The last time I had the good fortune of meeting Mohanji, he gifted me a small picture-card of the deity Dharmasastha from the Pathirisseri Dharma Sastha Temple—his family lineage’s newly inaugurated kuladevata temple in Kerala.
After I gratefully received the picture, I asked Mohanji what Dharmasastha actually meant. I was already attracted to the name itself. He said that Dharmasastha was a powerful, sometimes fierce protector of dharma.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but as of late I have begun to feel that this is a perfect name for Mohanji himself: Dharmasastha—the great being who protects dharma and guides others on the path of dharma.
Reflecting now on the past few years of being connecting to Mohanji—first from a distance, then within his organisation, and now mainly on a subtler level where I know that he is always with me, guiding me, supporting me—I realise that what Mohanji has given to me, or what Mohanji has brought out of me is, simply, dharma.
Before I met Mohanji, I had had an awakening to my essence, to reality, to who I really am. With this experience, I wrote a translation and commentary to Avadhuta Gita, which is what actually brought me and Mohanji together through me delivering the book to him and him then writing a foreword to it. In that book, there was no mention of dharma, love, service, or any of those things. The book is clear-cut statement of the absolute, non-dual truth about reality. It really offers no lifeline, and no helping hand for human beings who are trying to reach that state.
In between my first and second meetings with Mohanji, I was inspired to write another book, Sanatana Dharma Amrita. When I came to meet Mohanji for a second time, I asked him to write a foreword for this book, too. The foreword that he wrote, and which I have decided to include in full at the end of this article, was probably better and more relevant than the entire book put together. And he wrote it quickly in two sessions on this very laptop on which I am writing this article. The key line from the foreword? ‘Truth is us. Dharma is that truth in action.’
After the publication of that book, and throughout the intervening years, what has happened to me is not an expansion of knowledge about the absolute reality, but an expansion of understanding about what dharma is—about how the absolute reality is to be lived and related to through a human life. I strongly believe that it was the connection with Mohanji that brought this multifaceted understanding of dharma out in me.
Mohanji is not just an ordinary spiritual teacher or guide. He is not just an ordinary avadhuta, siddha, or avatar. He is a living manifestation of dharma—Dharmasastha. The more I have learned about life, the more I have learned about dharma. The more I have learned about dharma, the more I have learned about Mohanji. And life, dharma, Mohanji—all of these things are endless. So, when I say that I have learned something, I mean that I have merely glimpsed a fragment of something so vast that to measure it would be to measure the immeasurable space of existence itself—impossible.
Mohanji exists to guide and uplift every single being in this world, and probably other worlds. There is no being to whom his compassionate embrace does not extend. Whereas the view of an ordinary being can capture a few angles, a few degrees of life at most, and the vision of an awakened being can maybe perceive ninety to one hundred and eighty degrees—Mohanji’s view of life and dharma is without a doubt a three hundred and sixty degree view—it is absolute, all-encompassing, and unfailing.
Mohanji has an answer for every genuine need. Wherever somebody is on the ladder of spiritual evolution, Mohanji has provided something appropriate for them. Ordinary spiritual teachers typically provide something for a certain type of being with a certain type of individual constitution, whether devotional, intellectual, or experience-driven.
Out of his compassion and wisdom, Mohanji has cast a broad net. Mohanji has created practices and processes that he himself did not need on his path. He has created these things for those who need them. He has also created platforms for people to give back to the world, to help them reduce and rebalance their karmic debt balance that has been impelling them unconsciously through countless incarnations on Earth. He has also created spaces for beings to live, practise, serve, and set an example of non-violence and inter-species harmony through the housing and nurturing of animals. Last year, he also began sitting for online talks with people every week without interruption to provide a means for people to connect to him consistently.
Now, for those who have simply been longing to bathe in the overwhelming silence of Mohanji’s presence—he has begun offering simple meditations in silence with him that people can access from anywhere in the world. This is a great gift. Initially, Mohanji has given people their own practices—practices that are suitable for them. But now, Mohanji is offering people his own practice, he is clearly and directly offering the vast space of silence within which he himself dissolved his temporary limitations and fully manifested himself as the great avatar that he is.
What more to say? If you understand dharma, you will understand Mohanji. If you love dharma, you will love Mohanji—you will appreciate and be grateful for the presence of Mohanji on this Earth.
I haven’t intended this article to be a document of sycophantic praise for someone whom I am personally connected to and wish to promote. Mohanji doesn’t need my praise or promotion. He doesn’t need anything. He is Dharmasastha—a living manifestation of dharma provided by life to keep dharma alive in this world.
I am deeply grateful to be connected to him. I am grateful for the latent understanding of dharma he has helped bring out in me. I am grateful for his existence on this planet, and I am grateful for the fact that whatever he touches turns to gold—whoever connects to him consistently invariably has their higher dharmic capacities brought out and amplified.
With the grace and support of the great warriors of dharma in this world, may the wheel of dharma continue to turn.
With the deepest gratitude to Gurudeva Mohanji—the Dharmasastha of Today.
With love, Jack.
The nectar of consciousness exists through lives and lifetimes. Earth is just another canvas. Sanatana Dharma, or the basic ground rules of existence, nurtures Earth—the empty canvas. Starting from the Sun, the eternal creator, nourisher, maintainer, and dissolver to all its recipients in the sky, on the earth, under the earth, in the water, the animate, and inanimate, Sanatana Dharma plays its role unceasingly.
Water evaporating, rising and becoming clouds, clouds becoming rain that the earth receives, and then flowing as rivers into the ocean, nurturing many mountains, plains, meadows, forests—all of this natural, harmonious activity signifies the reality of Sanatana Dharma.
The flora and fauna grow at a particular speed. Herbivores that maintain the flora and fauna of Earth assume different growth and development patterns, and carnivores that regulate the herbivores assume yet another pattern of birth and existence. Their food habits and diet frequencies are also thus regulated by the abundance or availability of food along with the purpose of regulating harmony. However varied such modes of existence may be, they all complement each other. One completes the other; one never contradicts the other. Human intervention is the only imbalance in this beautifully orchestrated system. Each being has a particular character, constitution and behaviour pattern unique to themselves. They never deviate from it during their whole life, and they maintain their operating consciousness according to their kind. This is Sanatana Dharma in action.
Every species is a unique community, society, and a world of their own. They are regulated by various external species that seem like predators and prey. They have their unique lifestyles and relevance. They have their own unique system and balance too. They adapt, evolve, and operate strictly based on their instincts and unique operating consciousness. The wiser, smarter, or stronger among them become leaders and the rest followers. They never kill for pleasure and their true basic instinct is to survive and keep themselves alive. This is Sanatana Dharma at work.
Sanatana Dharma is unignorable. It is truth. It is the law of nature. This is the path of the Hindu, who is the one that lives a non-violent, balanced life. Religions are made by minds; Sanatana Dharma is God-given. It is an operating method, procedure or system, which is as simple as the operating reality of the sun each and every day or the flow of seasons through a year. We can choose not to look at it, but we cannot ignore it. Truth is us; Dharma is that Truth in action.
The basic expression of Sanatana Dharma is freedom. People who understand this live it too. There are many examples, such as all of the great liberated Masters who have stood, and still stand, tall as living beacons of Sanatana Dharma. They express themselves through a complete acceptance of life as it happens, and thus, the ups and downs of life never bother them. No expectations. No agenda. They are completely free from the inside and it shows by the way they live. They can never be understood by their attire, expressions or even their lifestyles. Great Avadhutas have existed throughout time and still exist today.
Sanatana Dharma is intergalactic, universal, and eternal. One can see the underlying presence of it in every aspect of life. Everything that is born will also die. Everything transforms periodically. Everything that has a form is temporary and transformative. These are all its expressions.
It is easy to understand and perceive if we look within. Where have we come from? Who are we? Why are we? If we contemplate on these inevitable questions, then we will, eventually, come to understand the flow of the Eternal Truth. We are living examples of that Truth. We are that Truth.
If we strictly live Sanatana Dharma, there will be no weapons manufacturers in the world. There will be world peace because weapons will be absent. There will be no crime because respect towards all life forms will be the law. Ahimsa will be the religion. Humanity will be nurtured through acceptance of life as it flows without blame or complaints. There will be total acceptance of oneself and the world as it is. Nature will never be disturbed. There will be no zoos or captured and bound animals. We shall visit them in their natural habitats or see them through films. There will be total respect towards all species. There will be no breeding of animals for food. There will be no hunting, killing for pleasure, ethnic cleansing, and such horrific acts. People who violate the law of respect and non-violence will be taken away from the society until they can be reintroduced. The whole world will not be segregated by so many boundaries and divided by politics, greed, language, religions, or colours of skin. Human beings will live righteousness and goodness. When weapons, including chemical or biological, are not manufactured anymore in the world, there will be no more wars and world peace will become a reality. No wars. No hunting. No violence. No discrimination. No manipulation of minds through the mediums of science, politics, or philosophies. No hatred. This will be a life within the rules of Sanatana Dharma. This is what all the glorious Masters of the past stood for and still stand for. The rules and rulers of the world will focus only on benevolence and never supremacy. All countries will unite and become one world even if the governance is local. Everyone will help each other. There will be no starvation. There will be justified distribution of resources. There will be no exploitation of nature and beings of nature. There will be no capture, torture, and murder of any being. There will be harmony. There will be respect. There will be peace. May there be peace on Earth and in all other worlds too. Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu!
I wish Jack H. Barratt and this wonderful book a great success. May it reach the hands of many and give clarity and purpose to their lives. This is one of the most essential books for a genuine seeker of Truth—of Sanatana Dharma Amrita—The Nectar of the Eternal Truth.
Mohanji
14.10.22
