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What is important for you as a human being? One, “Know thyself.” Absolutely. You cannot afford to be a stranger to you. You can afford to be a stranger to other people who do not know you, but you cannot afford to be a stranger to you: “Know thyself.”

Secondly, you need to have a heart full of gratitude. Be thankful—thankful for what? For very simple things, very simple things—like being alive. So, could you begin by being thankful for being alive? Could you—in your moments of frustration could you be thankful for this breath? It’s still coming. Do you know that when you are angry, the root of your anger is fear? To remove the anger, you have to remove the fear and to remove the fear, you have to have courage. So, courage is what will get rid of the anger!

So, can you have gratitude? Only those people who have that courage, who have that strength can have gratitude—“Thank you. Thank you.”

People—I say to people; I said, “Be thankful,” and they go “to whom?” Then you don’t know how to be thankful. Just be thankful. Not to whom.

When you look at a beautiful rose, do you go up to it and say, “Are you beautiful for me?” No. That rose is beautiful even if nobody’s looking at it. And that rose is beautiful if it’s a criminal looking at it. And the rose is beautiful if a saint is looking at it. And the rose is beautiful if you’re looking at it.

Gratitude: number two. Number three? Noise. So, have you heard this saying? It goes, “You don’t need wings to fly. You don’t need wings to fly. All you need to do is cut the ropes that hold you back.” Have you heard this? So, where are the ropes? The ropes that hold me back are in my head.

And what do they look like? They look like noise. What is the noise? “You should do this; you should do that.” Words that are not yours—other people’s words that echo in your head... . “Oh, yeah, but if you do this, you will go to hell!” “Oh, but you want to go to heaven... . You want to go to heaven... .” Do you know what heaven looks like? If you didn’t recognize the heaven here? How will you know you are in heaven when you are in heaven?

The question isn’t, you are flying, my friends—the question isn’t, you are flying—the question is, are you on the right airplane? So, do you know what heaven feels like? Because heaven is here. And if you don’t recognize it here, you’re not going to recognize it anywhere else.

So far you are here, your heaven is here; your hell is here. What is heaven? Heaven is the place where you are fulfilled. What is hell? When you are not in heaven. Simple! What does heaven feel like? It feels heavenly. It’s in you; it’s in you; it’s in you; it’s in you.

Fourth thing. The last thing. You can fail, but don’t accept failure. So, you’re going, “What does that mean?” Right? When you were a baby, and you were learning how to walk, did you fail? Every time you fell you failed. Right? But did you accept failure?

You never—you failed, but you never accepted failure; you got right back up. “Ha-ha-ha-ha.” Right? Till one day you learned how to walk—that’s how you learned how to walk. You failed, but you did not accept failure. Now, look at you. A little failure, “Huh...”

So, you can fail, but don’t accept failure. Do those four things in your life, please. Do those four things: “Know yourself”—you want to know yourself? I can help you. I can help you. “Be thankful for this life; be thankful for the breath.” And then, “Cut the ropes of noise.” "Fail, no problem. But don't accept failure." Do those things and you will see a big difference in your life.

- Prem Rawat

There’s a lot of businesspeople here, they want to make money. I don’t blame you. Money is a nice thing to have, it can get you into a lot of trouble. So far you’re making it, it’s fine. So far you stop making it, you are in a lot of trouble. You become nobody. So far you keep making money you’re somebody, you stop making money, you’re a nobody.

And yet you realize that you’re not going to be able to take a cent of it with you. Money belongs to no one. What you say is yours…That house you live in has your name on the front. One day it’ll have somebody else’s name in the front. That’s the nature of things. Not good, not bad, not right, not wrong. That’s just the nature of things.

Yes, people need food. But people also need compassion. Yes, people need money but they still need compassion. And compassion is not pity.

What is empathy? What is empathy? Look it up. What is empathy? It is: to understand, to see the similarity between you and the others. It is not to take pity. And I’m not talking about taking pity. That’s not what this kindness is about. This kindness is about helping people. First of all, realize in themselves, their potential, their understanding. This is what the world needs.

- Prem Rawat

Every human being has something to offer; every human being has something to contribute which is good. We have in us bad, and we have in us good.

A field, if not taken care of, will grow something! It won’t be edible—it’ll be weeds—but it will grow something. Plant the seeds of good; nurture the good, and you could grow beautiful fruits, beautiful flowers, beautiful vegetables.

Every single human being carries this potential in them. We don’t recognize our potential—all we look at is “good: bad, good: bad.” Is today according to my wishes? Then, “Thank you, Lord.” If it is not according to my wishes? “What have I done wrong? Why do you punish me?”

And this is what the whole world does. The whole world does this. Look at this...look at this world today. There are people who hate each other! Why? Why? Why? I ask, “Why?”

What are you made out of? Seven-point-five billion people on the face of this earth are fundamentally made out of very simple things: calcium, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Ninety-nine percent of a human being is made out of these six things.

All of us...all of us have the same fundamental needs. We need oxygen to breathe; we need water; we need food, and we need warmth. We need oxygen; without oxygen we will die very quickly. Without water, a few days, maybe two days, three days…. Without warmth, a few hours.... Without food, maybe, maybe a week, two weeks.... Everywhere, it’s exactly the same!

But what divides us? When we are all the same, nature does not see the difference. Male? Man, made out of the same thing. Woman, made out of the same thing. Then why the differences? I know where the differences are! Right here, in our ideas! Not in our hearts—in our ideas. And this is where the problems are.

– Prem Rawat

Religion has its place. Absolutely, religion has its place, and politics has its place. But so does humanity. You are human, first. If you lose your humanity, you lose everything. Then you become poor; then you become weak.

But so far that, on the face of this earth, we do not lose our humanity, we will be strong enough to help each other.

– 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

Whenever there was prosperity without peace, that prosperity didn’t last very long. You want prosperity? I know everybody wants prosperity. But true prosperity will never come without true peace.

And that’s why peace is important for all of us on this planet, not just in Colombia. On this planet, we are killing each other. We’re destroying each other. And we need to understand the value of human life, not the value of some ideas, some philosophies, but the idea of what truly a human being is.

– Prem Rawat