Let Your Love Expand to the Whole World

Satsang with Mohanji in Canada on 21st August, 2015, part 2

Q: If something is happening in my life, whether good or bad, but let me consider a not good thing, how do I know whether I am getting result of previous karmas or I am creating new karma? Is karma creating kriya or is kriya creating karma?
A: If you have surrendered completely to Baba or anybody, none of these things matter. If you are in a worship or surrender mode, whether it is your karma or acquired karma, that doesn’t matter. Why? Because you manifest whatever you are supposed to experience. Look at both scenarios.
One is a scenario when you are in a surrender mode, “Ok, this is happening through me, I don’t own it. I’m just a tool or medium of manifestation.” Good enough. It goes through you and finish – there is no residue.
Now imagine that you have not surrendered. You are actually experiencing it 100% with all its impact, anger, hatred. In that mode, that is exactly what you are supposed to experience. Otherwise that would not have manifested. You chose that experience, whether it is your karma or acquired karma.

Kriyas

What is kriya? Kriya is a technique which mixes an activity and visualisation in a particular mode, to attain a particular result- basically liberation. You are doing everything to liberate yourself. So even if you experience anger or fear, you can use these to liberate yourself from them. You use a diamond to cut another diamond. The same principle can also be used for liberation if you choose to. E.g. If you are having an argument. You look at it, ‘Ok, I argued and I had a fight. Now, what is this whole thing about? What did I experience?’ The next time you realise this is an illusion, it loses its value. Then it doesn’t even manifest. Then how will it happen? There is no deep value of any of the situations in life. If you want to express anger, e.g. you want to educate children and they are all playing around not listening to you. You want to make them sit down and be disciplined. At that point in time you would say, “If you don’t do that, I will be violent” or “I will be angry.” Then what is happening? You are not angry, but you are using a tool for a particular reason. That is your strength. Any weakness can be changed into a strength through awareness. I am giving you the awareness in your doership mode or in your surrendered mode. Instead if we become a victim, it means mind occupies you and enslaves you. In that mode, there is no redemption. If your mind enslaves you and you are constantly abusing in an angry mode, you need a fundamental shift- a change in the interior. Kriyas are tools to cut across the web of karma and take you to liberation. There are various types of kriya, but how you use one is based on what you are, on your capacity.

Q: When we face situations anxiously, e.g. when I see the suffering of my child, or any loved one, how do we get the strength to withstand that it is his karma and should I just close my eyes?
A: There are a few aspects of it.
The first aspect is dharma and karma. You have the dharma of a mother to take care of the child, but you don’t have control over the child’s karma- since the child chose you, not the other way around. You never knew that this man is going to take birth as your child. That particular soul chose you to manifest in this world through your family. The reason doesn’t matter, but the reality is that your mother dharma is in full flow, until the child is of ego age– when he can take his own decisions. Until then, you are totally responsible. After that also, there is responsibility, but again, when a man is on an ego plane (ego plane does not mean egocentric, it means manifesting his own identities and he is independent), you are only his friend. He may take your advice or he may not take your advice.
The second aspect is ‘my child’ means there is an ownership. Ownership is equal to pain. It is not ‘my’ child. The child happened through you. In the right time you have provided food, the right bed, medicine etc. so that he can be a man. You nurture a child to become an able person. That is what you should have done and you have done it. Until certain age, you definitely need to look after the child as pitru dharma or mother dharma. After that stage, children should look after their parents. That is the putra dharma. There are stories of the son carrying the father and the mother on the shoulder… these are definitely recommended because they liberate you. When you are totally performing the duty of a mother and a father and a child, it liberates you. That means you are paying the debt for using the womb or experiencing the motherhood.
After some time the motherhood should expand to the whole world and say, “All are my children.” When you nurture the motherhood in you, pain and ownership are less because you shifted from singular motherhood to universal motherhood. Everything is you. This is exactly what Baba says – serve all. Human beings, birds, animals, trees, plants- all are your children. You can be mother so someone older than you too. That leads to detachment (vanaprastha). ‘Ok, my children and these children are the same. For the world, I am a mother.’ So your motherhood manifests 100% in full capacity, and in that mode everybody is your child. Your equanimity raises and your anxiety goes down.
All women are mothers. Womanhood is equal to motherhood. No man can ever satisfy any woman. A child can.

Now, there are some people who do not have children. What do they do? The moment you become a mother to the world, you are fulfilled. You are complete. There starts the liberation. Then it grows and grows and reaches a level where you are completely merged with the universe. So it is an easier path for enlightenment. Ownership reduces, satisfaction increases, you are valuable to the world. Ownership and “I am responsible until he dies or until I die” is not true because you can’t interfere in another person’s karma. They chose the karma. They came through you and as a kind person, you suggest or offer whatever is the best for them all the time. You can say, ‘Look here this is good for you. Try it.’ But you can’t insist on it. The moment you insist, you interfere in the karma. But you can suggest. Like that we go on.
There are too many old-age homes, various capacities. That is because parents bother the children too much. Children after a certain time, need freedom and expression. If the parents control them at that time, they put them in the old age home as soon as they can.

Q: If one commits assisted suicide, is it cutting your karma?
A: It is the same as suicide, it doesn’t matter if you asked other person to do it for you.
Q: Does it mean that you didn’t finish your karma?
A: Yes. It is an unnatural thing and hence not good. Murder or suicide has the same effect.
Q: So you need to come back and finish it?
A: Yes. The same and even worse traumas. You have to accept life and move on as it is. Because you manifested it. Then continue with it.
Q: And if you are ill and dependent on people?
A: That’s what you chose. That’s what I said- the impressions you are storing have value. Hence all religions talk about service. People carry many traumas, see the world. When you are constantly aware of things beyond you, life becomes purified. If you do something about it, you become completely pure. It liberates you. You must see around and help the way you can.

Q: If the people around you are having a hard time looking after you, you lost your mind and don’t know what is going on. Is it part of their karma?
A: It’s all collective karma. If there is rain in Canada, everybody will get drenched irrespective of your personal karma.
Q: So if my brother is in hospital on life support in total coma, and the doctor asks you to make a decision whether to cut it off?
A: Pumping up a person and keeping him alive is not a good idea. It’s our selfish interest – he is ready to leave and you are artificially keeping him alive. It is completely silly. Allow him to have a decent death. It goes without saying you must allow the person to have a natural death. Why do we keep pumping up somebody for somebody’s sake? For medical science, death is a tragedy. But for most of these patients, the death is liberation from pains. This isn’t the same for suicide or murder. That is violence. Violence of any kind is not good – whether in thought, word or action.

Q: Once I understand that I have already interfered in someone’s karma through ownership, how do I get out of them? I have interfered, I realised, ‘Oh my god that was not my duty.’ How to get out of it?
A: First, bury the past. The past is finished. You can never go back and correct the past. You can only correct it in the present. We have not seen the future. We do not know if future exists at all. Take your mind from the past and bring your mind to the present saying, “Is there anything I can do?” If the answer is ‘yes’, do it. If the answer is ‘no’, ignore it. That’s it. Very simple. Just be very practical. Spirituality is 80% practicality. Being practical is being spiritual. It is not about performing many rituals, hoping they will help. Rituals are just for your satisfaction. God has nothing to do with it.
There are more flowers in the graveyards than in people’s houses. Why? In life, we could not honour them. After death, we try to clear our regrets. Why do we do that? Be here, now. Do what you can now and don’t think about it again. Every moment if you clear like that, life is smooth. See, you have been given a time, a situation an environment, and an awareness. Use it well. That means be here and do what you can. Forget about what you could not do in the past. You can never change it. What you could have done at the age of 25, it’s finished. Now if you want another 25, you have to take birth again. Why do we worry about 25? It’s gone. Let’s talk about the current life, current time, current age. What you can do now is reality – do it!
Don’t bring the flavour of the past to corrupt it – just let it be pure milk. If you try to bring the memories of the past and mix it in the present, “Oh, I experienced this from this man at that time. Now I don’t like him.” So what happens? The opportunity for good reconciliation or a better life is destroyed because of that memory. Is that necessary at all? That has happened – it’s over. It’s done. This is the present. Let us do something today. If you handle your life every moment, you are free, right? This is the beauty of life. And the right messages, the right ideas will come because the mind is clear. and we are not prejudiced by judgement. Your biases, prejudices and judgements definitely limit you. If you want 100% of life, you must get out of limitations. This is what the life brings – experience it.
We went to a few places yesterday and when we came back I said, ‘It already seems like past.’ That’s the way the time flows. So fast, two-three days finished! Now if you look back and try to recall how many things we did, does it matter? This is another day. We are sitting and talking. This is the speed at which we are living. So is it worth spending time for the past? What we could in that trip, we did. That awareness is sufficient. It doesn’t matter what we could have done, because we could not do it. Do we have to do a post mortem and think, “We could have done that, we should have done that…” That is the wasted time. It is a wasted exercise.
Life is a continuous travel. At every moment,you have certain availability and limitations, act in that mode at that moment. We may not get what we want due to various reasons. Why do we want to know why it never happened? It’s headache if you think like that. And also this is exactly what breeds regrets, “Oh I could have done that at that time.” You did not do, it’s ok, move on. No regret. No guilt. Because regret makes you heavy, guilt makes you heavy. And it blocks the freedom. It blocks life. The more guilt you have, the more regret you have, the less complete is your life. Many people live just on guilt and regrets and they keep telling the same thing. (Laughter) You tell other people also, “Look here, I could not do this at that time, and because of that I am like this.” I would always say, ‘Congratulations!’ (Laughter) What else to say? Why are you carrying the dead body? Bury it. Be happy you are here today, living, breathing. How can you change something in the past? There is no other option because we live in the linear time. From our first heartbeat till our last heartbeat, it’s chosen. Fixed.

A Story of Maha Kali and Avadhoota

(Read the full story in the blog In Search of the Precious 3)
Like Maha Kali told this avadhoota. Maha Kali was dancing in the fire with her spirits and things, so everybody gets frightened. But Avadhoota was laughing and clapping. She said, “I’ve never seen one human being who is not afraid of me. I want to give you a blessing.” He said, “I don’t want a blessing. You entertain me, I am happy.” She said, “No, no, no it’s our duty to bless.” He said, “Ok. Give me one more year of life.” She said I cannot do it because you have chosen your death. He said, “Ok, then give me one year less,” because he didn’t want anything. She said, “No, I can’t give you.” He said, “One month more?” “No.” “One month less?” “No.” “One day more?” “No. One hour more is also not possible.” Then he said, “Then you cannot give me anything.” She said, “But ask me something which I can give you.” He had his problem in his leg. His leg was swollen and emitting puss. He said, “Shift this problem from the one leg to the other.” So she did that.
The point is that you have chosen your breaths. Breath is money. If you have chosen your breaths and the number of breaths is limited, why don’t you enjoy it today? We will die anyway. Should we die with a lot of gloominess? Be happy. Whatever happened in the past is finished, whatever is in the future, we don’t know today. That’s it. This is liberation, freedom, sainthood, everything. Everything is being in now. You are not anxious about the future, nor are you carrying the weight of the past. BE HERE, NOW.

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic
Edited by Aviral Srivastava