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. 17
Prem Rawat:
Hello, everyone. I hope you’re all doing well, healthy—healthy, not only in the heart but body and mind. And it’s, you know, there are so many things to say, in a way.
But try to keep things simple. Because simple is good. Simple is what we really want! You know, and things get so complicated.
I mean, I was thinking that a human being comes into this world—and what a journey, what a process it truly is. Being born—I mean, we certainly don’t remember it and maybe that’s why we don’t talk about it much.
But the effort that that baby, that infant puts out to actually emerge into this world, to come into this world is absolutely amazing. It’s like, so many rockets have to go off to equal what it takes to be born.
And then we come—and it’s a totally alien world. A transition has to happen in mere minutes—to go from lungs being totally filled with liquid, to breathing air. To be totally dependent upon the mother supplying everything, to where you have to become independent. It’s truly, truly, truly amazing. I mean, talk about a miracle—and it is a miracle that this takes place, this happens.
And so much, over the millions and millions of years of evolution, brought us to this point where we could be, we could be alive. And then, truly, what is it like?
Well, you’re tired; you want to sleep. Quiet environment. And if that all can be, then naturally the baby just wants to sleep—and sleep and recoup some of that energy that it needs. So many things have to be in place for this to be able to happen.
And that baby has come out and baby is sleeping—and it’s, it, you know, if all things are equal, it should be a nice, loving environment. But everything that awaits that baby—so much that is going to happen in that baby’s life, some of it’s going to be good; some of it’s going to be bad—and, you know, I think it’s a good idea to, once in a while, just reflect on that.
Because we are that baby going through our journey. Every minute, every second, every hour, every day that goes by, it’s really going by; it’s gone! It’s not going to come back. And we’re inching—inching, inching, inching, inching towards a finality that is unbelievable.
There’s no escaping it—and when it comes, it comes. And then you’re gone. The body becomes lifeless. It becomes nothing. And the processes begin to consume that body, to be done with that body.
And you really have to give it some thought, of what this time, for you, means. You know, what do you really need—yeah, and I was reflecting on that. And I need food; I need water. I need shelter. This is something that I have to constantly work towards.
And at one point in our civilization, in our society, people, from the morning till evening—and there are people like that today, tribes that are out there—and from the morning till the evening they are busy, absolutely busy gathering, taking care of their crops, gathering food, whatever it takes.
And it wasn’t that long ago that we were all doing that. And we had this thought, “Wouldn’t that be wonderful that we could go to one place and everything would be there?”
But you know, being a farmer, it’s very different—because when you are a farmer there’s no Saturday off; there’s no Sunday off. Those animals that you take care of, you have to feed them every day. The crops are there every day. There is no point at which the farmer can say, “I’m done with this.” No! Even when the crop comes up….
I remember in our farm, they would build these little shacks up high, so that you could see the birds. And one of the things that they used to have is this device which had a little cup—and then, metal rod, and then a hinge—and then another metal rod and a pin. And you put a little bit of powder, gunpowder in there and banged it, and it made a loud noise and it scared the birds away.
And so it’s like, constantly taking care of that crop, taking care of that crop. It’s, so much energy goes in taking care of that, so that you can sustain yourself.
Today, easy enough for us to walk into a supermarket and not have to think twice about food! (I mean, the food is just coming out from everywhere.) And yet, we don’t give it the time; we don’t give it the thought of what it takes.
The water that has to be pure. Civilizations were built around rivers where there was accessibility to water. Without water, people knew that they could not survive. They could not be.
And from there, so many different tangents have begun. So many human follies—that you can look at that. And sometimes it is very hard to see these things that we get involved with—because we’re so involved with them, we’re not looking at another picture in which you are far removed and you’re looking at this, “a human being, being born….”
And that even if they’re alive for 36,500, days, it’s not that much. And they exist—and then one day they’re gone. And it doesn’t matter what they do; it’s not like you can do something that will prevent you, ultimately, from leaving.
Now, there are people who think that, you know, “If you exercise and if you do this, you could delay it a little bit.” I think that’s dubious, but—anyways, I’m not going to get into that part of it.
So, you can try to delay it—but it is still inevitable; it’s going to happen. And it doesn’t matter if we have lived our lives, you know, incredibly—or if we have lived our lives in, totally in an unconscious state. This is going to happen; this is the setup: “You were born and one day, you have to go.”
Do we like talking about this? No. Should it be talked about? I think so. Because it reflects on what the possibilities are—and how we, as human beings, should be viewing each day—and indeed, each moment that we have. That we need to be a lot more cognizant of what is really happening around us, rather than be completely lost somewhere else.
You know, I know there are people—and there are people who have completely dedicated themselves to playing games. And one thing I was watching on some channel, where these people, they just live in this basement, basically, and they’re just playing games all day long. All day long, they eat there; they even do every other business there. And it’s a mess!
And in, and then, what is the game that is being played? What, whatever their choice, but they play; they’re into it!
So, what should we be into? There is another game that is afoot—and this game is going on! And it is the game of “The time is being spent, time is passing.” And there’s nothing you can do about it.
And in this, I see the ultimate game. The ultimate game really becomes that “You make the most of every day that you have.” That you try to achieve something that is incredibly beautiful, incredibly wonderful—and that is peace. That is joy. That is understanding.
Oh, you can have a lot of misunderstanding; you can have confusion. That’s still not going to change what’s going to happen at the end; that’s not going to change it. But having lived this life with a heart that is full—is like accomplishing the real goal of being here on the face of this earth.
I mean, when you look at it, you know, like I was saying, we need food; we need water; we need shelter. Of course, we need air, but air is, there is plenty of.
And when you start to look at our—how fragile we are. All of a sudden, if you look at all the places we could exist—all of a sudden, it becomes—the earth actually becomes smaller because we can’t exist on the ocean. We need land. Because there we can grow our crops, there we can do whatever we have to.
And all that land that has no water—again, very hard to make do, very hard to live. So, all of a sudden, the earth, the usable part for human beings shrinks even more.
Not too high—we can’t go up too high. We can’t get too cold. We can’t get too hot. And all of a sudden, you look, and it’s like just relatively, even on the face of this earth, there’s just a small space where we can actually be—where we can thrive.
And then, whatever this is—and for millions and millions of miles in every single direction, we wouldn’t exist for more than even half a second. I mean, it’s just wild out there. But here in this place, a human being with a desire in their heart to be content, to be in peace, to be in joy.
I mean, yeah, you know, everything else comes in, “Oh, then there is a heaven there, and there is a hell there.” Well, I know there’s a heaven here—and there is a hell here. And what kind of a hell is it? Well, if you’re not in heaven, guess where you are?
And it’s as simple as that! You, me, all of us, are we addressing that desire to be content? Are we addressing that desire to feel peace in our lives? Or here we have got these ideas of the “designer human being.” (I mean, that’s—I haven’t really talked about “designer human being” too much, except in one of the earlier videos.) And this is what it’s becoming!
You know, I could put on saffron clothes and I could put on wreaths and I could put on a wig with long hair and—yeah, you know, all of that stuff—and would that make me a saint? No! What goes on here? There is no red light; there is no meter.
You can put on saffron clothes; you can put on white clothes; you can put on green clothes; you can put on blue clothes; you can put on gray clothes—but what’s going on here? Who knows? There’s no meter; there is no, you know, tickertape coming out, one in, going “Da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, you know, this person is having bad thoughts.”
Then there are people; it’s like, “Oh, I will completely capture—I will never get mad again.” Well, come on. You’re a human being.
Will you ever become sad; of course, you’ll become sad. If something happens that is a tragedy, you will become sad. But your sadness should not be so extreme—that it stops you from functioning properly.
Will you get angry; of course you’ll get angry. But your anger should never be that it stops you from functioning the way you want to function. Will you be overjoyed, yes! But you should never be so overjoyed that it stops you from functioning. None of these attributes, none of these qualities should be so extreme as to stop you from functioning.
Peace? It’s really wonderful. You can have a lot of it—and it will never stop you from functioning. And contentment is like that. A lot of people think, “Oh, once you get content you’ll become a vegetable”—no, you won’t. In fact, being content is very dynamic.
It’s not like, okay, there is a gauge and it says “You’re full. This is all you can take.” No! “More, more, more!” More joy, more good stuff in your life. And all for what? To satisfy the basics that are in you, that you are all about.
Not the drama of “Oh, this is going to happen to me, and if I do this, I’ll end up over there, and that’s going to happen, and that’s going to happen and that’s going to happen.” And so, you know, so much that comes out of the human mind is based upon what they see, what they know. And well, how it is? It could be any which way.
And so this is all about knowing; this is why knowing is so important. Not coming up with an imagination. And you—and you know, imagination is imagination.
So, little kids come to you and they say, “Tell us a story; tell us a story,” so I have to tell them a story—right? I can’t tell them a story, you know, “You’re, we’re sitting in a room and there is a chair over there and there’s a table over there”—or, and that story wouldn’t fly very well. So you have to use a story where they can jump into their imagination.
And so I started telling this story—“And you can imagine, you know, that okay, there is this island, and on this island live the seven fairies and they ride the rainbow. And they’re the rainbow fairies and there are seven of them. Because each one rides a particular color of the rainbow.” And I mean, I made up this story.
But it’s all imagination! It’s not like there are seven fairies that live on an island—or ride a rainbow. So, what’s the reality? Is it not fascinating? Of course it’s fascinating. If we allow ourselves to be fascinated by it, it is incredibly fascinating. And it is this desire for peace that you have in you. To be content.
In confusion, you seek clarity. Like in darkness, you immediately are looking for light. What is that? You know! Not think, not believe. You know!
You know that there is that example that I give, is you walk into a room. And somebody has made this room for you and it’s really wonderful, it’s really beautiful. And they say to you, “Please, as you go into this room, on your left is a light switch. Please turn on the light before you enter the room or go any further.”
So, you come into the room. And you have heard how incredible this room is, how beautiful this room is, that there is this bed that has been put in just for you, and it’s brand new and it’s got the most amazing mattress, amazing duvet on it. It’s the most comfortable bed you can imagine.
All this food has been placed there for you, and there are just gorgeous bowls that were made specifically for you. And your food has been custom-made for you the way you like it, all the dishes that you like—and you can’t wait; you’re hungry; you’re tired; you’re all of those things and you just want to have this. You want to see it; you want to enjoy it; you, you know, everything!
And in your enthusiasm, you forget to turn on the light. And you walk into the room. And all of a sudden, all this food that is on these bowls on bowl-holders starts to fall—and shatter! Glasses start to shatter on the floor.
And it’s a very painful situation because you took your shoes out, and now all that glass is going into your foot and it’s starting to cut you and it’s, it’s a horrible, it’s a horrible experience.
So instead of, as you had walked into the room, (and it was going to be just amazing; it was going to be just incredible), it is a torture; it is a painful thing. And all, why? Because you forgot to turn on the light.
And if that light could be there, you could see where you could go—and not hurt yourself. You could see the color of the bed. You could see the bed; you could see the nice shiny coverings. You could see the food. You could see all the water that is there, all the drinks that are there. You could see! And you didn’t have to bump into these things.
Things that should have brought you an immense amount of pleasure are actually bringing you an immense amount of pain, all because you didn’t turn on the light.
What is the human equivalent of turning on the light? I’ll tell you—it’s knowing yourself. When you know yourself, you don’t have to suffer. You don’t have to go bumping into things. Your focus then isn’t about difficulty.
And this is—I’m astonished, you know? As human beings, we give such a high degree of importance to difficulties! “Oh, this is—I find this difficult; I find that difficult; I find that difficult.” If it’s difficult, it’s not impossible. It means you have to try extra hard! This is something that can be done.
So far the objective—and you know, I might say “goal,” but that’s not really what I mean by “goal,” but the objective, what your focus is, what you want to accomplish. Like, having peace in your life would be an objective that you’d want to accomplish. This is a thirst that you have from within you and you want to accomplish.
So, this is how it goes. If you don’t know yourself, in this world, the time is passing. You’re going to go from being born—and to one day you will be gone.
Right now, you lie on the bed all curled up, having just come in this world. Sleep; sleep well. Restore your energy. You have incredible challenges to yet face as you grow up. You’re going to be learning; you’re going to be recognizing; you’re going to be understanding what you don’t understand right now.
Slowly, there will—these eyes that cannot focus will slowly start focusing. The ears will hear the voice repeated again and again and you will begin to understand who that person is. You will be able to express yourself but you would not be able to use the language to express yourself.
You have some amazing challenges yet to come. And yet before you know it, you’ll be learning how to walk. You will fail many, many times—but you will never give up. You’re going to learn; you’re going to learn not giving up.
Will you remember? Because if you could remember just that, it would make things so much better—but we forget. We forget what monumental effort it took to even come on the face of this earth.
Then, bit by bit, learning to walk—first, of course, learning to crawl, then learning to walk. Running, falling, getting up. Slowly, learning how to eat—and when babies eat, half the food goes in; half the food goes out.
You will learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. You will start learning things that are not good for you. And you have to then somehow figure out what is good and what is bad. Some people will successfully do that; some people won’t successfully do that.
And on it’ll go. And then there will come that time that you will reflect on your life. As you see, closer and closer, as you can smell, closer and closer, your own mortality—you will look at your life; you would look at what you have. And either you will be pleased with it. Or you’ll make some excuse, “Ah, I didn’t know. I, dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah, dah-dah.”
But it’ll happen. And before you know it, all that time would have gone, just like a river. And then that day will come where you will breathe your last. No matter what you have accumulated, none of that will go with you. You came alone—and you’re going to go alone. You came empty-handed—and you will go empty-handed.
Save—that if you could find that light switch. Save—that you could find that peace and contentment within inside of you. Then yes, you came empty-handed—but you don’t have to go empty-handed; you can go with a heart full of joy, of clarity, of understanding, of gratitude to have been alive, to have been part of the most amazing show anywhere in this universe.
Be well; be healthy. I’ll talk to you soon.
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