Prem Rawat: the Heart

Prem Rawat has only used one form of teaching throughout his career in the West. He speaks. He makes mainly impromptu speeches or at least it's the same basic speech that he has repeated as the spirit moves him but has gradually changed over time. Only in the early 1980s has there ever been a major change in his speeches and the things he says. At times he will add a new concept or even update his vocabulary. "The Heart" became important in his teachings in 1988-89 and continued to the present day.

In the Brighton Aspirant event of 1988 he said:

Try to be dependent upon the grace that is in your life. Try to be dependent on that joy that is in your life. Try to be dependent on that beautiful, beautiful magic that is taking place inside of you. Try. And when you are dependent on that, there are no barriers. Roads open, doors open. Reluctance is gone, and acceptance walks in. Doubt disappears, and understanding takes over. Agony is gone, and joy replaces it. Darkness is gone, and light comes into this place. The confusion goes, the clarity comes. Is there really just one key that can do all that? There really is. There really, really is a key. Just one. Turn it. And all of those things magically begin to happen. And then the most wonderful thing takes place. The heart begins to fill. And it begins to fill with gratitude. And when it does, I can tell you, there is no feeling like that in this whole world.

One of the most important concepts Maharaji kept from the Divine Light Mission years was "the Mind." In 1990 he clearly taught the difference between the mind (bad) and the heart (good). Which side are you on?

But the saints and Mahatmas have defined 'success' in different terms. In this definition of success there is no car, no house, no fame. There is something else in that sort of success. Because there is a different kind of call in the hearts of all of us which cannot be understood by the mind. This clamour of the heart cannot be understood by the mind and on the other hand the call of the mind cannot be comprehended by the heart. Which means, they are not on speaking terms with each other. The mind speaks a different language. It says that you should do whatever has been told to you to be done in this world.

In the 1994 video the Beggar he explained how the Master can only be understood by the heart, it only creates confusion in the Mind.

Try to open, open the doors, open the doors, open your heart. What the Master says cannot be understood by intellect. If you try to understand what the Master says by intellect, the net result is total confusion because the message is sent to the heart, not to the intellect. When the heart receives the message, "Feel", it's very clear, it's very clear. When this receives the message, "Feel", it says "What?" The message is not for this (points at head) the message is for this (points at heart). When you take Knowledge and put it here (points at head) it does not make sense, does not make sense. Take Knowledge and put it here (points at heart) and it's so obvious, so obvious.

In the Alexandria, Virginia Participation Event, June 17 2000, Maharaji explained that the Heart is not what people of the world talk about with their tawdry sexual double entendres, the heart doesn't go around looking for more and more girls, the Heart has nothing to do with that:

"How do I know that when I sit to practice that what I experience is actually Knowledge the way you intended me to practice it and not my mind making things up. Sounds like a genuine question that a mind made up whilst you were practicing Knowledge. Okay I think that should answer your question. Remember what I was talking about. Feel, let the Heart feel, let the Heart feel, the Heart, Heart doesn't go around saying "Nice-looking girl!" No. And of course the Mind also is the one that says "Look for another one." The Heart has nothing to do with that. Nothing. Thank God. Thank God the Heart has nothing to do with that.

In Words of Peace video, Searching for Peace

within you, in the world of your heart, there are also avenues. There are also streets and through these streets, through these avenues, actively, peace, tranquillity, joy and all those wonderful things, love, they're searching for you. They want to find you. They know that you look, you search for them. You didn't know, that they are searching for you. And in this world it's not complicated. The avenues are rather straight. The roads are rather straight. The roads are built for one and one purpose only. To give you access to where you want to go. So they don't sit there and meander, they don't sit there and go up and down and they don't go through crossings and they don't go through all the stuff. It's simple. But how will they find you? When you always moving around. When you're darting off, sometimes left, sometimes right. It's like playing the game, like Pacman

In Tel Aviv in 2008 he told of the dance of joy in your heart that comes from the understanding of the heart:

Do you understand the value of this birth? Do you understand the value of this heart? Because it is in your heart your understanding will take place. It is the heart that will dance with joy when that understanding takes place. And that is the only way you will know. There's no other way.

In one of his Lockdown broadcasts of 2020 Prem Rawat contrasted the purity of the Heart with the contaminaion of the world:

So, there is thought that has been contaminated by circumstances. So what is the pure thought like? What is that purity truly, truly like? And only the Heart, I feel, can verify to the purity-not by definitions that "this is pure"-but the acid test, sort of to say, would truly be the Heart-to say "Yes, I understand the purity of it." And look, in this world, if things are contaminated, they're contaminated. You know, so, you get on with it. … But the Heart, the purity of those things that matter to me, that are important to me, that carry a significance in my life - that the stronger, the more pure that is, my understanding is, my feeling is, my love is, my clarity is, that without an exception if I have the purity of these, that then I truly stand on mighty ground.