In February, 2009, Prem Rawat spoke to an audience in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he responded to questions and expressions from the audience: 

Q: Hello. I’ve just finished my fifth key preparing for Knowledge. I’m very excited, anticipating. And I love listening to your stories. You make me laugh a lot. My question is: I have a very scientific way of thinking. I have to know, I have to understand. I feel that I’m missing something.

A: Well, when you hear what you hear, what do you feel inside of you? Do you feel good? Do you feel happy? 

Q: But I don’t understand.

A: All you have to do is understand that. Feel that joy, feel that happiness. Something inside of you is responding. This isn’t about a scientific experiment or proving a hypothesis. This is about feeling.

We all began with some simple fundamentals. We were able to feel a need and to express that need. We somehow think that is insignificant. We become very analytical, because this is what the world tells us to do: “It’s this way. It’s this way. It’s this way.”

Then we get to a time in our lives when all this analyzing isn’t going to work. When people get older, they say, “I can’t see like I used to be able to see.” Slowly, slowly, you get to a point in your life where the analysis isn’t going to help you. 

The world has been trying to analyze. But what has it succeeded in analyzing? With all the technology we have, the fundamental needs of people have not been met. Simple needs. There is no shortage of food, and there is no shortage of water, but they are not getting to the people who need them. 

So do not discard your ability to feel, even if it is not a formula. As a human being, you have two parts to you: you have the head, and you have the heart. If you only live for one and disregard the other, you’re only going to be living with half. And you have to know that the heart is just as important as the head. Understanding is important, but so is acceptance—accepting that joy in your life. 

Q: I want to thank you from the deepest part of my heart because you have saved me from darkness, from pain. Even with all that may happen here, with rockets falling, I feel peace inside myself, I feel this love, all because of the great gift of Knowledge that you gave me. So thank you very much.

A: Well, falling rockets is a very scary thing, but even in those moments, you are a human being. Sometimes people say to me, “I lost everything,” and I want to say to them, “No, you didn’t. As long as you have this breath coming into you, you didn’t lose everything. You still have something.”

And that something that you have is very powerful. Life is a very powerful thing. Move on in your life, because life is a powerful thing. I’m not saying that you should become impervious to pain. Pain, you will feel. Love is like that. If there was no love, you would feel no pain either. If something happens to somebody you love, you will feel pain. But the preciousness of having loved somebody for even one day can bring a joy that is greater than the pain of 100 years of separation. 

So, yes. There is pain. The idea is not to lose your integrity—not to lose the value, the meaning, of the coming and the going of this breath. In this, you find comfort. As I often say, the purpose of Knowledge is not to stop the rain, but to have an umbrella so you don’t get wet. 

Q: I have been watching your videos for a while, and they give me a very good feeling. When I show some of my friends this Words of Peace, they ask me: Why can’t I get this Knowledge right now? What should I tell them?

A: What Knowledge brings you is already inside of you. So nothing has to be created, but a process of understanding has to take place. And this understanding can only happen in its time. 

If you want to put water in a bucket that is already full of water, the water that’s already in there has to be emptied out. Otherwise, it’ll just overflow. Every time you understand something, you have to let go of ignorance, and it’s not easy. Letting go of the way you thought it was is not easy. 

So, when that process of understanding takes place, then one day you will have Knowledge. The best part is that what you’re looking for is already inside of you. To accept that is the hardest part. 

Every farmer would like to sow the seeds and have the crop pop up right away because then they wouldn’t have to wait or speculate. They wouldn’t have to do this or that. Knowledge is like that, too. There is a process of sowing the seed. It’ll come up when it’ll come up. It’s not a matter of desiring. “Oh, I wish it would pop up right now.” That would be great, but it doesn’t work like that.

Q: When life dishes out so many challenges, and decisions have to be made—some critical, some less so—how do we know what to go with? Do we look in our hearts or do we use our mind to tell us what’s right and what’s wrong?

A: Well, that’s a very good question. First of all, we have to understand something in our lives. Bad things do happen. Sometimes things get really bad, and we wonder, “Why is this happening to me?” A decision about which way to go can best be made by a person who is calm and collected, not a person who is panicking or making a random choice: “Okay, let’s flip a coin.” 

What is calmness? Imagine there is a pond where you see your reflection. If you throw a rock in it, you will see ripples, but you won’t see your reflection anymore. The ripples are there, but the reflection is gone. When the pond is still, the reflection returns. You have to be still to see how the pond really is.

Going within, being calm, is the best possible thing you can do to be in that neutral position where you can look at the whole picture and not just a bunch of ripples. When we get confused or hurried, we lose the priority of what is important. I have seen a mother in a busy shopping mall carrying bags, and her child is crying, “Mommy, help me.” And you know the mother is frustrated, “If I drop my shopping bags, somebody will steal them.” Yes, but if somebody steals your child, it will be a lot worse. What is your priority?

So, in this life, what is your priority? I don’t care what the problem is, it is important to be calm. Calmness does not come from the head. It comes from only one place—within you. 

This head can never be calm. It will drive you crazy—like a ping pong ball. The head is very good at turmoil. And this heart is very good at calming. So come from the heart, then decide.