When we are connected within ourselves, we experience fullness. That is the state of enlightment, where we feel ourselves in everything, as one unit, fully aligned. We can be aligned full time, as Mohanji explains.
Zoom Satsang Mohanji Speaks
April 28, 2019
Q: I’m trying to see everyone as Mohanji and treat them with love and respect. But when they say and do things that are unlike Mohanji, it becomes very challenging, how can I overcome this?
M: I think the first part is the right part. You see everybody as Mohanji but do not place any conditions. The first part of the statement is fine, but the second part has conditions; but no one person can behave exactly like another.
So we can’t expect that everyone will behave just as we want. Remove the conditions and say “let this person behave just as he wishes to, no problem. It is another expression of Mohanji.”
When we do not have conditions, when we do not have expectations, we will have a life, which is more complete; instead when we have expectations, we will have almost equal amount of disappointments. This world is a mixture of various things. It is also a mystery.
We don’t know why certain behavior pattern happens in people, although of course, there is a root for it. As we interact in the society, we do not understand why certain people behave in certain ways. They have their past to work on. And their expressions are connected to their past. We can’t do anything about it.
The only thing you can do is stop being affected. When I say stop being affected, it means that all these things are happening. However, at the same time, nothing touches you. It means your expectation level is extremely low. If something happens, that is good; but if it is not happening, that is alright too. You can’t predict anyone’s behavior pattern.
I have seen that in my life too; you do your best but some people turn around, say it was not good enough and leave. At times they even talk poorly about you. Jesus healed many lepers, (those suffering from leprosy). In those days, there was no cure for leprosy.
When people contracted the disease they were left in caves with the doors sealed, because there was no cure. Jesus healed them. Many were healed, but none of them stopped to turn back and say, “Thank you”! They were busy merging into the society as healthy people! This is society.
You may respect the society you live in, there’s no guarantee that society will respect you. You may honor the society, there is no guarantee that society will honor you; you may love the society, but there is no guarantee that society will love you too!
However, when you are not expecting any of these, you experience freedom. It’s your birthright to experience freedom and freedom can be experienced only when our expectation levels are very low. Please understand that whatever we do, we usually also place our expectations alongside. So the effect of that activity is diluted immediately.
When we expect a result, our actions are weak, because we are focused on the result rather than the action. Instead, forget about the result and focus on the action.
What will happen? You will have no stress connected to the result. Do your job well, to the best of your ability; do your homework before you start the work and do it perfectly. Leave what happens as a result of the action to destiny. This way you can be free.
So, definitely look at everybody as Mohanji if you love Mohanji, but without any conditions. Hence I said the first part of the question is beautiful, you look at everybody as Mohanji. You will then try to love and respect them. The second part is connected to expectation, “Because they are not behaving the same way as Mohanji, I have disappointments.” Such disappointments are caused by expectations or conditions and they have to be removed. In fact one has to be trained to remove such expectations; to think, “I do my best. But I don’t expect anything back”.
Again, don’t allow people to treat you as a doormat. When you see that someone looks at you as a potential doormat, withdraw from there. Say, “I’m not here to be a doormat, I will do whatever I can to serve you but I’m an individual.”
Whenever you feel that you’re suffocated with a place or an activity or an environment, move away and be peaceful.
Peace is your birthright. So is freedom. Freedom exists when your expectation levels are low. Freedom is when you need less from the world.
You have every right to be free,
Every right to be contented,
Every right to be relaxed in this life.
Q: My dog is suffering. And my vet recommends that we euthanize him, I don’t feel comfortable with this decision. Can we make a decision on when our pets could die?
M: I think you don’t have to take any decision in this case. Every being that is born has a plan of death. Do you think that we will exist in the body forever? We will also die! Every being that is born will die. We can’t look at a dog or a cat or any other being connected to us in our life as our property. They are not! They are beings that came to your life because of a karmic collaboration.
They took birth at a certain time and will die at certain time. You have no control over it. If you decide to kill them because they are sick, will you do the same to your family members?
Suppose someone in your family is unwell and the doctor says that he is not sure if he will be able to cure that person, will you kill him too? Every being has the right to live, as long as it takes. Every being goes through pleasures and pains of life, like us. The need is for extraordinary patience, compassion and kindness.
I do not take any decision on killing any life. That is not the way we should handle life. We should allow everything to be natural. If a dog had been out in the street/nature, it will go through the natural process of life. Life is a flow. Every being connected to us is equal to us, it is not that we can make a decision for them.
Unfortunately, the veterinary doctors and various institutions, only focus on securing the life of human beings. A person I know told me that he had pet birds and one bird was unwell. He took this bird to a doctor and the doctor killed the bird since it was not well! He then suggested that my friend could buy another bird to replace it, as if it is just another object or property! They don’t have that feeling of life in expression!
Hence those of us who are walking the path of spirituality should have extraordinary levels of compassion and we should always nurture life. Also, we should not, ever, promote or support any kind of destruction.
That is why I am completely against abortions. I’m completely against any kind of artificial or compulsive killing. I propagate vegan for the very same reason; no torture, no killing. I don’t agree that we have right to do that.
When we cannot create life and give birth to a similar species (I am not talking of womb birth here), we also do not have the right to kill. When we cannot give life, we cannot give death either. This is my feeling.
Q: Along the same topic, how to remain non-violent when I’m dealing with pests and bugs? Is it okay to terminate some of them in order to live hygienically?
M: Well, there are two points we should consider here. One is that everyone has instincts i.e. animals, birds and humans. The primary instinct is the instinct of survival. Then we have intelligence. Intelligence is predominantly for human beings. Most animals operate at the level of a three-year-old human child. As for instincts, there are two to three variations. Most of our behavior patterns are connected to instincts; we have the instinct for survival, for food and for self-protection. We need food to survive.
You can see that all the birds and animals possess this self-protection mode. Thus all that we do to try to prevent insects from entering the house is related to self-protection. I would say that self-protection is our right. We must protect ourselves because self-protection is part of the instinctual mode in every species. This is my opinion.
Q: So I read somewhere on Facebook, that when an individual does your Aarati, it helps energize everyone connected to you and the tradition. How does it do that?
M: Every Aarati is a purifier. When we wave the lamp, it purifies the environment and the energy of the place becomes better. It is also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude opens us up for the grace to flow. The nature of an Aarati is to rejuvenate the whole area. Hence rejuvenation happens wherever you are. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you do Aarati in one place, people at another place are benefited. I doubt it. It is more a local thing. It helps purify the environment in that area.
With continuous performance of Aarati, you will see a palpable difference in the entire energy of the room.
Q: Does enlightenment happen to the soul or the mind?
M: Enlightenment is a state that already exists; only the mind factor and the “I” factor – “I” means ego, mind and intellect put together, are not allowing us to believe it. “Enlightenment” is just being aware of something that already exists; it is not something which comes from outside. Hence enlightenment is our natural state; it is what we are, already.
Mind matter consists of mind, intellect and ego and it works in its own way, with the external world. Since we travel with these senses and the mind matter to the outside world, when we look at ourselves, in terms of me and mine, me as an individual and mine as in, my property, my wealth, my relationship, and so on, we do not feel that oneness or fullness.
That is why I say that when you are fully connected to yourself, that is, mind, body, intellect and ego and spirit are all together, what you experience is fullness and completion. That is the state of enlightenment, where you feel yourself in everything, you don’t see any difference, you will not criticize or judge, you will not have prejudices, you will not hate anybody, and you will not take revenge.
This happens when you are fully within yourself. You see people, birds, animals and places as expressions. Also you will feel, you will know that you are one with everything, there is no separation. Also there’ll be no egocentric ownership, there’ll be no ownership based on “mine”. Mind dissolves at the state of no thought, which is Nirvichara Samadhi.
When mind dissolves, mind matter also dissolves, and then you start seeing only the truth. The truth is that life goes without the past, present and future, which means there is no dimensional shift, no dimensional difference.
Also you are one with this whole life, you are life! You become life; you are no longer in the relative mode, such as me and you, this and that, etc. That will end and you will start seeing the perpetual life, which is static and stable. That is your state of enlightenment.
Q: If the environment is of low frequency, and we cannot avoid the environment or people, how does one cope so not to succumb to these low frequencies such as drugs, alcohol, sensual pleasures, and other terrestrial traps?
M: You can’t control the frequencies that happen in this world. They are at random. But when you start chanting, are connected to your inside, you are occupied within; you will be less affected by the society around you and will be very stable. Nothing can affect you. Those who chant, feel their inside and are stable inside cannot be affected by the outside society.
Today is Easter… when Pilate told Jesus, if you repent for what you said, I will save you, I’ll release you, Jesus said,” No, I meant what I said”. That kind of fearlessness and stability comes from settling within. The only place you can actually settle down and stay stable is within you. Wherever you settle down outside, it is only temporary, that is, until your death.
Q: Is there a sound in silence?
M: Yes, the sound of silence is silence itself. And if you’re talking about physical sounds, which the ears respond to, all the sounds have come out of Silence and all the sounds will dissolve back into silence. So the Sound of Silence is silence itself. The Sound of Silence is the stability which we experience, the contentment, the peacefulness that cannot be explained and the fulfillment.
Q: When we ask God for something, it shows that we are lacking that aspect. But in the Vedic way of worship, when we make the sankalpa, we need to mention why we are doing that sadhana and ask for blessings. Isn’t that an expression of lack?
M: Firstly, is God outside of you? (chuckles) That is a question you need to ask yourself. When you believe that God sits outside, how will you settle inside? The whole point is about settling inside. So, you should clearly understand that God is within and that one aspect of God is already there called the soul aspect, 33% soul aspect. If you really understand the soul aspect and also understand that the God aspect already exists within and you start connecting to it, you will reach the vibrations or frequencies that already exist.
When you start existing in those frequencies and you perform homa/ havan (fire ceremony) or tarpan (offering to ancestors), what you’re doing is, you are offering to the fire, whatever you have stored unconsciously. What you have stored unconsciously is something like your cache memory that you now consciously offer to the fire, through each mantra or invocation of the deity. The fire consumes it and releases you from it. So when you look at God outside of you and say, “God, please do something”, we are only expressing our ignorance!
In the Vedic tradition, we have sankalpas, because we are identifying and recognizing the various aspects of existence, such as Earth, wind, water, fire, air and ether. Our great tradition of masters have told us that there is One Supreme Consciousness which is Para Brahma.
This Supreme Consciousness has two aspects, the form/ the manifested aspect, and the unmanifested aspect. Both put together is God. So what is tangible, what is intangible, what is created, what is uncreated – all of it is God. Thus God is vast and unfathomable, and you cannot put God into any kind of frame.
Then they said there are 33 crore or 330 million dimensions possible of that God. This means God can take any form, any nature, any emotion, and any frequency possible. From that awareness, the deities were created based on ideals, idols made out of ideals. Ideals can be experienced by you, and by us.
Each ideal, each experience has a form, it can be created into a form. So the great masters made forms, frequencies, mantras, structure (structure is like our nervous system), yantras, duration and also worship method. The worship method is the way in which we can preserve it, keep it safe. Thus 330 million aspects were created.
Next the question happened – how can one worship 330 million deities? It’s humanly not possible! They said, “Worship the 33% in you, which is the soul aspect”; the soul aspect is your real aspect. That’s the permanent aspect. 33% is the body or the physical, 33% is mind matter (mind, intellect and ego) and both are temporary, but the soul aspect is permanent. So worship the soul aspect. That way you worship the 330 million aspects of the Supreme consciousness.
In other words, this 33% represent both the manifested and the manifested, “Shivoham”, “I am Shiva”. Based on this, we created the whole structure of existence.
When you understand this clearly, the only place you need to settle down is within and the experience is of absolute stillness and silence, with no sound, and no movement; this stillness is the state of Shiva. We worship Shiva outside or we think about Shiva, knowing fully well that Shiva is within and we already have it.
All of us, the 7.5 billion people, the birds, the animals – all beings have it! Hence we are not greater than anyone or less than anyone, no guru, no disciple, nothing! Everyone is the same! It is this awareness and understanding that we need to have when we walk this path. Then, we will not criticize, we will not judge, we will not try to compare, we are all the same.
When you really understand this aspect, you will not be begging. You can only ask for something that you do not have. But what is that you do not have is the question? After all, we are talking about some material things or some positions or possessions. These are temporary anyway because you cannot carry them when you die. You have to leave behind all your possessions and relationships. You can’t carry anything forward. Then what can you actually ask for?
This question will arise in your mind. Then, you will be offering what is stored without your understanding, your cache memory. You will be offering these to the fire one by one and thus emptying yourself. Your entire life will be spent on complete emptying, where you are not accumulating, you’re not collecting, you’re not asking, you are emptying!
In this mode of emptying, you become one with a supreme consciousness, this is liberation. This is complete dissolution.
Above explains the entire process. Now in this mode, the Vedic structure has given us directions, how to do it, how to do sankalpas, “sankalpas” means intentions, how to offer, what to offer, and so on. All the materials that you offer in the fire have something to do with our inside. Everything has a symbolic role to play, while we are offering into the fire.
Through the symbols we are offering what is sitting inside us, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, pride, ego and other emotions. We offer these to the fire and then finally nothing, not even the mind exists. You are then completely empty. You are also completely free and very powerful. And you are being one with the supreme consciousness. Aham Brahmasmi – I am Brahma. There is no Aham also, Aham is I; there is no “I”, even “I” doesn’t exist; only Brahma exists. This means that the drop does not exist; only the ocean exists. In that mode, you’re totally free. This is path that we are walking.
The path of liberation, the path of complete dissolution, doesn’t stop at enlightenment, because enlightenment is only one part of total dissolution. Total dissolution is where you are completely the ocean and you are experiencing yourself as the ocean all the time, not temporarily, not for some time, but all the time.
This is the path, this is the destination. Also, this destination already exists within. You already have it, we are the destination already. We have already arrived! The mind matter has to be dissolved.
During this process, if you keep asking for material things, it is a sign of the mind trying to stay alive. All your fears, your prejudices, likes and dislikes are but signs of the mind trying to stay alive! But you are not the mind. You are well beyond the mind.
When you truly understand this, you also understand this whole tapestry. It is so simple and so pure. There’s nothing to distract you from this.
Read Aligned Full-Time, Part 1
Transcribed and proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan