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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

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!

People go—and they go, “I want to live in the moment called now.” And I’m like, “Noble thought! But you don’t even know what that is. You have no clue what is now.” Because it’s gone by the time you say “now.” It’s gone! It’s not there anymore. It’s—it’s gone!

And in fact, the reality is, the things are happening very fast—really fast: “Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone!” And I, as a human being, I have no idea of the speed that this is going by—no idea. I’m like, “Oh, it’s okay; I’ll do it tomorrow.” Do you know how many “nows” will go by between now and tomorrow?

Somebody actually wrote me this question, “You know, people tell me you should think about tomorrow.” And she said, “People tell me to think about tomorrow, but I just want to be in the now.”

And I am like, “But what else can you do about tomorrow? Only think about it.” What else can you—but, by the way, what else can you do with tomorrow? You can imagine it; that’s all. Just think about it. Sit there and wonder what’s going to happen—if things will go your way or won’t go your way.

And you’re waiting for things to go your way. Aren’t you looking for the ultimate justice where everything will be put right? The only problem is you’re going to hit the wall before that happens. Because you have no idea how quickly that wall’s coming.

But, never underestimate the power of what’s keeping the two walls separated. Never underestimate the power of this breath.

Understand it, and you will understand what there is to understand about tomorrow, and what there is to understand about today, and what is there to understand about now—and what is there to remember about yesterday and what is there not to remember about yesterday. Because you’ve got to ride this moment called “now” to understand what now is about!

Think of it—think of it as this board, beautiful board—and they’re flying, whshew, whshew, whshew, whshew, whshew; you’ve got to catch one. And you’ve got to catch one, and you’ve got to get on it and ride it! And then you will understand. Then you will understand what now is all about.

It’s like, have you ever flown a kite? I have. And it’s a lot of fun. And logically it makes no sense whatsoever. It’s just a piece of paper or a cloth with bamboo in the case of paper or a fiberglass rod in terms of those big kites. And you have a string. And of course, you need the wind to fly it.

So you’ll get there in the field; you hold the string in your hand; the kite goes up, and you’re just looking at it. And it’s flying, and that’s a lot of fun. Does that make any sense? Because you could get somebody else to hold it and hold the string. And that guy can run out 300 feet and hold the kite, and you could just look at it. But that’s not any fun!

It flies in this wind, and you feel that power of that wind through that kite, through that string, in your hand. And to keep it up there you have to be with the game. Because when the wind starts to go down, you need to run backwards. And it goes back up, and the wind picks up, and now you can let it go, slowly, slowly, and you can get back to where you were.

It’s something about flying a kite; I don’t think anybody can explain to anyone why it’s so much fun. And it’s the same way, riding that board of the moment called now, of what it is like to get on it and go, go with that moment called now! And be there. And to ride—take that ride, and take that ride inside, not outside.

And all of a sudden, slowly everything starts to fall away; everything doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is the ride itself, the ride with the breath—to slide with this breath, like those waves in the ocean, this breath coming in, this mighty force that has been made so gentle, holding apart those two walls: “I exist. And I appreciate my existence.”

And it’s okay. I’m full! I’m not full because of some thing, but I have found the fullness of my clarity in me. I have taken that plunge and dove in—and loved, and know—I know I did not touch the bottom. And for as far as I could see, I saw clarity. There was no end.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve taken a dive in the ocean of kindness, and I did not touch the bottom; I didn’t even try. And I was overwhelmed by its vastness.

I am full because I have been shown the fullness of this life. This is what you should do too. I tell you this—I tell you this—because if I can do it, you can do it.

- 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

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