Mohanji Birthday – Satsang | Mohanji
Mohanji: Namaste to all of you. Thank you for coming here, and thank you for taking time off from all your busy schedules to be with me on my birthday. I really feel overwhelmed because I’m not a person who likes to celebrate birthdays. Often, it’s embarrassing for me to celebrate my own. I sometimes feel why we have to celebrate anything at all. So, I repeatedly tell people, “Please go ahead and serve society. Give something to the people, to the birds, the animals. The entire world is yours, and all the things in the world are your extension.”
When we decided to come together like this (I don’t think this has happened for the last few years. If I remember right, at least not the last two or three years.), so many people who have greater and better things to do decided to come; that also overwhelms me. I don’t underestimate anybody’s time. I’ll tell you why later.
Pattajoshiji, the chief priest of Puri Jagannath temple, decided to come despite his busy schedule. Yesterday or the day before, he was with Rashtrapatiji (President), and then in the early morning, he came here. Sulakhe Maharaj from Shirdi – he decided to come here. Subramanyam Adiga, even though he’s like a brother to me, he’s very busy in the temple, and he decided to come.
Maharaj from Gaangapur is also very, very busy, especially now that the temple is open; a lot of people are coming. So, he decided to honour me. Then, of course, I don’t want to name everybody. But I know Mr Vaikunth is very busy, and it’s really an honour that he could make it.
Thank you, and Senapatiji, only on such occasions do we meet. I think it’s worthwhile to have such celebrations! Jokes apart, I’m really grateful. Mr K.D Rao is very busy. He’s come from Goa – Mr and Mrs Rao. A lot of people – if I just named them, it would take a lot of time.
Make the most of your time on earth
I would rather say why it’s important that we do something for the world at every point in time. See, I always believe – we have no control over our birth. That means at some certain point in time, we are born and have no control over our death – at a certain point in time, we die. Birth and death are pretty much defined. In between, we live our life. We have a stream of experiences over time.
We consider that as the main reason for this existence, and we keep living. We cannot extend our death, nor can we prevent our birth. So, while living, how best you use your time, how best you can do something for the world – this really matters. That’s why I never underestimate anybody’s time. Every breath has value; every breath counts. So, it’s very, very important that we do not waste our breaths.
Now, I don’t want to elaborate too many things for this programme because this is supposed to be a birthday celebration. So, we’ll just touch upon a few things only since this is transmitted across the world. This time, we are just slowly trying to come out of the Covid situation. Covid is synonymous with fears, suppression, and lack of movement. So many things were denied. We weren’t really happy.
We weren’t feeling natural. So, from that state, now we are trying to come out. What did we pick up from this Covid? What did we learn? Or did we learn anything at all? It’s important to know because if we don’t learn, such things can come back. If we learned, and if we made use of this situation as a means for transformation, transforming our basic instincts to that of refinement – human refinement, it’s worth it; then it’s worth it.
The whole idea of any situation like this is to bring forth the humanity in us, to be humans. To be real humans, the refined ones, not the animalistic, the control-oriented, not the kind of position, relation-oriented, to the level where we are completely connected to consciousness. We are the only species on this whole earth who can actually connect to supreme consciousness and be that, experience that. This is why our time on earth is very important. We are the species who can actually experience God; God-realisation is possible for us.
I believe that nothing belongs to me because I’m just like a tourist on earth; we all are. If we just dilute the identity that we are really struggling or fighting to maintain and think deeper, we’ll realise that we are just tourists here. We cannot hold on to any time.
Never waste time
For life, time is the currency; time is very important. So, the time has to be valued. The money of life is time. This is why it’s important to understand that this Covid situation should leave a lasting impression on us – not the fear factor. Fear has no value here, but the transformational factor is where we understand that everything is important.
Time can’t be wasted. All people are our own extensions; all beings are our extensions. They all have something to do with us. Otherwise, they won’t come in front of us or come in contact with us. If we clearly, really understand this, we’ll not have any kind of depressive mode. We’ll not be complaining about life. We have a lot to do here. We have quite a lot to do here.
Each moment is extremely important, and please remember that there’s no way you can postpone and think that I can do something later. Tomorrow is another day. We’ve no guarantees here; we cannot guarantee that something similar can be happening tomorrow. It may not be possible. I’ve experienced this many times, and it always leaves regrets.
If we cannot complete something today, and we imagine that we can do it tomorrow, tomorrow is another day. It’ll bring forth its own events and experiences. If we cannot do it, it leaves regrets. So, don’t allow regrets to take shape. Instead, keep doing; keep moving. Just flow with time so that it’ll be a life well lived. This is my message for you today.
I’m not so proud that I have a birthday. You know all of us have birthdays. It’s just a point of origin, and then we continue to the level where we don’t have; we have a death day. So, it’s not a big deal. But while we are here, what did we do? What was our contribution to this world? What exactly did we do?
Add value to people’s lives
There are so many people who come to add value to your life, and also so many people who take that value away from life, but we’ve to survive. The positives and negatives shouldn’t touch us deeper than it’s necessary – only as a lesson, not more. The positives and the negatives of life are only lessons.
That’s it, nothing more, and keep moving because we should always remain focused on the purpose of existence, which is definitely not eating, drinking, sleeping and dying. The purpose of existence is much larger, much deeper. It’s the transformation that you’re able to provide to society, to the people around you – that’s the reason for existence.
Many times, we think that some practices can help. Practices can help with discipline, for alignment, but practices cannot help with transformation unless you believe in them. At the end of the day, it’s an attitude. It’s your attitude; it’s your belief that changes things. So, this is approximately what I wanted to tell you today. I would be happy if you have any questions. I’ll answer them.
Anybody wanted to say something? Also, some people couldn’t join because of space restraints. Our sincere apologies for that because we had a number restriction. I know that some of you are disappointed. We are extremely sorry for that. I sincerely appreciate that you wanted to come to attend my birthday.
Transformation and positivity
Question: After ten years of service in the world, what would be the highlight of it?
Mohanji: Freedom. I left my job in 2012. This is the tenth year – 2022. By June, it’ll be ten years completed. I was happy with my work. There were no complaints. But when the purpose changed, it also helped because a new alignment came; a new purpose and reason came. So, it was important to have that transformation.
One thing I always feel is that it has nothing to do with age. I always believe you should never retire because retirement is something which is like escapism. “Okay, now I’ve enough money in my bank account. I’ve my house and whatever, and I’m retiring.” Then what do you do? I would rather you should put your experience and expertise and transform people or give something positive to the people.
So, ten years away from a job – I think it was quite an eventful time. I was travelling a lot, visiting places. In the last ten years, what we’ve done – quite a lot, in fact, but I wouldn’t take the claim for the entire thing. It’s because of so many people who believe in me, and who are associated with me.
We have registered offices for ACT Foundation, which was started in 2003 and in 21 countries. Then we have 20 states out of 28 in India where we have activities. You know the size of activities is sometimes difficult to see. Today Sulakhe Maharaj was telling when he came out of the temple, he visited Madras Cafe, and they said they were doing annadaan (food donation) for Mohanji.
Likewise, Maharaj from Gaangapur said that there’s annadaan going on in Gaangapur. So many things are happening. Sometimes it’s not so visible, but there are so many things happening in the world.
Then we have Mohanji Foundation in 16 countries. So many platforms and different people have connected, and we’re growing. It’s to do with the cooperation and collaboration of so many people. I can only say that I’ve been an instrument. It’s not that I created something – something happened through me. One person alone cannot do anything.
As a lot of people who understand and appreciate what we do, they come together, and it’s a team of like-minded people. It’s growing; it’s growing tremendously. For the last ten years, whatever we’ve done and still doing, that’s a sign of some kind of trust. We work together, and all these things happen. I’ll never take claims for any of these things because this is something where I probably got inspired, and then people got inspired. But it’s evolving; it’s growing.
Happiness and contentment
Question: The world, if you compare today with 20 years, 50 years back, or even 200 years back, the unhappiness only has gone up despite contributions from you and many others, in this respect, trying to bring about a change. Now, what happens? So, we get the speed at which the unhappiness goes about? And let’s say people like you weren’t there, not doing it, the acceleration would have been higher, but it’s still accelerating.
What’s the end state? Is there a measure of performance in terms of what you are trying to do? How does one see some end state 50 years from today, 100 years from today, and 200 years from today? Is the happiness index like Bhutan talks about the GDP in the form of unhappiness, India talks about it in a different form, and the US and the rest of the world – how do you see the measure? Is it going to go up in terms of happiness, or will unhappiness continue to be happening, and we’ll continue to do whatever we’re doing, but it just puts in some element, a limited break, but nothing else?
Mohanji: My feeling is that it’s a process. There’s no end, and also, it’s a flexible thing. This happiness can never be defined. Many people peg happiness to something external, and it’s not so. So, everything, all the emotions – everything is internal; it’s inside. When we have a great mood, even a not-so-good day will be good for you. If the mood is bad, a great day will not feel good.
But see, when I travelled to many countries, one thing I felt. Some people call happiness their comfort zones. They’ve created comfort zones, and they don’t deviate from them; they don’t go out of them. There’s water, electricity, and food to eat; you can avoid people and then you are happy. This is all conditional, conditioned happiness. I call happiness – in every situation, you are stable, and nothing affects you. So that part, that state, isn’t easy to achieve with the current system or the system which we’ve reached into. Individually it’s possible; collectively, it’s not so easy.
Like we had a system earlier where before we closed the door (earlier, it was a joint family), we asked, “Anybody hungry outside?’’ Then we fed them, and then only we closed the door at night. That kind of giving and sharing was there. Today, we have barbed wires and stuff where we are afraid of people entering into homes! So, there’s a degeneracy – there’s an evolutionary degeneracy where people have become more greed-based, competition oriented etc.
What modern education has given today, or recent education, is competition. When you’re competing, you’re never happy. When you are egoistic, you’ll never be happy. When you’re in acceptance, you can be happy. It means you accept another person as they are, and then there’s no conflict anywhere. That doesn’t happen. We look at people, ‘‘Oh, that guy, I don’t like him’’, or ‘‘This person – that’s not my type’’, this kind of thing.
Competition and comparison are connected to education today. Also, we are on a level of putting ointment after the wound has happened. There’s no prevention factor. I feel that right from school days, children should be guided in their own way. We are trying to make children like bricks on the wall – the same (as each other), and the success in this competition is money, not happiness.
I was talking to a few students in New York. They had all taken subjects which were a cocktail of subjects, and they wanted to take these subjects. I asked, “Why did you take those subjects?” Everybody said, ‘‘It fetches good money’’. So, I asked the question, ‘‘What about happiness’’? ‘‘Oh, when I have money, I’ll be happy’’. I said, ‘‘No guarantee’’.
The whole concept, the thought process, is that money brings happiness. This means – I can do anything I like with my money, and it brings happiness. Absolutely not. This is where our whole understanding of the world is going. This is Kali’s time. Ignorance has to be there. Ignorance is part of it.
When you look from Satyayuga to Sri Rama’s time to Krishna’s time to Kali’s time, these yugas are marks of degeneracy – milestones of degeneracy. We’ve gone from Satyayuga in absolute consciousness to Kaliyuga of absolute unconsciousness. So, now in this unconscious level, you’re trying to understand truth through two aspects.
One is the shruta buddhi, which means the intellect which understands what you’ve been taught. Then the yukta buddhi, the logical mind. These are the two factors people use to understand the whole existence or to make some happiness from somewhere.
There’s another thing called ṛithambara buddhi – cosmic consciousness; this is connected to awareness. So, awareness is defeated. Consciousness is connected to your activity, and you have boundaries. What’s the boundary? Immediate pleasure; it’s not happiness. It’s pleasure based. I give this; I should get pleasure.
Even in spirituality, people go for sensations. I had a great sensation when I did pranayama. Of course, you’ll have because it’s hyperventilation. But did you carry it home? Was it inside you even after you left the pranayam? And the answer will be, ”There’s nothing.” That’s why it’s more hallucination oriented.
Now the metaverse is coming – completely virtual. So, you’re again detaching yourself from the truth, from the ground reality to an artificial reality and people like it. The progression that we talk about in human life is the regression in consciousness. This is exactly where we are.
Happiness is connected to our basic constitution. We are happy by nature. See, for example, the energy aspect of our constitution is never bothered with our likes or dislikes or happiness or sorrows. It energizes us anyway. The more we start connecting to the deeper aspects of us, we’ll see that there’s only happiness; there are no other things at all.
But this unhappiness part is connected to the expectation, ‘‘Oh, you’re supposed to make money; you’re supposed to build a big house. The number of bedrooms is the sign of your prosperity or your success.’’ This is all very vague stuff. Of course, you need to have a comfortable life. We shouldn’t be begging for food; this is all fine. I am not a pessimistic person.
I know that some people will catch the highest in this life. We know when people interact, if somebody is just looking for, ‘‘I just need a pranayam or a meditation; I have high stress’’. This is a very superficial level – most things are superficial. Program after program – superficial. But those who catch something small, like a Kriya, and they evolve higher – these people are also there.
So individually, happiness is definitely achieved. But collectively, I don’t think so because eight billion people think whether there’ll be a bombing in Ukraine or something. The threat looming in the air is more of a worry, and then the information that you’re pumping into you is also very detrimental.
Look at today’s time. We’ve information bombarded at us. We don’t even need it. So many people are stressed because of over-information. I wanted to see these ten different things on YouTube. Then there’s Facebook waiting for you; WhatsApp is waiting for you. This morning when I first opened it, 150 messages for my birthday!
Then I decided to close it. It’s not going away. Another 350 have come. This is exactly how it works. But it’s an expression of love. How else will you express it? So, this is fine in one way. But on the other side, it’s all waiting for you. You’re never free. There’s no time you’ll feel, ‘‘Okay, now I’m done. I’m free now.’’ It never happens. Something else overtakes.
Be yourself, be authentic
This is a sign of times, but I would always like to be optimistic, and I like to say that we keep talking. Somebody will listen, but we can’t force it. I follow the path of Avadhootas. I say, ‘Be you’. That’s the best thing you can do. Be 100% you. Don’t try to be me because that’s imitation. I can’t be you; I can’t become you, nor can you become me, and it’s not necessary.
All you have to do is to be you. In this whole thing, if you’re totally and authentically you, this is the best you can do in this life – the best thing. Nothing else you can do because mostly the world is operating on the comparison, competition, and imitation. They think that ‘‘Okay, I should get what he gets.’’ It’s not possible.
The authentic always get what they need. All the authentic have been successful; many of the authentic (people) have been legends. Your authenticity definitely matters, like Charlie Chaplin’s answer. Charlie Chaplin said, ‘‘What brought you success’’? He said, ‘‘Authenticity.’’ He never tried to imitate somebody. He said, ‘‘This is what I thought was the right thing to do.’’ He did it, and he became successful.
Also, integrity has a big value here. Most people compromise integrity for the sake of success. Then they fall, and then the result is a disaster. We especially try to prove to society that we are somebody great. It doesn’t work; you don’t have to prove it. If you are genuine, it’ll be visible. If you are not genuine, even if you try to prove it, it’s temporary. So many factors – I’m saying, if you take a cross-section of society, you see all these things.
Happiness is there, just around the corner, but happiness is not something which you can actually pluck out from this whole jungle of sounds. It’s possible. Collectively, it’s difficult and individually possible. In other words, I can say Satyayuga, Tretayuga, Dvaparayuga, Kaliyuga – all exist now. People of a certain evolution are all existing right now. It’s not a bad time. It’s a good time; it’s a challenging time.
Another thing is – you cannot evolve by suppressing things. For example, you wanted to have a sweet or a pizza, and you say, ‘‘Okay, now I can’t have a pizza. I suppress that desire.’’ Then tomorrow, you’ll only remember pizza. Suppression is definitely not a good idea. You’ve got to have an awareness, a controlled level of interaction, and then overcome it to a level where nothing matters anymore. Nothing touches you, and then you are free.
That liberation is the main thing. It’s not about escaping from something. I had this thing when I used to go to the Himalayas early in the 2000s. I had this feeling that I should go to the Himalayas whenever I got (annual) leave. But later on, I realised that I wasn’t taking the Himalayas back home.
When I came back home, when I was in Dubai and Oman and Kuwait, etc., I was not carrying anything back. The Himalayas were still there; they were peaceful. But I came back as myself. So, wherever we are travelling, we are carrying the same garbage. You’ve got to be in one place and make the Himalayas within you. We can’t go anywhere.
We don’t even need a Guru for that. Guru is an aspiration of a state, which means that the Guru has reached a state of silence. If you connect to a state of silence for a period of time, you also tend to get it. Where you park your mind, that you become. In that context, it’s important. Otherwise, it’s not that important. What’s important is your determination to find yourself – what’s running your show. That’s it.
So, going to places, moving – that’s not important. You can go to be in a particular energy field for some time for cleansing. That’s all right. But apart from that, being where you are and being fully where you are as a complete being – that gives more evolution, more transformation than any travel for anything.
Read part 2 here. You can watch the full satsang here.
Transcribed by Shamim Gany and Geetha
Proofread by Geetha Suryanarayanan