The Consequences of Disobeying Sai Baba

Mohanji is a spiritual Master whose awakening was graced by Sai Baba of Shirdi. He guides many on the path and works tirelessly to spread His teachings. Mohanji reminds us that Sai Baba’s words are the pure expression of Supreme Consciousness, and talks about the consequences of disobeying Him.

A Master who operate from Pure Consciousness (when I say ‘Master’, that means a person who has already dissolved his mind or somebody who has gone beyond the nirvichaar samaadhi – that means the no-thought state), when such a Master  gives a command or when he suggests something, it’s from pure Consciousness, because there is no vested interest, there’s no agenda. And we have so many examples of that in Sai Satcharita. Various devotees have written separately as well about Baba telling something, and when they did not follow that, dire consequences happened. This is for sure, because Baba is talking from Pure Consciousness: “Yes, do it” ,”No, don’t do it.” That’s coming from clear, clear Consciousness, so the words are with absolute clarity. It’s not from the mind. Mind can give distorted views. That’s what we see in the world today, the things which we read are all opinions.

Most of the things given in the newspaper and in the media – they are all opinions – and they don’t have lasting value. But those that come from clear Consciousness have lasting value, they have permanence. So when a Master like Sai Baba instructs something and it is not followed, the loss is to ourselves. If we don’t follow, it’s our loss. Several times I have observed that various Masters have given absolute clarity to people, that have even been reasons to avert wars and bloodshed and so many different things, even things which will affect a society or a country. But what happens is that the human mind comes into play, we start analysing – “Oh, the Master said this! Why did He say that? What is the reason?“

Analysis has no value here. What comes from Pure Consciousness cannot be analysed, and when we analyse, we do not even understand!  That is why when a person had an upset stomach, Baba gave him peanuts. Peanuts are not good for that state, but he got cured. That’s exactly coming from the Consciousness. And the command, the intention, the purity of intention, the strength of intention – that brings forth a change in the person, at a physical level, emotional level, intellectual level, spiritual level, any level, there is a change.

So if we have really understood Baba, we should assimilate what He has been telling. And there are so many examples in our life; when we open the Satcharita and read, we can get some information. Sometimes, or mostly, Baba shows the page to read. If you just open the page, the right page will come. And when you read it, then you get an answer. And that answer should be executed with faith.

Here, there are two things. One – the analysis often takes the faith away. If you have deep faith, that automatically opens or clears the blockages. Many times, we have severe blockages inside. We do not trust well. We do not trust ourselves, we do not trust the Master, and sometimes we do not trust the suggestions also. Then the Master is not responsible. His job is done. He told you what to do. And if you did not do it, the Master is not responsible anymore. It’s like a physician prescribing a medicine for a cure. And if you did not trust the physician, nor the medicine, nor yourself, you may not consume it,  and the disease stays, the ailment stays.

Just like that, in our life we should first and foremost, have faith in ourselves. Clear faith in ourselves. So that your awareness opens up, and with that opened awareness, you connect to a Master. And when you assimilate the information, you will always be guided well – the path will be clear, destination will be clear, journey will be clear. This is how it works.

Why then are we connecting to a Master, to Sai Baba ? The very, very basic reason is  our opportunity for an increased awareness, which takes suffering away.

Suffering is a misunderstanding, suffering means we are resisting something in life. Suffering is that we did not understand, or we did not accept an event or an experience. But pain will be there, because we have a body. The body will have all its ups and downs, its ageing and all the factors connected to any body. But suffering – suffering is our choice, it’s our state.

Pain without suffering is a state, it is a sign of a state of higher elevation. Baba had pain. Once somebody threw a stone at Baba. He had an injury, blood was coming. Then people said, “Oh, Baba, you’re injured!” He said, “Injury is here, pain is not here, pain is there!” (pointing to God)  That means He did not even connect to His body – somebody threw a stone, and they will pay the price for it.

So if somebody abuses us, we don’t have to worry – they will pay the price. The people who abuse us will pay the price. Somebody praises us, again, it is their pleasure. We don’t have anything to do with it. So we will reach a level of equilibrium where nothing can touch us. We are stable, in a way.

If people come to see you, you’re happy. If people do not come to see you, you’re still happy. That means our dependency level in this world becomes so low and so reduced, that our stability can never be affected. Otherwise our dependency, our expectation, our need and desire, all these things will pile up and then we become a burden to ourselves. Like we may walk, very tired and there’ll be no lightness.

So a Master of the calibre of Sai Baba is brimming lightness, brimming light, brightness. That is because He had nothing to do with this world. He came as an expression of Supreme Consciousness and lived, and He lives on as an expression of Supreme Consciousness. This understanding should be very clear for every devotee of Baba, so that your connection with Baba will be your highest experience of this existence. Because you will know that this is your opportunity to reach the highest in this existence.

And please understand – nobody else is Sai Baba. Sai Baba is Sai Baba. Everybody is their own incarnation. Every person who is born will also die. So don’t compare one with the other, there cannot be a comparison possible. You cannot compare yourself with another, nor another with another. These are all separate incarnations.

You can connect to everybody. You should connect to everybody, equally. Never criticise, judge, or compare, for the mind will become contaminated. Instead, purify the mind through good actions, good thoughts, good words, good expressions, and then life will be a life blessed by Baba.

 

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic

Proofread by Geetha Iyer

 

 

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Who is Sai Baba?

 

I have heard of this confusion: “Who is Baba? Who is Sai Baba? Is he a God? Is he a Guru? Is he an Avadhoota? Is he a Master of a certain path or segment like the Nath Tradition or the Avadhoota Tradition?” Various questions of this nature come up. It has come to me as well. I have heard that. I have read that.

I always think about one thing – Does it really matter? The lifespan of a human being in the Kali Yuga is about 100 years. Out of these 100 years, the effective years are the times when you are available to the world, when you are serving the world, when you are giving something to the world. That’s the only effective years.  Out of 7.5 billion people on Earth, many people do not have any effective years. They live their whole life for themselves – eating, drinking, sleeping, entertaining themselves, some pleasures of the mind, and things like that. But if you look at the life of Baba, almost 100 percent of his existence, as we know – in Dwarkamai and beyond – has been for the world. So, his life has been totally effective, almost 99 percent, we say. We don’t know about the time when he was not in Dwarkamai, or before that. Who is Baba is what he has delivered.

We only know certain things from certain literature, but I am 100 percent sure, and we all know, that he has done much more. As you know, he is doing a lot today for thousands of people across the world. You can see his presence in all the continents. A person who lived in a small dilapidated place in Shirdi has reached every corner of the Earth, many years after his physical existence. Isn’t that a miracle? It’s a huge miracle! So who has the power to create that miracle? That is him.

Whether he is an Avadhoota, whether he is a Siddha, whether he is a Guru, whether he is God, it does not matter. As far as his presence is concerned, he is pure Consciousness. If there are boundaries, like we have boundaries – physical boundary, emotional boundary, and intellectual boundary – we have all these boundaries, various boundaries, various frames, and we are those frames and we can’t go beyond those frames, because we do not allow ourselves to cross those frames and boundaries. This is our usual life.

But Baba never had a boundary. What does that mean? He is pure Consciousness. Then what is his body? Just a representation. Without that representation, you can’t connect to the pure Consciousness. He brought himself as a representation for the sake of humanity, and he took a suitable form. He is neither a Hindu, nor a Muslim, nor a Christian, nor a Buddhist… He is everything – as a form which is suitable for everybody to connect to the pure Consciousness.

So whether he is a Guru… If somebody looks at him as a Guru, he is a Guru. If somebody looks at him as God, he is God. If somebody looks at him as an Avadhoota, he is an Avadhoota. If somebody looks at him as a Nath, he is a Nath. This is a round object. He is everything.  Pure Consciousness is everything. Pure Consciousness is you and I. Pure Consciousness pervades the whole Universe – not only the Earth, but well beyond. Representation of that pure Consciousness in a body which can be related to, conceived a body which can be connected to, and that is what he is. We define him as per our capacity, as per our boundaries, that’s all we do. But is Baba that? For you, yes! As per your boundary, you have understood him as per whatever you think he is. That’s about it. So we must understand that great, great Masters are never born, they will never die, as Baba is proving every moment. They are all-pervading, and through every idol of his, he talks, he communicates, he gets people to connect to him.

So pure Consciousness without boundaries – that’s him. And whichever form that goes in, that form is the pure Consciousness. That does not limit the pure Consciousness, that’s what we should understand. No limitation. We have a limitation, we discriminate people, we look at people – “Oh, he is this form.” We only understand based on forms. That is why we have confusion between Gurus. What is the role of a real Guru? To connect you to the Supreme Consciousness, or to remind you that you are the Supreme Consciousness, which you are searching for. This is the role of every Guru. But we look at a Guru as a problem-solver, or somebody who will tell you your future. If you want to know your future, you are a bundle of insecurities. Only when we have lots of insecurities, we will want to know what will happen tomorrow. If we are completely surrendered, and if we are fully merged with the Supreme Consciousness, we wouldn’t want to know what will happen tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. Or something like, “Okay, if I am born, I will die.” That’s about it, in between what happens doesn’t matter.

So like that, when you are deeply connected to a Master as powerful and as glorious as Baba, we will only feel ourselves in him, what we are in him. That’s exactly why thousands of people are coming to Shirdi today. They all see themselves in Baba. They get their problem mirrored or reciprocated from Baba and that gets solved, most of them get solved. How does it get solved? It is as good as how much you surrender. Say, “It doesn’t belong to me, I leave it to you. My life is not mine; this physical form has no value, I leave it to you.” That brings you more and more peace, more and more stability. So, who is Baba? The fundamental question. Baba is YOU. How you are, that’s how you see Baba.

But is Baba one thing? He cannot be. If he is one thing, all these people in the world cannot connect to that. A flat object – only a few people will connect. Not everybody can connect. For everybody to connect, that object or that person should have a round character. He’s not bound. Whatever is bound needs liberation. Whatever is unbound needs no liberation, because they are liberation already.  This is Baba. So if ever you have that question as to, “Who is Baba?” ask yourself, “Who am I?” And then you will find the answer.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

 

 

 

Have You Truly Surrendered to Sai Baba?

 

 

It’s natural that we approach a Master with a lot of expectations, and usually or many times, we see that we only go to a temple, or a Samadhi, or a Master, only when we have some problem. We see that happening in life. If we are completely fine, we are perfect, and we are happy, we don’t go anywhere. We don’t even thank God or thank Gurus. But when we have a problem, that’s the time when we go to a Master, or go to a Samadhi, or go to a temple and ask for help. So, like Kunti Mata has said in the Mahabharata to Krishna, to always keep her unhappy, sad, so that she always remembers God. This is human nature. We remember God only when we are not happy. But that should not be the case; we should be connected to God all the time. Every day when you wake up, you should be thanking God.

The highest prayer is the prayer of thanks, gratitude. Gratitude is very, very powerful. That’s a very, very potentially powerful prayer. When you are deeply in distress; imagine you are in a kind of a distressed state, things are not happening well, things are falling apart, first and foremost, what you should do is to stop complaining. Because when you complain, when you are expecting too much and if you are complaining, you are actually increasing the pain. It’s almost like a thorn which has pierced your leg, and when you keep shaking the thorn, the pain will persist, and the wound will become bigger. Like that, when you keep on complaining, then the pain will be more. This is one point.

Second is a very important point, it is that we should be aware – there is a reason for every effect, there is a cause for every effect. No effect happens by itself, there is a reason. So what would be the usual reason for any effect in life? Something – a memory which is stored within, and which is actually accented because of repeated storage, or repeated thoughts about it. Like you can see some people whom you do not like in life, you remember them all the time. You know, those whom you remember all the time have actually influenced you in your life. Have you observed that? This you see in your life. Whom you are remembering all the time – maybe they are your enemies – but they are influencing your thoughts, they are influencing you. Like that, potential fears – fears about losses, fears about diseases, fears about not being appreciated in the society, not being accepted, and all these fears create those kinds of effects in life, which no Guru or God has anything to do with, which we are creating every moment. This awareness should be very clear in the mind, it’s very important.

If we are not aware of the patterns we are creating, because life is full of patterns; and patterns are a continuous process, we keep hopping from body to body, but the patterns will continue. When we hop from one body after death to another body, a new birth, we carry all these things. The patterns are in continuation, they continue. These patterns keep repeating, and the same kinds of effects are brought.

It also means a lack of acceptance. So the way you can overcome these patterns is through acceptance and surrender. Acceptance is very important. “Okay, this is happening now, let me take a deep breath, fine.” Not blaming immediately, criticizing, screaming, shouting and complaining. That won’t help you, because that will actually increase your pain. Instead, you are accepting them. Accepting doesn’t mean that you are like a doormat, where anybody can walk over you. Instead, you are accepting, and then at a certain point in time, you say, “Baba, this is happening, I’m sure this is happening because of my past patterns, maybe fears, maybe some kind of resistance, but I leave it to you.”

Acceptance and Surrender, they go hand in hand. They will release you a lot from the stress, and then you can see miracles happening. Usually, we do not surrender enough. We keep it to ourselves, we say, “Oh, this is happening. Why am I praying to Baba for all these years… Baba is not taking care of me…” This is the usual way people talk, but that’s not the truth. You are not allowing Baba to take care of you because you are not accepting it. Resistance means that you have not come to terms with your reality. Resistance is a clear sign you are not correlated or coming to terms with your own reality.

Acceptance means you have come to terms with your reality. From that point, you surrender to Baba. I would say you discuss with Baba like you discuss with a close friend, you talk to Baba. “Baba, look here, this is what’s happening. You know it very well and now let’s work it out together.” Something like that, just like a casual discussion, not even a prayer and say, “Baba, thank you for being with me, through happiness, through sorrows, thank you for being with me.” And you will see the effect much better, rather than complaining, criticising, judging, screaming, and shouting. This will only increase your agony, and also, that closes doors. And you are actually testing Baba that way, “Now, are you going to do something for me? Are you going to help me?” Baba is not your servant; Baba cannot be your servant. He is our ally, he is our support, and he is our friend. He is our closest possible friend, who has no discrimination. He never judges. He never discriminates anybody. There’s no poor or rich in his world. All are the same. Everybody can connect to him as the closest friend and the closest ally. Ownership creates pain. Surrender releases all the pain. This is the secret.

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When you own all your doings, “I am doing it, I’m doing it,” the ego, the mind-matter is getting involved, and that creates pain. But you can surrender, “You are doing it, I’m not doing it, it’s happening through you.” I don’t mean that you can do all sorts of crimes and say, “I’m not doing it.” That’s not the point, it should be pure stuff.  The intention should be pure; the intention should be selfless. You can never, ever do things selfishly and say, “It’s Baba doing it.” That’s not good, because that’s got a huge price to pay. Maybe you may not be able to complete it over, let’s say, the next 10,000 lifetimes, that much a price! I always say, don’t do these things where you are using a Master’s name for your selfish reasons. And one thing is very clear – Baba, Babaji, or any of those great Masters will never ever ask anybody to harm anyone. NEVER. They will only say, if at all, “Detach from this place, detach from this person, don’t be there!” That’s all. He will never say, “You go and attack that person, insult that person, character assassinate that person.” Never! This is guaranteed. You can look at history. These Masters are pure Consciousness. They will never ever want to harm anybody. This is the truth.

If you are in deep sorrow, accept it first, then discuss with Baba, “I’m going through this process, you are watching, I leave it to you.” Then you keep quiet and let him do the work. You have surrendered, that’s about it. And gratitude – “Thank you for being with me.” Always be thankful, always be grateful.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

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

How Sai Baba Can Give You Darshan In Any Form

 

To a person who is existing as a unit (this means, he is fully occupied within),  the world outside is only an extension, he is fully aware. For all of us too it’s the same. Our world is how we are; it is not how the world appears to be because we don’t see the real world, the true world.  We don’t see the truth one hundred percent, we only see relative truth. We see the truth as we are, as our flavour is. We have already discussed this. We have seen great Masters like Sai Baba, who attend to the call of all the devotees. None of these Masters, especially Sai Baba,  ever leaves anybody unfulfilled. They always fill them up; they always leave their hands full. Nobody connects to Baba and goes back empty-handed. This is clear.

Some people invite Baba, “Please come home or have food”, or “Please attend the wedding in our house”, or “Please attend a ceremony.” Baba will fulfill it, if the prayer is very honest and sincere, and  with full surrender, Baba will say, “I will come”, and He will come. Probably not as Baba in the form we know. He will come in any form. It could be a bird, a dog, a cat, a cow, a monkey, it could be a person like a beggar, or a wandering monk, or some such form. Often we expect Baba in His known form, and we miss Him.. And Baba has said, “I came to your house, but you beat me”. This means a dog came at the time that  He was supposed to come. He came in the form of a dog.

We must understand that there are two options – one is that you create a form; the Master can create a form for the sake of presence. This  means the energetic presence is conglomerated into a suitable form for that particular event, that particular activity, and then it is dissolved. This is possible. Otherwise they work through a form that already exists. The dog is already there. The Master’s energy enters into that form, for that purpose, and goes to that place. The entire  responsibility of that body is that of the Master; and then He goes to that place to fulfil the promise. But if we don’t see the truth,  if we misbehave or if we don’t respond properly, we miss the chance. It has happened many times.

This is also why it is important that we should not take any being for granted. We must consider all beings as an expression of pure consciousness, and treat them accordingly, so that we don’t miss Baba or the Masters. Whenever I go to places of worship, I  like to feed the poor people, the birds and animals there. I derive  more satisfaction doing that, than in entering the sanctum sanctorum. Of course, you go in and pay respects; but the most satisfaction happens,  grace happens, when you are  making all the beings happy. There is no more happiness than in delivering food, annadaan.

Annadaan is serving food that makes someone  fulfilled, and when they are fulfilled, great Grace comes into you. That’s why they say Annadaan is Mahadaan. Serving food is the greatest of sharing, serving. It’s very important that we should see Baba in every being. Baba can definitely come in any form. It could be a human being, in the form of a beggar. So look at everybody as a potential Baba and serve them.  Just ask them, “Are you hungry?” I always do that. “Are you hungry?” If they are hungry, give them good food, good quality food.

I’ll narrate an experience I had in this context. On the New Year’s Eve of 2014 or 2013, I was in Mookambika with a few others. The temple of Mookambika, is in Kollur, Karnataka, in the south of India. It is an  amazing temple;  most of the great Masters have spent some time there with the Mother Goddess. It’s a  very powerful temple. Mother is really sitting there or Mother’s presence is felt there. So I wanted to spend the New Year there. As I was coming out of the temple,  I saw  a man, decently dressed, but it was obvious  he was asking for money or food. When I saw him, he extended his hand, as if  he was asking for something. I asked him “Are you hungry?” because I was going for breakfast. He said, “Yes, I am hungry.” I said, “Come with me.” So we went to the restaurant, and he occupied a  table, my companions and I sat at another table. I told the waiter, “Whatever he wants, give it to him.  Let him consume, and give the bill to me.” He did not eat much, he only ate moderately.  Once he was done, he came to me and said, “I am satisfied.” So I asked him, “What about your lunch? Do you want to take a parcel from here?” He said, “No, don’t worry, I am ok.” I asked him, “Do you have water?” He replied, “No I don’t have water.” So I bought him a bottle of water.

Mohanji in Shirdi 2016

Mohanji in Shirdi 2016

He then left  and we continued our food and left. Next day, in the morning, the same incident happened. When I came out, I saw the same man, and he was standing at the same place. I asked him, “Are you hungry?” He said, “Yes“.And then the same thing happened. .

That day I was planning to go to the river in the area to take a dip. It’s  a very sacred river.  However my companion and I lost our  way and  went to a different road.  We turned around and reached a temple,  the temple  was not in our  original plan. We were only planning to go to the river. When we came to that place, there was a verandah, a kind of a platform, where I saw  the man who had breakfast.  He was lying down. When he saw me, he came towards me, and  explained a little bit about the temple. Many pictures were taken at that time   but in none of the pictures this man was seen. Then we went to the temple, and by the time I came out, he had disappeared. I never saw him again. Obviously he was not a human being. He was probably a Master or  someone else, I don’t know. Probably his mission was to bring me there, and of course, he did not lead me like a guide; he was already there when I reached. But in all the pictures taken there, he was not there, his space was blank.

I am giving this story to you, just to tell you that at various times, the person  in front of you, the one  coming to you,  may not be an ordinary person.  If we fail to see them,  throw them out, ask  them to go away, or abuse them, we miss a lot. We should never abuse anybody; we should never talk badly about anybody. We should always have the attitude of serving. We share what we have. They don’t expect more than your capacity, ever. Share what you have, within your capacity, and don’t look at whether they are in human form, or in the form of an animal or a bird. That is why we have this custom in our system, that we serve every being. We do that in our place also; before I eat food I will ensure that food is distributed around our house: food is kept outside at  specific places  for the birds,  insects,  and animals such as  squirrels. They come and eat, and only after that I consume. Thus  we first give food to the beings outside the house and then  we eat,  so that the food that we consume is blessed food,  consecrated food. By giving to various beings, we are consecrating our food, then we consume. It can be anybody who is consuming.  I keep some food under the tree, birds will come; animals or other beings will come and eat. They will be satisfied, and then we consume – that’s pure food, blessed food, it will be completely non-toxic.

Mohanji feeling the Saligram stone gifted by Sai Baba to Nanasaheb Dengle

Also always, when you serve, serve good food, not food that you don’t want, not bad (spoilt) food. Even if you are giving it to a dog,  a cat, or any other being  in nature, always ensure that you are giving food, which you will consume.  Similarly with  clothes; we must only give clothes to others that we will use, which is comfortable for us; not that we give something that we don’t want.

Whenever we do things with the right attitude, it enhances our energy, it opens us up, it removes blockages. We must always remember, this is  the path of Baba. When you say you are a devotee of Baba, it  should be the lifestyle; an attitude of service all the time, an attitude of gratitude all the time.

It is not  that you go to Shirdi often, for something. That’s not the way to serve Baba. When you really respect Baba, when you love Baba, when you think you are connected to Baba, these will be the signs of that connection. That means you are here to serve; you will not compete with people, you will not talk bad, you will not criticise, judge, gossip, defame, shame somebody. You will not do any of these,  you will respect everybody. Everything is part of a karmic agenda, everything has a karmic allowance to it, so we respect that. If you don’t want to participate, you can very well not be there, that is fine; but standing there and abusing, criticising, judging, defaming, shaming, these are  not good, because then it is huge contamination entering your system.

You should always remain pure, like a young  child, like  a newborn, always remain pure. Then when you leave the body, you are leaving a pure body to earth, not a contaminated body.  So serving has a lot of value in the system. It’s very important. Always remember this.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Sai Baba and the Master of Akkalkot/ Swami Samarth Miracles

Swami Samarth is a very powerful Master in the Datta Tradition, the perfect Avadhoota. We do not know many details of any Avadhootas, because Avadhootas just happen. They come from nowhere, we don’t know their parents, and we don’t know much detail. Even in Sai Baba’s case for that matter, we don’t know much about him, of his past, and he never explained also. Because when a person becomes a purpose, everything connected to the person becomes insignificant. That’s a transition from a person to a purpose. A person with a personality has all the other things connected to the personality. Which means he has to maintain his parents, the lineage, all those things. But, when a person becomes a purpose, it all dissolves.

Likewise, Swami Samarth of Akkalkot, we do not know much about him, but we know that he had been extremely powerful. One of the major things which I constantly remember is that he had this ability to bring back somebody after death, and give them a job or get them a job in the terrestrial existence, in the earth plane. Not many swamis or many saints have done that, as far as I know, not many Masters have performed that miracle. Usually what happens is, when a person leaves the body, when the soul exits the body, it is preparing for taking the next life. It will go through a process of assimilation and then it takes a birth in another body. That’s the usual process. So it’s not easy to retrieve a soul and give a job, or probably give a body for the time being to do a job, but Akkalkot Swami has done that, in his story, you can read this. He was walking along the banks of the river, and he saw a man and said: “What are you doing here? Go home! Your child was crying, so I’ve told your father to look after the child, and he’s taking care of the child.” The father of this man had already died, he was no more. So the man was surprised, how can he take care of the child! He rushed home, and saw his father attending to the child. And then, as soon as he came in, the father disappeared. I had an almost similar experience, when I visited Akkalkot for the first time.

The first thing was I visited the Samadhi where his body is kept. We prayed and came out. While I was coming out, there was an old woman who resembled Akkalkot Swami, exactly like Akkalkot Swami, but in a woman’s body, the face was similar. She was doing something on the steps, marking on the steps with vermillion and probably sandalwood paste. She looked at me, I bowed down and said: ”Is there something I can do for you” She said: ”No, it’s time for me to go inside.” And she walked inside and disappeared, probably into the Samadhi. I believe it was Akkalkot Swami giving darshan as a woman, and blessing us.

Then we came to the place where he had actually left the body, the tree. And while coming out, our car driver wanted to have darshan. He was sitting in the car until then. He said he will go and have darshan inside, meanwhile myself and my companion waited. The car was parked in a place where it was not a parking place; it was a place where the buses turned. I told my companion to go and tell the watchmen, the guard there, that we will take the car soon, we were just waiting for the driver to come. He came running and said, “No, you can’t park the car here” and stuff like that, which we expected. Meanwhile, he looked at us and said, “Oh! Swami had told me in the morning….” Every morning, he used to read the book, the story of Baba, i.e. Swami Samarth of Akkalkot. Swami Samarth came to him that morning and had said, ”My people are coming, my boy is coming, take care of him. Take him to the Dargah” (a place of a Muslim saint nearby). He said, “I’ll take you there.” Then the driver came and he took us all there. We drove to that place, we payed respects there. We were close to Akkalkot, the place where Swami used to reside, and he left us. We then went further to Narasimha Saraswati’s ashram in another location. And while we were coming back, we landed back in Akkalkot. I said, “Let’s meet this guy and give him some money.” Because I wanted to give him some money, and he didn’t wait for that. We wanted to gift him something. While we were hanging around, we saw a poster which resembled this man exactly, who had died about eighty years ago. That poster was about in memory of him, they were doing some programme. And the man who took us to the Dargah was the same guy! He resembled the same person. That means this person was non-existent! And then I remembered – typical of Akkalkot Swami! He does that. He would arrange some of his followers to come and do a job, so that’s probably why we didn’t meet the man again later. The whole process was typical of Swami.

His connection with Sai Baba, from the same lineage of course, is from the Dattatreya Tradition. When he left the body, a part of his soul merged with Sai Baba, and Sai Baba became more powerful. So his presence started spreading further. Akkalkot Swami’s presence is very, very powerful even now. Those who connect to Swami will know. After he attained Mahasamadhi, some of his devotees were coming to Akkalkot. Swami came in their dreams and said, “Go to Shirdi, I am sitting there.” When they came to Shirdi and looked at Sai Baba, they could see Akkalkot Swami also. So Masters are all one, it’s one Consciousness, different bodies. And if we are stuck with the frames, the forms, we fail to see the truth. It’s very important to understand. Like a Master as powerful as Akkalkot Swami, who could bring back somebody from death, get a job done, and then send him back. For that kind of a powerful Master, for him, every dimension is the same.

We have various living Masters today. Sometimes, during the time of their life we don’t respect them. We don’t appreciate them, we even criticise them, judge them, scandalise them, all those things. But after their death we realise that they had been very powerful. It often takes a few generations to understand the relevance of a living Master, it’s not always understood at that time. It’s very important that we connect to a living Master without any expectations. Also, not imagining that he is something else. You need to accept a Master as he is, because each Master is every Master.

I always remember that story of Akkalkot Maharaj (Swami), how he welcomed us, and we could feel at home in Akkalkot. And the man who took us to the Dargah and brought us back, and he was not there to receive anything from us. Later on, we had seen a picture of him on the wall, of this man who had left his body many years ago. They were doing a memorial service for him. In memory of him, they were doing some work there, some celebration or some service in his name. That’s the same person who took us to the Dargah! This is the relevance of that kind of powerful Masters.

Mostly because of our concepts, prejudices, and our notions, we don’t see the Truth. This is a very big tragedy. Many times we say, “Oh, there is no possibility for a Godman.” This is a Godman, Akkalkot Swami is a Godman. Somebody who is in the body, but is not bound by the body, is a Godman. Liberation is for those people who are bound. Liberation is not for those people who are unbound. They are existing in Liberation. Akkalkot Maharaj, Sai Baba, Shripada Shri Vallabha, Narasimha Saraswati, they were all existing in liberation. They were liberated all the time. There was nothing for them to be liberated from.

We must understand that all the Avadhootas are of liberated existence. They are neither connected to the world outside, nor connected to the world inside.  They are existing as Supreme Consciousness in the body, as a reminder that this is possible. It’s a great possibility, it’s the highest of human possibilities, that awareness. What blocks this awareness, or what blocks this experience, is our mind matter – mind, intellect, and ego. They always trap us in certain boundaries, certain notions, certain concepts, and based on those concepts, we look at the whole world. We fail to see the subtle beings, these are all subtle beings. They operate from a plane of subtlety, they don’t operate from the plane of gross. We see the gross, but that’s not them. That’s only an expression which they create for the people, and how you are, that’s how they respond.

If you go to them with love and reverence, they will express the same. If you go to them with anger, they will express the same. If you go to them with a lot of frustrations, they will express the same. How you are, that’s exactly how they represent themselves. They become that. Just like a pure mirror. When you look into the mirror, you see how you are at that point in time. All these great Masters are like that. They all had their great relevance. They had their presence on earth, they walked this earth, and because of that, the earth became purified. The real India is the spiritual India, the real Bharat which had many such Masters walking this earth. Very, very powerful and transformative, just like Bhagwan Nityananda, for example. An amazing Master. We can’t even put him in any frames, in any boundaries. These are the Masters who have existed, and are still existing. They have not left, even though they have attained Mahasamadhi and their bodies are in the tombs. The places where their bodies are kept are still powerful, very powerful. They still work, sitting there.

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan

 

 

Feel Blessed If You Are a Devotee of Sai Baba

The path of Sai Baba is the ultimate path, the path of the Avadhootas. The Avadhoota path is a path of extreme purification, where self-realisation is only one aspect of it. It’s total dissolution, a state of nirbija samadhi. The samadhi states can be broadly classified into two, sabija samadhi and nirbija samadhi. Sabija samadhi has six stages – savitarka samadhi, nirvitarka samadhi, savichara samadhi, nirvichara samadhi, savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi. These six stages and then nirbija samadhi has only one stage. Nirbija samadhi in simple terms, I would say, the drop falls into the ocean and becomes the ocean.

A Master in the capacity of Sai Baba was a great Avadhoota. The Avadhoota path is a path of total dissolution. When I say total dissolution, all your patterns, all that you have stored, everything that you are, must become ashes. Only then can Shiva wear you. Everything which you have stored in every sheath of yours must burn itself into ashes. So, this path is a path of fire. The path of Shiva is a path of fire. And this path is not easy. Because, we have chosen over many lifetimes, over many paths, we have chosen a path where we say, now I had enough. Now I am ready for the ultimate. Once you reach there, it’s not sensations or experiences anymore. It’s hard core dissolution. Dissolution is a very powerful path. The path of Lord Dattatreya is a very, very powerful path. And it fast forwards all the aspects which you are probably supposed to experience over many lifetimes into one lifetime. And that’s not easy to handle. Some of these things are probably laid out over many lifetimes. They compress it into one lifetime.

Then they intensify that and then dissolve it completely, and you are free. This is a big favour the Tradition does to you. When you are walking the path of liberation, expect all these calamities because each moment becomes intense, because many lifetimes are getting reduced. It’s getting crushed into one; let’s say a hundred lifetimes crushed into one lifetime or a few lifetimes, so that everything is dissolved. That is why this path is intense. Baba never puts any obstacle in anybody’s path, that’s not his interest. His interest is to make you lighter, remove all the things, which he does. When situations happen, which are uncontrollable, Baba intervenes, sorts it out. But, it has to come and go.

Whatever is stored in your mind has to appear through the mind and dissolve. Whatever is stored in your body has to appear through the body and dissolve. Whatever is stored in the physical sheath, annamaya kosha, has to be sorted out through the physical body sheath. Whatever is stored in the manomaya kosha, the mind sheath, should be sorted out through the mind sheath. Everything has to be sorted out in its corresponding sheath. There could be problems connected to the mind, there could be problems connected to the body, all these are connected to its own location, its own nature, and that will be nullified or at least the intensity reduced by Baba. Every Master does that. All the Masters of our Tradition, the path of liberation, the path of Avadhoota, they completely reduce or they try to reduce the burden to a great extent. From hundred percent to 80, to 60, to 40, but some part of it has to be experienced. We do not know how it should have happened, if it was taking its normal course.

When someone asked him, Mohanji answered he gave part of his soul into the Shirdi Sai Baba idol in Canada and his eyes speak through the idol’s eyes.

Imagine it was probably death, but then it got converted to a few injuries or a fracture or something. It can change things in that drastic step. What was supposed to be a very bad situation became a minor situation, but we complain. Oh, I had this problem, I had this situation. But we never understand what was originally planned and what actually happened. All the great Masters, Avadhootas, they lift a lot of weight away from you, they take it away from you and that’s their blessing, their grace. When you are coming into contact with a Master as powerful as Sai Baba, or we come to any Master of the Datta Tradition, most people experience that life turns upside down, calamities happen, etc. When you are fully surrendering, let whatever happen – I am surrendering to you; I won’t leave you; I hold on to you. Then liberation is guaranteed. Because in the path of liberation, all the things, every aspect of you, every possession, position and relation, every aspect of you should be nullified. You should become empty and pure. This is vital, because even one pebble or one small dot can’t exist. When you are moving towards Supreme Consciousness; no desires, total emptiness and completion. This is exactly what a Master like Baba delivers.

When we are walking the path of total dissolution, we must always be aware that the Master never leaves your hand; the Master is actually reducing your burden. But you may not feel so, because you do not know the original agenda, the original script. The Master is really attending to it. It is not easy to understand while you’re experiencing it. But this is the truth. Let whatever to happen, its fine. You’re not worried about your physical, emotional, intellectual, and financial or any other aspect. You are fully there, fully surrendered, and whatever happens, you are not leaving the path. If you have that kind of conviction, tenacity, and consistency, Masters take over. Then it is Baba’s responsibility. Baba says, “Your job is to come, my job is to take care.” So you have to come, you have to stay; you have to stand there steady with consistency, with conviction, and with continuity. Then everything else is provided.

But always be aware, as I said earlier, when things are escaping you or when things are taken out of you, there will be pain, but that pain is worth it because, we are ensuring no more repetitions of it.  Patterns are getting destroyed, dissolved. That’s extremely good, so that you are free from all these things, because patterns have been continuing through lifetimes. That’s all going; it’s all leaving. We are lucky to be in this path, even whether we understand it or not. We are extremely lucky to be under the blessings or grace of Sai Baba. We’re extremely lucky to be under his umbrella. All you have to do is just stay there, nothing else. Don’t go anywhere just be there and accept everything. Acceptance should be total, acceptance of yourself, and acceptance of situations; no resistance, just be there. Baba takes care. As I explained earlier, whenever there was a crisis, there was his hand to support, he will take care.  You will not be a person anymore. You will be a force. That’s the difference.

Transcribed and proofread by Shyama Jay

Mohanji’s Experiences of Shirdi Sai Baba Miracles

I had known about Sai Baba vaguely, more or less like I’ve known about various masters, but I did not connect with him until the early 2000s, and it was quite accidental – of course, there’s no coincidence, but just for the sake of explaining the feeling of how I met Him without planning – I would call it “accidental”. There was a filming happening, somewhere in Gujarat, on the coast. The questions were about, rather the filming was about Management, and I had come to this place for giving that interview. Actually, they were filming me walking on the beach, talking about various aspects of Management. This filming started in front of a small Shirdi Sai temple, a very small temple facing the sea with a full-size idol of Baba. I did not know much about Baba, but I prostrated, I mean, I touched my head at His feet, and we began the interview.  It’s my habit to bow down to any Master, it doesn’t matter which path he follows. There are various idols of Masters, and I always make sure that I bow down to them, take their blessings and start. And that was the first time I bowed down to Sai Baba. This was in early 2000.

And then after this, I was going to Mumbai, and I visited Giri Traders. Usually I pick up books from there, but this time I said, “I don’t need any books, just give me one Sai Satcharita”. I don’t know why I said so. I bought Sai Satcharita and started reading it. Then I went to my house in the South, and while I was reading…I must have read about 14 chapters… Suddenly I got a call from Mumbai, for an interview by… if I remember well, it was Times of India, and they wanted to interview me for the charity activities that I do, in the name of Ammu, my daughter who passed away on 23^rd August, 2000. So, I came for the interview to Mumbai, and then I proceeded to Shirdi. That was the first time I went to Shirdi.

I went in a bus, an overnight journey…and in the morning as I entered the temple, and I felt it was so familiar, I felt as if I had been there before. I had no reason to think like that; I had never come there physically in this life, but I felt that I had been there before, and it was so rejuvenating; there was something happening inside me, it’s like a lot of things changing, transforming, within  me. I can’t put any words to that feeling, but I enjoyed that feeling, and  then I returned.  It was my first trip to Shirdi. But I felt an urge to go there again. The temple and Baba were  pulling  me back, asking me to come back, but it didn’t happen.

 

A few weeks or months went by. I had lost my job and I was trying to figure out what to do next. I needed an income, I needed to have some money to survive, and  I was separating from my first marriage, so many things were falling off from my path. In fact, from 2000, the time when my daughter died in a road accident, many things fell apart, my relationship, my marriage fell apart, then my possessions, whatever I had accumulated – that also got robbed, then the money which I had invested, the property owner decided not to build it and it was almost like a “status quo”, or a stagnant state. I almost lost that money. So, in a way, there was nothing.

At one point in time, in January 2000, I had my family, my wife, my daughter, my job, my income, possessions, everything…and in a few years, I had nothing. So, I was literally stripped of everything I had and I actually started feeling quite naked and alone in the world.

Experiencing the First Miracle of Sai Baba

One of my friends who I worked with earlier, who I knew for a long time, called me and he said he and a few others intend to set up a new business, a logistics company. I’ve always worked in shipping and logistics, from 1989 onwards. So, he said, “We’re setting up a logistics company, and we would like you to head it as CEO. I was unsure. It was a new company, new investment, a huge responsibility; you start building it up from the beginning. So, I was not so sure if this was easy or if I could make it a success. So, I politely refused that offer, but they insisted. And I gave some very silly excuses for not coming to Mumbai for this meeting, but they didn’t agree. They said, “No, you have to come!”

And all the people, the potential partners assembled in Bombay. I also came. When I came to Bombay, I came only for two days. I was buying a small piece of land… I had already bought it, in fact, but I had to pay some more money for a small piece of land near Pune. So I thought: “Okay, I’m coming for this meeting. After the meeting, I will proceed to Pune, pay the money and finish, finalize that contract, and then I’ll come back.” And I had already made up my mind not to take up this offer. So, I came, and they all had come to the airport to receive me. I only had one cabin bag. I didn’t carry anything much. I brought the cabin bag. I had this cheque for this property, my passport, and a few other documents which are needed for registering the land, and some clothes, that’s all; and a book, the Satcharita, which I was reading at the time.

I came to the airport. My friend who arranged this meeting, this connection, he had carried some cash to register this organization, to finalize the venture. So he brought that money, he had cash in his hand, so he asked me, “Can I put this money in your bag, and I’ll hold the bag?” I said, “No problem.” So, he put his money in the bag and he took the bag. Then we went for a discussion in the lounge of a hotel. We all sat there, and spoke a little bit. And then the next day we were to have a detailed discussion, so this was like a preliminary interaction. We agreed on what we had to discuss, what are the fundamentals, the name of the organization and all those things, and I found that I was slowly getting dragged into it, even though I had made up my mind not to go deeper. Something was pulling me into it, so I said, okay, let’s see where it leads. We concluded, decided to meet the next day, and left for the day.

My friend who had brought the money, and was carrying the money, took my bag. He had the bag and since I had a couple of other meetings to attend, I went elsewhere. In a little while, my friend called me and said that he lost the bag! He was supposed to meet me with the bag, in the evening, for dinner. But this was a couple of hours before the dinner and he told me he had lost the bag. My money, my passport, everything gone! Plus, his money ! He had left the bag in the boot of the car, got himself dropped at his destination and had forgotten to pick up the bag. He did not remember the name or the face of the driver, or the license number of the car. There are so many taxis in Bombay; it’s not easy to find this particular one. Also, he didn’t order the taxi; he had just hired a passing taxi from the road. We were in a confused state at that time, and I did not know what to do, how to get my passport back, and the money back, and the cheque book back. I was wondering, “What next?”

One of my friends who is deeply connected to Sai Baba called me. And he asked, “You don’t sound very enthusiastic, what’s wrong?” So, I told him that I had  lost my bag, and that my cheque book and passport were in the bag!  He was silent for a while, and then he said, “Baba will bring that back for you.” I thought he was just saying this to reassure me, so that I would not worry. But I was uncomfortable. Later all of us met for dinner. Although we  assembled, none of us  had an  appetite because we were worried about the bag. We looked around, went  back to where we took the taxi, and tried to trace the bag, but none had any clue and we did not know  how we could find  this taxi.  We asked a few taxis in the area.  “No”, they said, “You took a taxi from the road side; it might have been a passing taxi, not one  from this taxi stand.” So, we didn’t know what to do, but we continued our search…

 

Finally, around midnight, after the dinner, we came to the hotel where we had been earlier. We had enquired with the receptionist and were told, “We don’t know, because the taxi was not arranged  by the hotel.” Now  we came back to the reception, and found  that the receptionist had changed. It was  a new face, a new person;  we explained the situation,  and they asked: “Are you staying here?” We explained that we had been there for just a meeting, a discussion and their response was, “If we find  it, we will give it to you.”  As we were coming out, the watchman of the hotel enquired,  “Why are you leaving? Didn’t you find a  room here?” We explained that we  didn’t come for the room and that were looking for  our lost our bag. Then he said: “Is it a blue bag? With red straps?” We chimed,  “Yes!” “Come and see if this is it”, he added.

We went into his  cabin, and found the bag!!  Apparently, the taxi driver found the bag, and  dropped it at this hotel, believing it belonged  to somebody  from this hotel.  Immediately, I opened the bag; there was no lock.  On the top was the Sai Satcharita, and everything else was below it. In fact, the Sai Satcharita had been at the very bottom because I had put it in first and everything else later, on top of it. Yet,  the Satcharita had moved  and was on the top. It was almost like Baba’s signature, saying, “I brought it for you!”

Baba’s Physical Darshan in Dwarkamayee

Now, the next one was even more dramatic. I was working in an organization in Dubai, and they  had arranged for  a managers’ conference in Mumbai, for all the managers associated at various levels. I was the General Manager of that company. We all came to Mumbai.   In those days, what I used to do is as follows,   whenever I came to India, I would make it a point to visit Shirdi. So, I reach  Mumbai, go straight to Shirdi, have Darshan, and then come back to Mumbai, or go for the next meeting. This was my routine then.  On this trip, while I was sitting at the airport, the person who I referred to earlier, the one who said that Baba would bring my back to me, called.. I was sitting at the airport at that time, and he said “You seem to be travelling, where are you going?” So, I said: “To Shirdi, to see Baba, I’m at the airport.”, Again, he was silent for some time. Then he said: “Expect a big miracle!” I said, “Okay.” I did not know what miracle it would be, but I said: “Fine.”

And when somebody says  something like  “Expect a miracle,” your mind tends to be  occupied with that thought. The same  thing happened to me, I was only thinking about what miracle it would  be, when it’ll be, how it’ll be. So, I was pretty much occupied with that thought, and after a while, I became more relaxed in that regard. I reached Mumbai,  arranged for a taxi, and immediately  travelled to Shirdi. In the morning after  I reached, I freshened up.  Those were days when we could make offerings to  the Dhuni, which Baba had lit. Now it has been closed.  I told  the taxi driver: “Get me something nice, good, substantial, to offer to the Dhuni.” I have always liked to visit Dwarkamayee; it  was a preferred spot for me because I always felt like Baba still sits there.

So, I was standing in the queue and there  was one path  to enter, another, to exit.  They had laid down this procedure so as to avoid a crowd conglomerating and blocking the way.  So you would enter via  one gate,  go through the Dwarkamayee space, and then  exit through another gate. You can’t enter through the exit gate. There was a reasonably long queue to enter Dwarkamayee. So, I stood in the queue and I told the driver of the car to obtain some good offerings for the Dhuni while I stood in the queue. He brought me some materials as requested; I split it into two – gave one-half  to him, and kept the remaining. I moved on, put my offerings  in Dhuni, and  was exiting. There were many  people behind me, and  in front of me.

Suddenly, I saw one man coming towards me from the opposite direction. At that point in time it didn’t occur to me that nobody could  enter through the exit. But this man walked in  and it  was almost as if  he was coming straight to me. And if I remember right, there was a young  child with him, probably about five years of age, maybe the age of Ammu, when she left the body. He came, and  held my hand on my biceps, my right hand.  I can still feel the grip, it was a very strong grip, a strong man, a strong grip, and he held me. And he was wearing an outfit similar to this color. He looked like a Hindu priest. He held my hand, he pointed towards that small pillar, a very small pillar which is in Dwarkamayee. Baba used to lean on it when he used to sit near the Dhuni, he used to lean on it  and it is still there. At that time it was open, now I think it’s covered. He said, “Sar idhar rakho!” “Put your head here!”

I obeyed. I immediately kneeled down, and touched my head on the pillar. Then he said: “Abhi jaao!” Both were commands, only these two. First you put your head here, then get up, leave. All this while, I must have been blocking the flow of pilgrims, because I’m stopping, I’m kneeling down, etc. but it didn’t feel so. People might have been going through me, or maybe I was transparent. I don’t know. And nobody else noticed this man and this child, and my activity did not hinder the flow of pilgrims, so nobody stopped me. And I walked out. And I don’t know where he went, in fact, I didn’t look further. Maybe he was there or probably he just dissolved. I don’t know. I didn’t think at that time about this.

I came out and we were going to Mumbai for the program, and the taxi driver who was behind me did not even know about this. He didn’t bother me with questions. He didn’t know, he didn’t ask me why I knelt down, etc…… He didn’t ask me anything. It’s almost as if  he passed me also, he went ahead. So, it was a very surreal experience.  Once I came out, I decided to leave and I called this friend who had told me about the miracle. I said, “There has been no miracle.” I was expecting something to fall from the sky or materialization, or something similar. But there was nothing. So, I asked him: “Where is this miracle you are talking about? I didn’t feel anything.” Then he said, “Baba came and met you, what else you need?” So, sitting some place so far away, he understood  the happenings at Shirdi.    It was not crazy, it was not an illusion, it was real, and it was true. Baba had come, and he knew about it.

That was a magnificent experience, and I would say a transformative experience too. It’s not only the connection, the subtlety, or the realization of the truth that Baba is alive and visibly active, tangible. Not just that He ensures that transformation is given to those  who are connected to Him. True spirituality is transformative spirituality, that which transforms you.

We follow rituals, we follow Gurus, we follow various activities and we think we are spiritual. But unless transformation happens in life, it is just an activity. Many of us feel that we are spiritual and we often stay in that illusion for a long time. To come out of it is not easy, and even when somebody tells you, “Why are you doing these rituals if it is not transformative?” We will reject the person, not the ritual and still prefer to be in the comfort zone. This was a hardcore experience for me, where I started entering into the world of silence. Transformation means fewer  thoughts. Fewer  thoughts mean your mind is still. Thoughts are materials projected by the mind. Mind has no thoughts, mind is always still, but thoughts come from Samskaras, from the inherent impressions. They come as thoughts and mind projects them. When mind projects them, you are bound to be influenced by them. You are influenced by what is sitting in you.

So here, with Baba’s presence, when Baba held my hand, and asked me to touch my head on that pillar where He used to lean His spine, basically I was touching my head on His spine. Spine is the stairway to heaven, and heaven means complete silence of the mind, a state where you have no desires, no thoughts, you are absolutely still…as Shiva. As silent as Shiva – this is the ultimate transformation, Samadhi. So, I was literally surprised, or pleasantly surprised that without calling, Masters support you.

 

How can a Master support you when you don’t call? Your call is your eligibility. Your eligibility is your conviction with consistency and complete selflessness. Conviction in yourself and your path with consistency and total selflessness. It’s not in what you do; it’s in what you are. So, this makes you eligible for the intervention of the frequencies that can make a change in your life, whether that be living or non-living, it does not matter.

So, this happened and I was on my way. While in the car, I was thinking: “My god, it  was Baba!” I could not even touch His feet. I was feeling so stupid. Baba came, met me, made me do whatever I did, yet I did not understand it was Baba, and I could not touch His feet. This was bothering me for a long time. Then awareness happened. What was meant to happen happened the way it did. It’s not what you want to do. It’s how it was meant to  be. Or everything in life is how it is meant to  be. A place, a situation, an effect, and an understanding, or awareness during that activity, this is all predetermined. Eligibility happens, activity happens. If eligibility is not there, activity is not there. Something very simple.

The Mystical Experience of Being in Shirdi

This was a very different experience that I had, about being in Shirdi when  I was not in Shirdi.  I was not even thinking of Shirdi at that time. I was flying from Munich in Germany to Belgrade in Serbia. It was  2010, if I remember right. That’s the time when the Icelandic volcano erupted. This Icelandic volcano spewed ashes into the sky, and as you may recall, most of the aircrafts were not flying during that time. They were grounded, and many,  trips were cancelled or suspended. I did not know about it. Although I knew that a volcano has erupted in Iceland, and  was spewing ash into the sky, I did not the gravity   or seriousness of the situation.

I was at the airport to fly to Belgrade and nobody told me anything. I saw some  cancellations on the display board but I didn’t think it was because of the ash in the air. I got my  boarding pass, walked to the gate and the flight took off. All along I suspected nothing.  After the flight took off, there was an announcement that the volcanic ash is disrupting the pathway,  hence the flight was being re-routed via Austria and a two and half hour delay was expected.  We had taken off and were mid-air with nothing much to do. Then again, the Captain spoke  informing us that they had not obtained confirmation for using Austrian airspace. But he was certain to get it. He asked us to sit back and enjoy. We would reach our destination but with a three hour delay.  I said to me, “Fine, it’s okay”

I  pushed my seat back and relaxed, when suddenly  I saw myself in Shirdi. It was not a dream, it was a physical experience. Baba was sitting, and I could actually see from the… it was as if I was inside the idol of Baba, looking at the entire  Samadhi area; people were coming, lots of people, hundreds of them  were coming towards the idol and were  passing through both ways. I could see the  stream  of people. I could even identify the colors of the clothes that they were wearing  the men, the women and the children; I could see the groups of people coming in and going out. And I was  inside the idol of Baba, looking at the people, at the pilgrims, and in my heart, I felt  overwhelming love and compassion. It is difficult to explain, it was not just love, it  was an overwhelming compassion for all those who were coming, and also there a kind of energy flowing out from me to them.  I could feel that the entire  area – the idol in the middle, and all around, like a globe, a big bubble of energy.  Thus,  people were entering through this energy, (just like your car goes through a car wash) walked through the energy, and when they exited, it was almost as if they had  taken a bath, their  aura was  cleansed. So, people entered with various colors of aura, but when they went  out, it was all crystal aura, transparent, which means, complete  cleansing happened, similar to a car wash, as I explained earlier.  They enter,  go through the two  sides in the queue,  come in front of Baba,  bow down, and go out completely refreshed. I don’t know how many lifetimes of karma have been  cleansed this way. And I was thinking, “Oh, my God, Baba is cleansing hundreds of people every day!” And my heart was expanding, almost to the point that I felt that it was exploding. I felt,  “Oh, this is how Baba is working!” In fact, Baba gave me a glimpse of how he functions.

Suddenly, I came back to my body. The announcement said,  “Prepare for landing, in thirty minutes we’re landing.” And we reached thirty minutes before time; not two and a half hours late, thirty minutes before the landing time, which is practically impossible! Even if we had taken the straight path, we would not have reached thirty minutes earlier! Those who were supposed to pick me up had not arrived. I came out of the airport and waited for them. And they said: “You came early!” I have no clue how I reached early. Probably even Lufthansa may not know how we reached! If we had gone via Austria, it was an additional two and a half hours; I don’t know which direction we took, I did not hear anything. All I recall is that I experienced the state of being Baba in the Samadhi Mandir. And when I came to my body, became Mohanji again, I had already arrived!

So, this was a very, very transforming experience for me. The overwhelming compassion, with no discrimination between men, women, children; various types of people, various karmic combinations come to Shirdi, to Baba. Baba cleanses them without discrimination. He just gives everybody as much as they can take.

Baba’s Gift of His Padas

I decided to make a Shirdi Baba Temple on a property I had. A gentleman I know, who was a businessman, used to visit Shirdi very often. We made a small plan, and I requested him, “When you go to Shirdi, next time, could you please surrender this plan at Baba’s feet and take His blessings.” Unfortunately, the plan wasn’t ready when he was leaving for Shirdi. So I said, “When you go there, please surrender to Baba, saying that Mohanji is planning this, kindly bless and make it happen”. He did as requested. When he came back to his car, just before he entered it, a person approached him and gave him a packet, which was quite heavy. He took the packet and asked, “Where is this from?” The man said: “Baba sent this.” He was an ordinary looking man, a Maharashtrian and middle-aged. My friend tried to give him some money, but he had disappeared.

He brought the packet along and visited us. It was Padas (feet) of Baba and it was kept in our prayer room of the house in which my parents live. All these events transpired before the temple happened. The Padas remained there and obviously, it was Baba who sent it. Our project didn’t happen. At about the same time, I had started a company for marketing herbal medicines… it was an early 2004 or 2005, and we were winding it up, because it was not going as per plan. Shares of the company had been distributed to many people and we had been ordered by the Court to surrender all the shares in order to close the company. But we could not trace a few shareholders and hence could not obtain all the shares. And we couldn’t close the company without surrendering them to the court. We were extremely worried since the company had recurring expenses and we had to close it.

The court had given us until 8 AM of a set date by which time we had to surrender everything. The previous evening, we did not know what to do. The next morning, when my father opened the Puja room, on this Feet of Baba, was a packet. My father did not know who left the packet there and no one else could have left it there too. He opened it and found all the shares. The shares were in order, from number 1 to the final number of shares we had issued! All the shares in proper order!  He called out for me and said, “This has come!” I said, “Please take it to the Chartered Accountant, and give it to him.” He took it to the Chartered Accountant, gave it to him, and he counted and said, “Oh! Everything is in order.” He went to the court, submitted it and closed the company! That is when I decided, this is Baba, the Feet (Padas) are Baba, and it’s Baba’s presence. I can’t keep it at home like this. Around the same time, Mr. Sunil, Sujatha and family were building a temple in Venoli Village in Palakkad. I donated the Padas to the temple, and it now sits there, it’s still blessing people. It’s a beautiful temple too!

These are all just signs of how Baba works, the hundreds of ways in which he is working all the time. Presence without presence. You can see Baba. When a person becomes Presence, that’s when he expresses being God.

Transcribed by Tijana Sladoje
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Open the Door for Grace, part 2

Satsang with Mohanji in Canada, part 2
26 June 2019

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

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

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

Q9: Can one have two masters?

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

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

Q12: How do you get empty?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q9: Can one have two masters?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q12: How do you get empty?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M: One word answer: Awareness. Be aware.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M: In other words, your projection.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcribed by Sjarn Mansoor
Proofread by Geeta Iyer

The Boy Who Walked with Shirdi Sai Baba

 

I was in the film called Sai Mahima. This was organized by the Shirdi Sai Temple, in Palakkad, in Kerala. I was doing a bit of compéring, like guiding people into the places where Baba used to visit. Also, it was an opportunity for me to go to all these places and that was indeed heartening because it was almost like reliving what I had read in the books.

A person called me from Dubai, and said: “A man who lived with Sai Baba is in Shirdi, and he would like to meet you.”

I countered: “Really?” Shirdi Sai Baba left his body in 1918, so a man who lived with Sai Baba must have taken birth a few years before 1918.  He must be very old. I said, “Definitely, I would like to meet him.” Then he gave me a number. I gave this number to some of my people and  said, “His name is Baba Ganeshanandgiri. He’s a Naag Baba. Get me an appointment. I would like to see him.”

They contacted him and said, “Mohanji would like to see you.” I am told he suddenly showed recognition and added, “Yes, I will meet him. I want to meet him.” The time was fixed. We were in a filming when I received a call  from a hotel, saying, “Babaji is waiting for you, at the hotel. Come quickly.” I rushed and reached there. Babaji had been unwell. He had come out of the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and was recouping when some people called him and conveyed that Mohanji would like to meet him. Babaji responded, “I’m coming right away”.

He came to Gurusthan. I didn’t know that. In fact, no one told me that.  He waited there and collapsed. He was taken to a hotel in the neighborhood where he used to stay. And he was lying there. I rushed in, and was climbing the steps; his head was towards the door; there was no way he could see me. Yet, when I walked up, he said: “Mohanji, aa jaao – Mohanji, come”. Without even seeing me, he recognized and addressed me. And then he told me, “I have been waiting to meet you for the past three years because Shirdi Sai Baba told me – Meet Mohanji.  I was waiting to see you.” Then he added,  “I met one man called Mohanji, who had come from the Himalayas. When I told Baba that I met him, Baba said, ”That’s not him. Another one is coming.” And we met. This was in 2015, and it was such a heart to heart meeting.

 

Baba Ganeshanandgiri’s First Encounter with Sai Baba

His encounter with Baba was fascinating. The first thing he told was that when he was a young child, Baba used to wander; when people gave him something, he would keep it all in a cloth bag that hung on  his shoulder. And when he came to Dwarkamai, if there were children, he would distribute sweets; he would distribute whatever he had to people including the money he collected; he used to distribute everything the same day and sleep empty-handed.

One day, it so happened that he distributed sweets to children, and some of it remained in the bag. He didn’t give any sweets to Ganeshanandgiri as a child who was probably 4 or 5 years old at the time. So what did Ganeshanandagiri do? He knew there were sweets in the bag; he put his hand in and took one or two of them. Baba saw this and slapped him, on his face. He became angry; Baba gave sweets to all the children, except him and when he took some, Baba slapped him! He want to Shama’s (Madhavrao Deshpande) house.

Shama asked him, “Why are you here? Why are you not at Dwarkamai?”

To this he (Ganeshanandagiri) said, ”Boodha maarthe hain”  (The old man beats me). Hence I’m not going there.

And a couple of days later, Baba said: “There was a young boy here. Where is he now?”

Shama answered, “Boodha maar raha hai. So he does not want to come to Dwarkamai.”

To this Baba said: “No, no, no, call him, I want to see him.”

Shama brought him, and Baba asked, “What’s your problem?”

The little boy didn’t say anything.

Baba said, “If you steal, I will beat you again. Don’t steal. I will give you, at the right time.”

And then the relationship become strong. Baba left his body in 1918, and somebody had told Ganeshanandgiri that if he took a flower from the Samadhi, and wished strongly, with single-pointed concentration, that would happen. If the desire is very focused, it would happen.

He took a flower and said, “I need a big house, a mansion, car, servants, money, so I can do something on earth.”

And that wish was not getting fulfilled. He kept wishing, the single-pointed concentration was good, clarity was there too, but the desire was not getting fulfilled. He was very young, probably in his teens at that time, and he thought, people are saying that this flower from the Samadhi has the power to transform, it’s a wish fulfilling flower. All the flowers at Samadhi are very powerful, but in my life, it’s not happening. One day he was in Shirdi, near Dwarkamai, probably he was coming out of Dwarkamai, when he saw Baba walking away. He ran after him, note that this was after Baba’s Mahasamadhi, he ran after him, overtook Baba, and stopped. Baba looked at him.

He said, “What do you want from me?”

Ganeshanandagiri said: “I had asked for something, you didn’t give me.”

To this Baba said, “This, pointing to his legs, is your vehicle. The big mansion you’re talking about is this – the body. And the money that you want is here (pointing to the head). Money. And you want servants, these are your servants – he showed both hands. I’ve given you everything. Now, you spread my message to this world. You spread my true message to this world. People are sleeping, which means they are ignorant. They only ask me material things. Now, with your life, show to the world my real message. Your legs are you vehicle, your hands, your army; your brain, your money; your body is your mansion. Now, do something about it. I’ve given you everything. Go ahead.”

Then onwards, he dedicated his life for the service of Baba, for spreading the name and he wandered and did many things on earth, to spread the message.

In Constant Communion with Sai Baba

Every day Baba at 6 AM Baba speaks to him. Baba Ganeshanandgiri was born in 1911. Baba left his body in 1918. So he was with Baba in Dwarkamai for about three to four years, probably in Shama’s house and in and around that area. His wish was to leave his body in Shirdi. But Baba said, ”No. Go and leave your body in the South.” That’s what he did, in 2016 April, he left his body in Chennai, in Sriperumbudur. There’s a temple coming up, a very big temple; and he left his body there. So, even though my meeting or encounter with him was for few months, it was really a powerful experience. A man more than hundred years old with strong conviction. Baba means Baba. Zero deviation. There was nothing else in his life except Baba, just like Hanumanji and Ram. For Hanumanji, there is nothing else but Ram. When a mala was given to him, a very precious one, he opened each bead to check if Ram is there. And when he found that there was no Ram, he threw it away, even though it was precious diamonds. He did not  care. For him, it was only Ram. If Ram’s name is not there, it’s not valuable to him. Similarly, Baba Ganeshanandgiri was a living example, Sai, Sai, Sai, only Sai. Whenever Sai is not there, he’s not there. And I used to love spending time with him. The few meetings I had were transformative, very difficult to express in words. Everything was reinforcing. Everything was rejuvenating. It helped solidifying the intention, the intensity.

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

 

Experiencing the Unconditional Love of Baba Ganeshanandgiri

Ganeshanandgiri embraced me, hugged me and Baba had told Ganeshanandgiri: “All of Mohanji’s people are my people. Take care of them.” He would never allow people to touch his feet or body, but he would allow all our people to come to him, touch him, and he used to really love them, just because Baba told, “All of Mohanji’s people are my people.” So this is the kind of love he showed; even if you have money or riches, you will not get this kind of love. As I say, it’s only, “Aao beta – Come, my son.” That philosophy, with its deepest effect is delivered in Shirdi, even now. We may see the crowd and the confusion, but beyond all that, there is this high power of Baba which is attracting hundreds of thousands of people to this place and leaving them transformed. Like a car wash, you go through that state and come back fresh on the other side. This is happening even now. My connection with Ganeshanandgiri again brought me closer to Baba.

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

Complete Selflessness and Humility

Ganeshanandgiri called me in early January 2016, and said, “I want to see you. I’m coming to Palakkad”  I was with my parents. He said, “I’m coming to Palakkad to see you.”  He is a hundred plus years old. So, I said, “No, Babaji, I will come and see you. I’ll come to Chennai.” He agreed. I went. He came to the airport and received me. I was overwhelmed. Such a great master coming to receive a small person like me at the airport; look at the humility. Then how much more humble I should be? You do not see such bhaav (feeling or love exhibited) in the world usually. He is a great master. But he came to the airport, received me with a garland and took me to a five star hotel. I said, “Babaji, I will stay where you stay. I always practice insignificance that way. I’m not that great or important. I don’t have to stay in a five star hotel. This is really embarrassing. Let me stay next to you, I’ll sleep on the floor.” He countered, “No, Baba’s instruction. Baba told me, Mohanji should stay in this hotel.” So, he checked with Baba about every single thing he did. And Baba had said, “Mohanji should stay at a five star hotel.” What was the story? In some past lives, I lived as a king. Baba is talking about that lifestyle. In this life, I have no royalty. I’m not a king. But Baba said Mohanji should stay in a five star (hotel) because there is a continuation; it’s a path of continuation. In this life, I’m totally different. I don’t have that kind of money either. But Ganeshanandgiri connected those dots from that time and said that I had to stay there. I stayed one night, and he would not even allow me to pay the charges for the stay! I managed to  pay and left for the airport the next day, but he reimbursed the entire cost. They (such masters) are totally selfless. None of them (great masters) are after money. They are not at all interested in what you have. They only follow purpose; they have clarity of purpose. They do the right thing, the right way, for the right reason.

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

Sriperumbudur, Chennai – Sai Temple Foundation Stone Ceremony in March 2016

Transcribed by Tijana Sladoje
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan