BE YOU – in Conversation with Mohanji, Part 2

Satsang with Mohanji on 16th February 2022

Effective years of our life

Imagine you have 80/ 90/ 100 years of existence on earth. Imagine you are going to live 100 years. The first 25 years are not so effective – you’re trying to figure out what you are in this world. You’re trying to figure out a life for yourself, which means you are trying to prepare yourself for the future. So you can leave out the first 25 years.

Then the next 50 years are more effective because you have your health, you have your vitality, you have your awareness, knowledge, etc. and then experiences help you. In the next 50 years, you can consider a more effective life. The last 25%, or the last 25 years in 100 years, are pretty much useless. Because your body is weak, you need help and assistance from the world. You do not have a grip on life.

So even if you live 100 years, I would call only about 50 years effective years. These 50 years  – even if this middle part is less for many people – let’s say 50% of our time can be called as effective. If you miss this 50% in expressing, in being you, then your whole life will be filled with regret.

Many people are born and they will die doing nothing for themselves or for the world. Many people are born and die 100% selfish, greedy, hungry all the time for their own satisfaction or their own gratification.

They have regrets because they have done nothing in life. All they did was take birth, go through education, go through a job, get a job, get married, have children, have a house. That’s what society calls success. This is not “success”.

Success is every-moment-satisfaction.
Have you lived your life? This is where success comes.

Society considers success as the number of bedrooms you have in your house. The bigger the house you have, more people will say, “Oh, very successful man, rich man.” But is this “richness”? It’s not. This “richness” (the size of your house or the money that you have in your bank) actually only tells that you’ve been busy accumulating many things. But often, you have bedrooms, but you have no sleep. Is this success?

I would say having a peaceful existence, having contentment is success.

Every-moment-contentment. That’s completely connected to you. It’s not connected to anything outside of you. It’s not about your money. It’s not about your position. It’s not about your relationships. It’s about YOU.

Contentment is an attitude. To have contentment, you’ve got to be in your present time. Enjoy life as it evolves. Enjoy, experience life as it happens.

It has nothing to do with people.

Nothing to do with places.

Nothing to do with positions or positions.

It has to do with you. It’s an attitude.

If you decide to experience life as it evolves every moment, you will be happy.This is more important. Happiness is more important. If you cultivate this attitude of happiness, along with an attitude of gratitude,you will have eternal peace. You deserve it, this is your birthright.

Sow seeds of peace

Q: How does one sow seeds of peace and love in territories of violence?

MOHANJI: With your life, with your belief, with your faith.

As I said, you will not get a conducive environment for expressing yourself. You have to create it. Life does not come tailor-made. We all had our struggles in life. What the world sees as success has a lot of hard work behind it.

People do not understand how much work we do. The material success, material wealth, positions, the presence people have created in the world has a lot of hard work behind it. People may not see it.

People may even ridicule it: “Oh, this guy is a rich man”. But they have all worked hard for it. Life does not come tailor-made. Life does not come as you like it. You’ve got to make it as per your constitution or what you are. You have to make it as per what you are. 

In the world today, in this time of Kali yuga (Kali is not Kaali, Kaali is a goddess), corruption, non-righteousness, nepotism, anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, emotions are all very common. This is the way life is and people think that’s absolutely okay. It’s not okay! Love is okay, because love always expands you. Anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge contracts you. It makes you smaller. It makes you suffer. Guilt and regrets are heavy. They make you suffer.

There are so many factors in life which make you feel suffocated and make you suffer. They are not our highest expressions.

Our highest expressions are kindness, compassion, non-violence. And these kinds of expressions always expand you, making you stronger.

This is the way we should address the calamities around us. We’ve got to express kindness, we have to express compassion, we have to express righteousness. Righteousness simply means justified activities.

One of the major ingredients of righteousness is non-violence. Non-violence in thoughts, non-violence in expressions, non-violence in action.

But you also have the right to not be a doormat. Do not be a doormat. Never be a doormat. You should not be a victim of circumstances. Victimhood is something which you’re allowing yourself to be in. You can avoid it. If somebody disrespects you, somebody does not listen to you, society is not listening to you, you can step outside and still be you.

When you step outside, it’s not deviating from your belief, deviating from the path, deviating from righteousness. You should never deviate from justice, never deviate from kindness or compassion. Never deviate from selflessness. Be authentically all these, so that you are a great human being, living a great life. And that’s the greatest gift that you can give to the world.

Your life is your greatest message, not your words, not your expressions.

When you live compassion, when you live kindness, when you live selflessness, that comes into the society as your authentic expressions. That’s what is going to change the world.

All those people who have really worked hard on themselves to be stable and compassionate all the time despite how society treated them, are all called legends today. An example is Jesus. Jesus was considered a rebel during his time. Why? Because he spoke the truth and the established priests/clergy of that time did not like it. The son of a carpenter coming and teaching philosophy to established priests! Which priest will like it? Nobody liked it. So the priests were against him.

And the rulers of that time, the Romans, did not want any calamity at all, because all they wanted was to stay in power. The priests told the Roman rulers  that a man was rising and attracting crowds. People were coming to him, recognizing him, loving being with him. He could become the future king if he gained popularity and attracted people.

So what did the Roman rulers think? “No, we don’t want any competition. So how do you handle such things? Brand somebody as a rebel.” Rebel means it is anti-social. That’s exactly what they did. So the clergy, who was only worried about the books, not reality, what happened?

A person who experiences reality speaks a different language than a person who has learned from books. What a person has learned from books are usually theories. That’s mostly theories – what they consider as truth.

But a person who has experienced truth talks a different language, because he knows through his experience.

Experience is far superior than knowledge from books. That’s why most leaders, the masters, try to take the people who love them to the state of experience, not just the state of acquired knowledge.

In the society that Jesus lived, the clergy and the rulers did not accept him. But he stood with the truth. Which truth? That which he experienced. You cannot deny the truth. Because if you experience the truth, you have to stay with it. Otherwise, you are betraying yourself.

When you experience something, stay with those experiences. That’s the fundamental thing to do. That’s the most important thing you should do. Because never betray your own experience. That’s your only reality.

So what happened? Jesus stood with his reality, his experience. He said, “Through me, you can reach my Father.” He had recognized the Supreme Consciousness, the Father. So he said, “I have experienced my Father. You can also experience the Father because we are children of the same Father. We are all units, unit souls, which belong to Supreme Consciousness. Who is our Father? The Supreme Consciousness. Realize that now. To realize that you need to accept yourself, connect with yourself, and through connection with yourself, you will connect to the whole universe.”

These simple truths were not acceptable to the clergy, the priests of that time, because they had not experienced it. Simple. Why did they reject it? Because there was none among them who had experienced it!! Prophet John recognized Jesus because he had experienced it.

Say, if I try to explain to you the taste of honey in words, even if I use 1000 words, I still would not be able to explain the taste of honey. How can I? But if I give you a spoon of honey and you taste it, you don’t need words. So many of the things in life you cannot explain or express in words. This was the difference between the priest and the realized.

There have always been realized people who have experienced it and they articulated it with their own life. But the society of their time may not accept them. That society may not understand them.

Because once you experience the truth, your whole system changes.

Your method changes, your operating level changes, your law changes because your law becomes your dharma. It’s not the social laws. I don’t mean that your law changes means to go out and kill people. That’s all aberration, that’s not the way it is: you love people. When you are oriented and occupied by dharma, all you can do is to love. You can’t hate. There’s no other way. Because you see dharma at play, you will see the consciousness everywhere, in everything, in every being. You are one with all beings.

That’s why when somebody asked Sai Baba: “What do you see when you come out, when you see thousands of people?” He said, “I see myself in thousands of people.” That’s the only thing you can see. Because you are everywhere. You are everything. This is what happens.

So please don’t think society will accept you while you’re living. Somebody asked me this question and I answered this way. The question was: “Do you believe in the second coming of Jesus?” I said, “I do believe in his second coming. But how will you want him? How will you have him?”

If Jesus comes as how he was two thousand years ago, would you accept him? If he appeared in the same costume in the same way? People will think, “Come on, he looks like an actor.“

Charlie Chaplin, in disguise, once participated in a competition of imitators of Charlie Chaplin. It was equal to performing as Charlie Chaplin: to dress up like Charlie Chaplin, that was the competition. So Charlie Chaplin decided to participate without telling anyone that he is Charlie Chaplin. And he got the third prize. The first and second prizes he didn’t get. The original did not get that first and second prize!! He got the third prize. So, this is exactly how the world works… If Jesus comes now in his original form, how he was before, people will not accept him. People will crucify him again, saying that “he is an imitation, he is not true, it’s not real”.

Now, if Jesus comes in the current format, like a businessman, an engineer, an IT professional or a doctor, again, people will not accept him. Because they will say, “Oh, he’s imitating Jesus.“ So Jesus cannot come because we won’t accept him.

In other words, Jesus has not gone. Krishna has not gone. Buddha has not gone. Nobody has gone. But they cannot reappear in any format.

Because every time, every master has had the same problem: the contemporary people never accepted them. After their death, they are respected, accepted, and their pictures will be on the walls.

This is the truth.

While they are living, it is non-acceptance.

After death, there is tremendous acceptance because the person is not talking anymore. His words can be interpreted as we like.

This is exactly how it is. So we need to understand that we have to remain authentic. No matter what society says, whether society accepts or rejects it, we have to deliver to society. That’s our job.

Through our life, through our message, through our conviction, through our acceptance, belief, we can change the world. It’s not our job to change the world. It’s the job of the world to change.

What we’re saying to the world is: “Be love, be kind, be compassionate.” That’s the highest of expressions that we have. This is exactly how we should always remain. We should always be Love. We should always be compassionate and never ever compromise.

Concentration and meditation

Q: How can I concentrate during meditations and keep my mind in check?

MOHANJI: We first need to learn to concentrate on something and stabilize our concentration over one thing, such as the principle that’s running our bodies.

The principle/energy that runs your body, we can call it soul. We can call it the “God particle”. We can call it anything we like. But concentrate on that thing which is silent and not at all interfering in your life, yet helping your life.

Just remember that. Concentrate on that and spend more time with that silent thing. Very, very silent inside you. It is the energy which runs your body. This is the energy which has made your mind alive. This is the energy which is working through organs. So just concentrate on that energy. Or remember that energy all the time, wherever you can.

If you start remembering it, more and more, you will start experiencing that stillness, how still it is. How deep and profound, but at the same time – not interfering. Our soul has never interfered in our lives.

It has never ever put its suggestions to you. But it’s like electricity that through the wall reaches the light bulb, and the light bulb becomes bright. When it reaches the washing machine, it starts washing clothes. If it reaches the television, it gives pictures.

Similarly, the same electricity happening through the human body gives a human experience. If it works in a cow’s body, it gives the cow experience. It doesn’t matter which body it gets, but it always works in that body, that identity.

If you start recognizing that your identity is enlivened by this simple, small soul, or the energy inside, and when that energy leaves the body after the job is done, it’s called a dead body. Because then the body cannot be used, after a while, the soul leaves the body. The soul will stay in the body only as long as it can use the body for the sake of experiences.

These fundamentals you should always remember:

The sum total of life or the bundle of experiences, or
the bank balance of life is memory.
The currency of life, the money of life is Time.
The reason for life is experiences.
The bank balance is its memories, out of experiences.

This is life. There’s nothing else.

The good, bad, everything is coming out of these three things. So please remember that you are at this point in time alive, and this is your only chance. Experience this more.

What do we get attracted to? We get attracted to things which our senses can enjoy, or senses can understand or connect to, and which the mind can experience.

We don’t get connected easily to the things which are not so visible, not so tangible, such as the spirit inside us. The soul inside. Spirit is the moving part. You can also call it praana.

The soul is the Source part, which you can call soul/Shiva/energy or whatever you want to call it. It doesn’t matter. The name has no value here. The effect has value. The soul is permanent, still, and it is connected to the Supreme Soul, that is the Soul which sustains the entire universe. We are related to that.

But the spirit is individualistic and it moves up and down. There are five types of functional praanas. We call them praana, apaana, vyaana, udaana, and samaana. The five types of functional praanas which sustain our body functions.

Then there are structural pranas, which caused your birth and created your structure. All these things in our system, which are very unique, which are very effective etc. But again, the soul never interferes in them. The soul only enlivens them.

The soul is a Presence.
God is a Presence.
Sun is a Presence.
Air is Presence.
Life exactly is a Presence.

So when you start recognizing that and concentrating on that, you will automatically slip into meditation. Meditation happens to you, when you’re always contemplating on what you are, how you are, and also recognizing the truth inside you. The Truth that you are.

When you recognize the Truth that you are, you will automatically start concentrating on the Truth. Because we live in the relative truth world, we often identify ourselves in terms of relative truth, meaning against somebody or against something, being in comparison with something. That’s how we recognize ourselves. But that’s a very limited thing. We cannot compare ourselves with anything. We are unique.

When we recognize what runs our show, what’s the most important thing in our body, that is the soul. When the soul leaves, it’s a dead body. It’s very important to know the soul and even think about it and connect to it.

That’s why Adi Shankara said:  (Bhaja Govindam, Verse 7)

baala staavat kreeda saktah

which means: when we are children, we are busy with games/play/fun.

taruna staavat taruni saktah

which means: when we are in our youth, we are in romance, we have romantic life and we are busy with romances.

vrddha staavat chintaamagnah

which means: By the time we become older, we worry. Worries enslave and control us because our body is weak, mind is weak (it’s all connected). Then we feel vulnerable and we’re worried.

parame brahmani kopi na lagnah

So at no point in time have we ever considered the reality inside us, which is the soul..

We have never considered it. That’s the tragedy of life.

So when you’re always remembering: ”Hey, there is a beautiful energy within us, which is not interfering in any activity, but it is giving life to our life – the Soul”, just continue to remember that and stay connected.

This is the relevance of the Master. Why do you need a Master? Somebody who has recognized this Truth is a Master. Somebody who has recognized that the Life within your life is the Truth, or what gives Life to life is the Truth. That’s a Master. That Master can only lead you to that Reality, that Truth. This is very important to know.

When you know very clearly that this is what it is, the Life within life or what enlivens your life is the Truth, and you start focusing and concentrating on it, that then leads to a meditative state where you are fully aware of the energy flow inside you. Then automatically, your mind will not be distracted because you are sticking to the Truth. You’re staying with the Truth. 

Q: I believe that you have answered the rest of the questions that we had about the purpose of life and being conscious. Those are all the questions that I have here. 

MOHANJI: Before we conclude I would like to say: please believe in yourself.

If you have one belief, it should be believing in yourself. It is not belief in something outside of you.

There are numerous aspects of life outside of you; they are all good. They are all giving you experience, but the fundamental belief should be in yourself. Only then can you move forward. Otherwise, if you do not believe in yourself, the journey is slow. Because self-belief is the most powerful belief.

I always urge people, all people – believe in yourself.

You’re beautiful. You are unique. You have value in life.
Increase your value through selfless service by sharing what you have with the world.

Increase your love. Don’t try to hold money, hold wealth with you. Share with a lot of people because you can take nothing from the earth when you die.

You cannot take anything from here. What you have been given in abundance, by nature, by your life – have gratitude for it. Respect it, and share it, so that you will always be content.

When you are feeling grateful, you will be content and you will also have greater respect for yourself. Your self-esteem will be higher. So, learn to share.

Let sharing be your attitude.
The real connection is the connection to yourself.

We are creating spaces in the world. Why we are creating these spaces is: they are to stabilize the people who come there in an environment where they are not disturbed or disturbances are less. The world has many disturbances, and our mind gets affected by all these disturbances. I’m creating spaces because when disturbances are less, you can connect to yourself more.

The real connection of life is the connection to yourself.

I repeat, the real connection of this life is the connection with yourself, not with something external. They’re all temporary – as an experience, they are great. When you have a connection with things outside as an experience, they are amazing. They are great, great experiences. But the connection with yourself is your permanent experience. That’s your permanent truth. Please remember this.

I love you. I’m always there with you. I love you. Let’s walk together. There is this particular shloka (Sanskrit) which says :

Om

saha-naav–avathu

saha-nau-bhoonakthu

saha-veeryam-karavaavahai

thejasvi-naav-adhheetham-asthu

maa-vidhvishaavahai

Om shaanthih-shaanthih-shaanthih

Let us walk together, let us evolve together. Let us not compete with each other. For the great purpose of realizing oneself, let’s hold hands and walk together.

Let us never fight or never reject each other.

Let us always be in love.

Let us always love each other, and let us embrace each other as we are, without expectations, without discrimination.

Be love. Love all.

Thank you.

Read part 1

Transcribed by Nada Raković
Proofread by Geeta Iyer