विषय
Jessica Zweig:
I think it’s also gotten a lot more difficult to get in touch with who we truly are because of the sheer noise of life—technology, opportunity. The desire to know oneself is sort of trendy today. And I think that, in and of itself is overwhelming for people.
So, how do you tap in? What would be the first step?
Prem Rawat:
You’re absolutely right! People are so caught up in everything else that they have forgotten who they are. And so our journey must begin with first establishing base with ourselves—not with other things, not with other solutions, but with us, with us, just as an individual, just as who you are.
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SimplyBe. Podcast
Jessica Zweig, Host of The SimplyBe Podcast.
Interviews Prem Rawat, Author & Global Peace Ambassador
The SimplyBe. Podcast is a collection of conversations about building a business by knowing WHO YOU ARE at your core, and showing up as your true, unapologetic, authentic self.
Jessica interviews thought leaders, CEOs, and some of the most magnetic personal brands of today.
A Common Thread
Jessica Zweig:
Welcome to my show Prem; thank you so much for being with me today.
Prem Rawat:
It’s a great pleasure to be with you and with your audience and to share some insights. I’ve been doing this for quite a long time, and it’s just wonderful to help people all around the world who need help, who want to take some help.
Jessica Zweig:
I could not agree more. And it is; the honor and privilege is mine. I know you have a prolific career, over fifty years traveling the globe, speaking in over 250 cities, probably more, on this topic of peace and the universal desire that we all have for it. And I’d love for you to speak to that—why, why peace, Prem?
Prem Rawat:
Well, but, you know, so much of the education that we receive.... Because everything that we think we know is really something that has been added to us; this is not fundamentally what we knew when we were born.
We knew one thing when we were born, which is, "Give a cry if you need something, and if you are happy, go to sleep." And that’s how our lives actually started. And then it’s like, "Oh, I have to do this; I have to accomplish this; I have to succeed in this." All this was learnt later on.
And what does it mean when we learn all these things? Do we make a separation between these things and who we are? We don't! We think, "This is my idea; this is what I have to do." [Jessica: Umm.] And on we go!
And then, before you know it, we find ourselves in a very complicated situation. And the situation might be that we even have a job that’s bringing home the bread and butter, but we hate it; we hate it. And we hate going to our work every single day.
And there we are, caught in this paradox of “What do I do now?” Because I know that I have to get bread and butter home; maybe there are other people in my household who are relying on me to bring that bread and butter home, but something in me doesn’t want to do it. I don’t enjoy what I’m doing; I don’t enjoy being who I am; I don’t enjoy—"This is too much pressure; this is too much...."
And a lot of people, they go, "Okay, ahh...." All of a sudden one day, they find themselves walking on a road. And they find that a shoe that they’re wearing is full of a very sharp rock.
And instead of taking the time to remove the rock from the shoe and comfortably go on walking, they are like, "Well, give me an aspirin; give me something that’ll take away my pain; give me a band-aid; give me something because this is horrible."
And somebody comes along and says, "Well, you know, why are you taking all this medication? Why are you doing all this? Do you know why you’re doing this, because you don’t have to. All you have to do is take away that rock that’s in your shoe, and you will be comfortable again."
And sometimes it sounds so simple when you say it, but it's so complicated. With all the challenges that we have in our life, we find ourselves nailed against the wall sometimes. And we’re looking for a solution out of this misery. And yet it's just like, the more solutions we look to, the more complex those solutions are.
You know, it’s like, "Okay, sit down in a room—and don’t think about anything." And it’s like, "Control your thoughts."
And I remember, when I first came—I was a teenager when I first came to America; I was thirteen years old. And people much older than me and much more educated than me would sit down and go, "Okay, how do I control my thoughts?"
I said, "Well, why do you want to control your thoughts? I mean, what do you think you’re going to gain by controlling your thoughts? Don’t you understand that the desire to control your thought is a thought in itself?" [Jessica: Right.]
You’re still attached to the thought, and you’re going to be sitting there in some room, going, "Am I controlling my thoughts? Have I controlled my thoughts? Have my thoughts gone away?" And you’re going to be thinking about your thoughts going away. And so, how have you become thoughtless? You’re not thoughtless; you're still thinking.
And that just goes to the quintessential essence of it. Because we need to understand who we are as a human being. And if we understand who we are as a human being, we can understand our limitations, and we can also understand our strengths.
And this is what we don't know; we don’t know our strengths, but we finally have learnt our limitations. [Jessica: Yeah.] And the world is frustrated because of that.
Jessica Zweig:
Right. Well, I think it's also gotten a lot more difficult to get in touch with who we truly are because of the sheer noise of life—technology, opportunity. The desire to know oneself is sort of trendy today. And there are all of these different ways in which we can explore that. And I think that, in and of itself is overwhelming for people.
So, how do you tap in? What would be the first step? Because I agree with you; it's really, really simple—but it's still so hard for people.
Prem Rawat:
Yeah. And you know, it's like, in a way, exactly what you said and it's very true. But at the same time, it's like, "Well, I can't smell myself. I can smell the flowers and I can smell the bees and I can smell everything else, but I can't smell me."
And it's like, "Well, but excuse me. You don't know who you are? I mean, you are in you—and you are attached to you. And yet you are so alienated from you. How can that be?" Wait, what's going on here? What mirror are you looking at? Who are you looking at, if you cannot find yourself amidst this huge ocean?
And yet you are absolutely right. People are so caught up in everything else that they have forgotten who they are. And so, our journey must begin with first, establishing base with ourselves. Not with other things, not with other solutions, but with us, with us, just as an individual, just as who you are. Not how you should be—but who you are. [Jessica: Right.]
And begin with that—and that is the very first step.
Comedy or humor has a bit of truth—otherwise it’s not funny!
And it is funny that in everything else, in everything else that we do ... You go to a bank? The line, where it starts, we know. You go take a number, ticket number. You know—and you watch the counter, “Okay, what is the number?” So you know! And when it comes to the self, no idea!
And when I propose this, a lot of people go, “What do you mean, ‘Knowing yourself?’ Of course I know myself. My name is bla-bla-bla-bla-bla.” Really? Was that your name before you came out? When you were born, what was your name? Just when you were born?
Because you didn’t exist! Officially you did not exist; your birth certificate hadn’t been signed yet. You did not have a piece of paper validating you exist—but you existed. On what strength did you exist? Do you know what that is?
The wisdom that you seek from the world is actually inside of you. Do you know that? You are wiser than you realize. Do you know that?
So, if you don’t, don’t you think it’ll be good to know yourself? Then you would know who you are, the strengths you have, how you can go forward. And of course, when it comes to loving, if you don’t know yourself, how are you going to love yourself?
- Prem Rawat
There was a man. He had saved up some money, and one day he came across a piece of land, and the piece of land had been totally abandoned. So he went to the owner and he said, “You know, you have this land. Could you sell me this land?”
And the owner realized he wasn’t using it; it was abandoned. So whatever little money he could get would be welcome. So he made a deal and sold the land pretty cheap. Well, the man got the land. He went in; he started to clean the land. Picked the rocks, put ‘em aside; started to plow. He took care of the land. He plowed the field.
And before you know, he had a beautiful crop. And more he took care of the land, the better his crops were. And he started to get one crop, and then second crop, and third crop, and he just was taking four crops. And soon he saved the money and he became rich.
He got married; he had children, built himself a beautiful house—saved, saved, saved, and he bought gold with the money he saved. He took all the gold, which was substantial, that he had saved and he put it in a box. And he took the box and he buried it in the field. But he didn’t tell his children.
When the time came for him to die, he called all his family and called his children, and he said, “I am going to give you one piece of advice. And if you follow my advice, you will never be poor. And my advice to you is, ‘plow the field.’ That’s all.” He died.
The children were not into plowing the field. They wanted to live in the city; they wanted to have parties; they wanted to have everything else happening. They were not interested in being a farmer.
So, the land fell in disrepair. Weeds started to grow; people started to throw garbage on the land. Years passed by. One day a man came to them and said, “You know, you have this land—it’s completely abandoned. Sell it to me. This is all the money I have.” He had a little bit of money. He said, “Sell it to me.”
The children looked at each other and said, “Yeah, we’re not using it. At least we’ll get a little bit of money from it; that’s good.” And they always kept wondering, “Why did father say, ‘Plow the land and you will never be poor’?” So, the question in the back of their mind...but, they were happy to sell the land and get rid it.
The man who bought the land, he went in, and he plucked the weeds; he threw away the garbage, started to take care of the land. And one day he plowed the field. And when he did, guess what he found? He found the box with the gold.
You are the field, and in this field there is a box. And in this box there is a wealth, and this wealth is more expensive than gold. It’s more expensive than diamonds. There is a wealth—a wealth that, more you share it, the more it grows. There’s no wealth like that in this world except this inner wealth that you have. More you share it, the more it grows. What a wealth.
Some people say, “Oh, destiny! It’s just destiny.” And I say, “Choice.”
– Prem Rawat
What questions do you ask?
What questions should you be asking?
Do you ask the question, "Am I blessed? And if I am blessed do I feel it every single day?"
Do I feel alive every single day?” Or, do I feel in my emotions, jealousy, anger, fear, doubt?
If you don’t feel jealousy and fear and anger and doubt, you should be put in a museum. You should be stuffed and put in a museum to say, “Here is a person who doesn’t feel anger, fear, doubt, confusion!”
But the thing is, that if there is fear in you there is freedom in you. If there is anger in you, there is compassion in you. If there is confusion in you, then there is clarity in you.
If there is pain in you, there is joy in you.
In you! Do you understand what that means, "In you"? Most people hear what I am saying, but it doesn’t compute: “In you.” Because for most people, who are the believers, for them this comes from up there.
Uh-uh! People say to me, "Where will I go?"—(I mean, everybody, right?) So, what, what will happen to you when you die? What will happen to you when you die? Are you going to go to heaven? I’m just asking!
So if you’re going to go somewhere, if you’re going to go somewhere ... that means, that when you were born, (and say, you weighed five pounds,) the earth, the weight of the earth increased. Right?
And when you’re going to go, the weight of the earth will decrease! Right?! Does it?
This is the belief system. This is the belief system: "Oh, I want to... I’m doing everything I am doing, you know, (I,) by the book, by the law, because I want to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven; I want to go to....” And do you want it expedited?
Look! Longer you are here, the more chances you have, of making mistakes.
So, best not to make mistakes—right?
So you want to go early? “Mmmmmmmmm-nnnnn-no!”
So now you’re contradicting yourself! If heaven is such a wonderful place ... why the wait?
"Ahhh! Eeee-yessssss" ... and "Ahhhh, nn-no!" Because you also know, where heaven is. And you know that heaven is right here. And you want to be in heaven. And you also know what hell is. You know what is hell? Very simple. Very simple. It’s not about boiling pots. When you are not in heaven, that’s hell! That’s hell.
- Prem Rawat
So, what is the importance of knowing yourself? I can give you the most beautiful map, very well illustrated; everything is there; everything is marked—and there is a very beautiful place on the map that you want to go to.
But what is the most important thing you need to have on that map? And that is, "Where are you on that map?" Because, "turn left, turn right, and go straight" is all relevant to where you are. But if you don't know where you are, what is "left?" What is "right?" What is "go straight?" What is "go around the roundabout"—it doesn’t mean anything.
And we forget! People are writing books; people are making lectures, and they’re telling everybody, "You know, we have to turn left; we have to turn left." And then, "Oh no, now we have to turn right." Whose "right?" Whose "left?" Which "left?" Where are we going? Which "straight?" Because it’s all relative.
Unless you know who you are, living in this world is going to be very different. Because one of the things is going to be disorientation because you don't know where you are. You're lost. That feeling of—yeah, somewhere here—"What I am about to do, is that right? Do people like me? Am I popular?"
This is all before you ever get to loving yourself. You are more interested in whether other people love you. You're not even interested in whether you love yourself. And it's disorienting; look at what's—what is social media all about? Approval from other people.
So, now I am bringing this message—it's not my message. Socrates said this a long time ago. Some of the hieroglyphs that were deciphered from Egypt also said the same thing: "Understand who you are; know yourself." Socrates echoes that—"Know yourself. Know thyself." Because the importance of knowing yourself is so important.
- Prem Rawat
Who are you? What are you?
When you hear "Do you know yourself?" What does that mean?
Is it some definition that somebody's going to plunk in your head? It better not be.
Because it has to be something that you know from the bottom of your heart-who you are.
That you were given an opportunity to be alive.
-Prem Rawat