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Prem Rawat:
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. I hope all of you are well. And I know these are very trying times. And, even though I have addressed some of these issues, as the questions are starting to come in; they’re getting compiled—but people are still a little bit afraid of whatever is going on.
And I would like to just take this time to just say, “Look. You know, the rules are very simple: ‘Don’t give the virus; don’t get the virus.’ Simple as that, however you need to do it. Isolation is the best.”
But then the question comes, “What do you do in this isolation?” Well, it’s very unfortunate, first of all, that we have to even address this issue. Because being with yourself should be second nature; being with yourself should be great, should be wonderful, should be not an issue.
But unfortunately, that’s not the way it is. It’s like, “Oh my God, what am I going to do, you know?” People are going stir-crazy, “And this is happening and that’s happening....”
But believe me, the issue really is about, first of all, “What do you need to do with this time?” Very simple: “Come with courage, not with fear.” Not with, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen; what’s going to happen; what’s going to happen; what’s going to happen?” Not with that. Come with courage.
Two things you need. If you want to make this time go by nicely, quickly, whatever, two things you need—patience. You thought you had it, right? Here is your test: patience. Second one? Courage. That’s all you need. And this time will fly by.
Clarity is always in you; reach in for it. Not reach out; reach in for it. Joy is in you; reach in for joy. Your beautiful treasures that are buried, now you need them. See, now you need them.
Before, you know, I would come; I would sit down; I would talk to people: “You know, you have this in you,” and people would go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” Now you need them! Because without this, what do you do? What do you do? This can be crazy.
And so, reach in; reach in for that patience; reach in for that courage. The joy is still in you and you can make this a wonderful time. In isolation, yes, you can make this a wonderful time.
It always reminds me of this one thing where there was this person and he was incarcerated in prison. And he had been listening and doing the Peace Education Program and, “Yeah, I keep talking about the breath—and that how the peace, you know, and breath is so beautiful.”
And so one day he went and he lay down in his cell on his bed. And he was describing this experience to somebody. And he said, “Prem keeps talking about the breath, so I started focusing on my breath. And as I focused more and more and more on my breath, I started to fill with peace.” How beautiful, how wonderful, how incredible.
And he said, “All of a sudden, so much peace.... I started feeling so much peace I have never felt before.” And to me, it’s always like, “My God, this person can experience peace, incarcerated in a prison? What about those people who are not incarcerated; can they?” Of course they can.
I’m looking forward to doing something, and we are looking at the possibility of this, that all those people who are in lockdown, maybe we could all just go through Peace Education Program with me. And I could be the facilitator and we could all do the Peace Education Program. I mean, I think that that just would be brilliant.
Because it works so well for people who are incarcerated—and in a way, we are all incarcerated; it just happens to be, we are incarcerated at home! But we are incarcerated. So, we’re looking at the possibility of doing that. I mean, that would just be great. That would be wonderful.
But until that time, please, don’t be scared; don’t be afraid. Come from courage. Have patience. Have understanding. This too will pass—of course, it’ll pass.
And so far your family members are concerned and spending time with them and, you know, whether you like it or not, understand they’re a part of you. And it’s okay. It’s okay to accept them, to love them.
You don’t have to try to have a sense of responsibility towards them, “Oh, I have to do this; I have to do this; I have to, you know, greet them this way; I have to greet them that way.” No. Just be. Just be who you are. And let them be who they are.
Many, many wonderful ways to engage. What do you think people used to do in old days? I mean, you know, we have forgotten those things, “Come, gather around; let’s hear a story. Let’s read a story; let’s talk about a story. Let’s be fascinated by that.”
I was fortunate enough, I feel, that when I was growing up there was no television. It is not like that it hadn’t been invented; it just didn’t get to India. And what did I do? Listen to stories! I was fascinated by stories. Anybody I could find who would tell me a story, they had my undivided attention. How wonderful is that?
There was a time, no television—and in India at that time, when the radio came on, it came on sporadically; it came on from just, you know, maybe one hour or an hour and a half or two hours and then it would go off; nothing.
So, what do you do in that time? You understand something; you discover. There’s so much constant bombardment now, that we have forgotten how to be. Without the use of all this technology and without the use of that phone and without the use of that social media, we have forgotten what it is like. And once upon a time, this is the way people were.
And they lived fine. I mean, you know, some un-pleasantries, because maybe there wasn’t a sewage system and everything stank a little bit. But regardless of that, my God! You know, people are like, “Oh, I’m going stir-crazy.” How can you go stir-crazy; you’re alive! There’s something incredible taking place.
And then there are people who are completely locked up in expectations, of what their expectations are and the expectations of each other—and then they can’t come together because these expectations get in the way. This is not time for expectations. This is time to just be.
Can you be? Of course you can; you’re a human being. The first thing you are is, you are a human being. (And now, having to say that sounds ridiculous.) But I have to. Because that’s what you’ve forgotten, that you are a human being. And if we forget that we are a human being, then what have we become?
You know, yeah, there are all these companies and they keep, you know, making all the technology and more technology and more technology. In fact, one of the....
This is the thing—we don’t know the difference between “need” and “want.” We have become such slaves to want—that we have forgotten what we need.
And there is a company and it’s huge; it’s one of the biggest companies in the world. And they manufacture a lot of things. And not one single thing that they manufacture do we need. And they are huge! They’re big—I mean, I’m talking about financially. And people just like, go crazy over them. And not one single thing that they make, do you need. It’s mind-boggling.
And so many things that we are completely attracted by—you see, we don’t understand that those things that we call “attractions” are really distractions. Because if they take you away from you, that’s a distraction. That should be the definition of a distraction: “That which takes you away from you.”
You need to come back home to yourself. You need to start feeling that goodness that is in your heart, the joy that is in your heart, the clarity that dances in you, the serenity that is in you. The patience that is in you, the courage that is in you. You need to get in touch with those things. And this is the opportunity to do it. This is the opportunity to do it.
You know, when I look at it, it’s like, “Oh my God, how can this coronavirus be good?” It’s not good; believe me, it’s not good.
But then I saw this footage of these porpoises in Venice, Italy. The pollution has gone down so much that these porpoises are there. You can see the bottom of the water. You can see the bottom of the ocean, the bay. You can see fish; you can see swans. And it’s like, “Hmm.” Then I saw, like, all the pollution in China disappear. It’s like, “Hmm.”
What have we done? What have we created? We have created a monster out of our wants. And it is destroying this planet; it is destroying us.
And if nothing else—and, you know, when you look at some of the numbers of even this coronavirus, thousands and thousands and thousands of people have recovered without a problem. And some of the people report very mild symptoms.
Some of the places where people are dying, they’re dying because of the lack of hospitalization and the lack of, you know, even the medical equipment that they need.
But whatever is happening, maybe it’s an incredible reminder that we, as human beings, need to get back to this wonderful thing called “humanity.” We need to become human again. We need to understand who we are and what our needs (not wants), needs are.
Maybe this can be an incredible reset to get back to the basics, to get back to that that we already have inside of us.
So, my friends, you know, whatever happens, just remember, “Be patient. Come with courage.” You have amazing stuff inside of you—the joy, the serenity. Time to share it, time to bring it out, time to dig into the treasures. And this is that possibility.
So, be well; be safe; be healthy—and most importantly, be. Be in joy.
