Prem Rawat:
Well, hello, everyone. I hope you’re doing well under the circumstances—and keeping well, keeping safe. So, today I’d like to talk to you a little bit about just this one thing that came to me. A long time ago I had come across this statement, (or quote or whatever you want to call it), and it went something like, “Question everything.”
And so I started thinking like, “Well, that’s very interesting: ‘Question everything.’ And do I agree with that?” And I do—I do agree that we should question. But at the same time, we do need the answers—because it would be pointless to keep on questioning without receiving any answer. And in which field, in which spectrum would you question?
So, here’s the gist of it for me—that yes, we question everything. Now, even for some questions, even if I do get an answer, do I care? I mean, I may look up; I might see an airplane flying across the skies. And it is, it would be quite normal to say, “I wonder where that airplane is going?”
Somebody comes up to me and says, “Oh, that’s, that airplane is going to Singapore.” Well, it’s like, “Okay, you know, what’s the big deal? I mean”—yeah, or it’s going to Delhi: “What’s the big deal?”—or it’s going to Mumbai; it’s, “What’s the big deal?”
But then there are those questions that, obviously, we need to ask, and need to get answers for—those questions: “Why am I here? Who am I? What am I?” I’m a human being. I need that answer; I need that answer again and again and again in my life: “I’m a human being.”
What do I want? I have needs. My needs are very basic; my needs are very fundamental. “And what about this world?” I need to question everything in this world.
And the amazing thing is that most of the time we don’t question the world; we question ourselves. We don’t get any answer from the world; we don’t even question it, but we don’t even get any answer from the world. We have assumptions: “This is what this is for; this is what this is for; this is what this is for.”
And all of a sudden, there is this disparity; there is this imbalance—of where the questions are being asked…. And is it good to ask questions; I think it’s wonderful to ask questions. But you have to ask those questions so you can get an answer, especially when those questions relate to you, to your existence, to your fundamental being here on this earth.
I was born; I came out of one wall. I exist in this world; I exist in this time. I do not understand how little that time is. I don’t understand my possibilities, how great those possibilities are for me.
One day I do know that I have to go—but I don’t understand what that means, “go.” Go where? Where am I going? Because that’s already presupposed. “If you have been a good person, you’re going to go to heaven.” And it, you know, it completely depends on the religion that you are following.
The thing about religion is that a lot of times you’re born into a religion. You don’t choose a religion; you’re born into a religion. And once you are born into a religion, off you go. What may seem different to somebody else will seem completely normal to you.
When a Christian looks at somebody following the rites of the Hindu religion, that looks very different to them. But for a Hindu, that’s completely normal; it’s completely correct; it’s completely right.
And this is how it is. And they see the Christians following their religion—and it’s like, “This is odd; this is odd; this is odd.” But to a Christian who’s been born in that, who has seen it from a very young age, everything seems normal.
So, off we go in our beliefs, in our ideas, in our thoughts—but we’re truly not questioning.
And I’m not talking about questioning religion; I’m not talking about questioning those things. I’m talking about questioning, “Who am I? Why am I here? What are my needs? What is my understanding? What do I want in my life? What is important to me—today? What is the value of today for me? What is the value of tomorrow for me; what is the value of yesterday for me?”
Because if the value of tomorrow is greater than the value of today, then I truly don’t understand what today, tomorrow and yesterday are all about. If the value of yesterday is greater than the value of today for me, then I really don’t understand these three things, which are “today, yesterday and tomorrow.” I don’t get it; I don’t understand the value of it.
Today is the most important for me—because I can do something today. Today is where my actions take place. Yesterday is memory, thinking thoughts. Tomorrow is contemplations, thoughts, ideas—but no action can actually take place in tomorrow, or no action can take place in yesterday. For the actions to happen—for the actions to happen it has to be today.
So, are my actions that I take the culmination of a well-processed thought? Or they’re at random? (Some days are good; some days are not; some hours are good; some hours are not. Some minutes are good; some minutes are not.) Because if I haven’t thought out what it is that I should do….
And I say the word “clarity”—but that’s what clarity takes. Clarity takes to completely understand all ins and outs of what it means.
When I was flying from Recife to Miami, there was an area, (and it was indicated on the charts), of some thunderstorms. Of course, you realize, when you fly an airplane you have all this information—and you have your radar—but most importantly, you have your eyes.
So, you have your radar; you’re looking at your radar. You’re looking at the satellite picture on your instruments. On your display, you’re looking at the satellite picture and it’s, you’re looking at how current it is. Of course, I had my iPad too, and I’m looking at that—and that’s giving me a more current picture.
But then I have my eyes. And if, you know, everything says, “Oh, no, don’t worry about it; everything is clear,” and I am looking out the window and I’m heading into something that I know is a thunderstorm, that’s it. That takes precedence.
So I made a deviation—and I deviated and I deviated quite a bit. But I didn’t want to get into it, into those thunderstorms. And we had a nice smooth ride; got back. The whole thing, the deviation, probably didn’t take more than twenty, twenty-five minutes—and we were back on route. And by the way, some of the directs we got, we made up some time as well.
So, when you fly, you look at all aspects of things; it’s not just, you get in the airplane, crank the engines and go. No, you take a look at “Where am I going to be when this happens; where am I going to be when this happens? If I was to lose an engine, where am I going to be and where am I going to go? How much fuel will I have; will I make it? How much reserves will I have?”
So, you take a look at all of that information. And so the information is taken; it is processed. A picture is derived. And then it becomes a plan that you concur with. Whatever information has been sent, “Okay, yes, we can do this. This is the amount of fuel we need.”
And I, when I order my fuel, I always look at the route—and if there are too many thunderstorms, a lot of deviation or turbulence or whatever and we may have to go lower, you order a little bit extra. It’s always good to have a little bit extra. And of course, the rule of thumb in aviation is that “Runway behind you, fuel in the truck and the altitude above you, don’t do you any good”—in an emergency.
You need as much altitude as you can have. You need that fuel that you left in the truck and you would rather have it in your wings. And the runway, the more you have, the better it is for whatever it is that you’re doing.
So, does that not apply in life? Well, it should. Those principles are sound—that “Yes, be ready for any eventuality, any possibility.”
But at the same time, we don’t do that. Off we go. Off we go. We are launching, even before the rocket has taken off its pedestal. We are going. The idea is already there; you get up in the morning and “Off I go.”
So, off you go—and you’re waiting for the bus; you have left your house; you’re doing this—and it’s just like you’re caught up in this storm. And you don’t know what to do.
Now, why am I saying all this to you? It’s because this is a grand time; this is a great time to start questioning some of those things—and most importantly, some of those important questions that you need to ask yourself, get the answers to them. Not just take somebody’s word for it.
If people just asked those questions and have an answer that is satisfactory—not the answer that “Oh, yeah, God just works in mysterious ways and I accept that.” No, no, “What’s going on here?” Because here I am; this is my life! I am the one who has been given options, either to do or not to do.
I am that warrior that was at that great war in India, Mahabharat. And a choice has been made—and Krishna is saying, “Look, you have to look at everything—and then and then only should you make that choice.” And when Arjun finally sees the whole side of it, he is then ready to fight.
So, you know, at first, I would have to say that there was one point in time in my life, I absolutely agreed with Arjun’s choice: “I am not going to fight; I know all these people…. I ain’t fighting.” It’s like, “Hey, that’s a good choice; don’t fight.”
But look at the whole thing. Look at what the reasons are—that these people have taken upon themselves to go against what is correct, what is right.
Anyway, that was Mahabharat; that’s yesterday. Tomorrow will be what will be. But today is what you have to work with, work with. This is where your actions will take place.
And because today is where the actions will take place, “now” is where the actions will take place, that’s the importance of now. Two minutes before, only thoughts can take place. That’s as far as you can go with your thoughts. But for actions, you’re locked in the position of now.
So if you’re locked in the position of now, shouldn’t all your thinking be focused or take part and understand what now is all about—because that’s where you’re going to act. And the consequences of what you do in the now, (where you act), you will have to face in the future—and that will become your past. And more and more and more this process keeps happening, the more “today” is going to get muddled.
So, question everything; absolutely; no problem. Some questions you will never get answers to; who cares about those questions; maybe they’re too trivial. But then there are those important questions that you must ask of yourself—and you must receive the answers. It’s not a question of options; you must receive those answers.
And those answers have to be clear, have to be succinct, have to be correct. And it has to feel right, from your heart, accepting the answer to those questions.
Because inside of you there is an ocean, an ocean of answers. This is what I say: “Inside of you is an ocean of answers.” And that answer that’s going to feel right to you is going to come from that ocean that is within you.
So, I hope that, you know, things keep improving for you. Take it one day at a time. Don’t look at, you know, “What’s going to happen down the road; what’s going to happen up the road,” whatever the road is. But one day at a time, feel good. Be well; be safe. Understand the importance of now. That has not changed.
Coronavirus or not, lockdown or not, that doesn’t mean anything in regards to that day that you were born and that day that you’re going to go. In regards to that, this means nothing. That is still valid. And every moment that this breath comes into you is a celebration for you that you need to start celebrating every single day.
So, be well; be safe. And most importantly, be. Thank you—and I’ll talk to you later.