09/01/01 Satsang (Discourse) By

MAITREYA

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Maitreya: Good morning everyone, and welcome to the Satsang of the Mission of Maitreya, Eternal Divine Path. I hope we have a very good Satsang today.

Again, we will talk about the Eternal Divine Path, Gods Revelation, and how the religions of the world are unified. Being here is for hearing the Word of God and His Call to humanity to come and become unified under one teaching that unifies all religions together as one. And God is calling humanity to come to join us.

As usual, we are going to go ahead and ask to see if there is anyone new in the audience who has not heard the Eternal Divine Path so that we can go through the explanation of the Path again together. If no new person is here, then go ahead if there are any questions, you can bring them up at this time.

Of course, we have been answering questions for the last twenty-some years. I would not be surprised if there were not many questions left. Also, last month was a very interesting month. We went through a lot of things together and a lot of purification happened, which was very good.

Many things happened in the Mission also, and everyone is aware of them, those who are connected to the Mission who know the events happening. So, as we act and reach out through the Mission, we all will progress also. Purification happens more as we reach out, act, and try to do the Mission and then see ourselves in the process much better.

So, that goes very well with the teaching of the Mission that it is easy to go to the top of the mountain, meditate, and you say you are a great yogi at the top of the mountain. But when you come to the city and someone pushes you, suddenly you become angry about it, Why do you push such a great yogi, and all of that. Suddenly you see your impurities much better when you are in the action in the society, in the process of being with the other people.

That goes very well again with the Communities of Light. The progress in Communities of Light is much more accelerated. Hopefully, we will have Communities of Light all over the world, everyone in them will progress, have more time to meditate and look at themselves and say, OK, I can get rid of this. I can get rid of that, and I can progress in this way and that way, and we all will become greater beings. So again, being escapist may give you the illusion of being great but acting will purify you in a greater degree.

Audience: As we go through life there are things that happen that we consider not good, stumbling blocks. Instead of allowing them to make you fall and you stay down, use those stumbling blocks to become more aware of yourself and what is going on in your life, to really face yourself so that they can become stepping-stones. In other words, they make you go through life more pure. That is what I would imagine is meant.

Maitreya: Well, I can elaborate that if you have a problem in your life and if you do not face it, it becomes a stumbling block. And because you are not facing it you do not know exactly why this problem is in your life.

But if you face yourself and say, OK, I have this problem in my life. It is really bothering me and it is really a blockage toward my spiritual progress. So, I avoid the situation. I move from that situation to a new area, or I leave this city and go to another city. After awhile I have the same problem again, and I have created the same situation for myself.

That is the pattern we were talking about in human life. Many people, if they really meditate, will find that they have a pattern in their lives that no matter where they go, the same thing occurs over and over. I am in a bad relationship. I drop this relationship or thing, and then I fall again into the same trap, and again and again. So there is something really in me that no matter where I go, it happens again.

That is what I said, some people say, If I move from here to somewhere else, I am going to be OK. And they do, and then they are not OK. The same thing happens to them. So really it is not the place, it is not where we live, but it is the baggage that we take with us as we go from one place to another. Then the same problem occurs, and with the same energy and the same attitude, we create the same situation that we were in before.

Then we blame everyone else and everything else in the universe including God that, Why is He not helping us? without our facing ourselves, meditating on it and saying, Oh, look, no matter where I go this pattern happens. Therefore, there is not something wrong with God, or the environment, or the other people but it is something within myself that I have to look at.

When you do that then, little-by-little through your meditation, your concentration, your realization of self, you realize, Oh yes, this is a pattern that happened when I was in another place. This is the pattern that happened two years ago. This is the pattern that happened four years ago. Oh, it is a pattern in my life that is happening over and over again. Now what is the problem? What is in me that creates this situation? Really, I am the creator. I am the person who creates these stumbling blocks, and if you realize what they are, you start the process of knowing thyself.

As we said many times, there are creatures in humans. Of course, they call them psychological problems, or the subconscious mind, or karmic debts that you have picked up from many lifetimes, including this lifetime, and you created ways to deal with the different situations. Each person deals with situations differently. As you react to the situation, the situation evolves to what it will be.

As I said many times, these creatures can live only in darkness, in the crevasses of your Soul that really you have not shed any light in them, and you do not even know that they exist. As you meditate and put light on them, and you keep the light on them, they eventually will die.

Actually, it is not a very difficult thing. Just see the pattern that is happening. As you become more aware of the pattern, you become aware of the unconscious or subconscious level that you are not aware of.

As you put more light on them, these creatures cannot live in light. That is why meditation and self-realization is knowing God. So, as you become more aware of these creatures or these subconscious things, those stumbling blocks really dissolve themselves, go away, and no longer exist. You are freer and you can go to any situation without creating the same pattern that you used to make.

Audience: Well, I wondered if that kind of related to Tantra Yoga where maybe a stumbling block is a desire you have and then you realize through it how actually it helps you progress spiritually, or something like that.

Also, I can think of something in my life that seemed like a terrible stumbling block: the death of my sister. But yet, it actually provoked me to search for higher truths.

Maitreya: Also we have to sometimes be careful. There are a lot of beautiful words out there that we love to repeat and say but we really do not understand what they mean. The people who say them should be able to explain what they mean by what they say. They are pretty. They are beautiful. They are catchy.

It is just like, We are all gods. All right, you mean I created the universe? It sounds good, it is pretty, but really, you have to think about it.

So, I look at it as more self-realization, realizing what the stumbling block is, dissolving it, and taking it out of the way so that you can go further ahead than how you can make it a stepping-stone.

Well, the death of Sarah-jis sister, it made her to become more seeking of what is the meaning of life, why are we here. She was alive a couple of hours ago, and then she was suddenly gone. She is not there with us anymore.

That is how death is. Some people walk around, and they are OK. Two minutes later, they are not there any longer. What happened to them? That is why death is such a powerful instrument to make humans to start thinking, What is the goal? What is the meaning of our lives? Why are we here? I am such a big ego and think I am the best thing that ever happened to the universe. But then I die and just am no longer there.

That is why many yogis go to the cemeteries, and they meditate in the cemeteries. It is just like, Shiva used to go there and put a lot of skulls around himself, and he meditated on the meaning of death, What happened to these skulls? It is just bone. It does not move. It does not have any ego. It does not have anything in it. What is it? What happened to the life in it?

So death is a great way of meditating, What is the end of my life? Is that it? I come here, live, eat, sleep, make children, and that is the end of me? Then I am going to die? Or there is more to me? I am not my body. I am a greater thing. I am Soul. I have been here for a purpose, for a reason. I came here to be(come) Divine. What does that mean? It means to overcome, to know myself, to be(come) a great instrument for a greater purpose.

Of course, some humans are born to just live, sleep, make children, eat, and die. They never even question where they came from and where they are going.

So, the things happening in your life might help you to ask yourself these questions, Why you are here, and all of that. But still, you are not self-realized.

For instance, with what happened to your sister, you became a seeker. But you were not completely there yet. You were seeking the question of why she died and all of that. But still you have to go through the purification, meditation, self-realization, and eventually come to the Mission, and you received your answer and you said, Yes, this is something that makes sense. Right?

Audience: Yes.

Maitreya: Then it makes sense. Still when you are in the Mission that does not mean that you completely overcame all of the stumbling blocks in your life.

I would like to hear from someone else, if they have an explanation also of what that means to make your stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. I have a hard time to visualize how a stumbling block becomes a stepping-stone.

Internet Audience: From what has been said, when things happen in our lives that we think are negative, we could look at them and see the truth behind them. Also, if something terrible or shocking happens in our lives, like Sarah-ji and her sister, it could cause us to move toward getting on the Eternal Divine Path. I am seeing that the stones, the stepping-stones of the Eternal Divine Path, would be beautiful white pure stones. These stones would be the teachings of God. So we would step and walk on those teachings, the stones would be the teachings on the Eternal Divine Path, to get us to God.

Audience: I was seeing that, that is a phrase often used in New Age teachings. What they are trying to do is to make everything negative into something positive.

Maitreya: Positive thinking.

Audience: Yes. But if something is negative, it is negative and it needs to be dealt with. We need to put the light on it, to reveal it for what it is, and to put it behind us. But if we keep saying, Everything is positive, everything is positive, then we are really denying our problems.

Maitreya: Our negativities.

Audience: We are not dealing with them. We are not facing ourselves. I think that is part of the New Age thinking that is not going to go anywhere.

Audience: I guess I could clarify what I was trying to explain by trying to look at it that way. I think what was happening with me is like the focus would be brought back to God in that situation. So, as soon as your focus is on God, then you are where you need to be, how you talk about bringing in the light, the light of God, then you are looking at it straight on, you are not avoiding it, like we teach in our teaching.

Maitreya: OK. Let me ask you a question.

Audience: OK.

Maitreya: There is a poor person who wants to do something great. He has no financial ability to do what he wants. That is a stumbling block. How can he make that a stepping-stone?

Audience: Right. I suppose what I am saying maybe does not work for every situation. I was kind of sharing what I was doing in my situation.

Maitreya: I am not asking you, but everyone. If these are beautiful words, that is what the New Agers and this type of teaching says, Oh, everything is OK. Be a positive thinker. You are gods. Do not worry about it. God loves you, and all of that. Do not listen to the Scriptures or the Prophets, and things like that. You are your own god, make your own path, and all of that. All of those things have very beautiful wording in them, make you feel good, and all of that. But when you come to the explanation, dissect them, and go a little deeper into them

OK, I am God. Did I create the universe or am I in the image of God that, God created me in His image? Oh, that makes more sense! I am in His Image but I did not create the universe.

Positive thinking, I am poor. I have no ability to do that great task that I am trying to do, and then say, Oh, OK I will make that a positive thing and I will think very positive of it. I am not poor, I am not poor, I am not poor, is not going to help. You have to put some effort into it. You have to see, How can I make this situation, solve the problem, and come to the point that I can get done the things that should be done in my life?

So, when these people say these beautiful words, then you ask about them and go deeper to see what they mean. A stumbling block means it is something in my way. Of course, if you can put your feet over it, go over the stumbling block, pass over it and go to the next step, great. Then it becomes a stepping-stone. It really does not become a stepping-stone, it becomes something that you have removed. You went over it.

A stumbling block sounds to me like, I have a lot of stumbling blocks, and I want to go upstairs. So I take my stumbling blocks and make stairs. I put the stumbling blocks over each other, and they become the stairs so I can go upstairs, to higher consciousness. That means using your stumbling blocks for stepping-stones to become a kind of stairs to go to a higher level. Right? If you could put your feet on the stumbling blocks, they become stairs (stepping-stones).

Well, I have a hard time to see how you can use stumbling blocks and make them stairs to go to the higher level. Unless you take the stumbling block, look at it, realize why it is a stumbling block, take care of it, put it away, and you say, Alright, I am done with that stumbling block, what is the next stumbling block? and you really get them out of the way instead of using them to go upstairs.

So, I think that is another one of those wordings that sounds good but when you really analyze it, you realize that really a stumbling block is something that you overcome, you dissolve it, and you realize it by taking care of it. Unless someone comes up and tells me the answer to the question, a poor person wants to buy a half a million dollar home. How is he going to do it with making the stumbling block a stepping-stone?

Audience: Coming to the realization that happiness does not come by having money, and becoming more spiritual, going towards God, and realizing that it is OK not to have a lot of material things.

Maitreya: OK. Let us put it another way. Someone wants to become a spiritual teacher, but they have some mental problems. The desire is there, but there is a stumbling block in their way. How are they going to be able to do that?

Audience: So it is to really destroy the stumbling block.

Maitreya: It is like someone wants to become a great spiritual teacher, but still they have a lot of desires, attachments, and all of that. Unless they overcome those things, they cannot become completely a channel for God because the purity is not there. Therefore, those things are going to make them not become a pure channel.

Audience: What about the Jewish people, they were given so much hardship in order to become pure?

Maitreya: But that is different. That is not a stumbling block. That is the process of purification, of going toward God.

Audience: This thing on stumbling blocks and you were talking about placing them on top of one another and making stairs to go to the higher consciousness, reminds me very much of the tower of Babel. You know, they took their blocks, they built them up, and they said, We are going to go to God. What happened to them? They were scattered all over, throughout the world. You cannot go to higher consciousness by putting under yourself your impurities and stepping on your impurities. That is not going to get you anywhere at all.

Maitreya: Does that make sense?

Audience: Yes. I think that is why I did not understand it. Part of it was not logical.

Maitreya: Yes. There are a lot of beautiful words out there that are thrown around. It sounds like they make sense but they actually make you confused, and you think, Wow, those were pretty words. But really, you do not understand what they mean. It is something that we have to be really careful about, in our spiritual path. Pretty words sometimes can actually be stumbling blocks in your way.

That is a good question. There are pretty words that are stumbling blocks. How can you make them stepping-stones?

Audience: Do not believe them.

Maitreya: That is right. Do not believe them.

Audience: Analyze them.

Audience: It was very helpful that Keyosha brought it up as a question. So, we should question everything that we hear.

Maitreya: Exactly, you have to question yourself. You have to question the other peoples teaching. You have to question even your own realization. Eventually you come to realize that the way is the Eternal Divine Path, the Communities of Light, living in the community, seeing yourself in the community, then overcoming those problems you have, and then you will become freer.

Audience: I think that is great. I think that is why I did not understand the question. I was really struggling to understand it because I thought there was something there.

Audience: The other thing that came up in the Chat Room had to do with Maya and Grace. What was written in the Chat Room was Maya and Grace are the same. And then another statement said, Ego uses Grace. And these things did not make any sense to me. So, I called them. I said, What does that mean? I do not understand that. Then it was put in other words and still, even in these other words, it sounded like ego and Grace are in the same category and that ego knows how to use Grace. To me this makes no sense at all. I mean that if ego is using Grace, we are in bad trouble.

Maitreya: Well, that is how the religions start [laughter]. The disciples and the people who hear the teachings start interpreting the teaching according to what they understand from it, and they say something that catches people, just like, Make your stumbling blocks into stepping-stones. It is a beautiful metaphor that you can think about, Yes, that is beautiful. I am going to make my stumbling blocks into stepping-stones.

But then, what does that mean? You struggle with it for the rest of your life and try to do that, and you never analyze exactly what that means.

Understanding the teaching completely is so important. That is why it is so important to understand exactly what is Grace. Can Grace even manifest if there is ego? That is the question.

The Grace comes when you are completely a channel of God. You let God come through and the Spirit comes through. Actually, ego is the umbrella that we all have at the top of our heads so The Grace cannot come to us because we have that umbrella over our heads.

The only thing that God does not like in the universe is ego. Ego means anything that blocks Gods Grace to come to us. So how can ego be the same as Grace?

But Grace is the same energy that we use in the universe. Really, Grace is energy, is raja guna. Now if we use the raja guna for the worldly things, then that energy becomes worldly, bondage, karma, and prevents us from seeing that we are a part of God, that we are a being here to become Divine, that we can overcome those things that keep us from God, etc.

Now if we use the energy for the higher things, for Godly work, for Godly things, then the very energy becomes Grace. It helps us to go toward Godly things. It is the same energy that becomes worldly, or it is the same energy that becomes Grace.

It is just like Grace is the female part of God, right? Eve fell. So The Grace became bondage. They were thrown out of heaven. Before that, The Grace, which is the same energy, was in heaven, and they did not have to till the ground. They were happy. Everything they needed was provided for them. But they misused The Grace, and that is when the metaphor in the Bible, the female, fell. The female is the energy of the raja guna. That was why the whole thing started.

So it is the same energy, you can use for a greater purpose and it becomes Grace, or, you can direct it to the worldly things and spend your time and energy to accumulate wealth, money, a bigger car, a bigger house, bigger worldly things, and eventually reach a point that you are completely a slave of the worldly things (ego), and you become a politician, and you have to have two faces.

Especially if you are a person who claims to be spiritual, at the same time you have a great desire for the worldly things, then you have to become two-faced. You have to play games. You have to go to the world and become worldly, and come to the spiritual people and try to look spiritual. You cannot have two masters!

It is just like what Christ said, That the one who was humble was saying, Oh, God, I am such a sinner. Please forgive my sins and help me to purify. The other one was rich and was saying, Hey, I am glad that I am not like that poor man over there, God. I am great. Which one goes to heaven?

Or, you cannot have two masters. You are going to leave one and go to the other. Why? It is because they just do not go together.

If you are worldly, be worldly. If you are worldly I push you more to go toward the world. Be satisfied with the world first, and when you are done with it then come and say, Oh, I have had enough of this world. I do not want to have anything to do with it. Then you become spiritual.

But in the Communities of Light, you do not have to do that. You can have the minimum material things and take care of your physiological and safety needs. The rest is sharing with each other. When you share in the Communities of Light, everyone has his or her physiological and safety needs taken care of, so what is left? The only thing that is left is to go toward God.

Really, what do we need? We need only physiological and safety needs. The rest is going toward God.

But if each individual wants to accumulate wealth for him or herself, it becomes a very self-centric life. Most people would never make it because the only way you could make it probably is if you have millions and billions of dollars. Even those people who accumulate a lot of money for their retirement, if they become very sick, what happens to that money? It goes right down the drain to the hospital and doctor bills and all of that.

Of course, hopefully, in our system eventually medical care and education is going to be free for everyone. They would not have to pay all their money, or income, for those purposes.

So, we can see that we have to create the physiological and safety needs for humanity. The next step is self-realization.

We have to look at ourselves. Which one are we? Are we worldly, or are we spiritual? If we are spiritual, we have no choice but to come and join the Communities of Light, or create the Communities of Light, so our physiological and safety needs are taken care of easily. The rest is to go toward God.

Or, if you are worldly, go to the world. Do not waste your time just to try to become spiritual, stay in the middle, and become lukewarm. That is what God said, I do not like those who are lukewarm. If you want to become spiritual, become spiritual. If you are worldly, become worldly.

Do not stay in the middle. That is the worst place to be, in the middle. The worldly people go to the world and put their effort into the world, and some of them are even happy where they are.

Of course, no one is happy unless they turn around and go toward what they have been created for. What have they been created for? They have been created to become Divine. They have been created to become Godly. So that is the decision you have to make.

If you are worldly, then you use the Grace for what? What is Grace? Grace is energy. I use my energy to accumulate wealth. Is that Grace, or does that become bondage? It is the same thing. It is the same thing that becomes Karma, it becomes attachments, it become desires, it becomes things that make us more and more bonded to the world.

OK, I am spiritual. I go to the mountains, and I try to completely forsake this world. Then you become one of those yogis living in the mountains. When many people become escapist we see that society falls apart. It is like in India where there is so much disease, so much misery, and so much unhappiness.

So we can see that neither being an escapist, nor being worldly, will work. What is going to work? You can see that the Communities of Light are going to work. That is the answer, the Eternal Divine Path.

Yes, you meditate, you awaken your spiritual forces, and you try to realize yourself, overcome attachments, and desires. But where do you do this? You do this in the Communities of Light, with other people.

Also, other people are going to let you know what is wrong with you. Oh, maybe they are nice to you for the first six months or the first year living with you. But if you continue doing things in the community that are destructive, eventually they are going to let you know, Look, we tried for six months to be nice to you, but you have these problems. You have to take care of them.

So who is meditating? Not only are you meditating, but they are meditating also on you. The whole group is meditating together. So you will be able to help each other.

Criticizing or seeing the problem in the other person is not attacking them, it is not making them feel miserable, but it is guiding them and pointing out their stumbling blocks so they can take care of them, put them away, and they can go ahead with their spiritual progress.

So we can see that forsaking the society, forgetting the world, and going to the mountains does not work. It leads to escapism. To become completely worldly and want to live all by yourself, each individual or family, is not going to work either.

As we said, many people work all their lives and they put away a lot of money for their retirement fund and all of that. When they are around 65, 70, or 80 years old, they have so many diseases and suddenly all that money goes down the drain to nothingness. All their life they have been saving for nothing.

But in the Communities of Light with a good diet, with everything that the Mission has given you, you will not be like that when you are 60, 70, or 80 years old. And even then, when we create the envisioned society (KOHOE) the medical care and education will be provided for everyone.

So your physiological and safety needs have been taken care of. What is there? There is self-realization, awakening of your spiritual forces, directing your energy toward the creation of the Communities of Light, and sacrificing for them.

Are those people who spend all their life accumulating only wealth for themselves sacrificing? They are not. So we can see again, the answer is the Communities of Light. The answer is our teachings, and the answer is to know where we are at and how much are we putting our effort and energy to creating these Communities of Light.

For humanity, this is the answer for all the problems we have. But the energy is the same. The Grace is energy. You can use that energy for the higher things, or you can use it for egoistical things. That energy is not ego. It is how we use it, how we direct it.

As I said, ego actually is an illusion. It really does not exist. It is an illusion of separation from God. That is really the illusion of Maya. Maya is the illusion of being separated from God. So, if we shatter that illusion, then we are realizing completely that God is always connected to us.

He knows that He is connected to us. He knows that He is one with us. It is we who have created this illusion that we feel that we are separated, we are alone, we are lonely, or that no one in the universe is connected to you.

That illusion is ego. Really, in a sense, ego does not exist. Ego is just an illusion that we have. But this illusion is so real that humanity has a hard time.

It is just like a veil. That is why in some religions they call it a veil, which separates you from the reality.

Internet Audience: Maitreya, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the Middle East. I know that that is where you came from, where you were born, and I think you have a real deep insight into what is going on there.

Maitreya: Well, if the Jews and Moslems accept our teachings, they would not have any problems, would they?

What part of the Middle East do you want me to talk about? Do you want me to just talk about between Jews and Moslems, between the Palestinians and Jews, or the whole Islamic concept and Jewish concept? Do you want to specify anything special because that is a very broad question?

Internet Audience: Well, I know that all the religions of the Eternal Divine Path that you set out on The Greatest Sign are there. We have the Jews, Christians, Moslems, and Bah's. If you thought about what if you went there, what could you do to help that situation? The conflict is so bad, what does one do to help in a situation like that?

Maitreya: I cannot help anyone but those who are my disciples and those disciples who will listen to me. You cannot help a person or people who do not want to listen. If you read the Old Testament, you will see that many times God came to humans and told them to follow His Words. They did not do it, and they fell.

Really, I can help the Middle East. Actually, the way is given for the Middle East on how to bring the peace and unity, but we have to bring the awareness to the people in the Middle East of this new Revelation and bring them to the realization that there is only one God, that all of humanity are His children, and that they have to share and get along.

The Jews have to get along with the Palestinians. The Palestinians have to get along with the Jews. They have to create one humanity and live together peacefully.

There are differences between cultures. They should be respected and accepted and at the same time, more mixed together and eventually come to a more balanced culture (God's Culture) for everyone so that the differences that exist now would not be that great.

It is happening, and it will happen. So, it is a slow process of education. It is a slow process of bringing this Revelation to everyone and also to the people in the Middle East.

That is why we need the spiritual teachers in the Mission. We need the Missionaries. We need the people who come and become the teachers and go to those places.

We just had one teacher go to Florida. He met two new people who received the Revelation and know about the Eternal Divine Path. So, our job is to give this Revelation to every Soul on earth and to every human on earth.

It is in the website. Anytime anyone goes to the website and reads the Eternal Divine Path, we are done with them. But there are people who not only read the Eternal Divine Path but also they become attracted to it, and they say, Yes, that makes sense. I want to do something about it. They come to our Satsangs and tell me, Maitreya, I am interested to help.

Then I say, OK. What are your qualifications? What kind of talents do you have? Then we have to use those talents to further this Revelation to more of humanity and more people on earth.

God has given us the ability to spread this Message even in a greater degree than ever God provided for any Revelation. So, we have to reach a point that we can teach Jews where they stand in God, where they are in the Plan of God. We have to teach Moslems where they fall in the Plan of God. We have to teach Christians where they fall in Gods Plan, etc.

At the end, just like our Temple, everyone can enter the Temple from their own religion, but when they come to the center, where are they? They are in the Eternal Divine Path. There is only one religion for the whole of humanity and that is the Eternal Divine Path.

That is why I am so insistent to attract the people who want to come, join, dedicate their lives, and reach out to humanity. That is why I am insistent to see that a lot of teachers are created. I am insistent to create the system that eventually we can create the Paravipras who can change the society from the top of the hierarchy, and all of that.

But, should I go to the Middle East and yell at the Jews and Moslems that they should come together? Do you think it is going to work?

Internet Audience: I do not think so.

Maitreya: [laughing] Exactly. What did they do? Didnt Christ do that? He went and tried to purify their religion and throw the moneychangers out of the temple. What did they do to him? They crucified him. Then they changed his teaching to whatever they wanted, and eventually Paul came, took over, and said a lot of things that were not what Christ taught.

Even the people who are in our Mission, they are wonderful people, they are great people, they are great Souls, but still they sometimes misunderstand my teachings, and they say something that is not completely what I said.

That is why, even the teachers in the Mission usually send me their answers to the questions. Sometimes they realize that I correct them and they say, Oh, yes. I did not see that before.

They are the counselors. They are wonderful beings. They are people who love the Mission. They know the teaching. They want to reach out. They want to teach in the most purified way but still sometimes they do not see it exactly as it should be.

I used to be here every week, and I gave answers to questions. And why do I come every month to give answers to questions? Hopefully, eventually, in this process, the Mission and our teachings are understood and purified, the way they should be, and reach humanity the same. We have probably around 200 CDs now that have all the Satsangs from the last twenty years, at least the last four years that we have been video-taping them.

So, the answer to how we can help the Middle East is that we need more teachers. We need more outreach. We need more Communities of Light.

We have to create the Communities of Light. We have to implement the Eternal Divine Path in these communities. We have to create many of them so eventually the Word reaches to the Middle East.

A lot of Jewish people will become interested in the Eternal Divine Path. And then they will no longer be Jews, will they? Many Moslems will become interested in the Eternal Divine Path. Then they will no longer be Moslems. They will be the friends of the Jews who are in the Eternal Divine Path. There will be a lot of Christians who will come to the Eternal Divine Path. They will no longer be Christians. Who will they be? They will be Divines. Then they will not be against the Moslems, Jews, or anyone else.

The whole question is bringing all of them into the center of the Temple, where they are one in that center. That is why you can keep your religion, you can stay Christian, but after you came to the Mission for a while and you learn the Eternal Divine Path, are you a Christian anymore? If you really realize and believe that God sent all these religions, you can say, I am not a Moslem. Yes, I was born in the Middle East but am I a Moslem anymore? No, I am a Divine. I am in the Eternal Divine Path.

Keyosha has a Jewish background. I have a Moslem background. Are we at each others throat? No. We help each other, we live in the same household. Is she a Jew anymore? I do not think so. She is a Divine.

So, we can see that, that is how we can help Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Moslems, Bah's, etc. They can come to the center of the Temple and become one. But they have to realize that this is the fulfillment of the prophecies that God has given to them. They have to realize that it is Gods Revelation. They have to be taught, and they should be brought to this realization that this is the last Revelation that they have to listen to.

That is why it is so important that all the things in the Mission be accepted as a package, when you see that you no longer can say, I can stay in my religion, because your religion was a previous revelation. Its dispensation is no more.

But it will not be with the sword, not with the destructive ways, but with education, with understanding, with teaching by example. If we can create a lot of Communities of Light and Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and Buddhists can live in them together peacefully, would the world see that? You see? The world would say, Oh, they are living peacefully and in harmony!

So, it is possible to bring peace. It is possible to have co-existence. It is possible to share.

Why cant the Moslems and Jews share? It is just a land. Just forget about who is a Moslem and who is a Jew. It is like saying who is a better person and who is not. Just live together and share!

I know it is easier said than done but that is what God said He is going to do, He is going to bring His Kingdom on earth. That is a promise that His Kingdom will come. But how is His Kingdom going to come? It will come with the Eternal Divine Path, with the creation of the Communities of Light, with education, and with the realization that every religion in the past is a part of a greater Revelation, which is the Mission as presented to humanity.

So, the Middle East, although there is such a terrible thing happening there, if you cannot help the situation right now, you have to think for the long run. That situation is not going to be resolved until we bring the Communities of Light into those areas, until we convert at least 1015% of those people to the Eternal Divine Path.

So, the answer to your question of how we can help them is that we cannot. Right now, we cannot help them because they will not listen to us. What we can do is to reach out to humanity, to create more teachers, to create Communities of Light, and hopefully, eventually, someday we can help them too (they will listen).

Audience: I heard on the radio one time about a group of Jewish people who were inviting Moslems to their schools so that the Jewish children and the Moslem children could learn about each other and get along. So, they realize that that is the way to solve the problem by integrating, understanding each others culture, and getting together. So it is not just us who feel this way. There are many other people too.

Maitreya: That is true. Actually, since the Mission has come to the earth, at least some are trying to unify with one another. Their attempts to be nice to one another, to accept each others cultures, and all of that, have even reached to a higher level. They are trying.

Actually, what happened was that one of the Palestinians who was close to this young Jewish person was killed. All these Jewish teenagers were very sorry because they knew him, and they knew he was a very good person. So, it created a situation that even they were sympathizing with what happened.

But still, when they go to each other, that group is Moslem and this group is Jewish. And it is never going to overcome that bridge between them.

I had a good Jewish person who was my friend when I was in Iran. There are some Jewish people who live in Iran. There are not a lot but there are some communities, and they are pretty integrated into the society. We were very good friends. Then he went to Israel. The next time he came back, we could not connect anymore. He was completely different. He was changed, even though we had been together, we had grown up together, we had gone to school together, and all of that.

So there is a lot of propaganda. There is brainwashing happening in both groups. You know what happens, the hero of one society becomes the terrorist of the other one. They create heroes, and they put the other society down.

No matter how much they try, the whole society should change their attitude. The whole society has to realize that we are all humans, we have the same problems, we have the same things to work on, and we have to realize that there is One Earth, One Humanity, and One God.

If they realize that, then there is no Jew, or Hindu, or Buddhist but all are here to become Divine. That is the goal of their lives. There is no one higher or lower. God loves everyone. How can God not love everyone because everyone is a part of God, His Creation?

Can you not like your finger but like your leg? No. It does not work. It is a part of your body. If your finger hurts, it does not matter, it is the same as if your toe hurts. It still hurts. It is the same body. It is a part of God.

So, humanity has to realize all these things. If they realize that, accept the Mission, and become Divines, then do we have Jews, Christians, Moslems, Hindus, or Buddhists? No. All of us are humans here struggling to become Divine with the resources we have. We have to share with each other and even reach to space and find even more resources. Then the standard of living of everyone will come to a point that we do not need to be at each others throats. As Gandhi said, There is not enough for everyones greed, but for everyones need.

So again sharing, Communities of Light, creation of the Communities of Light, and the Eternal Divine Path, the unification of the religions, teaching humanity, reaching out, creating Missionaries, educating humanity that they are not Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, God is not man or woman, God is both

The wordings and political things that are created on earth separate, like, No, God is man, or, No, God is woman. So, the men and women try to separate each other. God is both of them and is neither of them. God is beyond the political movement or trying to create separation.

All of this separation has been created by humans. You can say that some separation was created because there were different religions on earth, and God sent these religions to each group or people. But that is no longer. With understanding the Mission, you no longer can be a Moslem.

Probably I know more about the Koran and Islam than most of the Moslems know. Or, you cannot be a Jew anymore. Probably Keyosha knows more about Judaism in the Mission than any Jew ever could know.

Or, a Christian, you who are here and were Christians, you know the reason for Christ coming here, for the number of three. Do the Christians know all those things, what was really the reason Christ came, that his mission was three-fold and he accomplished all of them? So, you see, you know more about Christianity than most of the Christians.

So we can see that coming to the Mission, realizing these things, studying them, becoming more familiar with all the religions of the world and seeing how the Mission gives you even more than any of the people in those groups, makes you realize, I already know more than any one else on earth. Then you can teach other people and make them realize what God has done.

He sent all those religions separately, and each of them has a message. When you put all those messages together, you see the Eternal Divine Path.

So, this is really the salvation for the Middle East. It is not only the salvation for the Middle East, it is the salvation for the Irish and English. Are there Catholics or Protestants? There are neither. In the Eternal Divine Path, they are Divines.

If they become Divines, are they going to stay Protestants and Catholics? No. They cannot stay any longer with that separation. You can see that the way is given to bring peace and the Kingdom on earth.

But who is going to do it? I am giving it to you so you can give it to someone else. If I can tell twelve or fifteen people, and those twelve or fifteen people tell twelve or fifteen people, and those twelve or fifteen people reach twelve or fifteen people, it only takes seven levels to reach the whole of humanity. It does not take that long.

It is just like the pyramid marketing schemes that some people use. It is the same thing. It is not a hard work to reach the whole humanity. It is very easy.

If we have one hundred people in the Mission, if I can reach one hundred people deeply, that they really realize what the teaching is and what this Revelation is, and each of those one hundred people reach one hundred people, how many is that? That is ten thousand. And those ten thousand people each reach a hundred people, that is going to be around a million. And those million each reach a hundred people, that is one hundred million. A hundred million then reach a hundred people, and that is going to be ten billion.

Oh, we reached to the whole of humanity. That is it! We are not even ten billion, we are only around six or seven billion.

So you see, it is not hard to do. But you who are called for it have to purify yourselves. You are still stuck in the little things in life. You are stuck in things that you think that I should solve them for you.

As I said, I cannot help anyone unless they are my disciples and they are humble enough to listen to what I teach them. Otherwise, even I cannot help my disciples if they are not humble enough to listen.

God cannot help you if you do not want to listen. That is why we meditate. We meditate to listen to God.

If we are meditating and thinking about what I ate last night, we are not listening to God, are we? If we are closing our eyes, Oh, I was going to tell my people or family they are not listening to God.

That brings me to the topic of the parents. The parents are responsible to teach these things that I teach you to your children. Children really are a captive audience. Parents have a lot of influence and power over them to teach these things while they are growing up. Of course, we have to follow it first ourselves before we can teach them.

You cannot teach someone if you do not follow what you teach. You become a teacher without following your own teaching. If you teach and do not follow, of course, they are not going to listen to you and will not follow what you say. They say, Well, what is he saying? He is saying something and doing something else. It is not going to work. You have to do it and teach it. Then your children are going to listen.

God gave those children to you. He did not give them to me. I have my own child to take care of. He gave them to you, you are the one God designated to take care of your child. So, you have to tell them about the teaching of Gods way. You are responsible.

Do not bring it and drop it in my lap. They are not my children. They are your children. I already gave you what is the truth about them. I already told you what is right and wrong.

You are in this Mission. I gave you what is right and wrong. You tell them what is right and wrong, follow it yourself, and stay firm. Say, That is the way it should be. If it is not the way it should be, then I cannot be your parent. I am not going to be as nice as I was or I am.

So we can see that this is the first level that this Revelation came through. You are the second level. My responsibility was to give this to you. Your responsibility is to give it to whomever you can, to whatever ability or outlet you can reach.

I connect you to God. You have to bring them and connect them to the Mission and God also. So, you can see that coming to the Satsang is just not hearing and feeling good and having a good week or a good month. It brings a great responsibility to you also.

Do you want to solve the problem in the Middle East? Talk to more people, reach to them, and convert them to become Divines. The more Divines we have, the less Christians, Moslems, Hindus, and Buddhists we will have.

I cannot help the Middle East right now. The way is given to them. If tomorrow Arafat and Sharon come to me and become Divine, I can solve the problem. If they become my disciples tomorrow, the problem in the Middle East is resolved because I can tell them about the Eternal Divine Path and unify them.

But if I go right now and want to tell them what to do, would they listen to me? They would not. So, we can see the subjective approach with objective adjustment. That is a part of the Mission.

Subjective approach means we are approaching toward bringing the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth. Objective adjustment means that we have to adjust ourselves to where we are.

Another thing you can do is arm yourself and force people to accept the Eternal Divine Path. It is just like the Moslems. Moslems for a while had the sword. They put the sword to your head and demanded, Either you become a Moslem or your head is going to be chopped off.

Do all the Moslems know the Koran and what Prophet Muhammad taught and God sent to them? I was born in a Moslem country. Actually, I rejected God when I was a child because I was asking them, Show me. Show me God and I will believe you. But an angry God sitting up there somewhere and always with His sword at the top of my head, I just could not even envision that such a God existed.

Of course, now I know that God is everywhere, everything. He is not up there sitting somewhere away from us.

Islam is different than Moslems. Judaism is different than Jews. Christianity is different than Christians.

So we can see that, that did not work either, with the sword on top of their heads. What will work? Education, realization, reaching this teaching in a deeper level to everyone to realize what is the goal of the life, what is the Eternal Divine Path, and how the religions are unified.

There is a God. A lot of people, 99% even of the people who say they are religious, do not really believe that God exists, or at least have an experience with Him.

But if God said He is going to send these religions, if He said He is going to send all these teachers, if He said He is going to fulfill all these prophecies, and He did it, does He exist? Therefore, God truly does exist. That is a Consciousness, and He is everywhere and everything, and there is nothing that is not Him.

But we need people who have been called. That is why we are looking for the Elects. They are the people who have been selected, elected, and called for to come and help this Mission to spread, and eventually spread it to the Middle East.

That is how I am helping the Middle East, with bringing this teaching to humanity. That is how we are helping Africa. That is how we are helping South America. That is how we are helping Europe, the United States, everywhere. But people have to be taught, to be reached, to realize.

We have to build the Temple. If we build the Temple and people in the Middle East and other people hear about it, and realize it, they will become One. Just even for the tourists, as the tourists come and see such a wonderful place it is, they can go through their own door of religion and in the middle they are all One, what do you think that is going to bring to them? It is going to bring One humanity, One God, One earth. That is how we are helping humanity.

But this thing has to be done.

Go ahead, Tahirah.

Internet Audience: Thank you. The question is on logic and compassion. Can logic overcome compassion, or compassion overcome logic? How can we relate to both of them working together?

Maitreya: For us to first define them, is probably the best way. What is compassion? What does that mean, compassion? Can any one define compassion?

Audience: I think compassion would be God guiding His whole universe to the highest good for everything in it.

Maitreya: What is the difference between compassion and love? Have you ever heard anyone say, unconditional compassion [laughter]? Have you heard the term, unconditional love? So, what is the difference? Why can love be unconditional but compassion cannot? Have you ever heard about tough love? So there is unconditional love, there is love, and there is tough love? What is the difference between them? Is unconditional love, tough love? Well, let us explain.

Internet Audience: Maitreya would tough love be love without attachment?

Maitreya: What does that mean, compassionate love? You either have compassion or you have love. Can you have compassionate love?

See, there is a great difference between compassion and love, and a lot of people make a mistake between them.

You fall in love but you do not fall in compassion, do you? Have you ever seen someone say, I just fell in compassion. Or, these two people fell in compassion with each other? You do not hear that.

So it is completely two different things: love and compassion. Love can be conditional. I love you if you do this for me. Love can be unconditional. Usually parents have a kind of unconditional love for their children. A lot of people talk about having unconditional love for one another. But usually there are conditions involved.

And there is compassion. You might have compassion for a starving child in Africa but you are not in love with them. So, compassion really means, especially when it relates to the compassion of God, a corrective feeling for humanity.

So actually what Keyosha said is pretty close to what compassionate means. It means that God has compassion for humanity.

Of course, God also loves humanity. But His love does not mean that He is not going to correct you. His love does not mean that you can do whatever you want to, with no consequence.

As I said, I still love you. I still love you, but I have tough love for you. You have to progress. You have to see yourself squarely. That is what the compassion of God is, because He knows that if you do that you are going to be free. You are going to be more Godly by seeing yourself. Know thyself to know God. That is what God wants you to do.

Now if He says, I love you so much that if you do not even see yourself, if you do not progress, still I am going to love you, God does not have compassion for you then because He is not correcting you. He is not guiding you.

Why does He have to send the Prophets if He has unconditional love? You can do whatever you want humanity, I still love you unconditionally. I am not going to send the Scriptures. I am not going to send the Prophets. I am not going to try to guide you. Do whatever you want and I am still going to love you.

No. He does not. What does He do? He does destruction sometimes. He has to destroy some part of the universe in order to create a new one. Oh, I have unconditional love. I cannot destroy this part of the universe.

I love my body unconditionally. I have some tumors all over my body. I love my body so much that I am not going to cut those tumors out because my love is unconditional. Or, I love my body but I am going to have tough love toward my body. In order to cure it I have to get those tumors out.

I have a compassionate feeling for that poor child that is starving in Africa. What am I going to do about it? I am going to try first to feed him or her. OK, so that becomes the goal of my life, and I become a missionary or a social worker, or I dedicate myself to some kind of cause and go there and feed that child or the children there.

I feed them as much as I can. They have food for a couple of days or a month or two months or three months. I leave or the resources dry out, and the children go back to starvation again. Or, I put my effort into the creation of the Communities of Light and create the Kingdom of Heaven On Earth, distribute the resources in a more equal way, even reach to space and bring more resources to the earth and then I can help millions of billions of children that will not be starving.

Right now, it seems so cruel not to reach to that child. I am not saying do not reach to him, probably a lot of people do. But what is the greater purpose to do in the long run? Which one is more compassionate?

I have compassion. I feed the child, and he becomes a criminal. I have compassion, but would I go ahead and start correcting him not to become a criminal, teaching him to stay a good person, helpful to the society? I have compassion for him and I will correct him if he starts going wrong. So, look at your definition of Gods love, which is compassion.

If you call God, God loves me so I do not have to look at myself. God loves me, therefore, I do not see the tumors in my body. God is going to heal me. I am not going to go to the doctor and tell him to take out those tumors. God is going to take care of those tumors.

It is just like that man. The flood came and he went to the top of his house.

A boat came, and the boatman told him, Let me help you.

He said, No. Do not worry. I trust in God. He is going to take care of me.

Later a helicopter came and the pilot said, Come in. We are here for you.

And he said, No. No. That is OK. I trust in God.

Well, the water raised, and he eventually was drowned and went to heaven or to whatever and asked God, Why didnt you help me?

God said, Didnt you see the boat and the helicopter?

That is the logic of God. The compassion was sending the boat, sending the helicopter. The logic was to see Gods help coming to you.

If you are sitting there and saying, Well, God loves me, He is going to take care of me. But I have all these problems and these tumors and all these things in my life and my body, and I am not going to look at them because I trust in God, then you do not know the compassion of God.

Maybe Maitreya was sent by God to tell you, Hey, there is a tumor in your life. Look at it. Take it to the doctor. Take it out.

But you just hold onto it and say, No. I am not going to look at my tumor because God is compassionate, and compassion means that I can do whatever I want to. I do not progress. I drop my problem in someone elses lap. I am not going to look at them because I am attached to the world, because I have so many desires and attachments and I follow a philosophy that fits my situation. Therefore it is OK the way I am and I am not going to look at the problems.

Then, of course, your definition of compassion, love, and all that is going to be different than my definition of love and compassion.

Therefore, we have to come to the same conclusion. Unless you do not believe in the definition of love and compassion that I just gave, and you believe the definition is different.

Some people are never going to look at themselves squarely. Actually, it is a very, very scary thing if you really look at yourself squarely.

Some people who are 75 years old are still chasing the dreams of the 16-year-old people because they never knew themselves to bring their lives in a Godly way.

So, compassion means corrective love. Compassion means a feeling of being really sorry. Compassion only comes when someone else is in trouble, doesnt it?

You cannot have compassion for a person who does not need any help. Again, you might love someone who does not need any help. But how can you have compassion for a person who does not need anything? Can you have compassion for someone like that?

Can you have compassion for someone in Pure Consciousness? I have such compassion for a person who has reached Pure Consciousness. Can you have compassion for that person? You have to be happy for that person that he or she is in Pure Consciousness. You cannot have compassion for them.

You can love a person who is in Pure Consciousness but you do not have compassion for them because they are not in trouble. Compassion really is when we create a feeling for someone who is in trouble. Why is that person in trouble? How can we help them?

We have compassion for them because they have some problem to be dissolved. Can we solve those problems for them? Yes. If it is food, we can bring them food. But if you can teach them how to grow food and have their food, that is even better, isnt it?

We have compassion for a person who has problems in their life. Can we help them? How can we help them best? It is by pointing out to them where the problems are so that they can resolve the problems in their lives.

But if they do not want to listen to you, can you help them? You cannot help anyone who does not want to listen. That is the Law. That is the Law in the universe.

As I said, I cannot help anyone but those who are my disciples and are willing to listen. Period. Even if you are a disciple and you are not willing to listen, I cannot help you. But if you are not a disciple and you are willing to listen, I can help you.

I have compassion for you. I would love to help you. I feel your pain. I feel your struggle. I feel your tumor. But if you do not let me get it out, if you do not go to the doctor, if you do not let him get the knife and cut you up and get that tumor out, you are not going to be healed.

You say, Oh, I am going to keep my tumor in my body, but doctor heal me. He says, I cannot. You do not let me take out the tumor. How can I help you?

It is the same thing. If you do not let me, do not even listen to what I tell you, you resist it, you fight it, you juggle it, you politicalize it, trying to play games with it, go around it, doing whatever the human does not to see themselves, I cannot help you.

I have compassion for you. I can see your pain. I am very sorry for the pain you are going through. But let me cut you open. Let me get my knife and open you up so I can take that tumor out. If you do not let me, sorry, the doctor is helpless.

You have to let God come through. You have to listen to Him.

Compassion means I would like to help you. That is what it really means, doesnt it? I have compassion for that child who is starving because I really want to help him. But if you go and he says, No. I am not going to accept your help, can you help him? You cannot.

So, the first thing is accepting and a willingness and wanting to be helped. Otherwise, God cannot help you. God loves you. God has compassion for you but He has sent the Scriptures. He has sent the Prophets. He has sent the way for your happiness. He has taught you to meditate, to know thyself.

Get rid of the tumor. Look at yourself squarely. There are a lot of creatures in every human. There are psychological things in the subconscious mind that make us unhappy. We have to look at them. We have to see how we react in every situation and how we create the situations that bring us all to the same place again and again.

If you do not want to do it, no one else can do it for you. God can give you the guidance and show the way, but you are the one to walk it.

Maitreya: All right everyone. It was nice being with you. Have a wonderful, Godly month. Hopefully again these words will become the bread of life for you and keep you. And may God come through all of us to humanity.

Sal-OM!