"Explanations"

Not too long ago, I had an interview with a magazine. The interviewer was saying that people have so many explanations. I agree. Who is considered good? The one who can come up with the best explanation. People want to explain God. People want to explain life. People want to explain what is good, what is truth, what is salvation. And these are things that can only be felt but not explained.

You cannot explain what life is. You need to feel it. You cannot explain breath. You need to breathe it. You cannot explain water. If you are thirsty, you need to drink it. You cannot explain food. If you are hungry, you need to eat it.

You cannot explain what this existence means. It can only be felt. If you understand that, an entirely different door opens up to you. You begin to understand by feeling — not through explanations. You begin to understand the preciousness of life, the joy, and the truest responsibility to be in gratitude to the most magnificent power that has made it possible for you to be alive. That’s what it means to be alive. Not doubt. Not confusion. Not pain, not suffering, not misery, not darkness. Not sorrow and lamenting and wishing. Being alive means to be crystal clear.

You have imagined this entire existence and what it means. Day after day after day, this monster that you have created could never survive except that you keep feeding it with explanations. Every day, you have to explain what happened, what it means to be alive. Every day, you have excuses for why you were unable to feel gratitude, why you lived another day unconsciously. And before you know it, you run out of days. And then you finally know without a doubt all that you should have done. But now you don’t have the means to do it! People have explanations for that, too: “Life is cruel.”

When you live in the world of explanations, what will you hear? More explanations. And what I am telling you is that more explanations is not what you need. What you need is real water to quench your thirst, not another explanation of water. What you need is real food to satisfy your hunger. Otherwise, you’re going to go hungry from here on out. Satisfying your hunger is not about explanations or ideas or being close to food. If that were the case, hungry people would lean on restaurant walls and be satisfied.

If it won’t work with food, why would it work in the inner realm? Is the hunger for peace an illusion? Or is it real? Is the hunger to be content an illusion? Or is it real? A very good question. And the answer is: It’s not an illusion! It touches every single human being on the face of this earth, and it has been an issue since time immemorial. What people have done is to learn how to evade the issue — not tackle it but evade it.

I tell everyone who will listen to me that you don’t need to evade it. Peace is real, joy is real, contentment is real, and there is a way to get to it. I know. I’ve been talking to people about it for a long time. Don’t take my word for it. Find out for yourself.
Somebody told me, “Here is a person who is very independent.” I said, “He is dependent on being independent.” We would all like to be “independent” because we are so dependent on being independent. Another explanation.

We’re drowning in our own explanations. Why do you have so many explanations? You cannot explain it. Who can? Everybody has an explanation. Why are there people dying? People have explanations. Why are there people hungry in this world? People have explanations. But why do you have so many explanations for these things? Nobody knows.

Feel at home in peace, not in confusion. Feel at home in the feeling, not in explanations. Feel at home in your true self.

If you want to be independent, then be independent of confusion. Be independent of doubt. Be independent of all that is not yours. And feel. Feel reality in its magnificence. Not from fear. Because fear is not yours, either. You were made to behold joy. This is what belongs in this vessel, in this human body. This is what it was made for. Not all the other stuff.

Who you listen to is up to you. That’s always your choice. You can listen to the voice inside of you that says, “Everything is wrong.” Or you can listen to the voice that says, “Be. Be free. Be clear. Enjoy this life.”

Many people will tell you that you don’t have a choice. I know you have a choice. Every day that you hear the two voices, you have a choice which one to listen to. You won’t be able to stop hearing them. But which one you pay attention to is up to you. Know. Understand. And be fulfilled. Every day. No excuses. No explanations. Be fulfilled every single day.

When I talk, people say, “I have never heard that explanation before!” I tell them, “This is not an explanation. I’m offering you the real thing.” Feel it. Feel that peace in your life. This is the real thing. The magazine interviewer asked me, “So, do you just go around showing people pictures of wells?” I said, “No, I make sure that their thirst is quenched. This is the possibility that I present.”

"The Importance of a Drop"

Today, we are here to listen. It’s good to listen, to think, but I always say that people should experience. When I was a kid, someone in my family used to buy lottery tickets. After buying the tickets, he would say, “We’ll definitely get this number, and then we’ll buy this, we’ll buy that.” There was no end to our happiness as kids, because whatever dream we could imagine, we thought it would happen. Day and night we talked about what we would do. And the day the numbers were in the newspaper, and our number was not there, everything closed down.

This also happens to us. We make our plans. We have big dreams: “We’ll do this; this will happen; that will happen.” Human beings have a brain and can think. Sitting here, through my thoughts I can reach America, Australia, England, Sri Lanka, Delhi. But where am I actually? Then one day, the time comes to go from this world.

Everyone has to go. No one can stay here. You have made things yours, but those things have not accepted you as belonging to them. The car that you say is yours doesn’t say it’s your car. The house that you say is your house doesn’t say that you belong to it. Once you are gone, that home will be someone else’s. Your wealth remains as it is. It just goes from here to there. These are the rules. I did not make them; I’m just talking about them.

A drop falls in the ocean. We don’t give much importance to a drop, but so many rivers are there, and all of them started with a drop. When it rains and there is a flood, even the rain comes drop by drop. And when all the drops come together, they become rivers. A drop cannot harm anyone, but when a drop joins with others, it can destroy cities and countries.

In our life, we are like a drop. We want to unite with the ocean of joy in our heart, but we don’t know how to do it. We can be united with such an ocean; the heart is there in all of us. As long as you are alive, you can experience that joy. Life is about experience, not just words. We have a mind, and we think a lot, but we never think that there is something that is beyond this mind and thought. How can we catch that with this mind? That is why we need to have an experience from the heart.

People say, “You come in this world empty-handed, and you’ll go empty-handed.” I say that you came empty-handed, definitely, but you don’t need to go empty-handed. Take something with you. Take that enjoyment with you. Recognize that supreme joy and then go.

When you understand just how important that is in your life, you will understand your thirst. And the day you experience your thirst, you are not far away from water, because thirst is within you and the water to quench it is also there within you.

I tell people, “Look for it everywhere. Wherever you go, look for it. Find it.” It’s about finding. For the thirsty, it’s about water not the well. I don’t have a well. I have a map. And I have a big spring. Those who are thirsty, come, jump in it.

Being a human being, you can fulfill your life. As long as you have breath, you can fulfill your life. Fulfill your life now. What will happen later on, no one knows. If someone wants help, I can help. You only need to understand your thirst.

I don’t just talk. For those who really want help, I’m ready to help them. I go to different places, and I want there to be happiness in people’s lives. I cannot make your house good or get you a promotion, but you can be happy in your heart. This should happen in everyone’s life.
Prem Rawat(Maharaji)

"The Face in the Mirror"

Everybody has their own definition of peace. Some people think peace is an absence of noise. Some people think it is absence of wars. Some people think it is a beautiful scene.

If that’s what peace is, there is no shortage of beautiful places in this world. And there are places that are extremely quiet. So why isn’t there peace? Is peace a manifestation of something that happens inside a human being or is peace something on the outside only? This is where we have to slow down, because the definitions are abundant. What is peace? Where does the desire for peace come from? Was it that somebody sat down at their dining room table one day and said, “Good idea to have peace in this world”? Or is peace and the desire for peace innate to every single human being?

This, in my opinion, is the pivotal question because if the desire for peace is innate and fundamental to every human being—like food, like breath, like sleep, like water—then without it, we cannot be. Without it, everything is out of balance. If you put someone in the most beautiful room with an incredible sofa, nice wallpaper, and a view but no air, will they enjoy that room? Or will they bang against the door for someone to let them out?

You cannot explain to them, “Look. Air is a small part of the scene. You have the wallpaper, the room, the sofa, a television. Relax! Enjoy yourself. Why do you care if there is air in there or not?” You can’t see it. But when something fundamental is needed, explanations alone are not sufficient. You cannot explain to a hungry person, “It’s okay.” When you are trying to address something that is very basic to a human being, there are no compromises.

Peace is the same way. A human being without peace is not complete. You were never taught the desire for peace, just as you were never taught to cry. The baby knows how to cry, how to laugh, how to be. These are fundamental things nobody has to teach. The desire for peace is also fundamental. This is who we are. This is our foundation—a need from our heart pushing us to be content every day, to find that missing piece of the puzzle.

If you are putting together a puzzle, and you know there is a piece missing, not which one, you keep trying. That’s what the world is doing. Somebody comes up with a better formula, a better word, a better description, a better book. And people say, “This will do it.”
“If we could all come together and set aside our differences. . .” Great theory. Hasn’t worked. Why? Four kids cannot do it. Have you seen four children come together and put aside their differences? I haven’t. All it takes is one ball, one ice cream, one candy bar…

When we look at a person, we say, “Young, old.” These are our qualifiers. “Indian? American? Italian? Chinese? Japanese? African?” We say, “Where are you from?” We have forgotten how to view a human being. And we have forgotten how to view ourselves. We see a face in the mirror, and we don’t look at the face. We look at the imperfections of the face: “What’s this? What’s that?”

That you exist is a miracle. That this breath comes into you every day is an incredible miracle. And you feel and know and understand. That’s a miracle. In the heart of every human being dances the desire to be in peace. If we want social peace, the first thing that needs to happen is that the cause of the turmoil be taken away. Who fights? People. That’s where the turmoil comes from. If that turmoil has to be taken away, first it has to be taken away in people. People like you and me.

There are people trying to bring peace. Peace does not need to be brought from anywhere because peace exists inside of you. Very humbly, I say to you that what you’re looking for is within you. Peace for you as a human being is entirely possible. Turn within and you will feel it. How? Start with appreciating every day of your life. There is only one thing that can stop the onslaught of unconsciousness, and that is a little bit of consciousness. Live this life with a little bit of consciousness. Be aware of your existence, because all too soon, you won’t have it.

There is no magic wand, because the magic formula has already been unfolded, and it is us—each one of us on the face of this earth. With all our needs and wants, there is one more that has not been identified yet, and that is peace. That’s what we want. Unquestionably, I don’t care who they are—rich or poor, educated or non-educated, tall or short, dark or light—as long as they’re human beings, that’s what they want.

Give it a thought. It’s a very, very special subject to discover in your life.

-Prem Rawat (Maharaji)