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There is a dragon. What form does the dragon come in? Oh, any form you like. Any form you like. The doctor tells you, “You’ve got two weeks to live; you have incurable cancer.” “Grrrr!” Here it is! Comes out of its den breathing fire, breathing confusion, looking at you, showing the teeth. "I get to eat today.”

Somebody you love—really been close to all your life, and they pass away. Powh! Here it comes. Boss says you’re fired. Kkkch! Here it comes. The dragon approaches, breathing fire. This is the weapon of the dragon—confusion.

So, there you are. And you are going to be the most afraid when that dragon is in front of you. It’s powerful. It’s breathing fire! Confusion is just pouring out. Its teeth! Enough to put fear in anybody. Its size. And all this is making you feel totally inadequate.

And in that moment you want to win, but you know you can’t! And it is precisely in this moment when you need to draw your sword and engage the dragon. Sounds like fun, huh?

And if that dragon smells fear in you, it will breathe even harder and show his teeth even more. And its claws.

So, do you practice with your sword? Is your sword familiar to you? Are you at ease with your sword? Do you have enough confidence in yourself to be able to take on this dragon? Because that’s what you’re going to need. That’s what you’re going to need.

Because that dragon is so huge, there is not enough muscle-power in you to ever be able to defeat it. So, the only way to win is to show the dragon your strength so it just backs down. Because if you think your sword is bigger than its one nail in the claw, that’s only because the dragon is not close enough yet.

But if you can show that strength, show that you are completely willing to fail, without ever accepting failure, this, to that dragon, is the most intimidating thing. Any dragon. When it has understood you’re not going to back down….

There is a dragon, but you don’t have to be afraid of it. Because if you call upon your wisdom, upon your experience of you, that’s one thing that that dragon cannot fight—it knows that. It will get defeated. It will get defeated. It knows—it has never been able to fight that. Ever!

– Prem Rawat

You know, the understanding of, well, who the self is—a lot of people think that this is a very Eastern idea—understanding the self. It’s not. It’s a human idea—understanding the self.

“Who are you? What are you?” Everybody on the face of this earth, soon or later, will ask the question, “Who am I?” Above and beyond everything that we get involved in—“Who am I? What is it to be a human being?”

You come in this world—and I was thinking today, “For me, everywhere I go, it’s like passing through.” So I go home, and I’m just passing through. I’m not there too long; I’m passing through. And I go to one country, and I’m passing through—and go to another country, and just passing through.

And before you know, life is the same way—just passing through. And this is what we do. And in one way all the complexities of being on earth—our relationships, our ideas, our wishes, our dreams—trying to realize those dreams…

Trying to wonder why things happen to us the way they do; why things are good; why things are bad; why things are right; why things are wrong … all these complexities—and we want to understand them!

But we never focus on understanding, “Who am I?” And unless you know who you are, what is your reference? Unless you know what a human being is, how would you know what a human being is supposed to be?

But, what is a human being? Of course, these are physical traits—but what is a human being? And what is the importance then, of understanding what a human being is?

Because, in our aspirations, what do we want? There is a state of being, and in this state of being a person becomes desireless—desireless. You can call that state “contentment”; you can call that state “happiness”; you can call that state “bliss”; you can call that state “peace”—and I don’t really care, because these are just words.

What I do care about is that state. I don’t care about the words. Ah, but the world’s caught up in the words: “Talk to me about peace. You’re Ambassador of Peace.” What? Peace is inside every human being. And peace is something that really cannot be talked about. It needs to be felt.

So, the question then becomes, “In this process of feeling the self, understanding the self, do you feel that state? Are you in that state, in that state of equilibrium?”

Now, you may say, “What are you talking about?” Well, this is how your body works—your physical body works like this: if there is something wrong, it’ll tell you. But if there’s nothing wrong, it shuts up!

Feeling of well-being is… some people call it “peace.” Because there, no more, no less, nothing being weighed; nothing being measured. “Go on. Be. Exist.” And filled with the feeling of well-being, glad to be alive, content—content—this is the nature of the self. This is the nature.

– Prem Rawat

Somebody once asked me a question in one of the interviews: “You’ve been traveling for fifty years; you have met a lot of world leaders, a lot of important people. Could you tell us about who made the most impact on you?” So I said, “Certainly.” So I told them what happened to me once.

I said I was driving in India, and they had packed a lunch for me, but forgotten to pack any water. So of course, I had lunch, and after lunch I got very thirsty. So as we were driving along, we saw a man, a very poor man, pulling water from a well.

But he’s standing there; he’s pulling water from the well, and we said, “Sir, could you please give us some water? We’re thirsty.” And he said, “Oh, sure, sure, sure!” And he dumped the water he had pulled, and he went in there and got the freshest water from the well that he could, and he brought it up and we had water!

And then, we had our fill, and we thanked him. And then he said, “Listen, I have a little hut, not too far from here. I have last night’s bread and some pickles. I would be honored if you came to my hut and accepted that.” So, of course, we said, “No, we have had lunch. Thank you, and thank you so much for…for this water.” It was his pleasure, he said.

So, of course, the interviewer was looking at me like, am I nuts? I mean, the world leaders I have met, and all these important people I have met, and this is the person I remember? I can’t forget. I cannot forget his generosity. He had nothing to offer, but he offered all that he had. And in that, he has made himself immortal.

He would have never imagined leaving India, but he did, here. Here, he left India, and he has traveled around the world. And I don’t even know his name. I never did ask him his name. But his generosity touched me.

And I’m here to tell you that, regardless of what the report card of the world is, generosity will never go away. It is there…it is there inside each one of you! And this is your blessing. Kindness is your blessing.

There’s no monopoly on compassion. This is the beauty. Compassion can be exercised by a person who is poor or who is rich. Compassion can be exercised by a person who is illiterate or a professor with the most degrees possible. Anybody—whoever wants to exercise this compassion—can exercise compassion because that is right.

– Prem Rawat