Lockdown with Prem Rawat – Day 70

“You will know real peace because it will fill your heart.” —Prem Rawat


Prem Rawat’s daily “Lockdown” videos highlight his talks and how his Peace Education Program helps people discover personal peace.

Stay tuned for details on how you’ll be able to join Prem virtually in the program soon.

Audio

Project: Inward

Miami, USA

 

Prem Rawat:

Today, a lot of people say to me, “Oh, there are so many distractions.” And when somebody said that to me, it was on a TV interview—“There are so many distractions; there are telephones, there is iPhone, there is iPad, there are tablets; there is this; there is this; there is this”—I agreed. But then this is my nature; I have to think about that.

So, guess what Buddha says? “Don’t let your mind wander.” Well, “What?” Why is Buddha talking about “don’t let your mind wander”? What wandering—there are no iPhones; there are no smart tablets. Wait a minute; what’s going on here? You mean we have been bothered by this little thing of this mind wandering, being too busy, since the time of Buddha? And Kabir, same thing!

So, don’t be fooled. Don’t be fooled by the name of your detractors. Don’t be fooled—they have always been there, in different shape, different form, confusing you. Alienating you from whom? From yourself, from your serenity.

You, as a farmer, have become very good at harvesting your anger. (This is a loaded statement—be careful; take it for what it’s worth.) You have become very good at harvesting your anger; that also means you sow the crop of your anger. (Without sowing the crop of your anger, how are you going to harvest it?)

So, you have become very good at sowing the crop of your anger—and you have become very good at harvesting the crop of your anger. You have become very good at harvesting the crop of pain, sorrow, misery, confusion, doubt—and you do not know how to even sow the seeds of peace in your life—if you did, that’s what you would be harvesting today, and every day.

It’s a tragedy that I have to come out here and tell you this. It shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t be like this—at the best, it would be great for somebody to come out and say, “Isn’t life wonderful? Isn’t life great? Isn’t every day great?” And everybody agreeing. Not for an hour….

Well, but listen, just, we can sit here and talk about peace as much as you want. But then everything becomes a tool for that. What is the tool for life? What is the tool for existence? What is the tool to be alive; what is the tool to feel this amazing thing that you have called life?

Here is this universe—and, (ha-ha), and you know, I really have to tell you this. I’m using the word “universe”—I do not understand its vastness. It’s not like, and just because I’m using the word “universe,” it makes me an expert. And I know how big it is; I know where this street is and where that street is, and where this is and where that is—I don’t know.

But I know there is this, all around you. And there is this, our galaxy. And it’s all dirt! Some shiny dirt, some not so shiny dirt. Some reflective dirt, some not so reflective dirt. And then here, as though touched by magic, this dirt talks. This dirt smiles. This dirt can actually cry. And this dirt becomes so un-dirt-like—and yet it always remains dirt.

Take that one element from it, and it goes back to being that dirt. That’s the law; that’s the nature; that’s the science of it. This is not subjective stuff. This is objective; this is how it is.

And you—through it all, through your problems…. How many of you have problems? Some little, some small? Some big? Some really big? And sometimes the little ones get a little bigger? And sometimes the big ones get a little smaller? And sometimes they just rearrange themselves?

So, you came; you’re here. What have you become really good at? How do you judge yourself; how do you see yourself? “If you can cope with your problems, you’re good?” If you can’t cope with your problems, if you can’t deal with your problems? Don’t you all want to be unaffected by your problems?

How many of you want to be unaffected by your problems? [Individual: Ah-hah, that’s right.] Hmm, that’s very interesting.

So it’s like, you don’t really mind the problems—it’s okay to have the problems so far they don’t affect you, right? Is that correct? That doesn’t make sense. Just, I don’t know why, but it doesn’t make sense to…. “It’s okay to have problems, so far they don’t bother you?”

It’s like your house is full of cockroaches so far you don’t see them…? It’s okay if your toilet is plugged so far you don’t smell it? It’s okay if your soup burns so far you don’t taste the burnt taste? Wow. See, that’s a new one for me. That’s strange—don’t you think so?

Wouldn’t you rather really find out, “Do you have a problem?” Because if in reality, you don’t have a problem but you think you do, that would be really tragic, wouldn’t it? In fact, that would actually qualify you to be a little cuckoo. It would be like that joke. 

So people then go from, “I am my problems; I am my problems and I am my problems”—then they find somebody quote-unquote “enlightened”—who tells them, “You are not your problems; you are not your problems.”

And then you keep repeating, “I’m not my problems; I’m not my problems; I’m not my problem—oops, I have a problem. Am I my problems or am I not my problems? Why do problems feel so real? Why do I have so many problems?” And on it goes.

The big questions start to pop up: “What am I about? What is this life about?” And then there—you think there’s a shortage of answers?

“You, in your last lifetime….” Some—there are plenty of these people too. “In your last lifetime, you did a lot of bad things. And you are now suffering. And if you don’t do good things now, straighten that out, you’re going to suffer again.”

Is that how it works? Because if this is how it works, then what is the point of anything called “enlightenment”? It’s already set. The game is already set: “This is what’s going to happen.” Then who are you? What are you imagining? What do you want in your life?

So, how is it? Is it something that’s completely different—none of this stuff, none. There is a divine everywhere—in you too—in every particle of that dust that you’re made out of. You are here; you’re alive. You have a gift—and it’s called “the breath,” and it comes into you, and it fills you—and it brings you the gift of life.

You have a brain; it can figure things out. And it’s not about problems. It’s about finding your way in this existence. It is not about circumventing obstacles.

You think that if you circumvent enough obstacles in your life, you will reach some sort of a destination—no, you won’t. You may be going around in circles, circumventing obstacles. And this is what you have become good at is circumventing obstacles.

You have actually not become good at holding a course—the course of life, the course of existence, the course of understanding, the course of joy, the course of peace, the course of having this heart full.

But people think, “Oh, you, just, just, you’re just a human being? You’re nobody. What have you—what have you achieved!?” I have achieved the breath coming into me, by the way—I’ve achieved that. Now make the rock do it. Not possible. Only a human being can have this gift of life, of understanding.

So I ask you a question. When you hear the word “peace…?” When you hear the word “peace,” do you feel peace or do you imagine peace? When you hear the word “divine,” do you feel the divine? Or do you imagine the divine?

When you hear the word “clarity”—do you imagine clarity or do you feel clarity? When you hear the word “joy,” do you feel joy—or do you imagine joy? When I say the word “love,” do you imagine love or do you feel love?

When somebody comes to me and says, “You were talking about peace; I want to experience the peace you’re talking about. I want to experience the joy you’re talking about; I want to experience the fulfillment you’re talking about,” we have to get one thing very right—you want me to fulfill your expectations?

Because if that is what you want fulfilled, I can’t do that. But there is a real peace—and it’s not about imagination. And how do you know it is real peace, because it will fulfill your hunger; it will fill your heart. Not your curiosity, not your imagination. It will fulfill your heart.

Do you know what a heart is? Do you know what a heart is? Or do you even have an imagination of your heart, and that’s what you consider the heart to be? The greatest challenge you will ever face—the greatest challenge you will ever face is to rise above your imagination and accept the reality as it is.

And that is the day you will understand what beauty is and what true beauty is. That is the day you will understand what fulfillment is. That is the day you will understand what life is. And in you, that joy, that clarity, that understanding will dance. And every time it does, every time it does, it’ll bring you a happiness you cannot even imagine.