What It Means to Be Human

Prem Rawat in San Diego, California

Enjoyment is a tool that can conquer any mountain. When your heart dances, let it. And enjoy it. I guarantee that you will start to notice the difference. And the more you enjoy your life, the simpler it becomes.

Recently, flying through thunderstorms, it was magical. There were beautiful clouds on one side—almost like an opening. There were clouds on the ocean side and clouds on the land side. The sun was shining through. Sometimes just the tips were lit up, and then whole clouds lit up. There was no lightning, just showers. Beautiful rainbows. It looked like something straight out of a book.

I was sitting there, looking at all this. I know exactly what a rainbow is. I can actually tell where there’s going to be a rainbow, if there is going to be one. All it requires is suspended water droplets and the sun. It’s the refraction of the water droplets that makes the rainbow.

Prem Rawat

And then there’s the clouds. I know exactly what a cloud is—it’s moisture. And as the heat is sent up, the cooling begins, and as it cools, clouds form. Rain is all the humidity that was pushed up into the atmosphere where it gets cooled and falls down.

So I was sitting there thinking, “Yes, I know all that. But why is it so beautiful?”

I enjoy it. All the logic in the world is not equal to taking in what this heart has to offer and enjoying it. The heart is as much a part of you as your brain. Give it the equal time it needs, and your life will begin to change, because one thing that everyone can use, and is most deficient in, is appreciation.

Doctors won’t tell you this. It does not show up on your blood test. But we are all deficient in appreciation. We don’t know the value of the things we have been given. We don’t understand the beauty of this breath. I mean, once you understand the beauty of this breath, how can you not appreciate it?

Then the tears are not always of sorrow. Sometimes they are of joy. And you begin to understand the difference between the two. It is not the emotion of all the darkness, but it is the first rays of light emanating from the heart. A relief. It is the sense of relief the travelers feel when they see their destination in front of them.

Prem Rawat

A sense of relief. To come home. A sense of relief to have found what you were looking for. You didn’t even know what you were looking for, but, in a moment, you instantly know when you find it: This is it. This is what I was looking for. There’s a tremendous sense of relief.

In a fair, a child gets lost. All the balloons and the toys and the rides were attracting and attracting and attracting. And that was fine, but in a moment of distraction, the child let go of his mother or father’s hand. Now all the excitement of the fair could never compensate for that loss. But imagine the sense of relief when that child sees his father or mother coming toward him. All of a sudden, there is no reason to cry. The sadness turns into joy.

And so, we are who we are. There is the etiquette in this world of how we should be, but we are not that. We are human. What does it mean to be human? I don’t think anybody really knows anymore. Maybe they knew a long time ago, but now it has come down to being proper: how you should eat, how you should greet someone, how you should be seen, how you should show yourself, what you should say.

So many things happen. At the end of the day, we are all human. And the ability to enjoy this life is innate. So begin to enjoy. And that enjoyment can conquer mountains.

— Prem Rawat