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So, when I say “we,” when I say to you, “you can make a difference,” do you believe me? 

Why? Shouldn't I prove it to you? Should I prove it to you? I can prove it to you. I can. You want me to prove it to you? Yes? 

Come on, yes or no? There you go. See, in the world of absence, you can just go “Uhm….” And in the world of presence, you go, “Yeah, prove it to me!” So, there is a fundamental rule. This is my proof. There's a fundamental rule of nature. 

Bring…. Take two candles. One candle is a lit candle, and one candle is an unlit candle. Two candles. Okay? Unlit. Lit. Bring them together. What will happen? 

Huh? When is unlit and one is lit. And when you bring the two candles together, what will happen? Aha. You see, the world of presence, and the world of absence. 

What will happen? The lit candle, the lit candle will light the unlit candle. 

Not the unlit candle will extinguish the lit candle. Do you agree? 

This is how you, how you have a chulha at home. You know what a chulha is? That's how your stove works. Your gas, your cooking gas, you light a match. It's unlit. You go “Ech!” and “Boomf!” Sometimes too much “boomf” and that's how it works.

So, that is the proof that you make a difference if you are a lit candle. You have this incredible, incredible, incredible power to light an unlit candle. Now, how big do you have to be? How big does the unlit candle have to be to get lit? And how big does the lit candle have to be, even if it is right down to almost nothing, but it's lit. 

It's good. It can light an unlit candle. Doesn't have to be this big. It doesn't have to be this big. It doesn't have to be decorated. It doesn't have to be green. It doesn't have to be purple. It doesn't have to be yellow. It doesn't have to be any of those things. All it has to be is lit.

You carry this power. If you're a lit candle, you can light an unlit candle. And how many times can you do that? Is there a limit? Till your lit, you can keep lighting. 

It's no, it's not like, Oh, I'm too old. I can't light anything. No. If you’re lit, that's all it takes. Keep lighting. Keep lighting. Keep lighting. Keep lighting.

This law, by the way, is 4.5 billion years old.  It was there.  Not 200,000 or 6,000 years old—4.5 billion years old.

And this is the possibility. This is the possibility. In your life, goodness awaits. The Divine for you awaits to be discovered. Joy, treasured.

Hey, listen, you have no limit for joy. Pain, you do. After a little while, it's too much. “Ahhh, I want out.” Joy? No limit.  You can be joyful every day for the rest of your life, not a problem. Not a problem, not a problem.  Sadness every day? You will find a big cliff somewhere.  That's what people do.  A lot of people think they're insignificant. Right? “I’m nothing.”

Ahh, but this is where the Divine lives. This is where the light lives. This is where the goodness lives. This is where compassion lives. This is where kindness lives. 

What are you talking about, insignificant? 

The only reason why you would want to pretend to be insignificant is so you can offload your responsibilities. “I'm not good…I can't do anything.”

You know when you go to bureaucracy, go to office, you're getting something, you want something done and the person doesn't want to do it.  “Oh no, no. I'm just junior. You have to go see the senior.” But you say, “Okay, 10 rupees?” “Okay, okay, I can do it.”

So why are you abdicating your responsibility in life?  But you don't need to do that. Why? Why are you not understanding what this possibility is, called life?

- Prem Rawat

One woman said to me when I was in the South Africa—I was in Soweto; we're doing an event. She says to me from the prison, she wrote me a question. “I killed my children. I killed my children. Is there hope for me?” She was in prison for killing her children. “Is there hope for me?” So you know what I said to myself? I can give an answer. It would be pointless. Nobody would believe me. I said, “Why don't I talk to the audience? Why don't I have them give the answer?” So I said, “Okay, here's the question, ladies and gentlemen. Here is the question from this lady who is in prison. She killed her children and she is wondering if there is hope for her.” And I said, “What do you say?” That's what they said. That's what they said. Somebody said, "No!" I heard that. Still have good hearing. Somebody said, "No!" You would be right, my friend, if you said, "No." The day that rule changes where a lit candle does not light an unlit candle. 

Of course there is a hope; otherwise, we are done! The amount of unconsciousness we live with in our life, if there is no hope for us, it's pointless. It doesn't matter. This is what I tell people because I know it is true. I know. I don't believe it's true; I know it is true because of that law.

Whatever has happened in your life, move forward. That's what...this is what this life tells you every day. Move forward, not backwards. Forward. 

What is forgiveness? Oh, you should hear my definition of forgiveness. It's very different, very different. Forgiveness is not forgiving other people's actions; that cannot happen. You know what forgiveness actually is? It’s actually to cut that cord that is still tying you to that situation and saying, “No more will I be the slave of that situation. Bye-bye.” That's what forgiveness is.

Because you need to move forward. Understand in your life, the possibility. Bring! I want all of you to be happy even though you don't know why. I want you still to be happy. I want you to be in peace because peace is already inside of you. It's there now. It is there now. Your light goes with you wherever you go; you cannot go any— so far as this breath is coming into you, you cannot go anywhere without your light. Let it shine. That's the difference. That's where that peace is. Let it shine.

Not only you, I wish this peace, I wish this happiness, I wish this joy—and I have means to make it possible—for all the citizens of Sri Lanka, and India, and Nepal, and Tibet, and the whole world. 

And because I'm a great knower—and I remind you I didn't say believer—great knower of that law of the candles, while this candle is still lit, I'm going to go try to light as many candles as I can. And for every candle that I light, I better my chances—mathematically you can figure it out by how much—but I better my chances for the whole world one day to be lit—for every candle to be lit. 

The world doesn't need peace. You do. 

So that's peace is possible. That's my definition of why peace is possible. And as much as I can, the time will permit—because my intent when I came here 14 years ago was the same. I wanted to light the candles. I'm still lighting the candles. And I hope and I pray, I keep lighting the candles. And for every candle that I light—another one, another one, another one, another one, another one, another one—well, we're getting better at those chances of lighting all the candles in this world.

- Prem Rawat

In our lives, we want to hear about how we can be prosperous, but really it takes a little bit of thinking. But there is no way that you can be prosperous without peace.

How many of you take baths? Thank you. How many of you like to go swimming in a swimming pool? So, it’s nice. It’s nice to be in that water. It’s nice. So, it’s nice to soak. It’s nice to swim in that water. Flex the muscles and feel that warmth or the coolness of the water. It’s refreshing, isn’t it? And how many of you would absolutely love to be in this beautiful Caribbean place – crystal clear water, cool wind, nice perfect temperature water, step into it and just float? Because of the salinity and feel the rejuvenation of the salt - and the water – and the wind. How many of you would do that?

Okay. So let’s take that one step further. So now I have established that you do like the ocean. If I were to take you and put you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from any land, would you like that?

So wait a minute, here we go. We do like the water, but there has to be something that has to be available as the comfort factor. And that comfort factor is land.

Well! In my analogy, peace is that land. Prosperity is the water. It feels good; it’s warm; it’s cool; it’s this, it’s that. The waves, the frolicking, the this, the that. I mean all of that good stuff. That’s all fine. So far it is in the context of something because you are not water based. Even though seventy percent of you is water, but you are land based.  You need to breathe the air. You need to be on the stability of earth.

Terra firma under your feet when all is said and done. And in the same way, peace, joy, tranquility, serenity, clarity, understandings are your “terra firma.” When you are with these, all is truly well. And you may venture away from this, only if you are able to come back to it. Because this has to be readily available at all times.

-Prem Rawat

More than enough food is produced to feed the whole world. Do you know that? Do you know that? The earth actually produces more than enough food to feed the whole world, every single person, comfortably! So why are people hungry? Greed. Greed. “Throw away food. Throw!” People throw away food.

Do you know what is also one of the largest contributors of methane gas to the atmosphere? Do you know? Food—that’s how much food is thrown away; it actually affects the atmosphere. They bury it, and it rots, and it produces methane, and it goes into the atmosphere.

There are solutions; there are solutions. But the solution begins with you first. When you are happy, then the happiness is contagious. That’s why you like being around people who are happy—because happiness is contagious! You don’t like being around people who are mad, angry, always crying, because it’s contagious too. Sadness is contagious. Joy is contagious.

Find the source of joy in you, and hopefully it will infect you. Infect you! And, enjoy this life. Enjoy this existence. Enjoy this being.

– Prem Rawat

Whenever there was prosperity without peace, that prosperity didn’t last very long. You want prosperity? I know everybody wants prosperity. But true prosperity will never come without true peace.

And that’s why peace is important for all of us on this planet, not just in Colombia. On this planet, we are killing each other. We’re destroying each other. And we need to understand the value of human life, not the value of some ideas, some philosophies, but the idea of what truly a human being is.

– Prem Rawat

You have the power. 
All you need is that determination. 

Don’t look at the other people. Look at yourself. 

From the strength of you, you can change a nation.

From the strength of you, you can change your fortune.

From the strength of you, you can create a nation of 
peace, tranquility, and prosperity for everyone.

A civilized nation, a beacon for the whole world to see and admire.

-Prem Rawat