Practical Steps for Challenging Times – part 2

Satsang with Mohanji  
16th August 2020

Question: We have multiple tasks being done at the same time; managing the home, children, etc and there is no time for spiritual practice. This is causing irritation. I would like to understand how I can make it more efficient.

Mohanji: We have a feeling that we have many tasks. We do have various responsibilities; home, office and a variety of responsibilities. Why don’t you take these as Sadhana or practice? It is possible. Do everything as an offering. Your work itself is worship! Everything can be worship. Breath is worship, thoughts are worship, actions are worship; everything can be an offering. Imagine like that – then it is perpetual meditation; all the time you are meditating. Don’t try to compartmentalise your life. It is one life, in which you are playing various roles; you are playing the role of a wife or a mother or a child or a father or uncle or any other role. You are playing these roles every day and it is part of your responsibility. YOU MUST! But there is a YOU in the middle. There is YOU who is playing these roles; connect to that you, who is no role, but the actor. Not the role you play, but the actor. Connect to this actor, the real you and meditate on that actor. Not the role; roles will change, even in a day it changes many times; let it change, play all the roles. But at the same time, connect to yourself, the actor. And you feel how it is. You will start feeling very peaceful and meditative.  The actor is not changing, roles are changing. You are everything. But you are NOT anything. You will understand that experientially. You will understand and experience that.

That will make a difference in your life.

Question: What is the significance of special occasions, like certain times for deities?

Mohanji: Every time has its significance, just like day or night. Similarly, there is significance to seasons, certain planetary configurations which shift the energy frequency, and we perform certain rituals at that time, all of them have significance. Each of these, as you connect to it, is transformative, even if temporarily. When you participate in a festival, you feel excited. You forget your sorrows, wear new clothes, eat good food, and you feel great! The purpose is to rejuvenate you, to press the restart button! So what happens is you look forward to these holidays, those experiences. Whether it is spiritually significant or not, what happens inside is the real story. Are you happy? If you are happy, it is worth it! What is life for? Happiness. We want to experience what is happiness on earth. We want to experience ecstasy, bliss, love, great things in life which makes us feel good. All these festivals that society has created are for that purpose. If you really understand that you will start appreciating all these things.

If you look at festivals connected to Lord Krishna, all joy and dance and singing, etc. Why is it so? Because life should be a celebration ! Life means celebration. Janmashtami happened a few days back. Everybody celebrated the birth of Lord Krishna. Krishna was born about 5000 years ago. But we celebrated as if He was born now!  What happened in the minds of people?

A rebirth happened! Reborn, Rejuvenated, in a way, Reinvented!

This is the beauty of festivals. We must celebrate, Datta Jayanthi , Sai Baba’s Samadhi day, and so on. We celebrate everything and it is worth it. We sing, we chant, we connect, we rejuvenate and then we reinvent and we restart ourselves.

Question: A person who has always helped others, and never harm others still suffers greatly. How can this happen, is it karma?

 Mohanji: Life is a flow. We must flow with life. Two things life is a flow through bodies life flows. That means through rebirths life flows. So, we do not understand the flow completely. What has happened in the past lives? What did we do in the past lives, what is happening in this life, is a reflection of what happened, or what we did in our past lives. And so, we only experience this life right now. You will not understand the cause. That is why this question, why is something like this happening?

In fact, imagine somebody did all sorts of atrocities in another life; anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, betrayal. He did everything possible in that lifetime. Then he produced a new lifetime based on the karmic wealth, he accumulated in that lifetime.

He took another birth. So he came in this life but he can’t remember what happened in the previous births, which caused this life.

Probably in his previous life, at the end of his life, he regretted doing all those things. He died with regret and he took a wow, “ I will never do these bad things anymore.” And he took a new life, a good life. This life is good, doing all the good things, but the karmic bank balance keeps following him.

In a Mirabai bhajan it says, if you betray a master, a spiritual master, it takes you about 80,000 lifetimes to come back to where you have been before. That means betrayal, criticizing, scandalizing, gossiping all these have a price to pay. Don’t think that,” Oh I can gossip about somebody and it doesn’t matter”. It matters.

Appreciation and honoring, expressing gratitude – these are good, because then you have reward. But if you gossip, talk bad, character assassinate, betray, all these things have huge price; you may end up paying that over lifetimes, many lives.  Because it’s as if you took a huge bank loan, gambled and lost everything. So you end up paying your entire life. It’s almost like that but in the case of betrayals and character assassination, and such issues, the price goes through many, many lifetimes. I always tell people do not engage in any gossip. If you don’t know, just forget it. Don’t talk bad about anybody; even if somebody has done something bad to you, leave that person to his karma; karma will take care of it. Don’t worry. You should not keep thinking about it and creating your own future.

There are people who will come to you as problems, because you might have been a problem for them in another life. As I said, life is a flow, it is a continuous flow. Bodies are temporary and to each body. They have experienced something, then this body is gone, another body, they experience many different things. This goes away, then,  another body; like this, we have taken many bodies.

We will take more if you don’t dissolve into the Supreme Consciousness in this life, we will take further bodies.

This is why you need a very powerful master to connect to, where you dissolve into him, and you don’t have to take any more bodies, unless you want to.

That’s the difference, birth by choice. Birth for the sake of Dharma is different from birth for the sake of karma. They are  two different things. So we may not understand why we are experiencing certain things but we can assume that if we are experiencing bad things in this life, we might have committed something bad in another life. So it’s come back to us. This life, if you’re done good things, the merits of it will go to another life. Probably you’ll be born in such a family in the next life where you get only the merits of it. This happens. So, what you do today will have its payment later. Means you do your work now and you get paid later. Like that whatever you are doing now, you will have the results later.

But please remember, there is no escape from karma.

If you have done something, if you’re committed something you must pay for it, especially death, destruction, betrayal, character assassination, gossip, the negative aspects. Also, please remember we watch these programs in the television and movies and different forms of entertainment; the soap operas where it’s about bad relationships, criticism, judgment, betrayal, and such in the stories and we occupy ourselves with these; we imbibe those emotions within; we can probably have a similar future, or   a similar experience in the future. This is possible. So please be aware! That this is why all the great Masters insisted on satsang – good company, good company.

satsangatve  nisangatva

nissangtve nirmohatva

nirmohatve nischallatatva

nischalatatve jivanmukti

That is exactly what great masters have said. That means with good company you learn to detach from the wears and tears of life, from the fluctuations of life. When you are in a kind of detached state your desires are reduce, desires becomes fewer. When desires become lesser, mind becomes still. What is causing the mind to be restless? Numerous desires.

That is why I always say let’s get it fulfilled, let’s do it and finish it off,  so that the mind is still.  The mind must be still. When the mind is consistently still, liberation happens to you. Moksha happens; mukti happens. We must understand that we are the source of our own destiny. We are creating it every moment; every day; every moment, whatever we are doing there is a reason, result.

So there’s a past for everything; there’s a present for everything and there’s a future for everything. You should understand this. And when you’re very involved and have a clutter of thoughts; you can’t see the truth. And we start looking at the world through our ears; through other people’s words. That’s the worst thing. We should not see through our ears. Ears are to hear but then other people’s opinion, should not be our spectacles to see the world; which means, we should look at the world ourselves as we are and experience it; and detach from criticizing, blaming, and talking bad about anything, including yourself. Do not criticize others; do not criticize yourself. Do not judge others; do not judge yourself. Like that if you respect everything, life will be better, for sure.

Question: This question came in relating to acceptance. Yeah. So how can we accept, even the bad aspects of ourselves? Why is self-acceptance so difficult?

Mohanji: Why is self-acceptance so difficult? It’s because we always worry about the bad aspects in ours ourselves. We all have it, 7.5 billion people, have good and bad in them; positive and negative in them. Don’t think that you are the only one who has all the negatives in you; it’s not true. All people have it, so we must understand that this is how creation works.  In every human being, there is positive and negative; and we must really understand that we have to focus, on only positive and ignore the negative. We have to ignore the negative. We have to focus on the positive, and that’s the way we can accept ourselves better. Let the negative be there with us, and don’t look at anybody in the world as only positive; it’s not possible. It is just not possible. There will be some negative in everybody, and don’t focus on the negative; because then we are missing the whole thing.  Focus on the positive; let’s strengthen the positive; we unite together; work together; be together like one family, and then it will be glory for everybody. We have that power!

Question:   Is there a way to dissolve past karma, and also what’s the consequences of any parent’s actions on the child destiny?

Mohanji: Past karma – We’ve taken this life to exhaust past karma; it means pending desires and our, our driving force, or our inclinations are our vasanas. Vasanas are our driving force, tendencies, and inclinations. And we are going ahead with experiencing our pending desires at each point in time in life, right from childhood till death. This is what we are doing. Part of it is lineage karma, that’s coming from the lineage, from our father and mothers’ side, coming together; that merges with us.  Each individual has personal karma, pending desires of personal nature, and also pending desires of the lineage nature; they are coming together. They come together, and we are experiencing that in life.

So, how do you exhaust them? Automatically, without your knowledge you’re exhausting it. Whatever you’re experiencing each day that’s exhaustion; every experience amounts to that karma. If you block it, it stays postponed. If you experience it and move on, then it’s done. So the best way to come out of all these karmas are, by being good and doing good; so that when you express your best in everything, whatever you can, as per your capacity ; and be kind; be compassionate; be generous, and then this karma gets dissipated. So the more good things you do; by good things I mean because of your existence, you help all the beings of the nature; then automatically your karmic configuration starts changing; and improvement happens, and you reach a level where there is no ownership of action.

When you have ownership of action, you have karma. If you, if you surrender everything to the Almighty, then there is no karmic binding. When you get up in the morning itself have the right attitude towards life; surrender attitude and connect to one master; seriously and consistently, whatever happens let it not change. Again as I said before, the Master and the man should be different, considered different; a person has his needs and requirements, but a Master is the settled aspect of that person; so connect to the Master aspect. You don’t have to connect to the person, so that you can avoid an illusion. That is why I said so. So, connect to the Master in that way, as settled consciousness; after you have sufficient proof for yourself for that sake. Don’t just look at the picture or somebody words and follow somebody; it won’t work, because if you look at just the picture and the words of opinions of somebody it may not be suitable to you, but you need to know whether this person is stable within. If it is not, don’t follow.

Once you start following; don’t leave. This is your integrity. This is how it should be. Then somebody else says at some point in time;” Oh! He’s not good or this is that. Don’t change your mind!” Your experience is true to you; your experience is most important for you and you follow that whatever happens in the world; then you will have progress. So this is an individualistic journey; it’s an individual journey. You are the traveler; you are the journey; you are the destination. You are the experience of the journey; everything is you.

So if you understand that clearly, you will not have lot of distractions, or distortions. This is the truth.

Question: How can we be liberated in this life, is it possible, with nothing pending that needs to be taken forward?

Liberation is possible right now, right here! How it is possible? It is possible firstly, by keeping that as your priority. Your top priority should be liberation. And then second is increase your awareness; increasing awareness is very simple. It means just be aware of your thoughts, words, actions; be aware and slowly start detaching from them, by just being aware. I am not the thought; thoughts are happening through me. I am not the doer; actions are happening correspondingly through me, so there’s no ownership. I’m not the action; actions are also happening through me. I’m not the doer, but it doesn’t mean that you go and kill somebody and say, “I didn’t kill, it happened through me.” Not like that. You should be responsible as well. You have to have responsibility. So, everything you do, you’re responsible; so only good actions, good thoughts, good words, and then no, no negative feelings or expressions or any of those kind of things. And then you have clarity that everything that is born will die. Everything has a duration. Whatever is born, will die. And all things are interconnected, you cannot exist alone. Everything is connected in the world; the plants, the trees, the birds, the animals, human beings; we are all interconnected; we all have something to give and take; so that kind of a total acceptance is essential. And liberation is a state which you experience right now, where you do not have binding on something, or something does not bind you. We do not have binding out of place, a person or situation or emotion or experience. We are not bound by anything. Our desire level is very low, very less.

Once you understand that and accept that and when you are in that kind of a mode; automatically you will start feeling detachment from the world outside. That doesn’t mean that you hate anything; there’s no hatred here, it’s just that, you don’t want it. You don’t want it; which means you have no need for it. When you have no need for something; you are free from it. When you have such freedom, you are liberated while living; and that means you’re not collecting more and more desires anymore. So, what happens? No desires, no reincarnations! Simple, so liberation is possible, just by investing in awareness. Investing in awareness – that is the secret. Invest in your awareness; be aware of who you are, what you are, where you are, why you are; of all those be aware.  Also understand all the things around you during waking state do not exist when you’re sleeping or it doesn’t exist for you when you’re sleeping. When you wake up, they are there. So, what is there? That your experience is connected to you! You can have experience or no experience based on your moods, your situations,  your emotion at that time. Everything is like that. So, this is very simple, it’s easy to understand. When you really know that you are everything; and you don’t need much, then you are liberated. So liberation is a state of mind; it’s an attitude, which you can easily cultivate, just by awareness. Awareness is the fire.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt and Padmini Ravi Kumar
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

How People Connect to Mohanji

Welcome to Mohanji Speaks

This podcast is slightly longer than the other episodes. And it’s recommended that you listen to it in its entirety, with enough time to listen to it from start to finish. And listen again. It’s a good one to keep listening to as a reminder. We hope you enjoy it.

Hello friends. Let’s talk about positioning today. We all have certain complexes in us, which we might have experienced, especially in our teenage years. Some of these complexes make it difficult for us to position ourselves in this world. Along with that point, we can also think about our connection with various types of people. Let’s take one category, Spiritual Masters. What is a Spiritual Master – person who has settled within himself, inside himself. That is a Spiritual Master. Somebody who has taken himself off his senses, mind-matter, and has established himself in his consciousness is a Master. That means he is detached from the external world. His dependencies are less, and he is very stable, because of that. Once we recognize somebody in that way we tend to connect to that person, just because the aspiration of every person who is swayed by the mind is to reach that state. And what is the sign of that state? The sign of inner stillness is silence. No judgment. No criticism. No anger, hatred, or revenge. Peace, total peace. That’s a state that you arrive at when you are deeply connected to the consciousness of a Spiritual Master.

How do people connect to a Spiritual Master? Usually as per what they are. You cannot connect to the world as per the world is, because we have our orientations. We have our inclinations. We have our disposition. Having all these orientations, inclinations, and dispositions, we will connect to the world only as per what we are. Each person connects to another and connects to the world as per what they are. They cannot connect in any other way.

People who are of emotional by nature connect to the Master with devotion – bhakti yogis, the devotional kind. People who are intellectual by nature may connect to the Master’s philosophy, what he says, the intellectual stuff – jnana yogis, the intellectual kind. People who are of ego-oriented nature connect to the Master’s personality because the ego is the skeleton of a personality. The ego gives structure to the personality. So he is more connected to the Master’s personality. Then there are people who love to serve. They are kind by nature, they want to give to the world, share with the world – karma yogis. They connect to the Master’s philanthropic aspect. There are the very rare species, the Raja Yogis, who connect to the consciousness of the Master, the stillness aspect.

So as per the orientation, people connect to the Master accordingly. A bhakti yogi, a person who is inclined devotionally will find it absurd why the other categories are not worshiping the Master. While a person who’s oriented to knowledge will find it absurd that these devotional people are worshipping the Master, a perishable body. What is there to worship? Each category will find the other absurd. This is a very important point to understand. Nothing is absurd to the person who’s oriented in that format, that pattern. We must remember that.  Hence, we must not judge, because a devotional person, an emotional person, cannot understand the knowledge path at all, because that’s not his orientation. A karma yogi will find it uneasy to just connect to a Master based on the knowledge or devotion. It’s absurd for him. If you look at each category you will find that they have a distinction, they are distinct in their own thought process, inclinations, and tendencies, and we must respect them.

The rare breeds of people who connect directly to the consciousness of the Master see themselves in the Master or see the Master in themselves. There’s no need to worship. There’s no need to act in any way, there’s nothing to understand. That’s very rare, very difficult. It is not a mind thing. It’s actually a state. Very rarely people arrive at that state after going through all the other states. Those people need nothing from the Master. His presence, his state is the most important thing, they directly connect to the state of the Master, stabilize themselves, just like a spark is enough to catch fire if the wood is dry. Just a spark.  And the spark is always sitting in the Master who has stabilized himself. He’s burning fire. He is a fire, which is alive. If we really, really understand all these aspects, we will never judge, we will never criticize, we will never try to discriminate based on the orientations which we cannot understand. People connect to people, based on what they are. Some people look at the Master as freedom, total freedom, because he’s independent of the world outside. He’s detached from the world outside.

Some people feel the Master as love because he gives love, without expectations; free love, unconditional love, which is very rare in the world. We all experience unconditional love from our mothers. Mothers always give unconditional love to their children. But apart from that, the world is full of conditional love. But a Master who has found himself is established in unconditional love. Some people may look at the Master as a great romantic. When you become everything, eternal romance sprouts within you. You are a romantic, you are eternally romantic. What restricts you is your mind, eager to create frames with expectations. If there are no expectations, there are no frames, then you love the world because you are everything. You see yourself in everything. There is nothing apart from you. It’s an eternal romance. Your heart is so expanded that there is nothing else possible, just romance.

Some people look at the Master and they see rigidity, strictness. This is because discipline and determination are essential to dissolve. The mind is captured always by patterns, which we have cultivated and nurtured over time. Masters become strict to certain people because he understands that discipline is essential to cross the barriers of the mind, such as prejudices, patterns, and fears. As you are, as what’s inside you, so you see the Master. But the Master is everything because he is established in himself. He has become the universe, and he’s everything. He is not just one thing. So, he caters to each person as per what they are, as per their orientation, as per their need to take the next step. What is essential is that aspect, or that guidance, or that help that which makes them or helps them to take a stride further. In conclusion, I always recommend that you need to connect to the Master, sufficiently giving yourself time to ask all the questions to yourself, and if it is too much for you, to ask the Master. Take time to understand. Take time to assimilate. Take time to know the Master before you take the plunge, but once you take the plunge stay put.

Ask yourself what your orientation is. How do you know, it’s very simple – it’s what suits you. What’s effortless for you, that is your orientation. What doesn’t suit you, you should not do. For example, a person who’s attracted to the philosophy, the knowledge of the Master, and is not attracted to the devotional side of the Master, or devotional aspect towards the Master should refrain from doing the devotional side. Because somebody else who’s devotional by nature, bhakti yogi by nature is doing it, you don’t have to do it. You connect to the master as you are which is more stable and more real. Every connection should be realistic. Otherwise, it has no longevity. It will not survive time. Your connection should be with full awareness of what you are, not what the Master is. You can only connect to another being as you are.

Understanding your orientation is extremely essential for fruitful connections, for maintaining good connections. Don’t look any further; you realize what is your orientation, what is your constitution, and if you connect accordingly, you will have a stable, real, and peaceful connection. A stable connection is extremely essential for the sake of longevity. Birds of the same feather flock together. You need to have the same frequency, or you need to identify your frequency and connect in that way, to a universal frequency so you can derive what you require out of it. No Master needs any worship. No Master ever tells anybody you should worship me. Only insecure people will tell all these things. Only insecure people will want people to worship them.

This is a perishable body. This is what you are. You have taken this body for the sake of experiences and expressions. That’s about it. All that you are doing or all that is happening in your life are experiences of various nature and expressions of what you are in this world, nothing else is happening. So, nobody who’s balanced will say, somebody should worship them. It doesn’t matter. But if somebody’s orientation needs that fulfillment, let it be. We cannot deny anybody’s experience of any kind. A true Master allows that experience to happen. A true Master just lets it flow, how they are, let them connect as they are so that there is fulfillment individually. Individual fulfillment is essential for the transition to happen in life. If fulfillments are denied, if they are suppressed, they come back with more force, which binds them further to the Earth. For liberation to happen, fulfillment is essential. A true Master allows that to happen. There will be no restriction. What is inside you, what is burning inside you, that is what has to be addressed.

A burning desire is an important thing for that person. If awareness can take care of it, fulfill it, or through higher awareness if you can diminish that fire, it’s fine. If through higher awareness also, this fire is not diminished, fulfillment is the only solution. And fulfillment must happen, it will happen at its time. A true Master allows it to happen and releases the person from that binding desire. In a nutshell, if you really understand yourself, you can connect to a Master who is stability incarnate, effectively. If you have not settled inside, if you have not understood yourself, or if you have not understood your orientation, all your connections will be temporary, faulty, and with expectations. Any connection with expectations has a duration. A connection without expectations, selfless connections, unconditional connections, will live forever.

This is food for thought for you today. Think about it. Ponder it and communicate about it.

Lots of love, this is Mohanji for you.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan
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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

Silence Speaks – part 2

Satsang with Mohanji in Begrade, Serbia
13th October 2019

Watch the full satsang here.

PART 2

Q: What is your recommendation about the emptiness one feels after a loss. Should one grieve or ignore, or how to deal with it?

M: I’ll tell you my experience. When I lost my daughter in a road accident, it was very serious pain. I thought it was the end; I was very close to her. But then, when people started coming to the house and seeing me, they were expecting me to be sad for a long period of time. I then realized that this was my personal sorrow and that in fact, none of these people had anything to do with it. Why should I be a victim of someone’s sympathy? It paralyzes you. I refused the sympathy, because it was a personal sorrow, it was a completely personal issue. Also I refused to indulge in self-pity. Both of them paralyze you. You are thinking and nurturing sorrows because you love to be in that state.

Instead what I did was, I moved into serving the world in her name, in my daughter’s name. It has been sixteen years since then now. In many countries, ACT Foundation and Ammucare are functioning. See, there is a T-shirt here, ACT Foundation. How many lives have we touched? It’s not my merit, it’s not my power. It’s the intention. The power of intention made it. I decided that I will not remain a victim and receive sympathy or nurture self- pity. Instead,  I moved into the world; there was opposition, there were many obstacles. People tried various things to pull me down, and when I started this in 2003, some people, even authorities asked, “Do you have a lot of money?” I said, ”No“.  “Do you have somebody with a lot of money with you?” I said “No“. “Then this will not run even for one year”, they said. Now, sixteen years later, I can definitely say, “It ran! It did touch many lives. It’s still touching many lives.” How much it has grown and who received benefit from it, I don’t know, I never counted it. Recently somebody asked me, “What is the success behind ACT Foundation?” I said, “I never owned it. I delivered it to the world. The world is running it. People of the world are running it“.

In 2003, when they asked me the question, “What is your investment?” I said, “Myself“. I don’t have anything else to invest. I have only myself to invest, and I invested myself. Until today, I have never called up anybody asking for money. I never told anyone, “You must do something in ACT Foundation.” Never! Money has come. Activities have happened. Life has happened this way. Today, my daughter still lives, in many countries, through many people.

You can convert every loss into something powerful and positive. This is up to you. This is your disposition. If you sit down and cry, drink alcohol, pity yourself, nobody gains anything out of it; in fact life is lost. One life is already lost, and your life will be also lost. This is my answer.

I would say never waste your life, because you are unique in this world. There is none like you. You are a unique creation. You are neither high nor low or equal, you are unique, and there is nobody like you. You must use your uniqueness in the right way, as best as possible and make a difference in the world. Why not? Why do we have to just live and die? Keep shining bright!

When I wake up in the morning each day,  I say a prayer, “Thank you for using me.“  I do not take ownership. I really don’t have any extra powers as compared to any of you. But I refuse to lie down and die. It is not always easy, because sometimes people are very cruel toward us. Even if you are doing good things, they will come and say something very dirty and bad. They want you to slow down. You must get up and walk again.  Because it is your life! Nobody else is responsible. It is our life. We have to walk. Keep walking. And don’t expect inspiration from those outside. You should have inspiration from within.

We have to be self-inspired, there is no choice. Don’t expect anything from outside, because many times when you expect that, you get the opposite. They try to pull you down. They try to tell you that you are not good; they try to tell the world that you are not good. They do all these things. This is part of life. You watch anyone who has done anything in this world; people have accused them, criticized,  and even crucified them. This is the world. You have to live in this world. You have to live as yourself in this world.

What can you depend on? The purity of intention within you. Your intention should be always pure. You should always mean good for others. Whatever others do to you, don’t worry about that. Be good to  people. Do your best. I always make sure that if somebody comes to me I do my best; whether they are eligible, not eligible, good, bad, ugly, I don’t look at. We don’t have time for that. We don’t have time to waste. Each breath that we take on earth is valuable. This platform is valuable; that is, the earth is valuable. We don’t know how long we will live here. So, what we can do? Do your best; forget about applauses, hatred or criticism. Let everything be. You do your best. Don’t expect that everybody will appreciate. That is a big problem. If you expect people to appreciate and if they don’t appreciate, you will stop doing things. That is not good.

Sometimes, when I almost decided it is a thankless world, I should not do anything, then she (referring to Devi) was saying, “Keep moving, move! “ So I said, ok. When some people criticize for what we do, I tell them, “Can you do something better than this, I will support you?” They vanish. I realized that many people who talk, do nothing. They just talk, they don’t have any initiative for doing anything; even taking this piece of paper from one place to another, they won’t do. But they criticize those who do. So I say,” You do it better than me, no problem, I will support you.” I would like to see positive activities happening in the world; it is not important who does it, let it happen. But it doesn’t happen. So, what should you do? Keep walking. Don’t slow down. Don’t stop.

One more thing you can be sure about. Those who connect to you with their mind will not stay long. They change their mind. Those who connect to you from their heart will never leave. You can trust them. These are the people who will walk with you, whatever happens, they will never leave you. These, you can trust. Keep walking. They will walk with you. Night or day, winter or sunshine, it doesn’t matter, they will walk with you.

That is why Buddha created  his  entire empire with five people. So many people came to see him. Five people stayed. So many people came to listen to Jesus, twelve people stayed. It is the same with everybody. All those who do something in the world, do not have many to support them. Many will come to see, but not to support; a few people will support, and they really will. That is enough to build the world. This is the long story, but  it is important to understand, because I do not accept that you are weak, that something is impossible. These are things that I don’t understand. I always say, “There will be a way.“ Everything has a method. If you have the key, there is a lock; if you do not put the key in the right place you cannot open the lock. So, there is a right place, a right method to do things, find that thing. It will happen. I do not agree that something is impossible in life. If you ever feel weak, remember me, I will be with you. If nobody is with you, I will be with you. This is guaranteed.

Q: Do you enjoy being worshiped and feeling that you are special or above others?

M: I think she (referring to Devi) can truly reply to this question.  

(Laughter in the audience)

Please understand one thing. There is nothing special in me. But if somebody feels that they get satisfaction by praying to me, worshipping  me, loving me or hating me, I accept it as it is, because at the end of the day, it is about their satisfaction. I will never ask anyone to worship me, because it is of no interest to me. If somebody says,” I have to worship you,” I say, “Ok, do it,“ because it is for them.

Understand that different types of people meet me each day. Each person has his or her own favorite expression or style; who am I to deny it? But if I demand it, it is a different story. I never demand it. I never ask for it. I do not look at myself as special, to be really honest. I think that everybody is myself. Why do you worship another person? Worship yourself. This is what you should do. But somebody says, “You are amazing, I want to worship you, I become happy.” Then I say, “Please, go ahead“. Some people write poetry about me, they feel happy. Some people hate me, they get happy. I agree to everything,  so that they are satisfied in their life in their own way. Do you understand?

It is not just me, anyone who is aligned or stabilized, even you, will become like a powerful magnet, whether you like it or not. And that is because of only one reason,  you are aligned; your mind, intellect, body, ego, spirit, everything is together. When you look, everything looks, then every activity becomes powerful; you become attractive. It is not that you are doing something, you become like that. A magnet does not have to decide to become a magnet; it is a magnet. It attracts people; each person responds in different ways; as they are. We don’t interfere in this. People wrote the Aarati, I didn’t say anything. Some people wrote thousand names for me; everything is allowed. I have never depended on any of these things. If I depend on them, then I become addicted to somebody. Then if somebody does not do it, I would become sad. I am happy and I don’t want to compromise on my happiness.

I am sure that some of you definitely experienced in this lifetime, when you become totally aligned, you realize one thing: whatever you learned from the outside world, has no value. Secondly, the inside world is empty. When you have no outside world, and inside world, what are you? You are everything. You are all over.  In that kind of a situation, the only thing you feel all the time is that you know nothing. You are totally empty and free. You are  not bound by the emotions, or the devotion, or anybody.

Now, when you are like that, how will people respond to you, we don’t know and we cannot say, nor we can deny. People respond according to what they are. Some people feel a lot of love, some people love devotion, some people feel various things. Anyway, nothing will bind you. You are already free. You have chosen freedom. You are not dependent on someone’s emotion for your life. The remote control of your happiness is definitely not in the hands of someone else, it is in your hands. So you don’t change the channel often. If it is in someone else’s hand, they keep changing the channel; sometimes they are angry, upset, happy or sad; these will not affect you. But at a certain point in time, nothing affects you. The last point is you look at everybody as yourself; all are your relatives, all are your soulmates, there is no difference. Then, whether they worship or deny, hate or do whatever, how does it matter? When you love somebody, and they betray you, sometimes you feel the pain. Then you feel, “Ok, let them have their enjoyment at your cost. No problem.”

I will definitely recommend worshiping one person, in one lifetime, who is that? J YOU. Because you are a wonderful creation, understand that. Because you are an amazing creation, why not worship yourself? This includes self-acceptance, and love. So, instead of worshiping something outside of you, you must worship yourself and appreciate this creation called You in this lifetime, otherwise you will lose a lifetime. If you don’t worship me, I lose nothing. But if you don’t worship yourself, you will lose one lifetime.

Don’t feel that God is looking for your worship. God is busy. The whole Universe belongs to Him. Look at ourselves from the moon? We are like tiny ants here. We pray to God and God becomes happy? Understand the God in you and behave like God through love. Unconditional love. That makes you one with God. What you need to know is that you are the Supreme Consciousness in small bodies; from outer space we appear like tiny ants, ants walking around with big ego.

Q: How important it is to have living spiritual master?

M: Dangerous! How does it feel to live with a mad man? (Laughter)

It depends on you. If you are ready to break your ego into pieces, then there is nothing better than that. If you want to hold on your ego, but if you want to break the master to pieces… (laughter) Both ways it is a good idea. (Laughter) If Master breaks your ego into pieces, then you become free. If you break the Master into pieces, the world becomes free. (Laughter)

Is that clear? Good idea or bad idea? (Laughter)

It is very unpredictable to be with a living Master because his law is the law of dharma, not the social law.  He lives as per what has to be done, not what he loves to do. What you have to do is his  priority, not what you love to do. But, those who operate from the mind, their priority is what they love to do, not what they have to do. This is the main difference.

When you live with a Master, who only does what he has to do, because he can see through the destiny path, the karmic configuration, he will only do what he has to do, which might be shocking for you, because you have already boundaries, concepts, ideas, understandings and you decided that this is the way to go. He breaks the rules. It really tilts you. Sometimes, he shakes you. Sometimes you become scared. It is not as easy as you think; but if you are man enough to handle it and to allow your ego to be torn into pieces, then nothing better than that.

So now you know why she lives in Slovenia and I live in India. (Laughter) When you cannot tolerate each other this is the way to be together.

The conflict is that when you operate from your mind, you are security oriented; when your mind dissolves, you have no problem with security. If you are operating from your mind, insecurity is part of it and Master is secure. When Master is secure, he is very flexible; time, activities, everything is flexible. But, when you operate from your mind, you need patterns, you need structure. It is  very difficult. It is a big clash. When you are with a living Master, there always will be this clash; you are approaching the master from the mind level, with insecurity and the Master is operating  with the  complete security and full flexibility; it doesn’t work well. So people run away. They get fascinated by the Master, how he looks, how he walks,  how he smells, (laughter) they try to come  but then run away, saying, “Oh no! This is not what I want!” They also say, “He is crazy!”

Q: At the beginning of each spiritual practice, I keep progressing. But at the certain level there seems to be veil or curtain that falls and disables me from growing further, no matter what I do or how much more I try. So is this to help me develop patience or is it a sign that this path is closed for me or that something else should be found?

M: The activity which gives you experience for a period of time, after a while the same activity cannot give you the same experience. This is natural. That is called the stagnation stage. That doesn’t mean that what you are doing is wrong. But the same activity cannot give you the same experience. It is as simple as that.

If you continue doing the same practice during the stage of stagnation, then you will reach the stage of vacuum; confusions such as are you are doing the right thing or wrong thing, Guru is good, Guru is bad, will happen. If you still do the same practice continuously, then you reach the stage of stable bliss, where you are always peaceful. These are hurdles that you have to cross to reach the stage of stable bliss. It is a test of your consistency. Be consistent and definitely you will reach your destination. The tortoise kept walking, it reached before the hare. (In the fable of the tortoise and the hare where they had a race to see who was faster.)

Q: I lost my child four times. What is the reason why I cannot maintain my pregnancy? What is the way to calm myself down and help my body accept the fetus and bring the child to this world?

M: That is an individual question, individualistic answer is needed. I would suggest you to talk to any of these Mai-Tri healers here. They will tell you.

Q: How do I know that I am on the right path and my life’s purpose?

M: Please understand, life purpose is not separated from your life. What you are experiencing each moment is your life’s purpose. It is  continuous, right from birth till death. Life purpose is what we are experiencing each moment. Whatever you experience through the waking state, the dream state and your deep sleep state is your purpose of life. It is a mixture of all the things you have experienced so far in life.

How do you know you are on the right path? You will feel good. This is an internal thing. The right path, the right practice, the right Guru, the right destination, you will feel these because you have that capacity already. You will feel it is natural for you. Whatever is natural, whatever is not artificial is the right thing. So, life’s purpose is whatever you are experiencing at each point.

Higher purpose of life is to be aware of the consciousness that is driving or moving your life. Being aware of it, that this consciousness is active when you are awake, when you are dreaming, and when you are in a deep sleep;  being aware of that consciousness, which is behind all these activities and your understanding, is the higher purpose of life. As a human being you can understand that. No other species can do that. As human beings, you already have that faculty in you which will help you to be aware that whatever is happening is energized by something else.

The highest purpose of life is to feel God within yourself, and in everything around you, you only see God. This means the energy, the vibrations and the essence, everywhere. That is the higher purpose.

Is that clear?

Q: If I can’t see any changes within myself or outside of myself, does it mean that I am progressing or not? And in certain situations, I specially wish for Mohanji to lead me. Is it enough to just to have that intention and wish?

M: Mohanji to leave you or to lead you? Laugh J

Well, when you connect with me, I am connected to you. There is no need for any formality, or any particular method of connection. When you think about me, you are connected to me. When your mind is with me, you are connected to me. Automatically there is an energy exchange going on. It is not only me, when you think about anybody, there is an energy exchange happening. Sometimes you become conscious about it, you become aware of it, sometimes you are not aware of it, because sometimes it is based on sensitivity at that time or our moods or our emotions. So, when you are thinking about me, you are connected to me.

What are you connected to? The Consciousness which is represented by this body. Don’t think that I keep ‘PABX’ to check the connection of everybody. I don’t have to do that, because the consciousness is available, and that way you are connected. There is no need to specifically lead you in any particular method. Because, as I told in the beginning: The journey is you, the traveler is you, the destination is also you. In this bargain, my job is to ensure that you are travelling alright. That is why I said, if nobody is with you, I am with you. I never change my mind because I have no mind to change! There is no need for any ceremony; there is no need for any kind of initiation. When you think about me, you are connected to me and you will feel that difference. You will feel that energy. Just connect. Just stay stable. There is no particular time frame or a method; there is no duration. We are eternally connected. Just like the electricity on the wall. It is there. If you switch it on, you will get light. If you switch it off, there is no light. It is as simple as that. Electricity continues to connect. It is always there. This is a continuous flow of energy, and that has united all of us. That is why I said at the beginning that we are all soulmates, otherwise why did we meet in this life? There is reason for the meeting, right? And there is a reason for connecting. And not all the flowers will become fruit. There are a lot of flowers on the tree; some of the flowers fall off. But some flowers will stay and become fruit. Even the tree does not know which flower will become fruit. As long as you keep a safe distance you will remain warm. If you come too close, it might be burning hot.

I tell these people who are with me “Do not waste my life with me.” Do something better, find a boyfriend, get married, have children and live your life. Don’t waste your time with me, because it is too hot, in the neighborhood. J

Q: Is celibacy required for someone’s spiritual awakening?

M: Can you handle it? The celibacy? It depends on whether you can handle it. Any kind of suppression, is not conducive for awakening. Anything you suppress is only a postponement. Whatever you suppress, you postpone it for another time. Whatever you have, all the pluses and the minuses, all the strengths and weaknesses, you have to experience, complete, and then evolve. That is the right way. After a while, you will have no thought of that kind. Otherwise, if you suppress something, your main thought will be those things that you have suppressed. It is not only with celibacy, anything you have suppressed in life, they keep reminding you that you have suppressed them. That will become a botheration. And it takes time to come out of that botheration.

Q: How to overcome unconscious mechanisms like ego and egoism?

M: Ego is the skeleton of your personality. It is part of you. It is kept so that you can be aware of your existence, or experience existence from the level of  personality, that is,  you as a personality. It has relevance. But when we become egoistic, that is ignorance. When we are expecting respect, expecting  many things from the society, from other people, it is usually connected to not understanding. If you are very stable and you expect nothing, you are fine the way you are. Instead, if you want much from people, you want everybody to respect you or worship you, like you asked previously, these are weakness. These are wrong dimensions of ego. If you expect nothing, you are peaceful and settled nothing can affect you; you are stable. If our egoistic existence is the problem, how do you come around it or overcome it? By being aware of it. Just be aware that these things are happening and  watch them. Don’t do anything. Don’t try to fight with it. Watch it. It will slowly dissolve.

If you sincerely want to dissolve your ego, help the helpless people or beings. When I was practicing on my own, I used to also practice insignificance, which means I am not important. Even now I practice it. I am not important; everybody else is important. That is the way I operate in this world. When you feel, ”Oh, I am amazing, great etc.”, I immediately remember, “ These are provided by them for a purpose, by the Masters or God, body is provided, awareness is provided, space and facilities are provided, listeners are provided, I have done nothing.” If you keep practicing insignificance and if you believe you are not all that important, there is no way ego can bother you.

Q: Can we transcend duality in this reality?

M: Absolutely. One word, awareness.

First, always remember – all that is happening is temporary; everything that is happening, it is momentary, temporary. Everything will move. Everything will pass. But you remain as a witness to this whole show. You are witnessing this only when you are awake. When you are sleeping, you cannot witness. That is first level.

Second point – always ask: Who is speaking through me? Who is seeing through me? Who is hearing through me? What is this thing which is in me, which is experiencing all these things? Keep asking these questions.

Third point – when you are responding, or when you are in this world, when you are moving around, you are responding to various situations, various people, various emotions, who is involved in all this? And how do you feel about it? Different emotions, different people, different situations,… something is happening within you; sometimes happiness, sometimes sorrow, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Who is experiencing all these, what is happening inside?

Then, fourth, the all-important question: Who am I?

Until you get the realization that “I am the Supreme Consciousness, I am the Consciousness, I am everywhere”, keep walking. And who is your Guru? LIFE. Life is your Guru. Every day brings you some lessons through experiences. Every day, every moment, you understand something whether you like it or not.

Nobody in this life can give you better lessons than life itself. So, you are important, your life is important, the lessons from life are important; this is why you are born. This is the purpose of your life. Whether we like somebody, dislike somebody, whether we like something, dislike something, it doesn’t matter; but you should like yourself because you cannot be changed. Don’t fall for hallucinations like, “I am something else, I am somebody else, and I am probably enlightened! “ These are concepts. Don’t worry about them. When you are enlightened, others will know. How will others know? You will not be affected by whatever it is happening outside, you will be peaceful. You will wake up in the morning and ask the question, “What else can I do for this world?” We will not be bound by the overwhelming feeling of, “Me and Mine“. We will be peaceful.

Now, if somebody does not understand you that is their problem, not your problem. Not everybody has to understand you and not everybody has to love you. Those who really love you will not expect anything from you. If someone expects something from you and loves you, they will not stay also.

Life is so simple. Don’t complicate. Philosophy is simple, right? What are we talking about then? J

Go home and have some food. Thank you!

 Read part 1

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

 

 

Silence Speaks – part 1

Satsang with Mohanji in Begrade, Serbia
13th October 2019

Watch the full satsang here.

PART 1

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

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

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

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

Story

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

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

“Why does God need us to be God?”

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

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

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

Then he brought a burning charcoal.

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

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

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

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

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

Q: How to defend ourselves from negative people?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sexuality and homosexuality

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

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

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

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

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

Not a bad idea.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

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

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

Guru Purnima Satsang 2019, part 1

Guru Purnima Satsang,
Bangalore, 16th July 2019

It’s a real honour to have Amma here with us.

You know, we have a deep heart to heart connection, probably a connection of the tradition, more than heart to heart. It is silent, hence it’s not visible. Such connections are not visible, you have to feel them. Thank you Amma for physically coming here.

Earlier, I gave you an introduction to what I said today. God, soul and Guru are the same, and I have explained how that is. God is pure consciousness, brightness; brighter than a million suns. Your soul is brightness, formless. A Guru, who is connected to the Supreme Consciousness, is the same. Whatever you are connected to, you become that.

How do you know that you are actually connected to the consciousness?

There are certain signs that you can trust. When you are deeply connected to the energy within you, whether you call it Soul, God or guru, the sign is silence. When you are getting connected to the consciousness, there will be deep silence inside.

What are the usual noises from inside?

They are from all that you have you stored inside, the stored data. You have stored various emotions, so many impressions, so many anxieties, fears etc. inside. Where are they coming from? All these have some root in the outside world, we have picked it up from there.

Actually speaking, what is the outside world for you?

Only when you are waking up and when you are awake, a world outside exists. But can you use that world when you are sleeping or when you are dreaming? There is no outside world for you when you are dreaming and in deep sleep. But when you are awake, there is a world outside and that’s the world you are connecting to.

Why do we connect to the world?

In order to have some experiences. That is our entire life. We are connecting to certain things of life; it could be possessions, it could be positions, it could be relations, etc. But we are constantly connecting to this outside world and we gather impressions from this outside world, which we store. That is what we see in our hard drive (inside). These stored impressions have a link to the outside world. But when silence happens, the dependence on the outside world reduces. That is when freedom begins for your soul, in your life. Until then there is no freedom; we do not even know what freedom is.

Freedom is less dependence on the world outside. Actual freedom means your positions, possessions, relations cannot create any kind of deep impact inside (within). You will reach a stage; a state of Samadhi; a state of Samadhi where you are occupied inside. That is the first step. Your dependence on the outside world reduces and you start looking inside.

What do you see when you look inside? You see all the stored materials through thousands of years. But because your dependence on the outside is less, you will start having less dependence on these things. You may have emotions, but they have no expressions. They don’t need an expression. They don’t need gratification. So automatically, we start detaching. That is when you actually stabilise in freedom. You start being freedom. Then it goes into various stages of liberation. This is the sum total of what I have said today, as a Guru Purnima message.

It is all you, you and you. You are the path; you are the journey and you are the destination. “Tat Twam Asi (You are that). This is the whole story. That’s why we talked about semantic religions where we discussed two boundaries, heaven and hell. Based on your activity, you can go to heaven or you can go to hell. In fact, you go nowhere. It’s here, right here and these are states. When you are not at all dependent on the world outside it is heaven. When you are fully bound and completely restless, chasing things, always insufficient, always in “something is not right” kind of an attitude etc., you are in hell; because you are not peaceful. Your peace quotient brings heaven or hell into your life. It is all RIGHT HERE. It is all happening RIGHT NOW. There is no future about it.

That is why if you make a mess here but believe that you will go to heaven, it never happens; it cannot happen that way because you get the results of what you do. If you love, you get love, if you hate, you get hate. Contaminations such as anger, hatred, jealousy and revenge have their root in insecurity. Insecurity is connected to an instinct called ‘survival instinct’. All of us have it. All animals and birds, every being has this one instinct, which is predominant – the instinct for survival. Human beings also possess this instinct, but in an aberrated way; human species possess great intelligence and capacity for imagination along with this instinct for survival.

When you are focused on imagination and intelligence, you feel that instinct is something mediocre, not real; but survival instinct is very real. We see its manifestation as intelligence and imagination. Therefore, this is real. We cannot say something is unreal. If you are experiencing something, it is real for you. All that we experience is real. But how deeply are you connecting to it; that makes your life different. If you see every situation passing by, everything is going on but you are detached, then you are free. If you are affected by everything; if you are affected by each movement of the outside world, then you are bound. It is as simple as that. Do not go for complicated spirituality. There is nothing complicated about it. You are the path; you are the journey and you are the destination. Everything is connected to how you are.

It is simple. Your world is how you are. If you are very happy, your world is happy. When you wake up, your world wakes up. When you sleep, your world sleeps. That’s all you have. Your world means only so much. What you see between your waking state (when you are awake), and when you are in deep sleep state (when you’re sleeping), that’s your world. Nothing else is your world.

Question: You said God, Guru and soul are the same. If God decides everything, then what do we decide? Why don’t humans have control? It is so confusing. What should we do as human beings?

Mohanji: Firstly, God is not deciding. Is your soul deciding any emotions? Importantly, do you know that the soul exists in your body? When do we really know that the soul existed in our body? Only when the soul leaves the body. But that’s too late. Then we call it a dead body, isn’t it? So, God is very much the same. God is similar to the petrol of your car. It helps your journey, but it has nothing to do with your destination. Your soul also is non-interfering and silent, in fact quite silent, but it gives life. Hence, God is not deciding anything, but God provides the platform. Consider this, this hall (in which we are seated) neither decided who will come here, nor did it decide what discussion will happen here. The hall is called Agastya (name of a sage), but Agastya has nothing to do with it.

Similarly, your soul, God, and Guru have nothing to do with you. They are all factors of existence.

So, what is driving your life? Unfulfilled desires.

Where have unfulfilled desires come from? Memories & impressions.

Memories of what? Activities or experiences.

So, the clock goes like this.

Unfulfilled desires à Inclinations à Thoughts à Words à Actions à Experience à Memory à Impression.

You have unfulfilled desires, which creates inclinations. Inclinations create thoughts. Thoughts create expressions or words, which then creates action. Action creates experience. Experience creates the residue, that is, memory. That memory gets stored as impression in some part of you. It can be in your physical sheath – Anna Maya Kosha, it can be in your mental sheath –

Mano Maya Kosha or any Koshas. We have various sheaths around us. Depending on the activity and the experience, each impression gets stored there.

When it is stored, it asks for more of that thing, that experience. That is why when you become angry, you sometimes do not know why you get angry. But the truth is that you are getting angry. There is a cause. Every effect has a cause, into which the soul is not interfering. Soul is watching, witnessing. The same hold true for God. God does not interfere. God is also witnessing. And this is a drama, nothing stays. Understand that all this is happening clearly between the times you wake up and before you fall back into sleep. This whole drama happens in that 24 hours of time. You have this drama only during the hours that you are awake. Then, there is more drama in the dream state.

Dream state is not connected immediately to the waking state nor to the outside world. Dream state cannot depend on the world outside as well. So, what does dream state depend on? Whatever you have stored inside; that creates dreams. Hence the dream state is equally valid. It has relevance because, what you do not express during waking state, can be expressed during the dream state. In the waking state you are in Bangalore, but in dream state, you could be in America. At the physical level, if you want to go to America, firstly, you need a visa, then you need to book the flight etc. But in a dream, you are in America in a moment. Because it gives you an experience, dream state has validity.

Then you have deep sleep state. In deep sleep state you’re totally dead. You don’t know where you’re a man or a woman. You don’t know the time or place. You know nothing. In deep sleep, you’re dead. Every night we are dying for three and a half hours; then, we come back. Actually, the insomnia affects only that time. Even if dream state is lost, there’s no problem. But three and half hours if you could not sleep well, then your body gets affected. The sleeplessness we talk about, is connected to the deep sleep state. Dream state has no problem even if is fluctuating. After a while when you are deeply connected with yourself even the dream state dies. That is, when the stored data reduces, dream state also vanishes.

So, this is the story… activity, experience, memory, impression, desire, thought, word, action, again experience… our life goes on like this.

In this, God is neutral, Soul is neutral and Guru is neutral. Guru is only showing you the light. What is the guru’s role? He is just like a mirror. When you look at the mirror, what do you see? What you see is what you are. How you are, at that point in time, that is what you see. True gurus are like that. They need nothing from you. What can you give them? Understand – The only thing you can actually surrender to the guru, God or soul is YOURSELF. Everything else that you surrender is from the outside. They are not yours; you are holding them temporarily and we have a false feeling that we own it. But what do you truly own on Earth? We may have houses, cars, people, relations, positions, possessions, but we own nothing. What happens to all of them when we die? It’s gone. So that’s exactly how it works. There is no confusion here. God is providing the platform, otherwise you cannot perform this drama. Soul is your energy, which helps you to perform. Guru is your mirror, which tells you who you are. If you look at all these three aspects, all three are neutral.

So, God is not making any plans. We are creating the drama. We are enjoying in some way. All the pains, pleasures etc. are our own production. And please understand the mind factor, the mind matter. Mind matter means mind, intellect and ego, the three aspects of this mind. Mind is the seat of emotions, intellect is the seat of analysis and ego is the seat of personality, it is the skeleton of personality. Ego is not so bad. Just as a skeleton gives a structure to your body, ego gives a structure to your personality and that’s okay. So, mind, intellect and ego are the three faculties with which we experience this world. Through mind we experience emotions; through intellect, we analyse all the things; and through ego, we express our personality, which is usually a powerful expression. That is the expression with which people recognise you.

When people say “Mohanji”, they will have some idea of Mohanji; such as what he wears, how he walks or talks, how nonsensical he was (chuckles), etc. They are all connected to ego projection. That is how we are alive. Nothing in this world is by accident. Every bird, every plant, every leaf, every tree, every human, every being, each of them is relevant; there is relevance; there is the power of creation behind it all. So, when you really understand that, you know why they are all here and that we have no ownership over them.

For karma, the source is ownership. If an activity with ownership happens, that causes karma. If an activity with surrender happens, there is no karma. That is why Lord Krishna said, “You surrender your actions and the results of actions to ME; I release you from its karma.” The standard vow is, “You have no ownership, then you have no karma”. Thus, it’s as simple as that. God is giving you all the options without interfering.

Question: Does it mean that we should know our desires?

You won’t know desires, because not all desires are tangible. Also, desires move as per time. Desires you had at the age of 10 will have no validity when you are 20. The same desires will be useless at the age of 30. So, every desire has its time and space. They happen only at that time. Sometimes when you see the children playing, eager for new toys, you wonder, “What’s the big deal?” because you have overcome that situation. We overcome such situations every day. Every morning when we wake up, it’s a new life. So, we would have transformed without our knowledge every day. In this mode, we are continuously flowing. Hence, no desires can be called as permanent. Some desires though could be permanent – those that you reject, resist or postpone; they stay longer. That is what we call as addictions.

Whatever you suppress for a longer period of time, will become your predominant agenda in the future. In some people, you may notice addictions; for example, as soon as they are able to spend money and buy alcohol, they start drinking. We might be surprised as to why these people are drinking so much; it’s a clear sign of a suppressed desire in a previous life/ previous existence. They would have suppressed it far too much and far too long, and it comes back as a very compelling desire. Also, what you are, at the time of death has lot of value. That is why we used to name our children as Rama, Krishna, etc. because then we keep calling that name and that name becomes a chant. The Lord’s name has vibration and every name has a frequency. That is one aspect. But otherwise, calling the name all the time is also chanting.

There is a story of Sage Valmiki; how he turned around from being a hunter to becoming a sage, just by chanting the name “Rama”. When he, as a hunter said, “I cannot chant Rama”, the sage Narada said, “don’t chant Rama, chant Mara”. Mara in Sanskrit means ‘tree’. When you continuously chant Mara Mara Mara, it became Rama, Rama, Rama. Like this, everything has its value.

You cannot control desires and don’t try to control anything, but watch it. Be aware. That is why awareness (Bodh) has a lot of value. Just be aware of everything; don’t do anything unconsciously. Whatever happens in life, be aware; whatever you’re speaking, be aware; for everything, just be aware. When you are being aware all the time, one day that awareness will stabilise and all the desires will become, “Yes, things will happen in life, it will all happen, let it happen, because they are all related to past life”.

Please understand one thing. The lineage Karma, the karma coming from the father and mother, lineage of parents, they are the first one to enter as soon as soon as the sperm and egg meets. It is called Dhananjeya. Dhananjeya means the prana that enters the system. That means you get linked to the father and mother. Thus, lineage karma is the first of karmas, then comes prarabdha, that is, what you brought forward from another life. It comes after the lineage karma. So, as soon as you are born in a family, the family has taken you over. Dhananjeya has taken over, even before you are born, the moment you desire to take birth, before your body is formed. It is also the last parameter to leave after death. It leaves after everything is demolished.

So, lineage, karma has a lot of impact in us. That is why we observe abstinence for certain days, where we stay away (from husband/ wife) after a death in the family. That’s because we are technically connected to all these people in the lineage. Prarabdha comes much later. Prarabdha comes when the soul enters the body, or when the body is formed. Otherwise, we are only lineage. We are in a compulsive way, representing the lineage or the weight of the parents’ side. So, when you do constant actions of kindness, goodness, compassion, the whole lineage gets purified. That’s why all the scriptures say, “Acts of kindness – karma yoga is really essential. Keep doing good work; keep helping people; keep doing the right things”. Such acts clean the lineage continuously and all the people of the lineage get benefitted. For instance, there is a feast in your house, everybody gets all the food you cook, isn’t it? Like that, whatever you do helps not only all the people in the lineage, but also the generations to come. And when you go to the next life, you carry some part of the merit. It is similar to having a positive bank balance for your next life. Overall, it is positive.

This is a time of information. Internet is giving tonnes of information. But until you assimilate information, it does not become knowledge, it will remain as information, like raw food. Until you cook it, it’s not edible. You have to contemplate on the information, then it becomes knowledge. When you experience that knowledge, it becomes wisdom. Until then, it’s not wisdom, it’s just knowledge.

Question:  If we choose to experience that, will that ensure grace?

If you choose to experience, grace will be there. As long as you are not acting on selfishness grace will come. Grace is like sunshine, it’s always there. You have to open your windows and curtains, then you get sunshine. Grace is always there. The easiest thing to obtain is Bhagawan’s blessing or grace. But we don’t strive for it. We don’t work for it. Because we don’t believe in it. Firstly, when people say that there is a thing called grace factor, they would say, “Oh, you’re joking”. When we don’t believe in something, we don’t get it. Earning grace means, consistent acts of kindness, compassion, then we earn it.

 

Transcribed by Rakshitha Ananth
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

Effective Years

 

Imagine we live about 80 years, about 29,000 days. Most of our time, on Earth, we spend on personal preferences and personal likes and dislikes. We do not really spend time for the sake of the world. For me, effective life is the time that you spend for the sake of the world. About 90% of the people of the world only live for themselves; eat, drink, sleep, complain, that is the kind of pattern. Otherwise, you can see the usual pattern; a child is born, goes through education, gets a job, gets married, builds a house, settles down, has children, later they have children, and so on. It is the usual cycle of life, the usual pattern. At no point in time, do we ever think, “Is this exactly what you want to do in life?” To cover it up, rather to have some difference in this pattern, we go for addictions, we develop some habits, and those habits become addictions. And then we feel comfortable because we have a diversion from this usual pattern. But that’s again, negative, you’re not doing anything (positive). You’re just getting stuck in this run of life.

So I would call effective years as the years when you existed selflessly, that means, when you lived your life selflessly, for the sake of the world. So when you wake up, you wake up with gratitude that you’re born here and are alive; you will feel good. “It’s good, I’m alive. Let me do something for the earth.” That itself will provoke you to do the right things. When I say right things, I mean something that is unselfish. At no point in time, does anyone tell us that everything you get from here, you have to leave behind.  Including your body, everything has to be left behind. You can carry nothing when you die; not even a pebble can be taken from the earth, everything is left behind. If that clarity is there, you will be more and more interested in doing something for the world. That will earn you much more grace, much more spiritual revenue with much spiritual energy, revenue, Grace. That’s worth it.

When you live selflessly, it is worth it. When you go to a Master or God or temple or church, what do we ask for? We ask for something that we don’t have. We decide that we need these things to be happy. We always complain, what I have is not good enough. We need more. We need something different. We are always in that mode. We hardly appreciate that we are breathing, that we are living, our stomach is working well; we have food to eat and a place to sleep. We hardly think about these faculties and factors. We just live our life. And then at some point in time we wonder, “What am I doing here?” Then, come disappointments, and behind every disappointment, there is an expectation. We expect too much from the Earth. But we don’t give anything back. So according to me, the effective years period is a time when you needed nothing from here, and  you decided to give everything to the Earth.

Jesus had about eight effective years. That is what created Christianity. The intensity of those eight years created a religion. If you look at Shirdi Sai Baba, almost his entire existence was effective. He hardly did anything for himself. You can see various masters in India, who wanted nothing from here, but gave everything to the existence, to the world. This is effective years. So if you start looking at the effective years of your life, or even effective hours of your life, it will make a big difference in your life. You will stop asking for anything. When you stop asking, you do not entertain poverty consciousness. Whenever you ask for something, you are saying that you lack it, you don’t have something.

Whenever you repeat that you don’t have something, you are expressing poverty, lack of something. Instead what will you say – “Thank you, I’m grateful. Thank you for allowing this existence. Thank you for the incarnation. Grateful, I’m being used for something.” So everything that you will say will be positive and purposeful.

On another note, where does the inspiration come from, against adversities? If it is a selfish desire, if it is something for you, it is something like cats and dogs; we see how they are always trying to snatch something from somewhere. In fact, whatever you’re eligible for, will come to you , because you earned it. This is the truth. The truth is that whatever you’re eligible for will come to you. Whatever you’re not eligible for, cannot come to you because you can’t handle it. So we think that we need all these different things. And largely, our lack of peace is connected to these desires. We pitch our desire, based on what we see around, all the time.

If you only think about your needs, all of you will be satisfied, in fact all of us will be satisfied. Food, clothing, shelter, medicines, healthcare, these are all fine. That’s not where our dissatisfaction sits. Our dissatisfaction usually sits on something which is in another person’s hands. We are asking for something that we don’t have. And we believe that this is exactly what we need. You see the queue in front of mobile phone shops, when they release a new model. After you buy it, how many days you will be happy with it? After a few days, you’re waiting for the next model. So that is our level of fulfillment, fulfillment quotient. In contrast we are happy with what we have, and we decide to give whatever we can to society.  I always say this, if you really think you’re a citizen of a country, only look at how much you’re giving to the country; not what you’re taking from the country. We talk about rights all the time – it’s our right, we should have this, and we should have that. But we never talk about responsibilities.

Passion comes with purpose. Passion means the power of action. It becomes solidified. A solid purpose gives solid motivation. If you are clear in your life with what you want to do, you will be motivated, and you don’t need anybody else’s motivation. Even if people go against you and speak poorly about you, it’s their opinion. They are just opinions. You may have nothing to do with it. You will still be motivated. And that motivation is what drives all these masters. That’s what creates legacy.

Self-motivation – self-motivation should begin with self-acceptance. We should accept ourselves fundamentally, as a pure and simple incarnation. Maybe we have a lot of good in us or we have a lot of bad in us. All are mixtures. Nobody’s perfect. We can be good and we can be bad. There’s no problem. It’s fine. And then your purposefulness will shine forth and you will have a passionate life, a life of power.

So effective years are very important.

If you look at your effective years, you will start understanding that you are unique. Otherwise, you will never know that you are unique. You may not feel it. You may not feel you are unique, because you are trying to be one of the lot, be one with this society, trying to become exceptional in the society and society usually looks at how much money you have or what’s your position in the society. But if you keep giving to the society, sooner or later, society has to recognize you. Society will recognize. They have to recognize. Glory happens when you give more than you take.

Transcribed by Kishore Mundanat
Proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan

 

The Glorious Dead

The Glorious Dead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spontaneity and fluidity are essential for growth in spirituality.

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

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

I always love you

M

We are truly the seed of God. Choose Godhood.