Maharaji:
The Need To Feel

What have we done with our ability to think? What have we actually accomplished with this incredible tool of thought?

It reminds me of the time when, one day, I found a tool on my desk - some kind of a gadget. A note said, "This is a gift for you," but the person hadn't left their name. And for days afterwards, I would try to figure out what this thing did.

I never could, and I still haven't figured out what it is supposed to do. Is this incredible tool of thought like that, too - something that just sits on the desk and we wonder, "What can I do with it?"

Because what have we done with this gift of thought? One thing we think we can do is to think about the future, but can we really, or can we just imagine the future? The future is hypothetical, and when it becomes reality, it's not the same as we thought it would be. And then there is the past - the memories. If you look at a picture of somebody that you really loved, but they are no longer around, you cannot say, "I love you," and hear them saying, "I love you, too." It is gone. So then what is left? What is left is this unique thing called reality, and reality is not too far away - it is in the moment called now, in the moment called the present. And in this moment called the present, there is something that is so different from thinking, and that is feeling.

You can think about food, but it is feeling hungry that will actually lead to eating food and satisfying your hunger. And it is in this moment called now that there is a very real thirst, a thirst that addresses the desire to be fulfilled.

Fulfillment does not come from the great monuments we build for each other. There is a monument that a French president had brought from Egypt about 150 years ago - a monument that was originally built for Ramses the Second. And it says on the monument, "May this monument to you be there…" and I am paraphrasing, "…as long as the heavens last. May your name endure as long as do the heavens."

Yet, today, how many of us go around our daily routine saying, "Ramses the Second, Ramses the Second?" I mean, how many times during the course of a day does the name, "Ramses the Second" actually hit us? Very few. In those days though, in 3,000 B.C., everybody was talking about him. It was an incredible civilization, and they were quite advanced.

But what happened? The monument is sitting in Paris with all the French cars going around and around it. In Egypt, people are working in the hot desert sun day and night trying to restore the incredible monuments that were erected. Are the heavens still there? Yes. Do people still want to go to heaven? Yes. And many more people think about heaven than think about Ramses the Second. He's not on the list of priorities of things to think about these days.