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Mind States
Discover the Truth of Who You Are
An Interview with Gangaji
by Sydney L. Murray
Who are you? There are countless answers to this question but the answer is actually quite simple. When you discover your connection to others as one, you realize your true self. Gangaji, spiritual teacher and author of The Diamond in Your Pocket has traveled internationally, speaking to people to help them discover this path to freedom and inner peace. She has founded the Gangaji Foundation to create a community of people who are seeking truth. Recently I had the chance to have a conversation with Gangaji.
Vision Magazine: How would you define community?
Gangaji: I would say that community occurs wherever people feel connection and are interdependent with one another. This can be very big, stretching to the whole universe, or it can be very practical, found simply in your neighborhood or at work. Of course community can also be religious or spiritual. There are lots of subgroups to the concept but the defining fact would be one of connection.
VM: Do you think it’s possible for people to find peace in their lifetimes?
G: Absolutely. It’s at the core of everything. If you find the truth of yourself, you find the peace that you’re looking for in everything else. And when we come up short, it’s because it’s already here. What really works for me is just to take a moment, an hour or an afternoon and stop searching for anything—just simply be still. It took me awhile to actually understand what that meant but when I did get it, there was this sort of revelation that peace is here. And that doesn’t mean that it’s here just when things are going the way we want them to go because that’s not the nature of life. Sometimes things go the way we want them to go and other times they don’t. The peace is under it all. I’m not speaking of a conditional peace or even a lack of conflict. Through a willingness to be still, peace is revealed. I absolutely guarantee it. It’s the crux of my teaching.
VM: What would you say to people who are suffering during these trying economic times?
G: Well I would appreciate the suffering. I wouldn’t try to formulize what people should do with it. There are always trying times in some way, whether they are personal, romantic or global. We are going through a huge change in our times and the economy is just one aspect of it. I would always suggest to everyone that they find a place where they can be very still to find the peace of who they are. From that comes a natural intelligence and a clarity of how to take action. If we try to take action from the anxiety of loss, we tend to run in circles or we just act out of our self-interest rather than our community. But if we are willing to be still and discover what the appropriate action is, then there is a way that this time could be very fruitful in the long run. Historically, hard times often lead to blossoming that couldn’t have been known in easy times.
VM: What does freedom mean to you?
G: To me, freedom is the real capacity for choice. We live in a free society so we can make choices and cast our votes. But the deeper freedom is to recognize that you actually have a choice to discover the truth of who you are and not to be automatically run by your program, consciously or unconsciously. I would suspect that anyone who’s reading this already knows this; being a bit out of the mainstream, there are certain choices they had to make to take themselves out of what their lives were programmed to be. That expands the choices of their lives to embody more freedom and it ultimately converges on peace. You have the freedom to be peaceful, you have the freedom to love, and you have the freedom to be who you really are.
VM: Where do you think our world is headed?
G: We’re clearly at a crossroads. Throughout history, there have been certain times when societies or cultures explode or are reformed in certain ways, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. The fact that we’re having this interview on election day is interesting to me. It’s a very exciting election because nothing like this has ever happened in our country. Today I’m very optimistic because in my lifetime I’ve lived to see a black man most likely become president. The reverberations of that on our collective psyche are immeasurable. Who can know what will follow that? I’m not a prophet; it’s not like I can see the future. I can only recognize what’s in front of me. I know what I stand for, regardless of the outcome. That’s what I invite other people to do with their lives. Live a life in freedom now, where you are, and pass it onto whoever is willing to receive it.
VM: What do you think would be the greatest virtue a person can have?
G: Compassion. To me compassion is really a byproduct of wisdom. It is the deepest wisdom and the deepest peace within oneself. It is also the deepest recognition of one’s own imperfections. So there’s a way of recognizing that whatever you see out there is also happening within you.
VM: How do you think that people can overcome depression?
G: Depression can be a disease—an actual physiological biochemical disease—and if people have diseases I really support them in getting the proper care, whether it’s through western medicine, alternative medicine, or whatever works for them. There is a kind of depression that is just debilitating where one can’t think clearly and negative thoughts are just the reality. There is help for that. And then there is another kind of depression which is just a vague sense of doom and fear, or maybe a suppressed anger. That’s what I would say most people who feel depressed are suffering with. I’d just invite them to open their hearts to their deepest fear and let it come forward to actually experience it and what lies beneath it. Explore the willingness to try and not keep things down. In other words, do not avoid the depression; instead actually be open to it. Depression is a sort of resistance but it’s subconscious. When we stop resisting, whatever we’re trying not to feel arises to be felt. When we live just to feel it without acting on it, judging it or evaluating it, something really miraculous happens. The negative feeling is liberated. For this to happen, the story that’s attached to the negative feeling has to be stopped. I’m not speaking of going into the story of why one is angry or fearful, but just being with the pure emotion itself. When your individual consciousness meets pure emotion, that emotion is freed or transformed into this mission.
VM: What plans do you have for the future?
G: My plan is to continue my life as it’s being lived now, which is by speaking to people and being with them to offer support in waking up to the truth of who they are.
VM: If you could name one, what would be your greatest joy?
G: Without a doubt, my greatest joy is seeing the face of someone who breaks through their concept of themselves as separate and in just an instant wakes up to the truth of themselves as whole. The joy of that actually surpasses the joy I felt when I experienced it myself so it augments me hugely and I think that actually brings us back into community. It all ties together when one of us drops the suffering or expands into joy—then we all benefit. To be a witness to that is really a privilege of my lifetime.
VM: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
G: What I always say is trust yourself. That’s part of the importance of being quiet and being willing to meet what’s here as it is. There’s something acting very deep inside that is out of the range of a mental process. When trusted, it is directing you to fulfillment and truth, especially in difficult times.