Prem Rawat:
Hello, hello, everyone. I hope you’re all well. And what I would like to just talk about today is very, very simple. Because that word “simplicity”—sometimes we forget what it really means, just to be simple.
Under the circumstances these days, being in isolation because of this coronavirus, that word seems so appropriate—because those people who really, truly understand the meaning of the word “simple” can adjust and adapt to this situation in the best possible way.
What is “simple?” Simple is that this breath comes into you, without any effort, without you having to think—and it brings you the gift of life. Simple is that you can look with your eyes, see the blue sky, see the clouds—and you can be content.
Simple is to be able to see your life and understand that you exist—and how profound that is, how beautiful it is; that is simple. Simple is that you have love in this heart—and that from this heart, you can love. And you carry the gift of this loving. Anybody—for anybody who can spark that love in you, you’re willing to give.
Existence is so simple; life is so simple; being alive is so simple—and having a profound experience, even in the midst of all this, is really very simple.
Last night, I was trying to sleep—and a storm came by. And the winds were blowing; you could hear the rain. And we don’t like storms; the metaphor of a storm is something not nice. But what is a storm?
Winds blow—well, we like wind—but not too much. You know, when the wind starts to ruffle our hair and starts to throw us around and throw around things, and we can’t drive; we can’t fly properly, then things get a little bit nasty.
Rain comes; we don’t like rain. We don’t like getting wet. Why don’t we like getting wet? Well, when the evaporation happens—when we get wet the evaporation happens; it feels cold. We don’t like to be cold. Our temperature margin is relatively very small.
Then it can be windy; it can be cold; it can be rainy; it can be snowy. It can just––storm. And yet, what can you do when a storm comes? And so, this is what I was thinking. So I’m lying there; it’s like, “What can I do; what can one do when the storm comes?”
And in one sense, the storm is not under your control. That’s not what you control. But what you do during that storm, how you react to that storm, that’s under your control. You can do something about that.
This little leeway, this little passage that you have can make all the difference in the world. It may sound very trivial; it may sound very insignificant—but it is the most important thing. “I can’t control the storm, but how can I just…?”
And, you know, though I was lying in my bed and I was very comfortable—and even though outside a storm is brewing, I’m comfortable—because that’s where I am.
Similarly, when the storm brews between our ears, to find the place, to find the solace of the heart—and get comfortable, get warm. And all of a sudden, even though there is the storm, you have found a place that is so profound, that’s so beautiful that is inside of you.
And in that place, in that place of the heart, you can be comfortable; you can enjoy—and you can hear and see the storm move by. And when the storm goes, the sun will shine again.
That metaphor––it’s so important to understand—that yes, storms do come in life; situations do come in life. But we don’t have to fall victim to the situation. We can actually still remember how important it is for us to know, to understand what the opportunity brings, what this opportunity is.
I mean, what is this opportunity? You know, and I was thinking about it. It’s like, “Is there anything good about this?” Because I had so many plans; I was going to go to so many places, see so many people. I really miss doing events where I can see everyone’s face. I really like looking into people’s eyes—and be in front of them and do live talking.
I mean, this is okay—I mean, there are two black objects in front of me; that’s what I’m looking at. And they have absolutely no emotion whatsoever; they do not concur with anything I say—they don’t reject anything I say; they don’t concur with anything I say. They’re just there, these two dark holes which are the lenses.
And, yeah, I mean, I can just imagine people are watching and, you know, somebody’s watching in their living room; somebody’s watching somewhere, something, something, something, something.
But what is this opportunity—and I mean, it’s a horrible situation. You know, world leaders lying to us, world leaders trying to now, all of a sudden, protect their position. If this is a train wreck, this was a long time coming.
I mean, there was so much leeway that was there for the whole world to prepare—and for the whole world to hunker down. And spectacular mistakes were made. And I’m sure that, you know, right now we’re kind of getting in the midst of this. But later on, I hope that there are people who try to learn from this.
Because I was listening to this other documentary the other day and it was about the Spanish flu—and that happened quite a long time ago. And there were so many similarities between the Spanish flu and what’s happening now.
I mean, people just disregarded—the world leaders just disregarded anything that was being said. It’s like, nothing was learned. And when you look at everything that’s happening today, compared to what was happening with Spanish flu, it’s like not one iota of lesson was learned. Not one iota of lesson was learned.
And with all the information technology, with everything available, I mean, this horrible situation has been created. Because, for me, one death, one death that could have been prevented is too much—is too much.
So, in this horrible, horrible time, is there anything good? Is there anything good? I see one thing that can be good—and that is that you get to move a little closer to yourself, to understand your existence, to understand who you are all about, what you are all about—to understand the preciousness of your life. And to understand how powerful the noise between the ears is.
And when I talk about that noise, a lot of people are like, “Okay, you know, yeah, yeah, I guess so.” But now it’s like the amplifier has been cranked way, way, way, way up. And that noise is just so powerful, just comes knocking and “Bam, bam, bam!” day and night and day and night and day and night. It’s there! How powerful it is? Huh, you know.
There are people who get into “This spiritual thing”; they get into that spiritual trip. They go, “It’s like, you know, it’s wonderful to do this kind of travel; You’ve got to try this thing; you’ve got to try that thing….” And people are trying everything.
But here you’ve got this noise that’s driving you crazy—and just imagine this noise: twenty-four/seven it’s on. And sometimes you don’t actually hear it because you’re distracted, but it’s going on.
So you don’t sit there and hear this noise because you’re distracted with this; you’re distracted with that—and sometimes I think people like to be distracted so that they don’t have to sit there and hear that noise.
But now, the distractions have gone significantly down—and the noise is on. Now, what are you going to do? Now the volume is turned up, you have to now do the impossible—which is, you have to live with yourself. I know there are a lot of people who just can’t do it; they can’t stand it. They can’t stand themselves.
Is that a tragedy? Hmm, I think so; I think that’s a tragedy. If you cannot be by yourself, with yourself…. If you’re not comfortable being you, then who are you comfortable being?
You know, a long time ago I’m sure it must have been very different—that you go out every day, most of the day—and you collect berries. And you collect berries; you collect whatever you can collect. Hunter-gatherers, that’s who we were: “Collect, collect, collect”—and you eat, eat, eat.
And then in the evening, you lie down; you go to sleep—and hope no animal comes and eats you—but you go to sleep, wake up in the morning and start that cycle again. And I’m sure people must have been fed up with it: “We wish we had one place we could just go and we could eat.”
From that time, we’ve actually created a system. And the system that we have created—the fact that you have to spend all day long doing it hasn’t changed. So, now you don’t go picking berries. Now, you go working so you can buy the berries; that’s the change that we have made.
Before, we were just, we were not paying anybody; we were not trying to make money. We didn’t have to make money; caves were free—and all you had to do was just go out all day long, pick berries, pick fruits, pick whatever came your way. Eat it—and that was it.
Now, one big problem, I can imagine, in those days would have been, “That can you guarantee food every single day?” So, there would be some days that you didn’t have food and you were hungry.
In a way, now we have created a society in which we take pride in fasting. So, that’s the same thing—but there it was happening naturally because you just couldn’t find any food—and you had to keep moving. And now, you do it on purpose. You do it for some, you know, some reason.
And here you are—and you’re working all day long; just like in the old days, you get up in the morning. And what do you do? You go out to work so you make some money—and you can buy the berries; you can buy all that food.
In the process of making sure that we always have food, we have created an overabundance of food. I mean, an unbelievable amount of food is grown—right down to the point where most of that food is wasted—that we can’t even consume it. And when you look at all the animals that are raised for slaughter, it goes completely out of proportion.
So, when you look at this, we have created a system. But the problems, we have not been able to deal with—we’ve still got the problems.
So, we have overabundance of food. We don’t have to go pick berries but we still have to pick something else, which is called “money”; you have to create money, make money—and that takes us all day long. And then we can use that money to buy the berries.
Well, I’m not going to be the judge to say whether that works or doesn’t work; you can be the judge of that. But somehow it doesn’t feel simple. And I’m talking about simplicity; I’m talking about that simplicity that is inside of you—the law of existence that is incredibly simple.
The needs that you have? Not the wants, the needs that you have? Air, water—a huge system to take that salty water and create fresh, distilled water with it, fresh water with it, make that water available—all the river systems, all the fountains, all the systems in the world…. Air, it’s here; it’s there, everywhere.
Simple, realistic, adorable: this is life. Simple fulfillment, simplest, simplest, simplest of needs for clarity, for understanding, to go forward, to be in joy, to enjoy every single day. And then one day everything packs up, circus is gone, everything is over. But till that day, every day, enjoying, enjoying, enjoying, not from here—but from here, the truest, most beautiful way.
Be well. Be safe. Be. I’ll talk to you later. Thank you.