Prem Rawat in Moscow 2012-06-29

Youth Peace Festival
Prem Rawat in Moscow 2012-06-29

People are understanding something, having peace in their lives, and you can be a part of the magic regardless of where you are.

My name is Darina Samorodova, I am a graduate of Synergy University, and I am honored to be a host today. Before introducing the first speaker, I would like to say a few words about the place where we are today. The Library of Foreign Literature is a very important organization in Russia. It is not just a library, but a whole cultural and linguistic center, where constant intercultural communication takes place. Founded 90 years ago, today it has a collection of 5 million publications in 140 languages, some of which date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. This library has one of the most influential collections of books in the world. And now, with great pleasure, I would like to introduce you to the rector of Synergy University, a member of the Russian Academy of Education, an honorable employee of the highest professional education of the Russian Federation, a doctor of economics, a professor, Yuriy Borisovich Rubin.

Dear ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Today, on the walls of the State Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow, a very extraordinary event is taking place, which is important for our country, important for the university I head, important for many thousands of citizens of our country, and for everyone who values such concepts as peace, dignity, tolerance, justice. For us, as I said, it is very important to be here today and to be involved in what is happening here, because, indeed, in the last 20 years our country has undergone a number of necessary phases of development and transformation, and today it is a state that is open to the world, open to universal human tendencies, and which is active. In this regard, I would like to welcome on behalf of the lecturers, professors, leaders, students of Synergy University, our esteemed guest, Mr. Prem Rawat.

And now I would like to introduce Mr. Ismail Akhmetov, founder of the Fund for the Support of Culture and Education. Mr. Akhmetov, founder of the Fund for the Support of Culture and Education. Before I invite Mr. Prem Eaweat here, I would like to perform another pleasant mission. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this wonderful event. And, in conclusion, I would like to say a few words about what kind of event we have today, what will happen. We will talk about peace. It may sound very simple, but on the other hand, I am now engaged in education, I think about children, I feel a great need that we need to talk about good things for ourselves, including for our children, for our teachers, pedagogues, professors. Because everyone can choose a topic. We can talk about sports, we can talk about the crisis, we can talk about some problems, we can talk about love, we can talk about joy, we can talk about peace. Today we are talking about peace. I invite Mr. Prem Rawat to give his speech. Ladies and gentlemen, students and faculty, First of all, I would like to tell you how thrilled I am to be in this country.

This is my first time that I am here. And I am very touched by the hospitality of my hosts who have made it very nice for me to be here. Now, I would like to talk about peace. But, before I can talk about peace, I need to establish what it is. Each human being on the face of this earth has strengths and weakness. Now, generally speaking, we know about people's weakness. But, I am not here to point out other people's weakness or strength. But what about your strength? What is your strength? So usually, when you talk about peace, you talk about these subjects, people tend to take it very seriously. And it is a serious subject. But I would like to begin with a story. Once, there was a man, and he had gone outside of his country. And he earned money. Time had passed, and he was returning home, back with a lot of money. As he was traveling, and he had quite a few days of travel left in front of him, a thief saw him and suspected that he had money. So he befriended him and joined him. On their way, as they were walking, he asked, Who are you? Where have you been? What have you been doing? And the man said, Well, I was very poor. I left home. I went out. I earned a lot of money. And now I am going home. So the thief goes, Really? You earned a lot of money? He said, Yes, I earned a lot of money. And I am taking it back home, for my children, for my family. So that night, they had to stop, and they went. The man went to have some dinner, some food.

And the thief thought this would be a good opportunity, so he started searching his room. And he searched, and he searched, and he searched, and he searched. And he could not find any money. So, next day, he again asked, Are you sure you earned a lot of money? He said, Yes, I earned a lot of money. And I am taking it back home. So, again, another night they had to spend together. When the man went to have dinner, the thief went and searched, and searched, and searched, and searched his whole room. And he could not find any money. Next day, same thing. Are you sure you earned a lot of money? He said, Yes, yes, I earned a lot of money. Same evening, same thing. Search, search, search, search, search, search. He could not find. Next day, he arrived home. Just before he goes into his home, the thief said, Listen, I have a question for you. First of all, let me explain. I am a thief. When I saw you, I thought you might have money. And that's why I asked if you had earned a lot of money. You said you did. And I have to say to you that every night, you would go to have dinner, I would search your room, and I found no money. So now, you don't have to be afraid of me. You're almost home. Could you please tell me, I'm going crazy.

Could you please tell me, did you or did you not earn a lot of money? So the man took out the money and said, Look, it's all this money. And I earned it. And the thief said, But I searched your room. I couldn't find it. He said, Ah, when I saw you, I thought you were a thief. So every night, you, when you were in the bathroom or somewhere, I would take the money and put it in your room. And of course, you never searched your room. Because had you searched your room, you would have found it. Now, this is an old story. I like it. I like it because it points to exactly what is going on with us. We too, search. We search for prosperity. Where do we look? In us or somewhere else? Everything good, we look for it somewhere else. Not in us. And yet, a Greek philosopher a long time ago said, Know thyself. I ask this question to a lot of people. Do you think know thyself sounds like a question or answer? Does it sound like a question or an answer? It is, in my opinion, an answer. Because we too are searching for something real. When we say, peace is important to me, first thing we think of is that peace will be made possible by the world leaders, by the world economists, by some angel coming from the heavens. And what if I was to tell you that the peace that you are looking for is already inside of you. That is one of your strengths. I'm going to say something. If you want to be strong, I know people go and they work out at the gym, they have a special diet, everything.

They want to be strong. If you want to be strong, then be gentle. If you want to be rich, be generous. If you want to be powerful, be kind. Kindness, gentleness, generosity, these are traits you will find on a tree, in a building. If you needed to be generous, where will you find generosity? Where will you find kindness? Where will you find gentleness? And of course, if you want to be wise, be simple. And by the way, where would you find simplicity? Where? These are traits that cannot be borrowed, cannot be taught. They are traits that are fundamentally inside every human being. Already present, you don't have to take a pill for it. Already there, you don't have to make a walk for it. You don't have to make a protest for it. You don't have to make a petition for it. You don't have to scream for it. You don't have to watch television for it. You don't have to read a book for it. But kindness, gentleness, generosity, simplicity, are traits that are fundamentally in every human being. The only issue is, are you in touch with that power that is within you or not? What does the world tell you you need to be? What do you want to be? What do you want to be? Here I am in Moscow. I've traveled the world, and I say this to everyone. Because it has nothing to do with circumstances. It has nothing to do with language. There is something innate in every human being. Just human being. Recently, I was at a very important event, and a lot of VIPs were there. And a very important person, I won't say the name, asked me a question.

This is after I had spoken, and we were mingling afterwards. And he said, Have you given your message of peace to the warriors of India? The fighting class. Have you given this message to the Sikhs in India? And I looked at him, and I said, But, after you remove that label, they're just people. With the same ambition, with the same thirst, with the same wish, with the same want, as anyone else. We are taught our differences. I teach similarity. Because we're on the same boat. We're in the same boat. We are absolutely on the same boat. One planet, called planet Earth. We have been searching for another civilization for a very, very long time. And we haven't found one. If you find your cat missing, how long are you going to look for your cat? One day? Two days? Week? Month? Exceptional cat? Maybe a year? We've been looking for longer than that, and we haven't found it. But we keep looking, and we keep looking, instead of focusing and saying, What about now? What about here? What about this Earth? What about this? What if life presents an opportunity that we do not see? Education, which is so important, presents us with an opportunity. Some people think luck presents us with an opportunity. But what if life presents us with an opportunity? An opportunity to be content. With an opportunity to be in peace. Have we accepted that challenge in our lives? Story number two. Story number two. I have to tell you this story. Once, there was this famous archer. And he was a very, very good archer. And he would go from village to village, and he would hold an exhibition. He would take his bow, he would take his arrow, he would shoot, he would hit the target, and he was so good, he could repeat it again, and again, and again, and again.

And all the people who were watching would come, and they would applaud, and he was marvelous. One day, while he was exhibiting his skills, every time he would hit that arrow on the target, and everybody would applaud, in the back, he heard somebody say, it's just a matter of practice. This really made him angry. So he shot again, everybody applauded, and then from the back, another, same voice, another time, just a matter of practice. Again, again, same voice. Just a matter of practice, just a matter of practice, just a matter of practice, just a matter of practice. This really made him angry. After he was finished, he went over, and he found this guy, sitting in the back, one pole on his shoulder, big pot of oil in the front, big pot of oil in the back, another shoulder, bunch of empty bottles, and he was selling oil. And he was the one who had been saying, it's just a matter of practice, it's just a matter of practice, it's just a matter of practice. So the guy goes to him and says, are you crazy? I am so good at what? Shooting this bow, arrow, and all you sit there and say is it's a matter of practice, it's a matter of practice. What do you mean it's a matter of practice? It's me, it's me, I'm so good. So the oil salesman said, okay, let me show you something. So he took an empty bottle. You remember in the old days, maybe I just saw one actually, Kroner, had a hole in the coin. And he took that coin, and he put it at the mouth of the bottle. He lifted a great big pot of oil, and started pouring oil from this big pot through that little hole in the coin into the bottle without spilling a drop. And after he was done, he said to the archer, now you try it. And the archer understood. He couldn't do it. It is a matter of practice. So what do I mean by that? What do you practice? Because whatever you practice the most, you will get good at it. Whatever you practice the most, you will get good at it. So what do you practice the most? Fear? Because if you practice fear the most, you will get good at it. Anger? How long does it take you to get angry? Is it instant? That means that's what you have been practicing.

Whatever you practice the most, you will get good at. I suggest, just a suggestion, that you practice peace. That you practice consciousness. Are you aware? Awareness. Are you aware of what it is that you are about to do? Or you just do it? When you speak, are you aware? I'm not talking about in auditoriums. In auditoriums, everybody is very proper. Everybody has their speech. Everybody has rehearsed. Everybody has... No, no, no, no, no. When you talk to your loved ones, the ones you love, not hate, the ones you love, are you aware of what you are saying to them? How many times do we smile in a day at strangers? We don't even know the person. The teeth have become an obsession, especially in the West. Everybody has to have perfect teeth. The only other animal I know of that is very interested in teeth is a monkey. They want to show their teeth to everybody. Well, some people say we were once upon a time like monkeys. I tend to believe them because that's how we act sometimes. Without consciousness, nothing is human about a human. Without a reality that we are in touch with, there is nothing human about us. Savage wars go on in this world. People participate, and then others wonder, why does this happen? Without understanding our potential, without understanding what we have been given, without understanding who we are, all that we do is merely a repetition with slight changes from one to the other, to the other, to the other, to the other. Without an emotion, there is no painting. Without an emotion, it is just hammer hitting strings. But with emotion, the essence of a song is transformed. That emotion of peace, that emotion of joy that is so fundamental to every single human being.

We are indeed an empty cage. No bird, just a cage. We would have come, and it is inevitable that one day we all have to go. Oh, do you know how long we are here? Average, 70 years. Average, 70 years puts us here at 25,520 days. That's it. That's not very much. That's all we've got. What do you want to do? Wait? And wait? And what are you waiting for? In your life, when the reality strikes within you, when you have hope within you, when you have the desire of peace within you, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? What do you think you are lacking? What do you think you are lacking? I see the world is waiting because somehow the clouds will separate and angels will descend that will go ding, ding, ding, and there will be peace. You know how long we've been waiting for that? Not one year. Not two years. Not three years. Thousands of years. Thousands of years. Is it going to happen? Maybe. Maybe. But why wait? Let's start the party. And the party is to understand yourself. The joy, the thirst for peace that you have within you. I have a strategy. And my strategy is don't try to bring peace to the world because the world really doesn't need peace. If whales are not in peace, it's because of us. If birds are not in peace, it's because of us. So my strategy is not to bring peace to the world, but bring peace to people.

That's my strategy. Will it work? Let's see. In thousands of years, it's the only thing that has not been tried. Everything else we have tried, including making a better orange juice machine. But what we have not tried is person to person to person to person. So in closing, I would like to again say you have what you are looking for within you. You see this face of yours? With these eyes, you can see everyone. Right? With these eyes, you can see everyone except who? Except you. For this, you need a mirror. Same way. You need the mirror to turn within and start looking at your strengths, not weaknesses. Looking at the opportunity that you have been given. I'm sorry, but that's how simple it is. And now, I would be happy to take any questions that you might have. Yes? Thank you for your lecture. You are a well-known person around the world, carrying a message of large Knowledge, and there have been no such lectures in Russia before. And tell me, please, what influences on you when you are choosing a country you will speak in? Have you ever been to Russia before, and are you going to return back to us again? Well, thank you for your question. My, like I already said, my fundamental difference in my approach is to approach people, rather than to set a target away from people. My approach is people. The similarity, that that thirst exists in every single human being. And in every single human being, there is a lamp that needs to be lit. And it is simple, it is beautiful, because whatever, whatever you might hear about a country, at the end of the day, if you look at the people, what people want is peace. It is my great privilege and pleasure, and yes, it is the first time that I have come to this country. I have always wanted to come, but the circumstances were such that it never manifested.

But this time, it did. And I am so happy to meet the people here, because they have such big hearts, such generosity, very rich, simple, kind, and I would definitely love to come back to this country and bring my message, as simple as it is, to as many people as I can. Because it, my message has nothing to do with religion, it is not against religion, it is not for religion, it has nothing to do with religion. It is the responsibility that every human being can take, regardless of what religion they like to follow. And so it really is not a message just for people who have decided to give up everything. No. This is for people with everything that is going on, and have peace. Be as rich as you can be, whatever you want to do. Do whatever you want to do, and also be in peace. And that's what makes it so unique, because it is possible. Each one of us has been given that strength inside. So, thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Delia and I am a student of Synergy University. I was very touched by your program of rehabilitation for prison inmates. It is a major problem in Russia. Is it real to organize such kind of problem here? Of course. Of course. And, you know, really, the whole idea was just to take the message to the people. Because I think the success of the peace education program, right from the start, is that we don't look at them as prisoners. That's between the judge, the police, the government, and the prison system. For us, they are human beings. They have made mistakes, but that was the judge, and that is his responsibility to say, yes, you have made mistakes, and yes, you must pay this fine by being incarcerated, or whatever.

We don't have to judge. I don't have to judge them. To me, they're just people. And, when I look at them as people, and the message is for them, and it is telling them that they are alive, they have this possibility, that they have strengths inside of them, that they don't have to be a victim of this. They accept this message, they find that strength, and they evolve. So, it is a wonderful thing. I think that's the thing that is missing in so many societies, because we have a label for every single person. We don't say you are a human being. You know? When we have our own children, we don't look at them, you are a human being. No, you are my child. We look at our wife. Not, you are a human being. No, you are my wife. You are my husband. You know? First thing should be is the respect for another human being. AcKnowledgement of their humanity. It is the humanity that we need to bring back. We have so much technology. So much technology. Who is working on evolving the humane portion of that humanity? We have to. When I say, you know, and people introduce me as ambassador to peace or ambassador of peace and so on. Let me make one thing very clear. I cannot do this alone. Absolutely not.

I am counting on the help of every single person on the face of this earth. I am. And you know what is encouraging? That when people hear my message, they agree. And they want to help. I see a possibility emerging. This is not a revolution. This is an evolution. Because peace needs to be given a chance. Now. So, thank you. Thank you. My name is Anastasia and I am a student of Synergy University and my question is how I can concentrate of personal peace when the circumstances of outside world blocks the inspiration to do this? That's a very good question. At the same token, you know that when it is cold outside, you have to dress warm. It's very simple. You know when it is raining, you need an umbrella. Because you don't want to get wet. Will there be outside contamination? Of course. There are so many ideas. So many ideas. But at the same time, there is also a quest that you have in you. To make this what I am trying to say as clear as possible, it's like this. If I have a house and in that house there is a lamp that is lit. Right? And the sun goes down and it becomes dark for millions of miles around. Dark.

No more sun. No more light. It's dark. Will my house be dark too? Not if there is a lamp lit. There is a lamp inside of you. Light it. So it doesn't matter how dark it gets on the outside. Inside, it is always light. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Ilona. I am a student of Synergy University. And now my question. In a world of 7 billion people and more than 200 countries, you have spoken in more than 19 of them. How do you think the mentality of nations influences people's lives and their attitude to peace? Thank you. Again, wherever I go, I try to point towards people and their possibility. Not as separate countries or separate places. Have you ever been in a flight, in an airplane? Never? Never flown? Well, I'm a pilot, so I fly quite a bit. Let me tell you what happens. When you are on the ground, people, people, people, you know, especially at the airport, inside the terminal, people, people, people, people, people, people. Then when you take off, the higher you go, you don't see people anymore. You can see little cars, you can see towns, but people disappear. And then if you go higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and higher and higher then all you see is land.

You don't see countries. All you see is land. Like, you know, you see pictures of the earth from space. All you see is this beautiful earth. You don't see, oh, there is that country, or there is that country, or there is that country. An idea, a wish, a want that is shared by the people of this earth also does not see boundaries, also does not see limitations. Like a river that runs. It doesn't go, okay, I'm not going to go there, that's that country, I'm going to go here, I'm going to go, no. Wherever the gravity takes it, the least path of resistance, the river flows. I am trying to address that part of human being that is beyond, beyond the boundaries. You know, death does not look at boundaries. It doesn't look at like, oh, you are American, so you cannot die in England. You have to go back to America to die. No, there's plenty of Americans that die wherever they are. There's nature, there's reality, and the reality is that we have a thirst to be in peace. And wherever those people are, they hear my message. This year, up to this point, about 500,000 people have heard me, but millions more have heard me on television and on radio. When I was, in fact, just recently in Guayaquil, Ecuador, after the evening's event, 1.5 million people heard me on the radio. Wherever, wherever people are, they want to hear a message of the peace, they will hear this. And this is for them, not for people who don't want to. This is not mandatory, this is voluntary. Do you want to take the advantage of being alive? The possibilities that you already have. And if they do, then this is for them. Thank you. So, it has been wonderful to be able to speak to you, and I hope that I get the privilege soon to come back again and to be able to address people in this country. Thank you very much. Thank you.