Shopping for God in the Spiritual Supermarket
Valerie Coyle interviews Dadi Janki
Why most people are lost and searching, disillusioned and desperate for solutions.
Valerie Coyle: The Western world seems inundated with so many different spiritual choices and teachers, and most people seem to be shopping around in the spiritual supermarket and changing aisles all the time. It seems very hard to stay focused on a spiritual path, even if it feels like a true one.
Dadi Janki: Human beings are attracted towards spirituality at present because they are tired of materialistic life. They have not experienced any happiness through materialism. The more they have chased after materialism, to that extent they have lost themselves; they have forgotten themselves. Their attention has become completely extroverted. It has not been turned within. To search for spirituality means to go within. Because there are so many paths of spirituality, from both the East and the West, people are totally confused about what is right and what is wrong, or what they should select.
This world itself is a world of deception. When people have experienced deception they seek a spiritual path. However, even when they come onto a spiritual path, after some time, they again experience some kind of deception. This is why people move away from religion. They are tired of hearing the word ‘religion’. Their pure feelings of faith in religion have disappeared—whether that be Hindu, Muslim, Christian or whatever. No matter which religion they belong to they have to understand what true spirituality is and go into the depth of that spirituality.
Originally, the religious founders definitely had spiritual power. They lived as messengers of god. They came on this earth whenever there was a need, and played their role within the help of God’s power. Now, because people have become body conscious, they have forgotten their religion, and they have so much conflict within themselves that, even if they use the term ‘religion’, it is only namesake. Hence they do not practise the teachings that were shared by those religious founders; they simply repeat them like parrots. No matter how much they study, inside they are empty; they do not have that spiritual knowledge. In order to experience peace, happiness and power it is necessary to go within, for only then can we realize what true spirituality is. No matter how much someone searches outside, they can never find true spirituality.
Valerie Coyle: What does spirituality mean to you?
Dadi Janki: Spirituality means that I should be connected with the Source. For that I need to have the recognition of that Source. Who is He? Where does He reside? In fact God is One. He cannot be different for different religions. He is One for all. If I say that Christ belongs to the Christian religion and someone else to another religion, then I create conflict. Instead of more spiritual power there will be even more wars and even less love between one another.
Spirituality means to have eternal spiritual love for each other whilst maintaining that incognito, internal connection with God. This is only possible when I become introverted, and when I am able to keep my mind under control through the power of concentration. Today, human beings’ minds and sense organs are not under their control. The sense organs cause us to perform very bad actions by coming under the influence of lust, greed and anger. Spirituality means to make my mind free from all these things—to let these desires finish. The consciousness, “I want this, I want that etc,” is also extrovert. The more I want the less satisfaction I will receive from that. In fact I will become even more of a beggar. To be spiritual means to be royal, not to have any desires. A jeweller who does business with jewels will not waste his time in trifling matters. So, I have to go deep into myself and search for the treasures that I have within myself. In order to see God, I need to have a divine intellect and divine sight. I cannot see God through these ordinary eyes. I can see this world through these eyes, but I cannot see myself. Whether my eyes are open or not, I should be able to see myself. Otherwise, if I am extroverted, whatever I see externally comes into my mind. Even things I have seen years ago come into my mind.
Spirituality means to open the eye of the mind and, on the basis of that, to realize who I am. When anyone comes here we always teach them three main lessons: “Who am I?” “Who is God?” and “What is the philosophy of karma?” I should understand the philosophy of karma to such an extent that every action I perform is accurate and filled with spirituality. Even if the actions are mundane, they should reveal spirituality. Even the quality of my thinking must be filled with spirituality because the foundation of human life is the quality of our thoughts. If I have the feeling of positivity and of bringing benefit to others, then automatically my thoughts will be filled with those qualities. And if my thoughts are of quality, then my interactions with others will also be of quality. I am a soul; I am connected with the Supreme Soul; He is teaching me, and whatever He is teaching me I am able to share with others.
Valerie Coyle: Most spiritual teachings do advise us to go within, because the answers are within. But it seems to me that to do this properly requires an enormous leap of faith. To renounce the outer world and especially the ego creates a lot of insecurity. How do you develop the faith to remain introverted? It seems to be a hard thing for people to grasp—having such uncompromising faith—even in yourself?
Dadi Janki: Originally, there was spirituality within every one of us, but today we have accumulated a lot of rubbish in the form of negative thinking and bad habits. And so, spirituality means to clear away the rubbish and release the power that is in the soul. If you ask the experience of those who are following a spiritual path now, they will be to verify this experience of clearing away the rubbish to expose the beauty within. This does not mean ‘blind’ faith; you have to use your intellect. First understand, then have faith and then practice.
Suppose I am explaining something to you. If you are intellectual, you will start to analyse what I am saying through your intellect. Then nothing I explain will sit in your intellect. In fact what you need to do is put aside all the other information that you have accumulated, make your intellect quiet, and then you will be able to absorb. You can have faith only when you can understand what you have heard.
Valerie Coyle: Personally, I feel that a lot of the times I sit on the fence. On one side is faith and trust, and on the other is ego and control. The obstacle for me is the underlying fear that if that I don’t at least attempt to control my world, nothing will happen to me. Maybe I won’t even exist!
Dadi Janki: Firstly, I would like to clarify what it means to have trust. You don’t have to trust me to have trust. You don’t have to trust me or what I say. You trust in something after making yourself understand. If your intellect agrees with it, then you trust. We don’t use the method used by gurus and others that you have to follow what we say. God has given us this understanding. Previously you had the intellect but you did not know how to use it in order to understand and judge what is right and what is wrong. Now, you received that understanding to judge properly.
The difference between animals and human beings is that animals do not have an intellect. Human beings have an intellect, so can ask, “What is right?” “What is wrong?” “What is good?” and “What is bad?” “What is sin?” and “What is charity?” However, we have lost the power of decision-making because the intellect has become so weak. We continue to commit sins (negative and violent actions) and we do not perform any acts of charity. Through understanding, we receive the ability to discern the difference between right and wrong.
Previously, we used to suppress our conscience because we were under the influence of other people, opinions and the world. Now our conscience opens up, and we develop the power to perform good actions. If for example, I know what is right, but don’t have the strength to do it, then I connect the yoga of my intellect with the Source and take the power from God, and then I can do it.
First of all, I have to understand who I am and what my relationship with God is. Then, I practically establish that relationship, and receive power. On the basis of this experience, I have the faith that this is God and this is soul. At that point, I understand what I should be doing. Then all my thoughts and actions will be accurate, and I will thank God for giving me such good thoughts. This is what is called ‘having faith’.
For example, if I am born a Hindu, and I believe in all the teachings of Hinduism, then I continue to move forward. Now, suppose somebody else speaks to me about another religion or culture. I will not start thinking that I can’t leave my Hinduism behind because I can’t survive without it. I will just incorporate the new information. It is the same with education. When you study, you learn more and more new things. And, when you learn something better, then automatically you will leave behind whatever is past. You will not have questions, “How can I survive without it?” “How can I give up that teacher?” or “How can I leave those books?”
If I have no ego, I can survive without these because I know that I am receiving something better that is for my own progress.
Valerie Coyle: So then why do we all resist?
Dadi Janki: Fear, Ego comes because of fear. We have been taking support from it for a long time. Many people have this obstacle. If I give up what I was doing before, if I have any loss, then what? God has given us an open opportunity to learn. He says you learn until the last breath of your life. Myself, I had gurus before starting to practise Raja Yoga. They used to frighten me by saying, “If you leave me something will happen” because they wanted me to be their follower. I would answer, “Thank you for all you have taught me, but please now give me blessings so that I can move forward in my life”. But I needed courage to do that.
Because there is no end to spirituality, the more you go into its depth, the further you can go. And to that extent, you experience happiness.
Valerie Coyle: I think that most people have ego as their guru. It is the ego that tells most of us what to do.
Dadi Janki: Because ego has filled the soul over a long period of time, it has gone deep inside. Ego of my own body, my religion, my education, my culture, my nationality has gone deep inside me. So, now I have to bring that ego out of myself. I have to become free from ego. Then I am able to experience what reality is. The soul cannot do anything without a body. But what has happened is that being in the body, we have allowed all the bodily things to affect us: culture, religion, education, etc. In reality, the soul is truth, love and bliss. We have to cleanse the soul in order to finish the ego. Because of ego, we also have greed, anger, jealousy and attachment. If someone is jealous he can never make his mind peaceful no matter how much meditation he does. Meditation means to remove all the rubbish and cleanse the soul. No matter how much people may criticize or insult me, I don’t have to be affected by that. I have to adopt truth and I have to move along that path. I know that God is truth, but now I have to experience and realise how God is truth.
Dadi Janki is the Additional Administrative Head of the
Of Frogs, Captains, Iceburgs...and Eagles!
Marc Fourcade reflects on what you need to change the course of your life
The world is moving. Either we move with it or we move against it, in which case we may not be strong enough! The forces on the move are enormous and uncontrollable; they are the forces of nature, the forces of life. The power to change is the power to live.
The Creation is in permanent re-creation. It dies and is reborn at every instant. It becomes ugly and makes itself beautiful again at each breath. It does not stop undoing what it had started so well; as it chases away the spring it puts summer in its place; it languishes in autumn and then hits you in winter. Nature, day by day, gives us the tempo of life—but it is hard for us to follow, being weighed down by the baggage we carry from the past, containing the weight of our memories and our nostalgia.
For many of us, changing implies losing. It is not always related to the conscious area of ourselves. Entangled in our habits, our routines, we are seldom willing to leave safe areas of inner comfort. Every time we do move away from our comfort zones, it is synonymous with danger. Coming out of the shell of our apparent certainty is like entering a jungle of ignorance, anguish, and maybe death. As Woody Allen once said, “As long as a man will consider himself mortal, he will never really feel relaxed,” and we could probably add “and never really be ready change”.
Very often, in order to obtain something new, one has to renounce something old. This is often goes against the grain as our tendency is to both have our cake and eat it. We always wish to have more but nevertheless don't want to renounce our attainments. For that reason, we have invented a wonderful quality: adaptability. It allows us to attain new things without getting rid of the old things. It is called the patrimonial instinct.
Adaptability is of itself a beautiful quality, but it also presents a few dangers if we don’t know what we are adapting to. The human organism, for example, adapts very successfully to tobacco, alcohol, fats and even to arsenic in small doses, but each one can eventually make the body sick and even kill it. The frog is legendary for its capacity to adjust its body temperature to the surrounding temperature. However, when it is submerged in a pan of water that is gradually heated up, it adapts and adapts and is eventually boiled as it lacks the energy to jump out of the pot. Are we not also trapped at times in situations where we adapt instead of jumping, until it is too late?
An individual does change when his major interests are at stake. When he realises his emotional and mental balance, his health and his life are threatened, he suddenly realises he has the means to change. Change obeys at least three criteria: need, awareness and the power to act. In this trilogy, information plays an essential role; in other words, how can one apprehend, understand and act without any information, without knowing. The essential need for right information is illustrated in the story if a certain ship’s captain of the Norwegian navy who was caught one night in the fog in the Galapagos. His ship was the flagship of the fleet. Faced with a flickering light headed straight towards his ship, he sent three signals requesting the ship bearing the light to changes its course by twenty degrees to avoid collision. At the very last moment, he furiously had to change his own course to avoid collision with that unrelenting light, which turned out to be a very stable lighthouse.
Information is the pivotal point in any process of change. It is not enough to know that one has to change; one also needs to have the know-how, in which case information is power. Information is not only at the heart of the challenge of change, but it is also the reason why there is so much resistance to change. Despite living in the information age we are not really that well-informed, at least in terms of quality, either about ourselves or our surroundings.
Quite recently a study published by two French writers, Regis and Brigitte Dutheil, a physicist and a philosopher, in their book called “The Super Light Man”, revealed to what extent the role of information is essential in the development of our awareness of events, and beyond that, the shaping of our behaviour. They tell us how our awareness of our environment is limited to the quite weak capacity of our sense organs. Our eyes, for instance, are only able to perceive a spectrum of colours between 0.3 and 0.8 angstrorn, that is, from pale blue to dark red, and therefore we are totally unable to perceive ultra violet or infra red rays. The same applies to our ears, which cannot hear very low or very high frequencies; and to our nose, the olfactory cells of which are unable to compete with those of a dog! This type of information about our environment is always incomplete, and yet we continue to interpret the way the world works and the nature of life from this very limited input.
If we only have very little information about our surroundings, we have even less about our inner world—the way we function psychologically, the mechanism of our thoughts, our emotions and our personal resources. We have integrated over the course of years—through our education, our experiences, our discoveries, our realisations—an incredible quantity of memories which today constitute our internal reference system.
These memories, linked to one another at the heart of a complex internal network, are the mother earth of our thoughts and also of our behaviour. The quality and strength of these memories and the way in which we use them determine our emotions, our reactions, our desires and our state of mind. Our ability to change ourselves lies in our potential to manage this bank of information but first we have to find out what exactly is in the bank, that is to say, we have to get to know ourselves. There is scarcely any other method than to plunge deeply inwards and go through the indescribable morass of memories to try to find ourselves, and know where we are at.
The human being is a like an iceberg. We only know the emerged visible part of it, that is, scarcely ten percent of the personality. The merged ninety per cent is under the surface, and constitutes its essential reality. Nevertheless, with what little information we have, we try to anticipate its reactions, to foresee its changes, to act on its behaviour. If the wind is blowing north to south you would expect the iceberg to move south, but contrary to expectations it moves north, because the current is pushing ninety percent of its mass under the surface in the opposite direction.
In the case of an individual, the conscious ten per cent is not strong enough to fight against the ninety per cent of the subconscious of buried memories and forgotten emotions—hidden in the shadows of our past, incognito, but active and representing a very powerful, invisible current. This is one of the key reasons why we have so many problems—whether in terms of organisational management or in terms of self-management. We are over-informed and submerged with excessive, irrelevant and bad quality information about the ten percent of reality accessible our five senses, and under-informed in quantity and quality about the ninety per cent our reality. What a pity, because we all possess unsuspected resources, but our narrow vision of ourselves and our mental limits prevent us from drawing on them and expressing them.
This is illustrated by the story of the eagle’s egg which was hatched by a hen. Since its birth, the baby eagle’s only environment was the world of chickens. He grew up as a chicken, ate like a chicken, ran like a chicken, communicated like a chicken and lived like a chicken. Then one day near the end of his life he looked up into the infinity of the sky and admired the majestic gliding of the large royal eagle overhead, and he began to dream of flying like him!
This story enlightens us about the incredible impact information has on our stages of consciousness and beyond this on our behaviour and quality of life. An excess of information about the superficial in our external environment drowns out awareness of our internal environment which is essential if we are to capture subtle signals which require a great deal of sensitivity as well as intuition to be perceived. Beyond what our five senses perceive, there is an unlimited dimension to explore. There is an unsuspected field of vibrations rich in quality information capable of radically transforming our vision of the world and of ourselves. For this, we have to stop being surfers and become divers and discover the treasures of the soul in the silence of the depths of our own being.
Meditation is the royal path for this travel to the centre of the self, the search for the Holy Grail, the search for perfection, for the pure beauty of the original being. Michelangelo had one good argument to convince the sceptics that many of us have become. One day, when he was tired of the praise of an admirer about an enormous sculpture that he had just finished, he replied to her, “Madam, I only took off the stone that was not necessary, the perfection lay inside.”
Is there not, in that awareness, a good reason to start the voyage towards the centre of the self?
Marc Fourcade is a Management Consultant in the field of Human Resource Development based in
