like a big huge branch that's flexible." The other one said, "C'mon, you crazy or something? Didn't you feel, it was just like a banana leaf." And the other one said, "Are you crazy? Elephant doesn't have an end to it. It's endless! I kept feeling everywhere but I just found no end, it just kept on going." And the other one said, "Come on, you guys are nuts! It's like a tree truck, I felt it myself."

Now you tell me, were those guys wrong? No, they were sincere because that is what they had experienced. But then I ask you, were those guys right? Yes. But that's not what an elephant is. What's the difference between that right and that right? One right makes the other wrong, and the other one makes the other one wrong. Because to them, that is right -because that's the way they experienced it. That is the limit of their experience, to what point they can experience. While we have another limit to our experience - through our eyes and

through our feel we have experienced a little more. And so either you can be just like a blind person, and go around saying "What is Knowledge?" "Oh, Knowledge is just a couple of hours worth of peace" or something like that, and that's it. Other people say, "Man, it's just far out, it's just constant . . They don't really understand what is happening, but they go along with the jive. Other people say this, other people say that. I'm lucky, I have experienced a lot of it and it's just beautiful. It just keeps on going on and on and on. And believe me, I'm not the person who is standing in the middle and trying to experience the elephant's tummy, either. I can see the whole elephant, I can see it, I can really feel it. And what I want you to do is to feel the same way that I have. I want you to experience what I have experienced.

You go out, you give satsang. Why? Because you understand something beautiful. I give satsang to you, because I have understood something beautiful, and I want you to realise what that thing really is. I want you to really experience what I have experienced. Because even an instant experience of that Knowledge, even an instant experience of that Knowledge, is far greater than any other experience that exists in this world. Ask me, you know. I mean, maybe you have never driven an Aston Martin in your life. I have. And that's a beautiful driving car - but it's nothing like Knowledge. I mean, that's even dumb to say that - "It's nothing like Knowledge," - because, well, it just doesn't even come close to it. Or as close as to even create any kind of shadow towards that comparison.

So premies, it's up to us. It is our determination, it is our realisation, that can bring us to that point. It's just like, what you see in me, if you see anything in me and if you think that is beautiful, that is it. Because there is always a lot of people who don't see anything in me, and there is always a lot of people who see a lot of bad things in me. But if you are that kind of person who sees something in me that is beautiful, the reason why you see that is because of this Knowledge. And you can be the same way. You can be a part of that colony -it's just like a big coral plant, and you can also come and join the colony. And you can live in it, and you can grow more and more and more and more and more, and be in complete harmony, be in complete peace, be in Guru Maharaj Ji's world all the time. Because Guru Maharaj Ji's world is beautiful. Guru Maharaj Ji's world is what this other world is not. In Guru Maharaj Ji's world, the crude oil isn't crude oil, it's just love, and it just pumps out gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons. And it isn't because there's a little pump sitting on top pumping, but it's because it's just pouring by its own will, by its own desire, it's everywhere. It's like air, it's everywhere. And it isn't just like even in the atmosphere, it's all over the place. And you are drenched with it all the time. And that is what Guru Maharaj Ji's world is, and you can be a part of it. But, you have to pay a little price. And the price you pay is you have to snap out of your mind, get your head screwed right.

Living normally?

And the point is, premies, everything is really beautiful in our lives. But what I am saying is that to all these external and outward … I mean, okay, I just told you a few minutes ago that maybe in 1985, (and this is not a prediction, maybe I am wrong on the exact date, but that's what I have heard) in 1985 they are going to run out of oil reserves. So what I am trying to say is that when I heard that, I just didn't say, "Okay, well I shouldn't wear this suit." No, I'm still wearing this suit, and I'm still wearing the watch. I'm still living, and I'm still going on. I haven't had my dinner yet, but when I go back I'll have my dinner. I'm still going on and on and on and on and on and on. But the point is, a long time ago I realised one difference, I realised one thing: that what is me should not be attached to what this is. Because what this is, is what I am not supposed to be, and what I don't want to be. Because I have realised something greater, something more beautiful than what all this world is. And in this whole world premies you can just go on and try to experience, and what I am really trying to say is that we can live normally … well "normally", again, that goes into another discussion, what is "living normally"?

Society says you have to wear a nice coat, nice jacket, nice pants, and you can wear jeans on your driveway if you're washing your car, and on Sunday if you go to the church you have to wear a nice tie, if you go to dinner you have to dadadadadadada … And it's just like, I wear this suit, and maybe after I've given satsang, I'll go wear the Krishna costume. Now tell me, society doesn't permit that. It's really hard to understand: this society, where you should wear your suit, your jacket, your shirt, your shoes dadadadadadada, doesn't permit you, doesn't like to permit you, to wear a Krishna costume. The society which might permit you to wear a Krishna costume does not permit you to wear a suit, tie, shirt and shoes. But I am not a slave of it.

A lot of premies you know, when I went to Australia, some of the premies were telling me, they just had like a concept, "Well, maybe we are going to do this satsang program a few of the premies, - "We're going to do this big satsang program, we're going to film it …" And it's like, there's a movie, of course we don't have time to show it neither do we have facilities, it's called 'Keep on Truckin' and it's a movie that just came out of Australia. They sent me the first copy and I have it. And it's a pretty nice movie, you know, it tries to convey a message and of course here is the message: understand, keep on truckin'. But premies were just a little caught up in their concepts "Oh Maharaj Ji's going to come, we are going to film the whole thing in the Opera House" or something and, you know it's a beautiful hall, beautiful things here and there, but I just didn't happen to show up in a suit. And a few of those premies just got a little disappointed, because I was not thinking like that.

To me it really doesn't matter. And why it doesn't matter is because I have realised that it's worth a little more to be a slave of who I really am, than to be a slave of some people who don't even know what they're talking about, people who don't even know who they are, to be a slave of them, when I know who I am and I have realised myself. It just doesn't make all that much sense to just go and wander off into these woods where you don't even know the path.

So premies, it is really up to us, we can do it, we can get out of these concepts. And, we can stay in these concepts, that's the other option. You can just go on spaced out, and this and this and that. A lot of premies, you talk to them and say, "How you doing?" and they say, "Oh, I'm hanging there." Well I've got a little news for you: you just can't hang in there for very long, you have got to go either way. It's just like that time when you fall off the cliff and before you hit the ground. it's not always. You have got to decide which way to go, you just can't keep on hanging there for the rest of your life, just

can't be spaced out for the rest of your life. You have got to really decide, this way of that way. Am I really going to be in Guru Maharaj Ji's world, am I really going to understand Knowledge, am I really going to try to experience that love, or am I going to just get spaced out?

And if you want to get spaced out, it's not bad, just look outside, whatever that is, is the ultimate conclusion of that. If you want to get a little bit bigger, go to New York City. You'll see the city there, you'll see all these people walking around there. What is it? People have worked for ages and ages and ages and here they are. They went to this construction school, they went to this architectural school, people went to electrical schools, and I mean every place, and here they are. People worked days and days and days and days and days and they worked hours and hours, day and night, brought some money together, and they finally stuck a New York Empire State Building in the centre of New York. And that's it. That's it, their ultimate, and now they've stuck two World Trade Centres there, you know. But see, there is a little difference, maybe, in your understanding. You might think that I'm trying to criticise them, I'm not trying to criticise them: what I'm trying to say is that that building has been finished. That's it, and that's a fact. The building has been finished. Maybe people will move in there and they would like to change the inside decoration as people occupy more office space, but the building is finished. Their goal has been finished. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people worked on that building for a long long time, and now they have retired, and they don't want to do anything else, that's it. The world's destiny, the world's destination has an end to it. Because it isn't a very set forth destination anyway, it is very very finite.

Here we have: in 1976, the car sales went up and everybody was surprised. "Wow man, your gas is running out and this is happening and that is happening, and people don't have enough money, but still people are going and buying this and buying that." And all this is going to end, premies, it just can't keep on going. And what I'm saying is it's not just because we will end that it will end, no. In our generation - maybe we will be grandfathers, who knows, maybe we will be greatgrandfathers - but in our generation we might be able to see this world come to some kind of catastrophe. Because we've already watched that happen. Wars, after wars after wars after wars. We know, our grandparents do know, and there have been a lot of people who fought in the Second World War, and they have seen the Vietnam War. And it's just like catastrophe after catastrophe. But, there is a way to get out of those catastrophes and get into something that is really pure, that is really beautiful. And everybody has to understand that, and really to feel that, to really come together in ourselves and really say, "Wait a minute, I don't want my life's destination to be some idiotic destination that is only two feet away. And I work for the rest of my life and reach these two feet and understand nothing."

If you want that, I'm not saying that you can't have it. You can have it. You really really can have it. That's it - I mean, you can go in a war, you can shoot a person, kill him and then get wounded yourself and come back, and that's it. You can finish a destiny you can put together. But it's really really finite, while there is one destiny, there is one destination which is beautiful, which is really gorgeous, which is really perfect. And I am just suggesting - and really humbly suggesting - that we make our destination the one that is really beautiful, that is really perfect, in spite of these little bitty destinations that we go up to. And there is no contentment in those destinations anyway. It's just like you climb up on the top of a mountain - "Okay, I'm on top of a mountain, it looks great" and so on and so forth - and then, you have to think about coming back. Then you come back and you say, "Okay, next Sunday I'm going to climb that peak, and you make your destination to go up, reach there, and next thing you have to do is start thinking about coming down. And premies, it's just war with ourselves all the time: either we can just do that, or really come together at peace with ourselves, at that understanding with ourselves, and really be in that beautiful place because that place is beautiful. Because that is really something.

So I am just suggesting that you take that alternative, because both alternatives are open to you. Society has opened a lot of alternatives to you: you can be born, you can be raised by your parents, then you can go to some boarding school, then you can go to college, you know, and then you are supposed to just come out as straight as possible out of the college with your degrees, then you're supposed to get a nice job, get married, dadadadadadada, you have had it. That's it! A lot of parents think that that's it. They think,"That's what I went through, that's what my son is going to go through," and I gather that's what their grandson is going to go through. And okay, that's what you want to do, that's great. But there is another alternative. And this alternative doesn't really interfere with any of these alternatives, if you want to.

So, it's completely up to us. And we can do it, and we can do it now, and it is possible - but it is our strength, it's our determination, that is going to bring it together. Premies, there's just this example that I want to give you: if you are on a boat, you know if you fall overboard, if you jump off the boat, you are going to get wet, right? So that doesn't mean that you see the shore three feet away and you can jump off the boat. You will still get wet. You have to be at the place where it is perfectly dry, not to get wet. It isn't like you're walking a nice tightrope and all of a sudden you say, "Okay, I'm only 15 feet away and I've already covered 100 feet so I'm just going to step off." If you do step off, you're going to fall down. You have to be right at that secure place where you won't fall down to let go of the rope. And what I'm trying to say is that really the determination has to be there, it just can't be "Okay, I'm making some headway into my meditation, so let's forget about it. I don't have to have my determination there, I can just do anything else now." No, get to that spot, get to that place, then it's okay.

So premies, we have come a long way and we have still a long way to go. Why have we got a long way to go? Because look at it, how much backtracking we have done. If we wouldn't have done all that backtracking, who knows, maybe we would have been there. But we have done a lot of backtracking. So all I can say is, "Turn around, gel. your backpack together, and keep on truckin'." Thank you very much.

Well premies, this has been a really beautiful program. At the closing of the Atlantic City festival, I said I'm pretty sure there are going to be more programs like that, and here is one. Hopefully there will be a lot more, and I'm trying to put a world tour together so I can go around and give all the premies satsang and darshan, tell them about what we have. And I think we just really can do it. And that's all to say. And I love you. Thank you very much.