Heaven is Here by Wadi Rawat and Wendy Lewis

Prem Rawat

When the reality shines in your life, you don’t need crutches; you don’t need walking sticks. Because reality is shining. Reality is there. 

The reality is that even though you have the capability of not knowing, you have the capability of knowing. You have the capability of being confused, and you will always have the capability of being clear. Always! Always. Always. Always!

There is a quote from the Gita—and I’ve heard it; I’ve seen it presented in different ways—and the quote goes: “Even in your darkest hour, I will not abandon you.” So—exactly! I thought it was incredible. And so on….. 

So, one day I started thinking, “How? How?! I mean, are you really a person? With two legs, two arms? A body, two eyes, nose, mouth? You really look down at everybody and go, ‘Uh-huh … write his name down.’

“Or are you this infinite energy that made this entire creation of the universe, of this universe, and unknown universes, and known universes, and beyond all that, possible? And, as that infinite energy, as you pulse through me, do you even know I’m having a hard time?” (I mean, excuse me, what is a ‘hard time’?)

“So how—how? Is this a valid statement, ‘Even in your darkest hour I will not abandon you’—because it sounds so good. And it gives so much hope!” And that’s when you need it—“Even in my darkest hour I will not abandon you.”

So, you know, of course I’m thinking about it, and so then I got it: this energy makes it possible that, even in my darkest hour I will not be abandoned—by placing in me, not only sadness, but joy. And never one is taken away over the other. Both exist, equal parts.

That even in my confusion, there is a clarity. That in my despair, there is a hope. Always! Always. Always. No matter what happens in my life, what I go through, this will be there. And because this will be there, I have every reason to have hope in my life—as you do. As you do.

So, for me, the emotion of “I will not abandon you; even in your darkest hour I will not abandon you”—for me this remains intact. Because this is how it has been made possible for it to remain intact. 

So, wherever you go, whatever you do, you are not abandoned. That beauty will be always in you; that clarity will be always with you. And the hope will always be with you.

Light Behind Bars

An Audience with Prem Rawat - Unlocking Hope

Prem Rawat on the importance of hope to humans?

–Prem Rawat

I always say, “What is the most important thing about reading a map? You need to know where you are on the map. And you got to…. If you have figured out where you want to go, but you don’t know where you are…. 

Have you been to a supermarket or one of those big shopping malls, and they have those little maps that nobody can figure out? At least they say, “You are here!” But you need to know that. 

What do you think a GPS actually tells you? A satellite constellation that is out there actually just calculates your position—your “current position.” That’s all it does. After that, it’s the rest of the algorithms and this and that which figure out, “You need to turn left, right.” Da-da—that doesn’t come from GPS. That’s all in the software in that little unit.

All the GPS really does, it just tells you, “You are here.” Have you figured out, “You are here”? Where is that “here”? Here. What’s taking place here? 

Life is taking place here. This breath is coming into you—here. This is where you are; you are here. And here is this breath, coming into you and bringing you life. And you are alive. 

And what does that mean? Everybody is busy trying to escape their problems. And it doesn’t matter where they go; the problems come—follow them. Have you been to Mauritius? Beautiful place. There’s a British Airways flight that goes from England, so a lot of people from England hang out there.

So like, and well, why do the English come here? It’s a pretty place. Oh, when people get divorced or something like that, or their boyfriend dumps them or something, they come looking for romance, and they come to Mauritius. I’ve seen them on the beach; they bring their problem with them. 

So, people go all the way to Mauritius and the problem is still there. People go to Australia. The problem is still there. So we try to run away from our problems, but we can’t run away from our problems. 

Have you tried that one place where it says, “You are here”—to see if your problems go there too? Because that’s one place your problems don’t exist. Only you do. Only life does. Only life. Only this moment—its pure magic of being alive, being able to feel—the joy. The greatness, the beauty of existence. Existence! 

This is the realm of the heart. A lot of people will go, “Well, where is the heart?”—right? And rest assured, there is a place inside of you—somewhere; doesn’t matter—where the courage in me resides—the courage to be in that place called, “You are here.”

Prem Rawat

So, of all the things that we do in this world, we put emphasis on what we do, but we don’t put the emphasis on the result of the things that we do. We keep repeating things that bear us no result. We keep doing things that do not make the fruit. But now, it has just become a ritual.

So we look at our problems, and we say, “Oh, we have this problem. We should resolve this problem.” We don’t look at how this problem came to be—because we’re doing the same things again and again and again. Einstein said, “Craziness…lunacy is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.”

If you want to improve the quality of all the human beings on the face of this earth, then you have to understand that you’re a human being—and how can you improve yourself? Do you know who you are? And I’m not talking about spirituality here. I’m not talking about philosophy here. I’m talking about something very, very simple.

That, in you there is good, and in you there is bad. This is what I’m talking about. And if you perpetuate the bad, the bad will get strong; if you perpetuate the good, the good will get strong. That’s all.

Every single human being…every single human being has to take responsibility for watering the good in them. And this is so incredibly important.