Maitreya: That's a good question. Satsang really means good company. But in another sense it means, company or people who talk about God. We had a Satsang last night on, "Why everything we do good is from God and whatever we don't do good is not from God, it's from ego."

I said, because if you look at the word God, it's G O D. And the word good is, G O O D. It just has one "O" more. So whatever is good is God. But whatever is not good is not God.

Good company means the company who gather together and talk about God. They want to know God. They want to know Spirit.

Some people call it discourse, or sermon, but we found that the Sanskrit name for the same thing is Satsang. "Sat" means truth. Like "Sat Chit Ananda," in Sanskrit means, truth, consciousness and bliss. So Satsang means talking about the truth, being connected with the Spirit.

Question: Could you tell us how the Temple works in conjunction with the Communities of Light?
 

Maitreya: Because we have new people in the audience with us tonight, we have to go into more detail. How many of the newcomers in the audience know about the Temple and the Communities of Light? None?

Probably everyone noticed this Sign behind me on the wall (The Greatest Sign). The whole teaching of Maitreya, or the Eternal Divine Path, is based on that Sign. I'm sure some of you noticed the symbol () in the middle. That probably disturbed you a little bit. A lot of people think it looks like a swastika. They say, "Oh, no, that's a swastika they have in that Sign." That's why we call it the Lotustica, not swastika.

The swastika can be found in many cultures all through the earth. American Indians had it. Africans had it. It is there in Asia. Even in the Celtic teachings in Europe, if you look at their teaching and their symbols, you'll see they have the same shape of that sign.

Unfortunately Hitler misused it. It is just like every power in the universe. Just like a knife in the hand of a surgeon, or in the hand of a killer, the knife in itself really doesn't have any good or bad in it. A very sharp knife in the hand of a surgeon can be used to heal. Put it in the hand of a killer, and it can be used to kill. So nothing is good or evil in itself. It depends on how it is used.

That's true also about the Swastika. Actually you will see, Hitler tilted the sign, it is not the straight sign, he tilted the sign. The same power which can be used to heal, is used to kill.

If you can go beyond that little misunderstanding, and you don't become too much concerned about that sign, then you can see the other signs there. You can see the I-Ching (), the sign of Solomon (), the cross (), then the star and moon () which represents Islam, the nine-pointed star () which is the Baha'i teaching, and the last sign which is the Kingdom of Heaven Within You (), etc.

We can see that the first sign at the very bottom actually represents two signs. One is the I-Ching in the middle (), and the rest is the lotus and the Lotustica () in the center.

The I-Ching is representative of the Mystical Paths on earth, any Mystical Path like, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mystical Christianity, Cabbala in the Jewish religion, Sufism in Islam, or any religion or study that relates to the Mystical understanding. All of them really seek to realize the relationship between man and God. The basis of every Mystical Path and every Mystical Teaching is, "What is the place of man in the universe? What is the relationship between man and God?" And because God is infinite, you can look at Him from many different angles. That is why explaining this relationship and God is never-ending, it is infinite.

If you're in a sphere and you look at the center, you can see it from infinite different angles, and explain the center from your point of view (where you are in any moment). It depends on where you are standing in that sphere. When you look at the center, you see that center differently from each angle.

That's why we see these mystical people have different experiences with God. But with all of them, God is indescribable. They are trying to describe something that is indescribable.

When you have that experience with Him, you come back and you say, "I can't describe It. That was wonderful. I felt so wonderful. I felt the Universal Mind. He always knows everything. He's Omnipotent. He's Omniscience, Omnipresent. But I can't explain It." It's just an experience that you have to have yourself before you can even think what God really is.

That is a personal experience. Knowing God is a personal experience. It has nothing to do with your religion. It has nothing to do with dogma. You have to experience God. That's why there are so many different explanations of God.

We have Hinduism. The goal of the Hindu is to become one with God, become a drop in the ocean. The explanation is, "Each of us are like a drop of water, as an individual. When you realize God, you just put that drop in the ocean, the drop becomes the ocean itself."

The Cabbalah tries to explain it as the Tree of Life. You go from one level to another level, and you eventually reach the ultimate destination which is to become one with God.

Mystical Christianity explains God in many different ways according to the Saint who had the same experience. But all of these people who experience God have one thing in common, they have an attraction that comes through them. Their whole life evolves around God. That's the most important thing for them. Everything else falls away. Religion, race, language, anything that separates man from man, no longer exists for them, because they see that they are all from God.

If all of us are from God, then where is the separation? I can't separate myself from a black, or a yellow, or a white, or a Chinese, or a Spanish, or an American, or any person from another nation. There is no separation left, because you are from God. When you are from God there is no separation. All those prejudices fall apart.

That's why you see Mother Theresa travels all over the world. At least she used to. She gives blessings to everyone. It doesn't matter where they are, she goes to them, because she had an experience with God. When you have an experience, everything else falls away.

So you can see that the Mystical Paths () all relate to that part of the human, the relationship between man and God. You can see that the I-Ching really covers all the Mystical Paths on earth.

Then we come across the Old Testament. We see, now God sends Scriptures to a Prophet. The Prophets come to the scene, and they start bringing Scriptures to humanity.

What does the Old Testament talk about? The whole Old Testament is about God trying to choose a people for Himself (the twelve tribes of Israel) who accept Him as their God. They accept Him as their King. They accept His Laws as their own Laws. They accept Him as the focus of their tribe and become One with Him.

The whole Old Testament shows us the creation of the communities that are based on God. So the second sign, or the sign of Solomon (), relates to the communities, the communities based on God. That's why we call them the Communities of Light. The Communities of Light are the communities which bring God to the community. Those communities become the Communities of Light.

Now, how can we create such communities? In the Communities of Light, the only way we can really be a community that is based on God and will hold together is, if there is some compromise, some sacrifice from everyone in the community.

As we studied in the wedding ceremony, when you learn how to sacrifice for one another in the bond of marriage, then you can also learn how to sacrifice in the communities, and adjust and expand your learning to the universe. But if you cannot sacrifice in the bond of marriage, you cannot sacrifice in the communities either.

So in the third sign (), which is the sign of Christianity, we can see the whole theme of the New Testament is, Christ went all the way to the cross for his ideal, for something that he brought to humanity. So sacrifice really is the message he brings to humanity. Without sacrifice, it's impossible to create a Community of Light.

Of course, he had other reasons to come. If you read our main book, The Holiest Of The Holies (THOTH), The Last Testament you will see it explains very clearly why Christ was prophesied to come, why each of these religions had been sent by God one after another, and how they compliment one another, to reveal The Greatest Sign to us.

Each of them is as important as the other one. Each of them is necessary in The Greatest Sign. They are a part of the greater truth. So the whole becomes greater than the parts. Each religion is brought together in this whole and it unifies them all together.

Therefore, what is the second step in creating the Communities of Light? Not only do we have to create these communities, we also have to not be self-centered, just like Christ wasn't self-centered. He came here and said, "This is my mission. God told me that you have to love one another as I love you, that you have to become communities that sacrifice for one another. You have to forgo your egos to bring about these communities." Of course, he was crucified for what he preached because there was a lot of opposition to what he said.

As we know, it was prophesied that he would be crucified. That crucifixion has another meaning. That was the end of killing all the lambs and the rituals the Jews were doing. The Grace was released to humanity. It was no longer necessary to do all those sacrifices to receive The Grace. Christ died instead.

How are we going to gain our salvation? Our salvation is by Grace, it's not by sacrificing animals, or by our work, etc. Grace is our salvation. There are, of course, other things related to the coming of any Messiah or Christ, and that was also a part of Christ's coming.

So to create such a community, sacrifice or not being self-centered, is necessary. But when we sacrifice, still we might become attached to the result of our action.

We sacrifice a lot and nothing happens. So we become very discouraged and we say, "I'm putting so much effort to guide people to come to the Communities of Light and create the Communities of Light, and no one is responding, or very few are responding." So we become discouraged and say, "Oh, it's not working, it's no good."

Or, when you do something good and things start happening, you become egoistical and say, "Look, I'm doing all this. I'm such a wonderful person, etc. I'm doing all these things in the communities and I'm receiving much praise."

The ego either is inflated, or deflated. So our life becomes like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down. That is when submission or surrendering comes in. The next sign, the meaning of Islam, is to be surrendered and submissive to God. Of course, submission does not mean that I sit here, do nothing and say, "OK, I'm submissive to God. God is going to do everything for me."

No, you do your best, whatever is necessary to be done, but surrender the result to God. Say, "OK, I'll do the best I can, now the result belongs to You." That is called surrendering.

If it happened and it was good, it was God. If it didn't happen, or it wasn't good, "I did something wrong, I have to be more discerning about my action and the way I did it," so you learn your lesson. The next time you try to do it in a better way. With this, you are never attached to the results of your actions.

In the Communities of Light, if everyone goes to the Spirit and comes from the Spirit, all are going to manifest great things in the Spirit because everything they do in the Spirit is going to have great fruit.

So in surrendering you leave the result of your actions to the Lord. In submission you let the Lord work through you. You are not the doer, God is the doer. With surrendering and submission your ego never becomes inflated, or never is deflated. You become a steady, constant person.

Actually the depression that a lot of people feel is related to being attached to the result of their actions. We want to be successful. We try hard and it doesn't happen. Instead we should look beyond the action, see the Spirit behind it, and say, "OK, the Spirit is trying to tell me something. What I am doing is not working, so maybe the Spirit wants me somewhere else. The Spirit wants me to do something else. Spirit is trying to reveal something to me here. What is it?"

When we become caught up in the appearances, to our success, to the things we want to do, not to what God wants us to do, then we do not see straight. That is when we become attached to the result of what we want, and because it is not happening the way we want, we become depressed. Look to the Spirit for answers, pray.

But as we meditate more, and we become more into Spirit, we realize what He wants us to do. So He becomes the doer and we become the enjoyer. As long as we are the doer, God sits there and watches, because as we said, He's Omnipresent and He's the Witness Entity. He Witnesses everything and He Sees everything.

He looks at you and says, "You are working hard." You say, "Yes, I'm going to do this. I'm going to be successful." And He sits there and just laughs at you, "OK, go ahead. We will see how long you're going to do it, how long you can try and fail." You fail because you cannot see the whole picture. God (Spirit) succeeds because He sees the whole picture.

But the moment you say, "No, no, God, Father, or Mother, or Great Spirit," or whatever you want to call Him, Jehovah, Allah, Krishna, whatever, "You are the Doer, I am the witness entity. I'm just going to look at it to see what lies in store for me. What do you want me to do in my life? I'm no longer the driver of the chariot. I will sit back in the chariot and You drive the chariot for me." He will take charge. Spirit becomes the doer.

Well, who is the witness entity, and who is the worker? Now you become the witness entity, and you will see, a new life starts forming around you. You will see the Spirit is working without you even picking up one finger. It's going to happen by itself because the Spirit is now working for you.

Of course, you act. You don't sit there and do nothing. But all the time you know, it's not you who is the doer. You are just the witness entity. You see things happen wonderfully. That is submission. You are submissive to God.

See, the less of you is there, the more of God is there. In dying you receive eternal life. As long as you are much there, God is less there.

That's why you have to let that "I" go. The more you let that "I" go, the more God is coming through you.

How would you know that? By reading the Scriptures and listening to the Saints, and with understanding God's Ways and how He Works. As long as you are thinking, "I am the doer," soon you will see and know you are so powerless. After awhile you will be so depressed that you don't even want to get out of your bed in the morning because such a depression is there.

We are so engrossed in the world, that the world is the only reality we recognize. We are lost in Maya, instead of in the Spirit.

We think this is the truth. We see this chair, we think this chair is truth. But that is not the truth, that's a relative truth. It is not the Essence.

The Essence of this chair is God. The Essence of this chair is Spirit. The Essence of this chair, really, if it resolves to its original components, is the universal forces. The chair is just made up of atoms.

We thought atoms consisted of only electrons, protons, and neutrons. Now we can break the atom into quarks and even smaller components. So even our knowledge of the atom no longer holds.

Scientists don't really know how far the atom can be broken. If we really break it down, we'll reach a place that the scientists are looking for, the unified theory. They are pretty close to it. They came to the four elements that are working in the universe.

That is exactly what our teaching is. The whole creation is created with four elements, consciousness and the three forces. That is the essence of everything.

So this manifested universe, as our physical eyes see it, is all deceiving, in a way. But we don't say it is an illusion. Some people say, "This universe is an illusion." It's not an illusion. It's truth, but it is a relative truth. It is not the essence, the ultimate truth.

So if you become submissive to God, you are not depressed any longer. You can't be depressed because you always give thanks no matter what your situation is. Also you go from there and continue to wherever you are supposed to go.

With this submission, then your ego becomes completely dissolved more, and more. The less of you is going to be there, the more of God is going to replace it.

Still, in this state, if we just start helping other people around us, we might become attached to one part of the earth. We say, "OK, I'll just help my neighbor. I'll just help my city. I'll just help my country. I'll just help the earth." Even, "I'll just help a little part of the universe."

That's not enough. We have to become a universalist. That is the next step in The Greatest Sign, that star that is the Baha'i teaching. The very point of the Baha'i teaching is universalism. Their teaching is that all religions basically are the same. They're from one God and they say the same thing, which is true.

According to our teaching, not only are they saying the same thing but each of them also have a distinct message for humanity. With universalism you expand your mind. You become a universalist. You are no longer limited by the different religions, races, languages or anything else. You expand yourself out of any narrowness of the mind.

What is the base of the problems that we have on this earth? We separate one from another. Why? Because our views are narrow.

We keep saying, "This is my religion. This is your religion. My religion is better than yours, so I can kill you if I want to. This is my country. That is your country. So I can attack you and destroy you."

Of course, we are learning our lessons right now. We are experiencing the birth pains. Humanity is learning more and more that there is one earth and one humanity. We have no choice. God is not going to give us a choice in this period that is accelerating very fast, that we realize that we are only one humanity, only one earth and we have no choice but to come together.

We can destroy the earth and ourselves fifty times with the atomic bomb that we have. I don't understand why we want to destroy it fifty times [laughter]. If we destroy it once, it's destroyed. Why do we want to do it fifty times over? [someone said, insecurity] Insecurity, that's right. They're insecure because they're afraid of one another. They do not know the Spirit which is One.

But if all come to this conclusion tonight that, "This is one earth and one humanity in the Spirit of God," we're going to have the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth tomorrow. But unfortunately, they won't.

They had to go through World War II to come to the conclusion that we need a United Nations. Even on the first day of the United Nations some nations wanted more privileges than other nations, and so the original ideal of the United Nations, to create justice for all, which would lead to peace for all, was severed. But at least they came to the conclusion that we need a place where we can gather together and have these talks with one another.

If, however, they continue the way they are going now, and they get themselves into another war, can you imagine the destruction? We didn't have even 1/1000th of the destructive force we have now, in World War II. We probably can't even imagine what we can do to one another. This time they are going to reach the conclusion that they have no choice but to come together.

Therefore the fifth seal is universalism. When you go through these five steps in The Greatest Sign, you really break all the narrowness of the mind, any attachments, or anything that can bind you, because you meditate, you do spiritual exercises, you realize yourself more. Knowing Self means knowing God, doesn't it?

That's a very famous saying, "Know thyself to know God." What is self? Self with a small "s" is the same as the Self with the big "S." Both are the same thing.

In meditation you start knowing yourself. With sacrificing and creating the Communities of Light, you dissolve yourself in a great endeavor to create the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth. With not being self-centered, you let more of God in you. With submission, you become a channel for God. With universalism, you destroy all narrowness of the mind. Such a person will create the Kingdom Of Heaven Within, which is the next step, the sixth seal.

The sixth seal is the Kingdom Of Heaven Within you. We call such people Paravipras. They are those who have realized themselves and are working to create the Communities of Light and bring the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth.

As you notice, not only did we show a Path that destroys any narrowness of the mind, frees you to dissolve your ego to God and completely become a channel for Him, we also unified all the major religions of the world in one teaching. The Mystical Paths (    ), the Children of Israel, or the twelve tribes (), Christianity (), Islam (), Baha'i (), and the sixth seal (), which is a teaching from India and also is the Kingdom Of Heaven Within you. So with this teaching, not only does it show a Path, but also it unifies all the religions of the world.

Now, who is going to unify the world? Do you think the Hindus can do it? Can the Hindus make everyone on earth Hindu? Can Jews do it, make everyone Jewish? Can Christians do it? Moslems? Baha'is?

If you are a Buddhist, or a Hindu, you can come and see that you fall in the first seal in The Greatest Sign. You don't have to forgo your religion, but you see it is a part of the greater truth.

If you are a Jew, you can come and see, "Oh yeah, the Star of David is there." It explains the Old Testament very well. It is a part of God's Plan to be a part of a greater truth. So, "The only thing I have to do is expand myself a little bit and see, what is the rest of the Plan of God."

If you are a Christian, it is the same thing. Of course, there are dogmas in every religion. Dogmas mean a set of beliefs. A set of beliefs can be the truth, or may not be the truth. Usually these dogmas have some basic truth if you understand the truth behind them. But if you don't expand yourself you might become rigid to that one belief and separate yourself from the rest.

As we said, we cannot be separated anymore. We have to unify. We have no choice. We have to unify into one humanity and one earth, one world.

If the reason for those dogmas is understood correctly, we can easily overcome. For instance, in the Old Testament, God promised Abraham that each of his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, would receive a sceptre (which is the spiritual kingship for a Prophet from God or Messiah), and a birthright (which is the material blessing).

Now God said a Prophet is going to come from each of their children (Isaac's and Ishmael's). We know that Christ came from the children of Isaac, and Muhammad came from the children of Ishmael. The Hebrews and Arabs actually are brothers. Did you know that? Of course, they were from two different women, but from the same father, Abraham. And from both, God promised He was going to raise up a Prophet.

If we can understand that, then we can't say that only Christ would come and after him no one else would come. See, in understanding we open ourselves to the greater truth. That's why it's so important to read THOTH, to understand these prophecies and to see how they are fulfilled. As we read more and more, we will open ourselves to the truth, and let the dogmas go.

Of course, Christ is the only way, that's true. Christ is the only way, but Christ has been here many, many times. If you read the teaching of Krishna and compare it with the New Testament, you will be amazed to see a lot of it is strikingly similar to the words of Christ, or the New Testament. It's just like taking it from one book and writing it down in another one.

With this understanding, we can just break all these barriers between ourselves, free ourselves from dogma and go to the truth, go to that personal experience with God. When we have that personal experience, all these things become very clear to us, and we become amazed how the other people are still hanging onto dogmas instead of seeing the truth.

So as we see, all the religions of the world are unified. The Eternal Divine Path, the Path to salvation, is breaking all the bondages humanity has.

Now we come to the reason I explained the whole thing. The Temple will be built in the shape of The Greatest Sign. The new audience had no idea of what we're talking about when we talk about the Temple. They had to have some idea of what The Greatest Sign represents. Of course, this is just scratching the surface really, about the teaching behind The Greatest Sign.

I have explained The Greatest Sign hundreds of times, probably thousands of times, for the last eleven years. Every time I explain it, it is completely new, completely different, and new information comes through and explains something in completely different ways, wonderful new ways.

It's just like trying to explain God. You can't explain God. God is unexplainable. If you even put The Greatest Sign in front of you and just meditate on it, you will realize things that you never knew. You will see the relationship between the signs. You will see the realization that strikes you, as a wonder.

So I just touched a little bit of The Greatest Sign. But the point I wanted to make was, that a Path is given where every religion in the world has its place. So it can unify them all together as one, and the Temple will be built in the shape of The Greatest Sign.

The Temple will have six entrances, each sign as one entrance to the Temple. That large Star of David in the center becomes the corridors which connect every part of the Temple together. Around the Temple, all those triangles from the Star of David and those curved shapes, the twelve sections made between the circle and the Star of David in the center, are going to become libraries of the spiritual books. These books will cover every religion of the world and every teaching that is related to these great religions of the world which will be housed there.

So if you want to know about Christianity, about Judaism, about Hinduism, about the Baha'i Faith, about Buddhism, about Islam, about anything else, you can go and find any information you want. But intellectual understanding is not enough. You have to go beyond intellect.

That's why the center of the Temple where the large Lotustica is, is going to be a place of meditation and contemplation. No lectures will be given in the center. That's the place where you can go, sit, meditate, and have a personal relationship with God. There will be no intellectual endeavors happening in the center. It's a place for a personal relationship with God, where every person can go and meditate. There are no preachers. There is no talking about anything, but it is between you and God. You meditate on God and God meditates on you.

Actually meditation is when we listen to God. Most humans don't listen to God, they pray to God, "Oh, give me this. Oh, give me that. I need this. I need that."

When we pray, we talk to God. We are asking God. If we always ask, He might get annoyed and say, "Listen to me for awhile [laughing]." Then that's when we meditate. When we meditate, we're listening to God. Now God has an opportunity to talk to us, "Oh, this is a nice child here. He wants to listen to me."

He's actually going to become very surprised, because no one wants to listen to Him, everyone wants something from Him. That's a lonely place, isn't it? Everyone wants something from you.

But when we meditate, we open ourselves to Him. He starts talking to us. He tells His story: Who He is, what He wants, what He wants His universe to be, what He wants us to be, how wonderful He is, how much He Loves us, etc.

Even if you have a glimpse of His love for you, you never will be bothered with this world any longer. That Love, how can you Love someone so much, with this wonderful unimaginable Love? That is probably a million times greater than any Love you have ever experienced on earth.

It's impossible to describe the Love He has for us. And He's just waiting for all of us to return to Him and say, "Yes, we are here. We want You. We want to listen. We don't want to talk, we want to listen to You. We don't want to just talk and say what we have to say. We want to hear what You have to say. We want to learn from You and listen to You. We don't want to talk."

When we do that, then we meditate. Then He tells us about His Love for us and the wonderful things that He wants for us. But we have to stop talking. We have to stop asking Him all the time. We have to give Him a chance to show Himself to us.

When we experience Him that will turn our life around because we will see our attachments and desires, what little things we want for ourselves, these desires we have, these attachments. We can just go beyond those and be touched by Him.

So, religion, the real religion is an individual experience or connection to God. Any other things are dogma. We are individually here to connect ourselves to Him.

How is it done? With meditation. Of course, as is above, so is below. If there is an Eternal Divine Path in the ethereal level with God, we want to present that to humanity too.

The Temple really is a kind of an external manifestation of an internal truth. The manifested truth, as a Temple, is also going to become an attraction which will drive people to come, look at the Temple, ask questions, go inside and meditate, read the literature and become more familiar with our work. So it's a kind of symbolic manifestation of our teaching that we'd like to build.

Humanity will say, "Oh the unification of all religions is here. The way to create the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth is here. We can do it. This is the Temple, this is the manifestation of what we are trying to build on earth." They will look at it and they will be attracted to it. They might even just come as tourists. That's OK. They can come and just look at the Temple, and Spirit might give them an experience there. That experience will lead them to become a part of the process of the truth.

So that is why this Temple has to be built, so we can manifest how all the religions of the world are unified together, and how we can go beyond our narrow understanding of God. As we expand ourselves, we become one with another.

We have no choice but to become one with another. If we like it or not, that is the way the earth is heading. That is the way humanity is headed. That is the Will of God. Our will might not be the same as His right now, but we will see.

As we were talking, just last year if someone would have said that Germany was going to become united, would you believe that? It's so accelerated now. Everything is so accelerated.