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Among Sandeep Maheshwari’s many mind-blowing conversations, the discussion with Prem Rawat sits at the top of a unique tier. Prem Rawat-whom billions globally refer to as Maharaji-has been traveling the world for the past fifty-plus years with the sole message that peace cannot be searched for and cannot be found outside but peace resides within each and every person just waiting to be unveiled.
This is a statement that is far easier said than it is fully comprehended. And when the words have been fine-tuned by someone who has spent five decades molding the delivery of this message, the delivery is hard to resist and the depth can’t be matched.
The discussion between him and Sandeep Maheshwari created the opportunity to bring two individuals together who have, in their own different ways, dedicated their entire lives to a message that encourages looking within, and out of that, came one of the most deceptively moving hours to come from Indian digital media.
The Beginning – A Message Delivered Since Childhood
The episode opens with Prem Rawat recounting his unusual life story – starting public speaking about inner peace at age four in his father, Sant Ji Maharaj’s, lineage and by early teens speaking to capacity crowds. By mid-teens he made his way West where a huge and unexpected response greeted his message.
He speaks about what it has been like to bring that message through fifty years, several dozen countries and hundreds of millions of words. At the base, what he brings remains unchanged. What has evolved is how to best articulate it, in that particular moment, to that specific group in language and examples appropriate to the moment.
Sandeep Maheshwari is authentic in his inquiry and asks questions which go beyond the surface of Prem Rawat’s message to probe into the personal journey from which it has been brought. The outcome is as philosophically layered as it is personally authentic.
What Is Inner Peace – Really?
It’s this key question of the episode – ‘what is the nature of inner peace’ and ‘how can it be attained?’- that is examined more deeply and at greater length than perhaps any conversation Sandeep Maheshwari has facilitated on the subject.
Prem Rawat draws the primary distinction upon which all his teaching rests: inner peace is not the lack of struggle and trouble in one’s external environment. A person may face immense external struggles in the form of poverty, disease, war, or death, yet they may experience an abiding sense of inner peace. And a person may have all the qualities that society deems worthwhile, including wealth, health, success, love, but they may feel profoundly empty and anxious.
This is, he says, the fundamental insight behind the fruitless pursuit of peace through external achievement. They are searching in the wrong place. The peace which all human beings are looking for already resides within them; all they need to do is know how to access it.
He explains self-knowledge as the means by which that access is achieved – not in the psychological understanding of who we are ( our personality, our tendencies), but in a deeper sense, as the directly experiential knowledge of who we are beyond all the layers and histories we accumulate throughout life.
Self-Knowledge – The Most Important Journey
Much of the discussion centers on the matter of self knowledge and Prem Rawat’s understanding is both old, and profoundly practical.
He touches upon his “Knowledge” program at the Prem Rawat Foundation- a series of techniques available to whoever will embrace them in order to “know” the experience of inner peace directly and instead of just knowing some concept about inner peace. Prem Rawat is careful to differentiate what it is to know a concept versus what it is to know a state of being. The entire teaching is predicated on Prem Rawat’s belief that you can know this state of being, and that knowing it, changes your life.
Sandeep Maheshwari really engages this deeply, pressing Prem Rawat on what he knows through stillness and how he has arrived at his beliefs regarding inner life. This isn’t some performance, but a real dialogue between two men who have taken themselves very seriously and considered these matters very deeply.
Fulfillment – The Thing Everyone Wants and Few Find
The most widely accessible portion of this discussion is the one on fulfillment and his description of why so many fail to achieve it despite having both genuine desire and actual success, is both insightful and humane.
He discusses the substitutes of fulfillment we tend to search for – achievement, approval, acquisition – and why these never quite deliver on their implicit promise. They don’t lack inherent value but they are incapable of meeting the authentic hunger that spurs us on. Hunger is for something more, something external things can’t offer.
He uses an analogy which has a powerful effect on Sandeep Maheshwari: a hungry man doesn’t need to be informed that food exists, he needs to eat it. A man hungry for inner peace doesn’t ultimately need further philosophy concerning it, he needs to taste it.
This he explains is the entire purpose of the Knowledge programme he offers: to give us that experience-to enable us, through direct personal discovery, to experience that peace that has always been available within us.
The Message That Transcends Culture
It’s amazing how universal his work really is – he’s spoken in countries in every continent, in cultures, religions and political systems that are wildly disparate from each other, and the message has been received in all of them.
He explains the reasons for this, and the reasons are so simple; because the inner experience of peace isn’t cultural. It’s not specific to a religion or a tradition. It’s a human experience; something available to all people regardless of where they come from or what they believe in.
He is extremely careful not to make the argument that all traditions/religions are the same – that is not what he is arguing. What he is arguing is much more narrow and focused: that the inner experience of peace he is pointing to is universal and the practical means of experiencing it are not doctrinal.
About Prem Rawat
Prem Rawat, also known as Maharaji, is an international ambassador for peace and a speaker who has been speaking of the knowledge of peace since he was a child. He is the founder of the Prem Rawat Foundation (TPRF) which is an organization working to provide humanitarian aid to many areas of the world, and has also been speaking about the knowledge of peace throughout the Knowledge program. He has spoken at the United Nations and various government bodies, as well as to hundreds of thousands of people throughout over 100 countries.
Prem Rawat Social Media Accounts:
- Prem Rawat YouTube Channel
- Prem Rawat Instagram Account
- Prem Rawat Website
- Prem Rawat Foundation Website
Why You Should Watch This Podcast
This episode is perfect for the genuinely curious seeker of the inner life. For anyone that has sought solace in external accomplishments, failed to find satisfaction there, and is ready to entertain the prospect that all they have been searching for has been within them the entire time. This is probably one of the most peaceful hours of content you can find on Indian digital platforms today.
Conclusion
The conversation between Prem Rawat and Sandeep Maheshwari serves as an invitation not necessarily to a philosophy, a tradition, or an ideology, but a turn of the mind toward the inner self with curiosity and open-mindedness. An invitation by two of India’s most avid proponents of internal development that would be prudent to embrace.
1. Who is Prem Rawat?
Prem Rawat, or Maharaji as he is known to most, is an international speaker and peace advocate who has been presenting his message of inner peace to people around the globe for over 50 years. He is also the founder of The Prem Rawat Foundation and has presented his message in more than 100 countries.
2. What topics are covered in the podcast?
This conversation is focused on the nature of inner peace, knowledge of the self, the feeling of fulfillment, the fact that outer accomplishments do not satiate inner hunger, and the availability of true peace to all people.
