A Bridge to Peace, Prem Rawat at Kensington Palace, London, England, 29th June 2012
Criticism of Prem Rawat's sleazy attempts to gain respectability should not be taken as any criticism of the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. It would be difficult to find a worthier institution.
The St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group is related to the St John Ambuance Foundation historically, if not otherwise. The Order of St John has a tenuous connection to the original Knights Hospitalliers, one of the Crusader knights organisations which fought in and lost the Holy Land and later ruled in Rhodes and then Malta prospering in the capture and trading of Muslim slaves.
This night was probably the most prestigious event with which Rawat was ever associated. It cost the Prem Rawat Foundation a donation of £70,000 and probably the expenses of the night for these accolades. He kept the speech very short. TPRF did not become a regular Major Donor of the St John Eye Hospital, it was more of smash and grab seeking prestige. It was educational to hear the normal, intelligent speakers contrasted to Prem Rawat who, it must be said, was as close to reasonable as he can be.
Ms Seymour's comments certainly make a mockery of Rawat's claims to teach something unique, that peace is within. Her short conversation was far more intelligent and sensitive than Rawat's speech. She spoke of family, education, tolerance and that peace within can be independently found and, she hopes, spread by person to person contact without any reference to or need for Rawat.
His claims are ridiculous. "Peace within" is probably the dominant belief amongst the bien pensant. Of course, Rawat has a unique meaning for the word 'peace'. Sara Sidner was there to "interview" Rawat.
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A Bridge to Peace
Prem Rawat at Kensington Palace
London, England
In the Presence of His Royal Highness
The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO
29th June 2012
Voiceover: The Kensington Palace event was in support of the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital founded by the St Johns Knights Hospitalliers a 900 year old order of chivalry. The eye hospital provides essential humanitarian eye care in east Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank, treating over 100,000 patients a year. The Prem Rawat Foundation has been supporting the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital for five years with eye care grants, especially for children. The audience, including members of the House of Lords, academics, politicians and celebrities, were welcomed into the state room of this historic Royal Palace. The event was opened by its master of ceremonies, Paul Bloomfield, a member of the Order of St John. He first spoke of the historic importance of London's physical bridges in connecting people and bringing an explosion in prosperity before talking about other kinds of less tangible but equally important bridges.
Paul Bloomfield: Bridges in life, bridges of humanitarianism, of generosity, of kindness, of peace and connecting people and cultures and inspiring and transforming lives and thus, our theme tonight, a bridge to peace. And even though barriers may seem unsurmountable, if we build the bridges of kindness, humanitarianism and peace, I believe that they can be as tangible in their effects as the bridges of London are today.
Dr David H. Verity: Now, patients are treated without prejudice, and there is a long history of similar commitment and service from colleagues from the Israeli hospitals. And this is where the concept of the bridge becomes so important. There are many world class doctors from the Israeli Hadassah Hospital who share their experience with St. John, crossing this political divide by this bridge to peace. And I feel that all of these staff and volunteers in their own and different ways exhibit the spirit of St John and what is that? Embodied by a duty of care to the sick. Compassion? Yes, compassion, acting as servants of the poor as the brothers did in the 11th century. And so in summary, we are all this evening fortunate in our own diverse ways, be it through ability, influence, good health or intellect and I remember a very favourite saying of my father, which is that "To whom much is given, much is expected" and my own favourite saying is that from John Burke but adapted "The only requirement for hardship to triumph is that good men and women do nothing."
We are inspired by the founding order some 900 years ago. Will our descendants in millenniums hence look back on us and be similarly inspired by our example? And so this evening is a celebration of St John, of the humanitarian principles which underpin its work, of the spirit of ordinary and extraordinary people committed to the same service of others, irrespective of faith, irrespective of political persuasion and without prejudice. Thank you.
Dr Omar Hayat, Trrustee of the Gandhi Foundation: It gives me great pleasure informing you that the Gandhi Foundation trustees have chosen to award the Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award for 2012 to the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital. The trustees felt that the eye hospital has been guided by one of the highest forms of humanitarian ideals, that of bringing medical care to an impoverished and politically unstable area. Thank you very much.
Philip Hardaker, Chairman of the St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital: It costs us about 6 1/2 million pounds a year to run the hospital and its clinics. As David said we treat anybody. So we only recover about 40% of that actually in patient fees. So we're very reliant on grants and donations to balance the books and to expand our provision, Gaza is an interesting place and we have a clinic there which was open 20 years ago this year actually. It's a very small clinic. Treats around 20,000 people a year. What David didn't mention when he talked about the number of people in the hospital is that no one comes on their own to the hospital out there. No one comes with one accompaniment. A family come .So you get this sort of sea of people and trying to work out how many patients are actually in that sea is quite difficult. It won't be easy but we're determined to improve the quality of care we offer in Gaza. It now falls to me to introduce our keynote speaker, Prem Rawat. He formed the Prem Rawat Foundation in 2001 as a platform for peace. To provide critically important basics of life to those most in need with a special focus on eye care as well as food and clean water. We're delighted to say that we have benefited, thanks to the executives of Prem Rawat Foundation for the last five years. The Foundation is intrinsically dedicated to peace, non-political and non-denominational. Prem is invited to speak at international forums throughout the world about the possibility of peace. He has dedicated his life to this purpose. Your Royal Highness, lords, ladies and gentlemen may I introduce Prem Rawat.
Prem Rawat: Your Royal Highness, lords, ladies and gentlemen.
It's a pleasure to be here this evening and particularly talking about the subject of peace. You've already heard wonderful things that are being done by St. John's to help people. And I will just throw in a little bit about peace. We have Prem Rawat Foundation and Prem Rawat Foundation truly believes in prosperity, peace and dignity. So we really don't feel that it is out of place when we talk about peace even in such a context. So maybe it is time to very simply put what is peace? I mean, I am not going to make a very sophisticated case for it because I think everybody feels that need in their lives because in my travels when I come to people, it doesn't matter if they're rich, if they're poor. That's what they want in their lives. They want peace. But what they get instead is all these wars. All these ideas that they do not actually want. One time a whole bunch of very important people were put in a room to come to some conclusion. about some state policy and they were all arguing with each other. Each one of them was making his own argument and just going at it. There was somebody in the room and he turned to a man who was sitting very quietly. And he said, do you think they will ever reach a consensus? He said, "Oh yeah, they will. They definitely will reach a consensus." He goes "When?" He says "At lunchtime, because we can have all different ideas but when there is a need it supersedes theories and philosophies and ideas and ideals. Because it says this is important. This is necessary.
What have we learned? Where is the evolvement? Where is the true human being, the crown of creation acting worse than the very beings it's supposed to be ahead of. And when I see in people like you the interest to have peace. It is truly a very elating feeling. Have you ever flown into London at night? It looks beautiful beautiful. But have you ever thought for a moment? What? What are you looking at? You're looking at individual bulbs. One. Another one. Another one. Another one All coming together and making that show but it is each one. This is the basic foundations. We are the foundations of peace. We are the foundations of war. We have to be the foundation of peace. The peace that I talk about, the peace that I talk about is not just absence of war.
You know you've heard so much about the eye hospital. If a patient comes and says "Doctor, my eye is hurting and I cannot see out of it." What will the doctor do? Say "Well, here. Let me just give you this pain medication and go away." That's it. The doctor's approach is, let's find out what is wrong. Because an eye hurting is not normal. Doctor could say "But of course it's normal. In your situation its normal, so fine, go away." No. Eye hurting is not normal. Not being able to see out of it is not normal. Let's find the problem and then diagnosis. And once the diagnosis is confirmed, followed by treatment and the outcome, can see, hopefully, can see and no more pain.
Worse, in this world. That's a symptom. That's a symptom. The cause is something else. Have you ever seen an ocean? When it's raging, big waves. And have you seen an ocean when it's calm? It's the same ocean. What's the difference? When there are factors like the wind agitating over a long period of time the surface of the ocean, the waves buil. But when those factors are removed, believe it or not, the state of ocean in being normal is calm. Same way, when I talk about peace, I'm talking about the individual inner peace. So social peace will follow. Social peace will follow only when the individual peace establishes itself. There's a lot of bad in this world. And there's a lot of good in this world. Anybody who is trying to pursue the awakening of peace has to address the good in it. As one of the programmes that the Prem Rawat Foundation has is reaching out to people who are in prison. And we have had a phenomenal success. Really phenomenal success, reaching out to people in prison. And these people have done what is wrong. But what has been really amazing is that the institutions around these facilities, around prisons are starting to recognise the change in these people. And the change is of fundamental nature. When they are changing, not pretending to change but they actually are changing and finding that to be more freeing than anything else. How can that be? I at the beginning of this year actually went to one of the prison facilities to speak to them to see. Somebody got up, one of the kids got up and he said I I I I never smile and everybody would tell me you better smile if you want people to like you. But I couldn't bring myself up to smile and he says since I have been in the programme that the foundation puts out I've been smiling. To make a human being complete then the most wonderful wonderful things begin to happen.
Peace is not an unreachable goal, by any stretch of the imagination. It is each person recognising their strength. What is the quality of a lit lamp? The quality of a lit lamp is that it can light other lamps. An unlit lamp cannot light other lamps regardless of how much it tries but a lit lamp can light other unlit lamps. Light yourself with understanding of peace with the goodness that exists in your heart, in your being. For the most noblest of causes on the face of the Earth. Peace. This is our time. Best foot forward and everything we can do to make it possible. We have to after all. Do we have a choice? I don't think so. Thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you.
After the event, key speakers and attendees expressed their perspectives on the themes of the day including the president of the Prem Rawat Foundation, Linda Pascotto who spoke of the Foundation's support for the St. John's Eye Hospital
Linda Pascotto: the founder, Mr Prem Rawat, has acknowledged the work that they're doing and feels that it is a bridge for peace when people can come together and help one another without regards for politics, without regards for culture, without regards for anything else.
Paul Vincent Cable: We can make a difference by looking inside us, and by finding peace in ourselves, that peace kind of radiates out into the world, which is a very empowering message.
Jane Seymour, Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman and Actor: It appealed to me enormously. The theme of the evening. I absolutely believe in peace. The way I was raised, the way I raised my children is to appreciate and understand all cultures and beliefs and my personal belief is that the divine is within and that if we can only access that independently and then spread it out as you know, to people we touch in our lives and hope that that people can do that, that there is a chance for peace in this world and I want peace in this world more than anything and I do believe that you can't have peace in the world until you find peace within.
Sara Sidner: What was it about this particular hospital in the Holy Land that attracted your attention and the Prem Rawat Foundation's attention. Why this place? Why put money towards this sort of place?
Prem Rawat: I think what they're doing is really amazing. I mean in the face of all the stuff that's going on in that area, you know, because at one point in time it was what it was and people were displaced and it has brought so much problem for the areas, you know, and to go in the midst of of of all these problems and to reach people who really need that attention, who need that care. Ah we really felt that that was a very noble cause because you know sometimes people get caught up in the politics of it and the controversies of it and so on and so forth but to cut that out, put that aside and say "Look we need to reach out to people." That's why I think the Prem Rawat Foundation was really attracted by this so that we can reach the people. I mean this is, in a way, what Prem Rawat Foundation's goal really is to get the help where it's really needed and not just to rely on systems but to really make. sure that those people who need it, get it.
Sara Sidner: When you talk about need, you talk a lot about inner peace. Is this something that we all knew as children and forgot. Why is it so difficult for the world to find peace if it's already inside of us?
Prem Rawat: You know I truly believe that when you look at it, on a very simple level, and everywhere I go people love the idea of peace. They know what it is, they want it, they want it. There's no question about it but what it seems to them is like it's such a impossible task to get through all the stuff that exists out there and most of it has to do with people's mentality of saying war is easier, peace is more difficult but it's not true. It's the other side of the same coin and on one side yes you have war and it is made by people. It is made by people. People create wars. People, if they want, can create the peaceful environment as well.
Sara Sidner: All right, last question. You talked about, you believe it's possible, you talked about each one of us being a light. There are a lot of doomsdayers out there who think things have got much worse. They're going to get much worse and that it's all downhill from here. Are they right?
Prem Rawat: Well, if we don't awaken then that's what's going to happen. Because to me, if you're going to go round with your eyes closed, something nice is not going to happen. That's why we need to open our eyes, be alert, be aware, because we can make it happen. There is people power. I truly believe that. People, if they want to do this, they can do it. I don't think there is a barrier to human potential.