There is a lot going on around the world. But I want to talk to each one of you about this life, about this time that we have. It’s not often that somebody points out the importance of life itself. We live in a world that sees it very differently.

I’ll give you an example. Today, I wanted to know about the latest hurricane. So I turned on the TV. They were talking about how many people might get hurt, how many millions of dollars in damages the last hurricane had caused, and how much damage this one could do. 

Then, all of a sudden, there was an advertisement saying, “Are you overweight? Would you like to lose five to ten pounds? Then this medicine is for you!” And I’m thinking, “Wait a minute. Half of the United States is in trouble, and we’re talking about being five to ten pounds overweight?” That’s the world we live in. What reality is and what it is not has become an incredibly fine line. So fine, in fact, that it is almost indistinguishable.

A long time ago, someone said, “As far as your eyes can see, you can consider it to be an illusion.” In our little world, we have made compartments for everything. So when we hear a deep statement like this, we don’t really want to act on it. If we did, the consequences would be amazing. You’d come out of your garage and realize, “My house is an illusion.” You’d look at your wife and say, “You’re an illusion, honey.” You’d look at your kids and your car in the same way. I mean, it would be almost paralyzing. You’d wonder, “Wait a minute—as far as the eye can see, it is all an illusion?”

So, we have compartments, and we say, “Well, this is one of those deep thoughts.” And then we move along. We go on our way because we don’t really want to change. If it means saying, “Oh, I love changes,” and not having to change, we say that, too. And people actually make these declarations, “I love changes.” As long as nobody causes them to change, it’s okay.

I ask people, “Do you have peace in your life?” “Yes.” “Really?” “Oh, yes, yes. I read scriptures, I go jogging every day, I do yoga. I have peace. Now, where is the ice cream?” And that’s it.

Why am I talking to you about illusion and reality? Does it matter that all this is an illusion? Does it matter that there is a reality? Yes, it does. Why? Because I see myself in relation to all the things that I am surrounded by. If I didn’t see any relationship between those things and me, then it wouldn’t be a problem. But when I see that relationship, I am caught.

The point is that all we consider to be real is not. We have our relatives or “relations” and all the people we love. There will be a time when all these relationships will come to an end. There will be a time when they can no longer reciprocate our love. So, why am I talking to you about this? My point is, if you’re going to have a relationship, have a relationship with something inside of you, too. If you’re going to have loved ones, find the love that is inside of you as well, because this is the one that transcends the limitations of this world.

I hope you understand what I’m trying to say. When you go to somebody’s house for dinner, what do you carry away with you? Well, you still have food in your stomach, but you also carry the memory of the enjoyment you had. Learn how to truly enjoy, because when you know how to enjoy, you take that with you in a heart that is full.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, whatever situation you go through, you carry a joy with you. But if you have not understood and included your true self in this life of yours then, yes, you live in a world of illusion. Somehow, you think that this will all be here forever. But it won’t.

There is something real in you. There is something beautiful in you. If you want to be mesmerized by beauty, be mesmerized by the beauty that is within you. If you want to understand something, understand yourself. If you want to love, love this beautiful breath that comes into you. If you do this, you will be given a gift of peace, joy, love—not in thoughts, not in words, but in feeling. And that is no ordinary gift.

Prem Rawat

Los Angeles, November 2008 —The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a grant of US$25,000 to ORBIS UK, a beneficiary of the 2008 Lord Mayor of the City of London’s Appeal, to support ORBIS UK and the Lord Mayor’s Childhood Blindness Programme in India.

According to ORBIS UK, India is home to almost 20% of the world’s blind children. Over 320,000 children under the age of 16 are totally blind, while even more are visually impaired and at risk of losing their sight. At least half of these children could likely be cured with proper care, yet only 1% of India’s ophthalmologists are trained to treat children.

“This donation will certainly make a real contribution in achieving our aim to make the lives of future generations brighter,” says Wendy Lloyd, director of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal 2008. “It is enormously encouraging to receive such fantastic support.”

The TPRF grant will support ORBIS UK and the Lord Mayor’s Childhood Blindness Programme in the development of two children’s eye care centers, in partnership with local hospitals in Jaipur and Udaipur, areas in the state of Rajasthan where there are now no pediatric ophthalmologists. These centers will provide eye screening for 200,000 children, with an estimated 23,000 receiving medical treatment; 2,000 receiving eye surgery; and 10,000 families educated about detecting problems and protecting their vision. Equipment and personnel will be provided to sustain long-term eye care services for children in poor local communities.

It is estimated that the economic impact of blindness in India is approximately US$4.4 billion annually. Blindness and visual impairment limit education and life choices and place a heavy burden on families and the wider community. Blind and visually impaired children in India almost never receive an education, get married or live independent lives.

Photographs Courtesy of ORBIS

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About ORBIS UK
ORBIS UK is a London-based affiliate of ORBIS International, a nonprofit, global development organization whose mission is to eliminate avoidable blindness in developing countries by strengthening the capacity of local eye health partners to prevent and treat avoidable blindness. ORBIS has pioneered the introduction of pediatric ophthalmology services in seven rural districts of India. It also operates a DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital that brings the gift of sight to developing countries around the world.

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit http://tprf.org/pressrel/20081125_ORBIS.htm.

 

The Prem Rawat Foundation aids St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, treating over 17,000 people in war-torn Gaza

Los Angeles, November 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a contribution of $20,000 to help St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital continue providing care in conflict-ridden Gaza. The only charitable provider of eye care in Gaza, St. John is open to all patients, regardless of race, religion or ability to pay.

St. John Eye Hospital is one of the few medical care institutions currently functional in the Gaza territory, where all infrastructure, including the healthcare system, is in nearly complete collapse.

It is now estimated that over 80% of the population of Gaza is dependent on humanitarian assistance. According to a March 2008 report* by a consortium of humanitarian agencies including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Save the Children UK, 70% of households in Gaza subsist on $1.20 a day, almost half the $2.30 that denotes “deep” poverty. Despite these conditions, the St. John clinic has managed not only to remain in operation, but to treat over 17,000 people in 2007, which is 3,600 more than in 2006.

Dr. Jom’a El Jazzar, head of the St. John Eye Hospital Clinic, said, “The donation from The Prem Rawat Foundation will have a very real and demonstrative impact on our ability to broaden and deepen our much-needed humanitarian services.”

The St. John primary and secondary care clinic in Gaza runs five days a week, offering surgery four days a week. When eye disease requires treatment that the clinic cannot provide, St. John coordinates the successful transfer of patients to its hospital in Jerusalem—a difficult feat in the volatile region.

While 80% of blindness is preventable with early diagnosis and proper treatment, blindness is 10 times higher in Palestine than in most Western countries. Blindness has economic consequences for an entire society—decreasing educational opportunities, raising unemployment and consequently decreasing tax revenue, while adding the burden of providing additional humanitarian and medical care.

Photos courtesy of The St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group

* “The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion,” March 9, 2008, Amnesty International, CARE International UK, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, Christian Aid, Medecins du Monde UK, Oxfam, Save the Children UK, Trocaire.

Photo courtesy of Steve Sabella

 

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About St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital
St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, established in 1882 for charitable works in Jerusalem, has become the main center for expert eye care service in the region at the Main Hospital in East Jerusalem and satellite clinics in Gaza and the West Bank. St. John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital’s fundraising appeal for 2008 will support the Gaza Clinic, which has been operating since 1992. http://www.stjohneyehospital.org/

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit www.tprf.org.

I have been traveling with the message of hope for people—that you exist, that you’re alive, that you’ve been given something that is so precious. I tell people that what they have—not what they need to achieve, not what they need to create, not their need to climb a mountain or swim an ocean—but what they have is the most beautiful thing.

For most people, the hardest thing to understand is that they already have everything they could possibly want. On one hand, there are desires, expectations, aspirations. We are told, “Do this, do this, do this.” Remember when you were young and your mother or father would tell you, “Study! Study hard so that one day you can become something”?

I understand the intent behind that statement. The intent is that parents want their children to succeed. But it also implies something else, which is: you are nothing. And that is simply not true.

I don’t really want to tell you that your mother was wrong. I want to be able to say that your mother was right. And maybe she was right about everything, except for that one thing—you are something. Not only that, but you are, in fact, something divine. And so, my message brings hope—not just making something up to give you good news, but real hope.

What is the reality? The reality is that within you the blessing of breath is coming and going. What does that mean to you? You judge yourself by what you have accomplished. You judge yourself by what you think your world is. Everybody is proud of something. There are mothers and fathers who are proud of their sons and daughters, children who are proud of their parents—and it goes on and on. Everybody’s proud of something.

But go beyond the expectations. Right now your bucket is full of ideas. It’s your bucket, but it’s full of ideas. And these ideas are not yours. It’s your bucket, so if it’s full of ideas, at least they should be your ideas, right? But that’s not how it is. It’s full of other people’s ideas.

We buy into the idea, “That’s how it is.” In this life, it’s important to put in your bucket only that which is tried and true—and good enough to bear your stamp. Only what you want to put in, not what somebody else wants to put in.

You think this only happened when you were young? No, it happens every day. You walk around with that bucket and people keep chucking things in it, keep chucking things in it—every day. That’s why this bucket is full of nothing—nothing that will help you.

What am I saying? Just walk this life on your feet, not somebody else’s. Understand its value for yourself, not because somebody else said this life is valuable.

What is really yours?  I’m only pointing this out because I think you should take care of it. What is really yours? This breath that just came, is really, really yours. It didn’t go into someone else. It came just for you. From the workings of the universe, something stirred, and this breath came exclusively for you. That’s yours.

So, are you going to keep what’s yours? Or only keep what’s borrowed? People who keep borrowed things end up without anything. Because it was all borrowed, one day it will be taken away. Those who keep what is truly theirs will be rich beyond belief. Keep it. It brings with it life. Live it. It brings with it joy. Grab it. Fill yourself with that joy. It brings with it hope. Squeeze out all of it. This is for you, and you get to keep it.

Prem Rawat

TPRF Gives US$15,000 Grant to Provide Clean Water to 60 Schools in Pakistan
TPRF and Pakistani Rotary Club bring clean drinking water to 20,000 students

Press release

Los Angeles, October 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a contribution of $15,000 to the Rotary Club Lahore Mozang, which will add $5,000 in matching funds, to provide clean drinking water for 60 schools in the Punjab region of Pakistan serving approximately 20,000 elementary through high school students.

“An estimated 250,000 child deaths occur each year in Pakistan due to waterborne disease,” according to USAID. “Waterborne infections such as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery also burden the public health system and can impose significant economic losses.”

The Rotary Club will purchase a water pump and cooler for each school and provide them to the Ghazali Education Trust (GET) for installation. The water system will become an ongoing community responsibility, expected to benefit students as well as their families and their communities by decreasing the spread of disease and improving educational opportunities.

Established in 1995, GET is a nonprofit government organization operating 270 schools in impoverished and rural areas of Pakistan, many of which have no access to piped water. Within four months, 60 schools will benefit from new water pumps with electric motors, purifying equipment and cooled storage tanks, essential in a country that has summer weather nine months of the year.

 

Photos Courtesy of Ghazali Education Trust

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About Rotary Club Lahore Mozang
Rotary Club Lahore Mozang, a nonprofit organization, is an individual Rotary Club belonging to Rotary International. A worldwide organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional and community leaders, Rotary Clubs provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious and open to all cultures, races and creeds.

About The Prem Rawat Foundation
The Prem Rawat Foundation was created in 2001 by Prem Rawat, known also as Maharaji, and has a dual mission of bringing his message of peace to people around the world and providing essential humanitarian aid to those in need. TPRF partners with other humanitarian organizations to bring food, water and rapid disaster relief where it is most needed. To learn more about TPRF’s humanitarian initiatives, Prem Rawat and his message of peace, please visit www.tprf.org.