MC: [Graeme Richards]

Good evening, you incredibly beautiful human beings. Are you not incredibly beautiful? Now, normally when you hear people singing in the audience before you’ve actually even started the show, that’s a very good sign. Our busload of people have journeyed all the way from Soweto—where are you? Please, can you stand up and take a bow?

Thank you so much for shining a little light on this auditorium. My name is Graeme Richards. It is an absolute blessing to be here tonight for an audience with Prem, “Unlocking Hope,” and that is our hope.

Now I had the privilege of interviewing Prem on the show that I host in the mornings, called Expresso. And in a very brief amount of time, we got into some pretty deep conversations—and of course, started broaching the idea of the “journey to self.”

And then, some months later, when I find out that I was going to be sharing a stage with this incredible man, the nerves started to kick in. I wanted to sound like I actually know what I’m talking about when we start broaching these very deep subject matters.

And I started considering that journey to self, and, “But I am self, and I’m here. I’m—how can I journey to myself?” And, “Are we here at all? Are any of you here at all?” And I started having an existential crisis...!

And then, about three weeks ago, I had a baby. And I had this vision in my head of a clone of myself being popped into the world. And my job being then to stop him from repeating every mistake that I’ve ever made in my life! I don’t know if there’s hope for that.

But then, in the instance where I met little Jack—[sp] (and his name is baby Jack)and he is a beautiful little being.... That can get another round of applause.

And I saw a complete other being, a complete being all in his own right—suddenly, the conversation in my head shifted dramatically to, not love—because the love was there in spades, in bucket-loads—but hope. “How do I, living in a country like South Africa, living in a world like we do right now, provide a jumping-off point, a platform for this beautiful little soul to feel hope about his future?”

And I get goosebumps as I say that, because tonight, all of us have come on this journey to hopefully unlock hope in our own lives.

Now, when I first met Prem, I—as I said, we tackled some big, complex ideas, and ended up at a very intimate, very connected small space. Yet, the presiding, the overriding feeling that I had—and that has stayed with me since that night—is one of absolute love. That’s all we need to know at this point.

So, what I need you to do right now is turn to the person to your left or your right. You can introduce yourself, if you don’t know them—very quickly. You don’t need to give titles; we don’t care who you are tonight, okay; everyone is equal.

And I want to look into their eyes. And even if it’s quite difficult, I want you to say, “I love you.” And actually if you do know them, then you might want to add, “I really, really love you.”

And if you got into a bit of trouble tonight, don’t even bother, okay? Don’t even bother. This is where we are tonight, for an audience with an incredible human being—who, believe it or not, is just like us. He has some amazing insights to share.

And we want you to pose your questions as well. You’ll see an SMS line appearing on the screen above me throughout the evening. Please think of those questions—really think deep and hard, because you have a golden opportunity to pose those questions to Prem himself tonight. We can have a lovely little, a relaxed Q&A session.

But first, Prem is going to be taking to the stage to connect with you directly himself, go through some excerpts from his new book, Splitting the Arrow, Understanding the Business of Life—a pretty tough nut to crack at this stage. But I can promise you now, you are in for an unforgettable, life-changing evening, here in the light.

So, ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Prem Rawat.

Prem Rawat:

So, that was quite a welcome you got. But, I’m here—and of course, the topic of this evening’s event is “Unlocking Hope.” But before we even get into that “Unlocking Hope,” we have to understand a few things, of what life actually means, what is the opportunity.

And I’d like to just begin with a very simple analogy. Say, you’re given an opportunity to go into this most incredible supermarket. And this supermarket has everything. It’s got food; it’s got cooking utensils; it’s got—it’s got everything! It’s got car parts; it’s got this, that; I mean, everything, it has it.

And you’re allowed to go into this supermarket for a very limited period of time—and you can do anything you want—and you can have anything you want, anything you want that’s in the supermarket. But, when you come out, you cannot be carrying anything.

What would you do? So here it is: you get in and it’s amazing! I mean, it’s spectacular. It’s all these things just lined up, shelf after shelf after shelf after shelf after shelf of things, things, things, things, things, things! And it’s like, “Aaagh, I would like that,” and “I would like that!” and.... But you then remember, you don’t get to carry anything out.

And some of you may have already figured this out, where I’m going at with this analogy—because that’s life. And it’s not a supermarket—but you get to come on this planet Earth. And there’s all this stuff, amazing stuff. But you don’t get to carry anything out. You can’t carry it in your hands.

Because, you come in this world and one day you have to go. And you don’t get to take anything with you. All this amazing stuff that’s on this planet Earth—I mean, God, look at the mangos.... Look at the lychees; look at the chikus; look at the, look at all the spices that are here.

And look at all the minerals and the diamonds and the gold and the oceans, and—I mean, everything that’s here—but you don’t get to carry anything with you. What will you do in this supermarket?

And when I was thinking about this—because this is the point. I’m not here to give you a whole bunch of answers. But I’m here to bring to you, my fifty years of experience. This is what I’m bringing to you. Not just a bunch of ideas.

I have been in this world. I have traveled this world. I have seen people. I have been in places that you usually won’t go. Try to stay away from it, anyways. But, what have I learned? What have I understood?

And this understanding is one of the opportunities to be able to say, “Look, everyone—we don’t have to be bogged down in our pain and suffering. We don’t have to be.” I mean, of course, if this is what we want, more power to you.

But we don’t have to be. That there is an opportunity to go in this supermarket, and go, “Okay, I don’t get to take anything out that I can carry in my hands. What am I going to do?”

And when I was thinking about this, I went, “I know. I’ll go to the ice cream section; I’ll enjoy myself. I’ll cook; I’ll make incredible dishes. I will do all that that I want to do—that will make me feel good....” And walk out of here without carrying anything.

And yet, what I have taken away from that supermarket is what’s not even on the shelves. And it’s called “incredible enjoyment.”

Because you have to realize—when you take a bite of that ice cream, you bought the ice cream; you bought the milk; you bought the cream; you bought the sugar; you bought the flavoring—and you are providing the enjoyment. That does not come packaged.

The enjoyment of the ice cream is not in the ice cream; that is not an ingredient. But the enjoyment is in you! And this is what we forget.