Mohanji is a spiritual Master whose awakening was graced by Sai Baba of Shirdi. He guides many on the path and works tirelessly to spread Baba’s teachings. Mohanji talks about feeling Baba’s presence within oneself and emphasizes on our ultimate aim of self-realization.
If you have taken a life, concentrate on one thing – make sure that you do not come back. You are totally dissolved – body, mind, intellect, ego, spirit – all the memories, all the desires, all the things which probably bind you to earth – dissolve. Total dissolution happens. You become totally still and stable. Then you are Baba. You are connected to Baba. You are Baba. You have nothing to tell the world because when you are totally still and contented, there is nothing to tell the world.
I will tell you about my experience. In my sadhana, when I was practising, I used to practice very intensely and I never used to tell my practice to the world. As I said in one of the earlier videos, my practice was connecting to myself. So, basically, for all of us, we have to explore ourselves. One point – “Tat Tvam Asi” – You Are That. In that point, first, you contemplate – ‘manana’ – contemplate within, deep within, and find yourself in every aspect. You will find yourself in a thousand, or ten thousand aspects, or a million aspects. Find all that and understand they are all different aspects of one Consciousness. Then you assimilate them. It took about 5 – 6 years for me.
Every day from 3 am to 8 am, I used to sit and connect to myself. I used to connect to my spine. I used to assimilate myself. Eventually, I could go deep and deep into the world of noises, the core of noises, which is silence. We are in a world of noises, and we are contributing to the world of noises every moment. But there is a source for all these noises. Where have these noises come from? – Absolute silence. So you need to get back to the original source, the core, and that’s silence.
When you go deeper and deeper into the core of noises, you will finally reach the world of silence, where there are no noises. All the noises like waves come out of it, and they go back to it and you are stillness. It took time for me to settle down, and so many things broke up at that time: physically, emotionally, intellectually, all the concepts broke, so many things broke. At that time it’s not very comfortable, because actually, we are a bundle of sounds, noises, a bundle of concepts, bundle of desires, a bundle of phobias and fears, bundle of so many things… But we have to completely accept them, leave them alone, and then they go away, and finally, you’re settled in silence. After a while, when you are settled in silence and you are fully in that mode, you feel oneness with every Master.
Then there is no Sai Baba separate from you. We are one with him. I’m not saying, “I am Sai Baba.” Sai Baba is an incarnation whom we call Sai Baba. We don’t even know his name. We don’t know where he came from, and it doesn’t matter. Because, as far as a Saint, a powerful Avadhoota or Avatar is concerned, his delivery, what he delivered to this world and what he is delivering to this world, is the only value. That’s about it. Because where he was born, who were his parents, who were his brother/sister, has no value, because that’s all connected to an incarnation. It’s not the incarnation we are talking about. It’s the contribution we are talking about.
So the contribution has value. The contribution is what we see today. Why we are talking today is because of his contribution. He unified all of us. He made a Sai Baba family. That’s more important. That’s the most relevant thing in Sai Baba’s contribution. That means he united all the people, all of us, beyond caste, creed, country, culture, and colour. That is the value. That exactly is the value. That is his contribution. That’s what we connect to.
When you are in total stillness, total silence, you connect to that aspect of Baba, where the only purpose of his incarnation is representing the Supreme Consciousness on Earth. That is the purpose of his incarnation, and you connect to that.
When you connect to that, everything else becomes insignificant – where he was living, where he was born, where he left his body… it’s all insignificant. Shirdi becomes a point of contact, a connecting point. The body of Baba, the film, the image that we connect to, that becomes a kind of the point of contact, a reference point, where you only see Consciousness – pure brightness, brighter than a million suns. That is brightness, and that becomes you. You become that.
In this whole drama of life, we have to be in that stillness aspect. When you see all these noises, when you experience all these noises, you need to go into the core, that stillness, from which all these have come. That’s where you find Baba. That’s the only place where you really, really find Baba.
Not in places, not in images, not in any aspect which is seemingly visual. It’s not that. You have to feel the energy, you have to feel within, and then you realise that you and Baba are one. One person asked me in an interview, he asked me a question “If you are dying tonight, what will be the last thing you would do?” I said, “I’ll sleep”. That’s all you can do. Actually, the whole idea that we have to do so many things itself is a mirage. It’s an illusion.
It’s happening through us. When you’re totally surrendered to Baba, whatever is happening through us, that’s the reality. Just surrender. Just do what you have to do in this world, without expecting anything. Expectations are the reason for disappointments. When we have too many expectations, we will have too many disappointments.
So, expectations have to be put in its place, and we do our job with pure intention, with clarity, with surrender. And then we know that we are one with this Consciousness called Sai Baba. And that’s powerful, unfathomable, tangible, and real. Then when you go to Shirdi you may not even have to enter the Dvarkamai or enter Samadhi, but you will feel Baba right there.
Even if you don’t go to Shirdi, if you think about Shirdi, or think about Sai Baba, you will get the same stillness inside, which is Baba – who needed nothing from Earth, who needed nothing from anybody. Whatever he collected, he gave away the same day. That means He always remained empty. Even a thought comes in, goes out. That means the mind is empty. No information stays, intellect is empty. No ownership, the ego is empty. Your whole unit is empty.
That’s power, and that’s exactly what is SAI BABA.
Depression. It’s a very common subject. We hear that very often in the modern days. That has a lot to do with the way we live and the way we think, the way we interact with the world outside. And grossly speaking – expectations. Expectations are the root cause of most of the sorrows. The more expectations we have, we are prone to more disappointments.
So, how is depression happening? It’s to do with our interaction with the world outside, during the waking state. We have a gross body, and we have a subtle body and we have a causal body. We have the gross body, which is the tangible, physical body, which is prone to various wears and tears and various situations. And we identify ourselves with this gross body; people identify us with this gross body. But we have a subtle body, which is basically the body that experiences, using the gross body and the senses, which consists of the mind, intellect, ego, most of the koshas, the sheets, etc. So, that’s the subtle body. And then we have a causal body, which is not even experiencing anything; but it helps the subtle body and the gross body to experience. But it is not connected to any of these, so it’s not affected. The causal body is not affected, ever.
When we interact with the world outside, we usually interact with a lot of expectations; our positioning, our likes and dislikes, which are controlled by the patterns, our disposition, our behavioural patterns, our character, our constitution. All these are kind of orchestrated by our inclinations and desires. So, when we move in the world outside, we move with a lot of baggage such as social positioning, education, and various aspects that determines or decides our position in the world; we carry this burden.
When disappointments happen many times, we call that a failure. We call ourselves a failure. Sometimes, society calls people losers, brands them. And many people cannot handle it. They can’t handle failures; they can’t handle expectations. When that happens, they have great disappointments. Big anxiety happens in life. We can see in children, the examination time anxieties. Which questions will come? What will I answer? Will I be able to perform? All these kinds of things. And this is more or less everyday feelings, all these are everyday feelings, you don’t have an escape.
So, what is the root cause of depression? Unfulfilled expectations caused by patterns. And it gets repeated, it keeps repeating. And our dependency on people, places, gadgets, all these keeps us bound to the world outside. We have a great world inside which is free – an unbound world; the causal world. And this world is your refuge, that’s a good place to settle down. So that helps us to stay away from depression. The world that is stable, constant, unaffected from anything outside, even inside, that’s the right world to settle down.
So, how do we come out of depression? Start walking inside. Start connecting more and more to the inner world. First, as I said, the gross external world, which we are dependent on during waking hours which consists of materials, people, objects, visible world, a world of vision, a world of sounds; this is one aspect. Second is the inner world, which is the world which processes all these experiences, which is also a seat of memories, impressions, and it provokes or it displays the character, constitution and all those things; that is the subtle world, the inner world. And then we have the causal world which is activating all the other worlds. So, if we have that clarity, we understand that the people, the places, the time, the materials outside are applicable or enjoyable only when we are awake, and that’s not permanent. They all come, they go. We can watch them, we can witness them as they are, just like a feature film. We are watching it, we are experiencing it, but we are not participating in it. We can do that. We are fully involved in it but without expectations. If you involve with anything without expectations, immediately you will feel a great difference.
Life brings us to situations. Destiny brings us to situations. And that’s more or less inevitable, you don’t have control. Each time, each situation, each interaction, each experience; we don’t have really much control. Let it be. No problem. And inner world brings forth many, many experiences such as dreams, desires, thoughts; so many things. Let it be, let it be, no problem. So where is the problem? When we have ownership on it. When we say, ‘I do it. I am responsible. I own’. That’s where the whole burden comes. If you think or if you understand you have no control on situations, and it’s happening in front of you, inside you, and you are just an actor, you’re playing the role, and you’re having the corresponding experiences, and you enjoy it, whether it is good or bad, doesn’t matter, enjoy it; then each experience, they will come and go, time takes them away. Time brings the picture, scene, scenario, and time takes it away, whatever time brings, time removes.
So, you’re actually witnessing and watching the show, without any baggage from the past, you’re not carrying any remnants, even memories, which are not so essential, you can remember sometimes but not with attachment. Keep moving. Let it move. That way, you can stay away from states of depression. If expectations are reduced through awareness, (major awareness is everything moves on, everything passes), if we handle life with that understanding, with that awareness, with that attitude, we will not have too much of depression.
Another thing I have experienced myself is the judgment of people. People judge you whether you like it or not, they have opinions about you. And sometimes they go to the extreme, such as character assassination big-time, scandalizing, character assassination, gossiping. And that if you believe, or if you endorse, you’ll suffer. That’s the only time you’ll suffer. Understand that people are people, they may have full view, partial view, no view; they may have their own opinions as per their character, as per their constitution. And actually speaking, we have nothing to do with it.
But this awareness should be constant. While we are experiencing the blows from society, we may not remember all this, we will feel miserable because that’s exactly what they want us to feel. They want to destroy us. Due to whatever reason, it could be jealousy, it could be anger, it could be hatred, it could be revenge, whatever, it doesn’t matter. But they have decided to put us down or pull us down. What do we do? Again witness. What time brings, time takes away. The cruelty that the society inflicts on us, we got to really watch and let go. This is because if you interact, it aggravates more inside you than outside. When you take it in, it makes you suffer more than what’s happening in the outside world. The effect is terrible. So, you should let it go, let it happen, let it finish.
There must be a cause behind all this, as I said earlier, it could be jealousy, anger, hatred, revenge, anything; let anything be the cause, we are not involved. It’s not something which we created. So, something which we have not created, we are not responsible for. If the society decides to harm you in this way, I’m not telling you to be passive. I’m telling you to witness it, and step aside as much as you can or lie low until the storm is over. Stay safe. When I say safe, it’s inner safety, don’t expose it too much. When people talk bad about people, I always say, I don’t want to know. I do not want to know. Why should I bring contamination into my space? We have that option.
So, social pressure, social insecurities, social dependencies or their opinions; all those things are not important. We got to understand that we are unique. We will live our lives in a unique way as we are created. We are unique specimens. And we have the right to do that. I only talk about violence as avoidable. We should not endorse, engage and sponsor violence. Violence is not good because it hurts inside, more than outside. And consistent, continuous violence makes us insensitive, and to become sensitive, it takes a long time. So, we got to live sensibly, sensitively and consciously.
So, if we start accepting ourselves with all our weaknesses and strengths, there won’t be much depression. If we constantly reject, resist, and we constantly punish ourselves for anything happening around, thinking that we are responsible, instead of time being irresponsible; again, we will have depression. This is not something which we consciously do; it’s a pattern at work. So, how do you change the pattern? Have nothing to do with it. That means, watch, witness, let go. And you be yourself fully, settle down yourself fully. Spend more time to connect to yourself. Spend more time to be within. Like that, we can come out of states of depression and even prevent it.
I’ll leave you with these thoughts. Have a great day and a great week ahead.
Mohanji: Welcome to Mohanji Speaks. These are answers to questions from listeners. Thank you for sending them. Keep sending them. I will try to answer them as best as I can.
Speaker: This is part two of the podcast series of a question from a listener on unconditional love.
Mohanji: Unconditional love is something which you’ve got to feel, where you are able to love everybody, everything, like a mother to the child, mother of any species to its children. How deep is the bonding, how much love, with no expectations? And if you look at the animal kingdom. Their love is far more unconditional than the human kingdom. A mother nurtures a child, just to empower the child to lead an independent life. After a while, the child goes away.
You look at the birds, the mother brings food, nurtures the birds. As soon as its wings become powerful to take the flight, the bird goes away when it doesn’t know the mother or father, it becomes independent. So, the animal kingdom, the birds, the animals, all those beings in nature, they just nurture and empower the children and leave them, then probably there’s no connection even.
But in the human kingdom, we put a lot of expectations, which makes a relationship ugly – ownerships, controls, expectations, suffocation, disappointment. Then anger, hatred, jealousy, all sorts of things. This makes human life miserable. We don’t have to be miserable. We can be free.
Speaker: Here, Mohanji makes a really good point about freedom.
Mohanji: If our expectations are less in the world we are free. Fewer expectations, less disappointment; that is freedom. If you really want to know the freedom, you got to experience freedom from the mind and the senses, not the freedom of the mind and senses. It’s freedom FROM the mind and senses. It means, you’re happy with everything, but you’re not craving for anything. Freedom. So, this is what I would like to talk about; unconditional love. We can discuss much more about unconditional love in various aspects. But I think this is something which you got to experience not theoretically, practically.
Speaker: But to add on to that, and going a bit further, people are interested in how does a master’s love operate?
Mohanji: A Master, Master means what? Mastery. Mastery over what? Mastery over life. Life is a conglomeration of various things, inclinations and desires primarily. And this gives the flavour of existence, everybody’s existence. A tiger’s life, a lion’s life, a human life, take every life; it has its specific flavour of existence; specific method, specific way, inclinations tendencies, desires. They all have distinctions, so each species has it, and in human beings, we see everything, all sorts of desires, all sorts of inclinations. So, a master is somebody who has mastered this pull and push of desires, inclinations and tendencies. He has taken steps, well beyond the mind, well beyond senses, well beyond likes and dislikes, karmic bindings.
So, such a person is pretty tranquil, equanimous. He looks at everything with equanimity. He loves unconditionally. He lives for the world. He has not much personal interest. Of course, he would like to eat food and sleep and do whatever. But that’s not the driving force. The major driving force of his existence is to serve the world unconditionally, without expecting. Mastery is mastery over your mind, intellect and the ego. You’re going beyond these things, their craving is quenched; craving of mind – emotions, craving of intellect – information, craving of ego – ownerships. These three things are in control. Ownership or no ownership – it’s fine, me and mine – no value, likes and dislikes – quiet. Such a person is a master, then what kind of love can he give forth – only as himself. He looks at everybody as himself. He sees only the world as himself.
We all see the world as ourselves, but we put our flavour to the world, we see the world as we are. Master sees the world as it is. That’s the difference.
When you put your flavour, your own likes and dislikes, karmic combination, constitution onto the world; it’s like wearing a glass, which has colour. Wearing a glass which is yellow, would make everything look yellow. If it’s red, everything is red because you’re wearing such a glass. That’s how our life is. A karmic being lives like that. When you have gone beyond the control of your senses and mind, when I say mind it also includes intellect and ego, then there’s no colour. When you cross over there’s no colour. You’re looking at the world as it is. So, you’re only seeing the truth and you will not judge, you will not criticize, you will not manipulate, analyze, you just accept as it is, everything is as it is. Everything is as it is always.
So, you’re pretty free. You are very free. When you experience freedom and that is exactly what you see in the world. You won’t sit down and judge people, you won’t criticize, character assassinate, gossip, you will do nothing, you just accept everything as it is. When you start accepting life as it is, the world as it is, inside as it is, yourself as it is, there are no conflicts. There is total freedom.
So, a Master looks at the world with total freedom, because he is walking freedom. That’s why many times, a conditioned society cannot understand a Master, why he behaves in a certain way, why he has certain opinions because society has kept itself or society functions itself conditionally in two dimensions. There’s a bigger third dimension, which is very difficult to see, the karmic dimension of every individual, which is from the time of birth, till the time of death that runs the show. Time-space situations are provided for experiences to happen. Who controls this? The karmic flow, sitting on linear time manifests it, we experience it, we keep the memory, and we kind of get involved in it, the role plays of life, the involvement in activities of life, which makes us feel that we are the doer. That’s an illusion. Actually, things are happening. And we are participating. Instead, we feel we are doing it, the ownership of action. It is a grand illusion. And if you dive into the depth of it, you will be surprised how much of an illusion we are holding every moment, how much we are struggling to maintain our name, fame and position in the world. We will be surprised to see; we need to contemplate. We need to understand. When we go deeper and deeper and deeper, and we realize, “Oh, this is the world where I’ve been foolishly chasing something external by ignoring what actually I am, what is internal.” That’s the time when you realize, “Oh My God, I wasted a lot of time on paltry pleasures, patterns, and they were running the life, they were running the show.” Patterns were running the show repeatedly, and we were pretty much endorsing it. We will realize all that. We pretty much endorse our patterns. If some pattern is disturbed, we become very disturbed. But that’s the very thing, which chains us, we start loving. That’s the irony of existence. The basic thing that chains us are our patterns, our inclinations tendencies, that’s what we entertain. We fight to keep it. We don’t allow it to be broken. And that’s exactly what should go to connect yourself, you are not your patterns. You’re not your patterns, you’re not your inclinations and tendencies. You’re not your desires, they all come and go. They don’t stay. So, once you understand that, just imagine your freedom. When a master has understood this, that is what is mastery. He has understood life, he has understood the patterns, he has understood the likes and dislikes, inclinations, all those things. When he has become freedom – when you become something, how do you look at the world? As you are, right. So, he has recognized what is real freedom. He sees the world as freedom. Acceptance happens. So, he accepts everybody as they are, not as he wants them to be. That is their job. If a person wants to evolve beyond their mind, a Master is available, as a benchmark. But Master never says “Become me.” What will a Master say? I’m available, like a mirror, you can look at me and find yourself.
Speaker: This concludes part two of the three-part podcast series on unconditional love, which is based on a question from a listener. Do keep your suggestions for topics coming in, send them to podcast@mohanji.org. And we hope you enjoyed this. And the next and final episode of the three-part series will be coming out very soon. Have a good day.
I used to do podcasting many years ago when I was in Dubai in the mid-2000s. The podcasts were called, ‘Mohan’s World.’ It was in a studio, run by a man called Peter Hall. It was quite a cozy and comfortable makeshift studio, in a car shed. In the podcasts, I used to talk about something; (it was) one show every week. There were a lot of listeners from many parts of the world. People used to connect to me, talk to me, that is, and communicate with me.
This was the period before Facebook started and YouTube had just begun. There were much communication and many interactions (through the podcasts). When I stopped it, many people complained saying that we want it back! Due to various reasons, many years passed by and I couldn’t really put myself into a position where I could have steady communication. Now we are attempting to start a kind of communication, directly, from me to you. This is an attempt to connect using the waves of sound.
I like the radio. Radio has its charm. We are in the world of no visuals. Of all our senses, the one that consumes the most energy are the eyes. So I like the idea that we can close our eyes and listen, and it really makes sense to me. I like it. A type of communication, where you cannot see my face but you can only hear my voice and you accept my sound as it comes, and you remain as you are, at that point in time.
We will try to do one podcast a week, like I used to do earlier or if possible more. During this time of Corona, we have more time and I’m in one location, and so we will try to do more. The whole idea is that we are talking and we are communicating from a distance, where you don’t see my face and you’re only listening to my voice, and you accept it. You probably would like to assimilate it at your own pace. That is absolutely fine.
So, what are the subjects that we could talk about, or what do we talk? It depends on you. If you can tell me, if you have a particular subject that you would like me to address, I’m really happy to do that. And this subject should be relevant to the world. It should not be personal because that will not make sense. You have a personal issue and if I talk about it to the world over a podcast, it doesn’t make sense. So we should talk about something which everybody can relate to. That’s very important.
For every podcast, I will choose a subject, which would most likely be a universal topic, maybe something I heard of or something which I listened to or somebody asked me something etc. such that everybody can enjoy it. This is my idea.
Today, what do we talk about? I do not want to talk about anything serious today, because this is the introduction. We have started a podcast channel. We are now trying to get back to our old communication mode. Let us keep this episode very simple, very mild. And we will talk about the details of various things later; we have time.
Today, a little while back, I heard a particular speech by Osho. I didn’t listen to it fully. I listened to it for a few minutes, in which he said, “I’m happy that you don’t believe in me, because if you believed in me, it would have been my responsibility. Since you don’t believe in me, I’m relieved. I’m free. If you had actually believed in me, maybe you would have even taken revenge, because you would have come with expectations. And if you had come with expectations, and those expectations were not fulfilled, you might be angry; you might be disappointed; you might be upset. And you may take revenge on me. So, I’m relieved that I don’t have to tackle your revenge”.
It is ironical; it’s slightly skeptical or even satirical. But if we think deeply about it, isn’t that the truth? We connect to somebody with an expectation all the time. All of our relationships have an expectation, inbuilt in them. Have we thought about it? And what happens to that expectation? If it is fulfilled, you are happy and you would develop more expectations. If you don’t fulfil it or if it doesn’t get fulfilled, then disappointment happens. And that can even take to the edge of revenge. Is that person responsible? Absolutely not! It’s we who are connecting with an expectation, which is responsible for our reality. Thus, every time, our reality is completely controlled by how we are, what we are. This is very important to understand.
On that note, I will leave you today. This is food for thought. I would like to give you food for thought each time so that you can think about it.
A man who can contemplate is a human being. Human beings have the capacity for contemplation. We have the capacity for meditation. So, let us contemplate, let us analyze, let us understand, and let us assimilate. I am with you; I will talk to you again, later.
Wish you a great week ahead and be happy always and be safe.
We all know deep inside, chasing the paltry pleasures of life is not life. We know there is something deeper. We all know, we all feel that there is something deeper and profound in this existence. And many times, we feel that what we’re doing is not the right thing. That’s why people will ask the question, what’s the purpose of my life?
Well, karmically the purpose of your life is every moment experience; the waking state experience, the dream state experience and the deep sleep state experience. Sum total is life. We express what we are to the world outside, and that’s also part of the purpose of our existence. But we know deep within, we feel that this is not what the whole thing is about. These pleasures are temporary, they come and go. And then we crave for more. Then it becomes a habit, then it becomes an addiction. Like that it goes, going round and round, it doesn’t evolve. We go for the familiar likes and dislikes. So, we have this continuous need for pleasures. But at the same time, we are not happy. We are happy when pleasures are accomplished. Familiar situations make us happy. Comfort zones make us happy and we crave for it. If that’s taken away, we feel like a fish out of water. That’s a very scary feeling, you know. People become restless and people become insecure.
So, we are experiencing a situation like that, now, with this lockdown happening. We do not know what to do. We don’t have the usual freedom which we are used to, for a long time. So we feel, how do we handle this? It’s a very good time to get back to yourself and ask this question. It is a good time to ask a good question. What is a good question? What makes me really happy? What is happiness? What makes me really happy?
None of these recurring needs for certain pleasures is making us happy. They’re making us feel okay. That’s not happiness. Happiness is a permanent state. That question happened in everybody’s mind at some point in time. And this is an inevitable question.
When the great masters went deep inside exploring this question over time, again and again, they realized a few things. One of the major things is the cause of sorrows. The cause of sorrows, they narrowed it down to dependencies, deep expectations and fears. These are the causes of sorrows, major causes of sorrows. There are many minor causes but a major cause of sorrows are expectations and dependencies, as well as fears, and then, they started working on them.
First and foremost, what are dependencies? We are dependent on so many things in life, including the dress we wear, the food we eat, the places we are used to, the relationships that we have, and the environment, spaces, time, and so many factors. And these are the things which are very detrimental for us; to leave the usual patterns and reach a state of freedom with no patterns. What they found through contemplation, they could correct also through contemplation, by going individually, facing each fear, understanding each dependency, accepting each expectation.
So, while understanding each dependency, they realized that they are all connected to certain notions of pleasure. If I have this person with me, I am happy. If the person goes away, I feel insecure. If I have this relationship; if the person is happy with me, I’m happy, if the person is not happy with me, I’m sad. Like that, there are so many permutations, combinations which we have created for ourselves. So, they found that all these relationships had an element of conditionality; that so many relationships are very conditional and it’s related to a certain time, space, moods, so many factors. So, there is no continuity there. How can you change that? Make all relationships unconditional. That solves that issue, which means less expectation.
Give more than what you take. So, if you require less from people, from the relations, then you’re free. So, freedom is connected to the expectations of a certain nature. If expectations are less, we have more freedom. Likewise fears. Many fears that we have, have no root. They are connected to certain notions, certain beliefs and certain things which we have picked up from society, from education, from people, and from religion. So, these fears, they bind you because you don’t do anything about it. Then they realized that it is good to face those fears, address them, look into the eyes and accept them. The moment you start looking into your fears; you’re not afraid of your fears anymore. Fears wither away. So, every dependency every addiction, every pattern, they are all kind of staying there because we don’t address them.
So individually, contemplation has a lot of value. We contemplate on it, and we come to terms with it. We start accepting ourselves more and more, and we start doing things in a non-reactive way; we don’t react. We don’t react at all. We respond. And we do not resist. Instead, we accept.
This became a big help. And that’s the way they guided the next generations. These masters guided the next generations to accept themselves, assimilate themselves and have permanent happiness, freedom.
Permanent happiness is a possibility when the dependencies are fewer, expectations are less, acceptance is more, fears are less or fears are taken care of. If we go into that kind of a mode, then, we do have the possibility of a permanent happiness state. Permanent happiness is when the mind is not running after needs, requirements, and wants; when the mind is stable and peaceful. That’s when the permanent happiness happens. So permanent happiness is a state which is definitely achievable to every individual. For this, the step is not meditation, it’s contemplation, introspection, acceptance.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Rekha Murali
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For more information about Mohanji, please visit Mohanji.org
Peace is your birthright. So is freedom. Freedom exists when your expectation levels are low. Freedom is when you need less from the world.
Q:I’m trying to see everyone as Mohanji and treat them with love and respect. But when they say and do things that are unlike Mohanji, it becomes very challenging, how can I overcome this?
M: I think the first part is the right part. You see everybody as Mohanji but do not place any conditions. The first part of the statement is fine, but the second part has conditions; but no one person can behave exactly like another. So we can’t expect that everyone will behave just as we want. Remove the conditions and say “let this person behave just as he wishes to, no problem. It is another expression of Mohanji.” When we do not have conditions, when we do not have expectations, we will have a life, which is more complete; instead when we have expectations, we will have almost equal amount of disappointments. This world is a mixture of various things. It is also a mystery. We don’t know why certain behavior pattern happens in people, although of course, there is a root for it. As we interact in the society, we do not understand why certain people behave in certain ways. They have their past to work on. And their expressions are connected to their past. We can’t do anything about it. The only thing you can do is stop being affected. When I say stop being affected, it means that all these things are happening. However, at the same time, nothing touches you. It means your expectation level is extremely low. If something happens, that is good; but if it is not happening, that is alright too. You can’t predict anyone’s behavior pattern.
I have seen that in my life too; you do your best but some people turn around, say it was not good enough and leave. At times they even talk poorly about you. Jesus healed many lepers, (those suffering from leprosy). In those days, there was no cure for leprosy. When people contracted the disease they were left in caves with the doors sealed, because there was no cure. Jesus healed them. Many were healed, but none of them stopped to turn back and say, “Thank you”! They were busy merging into the society as healthy people! This is society. You may respect the society you live in, there’s no guarantee that society will respect you. You may honor the society, there is no guarantee that society will honor you; you may love the society, but there is no guarantee that society will love you too!
However, when you are not expecting any of these, you experience freedom. It’s your birthright to experience freedom and freedom can be experienced only when our expectation levels are very low. Please understand that whatever we do, we usually also place our expectations alongside. So the effect of that activity is diluted immediately.
When we expect a result, our actions are weak, because we are focused on the result rather than the action. Instead, forget about the result and focus on the action.
What will happen? You will have no stress connected to the result. Do your job well, to the best of your ability; do your homework before you start the work and do it perfectly. Leave what happens as a result of the action to destiny. This way you can be free.
So, definitely look at everybody as Mohanji if you love Mohanji, but without any conditions. Hence I said the first part of the question is beautiful, you look at everybody as Mohanji. You will then try to love and respect them. The second part is connected to expectation, “Because they are not behaving the same way as Mohanji, I have disappointments.” Such disappointments are caused by expectations or conditions and they have to be removed. In fact one has to be trained to remove such expectations; to think, “I do my best. But I don’t expect anything back”. Again, don’t allow people to treat you as a doormat. When you see that someone looks at you as a potential doormat, withdraw from there. Say, “I’m not here to be a doormat, I will do whatever I can to serve you but I’m an individual.” Whenever you feel that you’re suffocated with a place or an activity or an environment, move away and be peaceful.
Peace is your birthright. So is freedom. Freedom exists when your expectation levels are low. Freedom is when you need less from the world.
You have every right to be free,
Every right to be contented,
Every right to be relaxed in this life.
Q: My dog is suffering. And my vet recommends that we euthanize him, I don’t feel comfortable with this decision. Can we make a decision on when our pets could die?
M: I think you don’t have to take any decision in this case. Every being that is born has a plan of death. Do you think that we will exist in the body forever? We will also die! Every being that is born will die. We can’t look at a dog or a cat or any other being connected to us in our life as our property. They are not! They are beings that came to your life because of a karmic collaboration. They took birth at a certain time and will die at certain time. You have no control over it. If you decide to kill them because they are sick, will you do the same to your family members? Suppose someone in your family is unwell and the doctor says that he is not sure if he will be able to cure that person, will you kill him too? Every being has the right to live, as long as it takes. Every being goes through pleasures and pains of life, like us. The need is for extraordinary patience, compassion and kindness.
I do not take any decision on killing any life. That is not the way we should handle life. We should allow everything to be natural. If a dog had been out in the street/nature, it will go through the natural process of life. Life is a flow. Every being connected to us is equal to us, it is not that we can make a decision for them.
Unfortunately, the veterinary doctors and various institutions, only focus on securing the life of human beings. A person I know told me that he had pet birds and one bird was unwell. He took this bird to a doctor and the doctor killed the bird since it was not well! He then suggested that my friend could buy another bird to replace it, as if it is just another object or property! They don’t have that feeling of life in expression!
Hence those of us who are walking the path of spirituality should have extraordinary levels of compassion and we should always nurture life. Also, we should not, ever, promote or support any kind of destruction. That is why I am completely against abortions. I’m completely against any kind of artificial or compulsive killing. I propagate vegan for the very same reason; no torture, no killing. I don’t agree that we have right to do that.
When we cannot create life and give birth to a similar species (I am not talking of womb birth here), we also do not have the right to kill. When we cannot give life, we cannot give death either. This is my feeling.
Q: Along the same topic, how to remain non-violent when I’m dealing with pests and bugs? Is it okay to terminate some of them in order to live hygienically?
M: Well, there are two points we should consider here. One is that everyone has instincts i.e. animals, birds and humans. The primary instinct is the instinct of survival. Then we have intelligence. Intelligence is predominantly for human beings. Most animals operate at the level of a three-year-old human child. As for instincts, there are two to three variations. Most of our behavior patterns are connected to instincts; we have the instinct for survival, for food and for self-protection. We need food to survive. You can see that all the birds and animals possess this self-protection mode. Thus all that we do to try to prevent insects from entering the house is related to self-protection. I would say that self-protection is our right. We must protect ourselves because self-protection is part of the instinctual mode in every species. This is my opinion.
Q: So I read somewhere on Facebook, that when an individual does your Aarati, it helps energize everyone connected to you and the tradition. How does it do that?
M: Every Aarati is a purifier. When we wave the lamp, it purifies the environment and the energy of the place becomes better. It is also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude opens us up for the grace to flow. The nature of an Aarati is to rejuvenate the whole area. Hence rejuvenation happens wherever you are. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you do Aarati in one place, people at another place are benefited. I doubt it. It is more a local thing. It helps purify the environment in that area. With continuous performance of Aarati you will see a palpable difference in the entire energy of the room.
Q: Does enlightenment happen to the soul or the mind?
M: Enlightenment is a state that already exists; only the mind factor and the “I” factor – “I” means ego, mind and intellect put together, are not allowing us to believe it. “Enlightenment” is just being aware of something that already exists; it is not something which comes from outside. Hence enlightenment is our natural state; it is what we are, already.
Mind matter consists of mind, intellect and ego and it works in its own way, with the external world. Since we travel with these senses and the mind matter to the outside world, when we look at ourselves, in terms of me and mine, me as an individual and mine as in, my property, my wealth, my relationship, and so on, we do not feel that oneness or fullness.
That is why I say that when you are fully connected to yourself, that is, mind, body, intellect and ego and spirit are all together, what you experience is fullness and completion. That is the state of enlightenment, where you feel yourself in everything, you don’t see any difference, you will not criticize or judge, you will not have prejudices, you will not hate anybody, and you will not take revenge. This happens when you are fully within yourself. You see people, birds, animals and places as expressions. Also you will feel, you will know that you are one with everything, there is no separation. Also there’ll be no egocentric ownership, there’ll be no ownership based on “mine”. Mind dissolves at the state of no thought, which is Nirvichara Samadhi.
When mind dissolves, mind matter also dissolves, and then you start seeing only the truth. The truth is that life goes without the past, present and future, which means there is no dimensional shift, no dimensional difference. Also you are one with this whole life, you are life! You become life; you are no longer in the relative mode, such as me and you, this and that, etc. That will end and you will start seeing the perpetual life, which is static and stable. That is your state of enlightenment.
Q: If the environment is of low frequency, and we cannot avoid the environment or people, how does one cope so not to succumb to these low frequencies such as drugs, alcohol, sensual pleasures, and other terrestrial traps?
M: You can’t control the frequencies that happen in this world. They are at random. But when you start chanting, are connected to your inside, you are occupied within; you will be less affected by the society around you and will be very stable. Nothing can affect you. Those who chant, feel their inside and are stable inside cannot be affected by the outside society.
Today is Easter… when Pilate told Jesus, if you repent for what you said, I will save you, I’ll release you, Jesus said,” No, I meant what I said”. That kind of fearlessness and stability comes from settling within. The only place you can actually settle down and stay stable is within you. Wherever you settle down outside, it is only temporary, that is, until your death.
Q: Is there a sound in silence?
M: Yes, the sound of silence is silence itself. And if you’re talking about physical sounds, which the ears respond to, all the sounds have come out of Silence and all the sounds will dissolve back into silence. So the Sound of Silence is silence itself. The Sound of Silence is the stability which we experience, the contentment, the peacefulness that cannot be explained and the fulfillment.
Q: When we ask God for something, it shows that we are lacking that aspect. But in the Vedic way of worship, when we make the sankalpa, we need to mention why we are doing that sadhana and ask for blessings. Isn’t that an expression of lack?
M: Firstly, is God outside of you? (chuckles) That is a question you need to ask yourself. When you believe that God sits outside, how will you settle inside? The whole point is about settling inside. So, you should clearly understand that God is within and that one aspect of God is already there called the soul aspect, 33% soul aspect. If you really understand the soul aspect and also understand that the God aspect already exists within and you start connecting to it, you will reach the vibrations or frequencies that already exist. When you start existing in those frequencies and you perform homa/ havan (fire ceremony) or tarpan (offering to ancestors), what you’re doing is, you are offering to the fire, whatever you have stored unconsciously. What you have stored unconsciously is something like your cache memory that you now consciously offer to the fire, through each mantra or invocation of the deity. The fire consumes it and releases you from it. So when you look at God outside of you and say, “God, please do something”, we are only expressing our ignorance!
In the Vedic tradition, we have sankalpas, because we are identifying and recognizing the various aspects of existence, such as Earth, wind, water, fire, air and ether. Our great tradition of masters have told us that there is One Supreme Consciousness which is Para Brahma. This Supreme Consciousness has two aspects, the form/ the manifested aspect, and the unmanifested aspect. Both put together is God. So what is tangible, what is intangible, what is created, what is uncreated – all of it is God. Thus God is vast and unfathomable, and you cannot put God into any kind of frame.
Then they said there are 33 crore or 330 million dimensions possible of that God. This means God can take any form, any nature, any emotion, and any frequency possible. From that awareness, the deities were created based on ideals, idols made out of ideals. Ideals can be experienced by you, and by us. Each ideal, each experience has a form, it can be created into a form. So the great masters made forms, frequencies, mantras, structure (structure is like our nervous system), yantras, duration and also worship method. The worship method is the way in which we can preserve it, keep it safe. Thus 330 million aspects were created.
Next the question happened – how can one worship 330 million deities? It’s humanly not possible! They said, “Worship the 33% in you, which is the soul aspect”; the soul aspect is your real aspect. That’s the permanent aspect. 33% is the body or the physical, 33% is mind matter (mind, intellect and ego) and both are temporary, but the soul aspect is permanent. So worship the soul aspect. That way you worship the 330 million aspects of the Supreme consciousness.
In other words, this 33% represent both the manifested and the manifested, “Shivoham”, “I am Shiva”. Based on this, we created the whole structure of existence.
When you understand this clearly, the only place you need to settle down is within and the experience is of absolute stillness and silence, with no sound, and no movement; this stillness is the state of Shiva. We worship Shiva outside or we think about Shiva, knowing fully well that Shiva is within and we already have it. All of us, the 7.5 billion people, the birds, the animals – all beings have it! Hence we are not greater than anyone or less than anyone, no guru, no disciple, nothing! Everyone is the same! It is this awareness and understanding that we need to have when we walk this path. Then, we will not criticize, we will not judge, we will not try to compare, we are all the same.
When you really understand this aspect, you will not be begging. You can only ask for something that you do not have. But what is that you do not have is the question? After all, we are talking about some material things or some positions or possessions. These are temporary anyway because you cannot carry them when you die. You have to leave behind all your possessions and relationships. You can’t carry anything forward. Then what can you actually ask for?
This question will arise in your mind. Then, you will be offering what is stored without your understanding, your cache memory. You will be offering these to the fire one by one and thus emptying yourself. Your entire life will be spent on complete emptying, where you are not accumulating, you’re not collecting, you’re not asking, you are emptying!
In this mode of emptying, you become one with a supreme consciousness, this is liberation. This is complete dissolution.
Above explains the entire process. Now in this mode, the Vedic structure has given us directions, how to do it, how to do sankalpas, “sankalpas” means intentions, how to offer, what to offer, and so on. All the materials that you offer in the fire have something to do with our inside. Everything has a symbolic role to play, while we are offering into the fire.
Through the symbols we are offering what is sitting inside us, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, pride, ego and other emotions. We offer these to the fire and then finally nothing, not even the mind exists. You are then completely empty. You are also completely free and very powerful. And you are being one with the supreme consciousness.Aham Brahmasmi – I am Brahma. There is no Aham also, Aham is I; there is no “I”, even “I” doesn’t exist; only Brahma exists. This means that the drop does not exist; only the ocean exists. In that mode, you’re totally free. This is path that we are walking.
The path of liberation, the path of complete dissolution, doesn’t stop at enlightenment, because enlightenment is only one part of total dissolution. Total dissolution is where you are completely the ocean and you are experiencing yourself as the ocean all the time, not temporarily, not for some time, but all the time. This is the path, this is the destination. Also, this destination already exists within. You already have it, we are the destination already. We have already arrived! The mind matter has to be dissolved.
During this process, if you keep asking for material things, it is a sign of the mind trying to stay alive. All your fears, your prejudices, likes and dislikes are but signs of the mind trying to stay alive! But you are not the mind. You are well beyond the mind. When you truly understand this, you also understand this whole tapestry. It is so simple and so pure. There’s nothing to distract you from this.
Total dissolution is where you are completely the ocean and you are experiencing yourself as the ocean all the time, not temporarily, not for some time, but all the time.
Q: So I read somewhere on Facebook, that when an individual does your Aarati, it helps energize everyone connected to you and the tradition. How does it do that? 
Thus Spake Mohanji 