Question: What is the most pressing need of humanity today?

Maitreya: What is the most pressing need of any person? Knowing God, knowing Self. That's the need of humanity too, to know God completely. And what is the true God? The true God is everything and everywhere. It's all of us, all of humanity and all of the earth. If He is everything, why is there so much disunity? If each person realized that God is everything, then there would be no disunity, such as separating each other by nations, places, countries, etc.

What is creating all this confusion right now on the earth? We separate one from another. So, the most pressing problem on earth is, not knowing the true God which unifies. There is Unity.

Because humanity doesn't know that true God exactly as He is, they follow dogmas. The moment any philosophy, any ideology, any teacher, etc. separates a group of people from another group, that is dogma. Dogma means to separate. Anything which separates man from man is not from God. The moment a teaching becomes separative, that is dogma.

So the most important thing to realize is to know the real God, which doesn't separate. Let all those who follow philosophies which separate everything from themselves eventually realize that what they preach is not from God. If it is not from God, then they're following the wrong philosophy, the wrong teaching.

It doesn't matter how wonderful it feels or looks. If you study deeply the great religions of the world, you will see their followers are not really following the philosophy or the teaching of the teacher but the dogmas in that religion. Also many are there because they feel they would like to belong to a group, or tradition. They feel more secure because they receive courage from other people. They feel more comfortable with like-minded people. They are there because they can obtain help from those who they think are following the same philosophy. They really are not wanting God, which is beyond all of these little needs.

The real God fills you so well, you really don't need crutches. So the real problem is spiritual. It is being disconnected by many different crutches, many different philosophies, doctrines, dogmas, etc. The most pressing need of humanity today is, not knowing the true God and not being connected to the Source.

Question: Is what you're suggesting to humanity then, that they empty their cup of social consciousness, whether it's a church dogma, religious dogma or whatever they're doing -- for none of it works -- and look deeper at whatever it is that's facing them?

Maitreya: That is right. That is very, very true. It is the problem realized by every Prophet, every spiritual teacher, every great realized spiritual being. Humanity has these problems with realizing the Formless, Nameless, Invisible and Eternal God. To realize that Essence needs discipline, needs real thinking, meditation and also we need Grace, of course, to realize the Infinite.

That's why when Esa saw the woman at the well who said, When the Messiah comes, we will know the Truth; Esa said, The Messiah has already come. And the woman said, Well then, we are going to worship our god in these mountains and stop going to Jerusalem (she thought the Messiah would support her philosophy that God is in their mountains, like anyone who thinks The Messiah shall accept their philosophy as the true one!). He said, You don't have to worship in the mountains or Jerusalem, you have to meditate and worship God in the Spirit. The Spirit is within. The Spirit is Invisible, Formless and Nameless. This teaching was given 2,000 years ago and we still are not following it.

When Moses came back off the mountain he said, I saw God. He couldn't explain what he saw. Why? Because what he saw and what he felt was the Spirit. That he couldn't explain. Teachers all through history never could explain how God looks. But humans like to have something they can touch, they can look at, they can have a picture of and say -- This is God.

We want a name for It. Even Moses asked God, What is your name, they will ask your name when I go to the people, the Children of Israel. He said, Just tell them, I Am that I Am. I just Am. I have no name. I have no shape. If God had a shape or had a picture of Himself, He would have given it to Moses and said, Here's my picture. Go to the Children of Israel and let them know this is your God and that is His Name, follow Him.

But He couldn't do that. He doesn't have a picture of Himself. He doesn't have a Name. Even his Sacred Name cannot be pronounced in the material world. That's why the Children of Israel stoned a person who would try to even utter the name of the Lord. Not because they were afraid that the name would be uttered, but because you cannot utter His Sacred Name. The moment you put It into words, It's no longer His name. So it cannot be given as a word -- be spoken or written.

We are asking humanity to break these bondages, to free themselves from these dogmas, from this social consciousness. It's not only social consciousness, it is intellectual consciousness, spiritual consciousness, physical consciousness, etc. There are a lot of pitfalls not only on the physical level, but also on the spiritual level. There are many, many traps even on the ethereal level that have to be broken. That's why it's said, Many are called but few will be chosen.

Why will few be chosen? Because, breaking all these bondages is something that is not that easy. Humanity hangs onto these crutches. So we're not asking an easy task from humanity. There are people who have already gone through it. They are the ones who are the Elders. Even they have not broken loose of everything yet.

The Elders are willing to at least go to the Source and break these bondages, to go beyond these little crutches or anything that binds them on this earth, or binds them on the ethereal level, or binds them any place on the path to the Essence. The Essence is Formless, Invisible, Nameless and Eternal (FINE). It is neither male nor female, It is both. At the same time, He is Form, He is Visible, He has a Name, He is in this earth. He is the Essence that is none of them, but also He is all of them.

The ultimate state, therefore, is Pure Consciousness where we see God on all levels and know Him to be all these and beyond. The goal is to raise everyone to that level. This is where the Kingdom within is. That is where the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven is.

If you believe in heaven as a place to go, that is still a trap. If there is a place to go, that place is built or made of something. It's made of ether. That is still not the ultimate. If it is made of something, it is not the Essence. The Essence is that which has no form, no place, no shape, no name...!

Question: Can you talk more on the three Kingdoms of Heaven that are taught in The Greatest Sign?

Maitreya: Some people say the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Others say, No, the Kingdom of Heaven is only possible when you go to heaven (after death). Some others say, the Kingdom is only when you bring God's government to earth. Like everything else, we teach all of them are right.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. The Kingdom of Heaven is in heaven, when you reach Pure Consciousness. Also the Kingdom of Heaven is on earth, because it's been promised in every Scripture that His Kingdom will come on earth -- on earth, not in the ethereal level.

So when you look at The Greatest Sign, you see three Stars of David. One Star of David is very large in the center of The Greatest Sign (the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven). One Star of David is the second sign which is the symbol of the Hebrews (the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth). The third one is the sixth sign, which is the symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven within us.

The Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven is already established. God is the King and the whole universe is His Kingdom. He is everywhere and everything. He guides everything in this universe, it doesn't matter how mind-boggling it is for us to imagine what the universe is. That universe is twenty billion light years. That means, if you could travel with the speed of light twenty billion years, you might reach a point where you would know there is something beyond -- there are more universes beyond that.

How vast is God? How can He manage this universe? If we stretch our imagination, our brains become tired to think twenty billion light years. This means it is even beyond our imagination. It takes a long time -- a couple of years -- just to count to one million. Then one billion is one thousand million. And there are twenty of these billions. So it's a very, very incredible number for us to consider. Still the universe is greater than that. That's what God is and is beyond.

Then, He is also within us, because God is everywhere and is our Essence. So if we know our Essence and know that Essence is One with the universe and God, then we create the Oneness with God. We know His Will. We know His Kingdom. We know His Feelings, His Mysteries. Then we become a mystery.

He is a Mystery, so we become a Mystery, like God. Everyone wants to put God into a small concept, everyone then wants to put you into a small concept, or categorize you. They say, for example, "You are from here" -- I don't feel I am from there. "You are an intellectual" -- I am not intellectual. "You are not intellectual" -- I am intellectual. "You are from the East" -- I'm from the West. "No, you're from the West" -- No, I feel Eastern. All these things become so important for them, such small little things. It's like they say if we cannot put you in a comfortable category for us, we cannot relate to you. If they can categorize you, then they can say we do not like this category!

It's just like a computer. If it's in this file, go this way. If it's in that file, go that way. But if you become the whole computer, then you contain all the files. Then the people can't relate to you. They can't see the differences in you. You become a mystery. They can only work with one file at a time! They cannot go beyond their concepts. They love to categorize you.

So when you reach your Essence, you know that is God. Then you have the Kingdom of Heaven within you. Actually there is a custom in India which says, never ask a spiritual person what caste he's from. It's against the cultural norms to ask a spiritual person what caste he's from because he goes beyond any caste. They realize they cannot categorize those people who reach higher consciousness. They no longer feel like they belong anywhere or to anything. That is the Kingdom of Heaven within you -- when your essence and God's Essence become one, or you realize your Essence and God are One!.

God is the Kingdom, as the Kingdom in the universe, and you can become one with Him. Is that enough? No. God also wants to establish His Kingdom on Earth. That is when he chose a people, who eventually became the Hebrew people. In the Old Testament He shows what He wants from humanity -- He wants to be a King. He wants to be the King of humanity. He doesn't want people to accept human kings. He wants them to accept Him as their King.

In the Old Testament people wanted to choose an earthly king. Samuel went to God and said, God, they rejected me and they want an earthly king. God said, No, they didn't reject you, they rejected Me by wanting an earthly king.

God said, Go tell them they can have their king. But remember that this king is going to enslave them, take their children to war, put a big burden on them for taxation and make his will as their will. He's going to put all these burdens on them. If they want that kind of king, go ahead, choose whoever they want.

Then they brought all the great people around and because Saul was a tall and handsome man, they said, We want him. They chose Saul as king. And what happened? Exactly what God told Samuel. He put burdens on them, taxed them, took their children to war and after awhile they lost the connection with God.

Judges in the Old Testament worked like Elders -- or the Eldest in our system. They weren't king, they were advisors of the system for the people. So Moses actually brought the system we present now to earth then, almost the same system that we represent to humanity. Moses entrusted it to the Children of Israel but they lost it later on.

That's what He (God) wants. He implemented it over l2,000 years ago. He withdrew it when the Atlanteans failed. Humanity fell again 3,500 years ago. They fell to appearances; they fell to wanting a king, an earthly king, and they rejected Him.

He wants to see His Kingdom established on earth. In The Greatest Sign, not only is it pictured that there is a Kingdom in Heaven and a Kingdom of Heaven within you, but there is a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. So there are three Kingdoms of Heaven.

Question: Two-thousand years ago, when Christ was on earth, He taught a prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." So this is the fulfillment of that prayer?

Maitreya: Exactly. As you see in the prayer, it doesn't say Your Kingdom come in heaven. It's already established there. And it doesn't say, Your Kingdom come within us -- which He also preached, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you somewhere else in the Scriptures.

The emphasis is also that His Kingdom comes on earth, on earth -- in the whole earth -- not to only a portion of the earth. Now some people take these words, "Thy Kingdom come on Earth" as also, the Kingdom within you, which is not the same. That is a misunderstanding of the teaching of Christ. He always teaches in the moment.

People say he contradicted himself in many places in the Bible. He didn't contradict himself. The thing is, the universe and teaching is so vast, and every moment has Its own teaching. If you start putting all these moments together and try to find what the truth is, you feel they are contradictory. Yet, they are not.

That's why he said, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." This means, live in the moment -- today, adapt yourself to today's problem. The eventual goal is to bring the Kingdom of Heaven in all three levels. When the Kingdom of Heaven within you, the Kingdom in Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is established, then the Kingdom of God has been established on all three levels.

Question: Maitreya-ji, say for instance, a person has acknowledged the Kingdom of Heaven within and he realizes that the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven is established. Now, he wants to work toward helping to bring the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth -- which has been prayed for, for 2,000 years. How would you suggest that he/she start to open himself from the Kingdom of Heaven within to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth?

Maitreya: As we just said, God wants to be the King. There should be a focus to unify all to His Kingdom. In creation, for anything to be, there must be a center which is the focus. There is a center in every atom, every solar system, and every universe.

So that is why the question of the Messiah, or the coming of the King, or the coming of the Promised One comes in. If you realize the Kingdom of Heaven within you, and you realize that God is the King of the universe, then you're close to His Will. And if you are close to His Will, then you realize that His Will has come through The Greatest Sign, through THOTH and through the Mission. With this realization you will see who Maitreya is, who the Messiah is, who the Promised One is.

See, it's very important to find the Messiah, to find the Promised One. There should be only one, because if you have two, then there are two centers. If you have three, you have three centers. If you have four, four centers. Then you create separation -- don't you? So you have to find the One. If it is not Me, find the One who is. If you find the One who is, let's rally around that center.

There are two ways to realize that center as the Messiah -- you first realize with your mind and your heart, and then is the time to proclaim Him with your mouth. When your mind, your heart and your mouth become one, then you have realized exactly who the Messiah is. If your mouth cannot proclaim, or your heart does not believe, or your mind cannot see the truth, you have not become One with Him yet.

When the mind, heart and mouth become One, then you and the Messiah are One. You become a part of the body and as the body fills itself up, it becomes stronger and stronger. So to answer your question, find the Messiah, realize who He is, proclaim Him and become a part of the Body.

What is the Body? For instance, the human body has many parts with different functions. These are my hands. They cannot do the function of my eyes. So if my hands say, "No, I want to become your eyes," then I'm in trouble, because I cannot see anything. The function of the eyes is to see and the function of the hands is to pick things up or move things around. If my eyes want to become my feet, it doesn't work.

So the Body means the collectivity of the people who have different talents, different abilities. When they come together they put their abilities together, just like a puzzle. They will fit together to help each other. As more of these pieces of the puzzle come together, the puzzle (Body) starts shaping itself to the shape and the picture that it's supposed to be.

So the next step after becoming one with the Body, is to find your place in the Body. Where do I fit in? What can I do? What is my talent? How can I help the Body, with my talent? Where do I really fit in?

You already see that the older systems are crumbling. There is too much stress on the systems on earth. There has never been such great stress on human systems, cultures, and the people. It's no longer "them" l0,000 miles away from us with whom we have nothing to do. It doesn't work that way anymore. What happens l0,000 miles away, affects us here. And whatever we do here, affects them.

So we come closer and closer, and the earth becomes smaller and smaller in the sense of our relationships on a global level. We need a new earth, a new system. We need a new heaven, this is a new way of realizing the Spirit of God on earth. We brought the book, The Plan. We have The Map as the new earth and The Light as the new heaven. So we have brought the new earth and the new heaven on earth. Now we have to build this Body together. As we build this Body, we become stronger and stronger, and prepare ourselves for the new, as the old system starts crumbling.

We are not against the old systems. They are no longer functional. We are not revolutionaries. We're not here to make a revolution against the old system and start trying to topple them. We have to make them realize, we are not against them. Actually their presence here is very necessary right now.

Just imagine if you took the whole system away right now, there would be more chaos. So then we have to pray for them to do their job and stay as long as it is necessary. Yet when they finish their function, they have to go. And when we reach that point, humanity needs something to replace it. If we don't prepare ourselves now, what's going to happen then? Another chaos, isn't it? So that is how we are able to help the coming of the Kingdom.

Question: Then you're suggesting, Maitreya-ji, that the people who have come to the point of knowing the Kingdom of God within need to open themselves out now, to find that Kingdom in each other and then to rally around the Messiah, the Son of God who has been sent, who is here, to proclaim Him and then to move their talents in the direction of the Communities of Light?

Maitreya: Very well put. See, 2,000 years ago, Esa came and chose twelve people. What did they do? They went out and said, We've found the Messiah. And that was enough to build a fire that burned all through the earth. That's all they did -- We've found the Messiah. That is what those who are one with their Essence, know the Kingdom within and realize this is the answer to human problems and everything that they have been praying for, also have to say.

We have found the Messiah. They don't have to go to the streets and yell, "We have found the Messiah." They would probably be put in the madhouse. They can start from their families. They can start from their friends. They can start from those people who will listen to them. Also, present them the truth, present them the unification and the unifying force behind The Greatest Sign, behind THOTH, behind the teaching.

The Body is also here as a symbol of the manifestation of God's Will. You want to know His Will? That is what the Messiah is for -- He comes to earth to say, "This is my Father's Will. Do it." Esa came and said, "This is what the Father wants from you." But the Jews rejected him -- which was in the Plan, that was to happen, as is explained in our teaching.

So that is His Will. Have you come here to do God's Will? If you have and if you realize that our teaching is His Will, then you have a great responsibility to become a part of the Body and to proclaim Him -- Yes, the Messiah is here. Of course, you don't have to accept it if you don't want. It is the free will of humanity to accept and accelerate the coming of the Kingdom, or reject and decelerate Its coming. There is no other way. That is the way to proclaim that we love the Lord.

Question: Is what you're saying that you can see the progression of humanity? As you came under your other names and your other guises in the early history of humanity, you were not proclaimed as the Messiah. Two thousand years ago, humanity progressed to the point where they recognized and proclaimed you as the only begotten Son of God which stimulated humanity for two thousand years. Now we've come to a point where, here you are again and we're being asked to go further than to just proclaim you as the Messiah -- to actually come forth now with the community, which will bring forth the Kingdom of God on earth. We're being asked, as a Kingdom in Nature to make that quantum leap from the recognition of the Messiah to the work in the Will of God.

Maitreya: Well, this time it's a combination of all previous lives. It's not only to realize the Messiah but also to participate in the work. Realizing the Messiah is the beginning point, it's not the end. After you realize that, then you start the work to build the Body, to become a part of the whole, to create the initial elders hierarchy, to create the Communities of Light, to create the manifestation of the hierarchy from the Communities of Light, and to bring about all possibilities for human progress on all levels of human existence, physically, mentally and spiritually.

It is not enough to say, Well, I've found the Messiah. You must also work on yourself to become a part of this process that we have already given. So this time everything has been given all together. There's more than one aspect to be revealed. It's not only Grace, or Love, or the communities, or mysticism, or the Mystery Schools like in Hinduism or the Kabala, communities by the Children of Israel etc. Grace came by Esa, Law with Muhammad, Universalism with the Baha'is. See all of these truths make us realize that each reveal a part of the greater Truth.

You see, when you put a lot of parts together, the Body you will create is greater than the parts. So, this time it is no longer a part, but the whole Body of Truth together. It's not only the Kingdom of Heaven within you. It's not only the Kingdom of Heaven without you. It's not only the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven but all three. It's not only realizing who the Messiah is, but also doing the work. It's not only the Bhakti Yoga, devotion to God or the Messiah but also Jnana Yoga, knowledge, and Karma Yoga, work. It is a combination of all of these which have come to humanity.

Of course, if you are only devotional, you still have a place in the Kingdom, because your love, your devotion -- beauty of glorifying God through devotion -- still pleases the Lord, because it pleases you. If you have a lot of knowledge, fine. As long as you use it for the Kingdom, to create the Kingdom of Heaven, it is useful and accepted by the Lord. If you are a good Light Worker, you do the work but surrender the result to the Lord, again you do Karma Yoga. And also if you do this work toward the creation of the Kingdom, you're accepted and blessed.

So again we are asking every person to go out from where they are, to expand themselves to a greater Self, something that's difficult because humans are usually more comfortable with where they are at. If I know this much, and I'm comfortable with it, why do I want anything else? Maitreya is asking. Yes, you know a lot. You are wonderful. You are beautiful in what you know but there is more.

See? That is where the people probably start to create resistance. See, I know so much. Yet Maitreya is asking me to know more and even go beyond. I know a lot about the West, for instance. He's asking me to also learn about the East. Or I know a lot about the East but He's suggesting, Well you have to also know about Western knowledge, or technology, or computers.

All this expansion of the human mind is going to happen. The only difference is, the coming of the Messiah and His teaching will accelerate the process.

Audience: As you were speaking, my thought went to so many people who say, What is an expanded consciousness? What is an expanded awareness? You've answered that here in saying that everything that they've ever known or ever come in contact with is part of their expanded consciousness or perception. If they were taught something twenty years ago and they learned something different, maybe they thought, This is it! Yet, in order to do that, they had to drop what they previously knew. They threw that out and said, No, that's no good, that's not it. What I know now, this is it. Then they go along and learn a whole bunch of other things. Again they drop everything that they had before and say, Oh, this is it. Yet they continue to find that this isn't it. So an expanded perception for them could be to pick up everything that they dropped and realize that there is truth in all of it. When they take those pieces and put them all back together, they've really got an expanded consciousness or an expanded perception. Then they realize that even that is a small part of what they can have and what there is because there are infinite possibilities. That's what I'm hearing.

Maitreya: That's very true. Each person, on any level of consciousness, has some truth. In that level of consciousness, that is his or her truth. We can explain to him or her in that way not to judge. How can you judge another person, when you are in this level of consciousness and he or she is in another level of consciousness?

The expanded consciousness sees all of these consciousnesses, understands them, sees they are in one part of the expanded consciousness and the only thing he or she can do is to help them to go a little further -- to expand their consciousness a little bit more. When you reach the point where there is no concept left, there is nothing to bind you, really then you are in expanded consciousness.

To obtain the ultimate expansion of consciousness realize The Greatest Sign. It will shatter any narrowness of the mind, and free you from all bondages!