Prem Rawat in Athens 2011-07-06

Your Truest Nature
Prem Rawat in Athens 6th July 2011

So, thank you. And I'm here to talk to you about something very important. Something that's not about words. Even though today I'm going to have to use words to convey what I feel. But what I really want to convey cannot be conveyed by words. Because it's about clarity. It is about understanding. It is about being in the know. In the know how. Not philosophies. Not ideas. Not arguments. Because this is what people do. Whatever I'm going to say can be argued one way or the other way. If I say to you, you need peace. You can have one speaker come over there and argue that's not true. And you can have one speaker go over there and argue it's true. And the argument can go on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Because I'll tell you a little story about arguments. This is a story from India. And in India there used to be this emperor Akbar. In his court he had a very wise guy. Very wise person. And his name was Birbal.

And because Birbal was very close to the emperor, all the other courtiers were very jealous of him. They didn't like him. So they always would try to get rid of him somehow. Get rid of him. One day the emperor Akbar was holding his court. And one courtier says, your majesty, wouldn't you like to know how many crows there are in your city? So the emperor understood this is obviously a ploy to make Birbal look bad, because this is going to go to him. And so the emperor said, and who do you think should tell me how many crows there are in my city? He said, well, I think Birbal, he's the smartest. He should tell you how many crows there are. So the emperor turned to Birbal and said, Birbal, tell me. How many crows there are in my city? And Birbal said, your majesty, there are 38,450 crows in your city. Even the king was shocked. How did you know? He said, if you don't believe me, go count them. So Akbar was very confused. He said, Birbal, what if there are less crows than 38,450? What are you going to do? He says, oh, if there's less crows, that only means one thing. Some of them have gone to visit their relatives. And he said, but what if there's more? This is all. That's easy too. That means some of their relatives are visiting them. Argument. But what do you know? Argument doesn't go anywhere. What you know is what counts. In the desert, when you are thirsty, it is not the pictures of water that is going to help. It is the water that you have in the bottle that is going to quench your thirst. So what do you know? What do you know about you? You.

Who are you? What are you? What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to have this breath? What does it mean to have the ability to understand? What is your truest desire? Your truest desire. What is your truest wish? What is your truest hunger? What is your truest thirst? What is the most precious to you? And indeed, what makes you truly, truly, not entertainment happy, not movie happy? Now, the questions that I have asked are not superficial. I am talking about your core. If you were to lose everything, cat, gone, dog, disappeared, husband, wife, and you could still be happy. I know some of you are like, no, no, no, no, no. I could never be happy. When you were born, how many husbands did you have? When you were born, how many wives did you have? How many wives did you have? How many girlfriends did you have? And so did you, even in that time, did you know when you were happy? Or because you didn't have boyfriends, you didn't have girlfriends, you didn't have a car, you didn't have a job, you didn't have a house, you didn't have a cat, you didn't have a dog, you were incapable of being happy? Were you? You were incapable of being happy? Incapable of being happy? Really? Never seen a little baby? What makes you really the truest happiness, the truest joy? See, all day long, tomorrow, day after that, yesterday, day before that, yeah, this would be nice, this would be nice, this will make me happy, that'll make me happy, an advertisement on the television, oh, yes, you need to eat this yogurt, you need to have this bread, you need to have this fashion, you need to have this dress, oh, look at that car, look at this, look at that. All these things, but for one hour today, and less than one hour left, but one hour today, I would like to ask you perhaps the most challenging question, what makes you truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly, truly happy? Is it something or is it you? Your deepest desire, is it something or is it something in you? In you? In you? Because this, my friends, this here, is the home of contentment, here. In this, here, not me, you too, I just am using my body, but you can use yours. This is the home of peace, home, home. This is the home of true love, this is the home of kindness, this is the home of joy, joy. This is the home of enlightenment, this is the home of perfection, this is the home of all homes, this is where the reality resides. Did you know that? Did you know that? Did you know that? Did you? Really? Have you ever been born? Ever? Ever? Have you ever been born? How can a human being, which is the house of joy, which is the house, the home of perfection, of clarity, be born? Oh, don't take it too far. I get bored too. When do I get bored? When I'm not happy. It's boring. And I think you will find the same with you. When you are not happy, you get bored. Why am I here? What am I doing? See, I am not here to say I am perfect and you're not. That would be wrong. That would be just wrong. So I come here with all the humility to tell you what I have discovered. And I have found that for me to hear me, I have to be silent. For me to hear me, I have to be silent.

For me to be present, all that confuses me has to be absent. And when I can learn to listen to myself, listen to myself, I am rewarded with gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. I am rewarded with fulfillment. Fulfillment is not an accident. Peace is not an accident. Joy is not an accident. Peace is not an accident. It happens. It happens when it is all correct. Like in the desert, the blooming of the flowers is not an accident. Through thousands of years, these flowers have evolved to lie dormant and wait for the rain. And they wait, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait. And they wait, and they wait, and they wait. We wait for an airplane at the airport, half an hour late, already impatient, when, when, when, why is it late, why is it late, why is this, why, why is it late, why is it late? Go to a movie theater and the movie isn't started and it's time, why, what happened, what happened, what happened, what happened? These little seeds, these flowers are waiting for a year, a year, and sometimes no rain and they wait for another year, a year, not five minutes, a year, and when it rains, they're ready. Ready for what? To bloom, to bloom, and every drop that drops is used to bloom. The rain of understanding, the rain of knowing is what you have been also waiting for. The question is, are you ready? Because it is going to rain, it is. These flowers, these seeds have not been to a meteorology class. They don't know about evaporation, they don't know about condensation, they don't know about the trope or the tropopause, they don't know about the jet streams, they don't know about the Northern Hemisphere, they don't know about the Southern Hemisphere, they don't know about the equator, they don't know that the northern winds from the polar caps comes towards the equator and then turns around and goes back out towards the caps. Southern one goes to the south, northern one comes from the north and goes to the north, southern one comes from the south and goes to the south. They don't know any of this, they don't know about adiabatic cooling, but they know one thing clearly, it will rain, it will rain. It's not a prophecy because if it had never rained, they wouldn't be there.

The fact that they are there is because it rained, because the generation before became a flower and left off its seeds and this is what they are and they're waiting. And it rain comes and the flowers bloom and the whole desert is transformed. It's transformed, it dances, it dances and it dances and it dances and it dances with color and it dances with life. You cannot make this magic happen by getting artificial flowers and putting it there. No, it would not work. This is magic. In your life, time. This miracle needs to take place, this magic needs to happen that you feel in your life fulfillment, that you feel in your life peace, that you feel in your life the truest joy, that your truest wish is fulfilled, that you are complete. I have been many many places, I have talked about this for a very very long time, long long time. So much has happened in my life, I don't even remember it all. I don't. I started talking about peace, I started talking about gratitude, I started talking about fulfillment when I was four years old. Not just talking, talking to people. 100 here, 200 there, thousand here, thousand there, 10,000, 20,000, 180,000, 300,000. All around the world, reaching out and trying to paint a little painting of life. My palette, my brush, my color is my words and the challenge I have that what I want to truly convey is way beyond the words. But, I try, I try. Because you're alive, because I am alive, we have an opportunity, an opportunity to understand, an opportunity to make a difference. People say, in the world? No, each individual human being, because that's the home of peace. World is not the home of peace. People are trying to take what peace would look like if everybody had peace and they say, well let's make that happen, let's simulate that. Peace cannot be simulated, it has to be real. When one person does something horrible, it is that person that does it, not the world, that person. Why? Because that person does not understand who he is.

In the equation, they know everything, but they don't know themselves. I am always fascinated by Greece, I am. I've been coming here for a long time. The first time I came, I was like, wow, it was like being in a holy place. Coming from India, you know, that's saying something. Why? Because you look, and little bit, little bit, you hear that there was somebody here, long, long time ago, stood up somewhere, sat down somewhere, and said something so simple, and yet so incredibly profound. So simple, and yet so incredibly profound. Know thyself. Sorry. Can it get more simpler than that? Can it get more simpler than that? And can it get more profound than that? Soccer teams, the search to look, to understand, to develop, to develop the idea of democracy. Civilization that aspired to bring happiness and good life to all. These were the ideals. Unfortunately, unfortunately, if a report card has to be submitted to Socrates, it will not look very nice. I'm saying what I'm saying. This doesn't mean that there isn't goodness in this world. There is. I'm not saying there's no kindness in this world. There is. But you know, there are some rules, strange as they may sound. One glass of water, completely clean. One glass of water, completely clean. One small speck of bird doo-doo. There is minuscule by volume. Falls in that water, and guess what? It isn't that the pure water purifies the doo-doo.

The doo-doo contaminates the pure water. That's why it's so important to have clarity. To keep company with clarity, not with stuff that contaminates us. And what contaminates us? Not knowing who you are is a disease. It's a disease. It should be absolutely labeled as the worst chronic problem. Look, today, more people are educated than they ever were. Ever. There's more schools today. There's the internet. Actually, talking about that, today I was driving and I started laughing because I remember when we would see, when I was young, I would see people who were talking to themselves. We always thought they were crazy. A person is walking and talking to themselves. I remember there was a guy like that where I was growing up. It was just one guy and he would always be talking to himself. And people would tell me, oh yeah, he's crazy. Today, I saw like 30 people. They were walking and they were just talking to themselves. And then I realized, you know, they had their little Bluetooth. They were talking on the phone and they put their Bluetooth on, but going on with their hands and walking. Thank you, technology. It's made a crazy out of all of us. And so, this disease, despite more gold has been dug out than there ever was. More diamonds have been dug out than there ever were.

More buildings have been created than there ever were. There's more towns and cities and technology and telephones and televisions and entertainment and movies. I mean, you know, in the old days, Shakespeare did a show. I mean, you were lucky if you happened to be there. You go there, see it, whatever. And now, forget Shakespeare. Boom, boom, one button here, one button here, and you're being entertained. There's more songs now than there ever were. There's more music now than there ever was. And there is more craziness now than there ever was. How can this be? You see, all this was not able to stop greed. Some of the greediest people on the face of this earth are incredibly highly educated people. They're the top of the top. Top of the top. And the amount of greed that there is, is off the scale. How can that be? What happened to kindness? What happened to generosity? What? What happened to generosity? What happened to generosity? Yesterday, when I was driving from the airport, I was talking about this. And I said, and I won't say his name, but I said, if I went to the house of the richest person on the face of this earth, if I went to the house of the richest person on the face of this earth, and asked for a glass of water, I may not get it. But if I go to a poor farmer in the middle of the village in India, I am guaranteed water. It may not be in a glass. It may be in his mask. It may be by hand. But I am guaranteed water. Only when we begin to know ourselves do we realize that the treasures we seek on the outside are the treasures that are within us. That that compassion that we seek from the others is the compassion that is already within us.

That that generosity that we need in our lives is the generosity that is already within us. And this generosity, I'll tell you about it. You know what is the greatest gift? And given so abundantly. And it is generosity beyond belief. And all you have to do is look at your generosity. It is the most precious thing. A lot of people, I'm sure sitting there, the little thing is going, where's the breath? What's he talking about? Breath? Look, two times, this breath is going to be incredibly important in a person's lifetime. Incredibly, incredibly important. One has already happened is the day you were born. When my children were born, I was there. I was there. And I remember with each one, the issue wasn't boy or a girl. The issue was, is he or she breathing? Now, I'm sure there's mothers here. You know how important that is? Baby comes out. And if it doesn't breathe, the doctor picks it up, holds it upside down, give it a whack. And that's it. Another one, if it doesn't breathe. Sometimes then they will put the baby back down, take the thing and suck some of the fluid from the mouth and then try again. And they will keep trying and keep trying and keep trying and keep trying and keep trying and keep trying till that baby breathes. And if that baby did not breathe, it's not going home. So very important. And there's one more day, very important. That's coming. That's coming.

That day, the last day, is he breathing? If the machine says you're dead, you know, in the hospital, they have the machines, you're dead. And you're still breathing. And the doctor walks in. What do you think the doctor will hit? The machine or you? You think the doctor will go, hey, stupid? Look at the machine. It says you're dead. Stop breathing. No, you're breathing. The doctor, you are breathing. The doctor will get the machine is broken. He's going to hit the machine, not you. Incredibly important. No, no. I want you to also understand it's important every single day. Because it is generosity at its best. It is life. And the life dances. It is real. Do you get scared with your problems? When the problems come, does that scare you? Of course, it scares me. But I have learned. I have learned that the problems come and go. They come, they go. Then they come back again. But then they go. Then they come back again.

And they go. And every time they come, they scare you. This dance of this breath, on the other hand, is with you. It comes in. And this is how it begins. It doesn't begin by going out. This is how this note plays. This note, this symphony, begins with this gift of breath coming in. And the whole symphony ends with the breath going out and not coming in. And that constitutes. And every day that that's there is the most magnificent reality, if you could see it. If you could understand it. That you want to be free. You want to be free. You do. You do, you do, you do. But what confuses you, what confuses all of us, is we don't know from what. We look at ourselves and go, well, I have a good job. I have a good wife. I have good kids. I have a bright future. I love my job. So what could be wrong? Do you want to be free from what? You know you want to fly. You want to fly.

You do. You just don't know how to. So if you want to fly, you assume you are going to have to learn to fly. I'm a pilot. All those places I travel, I fly there. I have quite a few hours. Last count, that was a few weeks ago, was 13,400 and some hours. That's 13,000 hours plus of flying. If you want to fly, I had to learn to do all that, to fly. But if you want to fly in life, if you want to fly in life, you don't have to learn anything. You were meant to fly. Did you know that? You were meant to fly. If you want to fly, it is not that you have to learn to fly. All you have to do is cut the bondage, the rope that is holding you. And I know, you're very curious. What is this rope made out of? This rope is made out of ignorance. Use the knife of Knowledge. This rope is made out of hate. Use the knife of love. This rope is made of doubt. Use the knife of clarity. This rope is made of darkness. Use the saber of light and cut this rope. And the day you do, you will fly.

You will fly. That's how simple it is to fly. Really, that is how simple it is to fly. That is how simple it is to be content in this life. Solutions to the problems of the world are like this. One day, the king said to the cook, the chef, make me something incredible. So the chef did. It was a dessert. Amazing dessert. Smells so good that the rats from the whole town could not resist and started invading the palace. And there were rats everywhere. Everywhere. On the king's table. Rats. Rats had even climbed up the king's beard and trying to get to the little crumbs of the dessert on his beard. Disgusting. Rats everywhere. So the king called all his wise men and said, this is terrible. I just wanted something wonderful as a dessert. Next thing you know, my whole palace is filled with rats. What do we do? The wise man said, no problem. No problem. Tell your soldiers to go and get the cats. Rats hate cats.

Get the cats. So all the soldiers went out, collected all the cats, brought in all the cats. Rats ran away. And cats everywhere. All the wise men congratulated themselves. You found the solution. Rats are gone. King calls them and says, okay. Rats are gone. But cats are everywhere. Scratching everything. The palace curtains are being shredded. They're sleeping on the king's bed, on the chair, on the sofa, on the table. Everywhere. Do something. No problem. Cats hate dogs. Tell the soldiers to bring in the dogs. They bring in the dogs. Cats are gone. They're all congratulating themselves. The king says, come here. There's dogs everywhere. They're chewing my sandals.

They're pooping everywhere. The wise men got together and said, well, do you know something that dogs don't like? Yeah. Bring in the tigers. Soldiers go out, they collect all the tigers, bring in the tigers. One look, the dogs are gone. Now there's tigers everywhere. Nobody can go anywhere. Tigers are waiting, growling. King said, this is ridiculous. Got to do something. Do you know what tigers are afraid of? Yeah. Elephants. Elephants. So bring in the elephants. One look, tigers are gone. Elephants are everywhere. Big poops everywhere. Trampling everything. The gardens are gone. Horrible mess. Look, we got to do something. We got to get rid of these elephants. They hate the rats. Go get the rats.

The whole palace is full of rats, but the elephants are gone. This is no solution. I told this story in Las Palmas. My daughter told me, I used to tell this story when she was very young. This is no solution, because then we'll begin again and again and again and again. The problems that bother us are the same ones. Every generation they have bothered. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. It is time to truly, truly be free. To free. To evolve. To accept peace. So now you're going, okay, well, sounds good. Peace sounds good. How do I get to it? Isn't that the million dollar question? Look at me. I'm smiling. Why am I smiling? Why am I smiling? I am smiling because I know that one piece is in you.

Not a problem. You don't have to go searching. People go, what, what, what? No searching? Well, how can you search for something you already have? How can you search for something you already have? But people like to search. It's a hobby. They look at everything. They go on top of the mountains. Right? They're looking for life. They're looking for life in the outer space. Sending spaceships, experiments. They're looking for life. But they should come to me. No, no. They should come to me because I know where there is life. I know of a planet. I know of a planet where there is life. It's called Earth. They should look there. They'll find it. Oh, but, but, but, but, but we need to know if we are alone. They should come to me because I'll tell them we're not alone. There's seven billion of us on planet Earth. There's seven billion of us on planet Earth. What I'm trying to say is this. First take care of this planet.

First take care of this planet before you go up there. Take care of this. There's people hungry here who should not be hungry. There's people who are poor here who should not be poor. There are people dying who should not be dying. There's people who kill each other because somebody tells them to. There are problems here. They need to be taken care of. People are living on this planet like there's no tomorrow. You see, heaven is here. And you don't have to die. See, that's the little catch about the heaven up there. You have to die. Very inconvenient. Heaven sounds good, but death doesn't sound good. The beauty of the heaven here is you don't have to die. You can have it whilst you're alive. So, one, it is in you. Search if you want to. If that's your hobby, search. Search, search, search, search everywhere. And if you don't find it, then turn within. And if you want a way to be able to turn within, I have the way. It's very simple.

What do I call it? I call it Knowledge. It is a way to turn inside and feel what is within you. Why do you need it? Well, same reason why you need a mirror. Same exact reason why you need a mirror. Your eyes can see everything except themselves. To see them, they need reflection. In the water is fine. Mirror works very well. So, see, my words are not just words. I stand behind every word. Not empty. Full. Not empty. Full. This is my strength. This is the strength of that four-year-old on the stage that allowed him to go and say something. So, like you already heard, over a million people I spoke to just in the first part of this tour. What did I say to them? Same thing. What you're looking for is inside of you. Or, let me be Greek-correct and say, like Socrates did a long time ago. Long, long time ago. Know thyself. Thank you very much for listening to me. And take care. Enjoy this life. Enjoy this breath. Every moment of it. Thank you. Good night.