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To a lot of people, prosperity means wealth. Well, actually that’s not true. It means three things: wealth, health and happiness. So that means, if prosperity means three things, “wealth, health and happiness,” you need to have something happening for all three of these things for you to become prosperous.

Since I am not a doctor, I cannot help you too much with the health bit. And since I am not an economist, I cannot help you with the wealth bit. But happiness, I can help you with that. That’s what I do. That’s what I’ve been doing for fifty years.

So if you truly want to be prosperous, you’re going to need three things in your life. So let’s begin with happiness. What is the point of being prosperous if you’re terribly sad, depressed? So where does happiness begin? Do you know where happiness begins? You always looked at happiness circumstantially.

“If my wife behaved herself, if my dog behaved herself, if my cat behaved itself, if my buffalos behave themselves, if my cows behave themselves, if my neighbors behaved—if my neighbors got rid of the chickens that, you know, sit there in the morning at four o’clock and, ‘Gyack-ack-ack-ack-ack,’ then I’ll be happy. If my son brought better grades in school, then I will be happy.”

So, your happiness is based upon your external circumstances. You want the world to be a certain way and then you will be happy. In your workplace you say, “If my coworkers understood me, if they were better with me, they treated me with more respect, I would be happy.” And what’s going to happen when you retire? You won’t have your coworkers. Then what are you going to do?

Life does not begin when you get married, and life does not end when you get a divorce. Life begins when you took your first breath; life will end when you take your last.

Your life is not about things you do in it. Your life is about your existence. This breath comes into you; you are alive. If you’re rich, this breath comes into you; you are alive. If you are poor, this breath comes into you; you’re still alive.

And the day this breath doesn’t come into you, you are neither rich nor poor. You don’t have any relatives. You’re automatically divorced— automatically! You don’t have any debts! You’re automatically debt-free. You don’t have to pay any bills anymore. You don’t have to pay any taxes. You have automatically also vacated your house; you’re now no longer a house-owner.

No—I know this sounds funny, and I’m putting it in a way which is funny—but this is dead serious. You are a father, you are a mother, you are an uncle, you are a cousin, you are whatever you are, only till this breath is happening. And the day this breath stops, you’re nothing.

But do we understand that in our lives?—in our busy little, “rdrdrdrrrrrrrrl,” life, of where it’s...everything is da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, da-da-da-da, dah, who has the time, who has the time to think about prosperity as, “My goodness, that involves three things. It needs happiness and wealth and health”? Who has the time to stop and say, “What is the value of this breath for me?”

You see, you have to understand that as a human being you have some needs. You have your dreams—I know you have your dreams—but you have some needs. And this is the way the needs go. Three minutes without breath and you’re dead. Is breathing a luxury or a need? Is breathing a want or a need?

Let’s get this clear, what is a need; what is a want. Three minutes without breath, you’re dead. That’s not a want; that’s a need. It mandatorily must be there. Three minutes—it’s a rule of thumb, okay? Some people can go more; some people can go less. But about three minutes and you are dead. Without this you cannot survive.

Now, what is your want? A television with a remote control that shows high definition pictures. That’s not a need. Do you understand? That’s not a need. There’s no medical term, “This person died because he didn’t have a TV.”

"This person died because of asphyxiation because he couldn’t breathe,” yes, that’s a term. “He died of starvation,” that’s a term. “Died of dehydration,” that’s a term. But, “He died because he didn’t have a TV”—there is no term for it.

And what do you pursue every day? Every day that you get up, in your imagination, using your mind, what are you pursuing? Your need or your wants?

So, need, you don’t pay attention to—wants, you pay attention to. Because you will never come across a billboard that says, “Breathe.” You will come across a billboard that says, “Buy this soft drink; buy this television; buy this suit; buy this, buy this, and buy this!” And you will look at it and go, “Yes, I would love to have that; I would love to have that; I would love to have that.”

Am I here to tell you you should not have wants? That’s what’s different about me. I am not here to tell you you should not have wants. You should have as many wants as you want—and more! But you should understand your need.

It’s called “a perspective.” It’s called “a perspective.” Should you look at your speedometer in your car when you’re driving? Yes? And only the speedometer? So, you’re driving, you should be like this? You will crash. You should look out the window; you should see the road; you should see behind you; you should look, and look, and look, and look, and look, and look.

This is life! Understand the preciousness of life, and you will understand your need! Fulfill your needs, and you will have happiness.

– Prem Rawat

This is it—this is my day! How many of you know about tomorrow and believe in tomorrow? Not one? Gee, how are you going to make your flight back home? No, no, we’re all believers in tomorrow. But look at it. You can wait for tomorrow all day long. And just when you will be the closest to tomorrow, at 23:59:59...

That’ll be as close as you can get to tomorrow, 23:59:59, twenty-three, (or, eleven ... fifty-nine ... fifty-nine.) You know what it’ll become? Today. So you’re actually stuck in one long “today.”

And the most disgusting thing is, you have a strategy for tomorrow, but you have no strategy for today. So you’re reading the wrong map. You’re in Australia. You’re…you’re in Australia near Peak’s Crossing, looking at a map to go to the Brisbane International Airport ... and the map you have is of Los Angeles.

And you cannot find Brisbane International Airport. YBBN doesn’t show up on your map! And so now you question, “Is there actually a country called Australia? Is there really an airport called Brisbane? If it is, why don’t I see it?” This is what people ask me. “If there is peace, then how come I don’t already know? If it is in me, how come I don’t really already know?”

But that’s how it is. What you’re looking for is inside of you. But in your map, that’s not the map you’re looking for. So you find it’s not inside of you. So now, the whole thing of “believe” and disbelief begins. “Is there a God? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell?”

Yes, there is a heaven, but it’s here. It’s here, in your being. And yes, there is a hell! If you’re not in heaven, then guess where you are. There are no neutral territories.

So, what’s your strategy? How are you going to tackle this? You know, I… to me, it’s not a question that - “Should you be happy? Should you be sad? Should you be this, should you be that?” No. You should achieve your fullest potential. Fullest potential. And in that potential, you will realize that that requires for you to have peace. Without peace, a human being cannot achieve their potential.

And there is a desire, just like there was that desire, that thirst, the want to…to get up and to walk. It’s the same thirst to be fulfilled. But you cannot be fulfilled if you don’t have peace. Prosperity requires that you have peace.

- Prem Rawat

How many of you have heard of Leonardo da Vinci? Mona Lisa—he painted that. A man who asked questions, not very well educated, but very well-learned. Big difference—there are people who are very well-educated, but they’re not very well-learned. And there are people who are not that well-educated, but very well-learned—they go far. And he was very well-learned.

He asked the questions. “Why is the water the way it is? Why do the mountains at a distance seem bluish and hazy all the time?” He also painted The Last Supper.

One of the notes that he wrote down—this is how he signed the bottom of the page: “Leonardo da Vinci, the disciple of experience.”

You see, when I heard that I just froze. “Oh, disciple of so-and-so. Disciple of that guru; disciple of that that thing, or disciple of that thing....” And here he writes—a brilliant man writes, “disciple of experience.”

So I ask you, “Are you the disciple of experience?” How many times have you said, “I love you,” but didn’t feel it? And how many times have you heard, “I love you,” but didn’t feel it? Never? Never!?

“Good morning.” Love is a little complicated; you may be sitting next to your husband, and I perfectly understand, you cannot take that chance. “Good morning”—so I’ll make it easier, “Good morning.” And you said it ritually, and you didn’t mean it; you didn’t experience it.

Disciple of experience. Uttered the word, “God,” but didn’t feel God. Disciple of experience. “Thank you”—uttered the word “thank you,” but didn’t feel gratitude. Disciple of experience.

Are you the disciple of experience in your life? Do you welcome each day like you should, like the day deserves - not because of your piddly problems - but because of this grand opportunity you have to be alive on the face of this earth?

– Prem Rawat

Do you know the self? Because if you know the self, then you will know what you need to do to get back to being who you truly are.

The journey to become you is a journey back. It is undoing! Learning is very little new information. Undoing what you think you know takes most of the time.

Same thing with the self; same thing with the Knowledge, the “Knowledge of the self.” Need I say more? It’s everything.

Not, “Oh, you’ve had it longer than me; I have it longer than you; you received it in ’72; you received in ’94....” Kchch! Then you don’t know yourself. If you do that, you don’t know yourself. Excuse me, you don’t know yourself.

Because, remember what I was saying? Knowing yourself isn’t comparing to the next person: “I am not that,” or, “I am that plus that.” No, you are you. This is your time, your choices, your understanding, your life—your life. You have been given what you have been given.

– Prem Rawat

You have this treasure trove in you. Everyone, everyone does. Everyone does. But we’re not in touch with it; we’re in touch with everything else. And the world helps us. Very few of us actually get an opportunity to say, “Look, search for it.” You know?

We ask our parents, “Dad, where’s God?” And he points up! You know? And, God forbid he’s from Australia, because then we’re all pointing in the wrong direction.

And so, there are all these “can’t answers,” and nobody actually understands them. But it’s, “Oh, yeah, this is this way; this is this way.”

But noble is the father who looks at his child and says, “Son, find out. And if you find out before me, tell me. If I find out before you, I’ll tell you.”

– Prem Rawat

In your life, you think of yourself as “me, the unique me,” right? “My unique problem, my unique challenge, my unique this, my....” You know, and on a bad day you go, “Oh God, why is this happening to me?” Right? You’ve all been through that. I have. That’s why I know.

And when that happens, I think about it. And what I sometimes end up saying to myself is, “You know what? How many countless people do you think there have been before you who had exactly the same problem and who said exactly the same thing, ‘Why me?’”

And it wasn’t just them. Join the club. You have now officially been invited to the club of “miserable,” because misery begets misery! But that’s not what life is about. To understand, to understand that I carry in me, in my heart, wherever I go, whatever I do, I carry that beauty that I always have been in love with. Love.

I carry a simplicity—that if I can flavor and savor and touch and feel that simplicity on that day when everything feels like a thorn, I will understand the tenderness, the reality of that day, not the thorniness of my problems. The contrast, the contrast. Without the contrast, the picture looks pretty flat. It’s the contrast that is needed.

– Prem Rawat