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An excerpt:

Jeremy Gilley:

Can I just talk to you about a couple of things, then, just to help me—and maybe it helps some others. Can you just talk to me a little bit about the importance of family?

And, when I think about the world and I think about peace, I think about my family. And if my family’s together and if we can do that on a global scale, then we’d sort of create world peace.

Can you just tell me about the importance of us really holding ourselves together?

Prem Rawat:

Well, a family is that unit that’s a bumper in the front, so when a blow comes, it can soften it. The family is the nourishing, nurturing—somebody who can understand when nobody else will understand you—more than your friends.

And obviously, somebody who can give you advice, even at the peril of your anger, and give you good advice.

A family is you in another form. It's like, not just one flower, but a tree that flowers—that's a family. Look at the nature. It's not about just one flower. A plant will not just be satisfied with one flower—another one, another one, another one, another one, and before you know it, it's a family.

And its mission, its job, its purpose, whatever it is in this world, will be fulfilled far greater and far more beautifully when it is flowering, and there are a whole bunch of flowers on that plant, not just one flower.

Jeremy Gilley:

Yeah. Amazing, amazing. And that, on Peace Day 21st of September, one of the things that we've always said is like, "You know, well, what can I do?"

I'm like, "Well, you know, bring the family together. You know, bring the family together; be one on that day" with the sort of global family, and also the ones that we have. And so, hopefully, we’ll see a lot of that, you know, going on on the day.

So, a little bit about love. And I was sort of just thinking at the weekend, you know. I was with my little girl, I just adore her, right? My entire existence, nothing comes first.

You know, when I'm with her, there's no— it's about Rose; it's not about the work, right? It has to be, and it has to be that way for me, and I love it.

How do I contain it, you know? I mean, I love her so much. I kind of just sort of want to do everything. I mean, have you ever sort of felt that?

Have you—if you have any sort of words of wisdom for us, you know, both in terms of personal relationships or with family relationships? When you love so much, you know, it can kind of almost sometimes be too much.

Prem Rawat:

It never is.

Jeremy Gilley: It never is? Okay, great.

Prem Rawat:

It never can be. It can never be. Stop thinking; start loving. Don't think about love. Feel the love in your life. It's a gift. It always won’t be the same. It won't.

It changes. You will change, and one day you won't be here. So, love like there is no tomorrow. Stop thinking about what it all means; start loving. If we did that, this world would be a different place today.

Jeremy Gilley:

Fantastic.

An excerpt:

So, what has all this got to do with peace? Bear with me. I’m trying to do my best. See, I don’t—I am not here to convince you that there should be peace; this you already know. (Of course there should be peace.) I’m not trying—I don’t have to try to convince you that you want peace; of course you know you want peace.

But the issue is—so, is peace simple? And the answer to that is, yes! Of course it’s simple. So if it is that simple, then how come—it’s not there? When everybody wants it—and it is simple, and everybody has access to it, then how come it’s not there?

That’s what I’m trying to get to. Because we’re busy solving problems. And we’re so busy solving problems that we are even trying to solve the problem of not having peace! Even that has become a problem; but is it a problem? It’s not a problem. That’s the problem. And it cannot be solved!

Because, what is the law of finding? What is the law of finding something? If you lost a pearl, where will you find it? (I know you’re thinking, “Aie-yaie-yaie.” It’s not a quiz; it’s okay. So, no marks involved here, or yeah....)

Answer is simple. “You will find it when you look where it is.”

...

- Prem Rawat

An Excerpt -

Question from a student:

Could you just define peace? What is peace? Could you give a simple definition of peace, so that we know what peace actually is?

Prem:

Certainly. I’d love to.

Can you define mango? Mango. What is mango?

Student:

It’s kind of fruit, and it has liquid in it, and…It has a lot of sugar in it. And it tastes good.

Prem:

Ok, I can define…if that’s your definition of mango, then I can define peace very easily. It’s very nice. It feels really good. You see, there are some things that need to be felt, need to be understood what they are, by you, by me—not just talking about it.

The problem right now also is people are talking about peace, but not feeling it. You can go anywhere in the world— Peace? Peace, peace, peace (gestures the peace symbol with 2 fingers). The upside-down Mercedes sign, you know Peace, peace peace.

Oh my God, there are people who every morning they start off… “and peace.” And they end with “peace”. Peace… peace. But that’s not going to make peace. There are fundamental things that need to be in place. And one of them is a simple understanding of your own self.

If you do not recognize the thirst for peace in you, a hundred definitions, what difference does it make? How many restaurants can you pass by when you’re not hungry? They don’t mean a thing! When you’re hungry, “Ah, let's pull over there. Lets’ pull over there.” Even the smell of food sounds good. And you know, they do that on purpose. They take that and disperse it so that you could smell it and if you’re hungry, it’s like, “Yes! I need that.”

I am a realist about peace. I’m a realist. I’m not here to just throw another definition. “Peace is a state when you become a vegetable.” This is what most people define it as. “You have no more desires, you sit on top of a mountain with your eyes closed.” And a lot of people think you’re a vegetable at that point.

No. Know. Peace is within you. Right now, right now, right now peace is within you. Did you know that? Right now it’s within you. Right now it’s within you. So you tell me what the definition of peace is. It’s within you right now. All of you. All of you have peace in you.

So why don’t you define it for me? Feel it and you will realize that there are no words adequate for that description. Peace is when this heart is filled with the gratitude for what you have been given, without wanting more. Gratitude. Peace is about being in the presence of life. Peace is: understand simplicity in the simplest most profoundly possible way. Peace is when you understand the value of this blessing called the breath that you have been given. Peace is when there is a profound thirst and an understanding of how to quench it. Peace is to admire that one beautiful lifetime every single day. Peace is to be the most human that you can be. Peace is to feel the joy of being alive.

So I haven’t defined it, but I’ve told you what I feel peace is. It’s a smile, it’s a tear, it’s a feeling. And when you know it, there is no mistaking it—none whatsoever.

- Prem Rawat

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-- An excerpt --

What is uncertainty? When there is no certainty. Certainty is something; uncertainty is just a vacuum—the darkness, the shade, the “nothing” of certainty. When you begin to live with certainty, not uncertainty—then everything changes! When you start to live with understanding, not misunderstanding—understanding—everything changes!

When you start to live with courage, courage is something; fear is not. It is the absence; fear is just the absence of courage. And when you start to live with courage, fear is gone! You don’t need to be afraid. You don’t need to be afraid.

Tomorrow? Because, till you are afraid, tomorrow is going to mean everything to you. Because it’s the only place you can have high hopes—“tomorrow.” But when you have courage? Today matters the most.

- Prem Rawat

What is life? Many, many definitions. But if you want to look at life, look at it this way: that it’s a bunch of layers. Only one sheet is real; the rest of it is just overlays. Translucent overlays on top of that real sheet. And sometimes the overlays become so many that you lose sight of that real sheet.

What I do is I ask people to lift those layers one by one and see that they’re only the layers. Every layer is changeable and every layer represents a change. The only thing that doesn’t change is the basic fundamental layer on which everything is developed on.

It’s like having a wall. Sometimes interior designers will do it. They’ll have a wall and they have a sofa, and they have different colors. But the base, the main sofa, stays there where they’ve got it. You can see it in different colors, but the basics do not change.

Life too is very much like those layers. We’ve got our relationships and we’ve got our friends and we’ve got our ideas. And we’ve got our jobs and we’ve got this happening and we’ve got that happening. And this is this, this is this, this is this, and pretty soon you’re caught in all of those layers and we forget what the main sheet is, what it is about.

Look, some pianos come with 88 keys. Lowest note, highest note. All songs played on that piano will be contained within those notes. If the artist goes beyond the lowest 88, nothing! Doesn’t matter how good he is. All those notes that can be played, that’s it. That’s it! There’s no more and no less. That’s it. Everything has to be contained within that. It is the sequence. So, if somebody was to tell you, “Mash all the keys at the same time and you will play every single song.”

Take a piece of bamboo, flattened bamboo or whatever, you know, notch it out so it can play all the 88 keys at once. Take it on top of the piano and go ‘whoonkkht!’ And there, you have just played every single song that can be played on the piano. Technically it’s true. But it isn’t. Why isn’t it true? Because it will not sound beautiful; it will have no emotion. A song is not just about playing the key, but the silence in between. That’s what defines a song. The silence is just as important. If you just kept going ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, you’ve got a fire-bell, not a song.

But in this life, if you take all these notes and mash them together and say “Yeah, everything is fine, I’m playing a song,” you are sadly mistaken. There is no song. It’s just a big clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk sound. And if life doesn’t seem quite right, you are not mistaken. It’s not being played right. It is about the sequence; it is about the silence; it is about harmony; it is about the emotion. This is what constitutes a song.

It begins with you, your understanding, your life, your existence, your clarity, your song, your fingers on those keys that have been given to you. You playing a song, not a hired artist. No, no, no. You playing the song. That’s what it is about; it is your emotion that has to come out; it is your song. And it is your enjoyment of that song that means everything.

- Prem Rawat

We have been given an incredible opportunity, an incredible field. And it is the field of life. Nothing has been planted. But it is capable of growing anything.

We’re given seeds. But the opportunity truly is what we do with these seeds. There is a seed of love. There is a seed of understanding. And there is a seed of doubt. So, every seed that you have has a particular quality, has something that it offers—which you may or may not like.

If you planted the seed of doubt, there will be a tree; you will have nurtured it, obviously. What about understanding? What is that tree like? You may be surprised if you looked in your garden. You may not see one.

But that is because it never got sown, that seed. But the beautiful thing is, it doesn’t matter when you sow these seeds, they will sprout. So it’s never too late. And not only the question is of sowing the seeds, but nurturing them—watering them, protecting them, taking care of them, so that they grow.

Somebody asks you, “Are you satisfied?” Then you can go, “Yeah, I have a good job. I have a good family. I have a good car. I have great friends.” But are you content? So, did you sow the seed of contentment? Did you sow the seed of understanding? Did you sow the seed of love?

Love is a feeling that not only makes the one who feels this feeling, makes them feel good—but all those—not just one—but all those who are around also begin to feel this feeling. There’s a saying, “The world loves a lover.” Nurture in your life, kindness, and you will be rewarded with the gift of kindness.

- Prem Rawat