In this Q&A session in the Netherlands, Mohanji highlighted the importance of the experience of self-realisation in this life and gave simple guidance on how to get closer to that experience.
Satsang with Mohanji from Sai Temple, Netherlands 8th Aug 2021- Part 1
Feel your spine
Q: Mohanji, yesterday you talked about focusing on your spine for awakening or activating the awakening. Does it matter what the focus is about, do you need to know how the structure of your spine is, or can you imagine it is a column of light or that it is water flowing, or does it need specific instructions for this?
Mohanji: The nature of our mind is movement. The nature of our mind is to move with the senses – eyes, ears, and nose. What happens when we close our eyes? When we close our senses or as much as we detach the mind from senses, immediately, our mind starts moving through memories. Memories will connect to whatever you said just now, the physical spine or understanding or thought about a column of light- all those things are addictive; you get addicted easily.
So instead of meditating, start feeling. Just feel that there is a spine. Automatically, you are shifting from the frontal – 120 degrees – to the backside, which will eventually become the centre. When it becomes the centre, we are operating at 360 degrees. That’s the nature of awareness – Awareness of Consciousness.
We are born out of consciousness. When we start looking at ourselves as a separate unit – a personality, we forget consciousness. When you become aware of yourself, not even consciousness, it automatically drops to consciousness when nothing else we are thinking. That’s why I said yesterday that all the best things are free; they’re available.
I’ll give you another example.
Our soul. We know that there is an energy inside, activating our senses, our body, mind, intellect, and ego. But it (soul) is not interested, just like the electricity – whether you use it for a washing machine, refrigerator, or television – it has no interest in any of these machines. But when do we remember the electricity? When it’s not there. This is exactly how our mind neglects the soul.
That’s why Adi Shankara said, “When we have a childhood, then we are busy playing games and play and things. When we have youth, we are busy falling in love and things of that nature. When we are old, we are always worried about death and other things. Not even once in our lifetime do we consider what is running all this show?”
The importance of being spine oriented
This is why awareness is the key. So, why spine? The spine’s natural position is vertical. Our life goes horizontal. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, the day after. Isn’t it a big shift just to be aware of vertical? Also, when you are vertical – like the spine is just a representation, your thought process is that level- past, present, and future does not exist, separate from each other.
In other words, we are in absolute time. In other words, in a timeless state. That’s the state of our soul. To find who is running the show, this helps.
We have started our journey from pure consciousness – which means brightness, and a part of that brightness already is inside us, as the soul running the machinery. When we are completely aware of that, we become that.
We started our journey from pure consciousness, and then we became a unit, which means we are a unit, then a part of that is already sitting in us. That’s what’s actually activating the body, mind, intellect, and all those things. When you become fully aware of that, we will become that.
For reaching there, there are many paths. One of the paths is bhakti – devotion, to recognize the consciousness, that’s why I am saying.
One is through knowledge– it’s slightly more difficult because the mind enters into the analysis; analysis detaches you from the truth.
Then is the selfless service path, which is a great purifier. When you are selfless, you are purified.
Then the path of remembering, connecting to the Supreme Consciousness, formless path-raja yoga. All these paths are effective. It’s suitable for somebody, not every path suits everybody.
Disease and acceptance
Q: If you have a disease, should you be fully ignoring it and just focus on light, or should you be consciously aware of the illness and make the best of it as it is? It’s basically a question about karma.
Mohanji: Everything in life is about experiences, whether it is pain or pleasure. All are experiences fundamentally. So an experience, because of blocked energy, which we call disease, is also an experience, and there is a reason for it. We can’t ignore anything in life. Do you know what happens when we ignore it? Either it gets suppressed, or it gets postponed; both are for another time.
First is acceptance or, in a way – diagnosis, “Yes, I have this matter”, but when you diagnose, how you handle it is based on our maturity. Handle it consciously, unattached. “Ok, this is happening. I have to take care of it.” For instance, hunger. You become hungry. How do you handle it? You should eat something. As simple as that.
Nothing should be avoided; nothing should be neglected. But at the same time, don’t think this is a permanent state; everything is changing in life – everything changes.
That’s why yesterday I told you about Ramana Maharishi. “Oh, you were not there, ok.” Ramana Maharishi had cancer, and somebody asked him, “Do you have pain?” He said, “Yes, I have a body, so I have pain. But I have no suffering.”
Suffering consists of two things – one is ownership of it, second is resistance. When we resist a situation, we have suffering.
A woman from the audience added: Yes, my father said that also.
Mohanji: He is a Master.
The visible and invisible world
Q: Everything is always available, but not everything I can see yet. Because it’s somewhere, I didn’t make a connection to it. What is needed to get it visible to me and get the full potential out of my life?
Mohanji: This entire universe, created universe, is made out of frequencies. We have a particular frequency as a unit. But within us, each of our organs has different frequencies.
So what is our particular frequency? It contains all the different frequencies within us, plus mind, intellect, and ego – on which level it operates. It also has one more thing – desire. That means what you want out of this – that is desire.
With this frequency, you have certain limitations, which means as a unit with this combination (as I said: all the organs of the body, mind, intellect, and ego plus desire) have a certain limitation because this is within the boundaries of that desire. But, as a unit, you are also a source. What are you giving to this world – what you are! There is nobody else like you. This is the uniqueness that you are carrying from birth.
When you consider life from that point, you have no limitations.
Self-recognition
But how do you get that universality? How do you get to that? The first step is acceptance, complete acceptance of yourself. In other words, self-recognition. Self-recognition also means you are fully with yourself. You have to spend time with yourself. (When you spend sufficient time with yourself, that’s what we were explaining about the spine and all those things), when you spend sufficient time with yourself, your scope expands.
What’s the usual scope of our life? – What the senses can understand or using the senses, that’s all. What you cannot use the senses for is a different dimension – the first step is Extrasensory, that’s a shift in frequency. So, imagine you can see in 120 degrees, with extra sensory, it becomes maybe 240 – still, a limitation. Two hundred forty degrees is still a limitation.
How do you become limitless? What is limitless in you, connect to that. What is limitless in us is energy. The energy is actually moving this simple machinery called the human body. Once you start connecting to that, you will see that same energy in everything around you. That time all frequencies are within you.
So, which loka, which world, you want to connect, that’s easy. This is the point, but you may not have any interest in any world at that time; that’s a different story because all these fascinations exist only when the mind exists. All the fancies and fascinations are only existing when the mind is existing.
When the mind dissolves – no desires. At that point in time, when everything is available to you; you will want nothing. That is a state when you are free. You can have anything, but you want nothing. That’s a state of great masters. They can have anything they want, but they want nothing.
Lord Krishna says, “You offer me fruit or a flower. I’ll accept it with happiness, but please remember, that belongs to me anyway.”
The universe is made of frequencies
The whole universe is various frequencies; there are a lot of people, colonies in the sun. We will not even believe it because we are thinking from the terms of elements. We can never understand that. And there are some worlds where they multiply.
For example, I’m just using a name, but don’t think this is the man. Imagine in that world, one Mohanji wants to make thousands of Mohanjis, just one thought, and you expand into many pieces, then you conglomerate when the job is done. That means multiplication. We cannot understand many of these things because we are thinking in terms of unified elements like earth, water, air, fire, space, and our body. This is a delicate assembly.
Guru’s presence transforms
Mohanji: This is why the real relevance of masters, who have dissolved themselves, is not their teachings; it’s their presence. Do you know what God is? Just a presence. God is a presence. God is doing nothing; God is not doing anything. Guru is a presence; Guru is doing nothing. But guru’s presence does so many things. Don’t think that Sai Baba is actually doing things; his presence is activating so many things; that’s a Guru.
Physically, you can see a man in action, but that’s a minute thing of his presence. God is not doing anything; his presence has created the entire universe. If you understand that, you will understand the creations better. Because God, Guru, your soul-they are all presence, they are not doing anything.
See, electricity is not doing anything; it’s passing through a machine, and the machine is working. If you don’t make a machine that can respond to that electricity- it is useless.
What is spirituality?
It is being aware of this truth. That God is a presence, His presence is the most important thing. Not his actions.
Guru is a presence, and the presence is more important than the teachings or action. That’s why gratitude is more powerful than prayer because when you are grateful, you are aware of a grand presence. That’s the path of the spine.
You just become constantly aware that, “My God, this is a wonderful presence”, and then you are grateful for nothing. You are just grateful. Then you will see, you will not be bound by any of your emotions. What will you see? Only that which activated those emotions.
Now come down to the simple, normal life. Some person’s presence makes you feel sad or unhappy. Is that person responsible, or are we responsible? Everything is frequency. Everything is a presence.
We are like a soundboard! We are responding to many things. All our emotions, all our experiences – nobody else is to be blamed.
We are just a soundboard, and it is making a sound. That’s life. Nothing is permanent. One moment you’re sad because one person came. It’s like some people come into the room, and the room brightens up; huge presence – much larger than their physical form.
When some people leave the room, the room brightens up. J This is the truth, right? Everything has its value. Imagine that person who left the room; the room brightens up. How do you know brightness? Imagine there is no dream state, there are no dreams, then how will you know waking state? Now, this is also relative. I’ll tell you why.
When you go to the turiya state –the fourth state – (waking, dream, deep sleep – three states – 24 hours, it’s happening); cross over these states, where you’re a witness to these three states, where you’re watching the waking state, dream and deep sleep- you’ll reach a state where it’s Samadhi state. From that corner, the waking state is also a dream state.
Inner guru is what you need to connect to
Imagine you’re witnessing yourself going around, which means you came out of you, and you’re watching. Like a feature film you watch on the screen, you’re watching yourself. Everything looks completely different, right? That’s exactly like a dream state. While you are in the dream state, imagine you had four dreams that night, but while you’re dreaming, you forget the previous and the next. In the dream state, you don’t have that mind. But when you wake up, you know, “I had four dreams”, but while dreaming, you can’t see four dreams. So, understand the limitations.
This is why I’m saying – there is an inner guru who’s taking us through these states. This is the guru you need to really connect to. What has happened now with mankind is that they want fast food.
So somebody says, “Ok, you meditate”; maybe the guru is saying so because that person is boring to the guru, you know like, “Give me something”, So he says, “Ok, you meditate.” If you meditate without awareness, it’s just an activity. When you are aware of yourself, when you are aware of your movements, when you are aware of everything that happens -that is meditation.
If you just look at how your dream state works, you will easily understand how your waking state works!
Meaning of dreams and dream state
When you wake up, you say, “I had four dreams”, and you sometimes remember those dreams, sometimes you don’t remember; same like our life and our birth, we don’t remember anything from a past life. Sometimes we remember vaguely; why do we remember? We have something to do with it. Otherwise, we won’t remember. There is no fancy in life that way. What we need to remember or what we remember has some value. What we don’t remember has no value. I think this is approximately the picture; I can tell more.
Speaker from the audience: It’s also nice, Swamiji, to blame somebody else, isn’t it?
Mohanji: That’s the play of the mind, remember. We always blame saying, “Hey, because of that man, I’m suffering.” But what attracted that man to you? That we need to say. Everything in life we are attracting, one way or the other. As I said, society has only two dimensions: they hate you, or they love you.
When do you become more saintly? When you start accepting both. When you accept love and hate, you are peaceful. Don’t think that society hates you because they know you; society also hates you because they don’t know you.
Everything happening around us is not with awareness, so let’s not be confused about it. One person told me – he really hates me. I asked, “Why do you hate me?” So he said, “You’re so effortless. You’re leading your life effortlessly. I can’t even do that.” I said, “You do not hate me; you hate yourself.” This is what happens. Sometimes we don’t understand who we’re hating.
Help and dependency
Q: Yesterday, you talked a bit about bhakti and the need for helping someone and lending them a hand. But sometimes somebody grabs more than a hand and takes the whole arm. What do you do in that instance?
Mohanji: Well, there is a tendency to lay their weight on somebody; people have that tendency. When you become kind, they become dependent. Dependency is disfavour, not a favour. Empathy is powerful; sympathy is a weakness. So you can be kind but empathetic; as long as they are free with your action, it’s good action. When they become dependent on you, even a guru for that matter, when guru starts having disciples who are fully dependent on the guru, then the guru is also stuck.
Independency is important
There is a thin line there – independence. Yesterday I said, “Do not follow anybody. Follow yourself.” Who is that you – the most authentic representation. You are unique; you will remain unique. You are neither high nor low, nor equal to anybody. You are unique. So, whom should you follow?-Yourself. If that freedom is lost by your action, you got to correct it.
Like a child – you hold the hand of the child as long as it can walk, as much as it can walk without your help. It means you hold the hand of the child so that it can start walking, but when it starts walking, you still hold the hand of the child, the child will protest, “Leave me.”
Freedom is truth
Like I said yesterday, the story of the cow and the farmer. The cow has a rope, and the farmer is holding the rope so that the cow will not run away. The cow wants to run away, and the farmer cannot go anywhere because he’s holding the cow. This is how our life is. Many times with our actions, we are also getting stuck. But what is truth? Freedom is truth.
Freedom does not mean “No responsibility.” Freedom means full responsibility but no dependency. Yesterday I said three things that bind people: position – what you are in the society, possessions – what you have collected from the world, and relationships -which you think of me and mine. These three aspects control you, bind you, make you insecure. It brings fear; so many things are associated with these three things.
If you want to express your kindness, make sure it does not create dependency. Empowerment is good; it keeps you free, and the person who receives it is also free.
Please remember one thing – you and the person have no separation when the action is happening. When you are interacting with another, there’s an energy exchange going on. So there’s no separation. It is important to be independent. You got to be independent. Otherwise, there is no freedom. Is that clear?
Selfless service is karma yoga is a beautiful path, but people get stuck with that because of the ownership. Many times what happens – the action itself will be for some reason. The moment reason, expectation, etc., come, contamination happens immediately. Any other questions?
Awareness in 360 degrees
Q: You’re talking about a 360 degrees awareness. What do you do when you can see far away, and you can see things going wrong from a while away? When do you step in, and when do you just stand there and watch? That’s something I find difficult.
Mohanji: In life, we always have a personality to which we connect; all the people connect to. It’s part of that personality that maintains the ownership of action. Were you here yesterday? No?
The chronology of action or experience is – thought, word, action; thought – expression – action.
Action leads to experience. What comes out of action is experience. So, three levels of creation. The first level of creation is thoughts. Everything you see in the world has an origin as a thought. Then some of these thoughts become actions. Like there are many flowers on the tree, everything or every flower will not become a fruit. When an expression becomes a fruit, that’s action – the fruit is the action. There are many thoughts, many flowers; some of them become fruit which means action. That is expression. Some become expressions and actions. Then what comes out of it? Experience.
An experience gives you memory, and memory sometimes becomes part of your character. Sometimes it stays as a desire.
What remains as a desire produces another thought. If that desire is very strong, it will go further to expression.
Imagine you wanted a coffee, you had an experience of a great coffee in a particular shop, and next time you’re going that way, you say, “I would like to have this coffee!” Where did this thought come from? Memory. Then you will go to the shop and say, “I need a coffee.” Imagine you had the same taste as before, so you are happy. Imagine the chef changed and the coffee is bad.
Ownership and doership, witness hood
When the memory and the reality are separate, what would you feel? That means expectation and reality became different. How will you feel? Disappointment. “I wasted my time, my money.” This is how the mind works. In this, there is an ownership of action – “I”. When you go into 360 degrees, doership becomes ‘happening’. It’s happening through me, not what I am doing. It’s happening through me.
What will happen through you?
What is essential will happen through you. There is no doership. Doership will have many actions, “I’m doing, I have to do this.”
But when you are in a state of witnesshood, only the essential actions will happen, only the essential words will happen; expressions will happen because they are not bound by pleasures.
Otherwise, what we remember are the pleasures connected to the senses and stored by the mind that changes. So what would be the answer here to your question? Just be the flow.
If something comes to you – accept it. If it doesn’t come to you, if you really need it and you really you know that this is important- you get it. If you do not, mostly, you will not even go for it. Because something which has not come – “Good riddance, thank you!” because that memory you don’t need here. Very simple. When we think, “I am doing”, understand the mind is active. When you think it’s happening, your mind isn’t active; you are just the flow of life.
Everything is about experience; experience changes with age and time
Yesterday I said, “The Netherlands means an experience.” If you go to France, that’s another experience. Every relationship is a different experience. Every time is a different experience. Everything we consume – through our mouth, through our mind, through our intellect, our ego – it’s all experience. All we have in our life is experience. With age, it changes; with time, it changes. If you stop experiencing, you don’t have life, or there is no life in life.
That’s why I said yesterday; there is nothing right or nothing wrong absolutely except violence. I said violence because it hurts people, or it hurts the earth; people and earth are one. They are connected like a mother and child, so it hurts. When it hurts, it hurts us also.
What hurts in us? Our conscience. Conscience is the immune system of our mind. When we do good things, the conscience strengthens. When we do ugly things, the conscience weakens. The mind gets exposed to diseases. How do we express violence? Through thoughts, through expressions, through actions – these should be taken out.
When our conscience is intact, we are ready for meditation because we are pure. As I said, selfless action without expectation increases purity.
The relevance of masters – masters are representations of a particular consciousness or a particular state. In Indian philosophy, there are 330 million gods. People think, “This is a confused society; who do you worship?” It simply means the Supreme Consciousness, the God factor, has numerous dimensions, like 330 million. Each dimension we can’t worship; we can worship only that dimension that suits our frequency.
Why are we sitting at the feet of Baba? Because Bhagavan’s frequency and our frequency is somewhere connecting; otherwise, we will not feel anything. So there are 330 million frequencies, and there are 330 million people; it’s just a figure, don’t count exactly.
One scientist told me there are 330 trillion cells in our body. That is also fine. Anyway, don’t count the number; it’s not about numbers; it’s about numerous.
Like when the small atomic bomb exploded in the deserts of Nevada in 1945 or something like that, Robert Oppenheimer was asked, “What did you feel?” “Divi Surya sahasrasya – means brighter than a thousand suns.” He took that from Bhagavatham.
When Krishna revealed himself, nobody could watch because it was brighter than a thousand suns. Thousand is not exactly one thousand, one plus three zeros- it’s many suns. Like Shiva is represented by Shiva linga – it’s a representation of something which you cannot represent – huge consciousness! Imagine this huge consciousness – Infinity. Pure brightness – brighter than a million suns! How will you tell this to people? So they created an object which is a representation. When you are worshipping Shiva linga, you are, in fact, worshipping a consciousness that is indescribable; you can’t describe it.
Why do we need an object? Because we have a mind. We can’t say something which is not tangible, like air, you know. It’s not tangible. Air is a presence again. As I said, God is a presence, and the air is also a presence. When do you know there is no air? When we can’t breathe, when we are suffocated, we know.
Shiva has two children. I think he has many children; I mean, we are all his children. One is Ganesha, and Parvathi made him out of her skin. She said, “Protect me.” When Shiva came, He (Ganesha) attacked Shiva because he did not know Him. Shiva chopped his head. Then Parvathi said, “What did you do now?” So Shiva took the head of an elephant and put it on half of the body. Do you know this story? This is a crazy story, isn’t it? Why can’t he put the same head back?
Do you know the reason?
We are operating on two parts of intellect. One is called Shrutha buddhi -which means intellect. Shrutha means what? It implies what we have learned from teachers, from the world. We have learned and picked up is Shrutha buddhi.
The other side is Yukta buddhi –its contemplation: through our thoughts, analysis through our contemplation what we have understood. This intellect is active in everybody.
To know God you have to experience God
This Shrutha buddhi is what most people in the world use; what you’ve heard and what you’ve picked up. Now it’s much more, because of the internet. Information explosion! So you pick up a lot of things and contaminate the mind and be happy. This is Shrutha buddhi.
Yukta buddhi is where you are thinking, yourself. All the scientists, all the people who are creative by nature. “(You’re also doing something with the stones, and stuff;) you’re thinking, imagining, creating that is also from within, means creativity.” Science, all these are yukta buddhi.
These two are only good for terrestrial life. But we’re talking about cosmic consciousness, knowing God. Knowing God will not happen through this.
How do you know God? You have to experience God. Knowing from the books is nothing. When you experience, only then do you understand God, for which you need rithambhara buddhi, which means Cosmic Consciousness.
The intellect which is that vast, which can understand or be cosmic consciousness, how do you represent it? Just putting a human head will not tell this? So the biggest mammal signifying this biggest consciousness is put on the person.
Ganesha represents the entire universe, the cosmos, manifested and unmanifested. The manifested universe, they say, is just like a pimple on Shiva’s face; unmanifested, it’s much larger. That is why it is said, ‘Gunateetha Manam’, which means – beyond all gunas – sattva rajas, tamas; ‘Chidananda roopam’ – always in bliss, that is Ganesha.
So rithambhara buddhi is the buddhi that will help us to connect or experience cosmic consciousness. That is very difficult. Even through meditations, you may not find it. You got to be you completely, to find it. When “I” within us stops, that happens.
There are so many things about it. That is why Lord Muruga represents knowledge – knowledge of the Supreme Consciousness. That’s why he thought Shiva was who he is. Every idol represents an ideal. No creation is wasted. This is what we are; this is the 330 million dimensions and possibilities. 330 million Gods means 330 million possibilities.
So, why do we always worship Ganesha first? Because he represents Supreme Consciousness; because the head is that of the largest mammal available, representing a Consciousness that is always aware of consciousness.
When you start seeing consciousness all around, that’s the only thing you will be aware of.
That’s the importance of masters also. They are established in consciousness. That is why people touch their feet, with that understanding that “This person is fully occupied in consciousness. I am touching the feet because I want to attain the same consciousness, or I am that same consciousness.”
So a guru is your aspiration, not a person. Was it too difficult for you to catch?
Audience: Not at all.
Mohanji: I try to make it as baby food as much as possible because many of these things are not very easy to catch.
Selfless service and ownership
Q: I have a question. You talked about karma yogi being one of the greatest paths for purification and the sense of ownership ruining everything. How can we avoid slipping into this sense of ownership and dedicating every action to God only or seeing every action as being performed by God only?
Mohanji: Gratitude. Add gratitude to it. Whatever you do, add gratitude, and everything will become selfless. It will be fragrant. The moment you start expecting, the fragrance goes.
Part 2
LIVE Satsang with Mohanji from Sai Temple, Netherlands 8th Aug 2021 – Part 2
Q: Yes. Can you please explain a little about bhakti, because Baba used to say there are two kinds of bhakti: the one is a little monkey, a baby monkey which has to grab his mother, and the other type of bhakti is the kitten, which is helpless but his mother will carry him everywhere as soon as he runs. Can you explain it, because all this is about independence, I’m wondering where the bhakti aspect from comes?
Mohanji: Many times, it just becomes an activity without conviction, then what happens, only sound! First, you said monkey’s child. Monkey’s child trusts in his mother. What is the core there? Trust. When we trust in Bhagawan a hundred percent, then we do not have to do anything. Just stay on. But, the mind analyses, criticizes, sometimes judges. The mind does all this. This is all releasing hands. That is why I said yesterday we should not believe in anything until we are sure. But once we are sure, then do not leave hands. Cling on. Then you will go to the top of the branch or the tree. You are not going; you are just being carried. So here, first is trust, second is belief or conviction, and the third is endurance, consistency.
In the Upanishads, it is said, you stay with me; know me enough. I know you; you know me. Then when we accept each other, we will find God together. That is the path of knowledge. Here, opposite of that. Understand, try to connect; if you do not want to connect, do not connect. Make sure this frequency suits you and once you have found it. Never leave.
What happens when you leave your hands? Not so happy for you. You can break your back. Maybe you will die as well. That is why many people, like Meerabai, say that a person abusing a Master or talking bad about a Master, whom you trusted for some time, is like releasing hands and may take 80,000 lifetimes to come back to the same frequency. 80 thousand!
It is not just so simple. Bhakti Yoga is very powerful. Never let the mind come in the middle. You take your time to understand the Master. That is why many people like the Master who is not in the body. Whatever you do, He will not kick you. A living Master is dangerous. This is very important to understand. Bhakti Yoga is the best and the most powerful, fastest path in Kali Yuga. You need to be clear, and you need to be sure.
That’s why Shirdi Sai Baba said, “You want me to take over your sorrows. Leave it here, but do not look back. Trust I will handle.” If this level is achieved, then comes the cat and the kitten.
You have given yourself to the Master of your choice; then you become the responsibility of the Master. You have no particular karma. You will be just like the shadow of the Master. When the Master moves, the shadow moves. Like that, the disciple and the Guru become somewhat the same. As the mother and kitten, the Master – (Master means Consciousness – do not think of the physical form only) Consciousness takes care of you.
In the book ‘Mast’, which I gave yesterday, you can read this. It is a novel which I wrote and all our fictitious characters. There is a man who was considered a dreamer by his parents. The father said, “Go out and get some job and earn your money. Do not sit here at home.” So, he went and sat on the street because what will he do. He was quite evolved. He was connecting to himself even before he was thrown out of the house. While he was sitting there, one man came and said, “Catch the sky,” and he went away. That was the only instruction he gave. Catch the sky! What did he mean by ‘catch the sky?’ Inside us, one of the elements is space. When you connect to the sky, the space is what you are connecting to inside us.
What is space? Expansion. You are much larger than your physical identification. When he was meditating only on space, he became space. All he needed was a spark from somebody, not many things. Then when Aatmananda, the hero or the main person of this book, came that way, he, just with his eyes, said, “Come”. He did not say come with me. No explanation, No instruction. No training, No message, Nothing! The man went with him, and he became the top disciple of Aatmananda. They never talked to each other. This is exactly one of the ways you will reach the highest – by non-action, by connection. As I said yesterday, you attain much more by plugging in than activity. That is the second aspect.
You said the kitten was taken by the cat; that means your job is to stay connected. Then who carries you? Master Consciousness carries you. That will carry us to Consciousness. Our job is to stay plugged in. Electricity comes to you. But most of us keep the plug in our hands and think, this plug point or that plug point. Whole life, we go like that. Please remember, all these plug points have the same electricity.
Do you know what the Tradition says, Dattatreya Tradition, means the Tradition of liberation says? Even if there is one seeker, we will send one Master. There will be no starvation for Truth for any seeker. But the mind does not accept sometimes. We are focused on Babaji – Babaji should come; in this form, he should come. And then, even if the person came in a different form, they are not accepted. This is what happens. So, we miss the bus. But there is no missing the bus; you can come back another life and continue. You can wait for another bus. The bus keeps coming (laughs).
Question: Mohanji, I still find it very difficult to deal with violence around me. How should we deal with the violence?
Mohanji: First and foremost, in this era that we are in, both positive and negative sit together. And where you park your mind, that you become. Violence is one aspect of this time. In this time, what we can do as spiritual beings, concentrate on the positive, the vibrant, and the bright. In one way, do not look at the aspect of violence. Instead, focus on the aspect of brightness so that there is a chance that it can change because it is too much in every aspect.
The moment you focus, like a whirlpool, it sucks us inside. That is the problem when we are against something. When we are against something, it takes half of our energy away. What is better is to be pro-something. I explained to Kanhaiya earlier that the five things fighting all the thirteen vices are Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa. That means Truth, peace, unconditional love, non-violence and righteousness.
These are the five things we have to hold on to our hearts. When we hold on to these – there are 13 on the other side, which is multi-dimensional negativity – one, it’ll be our immunity, our protection. Second – it will at least stop the energy loss based on fighting something which is negative. When we hold on to this, it gives us protection, plus it stops energy loss. This is what I suggest.
Look at the world, see the behaviour pattern of the people, like for example, now our whole lives are occupied with tablets, small phones etc. so that the real world and the real experiences are eclipsed. We fall in love, get married and get divorced, all on WhatsApp. This is the reality now. Everything is virtual, right? Now, we will also start producing children virtually. This is how life is.
We need to know which world we live in and navigate accordingly instead of resisting and getting affected. I feel, we should not be affected. But if we are affected, we become helpless. That is a time when manipulations happen to us.
Question: In the morning, there was a message on the Facebook page, once you know your Guru, cling on to the Master, and do not leave. How do we connect to wise brothers like you?
Mohanji: Usually in our house, we have a father, mother, brother, sister, maybe a dog, cat, children; so many people. Do we leave anybody to connect to anybody? Everybody has value. Like you have value in the world. You have a space; you have a value. Nobody is a replacement to anybody. In other words, all are irreplaceable; every one of us. In that way, your value is absolute; my value is absolute; Babaji’s value is absolute. Everything is absolute. When you only see absoluteness, there is no separation.
Imagine, Sai Baba is operating in a million-horsepower capacity. That capacity, even sometimes saints cannot connect with; because some of the saints do not connect to Sai Baba. When Shirdi Sai Baba was in the body, a saint came to meet him, and he saw Baba eating onions. And he said, “This, Baba eats onions! I don’t want him.” He went away. This is how the mind works. The mind sees separation. The mind holds frames. The mind has concepts. Forget the mind and look; you will only see Truth.
All you need to remember is that nobody is a replacement for another. It never happens in life. Then there is no confusion. You can be like a river flowing. Connect to everybody, enjoy and experience their teaching. Teaching or guidance or whatever you want. If it is good for you, use it; if it is not good for you, do not use it. Like that, you can flow. That is how life should happen.
In some of the programs, people buy my pictures and bring them for blessing so that I sign them. I sometimes ask them. Whose picture are you replacing with this picture? If you are not replacing any picture, then it is fine. If you are replacing a picture, you are showing your instability; lack of stability – because nobody can replace anybody. But if my picture constantly reminds you that you got a job to do here, or the Truth you need to find when you keep the picture.
My core teaching is, Be You; Nothing Else. Being you is the best thing you can do for yourself and the world. Totally you. So do not ever think of me as somebody else, or a replacement, because both are un-Truth; Not True. We are all irreplaceable. But we all have our duration on Earth; non-physical durations also.
So when people remember us, people meditate on us or think about us, we are still alive even after death. That is the energy intensity that we carry. Or in other words, we keep giving value or sharing value to the world even after death. An example is Baba. It does not matter if he was in the body or not in the body, same effect. Generations will connect. That shows the strength of the incarnation.
You have to remember one thing. Nobody replaces anybody. In real life, it is like that. We all have value; our value and it will remain like that. Not only human beings, every bird, but every being also has that value. They all look similar, but they are not the same. Nobody is the same.
Question: Why are we separate from the Supreme Consciousness; before birth, we were pure Consciousness; what was the need for experiences?
Mohanji: When we are unity, we do not understand ourselves. How do you know yourself, as yourself? Normally, in terms of another. When the drop becomes the ocean, there is no experience anymore. You are the ocean. When the drop is separate from the ocean, there is an experience that I am not the ocean. This is also why we have a mind – to experience. If there is no mind, you cannot experience. Like in the night, in a deep sleep, you cannot experience anything around you.
Everything is connected to experiences. So, the whole creation started; separation started; duality started only because of one reason; experience. So, experience is the reason. Now, suffering is ignorance. There is positive and negative suffering. Negative suffering is that you are suffering from what is happening in your life. Positive suffering is, you are suffering because you are separate, and it becomes a craving to be back to unity.
Most people do not know separation, so do not worry about unity. All these problems are only when you are spiritual; otherwise, there is no problem. You start getting to know of all these issues, then that itself is a heavy burden.
Some people say, “Ignorance is bliss”. But to get back, you need awareness. That is the problem. To cross the river, you need a boat. That is the thing. If you are sitting here, you do not need a boat. But if you really want to go to the other side, you need a boat. And that boat is awareness. Awareness of Consciousness! Being aware of Consciousness, the other side. When you are always aware that there is Consciousness, my home, then you will want to get back home. When the craving becomes so strong that I only want to get back home, and then what Sita said happens, cling on!
Master here is like a horse, untamed horse. You sit on it; he will jump up and down. He will try to kick you, unload you, but you have to cling on.
Participant: Once I asked, Swami, what are you doing with me, and he said, I wash you, brush you, I beat you like a dhobi (washerman) to cleanse you. So whenever someone is going through something, I say, you are in a washing machine.
Mohanji: Do you know how the Master behaves like the horse? They do things which you never expect. People feel I did not expect him to do that, and it’s finished. The question is – why do you expect? To destroy expectations, Master does bizarre things.
There was a great master during the 1940s time – very, very big, very powerful Master. He was living in the Himalayas. He was only wearing a loincloth, no dress even in winter. He used to live on slightly high ground, where there are about 100 steps up on a hill, and just had a shed, that’s it. So many people would come to see him and go. He would sit there, and he would do something.
And one day, he saw a Mercedes car parked down and a very rich man coming to see him because his fame was spreading. Immediately he called two girls; one girl on one side and one girl sitting on the other side. He put his head on the lap of one girl and put the legs on the lap of the other girl, and lay down. This rich man came up, and he saw this. He went back. He said, “I don’t want such a Guru”. When that man went down and entered the car, the Guru sat again and said everybody could go. Somebody asked him, Guruji, why did you do this kind of a thing now? Guru said, because if that man came here and sat down, you will not have me anymore, he will buy me.
These Masters work in different, different ways. That is the test. You have to accept him on every level. Acceptance all the time, and then, you will not see the Master; you only start seeing the Consciousness as a Master. Then what you will see is the projection of Consciousness in a form. That is the Truth. The form is not true. The projection of Consciousness has a form, is the Truth. The form is perishable. The form will die anytime or go away anytime. But the Consciousness never goes. That is the Truth.
Transcribed by Nada Raković and Seema Shashidhar
Proofread by Padmini Ravi Kumar, Shyama Jeyaseelan and Rekha Murali