Humility

Welcome to Mohanji Speaks.

There are certain signs which denote that a person has become one with God or has elevated to the level of God-consciousness. Usually, this is mentioned in the context of an avatar. What are the signs of an avatar? It’s approximately like that, so this is told in the context of an avatar like Lord Krishna.

There are 16 signs, which are mentioned in the scriptures, which denote that an individual is an avatar. Number one is Sri Sampada. That means a person of that stature will always have abundance, richness, inner richness, that means the richness of spiritual stability and the corresponding outer richness, which is the material wealth or the people wealth, all kinds of abundance, positive abundance. So that is Sri Sampada.

Number two is Bhu Sampada. That means these people will have many properties, various lands and those kinds of things, basically, an abundance of land at their disposal.

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The third is Kirti Sampada. That means they will have fame across the world, people who know them, can connect to them, people will feel them as a part of themselves or their family, there’ll be a universal acceptance for them. There will be fame in that context.

The fourth is Vani Sammohanada. That means their speech will be attractive to people, spontaneously attractive. Their words will soothe them, calm them, and make them connect to themselves. Their words and expressions will be transformative.

The fifth is Leela. Leela simply means divine play. People will be happy just by their presence. If you just look at them, you will be happy. Since they have recognized God, and they have recognized God within themselves, they will have divine play all their life. Life itself will be like a play. And it’s not measurable. You can’t really divide or put it into any frame. They might be very unorthodox at times, but they play with true life, and that play will be transformative. The divine play will be for the sake of transformation.

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The sixth is Kaanti. Their form will be very attractive. Their form will have a kind of magnetic attraction. And that’s obvious. Once you see that person, you won’t easily forget him. Their form would be in the corner of your mind somewhere, even if you’re not connecting deeply.

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The seventh is Vidya. They’ll be proficient in skills or management of things which are useful for human existence. In other words, they will be effortless in the management of their life.

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The eighth is Vimala. Their mind will be pure. They’ll be no impurity in their mind at all. They will always be operating in pure consciousness, pure awareness, and purity.

The ninth is Ulkarshaniyata. They’ll be very patient. They will encourage people to do good for the world spontaneously, and they will always aspire and be active for the ultimate goodness in the world. They will always be enthusiastic about doing something great for the world. And they will inspire people to do that. They will be extraordinarily patient with people. They may not be bound by the results of action, but they will continuously do good actions, good for the world.

The tenth is Vivekam. The power of discrimination or wisdom, displayed wisdom – Neera ksheera vivekam especially. Neera is water, ksheera is milk, to separate water from milk – that kind of wisdom, that kind of power of discrimination between the good and the bad, between the positive and the negative. They will have wisdom, and they are able to discriminate between the good and the bad. Just like the paramahamsa (swan), we talk about, who has the power to discriminate between milk and water if they are mixed together. They will make the people who are with them, stable, and even famous. They have that power because they have the power to discriminate between the positive and the negative.

The eleventh is Karmanyata. They will always be active; they will never be idle. They will also encourage others to be active in the right way, in a positive way.

The twelfth is Yoga Shakti. They would have controlled their minds, they would have controlled their senses, and they will be stable within themselves – inner stability through yoga, through the power of yoga (yoga shakti), they would have attained inner stability, and it’s visible in their eyes. They are very stable and still inside. The eyes will display that.

The thirteenth is Vinayam – humility. They will have zero egos. They will be very humble because they are very stable. They are not in competition with anybody; they do not compete to win, or to prove anything because they are very stable inside. Humility is a clear sign of an avatar. They will not boast. They have no pride. They will probably display only 10% of what they actually are. They will display nothing much. It is up to the seeker to find them. And the more you indulge in them or indulge in their awareness, the more you can find. But they will not display, and they will not boast or will have pride over anything that they have. They’ll be extremely humble.

The fourteenth is Sathya-dharanam. They exist in truth, they are always aware of the truth, and they display truth. They are extremely patient, as I said earlier. They will base themselves in truth; the truth may not be the truth of the two-dimensional society. Truth is more of karmic truth and mostly dharmic truth. They will be totally true to dharma – righteous duty. They will not deviate from the karmic flow, the flow of karma. The social dimension is different because that’s conditional, or situational. Here dharma is not situational; it is perpetual. They will be rooted in dharma, and they will operate as per the law of karma, totally adhering to those principles.

The fifteenth is Adhipatyam. Their presence will be powerful, so they automatically become leaders. They can lead a lot of people by their sheer stability, vision, and compassion. Automatically they get predominance, even if they don’t want to, or even if they don’t display, because they can’t conceal what they are easily. Because of their energy and aura, because of their purposefulness, because of their determination, and because of the clarity and vision, they will attain leadership naturally.

The sixteenth is Anugraham kshamata. They will be able to transform people; they will be able to bring clarity to the lives of people. They will only exist for the sake of raising awareness of the people. Whoever comes to them, will not go empty-handed. They would have delivered whatever they can, as per their capacity, or the person who has come to them. They live to serve, they serve unconditionally, without expecting anything back. They will be powerful, and they will not use their powers for their personal gratification, manipulation, or for personal gains. Instead, they will be focused on the welfare of their subjects like an emperor. Like a true emperor, their whole focus, their whole life will be dedicated to their empire and their people. They do not like to disappoint anybody who comes to them, and they treat the people who come to them as their responsibility. They take care of them as best as they can.

These are the 16 qualities mentioned in the scriptures about the signs of an avatar, or the signs of somebody who is God-conscious. I have said this just to give you clarity and awareness. So, if you understand that, you can clearly see the signs of such avatars in your world. If you observe consistently, you will know whether that person is real or pretending. Only through consistent observation, you can actually understand the third dimension of an individual. I hope these signs will help you connect to the right guide in your life.

Have a great day. This is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

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Hello friends, I hope you have enjoyed the previous podcast.

Today, I’m here to talk about two music Maestros who touched my heart, at various points in time. These are two great Masters of music, Indian music, with whom I interacted at different points in time. One is Pandit Jasraj; he left his body yesterday, at the age of 90. From the age of 10, he started learning and practising Hindustani music. He was truly a maestro; amazing voice; amazing rendition; amazing feeling he could deliver with his music. I’m not very knowledgeable in Hindustani music; except if I hear music, I can say whether it touches the heart or not; only as a connoisseur. I don’t know the intricacies of music.

The first memory is when I was working in Dubai. I was invited to a concert at the Indian Consulate. It was a concert by a few maestros. At that time, I used to do my podcast; my radio shows called Mohan’s World, and the theme music of those radio shows was from U. Sreenivas – the Mandolin Maestro, a prodigy. Remember, this was in the mid-2000s. I was doing these radio shows in Dubai, for a channel called ‘Pod Me’, and we wanted theme music for it. So, the producer told me to find music that is not copyrighted, and which I like. I was listening to various music. I love the Beatles; I love Elvis Presley, I love U2; many different music bands I like, but they were not really non-copyrighted, they were all copyrighted, so, I couldn’t use that music. Remember, this was the time when I was not known as Mohanji. I was still working in a company and I was known as ‘Mohan’, my official name. And just around that time, a friend of mine who had met U. Sreenivas told me about him and told me about his philanthropic mind, apart from being a musical genius. And I happened to listen to U. Srinivas’s mandolin in the car. I loved it.

I contacted my friend and said, “I would like to speak to U. Srinivas. Can you introduce me?” He called U. Srinivas; he had met him a few times and he knew him. He said that his friend Mohan would like to speak to him, and he gave me the number.

I called him and I told U. Srinivas that I would like to use a part of his music for my radio shows. And I asked him, “Since it’s copyrighted, should we have an agreement or some kind of a paper you’d agree to me using it.” Before I could complete this sentence, he asked me, “Mohanji, Are you Mohanji?” I said, “Yes, I am Mohan of Mohan’s World.” He said, “Yes, I know, I know you through this brand, of course, we have not met.” And he said, “For you, no copyright. Use any music you like as much as you want, from my albums.” He gave me a blanket approval; verbal approval. And I used a piece of his music for my shows.

Much later, or probably a few months later, I had been to Vrindavan in Bangalore to visit Sathya Sai Baba, and I had His darshan and I was going to a friend’s home.

Meanwhile, I can’t remember whether I called him or he called me. I spoke to Mandolin Srinivas. He asked me, “You were there at the Vrindavan?” I said, “Yes, I came to see Baba.” Then, he said, “I was there as well. How come we did not meet?” And we agreed to meet at a different time. What hit me deeply about him, the most striking thing about Srinivas was his humility, deep humility. He was a child prodigy and a Maestro but humble to the core. This is very important to understand; greatness is displayed much more with humility. He is not in the body. I could not meet him physically, he left his body. I did the podcast for about one and a half years – about 59 or 60 episodes, that’s it. This is one part of the story. One Maestro, one great musician, I could physically interact with.

Now, Pandit Jasraj, left his body yesterday; that is the 17th of August 2020 in New Jersey. Most of you know that I used to use his music, ‘Govind Damodar Madhaveti’, often in my programs because it used to really stir emotions inside and bring things out.

I wanted to tell him this and take his permission as well because I don’t like to use any music without anybody’s permission. So, I wanted to meet him. Before that, just to rewind. I did meet ‘Mandolin’ Srinivas. There was this concert at the Indian Consulate where I was invited.

It was Pandit Jasraj, Mandolin Srinivas, and a few other maestros together. Beautiful concert. And Pandit Jasraj’s daughter, Durga Jasraj, was compèring this program. After the program, I walked towards Durga Jasraj and I introduced myself and I said, “I would like to meet Mandolin Srinivas because I’m using his music.” She said, “Absolutely. Please come.” So I went on stage, I met him, and he was very, very nice and kind. He said, “We must meet again.” And I shared that I was really, really impressed with the music and Pandit Jasraj was there. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the stage because other people were also coming in, dignitaries, so I congratulated Mandolin Srinivas. I thanked him for allowing me to use his music, and he said, “At any time, no problem.” That was it, and then I came back, that was the only time when I met him.

That was also the only time when I met Pandit Jasraj also. Later on, as I was using his music in my shows, I wanted to meet him and thank him. And Madhu organized a meeting with him in Bombay, a couple of years ago. He was not too well at that time. I met him. I told him about his music which I’m using, and he was very happy. I said, “I would like to have your permission and blessing for me to use it.” He said, “I’m honoured that you’re using my music. Thank you for using it. You don’t need any permission. Please use.” He was so kind, so humble, and so full of love. He said many things to me, he discussed so many things. I gifted him our books which I was told he kept in his personal library, and some people contacted us after seeing my books in his library. He appreciated us visiting him.

I went with Madhu, and he said, “Mohanji, I have a concert two days later, and I’m not well. My throat is not okay, just pray that I can do this concert.” I said, “Panditji, it’ll all go well. Nothing to worry.” And when I was leaving, he came up to the elevator and thanked me. It was a very beautiful heart to heart connection. And he kind of delivered himself so profusely without expectations, and he doesn’t even know me that well because that’s our first time we were meeting and talking. And then he said, “Please do visit me more, whenever you come here, or we will keep in contact.” So all those beautiful things, he said. Then he said, “Bless me”, and I said, “No, no you’re such a maestro.” He said no, he took my hand and put it on its head; so humble, so much humility. And then we parted. Later, when we released different books, we sent a copy to him, which he received. Then later he went to New Jersey.

What I want to tell here is that when we are gifted with a skill or talent, we should accompany that with humility. All the great masters I have come in touch with, come in contact with are humility incarnates; those who are not so humble are also insecure. Here, both these maestros were amazingly secure, stable and they deserved all the following that they had, or that they have and their music will continue. People will cherish it. People will carry their music in their hearts. They delivered amazing stuff to the world. They made the world brighter, they were positive. They brought positivity.

So, we can all do something positive and brighten up this world within our capacities. We don’t have to be a maestro, we don’t have to be a greatly talented person; within our capacity (all of us have it), we can change the world for the better.

I would like to offer my humblest greetings and gratitude to these great maestros. These maestros will live forever through their music, through what they have delivered to the world, and through their humility, and kindness. Just like I remember them as humility incarnates, the world will remember them as bright stars on the horizon of mankind.

Thank you for listening to me. Wish you happiness and peace always. Wish you purposefulness, and also inspiration, self- inspiration to lead your life purposefully.

This is Mohanji for you.