00:05:07
The Same Fate
Duration : 00:05:07
We were born; we are alive, and one day we’re going to die.
You ... are like me. We, (because,) we share ultimately—every one of us on the face of this earth ultimately shares the same fate! We were born; we are alive, and one day we’re going to die.
The rich? Yes. Poor—yes. Educated? Yes. Uneducated? Yes. Ugly? Yes! Very pretty? Yes.
Strong? Yes. Weak? Yes.
Hindu? Yes. Moslem? Yes ... and any other religion you want to throw in there.
This is, this is our fate. And in this ... incredible story, the day we were born and then, the day we have to go.... And there’s this time....
And everybody has a number. “I want to be ... eighty years old; I want to be a hundred”—where did this number come from? Excuse me, where did this number come from? Who gave you this number? You made it up! There are no guarantees!
One day ... I get a request. And so I.... The request is to call this couple. And they have just lost their very young daughter in an accident. And I’m like, “This is terrible! It’s terrible! What can I tell them?”
And so ... I get on the phone. And of course they’re very sad, very sad. (Hmmh!) And I said to them ... “I cannot change anything. But I can tell you something. You knew your daughter. You loved your daughter. And if you only got to know her for one day, just one day ... would it be enough? Just one day?” And they said, “Yeah.”
00:05:05
Where Is Your Focus?
Duration : 00:05:05
Do you enjoy, just enjoy being alive?
There are many, many, many interpretations of this story, or many ways this story has been put—but there is a new one. And a man came...and he came to the Master. The Master had a very beautiful palace that he lived in, a beautiful city that he lived in.
So the Master told the guy, he says, “Oh, you have come?” And he goes, “Yeah, I’ve come to you; I want to talk to you; I want to learn from you; I want to be enlightened by you.” The Master said, “No problem. But first, go enjoy—enjoy my gardens; enjoy my palace; enjoy the city—it’s really beautiful, really, really beautiful.” And the man said, “Okay, I will.”
He said, “Before you go, take this lamp with you.” And he filled the lamp completely full of oil, right to the top, right to the brim—and he said, “Here, take this with you when you go seeing everything, and make sure you don’t spill a drop. Don’t spill a drop.”
The man went seeing, appreciating the palace, appreciating the gardens, appreciating the city. And when the man came back, the Master asked, “How was it?” And he goes, “Well, my whole attention was on not spilling a drop from this cup. I really walked around aimlessly. I didn’t really enjoy anything because my focus was here, instead of where it should have been.”
The Master said, “Okay. Now, go again! Leave the...leave the lamp behind. Don’t worry about the lamp.” He came back: “How was it?” “Oh, oh, I enjoyed—oh, and the statues were beautiful. Oh, that was...it was just marvelous; the garden was incredible; the flowers were incredible; the statues were incredible; the paintings were incredible; the marble was....”
The Master said, “Look, all that existed then too, but you were not focusing on that. Your focus was somewhere else.”
Where is your focus? In your life, where is your focus? You should be enjoying being alive. Do you enjoy, just enjoy being alive? Just being alive? Do you enjoy being alive?
I know, I know, I know you enjoy parties; I know you enjoy going to your friend’s house; I know you enjoy your songs; you enjoy your movies; you enjoy this; you enjoy that. I know you enjoy all of that. But do you enjoy being alive? Just being alive?!
Because if you don’t, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Because this is the garden; life itself is the garden of the Divine. Its beauty is unparalleled. It is full of the reflection from the Divine. It is fine; it is beautiful; it has colors....
That’s where truth resides—a truth that is non-confrontational, a truth which is simple, a truth that’s embracing, a truth which is real, a truth that brings peace. That’s where this heart wants to dance.
– Prem Rawat
00:02:21
The Song
Duration : 00:02:21
Start understanding that simplicity and the rhythm of that simplicity
Understand that you are the flute, and you are the flute player. You are the flute, and you are the flute player. But you are not the song. You would be the song too if you could control your breath, birth, and death. But you don’t.
Life is encapsulated in these two brackets: birth and death. Between these two, you are alive. So play in unison with the song. What is the song? The song is existence.
This breath that comes into you, this fountain that comes into you is the simplest of acts that happens. Nothing can be simpler; it’s the simplest of acts and yet so incredibly profound.
Start understanding that simplicity and the rhythm of that simplicity, and you will play the song—with the song, your tune. And what is the outcome? Hmm! The same outcome that a musician gets when he hits the note just right! It’s called fulfillment. Fulfillment.
– Prem Rawat
00:07:15
A Drop of Water
Duration : 00:07:15
You have the capacity to know; you have the capacity to understand; you have the...
A drop has one desire, and one desire only, and that desire is to merge back from where it started. And it’s tiny—how big is a drop? How big is a drop? “Eh! Not very big.” But its desire to join is much bigger than anything that you can imagine.
In its desire to join with the ocean, it moves mountains, shapes land. It creates and it destroys. And it flows, and it flows, and it flows—that’s its determination—and it flows, and it flows, and it flows. And then, when its mission is fulfilled, it surrenders. No more—but it is home. It is home.
That feeling of being home—you should be feeling that every single day in your life. “I am home. No more, but my mission—fulfilled.” Today, 4.54 billion years in the making. “And today, I acknowledge today. I acknowledge today! I accept today.”
Listen, I’m not sitting here going, “I am the perfect one, you know, and I do this every day, and so….” I don’t. I don’t. But I know what I need to do.
This morning I got up—I was thinking of everything that happened yesterday. And it was amazing, in a way. In this…today I was just thinking, so many twists, so many twists, so many twists, so many twists; this changing, this changing, this changing, this changing—this changing.
And I get up in the morning, and “I’ll just check my messages”—check my email, check my messages—and there is an email and a message from my wife, “Call immediately.” “Whoa. Something must be wrong”—because usually that doesn’t happen. So I called. And, my mother-in-law had passed away.
So I’m like…. You know, I knew her very well—and my father-in-law—and…fabulous, fabulous people. And, of course, it’s okay, because she wanted to go. She was old. She missed her husband. She said, “I miss him very much; I want to move on.” She wanted it quick, and it happened very quickly.
And, gone. Then of course you think, “Hmm! That person, now they’re no more.” And of course it rubs off a little bit: “One day that’s going to happen to you too.”
And then, all of a sudden, “Oh, yeah, today’s the TV interview. I have to go to the TV studio and give this interview.” So I got ready and I went. You know, and then all these questions, “So, what about this, and what about this, and what about this?” And of course, I answered them to the best of my ability.
But that whole time, I could not help but feel how fragile we all are. We create mountains; we stand on those mountains and we think we are the kings of our little kingdom. But something else is afoot. And if this drop could fulfill its mission to join with the ocean—and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it’s okay not to flow.
See, it’s, “You stupid little drop! You’ve been flowing from God knows, you know, where! You’ve been flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing, flowing…. Keep flowing!”
“Nah, no! No, no, no, no! I have reached…I have reached that place that I want to be.”
Will the cycle begin again? Of course the cycle will begin again. In this life, the cycle will begin again. And once again, that drop will be a vapor, and will go, and will rain, and will become a river, and will flow, and will do this whole thing again—and again and again and again and again and again. And then all of a sudden, it’ll just merge and go “I’m done.” It’s called, “Satisfied. Satisfied.”
You have the capacity to know; you have the capacity to understand; you have the capacity to be fulfilled! You have the capacity to be in peace. You have the capacity to understand. You have the capacity to feel—to feel. You have the capacity to express. You have the capacity to smile. This is you.
– Prem Rawat
