Skanda Vale Satsang – Part 1

 

Q: My question is about nature. Dattatreya is nature. During his time, many thousands of years ago, people would have been nature-worshippers. I want to know whether there is any resurgence of that or a need for resurgence of that type of connection.

Mohanji: I would put it as going back home. If you look at all the Vedas, the Sun is worshipped in three aspects. We say

Brahma swarupaya suryaya namaha

which means Sun as Brahma. Because of the Sun’s rays, life happens.

Vishnu swarupaya suryaya namaha

That means the maintenance and sustenance of life is sustained by Sun’s energy.

Rudra swarupaya suryaya namaha

That means whatever is finished, completed, or what gets dissolved or recycled is because of the Sun’s rays.

So our connection to the Sun is most natural, it is the most realistic. What other thing is more realistic than the sun? Likewise, nature and we are the same. What you see as nature are the elements: earth, water, air, fire, space. We are the same. We are a conglomeration of all these this.

Datta represents nature. When somebody asked him, “Who are you?” He just said, “I am a worshipper of nature. I am nature.” Datta is a reminder. Look at him as a mirror. When you look into Datta, what you see is nature. You are also a conglomeration of elements. When we die and leave the body, the body disintegrates into elemental form. This recycling is happening. The soul aspect plus the sheaths, including desires, memories, etc., travel out. The body is left behind. We always had that clarity. As original human beings we had that clarity. Of course, we have had various trials and errors to know who we are. That’s because the mind is in the middle. You have to convince the mind that there is a problem, but that’s part of our existence. We need to make the mind happy to go further. It’s like when Hanumanji was crossing the ocean to reach Lanka to find Sita. There was a huge demon in the middle who was taking care of the ocean. It means that part of the ocean belonged to her. She said, “Nobody goes this way. I eat them.” Hanumanji said, “I must go. There’s no other way.” Then she said, “Ok, I’ll keep my mouth open” and he said “I’ll enter”. So he entered in the form of a mosquito. He entered and exited quite fast. By the time she closed her mouth, he was gone.

Audience: (laughter)

Mohanji: Like that, the mind is like a huge mouth. We have to find some way to enter and also to exit. Then the nature is the best connection for it. Always a reminder that I am the nature. I am nature.

Nature has two aspects for human understanding. One is that you have brought a nature. You have a nature which contains likes and dislikes, your flavours, expressions. We all have unique flavours. That’s what we are expressing into the world. It’s not the same as anyone else’s. It could be similar, but it’s not the same. Our expression comes out of our nature i.e. what we are as a constitution which is the mind, body, intellect, ego, spirit. With this constitution we express into this world. This is also part of the nature. Again, the highest expression is Datta, that’s again a reminder that compassion, kindness, unconditional love – all these are the highest expressions possible of this life. Anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, are the lowest. We choose to express higher and that becomes our highest expression of our nature.

Nature outside is the elements. We are built out of it. We came out of it and we go back to it. Just like the way sound comes out of silence and goes back into silence. The nature of consciousness is silence. Every sound, every creation comes out of it. It emerges, exists for some time and dissolves, just like every sound. It appears, stays and goes back. Everything is like that. This is the core of Vedas. The Upanishads were explanations to it on the intellectual side – intellectual understanding of life and the operations of life. The Upanishads, the Vedantas are the scriptural aspects. All these are interconnected.

So there is Datta Upanishad. Avadhoota Geeta is Dattatreya’s teachings.  His core teaching is : Be nature, be the flow.

Be nature, be the flow. So if you are constantly aware of your nature meaning , your qualities, your personality, that itself will give you peace of mind. So, understanding our nature is very vital for progress. Then we will not compare ourselves with another person. We will not have comparisons, we will not have any kind of conflicts, because all are expressing their own nature. And that’s exactly what world wanted. Different natures, and diversity of life forms. So that’s what we want.

Q: Earlier today you were chanting something to sister Gemma. Is there a possibility to explain it for us?

Mohanji: It is called Shiva Tandava Stotram. I don’t remember the whole lyrics, I just chanted only the first three stanzas. I think you know the story of Ravana of Ramayana. The one who kidnapped Sita and then Rama went to rescue her. Sister Gemma was talking about it. Yesterday the priest was chanting something which was so beautiful and powerful. So I said some of the chants which are original cannot have other versions of them. People have tried their best to compose another Tandava but they couldn’t. The great poets broke their heads over this and still nothing happened. So that’s the story. I think you know the story, right? Should I repeat it?

Audience: We love stories… (Laughter)

Mohanji: As Ravana was coming out of the house, he saw his mother worshipping the Shivalinga. Then he asked his mother,

“What are you worshipping?”

His mother said, “This is the Shivalinga.”

Ravana asked, “What does that represent?”

She said, “Kailash.”

“Is that so? Why are you representing an imitation? I will bring the real Kailash to you.”

Ravana always loved to have all the best things of the world in his yard. So he went to Kailash. He was a very strong man, and he put his hand underneath it and tried to lift it. Shiva put His toe on top of Kailash. All his fingers got trapped beneath and it was tremendously painful. He couldn’t let go either, because hands were underneath. And Shiva waited. Shiva is not busy. (Laughter).

So with His toe, He pressed Kailash on Ravana’s feet and waited. Ravana started crying.

(Laughter)

Then he chanted this:

“Jatatavigalajjala pravaahapavitasthale

Galey valambya lambitaam bhujangatungamalikaam

Damad damad damaddama ninaadavadamarvayam

Chakaara chandataandavam tanotu nah shivah shivam.’’

Anybody knows this? (Laughter)

He chanted this and it was amazingly powerful, describing Tandava of Shiva and its various dimensions. Shiva became very happy. He didn’t give Kailash away. But he asked, “What do you want? What can I give you?” So Ravana said, “I actually came for Kailash, but you will not give it.” (Laughter). “My mother worships Shivalinga.”

Shiva then took a part of His soul out and created a linga and gave it to him. And just imagine part of the soul of Shiva going as Shivalinga. All the gods and goddesses became afraid. If Ravana took it to Lanka he would become supremely powerful, because if you give a weapon to somebody who knows how to use it, he will use it. So they were worried.

They told Lord Ganesha, “You must do something before this guy reaches there, we must catch him.”

Lord Ganesha waited on the way, where he was going with this Atmalinga and he told Ravana ,”You have not done your evening pujas. You forgot.”

Ravana said, “I have no time. I can’t do it. I am busy.”

So Ganesha said, “Just imagine how much bad energy you will be creating because you are not worshipping enough.”

Ravana said, “Forget it. And now I am going and solving this matter (of taking Atmalinga to his mother). What’s the big deal?”

Ganesha replied, “You should actually do your sandhyavandana, evening prayers.”

Ravana said, “But you know, I’m carrying something precious and I can’t put it on the ground. Shiva has told me, ‘If you put the Shivalinga on the ground, then you won’t be able to pick it up anymore. It stays there.’ So I can’t put it on the ground.”

Ganesha said, “I will hold it for you.”

Ganesha had chosen to appear as a retarded child, and that appearance was a bit of comfort for Ravana. A very smart child would have been a problem. This was a retarded child so there was no problem to give it the Shivalinga. Ravana told the child, “Okay you keep it. Don’t put it on the ground. I’m going to take a bath. After my puja, I’ll come back and pick it up.

The child said, “No problem – you go. I have no work.”

And as soon as Ravana went to take a dip, Ganesha put the Shivalinga on the ground and today that is the Shivalinga at Gokarna. When Ravana came back after the worship, he found that the Shivalinga was lost. Then he tried to beat the child, but what to do? It was too late. So he couldn’t take the Shivalinga to Lanka.

This is a story and the point we were discussing is that some of the chants do not have another version or duplicate. You can’t – you can even make it in that meter in that rhythm.

It’s amazing. I don’t know the full lyrics. I used to know them, but what happened is when I chant, something happens outside. (Laughter) So I stop chanting. It creates that frequency, the vibration and immediately after having started, it gets reflected. Thus I don’t chant fully, just a couple of words. (Laughter)

Q: When you spoke yesterday about this story now, you mentioned the lineage karma aspect and also that it can cure skin conditions. I was wondering if you can expand on this a little bit.

Mohanji: Yeah. Naga – it is connected to lineage, lineage karma, usually children and family relationships. You can see that many of the Naga related things are connected to family.

Secondly, many of the skin allergies and those kind of thing, go away when you appease the Naga. Usually milk and turmeric is offered. And traditionally there is no daily puja for Naga. It’s one pooja per year. Then I think, you just light the lamp, that’s what they do. And the day before yesterday was the most auspicious day of the year for the Naga Prathishta. And we did that on that day, Nagapanchami. It was not known I mean, we didn’t know that, right? Not even planned but apparently it happened. In India, there are places where they take the mud from the anthill, which is connected to Naga and they apply it on the skin etc. to work on your skin allergies.

Thirdly, it is knowledge. I think the explanation of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and the dimensions of human existence to a great extent was probably delivered by Nagas from the Nagaloka. They still visit us. Usually it is said that they are golden – they’ll be like golden snakes, snakes in golden color. And they appear and disappear. They do come. But they come to bless. They are very kind people, they come, THEY BLESS and then they disappear. There are a lot of temples, especially in the south, which are particularly important for snakes.

There’s nothing much to explain about skin disease as such, because it’s connected to mind and mind connected to guilt. Guilt – mind – skin disease, this is the connection. That’s a cycle. The guilt connected to our actions, e.g. you do bad to people, or talk bad, things like that. Or if there are people killing snakes, etc. That destruction, that destruction, talking bad, bad expressions, those kinds of things will lead to guilt. If you talk bad about somebody, your mind gets polluted first, before it pollutes the outside world. Those kinds of things affect the mind. The mind is like a reflector. The mind reflects what you are. That automatically affects the blood flow and the skin. This is the cycle, and snake represents that. Because snake sheds skin, right? So that’s it.

Q: Some people suggest that in 2026 that apparently Prema Sai will reveal? Do you know anything about it?

Mohanji: I don’t know anything about it. Even if I do know, I don’t talk about it. Because any incarnation which has to glow like a sun will happen. Why are we in a hurry?

The thing is that our mind likes to go to the future too much and ignores the present. I also do not endorse any of my past lives – people have written about my past lives. I never endorse that because it doesn’t matter to me. What I was in a past life has no value, because this is my life now. I will die as Mohanji. So if I can’t do anything with this body in this life, there’s no use. Likewise, there are great incarnations right now, and there will be incarnations in the future, for one reason – Dharma, preservation of Dharma. So for that matter, it will come and we have seen that with Sathya Sai Baba. Baba has been powerful, very, very powerful. And also, I don’t believe that that such beings ever leave. Because as I explained yesterday, when you conglomerate and become one unit, then there is nothing to leave. Because from that position, you can only expand. While living itself, they expand. What are the signs? They appear in places. They do so many things. That means they are operating from an expanded consciousness.

What happens at the time of samadhi? The body is left but as a point of contact. Typical example is Shirdi Sai Baba. He left his body a hundred years ago. Today, you see how many people visit Shirdi, millions. And they all get results. People go to Sathya Sai samadhi and get results. But then we can’t really contain that aspect, it means Baba is everywhere. But we still like to go to places where Baba used to be. I’m not against it. I’m not even saying this is right or wrong. I’m nobody to say that. But the human mind is such that you know, you go. Somebody asked me if this was right? I said that if good things are happening, everything is right. If good things are not happening, everything is wrong. If it is something positive, regenerative and kind, it’s good. Whoever does it, it doesn’t matter who. Anybody doing it, is good. So I’m not against it. But I’m talking only about that human mind, we do everything to keep the mind alive. And in all philosophies, we say dissolve the mind, only then you start connecting to the absolute truth.With the mind you can only understand the relative truth. You and me. Because you sit there, that is a separation but consciousness-wise, you and I have no separation. To see that consciousness, the ether that connects us, you have to go beyond your mind. But when you’re chasing all these things, like people, personalities… like I’ll tell you, when after I die, if a lot of people sit and cry, I will feel miserable. You know why? It will mean they have not understood my teachings. You know that this incarnation that I have taken is for a particular reason.

Each of us, everybody, has taken this incarnation for some reason. And once this is done, we leave the body, there’s no tragedy about it. It’s like we have taken a car for a purpose. Once the purpose is done, we give the car back. Naturally, if you say that you won’t give the car back, the car’s owner will catch you. Or you rent a house. You say, “I like this house, I’m not going.” We often see that happening. Right? Then it’s a legal case. Because the owner will say, “I want the house” and you will say, “I won’t give it to you”. So it doesn’t work in real terms.

We will all leave the body and it is not a problem. It shouldn’t be a problem.

And incarnations I mean, avatars. Avatars do happen, they must happen. Why? Because of preservation of Dharma. Only one cause. Krishna came for that. Rama came for that. Everybody came for that. And they went through the rigors of it. And when did we recognize them? Usually after their death. While living we can’t see them, because they have a form. They have expressions, so they say, “I have expression, I have a form, I’m the same as him.” But after they leave and continue to work, then we realize that this was an avatar. For example Shirdi Sai Baba. There are so many possibilities. Dattatreya has taken many avatars, Sripada Srivallabha, Narasimha Saraswathi, Akkalkot Swami, Manik Prabhu. You know, Shirdi Sai Baba, Tembe Swami – they are all Datta Avatars. He keeps coming back time and again, in various bodies for the purpose of preservation of Dharma, but Datta remains the same. He is still powerful, he is active. That’s the point. Each incarnation, especially a powerful incarnation is only for the purpose of giving you a point of contact, an image to connect, so that you could plug in, and so you could integrate, that’s the only reason. So if another Avatar comes, people will connect to that avatar. There’ll be many avatars at the same time. Datta has also had many avatars. Akkalkot Swami and Shirdi Sai Baba lived at the same time. Akkalkot Swami was slightly older, and when Akkalkot Swami left his body, part of his soul went and merged into the tree and part of the soul went and merged with Shirdi Sai Baba. Afterwards, when Akkalkot Swami’s disciples were coming to Akkalkot Swami’s samadhi, he said, “I live in Shirdi, go there.” They went, looked at Baba, and they saw Swami.

So what is all this drama? I’m not discouraging or encouraging. My point is that do not ever get deluded by external forms, including this form. I will leave the body at some point in time. I’m here only for a certain purpose. So all these forms have a purpose, and we will just do our job, and we will vanish. That’s about it. So there’s nothing greater or nothing lesser than anything in this. What do you want? What do you have to do? You have to dissolve your mind as much as possible and become empty. And then God fills it. See, this book I’m talking about that I’m writing now,  Silence of Shiva, is finished already. The first part in it is Brahmacharya. In that part, the only thing that guru was teaching the disciple was to empty, unlearn and delete. And then he made the disciple to empty completely. Then the guru just filled in and left. So that’s it, there’s nothing to tell this disciple, because he was already that. There’s nothing to give from guru, all the guru did was hold the hands, held them, and delete, and delete, and delete, and delete, and finally you became empty, God filled in, then you are everything.

That is what we were explaining in the morning. The human form is not all human. We have a form but we are not really human always, not these people, but another people. So to be human is to have the ability to share, live together, conglomerate. But when you become a saint-human, you need to have the perfect awareness that you belong to nothing, nothing belongs to you. That awareness should be clear. It means I own nothing, and nobody owns me. It should stabilize, when that understanding stabilizes then you’re a saint-human. Nobody belongs to anybody. Nothing belongs to you, nor do you belong to anybody. You’re everybody’s everything. Then you become a God-human. That state is when you know or you experience, that you are everything, that there’s nothing apart from you, you are stabilized already. So these are the states. Being human is a state where you’re able to share, you’re able to love, you can express even some kind of unconditional love. That’s about it. Then you have to progress to a saint-human, where you’re clear. Clear means absolutely clear with conviction, that nobody can own you, nor can you own anything. That nothing can own you, means the possessions, places, time, people nothing owns you. Neither do you own anything. So that stabilizes, and then you progress towards becoming God-human. That’s the state when you absolutely know, and experience every moment that you are everything. Every being around is you, all your reflection. At that time, you will actually feel the heartbeat of every leaf, every cell, this is a state of that level. This is the progression.

So in this, why are we chasing human incarnations? Just to understand the state. I am not Mohanji, I’m the state called Mohanji. If that is not understood, then there is no point. You can recognize my image, but what is that? Okay, good to know people. But apart from that, what does this image mean? Unless this is translated into a state – okay, this is Mohanji, just a state. And that’s a state I’m connecting to, or I’m aspiring to. Good enough, then we have a clear roadmap. That’s why I’m saying when we chase gurus, I always wonder why you’re chasing. Gurus run away. And we chase them. (Laughter) That’s the fundamental non-understanding, right? Because the mind loves activity. And the mind wants activity, the mind clings to activity. That mind survives, you don’t survive. This is the mind’s game. The mind is playing the game to keep you in activity.

Q: I was wondering, what I can do when I get angry? Do you ever get angry?

(Laughter)

Mohanji: I think we are all a mixture, right? We have everything. And anger is one of your expressions. Anger is not you anyway. And you’re not angry all the time. Whatever is not permanent, is not you completely. That’s part of you. We all have anger, we all have everything the world has. So let us say that we are fine with everything.

First and foremost, the anger aspect is sustained because we tend to fight it, “I shouldn’t be angry.” So it stays. Because whenever you resist something, it persists. It stays on. Whenever you attend to something or whichever seed you pour water on, it grows. Sometimes you don’t pour water on some seeds, you don’t even know there is a seed like that, we don’t nurture it, then it doesn’t grow. But sometimes we pour water on something without knowing like, “I’m aware that I’m angry,” even though it is only one aspect of your total existence, that’s the aspect which bothers you. So you become more and more aware of it, and in turn you energize it more. Anger becomes happy, meaning the aspect of the mind which entertains anger, becomes happy. And anger has always a root: expectation. Expectation is the root of anger. You look at: it doesn’t happen by itself. There is a residual anger. Residual anger is that somebody talked bad to me. So whenever I see that person, I tend to become angry. That is because I have a memory connected to the person and his potential, or his past response. Apart from that, the usual anger is from expectations. You know, if I expect something from you and you don’t deliver it, I become angry. For example, sometimes we expect things from the government and government behaves in a different way due to whatever reason, then we become very upset, angry. All this situational stuff means there is an external factor which is causing this internal situation. If you’re able to see through these two, the intensity of anger goes down.

And don’t take anger as an isolated state. It’s just one of your states. This is part of you. Anger is one of your children – okay, you’re also sitting with me. So no problem, you come to terms with it, first of all. And then once you are not against it, it loses its impact. Every emotion, whatever you suppress, or whatever you fight, stays longer. Whatever you allow naturally to flow, it comes and goes. And later on, what happens is that when anger happens, you will express it, but you will not feel it. It means you will express it in an angry way. If you don’t do this, I will do this. But inside, you’re still peaceful, because you’re coming to terms with it. So, every particle called you should be accepted fully as part of your incarnation; nothing is right, and nothing is wrong.

There’s nothing right or wrong in the karmic world. What is wrong is something which binds you further to Earth, and then it is not good for you. Because it creates more of such events. For example, you did something very harmful for the world or to the people. And then a group of people’s energy gets bound to that activity. So, you’re creating a trend there for example, for destruction of some kind – you can see that in the society. People plant bombs and blow them up that kill people and destroy families. All these things leave a mark in this whole life. It’s difficult to get redemption and come out of it. Therefore I would say that you should not enter into any violence in thoughts, words and action. But we must just allow all the other things which are happening within to happen at the same time. We must understand that that’s not us completely. That’s part of us. And that’s okay.

Q: Yeah, no, it just seems so anti-social. Right. (Laughter)  And it seems like there’s acceptable anger (Laughter) and there’s unacceptable anger, things like bombs. So I didn’t know if there’s a meditation or something that you can recommend.

Mohanji: Yeah, it needs to be handled practically by serving the most underprivileged. You know, when you feel agitated and angry with something, go out and serve the most underprivileged, the ones suffering the most. It will get washed away. That’s the best meditation. By sitting in meditation you will only be thinking about anger. That will reinforce it. Instead, go out and you help the poorest, the most underprivileged. Immediately the love will overwhelm you and your anger will be washed away. The antidote to anger is love. Practical. Not theoretical.

Speaker: Thank you.

Q: We are talking about being human and being god-human…

Mohanji: Saint-human is the second one.

Q: So, the shift in that consciousness, is that a natural process? Or is there something you can do to make happen, or…?

Mohanji: No, I just told you about the roadmap. This is normal evolutionary process. They say that, in evolutionary beings, that means, beings taking birth and evolving to a level of human, to do that it takes thousands of lifetimes literally to become, or to get a human body, human form. The advantage of the human form is the ability to understand the absolute truth instead of the relative truth. The relative truth is always the truth based on a situation or a person.

One example of relative truth is to imagine that three people are standing here, one person is five-foot, one person six-foot and one person seven. The five-foot person will say, “These two people are taller than me.” And the six-foot person will say, “This guy is taller than me.” So, each person is right. Or one guy will say, “This guy is shorter than me.” Each person is right in their own way, but it is a relative truth. Nobody is absolutely tall nor absolutely short. Absolute truth means it cannot change through time. That’s absolute truth.

With the human consciousness, you have the potential to touch that absolute truth. That is the advantage of human existence. However, most people do not know it because we are coming out of the relative truth level and we are coming up very very slowly . We’re surfacing to the top. So this relative truth is kind of a habitual thing for us – we know it already, because all of our lives we have experienced it.

It is said that once you take a human body for the first time (raw human), then it takes about 5,000 lifetimes before you become human-human. Approximately that is all, nobody has counted (laughter) but approximately 5,000 lifetimes before you become a human-human. Then it takes about another 700 lifetimes from a human level to become a saint human  or somebody who is completely aware that nothing belongs to me nor I belong to anything. Then it takes about 70 lifetimes more before you become a god-human who knows “I’m everything – Aham Brahmasmi, I am God, I am everything.” This is the usual process they say. Thus this is spontaneous evolution.

And where is the problem then? How do you regress? This is the usual progress and if you’re leading a normal life, slowly, slowly you’re progressing this way. But then when does the regression happen in this? When you do unkind acts, when you talk bad, do bad things, etc. Then the frequency goes down, frequencies reduce. When frequency is reduced, you take birth in that level next time. That’s why the proximity to masters is always respected in that order. Because when you are deeply integrated with a powerful Master, the deviation will be less. The chance to fall will be less since you will be integrated with the consciousness all the time. So, your focus is clear and then at least from that level you can take off. And the job of a Master is only to take you until your mind is dissolved, to Nirvichara or no-thought state. That’s a state when you become a Master. Then there’s no coming back. So there’s no return. So, this is the usual way. Roadmap.

Q: On the roadmap, what challenges could you expect to face and how could they be overcome?

Mohanji: Challenges are two ways: one is external from people, from situations, from expectations, all those things. Internal are your concepts, phobias, your fears and those kinds of things. These two are enemies, both are enemies on the path. I told you earlier in the program, one friend gifted another friend a lamb… Do I have to repeat the story?

Audience: Yes… (Laughter)

A Story of Two Friends and a Lamb

Mohanji: It’s a fable. Everybody knows this fable. One guy gave a lamb to a friend saying, “This will be useful to you,” with kindness, and a lot of love. And he was taking this lamb home. Four thieves saw this and decided they should have this lamb. They spoke between themselves and said, “We will get this lamb.”

One guy asked, “How do you get it? We will steal?”

“No, he will leave the lamb. We will make him drop the lamb and go. So, we can pick it up.”

Then they worked out a plan. Four of them sat on the way and one guy asked, “Where are you taking this dog?”

The man said, “This is not a dog, this is a lamb. Can’t you see?”

One of the thieves replied, “To me it looks like a dog. Maybe it’s a lamb, but I don’t know, it looks like a dog to me.”

And then things started happening in the man’s mind already. He walked further, when another guy asked, “Oh, nice dog where did you get this, where did you buy it?”

He said, “It’s not a dog. It’s a lamb! Can’t you see?”

The thief replied, “I thought it’s a dog.”

After the second guy, the man’s mind already started to work wonders. Next the third guy said the same thing, “Amazing dog, would you like to sell it?” (Laughter).

The man thought, “What’s wrong with all these people!? Either I am blind or everybody is blind!”

However, by then his mind was already saying that this friend of his had cheated him, saying it was a lamb, “I don’t know how I got fooled. Maybe at that time, I didn’t look.” And he was looking and it looked like a lamb. (Laughter)

Then the fourth guy said, “Oh, amazing dog!” (Group laughter)

He dropped the lamb, cursed the friend, and walked away. He said, “I will not meet this guy again.”

This happens in our spiritual pursuit. We would probably have a lamb in our hand but when the fourth person says that’s not the right practice, that’s not the right Guru, he is a very bad Guru or it’s a very bad practice, a very bad tradition, we will change our mind. This is one of the most detrimental things in the spiritual path. We go after popular masters, popular time-tested things, but we forget one thing: by birth, you are unique, you are authentic, you are original. So how can there be a general medicine? Something which suits you is what you should follow.

How do you know what suits you?

Something which you can do without effort, that is your benchmark. Some activity which is natural for you to perform. Something which is forced, compelled, or it’s a pressure for you to perform, is not yours. It’s not good for you. So one of the main problems in the spiritual journey is this trap. People say, “Are you sure this is what you want to do?” And even if we are progressing, we will think that is not true.

One example is people read a lot of books on Kundalini awakening. (Laughter) And they are all crazy about Kundalini. You know Kundalini awakening is ecstasy. But because all these concepts are filled into the mind, the whole thing gets distorted. And you know what? When you are not ready for the awakening of Kundalini, and you jump-started the kundalini shakti energy, this three and a half coiled serpent (that’s also one of the aspects of serpent) progresses to the top which is its natural expression. To meet Shiva. Shakti’s natural seat is with Shiva. Whether you like it or not, Kundalini will rise. When will it rise? When your karmic weight is less. That is why we are doing pilgrimages, we’re going to Kailash.  We’re going to various places so that our karmic weight is dropped, reduced. Because our karmic weight is not just our weight, it comes from the lineage also. So we go to places, we do worship… Why are we doing all these pujas, all these things here? To wash and wash and wash, clean and reduce the weight. So when that happens after a lot of effort, it automatically rises.

But when we jumpstart it, what happens is it either goes to the moon or to the sun side. If it goes to the moon side (through Ida), there is depression, tamas, anger, etc. If it goes to the sun side (through Pingala), there is madness, hyperactivity, restlessness, etc.

Therefore, it has to rise beautifully, peacefully and when you stabilize, for which you need to give it time, you need to reduce the karmic weight, you should be deeply integrated into a good master, a stable master – somebody who has stabilized. Then it becomes the master’s job to take you there.

Thus it’s not possible to read the books and do all these things. We must understand. So much of information congestion is not good. It means you eat a lot of knowledge. Mind gets clogged. It really affects you because you are filled with concepts and undigested food. And indigestion happens with undigested food. Just like when you overeat and can’t sleep well. The same thing here.

One is people’s opinions.

When I was practicing for four or five years, even when I met Devi, I never told her what I was practicing, she did not even know that I was doing some practice. I never used to tell people, it used to be my private space. I used to meditate, I used to do my stuff from 3am to 8am. My practice was very simple: connecting to the spine. Well, when I’m walking, I am feeling the spine, when I’m talking, I’m feeling the spine. Automatically your dimension changes when you’re connected to the spine. We are usually front oriented, right? That means all our senses are in the front and we tend to operate in the front. 120 degrees from ear to ear. But then the 240 degrees are missing. So when you’re always aware of the spine and you’re connecting to the spine, the breath becomes vertical, and your awareness becomes vertical. It just keeps going and then it stabilizes, so there’s nothing to tell people. If I had spoken to people, they would have given me 15 opinions or even a hundred opinions saying, “You should do it this way or you should do it that way.”

Now when I give something to people, I understand the person and give – I don’t give something just like that. So we tend to take something from other people and like the sheep became a dog in the story here, so many people make us dogs, even though we are a sheep, we wouldn’t know (laughter). And once you drop the sheep, then it takes time. So, people deviate from the path and they don’t know what to do. Being realistic is very important.

Furthermore, you should always look within and talk to yourself, “Is this comfortable for me? Is it making me fine and stable? It’s okay.” If it is not making you fine and stable, then drop it. Don’t say it’s okay. Moreover, understand that we are all individuals and we have to go through the processes.

Like I was talking today. I was discussing with Swami Surya about the programs here. Very systematic programs. I asked, “Why did Guru Subramanian create this program this way?” The main purpose is concentration, you are all concentrated, focused, focused, focused on one thing.

What happens when you focus, concentrate on one thing?

That energy becomes you or you connect to that energy consistently. In usual life we don’t do that right? Here one by one, there is no time to think or there is no time to reflect. Just keep doing. So, Mahavatar Babaji has said the same thing, concentration has to be stabilized before you progress. It’s the same principle: you focus on one thing over and over and over and over, then it becomes… See, that’s when the mind gets beaten, the mind gets bored, “I’m bored. Are you doing the same thing? Why can’t you do something else?” Once you cross over the tedium, then the mind starts dropping. That’s a technique in the Vedic tradition. You repeat it, repeat it , repeat it, and the mind gets dropped. Mind has to drop off, mind cannot be thrown away. Mind doesn’t go that way. So one of the methods is that you repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, the mind become really agitated, angry, it shouts at you, then it will walk out. That’s a technique.

Everything has a purpose.  When a Guru gives something, he gives with clear purpose, “This is what you should do.” And then the system is made in that way, that the people connected also come into focus, into one channel. Discipline is very, very important. When there is discipline, nobody can really take you for a ride. Nobody can push you from your path. Discipline is very important. And concentration is important. These two things are achieved with these activities of the day. We need to understand what makes it happen. Otherwise, it’s all people’s opinions and whose opinions? Opinions of minds that have not found the truth. This is the beauty of it. Most people who give opinions have no idea what they’re talking about. And those who really know will not talk. (Laughter). You see.

One benchmark, I will tell you: if somebody criticizes somebody, understand they are minds. That’s why when people criticize about somebody, I always tell them, “This is very precious information, you have worked hard to get it, keep it with you. Don’t give anything precious outside, I don’t want it. You know, I don’t take anything, anything precious from anybody, you would have worked hard to get this bad information about somebody? Why do I need it?” So, prevention is very important.

We should believe in ourselves. At the end of the day, it’s you, you and you, whether you are rising or you are falling. That is why if that factor is not understood, nobody else has any responsibility over it. Nobody else can. Because all are individuals that we can call husband, wife, son, father, mother, this is okay. That’s all in the social structure. But are you an individual or not? You are an individual, your growth is pertaining to you.

Q: You spoke about consuming knowledge, making sure it is not congestion. Yeah, I’m studying Sanskrit. And so, I’m consuming this type of knowledge. How do I make sure it doesn’t become purely congested?

Mohanji: If you are learning Sanskrit, Upanishads have clarified it very beautifully. They said what you can digest is good enough, that means when you consume something as a theory, it remains a theory. It’s good that you’re learning Sanskrit, because you can directly understand the mind or the expression of the people who uttered it or explained it. So that’s better, not an interpretation. That’s an advantage.

If you crush all the scriptures of Upanishads into one glass of juice, it’s called Tatvamasi. You are that. That’s what I was explaining. It’s you, you and you. So, every Upanishad that you put together says, “You are that” and then from there, this journey starts. The journey starts to find out “Who am I?”

Then we ask the questions:

Who am I?

What am I?

Why am I?

These questions are asked so that you start going within, these are the drills drilling the holes into ourselves. Then you start going within and realize,

Am I the mind?

Aadi Shankara said right:

Mano buddhyahankaara chittaani naaham

Na cha shotrajihve na cha ghraananetre

Na cha vyomabhoomir na tejo na vaayuh

Chidaananda roopah shivoham shivoham

That awareness is the final. That’s the end of the story. Starting with you are that. Gurus’ job is only that. Gurus say “Welcome” and “What is truth? You are that.” Gurus’ job is over. Then YOU have to find out, “Am I the mind? Am I the intellect? Am I the body? Am I the ego? Am I the Spirit? Am I the things which I am connected to? Am I the relationships I’m connected to?” All these questions, and then you come to a place where you start thinking “This is what I am.” That becomes your meditation. Wherever the mind stays longer, that is meditation. Not what you think meditation is. Mind establishes itself on something for some time. Right? That’s meditation. From point to point to point your meditation increases. Minds get stuck here for some time, then, “Oh no, this is not me,” mind goes elsewhere. This is in the beginning, then it all gets connected, “I am this, I am that and I am that further…” So, expansion starts. Like this, you progress. In that mode, whatever you have eaten will all dissolve. Only remember one thing, whatever you have consumed from outside, cannot stay inside. Either it goes out or it dissolves.

Whatever comes from inside, stays forever. So true knowledge is knowledge that happens from within. For that, you need to be totally empty, to unlearn. Until you reach there, you can use this knowledge. Until you reach yourself, use the knowledge. Once you reach yourself, you don’t need this knowledge. That’s why all practices, all knowledge and all Gurus are only until you become that – everything. That’s why I keep saying that I am not the ultimate, you are the ultimate. I have repeated many times, “If you like me or dislike me, there’s no problem. But if you don’t like yourself, there is a problem. If you hate me there’s no problem but if you hate yourself, there’s a problem.” So, integration is very important. Integration into yourself as a full incarnation. From there you start growing. Every practice is to reach a stage of no practice. Initially you need all this, all the practices, all the knowledge, but with a clear awareness that this is a boat to cross over. After you cross over, why would you need the boat? If you want to carry the boat, it is fine (laughter), but other people will have a problem.