PREM RAWATSPOKEN WORDS
ISSUE #9
THIS IS THE
POSSIBILITY:
YOU CAN FIND
YOUR HOME
IN THE BREATH
ADI MEANS ANCIENT: BEING OLD IN WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE; DATING FROM A REMOTE PERIOD; OF GREAT AGE; HAVING THE QUALITIES ASSOCIATED WITH AGE, WISDOM, OR LONG USE; VENERABLE.
ADI MAGAZINE
Prem Rawat, also known as Maharaji, delivers his message of peace to many different audiences around the world. The articles in ADI magazine come from these talks, which are edited for brevity and ease ;of reading. Audience photographs have all been taken at Prem Rawat's events, though not necessarily those featured in this issue.
If you would like to write your reflections on the content of ADI or share your thoughts about the magazine, e-mail the editor at: adi@wopg.org.
Editor: Ole Grünbaum
Editorial staff: Julian West, Mary Wishard, Sherry Weinstein, Sara Shaffer
Art direction: Rasmus Olesen
Photos: Mehau Kulyk
INTERNATIONAL ART ADAPTATION: Peter Petrovich
ADI Magazine is printed on FSC-certified paper, from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled sources.
CONTENTS
BOMBARDED BY CLARITY
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Do you realize how much we are being bombarded? Everybody's got their gadgets. Technology is bombarding us day and night. When was the last time you really had five minutes not involved in thinking about something?
Bombardment, bombardment. And what does it bring you? Heartaches, confusion. Heartaches, confusion. Want to be bombarded? Then be bombarded by clarity. Be bombarded by consciousness. Be bombarded by the feeling of being anchored in your breath. Focus on that. Nothing else should worry you because anything else that worries you will be a noose of death around your neck.
THE DANCE OF THE DROP
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Unfortunately, you count your life the wrong way –basically because you are a slave of the system. The system said, "This is how it is. There are 24 hours in a day." Have you ever questioned that? No. "A week is seven days." Have you ever questioned that? No. "A year is 365 days." Have you ever questioned a year? Never.
You were so excited when you got your first watch that you forgot to ask the most important question: "What is it going to tell me?" Is it really going to tell you about your existence? No. It is going to tell you the time. What time? Whose time? When you look at your watch, what do you look at? "It's time to go to sleep. It's time to wake up. It's too early, it's too late." Too early for what? Too late for what?
Don't let another day go by
without being touched
by the magic inside you.
BOMBARDED BY CLARITY
There is a lot that is good in all our lives. But we have certain habits that are not so good. And one of the bad habits is that we are attracted to distractions. As the word distraction implies, one would think that we wouldn't be attracted to it. But we are. Any little distraction somewhere, and that's where our attention goes.
That's a bad habit. It robs you of the essentials that you need to make your life a beautiful occasion. Because this is the possibility: You can make one lifetime –one lifetime –the most incredible time.
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And so, how? Time is time. You can't accelerate it, and you can't slow it down. You are in this world, you exist. One day you weren't; today you are; and one day, you will die. I have said this many, many times, but very few people understand what it means. Because of the distractions. When the time comes that you lose the capacity to be distracted –and such a time does come –then and only then do you begin to understand what life is about.
EXCITEMENT OR JOY?
Look at anyone's life. Some people think bungee-jumping is exciting: to actually challenge death. Climbing a vertical rock without any safety lines, just their fingertips and powder. "Take me on, Death!"
And the only reason why Death doesn't take them on is because Death is laughing so hard. Bowling over. Tears running down the face. Almost to the point of hypoxia.
All that's standing between them and dying is that Death sobers up. And when that happens, they're gone. They find themselves not close to nature, but in it. As manure. As their body rots and becomes dirt again.
So what is life about? Is it about excitement? Or is it about having a heart full of joy?
Some people think
bungee-jumping is
exciting. Or climbing a
vertical rock without any
safety lines.
"Take me on, Death!"
All the things that we think are important will one day turn around and become unimportant. I have been reading letters from people who are either at the front of the line or two or three people from the very front. We're all in that line. Everybody is headed that way. The law of existence states: You are here but for a limited time. And no one –no one –gets to break that law.
Some people say, "But there's cryogenics." Excuse me, Mr. Cryogenics. This universe is made out of dust. The earth is made out of dust. That metal cylinder that holds the cryogenic agent and your head is made out of dust. Dust compressed, that's what
it is. And the innate vulnerability of that compressed dust makes it highly probable, that it will go back into the state of dust. Dust doesn't think. All it would take to end life on earth is that some dust from the universe heads this way, gets a little too close and is pulled towards the earth. And when it is, it will obliterate this planet.
This planet that we live on is so fragile. In India, they put leaves of gold or silver over dishes of foods. These leaves are so delicate that if you breathe the wrong way, they'll just go all over the place. This is how delicate our life is.
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DUST TO DUST
From this dust, many, many things have been created, like the mountains. We refer to a mountain as something stable. This is "the snail / fly scenario." Flies see at such a fast rate that when you try to kill them, they see you coming in slow motion. They sit there and they're still cleaning their face and to them, it's like, "What's the hurry? This slowpoke is going to take forever to get here. And in that time, I can have sex, lay eggs, all of that stuff." So, when you are finally completely centered and ready to strike, for the fly, it's like, "Okay, time to take off." Nice, slow takeoff, and it's gone and you say, "I missed it! I can't believe I missed it 1" Of course, you missed it.
Snails, on the other hand, see at such a low frame rate* that they don't see you when you walk by. By the time the snail refreshes its field of vision, you're gone.
A long time ago when they first started taking pictures, the exposure times were too long to catch anything moving. The only things that could be captured on film were static things like buildings. So they came to the conclusion that living things with souls could not be photographed. They were wrong, but it's the same thing for us. We see at the rate we see and we don't see the mountain moving. When geologists talk in their terms they "see" the movement, and if we could have the frame rate to see, we would be able to watch the Himalayas destroying themselves. Why? Because that is the nature of dust.
Don't be caught up in frame rates. That is distorting your perception. A snail isn't slow, it is clipping along. Probably thinking it's moving so fast that it needs goggles.
You can imagine one snail saying to the other one: "Man, slow down!" The flies? "Man, the world moves so slow!" This is the dilemma of frame rates. Don't be caught in frame rates. Your life perceived with somebody else's frame rate goes by just like a snap of the fingers.
I am telling you something that I have been telling people all my life: Don't let another day go by without being touched by the magic inside you. Don't let another day go by without feeling the fulfillment of the heart. Don't let another day go by that is filled with doubt, anger and confusion. For someone who holds so much clarity within themselves, it is inexcusable to be in confusion even for one second.
THE JOURNEY AND THE OCEAN
The journey of life is like sailing across an ocean. And sometimes the waves get big. And what do you do when the problems become so insurmountable that you find you don't have all of the strength that you thought you had?
It's not a joy ride where you can just say, "Okay. That's enough. I'm going to pull over." No. If you go back, you've got to go through the same waves; you go forward, you've got to go through the same waves.
In the grind of this ocean, the good and bad is like a wheel, it keeps going, keeps coming, keeps going, keeps coming. What precaution have you taken?
That's the question. The size of the wave is not under your control, but the precaution you can take is under your control. When you have found a way to be able to anchor yourself in the breath, then you have taken proper and correct precautions.
* Frame rate: In television and in computer displays, the frame rate is the number of frames or images that are projected or displayed per second. The term can also be used for living being's visual systems. The human brain can process 10 to 12 separate images per second.
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This is possible: You can find your home in the breath. Indeed, you can find your reality in the breath.
It's a matter of perceptions. Because it is through your perceptions that you see what is fake as so real. The illusion –that is why it is an illusion –appears so real.
The nature of this world is to leave you with nothing. As you get older everything else goes, "Bye-bye. Bye. Bye!" You know that? Eyesight? Bye! Teeth? Bye! Legs? Bye! Hearing? Huh? What do you become? You become like a baby. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Beauty. Bye! Children? Bye. And the friends? If they are the same age as you, which is usually the case, well, they'd love to be with you if they could only get up from their chair. So, friends. Bye! Prestige? What prestige? Wealth? Bye! No more job. Pension? Going mostly to the doctor.
At that point, when everything goes bye-bye you can't even get out of the chair and the bathroom seems far away.
So, here's the difference that can be in a person's life. One of the letters that I got was from a person who was at the very front of the line. It says, "Thank you so much. Because now I have nothing. But I still have what you have shown me inside of me. And that's everything." This is what you need to understand: you can be saved from the trauma of having nothing.
BOMBARDMENT
Do you realize how much we are being bombarded? Everybody's got their gadgets. Technology is bombarding us day and night. When was the last time you really had five minutes not involved in thinking about something? These gadgets have to-do lists. And all you do is think about the to-do list. "Have I put this in the to-do list? Have I put that in the to-do list?" You need a to-do list for the to-do list! Before, if you didn't want to open your mail, you didn't open your mail. Now you don't have a choice. It's there, wherever you go. People go for a walk, the evening constitutional. And they most likely get run over by a bus because they're too busy talking on their mobile phone, and so is the driver of the bus. And the joke would be if they were both cousins talking to each other. "Hang on a minute, I just got run over by a bus." "Hang on a minute, I just ran somebody over with my bus."
Bombardment, bombardment. And what does it bring you? Heartaches, confusion. Heartaches, confusion.
Want to be bombarded? Then be bombarded by clarity. Be bombarded by consciousness. Be bombarded by the feeling of being anchored in your breath. Focus on that. Nothing else should worry you because anything else that worries you will be a noose of death around your neck.
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One day you weren't.
Today you are.
And one day you will die.
Very few people understand
what this means.
The drop hits the water,
it splashes and it dances
like a ballerina.
For that one moment,
it is all by itself.
And then, before you can
blink an eye, without a trace,
it disappears.
It becomes one with what it sprang from.
THE DANCE OF THE DROP
One day, I decided to photograph some drops. I got a tray, I got some water and set up a system so that the water would fall, creating drops. I set up my camera, set up my flashes. And it took almost one day to tweak it and set it up perfectly. And then, I began to take pictures.
I had to wait, and wait –watching the drop building up. And then it would begin to fall. And you want to capture it at its most glorious moment, which you have to do manually. And one after another after another –I would shoot and shoot.
Why am I telling you this? Because you, too, are a drop. Each human being on the face of this earth is a drop.
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And like any other drop, you will drop. And so, what is this all about –me going around, talking to people, and people accepting the help I offer?
This is what it's all about. The drop is going to drop. We can't change that. We're not going to make it drop faster and we're not going to make it drop slower. But while this drop exists, there is a magnificence. And you know what we're going to do? We are going to capture the magnificence of this drop. And then there will be an admiration that you could have never imagined, because it is so beautiful.
IMAGINARY WORLD
You lose yourself every day in your imaginary world. I know you think it's real. You think all this that I am talking about is imaginary, and all the other stuff is real. You are dead wrong. Have you ever heard this statement: "You are so beautiful that I have no words to describe your beauty." I'm sure you've tried it on a few girlfriends or boyfriends.
Excuse me. You don't have words to describe this person's beauty, and you call that real? Two people walk up the aisle and they are going to pledge themselves to each other for the rest of their lives and there is a third person standing there who is telling them what to say, "I take so-and-so to be my lawfully wedded wife, to love and to hold and to cherish till I die."
You cannot even say to the person you're going to spend the rest of your life with what you want to say? You have to have a third person! And that's not an imaginary world? Believe me, there have been a lot of marriages and a lot of divorces. And divorce doesn't have to be on paper.
The heart is the only place a divorce needs to take place.
"I will love you for the rest of my life." Two days later, "Get out of my house. Get out of my life! You've ruined my life!" Is that a real world?
Even in the pathetic fairy princess stories, it's supposed to be happily ever after. In your princely story, there is no happily ever after. But you say, "This world is so good to me; it's real." It's not.
WHOSE TIME?
Your reality is that you are a drop. And you might think that's so ordinary. "A drop? That's all I am? How could you define me as a drop?" But if you truly comprehend the magnificence of the drop, you would scream with joy, "I am a drop, I am a drop!" because you would understand.
Unfortunately, you count your life the wrong way –basically because you are a slave of the system. The system said, "This is how it is. There are 24 hours in a day." Have you ever questioned that? No. "A week is seven days." Have you ever questioned that? No. "A year is 365 days." Have you ever questioned a year? Never.
You were so excited when you got your first watch that you forgot to ask the most important question: "What is it going to tell me?" Is it really going to tell you about your existence? No. It is going to tell you time. What time? Whose time? When you look at your watch, what do you look at? "It's time to go to sleep. It's time to wake up. It's too early, it's too late." Too early for what? Too late for what?
The drop got hold of a watch. And it was
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so caught up in trying to tell time, that it forgot all about its existence, its reality.
Reality is a big word. Existence is even bigger. Truth –too big. But beauty, you can relate to. So let me put it this way: you have forgotten your own beauty, you have forgotten your own love, you have forgotten your own passion, you have forgotten your own feeling of being this drop.
who painted it. See this life through the eyes of that which gave it to you. And you will see that it is the most amazing blessing that can ever be.
Some time ago, at an event, I said, "I'm talking about everyone's God." And I thought about it later, "Have I invented another one?" No. God doesn't need to be re-invented but to be de-invented. There are already too many inventions. We need to come back to the God of
ONE LITTLE DROP OF KINDNESS
When this drop drops, incredible magic occurs. For a moment, the drop comes up again. No jet engines, no fuel, no wings. Just gravity and mass, and here it comes, and it hits the water and it splashes –it dances like a ballerina wanting the truest expression of oneness. For that one moment, it is all by itself. And then, before you can blink an eye, without a trace, it disappears. It becomes one with what it sprang from. That's it. Done. The show of one little drop of water is finished.
You, too, are a drop. One little drop of kindness. One tiny little drop of the ultimate blessing. You have forgotten how blessed you are. You look at other people and, if somebody has won the lottery, you say, "Oh, he's so lucky," and then you say, "What about me, God?" You see somebody rich, "How come I don't have that?"
In God's eye, that's not a gift. In God's eye, letting you be a drop is the ultimate gift. When you look at a painting, you always say, "Ah, I don't like it; I like it; I don't like this; I like that…" Next time you look at a painting, try to look at it from the painter's perspective. See that painting through the eyes of the person
You have forgotten your
own beauty, your own
love, your own passion.
everyone. The one who everyone can pray to. Who everyone can like. Who judges no one. Who does not hold itself apart from the heart of any human being. Glad to dwell in you –with you –for the duration of this drop.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Do you know the rules of light? A thousand unlit candles cannot light even one candle, while one lit candle can light a thousand candles. It is not the size of the lamp that will remove the darkness. Even the smallest lamp can remove the darkness around it. So much of this universe is filled with darkness. Anywhere there is lack of light, it's dark, dark, dark, dark. And then one little lamp is lit. And it holds the darkness of the universe at bay. For you.
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That is strength. That is power. All you need in your life is a light. The real light. You go to a fair with your family to have a "good time." And a photographer comes and says, "Do you want to have your photo taken?" So you can remember going there.
In the fair of life, you are very busy. You have this to take care of, you have that to take care of, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. And here comes the photographer. And some people don't know what to say to him. Some people say, "Okay." So he says, "Smile." And some people say, "No. I have nothing to smile about, just take the picture." Some people say, "No. Not today." But the photographer in the fair of life knows you're a drop. You're not coming again and again. Because it is only in your make-believe world that you get to come again.
GHOSTS, MESSIAHS AND ALIENS
People say, "Oh, well, in my last lifetime …" In America, they have TV-shows about ghosts. And they have special cameras to capture the ghosts.
So one day, I decided, "Okay. I'll watch. I'd like to see a ghost." I'm watching, I'm watching, I'm watching, and they're all like, "Oh, my God. Did you feel that?" And, "Did you see that?! Oh, my God, that moved, and that…" After the whole thing was over, I said to myself, "/ didn't see a ghost." What is this about? A world of make-believe.
Snow White is lying in the coffin. She's been lying there for a long time. She wouldn't have brushed her teeth for one month. Morning breath is bad enough, so even if the prince was really attracted to her, as soon as he opened the lid of the
coffin –imagine the smell of her breath after one month of no tooth brushing! But that's not what you imagine. You imagine the romance in the world of make-believe.
There are people waiting for the messiah to come. They believe that all the problems of the world will be taken care of when the messiah comes. If you were a messiah, would you want to come? Just a simple question. I mean, one got crucified. And you'd learn your lesson, wouldn't you? If you were a messiah, you would say, "Send me to Mars, send me to the moon, send me to anywhere but that little blue planet. That's a dangerous place."
It's just a common sense question. You could say, "The messiah has such a big heart." But I'm sure the messiah is also intelligent. Intelligence is not counter to the heart. Just because you're a wonderful, great, loving person doesn't mean you want to put your hand in the fire.
Now, what do some other people believe? "Oh, there must be somebody out there." I have had this conversation with people. It's hard to discuss. The universe is so big. But
One little lamp is lit.
And it holds the
darkness of the
universe at bay.
For you.
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there are scientists who thought exactly that. And they still do. And so they set up a huge facility, scanning the universe for signals. Now, this is what's interesting.
They haven't scanned everything and
I'm not saying there's nobody out there. Maybe there is. It's entirely possible. But they're still scanning, and by now, they have scanned a fairly good chunk around the earth, actually a few light years. A light year is huge, really big. And they've scanned all that, and they found nobody. They've sent a probe out with pictures, sayings from different languages and music. No answer. Nobody sent a message back saying, "Man, that music is cool, can I download some more?" Nothing. Not even, "What was that all about? What did you say?" Nothing. So we're talking about light years and light years and light years, and there's nobody around but us. Just us. And that's official.
GREED
There is an incredible message in that: learn to get along with each other. There is no one else. No point in fighting –you are not impressing anyone.
Some people blame drought. No drought has killed as many people as people have. Other people blame plagues. No disease has killed as many people as people have. If there is a drought, it is the drought of compassion. If there is a disease, it is the arrogance of one person over the other. And it still continues to play out. There are more educated people than there ever were, and people are blaming God and their karma. The first economic downturn, whenever it happened, happened because of greed. The second one, greed. The third one, greed. The fourth one, greed. And the last one? Greed. And will there be more?
You are a drop, and
you are magnificent.
Let the photographer take a picture you will remember for the rest of your life.
Wish we could bet on it. Because we would become very rich. Of course there is going to be, and it's going to be because of greed. There's no shortage of greed in this world.
What people need is a light in their life. Without that lamp, all there is, is darkness. That's the other rule of light. Without light –guaranteed: darkness. When you are in darkness, here comes greed: you're game. Here comes anger: you're game. Here comes fear: you're game. That's why I say, "Light the lamp."
Don't be a victim. You are but a drop, and you are magnificent. Do you want a picture? So then, look your best and smile. Let the photographer take a picture you will remember for the rest of your life. Because that is how satisfaction is. That is how peace is. Peace does not need to be measured. "How long have I had peace?" Five minutes? Six minutes? No. Time doesn't matter when you are in peace. When you understand, it isn't how much you understand –but that you understand.
The world gives you a compliment, "Oh, you look so beautiful today." And people
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say; "Oh, thank you!" Don't be mesmerized by this comment, because it is the same mouth that one day will make another comment. "You look old. What happened to you?" That's the nature of it.
What you consider a compliment is not a compliment. A true compliment would be, "Recognize your inner beauty." That's a compliment. Inner beauty never gets old. It always looks beautiful.
THE DOORS OF THE HEART
Open the doors of the heart and feel what it feels like to be in this world with a heart full of gratitude. With light around you, not with confusion and doubts, but with clarity. Not with bewilderment, but in wonder.
When you look with the eyes of the heart –not with judgment, but with the eyes of the heart, you see the magnificence. We are too much into, "I look fat, I look skinny, I look old, I look young." What do you really look like? Look inside you and see the magnificence. It's so beautiful. So incomparable. So unbelievable.
How spectacular is this drop? It drops; it dances. And when it dances, you can't even say for how long –but it is magnificent.
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ABOUT PREM RAWAT
As an advocate for peace, Prem Rawat, widely known as Maharaji, has dedicated his life to helping people find peace within themselves – not as a utopian ideal or an absence of conflict, but as an immanent personal experience.
Born in 1957, he began his mission of peace and humanitarian outreach as a young child. By the age of 13, he started addressing global audiences in response to invitations to speak in London, Los Angeles, and other major cities around the world.
Over the course of his life, Prem Rawat has personally delivered his message of peace to over 12 million people in more than 50 countries.
From small, informal gatherings to major international events, from university auditoriums to open-air stadiums seating hundreds of thousands, his message has been welcomed by people from all walks of life.
Currently, his award-winning television series, Words of Peace Global TV, reaches over 115 million households globally, with subtitles or translation in more than 20 languages.
In 2001 he founded The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing vital food, water, and emergency aid to people most in need.
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