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!"