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Maharaji on Materialism

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You can't experience love through materialistic things, because they come and go - they'll make you feel sad. Right ? They'll just make you sad, more and more. Because, you know this thing is going to be destroyed one day. You know it. You love it, and your desire grows intense, and then one day that thing has to be destroyed. And when it's destroyed, what kind of love is that ? (June 29, 1973 - Denver Indian Center)


YOUR complete happiness is based upon these small things, Oh, my car! Oh, my wife! Oh, my two kids ! Oh, my little house ! Oh, my business ! Oh, my money ! Oh, my bank account ! It's like taking a jack in two pieces, and taking one piece on top of each and lifting up a seven or eight ton truck; then going right under the tire to fix it. If that's where you are completely passing your happiness, then you haven't got too many chances to stay happy. (December 2, 1971)


The real thing in the world cannot be bought by artificial things. Money is artificial. Money is produced. Money is not real. It goes, it comes. It is with you one moment. But a real thing is with you all the time. All these things in the world that we are looking for as real, they are not real. The real thing is that which is making us survive. (June28, 1973 - Boulder)


IN this world there is no peace, no harmony, no love. Why not ? Because the whole world does not exist. It is the time that is the factor in between. The whole world doesn't exist - nothing exists.

Because, today you are seeing this hall, now you are seeing this hall. After some time, may be 500 years, 200 years or something like that, may be this hall will fall down. And may be after one thousand years or two thousand years there might not be even ruins of it left. And may be, after that nobody will be knowing that there was a hall.

So there, it never existed in time before, and now it's existing, and then again there will be a time where it does not exist. It's the factor of time. And time brings in things, and takes away things.

And time really itself does not exist, because it's always moving. So if you want to realize something, you will have to get out of this world, get out to the reality. (June 17,1973 - Los Angeles)


But see, it is this whole thing, that some people have become so involved in this materialism that for them something so truthful, something so blissful doesn't even exist. And so, that same materialism, that same thing, that, they were using it wrong, or they could use it in right purpose, they are using it in a completely wrong way, in a completely wrong manner. While those other guys who realize this Knowledge, who have understood this secrecy, they are using same materialism to spread this Knowledge.

Q: When meditating, is it possible to defeat all illness ?

Ans: Why do you take Knowledge ? Why do you to Meditation ?

Q: To find, to find what God is.

Ans: You want to attain peace, right ? So suppose, I know that this particular car can solve my purpose to take me from this place to that place. If I think it is an aeroplane and if I take it to the runway and put it at full speed, can it serve the purpose of an aeroplane ? No. In the same way, Meditation is for peace. It is not a medicine to take away our illnesses.

Why is illness created ? Illness is created because it is a punishment for us. If I take my bath in a warm water and come out into cold, I will have a fever, right ? So that is a punishment. It is to tell us, to indicate to us, that this is absolutely wrong, that this is out of law. It shows that it is illegal in the eyes of nature to do this. But if we stay like a human being as we are supposed to stay, no illness can come towards us. If we stay neat and clean, tidy, pure in heart and pure in body, no illness can come to us. But because we don't stay like human beings, illness just runs towards us.

I don't think illnesses should come to us, but they do come, because we aren't pure in heart and we aren't pure in body.

That's all. And so it is good to give a punishment. Welcome it, because it will teach you a lesson. But once you know the lesson, you shouldn't commit the mistake a second time. Understand ?

TODAY human beings are not human beings. In fact, they are lower than animals, because animals at least have love for and faith in their master, but human beings have respect for nothing. They have only one attachment and that to Maya. But Maya does not understand devotion and love. Maya has only one function and that is torture people with delusion. So that is why I am asking you to know the Holy Name of God, because that will take away all these things.

YOU know how a mousetrap is ? More you go into it, more you get trapped. And this whole world is a mousetrap. More you walk into it, more you get trapped, harder it becomes to get out of it. (May 2, 1974)


PEOPLE who are sleeping under the blanket of wealth, think that wealth is the source. Someone has created that wealth. If you go to the source, you get everything - as much wealth as you want. (December 2, 1971)


LISTEN, if it is somebody's birthday or a marriage, or any other occasion, we always take a present for him. But the present has only a momentary existence. There is love in it. For one moment alone it belongs to the person, but in reality the present belongs neither to the giver nor to the receiver. It belongs to Him who takes it back from you.

I say, this place belongs to stone, truly it does belong to the stone, but in reality it must disintegrate and become one with the earth. In the same way, this body was given to us by Him and He will take it back from us. Now what we should do is, whatever time we've got, we should try to know Him. This is the kind of game in which God has purposely put man into. We must find the answer. In a way He has put us into delusion; we must get out of it. If we succeed in getting out of this delusion, then we have fulfilled the objective of life. (April 12, 1971)


THERE is darkness in this world, and there is light, and it is completely up to you which one you want to pick. (September 17, 1971)


WHAT is materialism ? To have a beautiful car, to have so many things around you - this is materialism. Sometimes the car breaks down, then you pay money for it to be repaired. It is a fine. Sometimes television break down, and you pay money for it to be repaired. It is also a fine. Really, it is a fine. You are being fined. So why do you have things, for which you will be fined ? We must put ourselves on the middle path in this world - not too low, not too high.

Should the temperature of your body be '0' degree Centigrade, or should it be 140 degree Centigrade ? No, it should be 35°, it should be normal.

There are three types of levels. One is the most Materialistic and one is the most Natural; but neither materialistic living nor natural living can help you. The level that will help you, is the middle one. And when you know this Knowledge, you know the secret of 'being in the middle'. (September 17, 1971)


THE whole world is a beautiful story to look at. Something is coming and going out of the world, we see. One drop coming into the world, one man coming into the world. One drop going out, one man going out. You see, throughout his lifetime, see how he crosses his lifetime! See how he crosses his lifetime! Sometimes he fights, sometimes he loves, sometimes he hates. It's all a story. (December 2, 1971)


WE have to be like a lotus flower, like a lily. This lotus flower is found in India and many other countries also. This flower grows in water, in dirty water, but it never touches this water. It is always away from this water. If the water level will rise, the level of this flower will also rise. We have to be all like a lotus.

This materialistic world is rising, but we have to be still higher than this materialistic world. We can't touch this materialistic world, because as soon as we start touching it, the vibrations of imperfection start touching us and make us imperfect. (November 2, 1971)


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