The Voice of Maharaji

Prem Rawat - 'Walking with Strength'

What is this life all about? One day, we all have to go. You know that; it’s in the back of your mind some days. Other days, you don’t bother thinking about it. For most people, the subject is very unpleasant. But the issue is your existence—you being alive. Just what does that mean to you?

So many people say, “If we could just find a solution to this problem, everything would be fine.” People everywhere basically know that they want to be happy. They want to be content. They want to feel good. Every human being is innately like that. This is our nature.

We seek equilibrium. The storms in our lives are not a good thing. When a storm comes, we seek shelter. We don’t say, “I’m going out in the storm now. This is the perfect time.”  We need the equilibrium of feeling good. I’m not going to define “feeling good.” There are certain things that work for you, and certain things that don’t. Feeling good works. Feeling bad doesn’t. You don’t get bored with feeling good. When you are feeling bad, on the other hand, you want to get out of that situation. This is your nature.

Do you concur with your nature? Do you try to nurture a good feeling and perpetuate it as much as possible? Or do you carry around a pocketful of band-aids? A pocketful of band-aids is: “There is no way I’m going to be conscious or perpetuate happiness in my life. I will do things that are unconscious, and when I get hurt, I will simply pull out one of the band-aids, take care of it, and I will be okay.”

Being unconscious will get you hurt—no question about it. When you don’t listen to your own fundamental needs, something will happen, and it will not be pleasant.

So what is pleasant? Pleasant is when the priority of life is acknowledged and my heart is filled with gratitude. When I know the friend within, when my house is built on the foundation of knowing—not beliefs, wishes, and ideas—it is very, very pleasant. This is what life is all about—filling yourself with the pleasant, filling yourself with infinite joy.

Can life really be filled with infinite joy? Is that possible? If you doubt this, you don’t understand the nature of what resides within you, because what resides within you is complete joy, complete clarity.

Think of life like this: It is your opportunity to spend time with the best friend you ever had. It is your chance to be with the ultimate clarity, the ultimate kindness, the ultimate joy. That’s what a life is. It’s not promised to be forever. But the possibility exists that you get to spend time with that which is the most beautiful. And that resides in your heart.

So, wherever you go and whatever takes place, just remember this: Life is not just ups and downs. They happen. That’s our doing. By our unconsciousness, we allow greed, anger, and fear to overtake the sanity of being alive. If there is suffering on planet Earth, it is brought by the people, for the people. We are the ones that set the expectation of how everything should be. “You should be like this, live for this long, look like this, look like that.”

Did God create the problems in this world? No. We did. It is about human beings. If you could just know that this life is the chance to spend time with that which is the truest, unconditional love… This is the opportunity for every living being to spend time with the Beloved within, to feel gratitude for life and rejoice. When that happens, you feel alive, and you begin to live. And the most magnificent movement is the coming and going of the breath. It needs no proof, no buildup. Its blessing is obvious. Is it obvious to you?

You exist. You are alive. Gather your strengths, not your weaknesses. What are your strengths? Your strengths are consciousness, kindness, understanding, acknowledging, rejoicing, loving. And when you walk with these, the outcome is beautiful. Every second you spend with the beauty inside of you, you are liberated. You are free.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'It’s Your Choice'

Someone told me that they wanted peace so that they could give it to others. But you can’t give your peace to anybody else, just as you can’t give anybody your time. You cannot give a person who is dying even five more minutes.

Peace is very personal. By having peace in your life, you can become a catalyst for others, this is true, but you cannot give them peace. They have to find their own thirst, have their own understanding, and find that peace within.

That possibility is always there in your life. If you have the wisdom, you will take advantage of it. Sometimes people think wisdom is enlightenment. They see an old painting of a saint with a light over their head and think, “Oh, that’s an enlightened person.” But true enlightenment is when you recognize, and wisdom is deciding to choose the joy that is within you. It is not about knowing what’s coming tomorrow. Problems come and go. If you have a problem, one day it will go just like it came. Things will change—you will change—but the passion for joy, for clarity, will remain with you for the rest of your life.

My thirst for clarity, for joy, has not changed since I was very little. Everything else has changed—my likes, dislikes, what I eat, what I don’t eat. Everything has changed, but that thirst has not changed.

Choose that in your life. This is a choice that has to be made every day—to enjoy your life. You have to come as a free person, not with baggage, not in fear, because that won’t work. Problems come in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes they change their appearance. But what do you want in your life? This is a choice you’re going to have to make.

People have hesitation. I cannot do anything about that because this is you. Personally, for me, hesitation is a waste of time. I can tell you a story about hesitation.

Once there was a man who went to a fair. His teeth were really dirty—almost black. As he was walking along, he came to a display where a doctor was selling medicine for 15 cents. The doctor was showing it to people and offering that if somebody came from the audience with completely black teeth, they could wash their mouth with the medicine, and their teeth would become sparkling clean.

This man wanted the medicine, but he couldn’t decide. Maybe it’s too expensive. Maybe he doesn’t really want it. Maybe he does want it. Does it work? He’s standing there thinking, “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?” He’s got a five-cent coin and a ten-cent coin, and he’s rubbing the two coins together over and over. “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?”

Finally, all the bottles are gone except for one. So, the man takes his coins, throws them at the doctor and says, “Here, I’ll take it.” The doctor picks up the coins and says, “With what?” The man said, “Well, I just gave you 15 cents.” And the doctor said, “I’ve been watching you going, ‘Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?’ And in this process, you have totally worn down the coins. They are no good now.”

Hesitation is like that. The coins are our time. “Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?” If you are ready to make the commitment that joy is what you want in your life, you will be welcome. It’s never too late, but don’t hesitate, because in hesitation, you’re wasting your time.

When this breath comes into you—and it just did—nobody can say, “I have been breathing for 60 years, so it’s okay if I don’t breathe for six hours.” No, it’s not okay. Each breath is needed. Every day joy, peace, needs to be accepted, felt, understood. This is the dance. This is the symphony of life.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'Pulse of Life'

It’s so important to understand the subject of this life. I don’t think the importance of truly grasping what this means can be over-emphasized. As human beings, we have an incredible brain, incredible talent. We can accomplish so many things—almost too many. Because we are alive, we can experience peace and joy. We can go to the moon and create space stations. We can peer into the deep, deep reaches of the universe. And because we are alive, we can also create wars, decimate this planet, and make it impossible for everything to exist.

Cell phones have saved many lives. But the same technology that is saving so many lives is also being used in weapons and a weapons delivery system that is wiping out more lives than it is saving. And the saving might happen over a period of a year, but the destruction happens within days.

So, it becomes obvious that we have to choose. And what should our choice be? Well, to put it in context, there is a place you can go that is not really real. It’s virtual. There, you can create an alter-personality of yourself. You can fly. You can do all the things you’ve always wanted to do but could never do, but only virtually, not really. In this virtual place, people buy apartments and sofas for apartments. But when you buy the virtual apartment and the furniture, you pay for it with real money. It’s a million-dollar-a-day business—$365,000,000 a year. And it’s growing. People even meet in this virtual place and get married!

I bring a message about reality, a message that says, “What you are looking for is inside of you.”

Who are you? What are you? What is your core? We need to know that in this day and age more than at any other time. Otherwise, our choices will be virtual or make-believe, but the consequences will be real. Unfortunately, consequences are always real.

What is your real potential? There is a power, a beauty, that resides within. When I turn within, my heart is filled with joy, peace. I have to choose this every single day, because in this world, the line between the virtual and the real can become too faded. And I choose reality, because it is far more beautiful.

An Indian writer named Tulsidas once said, “All that you see is illusion. As far as your eyes can see, it’s all illusion. If you want reality, turn within.” The problem is that we don’t like what we see, but we don’t understand why. So we create an alternative world in which our fantasies can come true. People like Tulsidas said, “Turn within and all your fantasies will come true. The truest wish will come true.” But we have to choose. Every single day, we have tochoose.

Reality is beautiful. Don’t try to measure it, because contentment, joy, love, understanding cannot be measured. There is no scale for them. Understand. Open your heart. Look within and see how beautiful it is. Feel your life filled with joy, filled with gratitude, not explanations or ideas. This is reality; no formulas or philosophies are needed to truly receive the gift every single day.

You are the vessel for the sweetest satisfaction, joy—the pure clear water of contentment. When you are filled with this, you come alive, because that’s what life is. You can understand. You don’t have to be confused. It’s that simple. Realize the pulse of life.

What an incredible opportunity it is to choose a gratification that is given every day when you turn inside. It’s not about the struggles you’ve had or the list of failures, but about each success that took place. You will still make mistakes, but the beauty is it’s not about mistakes or failures. It’s not about the length of the night. It’s about the rising of the sun. The light comes, and a new day begins.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'Bridge of Life"

I want to tell you a story. It is a very different story, because it’s not about a king or a queen  or romance or victory or failure. The purpose is not to occupy your time or entertain you. There is a simple and beautiful reality, and it’s the most magnificent story. It is about what is—this beautiful creation in an incredibly hostile universe.

We’ve been given an opportunity to be here. Is that good or bad? That’s not the point. Let me give you an analogy. Let’s say there is a very beautiful painting by one of the masters—trees, ocean, clouds, sun—but you have never seen it. Then one day you do. However, the painting was packed improperly, and it rubbed against the box. The greens, blues, oranges, and whites have all gotten mixed up. It almost looks weird. All that is left is the master’s signature. And you think, “He painted that?”

Everybody looks at reality with a twist and wonders why reality isn’t beautiful. When it comes down to this little thing called peace, I have found that nobody in this world has a clue what peace is—none, zip, nada, no idea. It’s so sad that it’s almost humorous.

Some people think, “Oh, the end of war is peace.” So you mean that before the wars began, there was peace, and peace led to wars? Some say, “Eliminate the hunger in this world, and there will be peace.” Listen, there are people who purposely go hungry trying to lose weight. If you created a “hunger detector” and drove down all the roads in the world with it, and anybody who was hungry would get food shoved in their mouth, would there be peace? You would have more wars.

So we have concepts. It’s as though we have a film in front of our eyes, while reality is sweetly dancing. All that you see that is so beautiful will not always be there. This time you have is about the opportunity to be alive. It is not about the semantics of your life. It is not about the circuit diagrams of your existence. It is not about all the other things we allow ourselves to be distracted by. Peace is. And peace manifests within the heart of every single human being. That is the only place.

Don’t look at reality through the eyes of all these formulas. Look through the simplest eyes that you have been given, and what will you see? You will see a perfection, hear a rhythm, discover a magnificence greater than what you could ever imagine. That is what this story is about.

The viewpoint we have latched onto because of our ideas is so different that we are incapable of simply appreciating what is—just seeing, understanding the beauty of the breath that comes in and out. It is the simplest act that takes place. It happens naturally. And its existence verifies that you are alive. So powerful is this breath that as long as it is happening, all is well. And if it isn’t happening, the story changes.

The coming and going of this breath is a gift. And absolutely, as long as the breath comes into you, all is well indeed. When you feel that simplicity, you can begin to hear the real rhythm of your life. You can appreciate what you have been given, and the story will be complete.

You will be set free when you understand that you do not need the support of all the ideas, that you can just stand on this bridge of life, and that it is solid, good, strong. You can jump on it, and it won’t fall down. You will be able to appreciate its strength. And then your heart will fill with gratitude for all that you have been given. And when your heart fills with gratitude, you will have the answers without needing the questions. It gets better and better, because there is no limit to that better, and there is no limit to the ability you have been given to enjoy.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - "When Spring Comes"

Here we are in spring. And the tussle is on. On one side, winter does not want to let go of its hold. On the other side, the warmth of summer wants to break in. And this is played out in the skies, the clouds, the lightning, the rainbows, the sun. And on the ground are delicate little plants. They’re fragile. Last fall, they gambled. “To survive the winter, we will need to shed our leaves.” And they did. The gamble was, “Summer will come again and, when it does, we will be able to put out our leaves and once again become whole.”

Now they are prepared, and the slightest hint of summer coming has spurred them to start putting those delicate leaves out again—ready to make that commitment to being complete.

My question is, are you ready for the spring in your life? If you are, I have some very good news for you: Spring indeed has come. Bloom! This is not the time to reason or question or argue whether spring has come for real or not. It is not the time to lament that leaves have to be shed again, so what’s the point.

Do you know that every day you are alive, spring comes? Yes, pain comes, too. What is pain saying to you? “Hello, haven’t we been a little unconscious lately? Awaken.” When pain comes, people think, “Let’s look at this. Let’s analyze it.” That’s not what pain is for. The grinding of the gears inside is because something isn’t right.

As a human being, you have a rhythm. And this rhythm says, “Move. March. Go. Move. March. Go.” Move. Understand your mortality and be inspired to move on, not stop. Understand also that a part of you is immortal.

You’re like a sandwich. One part of you, that you have paid a lot of attention to, is the wrong slice of bread. You should have paid attention to the other slice, because this one will disintegrate. That is its nature. Don’t let that scare you. Let that inspire you to focus on the part that  is truly delicious. And the inspiration to do that resides in your heart. Within you is the drum that plays the beat to know, to understand, to dance to the rhythm of the dance of understanding. “I understand what a gift I have been given. I understand my urge to blossom.”

The beauty is, spring will come. And when I look at those tiny bright green leaves emerging, I say to myself, “Go. Do it. Don’t be threatened. Don’t be disheartened because it is cold today. However strong this grip of this cold is, it will be broken.”

For you, however strong the grip of ignorance is, it will be broken, because the seeker within you is stronger than the sum of all the questions and confusion there is in this world. Such is the drive from inside. And this is the most beautiful drive—to search. If a person searches, I say, “Good. If you search genuinely, you will find the person who will fulfill that quest.” It’s called the thirst, the thirsty, and the water. Because there is a thirst, there is the thirsty. And because there is the thirsty, water will be found.

Some people go through a lot to find the water. And it will be found, because the water you are looking for is within. You don’t have to go to a particular place. You don’t have to look for an oasis or a well or birds or anything. Anywhere you are on this desert, every breath is pumping the most incredible water that will quench your thirst, day and night.

Look within your heart, and you will find the truest essence of your existence. Look within you, and you will find the most beautiful waters. Look within you, and you will find your answers to which you don’t even have questions.

I’m talking about the passion and compassion in this universe and beyond, the most incredible energy that created the sun, the moon, the Earth from dust. From nothing to create everything. To create this Earth with ceilings without pillars, incredible textures of carpet, alive, beautiful, ever-changing. To create a magnificent light, made up of every shade. To create night lights that are unimaginable—the moon, the clouds, the stars, all of it. And for you to have the ability to witness this, not only to see but be able to admire. To make every day and never to make two alike—this is craftsmanship. To make the trees and snowflakes and never two alike. And to make human beings and never two alike.

When the rain pours and pours, remember the magnificence that you have been blessed with. Remember what the possibilities are. Remember that you’re part of it all. You’re not some abstract, good-for-nothing thing that just happened to be. When the craftsmanship is so good then every bit needs to be looked at and admired, nothing is frivolous. Not a grain of sand, not a leaf, not a snowflake, not a raindrop is out of place. And if you accept that, then you must also accept you’re not out of place. See and understand the reality, because it is more beautiful than anything you have imagined. And as spring comes every day in your life, without hesitation, sprout.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'The Grand Miracle'

I’m not here to try to point out all the problems of the world, because there are too many. But, despite all the problems, all the things that are wrong, there are some things that are really, really good. Despite all the ugliness, there is something very, very beautiful. Despite all the mistakes, there is one thing that is perfect. And that perfection, that beauty, is in you.

There are people who like to point out all the problems, and in a way, I’m glad they do. But I think there should be some people who point out the good, the beautiful, because this life, despite all the problems, is beautiful. And sometimes, caught up in our troubles, our turmoil, our ideas, our concepts, we forget what we have been given.

Who are we? Are we just the sum of all the things that happen around us? Are we just people who wake up in the morning and realize our responsibilities, “I have to do this, I have to do this”? Or is there something more, something inside each human being that wants to smile, to be thankful, to feel gratitude, to feel joy?

I speak from my own experience. I have responsibilities. There are good days, and there are bad days. In the good days, I want to be happy. I want to feel peace. I want to feel connected to myself. Then there are the bad days. And even then, I just want to be happy.

Nobody can explain happiness. You know what it is. It isn’t just smiling or laughing or a time of day when you become happy. Happiness comes because you feel good. We think it is feeling happy about something—our child graduates from college; we win a lottery ticket; we get a promotion. We think our happiness is associated with all these things.

There is only one person who can make you happy, and it happens to be a person you know very little about. Strange. You know about your friends, other people—your associates, your colleagues—but very little about yourself, who you are. And you are that one person who can make you very happy.

I see people driving on the highways honking their horns, yelling, screaming. Somehow I get the feeling that they don’t really think life is important. They just want to get to where they’re going. I want you to take a moment and understand something—that your life is incredibly important.

You’re not a number. You’re not a name. You are more than the sum of all your goods and bads. So many people live in fear. But there is a place inside of you that cannot have fear, where you can feel freedom. When somebody has to tell me I am free, I’m not free.

We have our formulas. Happiness has nothing to do with formulas. “This plus this, minus this, equals happiness.” Either you feel happiness or you don’t. Either you feel joy in your life or you don’t.

What do you feel in your life? Because this life is the stage where peace will dance, where happiness will sing a song for you. This life holds promise after promise after promise, gift after gift after gift for you.

I have been watching spring coming. Ah, it is so beautiful to watch spring come. Right outside my office at home, there is a tree, and in the winter, it shed every leaf, down to just bare branches. And then slowly but surely, spring began to come, and not a day was wasted for those green shoots to start appearing. This I call dedication. This I call life. This I call “the grand miracle.” If that tree was human, it would say, “Why are we doing this? Winter will come again, and I will have to shed these leaves again. So forget this—just hibernate.”

It is not logic, but something that transcends logic. Love is not logical. These little shoots wait and wait. They can’t forecast the weather. They don’t think: “These two days are warm, but then the next two days it’s going to rain again, so just wait.” No. For them, it is: “Here it is. The warmth has come. The sun is shining. The temperature is right. Let’s go.” And as tender and delicate as those shoots are, even with two days of cold and rain, they keep on going. There is a drive that is more powerful. And this scene plays out for billions of trees every year.

Your spring has come. It is time to reach within and allow the hope for peace in your life to resurface, to see the good, to understand that good, to once again know and to once again say yes to what you have ignored for so long—you.

Prem Rawat

Kindness

Recently, someone was asking me about being kind. He was frustrated in his life and wanted to become a “better person.” I told him, “Don’t try to be a better person, because you already are. The kindness that you want to feel, you have. Ask a farmer how they prepare the field. It’s not by frustration. When you get frustrated, you have the want, the desire, but you don’t know what to do with it. So, prepare the field.”

You’re the field. Prepare it. How? Whatever you do most in your life, you will become good at it. Maybe you are good at being frustrated. If you practice this the most, you will become very good at it. So instead, start practicing kindness.

To practice kindness, just become a little more conscious. When you’re going to talk to somebody, first think, “Who am I talking to?” Many times parents really want to tell their children, “I love you,” but that’s not what comes out. Instead they say, “Why did you do that? Why can’t you be like this? I’ve told you so many times. . .” What they really want to say is, “I love you.”

Being conscious has many benefits. I know this because when I am not conscious, I say things that I regret. So I’m not coming to you as an expert. I’m coming to you as a person who has a lot of experience.

Consciousness. This is your life. Don’t let circumstances run your life; you run your life—what you want, how you want to be. Do you want to be angry? Sometimes it is good to be angry. Sometimes you want to be kind.

You are like a painter. There are many colors on your palette. You don’t have to use only one. It’s your life. Kindness is in you. Unconsciousness is in you, and consciousness is in you. The only thing you need is to take a moment to be conscious. This is easy to do. Just take a little moment before you do something and think, “What is it I am about to do? What is it that I want to do? I’m going to have this conversation—how do I want to feel afterwards?”

These are little things that you can do. And of all the little things you can do, the easiest one is just to take a little time.

What about the “reality” of all the things you have to do? That’s not reality—that’s fiction. To me, there’s no difference between thinking about all the things you have to do and thinking there was a monster in the closet when you were little. There’s no monster in your closet. Do all the things you have to do have to be done now? Maybe you wake up at 6:00 in the morning, and the office doesn’t open till 9:00. But you think, “I have to do this. I have to do this. I have to do this.”

Take a little time to be conscious. It only takes fraction of a second. If you are in the cockpit of an airplane, you don’t want to be unconscious and hit the wrong switch. Hitting the right switch just takes a fraction of a second. And if you want to be conscious, it only takes a fraction of a second to think, “What am I about to do?”

Kindness is in you. You don’t have to create kindness. There’s more kindness in you than you can possibly imagine. There’s more love in you than you can possibly imagine.

Why should you be kind? When you are kind, it makes you feel good. A lot of people want to be kind so that people will approve of them. But when you are kind, it makes you feel good. A very good incentive. And it’s very contagious.

You want to be kind? Be kind to you. Yes, people get angry and this and that, but you need to forgive and to forgive yourself. This is where kindness begins. If you cannot be kind to yourself, being kind to other people is arbitrary. We all make mistakes and will continue to make them. If we did not make mistakes, we would not be able to learn from them. But we need to learn from them and move forward, whatever it takes. As long as you learn from them, making mistakes is not a problem.

So, you have kindness; you have everything you need. Practice it. And what you practice, you will become good at. It’s very simple. It really is.

Prem Rawat

A Single Source

I’d like to talk about the gift of this life you have as a human being. What is a human being? What makes us so different? On one level, there isn’t a lot of difference between us and other animals. Maybe the difference is no greater than the difference between a cat and a dog, but we are different.

What is that difference? There are animals out there that can outrun us, so it’s not running. And there are animals out there that can out-jump us, so it’s not jumping. It’s not the smile, because monkeys smile quite frequently to show their teeth and let everybody else know they’re the boss. So it’s not smiling.

What is it? This is not based on science, but my inclination is that it is our power to appreciate, to enjoy, that makes us who we are. Dogs enjoy what they enjoy. There’s no question about it. They wag their tail, and their eyes light up. They even get a smile. They enjoy what they enjoy. Cats are the same way. They enjoy what they enjoy. And birds enjoy what they enjoy.

But there is something we can enjoy because of who we are. And that, in my opinion, is what makes us a little bit different.

Now look for a moment at plants. I was driving along one day, and I noticed that even though the ground was undulating, the trees were growing straight up, not perpendicular to the ground. Why? Because their roots are on this earth, but their relationship is with something that’s in the sky. They need to expose leaves to the sun, and the more the better. That’s their relationship.

A tree takes many things into account—storms, wind, and that relationship it has with the sun. There are plants in Antarctica that grow very close to the surface because they know about wind. They know that if they try to pop out, they’ll be gone, so they grow very, very close to the surface, but their relationship with the sun is still constant.

You see a myriad of designs—intricate leafs, branches, root systems, bark. And the tree has a relationship with something that is so far away from it. The tree doesn’t know how far the sun is. But everything in its design, in its existence—as we call it—is in balance. If that balance is compromised, it cannot exist.

If we were to take a look at our own existence, how balanced is it? Most of us think, “I’ve got to survive in this world, and whatever it takes to survive is all I need. Period. That’s it.”

But who do we have that ultimate relationship with? What is the single source of inspiration in our life every day? For me, it can’t be a hero. It can’t be something you learned. It can’t be an ideology or a great poet or artist or philosopher. It is something that resides in the heart.

The fact is that power is within everyone—period. But the only question is whether we  recognize it, whether it manifests. And that is what I am here to talk about.

I’m not here to fix your problems. What I want you to realize is that there is something real inside of you that is greater than the sum of all your goods and bads, regardless of how you see yourself. Whatever you have read or whatever you think, there is something that resides inside of you. And that is what can be the single point of inspiration in your life.

I hope you will discover and pay attention to that thing that is within you and that you will forge a relationship with it. For then you will not just survive, you will thrive.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'By Design'

My message is not entwined in a philosophy. It does not come from a book. It is not a concept or an idea. It is based on one thing: you are alive. And because you are alive, there is a possibility that you can be content. You can have a joy in your life that is unaffected by anything, a joy that is independent of everything.

For some people, betterment means having a better job, being more successful or more productive. For some, betterment means having a better family, a bigger house or bigger car. But think about it: who are we? We are here on this planet Earth for a limited time. We think we will live forever, but that is just an illusion.

The reality is that one day you weren’t. Then you were born. Today, you exist. And one day, you will have to go. It’s a universal rule. Nobody is exempt. It applies to everyone, whether you are poor or rich, educated or not. It doesn’t matter.

Do you know who you are? Somebody calls your name and you say, “Yes, that’s me.” But have you understood that within you there is magic unfolding, and this magic is the reality of your existence? 

Before you were born, everybody wondered, “Boy or girl?” But when you actually came into this world, everybody’s focus was only one: breathing or not? And when you leave this world, everybody will watch for that last thing: breathing or not?

So, what is the big deal about breath? The big deal is: Without it, you are nothing. And with it, you are everything. With it, you can be an uncle, a father or a mother, a son or a daughter; you can be successful or a failure. You can laugh or cry. And without it, you are dust.

As long as there is breath, you’re not dust. With breath, you can say, “Come in! Welcome! Good morning!” Without it? People will say, “Take it away.”

The big deal is: Here is the most incredible blessing, and we don’t pay attention to it. We pay attention to what we consider a blessing: “Give me a child, give me a job, give me this, give me that.” But you are more blessed than you realize. And the day you begin to count your blessings, you will be amazed. That is when you will understand what it really means to be thankful. When the heart is truly full and you begin to understand, confusion vanishes and  clarity comes. You begin to see the simplicity of existence. It’s not about success and failure, but being grateful for this life.

Some people say, “My purpose in life. . .” Not your purpose in life. What is the purpose of you having life? What is this?

This body, due to breath, moves and dances and feels. All day long you’re feeling, feeling, feeling. You feel cold, hot, soft, rough. You are a feeling machine. And everyhuman being longs to feel joy. Since we were little, we wanted to feel that, even before we had a name for it.

The human heart is filled with a joy that you can feel whenever you want to, wherever you are—a joy that you can never have enough of. Do you know that you cannot tolerate sadness very well? You’re not made for it. When you are sad, you want to leave it as soon as possible. Joy—no problem. You would think that would give you a little clue as to what you are about. The clue is: there is no limit to joy, and we are extremely allergic to pain and suffering.

Have you found the source of endless joy? It is not far from you—by design. If you have a longing for joy, it would be pointless to have the source of that joy inaccessible to you. So, in the clever design of this life, the source of joy goes with you wherever you go.

Enjoyment in this life is a possibility. There are no restrictions. Find that infinite source of joy within you.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - 'Nothing Trivial'

An Indian poet once said that human beings have all the wealth they could possibly want. They just don’t know it. The infinite is in every heart, and when it is recognized, everything changes. Everything becomes beautiful.

Not knowing what we have, we measure ourselves by what we don’t have. And we are told that if we have this, this, and this, we will be happy. I know a person who was very successful, and in one week everything turned upside down. He went from being at the top of his game to being nobody. He even became distant from himself.

I know that solitary confinement is considered the harshest punishment for people because we are social animals. What if you had to be just with yourself? How would that be? Have you made peace with your existence? Or would you be hounded by questions you do not want to ever be asked but that you carry within you—the darkness of the unknown, of your fears?

Everyone has fears. There is the fear of failure: how you appear in the eyes of others—what your colleagues, your neighbors, the world think of you. But have you learned to live with yourself? Have you socialized with this human being that you are?

You, as a human being, what is your value? You judge yourself by all the scales that people put in front of you, “This is what’s important, this is what’s important, this is what’s important.” And you say, “Let me see where I am on this scale.” And that becomes the measurement of your success. Get rid of that scale. You don’t need it, because it is relative. You can be extremely sad, but on that scale, you’re still right up at the top.

So how steady are you? How steady is your house? Instead of wasting time trying to measure up, strengthen your house, because the storm is going to come. Maybe it will be a little storm, maybe a big one. It’s irrelevant, if your house is strong. Inner strength is the strength that lasts.

The person I was talking about had everything. All he needed was inner strength. But when his house of cards fell, he fell with it. His house wasn’t strong. If he had had that inner strength, it would’ve been okay. He would’ve been happy. He’s still not poor, but that’s not the point. That scale will fluctuate. The question is, will you fluctuate with it?

Don’t judge yourself by what the world has done to you and what the world tells you, by what has happened or what has not happened. You are alive. You’re breathing. And because you are breathing, you are rich, not poor. You have a great gift. The same power that’s backing up the entire universe is backing you up—something I cannot even pretend to fathom.

I know the word infinite. I cannot fathom it, but I can feel it, because that infinite is also within me. And that’s my strength. The universe breathes; it comes together and expands, comes together and expands. It’s a living thing. Something is keeping it all intact. And breath is coming to you, courtesy of that. Most people ignore it: “Breath? What is this breath?” But don’t ignore it, experience it.

This thing called life has been described as a portal, a gateway. This is as close as the infinite and the finite can get. And here, in this life, the finite can experience the infinite. Just like in space, eventually the infinite will consume the finite. The finite will go back to being dust again, and the infinite will remain.

That’s amazing, I think. There’s a lot of nothing out there. And then there is something, and that something is really something. And then, a lot of nothing again. Expanding and contracting. Breathing, existing. Disappearing, reappearing. Colliding. Becoming something else. It’s quite a thing. Amazing. Here you are; you are something. Don’t compare it, “Oh, that’s so trivial.” In this universe nothing is trivial—nothing. Even dust is not trivial, because that’s all there is—compacted dust and loose dust. You’re dust. But it’s something, not nothing.

So let go of your confusion, doubts, misery. Do not always worry, “What’s going to happen? Where am I going?” This is what you’ve been wondering all your life. People have so many ideas. Fine. I absolutely believe that heaven is here. And I not only believe, I know this is the vessel that can feel the beauty of heaven. This is what has been given to you.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - "Congratulations!"

Congratulations, you are alive. Here you are. Once, you weren’t here. And one day, you won’t be. All your drama and trauma, all your ideas, all the things you like and don’t like, all the things that happen that you judge your life by are but a dream. Just a dream. Dreams are not to be taken lightly, but they are dreams.

In the middle of all these dreams, there is a place within you where you can truly be awake. In that awakening, there is no judgment. There aren’t issues of good and bad, right and wrong. You are not judged. There are no yardsticks and no races. Nobody is standing there saying, “You won” or “You lost.” Just a beautiful reality that you are alive.

You have the ability to understand, to know, to admire. These are your qualities. You have the ability to get angry and the ability to be calm. You have the ability to be in turmoil and the ability to be in peace. Which do you use the most? Frustration. Anger. Disappointment.

Once in awhile, you actually find yourself happy. When you are, it is such a big deal that you think about it for years to come. And when you get older and your short‑term memory goes, you will say, “I remember when I was there. Oh, that was so beautiful.”

You have some other qualities: You can appreciate this existence. You can truly be happy in a timeless way—no camera needed, no special circumstances required. You can be in the joy that springs from your heart every single day.

Most people are trying to understand their mind. People have been trying to do that for an extremely long time. And they never will. They write books and say beautiful things, but it is like having a garden that looks spectacular though every flower is made out of paper and every tree is plastic. The grass is fake, so you don’t ever have to cut it.

The disadvantage is that flowers don’t bloom there and spring never comes. Bees never fly, no flower has a beautiful aroma, and the trees do not sway in the wind. Even though it all looks pretty, it is static—as in dead.

That is why it is so important to have a living experience. Living. Breathing. Existing. Feeling. Thinking. Understanding. Knowing. That’s what is real.

What does your garden look like? Have you smelled the flowers? Have you ever seen a bee? Are there birds in the trees? Is there a season when it looks fine and you are content?

People get used to being frustrated. They get used to being mad, upset. They say, “That’s life. Good times, bad times—it’s all okay.” What is okay? Me being lost? Me ignoring my own nature? Me being away from myself? Me not recognizing myself?

That’s why every one of us needs so desperately to understand that there can be no compromises, that an effort needs to be made every single day to see, to feel what we have been given—from the heart, from our very basic being.

Know that a time will come when all that you rely on will slowly fade away. What will remain? You. You will still be able to experience, but erosion is afoot. It happens so slowly you don’t notice it, but it’s afoot. Every day, every second, it marches on, but above it floats a beautiful reality that is timeless. You are alive. And till the day you are alive no more, you can go inside and feel happiness; you can feel joy.

There is hope. Your heart is knocking on the door. Open up. Feel, see, understand, realize, know. Be in that joy, be in that feeling every moment. Understand the beauty of the possibility to feel clarity, to feel gratitude, to be thankful to be alive. I’m here to remind you: don’t wait. Wake up. See, feel, admire, be a part of your existence.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - "The Success Story"

There is the possibility that one little understanding can change the whole equation of life for you. This life can actually become a joy—not tedious, not living in bewilderment, not trying to duck—but making every day meaningful, filled with gratitude.

A lot of people may think that’s a challenge. It’s not. Because it is not a process of creating something. It’s putting things back where they belong. Things have gotten so mumble-jumbled. What is the key? Place the self above everything that goes on during your day.

I’m not talking about being selfish or the self that says, “I need to be in front of the line.” That’s not placing the self first. That’s being arrogant. The self I am talking about is that which you are, by whose presence you exist and without which you are nothing. You place everything else above that self. And what are the consequences? Confusion, doubt, wondering, coping, trying to explain.

Do you know how much time people spend trying to explain everything that happens? “This is why I got the parking ticket, why my tire went flat, why I lost my keys, why I don’t have a good job, why I lost my promotion, why this happened.” So many explanations.

People today are more content with explanations than with reality. How often do they say, “I can change that. It’s not about losing my keys, getting the flat tire, getting a ticket. It’s not about things going according to my plan or not. But something else is taking place. I am alive.”

One day you will have to go. Don’t look for immortality. Look for the immortal. What is immortal? Can we even imagine what is immortal? No. It’s just a definition—something that never dies. Well, what is it that never dies? Everything that the eyes see will go. One day, the sun and the Earth will vanish. Once they weren’t. And one day, they’ll be gone.

That’s the nature of all that you see. All that you thought is permanent never was. It just pretended to be, and you wanted to believe it, desperately. Do not be saddened by this, but awaken. That’s the point.

You have learned to trust. That’s all you can do. Bank on the kindness. Trust that there is a kindness. That somehow, whatever you go through, whatever happens, it will turn out okay. You are alive. And you have a choice: you can either get frustrated, bewildered, sink in the deep hole of doubt, or you can understand.

Life is a powerful thing. The desire to be fulfilled, to be in peace, is powerful. In these things, I trust. In these things, I find my comfort. Something within me perseveres to achieve that clarity in my life.

This human being is a success story. It is a success that started a long time ago and is still unfolding. And it will be a success story until the very last breath. If the heart is full, that’s it. That is the success.

This understanding, this clarity is possible. To be in that place, to take advantage of the joy, is a conscious choice you can make. It’s all about joy. This is the one life you have. Get it right. Now. Now is never too early and never too late.

Be in peace. Be in joy every single moment of your life. Because it’s possible, and it’s possible in your lifetime.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - "Passion"

I’d like to talk about the importance of passion in our life. Often when you ask a person what their passion is, they answer something like, “Oh, I just love gardening—that’s my passion.” They like it; they enjoy it. And I’m not saying they shouldn’t. But that’s their hobby.

What can you have a real passion for in your life? What can truly ignite the fire in you to admire, to love? Something so special, so real. You cannot be passionate about something that is just in your imagination. It cannot be, “Oh, I love dragons.” Well, I like dragons, too. They’re powerful, they can fly, and they breathe fire. But I can’t touch one or go talk to one.

To be passionate about something, I need it to be really real—not a figment of my imagination. If you need to sit down on something, you check to make sure it will support your weight. You can’t sit on air; you’ll fall down.

When I was very young, I used to love to listen to stories. If a story took all night to tell, it was fine with me. Every night, it had to be a new story. And when they would say, “And then they lived happily ever after,” I would say, “No, no, no—keep going. I want to know what this happily-ever-after is,” because that was a big assumption. The stories just freeze everything. It’s done, finished; reality is locked up. What happened?

So if we’re going to talk about passion, maybe we can begin with clearing up a few assumptions. People think, “If I have this, this, and this, all my problems will be taken care of.” But that’s not what happens in real life.

Most people have a nice long list of what they don’t want in their lives and their list of what they do want is zilch. That’s not how things work. Do you know what drives you? Do you know what inspires you? Do you know this thing that doesn’t like pain? Do you know this thing that wants you to feel peace?

With all our reasoning, we haven’t understood our nature. We haven’t understood that there is such a thing that, if our consciousness were plugged into it, would bring not just joy, but supreme joy. Joy unparalleled.

That’s what we should be passionate about. If we were, the floodgates would open. All our reasoning would not be needed. Just to understand the ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is so simple that you have to be utterly simple to be able to understand it.

How simple? You have to have the heart of a child. What does a child have that you don’t? You’re sophisticated. You have a lot of ideas, a lot of concepts; you have seen the world. You’re a little bit seasoned. So what is it that a child has? The child has simplicity. So if you want to experience that passion, you will have to have a heart of a child.

People ask, “What do I do to become simple?” It’s not about doing; it’s about undoing. We get bogged down by the very things that we have placed in our bag as we go along in life. The burdens we have placed upon our own shoulders—we did it ourselves—are the very things that bog us down.

The key is not to measure how many miles you have come, but to enjoy every single step you take. And don’t walk so fast that it tests your endurance because, in reality, there are no benches on the side of the road. You do not get to sit down and rest because there is this thing called time attached to existence. And that is why passion becomes important. Because without passion, this life is like food without any taste. You can eat it, you can chew it, but you won’t enjoy it.

A human being is an incredibly fine, sensitive experiencing instrument. Play it with the passion it deserves and you will hear sounds that you have been yearning to hear all your life. Fortunately or unfortunately, till you play it, that yearning will never go away. And if you do play it, that yearning will simply increase. For me, when something is like that—without it, the yearning never goes away and with it, the yearning increases—this is the most accurate description of true passion.

Prem Rawat

Prem Rawat - "Supreme Wisdom"

Sometimes we get carried away with everything that is happening in the world, and it’s incredibly confusing. People tell you, “This is how it is.” They tell you about God, about afterlife, about before life.

Life is about now. Somebody told me once that I was an emperor in my last lifetime. So what? If you live your life by explanations, maybe it would important to know what you were in your last lifetime or what will happen after this lifetime. But if you live understanding the value of this life, all those things are irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is that I am alive. Now.

When you live with explanations, only one thing is created. Confusion. When you live by the value of your existence today, what is created is clarity, simplicity, gratitude, understanding. Not speculation. If you say, “Explain to me why my tire went flat,” you will surely find someone who will explain it to you. There is no shortage of explainers.

Why? Because we truly do not know. It’s easy to say, “I am Jose or Maria or Patrick.” Excuse me. You are not that. You’re something else. It’s easy to say, “My mother’s name is this, and my father’s name is this.” But you’re something more than that. “I am a college graduate. I have a degree, I’m a doctor, I’m a lawyer, I’m a this, I’m a that.” No. You’re something more than that, too. “I’m a housewife.” No. You’re something more than that, too. “I’m a mother, a father.” You’re something more than that, too.

All these relationships you measure yourself by are relative. They are, and then they’re not. You are in the process of moving on. It doesn’t feel like it. You need to understand what is moving and what is not moving. In this river of life, you are sitting on a boat, and it’s moving. When you look out of the window, it looks like all the things you see are moving. They’re not moving. They’re there, and they willbe there. You are moving, and you won’t be there.

What is perishable? This vessel that you are in is perishable. One day, it won’t be. This vessel is moving. You are moving. Since when? Since you took your first breath. First breath. Most amazing thing. Before that, you were blue. Th