The offering of food to Baba

Mohanji is a spiritual Master whose awakening was graced by Sai Baba of Shirdi. He guides many on the path and works tirelessly to spread his teachings. Mohanji talks about the important practice of offering food to Baba, to our deities and ancestors.

Lord Krishna says, “If you give me a flower or a leaf, I’ll be happy. But please remember, that belongs to me, anyway.”

All the materials that we use, all the things that we have, they are all temporary and are not ours. We are probably a custodian of something for some time, but we can’t really own anything. I was thinking about it many, many years ago: What can I offer to Baba?

Then I decided I will offer food every day. Then I thought, yes, I will offer food, I still do, I do that every day. But food doesn’t belong to me. This food has come to me from somewhere. Somebody tilled the land, somebody packed it, somebody brought it home, somebody cooked it, and somebody delivered it on my table. So basically, this is the work of many people. We are lucky to have that food on our table. So that belongs to Baba anyway, because I surrender everything to Baba, that is Baba’s. “What is here is yours,” I mean, I offer what is His already to Himself. That’s not good enough, and then I thought I’ll offer the body, but the body is also not mine, so how will I offer something which is not mine? I have taken this body made out of five elements. In a particular composition, they become a body and get a personality called Mohanji. That body is temporary. I don’t know how long I will have this body. When I leave the body, my body will disintegrate. So, whatever is matter goes to Earth, whatever is water will become water, the fire element will go back to the fire, the air will go back to the air, space will be going back to space. So basically, it’s disintegration.

Then about Mind, Intellect and Ego – that belongs to the ether, because you can’t touch them. They are processors; they process things. Mind processes emotions, intellect processes information, ego processes personality matters such as positions and possessions, whatever you call as “ours”, ownership, that’s the ego’s job.

These processors are not mine; they belong to the ether that goes. What about the soul? The soul belongs to Supreme Consciousness. That’s also not mine. The soul goes back to Supreme Consciousness unless it’s coming back in another body. We hop from one body to another. We keep hopping and with the same pattern, same emotion, same kind of desires, we come back again and again. Imagine that’s all extinct, that’s all finished. Then the soul will revert itself back to Supreme Consciousness, that’s also not mine.

So what can you actually offer Baba? Eternal gratitude. Thank you. Surrender. That’s a connection to Consciousness with awareness, with full awareness, with a clear awareness that nothing belongs to me, none of these things are mine. What it seems to be is a combination of so many things, and this is driven by inclinations and tendencies, in all of us. Tendencies and inclinations from childhood remain till we die. We can’t blame anybody for our inclinations; we are that. We are unique beings, unique creations with inclinations, patterns, tendencies. Then we keep expressing them, is it something good or something bad? We do not know. It’s all good, all bad. Everything IS, just IS.

So, we cannot say that this is good; this is bad. We are a bundle of inclinations and a bundle of desires which are connected to inclinations. We have a desire, which is connected to our tendencies and inclinations. This is what we are – vasanas. Vasanas are the provocation for something. If we don’t have vasana for something, an inclination for something, we do not pursue that thing. This is what we are. 

So what do we offer Baba? Basically, we can offer Baba nothing, because everything belongs to Him. You understand Him as Supreme Consciousness. We are also Supreme Consciousness, and if you understand and accept that we are Supreme Consciousness, then we are one with Baba, and we cannot have separation. So, every day – irrespective of Saturday or Sunday or weekends or holidays – what we consume, we offer to our Kul Devtas; if you have family deities, offer to them, Nag Devtas – for the sake of continuity, protection and longevity, knowledge. Then Gurus – like Sai Baba, offer them; then favourite deities, offer them. Also, ancestors, you offer them because if you have taken a body, you belong to the lineage, your lineage from your father’s side and mother’s side. They brought you, so you are not standalone. You are not separated from it. You are one with it. We should offer food before we consume. I always do that myself and recommend the same. When we offer food to the deities and the Masters, and the people whom you respect, people in a sense like all the energies that you respect, automatically, purification happens in your mind and in the food. Whatever energies which created the food, we do not know what sort of energies have worked together to create the food. That doesn’t matter. But when you offer, when you are sincerely offering everything that you consume, to Baba, to Masters, then automatically the food becomes pure and becomes like prasad, like celestial food. Like food which is purified further again from the washing, cleaning, etc. but apart from that, energetic purification.

So, I always recommend energetically purifying the food by offering to them whatever you consume. Naturally, you will also consume good food because what you want, normally what everybody wants – is good food, quality food, tasty food – that same food is given to or offered to Baba. That is also surrendering, a kind of surrender and gratitude.

So, gratitude, surrender, and purification, they are all synonymous, they come together. That makes you consume food which is suitable for your system; you become purified. This is why whatever you consume; I always recommend that you offer it to Baba before you consume, and also if you consume immediately, maybe your stomach is not prepared to digest it easily. Still, if you are offering it, you have time. By that time your system is ready for the food. What you consume is what is offered, it is prasad, it’s celestial, sacred food and that sacred food will make your internal inside sacred. This is what I always recommend. 

Always offer to Baba before you consume. 

Know more about Mohanji at Mohanji.org.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Vidya Mohite

Q&A – Unconditional love Part 3

Welcome to Mohanji Speaks. These are answers to questions from listeners. Thank you for sending them. Keep sending them. I will try to answer them as best as I can.

Speaker: This is the final podcast in a three-part podcast series on the topic of unconditional love, based on questions from a listener. This one concludes following on from the question, how does the unconditional love of a master operate?

Mohanji:  The basic thing that chains us are our patterns, our inclinations, tendencies. That’s what we entertain. We fight to keep it. We don’t allow it to be broken. And that’s exactly what should go to connect to yourself. You are not your patterns. You are not your patterns; you are not your inclinations and tendencies. You’re not your desires, they all come and go. They don’t stay. So, once you understand that, just imagine your freedom.

When a master has understood this, that is what is mastery. He has understood life, he has understood the patterns, he has understood the likes and dislikes, inclinations, and all those things. When has he become freedom? When you become something, how do you look at the world? As you are, right? So, he has recognized what is real freedom. He sees the world as freedom, acceptance happens. So, he accepts everybody as they are, not as he wants them to be. That is their job. If a person wants to evolve beyond their mind, a Master is available as a benchmark. But Master never says, “Become me.” What will a Master say? “I’m available, like a mirror, you can look at me and find yourself.”

When you look at the mirror, you don’t see the mirror, you see yourself; the image in the mirror and the mirror stays neutral. A mirror never says, “You must look at me”, or “You must look at the mirror”, it’s your choice. You go and look at the mirror, you’ll find yourself; you see yourself as you are at that time. That’s exactly how the Master projects you back. Master gives you yourself as you are, at that time. You come to a Master with anger, the Master will reflect back anger. You come to a Master with love, the Master reflects back the love, as it is, as you are at that time, that’s what is getting reflected. Another time you come back with a lot of affection, love, care; a Master becomes that.

So, the Master will be a true mirror always, because he has no expectations. He is total freedom. Just like a mirror, he’s totally free. If your face is not acceptable to you, a mirror has nothing to do with it. Just like that, if you’re not really acceptable to yourself, the mirror will only project that, and you blame the mirror for your face? That is stupidity. That’s non-understanding. A Master operates that way like a true mirror, reflects you as you are without expectations. And mostly we don’t like a Master, because we don’t like our own face, not because the Master is bad. Master gives you what you are. Master reflects you as you are. Same thing. Society judges a Master, “Oh, you should not reflect exactly what he is, or she is, you should give something different.” That is said because society manipulates thoughts. General mind manipulates thoughts, which means pretense; pretension happens, right? Pretension. You have a thought, an original thought, you think again. Can I actually express this? Then your mind will say, “No, it’s inappropriate.” So, what happens? Manipulation happens. Society has masks, face caps, they mask and provide to the society, only what is acceptable, which is manipulation basically. But it is like a small child. You’re able to express to the world, your likes and dislikes, like small children, toddlers – they have no worries about society, they will cry if they need food. They want to sleep, they will sleep, they wouldn’t care what the society thinks. That’s the true innocent existence and a Master becomes like that.

When you have crossed over your mind, your attachment to the world outside, your likes and dislikes are in control, you have no particular interest with the world. But at the same time, you are enjoying the world unconditionally. Then the Master becomes innocent. That is mastery. A sign of mastery is innocence, like Shiva, we say Bolenath – innocent. Because he’s mastered everything. And he is spontaneous, flexible, flowing; that’s mastery. So, they can only reflect what is in front of them. They cannot be different. So, if you ask a Master, “Why are you doing like this? Why are you not trying to change people coming in front of you?” That’s not their problem. You don’t have to change anybody. You don’t have to convert anybody. You don’t have to transform anybody. You are the transformation. And that’s the message you’re giving to the world. You are contentment. You are peace. This message is what you are living and portraying. Looking at it, connecting deeply, integrating into their consciousness, anybody can change to the same state. That option and provision are given, but they are not sitting to convert anybody.

Conversion is a very, very ugly thing; you just change your shirt, inside you are the same. That is conversion. Here it is not that. Transformation.

Transformation is finding yourself. One who has found himself is a Master, and when connecting to that person, you found yourself, then you attained mastery. Who will connect to the Master completely, as he is? 1%. Rest are all coming with expectations, so they get only as per their capacities. That’s why conflict happens. Society accuses a Master because society expects things from the Master. It puts frames, saying that Master should be like this, talk like this, walk like this, behave like this, dress like this. But once you become freedom, you’re a flow, you are flexible. To maintain a frame, you need to have all those – mind, intellect, ego stuff. You have somehow crossed over.

So, how does the Master look at the world? Simple, as freedom; living, walking, talking freedom. Society may not understand that. Society is bound by social, moral, stuff. The society believes this is how it should be, somebody has read in some books etc. Individual uniqueness is never accepted or understood. Associated freedom is also not understood. I don’t mean that freedom means freedom to go and kill somebody. No, no violence. Ahimsa is ‘Paramo Dharma’, greatest Dharma is ahimsa, nonviolence, so that’s not the point here. Freedom is freedom from senses, freedom from the mind, freedom from intellect and ego, freedom from the world, outside world, detachment. This is freedom. A Master lives that, true Master. Not the people who have learned from books and teaching. Learning from books and teachings are different from experience. One drop of experience is better than a thousand books. So, when I say a Master, somebody who has experienced himself, found himself as a Master.

So, this is approximately the answer. Do discuss this with your friends. Contemplate on it and increase your awareness, step by step. Wish you great success in life.

Lots of love. This is Mohanji, for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Q&A Unconditional Love Part 2

Mohanji: Welcome to Mohanji Speaks. These are answers to questions from listeners. Thank you for sending them. Keep sending them. I will try to answer them as best as I can.

Speaker: This is part two of the podcast series of a question from a listener on unconditional love.

Mohanji: Unconditional love is something which you’ve got to feel, where you are able to love everybody, everything, like a mother to the child, mother of any species to its children. How deep is the bonding, how much love, with no expectations? And if you look at the animal kingdom. Their love is far more unconditional than the human kingdom. A mother nurtures a child, just to empower the child to lead an independent life. After a while, the child goes away.

You look at the birds, the mother brings food, nurtures the birds. As soon as its wings become powerful to take the flight, the bird goes away when it doesn’t know the mother or father, it becomes independent. So, the animal kingdom, the birds, the animals, all those beings in nature, they just nurture and empower the children and leave them, then probably there’s no connection even.

But in the human kingdom, we put a lot of expectations, which makes a relationship ugly – ownerships, controls, expectations, suffocation, disappointment. Then anger, hatred, jealousy, all sorts of things. This makes human life miserable. We don’t have to be miserable. We can be free.

Speaker: Here, Mohanji makes a really good point about freedom.

Mohanji: If our expectations are less in the world we are free. Fewer expectations, less disappointment; that is freedom. If you really want to know the freedom, you got to experience freedom from the mind and the senses, not the freedom of the mind and senses. It’s freedom FROM the mind and senses. It means, you’re happy with everything, but you’re not craving for anything. Freedom. So, this is what I would like to talk about; unconditional love. We can discuss much more about unconditional love in various aspects. But I think this is something which you got to experience not theoretically, practically.

Speaker: But to add on to that, and going a bit further, people are interested in how does a master’s love operate?

Mohanji: A Master, Master means what? Mastery. Mastery over what? Mastery over life. Life is a conglomeration of various things, inclinations and desires primarily. And this gives the flavour of existence, everybody’s existence. A tiger’s life, a lion’s life, a human life, take every life; it has its specific flavour of existence; specific method, specific way, inclinations tendencies, desires. They all have distinctions, so each species has it, and in human beings, we see everything, all sorts of desires, all sorts of inclinations. So, a master is somebody who has mastered this pull and push of desires, inclinations and tendencies. He has taken steps, well beyond the mind, well beyond senses, well beyond likes and dislikes, karmic bindings.

So, such a person is pretty tranquil, equanimous. He looks at everything with equanimity. He loves unconditionally. He lives for the world. He has not much personal interest. Of course, he would like to eat food and sleep and do whatever. But that’s not the driving force. The major driving force of his existence is to serve the world unconditionally, without expecting. Mastery is mastery over your mind, intellect and the ego. You’re going beyond these things, their craving is quenched; craving of mind – emotions, craving of intellect – information, craving of ego – ownerships. These three things are in control. Ownership or no ownership – it’s fine, me and mine – no value, likes and dislikes – quiet. Such a person is a master, then what kind of love can he give forth – only as himself. He looks at everybody as himself. He sees only the world as himself.
We all see the world as ourselves, but we put our flavour to the world, we see the world as we are. Master sees the world as it is. That’s the difference.

When you put your flavour, your own likes and dislikes, karmic combination, constitution onto the world; it’s like wearing a glass, which has colour. Wearing a glass which is yellow, would make everything look yellow. If it’s red, everything is red because you’re wearing such a glass. That’s how our life is. A karmic being lives like that. When you have gone beyond the control of your senses and mind, when I say mind it also includes intellect and ego, then there’s no colour. When you cross over there’s no colour. You’re looking at the world as it is. So, you’re only seeing the truth and you will not judge, you will not criticize, you will not manipulate, analyze, you just accept as it is, everything is as it is. Everything is as it is always.

So, you’re pretty free. You are very free. When you experience freedom and that is exactly what you see in the world. You won’t sit down and judge people, you won’t criticize, character assassinate, gossip, you will do nothing, you just accept everything as it is. When you start accepting life as it is, the world as it is, inside as it is, yourself as it is, there are no conflicts. There is total freedom.

So, a Master looks at the world with total freedom, because he is walking freedom. That’s why many times, a conditioned society cannot understand a Master, why he behaves in a certain way, why he has certain opinions because society has kept itself or society functions itself conditionally in two dimensions. There’s a bigger third dimension, which is very difficult to see, the karmic dimension of every individual, which is from the time of birth, till the time of death that runs the show. Time-space situations are provided for experiences to happen. Who controls this? The karmic flow, sitting on linear time manifests it, we experience it, we keep the memory, and we kind of get involved in it, the role plays of life, the involvement in activities of life, which makes us feel that we are the doer. That’s an illusion. Actually, things are happening. And we are participating. Instead, we feel we are doing it, the ownership of action. It is a grand illusion. And if you dive into the depth of it, you will be surprised how much of an illusion we are holding every moment, how much we are struggling to maintain our name, fame and position in the world. We will be surprised to see; we need to contemplate. We need to understand. When we go deeper and deeper and deeper, and we realize, “Oh, this is the world where I’ve been foolishly chasing something external by ignoring what actually I am, what is internal.” That’s the time when you realize, “Oh My God, I wasted a lot of time on paltry pleasures, patterns, and they were running the life, they were running the show.” Patterns were running the show repeatedly, and we were pretty much endorsing it. We will realize all that. We pretty much endorse our patterns. If some pattern is disturbed, we become very disturbed. But that’s the very thing, which chains us, we start loving. That’s the irony of existence. The basic thing that chains us are our patterns, our inclinations tendencies, that’s what we entertain. We fight to keep it. We don’t allow it to be broken. And that’s exactly what should go to connect yourself, you are not your patterns. You’re not your patterns, you’re not your inclinations and tendencies. You’re not your desires, they all come and go. They don’t stay. So, once you understand that, just imagine your freedom. When a master has understood this, that is what is mastery. He has understood life, he has understood the patterns, he has understood the likes and dislikes, inclinations, all those things. When he has become freedom – when you become something, how do you look at the world? As you are, right. So, he has recognized what is real freedom. He sees the world as freedom. Acceptance happens. So, he accepts everybody as they are, not as he wants them to be. That is their job. If a person wants to evolve beyond their mind, a Master is available, as a benchmark. But Master never says “Become me.” What will a Master say? I’m available, like a mirror, you can look at me and find yourself.

Speaker: This concludes part two of the three-part podcast series on unconditional love, which is based on a question from a listener. Do keep your suggestions for topics coming in, send them to podcast@mohanji.org. And we hope you enjoyed this. And the next and final episode of the three-part series will be coming out very soon. Have a good day.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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What we resist, persists

Good day friends, this is Mohanji.

Today we will talk about an internal subject called resistance. Many opportunities are missed because of resistance. First, we talk about internal resistance. We gather a lot of concepts, prejudices, various likes and dislikes, inclinations, tendencies and because of that, we develop certain resistance. Sometimes, this resistance comes out as prejudices, sometimes as fears and phobias, sometimes an exaggerated caution. In various ways, we express resistance.

What happens when we resist something? That thing persists. That thing stays for a longer time. This we have seen in our own life. Whatever we hate, whatever we resist; they stay more. And sometimes, it affects our life adversely. Sometimes, it creates a lot of inconveniences, roadblocks. We see this happening. Some people have resistance to certain things and then they do not even venture forward; they stop. This is our food for thought today.

Everybody, all the people who have done something in the world, who have left a mark in the world, have experienced resistance from society, from the people, from various situations; they have experienced resistance. But their courage, confidence and conviction, helped them move forward. They walked forward. They kept walking, so they turned the resistance into inspiration because they were sure; they knew what they were doing.

Jesus had a lot of resistance in his life. So many people did not approve; and they were influential people, High Priests. And they were very upset that a carpenter is coming and speaking philosophy. People were following him; this annoyed them. And they tried their best to slow him down, or even annihilate him, which they did eventually. But Jesus did not stop. He kept walking. He kept doing his thing. Even when adversities happened; he continued. This is the sign of great men.

We can see that in history, they faced a lot of resistance before their accomplishment. It’s like going and working out in a gymnasium. You have to literally pump the iron to create a toned up body. Similarly, you got to really fight to move the pressurizing society, and walk. Contemporary society may not even understand. What do they do? They talk to others about you. They threaten you and they character assassinate you. All those things they do. But if your conviction is clear, if you know where you’re going, if you can handle resistance; there will be a success around the corner.

So resistance is part of existence, you can’t avoid resistance and live. Think about the resistance inside, prejudices inside, concepts, contamination inside; what have we gathered from the society? Many things we have gathered and many of those things that we have gathered are useless.

But life is about experiences. Every moment experiences. When we are walking, talking, sleeping, eating; everything is giving us experiences. So, why are we afraid? Why are we afraid of people? We have our life, we have our expressions, we have our inclinations, we have our tendencies. If they are harmless to others, we don’t have to be worried about it. If they are harmful to others, then we must check what we are doing. We must stop, think, and correct.

And we have seen people, highly destructive, especially you can see that in politics. So much of mudslinging happening in politics. Sometimes, innovative, good politicians get affected, and they are sometimes removed by some people who do not want progress, who do not want innovation, who do not want to change the country. Their selfishness supersedes the progress of the country because they are more interested in maintaining their selfishness and gathering more for themselves and their families; rather than making a change in the country. So, if selflessness is ruling, if somebody is working with selflessness, often they are attacked, and they are sometimes character assassinated and sometimes they are removed. We have seen that many times in politics.

So, all these things are part of life. But resistance; always remember that what you resist, persists, they stay on for a longer time. Anything new comes to us; we resist. And if they keep on coming, after a while you get used to it, then you accept. But by then precious time is lost.

We should be like a child. Everything is coming, and we accept them. We look at them, is this suitable for us? Take it. If it is not suitable for us, discard it. Everything we need not accept. Any philosophy, any person, any time, space, any material, coming to us; everything is probably not suitable for us. That’s alright because we have our orientation. We have our own character, constitution. So, only accordingly we can accept. So, this is fine. This is okay, but if we keep on resisting people, we keep on resisting ideas, we fail to live. We become like a caged animal; we are kind of caged, our movements are restricted. So, this is very important to understand how deep is your resistance level, or how much you resist, that is the benchmark for how much you will progress.

So, I leave this thought with you. Think about it, how much you resist in life, how much you accept in life. Acceptance makes life smooth. And we accept ourselves, then the people around us, then the society, materials, what has been provided to us; accept them. Be thankful, be grateful, how life will be. I leave this food for thought on your plate.

Lots of love. This is Mohanji for you.

 

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt

Proofread by Rekha Murali

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Silence Speaks – part 1

Satsang with Mohanji in Begrade, Serbia
13th October 2019

Watch the full satsang here.

PART 1

Q: I had a dream about you. You gave me lots of money. Is it ok, what does it mean?

M:  Isn’t it a good idea to have a dream and you get a lots of money? Dream state is a very powerful state; it is the same as waking state. Do you know what the difference between waking state and dream state is? When you are awake, you are sourcing from the world outside, when you are dreaming, you are sourcing from the world inside. But both have one thing in common –  experience. It is called experience and experience has an element of satisfaction. Every experience has an element of satisfaction. When you get something from the world outside, you have satisfaction. But sometimes, it is  temporary.  We have satisfaction from dreams also, because while dreaming it’s real for you. Every desire craves for fulfillment. Every desire’s natural culmination is fulfillment. So, if there was a desire to receive large amounts of wealth, it probably gets translated through dreams and you have satisfaction in that mode. Dream state is a very important state, where you are actually releasing some of your desires, just like waking state.

Q: What is the best way of serving God in a daily life?

M: When you start seeing the God element in yourself; if you just accept yourself totally, you are serving God. There is one thing that you can never avoid in your lifetime and that is you. When you truly and completely start accepting yourself, your own existence, you are accepting God. When you start accepting yourself completely, you become very  powerful. There are no enmities, there are no differences, and you only see your own vibration in the whole world. And that will give you Oneness. Oneness is the nature of God.

Story

One boy asked his father, “You keep talking about God to me, but I don’t understand God. What is God? “

The father explained,  “For you to experience God, you have to experience yourself.“

“Why does God need us to be God?”

Father replied, “Bring me some fire, I will show you.“

He brought a  lamp that had already been lit, with fire.

So the father said, “I told you to bring fire, why you have brought a lamp? It is a flame.“

Then he brought a burning charcoal.

The father  said, “I told you to bring fire, why have you brought a charcoal?”

The son replied, “ I cannot bring a fire without a medium.“

To this the father countered, “God cannot manifest itself without a medium.“

If you understand that, you will respect yourself. You will understand yourself. You will accept yourself. That is the only acceptance you need in life, and everything becomes love, because you love yourself. When you look through the eyes of your mind, what you see is differences. If you look through the eyes of your heart, you will see Oneness. We are all related. We are all relatives. Because, what sits in all of us is one thing. The shells might be different; the forms are different; personalities are different. Because that is the nature of expression of Creation. But inside all of us is one thing. When that thing leaves us, we call it a dead body. So what is alive in us, in waking state, dream state, and deep sleep state is the God particle; the particle called God. That is the value we have. When it leaves, we bury the body, we have no value for that body. As long as it sits, we have value; the moment it leaves, value is gone.

Now, you tell me how do you serve God? Love yourself, and love everybody as yourself. Because all are you, everything is you.

Q: How to defend ourselves from negative people?

M: I think both positive and negative sits inside us. We have both in us. When we nurture more and more love inside, and we start expressing that love in the world outside, we become more immune from the negative things of life, negative energies. There is nothing that is  only positive or only negative.

There is an old saying,   “The devil  uses the key of doubt. “   Doubt is the key that the devil uses to enter the mind. Once it enters, it uses the mind as its vehicle.

Doubt becomes the key for negativity to enter the mind. Once it enters the mind, you don’t know how to overcome it. One doubt will become two, three, and four  and very soon, doubts will rule your mind.  Say, you are progressing very well in positive vibrations and evolving higher into higher realms of awareness, someone   could simply plant a single doubt in your mind saying , “Are you sure?“ and that is it!  Everything  goes down. It’s as if you made extremely good food, spent hours  to make it and somebody put one drop of poison; nobody can eat that.

This is how the society works. They put doubts in your mind, and you are busy handling this doubt. By then you are already slipping down. Doubt is usually from those that you cannot avoid. This is also not only in spirituality; it is also in other relationships. People  put doubts about somebody, and you start behaving differently to the other person. Have you experienced it? How many times have you liked or disliked somebody based on someone’s words? Do you understand  what I am saying? We have to use our experience as our guide. Our own experience is our truth.

So, what is the other side? Faith. Faith in what? Faith in yourself. Trust in your own experience. If you have these two, nobody can touch you. No negativity can enter you. Guaranteed. Faith in yourself, trust in your own experiences, these are your protective sheaths.  Have you seen? Those who have strong faith in themselves, none  can defeat them. When a king or a ruler has full conviction and faith in him, and is leading an army, it is very difficult to destroy them even if the army is the half size of the opponent’s. If you stop trusting your own experience and believe in somebody else’s words, then nobody can protect you.

You must also remember,  you are born powerful. All of you. Who makes you weak? Your own mind. You don’t need any protection from anybody because you are born powerful. You have your own immunity, your own protection around you.  But  your mind is sometimes telling you that you are weak, and if you believe it,  you are weak. Otherwise, you are not weak.

Sometimes people come and tell me, “Mohanji, we cannot do that. It’s not possible. It is impossible.” I listen to it, because I respect their opinion, but I will still do it if I can. Even if I fail, I will try. Because if you did not even try, you do not know whether there is success or failure at the other end. So try, and have faith in yourself. If you fail, it is a good lesson. If you succeed, it is amazing, you proved the point. I would say, keep walking, trust yourself. Have faith in yourself. Trust in your experiences. You will eventually know that you are very  strong.

Did I answer that question about negative beings? Negative beings or negative energies can come to you only if you permit them. Only if the windows are open, the mosquitoes enter. How do you prevent mosquitoes from entering? Fix a net. What is your net? Your own experience. Trust it. Don’t allow opinions to enter through.  Let your experience lead you, guide you.

Q: How to overcome anger and aggression, when they happen within us? Is homosexuality something that can be overcome and is it morally sound to have children while in homosexual relationship?

M: What does anger have  to do with homosexuality? If you did not like your girlfriend and became very angry,  you became a homosexual? (laughter)J

Many of the emotions such as anger and hatred have their root cause  in expectation. If you go deeper to find the root of anger, you will see an expectation that was not fulfilled. That leads to a situation of anger. Usually, an expectation unfulfilled becomes a disappointment. A disappointment then leads to anger and various other forms.

Understand one thing very clearly. All the human beings are driven by inclinations. We can see it even in children. They have certain inclinations, we all have them and they are unique. Inclinations are the driving force. If a person is inclined towards certain things of life, he will chase them. That gives you likes and dislikes. They are the root cause of most of the flavors of life; how we live, what we like, what we dislike, who we like to be with, who we don’t like to be with; all these things are caused or driven by inclinations. You may call  them tendencies.

You can see these inclinations very distinctly in children; very clear inclinations. And usually, that is why they choose a certain path of education;  because they are inclined towards it, unless parents influence them otherwise. If not, they choose their path and go further. I am talking about inclinations because if you look into yourself and find your inclinations, you will easily understand your patterns; it is easy to understand. Destiny is not easy to understand because destiny is as it unfolds.

So if you really look into yourself, behind every habit, behind every tendency, behind every like, behind every dislike, you see inclinations at work. Another example where you can see inclinations at work is how some people like devotion; they like to chant, they like to sing and they like to see or feel God through Bhakthi or devotional path.

Some people need answers, they have lots of questions and they need answers. If they don’t get answers, they don’t accept. That is the knowledge path.  Like that, we have the path of service, path of Supreme Consciousness, and so many different paths. This tells clearly our tendency, our inclination. Thus, if you look into yourself and understand the patterns that you have, the habits that you have, all these  point towards your inclination; and they are the cause for your daily experiences also, that is where I am coming to.

So, what causes anger, what causes hatred, and all such emotions? The primary cause is always an expectation, an unfulfilled expectation. If you understand your tendencies and just watch them; don’t do anything, just keep watching …“This is my tendency, these are my inclinations…“ If you keep watching, after a while you will see that your anger quotient has reduced, expectation reduces, disappointment reduces, anger reduces by itself.

People love gossips right? People make television  series out of it, and also make a lot of money. What is the cause of gossips? Personal insecurities. If you are fully secure you will not talk about another person. It doesn’t matter. If you are insecure, then you will talk about other people to cover your insecurity. When you are secure, and when you are contented, you will permit life to go on, you will allow life to flow. You will not be worried about anything.

This is approximate picture of anger. I hope you understood  where the anger comes from. Now you look within, and see what is causing that anger. When somebody is angry with you, what is the best way to handle it? Will you shout back? Smile. They are expressing their weakness, right? Let it be. Your presence should make them feel better, not worse. Mostly, when your ego is hurt, anger happens. It is a response or a reaction of the ego.

Sexuality and homosexuality

Now about homosexuality, what is the problem with that? All people have sexuality. Everybody. Not only human beings, but  beings of every species. Why is it so? To continue the species. That’s exactly why the aspect of sexuality is connected to every being. But most beings, except  the humans, keep sexuality to their body. What do we do? We keep sexuality in our mind, and we don’t know how to get rid out of it. That is why we have a huge porn industry. Why is it happening? Because we keep sexuality in the mind. If you show a porn to an animal, it wouldn’t want it to see it. The point that I am emphasizing is that everything in life has its place and it has its relevance. When these are migrated  somewhere else, they change their forms. When anything is suppressed, or controlled or denied or disciplined,  it creates different shapes;  whatever is suppressed or denied,  they create or  change into different aspects, different forms. I would say, do not look at sexuality as a disease. It’s part of life, and it’s a part of the instinct which is God given, which is a part of Creation. It is connected to the basic instincts, it is the basic instinct. What is the basic instinct? Instinct for survival. Survival instinct is our basic instinct. One part is food, the other part is sexuality, connected to the survival instinct.  We don’t have control over sexual orientation because  it is connected to various factors. It could even be what we get to see in the world, such as certain phobias, fears or concepts, how we are brought up, or what is denied, so many factors… It is not just one thing;  lots of things are connected to this. If you understand, this is it, we will not have much opinion about it. I don’t give opinion about any of the personal orientations. Because I am nobody to give an opinion. I have no right.

I only say two things: One is accept yourself as you are completely. The second is, do not be violent, by any means, in thoughts, words or actions. That means total acceptance and non-violence. There is peace on earth.

We are 7.5 billion people on earth now. If all people are heterosexual, it will double up in no time. I think nature is keeping some checks. We respect nature. But I never give an opinion. I don’t have an opinion nor do I ever say anybody’s  non-violent expression is bad, because it’s not my job. Nor is it your right to judge another person. You have no right and that is because of one reason, we do not know another person. I do not know another person because I see another person only at a certain time, for a certain space in time, not beyond. Neither do you see another person;  everybody sees each other only for a certain time, then how can we judge another person?

 But we can accept everybody, just as we have to accept ourselves.

I hope that it is answered. I never explained sexuality in such detail.

Not a bad idea.

Q: When will I find a soulmate (a man)?

M: Look around, in the larger world (laughter). But before that, have you found your own soul? If you have found your own soul, and if you have accepted that soul, as the one real aspect of your existence, you will definitely find your soulmate. Instead of looking outside, look inside, and find your only truth, and then, when you look outside you will only see truth. Instead, if you are looking outside, to find a person, you will only see forms, and you don’t know which is your soulmate. You need to understand your soul, to find soulmates.

Q: I would like to know what is the easiest way of clearing the blockages that I have?

M: One word – ACCEPTANCE. All the blockages are connected to resistance. Watch yourself. Try to find out how many things in life you have resisted and are still resisting which are making you unhappy. Usually, unhappiness is connected to resisting something; fighting against something; when we are against something,  our entire  energy is occupied with it and then we do not have time to be happy.  Instead,  start accepting yourself. Say, “OK, this is happening in life, let it come, let it go. Everything comes and goes.” When you are fully occupied with yourself and you are accepting yourself, then there is no room for blockages. Nothing can block you. Nothing within or outside can block you.

Q: How to deal with those heavy people, the emotional vampires?

M: That is a very big question J. What do we do with them? The only way you can sustain  different energies from the society is to increase your energy. There are methods: meditations, kriyas, chanting… You do a purification every day, for some time, at least a couple of hours, for two or three hours, internal purification, alignment. When you are fully aligned, nothing and nobody can take from you; you can give anything, but nobody cannot take away anything from you. So alignment consists of consistent activity, practice.

What practice is good for you? Practice which you can do effortlessly, without effort, one that you like to do, one you love to do, that is good for you.

Which teacher, master, Guru is good for you? The one with whom you can connect effortlessly.

Which religion is good for you? The religion, the road map  through which you can travel effortlessly. You are feeling good.

What is the common factor for all of these? YOU.

Everything is connected to you. When you wake up in the morning, you have a world outside of you. When you sleep at night, your world shuts down. That’s the only world you have: the world when you wake up, and when you sleep. The space in between that waking and sleep is your only world. Before you were born this world existed, after your death this world will exist, but that world does not belong to us. We can use this world only when you wake up, and in between, until the time you sleep. It is  very simple.

We are busy trying to conquer this world, and all that we want there. But what will you do with that? We are busy queuing to buy the new iphone 10. After a while, somebody says, “iphone 11 is coming,“ so this is useless. We are always chasing something new, and we get tired. Sometimes we get tired.  That is exactly the point. The point is that everything is you. With or without the iPhone, you are still you.

So, what is our job? Recognize this truth – You are everything. Where is Mohanji sitting? Only when you are awake, sometimes outside. Is Mohanji relevant? Not as relevant as you are. Not only me, anything outside of you is only complementing your existence. But your existence is owned by you.

If you really understood what I am saying, if you really understood this point, you will never be disappointed in life. You will be happy with what you have, and you will not have unhappiness with what you don’t have. You will be happy with whatever you have right now. It does not mean that you become dull, you become contented, peaceful. This is good, isn’t it?

But to all the people who came to see me I am very happy (smiles) don’t think I am not happy. I am really happy you came to see me. I appreciate it.

But please understand, the whole spiritual journey and the material journey also, all types of journeys, the journey of life is you, is connected to you, you are the beginning, and you are the end. And never feel that somebody else is ruining your life, that somebody else is deciding your life, somebody else is trying to manipulate your life, that is not true. It is only as much as you allow, they can enter. Only as much as you open the door, air or light will enter. It’s not about other people, it’s about us. The story called life is about us. It’s our story. There will be many players, there will be many people participating, like in a drama. They are all complementing your story. They are not creating a new story. You are the main player. You are the main actor, the hero. And many people are playing the other roles, let them play, it’s nice. There will be romance, there will be horror, good, bad, ugly, everything. But that is the beauty of life. That is how life should be. It can’t be monotonous, right?

Thus, as a matter of interaction with the society, I always say this, let everything you do, let it be honest to yourself. Means, there should be honesty and purity in your thoughts, words, actions, so you are fine that way. If there is no honesty, then slowly you will start hating yourself; it’s not about people, it’s about us. It’s our story. We have to keep it pure and honest. Nice, beautiful, fragrant.

Q: There is a secret connection between India and Serbia. Do you agree?

M: I not only agree, I feel. That is why my wife is from Serbia; irreversible connection. Another thing is that like the language; there is a lot of resemblance, I would say, between  Sanskrit  which is the substratum for most of Indian languages and as well as the language here, I believe. I would rather look at the entire Balkans. It  makes more sense  because there is a lot  in common.  There is a lot of frequency connection with the larger Balkans. I don’t look at countries, I look at energies. So, when you look at the energies, there is  a unity in the whole region.  You can feel the same in India, in what we would call  Bharat India, which means the spiritual India. The basic vibration is that of spirituality. There is a deeper link here. We are linked in some ways. There is a lot of connection, visible and invisible. Most importantly, we are all related, soul-wise. We are soulmates in that way.

Don’t worry, I love South Africa also, don’t be sad. J These sisters had a sad face (talking to the audience). America also, Sedona. J I really like Sedona. That is the Kailash of America. I love Sedona.

Q: I used to be afraid  of  authority and kind of ashamed. It’s no longer the case, but why do I react by shivering when I am getting in touch with any authorities and how do I defeat that, how to overcome that?

M: That’s connected to what is stored inside. All our responses, all our inclinations, all our styles and tendencies, they are all connected to what is inside of us. If you deeply look within, and start facing that particular situation or pattern, they will start vanishing. They start dissolving. Don’t think anything is permanent unless you keep it permanent. If you start looking at all your fears, straight into the eyes, they just vanish, they dissolve. Because everything has its duration, and its limitation. When you are really focused on all the fears, nothing will stay.

As a general thumb rule, all that you are experiencing is as per what you have stored. Because these are the impressions, which you have picked up from your experiences, and they got stored in our system. For example, you had tremendous problems with teachers in classes or with a teacher and your experience wasn’t so good, you may keep the tendency or a feeling that anybody of authority has to be feared, that they are probably not good for you, and you started  responding that way. There are many trapped emotions, which are the reason for certain experiences we have in our lifetime.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan