Those Who Love Me Have Me – part 2

An Interview with Mohanji for Serbian Magazine ONA – part 2

(November 2017)
You can read it in Serbian here.

Heroes of My Mission

Q: Mohanji voluntary clubs exist in 15 countries. How much has their work contributed to You becoming becoming a global phenomenon?

A:  I have never measured how much my work has travelled, in various places based on my teachings organisations have mushroomed and I would like to believe that  it is giving benefit to the local people of those countries. Whatever has any master ever said in the world the understanding levels have always been different. I would like to believe that I have made my teachings in a baby foot format so that everybody understands without distortion, this is what I feel. I sit and clarify points time and again so that people remain with the right understanding, I put a lot of effort in that. Nevertheless all these places, in the 16-17 countries, I’ve never counted. It’s growing, it’s grown by itself and people are benefited. They are practising meditations practising various things like Kriya, healing, Conscious walking, all these things which are all helping somebody in this world. This is the only thing which I look at – are all this activities beneficial? If they are beneficial, I’m happy. If they are not beneficial I tell people not to do them, because whatever you do without any reason, or without any conclusion, or without any purpose is a burden. So I tell people don’t do it. It’s growing and I’m happy to see it growing, I’m not putting any special effort or doing anything specific to make anything grow. Our people have taken it on themselves – the people who love me, the people who feel connected to me, they are putting in the effort to spread the word – and that’s how it’s growing. So on the whole credit I would like to give to the people who are deeply connected to me, they have been inspired and they are spreading the inspiration. It’s the effort of all the people who are selflessly working for this mission without my asking for it. These are the real heroes of this mission.

Q: Before the retreat at Bor Lake you will be staying in Switzerland, then Slovenia, Macedonia and India. Do you like travelling? What do you like to see in most new places?

A: I do not fancy travelling, or I do not foresee travelling. What I do is that when people call or when people say that they would like to be with me or want to see me I do not deny it. From July 2012 onward I have not stayed in one place for more than 10 days. It’s a bit tedious that way, so I can’t say that I’m enjoying all these travels but I travel, if I have to. For the sake of people who call me with love. See, there is one thing which nobody can deny, the effect of love. When somebody calls you with love, nobody can deny it. All of our programs in the world are more or less free, except the retreats in which we have to pay for the resorts and the pilgrimages, where we have to pay for the facilities and the travel. Apart from that all of our programs in the world, all my public Satsangs are free. So it’s not that I would like to go and do it, but when people are getting benefited and they call, I go because this is exactly what I am here for. Otherwise there is no purpose for my existence. The relevance of Mohanji today is the positive changes that he’s making in people’s lives. This is the real purpose of my existence. In order to have that happening, if I have to travel, I travel. It’s not that I foresee a lot of travelling in the future, I don’t. I also believe that I will probably be sitting in one place and people, if interested, will be coming to see me there and we will be talking every evening in a systematic way. All these things are in the mind but until then, if I have to travel, I will travel but that’s not something I’m looking forward to. I love all these places and the people, the main thing about the places are the people sitting there. Their love attracts me to those places, otherwise the whole world is the same. I love the beauty of various countries, the beauty of locations, I love them – it really enchants me. This is all fine but at the end of the day it’s the love of the people that brings me to those places, which I respect. I respect anybody who loves me unconditionally because I feel that this is the highest wealth I have ever earned in this life. The love of the people. Even if somebody hates me I sometimes feel sad, why do you have to hate me? Because I have only love to give… This is the way it goes, all the places I have visited I visited because of the loving people of those places. I think it’ll continue for as long as it takes but I have not kept any agenda.

Q: When do You consider your mission with individuals, with your spiritual disciples, complete? What do you like to read or hear from them? What makes you happy?

A: There is no beginning nor end to the spiritual mission as long as the individuals have spirit. That means as long as they have a soul, there is room for spirituality. Your awareness of your soul is spirituality. The more awareness happens about the soul which is running the show, the more spiritual you are. If you develop awareness more and more about your soul, you are spiritual. As long as there are human beings there will be spirituality and it has nothing to do with religions, nor gurus, nor masters, nor books. This is something internal. The more people are connecting to their inside, to the subtleties, the subtle aspect which is the soul, the more spirituality there will be. My contribution, as I said earlier, is based on time and space. If there are people who like to listen to me, I will talk. If there is nobody to listen to me I won’t talk. I have not kept any agenda about this. I am happy when people come to me. I’m not sad when people don’t come to me. Fortunately that has not happened so far but I do not keep any agenda, nor do I keep people bound to me. I never give fear to people, fear is opposite of liberation. So what I will do in the future, how long I will do in the future, I do not have a direct answer. I can only say – as long as it takes, and as long as the tradition of liberation wants  me  to speak, I will speak. A lot of masters have spoken in the past and a lot of people will speak in the future, while I am alive in the body I will speak. If I have spoken well, probably my teaching will travel beyond time. I don’t know whether it will travel beyond time, nor am I worried about that. Today I am talking and that’s about it, that’s all I can guarantee. Tomorrow what will happen, it’s up to the tradition. If tradition loves what I am doing it’ll keep it alive, if the tradition finds a better master or a better exponent of the tradition it’ll change me. So there is no big deal about it, it has no agenda, no expectation, no worries. We perform it to the best ability today – right now, tomorrow we don’t know. So we will do what we have to do today. It is not pertaining to what others think. Others can think anything they like, as long as our inner space is pure, whatever others think has no value because it is in their mind. Like if somebody hates somebody, the person who hates the other is more contaminated than the one who receives it. I do not abide anything apart from love. When people love me, I respond positively, if somebody hates me, I ignore them. What can I do? Because I don’t expect anybody to hate me and I don’t do anything particular for people to dislike me, but if somebody decides, or is prejudiced about me, I can’t help it. I don’t look at people, I look at what I can give at this point in time and every point in time, that’s all I can do. That’s all that I look at. There is no agenda, nor have I any kind of plan for the future. As the river flows I am flowing, I am the river and I am the flow.

 Personal Connectivity

Q: Is it possible to acquire teaching through your books and blogs? Is it possible to meditate in front of your photograph without previous initiation?

A: It is possible to get what I am speaking through publications, through blogs, through meditations and if you connect to the picture, the image also, it is possible. But having connected to me personally also helps because that’s where you’re connected to an energy directly. If you resonate with the energy, which is represented by me, you may want to continue connection – but otherwise numerous masters have spoken the same thing over time. Books are available methods are available, teachings are available but how much of those can you actually transform into your life? This is the question. Unless teaching is converted into wisdom and you’re experiencing that in life, the teaching remains in the book. You may have understood the point but if it is not getting reflected in your life it’s not yours. A teaching is a teaching, and every teaching is good and everything has relevance but if you’re not able to transform that into your daily life, you must work harder, do something different, do something else and insure that even if the quantity is small, that limited quantity enters your system, transforms you and is reflected in the society. So goodness, kindness, compassion, the major things the masters have been talking about, must become you, otherwise they’re only in the books. We can see so many quotes from so many masters getting viral through Facebook and other social media. How many of them are read, how many of them are understood? How many of them are digested? These are all entertaining the mind thing. Mind is entertained by this information and sometimes the mind understands this information. It stays in the mind, it doesn’t stay with the life unless something happens in life, which is transformational and unless there is a visible transformation which the society can understand, nothing has happened in life. All these books, the series, the teachings, everything is wasted if it is not transforming you. I would always say: if you are walking the path of spirituality look for transformation, not for activity. Activity will come and go, but transformation makes you and takes you further.

Serbian Son-in-Law

Q: You have been a Serbian son-in-law for seven years already. What do you find the strangest and most beautiful in Serbia? Do you know any Serbian words?

A: Well, I like to believe that I belong to the world. Even though I have been married to a person who’s Serbian, I do not think I am of one place. Because boundaries don’t suit me, I am beyond the frame. I know a few Serbian words and I love the people because actually when I come to Serbia I feel like coming home, I like the people. There’s a lot of similarity between the culture, where the Serbian open-mindedness attracts me a lot. A lot of people are very open-minded, open to information, there are a lot of serious practitioners and so there are so many things which I like in Serbia as well as in Macedonia and other places. I have not seen people, especially those who are connected to me, seriously for all these years. I mean the continuity is very important. There are people who have come and gone due to various reasons and those who have stayed due to various reasons. Having said all that, when I see the continuity factor I also see the seriousness, I also see that they are determined. All those things are very attractive to me. As for Serbian words, I know some of the words. I don’t think I can actually communicate in Serbian. My daughter speaks it very well and I feel that that’s not important. I think people see my heart and my communication with the heart, or through the heart is really reaching people. A lot of people respond from their heart and it reaches me, so I like to believe that it’s more than a son-in-law. I think I am a son of Serbia in that mode. Because it is as much as my country as any other country is. When I go to a place I don’t feel like an alien anywhere. I have travelled quite a bit and I travel quite a bit and every place I go I feel I belong there because of the people there. It’s all because of the people. Any country is a country because of how we connect to the country, culture and people. One reason I find Serbia very natural is because my wife is Serbian, my daughter lives in Serbia. More than that because of the love I get from the multitude of people, I feel very connected. Also, there are no strangers. There are a few people that I have not met yet, but I don’t feel strangeness in any place that way, including Serbia. Overall, I belong to the place, so it’s difficult to say. I don’t like to be categorised as something because that’s very limiting for me. It’s like saying that you are the body. What about your consciousness, which is all around? Something limiting doesn’t suit me, I don’t like to be inside frames because frames are supposed to be broken. Then you become frameless, then you are everything.  In the places I visit I see myself reflected through a lot of people. They’re all me and I love Serbia for that matter, I see a lot of myself in a lot of people. They love me like they love their closest relative, you know? There’s no barrier, there’s no boundary, that love is spontaneous and it’s a great feeling. So I really love the country, love the people.

Q: What is your view of love in marriage? Do you have any advice for those who are not happy with their marriage?

A: Love and marriage are both binding and both liberating. We’re talking about love as love between a man and a woman, love affair, or things like that. First, it is initial attraction, physical attraction, then it is emotional attraction. Then the moment intellect comes in, alienation starts and sometimes it happens that we will wonder why we are even together at all because the reasons for starting a relationships may not last for long until, or unless, a relationship is of a higher nature where both can walk together for a higher purpose. Otherwise it doesn’t not stay. If a marriage is out of compulsion, out of reason, it won’t last. I would say marriage which is the union of two people for a much higher purpose will always last. So the reason for marriage should be a higher purpose and the match should be frequency, because each one likes the frequency of the other – you feel nice in the other person’s connection or presence. That way it’s good. I have nothing against love or marriage, in fact I do not endorse love or marriage just as a norm. I like to say that you can fall in love with anybody, you can be with anybody, you can be anybody, this is all fine if it suits you. We are nobody to say something is right and something is wrong in that context, if you are not karmically bound to meet another person you won’t even meet them. What is the flavour of your relationship? It depends on what you wanted out of all this. It’s not something which other people can decide, likewise marriage. Marriage is a kind of combination, which is a connectivity or a route from the past, so marriage is to be respected as a bonding for a purpose. That’s what I feel otherwise you get married and then you don’t know what you’re doing and a lot of people are emotionally divorced. While in marriage, after a couple of years, you don’t feel a connection and then you want to stay away from the other person. I would say that this is all torture but if there’s a deep connectivity, you love the other and there are big things to do in life, it’s a good idea. You can have a trusted partner and you can walk together otherwise it’s a burden. So this is an individualistic thing, I normally don’t give my opinion on love, marriage, or divorce. This is not something which I, as an outsider, should decide. These are individualistic things, partners can decide whether to be in a relationship, inside a marriage, or divorced. What have we got to do with it? I think we should celebrate divorce more than we celebrate marriage so that we understand this thing in a better perspective.

Do Good!

Q: Do you have any practical advice to share with the readers of ONA (English = SHE) magazine?

A: Be good, do good. This is exactly what I would like to recommend to people more than spiritual practices. Being good and doing good cleanses you so much that it automatically leads you to a spiritual background, backbone. When I say be good that means be always kind, be always compassionate. Root yourself in love and make sure no negative emotion enters you like hatred, jealousy, anger, especially ego, all those kind of things. It should not enter you, let it be outside of you. That is being good, then doing good is the expression of it on a consistent basis. I think this is exactly what the world needs today. Be good, do good and the goodness factor should tell who you are, your highest statement in this life is your own life, how you live your life. If you’re showing vulnerability, you’re showing helplessness, you are showing ingratitude, or insecurity in this world the world will give it back to you the same way. So show greatness, kindness and inner richness by being good and doing good, that’ll come back to you and you will be respected and honoured by the society, by the world. This is my message for this group who are reading it and I thank you for this interview, I really appreciate you asking me these questions and I wish everybody who’s reading this: have a very beautiful and peaceful existence. Thank you, vidimo se! (Serbian= see you!)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR5YeMJ76k4&w=560&h=315]

Transcribed by Lana Simic