Law of Silence – Las Vegas, October 1970

Alright, this is the next to the last talk I’ll be able to say to you. You know, always at meetings, I come and I go. I get acquainted with people and become good friends. And. then you know, I have to go away. There are really so many good friends in ECK that sometimes it gets a little puzzling to look at faces and still know who you are. And, sometimes the name doesn’t register because the face I always remember. And, this has nothing to do with the fact that, from heart-to-heart, the love is there. Now, you know, this work is a tremendous amount of work the way it is spreading, as I told you the other day, without being taken in a forceful manner over the world. It is a very happy thought to see many people taking it up.

We have now developed so many programs within ECK that I can’t keep up with them anymore. I am gradually going back to what I like to do best is talking with people or talking to people and writing. I have the old work upon my own shoulders until John got here and begin to give me help. And I still, I am carrying some administration work. But I’m keeping away from making decisions now because we have a board. And we have now gone under the name of Eckankar AOAST, which is incorporated in the state of Nevada. And, we hope to be nationally incorporated within a short time. So, you must remember that I’m only an employee of AOAST. And, I am, practically, got thousands of bosses around the world who tell me what they want.

And, I can’t conform all the time to what they say, but I do try to bring the message to them. Now I want to say a couple of things this morning about The Law Silence It is mentioned in the Suriyat as the Law of Kamit (Ka-mit or ka-Mit or ever which way you want to pronounce it). When one becomes an ECK chela, he becomes silent upon his own affairs. He does not give out or he does not talk any more about what is happening to him or those movements within himself. He must then become self-reliant because he’s not revealing what is going on with himself as the individual.

Because when he starts talking of his experiences, he starts talking of his own religion. He starts talking about what is going on within himself. He gets a great deal of opposition, family, friends the world, anyone.

So, he must keep quiet about what he’s doing within himself. If he wants to spread the message of ECK, he can spread the message of ECK and still give enough information about it that doesn’t reveal what he’s doing. But you see when we talk to people the first thing they want to know is, “Well, what’s, what are you doing? What’s happening to you? Are you are able to do all of this phenomena that they talk about in it?” And, that is where that you should not give a direct answer. It’s a very funny thing. Of all the Masters that I’ve ever known and been around in the work of ECK, I never heard one, yet, hardly make a direct answer upon anything. And, there’s a reason for that. They will not say what is exactly on their mind in order to get the chela or the questioner to think for himself.

That has come up time and time again with my own work, dealing with people and asking questions, giving answers to questions and me asking questions of the of all of those people who were the Masters.

And, one of the most interesting things was that several years ago, I made a trip for some unknown reason and I wasn’t really in very good shape at the time physically, to Niagara Falls and drove about 500 miles in a very old car and got into the city late at night. And, the next following night, I went down to what is called Goat Island, or no, The Island of the Three Sisters, the little stepping islands that go out into the Niagara River. And, I sit there for a few minutes. It was late in the evening and this particular Master appeared and I talked with him and he told me some things that had to be done. So, later, when I went back into India after the another look at Sudar Sang, I says, “This is the man who appeared and talked to me.” So, I said to him, “You appeared to me one night at Niagara Falls, New York.” I named the date and the night and the hour and I said, “Was that you?” And, he said.”Why don’t you go back to this great soul and ask him?” I says, “Sometimes that’s not possible.” But, he said nothing more and I didn’t know what question to ask him other than that.

So, this is the point, which he wanted me to think upon the subject, and make my own decision as to whether that was really reality or not. If I decided, then I was stronger in ECK. If I did not decide, I was wavering on doubt. And, it was up to me to do the decision and not for him to bring me in, deeply into the works, by stating something which, later on, may have risen to be a doubt in my mind. Because, later on, I might have then decided that it was someone else. So, all the decisions, all those things to take the doubts out of our mind depends upon us and not what someone else tells us. And, believe me, The Law of Silence is one of the greatest laws of all laws. It is that, which can make us, as a questioner, or it can break us in the work of ECK.

If we keep questioning and questioning, we’re always on the doubtful side and we are wanting somebody to either convince us of our own experience. Or we want somebody to tell us that we’ve had the experience and that, then, we are approved by society. This inner works is never approved by society.

Therefore, how can we, as the individual, depend upon someone else to tell us, then, that we’re right, that this was really the real thing. I think it was down here in the Frontier Hotel about two years ago, the young housewife came in and was talking to me and she says, “You know, I woke up the other morning and you were sitting on a chair looking at me. I want to know, really, was that you?” I says, well, “Do you know or do you not know?” And she became very frustrated. She says, You would make a good lawyer wouldn’t you.” But, this was up to her to decide. I have no intentions of convincing people in a sense of grieving against their own will. Because they have been subjected so much to pressures and persuasions that it’s easy to persuade someone within this position, they have to make their own decisions that this was really what it is. And, if they do, nothing can shake them. And, once you are convinced that your experience is real, it makes no difference. You are, then, a devoted follower of ECK.

But, never depend upon me or anyone else to tell you that you should follow ECK because you had certain experiences or that I am going to validate your experiences. This is the individual responsibility. Now, as you go on through life and the more initiations you take, you must remember, then, that you are becoming more and more interested in what is going on in these worlds beyond. But at the same time, you are becoming more and more aware that you cannot tell these things to the outside, the mundane world, because they do not understand.

There has been many a person. who has been taken to the mental institute because of these problems of trying to talk trying to say things and trying to convince other people of their own experiences as take the case of the the very famous Russian dancer, back in the early part of this century, by the name of Nijinski. The man was absolutely a phenomena in the ballet world and yet when he was about 40 and at the height of all his, I would say his career, he was suddenly thrust into a mental institute in Switzerland because the man began to talk about his great experiences. And from there, out to the end of his life, the phenomena, the work that he did within the institute in drawings and in writings and everything ,all of this sort of thing, proved that the man had great enlightenment. And, yet, he’s never been publicized for this but he’s been publicized for his great career as a ballet dancer.

And, while we’re on this subject of enlightenment, I’ve said, I’ve warned people about the initiations and going too fast. And, if the light comes, sometimes it isn’t pleasant as everyone would expect it to be. I have seen this happen with people and I, myself, have gone through so much of the experience in which that it was absolutely terrifying and I wish that I had never started the course of trying to find this, which we call the Enlightenment of God. Of course, we find the books and we read the books and all of that. And, they tell us about the great joys and all that that comes through this work or any of these works, as with Buddhism and the others in the mystic field. But, we must remember that these levels that we go through are sometimes levels that are uncomfortable levels before we ever break through and get into this Enlightenment or these great fields of light. And, then, we think we don’t want it.

And, I can agree with individual who has this sort of experience. I’ve seen people who had this experience. They go for days without sleep, without eating. They don’t know. They think that they’re having a mental derangement. And it’s too bad because they have no one to give them guidance and tell them.

This is a step. If you’re able to stay with it, within time, you will break through into this true light. You’ll breakthrough into this joy, this great bliss. But, if you don’t, you will sit here in this level, perhaps like Job with all his problems. And, believe me, that step to take, is a step that you and I and no one else likes to experience. But, we must. This is a step which, sometimes, leads a person to drugs or leads them to other fields of derangement. Sometimes, they become alcoholics like William Faulkner, the great writer.

These are the things which you should know. And, now that you are on a path and being taken care of, I want you to understand and know you are protected. But, I also want you to understand and know what’s going on. I want you to have an understanding that is different, in a sense, in other fields that you will be, that you will know, instead of guessing or running to your own particular teacher or Master and saying what happened. This is the one thing which I have tried, again and again, to give you the information and all the data upon the levels and the steps that you’re taking.

So, pay attention and be aware. And it’s all in the works, someplace or other. Now, one of our real good friends in this work said the other evening, she has been in this since the beginning, that she had a box full of ECK material. And, she didn’t mean a little box. She meant a big box. And, she says, “Now, I know at times that come up, that something happened.” She said. “Paul has spoke about that someplace. And, I don’t know where it is, but I certainly don’t want to go through all this big box of material to find it.”

So, I agree with you on that. And, now we’re doing the cross index of all the works from the beginning up to this present time so that people can find the answers to the questions on this and they don’t have to write into the headquarters and say, “Well, what about this particular thing and perhaps get them a letter back a year and a half later or never get one back at all. See? Because, this is very frustrating and we are so tremendously busy, there, in that office, that I wish that all of you could come in for a week or two, there, and see what goes on. And, we have to all of us, have to work upon this level of tremendous pressure that we don’t have the opportunity to sit down and write personal letters, although I try to get out so many letters a day myself. Even if it’s a short note, I try to do that.

But, I’m saying here, the cross index will be that in which that you will be able to go back and look and find the answer to your question someplace within the works. And, if you don’t have it now, we have in the office, everything that has been written. We have gotten all the tapes back to the beginning. We have practically everything that has been put down on paper and on tape and other types of messages. So, you’re not going to be without it. We’re going to try to keep everything we can in a way of data for people. But the data, which is been written by me, is worthless to you unless you are experiencing this yourself. I want to always feel that I’m close to every individual, regardless who he is, whether he just read a book or whether he has been with us, as the lady I spoke about a moment ago, for all these years. I want to feel a depth of something between us rather than be someone who just sits back in a corner and you never see, you never hear and you never know him. I want to be as real to you as you are real to me.

And, I want to see, I want you to know that every time that you go through something, that you have me near. And, you have my deepest sympathies and the greatest help that I can give you. This is all because there is a feeling of love that always arises between the two of us no matter who you are or what it is. We have the problem of breaking down this barrier that’s between us and nothing can break down the barrier more closely than this depth of love. Now, it has been said that one individual cannot love all people at all of the same time. And, old Edgar Guest used to say , the poet of the Detroit press I believe, used to say, “That’s a heap of loving,” But, it’s possible when I work beyond the human self and I think a great number of you people know it. But, the one thing you must always know, that you’re being tested. Every step of the way, you’re being tested.

All the things that are being done by the inner Master is in fact a step or an obstacle to see if you’re worthy. Or, you’re willing to bypass or obliviate the obstacle and go ahead on the path of ECK. As I said the other day, there had been some who had been selected to follow in my steps and all the obstacles and everything material of materialism, everything you can think of, were set up in front of these people and they fell by the wayside. It doesn’t mean they don’t have another chance, but it means that the present time they have refused to go any further than where they are at the present time. I get the letters from people saying all of these things are happening to them. I cannot say to them, “Well, dear friend, dear heart, you are being tested.” I had to be sympathetic with them. I have to do what I can to help them. But, at the same time, I cannot give them the effort to go through the obstacle because they themselves must have the responsibility of doing this.

It’s like, in a sense and I say this in modesty, is like a child, your own child. You know that your own child has to do something on his own because he has to learn. I never will forget at one time. It was many years ago. I was visiting some friends and the young mother had a baby. I suppose it was still in a diaper stage and he thought that he could climb a little, I suppose you call them, chicken wire fences and he wanted to get into the next yard. So, he climbs up a step or two and then he would fall on his back like a beetle bug, you know, he’d wave his arms around. Finally, he would get back on his feet and try it again. And, I got a little anxious about the child because you know, it wasn’t my child and I thought, “Gee, you know, he’s going to break an arm or something doing this.” Finally, I said to the mother, I says, “Why don’t you tend to the child?” She says, “Oh, let him learn. He’s going to find out that he can’t climb over that fence. And, if I take him away from that, then he’ll go back trying to do it. But, in a few minutes he’ll give up.” And he did.

So, this is a way that we thinking about, either the person climbs the fence when it’s put up in front of them through the work of ECK or he falls back and he retires from that. And, perhaps, he sits there and tries to figure out a way to get over that fence without going through all that effort. Some do and some don’t. And, never be discouraged because that you didn’t make it over at that particular moment because if you have the determination, you will make it over sooner or later.

And, the old legend that the grass is greener on the other side will come true. Now, I tell you one of the biggest points that we must understand in the work of ECK. I seldom ever speak about this. I’ll write a great deal about it. And, that is some people smoke, some people have other deterrence to their health and this sort of thing. But if one becomes an ECK initiate, he should consider this very seriously about smoking because smoking is against the health and it’s against the spiritual law. And, if he cannot, of himself, discipline himself in a field of smoking. Then he will have to, sooner or later, come to that point that when it’s discarded from him, he will have two reactions. One reaction is he may suffer quite badly. The other is that, sometimes, it’s taken away from him and he never knows about it until, maybe, about a week later. Then, all the sudden, he wakes up on one morning and he says, “Gee, you know, I haven’t had a cigarette in a week.” So, you must remember that it is, in a sense, that one of those things is going to drop from you sooner or later.

And, if you will begin to pay attention and become aware of these things, you’ll find out not only that you’ll find a lot of other things you had and had been doing that have been detrimental to you in the way of your spiritual unfoldment, they suddenly are no longer in your orbit. And, you have no appetite for such things. And, then, this is one of the ways you can tell that you are advancing. It’s one of the ways that you know, that are the milestones on the path to God Realization, which has now become a reality in your life.

There are dangers, as I said to the individual as he goes on with more initiations, if he’s initiated too fast, he may have terrible reactions. If he gets initiations and he has not dropped any of these deterrents about what I just spoke about, he may find, all of a sudden, he’s in conflict with the material life and spiritual life. And, believe me, there’s nothing in the world that is more agonizing than to have this conflict. He can’t get rid of certain things that he wants, which has been deterrence to him, and yet, on the other hand, he wants to live in in this particular life for greater unfoldment. And, it’s like a man who is trying to study two or three things at the same time and he can’t make up his mind which course he wants to take or which one that he’d like to improve in. So, he’s pulled back and forth constantly and it’s more of a detriment to him than to take the one steady course and say, “I am not going to do any of these anymore.”

This is what we call the sacrifice. And, he must bring forth a certain amount of sacrifice or giving up and this is why that we talk about surrendering to the Master. And, if you do not do this and if you don’t learn it, in time there’s a stalemate on the path and generally a very unhappy person on hand.

My problem is, and it’s been quite a problem, is trying to keep people from going too fast and trying to keep people from listening to the great promises of the metaphysicians who say that we can have all of these things instantly. I’m not saying you can’t have some things instantly but the whole broad sweeping General promise is not true. They say all you have to do is contact God and you become an instant millionaire. You have all the the opposite sex just practically fawning over you. You have all of these things which makes the material success in life, but this isn’t true. My god, did you ever read the lives of the Saints? I mean the truth. The true Saints are those people who reached into and touched God and their lives became upside-down, topsy-turvy and they couldn’t live like normal people.

Some are seized with this great obsession to go out and give the message to the world. Some were put off in other directions some practically came down in such bad bodily health that there was no use of them to any life anymore. So, I took the case, I think a few years ago, a woman came to me and she wanted me to give give her the Stigmata which is the wounds of Christ and says no, “I don’t think that you’d be happy with these.” She was quite insistent and I says, “Look, you’re family woman. You have beautiful children. They’re growing up. Why in the world would you want to take on such a painful type of phenomena when, then, you would practically be in bed most of the time and you would no longer serve your responsibility as a mother and a wife.” And, she went away very unhappy because of this.

But, you must remember, It’s a great deal of difference of what we want and what we get. And, once we get these, we might be coming back around to the ECK Master and say, “Gee. Relieve me. I don’t want this anymore. I know I prayed for it. I know that I desired it. I know that I practically wished this upon myself, but now I find out that I don’t want it because it’s too much of a burden.” And, this all must be considered before you take that step. These are things that I’m telling you because I think that it’s a right time and the right moment to say. There are other things that I have to say that will be given in time. I’ll be in your city someplace, sometime or within your area, and the message is always new. I seldom say the same thing twice because I find that the message keeps pouring out and I do not have to rely upon old materials in order to keep the message going. May the blessings be.