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Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone. I hope, again, you’re doing well. And, you know, I know that the announcements are coming; the lockdown will be delayed—but that’s nothing to lose heart over or to get concerned about, a few more days. After all, the objective is to be safe, to be well. And take the opportunity to learn something, to understand something, something that is very, very important.
Because time is time; not a question of what’s happening in that time, but time is time; that’s one way to look at it. And you can either waste it—and that has nothing to do with coronavirus; that has nothing to do with any of the global events—or you can do something that will truly help you in this course of life.
Now, there are two things that I want to talk about. And one thing is, (which I mentioned earlier in one of these broadcasts), you know, we’re so busy solving the problem; we’ve got our head shoved into this sand—and I want to just explain that a little bit.
So, you have two things. And one thing is essentially, your actions. You did something; (you did something unconsciously or you did something deliberately, it doesn’t matter). But whatever you do in this world, it’s going to have consequences. So you have the action and you have the reaction, the consequence.
Now, when I say “live your life consciously,” I mean that you would take those actions that will have a very positive consequence. The result will be something you would like, something you would enjoy—that has something to do with peace, has something to do with fulfillment, has something to do with understanding, with clarity.
But what happens, (and this is what I’ve been thinking about), is that we get so obsessed with the consequence that we actually forget about the action. And therefore, if that action repeats itself, it’s going to bear the same consequence again and again and again and again.
Now, how far does this stretch out—my goodness, in every realm you can possibly imagine. You can imagine this in family situations, in problems that families have, in domestic violence, (which is a huge thing), bullying, (that’s a huge thing).
And so many more, murders, crimes, petty crimes to severe crimes, to everything. It’s, again, you have the action and then you have the consequence. And everybody is so busy negating the consequences—the negative consequences—that they actually forget about the action.
Unless you change that action, repeatedly it’s going to produce the same result again and again and again and again and again. And you’re going to wonder, “Why in my life am I being punished? What have I done wrong?”
It’s not that you did something wrong in your last lifetime or you’re going to do something wrong or that you are cursed or somebody gave you the evil eye or this happened or that happened, you know, ten million excuses—or you happened to go under a ladder or whatever. But what are you doing? Whatever you do unconsciously, whatever you do....
Let me put it this way, whatever you do will produce a result. No question about it. Every action will produce a reaction. And of course, if it is unpleasant, you want to negate it; you want to get out of it; you want to.... You know, it’s like the person who gets locked up and then, the only thing they’re thinking about is “How do I get out of this? How do I get out of this consequence?”
If there is a person who is going to school and they get, the child gets really bad marks—and he’s like, “Oh my God, you know, what do I do now; do I show this report card to my parents? Don’t I? What excuse do I make? Oh....”
Instead of working on the action, which is, “I need to study—and I can do that. I need to study harder.” To fundamentally look at what is causing me to repeat my actions—because I am not paying attention to those actions. And it is those actions which are causing the problem.
So it’s very, very interesting. And we, in our lives, we live our lives; we go about our business all day long—and we’re only paying attention to the consequences; we’re not paying attention to what is causing this problem.
You know, it’s like when you were young; you kept getting tickets. (I know what that’s like. I know what that’s like.) And why was I getting tickets? And I have told this story before; it’s like, one day I was pulled over—and I realized that it was humiliating; it was not fun. And at that moment, whatever, you know, great time I was having driving fast, getting pulled over had negated all of that.
And of course, I didn’t want to lie to the police officer; I was speeding. And so, right then and there I decided, “No more. I’m not going to speed.”
So I drive with my cruise control wherever I can. And I set it, you know, three, four miles an hour over the speed limit. And it maintains it—and not that it’s going to get me there quicker. It doesn’t. I would have to drive like, insane.
And, you know, but you can always take a flight, if that’s what the importance of getting there really quick is. But, give yourself enough time so you don’t have to.
So, the whole thing is, yeah, when you’re getting pulled over and it’s like, “Oh my God, this is terrible,” and, yeah, you know, ears turn red; your face turns red; your blood pressure goes up. You know, you’re embarrassed and everybody’s looking at you on the freeway....
And you want to get out of it. “Oh, ah, yes, officer, you know, I’m sorry; I won’t do this again,” and all that. But you’re not paying attention to your actions. What you need to do in life is start paying attention to your actions, not just the reactions. Because reactions will just follow suit of whatever those actions are.
If you’re not spending any time to sow the seeds of peace in your life—and then you will wonder, “Why don’t I have peace,” well, that’s because you never did sow any seeds of peace. You never did anything to bring peace about. You just ran into this world, you know, like a dodo, just running and running and running and running and running and running and running.
You know, it’s just like, I saw this quote in a newspaper once and it was very interesting. And the way the quote went is like, “You earn all this money—and then you work so hard for it. And then at the end of the day, what happens is you get old, get sick, and you take all that money that you have earned and you hand it over to a hospital,” because you are now sick—instead of taking some of that time and doing something positive.
And this is—you know, again, I’m not trying to make any excuse for anybody; I’m not trying to, you know, point fingers at anybody or anything like that. It’s very straightforward; there are leaders who are doing their job who are doing a great job.
And then there are the leaders that shouldn’t—yeah, the “l” shouldn’t even be a part of their, you know, title anywhere concerned. I mean, just, they have lost it; they have truly, truly lost it. And, okay, that’s enough said.
But what about you? You are the leader of this domain of your life. How are you running the show? Forget about the world leaders; forget about the big organizations; forget about all that—how are you running your show? Are you being conscious? Are you trying to make an effort to understand yourself? Is your heart full of gratitude?
Or are you just pulling your hair out: “When is this, you know, lockdown going to be over? When is this going to be over; when, that’s going to be, why is this happening; you know, I had plans; I had ideas of how I was going to spend, you know...?”
I’m sure there are people who had booked cruises, to go cruising. Not a smart idea at this point in time. What do you do? If you don’t know who you are, what do you do?
And everywhere I turn, (and you watch this channel or you watch that channel), these are the issues. And there are some, you know, “fun-hearted” people, I would call them, with a good sense of humor, and they’re trying to make something happen that may be funny or something like that.
Great, fine. But it’s not just a question of something that will occupy your time. You should be occupying your time. Thoughts that matter to you are the ones you should be entertaining.
Do those things at this point in time that will bring about happiness and joy for you—this is what’s important. This is what’s important; not that you have to find a way to occupy your time. No, you are the one who should occupy your time, not something else and not somebody else—but you should occupy your time.
So that’s one thing that I was thinking about. And the second thing is, you know, I keep saying that “This is the printer and it keeps printing these pictures.” So, there’s a story and I’ve told this story before.
So, there was a terrible flood—and this lady had this house and the floodwaters started coming and next thing you know, she moved a little bit higher. She was standing on her kitchen table—and floodwaters started coming to that point. So she went up the staircase and the floodwaters just kept following her; the waters just kept rising and rising and rising.
This kept on happening till she found herself on the roof. Now there’s no place higher to go. And the floodwaters were rising. So, earnestly, she prayed to God. And she said, “God, come down and help me. I’ve been—I followed you; I have loved you. I think you’re the greatest. And I am in trouble—and I would certainly appreciate if you could come down and help me.”
So, the next thing you know, a boat comes by. And they’re the rescue workers and they say, “Lady, come on; you know, the floodwaters are rising; we’d better get you out of here.” And she goes, “No. No, I am waiting for my God to come and save me.”
Well, the waters rose a little bit more. Now her feet are wet and she can’t get any higher and she prays again and says, “Lord, save me. You know, I’m your greatest fan; I love you. I have prayed to you; I have been faithful to you—and I’m in trouble. And please come and save me.”
A few minutes later, another boat comes by—the rescue workers, “Lady, come on; you know, it’s time to go! It’s, really, this is not a joke; come on.” And she goes, “No. My God is going to save me.”
A few minutes later, same thing again. Now the water is quite full; it’s come up to, you know, her chest. And she prays again and says, “Lord, you know, this is the last chance. I mean, please, save me, you know, help me.” Another boat zings by.
They say, “Come on, lady, this is it! This is it; this is it. You’re not going to be able to stay here much longer.” She goes, “No. My God is going to come and he’s going to save me.”
The next thing you know, the water rises high enough and she’s swept away. She dies; she is in heaven. Peter is there; St. Peter is there to welcome her and she is furious. And she goes, “I want to talk to God.”
And St. Peter says, “Well, can I help you in any way?” And she goes, “Help me? I want to talk to God!” St. Peter goes to God and says, “You know, there’s somebody who’s just come in who is really angry with you and wants to talk to you.” And he says, “Okay, call her in.”
She comes in and she says, “What kind of God are you? You know, three times I prayed to you. And—to save me, and not once did you come down and save me.” And God said, “Lady, give me a break. I sent three boats to save you. And not once did you take one of those boats.”
Printer—printed a picture of what she thought, how she would be saved. But that’s not what was going to happen. Three boats did come—but she didn’t take a single one and she ended up drowning.
Hmm! Well, it’s a funny story—but it does deserve some attention about this printer. Because we follow this printer very closely. And it sits there all day long and prints more pictures and more pictures and more pictures.
Living your life consciously would definitely mean you really have to yank yourself away, pull yourself away when you find yourself chasing one of those pictures. You should be chasing your heart; you should be chasing that thirst in your life to be fulfilled, to be clear, to be in that serenity. That’s what the thirst of your heart is.
Not the quest of the mind that just goes, “I want this; I want this; I want this.” I mean, okay, you know, it’s no big deal, you follow it once in a while. But if you’re following it all the time and not following the heart all the time, that’s going to be a little bit problematic.
So, be well. Be safe. Most importantly, be. Enjoy yourself; make the most of this time. I’ll talk to you later. Thank you.
