How many times have you heard me say "the Divine is in you"? And why can't you understand and totally accept that the Divine is in you? Because of your idea of what the Divine is. That's why. Your idea has no idea of what the Divine is! But you have given that idea a shape! "How can this be in you?"
So, your ideas are the very thing that is keeping you from that Divine that is in you. And the day you can drop your idea of the Divine, you’ll find the Divine.
One day Guru Nanak goes to this river, and everybody is taking their vessel, this lota—or, you know, metal vessel—and they’re offering water to the sun god, to God. And so Nanak turns around and starts going like this. And everybody looks at him and says, "Hey! That’s the wrong direction."
He goes, "No, no, this is the right direction." "No, no, no, that’s the wrong direction; the sun is over that way. You need to be making your offering to the sun.” And he goes, "Well, if your water can reach the sun, I’m just trying to water my fields; they’re just a few miles that way."
Show me a place where there isn’t a Divine. And it is not of the physical presence that you think has to be. Wherever you go, whatever happens in your life, once you even go on the other side of that wall, the Divine will be with you.
But you see, you have to let go of your concepts of the Divine to understand that. “With me? Like, 'Hello, Divine.'" No! Because this won’t be there. This won’t be there. This won’t be there—but you will be. How? How is that possible? Because you are dust. And when you hit that wall, you’ll become dust again. And when you do, that’s it.
"Oh, oh. Oh, that sounds terrible." Well, what the whole universe is made out of, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that! And the universes beyond that.
It's all dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust. And you thought what made you you was your name, your personality. Your sunglasses, your reading glasses, your mustache, your lipstick, your eye shadow. You’ve got it all wrong! You’ve got it all, all, all-all-all-all-all-allwrong.
This is who you were, and this is what you will be. You really want to know about your tomorrow? That’s your tomorrow. You want to really know about your yesterday? That’s your yesterday: dust, dust, dust, really not any different than your tomorrow.
You want to know about your past? It’s really not any different than your future. And that is your future—guaranteed. Nothingis more guaranteed than that.
This is your now. This is not your future; this is not your past; this is your now. Are you riding it? Because this ride is called "life." Ride it. Ride it. Ride it.
You know, I’ve never said this before, not in these words. "That’s your past. It’s not any different than your future. And the only thing that’s different between your past and your future is ‘now.’ This is different. This’ll never be again."
That has happened before! That which is about to happen, you being dust? Oh yeah, that’s the way it was. But this, this force that’s prying these two open in the midst of everything—you have life, your life—not my life, your life, your existence. And this is now!
Does that make any sense? I hope it defines a little bit more of what "now" is—and up till now it was like, it was this tiny fragment. I don’t know; like I have said, it’s like, "And this is now." All of a sudden, it’s like, "Well, wait a minute. This is now, too. This is my now."
Give away, take away what my ideas are. Start living, start existing, start feeling—and you become free. You have heard that saying, "To fly, you don’t need to sprout wings; you just need to cutthe ropes that bind you back." Well, guess what binds us back? Ideas about everything.
And so, understand: the Divine is in every atom of that dust. And that’s how that Divine will be with you. Because there’s nothing in this world where that Divine isn’t. And even now, in this change, the Divine is with you.
- Prem Rawat
