A very warm welcome to all of you. It gives me immense joy to be with all of you today. Today is the third part of My conversations with Mohanji.
Absorb His wisdom, absorb His vibrations.
Time
Host: Please explain to us about the time. As average humans, we linearly understand time, but I guess that is not the way it is. Could you please share your insight on this?
Mohanji: Well, time is always multi-dimensional. For a woman who is going to deliver a child, every moment is like 10 hours. But for a person who is experiencing ecstasy, even an hour vanishes in no time. So the concept of time itself is relative; especially for us, existing in linear time, and that means yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after, and so on, it has different values at each time. We experience different values for time. Time is not static. Time is variable, and time has its effect as per our situation, condition, orientation. It changes as per our mood. A situation changes the effect of time.
But there is one period of time, every day, in 24 hours, where we nullify everything –the deep sleep time. When we are in a deep sleep, all the dimensions end. We do not see anything. We do not have any idea about time; rather, time doesn’t matter. Even in our own life, what values time the most, is the mind-matter – mind, intellect, and ego because it is operating on linear time. The body is being carried by time, from birth till death. But the soul is not affected by time. In our system, there are multiple faculties, with different orientations about time. So you can’t define time in one sentence. It’s a relative term.
Then there are parallel realities. Parallel realities mean simultaneous happenings; only at the soul level, you can connect to them. At the Physical level and the mind level, we can’t connect to those realities, because this is the reality we are occupied with. We believe we are this reality.
Just now you said it’s your birthday. Birthday of what? Birthday for this incarnation, this body; so it’s a relative thing. For the soul – what birthday? It is another day in its existence as a unit. The soul is not affected by birthdays, but the body and mind are affected. The mind is happy that there is a celebration. The body has no idea that this is its birthday. It goes through it. At the time of death, that body is left behind. The body is just a cage we use for an expression or experience.
Time has multiple levels of existence. Time is the same, but what we perceive has multiplicity, dimensional differences. When you are completely occupied in silence, where sound itself is alien for you, then, time doesn’t matter. You became eternal. What you connect to becomes you. So when you deeply connect to the eternal aspect of your own existence, then time doesn’t matter. You become a time rider, like a wave rider. You’ll be riding time because you’re already eternal.
Great masters like Babaji, Sai Baba, Akkalkot Maharaj, Bhagavan Nithyananda, and numerous other masters are examples of this existence. They have become eternal because of their connection or identification with the eternal aspect in you, which is your soul; thus, they became eternal. For them, leaving a body doesn’t mean leaving any story; the story exists; leaving a body doesn’t mean anything. Inside a body or outside the body, they work alike. Consider, for example, Babaji. Babaji is a different dimension; but I’m merely giving an example, to explain that with the body or without, He is very active. Hanumanji is very active; Shirdi Sai Baba is very active. The body could not bind them. The body will not bind you if your identification is with the eternal aspect of you.
If your identification is with your body, your personality, or ego, it’s perishable. Whatever rises will also fall. The ego arises; the ego falls. Everything rises and falls each day; in 24 hours you see the rise and fall; you arise in the morning, you fall in the night. Birth and death are happening every day. Death is the total annihilation of your existence, deep sleep. When you wake up, you rise again. Rise and fall are happening; like sunrise and sunset; every day. Identify this, that this is exactly the existence. Then you start detaching from what seems to be you, to what is you. What seems to be you is what people perceive you to be, as you are or what you project to the world, as you are. What are you, in reality, is beyond your third dimension, to the level of who or what is the source that moves you. The Source is eternal. No change happens to the Source. The Source is permanent. When you connect to the permanent aspect, you become eternal.
Other Dimensions
Q: Baba, would you like to shed some light on the other dimensions that exist? Is Earth going through an ascension cycle?
Mohanji: Earth is not going through anything. We are going through. We blame it on Earth. Evolution is for the human mind, not for the Earth. Earth is a reflection of what we are. What we project is what you see. We are constantly projecting things to this world, all the time, 7.5 billion people are projecting various things to the world. They can only project what they are. You can’t project what you don’t have. So you are projecting what you are. Another person is projecting what he or she is, and the conglomeration of all these put together, we call life.
So the Earth is a platform. Earth has all that is needed to give flavours to life. It’s like a huge hypermarket. You can go, pick up things from there, and you can make your curry. And that’s what you’re doing. So the Earth is not on ascension or decline; human minds are.
When we talk about yugas, ascension means entering into Satya yuga or the golden age. The golden age is a state of eternity, where you choose the time of your death, you choose when to stay, how long to stay, and when to leave. However, karmic birth is not the same. Karmic birth is a bundle of desires; fulfilment is needed; take a body, fulfil it; and then you carry forward more desires and come back again. This is karmic birth.
When you are in the Satya yuga mode, it means that firstly, you have no desires. You have no connection with the world outside, except that you exist in the world, like an Avadhoota; you are fully in the world, but you are not of the world, or not with the world. That state; a state of detachment is the first aspect. The second aspect is the perfect awareness of who you are. You only exist, revelling in the inside story, your inside story, in your soul, with that aspect. It’s not the denial of existence. It is a full awareness of existence. It is not an intellectual or emotional feeling that you are not what you are; that is an illusion.
What I am saying is that you are fully occupied with your own soul material, and you realize this is your truth. You stay there, totally stabilized, totally still. Then you are in Satya yuga. So, Satya yuga is existing right now, for some people. All people have that ability. This is what Babaji and other great masters are doing. This is what they are giving you, or this is what they are guiding you towards but through practices. However, what happens is that people get stuck with practices. They think that these practices will help you. Practices are only like a bridge to help one go across. Each step, each practice should take you deeper and deeper inside.
More than a practice, sometimes, integration to the Master’s Consciousness helps. Imagine a master who’s well established in Himself, is with you and you connect to that Master. That is what Baba meant when he said, “I just sat and looked at my Guru. I did nothing. I looked at Him; He gave me everything.” He gave it, does not mean that the Master takes (something), and gives it to you. You become the Master because what you are connected to him, constantly, consistently, without doubts, without prejudices, without comparisons, without competition; you become that. You become the Master’s Consciousness. You become the Master.
So true masters make others masters, not disciples. No true Master is interested in disciples. What will they do? What will you do with a lot of people? Instead, true Masters makes others masters. But then, it’s the equation and the orientation and the disposition of the disciple that makes them masters. If there is a disciple who’s constantly doubting, criticizing, competing, or comparing and discussing intellectually, he will only see an object or another personality called the Master. They can’t connect. There’s no connection happening. More than the visual aspect, it is the deeper connection that brings transformation. So what is spirituality? Transformation. So when you talk about multiple levels of existence, it is all simultaneous. That means, definitely we are aware of multiple levels of existence each day-waking state, dream state, deep sleep state.
Beyond that, there are multiple possibilities, depending on the level of illusion that you hold. If you are completely deluded that you are this physical form and this personality, you have only this life. But when you start connecting to your soul deeper and deeper and deeper, then you start realizing that whatever I seem to be, is only one aspect of me. But I can have many more aspects. Then automatically your dimension changes. This is a very broad subject, very big, very deep.
First of all, the time as we see, linear time is only one aspect of time. This is number one. There is a possibility of past, present, and future together, simultaneously. Like Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna in the 11th chapter (of the Bhagavad Gita), when he showed his Vishwaroopa. “All the people who are supposed to die are already dead and gone.” He told
Arjuna, “Look here! You are only an instrument. What has to happen has happened already, in real-time.”
So Lord Krishna showed this to get the idea to the people; showed this because the people understand that past, present, and future are simultaneously existing. But we do not perceive it because we are oriented with this identification, this body, this life, these identifications, these orientations, character, and constitution so that we only see linear time: yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after. We cannot catch the possibility of vertical time. Again linear, horizontal, and vertical times are just expressions. Don’t think that the time is standing up now. It’s not like that. They are all just to explain the possibilities, so they are all existing simultaneously.
I explained this earlier in another program – When one person asked Ramana Maharshi, “If I die now”, usually they say that it takes about 700 days before you take another birth. It’s a general statement. Don’t take it seriously, because there’s no rule like that. So he asked Ramana Maharishi, “If I die now, will I take another body in two years?”
So Ramana Maharshi said, “Possible, definitely possible. But in that life, you would be already 70 years. That means there is a parallel existence already happening!” So when you leave this body, you merge another body of yours, and you continue. In linear time, you never understand this; it is very difficult.
But that is why through meditations, through connection, contemplation of “Who am I? What am I? Why am I?” and through deep penetration or even easier through a deep connection to a very powerful Master, a better understanding is possible. By Master I mean, not those that you usually see in the world outside, those that talk. They are mostly acharyas, and they are practitioners. That’s not what I mean. I mean somebody who’s really established in Consciousness or has established himself completely within. That’s a true master. So if you are able to connect to somebody like that, then you may connect to this aspect faster.
Again, it’s a big trap. When you connect to somebody who’s already established, that person will look very ordinary; this is the problem. He will have no paraphernalia. He will know, he will not show or state, “Hey, look here! See, I’m a big master.” Once they are fully settled inside, you will not show; they lose all interest in the world outside: nothing to prove, nothing to approve. Then what happens- they’re fully themselves. When they’re fully themselves when they are not showing off, people will think, “What type of a man is he?! I’m wasting my time with him.”
People expect miracles. People expect certain paraphernalia, a certain amount of show. If you don’t get it, then you think this is not the right guy. That is why I said there’s a big trap here, trap or a problem here. You’ve got to see through all these ordinary things and look within to see the brightness inside. It takes time. You should have keen observation and consistency. Most people don’t have consistency. They come with an expectation. “A master will do a miracle tomorrow. I will be enlightened.” You can’t be enlightened when you are a bundle of desires because your desires are all to the external world. You want a job, you want money, you want relationships, family, girlfriend, boyfriend, all sorts of things, everything from the world outside. Then where do you have time for the world inside? When all your processors are focused on the world outside, you have only time to process what is visual, what we can perceive. That is why the Bhagavad Gita said, “Millions of sense objects in the world; to experience them – five senses, one mind. “Mind means – mind, intellect, and ego together; mind-matter.”
At one point in time, you can only experience one thing properly. That has only two results possible: happiness or sorrow. That is it! This is life. So millions become five, five becomes one, and one becomes two, and one you can experience. So basically it becomes one. This is our existence.
Host: Thank You very much, Baba!
Mohanji: Thank you for interviewing me. My love to all those who are listening to us or seeing us.
Question: Is suffering so important to the soul, to undergo change, even if it harms? Another person, has a powerful Guru, can’t he remove all the suffering?
Mohanji: Suffering is connected to your waking state mind. Pain is connected to various factors such as injury, body, going through certain processes. Pain can happen, but suffering is your choice. Suffering happens when resistance happens to the pain. When we resist situations, when we resist emotions, when we resist people, places, time, we have suffered. But suffering is not a permanent thing. When you are experiencing pleasure, necessarily, you may not suffer. But sometimes even during pleasure, at the time of pleasure, we may suffer because we worry that this time also may end. So, we may fail to experience a situation because we are afraid of something finite, connected to that situation. In the time of sorrows, some people have great pleasure. They say sorrows are good because they remind them of their life. In the time of pleasures, they fear sorrows may come after the pleasure, like a pendulum, like two sides of the coin. So they fail to experience a pleasure. This is human nature. This is one of the patterns that we constantly entertain.
So there is no need to suffer. When you go beyond your mind-matter, there is no suffering. Your soul has no suffering. It’s witnessing your happiness and sorrows, and all the games of your life. Your consciousness which operates in three levels – waking state, dream state and deep sleep state is not suffering. It’s happy to witness what the mind-matter produces, churns out called experiences. We categorise these experiences as good or bad. Consciousness is just watching it. At any point in time, consciousness does not tell you “Don’t do it. Don’t experience it.” It never tells. It just witnesses. It just allows you to experience anything you like on Earth. Nothing is good; nothing is bad. You experience whatever you want. Who categorises situations as good and bad, who categorises high and low, who categorises do’s and don’ts? Mind – Mind-matter.
I always tell one thing, do not enter into the realms of violence. Do not entertain violence in thoughts, words and action, because it breeds more violence. It contracts you; it shrinks you. That’s not our original state. Our original state, as I explained earlier, is expansion, inner richness. This is our actual state, but we fail to see it because our mind entertains itself with anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, kind of silly things. And then it suffers because it’s like a person who smokes a lot and then suffers from lung issues. This is exactly similar to that. The person gets addicted to something spurious, and then health is affected. Who caused it? They themselves caused it. So we don’t have to suffer.
There is no suffering in life, except in our mind. Our mind has decided that there is suffering and then we suffer. The mind has decided, “This is okay; this is not okay.” And we suffer. The mind has decided. “This is right, this is wrong”, then we suffer. So, this is all minds’ game. I always believe that there are zero sufferings, even when people betray you or cheat you, etc., you don’t have to suffer because for doing that, they are paying a huge price. For them, it’s an experience. You have an experience of getting cheated, getting betrayed; like that the people who betray you, have an experience of betraying somebody. And when you ask for such an experience, you got a price to pay, a very high price to pay. Sometimes that price takes you to a level of debt, which lasts lifetimes.
That is why Mirabai says, “When you betray a guru, you carry the debt of that act of betrayal for about 80,000 lifetimes,” such a big, huge debt. So if somebody really wants to do that, they’re paying for it. You need not worry. They chose it. If I decide that I want to have a Rolls Royce car and choose to go ahead and buy it by taking a bank loan, I have to pay the bank until it’s over, as long as it takes. I cannot say that I will not pay any more, because they will catch me and will take the car away from me. So this debt is chosen. Our own anger, hatred, jealousy, selfishness puts us in debts.
Why should we worry? If we are instrumental in creating it, we should worry. Otherwise, we need not worry. If somebody is cheating you, if somebody is betraying you, you are only at the receiving end. You are not spending on it. So if you develop that level of maturity and you start seeing the reality all the time, you will see this drama at work. You will see this whole drama of life. And this drama is very interesting. People play roles, and we enjoy those roles. They keep experiencing them time and again. Sometimes they come in different costumes, and they play the same role. You get surprised that this is the same guy who was doing this before. When in another costume, sometimes we don’t recognise them. But this is the reality.
Everything that is connected to our life has a reason. If we chase the reason, if we try to understand the why’s, we do not move forward. Just experience it as it comes and leave it, unhook from it, and let it go. Time changes everything. Time changes situations. Change is the only thing which is unchangeable. Change is the only thing which cannot be changed. Change happens in life. Everything changes, everything evolves, everything has to evolve into various forms and dimensions. So, if we flow with those changes, you will be experiencing a breeze like life. Life would be like a breeze. But all these factors have value. Some of them are lessons. Some of them are warnings. Some of them are experiences, good and bad, whatever you wish to call it. But when we boil it all down, we call it life. Life has everything. It’s important to understand that.
Question: How to recognise my future partner? Also, I want to open a vegetarian restaurant, but how to conquer the fear of failure and how to succeed?
Mohanji: Three questions – your future partner, vegetarian restaurant and fear of failure. I think all are interconnected. If your future partner is a disaster, you will experience failure. And if you open a vegetarian restaurant, maybe you will get food to eat. (laughter)
I do not understand the correlation between these two. But, understand that fear of failure has its root in inertia (Tamas) and most of us entertain it because we all have inertia. We always say that we must be appreciated, we must be accepted, and for all that we do, we should be rewarded or recognised. This is our wish, our desire. But life is not like that. There are failures in life. If you look at my life, I have failed enough and more times. At one point in time, I was an eternal failure. In everything I do, I was failing. What I understood from that is, all that gave me experiences. If you do not resist it, do not reject it, do not fight it, do not put it under the carpet, then that means it becomes lessons for you. Everything in life will not be successful.
We cannot rehearse in life. We cannot rehearse something and do life. So, we have to just do it as it comes. We have to live it; we have to do things as it flows. I would say if you are fearless, you will have tremendous success because we do not know what is around the corner. So if you don’t take a walk, we will never see it. If there is a failure, you slip and fall, or you fell down, what do you do? Get up and walk. In fact, if you take your whole life, you are born alone, you will die alone. You neither took the permission of the society to take birth nor will you take the permission of the society to die. So what is the bottom line? Your EXISTENCE is the bottom line. You are YOURSELF. You are the EXPERIENCE.
You are here to experience; you are here to express. EXPRESS. Don’t worry about failure. If it fails, you start again. Look at people who have succeeded in life. They have failed tremendously. I think Walt Disney; he went to about 20 or 25 banks for financing his project called the Disney cartoons. But nobody believed in him. They said, “You are making some cartoons, and you want money?” They were ridiculing him. And finally, one banker decided to give him a soft loan. Rest is history. He created Disney World, and it became a huge success. Likewise, this Spider-Man character – Stan Lee, I think; he offered Spider-Man story for print, and the publisher said, “Ridiculous, this story will not sell.” Look at how famous this Spider-Man character became. Now, all the countries, all the children know Spider-Man.
The ability to believe in your work, ability to believe in yourself, the conviction that you have on yourself, ability to invest (the investment) in yourself, is basically the faith and that will take you forward. So, if you focus on failure, like the options of failure, the possibilities of failure, what will four people think, society will think, you will never move forward. Instead, we take the step forward, let us fail. No problem. Let there be failure, and that failure will give us a lesson. The failure will guide us to success because we know if you walk this path, there will be a failure. So you might as well change the path, deviate, take a detour and achieve success.
Whether it is a vegetarian restaurant or a husband, it’s the same thing. You got to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince, right? So you can never say that this is going to be the right man because we are talking about karmic beings. We are talking about bundles of patterns. We are talking about bundles of concepts. We are all baggage, huge baggage. So, how can you say that this is the right compatible person? If you are extremely tamasic, another extremely tamasic person might be compatible because you both can sleep all the time. If you are extremely tamasic and you get a person who is extremely saatvic, then you will have struggles at home as one person will sleep, and the other person cannot sleep. So this is how the combination works.
Don’t look at life too seriously. Flow with life just like water, like a river, keep flowing. Whenever you are looking at small things like relationships, (I’m not saying relationships are small, it means when you are occupied by relationships, etc.), you become short-sighted. Instead, you look for the larger life. Try to look at life in a much larger perspective. What are you trying to achieve from this life? What do you want out of this life? You should always dream big, think big, or have a larger vision. If you have a larger vision and take one step at a time each day, you will reach there. All the other things will fall in place. But if you do not have a larger picture, and if you are searching in a linear level in the market, to find a right man, like this guy looks okay, or that guy looks okay, this or that etc., this will always be confusing. That’s not the way. Instead, you walk your vision, and the right things will come to you. They join you because your frequency is set for something larger, something huge.
I have created this Mohanji platform with that context, that all the people who are associated have the possibility to have great expressions in this platform. I created it in that mode because everybody has a need for actualisation, a need to be fully themselves and completely blossom. So, this ground has to be set in that way. I cannot set a ground where nobody gets actualisation, and all are like robots, not possible. So, this is created in that way which is why so many countries, so many dimensions, a variety of activities are happening. All this is created because of actualisation. Look at how many people are blossoming with this platform.
The point is, we should not think in a tubular way or within a frame. We are not bound by frames. We are not to be put in frames. We are like a flowing river, flowing as per time, as per various desires and our karmic patterns. But when we have a higher vision, when we are walking towards it and when we are bound by purpose, not people, (clear purpose, a purpose with clarity), it will open up the doors for you. Nothing can stop you, and everything will come together.
When you are talking about a restaurant, you look at the chain of restaurants; you have the vision for that. What do you really want to express in the world? You should have that picture in mind, and you should dream it, you should feel it every day. And you should feel it is alive, means you should actually see it in the world, in your mind, in your inner eye. Then it will happen eventually because you are energising that positive thought, a great image, a great plan inside you. That is how it will happen.
Question:How do I seek blessings and stay connected to Guru and the Guru Mandala?
Mohanji: Guru and Guru Mandala are the same. Guru is the representation of Guru Mandala, that means the world of elevated masters. There is no world of elevated masters apart from your master. It’s like a small transformer in your house that gives electricity to your house. Outside there is a huge transformer which is much more powerful. If you decide that my house needs the power from that transformer and you connect directly to that, your house will burn. So, what you need is a regulated energy flow where you can actually come in contact with it, and it can help in your transformation.
In the Datta tradition, the whole nature is your guru. If you are considering a person as a guru, in the tradition of Datta, everything is guru, life is guru, your SELF is the guru, and your INNERSELF is the real guru, personal guru. But if there is an external guru who has lived the freedom, walked freedom, expressed freedom, given freedom even from themselves (means no binding), that is the path. There is no binding on rituals, no binding on people, places, time, FREEDOM. That is the Datta tradition. So when we walk that path, how do you get connected? You have to connect to YOURSELF. You have to go within and connect to yourself, assimilate yourself and then through YOU; you can reach the whole world. After that, when you look outside, everything will become a reminder of who you are. And that’s how it should be. All the things happening in you, around you, they are all reminders of who you are. When you are deeply connected to that feeling of oneness or experiencing that feeling of oneness (It’s all experiences end of the day. If you cannot experience it is not real), you are unmistakably connected, unchangeably connected, permanently connected.
So, your connection with yourself is extremely important in our path and the path of liberation. Your connection with yourself is the truth. And that connection will take you to similar frequencies. As you raise your frequencies, you will come in contact with people of the same frequency. That is how you can actually grow and evolve. This is very important to understand. You are the final thing you need to connect. That is what we were talking earlier. You are the thing, you are the matter, you are the being, you are the person, and you are the personality. This is your connection. And this is exactly what we are trying to tell all the time. But then you look at somebody as stable as a rock, established in themselves, who’s not bound by the emotions of the world, not bound by time or space, not bound by any philosophies, totally free, then that becomes a reminder to you on how to walk the path, what will be the situation, how it can be. That is a reminder to you.
Now, you have a benchmark, you have a point of contact, or you have a destination which you can put into your GPS, so you know where you are going. And that’s exactly the whole point of the tradition. The tradition gives you these locations, these benchmarks, these pointers, the destination so that your journey is effortless. Also, you know where you are going, and that’s easy. So on this day of Guru Poornima, we must understand that connection is extremely important. When you stay connected, remember one thing very clearly, doubts are the detrimental factors. Doubting yourself always alienates you, separates you. Doubting the master separates you. Doubting the time, doubting the practice, doubting the environment; doubting separates you. Don’t take doubts lightly. Take doubts seriously. And don’t ask why this is happening? It is. So when you stop asking WHY all the time, you save a lot of time because acceptance takes ‘why’ away from our system. “Okay, this is happening. There must be a reason for it. Whatever the reasons are, if I’m supposed to know, I will know. Otherwise, I don’t have to know.” Every time you think like this, you are free. Each time you stop asking why, and you start connecting deeper and deeper into yourself and assimilating the experience that has come out of that situation; it means you are actually experiencing that situation fully within, each time. That experience becomes a validation of your life. That itself is your final and gives you stability, gives you freedom, complete freedom. So this is exactly what you should do.
Stop doubting; stop asking ‘why?’ and stop asking, ‘Am I progressing? Am I regressing?’ All these are unnecessary questions. Keep doing the same thing. Keep repeating, keep assimilating and keep investing into yourself. Then what comes out will be something brilliant. It may take time because you have no idea how many baggages of patterns you are carrying, how much is removed, how much has to be removed. So, when we don’t know the whole drama of life and when we can only see two dimensions, we are completely controlled and bound by mind-matter (mind, ego and intellect). Hence stop asking why, stop doubting and just keep practising. And whatever you practice, you should believe in, otherwise don’t practice. Whether it is Kriya, Meditation, Contemplation, if you do not believe in it, there is no point in practising. It is a waste of time. And don’t practice for the sake of a Master. Master has nothing to do with you. A master’s job is to show a clear mirror to you so that you can look at the mirror and you can see yourself, where you stand. That’s the job of the master. Master’s job is NOT to TAKE you to yourself. His job is to show you that you are everything or tell you that you are everything or GUIDE you to yourself. But you have to walk. You have to find yourself and go within. If you doubt yourself, if you doubt the master, if you doubt the practice, if you doubt the time and space if you have excuses all through, where will you go? That brings a waste of time. That takes a lot of our time away, and it is a waste of life. This is the problem. It wastes lifetimes. We have wasted lifetimes already. Now let us use this lifetime to find ourselves and settle down.
The inner space is the only space which is yours. All the outer spaces are not yours; they are temporary. End of the day, all you need is only six foot of ground. If you are very tall, maybe eight foot of ground. That’s about it. You don’t need any more ground to keep your body, that’s it. We are chasing so many things of life, and finally, we are tired. We are still unhappy because we want more. And that is a waste of time. You should have something which gives you a good shelter, food to eat, peaceful life so that you can spread your energy and light into this world outside. When you assimilate yourself into yourself, you become brightness, and that brightness will reach the society and make the society brighter. That is your biggest contribution to society, not your teachings, not your noises.
The society has plenty of noises. It does not need any more noises. What the society needs is silence – a pregnant and deep silence, where silence talks much more than words. This is what society needs today. And what you need to give to this society is yourself. This is the only thing you can give. The only authentic thing you can deliver to this society is yourself, nothing else. You give your flavour. That’s the only thing which is expected. You cannot give any other flavour because you are already yourself. You cannot do anything else about it. So you give the society, your own flavour and that’s good enough. That means you are giving the society your unique flavour. And when you do that, don’t expect anything back. Don’t compare, don’t criticize, don’t judge, don’t character assassinate. Don’t betray, don’t cheat. So your conscience will be clean and bright. When your conscience is clean and bright, you are only giving pure stuff. You cannot give contaminated stuff. So this is important. What you need to give to this world is yourself and that you give as clean as possible, conscience clean, and deliver it with your full conviction without expectation.
On this day of Guru Poornima, this is the message I wanted to give you. Please remember – you are unique, you are important, you are significant, and nobody else is like you. Don’t underestimate yourself. Don’t criticize and judge yourself. Don’t compare yourself with anybody. And please don’t blame others because whatever you do, will have an effect on you. Your own activity, whether it’s done now or done in the past, it will create its own effect. Any action and every action will have a result. So do not blame others saying that because of him, I am suffering. That is not true. It’s all because of our own actions.
We must understand that whatever we do, whatever we perform, whatever we say, speak, think, everything creates vibrations, frequencies, and that will create results. So, understand this clearly, and assimilate and be together, support each other, help each other. We got to have a whole world – one world, one family. One world and one family is the truth – Vasudeva Kudumbakam – that is the truth. We are all together; no caste, creed, country, culture, colour, language, religion, nothing, just people, one species FOR ALL species. This is what we should be. Then we are living purity. We are walking, talking, eating purity, everything pure. That is the highest you can give to this world. And it’s not a small thing.
I hope I have given you the message. Thank you for coming together, and we will stay in touch. Wish you a great Guru Poornima and wish you a great life ahead. I’m always with you, and I love you.
Question: What is the real purpose of a disciple to do worship of a guru on this auspicious day?
Mohanji: Where does the Guru sit? This is the first question we must ask ourselves. Look at our whole life. We are only looking at a life which has happened from our birth so far, until our death in this life. This is what we consider as life.
All the masters, all the great traditions have said time and again that you are the thing you are looking for. I have mentioned that in my Guru Purnima message also, that you are the very thing or the very subject you are looking for. That means you have got to find yourself inside you. That means you got to do manana (contemplation). When you contemplate more and more, you will start finding your dimensions first. Eventually, you will come to a level where you will see yourself as a beacon of light and the rays spreading as dimensions; that means you have become one with your source, the one that is inside you. When you start connecting to the source that is inside you, you will start feeling the various possibilities beyond birth, beyond death. It means the possibility of the atma tatwa or the soul factor, which has no birth or death.
Once you understand that, you will see all your lives of the past and all the lives that are going to be in one spectrum, in one canvas. What happens then? That means you can see the whole role-play; various lifetimes you have played certain roles, and there is a continuation in between, like a stage in the drama. You go out, you change your dress, and you come back. It’s almost like that, very simple. That means you are almost going out and coming back. There is no birth, no death; just changing over, transitioning. So, once you understand that, the principle of Guru and the principle called YOU become very clear to you.
So, where is this Guru sitting? Inside! Then why do we worship a guru outside? That Guru is a reminder of what is sitting inside: just a reminder, nothing else.
So, when you respect (not only the Guru), the Guru in everything, which is the soul factor of all things, of all beings of nature, you will keep seeing the Guru. This is the main factor, the unchangeable factor. One who has actually recognised that soul factor and decided to settle into the soul factor; one who has found that soul factor from the physical factor, an emotional factor, consciousness factor and still further the witness factor, ( once you have settled down in the witness factor), you will see everything in the form of witness hood. You see everything as a witness. In that state, there is no caste, country, culture, colour, religion, language, nothing, just witnessing the whole thing.
When you start witnessing the whole thing, then you realise what exactly is awakening. That awakening only simply means you are a total witness of everything. You see the whole tapestry, not just the scenes of the drama, not the emotions, not the situations, not even the people acting; you see the whole picture. This is the journey that can only be achieved through our inner journey; you got to go within. You got to go inside, within.
When you are worshipping a master or when you are coming in contact with a master, who has already settled down within and he is fully established, your worship, (forget about physical worship), even thinking, even remembering, even your meeting, connecting, all that amounts to one thing. What is it? This is the state I’m looking for. Give me that state of yours. The state makes a master. The state where the Master rests makes that person a master. If the person is resting on emotions of life, that’s not mastery. The mind is dragging us like a slave.
When our awareness rests in the body, we are in waking state. When our awareness rests in our mind matter, we are in dream state. When our awareness rests in deep sleep state, we are in a state like death; we are detached. We are only in consciousness. When our awareness merges with consciousness, we start witnessing the state of the soul. That’s the only time we really witness what the soul is experiencing. That is the journey.
So, if you worship a guru, do you think the Guru needs worship? Guru needs nothing. Why does the guru need worship? Guru is not dependent on things outside of him, because he’s fully established in the witness hood, peaceful, stable and happy. He or she doesn’t matter. When you go within, and you start connecting to your own soul as I explained just now, you don’t need any worship. You are happy; you are settled. You are not dependent on the world outside for your pleasures of senses. Instead, senses are existing, but the senses are not demanding. Senses are relaxed, the mind is relaxed; there is no thrust of desires, no push of desires; tranquillity, peace. This is the real state.
If somebody is resting in that state, what would he feel and what would he say? Just be. JUST BE. The highest is achieved through that state of being YOU, being YOURSELF. BEING; only being. That’s the beauty.
When somebody says you have to worship me, that person only displays insecurity. That person is insecure. Why is he insecure? It is because he’s still dependent on the world outside. For a person who is stable within, whether somebody respects, somebody worships or not, it doesn’t make a difference. But if you want to experience that feeling of connecting in your way, as you are, you can do that. You can do whatever and for the Master, it doesn’t matter.
Sai Baba displayed that all the time. As the disciple came, Baba allowed them to perform their chosen ritual. Baba just allowed it to happen. He never said, “I don’t like it”, because there’s no like or dislike; just being.
Question: I want to know, for somebody like me when I’ve not met you in person, how could I understand that you are helping me and uplifting in spirituality? How do I know that I am growing in spirituality?
Mohanji: Do we actually need any help? This is the fundamental question. What help do we need?
In fact, a true master always remains as a mirror, undistorted image. That’s what he gives us. So, he always remains like a mirror, stable and still, and when you look into the mirror, you see your own true reflection. You see yourself in your true form, as you are. And that itself is a big deal because, in the outside world, you are only getting opinions of people. Some opinions are good, some opinions are bad, some are criticism, and some are praises. But between this, there is a reality. You never get that reality from the world outside. When you come to a master, the mirror is so fresh, perfect and clean; you get the real picture. That’s the biggest thing a master gives us your true picture.
So how does a master help? It is by giving your true picture; you realise this is where I stand; this is what I am. The moment you understand what you are, correction is easy. Diagnosis is difficult; the cure is easier. Similarly, when you come in contact with a pure mirror, an undistorted image happens. You automatically know where you stand and where you should be. The Master becomes a road sign with his own life.
What is the main thing happening here? Amidst all the varied dimensions of existence, emotions, changes; HE remains unchangeable, still. So, when you look at that Master, and you see a zero change, unchangeable, steady, then you realise this is the state of happiness; not pleasures, which are changing every now and then. Pleasures keep changing. For some time they remain, then again, you need more. But here, happiness is a state where you are always happy, stable and happy. And that state is what you are looking for. That’s when you realise, this is the state. So a true master’s life itself is the lesson, message and path. And when you come in contact, how do you know that you are being helped? Are you attaining silence in the mind? Or are you continuing to be restless and affected by things around us around you?
If you are always affected by things around you; that means you are only expressing your inherent patterns. It means, patterns or habits have formed, and it’s like a cycle going on and on and on. But a master shows you, that there is a possibility of being still, being out of the patterns, overcoming them by accepting those patterns and not resisting them. By holding the hands of the Master, (as long as it takes, maybe it takes lifetimes we never know), you come out of your patterns of life, including habits, likes, dislikes, opinions, prejudices, etc. and you become free. When you become free; fewer thoughts, less desire, less wear and tear from life will be the result. If this is happening, that means this relationship is working.
Relationship with a master does not have boundaries when I say boundaries, not bound by time. It is a continuous process. What brings you to a master is eligibility, YOUR WILL to experience the higher aspects of existence such as happiness; this brings you to a master. (And again as I said, it is not pleasures of life. We have many pleasures in life. It keeps coming and going, and we are not happy. Because one time it comes and goes, you crave for more, desire for more, and this is a continuous process.)Then you are in a tranquil state, and you are happy by nature and contented. So the contentment factor is the connection factor; you can actually assess your connection with your level of contentment.
Question: If people take advantage of unconditional love, how do you handle such situations? Is there a boundary to draw when you give unconditional love?
Mohanji: We are unconditional love by nature. That is our nature. We are love by nature, and we expand with love. We contract with hatred, revenge, anger; it makes us shrink. But with love, we expand, and that’s our nature; our nature is to expand. So love is our natural process. Love is our nature. But the world outside, of seven billion-plus people, is of every dimension. They are of different dimensions. It is not easy to say or categorise them at all.
Everybody is a mixture of various types of people. So, in this whole mixture, how people respond is completely based on time, space, their moods or the fluctuations of mind as per that time, because of various reasons. So, we cannot predict. We can only generalise a person based on the most predominant attitude. We can never say, “This person is always like this”. Each day could be different, moods could be changing, and everything could be changing. So, we must never judge anybody and say that he/ she is always like this. So, we have to understand that the world operates in such a way where the gunas; the Sattva, Rajas, Tamas gunas are fluctuating, flowing.
That changes time and again based on various aspects of existence, and that causes swings in moods. Sometimes Sattva is very high; people are tranquil and peaceful, then Rajas becomes high, they become very active, very explicit, and when Tamas becomes high, they procrastinate. So, this keeps going up and down, and according to that, a person will respond. Sometimes when the person is filled with Tamas, they may respond illogically, procrastinate. Procrastination brings forth anger, hatred, various types of feelings: feeling of separation, feeling of lack of love, etc. When that happens, maybe a disconnection happens between the person who loves them fully and the person who takes advantage of them.
Sometimes people think that the people who take advantage are good people because they fail to see the truth. At the same time, a thought may come that the people who love them unconditionally, but pretty rigid in their attitude are bad guys. In such cases, they hate the people who are truthful, and they follow the people who are manipulative. We have seen that in life. Sometimes people go after people who are manipulative, and they realise it much later. By the time too much of water would have flown under the bridge. That means time would have changed, and it would have probably become irreversible. Then betrayals happen, revenge happens, so much of bad blood happens. At the same time, the estrangement takes root; it means separation takes root, so this might become a trauma. But a master you are connected to, the Master will remain unconditional.
In the story of Victor Hugo, the Bishop gave food and accommodation to an ex-convict. When nobody wanted him, the society rejected him and did not want anything to do with him; at that time, the Bishop invited him to the church, gave him warm food and accommodation. But the convict in him could not accept it. The convict in him accepted himself as a bad guy, and decided, “This is not possible. Nobody can love me”. Because the inherent feeling or the concept or the state that he was in, rejected the kindness which the Bishop showed unconditionally.
What did he do? He stole the silver candle holders and ran away in the night. The police caught him, brought him back to the church because he had those candle holders which had the mark of the church on it. The police asked the Bishop, “Did this man steal something from the church?” and showed him the candleholders and few other things. The Bishop said, “No, I gave it to him”. Thus, he saved him again. That transformed the man.
So I always believe CONSISTENT KINDNESS transforms minds. So all you have to do is, not to have any expectation if you are brimming with unconditional love. If you expect people to appreciate, people to accept you as unconditional etc., there could be disappointments. Whenever there is an expectation, there is a potential for disappointment. So, express unconditional love consistently and be kind again and again and again, and you raise yourself in stature, not status. Stature is your ability to be unconditional love all the time. Then what happens in society? Society cannot ignore you anymore. Society will come around you, respect you and glorify you and make you a legend or legend hood comes to you because you have been consistent.
Consistency is a big deal. Many people do not have it. It is because they pitch expectation into an activity, and suffer sorrows and disappointment. So, this is something which we must remember. Be unconditional, but have the maturity to have no expectations. So you keep giving. Examples are Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi; we can find so many examples. They did not do things for the sake of earning glory, and because of that, glory came to them. Nelson Mandela, for example, He was behind bars in one cell for about 30 + years, that is, for most of his life. But when he came out, he was not affected. He created the platform for a peaceful society.
How can that happen? There was no revenge in his mind. Likewise, various great masters whom we have respected over time, they have been kind consistently, been compassionate, and been selfless consistently, and expecting nothing and that made them legends. Being unconditional is a beautiful thing. But it should have one more ingredient added into it. That is, zero expectation, and that will give you glory.
Question: How can we be sure that we are doing Consciousness Kriya correctly? And how do we know we’re making progress?
Mohanji: Well, any practice for that matter, say a normal physical practice, how do you know whether you are making progress? In simple terms, your proficiency increases. But in spiritual practice, the idea of spiritual practice is to give you a certain level of stability. So one of the criteria if you are doing a thing right, with the full application, full commitment, with conviction, faith, and consistency; if you are doing it properly, the result would be stability. Automatically, you will be very stable, and you will not be affected by the things around you too much. Things will be happening around you as it would, but it will not affect you as much as it usually would. So that’s the real sign that you are actually in the right track; we can extend it to say with fewer thoughts, less desires, etc.
End of the day, when you are practising it right, when you are consistent about it, and you believe in it, (if you don’t believe in it, if you are testing it, it may not work that much.) then you will realise that there is a kind of stability happening inside you. You are not fluctuated by the fluctuations of the outside world. The outside world will remain outside; the inside world will strengthen. When the inside world strengthens, the outside world cannot affect you anymore.
This phenomenon, you can see if you are getting more and more stable inside that means the external world will not affect you as much as it normally would. So, this is a clear sign of knowing you are doing it right. Sometimes, you know the method very well, but the effect is not happening because you do not trust it. Secondly, when we go to a guru with expectations and the guru gives you certain guidelines, but then we neither trust the guru nor the guidelines, we fail in the whole thing. It is because of one reason; we have not connected, we have not accepted. So, it’s important to accept wholeheartedly, experiment it, keep trying it, and after a while, it will start working. Maybe initially it may not work, it starts working as you go further and further.
There should be some kind of consistency in your practice; this is very important. If that’s not happening, the results may not happen. We become busy with our thought processes, so we do not have consistency sometimes. Then, that affects us, and we feel dejected, depressed because we are not progressing. Progress means less thoughts. Less thoughts means less desires. Less desires mean more detachment and more freedom.
Less thought = Less desires =Less needs = More detachment = More freedom.
That’s a benchmark which you can actually look for. But for that, you need to connect to your inside world more than the outside world. When we are running behind the pleasures of existence, entertaining the senses, entertaining the mind, etc., it may not work easily. On one side we are chasing things outside, but on the other side, we are trying to come inside, this struggle will continue.
So you must spend enough time with yourself. And I have always done that between 3 am to 8 am, early morning. That is because that time, the world is relatively free from you or you are free from the world. After that, you got to give yourself to the world. Maybe you are working, you are doing things, and then you are probably busy with your life outside. And that will take its toll. It’s okay, that’s part of life. But we got to spend time with ourselves, a personal time. That’s the time you should practise consistently with faith, faith in yourself, faith in the activity and also be clear that you are not keeping expectations ahead of you.
What are you doing? – Just practising. Just doing what it takes. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad. Just by focusing on the activity with full surrender, the results will start happening because you are starting to connect with yourself. End of the day, whether you are a Bhakti Yogi, following the path of devotion, or Jnyana Yogi, following the path of knowledge, or Karma yogi, following the path of service, or Raja Yogi, following the path of consciousness, it doesn’t matter. Everything leads you to yourself. Eventually, you will have to come back to yourself, and that’s the whole path. That’s the whole tradition. So this will happen anyway. This has to happen. So it doesn’t matter whether this practice is right or wrong, etc. I would say wrong practice means you need to put pressure to do it. Right practice is a pleasure. You are happy to do it. This is very simple.
Question: What would strengthen and help the awakening of consciousness?
Mohanji: Consistency strengthens our purpose. When we are consistent, what is our priority? We must ask this question some point in time. Imagine you came in contact with a very powerful master. But you contacted him for some personal gain or personal benefits, such as a job or a marriage or a relationship or some money or a position in the world, something like that. That’s very shallow. It may happen anyway.
But why did you associate with a very powerful Master? What brought you to him? It is your eligibility. What kind of eligibility brought you to a master of that kind? It is the eligibility for liberating yourself from the mundane existence of likes and dislikes, happiness and sorrow; this kind of duality. It was time for you to come out of it. That is how you came in contact with the master. Now, imagine you are still expressing your patterns, expectations leading to disappointments, ownerships, anger, hatred, jealousy, etc. What happens? You stand still! Your patterns are more powerful than your association with something really powerful (the master). That means your patterns become a wall in front of you, which disconnects you from that master.
Then that connection is wasted. You cannot use it because there is a wall in front of you. Your own patterns, concepts, prejudices make a wall, and the wall grows, because your ego enters. Ego sometimes manipulates you. Ego tells you, “Hey, look here! This is not how it should be; he should come forward to you, not you go to him” etc., all those things and it takes you away from reality and detaches you from reality and what happens is that the whole connection is wasted. So, when you come in contact with a master, you should have the priorities set right. And you should have extreme flexibility, flow like a river, and flow like water. Extreme flexibility helps you to progress in drastic speed.
As I told in the beginning, imagine you have a lot of lifetimes, let’s say 200 lifetimes. As you come closer to your soul, you can see these 200 lifetimes in one frame, like in the zoom, we can see all the people on one frame, all the people who are connected to us are all in one frame, and they are all in these frames. Like that, we can see our various lifetimes in one frame and then we will know that we have been expressing almost similar patterns. Maybe, we have been a man or a woman or a child or anything in each life, that doesn’t matter. But in every life, we have been expressing similar patterns, insecurities, prejudices, all the things which you are experiencing now have been the same in all those lives and the coming lives as well.
So what you are really doing is that with each death, you are just going out, changing clothes and coming back into a new life. So it’s like a new scene in the drama. We are acting scene by scene by scene. If you take a drama, in that kind of boundary/frame, you are enacting a role. And you keep coming back in a new costume, and you play the role. In between, you are coming in contact with a master who says, “I will take you out of this. You had enough of roles in life, you have played a lot of roles, and I’ll take you out of it”. But then again, you have been used to certain patterns all these lifetimes, similar patterns. So what will you say? “Okay, I would like you to take me out of it. But you know what, I have something more to settle because I have left some things on another screen, another time so that I want to go back to complete that. That man cheated me. So I must go back and cheat him. He betrayed me. So I must betray him.” Like that, we have scores to settle.
We have things to complete, which provokes further lives. So in this whole bargain, in various lifetimes we have come in contact with people who have come out of this drama; they have finished their acting, they have already settled within themselves, they’ve understood there’s no need for this drama. They’ve experienced everything connected to this whole life, and they don’t want it anymore. They know it very well, and they have come out of it. These people still hang on to guide others to come out of it. But then our patterns are so strong, that we may even blame the people who are already detached from it, saying, “No, no, this guy doesn’t understand, I have to take care of this thing. This is more important for me.” ‘I’ am important. I factor. ‘I’ is the association with the role not with the actor. This is the problem. We associate ourselves with the role.
If Mohanji associates himself as a guru, then Mohanji has a problem. I’m not a guru all the time. When I play with Mila, I’m not a guru. I’m her father. Like that in every scene, I play a different role. And the sum total of it is what is called this incarnation. So, that acceptance should happen. With extreme flexibility, when you play the role, you play it well, good enough for an Oscar. You play it supremely well, and when you come out of it, you have nothing to do with it. That is the detachment we talk about. We have that experience every day.
Remember, when we go to bed, we shut off from this external world. We are completely detached. We shut the screen; there is nothing on the screen, no world outside. Then we connect to the internal world, and we see the drama of life as dreams. We get tired; we shut that also. Then we go into a deep sleep where you shut off everything, body, mind-matter, everything is shut off. You are totally sitting in consciousness with consciousness. You are sleeping with consciousness. Then you come back again to the waking state, where you and the world come alive. Again you wear the costume of this incarnation as per your projection, and the world recognises you as you are known in this incarnation. But is that you? Ask this question – Am I this? This role play is important in this act for sure, because you play that role, but is that you?
Why do you set boundaries? Why do we have boundaries? This question will happen, and that time we will start understanding the role play. So, everybody’s life is just acting, or role plays and patterns are guiding. The inclinations, tendencies push them to express what they are into this world. That means we are projecting what we are into this world. That means we are seeing or experiencing this world as WE are; we cannot experience the world as it is. We are not experiencing the world as the world is. Instead, we are experiencing the world as we are. What do you see around? What do you get from this world? – Opinions, concepts, prejudices, and so many factors of that kind. Think about it.
The world is full of opinions; it may not be the truth. Somebody says, “This person is not good.” That is his perspective. That person thinks that the other person is not as good as per his criterion. But another person may say, “This guy is very good.” So who’s telling the truth? Nobody is good. Nobody is bad. It’s our perspective; it is the way we see it. We see a person, and if our frequency is not matching with something, we call it not good – For whom? – For us. So, when we tell another person, “That person is not good, stay away”, are we missing heavily here? Definitely. We are missing a lot because we fail to see the truth. Our opportunity to see the truth or our opportunity to be neutral and have clarity is taken away because we see the world through our ears, not through our eyes. Eyes are given to see the world, to see the truth, but eyes cannot see the truth because ears work more.
We experience that in life. So this has to be clearly understood. The world is as it is, but we see the world as we are. And then if you see this whole 100, 200 lifetimes of our existence, you can see the same pattern at work. But because we are getting involved in the drama, we cannot really come out, because each person changes the costume and comes back and we must be there. We are addicted to this play, and we keep coming back: the same people, different costumes, and different order. They all come back, and they all provide similar emotions because they’re all coming with patterns; similar emotions. We enter into the drama, and we really suffer from that drama, sometimes happy sometimes sorrow, but do we see this drama? We must. The moment you start seeing the drama, and then you realise, “Oh, this is the story.”
Do you know why we have assassinated most of the people who spoke the truth? The people, whom we assassinated like Jesus and Socrates, were great masters who saw the truth and told the truth – undistorted truth, but we killed them. We character assassinated them. Why did we do that? Because we do not see, we can’t see. We are blind to reality. We only see what WE are, what is our pattern through the eyes of the pattern. We only see through the eyes of the pattern, through the eyes of our prejudices and concepts. Through the spectacles of what we have carried forward and what we have collected, we are watching this world. We are witnessing this world, and we don’t see the truth. We do not even accept the truth. All these people are like that. That is why racism, speciesism is all because we are eating concepts right from our breakfast till we sleep.
Somebody says, “It’s okay to kill an animal and eat” and we eat. We do not think that they have a life. They have a right to live as much as we have. The right is the same for every species which we don’t see. Likewise RACE. Each person is born in a certain community, and that’s about it. Nobody is higher or lower. Nobody can be higher or lower. Experience wise, everybody has the same right; the same kind of experience. If you touch fire, your hand will burn. The same happens with every race, everybody.
If we start seeing beyond all these seeming boundaries that we have created for ourselves and we fail to see the truth, then we realise, ”Oh, so there is a pattern”, but when do we get to see it? Even when somebody who has seen it tells you, we may not accept it. We may ask mundane questions. What will happen to me in the future? Does that mean you are asking what is the script? Or ask what will happen after my death? You will come back in the same way. It doesn’t matter. What you can do right now is your only reality. Try to connect yourself and try to see the truth now. That can change your future. Not that the future can change by sitting doing nothing, or entertaining the patterns now. Future will not change like that. Future will be future, patterns will continue, and patterns are ruling us. Our inclinations and tendencies are ruling us, which we don’t know. Even if it is told, we do not accept, nor do we understand. We do not allow changes because we are too bound by the patterns. We don’t even see. I have to sleep; I have to eat; I have to do this. I have to do that. You are completely preoccupied and bound by patterns, where your freedom is lost. As I have explained in today’s message, freedom is freedom from the senses and mind, not of the senses and mind. But unfortunately, what we have always been told and what we tell others is that I have freedom because I can go out and do whatever I like. That means being a slave is freedom. When you say, “I have the freedom to go out and do things that I like”, you are saying, “I can exercise my patterns and I call that my freedom”.
That is not freedom. Freedom is a state where you are free from your own senses and mind. Senses are pretty much sensors; they cannot operate on their own, the mind provokes them. So when you are free from your mind-matter such as intellect, ego and mind, then the senses are in control. If they are not bothering you, if the mind is not bothering you and if you are detached from your mind, and in the state of witness hood and mind is not really provoking the senses to go out, that’s the only time you experience freedom. Otherwise, you don’t. Whatever we say as freedom: freedom of choices, freedom of doing things; that is not freedom. That is just another word for living your own patterns.
Freedom is when you need nothing from Earth. Freedom is when you are free from your mind. If you understand that clearly, you have understood the whole tapestry. You have understood the whole thing. So when you are coming in contact, or when you are fully in contact with your own soul factor, then you see life in the whole picture, the whole frame, every life, and all the lifetimes together. That time you realise, if I miss the chance to get out of this drama, I’m stuck again. That’s the time when we realise this connection which you have received in the path of spirituality is worth millions, or it’s totally priceless. That’s the only real thing in Life.
Forget about the patterns and other things. You want to get married; you want to have children, a house, etc., all these are patterns. But look at the reality now. Look at the truth which you have come in contact with. The truth of being you, the truth to be you, connect to you, accept you, understand you, assimilate you, align you, be you and realise you. We call it self-realisation, and that is priceless. You cannot put a frame or a price to it. And the role of a master is to bring you to this awareness, not to force you into this awareness. No master will force you, why should they force you?
A true master will show you a mirror, “Look here, this is where you stand”. “Then where should I go?” – Into yourself. Which way? You connect to yourself through contemplation, understand yourself, and accept yourself. Acceptance is very important. You have to accept yourself with all your weaknesses and strengths. You have to feel yourself as you are and be yourself. This life is a golden chance. Do not chase the rainbows now because we have been chasing it always, in all the lifetimes. Now, we have got an opportunity to be aware that reality is at hands reach. We have come in contact with reality. And this is worth anything. That should be the first priority.
Destruction of patterns should be your first priority. But you can’t destroy something and stay empty. You got to catch something higher. How do you catch it? What will you catch? TRUTH. The Truth inside you; the truth is what you are catching. That truth is inside you. That’s the real you; the witness who needs nothing from Earth, nothing from anywhere. Beyond relationships, beyond time, space, beyond matters, materials, possessions, positions, this is you. You start connecting to that; you will see immense power happening inside you, overwhelming power.
Because you are free, you feel the power of freedom. It is great freedom to feel that power. That power is not to display to somebody, not to show off. The power is big, the power of beingness, the power of being you, you have nothing to prove on Earth. There’s nothing to prove; there is nothing to ask for or nothing to gain from Earth. Instead, you are giving the Earth all your brightness. Imagine, this is the truth of liberation. This is a liberated existence. If we understand that, we have understood everything. This is within you; it is not something which is kind of unreachable. It’s not a tall order. It’s within you. It’s you, connecting to you, assimilating you, aligning you and being you.
The connection with the master is to bring that spark, to light that fire. Then the fire catches, burns you and reduces you to yourself. All other things go away; all the patterns, concepts, everything burns into ashes. Then you become you. If this is really understood, you have understood everything. This opportunity is right at hand, and you have it. This Guru Poornima is the right day to think about it. Sage Vyasa, Vashishta, Saptarishis; everybody came to tell you this story, that human birth is extremely important. And in human birth, you have this opportunity to recognise, understand and assimilate your true self, the truth.
It’s not a linear existence. Life goes linear from birth till death, but that is only for the sake of experience. However, truth does not go linear. The truth remains vertical, always vertical. All the time, the truth remains the same. When you are a child, the truth is the same. When you are an adult, the truth is the same. In your old age, the truth is the same. Truth never changes. But in linear time, experiences changes, perception changes, body changes, mind changes, intellect changes, everything changes. And we confuse ourselves by thinking, “I am changing.” However, nothing is changing. You are the same, you cannot change, and truth cannot change.
So, if you’ve really understood this, you will start recognising the truth every moment. What you get out of it? – Immense stability, peace, tranquility, freedom. You will experience the real meaning of freedom only when you reach that state, where you are connected to the truth yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after. It doesn’t matter what your moods are, what your surroundings are, what your emotions are. Not a problem. Nothing matters. You could be anger, hatred, jealousy, lust, anything. Not a problem. It is a state of freedom. That’s exactly how great masters existed -consistent, stable, integrity, unchangeable because you are connecting to the unchangeable.
A very warm welcome to all of you! It gives me immense joy to be with all of you today. Today is an extremely special day for me, because I have received the gift of being in the presence of Mohanji early in the morning.
I had some questions that I wanted to ask Him, and He very gladly and sweetly and lovingly came on the show.
For those who don’t know, Mohanji likes to be addressed as a friend to the world. But to a lot of people who know Him, He is much more than that. He dons many hats. In my eyes, He is One with the Absolute One. He is One with the Absolute Stillness, with Absolute Bliss, the sat-chit-ananda aspect of consciousness that we know. The Shiva tattva – that is where He is. So do not get taken in by the physical encasement that He is in.
I invite you to connect with your heart and soul to His energy, and inwardly stay connected with Him throughout the conversation that I play out on the channel.
He sends a lot of love and a lot of blessings to each one of you.
The conversation with Mohanji was pretty long. Hence I have divided the interview in parts. The various segments of the interview will be uploaded on various days. Today, please go ahead and soak in the wisdom and love of Mohanji by watching the first part.
So Baba, the very first question from the first set of questions that I have, is:
Q: What according to you is the main goal of human life?
Mohanji: Well, the human birth itself is a miracle. Because only with this birth, you are able to perceive the highest possible reality. But not many people are aware of it.
We are oriented to the world outside. When we wake up, we are keeping certain identities and then we are busy expressing our identifications in the world outside. We are busy gathering experiences from this world outside.
In this struggle of expression and experience, we forget our true nature. And almost always, we don’t remember. Even at the time of death, most people die with more desires, that means an inevitable coming back. They have to come back in order to complete – this is human life. This is what you see in most cases. You ask, “What is the goal?” It depends on the person – on how many desires you have, that are of terrestrial nature. That would be your main goal – to fulfill them.
But if you are talking about the essence point of view : we have this physical body, which is the cage or the shell for us to express and experience this world. Express into this world, and experience from this world. Then we have a processor unit called mind-matter (mind, intellect and ego). Mind is processing emotion, intellect is processing information, ego is processing matter connected to ownership and identifications. So these processors are also completely oriented to the world outside. They are busy maintaining your identity. Then behind that, there is an operating platform called Consciousness. Waking state, dream state, deep sleep state – these three states are platforms, they have no interest in the experiences, nor expressions. They are not interested in what you are and what you want. But they provide you the platform, just like earth is providing you the platform for your existence.
Consciousness in three states provides you a platform for your experiences. Behind that, there is even more silent existence. There is something which is even more silent in existence- that is the soul. This is totally neutral, totally peaceful, totally eternal, imperishable. This aspect is the only real aspect in our existence. For a yogi to experience the real aspect is the highest aspiration (but for a bhogi – the normal people, that’s not of interest). Because you got to get away from all the noises of life, you have to withdraw from all the noises, all the identifications, nullifying everything and gain a level of silence, so that you can communicate with the silence inside or the soul aspect. It is not easy, it is not as simple as we think. All the methods, all the practices – they are all to gain this silence.
Some people touch it. Some people touch it and leave it. Some people stabilize. Very few people stabilize in it. It takes absolute effort. From knowledge of soul to the experience of soul – it’s a long walk, it’s a long way. So when do you actually know that you’re getting closer? The outside noises become something outside of you, which means the involvement changes, your involvement changes. You do not get involved with the noises outside. Whatever happens outside, internally you are stable. That means you have settled inside. You can only settle down properly and eternally in one place – within you, inside you. In all the other places of our settlement, we are just parking the body for some time and we have to remove it when we die. Somebody will remove it when we die. We come to earth with two people, and we are taken away by four people, who hold us when we go to the graveyard. So between these two and four is our existence – this is our life.
So what is the goal of human existence? It is an individualistic story. The story of an individual. If I say attaining the soul, or self-realization is the true goal, some people may disagree. Some people may say – to have a drink is the goal, work hard in the morning, come back home and have a drink, this is the goal. So it varies. Various people – various goals. One person says that to get a job is the goal, and once they get the job, they say to get leave is the goal. So the goal changes, as the situation changes.
Q: What is your suggestion to parents today? How do you think parents should bring up their children?
Mohanji: You don’t have to bring up your children. They automatically bring themselves up. So the best you can do to your children or give to your children is to lead by example. If you completely, consistently display calmness, coolness , attitude of respect, gratitude and you display that in your life, children will learn from that. Don’t try to teach them. Try to demonstrate with your own life, what best is possible. Like for example you have a choice of expressing compassion, kindness, unconditional love, selflessness, purity in thought, word, action, non-resistance, acceptance. Like this – so many good things you can demonstrate and explain through your life. That’s the right message for your children. Otherwise, if you are displaying anger, hatred, jealousy, confusion, impatience, all these things – children will pick it up and think that this is okay. Your life should be your message, and your life is your message.
Q: Baba, every family undergoes at times, differences between family members. There is a difference of opinion, there are certain conflicts that may happen. What do you suggest? What’s the best way for people to resolve those conflicts? I mean, what’s the best way of handling that ?
Mohanji: Acceptance of differences is the best way.
Because we can’t be the same. We are not the same. Our creation itself is different. We are all different frequencies. We are different, we have different orientations and we decide to live together. Then what is best is that we accept that there are differences, and we are comfortable with it. So that we respect each person’s difference and we allow the individuality in that order. That will help. Otherwise, we will always be fighting.
This whole system of marriage which is of ownership, is obsolete now. When in refinement, we must respect individual. It’s not that the husband is superior to the wife. We exist together, we work together for higher purpose. That should be the way. There is no ownership at all. You can’t own even your body because when you die, your body is taken away. You can’t own anything on earth. You can’t even carry one pebble. There’s no import or export possible in this existence, in true sense. You can’t export anything from here. Whatever you earn from here, you have to leave behind. So this mad rush for materials and positions and positions, they are all mind’s matter. In true sense, they have no validity. So, respecting an individual as they are, is very essential. I always feel that a woman and man have no difference, except in terms of purpose. There’s no difference and it should be alike. That is why this ownership-related lifestyle in modern days, has always created negativity – too much of negativity. Then we see that so many people are distracted and disappointed because of relationships. Why do we enter into such things at all? We should respect and live like friends.
Nobody can own anybody, we know that very well. Why do we have inner conflict in that order? This is the whole story. Co-existence, respect, gratitude. These are great things we can practice. If we practice them, we will not have this anger, hatred, revenge.
See, revenge and anger and hatred are of very, very low frequency. If you fall into that frequency, it is very difficult to get out, to come out. These are practiced only by insecure people. Insecure people will take revenge. Secure people, stable people will have no interest in revenge. What will they revenge for? If somebody behaves badly, it’s not our problem.
Imagine if I scold you and if I am angry, you should not be worried. Because all the poison is inside me. So when people abuse me, I always think, “Why do they contaminate their mind? My mind is not contaminated. I’m not taking it, I’m not receiving it. Let them say whatever they want, because they have a problem within themselves. I have no problem. I’m fine, I’m secure because I’m inside myself. So let them do whatever they want. Let them say whatever they want, I am unaffected.” This is possible in human existence through practice. We can practice it. I feel that we should respect everybody, whether it is the elected government or the people in the government or in the private companies or our service providers – respect everybody. Talk to everybody, discuss instead of arguing and resolve.
We have great possibilities within our existence. Instead of exploring the great possibilities, we push our image and ego on the other, and then we have conflict. We should not go there.
Q: Parents who are in their 60s and 70s and have fulfilled all their responsibilities, their duties, what is your advice for them? How should they be living the remaining years on earth?
Mohanji: I think everybody should feel as if they are 18, and be enthusiastic about life. There’s nothing called 50, 60 and you’re done. Then I’m already done! Where is our relevance?! I think that there is nothing like age, this is actually a cap which we are putting on ourselves. It’s like an escapism. I feel this talk about age is broadly an escapism. They think that, “Okay, I am retired now. I don’t want to do anything.“ In life itself, they didn’t do anything, and after retirement they really don’t want to do anything. Instead of that, I would say: “Every moment, live ! “ When you are living every moment, be alive. Not exist for eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the toilet, and die. Not like that. We should live every moment. We should express our best potential every moment. Give great stuff to the world.
See, a 60 year old man has a wealth of experience which nobody can take away from him. He should share it with the world. No retirement. I don’t believe in retirement. I don’t believe in holidays. I have not taken any holidays recently. I don’t take holidays, I work. Because if you are able to work, you work. If you can’t work, you don’t work, finished. But you don’t wait for a stage where you don’t have to work. I think that’s escapism. It’s laziness in disguise.
So I say: Work and do your best in the world, and enjoy and experience life. Let it come. Bring it on. I like to live the life of a lion, not a rat. That’s exactly what I recommend to people. Since you’ve taken birth, live a royal life, inside at least. It’s not about money. It’s an attitude. The right attitude. This is very important.
Q: Baba, a couple of people have told me that I should ask you this question and this is related to karma. If you could throw some light on what is individual karma, family karma and also collectively, there is something called the Nation’s karma as well. Would you want to share some insights on this?
Mohanji: Nation’s karma is collective consciousness built up over time. Individual karma is individual desires, individual orientations, individual comfort zones, individual inclinations and tendencies put together. An individual has lineage karma coming into them because they have their parents’ and their parents’ stuff. That which they collected, part of it comes to us like our inheritance. Also we collect something from society. What we wanted to experience in this life, we have brought it forward. This is a mixture. So that will stay as long as it takes. This means that from birth until death, we are experiencing the individual karma. Social karma is from a conglomeration of numerous beings, a collective consciousness. The whole life has a karmic boundary, and that boundary has to be respected and appreciated. And usually, one will not know the karmic boundary until it happens. It is linear to time, so we do not understand. When our desires are less and detachment is more from the world outside, our karmic weight reduces.
Q: Baba, how can people lessen the effects of their past bad karma?
Mohanji: Doing good work, social service, helping the helpless, feeding the beings of the water in nature – the fishes and the beings of the seas, the rivers and ponds, basins and lakes. Feed the birds in the air – the birds in nature, in the air. Feed the beings on earth – like the animals on earth. Give food and clothing to old people, sick people, abandoned children, abandoned women. So like that, the more you give, the more you clear. The more you share, the more you clear. That is the best way. I believe in sharing and releasing of the karmas, more than the rituals. Because mostly we are not doing the rituals, it’s being done through somebody. But while we are serving the society, we can do it ourselves and we can actually feel the weight reduction.
Q: Baba, how does free will and destiny come into play? How does this work – free will, free choice and destiny?
Mohanji: Free will is connected to our awareness while at work. Destiny is the main platform, the main thread until death and beyond. Free will is your awareness – you are aware that this is happening, and your acceptance level, that’s your free will. You can accept or reject. You can accept or resist, that is your free will. When you resist – it stays longer. When you accept it, it finishes that time. Free will is your state of mind. It’s your attitude, where you are comfortable with your life. You’re content, you’re happy and then you are accepting things as things happen. There is no resistance. You are free.
Q: How do people deal with the expectations and conditioning that society puts on them. Even if they personally don’t want to take it, at a certain stage of their life, they are expected to have achieved certain things, to have done certain things. How do people deal with this, when they want to exercise their free will?
Mohanji: Just like you go to the supermarket, where there are so many things for sale. What will you pick up? Whatever you need in the house, what is within your capacity, and what is necessary for you. Just like that, all the people outside of you, all the people of the society are selling you something – it could be expectation, it could be requirement, it could be necessity, it could be whatever. You buy only what you can handle. That’s the right balance.
Wish you great success with your YouTube channel. I wish you great success!Thank you for interviewing me. And I wish you a very happy birthday! My love to all those who are listening to us or seeing us.
Addictions start with a thought. For example before you start drinking, you think you would like to have a beer. And before the thought comes up there is an inclination which provokes the thought. Thought is born out of that inclination. Look, I never think I should have a drink because I don’t have the inclination to drink alcohol. What comes before the inclination? Karma! So the root is karma, which you carried forward from another life, because you wanted to experience alcohol. So the seed for drinking alcohol is already in your causal layer. When the environment is right this seed will sprout. This seed is the vasana (tendency) and when there is vasana then you get the thought. You might suppress the thought but that does not mean it has disappeared. So in specific situations the thought becomes a word, and you might say “I want a beer.” Then someone gets you a beer and it becomes an action.
Addictions happen when the subconscious takes over: conscious mind engages in doing action, and then the subconscious takes over. Then it reproduces it, as a faithful servant. And then when you reproduce it over a period of time it becomes your habit and then part of your character. How to come out of it? Reverse the process! Take it out of the subconscious and bring it into your full awareness and consciousness. And when you are in with that drink or cigarette with full attention, every drink you feel 100%, and then this habit drops slowly but surely. That’s the only way.
Thus source of addictions is inertia and you can listen more in the podcast Inertia.
Overcoming addictions or bad habits
Q: How to overcome addictions? Being aware is very difficult in the heat of the moment.
Mohanji: First of all make a diagnosis that you have an addiction and it is binding you. It can be any binding – a person, material, any binding is not conducive for liberation, whether it is a person, a situation, ownership of materials, ownership of people… Whatever bindings we have, they are all handicaps. They are all addictions. They are not only material addictions. So fundamentally, we need a diagnosis i.e. awareness that there is something which is binding you.
Next, whenever you cannot handle something yourself, approach somebody who can help you; someone who has already gone through it, who has experience, who can guide you to get out of it. Whenever a situation happens in our life, for example, you have to handle tax payment and you do not know how to do it, you have to talk to a tax consultant to handle it correctly. Similarly, when you have an ailment, you need to talk to a doctor. When you have an addiction, a compelling behaviour which you cannot change, you need to connect to an expert. That is the best approach. We have experts, counsellors, guides who can take people out of various situations. You can choose one who is time-tested or with good recommendations. That’s the way to come out of addictions. Usually the same mindset which started an addiction cannot get one out of it because the same frequency which created something cannot be used to uncreate it. You need a slightly higher frequency to uncreate it. That is exactly how it has to happen.
When you know there is an addiction, there is always something which has created it. So go to the root cause. It could be boredom or some kind of disappointment, something which could have created it. Just an environment would have also given you that. Because you live in a particular environment and it was ok to have this addiction. So anything could have given you this addiction. AWARENESS is the right thing to overcome addictions. When you say ‘awareness’, first awareness is that your duration in this world is limited. You know very well, if you live 80 years, it is only 29200 days out of which we sleep, eat, wash, wash clothes, fight with people (laughs), we have our moods, then we watch television, entertainment, for all these put together we have only 29200 days, if we live 80 years. That awareness is the fundamental.
In that time what would you like to do properly?
This is the most important thing. Forget about destiny, forget about karma, forget about everything. You have a body, you have a situation, a life, environment, a particular nationality, a house to stay, food to eat, whatever. What do you want to do now? When you are clear about this, stop complaining. No self-pity at all. That’s a very, very bad thing which paralyses you. Don’t look for somebody’s sympathy or approval. That is also going to paralyse you.You are an individual. You are born alone. You will die alone. Nobody will be there for your birth or death. Your parents were there at the time of birth, somebody will take you to the graveyard. That’s about it. But you are taking birth alone and you are dying alone.
Q: In this boundary of time, what would you like to express? What do you really want to do in this world?
If you have clarity about that, you will automatically go beyond all your habits and addictions because mind is often on a repetitive mode. Mind is just following a repetitive pattern.
When you are conscious about your life and the duration of life and that this body has been leased from earth and body is made out of elements, like earth, water, air, fire, then you understand you do not have control over your body – it is changing, mind is changing, everything is changing. You have no grip on any of these things. When you are very clear about all this, you will understand, ”What am I supposed to do here? What is my core nature?” Once you come to terms with your core nature, you can get out of any binding habit. This is not a problem. Otherwise, mind will say, “Ok, you are used to coffee, tea, smoking, just do it, what’s the problem?” But then we understand this is not what we want to do in our life and we start being detached from being any of these things.
So, sense of purpose, CLARITY OF PURPOSE, removes everything unwanted from our system. Gain clarity. Clarity should be individualistic, not that somebody tells you what you should do. That is not yours. Even if I tell you what you should do, that’s not yours. You should gain it from the inside. “What am I supposed to do in this life? What do I really want to do with this incarnation which has a duration, time limit?” Then it will give you the clarity of purpose. Think about it. Contemplate on it and make your purpose very clear. Purpose means the highest purpose you want to achieve in this life. Not just eat, drink, sleep and die. That clarity will give you a lot of strength, determination and then you can break any boundary in your life, especially habits.
Questioner: Who is a Guru? I’ve heard a guru is like a GPS. Can we progress without a Guru?
Mohanji: Thank you very much for inviting me and thank you very much for this opportunity. My gratitude to the Healing Our Earth team and all of you.
About the question about guru – I follow the tradition of Lord Dattatreya who had 24 gurus. When somebody asked Dattatreya, “Who are you?”, he said, “I am just a worshipper of nature”. So, the fundamental is that anything and everything around us is teaching us something. And the greatest and the highest Guru is life itself – life gives you lessons.
And if you consider 24 hours, we have three distinct dimensions that we go through without any choice:
1) One is the waking state where we interact with the world outside. We gather experiences and we project ourselves into the world (and as per our projection we get experiences).
2) Then we enter into a state of the dreams, the dream state where we completely shut off the world outside, close the eyes and then go within the world inside. Then what we process here is from what we have collected and stored.
3) Then that is also shut down when we enter into a deep sleep state where we completely nullify all the experiences.
So when awareness is connected to the physical level, we have the waking state.
When awareness is connected to mind-matter (which is mind, intellect, and ego where mind processes emotions, intellect processes information and ego processes things connected to ownership), when we connect to that mind-matter and become fully immersed in that, then what comes alive is what is stored by these faculties inside.
And then we connect to the consciousness aspect when we have deep sleep, and we don’t know whether we are a man or a woman. We don’t know the time or space, we are completely not accessible to this world, and we don’t have the world to access.
We take a rebirth again every morning – we come back. So we go through this process, almost like a pattern. And then we decide that we are this personality that we have projected in the world. We are also trying to figure out what we are in this world, based on our positions and possessions.
So at some point in time, we realize that this is not really giving us the whole satisfaction – we are actually roaming around for pleasures.
At some point in time we realize there is something permanent and perpetual. That’s a time when we start associating – that the first level of physical, second level of mind-matter and then the third level of consciousness : that it has got these three states, we start thinking about it. It is called manana, not dhyana (meditation), it’s contemplation. That is why various masters have time and again repeated that it is important to contemplate, not meditate. Meditation will happen spontaneously but contemplation is very, very important. The more you contemplate, the more you realize that there is somebody witnessing the whole show. And then it is a quest for knowing who is the permanent, unshakable witnessing this whole show and is always unattached. So this question happens inside. And then we start going within. And it’s an inner journey, it’s definitely not an outside journey.
So as far as the tradition that I follow is concerned, you’ve got to find yourself, and that’s the whole thing. When the student asked the teacher, “I can’t really understand all these scriptures – Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Shrutis, Smritis, and 33 crore Gods! I can’t really go through all this. I can’t understand. Tell me in one word what this whole story is”.
The teacher said, “YOU! You are the whole story. Tat Tvam Asi”. (You are that)
Then the quest is to find this You, who is actually making all this experience possible. That’s the way the connection happens.
So the Dattatreya tradition has great masters like Sai Baba who everybody knows. He lived as a fakir and a Sufi saint. And though he was living in one place, his energy and power radiated in several places. As a perfect avadhoota, he had fully turned inward the faculties like mind, intellect and ego, and started finding himself. And then he finally found the soul aspect, the atma tattva, stabilized there and settled down. Then what you see outside is your own reflection everywhere. So all the leaves, plants, trees, people, animals, birds, everything gives you a lesson. Because you see yourself in everything. And then you become one with the whole universe. So this is the guru principle that we are talking about.
Guru is definitely not just a human being. Of course we talk about Lord Krishna, as jagath (world) guru. Definitely because he lived the detachment. What he lived for is valid even now, because he was in everything and he was in nothing. Perfect detachment. So like that, there have been masters who time and again came and displayed the possibility of existing without boundaries and full freedom.
Freedom means freedomfromthe senses and mind, not freedom of the senses. We have misunderstood this concept too much. When we talk about freedom, we talk about freedom to do anything we like to do or to say whatever we like, that in society we can be ourselves as we are. That is not freedom. That is just an expression of patterns. What freedom is, is the freedom from senses and mind where we do not have any kind of binding to anything around. So this is exactly the freedom which the masters have lived, and expressed.
Now when you talk about guru principle, the job of the guru was to live it and the job of the disciple was to connect to that principle of freedom and walk towards it, inside. Go within and find yourself. So this takes time. In my earlier days, I used to go to the Himalayas quite often when I was working in a company as well. And I was trying to find out this me and it took a long time. I did not have a personal guru at that time, but I connected to my spine – being aware of the spine when I’m walking, when I’m doing things, I’m still aware of the spine. And then automatically things started shifting, awareness started shifting, it took me many years. But the point I’m trying to tell is that if you really want to find your guru, you have to find yourself. If you have found yourself, you found the guru. Then everything around is your guru. All the gurus brighten up when you brighten up. So this is already sitting inside. So that is why Tat Tvam Asi has a lot of value. That means, this is the fundamental principle of all the scriptures. If everything were put together and crushed and a juice made out of it all, you get one thing called You. That is the final thing you can get.
When we walk this path, don’t think it will be easy – because our patterns have become too strong. We have been used to so many things, we have been literally entertaining ourselves and our patterns for a long period of time. And we have forgotten that we are bound by patterns, bound by concepts, bound by prejudices. When we look at a person we decide that we don’t like him, or we like him. This is all connected to how we see the world. Basically, there are no enemies, there are no friends, it’s just as it is, and the world is as it is. We all have our space, we all have our relevance, our activity, we have to do something here and all that we are doing is projecting ourselves to the world and getting it back. That is what we are doing. But once you start assimilating yourself, once you find yourself, then you stop projecting, as there’s nothing to project. Instead you start reflecting like a mirror, you will be like a mirror. When somebody comes in front, you reflect that without prejudices, without expectations, without any kind of flavors – as it is. So that makes you a perfect master, total reflection. That is why great masters like Haidakhan Baba said, “When you come to me with anger, I become anger. When you come to me with love, I become love”. That means that you do not have flavors to project, instead you are being a reflection of the whole world, and that is a very sincere reflection, there’s no flavor. And that is consistent, no change. So when you become like that, you become like a huge magnet because you have no flavors. You become every flavor, you are everybody, you’re everything! There is no discrimination, you see the atma tattva in everything, the soul particle, the soul aspect factor which is in all things, and you connect to that – no barrier. So this is exactly what the soul principle is. And that is exactly what the guru principle is.
On Guru Purnima day, all I would like to tell you that whatever you are searching for is already within. And when you realize that, it is called self-realization. The realization is only of what you already have and what you realize at some point in time is that you have it. So that’s very simple, and all you need to do to achieve that is to spend time with yourself, not in books, not in rituals, not in activities, not with people. You’ve got to find time for yourself, assimilate yourself. For all that you need to accept yourself. Most of us have a big problem accepting ourselves. We judge ourselves, criticize ourselves, we doubt ourselves. And that creates the distance between ourselves and us. We find it difficult to come within because our acceptance is conditional for ourselves. And then the same thing gets reflected in society – you don’t accept everybody, then we don’t accept situations either. And then we sometimes have a lot of opinions. The world is full of opinions, but we have to go beyond opinions and realize the truth. Opinions are flavored because they are situational, and they are a play of duality. But reality is totally detached from opinions. So we got to really cut out all this, these kind of fringes. And then you come inside. And then you feel okay : ‘I’m complete as it is, I’m unique. I’m neither higher, nor lower or equal to anybody. I’m unique, and this is exactly what I’m supposed to express in this world, nothing more’. And then you start connecting to yourself.
So total acceptance is the first step, and complete liberation is the result. Thank you very much.
Questioner: My god, that was so enlightening. My eyes were glued on your eyes, trying to focus on this message. My question for others. Freedom from senses and mind is one of the most difficult things to go through. How would you recommend this for individuals to go through?
Mohanji: Thanks very much. The first step is always acceptance, self-acceptance, self-respect, self-love. See, the most criticized person in our life is ourselves by ourselves! We judge ourselves, we compare ourselves, and we criticize ourselves when we try to compete with other people, and then we dilute our uniqueness in that way, and that’s the detrimental factor. We say – I am not good enough because of X number of reasons – this is not true.
We are good enough, we are unique. Nobody is like us. Our thumb impression is unique to ourselves and our retina is unique to ourselves, and we are unique creations. This has to be accepted, the first and primary step. And that is the moment we start accepting ourselves, we stop competing and stop comparing. Then we start connecting with ourselves with wonder, like a child. Like you know, when a small child is given a toy. The child will be playing, touching the toy and feeling the toy and literally enjoying the toy for a long time. And then it really is fully occupied, full concentration Like that, we have to accept ourselves as a unique creation and start experiencing ourselves with wonder, not as somebody in the society (that is only when we are awake).
There are two things to understand: one is pratheethi and the other is anubhoothi.
Pratheethi means we open our eyes and we see things outside and we connect to those things, and we have an experience.
Anubhoothi means even if you close your eyes, you have that experience inside, you don’t need an object. For example, when you wake up in the morning and you say, ‘Oh, I’m happy, I slept well’, there was no material, there was no person, there was no interaction, but still you’re happy. So we realize that for happiness, you don’t really have to interact with the world. So that kind of awareness takes you to yourself and you start exploring that aspect of yourself. This is all simple awareness that we should have. Awareness. Bodh!
Awareness is the key, when you are aware of yourself and you accept : the 2 A’s (acceptance, awareness.) You do that all the time – when you’re working, when you’re traveling, when you’re sitting in one place, when you’re interacting, just be aware of how you are, what you are, and be fascinated by yourself. So then after a while, you will be fully connected to yourself, and you will be very much linked and happy with yourself. See, all our frustrations, anxieties, insecurities everything is connected to the world outside – all of them will have no value anymore, because we have a lot to see and a lot to feel inside.
And that’s the way we come inside. There are techniques defined by various traditions such as concentrating on the heartbeat, concentrating on the breath, and also assimilating, you are controlling, the pranayama kind of stuff. All those things are there. Anything which is suitable for you is good for you. That’s no problem. But fundamentally, everything should start with acceptance. And there you go, and then be aware. When you’re angry, be aware of the anger, when you’re jealous, be aware of the jealousy. Always be aware but do nothing about it. When you’re constantly being aware, already your witness. You’re taking a step backwards and seeing it. When you are seeing it, that thing loses its intensity. When you are experiencing anger and you’re witnessing the anger, the anger will happen, but you are not angry. This is the difference. So when you take one step backwards and start looking at it, you know that you are actually powerful, you’re not a victim of all these emotions. Instead, you are experiencing all these emotions and you’re still the same, you are completely a witness. This is possible. It takes time, but the first foremost step is acceptance. That is why I keep insisting on acceptance because if we don’t accept yourself; society will not accept us. So this is as simple as that. When you look at the whole society, so many people love you so many people hate you – so you have an element of non-acceptance, which is getting reflected. Whatever you get from society is your own projections. And when that projection ends, then you become a reflection, then the society loves you because they only see themselves in you, they don’t see you. So, there you become lovable. You’re one with the world. You’re part of the world, part of the universe in fact. Everybody enjoys your presence because you are Brightness. You’re like a mirror!!
Questioner: That was a very strong answer! Something I picked up from there was self-recognition, self-appreciation, self-approval. It is so vital to do that, to actually recognize yourself that you are the person you are. That’s awesome. Now it’s interesting, this philosophy, this concept is amazing. I will read the message. I will take home this message. However, to live this message on a day-to-day basis : how strongly do you feel the power of association is? Because if you engage with like-minded people who think this philosophy, live this philosophy, breathe this philosophy, it’s that much easier to be with them in order to think that. Now, can you reflect your message on a day-to-day basis? What to do, how can we make this a part of our life, our breath?
Mohanji: There are two parts to this question; one I feel that we should not detach from anything that comes our way, we must accept. Because when we detach, there are two things happening: one is suppression, other is escapism, and these two are equal to postponement. We should not postpone – we are postponing to some other time. When fears happen, we look into the eyes of fears. When situations happen, accept them. Some situations may not be very easy to accept. If you don’t accept, they hang on, they stay, they persist. So whatever we resist, persists. So I always recommend acceptance in everything: ‘Come, come, we look into the eyes. Bring it on.’ And that makes you free, liberated, because you’re not hiding from anything. You’re not avoiding things, you’re not escaping nor are you trying to manipulate things. It is as it is. We are taking it, as it is.
And secondly, often we can’t avoid many situations in life. For example, workplace situations – one can’t change them. So, being yourself there is the right answer. And always one thing in every situation, we do not have to respond. There are two ways you can interact with a situation. One is to react emotionally, which we usually do – egotistically, emotionally. And the result is usually regret or guilt. Or the other way is to respond using the intellect and just take it easy, take a foot back and look at it and then respond with awareness, and with intellect so that it will not create emotions. These are the two major ways we can interact with society. I always recommend responding, not reacting. Reacting always leaves some bad residue, which is not good. So if you constantly respond, and you have your time, your space and you respond, then you are always light and free. And then you do not have to handle so much of the hangover of regrets or guilt. So that itself saves a lot of time, because we have to handle a lot of all these kinds of things.
So in this society, whatever happens, let it happen. We are not trying to change it. We can’t change it. So we interact in our social life, in our family life, in business life – it’s all one life, but in all the situations we are playing different roles. And in those roles, just be ourselves, keep responding. And our equilibrium, our inner stability, our peace quotient is very vital for us. The peace quotient, and that’s inside us, we already have it. Peace is a state of the soul. Soul is always peaceful whatever emotions we go through. In turbulences, and similar situations, the soul is not affected. So we are coming in contact with our inner core all the time. Or just be reminded that there is a situation inside, which is completely unaffected and try to imitate it. And then we respond and not react. And this is also connected to ownership a lot. Means we own our actions that” I do this , I do this” , this I factor is sometimes very painful. So instead, like what Krishna said, in the Gita,
That is what He said: “I happen”. He did not say, “I take birth”. “I happen”, He says.
Life is about happening. Happening means you are actually happening, or life is as it takes place; not that we have created it. There is of course a history for everything, something has produced a situation and something will happen to the situation; there will be a result, but at the same time everything is sprouting. So we understand that. And we assimilate that, and we accept that. We are not the owner of the action. Ownership of action creates pain, disappointments and also karma. If there’s no ownership, the karmic structure is different. When you do not own it and you are surrendered, (like kaayena vaaccha manasendriyairvaa). And there you are detached from your action, and you’re flowing through. When you are flowing through, you are always free.
And that is what Vyasa said when he ate all the sweets, which the Brajvaasis (residents of Braja) had brought. The Yamuna River was overflowing and Krishna was on the other side. The Brajvaasis said, “We want to cross to the other side but can’t go as no boatman will take us, because the river is overflowing”. Vyasa asked, “What did you bring for Krishna?” They showed him all the sweets and he started eating them. They were embarrassed to tell him not to eat because he was Vyasa. And then Vyasa said, ”Come with me”, and when they reached the shore, he said, “If I have not eaten anything, let the river part”. And the river parted. The Brajwasis went to the other side but were surprised as they knew Vyasa had eaten all the sweets in front of them. Finally they found Krishna sleeping on a bench in the garden, and they waited. And Krishna got up and asked them, “What did you bring?” So they said all these things. Krishna said, “Sorry I can’t eat them because my stomach is full after eating the same things a little while ago”. That means when Vyasa was consuming it, he was offering it to Krishna, and though it was going into the mouth of Vyasa, it was going into the stomach of Krishna. So this is exactly the point.
The point is that if you are absolutely, completely surrendered to existence, then karma cannot take place. The other side I’m saying is that, when we know that everything is happening in life, and you are completely floating through it, like you’re cruising, there will be turbulences, but it doesn’t matter – the ownership and the pain connected will not be present.
Questioner: This was an amazing tip that you’ve given, and this is why they say that we need a guru who can guide us properly so these are some amazing tips that you should share, thank you very much for sharing !!
Question: To a certain percent, the Earth is feeling so congested these days. Why is that so?
Mohanji: Well, actually, at the gross level, we have almost 7 billion people in the world. Naturally, we have overgrown, we are occupying a lot of space, and there are various levels of sensitiveness, various levels of consciousness, various levels of conditioning. So, each person, when he or she expresses their constitution to the world, the world is becoming more and more polluted.
The thought is the first level of creation, the word is the second and action is the third. Before the thought, there is an inclination, a vasana. A person who’s performing cruelty on somebody has that inclination to perform; sadistic people, people who perform cruelty, people who cannot express kindness. Or the other side also, those who are compassionate by nature, they are expressing kindness all the time. So, different varieties – various combinations are walking the Earth at any point in time. Now, this is the gross aspect.
PC: Google Images
Now, look at the subtle aspect; the subtle aspect is that which the eyes cannot see. That’s something which we cannot ‘see’ with the senses, (means eyes basically), or we cannot feel, or sometimes we can feel when we are in a subtle state, we can feel that there are various entities around us. Of course psychic people, the subtle people you’re talking about, they feel there are a lot more people than we see. So, if you categorize them, there are two major types of souls when they leave the body, they are not leaving the Earth.
One is the confused souls who are Earthbound completely while living. They are only focused on material aspects; they had no inclination for anything higher. I am not talking about people going to the temple and coming back or church and coming back. They just do it ritualistically, that cannot deliver elevation. Any ritualistic activity is just like eating food. You go to the temple by default, or because it’s a practice; it’s a habit. That’s not useful enough. So, a person who has not tried to taste or to connect to the higher always feel earthbound; always will be Earthbound. This is also why, in the past, most of the names of the children were of Gods, Goddesses because you learn to chant the name; you’re calling them – Krishna, Rama. Automatically, you chant the name. Thus it automatically connects to a higher entity.
And there are various stories also accordingly. One man, he did all sorts of atrocities, and he was not at all good, but he gave his son the name Narayana. And at the time of his death, he saw the God of death coming towards him (and he became very frightened) with his team, coming to take his soul away. (This is a story) He was frightened. But even at that time, his mind is working differently. He wanted to know if Narayana would be afraid. He knew his son was subtle, he could see. So, he called, “Narayana, Narayana”, loudly. So, when his son came running, because the name he chanted was of the Lord, this God of Death went away and he survived. That was transformative for him.
PC: Google images
So, what is said is that at the time of death, what you are connected to, there you will go. It’s important that while living we have to stay liberated. And we have to connect to the higher so that while leaving, while exiting the body, automatically you merge with the higher. By a confused soul, (the soul can never be confused) I’m talking only about the garb, the coat the soul wears, which is of conditioning. A person who’s only operating in the material plane is greedy, trying to accumulate, trying to gather more and more, and do not know why, but they feel that these material things will give them pleasure, but eventually what they do is they become watchmen of their own material, their wealth. They fail to enjoy. They are more concerned about hoarding, rather than enjoying.
So, the sukha prapti, the achievement of happiness doesn’t happen. Accumulation happens. But it doesn’t get converted into actual pleasure. Such people, when they leave, they do not want to go. They are afraid that their wealth is here; the things are here. This we call the confused souls. As I said again, souls are not confused, souls are always pure, but what they are covering themselves with, this is the confusion, so these set of souls roam around. They do not leave. That is why we have the rituals related to the soul’s elevation after death. We perform the rituals saying, “Everything is okay. Now you can go. You had your life; you enjoyed the Earth, you expressed yourself. Now you may go.” And that is why if you cry too much over a dead person that soul also feels it.
See, what happens at the time of death, except the physical, everything is intact, right? The more you cry and the more you try to bring them back, it suffocates them. It pulls them down. This is one set of souls; the confused kind of souls. They are not bad. I mean none of them are bad, they’re just like us; good and bad – all mixture, but they cannot leave the Earth because they do not know what to do when they leave. But some of them go into the white light and they go to the astral plane. But some of them cannot leave and they stay on. So this is one set of entities that live with us.
PC: Google Images – Victimised Souls
The second set of entities are the victimized souls; again, as I said, souls are not victimized, the garb, they wear is. What are the victimized souls? Those who are tortured and killed, those who are held captive or those who are imprisoned; those who feel helpless at the time of death or murdered or suicide; because normally when the soul exits the body at the time of death, in 80 out of 100 times, you can see people opening their mouth. So, the mouth is the opening through which the soul goes. That is a 100% sure sign that they will take another birth.
PC: Google images
The soul enters the body through the top of the head. That is why in small children you can see this part is very, very soft. And also, in great saints, you can see this part is very soft. That is because the soul entered through it. And as a saint, he’ll be breathing through that always. So, this is open. Otherwise, we have the Nava Dwars, the nine openings in our body – eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and the genitals. So, usually what happens in a normal, natural death is (that) the soul exits through the mouth. But in the case of a saint, that is what the whole spirituality is about; through which opening you came, the same opening you will exit. That means you have achieved salvation, you achieved Moksha.
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In the case of people bound, tortured and killed during Auschwitz, or Pol Pot’s regime, (Hitler’s Nazis are supposed to have killed 6 million. Pol Pot is supposed to have killed 2 million. I don’t know how many other people killed, so many millions…) so, when these souls are leaving, as a victim, tortured, bound, helpless; they just get out of the body and they don’t know what to do. They have been living in a tortured existence, and they are leaving (in a kind of) flushed out from the body. When such a thing happens, usually what happens is that the soul doesn’t know what to do. It is just out of the body, but it is completely confused. But the other confusion is different, what I told earlier. This is more of a helpless kind of confusion because the soul doesn’t know what to do and it is kind of in a state of hanging. They enter into other bodies where possible. So this is one set, this is also applicable to animals.
This is not only human beings. For example, a cow in the developed country, a cow or a calf, as soon as it can produce children, it is artificially inseminated. It is raped in a way. And nine months it takes for the child to grow in the womb. As soon as the child is born, the mother doesn’t even see the child, because, in the womb, the mother develops a bonding with the child. It’s my child. It’s growing, and there’s a lot of feeling inside. But as soon as the child is born, the child is taken away by the farm owners or the people who run the farm. And the mother is in agony. It wants to touch and feel the child; the child wants to drink mother’s milk. Nothing is allowed. And if it is a girl child, if the calf is a female, it is kept to breed further. But if it’s a male calf, it is slaughtered for veal, v-e-a-l. Just imagine the agony of the mother. Then they are attached with this equipment to take the milk out. The milk that it is producing for its child is completely drained by commerce, profits. And then what happens, the cow is injected with something so that the milk doesn’t stop. So, it’s drained off. And as soon as the milk stops, the cow is impregnated again for the next child. The same thing is repeated. Just imagine, a cow going through this process, the whole life. And finally, when it cannot produce any more children, it’s slaughtered. What happens to such a soul? The soul is operating in a body which is suffering all the time; full 24 hours, 365 days, the whole life.
Then what happens, the soul exits. When a murder happens, the soul usually gets out of the body in a hurry. And it is normally through the lower region. Now the cows are killed with the throat slit etc., murdered. So, the soul is exiting through the lower parts, and then what happens, it’s confused. It enters into another body, not a womb to be another child but usually another body. Any murder or suicide is the same. It enters into another body and it again goes through the same suffering. It’s a repeated process. Some people have asked me, some people who are psychic in nature, they have asked me – when an animal is slaughtered, you can see a few souls leaving the body. How can a few souls exist in one animal?
The answer is the same. They just enter into another body because they don’t know what else to do. They do not know what the process of recycling is. You know, go to the astral plane and come back and take another body that they don’t know because their whole life they have been tortured, and then they are assassinated. And also beaten; all the things you can imagine, while they are standing. The pen or the cowshed will be sufficient just to stand. They can’t even move; the whole life. These are the kind of victimized souls, they cannot leave.
Thus, if you look at the whole structure of the Earth, the people, the animals and birds and the souls which are not able to leave this plane, when all put together, this area is congested. And they also have a vibratory level, except the body, they have everything. What happens is their vibration also affects the individuals. Sometimes you become restless because all around us there is restlessness from various bodies, from various beings. It affects people. And when saints or higher entities come, they redeem many of them. That is why they wait for redemption.
Each body is just like a 10-bedroom house. If the soul is not sufficiently strong to occupy the whole body, the whole house, other entities can enter and stay. But again, they are not harmful. They’re existing because they are helpless. They do not know how to go because, in their lifetime, they only caught hold of their inherent fears and phobias and characteristics. They are not able to leave when they leave the body. Like a person who’s jealous by nature and jealousy is the main expression; that person will definitely enter into a body and stay jealous. The soul will enter into a body and stay jealous because it doesn’t know how to come out of that state.
This is why it is important to be spiritual. Not ritualistic. Connect to the higher, feel the higher. Breathe through the spine and feel the top of the head. That is why most of the Kriyas, most of the spiritual practices that people do are for higher elevation. Use this life, so that you elevate to the highest so that when you leave, you leave in perfect order. Learning to die is very important. You know, just like learning to live. That is why many of the subtle people feel that the Earth is too congested. Only subtle people will feel it. The gross will not feel anything, isn’t it? Being subtle is important and doing something about it is even more important.
A true teacher is simply a mirror and if he or she is also a leader, you have hit a jackpot. India is a land of such powerful leaders and today, I’m going to be speaking to one of them.
I am your host Palak and I welcome you to the very first episode of the Palak Mehta Show. Presenting our first guest- Sri Mohanji.
WHO IS MOHANJI?
A Philanthropist, humanitarian, teacher, friend, a man next door and a globally renowned Spiritual Master – Sri Mohanji.
For some, he’s been a top shipping professional in the Middle East. For others – a dear friend in need. For many – he’s been a powerful Guru. A source of positivity and inspiration for karma yogis. Mohanji has founded several charity organizations and platforms worldwide such as the Mohanji Foundation – a platform for the building of healthier societies, registered in 15+ countries. ACT Foundation, a global charity platform. Mohanji Youth Club – a platform to empower and inspire teenagers. EBC -The early birds club, encouraging one to start their day at 4 am, and the World Consciousness Alliance – a unified platform for raising the vibration of humanity. The base of his approach is purity in thoughts, words, and actions, which lead to a liberated existence. Ahimsa, unconditional love, kindness, selflessness, compassion, righteousness, and the power of gratitude are key values that he wants to see with every person. Coexistence with and selfless service towards other species and Mother Earth should be our number one priority.
Palak:Namaste, Mohanji! Thank you so much for coming on this show. We are truly blessed.
Mohanji : Thank You.
Palak: Mohanji, my first question to you is: Who is a Hindu? Can anyone be a Hindu?
Mohanji: To answer it directly, Hinduism is not a religion. It’s a way of life. Anybody can be a Hindu, provided they are natural, they are themselves, they accept themselves totally, they are totally balanced in their outlook. They look at every being as part of themselves; they belong to the world and the world belongs to them. There is no greed, there is no anxiety, fear, there is no confusion, and there is total balance. If somebody has total balance, he can be called a Hindu. I do not think that this word ‘Hindu’ existed beyond a few hundred years. I believe that the name or the word Hindu or Hinduism is coined just to denote or just to talk about a few people who live on the south side of river Sindhu and are practicing various aspects of existence as they are. My firm belief is this. Hinduism is like an ocean. It’s not a religion; it is a way of life. And it is deeply rooted in how Nature operates the balance that Nature keeps. Nature has its own balance. Every being in Nature is fully rooted by the balance of Nature.
Like that, human beings as part of Nature should also be rooted in the aspects of Nature. A true Hindu will be totally peaceful. We will not be aggressive at all. Aggressive in a sense – not that we are not self-defensive, we will defend ourselves, that’s a different story. But, a true Hindu is somebody who nourishes and nurtures. A person who would contribute to the growth of everything around him and who will not contradict. Who will not be against things. But instead, through deep acceptance and deep nurturing, you will develop yourself and you will nurture the whole life around you. This is how a true Hindu can live.
So, it does not matter which segment you are born in. But internally, you can be a Hindu when you are balanced. ‘H’ which is the Sun and ‘Indu’, the Moon, the Sun and the Moon, the heat and the cold, the male and the female in us unite perfectly – it gives us a balance. That balance makes you a Hindu.
Palak:What is so special about this land called Bharat?
Mohanji: This land has the Bharat; Bha-ra-ta; Bha – has that bhav, feeling, the various feelings, and various aspects, dimensions. Ra– is the music, the Om, the vibration, the frequency. Ta is the rhythm. All this merges here in this land. And this merging of the Bha-Ra-Ta together makes the person connect to himself. In your own body, there is Bhav: there are various feelings, various expressions, and various experiences, the room for tackling and experiencing various aspects of life. Then the rhythm, the movement of the rhythm. It’s like music. Like a medley. Each organ functions in a synchronized way, the synchronicity of functioning. And the Ta – the rhythm – basic rhythm, heartbeat. When this is all combined, we have a good healthy life. So, Bharat is the space where this aspect of existence, when everything is harmonious when all things are united – you have a good life.
Palak:Thank you so much. In that sense, isn’t Hinduism less of a religion and more of spiritual ideology?
Mohanji: There have been great Masters who totally connected to themselves and they became the Universe by focusing on themselves, finding themselves inside, and settling themselves inside. This is the place where we have seen tremendous great Masters, consistently – over every period of time, over every generation. This has helped this country, unique country, and unique space on Earth.
Palak:What is Purushartha, can you explain it in a little bit more in detail?
Mohanji: The key aspect of human existence is called Purushartha. Purushartha has four aspects: dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. Dharma is righteous living, the right way to live, righteousness. Artha is material support, including your bed, your clothes, your space or your house, or your food. Artha is a very broad thing, every material that supports your existence. Kama is the desire, the hope, the inspiration, and the tendencies. This is Kama; and Moksha – liberation. That means, while you are experiencing anything, you already know inside, that these are all temporary. Nothing stays forever. We are here on Earth like a tourist, with a duration of space of existence from birth to death.
Then we have to leave, at some point in time. So, with that full awareness, that we are existing in liberation, while we are experiencing everything, that is the right way to experience. Not through ownership and a false illusory feeling that we own these things. We cannot own land, we cannot own relationships, and we cannot own wealth forever. For some time you can be custodians of all this, but you cannot own them forever. The Earth owns us. We go away at the time of our death, which means we need to shed the body. So, this Purushartha is well dissected, well defined, and well-practiced here. This is very important. Every other place had Dharma: laws, rules, social laws, social rules and guidelines, and all those things. Artha – materials, welfare, material support, that was there. Kama – of course inclination, and desires which caused all developments. But, Moksha – the detachment aspect is defined only here. And that makes us unique, and that brings all the people to India. In search of this, how can you live detached amidst everything?
Palak: I always wondered Mohanji, is there a spiritual significance to the whole Indian attire?
Mohanji: The spiritual significance is basically what is comfortable for you in the space you exist. In a tropical climate, in a tropical place where there is humidity, much more humidity, like 90% humidity, if you have to wear a shirt and jacket, it does not suit you, because that is not suitable for the environment. So, our attires are all connected, like each segment. India has great diverse locations. Every place has its flavor, its own cuisine, its own food habits, its own climate, and attire. Everything is different. That is all based on the conditions of these places. And I think that is the right way to do it.
Palak: How about the spiritual significance of the beard? A lot of men, back in the day, in ancient India, would grow their beards and even their hair. Especially a lot of people who follow spirituality. Is there a proper scientific or spiritual reason for this?
Mohanji: In ancient times, the idea of being natural also meant that they have long hair etc. And if you are talking about the Saints and the people living in the Himalayas etc., there is no way they could go to see a barber quite easily. There were no barbers to attend to them. But most importantly, now it is scientifically proved also, when you allow your body and hair to be natural, you are more connected to your awareness. You are more aware of yourself. Awareness is fundamental that you should have. And in the practice of awareness, you should be fully aware of yourself. When you are unnatural, then slightly, in a subtle way, it disturbs that energy flow.
Palak:Mohanji, what do you think about traditional Indian art forms? Do they hold any spiritual significance?
Mohanji: I love it. I love the Indian art forms and numerous varieties. Every state has its own. And they are all rooted in Sanatana dharma, the eternal ground rules, or perpetual ground rules of Existence, means – how Nature is. We have picked them up from Nature and we have practiced them over time. Everything is harmonious. Something which creates harmony inside and outside, this is the beauty of most of our art forms. Our various deities and our various festivals, they all have this aspect, the harmony aspect. Whether people know about it or not, over a period of time everything changes. Evolution happens in everything. We may not know the real philosophy behind everything. For example, why do we worship the basil plant – Tulsi, people may not know. Tulsi plant is one of the plants which has an aura eighteen times its size, which people have said. This is in the scriptures. That is why something which has a great aura is respected. Means, a person who has great aura is a saint. He is respected. Like that, the plant is respected because of the size of its aura. Every philosophy has a deep root. There is a meaning and a method; there is a reason, proper reason. Everything is coming towards or aligning to alignment, personal alignment, harmony. So, all these festivals, all these art forms, everything are expressions of, spontaneous expressions of personal harmony. That is why I love them.
They are not just something that will break up your emotions and just make you unconscious, or to just follow something without knowing. Not that it takes you to a level of unconsciousness. Instead, it takes you to a level of full consciousness. That is liberating, right? When something you can connect to, or something connects to you, it evokes in you a level of consciousness, higher consciousness, and that is beautiful. That is why I love it. I think that there should be a lot more explanations and kind of details to be given to people so that they can start experiencing them.
Palak:India is known to gift the world with a sattvic lifestyle. How is that related to animal cruelty?
Mohanji: If your aim is for higher awareness, if your aim is liberation, if you aim to meet and merge with higher consciousness, then consumption should be disciplined. Discipline is very necessary for elevation to a higher level, not that we are not all going to be saints or going to be liberated, so any food is fine. I always say – avoid violence in thoughts, words, and actions. So that you will be feeling good, feeling peaceful. Violence breeds guilt, regrets. These are non-essential things, they just imbalance you. Avoid imbalance and be harmonious. That is your birthright. That gives you peace of mind. You can sleep peacefully.
If you cheat, steal, betray, talk bad, take revenge, character assassinate, you won’t be able to sleep peacefully, because your mind will be contaminated. Just like that, food which has violence behind it, if you consume unconsciously, the body becomes numb. And the essence of that violence enters your system. That you realize, when all faculties are focused inside. Then you realize that every small thing counts.
Palak: Mohanji, in your opinion, what do you feel, is yoga being misunderstood globally?
Mohanji: I do not think that yoga is misunderstood. Yoga has been understood now more, and the value has been understood now. I think overall the awareness of yoga is much more than before. This is what I feel whenever I travel. Not only yoga, but also vastu, and ayurveda, our great wealth. Wealth is really the wealth of knowledge, which is being accepted and appreciated in the world outside. Our understanding of the plants, Nature has a part in our existence. Then the contribution of the birds, the animals, the harmony of humans with other species. I think there is a lot more awareness of all these things in the world. Some people have come and discussed these things with me. In case if there is a misunderstanding, I think this is very temporary or in a small segment. But on a large level, I think the understanding is much more. This is what I feel.
Palak: Mohanji, has the Indian system of schooling evolved over the years?
Mohanji: The Indian concept of schooling has not grown over the years. This is my feeling. The Gurukul system was completely connected to a person’s inclinations – vasanas. A person who has a tendency, vasana towards let’s say science is taught scientific things. A person who has inclinations toward spirituality is taught that subject. If a person who has an inclination towards let’s say – martial arts or archery, or war techniques, that is what he is taught. If you look at the epics of the past, you will know how the education system happened.
The Master looked at the level of awareness of each individual, each student, and delivered accordingly. That means it was individualistic. No denial. This individualistic approach is very important. In a massive, in a kind of systematized educational system, we are creating just bricks on the wall, mediocrity. But in the Gurukul system, there cannot be mediocrity, the student learns based on what he is capable of. What his inclinations are. So, he will be happy to learn it. Learning should be a pleasure, not pressure. In the modern educational system, the main disharmony I find is that students are learning things to make money, to make a living. So, what do they learn? Most of them learn what provides them a job, which will give them a lot of money instantaneously. Meaning, as early as possible. People are only going for safe subjects. But their inclination or their attitude may be different. But, in the Gurukul system, attitude is counted very deeply. And the Master knows. Like for example, if you see how Drona used to teach his students. He decided that each one of them was taught according to his attitude, his disposition, and his caliber, what he was capable of. And it is important that he will not use it for selfish pleasures. For the sake of dharma, not adharma, that was decided. There should be a total balance inside before a martial art is taught. That means it should be only used for self-defense. Not for attacking. Not for abuse. It should not be abuse. When a person decides to use it, to show his pride or for egoistic purposes, it’s taken away because nothing is taught for egoistic display. Instead, it is taught for self-defense. This is how our system worked earlier.
It was beautiful, harmonious. A person who likes carpentry is taught carpentry; a person who likes cobbler work is taught cobbler work. Things like that. Based on what his disposition is, he is taught that. That system should come back. We should educate people based on their disposition, attitude, and also their capacity and caliber. So that everybody will be peaceful. When you have people performing life or performing their duties in life, if they are taught things that are suitable for them, they will have a balanced existence. They’ll be happy to do it. Work will be a pleasure. Now work is usually a pressure, for the sake of money. The internal harmony is missing. We must get this back. Life has to be harmonious. I believe so. If you do not like something in life and you are pressured to do it, the whole life is disturbed. And that is displayed as aberrations. People go for intoxications, strange behaviors, sometimes abnormalities in behavior, sometimes perversions. All these things are connected to disharmony.
When a person is totally harmonious, they will not display anything disharmonious in life, which means they will not display any aberrations in life. I think that we have to bring back the old system of education; where we are teaching children based on their attitude. I think some schools are doing it, but not all schools. So instead of churning out like a machine, more and more bricks on the wall, we should instead concentrate on bringing out the best of every student. That will make every student competent, confident. They will not have to compete with anybody.
Why do you have to compete with anybody? Because you are trying to find your footing somewhere. If you are satisfied and stable with your skills, then what are you competing with? You are unique. And what you are displaying with your right skills, right mechanism, or the right education? What you are displaying is the right product, the right attitude in society. When you display the right attitude in society, you are rewarded the right way.
Glory happens when you are harmonious with your tendencies, your inclinations, and you are doing things which suit you. When you do things which suit you, you are happy with it. If your activity is a pleasure for you, you will be successful; you will have glory because you love to do it. You really love to do it. When more people do things which they love to do, the world is better. This should come back. India should get this back.
Palak: How to bring peaceful societies around the globe? Do you think a Gurukul system could help?
Mohanji: I would always say, let there be harmony in every aspect of existence, and then there will be harmony in the society. Now you can see a lot of aberrations, so much of heartache. We see disturbances. The root cause of these disturbances is that people are not happy. They are doing things for a living. But they are not happy. If they are happy, they will not disturb any other soul, any other being. They will be peaceful. To bring this peacefulness we must bring harmony. And that has to go in every aspect of existence. I always believe that there should be counseling in every level, from the small class to all the way to the highest class. Whichever class people go into for education, there should be counseling. People should be able to talk, “This subject is not suitable for me, and I can’t do this.” So that you never ask a fish to climb a tree and call it a failure, because fish can’t climb trees, fish is not supposed to do that, it is supposed to swim well. So, we will give that aid and ability for people based on their disposition, their inclinations, tendencies, attitude. Then there will be a great life.
Palak:Mohanji, I follow you on twitter. And in a recent post, you mentioned that Nikola Tesla, Bob Marley and Bruce Lee are saints on their own right. That is a very unique perspective. Please shed some light on that.
Mohanji: I respect all these people, like Bob Marley and Nikola Tesla because there are certain aspects which makes you a saint. One of the key aspects is that you can have anything you like because you are resourceful, but you want nothing. Means total detachment. You can have plenty, but if you don’t need anything, you are not connected to any aspect of your existence outside of you. Instead, you are fully connected to every aspect of existence inside you, you are a saint.
You can be a musician, you can be a pilot, you can be a scientist, it does not matter, but how detached you are makes you a saint. We had a great president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, he was a saint – walking, talking saint. He was living the life of a saint. When he left his body, he just left behind the dress he used and a few pennies. That is it. He was the president of the country but he never amassed wealth. This greed for things from Earth and the greed for positions and possessions, they all make you terrestrial. But here, you can have anything you like in the world, because you are resourceful, you have talents, but you are not affected by anything, means – you don’t want anything.
When Karl Marx introduced the concept of haves and have nots, it really inspired the world. And that is how communism took birth. But there was one category of people at that time, and even now, and before that time, who could have had anything they want but they needed nothing, the great Masters. They were fully occupied with the bliss inside. They were really floating in that place, fully occupied, enjoying the bliss. They wanted nothing from this Earth. This class is the real class, totally detached from everything. Detached from everything, but enjoying everything. If something comes to them, they enjoy it.
If it does not come to them, fine. So there is no regret, there is no guilt, there is no desire, there is no ambition on that level. Just living their life, free as a bird. Complete freedom. So, a person living in total freedom without any materials, like intoxications, etc., on their own – can be considered a saint. This is real sainthood. Real sainthood is total detachment, while you have everything. Not that you don’t have it and you say, “I don’t need it”, that is different. But while you have everything, while you can have everything, but you don’t need anything, that is sainthood. That is a real saint.
Palak: Describe India in three words?
Mohanji: Bha- ra- ta.
Palak: Who is your favorite Bollywood actor?
Mohanji: Amitabh Bachchan.
Palak: You started speaking a little bit of Hindi, what is your current favourite Hindi dialogue?
Mohanji: Speaks in Hindi
Palak: Mohanji, what is your vision for India in the next 20 years?
Mohanji: Total love. Total coexistence with harmony.
Palak: What is that one thing which this pandemic has given birth to?
Mohanji: Yourself.
Palak: Alright, this is an easy one. Most of us know the answer, but we still want to hear it from you -Mountains or beaches?
Mohanji: Mountains.
Palak:If a feature film is made on the life of a saint, who would it be?
Mohanji: Swami Vivekananda.
Palak:Thank you so much, dear Mohanji, from the bottom of our hearts for taking this time. And I’m sure that our viewers have not had enough of you. We will be calling you again next time, and we were truly honored to have you.
Mohanji: Thank you so much. I wish you great success. This is your first show. I’m sure you will do very well. And there will be a great, great presence of you and your shows in the world. And the world needs it. You have the caliber, you have the talent, and you will be visible. Shine bright, the world needs light!
Palak: Thank you so much.
Mohanji: Thank you.
Palak: Thank you so much for watching. If you like this show, subscribe and share. I’ll see you next time with another very special guest.
Shlloka: Namaste to all the viewers joining us from all across the world. Amway presents International Day of Yoga, 20, powered by Ozone Organic AdvantAge. I am Shlloka, your host for today evening and I also have with me my co-host, Nidhi Kumar. We also acknowledge our event producers Union, Red Carpet Entertainers supported by Ministry of Ayush, ISH Rights Foundation, International Naturopathy Organization Titli Jaipur, and powered by Ozone Organic AdvantAge . Our distribution partners and co-host, The Nehru center, The High Commission of India, Mystics of India, Sadhguru and Green Dream Foundation and Spiritual TV. And together we’d like to fervently welcome all of you on International day of Yoga.
Yoga means union. Yoga or the yogic way of living since time immemorial has been entrenched in every facet of our lives. So, in our part of the culture, marriage was not just seen as marriages, but yoga. Careers or job, weren’t just seen as that, but yoga. Children, bearing a child, raising them wasn’t just that, but yoga.
So, why was yoga such an integral part of our lives? Today, lets re-examine some of the lost dimensions of yoga. We have with us individuals who are experts of yoga and the yogic way of living. From devoting their lives to being in yoga, to helping others achieve the very same. It is with great love and reverence I’d like to welcome the panelists for today. Nidhiji, can you please do the honor?
Nidhi: Mohanji, a globally renowned humanitarian, who has dedicated his life towards the earth and service to all beings with a conviction that the world should be a better place because we have lived here. Namaste Mohanji. Welcome! Acharya Sri Punrik Goswami ji, who would be joining us in a while, the young and highly famed bhakti yogi and vedic scholar who has been delivering eloquent discourses from the age of seven years. This Oxford alumnus has garnered millions of devotees all over the world.
Pandit Vama Deva Shastri, Dr David Frawley, and an author of about 40 books. He has contributed extensively towards vedas, vedanta, yoga, ayurveda, and vedic astrology. Welcome to the program, Sir!
Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati ji, a PhD from Stanford. She is a renowned spiritual leader living in Parmarth Niketan ashram for 24 years, engaged in many spiritual and humanitarian programs. Dear guests, it is such a pleasure, privilege and honor to have you here with us today. Thank you for joining us once again.
And to all the viewers, as you watch, we would request you to share this video, so the maximum people can be benefitted from this.
My first question to you, Dr Frawley: Where does it all begin, if you can briefly take us through the genealogy and the genesis of yoga through the centuries? Who better than you?
David Frawley: Yes, yoga is our own deepest self. All life is yoga. Yoga originates with the creation of the universe itself, yoga is the teaching, the practice, the application of the wisdom of the cosmic mind and deeper intelligence. Yoga is at the root of world’s civilizations. It is the root of Indian civilization, and it is found at the very origins of Indian civilization, in the Vedas, the great mantras of the Rishis, and it is there even archaeologically we know, we discovered the origins of yoga in the ancient ruins, Harappan Culture, Vedic Culture, Saraswati River; much work is being done in those particular areas.
The Rishis of the Vedas were great yogis; the mantras of the Vedas, like Gayatri are great inspirations to yoga. Yoga then developed through the Vedas, into the Upanishads where we have the yogic practices of self-inquiry, inner knowing, self -realization, explained with great clarity. Yoga then manifests in the personal form of Sri Krishna, the Yoga Avatara, in the Bhagavad Gita and also Mahabharata. Yoga also then takes its compilation in the Yoga Sutras of the Patanjali sometime later. It is, however, pervading all the dharmic traditions and teachings. Then yoga develops through yoga shastras, yoga Upanishads, various branches of yoga: samkhya yoga, shaivite yoga, vaisnava yoga; in many different forms, all the knowledge, devotion, practice, karma, everything. Then over time, yoga spread, of course, with all the dharmic traditions throughout Asia, throughout the world.
We had then even at later times the great Nath yogis, the siddha yoga, the hatha yoga, and then we had the great Swami Vivekananda who shared this great yoga tradition globally starting in 1893 in Chicago. The global renaissance of yoga coming to the present day with great yogis from India travelling all over the world, sharing the wisdom of yoga and becoming the gurus and teachers of many millions, from the leaders of the society to the common people. Then, we have yoga as part of India’s independence movement; its cultural renaissance; great yogis like Sri Aurobindo, behind that movement. We’ve also had this global movement of yoga, international yoga day, and we have yoga practice by millions throughout the world, starting with the basic asana practices extending to pranayama, mantra, meditation, and yoga is taking us forward into another century. Yoga is taking us forward into new planetary age for humanity and it is essential that we bring this yoga tradition forward. Particularly today we have so much conflict, unhappiness, suffering in the world. Also, of course, we have this pandemic going on. Yoga can connect us to the inner wealth springs of prana, to our deeper harmony with the environment. The yoga of ecology can connect us to world peace, unity, and allow us to use our technology in the best possible way for the evolution of consciousness, intelligence, wellbeing, harmony in humanity, rather than just simply the technology for the outer development. So, lets welcome a new age of yoga for the 21st century and International Yoga Day, as the day of the year that connects us to that aspiration. Hari Om!
Nidhi: Thank you so much.
Shlloka: Sadhviji, my question to you is: What is yoga, and what is not yoga? When we talk about yoga in contemporary times, we mostly see glamorous images of people, celebrities, models and different kinds of poses. It is even happening at the competitive levels. It is happening at the stage and national level championships. People are getting medals for being the best at yoga. So, yoga has largely been perceived as performance, as a sporting activity, as a recreational activity, or at best –a health activity. So, we see a new style of yoga erupting every day, whether it is aerobics yoga, power yoga, aerial hot yoga, there is even beer and puppy yoga. People are using all kinds of inversions, props, heaps to be in yoga. So my question to you Sadhvi ji is: What is the correct kind of yoga to pursue and what do you make of this kind of evolution, modernization, reinvention, or if I may even say- distortion?
Sadhvi ji: So, as you mentioned in your very beginning introduction, and as Vama Dev ji said so beautifully: yoga is union on the deepest, highest, and the most full and complete level. When we look at the scriptures, that we commonly talk about as scriptures of yoga, there isn’t a mention there, you look at for example, in Bhagavad Gita, and there is nothing in the Bhagavad Gita that says, that done with a straight leg is yoga, that done with the bent leg is not yoga, or turning to the right is yoga, and turning to the left is not yoga. Yoga is that which unites, and yoga is that out of union, so that’s the science, the art, the expression of yoga. In the Bhagavad Gita, in fact, Lord Krishna speaks about so much – seven hundred verses of yoga, but it’s… what is it. Its bhakti, devotion, love, its gyan yoga, wisdom, knowledge, its karma yoga, the way that we act moving toward union, as well as the way that we act when we are rooted in union. There is no mention in all of the seven hundred verses of a particular posture being the right posture for yoga or not. In fact, the only mention even of asana, actually is that upon which we sit in the Gita. When we realize that core fullness of yog, we realize that it’s not about, “Oh, if it is done at this temperature, it’s yoga, or if it is done at that temperature, it’s not, or if we do it vertically, it is, horizontally it’s not.”
All of this fighting these days, all of this, sadly, separation in the name of yoga, this tragic irony in the name of union. How many different, separate lineages we have? Beautiful, no problem, as long as they recognize they’re part of a cohesive whole. But nonetheless, what you mentioned is so true: so many different lineages are saying, “This is right. That’s not right. This is the best; that’s not.’’ Even in what sage Patanjali discusses, He explained so beautifully: Sthira sukham asanam.’’-That which is stable, joyful, that is asana. Again, not that which has ropes or doesn’t have ropes, has a prop, doesn’t have a prop. It’s never been about that.
And yeah, you are right, today there’s so many different types of yoga. Almost everyday, somebody sends some kind of funny thing from online of you know, yoga in this way, or yoga in that way. But for me on a personal level, I‘ve got such a deep faith in yoga, in the science, the art, the practice, the depth, the fullness of yoga, that whatever way you enter it, you get caught up in that stream. And so, even if you enter it because you’ve got back pain or knee pain, or you enter it because you wanna lose some weight or lower your cholesterol, don’t worry! The river of yoga is so powerful. It’s gonna sweep you up. I know so many people who have entered yoga because of some physical reason, and suddenly find themselves chanting, find themselves reading scriptures, find themselves introspecting deeply on the nature of the self. So, I am not worried about yoga competitions. We all realize, of course, that it’s not a competition in the fullness of yoga. You can’t have a competition of meditation or samadhi. We are looking at asanas. Maybe we’re looking at pranayama, maximum. But mostly we are looking at asanas; we are looking at strength and flexibility in the body. And that’s ok. Yes, you are right. It would be better termed physical fitness, better termed exercise, sometimes better termed acrobatics. But, if through this, we are bringing people into the river of yoga, I am ok with that. Because that river is gonna give them the fullness, regardless of how they enter into it.
Shlloka: So true, I think it is a beautiuful perspective, Sadhviji. Mohanji, my question for you: You know, when we talk about the experiential dimension of yoga, yoga is essentially an experiential reality. You know, yoga is union. One can’t do union, one has to be in union. Similarly, one can’t do yoga, one has to be in yoga. So, one can’t really philosophize, intellectualize, reinvent, read about yoga, you have to be in yoga to experience it. This experiential dimension of yoga has unfortunately completely eroded in today’s day and age. So, if you can talk a little bit about the experiential side of yoga?
Mohanji: Thank you. As Dr Frawley and Sadhviji have already explained, the dimensions can never be explained. Yoga has huge, numerous dimensions. The sanskar of Bharat, the tradition of Bharat – all the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Shrutis, Smritis, all put together is yoga. Means, summing up everything together is yoga. Like, if you crush everything and make a juice, it’s one sentence: Tat twam asi! You are that! So, yoga is bringing you to yourself. It’s a reminder. And, as you have asked, the experiential side, We have distinctly two sides which is practical for every day.
One is the pratiti side-means, we versus what we see or what we interact with, meaning something outside of us. Second is the anubhuti side – that means what is always being experienced as you; you the experiencer. So, end of the day, whatever we do, it is for experience sake, and there are only two aspects of existence. If you sum it up, one is experience, one is expression. What you express is what you are. You cannot express anything more than that, or anything beyond. But, what you experience is also as per your vasana, your inclinations and tendencies, which are inbuilt. And like that, we have instinct; instinct cannot be avoided in life because this is inbuilt. Then, inclinations and tendencies, plus desires. All these put together, this is the complex character of human existence, or this is how human beings exist.
So, in any activity- there’s an activity and awareness. They are two distinct things. When awareness is very high, activity is not significant. When we are extremely active, awareness eclipses by itself or it eclipses awareness. So, we have to be very clear and very aware. These are all guidelines for connecting to ourselves. The whole systems are to remind us who we are, and to connect us to ourselves, to be aware. So, that is why yoga is not experience, it’s not blind activity. When we go mechanically on activity, we lose awareness. And that’s the whole thing about life: extreme awareness. When both stabilizes, we become Buddha. So, to attain that state, we have to cut down on activity. If we cannot cut down on activities, what we have to do is to be aware of that activity. So, that is the experiential side. That means you detach from the activities and be aware that it is happening through you, not that you are doing. So, doingness to beingness, slowly it happens.
So, the gross aspect, physical body, then the subtle aspect, immediate subtle aspect which is the mind, intellect, ego aspect, and then the ati sukshma, the beyond the subtle, which is the activating aspect, which is consciousness and soul. So, to arrive there, you’ve got to transcend all this. Once you’ve transcended all these, you reach a state of absolute peace. We call it extreme Samadhi state, (and samadhi has also has been dissected). But, samadhi state, and that’s the state which is very natural for us. So, yoga means being natural. Yoga means being aware. And, yoga means being you.
Nidhi: How lovely. Dr Frawley, another question for you: All of yoga is one. But there are different paths to achieve it.
Shlloka: We have Pundrik ji joining us. (Sri Pundrik Goswami ji is joining the conversation).
Sri Pundrik Goswami Ji: Namaskar to everybody. I’m sorry (speaking in Hindi)
Nidhi: Thank you for joining us. You come from the bhakti tradition: bhakti, aarti, praying, chanting, and going to temples is considered religion, not yoga. Which it actually is? Bhakti yoga is often confused with religiosity. If you can explain the bhakti way of yog and why it is a yogic process?
(speaking in Hindi)
(The connection with the Pundrik ji ended)
Nidhi: So, Dr Frawley, the goal of yoga is one. But there are different paths to achieve it. What are these different types of yoga and how do we know which yoga is the meant for me, or my sister, or my friend, or my family or my brother?
Dr Frawley: Yes. Well, today when people talk about different types of yoga, they mean different styles of asanas. So, that’s only at the level of exercise, health and outer aspects of yoga. When we talk about the different forms of yoga, different branches of yoga, traditionally we mean the gyana yoga-yoga of knowledge, bhakti yoga-yoga of devotion, karma yoga-yoga of action; other special yogas-raja yoga, hatha yoga, prana yoga, nada yoga, laya yoga, mantra yoga, we can go on and on with these. But the first few are the most important. Gyana yoga: yoga of knowledge. All yogas are about knowing ourselves, but there are those who more specifically follow a path of self-inquiry, self-study, deeper meditation. Largely, they are Advaitic, or non-dualistic, or vedantic path, like Ramana Maharshi, or all the great gurus, Adi Shankara and all of that. There are few other types as well. Bhakti yoga: there are so many forms of bhakti or devotion; so many deities, Ishta Devatas, you can take your pick…Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Ganesha, Hanuman…so many forms of Devis: Sundari, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati… So, that richness of devotion, I think is also there in the yoga tradition and in an unparalleled way. It gives quite different sampradayas, lineages, relative Vaishnavism, shaivism, all the shakti traditions, so many… So, you have the choices there. Karma yoga: actions, service, helping others, leading a dharmic life, ayurvedic lifestyle. There is many seva you can do. Specifically, in Hatha yoga traditions, there are different aspects of kundalini yoga, tantric yoga, tantra, mantra, yantra, raja yoga – change of consciousness, yoga sutra, samkhya yoga. There are so many yoga gurus, it’s not just the question of the teachings. There are great gurus you can connect to today, living gurus today, traditions going back for centuries, sampradayas, some going back thousands of years, other sampradayas can be modern, Ramakrishna, Vedanta, you have Swami Narayan, you have Sadhguruji, you have Sri Sri, you have Parmarth-so many. So, you choose them by following your heart, following your wisdom, searching within, exploring yoga, sharing yoga, being involved with yoga sanghas, visiting temples, visiting ashrams. And you will definitely find your way if you open your inner being, study the teachings, do the mantras. Take one step forward every day in some way to increase your practice of yoga, and that will eventually connect you to all the teachers and teachings you need. But be consistent, follow a path, give it your full attention. Your goal of life and yoga will take you beyond life and death. Hari Om!
Shlloka:Sadhviji, my next question to you is the benefits of yoga. Fortunately, the physical healing and therapeutic aspects of yoga has gotten so much attention. People would like to maintain and get into the yoga path to lose weight, get fit, you know cure their back ache, diabetes, depression these days. Given that, there are many health and therapeutic benefits of yoga, but is it just that? What is the real benefit, main objective of yoga?
Sadhvi ji: So, yoga as we have been saying is union. Yoga is that which unites us with the truth of who we are and so the benefit of that cannot be overstated. That is actually the purpose of our life. In our human birth with the consciousness that it’s believed only humans have, we have that ability to actually attain the state of moksha, of freedom, of divine oneness, of truth, of Union. And so, the benefit of yoga is actually the benefit of attaining the highest purpose of your life. Dealing with a back ache, or a knee problem, or losing some weight is certainly wonderful, because we also have a body and of course the nuances of body and the pain that it experiences, the difficulties it experiences, the ailments it may experience, they impact our awareness. But to relegate yoga as some sort of just physical healthcare system is to deprive ourselves of the possibilities, the benefits of actually a system through which our highest goal in this world is attained.
Yoga, through all of the different systems, even if we just look at the yoke of Patanjali, if we just look even at the eight limbs of yoga, the benefits even just within those eight limbs span every aspect of my life: from how I interact in the world, from my relationships in the world, my relationship with myself, to my relationships with others, to my physical health, to my mental health, to the calmness and stillness of the mind, to the opportunity of touching that state of pure awareness, of pure consciousness into the experience of oneness, love in the heart, not love of just one separate being over here and another separate being over there, but the love that through Dhyan, and then Samadhi, in which the lover, the beloved and the love become One. The meditator, the object of meditation and the act of meditation become One. And so, the benefits are on every level, from the most physical to the mental, the psychological, to the deepest, deepest spiritual benefits. You know, these days lastly, these days as we are suffering from so much, ranging from depression and anxiety, suicides, addictions, to problems in our society, whether it’s rising rates of divorce, whether it’s communal violence, whether it’s problems between nations, between cultures, between races, between religions, war, terrorism, whether it’s that which is happening with our environment, destruction, climate change. The core of all of these is this myth of separation, and so yoga as that which actually brings us the truth of Union, is actually the antidote to everything that ails us on every level today. So, the benefits are as infinite as the union to which we dive and bathe.
Nidhi: How beautiful. Very well explained. It’s kind of therapeutic hearing this. Mohanji, (I would like to know from you now) liberation, self -realization, enlightenment, samadhi, maha samadhi, what do they mean? Where do these feature in yoga and how can they be attained?
I’m asking all enlightened people, please enlighten us.
Shlloka: Mohanji’s mic is muted.
Nidhi: Mohanji you have to unmute your mic.
Mohanji: Yes, sure. Can you hear me?
That’s a very huge subject. In fact, I will try to bring it as simple as possible. Self-realization is nothing but realizing what is already sitting in you. It’s not anything from outside, so outside is only guidance. But, at some point in time, in the depth of silence, you realize what exactly is running your show, what is the only peaceful aspect of yourself or the only real aspect of yourself. Body is a shell and all the other faculties are just for experiencing existence. So, when at some point in time you realize that there is an atma tattva, the principle called soul which is running the show, that realization stabilizes at some point. First, it’s just an information. Somebody tells you, some books tell you, but that’s not your experience. When that becomes your experience, we call it enlightenment, self-realization. So that’s already sitting and everybody have the same ways of reaching. I mean, like Dr. Frawley just explained, there’re so many different paths to reach the same spot, same position. And we have to reach there some time, some point in time. So, this is that.
And samadhi has been explained in a very detailed way by Vivekananda as well. I usually like Vivekananda because he’s extremely practical. You know, no beating around the bush. I like direct stuff. So, he said there is savitarka samadhi and nirvitarka Samadhi. You have a desire, it needs fulfillment, you are in peace for some time. Then, it goes to savichara samadhi and nirvichara samadhi. That means you have a thought and the thought is also compelling, but thoughts are there. You see, even in nirvitarka samadhi you have a desire, but at some point in time you don’t need fulfillment, which means desire stands alone. And then it shifts to vichara, the thought. The thoughts happen, but the thoughts are not sufficiently powerful for activating a fulfillment. Then, it comes to a state where mind becomes still, because the thoughts are not enough, they do not have enough power to bring you forth. It usually says after nirvichara samadhi… (Nirvichara samdhi is nothing but a state where there are no activities in the mind), then you cannot go back, that’s what they say. That’s like a threshold. Then comes savikalpa samadhi: still you have an experience of the body. You might remember or you are reminded there is a body and there is an experience of the body, there is an experience of the identities. That means in a minimal state, the mind exists. Ego, which is the seat of the ownership of activity almost dies. Then, intellect which is analysis, almost extinct, but you are still aware of your existence. Then it comes to another state where you are not even aware of your body. Then, there is only one state, total dissolution. That is nirbija samadhi, not even the seed exists. That means you are totally dissolved. So, this is the states of samadhi.
Now, Mahasamadhi is a conscious exiting with consciousness or conscious exit of your body. That means you are already established in a state of complete dissolution, and then it’s just a matter of time you exit from the top and then you’re still there. That means there is no death. It’s only expansion. By the time you have become immortal, you have stabilized yourself, nothing outside. So, this is what I am saying. There is a world outside all the time, and when we interact with the world we are producing an identification, identity. That completely collapses. The outside world remains outside. Outside world is about places, people and materials. That has no value. And inside, you are fully occupied inside. That means, you have settled down inside on the reality. And when you settle down inside on the reality, you become one unit. That means, mind, intellect, ego, and body are in alignment. You are all completely settled inside. That’s the only place to settle down actually. All the external settlings are all just illusions, you know. For some time, to keep the body, no problem. But internally, when you settle down completely, and then the external world… Well, you can operate in any way you like, but then you are not that. That always comes, and any of the things outside stays outside, you are not carrying it home. So, in this level you are liberated at existence. While living, you are liberated. While leaving, you are definitely liberated. So, this is in nutshell the whole thing, because within this time I cannot explain more.
Nidhi: But very well put. Lovely words of wisdom. To all of you who’s joining in now, We are on ‘Amway presents International Day of Yoga’. Please do share this video as you watch, so that maximum people can be benefited. Amway’s International Day of Yoga powered by Ozone.
(Nidhu talking to Pundrik ji in Hindi) Pundrik ji, a common misnomer is that bhakti, aarti, chanting, going to the temples is considered religion by a lot of people, not yog. Bhakti yoga is also confused with religiosity. If you can explain the bhakti way of yoga and why it is the yogic process? (in Hindi)
Sri Pundrik Goswami: Namaskar. I am very sorry. So much technical problems. I’m in Vrindavan. So, lovely to see you Sadhviji, and Dr David also, so good to see you. And, I am worshiper of Mohan, so also good to see Mohanji. Nidhi ji and Shlloka ji thanks for inviting me again. (in Hindi about all the problems not getting solved) because Mohanji was talking about Samadhi, and when you reach to the state of Samadhi, definitely all the problems automatically are solved. As we were talking about the yoga, of course, one needs to understand that you consist of four aspects. When we say ‘you’ or ‘I’, there are four things there. Similarly, if you drive a car, car has a physical body, it has an engine, it has a driver, and then it also has a fuel. The four things are extremely required. If one of them is not there, you cannot drive the car. Even if you have a nice limousine, but then if doesn’t have a fuel, you just cannot go ahead. If you have a sporty body of a car, but the engine is of only, I would say of Maruti 800, nothing would happen. So, similarly the whole concept consists of four things. One is your physical body. Second, engine, is your mind. Driver is your intellect, and the fuel is your soul. So, I would say inclining all the fours, all the four aspects of life, this is what is considered to be as yoga. Putting them into one line, physical… Yoga, it doesn’t happen on the body, it happens through the body I would say. It starts through your body, but then, I would say, joining it and inclining your mind, then intellect, and then connecting it to the soul, and then ultimately to the supreme soul.
As you were talking about bhakti yoga, so, aarti or going to the temple… Definitely, in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna beautifully explained the whole chapter of bhakti yoga. And there are many explanations of bhakti yoga existing. It’s mostly, I would say, the most powerful aspect in your identity is your mind. Of course, all three are always changing. Body is always changing, your mind is also changing, and your intellect is also changing as soon as your experiences change. But your Atman, your soul, is always permanent and it is the same, it is the oneness state. But in those external parts, the mind is the most powerful. If you see the whole world now, it’s a game of mind. We are talking about mental health. Mind is the most powerful. Arjuna also says, ‘’Chanchalam hi manah Krishna pramaathi balavad dridham’’ (‘’For the mind is restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, O Krishna, and to subdue it, I think, is more difficult than controlling the wind.’’), and I so agree with that. That mana is so chanchal (turbulent). It is so Chanchal (turbulent). Even after gaining so much intellect, sometime your mind plays around with you.
So, devotion, bhakti yoga, devotion… If you just look at this word ‘devotion’, it consists of another beautiful word which we call as ‘emotions’. So, mind is full of emotions, when you play around with your emotions, and through some external aspects, when you connect your mind to the supreme soul externally, that’s how some bhakti yoga practices are happening. If you do aarti, through that aarti, through that mechanism, if you are connecting to your soul, and then, supreme soul, that aarti would become a yoga. Even if you are doing a specific asan, but you are not connected to that source, that asan will not be a yoga. It would just be an asan. So, yoga is similarly the connection, union, as Sadhvi ji said. I could just hear two, three words (I don’t know what everybody was saying), but as she beautifully said, Patanjali says, ,,yoganu sasanam’’, discipline. In bhakti yoga, there are so many disciplines. (yoga chithavratti Nirodaha) Patanjali also talks about it. So, bhakti yoga similarly says, ‘Man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru mam evaisyasi satyam te pratijane priyo si me’ (‘’Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.’’- translation). Shri Krishna in Bhagavad, who is a Yogeshwara, who beautifully explained that through your mind, concentrate your mind, or offer your mind to me: ‘man mana bhava mad bhakto / mad yaji mam namaskuru’ (Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, offer obeisances and worship Me), because mind can control your intellect very easily. It is possible, but it is a little difficult for your intellect to control the mind. So, if you are interested in that field of yoga, then of course, bhakti yoga is for you.
Then, there are nine aspects of those bhakti yoga. Dr. Frawley was explaining about the different parts, but majorly there are, we call it, nine bhaktis. So, there are: sravaṇam, keerthanam, smaraṇam, paada sevanam, archanam, vandanam, daasyam, sakhyam, and atma nivedanam. These are the nine aspects of bhakti yogas.
So, it starts through listening, because ears are something which goes deep into you. You know, ear doesn’t know how to express. Your eyes know how to express also and how to take things inside. There are two ways when you look into the eyes. There are always two ways, you breathe in and breath out. Even mouth can sometime vomit or speak, and also mouth can also eat. But ear is one sense which doesn’t know how to express. That’s why in bhakti yoga sravanam, hearing or listening to who are the real bhakti yogi or the intellectuals, or the enlightened soul, that’s how the process starts. And I thank to this whole program because people are hearing. That’s the first thing: hearing about yoga, sravanam. So, we have an example of Parikshit, he is a king Parikshit who just heard and achieved that stage. He was able to bring his prana through all the chakras and could deliver himself to brahmarandhra.
Then, keerthanam. For keerthanam we have shukadeva, for smaranam we have prahalad. So there are different examples of all these aspects of bhakti. So, doing aarti or doing darshan is somehow one of the aspect of these nine parts of bhakti.
Nidhi: Awesome. (talking in Hindi)
Yoga sadhana is the only way to get liberated, Pundrik ji?
Sri Pundrik Goswami: Sorry, I cannot hear it properly.
Nidhi:Yoga sadhana is that the only way to get liberated?
Sri Pundrik Goswami: I would say, you don’t have to connect to words, personally my experiences sadhana (In Hindi) the one who is practicing , and yoga is a union. So, person who is practicing union. This is what is yoga sadhana.
Nidhi:I would like to ask this, Pundrik ji (in Hindi _ when someone is 100% devoted, people do something with utmost devotion) So, does that also means shedding the body, (in Hindi) cooking with all your heart, painting, writing… Is that also some kind of a yog or union if you do that with devotion, or is it different from sadhana?
Sri Pundrik Goswami: No, it isn’t. In bhakti yoga, everything can become sadhana. That’s why we cook so much and offer it to the God. We have ‘Chappan Bhog’, there is so much cooking happening here. You can cook and if you’re just connected to that supreme soul, so if you do it from the deepest core of your heart and not just for yourself. Devotion also means not just doing it for yourself. If you just have a bigger perspective, you are joining everybody with you and then ultimately to that supreme soul, you want to make somebody else happy, so that selfless attitude comes to you. That’s how bhakti starts. We have Surdas, Tulsidas, we have these kind of singers in bhakti yoga . So, the music is such a great medium in bhakti yoga. We have so much music.
(talk in Hindi)
Shlloka: Mohanji, my question to you is: You know, yoga changes the way of your being, because it is challenging our tendencies, challenging our karmic structure on the physical, mental, emotional, on the energy planes. So, when this unshackling or transcendence of karmic structure happens, the sense of self begins to loosen up. What I call as myself, my likes and dislikes, they begin to disintegrate or dismantle. So, if you can talk about karma and the role of yoga in overcoming karma?
Mohanji: The thrust of karma or the karmic path, as Pundrik ji also just explained right now… whatever is born must die. So, the whole span of life is defined by the flow of karma, in the linear way. But also, we should understand that there is a transition and transcendence also. Like Yoga Vasishta has said that there are parallel realities. Like when somebody asked Ramana Maharshi, “If I die now, in two years time, will I take a birth?” He said, “For sure. You can take a birth, but probably, by that time you will be seventy years old.” So that means, there are so many things happening parallelly and at the same time, the time and the space as we perceive it, in a linear way, has only relevance in this level where we look, means how we see or how we perceive. But, the existence is much more dimensional. That is why Maha Vishnu told the person who was meditating, “You don’t even understand illusion, then how would you understand the truth?” So illusion itself is so vast because time and space are interchangeable and expandable, contractible. So, we are existing in a large realm.
So, in the linear way, it’s very simple, you have a desire and you ask for fulfillment. Then, how do you come out of it? Because the moment you have a desire and you ask for fulfillment, then another desire comes, then another fulfillment. This is like a big trap. It’s an ego trap because we never get satisfied. We are always in a trap. Then what comes next is pretension, that we pretend to be happy. But are we really happy? The happiness happens only when we have nothing to do with the world outside. When we are so contented with the world inside and everything (that) happens outside becomes our expression, whether we like it or not, and that’s exactly what happens every day. But, the desires do not just get extinct like that; one leads to the other. But at some point in time awareness rises over it. Like Pundrik ji now just talked about bhakti yoga, when your focus is on a supreme entity like Lord Krishna or Shiva, when your full focus is on something which is very, very different in dimension, then automatically an expansion happens inside. That way detachment takes place automatically.
When I was practicing, I used to come to Himalayas very often and I thought that’s what’s going to help me. At one point in time, this question came, “You’re going to a place where there is peace, but you’re not taking it home. Peace stays there, but you are going away and then you are back to square one.” That was like a blow on my face. I was actually wasting my time looking for something in a place or in a particular situation. That’s the only time when I started looking at what exactly is silence. Like a wave, sound is coming out of silence and it goes back to silence. Silence is more permanent than sounds. I was in the world of sounds and then at some point in time I realized that that’s temporary, and then I started focusing on the silence. It takes time and these external things always pull you back. Because that’s habitual. You are habituated to the things outside. People, places, relationships, possessions, and positions, they are all taking you outside all the time. But at some point in time, you realize, “Oh, that’s not giving me permanent happiness.” But there is somebody who’s also happy when there is nothing outside at the time of sleep. When you wake up, you feel happy. And I had no gadgets, I had nothing outside to make me happy. So, this was a very clear feeling for me, or expression, or inspiration for me to stabilize inside. Then, after that, you become a magnet, means alignment happens automatically.
So, to sum it up, what I am saying is: no shortcut. Because we have created patterns over lifetimes. Sitting here now, we are a bundle of patterns and these patterns won’t just go away, and we won’t allow them to go away. You know, we are very, very reluctant to leave them, because they are binding us and we bind them. It’s mutual. Like what happens now, there’s corona situation. So many people, as Sadhviji said, went into depression, went into suicidal feelings, why? Because of the over-dependency on things outside. But this was a God given chance to connect within. You can’t go anywhere and you can’t have all those usual stuff. That time, what would you do? God gave you a chance to really, really go deep inside, and explore, and connect to the silence within. Once that happens, all the other things fall off, because then the illusions completely move. Otherwise, we are always in a kind of linear world and focused on our own pleasures, and we think that this is gonna be giving us happiness, and we are still not satisfied. So, in this time, awareness is the key. You’ve got to be aware that what are you, how you are and connect deep within all the time. Just be aware. Activity is not the solution here. Awareness is the solution. Even while you are active, be aware. Like yesterday, there was a call from America and they asked, “Can you give me something short and sweet to do?” I said, “Just be aware of your talk. Just be aware what you are speaking and what you are acting. This is yoga for you.” So, they said, “That’s all? That is very simple” I said, “Not very simple. It’s not easy to follow, because automatically unconsciousness takes over.” If we just connect to ourselves, we achieve a lot.
Nidhi: Very rightly put, Mohanji. Profound words, those as usual. Dr. Frawley, you are also a vedic astrologer. Stars and planets may have an impact on regular individuals. When we talk of yogis or individuals who practice yoga, they are transcending their karma, their impressions and their tendencies. From what I know since remote ages, astrologers or jyotish never looked at the birth charts of yogis because they knew that it was their path of challenging tendencies of karma. So, does astrology impact yogis or a person with a yogic way of life?
Dr Frawley: Yes. In fact, we find that many great yogis used astrology and were astrologers; Paramahansa Yogananda and his guru. I even found recently some of the astrological teachings coming out of Sri Aurobindo. And jyotish is a vedanga. It’s an integral part of the vedic system, and it’s employed at all the ashrams and it has several levels of application. Even beyond any personal karma, it’s used for timing of all the rituals, all the festivals, Krishna Janmashtami, Rama Navami, all these things. What are the favorable times going on? We live in an ocean of celestial influences that are dispensed through the stars and that affect us on a daily basis. We have our panchanga for looking at that. We cannot avoid that any more than we can avoid the weather or anything else.
But there is also our personal jyotish. Essentially, we as human beings are composed of these or connected to these three things: the body, mind and consciousness. They have all their different depths and layers. Body and mind are connected to karma and products of time. We live in time and space.
Consciousness, Paramatma is beyond all karma. If you want to go transcend your karma, you can do it at any moment. Just move into that Paramatma state. Not so easy to do, because the karmas are there working on the body and the mind at every moment. If we do moment by moment awareness, which is real astrology and real yoga, then we also move beyond time and space. Now, each one of us has a birth chart, this kundali that shows us… It’s essentially, I call it a kind of the DNA of the soul. It is showing your karma. It is showing your samsakaras, in each particular life. And in that regard, each individual is different. We have our different moments of time or different dashas or planetary periods, our transits, our potentials. It’s very important to understand that, just as we need to understand how our DNA works and each one of us is different. Also, as we say doshas, gunas, karmas, but karmas being the most important. So, not everyone is going to be a sannyasin, not everyone is going to be an artist. Different yogas will be there for different people, different Ishta Devatas, relative to the charts and all of that. So, we have to honor the jyotish, and we have to see what the jyotish provides. All the great Gurus would use the jyotish as helping to understand the adhikara or the potential of the student, and the favorability of the time for certain sadhanas. Some people have their dharmic periods: fifth house, 5th Lord later on in life, or they go to Ketu in the 12th house later on in life, or earlier on in life; we can see those things. We have to understand how our karma is ripening, and the jyotish helps us do that. But jyotish helps us understand dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. Moksha of course transcends all of that, but we also have to deal with dharma, artha and karma.
We also have a mundane astrology where we look at what is going on in the world. There’s been this very powerful Kala Sarpa Yoga, with Ketu near the galactic center and Rahu on the other point, that has been bringing about a lot of strong collective karma (that) is going on for humanity. We also look at the yugadi chart for that particular purpose, so we can understand a lot about what’s going on in the world. Different individuals, different countries will be affected differently. But we have individual karma and collective karma, so it’s very important to understand your birth chart, or have it read properly, so you can understand your karmic potentials in life.
At the same time, recognize your inner self is beyond karma, but getting to that inner self, you have to move through karma. You have to transcend karma. Karma yoga is a great way to transcend karma. All yoga is a way to transcend karma. Purusha is beyond karma, but unless we do the nirodha of the mind, we are in the karmas of the mind, which connects us to the karmas of the body. If we dis-identify with the mind, which is the real practice of yoga, move into that inner awareness, we become everything, we become all time and space. As Upanishads said, the entire universe dwells within you; the dahara akasha, the small space within the heart, the guha. You can go there. You go there in deep sleep, but we need to go there consciously, wakefully, moment by moment. Yes, we can transcend karma, but body and mind will continue to work in the field of karma. Humanity will be in the field of karma. We have to understand how that karma works and know how to transcend it, and optimize it in various ways to improve the collective karma and also to help everyone transcend karma.
(Niddhi speaks in Hindi)
Shlloka: Sadhvi ji, if you can tell us about the eight limbs of yoga as done by Patanjali, and I ask this because many participants come to us saying that, you know, we want to learn yoga. They feel that yoga is something just for physical well-being, like we discussed. When you look at peace of mind or stress, it is meditation. And you, in one of your videos, gave a very beautiful analogy on how you can’t start the construction from the third floor, you have to start from ground zero, or even under. So, how to do dhyana or meditation if all the steps below aren’t met because one has to create the right conditions for dhyana to happen. If you could tell us about that?
Sadhviji: Absolutely. The foundation of yog is yam and niyam. Without yam and niyam, we can’t move on. You can be as flexible, as strong, as acrobatic as you want, but if you haven’t actually brought yam and niyam into your life and are really living that, then it’s not a yog; what you are doing. Then it’s just an exercise. Then it’s just acrobatics.
The foundation of a yogic path is yam, which I’ll speak about in a minute, but I wanted just to mention even before I start talking about it, that they’re not hierarchical. We think sometimes that we’re moving through the eight limbs as though we were going from being a male clerk to being the CEO of a company, al though we were getting higher and higher, and leaving behind the lower levels. By the time you become the CEO of a company or the president of a company, you’re no longer delivering the mail, you’re no longer washing the windows. But as we enter the higher aspects of the eight limbs, we’re not letting go of the foundation. So, it’s not dhyan or samadhi minus ahimsa and satya. It’s not that somehow, I’ve done that, been there, accomplished that. If my life isn’t infused with, filled with, rooted in every minute and every moment in yam and niyam, then whatever else I do, regardless of what I’m doing with my body and my muscles, or my breath, it isn’t yoga.
And, as you said so beautifully, that we speak about all the time: yeah, you can’t start building a building on the third floor, but also you don’t stop at the third floor. And so, we also have the opposite difficulty which is that a lot of people get to us and they think that is as high as I need to go, or maybe they bring a little bit of pranayama and they think that’s as high as I need to go. But it’s really important that they realize that just as it can’t be over if it’s not rooted in non-violence, in truthfulness, and non-stealing, and non-hoarding, and all of the yam and niyam. In the same way, if I am not moving toward samadhi, if whatever I’m doing with my body, with my muscles, with my bones, with my breath, if it’s not being done with the awareness that I’m heading into ultimate union, then again I’m not allowing myself to really benefit from the fullness of yoga.
But let’s go back for just a moment because I want to circle back to yam and niyam. Because today, so many of the speakers, we’ve all been speaking about that which is afflicting us today, from corona to environmental destruction, to depression, to suicide, to war, to violence, all of that. Yam and niyam give us a way of living that is both essential to a yogic life, you could think of it as sort of the ten commandments of a dharmic life, the ten commandments of a yogic life, but it also forms really the foundation for having peaceful societies. You know, I do a lot of work with the United Nations and one of the things that I share so frequently there is that even though, yes, yoga has come out of Sanatana Dharma, has come out of this religious tradition, the teachings of a yoga actually are those that if we embodied them, and I don’t even mean all of the depth philosophy I mean even just simply, yam and niyam, you actually would achieve every one of the sustainable development goals. Billions of dollars are spent all across the world trying to figure out how to ease global hunger, how to deal with our world hunger shortage, our global hunger shortage, and how to deal with our global land shortage, our global water shortage. When really what we are suffering from most at the core is a global consciousness shortage. And if we literally adopt it, just for the beginning, if we said, okay, ahimsa, satya, astey, aparigraha… Even just the first four, even forget brahmachariya for a moment, forget all of the niyam for the moment, if we just took the first four of the yam, we literally could address all 30 of our goals. We literally could address all 17 of the UN sustainable development goals, all of the indicators of all of them, all of the dozens of goals that we have in this nation. So many of our countries have… I mean, wherever we are looking at lists of goals, every one of them could be addressed just by beginning to embrace these eight limbs of yoga. And that for me, moving through the world is so core. And then yes, should you feel inclined, inspired to accept that extraordinary invitation that the universe has given us to wake up, to actually fulfill purpose of our life by knowing ourselves, by knowing God, by experiencing samadhi, fantastic. Keep going, but even if you own goal is just to be a bit of an asset here on planet earth, just to make a bit of a difference, in the lives of people around you; you literally could do that just in the first few of the yamas given to us by Patanjali.
Nidhi: How beautiful was that.
(talking in Hindi addressing Pundrikji and Mohanji)
(addressing Mohanji) Happiness because of external situations is transient and fragmented (in Hindi…what are we teaching our sons?) How we are indoctrinating our children about good education, careers, job, wealth is going to make them happy and all of it. Once they achieve them that does not seem to be the answer. (in Hindi – What would you like to say)
Mohanji: Well, talking about education, we can talk a lot. Actually, we are creating bricks on the wall, right? Most of the education system is creating mediocrity. We are not learning about ourselves. We are learning a skill for the world, to handle the world. So, that actually detaches a person from themselves. This is the main problem with today’s education.
And, I fully agree with Sadhviji who just said that adding value to the society; this is the fundamental of Mohanji Foundation as well. If that is not done, life is not worth it. How do you add value? You can only give what you have. Share what you have. Maybe you have time to share, maybe you have skills to share, maybe you have love to share. What you have in abundance, that is what you share. That’s the richness which we must cultivate in children today.
Now, this COVID situation has taught us one important thing. Most of the things which people are dependent on in this world became not essential. So, this was actually a reminder, including travelling, including going to malls and shopping blindly; all those things became non-essential. So, this was a real big reminder of our actual cause of happiness or the boundaries. This is a very good time to restart, reinvent ourselves and to bring this awareness to the people, which we are doing actually in our own way. But the main thing we say is that, what can you deliver to the world today? What can you give to this world today? Within your own capacities, within your own boundaries, and just do that, so that you do not fall into the levels of depression, the denials. (the so called denials, we don’t need them but still many people are depressed) And also the social situation has actually changed. Two people living in a house who do not like to see each other are forced to live and see each other. Big calamity, bomb blast in the houses, you know. (laughs) So, those kinds of situations where you have got to build a purpose, a purpose which is much higher in nature, and it should be based on what we give to this world.
And when we are fully settled in ourselves, we become like bright lights, huge magnets. And that’s the brightness we give to this world. Our consistency and integrity are the right message for the world. Not what we talk, but what we are. That is our message. So, people are not stupid, you know. They know what we talk about, people are very intelligent. (So, our integrity and consistency.) And we should believe in what we say, or we should live by example, lead by example. That is the right message today. I believe that, I hope that this was the question, right Nidhi ji?
Nidhi: Yes, yes, absolutely. You have answered it so beautifully.
Mohanji: Because sometimes I deviate from the question, you know.
Nidhi: No, no, bang on, you were spot on, Sir. I would like Pundrikji to add to this.
(Nidhi talking in Hindi with Sri Pundrik Goswami.)
Sri Pundrik Goswami: (talks in Hindi)
There are four aspects of life, which we call dharma, artha, kama and moksha, as Dr. David was also talking about these four Purusharthas. So, an education should be there to avail you, and give you education about all these four aspects. (speaks in Hindi).
As the things were happening, whatever the text books have been given… There is so much to manage in this country. I would say this is only… I am the second generation born in free India. My grandfather was also born in a dependent India. There is so much to do. Education is the first thing, I would say. (talks in Hindi) Of course, there are many institutions, and even our two daughters are also going to the school. So, I could see that there are, from last few years fortunately, I could see that some entry of yoga is there. Still, on the level of, I would say, physical exercise. But there are some institutions who are promoting at least Surya Namaskar, and since then this yoga day has come up, this awareness is much more spread out. But I would say, of course, foundation (Talking in Hindi)
Similarly, I would say, yoga should be presented in a such a way that if we ask all the students before their examinations, if we ask them to do bit of a meditation, so I think they are much more expressing in what they want to write. So, similarly very, very simply, I would say.(talking in Hindi)
Just like, if we pray in the morning… Every school has their prayers. So, before coming to an examination, it’s just one small thing (that) can be added, maybe by few institutions. I tried. I tried to do it. I told few institutions and they are trying to practice that. When they call their students, especially six standard or eight standard, and when they ask them to start their examination, before that, they ask them to do a bit of a meditation, just to calm their head and just to be easy whatever they can, they would like to express. There’s so much pressure there, and then the things become a little easy I would say with that. So, these are simple things which… Just like these, if we inculcate some of these practices with our regular education, then (in Hindi. They will develop the taste for it) then definitely it can take you to the unlimited levels, and I would say to dharana, and then to samadhi of course, and to other states beyond your body.
Nidhi: ..and break karma. I would like to thank you Sadhvi ji. I just got a message that you have to leave. (Talking in Hindi) Any last thing you’d like to say before leaving, please do that. We would be honored once again, on this IDY celebration. Thank you so much once again for joining us.
Sadhvi Ji: It’s been really a beautiful joy and a beautiful honor and I am so sorry I have to get off. But we are actually hosting an international yoga day event that’s starting in just a few minutes, so the tech team has to switch everything over.
But, lastly I wanted to say it was so beautiful listening to how Pundrik ji was talking about the importance of education, because that really is what we need today. Too much of our education, both in the families, as well as in the schools, is rooted on fitting children into our mold. It is rooted in actually minimizing and squashing their own blossoming of self. I think that if we can bring the teachings of yog into a system of education, in which children are really being given the awareness that who they are is divine. It’s not about who they are is their number in the class, or is the grade they got in the exam. That their worthiness is not rooted in what ranking they have, but actually that their worthiness is rooted in the fact that they are divine. And yes, of course, they must study sincerely and do the best they can, but not because it determines who they are, so that we don’t end up with children who move through the world believing that they are the grades they get, or they are how much they make, or they are their position, or they are their career. And really bring about a system with youth of connecting them to themselves, to their heart, connecting them to love and truth, such that out of that soil, they actually blossom with courage to really become tools in the hands of the divine. That’s gonna give them skills that I think are so much more important than all of the math, and science, and whatever we’re trying to drill into their brains. If we actually just give them the courage to actually channel the flow of the divine through them, they’re gonna bring about a today and a tomorrow of light, of oneness, of love, of truth, and of sustainability.
So, thank you so much for what you are doing in education, and thank you so much to all of you. And so much love and deep, deep respects to all of you. And a beautiful happy International Yoga Day.
Nidhi: Thank you so much for joining us, Sadhvi ji. So privileged. Next question to Dr. Frawley.
Shlloka: This is an extension on the topic, on children and yoga. The ego loves rationalization. You know, it loves intellectualization, being loved, recognized, respected. Everyone is power-hungry. They want to get into the civil services, they want to get into niche professions, because it is about power, it is about recognition. And this is so unfortunate because we live in a knowledge economy which is fostering precisely this. There is no cultivation of intuition. There is no cultivation of insight. Everything is so logic and intellect driven. So, in our country, children are lured into studying subjects like the sciences, or the engineering, because of these reasons. Even in the utilitarian world outside, these become very lucrative. However, our traditional sciences like ayurveda, siddha, classical yoga, dance, martial arts, they’re considered to be fringe careers in society and are unfortunately dying a slow death. So, if you can talk about the importance of these fields to the parents who are watching this episode today?
David Frawley: Namaste. Yes. I want to bring up a kind of a more integral point. I do have to leave shortly also, I have a program with the Saudi Arabia Yoga Day. But the important thing I would like to bring up for education is the most important thing in education for children is developing the power of attention, Dharana Shakti, power of attention, awareness. We have created the society where we’re cultivating millisecond awareness, where the mind is constantly distracted and disturbed. We need to have that attention and that’s what yoga teaches us. Unless we have a power of attention, it’s like your mind, your body has no muscular power. The mind has no muscular power. You can’t hold an idea, you can’t learn anything. You can’t understand anything deeply. So, we must teach children to cultivate that flame of attention, that deeper agni, the buddhi. It’s not just a question of information. It’s not just a question of being exposed to things. It is a question of cultivating an inner ability, a receptivity that goes beyond mere words, names, forms, numbers, tests, that allows us to be present, that allows us to give full attention to what we do. If we can give full attention to what we do, then we can succeed in everything. Then, we can learn everything. So let us bring that yogic dimension of not simply meditation, but concentration or enough focus, one-pointed mind. And then, if the whole society has that, the world will be transformed.
So, thank you again for inviting me to this wonderful event. I was most pleased with the level of discussion by all these speakers. Very deep secrets of yoga are there, so let us share that with everyone. Let us take this message forward through International Yoga Day to all the communities, to the children, and to every aspect of life. That all life be yoga, all life be sadhana. Let us be aware of yoga at every moment as our unity with all. Hari Om.
Nidhi: Thank you so much many times for joining us Dr. Frawley. Honored, indebted to you for your presence and for teaching us that every adversity is indeed a stepping stone. Thank you so much for joining us. Namaste.
Shlloka: Nidhi ji, we are almost out of time. I think we have to wind up.
Nidhi: Yes. In 60 sec I would like to ask you, Pundrik ji, and to you Mohanji, (talks in Hindi)
(Pundrikji talks in Hindi)
(Nidhi talks to Mohanji in Hindi about how will the next yoga day be celebrated and his vision)
Mohanji: First of all, I agree with Pundrik ji, so I am not repeating it. I think one of the best thing happened to India – Bharat is Yoga Day. Yoga Day is a very, very substantial thing and it’s very, very important for our stability. And also, like that the other things like vastu, ayurveda, and all the other things as well. But, yoga has actually a big significance for the future. From this point, where we are standing towards future, two things are very important. One is the extreme flexibility, because we have no idea what’s coming ahead, you know. Even if you are the greatest of astrologer, but sometimes you do not know what’s there. Because this kind of a scenario nobody expected. So we are forced to be flexible. So, flexibility is number one, and self-acceptance is another. That means, we should not blame ourselves, we should not blame the society. This is collective consciousness which has created this pandemic all over the world. All the people are indoors. I mean they are all feeling the same thing, stifling times. So, this time self-acceptance is very important. Accept yourself with all the weaknesses, strengths and stuff. Plus, accept the society and how it moves. Just remain flexible. That is why yoga, flexibility; it all has got great relevance. And thank you for inviting me, before I go. Thank you for arranging this program.
Nidhi: Thank you so much for your wisdom and your insights, all. We were literally overwhelmed today to have such pearls of wisdom. Our deepest and warmest gratitude goes out to all of you, to our partners Amway for making this session IN Yoga at IDY 20 see the light of day.
Our special shoutout to Union and Red Carpet Entertainers, Nehru center, The High Commission of India, Ministry of Ayush, FSSAI, ISH Rights Foundation. This program was powered by Ozone Organic AdvantAge and by the INO. Thank you so much for supporting us.
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Shlloka: We are kick starting, Ask The Masters. It was a long time coming. And it is such a privilege to have all of you here. I am Shlloka, your host and with a lot of pleasure, I introduce my co-host, Dr. Nidhi Kumar.
Dr. Nidhi Kumar is the lead anchor for Doordarshan. She’s a rubicon of journalism, very iconic and she has been championing various social causes and spiritual emancipation at many levels. And this is one such initiative. I would also like to mention our co-host “Mystics of India”. Mystics of India is a platform which endorses spirituality. And it talks about the tales of mystics through their platform. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge our partners for this episode – Mohanji Foundation. It’s truly a blessing to have you associated with us through this medium and with our first episode. So thank you to all of you for joining…
Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Thank you, Shlloka. And before we introduce Mohanji, it’s time to greet all our viewers here. Namaste, Sairam and welcome, as we kick start the first episode of ‘Ask The Masters’ and go inwards.
By the way, a few questions. Did you know?
70% of the content online is pornographic
India is the hub of student suicide in the world.
You know what is trending on Google these days? How to cope with anxiety, depression and stress!
These rates are off the roofs. The initiative is to challenge the strength. We can do better and we will do better. The intention is to shift people from ill-being to well-being at the touch of a button. And hopefully, by the end of the series, you would have the solutions that you need to have, to have a happier, healthier life. I now request Shlloka to introduce Mohanji.
Shlloka: So who is Mohanji? This is my first time hosting any event, so I was reading a little bit about him on his website. The core of who he is, is that he is a renowned humanitarian who is focusing on positive human values that we can add in this world and without expectation, through our existence.
But what struck me the most was that Mohanji does not exist. This really caught me because the description that I read was him being an everyday man. So what is it about Mohanji that makes so many people gravitate towards him? It is the fact that he does not exist! And whenever anything does not exist, it doesn’t have a frame, it doesn’t have dimensions, it doesn’t have personalities, it doesn’t have qualities. It is empty, there is nothingness. And because of this emptiness, Mohanji becomes a doorway for something bigger and larger to happen through him.
Mohanji, it is such a pleasure and privilege for a seeker to be associated with you and be in your midst. So thank you for gracing the occasion.
Mohanji: Thank you so much.
Shlloka: We have people joining in from all across the globe. And the first thing that I would like to ask you is about your spiritual journey. What led you to this? What got you started, can you talk a little bit about that?
Mohanji: Well, after going through all phases of life – the different phases, physical, emotional, intellectual, the many phases that we go through, right from childhood, (and mostly unconsciously, because we don’t know we have shifted to various levels), at some point in time, this question comes to you. What exactly are you looking for? Since I had been working in the shipping industry earlier, I could taste whatever money could buy. But it wasn’t happiness. So I was literally searching for happiness for a long period of time. I used to go to the Himalayas often. Whenever I used to get leave, I flew to the Himalayas. But the problem was that when I went back, I couldn’t carry the Himalayas with me!
So at one point in time, I started asking myself, “Is this really what you want to do?” When you have time you’re going to a place and that place has peace. But you’re not carrying that peace with you. So you need to find peace amongst all activities or amidst everything. So that’s when I literally started focusing on myself. And it continued for a long time, about five or six years of deep penetration. My path was very simple. I didn’t have a guru. So I was literally connecting to my spine and just switching off from the front-orientedness.
We are generally front-oriented, because all our sensors are in the front and we tend to go to the front and hence everything is front-oriented. That is how we are made. Usually we don’t even think about our spine in our daily life because we don’t have to, unless there is back pain. I simply tried to connect to my spine, started feeling my spine and that literally took me inside – meaning I used to connect to my spine and breathe through the spine, etc.
Even if you just remember your spine, you will know that your connection has gone to your third eye. This was my practice and it took some time. From the world of sounds which I was totally involved in, like everybody else, I started going into the core of sounds which is silence. Like the ocean, from where the waves are coming out and going back to the ocean, all noises come out of silence and they go back to silence. So I could go down deeper and deeper after a lot of effort. Don’t think it’s easy, because it takes time, and because we are used to sounds. We are used to noises. And we think it’s natural for us to be in the noises. I was one of the noises in the world of noises.
But then 3 am to 8 am was my time. The rest of the time I had sold for money because I was working. So from 3am to 8am, I used to focus on myself, on the spine, and then go deeper. Silence used to be in the form of less thoughts initially, and no thoughts eventually. Once I touched silence, I realised I didn’t need to go anywhere. So in the midst of activity, I could penetrate to the world of silence. Then later I came back to the world of noises as silence. That was the difference. That’s why Shlloka said a little bit earlier that I don’t exist, because I don’t exist as a noise. I exist as silence which is probably not so visible. You have got to have the ‘eyes’ to really see that, but that was fine with me. Everybody need not connect because many people connect to the world of noises easily but silence is very difficult. From the world of noises to the world of silence was the transition for me. And that created Mohanji.
Shlloka: The iconic Mohanji as we say.
Nidhi: Absolutely! We resonate with your views. Because the purpose of ‘Ask the Masters’ is to go inwards and introspect, especially in these quarantined times/ lockdown times. However a lot of people are very stressed because of the current situation and there’s a lot of anxiety in their minds.
In the present times people are suffering both on macro and micro levels. On the macro level, people are losing their jobs. They are starving. And on the mental level, some of them are going through a lot of hell. There’s a lot of mental abuse happening as we speak and the statistics are quite alarming. Then there is domestic violence also on a different front. On a micro level, people are stressed, angered and their relationships are actually getting strained. How do we tackle this suffering?
Mohanji: I would say don’t try to tackle situations, instead tackle yourself. That’s the right thing to tackle. Because externally, we do not have control over various things since we are only participants. However, internally we can control everything. This is a God-given time, to be ourselves; to really penetrate within and understand this thing called ‘us’.
You have got to really take time and look at your structure and try to segregate yourself and say, “Okay, this anger, agitation, confusion, insecurity etc. is not me.” You can take various aspects like, “I’m not the anger, I’m not the hatred. I’m not the comparison” etc. and start detaching yourself from all that you are not. All these emotions are connected to the world outside.
In actuality, the world for us is only after we wake up. There is no world for us when we sleep. So the world that we are talking about i.e the people, materials, time, space etc. is only when we are awake. When we are sleeping or when we are dreaming, we don’t have that world. Hence we should understand “What are WE amongst or amidst this world?” We should then try to understand yourselves in that context. The moment you start recognising who you are, you will start witnessing yourself in the whole situation. You will not be JUST a participant, you will be a reliable or a relevant participant – meaning, you will actually tend to add value to the situation.
Many times I feel we don’t have to speak. Silence is a good idea. We don’t have to react, speak or get involved every time, but we do it habitually. It’s our habit. If somebody calls us by a bad name or bad thing, we react immediately. But we don’t have to. We can just watch that person venting the anger and becoming calm after that. So in many places, we don’t need interference. If we are able to see that in ourselves, and we look at the world, like a mirror, I think most of these things can be sorted out.
Second point, we should try not to analyse situations. In general, we have a deep wish to know why something happened. We always try to put the blame on somebody or blame the situation. And it costs us a lot of time, stress and also spoils our mind. But as human beings we do have our (limited) life – if we live 80 years, it’s only 29,200 days, it’s not a lot of days. By the time we realise we have lived, we are (almost) dead. So in this lifetime, we have the right to be happy and content. We can’t and we should not give that possibility or that key to somebody. WE should keep that key.
That’s why I say, “Any situations in life are only a reminder that they exist and that’s an experience.” So apart from the experience point of view, we should not interfere. I’m not saying that you need to be an escapist. You be there. But be there as stillness or an icon of peace, where you do not have to react. You say, “Okay, this is the situation. We’ll talk about it, let’s sort it out”. Then, we try to help them come out of it. Just as we clear a roadblock. This is possible for us. We can all be policemen sometime, but non-interfering policemen.
Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Yes, like you said we need to handle these kinds of situations with a lot more equanimity.
Question: How to be positive, healthy, stable, peaceful and relaxed in such challenging times like the one currently? What is going to be the duration of this situation? How long do we need to stay stressed and why are we stressed? How do we be positive?
Mohanji: Being stressed is our choice, but being observant and being calm in any situation is our right. We can be very easy and non-stressed. But have we observed what brings this stress? Number one is expectation. We have a lot of expectations everyday – from the time we wake up in the morning.
Today I heard something – the time between when you wake up and when you get out of the bed is your amount of success; that means if you wake up and still lie down without getting up, it means you have earned laziness – meaning your success rate is affected. So this is something to think about. I would say, “Be purposeful”.
Also understand that situations are probably not engineered by us. A situation happened – it was given to us. What can we do in this peripheral? We have time, space, certain awareness, certain intelligence and certain people involved. In this context, we have to act. You can actually imagine that you are an actor playing a role. You can really play the role very well. So, this is your option.
In the current condition, Nature has told you: “You have no control”. An invisible particle has created a lot of havoc amongst us (the visible particle, for we are visible in this world). An invisible thing (we don’t even know what a virus looks like) has actually created a scare in the whole world. And it put everybody indoors. In this context, we need to spend time to understand and assimilate ourselves. It’s a very good time for us to know how we react to situations. Because this kind of thing has not happened in the last 200 years as far as I know, or probably ever since mankind started. We have a God-given opportunity.
There is a lot of stress connected to finances, stress connected to activity, stress connected to choices, we can’t travel (movement) etc. All the stresses have come together. And secondly, we may have to live together with people we really do not like, for example: our relatives and friends etc. in one space and being forced to see them. So this is something which is giving added stress.
Now you have every chance to re-wind yourself, recycle yourself, reset yourself. This chance should be well used. This is what I feel. And then there are so many methods and practices which great masters have given us including pranayama, the hyper-ventilations, connecting to yourself through certain meditations etc. But contemplation (manana) is very good. Manana makes a Maanav – this means that one who is able to think and contemplate, is a human being (man).
So we have a lot of opportunities to penetrate and contemplate: “Is that me?” Like Adi Shankara said….
Mano buddhi ahankara chittani naaham
Na cha shrotra jihve na cha ghraana netre
Na cha vyoma bhumir na tejo na vaayuhu
Chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham
But the point is that you can actually think, “Am I the body? Am I the intellect? Am I the ego? Am I the Spirit? What are we?”
So this will really make you fully collected and composed. And the moment you start realising you are very powerful, that you’re completely the universe, you will stop looking at the whole world through a keyhole. You will realise that you have the opportunity to see the whole universe. The moment you understand this, there ends the story. Then there is no stress for you anymore. There is no confusion, there is no agony, anxiety, anger, etc. It will all leave because you very well know that we are the universe and that nothing outside can touch us actually. Unless we are only external, then we get beaten up. In other words, we give the remote control of our happiness in somebody else’s hands, like neighbours or friends or relatives. Keep the remote control with you and use it wisely.
Question: I get scared very easily. I am scared of death basically or scared of what could happen to me.
Mohanji: Faith is the antidote for fear. Whenever we have fear, we understand that faith is lacking. So firstly, it should be the faith in ourselves; faith, not on something outside because your own personal Guru is inside. When you connect to yourself and assimilate yourself; when you understand that body, mind, intellect, ego, spirit, it is all within and that our body is just a case (shell), we start connecting to ourselves. Then we will feel peaceful.
As I said, first you have to have faith in yourself. You are born and you have a space here, you have relevance here. So in this relevance and space, you do what you can, within your given capacity. You don’t have to compare, you don’t have to compete. There is nothing to compete or to compare with. You are being yourself and that is exactly your contribution to this world. So whenever you feel fear, understand that fear has no basis. Fear is like a shadow where light exists. So connect to the light, which is you. Then you can connect to any guru, any master, any god which you like to follow.
But essentially, it’s all about you. The whole spirituality is about you. “Tat Tvam Asi – You Are That”. That is exactly what the great masters have said. Over a period of time, you have been trying to find yourself. This is the only point here. If we understand this, there is no confusion. But if you are chasing something and if you don’t get it, there is disappointment. Please remember that when we have found ourselves, there is nothing anymore to find. This finding ourselves needs time, and we have to accept ourselves. Acceptance is very important. Most of the time, we don’t accept ourselves even if others accept us. That’s where the problem lies. If somebody has an opinion about us, we buy it and think it is real, and that it is true, then we have stopped accepting ourselves.
We all have weaknesses, we all have strengths. We all have everything. We are a mixture. Nobody is higher or lower, not even equal. We are all unique. We should remember that we are a unique creation and this uniqueness is what we are giving to this world. The world may accept it or reject it. That is not our problem. We are existing today. This is the real celebration – that we are alive. This life is the celebration and this presence is the celebration. When you remember this, there will be no fear. Fear cannot exist together with light. Darkness cannot exist together with light. Fear cannot exist together with faith.
Dr. Nidhi Kumar: As you said, I’d like to reiterate the same thing….O Light of Exceptional Glory, enlighten the darkness of our minds, for dark is the path and you hold this light. The next question is..
“I am a stay at home mom and I wish to work again. I do not know what career to choose and do not know how to figure it out. My mind is in a quandary.”
When we were speaking yesterday, you told me that you’re getting so many calls from the US where people are losing jobs. It’s the same kind of apprehension.
Mohanji: I feel that the job loss situation will be all over the world because of the economic meltdown. But my answer to that is – let us not focus on the negatives. If you focus on negatives, there are plenty. Let us focus on the positives. First and foremost, how do we know what’s good for us? It’s very simple. It depends on our nature. What is our nature? We all have our unique nature. Some people have a nature for being a doctor. Some people like that profession, because their nature suits that kind of profession. Some people like to be a lawyer. Some people like to be in the sports field. Hence all these are connected to one’s individual nature. If your nature is not suiting that profession, you won’t be successful there.
So first and foremost, sit down and understand which profession suits you. That’s the first right step. Then you go towards the profession with full confidence. I would first say, “If you really want to be successful, you have to really apply yourself”. There’s no other way. Working smart is accepting yourself and applying yourself fully and doing only what you have to do. You don’t have to do the whole variety of things. Don’t try to multi-task and spoil your entire career. Instead focus on something which really suits you and dig deeper and deeper until you finally see water.
What suits you is what you can do effortlessly. That means if you like something and if you’re effortless about it, that shows that the profession/work suits you very well. That’s a sign of it. It is very easy to understand. If you are feeling stressed to even get up in the morning and if it is a pain or pressure to go towards your work, implies that you are doing something which you do not like to do or doing something which does not suit you. It’s like wearing a shirt which is not your size.
Even in spirituality, what suits you is your path. Some people like devotion. They like to sing, chant, praise etc. Some people like intellectual stuff. They would like to listen, analyse, understand and only then they accept. Some people like Karma Yoga. They go out and they serve the world. Some people are a mixture of all this, but there will be some predominance and that is your path. Whatever is predominant in us; that’s exactly what we are. That’s our path.
Dr. Nidhi Kumar: That answers our question. I would like to add a little thing to it that it’s good to be rooted to your values. Let us move on to our next question.
Shloka: In extension to the career question, there are many individuals who talk about or who write about being compelled to be on a career path because of certain constraints. The constraints could be like financial constraints or it is too late in life to change career, or have a family to take care etc. So how would you advise those people to go through a career and the profession effortlessly?
Mohanji: The Upanishad says, “The food that came to you today is the medicine for you, even if that’s the food you never chose.” This means the food was delivered to you. Sometimes you are compelled to do something just for survival. In that situation, I would suggest you to always do the work with full dedication, but at the same time, have a hobby on the side, which you would like to do. So it compensates. For example, a person likes to be a photographer, but instead he is working as a government servant. So be a government servant fully for the sake of earning but at the same time practice photography as a hobby, so you don’t really miss it. And that gives equilibrium.
Sometimes life provides us with things which we may not have vocally asked for (but probably we may have been ‘eligible’ for that, we don’t know). If such a thing lands on your lap, accept it, then deliver your best. When you get something, you should do justice to it. Otherwise it’s not worth it. By rejecting or by resisting, it stays further. But by accepting it and by fully involving in it, maybe you will start liking it. Actually, the dislike starts with resistance. We keep pushing it away to an extent that it becomes painful. Then, we suffer. We don’t have to really suffer. Through acceptance, we can remove the suffering. We do not really have to cope with it – instead we dive into it and say, “Okay, what best can I do about it?” Plus, we take up a hobby which develops our other side, which blooms us through doing our chosen activity.
Question: How do we effectively use our time during this period amidst the stress and fear?
Mohanji: Go online…(laughter). Very simple. We can’t go outside the house, right?
Question: How do we motivate ourselves in this situation to begin and continue daily meditation and practices, especially early in the morning despite our busy schedule with family and work?
Mohanji: We have an Early Birds Club now. That’s the reason why I started this club recently. We have to start early in the morning at 4 am. Then have a pattern of activity until 6 am. By the time you reach the usual waking time, you have actually covered a lot of distance. It’s not easy to just start the day early and do nothing, because then the usual habits pull us back to bed. So we have started the Early Birds Club for that purpose. And this is really creating a difference in people’s lives. Now people have actually written back saying that they now have a lot of time and there is a lot of peace, contentment, etc.
To start early, you need a bit of effort initially, but eventually it becomes a pleasure. You will feel quite good because you’re not just wasting time sleeping, procrastinating and then being lazy and feeling wasted. Instead you wake up early then do something. Some people have started writing their own stories. People say that it looks like another life or feels like another life. You can do so many things in this time; you can be very creative. As said in the beginning, there are so many domestic issues going on. I would like everybody to inspire people. It’s not the prerogative of spiritual teachers alone to do that.
All of us have our stories, have our history. We have a lot of wealth inside. We are not short or small. We can always share some insights with people, with the world outside and give some kind of a consolation or solace to people outside. It need not always be the teachers and the masters. Sometimes people get bored with these spiritual people (laughs) Normal people in the world can also talk. I always inspire people to share their experiences. You share your story, it might resonate with some because some people have actually survived total hardships like displacements, wars, etc. Many people who follow me around the world have gone through wars, they have been displaced, lost their houses, family members, etc. So I tell them to share it, even if it is painful to remember. Maybe it will be purgatory sometimes, and you may get purified through it. And that happens. People can be natural and be themselves in this time because you cannot go anywhere. You can use the online facility and communicate, which will help people. I feel that we all have a great potential. All we have to do is accept ourselves, and then we’ll realise that we can do a lot in this world.
Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Absolutely. Now we take the viewers to the next segment, which is on emotion. One of the greatest forms of suffering is to deal with death. So we have a lot of questions on this. How does one deal with death because it becomes an overwhelming and imaginable sense of grief, to deal with death.
Question: How to overcome the anxiety and the debilitating feeling that happens after some loved one passes away. How do you deal with that?
Mohanji: This is a traditional fear – the fear of death. For all the 7.5 billion people in the world, the biggest of fears is the fear of death. And the next fear is usually the fear of failure and society, fear of failure etc. But the fear of death is a part of us.
The driving factor of all species is instinct – that’s the driving factor. While for human beings, the driving factor is usually the inclination or vasanas, and of course desires. But the instinct part which is common across all species is the main instinct for survival. So this fear of death is connected to survival instinct, because we like to survive. Every being likes to survive, and the other side of survival is death. So we fear something which we do not want to happen, but it’s true and inevitable that we will die.
As human beings, we have the capacity to understand and assimilate the idea that we are deathless. That is only for us because we have that capacity to connect to something which is permanent. So we have that thing inbuilt in us, we have that capacity. So what is the antidote to fear of the inevitable death? The death that we are walking towards every day, even at this point in time when we are speaking, after our conversation, we are closer to death. It goes like that, right? Every moment we are taking one more step towards death that is supposed to happen.
So how do we come to terms with it, with the inevitability? It’s very simple – we must understand that we have something within us which is deathless. And that’s the reality. The shell that we carry, the form that we carry, the name, the position and the positions that we have, are all temporary; while there is something which is bright and brilliant, which is real and that’s hiding behind this whole paraphernalia or this structure. So we start looking at it and we say, “Oh, this guy doesn’t want anything. He has no interest in life. He has no interest in death. He is deathless. He is a time rider. For him, time is like a horse. He rides time.” Because time doesn’t ride him, time only rides the body, the body, the mind, intellect, ego. But the thing which is bright within us, it’s beyond time. So, the moment you start connecting to that, then death is just a phase.
In fact, every day we are dying for a few hours. That is the deep sleep state, where we do not know whether we are a man or a woman, time or space, whether we are a guru or a disciple, we know nothing. Then when we wake up again, we realise that this is the garb which we have been born in. We are born in this life and we come to know and then we start behaving like this particular role, this personality. So every day we are experiencing that and every day we are coming back to life in the morning. That’s why it’s a new life every day. So what happens in actual death is that we come back in another body, or we don’t come back at all – we dissolve. So this is the option. When we have awareness, awareness is the antidote – it is the antidote to the fear of death. This is the way it is.
Nidhi: How do we free ourselves from the bondages of emotions and become mentally strong? How to overcome negative emotions like fear and negative energy?
Mohanji: We have three processors in our system which are mind (processing emotions), intellect (processing, information), ego (processing personality matters like positions and possessions, role in society etc.). So this together is what we call as mind-matter. Actually it’s one material or one processor, but we segregate them so we can understand. The body has three processors and these three processors need food. The food of mind is emotion, but when we have so many emotions to handle, the mind has obesity. When we have so much information to handle, intellect has obesity. When we have so many positions, possessions and ego stuff to handle, then ego has obesity. If you eat a lot of food, the body has obesity. So obesity is part of our existence and the 7.5 billion people around the world have some obesity in some way.
So what do we need to do? How do we handle these emotions etc.? Emotions are coming in all the time. But we need to understand – like our stomach for example, we need to know how much we should eat, what we should eat, and what quantity etc., so that we are in control of our food consumption. Like that, we should be in control of our emotions, and emotional consumption as well. Emotions are available outside; this is all coming from outside. We need to control what comes inside and don’t just get involved in emotions habitually, because that’s what we do normally. And the same with information, so much information is coming that is mostly negative in nature – like 200,000 people died, so many people are in quarantine, this country closed the doors, that country closed the doors; so many people lost their jobs. This is what we hear from television.
What we need to do – we need to have an antidote. We go and search for something positive and read that, basically the life of great masters. In India we have a great tradition with the tradition of liberation – moksha. If you look at the whole world, the purushartha (dharma, artha, kama, moksha), these four aspects out of which moksha is defined only in this country, and that’s well-defined. And out of this many religions came out like Sikhism, Buddhism, all these came out of one aspect called moksha. So we have that big, huge tradition and depth of wealth. So if we read or assimilate materials or things connected to moksha, the highest potential, we can superimpose that moksha on mind, intellect, ego everywhere. And with the benchmark of conscience – our own conscience, which is like a guard, like a firewall, which protects us from all the impacts. So we do not compromise our conscience, and we use the potential for liberation for all of us. We all have it as the benchmark. And if we don’t get involved in things which we don’t want to get involved in, we will always be safe.
Suffering is in the mind. It’s only a waking state thing. Pain can be in the body. Like what Ramana Maharshi said when somebody asked him, when he had cancer, “Swami, do you have pain?” He said, “I have pain, but I have no suffering. I choose not to suffer.” Suffering is always connected to resistance. We try to say, “Oh, why did this happen to me? Why am I such a good man? Why are bad things happening?” All these confusions leave us with a lot of junk and suffering. So this we can definitely avoid – self-pity, sympathy all these things should be plucked out and thrown away. Life is happening. Take life as it comes. And when emotions are coming, which you don’t want….. like when we go to vendors or vendors coming home (when there is no Corona situation). When they come home to sell things, what do we buy? We buy only what we need in the house. We don’t buy everything. When we go to the supermarket, what do we buy? We only buy what we like to consume, otherwise we don’t buy. So this is what we should do all of our life. Whenever we are awake, we should be controlling our consumption. We should not indiscriminately consume, because if you do that – obesity happens. And this is a continuous thing, and sometimes we are so helplessly involved in it, and that’s a big trauma for us.
So as a general answer, I can say to control your consumption: physical consumption, emotional consumption, intellectual consumption, and also ego things like pride. Don’t try to consume everything that you get.
And also, you do not have to prove anything in life. Because people who love you will accept you; people who do not love you will not accept you. That’s how the world is. Not everybody will accept you. Those who have eyes to see will see you; those who do not have eyes to see, can’t see you. That’s fine, because that’s the way creation has happened. So let us be realistic. And let us say that we don’t have to prove to anybody. We are living our life without violating or without violence. We are not trying to harm anybody so that we are on safe ground. We contribute what we can contribute. And we always ask the question, “Can I do something for you?” so that our purity is always maintained. If you focus on what you can deliver and not what you consume, you will feel peaceful. This is the right time for understanding that.
Nidhi: To add a little bit to that question, there is societal judgement that comes in, you know. You say to live in the moment, but sometimes society kind of judges you on a lot of things, and a lot of you (viewers) have been writing to us: “My mother-in-law or my so-and-so..” You have to get over that judgement somehow by realising that it’s your life and you can live it whichever way you want to, because God ultimately wants you to be happy. So what may be a sin in say, the eyes of society or your friend circle, may not be a sin in your own eyes.
Mohanji: Well, the minds of the other people are in their own bodies or their own systems. We do not have much control over it. But I would say that if we have not been affected at all for a period of time, then the impact becomes less. If we’re reacting to everything, it will be increasing because then there is a pleasure on the other side. Like if somebody is abusing us, or judging us, criticising us, which I have experienced many times. I don’t respond, and say to myself: “okay, this is their opinion, my reality is totally different.”
So we must have trust in ourselves, faith in ourselves. We don’t buy things which we don’t agree with. Because we can’t change people, change other people’s minds. We interact with many types of people every day, right? And we don’t have many choices for it, because society has a variety of different types of people. We have to interact with them consistently. We don’t have any choice. So while we’re doing it, make sure that we remain clean and unaffected. Unaffected means – let them say whatever they want. If they have pleasure, it’s okay. I believe in that. If somebody abuses me, I think: “okay, maybe because of me, he has that pleasure.” So this is okay. He has the right to have pleasure, like everybody. So even if he is abusing me, it’s fine. As long as I don’t buy it, it stays with him. You know, I normally say this to people: when people try to gossip about others to me, I say, “You must have done a lot of hard work to get this information. This is precious for you. Keep it with you. Don’t give it to me.” So they don’t tell me again.
Q: Can you kindly share with us at what stage of your sadhana (with regard to the number of months or years) you first started experiencing the state of blissful existence? As someone who has recently started to meditate, I would like to know more about it so that I can be not immediately bothered about such expectations hindering the entire process.
Mohanji: Yes, I would say that, first of all, we should not keep any expectation. This is the first point. Second is that the experience is usually individualistic, because we all have our own constitution. We can’t say that another person had this experience, so I should have it. It may not happen that way. Third is that for me personally, I did not know what I was looking for. Because as I told you, I was working in a company and I was practising.
So one thing I would always say is that you have the same place for meditation or practice every day. Don’t change locations. Because what happens is the mind gets occupied with it. So I used to keep one room and I had covered the whole room – I made it like a cave, so that there was no light entering from anywhere. And I only had one lamp, no pictures, nothing in that room, so that the distraction level was less. Initially there’ll be a lot of distraction because we have habitual thoughts coming in, and things like the pleasures, which we like to indulge in. That comes like, “I need to have coffee or tea”, or, “it is time to check the mail”, things like that. But for that I used to start at 3 am every day, but I don’t recommend that because that was my own style. I used to have my time, my own personal time and that was 3 am to 8 am every day. That is when I was practising – means I was actually trying to explore myself. I’m not asking you to replicate anything – I’m just telling you in a broad spectrum, one space, always. One space, one kind of environment and one lamp (with flame) or one thing to connect to. Plus one practice – same practice. Sometimes it’s so boring but you still do the same practice. If it’s a mantra, chant the same mantra again and again and again. So what happens is the mind finally breaks up. Mind can’t hold it anymore. Mind likes variety. The repetition kills the mind, and that moment when it breaks is when your whole identity is broken.
So for me, it was consistently about six months before there was a slight change in the whole thing – where I could assess the difference by not getting affected with the world outside. That means whether a thing is there or not, I’m not affected. Earlier, I used to have certain requirements every day. If I get up in the morning, I take a bath and once I’m done, then I do my prayers. But then after that, I need to have a coffee or something. But all those needs became optional. So that was the first step. So like that, eventually, tremendous detachment happened with the world outside. When you start touching the silence deeper, at that time, the world of noises is somewhere far away. You can hear the noises, but that’s not yours – so far away. Then you feel totally separated from it. If you want to go to the noises you can go. But again, you are not affected. It’s like with some people who smoke a lot, who can’t handle being without cigarettes. Then after the moment they decide to stop smoking, after a long period of time, even if somebody smokes, it doesn’t matter, because they have overcome that – like that. The world of noises is probably a temptation for some time, and then the temptation also goes. So, I would say it took six months before I could actually start connecting to myself by crossing over the tendency for searching for noises, because that was my world like everybody else’s. This is the world of noises. We are used to it and we think that’s natural for us, but it’s not. We think it’s natural.
Nidhi: There was a question regarding the sadhana, is it traataka by any chance?
Mohanji: So, one technique as I said, I was looking at the lamp but I was not looking – my eyes were open and connecting to the lamp but I was connecting to my spine. I didn’t practice traataka.
Nidhi: Shlloka, let’s take the next question and then move on to the next segment liberation.
Shlloka: The next question, as you’ve touched upon it earlier in your segment as well. You know, it’s a very natural tendency for people to want to tide over suffering and reach a state of pleasantness, pleasure, enjoyment, whatever you may want to call it. You have stressed upon awareness as being that seat of pleasantness and enjoyment. You’ve also spoken about how presence is the highest practice. So if you can tell our viewers who are watching you for the first time as to what is the importance of awareness and why so much stress on it?
Mohanji: Yes, awareness starts with very small things like for example, we are talking. Just be aware of every word you utter. That means no absent-mindness, first of all. Then we are moving our hand or we are doing something – be aware. In other words, let the mind be present with everything, every word, every action so that your mind is right here in the present. This is the number one thing. Then you can go deeper and deeper in awareness and eventually you are aware of your heartbeat, you are aware of your breath, you are aware of your aura; you can be aware of everything. You know, it’s very interesting if you start connecting to yourself and start assimilating and you will know that the heart has a particular frequency; that the liver has a particular frequency, that every aspect of you has a different frequency. And it’s like an orchestra inside. You know, every organ is playing in the orchestra, that’s a synchronisation – it’s like a huge beautiful melody. So you start connecting to yourself and then you realise, “Oh my God, I’m a big universe, what I was looking at outside is nothing compared to what I am or what I can see inside”. So awareness takes us there. Awareness is so important. Now, in daily life, what happens is that we get so involved that we lose that awareness a little bit – because we forget that we are the actor. We forget that we are not the role. We are the actors but we forget that thing. So, what happens is – we get involved with the role and we believe that we are the role, not the actor at that point in time. We get affected and that’s where suffering happens. Because the role has suffering, you also have suffering. Otherwise, if we always remember: “I’m an actor and this is just a role I’m playing and this is temporary”, then there is no suffering. So, suffering is connected to our deep involvement – then we tend to blame the other actors. We are in these role plays every morning till evening.
Nidhi: I am reminded of Shakespeare’s saying, Mohanji. He said that famous line, “Today, we have our exits and our entrances. So each of us is a player and it will be curtains down soon for everybody. That’s what he said.
Mohanji: Yeah. So this awareness is that, but consciousness is different; awareness and consciousness are different. Consciousness is our driving mechanism which has three distinct aspects every day: the waking state, the dream state and the deep sleep state. So the same consciousness operates in three dimensions each day in 24 hours. But awareness is that we stay over all that’s happening to us – like a view from above. So you can see all the role plays, but at the same time you remember you are always the actor. So that gives you that immunity as well as power. That makes you powerful.
Shlloka: So we have a question from someone – you just spoke a while back about sadhana. And you mentioned that there is so much resistance. As a spiritual practitioner myself, I experience that as well – how every day, one doesn’t want to get up and do sadhana – there’s so many things to do, don’t do it. There is so much resistance and one sometimes succumbs to the mind. So the question is being asked:
How does one conquer the fear of limitations in the way of one’s sadhana?
Mohanji : That’s only in the initial stages. In fact, after a while you will not even feel anything if you avoid expectations, if you avoid agenda. For example: “My friend who was doing sadhana achieved a level of silence. So I should also do that.” Don’t do that. You just be yourself, don’t compare, don’t compete and just follow. I never used to tell anybody what I used to practice – that’s a very good idea. Because if you try to share with people, then they would all have opinions and sometimes they derail us. So I would say that keep your own practice close to you, do it as quietly and consistently as you can, and after a while, this becomes a usual thing.
See, the subconscious mind reproduces what you do repeatedly – like for example, if you do 21 days or 41 days. That is the point of the Early Birds Club that I spoke about earlier. That means people wake up at a certain time and do a particular sadhana. After a few days, they automatically wake up because they can’t sleep. Then that becomes enjoyable. And if you’re not competing and comparing, you will have no sorrows connected to it. So I would always say that you must consider that you are not the mind, you are not the intellect, you’re not the ego and don’t analyze and don’t keep on digging the seed out to see if the roots have formed. The root will happen at its own time – everything has its time. But I always believe that everyone has the clear potential, like everyone else, to touch the highest consciousness or to touch the state which is consciousness. So, all of us have that power and we are never higher or lower than anybody.
Shlloka: Mohanji, in connection with this, can talk about the importance of sadhana, what are the benefits of sadhana or yoga for that matter? You know, there’s so many people who are non-practitioners who have written to ask :
Why should one be pursuing the path of sadhana? Are there any other ways to achieve the ultimate, or is sadhana the only way? If it is the only way, what is the benefit?
Mohanji: Well, sadhana is nothing but a systematic practice. That means something which you’re committing to. And anything you are committing to, you should have conviction about it, you should believe in it. Not because somebody else said or is doing or not doing. We should check whether it suits our nature, whether it is natural for us or whether it is suitable for us, and then we follow that. For example, a person who’s devotional by nature cannot follow a guru or path of knowledge or jnana yoga. This person can only follow bhakti, and that’s what suits a person of that type. So this is the first point – that when you practice something, make sure it suits you. Don’t just follow like a cow; a cow’s tendency is that if a cow goes in one direction, every cow goes in that direction too. So we should not do that because we are human beings. We should not have herd instinct. Instead, we should look at what suits us and choose. If something doesn’t suit us, we should be happy to say that’s not our cup of tea. That is the first thing about sadhana.
Secondly, consistency as I said earlier. Then the question about why one should have sadhana – it’s very simple, otherwise you miss a great personality!! Instead you will be immersed in the world outside, a world of noises with so many things, varieties, colours etc. And it is never ending because you will always have more and more desires. And finally get tired because all this while you’ve been running after so many things and materials, you got so many things but are not still happy.
So, how do we find happiness instead of going for various pleasures? We come to ourselves and then we realise, “Oh my God, I never needed anything, I am happy otherwise.” So, for understanding this you need to have practice. I always say two D’s — one is Discipline and the second is Determination. The other side is distraction. So to overcome distraction, you need to have discipline and determination. Determination is to connect to yourself. As I said earlier, the whole spiritual path can be crushed and the essence of it can be said as — “You are that. You are what you’re looking for.” So this ‘You’ is a great story. We know that we only connect to ourselves as incidents based on what we have experienced. That’s not us. We have so many other things, other faculties and factors. We are a conglomeration of all that. So if you do not connect to yourself, you miss that great opportunity.
Nidhi: Mohanji, we are completely out of time now. I’m just going to take two more questions. One person said that she’s been praying to Sai Baba and she’s been seeing your face. There are many more questions like that. Another one is:
Why is Sai not answering my prayers? What should I do? It’s been a decade. What would you like to say to such people who’ve been asking plenty of such questions?
Mohanji: How can I say why Sai is not answering? But I would say that Sai always answers. We have living Masters and we have had great Masters who have lived here as beacons of light and power. And they always respond, I believe so. Because the thing is that we are probably asking for something which can’t be delivered, something personal or selfish. They don’t cater to it.
Or secondly, they would have delivered something which we fail to see because we are focusing on something else. This happens many times. What we got, we may not see. But what we don’t have or what we thought we should have, we will see. It is the same with the gurus, you know. The tradition says or the scriptures say, “The one who has appeared in front of you is your Guru. Connect to him completely.” But then we have probably an image of Babaji, an image of Sai Baba and we say, “Oh, that form did not come to me. So I don’t accept it.” So you miss it. This happens in our life.
I would say that no master ever denies anybody. This is my experience. All true masters are here to serve. They’re not here to earn or eat and eat more etc. They are here to serve. If you stop asking, maybe you get much more, maybe you are supposed to get a Mercedes but you asked only for a Maruti!
Nidhi: How lovely! How beautifully you summed it all up, Mohanji. And I think we’re going to have many more sessions with you. It’s almost time now to wrap up. It’s truly been a very insightful, incredible journey packed with so much wisdom and this intersection with you has been wonderful to begin with. We have many, many more questions, which will not go unanswered I’m sure. To wrap up, I’d like to give special thanks to you, Mohanji for gracing us, to my team Union, for producing and marketing this show headed by our volunteer Ajay. Thank you so much. Thank you to the Mohanji Foundation. We thank you for making it see the beautiful light of day. Now, I leave it to Shlloka to end this session for today.
Mohanji: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to all of you.
Shlloka: It’s been a pleasure. And you know, the viewers have flooded us with questions.
Nidhi: I think even ten sessions with you will not be enough. There were hundreds of questions, and you have thousands and millions of followers. So we have to have this again very soon. That’s a promise to our viewers.
Shlloka: Mohanji, people have written to us, of course with their questions, but you know, it’s also just amazing to see the kind of profound gratitude that they have for you. For example, we have an individual who talks about and thanks you for your protection and for your grace – and many more messages.
We wish to have Mohanji back once again, so please keep your questions coming, viewers. And in the meantime, we would urge you if you have more questions, you can always visit Mohanji’s website, Mohanji’s Facebook page, it’s flashing on the screens. You can always stay connected and be answered to the best possible way, until we meet again. Thank you Mohanji once again, see you in the next one.
Shlloka and Nidhi: (To the viewers) We hope you would take all the answers and implement them in your life and we do hope you’ve liked Ask the Masters.
Thus Spake Mohanji 