by Christopher Greenwood
Day 99 Lesson – A vision for each activity
Good morning everybody. I hope you’re doing very well.
The Global Summit for 2021 is underway and will continue for the next few days. The Summit is a continuation of the sessions where the heads of countries, activities and platforms outline their plans and vision for the coming year. It’s exciting and inspiring to listen to the activities that have taken place across the world and how each team is planning to take things forward.
The session yesterday covered many of the country teams from the Balkan region. Last year, they had the vision to bring the Balkan countries together as one overall team; countries such as Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, and Montenegro. The Balkan region has seen many complex divisions through time, even as recently as the war in the 90s. By joining together as one team, they’re ushering a message of unity to the region, which is inspiring.
As each team provided their vision for the year, I was reminded of one of the early lessons Mohanji shared on the importance of having a vision for everything you do. It helped me become more effective in each area of my work and activities. It’s still a learning for me because obviously, everything you get taught can take some time to settle. So I’m continuing to perfect it. I wanted to reshare this again as it’s a fitting theme given the week we have now for the Global Summit.
When I look at Mohanji, I see his unshakeable vision for the world, and that’s to raise the collective consciousness of a generation to a frequency where there’s more kindness and compassion so that a new generation and new age can come forth. All of the activities and platforms are born from that grand vision. I realize that the grand vision has been broken down into much smaller visions, down to simple steps that need to be taken to help give that momentum of moving things forward. Speaking to Mohanji and learning that you can have a grand vision, what is good is your reality, your resources, the capacity you have, and where you are right now. This enables you to take steps with what you have.
This is what Mohanji is encouraging, especially with the spaces we’ve got for the Centers of benevolence. We may not know how we’re going to get to the completion, but at least if we’ve got the next one or two months understood, we can start making foundations and set in place now what needs to happen. I’ve always admired how Mohanji approaches tasks, understands every possibility, and creates that vision for it irrespective of whether the task is big or small.
The following example illustrates the same.
At the time, Mohanji was working as the Country Head in the shipping industry. He was responsible for all the ships coming in and out of the port – big oil tankers, cruise liners, cargo ships, and vessels. The shipping industry is really dynamic because apart from the activity itself, which is complex to organize with all that loading, unloading, and the timings associated with that; you also have the changeable nature of the sea, of the ocean, the tides, weather; all these types of things have to play the part.
Once Mohanji had a call in the middle of the night, a mayday call. It was from the Ocean Voyager, a survey vessel (which had found the Titanic). It had met the same fate as the Titanic. Some machinery on top of the deck broke from its bindings and hit the ship. This cracked the ship perfectly in two, and she started sinking fast with the crew on board. Mohanji came to the port, took charge of his team, and led the rescue operation with the American Navy. Mohanji rescued everybody on board, all the crew. He had never handled an operation like that before. The ship sank within six hours, extremely quickly.
I gleaned from that example that when the situation happened for him, he approached the crisis with vision and foresight, thinking about the eventualities that would arise from that situation. In particular, the state of the people as they arrived, their needs, as many would have been in shock, many would have no belongings. Although he had no experience, he made sure that his team had created a kit before they arrived so that they all had the basics such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving kits, some spare clothes, something warm, and some food as well.
The kits were ready and distributed when the survivors arrived from the rescue vessel. They were taken to comfortable surroundings as many were in deep shock, and relevant people were there to help them. Mohanji had informed all the embassies (like Italian, American, and the British embassy) beforehand, as the 32 surviving crew members were from different nationalities, so all those embassies were involved as well. The embassies sent their representatives to receive the survivors, and everything went on smoothly. It was an incredible success. They had to work through many hours, and Mohanji rewarded his team very well for their outstanding effort.
For me, it’s a great example of building a vision from the reality of what’s there in front. Mohanji encourages me always to have a vision for activities and everybody else so that people can assess all the eventualities and take each activity to the highest possibility it can have.
Personally, I’ve found that it develops a much stronger intention for the activity when I do this. Iccha shakti or willpower also develops, giving the momentum to take steps. It is a good reminder that we can really give justice to everything when we first create a vision for what we want to achieve.
I wish all the teams well in the next steps for 2021 so that more people can benefit from this great platform for their visions to come into reality.
I hope you have a great day ahead.
Day 100 Lesson – “Be You”
Good morning everybody. I hope that you’re doing well.
Early this morning, Mohanji left India on his journey to Istanbul for the upcoming retreat – ‘Transforming challenges into opportunities. This will be the first major public event since the COVID-19 pandemic began and spread worldwide. The pandemic has made travel challenging. I know some people who wanted to attend the retreat, but it wasn’t possible because there were no flights; many routes were closed. There are many new challenges which we’re faced with. Mohanji commented as he travelled to the airport, he said it was like a war situation; everyone and everything was gloomy. In preparation for the retreat, the office team has created presentation materials that will provide an overview of Mohanji, what he stands for and his impactful life-changing teachings.
This has been a great reminder for me of all the collection of things that Mohanji delivered. We have many practices – meditations, kriyas, various techniques like conscious dancing, conscious walking, and many processes. I admire and find the simplicity of his core teaching of this Avadhoota path truly profound. Simply put, you can boil it down into two words: Be You. That’s what he says, ‘Be you’. I think that’s great.
If anyone ever asks what Mohanji teaches, it isn’t the practices, meditation and the kriyas, but it’s that -“Be You”, fully, because there is no one else like you. The methods are all supplementary, giving alignment and giving some benefit. The practices, processes, and techniques support that journey to understand and be ourselves.
For example, Power of Purity is helping people to forgive and forget, release from unnecessary emotions that people have attached. But at its core, it’s that path of being you, understanding yourself, accepting yourself, being yourself because that brings authenticity to our life and our uniqueness.
Mohanji shared a statement, which I think makes an excellent quote. He said, “My only investment in this whole world is myself. That’s the only authentic investment possible. Everything else has just appeared while we are living here, and it does not belong to us.”
This lesson of ‘Be You’ is emerging as a fundamental and ever-evolving lesson as I contemplate and look to accept life as it comes; I become more aware of who I am. The boot camp was great and gave a framework for looking at all those aspects: body, mind, intellect, ego, soul, spirit, and personality. These things are all aspects of myself, but I never considered them before in how I am now.
For example, certain emotional patterns which happened or typical reactions in certain situations – although they’re coming and going, now with more awareness, I realize, that’s not me. They’re temporary; they come and go. It has been liberating to know and experience that I am not the emotions that arise or the limiting thought patterns that I once held. I’m learning more to move with life, and I am developing a greater acceptance of my weaknesses without dwelling on them or judging them.
I’m finding as well the more time that I’ve been spending with Mohanji, especially close to him, the intensity of emotions, mindsets and patterns are coming to the surface. I become hyper-aware of specific reactions to situations and patterns of being, then very quickly see their corresponding impact on my self-esteem or situations around me. For me, this contemplation and awareness are growing and evolving, and I think it’s a life lesson.
Although I’ve titled this ‘Lessons living with Mohanji’, I don’t think this one will ever be learned. For me, this is an ongoing lesson, and I’m sure the journey of a lifetime. The boot camp opened my eyes and provided a structure to understand and experience this. Now it is a daily living practice of being aware of myself, contemplating and exploring the various dimensions of myself. It’s a process and a journey. But I’m enjoying the simplicity at which we can put down Mohanji’s teaching,’ Be You’.
I hope you have a great day ahead, and I will speak to you soon.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 5th February 2022
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