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The day I understood that peace was not a luxury, but peace was a necessity—peace was not a want; peace was a need—I was well on my way to my inner peace.
– 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
Living in the middle of the storms, we seek the shelter.
Have you ever noticed when it begins to rain, all the birds go find little places where they can sit for a while and let the rain go by, because they cannot afford to have their wings wet. Who taught them that?
There are innate things about us that we have forgotten. That the quest for peace, the need for peace, is not expressed by this world, but it is expressed by individuals like you and me—that we can only look at ourselves and feel our need…our…my…my need that I have to be in peace.
And then comes the question, how do you search for it? This is a big question. Let me shed some light on this. How do you search for something you never lost? Where do you search? Where do you begin to search?
If all of a sudden I find that I have lost my jacket, I’m looking… Where would I look for my jacket? Should I fly to South Africa to look for my jacket? Should I go to India to look for a jacket that I never wore in India? Should I go to Malaysia to look for my jacket?
No! When you lose something, you look in the last place you were. You don’t go looking all over the place, where you even weren’t.
When the quest for peace begins from inside of us, why are we looking towards people who have maybe written this book, and this book, and this book, and this book, and this book. Why aren’t we starting from ourselves and finding that one person who says, “Peace begins with you”?
But if you start searching for something that you have not lost, this is going to create very big problems, because you are actually searching. And you are sincere. And you are looking, and you are looking, and you are looking, and you are not finding.
And people want to help you, and they are saying, “Where do you think it could be?” And you’re saying, “I don’t know!” “Well, then, let’s look over here. Then let’s look over here.” And what happens? The time gets wasted; a lifetime gets wasted, and before you know it, you neither found the jacket, nor understood the search, nor understood what this life is all about.
The paradox to me is that somebody has created a picture. (I don’t know his name.) This is my paradox; somebody has created a picture: “This is how you should be.” And I follow the picture to the T, but I don’t even know what I am, who I am.
And that is why, time and time again, there have been those who have pointed to you and said, “Look within you for the answers. Look within you and find your thirst. Look within you and find your quest. Look within you and find what it is that you want. Look within you and find the shelter from the storms. Look within you and find the unchanging.”
– 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
You have something exceptional going on; something amazing is happening. What is it? For approximately 4.5 billion years you were dirt. That’s the age of the earth, 4.5 billion years. So for 4.5 billion years you were dirt.
Now, some scientists figure that it will be about fifteen billion years, twenty billion years the earth is going to be around; after that it’ll disappear. So, for the next fifteen billion years, what are you going to be? Dust! You were dust; you’re going to be dust. What are you now?
You are alive. The dust talks. The dust smiles; the dust dances. The dust cures other dust of ailments. The dust thinks about going to Mars; the dust wants to discover the universe.
You being alive is the exception to the dust—dust you were; dust you will be—being alive, you are an exception! The question is, “Is this exception exceptional?”
Is it exceptional? Or do you have the same excuses as everybody else on the face of this earth, “I don’t have time.” That’s the best excuse that we have been able to come up with: “I don’t have time.”
Listen. Next time you say, “I don’t have time,” you are forecasting your own future. Be very careful. Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Once you become dust again, time doesn’t matter.
Time only matters when you are alive. As dust, it doesn’t matter. It does what it does; it blows around. It is the ultimate state. Of all things that came from it, they all go back to it. All the stones were made from it—and they go back to being dust.
Don’t forecast your future that way. Think! Be awakened. Be awakened. Do you have the desire to look at yourself? Do you have the desire for peace? Or is peace just a word to you?
For most people in this world, “peace” just means another word. And the foregone conclusion is—what I come up against all the time—“Impossible!” The diagnosis that the doctors of this world—not the medical doctors—the doctors of this world have made for peace—“It’s dead.” And the only place where it comes into play is on a headstone at a graveyard: “Rest in peace.”
If that’s the only time we’re going to find peace, we’re in big trouble. We are in big trouble. Peace has to be in our hearts, dancing in our hearts, now. Today! Not when we’re dead.
To feel. To feel! And not just the word. But when somebody says to you, “peace,” you go, “I understand what you mean by ‘peace’—because I too understand my thirst for peace, and that I want peace in my life. Not just a hood ornament, but something real. I want that feeling of being fulfilled every single day.”
– Prem Rawat
To a lot of people, prosperity means wealth. Well, actually that’s not true. It means three things: wealth, health and happiness. So that means, if prosperity means three things, “wealth, health and happiness,” you need to have something happening for all three of these things for you to become prosperous.
Since I am not a doctor, I cannot help you too much with the health bit. And since I am not an economist, I cannot help you with the wealth bit. But happiness, I can help you with that. That’s what I do. That’s what I’ve been doing for fifty years.
So if you truly want to be prosperous, you’re going to need three things in your life. So let’s begin with happiness. What is the point of being prosperous if you’re terribly sad, depressed? So where does happiness begin? Do you know where happiness begins? You always looked at happiness circumstantially.
“If my wife behaved herself, if my dog behaved herself, if my cat behaved itself, if my buffalos behave themselves, if my cows behave themselves, if my neighbors behaved—if my neighbors got rid of the chickens that, you know, sit there in the morning at four o’clock and, ‘Gyack-ack-ack-ack-ack,’ then I’ll be happy. If my son brought better grades in school, then I will be happy.”
So, your happiness is based upon your external circumstances. You want the world to be a certain way and then you will be happy. In your workplace you say, “If my coworkers understood me, if they were better with me, they treated me with more respect, I would be happy.” And what’s going to happen when you retire? You won’t have your coworkers. Then what are you going to do?
Life does not begin when you get married, and life does not end when you get a divorce. Life begins when you took your first breath; life will end when you take your last.
Your life is not about things you do in it. Your life is about your existence. This breath comes into you; you are alive. If you’re rich, this breath comes into you; you are alive. If you are poor, this breath comes into you; you’re still alive.
And the day this breath doesn’t come into you, you are neither rich nor poor. You don’t have any relatives. You’re automatically divorced— automatically! You don’t have any debts! You’re automatically debt-free. You don’t have to pay any bills anymore. You don’t have to pay any taxes. You have automatically also vacated your house; you’re now no longer a house-owner.
No—I know this sounds funny, and I’m putting it in a way which is funny—but this is dead serious. You are a father, you are a mother, you are an uncle, you are a cousin, you are whatever you are, only till this breath is happening. And the day this breath stops, you’re nothing.
But do we understand that in our lives?—in our busy little, “rdrdrdrrrrrrrrl,” life, of where it’s...everything is da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, dah, who has the time, who has the time to think about prosperity as, “My goodness, that involves three things. It needs happiness and wealth and health”? Who has the time to stop and say, “What is the value of this breath for me?”
You see, you have to understand that as a human being you have some needs. You have your dreams—I know you have your dreams—but you have some needs. And this is the way the needs go. Three minutes without breath and you’re dead. Is breathing a luxury or a need? Is breathing a want or a need?
Let’s get this clear, what is a need; what is a want. Three minutes without breath, you’re dead. That’s not a want; that’s a need. It mandatorily must be there. Three minutes—it’s a rule of thumb, okay? Some people can go more; some people can go less. But about three minutes and you are dead. Without this you cannot survive.
Now, what is your want? A television with a remote control that shows high definition pictures. That’s not a need. Do you understand? That’s not a need. There’s no medical term, “This person died because he didn’t have a TV.”
"This person died because of asphyxiation because he couldn’t breathe,” yes, that’s a term. “He died of starvation,” that’s a term. “Died of dehydration,” that’s a term. But, “He died because he didn’t have a TV”—there is no term for it.
And what do you pursue every day? Every day that you get up, in your imagination, using your mind, what are you pursuing? Your need or your wants?
So, need, you don’t pay attention to—wants, you pay attention to. Because you will never come across a billboard that says, “Breathe.” You will come across a billboard that says, “Buy this soft drink; buy this television; buy this suit; buy this, buy this, and buy this!” And you will look at it and go, “Yes, I would love to have that; I would love to have that; I would love to have that.”
Am I here to tell you you should not have wants? That’s what’s different about me. I am not here to tell you you should not have wants. You should have as many wants as you want—and more! But you should understand your need.
It’s called “a perspective.” It’s called “a perspective.” Should you look at your speedometer in your car when you’re driving? Yes? And only the speedometer? So, you’re driving, you should be like this? You will crash. You should look out the window; you should see the road; you should see behind you; you should look, and look, and look, and look, and look, and look.
This is life! Understand the preciousness of life, and you will understand your need! Fulfill your needs, and you will have happiness.
– Prem Rawat