Serbia Pranapratishtha Satsang

Mohanji Peace Centre Serbia Satsang | Mohanji

29th June 2023

Significance of Lord Datta

I’ll explain briefly about Lord Datta because some people are thinking, ‘What’s this man with three heads?’ Originally, Datta simply meant, in one word, nature. I’m not talking about the origin of Datta, which you can get from Google; it’s very easy.

Originally, there was only one face, but then people didn’t understand the difference between the deities called Mahavishnu and Datta, so they started putting three heads. Three heads mean – one is the beginning (birth), the second is maintaining life, and the third is dissolution (death). They’re all coming in one; that’s us. We have birth, life, and death. This is represented by Datta. In every aspect of human existence, there’s birth, life and death. This is Datta.

What’s so important? I think many of you know St. Francis. He was very close to nature. He led a very humble life. He was very humble, leading a life almost like a poor person – a normal ordinary life. Datta lived the same way. He was wandering in the world. He was a very powerful master; he’s still a powerful master. None of these masters leave. We think they’ve gone when they leave the body, but they’re still present. That’s why we’re experiencing them here.

Datta was a very ordinary person and very powerful, but people didn’t even recognize him as a saint. When people asked him, “Who are you?” he said, “I’m just a worshipper of nature. I love nature.” They asked him, “How can we find you?” He said to look into nature. “All that you see is me.” It’s very difficult to understand Datta that way. Why? Because everything is him, inside us is him, everything.

These three heads signify three aspects of our existence – human existence. The beginning (birth), the life, and the death all sit inside us at the same time. At the same time, everything is sitting inside of us. We wouldn’t notice; we may not know because we are occupied with life. We may not understand that death also sits inside. Anytime it can take over, then life is finished. So, this is Datta.

Why are we connecting to him? Because that’s the truth of human existence. Everything is inside us. Birth, life, and death are inside us. You look at Datta, and it’s a reminder of who you are. What’s life? It’s a reminder.

He never asked for anybody to worship him. Why do you have to worship? But for us, it’s important as a reminder of who we are. Otherwise, we get carried away; we believe we are our personality. We think we are the personality. We are so happy and addicted to this personality, this name, and the form. All these things are very addictive, and we try our best to maintain it. You know you’re very happy to maintain it.

The story of Lord Ganesha

Why did we bring Lord Ganesha first? This also is important to understand. A man with an elephant’s head, is it normal? Have you seen anybody like this? Then why is it so? It’s very simple. I’ll tell you the story first; then, I’ll tell you the philosophy.

The story is that Mother Parvati created a boy, in fact, a bodyguard, to guard her when she wanted to take a bath. She created him from her own skin or the dirt. She told him, “I want to take a bath now; please take care of my privacy. Don’t allow anybody to come in.” The boy was guarding, and Shiva came. Shiva was Parvati’s this husband, but he (the boy) didn’t know Shiva because he was newly created. (He was newly born.)

So, he stopped Shiva,” Don’t enter!” Shiva said, “But that’s my wife.” The boy said, “Who said so? I don’t know. She never told me any exceptions. She told me to prevent anybody from entering,” and then they had an argument.

Shiva had the authority to come in, but Ganesha stopped him. Then there was an argument, and his (boy’s) head was chopped off. When Parvati came out, she found that her creation was dead. What’ll happen if you find out something like that? Anger, and you’ve to do something. She said, “I’m angry”, and told Shiva to get him back to life. Shiva looked at her and understood that his wife only created a bodyguard who wouldn’t have any existence in the larger picture. Then Shiva cut the head of an elephant which was moving around and put it on his (boy’s) shoulder.

Do you know the meaning? Parvati made a bodyguard; Shiva made a deity, and why an elephant’s head? Very simple.

Levels of intellect

All of us operate from two levels. One is knowledge which we’ve collected from the world. Ninety per cent of people live only on the knowledge they’ve secured from the world, not invented by them. What are you writing exams about? You’re writing exams in schools, right?

The knowledge we’ve picked up from classes or teachers taught us – this is all we are. We’re a bundle of knowledge which we believe is true, not that we know it’s true. Teachers, society, and parents told us, so it must be true, but we don’t know; we aren’t sure.

The second aspect of the intellect is invention. For example, if you’re walking this way, imagine. You are walking this way to your car, and you see a snake coming. What would you do? Stop, and let the snake pass. When you’re going to the car next time, you’ll check around. Is there a snake coming? Who told you to do so? Your instinct. This knowledge isn’t from books. This knowledge is from life. So, this is another type of knowledge which you derive from life. These are the only two levels we operate from.

All inventors, great artists, intellectual people, and scientists use the intellectual knowledge they derive from their works, but most people use knowledge from books or teachers or society or parents.

There’s a third type of intellect, which is based on awareness. To attain that intellect, that understanding, you’ve to be silent. That awareness is called ritambara buddhi. It’s called cosmic consciousness. It’s an awareness; you’re aware. You don’t ‘know’; this isn’t ‘knowing’. You’re being aware. The path is awareness. Awareness of what? Consciousness. What’s consciousness? The energy out of which everything came from.

We all came out of energy. Our body has two distinct parts or aspects. One is the physical body, the mind and the intellect – these things. The second aspect is the energy which runs these things – this is human existence. What’s life? Life is two things. Life means the marriage of the gross things – the physical body, our mind, intelligence, intellect, and the subtle, which is the energy which makes it run.

That energy – we can call it soul or energy; we can call it anything. When that energy goes from the gross, we call it a dead body. What’s death? Death is a separation of the gross from the subtle or subtle from the gross.

Let me complete about Ganesha. This cosmic consciousness is consciousness; it’s an awareness. Please understand; the difference isn’t knowledge. You’re not knowing; you’re being aware. What are you being aware of? The energy which is running the body. If you’ve to connect to the higher awareness, you’ve to connect to the energy part of you. You cannot connect to your physical personality and understand the source; you cannot.

Jesus said, “My father and I are one.” How did he know that he and his father were one? He connected to the subtle aspect of him. He connected to the energy aspect of Jesus and said, “My father (that’s the real energy, the source, or the big one) and I are the same.” He could say that confidently because he experienced that.”

We’ve to experience that to know that it’s true, but what happens when you experience it? You become like Datta, just happy and aware. There’s no need anymore because you’re already that; you experienced that. When you experience that, you don’t have to come back and say, “Hey, I know something.” To whom will you say? To people who don’t understand. Do you think they’ll believe you? They’ll say you’ve gone cuckoo.

Shiva understood better not to tell the story. What happened is that the elephant’s head is synonymous with the large brain – large consciousness. Why did he put an elephant’s head? Because that’s the largest mammal available on earth. He (Shiva) probably couldn’t have put the head of a blue whale because that’s not easily understandable. They would take it as a fish head because how many of us have seen a blue whale?

Before the internet arrived, hardly anybody saw a blue whale. So maybe it wasn’t possible, but the elephant was the largest mammal on earth, which everybody could connect to. The elephant’s head simply means larger consciousness, larger awareness, or cosmic consciousness.

A bodyguard had only limited awareness, as all of us are very limited. To eat food, to sleep, to fight and to die – this is what we know, normally. But this awareness of consciousness is that you’re everything. You’re always being aware, or you’re the consciousness. When you connect to consciousness, you become consciousness. When you connect to energy, you become energy.

That’s why saints are very powerful. They can stop the rain; they can change things. Why? Because they change it at the operating level of energy, not from the mind. With our minds, we’ve limitations all the time. With our intellect, we’ve problems with understanding because, all the time, we’re analyzing (analyzing what happens), and analysis leads to paralysis. You start getting stagnated.

Start living in the present moment

What’s paralysis? Stagnation. We are analyzing a thing of the past all the time – why did it happen? Why did this person speak to me like this? What happens, then? Yes, we’re stopping in time. We aren’t moving forward. We’re analyzing and forgetting that life is happening now. Your life only happens now, in this moment. Yesterday is finished; tomorrow hasn’t happened. When tomorrow happens, you can enjoy that life, but today, this is your life.

So, at this moment, we should start experiencing life like this child (in the audience). She’s very happy with life now. She’s not worried about the future or paying insurance and stuff. This is exactly how we should be. This moment, this is life!

Being aware of that presence, the present and the presence of the universal consciousness that’s what Shiva made him (Ganesha). Parvati made a bodyguard; Shiva made a deity. That’s why we look at the Lord with the face of an elephant and remember consciousness, the father of everything. Not the father, like a human father or something; it’s energy, the energy behind everything, and you’re aware of the energy.

What’s enlightenment? When you become more and more understanding and more connected to the energy part of you, you become that. That’s what we call enlightenment. You know, you become aware that you’re the body, and you also have energy in the body, activating the body, the mind and eventually, because of all that, you’re able to see, feel, and experience life.

What’s this life about? This moment. Whatever you’re experiencing now, that you have. Whatever is tomorrow, it’s not yours. If you get a tomorrow, good. If you don’t get a tomorrow, you’re finished. So it just goes like that. That’s Ganesha.

Raw energy, space and time

Before every worship, we remember Lord Ganesha because of this aspect, not because of the face. The elephant face signifies awareness of consciousness. Awareness means you’re aware of the consciousness; this means the energy from which the entire universe came.

Every matter you see, the galaxies, planets, satellites – every matter has come from pure energy. How do you know? Simple, the theory of the atomic bomb. From raw matter, when it’s dissected in a particular way, raw energy is created, which is very destructive. That’s the atomic bomb’s theory. Similarly, reverse it – raw energy conglomerated becomes matter, and that’s the big bang. They talk about it in the books in our education; they talk about the big bang. That’s raw energy conglomerated into matter that’s the beginning of life. When the raw energy was converted into matter, space had to be created – space.

Space is the basis required for creation. If there’s no space, you can’t create, and space creates time. If space isn’t there, time isn’t there. What’s time? The distance from this place to that place. The measurement of distance is time. Time is happening because there’s space, and space is happening because energy is conglomerated. That energy – that awareness, is represented by Ganesha. I told you in different ways so that you can understand. Now you can tell this to other people also. Otherwise, look at this child, and you’ll know the story.

Question: Why are we worshipping Sai Baba?

Mohanji: There’ve been many saints and various masters. Please understand when we talk about a master, he has recognized that he’s more of the subtle energy part than the gross part. If you’re not a master, you think you’re the body, and what comes with the body? Personality. What comes with personality? Ownership. Trap. We recognize each other based on personality, and what comes with personality? Ownership. Ownership means this is mine; this is his; this is you; this is me; that kind of ownership.

What’s ownership? A perfect Illusion. Nobody owns anybody. Do you think that you can own anybody? Nobody can own anybody. Why? Because how long will you live on the earth? This land we are walking on, we are standing on this land – do you think that I invented this land? Nor the previous owner invented this land. Centuries ago, this land existed. Am I right? Centuries later, this land will be there. Do you think I own it? Or anybody owns it? That’s the trap of ownership.

What’s ownership? An illusion, thinking that’s yours. This is mine, this is mine, and this is mine. My father, my mother, my child, my dog – this is mine. This ‘mine’ is a big trap, and we can’t get out of this easily. We believe that we’re doing the right thing. Oh, this is mine, and this is mine. These things bind us.

The face of liberation is Baba. What’s Baba? The face of liberation, who is fully aware that I’m not all these things! This drama is not me. What am I? I’m the enjoyer of this; I’m just enjoying this whole show. Various things are coming into my life; I’m enjoying them. Some of them I like; some of them I don’t like, but that’s no problem. Everything we may not like, okay, no problem. That acceptance, enjoyment, and that movement are represented by this powerful master. That’s why we connect to him.

When you look at Baba, you remember freedom – freedom of life. What’s freedom? Knowing fully well who you are. Who you are, is the energy which is running this personality. I’m not the personality. I’m the energy which is making this personality alive. When I die, my personality is gone.

Death simply means the death of personality (the personality is dead). The body is just a rented car. You’ve taken it for some time to express your personality. The body, how long will we keep it? Nobody knows. We have a time of birth and a time of death. That’s about it. No ownership is freedom, and that freedom is Baba. I’ve explained everything.

Also, Datta has many weapons in his hand. There’s a mace, a trident, and so many things. Why do we see a trident, a three-headed spear, in people’s hands? The three aspects of life. Every day (twenty-four hours), there’s the physical time when you communicate in the external world; that means you’re awake. Then there’s a state where there’s the dream. In the dream state, you’re communicating with your internal world. That’s also real because you’re experiencing things from the inside.

Then in the night, deep sleep state, where you don’t know whether you’re a man or a woman, you’re communicating with nobody; you’re dead to the world. These three things (states) happen every 24 hours. So, these are three things or aspects, and we’re piercing through them. Then what remains? Consciousness.

Now, the three aspects are birth, life and death. Pierce them, and what remains is consciousness, deleting every aspect which is potentially not allowing us to know who we are. That’s why there’s a spear. These three aspects are the core of our existence, and there are so many things; there’s a wheel. The wheel is to destroy ignorance, to cut the head of ignorance.

What’s ignorance? I‘m the personality; that’s the main ignorance we have. We believe that we’re the personality. I believe I’m Mohanji, and I’m trying to maintain this image of Mohanji. That’s my trap. When I delete that aspect of me, I’m free. Then Mohanji is what? Freedom. So, cutting off the ignorance of who I am and bringing knowledge. Like that, everything has the significance of deleting, dissolving, and detaching all these things, so you finally know you’re the consciousness.

Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Padmini Ravi Kumar