Annual Social Change Lecture<\/p>\n
Prem Rawat spoke to<\/p>\n
students enrolled in the<\/p>\n
Peace Education Program<\/p>\n
at TSiBA University,<\/p>\n
in Cape Town, South Africa.<\/p>\n
Prem Rawat: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n What is a heart? What is a heart? We talk about heart, \u201cOh, I love you from the bottom of my heart.\u201d What is a heart? And I have been asking people this question: \u201cDo you know what a heart is?\u201d<\/p>\n I mean, yeah, obviously it\u2019s not this thing that goes, \u201cDohnk,\u201d and \u201cdohnk, dohnk, dohnk, dohnk\u201d\u2014it\u2019s also called a heart. Because once it stops, you put electricity to it and crank it right back up\u2014or if it\u2019s getting its tubes fouled up, you put stents in it, one after another, to open it up and get it going again. I mean, what is a heart?<\/p>\n So then, let me tell you what a heart is. (I\u2019m not here preaching to you; this is from my experience.) Then, the heart in me is where my clarity resides. The heart in me is the place where the courage to know the reality exists, the courage to be in joy exists, the courage to be a human exists.<\/p>\n This is the place\u2014in me\u2014that my understanding resides. This is the place in me where I am me, rather than the reflection of people\u2019s wants and need.<\/p>\n So many people, especially when you become a father\u2014you have your children. They look at you as a father; you think about their needs day and night. You become a mother, you look at your children; you think about their needs day and night. And all of a sudden you stop being you and you start being a father.<\/p>\n But a father who is not himself, a mother who is not herself, a wife who is not herself, a husband who is not himself\u2014and pretty soon, you are a citizen of this world, but who is not himself or herself.<\/p>\n So, the value of it becomes the nest that is empty. Because once the birds fly away, that nest is nothing anymore. The wind will come, throw it out\u2014all the effort that went into weaving that nest together will get dismantled\u2014and then that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n In life\u2014because this is everything. We hardly have an understanding of what it means to be alive.<\/p>\n This is a powerful number: even if you live to be a hundred years old, (and that\u2019s pretty good), do the math: 365. And do the math\u2014it\u2019s only 36,500 days. That\u2019s all you have. That\u2019s if <\/em>you make it to be a hundred years old.<\/p>\n Do you live your day like it lives in you? With precision! A second does not waste itself, does it? But you waste a second. An hour does not waste itself; an hour never goes missing, does it? A day, does it ever go missing? But you go missing from the day.<\/p>\n You have a watch but you don\u2019t know what time means. And so we try to live, but we don\u2019t know how to live. We try to love, but we don\u2019t know how to love. We try to be. But we don\u2019t know how to be.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know that we have generosity.<\/p>\n To us, when we walk into a room and throw the lock, we are alone. We\u2019re alone\u2014really? Really? Excuse me, your anger came with you in that room. It\u2019s right there. You may not be angry\u2014but the anger is ever-ready. And it\u2019s right with you; you did not leave your anger in some other room.<\/p>\n Wherever you go…. Even when you fly and they say, \u201cAre you flying alone today\u201d\u2014and you say, \u201cYes,\u201d you\u2019re lying. Because that\u2019s not true; you\u2019re flying with a lot of excess baggage called \u201canger,\u201d called \u201cfear.\u201d Greed\u2014always, wherever you go it\u2019s right there.<\/p>\n Ever feel lonely? You should never feel lonely. [Audience: Yeah.] You have lots of little friends that are right there. Think about it; you never leave home without these guys\u2014you might leave home without the American Express credit card, but you never leave home without anger and fear and greed and lust.<\/p>\n And\u2014you never leave home without understanding, without clarity. They\u2019re also there with you. The question becomes, \u201cWhat have you been nurturing in your life?\u201d<\/p>\n Two fields: what is the difference between a garden and an abandoned field? What is the difference? Soil is soil. And sometimes you see an abandoned field and a wall, and then a garden\u2014so you know it\u2019s the same soil. But one is lush, green, has flowers growing in it; the other one is barren and has weeds growing in it. What is the difference?<\/p>\n Well, in one, somebody planted the seeds of the beautiful flowers and gives them water and nurtures them\u2014and in the other one, nothing was planted and nobody nurtures it. And what grows is despicable, and what grows in the garden is beautiful.<\/p>\n In our understanding\u2014and this is what it means. There is a really beautiful story I would like to tell you. And the story is called, \u201cThe Cracked Pot.\u201d<\/p>\n Once upon a time, a king relegated to a gardener, a field, and said, \u201cI want you to have a garden here for me.\u201d And so the water\u2014and this was quite high and the water was all the way down in the valley where there was a little river that used to flow.<\/p>\n And so the gardener would have to go every day\u2014and go down to the river and fill his pots with water and carry them up, all the way to the garden and water all the plants and water all the grass and everything\u2014and in due time, that garden started to look really beautiful.<\/p>\n And he had these two pots, big, big clay pots\u2014and a bamboo, (one pot in the front, one pot in the back); he\u2019d take them down.<\/p>\n One day, the pot in the back developed a hole in it\u2014so the water would leak out. So, he\u2019d go all the way down and he\u2019d fill both the clay pots up; he\u2019d bring them up and by the time he\u2019d get up, one pot would be full; one pot would be empty.<\/p>\n This went on for a while. One day the pot from the front said to the pot in the back, \u201cYou\u2019re no good. You\u2019re useless. This gardener works so hard; he goes all the way down, fills them up, fills both of us up with water, but because you have a hole in you, by the time he comes up here, you are empty; I am full. And this garden that you see that is so beautiful is because of me.\u201d<\/p>\n This made the pot in the back very sad. One day when the gardener came out and looked at the pot in the back and said, \u201cWhy are you so sad?\u201d\u2014it\u2019s just a story. [Audience: Yeah.] But it\u2019s a beautiful story. [Individual: Yes, we get that.] He looked at the pot in the back; he said, \u201cWhy are you so sad?\u201d He says, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got a hole in me.\u201d He says, \u201cI know that.\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cEvery day you take us down there; you work so hard and you fill us both with water and that one in the front, which doesn\u2019t have a hole, because of him, this garden is green and it\u2019s beautiful. But because I have a hole in me, I am no good. By the time you bring me here, I\u2019m empty.\u201d<\/p>\n So, the gardener looked at the pot with the hole\u2014and said, \u201cI want to tell you something. I know you have a hole in you. But I never stopped putting water in you. And let me tell you why.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the pot in the front, only this garden is green. But because of you\u2014have you noticed?\u2014all the way from the river to this garden, there are beautiful flowers growing, and it\u2019s all because of you. This garden is only enjoyed by the king\u2014that path is enjoyed by so many who admire the flowers growing there.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes we don\u2019t understand. Because of our ideas and ideals that the world places upon us, we don\u2019t understand our own power; we don\u2019t understand our own<\/em> potential.<\/p>\n There is no limit! Do you understand that there is no limit to understanding? There is no limit; there\u2019s no physical limit to understanding. There is no limit to joy! There is no limit to happiness. Do you understand the power of that?<\/p>\n When you are in pain, people go to churches, to temples, to mosques to pray to God saying, \u201cGod, please, get rid of the pain.\u201d Do you think anybody goes to a temple, a mosque, a church to pray to God and say, \u201cPlease get rid of my happiness?\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s no limit. There is no limit\u2014and people wonder why human beings don\u2019t come with a manual. Because maybe it\u2019s too obvious? Manual not required? Engineered to perfection?<\/p>\n That you can hold the happiness of the whole world and never gain an ounce\u2014and enjoy all of it. But you have to understand what true happiness is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Annual Social Change Lecture Prem Rawat spoke to students enrolled in the Peace Education Program at TSiBA University, in Cape Town, South Africa. Prem Rawat: What is a heart? What is a heart? We talk about heart, \u201cOh, I love you from the bottom of my heart.\u201d What is a heart? And I have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3919,3923],"tags":[],"podcast-category":[],"class_list":["post-19242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lockdown-series-hindi","category-videos-hi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24258,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19242\/revisions\/24258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19242"},{"taxonomy":"podcast-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.premrawat.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast-category?post=19242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}