Mohanji’s wisdom – Satsang in the Netherlands: July 2023 | Mohanji
Setting the context for the Satsang
Kannaih: “Sairam Mohanji. Thank you again for being with us for a third time. I’m saying this today because it’s extremely important that you came all the way to be with us. I asked you, probably a couple of months ago, to come again, and within a couple of seconds, you replied, “Yes, I’ll come; definitely, I’ll come.” That made our hearts jump, and you’re even bringing Devi with you today, so we have double joy today.
To have satsang is something which is slowly changing people into a different consciousness. We had a beautiful talk this morning, and the bracelets that we gave to everybody are actually your teachings in a nutshell. It gives everything; everything is in there. It’s the essence, and actually, that’s what’s really striking us – to be really you, to really love yourself as you are. It’s a challenge; we always think that we’re not good enough.
On Mondays, after Rudrabhishekam, this is the first thing I tell people here always “You’re okay; you’re good.” But do I ask myself if I’m okay? Probably I’m almost thinking to myself, ‘I’m not always okay,’ and I become insecure. This morning you told me it has many layers. It has a big depth to go into ‘being you.’ That’s a total acceptance of whatever you are, as being ‘you,’ as the divine you. That’s quite a concept.
We compare; we think we’re better than others, or we discard ourselves. We think of ourselves as small, fat, thin, large, black, and all kinds of judgements about ourselves. But if you can understand that ‘being you’ is the best they could give you, that’s the diamond the divine has given you; it’s ‘being you.’ I shall introduce a great master here in this temple who can speak elaborately and, as a hollow flute, give us the answers that we need. Mohanji is the hollow flute giving us answers to any questions we have. “Mohanji, please enlighten us with your answers.”
A brief description of Raja Yoga
Mohanji: I’ll take from where Kannaih stopped. See, one of the major reasons why we cannot accept ourselves is because we believe other people’s opinions about ourselves. We think they are true. We listen to other people, what they say about us, and we decide that it’s true. So, what happens here is a disconnection with ourselves. It’s very important; probably, you should explain a little bit about Raja Yoga; that saves me from that.
Kannaih: Raja Yoga is the royal path. The path that doesn’t have any boundaries and includes all the paths – Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, everything is included in Raja Yoga. Everything is there; it means whatever you are, whatever you feel, and whatever expression you have, is an expression of the divine. If you look at it that way, everything becomes a divine act. There’s nothing like wrong or right. In Raja Yoga, you work out all your desires; you don’t fight the desires. You see them, experience them, and you go beyond.
Mohanji: All you do is keep your focus on where you want to go. That’s all; that’s it. That’s the path.
Faith and stability
Question: Dearest Mohanji, how can I consciously develop faith? On an unconscious level, karma and/or faith brought me here. There’s also free will in play – my desire to meet a living teacher in the flesh.
Mohanji: First is, how do I develop faith? Well, normally, we’ve been trained to have faith in something outside. We always think about something outside, connect to something outside, and we must have faith in something outside. But along with that faith, we develop a kind of expectation. We say, “Okay, I have faith in this, but I must get this.” What happens, then? If it doesn’t work, you’ll automatically have disappointment. After disappointment, estrangement, confusion and separation. So, what’s the right place to keep your faith? In yourself.
Have you heard of the book called ‘I am That’? Whatever you see outside, there’s something similar inside. Whenever you think about faith in bhakti, there’s faith in any object, any God or any deity outside. Again, where’s that deity, that frequency resonating from? See, if your frequency doesn’t match that frequency, you’ve no connection. Since your frequency is connecting with that frequency, you have an experience, right?
That’s why we worship Krishna, Shiva, Buddha, or Jesus – whoever you connect to outside and is resonating with you inside. That’s why you’re connecting. You cannot connect to something for which you don’t have a frequency match. Am I right?
Kannaih was talking about the Raja Yoga path. This path is about stabilising and settling down within. Stabilising and settling down inside so that everything outside is connected to you, and you see it like that. I can tell you a living example. In the new book called ‘Baba’, there’s a mention of a master called Vasudevan Swami.
He was bent and old; he couldn’t see well, and his prayer was, “Krishna, I haven’t seen you for a long time. Now I’m old; I may not be able to see you”, and Krishna appeared. There was no prayer. He was just thinking, you know, and how did that manifestation happen? Because you are one with that frequency already. Why? Because it’s already one with you.
When you’re stable inside, whatever you want to see outside will happen; it’ll manifest. You become everything once you settle down inside, within. That’s the power of the Raja Yoga path. You can’t even begin to understand how powerful it can be. There’s nothing external, like, why we’re connecting to something outside is because eyes are mostly for the outside world. The nose, ears and everything are focused on the world outside. So, we are automatically connected to the world outside, and we don’t have any reason to connect to the world inside in daily life.
When you’re stable inside, whatever you want to see outside will happen; it’ll manifest. You become everything once you settle down inside, within. That’s the power of the Raja Yoga path.– Mohanji
Self-trust is a must
Developing faith in yourself is very important. Developing trust in yourself is very important because if you cannot trust yourself, you cannot trust life. You cannot trust any incidents of life, any meetings, partings, or any experience of life; you can’t trust because the first trust and the final trust are with you.
Essentially, we are alone; we’re born alone and die alone. In this journey called life, we have various experiences, meetings, partings or experiences together. All these things are connected to only one matter, an experience called life. We’re here only to experience this world as life for a duration of time, between birth and death. So, if you understand that clearly, who can you trust? Only you.
How do you start trusting yourself? Where’s the beginning? Your breathing. Do you trust your breathing? This is one. Secondly, you’re waking up. Feel your waking up in the morning, brushing your teeth or doing various things. Everything you do, just pay a little bit of attention; start doing that. Tell me what normally happens when you get up. Yeah, you’re already thinking about what you’ve got to do that day. Am I right? That’s exactly the disconnection I’m talking about.
From then on, the whole day goes into disconnection, and then we have artificial motivation, like coffee or tea or things just to push us forward. That’s called neglect – neglecting your original state. You need something artificial; you got input to have an output. So just paying attention to you, on a general basis, not even focused on an activity, but generally, ‘Okay, I’m now talking to somebody’, just feel that for a few seconds; then ‘Okay, now I’m in the train’, ‘I’m going from one place to another.’ Feel that; don’t think about where you’re going or what you’re going to do. That’s all different; don’t think in futuristic terms. That feeling of ‘being in the train’ – feel it.
Please remember – satisfaction isn’t sitting with anything outside. It’s what’s sitting inside that satisfies. So, having faith in yourself is very important; trust in yourself is so important. Trusting other people isn’t so important. It’s not that important, but we easily say, ‘Okay, I trust that person; I like him, or I trust him.’ That’s kind of an escape thing. I don’t trust myself, so I trust another person. That’s why people get manipulated, cheated etc., because if you trust in yourself, nobody can shake you. This is the Raja Yoga path.
Meanwhile, like we had amazing bhajans now, you know, these kinds of things are good because they bring you to that time and space. You aren’t scattered at that time, right? While you’re singing, chanting, and involved, you’re fully there. These activities are good, provided they take you to that. Now, the same thing happens in the office. You’re sitting at the desk, and then automatically, you multitask. That means you aren’t concentrating on anything or anywhere. You’re just doing things as you already know.
The second point is to engage in activities where you can be there, not that you sing bhajans all the time; it won’t work. But once in a while, stay focused on that time, an activity which brings you to that time. That’s what, as Kannaiah said, there’s Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge path), and Karma (selfless service); it’s all involved in Raja Yoga.
Suppressed desires: a volcano in the making
As per your orientation of the time, not your permanent orientation, you can engage in that, provided you’re aware that you’re everything. You’re always aware you’re the consciousness doing all these things. So, you aren’t detaching from anything, no suppression, no denial, because what happens if you deny something? What happens if you suppress a desire? What’ll happen? Tell me. It becomes more; it increases its momentum. Yeah, it becomes like a volcano.
Also, this is the third point I said: don’t suppress; you know, just allow it to express. How do you express it? With attention, regulated expression. Not like indulgence or taking a plunge where you’re unconsciously doing it. But, if you’re aware of the expression, your mind is there; you’re in charge of that expression; it goes away because the steam goes off.
Violence and intoxication: a strict no-no
I normally don’t say anything is wrong in life or that any subject matter isn’t allowed. I never say. Two things I like to bring to your attention. One is violence. Why is violence wrong? Because its expense is huge, it’s very expensive. When you’re violent towards somebody, it costs a lot of time. Time is the money of life, remember. So, when you spend your time against something or somebody, it’s expensive. It’s a pricy, costly thing.
The second is intoxication. Why is intoxication bad? For liberation, intoxication is bad because we are trying to be conscious, and intoxication makes us unconscious. It’s the opposite of what we are trying to do. That’s why it won’t help. Anything hallucinative or anything that makes you not be in the present, not using this time well, the present time well, isn’t good because that’s what you’re trying to do.
You’re trying to be in the present. While you’re having intoxication, it completely eclipses that time, that present. So, I normally tell people to be careful about these two things. One is intoxication; the other is violence in thoughts, expressions, and actions.
There are two things you should never take seriously. One is the opinion about you by others (others’ opinion about you). The second is your opinion about yourself because you could be terribly prejudiced about yourself. Even if others do not judge you, you judge yourself, right? Is it a reality? Yes or no?
Don’t judge yourself ever. Other people may forget to judge you, but you’ll never forget it. What happens when you judge yourself? Disconnection happens. Here we’re talking about a firm connection, you know, a connection that’ll never fade. Feel that you’re breathing, alive, and active all the time.
There are two things you should never take seriously. One is the opinion about you by others (others’ opinion about you). The second is your opinion about yourself because you could be terribly prejudiced about yourself.– Mohanji
Addiction to the mobile phone
Can you tell me what’s causing one of the major difficulties in today’s time to have a connection with yourself? One word. Mobile phone. The mobile phone is actually taking a lot of your time and influencing you; it’s giving you addiction. The largest addiction in the world today is the mobile phone, and it’s serious because nobody realises it’s an addiction. That’s the main problem. Can you detach from your mobile phone completely? Not practical. So, be aware and then do things which aren’t related to phone addiction, and do it.
We don’t meet people, and it’s very difficult for us to talk to people because people don’t like to see faces. They like the screens because you can switch them off. That’s exactly where we’re disconnected, again disconnection from reality – truth. But we can’t avoid any of these things. Please don’t think I won’t check the mobile phone from tomorrow onwards. It’s not possible. Your work will suffer; life will suffer. One thing in the path of Raja Yoga you should always remember. You have to be in the time, with the time; that’s how time is. It’s not an ideal situation to be in a cave. Are you with me on this?
How do you handle the mobile phone, then? You should invent time for eye contact and talking – spending time without a phone. There are some cafeterias I saw now that have ‘Do not use your mobile phones. Talk to people’ written there. This is the point when you really want to talk to your father, mother, or children – use that time to talk so that that time becomes meaningful. This is ‘connecting’ with you, with yourself. Earlier, I talked about disconnection; now, I’m talking about connection.
We can talk a lot about this thing, but I think you understand what I’m saying, right? Trust in yourself is very important. Having faith in other things if you can, and any connection outside should be for your upliftment. Otherwise, it’s not worth it. I’m not trying to tell you to be opportunistic; that’s not good. What I’m saying is that you have a time, a limited time on earth, right – with this body. How much time do you have on the earth? Not a lot of time, isn’t it? If you’re living for 80 years, that’s 29,200 days. Not too much time; not a lot of time.
Time is supremely prime
While you are on earth, be aware that time is the money of the earth. The currency of life is time; spend time well. The currency ‘in the hand’ isn’t that important. That’ll come and go. Maybe you’ll become very rich, or maybe you don’t have money; that’s all different, but the contentment factor or satisfaction factor is connected to how well you spend your time. Many people believe that spending money the right way, investing etc. makes you happy. No, not really.
It gives you a bit of, kind of adrenaline that ‘Oh, I invested well; returns are coming,’ but after a while, you will not feel anything. A person who is extremely rich never feels the ‘value’ of money because there is enough money, but with time well spent, that satisfaction is different. Your right investment is investing time well; that’s the right investment.
What you do with your time tells what you are. What tells ‘what’ you are is the right investment of time. As I said earlier, the priorities should be very clear. Priority like, for example, ‘quality relationships’ is a good priority; having a good relationship. A good relationship is a supporting relationship. We normally try to have a relationship with those who don’t care about us. We try our best to make them happy so that they love us, and eventually, they don’t love us, and then we are disappointed. How many times this happens in life, isn’t it?
Those who love us, we ignore them. We chase those who don’t love us, and we try our best to please them so that they love us, and finally, they don’t care whatever you do. They don’t love you, and eventually, time is wasted. That feels like a big loss. People have committed suicide because of that disappointment. So, who should you be with? Those who care for you, so you are satisfied, and they are satisfied. If you have only a few relationships and if they are all reciprocating, life will be beautiful. It’ll be like a garden.
People who don’t care about you, give them their space; allow them to be themselves. Don’t try to prove that you’re amazing and make them love you; they may not love you anyway. Don’t ever think that your children are your investment. Parents often bring up children, thinking they’ll look after them later. They have their own lives, and they’ll go away, and then, full of disappointments, ‘I wasted my time for them; they aren’t looking after me.’ This kind of relationship isn’t good.
You do what’s best for them while you can and allow them to be free. You live your life, and whatever comes, take it as a bonus. You’ll have deep contentment and satisfaction. Are you with me on this?
Precious pearls of wisdom
Air and water, if you really want to express gratitude, the best way is not to waste it. Avoid wasting anything, and you’ll feel good. That means a ‘conscious existence.’ You are living consciously.
If you need help, it’s good to ask the person who can help you one time, not two times. If you are asking for help for the same thing and from everybody, what are you asking? You’re asking for sympathy, not help. If you really want help, you’ll talk to the person you know can help one time. See, I’ve got this problem; can you do something about it?
That person, 80 out of 100 times, will help. You know the person’s constitution very well, but if you’re telling the same problem to ten people, you aren’t asking for help. You’re asking for sympathy. Please understand that you are exposing yourself to these kinds of things that disconnect you from yourself.
You know why I’m explaining all these now because, in the Raja Yoga path, it’s not an activity; it’s a lifestyle. That’s why I’m explaining various aspects of it. This is a lifestyle. What do you get when you walk this path with this full awareness of being connected? What will you get? You become a master.
You aren’t a slave to life anymore, and individually, see this as the right thing. All of us are lamps or candles ready to be lit – not because we are so busy with life. We don’t give that time. A master is a lit candle, and when you come close to the ‘lit candle,’ the other candle catches fire by itself. So, it’s not that the master is giving light and then doesn’t have light anymore, isn’t it? It’s like sharing the light that includes many candles in the world, ‘lit candles’ so that the world is brighter.
A master is a lit candle, and when you come close to the ‘lit candle’, the other candle catches fire by itself.– Mohanji
We have so many dimensions, but we don’t ‘see’ them, ‘feel’ them and ‘experience’ them. Why is it so? Because we’re addicted to this personality, that’s why. We’re multi-dimensional beings, but it’s just a theory because we are so addicted to this personality. When you wake ‘yourself’ in the morning, you’re trying to preserve this personality so that you don’t remember or even imagine that there are multiple possibilities for you. Acceptance is very, very critical; self-acceptance – very important. If you don’t accept yourself, you have no future.
Liberation from suffering
Question: Jai Mohanji, how can humanity be liberated from suffering?
Mohanji: Well, first of all, many people don’t know they’re suffering. That’s the beauty of today’s life. Why don’t they know they are suffering? For example, as we’ve said just now, mobile phones are the cause of various problems today.
Domestic violence: I saw a psychological report saying a major cause of domestic violence is the mobile phone. People become angry when they’re disturbed because they’re addicted to their phones, and then they become violent. Sometimes violence becomes terrible violence, and people die.
Likewise, games are a big addiction today. The virtual world is taking over. Are we suffering because of it? We don’t know we’re suffering, right? Now we’re all sitting here; how many of you feel the urge to check your mobile now? See, some of you are, in theory, on the mobile phone already. That’s why I’m saying; this is exactly the point; we don’t know that we’re suffering. We’re happy that the mobile phone is with us.
This is exactly the point I’m saying. Once we know we’re suffering, we can come out of it. Now, time is taking us through the virtual world. Most of the things are virtual now. So first of all, we don’t know we’re suffering and secondly, because we’re disconnected from reality, indifference takes place, right? Indifference happens.
There are incidents of shootings by school children etc. You know, most of these children were addicted to games. In their virtual world, they’re killing people already. Then they got a real gun, and they tried it on people, actual people. They don’t really think about the difference between these two. Who’s to blame? Time is like this.
It’s important for all of us to bring awareness to society. How do you bring awareness? Not by preaching spirituality; it won’t work. Who’ll listen to spiritual talks? Those who are ripe and ready, or those who’re frustrated with life. Not those people who really need a difference, right? Then those people, which means those who’re addicted to certain things, wouldn’t want to listen to anything which will take them away.
An example is – on the cigarette packet, there are terrible pictures of cancer, and it says, ‘It kills you’, but people still smoke. They buy the same packet, don’t look at it and smoke. Everybody says intoxication causes diseases, but still, people use it. So, when the larger society is unconscious, bringing awareness isn’t easy. What’s the best you can do? Tell me.
When you ‘live’ your truth, it can reflect in others – it can, I’ll not say ‘it will.’ When you live your truth, it can reflect in other people, but it should be consistent. When you live your truth, it should be very consistent. If you do something today and then another thing tomorrow, it won’t work. You should be really consistent. You should live your truth all the time, not casually, but realistically.
Ownership, competition and comparison
One of the biggest illusions of today is ownership, or every time – not only today – through generations. Ownership of materials, land, people, and places – ownership is the largest illusion that, in an organised way, is sold from school onwards. Along with ownership is competition, another illusion.
The third illusion is comparison. It’s all interconnected. You own this, or you have a smaller car, and I have a bigger car – so, comparison. Ownership, competition, and comparison – these illusions are marketed in an organised way through schools to children. Instead, imagine a child, like there is a small child here, totally empty and free. She came like that pure.Now society starts putting in things – teachers, religion, society, and everybody putting in things. Also, when they grow up, they grow up under pressure. They have a lot of pressure.
Now there’s no pressure; she is happy. When she is hungry, she’ll tell you that she is hungry. From there, the input is that everybody puts their story or expectations into them, and finally, they can’t breathe. That’s how we are bringing up the new society, but every child is born with uniquetalents. Uniqueness – every child has uniqueness, and that uniqueness, if it’s understood, that child will grow up as a very powerful citizen of the country. All you need is to identify the uniqueness of an individual.
Like Deepak is singing, this talent is there within. So, if you express it, you feel happy. How do you feel if you don’t express it, and tomorrow if somebody says, “You are banned from singing”? Suffocated. That’s exactly how the world is coming. This is what’s causing suffering. When everybody is trying to be whatever their talents are, they’ll excel in what they are.
Question: If you want experience?
Mohanji: You aren’t settled in unity. Just experiencing isn’t good enough. If you’re fully united with yourself, you don’t come back – no unfulfilled desires. If you couldn’t complete something, now you have to. I leave myself to you. Most of our things are superficial, only on the surface, and that’s why we blame God; we blame the Guru. What does the Guru have to do with it?
In the sleep state, you’re worthless. You should have been something else. It all gives you pain and increases the pain. That’s a situation we may not know the reason for, but understand there’s a reason. There’s a cause for every effect. Understand there’s a cause. If you go searching for the cause all the time, you’ll waste time. Keep your pain to yourself; better not to tell other people because what happens is many people become very happy when others are in pain. So, better to keep it to yourself.
Question: What’s the cosmos?
Mohanji: Cosmos – I can give you one answer, a one-sentence answer. It’s pure energy.
Question: How do we make new habits stick with us?
Mohanji: Purpose – have a clear purpose. Whenever you do anything, whether it’s a spiritual practice or even in daily life or the material world, you should have clarity about why you are doing it. If you don’t have clarity, if you’re confused by that, don’t stay. If your purpose is very clear, that becomes the motivation. Everything is like that; the whole life is like that. If you have clarity of purpose, clarity of goal you want to achieve, it’ll stay.
Question: Jai Mohanji, can you please elaborate on what happens when we die?
Mohanji: I’ve explained this in detail in various videos. But anyway, first and foremost, life is a marriage between the gross (the physical) and the subtle (the energy). What’s physical? Body, mind, intellect and ego. It’s a physical frame; subtle is soul, shakti, spirit – those things.
Watch the Satsang here.
Transcribed by Anusha Yennaram
Proofread by Eric Elbers, Suma Dinesh, Sandra Sankar