Mohan Ranga Rao: Myopia & Finding Dharma Through Loss | Ep49

Christian
What’s up beautiful people? This is Christian from the Successful Spiritualpreneur Podcast and today I’m super excited to have Mohan Ranga Rao on the podcast. He is an entrepreneur, explorer and storyteller who draws inspiration from his journeys through life’s triumphs and trials. A seasoned businessman and philanthropist, he has traveled to over 30 countries seeking the beauty of nature and the growth found on challenging trails. His award winning debut and book, in a track, A Reluctant Pilgrim in the Himalayas, chronicles his transformative track around Mount Kailash, a sacred Tibetan mountain. His latest book, Myopia, is a deeply personal memoir inspired by his daughter, Yogita, whose brief life, marked by blindness and then cancer, profoundly shaped his understanding of love, resilience, and the meaning of suffering.

In addition to writing, Mohan enjoys tennis, hiking and exploring subjects ranging from quantum physics to Vedanta. Through his work, he inspires others to embrace life challenges as opportunities for growth and transformation. Such an honor to have you on Mohan.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Thank you, Christian. Thank you for having me with you.

Christian
Beautiful. So tell us a little bit more about your journey with myopia. I think it’s such a personal journey and in general, I think your strength really lies in helping people transforming suffering into spiritual growth and resilience. So help us understand and enlighten us. How can we do that for ourselves?

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm.

So here it goes, one of the things that I realized when I discovered so many things that were happening to me out of no choice of mind or no fault of mind things were happening and I used to label them as negative and bad. You call them hardships, you call them adversities. First I discovered that my daughter was blind when she was four days old. Then I discovered that she couldn’t speak when she was two years old and we discovered that she had cognitive impairment. ⁓

And then when she was eight years and three months we discovered that she had stage four cancer all of a sudden. So it was a kind of a one thing after another and I went through a series of mixed feelings and mixed emotions which were extremely difficult. When those things were happening to me, I could, I only indulged in self-pity, self-blame, guilt, anger, bitterness, different feelings, fear, fear of future, fear of uncertainty.

because I was what you call myopic. When things happen to you, when there were what you call bad things happen to you, you can’t look beyond. So you tend to indulge in all the entertaining the negative thoughts and you have to go through the motions and go through the motions. But after some time when you connect the dots, you can be able to connect the dots and see the sacredness behind all the suffering that they have faced. One of the things that I realized that in my life as I

sit here and talk to you at 67. I am what I am not because of my successes, not because of my wealth, not because of my businesses, but because of all the failures, all my disappointments, all my betrayals, and all the losses and all the grief that I have faced in my life. When I look back at everybody, for instance, if you look back at your life, you turn back the pages of your life, you only remember and cherish the happy moments, the cruise that you took,

the roller coaster rides that you had with the kids or your siblings and all the fun and adventures that you had. But if you look back, you didn’t learn anything from those joyous moments except the moments that you cherish. But you look at yourself, the disappointments, the betrayals, the failures, you would have conquered them and become stronger, empowered yourself and always learn something from all the things that happened, bad things.

what you call bad things happened in your life. A betrayal would have corrected your course and sent you to the right guy. A disappointment or a job loss would have corrected your course and sent you in the right direction. Grief would have made you realize the unreal itself within. Dig deep into the soil of your soul and realize yourself the unreal itself. So if you look back, you always emerge victorious after every adversity.

or every hardship that you faced. But in a sit back, have you ever said, I’m grateful to myself for me? Because it made you who you are today, more strong, resilient, and you know you can cope with other adversities in future. So I realized that I really, I call the book myopia because when things are happening to you, you can’t look beyond because you’re being myopic. Society also is myopic. When my daughter was born,

Christian
Yeah.

Mohan Ranga Rao
the society could not look at my daughter beyond what she was. They could only see a blind girl.

Christian
Yeah, very true.

And when you look at these things that happen to us in life that kind of shape us and define us as human beings, how can we, for example, in A Course in Miracles, which I’m not sure if you know the book, it’s a book about non-duality very similar to the Bhagavad Gita.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm.

Christian
It just teaches us that the world is an illusion to a degree. And it’s very hard for us to understand that when something happens in life, for example, I hurt myself, that we don’t identify with that hurt. We don’t identify with the body because it’s so quote unquote real. So.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm.

Christian
What would you say is something that helps us to see things from a different vantage point, from a different perspective? Like, how can we get out from this like myopia, like I’m hurt, I’m suffering. How can we get out from this state into like, let me step back and look at things from a new perspective.

Mohan Ranga Rao
⁓ Well,

Christian, you answered my question first and then you ask the question yourself. There is a concept of non-do-your-ship, you know, in Hindu Vedanta, in Advaita Vedanta. Now before coming to that, let me ask you this. Pain is a sensation. When there is a pain, you cry. That is a physical instinctive reaction or you scream. That’s a physical instinctive reaction. Okay? Pain is a sensation.

There is an instinctive reaction and there is a mental reaction. If the mental reaction is one of anger, bitterness or jealousy, like somebody else doesn’t have pain but you have pain or you blame the doctor or you blame your body because of the pain and you indulge in lot of self-pity, indulge in lot of why me, why me, that is suffering. So you have to understand that suffering is kind of a reaction.

suffering is kind of an internal reaction. So in Buddhism we have a concept called Dukkha, which is not the equivalent of suffering. Dukkha is a part of Samsara. As long as you are in this world, life is a series of suffering. It’s only glimpses of non-suffering in it. And for you to understand that life comes with both the baggage of good and bad, or the mix of the perfections and the imperfections. See, it’s very, very hard. So when

When but when things are happening, you cannot help but react on a mental level because you are dictated by the mind. But, like you said, if you can go a little deeper and understand that everything including the body or the mind is an appearance in a field called the consciousness called the Brahman, you realize that everything is what we call Maya or an illusion.

Illusion means the mind does not realize. As far as the mind is concerned, is real. What is happening is 100 % real. Like for a child, the dream is real and it starts crying when it is dreaming. Or when it is afraid, can’t feel that there is nothing to be afraid of. The fear is real for the child. So similarly, when these things are happening, the mind cannot but suffer and realize and it will only label bad things as negative and…

This should not be happening and why me and self-pity? But if there is one, if you are able to by through practicing mindfulness, through contemplation, through being ready, by accepting and embracing suffering, if you can just take one part of your mind and witness what is happening. So you need to kind of an anchor. You have an anchor in a ship that anchors you.

So if you can find an anchor within your mind and use that as a vantage point and then witness that what is happening is just a mental reaction and physical reaction is something that you cannot help because it’s instinctive. You slowly can get into a position where instead of side stepping, instead of blaming, instead of cursing God or cursing your destiny, you start accepting it and you start embracing it. And then…

When you start to realize, if you look back like I tell you, first you need to sit down and think of your past. Look at all the things that have happened like I told you, like a disappointment. You would have, you would not have got a job or something and then you would have felt totally disappointed. But that would have put you in a course which is what made you today what you are. You have to realize that all these things are course correctors.

Christian
Yeah.

I know, in the Course of Miracles it says your biggest accomplishments are your biggest setbacks and your biggest setbacks are your biggest accomplishments.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Okay.

Yeah, absolutely. So, things of this is you need to understand the concept of non-doership is that there is, it is kind of an orchestra. Okay? Everything is being orchestrated, but you cannot, the mind cannot see that it is living in the illusion that this is all real and real and real and so you cannot understand beyond like what we say, the ocean and the wave.

There are many many waves in the ocean. One wave is small, one wave is tall, one wave is strong, one wave is weak, one wave is coming very fast and they all say, look at me, I am taller, I am, I am, am, am like the waves. Though they don’t realize that they are all the same part of the ocean, they don’t realize that it is only momentary fleeting existence that they have. But to them, the existence is real. A wave exists for

as they say that there are seven ripples of waves that every time you go and sit in front of a sea but to the wave it is real the wave thinks that no no no no I have a separate existence I am not the ocean ocean is different I am different ⁓

Christian
And how can

we, how can we, so for, for, for, know, people listening in and they’re like, I love that concept. I’ve never really heard of that before. ⁓ or maybe they have heard of it before, but they don’t really know how, how can I make it tangible? How can I make it practical? Like, how can I live what you’re saying? Like.

Mohan Ranga Rao
It is like, it’s, it’s, there is no, there is not a shortcut answer. It is a kind of conditioning. And how do you condition the mind? You cannot, like that, cannot just flick of your finger condition the mind. Okay? It is through practice. It is through contemplation. Well, you have heard of the term, Asthana Yoga. In the West, they only look at yoga as asanas, only stretching.

That is only one of the eight parts of the Ashtanga Yoga. So in which you have contemplation, you have meditation that is serious looking within and then the meditation and then the pranayama, the breath watching. So there are various methodologies of doing that. But that is too deep and it is very difficult for people who are involved in day to day life to do that. The best way for you to do that is you have to remember to sit by yourself.

starting with 10 minutes with your eyes closed. Every day. Every day start with 10 minutes, it probably go to half an hour and you start keep doing that. Over a period of couple of years, it’ll go to probably even for an hour. But what happens then when you sit with your eyes closed, automatically it very difficult. I don’t want to label it as meditation. I don’t want to label it as mindful exercise or anything. Select a quiet place, preferably in the mornings, after you take your bath.

and then close your mind, close your eyes and then just start witnessing and witnessing. Initially you and the thought become one. It very difficult for you to take out that part of yourself like I told you the vantage point of an anchor. But within a couple of weeks you will start getting that vantage point of the anchor where you start witnessing what is happening. Again there is what is called breath watching. Now close your eyes, Christian. Okay, breathe.

You are breathing. You stop breathing. You have to catch your body carrying out the respiration. You don’t breathe and watch.

You don’t breathe. Let the body breathe. Cassid breathing.

Please understand you should not breathe and watch. Automatically the body is carrying out respiration.

Christian
Hmm.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Catch it carrying out respiration.

It is automatically carrying out respiration. You are not breathing.

Christian
Yeah.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah, you saw the silence of the mind.

Christian
Mm-hmm.

Mohan Ranga Rao
That is the silence of the mind. That silence of the mind is the ocean. When the thought again comes back, see again your thought, you now in the podcast, sitting in front of Mohan, experiencing. So that again is the illusion that the mind, that is again you are back in the world. But if you happen, you start with a very simple exercise of catching yourself breathing, not watching yourself breathing. Catching your body.

Have you ever noticed that you breathe 16 times average per minute? That is about 960 times an hour. How many times have you inadvertently catch itself breathing? You sigh when you very tired. But in one hour when the body is breathing, have you ever caught your body breathing by itself without intervention? Like you did now, that is step number one.

close your eyes for 10 minutes watch without you breathing the body carrying out respiration the difference between respiration and breathing is you do breathing the mind does breathing respiration is something that body does

Christian
Hmm.

Mohan Ranga Rao
when you win when you are women that is the reason is caught by the mind by the way so that is when you look at the needs of the briefing that, and so it would for the bread when we did not believe that the somewhat of a complete, though when you have

Christian
Beautiful. I love that. Thanks for that little practical, you know breathing excursion and I think it’s also very important to notice the difference between you know conscious breathing versus respiration and you know Discovering the distinction because ultimately like you said the body dictates our breath Right. That’s why when our emotional state changes the body chemistry changes and then our breathing changes So

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Christian
That’s really, I think, pivotable.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah,

so you keep doing it. So this is simple steps then when you catch the body, you’re carrying out respiration automatically your breathing slows down. Your resting heart rate comes down. So you are at a peace with yourself. You drop your shoulders, you’re relaxed. You get into, they call different names like bliss and all that, but let me just tell you you are in a more relaxed

Christian
Yeah.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Enjoying the present now, here now.

Christian
So tell us a little bit about your journey on Mount Kailash.

Mohan Ranga Rao
all of the idea of asking them to do what he asking them will live with my appeal for every somebody has been seen this is all that happened by so long as the message from a conflict is six and then not be so good for the record with my wife we don’t know if it’s in the Himalayas and the rest of the arts and IE basically was more of a breaking of the physical exercise

going on the moon the peaks and then the scenery just the physical carnal level okay the committee was but nothing to do with the issue of people all breaking what was the new physical exercise because i was a kind of a day who wanted to rest in heart rate of not more than fifty three useful from the heart of the one fifty so that our new or to make the party or party for and how fast they could walk and all but all but they could job and all that

and I won one of the one who opened and then the end of the month, standing was from the form of the bones and people from and will be the physical and the material and the body and it is a famous so my wife and more than you did the move by not be the friends of the school that you should do the top of the world is the home of the one who are few of

the ⁓

the

at the 19,000 feet altitude there is a black granite rock. Sometimes it looks like the head of a serpent. Sometimes it looks like a pyramid. Sometimes it looks like a alien spacecraft. And the second day was the toughest ⁓ trek, ⁓ 22 kilometers. And my mind had completely transformed. So I was more thinking about the ancient russians.

the Vedanta, the great seers of the past of thousands of years and completely, it totally changed me. I became so beautiful. I started digging into my own past in my own bones about whatever I learned about my culture. Automatically then there was kind of a transformation in me and the mind went back and went back to my childhood when I used to do the prayers with my grandmother or took the Kripa and whatever I heard about.

of the ⁓

Christian
Wow, that’s incredible. Yeah,

journey like that and especially on Mount Kailash, which is so sacred, you know, and do you know why it is so sacred? Like maybe for people who are listening, they don’t know like why Mount Kailash, like what is so special?

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah.

Well, yeah, there

are different explanations. There is the spiritual explanation, is the scientific explanation, there is the philosophical explanation. What explanation do want?

Christian
I would say, I mean, one that combines all of them if you can.

Mohan Ranga Rao
no in the sense that the government in the first and find this who went to the end of the family is that you have been made open the computer of the study that is definitely a giant man-made it from the national formation they can put it in the office of the people that they did that is that the three of them by the people who are building the third and fourth is the biggest rain that it was on the government’s

warned by people in our religion not to try to climb it because it’s incarnation of God. And as a holy shrine, this is supposed to be the holy shrine, the abode of Lord Shiva by the Hindus and the Tibetan Buddhists accept it as a holy shrine. They call it Mount Kauras, especially if you do the circumambulation of the shrine, which is about 30 miles and Tibetan Buddhism and then the Jains.

there is always a lower world of the bad things in higher world so this is supposed to be the naval of the earth and then you to read the higher world is the only place this is called the axis moon this is the place from where you go to the higher world and they also scientifically they’ve the distance between this and north pole distance between here and south pole is exactly 666 kilometers

So there so many strange, strange coincidences and so many calculations and many people who nobody has been able to climb it. A few people tried and they failed and good things did not happen to them. So there are many, legends like this. So when some people, when they go to Mount Kailas, especially Lake Kumanasarovar, they say, lights at night, seven lights that come down from the sky.

and the condoms and some of movies the nation’s of the people and it is a thing that i would like this and the so it is it’s incredible you need to you know what i did not ⁓

Christian
Now.

Yeah,

it’s a really fascinating subject. It’s also often described as the crown chakra of the earth, you how the earth has chakras, so it’s a very powerful energetic center, like a natural giant.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

yeah you can do is

that the other names and the father’s role that would put for the rest of the board by the end of the five days in the end of the conceit in the book and the leaders in my head and what the five days i put a question mark like that and you can see that the reason why it is all for the moment and i read the book

Christian
Yeah.

Yeah.

I have not read the book, no. But I traveled to India myself ⁓ eight years ago. yeah, I was in the ⁓ Himachal Pradesh region. So not Mount Kailash, of course, but ⁓ close. And it’s an incredible energy there. So it’s the very, very sacred region of the earth.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm.

See the difference between the Al’s or the Andes and the Himalayas is that the Himalayas talk to you.

i feel that when i’m being that maybe he led to the government but you can see that the magic of the name of the money of the people find an end to that

Christian
Yeah, I mean, I think there’s a lot of wisdom still in both places, right? The Andes and Himalayas, you know, and I feel, you know, that the Latin American heritage is very much

Mohan Ranga Rao
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, you heard the shamans there.

Christian
Yeah,

it’s differently translated. think what it’s like when you say like Kailash speaks to you, I think there’s more reports of Kailash and words versus the Andes are a little bit more experiential, right? Like you have maybe, you know, plant medicines come more from the Andes than they come from Kailash, right? So Kailash is more, I would say, upper.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah.

Hmm.

Christian
chakras,

right? Whereas the Andes would be more like center, you you feel something, you ingest something. It’s very fascinating, you know? And it’s really cool to see. yeah, what a cool expedition that you got to go on to Mount Kailash. What a…

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah, I was lucky.

I was really lucky. I will always cherish that.

Christian
Yeah, that’s beautiful. So we have about, you know, five, seven minutes left on the episode. And I really wanted to, you know, dive in with you more into guiding people how to just realize when they’re suffering, how to step out of it. I think we’ve covered that and how they can transform their lives. Now they have that now that they have

heard about these tools and these practices, like, what do you think, how can one find their dharma? How can one find their path if they haven’t yet?

Mohan Ranga Rao
Well, see Dharma, the meaning of Dharma is ethical duty in Bhagavad Gita. Ethical duty means there is Christian, the father, Christian, the brother, Christian, the professional, Christian, the student. Okay. So, so many aspects are there. Similarly, so every human being has what is called righteous conduct. What you say in America, the right thing to do.

Christian
Mm.

Mohan Ranga Rao
in the book with the right use the people of instance if uh… likely for the uh… somebody was committed a crime force and i have come to this is and marley it is is due to the poor of the political party that you’ve murdered somebody but it became a it is due to protect and protect his client similarly a soldier fights for the country and kills a man marley is a man you know that you know

where ethically he is protecting so many people of his country. So there will always be an ethical dilemma, morally and ethically there is a difference. So the Bhagavad Gita shows you the path of what is the ethically rightiest thing to do for a human being. So the best thing for you to do is to read the Bhagavad Gita.

that is the part that is what i would suggest because the simplest that the ⁓ the group of the front of the the to have and read about it so what the book with the for the reason that we are all that the poor from the property the poor for the great field of creation i created the universe and got much bigger like a sandwich there in support of them

the white people of a way to do this to you that the planet intelligence from the moment you can put the the universe in the question that people have a great city will be in the it would be some fact that it would be a good time but it’s not the word for me to be honest and then so it has given the mine and of those who live with the people who are so when you say come out of four days of the movie in a box of mom

uh… product that the market to the bottom of the people to be prepared for the most part in the middle of the people of the market that you will get and that’s what i’m not going to be the only five you’ll be ponded the bottom of the bottom of the game and then once you’ll go to the middle of the common people for the one unit you can work for the more for the people of the people of the people of the people

So you read the Bhagavad Gita and the very fact that you are spending so much time with the holy book that has such good advice to give will give you so transformative to the mind. The second thing that I advise is at least spend starting with 10 minutes a day. Sit. You don’t have to sit in a lotus position. Many people can’t even cross their legs. It doesn’t matter. Sit on a stool. your two hands on your knees. Doesn’t matter. Just make sure that you vertical.

the plane has to be working on the company believe that the fine in the race and the negative and the positive with the bones of the year with the union land of the positive and you would have been in land and the most effective than you think of other things that have been happening in the importance of the plan that the seat for 10 minutes with the race close no matter what and then slowly or period of time

that is what we call it the people you don’t know that it is because there is no part of the thing will make speed and the life begins of the life begins so this is a political state but do this thing simple for you because the book that you have on board with the law and you want to know what is the law

and the people want to be a new order that is in the in the in the in city of the white look within you are being deported from school in the close your eyes and then you start with the like a unit people with watching you get your body the people who watch once you

Christian
Yeah, beautiful.

Yeah, I think that is really a key point, you know, start reading about these sacred texts, start looking within yourself and start.

start beginning a practice that brings you to that state every day because it’s not so much again like the reading in the state and the it’s not so much about the intellect it’s about getting this information into your body. ⁓

Mohan Ranga Rao
the

Christian
Beautiful. I love that. So we’re coming towards the end of the episode and I would love to hear from you What is something that humanity right now can Really I would say look forward to and that

you want to leave the audience with.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Yeah, two

things first. One good thing that is happening as I have been watching right since I started my Transcendental Meditation 25 years ago, way back in 2000, 1999-2000. And from Transcendental I went to Vipassana and then, but sometimes even now I go to Transcendental when my mind is in a tumult and then it helps me. What I noticed is that the whole world, the level of consciousness, the number of seekers,

the eagerness to learn beyond the mind is increasing. I see a of a rise in the consciousness of the whole world. I can sense it and I can feel it. Okay, that’s one good thing. ⁓ The second thing, message that I want to leave with the world, with my listeners, is see the sacredness behind suffering.

will be a ⁓

use untold so people want that so it’s all go to the heart the mind places it’s before anything bad happens if you condition yourself to be ready embrace to accept suffering is sacred you can if you look back on all your like I said in my principle disappointment is divine grief is good ⁓ be real is a blessing you look back you will always connect the dots

And now, oh my God, thank God that’s happened, that’s why I’m here. So when you look back, you can connect the dots, what you call the bad things or the negative things that happened. So start seeing the sacredness of suffering.

Christian
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing all that with us, sharing your wisdom, sharing your heart. And that’s a perfect note to end on to see that suffering is sacred.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Thank you, Christian. Thank you for having

Christian
Go and let us know where people can find you, where they can buy the book.

Mohan Ranga Rao
It’s

on Amazon. Both the books are available on Amazon.com. So you write Mohan Rangarao, my name, books, so you’ll get it even in Google if you write it, you’ll get the books. So please read it. We have done it. Finlay who wrote the power, secret of letting go, which sold millions of copies worldwide, he had endowed my book, Myopia. So I think it’s something that I’m not, I’m not in it for sales or money. God has been kind to me with money.

Christian
Beautiful.

Mohan Ranga Rao
I just want to share my daughters in honor of my daughter, share what I have learned from her.

Christian
Yeah, beautiful. So check out the books, the inner track, reluctant pilgrim in the Himalayas by Rangarao and also myopia, a father’s journey into love loss and sight beyond vision. Thank you so much for being on the podcast, one. It’s been an honor.

Mohan Ranga Rao
Myopia.

Thank you for listening.