At a Loss for Words
Last week, I flew from Newark to Australia to attend, along with 4,300 other people, a five-day celebration event with Prem Rawat. As always, it was a memorable adventure. Energizing. Inspiring. Enjoyable. And totally worth the effort -- me being once again reminded of how simple it was to experience the joy of life. What wasn't simple was describing my experience when I got home.
"What did he say?" my friends asked. "What was it like?"
Two understandable questions, for sure -- ones that deserved an understandable response. But that's where I became totally cro-magnon.
Despite my love for the English language and the fact that I've been trying to answer those same two questions since 1971, I found myself at a complete loss for words.
Let's start with the first question: "What did he say?"
I tried to remember what Prem said in Amaroo, but my retelling sounded way too much like a lame 11:00 news report.
Efficient? Yes. Comprehensible? Sure. But something was definitely lost in translation. I was conveying the words, but not the mojo that animated the words -- which is something that Prem Rawat has in spades.
Mojo. Major mojo. I know my friends' request was a simple one, but simple isn't always easy.
Then of course, there was their second question: "What was it like?"
What was it like?
What... was... it... like? Hmmm...I could feel my mind dutifully trying to access its hard disk of metaphors, but the little clock icon, on my desktop, just kept spinning.
What's being with him like? Well, it's like nothing else I know. It's in a league of its own. It's unique, singular, incomparable.
Try as I might, I can't compare it to anything else and, even if I could, I'd only be feeding people words too easily misunderstood. False impressions. Idols. Fool's gold to the treasure hunter.
And so, out popped the only thing left for me to say: a phrase that left a lot to be desired: "You had to be there."
As they say in the old country,"Oy vey!"
For me, the whole thing with Prem and his message is all about being. Being and feeling. Feeling and appreciating. Appreciating and enjoying. And even more than that, savoring. Savoring what? This! The present moment! As if it were my last. Or my first.
Prem Rawat, quite simply, has a way of making it easy for people to access the experience of deep fulfillment -- a way to take people to a place where the past is gone... where the future is pure fiction and the only thing that remains is the present -- the sweet, sweet moment of remembrance -- the kind of present, like a rose, that keeps opening and opening and opening the more he speaks... and the more I listen... and the more he pauses and just sits there beaming.
It's a moment I find impossible to describe with anything but a smile... or a nod... or a few laughable pirouettes around my living room when no one is watching.
TimelessToday
Photo: Ira Meyer
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