How Close

When human beings build monuments to their accomplishments, they belittle people. When people stand in front of these buildings, they feel tiny. They have to look up to see them, and they find themselves very small by comparison. That’s called grandeur.

In the creation of your heart, the monument is in proportion to you. Within you is the grandeur, where you are held in awe. It is the being that needs to be held in awe. This is the vessel from which love comes.

Peace is not going to manifest on some wall. Peace is going to manifest within. That’s where we most need it. It is the lack of inner peace that causes the wars on the outside. When peace manifests within, we begin to understand what peace means.

Peace has to be felt. Joy has to be felt. Truth is not found in words. Truth is a feeling. The ultimate truth is within, and the ultimate reality plays out right in front of us. We are here. That is the truth. We exist. We can feel. We can understand. We can be fulfilled.

The life we have needs to be apparent. It’s not something we can do on the side. Clarity also needs to be apparent to us, not just to some people who have been given the responsibility of “being clear.” I say stand on your own two feet. People say I am controversial. I know what it means, but out of interest I looked it up in the dictionary to see what the formal definition was. Basically, it means somebody who walks the other way.

I’m going in another direction, but not just to simply walk against the crowd. I cannot be foolhardy in this life. Each breath is too precious. Each moment in this life is too precious. I cannot afford to take chances. I need to walk in the direction I know and to walk with clarity, not ambiguity.

How do I know? I have a compass, and I call it the heart. It’s a wonderful compass. It is precise, and it is so real. It points us in the direction of life. People ask if I’m talking about hearing voices from inside. No, the heart doesn’t tell you what kind of car to buy.

The heart is that cry, that call, that says, “Be fulfilled. Quench this thirst. Live this life consciously. Extract everything that this breath has brought, as much as you can. Be alive. Exist.”

Some of us have gotten good at the “ostrich syndrome.” We dig a hole, bury our head, and think the problems will go away. That’s not living. Living is when we feel from the inside out the joy of being alive.

What I talk about is each one of us being in peace. That is number one. There is no substitute for that. We need to have peace in our life. These are not empty words. This is real. This possibility is very, very real. Let your heart be the judge. How far away from you is it? It is within each of us. That’s how close it is. What we’re all looking for ultimately is within us.

Maharaji, Prem Rawat

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