Lessons living with Mohanji – Days 97 & 98

Christopher Greenwood

Day 97 Lesson – Time to laugh 

Good morning, everybody. I hope you’re doing very well. From time to time, when I go to Mohanji’s room to speak to him about something, he’ll be sitting there with his phone, giggling to himself and laughing. He really enjoys laughing. Although our work is very serious in the world, he completes it all with lightness, fun, and humour—especially the recent trips with friends. 

I think many who have met Mohanji or attended retreats will know and experience that side of Mohanji because he has a really good sense of humour and a very quick wit. He says that those who can laugh even at the height of their sorrows are always happy. 

Today, for a change, as many of my voice recordings are about the pace of the activities and how Mohanji is moving forward with everything we’re doing, I remind myself that there’s always time to laugh and smile. In fact, someone from my team said this yesterday. I wanted to share a story that Mohanji shared with me and others. Maybe people have also heard it during one of the retreats or satsangs. But it really cracked up everyone listening. 

The story was about a Swami. For a long time, this Swami had refused house visits. Traditionally, people will invite the Swami or the guru to the house. He wouldn’t go to see anybody at their home for a very, very long time. But there was one devotee who was really insistent; his only wish was that he would come and visit the home just once. He had a huge desire. After asking and asking and asking, eventually, the Swami agreed. He broke his rule, or he relaxed his rule that he wouldn’t go to anybody’s house. 

Swami came, they had food, and everything was good. Then it came time for Aarti; Swami was sitting there, with his long beard, and his eyes were closed. This person was doing Aarti with fire, with a lot of devotion, bhaav, and so much feeling that he got carried away with the moment. He also closed his eyes. And the next thing, a few seconds later, the Swami’s beard was on fire, smoke and flames, and the Swami was furious. He got up and ran out of the house, saying that he’d never come back again. 

It was really funny. Mohanji was completely creased over laughing with this story, as was everybody else. Even now, I still remember him trying to speak and not laugh. 

Sometimes in the morning, I’ll come in, and he’ll be giggling, checking the Facebook activity. A video will come up because he likes a 70s British comedy called ‘Mind your language.’ It’s very silly. He showed me one of the episodes the other day. It’s about an English school, where you have everybody from different countries; like an Italian person, a Spanish man, someone from India. All of them come together in one class to learn a language, so there’s just miscommunication happening all the time with these stereotypes. It’s really funny, like a Fawlty Towers style comedy. 

I hope you have a good day and that there are many opportunities for you to laugh. Speak soon.

Day 98 Lesson – The connection 

Good morning, everybody. I hope you’re doing well. 

At the moment, the annual Global Summit 2021 is taking place for all the Mohanji platforms. This includes everything; from the Foundation to Ammucare, ACT Foundation, Early Birds Club, World Consciousness Alliance. It’s all of them coming together, all the heads of these platforms, the individual countries, and the activity heads, such as the Sadhana and Mai-Tri teams. Everybody comes together to set the focus for the year ahead and share in discussion on any important topics that need to have alignment across the teams. 

For me, this is my second year attending. I have found it both times a humbling experience because you get to hear of all the great work, which you might not normally hear about, that’s being conducted globally across the world through all the activities. Especially so given the situation with COVID, many activities have been taking place, even though we’ve had difficulties. 

There’s a large global presence in diverse activities; there is a focus and strengthening of the teams ready to take more steps ahead. Especially with the Mohanji benevolence centres, which are also on the way, we’ll finally have our own physical space where we can meet and conduct activities. They will exist as the representation of what the tradition stands for. 

When I see this, I have even more admiration, respect, and appreciation for Mohanji. He has been the source for all of it; it has come from him. What I’m learning as well on the spiritual path, since being with Mohanji, is that in life, I have to face the realities that are in front of me. In this instance, it’s Mohanji who’s brought forward all these various platforms and activities that have brought us all together. He’s the reason why people are probably listening to this, too. 

It’s only through Mohanji that all of this is able to come to me. Especially the awareness of things such as the Tradition, Guru Mandala, all the various Datta masters that have existed throughout the heritage. I’ve read about the tradition, but what I come back to is I haven’t seen or experienced the tradition itself, what it is. I only know that it’s there because of Mohanji. And he’s the representation of it. 

The same goes for other things like Guru Mandala; I know it as a concept, I have the actual picture, but I haven’t seen the connection it’s meant to portray, I haven’t touched it. Again, I only know of it because of the connection to Mohanji. He has brought that to me. Only through connecting to him, I have that awareness of it. 

I’ve heard Mohanji share a great illustration to highlight the learning of being practical, staying with the connection in front of me. He says that when you have electricity in your house, you have a plug socket, that’s the electricity, and that’s the socket that’ll give you light when you plugin. This electricity is, of course, all outside the house and in other people’s houses. But that’s not available to me. So, what you can do is plug into the connection that’s in front of you. 

I remind myself of this as an ongoing lesson because it’s only through the connection with Mohanji that awareness of all these possibilities increases. It’s only through that connection I’ve been able to benefit so much and gain fulfilment from all these platforms, like many others across the world, too. That’s the reality that’s in front of us; that’s the connection that’s there. 

There’s another story Mohanji shared, which I also come back to in my mind: when someone asked another person if the Guru and the God came both in front of you, which would you bow down to first? The answer was, bow down to the Guru first because that’s who took you or gave you the opportunity to meet God. 

Therefore, the lesson is to make sure I’m sticking with my reality because all these other things of the tradition, Guru Mandala, lineage, etc., I can’t actually touch or experience, but I do know that I can experience what’s in front of me. 

I hope you have a great day ahead, and I’ll share another message very soon.

|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||

Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 30^th January 2022

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