About Letting Go, Mantras, Shaktipat and Nath tradition

Satsang with Mohanji in Novi Sad, Serbia on 4th May, 2014

Q: During the Power of Purity meditation my eyes by themselves rotated for about 60 degrees upwards so that I almost had to opened my eyes. I don’t know what happened…

A: When you connect to the third eye and your eyes rotate to the third eye, that means you are in the mood of forgiveness, you are forgiving, you are letting go. On normal eye level we always attract, collect and store. But the moment it shifts to the third eye, we start letting go, we release. So you are ready to release, this is the sign of that. We are by nature collection oriented. Through our eyes, nose, ears, all our faculties we attract information, we attract experiences, we attract a lot of things and we store it. And the more we store, the heavier we become. It’s natural. So what happens is, the experience also starts getting repeated. It is called purva samskara, which means past impressions. We collect impressions and we repeat them in life. It is important to let go, to release because every second is fresh, every moment is fresh. If we bring something from the past and put it in the present, we miss the fragrance of the present, or the flavour of the right moment, this moment. What usually happens is we are usually superimposing. E.g. “I knew this before, or I’ve know this person before, I’ve known this situation before, I’ve known the place before,” but every moment is changing, just like our body. It’s changing. Change is part of life. Change is part of earthly existence. We must look at life fresh. Then we start enjoying life. Then we are in the present. So in the meditation that we’ve just practiced we are asking people to connect to the spine. When you are connected to the spine, automatically your eyes close and you shift to the third eye. Then you are ready to release. Otherwise you will not release. Even normally when we sit down and close our eyes, we do not release, we are just trying to manipulate on our stored impressions. That is one of the points.

Normally we meet a person and say, “I’ve met him.” What you are meeting is the physical form, and the expressions of the person. But there is a deep inherent consciousness which is expressed through the person. Like, if you say, “I know Mohanji” that means you know this physical form and my way of expression. That’s about it. But where it is coming from it is not possible for you to know. For knowing that, you must be operating more from the third eye. So when you meet a person you actually understand him. Otherwise all we are doing is meeting the physical form and collecting the expressions and judging a person. This is very wrong, this is not the way. That is why we have conflicts. Normally when we meet a person we see the differences. But when we operate from the third eye we see the unity. And simplest technique for operating from the third eye is connecting to your own spine. I’m not saying “meditate”, but “connect”. When I say “connect” it means when you are walking, feel the spine. When you are sitting down, feel the spine, even for five or ten minutes. It is not that you feel the spine all the time. Eventually, with every activity, if you start feeling your spine, you start operating from the spine or from the third eye. Even if you close the eyes and feel the spine automatically you will know that you are operating from the third eye.
When you start operating from your spine, the difference would be less emotions, and more of awareness. As awareness grows, you will increase in strength, you will become stronger. This is very simple. You do not have to go to any guru or any particular place to do, while you lead your life, you can connect to your spine, you can be peaceful and also you will enjoy silence when the mind is getting stiller and stiller. And when you thus establish yourself in awareness, you will be detaching from your mind, you will be detaching from your body, at the same time you would be functioning very well. But you are not controlled by the mind or the body.

Q: How to get rid of anxious state?

A: I already explained that, connect to your spine, feel your spine, stay away from your mind, start watching your mind, detach from your mind, and slowly, slowly, slowly the mind will become still. It is like, when you do not energise one hand for one year, you won’t be able to use that hand because the muscles become weak. So if you do not energise your mind, especially your fears, your anxieties, your insecurities, they will start dropping off. They will not be there. Detaching from the mind is very important. When I say the mind, it also contains ego and it also contains intellect. The discriminating factor, the emotional factor, the ego factor.

Q: How does mantra chanting fits in this whole story? What is its use? Is it good or not?

A: Each mantra is a configuration which helps some part of your constitution. Sometimes it is to rejuvenate, sometimes it is to calm… Each mantra has a purpose.
Normally a guru gives a mantra to the disciple looking at the constitution of the disciple. That is like prescribed medicine. There are mantras like “Om namah shivaya”. People say this mantra is enough, no other mantra is needed, which is true. It is very, very powerful. I’ve given the explanation of each word in it.

That constitutes every aspect of our existence such as the fire element which constitute the body, the five types of air that circulate the body, and the five types of fire, five types of existence. Every aspect is covered in this five-digit mantra.
The same fire can be used to cook the food and burn the house. It’s up to us to decide what we need out of the fire. People like to have powers. So they configure mantras to give that effect. And there are mantras for protection, like a sheath. Gayatri mantra has the power of protection, and also power of elevation.

So every mantra has a reason and power. But if you connect to the white mantras, like “Om namah shivaya”, etc. no harm will happen to you in any way. About other mantras, power-oriented, you should be careful. They can help us and they can also hurt us.

Q: How to know which one is maybe dangerous?

A: The mostly recognised, the mostly approved pleasant chants are from the white, because it enhances your protection, your energy, and your wellbeing. They are fine. Or you can check with your guru who understands and they will recommend.
We can also individualise mantras. With certain mantras, if you use, you will have a particular effect, another person will have different effect. So mantras cannot be generalised all the time. But this question is very important at this time because energies are changing very rapidly on earth now. A lot of calamities are expected from now to 2022. This is because the energies are shifting rapidly. And you can see the effect of it on people. Mind is restless. Mind is controlling. To connect to the higher frequencies has become difficult and meditation has become difficult. So chanting has much more value today than meditation. And chanting can lead to meditation. It is usually said that you should contemplate on yourself, on what you are before you go into meditation. And then when you contemplate, ”Am I this anger? Am I this form that I see in the mirror? Am I this expression? Am I the mind? Am I the intellect? Am I the ego? Am I so and so son or daughter? Am I the husband or wife?“ These questions come and finally the answer will be no, no, no… after a long time when you finally start feeling yourself, then you slip into meditation. That meditation is real for you. And that meditation will have much, much impact and effect. Because you have recognised yourself. Now most of the people, I’m not underestimating, only have a vague idea about who we are, or who they are. Mostly when I ask, ”Who are you?” They will say some name which is connected to this life. Actually speaking, all of us sitting here are related in consciousness. All the people outside including plants, animals, birds, are connected in consciousness. We are all one soul. Because we look different or feel different, we consider we are different. So this is a good time for the chanting. When you chant, chant from the stomach center, not from the throat. Stomach is the seat of the fire. And when you enhance the fire, it burns the stored emotions. When you keep chanting positive mantra, in the stomach center for the period of time, scripture say that you can even change the weather, climate or even the destiny.

Q: Is it important to calm your mind while chanting?
A: Calmness happens to the mind when you are connected to the mantra.
Q: So it doesn’t matter if the mind wanders around?
A: Mind will anyway wander. You cannot control the mind and start the show. It never works. Please understand that mind is the most restless factor in your system. It is never stable. Don’t think that we can attack your mind directly. It’s impossible. Mind will catch you every time 🙂 and also mind will manipulate you. That is why I say if you depend on the mind, mind will keep you the same and mind will help you change the guru. Mind is filled with concepts from the society, from the education, from the parents, from every aspect of our existence. We have collected the concepts and filled our mind. And our life is equal to which concepts allow us to experience, not the reality. We are not experiencing the world in reality. We are just trying to sound it off with our concepts. The more concepts we have, the more inflexible we are.

Has everybody heard of Sathya Sai Baba? There was a boy staying with Baba for many years to do service. It was going on well for a few years, he was serving Baba, he was happy, Baba was happy. One day he decided to leave Baba. People said, ”Are you crazy, a lot of people are waiting to serve him, and you are with him! Why are you missing this opportunity?” Then he said, ”I saw Baba shaving. How can God shave?” He forgot that when you are in the human body, you have everything related to the human body including growth of hair. So what was the problem? He had a concept that Baba as God should be like this, in a particular way. And when he realised that this concept does not fit the man, he was completely affected. He couldn’t accept it. So he missed the big chance. He could have reached the highest if he was not concept oriented, if he was not bound by concepts. All of us are like this. We have limitations. We buy the frame in advance, then we cut the picture inside. We never buy a frame for the picture. Frame is equal to concept. And picture is equal to reality. We cut the picture (reality) for the concept.

Q: Is it important how we pronounce a mantra or is it all right if we pronounce it as we feel?
A: Most mantras are in Sanskrit and the diction and writing is more or less the same. Pronounce every word. Don’t swallow words. There are numerous languages people speak in the world. I never think it’s 100% accuracy in anybody chanting. But the nearest possible should be ok because that’s the best you can achieve.

To go back on the topic of TIME, as I said, energies are changing very rapidly on earth now. A lot of calamities are expected from now to 2022. This is because the energies are shifting rapidly and you can see the effect of it on people. Mind is restless. Mind is controlling. To connect to the higher frequencies has become difficult and meditation has become difficult. So chanting has much more value today than meditation and chanting can lead to meditation.
The time is shifting and from 2012 to almost 2017 time is more dense and dark in nature. And from 2018 to 2022 would be more of the lighter, softer, subtler nature. This is what is expected. You can see the basic instinct or the basic aspect of the character of the people has been enhanced in the last few years. People who are oriented to spirituality, meditation, exploring themselves, have intensified it. Because at this time the Earth is spinning faster. A little effort from you helps much more. One year is almost equal to fifty years. So if you invest in awareness now, it will help you to achieve your goal much faster. This year, 2014, is important as the year of creation because of the moon. Moon means water, water means new life. It’s a new creation. It’s a good time for starting things anew. New effort this year for something very specific, 95% chance is it will happen. If you are taking one message from here, this should be the message. Nurture positivity now, or positive aspects now, or clear purpose, ”This is what I want to be or achieve in the years to come” or ”I want to be liberated in the years to come.” That kind of powerful decision, powerful purpose, if you sow the seeds now, it will grow beautifully in the years to come. This is very important to remember in these ten years between 2012 and 2022. It would be a good idea for that seed to be liberation because we are stuck with so many things created by the mind. We are dividing more than uniting. We are all related, but our mind doesn’t accept it. Mind likes to keep differences and divisions rather than unification and unity. All we need is love.

Q: I had an intense experience of the colours during the meditation, is that the mind or reality?
A: Colours are usually expressions of our constitution. Because we are a collection of various factors. There is love, anxiety, fear, goodness… as a mixture sitting in you. And this gets reflected in colours. But it is a good idea because once you see it, probably they are leaving you as well.

Q: It is well-known that most of the masters from the Vedanta tradition use mantras for initiation. As far as I know you do not do that, at least not in that way, but you use shaktipat. Does shaktipat play a similar role in all these or is it somewhat deeper and more direct than that? Can you say a little more about shaktipat?

A: There are numerous paths leading to the same ocean. In the tradition that I follow, the path of Shiva, the more activity is done by the master. In our path the biggest requirement for any disciple is an empty space. It is not on activity, it is on being. We say that in our path, it’s like a monkey’s child. Monkey’s child clings to the mother. It doesn’t have the power to climb the tree. Mother climbs the tree. All the monkey’s child does is cling onto the mother. So in our path it’s complete connection with the guru or the path or the tradition, and everything is delivered. Have you heard of Sai Baba of Shirdi? Somebody asked him, ”How was your guru?” He said, ”My guru was very powerful. But he taught me nothing. From morning till evening I kept looking at him. I sat down and looked at him. And he gave me everything. Here the practice is being empty and surrendering and just by connecting to the guru, you achieve the highest.
I’ll give you another example, Shirdi Sai Baba’s example. There was a saint Upasni Maharaj.

He used to do tremendous practices. And he was more or less playing with life. He would go and sit in the cave in the forest and meditate, and for days on without food, without water, and he would go to various places where people could not go. He would just sit and meditate just to attain the highest possible level a man can grow. He was not connected to Sai Baba, but whenever Baba saw him he would catch him and bring him and put him in Shirdi. But he couldn’t sit there. He was used to the forest and other places. When Baba was not looking he would run away. Baba would catch him again and bring him and put him there. A few times he did this, and he became as powerful as Baba. Once he attained the highest level he was living in the burial ground. It’s about 4 or 6 km from Shirdi and whatever happened in Shirdi he would know sitting there. When one man went to Sai Baba and saw Sai Baba smoking, he was disturbed. He said, ”This is a guru? He smokes? I don’t want to bow down to him” and he went away. Then he came to Upasni Maharaj and tried to bow down, but he said, ”No, go away. If you cannot bow down there, don’t come here.” This was in 1900s, so there was no telephone to tell. In the path of Shiva, it’s all about the dissolution. Each and every aspect is dissolved, ego is dissolved, mind is dissolved, intellect is dissolved, you become completely one with the perfection. When all the limitations are removed, you become extremely powerful, you become one with the universe.
Shaktipat is cutting down whatever is stored which you do not need, which is acquired and stored. This is what we are burning through Shaktipat. What you cannot take out yourself, or will take a long time for you to clear, through Shaktipat we are dissolving. This is what Shaktipat is all about. Original idea is shakti energy which is already in human beings is enhanced and allowed to evolve from the lowest to the top of the head, the highest. When you enhance Shakti energy, it burns down so many things which are not wanted. It should not be enhanced when the karmic push is strong. When karma is strong, that means you have already created an agenda for life, in our path, guru never ever interferes in one’s free will. No manipulation, no forcing, it should be spontaneous, and if a person comes to you, surrendered, in the sense like ”Please help me” or ”I’m ready”, that’s the only time when guru helps.

And Shivapath is transfering the same energy or the same power of the guru to the disciple. This is very, very rare. Because the person has to develop to that level to receive it. And a guru has to be very lucky to get such a disciple because it is very rare and difficult. One African American came and met me in Virginia, the USA. I was surprised when he asked me, ” Can you deliver Shivapath to me?” I said, ”I can give you Shivapath, can you take it?” A lot of people come to see. Very few become higher. This is not the problem at all. It depends on the receptivity of the seekers. Many flowers happen in the tree, very few become fruit. In our path, there is only one criterion: empty space. And there is no other criteria, whether you are black or white, rich or pure, from this country or that country… Only criterion is, ”Are you able to receive?” But the guru will test the eligibility. I was talking to one divine mother in the Himalayas. She said, ”People climb the mountain to reach the guru. After a lot of effort, you reach the top and meet the guru. First thing the guru does is kick. So sometimes they get disappointed, ”Oh, I climbed all these mountains and he kicked me.” But some people kiss the feet. That time guru hugs him. If you survive the test, then you are taken in. Then there’s nothing to worry, ha ha. It’s a joke, but it gives an idea about the path, which means, only eligibility is emptiness. No ego, no mind and then God fills in. And there are many gurus in our tradition starting from Shiva, we know Shirdi Sai Baba quite well, and then there are numerous gurus who walk the path and there are two rivers merging as one. One is the Kriya Yoga with Babaji and all the other gurus and the other one is gurus of the Dattatreya tradition. These come together. So Dattatreya side is all siddhas, all who have powers, of course all gurus have powers but there are more siddhas, like Shirdi Sai Baba was not teaching anybody any Kriya. On both sides there are powerful masters.

But each caters to some people. Some people need activity and doing certain things to reach there. But for a siddha it’s about emptying, nullifying. Even Lord Dattatreya, when they asked him about his guru or who he was, he just said, ”I’m just the lover of the nature.” So that level of humility, nullification, this is the sign of our tradition. The tradition is called Nath tradition. There are many Nath gurus. Nisargadatta Maharaj was a Nath guru ,

Bhagawan Nithyananda from Ganeshpuri (he left his body in 1961), Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba, they are all Nath gurus. They can sit in one place and work in many places. They are only using their body just to be on earth. But their consciousness is very very wide. So if you connect to the consciousness, automatically you’ll be elevated. And the only criterion is: keep emptying, ”This is not me, this is not me…” and once you nullify yourself, they completely take over. One person asked a Nath guru, ‘How can I get initiated into the Nath path?” He said, ”That’s very simple. Jump into the river, the river takes you. All you need is simplicity, love, compassion and just emptying. Remove all the concepts. Be naked.” When all the ego, hatred, division, all the things which we have stored in the mind go away, the mind itself will go away. It’s like if you don’t have any trash at home, you don’t need any trash can. Trash can is our mind. We are producing trash and keep it in our mind. If you do not remove your trash from you household for one month, you can’t enter the house. Our mind is like that. We can’t enter now. It’s lifetimes we have kept it. That’s it. Throw the trash can away. I always tell people if you want to leave something here with me, leave your mind and go. Be free.

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic
Proof-read by a volunteer in the UK