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People say ... (and you’ve heard this expression,) “In your heart” ... “from your heart.” “From the bottom of my heart....” Well, what is this thing called the heart? I mean, what is it ... heart?
Is it, “duk-duk, duk-duk, duk-duk, duk-duk,” thing? I mean, I don’t think there is anything, “bottom, top” ... [sighs] and there’s chambers in there, or there’s valves in there, but I don’t think any of that has anything to do with joy and peace and....
So, so, so, what is this thing called the heart? So let me tell you what it is. Heart ... is the place ... where the courage resides ... the courage ... to move on, to go forward ... to fulfill ... who you really are.
Heart ... is the place ... where your truest wisdom resides. Heart ... is the place ... where you will find ... your passion. Heart ... is the place where you will find your compassion. Heart is the place where you will find the simplest of knowledge. Heart is the place where you will find the quest ... the thirst ... for being fulfilled.
All that is good in you ... all that is good in you, (not from the perspective of the world,) but that is good in you from the perspective from a human being ... is the place ... where all these beautiful things reside. And that is the place referred to conveniently ... as being the most important ... as being the most important, and thus called “the heart.”
Do you know ... do you feel ... in your life ... that simplicity that the heart offers you, that the life offers you—life, existence?
Falling in love is not a formality. Falling in love happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Falling in love with the idea of happiness. Falling in love with the idea of peace. Falling in love with the possibility to be content. Falling in love with the possibility to be clear. Falling in love with the possibility to be free. Falling in love with the possibility to know.
Love!
If you don’t have the love and you have all the rituals, all the rituals of this world cannot make you fall in love.
You can have your wife tattooed with “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”…You can have your towels embroidered, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. You can buy the wallpaper, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. You can go and… and you know breakfast cereal which has got all the alphabet, you pick the “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. But all that “I love you” will not make you fall in love with that person. No way. Not possible. Because falling in love happens with the heart.
The simplicity. The innocence of falling in love. Innocence. You cannot go out and say, “Today I’m going to fall in love.” Love sees no time. Love is not lust. Don’t ever mistake love for lust. Love is love; lust is lust. And many, many of you might see a picture, might see a postcard, might have a thought… that might be lust, but love is different. And love is innocent. And it is from an innocent place that it comes. And if you do not have that innocence, you will not have the love.
So if you want to be in love, work on the innocence - Not embroidering the towels, because it was that innocence that brought you to that love. And the day you begin to believe in your heart again, the complicated world will magically disappear.
The complication of this world that hounds you can only exist because of one reason: ignorance. Believe in this heart and the message of this heart to you, to be fulfilled. Isn’t that what caused your search to begin with?
Each one of our stories that is so different and yet so alike. Your name is different, your face is different, where you were born is different, how you were raised is different. How you view this world is different. But falling in love and its innocence is the same for every one of us.
- Prem Rawat
These hands have cradled a baby. In human beings, these hands have cradled a baby. These hands with the skill and knowledge of a surgeon have healed a person. These hands, with the intent of love, have held a face and comforted.
These hands have picked up a gun and destroyed a life. These hands—not mine but hands of the world. Next thing you know, you know, say, “Oh, you killed somebody?” No. No—but have taken and destroyed.
It is of utmost importance to understand that the actions of these hands has to be governed by the heart and not the craziness of this world.
- Prem Rawat
Allow this heart to become a major player in your life, major player in your life. Let this heart be that place from where the spring exists, that the request for peace in your life comes from.
Peace is not that difficult. You know why? Fortunately, the people who want war are a minority! Of 7.5 billion people on the face of this earth, the people who want war—that is a minority that wants war. The majority of the people on the face of this earth want peace.
I think the cards are stacked in our favor. Play the game—not because of fear! Play the game. That’s what they want. Peace will be the finest achievement of mankind—not going to the moon, that’s old hat. Been there; done that. It will be peace that will be the noblest achievement of mankind.
– 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
Beautiful saying from Gandhi, “Eye for an eye, and the whole world will go blind.” That’s what I’m seeing! Eye for an eye— “He did this; you did this; you did this; you did this.” The world’s going blind! And that’s what will happen.
And you know, the incredible thing is this: it’s never too late. It’s never too late. It’s never too late. That’s what awakening is, in my opinion; in my experience, it’s never too late.
Whenever we, I, you as an individual…we make that choice…that the situation can change. Can! Can! If we can fight with such devastation, then we can also have peace with remarkable results.
Darkness does not have to have an identity; darkness does not have to have any identity. All it has to have is absence of light. And its demise happens, not by removal, but by presence of light. It’s that simple; it’s that simple.
Unless we know that we can make choices, it’s a lost cause! We need to know that we can make choices. And every day that is given to us—that we have in our life—is the day that we can make a choice, and it’s never too late to make the right choice. Make the choice—but you have to choose.
You know, this is what I—I’m saying it here: “All I want—like you have in your life, a dream—I too in my life have a dream.” This dream is a little different. This dream requires that I be awake to see its fulfillment, not asleep.
And the dream is that peace will be mankind’s finest achievement. Finest! That will be our finest hour. That will be our finest success. That will be the apex of civilization—that we have come together and made a difference, not only for ourselves, but for our future generations.
– Prem Rawat