Focus on Purpose not People

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spaces

Dear friends, this is Mohanji.

Welcome to another podcast. I hope you’re doing well and you’re enjoying the podcasts. We would like to have your comments and suggestions, and I hope you are able to share it with others as well if you liked it.

So, today we talk about spaces. What is space? Space is a facility that we have for experiencing our existence. All of us have it; all beings have it. Everybody has their space, everybody has their own set of experiences, and they have their own set of expressions. So, experiences, expressions, and space, they are all interconnected; you need to have space, you need to have an environment to experience and express. Then where is the problem? That’s when we try to encroach into another person’s space, or when we believe that the other space also should be ours, or the other person need not have that space. In other words, if you think, another person’s space is not significant, then we have conflict, and that’s what we see in the world today. Every country or each country is trying to gather or acquire spaces from other countries, and then they have a conflict. Most of the wars are created like that. So, we have to be very careful when we look at spaces or when we think in our mind about spaces. We must accept that every being has an equal right for their space. And every being has their space, and we respect it. So, if you respect the space of everybody; it can be called your own privacy zone; it can be called your own area of activity. Whatever space you have as your own, that space has to be respected.

And eventually, at the end of the time, at the end of our life, how much space do you need? Six-foot space. So that’s all a human being needs; a person needs only six-foot. If you are very tall, probably eight foot. That’s it. We don’t need a lot of space that way. So, we need to understand, we need to be modest. And whatever space we have, be happy. You must be happy that we have space. It’s gifted, God-given, be thankful, be grateful. And at the same time, don’t ever think that you own this space forever, because when you die, as I said earlier, all you need is about six-foot land, that’s it.

So, we should not be too proud of our spaces, nor should we be disrespectful of our spaces. We should appreciate that we have this space. We have all the people who have their own spaces, and we respect everybody’s spaces, respect our space so that we have a great coexistence in this world. This is what we need. And the same goes to all the beings of nature – a tiger, a lion, a deer, a rabbit, a snake, a monkey; everybody has their space and their spaces belong to them, and it should; we should not encroach into that, as well. Because when we encroach into those spaces, they have to come into our spaces. That’s what we see when the wild animals encroach into the city, which we have seen in the COVID-19 times when human beings are all indoors and animals and other beings are roaming around free, they’re all walking around. So, this means that we have occupied their spaces and we have encroached into their spaces. So, when they get a chance they come inside, and they are occupying our spaces, so this is exactly how it works.

 

So what is ours legitimately, we must use, we can use, but we should not encroach into anybody’s space, and we should not kill a being, or disturb a being, because we are greedy to keep our space. We should allow everybody to have their space. We have no right to disturb any being. While we are on Earth, we should have a peaceful existence, we should be peaceful inside, and we should also make sure every being is peaceful, all beings are peaceful. So, this way, we can have a perfect coexistence.

I leave this thought with you. Spaces are very important to remember, and also the spaces that we use, and the spaces that others have, we should respect everything. We should respect our space; we should respect everybody’s spaces. And then we have a great coexistence.

I love you, and I leave this thought with you on your plate. Let me know what you think about it, this is just to give you certain thoughts to digest, to ponder. You know, this whole podcast idea is not to teach any lessons or give any lessons, it’s basically to give certain thoughts, so that you can think about it and you can talk about it, you can discuss it, you can share. This is what I would like you to do so that it improves you, it gives you more energy and it gives you more stability because many times we don’t think about it. Just like I said, why do wild animals encroach into our spaces and we kill them sometimes, we have seen that. Why do they do that? It is because we have encroached into their spaces; that’s why they don’t have spaces. So, these small things which if you can ponder and you can discuss with your children; it might be a good idea, they may start thinking, ‘Hey, we should not touch other’s spaces, while we have full right to occupy our space.’ And our space is absolutely as important as others have their own spaces and that’s important. So, we have to understand that everything is important, and we should keep respect, we should respect everybody’s space. I leave you with this thought. Thank you very much for listening and see you next time.

Lots of love. This is Mohanji.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Health

Hello, my friends! This is Mohanji.

Hope you’re enjoying the podcast. I am glad you are liking them and you are sharing your thoughts about the podcast with us. You’re also sharing it with your friends. Thank you very much. Now, recently I did a podcast on the subject of health or living consciously. We will talk more about living consciously later, but the same subject, focusing on health, I would like to discuss today.

What is health? Health is a kind of stability. Health is alignment; health is feeling good where everything is fine, our systems are fine. This is more or less easy in our youth (when we are young) in our 20s and 30s. When we move further in life, it becomes a struggle. If we have taken care of our body well during our younger days, then the older days also will be fine, because the foundation will be good. If the foundation is good, the building is good. So, that’s where we start.

Health is not only the health of our body. It is physical health, mental health, emotional health, intellectual health; and health of the environment, the health of nature, the health of everything around us. This means everything around us should be healthy for us to be healthy. If the air is not healthy, we will be sick. If water is not healthy, we will have a problem. If the environment is unhealthy, we will fall sick.

Ayurveda says this very clearly. For having a great youthfulness, you must go to bed at 9 o’clock (9 pm). 9 pm to midnight if you sleep well, you will remain youthful. The body likes it. Then if you wake up at 4 am or after 3 am; 3 to 6 is the Brahma Muhurtha, the purest time; if you are able to wake up or get up and start your day after 3 am anytime (earlier the better) then you will have stable mental health; it means nothing can affect you. So if you sleep early, which is at 9 and if you wake up early which is at 4 or before, you will be stable, physically and mentally. This is what the Ayurveda, the science of being stable and healthy says. This is a good thought to start with.

Then we have various situations where we have late nights and parties and stuff, but always remember, our body works almost like the sun. Let’s say at 6 o’clock the sun rises and the sun sets at 6 o’clock. Usually, it is like that in tropical countries, but in the north and the south it’s slightly different, but if you make a balance – 6 am to 6 pm, then your body will be very happy because you are not eating indiscriminately; you’re not eating at odd hours. And if you look, even the animals, they don’t eat after sunset; we can see that. Birds retire, rest after a full day of roaming around for food etc. They know very well that their whole body constitution is aligned to the sun. This is another thing.

Now, about psychological health; the mental health. We must stay away from negative stuff to be stable. It means some people are always negative, tamasic, lazy, indulging in materials of intoxication, and stuff like that. These are the things which totally imbalances our system, it really, imbalances us. So, what we have to do is we need to avoid them. We need to stay away from them. Then we start working on ourselves, as I said, sleep at 9, go to bed at 9 o’clock, and you wake up at 3 am. The Early Birds Club is made with that system in mind. The very basics of the Early Birds Club are for people to wake up and become quality, powerful, purposeful citizens of the world; that’s the idea. Then there’s a saying that if somebody wakes up early and starts their day at 4 am, they can never be defeated on Earth because their mind would be very strong. But you got to do it repeatedly and with the determination. That means, not some days, all days, all the time, every time, and every day. This is very important.

 

Once you start having a stable day, that’s where you begin. This is applicable for every age group, not small children, but it doesn’t have to be only after a certain age; it is good for everybody. This is something which you can start and also control food habits. Then, drink a lot of water. When you have a lot of water, like water therapy we talk about; early in the morning when you wake up, if you have a litre of water, it really flushes the system clean. This is very good. Likewise, every time after you sleep when you get up, you should have water because the body would be dehydrated; so water will help. After every bath, you should have water, water will help. Taking bath is very important, at least twice a day, when you get up in the morning and then it is better after you brush your teeth to wash your body, even if you cannot wash your head.

Ayurveda system says that you should take a bath of the body first before you pour water on the head. So, a shower concept of pouring the water directly on the head is not so healthy. So, if you first bathe your body, neck and down, and then the face, then the head, that is the right way to take a bath. Then you can dry first the head, then the body, that’s the way to go. So, that it really balances the body; doesn’t create an imbalance. The water to be used for taking baths should be of the temperature of the place that is what they say, the same temperature, room temperature. That is healthy water if possible, but sometimes it’s very cold and then you can’t take bath in that water; so it’s okay to warm it up to suit your body, that’s fine. So, that’s about bathing. And immediately after taking a bath, you should drink water as well to avoid dehydration. So, water has a lot of value. Our every cell is connected to water; our body needs a lot of water. And if you drink a lot of water, your system will remain clean.

Then avoid all the food, which is of violence in nature, because that energetically affects the body. When you eat food, which is connected to spilt blood; if that food had a painful death, it may affect your body. So, avoid food, which had violence behind it, or agony behind it. That will help you.

If you wake up early and if you drink a lot of water; if you take baths twice a day and if you follow pranayamas and yoga exercises, and you have a healthy lifestyle with no intoxications; with a lot of awareness about the environment, means we should care for the environment; environmental health is important, then I think we will have physical, mental and environmental health.

So with this thought, I will leave you now. This is just some aspects of health; we’ll talk more about it, whenever possible. This could probably leave some thoughts about the right methods for you. The other side is our own laziness, so we should be aware of it. And it is said that the distance between success and failure is the time when you wake up and you get up. That’s what they say. That means, as soon as you wake up, if you’re ready to get up, you’re a successful person. If you wake up, and then you take a long time to get up, that means there is a room for failure in life. Failure means disappointments and depressions in life. So, always be ready to get up when you wake up. Don’t lie on the bed thinking what else to do now. So, this is exactly what makes you successful.

I wish you great success in life. We’ll walk together. And may you shine bright like the sun because the world needs the light.

Lots of love, this is Mohanji.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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