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Without peace, this world is going to come apart—there’s nothing, there’s no glue. When a human being starts to hate another human being, you know that it is the beginning of the end.

When one human being gives more reasons of why he does not want to see another human being on the face of this earth, the reasons become more important than the fundamental reality that you are a human being, that the other person is a human being. And eliminating that person is anti-life. It’s not good for life.

Gandhi said, “If everybody took an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind.” And that’s exactly what’s happening today. The world’s going blind. The terror that is being struck....

When you go in a room, and it’s your house, or it’s your apartment, or it’s your room and you close that door and you sit down on your bed, you feel a certain sense of comfort—that, when you close that door, you shut the world out—and that you sit on that bed, and maybe you are alone, maybe you are with somebody, but there is a certain sense that you’re okay.

When that very sense is taken away from you, and you sit on that bed wondering if you’re going to wake up tomorrow, wondering if you’re going to be able to sleep tonight, then such a fundamental part of a human being has been taken away.

– Prem Rawat

So, people ask, “How do I practice peace? How...where do I find peace?” You have two eyes. What do the eyes do? They see the world. They see everybody’s face. What can’t they see? Your eyes cannot see your face.

Isn’t that true? They can see everybody’s face, but they cannot see your face. If you want to see your face, you need a mirror, and that mirror is knowledge of the self. Not knowledge of how to drive the car, but the knowledge of you!

Who are you? You are alive. The time is going. Cannot stop it, cannot rewind it—it’s going—and it’s gone! It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone!

Do you know the meaning of “now?” Now? “Now” doesn’t even represent now! As soon as you say “now,” it’s not now anymore. That’s how fast it’s all going.

Stop! Take account of being alive! Take account of who you are! And take account of what the Divine has given you—given you, without asking, without filling a form—given you, every day. Every day you are given this gift of breath. Do you understand what that means? Do you?

– Prem Rawat

Allow this heart to become a major player in your life, major player in your life. Let this heart be that place from where the spring exists, that the request for peace in your life comes from.

Peace is not that difficult. You know why? Fortunately, the people who want war are a minority! Of 7.5 billion people on the face of this earth, the people who want war—that is a minority that wants war. The majority of the people on the face of this earth want peace.

I think the cards are stacked in our favor. Play the game—not because of fear! Play the game. That’s what they want. Peace will be the finest achievement of mankind—not going to the moon,  that’s old hat. Been there; done that. It will be peace that will be the noblest achievement of mankind.

– Prem Rawat

There would be quite a case to be made if there was no clarity! There would be quite a case to be made if there was no joy. There would be quite a case to be made if there was no understanding. There would be quite a case to be made if there was no compassion. Because this world then would be very empty, very empty.

But there is compassion—and it’s in you. How much? Limitless. As much as you need. All you have to do is use it. How much love is in you? How much love do you think there is in you? Oh, my God! That you could never measure it. All you have to do is use it! And when you use it? Multiplies. It’ll never ever go down.

Unfortunately this is true for anger, too! How much anger is in you? Oh, my God, no limit! And more you use it? Tank will be full all the time. It’s not like if you got angry, angry, angry, angry, you would use up your anger. You won’t! You can never use it up.

You can never use up kindness. More kind you are more kindness there will be. This is—this is who you are! This is what it is like to be a human. And that heaven, and that hell? Well, when you are in heaven, you’re not in hell! And when you are in hell, you’re not in heaven.

And of course, you know, I ask all the religions—I say, “Okay, whatever you teach people, where heaven is, where hell is, fine. But just do one thing. Just do one thing. It won’t change anything in your religion—just do one thing. Declare ... that ‘If you want to go to heaven ... then first you have to make heaven here.’ That’s all. [applause] That’s all.”

I started speaking about peace when I was four years old. I have been traveling the world and trying to communicate about peace for forty-nine years. I have come across people from all walks of life. And what is always surprising is all the ideas that people have about peace.

Just the day before yesterday, I was addressing some people, and I said to them, “For peace, you don’t have to do anything. To make wars, you have to do things! To make peace, you don’t have to do anything because peace resides in the heart of every human being. Peace is already there! It has to be explored. It has to be nurtured, and it has to be understood.”

– Prem Rawat

When I first got the invitation for this event, you know, there was a little line there that said about “the hands, the head, and the heart.” And for me, that was very, very interesting—that an institution that is promoting education, giving education, is talking about something so basic, something so fundamental.

So, I know what a head is—it’s right up here—and I know what hands are. I use them every day, and head too, try to. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But the question becomes, “What is the heart?”

And of course we are here to talk about peace, but we also have to understand that the matters of peace come from that heart. That when somebody says, “kindness is important,” that that has something to do with the heart.

So, what is that heart? I mean, obviously it’s not that physical thing that pumps, because that gets attacks, gets infarctions, you know, gets stents put in. So I mean, it would very different to say, “Okay, that’s your heart.” So, what is the heart? And I don’t stand here to be an expert on anything, but I can tell you that in each human being....

Every single human being—and when I say this, I mean it—is perfect. Every human being is perfect. And what do I mean by that? And what makes them perfect? Because fifty percent, exactly fifty percent of them is bad—perfection. And the other fifty percent is good. And that’s what makes you a human being!

So there is the fifty percent that is terrible. And the good news is—that’s the bad news—the good news is that there is the fifty percent that’s incredible. And that fifty percent is what peace is all about. That fifty percent is the goodness of every human being.

And where the heart comes in, over the mind, is the ability to choose that fifty percent “good.” Choose. It’s a choice! Do you know, peace is a choice?

– Prem Rawat