Peace Is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat
by Andrea Cagan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Andrea CaganEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-15
ISBN: 0978869494
Number of pages: 410
Publisher: Mighty River Press
Book Reviews of Peace Is Possible: The Life and Message of Prem Rawat
Book Review: A Beautiful Life
Summary: 5 Stars
Biographies and autobiographies tell stories about admirable and not so admirable people. Amongst the most fascinating I have read are those by Bill Clinton, Mark Latham (sometime leader of the opposition in Australia), and Fred Hollows, the Australian founder of the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program who brought eye health to thousands in Eritrea and to Aborigines in Australia. The commonalities amongst these books is that, in whatever way they could, the subjects tried to do something to leave a positive mark on the world. They did it in different ways. While Clinton tried to develop understanding and some form of lasting peace through renegotiating the "rules of the road" and Latham tried to "crash through or crash" (the latter in his case), Hollows used every trick known and unknown to ensure he was able to do the job he set out to do—rules, bureaucracy or lack of funds notwithstanding.
In many ways, Prem Rawat has paralleled the Hollow path rather than the Clinton. Setting out with a drive, a desire, to let every person know that peace is a possibility and second, that he could show people how to touch a peace that already was within them, Rawat has not been distracted nor diverted from this personal objective. This book narrates this story. And to be quite blunt, Rawat's work in both its scope and its success hugely overshadows the undoubted success that others have achieved.
It rolls glibly off the tongue: "to let people know that every person know that peace is a possibility". Yet this biography details the initial halting steps in that story, the rocks that seemed to have threatened to shipwreck the whole expedition, the amazing successes, and the enduring humanity, humility and humour of Rawat in the face of what might appear to be a quixotic task. Indeed, in a video some years ago, Rawat spoke with a sculpture of Don Quixote in the background. Yet there is nothing vaguely dreamy or wistfully blasé in Rawat's approach.
With most biographies, one reads with a sense of familiarity, perhaps regarding the contexts or events of people's lives. Most people are unerringly like you or me, in many respects. We can relate to the situations they find themselves in, or the things that happen to them, or their loving (or alcoholic mother) and so on. Reading this biography invokes a different set of responses. From a very early age—when most of us might have been hurtling around the suburbs in home-made carts pulled by possessed billy-goats, or for recent generations, attempting to ensure that Yankacan's (sitting in his house in the U.S.A.) Zergs do not overrun Wunsun's (sitting at his computer in Yeppoon, Australia) Terran outpost—Rawat was focused on a different world-view, whilst still enjoying being a child.
For Rawat, his desire was to assist his father, to the extent that, whilst still a youngster when most of us in world Ideal would have been fishing with Grandad, he put together a public program that his father could speak at. His sense of mission was evident at this early age; this sense of commitment to the cause of bringing the message to as many people as possible throughout the world. It is an inspiring read.
Andrea Cagan has thoroughly researched this book, talking with many people who have played some part in Rawat's life, examining documents and reviewing video and dvd sources for his talks. The text focuses on the life of Rawat, but like any biography, this one weaves various threads to create a contextualised story of that life. Thus, Rawat's relationship with his father is narrated in some depth so that we get to know something of the life of the father, and the relationship between the two, before the next chapter details the life of the father. Our interest in Shri Hans is built through that relationship, and then our interest is salved through a chapter on his life. The biogra-phy does not skirt the negative elements that impinge on Rawat's work, including the problem (for his Indian family) of the suitability of his assuming his father's role, and the activities of his detractors in their single-minded, but ultimately futile, attempt to discredit Rawat both personally and professionally.
This is an inspiring read. To the drudge that constitutes much of the evening news and the daily newspaper, the reality of Rawat and his work stands in stark and beautiful contrast.
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