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When Maharaji first came to the West, almost all this
initiators were Indian followers, and were usually called
mahatmas. In the mid-seventies, Maharaji started ordaining
Western initiators. Premies chosen to be initiators by
Maharaji were envied, and considered to be extremely lucky.
As the following quotes reveal, however, the life of an
initiator was not a bed of roses!
During the mid-1980's, Maharaji discontinued the initiator
program and announced that only he could impart the four
techniques of meditation. Many of the initiators became
instructors, and were given responsibility for preparing
people to receive Knowledge from Maharaji. In the words of
our ex-instructor "This is really what M expects from his
initiators/instructors. This has never been written down
since the late 70s, but this is still the substance of what
he tells them every time he has a meeting with them."
One final historical note: for people who may not be
familiar with the concept of "satsang". "Satsang" is an
Indian word which can be loosely translated as "truth
speaking". Premies all over the world used to hold satsang
meetings every night where they spoke about Maharaji and the
Knowledge. However, premies are now are forbidden to give
satsang, or speak extensively about Maharaji. Instead they
hold meetings where they watch videos of Maharaji
speaking.
Click on the underlined links to go direct to any
section.
- Surrender - Maharaji
compares the importance of meditation to the
importance of surrendering to
him. This is an
interesting look at Maharaji's ideas about what
"practicing Knowledge" entails.
- Sacrifice - Maharaji sets
out the complete sacrifice and surrender required from
Initiators. If you ever thought you might want to be
an initiator, you won't after you read this!
- Danger -Maharaji warns of
the danger of becoming an Initiator if one has not
surrendered to him completely. So that's what happened
to all those guys!
- Havoc - Maharaji explains
what happens to people who receive Knowledge from an
Initiator who is 'in his mind'. Fascinating reading
for those of us who received knowledge from an
initiator!
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The
importance of meditation versus the importance of surrender
to Maharaji
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You really cannot
surrender to Knowledge. Knowledge is within inside of
you, and therefore...it'll affect you if you just start
to surrender to Knowledge. It'll affect you in many
different ways, whereas maybe that day your experience
isn't what it's supposed to be. And for a lot of people,
for two, three years, four years, five years they've been
doing meditation, and their Knowledge experience isn't
exact, isn't correct. But you directly need to really
surrender to Guru Maharaj Ji, because that is a practical
essence which you can physically, spiritually,
consciously surrender to. And by surrendering, then you
have made that assurance happen, and then you can proceed
in Knowledge. - Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Malibu,
January 10, 1977
And everybody has to understand: initiators, or
premies, or people who are working in the office or this
or that. Everybody has to understand what the focus is.
And the thing is, okay, you can have a very conceptual
talk about what the focus really should be. You can have
a big discussion about it. And you can even go into
satsang, service, and meditation. But above and beyond
all those things, you have to understand that Guru
Maharaj Ji really is the focus. Because without Guru
Maharaj Ji, first of all, the satsang doesn't manifest.
And the service doesn't manifest. And leave it to
meditation, when you can't do service and satsang, then
automatically meditation is not going to manifest. It's
as simple as that. - Guru Maharaj Ji, Initiator
Conference, Malibu, April 22, 1978
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The
complete sacrifice and surrender required from
Initiators
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Would you like to
become an initiator? You really have to look at it: not
your desire, not your will, not that somebody told you to
become one. It's just a very flat, very basic question.
Are you really at the point of surrender to be able to
become an initiator? And that's the question that you can
answer.
And another thing you have to understand is just that
it's not a matter of your options. You can't say that
"okay, I can surrender now, and I'll take it back
tomorrow." Because this is not a society you are
surrendering to; this is not a contract that you are
signing. This is really from your heart, of your true
heart, to the true person. It's not like just some Joe
Blow that you do this to, you know: "okay, I'll say I
will come, and then if I can't, I will just tell him so."
IT'S REALLY SERIOUS. - Guru Maharaj Ji, lDP Satsang,
Rome, November 22, 1977
But the fact is, it is not just going out and giving
techniques; it's holding your whole life together,
twenty-four hours a day, so that when that moment of
morning or evening or afternoon arises when you have to
impart Knowledge, you're in synch. Because it's like,
giving Knowledge is a very simply-seen service. But it's
not; it's very sophisticated. It's a very integrated
service where a lot of sacrifice has to be there. -
Guru Maharaj Ji, Frankfurt Conference, November 29,
1976
An initiator has to cut out all his connections, because
he is dedicating his life. In every sense of the word
dedicating his life, not just imaginatorily. ...You have
to be completely on your own. No more inputs. No more
feed coming into you from anywhere else except from Guru
Maharaj Ji. - Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Malibu,
January 17, 1978
You know, a person has to be totally a part of Guru
Maharaj Ji's world. You have to start looking at it in
terms of two worlds. There are two worlds: there's this
world and then there is Guru Maharaj Ji's world, which
[are] exclusive. It's a world where
there is not much materialism happening, or none
whatsoever; it's just a lot of Knowledge. It's just a lot
of love. And a lot of premies are in that world.
They're not out there, they're in there in this Guru
Maharaj Ji's world. But an initiator has to be pretty
much in the core of it. He just can't be anywhere in the
whole atmosphere of the other world. He has to be right
in the center, dead center, and he has to be really,
really clear. - Guru Maharaj Ji, Frankfurt
Conference, November 29, 1976
And there is a specific role of an initiator. And
really, in one way you can say, "Well, of course, he
travels, he gives Knowledge to people, he gives Knowledge
reviews, and he gives satsang." But that's action. The
role of an initiator, specifically, really is to
surrender, to be a channel of Guru Maharaj Ji. That's the
role. Otherwise, traveling, and giving satsang, and all
this other people can do. I mean, there are so many other
premies that give very beautiful satsang. So it's not a
matter of giving satsang. And then it's not a matter of
traveling, because there are so many people traveling in
this world all the time. But the most important thing is
that we become, in a way, more and more part of that
surrendered thing, of that surrendered being, to Guru
Maharaj Ji. - Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Rome,
November 22, 1977
Initiator is a special
service. It is a service like any other, but you have to
understand it is a special service, because when you look
at it, it is a little different. As an initiator, you are
totally surrendering yourself in a way where you're used
like a tool, period. - Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang,
Malibu, January 10, 1977
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The danger of
becoming an Initiator if one has not surrendered to
Maharaji
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But the thing is that
the service of initiator is demanded on the highest
standard of Knowledge realizations, so the person is not
confused. Because if you are confused, then it's better
to walk away from it all. Because I'll tell you one thing
from my practical experience. Every person that I have
seen who was a full initiator, and then got confused,
just got completely disastrous. From that point on, they
were just leading a disastrous life. Because mind then
begins to actually manifest. A simple example of this is
that the higher you are, the harder you fall. If you are
just a little glass and yet fall from a short distance,
what is done? Maybe you can pick it and put some glue on
it and put it together. But the higher you go, the worse
it's going to be. And that means, when you shatter, it's
going to be impossible to put you back together. -
Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Malibu, January 10,
1977
What do you have to ask yourself? What do you have to
answer yourself? That what Guru Maharaj Ji will be giving
us is an incredible amount of Grace, is an incredible
amount of energy, it's an incredible amount of thing,
that he'll be giving us for us to be able to go and do
this work, do his work. "Now am I in fact capable of
withstanding such an amount of Grace, such an amount of
energy, or not?" And then, if you break that down
further, it goes, "Well, is mind into me too much?"
It's like if you're wearing metal right on your wrist,
and somebody comes and touches you with an electric wire
or a heat or something, wherever that metal goes,
wherever that metal touches your body, it's going to
electrocute you. And that's where the intensity is going
to be.....But if it's all over your body, then it's not
the matter of feeling the sensation in one place, you'll
be feeling it all over! And then at that point it might
be dangerous for you; you might actually get killed! You
might get electrocuted right here and everywhere. And
this is what you have to understand: "Am I to the point
where this metal, this mind, that conducts this
electricity, this craziness, am I free of that, or is it
in fact all over me? So when this energy actually comes,
there will be such an opposition happening, there will be
such an incredible amount of throw, there will be such an
incredible amount of fight happening between mind and
that Grace, that not only my little finger will get hurt,
but my whole body will almost explode?"
And that has even happened to a lot of people. It's just
like when that Grace came through, they weren't prepared
for it. When that energy came through, they weren't
prepared for it. When actually everything started to
happen, they weren't prepared for it. And it was just
that simple, that they were so dipped in mind, that it
wasn't just one place, it wasn't just one thing, it's
just they completely got
shattered. - Guru Maharaj Ji,
IDP Satsang, Malibu, July 14, 1977
I mean, these initiators; this
is not an easy service to do, believe me. I think they
will agree with that too. Because, they have to really,
really surrender. If one moment of their life they are
not surrendered, they'll bounce like a bad check. -
Guru Maharaj Ji, Hans Jayanti, Rome, November 12,
1977
Initiators are like a very sensitive thing. They are at
the safest spot and they are at the most unsafest spot.
They make one mistake, and boom, out they go. - Guru
Maharaj Ji, Initiator Conference, Denver, July l2,
1975
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What happens
to people who receive Knowledge from an Initiator who is 'in
his mind'
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... if you are sitting
in a Knowledge session and your mind kicks in, that's a
havoc. That's very dangerous. Because you know what you
might be doing? You might be taking your mind, amplifying
it about 300,000 times, and giving it to this poor guy
who is just completely like dedicated to Guru Maharaj Ji,
and who just wants to receive that most incredible gift
of his life. Ready to receive the most incredible Grace.
Ready to receive the most incredible I mean, ready to
fulfill the purpose of his life. And you might blow
it.
You might get straightened out the next day. Your mind
Mister Mind can just, you know, take a vacation for one
day. But never for that guy. once he is confused, he is
confused. - Guru Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Malibu,
February 3, 1978
Service for an initiator is the
experience that they get when they give Knowledge. Why?
Because Guru Maharaj Ji has given them a specific agya.
Guru Maharaj Ji has given them a specific Grace. Without
Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace,it's very simple to give
Knowledge; it's very simple to do this or do that. But
there is going to be no fruit of that action. That
Knowledge that you are going to give to somebody is going
to be more confusing to that being than it is going to
help him even once single cent's worth. Because without
Guru Maharaj Ji's Grace, it doesn't work. I'm telling
you, it doesn't work. Because it is not supposed to work,
and it just doesn't work. - Guru Maharaj Ji, Hans
Jayanti, Rome, November 12, 1977
There is this tape recorder. And in this tape
recorder, in all the functions that it has, it has one
function, one thing which is a head. And that head is an
initiator. And the function of the head is that what
comes in through the microphone directly goes onto the
tape. And on the end of the microphone is Guru Maharaj
Ji. And so what Guru Maharaj Ji is saying, you take it.
And the tape is the public, people, the premies, the
people who want Knowledge,who are blank in their lives,
or what they have on them in their lives is truly
meaningless. And by becoming a part of that whole
schematic, then when Guru Maharaj Ji speaks, the purpose
goes in, goes through the whole procedure, but it comes
out into the head [initiator] and goes
into the tape [the person hearing the
initiator].
But if simultaneously when Guru
Maharaj Ji was speaking, you had your stereo turned on,
which was also putting out input into the tape recorder,
then what are you going to get? You're going to get a
mixed sound. Where is this mixed sound going to really
go? This mixed sound is going to go onto the tape
[the person hearing the initiator]. And
therefore, not saving the clarity that the thing that
Guru Maharaj Ji is trying to put out; it's going to be
mixed with something else. And therefore it defeats the
purpose of the microphone; it defeats the purpose of the
tape recorder. And when that happens, you just take the
whole thing and throw it out the window. - Guru
Maharaj Ji, IDP Satsang, Malibu, January 17, 1978
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