Prem Rawat:
So, hello, everyone. I hope you’re all well, feeling good. Weekend has come—and so we’re going to be doing some question and answers.
“How can I find the beauty and peace when there is so much darkness in this world and in me? I can’t seem to find a way to connect to this life inside of me. I know it exists, as I have felt it in your presence. I would like to chase away all the dark thoughts and the pain in me with love.”
Well, it’s very, very easy. There’s this—it’s uncanny but I just answered that same kind of question in Hindi, very, very similar.
So, it really is a matter of you understanding that “the darkness is there, but there is also the light.” And it completely depends upon you, what you choose. The choice is yours. You can choose darkness—and the darkness will be there. You can choose light and the light will be there. Is it that easy? Is it that simple? Well, guess what; it is.
When we walk into that dark situation, most of the time we don’t even realize we’re walking into the darkness—but we’re slowly, slowly but surely, walking towards that darkness. Conscious living goes out the window. We don’t want to live consciously. That’s too much trouble; that’s too much. So, what do we start doing? Live unconsciously. We don’t care!
“What happens here; what happens there; this is right; this wrong; this is this way; this is that way.” And off we go. We’re making these steps; we’re taking these steps; we’re going towards the darkness; we’re going towards the darkness; we’re going towards the darkness; we’re going towards the darkness. We don’t realize it.
You know, getting lost is not an abrupt condition. It’s not an abrupt thing; it can happen very slowly. You think you’re heading the right direction—and then all of a sudden, it’s like, “Oh, we should be there by now. And we’re not there.” And then it’s like, then the dawning of it can be very abrupt. Then the dawning of it can be, “How do I…? What happened? Where did I get lost?”
Wrong question: “How did I get lost?” The question should be, “How do I get back on track,” not “How did I get lost?”
So, we go towards that darkness. Living our life unconsciously, this is—it’s almost like you can call it: “That’s what’s going to happen.”
But then, there is that possibility of living this life consciously—that I have a choice! Understanding that those things, the source of my light, is in me. The source of my understanding is in me. The source of my clarity is in me. And I don’t have to go wandering, looking for it and wondering, “Where did it go?”
And a lot of people…. People say that. It’s like, “Oh, that was such a nice time; then, where did it go?” Well, it didn’t go anywhere. It’s in you! It always was in you, always has been in you and always will be in you till your very last breath.
What happens is that our situation, whatever the situation may be, overwhelms us. It’s got us. It’s defeated us. It has taken over our free will, our choice, our understanding, our clarity—and it has to do that, because it can only get hold of you without those things.
And what you have to do is do exactly the opposite. You have to hang on to your clarity; you have to hang on to your hope; you have to hang on to your joy; you have to hang on to your understanding; you have to hang on to your peace. And then, just like a storm, the storm will be gone; the sun will shine again and all will be well.
So, this is what you have to understand, that this is how it works. And you have that beauty—and that beauty will always be within you.
Here’s another question, “Many people are facing financial, job uncertainties. Would you have some words of strength for those facing the situation?” Yes. Again, the same thing. Whatever the outside situation, you have to have the strength to go forward, because you do.
Now, again, I’m just going to remind you of this example that I give quite often. When you came out of your mother’s womb, when you were born, what you had to do was virtually impossible. At that point in your life, you were the most fragile. My God, you couldn’t walk; you couldn’t talk; you couldn’t command people; you couldn’t lift anything. You were extremely fragile.
And everything, literally, was stacked against you. You had to, at that point in time, change your world, literally—I mean, literally. All that sustenance that had been, up to that point, sustaining you was coming from the mother and now that was going to go away. You had to become independent.
The amount of force that you would have had to exert to be able to be born is nothing shy of a huge rocket accelerating away from earth. This was the situation. This was the situation.
You were, in the mother’s womb, completely surrounded by water—and here you were going to come out in this world where you’re going to breathe. And I’m just talking about “physical situation” and it was totally going to have to be totally, totally, totally different.
And so, what did you do? You looked at the enormity of the situation and obviously said, “No way,” right? You wouldn’t be born! You wouldn’t be born. So, you took on that challenge. That urge was there and you took on that challenge. Of course, you didn’t look at it as a challenge, you just found yourself in the midst of it—and that was it.
So, do you think any one of these challenges that you are thinking about facing is greater than that challenge that you already have been through? I can’t imagine how they could be any bigger than what you have already been through.
I talk about “un-change.” You know, people don’t like the word “change,” “I don’t want to change.” People say to themselves, “I don’t want to change.” So, I came up with this one: “un-change.”
So that means that at one point in time in your life, you were incredibly strong; you were incredibly powerful. You were very clear about what your objectives were. You were very precise with them. And you had no hesitation whatsoever to accomplish them.
So, un-change. See, the change happened—and now, things are very different, so maybe you need to un-change and go back to that strength, go back to that clarity, go back to that understanding.
Not frailty, not sadness, not disappointment, not these arguments, “Oh, what’s going to happen to me?” Take on any challenge that comes. And, believe me, this is, for a lot of people, just a long, long journey that has just begun. Isolation and everything else just is one part of it. After this, we will have to see what happens. Because I can tell you, it’s not shaping up really well.
Some of the leaders that we have in this world, they are no leaders. And of course not, I’m not going to say who they are. But they’re no leaders and you know it—and you can see them in action and they’re like, out to lunch and never came back. And they’re still having lunch for—I think, for the rest of their life, they’re going to have lunch. They have no idea what’s going on.
To them, death and numbers is a statistic; it’s something to plot on a graph. And to me, one death that is unnecessary, that was not natural, is too much. We could have done something about it—yes, we could have done something about it.
Let’s face it; we don’t know how to say “help.” We have forgotten how to say “help.” We have forgotten to say “Let me help you.” We have forgotten about humanity! Humanity has gone right out the window.
And so far humanity goes out the window, what do human beings have? Nothing. What can they rely on? Nothing. What can they keep on looking forward towards? Nothing. So, this is truly a very, very long journey.
So, here’s another question that’s very important, I think. “Dear Prem Rawat, I appreciate listening to you every morning. My ninety-five-year-old grandmother is in a home for old people. And the visit to the old people is forbidden. I’m scared she leaves this world without anybody holding her hand, and no possibility for us to say ‘goodbye.’” (Oh, but actually it is a grandfather so, I’m sorry.)
“No possibility for us to say ‘goodbye’ or gather for the funeral. I know he had a long and good life but I find it sad to end like this. What could I write him to help him in this difficult situation?”
Only one thing—you love him. That’s all you can say. “I love you. Please be. And please be well. And I love you and I will always love you. You are in my memories; you will dance in my memories; you will dance in my heart. And—I love you.” What else can you—I mean, what else can you say? You know?
You have to accept the situation, sometimes, the way it is, not the way you have created your picture postcard. Accept it. There’s nothing you can do about it. It is unfortunate; it is sad. And they don’t want more of these transmissions to happen; that’s why the isolation: “No, you can’t go there.”
I know you have your little picture postcard, but you’re going to have to put that picture postcard to rest for a little while and look at the reality—and the reality is still beautiful. You love him; he loves you; that’s the reality. Coronavirus or no coronavirus, you love him; he loves you. No walls, no great distances, not even those two walls can keep that love apart.
That’s what love is. Love can go through the walls. Love can travel humongous distances. Love can reach down to the bottom of the ocean. Love can reach to the heavens above. Love is. And that’s what makes love so special. It has no boundaries. It will never go away. So far you are alive, you can love him every single day of your life.
Now, how incredible is that? How wonderful is that? Accept the situation. And most importantly, accept the love that you have for your grandfather. That’s how it should be.
Not trying to make our picture postcards that we create in our head, make them a reality—no, look at the reality that is. And maybe that will help you.
So, thank you very much—and that’s all the time we have today. And we’ll get back tomorrow for some more questions. Be safe; be well. Be.