Namaste to all my friends.
The Onam season has started in Kerala. And on this occasion, I was giving a message to all the people who are celebrating Onam, the festival season. This is a very peculiar time. The Corona situation, the COVID situation has reduced our mobility; the social distancing and all those things are happening. We are not able to move or do things as we like to do.
So, I was suggesting to people today that we must look at others or people who are not able to have a daily meal because in so many places the lockdown situation has affected the economy very badly. The economy is affected globally, adversely. The economy is very low. So, that has induced many job losses. Many people have lost their jobs.
There are many families in your neighbourhood who do not have food to eat.
If with the grace of divinity, if we have food to eat; it’s our responsibility also to share the food with people who do not have it in our neighbourhood.
There are so many situations now, helpless situations which we see in society. I was told that there are a lot of monks and wandering saints starving in Banaras (in Varanasi), in Rishikesh, in Haridwar, in Uttarkashi, all these places, where usually the saints conglomerate to do practices and observe silence, etc. But because of the food supply, with the food distribution network affected, many of these people are starving, they don’t have food to eat.
So, I had suggested, I had recommended that, if possible, let us all unite and if we have some money or food to share, let us get them some sustenance, some food.
I’m telling this now so that you can think in your own location, how many people are affected. I’m sure that we are not able to help all the people, even probably governments are not able to help. At least we can make people in a few houses happy, a few houses better. That will be a big blessing during this time. And the situation is unprecedented. We don’t know when it is going to end. And it’s a cycle. When we think it’s over, then it’s again appearing. We have no clue when this will actually be over.
We need to take care of ourselves and we need to take care of the people as much as possible in our neighbourhood.
Not only people, we can make sure that we give food to the birds and the animals; all the beings who are closely associated with our houses; we take care of them also in whatever level, we can share. Let us make the environment happy. This is something which we can do, and we must do. This is part of our existence; part of our responsibility to make our neighbourhood happy.
In this context, when there is a lot of fear of death, I would like to tell you one thing; there is a lot of recovery happening as well. We have not noticed that, as much as we have noticed death because we are afraid of death. When we are born, there is a time destined to die fixed. So, birth and death are pretty much like two pillars and in the middle is what we call life.
In this whole journey, we go through the whole situation spontaneously, automatically or just like a river flowing; we are flowing to the end. So, we should not be worrying too much. Instead, let us be happy with what we have, let us be happy with any situation, let us be flexible. Let us be like a flowing river. This way, you can make a big difference in the world around you just because of your positivity.
Our attitude really matters at this time.
If we choose to be positive, optimistic, and if we deliver that positivity in the world, I think we can remove a lot of gloom from the Earth. We can’t avoid the situation. We have no control over that. Situations are happening and we are all going through the situations almost helplessly. But we can help with some things to maintain an attitude of positivity, maintain an attitude of gratitude; the attitude of gratitude has a lot of power.
If we are grateful for all that we have, we will automatically not think about what we don’t have. It means that gratitude will eclipse the fear of something, or fear of what we don’t have or the feeling that we don’t have something. We can choose to accept and appreciate what we have and not think about what we don’t have.
We all have that capacity. So it’s a choice. It’s an individual choice that we can tune in to the positive side of ours; the strengths of ours. We know very well that we are quite lucky to be alive today.
Tomorrow we have not seen, so, be happy today.
Through positivity, through good thinking, good processes, through compassion and kindness, through selflessness, we can make a big transformation in this world. This is the right time for it because we have time to think, we have time to assimilate. We have time to do things within our capacity. When we all have been given our own unique capacities: spend time, share skills, share love, share money, share food; it’s up to you.
So, I would like to leave you with these thoughts and probably we can unite and work together for these causes. Look at the clusters of people who have nothing to eat, who are stuck because there is no income.
Please remember, in many cases, the ones who have lost their jobs will not tell us that they need help. They are used to helping themselves, they are used to an income (salary); they’ve lost their jobs and they are in a situation where they are totally helpless. They may not come and tell you, “Look here, I need some help.” It’s for us to find out and share what we have. So, this is something which we have to consider; this is unique for this time. And if you help people, if you assist people, share what you have, you will have a great inner richness and this money can’t buy.
You know, this feeling of richness, feeling of being useful, feeling of self-worth, self-esteem, money cannot buy.
So, it’s a very important time for you to act. Not react; act.
Act with empathy, not sympathy.
Act empathetically and act well.
So, we will meet again. I’m happy to talk to you. Wish you great health, an auspicious life and also, wish you a lot of strength to do the impossible. What your mind says is impossible, this is definitely possible. So, don’t believe your mind. You believe in yourself and you do your best; you have that power, you have that capacity. And we are all one family; we are united. We should help each other; we should be considerate to each other, and we should behave and feel like a family and support each other.
If you have a problem, do tell someone. We can work together to remove that issue or to at least lessen the burden. Please understand in the karmic pattern, nobody can take the karma away as it is. From birth till death, we have a pattern of karma which is taking place at its time, at its right time and we can’t do much about it. But if we are united, if we are together, we will be strengthened, or we will have the strength to overcome all these obstacles. When we are alone, we feel weak. We are not alone, we should be together. Remember that we are one family – ‘One World, One Family’.
Lots of love.
This is Mohanji.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Rekha Murali