The Importance of a Drop

(translated from Hindi)

Audience

Today, we are here to listen. It’s good to listen, to think, but I always say that people should experience. When I was a kid, someone in my family used to buy lottery tickets. After buying the tickets, he would say, “We’ll definitely get this number, and then we’ll buy this, we’ll buy that.” There was no end to our happiness as kids, because whatever dream we could imagine, we thought it would happen. Day and night we talked about what we would do. And the day the numbers were in the newspaper, and our number was not there, everything closed down.

This also happens to us. We make our plans. We have big dreams: “We’ll do this; this will happen; that will happen.” Human beings have a brain and can think. Sitting here, through my thoughts I can reach America, Australia, England, Sri Lanka, Delhi. But where am I actually? Then one day, the time comes to go from this world.

Everyone has to go. No one can stay here. You have made things yours, but those things have not accepted you as belonging to them. The car that you say is yours doesn’t say it’s your car. The house that you say is your house doesn’t say that you belong to it. Once you are gone, that home will be someone else’s. Your wealth remains as it is. It just goes from here to there. These are the rules. I did not make them; I’m just talking about them.

Prem Rawat /Maharaji

A drop falls in the ocean. We don’t give much importance to a drop, but so many rivers are there, and all of them started with a drop. When it rains and there is a flood, even the rain comes drop by drop. And when all the drops come together, they become rivers. A drop cannot harm anyone, but when a drop joins with others, it can destroy cities and countries.

In our life, we are like a drop. We want to unite with the ocean of joy in our heart, but we don’t know how to do it. We can be united with such an ocean; the heart is there in all of us. As long as you are alive, you can experience that joy. Life is about experience, not just words. We have a mind, and we think a lot, but we never think that there is something that is beyond this mind and thought. How can we catch that with this mind? That is why we need to have an experience from the heart.

People say, “You come in this world empty-handed, and you’ll go empty-handed.” I say that you came empty-handed, definitely, but you don’t need to go empty-handed. Take something with you. Take that enjoyment with you. Recognize that supreme joy and then go.

When you understand just how important that is in your life, you will understand your thirst. And the day you experience your thirst, you are not far away from water, because thirst is within you and the water to quench it is also there within you.

Audience

I tell people, “Look for it everywhere. Wherever you go, look for it. Find it.” It’s about finding. For the thirsty, it’s about water not the well. I don’t have a well. I have a map. And I have a big spring. Those who are thirsty, come, jump in it.

Being a human being, you can fulfill your life. As long as you have breath, you can fulfill your life. Fulfill your life now. What will happen later on, no one knows. If someone wants help, I can help. You only need to understand your thirst.

I don’t just talk. For those who really want help, I’m ready to help them. I go to different places, and I want there to be happiness in people’s lives. I cannot make your house good or get you a promotion, but you can be happy in your heart. This should happen in everyone’s life.

— Prem Rawat