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Every human being has something to offer; every human being has something to contribute which is good. We have in us bad, and we have in us good.

A field, if not taken care of, will grow something! It won’t be edible—it’ll be weeds—but it will grow something. Plant the seeds of good; nurture the good, and you could grow beautiful fruits, beautiful flowers, beautiful vegetables.

Every single human being carries this potential in them. We don’t recognize our potential—all we look at is “good: bad, good: bad.” Is today according to my wishes? Then, “Thank you, Lord.” If it is not according to my wishes? “What have I done wrong? Why do you punish me?”

And this is what the whole world does. The whole world does this. Look at this...look at this world today. There are people who hate each other! Why? Why? Why? I ask, “Why?”

What are you made out of? Seven-point-five billion people on the face of this earth are fundamentally made out of very simple things: calcium, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Ninety-nine percent of a human being is made out of these six things.

All of us...all of us have the same fundamental needs. We need oxygen to breathe; we need water; we need food, and we need warmth. We need oxygen; without oxygen we will die very quickly. Without water, a few days, maybe two days, three days…. Without warmth, a few hours.... Without food, maybe, maybe a week, two weeks.... Everywhere, it’s exactly the same!

But what divides us? When we are all the same, nature does not see the difference. Male? Man, made out of the same thing. Woman, made out of the same thing. Then why the differences? I know where the differences are! Right here, in our ideas! Not in our hearts—in our ideas. And this is where the problems are.

– Prem Rawat

The first person you have to make friends with is you.

You cannot make friends with other people if you are not friendly with yourself.

This is why it’s important to know yourself.

You know the whole world, but you don’t know yourself. Number 1 point - Know Yourself.

This will bring you peace.

-Prem Rawat

So, do you know yourself? Or, do you know yourself in relation to the others? Because if it is in relation to the others, then you don’t know yourself. Knowing the self has nothing to do with somebody else.

Who are you? What are you? What is your gift? Why are you alive? You. Do you cast from within, from yourself, like light emanates? Does love emanate from you? Does kindness emanate from you? Emanate? Emanate—not forced, not hosed, but emanate—“emanate” means it just emanates.

– Prem Rawat

Who are we? Maybe I should talk about that. So, don’t think this is un- significant. We’re dirt. Why do you laugh? Because you don’t understand the value of dirt. Dirt is the most significant thing there is. Do you know? You know why?! Because the entire universe is made out of it.

We all are considered patriots if we sing praises of our countries. “Know the anthem.” I mean, in India they’re going through it; it’s like you know “You have to be able to say this; yes, you have to say this; you have to be patriotic! You have to…”

Courtesy of? All these countries, courtesy of? Dirt. You can’t have a country in floating ocean. All courtesy of dirt! So dirt is very significant! People have died protecting dirt! People have become heroes protecting dirt.
Civilizations were raised and razed—that’s a good one, huh?—raised and razed because of dirt!

And when the sun is finished glowing, what does it become? Dirt. What is gold? Compressed dirt. See, you’re catching on, how important dirt is. And guess what moi is made out of. Dirt.

And then, the most incredible pillar of this temple when it falls apart, what will all this become? It will become dirt.

So don’t laugh the next time you hear the word “dirt”—smile. Smile, because there’s nothing funny about it, but now you know...now you know how important this dirt is. And so, you are made out of the same stuff as the universe. “Wow! That’s impressive. I mean...”

Next time, “What is your lineage?” Same stuff the sun is made out of, same stuff the moon is made out of, same stuff the galaxies are made out of, same stuff the universe is made of—that’s my lineage. That is your lineage.

So now that we’ve put that aside, who you are—pretty impressive stuff.

Nothing trivial, incredible, incredible to get the dirt to talk, to walk, to smile, to think, to see, to have the nuances of expression on the face from slightly upset to slightly more upset.

Then, made out of that, and then to have this incredible thing called life.Life. You can love; you can hate, you can have fear; you can have joy. This...and just machine puts it all out. I mean, it puts it all out. If it’s feeling good, it’s like, “Good. Yes.”

- Prem Rawat

Just stop for a minute and realize that you are not free unless you really have removed this box that you carry around you all the time.

There’s a box, and this box is full of a lot of noise, a lot of imagination that is not even your imagination—somebody else’s imagination, a lot of ideas. And in fact, this is who you think you are! This is “you!” And this box is the greatest hurdle possible in truly knowing yourself.

You need to know yourself. If you don’t know yourself, you don’t know anything, really! Because it is this being that processes what it knows, or what it thinks it knows. When it does not know itself, the processing is happening by information that has been put there by other people, not you!

The noise that you hear between your ears in perfect silence is the noise that other people have put between your ears. That includes your beloved parents.

We’re not talking about, “You have to hate your parents to get rid of the noise”—no, no. They did it for a very good reason, because that’s what happened to them. That was their reasoning. That’s the reasoning that they’ve always followed.

So, whatever happened to them, they did it to you. And their parents did it because their parents did it. So this is something of your great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great grandfather’s gift. And I would say grandmother too, but I forgot how many times I said great-great-great.

But that’s the noise. And wherever you go, this noise goes with you. And you can silence all the other noises but you can’t silence this noise—because it’s there. And it defines your good and it defines your bad. It defines your right and it defines your wrong.

It’s you, your life, your existence. You are the major player in this. And if you can understand that, that’s everything.

– Prem Rawat

My strategy is very simple. And my strategy isn’t to have world peace. I said it. “Aagh,” pin-drop silence. Because that’s not possible.

But this is what’s possible—you, be, first in peace with yourself. It’s just you. Nobody else is involved. You be in peace with yourself. And how can you be in peace with yourself? One—and that’s why we are here tonight: “Journey to the self”—you must know yourself.

And once you know yourself, you then must gain victory over the self. Not victory over your neighbor, not victory over that person, and that person, and that person, and that person, but victory over the self.

And when you are victorious over yourself, then you can be in peace with yourself. And when you are in peace with yourself, then you make peace with the world.

And when enough, enough people make peace with the world—because they have made peace with themselves—then, vaguely, the idea of world peace starts to come into view.

When every war happens and the innocent die.... Same way, when you are at war with yourself, the innocent moments of your life are being slaughtered. Because they’re innocent! They can be anything.

Never have I seen more innocence, in a moment of existence.... It’s, totally, as it comes to you, it’s innocent—just brings you possibility, anything you want—like a baby, like a baby.

You can mold it; you can fold it; you can destroy it; you can create a monster out of it if you wish. Or you can have it as the most tender-est, gentle time—the time with you, listening to that feeling which fills this heart and causes the gratitude to emerge.

- Prem Rawat