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You as a human being, you have a choice. And you can choose. You can choose to gain victory over yourself or you can choose to try to pursue for the rest of your life trying to gain victory over your problems. In one, you will never win, in one you've got a fair shot.

Nobody, nobody has won over their problems. And now there are many people who think they have. Many people would like to, many people would imagine they would. But nobody has yet conquered their problems. And it is only when you begin to understand that that is the nature of problems. They're not to be conquered. If they get conquered, they're no more problems. That is their nature. They will morph to something else, to something else, to something else. Just when you get everything settled, your cat will run away. Just when you find your cat, your dog will run away. Just as you find your dog, your wife will run away. Just as you find your wife, you will run away. No, no, it's never one thing.

Because you build your house, you like your house and the longer you live in your house, the more leaks it's going to have. The more maintenance it's going to require. That's just the nature of it. The nature.

But we are not set up to be victorious over ourselves. We're not set up for that because the world tells us, "No, conquer your problems, conquer your problems, conquer your problems, conquer your problems." Even if you asked the world, "Okay, I would love to conquer my problems, would you tell me who has won? Give me one name. One. Just one. Just one."

I mean you can imagine a family starts off in some country somewhere—oh I have a dream, and I have this imagination, I'm going to work really hard. I'm going to become successful—and they make it to America. Well, their problems have just begun. And that's what happened. And when will it go away?

- Prem Rawat

Life is about understanding. This breath is the manifestation of life for you. That power that ripples through the whole universe comes through you in the form of the breath, and it makes it possible for you to be.

To be, so that you can understand! And only then, and then alone, does this breath become timeless—because your understanding, your understanding is timeless. You have exchanged the finite for the infinite. You have exchanged—you have become the ultimate alchemist.

You have taken earth; you have taken dust and truly converted it to the priceless. You have taken something that is so common and converted it into something that is uncommon—that all the ones before you did not have; you have done it. The greatest alchemist, the true alchemist.

That you have understood that this being here is not simply about the passage of time—but you have reached out of this and dare to touch the timeless. The finite, which you are, has dared to reach for the infinite. And that’s when this breath becomes timeless. That’s when this existence becomes timeless.

- Prem Rawat

I’m alive! This is not a joke. This is not about a debate. This is not about questions. I am alive! My goodness, time is, it’s happening! The band is playing; the audience is there; everything is happening—better get on with it. Whatever it is that you’re going to “get on with it,” get on with it!

Instead of, “Uh, what should I be doing? I wonder why I am in this world today. I mean, and oh, what, dah-dah-dah-dah, and there, rah, I need to read that book, and oh, I should go to that place, and oh, I should do this, and oh, I should contact this person, and oh, neh-neh-neh, neh!”

Get with it. Get with it. I am going to say something you may not like, but it is the truth. Two most important things happen in your life: one is birth; one is death. One’s already happened—you’re already here. So, guess what the next one is?

And are you ready for it? Absolutely not. No, nobody’s ready for it. But it’s going to happen. Should you prepare for it? Absolutely not. Should you write a date on your calendar? Absolutely not. But if you’re going to do something, do this. Know the rain will come; be ready to bloom.

Don’t be distracted by death. Don’t be distracted by death. Don’t be distracted by your problems. People go, “Oh, I have a problem.” You know what I say to people? “This problem has bothered other people before you. The problem doesn’t change; the victims do. You are now the new victim—that the same problem is bothering you.”

Do you want to be the victim? If you don’t know yourself, you are vulnerable to becoming a victim of all these problems. If you know yourself, you have the strength, and you are no longer vulnerable to the problems of this earth—only if you remember it. If you forget about your strength, you will have a problem.

Problems will come, but I want to be strong when they come. I cannot stop the problems. When it rains, I cannot stop the rain, but I can carry an umbrella. That’s my philosophy: carry an umbrella. And when it starts raining, open it.

And what will it do? Will it stop the rain? No. It’ll stop you from getting wet. That’s all it’ll do. That’s good. That’s what you want. That’s what you need.

- Prem Rawat

How many times have you heard me say "the Divine is in you"? And why can't you understand and totally accept that the Divine is in you? Because of your idea of what the Divine is. That's why. Your idea has no idea of what the Divine is! But you have given that idea a shape! "How can this be in you?"

So, your ideas are the very thing that is keeping you from that Divine that is in you. And the day you can drop your idea of the Divine, you’ll find the Divine.

One day Guru Nanak goes to this river, and everybody is taking their vessel, this lota—or, you know, metal vessel—and they’re offering water to the sun god, to God. And so Nanak turns around and starts going like this. And everybody looks at him and says, "Hey! That’s the wrong direction."

He goes, "No, no, this is the right direction." "No, no, no, that’s the wrong direction; the sun is over that way. You need to be making your offering to the sun.” And he goes, "Well, if your water can reach the sun, I’m just trying to water my fields; they’re just a few miles that way."

Show me a place where there isn’t a Divine. And it is not of the physical presence that you think has to be. Wherever you go, whatever happens in your life, once you even go on the other side of that wall, the Divine will be with you.

But you see, you have to let go of your concepts of the Divine to understand that. “With me? Like, 'Hello, Divine.'" No! Because this won’t be there. This won’t be there. This won’t be there—but you will be. How? How is that possible? Because you are dust. And when you hit that wall, you’ll become dust again. And when you do, that’s it.

"Oh, oh. Oh, that sounds terrible." Well, what the whole universe is made out of, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that, and the universes beyond that! And the universes beyond that.

It's all dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust, and dust. And you thought what made you you was your name, your personality. Your sunglasses, your reading glasses, your mustache, your lipstick, your eye shadow. You’ve got it all wrong! You’ve got it all, all, all-all-all-all-all-allwrong.

This is who you were, and this is what you will be. You really want to know about your tomorrow? That’s your tomorrow. You want to really know about your yesterday? That’s your yesterday: dust, dust, dust, really not any different than your tomorrow.

You want to know about your past? It’s really not any different than your future. And that is your future—guaranteed. Nothingis more guaranteed than that.

This is your now. This is not your future; this is not your past; this is your now. Are you riding it? Because this ride is called "life." Ride it. Ride it. Ride it.

You know, I’ve never said this before, not in these words. "That’s your past. It’s not any different than your future. And the only thing that’s different between your past and your future is ‘now.’ This is different. This’ll never be again."

That has happened before! That which is about to happen, you being dust? Oh yeah, that’s the way it was. But this, this force that’s prying these two open in the midst of everything—you have life, your life—not my life, your life, your existence. And this is now!

Does that make any sense? I hope it defines a little bit more of what "now" is—and up till now it was like, it was this tiny fragment. I don’t know; like I have said, it’s like, "And this is now." All of a sudden, it’s like, "Well, wait a minute. This is now, too. This is my now."

Give away, take away what my ideas are. Start living, start existing, start feeling—and you become free. You have heard that saying, "To fly, you don’t need to sprout wings; you just need to cutthe ropes that bind you back." Well, guess what binds us back? Ideas about everything.

And so, understand: the Divine is in every atom of that dust. And that’s how that Divine will be with you. Because there’s nothing in this world where that Divine isn’t. And even now, in this change, the Divine is with you.

- Prem Rawat

There was an aborigine tribe in Australia. And one day the tribespeople got together with the chief and said, “Chief, the winter is coming. Is it going to be a really cold winter?” And the chief said, “Okay, I’ll have an answer for you in a few days.”

So he goes, finds a phone, calls up the Met Office and says, “Is it going to be a cold winter?” And the Met Office said, “Oh, yes, it’s going to be a cold winter, we think.” He comes back, says, “Oh, it’s definitely going to be a cold winter, and you’d all better start collecting wood, so you can light the fires and stay warm.” So they all go out and they collect wood.

A few weeks later, as they have been collecting wood, they go back to the chief, and they say, “Chief, how cold is it going to be?” The chief says, “I’ll get back to you.”

He calls up the Met Office, and he says, “And how cold is it going...?” He says, “It’s going to be really cold. It’s going to be really cold.” So he tells all the tribes, “Well, you better go collect more wood! It’s going to be really, really cold!”

A few weeks later the crowd gets together again, “Chief, really, exactly how cold is it going to be?” This chief calls up the Met Office, “So, how cold is it going to be?” The Met Office says, “We don’t really know exactly how cold it’s going to be. But every time we see through the satellite the aborigines collecting the wood, we know it’s going to be really cold.”

So, one triggers the other! One is going for the other. And this is what happens in our lives.

Because, if you want to begin to understand what hope is, you have to begin to start to understand what “today” is. Now, how do you understand today!?

So, if you want to experience “today,” then from today, remove yesterday and tomorrow, and you will be left with today. And you will find that today is more profound that you ever imagined.

- Prem Rawat