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When people talk to me who know, who can smell the other wall—they can smell—and you can smell the other wall, by the way. It has a smell. You can smell it; it’s in the air. It’s like—sniff, sniff—nasty. It’s coming as you get closer and closer and closer.

I say to them, “No matter what happens, remember this breath. Remember this is a gift.” A gift is not measured in quantity, by weight, by volume. The gift is measured in the generosity of the giver—that even this was made possible!

That inside of you resides this most amazing experience. Most—absolutely the most amazing experience! An experience of those very things, of that very power, of that very—uh! what can I say?—that is prying the two walls apart. And all it requires is for you to know how to turn within and tap into it, just witnessing—just witnessing.

And such is the power of this—such is the power of this that it leaves you with peace. Such is the power of this that it leaves you in that simple profound joy.

- Prem Rawat

We are talking about, “Oh, what does that person think of me? Do they like me?” No! Do you like yourself—of truly who you are? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that wants to appreciate? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that wants to enjoy clarity in life? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you?

Have you gotten in—listen to what I’m saying. Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that likes peace? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that wants to be content? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that deeply respects knowledge? Have you gotten in touch with that part of you that wants to express the sincerest kindness?

Have you gotten in touch with the part of you that wants to celebrate this existence? Have you gotten in touch with the part of you that wants to feel that gratitude? Have you gotten in touch with the part of you that holds these as the highest achievement of your existence?

Because you exist, you can be a warmonger. And because you exist, you can be in peace.

Have you gotten in touch with you? Do you know your self? Do you know that you are the carrier of light? And by “light,” I do not mean lux! “Light” means wisdom; “light” means knowledge. “Light,” indeed, means understanding.

- Prem Rawat

If I am traveling in a train or in a bus—some public transportation system—in an airplane—and I have a bag in one hand, right? And in my pocket, in my pocket I have a 40-carat diamond, pure, beautiful—one of the most expensive diamonds. It’s in this pocket right here. And I am traveling on this bus.

And then, in this bag is like, nothing—just some tissue paper; that’s all. And all of a sudden somebody comes and snatches this bag away from me. What do you think I’m going to do instinctively? This is what I’m going to do. This hand—not this hand—this hand is going to go, “Did I still have this?” This is gone!

All right, I—granted, I am allowed, "eahhh!"—for a moment. But then I’m going to do this. And so far I’ve got this, I am all smiles! Right?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Have you—or have I…? Just now, have I not been robbed? Of course I have been robbed. I’ve been robbed. Somebody took my bag of tissues. And maybe it was tissues that I needed to get rid of, but I couldn’t find a paper recycling bin. So I thought, maybe on my way I’ll find a paper recycling bin and I’ll dump this in there, and, you know, it’ll be done.

So now this guy has just done me a favor; he’s taken it. He’s going to dump it somewhere. But I have no question about the preciousness of what I have in this pocket.

Your problems are just like that. And, "eaahh!" Yes, you’re allowed that; "eahh-ah!" Yes, you’re definitely allowed that; it’s a shocking thing; somebody takes this thing from your hand. But then, you know. And you’re not going to say, “Hey, you forgot this!” No, you’re not! You’re going to go like, "Good riddance." This, you know the value of.

Do you know the value of kindness in your life? Do you know the value of clarity in your life? Do you know the value of joy in your life?

So, that "someone" who loves you has given you these to use as you wish, as much as you wish. You think there is a limit to kindness? You think you will ever run out of kindness—ever? Can you technically run out of kindness; is it possible for you to run out of kindness? No! Is it possible for you to run out of joy? No!

Wherever I go and I start talking about the subject of peace, most people wonder and ask me, “What about all these problems that we have? Why don’t we have peace? What happened?”

So I would like to tell you a story. There was a man and he had heard about elephants—that elephants were big; they were huge; they were powerful and they were mighty; they could lift a whole tree with their trunk. He wanted to see an elephant.

So he did some research; somebody told him, “You want to see an elephant, go to India!” So he found the village which is very famous, very popular for elephants, and he went there. And when he arrived at the village, he saw all these magnificent elephants standing there. And each one of the elephants had a very thin little rope tied to the leg, just very thin—and they were standing.

And the man was really surprised. He had never seen an elephant before, and he was very impressed by the power of the elephant. But he was also very confused. So he went to the village chief, and he said, “Chief, I have a question!”

He said, “This is the first time I’ve seen these elephants, and they’re strong, they’re mighty, they’re powerful. But you are tying them up by this little rope that is so fragile. Why don’t these elephants just run away? Why are they standing there? It’s not the rope that’s holding them, because they could easily break that.”

And the chief said, “Oh, that. Let me explain to you. When these elephants were really young, we tied them with these little ropes. Then they were not so strong, and the rope was enough to hold them. Now, they are definitely strong enough to break the rope, but they have forgotten their strength, and this little rope is enough to hold them.”

In a way, that is so sad. But that is our story too. That is our story too. We have forgotten our strength. We forget who we are. We forget the compassion in us. We forget the passion in us. We forget the kindness in us. We forget the joy in us. We forget what is a human being.

You cannot talk about peace without talking about the human being, because it is in the heart of that human being that the peace dances.

Right now, I know people say, “Oh, people are terrible. Look what they’re doing! They’re killing each other, terrorizing each other, putting fear in each other.” That’s not the nature of a human being.

There is a lot of good in this world; there is a lot of kindness in this world. There is a lot of generosity in this world. And this is the true nature of a human being; this is your true nature. To adore—to adore peace! To want peace. To be fulfilled! Need I say it? Indeed, to create a heaven right here on the face of this earth.

People talk about, when they die, will they go to heaven? There’s a small problem with that beautiful heaven. You have to die to get there. Why not create an experience, the heaven, whilst you’re alive? Whilst you are alive, whilst you are here?

People say, “Oh, look how many people go hungry.” Why? Have you ever thought of why people go hungry? Is it because there is shortage of food? No! Forty percent of the food that is actually farmed goes to waste. It’s thrown away. It’s unfit for consumption. There is more than plenty of food to feed everybody.

People say, “People don’t have clean water!” There’s plenty of water—believe me, there’s plenty of water. And who makes the water unclean? We do.

It’s up to us to understand our true nature, our power—that if we want the peace, we can have peace. We don’t have to be held back by a little rope of the elephant.

– Prem Rawat

So, do you know yourself? Or, do you know yourself in relation to the others? Because if it is in relation to the others, then you don’t know yourself. Knowing the self has nothing to do with somebody else.

Who are you? What are you? What is your gift? Why are you alive? You. Do you cast from within, from yourself, like light emanates? Does love emanate from you? Does kindness emanate from you? Emanate? Emanate—not forced, not hosed, but emanate—“emanate” means it just emanates.

– Prem Rawat

Have you seen those plastic candles—those digital plastic candles; they’re about this big, and you just have an on-off switch; you can just put it.... When I first saw that, I said, “This is it! This is great! No fire danger. No problem. Want candle, just turn this on....” And now they even flicker, and they do everything.

But then I said to myself, “There is something that a candle does, that this can never do.” Do you know what it is? A candle that is lit, can light another unlit candle. This digital candle can never do that.

You as a human being, if you are a lit candle, you can light another candle. Maybe peace is not that impossible. Maybe peace is not that difficult—if we can change our way of looking at peace. Because the most beautiful news is this: “It doesn’t have to be created. Peace is already there.”

If it had to be created, then we have truly a very big challenge afoot. The good news is, peace doesn’t have to be created—it is dancing in the heart of every single human being, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of color, regardless of whether they are rich, whether they are poor, whether they’re educated, whether they are uneducated—whatever the circumstances may be, the peace is dancing in the heart of every single human being.

It’s here. Peace, my friends, has to be discovered! Not created. And that’s the peace that’s going to make the difference.

– Prem Rawat