What is the nature of light? We all know that when light comes, darkness cannot stay. It goes away. Light is the only thing that can make darkness go away. But that's not the only quality of light. There's another quality. Whatever it falls upon, it illuminates. And this process happens by reflection. Each object—each person, the walls, the ceiling, the carpet—has the quality that it can reflect light. When it does, light falls on your eye, and you can see that object.
What does this mean to us as human beings? It means that when light falls on us, what we absorb and especially what we reflect gives us a color. This is the color we will be seen as.
If you absorb everything and reflect hate, if it's all dark, no problem. But if the light falls on you and you are reflecting hate, it will become visible. If you are reflecting peace, that will become visible. A family knows when the father is angry just by one look, "Oops. Father is angry. Disappear."
So, the question is, what do you reflect? What do you want to reflect? Do you reflect the color, "I know everything"? I'm not making a judgment. I'm not here to say that's a pretty color or an ugly color. I am not an interior decorator.
Somebody once asked me, "How would you describe what you do?" I said, "I am the one who carries the mirror, puts it in front of people, and says, 'Look at yourself. Do you like what you see? Great. If you don't like what you see, maybe you can fix it.' This is all I can do—carry the mirror."
Some people don't want to look in the mirror. A lot of people feel threatened by the subject of peace because they don't want somebody to redefine their world by telling them what peace is, what joy is. I am here to point out some simple facts: This is your life. You exist. You're here temporarily, and this earth is temporary. One day—not tomorrow—it is not going to be here.
Recently, I was on a veranda overlooking the city. It was still early. All you could see were lights in people's houses. It looked so tranquil, but there are incredible dramas going on. There are people who are happy or unhappy, people who are fighting or just want to sleep. Amongst those lights, new hopes are being formed and dreams are being shattered. A drama behind a veil that seems so tranquil. An incredible drama.
So, you have this ability to reflect. What do you want to reflect? Do you want to reflect peace because you feel peace, contentment because you feel content? Would you like to have a slight tinge of gratitude? Do you want to feel joy? A joy that is real, that comes from within you, that does not seek triggers from the outside? These hues are not imagination. They have to be real. If they're not real, their reflection will not happen.
A lot of people say, "Oh, I have felt peace before." This is like saying, "I don't need to eat today; I ate last week!" Some people think you feel peace once in your life, and that's it. No. You need to feel peace every day of your life—that's the kind of peace you need.
People go near a quiet lake and say, "Oh, it's so peaceful." Quietness is not an attribute of peace. They have a definition of peace and go around looking for it. But if you're looking for peace by description, you will never find it. Why? How do you search for something you already have? The word "searching" assumes you've lost it. But you never lost it. It's within you.
You have an amazing possibility, and that is to reflect the color of the infinite that is within you. Forget green, blue, and yellow. If you are going to reflect a color, reflect the infinite. This color has shades of peace and hues of contentment. Not questions, but answers. Not ideas, but realities. When you begin to be filled with the color of what is within you, you shine.
As long as you're alive, the light is shining. You need to shine, too. It can happen.
Prem Rawat
in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
In this life, we hear many things. We hear about the road of life, about what is the purpose of life. But the fact of the matter is, no one knows. Each one of us, because we are alive, will make a voyage. What will it be like? No one knows.
You are given a vessel—this human body. By the very fact that it exists, it will make a voyage and go where no one has been before. You might think it will be similar to another person's voyage. No. There are infinite little changes, variables that will make your voyage unlike anyone else's. How you perceive, how you understand is completely unique to you.
Every day is different. Even if you do the same thing every day, no two days are alike. It is not just a question of good or bad; it is how you view it. One day things could be really bad and you're feeling good inside so, "It's not so bad." There could be a day when things are really good but you're not feeling good inside, so you think, "Oh, no. Everything is bad."
How do we make this voyage? What is the purpose of this voyage?
To understand this, you have to begin at point zero. Why? Because you've heard a lot, read a lot of books. This is all information floating in your head. You need to begin at zero—no information. Let's look at the facts, not ideas.
You try to make this body comfortable. You want a soft bed, a soft pillow. When you buy shoes, you walk in them to make sure they're comfortable. We spend a lot of time and energy to make sure our body is externally comfortable. Do we also spend that time to make sure that our existence, our life, is internally comfortable? Or do we learn how to live with disparity, with anger, with confusion?
You start out as a baby. As you get older and older, the body deteriorates. You know it's going to deteriorate, but you try to take care of it, preserve it. You want to be comfortable because this is how you are made. This body does not like pain; it reacts to something hot. It wants to see and hear that which brings you enjoyment. This is how you are.
So, is it any different for what is within you, that the heart also wants to enjoy? Your existence wants to be fulfilled.
What is the ultimate experience? Without being a rocket scientist, I would have to say that the experience of the ultimate would be an ultimate experience. The ultimate would be that power that makes everything possible. Powers it. Moves it. In the whole universe. I'm not going to try to define it because one of the definitions of the ultimate is that it's indefinable. I'm not going to try to explain to you what infinity is; we cannot understand what infinity is.
This universe is amazing, but the fascinating thing is not understanding the universe, but understanding that what powers the universe happens to be within us right now, and we can experience it. And when you do, you are filled with peace, with clarity, with joy. This is when you experience the truest, truest happiness.
How beautiful is this opportunity to make this voyage of life. What do you need to take with you? Do you need anger? Do you need fear? No. These have been given to you, but so has kindness. There is confusion, but there is clarity. There is pain, but there is joy. Pain is the absence. Kindness and joy are the presence.
Your life is about absences and presences, and you need to know the difference. To make doubts go away is impossible, but to bring clarity into your life is very possible. This you can do. In your life, have you put on your list what you do not want or what you do want? For most people, there are all the lists of what they don't want: "I don't want confusion; I don't want poverty; I don't want pain. I don't want this; I don't want that."
Let me help you prepare for this voyage. You try to pack everything, and your back hurts from carrying all those ideas. You don't need everything. Lighten your load. Carry the essentials; that's all you need. Pack clarity. It will see you through most problems. Confusion weighs a lot; clarity weighs so little. Pain weighs so much, and joy so little. These are good things to carry with you because they hardly weigh anything and they make you lighter, too.
Take the voyage. It's a good voyage. Feel the heaven here. This earth was designed for you. Be in that peace. Be in that joy.
Prem Rawat
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This is a metaphor, but it's true: when we come into this world, we're given seeds, and the opportunity truly is what we do with these seeds. What are they?
We can begin with very simple stuff. One of them can be the seed of anger. There is a seed of doubt and a seed of confusion. But there is also a seed of kindness, a seed of love, a seed of understanding. Whatever seed you sow in your garden, in this garden of life, ultimately, this is the tree you will rest under. How restful it will be directly depends on what kind of seed you sow.
There are certain trees that have beautiful flowers, but they produce a sap that does not allow grass to grow underneath. Every seed has a particular quality, something that it offers. But when it is sown, when it grows and becomes a tree, it will have very particular characteristics that you may or may not like.
I'm not here to pass judgment or say what kind of seed you should have sown. I merely point out some of the characteristics. You are capable of making that decision for yourself. You have enough intelligence to choose from a place of clarity what will benefit you the most. Human beings, given the circumstances that they can see clearly, will make the right decision.
What is it that you have planted? If you want to know what you have been nurturing, just open the window and look in your garden. You will see all the trees that are there.
Most of us have sown the seed of anger. There seems to be no hesitation to go near it, but what you end up with—the droppings from this tree—you don't like. And you promise yourself you will never go near this tree again. But either you forget or you have become so used to living this life unconsciously, there is no hesitation to go right back to that tree and get that sap all over you. It's disgusting, and sometimes this sap is so nasty that it can take a lifetime to get it out. Two people love each other, and then each one in turn visits their own little tree and gets sap, and then it's, "I hate you. I wish you were never made."
People plant the seed of doubt: "Is it really going to happen?" The tree of doubt comes. It's also disgusting, because this tree has a dust that comes out of it that gets all over the place, and it takes what could be beautiful and turns it into nothing. In life, one of the biggest lessons to learn is to give every new day the benefit of positive doubt, "Maybe today is my day. Maybe today what he will say to me will be different."
What about understanding? That seed may never have been sown, but it doesn't matter. Whenever you sow these seeds, they will sprout, so it's never too late. But what is the tree of understanding? We are taught to believe—"leap of faith." That could be highly risky, and you don't have to take that. You can replace that with understanding, understanding what it means to be alive.
Most people think, "I know what it means to be alive." But your life is associated with your job, the things that happen around you. That is not your life. These things exist because I do, but they are not my existence. They will change; they may appear and disappear, but I will be. At the hub is your life, your understanding, your steps, your journey, your elation, your filling of heart, and the process of utter and total contentment.
What is it to be content? It is a feeling that emanates from within you, your basic core. Somebody asks you, "Are you satisfied?" You can say, "Yes, I have a good job, a good family, a good car, great friends, and even my pets listen to me, so I must be satisfied." But are you content? Did you sow the seed of contentment?
Look and see what kinds of trees are in your garden. Did you sow the seed of understanding? We breed unconsciousness and then wonder what happens to us in our life. It cannot be. Take a look again at those seeds that you have been given and make some simple decisions, especially if you look in your yard and find a few trees that you assumed should have been there but are not. No problem. Seeds are in hand, sow them. Take care of them.
Nurture kindness in your life and you will be rewarded with the gift of kindness. Sow the seed of love and you will be rewarded with that most incredible feeling of love dancing in your heart. Sow the seed of understanding and you will be rewarded with understanding. Sow the seed of clarity and you will be rewarded with clarity.
Why should you do it? To feel kindness. To feel that true love. To feel that true understanding. To understand what it is like not to be in doubt. To understand that there is a place where there are answers—not for other people, but for you.
Prem Rawat (widely known as Maharaji)
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This world is full of people looking for solutions without identifying what the problem is. It is like the analogy of a house with dirt all around it. Every day the wind blows and the dirt ends up in your house. Every time you watch a commercial about a vacuum or you see a new invention to get rid of dust, you listen. This is how most people's lives progress—waiting, hoping that somebody will come up with a lighter vacuum cleaner with more power. You hear, "Bring in your old one; we'll give you a discount, and you can take home a new one, a better one." Isn't everybody waiting for a better mousetrap? A solution to our problems.
And somebody says, "You don't need a vacuum cleaner; you don't need a duster. This dirt problem can be taken care of." "But, how can that be?" Some people with a touch of wisdom say, "Okay. Tell me." Solution? Plant some grass. Maybe tile the surface. Your problem is dust, but it is exacerbated by the fact that there is so much dust outside and when you open your windows, the wind blows it in.
Does that make sense? Of course. In your life, take notice. What solutions are you looking for? What are you trying to solve? What do you as a human being—not as a parent, relative, employee, employer—what do you want in your life?
If the one thing you have identified keeps changing, you haven't discovered your real want. Because the truest want does not change. That is its nature, its beauty. It's not influenced by what happens around you—who comes and goes in your life. It has nothing to do with that.
You live in a world that constantly changes. You live in a house that changes every day. All the door seals are deteriorating a little bit. No matter how strong your house is, it slowly sags. The earth shifts. All this dust you've been trying to get rid of came together, compacted, and created this planet earth, and now it is shifting. Every day that you just go on with your business, this is what's happening. And here you are.
Imagine that you're going on a week's vacation, and you know the vacation is going to end from the day you begin. You can say, "Oh, this is terrible. It's going to end." Is that what you do—lament? "I dare not have a good time because I know it is going to end." No. Quite the contrary. You want to have the best possible time you can in those days. You don't want to miss a moment, an hour—you want it all. And that is how your life should be lived. Because this vacation called lifetime is going to end. Being afraid is not the point. Too many people are caught up in that. This life cannot be lived in fear or lamenting. This life needs to be lived with a passion—of understanding, of clarity, a feeling of being fulfilled every single day.
We look for solutions to our problems in the concept of utopia. Do this and that, and at the end comes this wonderful time where everything is perfect, I have total realization, all I see is clarity, and I know everything.
There is no such utopia. Your utopia comes every day, because every day that you are alive is perfect. Open your eyes and see how beautiful existence is, what a gift it is. The possibility.
Recently, a hummingbird built a tiny nest outside my office, and laid two little eggs. The mother would come and sit, and then the eggs hatched. I made sure nobody disturbed it. First one came out, sat on a branch, and then flexed his wings. I was able to take some beautiful photos. The mama sat on another branch watching. We got a honey dispenser so she could get food close by, and she was okay with it.
This baby bird had to have total trust. Fear or "it's okay" were the two choices. No logic, no reasoning. Not, "Anybody with a Canon camera wouldn't harm me" or "Somebody who has allowed me to exist up till now won't harm me." No. It could have been total paranoia and panic, but it wasn't. I would come with my camera, and the bird would look, until he got his flying business straightened out and took off. Then it was the next bird's turn, and he was even smaller. He sat on the branch and wouldn't go. It took him longer to get his wings flexed. Then one day, he was gone, too. Same thing: Total fear or trust? Both opted for trust.
What do you opt for in your life? Fear or trust? You can reason and find fear. But with understanding, you realize there is so much more beauty than I could ever fathom, so much more clarity than I could ever understand. That this life is the sweetest gift I will ever have, the most precious gift, given most freely. A car or a house can be replaced, but a breath can never be replaced. And all I have to do is accept it.
People create their scenarios. "Oh, I'm so busy. Got to do this; got to do that." What can I do? Learn in my life how to appreciate. And my appreciation needs to begin with one solitary thing—breath—to understand how precious that is. One life. It is critical that you be clear, determined. Like taking that vacation, no moment shall be wasted.
Prem Rawat
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Something from within tells us that joy is a possibility, happiness is a possibility, that being fulfilled is a possibility. But we want to invent a tool for that, not realizing that an incredible tool has already been given to make this possibility real. This tool is called life. Consider this: life is a tool to accomplish something. This life you have been given can make this possibility real.
Do you want to accept that possibility? The question is not, "Wouldn't you like to be happy?" Everyone would say, "Sure." But do you want to accept that this life is a tool and with it, you can accomplish the greatest of all joy, the greatest of all happiness?
Everything we do, we do to be content. But we don't make the connection that what we do to be content doesn't bring us contentment. All the things we do may be necessary for many reasons, but they are not going to accomplish the one objective called the real joy.
Every day, you are given an opportunity for that. Do you have the ability to look at every day anew? To recognize the value of a moment? To be content? Yes, you do. Do you? Are you?
We are perfectly satisfied being frustrated and expressing our frustration to other people. When something goes wrong, that's what we talk about. No one wants to talk about all the good things that happen. It's not interesting to talk about being alive.
You have the ability to recognize what is good. Do so. If life were a canvas with colors, would you paint? If life were a drum, would you play? Or would you say, "I don't know how to paint. I don't know how to play." "I don't know how" is an excuse. If you really don't know how, you can find out. It takes searching and understanding. That's the tool you have been given. It's called life.
Learning is so far removed from us that we don't understand what it means. We measure our existence by our accomplishments or failures. We live in a world where everything is fixed instantly. There's a fix for everything. People think, "I want to be happy. No problem." This is the message they have ultimately gotten. You don't have to learn or understand anything; everything has a shortcut.
In this world of instant fixes, I tell people, "You need to learn. You need to learn about what this life is." That must come as a really odd message because they think they have come to watch another commercial. "Unhappy? No problem. Here, pop this pill." But I'm saying, "Learn. Open your eyes. See. Look around you. Everything you see and experience, one day you will not be able to see or experience. Understand, because there will be a time you will not be able to understand or know the joy of understanding."
Somehow we want a license to be able to look into the future. You won't get it. And what future do you want? The one you shape? Or a future like a kite that has come undone from the string? Flopping. Randomly, things are happening. What future would you like?
As you see it, the future is uncertain. But for you to be content in the uncertainty can be very certain because that is not sparked by this world. The source of that is within you. And this is what you should learn—the knowledge of the self, the self that you are. And for that, you need to understand that life is a tool.
If you could understand the possibility that exists in this moment, you wouldn't have to look at the past or lament the past. We say, "This is how life is," because somebody we thought was credible told us that, and we never questioned it. But did we ever ask, "How do I use this tool of life I've been given to accomplish what I want to accomplish?"
Some people will say that's the wrong question. Your heart's going to say that's a wonderful question. Ask that question to somebody who knows. The heart knows when it receives the true answer. Everything that happens is meaningful—not meaningless—to further the accomplishment of being fulfilled every single day.
When our conversations are about all that is wrong, listening to news that is good can be difficult. But it is good. It is good that you are alive. It is good that you exist. It is good to be happy. It is good to be content. It is good to be clear. It is good to learn, to understand. It's all about good. It has always been good news. And it always will be good news.Prem Rawat (widely known as Maharaji)
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I travel a lot and talk to people about peace. People have so many different interpretations of peace. Using the analogy of a lamp, we want to see lit lamps of peace on the borders of India and Pakistan, Beirut, Israel, Palestine—wherever it may be. But peace is a little more than lit lamps. And that's what we have to consider.
The body of an oil lamp is made of clay. In the lamp is a cotton wick, and in the bowl is oil. If you light the wick, it will burn for only a few minutes before going out. If you want the lamp to stay lit for a long time, you need oil. You may not actually see it, yet it is the oil that is helping the wick to stay lit and give light.
There is a peace that is not just a surface peace—not just a peace of ideas or conditions, but a peace that goes far beyond those things. The peace that we need to get in touch with and that we should be discussing around the world today is the peace we would like to see reflected on the borders of nations.
People not fighting each other is just a reflection, a consequence of something else that happened. Not the real thing.
A mother or father would like to see their child smile. It's a wonderful feeling. So how should they go about that? Pull their cheeks? Put a piece of wood between their lips?
This is what we try to do. We have created a qualification for peace, and that is: no wars. But "no wars" is a consequence of something, just like war is a consequence of something. Peace will happen when every one of us can feel that feeling of peace within us.
If you want to light a room, you light the lamps. Each lamp is a human being. If you want peace on this earth, you will have to light these lamps called human beings.
We have fundamental needs, and unless they are fulfilled, it really doesn't matter what we do. We have traded today for tomorrow. Today was spent planning for tomorrow. But tomorrow will never come because tomorrow always comes as today. How will tomorrow be spent? Planning for the next day.
The world is in a rut. We have traded peace for prosperity when the formula has always been peace first, then prosperity. Not prosperity, then peace. We think that all we need is prosperity. If everybody had food, everything would be fine. But even when people have food, they still have needs.
There is something that has been the quest of every civilization on the face of this earth. The thirst for peace. The thirst for peace lies within you, and peace is also within you. Begin with yourself. Begin with respecting what today means to you, instead of trading it for tomorrow. What does this moment that you are alive mean to you? Your life is like a necklace—one moment, another moment, another moment, another moment.
You are the first step. Peace begins with you, not somebody else. All our lives, things have come from somewhere else. But the process of peace begins with you. It begins with you understanding the possibility that being alive brings.
So much happens that attracts our attention. Maybe one other thing should attract our attention, and that's the possibility of peace. So much happens that distracts us. Maybe there is one thing we should never be distracted from, and that is the possibility brought by life itself.
I present people with the possibility of themselves. I remind them to pour the oil in the lamp. It's fine to decorate the clay, and you need the wick, but don't forget the oil. There are many priorities and demands, many things that have to be done. But begin with the very simple formula of peace and prosperity. That formula was laid out a long, long time ago. And peace begins with you.
Maharaji
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Not too long ago, I had an interview with a magazine. The interviewer was saying that people have so many explanations. I agree. Who is considered good? The one who can come up with the best explanation. People want to explain God. People want to explain life. People want to explain what is good, what is truth, what is salvation. And these are things that can only be felt but not explained.
You cannot explain what life is. You need to feel it. You cannot explain breath. You need to breathe it. You cannot explain water. If you are thirsty, you need to drink it. You cannot explain food. If you are hungry, you need to eat it.
You cannot explain what this existence means. It can only be felt. If you understand that, an entirely different door opens up to you. You begin to understand by feeling — not through explanations. You begin to understand the preciousness of life, the joy, and the truest responsibility to be in gratitude to the most magnificent power that has made it possible for you to be alive. That's what it means to be alive. Not doubt. Not confusion. Not pain, not suffering, not misery, not darkness. Not sorrow and lamenting and wishing. Being alive means to be crystal clear.
You have imagined this entire existence and what it means. Day after day after day, this monster that you have created could never survive except that you keep feeding it with explanations. Every day, you have to explain what happened, what it means to be alive. Every day, you have excuses for why you were unable to feel gratitude, why you lived another day unconsciously. And before you know it, you run out of days. And then you finally know without a doubt all that you should have done. But now you don't have the means to do it! People have explanations for that, too: "Life is cruel."
When you live in the world of explanations, what will you hear? More explanations. And what I am telling you is that more explanations is not what you need. What you need is real water to quench your thirst, not another explanation of water. What you need is real food to satisfy your hunger. Otherwise, you're going to go hungry from here on out. Satisfying your hunger is not about explanations or ideas or being close to food. If that were the case, hungry people would lean on restaurant walls and be satisfied.
If it won't work with food, why would it work in the inner realm? Is the hunger for peace an illusion? Or is it real? Is the hunger to be content an illusion? Or is it real? A very good question. And the answer is: It's not an illusion! It touches every single human being on the face of this earth, and it has been an issue since time immemorial. What people have done is to learn how to evade the issue — not tackle it but evade it.
I tell everyone who will listen to me that you don't need to evade it. Peace is real, joy is real, contentment is real, and there is a way to get to it. I know. I've been talking to people about it for a long time. Don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself.
Somebody told me, "Here is a person who is very independent." I said, "He is dependent on being independent." We would all like to be "independent" because we are so dependent on being independent. Another explanation.
We're drowning in our own explanations. Why do you have so many explanations? You cannot explain it. Who can? Everybody has an explanation. Why are there people dying? People have explanations. Why are there people hungry in this world? People have explanations. But why do you have so many explanations for these things? Nobody knows.
Feel at home in peace, not in confusion. Feel at home in the feeling, not in explanations. Feel at home in your true self.
If you want to be independent, then be independent of confusion. Be independent of doubt. Be independent of all that is not yours. And feel. Feel reality in its magnificence. Not from fear. Because fear is not yours, either. You were made to behold joy. This is what belongs in this vessel, in this human body. This is what it was made for. Not all the other stuff.
Who you listen to is up to you. That's always your choice. You can listen to the voice inside of you that says, "Everything is wrong." Or you can listen to the voice that says, "Be. Be free. Be clear. Enjoy this life."
Many people will tell you that you don't have a choice. I know you have a choice. Every day that you hear the two voices, you have a choice which one to listen to. You won't be able to stop hearing them. But which one you pay attention to is up to you. Know. Understand. And be fulfilled. Every day. No excuses. No explanations. Be fulfilled every single day.
When I talk, people say, "I have never heard that explanation before!" I tell them, "This is not an explanation. I'm offering you the real thing." Feel it. Feel that peace in your life. This is the real thing. The magazine interviewer asked me, "So, do you just go around showing people pictures of wells?" I said, "No, I make sure that their thirst is quenched. This is the possibility that I present."
Prem Rawat
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Here is a riddle: There is something that we have all been given plenty of, but it's never enough. We want more. Everybody goes around pretending they don't have enough of it. We're given this one thing, but we can never keep it. What do you suppose it is? Time.
We say, "I don't have time. I don't have time. I don't have time." And it just keeps coming and coming. All the time we get is ours, but we don't get to keep any of it. It slips through, and the only thing we are left with is what we do in that time.
So what is it that we should do in that time? Don't underestimate this little question. This has been debated for centuries: What should we do? We are such "do" creatures that we forget certain fundamental things.
The thirst for fulfillment is innate; it is within you. If you feel the thirst, you are doing what you should be doing. We are driven to do so much in our lives. We think we have to do so much. All our responsibilities, all our ideas, all our thoughts—it's, "Do, do, do."
But once in our lifetime, it would be nice to sit down and feel what we really want to do. The quest for doing it would come from within, not from the outside. It would not be driven by this world. So much of what we think we have to do comes from somebody else.
What does the bathroom cabinet of life look like? All the fixes: "Take this anti-stress thing. Go for a walk, go for a jog, go do this, go do that." Nobody says, "Why are you getting stressed?" It's something to think about because there is one more element to living that we have not included. It's not about going to the moon, and it's not about accomplishments, and it's not about what we could do.
There is another quest within each human being, and that is the desire to be fulfilled, not in thought or imagination, but in earnest. It is the desire to be in that one place which is surrounded by certainty, peace.
Life is not about solving problems. Every time you solve a problem, there will be another one. In fact, some days you feel that you better not solve problems because that is the only way to avoid new ones.
People make excuses why we cannot have peace, but how many recognize that the quest for peace has been going on for an extremely long time. We have had a dream for a really, really long time. A spectacular dream, a dream that said to be in peace—not fear, doubt, pain, sorrow, or confusion—a dream to be in clarity.
Peace is to be in clarity, to feel that understanding, to be in joy not sorrow. And there dwells reality—not a theory, an argument, a definition—but a feeling. True reality is a feeling, to know in clarity.
Peace is the reward. Joy is the reward. A life fulfilled—one at a time. That is the most incredible reward you can ever have. It's the highest honor, the most noble quest—the quest for peace. It is always noble because there's no end. Those who have felt the peace rejoice. The truest victory for every human being is not all the deserts you could cross or the mountains you could climb. It is about feeling, joining, admiring the place within. This is life, not the things that happen in it.
Each breath is a blessing. Be a fisherman. Somebody can show you how to cast that net within and catch as many of those blessings in your life as you can. Reel them in. Fill this vessel, understand, and rejoice. Feel free, really free. Feel the ultimate feeling. Feel happiness, peace every day. Feel the gratitude in your life every day. That's what life is about.Maharaji
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in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
Let me begin with this: What makes a cow happy? I've been around cows, and I can tell you one thing. When a cow is being a cow, the cow is the happiest. When is an alligator happy? Being an alligator. You can put a diamond-laced chain on the neck of that alligator, put lipstick on it, tie it onto a very expensive chair, and say, "You look beautiful." But the alligator doesn't really care about those things. It just wants to be an alligator; it just wants to do the alligator thing—whatever that is. Being a cat is what makes a cat happy. Being a dog is what makes a dog happy. So what is it that makes the human being happy?
The question is: what makes you happy? Before you answer that, keep one thing in mind. The alligator is not dependent on anything else—just being itself is what makes it happy. For the cat it is being a cat.
It would be a sad day if your happiness depended on someone else or something else. If it did, you're in trouble. Now your life is dedicated not to enjoying happiness, but to having that person around who makes you happy or preserving that situation that makes you happy.
People ask: "What are we doing in this world?" We try to preserve all that we think is good, that we like. The whole world is busy trying to make that happen. Nobody's enjoying themselves because enjoyment is not important now; what has become important is to make sure that those circumstances are there, that those people are there.
Can true joy be dependent on anyone else? Is that a harsh or a sweet reality? For those who have felt true joy, it is the sweetest reality. It's a reality that says, "I exist. I am alive. The most beautiful gift, most incredible wealth of breath is being given to me and I am conscious. I am aware. I have not only a yearning to be happy, but I have the source of happiness within me." Both things. Having the yearning to be in peace and the source of peace within you are both important. A lot of people want to know about peace and ask me, "So where is it? How can we get it?"
I tell them, "Peace isn't the problem. Peace is inside of you. I know that. And in fact, you know that. The problem isn't peace; the problem is the yearning." Standing in the middle of the farm where you have tomatoes, eggplant, oranges, and a peach tree, the problem isn't food. The problem is hunger. Peace is innate. The issue is your desire for peace.
How can I be dependent upon myself when I don't even know who I am? Who am I? An alligator knows who an alligator is. A cat knows who a cat is. A dog knows, "I'm a dog." The human being, who has the biggest brain per body size, who has the run of the earth and the surface of the ocean, asks: "Why am I here? What am I doing here? Who am I?"
Maybe I will be happiest if I can just be me—if I only knew who I was. In your life, things change and have kept changing. There were things that were not good, and they went. And there were things that were superb, and they went, too—an indiscriminate throwing out of stuff. The only thing that has remained constant is the desire to be fulfilled.
When I am fulfilled, the desire to be fulfilled even grows greater. It's like love. When you don't love, there is no love. When you love, then you love even more, and then you can love even more. And then you can love even more.
A lot of people think the objective in life is to be fulfilled so that they won't have the desire to be fulfilled. That would be a sad day. When you fall in love with someone, you don't actually fall in love so that you can stop loving—do you? You fall in love so you can love even more, and that has remained constant.
You can truly enjoy your life. I offer the possibility of knowing you so that you can be you. Without knowing you, you cannot be you, and if you cannot be you, you cannot be happy—like the cat, the crocodile, and the cow. It's important for you to know you so that you can be as happy as you can be. This is how simple it is.
Find out who you are so you can be who you are. Whenever, wherever, even in the dark hours, be who you are so you can be happy, so you can be content, so you can find peace. Yes, you have many, many important things that you have to do. Place this one at the top, and then all the rest will fall in place.
Prem Rawat
in Maharaji: Life, Maharaji: Peace | Permalink
Here we are.
Somehow it all happened. There is this beautiful planet earth—just gorgeous. The blue is just amazing. The rivers—the way they run, the way they sound, the way the sunlight shines on them and creates all these ripples. The green leaves—the turning of the leaves in the fall, and then the dancing of each leaf in the wind. It is spectacular. Deserts—just sand and more sand and rock formations.
And then you, who can appreciate it all. This earth cooled down to just the right temperature so that you can exist. Variations. The seasons—winter and the thawing of winter turns into spring, where life begins anew.
You are placed on this earth. You're not going to last for billions of years. This story unfolds from almost nothing. One part unfolds, then another and another. It does a little dance of unfolding, and then it folds back up into that nothing. From that nothing to the unfolding to the folding back again is your existence, your story. Not somebody else's story or their story for you as drafted by them, but your story as drafted by you.
Some people say, "Destiny is prewritten; whatever is written on each one of those pages is already written." So then why pray? Whose mind are you trying to change? And if you pray and you think it works, then you have to change the definition of destiny. It's not prewritten; it can be influenced.
Other people say, "I am responsible for unfolding every bit. I am the one who writes everything." How about a happy medium? The fact that each part of the story is going to unfold is destiny, but there's nothing written on the pages. The paper feeder is automatic. You write the story. What would you like to write? What should your story be like? Should it be about suffering, pain, anger, and a list of all the things you don't have? Or should it be a really interesting story? The adventure.
The biggest adventure is not climbing Mt. Everest. That's been done. The biggest adventure that will ever unfold in your life is you finding you. The story is fun. It is delicious, and it is the biggest mystery: You are never far from yourself, ever. The closest you will ever be to anyone is you, and the one you don't know is you. You know everybody else, and what you have to do is find you.
Talk about an adventure—this is Dragon Land. Here, dragons are not imagination. They really exist. If you don't tame the dragon in your adventure, it will eat you. And if you do tame the dragon, you get to fly on its back wherever you want to go.
In this story, there are swords, but there is one sword that has unbelievable powers—the sword of clarity. Everyone has it but is afraid of it. They're not afraid of the dragon. They should be, because the dragon has only one mission in mind: Food. And if you are not careful, some of your most treasured things will be taken away from you.
You are the protector, the knight in shining armor of this story. You have the sword of clarity that can make everything right, but you're afraid to pull it out.
Does this adventure start from your birth and then there is a happy ending? No, this story plays out every single day. You get to make a happy ending and you get to be victorious every day. Can you change the story? That's a million-dollar question. A lot of people will tell you, "No. You cannot." Me? Yes, of course you can change the story. And not only that, I have seen it changed. Even in your most frustrated, darkest day, there's a place inside of you where you can go, touch that place within, and your story has changed.
If you choose to change the story, I'm here to help and I can help. I've helped a lot of people. But the most important thing is that there is a lot of hope. If you really understand that you can change the story, there's a tremendous amount of hope—hope that this life can be fulfilled every single day. And that is a mighty nice hope to have. And not only hope, but tools to make it real.
Maharaji
