Jessica Zweig:
You just came out with this new book, Peace Is Possible: Thoughts on Happiness, Success, and Relationships for a Deeper Understanding of Life—such a beautiful title. What was the inspiration of this book, if I may ask?
Prem Rawat:
Well, again, you know, it’s just taking a very, very simple message—and, you know, the message that has been around for a long, long time that always gets shared by people, even before there were books—was verbally, the stories.
And so, it is taking these little stories that have been around for a really long time, and then tying this message of knowing yourself to those stories of the intricacy of everyday existence to the simplicity of those stories—and how the simplicity of those stories brings on a message that touches the heart.
That it’s not about.... I mean, something that happened at a book fair—these two gentlemen who had just come from prison, who had just been released from prison, came to the book fair. And they were walking around and they were like, “Ahhh.” They came over to the stall where the Peace Is Possible book was and they were like, “What’s that? What’s, what’s that all about?”
And somebody said, “Well, here it is; read it.” And the person started reading it, and he just, tears started coming from his eyes. And his friend said to him, says, “Why are you crying? Why are you crying?” And he said, “You read, read this book; read this book.”
And it touched them. And it touched them so sweetly and so gently. Because the message is there. There is a message that touches your heart. Everything that we do touches our mind, but there’s a message that touches your heart.
And I have tried to take this book, Peace Is Possible, and give that message that touches your heart a space—in this very, very busy world, in this incredibly frantic world, giving that message that touches your heart a space, a little page, a little, you know, period, a comma, an exclamation mark. And that’s what this book, Peace Is Possible, is all about.
Jessica Zweig:
And it’s beautiful.
You have a lot of quotes in the world, as an author and a speaker and a thought leader. And I, I’m a huge quote fan. I love them; I put them in all my presentations; I share a lot of my own quotes on Instagram; I quote people all the time; it’s my thing.
And I was, of course, looking at some of your quotes. Because you have been listed as one of the top one hundred most spiritually influential people alive today, along with Eckhart Tolle and Tony Robbins and Gabby Bernstein, Bruce Lipton. It’s pretty incredible. Just, thank you so much for, by the way, being on my show.
And there was one quote that you have said that really struck me, which is, “Living your life consciously is the most fun a human being can have.”
And fun, for me, is a core value for life: “If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?” I think that it’s the true measure of success—is how much fun we are having.
Can you talk about what that—what that means to you, to live a conscious life, to find that fun as a human being?
Prem Rawat:
Imagine being in a beautiful park—I mean, just gorgeous—the flowers are beautiful; the ponds are beautiful; the trees are beautiful. And all of a sudden you hear a noise. You don’t know what it is. You’re not aware of this noise and all of a sudden you’re frightened, and it jostles you.
Versus you’re taking the same walk and you go, “Oh! That’s a little bird! Oh, that’s, that noise is coming from that little frog that’s moving around.”
One, you don’t know what it is versus know what it is. And when you know what it is, it is so much fun! I mean, it is so much fun because now you don’t have to be in fear of where you are and what is happening. You are enjoying every step, every day.
The outcome of today is certain because you know what it is all about—rather than uncertain and “I’m going to try to keep my fingers crossed and make good things happen.” Well, good things are happening all the time.
You know, people say I’m spiritual—so, a lot of—involved with spiritualism, but I’m not. To me, what I try to tell people is, “You have to know. You have to know; you have to be aware. Not believe.” And believing is okay; it has its place. But at some point in time, you have to come out of the field of believing and go into the field of knowing.
And I am all for knowing. And knowing and understanding, being conscious on this road of life, now you know what that is that’s making that noise and you can enjoy it! And it’s like, “Ahh! I know what that is. That’s just a little froggie! It’s okay! Here I go!”
