Being at Amaroo: Journal entries from one of the 2,388 attendees

}   22 min read

Hello! Mitch Ditkoff here, contributor to PremRawat.com and a long-time student of Prem Rawat. What follows are highlights from a journal I kept at his Sept. 8-12 event in Amaroo (Australia). My goal here is to convey a little something about why I made the journey and the personal impact it had on this 78-year-old New Yorker.

This was the 20th time since 1992 that Prem has been the featured speaker at Amaroo—a chance for him and 2,338 of his students to unplug from the world, enjoy each other’s company, and focus on the experience of personal peace, joy and gratitude.

Sept. 6: Arriving at Amaroo

After four flights, seven movies and 30 hours of travel, I finally arrive at Amaroo—a word in Aboriginal Australian that means “the beautiful place.” I find my way to my tent, unpack, and shower. I have no idea what day it is, nor do I care. My iPhone is switched off, but I am switched on.

Here’s as simple as it gets: Amaroo is my favorite place on earth. Why? Because it sparks an exquisite feeling of being totally at home—the experience of enjoying the present moment to the max. Everywhere I go is the right place to be. Each step is an arrival. I am flooded with gratitude.

The Pavilion: a great place to eat, shop, and schmooze with old friends (or make new ones)

 Sept. 7: The day before Prem’s first talk

I wake up at 2:30 a.m. and exit my tent. There’s a full moon overhead and dew on the grass—a lot of it, something I hadn’t planned on. My shoes get wet, and I wonder if I’ve brought enough footware with me. Thankfully, this thought passes quickly.

All I’m doing in this moment is looking up at the stars, a big smile on my face.

Apparently, the light I’m seeing is traveling at 186,000 miles per second—way faster than the bus that brought me from the Brisbane Airport to Amaroo. Indeed, there’s a good chance that many of the stars I’m seeing now no longer exist, just the light they gave off millions of years ago. My jet lag pales in comparison.

Back in my tent, I practice the techniques of Self-Knowledge that I learned from Prem more than 54 years ago. Then it’s off to a leisurely breakfast with John Horton, an old friend of mine. A physician by trade, John no longer practices medicine, but he does practice Knowledge. I can tell by the twinkle in his eye.

Sept. 8: Morning

I wake at 2:45 a.m. to a rare lunar eclipse. What a spectacle the sky is! Such a dance of light and dark-the ever-changing play between what’s hidden and revealed.

Wrapped in a woolen blanket and ski cap, I return to my tent and practice Knowledge, a simple way to turn my attention from the outside world to the inside one—home base in life’s crazy game of tag.

Today is my birthday. Whoo hoo! What do I want for my birthday? D’oh, I already have it. It was given to me the day I received the gift of Knowledge from Prem Rawat and I’m still opening it.

Amaroo 2025, opening session excerpts

As I move around the site, I notice that the way I walk seems to have changed. It’s more like ambling now than my usual gait—a more relaxed, effortless way of moving forward. Just a few yards in front of me I see four friends of mine. We find a table and sit. Many stories are told. Many magical moments of our lives our shared.

People with a scriptural bent might refer to the experience the five of us are enjoying as the “peace that passes all understanding,” but those are just words. The good news? It doesn’t matter what you call it, only that you feel it and I am.

This is not a spiritual path I’m on. It’s a human path. Calling it “spiritual” only separates it from daily life. What Prem Rawat is presenting is not separate from daily life. It’s the essence of life—the full-bodied embrace of life and the realization that what sometimes appears to be mundane is actually divine.

Sept. 8: Afternoon event, session #1

Sitting in the amphitheater and waiting for Prem Rawat to take center stage is an experience I will never be able to explain. Though nothing seems to be happening, everything is happening. A great presence fills the space, and the fallow field of my heart’s longing is being tilled.

Though Prem has a lot to say in this first of nine talks, it’s not so much what he says as what I feel when he says it—kind of like what happens when I reach my destination after a long car ride. “You have arrived,” the GPS declares. Hooray! There are no more turns to make, no more distance to cover, no more waiting to get there.

It’s okay to have friends and spend
time with them.
It’s okay to have family and spend
time with them.
But it’s also very good
to spend time with the self.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 8, 2025

The Amaroo amphitheater

Towards the end of Prem’s talk, he stands at the podium like a proud papa and plays a few of the songs he’s recently composed—the first of at least 20 he’ll play for us during the next four days.

I find his songs extraordinary—evocative, deep and heart-opening. But there is something else going on as his music fills the amphitheater and that is the look on his face.

From where I’m sitting, he seems to be on the verge of tears. He pauses a few times before he speaks, and the silence speaks volumes. I recognize this feeling because I’ve felt it too. Something is opening up inside of me—a space of awe, the place where poetry originates… and love songs… and the kind of gratitude that exists well beyond prayer.

Sept. 9: Morning event, session #2

By the luck of the draw, I find myself in the sixth row today, dead center or should I say live center. In 45 minutes, Prem will take the stage and continue his free form communication about what really matters in this life—that which makes us human beings, not just human doings.

He is not the first person to speak about this topic. There have been many who have come before him and there will be many who will follow. But he is here now which is extremely convenient because I am also here now and so are you—and isn’t that what the whole kit and kaboodle is all about, being fully alive in the moment with every fiber of our being?

Did your teachers, your mother, your father,
your instructors ever tell you to pay attention?
Don’t be all over the place.
Be here, pay attention, be focused.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 9, 2025

This is the path to the amphitheater. Walking it every day was one of my favorite activities.

Five rows in front of me, Charan Anand, now 94, is finding his seat. This is the man who 54 years ago accompanied Prem on his first visit to the West. Back then, he wore saffron robes and a red dot on his third eye. Today, he’s wearing khakis, a turquoise vest, and a baseball hat. He still has the same radiant smile.

What is it that Prem is inviting people to experience? Why is it such a big deal?

Let me begin by saying what it’s not. It’s not Eastern. It’s not a religion. It’s not a philosophy. It’s not esoteric. It’s not mystical, an ”ism” or an organization. What it is defies language. You will need to experience it for yourself. His role? Let’s just say he’s a masterful matchmaker—and who he’s introducing people to is themselves.

The first Amaroo event took place in 1992. Prem has spoken there 20 times.

A short list of what I’m learning from Prem Rawat

• How to live in the present moment
• How to be grateful
• How to embrace who and what I am
• How to let go
• How to be alone, but not lonely
• How to trust that which is trustworthy
• How to open the gift of life

In This Grand Rodeo of Life

In this grand rodeo of life
welcome the lasso of love,
be captured by it, feel the tug.
You are not a prisoner of this rope,
never were and never will be,
you are freed by it —
every knot
untangling.

Sept. 10: Morning event, session #4

Well, I’m in the last row today, but at least I’m on the same planet as Prem and a lot closer than the sun. If Amaroo was a band, he’d be the drummer keeping the beat. I riff, air guitar solos streaming out of every pore. He finds a way to keep a steady rhythm, moving things forward.

How do you want to live your life?
Do you want to live it believing in destiny?
Or live it in contentment?

Prem Rawat, Sept. 10, 2025

Jake Frankel and I having fun at the The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) photo booth. TPRF and Prem Rawat’s other organizations presented information on their humanitarian activities throughout the conference, offering opportunities to get involved.

Sept. 10: Afternoon event, session #5

What is it like being with Prem Rawat at Amaroo? For me, it’s like slipping into a warm bath on a cool night, tomorrow a day off with not a care in the world.

Somehow, he’s pushed the pause button, and everything has stopped. The future and the past have taken a backseat and the driver is love. I can feel the afterglow of candlelight inside me. I can hear my favorite music playing, every love letter I’ve ever written floating down like feathers.

In your whole life has worrying ever solved anything for you? Never.
Because that time you could be using to actually solve your problem, you’re worrying.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 10, 2025

 A favorite photo of mine from Amaroo 2015. The guy with the mic was asking a question about pasta.
Courtesy of TimelessToday

Sept. 11: Morning event, session #6

It has been said that the path is a million miles wide when you‘re on it and razor sharp when you’re not. I thank the illustrious Mr. Rawat for inviting me onto this wide-open path and encouraging me every step of the way. Yes, walking happens, but when I’m with him it feels a lot more like skipping and flying.

All of those breaths that we take in one lifetime
—make them meaningful.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 11, 2025

There are no latitudes and longitudes in the kingdom of love. I look up and the sun is shining. I look within and I am shining. When clouds get in the way, as they sometimes do, it doesn’t take long for them to part.

As soon as the Amaroo 2025 video is ready, it will be posted here

Sept. 11: Afternoon event, session #7

On the other side of these words is a field that goes on forever, every being since the beginning of time dancing. The music they hear may be different, but the beat remains the same—heartbeat—keeping time and timelessness beyond it all.

The ticket into this place is breath, one at a time, less taken than received, gifted by the infinite, smiling at the play of it all—the coming and going, the birth and death, the uncontainable joy waiting for each and every one of us to make its acquaintance.

This, my friend, is a come-as-you-are-party and each of us is invited. Stay as long as you can, make music, make art, extend a hand, open your heart, be kind to strangers and yourself. Greet everyone as if they were divine, because they are.

The unlit candle got lit
and now that lit candle knows exactly what to do: light other candles.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 11, 2025

How this world has gone from “Know Thyself” to “Know Thy Selfie” is a mystery to me. What has happened to the human race,  the shift from knowing ourselves to wanting to look good in the eyes of others? I’m majorly grateful to Prem for inspiring me again and again to focus on what really matters, paying more attention to how I see rather than how I look.

Sept. 12: Morning or afternoon event

How in the world can one man have such an incredible impact on so many people? There are 59 countries represented here at Amaroo, people from just about every background, culture, lifestyle, and religion. But their differences are superficial. At the core of everyone attending this event is the exact same life force, the same longing to be free, the same thirst for love.

There are all kinds of wildlife at Amaroo—exotic birds, kangaroos, koalas, snakes and people

You can accomplish a lot in your life
if you give up the waiting game.
Waiting for this and waiting for that.
Don’t wait. Just do it.

Prem Rawat, Sept. 12, 2025

The cocoon of my heart is bursting with butterflies. Love songs are rising in my cells like flames from a secret fire.

Sept. 13: Getting ready to make the return trip home

It’s been five days with Prem Rawat at Amaroo! Where did they come from and where did they go?

One thing I know in my bones is this: Amaroo is not a contact high. The experience Prem helps people access within themselves enables them to apply it to their daily life. That’s wisdom. That’s truth in action.

True love is more than merely falling in love or going on an extended honeymoon. True love has a sustained quality to it—an essence, an omnipresence and that is a big part what Prem’s message is all about.
The challenge, of course, is staying in this state of remembrance, not just visiting it, but living there.

The world, as far as I can tell, is not designed to support this divine state of being. Buying stuff? Yes. Taking sides? Yes. Doom scrolling? That, too. But with practice, humility and some reminders we can live in a state of remembrance—the kind of reminders that Prem Rawat is very skillful at providing.

And he uses absolutely everything available to him in service to this effort: 5-day Amaroo celebrations, public events, books, TV and radio interviews, videos, livestreams, trainings, jokes, stories, podcasts, one-on-one conversations, websites, and his soon-to-be-released music.

A big shout out to the Amaroo team and the more than 500 volunteers who helped make Amaroo 2025 such a well-organized and unforgettable gathering.

Three of Prem Rawat’s websites

• Amaroo.org
• PremRawat.com
• Prem Rawat Official YouTube Channel

Two of Prem Rawat’s books

• Breath: Wake Up to Life
• Hear Yourself: How to Find Peace in a Noisy World

Free courses to learn more about what he’s offering

• Peace Education Program
• Peace Education and Knowledge (PEAK)

Share on:

Related articles and links

Events