Prem Rawat in Lisbon, 2014-06-01

Peace is a Priority
Prem Rawat in Lisbon, 1st June 2014

Well, thank you for a warm Portuguese welcome, and it's a pleasure to be here to talk to you about peace. Now, there's many interpretations that people have of peace. There's a lot of people in this world who think that's a funny subject, peace. It's like, why do you want to talk about peace? Talk about something interesting. But to me, peace is the most interesting, the most interesting, because here we are today, and today is June 1st. But did you know that there was a June 1st last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and thousands of years before that? So, what makes today so different? What makes today what it is? Today is interesting, very interesting. And it's not interesting because interesting things happened today. A lot of interesting things have happened today. I'm sure you'll see them in the news tomorrow. But why is today interesting? It's not because it's June 1st. The reason why it's interesting is because you are alive. You are alive. I'm not talking about your problems. I'm not talking about your goods, I'm not talking about your bads, the rights, the wrongs, but you are alive. So I have a question for you. Usually people have questions for me, but I have a question for you. My question for you is, what does that mean? You are alive. What does it mean? This morning, when you got up, and you went to the bathroom, and looked at yourself in the mirror, did you go, wow, I'm alive? No. I know that. I know that. But most people don't. They go, my hair, my this, my that. Nobody goes, wow, I'm alive. You see, the funny thing is, you can't do that when you die.

Wow, I'm dead. But you can only do that when you are alive. And what does it mean to you to be alive? Anything? People will go, you know, I have my responsibilities, I have this issue, I have that issue, I have to do this, I have to do that. So what does it mean to be alive? It is. It is. The most amazing thing, to be alive. Do you know that? It's fantastic. It's amazing. Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. Against all odds. Every day that you're alive is against all odds. It was against all odds that you even got into your mother's womb. But here you are. And this is a door to a whole another world. The door that you have opened so far in your life is the door of this and that. You started off. Maybe you went to school. You studied. And the common mantra around the world, study hard so you can become something. And then maybe you graduated, you got a job, work hard and you will go far. And then you fell in love. And then next thing you know, you have a family. And on it goes, and goods and bads and rights and wrongs.

You're fired. You have no money. One little article in the newspaper, you have no money. Stock market crashed. One day, your child comes to you and says, I'm leaving. One day, too much rain, you don't have a house. One day, too much fun and you don't have a wife. Is this life? All this happens and then one day, gone. It's over. You don't even get to look back. Finished. Or is there another door that needs to be opened? The door that is about understanding yourself. Not what you do, but understanding yourself. A door that opens to a place called peace. A door that opens into a universe of understanding. A door that opens into the world where there is an admiration for being alive. A gratitude to be. A wisdom that is innate to every single human being. A joy that is there. A simplicity. A simplicity in contrast to a very complicated world. Where a human being is pleasantly happy to be human. Not trying to strive to be something else, but just to be human. That the understanding of the self carries a deeper meaning than you can even begin to understand.

That it carries a message that is about celebrating life. Not trying to find answers, but being bathed by answers. Not searching, but finding. Not questioning, but reveling in the answers. Could it be? Could it be that there is such a world? Could it be that there is a possibility for every single human being on the face of this earth to feel the feeling of being alive? Just alive. Some people call that peace. Some people call that peace. Some people call peace when you become a vegetable. I don't call that peace. I call that the state of okra-ness. The state of eggplant. That peace is a feeling of being alive. It's real. Something real. Not imagined, but tangible. Something that you can feel every single day. Something that you can understand every single day. That this is who I am meant to be. So, how am I qualified to even say this? I mean, where did this come from? Am I just making this up? I'd like to tell you something. I started talking on the subject of peace when I was four years old. And not just talking in my sleep. Talking to audiences in India about the possibility of having peace. Of having gratitude. Today, in the peace education program across six continents.

And who are the participants? Inmates. In prisons. Now, do you think that would be a challenging ground? Slightly challenging ground? To talk about feeling alive? Hope? Understanding? Gratitude? What gratitude? For being in prison? No. These people listen. These people listen. And when they start to look at themselves. For the first time. What do you suppose they see? Do they see the ugliness that has brought them to that prison? Because believe me. This is what they say. If I would have known what I know now. I would never be here. They say. Now, I understand. Who I am. I'm not the victim. I'm not the victim. I'm a human being. So, of course, you are not in prison. Obviously, you don't say you're a victim of anything, are you? Do you? Do you? Do you? I mean, you're not in a prison. So, obviously, you're not a victim of anything, are you? Don't let the bars fool you. Don't let the bars fool you. The bars are there. Some are on one side. And some are on the other side.

But the bars are there. For every single person. When a person says, what can I do? That's a bar. When a person says, I don't know. That's a bar. The bars that are made out of metal can be cut. But the bars that are made out of ignorance. Impossible. How do you cut them? And so, there are people who say, I'm free. And all I can say is, I'm glad you think so. I'm not here in any way that I am saying, I am not part of that. No, no, I am part of that. Believe me, I am part of that. I have a family. Need I say more? Need I say more? I have my responsibilities. Need I say more? Do you think every day goes my way? No. Do I have problems? Absolutely, just like you do. And sometimes, much bigger than yours. Because that's the nature of the problem. Your problem is always bigger than the other person's problem. So my problem is bigger than yours. I'm sorry. So, sometimes it's every day. You think I don't get up sometimes in the morning and go, why me? You don't think so? Absolutely, I have.

Why me? I'm a nice person. But, then to know that there is another reality that is real. There is a truth that is unquestionable. There is a truth that does not require the support of people. It does not require groups of people going, yes, yes, that's the truth. Yes, yes, that's the truth. Right? That is the truth. Yes, yes, that's the truth. And leaders who are going, yeah, yeah, that's the truth. Just, you know, keep saying that. That's the truth. That's the truth. Instead, there's a truth, like the sun, that shines every single day. There are people in this world who are too busy trying to remove the darkness. And they have not yet succeeded. I mean, excuse me, look around you in this world. We're still believing in the formulas that do not work. They have not worked for a long, long, long, long, long time. If governments in this world were your child going to school, they fail one year, they fail next year, they fail. You would wonder if this is your child. They keep failing. Every year they fail. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. But people go, oh, yes, yes.

This time, yes. Why? Why do they fail? People don't take the responsibility. They hand the responsibility to one person. You take care of it. Time has come to change that. Time has come that every citizen of this planet Earth needs to take responsibility for the benefit of all mankind and animal kind and bird kind and worm kind and insect kind and every kind. Because if you keep putting it on somebody else's head, it's not working. It hasn't worked. It hasn't worked. But we keep doing it. We keep doing it. We keep doing it. What about our responsibilities? What is your responsibility? Your responsibility is to be human. What does it mean to be human? My definition, a person who finds peace beautiful. You've come here to hear about peace. Let me ask you a question, another one. Boy, I'm full of it today. Already gone to two. Are you in love with peace? Are you in love with peace? Without passion, without passion, without love, this marriage is not going to happen. So, are you in love with peace? Or you don't know? Because you know so little about peace. People say, we will have peace if there are no wars. And I say, that's not true. And people look at me like, are you crazy? Isn't that what peace is, absence of war? If absence of war is how peace happens, then why do they keep starting up again and again and again? No, no. War is a symptom.

War is a symptom. Hunger is a symptom. All these things that we think if people had, all that's just a symptom. The disease is something else. And the disease needs to be cured. Not trying to take care of the symptoms. So, somebody has a disease, somebody has really bad cancer or something like that, they're looking really bad, so you put makeup on. You look so much better now. Can you imagine? Can you imagine that being a cure? You go to the doctor and he says, we can't do anything about that, but we can make you look better. You look good. Somebody loses all their teeth. So you go to the dentist. I lost my teeth. What do I do? I don't know how to put teeth back in, but I will sew your lips. And then nobody will know you don't have any teeth. You think that's a good solution? No, that's not a solution. Something is fundamentally amiss. That's why these wars happen. How much money do we spend on wars? How much money do you think we spend on wars? All the machinery of war, how much money do you think we spend on it? Trillions and trillions and trillions? How much money do we spend on peace? And we want peace? Excuse me? Excuse me? Are you feeling okay? Because even a Coke machine will not give you a Coke unless you put money in it. Right? If you keep kicking it, kicking it, kicking it, it's not going to happen. So what are you putting in peace? Nothing. War? Everything. What are you going to have? War. People go, oh, but there's so many people hungry.

I know, this is a very sensitive issue for me. Because through Prem Rawat's Foundation, we've opened up these centers for food, food for people. And one is in Ranchi, and one is in Ghana, and one is in Dadang in Nepal. One meal is all we give. One meal. And it's changed their life. One meal. One meal. Just one meal has changed the whole map of the region. Crime went down. People didn't need to steal. They were getting one meal. One meal gave the break that is necessary. You think these governments, all the governments put together, I'm not blaming anyone. I'm blaming all of them. This is universal. You think that all the governments in the world cannot come together and feed all the people in this world? You think that's that impossible? It's not that impossible. It's very, very possible. Then you ask the question, well, why doesn't it happen? Well, I tell you what happens. This is from the Army Corps of Engineers statistics. Half of the world food production is wasted. Half of all the food that is produced is wasted. Symptoms of what? Symptoms of not understanding who you are. So, who are you? Who are you? A drop of water rises from the ocean as vapor, travels, sometimes thousands and thousands of miles, joins forces with other drops, and wherever it goes, it transforms everything that it touches.

Do you know that? Do you know that? Transforms everything it touches. It touches the desert, and the desert blooms, blooms, gives life. Wherever it goes, it gives life, and life, and life. All it is is a drop of water, right? Believe me, it has nothing in it, right? Because it's clear, you can see it has no guts, it doesn't have a brain, it doesn't, or does it? The little miracle maker, the little miracle maker is that drop. Whatever it touches, it changes it. And all this while that it satisfies and fulfills the need of everything that comes in contact with it, animals quench their thirst, deserts begin to bloom. The amazing miracles that take place, the amazing things that happen, all the while, this little drop has but only one wish. And you know what that wish is? That wish is to go and join the ocean again. And it does. And sometimes it lies in a dormant state, frozen for thousands of years, but the first opportunity it gets, it wants to merge with the ocean. That drop has more power than you realize. It has the power to give life, it has the power to take life. Rocks mean nothing to it. Houses, countries, it means nothing to it. It comes, it goes, it comes, it goes, it comes, it goes. But once it meets the ocean, I am done. I am done. Done. And it could be just within the hour that the journey has to begin again. Just like that. And that little drop says, fine. And that beautiful transformation that it does and that it brings is its life. And that is its reincarnation. And that is everything to that drop to come back, to merge with the ocean, to be content, to be satisfied, or within a moment become vapor again, to start the whole process all over again.

And it will not be the same desert that will come to bloom. It will not be the same plant that it will fall on. It will change, it will change, it will change, but in this change it has found its ground. In the change it has found its stability. In the change it has found its meaning. In the change it has found its reality. In the change, it has found how to become the unchangeable. In all that change, it has found how to become unchangeable. What is it? Water has no shape. Air has no color. But when the two meet, when the two meet, for a very brief period of time, when the two meet, they take on a shape and they take on a color. And it's called a cloud. Remember that? What you cannot see, now you can see. That that has no shape has taken on a shape, and that which is invisible has become visible. And that is a cloud. And you, my friends, are that cloud. Have you found the unchangeable in this constantly changing world? Have you found the simplicity in the complicated? Everything, everything that you are. You don't like death. Nobody likes death. My God. I don't like that idea either. But do you know that that's happening all throughout your body? The ingredients that you are made out of, hydrogen, carbon, calcium, nitrogen, and phosphorus, they're everywhere. Oxygen, they're everywhere. But all these, I mean, they are incredibly common.

Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, they're incredibly common. You walk on it all day. Every morning that you take a shower, you try to scrub that stuff off. But for a small period of time, all that has come together to make you. What is life? What is life? Is it the buzz? Buzz, like a mosquito. Of all your problems, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. Something, something, you have to do this, you have to do this, you have to do this. And if that wasn't enough, then we have these devices to remind us. Just in case you forget. What you should remember is something else. This is what Socrates said, know thyself. And people debated, oh, yeah, I know thyself, yeah, yeah, know yourself, what is your name? Is that know yourself? To know who you are. How long will you be alive? People have a big misconception on this. 70 years average, 25,550. Not very many days. Even if you live to be 100, 36,500 days. Not a lot. Nobody would get too excited if they won a lottery of 36,500 euros. Wow, I won! It's not going to buy you a house. It's not going to buy you a house. Time is going or is time staying? And you are going. Which? See? We have such habits of living with lies. We don't correct them. We don't correct them.

We don't. People go. Time is going. No, time is staying. We are going. And this is, in a way, a destiny that we all share. But it is not about going. It is not about death that should impress you. It is about being alive that should impress you. That the possibility of understanding yourself, the possibility of being here, in that joy, in that feeling, in that peace. That is exciting. And that's worth living. That is worth living. But is the world caught up in? Heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell. Oh yeah, yeah, I want to go to heaven. So, I have a story for you. There was a king and he had to attack his neighboring kingdom. So, all night long, he kept thinking, you know, I might die. I might get killed. Am I going to go to heaven? Am I going to go to hell? Am I going to go to heaven? Am I going to go to hell? All night long, this kept bothering him. Heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell, heaven, hell. Next day, of course, he had to get ready. So, he got ready. He puts on his, you know, armor, and he's got his horse, and he's marching out, and this big army is following him, and this is still bothering him, you know.

Am I in heaven? What is heaven? What is hell? What is heaven? What is hell? What is heaven? What is hell? It's bothering him, bothering him, bothering him. So, he sees a wise man coming the other direction, kicks his horse, goes over to the wise man, gets down from the horse and says, Hey, wise man, I have a question for you. What is heaven, and what is hell? And the wise man said, Sorry, king, I don't have the time. I'm on my way. I'm late. I don't have the time. This made the king furious. Do you know who I am? I am the king, and I asked you a simple question. What is heaven? What is hell? And you couldn't answer me. What's wrong with you? And the rage growing, growing angrier and angrier and angrier and angrier, and the wise man says, King, now you are in hell. The king is shocked, shocked. Immediately he realizes, Oh, my God. This guy is really wise. What have I done? I mean, I was yelling at him. The king says, Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. That was, I mean, that was so wise. It was so wonderful. I'm so thankful to you for pointing that out to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'm clear. I understand. That truly was hell. And the wise man says, King, now you are in heaven. This, for him, the hell and the heaven. Time for third question. Are you, see, I'm not going to ask two questions. I'm just going to ask the third question. King, are you in heaven? Are you in heaven? Don't answer. Me. Answer yourself. Answer yourself. You can tell me anything. It's very hard for you to tell yourself anything. Because you have to look at yourself in the mirror. So, are you in heaven? Because if you're not, that's where you belong. You don't, you don't do so good in hell. Case in point. Case in point. Confusion, madness, desperation, greed. Greed. Oh, my God. You know, it's unbelievable how much greed there is in this world. Greed.

I wish the greed was there for peace. I wish the greed was there to help each other. But no, the greed is there to just fill your own pocket somehow. And that's it. That's all that matters. Greed. Anger. Fear. You need to feel hope every single day. You need to feel the heaven every single day. You need to feel peace every single day. Not just once. Once is not sufficient. Can you live by just eating once in your life? No. Do you need to drink water every day? Yes. Do you need to sleep every night? Yes. In the same way, you need to be in peace every single day. So what is peace? Good news. Good news. Peace is within you. Always has been. Always will be. So do I have to climb the mountain to get peace? You can climb the mountain if you like, but peace is not there. Peace is in you.

That's why Socrates said, Know thyself. You will look here and you will find what you're looking for. And that's how simple it is. People go, oh, so how do I get to it? How do I get to peace? How do I get to peace? You get to peace like you got to everything else by having a passion for it. Start falling in love with peace. People go, I've read books on this subject. It doesn't seem so easy. Would you like for me to make it really difficult for you? Just because you read a book and the book said, oh, it's not so easy, doesn't mean that it isn't. If you read a book on water, it'll tell you how, you know, this process has to happen, that process has to happen, and this is... Or when you're thirsty, it's amazing. When you're really thirsty, somehow you just run into water because the focus becomes one. That's what falling in love is all about. Focus becomes one. When was the last time you fell in love? Do you remember what it was like? Do you remember what it was like? There was one focus. Make that peace a priority in your life. You will find it. I say to people, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, search, and if you don't find it, look me up. I can help. I can help. I have been dedicated to offering peace, to bringing peace to those people who want it. In 2016, I would have been doing that for 50 years. Talking about peace, I've been doing that 52 years. Started at four. So, good news is it's possible. Good news is it's within you.

Hard part, do you have the passion? That's the hard part. That's the hard part. Fall in love with life. When was the last time? When was the last time you were in love with your life? Not wife, life. When was the last time you were in love with life? And people go, oh, that person, you know, they go bungee jumping and they jumped off the bridges and they jumped off the mountains and they went and they were so full of life. No, I have never gone bungee jumping. I will never go bungee jumping. Absolutely no way. Absolutely no way. Because that has nothing to do. That is a good way to get yourself killed. Have you ever held a bungee in your hand? You really want to entrust your life to this little thing called a bungee cable, bungee cord? I don't. That's not full of life. Life is when you're excited, excited about being alive. Oh, but the people, I'm so old. You think a drop ever says I'm so old? To fall in love, you do not need to look at age. You can fall in love whenever, whenever. And to fall in love with life is the most noble thing a human being can do. Most noble thing. Because when you are in love with your life, with your existence, that's when you begin to respect other people's existence. And this is not the case in this world today. And this needs to fundamentally change. And that fundamental change doesn't begin with the world out there. It begins with every single human being on the face of this earth.

People are waiting for some angel to come and to fix their problems. And I say to people, the angel has come. Did you know the angel has come? And you know who the angel is? You are that angel that can change your life. And I can assure you that the day those inmates understand that, that they're the angel that can change their lives, that is the day nothing is the same anymore. And you know what happens? Hope happens. Doors go wide open, hope comes in. I have been to these prisons and I have seen what I can only describe as the most shocking smile. Shocking. Because I didn't expect them to be smiling. Why is this peace education program so successful? They don't want to come back. They want to stay out and make the most of their life. Now, am I proud of that? Yes. I'm very proud. But here's the key. Everyone should be. Every human being on the face of this earth should be excited about that. Because it works. It's not a malarkey. It's not a theory. It's not a philosophy. It's not some this or that or a brochure. But it works. And it brings them joy. It brings them humanity.

Human beings need humanity. That's what I came to tell you. This is just the beginning of the second segment of the tour. I've already, like you, probably already heard like 10 million times. I've already seen a million people on the first leg of this tour. It seems my whole life is just one big tour. But since I started, it was very different for me. See, it was very, very different for me than you can possibly imagine. Because I would go to school. There I am in school, just like any other kid. Not a word. And then the summer holidays would begin. And sometimes it was I would actually leave a day before that school would officially end and be on the tour. And the whole summer holidays, it would be one place after another place after another place after another place after another place. And I would come back home like one or two days before to get my books together for the next class. Next day, arrive in school and not a word. And this would go on and on and on until the next set of holidays. To go to tell people that there is such a thing as this life and there is such a thing as peace in this life. Everyone, everyone should be a part of that. Everyone, everyone. Everyone should be excited that they're alive. Everyone should be excited that there's a possibility there can be peace on earth. Everybody should be excited and make all attempt to make it so. There's a lot of people, there's a lot of people who have, oh, it'll never happen.

I know, this is what the people are going to sit down for dinner tonight with their wine, their pasta, they're going to talk about this. Ah, no, there's too much greed, there's too much. Listen, then I have something to say to you. You know the man-mission to moon? You know why it happened? It was not because of the people who said why it couldn't happen. It was because of the people who said it could happen. That's why it happened. So if this is all you can come up with is why it shouldn't be, have another glass of wine. Because the time has come that we, the citizens of this earth, take the responsibility upon our shoulders. It is not the governments, not the big institutions, it is not the police, it is not the army, but it's all the human beings taking responsibility for this peace themselves that's going to make a difference. I thank you very much for listening to me, and I hope you enjoy and enjoy your life, this existence. Thank you, good night.