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The very things that break down the structure of a family, a simple thing called “not listening”—that is the culprit in the whole world, in my opinion. The government doesn’t listen to the people; the people don’t listen to the government. Wife doesn’t listen to the husband; husband doesn’t listen to the wife. Children don’t listen to the parents; parents don’t listen to the children.

No listening. Why? Because there’s so much noise already going on, of everything that’s wrong. It is the Tom Thumb syndrome. We have become so small, and everything has become so big—that you no longer understand.

You don’t understand who you are; you don’t understand why you’re here; you don’t understand what your potential is; you don’t understand what the breath means; you don’t understand what your choices are. You have a choice. You can choose.

– Prem Rawat

There is something constant. And all the days you’re going to be alive on the face of this earth—all the days—how many are there? Even if you live to be a hundred years old, how many days is that? Thirty-six thousand, five hundred. Take 365, put two zeros at the end, right?

I know I can see disbelief in some of your faces, like, “Whoa, whoa, what, you’re missing a zero. It has got to be three hundred and sixty-five thousand. Couldn’t just be thirty-six thousand, five hundred.”

But unfortunately, or fortunately, that’s all it is—and a big chunk of it is gone. And I only say this, not to scare you, but to provide the spice of urgency of how important it is for you to know yourself, so that the rest of the days that you exist are spent existing to your fullest potential. You have no other choice; you’ve got to live every single day to its fullest—and that’s not “party.” That’s the grand party, the party in which you are happy!

You’re not happy because you are with your friend, but yet, you are happy because you know yourself. You are happy because you have the courage to understand. You are happy because you have chosen, by your own choice, the fifty percent that’s good in you. And you have chosen to tame the fifty percent that’s bad in you.

That you have chosen, you have made a choice in your life to be real. That you have made a choice in your life to find the joy of being alive, to find the joy of existence, to find the joy of understanding, to find the joy of what it really feels like to have courage to know.

– 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

When I first got the invitation for this event, you know, there was a little line there that said about “the hands, the head, and the heart.” And for me, that was very, very interesting—that an institution that is promoting education, giving education, is talking about something so basic, something so fundamental.

So, I know what a head is—it’s right up here—and I know what hands are. I use them every day, and head too, try to. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But the question becomes, “What is the heart?”

And of course we are here to talk about peace, but we also have to understand that the matters of peace come from that heart. That when somebody says, “kindness is important,” that that has something to do with the heart.

So, what is that heart? I mean, obviously it’s not that physical thing that pumps, because that gets attacks, gets infarctions, you know, gets stents put in. So I mean, it would very different to say, “Okay, that’s your heart.” So, what is the heart? And I don’t stand here to be an expert on anything, but I can tell you that in each human being....

Every single human being—and when I say this, I mean it—is perfect. Every human being is perfect. And what do I mean by that? And what makes them perfect? Because fifty percent, exactly fifty percent of them is bad—perfection. And the other fifty percent is good. And that’s what makes you a human being!

So there is the fifty percent that is terrible. And the good news is—that’s the bad news—the good news is that there is the fifty percent that’s incredible. And that fifty percent is what peace is all about. That fifty percent is the goodness of every human being.

And where the heart comes in, over the mind, is the ability to choose that fifty percent “good.” Choose. It’s a choice! Do you know, peace is a choice?

– Prem Rawat