Mohanji is a spiritual Master whose awakening was graced by Sai Baba of Shirdi. He guides many on the path and works tirelessly to spread his teachings. Mohanji talks about the important practice of offering food to Baba, to our deities and ancestors.
Lord Krishna says, “If you give me a flower or a leaf, I’ll be happy. But please remember, that belongs to me, anyway.”
All the materials that we use, all the things that we have, they are all temporary and are not ours. We are probably a custodian of something for some time, but we can’t really own anything. I was thinking about it many, many years ago:
What can I offer to Baba?
Then I decided I will offer food every day. Then I thought, yes, I will offer food, I still do, I do that every day. But food doesn’t belong to me. This food has come to me from somewhere. Somebody tilled the land, somebody packed it, somebody brought it home, somebody cooked it, and somebody delivered it on my table. So basically, this is the work of many people. We are lucky to have that food on our table. So that belongs to Baba anyway, because I surrender everything to Baba, that is Baba’s. “What is here is yours,” I mean, I offer what is His already to Himself. That’s not good enough, and then I thought I’ll offer the body, but the body is also not mine, so how will I offer something which is not mine?
I have taken this body made out of five elements. In a particular composition, they become a body and get a personality called Mohanji. That body is temporary. I don’t know how long I will have this body. When I leave the body, my body will disintegrate. So, whatever is matter goes to Earth, whatever is water will become water, the fire element will go back to the fire, the air will go back to the air, space will be going back to space. So basically, it’s disintegration.
Then about Mind, Intellect and Ego – that belongs to the ether, because you can’t touch them. They are processors; they process things. Mind processes emotions, intellect processes information, ego processes personality matters such as positions and possessions, whatever you call as “ours”, ownership, that’s the ego’s job.
These processors are not mine; they belong to the ether that goes.
What about the soul?
The soul belongs to Supreme Consciousness. That’s also not mine. The soul goes back to Supreme Consciousness unless it’s coming back in another body. We hop from one body to another. We keep hopping and with the same pattern, same emotion, same kind of desires, we come back again and again. Imagine that’s all extinct, that’s all finished. Then the soul will revert itself back to Supreme Consciousness, that’s also not mine.
So what can you actually offer Baba?
Eternal gratitude. Thank you. Surrender. That’s a connection to Consciousness with awareness, with full awareness, with a clear awareness that nothing belongs to me, none of these things are mine. What it seems to be is a combination of so many things, and this is driven by inclinations and tendencies, in all of us. Tendencies and inclinations from childhood remain till we die. We can’t blame anybody for our inclinations; we are that. We are unique beings, unique creations with inclinations, patterns, tendencies. Then we keep expressing them, is it something good or something bad? We do not know. It’s all good, all bad. Everything IS, just IS.
So, we cannot say that this is good; this is bad. We are a bundle of inclinations and a bundle of desires which are connected to inclinations. We have a desire, which is connected to our tendencies and inclinations. This is what we are – Vasanas.
Vasanas are the provocation for something. If we don’t have Vasana for something, an inclination for something, we do not pursue that thing. This is what we are.
So what do we offer Baba?
Basically, we can offer Baba nothing, because everything belongs to Him.
You understand Him as Supreme Consciousness. We are also Supreme Consciousness, and if you understand and accept that we are Supreme Consciousness, then we are one with Baba, and we cannot have separation. So, every day – irrespective of Saturday or Sunday or weekends or holidays – what we consume, we offer to our Kul Devtas; if you have family deities, offer to them, Nag Devtas – for the sake of continuity, protection and longevity, knowledge. Then Gurus – like Sai Baba, offer them; then favorite deities, offer them. Also, ancestors, you offer them because if you have taken a body, you belong to the lineage, your lineage from your father’s side and mother’s side. They brought you, so you are not standalone. You are not separated from it. You are one with it.
We should offer food before we consume. I always do that myself and recommend the same. When we offer food to the deities and the Masters, and the people whom you respect, people in a sense like all the energies that you respect, automatically, purification happens in your mind and in the food. Whatever energies created the food, we do not know what sort of energies have worked together to create the food. That doesn’t matter. But when you offer, when you are sincerely offering everything that you consume, to Baba, to Masters, then automatically the food becomes pure and becomes like prasad, like celestial food. Like food which is purified further again from the washing, cleaning, etc. but apart from that, energetic purification.
So, I always recommend energetically purifying the food by offering to them whatever you consume.
Naturally, you will also consume good food because what you want, normally what everybody wants – is good food, quality food, tasty food – that same food is given to or offered to Baba. That is also surrendering, a kind of surrender and gratitude.
So, gratitude, surrender, and purification, they are all synonymous, they come together. That makes you consume food which is suitable for your system; you become purified.
This is why whatever you consume; I always recommend that you offer it to Baba before you consume, and also if you consume immediately, maybe your stomach is not prepared to digest it easily. Still, if you are offering it, you have time. By that time your system is ready for the food. What you consume is what is offered, it is prasad, it’s celestial, sacred food and that sacred food will make your internal inside sacred. This is what I always recommend.
Always offer to Baba before you consume.
Know more about Mohanji at Mohanji.org.
Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Vidya Mohite