Know Thyself, Children's Program, Do You Have To Believe In Reincarnation?, Do You Believe Like The Hindus That We Evolve From Animals? Were All Unit Consciousnesses Created At One Time?, What Would Be The Best Thing To Say To Someone Who Argues Against The Mission?, Are We Able To Believe In All Religions And Faiths?, Did Esa Ever Have A Wife?, Can We Practice Other Religions and Join The Mission?, How And Why Will Each Feast Be Different?, When We Meditate, How Do We Know Ourselves?

 
Satsang (Discourse) With

Maitreya

At The Feast Of Tabernacles 10/07/90

Children's Program

Let's unify humanity. Every one of these signs in The Greatest Sign will show us how to reach this goal. [Now, as the seal was announced, one of the children would carry that seal in, stand in front of the audience and the announcer read what the sign meant.]

Awakening: Here we have the first seal. This seal is for us to know ourselves, so that we can know God.

Communities of Light: Here we have the second seal. This seal will help us bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth through the Communities of Light.

Sacrifice: Now we have the third seal. This seal teaches us how to sacrifice in order to reach our goal. In order to reach this goal we have to open our hearts to all mankind.

Surrender and Submission: This fourth seal is the Islamic seal. We must never think that we are the doer. We must know that God does everything through us. And, we must not be attached to the result.

Universalism: Then we come to the fifth seal. This seal teaches us how to love and help the whole universe, because God is everything.

Paravipras: Next is the sixth seal, the seal of the Paravipra. This seal allows God to manifest the Kingdom Of Heaven Within. The Paravipra will also struggle with God to bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth.

Pure Consciousness: Now we have the seventh seal which was brought to us by Maitreya. This seal completes The Greatest Sign and is Pure Consciousness. When we complete our walk on this Eternal Divine Path, we will become Pure Consciousness and become One with God.

Now we're going to ask the audience to help us by naming the seals. [The children came back in with the seals and the audience called out which seal they were carrying.]

Can anyone please name this seal? [Audience] Awakening!

Can anyone name this seal? [Audience] Communities of Light!

Can anyone name this seal? [Audience] Sacrifice!

Can anyone name this seal? [Audience] Surrender and Submission!

Can anyone name this seal? [Audience] Universalism!

Can anyone please name this seal? [Audience] Paravipras!

Can anyone name this seal? [Audience] Pure Consciousness!

And what do we have? [Audience] The Eternal Divine Path!

 

Maitreya: Good. That was pretty. That was very nice. Another good thing to do is to write children's books about THOTH, like they have children's books about the Bible.

Maitreya: After doing such a good job, you want a name? What does Jason mean?
 

Jason: A healer.

 

Maitreya: A healer. But who really does the healing?
 

Jason: God.

 

Maitreya: OK. Then we will call you Josiah. It means the Lord heals. So when you heal you will know it is not you who is healing. God heals through you, Josiah.

Gabriel, do you know what Gabriel means? It means, God is my strength. Whoever relies on the strength of God is going to become a hero of God. That's why we will call you Gabor, the hero of God. Are you going to become a hero of God? That's your spiritual name, Gabor.

Of course, after you become older, after you become initiated, etc, if you want another name, I will give you another one. That name is just for the time being.

That's a good way to teach The Greatest Sign, through the children in a play. That's a very wonderful thing to do.

I learned something about The Greatest Sign tonight.

Satsang

Question: Do we have to believe in reincarnation to believe in the Mission?
 

Maitreya: If we say, "I believe in something," or "I don't believe in something," it's just like a dogma, "I believe in this set of dogmas in my religion to become a religious person." But, as we said, there are dogmas and there is truth. That is why we have to have a discerning mind, and to question everything that comes to us as a set of beliefs. We have to think about them. We have to meditate about them. Then we decide if they are the truth, or if they are dogma.

If we say, "If you don't believe in this set of rules you cannot stay in the Mission," then we are saying you should follow these dogmas. "You have to believe in this set of rules, or this set of beliefs, to become a part of God's work." That is not how the true seekers of the truth look at God and His universe. They look at it. They question it. They ask about it. They meditate on it. Eventually they come to this conclusion, "Well, it makes sense." Then they believe it.

They don't believe in reincarnation because I say, "You have to believe in reincarnation." If I say, "You have to believe in reincarnation," and you say, "Maitreya says I have to believe in reincarnation so I believe," that is not the way the true seeker will find the truth. The true seeker says, "Maitreya talks about reincarnation, and he presents it in many places in THOTH, as it is the truth." What evidence does he present to lead us to believe in reincarnation?

For instance, everyone said, "Elijah the Prophet had to come." Elijah the Prophet had to come, the forerunner, for Christ to follow. We then see John the Baptist comes and the disciples ask Christ, "Who is John the Baptist?" Christ answered, "He is Elijah."

We know that John the Baptist was born from Elizabeth, a woman. At the same time, Christ is saying he is the Prophet Elijah. How is this possible? The only thing possible is Elijah came back as John the Baptist. He was reincarnated. He came back as a Soul to the body that Elizabeth was carrying, and he became John the Baptist who was the same Prophet everyone expected to come. So you see, that's evidence there.

Then we also have our own experiences about our lives. We go to a place, and we look at it and it suddenly looks so familiar. We have been there. We have never been there before in this lifetime but we look at it, "It looks so familiar, I've been here before. I know I've been here before. I am sure."

Some people call it deja vu, or a remembrance. It affects you in such a way that you don't have any explanation in this lifetime. You know you have been here, but you have never been here before, in this life. Again, reincarnation is the best way to explain it.

Then we have people who have been put under hypnosis. They get hypnotized, and they have never been in Germany but they start speaking German fluently. Or they remember their past lives, that in such and such a city this thing happened to them. For instance, their house was burned, and they were caught in the fire. They go and look at the newspaper for the same day and the same year, and "Yes, that thing really happened in that city." This person never was in that city, never was familiar with this accident. But it has been proven that it happened in a previous lifetime.

Many people try to explain it in many other different ways, by trying to put it in a very complicated way, and somehow explain, "No, no, it's not reincarnation." But after you see all this evidence gathered together, eventually you come to the conclusion that reincarnation makes sense.

Another thing is, many believe that "God creates me and gives me only one lifetime. He tells me I have to be good, and reach Pure Consciousness (Him). If I don't make it, that's it, I will be punished, or go to hell," etc.

That's a very unjust God who gives me one lifetime and puts me in a very bad situation somewhere in a very poor area in the world where I have no opportunity to even learn how to read or write. I've never heard about religion, or meditation, or reincarnation, etc, and then He expects me to reach Pure Consciousness. That's a pretty unjust God.

But what if He gives me a chance life after life, after life, after life, and eventually brings me to the situation where I have the opportunity to learn about God and Pure Consciousness, then I don't take advantage of these situations that He provides for me? If He says, I've given you all these opportunities and you're not taking advantage of them, I have to replace you with someone else who might take advantage of them, then He's just, isn't He? He gave you many, many opportunities.

So again, reincarnation shows the justice of God. Otherwise how can we feel He is just? For instance, they say, "Christ died for us to go to heaven." What did the people do before Christ came? If they just had one lifetime, and they never were here when Christ came and died for us, are they all going to go to hell?

But if they were reincarnated, came and learned that Christ came and brought The Grace to them, and now they are not going to listen, again God says, "I gave you opportunities in many lifetimes, you are not listening," again He is just. You're just not listening to Him. "I'm putting you in this situation again, and again, and again, and you're not taking advantage of this situation. So, I have to just replace you with another consciousness who might progress."

Therefore, with all this evidence, if we have a very discerning mind, and we go, study, and meditate, we will eventually come to this conclusion, "Yes, this makes sense. The only way, really, this universe can be explained is through reincarnation and the Law of Karma and Samskaras. Otherwise, we cannot explain these situations."

That is why a lot of preachers can have trouble explaining these concepts. They cannot explain them in a very satisfactory way in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic (although Sufi's do believe in reincarnation)-Baha'i religions (because these are four religions which do not believe in reincarnation). Really if you ask any of these religions to explain the justice of God about these matters of injustice of the world, they say, "That is the way it is."

How can they explain it? Is there any explanation in these religions (or for whoever does not believe in reincarnation) for why there is so much injustice in the world? Is there? Has anyone heard anything, or can explain to us why, if you put reincarnation out of the picture? Can you explain this?

But if we look at reincarnation and karma, then we can explain that because of the previous deeds, some situation is created for the person, etc. For instance, if someone killed someone, do we expect God to give him a good life next lifetime? We're not saying, "Everything is reincarnation, we have no choice and that's it. We're predestined and that's all there is, if we are put into a bad situation we can't go out of it." We're not saying that.

God also gave us intelligence, meditation, and understanding so we can get ourselves out of these situations. When we learn our lessons, the Samskaras are forgiven and we are free. If we believe in reincarnation and the Law of Karma, then life and many situations can be explained much easier. Can't it? It can be explained much, much easier.

So you don't have to believe anything, you have to discern, to question, to find the truth and to come to that conclusion, "Yes, what he says makes sense."

 

Question: Do you believe like the Hindus that we evolve from animals?
 

Maitreya: We believe in evolution.

 

Question: I understand that the Hindus believe in reincarnation of the animals, like cows.
 

Maitreya: Well, we're not preaching Hinduism, so it is not completely what the Hindus believe, but we believe in evolution. In the process of evolution, the whole universe evolved from Spirit to matter, from matter to plants, to animals, to higher animals and eventually to human.

So it goes from Spirit, to become crudified to matter, and from matter to be loosed back to Spirit. So it's a kind of circle.

Also, we don't explain evolution as the evolutionary process in the Darwin theory. We believe it's not by chance. We believe there is Logic behind it. The Logic of God made the whole thing work. So what we are teaching here is neither Hinduism nor pure evolution. It is, you can say, evolution with the Logic of God.

Actually it is less possible that everything happened by chance. If you statistically calculate to see how evolution happened by chance and came to the human, that is less logically possible to happen than if you believe there is an Intelligence behind it. So statistically it is almost impossible that it happened by chance.

But if you say, "It is evolution, but a Logic behind it guided it to this point," that is the best explanation of both worlds.

Furthermore, at the time of creation, many Souls were already in a very high level of consciousness. They did not need to go through the evolutionary process. These are the high Souls who first became humans, spiritual teachers, etc. This part of our teaching can be seen as similar to the creationist theory, in that many Souls just assumed a higher level in the creations.

Many others, however, needed to go through the evolutionary process to reach higher levels. In a sense, our teaching combines the evolutionary theory (with the Logic of God behind it), and the theory of creation together. It has the best of both worlds. Those who reach Pure Consciousness or higher consciousness, will be in the highest levels in the next creations!

The point is, you don't have to believe anything. Really the highest spiritual people are those who study, learn, research and come to the conclusion that, "Yes, what he says is true and makes sense, and that is the only way this thing could have happened in the universe."

Therefore, it's not a matter of, "If you believe in reincarnation you can stay in the Mission, or if you don't believe in reincarnation you can't." If you can explain the universe in a better way without reincarnation, then we might sit and discuss it to see if you have a better theory than the theory of reincarnation. Actually, it is really a theory. It is a theory, so it is not really a law.

For me it is a Law because it's no longer just a theory. If you have an experience in your meditation, if you remember some of your previous lifetimes, then especially it is no longer a theory. When you realize it yourself, then it is a Law for you.

 

Question: In the beginning, when the first unit consciousnesses came into being and were created, did all of the unit consciousnesses come into being at one time, or are new unit consciousnesses being created every day? I'm asking this because there seem to be some Souls who are more evolved than others. You see some human beings just seem to be -- I don't mean to judge them but I'm trying to understand something here -- not as evolved.
 

Maitreya: Your question is, were all the unit consciousnesses created at the same time, or is there a hierarchy?

 

Question: Yes, are there new ones being born, being created even now?
 

Maitreya: I understand your question. There is a hierarchy. In our teaching also in the triangle of the Kingdom Of Heaven In Heaven [the two large triangles in the center of The Greatest Sign], we can see the triangle upward is the Hierarchy of the beings in the universe. There is God in the center. There are some beings at the very top of the hierarchy, who have reached Pure Consciousness, they have reached God. Some consciousnesses are so low, they are stones, animals, and all the lower levels of the consciousness.

So there is a hierarchy in the universe. Actually there are kind of periods of reaching Pure Consciousness in the universe. In one period, for example, a group of people will reach Pure Consciousness, and then lower consciousnesses will come up and eventually reach Pure Consciousness. Then again lower consciousnesses will come up and reach Pure Consciousness. That is why there are people in many different levels of consciousness.

Actually, if you look at the chakras, chakras have different propensities and tendencies. Each person manifests the tendencies according to what chakra he is in.

 

Question: And how evolved their Soul is?
 

Maitreya: That's right. As your Soul evolves, higher thoughts come to you.

A person in his lower nature is just not interested in anything but his physiological and safety needs. The only thing important for him is, "When is my next food coming? How can I get a better place to live?" That is all he can think about. He has no consciousness of God.

Another person is just interested in the opposite sex. He doesn't want anything else. That is where he is. Some other people are into power trips. They want to control other people. They are in their third chakras. The corrupt politicians usually are in their third chakras, they want power. They want to control other beings.

Some people have unconditional love, and they are in the fourth chakra. Some people have compassion and a discriminative mind. They are in the fifth chakra. Some people are completely one with God. They are in the sixth chakra. And some people are in Pure Consciousness.

Even in each chakra there are hierarchies. No two persons in the same chakra are the same. They are in different levels in the same chakra. Also, according to how the environment is affecting you, you can leave one level and enter another one. So a person can manifest different tendencies in different situations. As God is infinite, so are the levels of consciousness. Each chakra can be roughly categorized into tendencies. Each chakra even overlaps with its previous and next chakra.

However, the answer is, Yes, there is a hierarchy of beings in the universe. But God can do whatever He wants to do.

 

Question: What would be the best thing to say to someone who argues against the Mission when we try to explain what the Mission is?
 

Maitreya: Don't argue [all laughing]. If someone says that it is really not a Mission, it is a cult, or is not really the truth, or argues with you, the only thing to do is tell them, "All the religions of the world are unified. The way to bring the Kingdom of Heaven is given. The prophecies are fulfilled. And everything is accelerated. If you can't see these things, you are blind."

Just like, they asked of Christ the same thing, "We want signs from you." He said, "Generations of vipers ask for signs. Can't you see that when the evening is fair and the sun is red, you're going to have fair weather?" The signs are there. You look at the sun, it is red and there are no clouds in the sky. You know the weather is going to be just fine tonight. It's the same thing.

Look at what is happening to the earth. Look at the events that are happening. Look at the process we're going through right now. We need something to help us.

It was prophesied that these things were going to happen and this teaching was going to come. Look at any great religion, they have prophesied all these are going to take place before the end time. Look at Hinduism. They are looking for the Messiah (Krishna) to come. Look at Buddhism. They are looking for Buddha to come. Look at Judaism. They're looking for the Messiah to come. Look at Christianity, they're looking for Christ to come. Look at Islam. They're looking for Mehdi to come. Look at the Baha'is. They're looking for Baha'u'llah to come, or the next one after Bab to come. All the religions have prophesied this.

What is going to come? The religions of the world will be unified. The Kingdom of Heaven, God, is going to come. There are going to be upheavals on earth before this happens. And there will be a lot of prophecies which are going to be fulfilled.

You see the signs. You see the handwriting on the wall. Just look at the signs. I don't have to argue with you. All the signs are right in front of you. Look at them, understand them, and come to a conclusion.

The only thing I can do is give you the Message. I don't want to argue with you. This is the Message. This is the way all the prophecies are fulfilled. This is the way the earth is right now. We need all the help we can have, to get out of this mess we have made.

If you show a better way, fine, I'll follow that. If I personally find a better way, I'm the first person who is going to follow that.

But I haven't found another way. I haven't found any teaching, or any revelation, that so clearly explains the unity of all the religions together. Some people generally say, "All religions are basically the same." They are not.

Christianity is not the same as Judaism. Judaism is not the same as the Baha'i Faith. The Baha'i Faith is not the same as Islam. Islam is not the same as Hinduism. There is a very different message given to humanity through each of them.

The Greatest Sign and our teaching explains how God decided to send these different religions as a part of the greater truth to humanity, one by one. That's why you are separated because each of them has a different message, and they each had to be here so far because they had to keep that message alive.

Now each of them are a part of the greater truth. Just think, which religion on earth is going to unify humanity? Hinduism? Do you think everyone is going to become a Hindu, or a Jew, or a Christian, or a Moslem, or a Baha'i? But if each of them find themselves as a part of the greater truth, "I'm going to be more willing to join something that doesn't reject me, something that already says, You're a part of us, come and join us, but expand yourself a little bit more."

So the only thing is, all of us have to become proficient in the Mission. We have to realize The Greatest Sign. We have to think about It. We have to meditate about It, understand It, read about It, look at It, read the Satsangs, and really become proficient in such a way that we can represent the Mission.

You each can become a Maitreya. You each can become the same energy that I am. Then we're going to have [counting and all laughing] thirteen Maitreya's. I'm not going to be the only one.

I'm going to be the first flame. Then there are going to be thirteen flames. If every one of us lights another thirteen flames, we're going to be one hundred and sixty nine flames. On and on, until one hundred forty-four thousand flames are lit. We're going to multiply more and more.

So it is really the responsibility of each of you to become so proficient that you can answer their questions in the deepest level possible. But if you don't know anything about the Mission, the only thing you can tell them is, the prophecies are fulfilled, the religions are unified, the way for the Kingdom to come has been given, and look at the world. These are the four signs. What else do you need?

 

Question: So you would be able to believe all the religions and inter-relationships, and all the faiths, the separate doctrines of each faith?
 

Maitreya: Know the truth of each religion, not their dogma. We believe the truth behind each religion. The truth behind Judaism is to bring the Communities of Light, to create communities which are the Children of God. That is the message of the Old Testament. God wanted some tribes, some communities, who would accept Him as their God. That is the message of the Old Testament.

Hinduism is a Mystical Path, and also there are other Mystical Paths which fall in the first seal. It is the ability to connect with God in an individual relationship. They are the religions of connecting yourself with God, realizing that He is with you all the time. He is the doer. You are a channel for Him. You become open to His Energy. Let your ego go and let Him come in.

Christianity is sacrifice, not being self-centered. What did Christ do? He went all the way to the cross for his ideal. He didn't hesitate a bit. Well, he did a bit in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, "Can you take this cup from me?" And he realized right away that he was not submissive to the Will of God. Then he said, "Your Will be done, not mine." That's why the next time he came, he brought submission, because he learned his lesson pretty good in that lifetime.

So we don't just accept every religion and say, "Yeah, come all religions and bring your dogma to us, we accept them." Then it's going to be a mess. We're going to have the same problem that the many branches of every religion have.

But if we accept the truth behind every religion, every message that God sent to humanity, then we can also tell them, "Look, this is the message of that religion. You don't need to be fragmented by how to baptize. Put the water over the head, or from the back, or on this side, or be submerged in it. These are all trivialities."

The message is sacrifice. The message is not being self-centered. We accept the truth of each religion.

You don't believe me? Go and read the New Testament. See what Christ did. He went all the way to the cross. What for? For his ideal. He sacrificed himself, completely. That is his message.

So that is the message that comes through, and that is the only way you can create the Communities of Light. If everyone is self-centered in the Communities of Light, they are never going to become Communities of Light. Everyone will say, "Me, me, me, what is in it for me?" That attitude has to go.

It's not, "What is in this for me?" It's, "Where do I fall in the scheme of things? Where is my energy in this collective energy?" When you find your place then you receive a hundred-fold of your expectation. You receive everything you need. You receive all your physiological and safety needs. You receive your best friend in the world. You receive support from the community. You receive rest, health, good food, nice air, whatever you need. You receive a hundred-fold of it. Best of all you receive God.

But from the very beginning if you walk into the community with the attitude of, "What is in it for me here?" you will find yourself out of the house, out of The Grace.

So it is just that attitude. Of course, that's human. The human has a very calculative mind. We have to be(come) gods. We have to be(come) the Children of Light. We are no longer human.

You decided to be(come) a Child of God, a Child of Light, so you have to forget about being human any longer. Of course, as the communities expand and more people learn about them, it will become easier and easier to assimilate more people into them.

It's very hard in the beginning to assimilate those first few ones. It is like that magnet which was used in one of the lectures today. The more magnets that come together, the more strength the united magnet has. It becomes an even greater magnet, a greater attraction. After awhile, no matter where you are, you've got to come in. You have no choice!

 

Question: Did Esa ever have a wife or children?
 

Maitreya: Yes. He had two wives, Martha and Mary. If you study the New Testament, anytime when he came back, Mary and Martha went to see him. Of course, there was a great effort by the disciples to cover this up, just like there was a great effort to cover up his life from twelve years to thirty years.

As a child he was in the temple talking with these Rabbis, and then you don't hear anything about what happened to him after that. Then suddenly he was an adult and began his mission. He started traveling around and preaching the gospel. What happened in those eighteen years?

As I said, the gospel was written one hundred and seventy years after Christ. So in that one hundred and seventy years a lot of things were missing from the truth. It has been said that he traveled to other lands. He went to Persia. He went to India. He went to Tibet, and came back to Pakistan, etc. So he was with many mystics in different lands.

Even the people who came to see him, the three wise men, already were the mystics. Maybe they talked with his parents and said, "After he becomes twelve years old, we're going to come back and take him with us, because we know he is special and has a unique destiny. That's why we followed the star and we found him. So he is a Great Soul," or "He is the Messiah." They were probably astrologers because they were following the stars. "We know he is a Great Soul and we want to take him to be trained."

He also went to Egypt. We know that. Mary took him to Egypt. In Egypt there were also many mystical schools. So he was very familiar with the Mystical Teachings of the many lands. That's why if you compare the New Testament with the Bhagavad-Gita, you feel it's almost taken word by word from the Bhagavad-Gita.

"No one goes to the Father but through me. I am the light of the world." All these things are exactly like Krishna talking with Arjuna, "I am the light of the world. You go to the truth through Krishna only by concentrating on Krishna all the time," and on and on. The similarities are amazingly striking. Also there is a seminary in India where they have some writings of Esa. They have preserved it.

So all these things show that he was very familiar with the Mystical Teachings of the Far East. And also, yes, he had two wives. He was a Jew and Jews could have more than one wife - at least they used to. They don't do that anymore [all laughing].

 

Question: Can a Catholic, Protestant or Jehovah's Witness still practice their religion if they join the Mission?
 

Maitreya: Can you put new wine in the old skin? You can't do that. What happens to the old skin? It's going to burst, and it won't work.

This is a new wine. It needs a new skin. After you realize that it's a new wine, you just accept it as something new and complete in itself.

As I said, you can't continue your old beliefs if you expand yourself because the whole is greater than the parts. You cannot put a large object into something which is much smaller than that object.

So I guess the answer is very obvious. You cannot put the new wine in the old skin.

 

Question: I am trying to understand how and why each Feast of Tabernacles will be different. Or, is it that I have changed? How can I grow enough to be in tune with you all for the next Feast?
 

Maitreya: That's a good one. Well, of course, after coming to the first Feast, you are going to be different. Just being here and being radiated with God's Grace brings change to every one of us.

It stirs our Spirit to higher and greater things. It's a Call for all of us, and He Calls us. He tells us that is the way He wants us to go and do His Will.

It depends on how much you resist His Will. If you do His Will and you come to this conclusion, "Yes, I want to do Your Will, and I want to be with You and do whatever You want me to do," more and more His Energy is going to envelop you, and you will become much better. The next Feast is going to be greater.

Then you come here and you say, "Oh yeah, that's great, I feel good about this. I love it." But if you don't follow His Will, and you keep doing the old things that you were doing, probably you will have a hard time to come back. You see, whenever you come here, after you leave, you have to realize that a lot of things are going to happen, or change in your life. You're not the same person because when you come to be in the radiation of God, things start changing in your life. You have been lifted and opened to progress forward. You are in a higher level than before. So the old will be taken away and the new will replace it.

It is just like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. What happened to him? He was with the seagulls. He realized that he was a little higher than the other seagulls. He said, "No, I don't want to spend my time just fighting for fish and/or trivialities like the rest of the seagulls. Is that it? Is that what life is all about?

He decided to progress to a greater level. That is why he was rejected by the old. However, he reached a greater Joy later on.

The reason the Feast is going to be a little different than the previous year is because you either did not grow and will have a hard time, or you have grown and you love it more.

 

Question: You said that when we meditate we know ourselves. I don't know really how when we meditate we know ourselves better. Can you share something about this?
 

Maitreya: The Self is within us. Our senses are like wild horses. The Soul and body have been depicted as a chariot and charioteer. The body is the chariot, the Self is the charioteer, and the senses are the five horses carrying the chariot to different places.

As long as the senses are wild, and they are taking us in different directions, we are not in control. The horses are in control. The senses are in control. The senses are the reality of our life. That is when our senses pull us toward the external world. That's when we fall into Maya, because Maya causes the Soul to be bound by the external world and tama guna. That's why we say in our prayer to the Father that through His Grace, "We overcome the power of the tama guna."

What is the power of the tama guna? It's really those principalities that Christ talked about. We work with the principalities. Tama guna is really a principality with many heads. These principalities have created bondage for us.

Now what is the most powerful sense in our body that makes us to go toward the world? Our eyes. Our eyes see it, our hearts desire it. Now we close them. We're closing a very powerful sense. So we're not letting that energy from our eyes go out.

Actually, there is an energy that goes out from the eyes. When you close your eyes, that energy stops going out, it goes inward. You close your senses. By closing your eye sense, you also become more familiar with the other senses in your body.

If you also watch your diet, and eat the foods that do not stir the senses too much, like meat, garlic, onion, coke, coffee, tea -- tea is OK [all laughing]. I drink tea once in awhile that's why I said that. But that doesn't mean if I drink it you can drink it too [all laughing].

You have to be able to bring the energy to higher chakras. If you can do that, you can eat almost anything. But the problem is it's not easy work. That's why if you don't have the ability to do that, it affects you, and it brings the energy lower, and on, and on.

So you keep yourself from sensations that arouse your senses, because senses are very powerful things. Actually, some of the yogis, the people who try to overcome their senses, say, "If you can tame the senses, then you can realize the Self."

Now when your senses are wild and you have no control over them, what happens to the chariot? You have no control over the chariot. It goes wherever the horses want. If you want it to go north, they may go south.

We don't say, "Kill the horses." If you kill the horses you won't have any senses. You are dead. We say, "Tame the horses." Now if you have five tame horses, what do you have? A nice chariot that you can take anywhere you want. You have a good chariot to take you from one place to another, because you have control over the horses. So you have control over your senses.

That comes only by knowing Self. By quieting the senses you start realizing your Self. You start shedding light into your Soul. By putting light into your Soul, any darkness there starts to be dissolved.

As I said, there are principalities in us. People say, "Oh, someone is possessed." They're not kidding. You can be possessed. Possessed by what? Possessed by those principalities. When you put light into that darkness, those creatures start to be dissolved.

Those creatures are really not creatures, they can't stand the light. They just like the darkness. As long as there is no light, everything is dark. The moment you flip the switch and the light comes on, the darkness can't say, "Oh, I'm going to stay. I'm not going to go." That's the end of the darkness. The darkness has to go.

That's what happens within you too. The darkness starts getting dissolved. But you have to keep the light on. You can't just meditate ten minutes today, and for one week don't meditate, then after two weeks say, "I'll meditate another half an hour," then not meditate, and one month later, "I'd better get to the meditation for awhile," and do it for a couple of days, etc.

You have to keep the light going on. Eventually, there are no creatures left. They die. As I said, they cannot live in the light. So in that way you start seeing your Self more and more in the light.

Another way also to know your Self is to have a discerning mind, to see your problems, to look at your problems and the mistakes you make. If you make a mistake, look at it and say, "Yes, I made this mistake."

There are patterns in your life. You can look at the patterns of your life. "I'm getting to this pattern." For example, "I get to this relationship, this relationship ends in bitterness. Right away, or two months later, I enter into another relationship. The same thing happens, on, and on," or whatever pattern is there in your life that goes on and on, and you make the same mistake over and over.

If you look at it then you see, "Oh yeah, there is a pattern happening in my life. I have to break that pattern, that habit." Breaking patterns and habits is not easy. But if you meditate and keep yourself in the light, one day you wake up and you don't even want to have that habit any longer. It just falls away from you. When it falls away, when your pattern falls, you are freer. One day you wake up and you are free from all those creatures that were within you and guiding your life into disaster after disaster.

Then you start talking about higher things, higher thoughts. You start talking about God and His Beauty, His Qualities. As you start talking about Him, you know Him better every day. As you know Him better, you know your Self better.

Most of the time when you give Satsang, you don't give it for other people, you give it for your Self. You hear yourself.

Also there is more than just meditating. For example, you may say, "I want to receive a doctorate in chemistry." If you sit out of the classes without any action you will never receive the degree. You have to get involved. You have to go to elementary school, go to high school, go to college, study, etc. With doing, you learn.

That's why meditation alone will not enlighten you. That is why the Mission is more than just meditating. It is a whole package which you should take in, in whole. The package together, meditation, to have a discerning mind, to do things for God, knowing His Will, accepting His Vision, and getting involved, little by little opens you more and more to the truth. But if you just sit in the room and say, "Oh, I want to become enlightened, I want to know God, I will just meditate," that alone will not work.

So it's more than just meditation.