Mohanji: Namaste to all of you. Happy Diwali to all of you. Thank you for coming together. Did you have a happy Diwali so far? How was it?
(Audience wishes happy Diwali to Mohanji and gives replies)
Can we start with the questions now? I’m open; I’m ready.
Speaker: There are no questions as yet.
Mohanji: (Laughs) That’s a good idea. You know, when all the questions disappear, the mind tends to be quiet. The mind likes to stay quiet, right? That’s a very nice space where we have no thoughts, a no thoughts space.
Speaker: You look like a Raja now. Very bright, so bright.
Mohanji: Royal Path, right?
Speaker: Thank you for sharing this brightness with us today, Father.
Fear of death
Mohanji: Thank you. Thank you. We are bright, you know. There was a question about the fear of death today. I said, “Why are you afraid of death?” This is one of the inevitabilities of life. You can’t avoid death or changes in life. Change and death are walking with you. And having a body is probably unnatural. Not having a body is probably natural because we are energy bodies. And what is sitting inside us as energy is the real us.
We have electricity in us. For example, for electricity, a bulb or a washing machine is unnatural because it has a job to do. But electricity, as it is, has no job; it is electricity. Like that, the soul as it is has no work. It is soul. When it has a body, it has to activate the body, the senses, the mind, intellect, and ego. It has to activate all the things. It has to be part of it, whether it likes it or not. Because for most of our pleasures of life, the soul has nothing to do with it.
The Soul
The soul has nothing to do with almost all the pleasures of life. The soul is totally detached from all this. And then, when the soul is done with this body, it will go and probably take another body if we carry a lot of patterns. We do carry a lot of patterns. That’s natural for us to carry patterns. This is our life, repetitive patterns, existence, coming again, the same, different bodies, but fortunately, we don’t know the past lives, so we are okay. We think this is everything. Then we define Heaven and Hell apart from us, and all that.
So, this is a big show we are performing. It’s like a huge show, and we are very happy about it. This is unnatural. I was saying that you cannot avoid two things in life; one is death, and another is a change. You can’t avoid it. And then, all the things connected to life, we are scrambling over it. We’re trying to put things in perspective; we’re trying to put in phrase things in frames. It’s really annoying; it’s tiring. Instead, we should be the brightness; we should be bright. So, this is what I feel. Now I’ll take questions. Sorry for the deviation.
Q: How do we shine our inner light and keep the light of spirituality burning inside, despite all the darkness that surrounds us and be free?
Mohanji: Don’t look at the darkness; first of all, don’t focus on the darkness, don’t focus on the weaknesses. Don’t focus on something we have a conflict with. Start looking at the brightness; the brightness is the positivity. Just like small children, do you see how they operate? They are always in a wonder mode, a mode of wonder. They’re always in wonder, fueled at the operating level.
Let us be fueled by wonder. Because every moment is different, every day is different, why do we bring on the hangover? So, this is an attitude. It’s an attitude. First of all, if you choose, or if you decide that this life, I will use for helping the helpless doing something good for the world. And I would use this life for something proactive and good.
Brightness
Then, automatically the brightness will be your operating platform; it will be automatically like that. So, your operating platform is brightness, the light, but you may not know it. We may not see it because we are constantly fighting the negatives around us, the darkness around us. It’s a continuous process; we are always moving, moving in that direction, we are always looking at who’s against us, “what I don’t like”. We are focussing on only that consistently. Then what happens? That’s where we get stuck. We get stuck there all the time. We are consistently looking at the negative.
Instead, we can look at the positive. We can look at the positive all the time and always think, “Okay, negatives are there, no problem. Let’s co-exist but let us focus on the positive. What we can do for the world, what we can deliver to this Earth.” Make sure that nobody who’s coming to you goes without anything at all. Do something good for them so that they carry something nice when they leave.
Did you get what I’m saying? Let us focus on the positive, and let’s focus on the positive habitually. You can see how a domestic dog or cat or various animals we are used to always live in the present, right? They don’t carry many hangovers, but we do. We carry a lot of hangovers, and that’s binding us.
We can be outside of that category. There, even if you look all around, we will see that everything is minding its own business. A tree, a plant, an animal, a bird, everybody minds their own business; it has its pattern of existence, and they are happy. They don’t interfere in other people’s work. They are not worried about other people’s involvement. If they get their food, they are happy.
Like that, we can have a perpetually happy state. A state of happiness, we can cultivate it definitely, and this is possible. We have that thing in us, right? We do have that. But somehow, we are always in frames. Like, I’m a father, I’m a mother, I’m a doctor, I’m an engineer. Whatever we are projecting to society, we become that. Then it’s a heavy burden on Earth. Or heavy burden on our head. And we walk as a burden on Earth.
You know, we are burdens on Earth. Because we are, like kind of carrying a lot of baggage, we can avoid this; it can be natural. We can be real, and we can identify ourselves with ourselves; there’s no need for identifying ourselves with something else, not trying to become something. Don’t try to become something that will make you more stable.
Q: How can I be that beacon of light that you ask to be in Consciousness Kriya?
Mohanji: Consciousness Kriya is a practice. And, in this practice, as much as possible, become the practice. Not that you are doing something. When you become the practice, you kind of melt yourself; you lose your personality that you are emphasising in practice. Instead, you become the practice. When you become the practice, you merge into the practice with each thing you do; you become that, then automatically, you will feel expanded. Then you break your boundaries.
Even with happiness and sorrow, I always used to say that you become that sorrow when sorrows are happening in life. Be fully into it, merge with it. When happiness is happening in life, become that happiness. When Diwali is happening, become the brightness. This is exactly how, at every point in time, you can become that. And, as you become that, you lose yourself.
Lose yourself in the sense like you break your boundaries. This collected imaginary personality is temporary. It’s the same thing as it is not there when you’re in a deep sleep. So, we can cut across the imaginary personality, and we can merge with our true existence.
Q: In this pandemic type, the projection of fear is considerably strong, which in effect has a negative outcome. Given that, how does one deal with it for a more positive outcome?
Mohanji: I think I started the whole discussion with death. Because of that, because fear – fear of disease, fear of death, fear of change. – all these are affecting our immunity. You know, in one way or the other, it affects our immunity. All these fears attract that kind of situation to us, but we can definitely go beyond it. When we are not afraid, it is mostly that we don’t attract that thing to us. It helps our immunity.
When we are afraid, we are weak. When we are not afraid, when we are fearless, we are strong. That’s one of the fundamentals of the tradition of Lord Datta, Sai Baba: no fear. No fear; there’s no need for fear. The tradition does not bind anybody with fear. But the thing is, that is what happens in the world today.
There is a lot of information, travelling from various people’s mouths and 80% are opinions. It’s not like the truth. These are opinions, and these opinions are sometimes confusing. Like, a president of a country or a prime minister of the country is talking something, and we believe that this is the truth, the ultimate truth. Maybe it was an assumption of a doctor or an advisor; we wouldn’t know that it’s an assumption, but we think it’s real, and then we start panicking. And this kind of panic automatically leads us to that fear factor, which attracts us to that thing, mostly. So, we need to step backwards and have faith.
Fear Vs. Faith
The opposite of fear is faith, and we trust in faith, “Okay, whatever you give, I accept.” That’s what Sai Baba also said, “You surrender but don’t look back.” That means, leave it to me. I’ll take care of it. But don’t come back and look what happened to it now. Just go, just walk away. If you keep looking back, that means you don’t have faith. If you keep asking, “Are you with me?” That means you don’t have faith.
There’s a story of Adi Shankara and Ma Mookambika. Mookambika told Adi Shankara, “You keep walking; I’m behind you. But if you look back, that means, if you doubt if I’m behind you, then I will not come with you. I will stay here.” Adi Sankara walked, and for a long time, he walked, and Devi was following. Mother was following him. At some point in time, he doubted if she’s following. And, that’s the point, that’s a warning that doubt is a warning bell. That means faith is slipping away.
So, at one point, he suddenly doubted if Mother was following, and he stopped to look back. Mother said, “Now you looked back, you go ahead, I am not coming with you.” So, after spending a lot of time on penance by manifesting mother in front, finally, he could not take Mother to where he wanted to take her.
That’s a story; it’s more symbolic that when you start having doubts, very simple, faith is slipping past, faith is going away. Then, catching the faith again is very difficult because doubts are negative, and they have that gravitational pull. They try to pull you back. And faith is limitational. It means you trust in your faith, “Okay, whatever happened, is fine. That’s okay, but my connection remains stable.”
Story of Deepaka
That is how in the story of Deepaka, Deepaka was serving his Guru, who was very, very bad-tempered. He was abusing him; he was kicking him; he was saying all sorts of rubbish. And still, Deepaka continued to serve his Guru. Lord Shiva came to see him and offered him a boon despite the Gurus’ bad temper because of his constant service. And still, he continued to serve his Guru even though the Guru was very bad-tempered. And he was literally abusing Deepaka all the time.
Then, Lord Vishnu came to see him because he said, “I have not seen a student, a disciple who will not be affected by anything outside. Irrespective of what’s happening outside, his connection is stable. His faith is stable.” Then Vishnu said, “I have never seen somebody like you. You can ask me whatever you want; I’ll give it to you.”
Then, when he came to his Guru, the Guru said, “So Mahavishnu came and met you, right?” He said, “I was just testing you. I abused you, I spoke all the bad things about you, I spat on you, I did everything, but you were clinging on. And that was enough for you to go higher. Now, you have grown bigger than me in stature; you are higher than me because nothing can shake you. Nothing external can shake you, then you are stable. Very stable.”
That is exactly how, even though it’s a story from the books, it has a lot of relevance. Because, when we are deeply, deeply connected to truth, to God, to a Guru, to a Master who’s connected to God, it should be steady. Nothing on Earth, no emotions, no concepts, no prejudices, no laws, or I mean whatever you think is binding and restrictive should not come in the way of your connection with your Master. If it does, understand you’re slipping. If you slip, then even the Master will not be able to help you. This is the problem.
Expectations from the Master
You know the Master would always help you, provided you are with him, your mind is with him, your heart is with him, he will help you. But if you are slipping past and going away because of your mind, nobody can help you. That is exactly what happens to many people; a disease or an expectation, basically an expectation. Some people come with expectations, “I expect this from this person, if it comes, I will be with him,” that’s being conditional, “If it doesn’t come, I’m not with him.” Then the faith is so weak; faith has no value here. It’s a transaction. And transaction has no real value in the spiritual journey.
It’s not a transaction; you deliver without expectations; that is how Masters do. They are not expecting anything back, but they deliver their best. However, that’s not the same by the followers. If somebody says something, they can leave. Because their faith is fragile and because of somebody’s opinion, they are definitely not connected if they leave. This is exactly how this all configuration works. So, when we face adverse situations, we should increase our faith in ourselves and also our connection to Supreme Consciousness.
Projections
Understand one thing very clearly: although we believe that we are this body, we are projecting this to the world that we are this body and that we are this personality. We believe that, right? That is how we are connecting because you’re connecting to me as Mohanji, and if I say,” I don’t know who I am”, you may not connect to me. So, we are connecting because of certain projected personalities; this is okay. That much is okay.
But beyond that, we must know that we are not this projection. We are projecting this as a guru, as a disciple, as a father, as a mother, as a brother or as a worker or an employer, employee. Whatever you are projecting into this world, they all are temporary. That’s not a permanent projection. So, we must always know.
Then, what is behind this projection? There is an energy behind this projection. When that energy leaves this projection, we shut down the shop. We call it death. So, this energy is the real thing, and that real thing is the same in us all. We all have the same energy. We are connected to the same energy, which means the same energy unites us.
When we understand that, then our connection is totally different. We are related. It’s a relationship. There’s no hierarchy here; there’s no higher or lower. There is energy; I’m telling you I have understood this because I’ve experienced this. But you may experience it tomorrow or anytime. It is just around the corner, one point in time, this spark comes in,” Look here, I’m not the projection. I’m neither the projector. I am the energy behind the projector. I am the Consciousness. I am the soul.” That understanding automatically falls into you. And you experience” That”. This is exactly what the truth is.
The Mind
So, we need to always spend some time with ourselves, this is essential, so this whole clutter will go. A mind, a cluttered mind, filled with fears, ideas, concepts, likes and dislikes, prejudices, anger, hatred, jealousy, all will go, and it becomes very clear. The mind becomes very clear. And then we see the truth,” Hey, look here, nothing is lost anywhere, we lose nothing. Every time, every place where we are, we are only projecting, and this projection is not us; the projector also is not us. And there is an energy behind all this, and that energy is running the show.” That understanding that comes is very, very clear.
And then, life is different. So, what is the idea of spirituality? What is the spiritual idea? The idea is to recognise “That” (energy). So, spirituality is part of you; nobody can give it, nobody can take it from you. It is with you. No chanting, no mantras, no meditation can make you reach there unless you decide to apply yourself, plunge into it, dive into it, and be it.
Purity
When you dive into the water, you’re definitely in the water, and you are swimming. When you are sitting on the ground and thinking about whether the water is hot or cold, nothing is happening. Most of the spiritual activities are like that, comfort zone-based. The comfort zone should be destroyed; ideas and opinions should be destroyed. Everything goes. And finally, peace settles in. All our concepts, prejudices, ideas, notions, various things are there, so many things that bind us. They all disappear, dissolve. Then, what comes out?
Purity, pure essence! That’s exactly what we are! We will get to know this, and we will experience this. You know, it has to happen.
So, you should do more and more contemplation and connection with Consciousness. That is, when you do more and more contemplation and connection, you become “That”. When you are focused on something for some time, you tend to absorb that energy. This is separate from your actual energy. When you concentrate on the good stuff, good things, i.e. positive things, regenerative things, rejuvenating things, if you are constantly focussing over some time, your whole energy pattern changes. You become lighter; you become energy beings, only brightness. That is the Diwali – the whole brightness. We light the lamp.
And have you observed (I know I’m deviating from the subject, but I’m getting carried away) this Festival of lights? I believe that there is great value for the Festival of Lights because we tend to be in the darkness. We tend to be in the dark.
What is darkness?
Ignorance! Non-understanding. Then we create opinions; we create prejudices. We create so many do’s, and don’ts likes and dislikes.
Where are they coming from?
Ignorance, darkness! So, we have this tendency. That’s why we must have a Festival of lights.
And you know, Lord Ram came after the victory, I mean he defeated Ravana, rescued his wife and came to Ayodhya, the whole city was lit with lights to welcome him. And Ram is Supreme Consciousness.
Supreme Consciousness
A lamp is nothing in front of Supreme Consciousness. Supreme Consciousness is brighter than a million suns, so bright. What is the lamp in front of Supreme Consciousness? It’s like a huge blue whale and a rat. (Mohanji Laughs). You wouldn’t see the rat there. It’s such a huge difference, but exactly this is what the lamp is saying, “I like to be you!” The aspiration of the lamp is to become Supreme Consciousness. The aspiration of every being is to become brightness – Supreme Consciousness.
So, this is the story of this Diwali. We are lighting the lamp, and the lamp is saying, “I am a lamp, but I know there is a brighter light which is the father of all lamps, all the brightness, the Supreme Consciousness. And that’s exactly my aspiration.”
Lord Ram
When Lord Ram came to Ayodhya, the whole city was lit with the lights, welcoming him (Supreme Consciousness), which was the city’s aspiration. Now it is the aspiration of every being. Thus I really like this brightness.
Also, please understand that our soul is the same. We have a piece of Supreme Consciousness sitting inside us. Also, it’s the same, no difference. But we don’t see that, right? Like the electricity, only when it goes through this bulb, we see that there is electricity; when the electricity goes off, the pump doesn’t operate. The refrigerator has no effect when the electricity is not there.
Just like that, the body has no effect when the Atma (soul) is not there; the Atma principle or soul principle. So, that is exactly what we are; this has been told time and again by Masters. In this lifetime, understand it, assimilate it, and be it.
Be that soul, then all these, likes and dislikes, all these divisions, all the barriers, boundaries, your rules and regulations, everything goes away. When you become the soul, nothing stays, right? When you are becoming the brightness, no shadow can exist. You are the brightness. When does the shadow exist? When there is a blockage of light, then the shadow exists. If there is no blockage, there is no shadow! We are like that.
Another thing about Lord Ram is that since we are talking about Him, and since I touched upon that subject, he went through tremendous problems in life, very big problems. We have tons of problems, tremendous problems, one by one, but have you observed what is the core of the Ramayan, Ram’s story? He accepted it. He did not resist. No resistance, total acceptance.
When he was about to be coronated, he was asked to go to the forest, not for one or two days just to see the forest and come back, but for 14 years. He had just got married, and he wanted to have a nice life for his wife, but it was not available. Gone to the forest, and the forest is not very romantic. Is a jungle; it’s dangerous because when you go to the jungle without a roadmap and a guide and all the ammunition and stuff to protect yourself, you’re not equipped for it.
So it was very tough, very, very tough. And we are all in the jungles of life. We have no idea what comes tomorrow. We have to face every day. Every day is a new day, a new issue or problem, a new situation. It all happens, but Ram accepted. This is the reason why he is different from the other beings. He accepted everything. His father asked him to go to the forest; he said, “Okay, I am going”, and everything came into his life; he was cool, and he accepted. He went as a normal human being. He did not exercise his powers as an Avatar. He did not use any of his power; that’s greatness.
You can show all your powers and say, “Look here, I am an Avatar, I can show off my powers, or I can grow bigger”. Actually, Hanumanji did it and did not have qualms about it because it was Ram’s power. Hanumanji could easily do everything, but Ram could not, did not, because he wanted to live as a normal human being who is affected by daily life. This is the main difference here. And that makes him a Lord. And that makes us respect him, worship Him because of acceptance.
How much can we accept in life?
Imagine, if the boss is angry with you, you become so upset, right? The day is lost. Sometimes, I deliberately test people in this way; I don’t give them the answers which they expect. Like everybody loves praises, right? “Oh, you’re great. You’re amazing. You’re beautiful. There has never been anybody like you!” All these phrases, usually who uses them? Manipulators. They want something from you. They can praise you and put you on the pedestal so that they can use you.
But, if you are real, if you are a true friend, will you do that? It is, “Look here, that was not good. Don’t do that. What is this? If you go and do this, it may not be good for you or others!” Like that, we guide them in real terms, reality-based.
Resistance
So, I sometimes push people to these things so that they can break a certain boundary. But most of the people who like praises or appreciation get confused. We have seen that in life how much resistance we have. Small, small things, like I wanted a chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream, I only got a strawberry, I am not happy. Very simple. So, our expectations are in front of us. They are ahead of us. And we live our life trying to fulfil these expectations all the time, and at the end of the day, when you sum it up, it’s sadness. We are not happy. (Mohanji smiles)
But look at Ram’s life. Everything destructed. Everything destroyed. All the ideas, everything was a problem, and nothing was right. You know, he even almost killed his children in a war, in a fight. So, like that, you know everything was abnormal, everything, but he accepted them. He accepted them; he did not resist them. If you can accept life, it becomes less painful. It becomes not that painful. But life is life; life brings all sorts of things.
I normally accept everything. I don’t reject. I don’t even look if this is good or bad. It’s coming; take it. Bring it on, bring it on so that it’s done. The moment I start putting barriers, blockages, etc., maybe it becomes postponement for some other time. This experience, I have to experience at this time. Tomorrow, it might be too late, or tomorrow, the same experience cannot happen. For example, what you were supposed to experience at age 10, you can’t experience those things at 40. It doesn’t work that way. We have this limitation with time. We are bound by time; we are bound by spaces, with boundaries so many things.
And if we say, “Oh, no. This is not what I want in life, this is not the way I wanted it!” it means expectations, disappointments, anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge. Revenge is a weakness. I mean, if you take revenge on somebody, you’re only telling, you’re extremely weak in this life. If you’re angry all the time, you’re only telling that you’re imbalanced.
Whenever you’re in jealousy, you are only showing your insecurity; you are insecure. And that’s exactly what is happening. And I always tell if somebody is jealous of you, you must be happy, that’s appreciation because they’re happy. You know that. But they are expressing jealousy because they don’t know how to express it. So, this is life. Yeah?
So, I’m just giving a broad spectrum today. When Ram entered Ayodhya, everybody respected him with bright lights because he was a man who taught the world to accept life. And that’s respectful.
Accept Life
Accept life as it comes. Don’t resist, don’t attack it. Don’t resist it. Just accept it, and then through acceptance, you transcend it. Only through acceptance you can transcend it. This is very important to understand that, at least on this important day, you are exposed to the brightness of yourself or your possibility of brightness.
Q: Can you please give us advice on how to let go completely of past resentments and hurts to free ourselves from this burden?
Mohanji: Letting go is happening, whether we like it or not. All the time, we are letting go. Time is letting go of us also, you know, time is also getting rid of us at some point in time, “This fellow is living here for too long, now one kick, fine – gone.”
So, letting go is happening all the time. We may not know it. We may not recognise it. But yesterday, where is yesterday for you? It’s gone!
Where was last year, 2019? When you could fly all over and do whatever you like, and 2020 came with a beautiful virus, and everybody is indoors. So, where is 2019, where is 2018?
Letting go is happening, right? Let us be practical. Every day is going; everything is changing. Every moment is like that. So this is exactly the whole story. Then, what are you not letting go of? Think. Some stupid emotion, some regret, some guilt of some activity, this is what you’re not letting go of, right?
That is exactly like the waste in your kitchen you’re carrying every day when you go to work. How would you feel? It should be put in the garbage bag in the right place, right? But you are carrying that garbage all the time, wherever you’re going, and people don’t like to come near you because you stink. (Laughs)
Baggage
It is terrible, isn’t it? Why? That is what not letting go brings you! Carrying the weight of the past for no reason and not only the good weight, but there are also nice memories of great things. No problem carries it. It is fragrant. But what we’re carrying is not that! What we carry is the garbage of the bad memories, which are already finished and kept various times before 2020, before Corona came. Right? So, we have a choice here.
Let us not be garbage cans, you know, let us not be this hangover of the past. Instead, let us be the brightness. We should always be bright; we have the right to be bright. Past is finished. Okay, so many things happen in the past, how do you change them now? Can you? No reversal, no rehearsal; life is like that. You can’t rehearse life; you cannot practice it and try to do something else tomorrow, next day, not possible. What is coming to you tomorrow? We don’t know.
Surprise factor
But it’s that surprise factor that is good. You know, when you know everything about tomorrow, there’s no fascination. If you know the whole life from now to death, what is fun in it? There’s nothing interesting.
Since you don’t know, there is a surprise element. There is a surprise factor. That’s exactly what we are. So, then letting go is important for your sake because you need to be free. You’re not a garbage can. You are a beautiful divine being experiencing a terrestrial existence. You are living beings, beautiful living beings, experiencing a beautiful terrestrial existence, be bright be light, and keep shining bright.
Few things which are really, really a true expression of ignorance:
One is ownership. I own this material. I own this property; I own this chair. I own this job. I own these people, these relatives. You can own nothing on Earth.
Believe me, when you came here, you came free and empty-handed. When you go from here, you will go empty-handed. Don’t try to cling to things that are not yours! They are with you temporarily. Every relationship, every position, every possession is temporary. They come, they stay, they go. They stay only to give you an experience of that. That’s it. They stay only to give you an experience of that. Everything is for the sake of an experience. They come, they exist to give you experience, and then they go.
When we try to cling on, to the way, I want more and more experience. Okay, I’ll give you one experience, but next life. Not now. This life is over next life. So, that means you are asking for another life. This is how we are taking more and more lives because we wanted the same pattern to come back. We think that only the good things will come. That’s not true.
Jungle of calamities
Most of the things we store, most of the things we collect and store are usually regrets, guilt, anger, jealousy, revenge; these kinds of things are all unwanted things we collect and store. We collect and bundle them up, and we take them when we die. Then, what do we do? We come back with the same pattern. Only jealousy, anger, hatred, possessions, positions, ownerships, and possessiveness. Oh my God! This whole jungle of calamities! And the icing of the cake, resistance also. So that they stay put, the best thing is that it’s packaged well. The package is called resistance. There is no acceptance.
Every life is like that, repeatedly one after the other, hundred lives, 200 lives, same thing, nothing is happening, some change in role, that’s all—roleplay changes. The same actor comes in different roles, that’s all. But you still have the drama with you. So, now you know why we have to let go. It’s not a very comfortable thing, keeping all these things, all the regrets, memories, and garbage.
Experiences
Please understand, possessiveness is like a disease. Because this is total ignorance, you cannot own anybody. You can’t even own your body. Then, how can you be possessive about somebody? “I own him.” How can you own anybody? This is ignorance. Hard-core dark ignorance. Ownership, hard-core dark ignorance. You can’t own anybody; even this body will go. Be happy. We are here, only for experiences.
Regrets
Multiple experiences, a variety of experiences will come. Accept them; pass through them. Don’t get stuck there also. Tomorrow you’ll say, I lost that experience, I’m sad. Come on; you had it. When you had it, where was your mind? When your mind is elsewhere, you forgot that experience. That’s why, when you’re watching a cricket match, and you’re eating something, you’re neither eating nor watching. Then, you find out that the match is over; what was the game about? That is regret.
Guilt
Guilt is, I could have done better. I could have eaten after the match. Guilt! Like this, so many different flavours we are bringing, then we complain,” Because of that fellow, I could not watch. The food was not so good. I was preoccupied with my taste buds.” Like this, we are creating scenes and scenarios, and we create enemies, and we fight with them.
Jugglery
We do all sorts of things in life, and nothing is happening! This is the beauty of it. Nothing is happening; you are still the same. You wake up as heavy as you were yesterday. Then you ask the question, Should I let go or not let go? Is it good or bad? Should I follow this Guru or that Guru? This Guru is useless, and that one? That Guru does not smell good. Like this, we are in constant jugglery.
You’re trying to juggle with life. This Master is much better; he talks well. He praises me, so I go to him. This Master criticises me; he scolds me. I am not going there. The criterion is not whether you are evolving; even the criterion of spirituality is not whether you are evolving, changing, or transforming; that should be the criteria of spirituality. Not whether the Guru who is talking to you is good or not, that is not important. Are you evolving? Then the Master is good, the guidance is good, the path is good.
If you’re not evolving and you’re just in the same old system, resisting all the time, then you’re wasting time, and the Guru’s time is also wasted. Many times you see (Laughs) that we are in glorious ignorance and proud, proud that we don’t know anything.
Mountains vs Molehills
You know there is another situation when we reach a particular state of awareness, and we know we know nothing? That is beautiful because we have nothing to do. You have established yourself in Supreme Consciousness. Then, there is nothing to know. This is a good idea.
Here, we are totally ignorant and very happy with our habits and feelings and regrets and baggage. You say, look at your baggage is less than mine. Hey, come on, add more. What are you doing? I have a mountain; you have only a molehill. That’s not good. You drag them to accept more of those kinds of things, emotional baggage. I am talking about emotional baggage. And then eventually, instead of brightness, we can’t even have a lamp.
Be the brightness like the Sun, thousand Suns, million suns. Instead, a candle itself becomes heavy. “I don’t like light. It’s better to be dark. I’m too heavy to project outside. What am I projecting outside? Heaviness. People are running away. Why? Because there comes a mountain.” This is the simple philosophy of life; I’m explaining it this way so that I hope you can get the idea. It is very interesting.
We try to escape in various ways, “I’m busy meditating. I do like to do this because I’m busy meditating. I’m busy chanting. I’m doing this; now I think I’m slightly enlightened. I’m getting there.” Everything is projection. We are getting nowhere. Just to satisfy the mind, “I’m getting slightly enlightened. Sometimes, I see some sparks.” These are all projections.
Some people say Jesus came and spoke to me. I had a great revelation yesterday, and Krishna came and spoke to me. Sai Baba was with me yesterday. Most of these, I am not saying everything; most are projections.
How do you know when these are real?
Silence.
I give you a very simple tip.
How do you know whether you communicated with a great being like Sai Baba, Lord Krishna, or Lord Shiva?
If it happened, you would cease to exist—your whole vibratory level changes. The mind gets sucked out. Thoughts completely vanish; you become pure Consciousness, saturated complete Consciousness. Deep joy inside because of no reasons outside, you will be unaffected. You will not be affected by anything.
Deep joy, bubbling joy, happiness, and this is continuous, consistent, and not just for some time; you will be That. The state of an Avadootha, the great Master, always in bliss and joy, that state will come to you. There will be no divisions; there’ll be no demarcations, no distractions. There’ll be no kind of thoughts that I have to become something; everything will go. This is a clear sign that a Master was present and communicating with you. This can be delivered. This can happen, for sure.
Eligibility
Eligibility, like I told about Deepaka, in the story. Deepaka was only serving his Master, who was having a very bad temper. He was all the time abusing him, and Lord Shiva came. When he came, all that Deepaka asked was for his Guru. Please save my Guru. Make him happy. That’s what he said. He did not ask anything for himself.
When Lord Vishnu came, Deepaka asked the same thing; Lord Vishnu asked, “Can I give you something? Can I offer you something? I would like to give you a boon.” Then Deepaka said, ”Bless my Guru. Let him be healed. Let him be happy. He is not well.” That’s what he said. That made Vishnu very happy.
Then the Guru said, “You know, I have no disease. I was just testing you. I’m fine. Now, you have become higher than me. Because of your concentrated effort on me, you attained the presence of God Shiva and Vishnu. So, you have become them.” This is exactly, what I’m saying. These projections, these kinds of notions, these illusions, we have to come out of. Stay focused on one thing.
One Master
One Master, one practice, one path, one tradition. Whenever we ask, is this Master higher than this? Understand, you’re only displaying your ignorance. Nobody’s higher; nobody is lower. Everybody has a purpose. Everybody has a flavour; all the 7.5 billion people have flavours. They have a reason for existence. They are adding their flavour into this existence. Like, various items come together to make a curry. Every item has its distinction. Every item has a reason. When they come together, you have a great curry. If those items are not there, you can’t make that curry.
Like that, the society, this world cannot have this variety if all these beings are not there. But that doesn’t mean this is higher and that is lower. Some have come with a certain intensity because of a certain purpose. Some came with lesser intensity because that was only needed for that purpose.
When you want to consume soup, you only need a spoon; you don’t need a shovel. But if you want to dig the ground, that spoon won’t work. You need a shovel. Like that, everything has its purpose; everything has a reason. Everything has validity, at least for some time. It has a space for that.
Space, time, validity, reason all these things are temporary. Understand, Masters have come. Now, when we sit and compare, “Is that Master bigger? Is this Master lower? What is the difference?” This is a waste of time. It only shows or tells our ignorance; we don’t know. You follow what suits you. Like the shirt you wear.
How do you know a Master is right for you?
When you feel nice, not when the Master praises you or somebody praises you. I like this guy, who praises me, so I am happy. The other guy doesn’t praise me, so I’m not with him. That’s not the criteria. The criteria is that are you progressing? Are you attaining inner silence? Are you feeling more settled and calm? These are the criteria; understand this very well.
I explained this in a very large spectrum because this answers a lot of questions in different ways. You must know that it’s not like what it seems. It’s exactly, how it has to be. Everything is how it has to be. Everything is as it is. We can’t change them. We should not. But, the main important thing is that we must accept them. Acceptance; through acceptance, you can transform everything.
Q: It seems difficult to come back to our so-called normal daily life after I had a deep blissful experience in practice. What can we do after experiencing ecstasy to come back to normal life?
Mohanji: Well, that happens. I was digging deeper and deeper into the realms of silence; then, after I kind of attained the silence, I was asked to go to the world and speak. It’s torture! Because you are coming from the world of noises, you have worked very hard to find the silence and settle down. Once you settle down, the world of noises is far away. You don’t even care where they are.
Then you’re asked to again go back and speak. That speaking is different because you’re speaking in silence. You are not speaking noises; you are not making another noise here. When you speak in silence, it’s transformative. When you speak noises, that’s sound pollution. That’s the difference. When you are fully in a bliss state, try to stay or try to repeat your practices and establish yourself.
Thoughts
When there is a thought, that means you have not reached home yet. No thought. When there is no thought at all, at a certain time, for some time, no thoughts, that is a time when you’re settling down. You need to give some time to settle down and settle down.
Nobody, no Guru, can ever guarantee you enlightenment, or Moksha, or liberation. Nobody can give you. This depends on how much you apply, what’s your constitution, what you’re made up of, or what you’re aspiring for. Many people are not aspiring for more than enlightenment. Their aim is only enlightenment, so that’s where they reach. Nobody who promises enlightenment is real. That’s my feeling.
If it’s a real Master, he will tell you, walk this way. Please proceed this way so that you can arrive here. Nobody will tell you; I’ll take you to enlightenment. I’m giving you enlightenment. Nobody will tell you; I’ll give you liberation, Moksha. But if you are consistent, if you’re steady, consistent, and you have a firm conviction, that’s the result. Automatically that result happens.
A real state
Whenever you are in a bliss state, understand that you have work to do if it is temporary. This means that the state which comes for some time is not yours. Just like the food you eat. You ate the food, you feel good, belly is full, happy. But again, you need to eat food because hunger comes back. That’s not a real state. A real state is a state where there’s no change, just like our soul, no change, no growing old, no dying, no birth, and no death. That is exactly how our soul is. So that is the real state. This is important to understand.
If you haven’t quite reached there, then you must try to reach there, for which you need to have more patience, more consistency in your practices, and more silence. You should be trying to cut off from the sounds outside. I always say that you can continue working, you can continue doing your job, if you are a father, you’re a mother, you are a worker, continue doing your job.
Time for yourself
At a certain time of every day, you should earmark for yourself, only for you. I used to do it from 3 to 8 am. That is my personal thing. You can use 3 to 6, 4 to 6, something like that. So that time, you’re not selling. It’s for you. That time, you use to connect to yourself. Love yourself, accept yourself, practice one thing and connect to one Master, whom you’re sure, is connected to Consciousness.
Take your time. It’s not, because somebody said so. Don’t follow that. Somebody can say some opinion, and that opinion can change also. What you should follow is what you’re sure of. You take your time, analyse whatever you want to do but connect to a Master, who you’re sure, is connected to Consciousness. Now once you connect, then don’t change. No change.
You should be steady, should have conviction, you should be stable. If you say, “Okay, I go to this Master, I go to that Master,” that means you’re not serious. That’s it. Because this is mind’s game, the mind is saying, “I’m bored with this, let’s go here.”
When you are a victim of the mind, you cannot progress because you’re only saying that you’re only following a pattern. When you’re wandering, it’s a sign of a pattern in action. When you are not wandering, you’re steady, when you have conviction, when you’re clear about what you want, that means you have clarity, that shows that you have arrived. Your journey has started. Otherwise, no journey has started.
Handling life
Many people go to Gurus because they can’t handle life. Many people go to Gurus because they have a lot of expectations. A lot of people go to a Master, God, to temples, churches, mosques to ask for something. Glorious begging. Like, when rich people go to places also, they ask for more. Everybody is in that kind of bracket. Nobody is saying; I want nothing, I only want you. Like Sai Baba has said, “So many people come here, but hardly anybody comes for me.”
That is exactly the point here. Many people come. Most people come for what – for something to add to their baggage. That’s it. Please give me this; please give me that. Not many people come and say, “I want nothing. I just want you.” ‘You’ means Consciousness, which is you, not the body. The body will die. But, Consciousness remains forever. What you have attained, that’s my aspiration. If somebody says like that, that man knows what he’s talking about.
Consistency with conviction
If somebody says, “I only want the space where you have reached.” Definitely, space is yours. You can attain that. But, you should be steady, you should have consistency, you should believe, you should have conviction and unchanging connection. Unchangeable connection. Firm connection. Whatever happens in life, the connection is not lost.
The mind will test you. Situations will test you; time will test you. Everything in life will test you. Relatives, situations will test, but if you are clear, “This is the life which I’m going to use to attain the highest supreme Consciousness, I will not deviate, I want nothing else, I just want you.” If you say that, with all your being, all your might, all that you are, you will attain it. Nobody can stop you. Nobody can stop you. But, most people do not have that conviction.
Doubts
There are comparisons, there is competition, there is jealousy, and there are doubts. Doubts are terrible. Your doubts immediately separate a person from faith. That separation is really painful because faith is like a firewall. Faith is like an immune system. Doubts literally tear it and give that space for anything to enter. And then what enters? Confusion, lack of connection, darkness, so many things which are totally opposite of spiritual evolution enter that space. Be careful about doubts.
And be careful about most people who deliver or sell doubts. You know, media, for example – all the Gurus are bad, or all these spiritual people are wasting time, things like that. They glorify people who are manipulating people because they pay, so this is something we must be very careful about; we must know. I hope this is clear.
Q: When it seems that there is so much chaos in the world, how can we be harmonious and spread harmony?
Mohanji: I think I answered that question. Whatever happens outside, your inner space is yours. Anything can happen outside, which is not in your control, right? Most of the things happening outside are beyond your control.
How can that determine your existence?
I always feel that you are your driver. You are your boss. You need to decide. Okay, this is what it is. I have found it; now I will reach here. Otherwise, you can also be the time complaining, criticising, and judging. You can waste your time on all this. But whatever happens outside, even if you can take one step forward in serving the world, that’s enough. If you can run, run. If you can trot, trot. If you can walk, walk. If you’re sitting still, you do whatever you can. But I don’t think that you can gain anything out of your confusion at any time of the day or any time of life.
What is around us? For example, the Covid situation around us now. Most people could not exercise whatever they planned the previous year. That’s fine. Okay, we became flexible! Flexibility. It’s important to be very flexible all the time, and flexibility is a real sign of spiritual maturity. When you are spiritually mature, you will be very flexible; you will accept things; okay, this is happening. No problem, no problem!
Story of Bhasmasura
Everything is fine, and some of the things could be like, you know, the boon Shiva gave Bhasmasura. What was the boon he gave? The boon was whatever he would touch would become ash. So, Bhasmasura wanted to test this on Shiva himself. Shiva ran away. He is Bholenath; He is innocent. His whole demeanour is innocence. He is an innocent incarnate. If you can’t understand Shiva as an innocent, then you cannot understand Shiva at all.
So, he gave the blessing to Bhasmasura, and whatever you ask for is yours. What happened? Whatever he touches, whatever he can touch becomes ash. He wanted to try it on Shiva, and Shiva ran away. And later on, all the other Gods had to configure as to how to bring him to death. This is what Shiva is. Shiva will only give boons, you know. He gave the best of boons to Ravana, who was his great Bhakta. Shiva didn’t think; he won’t think, he should not think, others should think. (Mohanji laughs)
Eligibility and responsibility
Look at the entire configuration of this; it’s beautiful, isn’t it? For example, you want to experience society. If there is a problem with society, society will take care of it, but you want to experience this okay. You take responsibility for your experience also. For all your actions, you’re also responsible. This is the bottom line. I give it to you, but you are responsible. Like I gave the best of it, now you hold it, and you’re responsible for its maintenance.
Every Master gives the disciple what he can handle and what he is eligible for. But then he (disciple) has to make responsible use of what he has. Like that, whatever is in the society, either responsible or irresponsible. Everybody is responsible for something like a Covid situation is the collective consciousness of a generation which is responsible.
Achieve your goal
And what can you do? You can’t do much about it. So what do you do? You take a step as best as you can and don’t worry about the world outside. You have your conviction; you have your path; you have your clarity – increase your clarity. You have a goal – achieve that goal in your own way.
If you can’t travel at 120 km/h, travel at 20 km/h, at least you are travelling, that’s more important. Keep moving!
And if you surrender your actions to the Masters, surrender means, “I offer it to you. This is a pure action, I surrender to you, and the intention is pure, my purpose is pure, I leave it you,” then it takes place. It happens.
An example is Ammucare (Indian version) or ACT Foundation; despite all the things, we have increased the activities during Corona, much more activity than before. It’s not that we are great or we can cut across everything; it is only the intention – purity of intention. We are purity incarnates; we are divinity; exercise it. Let anything happen outside; we should not deviate or change track. That’s not our path. We keep moving.
Q: Many people are inspired by your journey but are not able to meet you during this time or meditate in your physical presence. How to connect to your presence and meditate within someone who is not able to attend your retreats or to be physically with you?
Mohanji: When you ask the question itself, the connection is already made because when you have that urge to meet me or connect to me, it has already happened. Because otherwise, there are 7.5 billion people in the world, and you did not have that connection with other people, right? Or maybe you did not feel that consistent connection with somebody; that only means that you’re already connected.
The physical connection has a much lesser value because the physical body, physical presence, space are temporary. But there is a deeper consciousness connection that is more permanent and that stays forever.
So, when you’re thinking about me, when your mind is with me, you’re with me. When your mind is not with me, even if you’re physically here, you’re not with me. Many people who want to be in my presence will be able to do so, as now the ashrams are coming up, so I will have a more consistent presence in one place to meet more consistently or for a while because spaces are coming up. That’s a good positive thing.
Connection
Apart from that, when you think about me, you’re connected to me. When you really connect to me, you start feeling the vibration, and you start feeling the presence. The secret is a consistent connection. The second is conviction; you should believe in it.
Normally, what we believe in is something that we don’t know of. You need to believe in yourself, connect to yourself, believe in yourself fully, and then you will start believing in me. I am insignificant that way; when you start believing in yourself, you’ll start connecting to something stable and permanent, so that connection automatically happens, whether you want it or not. And when the source is clear, as I told you earlier, certain benchmarks – Is the source transformative? Is a transformation happening? That’s a clear source.
Transformation
If it is for the sake of some words, some wisdom, and nothing is happening, then that source is probably not so permanent. So, the true connection is transformative. When you are deeply connected to me, a lot of people get transformed in the connection spontaneously, not through practice: connection, consistent connection. And, one of the major things which I have seen as a benchmark, we can say that is less tamas, less energy imbalance, less inertia, less laziness, more energy for action, that’s a good sign of connection.
So, if that is not existing like you’re lazy or feeling uninspired or things like that, then the connection is not so clear. So, what we need to do is to establish a stronger connection. And that connection means you will feel the vibration, you will be self-motivated, you will be self-inspired, you will want to do big things in life, and you will know that you can do it because there’s a force behind you that is consistent, like rock steady. That’s a clear sign of a good connection. And connection is almost like television; when channel connection is good, you get clarity and good picture quality. That’s exactly how it is. When you really want to connect, you can feel.
Can you feel him inside?
If I live in your heart and you live in my heart, then our connection is clear.
Mohanji
But many times, it’s that we’re connecting with an expectation, conditional connection. The conditional connection doesn’t hold water. It doesn’t stay longer. At some point in time, something happens, people get distracted. But in unconditional connection, “whatever happens, I am connected” and connected steadily, no imbalance, no doubts.
As I said earlier, doubts are very dangerous. No doubts, no imbalances, steady connection; you will get inspired automatically. Okay! I am Mohanji! You will get that feeling – I am Mohanji. When I wake up in the morning, I know what to do. I will never have confusion.
There’s no confusion, “Oh, what should I do now? Should I do this? Should I do that? The ‘I’ factor or ‘me’ factor will dissolve consistently. And then, it’s a collaboration of one consciousness operating through many bodies. Not just feeling, it will have that effect in life, and that will be a very powerful situation. This is how the unification or unity of consciousness happens, consistent connection, conviction, and also, you should not doubt it.
Detrimental factors
A few detrimental factors, one of course which I said is doubt; second is possessiveness, third is ownership, they are all things which separate people. When you try to control somebody, they tend to slip away. “This is mine; I want to own it for myself,” never works. Because then automatically there will be alienation, there will be a disappointment; there will be criticism, there will be judgment, all sorts of Pandora’s Box gets opened.
But we need to know that nobody can own anybody. It’s a consistent flow of energy. Energy is here to elevate Consciousness, and that’s exactly what we are collaborating for, what we are uniting for. And that’s what it is. And that’s about it.
Freedom
In this whole bargain, everybody gets elevated. That’s the show, that’s the drama. So, we have to understand. The whole thing is about freedom – I am free, you’re free, so that we have a relationship, and that freedom is the core of the relationship. I am free, I keep you free, or we are all free. Minus freedom, there is no relationship; it is conditional. Conditional doesn’t stay. Freedom unites us. To be with you or not to be with you, freedom of connection. Freedom doesn’t mean freedom of mind or intellectual or ego. Freedom means freedom of being. Our soul is free, just like that.
Our soul is free to leave the body anytime. It’s like a tenant; it can vacate any time, that free we are. When we know we are the soul, then we know we are free! Then what is binding? It’s our ownership or possessiveness, our connections to certain things, situations, our emotions; they are binding. They are the binding factor. Otherwise, we are free. Our relationships should be free. That’s a true relationship.
If I own you, if I bind you; if I control you, if I manipulate you, then I am stuck, and you are stuck. True relationships should not have any of these things. That’s why I said those who praise you want to manipulate you also, like that.
But when you’re connected, it’s not a physical connection. The physical connection can happen once in a while when I am alive, and you are alive. Apart from that, there is no need. But the consciousness connection, there is a need for the elevation of the Consciousness, elevation of awareness, so that we make use of this life well.
That’s the most important thing.
All: Thank You, Mohanji.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt, Padmini Ravikumar and Seema Jamakhandi
Proofread by Gayatri Jayshankar, Biljana Vozarevic, Rekha Murali