Prem Rawat:
All stories begin with “Once upon a time.” The story that I really want to tell you also begins like this, but there is a small difference—and the difference is, “Once upon this time there lives you.”
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ONE 2 ONE WITH PREM RAWAT
NO. 1
Prem Rawat:
Hello everyone. I hope you’re all doing well, healthy, safe.
So, a lot’s been going on. And I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk to you and update you a little bit. As you may already know by now—if you don’t, I am in Barcelona, in Europe—and I got here; I’ve done an event.
And of course, we made sure that it was very safe. Everybody was seated with a distance of six feet; everybody had masks on. Everybody had been interviewed, the temperature taken. And the event was very good, very successful.
And I, what I wanted to talk to you about is something that I said at that event. And what I—one of the things that I had said was about perfection. So, to just give you a little bit of a background on that.
When I first came to the West, (forty-nine years ago, forty-nine years and a few days ago), a lot of people were really captured by this idea of being perfect—they wanted to be perfect. And they wanted to achieve perfection.
And I would try to explain to them that, you know, “The perfection is inside of you—and you can experience it—but we live in rather an imperfect world.” And of course, there, you can take that on many different levels.
One day, even this body is not going to be around. The population of earth isn’t going to be around; human beings as we know them won’t be around—the earth, as we know it, won’t be around. The oceans, the rivers, the mountains, the sun, the moon—nothing. Everything will be destroyed. Everything will begin (as it began from dust), will go back to being dust.
Yeah, don’t get overexcited; it’s going to take billions and billions of years for that to happen—even though we’re very much trying to accelerate that process somehow. But, again, it’s going to take billions of years.
So, how, I mean, how can you get close to perfection? Well, there is a way. But you totally have to change your definition of what “perfect” is. And so, if you have a concept of perfection as the infinite—but that’s not going to happen. But there is another way to look at it, and that is that you can be perfectly human—perfectly human. This is possible.
Because that is a journey going back, backwards. Because in your ideas, you want to be “perfect this, perfect that. Really good at this, really good at that.” But what is it like to be human? So then, yes, you have your flaws; you have things that always need improvement. And once you get to one threshold, then there is the next threshold. If you get to one platform, then there is the next platform.
But what does it mean to be human? So, in very simple terms, it means to experience something. That’s the capability that we have; that is the possibility that we have—that we have been given a vessel that can experience, that can think, that can (most incredibly) understand.
Now, there is a problem with our understanding. And what is the problem with our understanding? The problem—the biggest problem with our understanding is that we have already got a format for everything! So, you know, if you are a Hindu, (and you’re born into a Hindu family or household, and everybody tells you about God), then you’ve already got a format of what that is.
And it goes like that with everything. When somebody mentions the word “bread,” well, an Indian might think of a phulka—that’s the little puffy bread. If you are from the Middle East, maybe somebody says “bread” and you might think of pita.
If you are from another part, you know, somewhere in there, the same area, you might think of rumali roti—which is a roti that’s as thin as a handkerchief, (and that’s literally, its name). You go to America and you talk about bread, and you might think of a, you know, white Wonder Bread. And you go to France and maybe somebody says “bread” and you think of a loaf—I mean, a baguette.
So, these little concepts, (harmless of course; no problem). But they have defined for you, your understanding. And it is only when you can step out of that format, can you begin to recognize what truly something is and appreciate something for what it is—not what it can do for you or how it relates to you.
And this is extremely important to have in this life. Otherwise, you’re closed off. There is an example that is given in India quite often—and what they do is they sometimes have the oxen going around a well, driving this long arm, (that is then driving the gear, and that is helping the water from the well come out and go into the fields).
And what they do is they tie their eyes. They put a blindfold on their eyes. And the oxen, they go round and round and round and round and round.
And the saying goes that when they are—“When they’re walking, they’re walking for quite a few hours at a time, and they must think that they have gone so far! But when the blindfold is taken out, they find themselves exactly in the same place”—because they’ve been going around and round and round and round in circles.
So, I try to look at it this way, that we have this idea of, “I see everything in relation to me. This is my this; this is my that. This person is this; this person is that.” But do I see the person for who they are, regardless of what my relationship to them is? Can I do that? Can I let go of the format? Can I let go of what is there that has been preconceived?
It’s like a cookie-cutter. Everything I look at all day long: “I like this; I like that. I have this; I have that. This person looks nice; this person doesn’t look nice.” Well, all of these things as it relates to me. And I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that. But then there is the quality that one can have to see something for what it is. Not how it should be, but what it is.
So, you could always look at the moon—“Oh, it should be like this; it should be like this.” But to see the moon for what it is. To see that river for what it is. To see this whole nature for what it is—non-judgmental—for what it is. Whether it benefits you or not, that’s not the issue. For what it is.
And when you can begin to also see the people in your life for who they are—not in relationship to you, but who they are, then you can—only then and then only can you begin to have true appreciation for them, who they truly are.
And this goes one step more. That when you turn and look at yourself—not the fulfiller of your own expectations—but to see yourself for who you are, this human being on the face of this earth who has the possibility of being fulfilled, who desires peace over turmoil, who wants to be happy, wants to be fulfilled, wants to know, wants to be in that clarity, only then can you begin to appreciate what you have.
Because so far—if you look at yourself just as the fulfiller of your own wishes, then if you happen to fulfill those wishes—and this is what happens every day to people. That if you fulfill the wishes, everything is good; you’re on top of the world—then if you don’t fulfill your wishes, then you are disappointed with your own self.
But to have the ability to see yourself for who you are. From the time that you were born, and the time that you will go, that time that defines your life (in terms of time, anyways; not accomplishments, but time), to see that as a gift can only happen if you can truly see it for what it is—what it is. What is that time?—the most precious of precious times that you have been given, that you have been granted?
Now, of course, that sounds like somebody, you know, approved it and so on and so forth; that’s not what I meant—it’s somehow made possible. And how precious that is.
Without attaching all the things to it, “Oh, I didn’t accomplish this; I didn’t accomplish this; I should have been this; I should have been that; I should have achieved this; I should have achieved that. You know, I only have this much money; I only have that much money. And then if the”—off it goes.
So you have become the fulfiller of your wishes, fulfiller of your ideas of who you should be. And you did not look at yourself or truly who you are, as you are. Then, how can there be any appreciation?
A person who only judges themselves, only looks at themselves through that template that they have created in which “Yeah, you accomplished this; you accomplished this; you accomplished this; you accomplished this”—ah, if you didn’t? You’re going to have disappointment.
But is that why you have been given this life? What do you suppose is the reason that this breath comes into you—and brings you the gift of life? That you exist? That you can see, that you can think, you can feel?
If you’re just going to be a robot and do, all day long, what you do, why do you need to feel? Why do you need to feel good about something; why do you need to feel bad about something? Because if the objective is just to be that robot: “Do, do, do” all day long, without knowing why I am doing it, without thinking why I am doing it—and deriving no joy from it but a tireless day…?
And you’re just happy to come home. Yes. And then all of a sudden, this twist happens—where it’s, all of a sudden, “Ah, lockdown! You’ve got to stay at home.” And then nobody wants it; nobody wants to be home. “Want to go out”; they want to do this; they want to do that….
Because people are really not taking a look at their life as it is—what has been given, every day that is—something is given; something is made possible. Every day of your life means something. Every moment of your life means something. You’re not here just aimlessly.
That those millions and millions and millions of species that came—and little experiments all the way across, and success—so you could be who you are, the two eyes, the nose, the ears, the teeth, the skin, the hair? I mean, who appreciates all that, all that grand orchestration to “what will work and what will not work” that this nature put forth to make sure you could be how you are?
But I know people say, you know, “Family is number one.” And every—oh, and I’d, so many times I have seen, it’s like, everybody’s like…. And I know that as soon as they leave the venue and they’re off to, onto their direction, it’s like, “And no, I don’t have time for my family.”
Because again, you’re not—you are looking at your family and you look at your family and it’s, “And well, do they fulfill my expectations?” Not looking at each one of the members of the family for who they are. But how they relate to you.
And only then, when you can begin to have that vision, that view, to see all that is around you for what it is—for what it is—will you even begin to approach the “perfect human being” who can enjoy, who can appreciate like no one else.
Your appreciation is unique to you—the way you can appreciate, the way you…. And you know, it’s not like…. So, so, there—well, how come, all of a sudden there is a song and it’s number one—but not everybody likes it. How can that be?
And not everybody likes chocolate. How can that be, right? Not everybody likes vanilla—how can that be? Not everybody likes ice cream; how can that be? But it is.
And of course, that question very much says, “I, I see the whole world relative to me. I like it, so everybody else must like it.” But that’s not the way it is.
On the contrary—on the contrary, to just look, look around, be. And that’s the only way you can have empathy towards others. Not “how they should be in relation to you”—but who they are, what they are—your friends, your family, the nature, all of it. And then you can be in that position to appreciate something—to appreciate that these things exist.
Do we appreciate, every day, the rising of that sun? What if, one day, that sun didn’t rise? What would that day be like? It’d be chaos—chaos!
I mean, you know, of course, there are times when, six months, the sun doesn’t shine up in the North, in the winter—and then, the winter in the South, it doesn’t shine. But that was it; I mean it—but around the equator, it’s pretty much every day it shines.
But what if one day it disappeared? It would be chaos; it would be fiasco, that everything would be so cold; everything would be so dark….
And people say, “Oh, yeah, I”—but then, that’s a joke, right? “The moon will still be there.” And well, no, no, no, the light from the moon that you see actually comes from the sun.
It’s like that joke, you know; somebody said, “Well, which one is more important, the sun or the moon?” And the people decided that the moon was more important, “Because what is the point of the sun coming out during the day? There’s so much light. But at least, the moon shines at night when the light is needed.”
But that just shows that they don’t know that the light that the moon reflects is the light of the sun. It would be a chaos; it would be a disaster.
And, you know, do we appreciate? Then we would! Then we would, when it’s like, “Oh my God, what happened to the sun? What happened to the sun? What happened to the sun”—and I can just see social media would be going, “What happened to the sun; what happened to the sun?”
But right now we’re just too busy—“But that’s wrong. And that’s wrong; that’s wrong.” Everybody’s nice and judgmental about everything. No empathy…. And not appreciating something for what it is.
This is a complex world that we live in. Everybody has their debates: “Wrong! Right! Right, wrong.” And we, “No, no, you’re wrong because it should be like this. That, no, you’re wrong because it should be like this.”
Make a better world for yourself, of course! In which everybody is included, everybody is treated well. But that can only happen when you can have an appreciation for who they are—not in relation to you, but who they are; they’re another human being.
This is nature. It needs to be looked after. Trees do a lot of things. In fact, I once watched this documentary and I was shocked, how intelligent the trees are. But one thing they don’t do is walk, go for a walk. I can.
Should I see that tree as inferior to me because it cannot walk, because I can? Or can I see that tree for what it is? And it is a superb, superb example of something that went through the different experiments and emerged victorious; it’s there.
That grass that you see that doesn’t mean anything to you, went through so much experimenting—and emerged as victorious. That bird went through so much evolution to get to that stage—and emerged victorious. Every wave of the ocean, traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling, reaching the shore. You see it—it’s done. It did what it was supposed to do.
How important is that perfection, that viewpoint, that way to be able to see something? Incredibly important. Incredibly important. It makes such a difference for all of us—for you, me, all of us on the face of this earth.
So, anyways, I hope that you stay safe, take care of yourself. Again, remember, “Don’t give it; don’t get it.” Simple things: wash your hands; maintain your distance—your mask.
And you know, we have seen that those people that we always looked forward to, “will solve our problems,” are incapable of solving our problems. Some countries have done really well; some countries can’t get their act together.
Again, I look at those countries, and those little countries that have done really well, it’s not like they’re superpowers. They were never called “superpowers.” But in relation to this coronavirus thing, they are superpowers because they’ve done really well. And what, in my opinion, is the “really well” is, least amount of deaths. And one death is too many.
They were really able to help each other. As human beings, they came together and helped each other so innocent people did not have to die. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind.
Enjoy yourself; be healthy; be well. I’ll see you soon. Thank you.
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