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Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone. I hope you’re all well.
So, last night I was thinking about, again, the training and the Peace Education Program—and I came across something in my head, and what I came across was a question—and actually, it turned out to be two questions. And the question is, “Are you, as a human being, comfortable with yourself?” It’s a pretty important question, I think.
Because if we are not comfortable with who we are—again, that’s a perceived point; that’s a perceived thing. In reality, who you are, that’s totally different; that’s something to be realized; that’s something to be discovered; that’s something to be understood.
But in your perception of yourself, are you comfortable being you? Because if you are comfortable with being you, then this whole lockdown thing is not an issue. Because you’re comfortable being you.
But if you’re not comfortable with yourself, then this definitely becomes a very valid issue, because you now don’t know who you are. And because you don’t know who you are, you are with a stranger. Literally, you are with a stranger.
And there are people in this world who go through a whole lifetime living with a stranger, somebody you don’t know—and they’re there; they’re there every day. And all there is is just expectations, expectations, expectations, expectations.
And you expect a lot from that stranger. What you actually expect from that stranger is what people have expected of you. The world puts a huge amount of expectations on you. You pass that on to this stranger that you live with.
So, what does that mean? It just means, very simply, “If you got to understand who you are, if you understood who you are, then you wouldn’t be a stranger to the self.” And if you’re not a stranger to the self, then you can very easily say, “Yes, this is what I want in my life; this is how I want to be in my life. This is what is comfortable for me—and this is what is not comfortable for me.”
Because, any stage of the game.... You know, when you were going to school, you started with kindergarten; then you went on to first grade. When did you go to second grade? After you had finished the first grade.
Now, it may seem pointless to go to the second grade because, by the time you’re finished with first grade, you are so comfortable with the first grade. But then you have to stop—and you’re ready to take on the next step.
It’s just like climbing a ladder. You climb the first rung; you bring your feet up to it. Then, once you are there, then you take and you put your foot on the second rung—and the third rung and the fourth rung—and this is how you climb.
So, before you start to put expectations on yourself, (whether they are your expectations or whether they are expectations that are created by this world), you have to be very, very clear that “Yes, I’m comfortable at this level. Then I can go on to the second level.”
The second level? A little bit more understanding of myself. Third level, a little bit more understanding of myself—and it’s a discovery; it’s a process of discovery for the rest of your life.
Because you are not static. You are constantly evolving; you’re constantly changing. You want to be stationary; you want to not change. And that’s what Socrates said, that if you get everything, (I’m paraphrasing here), if you get everything you want, you’re not going to be happy. If you don’t get what you want, you’re not going to be happy.
And even if you get what you want you’re not going to be happy because it’s going to change. And change is the fact of life. You don’t like that. You want to be stationary; you want everything to stop—and you can look at it that way; you can look at it being stationary. You want to appreciate everything from that way of being stationary.
So now, here comes this whole issue of reality. What is reality like? And I remember a question that somebody asked me and it was in Portugal. And they said, “If I were to find out who I am,” (because this is what I was talking about to them), “that if I found out who I am and I didn’t like who I am, then what would I do?”
And I gave an answer, whatever the answer was; I went back to my hotel—and I started thinking. It’s like, “Wow, I have not considered somebody ever knowing themselves....”
And it’s not anywhere. You know, you listen to Kabir or you read what so many other people had to say; nobody talks about, “Hey, you’d better be careful knowing yourself because if you got to know yourself.... And what if you didn’t like what you saw?”
Pretty fascinating. It’s amazing; it’s like, “Wait a minute. That possibility may exist in this person’s mind, in this person’s head. But that possibility has not even, ever been brought up.” Because it is a foregone conclusion that when you know yourself, you will like what you see.
And that’s pretty fascinating. It is fascinating to understand that what is there, what is truly you, is beautiful—exceptionally.
Now, you know, it’s like you have a wall—and there’s a big gate. And the person says, “Okay, follow me.” And that person steps through that gate and they’re looking at something and it’s absolutely spectacular. And they’re telling you, “Don’t be afraid; come on in!”
But they’re not telling you what they’re seeing. All they’re saying is, “Come on in; it’s okay. It’s fine.” And they’re encouraging you to come in, but the encouragement isn’t by, “I see this; I see this; I see this; I see this,” so, I wonder why that is.
And in fact, one of the couplets that I had come across is “That when you talk about this experience, when you talk about that feeling of knowing yourself, that it is a bit like a person who is mute, who cannot speak, eating candy. They can taste it—and they are definitely enjoying it. But they cannot tell you how much they’re enjoying it and what the taste is. All they can tell you is ‘Umm, it’s great; it’s wonderful.’”
And this is what it boils down to. That the reality, by its very nature, is beautiful. This existence, by its very nature, is beautiful. (Now, pay attention here.) This existence, by its very nature, is beautiful. This reality, by its very nature, is beautiful. Your life, by its very nature, is beautiful. Your heart, by its very nature, is very beautiful.
So then, why are all these other issues hovering around you? Ah-hah, here is that point. Take that first question I asked, and that question is, “Are you comfortable with yourself?” Because if you’re not, perhaps you’re carrying a huge burden on your shoulders of the expectations that others have of you.
But it’s time to understand who you are, not everything else. Your whole life has been spent, up to this point, understanding everything around you—all the things that go on, this is what we learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn.
And I’m not saying that that’s wrong; it’s not a question of right and wrong. And there are many things in this world that we learn—by their very nature they are bad. But the reality, by its very nature, is good. You, you, as a human being, by your very nature you are good.
And so there is this incredibly learnt behavior, incredibly heavy-duty learnt behavior that other people have, that you have, that is causing all the friction—causes all the friction, causes all the friction, causes all the friction in this world. Not the reality, not the sweet reality of who you are, that that breath comes into you, that you are alive, that you exist.
You exist for a very finite amount of time, but you exist. And in that, you bloom—you bloom. In that, you find that which you didn’t pay attention to.
“Why is this reality hidden? Why is this beauty hidden?” Excuse me, it’s not hidden. Not by any stretch of the imagination is this beauty hidden, is this joy hidden, is this clarity hidden, is this peace hidden. You just never did pay attention to it. You never thought it’s there. Nobody told you it’s there. Nobody said, “This-a-way, in here lies the most amazing thing that you are.”
And so, is it that simple, is it that easy, that all we have to do is pay attention to it? And it will begin to manifest itself; we will begin to see it. And the idea is exactly that: “Get out of the way.”
A lot of people say to me, “You know, I’m searching for peace.” It’s like, “Well, good luck. You’re not going to find it that way.” “Why not? Why shouldn’t I be searching for peace?” Because you already have it. That’s why you shouldn’t be searching for it; you should be enjoying it; you should be paying attention to it; you already have it; it’s there.
It’s like somebody going, “Where are my glasses; where are my”—you know, a lot of people put up their glasses on top of their head. And it’s like, “Where are my glasses; where are my glasses?” Obviously, your eyes can’t see it because it’s at the top of your head.
And, you know, somebody seeing you with the glasses on top of your head—and they’re like, “Kkh, kkh, kkh, over there, you know, on top of your head are your glasses. Why are you searching for them; why are you looking for them when they’re there?” And it’s the same thing, that that beauty is inside of you.
Now, the second question that I’m going to ask you.... I hope the first question clarified itself for you somehow. But the second question is—so, right now we are in the middle of this lockdown. Not a nice situation. But it’s not the situation, but how we react to it, right?
So, here is my question. “Pretty soon—relatively speaking, pretty soon this will be over. What would you have learnt?”
When I began, it was all about “resetting.” What would you have reset? When you come out of this, will you be the same? Are you just waiting? Are you just waiting every day for this to be over—I mean, every single day? Are you scared of this thing? When I have told you that being scared doesn’t do anybody any good? Absolutely not, it’s, that never helps anybody.
But you have to do something. And that takes exceptional courage sometimes. And to say that it takes exceptional courage—would be pointless to say that if you didn’t have it. You have that courage. You can take that step in your life; you can move forward.
And grab this challenge and say, “Okay. This isn’t going to be a waste of my time. Because my goodness, if this is a waste of time, this is a real waste of time, times many, many, many, many times.” This sounds weird but, yeah, “This is a waste of time times many, many times over.”
But it can’t be. It can’t be. As a human race, mankind, human beings on the face of this earth, we’re making history. We got faced by something that we weren’t prepared for—and in a matter of a very short period of time, it has brought the whole world, “world” to its knees.
It is a thing you can’t even see with your eyes, naked eyes; you’d need a microscope or something.... And here we are. And what are we doing?
The governments are talking about extending the lockdown, doing this, doing that. There’ll be some countries that would have gone through it, some islands that would have gone through it and they would be releasing, saying, “Okay, it’s clear—but don’t come here.” You know, the world isn’t going to be the same for a long time.
But here is your opportunity. What do you see—the difference that you are going to make in your life, in this period of time? How will it be better for you, when you come out of this whole thing? (Ideally, everything being perfect—and they find a vaccine; you get inoculated and, you know, now you are resistant to it and you can go on and all’s well, all’s good.) Will you be the same?
Because if we’ll be the same, with no change to the human beings that live on the face of this earth, who share this earth with everybody.... This is obvious! This is obvious, that we share this world with everybody. That we make a difference. We all make a difference.
There are those people who truly are in lockdown and not going out and contaminating people. Yes! You are playing your part; you’re playing your role. You—you are not just one anymore.
When you stay in lockdown, you stop that contamination going from four, five people from you directly, and then four or five people for each one that you would have infected, and so on and so on and so on and so on. You’re not one.
So, give it a thought, of how powerful this is. That what we are having to live through, what we are going through, how powerful this is—and that we can make a difference.
And every, every person that is making a difference, those people who are at the forefront of this, in the hospitals, who are making a difference, the nursing staff that’s making a difference, the doctors that are making the difference, the people that are making the difference.
If we can make that big of a difference, imagine when I say—and you know, people used to always laugh at me; I’m sure that people laugh at me today when I say “Peace is possible.” They’re like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah....”
But here is an example. Peace is possible. We are more powerful than we realize. And come together, united? We can do some amazing things.
But I have always said that it is every individual; it is the strength of every individual that is ultimately going to make the difference. That it isn’t a question of a big light bulb, but it is the little light bulbs that make the difference. A lot of little lamps that are lit can make the difference. You are actually seeing that whole understanding about the lit lamps in action. You’re seeing it in action.
I’m just, pretty soon, in a day or so, I’m going to have a little report that TPRF, what they’re doing—and what RVK is doing in India and what one of the Premsagar Foundations is doing—and people that are making that effort. And it’s a fascinating report at this time of coronavirus, what is happening; I’ll have that report for you shortly.
So, this is your opportunity to transform from a very deep place inside of you. And that’s why I said, “Are you comfortable with yourself”—from a very deep place inside of you, to transform forever. Not just for this period of time, but to transform forever. And if you could transform forever, you could transform your world around you.
So, fascinating two questions, give it a thought. Give it a thought. Thank you very much.
