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How many of you worry? I’ll raise my hand too—just, it makes it easier for you. Now, please explain to me how worrying is going to take away your problem?

And here’s a good one—look up “worrying” or “worry” in the dictionary—and it’s really funny. It says, “Something that makes you unhappy.” Something that makes you unhappy...?

My goodness! I like to worry. I like to worry! But I never asked the question, “Why am I worrying? Is this actually going to solve the problem?” No! Because, where action will solve the problem, thinking about a possible solution will solve the problem, worrying will never solve the problem—but I like to worry.

And worrying will make me unhappy—that’s according to the dictionary—and I can vouch for that. And yet every time I am faced with a problem, I worry.

And then one day when I was really into worrying—and feeling quite unhappy—and this may come as a surprise to you—I said to myself, “Why do you want to feel unhappy?”

“Yeah, but it, you know, it’s not in my control. I didn’t do it. This is happening to me; it’s other peoples’ fault; it’s, yeah, da-da, the other people are the....”

I said, “No, no, no.” And this is me, having a conversation with myself, silently, by the way. And I’m saying to myself, “No, it’s you. That even in this moment, you have a possibility not to be unhappy.”

And it is taking a more proactive and a positive approach, which is to find the solution to the problem—and if you don’t know it, find somebody who does.

- Prem Rawat

Everybody gets caught up in "This is wrong, and this is wrong, and this is wrong."

And of course, things are always going to be wrong. Always.

You cannot destroy wrongness. That would be wrong.

It's always there.

And that's not the point. The point is, so is that which is good. And if you can in your life embrace that which is good, then that's all you need to do.

You don't need to go chase the wrongness to say "Get out of here." You don't need to do that.

A lot of people think, "Oh yeah, I have to remove all the darkness in my life, all the things that are wrong in my life." You can't do it. It's not possible. It's not physically possible. You can't push it out.

You look at people, and what do they get affected... What do you get affected by? What do you get affected by? Most trivial thing; somebody said something bad about you so you get affected by it. Don't you? "Oh, how can he say that!"

So have you been affected? No. But do you feel affected? Yes.

And how long does that game go on? It goes on forever. Forever.

How do you win? How do you win? How do you teach somebody to win in this world? Because the winning is losing in this world. And if you want to win, you have to turn inside. That's the only way. You can't go anywhere else. You've got to turn inside.

Everyday to live this life consciously, to be real.

- Prem Rawat

Today I’d like to begin with a Chinese proverb. And the way this proverb goes is like this: “It is better to light the candle than curse the darkness.” 

And the reason why I said this is because it’s not obvious to us that we have become masters of cursing the darkness. We have become really good at cursing darkness. 

And in fact, I had this experience. A few weeks back I was in Europe, and one day we were just bashing the world, just having a conversation and bashing the world. We’re talking about the politics and how dirty that is.... And we’re talking about how “these super-companies, they’re just taking over the world, and are just destroying everything.”

And it went on—and I mean, it was just bashing after bashing. And I have to tell you that it did feel good. Now, it’s not something that, you know, I recommend, but it really did feel good. It was like, “Yes!” I don’t know—there was something just absurd about it.

And after all that bashing was finished, I went to bed, and I put my head on the pillow—and it was just that time before sleep came to me—and I was thinking, “It’s so easy to bash the world—because this world is not in order! 

But what about my world—is it in order? What are the super-companies in me that are taking over? What are these elements that are creeping in every day and destroying the experience of being alive?”

Because if I was to ask anyone “What is the experience of being alive?”, they would be shocked with the question. I mean, yeah, it’s like, you know, nobody asks you that. 

“Where is your ticket? Where are you going? What do you want for dinner; what do you want for lunch? What’s your shoe size? Are you married? Are you single? Are you feeling well? Oh, by the way, what is your experience of being alive?”

I don’t know—some people will probably go, “Gee, I…I never thought of that.”

I mean, what is my experience of being alive? I’ve had good days—and tell me if this sounds about right—I’ve had good days and I have had bad days. I’ve had challenges; I have had easy runs. I have good memories.... Does that sound right? About, about, approximately...?

Some things I would change; some things I wouldn’t change.

But, do you know that every day that you have been on this earth—that you have been alive on this earth—this earth has been in motion, traveling through space, hurtling through space? There has been a morning—and it is merely an illusion, as the earth rotates—a sunrise, a sunset, the time in between....

And, everything, everything in motion. Everything that.... You know, and I…I really have an issue with the word, “it.” Because in reality, there is no it. Everything is alive! Life has been happening all around you. 

All this time there has been a motion; there has been a sequence of events taking shape— people coming onto this planet Earth, things coming onto this planet Earth, things leaving this planet Earth. I mean, it is actually a drama that you cannot even imagine that has been taking place.  

And you have been alive! And you’ve looked at your problems—your problems—“I have a problem.” And in retrospect, what has your problem really been?

You’ve had a plan. And when things didn’t go according to your plan, you had a problem! When things went according to your plan—“Wow, I love it.” 

And you’ve been alive all those days! How many days do you actually get to live? It’s a shocking reality. Even if you live for a hundred years, that’s only thirty-six thousand, five hundred days. 

I wish I were missing a zero. I am not. That’s all there is.

Now, when I put it like that, then that doesn’t sound like a whole lot. But that’s it! And this is it—this is the time you get. You get those thirty-six thousand, five hundred days to get it right.

– Prem Rawat

Well, you have to remember one thing—and one thing that you have to remember is, you are not your problems. Whatever the problems may be, whatever the problems may come and go, you are not your problem.

- 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 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