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Every human being has something to offer; every human being has something to contribute which is good. We have in us bad, and we have in us good.

A field, if not taken care of, will grow something! It won’t be edible—it’ll be weeds—but it will grow something. Plant the seeds of good; nurture the good, and you could grow beautiful fruits, beautiful flowers, beautiful vegetables.

Every single human being carries this potential in them. We don’t recognize our potential—all we look at is “good: bad, good: bad.” Is today according to my wishes? Then, “Thank you, Lord.” If it is not according to my wishes? “What have I done wrong? Why do you punish me?”

And this is what the whole world does. The whole world does this. Look at this...look at this world today. There are people who hate each other! Why? Why? Why? I ask, “Why?”

What are you made out of? Seven-point-five billion people on the face of this earth are fundamentally made out of very simple things: calcium, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, and nitrogen. Ninety-nine percent of a human being is made out of these six things.

All of us...all of us have the same fundamental needs. We need oxygen to breathe; we need water; we need food, and we need warmth. We need oxygen; without oxygen we will die very quickly. Without water, a few days, maybe two days, three days…. Without warmth, a few hours.... Without food, maybe, maybe a week, two weeks.... Everywhere, it’s exactly the same!

But what divides us? When we are all the same, nature does not see the difference. Male? Man, made out of the same thing. Woman, made out of the same thing. Then why the differences? I know where the differences are! Right here, in our ideas! Not in our hearts—in our ideas. And this is where the problems are.

– Prem Rawat

When I first went to the West, I was only a teenager. In fact, it was my first year of being a teenager—thirteen. And all these people would come—much older than me, much more educated than me. And they would sit down, and they were very proud of the fact that they were searching for peace.

And I would say to them, “Why are you searching for peace? Why are you searching for peace when peace is inside of you?” Search not for peace, but search for the way to be able to get in touch with what is already inside of you.

And so the question becomes, “Well, you already have peace, right?” Do you? Or don’t you?

Because nothing is missing. There is nothing missing from the equation. You have in you—this is the way you are made—all that you need you have, and you have been made to take advantage of it.

Maybe you don’t have a temple for it. Maybe you don’t have a song for it. Maybe you don’t have a garland for it. Maybe you don’t have a light for it. Maybe you don’t have a location for it. But it is here, in you.

And if you are unaware, then you’re unaware of something fundamental. And this is ignorance. What is ignorance? It’s a play of words in English, but “ignorance”—where does ignorance come from?

Generally, when somebody does something bad—a little child or something—we say, “Oh, it’s okay. He was ignorant.” 'Ignorant' generally is considered to be an excuse to forgive the person, because “they were ignorant.”

But that’s not where the word comes from. The word actually comes from “ignore.” “Ignorance"—ignorant comes from the word “ignore,” which has to be done on purpose.

See, we say ignorant. "Oh, he’s ignorant; it’s okay.” But “ignorant” actually comes from the word “ignore,” which has to be on purpose—that you ignore something.

Ignorance in this world...we think, “Oh, people are ignorant.” No! If they are ignorant, that means they’re, on purpose, ignoring that which is real. Not a fluke! Not a fluke.

And people go, “But I don’t see it!” You’d talk about the Divine, “But I don’t see the Divine!” So, do you see gravity? Do you see the earth spinning? Does that mean it’s not?

You cannot, in this life, merely live in tangled beliefs. Yes, this is the first time I’m using this, “tangled beliefs.” Because beliefs will get tangled. It is their nature because they are so open to interpretation. But knowing is not open to interpretation.

The Divine, in the same way, is everywhere, and by “everywhere” meaning, also in you. To me, when I hear the word “everywhere”—when I hear the word “omnipresent,” it doesn’t mean just omnipresent. It means “in me as well.”

And if that reality is knocking in me, if that reality is residing in me, what am I doing in my life to feel it, to acknowledge it, to understand it? Because if you want peace in your life, that’s the only way you’re going to get it.

– Prem Rawat

Just stop for a minute and realize that you are not free unless you really have removed this box that you carry around you all the time.

There’s a box, and this box is full of a lot of noise, a lot of imagination that is not even your imagination—somebody else’s imagination, a lot of ideas. And in fact, this is who you think you are! This is “you!” And this box is the greatest hurdle possible in truly knowing yourself.

You need to know yourself. If you don’t know yourself, you don’t know anything, really! Because it is this being that processes what it knows, or what it thinks it knows. When it does not know itself, the processing is happening by information that has been put there by other people, not you!

The noise that you hear between your ears in perfect silence is the noise that other people have put between your ears. That includes your beloved parents.

We’re not talking about, “You have to hate your parents to get rid of the noise”—no, no. They did it for a very good reason, because that’s what happened to them. That was their reasoning. That’s the reasoning that they’ve always followed.

So, whatever happened to them, they did it to you. And their parents did it because their parents did it. So this is something of your great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great-great-great, great grandfather’s gift. And I would say grandmother too, but I forgot how many times I said great-great-great.

But that’s the noise. And wherever you go, this noise goes with you. And you can silence all the other noises but you can’t silence this noise—because it’s there. And it defines your good and it defines your bad. It defines your right and it defines your wrong.

It’s you, your life, your existence. You are the major player in this. And if you can understand that, that’s everything.

– Prem Rawat

The first person you have to make friends with is you.

You cannot make friends with other people if you are not friendly with yourself.

This is why it’s important to know yourself.

You know the whole world, but you don’t know yourself. Number 1 point - Know Yourself.

This will bring you peace.

-Prem Rawat

People say “now,” right? I have said “now.” And one day I was thinking about “now.” Now is the most elusive thing there is. Because by the time I say “now,” it’s not now anymore. So, by the time I finish saying “now,” now is gone.

Here is one for you. If you don’t understand the meaning of “one,” what is the point in going on to two? After all, “two” is just two ones.

If you don’t understand the meaning of “now,” what is the point in trying to understand the meaning of “tomorrow”? Because you would be pleasantly surprised that tomorrow too will be just full of a bunch of nows—and none different. You need in your life to know.

– Prem Rawat