INTRODUCTORY SATSANG

John Norton .D.

For a number of years I was a medical doctor, and it was in-credible because every time parents would come in with their little child, about one or two years old, they'd always tell me "This kid is a complete genius! He's walking! He's learning how to use his hands!" You know, all these incredible miracles that were occurring. And I'd just look at them and I'd go, "Well yeah, it is! It is incredible! It is a total miracle that somehow this one little tiny cell that you can't even see somehow grows into this in-credible machine that can do so many things! I mean, that's an incredible miracle!"

But it happens very naturally. You don't take a kid who's just been born, throw him up in the air four times and he starts to walk. Say secret words over him, abracadabra, and the kid just gets up, and says, "Thanks. I'm glad you released me from this spell, this bondage of delusion and illusion I was in. I didn't know I could walk. I didn't know I could talk." And just gets up and starts moving about. It doesn't happen like that. It's a natural thing.

And in the same way Perfect Master takes us from our ignorance, from our deep ignorance of what we are so that we keep on making up all these identities for ourselves. And we make them up and we try to sustain them, "Yes, I'm good. Today I've decided I'm good."

And then halfway through the day, "Maybe I'm not good; may-be I'm bad. Am I bad? It was my toilet training, that was the problem."

"Now wait a minute, I have a few accomplishments, I'm okay. And someone loves me and so I must be okay," and we just go through this torture, this agony, of somehow trying to make up our life! And what Guru Maharaj Ji is showing is that inside of us there's such a beautiful life. There's such a beautiful peace. There's such a beautiful love that just occurs naturally, that we don't have to make up, that we don't have to sustain, that we don't have to create, that is. That always is. Always has been; always will be.

And how does he show it to us? He reveals it. He shows us within inside of ourselves that there's some place that we can concentrate to know that bubbling brook of consciousness, that beautiful, beautiful place. He shows us how to concentrate in-side. He reveals Light within us. And that Light is like an electric light, or a moon light, or a sun light, but it's different. The quality of it is different. The experience of it is different.

And that Light has been de-scribed in all the world's scriptures. Even people who have al-most died, they describe that Light. And they talk about it as being home, that it's self-effulgent, that when one can dwell, can meditate in that . . .

Meditation just means concentration. Everyone meditates. People meditate on money, people meditate on TV, people meditate on themselves, people meditate on other people — whatever you concentrate upon, that's what you experience in this life. To be able to experience that Divine Light ! It's as if you were very, very dirty — you've been working and sweating, and you begin to feel itchy and you begin to feel really yukky — and what you really want to do is take a shower. You just want that water to run over you and to wash yourself. When one can experience that Divine Light, when one can focus on that, that Light washes over us. It transforms us. It removes the darkness; it removes the confusions. It removes the pains, some of which have existed for years and years and years, and you don't even hardly know about them.

And that's an incredible experience. And Guru Maharaj Ji also reveals within us what's called the Holy Name, or the Word of God, which again is mentioned in all of the world's scriptures, as an experience, not as an idea. But as an experience — that there is a life force within us, that there is a primordial vibration, whatever you want to call it.

Because these are just names, you know. This is a micro-phone. But what's a micro-phone? It has a function. That Holy Name is what sustains our life. When you can experience it, and meditate on it, it's a company inside. It's a dwelling place. It's a refuge; it's incredible. You can't describe it.

And this is almost the frustration of this Knowledge, in a way. It's almost like the frustration of satsang, although it's not a frustrating experience. It's incredibly beautiful to be able to share what this experience is. But you can't describe it. All you can do is become thirsty and really want to experience it. And then it can be revealed.

People say, "I'm thirsty, and I need water." How do you know you need water? Maybe you need sand. Maybe you need a pumpkin. How do we know that water is good when you're thirsty?

Because when you're thirsty and you drink the water, it quenches your thirst. You feel satisfied. You say, "Wow, I don't feel thirsty anymore." And the same thing is true with Know-ledge. When you experience it, it quenches such a thirst, it fills such an emptiness. Because I know in this life, not only for myself, but for so many people, that there needs to be — it's not like this Knowledge is an optional thing. It's not like Perfect Master comes into this world and it's optional — "Okay, very nice to see you". . .

People lived at the time of Christ. Some people knew him. Maybe some people knew about him. Maybe some people just, "Eh — it doesn't concern me. Forget it." And yet then he goes and the whole world comes together and says, "My God! There was a divine being here. There was one who could re-veal, who could transport, who could guide us into an experience which is essential to a human life."

Because to live in this world, and just do all the things that people do and not realize, not really know the true purpose of this human life, not to experience that supreme experience — that's a waste. It's a tragedy. It's a loss. Because we are here to experience one thing. We've been given this life to experience one thing. And that thing is the most precious thing. And yet because of our ignorance and our lack of understanding, we can pass it by. We can just think that it's unimportant. And yet every single person in this world, every single person that's examined this life, knows there has to be some-thing that corresponds to what-ever tradition you want to be in, whether you want to call it enlightenment, or nirvana, or the kingdom of heaven, or liberation, or salvation, or wisdom, or all of these words that people talk about.

And people just kind of may-be get a glimpse of it once or twice or three times in their life. I once read in Reader's Digest that something like 60 of the American people have had a 'mystical experience,' a moment when this whole so-called physical reality which we exist in, when one's personality and ego and ideas all of a sudden left, and there was this whole other dimension, this whole other reality which was much more real, much more beautiful, than any of the physical things, any of the mental things, any of the things that we think. And people love those experiences, seek those experiences, in so many ways.

And maybe sometimes we get so sleepy that we go, "Nah, I'd rather just go to sleep." And the Perfect Master comes — when Guru Maharaj Ji comes — be-cause Guru Maharaj Ji is very honest about himself. Guru Maharaj Ji's very direct about himself. And those of us that have experienced the blessed gift that he has to give, we're just kind of struck with an honesty about it. At least for me, I al-ways told stories my whole life. You know, whatever there was to say, you say it. But there's such a thing that's going on now, that when there is one who can reveal it, who not only reveals it but guides, with so much love, with so much tenderness, with so much compassion, you know, like a father, like a mother — it's totally extraordinary!

And I know that I could never make it up as beautifully as Guru Maharaj Ji is revealing it. It's so beyond imagination; it's so be-yond any suggestion. I remember when I was a doctor, I'd tell my patients about meditation, and all these things, and they'd say, "You're sure it's not self-hypnosis?" And it was such a joke to me, because I can't even imagine, I can't even suggest the beauty that exists, that Guru Maharaj Ji is revealing. I can't even compare the love that I feel towards Guru Maharaj Ji, the security that there is in his guidance. I can't compare that to anything that I ever thought, be-cause it's more. It's more beautiful. It's more real. It's more honest; it's more true.

And this experience that by Guru Maharaj Ji's grace he's opened up in so many people is not anything new. It's not some-thing that is a 20th-century phenomenon, "Okay, here it is, this is the package that we're going to make up."

It's ancient. It's the most eternal thing. It was there before there was any thought. It was there before automobiles. It was there from the beginning. And it's such an amazing thing now, that there is an opportunity to simply come and to test it, to experience it, to know it.

What's being said here is no little thing. In one way, I wish I could say, "Okay, take it or leave it, this is a little thing." But it's not. It's the knowledge of all knowledges. It's the very basis of a human life. It's what every human being is born for. It's the true purpose of this life.

There are three tests that a person can have to know if this is really true. One test is, what are those people that are practicing this Knowledge really experiencing? Is it a true experience? And you can sense that. You can see that. You can feel that. But you have to be careful, because it's like that little child growing. It's an evolving thing. It's not like, "Presto Chango." It's a practice; it's an evolving thing.

The second test is, what is it like to listen to Guru Maharaj Ji, to see Guru Maharaj Ji, to really open up and see? Is he real? Be-cause if there is such a thing as a Perfect Master, and if the Perfect Master does come into this world — if Lord does come to really save, to really reveal, to really transform a human life into perfection — then there has to be something in us that can re-cognize Him. Otherwise it would be completely absurd; it would be unending misery. You know, here we are and we don't really know what we're doing here and there are all these problems and all these things, and there's someone that can take us out of it, there's someone that can save us, but we don't know who he is. It's guessing. It's like, "Oh, well, maybe it's Him. Maybe it isn't.

But there has to be something else. And there is something in us that recognizes. And when that recognition comes, it comes. There's no doubt; there's no question. It's real. It's like drinking that glass of water, or feeling the beauty of the sunshine. It's completely natural.

And the third test is what hap-pens when a person really does start to practice Knowledge, really does accept that gift, and begins to unfold in that experience. Then what's the trans-formation? What's the change that goes on? What is it like?

And those are the three tests we have. I know everyone that comes to hear about Guru Maharaj Ji, to hear about Know-ledge, comes with some degree of, "Maybe. I hope so. Could be. Why not?"

And as you go along, I know for me that thing that was going, "Could be. Maybe. Why not?" just grew and grew, until finally this thing says, "Nah, couldn't be."

It was just dissolved in such an incredible experience. And so all I can really do, in one way, is just exclaim, describe, try and in-crease understanding of what this experience is. But in another way, all it is is just to invite, to really just invite you into this experience. To investigate it, to 'check it out,' or to 'open up to it' — however you might want to put it. Because the value of it is in the experience of it. It's not in just talking about it.

These words are just words, but they stand for something. They stand for an experience which will always go on. Before Columbus sailed around this world, was the world flat or was it round? His sailing around didn't make it round. My de-scribing the Knowledge of all knowledge as adequately as I can, doesn't make it real or un-real. It exists. And because of its existence, everything exists. Because of the existence of Perfect Master, this Knowledge can be realized, can be known, can be enjoyed.

John Norton is an M.D. who left his medical practice in the Washington, D.C. area in 1977 to become an initiator/or Guru Maharaj Ji. This is an excerpt from an introductory program at which he spoke.

8 DIVINE TIMES