10 on 10 on 10 – An interview – Thus Spake Mohanji

Pareen (Host): Good morning! Good evening to you if you are joining us from across the world! Welcoming you all to 10 on 10 on 10, where we all come together on the 10th of every month at 10 O’clock to meditate for 10 minutes; to merge with our collective consciousness!

Today our guest, who is guiding us, is none other than the world-renowned humanitarian, Mohanji, who believes that Humanity is our religion and Ahimsa is the way to practice it. He has devoted his life to making people aware of the higher goals such as kindness, love, and compassion and continues to strive to do this, each day.

I am very grateful to him for agreeing to guide us through this meditation today. So without much ado, Mohanji, please take it away!

Mohanji: Thank you, Pareen. Good day to all you who are listening. Without much description, I will start with the meditation.

Mohanji starts the meditation process (3min-13.08)

Pareen: I can feel a wave of calm gushing through me. We have one or two questions which we would like to ask if it is allowed.

The first question is a lot of times; people are not in touch with the compassion that resides within them. Is there a way that we can assist people in looking within and finding that compassion within, especially when it comes to expressing it towards animals?

Mohanji: The best message you can give to the world is your life if you live it. Like we talk about Mahatma Gandhi, we talk about various great leaders or legends of the past, because they lived what they believed in. The preaching and talking about it to people may have very little effect. But when you live it, it has a great effect. The biggest lesson, we can give to the world is ourselves.

We have to invest in, what we believe in; that will become a message to the world.
Mohanji

So, if we really want the world to be compassionate, we should exercise it, and we should do it, and deliver it to the world, consistently. And also, sometimes when we express compassion and kindness, unconditionally, the society may not accept it. But society will remember it. Initially, people may ridicule; people may not appreciate it; people may not accept it. But eventually, people will honour it, saying that this man or this woman was consistent in his or her conviction.

Our biggest message, the greatest message is ourselves; how we live; what we believe in, and how much determination we have, in expressing our conviction.
Mohanji

Pareen: Yes. That’s indeed a powerful message! Be the change you want to see.

Mohanji: Yes

Pareen: This will be our final question. Today being the World mental health day, it’s really important that, as activists, we take care of our mental health. Our activism comes from a place of caring, a place of love. How can we give back to ourselves and keep reminding ourselves that we need to sometimes, maybe hit reset ourselves, as well?

Mohanji: Mental health has become a question in the world because we have become unnatural, most of the time. The society or the education system has created people who are conducive or compliant, to the social, religious or other structure we have. But we are not like that.

We are a flow; we are like a river. We are natural, like a child!

A small child, is always natural, always happy, being itself. The moment we started growing up, we decided that we are adults and hence have to behave in a certain way. We have to present ourselves in a certain way, maybe even in a hypocritical way; we can see the hypocrisy also. We are projecting what we are not in various situations. All this has made us unnatural. So, we have to get back to our natural state; being ourselves, being totally ourselves.

How do we measure that state? It’s very simple. When you are natural, you’re effortless. When you are unnatural, when you have to wear a mask, you have to make an effort for it. Like for example, anger is not natural. Anger is something that violates the inside, right? But love is natural; it doesn’t violate anything inside; Kindness is natural! Compassion is natural!

So, we have to go natural, and what expands you, what makes you happy, liberated, and free, that is exactly what we should perform.

And as I said earlier, not everybody may accept you as naturally as you are, because people bring expectations. This is their problem. We are not here to cater to the expectations of other people. We are here to demonstrate what we believe in; that is our expression. Our natural expression, or what we are, as we express it, that’s the most authentic thing. But if you try to be somebody else, if you try to pretend, if you try to adapt to some requirement of the society, which we are not; then it will all go crazy.

The basic reason for the mental or emotional fluctuations is because of these unnatural things; because of compulsions. We are compulsively doing things, or are compelled to follow certain principles or methods, which is not suitable for us. I always believe that mental health is a serious affair; we have to start from the school days.

When we put a lot of pressure on a child to study that which a child doesn’t have a taste for, a child is never natural. And we bring up a child to study for the sake of a job or career or money. The child has no time to be himself or herself. This is a fundamental issue. That is why we have to discuss mental health. Such a problem leads to depression and various complexes. It also leads to a feeling that life is not good; that life can never be justified, and so on. People commit suicide, right? All these extreme situations are happening because we have not identified the imbalances happening due to social pressure.

At the same time, in our old system, we had the balance. We know that children were taught what they are suitable for. They were not taught something as per the social needs. And such people lived well; a person likes to make clothes will make clothes; some person likes to do cobbler work, they will do that; someone will become a doctor. A person’s inclinations will take the person forward. So, this is important. We need to understand; everybody is unique. Nobody’s higher; nobody’s lower; nobody is equal. All of us are unique, and that uniqueness is exactly what makes our minds stable. Understanding that uniqueness, accepting that uniqueness, expressing that uniqueness, makes us stable. We deserve it; we have the right for it.

It is our responsibility as adults to take care of children, and also the society as every child is the property of society. Society has the responsibility; society has to bring up children to be as unique as possible so that the world will be brilliant. Whenever there is inequality, whenever there is mental imbalance; there is violence. We can cut down on all the violence and also set aside the religions and look at Humanity as the most important thing in the world. You know, it’s not about religious dogmas, it’s about Humanity.

And what we can do as human beings in the world, how we can take care of the world, how can we deliver a better world to the next generation. This should be our only objective in this world.

Pareen: Yes. Indeed, being true to ourselves and following that path and letting everyone else be on their journey as well.

Mohanji: Lead by example.

Pareen: Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today.

Mohanji: Thank you for inviting me. And thanks to all of you for being here with us.