The Joy Within

“People say, ‘no news is good news,’” Prem Rawat also known as Maharaji says. “The news I have for you is you’re alive. And that should be the best news you’ve ever heard.

Prem Rawat, who began speaking about finding joy within as a small child, left his own homeland at the age of thirteen. Since then he has dedicated most of his time to traveling the world offering to show people how to reach that joy.

Prem Rawat says he offers a practical way, which he calls Knowledge. “So what is Knowledge?” he says, Knowledge is four techniques that take your attention from the outside and place it on the inside. It's a very good way to put you in touch with yourself. “The Knowledge I offer is about being fulfilled. It's about being in joy. It's about coming home. Will that make you happy? It’s up to you.”

Knowledge is all about going beyond the scale. I’m saying, welcome to a world where you will not be judged. Welcome to yourself — to your world — not a world on the outside. In this world, you get to have it as it is, with peace and with joy. The gift of Knowledge has shown me that every day that I have been given is beyond good and bad. Each day that I have been given has its meaning and its own beauty. And with Knowledge I can get in touch with that beauty

Pursuing Peace Means Knowing Where to Begin

You may already have all the tools you need for happiness and success, you just need to look for them – and that place may be closer than you think. “The peace we look for is within us," says Prem Rawat also known by his honorary title, Maharaji.

We try to live our lives by reason and logic, but there is more. We don’t have to reason everything; we can feel, too. We have been given a valuable tool: we are able to feel. Peace is a feeling, and it is inside of us. If we can awaken to that possibility, we start to enter the realm of self-knowledge.”

Considered a leading voice for peace, Maharaji has spread his word for three decades, to more than 10 million people in over 50 countries. Along the way, he has collected keys to the cities of New York, New Orleans, Monterey, Miami, Detroit and Kyoto, Japan. He established the non-profit Prem Rawat Foundation in Los Angeles to help his message across to even more people.

“I teach people how to discover what they already have,” Maharaji explains. “The first step is to fall in love with the possibility that there is peace inside. We can value each breath, each moment. Each breath can be full of peace. It’s only hard because we have gone so far off the course.”

The journey toward the inner peace-and, ultimately, world peace-begins with that first look inside. As Maharaji puts it, the key to social change is change in an individual, not the other way around.

Success in Contentment

The trouble with putting too much importance on being successful is that success is defined differently according to country, region, and even district, says Prem Rawat, known by many as Maharaji.

"If you live in a certain area," he says, "your success may be defined by owning a house on a certain street."

Instead, he suggests a standard of success that is not defined by other people's judgments. "There's something in all of our lives that's not defined," Maharaji says. "It exists, and it's real. Contentment is not a matter of definition. It’s a reality."

Maharaji has been officially honored by leading organizations, including the United Nations, for his worldwide efforts to guide individuals toward an inner experience of contentment and peace. He began talking publicly about the need for each person to find inner fulfillment before he started school, and has since addressed more than 10 million people in 97 nations on the subject.

" Every human being has a strength to plow through the roughest oceans," Maharaji says, "It is your heart, and it is your wisdom—the truest wisdom. Of all the know-how that you can accumulate in this world, the greatest would be to know your own self."

While worldly success may prove elusive, he says, contentment can be found within the heart of every human being, "a place within that is free from the noises of this world. It's where we can be free from doubt, free from pain, and free from suffering."

Maharaji says he can show people how to experience what he talks about. "I say these things, but these are not words alone," he says. "The difference in the things that I say is that I am willing to back it up. That's the difference!"

No Restrictions

Life isn't all about suffering, says Prem Rawat, known widely as Maharaji. "There's a misconception that everything good comes after great effort, great pains, great suffering," he says. Instead, he calls life "a process of discovering what you have been given."

The discovery he talks about is a personal one. He urges people to make a priority of searching for peace within themselves.

"Amid all the pain and suffering that could be, and all the joy and laughter that could be," he says, "there is one more thing that also could be, and that is the possibility of feeling peace within.

"The peace that I am talking about is the peace that exists innately inside every single living being on the face of this earth—no holds barred, no restrictions."

Maharaji, who first began speaking about this personal experience of peace as a preschooler, addresses audiences of every size and nature, from villagers in remote outposts to university professors and diplomats in the world's major cities. In every case, he says, his message is addressed to the heart of each individual.

"I have been all around the world," he says, "and it doesn't really matter what kind of social cross-section you come across—whether they're rich or poor. They all have the same need to feel—not talk about, not read books about, but feel—this peace in their lives. Nobody has to put a banner up that says, 'You need peace in your life.' Everybody knows that."

Maharaji doesn't stop at encouraging people to find peace for themselves. He also freely offers assistance in the process. "You need to have peace in your life," he says. "With my help or without my help, I don't care. Find it. If you can't find it, I can help."