My deepest transformations started happening with Mohanji after this. It has been a rapid journey after that. It took me a while to understand that the connection became pure, and all distractions and loopholes for doubts were eliminated so that the Master could deliver. I could be receptive only after that incident. I still have a long way to go, but that’s surrendered at his feet now. It’s his job; mine is to hang in there however difficult the ride turns out to be!
Then came May 2013, and my first meeting with Mohanji in a satsang in Novi Sad. I remember him answering the first question on free will, saying in his first sentence that free will is just a myth and that it exists only before we take this body. At that moment, I had a feeling as if I was relieved of an enormous burden, and I felt an incredible lightness! Since then, I started attending the meditations regularly, and the next year followed the first retreat as well.
While listening, I could feel Mohanji’s energy very tangibly inside me moving up my spine to the top of my head. I spontaneously began to see inside my head the different teachers and Masters that I have connected with and all the different processes that I have practised at different stages in my life. It then dawned upon me that the driving force, the connection and the source of all experiences behind them were Shiva.
It starts with unburdening ourselves, and Brahmarishi Mohanji can show us how to throw off our heavy load/baggage. He is teaching me to cast off my burdens here and now and also assuring me that the burdens and fears of the past need not worry me as I have arrived at his lotus feet.
He has unequivocally fulfilled his promise to watch over his devotee’s every need while blessing me with the realization that the relationship with an authentic Master is reciprocal in nature requiring me to not only receive but to live the teaching by continually giving back.
I had forgotten about my vision with the ethereal being upon meeting Brahmarishi Mohanji, but some time ago, upon looking at his photo and contemplating it, it suddenly burst upon me, like sunshine from behind the dark clouds, that this is the being who had appeared to me 28 years ago and struck my thigh three times and disappeared. I think when the time is propitious, the meeting between a Master and his student is inevitable in any lifetime, and a span of even 50 years before the meeting is just a moment.
However, since my connection to Mohanji, many concepts in my mind have started to fall apart one by one, and I have begun to connect to Lord Sri Ranganatha as well. Further, I started enjoying doing meditation in the beautiful Ranganatha temple as well. It has become a favourite place for mediation and Kriya when I stay at Skanda Vale. This beautiful temple has become the commonplace that I visualise when Mohanji says “Visualise a calm and serene place” in meditations.
It took a year and a half to meet Mohanji in person. While standing in line to greet him, I saw him glance briefly at me with a sign of recognition, and when a little later I was formally introduced to him, he said, “Eric and I have a very deep relationship.”
My spiritual journey started with my first Guru, Sufi Saint Baba Jahangir. But it was just a ritual at that time. Even though Baba’s teachings are very powerful, I found it very complicated to understand the deepest meanings of his core messages with my limited capacity and knowledge about spiritualism. My lack of insight was such that I was not able to understand Baba’s teachings about liberation, detachment, unconditional love, no expectations, silence, etc.
During the coronavirus pandemic, inspired by Mohanji’s call for action, the UK family also came together and started doing online programmes from morning till night. We have had sessions of chanting starting from 6 am to sessions of book reading, meditations, online Mai-Tri, special devotional songs etc.
