The high priest of pirposeful living

The high priest of pirposeful living

Dandapaniji talks with Navni Chawla about finding meaning and purpose to life and  living in alignment with it to make the most of our time here on this planet 

As I entered the   hotel lobby where  

Dandapaniji was  staying, I saw him coming  out. He told me he had just  finished another interview.  Seeing his enthusiasm, we  straight away started looking  for a place to conduct his  second interview for the day,  which was with Life Positive.  We went to an outdoor area 

with less noise. He politely  asked if I wouldn’t mind  doing it on the staircase since  it was in the shade and away  from people; hence, quieter.  I instantly agreed, my heart  filled with joy and gratitude  to be with this humble yet  renowned man who trains  world-class athletes, sitting  beside me on the staircase,  eager to answer my questions.  

•  What do you do 

Dandapaniji? 

I was a monk for 10 years after  which I left the monastery I  was in. I am a Hindu priest  now. The biggest difference  between a monk and a  priest is that as a monk one  practises Bhramacharya and  does not earn money, but  as a Hindu priest, one can  get married—which I did.  And I have a four-year-old  daughter.  

\

All answers are inside you 

I work as an advisor to entrepreneurs and  athletes. I train them to understand how the  mind works, how to leverage that understanding,  and to focus their mind to get better at what  they do.  

[I read his book The Power of Unwavering  Focus, in which he emphasises the importance  of living a purpose-focussed life. Since I was  so interested in that subject myself and also  thought talking about purpose will resonate  with a lot of people, I asked him about it.] 

•  How does one find their purpose in life, especially if they are lost or clueless? I would say spend five minutes every day in a  

conversation with yourself. Most people don’t  know what they want in life because they  don’t know themselves. Most people don’t sit  down with themselves and ask questions like  ‘Am I happy?’ ‘What do I want?’ ‘What am I  passionate about?’ 

Every day, you can set up a meeting with  yourself and have a conversation of enquiry  (not a meditation). Eventually, you will begin  to realise what is important to you, and that  will lead you to your purpose in life. Spend  five minutes every morning and reflect on ‘Am  I really happy where I am today in my life?’  ‘Am I going where I want to go?’ You may not  have all the answers right away, but when you  ask yourself the same questions every day,  more answers will come from within you. No  answers are outside you; all answers are inside  you. It is a matter of really trying to extract that  information. Businesses do this, for instance,  when branding companies are hired to brand  a company. They go to the company and ask  them tons of questions: ‘What is the company  culture?’ ‘How do you upgrade?’ ‘What’s your  vision?’ ‘What are your core values?’ They keep  asking these questions over and over and then  they take all this information, distil it down,  and come up with a brand, a colour, a font style  and size, a logo, and a whole depiction of the  company. All this comes after so much enquiry.  Essentially, we are branding ourselves when we  are trying to find our purpose in life. We need  to go through the same process. Some people  are patient enough, but most people don’t care  enough to take the time to do it. 

[As I was super impressed by Dandapaniji’s  book, I referred to it again in the form of my  next question. I told him that he mentions  in his book that intuition comes from the  superconscious part of the mind, and it must  pass through the subconscious mind for us to  perceive it. But a cluttered subconscious would  

make it difficult for intuition to get through.] 

•  How can we de-clutter our subconscious so that intuitive information can be downloaded easily into our conscious, sensory, intellectual mind? 

I would say that one of the first things is to  be very conscious of what we consume. A  conscious mind is like a memory bank. Let’s  take an analogy: Imagine you have a room in  your house that you want to turn into a library.  Every day, you put 10 books in the library. You  don’t organise, label, or index them. You are just  stuffing information in there, and after a year,  3,650 books will be accumulated in your library.  Will it be easy to find anything there? In today’s  world where we consume so much information, 

our subconscious is like that room. Instead  Intution flows through a clutter-free subsconsious mind 

LifePositive | JANUARY 2023

of putting high-value books, we are putting a  thousand books, podcasts, Instagram reels,  YouTube videos, TikTok videos, and whatnot  in our subconscious mind, and we think we  are learning. But actually, we are not! All we  are doing is gathering information. Books  and information are useless unless practically  applied. After a few years, 4

what happens is  that you have a huge amount of clutter in your  subconscious and you don’t even know where to  begin. So how can you make a decision? 

So, from that pile, you have to organise  everything one by one. And that’s why when  you ask every 18-year-old or 35-year-old “What  do you want to do with your life?” they say  they have absolutely no idea because their  subconscious is so cluttered. We consume  content indiscriminately regardless of whether  it is harmful to us or serving us. If you keep  accumulating trash in your mind throughout the  years, there will be no room left for something  of value. We think information or knowledge is  wisdom, but it is not. The timely application  of knowledge is wisdom. If I can apply my  knowledge to do something at the right time,  then it is useful. People just fill their heads by  going to YouTube and listening to what others  are saying. While they assume that by doing this  they are learning something new, they are doing  nothing but just confusing their subconscious.  And therefore, it is critical to know what you  really want in life. By knowing what you want,  you know how to say no and what to say no to!  Once you know what you want, you can focus  more easily and also see clearly the things that  you don’t want. 

[This answer shook me and made me introspect:  But what if someone doesn’t know what they  want; what about them? How will they find their  purpose? How will they come out of the meaningless  meandering? Which led to my next question.] 

•  How does someone who lacks focus and Close-encounter 21 

The characteristic of intuition is that it tells you only one time; it never  repeats itself. It is always concise and precise, brief and clear. It will  never tell you again that now you need to be obedient and listen to it.  Another indication that you are functioning in the superconscious area  of the mind is that you have really good timing; timing is immaculate.  Obedience is needed with intuition. When you clearly hear a precise  voice in your head just follow it. That’s the rule. 

has a hyperactive mind recognise their own voice from all the noise in their head? 

I would say two things here: One has to have  the desire to know oneself. And this is where  99.999 per cent of people fail. Since they don’t  want it badly enough, they never pursue it.  Secondly, if someone has too much clutter  inside their mind, then I would say find a  mentor or a teacher who will help you go from  A to B. But how do you identify a real guru  from a fake teacher? The right type of teacher  should be able to clearly define for you a goal  and the steps to reach that goal. A true leader  can paint a very clear picture of the vision of  your goal or target. The hallmark of a good  teacher is that they do not intend to inspire  you; they just outline the steps for you to reach  your goal and help you whenever you are stuck. [In his book Dandapaniji often refers to the  superconscious part of the mind being the purest.  I wondered if we could ever tap into that part of  us. Wouldn’t that make our lives more illuminated?  And so I asked my next question.] 

•  How can one train their subconscious mind for it to work in harmony with the superconscious mind? 

Our superconscious mind is like a wise  person. A wise person will go to a library,  look at the right resource, consume it, and  use that knowledge to create something. If  the superconscious mind has a messy library  or subconscious how will it extract the right  information to guide us? It can’t. So, for us to  be able to access the superconscious mind, it  is very important to cleanse our subconscious  first. When the subconscious is organised,  it is very easy for the superconscious to go  in there and say that it needs such-and-such  information, grab that information, and then  create. 

Ultimately, in the deeper understanding,  the superconscious doesn’t really need the  subconscious to work. When your subconscious  is disorganised, you ignore even a flash of  intuition. Children should be trained from an  early age not to clutter their subconscious mind  by stuffing it with unnecessary information. 

In ancient India, they would not cultivate  intellectual learning for women; they would  give them basic education, and beyond a  certain point, the women would not develop  their intellect. Instead, they would send the  girls to learn the arts because this discipline  works more with the superconscious and  intuitive mind. For women, it was important to  be in touch with their intuitive self because if  they were more intuitive, they could guide the  family. If the intellect is overdeveloped, reason  

Close-encounter 22 

takes over everything else, and one ignores  intuition and never listens to it. In ancient  culture, women guided society although men  were at the forefront. But women would tell  men what to do at home when they fed them.  They would tell men some great ideas. The  shakti (energy) and stability of a woman bind  the household together. The right thing to do  flows from the intuitive side of the mind. 

And so it is important to cultivate intuition.  Reason will not always guide you correctly. 

•  What would you suggest to, say, a four year-old to help them develop their intuition early on? 

I will teach them about the awareness of  their mind. I will tell them about moving the  awareness to different areas of the mind, like I  tell my own three-year-old daughter. Once her  mother was upset about something, and she  said “Amma, take your awareness to the happy  area of the mind.” And now I am teaching her  about the superconscious and how to identify  it. Cultivating an interest in the arts also helps,  like music and dance. These two are close to  

the superconscious but this doesn’t hold true  for all music. The first step is to understand  how the mind works and know the difference  between intuition and intellect. The latter is  always reasoning ‘If I do this, this will happen  and that will happen’ and so on and so forth. 

The characteristic of intuition is that it tells  you only one time; it never repeats itself. It is  always concise and precise, brief and clear. It  will never tell you again that now you need to  be obedient and listen to it. Another indication  that you are functioning in the superconscious  area of the mind is that you have really good  timing; timing is immaculate. Obedience is  needed with intuition. When you clearly hear a  precise voice in your head just follow it. That’s  the rule. Shut up and do what it says. It will  never ever guide you wrongly. 

•  What is your view of God? 

Hinduism believes there is only one God.  There are many angels and great angels, (devas  and mahadevas). We have millions of them,  but only one God. God is one pure energy  (Divinity) permeating everything. How do you  get to know God? Have a shrine at home or go  to the temple, make an appointment with God,  and spend time with him. Every day, spend  some time with God, offer a flower, and say  “Thank you.” Go to him when everything is  fine, not only when you need something. Build  a relationship with God. It’s a two-way street.  You come half way and God comes half way;  you both meet in the middle and that’s where  the magic takes place. Talk to your God like  you talk to a friend. For me, God is so much of  a friend that I want to go to see him. 

Once in a while, ask Him, “What can I do  for you? How can I serve you?” And then a  relationship starts to build between you and  God. But you should not have a lazy, passive,  and non-responsive approach towards God.  Take ownership for your life. God is there to  assist you, not to live your life. Open yourself  to the possibility of failure or success. Don’t  be afraid to fail. Only when you fail, will you  succeed. You have to fail many times before  you succeed. 

•  Is there a personal practice that you recommend to someone who seeks your advice? 

I always ask “What do you want to achieve?”  Your goal defines what practice is good for you. 

•  What is that one piece of advice for young people who are so distracted by social media and are consuming information off the web? 

Consume information only from the people  who have real-world success, for example,  somebody who has built a company from zero  to two billion dollars; the best people in their  professions, like the best actors in Bollywood;  national cricket team players; best of the  athletes; etc. Get rid of all that is not aligned  

24 LifePositive | JANUARY 2023

with your dream. Put all your energy into what  you want to create. What inspires you, write  it down and remember it over and over again  until it becomes your core value. 

•  How can decision-making be simplified? Decision-making should be driven by purpose.  Once you know your purpose in life, decision making becomes easy. And also de-cluttering  the subconscious mind helps, which we have  spoken about earlier. 

•  How can one enhance their creativity? Creativity comes by managing your energy  appropriately and not allowing it to leak. When  you channel your energy and redirect it to the  things you want to do, then your creativity will  blossom. Don’t waste your time on things that  are inconsistent with your goals in life 

•  How can one improve consistency? Consistency lies in small steps. Taking small  and doable steps every day is the key here.  That is the power of a small and sustainable  approach in life. Consistency is also driven by  love. 

On a personal note, this was by far the  sweetest interview I conducted. Dandapaniji  was patient, kind, and gracious with all his  answers. He gave simple answers to all my  questions, and I am sure they will be useful  and easy to grasp by anyone who reads them.  His humility made me realise that it was one of  the highest virtues and the hallmark of a high value man. My personal takeaway was to have  a laser-beam focus in life to achieve my goals.  Danadpaniji’s gentle demeanour can warm  the cockles of anyone’s heart. We hope that our  readers benefit the most from his wonderful  insights and beautify their lives.