Who is Sai Baba?

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

 

 

 

Have You Truly Surrendered to Sai Baba?

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

Be Consistent with Sadhana

Whenever we are going and growing towards the realms of subtlety, subtlety is something which is less and less tangible: the gross, the habitual gross, keep pulling us out. The gross means our habits, the materials we are used to, the places that we are used to, the people we are used to, all the positions, possessions and commitments of life, and all the attachments of life. They keep bothering us and pulling us back to them, while we are trying to detach and move towards the subtler and subtler aspects of us. The subtlest aspect of us is our soul.

When you demonstrate your devotion or your practice in the world, a lot of opinions will come your way. It can be positive opinions or negative opinions. Sometimes there are apprehensions, sometimes prejudices, sometimes the fears that people keep in their minds about things like spirituality. Sometimes it’s not considered as a positive thing, but we know very well that we have gone through all these emotions, all these things of life, and now we need absolute peace, or permanence in peace and that’s exactly why we are following spirituality. The benchmark, as I have already explained, is the silence inside. Whatever happens outside, you are always stable and still.

When I was practicing seriously, I was working as the country head of a multinational company, a very, very busy job. So I was finding my own time, my personal time, the time to connect to myself, between 3 am and 8 am. Even if I slept at 12 o’clock, after some party or some get-together, I would still wake up at 2:30 am. I used to have very short hair, and I used to take a bath, without taking a bath I never used to do anything. I’d take a full head bath, wipe myself clean, and then I’d just light a lamp. There was nothing else in the room except a lamp, a flame, and that flame was the only companion for my connection. I used to dissolve into that field of energy, into myself, and that was my practice.

Nobody knew I was practising, because in public life, in the real-time world, I was not practising anything. I was not visiting any temples, I was not visiting any Gurus, I wasn’t doing anything. But I was very happy with myself, I was practising with myself, and dimensions started shifting because of consistency. Whatever happened, I was always practising. This is one aspect I can tell you, you must have your time, the time with yourself, and as I explained, it’s all about you. The path is you, the destination is you, the journey is you, everything is you. Always remember, it’s about you. Connect to yourself as much as possible.

The time of the day which is quite suitable for this is between 3 am and 8 am, as far as I have experienced. You may have a different time, but that’s up to you, that’s an individually suitable time. I don’t want to say this is the only time possible; whichever time is good for you, that’s fine. But understand one thing – during that time between 3 and 8 am, usually the outside world is sleeping, it is silent with very little sounds outside. And inside, to get into silence, it’s much easier. There are no sounds, not too many vehicles and traffic sounds of various nature. Even the birds, animals, every being will be sleeping, more or less, and they all wake up after 5 am. By that time, you have already almost completed your connection with yourself, and you can conveniently come out of it at any point in time. But up to 8 am actually, in my experience, I hardly used to get any calls, nobody used to bother me. This is one. Secondly, the great Masters have given us various techniques and methods to connect to oneself, because we are a Universe.

The whole point, or the whole message of TAT TVAM ASI is – You are That, whatever you are looking for is – you, and this can be found through self-exploration and connecting to oneself. There is a method which is very popular – connecting to your heartbeat. When you connect to your heartbeat, there is a sound and a silence… a sound… and a silence. You are connecting to the sound and the silence, you are observing that sound and the silence. Then slowly, slowly, over time, you go between that sound and the silence. That means there is a sound… and the sound stops and the silence starts… and the silence stops and the sound starts. We try to feel that deeper and deeper, and as we go deeper and deeper into that space between the sound and the silence, we will start exploring higher levels of subtlety, the sukshma state.

Another method which the great Masters have gracefully given us is the space between the inhalation and exhalation – that idea, that thought of breathing in and breathing out. There is a small gap between the breathing in and breathing out, that is supposed to be the space of Heaven, that is what people say. That space is very momentary, but if you are aware of that space consistently, the space between your inhalation and exhalation, you will start experiencing various layers and layers of silence. You will start feeling that silence, a silence, a state where everything stops: the breath stops at some point, and then the breath starts. So between this stop and start, there is a space, and that space is a very pleasurable space, it’s very, very blissful. These are all methods you can practise.

I was particularly practising connecting to my spine. I feel the spine, I sit, and I feel the spine. When I’m walking, I feel the spine. When I’m sitting and talking sometimes, I spontaneously feel the spine. Any part of the spine, as per your orientation, you feel it, and spontaneously, you will start experiencing a vertical existence. Usually, we experience a horizontal experience as per the flow of karma. But here, when you are concentrating on the spine, you start experiencing a vertical existence, and that is a very beautiful state. When you are in that state, the past, present, and the future do not have much value, there is only the present.

The oscillation of the mind to the past or the future, the dwelling of the mind over matters of the past and the future will all reduce, it’ll all come to the present existence, present awareness. Awareness is bodh, and when you continuously connect to your spine for a long period of time, the bodh, the awareness, will start growing and flowing from you. You will become aware of everything around you, everything beyond you, and dimensions can shift rapidly. I do not want to tell you that this much time you have to do it etc, that’s all individual. Please understand spirituality is an individual journey, everything is individualistic. The more time you can spend with yourself without distractions, that much progress you can expect. So these are all guidelines I would like to give youngsters who are probably in a hostel with other people, etc. You don’t have to demonstrate any of this. Spend some time with yourself, be normal, be involved with all the work, whatever you have to do, you can do.

I was actually very busy when I was practising, I was heading the country and it was a very big job. Big job in a sense, it was a very active and a very stressful job. But at the same time, I never ever forsook my practise. Also, I was experiencing, just like now, I was not in one place long enough to have the comfort of one location. The comfort of one location is always an advantage. If you have a space for yourself to practice, that’s always an advantage, because the energy level of that place will complement your practise. But I didn’t have that luxury. Even now, I don’t have that luxury. I keep traveling. So you have to accept whichever way it happens.

Understand that your only exploration is yourself, and you are always with yourself, so you don’t have to really worry about the environment. If you really mean to succeed in reaching or becoming Shiva, the Supreme Consciousness, you have all the materials you need for that, because, by birth, you have it; nobody can take it away from you. If you are really keen on exploring yourself to the highest possibility, use any of the techniques. You can do what suits you spontaneously. We have bhakti yogis, who like to sing and chant, they are devotional people, they like devotion. There are jnana yogis who like to explore the truth of spirituality through knowledge. Then we have karma yogis who would like to live a selfless life. Through selflessness, they explore higher dimensions. Then we have raja yogis who are only established in awareness – bodh, and through bodh, through constant awareness, they reach the highest. There are so many different methods and practises which are suitable for everybody. And I feel that you will automatically reach there, once you decide to start walking. Nobody can stop you if you decide to walk. And nobody needs to give you any input. In my experience, whenever I needed guidance, somebody has given me guidance. I’ll give you an example.

I was practicing seriously like this for about four or five years. I was reaching a state of complete blankness, meaning I didn’t even know who I was, I didn’t even remember my name, my identity, etc. A completely blank state means I don’t exist. It’s almost like the deep sleep state in the night, where you are not aware you are sleeping, you are not aware of anything, you are totally lost, or completely gone. I was in that state, and I was the general manager of a company at that time, and I had to take care of the whole company and all the people. And at that point in time, I was experiencing these blank states. There were times let’s say,  from a few hours to a few days of the blank state. It was very difficult to work during those days. I may forget how to sign. I’d forget my signature. There were occasions when I would ask my financial controller to bring all the papers I had signed earlier. He did not know that I didn’t know how to sign because I couldn’t tell him that I was going through this state. I used to tell him, ”Bring me all the papers I’d signed earlier.” He would bring those papers, and I learned to sign. Then I signed the chequebooks and other things. After a while, he thought that I didn’t trust him, and he almost resigned. He said, “Sir, if you don’t trust me, I don’t want to work with you.” So I said, “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out, actually I am just correlating something, etc…” In a way, I lied. I told him, “See, I want to check the past records,” and things like that.

Anyway,  one day I was so frustrated. I decided I can’t work like this, I had to leave. I almost sat down and wrote my resignation letter. In those days there was no WhatsApp, Facebook or all those things, this was in the early 2000s. There was Messenger. I hardly used Messenger because, I didn’t like to use it. When you open it, a lot of people will come to chat with you. It’s so annoying when you are busy, somebody is asking you things, with which you don’t really want to engage into. I was sitting there. I was fully confused, in fact, I was very frustrated. I was almost writing my resignation. Suddenly the Messenger opens up. I used to practise yoga with a teacher, almost six years before, and that yoga teacher and I had no connections afterward. I lost his number, he lost my number, and I even moved to another country, so we had no connection. But he came on chat. He said, “Mohanji, are you there?” I said, “Yes, I am here. Oh, it’s a real surprise! How come you found me here?” Then he said, “I was meditating in the morning, and my Guru came and told me to tell you that these blank states will end that month, it will be over, and you will not have to experience them again.”

First of all, this man and I had no connection for almost six years. Secondly, he had no way of knowing that I was going through this situation because I never ever told anybody. I was alone – I didn’t have a relationship, I had no girlfriend or wife, I was completely alone in those days, at that time. Nobody used to communicate with me on spiritual terms, on spiritual grounds. I was only involved with my job, my work, and then I used to withdraw to my house. So no way he would know. And I did not know his Master. Then I asked him, “Who is your Master?“  He said the Master had left the body a long time ago, at the age of 90. I was surprised and asked, ”How did you know?” Then he said, “Mohanji, I don’t know about any of these things, my job was to convey the message to you, that this is probably the answer you have been looking for, and I have conveyed it.” I was surprised, totally surprised, this was the accurate answer. Then I said, “Sir, can I have your phone number?” When I called him, he said, “I don’t know anything more, I have told you whatever I know.” So I said, “Okay.” Then in fact, I copy-pasted that message and saved it, because, in the future, even I may doubt whether it happened. I always tell people, “All your positive experiences you should write down and keep it with you.” Because when negativity attacks you, this is your only oxygen, escape way. As a reminder, these will come in handy. When negativity hits you – negativity hits in the most vulnerable time, in the most vulnerable way – if you have the bank balance of your positive experiences written down, you can definitely go through it and get out of it with this antidote. It is very difficult, because negativity sucks you out.

So I spoke to him and that was it, there was nothing more he knew. He also told me one thing: his Master appeared to him about a week or ten days before he spoke to me, and told him the same thing, to convey this message to me. He was searching for my number and my contact and he didn’t have it, then he dropped it. On the day when he contacted me, the Master appeared again, and apparently scolded him. He’d said, “What sort of a disciple are you? I told you something, you are not even doing that, and how come you call yourself my disciple? I am ashamed of you!” Then he found out my email ID, and he tried the email ID, found the Messenger, and that’s how he reached me.

The point I am saying is that when you really want an answer, one way or the other the answer will find you. That we must trust. This has been my experience, the couple of experiences I had are of this completely uncanny nature. Why I am explaining this is because you should not be frustrated about the presence of people, the absence of people, the appreciations or the distractions of life. It is not important. You decide to go deeper and deeper into the subtle levels, but at the same time, do not leave your dharma, do not run away, do not be an escapist. Don’t leave something deliberately because, if you leave something deliberately, that means you are postponing that thing. Whatever God has given you, whatever destiny has brought you, you must perform the dharmic side. When you are the child, you are responsible to take care of your parents, like parents take care of the children. So we have to do that dutifully, with reverence, with love. This has to be done. There is no escape. You cannot say, “Oh, now I am free, I am myself, and I don’t like to take care of my parents or children.” That’s not right. If you have a family, take care of the family. That’s part of the dharma, that dharma must be fulfilled. Every responsibility should be dutifully fulfilled; respectfully, with reverence, we should fulfill it. You can’t run away, I do not recommend any kind of escapism, because if you run away, you will have to come back and solve it later. That might be with interest – that means if it is only a hundred thousand now, it will become one million later. So might as well finish it as it comes – any promises or any part of dharma.

If you are living in a hostel, or you are living in an environment that is not conducive to practice, it doesn’t matter. This connection with yourself, you can always do. As I said, you can connect to your heartbeat, you can connect to your breath, you can connect to your spine, you can connect to your thought processes, you can connect to your interactions or simply, you can meditate all the time by just making sure that no words are uttered without your mind being present, and no actions are done without the mind being present. That means no absent-mindedness, ever. That itself is a sadhana, it’s a beautiful practice. If you practise like that, that itself will elevate you. So there is no excuse for not practising.

Now, if you are determined, fully determined to reach the highest level of subtlety, you should and you can reach there definitely, whoever you are. Even if you have a Guru, a path, a destination, or anything you defined, no problem, they will all come to you at the right time.

Another experience I’ll tell you in the same context.

I was working in the company, and one day I got an email from a woman whom I did not even know, her name was Linda. She wrote to me from California, and I had no connection with America at that time. This was the early 2000s and this also was well before the time of WhatsApp and Facebook. She contacted me and said, “Are you Mr. Mohan? An elevated Master wants to speak to you. Please call this number at this time.” I didn’t even reply, because there are so many fake mails, hoax mails coming your way. Even now it comes, that you won a lottery or you got an award and things like that, which I don’t pay attention to. I just discard them, I remove them as spam. And I did that, and again in a week’s time after that date, she sent another message. “I’m very serious, a Master is asking me to contact you, he wants to speak to you. He does not exist on Earth, he’s from another realm, but he wants to use me as a medium to talk to you.” I became curious: what is this Master talking about? Even if I lose some money for this experience, it’s okay. So I contacted her, and the first question I asked was, “What’s the price, what’s the cost?” Because everything is connected to money, so I asked how much I should pay. She said, “I never asked you for money. This is serious. This Master wants to speak to you. Please call on Sunday at 10 am” and a date was given, so I said, “I will call you.”

On Sunday, I prepared myself and called this number. She picked up the call, and she sounded very old. I asked her, “What’s your age?” She said, “I’m 82.” I said, “How did you reach me?” She said, “This Master gave me your contact email.” I asked her, “Do you know me?” She said, “No, I don’t know you, I don’t even know who you are, nor am I interested to know you.” So that was very clean and clear. Then she asked, “Do you have sufficient money in your phone if the conversation prolongs?” I said, “No problem, I pay every month.” She wanted to know whether it is prepaid so that the charge will not go after a while. So everything was set, and she said, “Are you ready?” I said, “Yes, I’m ready.”

Then she started speaking to me. Slowly, slowly her voice changed to a very deep male voice; a totally different voice from this feeble old woman voice to a very strong male voice. And that man, just to convince me, told me all the major incidents of my life, which nobody will know. Not just the death of my daughter, but various things connected to it, and also various details. That convinced me because nobody will know those details unless they are connected deeply. I think even my family do not know those details. So all those things were told and I was convinced that this is genuine. Then there was so much of guidance and so many things were going on, I don’t want to go into micro details. It was about a forty-five minutes call, and finally, he asked, “I’m done. Is there anything you want to ask me?” I said, “No. I’m happy that I could speak to you, and I realize that you are from a very high realm.” Then he said, “I am not from Earth, I’m from a different realm, where we guide people at random, as per the instructions from above.” So they also have a hierarchy. Then he asked me, “Is there anything you want from me?” I said, “I would like to continue to talk to Masters of your realm.” He said, “I’ll arrange that.” Then the call was disconnected. When I wrote to this lady once again, thanking her, she never replied.

So this is something which we must understand. All these connections are matter fact. There is no attachment, there is no emotion, there is no expectation in these relations. A true relationship with a Master will have no expectations, no conditions, no bindings, no boundaries. This is something that you should always remember when you are connecting to higher realms. Don’t think that everything is obligatory; it is not so. All they want to do is that they found fertile ground and they want to sow the seeds of Liberation there, that’s all. They have no other interest. They don’t expect any gratefulness, they don’t expect anything in return.

So this is exactly how the true spiritual world works, which was my practical experience. Later on, I met various Masters on the Earth realm also, and they were all the same: whether it is Vittal Babaji, Ganeshananda Giri Babaji, whether it is Vasudevan Swami of Vajreshwari, Devi Amma of Bangalore, Avadhoota Nadananda of Kurnool, Lamperi Babaji, Taradas Swami, and numerous Masters, even Swami Govindananda of Rishikesh, all those Masters – everbody was selfless. Whenever I discuss with any of those Masters, I feel free because there are no expectations connected to it. Such Masters will come your way when your eligibility increases.

As I said earlier, eligibility is inner silence. How much deeper into yourself you have gone, that much silent you have become. The thoughts per second reduce. If your mind is not oscillating to the past or the future, if you are not dwelling on guilt, or regrets, and those kinds of things connected to the past, or anxieties of the future, you will be more or less stable in the present. And do your best in the present. Also understand – in the karmic law, it’s not the same do’s and don’ts of the human law. Human law’s do’s and don’ts are connected to the security aspect. The security aspect is connected to survival instinct, it’s a by-product of the survival instinct. Human laws are the by-products of the survival instinct, which across the species is the same. When you look at everything through the human law, you may not understand the karmic law.

In karmic law, the fundamental truth is fulfilment. Karma is connected to pending desires, something which you need fulfilment for, and the natural culmination is fulfilment. The higher culmination is that you don’t need fulfilment, because you’re beyond it. Even though that feeling was there, you are not worried about it, you are not bound by the fulfillment aspect so that you overcome it and then you don’t need it. So we must understand the karmic law clearly. As you grow higher, many of the things which the Saints do, you may be very surprised, how come? In that context, we talk about Lord Krishna. He supposedly had 16,000 + wives… And people say He is the perfect Brahmachari. How is that possible? Krishna was fully Brahma, only occupied in Supreme Consciousness. Whatever activities he was doing on earth, he was definitely not attached to them. He was performing various roles on earth as per the demand of the time. Even as a small child, he was protecting himself. He killed his opponents,  those who came to kill him, he murdered. And he also killed his uncle. He did all those things which are probably necessary to preserve dharma. He said, “My only purpose for existence is the preservation of dharma.” And they will continue to do that, they will always perform as per the expected law of dharma.

So there, the boundaries are different. He was engaging with a lot of people in different capacities, at the same time he was fully occupied with Brahma – the Supreme Consciousness. When one is fully occupied with the Supreme Consciousness, he is a Brahmachari. That is something which we must understand. I’ll tell you a story connected to it.

A story

The Brijwasis were going to meet Krishna, and they found that Krishna was sitting on the other side of the River Yamuna. But the Yamuna was overflowing and no boatman wanted to cross the river, because it was dangerous to cross the river at that time. So they were all disappointed. They had made lots of sweets and things out of cow’s milk and ghee etc. They had made everything possible which Krishna loved. But they couldn’t cross to the other side because of the overflowing river. They were disappointed and they all sat down and found that there was a Master meditating under a tree, just a short distance away. They all went towards him, and sat in front of the tree, looking at the Master. When the Master opened his eyes, he saw the people sitting there. He said, “Oh, you’re waiting here. What are you waiting here for? What can I do for you?” They said, “We were going to see Krishna, but the river is overflowing. We can’t cross, so we are all sitting here. We don’t know what to do.” Then he asked them, “What do you have in your bags? What are you carrying?” They said, “These are all sweets which Krishna likes, so we’ve made them. We expected to bring it to his palace so that he can also relish them with his people.” Then he said, “Can I see? Open this.” So they opened and showed him, and he started eating. He ate almost half of it. He was apparently very hungry, and they were getting embarrassed. They were thinking, “Now what will we tell Krishna if we can cross the river, that what we brought for you, somebody else ate?” They were a little worried. He said, “Don’t worry, pack it, come.

That saint was sage Vyasa. Vyasa took them to the edge of the River Yamuna which was swollen and overflowing because of the floods, and he commanded to the river, “If I have not eaten (consumed) anything, let the river part.” They had seen in front of their eyes that he had eaten. He’d eaten almost half the basket and he was telling that he had not eaten anything. They didn’t understand, but the river parted and all these people crossed the river. Sage Vyasa stood where he was, everybody crossed the river and they went to the other side safely. Then the river again merged, and the floods continued. They were really surprised ”How come this had happened?” They’d seen that he was eating, and he was saying, “If I have not eaten, let the river part.”

While they were walking, they reached a garden, and when they looked into the garden, Krishna was lying there under a tree on a bench, sleeping peacefully. So they waited there. They were very happy that they could meet Krishna. When Krishna woke up in about fifteen minutes or half an hour, he looked at them saying, “Oh, you are all sitting here. When did you come?” They said, “Oh, we just came.” “How did you come? The river is flooding, how did you reach?” They said, “A sage did this, and we came here.”  He said, “Okay, what have you brought?” They were ashamed to say that half of it was already gone, but they opened the baskets and showed him one. “Oh, no, no, I can’t eat anything now, this same thing I ate about an hour ago, I can’t eat anything.” So, when Vyasa ate those things, he ate it without ownership. That means he surrendered to Lord Krishna and he ate, and Lord Krishna actually consumed. So even though it was going through the mouth of Vyasa, it was filling the belly of Krishna. This is something that we must understand clearly in the path of spirituality. The laws of karma are always related to the ownership of action. We lose ownership completely after a while. When you go deeper and deeper into levels of subtlety, there is no ownership possible. We can’t have ownership. We know very well we don’t own anything. We don’t own the sunrise or the sunset. We don’t own our waking or sleep state. We don’t own our birth or death. We don’t own our heartbeats, circulation, respiration, digestion, brain function, nothing. Then we understand, “Oh, this is a show, it’s going on.” Then our approach to the world will be totally different.

We will look at everybody, every being, as karmic beings. They have a duration, they have a reason, they have an expression,  particular character trait, all those things. We will look at everything as our own expression. That will make us very, very stable. All this is possible by developing awareness. To develop awareness, first and foremost, we have to connect with ourselves, look at ourselves, feel ourselves, breathe ourselves, sleep ourselves, everything ourselves. And then we realize that there is no ownership connected.

But let me tell you, do not do violence and say, “I didn’t do that.” That’s a different story. That’s when the mind is cheating, or the mind is trying to delude. That’s not the thing. When you genuinely do not have ownership, your actions also will be pure. The purity of action is connected to lack of ownership of action; no doership, no ownership. That will make your actions pure. And especially if you surrender your actions to the Higher, you will only do pure actions, essential actions based on ahimsa or non-violence. These are all signs of pure action. Pure actions are always non-violent actions. It’s not about what you eat, or where you sleep, or what you drink, or whether you are married, this is not the point, the point is that you are settled inside. Whatever actions you are engaged into, you’re fully settled inside, you’re fully peaceful. You’re just being an expression of the Consciousness, and you are aware of that. So you are always liberated.

This does not need much practice; it needs presence. Practice is often a means to reach this presence. If you’re aware of this, that awareness will bring you the presence and the awareness to the present. So these are the things which you can definitely work on, and it doesn’t matter which environment you are in, or who is with you. If you keep discussing with other people, they can delude you. I never used to talk to anybody, I used to keep my practise to myself. Even if it is the wrong practise, even if it is not so good, it’s fine, no problem. It’s our personal issue, personal matter.

We don’t have to believe, or we don’t have to insist that whatever we do should be successful, because that gives stress, that gives ownership. So we try our best and we connect to ourselves, we start accepting and appreciating, and then we just exist. This is something which you can all practise, there is no problem. Also, always remember, whenever you practice something, the first and foremost is that you have an experience because of the practice. Even if you go to the gym, or you go for yoga, or any other activity, initially there will be experiences. After that, there will be stagnation. The same practice cannot give you the same experience – stagnation. At that point, many people go to different paths. They may go to a different Master, a different method, a different practice. They derail themselves. After that, if you still practise, after the stagnation state is the vacuum state. The vacuum state is that  from the collected (collective sankalpas) memories, feelings and notions, you are detaching to a level of complete silence. So that transition time is a bigger time. Through practice, through your consistent practice, you may transcend into a state of vacuum. Vacuum is the ‘in between’ state, and that is a very delusional state. Sometimes, we may feel that we have lost everything, or we are stupid, or we don’t know what we’re doing, all sorts of things can happen to us. And we sometimes criticise the Master, criticise ourselves, criticise the path, criticise the practice. This is all possible at that time. After that the bliss state comes. If you cross over these three states, then it’s bliss state. That’s a permanent state, you can just be there, and that’s it.

So this is something you should always remember – initially there will be experiences, then there’ll be stagnation, then they’ll be vacuum, and then bliss. Always remember, initial experience will not probably stay long. It may come, it may go, but you need to continue. You need to have conviction, consistency; stick to one path, stick to one Guru, stick to one practice, and then you will reach the highest. This is for sure. When we keep shifting, we reach nowhere. The mind takes you for a ride, all over. This is very important to understand, and if you put yourself, surrender yourself to the practice, glory will be there.

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

Skanda Vale Satsang – Part 2

In summer 2018, Mohanji visited Skanda Vale ashram in the UK. On 17th August, he did Prana Pratishta to the first idol of Lord Dattatreya in Europe (download discourse – mp3 ) and to Nagaraja murti as well.(download discourse – mp3 ).

Here is part 2 of the satsang he conducted afterwards.

Q: Can you please explain what is Prakriti and Maya?

Mohanji: The two aspects which the scriptures talk about are Purusha and Prakriti, rough translation is Shiva and Shakti. Purusha is Shiva. His expression is all over. And for him to express he needs Shakti, that is Prakriti. Maya is relative truth. Maya is truth, but it has a relative duration. And Karma’s expressionis Maya. Karma is also relative. Everything is changing. Like when you are 5 years old, when you are 10 years old, 15, 20, … your understanding or your experience changes. Same material would have given you different experiences. Maya works in that way. It’s always relative. Absolute Truth is Matha or Mother; absolute truth. Shakti is the activity aspect of Shiva, and Shiva by nature is full and complete. They say that whole created universe is just like a pimple on Shiva’s space. Shiva is much larger than the pimple (Laughter). So Shakti is needed for Shiva, that’s Prakriti; it is Shakti. Prakriti is the creation, created out of pure consciousness which is Shiva.

I asked the question to somebody recently why Shiva got angry when Shakti/Sathi died? Shiva should not get angry, right? Will Pure consciousness get angry? Pure consciousness cannot accept that Shakti does not exist. That means there’s no creation. The Tandava, the expression, happened in a violent mode, because Shakti was dissolving into Shiva. When Shakti dissolves into Shiva, what happens? Pure Consciousness, no creation. So, Shiva shook up and he fragmented the whole thing again. With a lot of difficulty at one time he created the atom. Now again, that atom dissolving back to pure consciousness, then no creation. So, he expressed himself. It’s not anger; it’s like intensity. Sometime intensity will be considered as anger.

Speaker: Mohanji, I wanted to ask why we’re all separate, why we feel we are separate from God. The idea is that you come to know God, that’s the purpose of life. Why God is one and total and undone, why separate?

Mohanji: That’s only in the mind. See, when you’re in deep sleep, you have no separation, you’re fully in bliss, because you don’t know your time, your space your properties. But when you wake up, you have this mind factor or the mind matter; when I say mind matter, it contains mind, ego, intellect, which keeps the form that reinforces your identifications and all those kinds of stuff. So, you have an opportunity here that you can go, always see beyond the usual and connect to the absolute truth; that option you always have. But what happens is that mind never allows it so easily. Mind is only a reflector. Mind has no flavours. What flavour it is given, that flavour it will reflect. Mind is maintained by thoughts, the thoughts are the pillars which maintain the mind. This mind is constantly reflecting mostly programmed stuff, programmed with a program you’re used to: habitual feelings, emotions, and patterns. That’s what mind reflects. And when mind keeps reflecting it, you completely get diluted from the truth. That you are the consciousness which the whole universe is connected to. And you are the whole universe. Aham Brahmasmi is missed, right?

That’s why in the Upanishad, the child asks the father, ‘You keep telling I am divine, I don’t feel like I’m divine. Why you keep telling me that?’

The father said, ‘bring some fire’. So, the child brought a lamp lit.

Then father said, ‘I told you, bring some fire. Why have you brought a lamp?’.

The child then went and brought a charcoal with fire on it.

He said, ‘I told you to bring me fire, not charcoal’. To which the child replied, ‘Father, I can’t bring you fire without a medium’.

To which, the father said, “Divinity cannot express without a medium, and that’s what you are.”

So if that understanding is constant, then the Maya will dilute. Maya cannot exist. Because you will only see your reflections everywhere. When you’re when you’re seeing anger in people, understand the anger sits in you. What you are, you see its reflection in everything. Like if you are extremely sick and you are looking at a beautiful sunshine, you will feel nothing. Because you’re not well; it’s not connected to the sunshine. But because how we are gets reflected back to us, or we experience it that way. That’s the truth. This is how it always works.

Three stages every day are given for you to connect to these. One is the waking state. The second is dream state, where your dimensions are different.  Your dreams are coming directly out of your subconscious. This data sits in your subconscious. And in the third deep sleep state, you have no idea who you are – death state. And then you wake up again. Birth state; rebirth in the morning. That’s why some people are lazy to get up. Because we are taking a new birth, it takes time to walk. Immediately you will not walk right; takes time. (Laughter) Don’t take me seriously. (Laughter).

Speaker: Mohanji, can you talk about, I don’t quite understand yet clearly enough for myself, about the mind, the concept of the mind or the definition of the mind? Or why do we have the mind to create the problem? And in relation to the consciousness.

Mohanji: Mind is like an organ. Let’s look at it… ask the question again.

Speaker: I asked about the mind and to define it more in detail. Mind in relation to the consciousness.

Mohanji: You look at mind as an organ. And what is its purpose? Experience. Experience is the purpose. And mind with your eyes you see, mind with your ears you hear. Otherwise sound will be there but you may not hear. Many times, when people talk, you won’t hear, right? Because mind is not with the ears. Mind with your nose, makes you smell. Mind with your skin makes you feel, with your tongue it makes you taste. And like that… Mind’s job is to experience existence. And it is said that there are millions of things outside, this is all for you. This whole thing is your arena, your football ground. It’s all for you, but then how much can you experience it? Only as much as your capacity. Like for example, you have two eyes. What happens behind you, you cannot see. You can only experience where your eyes can reach. Like that we have limitations. So numerous things, to experience them you have five senses, one mind. Mind with that particular sense makes you experience that particular thing. And what is the experience, broadly classified? Happiness or sorrow. This is human existence.

Total human existence. Millions of things, five senses, one mind, happiness or sorrow. This is how we live. Now this much is okay. Because this is nice. But then, how does mind becomes a botheration. When mind goes into the past, keeps/stores thing of the past and goes into the future with expectations, anxieties, fears, then that’s where the problem is. Otherwise mind has no problem, or mind is not a problem. Minimal mind is always good. Because you have a cool life. You experience every day. And you don’t store anything. Nothing from the past, nor we are going to the future. But does it stay like that? That is when awareness should come in.

What’s the basic awareness? Past is dead, finished. You can do nothing whatever you want to do in the past is impossible. Clear awareness. Future is yet to be. If you mess up today, your future will be messed up. So, we do what is best in this time. And if you stay in that time, that’s what I was talking about these activities here. Guru Subramanian kept it in such a way that it’s a rapid, very fast repetitive mode so that your mind can’t move. You know, you keep the discipline, you stay here, that’s a technique. So when you’re focused on your activity totally, hundred percent here, mind stays here. Then it doesn’t have time to move to the past or the future. And in that point, in that mode, mind is very effective. Mind is your servant. You know you’re here. Future… it doesn’t matter. The past is done. So in that mode, mind is effective.

But when you’re leaving the mind to roam in the past and the future, and regrets and relationships and problems and all those things, then it controls you then mind becomes the master. That is where the problem is. Otherwise, there’s no problem. If mind is your servant, there is no problem; for which the key, or the rope, or the leash is awareness. Awareness that I am only existing now and I have no idea about tomorrow. We don’t know whether we’d be alive tomorrow. And also, it doesn’t matter. No problem. Let it be. So, that’s the way to be. Is it clear?

Speaker: Yes, the question is as well why we keep a mind and why do we need to have a mind…

Mohanji: That’s what I told you.

Speaker: …then the link to the consciousness which is the state of the mind.

Mohanji: Consciousness is not the state of the mind. Consciousness is a factor which remains the same through waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. That is what we call three states, three cities, Tripura. And then we have fourth state. Like for example, you have all the sensors eyes, ears, nose, all those things. Behind that there’s a mind which is experiencing the world through these things, right? Senses cannot function by themselves, they’re part of your body. Right? Mind uses these senses to experience the world outside. Then mind processes it as happiness, sorrow. Two things. This is good for me, this is not good for me.

Now what is consciousness doing? Witnessing this function of the mind while energizing it. So, consciousness is the minor transformer, which is giving the electricity to the mind to experience life. And consciousness has three states but is the same. But in the waking state mind is more than consciousness or you wouldn’t know the consciousness sits. In dream state, mind and consciousness are more or less equal. In the deep sleep state, there’s no mind. Only consciousness. So, in the three states, consciousness is the same consciousness, but you experience it in three states. Right?

And there’s a fourth state called Turiya state where that state experiences the three states of consciousness as a detached form. Then there is a Turiyatita state beyond that; that is the soul state where the soul witnesses the consciousness witnessing the consciousness in three states and the mind beyond. Very simple. (Laughter)

Q: I was just wanting you to explain something about a Subramaniam aspect of God which we are worshipping here at Skandavale at the moment, specifically for people who might be new to Skandavale and not understand quite what’s going on when they’re looking at this.

Mohanji: Ah, Swami should tell you that. (Laughter). I should not talk about that. I don’t have the licence to tell everything.

(Group laughter)

Mohanji: I will just brief on this.

Subramanya

Shiva has two sons. Shiva probably has other sons but two that we know. Ganesha, represents a supreme consciousness aspect. That is why he has a huge body, elephant head, etc. because rithambara budhi, the intellect, cosmic consciousness is represented by the head of the elephant. That’s the highest or the largest mammal represented. And the huge body represents the created universe. Shiva is supreme consciousness represented by Shivalinga. There’s no way you can worship supreme consciousness which is un-manifested, beyond dimensions. So, the best form the great Rishis thought of is a Shivalinga. That is why you look at all the atomic reservoirs of the world, it’s in the form of Shivalinga, that form can source or store maximum energy without distortion, without a leak, without losing it.

Shivalinga is representing Shiva, a supreme consciousness, formless, and Lord Ganesha as the supreme consciousness, the larger aspect of Shiva. And Lord Muruga is the knowledge aspect. The pure knowledge; not the knowledge like… it is now morning and evening, and stuff like that. Knowledge which is the truth; that is why Subrarmania explained the secret of Omkara to father Shiva. When Shiva had a doubt as to what Omkara is, Subramania (skanda) explained this to Shiva. Why? Because Shiva is Omkara, he doesn’t know what it is. So, Subramania told him this is what you are. That means he’s knowledge incarnate. And also, there is an aspect of warrior. That commander aspect is because, we now talked about all these four people, four thieves. There are many things Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya, etc. All these are enemies of progress. He is fighting against them. Means he is knowledge incarnate. To keep knowledge, you need to ward off ignorance. Kama is what, uncontrolled desires; krodha, anger; matha, pride; matsarya, competition spirit; lobha is lust that you need more and all that. Moha is desire – I want this, I want that; never satisfied. All these things are against knowledge. So, he is the commander, who is protecting you from these enemies. So that you are with pure knowledge. Pure knowledge is the state of Shiva. And Shiva himself as Dakshinamoorthy is another aspect of this knowledge. Dakshinamoorthy is Shiva who is looking south. Where you can see a lot of Rishis around him. And Muruga has been worshipped mostly by the Siddhas; he’s connected to Siddhas. 18 Siddhas and all those people are connected to Muruga.

Q: So, what I hear from you is that… when we go inside we have in a way or an answer we have, you know, there you are. But they do seem to be meditations, or this kind of best parts seem to come clear to you as you live this life. So, what I have in mind is to be witness with people when they die. And, actually, it was funny  when you were saying with the boat, and crossing, because it’s as if there’s a moment when you come over in the boat from the other side, I never actually go to that other side, but you are somehow a ferryman. And then you, you move into this other place when you, this is what you do. And it feels that as the years have gone on, and then I mean, well just watching, we move here. And there is no hospice right here. Although I don’t actually have an issue with that part of it, but—

Mohanji: You should.

Q (continued): …that as the years have gone on the whole working or being with people as they leave and the people around that has become more and more, a very real meditation and expression in the world we live in now.

Mohanji: You are in the right track. Yeah…

Yes. Every moment is meditation. If you are aware that is it. That is, “Life is meditation”; not sitting in one corner and thinking you are meditating. And the shift of stages at the time of death, is amazing. Because basically it is nothing. Just leaving the body. No big deal. But then the process, where it is connected to attachment, to this body, attachment to things around us, all these things, everything, becomes completely irrelevant. And then you are leaving. That’s exactly what we are talking in the last part. How much you can raise your awareness at this last part, that becomes the flavour of existence of next life. So when you transcend, you move in that zone. That’s why suicide, murder, and all these things are absolutely detrimental. Because the last part of your life, you are on a level of resistance, then the next life starts with resistance. So, we must always be in a level of ecstasy.

You know, if you can leave with a wow, beautiful.

Speaker continues: And this is what’s happening more and more. It’s a way that I lived many years in India. And of course, in India years ago, in the 70s, if there was a dead body, then you actually didn’t go near it, and you didn’t touch it. And sometimes that could be very shocking. But even India also is changing in the way that…I guess that last moment, for even, for people that maybe haven’t so much meditated, can be a leap. And I don’t know, this just seems like…

Mohanji: That’s why, I don’t know about now much. But earlier, it was they light only one lamp in the place. So that the person who’s leaving connect to only one flame and there’s no distortion. When you’re connected to a flame, and the flame is going up, and then you’re connected to brightness. Plus, the chanting will be a scripture or something like Sahasranama, so that in that vibration provided through chanting, they leave.

A story about calling the name of the Lord

There is a story of one guy who was very selfish in life. And he hated Gods; he was an atheist. And he hated his children also because they were squandering his money. Then he named them the name of Gods, because then he can remember them more. Because those whom you hate you remember more, right? (Laughter).

One day he was lying down to die, and the lord of death came. It was a very fearsome point, because all that he earned all his life is going. Going to whose hands? To those he hates, his children. So, he wanted to scare his children, he called Narayana, Narayana. His son’s name was Narayana. He called Narayana to witness the lord of death, because he was scared. And when he called Narayana, Narayana, the lord of death left, because he called the deity. So, he survived. Then he was wondering, “How did I survive?” Because he called the name of the Lord at the time of death; Lord Vishnu.

These kinds of stories are there, that say the right names should be uttered at the time of death. But that has to be cultivated over time. You have to practise it. Otherwise, it won’t come at that time. Only think about electricity bill, water bill, credit card, cheques you have signed, and so on. That’s not good enough. You are thinking of practice, right?

Q: Leading on from that question prompted me to ask another question. The couple of deaths that we’ve experienced here in hospice, or here in Skandavale. It’s been either when what I perceive to be the soul leaving, or after a person has died. The vibration is beautiful. The two of them. Absolutely.

Mohanji: Stillness…

Q (continued): And yeah, and love and beautiful, and especially, you know, special, like you’ve walked into a temple, but you’ve walked into a room with a dead body. But that person is not long left. Actually, somehow you can feel that, that if they’re still there. And I was wondering, what is that feeling? Is that the soul leaving?

Mohanji: Normally, they only leave the body after 13 days. They hang on with other sheaths: the body sheath is the food sheath, then pranic sheath, the pranic layer; then it’s mind sheath, knowledge sheath, bliss sheath, and then the soul. Soul is in the middle and all other sheaths are around it. And that stays except the body, physical body. And they hang on for approximately 13 days.

Speaker: In the same place?

Mohanji: No not necessarily. That’s why in some of the places they keep food for them after they die. Everybody eats, they can also  see but they can’t eat and they don’t have the body but everything else.

Speaker: When one of our sister’s was dying, and I know a few people experienced it, it was as if she hadn’t died. But it felt, I don’t know if this was that the soul was leaving the body, but it was dancing. It was so joyful. It was bliss.

Mohanji: Yeah, when your connection to, or when your ownership levels are less, the moment of leaving the body is beautiful. Because you feel such a relief.

Speaker: That’s what it felt like as well. I’d like to say maybe she didn’t die.

Mohanji: In fact, you know, most of us experience this during the deep sleep state. We get out of the body peacefully and then we enter, some people have that remembrances. People have written about it, that they had an ecstatic state, the same state and there’s a quick rewinding of the major events of life and then it’s stillness, and then it’s peaceful. Shanthi. Perpetual.

Speaker: That bliss is…?

Mohanji: That’s your state. If you have another incarnation to make, then you go ahead with your work. But that transition,  it can be beautiful but that’s where you need to connect to something larger, bigger.

Speaker: …and many people have done that in their life time?

Mohanji: Yeah, yeah. For example, connecting to one object like Lord Krishna or Muruga or one deity all the time, chanting, then that consciousness automatically raises to that level, and it will be an ecstasy to go. And otherwise, connecting to a very powerful master, same thing. Whichever frequency you connect to, that helps you to go out and that energy stays in that same way.

 

Q: But what about people who haven’t had any connection or seemingly any connection to spirituality?

Mohanji:  No, but, it’s not just one life, right? It’s a continuation. What they have done in past to reach here, that person doesn’t know. In this life what they have done, probably they will know. And most of the activities may be unconscious; they don’t know what they are doing. But what brought them to this frequency, they may not know. It’s a continuation. Each life is like a page. You shift the page, another life, then it becomes the full book.

Speaker: And you said you do a quick rewind.

Mohanji: That’s each life.

Q: That’s only for that life, you won’t see the other life?

Mohanji: No, because you don’t see those lives now. You don’t see your past life now. That’s rewounded, then you go to astral plane, then you rework that, and you say okay, this is what you wanted to experience and this is what you have to experience, pending desires, then you take an incarnation. That’s why I said the USB is removed from the laptop, and USB contains your pending desires and your memories collectively. So that includes your connection, relationship, character, etc. Sometimes character also evolves over time. Character, desires, memories – these come together and then the sheaths (koshas) carry these and go, and then the USB is put into the next body and restarted. Then you bring back all this.

But again, as I said, between a death and a birth there is a shift happening as well. That each page is not that you’re just starting in that frequency but at the evolution, with your awareness, the awareness can evolve and then it comes back to another body differently. So, what you miss most in this life becomes the predominant agenda in the next life. That’s why don’t miss much in this life. Because that becomes a pending desire, agenda, thing to do. When you sum up or you configure your existence of the next life, that will come up as a top thing to do. Like we have our daily agenda: this I must complete today, this can be done later. Like that, and thus, the whole lifetimes are defined. That’s why, masters like Shirdi Baba say you have come to me. Now let me reduce your number of lifetimes. You know, imagine this is to be laid out over 50 lifetimes, let’s make it 20. That way you reduce the total. That’s what great masters do.  They shrink it. So that your merger becomes faster. That’s why it’s the interest of every master that you liberate yourself as fast as possible. And in the interest of soul is to liberate as well, as fast as possible. And even the information, the pattern, the roadmap, that comes only with the right eligibility, otherwise, you won’t get that. You won’t even think that. I mean, many people don’t even think beyond the mind or the gratifications, they don’t even think of a beyond state. Forget about death state. Death is a fear for many people. Death means big problem. One of the greatest fears is the fear of death. I’ve seen that even in spiritually high people. Towards the end they become very jittery. ‘Oh, I may die’. Very good. (Laughter).

But I’ve seen that and sometimes it surprises me. What’s the big deal? However, that remnant of fear sometimes exists without knowing. Not that you store it, but somehow the fear of death comes. It could be also collected, it could be acquired, maybe it is not yours. It can be that you have seen so many people’s trauma of dying, and you may get that impulse into your system, and then you think it’s yours. You wouldn’t remember that it is not original and you forget. For example, there’s some dirt on your body and you forgot to take a bath or wash it away, it stays, right? Like that, you collected from the nature and that has stayed on and then it stays. And at the time of death you have that fear.

Q: In your book Power of Purity you said playing video games especially violent ones and watching violent films or any films, reading newspapers your subconscious takes that on, and doesn’t differentiate between whether you’ve actually committed the act or whether…

Mohanji: Yes. Whatever your conscious mind dwells or subconscious think it’s real.

Speaker: And so, then you said karmically you have to live that out?

Mohanji: Not necessarily. That becomes your flavour, or part of your system. Whatever you consume, enters your system. Similarly, all inputs have effect in the system. Subconscious mind doesn’t know whether you’re actually doing it. When the conscious mind is working on it, subconscious believes that this is real, so it just stores it.

Speaker: So if you’re kind of killing people in a video game, your subconscious thinks…

Mohanji: …thinks it’s actually happening. That’s why I was talking about soap opera. The victimization of people,  very bad people, and people only thinking bad, how to harm other people. When you constantly dwell in that kind of energy, subconscious believes this is what you like. So it creates a life for this, to have this kind of things – emotions, etc.

Speaker: So, it’s not something you have to live out…

Mohanji: Not necessarily, you can go beyond it. If you raise your awareness beyond it all, this becomes insignificant. Yeah, but will you stay there? Because mind likes gravitation quite a lot. Mind likes to come to the lower frequency, we call it gratification. So if we stay beyond it all, it’s very good.

Q: I just wondering how do we increase will power so that we can become a bit more master over ourselves?

Mohanji: Laughter J. Iccha shakti, will power – center of heart. Jnana shakti – third eye. Kriya shakti – navel. Three shaktis: Iccha shakti, Jnana shakti and Kriya shakti. Three aspects of Shakti. It’s center of heart. If you concentrate on that and chant and…

The main thing which is against the Iccha shakti is tamas, inertia, like laziness, “Okay, I will do it later,” like that. That has to be countered by positive action; action as well as chanting on heart center. Close your heart and chant whatever, any chanting inside the heart centre. This is the place for the Kriya Shakti, action. Sometimes people become lazy. ‘I must go for jogging; okay, tomorrow! Then the day after…’ and then we pay somebody to jog for us.

(Laughter)

There’s a video of one guy who’s got a treadmill; he’s sitting on a chair with a beer and doing it… it’s the height of laziness. Very bad Kriya shakti.

(Laughter)

But understand one thing. It’s never constant. It can never be constant in human existence. It’s always waves. Vivekananda says this, “Life is all waves. Sometimes high, sometimes low. Our ability to accept these highs and lows is very important.” Watch your own life, it can never be constant, right? “I’m inspired all the time” – never happens. It’s not possible because we have a lot of factors connecting to it. So, it has to be high; it has to be low. Our ability to flow through like a wave rider, that is how we become successful. Not that you’re always on low and always on high; it is guaranteed not possible. Maybe when we are sitting and meditating in a cave in Himalayas… still there will be highs and lows.  “Today I don’t want to meditate. I am catching mosquitoes”.

(Laughter). Anything is possible.

We must accept realities as it is. When it is high, understand “I do maximum.” When it is low, “Okay, now this is low, nothing is working, slow down.” It’s like the road is bumpy. But you really want to drive in 120 km/h, is it possible or not? Not possible. You have to drive as per the road. But later the road becomes good, the nice open road, then drive. That flexibility or adaptability is more important than the highs and lows. Recognizing highs and lows is good, “Now I’m very productive,” do your best. “Now I’m not productive,” then “Okay, I slow down, I work on it.” But keep walking. I mean, don’t just sit there, you slowly move. Even 1 km/h speed is also a speed, right?

Speaker: Sometimes you feel like, “Oh yeah, I’m on a good road, doing things well, and then sometimes, it’s like mmehh…oh, why…”

Mohanji: That’s how it is. 7.5 billion people will tell you this is how it is. This is how the whole creation has this thing. Because we are playing duality. This is the drama, we are playing the duality, there’s an up and there’s a down. if there’s no up or down, there’s no duality. So in this duality, there is dark and bright, up and down, high and low. It’s all part of duality. And that flexibility and adaptability makes us successful. Never judge ourselves, then you will not judge other people. Right? And do not criticize yourself. Because we tend to compare with other people and we say we are not good enough. What happens is, even if you have an opportunity for full actualization, because your opinion about you is not so good, you will deny it. This is the problem. Then you take a lifetime to correct. Do you understand what I’m saying?

When you when you judge yourself or criticize yourself, you deny an experience also, without your knowledge. Imagine you have a potential for a really great experience in this life, but you say, “Oh, I’m not Mohanji, I can’t do this or something like that.” And then even if you can achieve it, you will deny it. At the end of the day, who loses? You will lose.

That is why Lord Ram went 14 years in the forest. He was in Avatar, he could have just shot an arrow from Ayodhya all the way to Sri Lanka, killed Ravana and brought his… he would have probably even prevented Sita from being kidnapped. An Avatar! But he went through the whole process. He took the help of the monkey squad and everybody, everything because he had to demonstrate how an ordinary man should handle life. That’s why. He did not present himself as an Avatar. He presented himself as an ordinary man for the sake of us. Otherwise, there’ll be no Ramayana, maybe only two lights or something.

(Laughter)

Or… He came to kill the demon, so he sat and shot an arrow. Finished.

(Laughter)

Whole chapters are not needed.

Furthermore, have you ever observed why Hanumanji is so powerful, and there’s so much worship, there are so many temples of Hanuman. So many temples. He is worshipped much more than Ram, there are more Hanuman temples. That is because Hanuman’s only object of worship was Ram. Totally integrated into Ram. And these Ashta siddhis (the 8 siddhis) and Nava nidhis (9 nidhis), again all the types of wealth were originally Ram’s. When you’re deeply integrated into a consciousness, which is very powerful, you have all those powers. Hanuman was deeply connected to Ram, unmistakably connected, all the time thinking about Ram, only Ram. And then what happened, he had all the powers of Ram.  The supreme consciousness, Ram is supreme consciousness. So he was constantly integrated into Ram, and he had all the powers. Another way of diffusing the ups and downs, stay connected, deeply integrated, and you experience the supreme consciousness all the time and then you will not judge because “I don’t exist, only he exists”, right? Hanumanji was not an ordinary man, he was a very, very powerful master. He was a great master. He said, “I prefer to be your servant in this existence, I prefer to serve you. Your wish is my command.” Then he said, “My body is always at your feet, to serve you. And let me be like this.” Then third thing he said, “But consciousness wise, you and I are one. Let’s play the role.” Pure awareness, right? Perfect awareness. I am not separate from you, but I prefer to play this role. So I’m outside of you, I can serve you. So it’s easier for me to integrate. Perfect bhakti yoga (bhakti-devotion).

It’s all for demonstrating the aspects of existence. That clearly states that these are possibilities. When you clearly know these possibilities, there’s no way you can be deviated. And as I said earlier, what you should choose is what suits you. What you can practise without effort, that suits you. What you practise with effort is not yours. Understand, you will drop it someday. You will want to wear a dress which fits your body. If it is three times larger or three times shorter, it’s difficult, somehow even if you fit in, you will not like it. Yes, please.

Q: Just one last question. What is actually the purpose of life?

Mohanji: Experiences, what you’re experiencing every moment. That’s it. it’s a moment to moment experience. Purpose of life for everybody is that even if it is a bird or an animal, that moment is the purpose and we have no idea about the next moments. Each moment’s experience is our purpose.

Q: Why is some of the experiences bad or good?

Mohanji: It does not matter, they are all experiences. That discrimination happens only in the waking state of mind. Mind tells this is good, this is bad. And that’s sometimes or mostly connected to expectations. I expect to be successful every time. But if success doesn’t happen the way I want I reject it. Then we say some, “It’s a bad experience,” things like that. So it’s all connected to the mind. Experiences are experiences. We decided and always, there’s no guarantee that an experience which we term bad is always bad.

A story – Bad is not always bad

There was a king who caught one of his favourite ministers and chopped his finger saying that he had been stealing. The minister was very sad because he hadn’t been stealing. Later on he was caught by tantric people who chop the head, bali, as human sacrifice. They wanted somebody and they caught him, but he had no finger, so they let him go. Because they said, “You are not perfect, your finger is missing.” Then he understood that the finger lost is better than the head lost.

(Group laughter)

So we do not know, sometimes some of the experiences which we call bad, are not always bad, we need to read the full story to understand.

Q: In common with a lot of people, I’m sure. Sometimes you get to a certain point, and you become very aware of a long period of time, some pattern of activities has been governing your life, certain habits, some mentality, your aspirations remain out there, not where they should be. And I was wondering if you could shed some light on how to break down pattern other than diet, (laughter) presumably one way of doing without going to that extreme. You’re trying to turn everything upside down or bring yourself out of that in a dramatic way.

Mohanji: I’ll tell you the nativity of it.

How does a repetitive thing come in life? Not even an activity?

There are patterns in relationships, patterns in money situations, patterns in jobs, we experience so many patterns in normal life. Where do they come from? They come from deep impressions.

For example, imagine that you have been travelling a path of pathless, like an aghori. One thing happens today, a totally different thing happens tomorrow, there is nothing settling. Everything is flowing, flowing in the sense, there is no system.

Then what would be your greatest interest?

To have a system. That would be your priority or top priority, “I must have a system functioning, there is a predictability.” When we dwell too much into unpredictable paths, we will crave for predictability. And then if it didn’t happen in that life, next life will have predictability pattern as a main theme. So, the path will be all predictable. But then predictability also brings monotony. Because you can predict every moment. So it brings monotony, when it brings monotony, you say, “This is crazy, I can’t have monotony, how do we come out of this?”

Thus in this war between unpredictability, an unpredictable path, like the path of Shiva, path of pathless, path of Datta, the way you travel, that’s the path and Avadhoota state, state of Avadhoota, where rain or sun, good or bad, it’s all the same to a state where there is some kind of a pattern. So when that is travel, mind will crave for a pattern. When a pattern happens, we have monotony connected to it, it’s always connected to the mind which expects.

What is the best way to overcome that mind?

Awareness. Awareness beyond it. Beyond this activity, there is a growth and growth is in awareness. There are so many things probably you never wanted or they were fringes, they were not really sufficient to integrate into a life. If it was sufficient to integrate into your life, it would have happened before taking birth. So, if it is not integrated into life, in this pattern, this was not so important in the original planning. Then, if a pattern is happening, this pattern is actually what is chosen. When you resist the pattern, it stays. When you say, “Okay, this is the pattern happening, no problem.”

A story of a Buddhist monk

There was a Buddhist monk who was giving lectures, and a lot of people respected him. One day, one girl became pregnant in this village. And she said this monk was the father. Everybody came, bet him up. Tore his house to pieces, etc, and brought the woman and gave it to him saying, “You must look after this woman because you made her pregnant.” He didn’t say anything. And then the child was delivered, he was looking after the child and he never said anything, yes or no or anything. After eight years or nine years, this girl started feeling very guilty. She saw his love and kindness and he was looking after them as ever, I mean, as perfectly as possible.

And then she told the village, “You know, actually this guy is not the father. The father of the child ran away. And I did not want to tell this to you to people because I was ashamed that I would be ostracized, that I would be expelled. That’s why I told his name.”

Then they came to the monk to apologize, “We are very sorry that we did not understand.”

“No, it’s okay. No problem,” he answered.

Then, there was no nothing from him. His awareness was above every activity below. Nothing touched him and he was just floating and he was in a state of bliss and all these activities was happening. No expectation of only glory, no expectation of only scandal or slander, no expectation. So what happens is your awareness is above everything and these patterns die by themselves. Because patterns lose their importance as well. If there is an activity, “Okay, I’ll do this activity,” from moment to moment. Moreover, other things do not enter either. Because there’s no “This is not good, then another thing should…” So the replacing doesn’t happen. Replacement sometimes means and the life. If you can’t replace something in this life, it automatically means another life. That means you’re ensuring another rebirth. That also will not happen. Because your awareness is above. And this routine is giving you more and more and more stability and you are dissolved.

That’s the way to overcome every situation, whether it is a monastic order or actual life. When you see from above, all the things happening, like we said, there are no good or bad, everything is happening and you’re watching it and it’s all happening, it’s flowing. And you’re not binding to it. You’re not even taking ownership. Like this girl said this guy was the father, he didn’t know. And people thought it was true, because he didn’t say that. Nor did he care. Later on when the girl said this was not the father, again he did not say anything. Why? For 8 years you looked after the child and the mother and you did not say anything? He kept quiet. Then they understood that he was a powerful Master. So it sometimes takes time.

Why I said this story is because we have every chance to keep our awareness here (he puts his hand high up). It doesn’t have to be here (he lowers his hand down). When it is here (at that low level), we always have opinions. We maintain the patterns. Because we resist. Maintenance is equal to resistance. We have objection, like human relationship. I don’t like this person, so I keep resisting, that person is always with me. It happened, right?

(Laughter)

We get married like that.

(Laughter)

Not my marriage…

(Laughter)

I put my hand in fire.

(More laughter)

That that’s the way it is. So it’s all about awareness. One word, awareness. Acceptance and awareness are two things which are absolutely fundamental for high speed growth and evolution. Acceptance is to yourself. It doesn’t matter whether you accept other people or the world. Because if you don’t accept yourself, you can’t accept the world. World is your reflection. So every bit of acceptance is to yourself as a full incarnation. Then awareness, awareness, that everything happens will also pass, nothing is yours. Even the body, everything comes and goes. Then this other resistance and other things will automatically vanish. In this life. This is the flow so be it.

Speaker: Does worship of God, let’s say in the form of Dattatreya or doesn’t matter which god, is that the key part of achieving that awareness?

Mohanji: Yes, worship is equal..

Speaker: That is our way of life. That is that process which is happening.

Mohanji: Yeah, worship is integration. Worship means you’re connecting to an idol. Idol is never an idol as it is, it’s an ideal. You know, an idol represents an ideal. Ideal is a state. The state of a master is represented by the form of a master. That is why I said, Mohanji is not the body, Mohanji is a state which is connecting to people. When you’re connecting to the ideal, then you are surrendering to that ideal. Why do we worship different deities? People have different tastes, and why because that ideal suits us. It’s suitable for us, for us to connect and integrate. Like in various places, there are different plug points, different types, so every plug will not accept every socket. You have to sometimes use converters. Here, I’m talking about no converters. The right plug and the right socket.

So you integrate to Bhagwan Ranganatha, or Bhagwan Dattatreya and the integration is equal to surrender. That’s what Hanumanji story I said, I don’t exist, he exists. I exist as his servant, means basically, I have no existence. I don’t need existence. A true disciple is almost like the shadow of the guru. When the guru moves the shadow moves. This is how it works. True, true disciple. There are hardly true disciples today, because people even judge the guru, “The guru should not look like this. He should…” They have opinions. Then all these opinions and doubts segregate. It is opposite of integration. That’s why it takes time. Then when you disintegrate, or you are separate from the truth or the master, you have all the effects. Everything hits you directly, all the pleasures, all the pains, all the phobias, concepts, doubts, everything hits you. Here if you are integrated to the guru, the shield is always there. Nothing hits you. So when you worship Ranganatha, you are Ranganatha. Always remember, there’s no separation. When you’re worshiping Ranganatha, you’re worshiping yourself. When you’re worshiping Datta, you are Datta and that idol is your representation. In that mode integration is just, like a matter of time, a very fast process. It happens very rapidly.

Mohanji: Yes, please. Yeah.

Speaker: Namaste.

Mohanji: Namaste.

Q: Since we’re talking about this mind and matter, I’ve got one question, suppose the attachment of ones in other’s minds, can that mind be degraded, on upgraded?

Mohanji: If the attachment is from the other person to you, rather than you from other person…

Q (continued): Well, suppose he’s got a high level of mind, he’s attached to some kind of devotion, or he is on the super value, and the attachment of that person to other person can degrade him or upgrade him?

Mohanji: Neither. Neither in fact.

Speaker: The reason I’m saying is that say that attachment of the mother to the son, or the attachment of the devotee to another devotee or to the lord or the master can move him from one place to another place or it will be in the same place?

Mohanji: See, fundamentally, attachment is connected to relative truth, it’s not permanent. We have seen people very deeply connected, and then later bitter enemies, or bitter enemies coming together. So everything is in a relative basis. We cannot say that this stays forever, another one stays forever, we cannot say. In addition, we can’t determine high or low, because somebody who’s deeply connected to the Supreme consciousness, whatever other people think, it will hit them, but it will not be enough to bring them down.

Somebody who’s very deeply connected like a Buddha, for example, who had one focus. He wanted to attain liberation. And his focus was that – he left his family, he did everything to attain that. Many people told him, “You made a big mistake, you should not have done that…” Even after enlightenment he was told that. But nothing moved, because what he wanted with the life with the original agenda, we talked about the prarabhda, part of the karma, which brought forth this existence, the original karma is powerful enough to take you through. In between all the other, the people, the relative experiences, the people coming in life, people going, their opinions, their likes and dislikes, they are all having only complimenting or contradicting whatever it is, as a flavour. Like your ice cream is one, you add strawberry and it becomes strawberry, add chocolate, it becomes chocolate like that. It’s a flow, life is one flow. In the flow of life, all these are relative experiences, nothing is permanent.

Speaker: Yeah, but as you say that in so in in the past, and we have we have seen so many places where the God has to come down to Earth to fulfil the wish of a devotee. In that sense, if you’re saying that is not true…

Mohanji: No, no, that is completely different, right?

Speaker: That is attachment as well.

Mohanji: No, that is a different thing. Devotion matures into oneness. See, when this attachment is what you asked earlier, through emotions between people etc. when you are deeply connected…

Speaker: Sorry, when I said, I said what one’s mind here, if you put one mind to another mind, can that mind be degraded or upgraded.

Mohanji: It depends actually. The state of mind itself is temporary. And the mind we are talking about is only operation during waking state, only when you are awake. In dream state it is not the same mind. In deep sleep, it’s not the same mind. So we’re talking about the waking state mind connection. Is that right or wrong?

Speaker: So if you keep on thinking of the same, the mind is always on the same thing all the time.

Mohanji: Yeah. When are you thinking?

Speaker: In deep sleep you are thinking the same thing, if you are awake you are still thinking the same thing.

Mohanji: How do you know that you’re thinking in deep sleep?

Speaker: Because you can’t sleep because of that…

Mohanji: Then you are not in deep sleep. It is not deep sleep, it is sleeplessness. Then that’s a waking state.

Speaker: It is not waking state I am talking about.

Mohanji: No, no, no, I’m countering you. No, you want to argue with me?

Speaker: I do not argue with you.

Mohanji: No, no, no, no, in this intellectual thing, I don’t normally engage. Because this is very simple. You’re talking about waking state mind, temporary, dwelling on relative stuff. Correct? Whether I connect with your mind, or you connect with my mind, it is two minds connecting. How long? How long will it connect? It has a duration, right? And this duration is already defined in that life. Some people stay connected longer, some people do not connect longer. Now we have three states. In dream state, you definitely cannot connect to that person. You say you are not sleeping because of another person. For example, you fell in love, all the time thinking about the lover. You don’t sleep, because sleep is not important. Thinking is important. That is not a dream state or a deep sleep state. That’s a waking state, extended waking state. Correct? In that mode, in that intensity, there is an influence between two people, for sure. There has to be connection.

Now second point you asked about is the devotee and God. In devotion, when it overflows, the devotee doesn’t exist. That’s exactly the thing I talked about Hanumanji, Hanumanji and Ram. Hanumanji had existence without Ram. His mind was filled with Ram and Ram has to come down because what Lord Krishna said, “My only weakness is my devotee. When somebody connects to me with heart and soul, I have to come.” That is a different thing. Then the devotee dissolves into the lord, bhakti yoga, height of bhakti yoga. That and two lovers’ relationship are different. That is why I said it’s different things we are talking about. We can argue about this forever. But if you understand this, ask me specifically what exactly you want to know.

Speaker: I want to know when there are two minds, if somebody can degrade another person from his own state.

Mohanji: Only if you allow it. That is why I said earlier, people talk about other people to me. When they start, I say, “Are you talking about this person? Keep this with yourself, you worked hard to get this information, I don’t want to know.” I prevent that information from entering my field so that I remain pure. This is our job. Imagine in your house, who will you welcome? Somebody who’s compatible. Do you think you’ll bring him in somebody who’s going to come and make a mess of the house? So it’s our choice to bring some people into our mind or their thoughts into our mind. It’s our choice. And we should keep our mind pure. Prevention is better than cure. It’s important. Nobody can just walk and make a mess, unless we permit it. It’s definitely our choice. You have another question, ask.

Q: The thing is that, what you’re saying, I agree with you about our house, but what I’m saying is that, is it possible to bring somebody to your own wish?

Mohanji: Why?

Speaker: I am asking.

Mohanji: We should not try. In fact, nope, I would like to see everybody as powerful as themselves, not as me. Because all the all the expressions you see here are independent creations, original, authentic, why should I expect anybody to be like me? I have all the weaknesses and strengths of everybody and they all have the same, I would like them to actualize into something higher, not become me. We shouldn’t even think that. That is what Hitler thought, “I make men in my own image or I destroy them.” That’s a “beautiful” theory.

Speaker: Most of the people want to be like you.

Mohanji: No, that’s ideological thinking. Somebody wrote to me, “I look at you as a perfect human being,” I said, you’re completely mistaken.

(Laughter)

I said, I have all the weaknesses and all the strengths of everybody. Because when you become not a one, one unit, you are everything, so you contain everything. What I mean to say is that we don’t have to have boundaries. First of all, we are not like that. We are not supposed to be in cages. Main cage is our own mind. Right? Our actualization is our birth right and you are actualized by birth. Only this mind factor, which is analysing and trying to assimilate, is delaying the process. Instead be natural, “I am fine.” And from this acceptance you have to grow to the highest level. That’s why true Masters create other Masters, the different Masters, not more followers. When you have more followers, it’s your burden. But if there are more Masters, it’s beauty in the world. True Masters should guide others to become completely fully expanded and fully like bright suns. So they’ll be brightness in the world, I believe this is the right path.

Q: So on how would you say one’s mother who has got attachment to the son, to relieve how you can separate and advise the mother not to have that attachment, so the son can progress further? How you can explain that?

Mohanji: You know, there are two things one is attachment, the other is ownership. Now you’re talking about ownership. As for attachment, look at every being, a bird or an animal or every being, every mother will have an attachment to the child. This is the way of nature, nature created that. Because this is part of nurturing. Now ownership is ignorance, ownership is part of it, “This child, I own this child.” Nobody owns anybody. So what happens? Through awareness, it doesn’t happen. Because after a while it should happen that the child grows up and then it’s on its own feet and things like that. And then if the child has to still support the parents, there should be freedom. The freedom should be there. If there’s no freedom, there’s no support. That’s why if the ownership becomes too much, ownership, possessiveness, control, binding, etc. happens, they’re put into old age homes. That’s why we have so many old age homes, because they don’t know what to do with parents. So they say, “I am busy, mother, I will come and see you when I have time.” The system is created in that way, because the whole education system has given insecurity to the world. Has the education system given freedom? It is not even teaching freedom. A true teaching is that a child is independent, individual, original, authentic that’s it, but we don’t allow the child to be like that. When I was in school, the teacher said I was retarded. Because the question, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” I answered, “I would like to be alone.” And teacher said, “This boy can’t come to study.” No, everybody wants to be an engineer, a doctor, a pilot, all sorts of things, I didn’t want to be anything. So this is the criteria, the benchmark. Well, that’s all very complicated to talk about because the whole system is moving in that direction. Yeah, but don’t confuse between ownership and attachment. See a child should be connected to mother, mother should be connected to a child that’s natural. But when you have ownership and possessiveness, it is unnatural. These two are different things. That leads to problems.

Mohanji: We have the Pooja, so shall we wind up?

Group: Thank you very much.

 

Transcribed by Kishore Mundanat
Proofread by Arvind Ananthan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Surrender and Pray to Sai Baba

 

What is the right method of worship? What is the right method of prayer?

These questions come up very often. Because today, if you see in the world of spirituality, things have become every transactional. You give something, expecting something in return. The essence and the purity of prayer has completely vanished. A true prayer is only a prayer of gratitude, where there are no words. It’s from the heart. Not articulated. If you want to articulate something, you articulate the highest brightness possible, remember that.

Today, in the time of Kali – in the Kali Yuga, everything is very fast. By the time you wake up, it’s almost night. So, we are moving at a speed which is uncontrollable. We don’t get enough time to sit down and meditate, to sit down and pray. First of all, what is essential today is to learn to accept life as it comes. This is also a prayer, a meditation. Accept things as it happens. Avoid resistance. Okay, this is happening now, let me handle it. This situation has come, let me handle it. These are all situations. We can make it a problem, or we can make it an opportunity. It is up to us; it’s up to our disposition. If we are positive, we’ll make every problem, every situation an opportunity, a possibility, a positive thing. Or we can look at everything as a problem. That is our mind-set. It is important to change our mind-set.

When you are connecting to Masters, especially someone as powerful as Sai Baba, first and foremost, do not expect or think that he does not know you. If you go there, he has called you. Without his calling, you can’t reach there. We must understand that it was not our decision to go to Sai Baba. There are numerous people in the world who do not know Sai Baba. And there are numerous people who are connecting as we talk. So, who made this possible? Not me or you. Sai Baba made this possible. If you are connected to Sai Baba, Baba facilitated it. He arranged it.

Then, what will you tell him? If he arranged your connection with Baba, Baba knows everything. You don’t have to tell him anything. Then, what can you tell him? “Thank you for receiving me. Thank you for having me. Thank you for accepting me. This is the right prayer.” That will solve everything. You’re also saying, “Now I have come to your house, whatever you give me is fine for me. My life is settled at your feet.” This is the right prayer. The right prayer is to say, “Thank you, I am fine at your feet. Whatever you desire, or whatever you wish for me is the right thing for me.” If that understanding is clear, all your pains, all your pleasures, you will surrender at Baba’s feet.

Surrender is not from the mind. Surrender is from the attitude of being one with the Supreme Consciousness. Surrender is spontaneous. Just like letting go makes it forgiveness. When you let go, it becomes forgiveness. Forgiveness is a mind game. You tend to forgive, like we talk about tolerance. Tolerance is from the ego. You tolerate another. That is an ego exercise. We should have nothing to do with tolerance, we accept everybody. We accept everything. But that doesn’t mean if something is harmful, we allow it, it is not so. We must make sure that we and our society should remain non-violent. This is our responsibility. If you belong to a community, you must ensure that you and the community remain non-violent. That has to be through discussions, through transfer of awareness and through orientation, not through punishments. Punishment comes last. If you cannot correct something through discussions and orientations, then comes punishment, not punishment first. This is very important to understand.

Whenever you are connected to any Master, whenever you are visiting a Master, do not think that the Master knows nothing. He might know much more than you know, including why a situation happened. Actually speaking, in the true path of spirituality, ‘why’ is not a good word. There is a cause; otherwise, there won’t be an effect. There is always a cause behind every effect. Accept it. When you resist the effect, the cause remains for a longer time. When you accept the effect, then the cause does not have its value anymore. This is the truth of existence, through perpetual acceptance of yourself.

We all have weaknesses. 7.5 billion people of the Earth all have weaknesses. Nobody has only strengths. This is sure. If somebody says I have no weaknesses, they are lying. Everybody has weaknesses. Everybody has strengths. We are all a mixture of weaknesses and strengths. Why don’t we accept our weaknesses? Why do we desire that we should only have strengths? Whenever we desire we should only have strengths, we are fighting with ourselves. We are resisting ourselves. Or we are not accepting a part of ourselves. And that part becomes a glaring pain in our life. What you have not accepted becomes a problem in your life. Instead, you accept, I have weaknesses, I have strengths. Both are fine, this is me. As this incarnation, I am all these.

Baba knows this. When you come to Baba, Baba understands. You are weaknesses and strengths put together. Baba is not looking at you only as strength. You don’t have to hide all your weaknesses from Baba. You tell Baba, this is me, you know it very well. Now, if something is not good in me, I request you to take it away. You leave it to Baba. Then don’t look back. You tell Baba, “Whatever you think is a hindrance to my path of liberation, take it away. I don’t need it. Let it be anything.” This could be painful when it’s removed because most of these things have become a habit. Habits have created comfort zones. And these habits and comfort zones have bound us. They have created patterns. We know it very well. But it’s okay. That’s how life is. So, allow Baba to work on it, and say take away whatever is not good for me. Take it away. This is a good prayer. Prayer of surrender. You’re not asking anything. You’re not requesting, you’re telling Baba, “I have decided to merge with you. You brought me here because without your permission I would not have come here. I would not have known you or met you or reached Shirdi.” Baba says, “If somebody steps on the soil of Shirdi, they become my responsibility.” Play that role very well. Accept that promise very well. Don’t take away yourself when you go. Leave it there. Leave yourself there.

When the mind is with the Master, you are with the Master. When your body is with the Master, there’s no guarantee you are with the Master. Your mind is elsewhere, that’s where you are. It’s not that you’re not visiting Shirdi or you are not in Shirdi, it doesn’t matter. If your mind is in Shirdi, you are in Shirdi. If your mind is with the Master, you are with the Master. If your mind is with alcohol, you are with alcohol. So where is your mind, that’s what you are. This is exactly the truth. So, release all your burdens at Baba’s feet and walk away. Now, what follows you, Baba is giving you that. That is to purify. Understand, Baba will not give you anything which is not good for you. The Tradition won’t do that. The Tradition of Liberation will not do that. If you’re surrendered completely, it will only give what is good for you. Your mind may not accept it because the mind is used to patterns, comfort zones, feeling good. But feeling good has no value on the Path of Liberation. Usually what the mind likes, what the mind loves may not be good sometimes. What you have to do, what is given to you, that’s the right thing to do. No resistance.

So, a true prayer is the prayer of gratitude. Humility is the result. When you are fully in gratitude, you’ll be very humble. Even if you are going to see Baba, you will go with a level of humility where you are receiving. This is how prostration is designed, prostration where your heart and your head comes in one line, in sublimation. That means your ego is fully surrendered at the feet of Baba. When your ego is fully surrendered, you are extremely receptive. That is why our temples are places of rejuvenation. They are places of transformation. Because, through the eyes, the mind gets rejuvenated. Through the ears, through the mantras, the mind gets rejuvenated. Through the smells and the fragrances, through the nose, the mind gets rejuvenated. Through the sandalwood paste, through the vibhuti and udi on the skin, mind gets rejuvenated. Through the prasad and teerth, through the tongue, the mind gets rejuvenated. When you prostrate, from the energy that you come in contact with at that sanctum sanctorum, the mind gets rejuvenated. When you circumambulate, you are soaking your aura in the pure energy of Baba, the mind gets rejuvenated, and the mind gets purified. When you give dakshina or donation, whenever you give money, fruits etc, that amounts to sacrifice. Again, purification of the mind, the mind gets rejuvenated.

When you go to a temple and when you come out of the temple, you are different. You are totally transformed; it’s not just a place of worship. These are places of transformation. Shirdi is a place of transformation. Vaishno Devi is a place of transformation. Sabarimala, all these great places are places of transformation. This is why thousands flow to these places, not just to get a few things happening in life, that’ll happen anyway.

If you are eligible, if you accept life, usually there’ll be no blockages. Blockages happen only when you resist life. Blockages of life are connected to resistance. Otherwise, there’ll be no blockages. Things will flow smoothly, everything will flow smoothly. Life will be good and when you’re able to accept sorrows, as much as you accept happiness, you will have a smooth existence because you are not afraid. In the path of Liberation, fear has no value. The antidote of fear is faith. If you have an overwhelming fear, that shows you are not in alignment. You’re not in alignment with the Guru, you’re not in alignment with yourself. So, when you feel a lot of fear, it is time that you reinvented your faith. Surrender everything. This fear is not mine, I leave it to you. That way, if you surrender, the Master takes over. Master can easily bring light and remove the darkness. You need to open your doors and windows for the light to enter you. Open your heart, faith enters, and grace enters. Where there is faith, there is grace. This is the right way. So, if you want to give something to Baba, give yourself. Say, “Baba, I belong to you, you take care of me.” He does.

Don’t go to Baba as you, you go to Baba as Baba. You have given yourself to Baba means you’ve become Baba. You are Sai Baba. Go there, give yourself and then come back empty. Leave everything there. Your whole life will blossom. If hardships are happening, if pains are happening, understand, Baba is reducing your lifetimes, the number of births. This is a big deal. How else will you reduce it? The usual karmic pattern is when you have a desire, you need fulfilment. Desire – fulfilment, desire – fulfilment. This is how life goes. And it is never ending because each pattern produces more desires.

How will you come out of it? How will you break the pattern? Baba. That’s the prayer, the prayer of gratitude. Thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for accepting. We may not know Baba, but Baba knows us. Never underestimate that. Baba knows our weaknesses very well, and Baba is not discriminating you because you have weaknesses. Because you have failures in life, Baba will not throw you out. Everything is okay. You are as you are. When you’ve come here, you’re part of the family. You have to be part of the family. That’s what Vittal Babaji said, “Aao beta.” That’s all he says. Even if people have done harm to you, when they come back, you receive them saying, “Come in, come in, aao beta – come my son.”

Masters will never say go away because someone harmed them. When somebody threw a stone at Baba, and he was bleeding, he said, “Injury is here, pain is there.” When you hurt a Master, when you speak ill about a Master, when your mind is contaminated because of others’ words, I always say, “Never look at the world, never see the world through your ears. You always see the world through your eyes. Then only you’ll see reality.” If your mind is contaminated because of others, they also take the burden of contamination. Just like purity, when you give purity, when you do annadan, when you give food and make other people happy, people of all species and everybody happy, you become rich. When you contaminate minds, you become poor. So, what you deliver to the world has a lot of impact on you. When you’re contaminating the minds of people, always remember, you’re taking their burdens also. You’re responsible. Have nothing to do with all this. Don’t go that way. Be pure, deliver purity. Always be steady with Sai Baba. Always be there, and Baba will take care of everything.

 

Transcribed by Tijana Sladoje
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

 

Surrender Matters

Dear all,

Mohanji has given the practical prayers to be in harmony with ourselves and others and pointed out the depth of the benefits of surrender. He explains possible misunderstanding of the word ‘surrender’, too.

Love,

BTW Team

Surrender purifies us completely

My Beloveds

            Surrender, is one of the words in human languages that is most misunderstood in usage. Surrendering to someone is a big hit on one’s ego. It diminishes one’s self-esteem. Having to surrender is considered as a weakness or a deficiency, in terrestrial terms, where ego decides actions.

While, in spiritual terms, this is a good thing. Man minus ego = God. So, surrender nullifies our ego and then the Godhood within us starts to shine. This is why we prostrate in temples and monasteries. When our head and heart come in one line, horizontally, ego is under control. When we bow down in reverence, we nullify our ego, at least temporarily. Bhakti or Devotion has a lot of value because it brings ego under control. Ignorance expands our ego while surrender brings it under control.

Bhakti or Devotion has a lot of value because it brings ego under control.

Traditionally, our ancestors used to practise some simple methods to maintain health and keep ego under control. Here are a few chants and their explanations.

When we wake up in the morning, after lying horizontally the whole night, our energy pattern in the body would have changed. Its frequency would have altered. While sleeping, the energies of our body has attained a tranquil, passive state. It is more latent energy. When, we wake up, we must give time for energies to start moving, preparing the body for action. In order to provide this time, they suggest lying down and look at the palm instead of jumping out of the bed and being vertical all of a sudden, which can affect the rhythm of the heart and adversely affect the meridians of our system. There is a mantra to ease our getting up. Look into the palm of your hands and chant ” Karagre vasate Lakshmi, Kara moole Sarastwati. Kara Madhya Sthitha Gowri, Prabhate Kara darsanam” This means, At the tip of our hands or fingers stays Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth. Lakshmi never stays constant at any place. Money changes hands. Fortunes change too. So, it always stays at the tip of our fingers. Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge stays at the opposite side, that is, the root of our palm near the wrist. Acquired knowledge stays with us till we die. It is more stable in terrestrial terms. In the middle stays Goddess Parvati, the kindness incarnate, the mother. She balances the knowledge and action. She enhances wisdom. With this knowledge, if you see your hands and remember the pattern of our existence, it will give sufficient time for the latent energy to move in an even fashion within as well as give us a balanced outlook. It also enhances our commitment to selfless work. It activates kindness and reverence within us. This also is a reminder that it is the god energy in us that makes things happen in our life. This is also meant to nullify our ego and surrender to the supreme.

Then we sit up in our bed. Our body has become vertical from horizontal. Energy has started moving differently. Then, we need to earth it off as we were lying horizontal before. In order to achieve that, we chant “Samudra Vasane – Paadasparsam Kshamaswame” and we bend down and touch the ground with our right palm, which is the opposite side of where our heart is. This earths the excess energy which we accumulated or conglomerated during our sleep and saves our heart as well. This is why we earth the energy through the right hand. Then we are ready for the day.

There is also one version of the same hymn where it says that Lord Krishna stays in the middle of the palm (Kara Madhye tu Govinda:). Well, He is the Guru of the Universe. If He stays in the middle of the palm, we can only function with total equanimity and detachment. He has blessed us with the Great Bhagawad Gita and if we follow His teachings and function with detachment, we attain liberation.

Morning chant, to balance our energies and frequencies. Lying down, look at the palm and chant, “At the tip of our hands or fingers stays Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth. Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge stays at the the root of our palm near the wrist. In the middle stays Goddess Parvati, the kindness incarnate, the mother.”

Then we sit up for a few seconds in our bed before we stand on our feet. This is good as it helps the body rhythm and the flow of prana through our meridians. When the feet touches the ground, we pray “Samudra Vasane Devi, Parvata Sthana mandale, Vishnu Patni Namastubhyam, Padasparsam Kshamaswame”. This prayer is to the Goddess which we call Earth, even though we address it to the wife of Lord Vishnu, Goddess Lakshmi. “One who pervades the water and mountains, or One whose body is the oceans and mountains, I prostrate to the Goddess and please forgive me, as I step on you or tread on you.” This is reverence to the mother Earth. If we have such reverence to the mother Earth, we will never be insensitive towards her and destroy her. So, we thus seek her permission to walk on her for our purpose. We remain in gratitude. This time also gives our body an easy pace between horizontal to semi vertical and totally vertical. It helps to keep our energies even and well circulated. It maintains our meridians.We are mentioning earth and water, the basic two elements in our body. Samudra (ocean) represents the water element in us which is regulated by our hara chakra. And Parvata (mountain) represents the earth element as well as potential for the highest elevation in us – the kundalini energy. Hence this is also invocation for both the elements, mother kundalini and also the other elements in us, with the prayer to assist us as we move through the day. If kundalini energy inspires us, wisdom will flow. It also says be conscious right when you wake up until you sleep. And always live on prayers and surrender.

Sit up and chant, “One who pervades the water and mountains, or One whose body is the oceans and mountains, I prostrate to the Goddess and please forgive me, as I step on you or tread on you.” This is reverence to the mother Earth.

Then we stand up, looking towards the rising sun in the east, remembering Lord Vishnu or His Avatar, Lord Krishna, the maintainer of the universe, and chant  – “Kaayena Vaacha, Manasendriyaiva, Buddhyatmanaavat, Prakrite Swabhavaat, Karomi Yadyat, Sakalam Parasmai, Sri Naarayanaayeti Samarpayaami”. This means, Whatever I perform today, with my body, mind, intellect, senses, speech, my nature and character, I surrender everything at the Lotus feet of the Lord Narayana.” Narayana means the destination of man or the Supreme Father. Everything came out of Him and will merge back into Him. So, this prayer is to the Supreme Lord. When we start our day with this chant, and this understanding as well as surrender, we will accept all that happens that day with equanimity and poise and our desires or expectations will be totally under control. Even if things do not happen as we expected, we will not be perturbed and will start to accept it as the Will of Lord Narayana.

Then, stand up turning to the sun and chant, “Whatever I perform today, with my body, mind, intellect, senses, speech, my nature and character, I surrender everything at the Lotus feet of the Supreme.”

Then, we conclude our day with the surrender mantra, requesting complete forgiveness for all our actions, thoughts,and words. “Kara charana Kritam Va, Kayacham Karmacham Va, Shravana Nayanacham Va, Manasam Vaaparadham, Vihitam Avihitam va, Sarvametat Kshamaswa, Jaya Jaya Karunabdhe, Sri Mahadeva Shambho, Sri Sai Natha Sambho.” This is the final prayer before we go to bed. It says, Whatever I performed today, with my organs of action such as hands and legs, organs of perception including senses, mind and intellect, all that I performed as per your wishes or against it, due to my ignorance and non-understanding, Oh Lord, please forgive everything, please forgive me, my supreme Lord Shiva, My Lord, Sai Baba. (They are one)

End your day with surrender mantra, “Whatever I performed today, with my organs of action such as hands and legs, organs of perception including senses, mind and intellect, all that I performed as per your wishes or against it, due to my ignorance and non-understanding, Oh Lord, please forgive everything, please forgive me, my supreme Lord.”

As we surrender all that happened that day at the feet of the Supreme Lord, from where everything originated and perpetually dissolves, we become free from all bondage. We become detached from all our thoughts, words and action. Thus, Surrender purifies us completely. Also, we are surrendering all our activities of the day at the feet of Lord Vishnu who maintains and supports existence. He is the one who maintains creation. Preservation is His job. 🙂 And at the night, we are laying ourselves at the feet of Lord Shiva, the dissolver.  He dissolves existence. He merges us with our creator. Each night, we are re-born, as we dissolve our identities during deep sleep and regain it as we wake up. So, we are requesting the lord of dissolution to forgive everything and help us dissolve smoothly into emptiness and provide us a blissful sleep. So, readers may kindly note that in the morning, we are requesting for continuity in thoughts, words and action so that all that we perform on that day bear positive results and in the night, we are requesting forgiveness which helps smooth dissolution into the lap of the Almighty without terrestrial entanglements. Those who carry hatreds and heaviness of hearts, may kindly be aware of this. One prayer goes to Lord Vishnu and the other to Lord Shiva. Both are essentially one. Both are expressions of one Parabrahma.

Surrender in spiritual sense is a great thing. It helps liberation from the birth-death cycle. The same method can be followed by people who follow any faith of their choice. The main thing is the attitude of surrender, to your chosen deity  or Master or Prophet and leave all ownerships at His feet. He does everything. The whole existence belongs to Him. (He does not mean a male. Gender has no value here. It can be the Supreme Energy which is formless, genderless.)

Surrender in spiritual sense is a great thing. It helps liberation from the birth-death cycle. The same method can be followed by people who follow any faith of their choice.

Love You Infinitely

M