Guru Purnima Satsang 2020 – Part 1

Question: What is the real purpose of a disciple to do worship of a guru on this auspicious day?

Mohanji: Where does the Guru sit? This is the first question we must ask ourselves. Look at our whole life. We are only looking at a life which has happened from our birth so far, until our death in this life. This is what we consider as life.

All the masters, all the great traditions have said time and again that you are the thing you are looking for. I have mentioned that in my Guru Purnima message also, that you are the very thing or the very subject you are looking for. That means you have got to find yourself inside you. That means you got to do manana (contemplation). When you contemplate more and more, you will start finding your dimensions first. Eventually, you will come to a level where you will see yourself as a beacon of light and the rays spreading as dimensions; that means you have become one with your source, the one that is inside you. When you start connecting to the source that is inside you, you will start feeling the various possibilities beyond birth, beyond death. It means the possibility of the atma tatwa or the soul factor, which has no birth or death.

Once you understand that, you will see all your lives of the past and all the lives that are going to be in one spectrum, in one canvas. What happens then? That means you can see the whole role-play; various lifetimes you have played certain roles, and there is a continuation in between, like a stage in the drama. You go out, you change your dress, and you come back. It’s almost like that, very simple. That means you are almost going out and coming back. There is no birth, no death; just changing over, transitioning. So, once you understand that, the principle of Guru and the principle called YOU become very clear to you.

So, where is this Guru sitting? Inside! Then why do we worship a guru outside? That Guru is a reminder of what is sitting inside: just a reminder, nothing else.

So, when you respect (not only the Guru), the Guru in everything, which is the soul factor of all things, of all beings of nature, you will keep seeing the Guru. This is the main factor, the unchangeable factor. One who has actually recognised that soul factor and decided to settle into the soul factor; one who has found that soul factor from the physical factor, an emotional factor, consciousness factor and still further the witness factor, ( once you have settled down in the witness factor), you will see everything in the form of witness hood. You see everything as a witness. In that state, there is no caste, country, culture, colour, religion, language, nothing, just witnessing the whole thing.

When you start witnessing the whole thing, then you realise what exactly is awakening. That awakening only simply means you are a total witness of everything. You see the whole tapestry, not just the scenes of the drama, not the emotions, not the situations, not even the people acting; you see the whole picture. This is the journey that can only be achieved through our inner journey; you got to go within. You got to go inside, within. 

When you are worshipping a master or when you are coming in contact with a master, who has already settled down within and he is fully established, your worship, (forget about physical worship), even thinking, even remembering, even your meeting, connecting, all that amounts to one thing. What is it? This is the state I’m looking for. Give me that state of yours. The state makes a master. The state where the Master rests makes that person a master. If the person is resting on emotions of life, that’s not mastery. The mind is dragging us like a slave.

When our awareness rests in the body, we are in waking state. When our awareness rests in our mind matter, we are in dream state. When our awareness rests in deep sleep state, we are in a state like death; we are detached. We are only in consciousness. When our awareness merges with consciousness, we start witnessing the state of the soul. That’s the only time we really witness what the soul is experiencing. That is the journey.

So, if you worship a guru, do you think the Guru needs worship? Guru needs nothing. Why does the guru need worship? Guru is not dependent on things outside of him, because he’s fully established in the witness hood, peaceful, stable and happy. He or she doesn’t matter. When you go within, and you start connecting to your own soul as I explained just now, you don’t need any worship. You are happy; you are settled. You are not dependent on the world outside for your pleasures of senses. Instead, senses are existing, but the senses are not demanding. Senses are relaxed, the mind is relaxed; there is no thrust of desires, no push of desires; tranquillity, peace. This is the real state.

If somebody is resting in that state, what would he feel and what would he say? Just be. JUST BE. The highest is achieved through that state of being YOU, being YOURSELF. BEING; only being. That’s the beauty.

When somebody says you have to worship me, that person only displays insecurity. That person is insecure. Why is he insecure? It is because he’s still dependent on the world outside. For a person who is stable within, whether somebody respects, somebody worships or not, it doesn’t make a difference. But if you want to experience that feeling of connecting in your way, as you are, you can do that. You can do whatever and for the Master, it doesn’t matter.

Sai Baba displayed that all the time. As the disciple came, Baba allowed them to perform their chosen ritual. Baba just allowed it to happen. He never said, “I don’t like it”, because there’s no like or dislike; just being.

Question: I want to know, for somebody like me when I’ve not met you in person, how could I understand that you are helping me and uplifting in spirituality? How do I know that I am growing in spirituality?

Mohanji: Do we actually need any help? This is the fundamental question. What help do we need?

In fact, a true master always remains as a mirror, undistorted image. That’s what he gives us. So, he always remains like a mirror, stable and still, and when you look into the mirror, you see your own true reflection. You see yourself in your true form, as you are. And that itself is a big deal because, in the outside world, you are only getting opinions of people. Some opinions are good, some opinions are bad, some are criticism, and some are praises. But between this, there is a reality. You never get that reality from the world outside. When you come to a master, the mirror is so fresh, perfect and clean; you get the real picture. That’s the biggest thing a master gives us your true picture.

So how does a master help? It is by giving your true picture; you realise this is where I stand; this is what I am. The moment you understand what you are, correction is easy. Diagnosis is difficult; the cure is easier. Similarly, when you come in contact with a pure mirror, an undistorted image happens. You automatically know where you stand and where you should be. The Master becomes a road sign with his own life.

What is the main thing happening here? Amidst all the varied dimensions of existence, emotions, changes; HE remains unchangeable, still. So, when you look at that Master, and you see a zero change, unchangeable, steady, then you realise this is the state of happiness; not pleasures, which are changing every now and then. Pleasures keep changing. For some time they remain, then again, you need more. But here, happiness is a state where you are always happy, stable and happy. And that state is what you are looking for. That’s when you realise, this is the state. So a true master’s life itself is the lesson, message and path. And when you come in contact, how do you know that you are being helped? Are you attaining silence in the mind? Or are you continuing to be restless and affected by things around us around you?

If you are always affected by things around you; that means you are only expressing your inherent patterns. It means, patterns or habits have formed, and it’s like a cycle going on and on and on. But a master shows you, that there is a possibility of being still, being out of the patterns, overcoming them by accepting those patterns and not resisting them. By holding the hands of the Master, (as long as it takes, maybe it takes lifetimes we never know), you come out of your patterns of life, including habits, likes, dislikes, opinions, prejudices, etc. and you become free. When you become free; fewer thoughts, less desire, less wear and tear from life will be the result. If this is happening, that means this relationship is working.

Relationship with a master does not have boundaries when I say boundaries, not bound by time. It is a continuous process. What brings you to a master is eligibility, YOUR WILL to experience the higher aspects of existence such as happiness; this brings you to a master. (And again as I said, it is not pleasures of life. We have many pleasures in life. It keeps coming and going, and we are not happy. Because one time it comes and goes, you crave for more, desire for more, and this is a continuous process.)Then you are in a tranquil state, and you are happy by nature and contented. So the contentment factor is the connection factor; you can actually assess your connection with your level of contentment.

Question: If people take advantage of unconditional love, how do you handle such situations? Is there a boundary to draw when you give unconditional love?

Mohanji: We are unconditional love by nature. That is our nature. We are love by nature, and we expand with love. We contract with hatred, revenge, anger; it makes us shrink. But with love, we expand, and that’s our nature; our nature is to expand. So love is our natural process. Love is our nature. But the world outside, of seven billion-plus people, is of every dimension. They are of different dimensions. It is not easy to say or categorise them at all.

Everybody is a mixture of various types of people. So, in this whole mixture, how people respond is completely based on time, space, their moods or the fluctuations of mind as per that time, because of various reasons. So, we cannot predict. We can only generalise a person based on the most predominant attitude. We can never say, “This person is always like this”. Each day could be different, moods could be changing, and everything could be changing. So, we must never judge anybody and say that he/ she is always like this. So, we have to understand that the world operates in such a way where the gunas; the Sattva, Rajas, Tamas gunas are fluctuating, flowing. 

That changes time and again based on various aspects of existence, and that causes swings in moods. Sometimes Sattva is very high; people are tranquil and peaceful, then Rajas becomes high, they become very active, very explicit, and when Tamas becomes high, they procrastinate. So, this keeps going up and down, and according to that, a person will respond. Sometimes when the person is filled with Tamas, they may respond illogically, procrastinate. Procrastination brings forth anger, hatred, various types of feelings: feeling of separation, feeling of lack of love, etc. When that happens, maybe a disconnection happens between the person who loves them fully and the person who takes advantage of them.

Sometimes people think that the people who take advantage are good people because they fail to see the truth. At the same time, a thought may come that the people who love them unconditionally, but pretty rigid in their attitude are bad guys. In such cases, they hate the people who are truthful, and they follow the people who are manipulative. We have seen that in life. Sometimes people go after people who are manipulative, and they realise it much later. By the time too much of water would have flown under the bridge. That means time would have changed, and it would have probably become irreversible. Then betrayals happen, revenge happens, so much of bad blood happens. At the same time, the estrangement takes root; it means separation takes root, so this might become a trauma. But a master you are connected to, the Master will remain unconditional.

In the story of Victor Hugo, the Bishop gave food and accommodation to an ex-convict. When nobody wanted him, the society rejected him and did not want anything to do with him; at that time, the Bishop invited him to the church, gave him warm food and accommodation. But the convict in him could not accept it. The convict in him accepted himself as a bad guy, and decided, “This is not possible. Nobody can love me”. Because the inherent feeling or the concept or the state that he was in, rejected the kindness which the Bishop showed unconditionally.

What did he do? He stole the silver candle holders and ran away in the night. The police caught him, brought him back to the church because he had those candle holders which had the mark of the church on it. The police asked the Bishop, “Did this man steal something from the church?” and showed him the candleholders and few other things. The Bishop said, “No, I gave it to him”. Thus, he saved him again. That transformed the man.

So I always believe CONSISTENT KINDNESS transforms minds. So all you have to do is, not to have any expectation if you are brimming with unconditional love. If you expect people to appreciate, people to accept you as unconditional etc., there could be disappointments. Whenever there is an expectation, there is a potential for disappointment. So, express unconditional love consistently and be kind again and again and again, and you raise yourself in stature, not status. Stature is your ability to be unconditional love all the time. Then what happens in society? Society cannot ignore you anymore. Society will come around you, respect you and glorify you and make you a legend or legend hood comes to you because you have been consistent. 

Consistency is a big deal. Many people do not have it. It is because they pitch expectation into an activity, and suffer sorrows and disappointment. So, this is something which we must remember. Be unconditional, but have the maturity to have no expectations. So you keep giving. Examples are Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi; we can find so many examples. They did not do things for the sake of earning glory, and because of that, glory came to them. Nelson Mandela, for example, He was behind bars in one cell for about 30 + years, that is, for most of his life. But when he came out, he was not affected. He created the platform for a peaceful society.

How can that happen? There was no revenge in his mind. Likewise, various great masters whom we have respected over time, they have been kind consistently, been compassionate, and been selfless consistently, and expecting nothing and that made them legends. Being unconditional is a beautiful thing. But it should have one more ingredient added into it. That is, zero expectation, and that will give you glory. 

Question: How can we be sure that we are doing Consciousness Kriya correctly? And how do we know we’re making progress?

Mohanji: Well, any practice for that matter, say a normal physical practice, how do you know whether you are making progress? In simple terms, your proficiency increases. But in spiritual practice, the idea of spiritual practice is to give you a certain level of stability. So one of the criteria if you are doing a thing right, with the full application, full commitment, with conviction, faith, and consistency; if you are doing it properly, the result would be stability. Automatically, you will be very stable, and you will not be affected by the things around you too much. Things will be happening around you as it would, but it will not affect you as much as it usually would. So that’s the real sign that you are actually in the right track; we can extend it to say with fewer thoughts, less desires, etc.

End of the day, when you are practising it right, when you are consistent about it, and you believe in it, (if you don’t believe in it, if you are testing it, it may not work that much.) then you will realise that there is a kind of stability happening inside you. You are not fluctuated by the fluctuations of the outside world. The outside world will remain outside; the inside world will strengthen. When the inside world strengthens, the outside world cannot affect you anymore. 

This phenomenon, you can see if you are getting more and more stable inside that means the external world will not affect you as much as it normally would. So, this is a clear sign of knowing you are doing it right. Sometimes, you know the method very well, but the effect is not happening because you do not trust it. Secondly, when we go to a guru with expectations and the guru gives you certain guidelines, but then we neither trust the guru nor the guidelines, we fail in the whole thing. It is because of one reason; we have not connected, we have not accepted. So, it’s important to accept wholeheartedly, experiment it, keep trying it, and after a while, it will start working. Maybe initially it may not work, it starts working as you go further and further.

There should be some kind of consistency in your practice; this is very important. If that’s not happening, the results may not happen. We become busy with our thought processes, so we do not have consistency sometimes. Then, that affects us, and we feel dejected, depressed because we are not progressing. Progress means less thoughts. Less thoughts means less desires. Less desires mean more detachment and more freedom.

Less thought = Less desires =Less needs = More detachment = More freedom.

That’s a benchmark which you can actually look for. But for that, you need to connect to your inside world more than the outside world. When we are running behind the pleasures of existence, entertaining the senses, entertaining the mind, etc., it may not work easily. On one side we are chasing things outside, but on the other side, we are trying to come inside, this struggle will continue.

So you must spend enough time with yourself. And I have always done that between 3 am to 8 am, early morning. That is because that time, the world is relatively free from you or you are free from the world. After that, you got to give yourself to the world. Maybe you are working, you are doing things, and then you are probably busy with your life outside. And that will take its toll. It’s okay, that’s part of life. But we got to spend time with ourselves, a personal time. That’s the time you should practise consistently with faith, faith in yourself, faith in the activity and also be clear that you are not keeping expectations ahead of you.

What are you doing? – Just practising. Just doing what it takes. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad. Just by focusing on the activity with full surrender, the results will start happening because you are starting to connect with yourself. End of the day, whether you are a Bhakti Yogi, following the path of devotion, or Jnyana Yogi, following the path of knowledge, or Karma yogi, following the path of service, or Raja Yogi, following the path of consciousness, it doesn’t matter. Everything leads you to yourself. Eventually, you will have to come back to yourself, and that’s the whole path. That’s the whole tradition. So this will happen anyway. This has to happen. So it doesn’t matter whether this practice is right or wrong, etc. I would say wrong practice means you need to put pressure to do it. Right practice is a pleasure. You are happy to do it. This is very simple.

Question: What would strengthen and help the awakening of consciousness?

Mohanji: Consistency strengthens our purpose. When we are consistent, what is our priority? We must ask this question some point in time. Imagine you came in contact with a very powerful master. But you contacted him for some personal gain or personal benefits, such as a job or a marriage or a relationship or some money or a position in the world, something like that. That’s very shallow. It may happen anyway.

But why did you associate with a very powerful Master? What brought you to him? It is your eligibility. What kind of eligibility brought you to a master of that kind? It is the eligibility for liberating yourself from the mundane existence of likes and dislikes, happiness and sorrow; this kind of duality. It was time for you to come out of it. That is how you came in contact with the master. Now, imagine you are still expressing your patterns, expectations leading to disappointments, ownerships, anger, hatred, jealousy, etc. What happens? You stand still! Your patterns are more powerful than your association with something really powerful (the master). That means your patterns become a wall in front of you, which disconnects you from that master.

Then that connection is wasted. You cannot use it because there is a wall in front of you. Your own patterns, concepts, prejudices make a wall, and the wall grows, because your ego enters. Ego sometimes manipulates you. Ego tells you, “Hey, look here! This is not how it should be; he should come forward to you, not you go to him” etc., all those things and it takes you away from reality and detaches you from reality and what happens is that the whole connection is wasted. So, when you come in contact with a master, you should have the priorities set right. And you should have extreme flexibility, flow like a river, and flow like water. Extreme flexibility helps you to progress in drastic speed. 

As I told in the beginning, imagine you have a lot of lifetimes, let’s say 200 lifetimes. As you come closer to your soul, you can see these 200 lifetimes in one frame, like in the zoom, we can see all the people on one frame, all the people who are connected to us are all in one frame, and they are all in these frames. Like that, we can see our various lifetimes in one frame and then we will know that we have been expressing almost similar patterns. Maybe, we have been a man or a woman or a child or anything in each life, that doesn’t matter. But in every life, we have been expressing similar patterns, insecurities, prejudices, all the things which you are experiencing now have been the same in all those lives and the coming lives as well.

So what you are really doing is that with each death, you are just going out, changing clothes and coming back into a new life. So it’s like a new scene in the drama. We are acting scene by scene by scene. If you take a drama, in that kind of boundary/frame, you are enacting a role. And you keep coming back in a new costume, and you play the role. In between, you are coming in contact with a master who says, “I will take you out of this. You had enough of roles in life, you have played a lot of roles, and I’ll take you out of it”. But then again, you have been used to certain patterns all these lifetimes, similar patterns. So what will you say? “Okay, I would like you to take me out of it. But you know what, I have something more to settle because I have left some things on another screen, another time so that I want to go back to complete that. That man cheated me. So I must go back and cheat him. He betrayed me. So I must betray him.” Like that, we have scores to settle.

We have things to complete, which provokes further lives. So in this whole bargain, in various lifetimes we have come in contact with people who have come out of this drama; they have finished their acting, they have already settled within themselves, they’ve understood there’s no need for this drama. They’ve experienced everything connected to this whole life, and they don’t want it anymore. They know it very well, and they have come out of it. These people still hang on to guide others to come out of it. But then our patterns are so strong, that we may even blame the people who are already detached from it, saying, “No, no, this guy doesn’t understand, I have to take care of this thing. This is more important for me.” ‘I’ am important. I factor. ‘I’ is the association with the role not with the actor. This is the problem. We associate ourselves with the role.

If Mohanji associates himself as a guru, then Mohanji has a problem. I’m not a guru all the time. When I play with Mila, I’m not a guru. I’m her father. Like that in every scene, I play a different role. And the sum total of it is what is called this incarnation. So, that acceptance should happen. With extreme flexibility, when you play the role, you play it well, good enough for an Oscar. You play it supremely well, and when you come out of it, you have nothing to do with it. That is the detachment we talk about. We have that experience every day.

Remember, when we go to bed, we shut off from this external world. We are completely detached. We shut the screen; there is nothing on the screen, no world outside. Then we connect to the internal world, and we see the drama of life as dreams. We get tired; we shut that also. Then we go into a deep sleep where you shut off everything, body, mind-matter, everything is shut off. You are totally sitting in consciousness with consciousness. You are sleeping with consciousness. Then you come back again to the waking state, where you and the world come alive. Again you wear the costume of this incarnation as per your projection, and the world recognises you as you are known in this incarnation. But is that you? Ask this question – Am I this? This role play is important in this act for sure, because you play that role, but is that you?

Why do you set boundaries? Why do we have boundaries? This question will happen, and that time we will start understanding the role play. So, everybody’s life is just acting, or role plays and patterns are guiding. The inclinations, tendencies push them to express what they are into this world. That means we are projecting what we are into this world. That means we are seeing or experiencing this world as WE are; we cannot experience the world as it is. We are not experiencing the world as the world is. Instead, we are experiencing the world as we are. What do you see around? What do you get from this world? – Opinions, concepts, prejudices, and so many factors of that kind. Think about it.

The world is full of opinions; it may not be the truth. Somebody says, “This person is not good.” That is his perspective. That person thinks that the other person is not as good as per his criterion. But another person may say, “This guy is very good.” So who’s telling the truth? Nobody is good. Nobody is bad. It’s our perspective; it is the way we see it. We see a person, and if our frequency is not matching with something, we call it not good – For whom? – For us. So, when we tell another person, “That person is not good, stay away”, are we missing heavily here? Definitely. We are missing a lot because we fail to see the truth. Our opportunity to see the truth or our opportunity to be neutral and have clarity is taken away because we see the world through our ears, not through our eyes. Eyes are given to see the world, to see the truth, but eyes cannot see the truth because ears work more.

We experience that in life. So this has to be clearly understood. The world is as it is, but we see the world as we are. And then if you see this whole 100, 200 lifetimes of our existence, you can see the same pattern at work. But because we are getting involved in the drama, we cannot really come out, because each person changes the costume and comes back and we must be there. We are addicted to this play, and we keep coming back: the same people, different costumes, and different order. They all come back, and they all provide similar emotions because they’re all coming with patterns; similar emotions. We enter into the drama, and we really suffer from that drama, sometimes happy sometimes sorrow, but do we see this drama? We must. The moment you start seeing the drama, and then you realise, “Oh, this is the story.”

Do you know why we have assassinated most of the people who spoke the truth? The people, whom we assassinated like Jesus and Socrates, were great masters who saw the truth and told the truth – undistorted truth, but we killed them. We character assassinated them. Why did we do that? Because we do not see, we can’t see. We are blind to reality. We only see what WE are, what is our pattern through the eyes of the pattern. We only see through the eyes of the pattern, through the eyes of our prejudices and concepts. Through the spectacles of what we have carried forward and what we have collected, we are watching this world. We are witnessing this world, and we don’t see the truth. We do not even accept the truth. All these people are like that. That is why racism, speciesism is all because we are eating concepts right from our breakfast till we sleep.

Somebody says, “It’s okay to kill an animal and eat” and we eat. We do not think that they have a life. They have a right to live as much as we have. The right is the same for every species which we don’t see. Likewise RACE. Each person is born in a certain community, and that’s about it. Nobody is higher or lower. Nobody can be higher or lower. Experience wise, everybody has the same right; the same kind of experience. If you touch fire, your hand will burn. The same happens with every race, everybody.

If we start seeing beyond all these seeming boundaries that we have created for ourselves and we fail to see the truth, then we realise, ”Oh, so there is a pattern”, but when do we get to see it? Even when somebody who has seen it tells you, we may not accept it. We may ask mundane questions. What will happen to me in the future? Does that mean you are asking what is the script? Or ask what will happen after my death? You will come back in the same way. It doesn’t matter. What you can do right now is your only reality. Try to connect yourself and try to see the truth now. That can change your future. Not that the future can change by sitting doing nothing, or entertaining the patterns now. Future will not change like that. Future will be future, patterns will continue, and patterns are ruling us. Our inclinations and tendencies are ruling us, which we don’t know. Even if it is told, we do not accept, nor do we understand. We do not allow changes because we are too bound by the patterns. We don’t even see. I have to sleep; I have to eat; I have to do this. I have to do that. You are completely preoccupied and bound by patterns, where your freedom is lost. As I have explained in today’s message, freedom is freedom from the senses and mind, not of the senses and mind. But unfortunately, what we have always been told and what we tell others is that I have freedom because I can go out and do whatever I like. That means being a slave is freedom. When you say, “I have the freedom to go out and do things that I like”, you are saying, “I can exercise my patterns and I call that my freedom”.

That is not freedom. Freedom is a state where you are free from your own senses and mind. Senses are pretty much sensors; they cannot operate on their own, the mind provokes them. So when you are free from your mind-matter such as intellect, ego and mind, then the senses are in control. If they are not bothering you, if the mind is not bothering you and if you are detached from your mind, and in the state of witness hood and mind is not really provoking the senses to go out, that’s the only time you experience freedom. Otherwise, you don’t. Whatever we say as freedom: freedom of choices, freedom of doing things; that is not freedom. That is just another word for living your own patterns.

Freedom is when you need nothing from Earth. Freedom is when you are free from your mind. If you understand that clearly, you have understood the whole tapestry. You have understood the whole thing. So when you are coming in contact, or when you are fully in contact with your own soul factor, then you see life in the whole picture, the whole frame, every life, and all the lifetimes together. That time you realise, if I miss the chance to get out of this drama, I’m stuck again. That’s the time when we realise this connection which you have received in the path of spirituality is worth millions, or it’s totally priceless. That’s the only real thing in Life.

Forget about the patterns and other things. You want to get married; you want to have children, a house, etc., all these are patterns. But look at the reality now. Look at the truth which you have come in contact with. The truth of being you, the truth to be you, connect to you, accept you, understand you, assimilate you, align you, be you and realise you. We call it self-realisation, and that is priceless. You cannot put a frame or a price to it. And the role of a master is to bring you to this awareness, not to force you into this awareness. No master will force you, why should they force you?

A true master will show you a mirror, “Look here, this is where you stand”. “Then where should I go?” – Into yourself. Which way? You connect to yourself through contemplation, understand yourself, and accept yourself. Acceptance is very important. You have to accept yourself with all your weaknesses and strengths. You have to feel yourself as you are and be yourself. This life is a golden chance. Do not chase the rainbows now because we have been chasing it always, in all the lifetimes. Now, we have got an opportunity to be aware that reality is at hands reach. We have come in contact with reality. And this is worth anything. That should be the first priority.

Destruction of patterns should be your first priority. But you can’t destroy something and stay empty. You got to catch something higher. How do you catch it? What will you catch? TRUTH. The Truth inside you; the truth is what you are catching. That truth is inside you. That’s the real you; the witness who needs nothing from Earth, nothing from anywhere. Beyond relationships, beyond time, space, beyond matters, materials, possessions, positions, this is you. You start connecting to that; you will see immense power happening inside you, overwhelming power.

Because you are free, you feel the power of freedom. It is great freedom to feel that power. That power is not to display to somebody, not to show off. The power is big, the power of beingness, the power of being you, you have nothing to prove on Earth. There’s nothing to prove; there is nothing to ask for or nothing to gain from Earth. Instead, you are giving the Earth all your brightness. Imagine, this is the truth of liberation. This is a liberated existence. If we understand that, we have understood everything. This is within you; it is not something which is kind of unreachable. It’s not a tall order. It’s within you. It’s you, connecting to you, assimilating you, aligning you and being you.

The connection with the master is to bring that spark, to light that fire. Then the fire catches, burns you and reduces you to yourself. All other things go away; all the patterns, concepts, everything burns into ashes. Then you become you. If this is really understood, you have understood everything. This opportunity is right at hand, and you have it. This Guru Poornima is the right day to think about it. Sage Vyasa, Vashishta, Saptarishis; everybody came to tell you this story, that human birth is extremely important. And in human birth, you have this opportunity to recognise, understand and assimilate your true self, the truth.

It’s not a linear existence. Life goes linear from birth till death, but that is only for the sake of experience. However, truth does not go linear. The truth remains vertical, always vertical. All the time, the truth remains the same. When you are a child, the truth is the same. When you are an adult, the truth is the same. In your old age, the truth is the same. Truth never changes. But in linear time, experiences changes, perception changes, body changes, mind changes, intellect changes, everything changes. And we confuse ourselves by thinking, “I am changing.” However, nothing is changing. You are the same, you cannot change, and truth cannot change.

So, if you’ve really understood this, you will start recognising the truth every moment. What you get out of it? – Immense stability, peace, tranquility, freedom. You will experience the real meaning of freedom only when you reach that state, where you are connected to the truth yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after. It doesn’t matter what your moods are, what your surroundings are, what your emotions are. Not a problem. Nothing matters. You could be anger, hatred, jealousy, lust, anything. Not a problem. It is a state of freedom. That’s exactly how great masters existed -consistent, stable, integrity, unchangeable because you are connecting to the unchangeable.

Transcribed by Rakshitha Ananth

Proofread by Rekha Murali

Open the Door for Grace, part 2

Satsang with Mohanji in Canada, part 2
26 June 2019

Q6: What is the significance of a Guru living in a body, compared to a Guru who has left the body? 

Q7: Whenever we think of or remember you when we are at home, will you be thinking of us too?

Q8: What are the signs of presence when connection happens?

Q9: Can one have two masters?

Q10: If I think of Sai ji (Shirdi Sai Baba), will you come into my path?

Q11: What if I am able to be connected to multiple gurus simultaneously? If you pray to Sai Baba, then go to another place, you may get answers. I may be able to connect to god/guru/ energy in many different ways. Is this a sign that you are going towards a spiritual path?

Q12: How do you get empty?

Q13: Is that time when we are empty i.e. without thoughts or desires when we need to intensely pray?

Q14:  In today’s world, as householders and those working at jobs and doing different roles inside and outside the home, we cannot shirk our responsibilities or roles. What should be our methodology to reach that supreme goal of Oneness?

Q15: Everything is pre-decided, and I’m responsible for what I’m experiencing in this life. Are the people I interact with or family members just the instruments for me to have those experiences?

Q16: But when do I break that kind of give and take?

Q6: What is the significance of a Guru living in a body, compared to a Guru who has left the body? 

M: A guru in the body is difficult to handle.  If the guru is just a picture, you can handle the picture the way you like, because he is not going to eat you. See it’s very simple. Technically, all gurus are powerful. But the ego aspect is very difficult to deal with. We all have our ego. What is ego? The skeleton or structure of your personality is ego. At an elementary level, it is necessary. Why? Because that is the identity part. When you have zero ego, meaning you are totally diluted (which will happen anyway when you attain higher levels of samadhi), if somebody were to ask you who you are, you may say you don’t remember. And that is not a good idea while living in society.

So at the elementary level, mind-matter consisting of the three aspects of ego, intellect and mind, is important. But for a master who has already left the body,  you are accenting mainly on imagination, and your connection is based on that. And the teachings are what you receive. You do not know for sure, right? It may not be first-hand, it might come through somebody else. But if you are able to lead a disciplined life, fully focused on this master, you don’t need anything else – living or dead, no problem. However if you have a mind to tackle, the intellect to tackle, the ego to tackle, the proximity of a living master will be a good idea, although rather dangerous! Because what the masters do is they keep beating the ego, you know. When the ego sprouts up, one kick is given! When the intellect goes into analysis, one kick! And what does the intellect need? Answers. If answers are not given, the intellect suffers. The master will keep quiet. If answers are not given, questions will remain and the intellect will be very annoyed. The questioner will feel like pulling the hair of the master, or his own! Then there is the mind. When people come to the master with emotions, the master will be like stone. No reciprocation. What will happen? They will say – insensitive master, bad guy. All this happens with a living master. When Shirdi Sai Baba was living, the people living at the time said all sorts of things about him. They called him a mad man and so many names. Now a hundred years later, we understand his power. Most of the masters who are living are never appreciated by their contemporaries – because people cannot “see”. They cannot go beyond the physical form. They only see the physical form and take decisions. The senses and the mind can only base decisions on the data provided to them. Those data are physical form and expressions – not anything else. You can’t see the consciousness.

And why the third or fourth generation after the master’s time, sometimes connects with the master, is because based on the available data, they try to figure out something suitable for a connection. And secondly,  if there is no personality to handle, then everybody can connect. You know, personality is a big problem because we ourselves have personality and this personality has to match with the that of the other.

What do the scriptures say? Question and believe. They never say to have blind faith. Questioning here means address the question to yourself. The first question is:  do I need any master? Because I have a master within.  What is the master? The soul. The subtlest part of you, the non-interfering part of you, is the master. This non-interfering part of your whole system, your soul, never tells you what to do. It just allows your journey. It just energizes your faculties, the body, mind, intellect, and ego. But it never tells you where to go, or what to see or what to look for.

So the soul is non-interfering, completely neutral. God is like that. True masters are like that too. And this detachment present in a living master is not understood by most people. Intensity will be interpreted as anger. So if you are approaching the master and you are a tough nut to crack, the master will be intense. What will people think? Master is an angry guy. I have explained this in the Atmananda book where a person came to a master, and decided to stay with him for some time because he was fed up with life.  So he was watching the master – he saw that the master was restless, then angry, that he was irritable with people. He thought to himself: what kind of master is this, people say he is a great master –  but he is completely irritated all the time, he is angry, abusing people. Yet he continued staying with the master…

After a while, he saw the master being very quiet and silent, non-intrusive, loving everybody, and then he was surprised. This didn’t seem like the same guy, he had changed all of a sudden, how come? And later on, he found the master very cool, and completely relaxed. Then the master called him and said, “You are done, you can go now”. Before he could leave, another person arrived who sat next to him. He asked him, “Is this guy always like this? He so irritable and angry.” He learned that the master was actually only a mirror. It was actually these people who were angry and upset, and the master was just reflecting them. The master was always calm and quiet. But when this person’s own mind settled down, he then saw happiness, calmness, quietness, and peace in the master. When his own mind was agitated, he only saw the same thing in the master. The master however always remained the same – calm, quiet, and peaceful.

And this is actually how every person who is aligned will be like – he will be a perfect mirror. You go to him with anger, he becomes anger; you go to him with love, he becomes love. So these true masters are true mirrors. You can’t define them. How you are is what you will see. And you will see nothing else.

So this effect is not possible when a person is normal – then it is only an understanding.  But I will tell you once again that Krishna has not gone, Rama has not gone, Baba has not gone.  Any master whom you connect to, on earth, is not gone. They all have capacity, they have power, they are doing work. They do their work through people. All the great masters like Sripada Srivallabha, Bhagawan Nityananda, Guruji in Delhi – all do their work continuously. Because they can’t die – they just expand. They leave the body once the connections are all finished, what do they need to stay for then? All they had to connect with, the connections, they are all done, so why sit in the body? Better to work without the body. So what do they do?  They leave the body. And they work better. Through hundreds of people. To reach hundreds of people. And who will connect to them? Those whose frequency matches their frequency, will connect. That is why we have numerous masters. They are each unique, not comparable. You can’t compare them. Each one has relevance. What we only need to have is perspective. Nobody is higher, nobody is lower. None are equal. Everybody has relevance – they have a purpose and they continue with that.

Also, let’s say you want Babaji as your master. How will you get him? You will need to tune in your frequency to communicate. Just like you do with your television. There are so many channels out there, but what can come into the television? What the television has capacity for, isn’t it? Nothing else. The vibrations and transmissions are coming, the channels are all there, but you can’t catch them – because the capacity is not there. So you cannot connect to all the gurus. There are numerous masters existing without the body. They work – they do guide. But we won’t connect to them all. Why? Because we are probably on a terrestrial frequency. Often, we lose when we compare. We really cannot compare them –  we can only respect. That’s why I say never ever disrespect any master. The guru tattva in you will die, when you disrespect one guru. The guru principle is not two-sided, it’s one thing. Guru tattva, the Guru principle, has to be respected. So all masters should be respected. It doesn’t mean you go to all masters. You see every master in your master, the one you are connected to. Yogananda said the same thing, “If you consider me as your guru, I am all gurus. Look no further.” Every master is like that – who you feel connected to, that is your master. What the Upanishads say is: ”The master that has happened to you is your master.” Not the one whom you chase. It’s like when in school, you never went searching for a teacher. Some teacher came to your class and that teacher helped you go to the higher class. Like that,  the right teacher is sent to you when you are eligible. And how will you connect? When your frequency is right. And through acceptance: ok, this person has come. And that’s it.

You can never say that Shirdi Sai Baba is not active. From our own experiences, we know he is very active a hundred years after he left the body. Chattarpur Guruji is active, so is Bhagawan Nityananda and we know many more masters that are active. How can you say they are not active? It’s not possible.

Q7: Whenever we think of or remember you when we are at home, will you be thinking of us too?

M: It’s all auto connection. There are two things you must understand. One is this physical form which exists for the sake of communication, for interaction on the physical level. But there is a consciousness form too, which never dies. That form is always available. So when your frequency connects to my frequency, that presence automatically has to happen. In fact the presence never goes.

A story goes that Brahma told Kali (Kali of Kali Yuga) that during your time, you must not touch or disturb those who are deeply connected to masters and traditions. Then Kali replied, “What happens to my job then, if everybody gets connected? For my job is to disturb people!” Then Brahma said that time would be his friend, the prevailing times would help him. If time were so confusing and kept people unstable then he could work easily.

Then Kali asked how people would connect to masters at all, in unstable times?

In the Treta Yuga which was Shri Rama’s time, connection happened through yagna, homa and such things. In Dvaapara Yuga, it was a different way. In each Yuga or Age, there was a different format for connecting to God. So what is the format in the Kali Yuga?

Brahma replied, ”Remembrance”. If you remember, you will be connected. It’s that simple. But even remembrance is a problem during Kali’s time. When you remember, energy presence happens. They said to just remember, they didn’t even say chant or sing. Those are fine too – if you want to do it, no problem. But the minimum is remembrance. Just remember and the connection happens. So the consciousness is always available. The physical form needs transportation, but consciousness needs no transformation – it is always expanded. And you will feel it, you will get signs. Everything will happen per your intensity, according to how you connect.

Q8: What are the signs of presence when connection happens?

M: Signs can be many. There can be fragrance, for instance. There are 5 senses, right? The sign will be based on your orientation. For some people it will be a feeling of presence, some people are nose-oriented, so for them it will be a feeling of fragrance. Others may be visual-oriented, so they will probably see. Sometimes it can even be taste, so a nice taste in the mouth. Sometimes a fragrance, a smell. It depends on the orientation. It’s not easy to generalize it – various people feel it in various ways.

Q9: Can one have two masters?

M: There are no two masters. Consciousness is one, so there is one master but in many forms. What you should connect to is the master you feel connected to. There is nothing you will gain by changing the master. Because it would be just another form since it is the same story, the same consciousness. So if you just connect to the master you feel deeply connected to, and consider that person as all masters, then all masters will help you.

The entry card that gets you support of all masters, is the respect you have for one master: your own master. That is what is told by all great scriptures. They say to just stay put, and every master will come and help you. In other words, to have a steady connection to one person – this is the secret. It is the mind that takes you to different masters, that thinks that the other one is better, or that I can get more from many people  – it’s not true.

An example of this is an incident about a film actress, a staunch devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba – she has actually spoken about it on video and Youtube, so I’m not naming her. She had been filming somewhere in New Zealand or Australia. And she was going through tremendous confusion over some serious decisions she had to take. She prayed intensely to Shirdi Sai Baba that she needed an answer that night itself, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to do the film shooting the next day.

Since I didn’t have her number, I called up one of her friends, CEO of Sunil Shetty’s company I think, and I said, “Do you know this lady?” She said, ”Yes, I know her.” I told her to convey the answer. She asked,” Did she contact you?” I said, ”No, don’t worry, you just give her this answer.” So she called up the actress and gave her the answer and the actress exclaimed, “My God, how did you know this?” to which she replied, “I don’t know, Mohanji called me up and told me.” The actress said, ”How did Mohanji know? I did not pray to him!” Then she contacted me, “How did you know this question was from me?”   I replied saying, “Just see if the answer is right.“ She said, “The answer is accurate, thank you very much. I can take a decision now.”

And about a week later, something again happened – not so serious but similar. And again I answered. She had been praying to Shirdi Sai Baba, this also she related on video. She said that she was completely surprised, since she always looked upon me as just as a friend. She said,” How did Mohanji know, although I was praying to Shirdi Sai Baba?” So what does that mean? It’s all one canvas! I’m not Shirdi Baba, I’m telling you this straight. I look upon Baba as my father. But how did the answer come?

One canvas! That is why it is not about this physical form – you will not understand then. This consciousness is one. So you pray to whoever you are connected to and answer comes some way. And we have no give or take in it. I’m not taking any extra favor or I’m not telling them I invented this. It’s   not possible, you know. It happens automatically. It was accurate for that person, so she went and put that on video. Sometimes this type of thing happens, though not always. It depends on the intensity of the prayer and the intensity of the connection to your master. But many people don’t receive that because they keep wandering. They are neither here nor there. They don’t know who to pray to, and when they pray, there is no intensity.

There are two things in life: intensity and intention. Sankalpa or intention should be strong. We do sankalpa before a havan and puja: I am doing this puja for myself/ my family/particular person so that they are protected. The priest takes the name, gotra and all that, and then they do the chants and puja. Sankalpa should be clear for whatever action you take. Then intensity or single pointed concentration. The answers will come, and I’m sure you have experienced it. But the thing is you don’t have to pray to different gurus because they have different forms. All gurus are one. You connect deeply to your guru – everybody will come and help you. So there is no need to change anything and I will never recommend that also. Because what will you change? Only the forms right?  After that what will you do?

Q10: If I think of Sai ji (Shirdi Sai Baba), will you come into my path?

M: That’s possible, but not necessary. Maybe Sai himself will appear in the thoughts. I gave this example only for your understanding. It happened and the actress herself has said this on video, otherwise I would not used that example. But there are numerous such instances. It’s not necessarily me, Baba can work through anybody, through different people. But for Baba to work, that person should be empty, with zero ego. Any master can work through anybody, he can work through all people: there are 7.5 billion people who are options. But how will he work through someone? You should have no ego, you should be completely empty. Then he will take over and he will work and he will talk.

However many people do many predictions, and I don’t believe in most of them. One person came to me and said you will be doing this, you will be doing that.  I completely discount that. These kind of things I do not endorse – I’m a practical person. It should  be tangible and practical. And I don’t like to mislead or misguide. If things are not happening, they are not happening. Why things don’t happen is mostly because there is no intensity in our prayer. Intensity means single-pointed concentration .

That’s why Babaji always talks about concentration first. He insists on concentration before any practice. Learn to concentrate first, then you practice. We are all scattered, attention is distributed over so many things that our intensity on each is reduced. So each thing doesn’t receive the intensity.

Q11: What if I am able to be connected to multiple gurus simultaneously? If you pray to Sai Baba, then go to another place, you may get answers. I may be able to connect to god/guru/ energy in many different ways. Is this a sign that you are going towards a spiritual path?

M:  The secret of connecting to all the gurus is connecting to the one guru in you. A disciple asked a guru, “You know I am completely confused. You are talking about 330 million or 33 crores of gods. I can’t even begin to start worshipping one god, and here you are talking about 330 million gods. How will I worship all of them? He replied, “Worship 33% of yourself”, which means the mind and consciousness. If you worship these two aspects, you are actually connecting to 330 million aspects of one thing. One is supreme consciousness that has 330 million possibilities. You are connecting to every master, everything.

So, the secret is connecting to yourself, and for connecting to yourself, you have to accept yourself – self-acceptance. And self-acceptance has to start with recognising yourself as a complete being. Totally unique, totally perfect, totally complete. No comparisons. People waste a lot of time comparing themselves with other people. Oh, that person is good, that person is better, all that is absolutely not true. Since each person is unique, so you can’t say that somebody is better than the other. So when that kind of self-acceptance happens, you will automatically start connecting, you will appreciate and respect yourself, you will stop judging yourself. You will like and love yourself and then you will start experiencing the same outside.

And then when you look at one guru, you will see all the masters, millions of them. And then you understand that he is just a representation, and not the reality. See, I’m a projection, not the end. There is a continuation, there is a flow. And I will be ‘alive’ even after I leave the body. So this flow continues on and on. Before me there were so many, after me there will be so many. But still the flow will be there.

Q12: How do you get empty?

M: Emptiness is connected to less thoughts. Less thoughts are connected to less desires. It has to start with this: when you are experiencing something, be fully that. That means no resistance.

Imagine you are experiencing happiness. Be happiness fully, be like a small child – like the baby that was walking around. Be fully that thing and at that time, whatever it is. Tomorrow or the day after, it doesn’t matter. Yesterday doesn’t matter. So that you are there, experiencing fully. In that mode, desires will be fully brought to completion. In that mode, no more such desires will crop up. That automatically reduces your thoughts, leading to more and more emptiness.

Emptiness doesn’t happen in one day, because we have already stored so much inside of us, without our knowledge. We have served a lot of days, right? We are served a lot things that are all there as cache memory. Let it be, no problem. But just be aware. “Oh, it’s there, let us sit together!”

Then secondly, what do you reject in yourself? What is it that you don’t like in yourself? There might be plenty that is connected to other people’s opinions or your own comparisons. We are compared to other people. Or other people told us we are not good enough. We take all that seriously. But they don’t know you, nobody really knows you. Nobody can know you, and not only that – you don’t even know yourself!  And this is because your conscious mind is available just during the waking state. The waking state is only one of three very vibrant states: waking state, dream state and deep sleep state. The dream state is real: you are having experiences, and even memories in this state. Then in the deep sleep state, you don’t know whether you are man or woman, nor do you know time or space. You don’t know your nationality, country, class, culture, possessions, positions – you know nothing. When you wake up, you know. So there is a death state too, every day. Every night we are dying, every morning we wake up and when we wake up our world wakes up. The world was existing before that but we did not know that world, because when we slept, our world was asleep. That is our whole story, isn’t it?

Now, how do we compare? How do we criticise each other or judge ourselves? In karmic law, whether you criticize yourself or criticize another person, it has the same effect. If you judge yourself or another person, it’s the same in karmic law. Because you are not accepting yourself.  Not accepting oneself and not accepting other people – these are both equal. We only think that karma is towards other people, this is not so. In karmic law, you are an incarnation too, and just like other incarnations. Then if you don’t accept yourself, it’s equivalent to not accepting every other person. When you criticize yourself, it is like criticizing another person. From the karmic angle, there is no difference here.

So it is when you start accepting yourself with all your happiness, all your sorrows, all your weaknesses, and all your strengths, that the mind starts to settle down. It will be less turbulent, you’ll say, “Things are ok, it’s fine, let me manage myself.”

And then, step by step, there will be decline of thoughts, of the TPS – thoughts per second. That leads to emptiness, the subsequent reduction of ups and downs, of the fluctuations of mind. The mind fluctuates only because of thoughts. Remember, the mind is like a projector that needs a film reel. The mind doesn’t have its own data. The film reel has memories, impressions, your desires. If you are not providing it any film, what will the projector project? The screen will be blank and empty because there was nothing to project. That means there were no thoughts. No thoughts means no desires. So though the projector or mind will remain, there will be nothing to project. That means total emptiness and peace.

Q13: Is that time when we are empty i.e. without thoughts or desires when we need to intensely pray?

M: Then there will be no need for prayer. When you are in a totally empty state, which is the state of most of the masters, you don’t have to pray – they don’t pray. I don’t pray, what to pray to? There is nothing outside to pray to. You decide, you intend.  Tathaastu, they say, right?  Based on somebody’s input they say bless you. There is nothing to pray to, because there is nothing outside of you to pray to. You just feel everything inside you, the whole universe inside you. In other words, tat tvam asi, which  means “You are That”. That’s when you realise that state when it’s all empty: aham brahmaasmi  or “I am the Universe”. When you are the universe, you are one with the Creator. Creator means Pure Consciousness.  Then when there is nothing or emptiness within, even a small thought or intention can be very loud. But when there are a lot of thoughts, you wouldn’t understand that. Like a person who is smoking all the time, won’t know how it feels to have the lungs of a nonsmoker. It’s like that. So that thought (prayer) is not needed. It will be operating on the dharma  – what has to be done will be done.

No unconscious action. No compulsive action. Nothing can provoke you at all, because you are empty.  That’s the state of masters. State of mastery needs no prayer. Until you reach that state.

Our prayers are very weak, you know why? Number one reason, our prayers are to someone. Number two, our prayers are for something. When you say, “Please give me this”,  what are you telling the universe? That you don’t have it. So they say “tathaastu”. So you don’t have it anyway. When you keep on praying because of the lack of something, you will only continue to experience the lack of that thing. That is why our prayers are very weak most of the time.

So the right prayer is: “I am grateful. Thank you. Thank you for coming into my life. Thank you for being the grace of my life. Thank you for the abundance that You are, in my life.” Understood?

That is why (before the Mahabharata war), Arjuna said, “I need only Krsna”. And what did Duryodhana  say? He said, “I need the Yadava army.” Krsna said, ”Take it”. Duryodhana looked only at the numbers of warriors, not the talent. Arjuna said he only needed Krsna. One man was enough to defeat a million people – Krsna. Krsna’s presence was more important. Duryodhana thought Arjuna was stupid – why did he not ask for the army. Duryodhana said, “I negotiated very well. I got a whole army, a huge army. Millions of soldiers.” Arjuna said, “I have only one, Krsna. Enough. Thank you for being here as my grace. Now I will win the war.”

All you need is the presence of the master, then the war can be won. Because the master wins the war for you, if your surrender is absolute. But surrender is not absolute.  Shirdi Sai Baba says this: “You leave your mind here and go back. I’ll take care of it, but don’t look back. Don’t ever look back. If you look back, you are not trusting me. You are looking back to see what I am doing with your mind. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. But don’t look back.” And we look back all the time. We plant the seed in the ground and expect it to grow, but every day we dig up to see the seed. Then we complain: “God, why didn’t you make it grow? God is not being very helpful”.

Q14:  In today’s world, as householders and those working at jobs and doing different roles inside and outside the home, we cannot shirk our responsibilities or roles.  What should be our methodology to reach that supreme goal of Oneness?

M: One word answer: Awareness. Be aware.

Decide that not a word is to be uttered without your mind being present. Not even a spoon is taken, not even a finger is moving without your mind being present. Practice awareness.  Awareness is all… be aware. You practice awareness all the time, not only just sitting down and practicing but also when you are working and when you are traveling. When you are watching television, be aware that you are watching television. When you are talking to people, you must be aware you are talking to people. Whatever you are talking about, be aware you are talking about that thing. The only problem will be in the mind, because of thoughts. You don’t know what you are going to think next. So you can’t help that.

But you can understand the thought after it happens: “Ok, this thought happened. No problem”. No resistance, no comparison, no criticism, no judgement. So, everything is flowing, and there are no good, bad, ugly or dirty thought segregations. Anything can happen in the mind. You don’t even look, they all coming and going. Everything is coming, everything is going. So you are not comparing, criticising, judging. If you practice this bodh or awareness, it stabilises you, and you become buddha when you are stabilised in this field at all times. You are no more interested in talking about people. When people are talking, you are not even listening – and people talk according to whatever they are, not what you are wanting.

See, nobody can talk about the truth of something, because nobody really understands the truth accurately. If you want to know the truth, you need to know karma. Like, if I want to know why you are doing something, I need to know your karma. I am only able to see your doing, which is really nothing – it’s just an expression. That expression is caused by some pending desire. So someone says to you, ”This guy is drinking alcohol”. Now why does one do something? Because there is a pending desire. That is what is provoking that action. It can become unconscious action, turn into addiction, etc and it may start ruining his life, and that’s the time when you can guide them or warn them. But in truth, nobody knows anything, and nobody really knows anybody, right? So when people are trying to influence you etc., you say, “I am not interested.” That is what I have always said to those people who try to tell me about other people. I always say that I am not interested. (I think I know this person anyway and sometimes I see through them also.)  I don’t want opinions. I don’t take opinions from anybody because opinions usually contaminate your mind. You know, if somebody were to talk to me about you, then when I meet you next time I will be remembering that, more than the fresh connection. So why should I even try…. I just keep away.

So you just concentrate on your bodh or awareness, and try to stabilise it as much as you can. When you drive your car, you see yourself driving the car.  Every time you see yourself – whether you are watching a picture at the movie theater, or you are interacting with people, or you are taking decisions – and when you do this, what will it be? It will be perpetual meditation. I’m not asking you to sit down and meditate because as you said, you have all your duties towards your family, your dharma. This is what the scriptures say – never deviate from your dharma otherwise you will have to come back. This is something that you chose before you took this birth, so continue. And secondly, karmic. What brings you to that point is karma. That you must perform beautifully, without any self-interest. Then the structure is: maata – pita – guru and God. Follow that structure. First come mother and father, then guru, then God. Worship, connect, or serve in that order so that you are maintaining that structure, so that you are maintaining your dharma. You are calm and quiet. And no guru or god is dependent on your prayers or anything from you, because they are already independent from you. For you to connect you don’t have to give anything.

In 2003, when I started ACT Foundation, I had an interview with either Times of India or Hindustan Times. One of their questions was: “So what is your investment in this organization?” I replied, “Myself”. You are the best investment you can ever have in anything. If you are connected to a master, more than in anything material, invest in yourself. If you want to rise to the highest levels of awareness invest in yourself. Everything else that you got from here is temporary. But you – you brought yourself here. That is the difference, and that you should remember. You are the only original thing which you brought – everything else is received from here.

So what can you give to the master? Only yourself. And at a certain point in time, you will understand that you are one with the master. Master is not outside, it is inside. Then that acceptance level will take you to great heights. Your awareness will soar and soar and you will see all the things transparent. Then emotions won’t disturb you, situations won’t disturb you, time and space won’t disturb you. Nothing disturbs you. You are free.

Q15: Everything is pre-decided, and I’m responsible for what I’m experiencing in this life. The people I interact with or family members are just the instruments for me to have those experiences?

M: In other words, your projection.

Q16: But when do I break that kind of give and take?

M: It breaks by itself. You are not breaking anything. You didn’t consciously create, so that you can break. You see every situation has happened. In real time. Krishna said, “I have happened.” He never said that he took birth or that he did something. It happens. So you did not create that particular person or situation – that person was right for giving that experience you got. Neither do you create nor do you uncreate. For example, your asking this question here. Did we know this 3 months ago? Last month? Only now right? So this is the way it happens: everything happens at its time and we are not deciding all of this. This set of people came her together, an exchange of energy happens, the exchange of information happens and it’s all beautiful…. I can’t stop this and neither can you. So total acceptance is the only way it can drop off.

You know the only remedy in the path of liberation is total acceptance – “This is happening now, let me witness it…. “  Maybe you will appreciate, maybe you will criticise, maybe you will like it, maybe you won’t. No problem. But my reality is this, and let me have it. So that when you look it in the eye, you see that this is really nothing. I am much greater than all these incidents of time! You feel and start seeing your real grandeur. You will say, “I am the universe”. Only when you wake up does your world exist. When you sleep, there is no world for you. The real world existed before you, and it will exist after you. You realize that only you created your world – means when you wake up all this is amazing. When you wake up during some time, you might realize, “Oh, I am in Canada.”  Why so? Because actually your reality only opens up when you are awake. Like that, when you truly become awake, your whole consciousness opens up.

Even the three aspects of consciousness  – do we never think about them, the waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. Do we ever consider those every day? They are all existing but we don’t know about them, right? We are only after some silly emotions of life, relationships, likes and dislikes. This food I like this, the other I don’t like this. This person I like, the other I don’t like. Our range is that way. Now look at the limitedness of it. We have created nobody and nobody can we uncreate.

Only through acceptance can you dissolve everything. Through resistance you will only maintain the same thing. Very simple. Through acceptance you dissolve, through resistance you maintain. If that is understood, this whole story is very simple. We are not chasing anything in life. If something comes to us, receive it. If something doesn’t come, no problem.

So like that, when you are totally at peace with yourself, the world can’t do you harm. If somebody hates you, it’s their problem, isn’t it?  If somebody hates you, you are not responsible. How can you be responsible for somebody’s hatred? If somebody says, “I hate you, I don’t like you”, what will you do? Nothing. We have no control over these things. Do we have any control? If somebody compares me  with another person and says you are not all that good, I say it is ok, I am not that person anyway. If somebody tells me I don’t look like Sylvester Stallone, of course I know I don’t look like Stallone and I should know. He can’t say what I myself say!

You see, spirituality is very very simple. Our spiritual journey is very simple. We complicate it with so many dos and don’ts and rituals. Everything is to finally connect you to yourself, for that matter. But if you get stuck with the external, it takes more time to go internal.

The whole spiritual journey is about the traveling from outside to inside. Very simple in one sentence: it’s a journey from outside to inside. If you understand that, you understand all the scriptures, the whole philosophy. Then it’s a question of journey and the elementary, the fundamental is self-acceptance. Accepting yourself, with all your faults and all your merits. That’s it. Simple.

Transcribed by Sjarn Mansoor
Proofread by Geeta Iyer

Cultivate Change, part 1

Mohanji Speaks Zoom satsang
on 09th June 2019

Q:  What is more important in spirituality – faith or being objective?

Mohanji: Being practical. This is very important in spirituality. Spirituality is not apart from you. Spirituality is your connection with the spirit aspect of you, which is the consciousness aspect. It has three dimensions, the waking state, the deep sleep state and the dream state. In these three states, you are experiencing this incarnation, your life on earth, through three states, every day, 24 hours. So while you are awake, it is very important to be practical. For example, many have come to me and asked, what is the right path? You can’t generalize the right path, because it is individualistic;  because it is as you are. Some people love to experience devotion, bhakti, because their orientation is bhakti. Some people like the path of knowledge, the questions and the answers, because they operate from their intellect. You cannot deny that. That is the way they are, so when somebody is operating from their intellect, they need answers and that is the gyana marg –  the path of knowledge. Then there is path of service. They are very kind at heart. They want to serve the world. They love everybody. They have lot of compassion. The kindness overwhelms them. All these are signs of a Karma yogi, somebody who is there for the world. So it is very important to recognize our orientation and based on our orientation, we should choose our path.  Hence, no generalization is possible.  That is why I said practicality is very important. Objectivity is not as important as practicality. Even if a guru or spiritual master gives you something that you can’t use, guides you to a method that is not suitable to you, you should be very practical about it. You should say that this doesn’t suit me and instead choose something which suits you, because the entire spiritual journey is about you. This is similar to a situation where someone gives you an outfit that you can’t wear; you don’t try to somehow fit into the outfit. You can have a million questions, but the answer is you. Everything starts with you and everything ends with you. When you wake up, your world wakes up. When you sleep, your world sleeps. The world exists, but the existing world has no value for you, unless and until you wake up. If you don’t wake up, you don’t see the world. It is as simple as that. So we have to be practical. If you are not practical, you miss life because we are based on concepts – concepts and opinions of others. They are others. They are as per what they are, not as per what you are. You need to have a life as per what you are. This is very important. Only then, it becomes realistic. If a life time goes without full conformation, to your nature, to yourself, then it is a wasted life. You were trying to become something, you were trying to compare or you were trying to position yourselves your whole life. It does not work that way.

We are born with a particular frequency and that frequency can be changed only with change in awareness.

Change in awareness is completely dependent on how much you accept yourself.

Awareness will not shift, if you don’t accept yourself.

So accepting yourself has a big value here.

Accepting yourself – this is very important. It does not matter whether you accept the many things around you; because when you sleep they don’t exist for you. You exist as a dreamer, as a person who is in deep sleep. You exist as a person who is awake. So “You” have a lot of value.

You should definitely attend to yourself. If you don’t attend to yourself, you miss a lifetime.

So my opinion is that being practical should be first, before trying to be spiritual. You are spiritual anyway, whether you like it or not. Because being spiritual means your connection with this awareness or connection with the awareness that the spirit in you is running the show. This whole show is run by the consciousness, the energy behind it.

Consciousness operates and it has three distinct bhaavs (forms), which are waking, deep sleep and dream.

Once your awareness is above these three states of existence, it shifts to the fourth. It’s called Turiya – the fourth state.

Turiya is like witness hood. It is objective witnesshood of these three states. So this is all part of you. And everything starts with you.

If you do not recognize and don’t conform to what you are, then the journey is affected. Please understand this very clearly – spirituality is not activity. It is not about activity. It is not about doing so many things. It is not about meeting many masters or going to places. They all help you, but everything is you.  Spirituality is about transforming you to higher awareness, to the level of awareness where you only see consciousness in operation, nothing else. Nothing else matters. It is consciousness at work, through plants, trees, animals, birds, everything – consciousness is working. And that becomes your experience. Your experience becomes consciousness at work.

Then you start understanding yourself, “Oh this is the show! This is the drama, which is being played out. I am an actor; I am playing various roles, just like any actor who would play different roles in a feature film.” We play various roles – role of a father, a child, a husband, a wife, maybe the role of a pedestrian, a shopper or a shopkeeper, whatever you are. You are playing all these multiple roles and you play them well.

Even situations, such as a situation of confusion, where your clarity is very low, be that situation of confusion 100% at that point in time. Because that is your reality at that time. Otherwise in some situations you are excited and happy, very happy. Be happiness at that time. Be happiness. Not the situation, the essence of the situation is happiness. A situation has provided that state, or the opportunity to be there, become that. Sometime we are in deep despair and sorrow, be sorrow at that time. Be the essence of that. Each point in time as per what is provided to you, be that. That is the height of fulfillment you can have in a life time. Each moment fulfillment. No resistance. No comparisons. No criticism. Don’t judge. In the path of liberation, judging yourself and judging another are equal. Because when you start looking at yourself as a karmic being, when you take a step backwards and look at yourself, you will see that you are also another actor in this whole world, another player, another object, with duration; we have a certain time on earth. So you don’t see much difference between other people and you. All are actors. All are going around in this world doing their act, and in that point in time you will know that criticizing yourself, judging yourself, blaming yourself, having guilt, all these things are same, as if you have it for other people. There are no other people. It’s all expressions. Numerous expressions. It’s all time bound. 100 years later, we will not be here. So everyone is just a player and an actor. There should be complete harmony in this operation, the entire place, all its people should be in harmony. A person includes other species too. All beings  in all species are people, because they have personalities. Whatever has a personality is a person. So that way we will see this whole Maya – the role play. When I say Maya, it is something that gets transformed, which changes. When I say Mata, it is something truthful and unchangeable. “Maya” – we see the operation in this world, with complete Maya, beautiful drama being played out each moment and you will know that you are witnessing. This is the objectivity. It happens to you. You are not creating it.

When you create it, you are involving your mind. When you involve your mind, you have ownership. When you have ownership, you have Karma. Ownership is the main ingredient for Karma. When you have ownership, possessiveness over the possessions or positions, that creates Karma. That creates emotions. Emotion is the glue which attaches the thought or word or an action to your subconscious which eventually becomes your habit or need, desire or pattern. This has to be very clear. So being objective is important, but being practical is ultimately important and also please understand, don’t connect to a master or a path or an exercise thinking, “Oh this is now going to change me.” You are changing, not the thing. Anything outside of you is but a guide, a mirror, a road map. How you benefit from it depends on how well you use it. If you don’t use it, it remains as it is, not a problem. But if you use it well, it will transform you. So your transformation is the ultimate aim. Nothing else. Nothing else can be the aim. Your transformation is your sign of spiritual stability. Being spiritual should be transformative.

­­­Q: Anything bad that happens in the world is attributed to Karma. This includes the atrocities that happen like raping young children, killing people in holy places etc. Are we using the excuse of Karma as a way of escapism from our Dharma towards the society?  Why weren’t the souls protected by the Supreme?

Mohanji: I think it is an incorrect way of looking at the issue. I do not think our judiciary system ever talks about Karma, at least I haven’t heard of it. It is we who are talking. Judiciary is taking care of various things of the society with law and I think that’s the way it should go. There are certain reasons for creating certain effects, one of them is collective consciousness. Collective Consciousness is the awareness of a group of people. Again it boils down to each individual. Your world is how you are; your world is a reflection of yourself. Now to answer why some people have certain perversions, certain psychological disorders, usually in a generic manner you can say it’s suppression – suppression of something. Human beings and all other species are driven by instincts.

Instinct is the basic driving force of creation. What is the major instinct? Survival instinct. Survival instinct has major two aspects, the first is our need for food to sustain the body and the second aspect is the need for sexuality to sustain the species. These are two important aspects. Besides these,  there are numerous other aspects. If you are able to look at the larger picture, you see that every animal, every bird, every reptile, in fact, every being has the survival instinct and they also hunt for food. The survival instinct depends on their orientation and species. They have clans and boundaries. They keep all these for the sake of survival; human beings too. But with human beings, there is a difference. They operate also on intelligence and imagination. This is the difference between human beings and other species. All the developments you see in this world are connected to intelligence and imagination where instinct is sometimes considered inferior. It is considered lack of refinement. Then what happens is suppression. Suppression causes disorder. You can see that young children do not have such problems. That is because they are very natural. As you become more natural, you also become more relaxed and in tune with nature.

Dharmic law– what is the Dharmic law? Dharmic law is based on naturality. Everything is natural. Being natural. Being one with the nature. One frequency.  Frequency means there can be various frequencies rooted in one frequency. Dharma is the large substratum, based on which Karma is the operating table. Karmic law means desires which need fulfillment; it causes birth, events, experiences and death. This is Karma based on Dharma. Dharma is the substratum, the ground. Karma is our operating pattern or our road map for existence. Third is the human law. Human law is connected to social well-being and again it is all connected to survival. If you look at all the human laws, they are based on peaceful survival. Now in this society, there are various types of people, 7.5 billion people. They are all universe of their own. They are all in their own world or they are a world of their own, in their own right. So in this world we can’t have uniformity because they have been created by Karma, unfulfilled desires.

Now if there is a suppression of some nature, their predominant interest will be to fulfill that. So whenever we suppress, deny, avoid or make it sinful, associate guilt with it, etc. that will definitely stay within and become something else. When you continuously and consistently suppress something, that will become your predominant emotion, need or desire for fulfillment. That is the way it is. Because in your own life you see, if somebody says, “Hey you can’t have that!”, that would be your only thought. The main point is we will always think about  that which has been denied, even if it is not significant in life, it. That is human nature.

Thus with this kind of structure, creation has made us like this. Certain things when suppressed over time, for example, an abuse happened in childhood, that person grows up with the fear of a potential abuse. Some people have the fear of a theft in the house and they attract that. They attract that effect. So whenever you fear something, you suppress something. When you think about something as unhealthy or not good, (I am not talking about healthy food or unhealthy food), something which is not good, a taboo, that is what we are trying to move towards. You remember that. We always remember and we try to get that. This is human nature. Hence with this nature, the only solution is  the right awareness. The needs and desires are unending, but you can bring your awareness to the level where the highest human potential can be experienced in a lifetime, which is compassion, kindness, unconditional love, selflessness, companionship without comparisons, togetherness. This, we can nurture.

Also I believe very strongly that from childhood, at the school level, you should have more counselors – people who talk to children. Many times we don’t talk to children. We are busy making them bricks on the wall just as we want and that is causing a lot of calamity in them. They are not natural because they are chasing something. They are always running after something and that’s what we train them to do. We train them to be more and more result oriented, not fulfillment oriented. Fulfillment does not happen in this manner. While going through education, everybody is learning how to earn money. They also are later trying to earn money. But what is this money for? They believe that when they have a lot of money they can have great life. That is not true. There is no guarantee. You can have lot of money and you can be completely unsettled. We can see many like that. Insecurity can grow with money too. But we do not train children to be content. Hence we are not attending to the mind factor.

Till date, we are busy attending to the physical ailment part. What causes physical ailment most of the time? An unsettled mind causes a physical ailment. An unsettled mind, insecurities, suppression, depression, all these kinds of things are connected to mind.

We have three faculties to experience the Earth – mind, intellect and ego. Mind is the seat of emotions. Intellect is the seat of knowledge or it needs answers. Ego is the seat of personality. These three factors are vital for us. When someone respects you, honours you, appreciates you, applauds, your ego is happy, ego feels settled. When you get answers, intellect is happy. Intellect asks for answers. And sometimes intellect will need answers that it will accept, which means, the answer is not the truth, but one that suits it. That is based on the stored data, what you are. Likewise emotions, romance, love, various emotions of life – these are food for the mind. So in this mode if you don’t attend to the mind matter, which is mind, intellect and ego, we miss life. That is the reason for calamities such as wars, displacements, bloodshed, the expressions of anger, hatred and insecurities; you see a tremendous amount of insecurity. If you are not insecure, you will not criticize another. This is the simple truth. If at all we are looking at someone else as bad, it means we have that insecurity in us. We are eager to prove ourselves. Who wants to prove to other people? Those who are not settled inside. If you are settled inside, you don’t have to prove. People will recognize you as stability, stillness. If you are unsettled, you are insecure, you feel the need to prove. We keep proving and ultimately become tired of it too. We become more and more tired and unstable because of that. So it is very important to understand, the entire society has come out of us and also every child is the responsibility of the society, not just the parents. Every child is being groomed by the society. Society grooms each child, not just the parents or the teachers, it is society. So it is the responsibility of the society to bring children to the right path.

Now you had asked a question about what god is doing. God is doing exactly what your soul is doing – not interfering, but aiding your life. Once the soul leaves, you call it a dead body, which means this body, this constitution has no value. God is the larger soul, the whole universe is inspired and energized by this large soul, called supreme consciousness. And God does not interfere in your micro matters. He does not script your life. It does not even write a script for the world. What he does is that all scripts are accepted, which will have a hero, a villain, a comedian and every role there is. All these roles are perfectly accepted. As long as the drama goes on, the entertainment goes on. And that’s about it.

Nothing has permanent value here. Every creation has duration. Everything has it’s time, space, situation, relevance and death. This includes galaxies and planets; the sun, the moon, the stars, everything has a duration. Thus god has nothing to do with it. God is the supreme consciousness, out of which all this manifested universe has happened and into which the manifested universe will dissolve at the end of the day. And we are like small ants in the whole system; maybe not even an ant, something tinier than that! Our ego makes us feel great, but otherwise we do not have much importance. Thus God does not get involved. But every child, every baby born in this world is the responsibility of the society, not just of the parents. And society has to groom them. Society has to behave well. In a world of corruption, in a world of competition, in a world of comparison, how do you expect each child to be individual and free? It is very difficult. That is what we are feeding the child with! The child is fed with the thoughts of comparisons, thoughts of competition, thoughts of success and success means failure is unacceptable. All these things have created the child in a mode which emphasizes – “Go and kill and win”. This is what we are teaching children.

As I said earlier about our nursery rhymes, “Humpty dumpty fell down and broke the crown…” That was a disaster and nobody could fix it. Hence we are telling a child, “You can’t fix the life, it’s not easy to fix life.” But that’s not true. You are life. Life is about what you see and what you express and everybody is fine. Nobody is higher or lower, nobody is a master, nobody is a disciple, nobody is a Guru, nobody is a shishya (spiritual teacher). Everyone has a role to play in this world and that has duration. I call it effective years. Effective years is the time period you are actually delivering to this world. Rest of the time, the world does not care, neither is it good for you;  the time you used for accumulating wealth. We accumulate, accumulate and accumulate and finally die, leaving everything behind. So what was this whole show about. Usually, the people who chase money, wealth, fame, etc.  don’t realize it is short lived. It has duration.

Also don’t expect everybody to appreciate you. Forget about appreciation, many people won’t even recognize you. Many will criticize you, because you don’t fit into their frame of mind. This is all part of existence. How do we care or what can we do about it? We should do nothing about it. All these things happen mainly because of insensitivity. We are not looking at this whole world as heaven. We can create heaven here. Just be harmonious, just accept, just love. We all have weaknesses, every being has weaknesses and strength. Every being who has walked this earth has experienced success and failure, these are part of life and we cannot say only success or only failure. It’s not so. Only strength or only weakness, this is not so. Everyone has everything – success, failure, strengths and weaknesses. We have to accept them all. Instead if we try to prove to the world, we hide our weaknesses, it is a big disaster and that is what is causing all these events we spoke about.

When we suppress a lot, when we hide our weaknesses, over a period of time, it will bubble up. That will push for a realization. Then what will happen? It will cause calamity in life, be it personal life or in the society. So whatever you suppress for a long period of time, it expresses itself with violence or sometimes in an uncontrollable manner, compared to how it would have, had it been channeled out.

All of us experience excessive anger today, insecurity connected to anger. Why does anger happen? Again it is suppressed expectations. When expectations are not met, disappointments happen. Disappointment causes anger. And this is how it is. There is no other way. We have a tremendous amount of suppressed emotions. We have many expectations about ourselves and other people. We have expectations from the society. We always talk about rights, we never talk about responsibilities. All these things are creating a society which is on an explosive mode. Also ideas such as “my god is better than your god, my guru is better than your guru” are of no value. Each guru, each god, each religion, everything is valuable to somebody, respect it. We need to learn to respect everybody. A person who appreciates his Guru, will feel good about his Guru, that’s why he appreciates it. But that does not mean everybody else is bad. All people have their relevance; like you – you have relevance on earth just like everybody else. We all have relevance. We have our time and our space for relevance. This has to be respected.

I have suggested in many forums that we need to have many more counselors in schools, just to understand children, be with them. Teachers and parents are busy. Sometimes they are not able to complete even their work. So there should be a system of counseling. Just ask questions like, “Are you alright? How are you doing today? Is there anything you want to talk to me about? “I visited Mohanji Kā Aangan in Delhi only two times. I went there on my birthday February 23^rd and I was with all the children. One girl came up to me and asked, “Do you remember my name?” This is because the previous time I had asked her name.  I said, “I remember your name.” She did not expect it. When I uttered her name, she was very happy. Then I asked her, “Are you happy?” She said, “No”. I did not get enough time to talk to her and understand what she was going through. So I called somebody and told them they should go there and talk to all children individually, understand what they were experiencing, ideally it should be a lady. What I mean to say is that we don’t understand what the children of the society are experiencing. We assume that everything is ok, everything should be ideal; these are assumptions. Assumptions may not be the reality. We must face the reality. We must look into the eyes of the situation. Then you can understand. And if you try to strengthen the children of today, society will be much better tomorrow. It’s our responsibility, everybody’s responsibility, not one person’s responsibility. And there is no magic wand to change the whole thing. We cannot change in one day, what we created over time. You need to cultivate change and that will happen over time.

Transcribed by Kishore Mundanat
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Read Cultivate Change, part 2

Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 2

Mohanji Speaks Zoom Satsang, part 2

24th March, 2019

Sensitive but not emotionally reactive

Q: How can one practice being sensitive and compassionate towards others without being emotionally reactive?

Mohanji: I think I explained this matter in the first discussion. It is about being controlled by the three faculties  I spoke about. The mind controls us. The mind is the seat of emotions. It is also the seat of expectations. Intellect controls us when we analyze too much. We try to position ourselves in the society or with people. Sometimes it becomes escapism too. As an escapist, you say “Oh! This is not my cup of tea. I don’t want to be here”.  Then our ego or personality controls us, with thoughts such as, “Am I being respected? What do people think about me?” and so on.

When I was doing my Sadhana, I would never tell others what I was  practising  I was connecting to my spine, I was doing vertical breathing,  but I never discussed this with anyone  because this is not a subject we need to discuss. Sadhana is something that suits you, so you practise it alone, in silence, spend more time with yourself, stabilize yourself and let the practices stabilize you from within  more and more, settling your doubts. This is how it should be.

In any case, whenever you say “I am emotional”, “How can I not get involved with this?”, etc. always remember, there is an expectation connected to it. This is fundamental. If you have no expectations you will deliver and you will be completely detached. And if you are expecting applause, award, appreciation, there’s always a binding. We end up doing our activity only for that sake of the appreciation. If you have given up that aspect, you do everything you can do at your maximum capacity. But at the same time, you are free, you are not bound by other people’s opinions or appreciation or rejection. Be sensitive enough, to the extent it motivates you. The right amount of sensitivity can be a motivation. Instead if the sensitivity is overwhelming, it does not help you in any way. Sometimes, we may stop doing good things and good work because of other people. That is actually our loss.

Please understand that whether you do something or don’t, in about 80 or 90 years you are history. Hence it‘s not worth it to think too much and not do. I believe in POSITIVE ACTION, not just any action. And my beliefs about the do’s and don’ts are based on non-violence. If something is violent in nature it is a complete ‘no’ for me. Secondly, being sensitive is a good idea but at the same time, it should not hinder our activity.

You FEEL, but don’t blame other people, as they have nothing to do with it. They’re only expressing you, as to what you are to yourself because you need to know what YOU are at some point in time. If you are lazy, you can’t expect other people to be fully active as they will reflect your laziness. Likewise, everything in life is connected to how and what we are. And our experiences are also connected to what we are.

This is the entire structure; what you need to do is forget about everything and focus on your action. Within your capacity, keep doing more. That way, you will increase your capacity and keep delivering. Once you keep delivering it in this mode, you will not worry about being appreciated. You may not even look at how many people are looking at you or whether they are looking at you with kindness, they may not. I have experienced that even after doing so many things, some people criticize you very bitterly. They may talk poorly. What you need to do is, stop worrying about it. Just focus on what you have to do and keep delivering. Those who have eyes to see you will see. Those who cannot see you will not see. They should not see either, I say that because it’s not their time yet,  to connect to you, to recognize you or appreciate you. You should never be looking at people for appreciation.

Also, I’ve seen that most of the connections are based on convenience. “If it is convenient to me I connect, else I don’t connect.” So that is purely a mind based connection. Those kinds of connections will happen in life too. Sometimes they connect and then at some points in time, they are just not there – selective or convenience based connection. These are part of life and we should not really pay much attention to it. Those who are supposed to be with you will be with you. Those who are supposed to see you, will see you. Those who are supposed to appreciate you, will appreciate you. Nobody can shake them because their integrity will be steadfast, uncanny and very powerful.  And they are the ones who will walk with you. That is why Buddha made his entire empire with 5 people. Jesus had 12 people with him. They created their empire with a few people, with those who stood steady, despite any situation, without criticism or doubts and without judgment.

In everyone’s case, all of us are walking this earth and doing many things. When you do things, do not expect something. If you don’t do anything, there is no criticism, but then there is no existence either! If we are doing anything, there will be opinions and that is alright. Let opinions happen. We have to accept it and do what we have to do and what we can do.

Overcoming a sense of isolation

Q: Mohanji, I’m surrounded by people, but I’m lacking a sense of belonging. What can be done to overcome this isolation?

Mohanji: The first part of the sentence is equal to expectation. You are surrounded by people and you do not know you are still in isolation. That means you are becoming more and more mind and you are not even looking at people. They are almost like walls or stones. You don’t see them. Then how do you connect? You don’t recognize them because you don’t recognize yourself.

Here, the fundamental question is about self-acceptance. How much have you accepted yourself? If you have accepted yourself with all your weaknesses, all your strengths, then automatically you will connect to the world with ease. This is because you see only perfection in every being. You will not see many people; you only see your own reflection in many forms. So, the first and the last step should be self-acceptance. You have to start with self-acceptance. At the same time, spend time with yourself and try to feel yourself and understand yourself without judgment, criticism or comparison. There has to be complete acceptance with all your negativity and positivity. All of us have strengths and weaknesses.  No one has only strength or only weakness.

So start looking at yourself fully, completely. Look at yourself as a complete being with every quality. In that mode, when you start looking at the outside world, you will have no expectations. If you have no expectation with your own self, why would there be an expectation about other people? If you don’t have any rejection about yourself, you won’t reject anybody else. If you accept yourself completely, you will accept everybody. This is the fundamental truth. This is exactly how life should be. It’s not a rocket science. It’s about how much have you accepted yourself. That’s where everything begins, everything starts.

Dilute ownership, change your destiny

Q: Can FAITH overcome prarabda?

Mohanji: Faith is important. Faith is like oxygen. Faith helps survival. Also when your focus is on a master or a God or a deity, then many of the calamities which are happening around you will not be so strong or so detrimental because your level of ownership will be less. Pain is connected to OWNERSHIP.

If you have more pain in life, it’s connected to more ownership in life. When you have ownership of people, relationships, possessions, positions, materials, etc. it causes pain. Possessiveness causes pain. Now, if you are connected to a master and operating in “surrender” mode all the time, the ownership will be very low. And so is your pain. What is happening in your life now is a creation from the past. The “Prarabda” or the destiny is a creation of the past. Something you did in the past created this existence. All that you are experiencing now is connected to something of the past. So that will have to happen and nobody can change it. Every experience as it happened is what you are meant to experience. But when you surrender, the impact becomes less because ownership is diluted. With diluted ownership, you are freer, prarabda weakens or the impact will be less. That is a beautiful thing.

Those who are connected to masters or certain deities, those that practise a certain type of worship  consistently, with integrity and conviction, have survived various tests. This is  because when there is no ownership, the event that is meant to happen might not even happen. Sometimes it does happen but it will have a much lower impact than what it was originally meant to be. Thus it’s all connected to ownership. Faith is very important, it is wonderful, and it makes your life better. You can breathe well if there is a good amount of oxygen in the room. Similarly, Grace is the very oxygen in our daily life.   When you have surrendered, the grace factor is high. But when you have ownership, grace factor is low. So the factor of grace is very important.

Gratitude also helps. Even if it is a small thing, be very grateful. You have to be very, very grateful for everything;  grateful that you are alive;  grateful that you are breathing. Be grateful that you have all these possessions and positions. Be grateful that you have food to eat. Be grateful that you have shelter, a roof over your head. Be grateful for your awareness. Be grateful for your relationships. Be grateful for everything. Just be grateful. Being grateful brings grace, lots of grace. And your expression of gratitude  in this world should be kindness and compassion. Be kind and be compassionate. Don’t judge, don’t criticize and don’t talk bad. These are all very negative and you are actually attracting more poison by being that way.

A story

As the story goes, there was  a saint who was  looking at a tree.  A passerby asked, “What are you looking?” The saint said, “There are three people sitting in the tree. All three are people without bodies, which means,  they are dead. They are souls of non-bodied beings”. This passerby next asked, “What are they doing on the tree?” The saint said, “They are waiting to enter somewhere, maybe for their next birth or so.” Then they both saw a person coming from the village road, far away, fully drunk. He was completely unconscious of the world. He was tottering, falling down, picking himself up and still kept walking. He was coming that way. The saint said, “Just hold on. Just wait and see.” So this guy came and he didn’t even look at these beings on the tree, he simply walked past. When he walked past, they also went behind him.

This guy who was watching asked the saint, “Where is he going?” The saint replied, “In the same street around the corner, there is a brothel and he is going there.” He also added, “ Not just he, four people all together, have gone to the brothel, and that includes him.”   This means that the three souls who were sitting  on the tree entered him and went with him. They didn’t have a body of  their own and hence needed a body for the experience. So they all went together to the brothel.

It is very important to understand  that when your energies are of anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge and similar negativities, such energies will enter you and  aggravate it even more. We should always remember that walking the path of purity is very important. We shall not criticize. We shall not judge. We shall not complain. We will never be involved in any kind of polluting or negative emotions, because when you are in the grip of such emotions, when you are in such a mode, various energies of similar nature enter you, because they are all looking for a body for expression.

Some of them do not have the power to create a new body. So, they enter a body which is already in  that mode, means “birds of the same feather” kind of situation. They enter this body and work in a negative way. That is why I always insist not to sponsor, not to nurture or subscribe to negative emotions, criticism, judgment, revenge, etc. If you do encourage such negative emotions and thoughts, the energies around you which are of bad nature, will enter you and aggravate your situation. So you need to remain connected to higher consciousness, remain connected to a master who is connected to higher consciousness or worship a god or a deity you like to connect to. In some way, you should purify yourself. Please remember, this is YOUR journey, YOUR body, YOUR path, YOUR destination, YOUR destiny. So, YOU need to nurture it well. Nobody else can do it for you.

What best I can do is  show you the light and guide you. But I cannot walk for you.  It doesn’t  work that way. You have to walk. If you fall, it’s my responsibility, I’ll hold you. But YOU have to walk. Always remember, what brought you here is your prarabda. Your destiny brought you here, to this state. Losing this state is very easy. All you have to do is to enter into bad company, talk poorly, and engage in bad activities. Then more such energies will join you and pull you down.

If you have already managed to reach this level, all you need to do now is,  take one vow, one decision, a firm decision – that you will not take one step backward, because it is not worth it. One step backward means “Punarapi Jananam, Punarapi Maranam”, which translates to, again you are taking birth, again you are dying, again the stage of being in the womb of a mother … Like this, we have existed. So we MUST be very clear about this now.

We will not take a step backward. We are only going forward to the path of dissolution. We are only going in the path of becoming one with pure consciousness, which  has nothing to do with anything, so that we are very clear and focused and this is exactly how we should lead our life hereafter. That is the biggest gift you can give yourself. Even if somebody says something, even if you have many lures around you, even if all the people in the neighbourhood are negative, you don’t have to be. You can still stick with your integrity, stick with your experience, stick with your conviction and stick with your determination to remain pure in thoughts, words, and actions. This is all you need to do and this will automatically elevate you to very high levels of awareness.

Maintaining equilibrium

Q: As I continue with my Sadhana and my awareness increases, I find it very difficult to handle the conflicts and insensitivities of the corporate world. How can I maintain the equilibrium?

Mohanji: Everything has a price. Every state has a price. Nothing comes easy. The challenges of the outside world will always be there, whether it is our relationships or the place of work or our own notions and concepts, those  sitting inside and the ones sitting outside, both of them may fight you. But you need to be very firm if liberation is your priority. Liberation means not running away from everything. Liberation means, having everything but you are not attached to anything. Attachment causes ownership, ownership causes pain. So, we need to be aware that we are the whole story. The whole story is us. We make our lives, we break our life and everything is us. Let things flow. Anything can go wrong. In my case, when I was doing my practices, I went through a series of problems including the death of my daughter, Ammu. All my possessions were stolen. My investments went away when the property dealer ran away. I lost my job. I contracted a disease. All these events happened within a short span of time (5-6 years). So I lost everything that I had ever had and this was challenging. Then there were corporate challenges on the other side such as targets, performance and the related activities.

But I never left my path. I never ever discussed my practices with people. I was alone and practising on my own. And it was purely the Vedic path, connecting to my spine and connecting to my breath. This is the only thing I did, but with consistency, conviction and focus. I never sought  results. Basically you are only giving time to yourself, connecting to yourself, being with yourself.

Later on, when I started my public life, I realized that many people  who come are not coming with kindness. Some people will come, abuse your connection in some way and then walk away. Also, they  contaminate the minds of other people. So I decided that I will have nothing to do with it, let it all happen. But we need to be very firm and very stable. And that’s what I deliver.

Hence your stillness, your stability is your choice. What happens outside is definitely not in your control; you can’t control it. That will happen based on  what our prarabda, what our destiny gives us. Your workplace, where you live, what you have, etc. are all connected to destiny. We have no control over them  because they are predetermined. But you can definitely make sure that you will stick to your tradition and path in this life. Nobody can challenge it. Even if somebody challenges it, if you reinforce your conviction then you can’t be defeated. You are very powerful. Actually, you will know that you are very powerful when you decide that “Nothing else matters, only liberation matters.”  If everything matters to you, then you are scattered. If only liberation matters, if you are fully focused on yourself and your liberation, then it doesn’t matter what your environment is, what concepts or fears you have or what is outside. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters at all. You are focusing only on the path of liberation.

That requires two things: no ownership of action, no ownership of the result of the action. These are absolutely essential to be in the path of liberation. And if you just focus on lack of ownership, that will be fine;  then clarity of purpose as I mentioned in the beginning, and also gratitude, deep gratitude. Always be grateful, don’t allow negativity; rather don’t buy things which you don’t need, especially those that are negative in nature; talking about people, talking about situations, concepts, and so on. You don’t need any of them. In fact, just focus on clarity of purpose, which is, liberation.

As I said, there are two sticks you can hold while you are trekking – no ownership on the action, no ownership on the results of action. Keep walking.

Wish all of you great success and deep love. All the best. Thank you! Love you!

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha and Ananth Sankaran
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Read Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 1

Concepts and Truths

The Creation

If there are 7 Billion people on earth, there are so many personalities, with concepts, ideas, fears, conditionings, and all other flavors of life that one could possibly think about. As I have always mentioned, constitution wise, we are “hand-made” and not a factory product that looks and feels alike and whenever man tried to create evenness among his subjects, serious tragedies took place; wars, death and displacements happened. Look into the history of man-kind, you will understand what I am talking about.

Life as a Stage Show

Each being on earth is unique, irrespective of the species. This also implies on one’s free will. We create our destiny. We ourselves, through our own thoughts, words, emotion and action created our own destiny. We are the creator or script writer of our own life. Soul is only the aiding factor or the fuel that fulfils the journey – the energy that made the script into action. Nobody else is responsible for your life, your experience, even though many a time, you need co-actors to bring forth effects in experience. So, many actors sequentially join and leave the play and each actor has his or her relevance in the play. None is less or more important. Everyone added their flavor. In your life story, you are certainly the hero and the rest are the supporting actors. But, for each supporting actor, they are the hero of their own script. Comedy, tragedy, drama, action, horror, satire and all its variations are usually part of every script. Each actor represent different flavors of life. They join hands and spice up the drama of your life. They make it worth it. Sometimes the show makes you cry, sometimes it makes you laugh, sometimes it creates fear, sometimes love. The story continues. Many characters happen in the play.

Concepts and questions such as why cannot god remove evil from earth makes no sense when we understand how the infinite power operates. God is neutral, just like our own soul. It is objective, non-interfering and in perfect detachment from the actor or the action. God allows all characters to come and perform on the stage or it never interferes at least. Since each player is also the script writer of his own drama, God allows the experience of the play, irrespective of its theme and reason. There is no good and bad in God’s realm. There is only truth and experience. Man goes through many relative truths before he understands and attains the absolute truth. This trial and error is part of every being’s life. God shall not take away this experience of existing in duality until one finds his unity. Duality is indeed the state as well as experience that leads one to unity. This truth cannot be underestimated. Without duality, there is no creativity. When me and my father becomes one, there is nothing to experience anymore. Only when the object and the experiencer are separate from one another, there is an experience. When eyes becomes one with the sight, there is nothing to see. When tongue becomes taste, there is nothing to taste. When ego and all identities dissolve and man becomes one with God, there is no more search. There is only beingness.

This state can be achieved only at the end of the drama. The chosen script should be acted and completed before the merger can happen. The audience or the operator cannot interfere and change the script nor duration. Sometimes, some characters attain sudden death and disappear from the drama. Even this is part of the original script even though it may seem to the audience as quite dramatic. This is the chosen effect, by the script writer. If a WOW! happens in the lips of the audience, the script writer attains fulfillment, even if it means a tragedy.

Social Role Play

Society consists of all sorts of beings. Variety in looks and variety in flavors makes life worth it. Monotony and stagnation always creates boredom, stress and delivers a depressed existence. Motivation to excel helps maintain energy levels. Society works on systems. Various players make it complete. The job of a policeman, doctor and an engineer are distinct and each of them add value to the overall collective existence. A doctor is expected to cure illness while a policeman is expected to maintain law and order. Each one has his chosen path and expressions. One cannot be replaced by the other, even though there could be possible combinations.

There are expressions in beings which brings forth happiness or sorrows or both. Various expressions from various flavors of love – the highest being unconditional love – to lesser emotions such as greed, hatred, jealousy, anger so on and so forth. These are all flavors that the script writer wrote in his personal drama of life, out of choice of out of ignorance. What has the God, the audience or spectators got to do with it?

If someone ever states that God or Guru should prevent evil from spoiling the broth of life, it is indeed a sign of perfection in non-understanding. Just as the soul, the energy and electricity does not interfere in our thought process, words of action, and just assists fulfillment, God shall not remove duality at any cost, unless it chooses to remove relativity and dissolve everything back into itself. Until the huge universal drama ends, the smaller – much micro dramas will continue. God shall not pull the plug.

Coming back to our realm, If everyone does his part well, society would be a better place. If a policeman handles law and order honestly and purposefully, people will live in peace. If the ruler is objective, selfless and benevolent, people will live fearlessly. If laws ensure justice on time, crime will be less. When greed and selfishness dominates a society, calamities will happen. When purposelessness dampens the morale of the society, wars will happen. These are some of the basic ground rules of existence.

Thus, as individuals are creating their own script of life, the society is built up on collective scripts. No God or Guru is responsible for that. Duality or relativity made life possible in its existing variety. Minus relativity, there is no creativity. Minus creativity, there is no experience, or fulfillment. Minus fulfillment, there is no reason for existence. So, how can God interfere? He is the facilitator and not the creator of the micro dramas. If your rulers and policemen cannot prevent crime, if the education systems cannot develop higher awareness in society, what has God got to do with it? It is the problem with the operating levels of the society which consists of people. It is not the job of a saint to maintain law and order. His job is to guide those who choose to come to him, follow him and stay with him to higher levels of awareness. In that effort, miracles can take place. No true guru will perform miracles of higher or lower impact, just for the sake of creating thrill in people because siddhis bind and often enslave the performer. It is indeed the faith of the disciple that facilitates it. Those who come to test gets nothing. Those who develops faith can spontaneously experience higher realities. As Jesus said “May your faith heal you”. No true Guru will also interfere in the free will of the people or society. The star villains of our epics such as Hiranya Kashyapu, Kamsa, Ravana or Mahishaasura had their own free existence before being deleted from the system by avatars that came specifically for this extermination job. There were saints and higher masters living in those periods too. Why was the duality maintained? This is how the universe operates. Society that craves for peace should create awareness. They should shed greed and jealousy. When greed for profits achieve insensitive proportions, the soul of earth suffers. The environment decays. The Guru or God has nothing to do with it. One last question on the same subject. Even if a Guru or God comes forward and volunteer to cleanse the society, and prescribes the ways to do it, will the subjects follow it unconditionally? If yes is the answer, we would have already done that. We would not have assassinated Jesus and Socrates – those who only spoke truth. We would have lived according to the teachings of Bhagawat Gita, Ashtravakra Gita, Avadhootha Gita or the great eternal teachings of saints who followed Sanatana Dharma. We would definitely have lived by the teachings of Gita and Satcharithas. There should be clear understanding before we complain about our own state. Who is creating them, maintaining them, and enjoying them? This is important to realize.

Pseudo Spirituality

Why are many still groping in darkness as far as spirituality is concerned? Good question. This is because people are going after “feel good” stuff, cults and organized patterns while each one of us are unique creations and every capsule cannot suit everyone. The comfort zone spirituality cannot ensure any growth. Stillness is the nature of the supreme God. If the aim is to achieve that, shedding is important. Everything should dissolve and there can be no duality. Only oneness with the God. Until we achieve that, we need to practice witness hood  objectivity, and stillness. Many people who are in the path are just entertaining themselves with activities believing that more activity will get them more results. This is perfect non-understanding. Beingness evolves the man and not doingness.

Gratitude Matters

Good question. Gratitude will indeed help in spiritual growth. But, people forget fast as they are using their conscious mind for their daily life. They go after glitters and others opinions instead of own experience. Jesus healed many leprosy patients. There was no cure for leprosy during those days. Leprosy patients were locked and sealed in caves and left to die! They walked with a bell around their neck to warn people. Yet, once they were healed, they dissolved into the society without even a glance of gratitude for the healer. Their ego did not permit them to declare in the society that they were leprosy patients in the past. Jesus did not expect any gratitude though. It would have been a great evolution for the consciousness of the patients, if they stood up and thanked the healer; nor did they come to his assistance when Pilate asked the question if Jesus should be pardoned. All those who benefited by Jesus never gave anything back to him. This is the nature of our society. Gratitude is good for the seeker. The real guru wants nothing.

Love You Always

M

 

The Gross and The Subtle

Dear All,

The Gross and The Subtle, this duality will always trouble the mind. Is the way to unity is through this duality? Mohanji gives awareness to many burning minds.

When one expects to see complete unity and diversity of GOD in gross forms, one fails to understand the creation, creativity, free will and uniqueness within the diversity of existence.

Do not be disillusioned. No gross form is equal to God, if God is formless, colorless, desire less and omnipresent. Form has limitations; Form has reasons. Form has weaknesses. Forms dissolve and die. A form can indeed represent higher consciousness, which we could call an Avatar. Forms represent various degrees of awareness. But forms also represent duality. While owning and operating a form, there is alienation, there is a division, and there is a corresponding disillusionment too. Forms that represent certain aspects of the all-encompassing God are considered as deities. All forms on earth have its own constitution which is well beyond generalization, even though generalization is possible on the basic level of operation such as hunger, sex, sleep, circulation of blood etc which are the basic general rules of gross existence.

When we expect to see complete unity and diversity of GOD in gross forms, we fail to understand creation, creativity, free will and uniqueness within diversity of existence. We fail to appreciate the basic as well as the collective operating levels. We get disappointed and disillusioned. Uniqueness is the basis of creation. It is no factory product. Creation in larger sense is always hand made. Understand creation at the cellular level and then you will understand the Universe!!!

Let us make one thing clear. This body is called Mohan or in your words ‘Mohanji;. Till my last breath, this body will remain in the name of Mohanji. People may confer titles in front or back of this name. But the name will remain the same.

Never be disillusioned. We can only see what we are capable of seeing.. Mohanji

This body is definitely not Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Baba or Jesus. This body, existing today, is called Mohanji. Consciousness that operates or works through this body is intangible, invisible and often incomprehensible to public eyes. Never be disillusioned. We can only see what we are capable of seeing. Be Happy!!!!

All people are connected to something, some body. This connection is due to their inner compatibility with the object of their connection. One may see the reflection of their object of connection in me. That does not make me that object. There could be resemblances, character similarities, but one is certainly not the other. Be aware of that!!! No person can be another person. Even when soul takes new birth, the incarnation has different names, form and purpose. Nothing is ever the same. Time and space are different and so is purpose on earth.

Do not be disillusioned. This body is called Mohanji and it will remain so till this body dies away. Do not be affected or connected to me- imagining, thinking that this body is that of someone else. That will lead to disillusionment and disappointment.

All incarnations portrayed their unique character and constitution even like we do. Baba is Baba, Krishna is Krishna, Jesus is Jesus. These are names of bodies (certain people) of the past. Their consciousness is certainly one and their consciousness is definitely eternal hence they are eternally available. They all are one. You are one with them too. This is why you are connecting with them or their certain character aspects so effortlessly. There could be many similarities of them – their character, that you recognize in others. There could be consciousness compatibility which makes them feel that this one is that one. But it is a mirage. Do not be disillusioned.

All bodies have duration and purpose. Purpose is always time-related – on earth. Time changes matter. Requirements change on earth. Such incarnations that could handle such requirements take birth. They may have attributes from the past. But they are in a fresh body. They have fresh name and form. They have a new set of parents, language and mission. They are new. Do not be disillusioned. This body is called Mohan and will remain so.

A son may resemble the father, but he is not his father. Likewise, each incarnation is unique. Our inflexibility and non-understanding is due to our own conditioning and mental pictures, images that we have acquired and maintained. Once we become flexible and fluid clarity takes place spontaneously.

7 Billion people. 7 Billion Personalities. 7 Billion types of expressions. Do not try to change the world outside. Change the world inside. If 7 Billion does the same, the world outside will be a much better place. Tragedy lies in the fact that we are trying to change the world outside all the time, ignoring or discounting our conditioning,  fears, phobias and prejudices. When we are always “against” something, we will fail to see the subtlety and beauty of existence. When we only look outside, all you see are states of duality and disparity. Unity lies within. The key to a unified existence, oneness with all beings, is kept within us. When we become unified with ourselves, we see the whole world unified with us. The “way out” lies within us.

The “way out” lies within us… Mohanji

Why do people worship Gurus – the ones who are in their physical form? Do we need to? I find it inappropriate and meaningless.

This question usually comes from a person who is in the knowledge path – Jnana Yogi. There are many paths to reach God. And Guru is the guiding light. There are many types of people too. Everyone has his or her own style and approach towards any situation. Actually speaking, no true guru or God needs anything from you, let alone worship.

Now, a person of emotional nature, who chants praises of God – usually the form that his mind gets connected to easily, melts himself or herself into that being or object of worship. These people need an object to worship. Human mind needs forms to associate with. This is fundamental. It recognizes forms and connects to forms. Human constitution uses all faculties such as body, mind and intellect to connect to the chosen form. And when the connection through faith increases, individual personality takes a back seat. The individual starts to merge with the object of worship. Non-duality happens. When oneness takes root, often the need for any of the individual faculties that the individual used for the primary connection also becomes redundant. Everything dissolves into oneness. This is the advantage of bhakti Yoga. Usually, Bhakti Yogis merge with supreme consciousness much faster than the other paths such as knowledge, sadhana (spiritual practices) and service. The tranquility and strength that they achieve through surrender cannot be fathomed by the practitioners of other types of paths.

Likewise, the elevation that knowledge gives – based on duality is not understandable to a Bhakthi Yogi too. Experiencing God using the path of knowledge is like the pole of the pole vault. The pole is only used to lift one beyond the bar. Then, the pole of knowledge is shed when the bar is crossed. Then it is just a fall into the lap of Infinity or God. But, if the Yogi holds on to the pole and refuses to let go, handicap happens in the game. He stays with his pole and cannot win God.

In the case of Path of Pathlessness, ability to cling on against all odds and depth of faith and surrender is the criterion for higher elevation. .. Mohanji

There is a saying “If God and Guru come together, whom to greet first?” The answer automatically happens “Guru, because he is the one who brought and guided me to God”. This is one aspect and answer to your question.

Another aspect – in Shirdi Baba’s words “My Guru was indeed powerful. But he taught me nothing. Day and night I served him and watched him. He gave me everything”. This is another aspect. There are paths where there are no explicit teachings or courses. By just a mere glance or wave of hand, Baba used to elevate people. By just being in the energy field of the powerful Guru, the disciple achieves everything. But, in those cases, the Guru would often display mediocrity and shallowness, to test the tenacity and conviction of the disciple.

In the path of courses and examination, the skill displayed is the criteria for elevation. In the case of Path of Pathlessness, ability to cling on against all odds and depth of faith and surrender is the criterion for higher elevation. When people asked Muktananda how he achieved his spiritual proves, he answered “I never asked my guru – WHY?” Total surrender and perfect obedience was the path. This is often very difficult for a Jnana yogi, one who is in the knowledge path who needs answers for every simple thing. The Gurus of the Datta Tradition, Nath tradition or simply those who follow the path of dissolution will not deliver such answers. They even shake the faith of their disciples through abnormal and even unacceptable behavior to test the mettle of the student. Jnana Yogis often scandalizes the guru and escapes, but falls deeper into the birth death cycle and disillusionment. Bhakti Yogis stay.

Now, once again, how do you know a Satguru – the true one?

There are some primary yard sticks – The most important is your destiny.  It is destiny that brings you to him. And it is your destiny that makes you recognize the real one.

Second are certain signs of the Guru – does he bind you with fear or he maintains you unbound and free? If you are always kept unbound, you are at the right place. In this path, serving the guru is your choice, yet it is also your elevation.

Third is, he needs nothing from you, or he gives you back much more than he takes – if at all. He changes your basic constitution often based on conditionings and fears, to that of stillness and fearlessness.

Fourth is, when you are with him, you will know and recognize a definite change in your vibratory level, a shift in consciousness. The more you are with him; the shifted consciousness becomes yours too. These are subtle aspects one must feel and experience within.

Fifth is non conformity to any habits and mannerisms. He may behave in strange ways often unacceptable to social norms. This is because a Guru who is established in supreme consciousness operates only in the level of cosmic necessity or purpose and not of individual karma. He is only guided by purpose. He has nothing to do with social do’s and don’ts. His operating level is spontaneity, uncontaminated by thoughts. For example; Vyasa impregnated Ambika and Ambalika because the dynasty had to continue. He also impregnated the maid to bring forth an unconditional, wise man called Vidura into the court of selfish royals. Sai Baba often scolded and beat people to drive away evil lying embedded in the constitution of devotees. People, who got offended, never understood the real meaning behind the action. They left him and went away. The loss was essentially theirs. Swami Samarth used to urinate in front of people which distracted many. There are many such examples.

If the Guru is powerful, he would usually be very ordinary or will often act in strange ways. They scold people for their well-being. They need nothing from anyone. True masters would not care about their mannerisms and will have no efforts to make himself socially acceptable. Those who are totally conditioned and bound by social norms and fears will run away from them. Those who stay get all that they can carry.

So, worshipping the Guru, considering him as representing the Lord Almighty, or personification of the Lord is definitely the path of those who are inclined to Bhakti or devotional path of spirituality. Understand that all paths are suitable for someone. All paths are not suitable for everyone. So, do not judge from your level. If you do, you will only get more disillusioned. You may not understand the pleasure that a bhakti yogi derive from any acts of devotional nature. They often do not have duality. They become one with the object of their worship faster than other paths.

The knowledge path keeps duality longer than other paths because, intellect is the faculty used to digest knowledge and intellect is associated to our limited system. This constitution of ours which is tangible and that we call with a name is associated with a form. Intellect alienates and analyses. Intellect creates walls. When knowledge becomes wisdom, that means each unit of knowledge intake is digested well, and it merges into our constitution, duality slowly starts to dissolve. Oneness takes root.

The causeless happiness

Understand one thing clearly. No true gurus or god needs anything from people including worshipping their perishable physical form. But, for disciples, it is reconfirmation, confidence and it helps in maintaining their faith. This is why they do it. Every practice has its value only if it is done from the heart. If mechanically, ritualistically done, no activity will have any value.

I hope I have clarified the question at hand.

Bless You

M

The Naked Truth

Dear All,
Mohanji receives many questions. Questions arise from one’s mind because it is the mind that is suffering in various situations and incidences.  Here are some straight answers by Mohanji to some commonly asked questions.
Love and regards,
BTW Family

My Beloved embodiments of pure love,

Our relationship is not accidental. We have been connected from life times and will continue through time as well. So, the familiarity that some of you are experiencing today has deeper roots than your limited mind can percieve. So, please do not mind if what is given below is a bit too informal and straight. I know this will provoke some thoughts in you. This is extracted out of some of the regular questions that I handle everyday. Remember, I love YOU. 🙂

Q: Relationship with—————— is not working. (Husband, Wife, Son, Daughter, Neighbor, Boss)
A: Is your relationship with yourself working? Sort that out and all the external relationships will work. Connect to yourself first. This yourself is not what you see in the mirror. It is the formless that keeps what you see in the mirror alive. Connect to that formless within you and everything else will work.

Q: What next?
A: It is up to you. Destiny is your creation. You can make it a beautiful garden or a clutter of weeds.

Q: I am confused!
A: You are not confused. Your mind is. Understand the mind and detach from it. Let it be confused, but you are not your mind. Be what you really are and there is no confusion.

Q: What is the reason for excessive stress in life?
A: Ownership and do-ership. Non-understanding or no realisation that “everything passes away”, both situations and people. When this understanding takes deep roots in one’s mind, life becomes an every moment game and each moment would be pleasurable and stress free.

Q: Many paths, which one to choose.
A: Simple. The path that is in front of you. You cannot actually choose anything else (any other path)

Q: Many Gurus. Which one is MY Guru?
A: None of them. Your Guru is your own soul. All else are reminders. Nothing that lies outside of you really belongs to you.

Q: Why are there differences?
A: There are no differences. It is only a distortion that the mind creates. Everything is one. Just different forms. Mind creates differences. You are not the mind.

Q: I am worried.
A: Mind is worried. You are not the mind.

Understand the mind and detach

Q: Can you help me?
A: Do you really need help? You are all powerful. If you feel otherwise, hold on to me until you find yourself. I will help you. You need the crutches only until your own legs become strong enough to carry you.

Q: I have faith.
A: Do you? Is it conditional or unconditional? Think again. Do you really have FAITH? How much faith? The word faith has become a cliche’. Faith is not just a word. It is a state, a perpetual state. Most of those who say “I have faith”, doubt themselves and certainly even their faith. And their faith is often conditional and sways with others interference, opinions and words.They need to work harder to achieve a total state of absolute faith.

Q: I surrender
A: Do not decieve yourself. Surrender means leaving out whatever you surrender completely from your system. Do you do that? Total surrender needs absolute faith. Complete surrender is a complete state of annihilation of a certain aspect of you. It is a state of dissolution. You are removing something you do not need in your constitution. Karma gets trashed. Think again, when you use such words. Do not deceive yourself.

Q: Whom should I trust?
A: Yourself.

Q: I Love You.
A: Do you? You should love yourself first. Love your family. Love your neighbors, friends, colleagues. I am total. When you love totality, when you become unconditional love, you do love me. If you think I am this form, this is non-understanding. When you hate someone, you do not love me. Loving me means loving the universe. Loving me means loving unconditionally. When you see me in every being, you DO love me. You will feel my love too. I love you through all beings.

Treading the path of faith and surrender

Q: Sometimes I feel disconnected.
A: You are never disconnected from me. Your mind is. You are not your mind.

Q: I want to be always with you.
A: Being with my physical body will never ensure proximity to me. If you are one with my consciousness, you are always with me and totally as well as completely connected with me. This is more permanant as well. Do not have the misunderstanding that those who are physically close to me are actually “close” to me. Some of you who are far away physically from me are more close to me (through unity of consciousness) than those who are physically near me. So, the desire for being with me should not be being physically with me. And many of you will not be able to handle my physical proximity because chances for disillusionment is very high. Read the blog “Living with a saint”.  I may kick your ego from time to time. I will tell you things that you may not like to hear, with the intention of shaking you up and liberating you from some samskaric bindings. You may not like it. So, beware. When you have tremendous maturity to handle whatever is given, you will automatically reach me. This is for sure. Otherwise, it is just infatuation. It has no spiritual value. Being in physical proximity, and at the same time being totally ego-less and in complete surrender, like Shama or Mhalsapati to Shirdi Sai Bhagawan is a real grace and blessing. Then the disciple and the Guru are one, though in separate bodies. This is possible and achievable, if you have consistancy in effort and total determination and a will for the annihilation of individual ego.

Q: How can I ensure my spiritual progress?
A: Strive to be always in 360 degree awareness. Watch your limited mind and ego. Be always detached from them. Be steadfast in your devotion as well as conviction. Do not only listen to others. Listen to your own soul and understand your own experiences. Understand and grow into yourself. Grow within. Be rich within. All external expressions should be expressions of your inner richness and not your limited mind. As Gandhiji said “Be the change that you want to see in the world outside.”. Be Unconditional Love.

Be always in 360 degree awareness. Be unconditional love!

Q: How can I see you in your real form?
A: See you in your real form. You will see me.

Q: Where is Good and Bad?
A: In your mind. It starts in your mind and ends in your mind.

Q: I cannot sleep.
A: Good. Practice awareness. It is better than sleep.

Q: How do I know you?
A: Know yourself, you will know me. What your mind says, is not me. What your soul says, is me.

Q: Who is a real saint?
A: One who has nothing to do with earth and knows it well, while being here.

Q: Even if I have one desire?
A: You will stay here.

Q: Aum Poornamada Poornamidam…. what can we equate this with for easy understanding’s sake? (question from a school teacher to explain to her students)
A: To a lamp. It never sheds its shine, brightness, even if a thousand lamps are lit from one. Everything is complete. Only completeness exists. Mind does not understand it, soul does.

Q: Why we wander?
A: Becuase you follow the mind. Mind always remains dissatisfied. It drags the body along. It delivers fears and alienations. It keeps you running for one thing or the other, through disillusionment and non-understanding.

Q: When ego takes over?
A: Men perish.

Q:Spiritual evolution is inevitable or guaranteed in each lifetime?
A: Depends on one’s karmic baggage.

Q: Is spiritual inheritance possible?
A: Yes.

Q: What is our hope for tomorrow?
A: Today

Q: Am I really alive or am I dreaming?
A: It depends on which level you are operating from. “Wake Up”, you will know.

Spirituality is awareness

Q: I believed spiritual masters are invincible. (Discussion point about fall in spirituality)
A: No. On the contrary, they are more vulnerable than others. When existence shifts to unconditional love, they trust everyone. This could be quite detrimental at times. It is hard to climb the ladder, easy to fall.

Q: Can an evolved being fall?
A: Depends on how he manages his ego and mind. If mind controls him, even duality of existence will pull him down. Unity cannot be percieved by mind. It is beyond the mind. To exist in unity, one should cross the boundaries of mind and ego.

Q: Man’s quest for knowledge
A: Waste of time, unless it helps his shedding.

Q: What is worth pursuing?
A: Silence.

Q: What is worth investing in?
A: Awareness

Q: Siddhis?
A: Candies.

Q: Why?
A: It wastes time. It maintains duality. It could nurture stronger ego. It forces detours. It alienates man from unity.

Q: Ultimate destination of man?
A: Narayana, the destination of man.

Q: Is it Lord Vishnu?
A: Parabrahma, the supreme formless GOD. The one who Generates, Operates and Dissolves. All forms are formed out of Him and dissolves in Him.

Q: Why do we visit holy places?
A: Urge to bathe in higher energies.

Q: What do we carry from there?
A: Depends on your stature. The ideal is to carry higher awareness, silence of mind, if you could. Usually, you only carry some photographs of your own form against some divine backdrop! This only tells you that you were indeed there and makes you feel worth the money well spent. Ability to experience gets enhanced with surrender and silence. Silence brings you more awareness than any book-knowledge. Expectation kills the fragrance of every experience.

Q: Why cannot everyone experience the same thing?
A: Each one experiences only as per each one’s capacity, stature and constitution. Each according to his ability, each according to his eligibility. There is no point in comparing. Comparisons means non-understanding.

Q: Where do you really exist? In which realm?
A: In your heart. In the realm of your consciousness. I have no other existence.

We will talk again.
Love You Always
M

BACK to BASICS

Mohanji receives many mails with many questions and problems from various parts of the world each day. Usually, he makes it a point to reply to each one of them, even though it is not easy. What we have here, is the essence of his replies for about 150 such mails. Straight from the heart, with deep concern for our evolution, to make us understand our purpose on the earth, Mohanji is showing the eternal mirror on our face, with a request, to ask a few questions to ourselves, think, contemplate, shed baggage and evolve. Have we forgotten something – some basics – on the way of our materialistic walk? We are proud to present Mohanji’s words as he expressed… each word is a pearl, makes one re-think…..

Love and regards, BTW Team

Even this one will pass away. I own nothing. All I have – I give you. I keep nothing for myself. I am fluid. I represent the consciousness that you came from. My love for you is complete. I embrace you as myself. I am indivisible. I am Yourself. I LOVE MYSELF and MYSELF is YOU. Love Infinite, M

Dear All,

Look at yourself. Are you taking your life more seriously than you should? Are you becoming more and more rigid and inflexible as the time flows? Is it worth it? Have you missed some of the most important experiences of your life either because of your fears, phobias or because of your binding conditionings – or even because of others’ words based on their set of fears and phobias? Are you a slave of your own mind or habits? Is constant postponement bothering you, destroying you from within and eroding your own self-esteem? Just remember, You have very limited time on earth and it is a matter of time before you exit from this scene on earth too, at least temporarily, irrespective of whether you believe in re-incarnation or not, death is for sure – sooner or later. Even if you may re-enter this drama at some other point of time and space, you may not remember the previous role that you played at all, just like you are totally ignorant about the lives that you lived in the past. So, once again, is this over-acted seriousness worth it? Is this anger, anxiety, fear, hatred, inflexibility and insecurity worth it? It is high time we contamplate on this. It is high time we looked at ourselves, considered ourselves, loved ourselves and cared too.

When is the last time we laughed whole heartedly, sincerely? It is time! Have we actually lost our childhood or the wonder-fuelled child in us? Have we lost our laughter? When is the last time we sincerely and guiltlessly appreciated a thing of beauty? When is the last time we complemented our spouse, our children, sincerely? When was the last time you consciously decided to abandon your nagging guilts as useless emotions and get on with life honestly? When is the last time you chose to be yourself? Do you feel that you control or can control others’ lives? If yes, first try controlling yourself, your own mind, before you attempt to control others. Is your guilt based on sexuality? Yes? Why? Isn’t sexuality an integral part of the life of every species? Sexuality is an instinct provided to sustain the species. Why should we be guilty about sex at all? Have you considered this thought ever? Guilt binds man as much as any other habits and conditionings do. Awareness and understanding truly liberates from all kinds of bindings.

Are fears of any kind necessary at all? Why? What is there to be afraid of? Are we afraid of ourselves? Are we afraid of society, name, fame, money, position? Are we rebelling? Against whom? Are our expressions constant acts of ignorance or helplessness? Can’t we choose to grow beyond it? Do we consider food and sex as recreation, get away or escape? Are we bound by any addictions at all, how ever innocent they may seem to be? Are we slaves to anything? Does it help at all? I believe it is time we considered our lives differently, as time does not stand still for anyone.

Are we passively accepting or suffering the company of people of negative nature who instill fears, phobias and hatred in you? Do they influence your thought process and make you ridicule, criticize and condemn Gods, Gurus and even your parents? Are you afraid to leave the company of such people? Are you mechanically, almost helplessly acting on their command, suggestion or manipulations? Why? It is time to think. You have the full right to choose good friends, those who bring brightness, sunshine and love into your life. You have the right to choose Love and freedom, as much as you have the right to choose hatred and further bondage. Remember, you are creating your own realities, and the inevitable destiny.

Have we ever considered contributing something creatively for the lesser privileged children of Mother Earth? Have we consciously decided to make our existence on earth more meaningful than the clock-work life comparable to that of animals, or a life bound by compelling habits?

Have we ever considered that war and peace happens in our minds first, before it gets manifested in the world outside?
Have we ever considered with gratefulness that we have three square meals a day and numerous past-time snacks in-between and have we ever really thought about the hungry, dying and deprived children elsewhere before we wasted the precious food and water? Have we ever considered that the grains that we wasted had the potential to become a plant and produce many more grains of its kind? If not, It is time to consider. Better late than never.

We are usually leading an unconscious existence. We live mechanically, clock-work. We repeat our inherited constitution quite mechanically and even become proud of it. We boast on others words, wealth or “borrowed feathers”! We boast about our inherited character or conditionings. Is it worth it? What are we proud of? Is there anything to be proud of at all which are not temporary in our life? It is time we thought about ourselves, before we think negatively about others. Is it because of others that we are suffering or that something (negative trait or tragic flaw) in us, that repeatedly brings such people and situations into our lives – what we are tired about? It is time to consider this carefully.

Have we actually lost our childhood or the wonder-fuelled child in us? Have we lost our laughter?….

When is the last time, that you experienced and expressed sincere and whole hearted FAITH towards yourself, your Guru and ultimately GOD? What is the use of entertaining conditional FAITH at all? Are we not wasting the precious moments of our existence on earth by being unreal? Time to think!

When was the last time we broke our patterns consciously? When did we consider ourselves as infinite – at least potential-wise? When was the last time we explored ourselves and re-invented ourselves? When was the last time we stopped complaining about something and decided that we have the courage, power and strength to change that matter that was bothering us? When was the last time we consciously realized that we are eternal creation machines and we create our own destiny? When was the last time we paid attention to who or what is running this body, fuelling our thoughts, and making us experience various thoughts, words, situations and events? It is time. I strongly feel that it is time you started looking at yourself. Look at others, judge others only after you have understood yourself fully. If you have not understood yourself fully, how can you understand another at all? How can we ever decide the walking space of others at all? We have no right to put others in frames, nor do we have any right to treat another being – not only human – with contempt.

I am sure we have always been discontented with life in general or at least many things in life. We have not been happy about others either. We constantly complain. This is usually because we compare our situation with others. When was the last time we counted our merits rather than our defects? When was the last time when we considered, with gratefulness, that most of our vital functions such as heartbeat, circulation, digestion and secretions are not controlled by our conscious mind? When is the last time you considered, with gratefulness, that the most important functions of your own body are, thankfully, not controlled by your conscious mind at all? Did you ever consider not to abuse your own body? It is time to think. When was the last time your recognized with gratitude that this was the precious body of a live animal/bird, which sacrificed itself to give you sensory satisfaction, before you devoured its flesh?

When was the last time you decided not to postpone a vital action, breaking the cage of your own conditioned mind? When was the last time you kept your promises? Primarily, you are not answerable to anyone except your own conscience. When was the last time you broke your own pattern of delaying actions? When was the last time you ever considered that your own mind is blocking your own progress and nobody else can be blamed for it?

When was the last time you dared to act and you believed in what you did, irrespective of the fear of possible consequences,  others’ words and further actions? When was the last time you trusted your own experience rather than others words and felt proud about it? Why are we afraid to leave our comfort zones? Isn’t the whole world your arena? Why are we locking, confining ourselves to one space at all? Why are we so afraid to confront our own fears? What exactly is there to lose, as death is inevitable in everyone’s existence? Have you ever considered that none else but you – are blocking your own path towards a successful existence? Isn’t our own ego getting on our way?

Why are we disappointed? Why are we depressed? Why are we angry? Why do we hate and abuse ourselves and others? Why do we lie, cheat and contaminate our own inner space? Why do we make ourselves helpless? Do you believe or feel that your own inner space is the temple of your own GOD? It is time to contemplate on that. Can we contaminate our own inner space, the temple where our GOD resides?

When is the last time we have not asked, requested or begged something from the God or Guru and instead just uttered from deep within, “THANK YOU for EVERYTHING“? When is the last time you asked the God or Guru, “What can I do for you?” instead of “What are you going to give me?” (True Guru or God will need nothing from you.) When was the last time you honestly said “I AM HAPPY“? When was the last time you decided to be real and not to pretend what you are NOT? When was the last time that you discarded ownership of your own actions, but acted sincerely and said with conviction, “Lord, Let YOUR WILL – not mine, BE DONE?” and whole heartedly embraced the fruits of action, whether it was good or bad?. When was the last time you whole heartedly accepted realities of life without resistance? When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and uttered with absolute sincerity “I LOVE YOU.” and “You are truly WONDERFUL“? When was the last time you felt grateful to be alive? When was the last time you touched the “skin” of mother earth and gratefully uttered “THANK YOU“? When was the last time you touched the leaves of the plants in your house and uttered with deep love, “I love you. We are closely related?” When was the last time you consciously discarded negative thoughts and swapped them with overwhelming optimism and love? When was the last time you truly loved someone without expecting love in return? When was the last time you could bring smile and hope on a stranger’s face? When was the last time you looked into the eyes of your teacher, Guru and said “I am not separate from you. You and I are one?” When was the last time you embraced HONESTY and SELF-LESSNESS whole heartedly?

When was the last time you considered – “How many more years will this body walk on the earth?” Did you consider “These people around me will also disappear sooner or later forever“? Did you also consider “Now is the only time to express unconditional love, wholeheartedly, sincerely and gratefully?”. Did you ever consider that “You came empty handed and will leave empty handed”? Did you consider that “All that you actually need is a bit of shelter, clothes and food?” What else can you actually use? What is permenant? We actually own nothing on earth!. Everything will pass away….

Have you considered…………………………. It is time. It is time!

Even this one will pass away. I own nothing. All I have – I give you. I keep nothing for myself. I am fluid. I represent the consciousness that you came from. My love for you is complete. I embrace you as myself. I am indivisible. I am Yourself. I LOVE MYSELF and MYSELF is YOU.

Love Infinite

M

When was the last time you considered – “How many more years will this body walk on the earth?” …. Mohanji

Living the Teachings

"If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world." Sathya Sai Baba

Dear All,

It was March 31^st 2011. Meditation was about to begin. First was the Satsang with Mohanji. He sat down in his chair. All of us took our seats, some sat on the floor. Mohanji closed his eyes for a few minutes. Before anybody could ask any questions, he asked us a question: “What is the BEST gift you can give to your beloved Guru?” This question was followed by a pin drop silence. The question lingered in the air. Everyone started digging deep into themselves to find the right answer. It was interesting. This was quite unusual. Mohanji was visibly purposeful. He closed his eyes and awaited our answer. Answers flowed: “Pray for their health; Protect the Guru; Support the Guru; Spread his messages; Contribute towards his mission’s expenses”, etc.

After some time, Mohanji answered: “The BEST gift you can give to your beloved Guru, is to LIVE HIS TEACHINGS. When you live his teachings, you become one with your Guru, whoever your Guru is. It does not matter. But, if you respect your Guru, if you appreciate His teaching, LIVE IT. That is the least and that is the best you can do for him.” A deep silence fell upon us. Something profound was happening. This was important. Simple, but true; the core and essence of the truth.

Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba from Puttaparthy, Bangalore, India has been hospitalized for a heart and lung problem. Baba took this body in 1926, eight years after Shirdi Baba left his body. Right from the time He was born, many miracles happened which proved his difference from other children. He has been working relentlessly in multiple levels, to spread the basic rules of human existence, such as LOVE, TRUTH, PEACE, NONVIOLENCE and DHARMA. This is our tradition. Sai represents the eternal tradition based on Sanatana Dharma.

Mohanji continued: “The purpose of Bhagawan’s living was to give us the full guidelines of life. What more can we give to Bhagawan? Because He knows very well how long he should stay in His body. Will you pray to keep him in the body? What can we pray for an Avatar?

The best gift you can give to any Guru is to live his teachings. Guru does not want anything else. When you live your Guru’s teachings, Guru is happy. His life and time on Earth becomes worthwhile. What else can you give to a Guru? You may give him medicines to sustain his body, but is Bhagawan interested in that? Living in body itself is painful for Gurus and real Masters or Avatars. It is also a big restriction because you need to operate through body. Perhaps, it would have been much better for Satya Sai not to be in the body at all! But then, people would not understand him. People need to touch and feel. People need tangibility. We cannot understand the Omnipresent Parabrahma. So, Sai chose to take birth and live in a body, so that He can communicate with you. You need a tangible format so that you see the Guru, you hear him, you see him talking and walking. Or you will not know him. Omnipresent Parabramha is here, but we cannot see him. We do not feel him. We cannot see air. When air leaves this place, you understand that you are suffocated, you gasp for breath. We take the air around us for granted. We do the same with the Grace.

What is Grace? What has it got to do with life? Simple answer! What has an umbrella got to do with rain! Umbrella does not stop the rain but prevents you from getting drenched. Grace protects you, it does not stop an event. Grace flows. It is pitched against collective consciousness. Collective consciousness creates situations. E.g. it elects the ruler or the king! Grace protects you from the sun but cannot remove the sun. In the rain, some water will drop on you from the sides, but overall, with an umbrella, you are protected. You have to suffer, but you suffer less! You will get wet but not as much as if you were standing under the rain. This is the importance of grace. Similarly, when Guru leaves the place, we feel he is gone….. While Guru is in the body, we do not actually appreciate him. We take him for granted.

It is not a tragedy for Him or for the Universe when Bhagawan leaves the body; because He has done his job. It is a tragedy for human beings who could not catch the message and need the physical form.

I sincerely want to convey that Bhagawan has done a great favor to be here on the earth with us; whether he continues to stay in His body or not. His teaching is basically love and truth. If you love Bhagawan, live and love his teachings. That is the best gift you can give him. Then the purpose of His Avatar was worth it. How much ever we pray otherwise is of no use.

Do not just spread his teachings by writing messages or posting them by mail, LIVE HIS TEACHINGS. We remember his teaching by living it or practicing it. Because there should be application of teachings in the real life. Otherwise, we will just talk: ‘Oh, He was a great Master, He was an Avatar….’ What is the use? Master does not need any of this nonsense. He came here to raise the consciousness. Whatever you do, which is not in tune with that, is of no use. Bhagawan once said: “After staying in this body for 80 years, people still have not understood me! Even if I live for another 80 years, it will be of no use.” Once on Shivaratri he said, “Why are you sitting in front me like a frog, looking at me?“ This expressed his anger. It is very unlikely that he will use such words. Bhagawan is very compassionate. He talks in a very mild and soft manner. He then said: “Go home and serve selflessly in your place.”

Many people have left their homes and are staying in Puttaparthy to be around him. And interestingly enough, Baba often keeps extremely arrogant people around him all the time. They are rude and aggressive. Did I tell you this story? This is a story that I have heard. Bhagawan had a driver who served him for 20 years. This driver was a rude and angry man. When someone would come to Baba, he would shout and antagonize them. Some people got really affected by this behavior of his. They thought, “We are coming to see Bhagawan from far and wide, and this fellow throws us away. Can something be done?” They asked Baba. Baba did not say anything. Bhagawan tolerated the intolerance of his driver. After 20 years, one day Baba told him: “You have completed your job. Go home in peace, I will take care of you.” The driver left. Someone then asked Bhagawan: “Why did you keep such a rude man as a driver for so long? He does not reflect your stature at all.” Bhagawan answered: “I stayed with him for 2 days while I was in Shirdi Baba’s body. I repaid that debt.” Understand, karma works for an Avatar too. He did not erase it. He continued with the flow.

Mohanji continued: “Have you been to Puttaparthy? You could experience rude behavior from many people there. Of course, there is a dire need for good security. Everything is done on account of security. But, our ego many not enjoy us being suspected, treated like a terrorist!!! You may think – is this necessary? Is this what I have come here for? Did I come here to experience this kind of treatment? Why do we experience this at the abode of such an enlightened Master? This is especially so, with Westerners.

But there are reasons for this. One is; these people have irritable characters. They are an irritation for society, and so Bhagawan collects such people and keeps them near him and thus saves the society. Being in the vicinity of Bhagawan, these people benefit a lot. They undergo tremendous inner cleansing.  Another strong reason is, people visit Bhagawan with eagerness and inquisitiveness to see a Guru. All are coming from different walks of life, with EGO. Through these irritable people, Bhagawan bashes the ego of people coming to visit him. The volunteers around Baba never care about the social status of the visitors. They scold them and impose rules on them indiscriminately. People may think, “What is this? What kind of people are these?” But if you are sincere, you will survive all that and reach Bhagawan.

You may reach the entrance of the hall and be told that, oh, cameras/purses are not allowed. Books are not allowed inside. Ooops! You will have to go back to your room and leave them there. Within that time, you may miss Bhagawan’s darshan. One may feel that a day is lost. Next day, Bhagawan may not come. If you have come there, amongst your busy schedules, for two days, your full program may get spoiled. Expectation is cut from the root. A big churning! A big shake up. You may get disappointed. Your ego is thrown down in the trash. However, if you think “If I see Bhagawan, it is fine”; or, “If I do not see Bhagawan, it is okay for me,” – if you nullify your ego and just let go, then probably Bhagawan may come and touch you, or may even call you for an interview!

So, the biggest gift one can give to a Master, is to live his teachings. This is also the best way to understand the Master. Otherwise, a visit one pays to the Master was just a picnic. If you are not living His teaching, nothing has shifted in your consciousness.

Nothing is a tragedy. We cannot pray that Bhagawan should remain in his body because this is up to him. He has come for a purpose and He very well knows his purpose. He also knows when to leave. It is our selfishness to ask Bhagawan to stay in the body. When He has achieved his purpose, is it worthwhile to ask him “Stay in body for a few weeks more!” We do not know the larger mission. Those who want to understand Him, will understand Him by not meeting Him also. Knowledge is useless unless converted into your daily life’s experience. If life has not improved due to additional knowledge, it is just another burden in your existence. If the food that you consume gets digested, it helps your health. If it is not digested, it only upsets your stomach, your equilibrium. It is like, how much food can you digest without getting indigestion. If your stomach cannot digest food, it has no value.

The consciousness is permanent. It is not situational or conditional. Have faith and intensify FAITH. Then there is no fear. Faith will give you tenacity and toughness to go through all the situations. Express deep gratitude. Mean it, feel it. Live the teachings of your Guru, if you Love Him deeply, sincerely.” Mohanji went into silence again.

I also would like to mention with reverence that, meditation followed by this message was extremely intense and there was magnificent presence of Bhagawan Sathya Sai during the meditation, which everyone felt. The intense energy flow and the Shaktipat moved all of us. Interestingly, Mohanish who was also conducting ‘Power of Purity’ meditation in Pune at the same time, felt clear physical presence of Sathya Sai to the extent that he naturally bowed down to Him. Mohanish had no idea that Mohanji has been communing with Sathya Sai Baba all through the Thursday meditation. Such is the Leela of Sathya Sai and Mohanji.

The BTW family offers love and prayers to Bhagawan Sathya Sai by sending this message and living his teachings of love and truth.

With Loving Regards,

Deepali.

Spiritual Journeys, Paths and Guides

A deeply insightful and straightforward message from Mohanji, in a  Q&A format – to enjoy and implement :-).

Loving regards, BTW Team

Topics: Choosing Gurus and spiritual courses; The seeker’s relationship to the Guru; Fulfilling our own spiritual mission; How many e-mails can you handle a day?

Q. How to choose a Guru?  Which spiritual courses to take?

Mohanji:

“A: All Gurus are one. The Guru that appeared to you is usually the right one for you. But, do not be confused as to whether you are on the right track or not. Just accept the Guru, in front of you, or guiding you, even if you have never met him physically. Start walking the path with faith and confidence. Maybe you will meet more Gurus (road signs) on the path. Wandering in search of a Guru is absolutely unnecessary. This is because, you will be searching for someone whom you think is the right one for you. The reality is your eligibility. Thus, learn to accept the Guru who helps you now. Whoever he is! Take this as your starting point and start walking from there with faith and devotion. Guru will choose you. You need not choose any Guru.

Even if you want to choose a Guru, it is your choice. When you decide to leave this Guru, it is also your choice. If you shift to another Guru, it is also your choice. But, do not take your decision based on the words of others. You decide for yourself. In reality, do not decide anything, just let things flow. If you decide to be with me, or leave me,  it is also your decision. I do not invite anyone, nor do I ask anyone to go. I am all inclusive.

The same is applicable to many spiritual courses. It is an intellectual requirement, not a spiritual requirement. You may like all the foods served at the buffet table and you may want to taste them all. However, you have your own stomach capacity. If you try to cram more, either obesity or indigestion, or both, will result. Take only as much as your stomach is comfortable with. There are 100s of meditation techniques. Try a few and choose what you like or what suits you. Do not follow others. You are unique. You carve your own path with the available materials. The same vegetables can be used to make different curries. Make your own curry with the available vegetables. Use your inner guidance. Just keep walking with faith in yourself and your Guru, whoever it is. Never procrastinate.

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.

Q. Who are you really Mohanji?

A. I understand your curiosity to know more about me. But tell me, how will that help your spirituality? Do not marry the Guru. Marry his consciousness.

Guru in the physical frame is as perishable as all physical frames are. It is vulnerable to changes. It is affected by time and the seasons. Remember one thing. Every physical being is vulnerable to time and changes. Therefore, do not be too curious about me as a person. If you attach yourself more and more to my physical image, forgetting the simple messages that I deliver from time to time, you will develop expectations. Expectations and realities may not match. Eventually, you will suffer from disillusionment. Everyone can easily create expectations about another. Understand clearly, it cannot work that way. Life may take a different course altogether.

I do not believe that anything is fully right and anything is fully wrong, as long as people are traveling a karmic journey. When the mode shifts to dharmic, it is a different story. So please, kindly refrain from sending me mails pertaining to my personal life. Leave it alone. There is nothing for you to imitate or enjoy in it. It is a life filled with work, work and more work. You want to try? Sure. Most welcome. If you like my messages to the world, if you like my meditations, you are welcome to follow that path. Again, it should not be because you like my physical frame, voice or lifestyle. It should be because you like the message or the truth in the message which applies to your life. Once again, “Marry the consciousness, which is permanent and unshakeable. Never marry any Guru”. They are crazy people. Believe me. 🙂

A Lamp can Light a Thousand Lamps

Q. Is it wrong to think only of my own spiritual journey?

A. All of you have come to this mega mall called ‘world’ with your own shopping list. This is fine. There cannot be any other way. So, please go ahead and exhaust the shopping list before the money (your breath) completely leaves your wallet (your body). This journey or shopping list is your own. Even your close relatives have nothing to do with it, because they have their own shopping list.

There are common things to buy, such as household items – tables, chairs, refrigerator, fruits and vegetables etc. Your shopping list will agree with that of your relatives as long as this match exists. There are individual items as well, like your toothbrush. You will not want to share it with anyone. Hence, allow time, space and privacy for everyone.

Do not judge the purchases of others. There is nothing right and nothing wrong, in the absolute sense. You are carving your own destiny. Kill Guilt. Kill Anger, Anxiety, Jealousy, Revenge, Enmity, Distrust, Hatred, Comparison and Desires. They will all make you spend your money faster. They all make you spend emotionally. When you are spent and sick, you will suffer a painful death. Have nothing to do with it. Just love and serve. In this way, when we die, we will die in peace.

Guilt is very powerful. It glues us to the Earth. Have nothing to do with it. Do what is right, according to your conscience. It may not be right for others. Never harm anyone through thoughts, words or action. Otherwise, your right is your own right. It will suit you. Trash Guilt, whatever it may cost. Be relaxed. One thing is guaranteed – you have brought sufficient breaths to complete the original shopping list of this life. Do not add more. You do not have sufficient funds for that. You did not bring them. Time borrowed is pains borrowed. You have to repay it with interest. Be aware of that.

A Unique Journey, with Common Steps along the Way

Q. Mohanji, I have written to you, yet I am still waiting for your reply.

A. I still hope to reply to you individually. At this point in time, just in this email box, I have 6344 mails. It is impossible. I may not be able to continue replying individually in the near future. As more and more people are practicing our meditations in many countries, mails have suddenly multiplied.

Many of you have sent your testimonials and messages of gratitude. I thank all of you for letting me know through your mails that you are happy. I really appreciate your time and input for telling me that you are enjoying it. Your happiness is my happiness. I appreciate all communications. However, I may not be able to reply as before. The mountain of mails in front of me is growing. How will I climb one by one and when will I ever reach the top of the every growing mountain? I request your kind understanding.

I would therefore appreciate it if henceforth you could send your testimonials and questions to mohanjiforyou@gmail.com, to Caroline and Dr. Deepali, who are working relentlessly, along with Biba to cope with the ever-growing demand. They will read and compile your testimonials and post them in blogs as inspiration to others, to build their dare to experience. This is the golden path of purity and faith.

Also, some of you could not trace me on Face Book! I liked that. I am anonymous!!! My FB name is Para Brahma. However, I also suggest you join the FB pages ‘Mohanji’, ‘Bless The World’, and ‘Ammucare’ which have been created/are run by our selfless supporters. All the updates are posted there. The web site is also being revamped and will contain more details, including the new programs and events. All details can be communicated with Caroline, Dr. Deepali and their team. Please send all your suggestions to them.

I wish you Happiness, Peace and most importantly, the perpetual taste of higher consciousness. Love, M.”

In person or not, our Spirits connect.