Some insights from Maharaj Ji

Some people have told me they seem to be leading their lives as if they were a ship without a rudder. Whether their lives are becalmed or stormy. they seem simply to be flopping about, going this way and that, with the current or whichever way the wind is blowing. And they wonder when will it end? Where are they going, and why?

It is not that they think much about death. Few of us do, even though we know it is inevitable. But we do not go to death seminars, to listen to learned speakers tell us all about it. Indeed, the less said the better, for most of us. We just want to keep on living, for as long as we can. to keep on existing in this world. Yet, we also want to know something of what we are all about, of what makes us tick, if you will. And we want to take charge of what life we have, not live it on the hit-or-miss basis of some set of "Murphy's Laws." We want to live it, to experience it. We want to cut through all the outer layers and get down to the core of our being, to our essence.

In a world that treats symptoms. rather than the problems that cause them. and applies cosmetics, to avoid facing up to reality, that is not so easy. How many pills. how many aspirins, how many doses of this and that must we take to keep ourselves together? How many times must we treat the symptoms before the problem stops coming back again and again?

"Love thy neighbor," we are taught. And we do, as good children. But then a cynical world adds, "And hate the people down the street, or, love the neighbor on this side but not on that side:'

Sorting out the neighbors to love and the neighbors to hate takes time, and a special kind of training. We are born with love, but hate must be patiently, repeatedly taught, and it is always a sham. it is wearing dark glasses. The world is not dark, but, seen through the dark glasses of hate. it appears to be. We must take off these blinders and see God, and feel that love of our Creator we all truly seek; and that is what must somehow be made manifest to every human being on the face of the earth.

But that is not very easy to do. is it? Go up to a man on the street and ask him what time it is, and chances are he will pull up his sleeve, look at his wristwatch and say politely, "It's twenty minutes to nine." Yet, ask the same man, "Do you know God?" Then the chances are he will suggest to the nearest policeman that you should be taken away. Deep down, the whole world thinks about God a lot, but it is uncomfortable, for the most part, talking about God.

As society, we have gotten together and agreed to a set of rules called ethics, and a lot of people within our various societies spend a lot of time bending and breaking those rules. God may not be mentioned, but many of them are experiencing a hell here, and many a heaven, and far too many, like the ship we cited earlier, are spending their full time adrift without a rudder. It is a game with still others: they tinker with life, defying one of the prime Murphy Laws that says that, if you play around with something long enough, you will break it.

Yet, I am not saying that what the world needs now is another philosophy. It may be that we have too many philosophies already, at least too many that clash and cause so much conflict and suffering. Nor am I talking about any new kind of religion. Certainly, we have heard much too much over the course of history that "God's like this" and "God's like that" and "Everybody's wrong about God except me." I am not suggesting that, by having everyone practice a certain ritual, we would all suddenly be in contact with God and removed forever from God's blacklist of sinners.

Not that I am arguing against anybody's perception of God along those lines, but I am saying that the glory and the perfection that I see are far, far different. That difference for me is rather like the difference between what a medical student learns in textbooks and what he learns in the actual practice of medicine after he has studied the textbooks. All of a sudden, now it makes sense. All of a sudden, the theoretical becomes the practical. All of a sudden, the mystery disappears and the Knowledge is truly revealed.

Put quite simply, the distinction is between believing because one is taught to believe and believing because one knows. The day that you see God, the day that you feel God - that is when you believe. It is as the great Swami Vivekanand said, when recounting the story of his teacher's reply upon being asked if he had ever seen God face to face: "I have seen God closer than I am seeing you right now, and I can show you God."

Still, trying to describe the actual experience is like trying to describe the flavor of sugar to one who has never tasted it. Sugar is sweet. So? But a few grains sprinkled on the tongue tells all. Experience is the teacher.

I am not saying I can give you that experience. What I am saying is that the force about which I speak is already within you. It is happening within you right now. It is the force called life, for it is what gives you life, it is the force of God, the Knowledge of life, the Knowledge that is God. And all I can offer to do is to show it to you so that you can experience it yourself.

This is not something that I can take out of my pocket and pin on you like a medal. It is already within you. If you want it, you can have it. If you do not want, do not take it, and that is all right, too. Perhaps at this time you do not see a necessity for it. Perhaps at another time you will. It will still be there, within you, the Knowledge of God, waiting.

I am sometimes asked, "What's the catch?" There is no catch, none whatsoever. It is not as if one stepped up to a counter and paid a fee and walked away with the Knowledge of life. You would not he very smart to pay a dime for it. for it is already within you. It is yours.

Will it change you? I do not believe it would cause you to overhaul your private and professional life completely - change careers in mid-stream, for example. But I have seen people who have had this experience within themselves come out of it with a greater awareness of the beauty of their lives, of the realness of that beauty, and with more love, more affection. They treat life as a gift, for it is a gift. And so, you have a gift. You are alive. You have the Knowledge of life. Like the old teacher, you can see God close up.

It is total bliss, and many thousands of people around the world have experienced it. It is not something I made up, not something I brought with me. All the time it was inside all of those who had the experience, for it is the force that makes them alive. It cannot be forced on people, it cannot be bought.

Sometimes I am asked about that. I am asked if I am in this activity, trying to spread the word about the experience of the Knowledge of life, for money.

No, I am not. What would money do for me that Knowledge has not already done? There are people who have received this Knowledge who were, you might say, once kings and queens. They had it all. They were not happy. And yet, when they had this experience, they were happy, they were at peace.

If this sounds too simple, perhaps it is because we have come to expect our approach to spiritual matters to be complicated. Finding Knowledge is a simple thing, for it already exists within each and every one of us. It does not have to be searched out in the peace and tranquility of the Himalayas at 45,000 feet.

Peace is not a tangible something. It is not something to be handed over as a gratuity from me to you: "Here, here is Peace, and welcome to it." Peace is within each of us, to be found in the Knowledge of God within us, too.

People come to me from all walks of life and from every direction and every situation. And some of them, quite challengingly, ask me what kind of a business am I in? I tell them I am in the business of making people happy. That is all. I would like everybody to be happy. I tell them that I would like even those who say they want to be miserable to be happy. And, of course, I want to help along those who want to be happy.

That is it. I am in the business of making people happy. The gift is there, if you want it. It is still there. even if you do not. But there is no warranty. Your life is your own responsibility. Break it and there is nobody out there to replace it.