The two of us were recently travelling with Mohanji by car, from one city to another. Constructive conversations about responsibility and balanced existence enriched our journey.
I was sitting in the back, holding my phone near Mohanji’s shoulder, catching His words with my voice recorder. Not recording His purposeful words that almost always happen unannounced, was never an option for me, unless in the case of private conversations. We spoke about how travelling to foreign countries can cause problems if you go unprepared, which applies to anything in life really. If we don’t have responsibility, if we are not accurate, clear, well informed, or as Mohanji sometimes jokingly says, “going like headless chickens”, it can be a problem.
There was a man once who without doing much research, travelled to India alone. His name was Yanko. Yanko knew Mohanji and our people from Mohanji family, but he didn’t ask for help. For us foreigners, it is difficult to stay in India or any country where you are easily recognized as a foreigner, and where there is high possibility of being cheated, if you don’t have any knowledge or backup. You have to have all your eyes open. For me it was easy because I had always been protected and well supported by Mohanji family.
Yanko was alone and without much money. His total budget was a few hundred euros for the trip. He went to a motel and the locals charged him 15 times the price of a motel room, which was around 350 euros a night. The regular cost was about 20 euros. When he was already cheated and the cost was paid, Yanko called Manish, a man closely connected to Mohanji, to help him. Manish immediately came and intervened, and the motel returned the money. Yanko was safe, but he soon repeated the same mistake again, just a few days later when he left this motel and found a new one, without consulting Manish. He fell in the same trap again, called Manish and got the needed help for the second time. Manish told Yanko to be more careful and asked whether he even had that kind of money to pay 350 euros a night. He said he didn’t.
Later, Yanko travelled to a city where Manish had lived with his family. Manish invited him to stay with them instead of a motel. Yanko accepted and after finally leaving India, he wrote terribly impolite things about Manish’s family, publicly on Facebook. Apparently Yanko didn’t like certain things about the lifestyle of Manish’s family. I cannot wrap my head around this because Manish was the only person who saved him from not losing all the money within the first few days of his stay. And not only that, he opened the doors of his home to him. I don’t know what else but utmost rudeness or total stupidity.
The story shows today’s society and the overly active mouth that we don’t seem to know when to keep shut. I deviated from the topic on purpose in order to finish the story, but the focus of the blog is more on the first part, acting responsibly in foreign countries, because that was the first out of three points that Mohanji addressed in the car that day.
Mohanji very happily spoke about Advik, a simple man who really impressed Mohanji more than once. Mohanji emphasized the things He liked about Advik through the following stories.
1. Responsibility
When Advik, who was originally from India, travelled to Serbia with Mohanji for the first time, a country he had never visited before, he put a lot of effort into discovering the local functionalities before going: the local transportation, all types of bus passes, accommodation, etc. He left nothing to chance and he compared the prices and qualities of all before finally choosing what to take. Mohanji found it very impressive that he was trying to find the ground before taking decisions.
Advik kept gathering as much information as possible. He asked many people but he didn't take anybody’s version as the only version. He’s the type of a man who checks it all, people’s experience, the local reality, he asks questions, understands the subject fully and then takes a decision. Mohanji loved that he was doing his own research, silently.
2. Positive attitude
Advik has an extremely positive attitude, fueled by wisdom. One time in the Dubai airport, the security staff was thoroughly checking Advik’s visa and passport. They returned the documents, and then asked for them again for a recheck. It took time before they let him go, but Advik wasn’t annoyed. He joked with them saying, “You people decided not to leave me”. The staff laughed, closed the passport and let him go. Mohanji added, “Instead of being serious we can actually handle a situation in a funny way also.” I agreed and smiled. :-)
3. Solidarity
Another thing Mohanji liked is that during their travels, Advik was in a position to book a Business Class seat, but he chose Economy because he wanted to give company to a person who travelled with them, a very dedicated volunteer of Mohanji foundation. When we were hearing this story in the car, we laughed a lot, because in the end, Advik and this volunteer were sitting far away, as assigned by the airline, so it really didn’t matter. But his attention to detail mattered and awareness of others.
Mohanji shared that He views Advik as a very stable man, very focused. Even though he’s not educated as the society may feel appropriate, he is very balanced.
I was thinking how to apply these qualities, and discovered I have many things to correct and readjust in myself. Spirituality indeed is non-stop-correcting, especially with a guide by our side. A tricky thing about having a guide is that he/she makes you face all the things you rather hide below the carpet, which can be very painful. One time, Shirdi Sai Baba was asked, “Baba, I am in big pain, can you spread this pain to three more lifetimes so that this life can be lighter?” Baba was alive at the time. Baba only said, “Then why am I sitting here? Finish it all in one life and be free.”
Our nature is that of postponement, but to conclude the blog, any of us can look upto the three qualities from above and apply them in our life. Not necessarily in the same format, but the same essence. Our attitude can give us freedom.
Lots of love!
Thank you for reading...
All the names in this blog are replaced with fictitious names to secure the privacy of those involved.
Sources of photos: rootedinrights.org, yourmileagemayvary.net, blueoceaninstitute.org, www.uhd.edu, istockphoto.com.
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