What we need to understand is that Shirdi is not attracting people by default. But we should also understand why lots of people visit a place. Of course, it is because of the experiences that they have. Each one of them has their own experience, which attracts them to the place.
Fulfilling desires
Secondly, it is a kind of desire or a place to fulfil their desires. But you can’t pin a Master with your desires. The Masters are not sitting there, sitting like wish-fulfilling trees, to just provide for your desires. And sometimes, when you come across a Master, your pains intensify because your lifetimes are getting reduced. That’s why Shirdi Sai Baba asked one person, “You have come to me to fulfil your desires. If I give you something which is not what you expected, will you receive it, and will you accept it?”
Projection of the mind
Most people would say, “No, we would like to get what we asked for, or what we want.” Very few people will say, “Whatever you give, I will receive.” What a Master will give is good for you. It might be a bitter pill, but it might be the right pill for you to cross the ocean of existence. The Master gives the fastest possible route. We may not understand because our mind has desires set in. The mind is fed by impressions. The mind by itself cannot be functioning. It’s almost like a silver screen; it needs input for it to show images. The mind is the projector; the mind is also projecting. Mind is projecting, and the silver screen is the canvas that we experience the world.
What data it gets are the desires. Desires are getting projected. Desires happen as thoughts; thoughts mature to words, expressions, and expressions mature to actions.
Thoughts vs expressions
So, numerous thoughts do not even get expressions, they don’t mature into expressions, and numerous expressions may not even become actions. This is how the cycle of karma works. In the cycle of karma – lots of thoughts, lesser expressions, still lesser actions, and when actions happen at thought-level, word-level, action-level, what we experience is based on our orientation. What we experience is as per what we are, not what it is about, what exactly it is. As per our orientation, we experience, and that memory is as per how we experience, the memory gets stored in our system – that is, it gets stored in our layers, koshas, sheaths. But not all the experiences get stored- only experiences which we experienced with certain emotions get stored.
Memory
If an experience happens, if there’s no emotion, it’s just plain and simple; it will not get stored. Now, even if it is not our experience, if it’s somebody’s words, somebody else’s experience, and they told us with a lot of emotions, which triggered emotions in us, that also gets stored. Even if we watch a feature film and we felt it emotionally, we experienced it emotionally, that can get stored. Everything which the memory maintains is connected to storage. And that reproduces as a potential experience later. Like we would go to a restaurant, we had a great meal, and another time when people talk about going to a restaurant, we would say, “Let’s go to this restaurant”, because we have a memory, we have a memory of a particular experience. This is how we experience life.
Breaking patterns
So our life is almost like a pattern; it goes round and round. When you meet a Master like Sai Baba, they will try to break this pattern. When patterns are broken, it’s very painful because we are used to them. We have made them our comfort zones. We have started believing that without these comfort zones, existence has no value, just like our relations. We have connected to our parents, to our relatives, to various people very deeply. If some of them leave, we feel miserable because we started making their connection a habit. We started feeling them as part of our existence, just like our hands or legs.
Master’s gift
In this context, when you go to a Master like Baba, if you really, really care for the Master, if you really value the presence of the Master, don’t ask anything. Receive what is given because he will only give you that which will reduce your number of births; it means he will only give you something which liberates you. This is exactly what we need help for. For patterns, we don’t need help; for habits, we don’t need help; for terrestrial life- we don’t need help from a Master. They are not here to help you terrestrially.
We will have shortages of various things every time because our expectations always grow higher, we want more and more. So it is not easy to get out of the pattern. Masters cut the cords of the pattern. That helps your liberation. This is the greatest gift they give you.
Seekers
There are so many people in this world who are seeking, who are seeking for something. Most of them do not know what they are looking for, what they are seeking. When you do not know what you’re looking for, what comes to you may be of varied nature, and we get stuck with it. We may get stuck with it for a long period of time, and we think, “Oh, this is what I wanted.” After a while, we realise, “Oh, this is not what I wanted; I had wanted something else.” Until no desires happen, this process will continue.
Control over desires
After a while, there is no desire, which also means storage has reduced, or there is no storage; there is nothing that is provoking desire. So desire with prana makes reality. Our reality is desire along with prana that is the secret of all these Kriyas and other methods. When prana is regulated, you have control over desire, the flow of desires. Usually, as human beings, we don’t have control over desires because we are using our intellect, intelligence and imagination for our existence.
But if you look at all the other species, mostly they only use instincts. All beings have instinct, including human beings; we all operate as per instinct. But human beings have decided to use more intelligence and imagination along with instinct. So prominently, our method of life, or the lifestyle, is based on imagination and intelligence; that is why all these things are created. And our scriptures have defined very clearly how we should live, what we should live, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas, Shrutis, Smritis, Vedas, Upanishads, everything has given us clarity about how life should be. So all these are given.
The reality
And then what is the role of great Masters? Why did they come? They come as representations of the Eternal Truth. Their job is not to give cosmetic support to your life. Their job is to bring you to reality, take the masks away, and show you this is real. They don’t ever comment on instinctual stuff which is existing in every species. They only talk about certain don’ts, which would be mostly connected to violence, aggression, the kind of things which will breed more and more of that. What you sow is what you reap. If you are more and more compassionate and kind, you will reap compassion and kindness. That is what they guide you to; that is the principles of Sanatana Dharma. The goodness factor. This is exactly what they talk about.
Goodness factor
If you look at Sai Baba’s life, you can see the goodness factor as the main theme of existence. Be good, do good, always being good. Even when he was scolding, he was taking things out of people. He was purging them, purifying them. Scolding is like fire, purification through fire. It’s very difficult to handle because of what affects the structure. What affects the system when somebody scolds you – the ego gets affected. What the ego likes is respect, honour, appreciation, these kinds of things. Insult, scolding, these kinds of things affect the ego very badly. And Baba breaks the ego in that manner.
Ego
When somebody comes to him with ego, he blasts them. He breaks the ego that makes the man miserable because the ego is the skeleton of your personality. Personality is affected. Imagine, ego is developed over a position; a government employee or somebody of high position in the society getting scolded in front of people, it is a very painful thing. But that’s exactly what was most necessary for that person to liberate himself or walk on the path of liberation. Because one point which probably would have been affecting the progress in the path of liberation would be the ego, subtle ego, you may not even know that you have an ego.
So, Masters try to break these kinds of patterns – ego patterns, emotional patterns. The intellect likes analyses; intellect needs answers. Answers have patterns. For example, if it is morning, there should be sunshine, sunrise. It’s a pattern; we are used to it right from our childhood. And everybody said there would be sunrise every day.
So the Masters try to tell the people that there need not be patterns, there need not be answers. You can have a question, but the answer is you. Your world depends on you. When you wake up in the morning, your world wakes up. When you sleep in the night, your world sleeps. So this is your reality. The world might be existing; the sun might be rising. If you did not wake up, there is no sunshine for you.
Happy
This is what the Masters try to tell you. You don’t have to have answers. You have questions, and questions have answers. Be happy. So when the desire for answers goes, your intellect becomes quiet. Otherwise, more and more answers. That’s why Father Anthony de Mello said, “A person who’s proud of his intellect is like a prisoner who’s proud of his prison cell.” It’s a trap. Ego is a trap; intellect is a trap. Emotions are traps because emotions bind you, make you paralytic. All these things are broken to pieces by great Masters, as they are not at all essential for our existence.
Surrender
When we realise that this is what’s happening, and we surrender completely: “You do whatever you like, I’m not leaving you.” Just like Hanuman. Hanuman’s biggest strength was his surrender to Ram. Whatever Ram said, he agreed; he acted on it.
When you do not have an opinion, when you are not overruling a great Master’s thoughts, words, expressions or commands, then you have no responsibility. Your responsibility belongs to the Master. So when a person surrendered completely and just followed the instructions, the Master took over, including the liberation part), and at the time of death, he got liberated.
To know more about Mohanji, please visit mohanji.org
Transcribed by Nada Raković
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan