Satsang (Discourse) 05/26/01 By

MAITREYA

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Maitreya: Good evening everyone. I hope John and Dustin have enjoyed their week here with us.

With tonight, seeing me in Satsang, you have seen everything in the Mission and have seen me in every capacity that I work in the Mission. You saw me this afternoon, after the Sabbath gathering meeting. That is when I sit as a judge. I talk to you in the library; I am your friend. I talk to you upstairs together; I am your confident. I initiate you

When I sit in this chair up here, it is the time of Satsang and it is the time of the Spirit of God to come to earth in full capacity. So when we give Satsang here and I am sitting in this chair, the Father and I are really One. That is why the questions come. When I answer these questions up here, that is when His Spirit completely comes through.

I wanted you to also see how the Satsang is performed and what it means. It means that really God is giving you your answers in complete perfection. So you can see that that goes very well with the different colors that you see in my picture in the website. When you look at it, there are so many different capacities.

Of course, all of us are like this. We act as students. We act as sons or daughters. We act as workers. We act in different capacities in our lives. We act as mothers. We act as children. So, every time you act, you have a different kind of energy or feeling of where you are. It is the same thing with God and His Revelation.

That is why Christians have such a hard time to explain what the difference is between the Father, the son, and The Holy Ghost. They have been discussing it for 2,000 years. Why? How can the Father and son be One? And what is The Holy Ghost doing in the middle of the Father and son?

We can see that we explain it very well here. The Father is a Spirit; God is the Spirit. He cannot just come and talk to everyone because most of the people are not connected to God. They cannot hear Him. They are absolutely engrossed in the world. So, He had to choose a body to come to humanity.

In order to do that, what does He do? He prophesies for hundreds and thousands of years that such and such a being is going to come. It is just like when Christ came, when Muhammad came, and when Bab came. When that person comes and fulfills the prophecies, God comes through that body so the Father and son become One. The Holy Ghost, of course, is the Spirit that comes through that person and is full of Grace and knowledge.

So we can see that all three can be one, and at the same time they are separate, they are different. When I am not here, but instead sitting down there, I am probably also a man, a regular man, who does the regular things that every man does, eat, sleep, walk, and talk, and whatever the regular man does.

One time Christ said, I am the way and the truth. No one goes to the Father but through me. Another time someone called him good Rabbi, and he rebuked him, Why did you call me good? The only thing good is God. What happened? You just told us that you are the only way, and now we call you good, and you suddenly do not accept even being called good.

It was because in that capacity, in that feeling of being connected, he was One with the Father, and he was the Way. There was no other way but him. But the other way, as a man, he was just a man. He was just like everyone else, and he was not good. The only thing that is good is God. That is why it is called God: God is Good.

So now we are here, God is with us, and we will go to the questions to see what is asked.

Question: What is the best way to maintain constant meditation on the mantra?

Maitreya: Well, your mantra is your secret connection to God and the energy that is invoked in you. You probably realize it for the first time in your life when you receive initiation. You will be with it from then on. It is not going to leave you. It is a part of Gods energy in you that constantly moves, and you know it by hearing it within yourself and becoming more and more familiar with it.

When you meditate, the mantra and the whole process is to realize that stillness and movement in your meditation. So, you start repeating your mantra, going through the process, and realizing that movement. After awhile, after you realize that movement, you do not even have to repeat the mantra anymore but can listen to the movement within yourself.

You can even do it in the Universal Mantra. That is why the Universal Mantra is given to everyone. When you breathe in, Haree Om Shrii Hung, you realize the pause, or stillness, between breathing in and breathing out. You will feel that energy is released from the lower chakras to the higher chakras. The energy that is released is the energy that you have to realize is within you, is in you, and is always with you. It is never going to leave you.

When you breathe out, Om Nam Kevalam, again you realize that stillness between Om Nam Kevalam, breathing out and breathing in, and you realize that the energy released really comes to the higher chakras and goes to your body and to your brain. You should eventually become one with that movement.

So, after awhile, you do not even have to repeat the mantra any more. You can hear the movement going on all the time. You can be with God while you are doing your job, when you are studying, when you are talking, when you are reading, when you are walking, and when you are awakening from sleep. From sleep you say, Oh, God is still with me. He has never left me. Oh, I left Him. I fell asleep. I forgot about Him, but He never left me.

It is like people who are totally engaged in the world and become so attached to the world and worldly things that they do not realize God and they do not feel God. Have you ever seen someone cry, Where are you God? You now have the option to say, I know where God is, let us listen. Oh, there He is. He is with me. He never left me.

So God never leaves you. He cannot. How can He? He is us. He is one with us. There is no separation between God and us. The only separation is our illusion of separation, which is Maya.

That is really what Maya means. It means to have the illusion of separation. Illusion is what? Illusion means it really is not true. Illusion means that we are deluded. We are in an illusion of separation, but separation really does not exist because that I in us is the same as the Universal Mind and God. So He cannot be far away.

The people who cry, Where are you God? Why are you not with me? in that moment, at least, have forgotten that they are one with God. A lot of people do not know that they are one with God. A lot of people do not know that God is within them.

Even the Bible says that, You are in the image of God. What does that mean? What is image? Image means likeness. So we have all the capacity and likeness of God within us.

Now, how can we hear that sound and vibration more and stronger, and meditate all the time? That is why all the purifying techniques are given to you through the Mission. These techniques include all the meditations, Satsangs, service, your diet, etc.

We recommend a satvic diet. But we are not dogmatic about it. We do not say that you have to become a yogi, go to the mountains, and eat bird food. No, we say a balance. A balance is the best way to go. Eat a lot of vegetables and satvic food, but if you crave meat once in awhile it is OK. It is not a sin to eat meat or to not eat satvic food all the time. But be aware of how it affects you. Some people cannot even eat meat. We have some members here who become sick if they eat meat.

After awhile the movement that you feel in the meditation is with you all the time. If you are turned around, if you are baptized, you are going toward God.

What does baptism mean? It means to turn around. As long as you are going to the world, can you hear that energy, can you feel the movement? Can you feel God is with you? No, you cannot.

Some people come and are initiated, and they leave. Or they go to the world and the world gets to them. It is just like Christ said, Some of the seeds fall on the stone. Some of them fall in the bush. Some of them fall on the road, and people walk over them and destroy them. Some of them fall on good solid ground, and they give fruit.

So giving fruit is the most important thing. It is not having experiences. It is not thinking that you are the big teacher in the world and sitting up there and having a big ego, but the important thing is giving fruit. If you do not give fruit, have you heard The Word? Has The Word rooted in you? You can see that giving fruit is the greatest spiritual achievement.

As long as you are going toward God, that energy, that movement, should become stronger and more powerful. One day you are sitting there, and you hear such a strong movement of the mantra and that energy that you have no doubt who is with you. You know it is God. You are one with Him.

How do you go toward God? As I have said, the more you do the Mission, the more you turn around from the world and go toward what God has chosen you to do, the more you go toward God.

We have all been called here. No one is here who has not been called. If you have not been called, after awhile you are going to fall away from the Mission and go away, or it does not feel good any more.

If you are here, you are stuck with it, you are sticking with it, and you have no choice, then you have been called. So the sooner you turn around from the world and come toward the Mission, the more and stronger you become in The Word.

That movement is very steady. It is very powerful and that energy does not let you go too high, and it does not let you go too low, unless, of course, the world gets you and you go down. Then suddenly you do not feel God, you do not feel the meditation, you do not feel the energy, you do not feel the Mission, and you go away. Then you will completely fall into the Maya.

There is a reason for everything that has been given. That is what I have said many times: the Mission is a package. It is not, Oh, I like this part but I do not like that part. I like Maitreya but I do not like the teachings. I like the teachings but I do not like Maitreya. Oh, I like to do The Reminder but I do not like to do the Samgacchadvam, or the Haree Om Shrii Hung, Om Nam Kevalam. It is a whole package. It is a lifestyle.

I had a Persian lifestyle when I came here. You had an American lifestyle. Our lifestyles were different because they were two different cultures. But here, this lifestyle is neither Persian nor American. It is Gods lifestyle.

Even in this we are unified because what are we following? We are of the same culture. Our culture is the culture of God. When all of us follow the culture of God, will we become One? Of course we will.

There is a beauty in every culture. They are just like beautiful flowers. A bouquet is more beautiful with many flowers in it than just one flower only. And so are our teachings and the unification of all religions, taking up from all the different religions and putting them together as a bouquet.

Of course, no one can sit down and put them together; it has been put together all along. It is just that God sent them at different times.

We can see again the more we turn around, the more we do the Mission, the more we realize that we are universalists and we belong to the universe, we are both men and women, we have both energies in ourselves, and we are here because we are Gods children, the more we are unified.

That is why when people ask me, Where are you from? I usually answer, I am from God. Where are you from?

After a few minutes, they say, I am from God too.

I say, OK, see, we are from the same place. There is no difference between us. And that is exactly where they are from. We are all from God, and we are His children. Then we are One.

See, we have to become one with all these little gems. It is not something intellectually understood but to spiritually be here. After awhile, as there are more people who feel like that, are people going to say, Oh, you are from that culture and that religion; I am from this culture and this religion, so it is OK for me to kill you, or to be opposed to you? No, they will not. They cannot.

That is what the hope is, that eventually we should reach a point to teach humanity these things and to make them look to the God within each other instead of looking at, Oh this person is from this culture and has this religion, so it is different than me. The consciousness is low down there somewhere. The lower the consciousness, the more conflict is going to be there, and the more separation we will see from each other.

So all these gems and teachings are given to you so that your mind eventually reaches a point that it is connected to God all the time and you completely free yourself of all this narrowness of the mind and destructive things that are plaguing human life. We can see our earth needs these things, this teaching. The earth needs to understand these gems. Eventually, as we have 10% of humanity to join us, we will be strong enough to change the tide to Gods Way instead of the human way.

So, watch your diet. Watch your environment. Another thing, who are you dealing with? Who are your friends and the people you associate with? Try to bring them to this consciousness. But do not let them take you to where you used to be or where they are. If you cannot take them to where you are and they can take you to where they are, avoid the situation. Go somewhere else.

Find a new environment that supports you. Create the Communities of Light wherever you are so that after awhile you attract the same kind of consciousness. Otherwise, you are going to go for the consciousness that is not as high as yours, and they are going to affect you and drag you down to where they are.

All of these things matter. You have to become more observant, more watchful of your life, your lifestyle, where you are, what you eat, who you associate with, and what the Mission says. Follow the Eternal Divine Path, and work toward the creation of the Communities of Light. So all of them are going to help you.

Do your meditation as given to you. If you have the Universal Mantra, meditate on the Universal Mantra. It is as powerful as any other mantra. If you have been initiated, meditate on your initiation mantra and go through the process. So bring God to humanity.

It is an all-out awareness of your life and of yourself: Who you are, what your talents are, what your weaknesses are, what your problems that you have to solve are, where you are, and who the people you deal with are. How can you handle them? How can you make the situation turn around; instead of going down the drain, start going up together?

All that comes with meditation, deep thinking, and becoming compassionate, loving, and understanding. And love them as the Spirit, as the beautiful beings that they are, not as the shortcomings they might have.

Does that make sense?

So it is to become meditative all the time.

Another thing is the environment, of course. We have to create Communities of Light. Dont you feel God more here in the Mission than if you go out there somewhere? [nodding their heads] See, the environment is very important.

Next question?

Question: What can we do to stimulate the higher chakras?

Maitreya: You do not mean using crystals, for example? I knew someone who used to put crystals on his chakras at night. He would tape them on his different chakras overnight so the crystals would purify his chakras. Of course, once he hurt himself because he rolled off the bed and fell on them [laughter]. So you are not talking about those things?

Dustin: No. More actions that we can do.

Maitreya: What you can do to stimulate the chakras is to follow the Thirty-Three Virtues. For example, Fearlessness. Pick one day to be fearless. Fearlessness does not mean not being wise. A blade is coming down from the machine and you say, I am fearless, and put your hand under the blade. That does not mean fearlessness at all.

It reminds me of a disciple who was listening to his teacher. The teacher said, Look at everything as God. Just see God in everything. Do not let the lower things bring you down.

He left the teacher and he went out, looked at the tree, and said, Oh, this is God. He looked at a child and said, Look at that child, he is God. He looked at a mother carrying a child, and he said, Oh, that is God.

While he was in this blissful state of seeing everything as God, someone yelled, Mad elephant! Mad elephant! Get out of the way! Mad elephant! He saw the mad elephant coming, and he said, Oh, that is God. He just stood there, and the mad elephant came and put his trunk around him, and threw him into the bushes. He was all bruised, broken, and everything.

The disciple stood up and said, What? I am not going to listen to this teacher any more. He does not know what he is talking about because he told me, God is everything. Why did I get hurt if God is everything?

He did not go to the teacher for a while. Eventually the teacher saw him one day and said, What happened, you did not come any more to see me?

He said, Well, it was the story. You told me that everything is God, and then look at what this elephant did to me.

The teacher said, Didnt you hear the man who was calling, Mad elephant? That was also God.

So, we bring wisdom to our teaching also. One of the things that you can do is to follow the Thirty-Three Virtues. Some of the people here in the Mission pick up one each day, and they practice it. For example, Forgiveness, today is the day of forgiveness. If someone did something that I did not feel good about, I feel bad for a while but at the end I say, No. I am going to forgive that person. I am not going to let what they have done to me affect me. I am going to completely forgive them.

Or to be in contentment, where nothing affects you that day. Be in a very peaceful mind. These things are going to eventually affect your chakras and help you to overcome your lower nature.

Another thing is to recognize, what is it that is affecting your lower chakras? What kind of food did you eat that stimulates them? What kind of environment affects you?

Again, the whole thing probably is to become more aware of your life, become more aware of the things that affect you in your life, and avoid those things. Go toward the things that are affecting you less, and are not bringing you down to your lower nature, making you angry, making you unhappy, or making you depressed, and all of that.

Again, meditation and awareness of our lives makes us go more and more toward God and open the higher chakras and higher self, instead of following the lower nature.

At the same time, do not be attached to, Am I in the higher self? Am I in the higher chakras? Am I getting there? Did I make it or not?

Many times I have said that it is just like putting a seed in the ground. Every day you go, pick it up, and say, Are you growing up? and you put it back. After awhile, that seed is going to wither away, and it will never grow up. So just leave it there and nurture it.

Nurturing it means being aware of the things that affect that seed. It is what we were talking about this morning, about the mustard seed is the smallest seed among seeds. But if you really nurture it, if you become aware of what affects you and takes your faith away, it will grow.

For example, you have faith and if someone comes and makes you forget about your faith, then avoid that. Bring your seed back to the place that is good soil so it can grow up. It is a battle.

Actually, meditation in Sanskrit is called Sadhana. Sadhana means struggle. Struggle means that you have to work on it, and you have to be aware of it. Sometimes, just like a good surgeon, you have to cut some things completely out of your life. If there is a tumor in the body, it is a knife that the surgeon uses to cut the body. It really hurts, doesnt it? But at the end what happens? It heals you because the tumor is out.

Knowing about psychology is another thing. Study about psychology and how it affects you. Analyze your dreams.

When I was in college, I picked up a book called Self-Analysis. One of the things it suggested is to put a pencil and paper close to your bed. If you have a dream, when you wake up, write down what the dream was. Then break it down into different sections and start analyzing what that dream meant.

Of course, we have three kinds of dreams (I do not know if you know that). With the dreams that mean nothing, probably you just ate too much and went to bed with a full stomach. That dream really does not make any difference. There are dreams about our day-to-day life that are trying to give us a message that will help us to realize what it is. And there are the dreams from God, which are very strong and powerful. You just cannot shake them. They are going to stay with you until you really understand what that dream meant. It is a calling or something that God is trying to convey to you.

It is like the dream of the Egyptian pharaoh about the seven years of plenty and the seven years of drought. He could not shake it; he just could not get rid of it. He had to call Joseph to interpret for him what that dream meant. Of course, it was part of Josephs mission to interpret that dream, bring the Hebrews to Egypt, etc.

So we can see that our lives are not disconnected, lonely, individual lives that we are connected to nothing. We are all connected to the universe, and God is very concerned for each of us.

As I have said many times, when I had that incredible vision when I was in Colorado Springs, God knows even the smallest fish in the ocean and what it does. Can you believe that? He is even concerned for the smallest fish in the coral reef somewhere in the ocean. He knows exactly what it needs, how long it is going to live, and what kind of food it is going to eat today.

So we are not alone and lonely. We think we are here and no one is connected to anything, but that is not true. Realize these things and again, become more aware of your environment, your food, your responsibility, and the Words of God.

What are the Words of God? The Words of God are that we have to create Communities of Light based on pure couples. What does pure couples mean? They are couples that marry with the intention of bringing God into their relationship.

When God chooses two people together, that is for life. When they say, Until death we do part, God really means that. He does not mean that you just stay together for six months and then, You go your way and I go my way. It means a strong marriage and family environment.

The whole community is based on the family. And the Communities of Light will become the base of the creation of the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth.

So all these things should happen. Oh, probably there are hundreds and thousands of things I could refer you to, how to help. But the more you become aware of the Mission, the more you become aware of the teaching, the more you rely on the Words of God, the more you go to the higher chakras, the more you will create wisdom, you will create patience, and you will create an ability to affect the people around you and make them better people.

They teach you to become a better person too. It is not a one-way street. It is a two-way street. You teach them, and they teach you.

Does that make sense? Is there any follow-up? No? All right.

Question: Can you please explain the paths of knowledge, karma, and devotion, and what one should do when a path is selected?

Maitreya: In general, according to the Hindu Philosophy, there are three paths for an aspirant. The path of devotion is what Christ said, Love your God with all your heart, mind, and spirit. That is the path of devotion. You just love God with all your heart. You do not care about all the philosophies, who created God, where we are going, who was the first, who was the second, and all these intellectual explanations about who God is. The person just loves God. They sing about God, they praise God, they feel the ecstasy of being with Him, and they giggle sometimes at the same time [laughter]. You have no idea why that happens but you feel good.

Dont you feel good when it happens?

John: Yes.

Maitreya: That is the energy of just being with God or feeling Him. It just bubbles in you, and you cannot control it. And it is beautiful. You have no explanation. There is no need for intellectual ceremonies or long talks. They just love God. That is it! That is the path of devotion or Shakti. They just love God.

As I said, this path is very short. It is the shortest path. You do not study anything. You do not need any books. You do not need Scriptures. You do not need anything. You are just right there with God.

But, it is a very dangerous path at the same time, because sometimes they do not feel God. They are not with Him any more, or they cannot be connected to God all the time, and they feel very depressed, unhappy, disconnected, miserable, and all of that. Does that happen to you too? No? That is good. To some people it happens.

When they fall from that connection, they have nothing to hold onto because that is it, either they are with God or they are not with God. There is nothing in between. So it is the fastest path to go to God and to feel God. There is no question, you know that God exists and you are one with Him or one with Her, but at the same time, you have to be connected all the time.

The next path is the path of Karma. Karma means action, a person who loves to do things. They like to serve God in the capacity they can. They look around to see, What can I do to improve Gods situation, or improve, for instance, this Center?

A lot of love has gone into this Center. Many people have put a lot of effort, energy, and work into it, because they love to make this house the most beautiful place for God to manifest Itself.

They love to do things, and then they feel, I have not done anything. God has done through me. So the path of Karma is to do things and realize that you are not the doer. God is the Doer.

What happens then? If God is the Doer, who am I one with? I am one with God, arent I? So you can feel God while you are doing it without thinking, What am I doing here? I am sweeping this floor. I am better than this. I am a great guy with a lot of knowledge about God. They gave me this broom and told me to sweep this floor. I do not want to do that.

But if you say, Oh, I can do that. This is the House of God. God is trying to clean it so He can make it more beautiful so He can manifest Himself in a more graceful way. Then sweeping becomes a Oneness with God. It becomes a Oneness with the Spirit.

That is the Karma Yoga. That is the path of action. Some people love that. They do not feel God. They do not become bubbled up or giggled up, or feel the energy or Oneness with Him. But when they do things, they say, Yes, I am doing something for God. God is doing it through me. I am One with Him. So that is another way to feel the Oneness with God.

Now if they fall, if they do not feel God any more, do they still have something external to look at? They can say, Oh, I swept that floor, and I did such a good job. I remember that God did it through me. I am not feeling God any more but I can see I did a good job here. Therefore, it is easier for them to go back and feel the Spirit of God, because they have some external manifestation of their action.

So the path of Karma is to realize that God is doing through you. You love to do things for God, feel that He is doing them through you, and become One with It. After awhile, you are not the doer any more.

Actually, in the Indian Philosophy they say that God is like a bird watching another bird. As long as the other bird is doing things, eating and everything, He just watches. He is an Observer. He is just the Witness Entity. He enjoys watching that bird enjoy the fruit.

However, the moment you say, No. I have had enough of this life. I want You to become the Doer. I will just become the observer, then who is the enjoyer? You become the enjoyer. And God becomes the Doer through you.

Of course, when God comes through you and does things, does He do bad or make mistakes, or does He not do a perfect job? God is perfect, isnt He? If God is perfect and He is doing it through you, is He going to do a perfect job? Yes. He is going to do a perfect job.

But if you are saying, Oh, God is doing it through me, and you are not doing a perfect job, is God doing it through you? No. Still your ego is in the way. When we let God do through us, we do a perfect job.

You cannot say, Oh, I am going to let God do through me but it was not perfect. No. No. It was you still there present in the doing. So that is another path.

The third path is the path of knowledge. Some people love to know about God. They like to read books, to analyze them. For example, in the eight-fold path in Jnana Yoga, it teaches you what each fold is, how each affects each other, and how you can follow this way or that way, or if you follow this way what happens. It is very intellectual, and a lot of people also love that one. That is the way they can realize God and see how it works for them.

So that is the path of knowledge. You want to know about God. You want to analyze the universe. You want to know how He created the universe, what is the spiritual progress, how the chakras affect you, how they work, and what kind of tendencies they have.

See, the Shakti or the devotional person does not care too much about those little nitty-gritty explanations of all these little things. The only thing is, he loves God. That is all he needs to know.

In Karma Yoga, the only thing you have to do is to let God come through you. But in Knowledge Yoga, he has to analyze it, know it, read it, discuss it, and even become frustrated because it is so hard to understand God intellectually because God is beyond intellect. That is why that is the hardest path and the slowest path probably because you cannot analyze God with the intellect but by realizing Him.

So you have to go beyond intellect, Para. Para means beyond. Become a Paravipra. Vipra means intellect. Paravipra means you go beyond intellect. That is why you meditate. Not only do you read THOTH but also you meditate to go beyond the intellect to the feeling and Oneness with God.

Also, eventually some people do reach a point in the path of knowledge that they say, Yes, that makes sense. The thing that they analyzed or studied, also makes intellectual sense. In that case, our teaching is very helpful to intellectual people. It is very helpful because it teaches that God said that He was going to do these things, and He did them. Intellectually it is very easy to understand that because if a being said, I am going to do these things, and he does them, does he exist? Simple!

You might not feel it here, giggle and bubble, and you might not have that feeling of Joy for Him but intellectually you say, Where is He? Show me God. And there He is. He said He was going to do these things, and He did them. Does He exist?

You see? Even the intellectual can say, Oh yes! I have no choice. I do not feel Him but intellectually I can accept that He should exist because He said He would do these things, and He did them. It is very helpful to them to at least accept that God exists. It is very hard for intellectual people to even admit that God exists, because they want to analyze intellectually.

So that path is the path of knowledge, and it is the hardest and slowest path. But if you ever fall in your faith, you have so much know-ledge accumulated that you have very good solid ground to fall onto and eventually find your way back to God again.

In the Mission, we have combined all these three paths. That is why Bhakti or the devotional practices of singing, dancing, meditating, singing Samgacchadvam etc., were given. If you are devotional, that singing of the Samgacchadvam is beautiful and puts you in a very high state of devotion. Even the Kirtan, the dancing is devotional. A lot of intellectuals have a hard time with that. They come here, someone starts dancing, and they say, I do not want to do that! What is that, I put my hands up and go side-to-side? But a devotional person just loves it and enjoys it that he just jumps around and gets into the Spirit and starts talking in tongues, etc.

So you can see that it is trying to break the intellectual to a more devotional state. If the intellectual people, because of the love of the other things of the Mission, even force themselves to do Kirtan a few times, they eventually will feel the energy and the Grace, and they will say, Oh, I never felt like that before. I never saw that beauty and energy that flows in people. So that is the path of Shakti, of devotion. They are the devotional part of the Mission.

Then there is the path of karma. We have service, to give fruit. What does that mean? You have to work, to give fruit. You cannot just sit there, meditate, and say, My fruit is meditation. No, you have to write, you have to teach, and you have to sometimes sweep the floor. You have to go on a tour and spread the Message, create the website, or whatever the Mission is asking you to do. But who is doing it? When you say, Oh, I am tired of making this for the Mission, remember, Oh, are you the doer? Then you say, I am sorry. You are right. God is doing it through me.

So we also follow the path of karma. That is when we manifest but we realize that God is really manifesting through us. Because if we think we are manifesting anything, what is going to happen? We will be attached to the manifestation, and we will say, Oh, look at me. I am progressing. I am doing so much good. I am the person who is doing all of this for you.

And also, you expect something from me, because you think you are doing it for me. You are not doing it for me. I do not owe anyone anything. You are doing it for God. So I am free also with that. Since you are doing it for God, and I am free, I can go on with the Mission. We are all here to serve the same Purpose, and that is creation of the Communities of Light and His Kingdom. So that is the path of karma in the Mission: Service.

Then there is the path of knowledge. THOTH is the path of knowledge. You read THOTH, you listen to Satsang, you read the Satsangs, and you create knowledge about the Mission. Much has been given to you to see a lot of beautiful things have come to humanity through this Mission that they can analyze for the next couple of thousand years and still probably, they will realize more about it. That is because it is so compact. I have always said that with every sentence of THOTH, you could write a book about it. You can just put one sentence of THOTH and write many, many, many books. So you have a lot of material for intellectuals also to read, analyze, and see.

That is why our Path is a combined path of devotion, karma, and knowledge. Again, it should give everyone who wants, a part of any path they want to follow, but at the same time, it brings more balance between all of them together.

We do not choose just one path. Actually if you are devotional, we would like you also to become a Karmic yogi and a knowledgeable person at the same time. If you are a knowledgeable person and you do not have devotion, we are going to guide you to dance the Kirtan [laughter], listen to Samgacchadvam, and create some devotion. So you will become a more balanced person.

If you study the Hindu religion, you will see that somehow it is not that balanced because very devotional people exist that they just love God, and that is all there is into it. There are some Karmic yogis who do service, and they become very dry. There are intellectuals, just like Jnana Yoga, who are very set. That is the way, step one, step two, and step three.

But ours is again to unify them together. That is another unification, another thing that you can see. This path is not just Jnana, or Karma, or Shakti. It is a combined path of balance.

Question: Does it matter where my hands are when I meditate?

Maitreya: All right. The hand movements are called mudras. Mudras are the different positions of the hands, which are supposed to invoke different kinds of energy in you.

If you see Maitreyas picture on our stationery in the Mission, He is sitting in this position [hands held in a mudra position]. It is called the knowledge mudra. So he is imparting the knowledge to humanity.

In the beginning of a meditation, it really does not make that much of a difference. Some people say, Put your hands upward [showing the hands on lap with palms upward and thumb and index fingers touching]. Or they put them down, or close their hands, or just leave them open. After you meditate for awhile, you will feel by putting your hands in different positions, a different kind of feeling.

So your hand position does have an effect on you but after awhile you can feel the way their position affects you. Some people put them in the front. Use the one that is more comfortable for you. After some time, you will probably feel that your meditation is much deeper or calmer if you put your hands in a different position.

Sometimes you become tired of that position, and you can probably change it to something else that makes you a little more aware of the different kinds of effects the different positions of your hands might have. Just experiment with them.

But, of course, it is much nicer when you meditate that your hands also have a nice mudra position that you feel you are receiving an energy when you are meditating.

So there is not a set motion or set way of doing it in the Mission, and we do recognize the mudras. We do acknowledge that the movement of your hands does have an effect on your consciousness. But it is not written in stone. You can experiment with them to see how they best affect you.

Well, I do not like to say goodbyes. I never do. I will just say, So long, to you. May God be with you. It was good having you here, and I hope thousands and thousands of others come and join us, and we can unify all of humanity with our teaching.

Sal-OM.