Let's just try to understand what it means to be alive.
You know the water vaporizes, comes out of the ocean, becomes a vapor, becomes a cloud, and it rains. Some places it snows; some places when it rains, drenches through the soil and the source of many many lakes, many many rivers, is a drop.
I mean, the water just goes through its percolation process or whatever it's going to go through and emerges as a drop for, you know, whatever. Whatever it's dropping from, however the height is, it begins and it drops, drops, drops, drops, drops. And then it merges with the water, and that's it. That's it.
It becomes indistinguishable. You cannot now distinguish this drop. This drop is now only a drop. And so far it begins its journey as this solitary little mass of water, and it falls and it hits the water, and that's it. It becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the water.
That's a drop. That's the journey. Bloop.
You see, you know, we read this, "Oh! Life is a journey." You've read that; you've heard that. Of course, they didn't tell you how long. Bloop. Fini! Just a mass of water now; the drop is gone. But in so far as it is a drop, it is in this world unto itself. Even though it came from the ocean, which at 71 point something trillion gallons just in the Pacific ocean, god knows how many drops that would be. And it made this incredible journey, and then it emerged as a drop, and when it was a drop, it was individual. And it was beautiful, and no two drops are alike. And it could shine with the sun. It could take the light and it could pass it through. That drop is you and I.
So when I say, "You are alive," I am saying something so precious, so beautiful, so simple that you really have to look at it for what it is worth. And it is worth everything. It is worth your existence. It is worth all your aspirations; all your dreams are in that. And what do you truly aspire for
You aspire to be content. Now a lot of people go, "Uh no... what's he talking about?" In our civilized world, it's called gratification. We do what we do to be gratified. If it doesn't bring us gratification, we really don't like it.
Everybody has a list of chores they absolutely do not like to do. Why don't they do it? Because it brings no gratification. What does gratification mean? Look it up. It means, contentment. Contentment. That's what it means. And ultimately the heart's desire is just that: to feel that till this journey is afoot. From the time that it leaves to the time that the inevitable will happen, this is the want; this is the desire to be—to be content.
- Prem Rawat
