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

Depression

Depression. It’s a very common subject. We hear that very often in the modern days. That has a lot to do with the way we live and the way we think, the way we interact with the world outside. And grossly speaking – expectations. Expectations are the root cause of most of the sorrows. The more expectations we have, we are prone to more disappointments.

So, how is depression happening? It’s to do with our interaction with the world outside, during the waking state. We have a gross body, and we have a subtle body and we have a causal body. We have the gross body, which is the tangible, physical body, which is prone to various wears and tears and various situations. And we identify ourselves with this gross body; people identify us with this gross body. But we have a subtle body, which is basically the body that experiences, using the gross body and the senses, which consists of the mind, intellect, ego, most of the koshas, the sheets, etc. So, that’s the subtle body. And then we have a causal body, which is not even experiencing anything; but it helps the subtle body and the gross body to experience. But it is not connected to any of these, so it’s not affected. The causal body is not affected, ever.

When we interact with the world outside, we usually interact with a lot of expectations; our positioning, our likes and dislikes, which are controlled by the patterns, our disposition, our behavioural patterns, our character, our constitution. All these are kind of orchestrated by our inclinations and desires. So, when we move in the world outside, we move with a lot of baggage such as social positioning, education, and various aspects that determines or decides our position in the world; we carry this burden.

When disappointments happen many times, we call that a failure. We call ourselves a failure. Sometimes, society calls people losers, brands them. And many people cannot handle it. They can’t handle failures; they can’t handle expectations. When that happens, they have great disappointments. Big anxiety happens in life. We can see in children, the examination time anxieties. Which questions will come? What will I answer? Will I be able to perform? All these kinds of things. And this is more or less everyday feelings, all these are everyday feelings, you don’t have an escape.

So, what is the root cause of depression? Unfulfilled expectations caused by patterns. And it gets repeated, it keeps repeating. And our dependency on people, places, gadgets, all these keeps us bound to the world outside. We have a great world inside which is free – an unbound world; the causal world. And this world is your refuge, that’s a good place to settle down. So that helps us to stay away from depression. The world that is stable, constant, unaffected from anything outside, even inside, that’s the right world to settle down.

So, how do we come out of depression? Start walking inside. Start connecting more and more to the inner world. First, as I said, the gross external world, which we are dependent on during waking hours which consists of materials, people, objects, visible world, a world of vision, a world of sounds; this is one aspect. Second is the inner world, which is the world which processes all these experiences, which is also a seat of memories, impressions, and it provokes or it displays the character, constitution and all those things; that is the subtle world, the inner world. And then we have the causal world which is activating all the other worlds. So, if we have that clarity, we understand that the people, the places, the time, the materials outside are applicable or enjoyable only when we are awake, and that’s not permanent. They all come, they go. We can watch them, we can witness them as they are, just like a feature film. We are watching it, we are experiencing it, but we are not participating in it. We can do that. We are fully involved in it but without expectations. If you involve with anything without expectations, immediately you will feel a great difference.

Life brings us to situations. Destiny brings us to situations. And that’s more or less inevitable, you don’t have control. Each time, each situation, each interaction, each experience; we don’t have really much control. Let it be. No problem. And inner world brings forth many, many experiences such as dreams, desires, thoughts; so many things. Let it be, let it be, no problem. So where is the problem? When we have ownership on it. When we say, ‘I do it. I am responsible. I own’. That’s where the whole burden comes. If you think or if you understand you have no control on situations, and it’s happening in front of you, inside you, and you are just an actor, you’re playing the role, and you’re having the corresponding experiences, and you enjoy it, whether it is good or bad, doesn’t matter, enjoy it; then each experience, they will come and go, time takes them away. Time brings the picture, scene, scenario, and time takes it away, whatever time brings, time removes.

So, you’re actually witnessing and watching the show, without any baggage from the past, you’re not carrying any remnants, even memories, which are not so essential, you can remember sometimes but not with attachment. Keep moving. Let it move. That way, you can stay away from states of depression. If expectations are reduced through awareness, (major awareness is everything moves on, everything passes), if we handle life with that understanding, with that awareness, with that attitude, we will not have too much of depression.

Another thing I have experienced myself is the judgment of people. People judge you whether you like it or not, they have opinions about you. And sometimes they go to the extreme, such as character assassination big-time, scandalizing, character assassination, gossiping. And that if you believe, or if you endorse, you’ll suffer. That’s the only time you’ll suffer. Understand that people are people, they may have full view, partial view, no view; they may have their own opinions as per their character, as per their constitution. And actually speaking, we have nothing to do with it.

But this awareness should be constant. While we are experiencing the blows from society, we may not remember all this, we will feel miserable because that’s exactly what they want us to feel. They want to destroy us. Due to whatever reason, it could be jealousy, it could be anger, it could be hatred, it could be revenge, whatever, it doesn’t matter. But they have decided to put us down or pull us down. What do we do? Again witness. What time brings, time takes away. The cruelty that the society inflicts on us, we got to really watch and let go. This is because if you interact, it aggravates more inside you than outside. When you take it in, it makes you suffer more than what’s happening in the outside world. The effect is terrible. So, you should let it go, let it happen, let it finish.

There must be a cause behind all this, as I said earlier, it could be jealousy, anger, hatred, revenge, anything; let anything be the cause, we are not involved. It’s not something which we created. So, something which we have not created, we are not responsible for. If the society decides to harm you in this way, I’m not telling you to be passive. I’m telling you to witness it, and step aside as much as you can or lie low until the storm is over. Stay safe. When I say safe, it’s inner safety, don’t expose it too much. When people talk bad about people, I always say, I don’t want to know. I do not want to know. Why should I bring contamination into my space? We have that option.

So, social pressure, social insecurities, social dependencies or their opinions; all those things are not important. We got to understand that we are unique. We will live our lives in a unique way as we are created. We are unique specimens. And we have the right to do that. I only talk about violence as avoidable. We should not endorse, engage and sponsor violence. Violence is not good because it hurts inside, more than outside. And consistent, continuous violence makes us insensitive, and to become sensitive, it takes a long time. So, we got to live sensibly, sensitively and consciously.

So, if we start accepting ourselves with all our weaknesses and strengths, there won’t be much depression. If we constantly reject, resist, and we constantly punish ourselves for anything happening around, thinking that we are responsible, instead of time being irresponsible; again, we will have depression. This is not something which we consciously do; it’s a pattern at work. So, how do you change the pattern? Have nothing to do with it. That means, watch, witness, let go. And you be yourself fully, settle down yourself fully. Spend more time to connect to yourself. Spend more time to be within. Like that, we can come out of states of depression and even prevent it.

I’ll leave you with these thoughts. Have a great day and a great week ahead.

Lots of love. This is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Open the Door for Grace, part 2

Satsang with Mohanji in Canada, part 2
26 June 2019

Q6: What is the significance of a Guru living in a body, compared to a Guru who has left the body? 

Q7: Whenever we think of or remember you when we are at home, will you be thinking of us too?

Q8: What are the signs of presence when connection happens?

Q9: Can one have two masters?

Q10: If I think of Sai ji (Shirdi Sai Baba), will you come into my path?

Q11: What if I am able to be connected to multiple gurus simultaneously? If you pray to Sai Baba, then go to another place, you may get answers. I may be able to connect to god/guru/ energy in many different ways. Is this a sign that you are going towards a spiritual path?

Q12: How do you get empty?

Q13: Is that time when we are empty i.e. without thoughts or desires when we need to intensely pray?

Q14:  In today’s world, as householders and those working at jobs and doing different roles inside and outside the home, we cannot shirk our responsibilities or roles. What should be our methodology to reach that supreme goal of Oneness?

Q15: Everything is pre-decided, and I’m responsible for what I’m experiencing in this life. Are the people I interact with or family members just the instruments for me to have those experiences?

Q16: But when do I break that kind of give and take?

Q6: What is the significance of a Guru living in a body, compared to a Guru who has left the body? 

M: A guru in the body is difficult to handle.  If the guru is just a picture, you can handle the picture the way you like, because he is not going to eat you. See it’s very simple. Technically, all gurus are powerful. But the ego aspect is very difficult to deal with. We all have our ego. What is ego? The skeleton or structure of your personality is ego. At an elementary level, it is necessary. Why? Because that is the identity part. When you have zero ego, meaning you are totally diluted (which will happen anyway when you attain higher levels of samadhi), if somebody were to ask you who you are, you may say you don’t remember. And that is not a good idea while living in society.

So at the elementary level, mind-matter consisting of the three aspects of ego, intellect and mind, is important. But for a master who has already left the body,  you are accenting mainly on imagination, and your connection is based on that. And the teachings are what you receive. You do not know for sure, right? It may not be first-hand, it might come through somebody else. But if you are able to lead a disciplined life, fully focused on this master, you don’t need anything else – living or dead, no problem. However if you have a mind to tackle, the intellect to tackle, the ego to tackle, the proximity of a living master will be a good idea, although rather dangerous! Because what the masters do is they keep beating the ego, you know. When the ego sprouts up, one kick is given! When the intellect goes into analysis, one kick! And what does the intellect need? Answers. If answers are not given, the intellect suffers. The master will keep quiet. If answers are not given, questions will remain and the intellect will be very annoyed. The questioner will feel like pulling the hair of the master, or his own! Then there is the mind. When people come to the master with emotions, the master will be like stone. No reciprocation. What will happen? They will say – insensitive master, bad guy. All this happens with a living master. When Shirdi Sai Baba was living, the people living at the time said all sorts of things about him. They called him a mad man and so many names. Now a hundred years later, we understand his power. Most of the masters who are living are never appreciated by their contemporaries – because people cannot “see”. They cannot go beyond the physical form. They only see the physical form and take decisions. The senses and the mind can only base decisions on the data provided to them. Those data are physical form and expressions – not anything else. You can’t see the consciousness.

And why the third or fourth generation after the master’s time, sometimes connects with the master, is because based on the available data, they try to figure out something suitable for a connection. And secondly,  if there is no personality to handle, then everybody can connect. You know, personality is a big problem because we ourselves have personality and this personality has to match with the that of the other.

What do the scriptures say? Question and believe. They never say to have blind faith. Questioning here means address the question to yourself. The first question is:  do I need any master? Because I have a master within.  What is the master? The soul. The subtlest part of you, the non-interfering part of you, is the master. This non-interfering part of your whole system, your soul, never tells you what to do. It just allows your journey. It just energizes your faculties, the body, mind, intellect, and ego. But it never tells you where to go, or what to see or what to look for.

So the soul is non-interfering, completely neutral. God is like that. True masters are like that too. And this detachment present in a living master is not understood by most people. Intensity will be interpreted as anger. So if you are approaching the master and you are a tough nut to crack, the master will be intense. What will people think? Master is an angry guy. I have explained this in the Atmananda book where a person came to a master, and decided to stay with him for some time because he was fed up with life.  So he was watching the master – he saw that the master was restless, then angry, that he was irritable with people. He thought to himself: what kind of master is this, people say he is a great master –  but he is completely irritated all the time, he is angry, abusing people. Yet he continued staying with the master…

After a while, he saw the master being very quiet and silent, non-intrusive, loving everybody, and then he was surprised. This didn’t seem like the same guy, he had changed all of a sudden, how come? And later on, he found the master very cool, and completely relaxed. Then the master called him and said, “You are done, you can go now”. Before he could leave, another person arrived who sat next to him. He asked him, “Is this guy always like this? He so irritable and angry.” He learned that the master was actually only a mirror. It was actually these people who were angry and upset, and the master was just reflecting them. The master was always calm and quiet. But when this person’s own mind settled down, he then saw happiness, calmness, quietness, and peace in the master. When his own mind was agitated, he only saw the same thing in the master. The master however always remained the same – calm, quiet, and peaceful.

And this is actually how every person who is aligned will be like – he will be a perfect mirror. You go to him with anger, he becomes anger; you go to him with love, he becomes love. So these true masters are true mirrors. You can’t define them. How you are is what you will see. And you will see nothing else.

So this effect is not possible when a person is normal – then it is only an understanding.  But I will tell you once again that Krishna has not gone, Rama has not gone, Baba has not gone.  Any master whom you connect to, on earth, is not gone. They all have capacity, they have power, they are doing work. They do their work through people. All the great masters like Sripada Srivallabha, Bhagawan Nityananda, Guruji in Delhi – all do their work continuously. Because they can’t die – they just expand. They leave the body once the connections are all finished, what do they need to stay for then? All they had to connect with, the connections, they are all done, so why sit in the body? Better to work without the body. So what do they do?  They leave the body. And they work better. Through hundreds of people. To reach hundreds of people. And who will connect to them? Those whose frequency matches their frequency, will connect. That is why we have numerous masters. They are each unique, not comparable. You can’t compare them. Each one has relevance. What we only need to have is perspective. Nobody is higher, nobody is lower. None are equal. Everybody has relevance – they have a purpose and they continue with that.

Also, let’s say you want Babaji as your master. How will you get him? You will need to tune in your frequency to communicate. Just like you do with your television. There are so many channels out there, but what can come into the television? What the television has capacity for, isn’t it? Nothing else. The vibrations and transmissions are coming, the channels are all there, but you can’t catch them – because the capacity is not there. So you cannot connect to all the gurus. There are numerous masters existing without the body. They work – they do guide. But we won’t connect to them all. Why? Because we are probably on a terrestrial frequency. Often, we lose when we compare. We really cannot compare them –  we can only respect. That’s why I say never ever disrespect any master. The guru tattva in you will die, when you disrespect one guru. The guru principle is not two-sided, it’s one thing. Guru tattva, the Guru principle, has to be respected. So all masters should be respected. It doesn’t mean you go to all masters. You see every master in your master, the one you are connected to. Yogananda said the same thing, “If you consider me as your guru, I am all gurus. Look no further.” Every master is like that – who you feel connected to, that is your master. What the Upanishads say is: ”The master that has happened to you is your master.” Not the one whom you chase. It’s like when in school, you never went searching for a teacher. Some teacher came to your class and that teacher helped you go to the higher class. Like that,  the right teacher is sent to you when you are eligible. And how will you connect? When your frequency is right. And through acceptance: ok, this person has come. And that’s it.

You can never say that Shirdi Sai Baba is not active. From our own experiences, we know he is very active a hundred years after he left the body. Chattarpur Guruji is active, so is Bhagawan Nityananda and we know many more masters that are active. How can you say they are not active? It’s not possible.

Q7: Whenever we think of or remember you when we are at home, will you be thinking of us too?

M: It’s all auto connection. There are two things you must understand. One is this physical form which exists for the sake of communication, for interaction on the physical level. But there is a consciousness form too, which never dies. That form is always available. So when your frequency connects to my frequency, that presence automatically has to happen. In fact the presence never goes.

A story goes that Brahma told Kali (Kali of Kali Yuga) that during your time, you must not touch or disturb those who are deeply connected to masters and traditions. Then Kali replied, “What happens to my job then, if everybody gets connected? For my job is to disturb people!” Then Brahma said that time would be his friend, the prevailing times would help him. If time were so confusing and kept people unstable then he could work easily.

Then Kali asked how people would connect to masters at all, in unstable times?

In the Treta Yuga which was Shri Rama’s time, connection happened through yagna, homa and such things. In Dvaapara Yuga, it was a different way. In each Yuga or Age, there was a different format for connecting to God. So what is the format in the Kali Yuga?

Brahma replied, ”Remembrance”. If you remember, you will be connected. It’s that simple. But even remembrance is a problem during Kali’s time. When you remember, energy presence happens. They said to just remember, they didn’t even say chant or sing. Those are fine too – if you want to do it, no problem. But the minimum is remembrance. Just remember and the connection happens. So the consciousness is always available. The physical form needs transportation, but consciousness needs no transformation – it is always expanded. And you will feel it, you will get signs. Everything will happen per your intensity, according to how you connect.

Q8: What are the signs of presence when connection happens?

M: Signs can be many. There can be fragrance, for instance. There are 5 senses, right? The sign will be based on your orientation. For some people it will be a feeling of presence, some people are nose-oriented, so for them it will be a feeling of fragrance. Others may be visual-oriented, so they will probably see. Sometimes it can even be taste, so a nice taste in the mouth. Sometimes a fragrance, a smell. It depends on the orientation. It’s not easy to generalize it – various people feel it in various ways.

Q9: Can one have two masters?

M: There are no two masters. Consciousness is one, so there is one master but in many forms. What you should connect to is the master you feel connected to. There is nothing you will gain by changing the master. Because it would be just another form since it is the same story, the same consciousness. So if you just connect to the master you feel deeply connected to, and consider that person as all masters, then all masters will help you.

The entry card that gets you support of all masters, is the respect you have for one master: your own master. That is what is told by all great scriptures. They say to just stay put, and every master will come and help you. In other words, to have a steady connection to one person – this is the secret. It is the mind that takes you to different masters, that thinks that the other one is better, or that I can get more from many people  – it’s not true.

An example of this is an incident about a film actress, a staunch devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba – she has actually spoken about it on video and Youtube, so I’m not naming her. She had been filming somewhere in New Zealand or Australia. And she was going through tremendous confusion over some serious decisions she had to take. She prayed intensely to Shirdi Sai Baba that she needed an answer that night itself, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to do the film shooting the next day.

Since I didn’t have her number, I called up one of her friends, CEO of Sunil Shetty’s company I think, and I said, “Do you know this lady?” She said, ”Yes, I know her.” I told her to convey the answer. She asked,” Did she contact you?” I said, ”No, don’t worry, you just give her this answer.” So she called up the actress and gave her the answer and the actress exclaimed, “My God, how did you know this?” to which she replied, “I don’t know, Mohanji called me up and told me.” The actress said, ”How did Mohanji know? I did not pray to him!” Then she contacted me, “How did you know this question was from me?”   I replied saying, “Just see if the answer is right.“ She said, “The answer is accurate, thank you very much. I can take a decision now.”

And about a week later, something again happened – not so serious but similar. And again I answered. She had been praying to Shirdi Sai Baba, this also she related on video. She said that she was completely surprised, since she always looked upon me as just as a friend. She said,” How did Mohanji know, although I was praying to Shirdi Sai Baba?” So what does that mean? It’s all one canvas! I’m not Shirdi Baba, I’m telling you this straight. I look upon Baba as my father. But how did the answer come?

One canvas! That is why it is not about this physical form – you will not understand then. This consciousness is one. So you pray to whoever you are connected to and answer comes some way. And we have no give or take in it. I’m not taking any extra favor or I’m not telling them I invented this. It’s   not possible, you know. It happens automatically. It was accurate for that person, so she went and put that on video. Sometimes this type of thing happens, though not always. It depends on the intensity of the prayer and the intensity of the connection to your master. But many people don’t receive that because they keep wandering. They are neither here nor there. They don’t know who to pray to, and when they pray, there is no intensity.

There are two things in life: intensity and intention. Sankalpa or intention should be strong. We do sankalpa before a havan and puja: I am doing this puja for myself/ my family/particular person so that they are protected. The priest takes the name, gotra and all that, and then they do the chants and puja. Sankalpa should be clear for whatever action you take. Then intensity or single pointed concentration. The answers will come, and I’m sure you have experienced it. But the thing is you don’t have to pray to different gurus because they have different forms. All gurus are one. You connect deeply to your guru – everybody will come and help you. So there is no need to change anything and I will never recommend that also. Because what will you change? Only the forms right?  After that what will you do?

Q10: If I think of Sai ji (Shirdi Sai Baba), will you come into my path?

M: That’s possible, but not necessary. Maybe Sai himself will appear in the thoughts. I gave this example only for your understanding. It happened and the actress herself has said this on video, otherwise I would not used that example. But there are numerous such instances. It’s not necessarily me, Baba can work through anybody, through different people. But for Baba to work, that person should be empty, with zero ego. Any master can work through anybody, he can work through all people: there are 7.5 billion people who are options. But how will he work through someone? You should have no ego, you should be completely empty. Then he will take over and he will work and he will talk.

However many people do many predictions, and I don’t believe in most of them. One person came to me and said you will be doing this, you will be doing that.  I completely discount that. These kind of things I do not endorse – I’m a practical person. It should  be tangible and practical. And I don’t like to mislead or misguide. If things are not happening, they are not happening. Why things don’t happen is mostly because there is no intensity in our prayer. Intensity means single-pointed concentration .

That’s why Babaji always talks about concentration first. He insists on concentration before any practice. Learn to concentrate first, then you practice. We are all scattered, attention is distributed over so many things that our intensity on each is reduced. So each thing doesn’t receive the intensity.

Q11: What if I am able to be connected to multiple gurus simultaneously? If you pray to Sai Baba, then go to another place, you may get answers. I may be able to connect to god/guru/ energy in many different ways. Is this a sign that you are going towards a spiritual path?

M:  The secret of connecting to all the gurus is connecting to the one guru in you. A disciple asked a guru, “You know I am completely confused. You are talking about 330 million or 33 crores of gods. I can’t even begin to start worshipping one god, and here you are talking about 330 million gods. How will I worship all of them? He replied, “Worship 33% of yourself”, which means the mind and consciousness. If you worship these two aspects, you are actually connecting to 330 million aspects of one thing. One is supreme consciousness that has 330 million possibilities. You are connecting to every master, everything.

So, the secret is connecting to yourself, and for connecting to yourself, you have to accept yourself – self-acceptance. And self-acceptance has to start with recognising yourself as a complete being. Totally unique, totally perfect, totally complete. No comparisons. People waste a lot of time comparing themselves with other people. Oh, that person is good, that person is better, all that is absolutely not true. Since each person is unique, so you can’t say that somebody is better than the other. So when that kind of self-acceptance happens, you will automatically start connecting, you will appreciate and respect yourself, you will stop judging yourself. You will like and love yourself and then you will start experiencing the same outside.

And then when you look at one guru, you will see all the masters, millions of them. And then you understand that he is just a representation, and not the reality. See, I’m a projection, not the end. There is a continuation, there is a flow. And I will be ‘alive’ even after I leave the body. So this flow continues on and on. Before me there were so many, after me there will be so many. But still the flow will be there.

Q12: How do you get empty?

M: Emptiness is connected to less thoughts. Less thoughts are connected to less desires. It has to start with this: when you are experiencing something, be fully that. That means no resistance.

Imagine you are experiencing happiness. Be happiness fully, be like a small child – like the baby that was walking around. Be fully that thing and at that time, whatever it is. Tomorrow or the day after, it doesn’t matter. Yesterday doesn’t matter. So that you are there, experiencing fully. In that mode, desires will be fully brought to completion. In that mode, no more such desires will crop up. That automatically reduces your thoughts, leading to more and more emptiness.

Emptiness doesn’t happen in one day, because we have already stored so much inside of us, without our knowledge. We have served a lot of days, right? We are served a lot things that are all there as cache memory. Let it be, no problem. But just be aware. “Oh, it’s there, let us sit together!”

Then secondly, what do you reject in yourself? What is it that you don’t like in yourself? There might be plenty that is connected to other people’s opinions or your own comparisons. We are compared to other people. Or other people told us we are not good enough. We take all that seriously. But they don’t know you, nobody really knows you. Nobody can know you, and not only that – you don’t even know yourself!  And this is because your conscious mind is available just during the waking state. The waking state is only one of three very vibrant states: waking state, dream state and deep sleep state. The dream state is real: you are having experiences, and even memories in this state. Then in the deep sleep state, you don’t know whether you are man or woman, nor do you know time or space. You don’t know your nationality, country, class, culture, possessions, positions – you know nothing. When you wake up, you know. So there is a death state too, every day. Every night we are dying, every morning we wake up and when we wake up our world wakes up. The world was existing before that but we did not know that world, because when we slept, our world was asleep. That is our whole story, isn’t it?

Now, how do we compare? How do we criticise each other or judge ourselves? In karmic law, whether you criticize yourself or criticize another person, it has the same effect. If you judge yourself or another person, it’s the same in karmic law. Because you are not accepting yourself.  Not accepting oneself and not accepting other people – these are both equal. We only think that karma is towards other people, this is not so. In karmic law, you are an incarnation too, and just like other incarnations. Then if you don’t accept yourself, it’s equivalent to not accepting every other person. When you criticize yourself, it is like criticizing another person. From the karmic angle, there is no difference here.

So it is when you start accepting yourself with all your happiness, all your sorrows, all your weaknesses, and all your strengths, that the mind starts to settle down. It will be less turbulent, you’ll say, “Things are ok, it’s fine, let me manage myself.”

And then, step by step, there will be decline of thoughts, of the TPS – thoughts per second. That leads to emptiness, the subsequent reduction of ups and downs, of the fluctuations of mind. The mind fluctuates only because of thoughts. Remember, the mind is like a projector that needs a film reel. The mind doesn’t have its own data. The film reel has memories, impressions, your desires. If you are not providing it any film, what will the projector project? The screen will be blank and empty because there was nothing to project. That means there were no thoughts. No thoughts means no desires. So though the projector or mind will remain, there will be nothing to project. That means total emptiness and peace.

Q13: Is that time when we are empty i.e. without thoughts or desires when we need to intensely pray?

M: Then there will be no need for prayer. When you are in a totally empty state, which is the state of most of the masters, you don’t have to pray – they don’t pray. I don’t pray, what to pray to? There is nothing outside to pray to. You decide, you intend.  Tathaastu, they say, right?  Based on somebody’s input they say bless you. There is nothing to pray to, because there is nothing outside of you to pray to. You just feel everything inside you, the whole universe inside you. In other words, tat tvam asi, which  means “You are That”. That’s when you realise that state when it’s all empty: aham brahmaasmi  or “I am the Universe”. When you are the universe, you are one with the Creator. Creator means Pure Consciousness.  Then when there is nothing or emptiness within, even a small thought or intention can be very loud. But when there are a lot of thoughts, you wouldn’t understand that. Like a person who is smoking all the time, won’t know how it feels to have the lungs of a nonsmoker. It’s like that. So that thought (prayer) is not needed. It will be operating on the dharma  – what has to be done will be done.

No unconscious action. No compulsive action. Nothing can provoke you at all, because you are empty.  That’s the state of masters. State of mastery needs no prayer. Until you reach that state.

Our prayers are very weak, you know why? Number one reason, our prayers are to someone. Number two, our prayers are for something. When you say, “Please give me this”,  what are you telling the universe? That you don’t have it. So they say “tathaastu”. So you don’t have it anyway. When you keep on praying because of the lack of something, you will only continue to experience the lack of that thing. That is why our prayers are very weak most of the time.

So the right prayer is: “I am grateful. Thank you. Thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for being the grace of my life. Thank you for the abundance that You are, in my life.” Understood?

That is why (before the Mahabharata war), Arjuna said, “I need only Krsna”. And what did Duryodhana  say? He said, “I need the Yadava army.” Krsna said, ”Take it”. Duryodhana looked only at the numbers of warriors, not the talent. Arjuna said he only needed Krsna. One man was enough to defeat a million people – Krsna. Krsna’s presence was more important. Duryodhana thought Arjuna was stupid – why did he not ask for the army. Duryodhana said, “I negotiated very well. I got a whole army, a huge army. Millions of soldiers.” Arjuna said, “I have only one, Krsna. Enough. Thank you for being here as my grace. Now I will win the war.”

All you need is the presence of the master, then the war can be won. Because the master wins the war for you, if your surrender is absolute. But surrender is not absolute.  Shirdi Sai Baba says this: “You leave your mind here and go back. I’ll take care of it, but don’t look back. Don’t ever look back. If you look back, you are not trusting me. You are looking back to see what I am doing with your mind. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. But don’t look back.” And we look back all the time. We plant the seed in the ground and expect it to grow, but every day we dig up to see the seed. Then we complain: “God, why didn’t you make it grow? God is not being very helpful”.

Q14:  In today’s world, as householders and those working at jobs and doing different roles inside and outside the home, we cannot shirk our responsibilities or roles.  What should be our methodology to reach that supreme goal of Oneness?

M: One word answer: Awareness. Be aware.

Decide that not a word is to be uttered without your mind being present. Not even a spoon is taken, not even a finger is moving without your mind being present. Practice awareness.  Awareness is all… be aware. You practice awareness all the time, not only just sitting down and practicing but also when you are working and when you are traveling. When you are watching television, be aware that you are watching television. When you are talking to people, you must be aware you are talking to people. Whatever you are talking about, be aware you are talking about that thing. The only problem will be in the mind, because of thoughts. You don’t know what you are going to think next. So you can’t help that.

But you can understand the thought after it happens: “Ok, this thought happened. No problem”. No resistance, no comparison, no criticism, no judgement. So, everything is flowing, and there are no good, bad, ugly or dirty thought segregations. Anything can happen in the mind. You don’t even look, they all coming and going. Everything is coming, everything is going. So you are not comparing, criticising, judging. If you practice this bodh or awareness, it stabilises you, and you become buddha when you are stabilised in this field at all times. You are no more interested in talking about people. When people are talking, you are not even listening – and people talk according to whatever they are, not what you are wanting.

See, nobody can talk about the truth of something, because nobody really understands the truth accurately. If you want to know the truth, you need to know karma. Like, if I want to know why you are doing something, I need to know your karma. I am only able to see your doing, which is really nothing – it’s just an expression. That expression is caused by some pending desire. So someone says to you, ”This guy is drinking alcohol”. Now why does one do something? Because there is a pending desire. That is what is provoking that action. It can become unconscious action, turn into addiction, etc and it may start ruining his life, and that’s the time when you can guide them or warn them. But in truth, nobody knows anything, and nobody really knows anybody, right? So when people are trying to influence you etc., you say, “I am not interested.” That is what I have always said to those people who try to tell me about other people. I always say that I am not interested. (I think I know this person anyway and sometimes I see through them also.)  I don’t want opinions. I don’t take opinions from anybody because opinions usually contaminate your mind. You know, if somebody were to talk to me about you, then when I meet you next time I will be remembering that, more than the fresh connection. So why should I even try…. I just keep away.

So you just concentrate on your bodh or awareness, and try to stabilise it as much as you can. When you drive your car, you see yourself driving the car.  Every time you see yourself – whether you are watching a picture at the movie theater, or you are interacting with people, or you are taking decisions – and when you do this, what will it be? It will be perpetual meditation. I’m not asking you to sit down and meditate because as you said, you have all your duties towards your family, your dharma. This is what the scriptures say – never deviate from your dharma otherwise you will have to come back. This is something that you chose before you took this birth, so continue. And secondly, karmic. What brings you to that point is karma. That you must perform beautifully, without any self-interest. Then the structure is: maata – pita – guru and God. Follow that structure. First come mother and father, then guru, then God. Worship, connect, or serve in that order so that you are maintaining that structure, so that you are maintaining your dharma. You are calm and quiet. And no guru or god is dependent on your prayers or anything from you, because they are already independent from you. For you to connect you don’t have to give anything.

In 2003, when I started ACT Foundation, I had an interview with either Times of India or Hindustan Times. One of their questions was: “So what is your investment in this organization?” I replied, “Myself”. You are the best investment you can ever have in anything. If you are connected to a master, more than in anything material, invest in yourself. If you want to rise to the highest levels of awareness invest in yourself. Everything else that you got from here is temporary. But you – you brought yourself here. That is the difference, and that you should remember. You are the only original thing which you brought – everything else is received from here.

So what can you give to the master? Only yourself. And at a certain point in time, you will understand that you are one with the master. Master is not outside, it is inside. Then that acceptance level will take you to great heights. Your awareness will soar and soar and you will see all the things transparent. Then emotions won’t disturb you, situations won’t disturb you, time and space won’t disturb you. Nothing disturbs you. You are free.

Q15: Everything is pre-decided, and I’m responsible for what I’m experiencing in this life. The people I interact with or family members are just the instruments for me to have those experiences?

M: In other words, your projection.

Q16: But when do I break that kind of give and take?

M: It breaks by itself. You are not breaking anything. You didn’t consciously create, so that you can break. You see every situation has happened. In real time. Krishna said, “I have happened.” He never said that he took birth or that he did something. It happens. So you did not create that particular person or situation – that person was right for giving that experience you got. Neither do you create nor do you uncreate. For example, your asking this question here. Did we know this 3 months ago? Last month? Only now right? So this is the way it happens: everything happens at its time and we are not deciding all of this. This set of people came her together, an exchange of energy happens, the exchange of information happens and it’s all beautiful…. I can’t stop this and neither can you. So total acceptance is the only way it can drop off.

You know the only remedy in the path of liberation is total acceptance – “This is happening now, let me witness it…. “  Maybe you will appreciate, maybe you will criticise, maybe you will like it, maybe you won’t. No problem. But my reality is this, and let me have it. So that when you look it in the eye, you see that this is really nothing. I am much greater than all these incidents of time! You feel and start seeing your real grandeur. You will say, “I am the universe”. Only when you wake up does your world exist. When you sleep, there is no world for you. The real world existed before you, and it will exist after you. You realize that only you created your world – means when you wake up all this is amazing. When you wake up during some time, you might realize, “Oh, I am in Canada.”  Why so? Because actually your reality only opens up when you are awake. Like that, when you truly become awake, your whole consciousness opens up.

Even the three aspects of consciousness  – do we never think about them, the waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. Do we ever consider those every day? They are all existing but we don’t know about them, right? We are only after some silly emotions of life, relationships, likes and dislikes. This food I like this, the other I don’t like this. This person I like, the other I don’t like. Our range is that way. Now look at the limitedness of it. We have created nobody and nobody can we uncreate.

Only through acceptance can you dissolve everything. Through resistance you will only maintain the same thing. Very simple. Through acceptance you dissolve, through resistance you maintain. If that is understood, this whole story is very simple. We are not chasing anything in life. If something comes to us, receive it. If something doesn’t come, no problem.

So like that, when you are totally at peace with yourself, the world can’t do you harm. If somebody hates you, it’s their problem, isn’t it?  If somebody hates you, you are not responsible. How can you be responsible for somebody’s hatred? If somebody says, “I hate you, I don’t like you”, what will you do? Nothing. We have no control over these things. Do we have any control? If somebody compares me  with another person and says you are not all that good, I say it is ok, I am not that person anyway. If somebody tells me I don’t look like Sylvester Stallone, of course I know I don’t look like Stallone and I should know. He can’t say what I myself say!

You see, spirituality is very very simple. Our spiritual journey is very simple. We complicate it with so many dos and don’ts and rituals. Everything is to finally connect you to yourself, for that matter. But if you get stuck with the external, it takes more time to go internal.

The whole spiritual journey is about the traveling from outside to inside. Very simple in one sentence: it’s a journey from outside to inside. If you understand that, you understand all the scriptures, the whole philosophy. Then it’s a question of journey and the elementary, the fundamental is self-acceptance. Accepting yourself, with all your faults and all your merits. That’s it. Simple.

Transcribed by Sjarn Mansoor
Proofread by Geeta Iyer

Open the Door for Grace, part 1

Satsang with Mohanji in Canada, part 1
26th June 2019

Q1: In the chanting of Om, why does one say AAA – AU –  MMM?
Q2: How does an aspirant know if he or she is progressing spiritually – what are the signs?
Q3: So Mohanji, when you say fear manifests, how can you prevent that?
Q4: Mohanji, what is destiny and what is the role of destiny in our life? How much can we change it? People say that certain things in your life are ordained because of past karmic or past life thing. I’ve read a lot about sanchit karma. You see people who have led righteous lives yet are suffering a lot, and some others say it is good that they are suffering because they are cleansing their karma. Sometimes my logical mind has trouble understanding this…
Q5: You spoke about lineage and pitr dosha – is that something that can be eradicated? Is it is like a loan/burden that you have to carry alone no matter what, and go through suffering? Can it be taken away?

Q: In the chanting of Om, why does one say AAA – AU – MMM?

M: The actual structure of Om has three parts. These three sounds can be uttered even by somebody without a tongue. And these sounds combined together produce OM, the primordial sound.

So when you start moving towards silence, your mind that is usually focused outside for emotions, your intellect that is focused outside for analysis, and ego that is focused outside for maintaining personality, all three will start focusing inside. Then all you will see are the stored data, the things that you have collected.

Of this data, first and foremost are the fears. They all come out of insecurities, and insecurities are all really coming out of survival instinct. So the source is instinct – the survival instinct that is common to all species. We all want to survive, and it is from there that all these fears and insecurities come. So the mother of all these things is survival – for all species, not just human. We all want to survive. And so this overwhelming feeling of insecurity is from where so many things come.

So we will start seeing all these things that we have trapped over time. We may not even be aware that we probably have developed this from our childhood. Developed means we collected it when we interacted with the outside world. When we are sleeping, we are not collecting. Only when we are awake, when we are interacting with the world outside, is when we are picking up. This happens without our knowledge – it’s not that we are deliberately picking it up.

Not only do we pick up from our own lives, we may pick up in other ways. For example if we are watching a feature film, we may feel so connected to the film that in fact we may be ‘living’ it. Though it’s not our life, though we are only watching, yet we may pick up some emotions without our knowledge. Likewise somebody may have told us something: “Hey look here, in my life this kind of situation happened.” Although this may not be our own experience, yet we may pick it up. All this gets stored and not consciously – but unconsciously. Then finally what happens is we will have a lot of stored data that we will start seeing  when the focus comes inside. Otherwise we don’t see it. And this is because we are usually looking outside, always collecting whenever we are awake.

But at some point in time when you meditate, when you start connecting, all these faculties look inside. At that time, the outside world has no value. This can be compared to the sleep state, except that in the sleep state you don’t have awareness, and here you have awareness. That’s the difference, and in that mode all these things start coming, and they start coming and they start leaving. Because they are not doing anything. They come and they leave, but they have to come because they are sitting inside.

After a while when all the clutter of the noises have all slowed down to the level where there is only OOOOMMM – the sound inside, then even that sound becomes insignificant. So this sound is your natural sound, the sound of creation. The whole cosmos has this sound plus all the clutter. Everything, every sound has come out of absolute silence. Even now if you see, when you stop talking, it’s silence. From the ocean of silence, the sounds come and then they go back to the deep like a wave. Waves come out of the ocean, then they return back. They can’t stay like that, and so no sounds can exist forever. They go back to the silence. So everything comes out of silence and goes back to silence. We come out of consciousness and we return back to consciousness. This is life, you always live like that. We don’t have an isolated existence  – we belong to Consciousness. You can call that Parabrahma, Allah, Father, Viracocha, whatever you want to call it. You can call it the Source of pure energy, brighter than a million suns, out of which the manifested universe came, and into which the manifested universe will dissolve.

So this is the story. In that story, the sound is like a confirmation of the whole creation as well as you as creation. You are creating your destiny every moment. You create destiny mostly when you suppress things. When free flowing expression is suppressed it becomes your pending desire. Likewise, you have emotions connected to thoughts, expressions, actions, and these emotions catch these things and put them inside. With these two ways of suppression, we create destiny every moment. And then whatever you can’t manifest now, and whatever you can’t experience now, goes forward to another life. Very simple. That is how we take more births.

Q: How does an aspirant know if he or she is progressing spiritually – what are the signs?

M- The main sign is that the outside world stops bothering you. The outside world will remain the same, but internally you are peaceful. You will look at them, you will feel them but you will not be affected by them. This is a primary sign. Secondly, no matter what happens, on the inside you are very silent. Though you may be participating in much of the drama of life, at the same time you have stillness inside.  So this is a sign of stability. It’s called spiritual maturity. The things outside are not important for you. But as a human being, you will continue participating in all of life’s parties. Yet you are not dependent on them. If the parties happen, that’s fine and if they don’t, that’s also fine with you. By ‘parties’ here  I mean the events of life.

So you will reach a stage where you will feel that everything is fine and you have no problem with anything. The silence is a very clear example of stability. Silence means less thoughts. Less thoughts means less desires. That means less inclinations. If you don’t have an inclination for ice cream means you will not have a thought for ice cream. (And, if you hate ice cream you won’t even think about ice cream.) So inclination is the cause of thought and thought produces expressions. “I need an ice cream”. Expressions lead to action, so you have to eat the ice cream. Actions lead to the experience of eating ice cream and then you think about flavors : ”Oh, this is chocolate flavor, strawberry, vanilla….”.

The feeling of all these things are connected to experience and that then becomes memory. Experience becomes memory, you have stored the experience: “I went to that particular shop and that ice cream was very tasty”. So when somebody says, “Can we have ice cream?” You can say, “Oh, let’s go to that shop”.  What makes you go to that shop? Memory, stored memory. So, stored memories are caused by experiences, as you experienced it. This is important to understand. Your life is per your experiences. It’s not as per life as it is. Life can be busy. Now so many people are here in this room, but each person will listen to me differently. Why? Because you see the world as you are. Some people might be thinking while I’m talking. Others will be feeling peace. Like that, everybody as per their orientation, connects to everything in life. All things of life we connect as per how we are, as we essentially are. And that’s the way we experience. So that is what we store.

You may have had a good experience but then somebody will come say that was not so good! As per their mood they will probably not experience what you experienced. If you are in a very happy mood, you will experience great things. If you are not so happy, what will you experience? You will experience as per that day, that moment, and that is what you will store. Then those stored data become impressions. The impression that is transcribed is written in your subconscious. That can cause a desire. One day when you are sitting quietly and nothing is happening, suddenly you may remember, “That day I went to that shop and had that ice cream”. Actually it’s not contextual – it’s not that somebody showed you a picture of ice cream or anything. You are sitting quiet, but this memory is sitting inside, and it comes as a thought. Then you say “Hey, lets go to that shop”. Thus out of no plan you make a plan. Then you have the ice cream, so again you have an experience.

So, thought comes, word comes, expression comes, experience comes, memory comes, impression comes. This is the cycle and if you repeat it often, it becomes a pattern. Good pattern or bad pattern, this is how patterns are made. A pattern could be that of anger or of hating something or somebody – it could be anything. Any aspect of existence if it is repeated, becomes a pattern. And if you look, the strongest patterns in the system are connected to survival. Because survival is the main thing, and is connected to things like betrayal, cheating, stealing, injustice etc. All those things you tend to store more and repeat  over and over with time –  have you seen that? You store those more, the other things you do not store. We take it easy with the good experience, but the bad experience we remember. Why?  Because we stored the bad experience deeper. The deeper the emotion, the deeper the storage. Simple. If emotion is not so deep and is a light pleasure, or if the happiness is light, you don’t keep it. But the pain you keep inside very deep and it can make a pattern if you repeat it. Similarly, a fear repeats itself. Not that you asked for it. Yet it keeps coming back. What you fear most keeps coming back. This is what happens in life. Not that you ask for it – it’s sitting there waiting for a manifestation.

Q: So Mohanji, when you say fear manifests, how can you prevent that?

M: Awareness.

You need to understand first of all that you have a limited time on earth. Whatever is born must die. See, we feel that we are doing great now, right? We are sitting here talking, we are healthy, all that. Maybe 50 or 60 years later, we will not think so  – we may not even be here. So during our existence, we should always be aware of all these agonies and ecstasies – that everything is coming and going, that nothing is staying. Isn’t that the truth? Happiness and sorrow – they come and go. Whatever is happening is like a wave – it doesn’t stay, it goes back. Life is like that – waves of thing after thing that keep coming. Like that it goes.

Once you are clear about that, you will understand that all these fears and such things have no permanent value – only a relative value. Most of the fears you have, are connected particularly to a certain time, space or a certain effect. Like for example, in the 24-hour day, when you are in dream state and deep sleep state, these fears are all absent. Where are those fears then? They are not there. In waking state too at certain times, fears are not there – for example, a fear of darkness will only happen in the night. In the morning you won’t have the fear, but after sunset that fear may appear. So when you look at how situational these fears are, this is awareness. When you start looking into the fears and see the whole vital statistics of the fears, you then realise they are just shadows. What is darkness? Absence of light. What is fear? Absence of awareness. When you really aware, you will know that this is all temporary, it’s all shadow, and that “I’m not shadow. I belong to light, I am light.” If I am light, then where are fears? That’s the point. What are all these fears connected to? Certain insecurities.  And insecurity is connected to survival instinct. So it’s an instinctual thing. Every animal feels fear. Every animal feels love. And every bird the same. You know this is built into them – it’s like a survival instinct. Security, safety, they feel it.

Q: Mohanji, what is destiny and what is the role of destiny in our life? How much can we change it? People say that certain things in your life are ordained because of past karmic or past life thing. I’ve read a lot about sanchit karma. You see people who have led righteous lives yet are suffering a lot, and some others say it is good that they are suffering because they are cleansing their karma. Sometimes my logical mind has trouble understanding this…

M: Destiny has two major strains. Sanchit karma has two aspects. One is lineage karma: the karma that comes from your parents. The lineage from both father’s and mother’s side join you. It is said that when the embryo is formed at the time of conception, the coating is this lineage karma, and not what you have brought from another life. You can call it inheritance for the sake of easy understanding. Just like you inherit your father’s and mother’s property or wealth, in the same way the lineage inheritance comes to you. It comes to everybody, before the soul enters the body. Understand that as soon as you decide to take birth in a particular womb, you are automatically required to buy the inheritance. The bill has already been given.

Then the second part is the prarabdha karma: the karma that provoked the incarnation. This means that were unfulfilled desires that caused the incarnation. Unfulfilled desires need time and space for execution. The thing that has to happen at the age of 10 cannot happen at the age of 20. Or vice versa. So it’s laid out on time. And every activity and every experience has a beginning, a middle and an end. Beginning of the experience, the experience and the conclusion. This is true for every activity. This is like a mala or rosary or garland, in which the beads are the experiences.

So the garland called destiny connects all these beads. When you see from the outside, you only see the beads – you don’t see the string. The string is the destiny that is from the beginning of life till the end of life. It’s linked by unfulfilled desires. As I just explained, unfulfilled desires have their roots in impressions. Impressions mean what you stored in your system. Impressions have their roots in memories. Memories are experiences of life as you, as an individual, experienced them. Then before that experience, there was an action which caused the following experience. Thus the cause of a memory is an action, and stored memory is an impression, and that causes unfulfilled desires. When these unfulfilled desires get mixed with praana, there is some kind of a chemical reaction. Breath.

You need waking hours to experience – you can’t experience while sleeping. Of course you have feelings when you are sleeping but that is not within your boundaries, since waking state mind is not there. You do experience dreams, since dreams also have the same source. What is the source? Stored data. Dreams are coming out of stored data, definitely. But you have no control over it – you don’t even know that it’s stored. In the waking state experiences, your mind is interfering.

This stream is called destiny. It has a beginning and it has an end. This is already decided: how many years you will live, and how many breaths that you will take. This is already stored, it’s destined to happen. In this flow you cannot make much difference. What is free will then? That was your second question.

Free will is the way you approach it  – your level of awareness. You can look at it as a problem or you can look at it as a possibility: this is your free will. See it as a situation. All of life is nothing but situations. I don’t think there are any problems in life. But when you resist something, “Oh I don’t want this, I don’t want that”, it becomes a problem. When you accept it, it becomes a possibility.

Imagine you are experiencing something completely bad and you are like: “Ok, now this is happening in my life, things are not so good”,  then you just start riding that wave, like a wave rider. When things are not so happy in this type of situation, what is our usual way pattern however? Resistance. If you push them away, then what will happen? It will be postponed. The destiny that you are supposed to experience cannot be changed. Its intensity can be reduced with a Guru’s role or due to your connection to a powerful Master, because a Master can definitely dilute intensity though cannot take it away. The Master will not take it away because that is your original free will.

Please understand: destiny or praarabdha is not created by conscious decision. This has to be very clear. By conscious decision here, I don’t mean the type of decision like, “I want to experience an ice cream”. What causes praarabdha ? Cache memory. That is what I explained earlier. It could even be a memory that is from watching a feature film, or even a memory of someone close to you or something conveyed to you or an experience that was somebody else’s. Or all of these put together.

Cache memory.  This cache memory causes praarabdha. Otherwise there is no memory. No memory means you are not consciously deciding. Some things can consciously happen, for example your hatred: “I hate this fellow, I want to kill him”. Things like that – that can become a conscious decision, and because you can’t kill him sometime in that life you may have to come back in another life to kill him. So these types of intense emotions become the main flavor of the praarabdha karma.

Likewise with suppressed addictions and suppressed habits. Imagine that you were not allowed to smoke at all in another life. So you were always thinking, “How can I smoke”? Somebody was watching so you couldn’t smoke. And then finally when you take birth in the next life, you will start smoking as soon as possible. You see that in the world: addictions and compulsive habits, all connected to suppressed desires. This is the sum total of your structure.

Cache memory is just like the hard drive of your computer. You are not storing in there but as you surf life, it gets stored. Surfing life means watching films, interacting with people, reading the newspaper, your opinions about politics…The talk about Justin Trudeau – that will also be in the memory. Like that everything has its cache memory. Sum total is destiny and destiny you cannot change.

That is what the great avadhoota laughed and told Maha Kaali when he saw Her dancing with ghosts and ghouls. Kaali replied that she had never seen any human being who was not frightened at this sight. Then he said, ”You are an amazing dancer, wonderful.”

It’s a funeral ground, where Maha Kaali and all her entourage are dancing and singing, shouting and screaming. And this guy, this avadhoota, this great master, is watching.

And Kaali said,” You are not afraid?”

He said, “I’m not afraid, I’m happy… amazing dance, it’s been a long time since I saw a dance like this”.

So Kaali said, “I’ve never seen any human with no fear! So you must ask me for something –  I’ll grant it to you. I want to give you a boon.”

He said, “No, no, no …. your dance was very entertaining, that was fine for me.”

Then she said, “No, when I feel pleased with somebody, I give them a boon. This is my usual level, the way I operate.”

So he said, ”Ok, in that case give me one more year of life.” She replied, “No, that I can’t do, your last breath was decided already when you took the first breath.” Then he said,” Ok then reduce my life by one year, I want to die early.”

She replied,” No, I can’t do that either.. Your last breath was decided when you took the first breath.”  Then he said,”How about one month extra?”

“No.”

“One month less?”

“No.”

Then he said, “I don’t want any blessing. This is basically why you can’t mess with me.”

Again she said, “No, ask me for something that I can give you.“

So he asked, ”What is the range?”

“Something physical.“

He had elephantiasis – a big leg. One leg was swollen, it was very big and painful. So he said,” See – this other leg doesn’t have this problem. One leg doesn’t experience this problem, it is not justice. It is injustice, why only one leg is enjoying and the other is suffering. It’s not fair right? Both legs should suffer or both legs should enjoy. So why don’t you transfer this problem to the other leg? Now let this one suffer and that one enjoy a little bit. “

So she said ok.

He didn’t ask for a healing.  What did he say – he said just transfer this problem to the other leg. And Kaali blessed him with that.

My point is that not even an extra breath happens in the path. So what is the obvious thing Gurus do? Imagine you are connected to a very powerful master, connected to the master’s consciousness. Usually gurus do not interfere because they understand this matter very well. Whatever you are experiencing in life is because you have earned it. Whether it was earned consciously or unconsciously, it doesn’t matter, but that you did earn it. So gurus don’t interfere.

What they do however is – they guide you. What I usually do: I say feed the animals, feed the birds, feed the fish and take care of nature. Things like that. And that completely dilutes your weight (of karma). Because annadaan is mahaadaan always. The scriptures have said that, and I follow the same path. So by feeding the birds, animals, fish and nature, much gets released.

Guidance happens very rarely, if you are just a few steps from total liberation and there are not many life times pending, if you have already lived 100 or 200 lives and you have reached a level where you are done with all your lives and you are now going towards liberation. That sign is very simple: if you can understand that you are in a mode when the outside world is not affecting you. It is not depression – do not think that it is depression. With depression, sometimes you are completely cut off from people. This is not depression – though you seem to be enjoying life yet at the same time your dependency on the outside world, like relationships, emotions, people, places, time, materials, position, possessions – is very low. And that’s a clear sign that you are already on the path of liberation. A clear sign that you can trust, and there is no need for any one to come and tell you this.

Secondly, your dependency on materials will be very little, including food and water. Forget about intoxicants and other things, even dependency on food and water will be very low. You will eat, but only for the sake of it. That’s why I often say, if you eat one time a day,  you are a yogi. Two times a day you are a bhogi, and if you eat three times a day,  you are a rogi. (Laughter) You know what being a yogi means? A yogi is someone who is healthy and fully attuned to the Supreme Consciousness. Bhogi means a lustful person, born to eat. Third one is a rogi, a sick man. If you consume three times a day, you are sick.  Today you can see that most eating is emotional eating. Since we have so many emotions, in order to cover the emotions we eat a lot of food. Not that we want food, it’s our way of revenge. We take revenge by eating more, though we may not need it. But still we do.

So what does a guru do?

A guru will guide you, divert you to something which will lighten you, make you light. So that your karmic load is reduced. Imagine that you are in the last stage of something, and you are deeply connected to a master. And the master should be very powerful. See, many people are not masters. When I say master, I mean somebody whose mind, body, intellect, ego and spirit are together as if it is one egg. Not scattered, but one unit. That master is fully occupied in himself – he has nothing to do with anything outside. Those masters can make a lot of changes in us just by their presence. Alignment is the main change. By alignment, I mean that when you come in contact with that master, you will feel completely aligned and liberated – physically strong, emotionally strong, intellectually strong, egoistically ‘strong’. I don’t mean a strong ego here, it means a balanced one. So this way you will be fully aligned.

Then what happens?  This karmic load suddenly drops. Because the best way to reduce karma is with alignment. What is karma, where is it coming from? Unfulfilled desires, so its natural expression is fulfilment. That is the right way – the normal way. But what if you don’t need it? If you have desire but you don’t need fulfilment? That happens In the presence of a powerful master, so this karmic load is reduced. That means from 100 it might become 80, and if you still remain connected to the master and your focus is on the master, it will become 60. But you have to be consistent. The secret is that everything should be connected to the master, and it doesn’t matter if the master is in the physical body or not. There is no problem if he is not. You see, no true master ever leaves  – Krishna is still there, Jesus is still there, Rama is still there. All the great powerful masters don’t die –  they are already immortal while in the body. What do they do then? They expand, and attain maha samaadhi. Maha samaadhi is the state where they have already become a unit already while living, and they have expanded. Then they just leave the body, which means they give up the body, and then they maintain their expansion. This is how they are in maha samaadhi. Ordinary people die and need to come back to get another body. For great masters, there is nothing to come back to. Even if they do take a birth, they do so only for the sake of dharma, not karma. And in that mode, there may be numerous births, purposeful births.

How do you know if a birth is for dharma or karma? If it is for purpose! Right from the beginning, they are being purposeful. An example is Aadi Shankaracharya. At the age of 8, Govindapaada asked him, “ Who are you?”  He replied, “manobuddhi ahankaara chittaani naaham….. chidaananda roopah Shivoham Shivoham.”  If somebody could say this at the age of 8, what could Govindapaada teach him? That is why Govindapaada said, “One who can contain the ocean in his kamandalu (water-pot), is eligible to teach about brahma jnaana or knowledge of Brahma. It can only be taught by one who can contain the whole ocean in a kamandalu. That means the macrocosm can be contained into the microcosm. And when you are realizing the macrocosm in the microcosm, then you can teach about the macrocosm. This is exactly the point.

So destiny decides the duration of life, birth and death and it has a duration that is unchangeable. But as per your shift of awareness, the impact becomes lower so that number of lifetimes must become fewer. This is the short answer to that question.

Q: You spoke about lineage and pitr dosha – is that something that can be eradicated? Is it is like a loan/burden that you have to carry alone no matter what, and go through suffering? Can it be taken away?

M: Dosha is always connected to injustice or atrocities. What can be seen to happen in all families is that three generations or more (up to 5) are flourishing, then stabilising, then declining. Then from utter poverty they come back up to reach a status, then they maintain that status for some generations, and then start to decline. This wave pattern you can see. So with this whole picture in mind, imagine that some people, who when they were in the powerful stage, insulted or harmed many others. For example, somebody is running a money lending company, and because somebody could not repay their loans, he probably seized their houses or possessions or property. Though this would have been part of his business, yet he carries the karma. When I take something from your pocket to my pocket I also transfer the karma that way, unless it is a transaction. Actually what is allowed in the scriptures is that when you get something, you give something – then it’s closed. But that we don’t do, we only look at getting something. So there is an accrued interest connected to it. And nobody can repay it like that unless they are living a very disciplined life. In our family, you will see some people who are highly liberated – they do not accumulate or take anything from anybody. Instead they are fully benevolent and  giving, so they will bring good things, brightness, into the family. Some people are right the opposite. They don’t care about others, they cause harm, they talk bad about people, they disturb, they destroy. Also all those things happen to some people. All these types of people are in the lineage. So this collectively becomes pitr dosha.

There are some things that can cancel pitr dosha. Like when some people do a lot of good work, it auto cancels some of the bad effects. Then finally what is pending distributes over everybody – it’s almost like you have a huge property/land that is divided over many people, and you get a piece. But the original property is much bigger. What you receive may be small, but you still get it. Now the “papers” connected to this may not be clear, the legal bindings etc –  all those things you will still have to handle right? Because it has come to you. Similarly (karmic) inheritance is like that.

But the best thing you can do is to do something good all the time. I tell people very simple things. First, when you have a house, make sure that the creatures around your house have eaten, before you eat. Give food to the birds, insects, and animals. Then after they have eaten,  you consume. That way you automatically dilute a lot of karmic burden. If you continuously do that, you will actually be light. Secondly, always be benevolent to people. If somebody says, “I’m hungry”, first stop and feed that person. Give them food. I don’t really recommend giving money – because sometimes they go and drink alcohol. But if someone says, “I’m hungry”, don’t worry who it is – give them food immediately. Feed that person. If you follow in this way, the lineage karma becomes much less, the burden becomes less. Eradication may or may not be possible, but the weight will become less. This can be really taken care of.

I would say that a disciplined life is a good idea. It’s not about how many times you went to the temple, how many gurus you met  – it’s not like that. It’s about a lifestyle, an attitude, an attitude of giving, of sharing. I usually don’t recommend giving money to people, because we don’t know what they might use it for. But you can give in kind – give a sandwich for example. Once Devi and I were in Belgrade on a very cold day. We were feeling hungry, so we thought of going for a sandwich – a vegan cheese sandwich seemed like a good idea. While I was sitting outside the shop, she went inside to pick it up. I saw a man and he was walking towards the cars, as the red light was on. And on all the cars the window glass was raised. It was very cold, maybe about 2 degrees, so nobody was pulling the glass down and giving him anything. He was going around, then the light would change and then he would have to come back and sit down. I saw this happening a few times, Devi was inside ordering the food so I went inside and told her to get me one more sandwich. She brought it and I gave it to this man.  He said since the morning, nobody had given him anything (it was 2 pm). Nobody had even wanted to bring the glass down because of the cold. And that was the first meal he had eaten that day.

So these are the type of things you can do. And if you look around, you will see –  there is no dearth of this need.  I would say this is more important than the organized sevas. You know sometimes you do organised seva, the people may not be deserving too, they may be thinking, “Since you have brought it, I will take it”… So I will say that this type of (spontaneous) seva is more important and this really dilutes your lineage karma. If all the people of the family do this, just imagine what a lot of grace will be falling into the family. Grace is connected to your openness, to your faith. Faith opens doors for grace to flow in…

Transcribed by Sjarn Mansoor
Proofread by Geeta Iyer

Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 2

Mohanji Speaks Zoom Satsang, part 2

24th March, 2019

Sensitive but not emotionally reactive

Q: How can one practice being sensitive and compassionate towards others without being emotionally reactive?

Mohanji: I think I explained this matter in the first discussion. It is about being controlled by the three faculties  I spoke about. The mind controls us. The mind is the seat of emotions. It is also the seat of expectations. Intellect controls us when we analyze too much. We try to position ourselves in the society or with people. Sometimes it becomes escapism too. As an escapist, you say “Oh! This is not my cup of tea. I don’t want to be here”.  Then our ego or personality controls us, with thoughts such as, “Am I being respected? What do people think about me?” and so on.

When I was doing my Sadhana, I would never tell others what I was  practising  I was connecting to my spine, I was doing vertical breathing,  but I never discussed this with anyone  because this is not a subject we need to discuss. Sadhana is something that suits you, so you practise it alone, in silence, spend more time with yourself, stabilize yourself and let the practices stabilize you from within  more and more, settling your doubts. This is how it should be.

In any case, whenever you say “I am emotional”, “How can I not get involved with this?”, etc. always remember, there is an expectation connected to it. This is fundamental. If you have no expectations you will deliver and you will be completely detached. And if you are expecting applause, award, appreciation, there’s always a binding. We end up doing our activity only for that sake of the appreciation. If you have given up that aspect, you do everything you can do at your maximum capacity. But at the same time, you are free, you are not bound by other people’s opinions or appreciation or rejection. Be sensitive enough, to the extent it motivates you. The right amount of sensitivity can be a motivation. Instead if the sensitivity is overwhelming, it does not help you in any way. Sometimes, we may stop doing good things and good work because of other people. That is actually our loss.

Please understand that whether you do something or don’t, in about 80 or 90 years you are history. Hence it‘s not worth it to think too much and not do. I believe in POSITIVE ACTION, not just any action. And my beliefs about the do’s and don’ts are based on non-violence. If something is violent in nature it is a complete ‘no’ for me. Secondly, being sensitive is a good idea but at the same time, it should not hinder our activity.

You FEEL, but don’t blame other people, as they have nothing to do with it. They’re only expressing you, as to what you are to yourself because you need to know what YOU are at some point in time. If you are lazy, you can’t expect other people to be fully active as they will reflect your laziness. Likewise, everything in life is connected to how and what we are. And our experiences are also connected to what we are.

This is the entire structure; what you need to do is forget about everything and focus on your action. Within your capacity, keep doing more. That way, you will increase your capacity and keep delivering. Once you keep delivering it in this mode, you will not worry about being appreciated. You may not even look at how many people are looking at you or whether they are looking at you with kindness, they may not. I have experienced that even after doing so many things, some people criticize you very bitterly. They may talk poorly. What you need to do is, stop worrying about it. Just focus on what you have to do and keep delivering. Those who have eyes to see you will see. Those who cannot see you will not see. They should not see either, I say that because it’s not their time yet,  to connect to you, to recognize you or appreciate you. You should never be looking at people for appreciation.

Also, I’ve seen that most of the connections are based on convenience. “If it is convenient to me I connect, else I don’t connect.” So that is purely a mind based connection. Those kinds of connections will happen in life too. Sometimes they connect and then at some points in time, they are just not there – selective or convenience based connection. These are part of life and we should not really pay much attention to it. Those who are supposed to be with you will be with you. Those who are supposed to see you, will see you. Those who are supposed to appreciate you, will appreciate you. Nobody can shake them because their integrity will be steadfast, uncanny and very powerful.  And they are the ones who will walk with you. That is why Buddha made his entire empire with 5 people. Jesus had 12 people with him. They created their empire with a few people, with those who stood steady, despite any situation, without criticism or doubts and without judgment.

In everyone’s case, all of us are walking this earth and doing many things. When you do things, do not expect something. If you don’t do anything, there is no criticism, but then there is no existence either! If we are doing anything, there will be opinions and that is alright. Let opinions happen. We have to accept it and do what we have to do and what we can do.

Overcoming a sense of isolation

Q: Mohanji, I’m surrounded by people, but I’m lacking a sense of belonging. What can be done to overcome this isolation?

Mohanji: The first part of the sentence is equal to expectation. You are surrounded by people and you do not know you are still in isolation. That means you are becoming more and more mind and you are not even looking at people. They are almost like walls or stones. You don’t see them. Then how do you connect? You don’t recognize them because you don’t recognize yourself.

Here, the fundamental question is about self-acceptance. How much have you accepted yourself? If you have accepted yourself with all your weaknesses, all your strengths, then automatically you will connect to the world with ease. This is because you see only perfection in every being. You will not see many people; you only see your own reflection in many forms. So, the first and the last step should be self-acceptance. You have to start with self-acceptance. At the same time, spend time with yourself and try to feel yourself and understand yourself without judgment, criticism or comparison. There has to be complete acceptance with all your negativity and positivity. All of us have strengths and weaknesses.  No one has only strength or only weakness.

So start looking at yourself fully, completely. Look at yourself as a complete being with every quality. In that mode, when you start looking at the outside world, you will have no expectations. If you have no expectation with your own self, why would there be an expectation about other people? If you don’t have any rejection about yourself, you won’t reject anybody else. If you accept yourself completely, you will accept everybody. This is the fundamental truth. This is exactly how life should be. It’s not a rocket science. It’s about how much have you accepted yourself. That’s where everything begins, everything starts.

Dilute ownership, change your destiny

Q: Can FAITH overcome prarabda?

Mohanji: Faith is important. Faith is like oxygen. Faith helps survival. Also when your focus is on a master or a God or a deity, then many of the calamities which are happening around you will not be so strong or so detrimental because your level of ownership will be less. Pain is connected to OWNERSHIP.

If you have more pain in life, it’s connected to more ownership in life. When you have ownership of people, relationships, possessions, positions, materials, etc. it causes pain. Possessiveness causes pain. Now, if you are connected to a master and operating in “surrender” mode all the time, the ownership will be very low. And so is your pain. What is happening in your life now is a creation from the past. The “Prarabda” or the destiny is a creation of the past. Something you did in the past created this existence. All that you are experiencing now is connected to something of the past. So that will have to happen and nobody can change it. Every experience as it happened is what you are meant to experience. But when you surrender, the impact becomes less because ownership is diluted. With diluted ownership, you are freer, prarabda weakens or the impact will be less. That is a beautiful thing.

Those who are connected to masters or certain deities, those that practise a certain type of worship  consistently, with integrity and conviction, have survived various tests. This is  because when there is no ownership, the event that is meant to happen might not even happen. Sometimes it does happen but it will have a much lower impact than what it was originally meant to be. Thus it’s all connected to ownership. Faith is very important, it is wonderful, and it makes your life better. You can breathe well if there is a good amount of oxygen in the room. Similarly, Grace is the very oxygen in our daily life.   When you have surrendered, the grace factor is high. But when you have ownership, grace factor is low. So the factor of grace is very important.

Gratitude also helps. Even if it is a small thing, be very grateful. You have to be very, very grateful for everything;  grateful that you are alive;  grateful that you are breathing. Be grateful that you have all these possessions and positions. Be grateful that you have food to eat. Be grateful that you have shelter, a roof over your head. Be grateful for your awareness. Be grateful for your relationships. Be grateful for everything. Just be grateful. Being grateful brings grace, lots of grace. And your expression of gratitude  in this world should be kindness and compassion. Be kind and be compassionate. Don’t judge, don’t criticize and don’t talk bad. These are all very negative and you are actually attracting more poison by being that way.

A story

As the story goes, there was  a saint who was  looking at a tree.  A passerby asked, “What are you looking?” The saint said, “There are three people sitting in the tree. All three are people without bodies, which means,  they are dead. They are souls of non-bodied beings”. This passerby next asked, “What are they doing on the tree?” The saint said, “They are waiting to enter somewhere, maybe for their next birth or so.” Then they both saw a person coming from the village road, far away, fully drunk. He was completely unconscious of the world. He was tottering, falling down, picking himself up and still kept walking. He was coming that way. The saint said, “Just hold on. Just wait and see.” So this guy came and he didn’t even look at these beings on the tree, he simply walked past. When he walked past, they also went behind him.

This guy who was watching asked the saint, “Where is he going?” The saint replied, “In the same street around the corner, there is a brothel and he is going there.” He also added, “ Not just he, four people all together, have gone to the brothel, and that includes him.”   This means that the three souls who were sitting  on the tree entered him and went with him. They didn’t have a body of  their own and hence needed a body for the experience. So they all went together to the brothel.

It is very important to understand  that when your energies are of anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge and similar negativities, such energies will enter you and  aggravate it even more. We should always remember that walking the path of purity is very important. We shall not criticize. We shall not judge. We shall not complain. We will never be involved in any kind of polluting or negative emotions, because when you are in the grip of such emotions, when you are in such a mode, various energies of similar nature enter you, because they are all looking for a body for expression.

Some of them do not have the power to create a new body. So, they enter a body which is already in  that mode, means “birds of the same feather” kind of situation. They enter this body and work in a negative way. That is why I always insist not to sponsor, not to nurture or subscribe to negative emotions, criticism, judgment, revenge, etc. If you do encourage such negative emotions and thoughts, the energies around you which are of bad nature, will enter you and aggravate your situation. So you need to remain connected to higher consciousness, remain connected to a master who is connected to higher consciousness or worship a god or a deity you like to connect to. In some way, you should purify yourself. Please remember, this is YOUR journey, YOUR body, YOUR path, YOUR destination, YOUR destiny. So, YOU need to nurture it well. Nobody else can do it for you.

What best I can do is  show you the light and guide you. But I cannot walk for you.  It doesn’t  work that way. You have to walk. If you fall, it’s my responsibility, I’ll hold you. But YOU have to walk. Always remember, what brought you here is your prarabda. Your destiny brought you here, to this state. Losing this state is very easy. All you have to do is to enter into bad company, talk poorly, and engage in bad activities. Then more such energies will join you and pull you down.

If you have already managed to reach this level, all you need to do now is,  take one vow, one decision, a firm decision – that you will not take one step backward, because it is not worth it. One step backward means “Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam”, which translates to, again you are taking birth, again you are dying, again the stage of being in the womb of a mother … Like this, we have existed. So we MUST be very clear about this now.

We will not take a step backward. We are only going forward to the path of dissolution. We are only going in the path of becoming one with pure consciousness, which  has nothing to do with anything, so that we are very clear and focused and this is exactly how we should lead our life hereafter. That is the biggest gift you can give yourself. Even if somebody says something, even if you have many lures around you, even if all the people in the neighbourhood are negative, you don’t have to be. You can still stick with your integrity, stick with your experience, stick with your conviction and stick with your determination to remain pure in thoughts, words, and actions. This is all you need to do and this will automatically elevate you to very high levels of awareness.

Maintaining equilibrium

Q: As I continue with my Sadhana and my awareness increases, I find it very difficult to handle the conflicts and insensitivities of the corporate world. How can I maintain the equilibrium?

Mohanji: Everything has a price. Every state has a price. Nothing comes easy. The challenges of the outside world will always be there, whether it is our relationships or the place of work or our own notions and concepts, those  sitting inside and the ones sitting outside, both of them may fight you. But you need to be very firm if liberation is your priority. Liberation means not running away from everything. Liberation means, having everything but you are not attached to anything. Attachment causes ownership, ownership causes pain. So, we need to be aware that we are the whole story. The whole story is us. We make our lives, we break our life and everything is us. Let things flow. Anything can go wrong. In my case, when I was doing my practices, I went through a series of problems including the death of my daughter, Ammu. All my possessions were stolen. My investments went away when the property dealer ran away. I lost my job. I contracted a disease. All these events happened within a short span of time (5-6 years). So I lost everything that I had ever had and this was challenging. Then there were corporate challenges on the other side such as targets, performance and the related activities.

But I never left my path. I never ever discussed my practices with people. I was alone and practising on my own. And it was purely the Vedic path, connecting to my spine and connecting to my breath. This is the only thing I did, but with consistency, conviction and focus. I never sought  results. Basically you are only giving time to yourself, connecting to yourself, being with yourself.

Later on, when I started my public life, I realized that many people  who come are not coming with kindness. Some people will come, abuse your connection in some way and then walk away. Also, they  contaminate the minds of other people. So I decided that I will have nothing to do with it, let it all happen. But we need to be very firm and very stable. And that’s what I deliver.

Hence your stillness, your stability is your choice. What happens outside is definitely not in your control; you can’t control it. That will happen based on  what our prarabda, what our destiny gives us. Your workplace, where you live, what you have, etc. are all connected to destiny. We have no control over them  because they are predetermined. But you can definitely make sure that you will stick to your tradition and path in this life. Nobody can challenge it. Even if somebody challenges it, if you reinforce your conviction then you can’t be defeated. You are very powerful. Actually, you will know that you are very powerful when you decide that “Nothing else matters, only liberation matters.”  If everything matters to you, then you are scattered. If only liberation matters, if you are fully focused on yourself and your liberation, then it doesn’t matter what your environment is, what concepts or fears you have or what is outside. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters at all. You are focusing only on the path of liberation.

That requires two things: no ownership of action, no ownership of the result of the action. These are absolutely essential to be in the path of liberation. And if you just focus on lack of ownership, that will be fine;  then clarity of purpose as I mentioned in the beginning, and also gratitude, deep gratitude. Always be grateful, don’t allow negativity; rather don’t buy things which you don’t need, especially those that are negative in nature; talking about people, talking about situations, concepts, and so on. You don’t need any of them. In fact, just focus on clarity of purpose, which is, liberation.

As I said, there are two sticks you can hold while you are trekking – no ownership on the action, no ownership on the results of action. Keep walking.

Wish all of you great success and deep love. All the best. Thank you! Love you!

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha and Ananth Sankaran
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Read Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 1