Words of Peace: Prem Rawat in Accra Nigeria, 2012-11-22
Who You Are
Prem Rawat in Accra Nigeria, 22nd November 2012
People are understanding something, having peace in their lives, and you can be a part of the magic regardless of where you are.
I'm here to talk to you about peace, because this is important. Not now, not today, not yesterday, not tomorrow, but as long as human beings have been on the face of this earth, they have admired peace, they have wanted peace. And for me to be sitting here in front of you, talking about peace, is a little bit ironic. And the reason why I say that is that you, all of you, already have the peace that you are looking for within, inside of you. So what is the process for discovering and feeling peace? I will explain to you. You have all eaten an orange, have you not? What do you do when you eat an orange? You take an orange and you go like this? No. You peel the skin. Then, what's inside, you eat that. The skin is not tasty. It's bitter, orangey, full of oil, but the fruit is sweet, delicious, sweet and a little tart, beautiful fragrance. You have eaten a mango? How do you eat a mango? You just take it and go, huh? No. You peel it. You remove the skin. You remove that's not needed, that's not necessary. Have you eaten an almond? What do you do? Take the almond and put it in your mouth? No. If you do that, you will break your teeth. Because the shell is not something you can eat. Have you eaten a banana? How do you eat a banana? But that's for us. That's the way we are. Elephant does not do that. It takes the whole thing and eats it. Not a problem. So, who are we? I mean, here we are.
All the technology, a lot of religion, a lot of institutions. There are so many governments. There are so many countries. There are so many. 7 billion people on the face of this earth. There are problems. There are wars. There are armies. There are intelligent people. They write books. Some they write to entertain us. Some they write to teach us. There are so many people who lecture. There are engineers who design bridges. Huge buildings. Engineers who design the tallest building. I mean, that's a competition, who has the tallest building. So, somewhere in China there is an engineer. Somewhere in the Middle East there is an engineer who has been given the job to design the tallest building in the world. And he's looking around, which one is the tallest and how he's going to make one taller than that. There's engineers who have been given the opportunity to design bridges that will be the longest-spanning bridge. There are people working right now in research and development laboratories trying to come up with a weapon that will be the most destructive weapon. Do you understand the complexity of the world we live in today? There are computer manufacturers who are trying to design computers that will be no bigger than a button. One time I went with somebody to an electronic store and I saw the little video cameras.
And they were smaller and smaller and smaller. And then there was a place where there should have been a video camera, but there wasn't. And I turned to the person and I said, this is the latest model. It is so small you can't see it. All of this. There are clothes designers working right now to make you more beautiful clothes. There are companies working to make creams that will make you look more beautiful. New shades of lipstick. There are people right now trying to figure out how they're going to be able to travel pretty close to the speed of sound, close to the speed of light. Now, why am I telling you this? There's a reason. And here's the reason. Our existence on this earth and the existence of earth itself is shorter than this. Do you know that? It began hundreds of billions of years ago. And everything you are is what everything else is made out of, just rearranged a little bit. And what is everything doing? Everything is on its way to become nothing again. You have heard dust to dust, ashes to ashes? Mm-hmm. Scientifically correct. Scientifically correct. You are made out of the dirt. And the dirt is on its way to becoming dirt again. Everything wants to go back where it came from. Everything. The water from the ocean wants to go back to the ocean. The dirt wants to go back to being the dirt.
And this is the process that is unfolding. And for the spark, the tiniest, tiniest, tiniest, tiniest space of time, you are here. This is too long. It's shorter than that. If you compared to how old the universe is, and you, you'd be like, done, finished. Everything gone. What are you doing? What are you doing? What do you do in a day? What do you do in a day? How long is a day? Not even that. That's a whole life. I'm talking about Earth gone. Sun gone. Moon gone. This is not fantasy. This is fact. But right now, there you are. Oh, yeah, tomorrow. Tomorrow I will do something about peace. Not today. Today I am busy. Busy doing what? When your whole existence is nothing but just a flash. There is an obviousness that we ignore. What is obvious? I will tell you a story. Once there was a king. And one day he heard that somebody far away in his kingdom had discovered a way to live forever. The king was very excited.
He wanted to live forever. So he called his ambassador and he said, go without delay, go to this man and find out how to live forever. And don't delay. Now. Go now. So the village where this man was was one day's ride. So the king was waiting impatiently, waiting and waiting and waiting for the ambassador to come back. One day to go there, one day to come back. So it was going to take him two days. Two days later the ambassador returned and said, I have bad news. The king said, what? He said, I am sorry, your highness, but when I got there, the man died. He was dead. The king said, I told you not to delay. You delayed. And because you delayed your trip, by the time he got there, he was dead. Had you been there 15 minutes before, you could have learnt how to live forever. So the king says, you have to be punished. What should we do to punish you? So he said, come tomorrow to the court and we will figure out how you will be punished. Because had you not delayed and only come 15 minutes, even 15 minutes before he died, you could have learnt how to live forever. So next day, they're all arguing what should happen to him. Some people are saying he should be fined. Some people are saying he should be killed. Some people are saying he should be whipped. He should be thrown in jail.
And there's a big commotion. Nobody can agree. Everybody is saying that, that, that, that. And somebody, very wise, is hearing all this commotion going on. Comes in and says, what are you doing? Why are you arguing? Gave him the story, told him the story. And he said, are you stupid? If the man had actually figured out how to live forever, would he have died? He hadn't figured it out. That's why he died. And you're arguing about punishing this man. This is not this man's fault. And that's what happens to us. We ignore the obvious. We're still talking about peace now. But we ignore the obvious. Like the skin around the orange, like the shell around the almond, we too, inside of us, have humility, and we have arrogance. Remove arrogance, and you will have the sweet fruit of humility. Inside of us, we have love and the hard shell of hate. Remove the shell of hatred, and you have a beautiful nut waiting to play, to dance on your taste buds. And not only that, but to give you precious nutrition and take away your hunger. That's what happens. But we ignore. We ignore the reality. What is the reality? What is the reality? You are alive. It's real. It's not a fantasy.
It's not an imagination. It's not a belief. You have to say, I think I'm alive. No. You are alive. Now what does that mean? That means you are blessed. By whom? By whom? By the same power that sustains, creates, and destroys this entire universe. And whose blessings do we seek? Another man's. People come to me, they say, bless me. I say, why do you want my blessing? You've got the blessing of the ultimate. But because you don't know, because you don't know, because you don't know, because you ignore the obvious, you have become a beggar. You don't think you're a beggar? I can prove it. I can prove it. If you have a wife, you beg every day for her approval. If you have a husband, you beg every day for his approval. If you have a boyfriend, you beg every day for his approval. If you have a girlfriend, you beg every day for her approval. If you have children, oh, children, you beg them every day for their approval. When the child says to you, I love you, Daddy. Yes! Now I am somebody. If you work, you beg your boss for approval. If you're a doctor, you beg your patient for approval. Yes, doctor, you fixed me up. I feel really good now.
We're all beggars. Because we have forgotten who we are. And what did Socrates say? He could have said, no Greece. He could have said, no me. He could have said, no your neighbor. He could have said, no your chicken. He could have said, no your dog. He could have said, no your auntie. He could have said, no your animals. What did he say? Know thyself. Because in knowing yourself, you will understand what peace is. What is peace? People think if two people are not fighting, they are in peace. There's two kinds of laughter. There is a fake laughter, and there is a real laughter. For the real laughter to happen, what has to happen? You have to feel good inside. There is two kinds of smile. There is a fake smile, and there is a real smile. For the real smile to happen, what has to happen? You have to smile on the inside. There's two kinds of tears. Crocodile tears, and real tears. For real tears to happen, you have to be feeling sad on the inside, or really tears of joy. Happy. All this, what I am saying, is only an expression of what happens on the inside. That's how you are.
You can't help it. Peace. When you feel peace inside, then peace manifests on the outside. When you feel war on the inside, what manifests on the outside? War. When you don't respect yourself, you cannot respect another. When a cause becomes greater than the cost of life, there is confusion. There is confusion. Gold can be replaced. Land, there is plenty. But life cannot be replaced. One breath cannot. Nothing in this world is more precious to you than your own existence. And when you fall in love with your existence, when you fall in love with this blessing, when you fall in love with this breath, that is the day you begin to... Now, people say to me, how are you going to bring peace? There are 7 billion people on the face of this earth. You think 7 million people or 7 billion people is a lot of people? You think so? Well, I want you to do some math. When you go home, do some math. 10 square foot per person. 7 billion. 10 square foot per person. How many square miles is that? It's not much. You could actually fit everybody, giving everyone 10 square feet in Ghana, and you won't even fill Ghana. You can take 7 billion people. There is a little state in America, very small, Rhode Island. You won't even fill Rhode Island. But it comes in our head.
It's so big. It's not. One person at a time. That's how you light the candles. And that's how you light the flame of peace in every single human being. Not creating beliefs. Light does not come from beliefs. Light comes from Knowledge. You can believe as much as you want. Anything you want. Anything you want. Like you do every day. You believe you're going to live a long time. Right? Everybody does. How long are you going to live? Oh, you know, 100,000 days. How many days? 100,000 days. Not that I want, I'm teaching math. But this is an easy one. Okay? It's easy. Really easy. Say you live to be 100 years. That's not the life expectancy. Anywhere. 100 years.
It's usually 70. Japan is the highest. 83. Some places it's way too low. But even for the sake of argument, if you say you live for 100 years. How many days is that? 365 days in a year. Right? Times 100. 36,500. That's all. 36. Not 360,000. Just 36,500. Did you know that? Did you know that? 70 years. 25,550. Did you know that? Did you know that? A lot of people don't. So, you are an organized person, right? And you would think an intelligent person would first begin, so how many days am I going to be here? The answer is 36,000. And most of those. What does that tell you? What are you busy doing? Are you busy knowing yourself? Or are you busy knowing everyone else? Oh, that's why we love to go to weddings. So we can meet our relatives. So we can meet our friends. New people. We get dressed really well. One day, a man went to get married. And when the time came for him to come out, he refused.
So everybody went, what's the matter? Why aren't you coming out? It's time to get married. He said, I forgot my nice clothes. So how can I get married? Somebody wise said, are you marrying your clothes or the bride? Good if you would have brought them, but if you haven't, why should this stop you from getting married? If you know yourself, not a problem. But if you don't know yourself, yes a problem. Because you are learning to know everyone else, but not you. Problem. That's why we love to go to parties. Meet new people. Oh, hello, we say. Hello. My name is so and so. What is yours? So good to meet you. And we have cards. We have cards. And we pull out a card and say, here, this is, you know. So you will remember me. And what do you do? For you? Socrates didn't say, know everyone else. He said, know thyself. What do you do to know yourself? And you wonder why you don't have peace? If you live in the desert, it's possible to live in the desert. It's not a problem. It's possible. There's one thing. You have to know where the water is. If you don't know where the water is, it's impossible to live in the desert.
Look at all the big cities. Look at all the civilizations. Where were they made? They were made where the water was available. Because you need water. You know that. It's not a belief. But you believe that you need to know everyone else, but not yourself. And if you don't know yourself, you will be wondering all your life why you don't have peace. Where is peace? Where is peace? And belief, more belief. Oh yes, the day we can end the war. You don't know why the war started. The war started because you didn't know yourself. If you haven't solved that problem, if you are walking and you feel a pain in your foot and you take out your shoe and you see a rock, what should you do? Put a band-aid on your foot and put the rock back in the shoe and where? Or should you take off your shoe, take out the rock, and then put the band-aid on your foot so the band-aid can help you heal? When you know yourself, everything else will help. When you don't know yourself, everything else is not going to help. When you don't know yourself, going to the moon doesn't help. When you know yourself, it doesn't matter if you go to the moon or don't go to the moon. And that is the foundation and the fundamentals of peace. Otherwise, there is a doubt. A doubt. And doubt is powerful. Not good, but powerful. I'll tell you another story. One day, there was a king and his wife was very jealous of one of the courtiers in the king's court. So she went to the king and said, you keep favoring this one courtier.
What I want you to do is fire him and appoint my brother as your main courtier. The king said, I can't do that. Your brother is stupid. This man, he's smart, he's wise, he's good. So I can't do that. She said, I won't speak to you. He said, okay, okay. I'll tell you what. There has to be a solution to this. She said, I have the solution. You go and take a walk in the park. Call this courtier and tell him to fetch me and I won't come. And you can get mad at him for not fetching me and then you can fire him and appoint my brother instead of him. So the king was walking. He invites this courtier. He says, I want you to go and tell my wife to come here. This courtier was very smart. He said, why does the king need to ask me to get his wife? He could have asked any soldier to go summon her. There's something wrong. Something is not right. He started thinking, thinking. He went to the queen and said, your highness, the king requests your company. And she goes, I'm not going. So the courtier figured out, I think I know what the problem is here.
And he said, I'll be right back. So he went out and he found a soldier. And he said to the soldier, he said, I'm going to go back in. And when I'm talking to the queen, you come in and whisper in my ear. And whatever you say, it doesn't matter. But at the end, I want you to say, and she is beautiful. Just say it loud enough so the queen can hear it. And she is beautiful. So this courtier went in and said, you know, queen, the king really does want you to come. And are you sure you don't want to go? And she goes, no, I don't want to go. Just then the soldier came in, started whispering something in the courtier's ear. And he said, and she is beautiful. And the courtier said, your majesty, you don't need to come anymore. I'll go back to the king and tell him you're not coming. And the queen had heard just those words, and she is beautiful. And the queen said, I am coming too. Doubt. All that has to happen. When do you doubt? Power of doubt is powerful. What do you doubt? Do you doubt that you're blessed? Do you? Do you? Because you don't know. You doubt. You look at something tragic happens in your life, something bad happens in your life, and you go, oh my god, why is this happening to me? You go, why am I poor? Don't you? Why am I poor? Why don't I have a lot of money? And you have in you the most priceless thing, and you call yourself poor. What do you think is the price of one breath? Tell me. Tell me.
Tell me what is the price of one breath. One. You don't know. What do you think allowed you to stay, if you were born at home, allowed you to stay with your mother? After you were born. What do you think it was? When you came out, you had hands. You had feet. You had knees. You had a body. You had a head. You had two eyes. You had ears. You didn't have teeth. You had lips. You had a nose. Maybe some hair. Maybe not much, but a little bit. You had a neck. And what was everybody waiting for? Are you breathing or not? For you to take your first breath. In. Not out. In. And if you didn't, would you stay with your mother? They would take you. Wrap you. The face was there.
Hands that you decorate with rings. They were there. The wrist. Watch. Bracelet. Bangles. Face. Lipstick. Shaving. Means nothing. Nothing. No breath. Gone. Useless. Removed. And what happens at the end? What happens at the end? The breath goes out. Doesn't come. Starts with in. Stops with out. And you get removed. So, you think death is powerful? Aren't you afraid of death? I am. I am. I was just in one of the countries and the car was going fairly fast and another car came and it was like this far away. I mean, and everybody went, Ah! Aren't you afraid of death? Aren't you? I am.
Aren't you? And what's keeping death away? Do you know? Do you know? So far, this breath is coming in and out of you. Death cannot touch you. Come close, but cannot touch you. That's why this is a blessing. It is not a belief. It's a blessing. You want to go to heaven? You want to go to heaven? I have good news. You don't have to go anywhere. Heaven is right here. You want to stay away from hell? Hell is right here. And if you are not in heaven, guess where you are? Hello! If you are not in heaven now, guess where you are? So, I suggest, get out of hell and be in heaven. And the key to being in heaven is know thyself. That's how simple it is. That's how simple it is. Somebody said to me about being in heaven, and I said, surely, wherever that power is, is heaven? And he said, yes. And I said, you know what? That power right now is dancing within you. And if you understand it, there will be heaven. And when you have found that heaven inside, then there will be heaven on this. Because there will be peace on this earth. Because all of us, at the end of the day, we want, we adore peace. And that's what it takes. For each one of you, you are not small. You're not small. Because right now, somebody is making sure, something is making sure that this breath is happening.
That that fabric of this universe, of all that exists and all that doesn't exist, the ultimate, that which was, is, and will be, cannot be created, cannot be destroyed, is touching you, embracing you, in you. So people say, oh, I am insignificant. No, you're not. One, you are made out of the same ingredients as the universe. You are not related just to your father, to your mother, to your brother, to your sister. You are related to the universe. You are related to that sun. You are related to the moon. And you are related to every star that you see in the sky. Related more closely than probably even your father. Everything in this body, you are related to that. Who are you? You are the drop that holds in it the ocean. Turn within and feel the joy of being alive. Make no pretense to sleep when your heart wants to be awake. Make no pretense to be hunger, to be hungry when your heart is giving you a feast, a feast of peace, a feast of love, a feast, and feel hunger. No. To be rested. To be rested so you can awaken. Awaken and feel every day. And how do you know you are in heaven? How do you know? How do you know you are in heaven? Because that's when your heart fills with gratitude. Thank you for being alive. Yes! 36,500 days. And when you heard that, some of you became sad. Hmm, only that much? That's not much.
Did you become sad? Did you? Because if you were in love with life, one day to feel that gratitude, that joy, that love would be. And if you get 36,500 you are the luckiest person on the face of this earth. So, I've said a lot. But I don't want you to believe me. Ha ha. You, do you understand the power of knowing? Knowing is so powerful that I can actually tell you you don't believe me. Don't believe me. Don't believe me. Know what I said to you. Know for yourself. See? You don't hear that everywhere. Because people go, Oh, just believe. Just believe. Believe, believe, believe. And you go, Well, I don't know if I can believe. Oh, believe some more. So everybody is busy believing? Believing, believing? I'll tell you a little story. I won't go on too much longer. A little story. There was a man. And he was pretty rich. And he had a requirement that every night he be given a glass of milk before going to sleep. That's all he wanted one of his servants to do is bring him a glass of milk. One morning he woke up and he wondered if that glass of milk was all milk.
He felt that that milk tasted weak. So he hired another servant. And the second servant's job was to make sure that the first servant was not drinking a little bit of milk himself and adding water. So the second servant came and it was evening time and the milk had to be served. And he looked at the guy and he said, listen, I know you must be taking a little bit of milk out. You have to also take it out for me. So now, you know, before there was only a quarter of milk gone, quarter water. Now he wanted another quarter so half of milk gone, half water. So that night the man really felt that the milk was really, really weak. So he hired another servant to make sure that the other guys were not doing anything bad with the milk. So the evening time came and he said, I know you must be taking a quarter of the milk. You must be taking a quarter of the milk. That's half the milk. I want my share. So now, three quarters water, only a quarter milk. Now, the man felt that the milk was even weaker. So he hired another servant. Another servant. And so that evening came and he said, I know you're taking a quarter, you're taking a quarter, you're taking a quarter. I need a quarter too. He said, yeah, but if we do that, there will be no milk left. It'll be all water. He said, leave it to me. I know how to fix this.
So, next morning the owner woke up and he said, last night I didn't get any milk. And what the last servant had done is when the guy had gone to sleep, he took some of the foam from the milk and put it around his lips. So when the man woke up and he said, I haven't had any milk last night. He said, I served it to you and you enjoyed it. He goes, how come I don't remember? He says, I don't know why you don't remember, but go look in the mirror. You will see the foam. That's what happens. One belief, it doesn't work. Second belief, third belief, fourth belief, fifth belief, and the world is full of believers. So full of believers, so full of believers, so full of believers, nobody knows anymore. So, that's what makes me different. I want you to know. If you know, no problem, belief is covered. If you know, belief is okay, it's covered. So, belief is belief, knowing is knowing. When you know, everything is fine. When you only believe, necessarily, you don't know. Know. Know in your life. When I say, this is a blessing, know that this is a blessing. Know in your life, this is a blessing. When I say, you are the most incredible gift, know that you are the most incredible gift. When I say that this breath is the most powerful thing in your life, know that this breath is the most powerful thing in your life. Not just believing.
And most importantly, know that that divine is dancing within. And when you do, and your heart fills with gratitude, what will you receive? You will receive the gift of peace. And there will be peace in your life. And there will be peace in your world. And there will be peace for all of us to enjoy within our self (applause) It's not a complicated formula. It's a simple formula. But it has to happen with each one of us. So, thank you very much for coming. Thank you for listening. And... 36,500? Don't be sad. Be happy that you have 36,500 gifts. Today, in America, they're celebrating Thanksgiving. Most of them are going to eat turkeys. Turkeys are not giving thanks today. People are giving thanks. Thanks for what? You may not celebrate Thanksgiving, or you may, but you should be giving thanks every single day.
Peace is possible, not impossible. I know there are people who go, oh, but how are you going to do it? This is impossible. And I say to them, man went on the moon because of those people who said it can be done. Not because of those people who said it cannot be done. I cannot bring peace. I need the help of everyone. And when we all join together, we can bring peace. Because the want and the desire for peace is in every one of you. Every one of you. So that's how it needs to happen. Awaken, be, enjoy, be fulfilled. Thank you very much and good night.