In this life, you have an opportunity. You have a chance to do right; and first of all, you have to do right by yourself, and there are not too many people in this world who do that. They’re not fair to themselves. They don’t look at the opportunity as an opportunity.
They look at opportunity as something outside of themselves. Not that, I am an opportunity! I’m alive! I exist! And this means something.
But you wonder, where is the sense of purpose? When people wake up in the morning, what do they think of? What is the sense of purpose? What do you do? In each one of our lives, there may be these little variances up and down, or whatever it is, but what is the overall sense of purpose?
And a lot of people who are aged, they go, “Well, you know…” They’re busy hanging up. I see that, and it’s like, why are you busy hanging up? The breath isn’t hanging up on you. You’re hanging up on yourself.
The concept of retirement, the concept of aging, the concept of getting old… because the reality of getting old is this. You’re only as old as you really feel.
There was a time when you, even though maybe you were ten, eleven years old, there were things you could not do a certain day because you felt bad – right? Because maybe you had sprained your leg, or you broke your arm, and you couldn’t do something.
So, not being able to do something was always there, because it hurt to do it, or just, something wasn’t right. So that’s that part of it.
But, how old do you feel? And the reality there is very, very interesting. Because you don’t feel any older here [indicating his head] than when you were young. Because the brain actually doesn’t age the same way as people think. You know, your skin might not be renewing so easily or quickly…
So, what changes? The only thing that changes is other people’s perception of you, which only changes as you think the other people perceive you. “Oh, but the other people think I am old. Oh, well look what they said.” Or, “That young girl isn’t going to like me anymore”, that’s what it becomes.
We don’t look at our wisdom. We don’t look at our opportunity. We don’t understand that we had such a good life, and it is still the opportunity to move forward and to go forward.
But I see a lot of people and it’s like, “Oh, I’m getting old.” You cannot ever lose the fervor of being alive! That would not be fair to life, or to the breath. Your vibrancy, your existence, your need to be alive, respect it. Respect your life. Wherever you go, whatever you’re going to do…
And, don’t live your life by the perception that you have of what other people see you as. This is really, really unfair. Because you are who you are. Good, bad, right, wrong – you’re alive! The significance of everything that has been said up to this point is relative to that.
Do right because you are alive. This is your opportunity. Your opportunity. And how long does this opportunity last? It lasts till the last breath.
-Prem Rawat