Guru Purnima Satsang 2020 – Part 2

Question: Is suffering so important to the soul, to undergo change, even if it harms? Another person, has a powerful Guru, can’t he remove all the suffering?

Mohanji: Suffering is connected to your waking state mind. Pain is connected to various factors such as injury, body, going through certain processes. Pain can happen, but suffering is your choice. Suffering happens when resistance happens to the pain. When we resist situations, when we resist emotions, when we resist people, places, time, we have suffered. But suffering is not a permanent thing. When you are experiencing pleasure, necessarily, you may not suffer. But sometimes even during pleasure, at the time of pleasure, we may suffer because we worry that this time also may end. So, we may fail to experience a situation because we are afraid of something finite, connected to that situation. In the time of sorrows, some people have great pleasure. They say sorrows are good because they remind them of their life. In the time of pleasures, they fear sorrows may come after the pleasure, like a pendulum, like two sides of the coin. So they fail to experience a pleasure. This is human nature. This is one of the patterns that we constantly entertain.

So there is no need to suffer. When you go beyond your mind-matter, there is no suffering. Your soul has no suffering. It’s witnessing your happiness and sorrows, and all the games of your life. Your consciousness which operates in three levels – waking state, dream state and deep sleep state is not suffering. It’s happy to witness what the mind-matter produces, churns out called experiences. We categorise these experiences as good or bad. Consciousness is just watching it. At any point in time, consciousness does not tell you “Don’t do it. Don’t experience it.” It never tells. It just witnesses. It just allows you to experience anything you like on Earth. Nothing is good; nothing is bad. You experience whatever you want. Who categorises situations as good and bad, who categorises high and low, who categorises do’s and don’ts? Mind – Mind-matter.

I always tell one thing, do not enter into the realms of violence. Do not entertain violence in thoughts, words and action, because it breeds more violence. It contracts you; it shrinks you. That’s not our original state. Our original state, as I explained earlier, is expansion, inner richness. This is our actual state, but we fail to see it because our mind entertains itself with anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, kind of silly things. And then it suffers because it’s like a person who smokes a lot and then suffers from lung issues. This is exactly similar to that. The person gets addicted to something spurious, and then health is affected. Who caused it? They themselves caused it. So we don’t have to suffer.

There is no suffering in life, except in our mind. Our mind has decided that there is suffering and then we suffer. The mind has decided, “This is okay; this is not okay.” And we suffer. The mind has decided. “This is right, this is wrong”, then we suffer. So, this is all minds’ game. I always believe that there are zero sufferings, even when people betray you or cheat you, etc., you don’t have to suffer because for doing that, they are paying a huge price. For them, it’s an experience. You have an experience of getting cheated, getting betrayed; like that the people who betray you, have an experience of betraying somebody. And when you ask for such an experience, you got a price to pay, a very high price to pay. Sometimes that price takes you to a level of debt, which lasts lifetimes.

That is why Mirabai says, “When you betray a guru, you carry the debt of that act of betrayal for about 80,000 lifetimes,” such a big, huge debt. So if somebody really wants to do that, they’re paying for it. You need not worry. They chose it. If I decide that I want to have a Rolls Royce car and choose to go ahead and buy it by taking a bank loan, I have to pay the bank until it’s over, as long as it takes. I cannot say that I will not pay any more, because they will catch me and will take the car away from me. So this debt is chosen. Our own anger, hatred, jealousy, selfishness puts us in debts. 

Why should we worry? If we are instrumental in creating it, we should worry. Otherwise, we need not worry. If somebody is cheating you, if somebody is betraying you, you are only at the receiving end. You are not spending on it. So if you develop that level of maturity and you start seeing the reality all the time, you will see this drama at work. You will see this whole drama of life. And this drama is very interesting. People play roles, and we enjoy those roles. They keep experiencing them time and again. Sometimes they come in different costumes, and they play the same role. You get surprised that this is the same guy who was doing this before. When in another costume, sometimes we don’t recognise them. But this is the reality.

Everything that is connected to our life has a reason. If we chase the reason, if we try to understand the why’s, we do not move forward. Just experience it as it comes and leave it, unhook from it, and let it go. Time changes everything. Time changes situations. Change is the only thing which is unchangeable. Change is the only thing which cannot be changed. Change happens in life. Everything changes, everything evolves, everything has to evolve into various forms and dimensions. So, if we flow with those changes, you will be experiencing a breeze like life. Life would be like a breeze. But all these factors have value. Some of them are lessons. Some of them are warnings. Some of them are experiences, good and bad, whatever you wish to call it. But when we boil it all down, we call it life. Life has everything. It’s important to understand that.

Question: How to recognise my future partner? Also, I want to open a vegetarian restaurant, but how to conquer the fear of failure and how to succeed?

Mohanji: Three questions – your future partner, vegetarian restaurant and fear of failure. I think all are interconnected. If your future partner is a disaster, you will experience failure. And if you open a vegetarian restaurant, maybe you will get food to eat. (laughter)

I do not understand the correlation between these two. But, understand that fear of failure has its root in inertia (Tamas) and most of us entertain it because we all have inertia. We always say that we must be appreciated, we must be accepted, and for all that we do, we should be rewarded or recognised. This is our wish, our desire. But life is not like that. There are failures in life. If you look at my life, I have failed enough and more times. At one point in time, I was an eternal failure. In everything I do, I was failing. What I understood from that is, all that gave me experiences. If you do not resist it, do not reject it, do not fight it, do not put it under the carpet, then that means it becomes lessons for you. Everything in life will not be successful. 

We cannot rehearse in life. We cannot rehearse something and do life. So, we have to just do it as it comes. We have to live it; we have to do things as it flows. I would say if you are fearless, you will have tremendous success because we do not know what is around the corner. So if you don’t take a walk, we will never see it. If there is a failure, you slip and fall, or you fell down, what do you do? Get up and walk. In fact, if you take your whole life, you are born alone, you will die alone. You neither took the permission of the society to take birth nor will you take the permission of the society to die. So what is the bottom line? Your EXISTENCE is the bottom line. You are YOURSELF. You are the EXPERIENCE. 

You are here to experience; you are here to express. EXPRESS. Don’t worry about failure. If it fails, you start again. Look at people who have succeeded in life. They have failed tremendously. I think Walt Disney; he went to about 20 or 25 banks for financing his project called the Disney cartoons. But nobody believed in him. They said, “You are making some cartoons, and you want money?” They were ridiculing him. And finally, one banker decided to give him a soft loan. Rest is history. He created Disney World, and it became a huge success. Likewise, this Spider-Man character – Stan Lee, I think; he offered Spider-Man story for print, and the publisher said, “Ridiculous, this story will not sell.” Look at how famous this Spider-Man character became. Now, all the countries, all the children know Spider-Man.

The ability to believe in your work, ability to believe in yourself, the conviction that you have on yourself, ability to invest (the investment) in yourself, is basically the faith and that will take you forward. So, if you focus on failure, like the options of failure, the possibilities of failure, what will four people think, society will think, you will never move forward. Instead, we take the step forward, let us fail. No problem. Let there be failure, and that failure will give us a lesson. The failure will guide us to success because we know if you walk this path, there will be a failure. So you might as well change the path, deviate, take a detour and achieve success.

Whether it is a vegetarian restaurant or a husband, it’s the same thing. You got to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince, right? So you can never say that this is going to be the right man because we are talking about karmic beings. We are talking about bundles of patterns. We are talking about bundles of concepts. We are all baggage, huge baggage. So, how can you say that this is the right compatible person? If you are extremely tamasic, another extremely tamasic person might be compatible because you both can sleep all the time. If you are extremely tamasic and you get a person who is extremely saatvic, then you will have struggles at home as one person will sleep, and the other person cannot sleep. So this is how the combination works.

Don’t look at life too seriously. Flow with life just like water, like a river, keep flowing. Whenever you are looking at small things like relationships, (I’m not saying relationships are small, it means when you are occupied by relationships, etc.), you become short-sighted. Instead, you look for the larger life. Try to look at life in a much larger perspective. What are you trying to achieve from this life? What do you want out of this life? You should always dream big, think big, or have a larger vision. If you have a larger vision and take one step at a time each day, you will reach there. All the other things will fall in place. But if you do not have a larger picture, and if you are searching in a linear level in the market, to find a right man, like this guy looks okay, or that guy looks okay, this or that etc., this will always be confusing. That’s not the way. Instead, you walk your vision, and the right things will come to you. They join you because your frequency is set for something larger, something huge.

 I have created this Mohanji platform with that context, that all the people who are associated have the possibility to have great expressions in this platform. I created it in that mode because everybody has a need for actualisation, a need to be fully themselves and completely blossom. So, this ground has to be set in that way. I cannot set a ground where nobody gets actualisation, and all are like robots, not possible. So, this is created in that way which is why so many countries, so many dimensions, a variety of activities are happening. All this is created because of actualisation. Look at how many people are blossoming with this platform.

The point is, we should not think in a tubular way or within a frame. We are not bound by frames. We are not to be put in frames. We are like a flowing river, flowing as per time, as per various desires and our karmic patterns. But when we have a higher vision, when we are walking towards it and when we are bound by purpose, not people, (clear purpose, a purpose with clarity), it will open up the doors for you. Nothing can stop you, and everything will come together.

When you are talking about a restaurant, you look at the chain of restaurants; you have the vision for that. What do you really want to express in the world? You should have that picture in mind, and you should dream it, you should feel it every day. And you should feel it is alive, means you should actually see it in the world, in your mind, in your inner eye. Then it will happen eventually because you are energising that positive thought, a great image, a great plan inside you. That is how it will happen.

Question: How do I seek blessings and stay connected to Guru and the Guru Mandala?

Mohanji: Guru and Guru Mandala are the same. Guru is the representation of Guru Mandala, that means the world of elevated masters. There is no world of elevated masters apart from your master. It’s like a small transformer in your house that gives electricity to your house. Outside there is a huge transformer which is much more powerful. If you decide that my house needs the power from that transformer and you connect directly to that, your house will burn. So, what you need is a regulated energy flow where you can actually come in contact with it, and it can help in your transformation.

In the Datta tradition, the whole nature is your guru. If you are considering a person as a guru, in the tradition of Datta, everything is guru, life is guru, your SELF is the guru, and your INNERSELF is the real guru, personal guru. But if there is an external guru who has lived the freedom, walked freedom, expressed freedom, given freedom even from themselves (means no binding), that is the path. There is no binding on rituals, no binding on people, places, time, FREEDOM. That is the Datta tradition. So when we walk that path, how do you get connected? You have to connect to YOURSELF. You have to go within and connect to yourself, assimilate yourself and then through YOU; you can reach the whole world. After that, when you look outside, everything will become a reminder of who you are. And that’s how it should be. All the things happening in you, around you, they are all reminders of who you are. When you are deeply connected to that feeling of oneness or experiencing that feeling of oneness (It’s all experiences end of the day. If you cannot experience it is not real), you are unmistakably connected, unchangeably connected, permanently connected.

So, your connection with yourself is extremely important in our path and the path of liberation. Your connection with yourself is the truth. And that connection will take you to similar frequencies. As you raise your frequencies, you will come in contact with people of the same frequency. That is how you can actually grow and evolve. This is very important to understand. You are the final thing you need to connect. That is what we were talking earlier. You are the thing, you are the matter, you are the being, you are the person, and you are the personality. This is your connection. And this is exactly what we are trying to tell all the time. But then you look at somebody as stable as a rock, established in themselves, who’s not bound by the emotions of the world, not bound by time or space, not bound by any philosophies, totally free, then that becomes a reminder to you on how to walk the path, what will be the situation, how it can be. That is a reminder to you.

Now, you have a benchmark, you have a point of contact, or you have a destination which you can put into your GPS, so you know where you are going. And that’s exactly the whole point of the tradition. The tradition gives you these locations, these benchmarks, these pointers, the destination so that your journey is effortless. Also, you know where you are going, and that’s easy. So on this day of Guru Poornima, we must understand that connection is extremely important. When you stay connected, remember one thing very clearly, doubts are the detrimental factors. Doubting yourself always alienates you, separates you. Doubting the master separates you. Doubting the time, doubting the practice, doubting the environment; doubting separates you. Don’t take doubts lightly. Take doubts seriously. And don’t ask why this is happening? It is. So when you stop asking WHY all the time, you save a lot of time because acceptance takes ‘why’ away from our system. “Okay, this is happening. There must be a reason for it. Whatever the reasons are, if I’m supposed to know, I will know. Otherwise, I don’t have to know.” Every time you think like this, you are free. Each time you stop asking why, and you start connecting deeper and deeper into yourself and assimilating the experience that has come out of that situation; it means you are actually experiencing that situation fully within, each time. That experience becomes a validation of your life. That itself is your final and gives you stability, gives you freedom, complete freedom. So this is exactly what you should do. 

Stop doubting; stop asking ‘why?’ and stop asking, ‘Am I progressing? Am I regressing?’ All these are unnecessary questions. Keep doing the same thing. Keep repeating, keep assimilating and keep investing into yourself. Then what comes out will be something brilliant. It may take time because you have no idea how many baggages of patterns you are carrying, how much is removed, how much has to be removed. So, when we don’t know the whole drama of life and when we can only see two dimensions, we are completely controlled and bound by mind-matter (mind, ego and intellect). Hence stop asking why, stop doubting and just keep practising. And whatever you practice, you should believe in, otherwise don’t practice. Whether it is Kriya, Meditation, Contemplation, if you do not believe in it, there is no point in practising. It is a waste of time. And don’t practice for the sake of a Master. Master has nothing to do with you. A master’s job is to show a clear mirror to you so that you can look at the mirror and you can see yourself, where you stand. That’s the job of the master. Master’s job is NOT to TAKE you to yourself. His job is to show you that you are everything or tell you that you are everything or GUIDE you to yourself. But you have to walk. You have to find yourself and go within. If you doubt yourself, if you doubt the master, if you doubt the practice, if you doubt the time and space if you have excuses all through, where will you go? That brings a waste of time. That takes a lot of our time away, and it is a waste of life. This is the problem. It wastes lifetimes. We have wasted lifetimes already. Now let us use this lifetime to find ourselves and settle down.

The inner space is the only space which is yours. All the outer spaces are not yours; they are temporary. End of the day, all you need is only six foot of ground. If you are very tall, maybe eight foot of ground. That’s about it. You don’t need any more ground to keep your body, that’s it. We are chasing so many things of life, and finally, we are tired. We are still unhappy because we want more. And that is a waste of time. You should have something which gives you a good shelter, food to eat, peaceful life so that you can spread your energy and light into this world outside. When you assimilate yourself into yourself, you become brightness, and that brightness will reach the society and make the society brighter. That is your biggest contribution to society, not your teachings, not your noises.

The society has plenty of noises. It does not need any more noises. What the society needs is silence – a pregnant and deep silence, where silence talks much more than words. This is what society needs today. And what you need to give to this society is yourself. This is the only thing you can give. The only authentic thing you can deliver to this society is yourself, nothing else. You give your flavour. That’s the only thing which is expected. You cannot give any other flavour because you are already yourself. You cannot do anything else about it. So you give the society, your own flavour and that’s good enough. That means you are giving the society your unique flavour. And when you do that, don’t expect anything back. Don’t compare, don’t criticize, don’t judge, don’t character assassinate. Don’t betray, don’t cheat. So your conscience will be clean and bright. When your conscience is clean and bright, you are only giving pure stuff. You cannot give contaminated stuff. So this is important. What you need to give to this world is yourself and that you give as clean as possible, conscience clean, and deliver it with your full conviction without expectation. 

On this day of Guru Poornima, this is the message I wanted to give you. Please remember – you are unique, you are important, you are significant, and nobody else is like you. Don’t underestimate yourself. Don’t criticize and judge yourself. Don’t compare yourself with anybody. And please don’t blame others because whatever you do, will have an effect on you. Your own activity, whether it’s done now or done in the past, it will create its own effect. Any action and every action will have a result. So do not blame others saying that because of him, I am suffering. That is not true. It’s all because of our own actions.

We must understand that whatever we do, whatever we perform, whatever we say, speak, think, everything creates vibrations, frequencies, and that will create results. So, understand this clearly, and assimilate and be together, support each other, help each other. We got to have a whole world – one world, one family. One world and one family is the truth – Vasudeva Kudumbakam – that is the truth. We are all together; no caste, creed, country, culture, colour, language, religion, nothing, just people, one species FOR ALL species. This is what we should be. Then we are living purity. We are walking, talking, eating purity, everything pure. That is the highest you can give to this world. And it’s not a small thing.

I hope I have given you the message. Thank you for coming together, and we will stay in touch. Wish you a great Guru Poornima and wish you a great life ahead. I’m always with you, and I love you.

Transcribed by Rakshitha Ananth

Proofread by Rekha Murali

Pearls of Wisdom – Conversation with Mohanji (Part 1)

 

 

Namaste everyone!

A very warm welcome to all of you! It gives me immense joy to be with all of you today. Today is an extremely special day for me, because I have received the gift of being in the presence of Mohanji early in the morning.

I had some questions that I wanted to ask Him, and He very gladly and sweetly and lovingly came on the show.

For those who don’t know, Mohanji likes to be addressed as a friend to the world. But to a lot of people who know Him, He is much more than that. He dons many hats. In my eyes, He is One with the Absolute One. He is One with the Absolute Stillness, with Absolute Bliss, the sat-chit-ananda aspect of consciousness that we know. The Shiva tattva – that is where He is. So do not get taken in by the physical encasement that He is in.

I invite you to connect with your heart and soul to His energy, and inwardly stay connected with Him throughout the conversation that I play out on the channel.

He sends a lot of love and a lot of blessings to each one of you.

The conversation with Mohanji was pretty long. Hence I have divided the interview in parts. The various segments of the interview will be uploaded on various days. Today, please go ahead and soak in the wisdom and love of Mohanji by watching the first part.

So Baba,  the very first question from the first set of questions that I have, is:

Q: What according to you is the main goal of human life?

Mohanji: Well, the human birth itself is a miracle. Because only with this birth, you are able to perceive the highest possible reality. But not many people are aware of it.

We are oriented to the world outside. When we wake up, we are keeping certain identities and then we are busy expressing our identifications in the world outside. We are busy gathering experiences from this world outside.

In this struggle of expression and experience, we forget our true nature. And almost always, we don’t remember. Even at the time of death, most people die with more desires, that means an inevitable coming back. They have to come back in order to complete – this is human life. This is what you see in most cases. You ask, “What is the goal?” It depends on the person – on how many desires you have, that are of terrestrial nature. That would be your main goal – to fulfill them.

But if you are talking about the essence point of view : we have this physical body, which is the cage or the shell for us to express and experience this world. Express into this world, and experience from this world. Then we have a processor unit called mind-matter (mind, intellect and ego). Mind is processing emotion, intellect is processing information, ego is processing matter connected to ownership and identifications. So these processors are also completely oriented to the world outside. They are busy maintaining your identity. Then behind that, there is an operating platform called Consciousness. Waking state, dream state, deep sleep state – these three states are platforms, they have no interest in the experiences, nor expressions. They are not interested in what you are and what you want. But they provide you the platform, just like earth is providing you the platform for your existence.

Consciousness in three states provides you a platform for your experiences. Behind that, there is even more silent existence. There is something which is even more silent in existence- that is the soul. This is totally neutral, totally peaceful, totally eternal, imperishable. This aspect is the only real aspect in our existence. For a yogi to experience the real aspect is the highest aspiration (but for a bhogi – the normal people, that’s not of interest). Because you got to get away from all the noises of life, you have to withdraw from all the noises, all the identifications, nullifying everything and gain a level of silence, so that you can communicate with the silence inside or the soul aspect. It is not easy, it is not as simple as we think. All the methods, all the practices – they are all to gain this silence.

Some people touch it. Some people touch it and leave it. Some people stabilize. Very few people stabilize in it. It takes absolute effort. From knowledge of soul to the experience of soul – it’s a long walk, it’s a long way. So when do you actually know that you’re getting closer?  The outside noises become something outside of you, which means the involvement changes, your involvement changes. You do not get involved with the noises outside. Whatever happens outside, internally you are stable. That means you have settled inside. You can only settle down properly and eternally in one place – within you, inside you.  In all the other places of our settlement, we are just parking the body for some time and we have to remove it when we die. Somebody will remove it when we die. We come to earth with two people, and we are taken away by four people, who hold us when we go to the graveyard. So between these two and four is our existence – this is our life.

So what is the goal of human existence? It is an individualistic story. The story of an individual. If I say attaining the soul, or self-realization is the true goal, some people may disagree. Some people may say – to have a drink is the goal, work hard in the morning, come back home and have a drink, this is the goal. So it varies. Various people – various goals. One person says that to get a job is the goal, and once they get the job, they say to get leave is the goal. So the goal changes, as the situation changes.

Q: What is your suggestion to parents today? How do you think parents should bring up their children?

Mohanji: You don’t have to bring up your children. They automatically bring themselves up. So the best you can do to your children or give to your children is to lead by example. If you completely, consistently display calmness, coolness , attitude of respect, gratitude and you display that in your life, children will learn from that. Don’t try to teach them. Try to demonstrate with your own life, what best is possible. Like for example you have a choice of expressing compassion, kindness, unconditional love, selflessness, purity in thought, word, action, non-resistance, acceptance.  Like this – so many good things you can demonstrate and explain  through your life. That’s the right message for your children. Otherwise, if you are displaying anger, hatred,  jealousy, confusion, impatience, all these things – children will pick it up and think that this is okay. Your life should be your message, and your life is your message.

Q: Baba, every family undergoes at times, differences between family members.  There is a difference of opinion, there are certain conflicts that may happen. What do you suggest? What’s the best way for people to resolve those conflicts? I mean, what’s the best way of handling that ?

Mohanji: Acceptance of differences is the best way.

Because we can’t be the same. We are not the same. Our creation itself is different. We are all different frequencies. We are different, we have different orientations and we decide to live together. Then what is best is that we accept that there are differences, and we are comfortable with it. So that we respect each person’s difference and we allow the individuality in that order. That will help. Otherwise, we will always be fighting.

This whole system of marriage which is of ownership, is obsolete now. When in  refinement, we must respect individual. It’s not that the husband is superior to the wife. We exist together, we work together for higher purpose. That should be the way. There is no ownership at all. You can’t own even your body because when you die, your body is taken away. You can’t own anything on earth. You can’t even carry one pebble. There’s no import or export possible in this existence, in true sense. You can’t export anything from here. Whatever you earn from here, you have to leave behind. So this mad rush for materials and positions and positions, they are all mind’s matter. In true sense, they have no validity. So, respecting an individual as they are, is very essential. I always feel that a woman and man have no difference, except in terms of purpose. There’s no difference and it should be alike. That is why this ownership-related lifestyle in modern days, has always created negativity – too much of negativity. Then we see that so many people are distracted and disappointed because of relationships. Why do we enter into such things at all? We should respect and live like friends.

Nobody can own anybody, we know that very well. Why do we have inner conflict in that order? This is the whole story. Co-existence, respect, gratitude. These are great things we can practice.  If we practice them, we will not have this anger, hatred, revenge.

See, revenge and anger and hatred are of very, very low frequency. If you fall into that frequency, it is very difficult to get out, to come out. These are practiced only by insecure people. Insecure people will take revenge. Secure people, stable people will have no interest in revenge. What will they revenge for? If somebody behaves badly, it’s not our problem.

Imagine if I scold you and if I am angry, you should not be worried. Because all the poison is inside me. So when people abuse me, I always think, “Why do they contaminate their mind? My mind is not contaminated. I’m not taking it, I’m not receiving it. Let them say whatever they want, because they have a problem within themselves. I have no problem. I’m fine, I’m secure because I’m inside myself. So let them do whatever they want. Let them say whatever they want, I am unaffected.” This is possible in human existence through practice.  We can practice it. I feel that we should respect everybody, whether it is the elected government or the people in the government or in the private companies or our service providers – respect everybody. Talk to everybody, discuss instead of arguing and resolve.

We have great possibilities within our existence. Instead of exploring the great possibilities, we push our image and ego on the other, and then we have conflict. We should not go there.

Q: Parents who are in their 60s and 70s and have fulfilled all their responsibilities, their duties, what is your advice for them? How should they be living the remaining years on earth?

Mohanji: I think everybody should feel as if they are 18, and be enthusiastic about life. There’s nothing called 50, 60 and you’re done. Then I’m already done! Where is our relevance?! I think that there is nothing like age, this is actually a cap which we are putting on ourselves. It’s like an escapism. I feel this talk about age is broadly an escapism. They think that, “Okay, I am retired now. I don’t want to do anything.“ In life itself, they didn’t do anything, and after retirement they really don’t want to do anything. Instead of that, I would say: “Every moment, live ! “ When you are living every moment, be alive. Not exist for eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the toilet, and die. Not like that. We should live every moment. We should express our best potential every moment. Give great stuff to the world.

See, a 60 year old man has a wealth of experience which nobody can take away from him. He should share it with the world. No retirement. I don’t believe in retirement. I don’t believe in holidays. I have not taken any holidays recently. I don’t take holidays, I work. Because if you are able to work, you work. If you can’t work, you don’t work, finished. But you don’t wait for a stage where you don’t have to work. I think that’s escapism. It’s laziness in disguise.

So I say: Work and do your best in the world, and enjoy and experience life. Let it come. Bring it on. I like to live the life of a lion, not a rat. That’s exactly what I recommend to people.  Since you’ve taken birth, live a royal life, inside at least. It’s not about money. It’s an attitude. The right attitude. This is very important.

Q: Baba, a couple of people have told me that I should ask you this question and this is related to karma. If you could throw some light on what is individual karma, family karma and also collectively, there is something called the Nation’s karma as well. Would you want to share some insights on this?

Mohanji:  Nation’s karma is collective consciousness built up over time. Individual karma is individual desires, individual orientations, individual comfort zones, individual inclinations and tendencies put together. An individual has lineage karma coming into them because they have their parents’ and their parents’ stuff. That which they collected, part of it comes to us like our inheritance. Also we collect something from society. What we wanted to experience in this life, we have brought it forward. This is a mixture. So that will stay as long as it takes. This means that from birth until death, we are experiencing the individual karma. Social karma is from a conglomeration of numerous beings, a collective consciousness. The whole life has a karmic boundary, and that boundary has to be respected and appreciated. And usually, one will not know the karmic boundary until it happens.  It is linear to time, so we do not understand.  When our desires are less and detachment is more from the world outside, our karmic weight reduces.

Q: Baba, how can people lessen the effects of their past bad karma?

Mohanji: Doing good work, social service, helping the helpless, feeding the beings of the water in nature – the fishes and the beings of the seas, the rivers and ponds, basins and lakes. Feed the birds in the air – the birds in nature, in the air. Feed the beings on earth – like the animals on earth. Give food and clothing to old people, sick people, abandoned children, abandoned women. So like that, the more you give, the more you clear. The more you share, the more you clear. That is the best way. I believe in sharing and releasing of the karmas, more than the rituals. Because mostly we are not doing the rituals, it’s being done through somebody. But while we are serving the society, we can do it ourselves and we can actually feel the weight reduction.

Q: Baba, how does free will and destiny come into play? How does this work – free will, free choice and destiny?

Mohanji: Free will is connected to our awareness while at work. Destiny is the main platform, the main thread until death and beyond. Free will is your awareness  – you are aware that this is happening, and your acceptance level, that’s your free will. You can accept or reject. You  can accept or resist, that is your free will.  When you resist – it stays longer. When you accept it, it finishes that time.  Free will is your state of mind. It’s your attitude, where you are comfortable with your life. You’re content, you’re happy and then you are accepting things as things happen. There is no resistance. You are free.

Q: How do people deal with the expectations and conditioning that society puts on them. Even if they personally don’t want to take it, at a certain stage of their life, they are expected to have achieved certain things, to have done certain things. How do people deal with this, when they want to exercise their free will?

Mohanji: Just like you go to the supermarket, where there are so many things for sale. What will you pick up? Whatever you need in the house, what is within your capacity, and what is necessary for you. Just like that, all the people outside of you, all the people of the society are selling you something – it could be expectation, it could be requirement, it could be necessity, it could be whatever. You buy only what you can handle. That’s the right balance.

Wish you great success with your YouTube channel. I wish you great success!Thank you for interviewing me. And I wish you a very happy birthday! My love to all those who are listening to us or seeing us.

Host: Thank you very much!

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

When to express myself? No sensual activity for enlightenment?

Dear friends, 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 question is from a listener, and it’s actually a series of questions. So we’ll take them one at a time. The first section is around sensations in the body. How do you accept these without judgment?

Mohanji:  In one word, the answer is witness hood. Let us compare your body to a car. What is the purpose of the car? Utility; for travel, from one location to the other. What is the utility of the body? To experience the earth, and various aspects of the earth; the journey is from birth to death. When you are going through various sensations, various emotions, various experiences, when you have various expressions, just witness them all, because that’s not the end. They come and they go; witness them, enjoy them, appreciate them, so that you will always be stable. You don’t have to be involved in it. At the same time, you can experience it. Experience life as it comes, with gratitude; look at everything gratefully, even anger, hatred, jealousy; look at everything as flavours of life. But you’re not any of them. You have nothing to do with them. They’re just experiences, various flavours you are experiencing. It does not matter what the cause is, take the experiences as neutral, as they are happening. They come; they go. You’re watching. 

Speaker: Along the same lines, the question asked is, when is it important and necessary to express feelings? How do you prevent abuse? And is it enough to just acknowledge these feelings and write them down, rather than actually addressing them to a person?

Mohanji:  The situations of life have reasons for it; the causes. One of the major causes of every experience of life is patterns. Patterns have their roots in some kind of suppression, fear, guilt, and such emotions. One other reason for these events of life is desires, inclinations, tendencies, fears and concepts, or other aspects connected to various aspects of existence. So they are within us, and corresponding experience happens in life. What is the best way to handle them? First of all, accept them. Okay, this is my situation, and unique to me. And then, what is the best that I can do in this situation? If discussion will work, definitely discuss with another person and sort it out. If acceptance will work, accept it. If something has to be changed, say, for example, relocation, removal, or any other aspect which takes you towards becoming peaceful, which helps you to be peaceful, that’s fine. But violence is not alright. If somebody is expressing violence, and you also become violent, it only aggravates the situation, it’s only adding oil or fuel to fire.

Firstly, have awareness of the situation, of each situation as it comes; look at it objectively, accept it as it is. Then, ask the question, “Now what can I do here? What is the right action?” Always choose discussion first. Discuss peacefully. Sometimes the other person is not able to listen properly. In that case, you may have to use a different method where he listens, maybe through a friend, or someone he or she respects. Thus, you can convey the message properly. Else, it can be through your own kindness and compassion; through your own lifestyle, you can transform people. This happens. Some people do not get love at home, but they get enough and more love from the society because of their kindness and compassion, because of their disposition, because of their orientation and expression, they get love. So, instead of expecting love from everybody, you choose to experience or you choose to express your highest potential. That will fetch a lot of love and respect from the world. That will compensate for your situation.

Speaker: And then about certain situations; this question is about stopping, engaging in enjoyable activities, sensual touching or sexual… and a view that a dogmatic approach to enlightenment is dangerous, as the person is trying to kill pleasures.

Mohanji:  You cannot kill anything. Sensual, sexual and what is related to senses is usually connected to instincts. The primary instinct of every being on earth is survival. Survival has two major aspects. One is food, for sustaining the body. And the second is sex to sustain the species. For all the species on earth, both of these are not difficult to handle, because they go about their ways, just as their instinct leads them. But for human beings, because we have a potential for higher awareness and liberation, we consider some of these as a problem. They are not problems. They are essential necessities; the body needs them, the species needs them; we have to handle them in its own merit. Whatever is connected to your body should not be kept in your mind. Whatever has to be handled by your mind, let it be so. What is required for the body, such as food, should be given to the body, when you have the appetite; when the body asks for it. Sexuality is also essential in our system, otherwise, without sexuality, there are no species. These are all essential aspects of existence. By suppressing them, denying them, or thinking that it doesn’t exist, or that you have grown beyond it, what happens is, they come back with more energy and more impact. I always recommend accepting, because that’s the right way to handle everything. Accept whatever your conditions are, whatever your situations are. And if you accept everything in life; I have these inclinations; I have these tendencies; I have these desires, and that’s fine. All people have them and address them with a cool head. Don’t deny it and say that I don’t have it and you try to pretend to the world that you are beyond all this; it won’t work because no pretension ever works. Pretensions do not work!

When pretension happens, suppression happens. Suppression happens, then, postponement happens. It will come back in its full capacity at another stage. It’s important that we handle everything of life, anything connected to instincts, anything connected to desires, tendencies and inclinations with its own merit and respect it. We have to respect ourselves. We have to respect our feelings and emotions.

Then how do you overcome it? By focusing on something much larger, much higher; so that the lower drops off. That’s the way to completely eradicate certain things from your system. Keep your focus steady or a larger goal, such as your own personal growth, through increasing the awareness in the society to something much larger, such as you have the right to be peaceful inside, and nothing outside can touch you. If that kind of a situation can be conveyed properly with your own life, leading by example; that would be a good goal in this lifetime because the potential of being a human is well used. That way you can come above everything. And you can attach yourself or connect yourself to a very large goal, where eventually liberation would be the only option, and it will happen.

Thank you for listening to this podcast. Do contemplate on it. Do discuss with your friends and let me know what you feel. If you have further questions, do send them to me.

Thank you. This is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Vidya Rajagopal

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Knowledge and clarity

Hello friends, this is Mohanji.

Welcome to the podcast channel. Hope you’re doing well and hope you like the podcasts, of the past. If you like it, or if you do not like it, do let us know, and also tell us what you’d like to hear, so I can prepare those talks for you.

Today we are talking about knowledge. It is a very important subject because our life is dependent on our knowledge. One of the major factors of life is knowledge. And where does knowledge come from? Knowledge comes from experience, knowledge comes from information, and knowledge comes from other people as well. So, what knowledge is good for you? The knowledge, which you have ascertained is good for you; means, it should not be assumptions. Assumptions are not good for you, because you do not know whether it’s real or not. You’re just assuming because somebody, whom you love told it, somebody, whom you trust told it, etc. But we must always verify the source, very clearly, so that you do not get misled. It’s very important.

Information processed is knowledge, and knowledge experienced is wisdom. So, there is plenty of information, we all know. Thousands of information; millions of information. They just get bombarded onto us because we live in a world where there is no dearth of information; the internet brings information, television brings information. Many are not so positive information but we process them because they are available, and a lot of information that we process is totally useless for us. We don’t even need them, but we collect them, we process them because they are available, they have just been given to us free. But we must always remember; if our mind is cluttered with information, we must be careful. If our mind is cluttered with information, what we lose is our clarity in life.

So, to have clarity in life, the information that we process, the knowledge that we assimilate should be simple and clear and it should have a proper space in our system; means we assimilate, we put in order the knowledge that we have and that will bring forth a good roadmap for life.

Dr Watson asked this question to Sherlock Holmes, “How are you so intelligent? How do you know these things? And how do you know all these things so spontaneously?” And you know what Sherlock Holmes said? “I have no clutter in my brain, the information that I have processed is kept clean, I can withdraw them as I like, effortlessly; while in your case, you have put in all sorts of information – the soccer scores, the football scores, the cricket match scores, all the various different politicians’ proposals and their opinions and stuff, and your mind is cluttered. That’s why you can’t retrieve, what you really need at the right time.”

So, this is a very fundamental thing to remember. Understand that we all have a similar capacity in the brain. Nobody has something higher or lower. But the utilization of that capacity depends on how well we have arranged the knowledge in our brain. That means, we only collect the information that we need. We do not even look at the information that we don’t need. All things which are given free are not good information for you. We don’t need them. So just discard them. We only collect what is needed. We assimilate them, ascertain them, making sure that this is correct information and store them properly, so that we can retrieve them when we need.

So, knowledge is a very vital thing. And knowledge plus experience is wisdom. So, we must try to experience this knowledge, we must try to understand it in a practical way so that we know that it’s real. But all information, we can’t process, or all the knowledge we can’t experience. That’s fine, but then it should be very close to reality, we must ascertain that it’s real.

Many times, we have failures in relationships or we fall out in relationships, just because of one reason; that we take the opinion of others, and we make decisions based on that. So, first of all, when somebody talks about somebody, we should not take it as it is. We should not take it on face value, because we do not know whether this is true information, we must ascertain it. Has this person who told you really experienced it? If they have experienced it, in what context, have they experienced it? And in what mindset have they taken or formed this opinion, which they’re telling you, because many times what seems to be, may not be real. When you see a thing from your angle, it may have a certain effect in you, and you say it is so, that thing is so, that experience is like that. It may not hold water in real life because that might be the wrong information.

Various situations, various court cases have been biased by such wrong information. And the innocent people have been accused of wrong things. We have seen that in history. Sometimes, people have been assassinated, because of wrong opinions, the wrong understanding. Everything that everybody tells you may not be true. We form opinions about certain politicians because of certain news coverage, news on the television. Do we really know for sure that the television channel is not biased? We have to ascertain, we have to be clear, otherwise, we will have a problem in our life. If we accuse somebody wrongly, we also lose a lot in our integrity. Our integrity is compromised. Instead, we should look at everything objectively. And if the information has to be processed, make sure it has a reality based on it. Never assume, but ascertain. And knowledge is a very important thing in life, especially knowledge about the law of the country of the state. And that is essential for us to lead our life. But knowledge of that nature, we do not even get involved, until and unless we have, or there is a necessity. And once you enter into that state where you have to know the law for taking an action, we assimilate that law, and then we use it. Then we tell somebody else about this law, you have the authority, it’s authentic because you have understood the law, you have used it well and then you say it’s authentic.

So, authenticity is very important for integrity to be stable; stable integrity. This is very important. For authenticity, a thing should be experienceable, and you should have experienced it. So, the information processed becomes thoughts, and thoughts experienced become wisdom. To convey the wisdom, it should be authentic because you should have actually felt it, experienced it, and you are able to tell it with clarity because you know it very well.

I leave you with this thought, I put this thought on your plate. Process it at your time and wish you a great day ahead. Talk to you soon.

Until then, this is Mohanji signing off.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Appreciation

Hello Friends! This is Mohanji. How are you doing?

Today, we talk about one important aspect of our life called appreciation or appreciating. We all like to be appreciated, right? But do we get it? The question should be, do we give it? That is the point which we are pondering today.

What happens when people appreciate us? It inspires us to do more. It helps us; we can see that in children very easily. When you appreciate the child; even small things like he washes his plate or he takes care of some clothes or something; if we say well done, this is the way to do; that’s a confirmation for them that they’re doing the right thing.

In an organization, or a bigger structure, more than a family, this has a big value because behind every innovation, behind every transformation, there is an element of appreciation, as well. You know, when you say, “Oh yes! You’re doing well”; it helps in an organization. It helps individually, it helps collectively.

So, if you make it a point or if we think about it in depth; just think how much we appreciate, (appreciations) and that should be transmitted. The world is like a mirror. What we give, we get. If we don’t appreciate others, or we don’t appreciate our own life; if we don’t appreciate the things we have, the situations that have helped us, people who have helped us, the materials that have helped us in our life; if you don’t appreciate every bit of it; we fail to experience life completely because all these small things connected, is our life. Many dots, many things put together, has made our life; has made us.

So, if we really understand that this life is a collection of so many things, and you start appreciating it, that will really enhance our life. And if you start giving more and more to the world, to the people, to the situations in the form of appreciation, we will get a lot of it back. So, the more you appreciate, the more you will be appreciated.

I leave you with this thought. It’s a very simple thing, but explore this idea; the value of appreciation in our life. And also ask this question, “How much do I appreciate my life, the people around me, and the situations; good or bad?” Everything should be appreciated, even if it’s an enemy; appreciate that this enemy has come into our life, to give us another perspective of our existence, or situation, a continuous situation.

There is a saying that one time bitten is okay, many times bitten is stupidity. So, that way, we can focus on ourselves more. But we can appreciate each bite, and say “Oh, this is what it is”, then you appreciate the positive side of everything. Don’t look at the negatives, because we tend to easily focus on negatives, and then we lose the track. So, focus on the positive; everything that has added in your life.

If you have lived 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years; these years have been a cluster of many things, many situations, many events, all these put together, we have reached here. So, in this life, where we have reached so far, how much, how many have contributed? It’s a lot; every grain that comes into your mouth has had a lot of people behind it; nature behind it, everything behind it. So, we start looking at everything with respect. Nothing unconscious. Just be happy and be respectful, appreciate.

So, that when you appreciate more and more every aspect of life, life will become wonder-fueled, fueled by wonder. Wonder-fueled. And that’s a very beautiful situation. It’s like a small child seeing the world. It appreciates everything that’s happening, ‘Oh wonderful world’, colours, situations, you know, various emotions, various things. These are all important; all these made us. What we are today is a cluster of all these things.

So, learn to appreciate. And when you appreciate, you will be appreciated. Because of the small things, you do for people, or for the world, it will get appreciated and then you will have much more relevance in this world. I leave you with this thought. Think about it, ponder on it and discuss it. And also measure it not in a critical way, but you just acknowledge how much you’re able to appreciate and increase that appreciation quotient, that will help you.

Lots of love.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Ahimsa is Fundamental to a Spiritual Diet

By Mohanji

There are three types of food that we consume: one is the food for the body, second is the food for the mind, and the third is food for the intellect. Then, of course, the food for the ego is appreciation, reward, recognition, and so on. These help the ego. But mainly, we consume food for the body. When we have high levels of insecurities, we consume a lot, we eat unconsciously, and that leads to obesity, which in turn leads to various other problems. But as we increase our energy level by connecting to ourselves, through deep integration into ourselves, our energy level increases. As our energy level increases, our food consumption decreases, and it can even decrease to a level where one meal a day is good enough.

But if you deny food, then you will be thinking about food, and it will be causing agony of some kind. I never recommend suppression. Suppression is the worst thing you can do. Denial and suppression maintain certain desires in you, which, over time, increase their intensity, and eventually they become compelling. So I would always recommend a moderate execution of all desires, with awareness. If you are fully aware that you have this desire, and it keeps repeating within, it means that you have blocked it at some point in time. If a recurring thought happens about something, it’s a clear sign that you have been suppressing or denying that at some point in time, and hence it is coming back every time. My suggestion is always, fulfillment, at a level where you are fully aware of all the desires, or the thoughts associated with desires and thus it is peaceful, calm, and at a moderate level. When you are fully aware, and you’re executing it in moderation, it should be alright. It will come, it will manifest and it will go away. If you suppress or deny, it will probably stay dormant for some time and later the experience will be somewhat like an avalanche, an intense desire which you can’t avoid.

So my suggestion about consumption is, in moderation- go for it, have it, whatever it is and then with awareness, you can go over it. As you evolve more and more into deeper levels of subtlety, or the sukshma state, automatically you will not be able to consume any food which is of tamasic or rajasic nature. Tamasic and rajasic are foods that aggravate, they have intense flavours. Tamasic means something that makes you dull, any food that makes you dull. So the food that makes you energetic is the raw food, the food which have seen the sun, which has been under the sun, that God has given, like from trees and plants; and mostly in these foods, there is no violence; because a tree which produces a mango is happy that you are consuming the mango because the aim of the fruit is to spread its species around. That means the seed is thrown around, and another tree will come. Likewise, tomato or any fruit or vegetable that sees the sun has been created so that the seeds are dispersed and more and more such plants grow. Basically, it is the manner in which the species continues and hence the plants are happy when the fruit or vegetable is consumed. If you notice, when the birds eat, they spread some seeds around with their beaks, they spill them around. What they eat is for their sustenance, and what they throw around is for the future generation of the same species of the plant. So all the beings, all the animals and birds help in dispersing the seed and producing more of it’s kind. That is an ideal food, the food which has seen the sun is good for our system.

Eating habits also from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm is usually the right time, that means sunrise to sunset. But in various countries, sunrise and sunset are at different times. I usually follow between 6 am and 6 pm so that there is some boundary. When the sun is up, that’s when the body wakes up for digestion and even circulation. We are deeply connected to the Sun. Whatever you consume between sunrise and sunset gets digested; it doesn’t get stored. Whatever you consume after sunset tends to get stored in the system, which will cause obesity and further complications in the future. So I do not recommend eating after sunset. But in a country where the sunset is close to midnight, I would say you can stop eating at 6:00 pm. So it’s 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, its 12 hours. Within 12 hours you consume what you want to consume, and after that, for 12 hours, you give the body some rest.

In our body, we largely have supporting organs, except for the heart, but again, a heart has four valves. Likewise, we have two kidneys and two nostrils, when one nostril is active, the other is silent; every 60 minutes it changes. So one is active, and the other is silent, always. One kidney functions when the second one is silent, sleeping, the second one functions when the other is resting. Like that, we have a sort of resting time for all the systems in the body.

In the morning hours, from 3:00 am to 6:00 am usually, both the nostrils function together. That’s why that time is very important. They say that if you chant during that time when you are centred; when both the nostrils are functioning together, the intensity increases, the energy level is much higher.

The consumption of food between sunrise and sunset is good. In India, you can clearly do it, because by and large the sun rises around 6 to 6.30 am and it sets around 6 to 6.30 pm. Thus it is possible to maintain a routine. But in any country you are in, you can use the 6 am to 6 pm timing or from sunrise to 12 hours later. It doesn’t matter at what time the sun sets, but after 12 hours, stop consuming. It is a good idea and also one should consume foods that have seen the sun, food that has no violence or murder; avoid meat products – the meat of animals or birds or beings that are killed. The animals had a lot of anxiety in them when they died. No animal dies happily. They are murdered by force, so they create a lot of pain and fear inside. They feel like a victim, so the meat, the entire body responds to that feeling of fear; the feeling also goes into your system when you consume that.

Likewise, the lobsters and fishes, some of them are boiled alive etc., it’s all tremendous violence and cruelty. Any food which has cruelty or murder behind it is not good for the system of a seeker. The usual consumption is based on habits. We are used to a certain food, and so we tend to consume the same. We have to be aware that some of the food has a lot of violence behind it. Animals that are transported are aware that they will be killed. They are helpless, there is no choice given. They are bound, they are controlled, and they are killed. The victimhood, the pain, the agony that’s connected to it, it goes into the system of the people who consume it. Today’s, milk products also are not safe because most of the cows never see their calves. As soon as the calf is born, the calf is killed. For the dairy industry, every calf is a waste product. They throw away the calf or sell the calf as veal, and the mother is in agony all the time. The average lifespan of a cow is 20 years, in the dairy industry it’s 5 years, by the time the cow is spent, it is slaughtered. Even pregnant cows are slaughtered. All of this is extreme violence. Such vibrations entering this world create a battlefield.

Millions of animals are killed each day. Spontaneously, habitually, without giving it a thought, we consume burgers and food with meat in it, and it has violence behind it. Supply is as per demand. If there is more demand, supply is also more. It’s for the sake of cheap meat that farming is happening and hence injections and other medicinal interventions are happening. So eventually the products that you are consuming are completely adulterated. We must be very careful with our consumption; we do not need these. We can have a plant-based beautiful diet, which will help our system. What you consume is very important. The more you consume live products, that is, raw products, which have been in the sun and which are grown under the sun, it will help us to stabilize and it helps with meditations and other such activities too. When you consume food that has been fully under the sun, it always gives you good energy, ‘Prana’, the right energy, the right energy flow within. Suppose you were meditating in a noisy place you won’t be able to meditate because the sounds disturb you. Likewise, when the whole atmosphere (within) is that of agony and pain, there is violence, even though it’s invisible; every abattoir is like a war-field; so much death happens there, it is murder, it’s sheer murder! Where many beings are killed, the vibrations spill into the air and their agony, that victimhood fills the air and affects everybody.

We must be really conscious not to have more violence in the atmosphere. Likewise, human species is just one species, but because we have intelligence and imagination, we have dominated most of the earth; we have dominated the air, the water, and the earth. Domination also is a responsibility. We have the responsibility to maintain and protect the environment, which we have not done. Many species are extinct now and it is because of human intervention. We must understand that it is our job to preserve the earth that we have been entrusted with, it’s our duty.

Look at various deities of the Hindu tradition; there are 330 million deities in our tradition, which are 330 million dimensions of ONE deity, the Supreme Consciousness, which is formless. Great Masters understood that there are numerous varieties possible of the Supreme Consciousness, which is pure brightness, brighter than a million suns. That’s pure intelligence, pure brightness, out of which the great Masters derived 330 million options. To each option, they gave a form, an identity, a name, a frequency, a mantra. Mantras are all frequencies and a circuit, a Yantra and also a system, a Vidhi, a system of maintaining them, and also a duration. That it’s almost like a clear definition, a clearly distinct aspect of the Supreme Consciousness. And thus every idol or form which has been created has an ideal behind it. It’s based on an ideal. Every Idol which is created has an ideal behind it.  All the deities that we see, they all have a supporting animal or a bird as a vehicle. That amounts to preservation. That animal or a bird is suitable to the character or the intensity of the deity that they support. So each animal and bird are thus respected, honoured, and preserved because of their association with that deity. This system was beautiful. We had various deities and they all had their associated animals supporting them. So we respected cows and calves, we respected bulls, we respected a rat, a peacock, a swan, and many different animals. They all were supported, and that preservation was spontaneous because we respected them. Why were they associated with a deity? Because unless you respect, you don’t preserve. Thus the need to respect was added into the system. When we don’t respect other species or animals, we tend to ignore them, we become insensitive, and we may also kill. That is what we see in the world today. We are the one species which is behaving like a virus today, destroying all other species. That’s only humankind; no other species does that, they all mind their business. All the animals are telling humans, “Just leave us alone, don’t disturb us, and don’t interfere in our lives.”

We have done so much harm; different experiments happening in the laboratories of the world, torturing and killing hundreds of beings, and their agony which goes into the air, is disturbing the Earth. And when such things happen continuously, the frequency of the Earth also changes. A lot of victimhood is happening in the world, as we talk. It’s creating a difference in the entire environment.  Even though we have advanced in technology, we have not advanced in awareness. We have seen the very sign of all the wars of the world, the competition and discord that we see in society – all of these are connected to our lack of awareness. Hence, our consumption has a lot of value; our awareness, our consumption, this has value, it’s important, and our awareness is connected to our consumption.

Coming to the point, consumption through the body is vital. I would say consume something which has no violence connected to it, and which is suitable for spiritual evolution.

As regards, the emotions that we consume, emotions that are devotional in nature are always positive, but emotions such as anger, hatred, jealousy, the soap opera kind of emotions, they are not so good, because they lead to similar emotions. In karmic law, whatever you experience through the body, through the mind, through the intellect, through the ego, are all considered as experience, and the residue goes into the system like cache memory.

Whatever you consume as emotion, even if you watch a feature film, or listen to someone’s experience, that memory also leaves an impression inside, and that leaves a cache memory. It’s almost as if the subconscious believes that you had the experience. The subconscious does not understand that you only listened to it, that it was not your experience. But when you nurture any kind of emotion for a longer period of time, it enters your system and it reproduces. That is why various traumas, fears, and phobias, though all these things have their root in its external input, these are actually like poison; the poison we collect from inside, enter our system and contaminate us. That is why we always say, “Satsangatve, Nissangatvam,'” You need to have good company, company of good people, company of people who expand your awareness, company of people who give good input; input which is regenerative by nature, rejuvenating by nature, that is good information, good input. If you consistently have good input, you will be peaceful, you will be light, you will be benevolent, and that’s good.

You need to have good company, company of people who are positive. They give you positive vibrations, optimism, regenerative talk, and then it leads you to a kind of detachment. This means that you will be happy. Detachment is not denial. They are two different things. Detachment means you can have something, but you don’t really need it, and you have the ability to share what you have. This is detachment. Detachment means you’re easily sharing without any remorse or regret. Likewise, you can have things in abundance, but you will only use them as per your need. There is a story of a Swami (renunciate) who was carrying water from the Ganga (river) in the shell of a coconut. People said, “Why are you just taking that much water, there is plenty of water in the river, why don’t you take more?” So the saint said, “No, you are not supposed to misuse anything, even though it is in abundance. You only take whatever you need “. That means even though there are resources in abundance, we don’t disturb them, we don’t destroy them, we allow nature to flow. We only take what we need, what we really need. Such a level of awareness leads to detachment. Detachment means that you have everything, you are grateful, but you don’t need more than what you can consume. When you consistently are in a state of detachment, then you do not have that many desires also. Your desires are all limited because you are happy, you are contented with what is available, and you are happy to have it, you’re grateful. Thus desires also reduce. When desires are less, your mind is still. The mind is disturbed because of too many desires. Thus your mind becomes very still; the mind is peaceful. So, fewer desires lead to more peace. If the mind is peaceful for a long period of time, then you are liberated in birth, and you will be liberated at death. This is the path to liberation.

 You consume and it could be emotions, knowledge or information. Information – I have explained in detail. We are in an age where there is a flurry of information. Most information is toxic in nature and it creates violence within. Any information that you process, which creates violence and agitation inside, should be totally avoided, that’s also consumption. So when you know that a certain type of information is creating anger towards somebody, or it is creating jealousy or hatred, it should not be taken in at all, because our inner space should always remain clean and pure. Whenever somebody talks ill about another, I never buy it, I always say, “This is precious information, which you have spent a lot of time in collecting, keep it with you, don’t give it to me.” We are all karmic beings. Whoever is walking on this earth is karmic being. How can we blame somebody? How can we judge somebody? We don’t have the right. Because whatever any person performs on earth is within the boundaries of karma, within the karmic allowance. If we clearly understand that, we will not blame people, we will not judge people, we will not criticise people. How can we do that when we don’t know the karma of another? Anything happening in the life of anybody is within the karmic allowance. If we understand this one point, we will be peaceful. We know, okay, this is supposed to happen in their life. Whether it is good, bad, or ugly, it is not our prerogative. We can’t do anything about it. If something is supposed to happen in somebody’s life, it will happen, because he chose it before he took birth. This was part of the agenda of his birth. So how do we say he’s good, he is bad, he’s ugly? Nobody is good, or nobody is bad and nobody is only ugly.

Everybody is a mixture. We are all imperfect in a way. We are all a mixture. When we try to pretend that we are perfect, that’s when the problem begins. We then try to hide certain things, and that becomes a problem because whatever you hide becomes your weight, your burden. So we will not judge, we will not criticize, and we will not contaminate our inner space. What type of information would you like to process? Only that which will make you light. Information on higher awareness is good and only such information which you can process should be consumed, just like food. The food you eat should be sufficient for your existence; it should not be a huge quantity. Even if food is in abundance, you eat only what you can easily digest.

 Ayurveda says, one-third of your stomach, that’s all you need, at each meal, so three meals mean three times one-third of your stomach, and that also only within the sunrise and sunset; this way you will remain healthy. All these various consumptions that we have, and emotions also, the ideal is that you must feel because you are a human being, but you should not sit down and cry. You should do what you can do. Like you see sadness around you, if somebody is not happy they are sad, you sit with them, sort them out, do what you can for them, and move on. But again don’t expect anything back, so your action is always pure.

When you do not expect anything back from anybody, you’re always operating on pure action mode. This is very important to understand. Whenever we do something with an expectation, it already became an impure action. That expectation makes things impure. Also, our documentation, by which I mean the memory of activity, can also increase our ego. When we say to ourselves for example, “I am better than another,” or “I’m able to do these things, so I am better off”, such thoughts give us weight, and reduce our purity level. We can always remain pure. It’s our choice. All actions can be pure. We do the best possible action within our capacity, every time. But don’t expect anything back from that person, that way, we remain extremely pure.

Regarding, consumption of information – consume only that which is regenerative and good. Various opinions of people about various people – don’t buy them, because they don’t understand. Most of what people talk today in the world are merely opinions, their understanding. We tell others what we have understood as per our awareness; so everything is relative. When you work with relative awareness, there is always separation from the truth.

The truth is one. Truth is always one, but nobody can see the truth fully because we have flavours. We look at life through our eyes, through our level of awareness, through our notions, concepts, prejudices, and many different things we have within us. We look through those spectacles and we see life based on that, and that is what we are conveying to other people. It cannot be 100% truth. It is always a flavoured truth or a relative truth. This is the truth which we are processing, what other people tell you are mostly their opinions, or what they have understood. And if we base our life on those opinions, we miss the truth further. We separate ourselves from the real truth. It’s important that we always are objective and we look at life with a fresh perspective. When you wake up in the morning, you look at life fully fresh, and then you will not miss anything.

So each time, you remember that you are purity, and you should remain purity for your own sake. That keeps you healthy. Consumption should be in a moderate way, only as much as you need; but give more importance to giving forth. If you have taken ten, give forth twenty. Give forth means what you give to the world, that’s your net worth. Whatever you are giving to the world is your net worth. It can be your skill, it can be time, it can be love, it can be money… you share whatever you have in abundance. Your net worth is what you share and that is exactly what we must remember.

We don’t have to believe ourselves to be perfect. Perfection is a relative thing. We remain pure always and make sure there is non-violence; if you determine non-violence to be the benchmark, life is much easier. You can do what it takes, but you will not entertain violence. Criticism and gossip amount to the violence of the mind. Violence in thoughts, words and actions; you should refrain from violence on these three levels. That is how you remain always pure, always calm, and always peaceful. That allows you a very light existence and permits no blockages in the system. Whenever we engage in violence – be it in thoughts, words, expressions, or actions, it leaves behind residual blockages.

Understand that we are consuming many things through the day from the time you are awake till you sleep. In other words, you consume through the mind, the intellect, and the body and these can cause certain imbalances in the system. So, be aware of what you are consuming.

This awareness in itself will keep you alert. Alert awareness, at the moment, in this time is important. When you are constantly in the present time, you are in a perpetual meditative mode; there are no excesses. In that meditative mode, you are centred. When you are centred, you are aligned and when you are aligned, you are truly spiritual.  This is what I believe in and it is what I practise. I travel a lot, so I’m in different time zones, different energies; besides, I meet many people.

Sometimes it’s not easy to feel the body when you are in perfect alignment. So you have to bring yourself to the body to communicate and convey because you tend to expand. After a while, you will all experience that when you are fully within when you are fully aligned, you tend to expand beyond. You may sometimes not feel the bodily boundaries that one normally has. You may feel you’re much larger than you are, size-wise, energy-wise. So to bring yourself back to the body, to communicate, sometimes it becomes a bit difficult, but these are states you go into, as we practise many things. You accept everything. I always say “Don’t stop for experiences”. Experiences will come and go, always stay neutral. Allow all the experiences to come and go, for a long period of time. Then, you become the experience. There is nothing to experience anymore. It settles down. Then YOU are the experience. There is nothing to experience. The faculty which is asking for experience, the mind-matter, will dissolve, and then you become the experience all the time. That’s a perpetual blissful state. At some point in time, we will all arrive there. For that, you must be very aware of what you consume. It is not what you love to consume, it’s what you have to consume. What you have to do and what you love to do, they’re two different things. But again, please recall what I said at the very beginning – no denial. Also, be aware that every being on this earth which is walking, crawling or flying, deserves this earth equally, like us. We do not have supremacy over anything. We must accept that. We must look at the entire life structure of the world, with all its living beings, including seeds, plants, the environment and everything else, with respect. We always love and respect. We don’t waste anything. Whatever we consume, we respect.

Whatever you consume, consume in moderation and remain grateful for that food, so that when you consume, it really melts into you. Also, understand that all these beings are complementing another. Whatever nature has created has a reason. Nature’s children, including us, have our positions; all of us have our relevance. Everything is interconnected. We must be aware of it and we must respect it. Just like we should respect our body, we should respect everybody. We must know that all have relevance. All have their right (to live) on earth, just like us. We have no right to kill indiscriminately. We have no right to torture, use or abuse. We have no right, we just accept. Whatever is consensual is okay. For example, a cow and a calf are in our homes and we look after them like our family members. We do not kill them. We look after them. We give them all the rights of existence, and that means they are living freely. If there is a bit of milk which we consume from them, after the calf has had sufficient milk, and the calf is healthy and happy, and we share like a family member, that’s okay. That’s what we were doing earlier. Every household had cows in them, and each cow was respected.

I remember, at my mother’s aunt’s place, they still live like that. No cow is ever slaughtered, the cows and the calves all live together. After a while, when the cow cannot produce milk, it is treated well even then. It is given the same food, the same medical support and such, like any other family member. And they die a natural death. That’s quite good because then, we are actually in harmony with nature. We are happy. We respect that every existence of nature has the same value. We accept and respect, we behave accordingly and that creates a lot of stability on Earth.

 All beings of Earth have the right to live and we have no right over other species. I believe that the beings who gulp water are herbivorous. We as humans like to gulp, not lick water. The carnivorous animals that I have seen lick water with their tongues. I am not a scientist, so I may be incorrect. But the point I am making is that by nature, I believe a human being is a herbivorous being, and our consumption should be connected to our elevation.

We have the potential for understanding consciousness. Most other beings do not have it. They have instinct, and intelligence connected to instinct. They don’t have the potential for experiencing higher awareness or working towards it. We have. Since we have it, we have that power and potential for knowing the higher. We should also be very clear about what we do on this Earth – our responsibility is larger. To sum up, since our intelligence is higher, our responsibility is also larger.

 We must know that there is no difference between animal rights and human rights. It’s just BEING RIGHT. We should always remember, it’s BEING RIGHT. Always we have to BE RIGHT.

We cannot differentiate between species, and say, “Ok I allow so much as rights to these animals or birds…” That is nonsensical! We have no right to do that. We are a species. We have imprisoned the human species itself, and there were zoos in the past, in some countries, where we imprisoned various beings of our own species! I have seen pictures of such zoos. We have been blind to many such things. We have many divisions and subdivisions based on feelings of internal supremacy due to colour, caste or community. These are aberrations and based on ignorance. They should not exist.

Talking about deities that we worship, say, for example, Lord Shiva, another name for Shiva is Neelakantha, the one with a blue neck. His neck is blue because the poison that He drank from the outside world accumulated on the neck. This signifies that we consume a lot of poison from the outside world. The poison is the dirt which our mind creates over a period of time. Anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, gossip, criticism, contempt over many different things, feeling of injustice and so on, are some examples of dirt. Shiva, as the Supreme Consciousness, consumed it. But it stayed in the neck. If it went into the stomach, it would poison the body and if it was spat out, the world would be contaminated. So as Supreme Consciousness, what Shiva did was, He held the poison in the neck. He did not digest it, it did not go into His system, and he also did not spit it out. Thus the Supreme Consciousness remained pure and the world also remained pure.

This is symbolic. If we consume gossip, criticism, prejudices, jealousy and other such negative emotions, which are connected to the world outside, to people, places and time, we should not allow them to go inside because it will upset our entire system. The body we talk about is the spiritual body, the body which is light by nature. When you consume all this negative stuff, it makes us heavy; our state of lightness reduces. So we should not consume them. Even if it is entering our system, keep it in the neck. And if you spit it out, which means, when you talk bad about people, you defame somebody, you character assassinate somebody, or you propagate violence, and you spit it all out, it will create even more negative vibes in the society. So even if you have all those consumptions, let it be in the neck, so that it’s neither out, nor in.

Shiva has various snakes around Him; He has all the important, powerful and poisonous snakes Shiva has around His neck – Anantha, Vasuki, Takshaka, Karkotaka, Shankha, Gulicka, Padma, and so on. They are all-powerful snakes, they are extremely poisonous too. So Shiva as the Supreme Consciousness kept them around his neck, as a garland so that society remains pure. We have all sorts of snakes in the society, various types of people who are spitting venom, that is, contamination. We’ve seen that. It has caused many wars, separations and displacements. We have experienced various types of agonies in the world, even now we do. As we talk, some people are dying; we see that in Syria, Yemen and various countries. We have seen wars and destruction such as the First World War, the Second World War, wars in the Balkans, the death and destruction during Stalin’s regime, during the time of Pol Pot and so on… countless deaths and destruction. Even now we see various types of calamities in the world. People are suffering, many are suffering because of a lack of harmony in the minds. We think that we can conquer and capture many things from the earth, but we do not understand that we carry nothing from here.

All the supremacy we talk about by owning things, by having lots of possessions, positions, and lots of things from the earth, all the beautiful things we have made and all the beautiful things that are on earth, exist for everyone, we can’t own it. We think that by paying money and having a document in our name, we own it. How long will we own the same? We only own something on a temporary basis, because we are here on a temporary basis. We have not remained stable in one form, from birth till death. We are changing; our body is changing, the mind is changing, everything is changing. We can’t really own anything on Earth. This awareness we should have. We should have the innate ability to share, to love, to express gratitude all the time.

 When you step on earth, it should be with the feeling of gratitude. That is why we start the day chanting, “Karagre Vasate Lakshmi, Kara Mule Saraswathi, Kara Madhye Tu Govindah, Prabate Kara Darshanam”. We look at our hands and say – On the tip of our fingers exists Goddess of wealth, at the root of our hands exists knowledge, the wisdom, and in the middle exists the God of maintenance, somebody who maintains the entire life, earth, the whole Universe.

We look at the hands and say, “Let these hands be doing good in this world.” We also say, “Samudra Vasane Devi, Parvata-Stana-MaNdale, Vishnu Patni NamasTubhyam, Paada Sparsham Kshamasva Me”. We worship the Goddess of wealth. Wealth means any creation which has happened in the universe. We consider that as connected to Shakti or power. Shiva is Supreme Consciousness and from Shiva, the action part is Shakti or power; the power of creation, power of will, power of action, all put together have created the Universe. So we say, O Goddess who is spread over the Oceans and the Mountains, I am stepping on you. Please forgive me.” So with that kind of gratitude, if you step on Earth, we will not own the Earth. Nobody can own the Earth. This body has come out of Earth. Everything has come out of Earth. When we clearly understand that, we will be in moderation. We will not consume indiscriminately. We will not conquer, capture, destroy, kill, murder, we will not do anything of that nature. And that expression is what we see in the Gods and Goddesses of our system. They exist as ideals of a certain kind, and as a representation of the ideals in a form which suits that ideal. Each of them has as an animal or a bird supporting them, so that is amounting to the preservation, preservation of a species. It’s our duty! Preservation of our body and preservation of all the species on Earth. It’s our responsibility because we have higher awareness. 

Please understand this whole picture; if you clearly understand that this human existence is a great existence, an existence with awareness, we must also remember it’s not just RIGHTS, it’s RESPONSIBILITIES which are even more important. Great Masters like Sai Baba, Bhagwan Nithyananda, Babaji, and Mahavatar Babaji; all the great Masters the world has seen, they all have propagated the same thing – Do not kill, Do not murder.

‘Ahimsa Paramo Dharmaha’ -that means Ahimsa- Non-violence is the highest form of dharma, righteous duty. Our righteous duty is to be non-violent. So if we clearly spread this, it is not about religion, not about ideology, it’s about us. Religions are made out of teachings of great Masters who have seen the Truth and they are for humans, it’s not that humans are for religions. Religions are all for human beings. They are roadmaps for higher awareness, for going into higher awareness. Paths that lead to liberation, not the paths to bind. So whenever anything binds you, understand that there’s something wrong there. Nothing can bind you.

You’re free by nature. You’re free by birth. You are born free and you will die free. Nobody can stop it. Even if you are connected to a great Master, you will still die. Even if you are connected to a religion, or a particular method, or a practice, you will still die. Everybody, everything that’s born will die; it has its natural time span. We should not ever think that by connecting to something we become immortal, or by acquiring more, by capturing more, we will become immortal. In the life story of Alexander the Great, it is said that when he left his body, when he died, he wanted his hands to be shown outside of the coffin so that people could see that he carried nothing from here. He was a world conqueror. He conquered lots of countries, but he carried nothing. The conquests were actually for emotional satisfaction. It was only to fulfil his emotion, the wild appetite, the feeling that he controlled something, that he conquered.

Many people have it. We have a wild appetite for possessions. We think we need many things. That was the only problem with Ravana. Ravana was a wise man. He had lots of knowledge, he had skills, he had many good qualities but he had this wild appetite for possessions. He wanted everything good in his place. So he did everything non-dharmic for that sake. That is when the war happened and in the war with Ram, he had to die. But Ravana was a great personality. He was a very skilled personality. He was good in warfare, he was good in many things. One quality which pulled him down was this great appetite for possessions, and that really made him weak. When we ever think that we can own more and we can accumulate more, always remember, for how long, that is very important. We must understand that nothing actually belongs to us, including the body.

Whatever we have received from here, we leave behind. If that is clear then we will be very peaceful all the time.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

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