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My strategy is very simple. And my strategy isn’t to have world peace. I said it. “Aagh,” pin-drop silence. Because that’s not possible.
But this is what’s possible—you, be, first in peace with yourself. It’s just you. Nobody else is involved. You be in peace with yourself. And how can you be in peace with yourself? One—and that’s why we are here tonight: “Journey to the self”—you must know yourself.
And once you know yourself, you then must gain victory over the self. Not victory over your neighbor, not victory over that person, and that person, and that person, and that person, but victory over the self.
And when you are victorious over yourself, then you can be in peace with yourself. And when you are in peace with yourself, then you make peace with the world.
And when enough, enough people make peace with the world—because they have made peace with themselves—then, vaguely, the idea of world peace starts to come into view.
When every war happens and the innocent die.... Same way, when you are at war with yourself, the innocent moments of your life are being slaughtered. Because they’re innocent! They can be anything.
Never have I seen more innocence, in a moment of existence.... It’s, totally, as it comes to you, it’s innocent—just brings you possibility, anything you want—like a baby, like a baby.
You can mold it; you can fold it; you can destroy it; you can create a monster out of it if you wish. Or you can have it as the most tender-est, gentle time—the time with you, listening to that feeling which fills this heart and causes the gratitude to emerge.
- Prem Rawat
How magnificent this earth and how magnificent the being that carries in them the possibility of being clear—clarity. Clarity. Love! And the most amazing thing, love! Caring! Appreciation! A heart that can fill with joy. A heart that can understand. A heart that then offers the greatest gift of gratitude.
That with all of this amazing stuff, should it really be the grind of day after day after day after day after day? Or, are we missing something? Simple question. Simple question: “If this is the possibility, then what are we achieving in our lives?” Not.... Listen. Just forget about the world for a minute. Just you. Just you.
You’re alive; this is your time; you exist. You can feel; you can see. What do you think—you think, is the possibility for you? The grind? All that we deal with? Or is there something more?
Is there such a thing as a “content human being?” Is there such a thing as a human being full of gratitude? Is there such a thing as a human full of clarity? Is there such a thing as a human being full of joy? Is there such a thing as a human being full of understanding? Is there such a thing as a human being full of light? Is there such a thing as a human being full of answers?
Is there such a thing? Because if there was, then to experience this, one day would be enough. To experience that, one day would be enough.
- Prem Rawat
Falling in love is not a formality. Falling in love happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Falling in love with the idea of happiness. Falling in love with the idea of peace. Falling in love with the possibility to be content. Falling in love with the possibility to be clear. Falling in love with the possibility to be free. Falling in love with the possibility to know.
Love!
If you don’t have the love and you have all the rituals, all the rituals of this world cannot make you fall in love.
You can have your wife tattooed with “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”…You can have your towels embroidered, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. You can buy the wallpaper, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. You can go and… and you know breakfast cereal which has got all the alphabet, you pick the “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”, “I love you”. But all that “I love you” will not make you fall in love with that person. No way. Not possible. Because falling in love happens with the heart.
The simplicity. The innocence of falling in love. Innocence. You cannot go out and say, “Today I’m going to fall in love.” Love sees no time. Love is not lust. Don’t ever mistake love for lust. Love is love; lust is lust. And many, many of you might see a picture, might see a postcard, might have a thought… that might be lust, but love is different. And love is innocent. And it is from an innocent place that it comes. And if you do not have that innocence, you will not have the love.
So if you want to be in love, work on the innocence - Not embroidering the towels, because it was that innocence that brought you to that love. And the day you begin to believe in your heart again, the complicated world will magically disappear.
The complication of this world that hounds you can only exist because of one reason: ignorance. Believe in this heart and the message of this heart to you, to be fulfilled. Isn’t that what caused your search to begin with?
Each one of our stories that is so different and yet so alike. Your name is different, your face is different, where you were born is different, how you were raised is different. How you view this world is different. But falling in love and its innocence is the same for every one of us.
- Prem Rawat
Don’t sit on your living room sofa while somebody’s knocking at the door going, “I wonder who that is. It could be Uncle Tom. It could be my friend Jerry. It could be my friend from India—no, and no, he wouldn’t do.... Hmmh, I wonder who it is? Let me call Prem Rawat! ‘Who is at my door?'"
So, go find out! This is what I’ve said. All along, people have said, “Oh, wha’, wha’, wha’...?” Go find out. Know for yourself. Know it for yourself. And that’s being victorious over the self. You make the rules. You make the rules.
Not just somebody’s.... And, do you know how many people there are in this world who have swallowed the idea of heaven, the heaven that you go to after you die, if you’ve done everything right? Swallowed it, “gulp!” How you could swallow such a big horse pill, I don’t know. But you swallowed it—without water.
Oh.... Heaven? There is a heaven—of course there is a heaven. It’s here. And you need to know it! And so, what is hell? Well, if you don’t know it—and you’re not in heaven—guess where you are! And do you get toasted? Yes, you get toasted. Raked over the fire, absolutely—again and again.
And there you are. One day you find yourself totally devastated and destroyed. And somehow you’re put back together again, to have the same experience two days later? Same exact thing: fried, toasted, not any flour, not any oil, just dry-toasted over the great barbecue that you light yourself, that you create yourself. And that’s what happens.
So, the victory over the self: most important, most important. And it’s not so complicated; it’s not sophisticated; it’s not like, “He’eeah-heeeaah, victory over myself."
No—because it’s very simple. First, you begin by knowing yourself. Now that you know yourself, easy to gain victory over yourself. This is not about swords and dragons. This is about, "very simple, very practical."
- Prem Rawat
So, here you are. You’re alive—and here is the situation—and this is an analogy. One day you receive this lottery ticket. And you have won! And the ticket allows you, entitles you to go to this shopping mall. And there are beautiful shops in this shopping mall; there is a grocery store in this shopping mall; there’s clothing in the shopping mall; there is everything you could possibly imagine in this shopping mall.
And you are excited: “Wow! I get to go there?” And not only do you get to go there; you can have anything you desire. If Bentley is your thing, they have them. If Rolls Royce is your thing, they have them; if Mercedes is your thing, they have them. And you get to have it!
And then you flip the ticket over; there’s a caveat. And the caveat is, "You can have anything you want, but when you leave the shopping center, you cannot take anything with you."
"Wow! Aaagh!" Would you be disappointed? I see some people shaking their head. I mean, my God, beautiful things, incredible things.... And you can have them! All yours! But you, when you leave the shopping center—which you must—there’s a time, you must leave the shopping center, and when you do, you don’t get to take anything with you.
What am I talking about? Ta-dah! Here you are—in this most amazing, incredible shopping center. There are the oceans, the mountains. And you can have anything! And one day you have to leave the shopping center. But when you do, you don’t get to take anything with you.
Now, the issue is strategy. Simply that: What are you going to do? What is your strategy going to be? Are you going to stay home, and get angry at this ticket? “How stupid! How weird! I get to go; I can have everything I want, but I don’t get to take it out with me? I mean, that’s really stupid!” Or are you going to say, "This is the divine joke. Ha-ha-ha"?
What is your strategy? What do you do? And it is precisely the strategy that you must have—you must have a plan. And you must not only have a plan, but you must execute it perfectly. Perfectly!
And in this plan, it is not about lamenting, and it is not about “I wish it was this way; I wish it was that way.” No! It is afoot! Here is your ticket; there’s the shopping center. This is the time you get in, and this is the time you get out. And there are no “ands, ands, buts” about it. That is it.
So, I’m not here to preach to you. I’m not here to tell you I am better than you. I’m not here to tell you, “I have a plan; copy my plan.” I’m not here to sell you a plan. But I am here to share with you fifty-plus years of experience, and that’s it.
Because I have seen plenty of people who go, "This is stupid. This is weird. This is strange. Why me? This is a torture!"
And I’m here to say, "But, look. One, you have no limit for enjoyment." Right? Just simple stuff, right? Simple stuff? You have no limit. Because nobody has temples or churches or any of the holy places where you go to say, "Dear Lord, please remove some of this happiness; I just can’t stand it." It’s always about sadness, "Please remove the sadness." But happiness? That was like, "Bring it on!"
We are here. "Is it afoot? Do I want to be a part of it; don't I want to be a part of it? What is it all about; where do I go; where did I come from?" But that’s not what it’s about, folks. You’ve got a ticket. And the ticket says, that’s the shopping center—and you are in the shopping center now, by the way.
By the way, you’re in the shopping center, and it's an opportunity of a lifetime, and you have no strategy, no plan! And so I say, "Keep it simple; you’re in. This is what’s been given; this is the opportunity you’ve been given. Have a blast."
Why not? Why not? You feel hungry? Go to the supermarket and eat. Feel thirsty? Go to the supermarket. Drink. Feel like sleeping? Go to the bed section. Find a comfortable bed and rest well. Feel like exercising? Go to where all the cardio equipment is; find a treadmill and go at it. Because you get to do it all.
- Prem Rawat
So it is that when one speaks of that beauty that resides inside of you, there is no clue.
There’s nothing like—if somebody says to you, “By the way, there is the Divine inside of you,” then you go, “Oh yeah, I knew that; I saw that yesterday. When I was looking at the mirror, I just saw the Divine kind of just pulse out and then go back in.”
No. You have no idea. And just because you don’t have an idea doesn’t mean that that’s not what’s happening. It is. And to see that Divinity that resides within inside of you, you would have to come very, very close to yourself.
It is not necessarily in the clues that you will find the answer. But there is a reality. The reality? The answers are within you. Come closer! If you don’t know this, of what I am saying, the reason is, you are so far from yourself, you do not see it.
Do you know how that works? When you’re far, far away, you see a lot more, but with less resolution. When you get closer, you may not see as much, but you see with a higher resolution.
You can look at somebody far, far away, and you may know that there is a person. Then, when they come closer and closer and closer, you might be able to say, “Oh, I know who that person is.”
They come closer, and closer, and closer, and closer, and they—you can get them to a point where you can see the spinach on their teeth! That cannot happen a mile away. It only happens when you come closer and closer and closer and closer.
If you do not know about what is your potential, if you do not know that inside of you are the answers, if you do not know that inside of you is the Divine, if you do not know that inside of you is the miracle taking place all the time, you know why? Because you’re so far away. Come close to yourself.
– Prem Rawat