During her "second time around" tour of the East Coast, Julie helped 24 brothers and sisters make the transition from aspirant to premie. Three Knowledge sessions - the first in Australia for almost a year - were held. In the first, six Melbourne aspirants were revealed Knowledge; the second, in Sydney, gave the community there I I new premies, and Newcastle and Canberra two each; the third, for three aspirants, was held in Cairns.
Here, Annie Avrimedes, one of the Sydney newborns, has written about her experiences over the past three weeks, while Sydney community coordinator Bob Wright talks about what happened to him as a result of his participation in the three-day seminar and Knowledge session.
I'm feeling a little hesitant to write because it's all so new for me, but maybe if you could all recall being three weeks old in Knowledge, you might also remember that incredible, incredible feeling inside that it's all so beautiful, parralleled with that new awareness of what it is we're up against - the unlearning of all those years creating the substitute for life. Because that's how it's feeling - the knowing of truth and feeling what's real has turned me right around to face that darkness and I just want to pass through it to discover the reality existing behind it. Because Maharaj Ji has given me a glimpse of how beautiful life can be, and it's a real incentive to go back there to know again that that's where I belong - it's so safe and sound! Only my Guru Maharaj Ji could place me there, because I trust him with my life. It's quite an amazing thing, isn't it? It seems my life has been in search of the perfect one to
show me what it meant to give through trust, because the love I'm feeling unfolding through the days far exceeds any experience of love I've known before. In trusting Maharaj Ji it becomes unlimited how much love we can be giving, but I've come across those blocks that premies often talk about and at those times become a little shocked, not knowing how they come about, or why, but learning all the same that we have been given ways of climbing out and we must trust those ways if we trust in his direction. It's become all one for me-to trust in Guru Maharaj Ji is to trust the ways he's shown me to realise the purpose of my life. And it makes life so simple to be doing as he says, and so really blissful to be realising more and more every day that simplicity is the essence of a peaceful, happy life.
The transition from aspirant to premie I thought might be a quiet one, but as most things that I had "thought", it's proving quite the contrary. It seems I'm tumbling through, and getting knocked around, but it feels great to come out smiling, in fact sometimes laughing, at what mind can do - or more precisely, what Knowledge can do to mind.
The whole process is feeling more like growing than I've ever known it to be. It's as though my growth had been stunted until I learnt to give, and even now can still be blocked unless I continue to keep on giving. He's shown me the source of that love from which we can make that possible. I can never doubt that potential now, not whilst understanding that it's the source of life, and ever-giving because it's infinite. We can't really suppress the natural tendency to let it flow through us, because it's happening anyway whether we want to be conscious of it or not. But tuning in is something magical; it's when everything else stops happening to just give way to that gentle wave inside. And sometimes "everything else" doesn't stop happening and it's a little more difficult to believe that it's even possible that it ever will - but it does, I've seen that it does, just about the time I give up trying and just surrender to the natural, simple thing it is.
So now I can serve with as much as I know how and whatever comes my way is just so that I might come closer to realising and making Knowledge constant in my life. Now just to aspire for darshan, and let it flow.
- Annie Avrimedes
Lately most premies and aspirants have been realising the joy of serving Guru Maharaj Ji. For me it has been so refreshing as it is only Guru Maharaj Ji's purpose which is so pure.
I guess much of my feelings at the moment have been due to having been given the opportunity to help in the three day seminar held in Sydney and attend the Knowledge session where 15 new premies were shown the magic of their own lives.
For me it was such a beautiful occassion watching the people waiting for Knowledge just opening up to Guru Maharaj Ji and really trusting him. It took me back to when I was wanting to receive Knowledge and how simple I had then been myself. It was a bit of a shock to see the amount of "sophistication" I had put into my practice of Knowledge and that of course had taken me a long way from the truth.
It was amazing to see, also, how vulnerable we are when we first receive Knowledge. To receive Knowledge a person must really have to trust in Guru Maharaj Ji otherwise it would be just too much of a shock to be revealed truth. Guru Maharaj Ji can stop us from losing our balance at that early stage and might I add at any stage.
All in all it was an amazing event for me to participate in, and took me closer to Guru Maharaj Ji than ever before. I can only guess that it is because Guru Maharaj Ji just wants to spread Knowledge and because we are helping him do it that we can be just that much closer to him.
- Bob Wright
It happened just when a lot of us were feeling very strongly the need for service. They say you always get what you desire - although not always in the way you expect. Certainly a sleepy Dic Cooper wasn't exactly expecting the 4 a.m. phone-call, let alone its content: that Guru Maharaj Ji had personally requested Australian premies to get together to send Julie and One Foundation (the band that played at the Pacific Guru Puja in 1975) to his upcoming programs in England and Canada.
Airfares, equipment, accomodation - a few quick inquiries and calculations revealed that it would cost $15,000 minimum. With only just over a week until tickets would have to be bought and paid for, an appeal was launched in every Australian community. The result? Julie, together with Kim and Lindsay Field, Ross Hannaford, Joe Creighton and Jeff Bridgeford flew out from Melbourne on Friday 15 April - as planned - with a $4,500 cheque in hand to present to Guru Maharaj Ji personally. As of Saturday 16 April, over $18,000 has come in to NHQ from all over the country, and it hasn't stopped yet.
"It was a beautiful experience for me to participate in," said Dic, who watched daily as contributions flowed in. "The reaction around the countryside was really, really amazing - a real blast." "Maharaj Ji really loves to see premies working together - he's really happy to hear what's been happening there," Denver contact Willow Baker told Derek in a mid-week phone-call. "Love and unity are what he likes."
And now? Hopes are high that this was just a practice-run, that the next fundraising drive will help unite us all with Maharaj Ji in person. Meantime, there's just one practical point to be mentioned, and that is the need to see that our on-going service to Guru Maharaj Ji keeps on keeping on. Recently, Maharaj Ji has said that he wants to see Divine Light Mission become a real tool of propagation this year and it therefore has to have a "strong financial base." Participation in AMP is, of course, the way we can help bring this about. Also, Maharaj Ji has on a number of occasions stressed that any donation for any project or any gift given to him should be above and beyond participation in AMP.
So keep on truckin', there's always a way we can give.