By Christopher Greenwood
Day 81 Lesson – “Don’t follow me, follow you.”
Good morning, everybody. Today is the last day of the trip to Kerala, and we will soon be returning to Bangalore.
This morning I was thinking about the themes for 2021, which are stability, flexibility, and friendship. Throughout this trip, I’ve had experiences and examples that relate to each of those three, and I’ve been able to observe Mohanji in relation to them too.
If I take Mohanji, to begin with, despite the hectic morning until evening schedule, the variety of people that come, the different requests asked of him, the travel time, the journeys, the different accommodation, the foods, etc., he remains stable throughout the trip, he is completely consistent.
In a previous daily lesson, I’ve shared that he is stable and steady, like a rock; you can really depend on him. No matter what has happened, he has been consistent throughout.
I’ve also mentioned before that when travelling with Mohanji; there’s a need to be flexible. Being flexible is something that I don’t think applies to Mohanji as such, but by his nature, flexibility happens. I’ve witnessed that he moves as per the need of the day, even the need of the hour. So, things change moment to moment, depending on what has to happen.
Yesterday, for example, we attended a school reunion function, where the evening before that, his friend had asked him to join and give a short talk. I’ll share a little bit more about that soon. But that’s an example where a request came at the last minute, and we adjusted the schedule to meet it.
Then, friendship. This trip has been a strong theme, cultivating and reconnecting with old friendships and developing new friendships. What I’ve seen is that everybody who Mohanji has met has become a real close, heartfelt connection pretty much instantaneously.
And, from his old friends, from his school days, his college days, also his time during the Middle East working, there’s a real strong connection that is still there, as if there has been no time separation at all. There’s an instant trust and a feeling of familiarity for the new friends that he’s met as well. It’s been interesting to witness how he is cultivating these great friendships.
For myself, one of the reflections this morning and lessons that I’ve learned is around my own stability. Considering stability and how to be stable, I found the easiest way to work out what was making me unstable, i.e., what destabilized me, to focus on that and understand it a bit more.
What helped me yesterday was something Mohanji said from his talk to the people at the school reunion. He was asked to give a talk on the topic of a meaningful life. Very short and simple. Since Mohanji was speaking in Malayalam, it wasn’t completely easy for me to follow. But luckily, when Malayalam is spoken, an English phrase or a few English words are included now and then. So, if you’re alert and aware, you can pick out what the theme is and what’s being said.
As I was listening, what caught my attention were the words: “Don’t follow me, follow you.” I understood Mohanji was speaking about his teachings. He told people that his teachings are about connecting to yourself, accepting yourself, living a contented and happy life.
What helped me understand the “Don’t follow me, follow you” a little more is that it focuses on our journey and us being individualistic. We are all unique; each of us has our eye retina, or our thumbprint, as Mohanji would say.
If we really understand that, then there’s no competition; there’s no comparison. And what I was beginning to understand yesterday, from this trip and before as well, is that something which can destabilize me quite quickly is when I compare myself to somebody else, or when I somehow come into some competitive situation with somebody. Those situations destabilize me quickly. That was a key lesson for me from yesterday.
It was also a nice experience to witness how flexibility plays out in action when travelling with Mohanji. Because of the various changes in the schedule yesterday, what I thought would be a delay in meeting people and getting to places on time, turned out to be divine and beautiful orchestration to bring people to the right places.
For example, someone was due to meet Mohanji in the late evening, and we were going to come back to the house to meet him so that he could speak to Mohanji. We happened to be late on our journey back, as we were attending the Sai Baba temple. We went there for Aarti and to see the people who run the temple. So, we invited the person who was due to meet Mohanji to the temple instead.
And it was really nice because whatever he came for, he completely got it. Mohanji gave him Shaktipat while the Aarti to Sai Baba was happening. When everything had finished, the man was able to watch the rest of the Aarti for Sai Baba. And I thought for a moment, “What a lovely experience for that man!” He thought he would be coming to meet Mohanji at home, but this great event happened. It was all part of a lovely coming together.
Now we’ll be finishing packing and travelling back to Bangalore. I hope you have a great day ahead and will speak to you soon.
Day 82 Lesson – Mohanji Story: “Keeping your word.”
Good morning, everybody. I hope you’re doing very well.
Yesterday late evening, we arrived back in Bangalore, finishing the trip to Kerala, which was a great success. Although it was very hectic and busy, everything that needed to be completed was. Soon I’ll be sharing a brief itinerary of what we did over those days, whom we met and how it all was.
This morning, I thought that today is the 82nd day of these lessons, which marks the completion of another 41-day cycle. Following Mohanji’s messages and teachings to keep life and activities fresh, I decided to introduce some of the stories from Mohanji’s life that have also provided great lessons for me.
As we’ve been travelling, Mohanji has been meeting many people, and spontaneously a satsang will start, and he’ll share some of the stories. I’ve heard these stories before, in satsangs many months and even years ago, so to hear them again is a nice reminder. Rarely do we have that type of interaction when we’re at the house and focused on work.
So, as the stories have come up, I’ve been writing them down, and I’ll share one of my favourite ones today. This one is from the time when Mohanji visited South Africa. He told it to a family that we were staying with. It was framed with the importance of keeping your word and keeping promises.
One lady in South Africa has a ranch, and she takes care of abandoned horses. These are horses that nobody wants, and she takes them in. She said to Mohanji when he visited South Africa that she would be very happy if he could visit the ranch. Mohanji agreed.
When he went there at first, the horses were very suspicious of us because people had beaten them, tortured them, and even burned them. So naturally, they were hesitant about coming towards any human. But Mohanji stood there, and one by one, they came. As they came, he said he gave each of them Shaktipat, the energy transfer. And they were all very happy. He was there for about two to three hours, and they were all around him.
When it was time for him to go, they wouldn’t even let him go; they were blocking his way, blocking his path. They were also yawning, which is a sign of anxieties being released. So, they must have been very happy. But Mohanji had to go, so he told them: “I have to go, but I’ll come back.” He said this in English out loud.
As Mohanji and his personal assistant were walking to the car, she reminded him that it was not going to be possible to come tomorrow because there was a whole day program. The location of the ranch was about one and a half hours drive from the venue. So even if they wanted to use the lunch break, there wouldn’t be enough time.
For Mohanji, though, the promise was a promise. He arranged the schedule of the program in a way that it could be adjusted so that the time was found. Someone else must have conducted part of the program. He said that when he returned to the ranch, there was a big gate and a big fence around the huge location. Each of the horses was standing there waiting for him. When he arrived, the guard who looked after the place said that all of them had been waiting for him to arrive from the early morning, and they hadn’t even eaten.
Mohanji said to his assistant: “Imagine if I hadn’t come back, what a betrayal it would have been for them.” So, when he did come back, they were very, very happy. He again greeted them, engaged with them, and then told them that he wouldn’t be coming back this time.
He said that all those beings have their personality. They all have their uniqueness. Sometimes we don’t see that, but that’s a reality.
This is a story that I’ve always liked. It’s an example of how Mohanji lives his life. Even this short story has many lessons, which you can pull out if you take a bit of time to contemplate it. So, I won’t share my takeaways, but I’ll leave it open for you to have a think and make your own.
I hope you enjoyed that, and I’ll be sharing some more of these over the days.
I hope you have a great day.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 5th December 2021
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