Be You – Satsang in UK – part 1

Satsang in the UK
21st July 2022

Thank you and welcome to all of you. This is indeed an honour that I could come here and address all of you.

The reason for us being here together is, I believe that we are one way or the other related. Otherwise, we don’t have to meet. There are so many people in the world whom we have not met and so many people we will not meet either. Some people we meet and we don’t feel anything; we meet and they pass- they move on. Then, some people we meet and we always remember, we always connect, we feel we have met even before. There is a meaning behind every meeting and there is a reason for every parting. I believe that we have met, and this is a sign of our unity.

I was supposed to come here in the early 2020. It didn’t happen because of Covid. But better late than never; today we are talking. The point I would like to say is that, there is something for all of us to do in the world because the world is changing rapidly. In front of our eyes so many things have happened. What has happened with Covid is that almost everybody is sick or not complete. 

Secondly – the fear factor. I was told that many people stopped attending programs because of fear. That’s the hangover of Covid. Covid has left this hangover – the fear factor. That’s quite rampant. It is not a small thing. Already there have been various insecurities in people that really got enhanced in recent times. I have seen this in many countries wherever I travelled. A lot of people came to me and they couldn’t handle their fears. Fear of death, while knowing fully well that death is an inevitability. Fear of the unknown – what will happen tomorrow. Then came the war in Ukraine, which of course we are supporting the suffering part of those affected by the war, but that’s a reality. The Ukraine war is a reality. So many people are affected, so many people are dead and this is not the end. We do not know where we are going. There could be many displacements, many deaths, and much more suffering in the days to come.

We have to do something for the world. At least by raising the awareness to such a level, where there should not be any more wars, there should be no displacements, there should be no bloodshed, there’s no capturing, conquering etc. Because this is the time. We have only today to perform; tomorrow – we don’t know what will happen. But today we are alive, our hearts are beating and we can do something. Tomorrow might be too late. All these activities which I have started or have moved were to unite people of similar frequencies to come together.

For example, the World Consciousness Alliance (WCA) unites entertainers. There are film producers from Hollywood, there are actors, directors etc. There are people who entertain people and those who can convey the message of unity, togetherness, love, compassion, kindness, non-violence etc. through their works, which reaches people. It’s important that every segment speaks about the possibility of living unconditionally, and non-violently. We might be good people, but if we don’t express goodness, it’s just a theory in our mind.

I decided to bring forth many such things as the Fruit Tree Plantation Drive, planting about 100,000 fruit-bearing trees. Why fruit-bearing trees? Fruit-bearing trees are depleting in the forest. Before I came here in May, I was in South Africa. The Zulu Prince and I were discussing this particular aspect. He said, “This is true because there is no food in the forest so animals are coming into the towns and cities”. What we are planning now is to have islands of fruit trees, fruit-bearing trees in the forest. They said that they would provide us with the land for drip irrigation, and we will have fruit-bearing trees as islands formed in the forest, so the animals get fruits in the forest. They will be satisfied, they will settle in there. This is just one example. There are so many things we can do while we are alive.

This is not something only a group of people need to do. It should be a movement. We should do it collectively and we should do it with determination. One thing we need is determination. While we are alive, we should give this world as a better world to the next generation. This is within us. We can do that. Many times, when we bring forth a new thing, we may not be accepted easily. We have seen that. A good idea, a new thought – a thought which can actually make a transformation in society, sometimes took generations to materialize, to manifest. Because when it was launched, it was probably not understood. Sometimes it’s launched ahead of its time. The strength of it or the reason for it may not be fully understood. We should never feel disheartened about all this.

There is nothing called failure. Failure is just another lesson. There are no failures in life. If we fall, it’s okay. That’s part of life, part of existence. But if you don’t get up, that’s a failure. If we buy the idea that we can be failures, that’s a failure. Otherwise, there are no failures. If that is the case, I have failed enough times in this life. Many times, I have fallen and many times, have got up. When you really decide to do something for the world, do not expect that the world will support you. If you are really successful and visible, sometimes the world supports you. Otherwise, the world may not support you. But we need to walk alone. We have that power inside. We can do it and we must.

I was addressing the Conscious Leaders’ group in South Africa. They are very switched-on team of professionals in the business community. Most of them have a particular vision to make a difference in society, which made me feel good. There is hope in society. It’s not just about profits anymore. Covid has made a difference here. Covid has made us think: is it about profits, is it about selfish pleasures, or is it about contentment? The answer is contentment, fulfillment. People have started thinking in terms of contentment and fulfillment.

What makes us feel contented? Possessions cannot make us feel contented. During Covid time even the richest couldn’t do much. Money could not buy many things during this Covid situation. The social capital index rose. Where a person sitting in one corner can make an effect in another corner was more meaningful than a person who had a lot of money but couldn’t use it. The world is changing. We must understand this.

In this context, my request is, let’s stay united. Like we started this program with the sloka – “Let us walk together, let us rise together”. It’s not following anybody, but actualizing the individuality- the self-power – the power within- actualizing it and bringing forth the effect of in the world and making a difference in the world. We can. I am very sure we can. Thank you very much.

I will probably take some questions.

Presenter: This is one of the most beautiful aspects of human life, that we have millions of questions in our mind and we always try to find out answers to those questions. But I have realized, this beauty has created a lot of problems in our life because, when we have millions of questions, we basically have a very strong and dark web in our mind and we do not have clarity. We, as human beings, always looking for the clarity and here comes the rule of spirituality where we can see things clearly. Here the role of spirituality and dharma comes which can tell us what is right and what is wrong. Enlightened masters help us to identify, to develop that clarity in our mind.

Meaning of BE YOU

Question: Mohanji, one of your books suggests us to live in the present moment wherever we are and we should live in our original condition and that’s called ‘Be You’. You have given a new phrase to the world. What exactly does ‘Be You’ mean and how will it be useful to this new young generation, especially in the western world, where we worship materialistic society?

Mohanji: ‘Be You’ simply means what you are, minus your positions, possessions and relations. That’s you. That’s the ‘you’ which is always existing in three states. When you’re awake, when you’re dreaming and when you’re in a deep sleep, this ‘you’ exists. Whatever you are with your possessions, positions and relations, exists effectively only in your waking state. Hence what you are, that ‘you’ should be recognized, understood and nurtured so that you can be powerful citizens of the world.

Usually, we do not nurture that. We are always saying, “I am so and so”. You are quoting your position, the possessions (say material wealth), or relations like – I am so and so’s husband or wife etc. They do not have lasting value. But what YOU are – has lasting value and this is not a choice, this is the truth. Don’t think it is a choice or I can choose to think about me, minus all this. It’s not a choice, this is the truth. if you really want to know the truth, (not the relative truth) then you should connect to yourself minus your attachments.

How to live in the present moment

Question: It’s really difficult to live in the present moment and it’s also difficult to forget our outer identity. Can you kindly give us two or three steps which can help us to live in the present moment and also help us forget the outer identity?

Mohanji: The outer identity cannot be forgotten and should not be forgotten because that’s what we are. We identify ourselves, connect ourselves and enjoy our existence because of this. Because of our position, possession or relations, we are experiencing life on earth. This is okay. Any kind of escapism is not good. Any kind of denial is not good because everything amounts to postponement, which means you’ll have to go through that again. Hence, what is important is – to be aware that these are all temporary and enjoy them to the maximum. This means experience it while it happens, but at the same time, if that doesn’t exist, still you should be perfectly calm and peaceful.

What is the advantage of doing that while having a detached connection with everything? Detachment doesn’t mean running away from anything. Detachment means – nothing binds you; nothing owns you. Detachment doesn’t mean that you escape from something, some situation, some places etc. The method of connecting to this aspect of stability is acceptance – self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is the path.

Self-acceptance means you are accepting all your weaknesses and all your strengths. There is nobody who is only strength. I am not only a strength – I have weaknesses; we all have. We are all good, bad and ugly. Accept it 100%.  When you accept yourself fully, there is zero conflict with you. When you do not have a conflict with yourself, you will have no conflict with the world. Everything you see in the world today is the expression of somebody, both the positive and the negative. The great creations, plus the destruction, all happened in the minds of somebody. So, we have to nurture this inside us. Self-acceptance is the best way to stabilize ourselves.

Second comes self-love. Love yourself. Loving yourself doesn’t mean being selfish. It means connecting to ourselves and appreciating every aspect of our existence, “I have a place to sleep, I have food to eat, I am happy, I am contented, I have friends, there are people who love me, there are people who hate me, there are critics, there are supporters…” We start appreciating every aspect, and that will make us stable.

Third is self-respect. Self-respect simply means you choose where you should be and where you should not be. If you are unwanted somewhere, have self-respect and get out of the place. This applies to relations, situations or any aspect of life. It is important that we maintain self-respect. This helps self-esteem. All this begins with acceptance. It is the path.

If we are evolving beyond, to a level of awareness of consciousness, then, the path is awareness. That is one of the states which we can achieve in one lifetime, in this lifetime. We can achieve a state of awareness, stabilize in awareness. We see ourselves moving around, working, walking, talking, doing things peacefully and effortlessly through the world. We are in every situation, and not running away.

But while we are in each situation how are we responding? There are two ways – one is reacting, the other is responding. If you are reacting, understand it’s the emotion and ego at work. However, responding means your intellect is at work. You can choose what should be the effect of your interactions. If you continuously react in this world, you will always have regrets and guilt. Regrets and guilt are usually heavy stuff. My advice or suggestion is not to go too much in that direction, so that you can have a peaceful existence.

I think I answered both the questions – one is how do we deal with it? Don’t deal with it – be with it, and the second part is, self-acceptance is the pathway. The moment you accept yourself completely, the entire world accepts you and we can accept the world as well. If we don’t accept ourselves, if we criticize and judge ourselves, it’s very difficult to accept the world outside. Then, there is conflict. We are all personalities, and we are projecting our personalities without our knowledge. Whether we like it or not, we are constantly projecting our personalities. What we see in the world outside is other personalities. But when you become neutral, you don’t project your personality but you become like a mirror. Then, when you meet another person, you’re not looking for differences. You will look for unity. That makes more sense in today’s life.

Ahimsa in 20th century

Question: Can you speak on Ahimsa in the 20th century?

 Mohanji: Non-violence (Ahimsa) has much deeper roots, much deeper feelings, in three levels – thoughts, expressions and actions. We should express Ahimsa in these three levels. I believe, in modern times, it should become a lifestyle. Not just an expression, but the basis or the foundation itself has to be rooted in Ahimsa. Because today we are under the threat of war each day, and displacement, death, torture etc. has become unavoidable. So, Ahimsa has much more relevance than before.

Ahimsa does not mean you sit and meditate when somebody is trying to attack you. He will chop off your head. Like Lord Krishna says, you have to be practical. If somebody tries to attack you, you have to protect yourself. Self-protection is part of Ahimsa. There are eight billion people out there and eight billion frequencies. We cannot generalize them. They are all unique. We should accept their uniqueness, but society should remain stable on the platform of Ahimsa. For example, rules, regulations, laws should be based on Ahimsa.

We can make Ahimsa into a kind of law which can be rewarded. A person who is expressing Ahimsa in thoughts, words, and expressions can be given tax-free status. I am just throwing this idea of a tax-free status, so that it becomes cool and beneficial to be non-violent. We have discussed this matter with one of the United Nations people, that we should have some kind of a reward and recognition scheme for good people, because today the goodness factor is not a very ideal thing.

Anyone who can express goodness, kindness, righteousness, non-violence should be rewarded. I believe, in this time of reasonable unconsciousness state and insensitivity, we should promote more goodness, and it should be rewarded as well. So, when people ask, “What is my benefit to being good?”, you can say, “You have a benefit”. This is what I feel.

Dharma in Kali Yuga

Question: We are in the age of Kali yuga. Three quarters is non-righteousness and only one quarter is the level of dharma. What is dharma today in this time of Kali, corrupted by the influence of this time? How to follow dharma to get to the roots of our contentment?

Mohanji: Dharma has always been the same in all the era or all the yugas, but the application of dharma has changed now. Corruption is kind of accepted these days. During Sri Rama’s time, if you take Ravana for example – Ravana’s problem was his selfishness, his greed factor and that was a terrible problem then. Today, there is nobody without it. If there are 8 billion people, 8 billion Ravanas. The whole situation is different in Kali’s time, and degeneracy is rapid. After Krishna left, the Kali yuga started. Krishna said to Uddhava “Don’t waste your time on these things, find your source”. That is what he told Uddhava in a nutshell.

Krishna was very practical and gave very practical guidance. He knew Kali was coming and degeneracy would start from where he stopped. It would be a systematic degeneracy. Today, you don’t have to go too far to know that there is a lack of trust. Go to the airport and see the security, you will know that nobody trusts anybody. All people are supposedly problematic. Everybody is looked at as a potential terrorist. This is exactly where the trust factor has gone down. Secondly over-emphasis on religion, not spirituality. Spirituality is your connection with you and religion is a road map. Religion is now used for politics. This overall has become a nexus – religion, politics, power etc. where humanity is lost.

Today, Dharma, according to me, is humanity. You feel that you are a refined human being, and because of your existence, there is brightness in the world. If that can be individually cultivated and delivered despite what is happening around us, and if our conscience remains unaffected, we are safe. We cannot really do much outside; we can only lead by example. What we are, we express. If our conscience is intact, our expressions and all our activities are adhering to our conscience, that’s the best we can give to the earth. I don’t think we can do anything different from this. Also, people who think alike can come together and create islands of goodness and righteousness so people still have hope.

For example, the war situation in Ukraine cannot be changed. We went there. We supported people in whatever way we could and we are still supporting them. Hence, there is some kind of solace and hope. This is the best we can do. We can’t change the politics; we cannot change other factors which created wars. There are so many handicaps in the highly adharmic state, and creating dharma in this situation becomes impossible.

Again, the torture in the farming industry and the murder of billions of beings in the world is affecting the entire earth. The whole earth is affected because of the bad vibrations of species annihilation. Species alienation has also become natural. People don’t care. Global warming is not just affecting humankind. However, this is a human world, and only what is beneficial for the human world is being spoken. Profits have become important.

In the older days, the advisors of the kings were rishis (saints). They always advised the king that nobody in their country should sleep hungry. Everybody had food to eat and everybody was satisfied. This is one of the things which I wrote to the president of South Africa – that food, shelter, and clothing should be the responsibility of the government. Otherwise, we cannot discuss peace with the people. This is one of the aspects.

“South Africa is a beautiful country that can be equated to paradise. Its flora and fauna are unique and natural resources are in abundance. Many have buried their heart in South Africa. A plan should be made to make the country the very place for peace and harmony, catching the thread of beloved Nelson Mandela’s vision. Similar to the Nobel Peace Prize, South Africa should have its own mechanism to honour and respect people who are displaying exemplary kindness in the world, consistently and selflessly. Rewards and recognition to government officials who lead a corruption-free existence.
All people should be ensured food, clothing and shelter. Nobody should sleep hungry in the country. Any kind of exploitation of the wealth of the nation should be dealt with severe punishments. Canned hunting and hunting should be banned completely and set a brave trend in the effective protection of wildlife. Making South Africa the land of peace should bring much more tourism and revenue into the country. My wholehearted support to the government of South Africa at all times.” Mohanji

Later another period came where business people started advising the kings. They only spoke about how much profit the king can make from this rule. In current times, war machine makers are advising on how many wars can be created and how much will be the bloodshed. Bloodshed doesn’t matter, as long as the arms are sold. Food industry is controlling people through salt and sugar. Medicine industry, vaccine industry, all these industries are using all of us as guinea pigs, in which we do not have too many choices. All we can do is to be balanced in our life, and through our life, we bring light to the world, leading by example. That’s the only possibility according to me.

Transcribed by Rakshitha VS

Proofread by Geetha Suryanarayan