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In this life humility is better than pride—to be humble—because it allows you to see, to witness. That to be thankful is better than not being thankful—because being thankful allows you to see a part of your existence that you would have never seen.

So, these are the windows in our life. To try every day—simplicity is better than being complicated. Now one’s effort is to stay in that place. There is all too much in this world—everything, everything!—that pulls on you. It grabs you and says, “No, come here! Do this! Be like this.”

But to remember that that’s the true nature, the true nature of a human being. It is natural for you to have a heart full of gratitude. It is natural for you to be kind. It is unnatural to be angry. It is natural to be kind—that’s your true nature. It is natural for you to be humble. To be in pride is not natural. It’s not real.

Because when you go to that point where it is doubt instead of clarity, where it is pride instead of humility, things happen that you won’t like. And when you are in the place where there is the kindness, where there is the joy, where there is the gratitude—then what will happen you will like. There will be a simplicity.

So, when you’re with kindness, what do you feel? What does it feel? It feels comfortable. But when you are not in kindness, when you’re not in that humility, when you’re not in that clarity, when you’re not in that understanding, when there isn’t that openness, it doesn’t feel comfortable.

And now, that discomfort has been going on for such a long time that you start to get used to it. So then the only time you realize you were uncomfortable is when you truly do become comfortable, and that’s when you realize, “Oh my God! I didn’t know! I got used to it.”

I am not a doctor. I’m not a doctor, but I can tell you that, when it comes to the inner realm, you cannot start taking pills and not take care of what’s wrong. And what is wrong is the understanding. What is wrong—that the clarity has been lost.

When you bring in that clarity, there is a desire, there is a want to be comfortable. And those dynamics persist in our existence. When we lose that focus, we start to become uncomfortable—then everything else happens.

And so my point is, “Don’t lose that comfort.” There are too many things in this world that’ll distract you. This is what you learn. And you always have something to be thankful about.

When it seems like you have nothing to be thankful for, when everything hits the fan and it all goes crazy—I mean, and really, really crazy—like one of those days when you feel like you’ve been singled out for it? I mean everything has got you in the sight? Find something to be thankful for, find something to understand—and it will, like magic, reverse the trend.

So what I’m saying to you in a nutshell is, “Don’t compromise.” If there is a discomfort, it’s because there is a shift in focus on what you should be focusing on. And if that reality remains constant with you, then there will be a comfort. And that’s how you’re supposed to be. That’s how you are supposed to be.

– Prem Rawat

The day I understood that peace was not a luxury, but peace was a necessity—peace was not a want; peace was a need—I was well on my way to my inner peace.

– Prem Rawat

Don’t sit on your living room sofa while somebody’s knocking at the door going, “I wonder who that is. It could be Uncle Tom. It could be my friend Jerry. It could be my friend from India—no, and no, he wouldn’t do.... Hmmh, I wonder who it is? Let me call Prem Rawat! ‘Who is at my door?'"

So, go find out! This is what I’ve said. All along, people have said, “Oh, wha’, wha’, wha’...?” Go find out. Know for yourself. Know it for yourself. And that’s being victorious over the self. You make the rules. You make the rules.

Not just somebody’s.... And, do you know how many people there are in this world who have swallowed the idea of heaven, the heaven that you go to after you die, if you’ve done everything right? Swallowed it, “gulp!” How you could swallow such a big horse pill, I don’t know. But you swallowed it—without water.

Oh.... Heaven? There is a heaven—of course there is a heaven. It’s here. And you need to know it! And so, what is hell? Well, if you don’t know it—and you’re not in heaven—guess where you are! And do you get toasted? Yes, you get toasted. Raked over the fire, absolutely—again and again.

And there you are. One day you find yourself totally devastated and destroyed. And somehow you’re put back together again, to have the same experience two days later? Same exact thing: fried, toasted, not any flour, not any oil, just dry-toasted over the great barbecue that you light yourself, that you create yourself. And that’s what happens.

So, the victory over the self: most important, most important. And it’s not so complicated; it’s not sophisticated; it’s not like, “He’eeah-heeeaah, victory over myself."

No—because it’s very simple. First, you begin by knowing yourself. Now that you know yourself, easy to gain victory over yourself. This is not about swords and dragons. This is about, "very simple, very practical."

- Prem Rawat

So it is that when one speaks of that beauty that resides inside of you, there is no clue.

There’s nothing like—if somebody says to you, “By the way, there is the Divine inside of you,” then you go, “Oh yeah, I knew that; I saw that yesterday. When I was looking at the mirror, I just saw the Divine kind of just pulse out and then go back in.”

No. You have no idea. And just because you don’t have an idea doesn’t mean that that’s not what’s happening. It is. And to see that Divinity that resides within inside of you, you would have to come very, very close to yourself.

It is not necessarily in the clues that you will find the answer. But there is a reality. The reality? The answers are within you. Come closer! If you don’t know this, of what I am saying, the reason is, you are so far from yourself, you do not see it.

Do you know how that works? When you’re far, far away, you see a lot more, but with less resolution. When you get closer, you may not see as much, but you see with a higher resolution.

You can look at somebody far, far away, and you may know that there is a person. Then, when they come closer and closer and closer, you might be able to say, “Oh, I know who that person is.”

They come closer, and closer, and closer, and closer, and they—you can get them to a point where you can see the spinach on their teeth! That cannot happen a mile away. It only happens when you come closer and closer and closer and closer.

If you do not know about what is your potential, if you do not know that inside of you are the answers, if you do not know that inside of you is the Divine, if you do not know that inside of you is the miracle taking place all the time, you know why? Because you’re so far away. Come close to yourself.

– Prem Rawat

You have something exceptional going on; something amazing is happening. What is it? For approximately 4.5 billion years you were dirt. That’s the age of the earth, 4.5 billion years. So for 4.5 billion years you were dirt.

Now, some scientists figure that it will be about fifteen billion years, twenty billion years the earth is going to be around; after that it’ll disappear. So, for the next fifteen billion years, what are you going to be? Dust! You were dust; you’re going to be dust. What are you now?

You are alive. The dust talks. The dust smiles; the dust dances. The dust cures other dust of ailments. The dust thinks about going to Mars; the dust wants to discover the universe.

You being alive is the exception to the dust—dust you were; dust you will be—being alive, you are an exception! The question is, “Is this exception exceptional?”

Is it exceptional? Or do you have the same excuses as everybody else on the face of this earth, “I don’t have time.” That’s the best excuse that we have been able to come up with: “I don’t have time.”

Listen. Next time you say, “I don’t have time,” you are forecasting your own future. Be very careful. Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Once you become dust again, time doesn’t matter.

Time only matters when you are alive. As dust, it doesn’t matter. It does what it does; it blows around. It is the ultimate state. Of all things that came from it, they all go back to it. All the stones were made from it—and they go back to being dust.

Don’t forecast your future that way. Think! Be awakened. Be awakened. Do you have the desire to look at yourself? Do you have the desire for peace? Or is peace just a word to you?

For most people in this world, “peace” just means another word. And the foregone conclusion is—what I come up against all the time—“Impossible!” The diagnosis that the doctors of this world—not the medical doctors—the doctors of this world have made for peace—“It’s dead.” And the only place where it comes into play is on a headstone at a graveyard: “Rest in peace.”

If that’s the only time we’re going to find peace, we’re in big trouble. We are in big trouble. Peace has to be in our hearts, dancing in our hearts, now. Today! Not when we’re dead.

To feel. To feel! And not just the word. But when somebody says to you, “peace,” you go, “I understand what you mean by ‘peace’—because I too understand my thirst for peace, and that I want peace in my life. Not just a hood ornament, but something real. I want that feeling of being fulfilled every single day.”

– Prem Rawat