This video, titled "A Freedom Call", © I.L.C, (Internation Learning Center) d.b.a. Visions International (a division of Elan Vital Inc) production, was released in 1991.

It begins with a reading by Prem Rawat of some doggerel, presumably written by Rawat, that appears to be based on, or at least inspired by, a well-known poem "High Flight" by John Magee. It can hardly be called plagiarism as it so laughably bad it would probably qualify as satire if he didn't declaim it so earnestly. The soundtrack sounds like Vangelis has dashed something off while on the toilet and in a hurry to go somewhere else, urgently, and then recorded it in the taxi on the way to the airport.

Rawat is a master of verbosity delivered in mangled syntax and poor pronunciation and here he relates another long-winded story about the birth of a bird, making this everyday event a "miracle". He calls the first flight magical and then derides human life, without his Knowledge the "one certain special way" to happiness, as being as pointless and miserable as a bird trapped in a gilded cage. This claim seems absurd if you know that his "Knowledge" consists of squeezing your eyes with your finger and thumb, sticking your thumbs in your ears, remembering your breathing and poking your tongue backwards while sitting under a blanket. These activities seems as divorced from the free flight of birds as Rawat's piloting his multi-million dollar executive jet.

Life is the issue here (click for video), understanding, growing. Happiness is the issue here, understanding is the issue here and taking a look at the simplicity of everything that we have. We are complicated beings but not by nature. We like to look at everything in as complicated a light as we can look at it but by nature we're quite different. By nature, by our nature we are quite different, by our nature there is a simplicity and everything has that simplicity and by that nature there is something inside of us that admires that simplicity, that wants that simplicity and yet somehow we've become so complicated that we think it's a complicated process to get back to that simplicity.

Since the beginning of the 1990's Rawat has used the word 'simplicity' as one of his main buzz words. It's a word he overuses to the point of meaninglessness. However, accepting Rawat's teachings and practising his "Knowledge" adds an extra layer of complexity to anyone's life.

Have you the urge too
To feel a feeling
Not a thought
But a gentle healing

And then comes a time which is magical moment. These chicks are ready to fly and it's a very touching thing because again no lessons are taught and all the parent can do is entice them. Come on over and the parent will sometimes go over and sit in the next branch and look at them like (beckons with arms) do your thing and somehow, innately, this bird wants to fly and it gets out there a lot of trust, I mean, because, you know, uh uh it's it is a little bit different thing umm we have to learn how to walk and we fall down, you know, little height but little birdies they're way up there and they got gravity doing the same thing to them, I mean, gravity wants them really bad. And yet they unfold their wings and they've never flown before and just like a champ because there is an expression inside, there is a feeling inside, there is something which I don't think a chick really understands as a baby really doesn't understand that it has to walk but there is something inside that wants to fly for that chick. You can call it natural instincts but something pushes it that one day and it unfolds its wings and vroom off they go and they fly a little bit and then they sit down and they take it all in. It's like, it's really quite a little process, it's like unbelievable and then they do it again and they do it again and pretty soon they become really good at it and they would love to fly.

Have you the urge too
To sing aloud
From power within
No shadow no doubt

Then one day something happens (click for video) to this little bird. Something, somebody takes this little bird and puts this little bird in a cage. And the cage is a lovely cage, it's beautiful, it's gold plated, it has a little swing, it has a little, you know, a little, cute little plastic tray engraved, stamped with a flowery pattern on it, and it's, you know it's the deluxe version if you go to buy a cage they'll actually tell you, "There is this one and this is the deluxe version and this is ... the super deluxe version of the cage." And we're so proud to have the deluxe version of the cage and we tell the little bird, "And now I'm going to put you in this really super beautiful cage. Don't you like it?" And the bird doesn't because to the bird the trappings of a gold plating don't make any sense, it is, it's non-existent. To you the shimmer of gold is very alluring, to the bird, could care less. The stamped piece of plastic, the easy sliding tray is all a prison, a prison. It is not what you think it is because maybe we have never actually stopped and tried to think it from the bird's perspective cause after all we own the bird. But the bird doesn't know that and we put the bird in the cage and the bird flies and it bangs itself against each one of the bars wanting to get out, wanting to be free. I mean, it starts to fly in that little space, it starts to fly and it gets hurt. And all we say to the bird is "It's OK, take it easy. Relax!" Never, ever understanding that there is this fever, this burning desire to fly without a limit. To be free and when I think of that story in my own life I see that nobody ever taught me nobody ever told me that I need to be happy. Nobody ever told me that I need to feel free. This was innately in me, as it is in all of us. And one day I was in prison. I was imprisoned by a lot of ideas that were like bars, ideas not my ideas, other peoples' ideas and yet instead of telling me that I need to open myself, that I need that expression in my life. There are so many people that are willing to tell me how it is, how it is and nobody is willing to tell me that there is a feeling inside of me that I can respect, that I can belong, that I do belong and that somebody does care. That's all I need to know. Till the last day of your life you're going to want to feel good. And that's inherently in you. And the question is, like the little bird are we trapped?

Have you the urge too
To smile again
With feeling real
No doubt no shame

What's the relationship to this story to us? I think it's very obvious. We seek something, we want something. Maybe you call it fulfillment, maybe you call it love, maybe you call it whatever you want to call it, it really doesn't matter but we have a feeling innately inside all of us. A desire like that little bird to fly and that which we have always sought is right within inside of us. Knowledge is no more than a key, no more than a mirror that can open that desire and allow us to unfold our wings and truly fly. No more than a mirror that can allow us to see who we truly are, appreciate and fall in love with this life again and again and again. And allow our hearts to be filled with gratitude for what we have and then and only then do you fell really, really good. Just that one certain special way.

Have you the urge too
To dance with the divine
With the symphony of life
For an endless time