How to walk the path of spirituality

When we walk the path of spirituality, it’s actually an individualistic journey. You can’t really define that this path should be like this, in a particular way. But I would like to look at the spiritual journey in a logical way, so that it’s easy to understand.

The journey can be classified broadly as a formation stage and stabilization stage; not the accomplished stage. What is the formation stage? Formation stage is the toughest because we are a bundle of patterns and we have a lot of habits. We have a lot of fears, habits, likes and dislikes, so many different things. We have to detach from this whole jungle or the variety of things that we consist of because most of this is connected to the world outside. This is our dependency to the world outside, it could be places, it could be materials, and it could be relationships; so many things connected to the world outside.

So, to detach from all that and come inside, it takes a lot of effort. So that’s the most difficult thing in the path of spirituality. Spiritual journey is basically BEING YOURSELF. Finally, what you’re going to be is be yourself totally. So, in that journey, the first part has a lot of value. Once that’s crossed, it’s easier; but to cross that first path, to detach yourself from habits, your usual patterns, your usual likes and dislikes, all the things connected to the patterns, to come out of it, it takes great determination – more than determination, discipline. These two Ds you should remember; discipline is essential. I used to get up at 2:30 am every day. I would start from three o’clock every day, whatever happens, whether it is sun, rain, cloud, whatever, it didn’t matter. I used to get up at 2:30, I used to take a bath and always without taking bath, I never used to indulge, as that’s a part of discipline. Why take a bath? Water refreshes you immediately and just removes the tedium and the TAMAS which tries to overpower you in your sadhana, in your practice; immediately that’s cut, water takes it away.

So, with the help of water, with the help of a determined mind, you start your journey. You start your journey means you start your practice. That should be very consistent; big time determination.  With determination also, sometimes you don’t even know what you’re looking for. This is the big problem. So, the usual, the known things always attracts you back. By known things means what you’re familiar with; what you’re familiar with, always takes you back. That’s usually the case. We tend to go back and then we lose the track. This is why a time of isolation has a lot of value. In this time of forced isolation, you can’t go anywhere. Otherwise, you have a lot of options. When you have a lot of options; when you have a lot of means and avenues for fulfilment; all that’s distraction. So, the enemy is distraction, one D; and your ally is determination and discipline – 2Ds.  So, these 2Ds are very important. D and D – two pillars; and that will be the main thing in the formation stage – formation time. So, in the formation stage, this is what we must remember – 2Ds, our friends; DISCIPLINE and DETERMINATION.  Distractions are like shadows behind you; it connects itself to habits and patterns. So, patterns and habits are your comfort zones; the zones of comfort that attracts you back.

So, take one sadhana, one practice; it’s very important, maybe one mantra, one practice, one discipline. One discipline means one method like a particular time or a consistent space, is very important. We must be in one space continuously because if we change the space, the mind likes it. That’s a distraction. Do not change the space, stick to the same space as it takes months and years probably since the patterns are so strong; don’t underestimate them. They keep coming back, or they keep reclaiming their position in your life. So, what you need to do is to be consistent, very, very consistent.

Always remember, when you’re using a mantra that mantra should be learnt by heart. You should not read from somewhere because if you have a picture, mind wanders over pictures. If you read a book, mind gets occupied with the book. See, don’t underestimate your mind. It really distracts you. So to avoid all distractions, get into immediate action, avoid thoughts. When you get up in the morning, immediately get on with your action. You should have a discipline and don’t change the discipline because even if you change the discipline, mind occupies that because mind gets involved. So today, I brushed my teeth first, and then I went to the toilet etc., don’t jumble these kinds of things, just follow the same routine. That will help you because you contain things within the time; you’re not crossing your time limit. Then one thing that is very important is to only chant or only do things which you’re familiar with. If you’re not familiar with a mantra, don’t even try until you become familiar with it. I’m talking about sadhana, for practice. Otherwise you can chant any mantra you want for the rest of the day. During the practice, use only a familiar mantra. If Guru has given a mantra, that’s the best for you because the Guru knows what is good for your alignment.

So, chant that and chant continuously, consistently and feel and chant. That way, you are chanting 90% inside you, and 10% outside. So that means you’re chanting outside because you don’t fall asleep; you are chanting inside and you’re feeling the vibration. The outside world is exists; but you’re not looking at the outside world. After chanting for some time, you can go to that state. If you’re doing pranayama, you connect to the light of the lamp. I used to have a lamp lit. Have only a lamp, just a flame. Look at the flame for some time, connect to the flame and chant to the flame and then you chant inside and then you bring yourself inside. You can practice like that. So many different practices have been explained already.

I don’t want to say about that again, because it’s already there. We have meditations and practices; kriyas. In case you are feeling a bit sleepy and drowsy, breathe through one nostril, close one nostril, breathe through the other nostril to the count of six to 8; one count – either six or eight. Then close that nostril and breathe out double (16 counts); if it is 8, it is 16; if it is 6, it is 12 and then breathe through the same nostril, again, six or eight and then release through the other nostril, double. Do that for about 10 times and you will come back and you can actually start it again. So, discipline is very important and this should be very consistent. Whatever happens in the world, whatever the external factors are, we must not stop that.

One of the basic practices which all of us should follow in this world of distraction, to get back is the presence of mind. Make sure that nothing happens without your mind being present. That’s a very good practice. That should be a daily practice; when you’re in your waking state, all the time. Even if you’re moving your hand, let your mind be there. If you’re speaking something, let the mind be there. If you’re eating, let the mind be with the food, with the taste. If you’re doing anything, thinking anything, talking anything, let the mind be present. Without the presence of mind, do not do anything. That’s a very good practice. If you can do that consistently, then you will feel a lot of stability. There’ll be no waste of energy, there will be no excesses. There’ll be no mistakes, there’ll be no disappointments, and you will be feeling very stable. Presence of mind is a good practice and that helps your other practices. Once this discipline starts, (discipline means the order of your activity), let’s say, getting up early in the morning, having the same space, same practice, same mantra, same connection, all those things should be the same; this will actually increase your boredom because you will want variety, you will crave for variety. That is the mind’s job, mind wants variety. But what you want – to cut across the mind and reach a state of accomplishment. So, here, the mind will try to bring you back to a pattern while you are refusing to be in a pattern while making a pattern. This is the point here; making a pattern means same mantra, same practice, consistently. Boredom hits you, continue again and again and again, no change and then finally, mind withers away. It takes time, but mind will break. So the formation stage then shifts to stabilization stage. The formation stage, I have already explained discipline and determination; enemy is distraction. Consistency is very important. Along with consistency is the routine, all those things. So, conviction is extraordinarily important. Imagine if your conviction on something is proved to be wrong later. It doesn’t matter. Because it’s not the object you’re connected to. It’s your method, your conviction that’s helping you.

So don’t look at any outside material, person, place and think that this is what is helping you; they do complement, but it’s you, who’s helping yourself. And finally, you’re reaching yourself. So the journey is to yourself, and the path is yourself. And the practitioner is yourself. And it’s all yourself. Basically, it’s your own journey to yourself, in which all external factors have no deep value that way. So, don’t blame an external factor and say, “Oh, because of that factor, I couldn’t accomplish.” That’s not true. That’s because your determination failed. Later on, once you cross over to the stabilization state etc., you don’t have to follow those and sometimes those things you can’t follow because the practices are completely wiped away or vanishes; those practices will not stay because you reached a state where you are that state. It’s almost like studying hard for graduation and you became a graduate, you don’t have to study all of them again, because you’re done. So, once you reach a state of accomplishment, you don’t actually go back to your practices.

Next is the stabilization stage. Once this stage is over, you are in a path of stabilization. How do you know whether you are stabilizing? Distraction level will be less, whatever happens you’re peaceful, you’re calm; external environment or environment around you does not affect you or it cannot affect your equilibrium. That’s your stabilization time. At that time, what you need is consistent practice; you have to continue with the practice. Don’t stop. At the same time, you also should practice witness hood which means you are witnessing yourself practicing. That’s the stabilization stage. You witness yourself doing all this. So, there is an impersonal feeling there. You are not that but at the same time you are doing it. You are not fighting your mind at that time. That’s finished. That part is over. When your distraction level has reduced and nothing distracts you any more, then you automatically understand that you are on the stabilization time. So, it is a settlement time. Slowly, slowly you are settled. And the more and more you settle, the deeper and deeper you go. The deeper and deeper you go, more and more silence settles. So when you go deeper and deeper, noises reduce. It’s like from a heavy world of noise or world of heavy noises, you’re withdrawing and you’re going to a world of silence. For some time, the noises will be there. Again, you’re going and you’re determined to go to the world of silence. And after a while, when you are closer to silence, you will hear the noises far away; it’s not even near you. And when you enter the world of silence, then the noises completely stop. So, this is the journey. So, stabilization is that you are actually far away from noises. And to go back to those noises, you have to walk all the way back which you may not because that stage is over.  Initially, you will tend to go back to your old habits of noises (noises means activities, various things).

So, when you are in a stabilization mode, you need to witness yourself. You will watch yourself because there’s nothing distracting you. No distraction. You watch yourself. You feel yourself and you feel yourself entering into the world of silence. At stabilisation time, you must continue the activity. But at the same time, you realize you’re not the activity, you are the product of all these, but you are not any of these. So, that means your level of detachment has really increased. Activities do not bind you, nor do the results bind you. Nothing binds you. You are really free. Real freedom you start experiencing at that time. No dependency on people, places, time, materials, any habits, any patterns; that in itself is freedom; huge freedom. That is when you realise this is the real freedom; this is what we are capable of. Why have we never understood it? We have never tried it; we never invested in ourselves that is why we didn’t experience it. Here you are investing in yourself.

So, one of the things which will come overwhelmingly in you is the gratitude; gratitude to the guru, the guide, the one who guides you, the one who actually guided you to the silence, you’ll have immense gratitude. That is the secret of Guru Parampara, where the disciple is overwhelmingly grateful to the guru, but that gratefulness is sometimes not visible in this world, the world of noises is because this gratitude is from the mind; mind cannot hold anything. Mind never holds it. Mind keeps it for some time, throws it away; sometimes picks it up, sometimes throws it away. So, mind is never consistent. We will never understand gratefulness from the terms of mind, until we go into silence. Then we know that this position, this place we have reached is because of the grace of the gurus; then you will be brimming with gratitude, which opens up grace further. So the last part where you are almost entering into silence, overwhelming grace comes to you because of your overwhelming, real gratitude. Real gratitude is not from the mind. It’s gratitude, because you understood that it’s the guru who brought it. That’s why the shloka says, the verse says that if Guru and God come together, who will you bow down to? So the answer is to the Guru, because he showed me God.

So this happens, and then you enter the silence and you’re stable. That means you’re settled down into yourself, and the outside world is not yours anymore. You can go to the outside world, you can interact with outside world, you can be anything in the outside world, there’s no problem. But you are not the outside world. You don’t belong there. Now, you’re going back to the outside world as silence. Earlier, you were going to the outside world as a noise, another noise, but now you’re going to the world of noises as silence.  The difference is very big. You are entering the world of noises as another noise. Then you are insignificant. But when you enter the world of noises as silence, you become very significant. This is a very tricky time because you are different. By different it means people look at you through their eyes in different ways, as they are. Some of them look at you as an alien, what sort of an animal is this?

Some of them look at you as a challenge. Some of them don’t even understand you and they ignore you. That’s okay. But everybody looks at you as they are and then it will be confusing to you. What is the best thing to do? Allow everything to happen. Let everything happen. You’re not worried. Let everything happen; somebody loves you, somebody hates you, somebody criticizes you, somebody praises you, it doesn’t matter. It’s all fine. Everything is fine. You are not bound by them because you are fully settled inside. The world of noises does not shake you anymore. It can’t, then it’s a living accomplishment, then you are living in an accomplished state (accomplished state means state of silence). The living accomplishment is just beingness; there’s nothing else, there’s no doingness there. Even if there is doingness, that is only for the purpose or for the purpose of your existence. As long as you exist, you have to deliver and for that sake, you will deliver and what will you deliver? What is needed to be delivered! It’s a case to case, situation to situation. It’s not a pre-planned delivery method as it happens in the world of noises. So in the world of silence, there is nothing to do, it’s only to be.

So, in that mode, when it’s only To BE, when somebody comes to you, you look at why this association, this relationship or this meeting happened and you just deliver what you have to deliver. But you will not be worried about, “Oh, will I be able to deliver?” because there’s no ‘I’; why this person came to me, there’s no ‘why’. So, there’s no ‘why’, there’s no ‘I’. It’s very simple. You give what you have. And that’s what’s expected. And there’s no pretension. There’s nothing to pre-plan. There is nothing to prove. That’s the world.  So, the third state – the state of accomplishment, you don’t need any guidance because you automatically do what it takes, what you need to do.

These are the three stages. The first is the formation state where you need a lot of discipline, determination; to avoid all distractions. Then comes the world of stability – stable world, where you need to witness; you need a lot more witness hood, activity plus witness hood. Then, you reach a stage of accomplishment which means you’re accomplished. In that state, what you need to do is just be you. So being you is what the ultimate is. Being Yourself. And that’s the journey.

All the 7.5 billion people of the world have the same potential to achieve it. And the one who is capable of doing MANANA is a Manav; that means one who is able to contemplate is a man. Manana has something to do with Manav which is a Sanskrit word, and also man, an English word. It’s all connected with Manana which means somebody who’s able to contemplate, penetrate, understand, assimilate and experience themselves. It’s not experiencing the world outside. That’s easy because all you need is senses and mind. That’s nothing; that’s just a normal thing. But experiencing yourself, that capacity we have; that is something which we can achieve in a lifetime. And that is something which we must achieve in a lifetime because that’s the real thing. The world of noises, world of materials, world of sounds and colours are fleeting. They are available only when you are awake. That’s not available all the time. When you’re sleeping, they’re not available, but here we are talking about a world which is available for you all the time; same world, same brightness, same freedom, all the time. That world is worth it. That’s exactly what is the highest of human experience.

We can call it self-realization, we can call it God-realization; doesn’t matter what you call, but in the world of being you, you are experiencing yourself all the time. Whether you are awake, whether you’re sleeping, whether you’re dreaming doesn’t matter, you are experiencing yourself. And that world is very, very powerful. From that world, you actually experience the Creator. When you start experiencing the Creator from inside, all the time you experience being the Creator. Then you have no separation with anything on Earth because the Creator and the Creation are one and the same. All the things you see around are the creations; all the materials, all the moving, immovable things, all the things are creations. In every creation, there is an element of the Creator and we start witnessing that creator within us and outside us. Then, we can’t have a separation. There’s no separation, there’s no me and mine. There’s no ownership. There is no possessiveness; there is no need to control anything. There’s nothing to control. So, once you understand the mind of the Creator, you become the Creator. You and the Creator are one. And then, it’s dissolution. That’s a state of dissolution. Once that awareness settles in, then you dissolve, then there is no you and that state is beautiful, perfect. The state of being the Creator, the creation has become the Creator. The dancer has become the dance, then there is no separation, then there is no division. When the song and the singer become one and the same, you’re fully melted. You are one with the whole creation.

So from the world of noises to the world of silence, it’s a consistent walk. It’s worth it. All the masters have said the same thing, over and over again. Many of them have seen it. Many of them have witnessed it. Many of them have become that. And those who have become that never came back to the world of noises. Those who witnessed it tried again and again, and they try to go back to this state of peace; perpetual peace all the time. Many of them did. But those who have knowledge and they are teaching, they are still in the world of noises. So, that difference is there always. They might have learnt a lot of things; the books, the materials, so many things they would have learnt and they understand. Understanding and experiencing are two different things. You understand how to make a very tasty dish. But to know how it will taste, you have to eat it. And once you taste it, maybe you won’t be able to explain about it because it’s not explainable. Some things are not explainable. You have to experience it, and just allow that experience to settle into you, you become the experience. But you can’t explain. What you can explain are the noises and the expressions.

So many people who have attained silence never spoke, because there was nothing to speak. Speaking was very difficult, because the world of noises is a gross world when you have reached a level of subtlety. It’s almost like you don’t have a body, how will you communicate, how will you act? How will you touch? How will you feel? How will you experience the world as a body? So it’s like that. Imagine that your level of subtlety is high. When you’re completely subtle and your body is just an attachment to your system, and you don’t really feel the body; in that mode, when another person comes to talk to you, you become that person; you will express that level of grossness as much as you need to express or communicate to that person. If a very subtle person comes to you, you become that subtlety because you are very flexible. You are not bound by the world of noises. The world of silence is huge flexibility; totally flexible. You don’t have to think that “Oh, this man is coming now, how I will respond?” There’s nothing to think. You’re put in a position, words flow through you as per the need, as per the requirement of the person or the society or the environment or the time. That just happens; you don’t have to really do anything.

So, I think I have explained the three major aspects of the path of awakening and this has to be assimilated. You should listen to it many times and feel these words; not just listen to these words, actually feel these words. So you will understand the formations, how important is the formation. That’s the most important stage because you are actually destroying your patterns at that stage. It’s not easy; it’s not easy at all. Don’t underestimate that time; don’t underestimate your patterns. Don’t underestimate your habits, your inclinations and tendencies, your desires. Don’t underestimate them. They’re very powerful. They can literally turn you around, and they can literally keep you as a slave to it.

Usually, we are not slaves, but these things make us slaves, dependent on the world outside. We are behaving like slaves, helpless; we don’t have to be helpless. We don’t have to be. We should know that we are the depth of silence. We are powerful, very powerful. Only if you could experience that power, you will know. Otherwise it’s just an idea or a theory. You wouldn’t even know. When you experience, when you establish yourself in the world of silence, deeply in the world of silence, then you are a God-man. You’re one with the God; one with the Creator. You are a God-man. Until then you do not understand a God-man. Who’s a God-man? He looks like a man; human being. How can he be God? What is his state makes him that.  His state, his stature makes him godlike. God is not one unit. God is omnipresent. God is universal and God has no boundaries. So when a person loses his boundaries, he becomes universal. He is a God-man. So God-men do exist!

Mohanji

 

Transcribed and proofread by

Rekha Murali

 

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Be Consistent with Sadhana

Whenever we are going and growing towards the realms of subtlety, subtlety is something which is less and less tangible: the gross, the habitual gross, keep pulling us out. The gross means our habits, the materials we are used to, the places that we are used to, the people we are used to, all the positions, possessions and commitments of life, and all the attachments of life. They keep bothering us and pulling us back to them, while we are trying to detach and move towards the subtler and subtler aspects of us. The subtlest aspect of us is our soul.

When you demonstrate your devotion or your practice in the world, a lot of opinions will come your way. It can be positive opinions or negative opinions. Sometimes there are apprehensions, sometimes prejudices, sometimes the fears that people keep in their minds about things like spirituality. Sometimes it’s not considered as a positive thing, but we know very well that we have gone through all these emotions, all these things of life, and now we need absolute peace, or permanence in peace and that’s exactly why we are following spirituality. The benchmark, as I have already explained, is the silence inside. Whatever happens outside, you are always stable and still.

When I was practicing seriously, I was working as the country head of a multinational company, a very, very busy job. So I was finding my own time, my personal time, the time to connect to myself, between 3 am and 8 am. Even if I slept at 12 o’clock, after some party or some get-together, I would still wake up at 2:30 am. I used to have very short hair, and I used to take a bath, without taking a bath I never used to do anything. I’d take a full head bath, wipe myself clean, and then I’d just light a lamp. There was nothing else in the room except a lamp, a flame, and that flame was the only companion for my connection. I used to dissolve into that field of energy, into myself, and that was my practice.

Nobody knew I was practising, because in public life, in the real-time world, I was not practising anything. I was not visiting any temples, I was not visiting any Gurus, I wasn’t doing anything. But I was very happy with myself, I was practising with myself, and dimensions started shifting because of consistency. Whatever happened, I was always practising. This is one aspect I can tell you, you must have your time, the time with yourself, and as I explained, it’s all about you. The path is you, the destination is you, the journey is you, everything is you. Always remember, it’s about you. Connect to yourself as much as possible.

The time of the day which is quite suitable for this is between 3 am and 8 am, as far as I have experienced. You may have a different time, but that’s up to you, that’s an individually suitable time. I don’t want to say this is the only time possible; whichever time is good for you, that’s fine. But understand one thing – during that time between 3 and 8 am, usually the outside world is sleeping, it is silent with very little sounds outside. And inside, to get into silence, it’s much easier. There are no sounds, not too many vehicles and traffic sounds of various nature. Even the birds, animals, every being will be sleeping, more or less, and they all wake up after 5 am. By that time, you have already almost completed your connection with yourself, and you can conveniently come out of it at any point in time. But up to 8 am actually, in my experience, I hardly used to get any calls, nobody used to bother me. This is one. Secondly, the great Masters have given us various techniques and methods to connect to oneself, because we are a Universe.

The whole point, or the whole message of TAT TVAM ASI is – You are That, whatever you are looking for is – you, and this can be found through self-exploration and connecting to oneself. There is a method which is very popular – connecting to your heartbeat. When you connect to your heartbeat, there is a sound and a silence… a sound… and a silence. You are connecting to the sound and the silence, you are observing that sound and the silence. Then slowly, slowly, over time, you go between that sound and the silence. That means there is a sound… and the sound stops and the silence starts… and the silence stops and the sound starts. We try to feel that deeper and deeper, and as we go deeper and deeper into that space between the sound and the silence, we will start exploring higher levels of subtlety, the sukshma state.

Another method which the great Masters have gracefully given us is the space between the inhalation and exhalation – that idea, that thought of breathing in and breathing out. There is a small gap between the breathing in and breathing out, that is supposed to be the space of Heaven, that is what people say. That space is very momentary, but if you are aware of that space consistently, the space between your inhalation and exhalation, you will start experiencing various layers and layers of silence. You will start feeling that silence, a silence, a state where everything stops: the breath stops at some point, and then the breath starts. So between this stop and start, there is a space, and that space is a very pleasurable space, it’s very, very blissful. These are all methods you can practise.

I was particularly practising connecting to my spine. I feel the spine, I sit, and I feel the spine. When I’m walking, I feel the spine. When I’m sitting and talking sometimes, I spontaneously feel the spine. Any part of the spine, as per your orientation, you feel it, and spontaneously, you will start experiencing a vertical existence. Usually, we experience a horizontal experience as per the flow of karma. But here, when you are concentrating on the spine, you start experiencing a vertical existence, and that is a very beautiful state. When you are in that state, the past, present, and the future do not have much value, there is only the present.

The oscillation of the mind to the past or the future, the dwelling of the mind over matters of the past and the future will all reduce, it’ll all come to the present existence, present awareness. Awareness is bodh, and when you continuously connect to your spine for a long period of time, the bodh, the awareness, will start growing and flowing from you. You will become aware of everything around you, everything beyond you, and dimensions can shift rapidly. I do not want to tell you that this much time you have to do it etc, that’s all individual. Please understand spirituality is an individual journey, everything is individualistic. The more time you can spend with yourself without distractions, that much progress you can expect. So these are all guidelines I would like to give youngsters who are probably in a hostel with other people, etc. You don’t have to demonstrate any of this. Spend some time with yourself, be normal, be involved with all the work, whatever you have to do, you can do.

I was actually very busy when I was practising, I was heading the country and it was a very big job. Big job in a sense, it was a very active and a very stressful job. But at the same time, I never ever forsook my practise. Also, I was experiencing, just like now, I was not in one place long enough to have the comfort of one location. The comfort of one location is always an advantage. If you have a space for yourself to practice, that’s always an advantage, because the energy level of that place will complement your practise. But I didn’t have that luxury. Even now, I don’t have that luxury. I keep traveling. So you have to accept whichever way it happens.

Understand that your only exploration is yourself, and you are always with yourself, so you don’t have to really worry about the environment. If you really mean to succeed in reaching or becoming Shiva, the Supreme Consciousness, you have all the materials you need for that, because, by birth, you have it; nobody can take it away from you. If you are really keen on exploring yourself to the highest possibility, use any of the techniques. You can do what suits you spontaneously. We have bhakti yogis, who like to sing and chant, they are devotional people, they like devotion. There are jnana yogis who like to explore the truth of spirituality through knowledge. Then we have karma yogis who would like to live a selfless life. Through selflessness, they explore higher dimensions. Then we have raja yogis who are only established in awareness – bodh, and through bodh, through constant awareness, they reach the highest. There are so many different methods and practises which are suitable for everybody. And I feel that you will automatically reach there, once you decide to start walking. Nobody can stop you if you decide to walk. And nobody needs to give you any input. In my experience, whenever I needed guidance, somebody has given me guidance. I’ll give you an example.

I was practicing seriously like this for about four or five years. I was reaching a state of complete blankness, meaning I didn’t even know who I was, I didn’t even remember my name, my identity, etc. A completely blank state means I don’t exist. It’s almost like the deep sleep state in the night, where you are not aware you are sleeping, you are not aware of anything, you are totally lost, or completely gone. I was in that state, and I was the general manager of a company at that time, and I had to take care of the whole company and all the people. And at that point in time, I was experiencing these blank states. There were times let’s say,  from a few hours to a few days of the blank state. It was very difficult to work during those days. I may forget how to sign. I’d forget my signature. There were occasions when I would ask my financial controller to bring all the papers I had signed earlier. He did not know that I didn’t know how to sign because I couldn’t tell him that I was going through this state. I used to tell him, ”Bring me all the papers I’d signed earlier.” He would bring those papers, and I learned to sign. Then I signed the chequebooks and other things. After a while, he thought that I didn’t trust him, and he almost resigned. He said, “Sir, if you don’t trust me, I don’t want to work with you.” So I said, “Don’t worry, we’ll sort it out, actually I am just correlating something, etc…” In a way, I lied. I told him, “See, I want to check the past records,” and things like that.

Anyway,  one day I was so frustrated. I decided I can’t work like this, I had to leave. I almost sat down and wrote my resignation letter. In those days there was no WhatsApp, Facebook or all those things, this was in the early 2000s. There was Messenger. I hardly used Messenger because, I didn’t like to use it. When you open it, a lot of people will come to chat with you. It’s so annoying when you are busy, somebody is asking you things, with which you don’t really want to engage into. I was sitting there. I was fully confused, in fact, I was very frustrated. I was almost writing my resignation. Suddenly the Messenger opens up. I used to practise yoga with a teacher, almost six years before, and that yoga teacher and I had no connections afterward. I lost his number, he lost my number, and I even moved to another country, so we had no connection. But he came on chat. He said, “Mohanji, are you there?” I said, “Yes, I am here. Oh, it’s a real surprise! How come you found me here?” Then he said, “I was meditating in the morning, and my Guru came and told me to tell you that these blank states will end that month, it will be over, and you will not have to experience them again.”

First of all, this man and I had no connection for almost six years. Secondly, he had no way of knowing that I was going through this situation because I never ever told anybody. I was alone – I didn’t have a relationship, I had no girlfriend or wife, I was completely alone in those days, at that time. Nobody used to communicate with me on spiritual terms, on spiritual grounds. I was only involved with my job, my work, and then I used to withdraw to my house. So no way he would know. And I did not know his Master. Then I asked him, “Who is your Master?“  He said the Master had left the body a long time ago, at the age of 90. I was surprised and asked, ”How did you know?” Then he said, “Mohanji, I don’t know about any of these things, my job was to convey the message to you, that this is probably the answer you have been looking for, and I have conveyed it.” I was surprised, totally surprised, this was the accurate answer. Then I said, “Sir, can I have your phone number?” When I called him, he said, “I don’t know anything more, I have told you whatever I know.” So I said, “Okay.” Then in fact, I copy-pasted that message and saved it, because, in the future, even I may doubt whether it happened. I always tell people, “All your positive experiences you should write down and keep it with you.” Because when negativity attacks you, this is your only oxygen, escape way. As a reminder, these will come in handy. When negativity hits you – negativity hits in the most vulnerable time, in the most vulnerable way – if you have the bank balance of your positive experiences written down, you can definitely go through it and get out of it with this antidote. It is very difficult, because negativity sucks you out.

So I spoke to him and that was it, there was nothing more he knew. He also told me one thing: his Master appeared to him about a week or ten days before he spoke to me, and told him the same thing, to convey this message to me. He was searching for my number and my contact and he didn’t have it, then he dropped it. On the day when he contacted me, the Master appeared again, and apparently scolded him. He’d said, “What sort of a disciple are you? I told you something, you are not even doing that, and how come you call yourself my disciple? I am ashamed of you!” Then he found out my email ID, and he tried the email ID, found the Messenger, and that’s how he reached me.

The point I am saying is that when you really want an answer, one way or the other the answer will find you. That we must trust. This has been my experience, the couple of experiences I had are of this completely uncanny nature. Why I am explaining this is because you should not be frustrated about the presence of people, the absence of people, the appreciations or the distractions of life. It is not important. You decide to go deeper and deeper into the subtle levels, but at the same time, do not leave your dharma, do not run away, do not be an escapist. Don’t leave something deliberately because, if you leave something deliberately, that means you are postponing that thing. Whatever God has given you, whatever destiny has brought you, you must perform the dharmic side. When you are the child, you are responsible to take care of your parents, like parents take care of the children. So we have to do that dutifully, with reverence, with love. This has to be done. There is no escape. You cannot say, “Oh, now I am free, I am myself, and I don’t like to take care of my parents or children.” That’s not right. If you have a family, take care of the family. That’s part of the dharma, that dharma must be fulfilled. Every responsibility should be dutifully fulfilled; respectfully, with reverence, we should fulfill it. You can’t run away, I do not recommend any kind of escapism, because if you run away, you will have to come back and solve it later. That might be with interest – that means if it is only a hundred thousand now, it will become one million later. So might as well finish it as it comes – any promises or any part of dharma.

If you are living in a hostel, or you are living in an environment that is not conducive to practice, it doesn’t matter. This connection with yourself, you can always do. As I said, you can connect to your heartbeat, you can connect to your breath, you can connect to your spine, you can connect to your thought processes, you can connect to your interactions or simply, you can meditate all the time by just making sure that no words are uttered without your mind being present, and no actions are done without the mind being present. That means no absent-mindedness, ever. That itself is a sadhana, it’s a beautiful practice. If you practise like that, that itself will elevate you. So there is no excuse for not practising.

Now, if you are determined, fully determined to reach the highest level of subtlety, you should and you can reach there definitely, whoever you are. Even if you have a Guru, a path, a destination, or anything you defined, no problem, they will all come to you at the right time.

Another experience I’ll tell you in the same context.

I was working in the company, and one day I got an email from a woman whom I did not even know, her name was Linda. She wrote to me from California, and I had no connection with America at that time. This was the early 2000s and this also was well before the time of WhatsApp and Facebook. She contacted me and said, “Are you Mr. Mohan? An elevated Master wants to speak to you. Please call this number at this time.” I didn’t even reply, because there are so many fake mails, hoax mails coming your way. Even now it comes, that you won a lottery or you got an award and things like that, which I don’t pay attention to. I just discard them, I remove them as spam. And I did that, and again in a week’s time after that date, she sent another message. “I’m very serious, a Master is asking me to contact you, he wants to speak to you. He does not exist on Earth, he’s from another realm, but he wants to use me as a medium to talk to you.” I became curious: what is this Master talking about? Even if I lose some money for this experience, it’s okay. So I contacted her, and the first question I asked was, “What’s the price, what’s the cost?” Because everything is connected to money, so I asked how much I should pay. She said, “I never asked you for money. This is serious. This Master wants to speak to you. Please call on Sunday at 10 am” and a date was given, so I said, “I will call you.”

On Sunday, I prepared myself and called this number. She picked up the call, and she sounded very old. I asked her, “What’s your age?” She said, “I’m 82.” I said, “How did you reach me?” She said, “This Master gave me your contact email.” I asked her, “Do you know me?” She said, “No, I don’t know you, I don’t even know who you are, nor am I interested to know you.” So that was very clean and clear. Then she asked, “Do you have sufficient money in your phone if the conversation prolongs?” I said, “No problem, I pay every month.” She wanted to know whether it is prepaid so that the charge will not go after a while. So everything was set, and she said, “Are you ready?” I said, “Yes, I’m ready.”

Then she started speaking to me. Slowly, slowly her voice changed to a very deep male voice; a totally different voice from this feeble old woman voice to a very strong male voice. And that man, just to convince me, told me all the major incidents of my life, which nobody will know. Not just the death of my daughter, but various things connected to it, and also various details. That convinced me because nobody will know those details unless they are connected deeply. I think even my family do not know those details. So all those things were told and I was convinced that this is genuine. Then there was so much of guidance and so many things were going on, I don’t want to go into micro details. It was about a forty-five minutes call, and finally, he asked, “I’m done. Is there anything you want to ask me?” I said, “No. I’m happy that I could speak to you, and I realize that you are from a very high realm.” Then he said, “I am not from Earth, I’m from a different realm, where we guide people at random, as per the instructions from above.” So they also have a hierarchy. Then he asked me, “Is there anything you want from me?” I said, “I would like to continue to talk to Masters of your realm.” He said, “I’ll arrange that.” Then the call was disconnected. When I wrote to this lady once again, thanking her, she never replied.

So this is something which we must understand. All these connections are matter fact. There is no attachment, there is no emotion, there is no expectation in these relations. A true relationship with a Master will have no expectations, no conditions, no bindings, no boundaries. This is something that you should always remember when you are connecting to higher realms. Don’t think that everything is obligatory; it is not so. All they want to do is that they found fertile ground and they want to sow the seeds of Liberation there, that’s all. They have no other interest. They don’t expect any gratefulness, they don’t expect anything in return.

So this is exactly how the true spiritual world works, which was my practical experience. Later on, I met various Masters on the Earth realm also, and they were all the same: whether it is Vittal Babaji, Ganeshananda Giri Babaji, whether it is Vasudevan Swami of Vajreshwari, Devi Amma of Bangalore, Avadhoota Nadananda of Kurnool, Lamperi Babaji, Taradas Swami, and numerous Masters, even Swami Govindananda of Rishikesh, all those Masters – everbody was selfless. Whenever I discuss with any of those Masters, I feel free because there are no expectations connected to it. Such Masters will come your way when your eligibility increases.

As I said earlier, eligibility is inner silence. How much deeper into yourself you have gone, that much silent you have become. The thoughts per second reduce. If your mind is not oscillating to the past or the future, if you are not dwelling on guilt, or regrets, and those kinds of things connected to the past, or anxieties of the future, you will be more or less stable in the present. And do your best in the present. Also understand – in the karmic law, it’s not the same do’s and don’ts of the human law. Human law’s do’s and don’ts are connected to the security aspect. The security aspect is connected to survival instinct, it’s a by-product of the survival instinct. Human laws are the by-products of the survival instinct, which across the species is the same. When you look at everything through the human law, you may not understand the karmic law.

In karmic law, the fundamental truth is fulfilment. Karma is connected to pending desires, something which you need fulfilment for, and the natural culmination is fulfilment. The higher culmination is that you don’t need fulfilment, because you’re beyond it. Even though that feeling was there, you are not worried about it, you are not bound by the fulfillment aspect so that you overcome it and then you don’t need it. So we must understand the karmic law clearly. As you grow higher, many of the things which the Saints do, you may be very surprised, how come? In that context, we talk about Lord Krishna. He supposedly had 16,000 + wives… And people say He is the perfect Brahmachari. How is that possible? Krishna was fully Brahma, only occupied in Supreme Consciousness. Whatever activities he was doing on earth, he was definitely not attached to them. He was performing various roles on earth as per the demand of the time. Even as a small child, he was protecting himself. He killed his opponents,  those who came to kill him, he murdered. And he also killed his uncle. He did all those things which are probably necessary to preserve dharma. He said, “My only purpose for existence is the preservation of dharma.” And they will continue to do that, they will always perform as per the expected law of dharma.

So there, the boundaries are different. He was engaging with a lot of people in different capacities, at the same time he was fully occupied with Brahma – the Supreme Consciousness. When one is fully occupied with the Supreme Consciousness, he is a Brahmachari. That is something which we must understand. I’ll tell you a story connected to it.

A story

The Brijwasis were going to meet Krishna, and they found that Krishna was sitting on the other side of the River Yamuna. But the Yamuna was overflowing and no boatman wanted to cross the river, because it was dangerous to cross the river at that time. So they were all disappointed. They had made lots of sweets and things out of cow’s milk and ghee etc. They had made everything possible which Krishna loved. But they couldn’t cross to the other side because of the overflowing river. They were disappointed and they all sat down and found that there was a Master meditating under a tree, just a short distance away. They all went towards him, and sat in front of the tree, looking at the Master. When the Master opened his eyes, he saw the people sitting there. He said, “Oh, you’re waiting here. What are you waiting here for? What can I do for you?” They said, “We were going to see Krishna, but the river is overflowing. We can’t cross, so we are all sitting here. We don’t know what to do.” Then he asked them, “What do you have in your bags? What are you carrying?” They said, “These are all sweets which Krishna likes, so we’ve made them. We expected to bring it to his palace so that he can also relish them with his people.” Then he said, “Can I see? Open this.” So they opened and showed him, and he started eating. He ate almost half of it. He was apparently very hungry, and they were getting embarrassed. They were thinking, “Now what will we tell Krishna if we can cross the river, that what we brought for you, somebody else ate?” They were a little worried. He said, “Don’t worry, pack it, come.

That saint was sage Vyasa. Vyasa took them to the edge of the River Yamuna which was swollen and overflowing because of the floods, and he commanded to the river, “If I have not eaten (consumed) anything, let the river part.” They had seen in front of their eyes that he had eaten. He’d eaten almost half the basket and he was telling that he had not eaten anything. They didn’t understand, but the river parted and all these people crossed the river. Sage Vyasa stood where he was, everybody crossed the river and they went to the other side safely. Then the river again merged, and the floods continued. They were really surprised ”How come this had happened?” They’d seen that he was eating, and he was saying, “If I have not eaten, let the river part.”

While they were walking, they reached a garden, and when they looked into the garden, Krishna was lying there under a tree on a bench, sleeping peacefully. So they waited there. They were very happy that they could meet Krishna. When Krishna woke up in about fifteen minutes or half an hour, he looked at them saying, “Oh, you are all sitting here. When did you come?” They said, “Oh, we just came.” “How did you come? The river is flooding, how did you reach?” They said, “A sage did this, and we came here.”  He said, “Okay, what have you brought?” They were ashamed to say that half of it was already gone, but they opened the baskets and showed him one. “Oh, no, no, I can’t eat anything now, this same thing I ate about an hour ago, I can’t eat anything.” So, when Vyasa ate those things, he ate it without ownership. That means he surrendered to Lord Krishna and he ate, and Lord Krishna actually consumed. So even though it was going through the mouth of Vyasa, it was filling the belly of Krishna. This is something that we must understand clearly in the path of spirituality. The laws of karma are always related to the ownership of action. We lose ownership completely after a while. When you go deeper and deeper into levels of subtlety, there is no ownership possible. We can’t have ownership. We know very well we don’t own anything. We don’t own the sunrise or the sunset. We don’t own our waking or sleep state. We don’t own our birth or death. We don’t own our heartbeats, circulation, respiration, digestion, brain function, nothing. Then we understand, “Oh, this is a show, it’s going on.” Then our approach to the world will be totally different.

We will look at everybody, every being, as karmic beings. They have a duration, they have a reason, they have an expression,  particular character trait, all those things. We will look at everything as our own expression. That will make us very, very stable. All this is possible by developing awareness. To develop awareness, first and foremost, we have to connect with ourselves, look at ourselves, feel ourselves, breathe ourselves, sleep ourselves, everything ourselves. And then we realize that there is no ownership connected.

But let me tell you, do not do violence and say, “I didn’t do that.” That’s a different story. That’s when the mind is cheating, or the mind is trying to delude. That’s not the thing. When you genuinely do not have ownership, your actions also will be pure. The purity of action is connected to lack of ownership of action; no doership, no ownership. That will make your actions pure. And especially if you surrender your actions to the Higher, you will only do pure actions, essential actions based on ahimsa or non-violence. These are all signs of pure action. Pure actions are always non-violent actions. It’s not about what you eat, or where you sleep, or what you drink, or whether you are married, this is not the point, the point is that you are settled inside. Whatever actions you are engaged into, you’re fully settled inside, you’re fully peaceful. You’re just being an expression of the Consciousness, and you are aware of that. So you are always liberated.

This does not need much practice; it needs presence. Practice is often a means to reach this presence. If you’re aware of this, that awareness will bring you the presence and the awareness to the present. So these are the things which you can definitely work on, and it doesn’t matter which environment you are in, or who is with you. If you keep discussing with other people, they can delude you. I never used to talk to anybody, I used to keep my practise to myself. Even if it is the wrong practise, even if it is not so good, it’s fine, no problem. It’s our personal issue, personal matter.

We don’t have to believe, or we don’t have to insist that whatever we do should be successful, because that gives stress, that gives ownership. So we try our best and we connect to ourselves, we start accepting and appreciating, and then we just exist. This is something which you can all practise, there is no problem. Also, always remember, whenever you practice something, the first and foremost is that you have an experience because of the practice. Even if you go to the gym, or you go for yoga, or any other activity, initially there will be experiences. After that, there will be stagnation. The same practice cannot give you the same experience – stagnation. At that point, many people go to different paths. They may go to a different Master, a different method, a different practice. They derail themselves. After that, if you still practise, after the stagnation state is the vacuum state. The vacuum state is that  from the collected (collective sankalpas) memories, feelings and notions, you are detaching to a level of complete silence. So that transition time is a bigger time. Through practice, through your consistent practice, you may transcend into a state of vacuum. Vacuum is the ‘in between’ state, and that is a very delusional state. Sometimes, we may feel that we have lost everything, or we are stupid, or we don’t know what we’re doing, all sorts of things can happen to us. And we sometimes criticise the Master, criticise ourselves, criticise the path, criticise the practice. This is all possible at that time. After that the bliss state comes. If you cross over these three states, then it’s bliss state. That’s a permanent state, you can just be there, and that’s it.

So this is something you should always remember – initially there will be experiences, then there’ll be stagnation, then they’ll be vacuum, and then bliss. Always remember, initial experience will not probably stay long. It may come, it may go, but you need to continue. You need to have conviction, consistency; stick to one path, stick to one Guru, stick to one practice, and then you will reach the highest. This is for sure. When we keep shifting, we reach nowhere. The mind takes you for a ride, all over. This is very important to understand, and if you put yourself, surrender yourself to the practice, glory will be there.

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 2

Mohanji Speaks Zoom Satsang, part 2

24th March, 2019

Sensitive but not emotionally reactive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overcoming a sense of isolation

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

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

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

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

Dilute ownership, change your destiny

Q: Can FAITH overcome prarabda?

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

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

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

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

A story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maintaining equilibrium

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha and Ananth Sankaran
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Read Clarity of Purpose Gives Will-Power, Part 1

The Glorious Dead

The Glorious Dead

Most people cannot handle personalities and see only difference between one another. Yet, they display profound emotions when these same people die. Amazing world of pretensions indeed!

I am always surprised at the emotions people display when people die. I always think where these overflowing emotions were when the new dead were alive in their respective bodies.

Ram Charan died last evening. He was ill, hospitalized and was in a helpless condition since long. None of his relatives displayed any substantial compassion. He was a school teacher and none of his ex-students provided any substantial help. His own children were not too happy at the “loss of money” on behalf of their father. Only his wife was at his side till the end. She did her best to keep him comfortable. This being the state, after death, many people came to pay respects. Society called for a meeting to mourn the death of Ram Charan. Many wept, looking at the dead body. Many grieved in public. I sat and watched the show with a smile. It all looked like a comedy show for me. 🙂

Only his wife was at his side till the end. She did her best to keep him comfortable.

I am always surprised at the emotions people display when people die. I always think where these overflowing emotions were when the new dead were alive in their respective bodies. Most people cannot handle personalities and see only difference between one another. Yet, they display profound emotions when these same people die. Amazing world of pretensions indeed!

Human relationships are grossly conditional. Any close associate or friend can turn around and scandalise you at the drop of a hat, for any paltry reason.

One thing must be remembered. Human relationships are grossly conditional. Any close associate or friend can turn around and scandalise you at the drop of a hat, for any paltry reason. Relationships are based on relevance. A sick old man often becomes irrelevant in the gross world of time, money and profits. Their past contributions to the family and society becomes irrelevant with time. Words of gratitude dry up with time, too. Utility value is calculated in detail by even their own children. It is important to shed expectations as we grow older and consider whatever comes our way as grace and blessing. In the modern age of mad rush for profits, this is the best attitude for survival in peace. Keeping sufficient money for a decent burial at hand’s reach also is a good idea. There are no emotions here. Just hardcore acceptance of reality and truth as it is.

It is important to shed expectations as we grow older and consider whatever comes our way as grace and blessing.

It is also important, as we grow older, to catch God, slowly detaching from the terrestrial entanglements. Merge into God consciousness more and more consciously. This will take away the suffering from our pains. This will help us detach from ourselves and our silly emotions, too. This will dilute expectations and increase our level of satisfaction. It is important to be real. It is important to understand between the real and unreal. A practice which just occupies the mind temporarily and leaves us back into misery as soon as it is over, is certainly not the right path. Perpetual bliss, objectivity and equanimity must be achieved. This needs shedding of our old patterns, habits, fears, expectations…so on and so forth. As we grow older, if we move more and more into realms of equanimity, rather than differences, life would become complete. Liberation will happen sooner or later.

Perpetual bliss, objectivity and equanimity must be achieved. Shedding expectations, binding habits, fears, etc. and liberation will happen.

We must be aware that we are bound by concepts, especially pertaining to Kundalini, chakras, aura, so on and so forth. In absolute sense, they all are distractions, mind’s playground. Concepts delay our spiritual evolution. It alienates us from truth. Sensations are experienced by the mind. It craves for more. It craves for repetitive sensations. Repetitive sensations create habits. Habits bind us and leads to stagnation in spiritual journey. Spontaneity and fluidity are essential for growth in spirituality. This clarity is a minimum requirement for any seeker.

Spontaneity and fluidity are essential for growth in spirituality.

I meant this note just as a statement, an eye opener, at our own spontaneous pomposity; a mirror to our shallow existence of gross pretensions. If we are able to gather ourselves from our pretensions, we are redeemed. If not, there is no other choice than repeated births and deaths until total nullification.

Remember – Shivoham. We are truly the seed of God. Choose Godhood.

I always love you

M

We are truly the seed of God. Choose Godhood.

The Gross and The Subtle

Dear All,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The “way out” lies within us… Mohanji

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The causeless happiness

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

I hope I have clarified the question at hand.

Bless You

M