by Christopher Greenwood
Day 19 Lesson – How I developed belief, faith and trust in Mohanji
Good morning, everybody. Today, I wanted to share an experience and lesson about the importance of belief and faith. The idea to share this today came from a talk with Mohanji this morning.
We were discussing the ‘Invest in Awareness’ program. And he was sharing great content about the path of spirituality with a reminder that it is an individual journey. And all he did in his life was to find himself. And now he is guiding others to find themselves. This is his focus.
We spoke briefly about belief. My mind instantly recalled a situation months ago here at the house when I had to believe what my mind could not comprehend because there was no other explanation. And how I did that was by having trust in Mohanji and then using a filter of my own logic to reconfirm why I have trust in Mohanji so that I could believe that this situation happened.
So as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have any capacity really to see beyond the ordinary. I know others do, Mai-Tri and MTM practitioners. And I’ve heard many stories. But whilst I find them entertaining and definitely fascinating, I’ve always just kept a watch that, for anything I’m doing, I’m relying on my own experience and belief rather than anybody else’s. Although I trust people, I know that some people can change their minds. And this is some advice, which I picked up from Mohanji when I first met him two years ago at a Satsang where he said, “Nobody has to believe anything blindly. There’s plenty of room for people to take their time, have their experience, and develop a belief or a trust.” He also said, “Once you’ve decided, then stick to that because that’s then a benefit for you. Because then you can go further. You start digging where you stand, and eventually you’ll reach water.”
And this came from a story. One morning, we sat downstairs for our morning meeting. This was months ago. And Mohanji was giving guidance or instructions on tasks I can’t quite remember. But we were speaking; I was sitting on the floor, Mohanji was in his chair. And we had eye contact, and we were speaking. And then, mid-sentence, he just stopped. His eyes turned to the window, looking in a different direction, complete silence. And I was confused because this was a complete shift. Imagine you’re talking to someone, just having a conversation, it’s flowing, and then all of a sudden, they just stop and look the other way. It’s a big shift.
Then he stood up, which is even more strange, walked a few steps ahead. All in silence, we weren’t speaking. Then he took a cushion, he put it on the floor in the middle of the room, and then he came down to his knees on the cushion. So, I’m sitting; he is now a few steps in front of me on his knees facing the window. And then he went into a push-up position. And I was completely confused. I really couldn’t understand. I was thinking, is this an impromptu morning workout session? Am I meant to take something from this and join him, start doing some push-ups? I didn’t know. So he started doing some push-ups. I can’t remember the number. But then he stood up, put the cushion back, sat down, started looking at me and said: “Right, what was I just saying?” As if nothing had happened, as this was all just a play in my imagination.
Now, if you picture that scene, it’s quite abrupt. Just to watch all this happen, and then it to finish – I was amazed! And Mohanji must have clearly felt my confusion. And he just casually said someone was dying. They were in the hospital. I think he said the person was on life support. And he said they were praying to him. So he had to help, and he had to bring the person back to life.
Now, we were just talking about something very mundane. And then this situation happened. So I couldn’t contain myself and instantly asked with a very confused mind: “But how is that even possible?” To which he responded: “Well, what do you want, a scientific proof?” And my mind gave up; I realized it would be impossible to comprehend.
And I’ve had a similar experience when I first met Mohanji a couple of years ago. The situation happened where my mind just couldn’t take it.
But this was the lesson for me that has come together now, restarting that conversation around belief and faith, which I thought might also be useful for some other people. Because what I’ve realized is that when I can’t see for myself, and when I say ‘see’, it’s not just physically, it’s perceiving the deeper work that’s going on behind everything that Mohanji does, but I’m aware of something happening. Not much has been spoken to me, yet I’ve had a big transformation in my life. It hasn’t been: Okay, now you do this, now you do that, this is the teaching, like a school. It’s just happening. It’s naturally happening.
So when there’s a situation that’s beyond comprehension, what do you do? What do I do? So I had two options, really: I could believe it, or I could reject it. What I realized helped keep me steady in that belief because I could easily have taken the view that this is just absolute craziness. But now, I realized that and the method that I’ve been using, which we spoke about this morning since I had met Mohanji two years ago, is that when I can’t see something for myself, I have to develop a belief. That’s the only thing really that I can hold on to. But it’s not blind belief. I have to have a belief in something, something that I choose to rely on.
And this is where the belief and the sort of logical understanding have helped because I’m a rational, logical person. And what I realized was that I completely trust Mohanji. I feel completely safe. And I had to use my logic again: Why? Why did I trust? And how was I so sure that I had this trust?
So, for me, the lesson is that I have a few reminders that I can always go back to if my mind sort of wavers. And the first one very clearly is that he asks nothing from me. Nothing! All this is of my own, the opportunity has arisen, and then it’s my own free will and contribution. Yes, I’ve experienced a big transformation in my life since meeting Mohanji. So my own experience of being with him is something I can trust, knowing that he doesn’t ask anything. Then the second one: he is completely consistent. Everything he’s spoken about since I’ve become aware of him, he lives that message. And I’ve been with him for months now. And he’s living exactly what he says since I first came into contact with him.
And then there’s also zero pressure for me to follow him or be with him. So he needs nothing and is completely secure; humility personified. So then I realized he has no reason that he would make this up. I saw this event, I saw this experience, he told me frankly, and that’s what happened. So I have that belief. And I think when you can develop that belief with more conviction, that’s when it becomes faith. I think this is something else that’s important.
So this is the message for today that maybe can also help people in their own thinking or belief – trusting their experience and using logic to help their experience or belief get strengthened and faith strengthened. So I’ve learned that belief is incredibly important when you can’t see or experience something for yourself.
And believing in a trusted source. So having something that you can trust to anchor that belief too is important. So first believing in myself, my own experience, and then believing in a trusted source if that’s not available, and for me, I know that I completely trust Mohanji.
Logic brings that further understanding so that it stays steady.
That’s the message for today. I hope you enjoyed it. I also hope you enjoyed this story and could imagine that situation which happened. It was quite a shock.
Have a great day ahead.
Day 20 Lesson – Who is Mohanji Part #2
Good morning, everybody. I hope you have a great day ahead.
Yesterday, I spoke about my faith and belief in Mohanji, how that developed, how I had to use my logic to move past some hurdles. Today, I continue this theme alongside a question I asked in earlier recordings: ‘Who is Mohanji?’. Because still now, the more time I spend with him, the less I really know about him. I just can see what I can see, you know, what’s inside me. And whilst I’m focused on very terrestrial matters, there’s always something much more happening. Many people are connecting to him; he reaches many people, despite the fact he is physically sitting in front of me.
And he doesn’t display; he doesn’t show, he doesn’t try to explain. And if I ever ask a question, or someone else asked the question, he simply says, “I do my job”. And this was difficult to understand at first because there’s little outward display. Now it’s just come to an acceptance and trust.
And he’s also completely fine with saying, “Those who have eyes to see will see, and those who don’t, it’s okay.” And I was surprised because this even relates to other Swamis too, because he confuses them, as Mohanji doesn’t come from one of the traditional paths or routes. He is self-made.
But those who are practising Mai-Tri and MTM can see the work. When I’ve asked him about this too, whether that’s the whole picture or is there more going on, he again smiles and says, “I do my job, I’m doing many things.” So there’s little outward display.
But an experience I wanted to share is one of the more subtle ways that Mohanji can work and give people experiences. But you have to be really attuned to catch them. I think someone said this to me before as well that Mohanji is very unassuming, and he could easily just slip into the shadows if you let him; he would just go. You have to keep a keen watch.
And before I met Mohanji, I was searching for a long time. I was looking for answers. But answers to the questions I didn’t even know. There’s just something I was searching for—so many spiritual communities, a yoga practice, the Theosophical Society, and even Freemasonry for many years. So in deep questions, I was searching and searching.
And one question that stuck with me since meeting Mohanji was: These previous paths, do they also reach the source? It was a small mind question. I avoid taking these types of questions to Mohanji because I respect his time; he’s got a lot to do. And I want to keep the interaction purely on what we’re doing with the work. And I also knew that this question was just for my mind sake, just for my interest. But it was playing on my mind for some time.
Downstairs is an office room with a bathroom adjoining it, and it has a bookcase with many great books in there. Mohanji had gone to the bathroom, and I came, and I took a towel so that he could dry his hands afterwards. And as he came out, he looked at the bookcase and said: “Causal body”, and walked out; there was no discussion. I remembered at that point that when with Mohanji, everything has the potential to be a lesson if you have the observation. Because generally, his life is a message. He lives his message. He lives his teachings.
So I decided, “Okay, Causal body, there’s a book there, let’s have a look at this.” I picked up the book to read it later. And then, when I read it, and I quickly skimmed through all the sections that I was drawn to, of course, I found clear answers to the questions which were clogging my mind. And my mind was happy, and I put the book back.
This may seem very small, but it was quite profound for me at the time. Because again, there was no display, but he did his job. Even for the smallest annoyance, I had in my mind, even though I hadn’t verbalized it to him, I got my answer, and then that was gone.
I don’t know really, who Mohanji is, how he’s working, but it’s definitely more than I can perceive. And I remember in the earlier days before I was actually living with him, I was trying to understand this as well: ‘Who is he?’ Because I couldn’t quite put it together. And one thing which really stuck out for me is when I was watching Facebook, the posts and the photographs were coming up of all the people that he was meeting, especially all these great masters, all these great saints who had their own stature, they were big in their own right. When you look back at all of these, they show such reverence to Mohanji. They shower him with reverence. And all of them are from different lineages. It’s as if the masters of all lineages are coming together; connecting with Mohanji in that way – from the Siddha, Kriya, Shakti, obviously the Avadhoota lineage; great masters, Siddhas and Saints such as Devi Amma, who gave the title to Mohanji ‘Friend of the Universe’. Then Avadhoota Nadananda gave the title Brahmarishi, Ganeshananda Giri, a staunch disciple of Shirdi Sai Baba, whom Sai Baba actually told: ‘You know, you need to find Mohanji’; then Vittal Babaji gave Mohanji the title Raja Yogi and Vasudev Swami, a great master and a devotee of Bhagavan Nityananda. And there are many more as well, such as Gorkhe Guruji, who I mentioned, was a big master in his right, and he actually wanted Mohanji to sit on his chair after declaring in front of people in public that Mohanji was part of Dattatreya.
So, such reverence from all these people. I don’t know who Mohanji is, but by observation, there’s something that all these great people are respecting and seeing in Mohanji.
I hope you have a great day ahead and speak to you all soon.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 2nd May 2021
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