Topics

What’s going to cause the divorce between the husband and wife? Expectations. What’s going to cause you to become angry with your own child? Expectations. And you have expectations of everything in this world.

I’m not saying that’s good or bad; that’s up to you. Certainly I have expectations too. I even have expectations of my dogs. Sometimes—and they’re two little Pomeranians, and theydon’t like anybody coming into the courtyard. Like, they’re, it’s theirs.

And sometimes I’ll sneak in, and they don’t know it’s me, and they’ll start barking. And then I’ll say, “What? What?” And then they get very, very embarrassed.

So, it’s not like, one way or the other way, “Should you have expectations; shouldn’t....” That’s not the point. But there is a state of being in which you are free, in which you are happy with yourself without the approval or disapproval of other people, where you recognize truly who you are is not this desert, but the seeds that lie buried in thatdesert.

My friends, the story is not about the desert. It’s going to look like the desert—the desert is going to look like the desert for a lot longer period than the blooming; the blooming is only going to last a few days. Understood, right? It only does—it just lasts a few days and then, ptchk! gone.

How does that seed survive in the desert? It had to work on it. It made an investment. It could be somewhere else where it rains a lot. But it didn’t; it went for the desert, in its uniqueness. This is the possibility; this is your strength! This is what can happen—only if you are willing to invest in it.

- Prem Rawat

So now let me tell you about the good and the bad. The good is like this—like a pyramid. Just a little bit at the top, and a lot the further down you go. The bad is like an upside-down pyramid. You see all the consequences; you see all the problems; you see all, “Oh, this is terrible, oh....” But if you get down to the bottom of it, it’s just one little thing.

And the good is the same way, but upside down. You hardly see it, that it’s good. It’s so little on top; you hardly notice there is anything good. But keep digging; it gets better, and better, and better, and better, and better.

Next time, look carefully—because that’s how you keep missing the good and falling into the trap of the bad—because the bad is huge. It comes with its problems blaring right in your face. And how does it resolve itself? It turns out to be a little thing, tiny little thing.

Tiny little thing. The good? Inversely? All you get to see at first is this tiny little thing, but if you accept—and most of the time you will overlook it, what is the good.

Let me give you an example; this will maybe clarify the two pyramids. You wake up in the morning—you wake up in the morning, right? You come to your kitchen or family breakfast area, and there is your family. And you notice that one of your kids, he’s just angry.

“Dah-deh-deh-deh-deh-deh, dah-deh-deh-deh-deh-deh, this is wrong; that’s wrong; I don’t want to go to school; I’d, I’d, I’d, I’d, I hate school; why do I have to go to school, Dad?” You’ve seen all this. Get to the bottom of it: “I didn’t do my homework.”

The good? You come downstairs and that child says—now in good mood because you let them stay out of school, so they could finish the homework, and then they can—“Good morning, Dad.” There is your opportunity, in that “good morning, Dad.” If you took it: “How are you today?” you have just converted raw strings into metal chains of relationship, of love.

But most of the days, you just, “Yeah, good morning.” You missed it; you have missed it. Somebody says to you, “I love you.” And what are you good at? “I love you too.” You, you just missed it. Just missed it.

And here comes a breath into you, and maybe you took that one minute, sat down somewhere, and you went, “Hmmmh, hmmm....” Just that one breath—you missed it. You missed it, because now you’re thinking about this and you’re thinking about that. But you just could have sat down, as you are, as you did and understand you have the gift of life.

And you keep going; it’ll get more and more and more and more and more and more and more, and you will begin to fill with gratitude. And from then on, it’s like fireworks. “Vvrr-vvrr-vvrr-vvrr, vvrr-vvrr-vvrr....”

The bad, we go for; good—we have not learnt how to detect that little, little, little thing of good. So, your dharma, or dharm, begins to be that duty that you have to the self, to not miss those little things in your life—the opportunity to fill your heart with gratitude, the opportunity to acknowledge what you have been given.

Aren’t you good at knowing when the problem is coming your way? “Aye-aye-aye-aye!” Are you also that good at knowing when the good is coming your way? Because if you were, you would realize, it’s so much good just keeps coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming, and coming. That’s life!—the gift that you have been given.

- Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat:

You know, everybody has their talents. To me, this is my observation. Everybody's gifted. Everybody is gifted. Not one single person on the face of this earth who is not gifted. Somebody can sing. Somebody can make a pancake like you wouldn't believe. That's a gift. Believe me, that's a gift. Maybe you can make somebody smile. That's a gift.

Maybe you are a wonderful companion. That's a gift. Maybe you're a wonderful friend. That's a gift. And so to me, every person has a gift. And I have a gift. I can open my mouth and touch the hearts, and so that's what I want to do.

Have you ever seen water flow? Especially in a dry creek or something like that, when the water starts to come, it just seeks out wherever it can flow. It's just, that's what it's interested in. And it'll go one way, and if that's not happening, it'll just turn and it'll go the other way and it'll go the other way. It'll go the other way. Go, go, go, go till it's got the flow.

And it's the same way. When your understanding is clear, people begin to despair, but they despair because their vision is not clear. They're not looking at it. People come to me and they bring problems. That's like one of the things that happens literally every day. And I have to look at that and go, that's not a problem. That is not a problem. And how can it be taken off?

I have my famous saying, which is you can get on top of Himalayas, take a little hammer, just a little hammer, go the very peak, and just go “tukk.” Well, you just have shortened Mount Everest. It's technically true, you know.

And you don't, I mean, you don't even have to know how to climb. You can get one of these super performing helicopters and dangle a big metal ball underneath it, and just go and just hit it. And you have begun the processes. Sometimes we see how small we are, but we don't see our capacity.

Look at an ant. Look at a butterfly. Monarch butterflies can make the journey nonstop from Florida to England. I mean, talk about capability. I mean, you know, here are pilots and they've got their GPS and their got their navigation system and they got their super jets and they get lost and here comes a little butterfly. Zhuuu... England! Hello!

I mean, absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. You look at the ants and especially where they, you know, there's bricks or tile work and it's just filled with sand. I mean, what did it take man to get that done? Oh, it took a truck to bring the sand sand that had to be packaged and all of this stuff and then got there and a trowel and put it in and smooth it out and a broom to then clean it out and, and here come the ants and thukk, thukk, thukk... dig it all up. Because it's not about small; it's not about big; it's not about underachieving.

It's not about overachieving because you also have to know that's not happening. So you know, really don't make the excuses of underachiever and this and that. and… You see desperation. I see hope. No. What I see, you can see too; what I feel, you can feel too; what I understand, you can understand too. And I see people coming and you can just see that, okay, you're not gonna see them next time. But if there is a fullness, then the attention doesn't go there. The attention isn't on the emptiness. The attention is on the fullness, and if it is filled with that clarity, with that divinity, with that beauty, with that simplicity, what else is there? Because that is the presence of Divine. That is the present.

Clarity is the presence of the Divine. Peace is the presence of Divine. The joy is the presence of the Divine. You know, this is nothing but this sheet that you have cloaked on. There is something that is immortal. This is the union. Your existence here is the union of the Divine, and I've said this many times, and it's the only place, only time that it happens, that the infinite and the finite have foregone the rules and the two have come together. The basics of all rules have been broken. That's your existence and always it would be. And so it is that Divine will encompass everything. But so far you exist, that rule has been foregone and the finite will encompass the infinite. So you breathe, so you talk. So you think, so you can feel.

But this union, by no stretch of the imagination, is permanent. This is a coming together of all these different elements that have come together. What are you? 70% water. 70% water. A little of this gas, little of that gas, a little of this dirt, little of that dirt. It has all come together. Do you know that one of the biggest part of you, your being, is gas—oxygen, hydrogen?

These are the elements. And then, it's like coming together of these elements from this earth. This is physics that I'm talking about that has made you. And you're alive; you can think; you can dance; you can talk; you can do so many things. But it's all borrowed. Oxygen wants to go back to being oxygen. Truly is a Cinderella story. Truly is the Cinderella story. Midnight will strike and when it does, no more a chariot, but a pumpkin.

So, you're very fortunate, very fortunate. Everybody is fortunate because that union is happening. But you are fortunate that you can recognize that yet gift.

So, recognize that union in your life. Be fulfilled. Be in that place and enjoy it.

I really hope, like that first flight of 21 seconds and 120 feet that changed the world, that what gets launched out of this platform is truly revolutionary, and it makes a difference for the people of this world.

And more than anything else, all I want you to do is think about something that I may have inspired in you. Give it a thought, because how many people do you think looked at those Wright brothers and said, "this isn't going to work"? But these two guys only knew how you work with bicycles. They were bicycle repairmen. They were tinkerers. They had an imagination and they did not understand the word "no." Regardless of how many people told them, "No, no, no." They didn't acknowledge the word "no." That's called persistence.

They made this little machine that was incredibly flimsy. And I'm sure there were people, when this thing finally took off, who closed their eyes and said, "Oh God! They're going to kill themselves." This had never been done. This was a unique moment, but it happened. And the world has never been the same.

Please don't underestimate the power of being here today. Let's spark a revolution for peace. Let's spark a revolution for kindness. Let's spark a revolution that makes a difference in this world. Not only in Malaysia. Why not every country? Why not … why not you, who are sitting here, the participants? Be the makers, movers, and shakers of that incredible, incredible possibility.

— Prem Rawat

What is your investment? I’m talking about this now, so I’ll tell you—three things. Three things. Maybe I’ll add a few more. Three things.

One, “Know the difference between wisdom and knowledge.” Acquire the knowledge. But use that knowledge wisely: wisdom! Without that wisdom—ha-ha!

So, there is a lot of technical knowledge in this world—a lot of technical knowledge—but without that wisdom, it’s being used by people to kill each other. Use it wisely, and it could be there to reverse the effects of global warming. Use it wisely; it could be helping the polar bears, as they’re losing their housing.

The ills that human beings have done, the same technology can reverse it—if wisdom was there. But no wisdom is there and it is used in a stupid way.

So, knowledge is good, but it needs to be used wisely.

Two! Two: “Know yourself.” Who are you? What is your strength? You lie, of course, in this desert, devoid of much color, devoid of any sustainability for anything living—and yet that tiny little seed, if the rain comes—which it will—can transform even the desert. All its monotony, all its problems—gone. “Know thyself.”

Third! Third: Everybody is into social media and this and that; we want to communicate with other people. That’s not what you need. It’s fine; I’m not saying one way or the other way; it’s up to you. You want to use—it’s your time. You know, it’s your body—if you want to throw it in front of a car because you were doing this while you were crossing, walking across....

You see, technology, knowledge, but no wisdom. So they got the phone, but no wisdom. They got the technology, but no wisdom. As soon as the traffic comes to a stop, you know what people are doing? They’re not looking that the car is moving. And so people start honking.

So, the solution, in my opinion, is what you need to garner is empathy. Not sympathy; empathy. This will make you far more sociably acceptable. You want to become socially acceptable? Sympathy isn’t going to give it to you; empathy is.

If something can stop the wars, it is if people could just empathize. They don’t do that anymore. No empathy—to be able to place yourself in the other person’s shoes. That doesn’t mean you agree with them; it doesn’t mean you disagree with them—just to be able to see their viewpoint.

- 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