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A few years back, a scientist decided to do an experiment—and he took a huge mirror and he put it in the jungle. And of course you know monkeys are the most curious, right? So they came! And they stood in front of the mirror—and they started screaming! Showing their teeth, hitting the mirror—and freaking out. Then they would run away.

Then ... a big gorilla came, and he went in front of the mirror, and he screamed! And he beat his chest to say, “Who are you?”

And he was angry! He was very angry. And he screamed, and he beat his chest again—and he paced back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth—why? Do you know why? Do you know why? [Audience: No!]

He did not recognize himself.

That gorilla he was seeing was not an enemy—it was him!

Are we seeing ourselves in the mirror, and not recognizing ourselves? When we kill each other, we kill ourselves! When we rob from each other, we rob from ourselves! Because you ... and you, and you, and you, and you ... are my reflection. You, and you, and you are each others’ reflection in that mirror.

When you become angry at each other, you become only angry at yourself! When you tell a lie, you tell a lie to yourself! When you harm each other, you only harm yourself! Because you do not recognize it’s you.

[End]
– Prem Rawat

People say, “Are you an inspirational speaker?” and I say, “Nope.” Because sometimes, what I say, people don’t like. But I say it.

I don’t know where a human heart exactly is, but I know what lives there. And in the human heart lives the courage, lives the clarity, lives the understanding, lives the joy—and lives the Divine.

Joy is your need, has been your need, and will be your need. Peace has been your need and will be your need. War is what is wrong with the society, wrong with the people, not right with the people. Peace is what is right for the societies, right for the people. And no matter how many changes we go through, these things hold their own value; they are true.

So! You are interested in winning your battles—and I am not interested in telling you how to win your battles, because I don’t care about the battles. For me, it is perfectly okay if you lose a few. Lose a few battles and don’t feel bad! Don’t feel bad! But, don’t lose the war. Don’t lose the war.

Battles, you win some, lose some, no problem. Don’t lose the war. You’ve got to win the war! And the war where the good is victorious over the bad—the good, that generosity, is victorious over the greed, compassion is victorious over hate, knowledge is victorious over ignorance, joy is victorious over sadness—that’s winning the war.

The challenge for mankind is to be interested in peace—and it’s a challenge! Is it possible? Of course! No question about it. Because I have hope that each one of you has the possibility in your lives to encourage all that is good, and to be victorious in this battlefield, not by winning all the battles, but by winning the war. I know this is possible.

– Prem Rawat

It takes courage to have hope. Many people in their lives, they see things not going their way; they start losing hope—and the next thing you know, calamity.

But it takes courage to have hope; it takes courage to have clarity. And when there is that courage, (ha!) this is what’s beautiful. 

If you get angry, you know what you will be rewarded by? Anger. Just think about it, right? You get angry, you’ll be rewarded by anger. What is the reward of anger? Either you will get more angry.... Maybe you begin by being angry with your friend, and the next thing you know, you’re also angry with yourself, for being angry at your friend.

Anger rewards anger. Anger begets anger. Fear rewards fear—you get afraid of being afraid. And that’s when it really sets in. It’s more than the boogeyman in the closet. Now you’re afraid to be in the room; you’re afraid to be alive. “Oh my God....”

But what is the reward of hope? It brings you more hope. What is the reward of joy? It brings you more joy. What is the reward of happiness? It brings you more happiness. What is the reward of knowledge? It brings you more knowledge. 

What is the reward of being content? It brings you more contentment. What is the reward of knowing? It brings you more knowing. This is how it is.

– Prem Rawat

How can your own echo say something else than what you said? How can your echo say something different?

You say, “Hello” and the echo says, “Hi, I am fine.” I mean, is that possible? It’s going to say the same thing you are going to say. You say, “Hello;” your echo is going to say, “Hello,” a little bit later, but it’s going to say that. “You’re crazy”—“You’re crazy.”

So, people don’t think the craziness in this world is an echo of themselves—no, no, no. They think that’s somebody else talking. No, it’s you, you, you, you, you, you—all of us!

And what is everybody trying to do? Fix the echo. The world is trying to change the echo. How? How? It’s never going to happen. You want to change the echo? Then, you say something else and nature will follow its course, and you will hear something different. But it won’t be any different than what you had said.

Because when the lamp is lit, it doesn’t matter in whose house it is lit, it will give light. Is your lamp lit?

[End]

– Prem Rawat