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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

I see what’s happening in this world and it’s not good. It’s time we change it. But the change—the change can only begin with us. And right now, what we want is the change to begin with other people, not us. Because we don’t know who we are. We’re just like them. We’re just like them. Knowing yourself has a lot of value, believe me, a lot of value.

So, this is the possibility. Your desert too, however “desert-y” it may look, does have the seeds. It is going to rain. It is. And when it does, your desert can bloom as well.

Beautiful, beautiful things in the “Store of the Divine.” Don’t be shocked if all you get is a bunch of seeds. Don’t be shocked because that’s the way they come.

Are you ready to invest a little bit in those seeds? Are you ready to take all that knowledge and give it a little wisdom—and use it wisely? Because if you do, even if you think your life has changed, it can still transform so much more than you could ever imagine. There is no limit; there is no limit.

So, how beautiful, this opportunity. How beautiful, this chance. And how beautiful when the desert blooms. Please let your desert bloom. That’s what it’s all about.

- Prem Rawat

Those seeds lying in the desert know one thing: rain will come. This they know. This is not a guess! Rain will come. When? They don’t know.

So, instead of looking at a calendar—like we do—they have adopted a beautiful strategy, beautiful! And it is based on one thing: rain will come.

Stop looking at the calendar. Seeds don’t look at the calendar. They just know the rain will come. And when it does, “Be ready!” So, no guesswork, no speculation. Absolutely everything known, known, known: rain will come. Be ready! And that’s what they do.

That’s how the desert blooms. You look at a desert, and it looks, “nothing,” like nothing. One color. Hiding underneath are these incredible little seeds. “Rain will come. Be ready.” And then, rain does come. And when it does, they bloom!

And when the desert blooms, it’s not monotonous anymore. It has got the most exquisite colors everywhere, the gentle hues of pink and blues and yellows and reds and green. You can’t even see the sand. It will happen.

You too can look at your life, look at the monotony of your life. But remember, in your heart there are some seeds. We’re going to talk about seeds here today quite a bit. There are some seeds. Rain will come. And the desert will bloom.

It’s happened, not once. Not once—again and again and again, and these seeds that lie dormant are the seeds of the success story from the last blooming. Those flowers that bloomed, they left these seeds behind. And this is their proof, “It does rain—and be ready to bloom.”

And, if in my life, instead of facing all the chaos that I face, all the challenges that I have created for my own self, and I start to really understand life as this incredible journey that I have, this incredible gift that I have, this incredible opportunity that I have.

- Prem Rawat

What’s going to cause the divorce between the husband and wife? Expectations. What’s going to cause you to become angry with your own child? Expectations. And you have expectations of everything in this world.

I’m not saying that’s good or bad; that’s up to you. Certainly I have expectations too. I even have expectations of my dogs. Sometimes—and they’re two little Pomeranians, and theydon’t like anybody coming into the courtyard. Like, they’re, it’s theirs.

And sometimes I’ll sneak in, and they don’t know it’s me, and they’ll start barking. And then I’ll say, “What? What?” And then they get very, very embarrassed.

So, it’s not like, one way or the other way, “Should you have expectations; shouldn’t....” That’s not the point. But there is a state of being in which you are free, in which you are happy with yourself without the approval or disapproval of other people, where you recognize truly who you are is not this desert, but the seeds that lie buried in thatdesert.

My friends, the story is not about the desert. It’s going to look like the desert—the desert is going to look like the desert for a lot longer period than the blooming; the blooming is only going to last a few days. Understood, right? It only does—it just lasts a few days and then, ptchk! gone.

How does that seed survive in the desert? It had to work on it. It made an investment. It could be somewhere else where it rains a lot. But it didn’t; it went for the desert, in its uniqueness. This is the possibility; this is your strength! This is what can happen—only if you are willing to invest in it.

- Prem Rawat

So now let me tell you about the good and the bad. The good is like this—like a pyramid. Just a little bit at the top, and a lot the further down you go. The bad is like an upside-down pyramid. You see all the consequences; you see all the problems; you see all, “Oh, this is terrible, oh....” But if you get down to the bottom of it, it’s just one little thing.

And the good is the same way, but upside down. You hardly see it, that it’s good. It’s so little on top; you hardly notice there is anything good. But keep digging; it gets better, and better, and better, and better, and better.

Next time, look carefully—because that’s how you keep missing the good and falling into the trap of the bad—because the bad is huge. It comes with its problems blaring right in your face. And how does it resolve itself? It turns out to be a little thing, tiny little thing.

Tiny little thing. The good? Inversely? All you get to see at first is this tiny little thing, but if you accept—and most of the time you will overlook it, what is the good.

Let me give you an example; this will maybe clarify the two pyramids. You wake up in the morning—you wake up in the morning, right? You come to your kitchen or family breakfast area, and there is your family. And you notice that one of your kids, he’s just angry.

“Dah-deh-deh-deh-deh-deh, dah-deh-deh-deh-deh-deh, this is wrong; that’s wrong; I don’t want to go to school; I’d, I’d, I’d, I’d, I hate school; why do I have to go to school, Dad?” You’ve seen all this. Get to the bottom of it: “I didn’t do my homework.”

The good? You come downstairs and that child says—now in good mood because you let them stay out of school, so they could finish the homework, and then they can—“Good morning, Dad.” There is your opportunity, in that “good morning, Dad.” If you took it: “How are you today?” you have just converted raw strings into metal chains of relationship, of love.

But most of the days, you just, “Yeah, good morning.” You missed it; you have missed it. Somebody says to you, “I love you.” And what are you good at? “I love you too.” You, you just missed it. Just missed it.

And here comes a breath into you, and maybe you took that one minute, sat down somewhere, and you went, “Hmmmh, hmmm....” Just that one breath—you missed it. You missed it, because now you’re thinking about this and you’re thinking about that. But you just could have sat down, as you are, as you did and understand you have the gift of life.

And you keep going; it’ll get more and more and more and more and more and more and more, and you will begin to fill with gratitude. And from then on, it’s like fireworks. “Vvrr-vvrr-vvrr-vvrr, vvrr-vvrr-vvrr....”

The bad, we go for; good—we have not learnt how to detect that little, little, little thing of good. So, your dharma, or dharm, begins to be that duty that you have to the self, to not miss those little things in your life—the opportunity to fill your heart with gratitude, the opportunity to acknowledge what you have been given.

Aren’t you good at knowing when the problem is coming your way? “Aye-aye-aye-aye!” Are you also that good at knowing when the good is coming your way? Because if you were, you would realize, it’s so much good just keeps coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming. That’s life!—the gift that you have been given.

- Prem Rawat

And so under this circumstance, in which there is so much greed, there’s so much pain—and the pain isn’t created by anyone else, but people around us and us—to understand the idea of, "one day would be enough" for anything is hard to imagine. What would be—where one day would be enough when a lifetime isn't enough?

But you haven't given your life a chance to show you the possibility it has. You have given the world a chance. You've given this world many, many chances. "You're fired." "Eww!" "You're hired," "Aaah!" "You're fired," "Euuuh." You’re hired again, "Aaaah!" You're fired again, and, "Ewww." "Sorry sir, you've missed your flight." "Euugh."

I mean, there are these shows, and airport shows, where the people, you know, showing the airline thing—it’s like, "Wow. Wow!"

But have you given your life a chance to show you what it has? What does the world of joy look like? What does the world of understanding look like? What does the world of answers look like? What does the world of clarity look like?

Where you can rest and fade away your tiredness—to become excited about, indeed, every breath that comes into you: "Wow, what a gift!" To embrace reality that is not born of ideas or discussions—but a reality that you feel, that is tactile!

Not just empty promises. Don't you see the difference between empty promises? And what your life wants to show you is not empty promises.

- Prem Rawat