Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone; it’s Prem Rawat again. And today I’d like to talk to you about being conscious, having that consciousness—and this is what I had talked about yesterday, the three points, “Know yourself,” “Live this life consciously,” and “Have gratitude.” And of course, I’ll talk about gratitude later.
But to live this life consciously, to know that what you have been given is something very, very precious. I’m not talking about your problems. I’m talking about this life, this breath that you have—that means so much!
And look around you. You know, sometimes we forget what we have been given. This life is so powerful; this life is so good; this life is so real. And it’s not going to be there all the time.
Interestingly enough, in these days, whilst we are in lockdown with this coronavirus, it’s very interesting. Because you look around you—and always the world has been this, you know, bubbling and going-going-going-going-going and all of a sudden it’s not going anywhere!
And everybody is being asked to just go home and, you know, isolate themselves and not contaminate other people—good advice. But what does that mean for you?
So, all of a sudden you find yourself at home—and maybe your home is what it is; you have your family; maybe you don’t have too many people. But all of a sudden you find yourself in this situation—what do you do? It’s a very interesting question: “What do you do?”
Because more than ever, now that you are at home and you are kind of in a quote-unquote, “lockdown,” you need to be more conscious, not less! You need to be actually more conscious of what’s going on.
What’s going on in here? What’s brewing here? What’s being cooked; what’s being concocted here? Are you getting bored?
You have no reason to get bored. Know yourself—and you will understand that this is not about boredom; this is not about that; this is about truly opening your eyes and looking at things the way they really are.
And to me, that’s all it takes. Living your life consciously isn’t some, you know, journey onto the top of a mountain, as people would have you believe, and, you know, or to the bottom of the ocean or whatever it is.
But it’s really quite simple. It is to open your eyes—and realize that what you have been given is incredibly, incredibly precious. What you have been given is incredibly, incredibly beautiful.
Do you know the value of this breath? You know, you have to realize one thing; you’re in the middle of making history here. This is a very historic time.
I mean, here we are; we’re in 2020. I mean, we’re at the, such a bleeding, leading edge of technology and we have our phones and we have our this and we have our airplanes and we have our fast trains–super-fast trains; we have our cruise ships and I mean, my God, we, you know, we live in technology you wouldn’t believe!
I mean, when Titanic first came out, it was like an incredible wonder because of how big it was. Well, the new cruise ships are much, much bigger than Titanic.
And yet, here we are. And this little viru has got the whole world clamped. It’s got the whole world in its fear; it’s got the whole world in like, well, lockdown! And there’s nothing you can do about it.
And the leaders, some of the leaders are not so leader-y. Pardon the pun, but, you know, that’s just the way it is. You can see what they’re doing with it; it’s just, everything is a knee-jerk reaction—some leaders are very good, and they’re taking the precautions—and truly leading people.
But otherwise, it’s just like, you know, “You’re on your own. And sorry, we don’t have any advice for you; just go home and you know, just do whatever it is!”
And of course, people have expectations! And people have expectations that in these times of trouble, somebody will come up and say, “Hey, you know, this is what you should do.” And that’s leadership—to help people, channel people towards a positive–a good goal.
But what about you and your leadership? Because you’re a leader too. You lead your life. Nobody else leads your life; you lead your life!
And so, in you leading your life, in you managing your life, how are you going to do this?
Are you going to take yourself and bore yourself? Are you going to take yourself and make yourself be afraid? Are you going to allow all the misinformation to come in and scare you? You’re the leader; you are the doorkeeper of your doors, your doors of sanity, your doors of understanding, your doors of clarity.
And so this is where really, really, you have to begin to understand how important it is to live your life consciously, with eyes open! Look around; appreciate what you can appreciate. What you don’t like, what you don’t want, make sure it doesn’t come in. Because you are the doorkeeper. And you have to understand that.
The value, in these moments when you have that quiet time—because there’s one part of you that doesn’t want anything else except joy, except to be happy, except to be content, except to be (if I may say so) blissed out. Well, that’s good! That’s good.
And then there’s another part of you that wants to rip you apart, that wants to weaken you, that wants to take away your serenity, that wants to take away your clarity, that wants to take away your understanding.
Well, one will win. And here is the big important part of it. Who will win? Who will win? The one you allow to win, the one you feed.
I’d like to tell you that story again—where once this kid in this camp comes up to the chief—and he says, “Chief, I have a question.” And the chief said, “What?”
He said, “Well, I see that in people, in the same people there is good—and there is bad! How can that be?” And the chief said, “Well, it’s very simple! In each one of us, there is a good wolf—and there is a bad wolf. And they fight.”
The kid thought for a little while. And he said, “So, chief, which one wins? Which wolf wins?” and the chief looked at the little boy and said, “The one you feed. That’s the one that gets strong. That’s the wolf that wins.”
Now, some of you have heard this story. It’s the same thing. Who wins? Well, who wins? The one you feed.
Are you feeding the bad wolf—or are you feeding the good wolf? What does it mean if the bad wolf wins? Well, you would have wasted your time, an incredible opportunity—because this is what I talked about yesterday.
It’s not what’s thrown at you; it’s how you react to it. So, this could be a fantastic opportunity to quieten down, to understand the value of how things should be.
Not how things you find yourself in, all the noise and all the crazy stuff—but it’s like, “No, this is how it should be. This is good! And I need to focus on myself; I need to focus on my heart; I need to focus on the good that I have in me. I need to focus on all that is beautiful about this life. I need to focus on the consciousness that I have, to be aware!
“I need to focus on the beauty that I carry; I need to focus on that light that I carry inside of me. I need to focus—and bring my attention to it, that beauty that dwells in me.” And if I can do that, then the good wolf wins. It’s as simple as that. Then the good wolf wins.
Otherwise? Torn apart, scared: “Oh my God, you know, this is this way; this is this way.” Because there’s a very big difference in being concerned—and being scared.
“Concerned” means you take the appropriate steps. “Scared” means you just go hide, close your eyes and go, “Baa-whaa-whaa-whaa-whaa-whaa, you know, I’m scared; I’m scared; I’m scared.” Up to you—but what do you want it to be?
And living this life consciously is more important now—because now you are with yourself. Not with other people—now you’re less distracted. So, before, you know, “This distraction, that distraction, this is happening; that’s happening; this is wrong; that’s wrong.”
Now you’re with yourself! And think, understand, clarify—beautiful time to do that. Take it in! Take in life! My God, take in life! Take in the value of each breath. Take in what it means to be, to exist. Take in what it means.
You know, it’s like a cloud, a beautiful cloud. You see it—and it’s like, “Oh, yeah, it’s a cloud.” But look at it! It’s moving! It’s changing. It’s never the same! And appreciate that.
And your life, in a sense, is a cloud. You came through one wall and you’re going to hit the other wall and you’ll be gone! And you think everything is so slow sometimes—because between these two walls, the time that is there is relative.
When you’re bored it’s like, it’s moving ever so slow and when you’re having fun, it’s moving ever too fast! Well, it shouldn’t be ever too fast—and it should never be too slow. It should be what it is, and that’s appreciation.
Not manipulation. Not manipulation of life, not manipulation of beauty—“Let me manipulate the beauty to fit my ideas.” But acceptance, seeing it, understanding it. That’s what life is all about.
And what a beautiful time—to go inside and really feel, feel the joy, feel the beauty, feel the heart that is still bubbling in the middle of all this that is going on.
There is a lamp in the middle of all this darkness—there is a lamp that is lit inside your heart. Look at it; see! From its illumination, illuminate your world. And enjoy what’s there.
So, today, this is what I wanted to talk about: “Live your life consciously.” Well, make the most of this time.
If you, by the way, have any questions that you would like to ask me, please send them to PremRawat.com—and they’ll get to me.
So, thank you and stay healthy; stay well.