Topics

I know people pray. I mean, excuse me, I’m, I’m very sorry if—I don’t mean to offend anybody. I know. But I, I have to say what I know. Not believe. Know. And I know the greatest form of prayer is to express my gratitude.

People say, “World peace: not possible! Why? Because there’s so much greed.” So, one day I was thinking about that—“Greed, greed. Yeah, greed. There’s a lot of greed in this world.” And then I said “Well there must be an antidote to greed.” And I found it; it’s called “appreciation.”

Greedy people can never appreciate. They can’t! As soon as they start appreciating, you know what happens? You, the human, kicks in. And you know what your nature is? By the way, do you know what your nature is? When you like something—there’s a song playing on the radio that you like—“yeeeeh” goes the volume. You want to share it! You want to share.

Cooking in the kitchen—and you’re cooking something, and it’s good. What happens!? All the protocols go out. “Taste this. Taste this.” What!? No fork. No knife? No washing of the hands? No plate; no this; no that? “No, here, taste—taste, taste this.” This is the human being!

You are putting on that dress, and you look beautiful in that. And what do you want to do!? Show it. Show it.

Appreciation kills greed. In all the greed in the world—it’s there, but they don’t appreciate, because they’re only on one track: “More. More. More. More. More. More.” If they start appreciating it—if they actually start enjoying what they have—they’ll go, “Wow, this is good! Let me share this!” Because that’s human nature—and you are a human being.

The journey to the self, then, is truly a journey to you. It’s called, “Come home. Come home!” And you will see the world change for you, because, remember, you have to make peace with the world. The world isn’t going to make peace with you. You have to make peace with the world.

- Prem Rawat

In this life humility is better than pride—to be humble—because it allows you to see, to witness. That to be thankful is better than not being thankful—because being thankful allows you to see a part of your existence that you would have never seen.

So, these are the windows in our life. To try every day—simplicity is better than being complicated. Now one’s effort is to stay in that place. There is all too much in this world—everything, everything!—that pulls on you. It grabs you and says, “No, come here! Do this! Be like this.”

But to remember that that’s the true nature, the true nature of a human being. It is natural for you to have a heart full of gratitude. It is natural for you to be kind. It is unnatural to be angry. It is natural to be kind—that’s your true nature. It is natural for you to be humble. To be in pride is not natural. It’s not real.

Because when you go to that point where it is doubt instead of clarity, where it is pride instead of humility, things happen that you won’t like. And when you are in the place where there is the kindness, where there is the joy, where there is the gratitude—then what will happen you will like. There will be a simplicity.

So, when you’re with kindness, what do you feel? What does it feel? It feels comfortable. But when you are not in kindness, when you’re not in that humility, when you’re not in that clarity, when you’re not in that understanding, when there isn’t that openness, it doesn’t feel comfortable.

And now, that discomfort has been going on for such a long time that you start to get used to it. So then the only time you realize you were uncomfortable is when you truly do become comfortable, and that’s when you realize, “Oh my God! I didn’t know! I got used to it.”

I am not a doctor. I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you that, when it comes to the inner realm, you cannot start taking pills and not take care of what’s wrong. And what is wrong is the understanding. What is wrong—that the clarity has been lost.

When you bring in that clarity, there is a desire, there is a want to be comfortable. And those dynamics persist in our existence. When we lose that focus, we start to become uncomfortable—then everything else happens.

And so my point is, “Don’t lose that comfort.” There are too many things in this world that’ll distract you. This is what you learn. And you always have something to be thankful about.

When it seems like you have nothing to be thankful for, when everything hits the fan and it all goes crazy—I mean, and really, really crazy—like one of those days when you feel like you’ve been singled out for it? I mean everything has got you in the sight? Find something to be thankful for, find something to understand—and it will, like magic, reverse the trend.

So what I’m saying to you in a nutshell is, “Don’t compromise.” If there is a discomfort, it’s because there is a shift in focus on what you should be focusing on. And if that reality remains constant with you, then there will be a comfort. And that’s how you’re supposed to be. That’s how you are supposed to be.

– Prem Rawat

A lot of people want to be thankful. They want to have gratitude. But there is a problem. You cannot have gratitude without gratification. You have to have gratification. And you know what one of the meanings of gratification is?

One of the meanings: to be fulfilled. Fulfillment. If you want of feel gratitude in your life,  great! How do people express that? Smile. Have a nice day! I wish it was that simple. Somebody says, “Have a nice day” And you go, “Oh! Great now I’m going to have a nice day.”

See, real gratification is what you need. And when there is real gratification, gratitude is automatic.

People ask me what should we be thankful for? It’s a trick question; it cannot be answered. If you don’t have gratification, trying to pretend that you are grateful will never happen. But when you have gratification, when you have that fulfillment in your life, gratitude is automatic. You don’t have to work on it. That just happens.

- Prem Rawat

If somebody gives you a gift—if somebody gives you a gift and you don’t accept it, whose gift is it anyways? It’s not a tricky question; I’m not trying to trick you. It’s just a straightforward question: “If somebody gives you a gift and you don’t accept it, whose gift is it anyways?”

I mean, it’s simple as this. Here’s a handkerchief; it’s my handkerchief. If I give it to you and say, “Here,” and you say, “No,” whose handkerchief is it? [Audience: Yours.] Thank you. That’s what I thought, too. I was starting to have doubts.

And I use it two ways. Somebody says something bad to you; that’s their gift to you. If you don’t accept it, whose is it? Theirs; not yours. So that’s one thing.

How about the other way? This creation has given a gift to you: it’s called “life.” If you don’t accept it, whose is it? Not yours. Not yours—or should it be yours? If you want it to be yours, you have to accept it. And once you accept it, you will understand what it is.

– Prem Rawat

What is gratitude? This is what I was saying yesterday, “Gratitude is when somebody gives you something.

And when you receive that gift, and you feel good—you feel good—then you take some of that ‘good’ that you feel, and give it to the person who gave you that gift.” And that’s gratitude. That’s gratitude—that’s all gratitude is.

You gave me something that made me feel so good; let me give you a little of what you gave me, so you can feel good too. This is being human. What else of a gift can a human give to the Divine, except something that is so fundamentally human? And one thing that is so fundamentally human is that a human can feel good—can feel good.

Nobody can feel good like you do. Seven-point-five billion, six billion—seven, eight, nine, whatever it is now—people on the face of this earth? And each one is unique in how they feel the goodness. It’s their signature. “This is how I feel that goodness; this is how I feel being alive. This is how I feel when I am content. This is how I feel when I am clear.” To give to the Divine the gift of gratitude.

– Prem Rawat