by Christopher Greenwood
Day 53 Lesson – Handling difficulties
Good morning, everybody. I hope you’re doing well.
Yesterday I shared an observation about Mohanji’s fragrance. And it may sound strange to say this, but it was very surprising. It was such a nice smell on his vest, despite playing many games of badminton.
I shared that we just started playing badminton again after about three months. That’s because, from the 22nd of September, Mohanji was pretty much bedridden. Probably not many people know this because he kept it to himself, but he was in extreme pain for at least two months. Then by the third month, it began to heal. The pain was strong enough to keep him awake through the night. It was located in his foot; the foot was swollen that it looked like a turtle; it had a shape of a turtle with the little toes protruding – it was that swollen. And even if the bed sheets brushed across his toes, it would be excruciating pain.
When we would ask him, “Is it okay, is it any better?” he’d say, “Well, no, there’s a lot of pain. But the pain is with the body. There’s no suffering.”
It was beginning to become a real worry because he couldn’t even move. But he’s fiercely independent, so there was no fuss, no drama. Even though clearly there was pain, he contained it completely. He just got on with what he can do, as best as he can do.
Despite this, we had many requests for interviews and satsangs, And he took them all. The only difference was that we had to arrange for everything to be done in the room.
I remember that some of the satsangs went beyond the time which we allocated. I started to feel really bad because I could see that he was in discomfort. Whilst it was not visibly shown, the body was physically hurting – his leg and foot were twitching uncontrollably with the pain.
But he never let it show, never complained. This may sound dramatic, but that’s how it was. He really was in bed for most of that time. But he never refused, cancelled, or changed any appointments. Many people weren’t aware of this. I don’t think anyone who watched the satsangs realized either.
For me, this is an example of his character, of who he is. Because there are no personal matters that are conveyed to the world, he keeps it to himself. I think many people in that situation would probably make quite a show. Some people may even say: “Because of this, I can’t do this, or my life’s not like this”, they’d use it as a crutch or an excuse.
But Mohanji took the reality as it was and took it on himself with no fuss. Just “Okay, this is happening. Let’s go through it.” I was surprised by this because one time, it got really bad. And someone had asked him to come into town, which would mean having to travel for an hour or more. Also, he would inaugurate an event for the Vedashila Trust; he would light the lamp, there would be a ceremony, and he’d meet some dignitaries. This location is right at the top of many stairs, and he couldn’t even get out of bed at that time.
So, I was really curious about what we’re going to do. He said: “No, no, no, I’m doing it, I’ve committed to it, will make it happen.” So, even though he couldn’t walk, we arranged for the lamp to be brought downstairs, so at least there was less distance to travel. Then we had the car arranged. He came outside; the lamp was in the landing; we helped him hop – he physically had to hop to the lamp. He did what he had to do, attended to what he needed to attend.
There was extreme discomfort, and it took even longer to recover from this. All this was quite a message to me, quite a learning: life can be smooth even when the roughest of situations are happening. That’s how I observed it.
So even though this was a great discomfort, he was able to keep going, contain it and still do what he had to do. It was probably the first time that I truly realized how much he does for everybody else. Although I can only see the physical, I’m pretty sure at that time; he was taking on a lot more from other people.
This also brought to light something else that I’ve observed since being with Mohanji. This is just an observation, not a judgment on anybody or any of the situations. The majority of people contact Mohanji when they need something, when they have a problem, or when they have an ailment, when they have a situation with their wife, or their husband, or some sort of problem.
Though Mohanji has always said that he’s here as a friend to the world, and he’s available for everybody, I have rarely seen people contact him just to see how he is, just to see how he’s doing, to ask if he’s okay.
So, most people contact him when they have a problem and when they want some help. But, seeing this, he continued to do what he needed to do. No one else ever really knew, apart from the house, what was going on. And it lasted for months. But he continued. What a way that is to handle life and the situations that come to us.
I hope you enjoyed that. I also hope you have a great day.
Day 54 Lesson – Flexibility when travelling with Mohanji
Good morning, everybody. I hope you’re all doing very well.
Yesterday Mohanji, Rajesh, Harish, the driver, and I returned from a trip to meet Avadhoota Nadananda. He had asked Mohanji to come and visit him. We had arranged for the car to be ready and all the other preparations.
We thought it’d be a short visit, maybe two hours or so. Thus, we prepared some food for the journey back and some vada pav – the classic street dish from Bombay, which is like a potato patty in a bun with tasty spices. It’s a special type of bread, a special type of bun. And it also has some peanut chutney in it which is really good.
So, we made this for the road and set off on our visit. It was my first time meeting with Avadhoota Nadananda, or Guruji, as Mohanji calls him. The journey is roughly five hours by car from the house. We regularly contacted his team to check that we had good directions because we were headed to a different location, about an hour from his main place, Siddhaganj.
During the car journey, no time was wasted by Mohanji. So he was continuing even though we were travelling. Daily, he has a message to prepare for the 4 am Club. This is a short message, usually inspirational, and he gets the topic or the subject only around half an hour before he has to return his message. So, every day he’s been doing this, I think it must be coming up to nearly a year now. So, lots of insights there.
He received the topic while we were driving, so we pulled over, recorded his message, and then carried on. He is also using the time in the car to respond to other messages, calls, everything. So, the time is still well used, even though we were driving.
After around five hours, we reached our destination. It was a good-sized plot; it’s nice there. There’s a watchman’s hut, Guruji’s accommodation, toilet blocks, and a storehouse. There was some preparation on the way for some more construction to take place. Also, a Shiva Linga was installed already.
We were welcomed well. We were given food, water, and drinks. From our end, we handed over the vada pavs, which everybody enjoyed; it was distributed to everybody as prasad. So, it was a really nice arrival.
We all sat with Avadhoota Nadananda and Mohanji as they were in conversation, and then we left them to have private time. Initially, we planned to leave after this meeting, but we were called back by Guruji and Mohanji. Guruji had requested that Mohanji stays for a ceremony that was to take place in the morning. The Shiva Linga there is a ferocious form of Shiva – Asitanga Bhairava, so the ceremony would be an Abhishekam to cool down the energy.
This meant we had to change our plan completely. Obviously, we hadn’t prepared for this; we thought we would have the meeting and then come back. So, nothing was packed, no clothes to stay in for the evening. We literally had what we prepared just for that day, but nothing more.
This was when I recognized what it could be like travelling with Mohanji. As many other people have told me before, it can be very unpredictable. You need to be flexible, so you can quickly adapt to any changes that happen.
There was also work and appointments we had to rearrange, but no problem. We travelled to the Siddhaganj, where we would be staying. Again, when we arrived, we were fed well. Then Rajesh arranged to take a trip into town to pick up some clothes, dhotis, toiletries, and everything else that we needed because we also had to change for the ceremony in the morning as well.
It was a really lovely place and a great experience for me to stay there because I’d heard many things about it. Thus, I felt a real privilege to be able to spend an afternoon and evening there. Then in the morning, we were up early, we travelled back. First, we had our meeting with Guruji, and then the ceremony with the Shiva Lingam started.
Mohanji and several others were requested to perform the Abhishekam; offerings were made, a series of chants – it was special. The sun was rising, which gave a beautiful golden glow throughout the whole ceremony. One of the final parts of the ceremony was where the Lingam was covered or bathed in white flowers, which would stay for 36 hours. Then it concluded with offerings to Agni.
We were all fed once the ceremony finished; we had breakfast and left for a five-hour return leg. Once again, Mohanji was using all opportunities of time in the car: we were discussing plans for the next few days and all the major activities coming up. He was also handling calls and messages. Again, the 4 am Club daily message came; we pulled across at the side of the road to record that, too.
So, it was a good trip. The key thing that I’m taking from that is the real need for flexibility, especially when you’re taking trips with Mohanji.
I hope you enjoyed that. I’m sharing some photographs here as well, and more of them are on Facebook.
Have a great day ahead.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 29th August 2021
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