Prem Rawata - Peace Is Possible: Thoughts on Happiness, Success and Relationships for a Deeper Understanding of Life

Deep in the mountains lived a gardener. Every day he would walk down to the stream that ran through the valley and fill two clay pots with water for his garden.

With the pots full and balanced on either end of a wooden pole, he would carry them up the steep path that led to his garden high on the hillside. This was arduous work, but the man took great pleasure in looking after his garden. One hot summers day, half way up the path, he decided to take a rest. When he lay the pots down, a small rock sticking out of the ground made a little hole in one of the pots.

A few months later, while the gardener was taking a nap down by the stream, the pot without a hole said to the other, You are useless.

The pot with the hole replied, What do you mean I am useless?

You have a hole in you. Every day our owner works so hard to carry the water to his garden, but by the time we get there most of your water has already leaked out.

On hearing this the pot with the hole became sad.

The next day the pot told the gardener how he felt.

Tell me my friend, why are you so sad? replied the gardener.

Every day you fill me with water and work so hard to climb up the mountain, but by the time we reach the garden most of the water has leaked out.

This is true. You have a hole, said the gardener. But do you know what that means?

It means I am useless. I can no longer fulfil my task which is to contain the water, said the pot, feeling even sadder.

Have you looked at the path we walk up to reach the garden? asked the gardener. Thanks to you, the side of the path is full of flowers. When I realised you had a hole I started planting seeds along the path. Now the path is adorned with beautiful colours, and bees come to gather nectar from those flowers. You see, you are not useless at all.

If this life is your story, wouldnt you want to make sure it is an interesting one?

Some people want their story to be an adventure. They want to climb the Himalayas or do things no one has ever done. But the greatest adventure is looking within and getting to know the real you, the one that never changes, even as your body ages.

You will be with you all through this story, but will you befriend yourself? Are you willing to listen to what you really want? Something that you have always wanted, a want that will not go away. When you can feel that, you are ready to write your story.

You know about the people around you, but do you know yourself?

Patient: Doctor, I am in pain.

Doctor: Where does it hurt?

Patient: It hurts everywhere. When I touch my head it hurts. When I touch my jaw it hurts. My ear, my legeverywhere it hurts.

Doctor: I see. I think your finger is broken.

Have you worked on your relationship with you? Or have you been more concerned with what other people think of you?

We worry about how our neighbours and colleagues see us. We have learned to measure ourselves with the scales of the world, to measure our status, our level of success.

What is important is how we feel about us. Do we feel good, do we feel at ease, or not?

Dont waste a moment measuring yourself. Begin to lend your ear to what is happening inside you. Get to know that companion, that strength.

Whenever you see a tiny, uninhabited tropical island, you will see a coconut tree there, standing tall. How did it get there? It made an unlikely journey through a truly hostile environment. It doesnt have a map or a GPS, nor does it have a sail or an engine, but that little coconut contains within it everything it needs to make its journey. Water is required to stay alive in the ocean and to sprout when the coconut gets to the new shore. On its journey it will be surrounded by water, but it cant use that salt water, so the coconut packs its own sweet water. The coconuts husk provides flotation and protection throughout the journey and it sticks out of the water just enough to catch the wind and act like a sail.

With great courage the coconut sets off for an unknown destination. Falling from the tree, it gets bounced around in the surf. Again and again it tries to get out into the open ocean, and once it does, it starts catching the wind, catching the ocean currents and it is on its way. In the middle of this vast ocean, with huge waves, the little coconut shows no fear. We build ships, huge tankers, but when the storms come, those ships head to the nearest port until the storm passes. Not the humble coconut. With each wave it goes up and with each wave it will tumble down. That storm has been harnessed into something that helps it on its way.

Then one day with a high tide it gets washed up onto a new shore. Quietly it puts down its roots and in time another coconut will one day be ready to set sail from there. The coconut makes the most of what it has, it grabs each opportunity without hesitation and it finds its niche. The place where it can be.

We also have the essentials we need in order to find our niche. To make use of our courage and find a place within us where we can be at ease with ourselves.

Believing is a bit like standing in a line where you never quite get to the counter. There are lots of other people in the line and everybody is waiting for something special to happen when they finally get to the front. Waiting for someone special to appear and solve their problems.

You are the most qualified person to solve your problems. If you can start to see clearly, make good choices and turn those choices into actions, you will have no need to believe in something that may or may not actually happen.

In life we must make choices. Even when we find ourselves in desperate situations, we still have to make choices. Sometimes that can be hard, but each one of us has a source of great strength within. When we dont know of that strength, we search for someone to help us. But there is no need to search outside, when you have an incredible strength within. All you need to do is connect with it.

I have seen people at rock bottom, in the most difficult circumstances you can imagine. I go to prisons and speak to people who have no chance of ever leaving those confines. No privacy. Always a threat of violence in the air. Dire circumstances. Yet I have seen those same people find a strength within themselves and begin to shine. Not a fantasy, not a nice idea, but in reality.

Make use of your strength, make use of your sincerity and get to know the real you, the inner self. Then, with that strong foundation, make choices and start to practically apply that which you have chosen.

One day two ants happened to cross paths.

One ant lived on a sugar hill and one on a salt hill.

I havent seen you around here before, where are you from? said the salt ant.

I live on the sugar hill, replied the sugar ant.

Sugar hill? Whats sugar? inquired the salt ant.

Sugar is delicious and sweet. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Are you sure youve never eaten sugar before?

All we have around here is salt. You can eat it, but it makes you very thirsty. I like the sound of this sugar you speak of.