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Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone. I hope you’re all doing well under the circumstances—and today, again, we’re going to be going through some questions that you have written in. Now, these aren’t all of the questions.
But one of the questions from Emmanuel is, “What solutions would you like to see for all humanity and this world within your lifetime?”—so, I see in my lifetime....
Well, I don’t really have a long list. My list is rather simple; I would like to see a little bit less greed. I would like to see a little bit more kindness; I would like to see a little bit more generosity. I would like to see people first—then everything else.
I would like to see the hunger eliminated. There’s no reason for it unless the person wants to be hungry. Now, of course, you know, eliminating hunger doesn’t mean that you force-feed everybody. If somebody really wants to be hungry, fine; that’s fine.
But, you know, those things that are just unnecessary—and are because of our bad behavior on the face of this earth. And if we can eliminate that, have a little more kindness all around, have a little bit better understanding of ourselves—which will help us understand other people, because they are just like us.
And less of these differences that people have, you know, “You’re Chinese; you’re this, you’re that,” but no, just look at the human beings as human beings. And the variety that we have, welcome it; welcome the differences.
You know, and people just pointing down at other groups that are different—to stop that. You know, that just to treat human beings as human beings, whatever their preferences might be, however they want to live, however they want to exist, however they want to be—to have a society that is tolerant of that—not intolerant, but tolerant of that.
And so, you know, that’s, I guess, a pretty long list, but that’s what I’d like to see, just a little bit less of that greed, you know, a little bit less of that anger, a little bit less of that macho, bully-on-the-block that every country wants to be. Just a little bit less—I think that would make a huge difference.
And sensitivity to the nature, the environment, to make things right with the environment, to make right things with all the creatures on the face of this earth, rather than seeing ourselves as the custodian of them and then doing nothing.
If we are going to see ourselves as the custodian, if we are going to see ourselves as the crown of creation, then we’d better act like one, like the crown of creation—and help all those creatures, rather than, you know, all that means is you have ownership of it. But that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t take care of it. So, that’s what I’d like to see.
And then there is another question from Rita, “Thank you for, again for sharing beautiful and interesting insights into this lockdown period. I’m so happy you will be doing trainings with us”—and these are the PEP trainings. And that, yes, they will be for everybody, because they’ll come out just like this. So, whoever wants to go through it....
Oh yeah, and talking about PEP—it was brought to my attention that a lot of people watching don’t actually have any idea what PEP is. So, what is PEP? Well, PEP stands for Peace Education Program.
I have some statistics here. The Prem Rawat Foundation, (which is TPRF), started the program worldwide in 2012—and in 2013, began collecting meaningful statistics. The Peace Education Program is eight years old; it’s working in six continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Australia, (Oceania area).
There have been more than eighty-five countries since 2012—currently active in thirty-nine countries, translated into thirty-five languages, presented in 600 correctional facilities globally—and total attendees since inception is nearing 94,000. (So, that was as of March first, so some of that has changed, I’m sure.)
And in different areas, in South America, Australia/Oceania area, North America, Europe, Asia, Africa—so, adult learning center, (the type of facility), there have been forty of these PEP trainings, twenty-nine in the Australia/Oceania area, twenty-two in North America—and Europe, fifty; Asia, seven; Africa, nine.
Business organizations: sixty-four in South America and nothing in Oceania, nothing in North America. Europe, four; Asia, two; Africa, four. Civic and government: fifty-four of these trainings have happened in South America; eight in Oceania; twenty-three in North America; thirty-six in Europe; forty in Asia and ten in Africa.
So, it goes on like this—and you know, corporations and foundations: forty in South America; two in Australia; sixteen in North America—Europe is twenty-two; Asia is thirty; in Africa is fourteen. Educational: 355 in South America; Australia, twenty-three; North America, seventy-seven; Europe, 132.
Anyway, the grand total—so it covers veterans, special groups, senior centers, police and law enforcement, non-profit and NGOs, health and wellness, educational, correction and prison, corporations and foundations, community centers, libraries, civic and government, business organizations and adult learning centers....
All put together, 843 of these trainings have happened in South America; 244 in Pacific/Oceania area; 985 in North America; 910 in Europe; 360 in Asia; 722 in Africa. That’s just a little introduction to PEP. It’s a really, really, really simple program. Because of its simplicity; it’s successful.
And so, it is a series of lectures that are given by me in different environments—some are direct to camera; some are at different events that I did—and then the participants are just simply asked to reflect on what they have heard and pay attention.
And I guess it’s just that “paying attention” business that makes all the difference. That if you could just closely look at what is being said and then give it some thought, that that’s what makes a big difference. Anyways, so that’s what PEP is and yes, it’ll be open to everyone.
The question, the next one, (no name), but, “Whenever I do any work with full concentration, I do it once, twice, but after that, I lose my concentration and continuity. I easily forget to do right works, but not the wrong ones.”
You know, I don’t know what exactly your situation is. But wandering off, losing focus, losing concentration, that happens to a lot of people, so first of all, you’re not alone. But secondly, most importantly, a little discipline goes a long ways into keeping you focused.
Because, you know, we become so easily adapted to, “Am I enjoying this or not?” Sometimes the enjoyment comes a little bit later—and you have to have patience for that. You know, not everything is instantly rewarding all the time. And in life, that’s a lesson you have to learn.
So, a little bit of discipline, a little bit of patience, a little bit of those powers that you have—will go a long ways in helping you out in your situation.
“I have been to a lot of teachers”—somebody who’s been searching. And the question is, “How will I know I’ve found the real one? How would I know?”
Well, it’s not a question of real one or a fake one—but something that your heart will tell you. Somebody who touches your heart—that’s what teaching about life, a teacher about life needs to be, that, somebody who touches your heart.
Not just your mind; not just engage your mind—but somebody that touches your heart, that has that encompassing feeling and sees you as a human being, not somebody who is searching for truth but just as a human being. And keeps looking at you as a human being for the rest of your life. That what that teacher offers is something from their heart to your heart. So, I hope that helps.
“Dear Prem, in your Lockdown talks about ‘consequences from actions’”—I knew I was going to get something on that—“you say that it’s in that moment called now....” And that, yeah, the moment called “now” is where all actions take place. That’s it; that’s the bottom end of that.
“Please help me understand, how can I make my life more successful and simpler by just choosing the right action and avoiding the wrong ones?” Look, your life is simple. This is how it is. Now, you have brought in all the little bits and pieces that make it complicated. The process of making this happen is taking away, is a process of subtraction, not addition.
What am I talking about? All right, so you’ve got a white shirt. You’ve got a white shirt—you realize it’s dirty. How do you clean the white shirt? Do you go out and buy “cleanliness” in a bottle and pour it over the white shirt? No. You go and you buy detergent which removes the dirt.
The cleanliness is already there—but it is being masked by the dirt. When you take away the dirt, the cleanliness comes right back.
That’s how it is in life, too. We make things very complicated; we like it. You know, “This is how it is; this is how it is; this is how it is.” And the next thing you know, there is so much noise between the ears that you can’t even hear yourself.
So the process of making life more enjoyable, making life more simple is a process of subtraction, not addition. It’s not—but we’re so used to adding things, you know; we’re so used to adding things that we are like, “Okay, I have to add enjoyment to my life now.” No, life is actually very enjoyable just as it is.
And if you don’t find it enjoyable, it is because you have brought in all this dirt called “complication,” all these ideas, all these pictures that you have in your little camera that are just pumping away, picture after picture after picture after picture. Take all that away—and there you have it.
How do you clean a window? You—it gets to a point where you can’t see out the window—how do you clean a window? Whatever is making that window dirty, you take that away; you wash it away—and all of a sudden you can see.
And that’s how it is. So, the “right thing, wrong thing”—give yourself a break; you know, give yourself a break. Do that, please. Take it easy. One step at a time: life, one day at a time.
Tackle life exactly as it comes to you—meaning “one day at a time.” Keep things simple. Keep things fluid. Be that tree that knows how to sway in the wind and not break in the wind—and you will have a great time, believe me.
“My question is, ‘How do you feel about lifting the lockdown regulations now or later?’” Well, I hope it happens. And it would be nice for it to happen, but it should happen when it is safe for it to happen.
Because there’s a—look, you know, what I want? Yeah, I want it to be lifted right now. But that is not a wise thing. If, because of my stupidity—if I perpetuate this and end up giving it to people who had nothing to do with it, who may be a little bit older than me, who would certainly have a terrible time of it if they got it, why should I do that?
I mean, yeah, you know, taken for granted, there are problems with the lockdown—whatever. But my actions are not limited to just myself; my actions can affect other people too.
You know, this—I realized this when I was going to go to Argentina—and then after Argentina, I was supposed to go to Uruguay. So, I’ve already flown for almost seven hours, forty minutes from Spain to Brazil and I am supposed to go to Argentina. And this, you know, the lockdown happens.
So, naturally, the idea comes, “Well, let’s just go to Uruguay. At least we will get something done there”—that Uruguay wasn’t going into lockdown. But then I thought about it. And it’s like, “Wow, you know, I could call all these people in a hall and get them all sick? I’m not going to do that.”
So, if my actions have—you know, me, I can be responsible for me. But how can I be responsible for other people? And how can I give them something because of my stupidity?
And so that, to me, is the main issue here. And that it’s not—it’s not that lockdown is nice; it’s not nice. It’s not that it’s wonderful; it’s not wonderful. And, you know, as more and more days click on, it does get under your nail—understood. But at the same time, you have to look at the entire picture.
I don’t know; you know, I fly a lot—and you’re forced to take a look at the entire picture. You know, here we are—you’re flying across the Atlantic, but you’re looking at St. John’s weather; you know, you’re looking at Ireland’s weather; you’re looking at—and it depends where you’re going, of course.
But you’re looking at all these places—and it’s like, “Okay,” but you know, a lot of times I’ll fly into Spain—and I’m looking at the weather, you know, across those, Santa Maria and Portugal. And it’s like, you know, why we are doing that—it’s just the whole picture. So, “In case there was a problem, where do we go?”
So this, it’s an intelligent decision. And that’s what it needs to be, it really, really needs to be. (Yeah, I mean, we’d like to all get out of here, but....)
And this is a very long one—“I just finished listening to Lockdown 33 and felt disturbed”—this is about Krishna and Mahabharat. And he is saying, you know, (and rightfully), he’s saying that “Terrible things were done to a lot of the leaders like Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X—towards the end of his life he started talking about peace....
“And I remember a march in Alabama where hundreds of African-Americans were beaten and some trampled by horses. And,” (yeah), “they walked and talked of peace as did Gandhi, Yudhishthira and Vidura in Mahabharat, all trying to help guide the blind king, Dhritrashtra and his son Duryodhan from destruction.
“My African-American heroes were murdered in society, of sufficient numbers that would have stopped the violence by coming together in peace. We, as a society, haven’t stood in agreement for peace. We have stood for greed and greed destroys dharma.
“Krishna begged the blind king and his foolish son to give the Pandavas back what was taken through deception, so as to avoid war. They were never listened to, Krishna, ‘the black one’—it never happened because destruction had come, the invitation of their own actions.” But he—so he is talking about the story and relating it to the injustices.
And, you know, you can take Mahabharat many different ways. It’s a huge epic. But remember one thing of how, why Krishna, (who is Vishnu, and in the Hindu religion, the “boss-man” of the whole world across), why, why does he incarnate and come to earth?
Because the earth takes the form of a cow—and that’s why, folks, you know, “holy cow,” that’s where it comes from. And so the Indians or the Hindus believe the cow is sacred.
Because she takes the form of a cow and goes to Vishnu and says, “Help me. I am—my udders have been milked so hard that they no longer give milk; they are bleeding. I am frail; I’m not given the food that I need and people are abusing me.”
And so the symbology here is really that, injustice is being done to this earth—that greed is taking over at a huge pace. And Vishnu says, “Okay, I will come to put matters right. The injustice will be taken out.”
And yes, these incredible injustices have been done on the face of this earth. And so far we understand that the biggest, biggest transformation we can bring about is to get rid of this weird thing that people have in their heads when they look at somebody, that they look at the color, that they look at the height, that they look at the shape, that they look at all these things and judge people by that.
They need to judge people by who they are as a human being—that in you runs the red blood; in me runs the red blood. I am not any different.
You know, there’s a documentary I watched—and this lady, she had been brought up in a household where they absolutely hated, you know, everybody who wasn’t of their type. And she ended up in prison. And when she ended up in prison, it was only these two ladies who were willing to help her. Of course, they happened to be those that she had been raised to hate.
But she slowly started working with them and realizing that there was no hate to be had. And she—and they were the only ones that would, that befriended her. And it’s, to me that was like, “Yes!” You know, “Yes, you understood; you saw; you broke through.”
That’s what has to happen; that breakthrough needs to happen, so we can collectively all live in a harmonious, progressive, productive, full of peace, society, and go forward. We need to go forward.
We have a huge agenda. There has been years and years of disrespect, neglect of cultures, of people on the face of this earth, of the nature on the face of this earth. And there’s so much homework to be done to put it back together the right way.
There are a whole bunch of people who are just racing off: “More, more, more, more, more,” but they don’t know “more of what.” They keep inventing new things; they keep on bringing new things—but they’re doing nothing—no technology is being utilized properly to bring people together.
When people are brought together, what is brought together sometimes is the worst form of those people, not the best. And we need to have stuff that brings the best of us together to move forward, to move progressively. And, you know, that is what is needed.
So, anyways, I mean, I’m not a politician by any stretch of the imagination, so I’m not even going to get into that. There are quite a few more questions....
But don’t forget why Vishnu came to the earth in the first place was to make that “right,” you know, truly right—the wrong that had been done to earth, to put it right; this is why Vishnu had come.
So, anyways, be safe; be well. And I’ll talk to you later.
