Many times, I ask, “Does light really know about darkness, and does darkness really know about light?” This is a very interesting question, because maybe we wonder, “Isn’t there some point where the two meet?” Think about it. Does light know about darkness? They have never met. Can they ever meet? I don’t think so, because their natures are so fundamentally different.

It is the same way in the world of the heart. There are principles that guide and dictate the heart, and then there are principles that guide and dictate the mind. Do the two know about each other? I don’t think so, because their natures are so fundamentally different. One does not rely on feeling or understanding. The other does. There is something in you that, just by reading a description of food, can say, “That’s good.” But your nature is that only after food has touched the tongue and the aroma has reached the nose can you say, “Wow! This is good!” So for one part of you, description is good enough. For another part of you, something has to be real. Then, and only then, is it accepted. In that part of you that belongs to the realm of the real, there is something very beautiful called the heart. In the realm of the heart, description means nothing.

Imagine that you’ve bought a house, you’re cleaning it, and in the corner, you see a shiny diamond. You pick it up, and your first reaction is, “I bet this is fake.” But, if in that corner, there’s a beautiful box with a fake diamond in it, your first reaction will be, “I bet it’s real.”

Aren’t you curious which part of you dictates your life? Both are parts of you, no question about it. Which is the part that makes decisions for you? It’s a very simple question, but it has incredibly profound consequences.

I’m not talking about decisions of what to eat, what movie to see, what clothes to buy, or even who to marry. I’m talking about the decisions that really matter to you. The heart is incapable of making decisions in an illusive world. It does not understand it. The mind is quite capable of making decisions in this world. It does understand it, because it created it. “We need this, we need this, we need this….” The mind has made the world situation confusing. But in the realm of the heart, there is no confusion. There never was and never will be. In the realm of the heart, there is only one thing: To be fulfilled. To find that joy, to find that feeling—not a description of the feeling. What I talk about is not dogmas, theories, descriptions, explanations. This is about finding the joy in your life. And not just once, but to have that joy available to you every single day for the rest of your life. That’s it. If you’re looking for descriptions, explanations, rules, something to believe in—you won’t find them here, because this is the realm of the heart.

In the realm of the heart, there is knowing. To know, not have faith. To walk in clarity, not in doubt. People say, “Have faith, and that will overcome doubt.” I say, “Have clarity, and that will overcome doubt.” Which one? Faith or clarity? Clarity. Not just, “I hope, I wish, I pray.” But, “The next step will be taken with clarity, not wishful thinking.”

The joy that you seek already exists in the heart. All you have to do is awaken to this possibility. Understand. Feel. Do you understand who you are? You are conscious. Because you are conscious, you can feel the infinite. And when you do, joy happens—the truest joy. Not “Happy Birthday” joy. Not becoming a dad or mom joy, graduating joy, finding a job joy. It is the joy that happens when the consciousness experiences the beauty inside—that joy. The joy of being full.

So, while you have this consciousness, feel the joy in your life. This is who we are. Come and accept clarity in your heart. Pay a little attention to this other world that is also a part of you—the world of the heart, the world of knowing, the world of clarity, the world of simplicity. I guarantee you that you will feel good—a good that cannot be described in words. And then, walk every step with clarity, with confidence. Every day that you have, of all things that you can do, you can also be fulfilled.

Prem Rawat

TPRF Gives Grant of US$10,000 for Permanent Water Wells in Niger
Grant to Sierra Vista Rotary Club Provides Clean Water for 40,000 Nomadsr

Press release

Los Angeles, October 2 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has made a $10,000 grant to the Sierra Vista Rotary Club Charities in Arizona to aid 40,000 Nigeriens by providing sustainable and permanent sources of clean water at the Tamesna Center for Nomadic Life in the desert Region near Agadez, Niger, West Africa. These grant funds will be matched by other Rotary Clubs and The Rotary Foundation, potentially bringing together over $61,000 for this project.

“Niger is one of the poorest countries of the world. Many live on less than US$1 per day,” says Ernie Montagne, Rotary Foundation Director of the Sierra Vista Rotary Club Charities, Inc. “The number one need in this area is access to clean water. People often walk miles each day to draw water from unclean open sources where pigs and cattle drink.”

Contaminated water, laced with E. coli, Guinea worm, Vibrio cholerae, giardia lamblia and poliovirus, sickens and debilitates millions each year. One in five children in Niger die before the age of 5.

Headed by Sidi Manane, President of The Rotary Club of Agadez, the project will provide a permanent source of clean water for nomadic tribes, helping to reduce disease, improve the health of people and livestock, increase educational opportunity and allow villagers to grow their own produce. The wells will be hand dug by local residents, and a local construction company will complete the process. TPRF’s grant will help purchase an electric pump, solar panels and a water tower.

This is the third grant from TPRF to aid people in Niger. In April 2008, the Foundation gave $10,000 to Koulawa NGO to provide food aid for disabled schoolchildren and adults. In September 2005, TPRF provided a grant of $30,000 to Friends of the World Food Program in support of the UN World Food Programme’s emergency relief efforts.

 

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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.

About Sierra Vista Rotary Club Charities
Sierra Vista Rotary Club Charities is part of Rotary International, which is an organization of service clubs around the world, made up of business and professional leaders whose purpose is to provide humanitarian service, encourage high vocational standards and help build peace and goodwill in the world. There are over 1.2 million members worldwide in 33,000 clubs.

You know, as human beings, there is a lot that is good. But there are certain habits we have that are not so good. And one of the bad habits we have is that we are so attracted to distractions. Any minor little distraction somewhere, and that’s where our attention goes.

Why is that a bad habit? Because it robs us of the essential things we need to make this life a beautiful occasion. And this is the possibility. This is what you can do—you can make this one lifetime the most incredible time. How?

You are in this world; you exist. One day you weren’t here; today you are; and one day you will die. I can guarantee you that you don’t understand what that means—because of the distractions. When the time comes that you lose the capacity to be distracted—and such a time does come—then and only then will you begin to understand what life is about.

How do I know this? Have I reached that time in my life where I’m not distracted? No. But I also know that there was somebody who was kind enough to show me. Because when I get caught up in my own tune, in my own definition of what life is, I become careless.

Look at a person living an “exciting” life—bungee-jumping. This is what some people think is exciting. They actually challenge death, “Take me on!” And they think that’s excitement. Or they climb a vertical rock without any safety lines, just using their fingertips and powder. The only reason Death doesn’t take them on is because it is laughing so hard—just bowled over with laughter. One day Death sobers up. And just like that, they’re gone. Their body becomes dirt again.

So what is life about? Is it about the excitement? Or is it about feeling a heart full of joy?

All the things that we think are important will one day turn around and become unimportant. I have been reading letters from people who are either at the very front of the line or maybe two or three people from the front of the line. The other day, I was talking to somebody, and he said, “Oh, so-and-so is close to dying.”

I said, “Well, we’re all in the process. Join the line.” I guess some people are more in the front of the line, and some are a little further back in the line. But there is a line, and everybody is headed that way. That is the law of existence. And the law states: “You are here, but for a limited time.” And no one—no one—gets to change that law.

People say, “Oh, but there are cryogenics and all those things.” Excuse me, but this earth is made out of dust. The metal cylinder that holds the cryogenic agent and your head is made out of compressed dust. And the innate vulnerability of dust to return to the state of dust is tremendous. The miracle is not dust turning into dust. It is: How come it hasn’t already? That’s the miracle. Destruction should’ve happened a long time ago. I mean, all that needs to happen is for one small celestial body to head this way and get a little too close, and it will be pulled towards the earth. And when it does, it will obliterate this planet.

This dust is more fragile than a gold or silver leaf. Have you ever seen a silver leaf on a piece of paper? In India, they put them over dishes and foods. That silver is so delicate that, if you breathe the wrong way, it will just go all over the place. That is how delicate it is. And from this dust, many, many things have been created, like rocks and mountains.

I am here to tell you what I have been telling people all my life: Don’t let another day go by without being touched by the magic of what has been placed inside of you. Don’t let another day go by that is filled with doubt, anger, and confusion. Don’t let another day go by without feeling the fulfillment of this heart. It is possible to be fulfilled in this life. It is possible to be in peace. It is possible to be conscious. It is very, very possible.

Prem Rawat

Los Angeles, September 2008 —The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) has donated US$4,500 to Mountains of Hope (Montanas de Esperanza or MdE) to translate and produce DVDs, CDs and text materials to bring Prem Rawat’s message of peace to 20,000 indigenous people in the northern highland areas of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

“This message is very beautiful. It helps the families here stay together, and that is why I want the message to stay in the community,” says one village leader. Currently, Prem Rawat’s message is available to more than nine million households in South America via Infinito TV and other cable networks airing the award-winning Words of Peace (WOP) series.

Leaders in several Quechuan villages in Ecuador have requested DVDs featuring Prem Rawat’s message in their own language after events introducing it were held in the mountain villages of Tucara, La Esperanza, Aqualongo and Otavalo, Ecuador. Word has spread to villages in Peru, which have joined in the request for materials in their language.

Mountains of Hope, a nonprofit organization focused on educational enrichment, cultural exchange and sustainable community development for children and adults in Ecuador, has offered to take on the translation project. To date, four video presentations of Prem Rawat’s message have been translated to Quechua and have generated interest in Andean communities. TPRF has agreed to provide the funds to translate, produce and duplicate six more DVDs as well as text materials over the next four to eight months, some in Peruvian Quechuan and some in Ecuadorian Quechuan.

MdE will work in collaboration with the grassroots efforts of local volunteers to translate, produce and duplicate the new materials that will be used for village events, regional Quechua TV, radio programming and individual distribution, in order to maximize the outreach. 

The popularity of WOP is increasing across the world. Since the first U.S. Words of Peace broadcasts in 1999, cable and satellite stations throughout Europe, North and South America and Asia have aired Prem Rawat’s message of inspiration and hope to millions of households, with subtitles or translation in more than 20 languages. Currently, 875 screenings are available to 25 million households in the United States.

Prem Rawat reminds people, “The peace you are looking for is within you. Peace for each human being is not impossible, but very, very possible.” According to Paul Murtha, Executive Director of MdE, “The Quechua peoples are very appreciative that such an important message comes to them in their native language. They are culturally well-aware that these days are a crucial passage for humanity to a renewal of the human heart.”

The Quechuan language (written also as Quichua and Kichwa) was widely spoken across the central Andes long before the time of the Incas, who adopted it as the official administration language for their empire. Quechuan is spoken today by some 10 million people throughout regions of Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile. Including its two main dialects (Peruvian and Ecuadorian), it is the most widely spoken language of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Photographs Courtesy of Ecuador – Mountains of Hope (MoH)

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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.

Many times, I ask, “Does light really know about darkness, and does darkness really know about light?” This is a very interesting question, because maybe we wonder, “Isn’t there some point where the two meet?” Think about it. Does light know about darkness? They have never met. Can they ever meet? I don’t think so, because their natures are so fundamentally different.

It is the same way in the world of the heart. There are principles that guide and dictate the heart, and then there are principles that guide and dictate the mind. Do the two know about each other? I don’t think so, because their natures are so fundamentally different. One does not rely on feeling or understanding. The other does.

There is something in you that, just by reading a description of food, can say, “That’s good.” But your nature is that only after food has touched the tongue and the aroma has reached the nose can you say, “Wow! This is good!” So for one part of you, description is good enough. For another part of you, something has to be real. Then, and only then, is it accepted. In that part of you that belongs to the realm of the real, there is something very beautiful called the heart. In the realm of the heart, description means nothing.

Imagine that you’ve bought a house, you’re cleaning it, and in the corner, you see a shiny diamond. You pick it up, and your first reaction is, “I bet this is fake.” But, if in that corner, there’s a beautiful box with a fake diamond in it, your first reaction will be, “I bet it’s real.”

Aren’t you curious which part of you dictates your life? Both are parts of you, no question about it. Which is the part that makes decisions for you? It’s a very simple question, but it has incredibly profound consequences.

I’m not talking about decisions of what to eat, what movie to see, what clothes to buy, or even who to marry. I’m talking about the decisions that really matter to you. The heart is incapable of making decisions in an illusive world. It does not understand it. The mind is quite capable of making decisions in this world. It does understand it, because it created it. “We need this, we need this, we need this….”

The mind has made the world situation confusing. But in the realm of the heart, there is no confusion. There never was and never will be. In the realm of the heart, there is only one thing: To be fulfilled. To find that joy, to find that feeling—not a description of the feeling.

What I talk about is not dogmas, theories, descriptions, explanations. This is about finding the joy in your life. And not just once, but to have that joy available to you every single day for the rest of your life. That’s it. If you’re looking for descriptions, explanations, rules, something to believe in—you won’t find them here, because this is the realm of the heart.

In the realm of the heart, there is knowing. To know, not have faith. To walk in clarity, not in doubt. People say, “Have faith, and that will overcome doubt.” I say, “Have clarity, and that will overcome doubt.” Which one? Faith or clarity? Clarity. Not just, “I hope, I wish, I pray.” But, “The next step will be taken with clarity, not wishful thinking.”

The joy that you seek already exists in the heart. All you have to do is awaken to this possibility. Understand. Feel. Do you understand who you are? You are conscious. Because you are conscious, you can feel the infinite. And when you do, joy happens—the truest joy. Not “Happy Birthday” joy. Not becoming a dad or mom joy, graduating joy, finding a job joy. It is the joy that happens when the consciousness experiences the beauty inside—that joy. The joy of being full.

So, while you have this consciousness, feel the joy in your life. This is who we are. Come and accept clarity in your heart. Pay a little attention to this other world that is also a part of you—the world of the heart, the world of knowing, the world of clarity, the world of simplicity. I guarantee you that you will feel good—a good that cannot be described in words. And then, walk every step with clarity, with confidence. Every day that you have, of all things that you can do, you can also be fulfilled.

Prem Rawat

Los Angeles, September 2008 — The Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) is donating US$250,000 to build and maintain a sustainable "Food for People" facility in the impoverished Tasarpu village in Nepal's mountainous Dhading region. The Tasarpu center will provide nutritious hot meals year-round to approximately 500 children. Premsagar Foundation Nepal, a charity seeking to relieve Nepal's poor after a ten-year period of political instability, will spearhead the project.

The launch of Food for People in Tasarpu will help the Premsagar Foundation Nepal in its goal of improving the community’s educational and economic growth, according to Dornath Neupane, General Secretary of Premsagar Foundation Nepal. Addressing the food needs of underprivileged children of low- and moderate-income residents of Tasarpu village, says Neupane, will "provide them with the opportunity to get back into mainstream society by uplifting their well-being." Organizers expect that school attendance will rise significantly, especially among the girls.

The mountainous landscape and cold climate of Tasarpu make it difficult to grow adequate crops, and over 80% of Tasarpu's residents cannot produce enough food to sustain themselves throughout the year. With little education or opportunity to advance, many resort to hard labor for private construction contractors who often disappear upon completion of projects, leaving their workers empty-handed.

The Food for People model of sustainable giving has already proven effective in reversing the poverty conditions of Bantoli, a village in Jharkhand, India, where the program is now in its third year of operation.

"The regular meals provided by Food for People in Bantoli have had a dramatic impact on the community, allowing children to return to their studies and adults to regain their economic viability," says TPRF President Linda Pascotto. "We hope that this model for a sustainable, creative solution that respects local customs and individual dignity will prove equally beneficial in Nepal."

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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.