Practical Steps for Challenging Times – part 1

Satsang with Mohanji  
16th August 2020

 

Question: How to dissolve the barriers of physical identity and see all gurus and masters as one?

Mohanji: The usual mind is filled with so many factors, so many different flavours of life; which means that we have been living all these years and we have had various lifetimes. What we have collected over a period of time has made the whole mind murky; our mind is filled with so many things, especially things connected to likes and dislikes, prejudices, concepts and knowledge of various kinds. All these things are mixed in our mind. Our awareness is very much like muddy river water. So, unless that mud settles down in the mind and the water becomes clear, we cannot see the truth.

 

 

 

That is why masters have insisted that we must spend enough time, to give clarity to our own mind through stillness; by practicing stillness – through contemplation, meditation, etc. When we do contemplation, when we do meditation consistently and consciously, it means we do nothing, that is, be still or keep the mind still. Mind by habit keeps moving. It has many prejudices, likes and dislikes, flavours, and emotions like anger, hatred and jealousy are also a part of our existence. We must understand that to have clarity, you need to settle down; be still. Else, you may connect to one master, who you have recognized through your own experience. Do not go with others’ words, it won’t work. People can give you opinions; it will not work. But through your own experience, if you have understood that this person has stabilized his mind, he has settled down properly in himself and he’s just like a mirror, then you connect to that person.

Where you park your mind, where you are connected to and what you are connected to, you start becoming that. That becomes you or you become that. This is very important to understand. You need to connect to masters who are stabilized. (You connect to) One master or one person, but not many masters. Many masters are all illusory. Only in a confused state of mind, you connect to various people; otherwise it’s just one connection, steady connection, stable connection which gives you stability. Those who keep wandering, they do not stabilize anywhere and it is not easy to stabilize too. This is important to understand.

Confusions arise in the mind, because mind is murky, mind is not able to see. Once you are very settled inside, then you are fully into yourself. The right place to settle down is inside you. We are settling down inside us every night. Do you know during deep sleep state, we are fully settled inside? We are settling down inside fully. So, we do have that experience every night, when we are in deep sleep, where we are fully settled inside. When we wake up in the morning, we get scattered, the mind is scattered. Then we bring that mind back into ourselves and sleep. When you do this with awareness in the morning – meaning your mind is completely inside you, in that state, you will fully be stabilized. This is very important. But I would tell you one thing –  you can do it yourself; you have that ability, because you have that example of the night, the sleep time, where you are fully into you.

The mind which is going out normally comes inside and settles down inside and then you are fully into yourself. From that point, if you understand and shift with awareness; in other words, you are aware that you are inside, that is a state of meditation. You can come inside and you can settle down. None of the external factors will make much difference to you. The emotions, the places, the people or the situations will not make any difference in your mind because you are stable and still. This is your birth right. This is what you are essentially.

If you look at a master like Shirdi Sai Baba, he used to be just like a mirror. During much of our life, we are projecting what we are to the world outside. Whatever is inside us, we are projecting it to the world outside and we get the reflection of our projection, or the reciprocal/ reflection of our projection. So, if you are projecting anger into the world, you also get anger from other people. People become angry with you for no reason. If you are projecting hatred to the world, you do get hatred back. If you are projecting love into the world, you get love back. So, when you do selfless service and altruistic activities in the world, you get that back as well. When you dedicate yourself to the world, the world gives itself to you. That is how life works. So, what you are is very important. That is exactly how you will experience life – AS YOU ARE. You can’t experience life as something else. You cannot experience life even as how things are. It’s not easy.

Hence we must understand that we are the cause for all our experiences. There is nothing right or wrong with whatever is happening. Don’t try to categorize them into, “This is okay”, “This is not okay”, “This is right”, “This is wrong”. There’s nothing like it. Everything is good for you. Because you are asking for whatever you are missing. Otherwise you won’t miss it. If you are not missing it, you won’t ask for it. So, whatever you are missing, you are asking and that is a potential for another existence. You may need another body, you may need another time; you may need another situation to experience that thing. Nothing is right or wrong that way.

Everything that you are missing, you are asking for it and you must have it because that calls for or asks for fulfilment. This understanding is very crucial, as to why certain things are happening. First of all, there is no ‘WHY’. Everything IS – AS IT IS.

Because there is a deficiency in you and you are asking for that reality. Sometimes we may feel that we never asked for anger, but do you have anger suppressed inside you? Do you have rejection suppressed inside you? Do you have feelings of injustice inside you? All these things will definitely create that asking and will ask for fulfilment. So, when you have consistent rejection, you will ask for appreciation and acceptance. So, when the world is not accepting you, you will feel unhappy, you feel angry. This is how life works. In a broad spectrum, life is all about – whatever you are missing, you are asking for and chasing. And that’s exactly what gives happiness also. If you get it, you are happy. If you don’t get it, you are sad.

Question: In times of trials and tribulations like we’re in now, what is the best way to calm our restless mind?

Mohanji: Currently we are in a particular time situation where none of our plans are working. Everything has changed. We made plans last year for this year but because of the Corona situation, everything has changed. It is not in our control. The best method to manoeuvre in such a situation is flexibility. Be very flexible, absolutely flexible. That means you flow like a river. Be like water and keep moving and be very flexible.

If you really flexible, then you do not have that feeling of loss and feeling, “Oh! Everything is lost and all my projects are finished”. That kind of pessimism comes from not being able to execute your desires or your plans. It happens to people, right? Sometimes we make great plans and we can’t execute it and we feel that everything is lost. But that’s normal. That’s natural, because we are human beings and as human beings, we tend to have expectations. So, the right method to handle such situation is absolute flexibility.

Keep flowing like water. Just flow like water. Be like water. Be flexible. Tell yourself, “Okay, this is not happening then there will be another thing” and be happy with what you have. Have Gratefulness. Have Gratitude. That’s very important at this time. You should really be grateful for all that you have; even your connection to your father, mother, Guru and God. In that process, all those people are adding value to your life. We must remember this and be grateful because this a good time, because you have time with yourself.

You can remember what built you up? What made you what you are today? First and foremost is mother – you have a relationship with your mother, nine months more than the society. So, the first and foremost is mother. Then father, the protector and the guide, the guiding factor who helped us to be ourselves. Next is the guru who gave you clarity about existence.  One guru – whichever guru you connect to, be consistent with one, otherwise, nobody can give you anything. You can appreciate, accept, respect all masters and you must. But remember your guru, your tutor, your teacher; your guru should be one; because inconsistent connection means no receptivity. You can’t receive. So, be very constant with that connection. You can you take your time to be connected to the guru. But you should not get fascinated. It should not be out of hallucinations or imagination or expectations. It should be with reality. You should know that this man whom you are connected to is stabilized in himself. If you are not sure, do not connect. If you connect to any master with expectations you will have disappointment because the master and the person are different.

The aspect of mastery is different from the man or the woman. Let me tell you a real story. One man took a lot of pain and struggle and finally he reached his guru. When he came close to his guru and started living with him, he understood that the guru also eats food, drinks water, sleeps, goes to toilet etc. Then this guy got disillusioned. He had all the wrong thoughts in his mind. He said, “Oh, no! This Guru is an ordinary man just like me. I do the same”. So, these kinds of illusions can come in. Doubts can come in when you know that this person in the body is just another human being. So, you must segregate the human aspect and the spiritual aspect and just go with the teachings.

In Sai Baba’s case, Baba used to smoke chillum and somebody thinks, “Oh, Sai Baba is smoking so I also can smoke”. That means you will only become a smoker you will not become Sai Baba. So, we must understand that what Sai Baba said, we must follow– Shraddha (Faith) and Saburi (Patience). Saburi is extremely important. Very clearly, COVID is teaching us Saburi now. It’s a very important lesson that the COVID has given us – Saburi.

So, to come to the point, we must respect all beings. We should take time and respect. When it comes to God, you have to respect the god inside you. The God Particle inside you is the most stable particle inside you – which is your soul.

With zero interests in your likes and dislikes, your life, your death- it has no interests. It is just accompanying you as totally neutral. Just like electricity comes and gives light in your house. It helps washing machine, it helps refrigerator to function. Electricity has no needs, it has no requirement. The electricity board needs money, but the electricity does not need money. Those who produce electricity may need money, but the electricity itself does not need anything. But electricity is essential for the lights to happen, the fan, the air conditioner, the refrigerator, the washing machine. Electricity is always neutral. If it goes into washing machine  it operates in that way. If  it goes into air conditioner, it operates in that way. If it comes into a light bulb, it operates in a different way. Just like that, the soul is the same. It operates through different machines. In the body of an elephant it operates like an elephant. In the body of a human being, it operates as a human being. So as simple as that. All are same. Once we connect to that aspect inside you, you have  found God. That is how you find God. We  call it  the self -realization. Realization of something which is already sitting in you and operating you. It is giving multiple dimensions, such as waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. Each dimension we have  different experiences. This is what we are. This is how we are. This is something which we have  to always  remember.

We are universal. We are the soul, not the body. Body has duration, it has some time on earth, birth till death. And also we are changing with age. What we liked  with the age of 20, we may not like it at the age of 40. Like that, every time the flavour changes, everything changes. This we should always remember. During covid time we can connect to ourselves , be ourselves completely. Its worth it. I hope I clarified this point.

Q: Why we are facing  so many disasters and natural calamities? Including suicides this year.

Mohanji: Why we are facing so many calamities is becasue of our insensitive lifestyle. Earth has its rhythm,  its balance. All the beings of the earth are  supposed to live within the boundaries and balance of earth. But human beings are different. All being are controlled or run by instinct. What is instinct? The basic instinct is survival -to be alive, to stay alive. That is a basic instinct. If you look at all the beings in the nature, they are all struggling to stay alive. They are always looking forward to being alive. Human beings also have the same thing. But then because we are highly intelligent,we have intelligence separated from the instinct. We created  lot of things on earth for our comfort, for our protection, but basically survival instinct; extended survival instinct. That is the reason.

We created a lot of of things on earth. But we have become slaves to that. Now, even if we don’t get food, we are ok, but when you wake up in the morning , if the internet is not working, some people might commit suicide. They can’t think of a world without internet, without communication. Imagine,  something hapens and the internet goes away. What will happen to the world? But, that’s the reality!

We have changed our taste for gadgets and various things. We even lost eye contact, as a species; we don’t even see eye to eye; we don’t have eye contact. We suppress so many desires. And what happens? We have perversions; we have aberrations in life. This is because of suppression. Many explosive behaviours; anger, hatred, jelaousy; these are all connected to suppression. But we never had that problem earlier. Animals do not have a problem with suppression. They are spontaeous. They express and they finish; they forget, so that they are at the moment all the time. We also should be in the moment all the time.

So what has happened? We, as one species, behaved like viruses and destroyed most of the species on earth. Including flora and fauna. That means ecology. So we made a disaster on earth. We created disaster on earth, so earth is giving us back. If our previous generations had thought,“ We got a world with us, we should give a better world to the next generation“,  things would be different. But they never thought like that. Even we are not thinking like that. We are talking about religion, caste, country, culture, color, and we are dividing  people more and more, based on religion, culture, language..all those things. What is happening in the bargain? We are getting isolated; we all became like islands, separated from each other.

We don’t love, we only expect. We do not give, but we expect. We do not share, we expect more from others. So we have become greedy, selfish and a little insensitive. That is why all these disasters are coming forth.

Imagine a Unified Consciousness, where everybody, we are all one family.

Our slogan in Mohanji Universe is,“ One World, One Family – one family, beyond species“. We are all here to experience earth. We are not here to accumulate anything.

See, you came empty handed, when you were born. Nothing was in your hands. You will go empty handed when you die. You carry nothing, not even a pebble. So what is life? Experiences of each moment and we must experience. That is why we are born. We have to experience. Every flavour of life we must experience. That, we deny. We say, “Oh, this is not ok, that is not ok“. Mind divided things and we separated them. Then what happens?  All those desires are suppressed. Then we ask for more births. We need another birth to fulfill them. Like that, we have become unaware. If you live with awareness, you understand that we must coexist with all the beings of the world; every being that has taken a body on earth must have it’s set of experiences  and we cannot deny it.

If we consider ourselves as more refined than other species, we must behave so.

We must be considerate.

We cannot conquire, capture and kill.

We cannot do that. We should support all forms of life.

We should coexist.

There should be forests; there should be every aspect of the Existence of nature shoudl exist as is. Then,  we will have balance. The we can have better health, better life. Otherwise, all these disasters are signs of human insensitivity over time, over a period of time.

How much of pollution we have made in the world? How much destruction have we created in the world? World wars, religious wars, based on religion, killing based on religion, the pollution in the air, in the water, on earth..Look at everything! No being is safe on earth. This is a human world. In the human world, no other being is safe on earth. I have seen a picture of one man. He has killed 5,000 elephants in Africa, a hunter- he hunted 5000 elephants!  Just imagine the number of beings being he killed?! We are paying for all this. Humankind is paying for all these kinds of aberrations and perversions.

We have no right to kill any being. We have no right.

Instead, if we call ourselves refined, we have the responsibility to provide for other beings. We should make sure they are  all fine.

Sarve bhavantu sukhinaha – Let all the beings be peaceful!

That  is exactly how it should be. Everybody should be peaceful and happy. Everybody should be blissful. This is our path. This is how it should be.

Q: How can I know my purpose in life?  

Mohanji: Your purpose in life is what you are experiencing every moment. Because your birth is connected to the bundle of desires you have carried. From birth till death you have a duration of time. Within this time, you are supposed to experience whatever you came to experience. It doesn’t matter. As I said earlier, no right or wrong here. Whatever you are supposed to experience, you will experience within this time. That is the real purpose of each birth. Each birth is the fulfillment of the pending desires. This is exactly what you are born for.

Now, what is the possibility of a higher purpose? A human existence has this great possibility. From total unawareness to Supreme Consciousness. You can connect to Shiva. Be Shiva, which means Supreme Consciousness, stillness. You have that possibility. Shiva or Vishnu, its all same – Supreme Consciousness. You have that capacity in one lifetime. If your focus is on something larger, higher, you will reach there. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a women, it doesn’t matter which caste, country, culture, color- you can reach there. Everybody are same in the eyes of the Supreme .

So we have all these great potentials. You need to sit down and decide. What do you really want to achieve with  this life? And work towards it. Then nature will configure itself for that purpose. But most people do not have that kind of a purpose. What they do is, they just want to make some money, or get some positions, or some possessions, and then they think,“Now, I will be happy“.  And  eventually, what happens ?No happiness. Because, they want more. When you get 100 you want 1000. When you get 1000 you want 10, 000. When you get 10,000 you need 100,000. Like that, desires multiply. There is no point in saying that if I get this, I will be happy. If you can’t be happy right now, you can’t be happy ever. It is not connected to something outside. It is not connected to your relationships; it is not connected to your possessions; it is not connected to your position. It is connected to YOU. You can be satisfied as much as you are connected to yourself. You can have contentment.

If you deeply appreciate yourself, if you really really love yourself, if you really respect yourself, Life will change its flavour.

Instead, we are busy loving somebody outside. We are busy looking for something outside. We are looking for situations, places, and time outside. In the bargain, we are not happy.

Instead, spend some time with yourself. What a beautiful creation YOU are! Have you ever thought about it? Feel yourself. Feel, see and  experience how beautiful you are! How handsome you are! And what a kind of miracle you are!

All the organs inside are functioning like a great orchestra and giving you what is called life. Isn’t it great? We must think like that. We must remember that.

We are wonderful beings, but we forget it. Instead of that, we are looking  outside, we see and think that there is something outside that we must appreciate. It’s not true.

First you appreciate inside. You. This whole package called you.

Appreciate it! How beautiful! What a wonderful creation! Then you start connecting to yourself, appreciating yourself. Accept yourself with all your weaknesses. Everybody has  weaknesses. Nobody is only strength in the world. Don’t worry about your weaknesses. Instead, invest in your strenghts. Let the weaknesses stay with you. It’s ok. No problem. Why should we be perfect? We don’t have to be perfect. Let us have those weaknesses. We are born with this, or they have come to us. But we focus on our strengths. So what happens? There is no energy wastage. We don’t waste energy fighting weaknesses. Instead, when you strenghten your strenghts, when you invest in your strengths, when your strengths become stronger, the weaknesses  become eclipsed. They become ignorable. You can ingnore them. That is the right way. Don’t waste your energy fighting something, resisting something. Instead, use your energy promoting something good in you; the best in you. That will make you very powerful.

And then you see a big difference in the world around you because people will start liking your aura, liking your presence, and say,“Hey, I love you! I love to be with you“ and you will know that it is worth it. The secret is accepting yourself, connecting to yourself, respecting yourself. If you don’t respect yourself, nobody will respect you. The secret why society cannot respect a person is because the person does not have self-repect. Why  the scoiety cannot accept a person is becaue the person does not have self acceptance, self love. It is not selfishness, it is admiring and appreciating your existence. Selfishness is very bad. Our relevance in the world will depend on these two boundaries, selfishness and selflessness. The extent to which you are towards selflessness, that is how much you are appreciated by the world. Glory is connected to this aspect. The more selfless you are, the more glory you will get. This has to be clearly understood. That way you can transform the world by your own existence. You have that power! You have that in you! And this must be very clearly understood. Don’t think that somebody has to come and give it to you. Nobody has to give anything. You already have it. And you are immensely powerful. Why don’t you feel it? Because mind doesn’t allow you to feel. Mind gives you boundaries; “Hey, you are only this much! You are not great.“ And then you compare with other people – „ Hey look! This person is more beautiful than me, is smarter than me; is more talented than me.“ But remember one thing – he cannot be you or she cannot be you! Neither can you be that person! That person is already taken. But you are available to you. You are not taken. You have yourself. And that is your strength; your own strength is being you.  ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IN THIS LIFE IS BE YOU 100%! Don’t try to be somebody else. And respect yourself, respect the world, respect the society.

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha Ananth and Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Mohanji Speaking for the “Global Minute of Silence”

 

Hello everyone,

This is Mohanji. We are together here to celebrate a very important and basic aspect of our existence: Silence.

Silence is our very nature. Silence is what integrates us, unites us with ourselves. As we all know, we are experiencing this earth and for that we are using our faculties such as body, mind, intellect, ego and all the senses associated with it. We experience this world through our senses. The senses are sensors – they search and find various aspects of the world. To process them and to experience them, we have the mind which processes emotions, the intellect which processes information, and the ego which processes materials connected to personality i.e. our positions and possessions and all such things.

So all the time when we are awake, we are in the pursuit of experiencing various aspects of life and all these aspects have their roots in Silence. Absolute Silence is  like a huge unfathomable powerful ocean. It is huge and all the noises are like waves. They come, but they don’t exist – they go back to the ocean. Every noise has come out of Silence and all those noises go back into Silence.

Once we know that Silence is the base of our very existence, we start connecting to the very core of our being, which is Silence. Then there is no pressure for thinking – thoughts are very noisy. There is no pressure for expressions – for Silence is far more powerful than any expression. All expressions create various feelings and emotions in the world around us. Likewise we get affected by so many things of life. Each aspect of us is influencing so many things around us. If we are rooted in deep Silence, our expressions will be only on essential basis.

Here, we are trying to bring together the whole world with the remembrance that our very existence is always linked to Eternal Silence. The whole system, all the  galaxies, everything operates in beautiful Silence and Silence makes us One. It integrates us, it unites us. And all the expressions that we experience, or have in our course of life, all have some kind of impermanence. They are all temporary and they have a limited existence. With the incidents that happen, their experience stays; sometimes they become memory and sometimes we don’t remember them. But when we get back to Silence out of which all this has come, we feel a deep permanence there – because the ocean is permanent, and the waves are temporary.

Now we are trying to bring everybody together, all of us are together for this one beautiful cause – the cause of being silent.

What is the advantage of being silent? You can see that the world is now divided by minds. Minds only connect to material things and boundaries or frames. We look at every individual through frames: we classify, we assess, we judge, we criticize. We are in a hurry to compartmentalize people, to put people in boundaries. And that creates a lot of differences and divisions. We have seen that happening in the name of religions, in the name of language, culture or orientations. We have divided the world. With all these divisions, all that we have experienced across time is the pressure of having no complete experience. Because we are all pressured as stories in this  beautiful land, we have to be restricted to certain boundaries. But in fact, our whole system, or constitution is not made to be restricted by boundaries – we are born free.

We are free – but our freedom should not disturb the world outside. Our religion or our belief systems should not disturb anybody else. We believe in being one. All beings are one, not just human beings. All living beings on earth have their expressions. Most of the living beings on earth live as per the laws of Nature.  As human beings, we have used intelligence and imagination to create our own laws, our own patterns, our own existence and structures. We do not really depend on Nature but instead we depend on our intelligence. It’s our responsibility as well, as we use our intelligence and our imagination to experience this earth. More than having rights, we have responsibility. It is time we recognize our responsibility and that responsibility should be rooted in extreme stillness – that means consistency, silence. That means awareness, wisdom.

The highest wisdom is the wisdom of the unification, unity – that’s what we are. Such a variety of beings, yet the one Soul operating through various beings. One spark, one vibration, with the same energy expressing itself through numerous beings. And that’s the variety and beauty of our existence. For that to be fully experienced, we should not only use our senses, we should also use our silence – that means, the inner eyes that see through these physical eyes,  the ears that listen through the physical ears.

Everything that we collect from this earth is processed through the mind. Emotions are the food of the mind. Tons of information are processed in this internet age. And not all information is real information – most of it is opinions. Our opinions are related to what we are at that time, not exactly what we eternally are. Opinions that we experience are usually not permanent  opinions – they all transform, they change. Whatever changes, is not fully real – it is not real reality, not the Eternal Reality.

Of the tons of information, what we process becomes knowledge. All information does not become knowledge, like all the food that we consume does not get put into the stream of body. So all the information that we collect, we don’t process. Most is discarded – some we don’t even get. Some is handled in an absentminded state, so it doesn’t belong to us. What is processed becomes our knowledge and that knowledge which we actually experience, becomes our wisdom. Wisdom is connected to experience – and only that experience when your faculties are fully present. That means if the mind is not present with your eyes, you don’t see. If the mind is not present with your ears, you don’t hear. This is exactly how we operate and this much limited is how we are. If we really understand how limited we are, we will sit back and witness this whole show. As you wake up in the morning, you get a world out there. When you sleep, the world is still there but the world doesn’t belong to you, or you do not have that world for experience. In the waking state, we experience the world within our capacity, within our constitution, within our moods, with so many factors. When we are very very well and healthy, we see the whole world as beautiful. When we are not so healthy, when we are a bit sick, then we feel that the world is not good enough. So everything has this relative existence. All our experiences are relative, not permanent.

So, what is the cause of Silence or the relevance of silence in us? That is where it  all has started from. In the deep sleep state, when you do not have your mind at your disposal, when you have no intellect, no ego, you are not aware of the body – you are totally in a death-like state, when you are totally dissolved. That’s a time when only Silence exists. Our faculties are all immersed in silence and absolute stillness. In that silence and stillness, all the aspects which we considered as this incarnation (which is of course, having a duration and also changing as we evolve in time through childhood, youth and adulthood), everything dissolves. In the deep sleep state, we could be a small child or we could be an old person – it doesn’t matter since everything is dissolved. All these things are again reintegrated when we are awake. When we wake up, we bring everything forth and start looking at the world, and experience various aspects of earth like food, energies of various types, places, possessions, positions. Everything has relevance only when we are awake. Nothing has relevance when we are dead or in deep sleep – both are same. Actually in death state, nothing matters because we go empty-handed. We came empty-handed, we will leave empty-handed. But in deep sleep state also, at that point in time we have nothing – everything is left here. When we wake up, we come back or we repossess, reclaim all these things.

So in order to reconnect with ourselves, we definitely need that state of silence everyday in 24 hours, unconsciously mostly. But now, we are trying to consciously connect ourselves into deep silence.That silence unites us not only internally, it also unites us externally between all the hearts. When all the hearts in this world are united on one platform of silence, there are no divisions, there are no separations. There is only Love, because we see ourselves in everything. That is the beauty of it. We are everything. We do not feel it because we are too occupied or preoccupied with this incarnation of ours and its attributes.

But once you demolish all that and you look around, you see that every being is expressing or experiencing in its own capacity, within its boundaries, within its time and duration, space and aspirations. Human beings are operating based on the desires, pending desires which brought us here which seek fulfillment. There can be numerous requirements – a very large appetite of a million or billion desires or reasons for fulfillment. Then we all have our inclinations. We are inclination-driven, we are driven by inclinations. We are expressing our set of inclinations, this we see absolutely open in small children.  As we grow older, we tend to hide them but then we do have inclinations. And likes and dislikes are connected to inclinations.

So on one one side, the set of desires, an ocean of desires, to navigate through which we have our inclinations which also is our boundary, our capacity. Then we also have time and space to fulfill that. This is life. This is all about life – and all that we are doing. So every being here whether it is human being or beings of any species – they all have the same need, same relevance, same requirement. Most of the other species live on instincts. The basic instinct is survival instinct, but human beings have chosen or we have got this grace, or gift of awareness. We can use our intelligence and we can use our imagination with which we have created this whole world.

So it’s time we go back to basics and integrate into ourselves based on silence. And that silence will unite us and through this silence, we bring peace. Silence and peace are synonymous. We bring peace and this peace will wipe away all differences, all the things which minds have created. When I say things, I mean the divisions – the divisions that the mind has created, the boundaries that we have created of class, culture, country, color, community. All these things will dissolve and we only see unity, only see Love, when we really, really see the aspect of Love. Love is just like a substratum; Love is the ocean. Every other emotion comes and goes. No anger stays forever, no hatred stays forever, no jealousy stays forever, they all come and go. Love stays.

So when all the noises are taken away, there is Silence. Likewise, all the emotions are taken away – there is Love. We will start seeing the truth all the time. Imagine, we live in that truth. It will be a beautiful life. We will only be loving the whole world, all the beings, every being. Our expressions will be Love, we will not be selfish. We will wake up in the morning, and feel only grateful that we are alive, and will only think one thing: “What else can I do for this world? What else can I give? What else can I share?” That makes you rich.

I invite you to this richness, and I congratulate the team who has put this together, this effort together. I am endorsing this and supporting this, with full gratitude to  Existence for giving me this opportunity, and to all the people who invited me to talk to all of you.

I’m submitting this in the hands of eternity, this whole mission in the hands of eternity and I wish all of you immense peace, happiness, contentment and bliss.

Thank you!

I love you.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Geeta Iyer

 

Know Yourself – part 2

Satsang with Mohanji-Montenegro, Luštica Bay, 17.11.2019

PART 2

Q11: Is my spiritual path real, and should I dedicate myself to the gift that I have?

M: What is spiritual path? Every moment, what happens is spirituality, not doing something apart from that. We have a body and we all feel the body. Am I right? We have a body, we agree? We have a mind, do we? We agree or not, it’s there. How do you know you have a mind? If you have emotions, you have a mind. Then we also have intellect, the analytical part. How do we know? When we start analysing, are we judging, that is also coming from the intellect. If you do that, you do have it. We also have an ego. That is definite, right? How do you know you have an ego? If somebody abuses you, do you feel hurt? Or do you feel nice? If somebody tells you, you look like a donkey, do you feel good? If you feel good, you have no ego. If you don’t feel anything then you again have no ego. If you feel angry, then it is ego working. See, we call people fools, right? We call them, you are an idiot, you are a fool.” Whom do we call like that? (Audience – to ourselves). No, to somebody who is not an idiot or a fool. When a person is actually an idiot we will not even call like that, because there is nothing to call.

So we have a body, we have the mind, we have intellect, we have an ego. When do you feel all these? When you are awake. When you sleep, you don’t know its there. In a state of dreaming, you don’t know whether you have a body, mind, intellect, or ego, you don’t know. But when you wake up, you feel all these. You see everything happening. And in our 24 hours, we have a deep sleep state, where we don’t know whether we are a man or a woman, we are like the dead. Have you ever thought, who is running this show? There is some energy in us, which is managing all these. For 24 hours it is all happening: various experiences, various emotions, various feelings, so many things are happening in every 24 hours. And, somebody is running the show. Are you with me on this?

There is an energy which is activating all these: physical, emotional, intellectual, egotistical; something is activating all of these. That is how we are gaining experiences. What do you gain from this world? Experiences. It can be good experiences or bad experiences, forget about good or bad. What is it actually? Experience. These faculties are giving you experiences because of an energy which is operating through it. Otherwise, we have no experiences. Do you agree that we have something like that? We may not know the energy, right? But there is something which is waking us up, which is taking us to our dreams, which is making us deep sleep, experience all these. So, there is something going on. That awareness is spirituality. Very simple. Awareness of the spirit body, which is the energy body within us, within ourselves, which is activating our experiences, that awareness is spirituality. So, we are all spiritual.

Nobody has to give you spirituality. We have that inside of us already. We do have it. Nobody is giving you from outside. You are only becoming aware of your energy which is already inside in you, and that awareness is spirituality. The more and more you go inside and see this, the more spiritual you become.

How do you know when you deeply connect to that energy? How can you connect to the energy part of you? By being aware. Very simple. How do you know whether you are actually connecting? When you connect deeper and deeper into your own energy, what experience you will have? Less thoughts. More feelings, you will have more feelings of yourself. When you have less thoughts, there is more peacefulness. When your mind is more peaceful, you have a high level of clarity. When you look at something, you will see through that thing. Because you are fully focused.

Do you know why our experiences are sometimes not very fulfilling? We have experiences but we don’t feel contented. Do you know why? Because the mind is scattered. The mind is not fully there. Otherwise, when you are doing a job or doing something if your mind is fully focused on that, your experience will be very good. Good in the sense that whether it is positive or negative, you will have a complete experience. Sometimes it’s sorrow, sometimes it is happiness. But, when you are fully in that, that is fulfillment. That is completion.

True spirituality is your marriage to yourself. It’s a deep relationship with yourself. You don’t need any help for that.

When I used to practice, in the early 2000s, I used to wake up every day at 2.30 am, because I used to work for a company. I had a job to do from 8:30 to almost six o’clock. During that time I worked for money, but the night was mine.  But because of the profession, sometimes travells, sometimes parties, all those things were there. But, every day, I get up early morning at 2:30; then take a bath. I had very short hair,so it was easy to take a bath; now it is not easy. Then I sit in a room, which I created for myself, just one lamp, nothing else, connecting to that and I used to connect to my own energy. Just like I said , I just tried to be inside, just to feel. My point of connection was my spine. Because we are always focused on the front: eyes, nose, everything is focused on the front. We hardly remember the spine unless we have a back pain. My whole meditation was: I connected to my spine, I feel the spine, and I sit like that for five hours, until 8 am. Everyday. After a while, the whole thing started changing. Awareness shifted. I was the head of the country. I sit in the office, I see myself doing my work. No anxiety, no fear, no stress, no ownership of action. And serious situations I faced. But I overcome all that. This is the experience you will get when you marry yourself. That marriage will last forever.

You wouldn’t even believe how powerful we become when our body, mind, intellect, and ego are all together. Because they are scattered, we don’t know. The mind is scattered on a lot of things, things of the past, many anxieties about the future. The mind is all over. Past and future, less in present. Intellect is busy analysing things. Am I progressing, is this ok, all those things. Ego – looking at the people if they are respecting me, accepting me, this is the problem. Everybody is busy with their world. We are all everywhere. When you look, you don’t see. Because your mind is not there. Eyes are looking, but the mind is not there, so we don’t see. When you bring everything together, when you look, mind, body, intellect, ego, and spirit, everything is looking. Imagine that power. It’s intense and powerful. Every experience becomes powerful. Then you don’t want a repetition. You will experience that 100%. Every point in time. Whether it is happiness or sorrow, 100%. Imagine a life like that. Every moment we are being 100%. Because body, mind, intellect, ego, and spirit – everything is together. Nothing is scattered. The past is finished. Future – whether it will happen, we will see. Right now, what we have, we do 100%.

If we live like that, every moment is powerful. Living in the moment. It happens by itself. We are not planning like that. We are not thinking like that. It happens.

Did you understand? We are all spiritual. We cannot be otherwise. The problem is that we compare, or we are thinking that religion is spirituality, that is not true. Spirituality is your connection with yourself. Religion is a road map to attain or to realise God. Religions are road maps to realise God. But spirituality is your relationship with yourself. These are two different things. If we continue between these two, we will not understand the story.

Q12: How to control emotions and our attitude?

M: How to control emotions – I would say do not try to control emotions. Be aware of them. Do you like somebody controlling you? Nobody likes it. What happens when somebody tries to control you? How do you feel? Suffocated, angry. The same things happen when you try to control your emotions. It becomes suffocated. When you suppress something, any emotion for that matter, when you push it down, its like a spring. When you take your hands off, what happens? It bounces back. It’s important that we accept those emotions as they are part of us. Anger, hatred, jealousy, all those things. If it is inside of us, we don’t know what is the reason, it doesn’t matter, whatever is the reason. If you have them, first and foremost, you need to accept them, ok they are all there. They are all my companions, partners in life. First is you accepted them, they are all sitting there. They are sitting with me, walking with me, sleeping with me, no problem.

Second level – why should I feel them? I didn’t ask them to come with me, but they are with me. After acceptance, you are not supporting them. So, what happens, when you become angry? You watch yourself becoming angry. You are becoming angry and enjoy that feeling. When you start accepting your anger as it is, it will come and it will vanish. But, when you have ownership of anger, when you actually become angry, you will know that you will become weaker. You become very weak. When you accept it, ok, this man is getting angry or this woman is getting angry or Mohanji is getting angry, I am seeing myself getting angry. But I know that I am not the anger. How would it feel? It will be very weak. Just like a mother telling a child, ”If you don’t eat medicine, I’ll punish you.” Mother is not angry with the child, but the mother is concerned. The root of that anger is love. When the foundation of your anger is love, it has purity. If it is anger out of disappointment, there is an expectation. Disappointment – anger. That is not pure, because there is an expectation. But if the expectation is not there, and it is love, in that case, that anger itself has purity. It is not sustained anger. It comes for that purpose, for intensity, and it goes. Just like a wave coming from the sea. It comes out, it goes back. It always comes like that.

The answer to all your questions is very simple – it’s YOU. If you have a lot of emotions, ask yourself, ”Have I accepted myself?” Don’t try to heal your emotions, let them come and go, no problem. But – acceptance, you have no choice. If you accept yourself 100% today as you are, freedom starts now, then you will start living a life. Otherwise, you are existing, with all the baggage. But if you accept yourself totally, with all your weaknesses and all your strengths right now, you will start experiencing freedom. You will start living, not existing.

What is the clear sign of accepting yourself? You will not compare yourself with anybody. There is nothing to compare. You will accept yourself as a complete creation. If you did not accept you will think,that guy is better than me, or I am not good enough. Complexes and all those things are because of non-acceptance.

Please understand, that you are incomparable. You can’t be compared with another person. All of us are unique. We have our own uniqueness. That is our signature.That is not comparable. If you really, really accept yourself, you don’t worry about any of the emotions coming and going, because they will all come and go, but the level of acceptance will be above everything. How do you manage your attitude? Some people have tremendous attitude. And that isolates them completely from the society. How do you manage that? Any idea, suggestion? Gratitude. Have gratitude for everything. Gratitude for being alive, gratitude for breathing, for digestion, shelter, cloths, be grateful without reason. Your ego and attitude will obey that behaviour. Gratitude is a very powerful thing, very, very powerful. It’s the opposite of ego and pride. Gratitude is very good medicine that you can eat every day. I believe that your spiritual progress will be very fast if you base it on gratitude.

When you go deeper and deeper into silence, you will start experiencing realities that you don’t normally experience. Sometimes you become very egoistic, ”I am better than the other people. I can see all these things. I have all these powers.” That is dangerous. That is the time when you start falling.

When I was going through these experiences, before something happened, I knew it will happen, and it happened. I decided, ok this is now not a good game. Because I may become very egoistic. And I will start falling. So what I was practicing was, one, gratitude and the second was insignificance, which means I am not important, not special, I am ordinary. It maintained my practices. It didn’t affect my practices. Third thing, I didn’t discuss my practice with other people nor I told what I was experiencing. So that nobody could inflate my ego or pull it down. I never spoke about it. I never discussed. When did I start speaking? Six or seven years later, after I settled down in my practices. Until then, I didn’t speak. I was not available to the world. So, everybody needs some time. We all need time to settle down. All of these things will happen. Because awareness changes, it shifts.  You will have so many different experiences, and if you become too eager to tell people, everybody will shut it down.

Q13: Do you believe that you have crossed the border of suffering? Do you think you are one with God?

M: I think it depends on how you look at me. I was saying in a television interview, that I went through a series of tragedies at one time in life. In 2000 I lost my daughter, then I lost all the money I had which I invested in a property and that man ran with the money. All my materials got stolen. Whatever I had at one time, I didn’t have in another time. I was pretty much naked and totally alone in the world at a certain point in time. After having everything and reaching a certain level in my work, I was the head of the country. At that time, I had lots of friends. My position was good, money, social status, everything was good. Then everything went away. So at that time, when I used to call some friends, they wouldn’t pick up the call. So-called friends, people who were friends with me, they wouldn’t take my call,  thinking I would need money or support from them. Then I stopped calling. But that was good. That is what I was saying in the TV interview, I didn’t complain. I understood one thing. At the end of the day, your only true friend is yourself. Other people come to you, when they need something. Mostly, not everybody. There are some people who really stand by you even in your worst times. There are people like that. And I try to be that person for everybody now. I stand by people when they are in their worst situation. Because I learned it that way. I experienced it. Then later on, I got a job and I became a CEO of the company, I got all these people back. They all came back. This is very interesting this was a case study for me. I understood life. In every situation, there is something to learn.

If you stop resisting and complaining, you can learn so many things from life. These are real lessons. I really believe it was, if you really want to become a great ornament, you have to go through fire. Gold is beaten, and put in fire, melted before it’s made into an ornament. Everybody has their parts. I decided one thing: I will never leave the hand of somebody when they are in a problem. If they are successful and they don’t need me, this is ok, I’ll leave them, I allow it. I don’t leave anybody. But in the weakest time, when you leave somebody, your integrity is a big question mark. I remain solid and stable, that is probably why a lot of people are coming to see me, wherever I go. I believe they see stability, they see consistency. I feel there are no fools in this world. There are no idiots. People have awareness, they have eyes to see. They see truth. Whatever you try to pretend, they will see the truth. I don’t pretend, I just present myself, and people connect naturally. This is what I like. I do not tell them I am close to God more than they are closed to God. Nor do I tell them I am a realised Master, I just say I am one of you. I am your friend, you can talk to me if you like to talk to me. I am always with you. This is my offering to this world. That is all I can do. I remain stable and that is the only thing I can do. There is a lot of hardship before you reach a certain level. Which level, we don’t know. What will happen tomorrow we don’t know. Today is our reality, we do the best today. That is all we can do.

How do you know the operating level of another? By their range of operation. For example, you have a night light, that can probably illuminate this room. But if you have a flat light, you can see something a mile away. A person becomes a power when he is fully aligned. His range of operation will spread all over, which nobody can deny. So, there is no need to ask somebody where they stand, look at the person and their level of operation, many people are operating from the mind level. Many people are operating from an intellect level, and so many people are operating from the ego level. When you cross over all these levels, then you become everybody and everywhere. That’s a sign you can depend on. Because I can say whatever I like, how do you know I am not lying? This is how you can understand somebody’s operating level so you are not fooled.

Q14: Did you cross the line of all forms?

M: Of course.

Q15: How to become peaceful within?
M: I answered that question. Self-acceptance. Accept yourself. Totally, with all your weakness and all your strengths.

Q16: How do I channel the creative energy from the second chakra? What to do when there is excess of this energy?  How to transform it into spiritual energy?

M: You don’t need to transform any energy into another energy. When you engage yourself into activities of positive nature, when you deliver more to the world and to the earth etc. then that energy automatically gets channelised. Each chakra is a regulator. It regulates each aspect of you. For example, the second chakra regulates the water aspect in your system. So everything to do with water of your body, it has its role. And 80% of our body has water content. So it has a big role. When you channelise your activity for a selfless purpose, automatically the second chakra will align.

Q17: Why it is difficult for me to meditate, and how to start meditating?

M: If it is difficult for you to sit down and meditate, don’t do that. Instead, what you do is make sure all your activities happen with your mind being present. That is good meditation. In every activity you do, let the mind be there. No unconscious activity. That is a good way of meditating. Then you bring yourself to yourself.

Thank you!

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jayaseelan

Aligned Full-Time, Part 2

Zoom Satsang Mohanji Speaks
April 28, 2019

Peace is your birthright. So is freedom. Freedom exists when your expectation levels are low. Freedom is when you need less from the world.

Q: I’m trying to see everyone as Mohanji and treat them with love and respect. But when they say and do things that are unlike Mohanji, it becomes very challenging, how can I overcome this?

M: I think the first part is the right part. You see everybody as Mohanji but do not place any conditions. The first part of the statement is fine, but the second part has conditions; but no one person can behave exactly like another. So we can’t expect that everyone will behave just as we want. Remove the conditions and say “let this person behave just as he wishes to, no problem. It is another expression of Mohanji.” When we do not have conditions, when we do not have expectations, we will have a life, which is more complete; instead when we have expectations, we will have almost equal amount of disappointments. This world is a mixture of various things. It is also a mystery. We don’t know why certain behavior pattern happens in people, although of course, there is a root for it. As we interact in the society, we do not understand why certain people behave in certain ways. They have their past to work on. And their expressions are connected to their past. We can’t do anything about it. The only thing you can do is stop being affected. When I say stop being affected, it means that all these things are happening. However, at the same time, nothing touches you. It means your expectation level is extremely low.  If something happens, that is good; but if it is not happening, that is alright too. You can’t predict anyone’s behavior pattern.

I have seen that in my life too; you do your best but some people turn around, say it was not good enough and leave. At times they even talk poorly about you. Jesus healed many lepers, (those suffering from leprosy). In those days, there was no cure for leprosy. When people contracted the disease they were left in caves with the doors sealed, because there was no cure. Jesus healed them. Many were healed, but none of them stopped to turn back and say, “Thank you”! They were busy merging into the society as healthy people! This is society. You may respect the society you live in, there’s no guarantee that society will respect you. You may honor the society, there is no guarantee that society will honor you; you may love the society, but there is no guarantee that society will love you too!

However, when you are not expecting any of these, you experience freedom. It’s your birthright to experience freedom and freedom can be experienced only when our expectation levels are very low. Please understand that whatever we do, we usually also place our expectations alongside. So the effect of that activity is diluted immediately.

When we expect a result, our actions are weak, because we are focused on the result rather than the action. Instead, forget about the result and focus on the action.

What will happen? You will have no stress connected to the result. Do your job well, to the best of your ability; do your homework before you start the work and do it perfectly. Leave what happens as a result of the action to destiny.  This way you can be free.

So, definitely look at everybody as Mohanji if you love Mohanji, but without any conditions. Hence I said the first part of the question is beautiful, you look at everybody as Mohanji. You will then try to love and respect them. The second part is connected to expectation, “Because they are not behaving the same way as Mohanji, I have disappointments.” Such disappointments are caused by expectations or conditions and they have to be removed. In fact one has to be trained to remove such expectations; to think, “I do my best. But I don’t expect anything back”. Again, don’t allow people to treat you as a doormat. When you see that someone looks at you as a potential doormat, withdraw from there. Say, “I’m not here to be a doormat, I will do whatever I can to serve you but I’m an individual.” Whenever you feel that you’re suffocated with a place or an activity or an environment, move away and be peaceful.

Peace is your birthright. So is freedom. Freedom exists when your expectation levels are low. Freedom is when you need less from the world.

You have every right to be free,

 Every right to be contented,

Every right to be relaxed in this life.

Q: My dog is suffering. And my vet recommends that we euthanize him, I don’t feel comfortable with this decision. Can we make a decision on when our pets could die?

M: I think you don’t have to take any decision in this case. Every being that is born has a plan of death. Do you think that we will exist in the body forever? We will also die! Every being that is born will die. We can’t look at a dog or a cat or any other being connected to us in our life as our property. They are not! They are beings that came to your life because of a karmic collaboration. They took birth at a certain time and will die at certain time. You have no control over it. If you decide to kill them because they are sick, will you do the same to your family members? Suppose someone in your family is unwell and the doctor says that he is not sure if he will be able to cure that person, will you kill him too? Every being has the right to live, as long as it takes. Every being goes through pleasures and pains of life, like us. The need is for extraordinary patience, compassion and kindness.

I do not take any decision on killing any life. That is not the way we should handle life. We should allow everything to be natural. If a dog had been out in the street/nature, it will go through the natural process of life. Life is a flow. Every being connected to us is equal to us, it is not that we can make a decision for them.

Unfortunately, the veterinary doctors and various institutions, only focus on securing the life of human beings. A person I know told me that he had pet birds and one bird was unwell. He took this bird to a doctor and the doctor killed the bird since it was not well! He then suggested that my friend could buy another bird to replace it, as if it is just another object or property! They don’t have that feeling of life in expression!

Hence those of us who are walking the path of spirituality should have extraordinary levels of compassion and we should always nurture life. Also, we should not, ever, promote or support any kind of destruction. That is why I am completely against abortions. I’m completely against any kind of artificial or compulsive killing. I propagate vegan for the very same reason; no torture, no killing. I don’t agree that we have right to do that.

When we cannot create life and give birth to a similar species (I am not talking of womb birth here), we also do not have the right to kill. When we cannot give life, we cannot give death either. This is my feeling.

Q: Along the same topic, how to remain non-violent when I’m dealing with pests and bugs? Is it okay to terminate some of them in order to live hygienically?

M:  Well, there are two points we should consider here. One is that everyone has instincts i.e. animals, birds and humans. The primary instinct is the instinct of survival. Then we have intelligence. Intelligence is predominantly for human beings. Most animals operate at the level of a three-year-old human child. As for instincts, there are two to three variations. Most of our behavior patterns are connected to instincts; we have the instinct for survival, for food and for self-protection. We need food to survive.  You can see that all the birds and animals possess this self-protection mode. Thus all that we do to try to prevent insects from entering the house is related to self-protection. I would say that self-protection is our right. We must protect ourselves because self-protection is part of the instinctual mode in every species. This is my opinion.

Q: So I read somewhere on Facebook, that when an individual does your Aarati, it helps energize everyone connected to you and the tradition. How does it do that?

M: Every Aarati is a purifier. When we wave the lamp, it purifies the environment and the energy of the place becomes better. It is also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude opens us up for the grace to flow. The nature of an Aarati is to rejuvenate the whole area. Hence rejuvenation happens wherever you are. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you do Aarati in one place, people at another place are benefited. I doubt it. It is more a local thing. It helps purify the environment in that area. With continuous performance of Aarati you will see a palpable difference in the entire energy of the room.

Q: Does enlightenment happen to the soul or the mind?

M: Enlightenment is a state that already exists; only the mind factor and the “I” factor – “I” means ego, mind and intellect put together, are not allowing us to believe it. “Enlightenment” is just being aware of something that already exists; it is not something which comes from outside. Hence enlightenment is our natural state; it is what we are, already.

Mind matter consists of mind, intellect and ego and it works in its own way, with the external world. Since we travel with these senses and the mind matter to the outside world, when we look at ourselves, in terms of me and mine, me as an individual and mine as in,  my property, my wealth, my relationship, and so on, we do not feel that oneness or fullness.

 

That is why I say that when you are fully connected to yourself, that is, mind, body, intellect and ego and spirit are all together, what you experience is fullness and completion. That is the state of enlightenment, where you feel yourself in everything, you don’t see any difference, you will not criticize or judge, you will not have prejudices, you will not hate anybody, and you will not take revenge. This happens when you are fully within yourself. You see people, birds, animals and places as expressions. Also you will feel, you will know that you are one with everything, there is no separation. Also there’ll be no egocentric ownership, there’ll be no ownership based on “mine”. Mind dissolves at the state of no thought, which is Nirvichara Samadhi.

When mind dissolves, mind matter also dissolves, and then you start seeing only the truth. The truth is that life goes without the past, present and future, which means there is no dimensional shift, no dimensional difference. Also you are one with this whole life, you are life!  You become life; you are no longer in the relative mode, such as me and you, this and that, etc. That will end and you will start seeing the perpetual life, which is static and stable. That is your state of enlightenment.

Q: If the environment is of low frequency, and we cannot avoid the environment or people, how does one cope so not to succumb to these low frequencies such as drugs, alcohol, sensual pleasures, and other terrestrial traps?

M: You can’t control the frequencies that happen in this world. They are at random. But when you start chanting, are connected to your inside, you are occupied within; you will be less affected by the society around you and will be very stable. Nothing can affect you. Those who chant, feel their inside and are stable inside cannot be affected by the outside society.

Today is Easter… when Pilate told Jesus, if you repent for what you said, I will save you, I’ll release you, Jesus said,” No, I meant what I said”. That kind of fearlessness and stability comes from settling within. The only place you can actually settle down and stay stable is within you. Wherever you settle down outside, it is only temporary, that is, until your death.

Q: Is there a sound in silence?

M: Yes, the sound of silence is silence itself. And if you’re talking about physical sounds, which the ears respond to, all the sounds have come out of Silence and all the sounds will dissolve back into silence. So the Sound of Silence is silence itself. The Sound of Silence is the stability which we experience, the contentment, the peacefulness that cannot be explained and the fulfillment.

Q: When we ask God for something, it shows that we are lacking that aspect. But in the Vedic way of worship, when we make the sankalpa, we need to mention why we are doing that sadhana and ask for blessings. Isn’t that an expression of lack?

M: Firstly, is God outside of you? (chuckles) That is a question you need to ask yourself. When you believe that God sits outside, how will you settle inside? The whole point is about settling inside. So, you should clearly understand that God is within and that one aspect of God is already there called the soul aspect, 33% soul aspect. If you really understand the soul aspect and also understand that the God aspect already exists within and you start connecting to it, you will reach the vibrations or frequencies that already exist. When you start existing in those frequencies and you perform homa/ havan (fire ceremony) or tarpan (offering to ancestors), what you’re doing is, you are offering to the fire, whatever you have stored unconsciously. What you have stored unconsciously is something like your cache memory that you now consciously offer to the fire, through each mantra or invocation of the deity. The fire consumes it and releases you from it. So when you look at God outside of you and say, “God, please do something”, we are only expressing our ignorance!

In the Vedic tradition, we have sankalpas, because we are identifying and recognizing the various aspects of existence, such as Earth, wind, water, fire, air and ether. Our great tradition of masters have told us that there is One Supreme Consciousness which is Para Brahma. This Supreme Consciousness has two aspects, the form/ the manifested aspect, and the unmanifested aspect. Both put together is God. So what is tangible, what is intangible, what is created, what is uncreated – all of it is God. Thus God is vast and unfathomable, and you cannot put God into any kind of frame.

Then they said there are 33 crore or 330 million dimensions possible of that God. This means God can take any form, any nature, any emotion, and any frequency possible. From that awareness, the deities were created based on ideals, idols made out of ideals. Ideals can be experienced by you, and by us. Each ideal, each experience has a form, it can be created into a form. So the great masters made forms, frequencies, mantras, structure (structure is like our nervous system), yantras, duration and also worship method. The worship method is the way in which we can preserve it, keep it safe. Thus 330 million aspects were created.

Next the question happened – how can one worship 330 million deities? It’s humanly not possible! They said, “Worship the 33% in you, which is the soul aspect”; the soul aspect is your real aspect. That’s the permanent aspect. 33% is the body or the physical, 33% is mind matter (mind, intellect and ego) and both are temporary, but the soul aspect is permanent. So worship the soul aspect. That way you worship the 330 million aspects of the Supreme consciousness.

In other words, this 33% represent both the manifested and the manifested, “Shivoham”, “I am Shiva”. Based on this, we created the whole structure of existence.

When you understand this clearly, the only place you need to settle down is within and the experience is of absolute stillness and silence, with no sound, and no movement; this stillness is the state of Shiva. We worship Shiva outside or we think about Shiva, knowing fully well that Shiva is within and we already have it. All of us, the 7.5 billion people, the birds, the animals – all beings have it!  Hence we are not greater than anyone or less than anyone, no guru, no disciple, nothing! Everyone is the same! It is this awareness and understanding that we need to have when we walk this path. Then, we will not criticize, we will not judge, we will not try to compare, we are all the same.

When you really understand this aspect, you will not be begging. You can only ask for something that you do not have. But what is that you do not have is the question? After all, we are talking about some material things or some positions or possessions. These are temporary anyway because you cannot carry them when you die. You have to leave behind all your possessions and relationships. You can’t carry anything forward. Then what can you actually ask for?

This question will arise in your mind. Then, you will be offering what is stored without your understanding, your cache memory. You will be offering these to the fire one by one and thus emptying yourself. Your entire life will be spent on complete emptying, where you are not accumulating, you’re not collecting, you’re not asking, you are emptying!

In this mode of emptying, you become one with a supreme consciousness, this is liberation. This is complete dissolution.

Above explains the entire process.  Now in this mode, the Vedic structure has given us directions, how to do it, how to do sankalpas, “sankalpas” means intentions, how to offer, what to offer, and so on. All the materials that you offer in the fire have something to do with our inside. Everything has a symbolic role to play, while we are offering into the fire.

Through the symbols we are offering what is sitting inside us, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, pride, ego and other emotions. We offer these to the fire and then finally nothing, not even the mind exists. You are then completely empty. You are also completely free and very powerful. And you are being one with the supreme consciousness. Aham Brahmasmi – I am Brahma.  There is no Aham also, Aham is I; there is no “I”, even “I” doesn’t exist; only Brahma exists. This means that the drop does not exist; only the ocean exists. In that mode, you’re totally free. This is path that we are walking.

The path of liberation, the path of complete dissolution, doesn’t stop at enlightenment, because enlightenment is only one part of total dissolution. Total dissolution is where you are completely the ocean and you are experiencing yourself as the ocean all the time, not temporarily, not for some time, but all the time. This is the path, this is the destination. Also, this destination already exists within. You already have it, we are the destination already. We have already arrived!  The mind matter has to be dissolved.

During this process, if you keep asking for material things, it is a sign of the mind trying to stay alive. All your fears, your prejudices, likes and dislikes are but signs of the mind trying to stay alive! But you are not the mind. You are well beyond the mind. When you truly understand this, you also understand this whole tapestry. It is so simple and so pure. There’s nothing to distract you from this.

Total dissolution is where you are completely the ocean and you are experiencing yourself as the ocean all the time, not temporarily, not for some time, but all the time.

 

Read Aligned Full-Time, Part 1

 

Transcribed and proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan