Prem Rawat: Speech in a Rented Theatrette at the Australian Parliament House, 21st September 2005

Rawat Legitimacy Project: Speech in a Rented Room at the Australian Parliament House, Canberra, 21st September 2005

(Applause) Thank you. Well, I'd like to welcome you all. And a very simple presentation that I have really comes from my heart. Something that was mentioned, was that this is a humanitarian effort, and we are human beings. We talk about peace, but sometimes we don't even stop and wonder, where did this idea of peace start from? I mean, why peace? Why do human beings across the face of this earth even want peace? What is it that motivates us? Because there are implications here. If peace is a luxury, something we concocted, one day somebody sat down and said, "You know what, it would be really nice to have peace," versus that it's an innate and a fundamental desire, a need, a necessity that gets acknowledged in a human being. Something from within, inside, stirs and says, without peace, the whole equation is incomplete. Something from inside says, yes, all this is wonderful, but unless there is peace, it's not enough. That through the cultures, through the civilizations, peace has been something that has always been acknowledged.

Now, people try to figure out, well, what can we do to have peace? But if we understand that it is a fundamental desire, just as it is to take a breath, and that's the importance I'm giving peace, just as important as to breathe, just as important as to be able to see, just as important to be able to exist, that something within, inside of each human being stirs every single day and says, let me feel, let me experience that state in which I am not burdened with conflict, that it is important for me to feel that simplicity in my life, in my existence. And we forget. We forget that these things are very fundamentally important to us. Why do we forget? Well, the reasons are only too many. Because all of a sudden we have cell phones and we think the world has changed. I hear this all the time. The world has changed. And I'll give you an analogy. This is a true story.

Happened this morning. As I was getting ready, somebody said, oh, you may want to see this on television. There's an airplane that has just taken off from Burbank, California, and its front tire is kiltered 90 degrees. And, of course, in that situation, the tire won't go up, and it is rather difficult to land. And the plane has been circling, dumping fuel. So, of course, I have an incredible passion for aviation, so I had to turn it on and watch it. But not only that, I happened to have a little video camera, so I started filming it. Because when I go and talk to other people, they go, what happened, what happened? So I can show it to them. This is what happened. And it went through, and the pilot of the airplane did an incredible job, and he landed the airplane without an incident. And everything was fine. It has a happy ending. But now let's back up. The world has changed, right? Because we have all this technology. The world has changed because we have developed so much. I beg to differ. This aircraft was an A320. It is a revolutionary aircraft when it first came out. It uses fly-by-wire. It does not use cables or pulleys to control the surfaces. It was, in its day, one of the most amazing aircraft.

Now let's go and walk the lives of the people. They were all going to New York from Burbank. "Have a good flight. Have a safe flight. I'll see you in New York. Call me when you get there." Sounds familiar? This is what we go through. You sit down, find your seat, store your baggage, look around, see who else is there. Unbeknown to them, something is about to happen, and the plane takes off. I'm sure that when it took off, it was like, oh, I'm so glad we're finally off the ground. Not so quick. I grant you this is all. Hindsight is 20-20. But I'm not talking about the technicalities here. I'm talking about human emotions and human reactions. So what were these reactions like? What was it like? All of a sudden, what could have been a perfect day has turned into a great uncertainty. And every passenger on that aircraft is reacting to it. Believe me. Because the passengers don't know what's going on. And the crew isn't about to tell them yet. And you know why? Because they don't know either. It is in fact probably the ground communications that told them, hey, your front tire is turned. Because they had a picture of it. And that's why it's not going up. And believe me, the pilots reached for that one little lever which looks like a tire. It's traditional in all aircraft. It looks like a tire. You put it up, it's supposed to put the gear up, and you put it down. I'm sure they went, let's try it again. Let's try it again. And it wasn't going to budge. Something was wrong. And those reactions is what we are about.

Because we may have developed satellites and telescopes that look way out into this universe and fantastic things that make our lives so much easier, but fundamentally we have not changed. Sadness is still sadness. Joy is still joy. Peace is still peace. And the want and the need and the necessity to experience the joy in this life is fundamental to every single human being. I am not just speaking words to you. This is the difference. Recently, I received a letter from a certain prison in which certain people had been watching what I speak of. And he is the superintendent of this prison, and he said, please, continue. Because there is a profound difference in the people, and all the people in this prison. And this is not just the largest prison in India. It is the largest prison in Asia. And there has been a profound difference in the people who have been listening to your message. Could you please come? This is of great urgency. So that evening, in fact, I had my lawyer over for a dinner party, and I said, you know, I'm going to prison. He looked at me in total disbelief. He said, "No, no, no." I said, "Yes, I am." I showed him the letter. Because it doesn't change anything. The need is fundamental.

And once we understand that the need is fundamental, whether we live in what we call a free society or we live in prison, we need to feel something. We need to feel it. These things that are so fundamental to us are not about the boundaries of this world, are not about the little places that say this is this country and this is this country. When a bird flies, you know, and it's amazing, if you ever go to the south end of the United States, it used to be, now it's quite tough, but it used to be the kids would be playing their football, and they would kick the ball, and it would land in America. And then they would just have little holes in the fence, and they would crawl through and get their ball and import it back into Mexico. Now you imagine just the ramifications for the customs, because this was undeclared both ways. And they went through the no man's land to go from one country to the other country, a little space. But to them, it was about their ball. It wasn't about the United States of America. It wasn't about all the ideals that we have placed, but we have forgotten in the midst of the ideals the fundamental human things, the very fundamental human needs. We have become more involved with the size and the clarity of the crystal than quenching the thirst. We are more involved with the shape of the glass than we are about that one person's very simple need to have the thirst quenched.

Formulas? People will always come up with formulas. Formulas are not new. They've been happening since time immemorial. As far as you look back at history, somebody's saying, well, you know, if we did this, that'd be better. If we did this, that'd be better. If we did this, that would be better. Try it all. Try it all, I say. Anything that works for the purposes of peace is a good thing. But we cannot forget in the middle of the formula, in the middle of all the solutions, the simple, simple need that everyone has to be fulfilled. Not by a virtue of a certificate. Now you are fulfilled. Not by a virtue of somebody comes to you and says, congratulations, now you are fulfilled. But only fulfillment is one of those things that can only happen when the person themselves says, yes, I am fulfilled. If a person is hungry, you give them one piece of bread and say, no, no, that's enough. Only he can say, thank you, I am. This is a recognition across the board of human beings. Because what I talk about begins from the simple premises that you are alive. This statement should to us mean everything. I am alive. In this airplane, when it finally came to a stop, the door opened and the stewardess went, talk about being happy. Why? You know why? Because in a very brief period of time, they went from routine. Don't underestimate the power of routine. This is this is the place we live in called routine. And we really thank God when it is routine. And there are some adventurous ones. There are. And they thank God when their adventure is also routine.

It really is like that. When it's not routine, it's no good. I've seen people go off these cliffs, and all of a sudden, their parachute didn't open. Not a good thing. I'm adventurous. I'll go off the cliff. But so far, it's routine and when I open my parachute, everything happens fine the way it's supposed to happen, the way it is supposed to happen, routine. In a few moments, that lives of those people sitting in that aircraft went from routine to uncertain. And I absolutely guarantee you that there was high blood pressure on that aircraft, hearts beating pong, pong, pong, pong, pong. Oh my god. And then, when they were brought back to that realization, it's OK. That OK was greater than the OK before. This is who we are. We live in vulnerability. We don't recognize it. We don't understand it. Because the emphasis in our lives, in our daily lives, is upon something else, not upon the fundamental that I am alive.

I do exist. I am a vessel in which the most beautiful thing is taking place that a breath comes and fills me with the possibility to do all that I want to do. Where is my gratitude? Where is my understanding about my fundamentals, my fundamentals? What is happening to me? What is happening to me? When I was coming to Australia, took off from Hawaii, and it was the most turbulent flight I've ever had in my life. We took off, immediately got into turbulence. And from there on, turbulence, turbulence, turbulence, turbulence. In the whole nine-hour and 45-minute flight, maybe there was a period of half an hour where there wasn't any turbulence. It was just turbulence, turbulence, turbulence, turbulence, turbulence. Tried going up, didn't work. Tried going down, it didn't work. It was everywhere. And of course, then the spectacular thing happened, trying to communicate with the ATC and could get nobody, nobody, nobody. So my co-pilot says, what are we going to do? I said, grab the satellite phone. Let's call San Francisco. Called up San Francisco, and San Francisco said, oh, by the way, the solar flare has just killed off all communications. Really glad you called on the phone. What can we do for you? And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. This has never happened in my life before. Here I am, sitting, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, bouncing. Don't want to be in this situation. There's nothing I can do. But that, all of those environments, all of those situations do not distract me from my fundamental objective to be safe at every single moment and to make myself, the aircraft, and the passenger arrive as safely as possible at their destination or wherever.

But in this existence, we forget what the primary purpose is. A little turbulence hits, and all of a sudden, it's like, I'm out of here. Where are you going? Where are you going? What is the fundamental need, the fundamental requirement of your existence? What is the most important thing to you? Not as your credentials go, but as a human being. To welcome that. Not to find it mysterious, because it is not mysterious. Not to find it curious, because it is not curious. Not to find it routine, because it is not routine. But to acknowledge that this life that I have is an exquisite gift, and that I, in my life, need to make the most, most of it. An empty jug, an empty pitcher, an empty well cannot fill other vessels. A dry well, you can throw 10,000 buckets in it. All that will come out is sand. That's if you're lucky. For a lamp to light other lamps, that lamp has to be lit. For a candle to light other candles, that candle has to be lit. Has to be lit. And for us to achieve the incredible objectives, and they are noble. Peace is always noble. To help mankind is noble. It's good. It's beautiful. And it'll always be. But it has to begin with a lit lamp. Peace has to be first and foremost recognized in a person's own self.

One day, I was coming from Canada, and I came to the United States. And the customs officer asked me, what were you doing in Canada? I said, well, talking about peace. He says, there will never be peace. There cannot be peace. And he went on, giving all his ramifications of why there could possibly be no peace in this world. He said, the amount of greed that there is in this world, the amount of hatred that there is in this world, there will be no peace. I had to think about it. I had to think about it. Because one thing that I have always said, if you want to light up a football field, if you want to light up a rugby field, if you want to light up a cricket field, the first thing you have to light up is the lights. If the lights are not working, you can throw any amount of switches you want, but no light will be produced. The bulbs have to glow. We are the bulbs. We, each one of us, on the face of this earth, we are the bulbs. And if we want that peace to be in this world, which, by the way, for every single person on the face of this earth, there is a different definition of what that peace is. I have an analogy for that. In India, they have these bicycle shops. I mean, if you have no money, you want to make a little bit of money, what you do in India is you go get a few tin roofs, a few sides, and you open up a bicycle shop. You don't sell bicycles. You fix punctures.

And there's thousands of them, because you don't have to be a rocket scientist to fix that puncture. And eventually, people start coming there. The chai shops open up, and everything else begins. Now imagine, imagine this guy who has a bicycle shop, who fixes punctures, what his prayer to his God is every morning. God, could you throw a few punctures my way? Then I've got to feed my family. And this is what it boils down to, that maybe he is praying for one thing, while the other guy is saying, God, I hope I don't get a puncture. God, I hope I don't get a puncture. I've got an important meeting to go to, and the bicycle guy has been praying all night long the night before him. Please send a few my way. Everybody's requirements are different when it comes to this world. Somebody likes a blue car. Somebody likes a green car. Somebody likes a white car. I'm not passing judgment on that. That's great. But there is one need that is the same for all. The name for water is different in different languages. But water in itself is not different. And its properties to be able to quench the thirst are not different. Somebody says, oh, I don't need to drink water. I drink coffee. Well, what do you think coffee really is? I mean, you're not eating coffee. It's mostly water. I don't drink water. I have Coca-Cola. Well, what is the first ingredient? Water. This is through our understanding, through us, not as a society, but as an individual.

I still remember her singing duo in satsang in Sydney 50 years ago, Joy and somebody or was it somebody and Joy?

I strongly believe that it is the individual that has to understand what peace is and need it, find that need, feel that need in their lives. Then and only then can we begin to see the movement towards. Because the foundation is solid. The foundation, the part you don't see, is responsible, by the way, for the part you do see. And what you see is a lot. But without the foundation, it would crumple. One earthquake, it would crumple. One disaster, it would crumple. The foundation. We are the foundation, everyone on the face of this earth. And people say to me, well, that is an extremely ambitious project. Everyone. But when you think about laying a foundation, it is also an ambitious project. Because it all has to be correct. All has to be straight. And somebody says to you, well, why are you paying so much attention to this foundation that nobody's ever going to see it? True. But what they are going to see is going to be fundamentally based on this. This is the base.

I started a long time ago. I was very young. And I saw the possibility. I saw the possibility in myself. I had heard many, many people talk about peace. I didn't understand what peace was till I felt my own need. When I felt my own need, I couldn't understand what peace was. When I could feel in myself that, yes, I too need peace as a human being. It is not a matter of just accomplishments. It's a matter of feeling that feeling, of being content. It is a matter of feeling that feeling from inside, from inside, to feel whole, to feel complete.

We appease and work on appeasing so many in our family. We have our children. We have our relatives. And that's a function we have to do, appease them. And if we do it right, perhaps they will try to appease us. It's a trade. Let me scratch your back. Maybe one day you'll scratch my back. But what if I have not appeased that part of me, the fundamental part of me? A gentleman once said to me, it was actually in an interview. And he came home one day. As he entered his home, his eldest son heard that he had walked in. And he said, dad, I'm not going to school tomorrow unless you get me new shoes and unless you get me a new bag. And when his younger son heard the elder son make the demands, he came out and said, dad, I'm not going to school unless I've got new shoes and I've got a new bag. And when the wife heard two of the sons talking to the husband, she came out and said, here's the list. And if you don't get the stuff, I'm not cooking for you tomorrow. The man had had a relatively hard day at work. And he sat down. And he started crying. And he started crying because he said to himself, I worked so hard to make them happy. But if I'm not happy, how am I going to make? You see, the things I talk about, you know. I'm not here to talk about your deficiencies. I'm not here to talk about how you can be made better. There's a lot of people who go around doing that. Recognize, identify deficiency, provide a formula how you can be better. My message to everyone is you're the best.

You are amazing. You're not about made in Taiwan or made in China or made in America or made in Australia. You're about made by somebody absolutely amazing who absolutely knows what they're doing. And made for, the biggest question, made for. What? What is it one thing you hear in history books? And it was time of prosperity followed by, and people were happy. People were happy, people like the king. People were happy. When a person feels that peace in their lives, believe me, happiness is not far behind. It's there. And as that gentleman said, how can I make them happy if I am not happy? It is true. Of all the things you do, of all the things you do, if you find yourself not in that place, then yes, you can do what you do. But fundamentally, something in that equation will be missing, the sum of everything that is going to happen in your life, the sum. There is no one who's not going to make mistakes. We all do. We're going to do wonderful things. We're going to do good things. We're going to do some not so good things. There are going to be some things we really wish everybody talked about.

And we're going to do things we wish nobody would talk about. And it's not about those days that are bad. It is about the sum of all that we would have done, the sum of what did we really accomplish as a human being, because that's who we were when we first came. Not a name, but this being that had its unique set of needs, hunger, sleep, thirst. And we went through the evolution of growing up. And growing up may sound evolutionary, but really, it was always a revolution. Something, something, something, something, something, something. And we learned, and we forgot, and we understood. And somehow, in certain areas, we became stronger. In certain areas, we became weak. And always to plow ahead, always to move ahead, always to have that opportunity in our lives for one more time, one more opportunity, one more day, and to make it good, and to make it right, and not just live in a routine. To be free, the thought of freedom, not contrived freedom, not a defined freedom, but a true freedom. To be free. When I say the word free, I know the reactions. I know the reactions. It is a lovely word. And I have said it in front of wealthy, and I have said it in front of poor, and I have indeed said it

in front of people who have been incarcerated. And when I said that, they went wild. I said, one day you're going to be free. And a whole prison just went. And I realized, you know, how they were taking it. But to be free, not because somebody says, "Oh, yes, you are free. Of course you are free." But to feel free. This cannot be and should not be. The story about the privileged bird and the privilege of the bird was that it had a golden cage. That is not a privileged bird. Free. Free to feel that peace in your life. Free to understand the gift that you have been given. And free to feel the freedom. That truly is ours. The freedom that no one can take away from us. The freedom that no one can take away from us. Not another government. And no terrorist in this world. That is the definition of freedom. The peace. Not that peace that somebody hands us on a platter. Because that peace, somebody will come along and take away someday. But the peace that no one can take away from us. The peace that equally resides in the heart of every single human being on the face of this earth. That's the peace I'm talking about.

To get two neighbors to not quarrel for two days is possible. Third day is not guaranteed. I'm very fortunate. My immediate neighbors couldn't ask for better neighbors. But then I have other neighbors. And something is always going on. Either they play the music too late. You did this. Or you did that. Or what is this? Or what is that? It is about the peace that can be felt in a battlefield. That's the peace I'm talking about. That's the peace I'm talking about. The innate peace. The fundamentals. The fundamentals of every single human being.

Freedom. Understanding. Peace. Joy. Happiness.

When I arrived in India a long time ago, I had not been to India for quite a few years. And then I finally went back. And I landed in Bombay. And I was driving out. It was in the middle of the night at 2 o'clock. And all of a sudden, you see all these poor people everywhere. And it's like, oh, God, this is still a poor country. The next day, I was driving somewhere. And I see this little kid. He had no shoes on. He had no shirt on. He had a little underwear. And he had a bicycle wheel without the tire. And he had a little stick. And he was just making that thing go and running. And he had the biggest smile on his face.

We have our reasons. We have our ideas. But you know, there will always be a peace that is so fundamental. Feel that peace in your life. Feel that joy in your life. Feel that understanding in your life. Come from that place. And there will be no end to how much you can be filled with that beautiful understanding and gratitude. It's about you. It's about your existence. So many people that I know ended up going to Iraq war. They had to go in the middle of the war. There was something that they could feel within that was peaceful, that was real. It is true. The opportunities to feel that feeling, the opportunities to be filled come every day. With every breath that comes, it is a knock. Open up. Understand. Open your eyes. Look around. See, feel, understand. Be. And when you begin to glow, you then have truly the capability to light as many candles as possible. I am a person. And I always like to believe down to earth. I don't argue with many ideas. Okay, if that's what you think, that's what you think. But what do you feel in your life? You can argue with theory. But you cannot argue when something becomes obvious. If we are in this room, we cannot see the sun. We can sit here and argue. Is it the sun out yet? Is it out? It's not out. We can go with probabilities. We can even say, well, you know, it might be covered with a cloud. Could have been an unforeseen eclipse or a meteor just walked through. But if you're standing outside and the sun is shining, you don't need much of an argument. That's what I believe in. Make it real. Make it practical.

Make it the way it is supposed to be. Every life, everywhere, touched. Because a lit lamp came by and was able to light the unlit lamps. This is the possibility for all of us. For all of us. But first, we need to be lit. Is it asking for a lot? Probably. Is it impossible? Absolutely no. It is very, very possible. Will it take a lot of effort? Yes. But then effort is one thing we can make. And it is up to us. So yes, peace needs to be enjoyed by everyone on the face of this earth. And it is very much a possibility. Peace is possible. Thank you very much for coming this afternoon. And I hope you have a pleasant and a wonderful day. Thank you.