The Ten Commandments of Being Mohanji

The scriptures say, “It is extremely rare to get a human birth. Among human beings, it is extremely rare to have a desire for spiritual evolution. Among those who have the desire for spiritual evolution, it is extremely rare to get meet a Guru (a Master connected to the Source as opposed to an acharya or teacher). Among those that meet a Guru, it is extremely rare to get to follow a real Guru and, thus, have His protection.” We are all extremely fortunate to have the grace of a Guru like Mohanji in our lives. He is what we want Him to be for us – a father, a friend, a mother, a son, a brother and at all times a perfect mirror and a constant, unconditionally loving guide, reminding us to walk the sacred path of liberation.

The greatest gift any disciple can give their Master is to live the Master’s teachings. The best way we follow Mohanji’s teachings is to Be Mohanji since He is a perfect demonstration of living His teachings. Being Mohanji is often talked about but not easy to implement. Why is it so? The answer is that we usually look, comprehend and react through the distorted perceptions of our mind thus becoming subjective, prejudiced and often judgmental. This distances us from being universal – from being Mohanji.

Based on an observation of how He conducts Himself, these are a few pointers that I thought will help us to connect with Mohanji deeply and help explore His consciousness purposefully:

1. Accept people

Mohanji never judges another. He accepts people as they are. Meeting and parting are karma bound. Each new meeting is a clean slate for Him sans judgments and untarnished by past experiences. So the word rejection does not exist in His dictionary. Even for people who have wronged Him blatantly and repeatedly in the past. He often repeats what Vittal Babaji once told Him, “In our tradition, there is only Aao beta (Come, my child). Never jaao beta (Go away, my child).” Similarly, we should allow and accept people gracefully. If we become Mohanji, we are expressing unity and universality. If people bother us, it means that we are still expressing the individual and there is a separation between us and Mohanji.

2. Be positive.

Anyone who meets Mohanji walks away optimistic and positive no matter how negative they were or what baggage they came with. At the same time, He does not allow their negativity to impact Him. We need to talk positive, walk positive, think positive so that whoever comes to us is positively impacted no matter what their current disposition. Similarly, like His ofte quoted supermarket analogy, we should only buy what we want – we should refuse to take anything inside which is not good for us or accept anything that will sully our inner space.

3. No agenda.

Mohanji has zero expectations from people, situations, and life in general. He says that we should not take life too seriously. At the same time, He says that life is the greatest teacher. So He performs His activities with detachment (zero doership) but with perfect awareness. He flows from one moment to the next and tries to achieve fulfilment in every moment. This is difficult, friends. We need to keep being fluid. This is the practice. This helps us being in the present. “Being like water”, as Mohanji says.

4. Be Purposeful

How is Mohanji able to physically sustain the crazy travel, non-stop meetings, going out of the way to accommodate people and still find time to answer people across the world and direct the organizational work. The answer is purpose. Mohanji is driven by purpose and purpose alone. With that clarity of focus, nothing can stand in His way. His purpose is the purpose of the Tradition. He considers Himself a projection of the tradition that has been projected for a specific purpose and will be withdrawn when the purpose has been met. At the same time, Mohanji is always clear that it is the Tradition that works through Him. He chooses to be completely empty within and takes no ownership of the activity or the results. Our ultimate purpose is liberation. We should make sure that this is the primary, secondary, final and only purpose at all times. No excesses, no wastage. No inertia. No delay. No Tamas.  We should also ensure that all our actions and expressions are for the higher good and totally unselfish. Purposefulness is also detachment while in action. We are not bound or concerned about our action or the results of action. We should act with conviction consistently for the higher purpose, without attachments.

5. Living insignificance

If we observe Mohanji’s life, He always gives preference to people other than Himself and His own family. Believe me, it is tough for His immediate family members. But, they are mature and know they can never own Mohanji. Everybody else is important for Mohanji except Himself. His matters are not a priority at all to Him. This makes our job even more difficult. We ensure His well-being at any cost. People often ignore His kindness of finding time for everybody except Himself. Unfortunately, they take it for granted thinking it to be a weakness or character trait. We have the tough job of standing in the middle to prevent it. As it says in the Bible, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Ganeshananda Giri had said, “The only prayer of a saint is let others be served (or fulfilled) before me.” Humility is the hallmark of spiritual character. Mohanji had once remarked that those who represent Him or are close to Him should grow even more humble. As we deepen our connection with Him, we should express greater humility in our character

6. Accept situations

Mohanji accepts everything that comes His way. He never resists anything. Good, bad or ugly, He accepts. Nothing affects Him because He is always in the now. He always responds based on the merits of the situation in the present moment. His life story is a testament to this fact. Even with tragedy after tragedy rocking His life, starting with the death of His dear daughter Ammu, across personal, professional, financial and health fronts, he demonstrated complete acceptance and soldiered on with no bitterness, resentment or negativity. Total acceptance with a cool head makes us more complete. Whatever we resist gives us pain. We should face all fears. We should accept everything that falls on our lap. This is the sign of truly living our tradition. The tradition of Liberation.

7. Attitude of Service.

Mohanji does everything with an attitude of service. He never expects anything from anybody. He never considers Himself as significant and that anything he does as a favor to anyone. He does everything wholeheartedly and with an attitude of service and surrender without expectations. This helps keep our ego under our feet always. We need to think beyond ourselves and our family to what value we provide to the world. We take from earth and it is time that we learn to give back in equal measure (if not more). As Mohanji says, “Every day you wake up, ask yourself what more can I give to the world.” At the same time, we should realize that we are doing selfless service for our personal benefit alone since it aids our evolution. If we ever think that we are doing a favor to the world or to Mohanji, we have lost the plot and it won’t help us anymore. It is only when we lose doership and believe that things are happening through us (rather than done by us) that the true magic of deep connection with Mohanji happens.

8. Expect Nothing.

This is very important. He does not expect anything from anyone. He just allows life to flow. He is neither really happy or sad about anything in particular. In ALL the cases, He knows exactly what people are up to. Mohanji says, “Always give the very best of what you can give someone when they come in front of you. I always fill them up with the maximum I can give them based on their eligibility.” It does not even bother Him if people do not deliver on their promises or even betray His trust. He always delivers what He can irrespective of their behaviour towards Him. When we expect nothing, we are absolutely free.

9. No binding.

He never binds anyone. Usually, the rope that binds is fear. He has no fear nor does he give fear. This is a clear sign of the path of liberation. No fear. No binding. We are always welcome to come or leave. He never binds. At the same time, we need to remember what Yogananda said, “If you consider Me as your Guru, I am all Gurus.” We initially need to dig in several places to find and ensure that we have found a connection to the Source. But once we have found it, we have to dig all the way till we reach the Source. Window shopping and setting shop with multiple Gurus is like a shaking cup – none can fill it. We should follow one Guru and be constant with Him (or Her) because only then can that Guru take us to the final goal.

10. Feed the Hungry

Feeding birds, animals, ants, fishes, humans so on and so forth are vital for Mohanji. Where ever he goes, he carries food packets in the car and his favorite question when he meets any person who is old, abandoned or helpless is “Are you hungry?”. Food First. To be Mohanji, we must develop the aspect of always ready to feed the hungry, irrespective of species.

With Love
Rajesh Kamath