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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Once upon this time there lives You.
ONE 2 ONE
WITH PREM RAWAT
NO. 13
Prem Rawat:
Hello everyone; I hope you are well. A lot of things have happened—got to go to a lot of cities in Europe, do some events—keeping it, you know, strictly within the rules and making sure that it was absolutely safe for all the participants all over the place. So, yeah, masks and, you know, everybody who came had to be “part of the pod” or not travel by other means.
And so, it has been very, very successful. And then, of course, I did the last event which was the Rome Senate event. And that was about the Peace Education Program, and trying to get that rolled out in more prisons in Italy. And of course, the book launch in Italian, Hear Yourself. And that’s been received very well, as well.
And of course, now I’m going to be moving on to different countries, different cities, and trying to just take this message of peace to people. Because it’s a very simple message; it’s a very profound message.
However, I did have this question sent to me which I think is valid, so I will give the answer to it. And that is that, you know, “Why does it have to be the wolves inside of us? Why can’t it be other kinds of creatures?”
So, what I’d like to, first of all, say is like, you know, that’s just an example; the wolf: “good, bad,” the wolves are pretty powerful. And that you have something that is very powerful that is good inside and you have something very powerful that is not so good inside.
And there is always a tussle. I mean, so many of the stories, so many of the epic stories that have been told, it is always that struggle of good and bad. And in a way, in our lives, this goes on too—the struggle between the good and the bad.
And so, to then get into the semantics of it and say, “Well, why is it a wolf?” So, it’s not literally a wolf. It’s just you, a very powerful part of you that has a lot to do with what is good and what is bad.
Now, in our society, we concentrate on the negative. This is—okay, so this is another part of it. And nothing to do with the wolves. So I hope that clarifies the “wolves” business.
So it’s not literally; you cannot take it literally and say “Well, you know, there are two wolves inside of us.” And believe me, there’s no two wolves inside of us. But there is the good and there is the bad. So, moving on….
There is the story of Ramayan—you know, about Ram that came, and he had to go to the exile. His wife got stolen; he had to fight the monster, the demon. He did. He brought her back home. And, you know, the story kind of unfolds like that.
But in this story, there is this one part. And the part is that Hanuman, who is extremely powerful—he’s, he is very, very powerful. But he’s also very dedicated to Ram. And he is the one who actually then ends up going—and he jumps from India to Sri Lanka; he goes to Sri Lanka and delivers the message of Ram to Sita.
And when everything is done, and everything is—you know, the war is finished; they’re all back. And I’m sure that a lot of people would have gathered around Hanuman; it’s, “Hanuman, tell us, you know, what really happened and how was it,” and so on.
And Hanuman is, I’m sure, describing—and somebody asked Hanuman this question: “That you’re powerful enough; you could have taken care of Ravan all by yourself. You could have destroyed his city all by yourself. You could have destroyed all the monsters that were there, all the demons that were there, all by yourself.
“So, why didn’t you? Why did you have Ram do it? And you could have brought Sita back to Ram and, you know, it would have been just fine.” And you have to hear the answer that Hanuman gives—and it’s very, very interesting. And the answer is, he says, “It’s not my story.”
So, when I heard that, “It’s not my story,” it was like, “Wow. Wow.” It is, in our lives, our story. So, every human being on the face of this earth has a story. And it is their story; being alive, being on this earth is their story.
And how profound to acknowledge that—and say “I did not want to interfere with that story. However that story was going to unfold, I had to allow it to unfold that particular way, without influencing that story.”
Now, do we do that? Well, the sad part is, we’re not even aware that everybody has a story. And when you, of course, think about it or you hear that, it makes complete sense, “Yeah, everybody does have a story.”
And what do we do? Well, we try to influence other people’s story with our, what we think is right, what we think is wrong. What we think, how it should be. And so we go along, all day long, almost, and we’re influencing people: “Oh, that, your story should be like this; your story should be like this.”
But it can’t be! To acknowledge, to first of all, just begin with that simplicity. To begin with that premise that everybody has a story. And it is the decisions that they make that will influence how the story unfolds.
You know, I talk about “Why is this moment called ‘now’ so powerful?” I mean, why? And yeah, just because it’s never going to come back? Well, it seems like, you know, so far we’re alive, there’s another one; there’s another one; there is another one; there is another one. So why is this now so powerful?
And I was thinking about that one day and it just, you know, the light bulb went off and it was “Because this—in this moment called now, thoughts that we have had turn into action.”
Thoughts can be backtracked; thoughts can be erased; thoughts can be taken back—but once those thoughts convert into action, this is no longer possible. Something has been committed, that the pliability of this moment called now, through our actions, is now no longer pliable; it becomes fixed.
And then there are consequences to—the good consequences; there are bad consequences, but there are consequences to everything, ultimately, that we end up doing. Unconsciousness leads us to not acknowledging those things, not knowing those things.
Unconsciousness is like somebody being inebriated—and all of a sudden they’re not seeing everything that is there; they’re not acknowledging everything that is there. Their reactions are becoming more and more, slower and slower and slower—up to the point that they’re not reacting at all. They’re just trying to live.
Now, maybe, you know, there is somebody who hasn’t gone through all of that—drinking and this and that and being inebriated, so he could say, “Well, I’m not inebriated.” But unconsciousness is inebriation. And you cannot—you’re not aware of what’s around you. And once you are not aware of what’s around you, (what is happening, what is taking place), the situation becomes very dire.
So, the fact that every human being has a story—and it is their choices that will determine which way they will go. Now, a lot of people might say “Well, you know, shouldn’t I caution somebody if I see them going towards a ditch?” You can caution them. But I have also seen that you can caution a person, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll listen to you.
It’s still up to them how they react to that, how they choose…. Whether they understand it, where they acknowledge it—or they don’t acknowledge it and just go on. And there are a lot of people who do.
Look at our situation in our world today. There are people who are saying, “Hey, do something about the environment.” Because look, everything has an equal and opposite reaction. So, you don’t even have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that “Here we go; we are putting all this pollution in this world; we’re doing all of these things to our environment….”
And anybody who thinks that there will not be a consequence to that—well, you’ve got another thing coming! There is going to be a consequence. And unfortunately, all the things that we do bring about negative consequences.
This world, at this moment, is not particularly well-equipped, as the tolls from coronavirus reach beyond one million—we’re not well-equipped to do any of this, not well-equipped at all. We create our enemy and we prepare for that enemy. And, God forbid, the enemy that actually comes has nothing to do with any of that. Then we’re not prepared.
So, we have to make choices—and we’re always making choices. By sometimes not making choices, you have made a choice to be oblivious to it.
And you cannot be oblivious to it. This is our planet, and we exist on this planet—of course, because of nature. But there was that nature allowing human beings to ultimately exist—all these creatures that we share this planet with, nature allowed all of them, not just human beings but all of them to exist. And you cannot just come in.
You know, say if you buy an apartment building—or just one apartment in that building—and you move into your apartment and you throw everybody else out. Well, that doesn’t, isn’t going to be right! You have one apartment—and you’re going to move into that apartment and you’re going to live in that apartment whilst everybody else lives in all the other apartments.
So you—and yeah, and maybe that, you know, somebody’s this and somebody is that and somebody is, looks this way and somebody looks that way. And you’re going to have to learn to live with all of them. What can you do?
And this is the same thing. You know, we get so much into, “Oh, but this is different and that’s different.” Well, it is different—good! Not, it’s the same, same, same, what if everybody looked exactly like you? It would be—it would be terrible!
So, we have differences. And that’s good; that needs to be celebrated. You know, there are orange flowers and there are green flowers and there are blue flowers and there are purple flowers—this needs to be celebrated. We definitely celebrate that—by, in our garden, we don’t just plant one kind of flower but we have variety. And the same way, we have to make those decisions.
So, the question becomes then, “What is your story?” Is your story of hate? Is your story of anger; is your story of fear? Because you have to understand one thing. If you are to choose—or if you are to wish—and somebody comes to you and says, “Okay, whatever you wish will come true,” what will you wish?
Will you wish for “I don’t want to be angry,” so, that’s a negative. That’s a negative. You are wishing, not for something, but you’re wishing for the absence of something. So, what will you wish for?
You have to wish for the positive. So you have to wish for peace; you have to wish for joy. You have to wish for understanding; you have to wish for clarity because these are things that are positive.
“I don’t want to be confused” or “I wish that confusion would go away”—but confusion cannot go away if there isn’t clarity. So, you have to wish for clarity. In your life, you have to make a habit of starting to wish for the positive, not the negative. This is a change in your thinking that has to begin.
Of course, this is your story. You have to choose, “How do you want it to be? How do you want this life to be?”
Will it repeat itself? There are no indications that it will. I know when I say, you know, “You will never—those family members, those people, you will never see them again,” people don’t like that. Because we would like to see them again and again and again and again and again.
Somebody—somebody’s wife passed away. And he said, “Oh, at least she’s gone, you know, where she’s going to be with her relatives.” Ah, that’s really a far stretch. That’s really, really a far stretch. And somewhere you’ve got to know that that’s not true.
That those things that see are still here! The eyes are still here—eyes got buried with the body. The thing that recognizes “That’s my brother; that’s my uncle; that’s,” that’s all here. That got buried. All of those things that we use, all those tools we use to recognize with are buried.
Now, how do I know? There are people who go in a coma; they come out of a coma sometimes and they have lost their memory. And they don’t recognize their own kin; they don’t recognize their own wife; they don’t recognize their own children. It happens! And it happens all too often.
So, that which does the recognizing, that which says “Okay, yeah, you are my mother or you are my this, or you are my aunt,” it’s still here!
But anyways—I mean, I totally understand how, too challenging to say, “Yeah, you know, I’ll never see those again,” but consider it. And live your life like that: “That this will never be again, as you are.”
This little story of yours—and you are a storyteller. And this time that you are going through, that you are living, has this incredible story unfolding. And it’s the story of you. And yes! In this drama, there is the good and there is the bad. And what do you focus on? Do you focus on the good in your life, the peace, the joy, the understanding? Or do you focus on something else?
What will make you unique? What will be different? How will it be? How will it play out? What is going to be the final outcome of your existence? Will you leave behind a story that will inspire others—if they choose to hear that story? The choice will be theirs. Because ‘got to remember that it is everyone’s story.
So, as Hanuman says, “I will only do what is asked of me. And I will do it—because it isn’t my story; I’m not in it. I play a part in it. And I got to play my part well.”
This is what it’s about. You play a part in many, many stories. But you have to always remember that those stories in which you play a part are not your stories. You have your own story. And you have to make sure that your story plays out well—with understanding, with joy, with a message, a real story.
I know that in this day and age, everybody wants a story. You know, “What is the story?” Every little product has to have a story; people want to read a story. And when I see that, it’s like, you know, “great intention, wrong object.” Because it should be about you—what is your story? Tell me your story.
And I need to know my story. You need to know your story. And it cannot be a confusing story. It has to be a story in which the good wins. It has to be a story in which joy prevails. It has to be a story in which the positive finally takes the center stage—the good in you takes the center stage. That you find that lost treasure. And why is it lost? It’s lost because of all the noise.
So easy to get rid of the noise that’s coming from the outside, but what about the noise that comes from the inside; how do you get rid of that? Earplugs won’t help. And boy, some people have got noise like you wouldn’t believe.
And the story cannot be that “There was, once upon a time, a human being and they were inundated with noise. And—period,” that’s the end of the story. More noise and more noise and more noise and more noise and more noise. I see, I see this, just so much that happens that’s like that. Don’t let—don’t let that be your story.
Again, this is, this is the moment that needs to be captured. Because you need to be aware of what thoughts are becoming actions. You need to be aware of what you’re saying. You need to be aware of what you are doing. And do that that you truly want to do. Say that that you truly want to say. Be that that you truly want to be.
And maybe it takes a lot of effort to do all that. That’s possible. That’s entirely possible. And even if your life’s story is about the effort, (that you tried and tried and tried and tried), well, that’s a—that’s a lot better—that, never tried. Never put forth the effort to realize the possibility that existed for this human being.
Understanding that that was, is, and will be? Very difficult—because you are only in “is.” You aren’t in “were” and “will be.” You don’t exist in those two spheres—so it’s very hard to understand something that always does: “Was, is, and will be.” But you can understand the “is.”
And that’s the effort that you have to make, to understand the “is.” What does exist all around you—the people, your neighbors, your countrymen. And the neighbors of your country.
And there’s so much pain and sorrow that gets dealt out by people’s unconsciousness. Everything that we do, we do it. We human beings do it. And there are—frankly, there are adults who totally dismiss this.
They can dismiss as much as they want! You know, by having an incredible belief that you will float in water—that you can walk on water, having this incredible belief—you can have the belief as much as you want; that isn’t going to make it happen. In the fresh water, you will probably just sink! And you wouldn’t be the first one. You wouldn’t, definitely, would not be the first one.
So, it’s so important, so important to remember what this is, this little story of yours. You need to make sure that it’s a good, beautiful story—if, for no one else, at least for you.
And I think that if more people can start to look at this—by, of course, beginning with yourself, (not others but yourself), that there would be a difference—in your life, you living this life consciously, you living this life with contentment, with peace, with joy.
Well, I know it’s been a while since I have gotten back and done this. But I’ll be doing more and more of it, and of course, it’ll take a few days because I have to—I’m switching countries. But as soon as I get established in the new place, I’ll set up my setup and try to bring you some more messages.
So, take care of yourself. Please, stay healthy. And enjoy your life. Thank you.
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