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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

You know, if everybody is fine suffering—why have hope? If you are quite content bickering with each other—fear, jealousy, everything...?

There is a fundamental question: Is greed ... normal to a human being? It’s a very important question. “Is greed normal to a human being?” So here is the answer. “Up to a certain point, but it’s limited.”

Food, you can only eat so much. After that you will stop. And if others come to eat, you will have no problem. Water, same way. You cannot drink too much water! You cannot drink too much water—after you’re satisfied, your thirst is gone, you will be happy to leave, and let other people come and enjoy the water.

But today the greed for the fame and the wealth has become so significant—and why? I’ll tell you why. I call it the “Bolly-Holly dreams.” (That’s Bollywood and Hollywood.) They are the dream-makers. They are the dream-makers!

They are the ones who say, “You are not pretty because you don’t look like Beyoncé. [Individual: Yeah! That is true.] You don’t sing so well, because you don’t sing like Beyoncé. [Individual: Definitely!]

“And this is the dream you should have—your house should look like this. And your clothes should look like this. And you should be doing this.” And you go, “Ah-hah, yeah, that’s what I should have; that’s how I should be. I want to look like Beyoncé.” [Individual: That’s right—we do.]

No. No. No. No. No-no-no-no-no. If you know yourself, if you really understand yourself, you will go, “How come Beyoncé doesn’t look like me?” [Individuals: Yeah!]

You see, you have to ask yourself, “Do you live for yourself or do you live for other people?” [Individuals: Yes, sir.] All you young kids in here, do you live for yourself, or do you live for your friends? All day long, aren’t you concerned of what your friends are going to think of you? [Individual: We are, yes.]

You want to be socially accepted. You want to be cool! But if you understand, you are so cool—you are so cool—that they should join you, not you join them! You, you are beautiful. [Individual: Yes!] You are intelligent. You are full of kindness. [Individual: Yes! That’s right.]

“Know thy self.” Know who you are. Without that, you are lost. If you do not know who you are, you will never know what your possibilities are, what you are capable of achieving, who you are, what pains you, what brings you joy, what brings you sorrow, what brings you clarity, what brings you knowledge—you will never know!

You will never know! Do you really want to live your life in confusion? In pain? In suffering? Do you? [Audience: No!] You don’t look good when you are suffering.

I say this to people—I say, have you just heard anybody going to a temple, a synagogue, a mosque, a church, and praying to God, “God, I am too happy. I have been happy for too long. Please take away some of my happiness”—have you? Does anybody go do that? [Audience: No. No. So, it’s, “Please take my problems,” yeah!]

But what do people do who go there? “I am sad. And this sadness, please take it away. This misery, please take it away.” What does that tell you? We don’t like misery. [Individual: Yeah. True.] We like joy! We like happiness! We like contentment!

Now, the question becomes, “What do you do for the joy?” What do you do for the joy? Do you allow your problems to affect you? Do you allow your problems to affect you? Do you? Your problems come. Do they affect you? [Individual: Yes, they do.] They shouldn’t! They shouldn’t.

But if you don’t want the problems to affect you, you will have to live your life consciously.

– Prem Rawat

It’s about being alive—that incredible miracle that came and touched you in that first breath that came into you. And because you took that breath, you had a mother. Because you took that breath, you had a father. Because you took that breath, you were alive. Because you took that breath, you could go home.

Ha! You took the breath. You were alive. And since then, my God, what a symphony it has been. The exercise, the agendas, the careers, then all of this that’s going on. You’re aware of the things, but you’re not aware of why you are aware of those things.

Point here is, do you know that you are alive? Do you know what it means to be alive? Do you know the power of being alive? What’s in a breath? It makes you what you are.

– Prem Rawat

When you see a jungle, when you see a forest, what do you see? What do you see? You see trees, right? But do you know the story? Behind every tree there was a seed. And that seed was successful. And that seed came from another tree, that came from a seed that was also successful.

So, do you see the setup here? It’s just success, success, success, success, success, success. In nature, that is allowed, that works, to go on. That which doesn’t work? Sssheowuk! Gone! You, by design, are not a mistake. You have evolved because of success. And your success is that feeling of peace, of that joy. It’s your goodness.

Believe me when I say this: there is a lot of good, a lot of good in this world. In fact, there is more good in this world than there is bad.

I don’t think any prophet...anybody could ever have imagined the condition where, including those people who talk about God, people have been swallowed whole by the greed. Everywhere you look, nothing remains untouched.

This is not good. But the good news is, there is good in all of us. There is wonderful good in all of us. And regardless of how much bad happens, it does not reduce, deplete, subtract from the good in all of us.

– Prem Rawat

You go anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world—and so they have a pizza place. You can get pizza. So you go there and you read in the menu, “Pizza. Pizza Margherita.” So what does it say? It says “Pizza ... Margherita.”

So you order Pizza Margherita—right? The spelling of the pizza is the same. The spelling of “Margherita” is the same. Even in Italy—“Pizza Margherita.” “Pizza” is spelled the same way. “Margherita” is spelled the same way. You go to India—“pizza” is spelled the same way. “Margherita” is spelled the same way.

You think they will taste the same?

There. That’s the difference. Just—what you read said the same thing. So why don’t they just taste the same?

You go to Italy, pizza tastes completely different than in New York, than in Chicago, than in Los Angles, than in Hawaii, than in Japan, than in Australia. And the spelling is exactly the same: “pizza.” How can this be?

Because that’s the difference between living and theory. Theory can say, “Yeah, it’s the same.” But living says, “No, it’s not the same.”

In your eyes, in your feeling a snowflake is a snowflake. Right? Snowflake is a snowflake. Look closer, and each snowflake is different.

And then have you ever seen a whole field just full of white snow—maybe two feet deep, just snow, snow, snow, snow—have you? Imagine how many snowflakes there are in that field. And now imagine, each one is different. Reality. Theory? “The field was covered with snow.”

Do you feel cold? There you are sitting in a beautiful 70-degree room; the fireplace is lit; you’re sitting next to it. You’re reading the book, and the book says, “And the field was covered with snow.” You don’t feel cold.

But! In reality, you will feel what is there. In reality, even if you do not acknowledge it, each one of those snowflakes is different than the other. And all the snow in the world, it is not repeated in those flakes.

Is that something to wonder, “Wow....” This is where I live. This is where I am; this is where I’m alive.

So, you know—really—in your, in one’s life, I really think you have to pick how do you want to live, how do you want to be? Because, if you want to be in reality, it’s one thing. If you don’t want to be in reality, it’s another thing.

And then to always know the difference—always know the difference. I can read the menu, but I can’t eat it—that if I am hungry, I have to eat food, not the menu. That’s sanity. That’s sanity.
– Prem Rawat