10 on 10 on 10 – An interview

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

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

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

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

Mohanji starts the meditation process (3min-13.08)

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

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

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

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

Mohanji

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

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

Mohanji

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

Mohanji: Yes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mohanji: Lead by example.

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

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

Please listen to the interview by clicking here

Transcribed by Padmini Ravikumar

Proofread by Padmini Ravikumar and Vidya Rajagopalan

Practical Steps for Challenging Times – part 1

Satsang with Mohanji  
16th August 2020

 

Question: How to dissolve the barriers of physical identity and see all gurus and masters as one?

Mohanji: The usual mind is filled with so many factors, so many different flavours of life; which means that we have been living all these years and we have had various lifetimes. What we have collected over a period of time has made the whole mind murky; our mind is filled with so many things, especially things connected to likes and dislikes, prejudices, concepts and knowledge of various kinds. All these things are mixed in our mind. Our awareness is very much like muddy river water. So, unless that mud settles down in the mind and the water becomes clear, we cannot see the truth.

 

 

 

That is why masters have insisted that we must spend enough time, to give clarity to our own mind through stillness; by practicing stillness – through contemplation, meditation, etc. When we do contemplation, when we do meditation consistently and consciously, it means we do nothing, that is, be still or keep the mind still. Mind by habit keeps moving. It has many prejudices, likes and dislikes, flavours, and emotions like anger, hatred and jealousy are also a part of our existence. We must understand that to have clarity, you need to settle down; be still. Else, you may connect to one master, who you have recognized through your own experience. Do not go with others’ words, it won’t work. People can give you opinions; it will not work. But through your own experience, if you have understood that this person has stabilized his mind, he has settled down properly in himself and he’s just like a mirror, then you connect to that person.

Where you park your mind, where you are connected to and what you are connected to, you start becoming that. That becomes you or you become that. This is very important to understand. You need to connect to masters who are stabilized. (You connect to) One master or one person, but not many masters. Many masters are all illusory. Only in a confused state of mind, you connect to various people; otherwise it’s just one connection, steady connection, stable connection which gives you stability. Those who keep wandering, they do not stabilize anywhere and it is not easy to stabilize too. This is important to understand.

Confusions arise in the mind, because mind is murky, mind is not able to see. Once you are very settled inside, then you are fully into yourself. The right place to settle down is inside you. We are settling down inside us every night. Do you know during deep sleep state, we are fully settled inside? We are settling down inside fully. So, we do have that experience every night, when we are in deep sleep, where we are fully settled inside. When we wake up in the morning, we get scattered, the mind is scattered. Then we bring that mind back into ourselves and sleep. When you do this with awareness in the morning – meaning your mind is completely inside you, in that state, you will fully be stabilized. This is very important. But I would tell you one thing –  you can do it yourself; you have that ability, because you have that example of the night, the sleep time, where you are fully into you.

The mind which is going out normally comes inside and settles down inside and then you are fully into yourself. From that point, if you understand and shift with awareness; in other words, you are aware that you are inside, that is a state of meditation. You can come inside and you can settle down. None of the external factors will make much difference to you. The emotions, the places, the people or the situations will not make any difference in your mind because you are stable and still. This is your birth right. This is what you are essentially.

If you look at a master like Shirdi Sai Baba, he used to be just like a mirror. During much of our life, we are projecting what we are to the world outside. Whatever is inside us, we are projecting it to the world outside and we get the reflection of our projection, or the reciprocal/ reflection of our projection. So, if you are projecting anger into the world, you also get anger from other people. People become angry with you for no reason. If you are projecting hatred to the world, you do get hatred back. If you are projecting love into the world, you get love back. So, when you do selfless service and altruistic activities in the world, you get that back as well. When you dedicate yourself to the world, the world gives itself to you. That is how life works. So, what you are is very important. That is exactly how you will experience life – AS YOU ARE. You can’t experience life as something else. You cannot experience life even as how things are. It’s not easy.

Hence we must understand that we are the cause for all our experiences. There is nothing right or wrong with whatever is happening. Don’t try to categorize them into, “This is okay”, “This is not okay”, “This is right”, “This is wrong”. There’s nothing like it. Everything is good for you. Because you are asking for whatever you are missing. Otherwise you won’t miss it. If you are not missing it, you won’t ask for it. So, whatever you are missing, you are asking and that is a potential for another existence. You may need another body, you may need another time; you may need another situation to experience that thing. Nothing is right or wrong that way.

Everything that you are missing, you are asking for it and you must have it because that calls for or asks for fulfilment. This understanding is very crucial, as to why certain things are happening. First of all, there is no ‘WHY’. Everything IS – AS IT IS.

Because there is a deficiency in you and you are asking for that reality. Sometimes we may feel that we never asked for anger, but do you have anger suppressed inside you? Do you have rejection suppressed inside you? Do you have feelings of injustice inside you? All these things will definitely create that asking and will ask for fulfilment. So, when you have consistent rejection, you will ask for appreciation and acceptance. So, when the world is not accepting you, you will feel unhappy, you feel angry. This is how life works. In a broad spectrum, life is all about – whatever you are missing, you are asking for and chasing. And that’s exactly what gives happiness also. If you get it, you are happy. If you don’t get it, you are sad.

Question: In times of trials and tribulations like we’re in now, what is the best way to calm our restless mind?

Mohanji: Currently we are in a particular time situation where none of our plans are working. Everything has changed. We made plans last year for this year but because of the Corona situation, everything has changed. It is not in our control. The best method to manoeuvre in such a situation is flexibility. Be very flexible, absolutely flexible. That means you flow like a river. Be like water and keep moving and be very flexible.

If you really flexible, then you do not have that feeling of loss and feeling, “Oh! Everything is lost and all my projects are finished”. That kind of pessimism comes from not being able to execute your desires or your plans. It happens to people, right? Sometimes we make great plans and we can’t execute it and we feel that everything is lost. But that’s normal. That’s natural, because we are human beings and as human beings, we tend to have expectations. So, the right method to handle such situation is absolute flexibility.

Keep flowing like water. Just flow like water. Be like water. Be flexible. Tell yourself, “Okay, this is not happening then there will be another thing” and be happy with what you have. Have Gratefulness. Have Gratitude. That’s very important at this time. You should really be grateful for all that you have; even your connection to your father, mother, Guru and God. In that process, all those people are adding value to your life. We must remember this and be grateful because this a good time, because you have time with yourself.

You can remember what built you up? What made you what you are today? First and foremost is mother – you have a relationship with your mother, nine months more than the society. So, the first and foremost is mother. Then father, the protector and the guide, the guiding factor who helped us to be ourselves. Next is the guru who gave you clarity about existence.  One guru – whichever guru you connect to, be consistent with one, otherwise, nobody can give you anything. You can appreciate, accept, respect all masters and you must. But remember your guru, your tutor, your teacher; your guru should be one; because inconsistent connection means no receptivity. You can’t receive. So, be very constant with that connection. You can you take your time to be connected to the guru. But you should not get fascinated. It should not be out of hallucinations or imagination or expectations. It should be with reality. You should know that this man whom you are connected to is stabilized in himself. If you are not sure, do not connect. If you connect to any master with expectations you will have disappointment because the master and the person are different.

The aspect of mastery is different from the man or the woman. Let me tell you a real story. One man took a lot of pain and struggle and finally he reached his guru. When he came close to his guru and started living with him, he understood that the guru also eats food, drinks water, sleeps, goes to toilet etc. Then this guy got disillusioned. He had all the wrong thoughts in his mind. He said, “Oh, no! This Guru is an ordinary man just like me. I do the same”. So, these kinds of illusions can come in. Doubts can come in when you know that this person in the body is just another human being. So, you must segregate the human aspect and the spiritual aspect and just go with the teachings.

In Sai Baba’s case, Baba used to smoke chillum and somebody thinks, “Oh, Sai Baba is smoking so I also can smoke”. That means you will only become a smoker you will not become Sai Baba. So, we must understand that what Sai Baba said, we must follow– Shraddha (Faith) and Saburi (Patience). Saburi is extremely important. Very clearly, COVID is teaching us Saburi now. It’s a very important lesson that the COVID has given us – Saburi.

So, to come to the point, we must respect all beings. We should take time and respect. When it comes to God, you have to respect the god inside you. The God Particle inside you is the most stable particle inside you – which is your soul.

With zero interests in your likes and dislikes, your life, your death- it has no interests. It is just accompanying you as totally neutral. Just like electricity comes and gives light in your house. It helps washing machine, it helps refrigerator to function. Electricity has no needs, it has no requirement. The electricity board needs money, but the electricity does not need money. Those who produce electricity may need money, but the electricity itself does not need anything. But electricity is essential for the lights to happen, the fan, the air conditioner, the refrigerator, the washing machine. Electricity is always neutral. If it goes into washing machine  it operates in that way. If  it goes into air conditioner, it operates in that way. If it comes into a light bulb, it operates in a different way. Just like that, the soul is the same. It operates through different machines. In the body of an elephant it operates like an elephant. In the body of a human being, it operates as a human being. So as simple as that. All are same. Once we connect to that aspect inside you, you have  found God. That is how you find God. We  call it  the self -realization. Realization of something which is already sitting in you and operating you. It is giving multiple dimensions, such as waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. Each dimension we have  different experiences. This is what we are. This is how we are. This is something which we have  to always  remember.

We are universal. We are the soul, not the body. Body has duration, it has some time on earth, birth till death. And also we are changing with age. What we liked  with the age of 20, we may not like it at the age of 40. Like that, every time the flavour changes, everything changes. This we should always remember. During covid time we can connect to ourselves , be ourselves completely. Its worth it. I hope I clarified this point.

Q: Why we are facing  so many disasters and natural calamities? Including suicides this year.

Mohanji: Why we are facing so many calamities is becasue of our insensitive lifestyle. Earth has its rhythm,  its balance. All the beings of the earth are  supposed to live within the boundaries and balance of earth. But human beings are different. All being are controlled or run by instinct. What is instinct? The basic instinct is survival -to be alive, to stay alive. That is a basic instinct. If you look at all the beings in the nature, they are all struggling to stay alive. They are always looking forward to being alive. Human beings also have the same thing. But then because we are highly intelligent,we have intelligence separated from the instinct. We created  lot of things on earth for our comfort, for our protection, but basically survival instinct; extended survival instinct. That is the reason.

We created a lot of of things on earth. But we have become slaves to that. Now, even if we don’t get food, we are ok, but when you wake up in the morning , if the internet is not working, some people might commit suicide. They can’t think of a world without internet, without communication. Imagine,  something hapens and the internet goes away. What will happen to the world? But, that’s the reality!

We have changed our taste for gadgets and various things. We even lost eye contact, as a species; we don’t even see eye to eye; we don’t have eye contact. We suppress so many desires. And what happens? We have perversions; we have aberrations in life. This is because of suppression. Many explosive behaviours; anger, hatred, jelaousy; these are all connected to suppression. But we never had that problem earlier. Animals do not have a problem with suppression. They are spontaeous. They express and they finish; they forget, so that they are at the moment all the time. We also should be in the moment all the time.

So what has happened? We, as one species, behaved like viruses and destroyed most of the species on earth. Including flora and fauna. That means ecology. So we made a disaster on earth. We created disaster on earth, so earth is giving us back. If our previous generations had thought,“ We got a world with us, we should give a better world to the next generation“,  things would be different. But they never thought like that. Even we are not thinking like that. We are talking about religion, caste, country, culture, color, and we are dividing  people more and more, based on religion, culture, language..all those things. What is happening in the bargain? We are getting isolated; we all became like islands, separated from each other.

We don’t love, we only expect. We do not give, but we expect. We do not share, we expect more from others. So we have become greedy, selfish and a little insensitive. That is why all these disasters are coming forth.

Imagine a Unified Consciousness, where everybody, we are all one family.

Our slogan in Mohanji Universe is,“ One World, One Family – one family, beyond species“. We are all here to experience earth. We are not here to accumulate anything.

See, you came empty handed, when you were born. Nothing was in your hands. You will go empty handed when you die. You carry nothing, not even a pebble. So what is life? Experiences of each moment and we must experience. That is why we are born. We have to experience. Every flavour of life we must experience. That, we deny. We say, “Oh, this is not ok, that is not ok“. Mind divided things and we separated them. Then what happens?  All those desires are suppressed. Then we ask for more births. We need another birth to fulfill them. Like that, we have become unaware. If you live with awareness, you understand that we must coexist with all the beings of the world; every being that has taken a body on earth must have it’s set of experiences  and we cannot deny it.

If we consider ourselves as more refined than other species, we must behave so.

We must be considerate.

We cannot conquire, capture and kill.

We cannot do that. We should support all forms of life.

We should coexist.

There should be forests; there should be every aspect of the Existence of nature shoudl exist as is. Then,  we will have balance. The we can have better health, better life. Otherwise, all these disasters are signs of human insensitivity over time, over a period of time.

How much of pollution we have made in the world? How much destruction have we created in the world? World wars, religious wars, based on religion, killing based on religion, the pollution in the air, in the water, on earth..Look at everything! No being is safe on earth. This is a human world. In the human world, no other being is safe on earth. I have seen a picture of one man. He has killed 5,000 elephants in Africa, a hunter- he hunted 5000 elephants!  Just imagine the number of beings being he killed?! We are paying for all this. Humankind is paying for all these kinds of aberrations and perversions.

We have no right to kill any being. We have no right.

Instead, if we call ourselves refined, we have the responsibility to provide for other beings. We should make sure they are  all fine.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinaha – Let all the beings be peaceful!

That  is exactly how it should be. Everybody should be peaceful and happy. Everybody should be blissful. This is our path. This is how it should be.

Q: How can I know my purpose in life?  

Mohanji: Your purpose in life is what you are experiencing every moment. Because your birth is connected to the bundle of desires you have carried. From birth till death you have a duration of time. Within this time, you are supposed to experience whatever you came to experience. It doesn’t matter. As I said earlier, no right or wrong here. Whatever you are supposed to experience, you will experience within this time. That is the real purpose of each birth. Each birth is the fulfillment of the pending desires. This is exactly what you are born for.

Now, what is the possibility of a higher purpose? A human existence has this great possibility. From total unawareness to Supreme Consciousness. You can connect to Shiva. Be Shiva, which means Supreme Consciousness, stillness. You have that possibility. Shiva or Vishnu, its all same – Supreme Consciousness. You have that capacity in one lifetime. If your focus is on something larger, higher, you will reach there. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a women, it doesn’t matter which caste, country, culture, color- you can reach there. Everybody are same in the eyes of the Supreme .

So we have all these great potentials. You need to sit down and decide. What do you really want to achieve with  this life? And work towards it. Then nature will configure itself for that purpose. But most people do not have that kind of a purpose. What they do is, they just want to make some money, or get some positions, or some possessions, and then they think,“Now, I will be happy“.  And  eventually, what happens ?No happiness. Because, they want more. When you get 100 you want 1000. When you get 1000 you want 10, 000. When you get 10,000 you need 100,000. Like that, desires multiply. There is no point in saying that if I get this, I will be happy. If you can’t be happy right now, you can’t be happy ever. It is not connected to something outside. It is not connected to your relationships; it is not connected to your possessions; it is not connected to your position. It is connected to YOU. You can be satisfied as much as you are connected to yourself. You can have contentment.

If you deeply appreciate yourself, if you really really love yourself, if you really respect yourself, Life will change its flavour.

Instead, we are busy loving somebody outside. We are busy looking for something outside. We are looking for situations, places, and time outside. In the bargain, we are not happy.

Instead, spend some time with yourself. What a beautiful creation YOU are! Have you ever thought about it? Feel yourself. Feel, see and  experience how beautiful you are! How handsome you are! And what a kind of miracle you are!

All the organs inside are functioning like a great orchestra and giving you what is called life. Isn’t it great? We must think like that. We must remember that.

We are wonderful beings, but we forget it. Instead of that, we are looking  outside, we see and think that there is something outside that we must appreciate. It’s not true.

First you appreciate inside. You. This whole package called you.

Appreciate it! How beautiful! What a wonderful creation! Then you start connecting to yourself, appreciating yourself. Accept yourself with all your weaknesses. Everybody has  weaknesses. Nobody is only strength in the world. Don’t worry about your weaknesses. Instead, invest in your strenghts. Let the weaknesses stay with you. It’s ok. No problem. Why should we be perfect? We don’t have to be perfect. Let us have those weaknesses. We are born with this, or they have come to us. But we focus on our strengths. So what happens? There is no energy wastage. We don’t waste energy fighting weaknesses. Instead, when you strenghten your strenghts, when you invest in your strengths, when your strengths become stronger, the weaknesses  become eclipsed. They become ignorable. You can ingnore them. That is the right way. Don’t waste your energy fighting something, resisting something. Instead, use your energy promoting something good in you; the best in you. That will make you very powerful.

And then you see a big difference in the world around you because people will start liking your aura, liking your presence, and say,“Hey, I love you! I love to be with you“ and you will know that it is worth it. The secret is accepting yourself, connecting to yourself, respecting yourself. If you don’t respect yourself, nobody will respect you. The secret why society cannot respect a person is because the person does not have self-repect. Why  the scoiety cannot accept a person is becaue the person does not have self acceptance, self love. It is not selfishness, it is admiring and appreciating your existence. Selfishness is very bad. Our relevance in the world will depend on these two boundaries, selfishness and selflessness. The extent to which you are towards selflessness, that is how much you are appreciated by the world. Glory is connected to this aspect. The more selfless you are, the more glory you will get. This has to be clearly understood. That way you can transform the world by your own existence. You have that power! You have that in you! And this must be very clearly understood. Don’t think that somebody has to come and give it to you. Nobody has to give anything. You already have it. And you are immensely powerful. Why don’t you feel it? Because mind doesn’t allow you to feel. Mind gives you boundaries; “Hey, you are only this much! You are not great.“ And then you compare with other people – „ Hey look! This person is more beautiful than me, is smarter than me; is more talented than me.“ But remember one thing – he cannot be you or she cannot be you! Neither can you be that person! That person is already taken. But you are available to you. You are not taken. You have yourself. And that is your strength; your own strength is being you.  ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IN THIS LIFE IS BE YOU 100%! Don’t try to be somebody else. And respect yourself, respect the world, respect the society.

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha Ananth and Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

How People Connect to Mohanji

Welcome to Mohanji Speaks

This podcast is slightly longer than the other episodes. And it’s recommended that you listen to it in its entirety, with enough time to listen to it from start to finish. And listen again. It’s a good one to keep listening to as a reminder. We hope you enjoy it.

Hello friends. Let’s talk about positioning today. We all have certain complexes in us, which we might have experienced, especially in our teenage years. Some of these complexes make it difficult for us to position ourselves in this world. Along with that point, we can also think about our connection with various types of people. Let’s take one category, Spiritual Masters. What is a Spiritual Master – person who has settled within himself, inside himself. That is a Spiritual Master. Somebody who has taken himself off his senses, mind-matter, and has established himself in his consciousness is a Master. That means he is detached from the external world. His dependencies are less, and he is very stable, because of that. Once we recognize somebody in that way we tend to connect to that person, just because the aspiration of every person who is swayed by the mind is to reach that state. And what is the sign of that state? The sign of inner stillness is silence. No judgment. No criticism. No anger, hatred, or revenge. Peace, total peace. That’s a state that you arrive at when you are deeply connected to the consciousness of a Spiritual Master.

How do people connect to a Spiritual Master? Usually as per what they are. You cannot connect to the world as per the world is, because we have our orientations. We have our inclinations. We have our disposition. Having all these orientations, inclinations, and dispositions, we will connect to the world only as per what we are. Each person connects to another and connects to the world as per what they are. They cannot connect in any other way.

People who are of emotional by nature connect to the Master with devotion – bhakti yogis, the devotional kind. People who are intellectual by nature may connect to the Master’s philosophy, what he says, the intellectual stuff – jnana yogis, the intellectual kind. People who are of ego-oriented nature connect to the Master’s personality because the ego is the skeleton of a personality. The ego gives structure to the personality. So he is more connected to the Master’s personality. Then there are people who love to serve. They are kind by nature, they want to give to the world, share with the world – karma yogis. They connect to the Master’s philanthropic aspect. There are the very rare species, the Raja Yogis, who connect to the consciousness of the Master, the stillness aspect.

So as per the orientation, people connect to the Master accordingly. A bhakti yogi, a person who is inclined devotionally will find it absurd why the other categories are not worshiping the Master. While a person who’s oriented to knowledge will find it absurd that these devotional people are worshipping the Master, a perishable body. What is there to worship? Each category will find the other absurd. This is a very important point to understand. Nothing is absurd to the person who’s oriented in that format, that pattern. We must remember that.  Hence, we must not judge, because a devotional person, an emotional person, cannot understand the knowledge path at all, because that’s not his orientation. A karma yogi will find it uneasy to just connect to a Master based on the knowledge or devotion. It’s absurd for him. If you look at each category you will find that they have a distinction, they are distinct in their own thought process, inclinations, and tendencies, and we must respect them.

The rare breeds of people who connect directly to the consciousness of the Master see themselves in the Master or see the Master in themselves. There’s no need to worship. There’s no need to act in any way, there’s nothing to understand. That’s very rare, very difficult. It is not a mind thing. It’s actually a state. Very rarely people arrive at that state after going through all the other states. Those people need nothing from the Master. His presence, his state is the most important thing, they directly connect to the state of the Master, stabilize themselves, just like a spark is enough to catch fire if the wood is dry. Just a spark.  And the spark is always sitting in the Master who has stabilized himself. He’s burning fire. He is a fire, which is alive. If we really, really understand all these aspects, we will never judge, we will never criticize, we will never try to discriminate based on the orientations which we cannot understand. People connect to people, based on what they are. Some people look at the Master as freedom, total freedom, because he’s independent of the world outside. He’s detached from the world outside.

Some people feel the Master as love because he gives love, without expectations; free love, unconditional love, which is very rare in the world. We all experience unconditional love from our mothers. Mothers always give unconditional love to their children. But apart from that, the world is full of conditional love. But a Master who has found himself is established in unconditional love. Some people may look at the Master as a great romantic. When you become everything, eternal romance sprouts within you. You are a romantic, you are eternally romantic. What restricts you is your mind, eager to create frames with expectations. If there are no expectations, there are no frames, then you love the world because you are everything. You see yourself in everything. There is nothing apart from you. It’s an eternal romance. Your heart is so expanded that there is nothing else possible, just romance.

Some people look at the Master and they see rigidity, strictness. This is because discipline and determination are essential to dissolve. The mind is captured always by patterns, which we have cultivated and nurtured over time. Masters become strict to certain people because he understands that discipline is essential to cross the barriers of the mind, such as prejudices, patterns, and fears. As you are, as what’s inside you, so you see the Master. But the Master is everything because he is established in himself. He has become the universe, and he’s everything. He is not just one thing. So, he caters to each person as per what they are, as per their orientation, as per their need to take the next step. What is essential is that aspect, or that guidance, or that help that which makes them or helps them to take a stride further. In conclusion, I always recommend that you need to connect to the Master, sufficiently giving yourself time to ask all the questions to yourself, and if it is too much for you, to ask the Master. Take time to understand. Take time to assimilate. Take time to know the Master before you take the plunge, but once you take the plunge stay put.

Ask yourself what your orientation is. How do you know, it’s very simple – it’s what suits you. What’s effortless for you, that is your orientation. What doesn’t suit you, you should not do. For example, a person who’s attracted to the philosophy, the knowledge of the Master, and is not attracted to the devotional side of the Master, or devotional aspect towards the Master should refrain from doing the devotional side. Because somebody else who’s devotional by nature, bhakti yogi by nature is doing it, you don’t have to do it. You connect to the master as you are which is more stable and more real. Every connection should be realistic. Otherwise, it has no longevity. It will not survive time. Your connection should be with full awareness of what you are, not what the Master is. You can only connect to another being as you are.

Understanding your orientation is extremely essential for fruitful connections, for maintaining good connections. Don’t look any further; you realize what is your orientation, what is your constitution, and if you connect accordingly, you will have a stable, real, and peaceful connection. A stable connection is extremely essential for the sake of longevity. Birds of the same feather flock together. You need to have the same frequency, or you need to identify your frequency and connect in that way, to a universal frequency so you can derive what you require out of it. No Master needs any worship. No Master ever tells anybody you should worship me. Only insecure people will tell all these things. Only insecure people will want people to worship them.

This is a perishable body. This is what you are. You have taken this body for the sake of experiences and expressions. That’s about it. All that you are doing or all that is happening in your life are experiences of various nature and expressions of what you are in this world, nothing else is happening. So, nobody who’s balanced will say, somebody should worship them. It doesn’t matter. But if somebody’s orientation needs that fulfillment, let it be. We cannot deny anybody’s experience of any kind. A true Master allows that experience to happen. A true Master just lets it flow, how they are, let them connect as they are so that there is fulfillment individually. Individual fulfillment is essential for the transition to happen in life. If fulfillments are denied, if they are suppressed, they come back with more force, which binds them further to the Earth. For liberation to happen, fulfillment is essential. A true Master allows that to happen. There will be no restriction. What is inside you, what is burning inside you, that is what has to be addressed.

A burning desire is an important thing for that person. If awareness can take care of it, fulfill it, or through higher awareness if you can diminish that fire, it’s fine. If through higher awareness also, this fire is not diminished, fulfillment is the only solution. And fulfillment must happen, it will happen at its time. A true Master allows it to happen and releases the person from that binding desire. In a nutshell, if you really understand yourself, you can connect to a Master who is stability incarnate, effectively. If you have not settled inside, if you have not understood yourself, or if you have not understood your orientation, all your connections will be temporary, faulty, and with expectations. Any connection with expectations has a duration. A connection without expectations, selfless connections, unconditional connections, will live forever.

This is food for thought for you today. Think about it. Ponder it and communicate about it.

Lots of love, this is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan
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Pearls of Wisdom – Conversation with Mohanji (Part 1)

 

 

Namaste everyone!

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.

Host: Thank you very much!

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

Faith in your inner Guru – on healing the Earth

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 freedom from the 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,

Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya
glaanir bhavati bhaarata
abhyutthaanam adharmasya
tadatmaanam srjaamyaham

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 !!

Transcribed by Padmini Ravikumar

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

How do I spend more time at the being level?

This question has come from a listener. It’s about explanations on how to stay at the being level. We simply understand what we consist of. We have the physical body, and we have the mind, intellect, and ego as processors. And we have the subtle factor, which energizes all these faculties. In this context, the ego factor maintains doership and ownership of action. It also keeps the personality traits such as possessions and positions.

When we become aware of this, we tend to understand that it’s just an illusion that we have created during our waking state. But we are experiencing life even when we are sleeping, dreaming. When we realize that we have other dimensions, we also have other dimensions, which are equally important, and they also give us experiences, then we can take a step away from ownership of actions to beingness.

Beingness – this simply means just being aware of your words, your actions, and your existence in all planes and in all levels. How to exist in beingness forever or always? Very simple, be aware. Just be aware. Always be aware of all your actions, all your emotions, all the thoughts, all the words, and all the expressions. Everything is spontaneously happening at a particular time, or at different times, in different places, with different sets of people, and we are only gaining experiences out of them. Plus, we are also expressing ourselves in that context. So, through expressions and through experiences, we are having a thing called life. This is what we are… Numerous activities, numerous times, numerous places, different things, but at the same time, we are just experiencing and expressing, so that’s a static thing.

The static thing about life is expressions and experiences. When we become a witness to both of these, we are already at the being level. ‘Being’ is being aware of every activity. Being aware of the consciousness which stays the same in the waking state, dream state, and deep sleep state. We are aware of the consciousness, which is beyond all these states. Even beyond the consciousness, we are being aware of the soul element, which, when it leaves the body, we call it a dead body. We have time here from birth until death. We have experiences out of this space, and we have expressions in this space. This is our life. When we are fully aware of our life in this context, and we are only witnessing it without judging, without criticizing, without comparing, without doing anything, or without having any doership or ownership, then you are free.

I will give you a story to prove this beingness. Saint Vyasa was meditating under a tree near the River Yamuna. And Lord Krishna and his people were on the other side. A group of people came to see Lord Krishna from the village, and they had carried a lot of sweetmeats to be given to Krishna, which Krishna loved. When they came close to the river, they realized the river was flooding, it was overflowing, swollen. And no boatman will take them to the other side, because it was dangerous. So, they decided to sit in front of Vyasa until he opened his eyes after the meditation to ask him what they could do now?

They waited a few hours; Vyasa opened his eyes and saw that a lot of people were sitting in front of him. He asked, “Where are you coming from? Why are you here? What do you want from me?” They explained their story. They came to see Krishna, Krishna was on the other side of the river, and they can’t cross because there was no boatman or boat, there was no boatman willing to take them there. So, they asked him, “What should we do now?” Vyasa asked, “Have you brought something for Krishna?” and they said, “Yes, we have a basket full of sweetmeats which Krishna loves, made out of ghee, made out milk and ghee which Krishna usually used to love. He said, “Show me.” They opened the basket and they showed him, and he started eating. They couldn’t say anything because this was Vyasa. He started eating. He ate almost half the basket, he was pretty hungry. And they couldn’t do anything; they were just looking in awe, and in embarrassment, because they couldn’t tell him please stop because we have to take it to Krishna. Once he finished almost half the basket, he closed it. He said okay now you take it, and come with me. He took them to the river banks of Yamuna. And he said, “If I have not eaten anything, let the river part.” And the river parted. The villagers were surprised. How come? He has been eating in front of our eyes and he’s eaten almost half the stuff from the basket. And he says I have not eaten anything let the river part, and it parted. How come? Anyway, Vyasa said, “Don’t wait – cross.” They crossed the river; they went to the other side and the river came back to its original form. Vyasa stayed on this side. And they were really reluctant to tell Krishna about this or tell Krishna that they haven’t brought anything, because they didn’t want to give Krishna half a basket. While they were walking towards Krishna’s Palace, they saw Krishna resting on a bench in a garden. He was sleeping. They waited. He woke up. Krishna saw them sitting in front of him. And he was excited to see them, his old friends. He asked, “Oh, when did you come? Welcome! I’m happy to see you. By the way, what have you brought?” They were trying to hide the basket and then they said, “Oh we brought some sweetmeats.” ‘Oh no, no, no, don’t give it to me now, I am full of the same thing.”

Saint Vyasa

That means when Vyasa was eating, Krishna’s belly was getting full. That means, in perfect beingness you are everything. So, Vyasa was consuming this in the consciousness of Krishna and Krishna’s belly was getting full. He said’ I’ve eaten the same thing; my belly is full of the same thing. I can’t eat that now but thank you for bringing me.” So that is what Vyasa said, “If I have not eaten. Let the river part,” and it parted because he had not eaten. Even though his body was consuming, his consciousness was merged in Krishna.

If your consciousness is completely merged in the Supreme Consciousness, or if your individual consciousness is completely merged with the Supreme Consciousness, you have no doership, you have no ownership, you have no karma. This is as simple as that.

I hope you have understood this point. Please think about it, ponder on it and try to imbibe it, try to feel it, or try to understand it in a deeper sense.

I wish you great success. See you again soon.

Lots of love.

This is Mohanji for you.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

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The Consequences of Disobeying Sai Baba

Mohanji is a spiritual Master whose awakening was graced by Sai Baba of Shirdi. He guides many on the path and works tirelessly to spread His teachings. Mohanji reminds us that Sai Baba’s words are the pure expression of Supreme Consciousness, and talks about the consequences of disobeying Him.

A Master who operate from Pure Consciousness (when I say ‘Master’, that means a person who has already dissolved his mind or somebody who has gone beyond the nirvichaar samaadhi – that means the no-thought state), when such a Master  gives a command or when he suggests something, it’s from pure Consciousness, because there is no vested interest, there’s no agenda. And we have so many examples of that in Sai Satcharita. Various devotees have written separately as well about Baba telling something, and when they did not follow that, dire consequences happened. This is for sure, because Baba is talking from Pure Consciousness: “Yes, do it” ,”No, don’t do it.” That’s coming from clear, clear Consciousness, so the words are with absolute clarity. It’s not from the mind. Mind can give distorted views. That’s what we see in the world today, the things which we read are all opinions.

Most of the things given in the newspaper and in the media – they are all opinions – and they don’t have lasting value. But those that come from clear Consciousness have lasting value, they have permanence. So when a Master like Sai Baba instructs something and it is not followed, the loss is to ourselves. If we don’t follow, it’s our loss. Several times I have observed that various Masters have given absolute clarity to people, that have even been reasons to avert wars and bloodshed and so many different things, even things which will affect a society or a country. But what happens is that the human mind comes into play, we start analysing – “Oh, the Master said this! Why did He say that? What is the reason?“

Analysis has no value here. What comes from Pure Consciousness cannot be analysed, and when we analyse, we do not even understand!  That is why when a person had an upset stomach, Baba gave him peanuts. Peanuts are not good for that state, but he got cured. That’s exactly coming from the Consciousness. And the command, the intention, the purity of intention, the strength of intention – that brings forth a change in the person, at a physical level, emotional level, intellectual level, spiritual level, any level, there is a change.

So if we have really understood Baba, we should assimilate what He has been telling. And there are so many examples in our life; when we open the Satcharita and read, we can get some information. Sometimes, or mostly, Baba shows the page to read. If you just open the page, the right page will come. And when you read it, then you get an answer. And that answer should be executed with faith.

Here, there are two things. One – the analysis often takes the faith away. If you have deep faith, that automatically opens or clears the blockages. Many times, we have severe blockages inside. We do not trust well. We do not trust ourselves, we do not trust the Master, and sometimes we do not trust the suggestions also. Then the Master is not responsible. His job is done. He told you what to do. And if you did not do it, the Master is not responsible anymore. It’s like a physician prescribing a medicine for a cure. And if you did not trust the physician, nor the medicine, nor yourself, you may not consume it,  and the disease stays, the ailment stays.

Just like that, in our life we should first and foremost, have faith in ourselves. Clear faith in ourselves. So that your awareness opens up, and with that opened awareness, you connect to a Master. And when you assimilate the information, you will always be guided well – the path will be clear, destination will be clear, journey will be clear. This is how it works.

Why then are we connecting to a Master, to Sai Baba ? The very, very basic reason is  our opportunity for an increased awareness, which takes suffering away.

Suffering is a misunderstanding, suffering means we are resisting something in life. Suffering is that we did not understand, or we did not accept an event or an experience. But pain will be there, because we have a body. The body will have all its ups and downs, its ageing and all the factors connected to any body. But suffering – suffering is our choice, it’s our state.

Pain without suffering is a state, it is a sign of a state of higher elevation. Baba had pain. Once somebody threw a stone at Baba. He had an injury, blood was coming. Then people said, “Oh, Baba, you’re injured!” He said, “Injury is here, pain is not here, pain is there!” (pointing to God)  That means He did not even connect to His body – somebody threw a stone, and they will pay the price for it.

So if somebody abuses us, we don’t have to worry – they will pay the price. The people who abuse us will pay the price. Somebody praises us, again, it is their pleasure. We don’t have anything to do with it. So we will reach a level of equilibrium where nothing can touch us. We are stable, in a way.

If people come to see you, you’re happy. If people do not come to see you, you’re still happy. That means our dependency level in this world becomes so low and so reduced, that our stability can never be affected. Otherwise our dependency, our expectation, our need and desire, all these things will pile up and then we become a burden to ourselves. Like we may walk, very tired and there’ll be no lightness.

So a Master of the calibre of Sai Baba is brimming lightness, brimming light, brightness. That is because He had nothing to do with this world. He came as an expression of Supreme Consciousness and lived, and He lives on as an expression of Supreme Consciousness. This understanding should be very clear for every devotee of Baba, so that your connection with Baba will be your highest experience of this existence. Because you will know that this is your opportunity to reach the highest in this existence.

And please understand – nobody else is Sai Baba. Sai Baba is Sai Baba. Everybody is their own incarnation. Every person who is born will also die. So don’t compare one with the other, there cannot be a comparison possible. You cannot compare yourself with another, nor another with another. These are all separate incarnations.

You can connect to everybody. You should connect to everybody, equally. Never criticise, judge, or compare, for the mind will become contaminated. Instead, purify the mind through good actions, good thoughts, good words, good expressions, and then life will be a life blessed by Baba.

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

 

 

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Consciousness Shift and the Covid 19 Pandemic

I have been telling that from 2012, the shift has started. And I have told in various forums, various satsangs, various meetings; I’ve written as well, that from 2012 a shift is happening and a shift also means a shift in consciousness. A shift in consciousness needs time. People should have time with themselves, to meet themselves, to talk to themselves, to understand themselves; to connect to themselves, and align themselves. That time is given now. People are given time to be with themselves.

Life will not be the same on Earth. This has been told many centuries ago by people. I had reiterated that. But what causes a situation of this size? This also, we must understand. Collective consciousness creates situations. It is the collective human consciousness of seven point five billion people. How did it happen? It happened through fear, competition, insensitivity, divisions, distractions, displacements, wars. Religion has killed many more people than this Corona virus. Religion is still killing. Religions are still fighting and killing people.

I’m not even talking about other species. So many species are getting killed every day just because we like to eat them. We like to eat their bodies. That’s on one side about which various people have spoken at various times, including me. If you ask our people who have listened to me, I have said that it is time to be human; a time for understanding, assimilating, compassion. Why did people not listen to all this? People listen to Masters or people listen to good advice at their convenience.

Most people do not even follow it. They listen and they forget. How many people follow it? Imagine a master; I’m not talking about myself, great masters; they have all talked eternal truths all the time. But how many of us are ready to follow it? If we don’t follow something; you can’t blame as well. Imagine a doctor treated you, diagnosed your ailment and prescribed a medicine for you. You threw the prescription away and you walked home. Then, if you complain that the doctor did not do the right thing, is the doctor to be blamed or the patient?

It’s like that. Masters have time and again spoken to people and said, “Please do not resort to violence, no wars, no bloodshed. Please live in peace. You should have peace within. You should accept other people as yourself. You should love every species as yourself. The same right that you have, they have; everybody has the same right on earth. The whole earth belongs to everybody. You do not have any priority. You are just one species on Earth.” Masters have spoken this over a period of time and even the mantras are for the whole nature to be peaceful. Let the beings who live in this nature be peaceful and then we say ‘Loka Samastha Sukino Bhavantu’ – let the whole beings of the world be peaceful, happy and blissful. So this has been told over and over again. But what are we doing? We are dividing all the time. Dividing between people, dividing between languages, dividing between religions based on all this and we do not see eye to eye with each other.

We look at another as not from us, not part of us, even though we are one species. So what created this situation? It’s not the gurus or the people who have connected to consciousness. I have never told anybody that I am connected to supreme consciousness for that matter. I have never told anybody that I am a guru. I have never, ever claimed that I am somebody’s guru. I have never claimed to be enlightened. So that is one thing, I would like to point out now.

This is people’s notions that Mohanji could be enlightened, whatever, that is up to the people. I’m not responsible for that. But having said that, there have been many masters speaking over a period of time and warning people, big destruction can happen if you do not change your ways. Why we did not pay attention? Instead, we killed the people who spoke. We crucified Jesus. We gave poison to Socrates. We harmed Jnaneshwar.

We did everything possible to disturb and destroy the truth; speakers of truth. We did that. We do that still. Anybody who sticks to the truth or speaks the truth, they are annihilated, assassinated, at least character assassinated. We see that every day, we see that even now. But at the same time, the people who sugar coat and try to play politics and try to be a surf rider in this existence, they are accepted. They are regarded. Those who speak well are more respected. Those who speak the truth are disrespected. But those who speak well, even if it is not the truth, they are respected. They are appreciated. They are given awards, acknowledgements; this is life. This is the reality. Why I’m insisting and saying this point is because anybody is walking the path of spirituality, (path of spirituality is the path of yourself, connecting to yourself deeply, unconditionally and perfect alignment is spirituality); you are connecting to yourself and aligning yourself. That is spirituality. If you’re walking the path of alignment or walking the path of material, both are the same when it comes to responsibility. We are all responsible for every being on Earth, not only our own species but every species. We have no right to kill. We have no right to spill blood; not only human blood, any blood for that matter. Nobody is born to satiate the appetite of human beings.

 

This is the truth which we must really understand, and which we must be very careful about. Nobody is born to satisfy our palate. We know very well that 2012 December the shift started; 2022 December – 1 segment, 10 years segment happens. Then again, it will continue. A shift is happening and shift also means shift over; shift in consciousness. A shift in consciousness means you’ve got to be extremely flexible, extremely compassionate, kind, selfless and unconditional in existence and love unconditionally.

 

If love is your method of communication you are in a good mode of operation. You’re doing the right thing. So this is my answer. Please understand that it is not a problem with the masters. If you really follow a master, follow 100% even if the master is wrong. If you really trust him, trust him with your life. Trust him totally. If you don’t trust him, don’t go to him. No master asks you, “Please come to me”, or no master promises you, “Oh, please come. I’ll give you something.” True Masters will never, ever promise like that. If you are there, if you are available, maybe there’ll be a transformation. No guarantee, zero guarantees. This is your life; your walk, your connection, your conviction, and your destiny. So, you should be very clear. So I would like to say that do not go to any master expecting a miracle or a shift in the collective consciousness and creating a change in life. It will not happen.

Collective consciousness is much larger; let’s say six billion people; crazy, angry, running after, chasing things, comparing, criticizing in that unconscious mode. And let’s say one billion people are living in only peace and no competition, no comparison, only love. Which is more? Six billion is always more. The consciousness of the remaining one billion cannot supersede the six billion. Understand collective consciousness has a big role to play. World wars were created by collective consciousness. Ideological warfare was created by collective consciousness. Religions, religious movements, wars, bloodshed, displacements were created by collective consciousness. All these are connected to a collective consciousness. We must be clear and aware of this!

Mohanji

 

Transcribed and proofread

By Rekha Murali

 

 

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Read or watch Mohanji’s other messages here.

Who is Sai Baba?

 

I have heard of this confusion: “Who is Baba? Who is Sai Baba? Is he a God? Is he a Guru? Is he an Avadhoota? Is he a Master of a certain path or segment like the Nath Tradition or the Avadhoota Tradition?” Various questions of this nature come up. It has come to me as well. I have heard that. I have read that.

I always think about one thing – Does it really matter? The lifespan of a human being in the Kali Yuga is about 100 years. Out of these 100 years, the effective years are the times when you are available to the world, when you are serving the world, when you are giving something to the world. That’s the only effective years.  Out of 7.5 billion people on Earth, many people do not have any effective years. They live their whole life for themselves – eating, drinking, sleeping, entertaining themselves, some pleasures of the mind, and things like that. But if you look at the life of Baba, almost 100 percent of his existence, as we know – in Dwarkamai and beyond – has been for the world. So, his life has been totally effective, almost 99 percent, we say. We don’t know about the time when he was not in Dwarkamai, or before that. Who is Baba is what he has delivered.

We only know certain things from certain literature, but I am 100 percent sure, and we all know, that he has done much more. As you know, he is doing a lot today for thousands of people across the world. You can see his presence in all the continents. A person who lived in a small dilapidated place in Shirdi has reached every corner of the Earth, many years after his physical existence. Isn’t that a miracle? It’s a huge miracle! So who has the power to create that miracle? That is him.

Whether he is an Avadhoota, whether he is a Siddha, whether he is a Guru, whether he is God, it does not matter. As far as his presence is concerned, he is pure Consciousness. If there are boundaries, like we have boundaries – physical boundary, emotional boundary, and intellectual boundary – we have all these boundaries, various boundaries, various frames, and we are those frames and we can’t go beyond those frames, because we do not allow ourselves to cross those frames and boundaries. This is our usual life.

But Baba never had a boundary. What does that mean? He is pure Consciousness. Then what is his body? Just a representation. Without that representation, you can’t connect to the pure Consciousness. He brought himself as a representation for the sake of humanity, and he took a suitable form. He is neither a Hindu, nor a Muslim, nor a Christian, nor a Buddhist… He is everything – as a form which is suitable for everybody to connect to the pure Consciousness.

So whether he is a Guru… If somebody looks at him as a Guru, he is a Guru. If somebody looks at him as God, he is God. If somebody looks at him as an Avadhoota, he is an Avadhoota. If somebody looks at him as a Nath, he is a Nath. This is a round object. He is everything.  Pure Consciousness is everything. Pure Consciousness is you and I. Pure Consciousness pervades the whole Universe – not only the Earth, but well beyond. Representation of that pure Consciousness in a body which can be related to, conceived a body which can be connected to, and that is what he is. We define him as per our capacity, as per our boundaries, that’s all we do. But is Baba that? For you, yes! As per your boundary, you have understood him as per whatever you think he is. That’s about it. So we must understand that great, great Masters are never born, they will never die, as Baba is proving every moment. They are all-pervading, and through every idol of his, he talks, he communicates, he gets people to connect to him.

So pure Consciousness without boundaries – that’s him. And whichever form that goes in, that form is the pure Consciousness. That does not limit the pure Consciousness, that’s what we should understand. No limitation. We have a limitation, we discriminate people, we look at people – “Oh, he is this form.” We only understand based on forms. That is why we have confusion between Gurus. What is the role of a real Guru? To connect you to the Supreme Consciousness, or to remind you that you are the Supreme Consciousness, which you are searching for. This is the role of every Guru. But we look at a Guru as a problem-solver, or somebody who will tell you your future. If you want to know your future, you are a bundle of insecurities. Only when we have lots of insecurities, we will want to know what will happen tomorrow. If we are completely surrendered, and if we are fully merged with the Supreme Consciousness, we wouldn’t want to know what will happen tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. Or something like, “Okay, if I am born, I will die.” That’s about it, in between what happens doesn’t matter.

So like that, when you are deeply connected to a Master as powerful and as glorious as Baba, we will only feel ourselves in him, what we are in him. That’s exactly why thousands of people are coming to Shirdi today. They all see themselves in Baba. They get their problem mirrored or reciprocated from Baba and that gets solved, most of them get solved. How does it get solved? It is as good as how much you surrender. Say, “It doesn’t belong to me, I leave it to you. My life is not mine; this physical form has no value, I leave it to you.” That brings you more and more peace, more and more stability. So, who is Baba? The fundamental question. Baba is YOU. How you are, that’s how you see Baba.

But is Baba one thing? He cannot be. If he is one thing, all these people in the world cannot connect to that. A flat object – only a few people will connect. Not everybody can connect. For everybody to connect, that object or that person should have a round character. He’s not bound. Whatever is bound needs liberation. Whatever is unbound needs no liberation, because they are liberation already.  This is Baba. So if ever you have that question as to, “Who is Baba?” ask yourself, “Who am I?” And then you will find the answer.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

 

 

 

Have You Truly Surrendered to Sai Baba?

 

 

It’s natural that we approach a Master with a lot of expectations, and usually or many times, we see that we only go to a temple, or a Samadhi, or a Master, only when we have some problem. We see that happening in life. If we are completely fine, we are perfect, and we are happy, we don’t go anywhere. We don’t even thank God or thank Gurus. But when we have a problem, that’s the time when we go to a Master, or go to a Samadhi, or go to a temple and ask for help. So, like Kunti Mata has said in the Mahabharata to Krishna, to always keep her unhappy, sad, so that she always remembers God. This is human nature. We remember God only when we are not happy. But that should not be the case; we should be connected to God all the time. Every day when you wake up, you should be thanking God.

The highest prayer is the prayer of thanks, gratitude. Gratitude is very, very powerful. That’s a very, very potentially powerful prayer. When you are deeply in distress; imagine you are in a kind of a distressed state, things are not happening well, things are falling apart, first and foremost, what you should do is to stop complaining. Because when you complain, when you are expecting too much and if you are complaining, you are actually increasing the pain. It’s almost like a thorn which has pierced your leg, and when you keep shaking the thorn, the pain will persist, and the wound will become bigger. Like that, when you keep on complaining, then the pain will be more. This is one point.

Second is a very important point, it is that we should be aware – there is a reason for every effect, there is a cause for every effect. No effect happens by itself, there is a reason. So what would be the usual reason for any effect in life? Something – a memory which is stored within, and which is actually accented because of repeated storage, or repeated thoughts about it. Like you can see some people whom you do not like in life, you remember them all the time. You know, those whom you remember all the time have actually influenced you in your life. Have you observed that? This you see in your life. Whom you are remembering all the time – maybe they are your enemies – but they are influencing your thoughts, they are influencing you. Like that, potential fears – fears about losses, fears about diseases, fears about not being appreciated in the society, not being accepted, and all these fears create those kinds of effects in life, which no Guru or God has anything to do with, which we are creating every moment. This awareness should be very clear in the mind, it’s very important.

If we are not aware of the patterns we are creating, because life is full of patterns; and patterns are a continuous process, we keep hopping from body to body, but the patterns will continue. When we hop from one body after death to another body, a new birth, we carry all these things. The patterns are in continuation, they continue. These patterns keep repeating, and the same kinds of effects are brought.

It also means a lack of acceptance. So the way you can overcome these patterns is through acceptance and surrender. Acceptance is very important. “Okay, this is happening now, let me take a deep breath, fine.” Not blaming immediately, criticizing, screaming, shouting and complaining. That won’t help you, because that will actually increase your pain. Instead, you are accepting them. Accepting doesn’t mean that you are like a doormat, where anybody can walk over you. Instead, you are accepting, and then at a certain point in time, you say, “Baba, this is happening, I’m sure this is happening because of my past patterns, maybe fears, maybe some kind of resistance, but I leave it to you.”

Acceptance and Surrender, they go hand in hand. They will release you a lot from the stress, and then you can see miracles happening. Usually, we do not surrender enough. We keep it to ourselves, we say, “Oh, this is happening. Why am I praying to Baba for all these years… Baba is not taking care of me…” This is the usual way people talk, but that’s not the truth. You are not allowing Baba to take care of you because you are not accepting it. Resistance means that you have not come to terms with your reality. Resistance is a clear sign you are not correlated or coming to terms with your own reality.

Acceptance means you have come to terms with your reality. From that point, you surrender to Baba. I would say you discuss with Baba like you discuss with a close friend, you talk to Baba. “Baba, look here, this is what’s happening. You know it very well and now let’s work it out together.” Something like that, just like a casual discussion, not even a prayer and say, “Baba, thank you for being with me, through happiness, through sorrows, thank you for being with me.” And you will see the effect much better, rather than complaining, criticising, judging, screaming, and shouting. This will only increase your agony, and also, that closes doors. And you are actually testing Baba that way, “Now, are you going to do something for me? Are you going to help me?” Baba is not your servant; Baba cannot be your servant. He is our ally, he is our support, and he is our friend. He is our closest possible friend, who has no discrimination. He never judges. He never discriminates anybody. There’s no poor or rich in his world. All are the same. Everybody can connect to him as the closest friend and the closest ally. Ownership creates pain. Surrender releases all the pain. This is the secret.

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When you own all your doings, “I am doing it, I’m doing it,” the ego, the mind-matter is getting involved, and that creates pain. But you can surrender, “You are doing it, I’m not doing it, it’s happening through you.” I don’t mean that you can do all sorts of crimes and say, “I’m not doing it.” That’s not the point, it should be pure stuff.  The intention should be pure; the intention should be selfless. You can never, ever do things selfishly and say, “It’s Baba doing it.” That’s not good, because that’s got a huge price to pay. Maybe you may not be able to complete it over, let’s say, the next 10,000 lifetimes, that much a price! I always say, don’t do these things where you are using a Master’s name for your selfish reasons. And one thing is very clear – Baba, Babaji, or any of those great Masters will never ever ask anybody to harm anyone. NEVER. They will only say, if at all, “Detach from this place, detach from this person, don’t be there!” That’s all. He will never say, “You go and attack that person, insult that person, character assassinate that person.” Never! This is guaranteed. You can look at history. These Masters are pure Consciousness. They will never ever want to harm anybody. This is the truth.

If you are in deep sorrow, accept it first, then discuss with Baba, “I’m going through this process, you are watching, I leave it to you.” Then you keep quiet and let him do the work. You have surrendered, that’s about it. And gratitude – “Thank you for being with me.” Always be thankful, always be grateful.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan