Within just a few days this end of July and the beginning of August, I had a chance to dance in front of Mohanji three times, all through the Himalayan School of Traditional Dance, the platform he founded.
On 23rd July, on the Guru Purnima Eve, I was in Belgrade with a group of friends from India, Serbia, the USA, The UK, and Croatia. I was caught by surprise when I heard that Mohanji was coming and that we would be able to spend some time with him. Later on, he reluctantly allowed to do Pada pooja to him. He said that if it is done with bhaav, (pure devotion, from the heart), then it makes sense. Otherwise, if you do it mechanically, out of curiosity, because others do it or because you think you should do so, then better skip it. It adds to negativity, because you are not natural, you pretend.
At the same time, we should have clarity why this is done. It is done not to the person, but to the consciousness that this person possibly operates in. He allows it, he doesn’t deny anything.
Mohanji also mentioned that we are all like camphor – on the one hand we are unlit camphor and Guru is lit camphor, when you get close to it, you also get that flame and become lit.
He added, “I shake you so that you can stabilise yourself and be unshakeable. Not that I make you stable. Guru doesn’t wash your karmic laundry, you wash your karmic laundry yourself.” We laughed. It was intense and full of humour. We all know that he is like a washing machine, collecting a lot of our negativities and neutralising it so that we are fresh, enthusiastic, sound and kicking, empowered, and karmically much lighter. But what he does is not taking away karma – he is compressing it, so that we get it “with discount”. E.g. what we would go through some trouble for 30 years, he lets us experience it for 3 years or even 3 days. That’s how compassionate he is.
The next day we danced at the Festival of Consciousness. Our dear dance teacher and artistic director of Himalayan School of Traditional Dance, Radha Subramanian, came far away from India to be our guest, and present this art form Bharathanatyam in its unique, authentic way. She performed devotional compositions of great poet saints from India. She expressed herself in such away, that we were all sucked into another world, merged with her emotional expressions, and became that role that she was performing. We got completely absorbed into it. That is the power of a real artist – you forget yourself completely and let the art take you into its world where you become one with it.
I performed Guru Brahma sloka, Samastha Loka, and a few Adavus.
Himalayan School of Traditional Dance (HSTD) also conducted a week-long foundation course in Bharathanatyam at Novi Sad, Serbia between July 26 and Aug 01, 2021. As a representative of Mohanji Serbia, along with Monika, the president, and a very supportive friend, I took initiative and we organised this for the first time in the Balkans. The season is opened – now we are looking forward to many more to come. I attended a full level 1 foundation course, along with my online classes. Now I am level 2.
We had well structured classes, some of which were very intense, which is excellent for overall stamina, concentration and coordination. At the end of the course, we were supposed to have a test. To our surprise, our test was the final performance in front of Mohanji himself!
In the end Mohanji talked about Bharathanatyam. He said, “Do you know why I initiated traditional forms? Traditional Yoga, dance forms, languages, music, martial arts? All of them are, in a way, meditations. Every form is meditative. It teaches you flexibility. It brings you to yourself and the whole HSTD platform is devotion. When you are dancing, you are dancing in devotion.
See, devotion is usually to some object outside of you. But here, you are aligning yourself in devotion, for the object, when you and the object have no separation. There’s no outside – it comes inside. When you dance for Krishna, Krishna becomes you. When you dance for Shiva, Shiva becomes you.
I have great respect for traditional form. I am very rigid about it. Because when you adulterate, when you dilute things, what happens is, the basic essence is missed. In its original form, it has great relevance. But the moment you start adding water, try to make changes in the name of adaptation, it loses its flavour.
So, I wanted to have this as traditional as possible, even though it’s painful. Do you know why it is painful? Because of our rigidity. We learnt to be rigid. Our education makes us rigid. Life makes us rigid. Society makes us rigid. We lose flexibility. And with our rigid ways we look at the world. Thus, we don’t see the world. We only see what we are through a very small window. When you become flexible and you become the dance, then all the rigidity goes. It becomes a meditation.
So the aim is that while dancing you should not exist. When you dance, you should become the dance. A dancer melts into the dance. That’s a true dance – for which you need to know the laws, the techniques, the methods, so that it’s not wild movement. It is synchronised movement, focused movement, for you to dissolve. The aim is dissolution through dance. It is very, very important to understand this.”
He showed us an excerpt from a film which he used to watch when he was a student. He made a point that Bharathanatyam is a dance where you dance to express, not to impress. A celebrity danced and all journalists praised her. She became very attached to the impression she makes on the audience. She neglected the purpose of Bharathanatyam – where the eyes go, mind should follow. Then one journalist, an ex-dancer, came and honestly yet bluntly, criticised her in his article. The dancer and her husband called a press conference and this journalist as well and asked him why he wrote bad about her, when she is a celebrity and everybody “knows” that she dances perfectly. Then the journalist demonstrated himself what true Bharathanatyam is.
So, these are the three occasions within a few days, where I danced in front of Mohanji. I am grateful for this experience and cherish these moments. I am writing them here to reminisce from time to time and to share my joy with you.
With love,
Biljana Vozarevic
Mohanji Absolute Truth 