Jahanji (J) landed in the land of opportunities on September 3, 1985 with a few dollars in his pocket and a carry-on. He walked out of the JFK airport not knowing where he would go next. A kind and noble couple who happened to be his friend’s relatives picked him up from the airport after five hours and thus J started his journey in the land of opportunities, far far away from his home.
Years later he had an expense account, a new car and a beautiful home in an affluent suburb of Chicago. With wealth came the freedom to travel the world, to wine and dine in fine restaurants, and to stay in luxury hotels. Driven by the desire to climb the corporate ladder, J went for higher studies at the Universities of Stanford and Harvard. He became one of the top leaders for a fortune 500 company. He was living the American dream. But, the competition in the rat race was tiring, painful and unsatisfying.
Eventually, he began to experience high levels of stress, emotional distress and insomnia. An unusual question arose, “Am I a successful leader or a success-fool leader?” The evidence pointed to the latter. J has become a successful leader but suffered poor health due to severe stress.
Most of us can relate to J. He is the “average Joe” who achieved success, but at what cost? He was physically exhausted, mentally stressed, and emotional depleted. He had gained the world but lost himself. The scriptural saying, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul” took a new meaning for J.
Disillusioned and discontent, J began to consider whether there might be another kind of success: one that didn’t come with such a high price tag, one that didn’t bring with it fatigue, insomnia, and stress but rather happiness, satisfaction and peacefulness. For the first time, he began to seriously ponder whether there was a way to be successful while simultaneously enjoying optimum health, wealth and happiness.
As fate would have it, he came across a spiritual mega-force and was introduced to the science of self-examination. J entered a new world, a world defined by self-inquiry and self-realization. The words of an ancient Greek Philosopher, “An unexamined life is not worth living and has no value”, took on a new challenge for J.
Returning to the corporate world during the week, J spent weekends observing the different patterns in nature, experimenting with yoga, and practicing various methods of meditation and tantra. A whole world of retrospection opened up for him. He began to question, why he believed what he believed, why he was thinking what he was thinking, why he was saying what he was saying and why he was doing what he was doing at that time of his life. This inquiry led him to the origin of thought and the understanding of what thought is. Eventually, J’s examination and experiments in self-inquiry led to a profound discovery from which emerged the truth of being. That discovery – explosive in its force – wiped out his personality and by the glance of grace, the universality of one consciousness emerged in its place. There is no personal self, no ego he realized. Instead, there is one universal self (Existence) expressing itself as him and through everything. The tremendous desire J had since he was a teenager to know the truth disappeared with the realization there is no self. The illusionary self that was asking the questions, who am I? what is truth, was no longer there. There is only One. Oneness is all there is. There is no doubt that the greatest challenge in his life was to let go of the ego to the point of realizing, “I am not” My ego is nothing but an illusion. neti, neti, (I am neither this nor I am that). It is the One Universal Consciousness manifesting itself as I am and throughout all of creation.
Jahan means the universe.
To live for all mankind was a documentary J watched in 1984 and it left a deep impression on him. After 33 years since watching that documentary J dedicated his life for the betterment of mankind. With a deep sense of gratitude Jahanji offers Satsang and Darshan to people from all walks of life with all kinds of religious, social, ethnic, cultural and political belief systems.
Jahanji left the corporate world after working for 25 years in the area of Medical Physics. He currently resides in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin - an hour drive from the City of Chicago.
His fundamental vision is to offer the science of self-examination to every human being – a science that helps a person to realize the self and live a worthy life in peace, joy and harmony within themselves and with others in the world.