विषय
I’m just a human being. And I am not sitting here claiming I don’t have bad days—that would be stupid! I do! But I also question, "Why am I having a bad day?"
I’m having a bad day, not because the day is bad! Uh-uh-uh, the day is the same!
You think the sun comes out and says, “Here, I’m going to nail that guy.” You really think so?
There are people who believe in the cosmos—you think all those planets and all those stars know, “Hah, huh, oh, let’s nail that one.” No! Mars doesn’t know you exist. Saturn has no idea you are here and you had a burned toast and slipped in your bathtub and have diarrhea … and flu!
I mean, do you really think Mars goes, “Yeah, let’s get that guy. He’s—just keep that train going. So far, we’ve gotten him to slip in the bathtub, burnt his toast, killed the electricity, no coffee in the morning. Let’s just keep going with that thought! I mean, just…the flow is on."
No! No! It has nothing to do with it. You need explanations, so you create an explanation. And this is the beautiful thing about human beings: they have used their creativity, not to create clarity, but to create an explanation which has no head and tail. Point: “Why is this happening to me?” “It was your last lifetime."
All right. Would somebody please tell me what is it that I did, so I won’t do it? I mean, the whole point of punishment should be that you don’t repeat! I mean, what is the point of a punishment—that you are not told?
Somebody walks up to you, hands you a ticket: “What is this ticket for?” “Parking violation."
"I don’t even own a car. How can I have a parking violation? What did I do? Please! So I won’t do it again!"
"No, that’s a secret. You…you figure it out."
I mean, I’m not saying there isn’t karma—there is! But it’s much more recent. It’s nothing to do with the last lifetime. It’s now!
– Prem Rawat
If action comes from thought, thought is changeable by nature. It is variable by nature. It can be influenced, and it can be changed at any time! Any time. Any, any given time, a thought can be changed—and there’s no trace of it.
If I’m going to steal something—and I go, like, “I think I’ll steal it”—and then I change, “I’m not going to steal it,” what have I done? I have not stolen! I ... even though I had a thought, “I want to steal something,” I did not steal it, and therefore what really happened is, I never stole it.
We are responsible for our thought. When our thought is clear, so is our action and so is the consequence of that action. When that thought emerges from understanding–emerges from light, emerges from knowledge–then the action also carries the attributes of that thought.
When that thought is born of doubt, of confusion, of anger, then that action too bears all the traits of the confusion, of doubt, of fear.
What have I seen in my life? I have seen darkness that you could never even fathom. I have seen desperation that you cannot even imagine. I have seen confusion that virtually has no bounds. I have seen desolation in a human being that would be hard to speculate.
And I have seen joy in a human being that would make the universe look small. I have seen wisdom! In my life I have seen wisdom ... that is so huge, so big, so large, that it truly could encompass countless universes and beyond. And I have seen light in the eyes of human beings.
I have seen the impossible made possible! And I have seen the very possible made impossible. I have seen courage. And I have seen the possibilities made real because of that courage.
So when I talk about the fifty years of experience, this is what I’m talking about. Because, whatever happens in our lives, the consequences of our actions will affect us. We don’t want that; we don’t like that. We don’t want that to be that way. But that is one thing that will never change; has never changed, and will never change.
And if you don’t understand your strength, your courage, then unfortunately, you will be weak; you will give in! Your thoughts will bear children and these children that will be born could ultimately become the very cause of your demise.
Or, your actions, born from your strength, from your clarity, could be the children that you bear that will ultimately be your partners in victory.
– Prem Rawat
There is something in you that wants to be generous. See, it’s not only that you have generosity in you, but there is something in you that wants to be generous. Not only that you have love in you, but there is something in you that wants to love—and something that wants to be loved. But this is buried under garbage.
In life, as you grow older, you always have to keep focus and perspective on what is important.
This garbage that we accumulate in our lives, what does it do? The biggest harm it does is it frustrates us. And when a human being starts to feel the frustration inside of them, they can no longer see straight. They can no longer prioritize. They can no longer understand. They can no longer see beyond the realm of their problems.
And that’s why problems become the biggest thing.
And the things that are important will get buried in garbage. Got to keep your house clean every day—if you can—every day! Every hour if you can! But if you can’t, at least, every two days. That’s to sit down; be with yourself!
And say, “Okay. What is important to me?” Not to the world. Not, world’s expectations of me. But, “What is important to me? I want to feel good; I want to be in peace.... And I want to help the ones I love—that I want to be there for them.” Once you have this? This is your “house cleaned.” You know where everything is—and do it! Because you can.
And that’s the simplest wisdom, you know? Simplest wisdom—and you have that in you. You—of course you have that in you. You always have that in you—you have the ability to vacuum clean up, and make your life shine—and that’s what you should do!
Not be victimized by all the garbage that everybody keeps—because once the room, once the house looks like garbage, people are going to dump more garbage in it! That’s what’s going to happen. And then everybody will come, “Oh, we know a place to dump the garbage....” And that’s what happens.
Clean, clean, clean. That’s called “conscious,” being conscious, being aware.
- Prem Rawat
People go, "Well, you talk about peace. Tell us how we can be in peace." What I have to say is shocking. Shocking. Why is it shocking? Because you don't have to do anything. Peace is already there inside of you. You don't have to do anything. And if there is anything you have to do, it is to give up the idea of doing anything.
What you will see in the mirror when you hold it in front of your eyes is your own face. When you open your eyes, you will see; you close your eyes, you stop seeing. Will the mirror stop reflecting? No. Will you stop seeing? Yes. What has to happen? Simply, you have to open the eyes. You don't have to wind up the mirror; you don't have to put batteries in the mirror, "Oh mirror, please reflect." No.
Do you realize how simple it is for you if you want to see? Open your eyes. If the lights went out—and I hope they don't—if all the lights went out, would you all disappear? Are you sure? But I won't be able to see you and you won't be able to see me. So we all disappear? No, you're still there. Light doesn't create you. Light allows you to see what is there. That's the value of light.
People think, "Oh yeah, let there be light." Boom, something will be created. No, that's not what light does. For a wise person, enlightenment isn't to have a road free of obstacles. For a wise person, they're not looking, they're not looking for a road free of obstacles. They merely want the light to be able to see the obstacles because they know when they can see the obstacles, it's no sweat to go around it—no sweat whatsoever. But if you can't see, that's when, my friends, stubbing of the toes on those rocks, twisting the ankle on those rocks, is the pain you so desperately hate. You don't like it. And when you get enough of those toe bumps and twists of the ankle, you consider yourself unlucky, and you feel that you don't belong.
Don't pray for a road free of obstacles. Don't pray for that; that's not necessary. Pray for the light, because you've been given the possibility to see. Go this way and go that way. And I guarantee you when you start doing that, you discover new things.
- Prem Rawat
Tom Price: (host)
And here’s—this is my question. And then we’ll get to yours in a sec; don’t worry. Great indulgence for me to be able to ask Prem a question.
I love the analogy of opening a gift; I love this idea of a gift. But the thing I kept thinking when I was listening to you is, “Once you have opened that gift, how do you stop the gift from rewrapping itself up?”
Prem Rawat:
Well, that’s a valid question—except, all that time, you realize that the gift never opened itself; it took you to open it. So it will take you to rewrap it and close it. And, of course, you can always do that. So, a gift is a gift; and unless you accept it, it’s not a gift.
There is a story—I mean, this analogy is a little bit backwards, but I think it’ll make the point—where one time Buddha was walking with one of his disciples. And everybody in town was criticizing Buddha, saying, you know, “You’re no good; you don’t do this; you don’t do that....”
And so the disciple said, “Buddha, doesn’t that bother you, all these people saying all these nasty things about you, criticizing you?”
So when Buddha got back, he took his bowl—and his disciple was sitting there—and he took the bowl and he moved it. And he goes, “Whose bowl is it?” And the disciple said, “It’s your bowl.” So he moved it a little closer to the disciple and says, “Well, whose bowl is it?” He goes, “Yeah, it’s still your bowl.”
He kept doing that and asking him, “Whose bowl is it; whose bowl is it?” And the disciple kept saying, “It’s your bowl; it’s your bowl.” And then finally he took the bowl and he put it in the disciple’s lap and he said, “Now, whose bowl is it?” He goes, “It’s still your bowl.”
He says, “Exactly right! If I don’t accept this criticism, it’s not mine!”
And it’s the same thing—that if we don’t accept this gift, it’s not ours. And it just lies there dormant.
And we come into this world and then one day we have to go. And then we wonder—and this happens to way too many people—at the last minute, they’re going, “What, what did I do?” you know? And yet, that’s just not enough time to sort it elegantly out, the way you would like to have it done.
But now is the time—and now you are alive and you can do things—and you can waste your life. And the thing is, what’s amazing is that the life isn’t going to come back to you and say, “You’re wasting me.” It would be nice if it did: “Khow, pow, khow,” you know? But it doesn’t!
And the other beauty of it is that, whenever you decide to accept this gift, instantly it’ll become yours. So, it’s never too late! It doesn’t matter, you know, if you’re saying to yourself, “Well, yeah, well, I’m eighty-four. It’s too late for me.” And no, it’s not! Or it’s, or, somebody’s saying, “Oh, well, I’m too young.”
No! And, you can’t be too young; you can’t be too late with it; the day you accept it, it’s yours.
You as a human being, you have a choice. And you can choose. You can choose to gain victory over yourself or you can choose to try to pursue for the rest of your life trying to gain victory over your problems. In one, you will never win, in one you've got a fair shot.
Nobody, nobody has won over their problems. And now there are many people who think they have. Many people would like to, many people would imagine they would. But nobody has yet conquered their problems. And it is only when you begin to understand that that is the nature of problems. They're not to be conquered. If they get conquered, they're no more problems. That is their nature. They will morph to something else, to something else, to something else. Just when you get everything settled, your cat will run away. Just when you find your cat, your dog will run away. Just as you find your dog, your wife will run away. Just as you find your wife, you will run away. No, no, it's never one thing.
Because you build your house, you like your house and the longer you live in your house, the more leaks it's going to have. The more maintenance it's going to require. That's just the nature of it. The nature.
But we are not set up to be victorious over ourselves. We're not set up for that because the world tells us, "No, conquer your problems, conquer your problems, conquer your problems, conquer your problems." Even if you asked the world, "Okay, I would love to conquer my problems, would you tell me who has won? Give me one name. One. Just one. Just one."
I mean you can imagine a family starts off in some country somewhere—oh I have a dream, and I have this imagination, I'm going to work really hard. I'm going to become successful—and they make it to America. Well, their problems have just begun. And that's what happened. And when will it go away?
- Prem Rawat