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Excerpts from Prem Rawat’s keynote address at the Rotaract Pre-Convention Meeting that preceded Rotary's annual convention in Malmö, Sweden, on 9 June 2006
When you were born—who were you? A doctor, perhaps? A lawyer? No. There was one little moment of time when you were born when everybody held their breath to see if you were taking yours. Until that breath had been taken, nobody cared if you were a boy or girl. Nobody cared about your aspirations. Nobody cared about anything but that breath.
Once we are born, we start understanding our responsibilities. We start understanding the good, the bad, the right, the wrong. I’m not here to discuss those things. That’s up to you. Those are the decisions you have to make. I’m here to remind you about that one simple thing called existence. Not what we do with existence, but existence itself.
We judge life by its external components, but is life just external components? Is life a bunch of happenstances in one’s existence? Or is life something greater? The sum of it is greater than all of those things put together. One life is greater than all the things that are happening in this world, because all the things in this world can be replicated again and again, but that one human being dancing on the face of this earth will never be replicated. I am here to talk about the importance of your existence.
You will do many things, and hopefully, you will do incredible things for humanity, and I commend you on that. I also want to help as much as I can. People in this world need some help. And those who can, should provide that help, because it is about us human beings—us. It isn’t about governments. I don’t see that it’s the responsibility of governments to bring peace on earth. It’s the responsibility of individuals because peace on earth begins with individuals.
Know who you are. Understand your nature. Understand that if you do not feel that peace, you may not be able to give it to anyone. If you want to quench the thirst of another, the least you need is water. The water of peace flows within you. The serenity of understanding flows through you—your life. If you want to understand what it is like to be alive, listen to what your request has been all along to be fulfilled.
Be in peace, the peace that is within—not a manufactured peace. The peace that is inherent to every single human being on the face of this earth regardless of their circumstances. The peace that can be felt in the middle of a battlefield. That kind of peace.
A discontented person cannot bring contentment to another. An incomplete person cannot bring completeness to another. And a person void of happiness cannot bring happiness to another.
The desire for peace is noble in nature, and an effort towards that peace is also noble in nature. Discover what already exists inside of you. Within you is an infinite ocean of peace. Within you is an infinite ocean of joy. Within you is an infinite ocean of the potential to succeed—the ocean of success.
Prem Rawat
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