Fear at the time of death

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 another listener. They have been thinking about people who have never experienced much beyond the body and mind throughout their entire life. And so, when they are close to death, they are gripped by fear. Is it possible to help them come out of this fear in the last days? And if it is, how can we do that?

Mohanji: Fear is connected to illusions. There’s no room for fear. There is a saying that when you can sleep in brightness, darkness cannot touch you. That means, when we are connected to our inner brightness, the real truth, there is no possibility of any fear to happen. The secret for a fearless existence is connection, deep connection to our inner brightness.

We are bright inside. The real bright aspect of our existence is our atma, the soul. And to reach that soul, the path is silence. Not activity, not doership. It’s silence. Whenever there is fear, there is ignorance. Whenever there is a fear, there is a mind. Whenever there is a fear, there is darkness. Once we know what the source of fears is, we can easily come out of it. People are trained to live in the gross world. People are trained to behave in a particular way or to manoeuvre in a particular way, in the gross world. And that prevents them from the opportunity of connecting to the brighter world inside us. In other words, people are used to the candlelight while the sun is existing in the horizons, or people are used to the candlelight indoors, and fighting their darkness using it, while just by opening the doors and windows the sunlight can come in and take the darkness away.

We are conditioned; conditioned by our education, conditioned by our notions, concepts, and prejudices. Conditioned by so many factors apply, where truth is missed. Truth is sitting inside us, and it can be found only by connecting deeply, purposefully, and consistently with ourselves. How much time are we spending with ourselves? This is the all-important question. How much time? Are we spending any time at all with ourselves? That makes the difference. We can’t find truth anywhere in the world except within ourselves. The world has all the varieties good for experiences of the senses and the mind. That’s not good enough to find the brightness inside. In fact, they are distractions from the pursuit to find the truth inside – the brightness inside.

Imagine a person living in the gross world, engaging in the world of noises consistently, thinking that’s the reality and suddenly realizes death is at hand. Death is the only companion that you are born with. As soon as you took birth, death also took birth. And death walks with you and finally engulfs you, takes you over. Death is a constant companion, but we ignore its presence, just like we ignore our shadow. That is an inevitability. So why do we fear death? Because we have an instinct to survive, the instinct is inbuilt in us and it tells us that survival is our birthright. It is so, it is indeed our birthright. But death is more powerful.

 

As I said before, death is inevitable. Death has to happen at some point in time, whether we fear it or not. So, what’s the best way to deal with this fear? Perfect awareness. All that is born will have to die. Death is our most loyal companion. All others will come and go; death will stay. Awareness is very important. And using this time of existence on earth to connect to the brightness within us will help us to stay with this companion without emotions, understanding fully well its inevitability, its necessity, and its relevance. Awareness is the key, awareness is essential for a good life and good death.

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

Thank you. This is Mohanji for you.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

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Accept yourself – Trust yourself

Welcome to Mohanji Speaks.

My friends, we have spoken about so many things in the past few days. Today, I would like to speak to you about a real-life incident that happened in my life, about 15 years ago; I was not known as Mohanji at that time.

I met one guy, a very, very successful businessman, and also a model. He has also acted in films. Very handsome, very successful, has his own yacht, various cars, and so many things. I met him at a party, and he somehow liked me and he said, “Can I speak to you?”

So we fixed a time, and then he picked me up from my office. He drove the car, and I was sitting in the car, a very, very expensive car. We went to the seaside and we sat in an isolated cafe. I ordered a juice; he ordered some drink, and we were sitting just looking at the sunset. I didn’t bring up any conversation, as usual, I kept quiet; most of the time I don’t talk. So, I kept quiet. And he asked me, out of the blue without any introduction, “You’re a chronic introvert, aren’t you?” I said, “Yes!” “Me too, I can’t speak to people.  I don’t know how to interact with people. Whatever I am showing in this world outside, is just to camouflage my helplessness; I am always helpless. What I liked in you is, you have tremendous strength in your eyes. When I looked at your eyes, I felt a lot of strength. Somewhere, is a will of steel or something like that; but you looked very vulnerable in this whole party. I didn’t come and talk to you easily; then I kept looking at you and I realized that I must talk to you. So that’s how I came to you.”

Then he started telling me his story. A broken family, sexual abuse in childhood; he couldn’t speak to anybody. He had wealth, his parents had wealth, but most of the wealth was stolen by his own uncles. He was humiliated in school, bullied in school; his girlfriend, first girlfriend, he had a girlfriend at the age of 15, and she cheated on him, cheated in the sense, she just went away without telling him. Like that. He had a series of troubles and problems to say, and he started crying.

PC: Google images

Luckily, we were the only two people in that small cafeteria; and nobody was looking at us, so it was easier. And he said, “You know what, I didn’t have anybody to talk to. I went to a few counselors. I tried to talk to some religious people, and they only gave me some kind of solutions like, you do this offering in this church, go to this place or that place. But nothing worked. Basically, I’m still crying inside. Many times, I thought of committing suicide. To the outside world, I’m very rich; I have a lot of wealth. I have organizations, people are working for me, but I’m so insecure; I don’t know how I live another day.” Then he said, “You know what, whenever I look at myself; I see ugliness. I do not feel that I’m worth it; I have a very, very big problem with my self-esteem. I have complexes; I’m hiding all of that with my money, and with certain things which will camouflage me from all this.

But I’m really afraid of the world. I’m really afraid of the people; I fear that they will hurt me. I have relationships, but I’m afraid of women. I feel they will betray me; I can’t trust anybody. I don’t know who to trust. I don’t know who to believe, to be with. I have a big ocean of friends, as you saw, but they are not my friends. They are just like acquaintances. And I don’t feel anything for anybody; I am pretty lonely.  I did marry twice; it didn’t work, I left it. I do have friends and girls; I do have relationships; I do have sexuality, but I don’t trust myself. I don’t trust anybody; I don’t trust my wealth; I don’t trust any of the things I have, my companies, nothing! I have literally picked up myself from a disaster situation where my uncles were taking away our wealth when my parents died. And I built up everything from ashes, but I did build up. But I don’t feel proud, I don’t feel anything.”

It was an utter sorry state. How to respond? How to react? How to make him accept himself, which was a big question mark. He has already been to the most expensive consultants of the world; mood changers, game-changers, motivational people; he’s been everywhere. And he couldn’t really get anything out of it.

He said, “I had various experiences with various people, I paid immense money for that. It was only for some time; there was no transformation inside.” Then I asked him, “How do you think I can make a difference? I’m a chronic introvert. I’m not a motivational speaker; I’ve never motivated people that way. I lead a life of purity and honesty as much as possible. I have my vulnerabilities. I’m also afraid of the crowd because the crowd has hurt me; people have betrayed me just like you said. How do you think I can help you?”

Then he said, “One thing we have in common; you are an introvert, I am an introvert, so we can understand each other. I don’t need a solution right now. I’m not asking you for a solution, but I’m just asking you for some clarity.”

So, I said, “The clarity is you. That’s it!” He said, “That’s it?”” Yes, that’s it. It’s you. Whatever you think you are, that’s exactly what you’re experiencing.” “So, how do I make a difference?” I said, “Through acceptance. The past has to be put in its place, buried if possible.”  Then he asked, “How do I trust people?” “I said, “Trust yourself, that’s only the only person you need to trust. Outside people are outside people, you have them and you do not have them. It’s basically you. When you are awake, you have them. When you’re not awake, when you’re sleeping, you don’t have them. So there is only one person you need to trust, it is you.”

He asked me, “Is it that simple?”  I said, “I think so.” He asked me, “How do you handle your life?” I said, “I don’t want to bring my story to you now, because you’ve been telling your story, which was quite intense, so why should I tell you mine?” He said, “No, no tell, I want to hear!”

So, I told a bit about ‘the tragedies’ I experienced in my life: neglected childhood kind of thing, a bit of feeling unwanted, then difficult to position as an introverted person in the society; and then being forcefully extroverted with activities just to prove to myself;  and of course, finding some success there as well.  Then lack of direction, lack of goals, lack of vision, a kind of abandoned state in youth. Then jobs, some success, a lot of hard work, working hours and hours, self-destructive levels of working, and finally, finding some success in work – recognition. Betrayals in work, competition, jealousy, those kinds of things. Then a marriage that didn’t work, loss of a child, loss of property, loss of wealth, loss of job, and physical ailments. Then trusting people; they betraying, stabbing from behind. Giving everything to people to make them happy; because I believed that it’s my responsibility to make everybody happy who loves me, and they took it for granted. Some people literally betrayed using the trust that I had in them. All these things, it’s been a strange life.

I said, “I have always been alone. I walked alone. And whenever I felt people were trying to own me, I ran away.”

He said, “Yes, I did the same. I’m afraid of people owning me. This is what I wanted to talk to you. I don’t like people owning me.”

I said, “Because nobody can own us. It’s not a problem; it’s not a fault. You cannot own anybody nor can anybody own us.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! That makes sense to me!”

I said, “Yes, that’s the truth.” Then he said, “What else?”

I said, “It’s you. It’s you and you and you! I don’t exist for you.”

He looked into my eyes, “What do you mean?”

I said, “You’re seeing me now. After four or five hours, where am I? Where are you? You don’t even know where I’m living, do you? We have no guarantee we will meet again. Do you think so? Do you believe it?”

He said, “Yes, yes, there is a possibility we may not meet again.”

And I said, “That’s a reality. What is my value in your life right now? I’m just pointing one finger to you. I am telling you to look at yourself. You are beautiful. Trust yourself. You can only trust yourself. Don’t betray yourself. You cannot trust the world. The world has its highs and lows, ups, and downs. The world has its moods, its ethics, its character, consciousness, and levels of acceptance. Nothing can be guaranteed from this world. But we saw all our insecurities; all of our complexes, all our fears. We have seen them, we experienced them, and we are experiencing them, even now. Look into my eyes closely, what do you see?”

He said, “My own reflection.” I said, “That’s the only truth. You are alive, you exist. That’s all you need to know. Now let’s go. Let’s part.” By that time, it was about 7 pm. He said, “I’ll drop you.” I said, “Yes, just drop me at the bus stop, I’ll catch a bus.” He drove me to the bus stop. While traveling he said, “I want to give you something. I asked him, “What?” “A cheque!” he said. I asked, “For what?” “For giving me time, and I feel good; I’m sure I will change. Thank you for your time.” And then he wanted to give me a blank cheque. He said you can write your amount. It doesn’t matter. I said, “Thank you. I don’t need your cheque; thank you for the drink, thank you for the time we are together. When you want, you come; but don’t come, I would say, you find yourself if you can.”

Then he told me, “One day I will come to you; that time, you will own me. “I laughed and I said, “I can’t own anybody. Not even myself.” He said, “No! One day, I will come to be with you, to work with you. I know you will become famous; I can see that in your eyes. I have this acumen for knowing people because I do business. I know you will become very rich, very powerful one day. You will be famous. I’ll be with you at that time.” I said, ”Thank you.”  And we parted.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Think about it. This is our life too. All the best.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Padmini Ravikumar & Shyama Jeyaseelan

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Q & A on Suicide

An excerpt from Kriya Intensive retreat in Bosnia, May 2019

Q: Both of my husband’s parents committed suicide, not at the same time. Is their karma inherited by my children or by my husband? Does that affect their or my karma?

Mohanji: The karma that pushes you in that kind of density or pushes the family is usually lineage related. It’s not individual. The individual is part of it, but lineage brings that weight on people. Some of the things which create heaviness in life are unnatural deaths, wars, displacements, betrayals, etc. If you take Balkan, it has faced WWI, WWII, Balkan war. There are a lot of wars which have affected a lot of families in this region.

I’d like you to understand there could be many reasons for suicide, but what happens to the soul after suicide? This is important for you to be aware of. Understand this clearly. Imagine a person has a life span of 70 or 80 years. And this person decides to end his life at the age of 60. First of all, there are 20 years of potential life pending. So everything minus the body remains for the next 20 years; everything – all other sheaths, all other attachments, except the physical body. You cannot do what you can do with your body.

What is the emotion then? Helplessness. Deep helplessness. Then what they do? They have all other emotions, all other feelings except the body; deep helplessness happens. Then they start bothering other beings; because of their helplessness – they have everything except the body. They want to do something, but they can’t. But they have to be here around this place. Any kind of unnatural death causes this. This is one part of the story.

Now imagine this soul is wandering around, it doesn’t know what to do. ‘Soul’ means all other things connected to it such as all the koshas (manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, annandamaya kosha) which have pending desires, but it can’t fulfil them because it doesn’t have the body. You are carrying all these as a burden but at the same time, there is no fulfilment for 20 years. I am giving you an example. So that is 20 years of wandering. And there are a lot of beings of various nature in this world such as viruses, bacteria, which we know through our microscopes. Like that, there are many beings in various levels of subtlety, existing in this plane, which we can’t see. Animals can see some, humans can’t see any. And these guys can sometimes be bound by some beings who have this habit of capturing and using these wandering souls.

First, there is no faith, there is no connection to a Master. There is no connection to God. That is why they are wandering. They are totally helpless, totally vulnerable. So, they are trying to reach various masters in a physical and a non-physical form, asking for help. That’s a different side. But imagine, they are not connected to anything. Some of these guys are caught by the beings who bind them and use them. Just like we have domestic animals, etc.; we bind them, we control them, of course, we feed them, but they are under our control. Similarly, some of these guys are caught and used. Then there is no guarantee when they can come out of it. Forget about 20 years; because they have no release. Until they get released, they are bound. Then you don’t know when they can actually get liberated. It takes ages.

Devi: Nice subject.

Mohanji: I want you to know this because people do not know the subtleties of suicide. Why I am explaining this is because in case people have depression, you must make them understand the seriousness of it.

Q: What happens to the souls of people who did not end their life on their own will but their life ended because of certain circumstances? 

Mohanji: I will come to that. Let me complete this. Otherwise, I’ll lose the thread.

So these people can be used by others. There is a possibility. Now, human beings, some people follow certain practices, like black practices. What are black practices? Those which are based on control and conquest, not connected to liberation. We do not use this kind of things. Why? Because we aim to attain the highest possibility in a lifetime.

What is the highest possibility? Complete dissolution. Total dissolution. Not even enlightenment. Beyond enlightenment, to become the ocean. That’s our aim.

However, the aim of many practices is not dissolution. The aim is earthly i.e. terrestrial powers. Some people are practising this and I always tell my people, “Never go that way.” Even if you get some powers, it’s eternal binding. You have no idea when you can get out, so don’t look there, don’t go there. Your practices should liberate you. Become one with Shiva, one with Supreme Consciousness. It’s important. Even if you are facing hardships, if somebody tells you, “I’ll sort it out for you fast,” leave it. It’s not worth it. But some of these people use these wandering souls for their purpose. They bind them using certain mantras and certain rituals. You must be very clear about the dark path and the white path. The dark path is for powers of earthly nature – miracles and powers. Not all the miracles. Masters perform miracles too, but that’s different. But these are for powers and they use certain practices, certain rituals for creating that effect. Without those practices and rituals, they have no effect in this world. In the dark path, you are creating an effect using mantras, rituals, using and controlling certain things. On the other hand, in the white path, it’s unbound. You attain the energy and power and it’s forever. Through your alignment of body, mind, intellect, ego, and spirit together, you become one unit, you become fully powerful within and that is what you are expressing in the bright path.

These are two opposite paths. I hope I am making it very clear. I want you to know because many people do not know this. And I have always seen that those who practise these things talk about the white path as unreal, bad. They always do that because it is important for their survival. They should say the other path is bad. So you get disillusioned. Their job is to disillusion you, to confuse you.

Many people don’t know the differences and get trapped. They get fascinated by some kind of power, but they have no idea where the power has come from. They get trapped and then it is very difficult to come out because they hook you.

There are even some methods of healing connected to the dark path. People don’t know this. The moment you get involved in it, they will immediately give you a result. You’ll be very happy. After that, you are stuck forever. Then when will you get out, nobody knows. This happens on Earth. There are so many beings operating this way. I would like you to know. I am not trying to scare you here. I want you to be very clear about the white path and the dark path. The white is only about liberation. It doesn’t have any fancy but it is about total dissolution. Our path is about total dissolution. It means you become brightness where you don’t have existence otherwise. You are fully bright. You are fully light. Nothing else matters. No powers, nothing matters here.

The souls we are talking about here either wander, they don’t know what to do, or some non-physical beings try to control them just like some of the predators who snatch some deer or some other beings in the forest. They are snatched away just like that because they are helpless. Or people who are practising certain things, try to control them and use them as slaves. And they cannot come out of it easily. It’s very difficult to come out of it because they bind them. These people bind even physical people – people with bodies. They are using these people for their purpose. They also do that. This also happens in life.

What is the clear sign of the path of darkness in one word?

FEAR. They use fear a lot. We do not use fear at all. We do not have God-fear, we only have God-loving. There is no usage of fear here. What do you fear? We have no value for fear. Fear means unknown, ignorance. Fear is ignorance. They use fear a lot so that through fear they control people, control minds.

Minds can be easily controlled with fear. These practices are of the dark side. Dark practices, practices of control. It is not only in India. I met one guy in South Africa, he was telling me there are practices like this. These guys practice in the burial grounds, and when they bury the dead body, they try to capture the souls and use them. Instead of liberating the souls, they bind them.

There are some practices in South America. They may look like shamanic practices that look positive, but please remember it is very hard to differentiate between the positive and negative. If at all, fears are being sold. If they are using fear to control, run away. You do not need them. There should be no fear – you should be fearless. You should be powerful. This you should remember always. And only you can save yourself in this context.

If you are deeply connected to a Master or God, very deeply, means unshakeably, then nobody can touch you. Then you are completely safe, but we do not do that. What these people try to do is, they put a doubt in your mind. Correct? Once they put a doubt in your mind, then you are always thinking “Is this real?” That is enough. That doubt is enough. That opening is enough for them to enter and work on you. When you lose trust, the faith, connection; that is the way they operate. But if you are deeply connected to a Master of the white tradition, automatically you will know – when there comes fear you will know – these are the things that are not good for me.

I will give you one example, normally I do not tell what I do but this actually happened in Serbia a few years ago. I was conducting a program and one of the people who attended the program said there is a person who is a teacher in Serbia, but he is completely controlled by these beings. Sometimes it happens, when you try to control these beings for a long period of time, if you do the wrong things, they start controlling you. So this guy was stuck, and he was talking very bad things about me at that time. He said Mohanji is a devil, Mohanji is all this… So that was going on. And then he got stuck. And he told this person, his disciple, “Only Mohanji can help me. So please get me an appointment.” I said I do not have time because I was there actually only for a week. And I said I cannot leave because all these people are here. I have to take care of them, I do not have time for anybody else. Then this person told me, please, if I had some minutes because he desperately needs it. He wanted to apologize for what he told about me. He doesn’t even know me, but he was talking extremely bad things about me. That was due to his own insecurity. Then I said, “Ok, in that case, you come at lunchtime.” I was having lunch and I saw him with a lot of people surrounding him, means pulling him back. He did not want to come in. He was stuck. Then he bowed down from a distance. I said I will come and I went to him. I said, “You come to my room. If you dare to enter my room, I will save you.” I knew he could not come. Because they didn’t allow him to come. I went to my room, I sat and said nobody should come into my room, and then this guy came. He reached the door and he was holding onto the door, he was struggling to come in. But he could not enter. I said, “Come in.” And he could not enter. They did not want him to come. I said, “If you dare to come, I will save you.” And then he jumped, he fell inside, and he sat down, but he was sitting like this (Mohanji showed how he was sitting). He said “Mohanji, you are so powerful. I cannot handle your energy.” I said “Keep quiet, just sit there. Do not do anything.” He sat there, and then everything vanished. After that, he attended a couple of our programs, and he wrote things about me, he apologized in public, in writing saying “I made a mistake, and he is the real one.” This is what I am saying, and why I say this is just for awareness. But a level of helplessness happens when you practice these things. After a while you do not have a grip, you cannot control it, and then the whole thing goes bad. This is why I said – never leave the white path, the Path of Liberation, because all these things are not worth it. Immediately you may get some advantage, but you will pay through your life, lifetimes.

 

Why I am explaining this? Why is this explained in so many details?

Because there are so many disillusioned people. They think of the dark as the white. It is easy because they also use eyes. Why we use the eyes as the symbol is because the eyes are the gateway to consciousness. It is the signature of the stature.

We use eyes as a signature of the stature. If you connect to the eyes, you know who this person is, and which level he is operating from. That is why we use eyes. They use eyes for attracting something else. This is the difference.

We must be very clear that in our path – I think Avadhoota Nadananda has written about using eyes in the tradition – what they signify. Somebody like that lady from Washington DC, she said she wants to see my eyes before she invites me for a program, and she saw my eyes and said you are welcome. Those who have eyes to see the truth they will understand the person through the eyes. So, they are the signature of the stature. And what is the use of these eyes? They connect you to the right path. So you can understand you arrived home. That understanding happens. Today we are in the gadget world, we only see gadgets, we do not see eyes. So, what will happen, you miss a certain reality. You miss a certain truth.

All that glitters is not gold. Always remember the white tradition, the white path, you can easily use the benchmark of the inner silence. Fewer thoughts, inner silence, stability, and Tradition only talks about helping the helpless as a practice, proper practice. The rest is turning the mind, intellect and ego inwards. This is what they talk about. Turn the mind, intellect and ego inwards and do something good for the world. Have a higher purpose. That will liberate you. That will take you all the way forward. Of course, Kriya and those kinds of things help, but when you go for powers and instant something, you may enter into something which is not so good. Then they may not be able to help you later.

I was talking about the souls who are exiting the body with violence, like suicide. I spoke about all the scenarios possible. I told about two or three scenarios, like wandering until the end of their actual life. Another is death. Beings who are invisible can hold them, capture them. Then these beings who practice certain things can hold them, capture them, use them. So, you are very vulnerable in that mode. This should be made understandable to all the people who have these tendencies, self-destructive tendencies. It is important.

Imagine nothing of this happens and they are just sitting. They still have desires, right? They still have everything except a body. So they get connected to people who have similar desires. They get connected to the people with a body who have similar desires. Sometimes, they enter them and use them. They have emotions, they have desires. When they cannot express those emotions and desires, they try to connect to those bodies who have similar emotions and desires.

One Master was standing and looking at a tree, another came and asked him, “What are you looking at?” He said, “Three people are sitting there on the tree. I am just watching what their plan is.” The guy said, “I cannot see them, there is nobody there.” “These three people do not have their bodies, you cannot see them, but they are sitting there, waiting for somebody.” Then they saw one man walking down the road, fully drunk, in a half-conscious state, walking. And that guy did not see these people. But they saw him. He walked and then he went around the corner and went. While walking, he was falling down and getting up, totally drunk. The Master said, “Okay, let`s go”. The guy asked what happened. He said, “Those three people joined him. Four people went together.” Then he asked, “Why did they go with him?” “He went into a brothel around the corner. All these three people also wanted to go to the same brothel but they did not have a body. They are using this body.” This is exactly how it works.

That is why if you have anger, the beings who accent anger enter and they accent your anger. If you have jealousy, same thing. What your basic things are, that will be accented by various beings surrounding you. So, you may have ten units but it becomes eighty when three or more people join. This happens. When somebody commits a crime and something happens, usually maybe it is not only that person. It is a collective thing making a scene. Why am I explaining this? Everything is not as it seems to be. It is not what is obvious. There are so many other factors connected to it. Therefore, you cannot blame anybody. Maybe there are so many beings working through him, because of his vulnerability. We must be very clear about this. That is why I said, we should be compassionate, bring people out of it. The moment their attitude changes, these guys leave. Only when jealousy sits, a being of jealousy will enter. Only when there are deep anger and frustration, such beings enter. The moment it changes, they leave because they have no room there. They’re not interested anymore.

So what should we do? We should elevate the awareness to the level where all these emotions drop off and you are clean and serene. All these beings leave you, they are not interested. Who is interested in the liberation that way?

All these things are created. It is important to understand before you marry depression. It is not worth it.

 

Accidental death

What happens to those beings who have an accidental death? Many times the accidental death, which is also untimely death, is caused by the karmic combination because that’s the way they exit. In karma, it might be equal to natural death. Because time ends there. Sometimes accidental deaths are not as bad as deciding to kill yourself. Not as bad, but again it is an unnatural death. Sometimes, in unnatural deaths, accidental deaths, the soul hangs on until there is time for the next life, next birth. And what causes accidental deaths? Usually the trapped fear. Trapped fear of an abrupt ending.

So, whenever we have emotions trapped, it’s an effect we do not know, we cannot predict. It is important that in this process what we have to do, we have to do, and also we have less emotional bindings. Emotions can become diseases, or even can become death. When there is a fear of theft in the house, there is usually a theft in the house. When you fear attacks from unknown people, it happens. In all these things, there is a trapped fear as a cause.

Likewise, sometimes we have visions and images of certain situations. Even as simple as going to a restaurant or something like that. Whenever there is a suppressed desire or denial, then they manifest even as a dream, and it can get fulfilled there if it cannot happen in real life. So it is not as we read. There are so many factors creating those effects in life. It can even happen in a dream state. In a dream sometimes, we fell down from something and we died. Then we wake up in the morning and we realize we are not dead. But we had that effect at least for some time. So those things are all stored emotions, what you have packed in your system.

The animal trainers will tell you, some dogs and some animals have perpetual fear because somebody was ill-treating them when they were babies. Then the whole life they carry that trauma of ill-treating. We also have that. It takes a lot of effort to burst that thing off, completely destroy it and be free. I try to hold hands of such people, I try to help them. And usually as a thumb rule, Mai-Tri healers can say better, for women, everything is connected to the uterus. For men, it is below the ribcage. This is a kind of a focal point. From there, everything goes into every dimension. All storage, attractions, connections. So, the healing for a woman’s body is uterus-related and for a man, below the ribcage. The difference is there. The trapped fears can affect anywhere. It can be all trapped fears in all the places. The root cause of many of these things is trapped fears. Trapped emotions.

Q: I work with a child who is very suicidal, how do I tell this to a child? 

Mohanji: When the child is very peaceful, you can tell like a story. “You know what happens when the soul leaves the body?” Like that, gently. Not like a detrimental thing. But it is good to give awareness. It is not like “You end this body, you do not end” story. This has to be told properly because it is important to guide. Very small things happen, an emotional thing and people hurt themselves. That is very, very bad. And you know sometimes, they provoke as well. “Why are you living? Why don’t you just come and commit a suicide?” It is like the fox who lost its tail, “It is very nice to have no tail,” and the fox convinces a few of other foxes to lose their tails.

These things happen with these disembodied spirits. They sometimes try to tell things. That is why you need to have FIRM faith. Let me tell you a remedy. FAITH. Connection with the Master. You will never deviate. But it should be unconditional faith, strong connection. People will try to put doubts in your mind. “Are you sure? Is this the right Master?” Things like that. Does not matter. You say, “Even if he is a donkey, I do not have a problem. My faith is firm.” The moment you have firm faith, you cannot be touched.

A lot of emotional decisions are connected to lack of faith. They do not trust themselves and they do not trust another. I always tell people; the first preference is to trust yourself as a complete incarnation. If this is not possible, trust a Master. Master will do the job. But it should be firm. 100% firm, unshakeable. Weak trust has no value. It’s almost like no trust. Conditional trust has no value. Today, I am happy, I trust, otherwise, I do not trust. That is of no value. It is actually a mind game. It does not work. But it should be firm; if it is firm, nothing will touch you.

These points which I said, I meant it. Because all of you should know the path. Whenever you follow a path, you should know the path and follow. Do not get fascinated. Do not get distracted. It is important because lifetimes can get wasted like this. Going in the wrong directions, detours. In chasing something which you do not know. Somebody can manipulate you, and those who manipulate will say others are manipulating. They will not say they are manipulating. It is always the case.

What is manipulation? Manipulation is telling an untruth for their benefit. You can easily understand manipulators. How? They will need something from you. They are using the technique for their advantage. This is a manipulator. If the path is liberation, the Master will need nothing from you. This is a benchmark you should remember. Master needs nothing from you. Their only way is to take you forward. That is the benchmark. If you can understand that, all you need is average intelligence to know. A manipulator will need lots of things from you. They will trap you so that they can always milk you.

The real, true Master of the path of liberation will need nothing from you. Their only aim is to take you forward. Thank you.

 

Look into the eyes of fear

Welcome, my friends, to Mohanji Speaks. I hope you have enjoyed the previous episodes.
Today, let’s talk about an overwhelming subject, fear. There are various dimensions of fear that we see in our lives and around us.

Have you ever thought about fears objectively? There are numerous types of fears. Some are very paralyzing fears; fear of height, fear of insects, fear of wild animals, and so on; the intensity of each varies. Let’s look at some of the worst fears of our life.

One of the most intense fears of everyone’s existence is death. The fear of death is very common. We will look into how we can counter the fear of death a little later. There are other fears, such as fear of people, fear of talking in public, fear of doing a task, fear of not receiving approval from people, fear of criticism and fear of judgment. We have various types of social fears: How will people look at us. What will they think about us?

I have seen some people who are afraid to say they’re following Mohanji or that they’re connected to me. I have no problem in connecting to anybody, and I have no problem in saying I’m with them because when you decide to do something in life, it is your prerogative. You have full freedom. You have free will. Then there is no way anyone can object. Nobody has the right to point a finger at you, because you chose an experience. Choose an experience. It’s our choice.

We also have the fear of failure and it is so crippling that we don’t even attempt certain things in life. This means we lose the chance for that experience.

We have the fear of losing friendships. So we bend backwards and forwards to accommodate people in our life. (It) means we become unnatural. Still, we accommodate; we try to accommodate people in our life. Sometimes it’s better than some friendships are lost because they are too heavy for us to handle. When I say lost, I do not mean that we convert them to enemies, but to understand that it’s alright to be away from these friendships. It is good to not have toxic friendships, crippling friendships, draining friendships!

We have fear of examinations. The real examination of life is life in itself, every moment; the decisions that we make every moment without knowing what the result will be. These are real examinations in life. We should not be afraid of life. We should embrace life. We should embrace life with Love. This will give us stability.

We are afraid of losing our comfort zones. This is another fear that we entertain. We have certain things which we have obtained in this life and we hate to lose it. We have fear and wonder what will happen if it goes away. But life is about changes. Everything changes. Life changes, situations change. Can we help it? I doubt it. We have to go with the flow. We have to be like water; flow.

Coming back to the first question about death, how do we overcome the fear of death? One word answer is awareness. Whatever is born, will die. Everything that’s born has to die. And at each point in time, we are made aware that everything is temporary. All situations, all emotions, all things around us are temporary. When we close our eyes at night, we don’t have a world around us. It’s gone. When we open our eyes in the morning, there exits the world around us in which we can move and experience things. But they are all temporary. This is a reminder that the world and life are temporary. Everything is temporary. It is a good way to know that we will die someday, and there’s nothing to be afraid of. Everything that is born will die.

If we increase our longevity, increase the lifespan… even if we extend our lifespan, if there is no contentment factor, is it worth it? A real-life, good life is when you are healthy; when you are experiencing life as a healthy person. When you’re unhealthy, when you need help from people, that’s not the right way to live. That’s not a healthy life.
We are afraid of losses; economic losses, monetary losses, loss of friendship, loss of near and dear ones, loss of relationships, various types of losses. Many of us are afraid of them. We are afraid of diseases. We fear them; we fear losing wealth. And we fear society in a certain context. How will society treat us if we don’t have this wealth?

Thus there’re so many dimensions of fear which we entertain each day. People give you fear, such as when relatives say, ‘’Hey, if you lose this job, you’ll have a problem, you won’t be respected in the society.’’ You then cling on to the job. We fear not getting tasks done, so we end up bribing, rather we enter into corruption. There are many things which are controlled by fear.

An important fear is the fear of God. God is Love. Why do we fear God? What’s there to be afraid of God? God means the substratum. Everything sits on Him. The whole universe has come out of this intelligent energy called God. We can give it a form; we can keep it formless. All the forms have come out of God, and all the forms will dissolve into God. And we call it God.

If you’d like to call it energy if you call it Consciousness, there is no problem. It’s all the same. But why do we fear? A particle of God is sitting inside us. We call it a soul. And this is a very important aspect of our existence. If it leaves the body, we call the body a dead body, useless piece of flesh and bones. God is to be loved, respected and appreciated.

Also, we should be grateful to God for creating the universe, the variety of all these experiences, the possibility of experiencing them, and to have a life. This life is given so that we could experience all this. Not that God chose to give life. God is not like a school teacher or a king, sitting high up somewhere, invisible, pointing a finger at things. It’s a substratum where we can create our life; we can create our existence.

That is why when Lord Dattatreya was asked by people who he was, He said, “I am just a worshipper of nature. I’m a connoisseur. I love nature, and my love for nature and wonder for all these creations is my inspiration.” How beautiful!

We also have fear for tomorrow. What will happen tomorrow? Tomorrow happens just like the previous times. Our tomorrow is made based on how we created our life, our patterns, our likes and dislikes, our orientation, and disposition. If you change your disposition, if you change your attitude, if you change your likes and dislikes, tomorrow will be different. So, who’s creating it? We are creating it. Who’s maintaining it? We are maintaining it when we maintain our likes and dislikes when we maintain our orientation, when we maintain our disposition, then the world is the same. But if we decide to change, then the world is different. The world is just a reflection, a projection, of what we are.

Where is the room for fear? In the path of liberation, there is no room for fear. The one thing we need, to overcome all the fears, is our ability to look into the eyes of fears and tell them, “I’m not afraid. Come on. Bring it on. No problem!” Secondly, we need awareness; awareness is key. When you have awareness, you have no fear. Faith is the third aspect. These are not in hierarchical order, not one above the other; all of them are important to control or to contain fear. To explain faith, the primary faith is faith in yourself, then faith in the Universe and also acceptance is another aspect. Acceptance is when you say, ‘’Okay, I have fear, but I’m not bound by fear.’’ Fear is sometimes acquired. People gave it to you. Understand and let it be, no problem. All these aspects can help you counter your fears.

Look at us now; take a look at society. Society sometimes sells fears. We have feature films, horror films. This is selling fear, and why do they do that? There is an element of entertainment and satisfaction in these fears. That aspect is sold. We can very well be away from it. It is our choice; to be afraid and be happy, or stay away from all this nonsense and be peaceful. This is our choice. I’m not against horror films, but I don’t watch them. I’m not interested.

Here is another aspect I would like to bring up; a young boy told Caesar (I think it was Octavius Caesar or maybe it was Augustus Caesar), ‘’My Lord, the people love you.’’ The king replied, ‘’No, they fear me. This is better.’’ Fear is used by political leaders, religious, spiritual leaders to control people. Fear is the weapon there. Fear is a very powerful weapon because it cripples you and that’s used to control people. It is a very negative way of handling situations. I always believe love is much more powerful and is much better in handling issues.

There is a disadvantage though in that if people cannot handle love, they can go against you. Some people prefer fear to love based on their orientation and disposition. This is utilized by political leaders, spiritual leaders and rulers to control people, which is a negative way of handling things. That’s not correct. But society uses fears; so does the government, to control people. Fear of retribution and fear of punishments are very crippling. People obey because of these fears. Fears have varied dimensions. Let us cultivate love. We don’t need fear. We should not fear, we should love. This life is a beautiful garden. We should swap all of our fears with Love. We can love God, we can love Gurus, we can love Masters, we can love friends, family, society, nature, and we can love everything. You can then get it back.

What you sow, you reap. So, you give love and you take love. Whenever somebody tries to control you with fear, go away from them, because you don’t need it. If somebody or something or a situation or infrastructure or machinery (such as the government), tries to control you with fear, try to step out of that and go away or through your love, transform them. Through love, you can transform others. Everything can be transformed with Love.

Today, we have extended the speech for some time. I spoke a little bit more because the subject is deep and very important. I would like to leave you with these thoughts. We can talk more about fears, later. But these thoughts should be pondered upon. I would like you to do something to get out of all your fears. You don’t need fears. You should be fearless. Then you are liberated. Freedom from fears is also liberation. And that leads to complete liberation. Love, that’s all you need.

Lots of love.

This is Mohanji.

Transcribed by Maja Otovich

Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

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ASK THE MASTERS

Shlloka: We are kick starting, Ask The Masters. It was a long time coming. And it is such a privilege to have all of you here. I am Shlloka, your host and with a lot of pleasure, I introduce my co-host, Dr. Nidhi Kumar.

Dr. Nidhi Kumar is the lead anchor for Doordarshan. She’s a rubicon of journalism, very iconic and she has been championing various social causes and spiritual emancipation at many levels. And this is one such initiative. I would also like to mention our co-host “Mystics of India”. Mystics of India is a platform which endorses spirituality. And it talks about the tales of mystics through their platform. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge our partners for this episode – Mohanji Foundation. It’s truly a blessing to have you associated with us through this medium and with our first episode. So thank you to all of you for joining…

Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Thank you, Shlloka. And before we introduce Mohanji, it’s time to greet all our viewers here. Namaste, Sairam and welcome, as we kick start the first episode of ‘Ask The Masters’ and go inwards.

By the way, a few questions. Did you know?

• 70% of the content online is pornographic
• India is the hub of student suicide in the world.
• You know what is trending on Google these days? How to cope with anxiety, depression and stress!

These rates are off the roofs. The initiative is to challenge the strength. We can do better and we will do better. The intention is to shift people from ill-being to well-being at the touch of a button. And hopefully, by the end of the series, you would have the solutions that you need to have, to have a happier, healthier life. I now request Shlloka to introduce Mohanji.

Shlloka: So who is Mohanji? This is my first time hosting any event, so I was reading a little bit about him on his website. The core of who he is, is that he is a renowned humanitarian who is focusing on positive human values that we can add in this world and without expectation, through our existence.

But what struck me the most was that Mohanji does not exist. This really caught me because the description that I read was him being an everyday man. So what is it about Mohanji that makes so many people gravitate towards him? It is the fact that he does not exist! And whenever anything does not exist, it doesn’t have a frame, it doesn’t have dimensions, it doesn’t have personalities, it doesn’t have qualities. It is empty, there is nothingness. And because of this emptiness, Mohanji becomes a doorway for something bigger and larger to happen through him.

Mohanji, it is such a pleasure and privilege for a seeker to be associated with you and be in your midst. So thank you for gracing the occasion.

Mohanji: Thank you so much.

Shlloka: We have people joining in from all across the globe. And the first thing that I would like to ask you is about your spiritual journey. What led you to this? What got you started, can you talk a little bit about that?

Mohanji: Well, after going through all phases of life – the different phases, physical, emotional, intellectual, the many phases that we go through, right from childhood, (and mostly unconsciously, because we don’t know we have shifted to various levels), at some point in time, this question comes to you. What exactly are you looking for? Since I had been working in the shipping industry earlier, I could taste whatever money could buy. But it wasn’t happiness. So I was literally searching for happiness for a long period of time. I used to go to the Himalayas often. Whenever I used to get leave, I flew to the Himalayas. But the problem was that when I went back, I couldn’t carry the Himalayas with me!

So at one point in time, I started asking myself, “Is this really what you want to do?” When you have time you’re going to a place and that place has peace. But you’re not carrying that peace with you. So you need to find peace amongst all activities or amidst everything. So that’s when I literally started focusing on myself. And it continued for a long time, about five or six years of deep penetration. My path was very simple. I didn’t have a guru. So I was literally connecting to my spine and just switching off from the front-orientedness.

We are generally front-oriented, because all our sensors are in the front and we tend to go to the front and hence everything is front-oriented. That is how we are made. Usually we don’t even think about our spine in our daily life because we don’t have to, unless there is back pain. I simply tried to connect to my spine, started feeling my spine and that literally took me inside – meaning I used to connect to my spine and breathe through the spine, etc.

Even if you just remember your spine, you will know that your connection has gone to your third eye. This was my practice and it took some time. From the world of sounds which I was totally involved in, like everybody else, I started going into the core of sounds which is silence. Like the ocean, from where the waves are coming out and going back to the ocean, all noises come out of silence and they go back to silence. So I could go down deeper and deeper after a lot of effort. Don’t think it’s easy, because it takes time, and because we are used to sounds. We are used to noises. And we think it’s natural for us to be in the noises. I was one of the noises in the world of noises.

But then 3 am to 8 am was my time. The rest of the time I had sold for money because I was working. So from 3am to 8am, I used to focus on myself, on the spine, and then go deeper. Silence used to be in the form of less thoughts initially, and no thoughts eventually. Once I touched silence, I realised I didn’t need to go anywhere. So in the midst of activity, I could penetrate to the world of silence. Then later I came back to the world of noises as silence. That was the difference. That’s why Shlloka said a little bit earlier that I don’t exist, because I don’t exist as a noise. I exist as silence which is probably not so visible. You have got to have the ‘eyes’ to really see that, but that was fine with me. Everybody need not connect because many people connect to the world of noises easily but silence is very difficult. From the world of noises to the world of silence was the transition for me. And that created Mohanji.

Shlloka: The iconic Mohanji as we say.

Nidhi: Absolutely! We resonate with your views. Because the purpose of ‘Ask the Masters’ is to go inwards and introspect, especially in these quarantined times/ lockdown times. However a lot of people are very stressed because of the current situation and there’s a lot of anxiety in their minds.

In the present times people are suffering both on macro and micro levels. On the macro level, people are losing their jobs. They are starving. And on the mental level, some of them are going through a lot of hell. There’s a lot of mental abuse happening as we speak and the statistics are quite alarming. Then there is domestic violence also on a different front. On a micro level, people are stressed, angered and their relationships are actually getting strained. How do we tackle this suffering?

Mohanji: I would say don’t try to tackle situations, instead tackle yourself. That’s the right thing to tackle. Because externally, we do not have control over various things since we are only participants. However, internally we can control everything. This is a God-given time, to be ourselves; to really penetrate within and understand this thing called ‘us’.

You have got to really take time and look at your structure and try to segregate yourself and say, “Okay, this anger, agitation, confusion, insecurity etc. is not me.” You can take various aspects like, “I’m not the anger, I’m not the hatred. I’m not the comparison” etc. and start detaching yourself from all that you are not. All these emotions are connected to the world outside.

In actuality, the world for us is only after we wake up. There is no world for us when we sleep. So the world that we are talking about i.e the people, materials, time, space etc. is only when we are awake. When we are sleeping or when we are dreaming, we don’t have that world. Hence we should understand “What are WE amongst or amidst this world?” We should then try to understand yourselves in that context. The moment you start recognising who you are, you will start witnessing yourself in the whole situation. You will not be JUST a participant, you will be a reliable or a relevant participant – meaning, you will actually tend to add value to the situation.

Many times I feel we don’t have to speak. Silence is a good idea. We don’t have to react, speak or get involved every time, but we do it habitually. It’s our habit. If somebody calls us by a bad name or bad thing, we react immediately. But we don’t have to. We can just watch that person venting the anger and becoming calm after that. So in many places, we don’t need interference. If we are able to see that in ourselves, and we look at the world, like a mirror, I think most of these things can be sorted out.

Second point, we should try not to analyse situations. In general, we have a deep wish to know why something happened. We always try to put the blame on somebody or blame the situation. And it costs us a lot of time, stress and also spoils our mind. But as human beings we do have our (limited) life – if we live 80 years, it’s only 29,200 days, it’s not a lot of days. By the time we realise we have lived, we are (almost) dead. So in this lifetime, we have the right to be happy and content. We can’t and we should not give that possibility or that key to somebody. WE should keep that key.

That’s why I say, “Any situations in life are only a reminder that they exist and that’s an experience.” So apart from the experience point of view, we should not interfere. I’m not saying that you need to be an escapist. You be there. But be there as stillness or an icon of peace, where you do not have to react. You say, “Okay, this is the situation. We’ll talk about it, let’s sort it out”. Then, we try to help them come out of it. Just as we clear a roadblock. This is possible for us. We can all be policemen sometime, but non-interfering policemen.

Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Yes, like you said we need to handle these kinds of situations with a lot more equanimity.

Question: How to be positive, healthy, stable, peaceful and relaxed in such challenging times like the one currently? What is going to be the duration of this situation? How long do we need to stay stressed and why are we stressed? How do we be positive?

Mohanji: Being stressed is our choice, but being observant and being calm in any situation is our right. We can be very easy and non-stressed. But have we observed what brings this stress? Number one is expectation. We have a lot of expectations everyday – from the time we wake up in the morning.

Today I heard something – the time between when you wake up and when you get out of the bed is your amount of success; that means if you wake up and still lie down without getting up, it means you have earned laziness – meaning your success rate is affected. So this is something to think about. I would say, “Be purposeful”.

Also understand that situations are probably not engineered by us. A situation happened – it was given to us. What can we do in this peripheral? We have time, space, certain awareness, certain intelligence and certain people involved. In this context, we have to act. You can actually imagine that you are an actor playing a role. You can really play the role very well. So, this is your option.

In the current condition, Nature has told you: “You have no control”. An invisible particle has created a lot of havoc amongst us (the visible particle, for we are visible in this world). An invisible thing (we don’t even know what a virus looks like) has actually created a scare in the whole world. And it put everybody indoors. In this context, we need to spend time to understand and assimilate ourselves. It’s a very good time for us to know how we react to situations. Because this kind of thing has not happened in the last 200 years as far as I know, or probably ever since mankind started. We have a God-given opportunity.

There is a lot of stress connected to finances, stress connected to activity, stress connected to choices, we can’t travel (movement) etc. All the stresses have come together. And secondly, we may have to live together with people we really do not like, for example: our relatives and friends etc. in one space and being forced to see them. So this is something which is giving added stress.

Now you have every chance to re-wind yourself, recycle yourself, reset yourself. This chance should be well used. This is what I feel. And then there are so many methods and practices which great masters have given us including pranayama, the hyper-ventilations, connecting to yourself through certain meditations etc. But contemplation (manana) is very good. Manana makes a Maanav – this means that one who is able to think and contemplate, is a human being (man).

So we have a lot of opportunities to penetrate and contemplate: “Is that me?” Like Adi Shankara said….

Mano buddhi ahankara chittani naaham

Na cha shrotra jihve na cha ghraana netre

Na cha vyoma bhumir na tejo na vaayuhu

Chidananda rupah shivo’ham shivo’ham

But the point is that you can actually think, “Am I the body? Am I the intellect? Am I the ego? Am I the Spirit? What are we?”

So this will really make you fully collected and composed. And the moment you start realising you are very powerful, that you’re completely the universe, you will stop looking at the whole world through a keyhole. You will realise that you have the opportunity to see the whole universe. The moment you understand this, there ends the story. Then there is no stress for you anymore. There is no confusion, there is no agony, anxiety, anger, etc. It will all leave because you very well know that we are the universe and that nothing outside can touch us actually. Unless we are only external, then we get beaten up. In other words, we give the remote control of our happiness in somebody else’s hands, like neighbours or friends or relatives. Keep the remote control with you and use it wisely.

Question: I get scared very easily. I am scared of death basically or scared of what could happen to me.

Mohanji: Faith is the antidote for fear. Whenever we have fear, we understand that faith is lacking. So firstly, it should be the faith in ourselves; faith, not on something outside because your own personal Guru is inside. When you connect to yourself and assimilate yourself; when you understand that body, mind, intellect, ego, spirit, it is all within and that our body is just a case (shell), we start connecting to ourselves. Then we will feel peaceful.

As I said, first you have to have faith in yourself. You are born and you have a space here, you have relevance here. So in this relevance and space, you do what you can, within your given capacity. You don’t have to compare, you don’t have to compete. There is nothing to compete or to compare with. You are being yourself and that is exactly your contribution to this world. So whenever you feel fear, understand that fear has no basis. Fear is like a shadow where light exists. So connect to the light, which is you. Then you can connect to any guru, any master, any god which you like to follow.

But essentially, it’s all about you. The whole spirituality is about you. “Tat Tvam Asi – You Are That”. That is exactly what the great masters have said. Over a period of time, you have been trying to find yourself. This is the only point here. If we understand this, there is no confusion. But if you are chasing something and if you don’t get it, there is disappointment. Please remember that when we have found ourselves, there is nothing anymore to find. This finding ourselves needs time, and we have to accept ourselves. Acceptance is very important. Most of the time, we don’t accept ourselves even if others accept us. That’s where the problem lies. If somebody has an opinion about us, we buy it and think it is real, and that it is true, then we have stopped accepting ourselves.

We all have weaknesses, we all have strengths. We all have everything. We are a mixture. Nobody is higher or lower, not even equal. We are all unique. We should remember that we are a unique creation and this uniqueness is what we are giving to this world. The world may accept it or reject it. That is not our problem. We are existing today. This is the real celebration – that we are alive. This life is the celebration and this presence is the celebration. When you remember this, there will be no fear. Fear cannot exist together with light. Darkness cannot exist together with light. Fear cannot exist together with faith.

Dr. Nidhi Kumar: As you said, I’d like to reiterate the same thing….O Light of Exceptional Glory, enlighten the darkness of our minds, for dark is the path and you hold this light. The next question is..

“I am a stay at home mom and I wish to work again. I do not know what career to choose and do not know how to figure it out. My mind is in a quandary.”

When we were speaking yesterday, you told me that you’re getting so many calls from the US where people are losing jobs. It’s the same kind of apprehension.

Mohanji: I feel that the job loss situation will be all over the world because of the economic meltdown. But my answer to that is – let us not focus on the negatives. If you focus on negatives, there are plenty. Let us focus on the positives. First and foremost, how do we know what’s good for us? It’s very simple. It depends on our nature. What is our nature? We all have our unique nature. Some people have a nature for being a doctor. Some people like that profession, because their nature suits that kind of profession. Some people like to be a lawyer. Some people like to be in the sports field. Hence all these are connected to one’s individual nature. If your nature is not suiting that profession, you won’t be successful there.

So first and foremost, sit down and understand which profession suits you. That’s the first right step. Then you go towards the profession with full confidence. I would first say, “If you really want to be successful, you have to really apply yourself”. There’s no other way. Working smart is accepting yourself and applying yourself fully and doing only what you have to do. You don’t have to do the whole variety of things. Don’t try to multi-task and spoil your entire career. Instead focus on something which really suits you and dig deeper and deeper until you finally see water.

What suits you is what you can do effortlessly. That means if you like something and if you’re effortless about it, that shows that the profession/work suits you very well. That’s a sign of it. It is very easy to understand. If you are feeling stressed to even get up in the morning and if it is a pain or pressure to go towards your work, implies that you are doing something which you do not like to do or doing something which does not suit you. It’s like wearing a shirt which is not your size.

Even in spirituality, what suits you is your path. Some people like devotion. They like to sing, chant, praise etc. Some people like intellectual stuff. They would like to listen, analyse, understand and only then they accept. Some people like Karma Yoga. They go out and they serve the world. Some people are a mixture of all this, but there will be some predominance and that is your path. Whatever is predominant in us; that’s exactly what we are. That’s our path.

Dr. Nidhi Kumar: That answers our question. I would like to add a little thing to it that it’s good to be rooted to your values. Let us move on to our next question.

Shloka: In extension to the career question, there are many individuals who talk about or who write about being compelled to be on a career path because of certain constraints. The constraints could be like financial constraints or it is too late in life to change career, or have a family to take care etc. So how would you advise those people to go through a career and the profession effortlessly?

Mohanji: The Upanishad says, “The food that came to you today is the medicine for you, even if that’s the food you never chose.” This means the food was delivered to you. Sometimes you are compelled to do something just for survival. In that situation, I would suggest you to always do the work with full dedication, but at the same time, have a hobby on the side, which you would like to do. So it compensates. For example, a person likes to be a photographer, but instead he is working as a government servant. So be a government servant fully for the sake of earning but at the same time practice photography as a hobby, so you don’t really miss it. And that gives equilibrium.

Sometimes life provides us with things which we may not have vocally asked for (but probably we may have been ‘eligible’ for that, we don’t know). If such a thing lands on your lap, accept it, then deliver your best. When you get something, you should do justice to it. Otherwise it’s not worth it. By rejecting or by resisting, it stays further. But by accepting it and by fully involving in it, maybe you will start liking it. Actually, the dislike starts with resistance. We keep pushing it away to an extent that it becomes painful. Then, we suffer. We don’t have to really suffer. Through acceptance, we can remove the suffering. We do not really have to cope with it – instead we dive into it and say, “Okay, what best can I do about it?” Plus, we take up a hobby which develops our other side, which blooms us through doing our chosen activity.

Question: How do we effectively use our time during this period amidst the stress and fear?

Mohanji: Go online…(laughter). Very simple. We can’t go outside the house, right?

Question: How do we motivate ourselves in this situation to begin and continue daily meditation and practices, especially early in the morning despite our busy schedule with family and work?

Mohanji: We have an Early Birds Club now. That’s the reason why I started this club recently. We have to start early in the morning at 4 am. Then have a pattern of activity until 6 am. By the time you reach the usual waking time, you have actually covered a lot of distance. It’s not easy to just start the day early and do nothing, because then the usual habits pull us back to bed. So we have started the Early Birds Club for that purpose. And this is really creating a difference in people’s lives. Now people have actually written back saying that they now have a lot of time and there is a lot of peace, contentment, etc.

To start early, you need a bit of effort initially, but eventually it becomes a pleasure. You will feel quite good because you’re not just wasting time sleeping, procrastinating and then being lazy and feeling wasted. Instead you wake up early then do something. Some people have started writing their own stories. People say that it looks like another life or feels like another life. You can do so many things in this time; you can be very creative. As said in the beginning, there are so many domestic issues going on. I would like everybody to inspire people. It’s not the prerogative of spiritual teachers alone to do that.

All of us have our stories, have our history. We have a lot of wealth inside. We are not short or small. We can always share some insights with people, with the world outside and give some kind of a consolation or solace to people outside. It need not always be the teachers and the masters. Sometimes people get bored with these spiritual people (laughs) Normal people in the world can also talk. I always inspire people to share their experiences. You share your story, it might resonate with some because some people have actually survived total hardships like displacements, wars, etc. Many people who follow me around the world have gone through wars, they have been displaced, lost their houses, family members, etc. So I tell them to share it, even if it is painful to remember. Maybe it will be purgatory sometimes, and you may get purified through it. And that happens. People can be natural and be themselves in this time because you cannot go anywhere. You can use the online facility and communicate, which will help people. I feel that we all have a great potential. All we have to do is accept ourselves, and then we’ll realise that we can do a lot in this world.

Dr. Nidhi Kumar: Absolutely. Now we take the viewers to the next segment, which is on emotion. One of the greatest forms of suffering is to deal with death. So we have a lot of questions on this. How does one deal with death because it becomes an overwhelming and imaginable sense of grief, to deal with death.

Question: How to overcome the anxiety and the debilitating feeling that happens after some loved one passes away. How do you deal with that?

Mohanji: This is a traditional fear – the fear of death. For all the 7.5 billion people in the world, the biggest of fears is the fear of death. And the next fear is usually the fear of failure and society, fear of failure etc. But the fear of death is a part of us.

The driving factor of all species is instinct – that’s the driving factor. While for human beings, the driving factor is usually the inclination or vasanas, and of course desires. But the instinct part which is common across all species is the main instinct for survival. So this fear of death is connected to survival instinct, because we like to survive. Every being likes to survive, and the other side of survival is death. So we fear something which we do not want to happen, but it’s true and inevitable that we will die.

As human beings, we have the capacity to understand and assimilate the idea that we are deathless. That is only for us because we have that capacity to connect to something which is permanent. So we have that thing inbuilt in us, we have that capacity. So what is the antidote to fear of the inevitable death? The death that we are walking towards every day, even at this point in time when we are speaking, after our conversation, we are closer to death. It goes like that, right? Every moment we are taking one more step towards death that is supposed to happen.

So how do we come to terms with it, with the inevitability? It’s very simple – we must understand that we have something within us which is deathless. And that’s the reality. The shell that we carry, the form that we carry, the name, the position and the positions that we have, are all temporary; while there is something which is bright and brilliant, which is real and that’s hiding behind this whole paraphernalia or this structure. So we start looking at it and we say, “Oh, this guy doesn’t want anything. He has no interest in life. He has no interest in death. He is deathless. He is a time rider. For him, time is like a horse. He rides time.” Because time doesn’t ride him, time only rides the body, the body, the mind, intellect, ego. But the thing which is bright within us, it’s beyond time. So, the moment you start connecting to that, then death is just a phase.

In fact, every day we are dying for a few hours. That is the deep sleep state, where we do not know whether we are a man or a woman, time or space, whether we are a guru or a disciple, we know nothing. Then when we wake up again, we realise that this is the garb which we have been born in. We are born in this life and we come to know and then we start behaving like this particular role, this personality. So every day we are experiencing that and every day we are coming back to life in the morning. That’s why it’s a new life every day. So what happens in actual death is that we come back in another body, or we don’t come back at all – we dissolve. So this is the option. When we have awareness, awareness is the antidote – it is the antidote to the fear of death. This is the way it is.

Nidhi: How do we free ourselves from the bondages of emotions and become mentally strong? How to overcome negative emotions like fear and negative energy?

Mohanji: We have three processors in our system which are mind (processing emotions), intellect (processing, information), ego (processing personality matters like positions and possessions, role in society etc.). So this together is what we call as mind-matter. Actually it’s one material or one processor, but we segregate them so we can understand. The body has three processors and these three processors need food. The food of mind is emotion, but when we have so many emotions to handle, the mind has obesity. When we have so much information to handle, intellect has obesity. When we have so many positions, possessions and ego stuff to handle, then ego has obesity. If you eat a lot of food, the body has obesity. So obesity is part of our existence and the 7.5 billion people around the world have some obesity in some way.

So what do we need to do? How do we handle these emotions etc.? Emotions are coming in all the time. But we need to understand – like our stomach for example, we need to know how much we should eat, what we should eat, and what quantity etc., so that we are in control of our food consumption. Like that, we should be in control of our emotions, and emotional consumption as well. Emotions are available outside; this is all coming from outside. We need to control what comes inside and don’t just get involved in emotions habitually, because that’s what we do normally. And the same with information, so much information is coming that is mostly negative in nature – like 200,000 people died, so many people are in quarantine, this country closed the doors, that country closed the doors; so many people lost their jobs. This is what we hear from television.

What we need to do – we need to have an antidote. We go and search for something positive and read that, basically the life of great masters. In India we have a great tradition with the tradition of liberation – moksha. If you look at the whole world, the purushartha (dharma, artha, kama, moksha), these four aspects out of which moksha is defined only in this country, and that’s well-defined. And out of this many religions came out like Sikhism, Buddhism, all these came out of one aspect called moksha. So we have that big, huge tradition and depth of wealth. So if we read or assimilate materials or things connected to moksha, the highest potential, we can superimpose that moksha on mind, intellect, ego everywhere. And with the benchmark of conscience – our own conscience, which is like a guard, like a firewall, which protects us from all the impacts. So we do not compromise our conscience, and we use the potential for liberation for all of us. We all have it as the benchmark. And if we don’t get involved in things which we don’t want to get involved in, we will always be safe.

Suffering is in the mind. It’s only a waking state thing. Pain can be in the body. Like what Ramana Maharshi said when somebody asked him, when he had cancer, “Swami, do you have pain?” He said, “I have pain, but I have no suffering. I choose not to suffer.” Suffering is always connected to resistance. We try to say, “Oh, why did this happen to me? Why am I such a good man? Why are bad things happening?” All these confusions leave us with a lot of junk and suffering. So this we can definitely avoid – self-pity, sympathy all these things should be plucked out and thrown away. Life is happening. Take life as it comes. And when emotions are coming, which you don’t want….. like when we go to vendors or vendors coming home (when there is no Corona situation). When they come home to sell things, what do we buy? We buy only what we need in the house. We don’t buy everything. When we go to the supermarket, what do we buy? We only buy what we like to consume, otherwise we don’t buy. So this is what we should do all of our life. Whenever we are awake, we should be controlling our consumption. We should not indiscriminately consume, because if you do that – obesity happens. And this is a continuous thing, and sometimes we are so helplessly involved in it, and that’s a big trauma for us.

So as a general answer, I can say to control your consumption: physical consumption, emotional consumption, intellectual consumption, and also ego things like pride. Don’t try to consume everything that you get.

And also, you do not have to prove anything in life. Because people who love you will accept you; people who do not love you will not accept you. That’s how the world is. Not everybody will accept you. Those who have eyes to see will see you; those who do not have eyes to see, can’t see you. That’s fine, because that’s the way creation has happened. So let us be realistic. And let us say that we don’t have to prove to anybody. We are living our life without violating or without violence. We are not trying to harm anybody so that we are on safe ground. We contribute what we can contribute. And we always ask the question, “Can I do something for you?” so that our purity is always maintained. If you focus on what you can deliver and not what you consume, you will feel peaceful. This is the right time for understanding that.

Nidhi: To add a little bit to that question, there is societal judgement that comes in, you know. You say to live in the moment, but sometimes society kind of judges you on a lot of things, and a lot of you (viewers) have been writing to us: “My mother-in-law or my so-and-so..” You have to get over that judgement somehow by realising that it’s your life and you can live it whichever way you want to, because God ultimately wants you to be happy. So what may be a sin in say, the eyes of society or your friend circle, may not be a sin in your own eyes.

Mohanji: Well, the minds of the other people are in their own bodies or their own systems. We do not have much control over it. But I would say that if we have not been affected at all for a period of time, then the impact becomes less. If we’re reacting to everything, it will be increasing because then there is a pleasure on the other side. Like if somebody is abusing us, or judging us, criticising us, which I have experienced many times. I don’t respond, and say to myself: “okay, this is their opinion, my reality is totally different.”

So we must have trust in ourselves, faith in ourselves. We don’t buy things which we don’t agree with. Because we can’t change people, change other people’s minds. We interact with many types of people every day, right? And we don’t have many choices for it, because society has a variety of different types of people. We have to interact with them consistently. We don’t have any choice. So while we’re doing it, make sure that we remain clean and unaffected. Unaffected means – let them say whatever they want. If they have pleasure, it’s okay. I believe in that. If somebody abuses me, I think: “okay, maybe because of me, he has that pleasure.” So this is okay. He has the right to have pleasure, like everybody. So even if he is abusing me, it’s fine. As long as I don’t buy it, it stays with him. You know, I normally say this to people: when people try to gossip about others to me, I say, “You must have done a lot of hard work to get this information. This is precious for you. Keep it with you. Don’t give it to me.” So they don’t tell me again.

Q: Can you kindly share with us at what stage of your sadhana (with regard to the number of months or years) you first started experiencing the state of blissful existence? As someone who has recently started to meditate, I would like to know more about it so that I can be not immediately bothered about such expectations hindering the entire process.

Mohanji: Yes, I would say that, first of all, we should not keep any expectation. This is the first point. Second is that the experience is usually individualistic, because we all have our own constitution. We can’t say that another person had this experience, so I should have it. It may not happen that way. Third is that for me personally, I did not know what I was looking for. Because as I told you, I was working in a company and I was practising.

So one thing I would always say is that you have the same place for meditation or practice every day. Don’t change locations. Because what happens is the mind gets occupied with it. So I used to keep one room and I had covered the whole room – I made it like a cave, so that there was no light entering from anywhere. And I only had one lamp, no pictures, nothing in that room, so that the distraction level was less. Initially there’ll be a lot of distraction because we have habitual thoughts coming in, and things like the pleasures, which we like to indulge in. That comes like, “I need to have coffee or tea”, or, “it is time to check the mail”, things like that. But for that I used to start at 3 am every day, but I don’t recommend that because that was my own style. I used to have my time, my own personal time and that was 3 am to 8 am every day. That is when I was practising – means I was actually trying to explore myself. I’m not asking you to replicate anything – I’m just telling you in a broad spectrum, one space, always. One space, one kind of environment and one lamp (with flame) or one thing to connect to. Plus one practice – same practice. Sometimes it’s so boring but you still do the same practice. If it’s a mantra, chant the same mantra again and again and again. So what happens is the mind finally breaks up. Mind can’t hold it anymore. Mind likes variety. The repetition kills the mind, and that moment when it breaks is when your whole identity is broken.

So for me, it was consistently about six months before there was a slight change in the whole thing – where I could assess the difference by not getting affected with the world outside. That means whether a thing is there or not, I’m not affected. Earlier, I used to have certain requirements every day. If I get up in the morning, I take a bath and once I’m done, then I do my prayers. But then after that, I need to have a coffee or something. But all those needs became optional. So that was the first step. So like that, eventually, tremendous detachment happened with the world outside. When you start touching the silence deeper, at that time, the world of noises is somewhere far away. You can hear the noises, but that’s not yours – so far away. Then you feel totally separated from it. If you want to go to the noises you can go. But again, you are not affected. It’s like with some people who smoke a lot, who can’t handle being without cigarettes. Then after the moment they decide to stop smoking, after a long period of time, even if somebody smokes, it doesn’t matter, because they have overcome that – like that. The world of noises is probably a temptation for some time, and then the temptation also goes. So, I would say it took six months before I could actually start connecting to myself by crossing over the tendency for searching for noises, because that was my world like everybody else’s. This is the world of noises. We are used to it and we think that’s natural for us, but it’s not. We think it’s natural.

Nidhi: There was a question regarding the sadhana, is it traataka by any chance?

Mohanji: So, one technique as I said, I was looking at the lamp but I was not looking – my eyes were open and connecting to the lamp but I was connecting to my spine. I didn’t practice traataka.

Nidhi: Shlloka, let’s take the next question and then move on to the next segment liberation.

Shlloka: The next question, as you’ve touched upon it earlier in your segment as well. You know, it’s a very natural tendency for people to want to tide over suffering and reach a state of pleasantness, pleasure, enjoyment, whatever you may want to call it. You have stressed upon awareness as being that seat of pleasantness and enjoyment. You’ve also spoken about how presence is the highest practice. So if you can tell our viewers who are watching you for the first time as to what is the importance of awareness and why so much stress on it?

Mohanji: Yes, awareness starts with very small things like for example, we are talking. Just be aware of every word you utter. That means no absent-mindness, first of all. Then we are moving our hand or we are doing something – be aware. In other words, let the mind be present with everything, every word, every action so that your mind is right here in the present. This is the number one thing. Then you can go deeper and deeper in awareness and eventually you are aware of your heartbeat, you are aware of your breath, you are aware of your aura; you can be aware of everything. You know, it’s very interesting if you start connecting to yourself and start assimilating and you will know that the heart has a particular frequency; that the liver has a particular frequency, that every aspect of you has a different frequency. And it’s like an orchestra inside. You know, every organ is playing in the orchestra, that’s a synchronisation – it’s like a huge beautiful melody. So you start connecting to yourself and then you realise, “Oh my God, I’m a big universe, what I was looking at outside is nothing compared to what I am or what I can see inside”. So awareness takes us there. Awareness is so important. Now, in daily life, what happens is that we get so involved that we lose that awareness a little bit – because we forget that we are the actor. We forget that we are not the role. We are the actors but we forget that thing. So, what happens is – we get involved with the role and we believe that we are the role, not the actor at that point in time. We get affected and that’s where suffering happens. Because the role has suffering, you also have suffering. Otherwise, if we always remember: “I’m an actor and this is just a role I’m playing and this is temporary”, then there is no suffering. So, suffering is connected to our deep involvement – then we tend to blame the other actors. We are in these role plays every morning till evening.

Nidhi: I am reminded of Shakespeare’s saying, Mohanji. He said that famous line, “Today, we have our exits and our entrances. So each of us is a player and it will be curtains down soon for everybody. That’s what he said.

Mohanji: Yeah. So this awareness is that, but consciousness is different; awareness and consciousness are different. Consciousness is our driving mechanism which has three distinct aspects every day: the waking state, the dream state and the deep sleep state. So the same consciousness operates in three dimensions each day in 24 hours. But awareness is that we stay over all that’s happening to us – like a view from above. So you can see all the role plays, but at the same time you remember you are always the actor. So that gives you that immunity as well as power. That makes you powerful.

Shlloka: So we have a question from someone – you just spoke a while back about sadhana. And you mentioned that there is so much resistance. As a spiritual practitioner myself, I experience that as well – how every day, one doesn’t want to get up and do sadhana – there’s so many things to do, don’t do it. There is so much resistance and one sometimes succumbs to the mind. So the question is being asked:

How does one conquer the fear of limitations in the way of one’s sadhana?

Mohanji : That’s only in the initial stages. In fact, after a while you will not even feel anything if you avoid expectations, if you avoid agenda. For example: “My friend who was doing sadhana achieved a level of silence. So I should also do that.” Don’t do that. You just be yourself, don’t compare, don’t compete and just follow. I never used to tell anybody what I used to practice – that’s a very good idea. Because if you try to share with people, then they would all have opinions and sometimes they derail us. So I would say that keep your own practice close to you, do it as quietly and consistently as you can, and after a while, this becomes a usual thing.

See, the subconscious mind reproduces what you do repeatedly – like for example, if you do 21 days or 41 days. That is the point of the Early Birds Club that I spoke about earlier. That means people wake up at a certain time and do a particular sadhana. After a few days, they automatically wake up because they can’t sleep. Then that becomes enjoyable. And if you’re not competing and comparing, you will have no sorrows connected to it. So I would always say that you must consider that you are not the mind, you are not the intellect, you’re not the ego and don’t analyze and don’t keep on digging the seed out to see if the roots have formed. The root will happen at its own time – everything has its time. But I always believe that everyone has the clear potential, like everyone else, to touch the highest consciousness or to touch the state which is consciousness. So, all of us have that power and we are never higher or lower than anybody.

Shlloka: Mohanji, in connection with this, can talk about the importance of sadhana, what are the benefits of sadhana or yoga for that matter? You know, there’s so many people who are non-practitioners who have written to ask :

Why should one be pursuing the path of sadhana? Are there any other ways to achieve the ultimate, or is sadhana the only way? If it is the only way, what is the benefit?

Mohanji: Well, sadhana is nothing but a systematic practice. That means something which you’re committing to. And anything you are committing to, you should have conviction about it, you should believe in it. Not because somebody else said or is doing or not doing. We should check whether it suits our nature, whether it is natural for us or whether it is suitable for us, and then we follow that. For example, a person who’s devotional by nature cannot follow a guru or path of knowledge or jnana yoga. This person can only follow bhakti, and that’s what suits a person of that type. So this is the first point – that when you practice something, make sure it suits you. Don’t just follow like a cow; a cow’s tendency is that if a cow goes in one direction, every cow goes in that direction too. So we should not do that because we are human beings. We should not have herd instinct. Instead, we should look at what suits us and choose. If something doesn’t suit us, we should be happy to say that’s not our cup of tea. That is the first thing about sadhana.

Secondly, consistency as I said earlier. Then the question about why one should have sadhana – it’s very simple, otherwise you miss a great personality!! Instead you will be immersed in the world outside, a world of noises with so many things, varieties, colours etc. And it is never ending because you will always have more and more desires. And finally get tired because all this while you’ve been running after so many things and materials, you got so many things but are not still happy.

So, how do we find happiness instead of going for various pleasures? We come to ourselves and then we realise, “Oh my God, I never needed anything, I am happy otherwise.” So, for understanding this you need to have practice. I always say two D’s — one is Discipline and the second is Determination. The other side is distraction. So to overcome distraction, you need to have discipline and determination. Determination is to connect to yourself. As I said earlier, the whole spiritual path can be crushed and the essence of it can be said as — “You are that. You are what you’re looking for.” So this ‘You’ is a great story. We know that we only connect to ourselves as incidents based on what we have experienced. That’s not us. We have so many other things, other faculties and factors. We are a conglomeration of all that. So if you do not connect to yourself, you miss that great opportunity.

Nidhi: Mohanji, we are completely out of time now. I’m just going to take two more questions. One person said that she’s been praying to Sai Baba and she’s been seeing your face. There are many more questions like that. Another one is:

Why is Sai not answering my prayers? What should I do? It’s been a decade. What would you like to say to such people who’ve been asking plenty of such questions?

Mohanji: How can I say why Sai is not answering? But I would say that Sai always answers. We have living Masters and we have had great Masters who have lived here as beacons of light and power. And they always respond, I believe so. Because the thing is that we are probably asking for something which can’t be delivered, something personal or selfish. They don’t cater to it.

Or secondly, they would have delivered something which we fail to see because we are focusing on something else. This happens many times. What we got, we may not see. But what we don’t have or what we thought we should have, we will see. It is the same with the gurus, you know. The tradition says or the scriptures say, “The one who has appeared in front of you is your Guru. Connect to him completely.” But then we have probably an image of Babaji, an image of Sai Baba and we say, “Oh, that form did not come to me. So I don’t accept it.” So you miss it. This happens in our life.

I would say that no master ever denies anybody. This is my experience. All true masters are here to serve. They’re not here to earn or eat and eat more etc. They are here to serve. If you stop asking, maybe you get much more, maybe you are supposed to get a Mercedes but you asked only for a Maruti!

Nidhi: How lovely! How beautifully you summed it all up, Mohanji. And I think we’re going to have many more sessions with you. It’s almost time now to wrap up. It’s truly been a very insightful, incredible journey packed with so much wisdom and this intersection with you has been wonderful to begin with. We have many, many more questions, which will not go unanswered I’m sure. To wrap up, I’d like to give special thanks to you, Mohanji for gracing us, to my team Union, for producing and marketing this show headed by our volunteer Ajay. Thank you so much. Thank you to the Mohanji Foundation. We thank you for making it see the beautiful light of day. Now, I leave it to Shlloka to end this session for today.

Mohanji: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to all of you.

Shlloka: It’s been a pleasure. And you know, the viewers have flooded us with questions.

Nidhi: I think even ten sessions with you will not be enough. There were hundreds of questions, and you have thousands and millions of followers. So we have to have this again very soon. That’s a promise to our viewers.

Shlloka: Mohanji, people have written to us, of course with their questions, but you know, it’s also just amazing to see the kind of profound gratitude that they have for you. For example, we have an individual who talks about and thanks you for your protection and for your grace – and many more messages.

We wish to have Mohanji back once again, so please keep your questions coming, viewers. And in the meantime, we would urge you if you have more questions, you can always visit Mohanji’s website, Mohanji’s Facebook page, it’s flashing on the screens. You can always stay connected and be answered to the best possible way, until we meet again. Thank you Mohanji once again, see you in the next one.

Shlloka and Nidhi: (To the viewers) We hope you would take all the answers and implement them in your life and we do hope you’ve liked Ask the Masters.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic and Rakshitha Ananth

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

Is the Coronavirus a conspiracy?

 

 

What we see in the world is a lot of panic. None of the governments of the world was ready to handle a situation of this enormity, this size. We could see that most of the people, especially in Italy, could not handle the effects of this sudden spread of the disease effectively at all. That’s happened in most of the places. People did not know; there was no rehearsal; it just happened and people had to cope with it and the governments’ had to cope with it. No government would take a decision which would harm their economy.

Here, we see that situation; total lock down, really at a loss as to what to do and the old, hardened habits which are connected to social life, to change all that in one day it was very difficult. Governments had to do the impossible, to literally put people at home, in isolation. The question right now is how do we overcome this situation. That is why I said, do not deviate your attention on WHY this happened instead of what we should do. That’s more important at this point in time. We will understand what was behind it, who was behind it or whether it was man-made, whether it was nature’s answer to human insensitivity. All these things we will come to know sooner or later.

As an evolved species, we have a much larger responsibility than any other species. We cannot be selfish. We have to be very kind and compassionate because we have that choice. We have made machines which could literally destroy and devastate the earth. Since we know this and since we have a clear understanding of the machines and the weapons that we have, we should always maintain restraint. We should be mature, we should be compassionate and kind; we should always be selfless then only the collective consciousness will make a difference in the system, in the ecology. Now, it’s a collective consciousness of unconscious existence. That’s what we see today. People are in a mad rush, people are running, chasing, trying to compete and beat and make a difference in their own life, forgetting about every other matter. If we continue like that unconsciously, for a long period of time, nature has to retaliate. Nature retaliated.

I would like to consider this as a wake-up call. I have told this before. This is indeed a wake-up call where one species is put behind closed doors; totally on house arrest by nature. It does not matter who made it happen. The effect is we are all indoors. We are all in confinement and it is reasonably choice less. We don’t have much choice as the entire world is open to all the other species; all the migratory birds, the beings who are free in nature; they’re roaming free. They don’t have any fear about the human species.

The most harmful species on earth is the human species; harmful for the beings in the sea, beings in the air and beings on the earth. We live unconsciously, we encroach into every aspect of everybody’s life, every being’s life and we do not have regrets. We have no guilt about it and we have excuses for disturbing, creating an imbalance in nature. Population growth is one of the excuses that we give. We need our spaces to sleep, we need houses but at the cost of lack of houses for many other species, lack of food for many other species.

We have done this enormously over time and I don’t see much change in the attitude. We do not have gratitude and our attitude is also the same. This is what this warning bell is for. Stop living unconsciously and start being responsible – that’s the message. Who created it? Actually speaking, at this point in time, I am NOT concerned about it.

But one point I have always said is that the 5G and the larger technological growth is only looking at human convenience from certain angles but not the human suffering or the radiations. Our rapid technological growth sometimes affects human existence; not only human existence but all existence – birds, animals, everybody is affected because of the frequency shift; because of 5G and stuff like that.

So, I would urge all the governments to think again before they actually implement the new technology even if we are a bit slow as we are now. We are at home and we do not have human contact apart from our family members at this point in time and we are somehow comfortable this way. There is no huge rush in malls, there is no huge rush in cinemas, so many places of congregations are vacant and we are fine; we are handling it well.

Maybe, many of the things that we thought is essential for our existence are probably not so essential. Maybe this is a good time to think. Most of the food joints are closed; home deliveries are closed. Still, we are surviving. We may not get all the things that we wanted or we were used to in the last few years because of this forced confinement. On one side, the materials are restricted; secondly addictions. So many people were addicted to various materials -material addiction. Many of those things are not available now and what happens when you don’t get it – huge withdrawal syndrome. I heard that a few people committed suicide because they could not get their alcohol or drugs. This is bound to happen because this is a vicious cycle which we unconsciously lived but now when we face the reality of the material not being available, what do we do? Sometimes, it’s a problem for families to handle such things.

We are facing all these issues now because this forced confinement is just like putting a mirror on our own face. We start seeing ourselves; how we will be, how we will respond, how we will handle situations which are not predictable because we are used to predictable situations. No vehicles, no transportation no flights! It’s a complete lockdown.

As one species, we are responsible for the entire species. We are responsible for the actions of the entire species; whether we like it or not. Here, there is no caste, creed, country, culture, colour, religion, language; nothing, just a species; various expressions of one species and everybody are responsible for everybody. So, this is a very important point that we should consider at this point in time.

This is a time for introspection, contemplation; meditate on it. Look at human species and there’s so much to meditate on, to understand, assimilate. And this time is very good for that because we have no diversions, no distractions. If you switch on the television, all you hear is about coronavirus; after a while, you get fed up of it. People are only worried about their own lives. So, this is a good time to think in those angles instead of contemplating on the cause of this thing. Whatever the cause is, look at the effect; how it is affecting and affecting human life.

It’s not exactly the fear of coronavirus; it’s actually the fear of death that we are tackling. We are handling the fear of death in multiple dimensions with coronavirus; the effect of the virus and the possibility of imminent death as if we see death in front of us. How do we handle it? This is an existentialistic fear. This fear is born with us. When we are born, every hour, every moment we are walking towards death. We all know that but we don’t like to accept that. We’d like to believe that we will live forever. We must have all our likes fulfilled; dislikes taken away. We want all those things. We are experience bound; we are compelled to gather more and more experience using this physical body but the body is temporary. We are here only for some time.

An average life on earth, if we live for eighty years is only twenty-nine thousand days. It’s not a lot of days but we take it easy. We believe we will never die or we like to believe we will never die. We are chasing, competing, comparing, criticizing, judging, character assassinating; doing all sorts of things in the world, on earth! But at no point in time, do we think if this is the right thing to do!

Again this is a time for introspection. How many people we have harmed in our lives because of our insensitivity, unconscious lifestyle, ego and various other factors? We might have harmed a lot of people. This is a good time to take stock of our life.

So, I would like you to think in terms of the positives; much less pollution on earth. Apparently, the ozone layer is closing in. It’s improving. All the birds and the animals that are free and roaming are happy. And the climate change might be reversed; that’s what the newspapers say, if we continue like this without pollution, without emissions.

There are so many positive sides of this one effect of putting people at home.  So, this is a very important thing, a very good point to contemplate, to introspect, go within and to assimilate!

Mohanji

 

Transcribed and proofread by

Rekha Murali

 

Read or watch other Mohanji’s messages on Corona virus here.

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Practice compassion during coronavirus time

24^th March 2020

Hello friends, this is Mohanji.

The nature has pressed a reset button. Nature is resetting the whole world, probably to its original state. We do not know as yet. And we don’t have to know because life is as it happens each moment. We do not know the future, nor do we usually know why certain things happened in the past. We think we know but we don’t know, really. We make conclusions based on what we understand or what we assume; based on assumptions. But we may not know clearly the reason. So, we don’t need to know the reasons as well for what’s happening now.

At this point in time, since nature has pressed a reset button, we must also press a reset button in our lives. Most of us are confined to our homes or places where we stay; movements are restricted, sources are affected, resources are affected. So, this is actually a time when we can go back to the essentials. We can look at what is essential and what is non-essential. Usually, in an unconscious existence, we do not have time for that. We just go as per our habits, as per our inclinations and tendencies. But at this point in time, when we do have time for ourselves, we can look at essentials and non-essentials and discard the non-essentials. That makes our life cleaner, more tidy. So this is a good time to press the reset button in our lives.

There is a word; a Sanskrit word ‘Karuna’. Karuna in Sanskrit means compassion. So, this is the time when we should express Karuna; compassion in the time of Corona. So, Karuna during the time of Corona that should be our attitude. We should be compassionate to the whole world, to our species, to everyone. And we should do whatever we can to enhance, to rejuvenate, to help reinvent the lives of people around us in a very pleasant way; with a lot of love, a lot of compassion – Karuna; and a lot of determination. There will be a lot of frustrations because people can’t move. They are at home. There will be a lot of anger and frustrations visible, anxieties. So this is the time to think again about what is causing all this. So, we have a lot of time for contemplation. We have a lot of time for introspection and we have time for reinvention.

I always used to say that at least every five years, we must reinvent ourselves; so that we remain fresh. But now nature has given us that choice, the time. We have to reinvent or we can complain and we can say that things are not right. Most of the things which are happening now are well beyond our control, so we also get to know how much we have in our control. With all our powers and all our efficiencies, we do not have much control. Nature has more control than us; nature has all the controls. So, this is a real time or a time which is actually real, which gives us reality.

So, I would like you to convey this message to all your people; all the people around. Tell them that this is a reset button pressed by nature, to realign the nature. We must also press our reset button to realign ourselves and during the time of Corona, Karuna is the right method – compassion and let compassion overflow through you to all the social media and reach everybody. Reach lots of people and make them feel good because we have almost accepted corruption, greed as natural; greed, corruption, and various emotions of human beings, unconscious emotions as normal. Now, we have time to understand it’s not normal to be angry, it’s not normal to be upset, to be insecure. We have to live with what we have, we can take away all the unwanted at this point in time and just go back to basics and what is really needed; that will make our lives cleaner. And we also understand what it means to be bonded; human bonding, family bonding, all these are happening now. Families together, you can’t go anywhere; you have to look at each other, talk to each other, have eye contact; this is a good time for that.

So, there are a lot of positives in a time of Corona; during this time where Corona is a big scare, a fear. So, if you discount the fear; if you take the fear away or the fear factor away and look at life, there is something to do here; something for us to understand, something for us to assimilate.

Lastly, there are a lot of theories floating around why this happened. That’s not important. I always look at it this way, what is the effect? Why is not the usual thing? It is intellectualization; so many opinions, so many theories, so many things which confuse us. Instead, don’t look outside. Look inside. What is the effect? That’s the only way you can grow beyond. Because if you keep on justifying looking at theories, looking at reasons why this happened, you’ll not reach anywhere. You probably will get few answers maybe or maybe a few opinions, or maybe a few suggestions. But that’s not what we want.

What we need is reinvention; make ourselves better. We equip ourselves to handle life better, to have more control over our own emotions, and understand that whatever emotions we have if the nature presses the reset button, we become helpless. Nature is more powerful than us. We don’t have to call it God or religion or any other aspects. It’s not anything. It’s about man and nature, human beings and nature, the direct contact of a mother and son, mother and child; that kind of contact. So here, the mother is pressing the reset button and all the children have to do accordingly; to live accordingly, to change accordingly. So, it’s time to press the reset button in our lives. And this is the time to do that. If you don’t do that in this time, again we nurture our anxieties, emotions, anger, hatred, jealousy, all our usual habitual emotions; then we will not have much future. Now, we can stabilize; we can understand ourselves. We can assimilate ourselves. We can align ourselves. This is a good time.

Wish you success. I’m walking with you. I’m always with you, and I love you.

Transcribed and proof read by

Rekha Murali

Read or watch other Mohanji’s messages on Corona virus here.

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Open the Door for Grace, part 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M: Awareness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Kaali said,” You are not afraid?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“No.”

“One month less?”

“No.”

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

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

So he asked, ”What is the range?”

“Something physical.“

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

So she said ok.

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

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

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

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

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

So what does a guru do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcribed by Sjarn Mansoor
Proofread by Geeta Iyer