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Prem Rawat: Collectively, as human beings on the face of this earth, appreciating what you have is more important than appreciating what you don’t have.

The truth is, (and I may be a little strong, so I ask for your forgiveness if you’re offended by it, but I have to say it). And what I have to say is, “Why do you appreciate those things that you don’t have, rather than appreciate those things that you do have?”

All those things that you don’t have, you think about them. “Oh, I wish I could have this. I wish I could have this. I wish I could have this.” And what has this bad habit eventually done to us as mankind, as human beings? We no longer appreciate the planet we have.

This is a unique place! Trillions and trillions and trillions of trees live here. When I first saw the pictures of Mars, I was just as intrigued as anyone else. (Weren’t you?) But then I realized, not one single tree. Nowhere to be found. I, all of a sudden, became very proud of my earth, my earth that I live on. Because it is magnificent.

Mars may be intriguing; earth is beautiful. But we have lost the appreciation for where we are. This blue marble is unlike anything out there, and what do we sit there and think about? “Well, are we alone?”

Seven-point-nine billion people on the face of this earth and you get lonely? You have been given an incredible opportunity. To be alive, not on Mars, not on Mars, but on the face of this most magnificent planet. And if all those gifts were not enough, there is another gift that you have been given, and it is the gift of peace.

And here’s the killer. And all you have to do is want it. Wow. All you have to do is want it. You don’t have to go create stars. You don’t have to create planets; you don’t have to create rivers; you don’t have to create lakes; you don’t have to lay an egg. All you have to do ... is say “yeah,” acknowledge the need you have for peace. It’s all it takes.

Prem Rawat: You know, to me, it’s very much like you come on a stage. So, there is a door, and you walk through the door and you find yourself on a stage. And maybe you have to take a few steps to actually get onto the stage. And then you look around and you go, “Hmm, what am I doing on this stage?”

00:00:41 And there are people in this world who go, “Oh, there’s going to be a show! So, I will wait for the show to start.” They don’t understand — they are the show. They are the show. Not somebody else that’s going to come and dance on that stage; you begin your dance. It’s you! And then one day, you have to walk off that stage.

Prem Rawat: So, that’s, to me, you know, this is what it is! I am not obsessed by death, by the way. Whether it is 36,500, whether it is 25,550, (that’s if you live to be about seventy-five), what matters? Because you don’t have to make an appointment. It’s going to happen.

So it’s like, if you missed the appointment, (hah-hah-hah), you would live a few extra days; no, it’s not going to happen like that. (That would be nice. But it’s not going to happen like that.) So, what you’ve got to do is make every day that you are alive, you have to make it count. It has to mean something to you.

And you have to choose to make that day mean something. Rather than be the victim of everything else, you have to choose; you have to become proactive in your life.

So, what I’m saying is you are not. You are proactive in your job. You’re proactive in your relationships. But you are not proactive in your life. And you should be proactive in your life.

Should you be proactive with your relationships, yeah, of course. Where did I say you shouldn’t? Why do you assume that? People already assume! “You’re not being practical.” When did I say you shouldn’t have a job? Did I say that? No. Have a job. But people automatically assume, “He’s talking about peace so he doesn’t like a job.”

The question is, (the more interesting question is), “In the middle of my job, can I have peace?” And the answer to that is “yes.” That’s what we were talking about, but it’s not one way or the other way. Can there be peace in your life, in the midst of your job and your responsibilities? Why not? Peace happens on the inside; job happens on the outside.

The day the job happens on the inside and the peace happens on the outside, you’ve got a problem. And I would have nothing to say. But I know peace happens on the inside, and job happens on the outside; it’s perfectly compatible.

You have to choose. And do you know that at every intersection of my life I had a choice? This is hindsight; it's 20-20. Believe me, I can't explain it. This feeling came over me that every intersection, every inch, every mile that I have traveled on this road of life, I had a choice.

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Choice

Prem Rawat:

Yes, things came my way, but I had a choice. I accepted them. Good things, bad things came and I chose even those things that brought the consequence that was. And of course I can plead ignorance; I didn't know. But I chose. Should I have chosen without knowing? No.Hindsight's 20-20. But I chose.

Those of you who want that peace inside, you have to make that choice. In your life, doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is not going to work. And people who do, little rocky to say the least.

In the same grind, hoping that one day everything will change. How? You have to make a choice. If you want that change, you have to make that choice. Do you want peace in your life? You have to make a choice. People will say to me, "Is it that easy? No searching, no going to the top of the Himalayas, no surrendering everything, burying your head in the snow for eight years? I mean, none of that stuff? Just have to make a choice?" Of course.

You have looked outside; maybe it is time to look inside. You have believed in many things; maybe the time has come to know. You have made many excuses; maybe the time has come to make the choice. Make a choice. Most importantly, make the connection.

It is not about lamenting the past. I made the wrong choices or the right choices. It is—wow, I get to choose? Tomorrow I get to choose? Yeah! And the day after that you get to choose. You want to be happy or you want to be sad? You want to be fulfilled or you want to be empty? Choose.

- Prem Rawat

You are a human being. You have a certain power. You have a certain strength.

Problems are like clouds. They come; they go. Sometimes they’re big; sometimes they’re small. Sometimes they’re not there. Sometimes they’re there everywhere.

But the mountain that sits on the ground does not move with the clouds–doesn’t become bigger or smaller with  the clouds. You are the mountain; clouds are your problems.

– 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

What do you focus on every day? Is it things that make you angry? Is it things that you don’t like in your life? Are you a complainer? Do you complain, “This isn’t right; that’s not right. This should have been this way; that should have been this way; why is this this way; why is that that way? And, ababla-bla-blable, ablabla-blablalba.....”

“Why me?” Are you one of those “why me’s”? So, if you are a “why me”—good luck. That’s not a nice note to end with, “Why me? Nothing is right. Why is everything so unjust?”

Remember Yudhishthir! Same thing, he’s caught in the injustice and he cannot go. He’s caught. The cycle of birth and death, the inconvenience of the birth, and he’s caught in it. Because he’s also caught in his concepts of “what is right, what is wrong, what is right....”

He’s caught up in his concepts of what is right and what is wrong. And this is then driving him to start looking at what is just and what is unjust. And so far he’s going in his life, going, “This is just; this is unjust; this is just; this is unjust,” he’s caught in fear; he’s caught in anger; he’s caught in all those things that he doesn’t really want.

When he frees himself from that, severs those.... I like the word “sever”; just to, “Kkkch,” indiscriminately. Not like, “Where should I do it?” No, just do it. It doesn’t really matter, if you’re going to cut a rope, whether you cut here or you cut it—and just cut the thing.

And then, then that comes; then comes the freedom. Then comes the freedom. And the freedom? And, when you are free, you can feel. Now you are free to feel this life; now you’re free to feel the gratitude; now you’re free to feel what that beauty is.

The life should never be about, you know, three things only. Life is giving you a lot more than three. Take it all! “No, no, we should only have....” Not one.

“What is the most important—well, what is that one most important thing to you?” God knows who started that. But it’s the same people who said, “Take that little ball and put it in the little hole.”

Trying to explain to the aliens, you know, again, “Yeah, they just—somebody has four important things, but this guy only wants three!” I won’t mention your name, Mitch, in case there is an alien.

So, just to keep that focus and continue to enjoy this life, this is what it is. And that is the best way to pay the tribute to what is the past—whatever you have learnt that is good, keep it, and move forward with it.

- Prem Rawat