By Michael Draper, UK
When silence speaks: Grace and synchronicity: Michael recounts a series of experiences, centred on Mohanji’s Silent Sitting and Satsangs, including the divine fragrance of grace, silence as timelessness and presence, and the crucifixion of the ego as the path to liberation. Remarkable synchronicities point consistently to one truth: Presence is eternal and operates beyond linear time.
Easter 2026
It’s early morning after Kriya practice on Easter Monday, the 6th April, and I feel an urge to write following the experience of Satsang with Mohanji on the previous day, Easter Sunday, and Silent Sitting with Mohanji on Easter Saturday. Should I write though? I open a Mohanji Chronicle article posted by Rekha and written by Angela titled ‘Touched by Grace’. Angela had shared a beautiful experience:
“The Fragrance of Grace
There are certain moments in life that stay with you forever. One such moment happened while I was serving my beloved Guru, Mohanji. One day, I was sitting near Mohanji. While sitting, I suddenly noticed a beautiful fragrance in the air. It smelled a bit like incense sticks, but sweeter and softer. At first, I thought someone nearby had lit incense. I looked around the room, but there were no incense sticks burning anywhere. I kept wondering where the fragrance was coming from. The whole room smelled so nice.
Then I slowly realised something unexpected — the fragrance was coming from him. I was really surprised because I had never experienced anything like that before. When I asked him about it, he confirmed that it was his natural fragrance.”
Uncertainty transformed to certainty, remembering the words of Eileen Caddy, “Be at Peace and see a clear pattern and plan running through all your lives, nothing is by chance.” I felt I had to write.
A few days before, I had exchanged WhatsApp chats with Johnny, a deeply mystical soul who joins a number of online Mohanji groups, including Baba: Mohanji and Masters. In addition to our usual Monday group meeting, we have recently started meeting on Tuesdays to chant together. We had played a recording of the Hanuman Chalisa, and Johnny messaged to ask afterwards, “Was that Mohanji?” Johnny has yet to meet Mohanji in person in this lifetime, though he has connected through digital and other channels (kudos to the media team).
“That was Mohanji,” I replied, and something prompted me to send Johnny a picture of Mohanji sitting in silence next to Lord Datta at the Datta Tapovan Ashram, India. Johnny messaged, “The singing voice was pure love… the picture is white light on a different dimension. Both are very cleansing, each different in its own way. Is that what you felt? Kindly share your experience.”
I responded, “Last week, when I sat with Mohanji, I sensed a divine perfume. It was so strong that I opened my eyes to see where it was coming from. Sitting with Mohanji is like sitting with a divine mountain, like a weightless weight in the core of being with gravitational force that takes any sense of me away, and time passes outside of time. The faculty that normally keeps track is gone.” Our exchange continued, but that is another story. Angela, in sharing her experience of the fragrance of grace, brought the exchange with Johnny about Silent Sitting with Mohanji to mind, and as a result, here we all are together again.
Subhasree had opened the online Satsang with Mohanji on Easter Sunday with the suggestion that we could post in the chat function, before Mohanji physically joined, our experiences of Silent Sitting with Mohanji. The prompt spontaneously led me to write in the chat:
‘Sailence is timelessness’
‘Sailence is presence’
There is a theme or clear pattern at play here. The previous weekend, some of the Baba: Mohanji and Masters group had met on Sunday for the inauguration of a Shirdi Sai Baba temple in London. Arathi had brought a copy of a new book, just published by Gurulight, titled ‘Garland of Poetic Offerings: At Thy Lotus Feet’, which Arathi, through her devotion, had championed and edited. It included a poem that I had written:
“Mohanji’s Gift”
The opening lines are:
“Present when? Presence Now
Silence when? Sai Now”
The poem concludes (but without ending)
“Mohanji’s Gift?………..Now”
That poem was written in 2024.
An early experience of Sitting in Silence with Mohanji was through the ‘Empowered’ programme. In April 2025, I made a diary note, “Words have the power to inform, inspire or even initiate a change in attitude or action, but rarely on their own lead to transformation. For that contemplation practice and experience are necessary; the Empowered programme is more than an experience, and words can never do justice in relation to its impact on mastery of the mind.” These words were written just after the programme ended, but have not been published previously.
Good Friday Easter 2025 was the start of the 10-day in-person Empowered programme at MCB Scotland. In contemporaneous diary writing I continued, “Seven months after the start of the Empowered journey with Subhasree through weekly live two-hour sessions on a Tuesday evening our committed group arrived at Empowered 5: A 10-day period dedicated to the consistent practice of principles and techniques introduced in the Empowered 1 to 4 series but with deeper and enhanced exploration, techniques practices and added value and personal impact.
Empowered 5 in the UK is a 10-day experiential event, either in person at MCB Scotland, online or in a hybrid format. Whatever the format, it is a 10-day commitment to Knowing and Being yourself as Silence. This is necessarily an individual experience (which Mohanji would later confirm), albeit within a mutually supportive group context.” Some of you dear readers may be picking up on coincidences here around dates and themes that appear to transcend time.
Easter Sunday 2025
I made this diary observation, “Two powerful techniques were going to be experienced today – chakra pranayam and the Mohanji Future Mapping Process (MFMP). However, before that, Subhasree had chosen a surprise Mohanji video to share. In this video, made at a previous Empowered event, Mohanji suggests the practise of silence in his presence for around ten minutes – very happily, we engaged in the practice with Mohanji through the medium of the video, which, as explained above, appears live and very much in the moment.
Afterwards, I shared with the group that shortly after meeting Mohanji for the first time, this had been something that I had wanted to experience. Mohanji, in the video, explained that he would happily conduct Satsang in silence, but becomes aware of all the questions that individuals have in the room and feels obliged to answer them and to reassure them.
In going into silence with Mohanji, I experienced Mohanji’s presence and saw him clothed in white – (choosing my words carefully here – not dressed in white but clothed or radiating white) I experienced a white lingam within my head (not outside) in the area of the anjna chakra which was radiating bright white light and then a white king cobra rose up and opened its hood over the lingam, that was a new experience. As a reminder, dear readers, Johnny’s observation about Mohanji’s photograph sitting in silence with Lord Datta, “…the picture is white light on a different dimension.”
Easter Sunday 2026
“I love you Mohanji”…. “I love you,” replied Mohanji to Mirella Matjeja’s young daughter and with hearts melted, Mirella shared her experience of Sitting in Silence with Mohanji. Mirella had missed the first in-person session but had sat with the recording and felt the love, power, and silence through, it just as the Empowered 5 participants had in Easter 2025. Many of us have suspected that Mohanji operates beyond time and space. Some have been blessed with that actual experience, but looking at the so-called ‘sequence’ of the above events, timings and discussions, I also see only clear evidence of that.
In sharing my experience with Mohanji on Easter Sunday 2026, the name of Sathya Sai suddenly appeared in my consciousness, and I mentioned to Mohanji that it was wonderful to be with him on the day Sathya Sai had chosen to leave his body, with whatever message that timing conveyed. Mohanji didn’t immediately respond, but more was to come later, because in closing the Satsang, Mohanji spoke about Sathya Sai leaving his body in 2011. In doing so, devotees were given the opportunity to connect with Sai’s consciousness and presence beyond form. Not all were able to do so.
What is the message of Easter? According to Sathya Sai Baba, the cross symbolises the crucifixion of the ego. When the “I” (ego) is crossed out or destroyed, the divine nature shines forth. The body itself is the cross upon which the ego is crucified to achieve liberation.
In his Easter Satsang, Mohanji also discussed this theme. For liberation, we have to take out the “l” factor. Mohanji repeatedly emphasised this. Through “I,” we have created a boundary of thoughts associated with personality that binds through identification with relationships, position and possessions. We have limited ourselves through ownership and small identifications, and at some point, through inspired and timely circumstances, we realise that we must leave behind the dramas that we create through these limitations.
In his Easter Satsang, Mohanji made a reference to ‘half-baked’ in the context of not recommending forced kundalini and third eye activation. I immediately picked up on this as an association with Sathya Sai that had a very personal meaning (another story). I mention this as yet another illustration that Mohanji operates beyond what we perceive as linear time with a perfection and timing that is natural to supreme consciousness. Everything above was written on the 6th April, but Mohanji wasn’t finished, more was to come…..
April 9th 2026 Silent Sitting
The fourth consecutive sitting with Mohanji in silence commenced at 2.00pm BST. Mohanji appeared on screen, sitting next to Lord Datta, entirely clothed in white. I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. Awe at the grace of the Master might be a better description. I smiled internally with gratitude and recognition. Mohanji was confirming everything I had written above, as well as Johnny’s and my experiences. For the last three days, I have continued to sense the perfume in the spot where I sit to meditate. I can only describe it as a gentle, sweet jasmine, but mostly the scent of honeysuckle. I looked but couldn’t find a physical source. I don’t use incense or scented candles. There are no flowers, apart from Jenny.
At the end of a silent sitting, I was reminded of a comment that I always sit in the same spot during meditation. I had previously responded to this by saying “0000,” without really knowing why or what it meant. Prompted to explore this, I looked up the meaning of 0000. In numerology, 0 represents both nothingness and totality—an infinite, silent void that holds all creative potential. It is unseen yet ever-present, the invisible energy connecting everything.
0000 symbolises a connection to infinity and pure source energy—the origin of all that exists, without beginning or end. It reflects a state of deep intuition, inner alignment, and universal presence. Symbolically, it can also represent a “void” or “cosmic womb”—a blank canvas, a point of reset, or the beginning of all things. In other contexts, it may refer to a zero point in location or time, such as midnight.
Just as I finished writing the above, Jenny returned home from work and said, ‘Ah, I see you are sitting at 0000.’ Jenny has never said this before… consciousness, like love, is apparently all around. I moved location and picked up the Sai Satcharitra to read my allocated chapter as part of the weekly Sri Sai Satcharitra Parayan by Mohanji Foundation UK. The Chapter contained the following:
“After having some tea, Sharma returned and, after bowing before Baba, said, “Deva, what is this game of Yours? You first raise a storm and make us restless, and then calm it down and ease us.” Baba replied, “You see, mysterious is the path of action; Though I do nothing, they hold Me responsible for the actions which take place on account of Adrista (destiny); I am merely its witness. The Lord is the sole Actor and Inspiration. He is also most merciful; Neither am I God nor the Lord; I am His obedient servant and remember Him often. He, who casts aside his egoism, thanks God and trusts Him entirely, will have his shackles removed and will thus obtain liberation.”
All experience requires an experiencer. This too will pass, but not quite yet it seems…
Saturday 11th April Weekly Talk
Mohanji was sitting in Ayodha, and naturally Mohanji began Satsang by acknowledging the significance of the new temple, Rama and Hanuman. Mohanji shared that the Ramayana is a blueprint for Supreme Consciousness (Parabrahma) and the evolution of human character. Rama is not just a historical figure but a “walking, talking” embodiment of the divine that remains stable through every human ordeal. It was a blissful start to Satsang, which was permeated by the love of Rama and the potency of the name when chanted with love.
The energy of the Satsang was such that at its end, I naturally started silent sitting, focusing on my spine. The energy was calling, and I very strongly felt Mohanji’s presence overlighting my consciousness. The perfume was back, an incredibly strong honeysuckle fragrance that held me in stillness. I opened my eyes to see that a new WhatsApp had landed, “Hello, Michael. Jai Mohanji. Om Sai Ram. I’m Anita Selot. We met briefly in Shirdi in Dec last year, and we know each other due to the Mohanji weekly talk.
My apologies for messaging you like this without context. But I just saw a random YouTube video that mentioned you and your experience in Shirdi in 2025. It gave me goosebumps. To share the video with you, I searched WhatsApp groups where you could be and got your number. I’m sharing the same video below.”
I responded: “Sai Ram Anita. Bless you. Pure grace that you sent this to me. I had no idea of its existence. You might have read the original article: https://mohanjichronicles.com/shirdi-sai-baba/a-vision-of-sai-through-the-grace-of-mohanji/
This is another incredible synchronicity… just before Mohanji’s Satsang, I picked up a book given to me in Shirdi called the Shirdi Diary, written by Shri D S Khaparde. I have waited all this time to open the book and read it, and then you send this message. Bless you for doing so. There have been so many experiences this week, and I have just written another testimonial, which I have sent to the team for review.”
Anita continued, “You are so blessed, and I’m so happy to connect with you. Today’s satsang was amazing. There is something about the energy today. I felt during the satsang, when Mohanji was narrating the story of Hanumanji and said that wherever Ram’s name is mentioned, Hanuman is there….there was a disturbance, and I distinctly heard Ram, Ram, Ram in a surreal voice. Then Mohanji continued after a pause and said, ‘Can you hear?’ I’m waiting for the recording to confirm what I heard. Or was it only I who heard it? Did you feel the same? “Yes, I also heard the Ram Chant,” I replied. “It appeared as a disturbance, but clearly not…”
Anita confirmed, “True. The timing and the voice, and then Mohanji saying, “Can you hear?” Mohanji mentioned that those who can see will see, others will not. That is true in this case.” I am reminded of Mohanji’s observation in Shirdi, “ Mohanji announced to the room that Sai wanted me to know he is alive and wants the world to know it. Presence is eternal.” All experience requires an experiencer.
With grateful love and thanks to Mohanji and the Masters of the Tradition. Samastha Lokah Sukinho Bhavantu.
|| JAI BRAHMARISHI MOHANJI ||
Edited & Published by – Testimonials Team, 16th April 2026
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