Question: Most of the signs that have been given in the Koran, the Islamic Holy Book, that the end of the age is approaching are also in the book of Ezekiel chapters 27, 28 and 29.  What is your feeling about all these signs that have been predicted and are coming true?
 

Maitreya: The answer is very obvious.  This is also in our writings.  These prophecies have been given for this end of time.  That really means the return of the age -- a Golden Age, the Order of the Ages -- that has been predicted will eventually dawn on earth.

If anyone who is familiar with these prophecies looks at the events that are happening, they can pick up many, many different signs happening everywhere on earth.  Yes, we are at the point of finishing the old age.  We know how the old age has been full of strife, disunity, wars, misunderstandings, and separation.

In the Bible it is called Babylon.  That is in Genesis when God confounded man's language, which really means the telepathic ability of humanity.  And from then on, because humans could not understand each other, they "babbled."  They misunderstood each other and instead of being interested to understand, they wanted to be understood.  That creates problems.

If each person wants to be understood, that is ego.  God wants to understand.  That is why God knows Himself.  Because He knows Himself and we are in His image, He knows best what is good for us.  If you know Self then you know what is good for you.  And if something is good for you, it is sure to be good for other people too, because they are the Self also.

Yet humanity, from the very beginning, did not want to listen to what was good for them.  They want to experience their own good and evil.  They want to know what is good and evil.  Everyone says, No, I know what is good for me.  I don't want someone to come and tell me what is bad. I can find all the answers by myself.

God says, I created you, I know my Essence and you are a part of my Essence. So if you follow this path you will be happier.  But humanity says, No, I don't want to do that.  And that is where Grace is taken away.  God does not want to punish anyone.  God does not want anyone to love Him by fear, or by restrictions which are put on us by force, but by love and understanding, that we come to the conclusion that, Yes, that is the way God said, this is God's way.

Not only is this way good for me, it is good for society, it is good for the earth, it is good for the universe.  This way will bring harmony, beauty, etc., to everyone.

This is why we had to go through this period of history and strife and misunderstandings, that humanity will eventually come to this conclusion.  Their way is not the way.  It will not reach the happiness and harmony for which everyone is longing.  When humanity reaches there, they will understand there is greater power and understanding which exists, and that is God.

He has a special way for them to follow to reach this happiness.  God already knows how it is going to happen.  So He told His Prophets and the people who were sensitive enough to become in touch with His Mind, what is going to happen in the future.

You can find many, many prophecies in the Scriptures, in the Bible, the Koran, the Hindu religion, in Buddhism.  All prophecies point to a time when great strife will come to earth.  Whenever there is Light, there is always darkness also that will try to destroy that Light.

So there is going to be a great battle, just like in the book, the Bhagavad-Gita.  There is going to be Arjuna with his followers, and Krishna (God) with Arjuna.  The opposing force was Arjuna's kin, associates, etc.  They were close to Arjuna but they were not Arjuna and God.  So they had to go through this battle where eventually the Light comes and destroys the darkness.

It is just like when you enter a room and it is dark.  You flip on the light.  What happens to the darkness?  The darkness does not say, "No, I am  not going to go away, I am just going to stay forever."  When the light comes, darkness has no choice; darkness has to go.

So God already prophesied how these things are going to happen.  Many of them are explained in our book THOTH, what God said, what happened, what is happening, and very few predictions of what is really going to happen.

In one part of the Bible, Ezekiel, chapters 37, 38 and 39, it was predicted and many different people have also prophesied, how a group of countries will join together and create a kind of "one goal" confederation.  Maybe they will not become completely one but they will become a very powerful force on earth.

The very first name that has been used in that book is Persia that will join others who have apparently lost their original names.  Those countries and people are not really called those names now.  One of them is Rush, which we now call Russia.  People have studied these names, have gone to the old Scriptures, the old writings, the old historians and found out what and who these people were.

They came up eventually with the answer that it is going to be Persia, Libya, Syria, India, China, Russia and all those countries around them.  So you can see, China has more than one billion people.  India has five hundred million or more.  Russia has three hundred or two hundred-fifty million people.

So when you put them all together, it makes sense to see the Bible's prophecies about millions of millions of people who are in that army which comes and attacks the Children of Israel.

Is it really talking about Israel, the small country in the Middle East which is in so much big trouble already?  Or are they talking about the Children of Israel, which we believe, most of them, have been born in the United States?

The Children of Manasseh and Ephraim were chosen by Israel himself to be his inheritors, to inherit the kingly possessions.  According to our teachings, they eventually ended up in England and the United States.

This is a matter of interpretation, which one is it talking about.  Are they saying this big army is going to attack Israel, as the people of that small country?  It does not make sense that all these billions of people will attack one small little country and this huge army will be destroyed in such a way that there will be six months when all the fowl and animals in the desert will eat of the flesh of the dead.

It does not make sense.  It makes more sense that this attack is going to be on the bigger Israel.  That is why I don't predict the future.  The future belongs to the Father.  Even if I have some feeling about it, or even if He tells me and I tell you about it, He might change His Mind.  He has all the power in His Hand.

So what we can predict and see is, all these things already prophesied are coming true.  We can see for instance, that Iran (Persia) is being pushed toward Russia.  And Iran is being isolated more and more by the West and the surrounding countries. Kuwait or Saudi Arabia and all those countries are cutting themselves off from Iran.  The United States is pushing Iran into a corner where eventually they have no choice, even if they do not become a Communist country, but to give a green signal to Russia that, We need your help.

In all the strategic analysis, it is predicted that if there is going to be a third world war, it is going to start from the Middle East.  Iran is very strategically located in that area and Russia has been eyeing the Persian Gulf for centuries.  Russia does not have any warm shore, any access to the warm water.  The easiest way for her to get to the warm water is through the Persian Gulf.

Also, the Persian Gulf provides more than fifty percent of the oil of the world.  We know how much we are dependent upon oil.  Although the United States is not really dependent on that oil, her allies are.  So if Iran gave the green signal to Russia, the West and its allies cannot sit back and do nothing.

That is going to create a situation where Russia and the United States come face-to-face in that area of the world.  All these things you see, all of them have been predicted three or four thousand years ago.  So, if God said it is going to happen and we are with God, we believe Him, we love Him and we do His Will, are we going to be afraid of these things?  No, we are not going to be afraid because we know these are predicted for what?  For the coming of the Golden Age.

Humanity eventually has to come to this point of realization, that their ways are not going to work.  It is God Plan that is going to work.  What is God's Plan?  God's Plan calls for the Communities of Light, the creation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth; One Earth, One God, One Religion -- Oneness under One God.

By realizing this and following His Will, the Harmony and Oneness for which everyone longs, but no one knows how to bring about, will come.  So we believe in the prophecies in the Bible.  We believe those prophecies written in the Koran.  We believe the prophecies which have been given to the Hindus and Buddhists.  All the ones that make sense and will be fulfilled are the legitimate prophecies.

Of course, there are many prophecies that are not legitimate.  They are given to the people who listen to their own ego or their own little voice.  This is not really the Voice of God, but the voice of themselves.  Those predictions did not happen, just like, some said, "Tomorrow is going to be the end of the world."  Or, "On such and such a date this world will end."  First of all, they do not understand what the end of the world means.  It does not mean the end of the physical world.  It means the end of an era, the coming of the New Era.  They are looking for a day when everything is going to be destroyed.  And that is not going to happen.

God did not create this universe to be destroyed in one day, throw everyone to hell and take those people who were good to heaven.  God is working to bring everyone to heaven -- to Pure Consciousness.  Their very basic philosophy was wrong, so the voice that they heard was wrong too.

Sometimes you hear a voice according to what you want to hear, not what God really wants to say.  So we have to be very careful about those voices.  And that is why those prophecies do not come true.

Legitimate Prophets, God chose and put through fire first.  He will make them a good instrument.  He tunes them with Himself first. It is just like any instrument, it is either tuned or it is not tuned.  The one that is not tuned may make some music too, but it does not sound as good as the instrument that is completely tuned to the Father's Will.

So He intones them first with His Will, then He says what He wants -- what kind of music He is going to make in the future.  And we are seeing that music is coming true.  These prophecies are being fulfilled and we are going toward that Golden Age.

If we do not know this, we become very upset about what is happening and try to blame someone or something.  If we know these are the prophecies, these are the things that have to happen, then we do not concentrate on what is happening but on what we can do to bring about the New Era.

Instead of concentrating on why these prophecies of destruction are coming true, why these things are coming to a head, we can say, Now we have a way out.  There are the Communities of Light.

Our answer is the Communities of Light.  Let us work with the Mission of Maitreya.  Let us work with Maitreya and bring about this ideal.  We are going to shift our focus from the negativity to the positivity, "Let the dead bury the dead."  This is the dead, the "old things passing away."  If we are concentrating on the dead, we are going to become bogged down with the dead, the destruction.

We are concentrating on the future living, the Golden Age of community, a New Era of the Golden opportunities.  We are beholding the beautiful harmonious earth, that is full of Love, Devotion, Grace, Wonder, Unity and Harmony.  So we have the destruction.  We also have the answer of how to come out of it victoriously.

It is for each person to choose which one to concentrate on, the negativity (destruction) or positivity (The Golden Age), The Greatest Sign!

Question: Could you explain what one of the Ten Commandments means?  It is the one that says, "Thou shalt not use the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
 

Maitreya: The Hebrews knew the Name of the Lord.  They also knew that the Name of the Lord cannot be uttered in the physical world.  Even trying to utter His Name will change the very Name itself to something which is not His Name anymore.

That is why even uttering the Name was considered as being in vain.  God demanded, I will give My Name to you Hebrew people but do not utter My Name.  Know it within yourself. Know it is the Word and it is the Creation.  It is the power with which everything has been created.  If you try to utter it outwardly (out-worldly), it is going to be in vain.  This is the highest explanation of "Don't utter My Name in vain."

Of course, it also means, do not use the Name, even the very Name God, to swear.  "I swear by the Name of God, da, da, da," is also considered using the Name of the Lord in vain.  Because you are not using His Name properly, with a pure heart, but for a lower purpose in your life.

You are swearing because you want to make others believe you.  If you are truthful, you do not have to swear.  I am truthful, that is the way it is.  I am telling the truth, if you want to believe it, believe it.  If you don't want to believe it, don't believe it.

That is what Jesus (Esa) said, Let your words or thoughts to me be, Yea Yea or Nay Nay.  If you are not telling the truth then when you bring the Name of God in the middle, you are using His Name for an impure purpose.  You are using His Name in vain.  So either way, do not use the Name of the Lord.  You do not have to swear by the Name of the Lord.

You do not have to swear at all.  If the person is truthful, he does not have to swear.  He does not have to say, I swear this is truthful, this is the truth.  Because, if you are truthful, you are truthful and it does not matter how the rest of the world feels or says, or thinks about it.  You said the truth and you stand by it without even swearing about it.  So either way, trying to bring the Lord in your mundane affairs is just taking His Name in vain.

Of course, the highest is that the Name of the Lord cannot be uttered on the physical level.  It does not matter how you call Him.  You can call Him Jehovah or Yahweh, Allah or Krishna or God or He or Am or I Am or any name on the material level.  That is not Him because He is Formless, Nameless, Invisible, and Eternal (FINE).

He is FINE and He is beyond all of these names.  His Sacred Name cannot even be pronounced, and has not been given to everyone.  People who are getting attached to these beings, and all these words and things, again, they are uttering the Name of the Lord in vain.  Because it is not the highest form of the Lord.  They are being attached to things which are not the ultimate.

The Ultimate is Oneness with God.  And Oneness with God is not that easy.  Many are caught in the play, or the games of creation.  A lot of people are intellectual and love to come up with the big words.  They feel ecstasy with the big words.  They love to use words.  They say, "God, I am.  Oh, I say I Am.  What a great thing, look at me.  I Am a realized person. I know I Am exists."

It is OK.  He might be a good person.  He is there.  It is good for him.  Yes, I Am is what God is for that person.  If the person is going for the ultimate, then that ecstasy of the word is too low.  It is not Oneness yet.

Actually, some people say, He who knows does not speak.  He who speaks does not know.  To know God in ultimate form is not that easy.  That is why many people like to bring Him down to a level that they understand.  God accepts their devotion also.  God accepts their love for Him in that level.  Yet, even though those levels are a part of Him, because He is everything, the person who goes for the highest does not let himself become caught in these levels.

We are here also to present the highest.  We are not here to condemn.  We love them because they also love God in that level.  Yet we just want to push them a little further, push them a little higher, to the Formless, Nameless, Invisible God.

If they come there, then our Oneness is in a greater degree and all this separation that exists between groups will resolve itself.  I am the follower of this person.  I am the follower of that person.  I am the follower of this thing.  No, this thing is better than that thing.  And they channel the same being and at the same time they channel completely different things.

The reason is that they are caught up in ethereal levels.  They still separate themselves from one another because they are not one with the Ultimate.  When they are one with the Ultimate, they do not feel any separation.  How can I be separate from you if there is only one God?

How can I call myself Christian, call you Moslem, call you Hindu and call you Buddhist?  They are separate from each other.  How can we do that if there is only one God?  All those groups are fine with us.  They can stay separate from each other but we are not separate from them.  They are a part of us.

We accept them as a part of us.  We do not separate.  God does not separate us from each other.  God does not care who is Christian, who is Moslem, who is Hindu, who is Jewish, who is Buddhist.  To Him all are His creation.  How can He separate one part of His creation from another?

Can you say, "I'm going to cut this finger off my body or I like this finger better than this one?"  You can't do that.  They are all your fingers.  They are all your body.  They are all part of you.  You can't do these things.  This is our ego.  It is our misunderstanding of not wanting to expand our mind that creates separation.

Whatever separates man from man, or any part of the universe from any other part, is not from God.  It doesn't matter where they are, what they call themselves or how much support, followers, power, money or anything else they have, it is not from God.  God doesn't separate, God Unifies.

If the Spirit of Unification is not there, it is not The Holy Ghost, it is not the Spirit of God.  Do you think God is an egoistical Being, sitting up there and saying, "Thou shalt not have any god beside me?  Thou shalt not do this.  Thou shall not..."  It is not for Him.  He does not care.  You go and do whatever you want to.  But thou shall reap the consequence of your action.

He knows what is good for us because He created us.  He knows what the problems are.  Our problem is, we have other gods beside Him.  He said, Do not have other gods beside me, either in Heaven or on earth or under earth.  What do we have?  We have all these ethereal beings in heaven.  We have Gurus on earth.  And probably we have some people from outer space with their ships under the earth.

"We believe they are underground and they are going to come and save us."  No.  Who is going to save us?  The Essence of the universe -- the real God.  He has already given us the way to do it.  But we do not want to do it.  We want to be attached to these little gods, and we want to utter the Name of the Lord in vain.

That is why He took His Name away from us, because we uttered His Name in vain for a long time.  He does not mind if we know His Name.  He wants us to know His Name.  He loves to be with us.  He loves us to feel Him within ourselves, His Movement, His Creation, His Power, His Truth.

Yet if He gives us His Name, how are we going to call Him?  We may call Him "Yahweh," we just try to bring Him down to the material level.  You cannot bring the Spirit to the material level.  Whatever is from Spirit is Spirit, and whatever is from flesh is flesh.  You cannot bring the Spirit to the flesh.  The moment you make the Spirit flesh, it is flesh and it has fleshly desires and fleshly faults.

If you really want to know the Name of the Lord, go to the Spirit.  The Spirit knows everything.  The Spirit is different than flesh.  The flesh can become Spirit and the Spirit can become flesh.  But the moment you bring Spirit to flesh, your spirit is fleshly.  It completely loses touch with the Spirit.

That is why He says, I will give my Name to you but do not take it in vain, do not even utter it.  So those people who are asking the Mission, "Just send the Name of the Lord to me by tape," or, "Why don't you write it to me," I cannot do that because that is what?  That is to take the Name of the Lord in vain.

Also you should not swear.  Why should you swear?  If you are truthful, you are truthful.  If you are not, again, you are taking the Name of the Lord in vain.  So either way, know the Name of the Lord but do not swear on it, and do not utter it.  That is what it means.  Do not take my Name in vain.  Let the answer be revealed.

Question: It seems we meditate to clear our minds and clear our Souls.  And we do fasting and follow the diet.  What about Satsang?  What does Satsang do?
 

Maitreya: When you do not take a shower one or two days, what happens?  You become dirty, don't you?  If the body is dirty in a couple of days, the mind becomes dirty even faster than that.

The mind is bombarded with many different pulls: society, television, radio, advertisements and all these things.  All are telling us to do this, to do that, to go here, go there, buy this, buy that, hate these people, love those, etc.  Also many different ideas and many people come and try to tell us what life is supposed to be, like, "If you lose weight, that is wonderful.  That is the goal of life."  We have nothing against losing weight.  It is much healthier not to have extra fat in the body.

"If you buy this car, that is it.  If you buy this car you are going to be happy.  If you do that, that is it."  Everyone is pulling you in many different directions, telling us what is the goal of life.  Then Maitreya comes and says, No, none of those are the goal of life.  The Goal of Life is to Be(come) Divine.

What that Divinity is, is your consciousness, is the Voice of the Lord, with the Truth of God.  Satsang is a part of the process of cleansing.  Meditation, fasting, doing the Reminder, all those practices or techniques which have been given by many Masters and teachers are all very good.  Satsang is also a part of this package.

Satsang is when a person who has been recognized as knowing the Truth and living in the Truth, will talk about God or give the answers to the questions of the people.  Usually in that state, he becomes One with the Spirit and the Spirit talks through Him, because it is in the Spirit, that the Truth will come and hit the hearts of those people who listen.

Not everyone who fasts, or sings, or dances, or chants, etc., is in that highest level.  They are breaking knots in their psychic body but they are still not completely there.  Satsang is like a way shower.  It is opening them to a further Truth in their path.

Hearing The Word will create the faith, and with faith you are saved.  So Satsang is a cleansing of the residue of meditation.  It hits the heart of the questioner or those who listen to the Truth.  When they hear the answer they say, "Aha, yes, that is it.  I know this answer.  That is exactly what I thought the answer should be."

So it is a confirmation of what they have already realized within themselves.  It is a kind of cleansing and brings greater faith to them.  Satsang is a very, very powerful tool to spiritual progress.  When it is given in the Pure Consciousness or the purest form, it will cleanse a lot of doubts and problems in the spiritual level of the person.

The person who gives Satsang, if in a regular level of consciousness, would probably be shy to say certain things.  He will not be shy in Spirit.  Prophet Muhammed said in the Koran, "Oh Muhammed, you are shy to tell these people these things that I tell you."  God is not shy; He comes out and says the Truth.

So you see, when I give Satsang I say words that I might not regularly say.  I give the Truth because in this level the Spirit is coming through me which is not shy.  I can just give the Satsang and walk out, and come back as Maitreya who walks, talks, sits, eats and is with you just like a regular person.  But in this level, it is the Spirit.  Therefore, it is probably more helpful for everyone than if I just sit and give regular talks.

It is very important to give Satsang, to utter the Truth of the Spirit which says the ultimate, especially from this vessel that God has chosen to bring the highest.  When I give Satsang, I do not try, but usually God comes through to the highest possible.  He wants to give this Higher Truth to humanity right now because they need it and because they are caught in too many levels of consciousness.

They are caught up in too many ethereal levels.  They have to get out of this if they want to bring Unity now, and Unity now is FINE -- The Formless, Invisible, Nameless, and Eternal God.  His Unifying teaching is The Greatest Sign, THOTH, etc.  The Mission is a package.  It is not only THOTH, me or the Reminder or this or that; it is the whole package.  It has been given to humanity for the highest purpose.

We have to forget these little crutches, like ethereal beings, "Oh, I am a follower of this.  I am a follower of that," or Gurus.  They are OK as long as we realize they are just a small part of God, go to the Essence of God and become One.  When you get out of these small little things, then we are One.  And then they will come to the realization that God is behind the Revelation in THOTH, The Greatest Sign and us.

Now we can create the Communities of Light.  It is very simple. People come together, share with each other, and create a beautiful harmonious environment.  They do not concentrate on ego trips.  They go beyond ego, beyond the ethereal level, beyond the physical level, beyond space brothers and this and that.  They go to the Essence of God.

Even the space brothers should have a God.  They are not God themselves.  I am sure they worship even a Higher Being than themselves.  If there are any space brothers I am sure they have another God, which is Formless.  If they are as intelligent as they say they are, probably they have already realized God is Formless, Invisible, Nameless, and Eternal.

So if you believe in them, we are going one step closer to them, because they also have to have the same God.  We have to get rid of these separate ideas.  These ideas are our crutches.  We like these ideas because we feel more comfortable with them.

Most of the religions and groups have a kind of, "I am better than you" attitude.  But who is going to be better than Him?  Who?  Nobody is better than anyone else.  "I am better than you."  The more you say, "I am better," then you're what?  A separator.  God does not separate.  You do not know God if you think you are better.  None of you have the Ultimate Truth.  Now just look at yourselves, This is an ego trip.

So Satsang brings this Truth to humanity and it is just like taking a shower.  Meditation, Satsang, and Service are the three pillars of self-realization.