Completion Within

Rose Bank Satsang with Mohanji in Canada on 23rd August 2015, part 2

Q: Is enlightenment continuous or step-wise?
A: It’s already there. It’s just removing the lid of the mind. The only factor which prevents the experience of enlightenment is the mind. This is because the mind is clutter, right? Agendas, a lot of things, the mind is connecting to a lot of things. So many things are happening in the mind. What happens is that it envelops a subtle aspect called completion. Enlightenment is completion, fulfillment, oneness. Division is maintained by the mind. “Me, I’m different…“ Mind is given to understand the world, to taste an experience and express in the world. When mind is constantly working, it always suppresses the enlightenment in you. However, the moment mind is taken away… How can mind be taken away? You cannot fight directly with the mind. This means you are energising the mind. Mind ensures it becomes stronger, it stays stronger. However when you ignore the mind and do not energise it… for example, let’s say I don’t use this hand for one year. If I don’t use any of the muscles in this hand for one year, what will happen to it? It will become very weak. Similarly, if you are not using your mind, you are just being the flow. You are flowing through life. Whatever happens is happening through you. You are not worried about it. You flow through life. After some time the mind will not know what to do with you. At that time it becomes diluted, and the experience that you will have will be that of silence inside. When mind is not active, you are silent inside. All sound is made by the mind. If this inner silence becomes consistent and continuous for some time, then slowly, slowly you will start experiencing completion within. You will be completely happy with whatever you are and whatever you have. Then you will realise that the mind is what prevents that happiness, and that total happiness is enlightenment – the bliss state, the state of satchitananda, happiness for no reason. Even when energies circulate inside you in an intense way, you will experience the same.
We were doing Conscious Walking this morning. When we were walking consciously, when we were circulating the energy within our auric field, our energy zone, it gave tremendous happiness. One lady felt like dancing! This is because the energy flow which is usually dissipated, was not allowed to go outside. Usually we are like a pot with a lot of holes. Whatever water you pour into it, gets dissipated sooner or later. That’s the way our structure is. That is why we are so tired by evening time. Children on the other hand, are not tired by evening time. We are tired because we have a lot of energy loss. We walked consciously for 30 minutes, and the energisation was much higher than 3 hours of meditation. Many of the participants felt it. Some of them normally could not walk, but today they walked without a problem. Why is it happening? It’s because the mind is not disturbing you, and you are thus perfect, you are full, you are complete. That is why.
So enlightenment is already in you. It doesn’t come from outside. It’s a spark, a kiss from inside. You are kissed from inside. Imagine an egg. If it is broken from the outside, it’s the end of a life. If it’s broken from the inside, it’s a new life. It’s an awakening happening from inside and this awakening is waiting to happen. It’s there. It has always existed there. The lamp is already burning, but there are so many blankets on top of it that you cannot see the light. It’s already blowing inside you. It can’t be coming from outside anyway. If you asked me at what moment it could happen, I would say, at the time the mind is still. Because a still mind is like a still pond – you can see your image clearly. Normally it’s a ruffled pond, which means you cannot see your image clearly. Seeing yourself clearly refers to the permanence in you, to seeing the permanent aspect of you which is inside. That already exists. The reason we cannot see it is because of the waves of the mind. Otherwise it’s there.
Q: Ramana Maharishi said there was no mind.
A: For him there was no mind. Ramana Maharishi’s mind dissolved. But you have the mind.
Q: Now if we give so much importance to the mind, does the mind become a hurdle?
A: Abolutely. Ramana Maharishi’s mind fully dissolved. When you are operating at the level of complete consciousness, the mind dissolves because it has no purpose there. You are not the doer any more, you are not doing, it’s happening through you. Everything is flowing through you. It’s a continuous, consistent flow. Then mind has no purpose. Ramana Maharishi’s mother came to him and said,“Tell me something,“. So he looked at her and nothing happened in this canvas because there was no mind to make an emotion. She thought he was maybe ’in silence’ so she gave him a piece of slate and a pencil to write on. He looked at the slate, looked at the pencil and scratched a few lines. Even the presence of his mother didn’t create anything inside because the canvas was totally empty, still, no mind. So you will operate in that state of mind where there is nothing happening in the brain. Mind creates all sorts of ruffles in the brain. When your mind is totally dissolved, there is no agenda, no plan, no mind, no activity in the brain. It’s absolute bliss all the time, you are always happy. Whether you have something or not, you are happy. Whether you have a relationship or not, you are happy. Everything is ok, and you take it as it comes. That is why Haidakhan Baba used to say,“If you come to me with love, I give you love. I am the perfect mirror because there is no mind.“ Mind maintains your ego, right? When ego is there, you are in a perfect mirror because you have to show you. When you don’t have ego, you are everything. You are the universe. So when somebody comes to you, all you feel is love. When somebody comes to me with love, I express love. When somebody comes to me with lust, I express lust. When somebody comes to me with anger, I give anger. What he meant was that, as a perfect mirror, you look at the mirror and receive what you are. In this way you are always empty and you are always peaceful. There is nothing to prove. Nothing to do. Nothing to worry about. No anxiety, no fear. Nothing. In that mode what you give is just pure love. The mind factor is causing this whole confusion. Like,“I want to take what is in this pocket also.“ This is the mind talking. When there is no mind, there is nothing telling you that you want more, because you are already sufficient. Self-sufficient. So when Ramana Maharishi said that there is no mind, that means that he had no mind. That state is achievable when you are not using the mind. It means that when you are always calculating, creating, when you are worried, when you are anxious, then the mind is active because you need storage space for all these. That’s the mind. When you do not have anxiety, when you do not have fear, you are in full acceptance mode, you are happy with life, you are satisfied with what you have, and mind will become useless. Then you connect more and more to your consciousness, and mind merges with the consciousness, it dissolves.
Why has god given the mind? It is for one reason. Mind has to act a s a medium, as a translator. Mind with your tongue makes you feel the taste. If you are watching TV and eating food, do you think you will know the taste? Mind is elsewhere. When mind is with your eyes, you see. Otherwise you just look. When mind is with your ears, you actually listen. Otherwise you hear, but you don’t listen. When something is on your skin, you feel. Otherwise if something touches you, you may not even know it is touching you. So the mind was created as a medium, as a translator to experience the world. However when mind takes over and takes charge, “I am the boss,“ then there is a problem. It’s as if the clerical staff were given the CEO position without eligibility. It’s almost like that i.e. it makes many decisions and makes you jump like a monkey. So this is exactly what’s happening. When Ramana Maharishi said,“I am not bound by the mind,“ it was true. He was the king. When you are bound by the mind you are a slave. There is the difference. If you want to be the king, you cannot be bound i.e. you should not have the mind.
Q: In the same vein, is mind the creator of thought?
A: Mind is the base of thought. Thought sits in the mind.
Q: If thoughts come out of our past karmas, then we do not have control over them.
A: Impulse of impressions are the basis. They are the seeds. They sit in the causal layer. When the mind evaporates, even the causal layer is burnt. When the soul leaves your body, it picks up the causal layer, where all the seeds of impressions are sitting. It also contains your character. It also contains your constitution. It’s like a bag with a lot of pockets. It picks up the bag and it leaves the body and it pulls this bag on a rope for the next body. That is why every child has a distinct character, a distinct constitution, and awareness level. It is because all of this is transferred. Thus every impression is sitting there. However, these impressions dry up when there is no mind. ’When there is no mind’ means you have no further desires, so you don’t need the mind to execute them. The reason you need the mind to understand a desire is because of the experience factor. For example, if you want to experience fatherhood, you have to become a father or you need to adopt somebody and feel fatherhood. If that is not happening, you can’t experience it. Like that, the mind is kept in that mode, so that you can experience every flavour of life. Otherwise you don’t need the mind. That’s the way it goes. Impressions are all sitting there as long as there is a desire. When all the impressions are dried up, they cannot provoke a desire,and if there is no desire, then there is no birth. If there is no desire, there is no food for karma. Karma cannot be provoked if there are no desires, so there is no further life.
Q: How do you differentiate between a thought and bhaav?
A: A thought is the basis. The first level of creation is a thought. For example, you had the thought,“I must have an icecream.“ Then you told Manjari Babi,“Please give me an icecream.“ Manjari Babi said,“I cannot give it to you.“ So you kept the thought inside. Then you went and told Neha,“Can you please give me an icecream? Don’t tell Manjari Babi“ So the thought is repeated in multiple dimensions in various situations. Neha says,“I won’t tell Manjari Babi, I’ll give you an icecream.“ So there was a communication. A word happened. In both cases you have used energy and sometimes an emotion about it. When there is an emotion, there is a reaction. If there is no emotion, it is just a word, it comes and goes. Then Neha gives you an icecream and you consume it. You have fulfillment.
So thought is the first level of creation, word or expression is the second, and culmination of fulfillment is the third. We operate in these three levels every day, in every moment. This is fundamental. Bhaav is an aspect involved in it. For example, you went to a temple and you felt the presence of Bhagawan Krishna and you really lived the presence, and felt it. You chanted and you had a great experience out of it and came back. This is all because of bhaav. On the other hand, another person goes to the temple, sees the idol saying, “Ok, it’s Lord Krishna, I appreciate it,“ gives the offering and goes back. Two people went to the same place with a different effect. That flavour is bhaav. That has nothing to do with thought per se. The first level of creation is thought – thought, word, action. This is the chronology of karma. And thought, word, action is provoked by vasana. If you don’t have an inclination for something, you won’t have a thought for it. Beyond inclination is impression. Impression creates karma, it is a seed which creates a desire. Desire creates karma, karma creates a thought, thought creates a word or expression and then a culmination, an action. So numerous thoughts, less words or expression, less action. This is how it goes.
Q: How to generate more bhaav?
A: Bhaav always happens when your awareness grows. The fundamental awareness is ’ego is bothering me’. How do you know this? You know you are acting based on ego, when you keep your identity very strong,“I am like this, I am so and so…“ You struggle to keep your image intact based on ego in the society. Then you can change the mode and say,“I am … I am here to experience Lord Krishna, or Bhagawan Baba or something.“ Then you start being aware, “Most of my functions are not in my control – heartbeat, circulation, respiration, digestion, excretion…“ whatever, consider everything about your existence that is not in your control. You have a mind which overreacts to situations, and says,“I am controlling all of this.“ Then you realise, “This is not true. The truth is that all my functions are not in my control. Then what am I controlling?“ Awareness grows. This introspection makes awareness grow. When your awareness starts growing in that direction, you start detaching from the ego plane. The moment you detach from the ego plane, it’s bhakti, devotion and bhaav is spontaneous. When you understand, “Oh, this is all happening through me, how wonderful!“, then you shift from doership to ’wondership’, and you exclaim with wonder, “Oh, God, what an amazing creation!“ Everything you see is amazing. Every person is amazing. Every situation is amazing. It’s all bhaav then. Then the full life is bhaav. That is what Sudha, Krishna Das…are. All these people are embodiments of bhaav. They are of higher awareness. They know there is nothing egoistic to be proud of. It is all happening and we are being unnecessarily proud of something very silly which we don’t even control such as the body. For example, take a big, muscular body. You spend one week in bed, and the muscles all go. So after a lot of effort you created a lot of muscles, yet you can’t maintain it. In this way everything you see has no value because it’s all temporary. It’s all passing. Then we are unnecessarily quoting everything with ego. When this awareness grows to that level, you immediately start feeling that this is not me, this is nothing. What you seem to be is not at all the real thing. Then bhaav happens and you become an embodiment of bhaav.

Reaction vs. Response

Q: When we know things are not correct, and we expect them to be proper, how do we react? Sometimes we get angry, sometimes we feel bad…
A: Understand your response levels. You can handle your life in two ways. One way is to get angry, upset, etc. That means you are operating from emotion. Emotion is directly related to expectation. There is another way of operating – which uses the budhi, intellect. When you use your intellect, you respond. Ok, this situation is happening, let me handle it. This is a practice. You have to train yourself for it. Always train yourself to use your intellect, and do not react using your emotion. Most of us react using emotion, “I knew this person couldn’t do it, bla,bla…“ It goes on. It’s reaction. Reaction always weakens you. It makes you dull. It sucks more energy. However, at the same time, you can say “Ok, you have a problem, sit down. Let’s discuss.“ That is response. Response is from the budhi. Budhi always responds, mind always reacts. So if you consistently use your intellect, there will be less catastrophes. Life will be smooth. There will be no fights, no anger, no hatred. All those things won’t be there. However, if you are constantly using your emotion, then all the reactions and all the catastrophes will be there. This is the point. Train yourself to use the intellect more. Take a step backwards and look at every situation.“Ok, let the situation that is unfolding beyond control, happen. I am looking at it objectively, and responding.“
Q: Do we do this later?
A: No, immediately. Take a little while. “Please, let me understand what the issue is“, so that you are using your brain, and not your emotion. Usually every reaction is from emotion. Emotion also contains prejudices, such as “I knew this guy was an idiot“ etc. These are all prejudices. When you’ve already branded a person in a particular mode, you react. You do not allow the person to be different. That is why some people say, “Ok, I knew this guy, I used to meet him at the pub. Now he is in saint mode. How could he be a saint?“ Why do you underestimate somebody? Enlightenment can happen in one night! We can never underestimate anybody. When you say you know the person, that itself is fundamentally wrong. I know you as an identification. I do not know you as a person. I know you by your name, that’s the name given by your parents and by which society knows you. Apart from that, do I know you? It’s not possible, because you are a constitution, you are a karmic being, and you have a particular agenda of life. This is all you. Thus we can never underestimate anybody. Reaction always happens when ignorance is very strong. It means we are prejudiced, we have decided this person is like that, etc. Many times certain situations cause a particular response in people. A person may be very cool, and very nice, but in a particular situation, with a particular set of people, that person can be very violent, because the environment creates that effect in the person. So can you brand him as always having a violent personality? This is the point. In this way various situations, as well as character, cause a difference in a person’s level of response. We can never say,“This is the person and I know him/her.“ It’s not possible. Everybody is a karmic being and all have their own unique flavours. You have to accept a person as a situation or a surrounding. It keeps changing. Allow that flexibility in everybody. Next time I meet you it could be different. Maybe you will have reached that silence inside, who knows? Everything is possible, right? Life is never stagnant. Life is always changeable so anything can happen. There’s no guarantee also that I might meet you next time. Because I’ll meet you only if I’m alive. That is what Lord Krishna said in the story.

A STORY OF KRISHNA AND YUDHISTHIRA on promises

Upon meeting a beggar, Yudhisthira told the beggar to come again to the battlefield, and that he would give him something then. He said,“I can’t give you any money now, come again, and I’ll give you some. Krishna was laughing because Yudhisthira was so confident that he would still be alive the next day to give the beggar some money. Krishna said,“I am not too sure because I am in the battlefield.“

(Read the story about Krishna, Yudhisthira and promises also in the blog in Fight Inertia Your Inner Enemy)

See, the avatar says he is not sure that he will even exist the next day to give money to beggars, while a person who has no awareness is absolutely sure saying, “Come back, I will give it to you tomorrow.“ We are operating in that level. That is why I have said, even if you are promising something to a child, you must deliver as soon as possible because we haven’t seen our future. We do not know how many breaths we have left. If you do not fulfil what you have promised, you will have to come back and start the story again. Instead, if you complete every moment and go, there is nothing pending. This is liberation. If you cannot do it, do not promise and do not even think of it. Even if you think you want to do it, you must do it because thought is the first level of creation. It’s written in the canvas. For example, you want to help him. Though, it is not articulated, the first level of creation has already happened. Then if you use the words, “I want to help him,“ that means you have already committed. Then you must help, otherwise it’s incomplete. This is how it works. That is what Lord Krishna said, “Even if he is a beggar, don’t underestimate him. He may come and ask you in a different form, probably in a different life. So if you can’t give, don’t promise.“ Better not to promise, that way life becomes simple.
Before I close the satsang, I would like to say something which is can serve as a daily practice. Every day when you wake up, just have one thought, “Am I asking for more from the Earth or am I giving more to the Earth?“ If the answer is that you are giving more to the Earth than you are asking for, then you are on the right track. If you are asking much more from, than you are giving to Earth, then do something about it. That track is not the right one. That is the track towards disappointment and sorrows. If you are asking more and more from the Earth and giving nothing to the Earth (which means giving what you have, what you have you share), if you are giving nothing and you are only using the earth selfishly for your gratification, then you are on a collision course. You are heading towards more and more sorrows. This is because the more expectation, the more disappointment. This thought is an important thought in the path of liberation. Please understand. “Am I giving back to the Earth more than I am taking?“ I am sure most of you will be surprised if you are honest with that answer. Don’t think that going to a temple and doing bhajans, etc. is for the Earth. That is for you. What have you actually done for the world? When I say earth, it includes all beings on the Earth whether it is human beings, animals, birds, plants. Everything is part of Earth. Your family, other families, consider everything. Everything is part of it. What is your contribution to this world? Is it spiritual? It is very, very important. If you are clear about this question and if you can give an honest answer, then you have started the journey to the path of liberation. If you are asking more from the Earth and you do not care about giving back, please understand that more lives are coming for you. You are definitely going to come back here. Definitely. Because if you have to use this earth for your gratification, for your life, you must pay. There is no free meal. It has to be paid. How do you pay? Through compassion. The best cash is compassion. The best medium of compassion is transaction. The more compassionate you are, the more spontaneous you are to the world outside while living, and you will definitely reduce life times. You don’t need any guru to tell you this. This is something which you can handle yourself. No guru needs to tell you that you have got so many marks. This is to mark yourself. No need to share it even with your family, in the sense that you don’t even need to compare with each other. It’s an individual journey. You be compassionate. Don’t think, “My wife is compassionate, I can be something different.“ It is not so. Everybody is individualistic. Just ask the question, “Am I taking more or am I giving more?“

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic
Edited by Caroline Moscato