Personal Effectiveness

Welcome to Mohanji speaks.

Hello, my dear friends,

Today, let us think about certain aspects of our life, which are taking away a lot of our energy; the aspects that consume our energy more, are the wasted matters of our life, not the necessary aspects. I will talk about a few of these. Look at three C’s of our life and I mean the alphabet ‘C ‘- Criticism, Comparison, Competition.

Let us begin with the last one, competition. We have been trained to compete with somebody or something. But have we ever thought, at any point in time, whether it is necessary, or not? And usually, more often than not, it is not necessary. We don’t need it. But competition is not a negative word. You can definitely compete with yourself. That will help you to improve yourself.

 

The second C is Criticism. Who is our most bitter critic? We ourselves are. We criticize ourselves more than the whole world criticizes us. We judge ourselves more than the entire world. We are our most beloved friend, as well as the most hated enemy. It’s all us. Everything is us. Criticism takes away a lot of time. It even affects our self-esteem. We compromise our experiences for the sake of critical view, comparisons. What are the comparisons with?

Imagine you are an orange, and you are comparing yourself with an apple. Definitely, you’re not the apple. You are an orange and be proud of it.

You are who you are. You are inevitably yourself. You are unique. You are original. You are authentic. 

If you clearly understand this, you realize that you can’t compare with anybody else. Comparison is stupidity. In fact, that time can be used for actualization; that means coming closer to yourself, exploring your authenticity, your original state, your originality. That time is worth it. This is the alternative to comparing ourselves with others, creating a type of competition within and in the bargain, exhausting us too! Is it worth it? Absolutely not! It’s a waste of time.

Along with it, we see that children, (because we have groomed them or we have tuned them like that) are always in the mode of competition or comparison. We compare them with other children. “Hey, look at that boy, or that girl, how well they are doing, how good they are!” etc. This, in fact, creates more divisions in our children, more confusion in them. Instead, if we gently help them to come to terms with their own uniqueness, originality, that would be the biggest gift that we can give to our children. 

We have a great life, but only if we understand it with clarity. Our life is great; it is an amazing life. We don’t experience its greatness, first and foremost because we resist a lot; we resist too much; we cling on to certain bad things of the past. And we don’t let them go. A thing of the past stays on, only if the mind holds that experience or the mind analyzes it and enjoys it in a way, to be in its presence or having a presence in our life. But that’s unnecessary junk. The past is finished; we have nothing to do with it.

Today is our reality. How our authentic are you today? How effective are you today? How much are you able to experience life today?

We are only experiencing our authenticity, our uniqueness. We are not experiencing anything else; we are experiencing the world, as we are. This connection with ourselves will help us much with the contentment factor. 

If we stop criticizing, comparing and competing, look at our world; how will the world be with all unique people, all authentic and all original, walking this earth, expressing their originality and authenticity? The world will be brighter. However, at present, 80% of the people in the world are busy competing, comparing, criticizing, judging and analyzing each other. And what do you get at the end of the day? Disappointments, sheer frustrations, anxieties, fears, jealousy, guilt and regrets are the effects. We can avoid these. We can indeed avoid all these emotions, easily, if we were to connect to our authenticity; if we could connect to our originality, accept it totally, against all odds, and if we could ignore the opinions of others about us unless it is creative criticism. If the criticism is from somebody who’s guiding us to actualize ourselves, it is creative criticism. Someone who is guiding us to explore our own authenticity is creative and that is a good suggestion or criticism. That’s fine. Apart from that, nothing else is important.

Our own connection with ourselves is the most authentic connection you can ever make in a lifetime. Anything else, any opinions, any criticisms, is not important.

Anything that helps you to connect with yourself is good. Anything which explores your authenticity is good. Anything which reminds you of your originality is good. And those are the good things of life, not the materials you get, not the positions, or the possessions; they are all temporary. But your own exploration of your authenticity is permanent. And that makes you an effective person and a compelling personality.

You are your own ally. Don’t be your own enemy.

I’ll leave you with this thought today; think about it. We’ll talk about something else, next time. Have a good day.

This is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Vidya Rajagopal

Subscribe to Mohanji Speaks daily podcast

Look into the eyes of fear

Welcome, my friends, to Mohanji Speaks. I hope you have enjoyed the previous episodes.
Today, let’s talk about an overwhelming subject, fear. There are various dimensions of fear that we see in our lives and around us.

Have you ever thought about fears objectively? There are numerous types of fears. Some are very paralyzing fears; fear of height, fear of insects, fear of wild animals, and so on; the intensity of each varies. Let’s look at some of the worst fears of our life.

One of the most intense fears of everyone’s existence is death. The fear of death is very common. We will look into how we can counter the fear of death a little later. There are other fears, such as fear of people, fear of talking in public, fear of doing a task, fear of not receiving approval from people, fear of criticism and fear of judgment. We have various types of social fears: How will people look at us. What will they think about us?

I have seen some people who are afraid to say they’re following Mohanji or that they’re connected to me. I have no problem in connecting to anybody, and I have no problem in saying I’m with them because when you decide to do something in life, it is your prerogative. You have full freedom. You have free will. Then there is no way anyone can object. Nobody has the right to point a finger at you, because you chose an experience. Choose an experience. It’s our choice.

We also have the fear of failure and it is so crippling that we don’t even attempt certain things in life. This means we lose the chance for that experience.

We have the fear of losing friendships. So we bend backwards and forwards to accommodate people in our life. (It) means we become unnatural. Still, we accommodate; we try to accommodate people in our life. Sometimes it’s better than some friendships are lost because they are too heavy for us to handle. When I say lost, I do not mean that we convert them to enemies, but to understand that it’s alright to be away from these friendships. It is good to not have toxic friendships, crippling friendships, draining friendships!

We have fear of examinations. The real examination of life is life in itself, every moment; the decisions that we make every moment without knowing what the result will be. These are real examinations in life. We should not be afraid of life. We should embrace life. We should embrace life with Love. This will give us stability.

We are afraid of losing our comfort zones. This is another fear that we entertain. We have certain things which we have obtained in this life and we hate to lose it. We have fear and wonder what will happen if it goes away. But life is about changes. Everything changes. Life changes, situations change. Can we help it? I doubt it. We have to go with the flow. We have to be like water; flow.

Coming back to the first question about death, how do we overcome the fear of death? One word answer is awareness. Whatever is born, will die. Everything that’s born has to die. And at each point in time, we are made aware that everything is temporary. All situations, all emotions, all things around us are temporary. When we close our eyes at night, we don’t have a world around us. It’s gone. When we open our eyes in the morning, there exits the world around us in which we can move and experience things. But they are all temporary. This is a reminder that the world and life are temporary. Everything is temporary. It is a good way to know that we will die someday, and there’s nothing to be afraid of. Everything that is born will die.

If we increase our longevity, increase the lifespan… even if we extend our lifespan, if there is no contentment factor, is it worth it? A real-life, good life is when you are healthy; when you are experiencing life as a healthy person. When you’re unhealthy, when you need help from people, that’s not the right way to live. That’s not a healthy life.
We are afraid of losses; economic losses, monetary losses, loss of friendship, loss of near and dear ones, loss of relationships, various types of losses. Many of us are afraid of them. We are afraid of diseases. We fear them; we fear losing wealth. And we fear society in a certain context. How will society treat us if we don’t have this wealth?

Thus there’re so many dimensions of fear which we entertain each day. People give you fear, such as when relatives say, ‘’Hey, if you lose this job, you’ll have a problem, you won’t be respected in the society.’’ You then cling on to the job. We fear not getting tasks done, so we end up bribing, rather we enter into corruption. There are many things which are controlled by fear.

An important fear is the fear of God. God is Love. Why do we fear God? What’s there to be afraid of God? God means the substratum. Everything sits on Him. The whole universe has come out of this intelligent energy called God. We can give it a form; we can keep it formless. All the forms have come out of God, and all the forms will dissolve into God. And we call it God.

If you’d like to call it energy if you call it Consciousness, there is no problem. It’s all the same. But why do we fear? A particle of God is sitting inside us. We call it a soul. And this is a very important aspect of our existence. If it leaves the body, we call the body a dead body, useless piece of flesh and bones. God is to be loved, respected and appreciated.

Also, we should be grateful to God for creating the universe, the variety of all these experiences, the possibility of experiencing them, and to have a life. This life is given so that we could experience all this. Not that God chose to give life. God is not like a school teacher or a king, sitting high up somewhere, invisible, pointing a finger at things. It’s a substratum where we can create our life; we can create our existence.

That is why when Lord Dattatreya was asked by people who he was, He said, “I am just a worshipper of nature. I’m a connoisseur. I love nature, and my love for nature and wonder for all these creations is my inspiration.” How beautiful!

We also have fear for tomorrow. What will happen tomorrow? Tomorrow happens just like the previous times. Our tomorrow is made based on how we created our life, our patterns, our likes and dislikes, our orientation, and disposition. If you change your disposition, if you change your attitude, if you change your likes and dislikes, tomorrow will be different. So, who’s creating it? We are creating it. Who’s maintaining it? We are maintaining it when we maintain our likes and dislikes when we maintain our orientation, when we maintain our disposition, then the world is the same. But if we decide to change, then the world is different. The world is just a reflection, a projection, of what we are.

Where is the room for fear? In the path of liberation, there is no room for fear. The one thing we need, to overcome all the fears, is our ability to look into the eyes of fears and tell them, “I’m not afraid. Come on. Bring it on. No problem!” Secondly, we need awareness; awareness is key. When you have awareness, you have no fear. Faith is the third aspect. These are not in hierarchical order, not one above the other; all of them are important to control or to contain fear. To explain faith, the primary faith is faith in yourself, then faith in the Universe and also acceptance is another aspect. Acceptance is when you say, ‘’Okay, I have fear, but I’m not bound by fear.’’ Fear is sometimes acquired. People gave it to you. Understand and let it be, no problem. All these aspects can help you counter your fears.

Look at us now; take a look at society. Society sometimes sells fears. We have feature films, horror films. This is selling fear, and why do they do that? There is an element of entertainment and satisfaction in these fears. That aspect is sold. We can very well be away from it. It is our choice; to be afraid and be happy, or stay away from all this nonsense and be peaceful. This is our choice. I’m not against horror films, but I don’t watch them. I’m not interested.

Here is another aspect I would like to bring up; a young boy told Caesar (I think it was Octavius Caesar or maybe it was Augustus Caesar), ‘’My Lord, the people love you.’’ The king replied, ‘’No, they fear me. This is better.’’ Fear is used by political leaders, religious, spiritual leaders to control people. Fear is the weapon there. Fear is a very powerful weapon because it cripples you and that’s used to control people. It is a very negative way of handling situations. I always believe love is much more powerful and is much better in handling issues.

There is a disadvantage though in that if people cannot handle love, they can go against you. Some people prefer fear to love based on their orientation and disposition. This is utilized by political leaders, spiritual leaders and rulers to control people, which is a negative way of handling things. That’s not correct. But society uses fears; so does the government, to control people. Fear of retribution and fear of punishments are very crippling. People obey because of these fears. Fears have varied dimensions. Let us cultivate love. We don’t need fear. We should not fear, we should love. This life is a beautiful garden. We should swap all of our fears with Love. We can love God, we can love Gurus, we can love Masters, we can love friends, family, society, nature, and we can love everything. You can then get it back.

What you sow, you reap. So, you give love and you take love. Whenever somebody tries to control you with fear, go away from them, because you don’t need it. If somebody or something or a situation or infrastructure or machinery (such as the government), tries to control you with fear, try to step out of that and go away or through your love, transform them. Through love, you can transform others. Everything can be transformed with Love.

Today, we have extended the speech for some time. I spoke a little bit more because the subject is deep and very important. I would like to leave you with these thoughts. We can talk more about fears, later. But these thoughts should be pondered upon. I would like you to do something to get out of all your fears. You don’t need fears. You should be fearless. Then you are liberated. Freedom from fears is also liberation. And that leads to complete liberation. Love, that’s all you need.

Lots of love.

This is Mohanji.

Transcribed by Maja Otovich

Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Subscribe to Mohanji Speaks daily podcast

 

Focus on Purpose not People

During a casual discussion regarding an organisational matter, Mohanji responded with great intensity about the need to focus on one’s purpose in life and steer clear of all kinds of emotions and emotional entanglement. He reiterated the need to use the clarity based on our purpose in life to respond to situations, people, and so on. This is a very valuable perspective that we believe is applicable to all of us who are on the spiritual path. Mohanji’s words follow… 

When we get closer and closer to our soul, divisions do not exist. We only see the purpose. What is purpose? Our purpose in life. It’s not about people (read: minds swayed by emotion). When we concentrate on people, purpose is lost. When we concentrate on purpose, people (and their fluctuating minds) lose importance. That is how I’m operating.

The world operates in only two ways. They either praise us or they criticise us. We don’t have to entertain both. The moment we get involved in either of these, we have to use our mind. Then we have to do a balancing act. What do we lose in the bargain? Purpose!

Someone called me yesterday and said that she was feeling down. I asked, “Why are you feeling down? You don’t have to feel down. During my work for this mission, many people have come and gone. Many people tried to put me down and pull me down but I always kept my focus on my purpose. I never based my life on people or their fluctuating minds. They are here today, gone tomorrow. When we focus on purpose, it gives us immunity, it gives us clarity, it gives us momentum. Otherwise, whenever somebody praises or criticises us, we can lose our track.”

Lack of alignment is connected to emotions. Minus emotions, alignment is perfect. When we do spiritual practice, we get aligned at some level. Then, we get into emotions and get entangled in the associated drama. It is like pouring water in a bucket (through spiritual practices) and then punching holes (through emotions) in the bucket that drain the water away.

Understand the world. Look at how the world operates between praise and criticism, between acceptance and condemnation. They will either say we are great or we are bad. We have nothing to do with all this. What is our purpose? My purpose is very clear. My purpose is to elevate people’s awareness, to raise their consciousness to the level where they can become one with the Ultimate Reality or get close to that state. All my activities are connected to this purpose. If I have to give food, I give food. If I have to give awareness. I give awareness. If I have to give a meditation, I give a meditation. Whatever it takes, I give it.

We have an inherent interest for praise. We become very happy, when people praise us. What gets happy? What part of us gets happy? Ego gets happy. Ego is always waiting. Ego says, “If somebody is praising me, I’m happy.” Thus, we make sure that praise happens, just to satisfy your ego. Understand it’s a trap. When people praise me, “You’ve done a great job. You rescued somebody from death.” Is there a change in my face? Do I get excited? Never. I surrender the praise at the feet of the Ultimate Reality. I have nothing to do with it. Similarly, if ten people say, Mohanji is very bad. I am fine with that too. It is their opinion and they are welcome to have it. I don’t have to buy into it.

The world is full of opinions. It’s up to you whether you should take it or not. That’s what I told the person who called me, “People can talk anything they want. Would you take it? Would you accept it? Would you believe in it? If you believe you are bad, then you’re finished. You’re neither good nor bad, or you’re both. Accept it that way. Otherwise when somebody says something, you will have to change yourself to suit their opinion When will you stop? Finally, you won’t have anything. Your whole life gets wasted endlessly satisfying others.”

We should look at the world differently. That’s the bottom line. People bring emotions. Why should we buy it? It’s like a vendor comes to us and says, “I’m going to sell you old rotten fish.” We say, “Oh, poor guy”, feel sympathy and buy it. What happens? The whole house stinks. People can bring stinking stuff. We don’t have to buy it. They can keep their stink. Let us keep our house clean.

I only have a problem when people become vicious and they obstruct my activity. That’s the only time I have to do something because I have to complete the activity to fulfil my purpose. If my path is blocked, the block has to be removed. It’s not about people. I don’t focus on people. I look at the result. It’s not for my personal comfort. Every situation should be handled this way. Purpose, purpose and purpose. Not people, people and people. That’s why when people complain about other people, I try to play it down, tell them to let it go and end that discussion.

That is why I told the person who called me, “Don’t get involved in this emotional drama because you delay your progress inside. You fall for these kinds of things. You tend to put everybody on your head and pamper them. What do you end up with – a lot of asses on your head. Look at the world and see how it works. Then it’s your choice whether you want to fall into these traps or not.”

Today in the internet age, we have many options on the spiritual path and a lot of information. There are people who are always posting about various Masters and their quotes. It only suggests that they may be intelligent or know a few things. But that is only for the outer world. What about their inner world? Nothing is happening – same insecurity, same fears, same old baggage. How does inner world change? When one’s integration with one’s Master is firm. When you are plugged in, the electricity comes. When you do not plug in, you don’t get electricity which means internally, no alignment. It is easy to see. Very easy. I only deal with those people who have that intensity. If there’s nothing to do, why should I bother? Unless there’s something to do, why should we waste time? It may sound rude but this is the truth.

Some people cannot accept destruction of their comfort zones. What will they do? They will go, because, getting out of their comfort zones is a violation for them. Let them go. The path of Liberation is a path of fire. Not everyone can handle its fast pace and momentum. When comfort zones are affected, people who are not ready for change will leave us because this is not their cup of tea. They will go. What can we do? We cannot change our speed because of other people. The path of Liberation does not allow that. It expects things to be done when they need to be done. Not before. Not after. I have clarity. I have an agenda. I know where I’m going. I know what I am doing. I know why I’m doing it. Then if somebody says, “It disturbs my comfort zone. I want to procrastinate. This is my pace. I don’t want to do it this way.” I say, “Don’t do it. Who has said that you should be with me? I never said that.” If you are with me, then I have a responsibility to take you to the Ultimate Reality or take you closer to that state. If you’re not with me, I have no responsibility for you. That is less work for me. I am happy.

When one is plugged in, electricity has to come. When you’re with me, when you’re connected to me, when you are plugged into me, it automatically becomes my responsibility. So, understand this world is dual, happiness and sorrow, praises / contempt, and so on. How much do you want to get involved? There is only one knowledge and one wisdom. What is knowledge? Awareness of the soul. Knowledge is knowing there is a soul. Wisdom is being the soul. That is the difference. Knowledge means that there is some energy inside you which is operating you. Then how do you know that is operating? You get closer beyond all this emotional circus and then you get connected with your own soul and then you realise or you feel the soul. You experience it, then it becomes wisdom. Until then there is no wisdom. Experience becomes wisdom. Experiential wisdom is required. Mere knowledge is not enough.

The worst stupidity we have is the concept of sacrifice. Sometimes, we feel we sacrificed our life for another. We gave up our life for somebody. Yet, I have not seen anyone sacrifice. What is the reality of this so called sacrifice? When we can’t really make it with our life, we decide to make someone else’s life in the bargain. Nobody wins. We can’t walk so we help the other person to walk. So what happens? We fall down, the other person falls down and we claim that we made a sacrifice for them. This is the kind of world we’re living in. The word sacrifice is a very funny word. It has literally lost its meaning. First of all, we are stupid and now we are announcing our stupidity to the world. If we become stable that is the right thing to do for the other person. If we say, “I connected to myself, I attained myself and then I delivered that stability to the other person”, it makes sense. We did well.

There is nobody in the world who’s not selfish. We shouldn’t be selfish for the things outside – for something in someone’s pocket or in their yard. Anyways, we are all selfish. At least, let us be selfish to find ourselves. We use our selfishness and our time to find ourselves. This is a good way. Then what we give to the world is quality.