Prem Rawat at University of California, Berkeley, USA

Maharaji addressed students, faculty and guests at the University of California at Berkeley.
The University was once described by the Oxford scholars as the Home of science and seat of the muses. It was founded in 1868 in a merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College. By the 1930s, Berkeley had established itself as a premier research university, and today counts sixty-one Nobel Laureates among its faculty, researchers and alumni.
excerpt from the address:

I travel all over the world, but I don’t go to see countries. I have never seen a place I could call a country. What I see is people. We may relate to ourselves by our language, our culture, or our religion, but we are essentially the same. We have the same aspiration. We all want peace in our lives.
Prem Rawat Maharaji at University of Berkeley, California



We have thousands of explanations for war, but not one why we should have peace. We’ve got a problem here. When it comes to war, there is a lot of active participation. We create new weapons and train people to use them.

When it comes to peace, we wait for the clouds to part or a magic wand to be waved so then there shall be peace upon earth. I don’t understand. If war requires active participation, which it does, then peace requires active participation as well. And that active participation is not going to happen by having a lot of debates. It is a matter of uncovering and looking at the reality of people, at what people want whether they are rich or poor. We have learned about how we are different, but we haven’t learned how to look at another human being like ourselves.

We forget the nature of who we are and the treasure we have been given, and we cannot afford to do that. We cannot forget that our heart is knocking every day and calling to us, “Be in peace, feel joy, because that is a reality that can happen.”

It takes active participation, and that begins with recognizing our own thirst. Once we can recognize our thirst, water becomes important. What kind of thirst is this? The thirst that says, Understand the preciousness of life, of each breath. How does that happen? It is like learning to ride a bike. You get on and you are told to pedal, look forward, and balance, but you can’t do it all and you fall. Then comes a moment when you have it. You take off, and there is no looking back. From that moment on, you have achieved your sense of balance.

This is what I am talking about. Achieving that sense of balance in your life. The very thing that says, Get in touch with your self, or what Socrates calls, “Know thyself.” Do. When you find that balance in your life, it makes a difference.

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