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We don’t pay attention to what needs attention. We don’t pay attention to the need of the heart. Because the inspiration to be in peace comes when you listen to your heart. The inspiration to be content comes from your being. The inspiration to be clear comes from here—and you need to listen; you need to hear.

We don’t hear ourselves. We don’t hear the needs that we have. We don’t hear the want, the wish of this heart to be content—simple—to have simplicity in this life, to have joy, to feel the gratitude every single day—to be inspired by the magic of all magics, by the miracle of all miracles, the coming and going of this breath.

You are alive! Best news! If—if you are incapable of hearing this news, and it sounds to you like a foreign language, then I suggest you learn that language. And it is called “the language of the heart.” That’s what I teach. That’s what I go and present to people so that they can learn the language of the heart.

- Prem Rawat

We go to someplace very nice, quiet, beautiful—and I have heard it more than one time, “Oh, look how peaceful it is.” Is peace a look? Is peace a sound; is peace an environment? Or is peace a feeling that emanates from inside a human being? A state of being. Being. Not thinking, being.

And is that state of being, in itself, real? Or is it when all the problems have been taken away, does it manifest? Critical question!

Because what do we do? We think our happiness is not something in itself; our happiness is a result of removing our problems: “If we remove our problems, we’ll be happy.” So, all day long we chase “trying to remove our problems, trying to remove our problems.”

But, no, it doesn’t matter how many problems you remove; if the state of happiness, the state of joy, is something in itself, unless you have brought that in...? Because some things are absences; just, that’s what they are!

You don’t have to bring in darkness, do you? Do you have to invite it? Do you have to go, “Darkness, here, your darkness....” You don’t have to carry a match. And you don’t have to have a candle. All you have to do is, whatever the source of the light is, put it out. And, ta-dah! And there it is!

A long time ago I went and saw a solar eclipse with my family. It was in Mexico, a long, long time ago. And it was bizarre. It was just, it was really, really bizarre.

And it started—and it was in the middle of the afternoon. Just before that, the sun had been shining.... Birds were going about it; it was quite warm; everything was what it was—a typical Mexican day.

And then the eclipse began. And slowly it just got darker, and darker, and darker, and darker, and darker. And all of a sudden it went completely silent; all the birds stopped singing—just went dead silent. And it got darker. And it was like, “Oooh-whoa.” And then, all of a sudden the temperature just started plummeting. It started getting colder, and colder, and colder, and colder.

And then it started getting brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and brighter. And then, everything was fine. It went to normal; the birds came out, “Ah-yab-che, che-che-che!” They were—they were like, “Whoo-whoa, what happened?”

So, when—but there are certain things that, it’s just an absence. That, and nobody had to turn on the air conditioning. Nobody had to dial a dial to make it colder. No, as soon as the sun was eclipsed, all that started to happen. Darkness started to come in.

So, the question becomes, “Do”—you know that when there is light, there’s no darkness! So, “Is the light there because you removed the darkness? And that’s why there is light?”

Now, be careful how you answer this. Because on the face of it, it’s a very simple question—“Is the light there because you removed all the darkness? Or is the light there because you turned on some source of light and the darkness automatically disappeared?” You know this!

So, surely you, if you know this, you must never get sad. You must never be un-, yeah, unhappy...? But on the contrary, even knowing this....

There are certain things, we act a certain way. And we act a certain way, not because of our wisdom, but because of our sheep behavior. Because, this is how we were told to act. This is what we have learnt—from the generations of our parents, of our friends, of our teachers, of our neighbors. There it is: “Get rid of your problems and you will be happy.”

People pay, (hah-hah), really, really good money to go sit down in these training sessions, where some guy gives you a whole schmiel for four days, five days, of how to get rid of your problems. The question is, “If you could remove the darkness by any means, what makes you think that guarantees there will be light?”

Removing the problems becomes a problem for the human being. Oh, by the way, this is nothing new. This is not a 2018 fad.

So many variables in life, but one constant, and that’s enough. Knowing that is futile to remove darkness; it cannot be—it is easy to bring in the light. It is futile to remove all your problems, because you won’t be—they just—because, you see, problems have always been there. And they are the same ones.

They’re the same ones, and they just hover, looking for a victim. Before you, they were plaguing your parents; before them, they were plaguing their parents; before them, they were plaguing their parents; before them, they were plaguing their parents—and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Same problems attacking people the same way. Before there were airplanes, people were missing their ships. Before the ships, they were missing their buses; before buses they were missing their stagecoaches. Before stagecoaches, they were in a sorry state of affairs when their horse ran away.

For me, I want enough grace in my life to hang onto the wisdom—enough grace in my life to hang onto what I know is right. But grace doesn’t come without effort. You create your future. Remember that—I’ve just told you your future, hundred percent! “You create your future.” Be conscious, be real, whatever you do.

Go forward with a heart full of gratitude every day. Understand—I know it’s difficult. Everything is difficult because of our concepts, of our ideas: “Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, what’ll happen to me; what’ll happen to me; what’ll happen to me; what’ll happen? What I’ll...?” But, that’s what fear does.

What has happened to you? You probably wondered that: “What will happen to me,” the first day you were put in the school, in the kindergarten, isolated from your parents. And you wondered that, “What’s going to happen to me?” After that, so many days you have wondered, “What is going to happen to me?”

But you’re here. You’re still here! Now you look back at it, of course, and go, “Heh! That was nothing!” Well, now you can say it, “it was nothing.” But that was everything to you when it was happening, wasn’t it? It’s like, the biggest mountain. That’s how we are!

Don’t live in fear—but with the courage, wisdom! You have to garner these if you want stupidity to go away. Because if there is no wisdom, guess what it’ll be replaced by—that there’s a space for it...? And there are two things that can occupy that same space: either it’s wisdom or stupidity, that....

And stupidity, in dimensions, is identical to wisdom. And it fits like a glove, into that same space as wisdom. So if you don’t have wisdom sitting there, guess what’s going to be sitting there? Stupidity. It doesn’t need any other shape. It’s like a coin. One side is one thing; one side is the other thing. It doesn’t need to be a different shape.

Externally, maybe it looks different on the stamp side, but.... And if you cut it? If you take a coin that has two sides and cut off one side, how many sides have you got left? “Yeah, two minus one is one, right?” No! It’ll still have two sides of it.

So, in life, darkness on one side light on the other. That’s wisdom. To just think it’s only darkness on both sides is stupidity. Wisdom is, “Okay, this is stupidity—and on the other side, has to be light.”

And in that light, you thrive—you thrive! Up till the last day that you are on this earth, you thrive.

- Prem Rawat

Wherever I go and I start talking about the subject of peace, most people wonder and ask me, “What about all these problems that we have? Why don’t we have peace? What happened?”

So I would like to tell you a story. There was a man and he had heard about elephants—that elephants were big; they were huge; they were powerful and they were mighty; they could lift a whole tree with their trunk. He wanted to see an elephant.

So he did some research; somebody told him, “You want to see an elephant, go to India!” So he found the village which is very famous, very popular for elephants, and he went there. And when he arrived at the village, he saw all these magnificent elephants standing there. And each one of the elephants had a very thin little rope tied to the leg, just very thin—and they were standing.

And the man was really surprised. He had never seen an elephant before, and he was very impressed by the power of the elephant. But he was also very confused. So he went to the village chief, and he said, “Chief, I have a question!”

He said, “This is the first time I’ve seen these elephants, and they’re strong, they’re mighty, they’re powerful. But you are tying them up by this little rope that is so fragile. Why don’t these elephants just run away? Why are they standing there? It’s not the rope that’s holding them, because they could easily break that.”

And the chief said, “Oh, that. Let me explain to you. When these elephants were really young, we tied them with these little ropes. Then they were not so strong, and the rope was enough to hold them. Now, they are definitely strong enough to break the rope, but they have forgotten their strength, and this little rope is enough to hold them.”

In a way, that is so sad. But that is our story too. That is our story too. We have forgotten our strength. We forget who we are. We forget the compassion in us. We forget the passion in us. We forget the kindness in us. We forget the joy in us. We forget what is a human being.

You cannot talk about peace without talking about the human being, because it is in the heart of that human being that the peace dances.

Right now, I know people say, “Oh, people are terrible. Look what they’re doing! They’re killing each other, terrorizing each other, putting fear in each other.” That’s not the nature of a human being.

There is a lot of good in this world; there is a lot of kindness in this world. There is a lot of generosity in this world. And this is the true nature of a human being; this is your true nature. To adore—to adore peace! To want peace. To be fulfilled! Need I say it? Indeed, to create a heaven right here on the face of this earth.

People talk about, when they die, will they go to heaven? There’s a small problem with that beautiful heaven. You have to die to get there. Why not create an experience, the heaven, whilst you’re alive? Whilst you are alive, whilst you are here?

People say, “Oh, look how many people go hungry.” Why? Have you ever thought of why people go hungry? Is it because there is shortage of food? No! Forty percent of the food that is actually farmed goes to waste. It’s thrown away. It’s unfit for consumption. There is more than plenty of food to feed everybody.

People say, “People don’t have clean water!” There’s plenty of water—believe me, there’s plenty of water. And who makes the water unclean? We do.

It’s up to us to understand our true nature, our power—that if we want the peace, we can have peace. We don’t have to be held back by a little rope of the elephant.

– Prem Rawat

A few days ago I was wondering what I’m going to be saying at this forum ... Medicine for Peace—I mean that’s a nice headline. But, is there really a pill for peace? Because that would be nice if there was a pill for peace. You just take it, and you have peace!

So I started thinking, “Is there a pill for peace?” And all of a sudden, I realized that there was. There actually is a pill for peace. Now I know you’re sitting there going, “What? We’re doctors. We have never come across a pill for peace. That would be too good! We could just hand you the pill—and we could take a whole bunch, right, as doctors.”

Well, that would be great. But there is a pill. And what is it?

Well, it’s called consciousness. And to tell you about it more, I will quote Dariya Maharaj. “[Hindi: दरिया सोया सकल जग, Everybody’s asleep. जागत नहीं है कोय। जागे मे फिर जागना, जागा कहिये सोय।]. (Only those who are awake, and awakened whilst awake, are truly the only ones who are awake.) That’s the pill for peace. To be awakened.

And I’ll tell you. I don’t know if there’s a scientific study been done or not. But those people who are happier, who are in peace with themselves, heal much faster than those who are worried sick. But that should tell you something.

And then—what do we do all day long? We worry! We—I mean, I’m sure, so many doctors, you know that when the patient is happy and cheerful, he will heal faster. And what do you start your day with? Worrying. The very thing you know can make you sick! Because we are not awake. We’re not awake, and that’s what it means, to be awake—in being awake. It’s so important.

- Prem Rawat

The challenge that faces us is a very different one, my friends, than we generally accept or understand. It is not about rich countries; it is not about good economics! It’s not!

Our effectiveness lies in not, solutions to our problems, but doing the right thing—and the right thing is peace. Not on earth! Because that sounds so good, right? “Peace on earth”—I mean, I’m, I’m called the “Peace Ambassador,” so I shouldn’t, I should not be saying, “No. Not peace on earth.” I should be saying, “Oh yeah, peace on earth, peace on earth. Peace, peace, peace on earth, peace on earth, peace on earth,” right?

I’ve traveled the earth. And I have found only one thing that is making no peace on earth. And you know what that is? That is the human being. If there is no peace on this earth, it’s not because of the crows; it’s not because of the alligators; it’s not because of anything else but human beings.

They are the ones polluting... "What about hunger?” People ask me this. “What about hunger?” And what about hunger? Do you think there’s a shortage of food? Forty percent of the food that is grown is wasted!

Because it is our shortfall in our own understanding... It is the shortfall in our own understanding; it is the shortfall of us not understanding our potential that we have!

Do you know...? Then, the example I’m about to give is for everyone sitting here. Do you know that once upon a time, you did something—all of you have done this. And this one act that you did require phenomenal courage, incredible drive, and hundreds of failures.

You know what I’m talking about, right? Walking—when you learned how to walk. Your legs were not strong enough to let you walk. Your muscles had to be strengthened—and you were going to do it.

Oh, by the way, how many books did you read on the subject of walking? None! How many classes did you attend? [Ind.: None.] None! How many tutorials did you get? None! There you were, all by yourself, learning to walk. you failed—but you never accepted failure. That was the only difference. Now when you fail, you accept failure. You got up and you fell! And you failed! Right? You failed!

What is the difference between then and now? Only one. Because you still get challenges like that. But there is one difference. Then, you failed but you never accepted failure.

That’s the only difference. The challenges that you face. They require phenomenal courage; they require phenomenal strength! You may not even have the tools with you! But you fail, and you accept the failure.

Same thing with peace! Same thing with peace! Peace is not a one-day event. Peace has to be nurtured every day. Every day, there has to be an introspection! Every day there has to be learning; every day there has to be growth—and every day there has to be understanding. And every day, the courage has to be exercised.

To be motivated, not by me or someone else—but to be motivated by you to move forward. To find your strength, not your weakness! To understand your self—you! Don’t you, don’t you remember what Socrates said? “Know thy self.” Know you! Do you know you? Do you make an investment in knowing the self? Or is it all about, “I want to know my friend; I want to know this; I want to know that”—but not the self.

So, is peace crucial to our societies, to our countries, to our existence, to our civilization? Unquestionably!

It is 7.5 billion people just like you and me that constitute the population of this earth. And if something has to change, the change has to happen from and to the individual.
You know, we have tried everything. We have tried so many things, over the past centuries—but one thing that has never been tried is peace on an individual level. I propose... You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to play detective here. I propose—everything else has been tried—this is the only one remaining... Well, let’s try this one. What have we got to lose? Nothing.

- Prem Rawat

Every human being is a seed.

I’m not a philosopher, because a philosopher would talk about... the philosopher would talk about the potential of the seed. I talk about the realization of that potential.

I am not a philosopher. I’m much closer to a gardener. Prepare the field of your understanding and then take this existence that you have and sow it in this field.

Give it the water of knowing—not believing, knowing. Give it the light of clarity and watch this seed bloom. This blooming is called peace.

- Prem Rawat