We can be successfull in corporate world and still aligned with our work. We must apply ourselves fully with conviction and do our best.
Zoom Satsang Mohanji Speaks
April 28, 2019, part 1
Q: To succeed in the corporate world, one has to make sure his achievements are publicized. How can we maintain insignificance and still succeed in corporate America?
M: I would say rather than complicating the whole thing, just be natural, just be yourself, your true self. Don’t work for a reason, work for the sake of work. When we do things for the sake of something, there is pressure, but instead what you should do is, do the best you can. You have been given a seat, you have been given a position and a purpose; do your best in that. I would say that instead of wondering if it is significance or insignificance, understand that all these things are in the mind.
Always remember one thing, we approach life or we handle life, using our three faculties of perception. They are ego, which is the personality, intellect, which is our analytical capacity, and mind, which is the seat of emotion. This is how we usually handle our daily life.
If you look at how we operate on a normal, everyday basis, we will see that when we get appreciation, when we get respect, when we get honor, when we get awards, the ego is happy, the ego is satisfied. So, for ego to be satisfied, we need appreciation, we need honor, and we need accolades. Even when somebody respects you and honors you your ego is happy, when somebody treats you well, your ego is happy.
Likewise, intellect needs answers; intellect asks questions and it needs answers. When a question happens such as why something is happening in this particular way, intellect needs an answer and if you obtain the answer, intellect is happy. If answers are not happening, intellect starts churning, this is analysis. This is the reason we spend most of our time attempting to understand something about life. We do not accept life as it is, without questions, instead we try to understand life.
Now consider the mind; mind is the seat of emotion. When ego is hurt, mind is triggered; emotions happen, anger, hatred, jealousy, and so on. When expectations are disturbed, our mind is affected immediately.
This is the way in which we are operating. Understand the ego, intellect and mind and how they operate.
In our daily life, we go to work with a lot of expectations. We would like that others take us well; they should appreciate us, respect us, honor us and so on. But if that is not the situation, our morale is affected.
So I would say, just like India’s former President, Sri. Abdul Kalam would say, “Do your work well and that will bring you glory. If your contemporaries cannot see you for what you’re doing or they cannot appreciate you, appreciation may happen in another time; because often you do not get immediate appreciation for what you do.
You need to really apply yourself fully into your chosen profession with full conviction; you need to believe in what you do, otherwise, it can’t be done. If you do not believe in what you do, whatever you do, will be very weak; it will not have any effect or impact. And that literally affects success. So you must apply yourself fully with conviction and do your best and don’t worry about the results.”
That is exactly what Lord Krishna says in Bhagawad Gita as well. You surrender your actions and the results of actions to me, I will release you from the karma of it; from the sins… actually it is not sin or merit, it is the doership; the ownership of action places lot of pressure on us.
What we need to do, in fact what I used to do is, I would set myself a goal. I would say, “In this company this is the current status, I would like to take it to this level.” Now, whether people will appreciate or not doesn’t matter; as long as you know that the intention is pure. Purity of intention is essential. It cannot be selfish. The problem that arises when you are only looking at personal gains is that it will be short sighted or will be short lived; you can’t take it forward.
On the contrary when your intention is pure and your aim is selfless, that is, not for personal gains, the success rate will be very high. And we will learn to appreciate the degree of success we gain too. Expectation destroys it. When we have an expectation of a degree of success and it does not happen, you will not be able to get satisfaction for what you have done, that is, there will not be an element of contentment, as expected.
Hence it is good, to do your best and let go. Do not worry about the results. Then, you will be satisfied with whatever comes your way, with whatever you get. This is similar to what happens in education; we study for an examination, do our very best but there is no guarantee with results. The key is to do our best within the time frame available. I have always performed like that.
But please understand that the world is a mixture of various energies and frequencies. Many things are unpredictable, even the behavior patterns of people are unpredictable. Hence you cannot expect that people will appreciate you or treat you in a particular way. There is no point in wondering and asking questions such as,” I did my best with complete honesty, but I was not appreciated. In fact, people abused me.” Realise that people may not be able to understand what you do or your intention. You cannot escape these!
When you’re at your work, it is best that you develop a level of detachment, which means you apply yourself but are not affected by the result. To explain this further, you do your best with conviction, with clarity, with purity of intention and leave the result to destiny. Then whatever happens, you will not be impacted.
Remaining calm is very essential in every situation, especially in management. When you have many people to manage, you need to be stable. They will look at look at you, see that you are stable and work freely. Instead if you give them insecurity, you are also responsible for the results of their activity.
When people are insecure, we will have no idea as to how they function or what their level of productivity will be. Hence when you are leading a team, you must remain stable and not be prejudiced. You can highlight a person’s strengths but should not emphasise anyone’s weaknesses.
We must understand that all of us have weaknesses. Let them be, there’s no problem. But if we over accent them, they will grow and strengths will be sidelined. Hence we must highlight strengths, nurture them, so that in time weaknesses become insignificant. Also a team will have a mix of people; we cannot look at everyone with the same set of spectacles. Each person is a story. Each person has a history.
Each person is a universe by himself or herself. So they should be handled and appreciated in their individual capacities. Do not compare, it’s not the same and it cannot be the same.
Lastly, you can position yourself well in a seat (position) when you respect others as you would like to be respected. It is a world of respect, a world of honor and a world of love. Those who are weak and insecure talk bad, gossip and also perform bad deeds. These are signs of weaknesses. Those who are strong remain quiet and calm. They will not be affected in any way by whatever happens in the world. Their approach is – this is your problem, you keep it!
In the story of Nagarjuna, the thief asked, “Do you know that I’m a big sinner?” Nagarjuna countered, “Why are you telling me? “ The thief said, “No guru agreed to take me as his disciple because I have sinned!” Nagarjuna responded by saying, “If someone has treated you with prejudice then he is not a guru.” A guru’s job is to impart knowledge. Like the sun, his job is to keep delivering, without bothering about the person coming to him. If he is playing the role of a guru, his job is to deliver.
Similarly, as a boss, your job is to nurture, your job is to encourage, your job is to improve the strengths, not to criticize or nullify anybody. Even if you do not like somebody, you try to reason with them by saying something along the lines of …”Look here, these are certain qualities which may not get you much mileage in your career. So why don’t you change them?” This with love you can change things, you can nurture things, show them the right path, the light.
Always remember there is only one life, not different ones such as working life, personal life or spiritual life. These are just different dimensions of one life! In every dimension, you must be the same, whether it is personal life, where you are performing the role of a father, mother or child; in your professional life, whatever is your position; in your social life, whatever you are. Be it your financial life or even your spiritual life, you must remain the same. This means that attitude wise, you should possess an attitude of respect, an attitude of contentment, an attitude of love. Also gratitude is a powerful tool.
When I wake up each morning, I say thank you to the tradition for using me in this world. I thank the tradition for using this body in this world. This is my purpose of existence. So now whether people will appreciate or criticize me, some may judge me, some may love me, others may hate me, I can’t help it. This is not my problem. I am not creating it. It is their mind that is creating those situations.
Hence when someone loves you, it’s their mind creating love. If somebody hates you, it’s their mind creating the hatred, not me. I might be a trigger, because of whatever reason but that is not important. But when hate happens, it’s in the mind of someone, when love happens it is the mind of someone, when fear happens again it is in the mind of someone. We are not responsible. What we need to do, is be as stable, quiet and silent as possible within.
But we must have a target. When you sit in a seat (responsible position), you need to know where you are and where you’re taking the team. That clarity should be there, the more clarity you have, the more perfection you have. Vision is essential for a manager. If there is no vision, there’s no movement, you are stagnated. So the vision should be very clear. Usually the vision is connected to budgets and the plan of the Board of Directors. Once you have the vision, it is then a question of smooth and easy planning.
If you need 10 people to do the job, 10 people are a must. Don’t try to make do with 8, because then the pressure on each person will be very high. You also will not be able to compensate equally. When you have clarity of vision, if you have laid the roadmap well; if you have supervised and monitored properly, while also understanding that someone is weak, another is strong, hold hands if needed, pat on the shoulder where needed, then the entire team will succeed, it will achieve great levels of success. Whether it is a spiritual organization or a commercial one, it doesn’t matter, whether you have clarity matters and it shows in your actions.
Q: Spirituality is perceived to be a serious affair. We often say, let me enjoy life now and become spiritual later, when I’m older. How can we blend the pursuit of spirituality with materialistic life?
M: I do not agree with the first statement itself. According to me spirituality is a great pleasure; it is the pleasure of being you, the pleasure of being natural. A young child, say 2 or 3 years old, has immense pleasure because he or she is being one hundred percent natural. But as we grow older, we try to pretend that we are something or somebody, we try to adapt to social conditions and then we become unnatural. That is why we feel that spirituality is a pressure. On the other hand, I feel that it’s a pleasure, always.
When you become natural, it is possible that society may not like it; society may not understand it. But internally, you are always contented. There’s a high level of contentment, when you are spiritual. And what is spirituality? Spirituality is your aligned existence. In other words when you are spiritual, you are connected to your spirit, which is consciousness, you will start understanding who is behind the show, behind the emotions, behind the actions, behind the perceptions.
Consciousness operates in three different modes – the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state, on a functional level, and turiya state on a samadhi level, on the basis of samadhi. So if you understand how our consciousness operates in everyday life, you will realize,”Oh, this is the show!” This is the clarity we need and I think it is very important. It is definitely not any type of pressure.
You understand I am not the anger or the hatred, I am not jealousy, I am not the body, and I am not the mind, not the intellect and not the ego. You further understand that consciousness remains the same through waking, through dream and through deep sleep. We are the same throughout!
Now we start enjoying the whole drama. You start to see that people are in various modes, much akin to role play in a drama that you watch on the stage. You see people being possessive owning objects, but how long can you own? Until you go to the grave! We have all these fancy positions, General Manager, Professor, Principal, President, Minister, and so on… but it is all temporary. Finally we see that at the end of the day that it is consciousness at work. This is being spiritual.
I think you will start reveling in this feeling of being consciousness. What you then see is a different world. You will actually start enjoying the nature of every being, in fact, everything around you because there’s nothing else to do you. It’s just drama, role play, background and settings. You will start experiencing joy. If you live a hundred days, those hundred days will be joyful.
And it is not relative enjoyment, where it is a pleasure for some time. For example you had a meal and after six or seven hours, you again need a meal. It is not like that! You are always contented, feeling good, feeling free, feeling beautiful, and feeling handsome. There will be no comparison because wherever you look, you only see consciousness at work, not the person’s behavior patterns. Each person is a universe by himself, each person is a story, and each person has a history, a constitution, character, form, shape and also duration.
So what is all this show about? In the next hundred years, even a child born today will not remain on Earth. You realize there is no big deal to this whole story; you also start understanding there is no big deal about yourself! This is most important, because from then onwards, pride and ego will have no value. A beautiful situation indeed! When you are not affected by your pride or ego, you are very powerful; you are not at all affected by the outside.
Spirituality is definitely a blessing. And all of this is achieved just through connecting with your actual nature; connecting with yourself, and not because of any activity. It is not that it helps if you meditate for many hours, follow certain practices or are associated with certain mission. Importantly, are you associated with yourself? Are you agreeing with yourself? Are you accepting yourself? Are you in tune with yourself? If you have fully accepted yourself, your mind will be absolutely non turbulent. No environment can affect you.
Spirituality is a beautiful state, where it’s only about connecting with you.
That is why I say, if you have any questions in life, the answer is one.
You
You are the answer. Everything started with you, everything will end with you. When you wake up all your problems start, when you sleep, everything ends. It is that simple. Everything is you. Mohanji doesn’t matter here. The society doesn’t matter, your job, your relationships, nothing matters. It’s you. All these exist only because you exist.
Your existence is the most important thing. The whole society that you see around or the things you are connected to the materials, possessions or positions exist with you as the center point. That is why I said the answer is you. Everything starts with you. Everything ends with you.
If you criticize somebody, you are actually only expressing your ignorance. If you appreciate somebody, you’re actually expressing your consciousness. This is because you’re experiencing wonder at the expression of consciousness in another. If you’re criticizing somebody, it’s ignorance at play because another person is only expressing his inherent constitution i.e. what he consists of.
Everyone is the same, all 7.5 billion people, all the animals, birds, all these beings, they’re all the same. Hence when we start talking about others, or we start looking at people as different beings etc. we are only talking about our limitations. We are having walls, walls created by the mind. Otherwise, we do not have walls. We are fully open, like a young child.
We see the universe, as the universe filled with wonder.
We look outside the world and see wonder!
Flowers are blooming, it is wonder.
Birds are flying, it is wonder!
Animals and birds and rivers and mountains and oceans – It is wonder!
When you are fully with yourself, you will look at the world as wonder!
And that is a wonder fueled life, fueled by wonder. That’s a great feeling.
So please remember spirituality is not about being serious. Spirituality being serious is approaching spirituality with your mind. You can’t approach spirituality with your mind. Mind has to be hanged in some place! Let mind stay some place.
And I would say let the mind be with something it likes to be occupied with and ignore it. Intellect is the tool for analysis; stop analyzing. Doubts are a huge blockage in this journey. You doubt yourself, your master, your teacher, your path, your tradition, you doubt everything. And the society gives you plenty of doubts, free. But if you buy those doubts, who is affected? It is your mobility that is affected!
The media says all the Gurus are bad. Spirituality is just a pastime, you go to spirituality when you are very old and can do nothing else. These are all concepts that are not true.
When you are alive, spirituality aligns you. That is spirituality; alignment; body, mind, intellect, ego and spirit in one line, together.
When you look, your eyes are looking at something, your mind is looking at the same thing, your intellect is looking at the same thing, your ego is looking at the same thing, and your body is still and the spirit is backing it up. That means when you look, it will be actually looking. Otherwise mind is elsewhere, intellect is elsewhere, ego is elsewhere – everything is in different places. Then, when you look, it’s very weak; you hardly see. That is why we have vision, but limited awareness about the vision. We look, but cannot see because the mind is not available.
When you say you are spiritual, it’s a full time affair. When you say you are spiritual, it means your mind, body, intellect and spirit are together.
When you look, everything is looking.
When you hear, you’re all ears.
When you feel, you’re only feel.
You are one thing at a time. And at that time, you are that thing, hundred percent.
This is practice. It is perpetual meditation; you are on meditative work all the time. You are not separate, you can’t be separate. You might believe that you can do multitasking. It’s absolutely not true.
Multitasking is less awareness spread over a lot of things. This is not the way to live. When you are eating, you are actually eating your food, you are fully consuming, and you are in that mode of consumption.
When you stop eating, the act is completely finished. Then you are onto something else. You are then completely there with that act. Your body, mind, intellect, ego and spirit are completely there. This is the way to exist, so that each work will have its completion, perfection, and there is high degree of contentment. This is fulfillment.
Read Aligned Full-Time, Part 2
Transcribed and proofread by Vidya Rajagopalan