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Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone; I hope you’re all doing well, keeping fit, keeping healthy. I’d just like to take a little, few minutes and welcome everybody who is listening to these broadcasts and has been listening to these broadcasts.
There are 173 countries that are listening to these broadcasts—so, India and United States, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Italy, Canada, Australia, Colombia. Germany, Brazil, Nepal, Switzerland, South Africa, Malaysia. Chile, Portugal, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru.
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So, like to welcome—and South Sudan—and like to welcome all of you to these broadcasts. I hope you have been enjoying them as we continue forward in this situation of coronavirus, where I think a lot of the people are just, you know—it’s too much for them.
And it’s one thing, you know, somebody says “You’re in lockdown”—and you actually feel locked down. So, that’s, I think, the big disparity here—and just because somebody says it’s a lockdown, do you feel locked down? Somebody says, you know, “We are unfortunate,” and so do you feel unfortunate? And that’s the main thing.
Because, you know, I know a lot of doctors and I talk to them. And I say, “You know, there’s an obviousness. Somebody comes to you—and they’re not sick; they don’t feel sick; they are not sick....”
And I said, “You know, I know your job is to find out if there is anything wrong with them.” But you have to look at the obviousness of the person, too. If they are sick, tell them they are sick. But if they’re not sick, at least, begin from there. And vice-versa; if somebody comes to you and you think they’re not sick but they are sick, then you have to begin from that point.
And sometimes we just forget the obviousness of something. The obvious thing is that we are alive; that whatever is very fortunate about being here on this face of this earth, every single day that this breath comes, it’s beautiful. And it’s important to accept that, to understand that. That every day, to make a little effort to be conscious.
Because, you know, when you look at this world.... And I’ve been working on the training, (which I hope I’ll be able to, soon, delve into). Yeah, and it is—it is a bit of a watered-down, you know, Peace Education Program, is what I’ll be bringing forth.
And because we have our limitations and, you know, one of the things that it requires in the Peace Education Program is that those people who are going to participate, send in their learnings, (what they have learnt or what they have understood), so we can share that....
I mean, I don’t have to—you know, if you don’t want, I won’t say the name; you don’t have to write the name—but at least, what it is that you have learnt. Because that is what then provides other people, so like, “Oh! That person got this out of this,” or “this person got this out of this,” and it’s like, “Oh, maybe I should, I should try that; I should adapt that,” so it really provides a wonderful pool.
But one of the main things is that we—we are trying to get away from the consequences. You know, whether the consequences are made by, from the actions that we do or from somebody else’s actions, but we want—but we don’t like consequences that are bad. We like consequences that are good.
So, everything—and so when bad comes, when terrible times come, when sad times come, we look at everything and we go, “Well, who’s doing this, you know; why is this happening to me?” And I know a lot of people really feel that way; it’s like they’ve been singled out.
And, you know, you haven’t been singled out; nobody’s trying to punish you. But what you have to realize is that other people’s actions and the consequences of that are not in your control—but certainly, those actions that you take, you have to be in control. And those consequences, you can do something to mitigate.
And this is what it’s all about. Living life to the fullest truly is living life consciously, being aware of what it is that you do. Because it is very action-oriented, whatever it is you do—not what you think.
See, thinking is different. And of course, we’re going to, I’m going to talk about this in one of the trainings, (I don’t know which one it’s going to be). But it is, you know, it’s an epiphany that I had which is like, “What is the importance of now?”
Because so many people talk about “now,” you know: “This is important; that’s important; now is important.” But “today,” the importance of today is, today is a carrier for a bunch of “nows,” a whole bunch of nows. And what is the importance of now?
Now is the time when you act, when you do something. As soon as you do something, as soon as there is an action taken, it is out of the realm of thoughts. Thoughts, you can have as many as you want. With thoughts, you can visit tomorrow. With thoughts, you can visit yesterday. But with actions you cannot visit tomorrow—and with actions you cannot visit yesterday.
So, the importance of now really is that this is where your actions will take place—and that what you do will be directly responsible, which will create the consequences. And they can be negative consequences, (which you are not going to like; you’re going to suffer). I’m not talking about karma; I’m not going there, you know—I’m talking about actions that we do now.
What kind of actions and how complex is that—it’s huge! It’s how you even look at somebody. You could look at your wife the wrong way—or your wife could look at you the wrong way, at the wrong time. And, you know, it’s over. It’s just like, it’s no good.
So, you are responsible for your actions. Now you’re responsible for your actions bringing good for you, good consequences—as well as bad consequences. You want, as much as possible, to do those things that would ultimately, (not at the expense of other people), bring you good consequences, bring you fulfillment, bring you joy, bring you understanding.
I mean, I see a lot of people—and some people I don’t know; I see them on television, maybe it’s an interview; maybe they’re talking or whatever. And then you read about them, you know, “They’re so-and-so and they are, you know, somebody very important and way up there.”
But one thing that is uncanny is, some of these people, they’re not very happy. I mean, certainly, there’s one person who, people see a lot of this person on television—and he’s a very powerful person, yeah, because he’s, you know, associated with a very powerful country.
But he—he is not a happy camper. I mean, whenever you see him, he’s just not a happy camper—even though, status-wise, he is on the top of the top of the top of the top of the top.
So, it has nothing to do with the formula that some people draw up, “That, you know, if you have this; if you have this; if you have this, then you’re automatically happy—you’re content; you’re successful.”
No, success is something that is felt. Somebody can’t come and tell you you are successful if you are not feeling successful. Somebody cannot come along and tell you you are happy if you are not feeling happy. (“Oh, no, no, you are happy; you’re happy.”) So, these things are subjective; they’re up to you! Not objective.
When society takes something that is very subjective and tries to turn it into something very objective, a whole bunch of stuff happens that is no good whatsoever.
So, this whole learning of the formula begins: “Oh, yeah, you have to learn this formula; you have to learn this formula; you know, this is what this is about. And this is what this is about. And if you want to be successful you have to do this, this, this, and this, and then you will be successful.”
Well, in the United States, people have to take out a loan to finish college, to finish a certain school that they can then try to make money from. And right there, they haven’t even yet started and they’re already in debt. And for the rest of their life, they’re going to stay in debt, and stay in debt, and stay in debt.
And the whole economy is based so that you can be in debt—so far you just keep working like a slave, just working like a slave and try to pay off that. And the thing is, you’re never going to be able to pay it off because it just keeps getting more compounded and more compounded and more compounded. And this is what happens.
So, you’re trying to take something that’s very subjective, make it very objective—“And do this, this, this, this and this.”
People come to me—and they want peace in their life; they want harmony; they want fulfillment; they want clarity; they want hope; they want all of this stuff. But they think that’s objective: “That we will turn on a button; we will push a button and it’ll happen.” No, it’s subjective. It’s totally what you feel.
If you don’t feel that joy in your life, you don’t have that joy. That’s it. You have to feel it; you have to understand it. That’s what peace is. Peace is something you have to feel—not something you have to think about, “Do I have peace now? I have this; I have this; I have this; do I have peace now?”
And, you know, Kabir’s sayings are full of this, that, you know, somebody tells you “This is it,” and you just go, “Yeah, this is it; this is it; this is it; this is it”—that’s not it. Unless you have that true realization, unless you have that true understanding in your life, nothing is going to make any difference. You’re going to try—but it’s not going to make any difference.
So, this is—the three things that I always talk about, you know, “Know yourself; live your life consciously.” Because that is the only barrier you have—consciousness—between your actions and those consequences that you don’t want.
To mitigate those actions, those consequences, the only way you can do it is if you start practicing consciousness, to be aware of what is happening: “What are you about to do; what are you about to say; what is going to be”—to give it a little thought, “What is going to be?”
“What is going to be the consequence of you telling your child ‘You are late’?” Fine, this is what happened to you; that’s how you got it. You see, you actually got it because that’s exactly what happened to you; “You’re late; you’re late; you’re late; you’re late; you’re late; you’re late.”
At some point in time, you have to ask yourself the question, “Who’s in charge here?” Your parents might have gone; they may not be on this planet Earth—but they have certainly left a legacy in you. And you are just sitting there and perpetuating this. And people think that that’s perfectly okay—because there’s nothing wrong in that.
Well, think about it: “Is that what you want to do? Is that what you want to do?” What do you want to do? You know, and there are—it’s true—there are the actions you have taken, and you may be, you know, going through the bad consequences of those actions.
But what do you want to do now? Do you want to change or do you want to keep repeating that? And repeating the sadness of those negative consequences? So, it’s up to you. It’s up to you—and it always will be up to you. And it is very subjective of what you feel, of what you understand in your life.
So, continue to be safe. Feel well; be well. And most importantly, be.
