Prem Rawat:
In this life, people start off, “I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to accomplish this, and I’m going to accomplish that,” and all the million things that they want to accomplish. And then it comes down to that one day where if you took another breath, you have accomplished a lot.
I have seen it with my own eyes. I have seen it with my own eyes. It was a long time ago—he was a friend of mine, I guess. Yeah, well, also a very rich man. So, I finally get the message, “He’s on the deathbed; he’s dying. Would you please come say goodbye to him?” I happened to be going from Miami to LA. I said, “Sure, I’ll stop by.”
I stopped, went to the hospital where he was. He was not a tall person. But lying on that bed, he was hooked up to a heart-lung machine. And he was about this big; that’s all. He was curled up. He was already gone. He was hooked up to the heart-lung machine; the heart-lung machine was doing everything for him.
After I left, they asked his then-girlfriend/wife, “Should we pull the plug?” She said yes. They did; he was gone.
He didn’t open his eyes; he didn’t say hello to me. And there was no one cent that could have done anything for him. Success is, (maybe you believe me; maybe you don’t believe me)—but I say to you honestly, “Success is when you are lit.” That’s your success.
You have imagined heaven? I’m sure you have imagined heaven because you have been told so much about it. But I’ll tell you what heaven is. Heaven is when you are lit. That is heaven. That is true heaven. That’s true understanding.
Somebody just told me a person I had just seen not too long ago, passed away. And he knew he was going to go. But that wasn’t the issue. That was not the issue! The issue was that he was going to be in that joy as long as he could, regardless of his situation. I was not shocked. Because I was looking at a lamp that was lit. That’s what happens.
It’s not about all the mundane things. It’s about this life, this life, this lifetime. And when you can see that, when you can understand that, then you understand all there is to understand. Maybe you don’t know the chemical composition of the moon. But you see the kin-ness of all that is dirt. Then you see and feel, truly, the glimpse of the divine.
That’s why you want to be lit. You want to see all that that the darkness hides. And when you are lit, no longer can the darkness hide that. And you can see how beautiful, how incredible this is, this journey, your existence, your opportunity. Make effort to be lit. To understand.
