How do you want to live?

It’s all too easy to start living with reference to other people. “What are other people wearing? What should I wear? I want to be normal.” There is a huge quest in people, “I want to fit in; I want to be normal; I want to comply!”

We still want to be like other people because we have really no idea who we are. If we can begin to understand who we are, then we can say, “Okay. What I dress as, what I look like, that doesn’t matter. I understand my own beauty, and my beauty is inside of me.”

And when we begin to be, truly, and take charge of being at the center of our universe, then we begin to live. Then we are not looking at others, but we are looking ourselves for our inspiration. And that’s how we should live.

And this is at the root of that—that we’re looking at other people for our reference, not looking at ourselves. We should be looking at ourselves. And we will see our beauty. We will see our beauty in relation to us, and to this whole universe as it exists. Because we are part of this universe.

We need to live by truly understanding ourselves. The feeling of being, the feeling of, “I am alive,” should be at the forefront, every second that we are alive, because that’s the most important thing happening in our existence.

And we should be always in touch with that: “I am alive.” What does that do? It fills our heart with gratitude. It fills our being with that beautiful feeling of being alive.

– Prem Rawat