"So I want to warn you, the time has come. Awaken yourself! Don't waste
your time on nonsensical things. Awaken yourself. Once you have awakened
yourself, you will realize that most of your time you have wasted so
far. Now only you've come in the real timeless atmosphere of complete
enjoyment of your being, and of others. But this is not just talking or
lecture. It is not. It is the happening, the actualization, so you must
have respect for yourself. You are the temples of God. So do not feel in
any way guilty or anything; you are all temples of God. As I said, you
are the most beautiful thing God has created, and with such care, with
such beauty, that you'll be amazed when I tell you one by one tomorrow,
how God has created so beautifully, and how this instrument is placed
within you to play the melody of God's love. You'll be amazed!"
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - 27 January 1983, extract from Public Programme, Delhi India.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Monday, December 13, 2010
You are transmitters...
What an idea! Come to think of it: 'we are transmitters'...this is the kind of stuff that keeps young people, boys or girls, dreaming for ages - unable to sleep. And we have lost the art of dreaming, of imagining...and sometimes when we read casually what Mother reveals to us in such simple, but oh! so profound terms, we are truly awestruck!
We are transmitters...! It's like reading and enjoying comic books like Batman and Robin, or Superman, or Spysmasher, or Captain Marvel. I did when I was young, and I used up all the money I earned at the golf course just buying those comic books. And when we couldn't buy a comic, we exchanged with someone else from our old stock, because those stories carried us into a wonderful world of imagination, where the good guys always had the last word. We can relive that today in reality, which is much better than reality TV! And it's all for free and so real...just imagine it...we are transmitters of Divine Love, and with this we can be agents of change!
Here's what Mother says:
We are transmitters...! It's like reading and enjoying comic books like Batman and Robin, or Superman, or Spysmasher, or Captain Marvel. I did when I was young, and I used up all the money I earned at the golf course just buying those comic books. And when we couldn't buy a comic, we exchanged with someone else from our old stock, because those stories carried us into a wonderful world of imagination, where the good guys always had the last word. We can relive that today in reality, which is much better than reality TV! And it's all for free and so real...just imagine it...we are transmitters of Divine Love, and with this we can be agents of change!
Here's what Mother says:
Monday, November 15, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
If you are one with the Divine
If you are one with the Divine, it looks after you. It has all the powers. Only one power it doesn’t have - to control you. If you want to ruin yourself, it gives you freedom…It is a complete freedom to do what you like with yourself. That is one thing it has given and that’s why you must curb down that freedom and respect the Divine Power.
Shri Mataji
Taken from Divine Cool Breeze, 2009 issue 2, Volume 22, Number 2, Page 18
Shri Mataji
Taken from Divine Cool Breeze, 2009 issue 2, Volume 22, Number 2, Page 18
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Enlightened Temple
"The body of a human being is a temple of God. But this temple has to be enlightened and has to be auspicious. You have to clear and clean your being completely, so it’s a beautiful temple for God to reside."
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi – 27 Sept. 1980 – Public Talk, London, England.
Monday, August 9, 2010
A Cloud hides the Sun and Also Makes it Seen
Attention, Maya and Walking on the Path…
In 1975, Shri Mataji (the founder of Sahaja Yoga Meditation) celebrated Sahasrara Day in London with about twenty to twenty-five invited people. On that same day, she sent a letter in Marathi to the Sahaja Yogis in India. Excerpts are provided below.
“I am explaining, in this letter,” She wrote, “what is Unreal. It should be read out to all and assimilated by all.”
Your name, village, country, horoscope, forecasts, many such things get attached to you or others attach them to you.
Your name, village, country, horoscope, forecasts, many such things get attached to you or others attach them to you.
Once the Brahmarandhra (the top of the head -fontanel bone area, the core of Sahasrara chakra) is closed, many types of illusory ideas become part of your mind….
Only that attention which progresses, renouncing all that is unreal, breaks all known and unknown bindings becomes verily the Self.
Only that attention which progresses, renouncing all that is unreal, breaks all known and unknown bindings becomes verily the Self.
Atma (the Spirit) is never disturbed or destroyed. Only human attention, in pursuit of desires, leaves its inner path.
This is Maya (the Illusion). She has been intentionally created. Without her, the Attention would not have developed.
This is Maya (the Illusion). She has been intentionally created. Without her, the Attention would not have developed.
You should not be afraid of Maya and should recognize her so that She will illuminate your path.
A Cloud hides the Sun and also makes it seen.
In the same way, once the Maya is identified, she moves aside and the Sun is seen. The Sun is always there, but what is the purpose of the Cloud? Because of the Cloud, you have an urge to see the Sun, which shines for a moment and again hides somewhere. It gives strength and courage to your sight to see the sun.
In the same way, once the Maya is identified, she moves aside and the Sun is seen. The Sun is always there, but what is the purpose of the Cloud? Because of the Cloud, you have an urge to see the Sun, which shines for a moment and again hides somewhere. It gives strength and courage to your sight to see the sun.
Man has been created with such great efforts. Only one step on his feet and all is successful. But still, it is not becoming possible. Hence, I have come as your Mother….
Attention should always be kept going deeper and deeper within. Forget the outside as much as possible. Have confidence that everything about it is taken care of. There are many instances to prove it. Then, in whatever you do, your attention remains in oneness with the Self. All bindings of sin and merit are snapped. Distinctions like
worldly and nonwordly vanish because that wicked darkness, which has created all the discriminations, ends. Everything becomes auspicious in the light of true knowledge, whether it is the destruction done by Shri Krishna or the cross of Shri Jesus.
worldly and nonwordly vanish because that wicked darkness, which has created all the discriminations, ends. Everything becomes auspicious in the light of true knowledge, whether it is the destruction done by Shri Krishna or the cross of Shri Jesus.
All this will not be understood by explaining. Just showing the path will not help.
The path will be known only after walking on it….
Many Blessings and Infinite Love to you all.
Ever Yours,
Your Mother, Nirmala
Your Mother, Nirmala
Ref: Divine Cool Breeze Magazine, Volume 14, Number 4, July-August 2001, page 32
Monday, November 30, 2009
Ghana tour final report - blog
Welcome to the Ghana Self-realisation Tour Blog, which took place
16-31 October 2009, in
Ghana: The Land of the Ganas, and geographical centre of the world (5 degrees North, 0 degrees West).
The Self-realisation Tour followed the route shown in the map below:
16-31 October 2009, in
Ghana: The Land of the Ganas, and geographical centre of the world (5 degrees North, 0 degrees West).
The Self-realisation Tour followed the route shown in the map below:
Monday, November 9, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Interview with Shri Mataji in Vienna
Interview with Shri Mataji in Vienna
What Shri Mataji did and continues to do relentlessly and tirelessly is helping to bring about our own personal transformation and to raise our awareness to a higher level.
Interview with Shri Mataji in Vienna. July 9, 1986
Those of us who have not heard or read about Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi could be surprised that the personality of such a stature has not reached their awareness before… And rightfully so – the impact of her work and her contribution to the well-being of humanity as a whole is hard to estimate.
What Shri Mataji did and continues to do relentlessly and tirelessly is helping to bring about our own personal transformation and to raise our awareness to a higher level.
Her discovery of a simple technique to trigger the awakening of the primordial energy, often referred to as “Kundalini“, within each human being has already transformed millions around the world and many more are to come. This simple technique transcends the heights of scientific discoveries and artistic achievements. It transforms our societies on the fundamental level, brings us back to our roots so our future development can be balanced, empowering and harmonious among ourselves and towards nature. It is not a book or a lecture – it is a living process which is waiting to happen within each and every one of us.
Knowledgeable in science, art, politics, economics, sociology, medicine, Shri Mataji maintains that peace in our societies can only be brought about through discovering peace within ourselves. After thousands of lectures and programs, Shri Mataji is leaving us a treasure of knowledge so vast and profound that generations to come will draw wisdom and inspiration from her words. Like a magician with a gentle movement of her wand, she left us examples of what to aspire to. Yet, her ultimate magic, the awakening of our Kundalini energy, leaves us speechless about her greatest stature.
1. Can you speak about your whole life?
I’m a story teller (Shri Mataji laughs) It is something like an autobiography.
2. Can you describe the circumstances during your childhood?
I belong to a family of very enlightened people. My father was a linguist and he was master of fourteen languages. He knew about 26 languages and he translated even Koransharif into Hindi language. My mother was in those days, was a honors in mathematics. So both they were very well-educated and enlightened people.
At the time of my birth my mother dreamed something which she could not explain. But after that she had a great desire to go and see a tiger in the open field. My father was a great hunter, because tigers were a menace in the area where we were living. It was a hill-station called Chindwara. So there was a king who was very much interested in my father.
Somehow or another a letter came that there is a tiger, very big tiger and they are frightened of him that he might be a maneater. So my father took my mother and moved to that place. And they were sitting in what we call as a Machan. Where they built something for people to sit on top of a tree, from where they can shoot nicely. And then my mother tells me that a big huge tiger, of very big size, very beautifully appeared on the field and she felt tremendous love for the tiger.
It was a full moon day and she felt extremely compassionate towards the tiger and when my father raised his gun to shoot, she stopped and she wouldn’t allow him. The tiger went away and he never came to that forest again.
But that made my father think, because he himself is a realized soul. That must be somebody what we call a goddess Durga, who is fond of the tiger must be born to my mother, because the symptoms where rather funny that the lady should like to see a tiger. So he told my mother: “Now are you satisfied?” Because they were struggling with the gun. He said: “Is there of Durga sitting in your womb, that you are trying to protect a tiger?” She said: “Yes, yes stop it now, I won’t allow you!”.
Shri Mataji with her family
Like that there were many incidents in my life, because I am of a Christian family, Protestants and when I was born my mother didn’t feel any labour-pains or anything just I was born. She did not know how and I had no blood on my body, nothing. I was clean washed that is why they called me as Nirmala.
But my grandmother said that she should be called as Nishkalanka. That means the one which has no spots on her. But that is the name of a man. So they said alright we call her Nirmala meaning the same – Immaculate.
Now all these incidents. And then my father, being a realized soul, he felt tremendous vibrations from me and he felt that this life is great and that she will do something great in this life. I do not know why, but I don’t know if he dreamed or he understood it, but all the time if I remember when he talked to me, he used to say that: “You have to find out the way of giving “en mass” realisation all the time.
As I told you, he was a great scholar of so many things and a very wide read man, so he gave me a good education in religion, in different religions, and also a good education about human beings. What are their problems? Why did they act like this? Why don’t they take to God? Why are they hypocritical? All kind of things he talked to me.
He also knew about Kundalini. But not so much. Of course when I was born, I knew all about Kundalini myself. I knew all about it, from my very childhood. So I was a very aware person – extremely aware. I did not know how to talk to, because – you see – people did not have that awareness, you can’t talk to everyone like that.
So I was regarded as a very joyful person at the same time very serious also, very deep and then I started my studies as a child. I was not very much interested in the studies, though I used to do them very well. But I used to read lives of great men and things like that.
At a very young age I read Bernard Shaw. When people were reading their expectations I was reading Bernard Shaw. But as such I did not have any interest in particular, in reading some text books, because I thought they were childish and there was nothing to be read about it. Then I told my father that I have to do medicine. So he said: “Why?” I said: “Because I have to talk to doctors.” He said: “You have to talk to doctors?” “Yes!”, I said.
Shri Mataji lived in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi when she was 7.
But it so happened in my childhood, when I was about 7 years of age. My father was a congressman, he had joined congress when I was 4 years of age. He used to live with a style very westernized – you see. He threw away everything and became a real Indian and started leading a life of a martial. Then he made us study our languages, Sanskrit he made us study in an Indian school not in a missionary school.
Because missionary is very, very unkind. They threw us out of the school, when my father was in the congress. They were against us completely. Then at the age of seven years, I happened to go with my father to Mahatma Gandhi. He was about 70 miles living with us. But the first time he took me down and Mahatma Gandhi, he liked me very much. He said: “Leave this child here!”
So I had not taken clothes or anything to stay there and my father sent to me everything. And he was very fond of me. But I was a little girl. But he understood that there was something about me. He consulted me on very serious problems sometimes, surprisingly. Like one day he wanted to make me a prayer-book alright, so he asked me: “How should I put these series and all that.” So I told him, how to put the series and he put the series in that way.
I used to go back for my school and again to go back to Gandhiji. Every year like that. And he called me Nepali. He gave me a name “Nepali”. Everybody used to call me Nepali that time. Then I grew up with him very intimately, he was a very, very kind person for children.
Otherwise an extremely strict man, with himself and with others, very strict. A big disciplined man. And he would make everybody get up at 4 o’clock, have your baths everything be ready for your morning prayers at 5 o’clock – you see – and he used to walk very fast. I also learned walking fast with him. In his company I had to walk fast.
And he had been extremely loving and a very nice person. And he would listen to me, because I was a child. Supposing I had forced him to eat more or something then he would have laughed and accepted. Very kind person.
But with others, he was very strict and I used to tell him that: “Why are you strict with them too much?” He said: “But you are a little girl, you got up in the morning, why can’t they get up?” I said: “I am little, that’s why I get up, they are big, so they can’t get up.” Like that you see a little child.
Then my father went to jail and my mother also went to jail five times. My father went to jail twice. Once for about two and a half years and he was the only supporting member of the family. By the way we came from a very old royal family, which is called as Shalivahanas. They have a calender also in India.
And then, when they took my father to jail we had to leave our house and we had to live in huts and had all kind of problems. But also me, they pestered a lot because I helped many people there. I joined effort to movement and in a very serious way I became the leader there. But we were young people.
I thought unless and until I take a very positive stand, it may not work out with them. It is not gracious to say how they tortured me. What they did to me. But they really tortured me. I was a young girl of nineteen years that time. It is over now, so it is finished. After that my father went to jail again and then when he came back, he got elected as the member of the central assembly, later on as the constructor of the assembly and then of the parliament.
My brother was also member of the parliament later on, now recently he was the minister in the cabinet. Another brother is a high-court judge in Bombay. They are all doing well despite the fact, that our parents neglected us in a way, because they gave their lives to the country, but that never deterred as from studies and we came up very well.
When I was in 1942 two movement my college justicabled me from the college and threw me out and I had to go to another college to study far away from my house. Then I studied for two years science. Then I did my medical. I didn’t do fully, because just after that the 1947 riots broke out. So college was closed and I did not want to know more, because what I wanted to know, I think to know about it. So I did not need, and I got married.
Sir C.P. Srivastava - Husband of Shri Mataji
You must have heard my husband work is now the secretary in general of the International Maritime Organization. He held very high positions. He was also secretary to Shastri who was our prime minister, who was another very great man. But he did not survive long. If he had survived things would have been different, I think, for our country, because he was a Gandhian, out and out Gandhian.
I mean he lived like an ideal Gandhian personality. So that’s how my life went on. But inner being was still seeking the way and methods of giving “en mass” realization.
My father said: “Before you do not develop this technique of giving “en mass” realization do not talk about religion. Let nobody know that you know anything about it, because they will crucify you or….” He was rather worried that people won’t understand, or you may write another Bible or Gita – no use.
First of all you must give them realization. If they get their realization then they will realize that there is something about it, about this human awareness. For example, he always used to give an analogy. Supposing we are born on the tenth storey and everybody is on the ground. You must at least make them climb two storeys so they know that there is something above. Otherwise no use talking about it.
And he said: “This is the mistake between the saints and the incarnations was, that they never realized that these people are still on the ground. They have to still enter into the medium. So that is what you have to be very careful that first of all you must give realization to them.”
So I was seeking the ways and methods, working it out inside myself through my own style of meditation in the sense that I would work out all the permutations and combinations and when I met one person then I would see what problems that person had, how you can overcome it, like that I would try to study that person internally.
And I went to many people to find out, but I found they were great hypocrites. I saw so many of these Gurus, most of them. When I saw them, I was surprised they were all hypocrites. Money making and also. I went to Rash Neesh also to see him and he said that I should come to his program. I did not know what sort of man, because he was talking about Gita and I thought he might be knowing something about it.
I went there but my husband said: “No, I won’t allow you to go to this program. So he arranged his own…….. There I could see all the things which were going on. And that is the day somehow or another I said: “I must open the last chakra!” So the last chakra was opened and I saw the Kundalini, which is the primordial force within us, which is the Holy Ghost within us, rising, like a telescope opening out. And then I saw the whole thing open and a big torrential rain of beams started flowing through my head all over.
I felt I am lost, I am no more, there it’s only the grace is there, that is there. I saw it completely happening to me. But I was amazed that when I went to Rash Neesh, because he forgot even to say good bye, because he never realized what had happened or anything, so I was surprised, I said: “This man doesn’t know anything about God!” and then I discovered that they are all hypocrites and they are telling lies.
So in 1970, 5th of May this happened and just after that we had a very big lecture in Carnagy Hall. This is a very big hall and thousands of people had come and I told them very frankly that these are all thugs and hypocrites, some of them are demonic, some are evil people. I told their names everything. I told them: “Do not go near them!” There were some foreigners also.
And there were so many others whom I told these things very clearly and they got frightened. They said: “You should not say like this. They will come and murder you.” But nobody did anything and nobody even went to the courts. And that’s how they try to bring bad name to me. They paid money to the newspapers to publish things against me, because I said: “You cannot pay money!” So they thought that I was trying to harm them by saying such a thing that you can’t take money in the name of God.
If it is a job you can do it, but Gods work is not a job. And the struggle started from the day I started giving realization. And I started with one lady who got realization first. Then we got about twelve people who got realization. In two years got only about 14 people realization. Then gradually when 14 people got realization then many others started getting realization.
Six of the first seven Western Sahaja Yogis
But I started also curing people, because that was helping a lot. Then my husband got elected to this post and we had to come to London.
So when I came to London we had one program. So the Indians abroad are not so much interested in God, they are more interested in money. So none of the Indians stayed there. They all run away and only the foreigners who were there, were about seven hippies and so I had to work on them – seven hippies – for four years I was working on them to give them the realization. They were difficult, their liver was bad, their head was off, terrible time. But in between I used to go to India.
And in India also the work was done. For three month always I have been in India. So we started working in the villages, specially surprisingly were my forefathers were ruling in that area. There we started moving in a very big way. And there then we started taking the people from India.
And some people came from Australia to India, like that and the work started moving in those directions. Gradually the work improved and people found that this is the way we can transform ourselves. Many people were taking drugs, or alcoholics or mad people all kinds of people. They felt better and they got cured. It was established that Sahaja Yoga is something very important.
Now, when I travel all over the world first my husband used to pay for everything, wherever I went he had to pay – any expenses he used to do for me. Gradually now this people pay for my travel, but otherwise they do not have to pay for anything else. That is how we started our work. There was lot of opposition and the media-people would never understand it. Because it was not such a sensation as you can say, nothing to people feel exited but in a way it is a very great thing, because this is the solution of the whole world, one should try to do it.
Then we had very great people who came to Sahaja Yoga, like we can say the main high court judge, who is now the president, who has given Nicaragua some judgment and many lawyers and even barrister. We have one barrister here from Algeria and doctors and then they took over and they started helping me out how to propagate Sahaja Yoga.
A public program in India
But it was a difficult task in the west. Of course in India it is spreading very fast in the villages, but the city people in India also the people are westernized and they will start analyzing. They don’t know much about our past, they don’t know anything about our heritage that we have our Kundalini.
But some people do know about Self-realization. But these Gurus could not stick on in India because nobody would accept them. So they all run away abroad. And that was something a blessing for me also, because I did not have to fight them there. And it started working out and then people found that it helps in every way and they found so many miracles about it and that’s how Sahaja Yoga was settled quite a lot.
But still I would say that we have not been to certain countries so far and in the west, I would say that so much work has to be done there, because as soon as you start any work in any place first of all they want me to cure people and to help them with cure. Now if I pay attention more to that then the main work is to create doctors out of everyone that is neglected then you become unpopular. They think: “Oh, she’s not sympathetic”, this and that.
But now as we have everybody can cure now everyone. I don’t cure anyone directly. But they don’t like it, they want I should be there and their ego to be pampered and all these things are there, it’s rather difficult. We are not running any lecture like we should please others, sort of things, not that, but whatever is reality. If a person has intelligence, pure intelligence, he can see that this is something very different.
And for that one has to understand that you cannot force on anyone that you get your realization in the same way you cannot force me that I give you realization, because if does not work, it does not work, it’s such a living force. And that upsets them very soon. I feel that the way this industrial revolution has come in the west. People have lost their knowings perhaps they are so confused with all these gurus coming down here confusing them and all kind of new things coming. They don’t know where to look.
Unless and until you get your evolution completed. Unless and until you reach that absolute state of understanding the chaos will remain.
So one has to try to get to that. But one must understand: You cannot pay for it. There is no effort. After getting realization they feel so satisfied, they forget about it. But after that you must know how to give it to others. As Christ has said: “The light which is enlightened you do not put it under the table!”
That’s how what happens that, though I give realization to some hundred people, only out of them five, six will come forward to help us out. But still I must say, a lot of work has been done. Especially Austria. I am very proud of Austria, and the way they have never given me any problem, never – very good people have come out of Austria. Very balanced, level headed people. Very level headed.
They are not extremists, they don’t go to extremes, so there is no fanaticism about them. They are sensible people. And something so lucky that Austria was found out. Because I never expected that in Austria there will be so many people. But somehow – like water finds it’s own level, Sahaja Yoga finds its own level. We just come down to Austria. We haven’t been to Norway, to Sweden, to Denmark, Finland. I visited those places, because of my husbands job but I have not …….
Now we have sixteen centers in Australia. And Australia is a very progressive Sahaja Yoga thing. We have got schools now there. They are running schools and the teachers are extremely well-behaved and visionaries and they look after the children very well. The government people sent somebody for observation and they have remarked that whatever they proclaim that’s what they manifest. And they have given good certificates to us.
But the greatest achievement on the outward life is this that Cambridge University has accepted Sahaja Yoga for research work with respect. By one doctor Lee who is doing the research about Sahaja Yoga in Cambridge University – he is already doctor. And there is another great thing has happened in Delhi University that the Delhi University has accepted that a person can do, only a doctor can do a P.H.D. of we can say a doctorat in Sahaja Yoga and he gets the highest degree, called the doctor of medicine. And perhaps after some time they will allow anyone to do that. This is about the medicine part of it.
Shri Mataji experimented with sunflowers in her farmhouse in Pune, in the late 1980’s, and produced tremendously big ones, more than 12 inches in diameter. They were very heavy and gave on the average 250 mm. of oil. This was reported in the newspaper. The photo shows Shri Mataji with the outsize sunflowers.
In agriculture we have done lots of research by say, we have somebody here, an expert of agriculture. He has also done a lot of research and he found out that with vibrations he started after realization. If you vibrate the water and if you water the plants with that then sometimes you might get even ten times more breed that’s what they did in India. In one of the agriculture universities. But here also they found out that there is tremendous difference between the growth of an ordinary plant.
Another thing that I found out in agriculture that if you give vibrations, then even an ordinary cow can give lot of milk. But if you have hybrid cows than you see it’s not good for the brain, because a person who takes hybrid milk also, gets hybrid. I mean his brain gets little wobbly. So better to have a pure milk from a cow which is not been put to this kind of an experimentation.
Moreover food also, if you eat hybrid food it’s not very good for us, for that spoils our nerves I think. But ordinary seeds you cannot use, because they have weakened and they cannot reproduce. So, when we vibrate them, they produce very well, just like – better than even sometimes hybrid things and the food tastes very well, and it doesn’t give those complications.
So this can help in agriculture in India and the government has allotied us a lot of land where we are going now to experiment and we are going to start experimentation there to show that how we can use this. But many farmers who are Sahaja Yogis have done a lot of job and they have discovered that even animals and this what you call farming, everything is helped very much by vibrations.
So it improves the lives of people. We have on the other side, social side, I can tell you that we have marriages, international marriages. We arrange international marriages between people, they have to know each other and they are together and first of all they are together for one and half month with us on the tour.
They can see each other and the marriages are fixed and we have seen that such marriages are extremely successful. 99 % marriages are successful. Once in a while maybe a mishap but mostly there are no divorces that take place. Once in a while, if it’s not successful we have no objections to divorce also.
But mostly they are successful and they get children who are very intelligent and who are themselves born-realized children mostly. So the problem is much less and the family life improves. The quality of life is 1000 times better. People are very joyous, happy, they do not complain and they enjoy life and they give to others. They share what joy they have.
3. What do you think are the important points in the education of children? What is important to be given to the children?
First if they get realization. If they are already born realized no problem, but if they have been given their realization then they will start to see things from a different level. They become the Spirit. So their self respect awakens. Such children behave in a very dignified manner. They talk in a very elderly manner. They see solutions of all kinds and they are tremendous beings. But we have to guide them properly by our own behaviour.
Shri Mataji with children
How we behave, the greatest thing is how we behave that’s how the children like. We put the children to some tests how they are. We find out if they have any physical problems, we cure them. If they have mental problems we cure them. If they have any other problems, social problems or anything, we try to help them out. So that basically if a human being is alright in childhood then fundamentals are alright for the child.
The foundation is laid down then to build a child up in a good quality is not difficult. So now we find like great artists are there. There are great musicians. At a very young age, they have started playing violin. I mean suddenly they have become dynamic also and very humble. They are very humble and self respected and very well behaved.
Surprising how the atmosphere is and how it works out. And the other day a lady asked me about the women then I told her that a woman’s power as a mother is very great. She felt hurt about it and I did not mean that you should be just a mother. She is a mother, means she is compassionate. She is kind. She is not aggressive like men. That is a very big quality that is a very big power in a woman, that’s what I was suggesting. That that is what we have to have. Is not to compete with men. This is Madness. To compete with men, and to go about like that.
So we have to understand that life has to be enjoyable. Life should be a blessing, not to be a misery. We create our own miseries by these false ideas by our own conflictions, we have in our mind mental projections we have in our mind or our own obstinacy, whatever it is. All these things can be cured if you take to Sahaja Yoga, because you become a balanced person, level headed, mild person and you become a witness. The whole thing becomes like a show, like a drama and you become fearless, you start seeing the whole thing like a drama. This is what a human being has to achieve.
We talk of peace, we talk of no war, we talk of many things like this, atomic bomb, this and that. All that is not going to work out. Only what is going to work out is the transformation of human beings. If the human beings are transformed things will work out absolutely first class. Not only that, but that they will enjoy the bliss of life.
We are missing the point all together. This is a very important thing that human beings must say one thing: “What have you achieved out of all this?” Just for a minute to stop and think.
4. What are the causes of illness?
The physical, mental, emotional, all illnesses are caused by the imbalances that live within us. By our extreme behaviour. And supposing, say now cancer. Cancer is caused by the over activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Supposing a person is a very sad person, he cries and weeps and all the time feels guilty and thinks he is the worst person ever born. He has committed so many sins and all sorts of nonsense. Then he goes to the left side, according to us, and crosses over to the collective subconscious area and there, according to us, what they call as Protein 58 and Protein 52.
Doctors call it that way, but we call it as the dead souls. They exist there and they catch hold of you and they trigger the cancer. But supposing by any chance you can bring the attention fully away from that in the centre. You can get cured. So it is the centres within us which are subtle, which are basically seven centres. There are many others, but basically seven. If you can put them right you cannot have any sickness or illness of any kind.
5. Can you explain. You said, that your parents supported you very much in your learning and in your studies? Is it correct?
Yes, of course!
6. Is it normal that the parents support their child in a form like this?
In India all parents support their child.
7. And you can learn everything what you want to?
Yes, yes, I mean that is true. But the basic thing is: Parents are very benevolent to their children, very kind to their children. And to them the child’s education, the child’s upbringing and the child’s life is very important. That’s why we know they are so we depend on them, they look after us and they are very wise people. They sacrifice everything for us. So whatever they say, we think it’s nice and by doing this, we have not lost anything so far.
In India if you find Indian children, when they came abroad they always stop. They are very obedient children and they behave very well. We don’t have all this problem. Teenage-problem, homosexuality, we don’t know even these problems. Because we are so close with the parents all the time. They all the time watch us we don’t have drug problems. None of these – only in the cities little bit it happens and it disappears. Because parents are all the time with their children. They live together, the whole family lives together.
And not only with the parents, but all the relations and all the people in the village and in the city everyone knows each other. Such a joyful system we have, that we do not normally fall, sort of go to wrong ways and methods and we do not become obstinate also.
8. But you grew up in a Christian family! It’s not a normal situation that Indian people are Christian?
Yes, I know, I was born in a Christian family deliberately, because I personally think that protestants are the greatest fanatics. They are very sophisticated, their fanaticism is in their brain. Nobody can make them out that they have fanaticism, that they are very great fanatics, the greatest of all. But that times were very enlightened people they understood Christ very well.
They say, I told you about Paul when I was ….. First time I took the Bible in the hand and I asked my father: “Who is this Paul?” He said: “It’s an imprudor, forget it, don’t believe him at all.” So they understood all these things very well because my father was a realized soul like Khalil Gibran.
If you read Khalil Gibran he says the same thing about Paul, the same thing. So if you are an enlightened person you see the essence of everything. Whatever religion you are born, you don’t ignore any other religion, you try to learn about other religion and then you find the essence is the same in every religion.
What is there to fight? And that’s how you belong to no religion, you belong to every religion that’s what happens. But my parents were very enlightened people I must say, and I was very lucky to choose them as my parents.
9. You have been an enlightened child – is it correct?
Yes, I have been born as an enlightened child.
10. You don’t feel sometimes very lonesome, because all the others are different?
No, No. If you know how to share with others. Actually I was like a mother to them from my very childhood. When my father and mother went to jail, I was about 5 1/2 years of age. So I had all the duties of the house in my little frock and I used to get all the duties like the grandmother. I never felt lost. My life on the whole is very collective on temperament I am extremely collective. I can live anywhere, I can sleep anywhere and I can live in the jungles, I have no problems or that I am extremely collective.
I was expressing my temperament from very childhood. I was very friendly with all the people from that area where we were living and my mother was known as Nirmala’s mother. Father was known as Nirmala’s father. So they said: “We have lost our identity because of her.”
So I was a very friendly person. I never felt lonely and when I am with myself I am never lonely at all. I enjoy myself very much.
11. When you have been to that ashram with Gandhi. What were your impression, you remember about Gandhi?
Oh, Gandhiji was a tremendous man and I used to learn a lot from him. He was not at all hypocrite that’s one thing. And he was not like politicians who say something do something wrong. He was very outspoken and always he put himself on the testing point. And he used to confess if he made mistakes immediately. One very great incident I remember when I was a small child. They were having a meeting together and we girls were there sitting, only giving them water and things to all the people. People were there like Jawaherlal Nehru and Mollana Azad. All these people were sitting there. They were discussing something and then suddenly Mahatmaji Gandhiji said: “I was very late, we will have lunch here.” So they said: “Yes we will have lunch here.”
They had to go to the guest house which was far away. So Mahatmaji Gandhiji asked for “Baa”. She had gone out. So he got up, he had a key with him always of the store-room, he opened the store and he asked the people who were in charge of cooking to measure everything according to the people there are, properly everything. And then they measured it out everything was done.
Then he put the key back and then he went and sat there nicely. So these people said: “Bapu, we did not know you have to take so much troubles. You see to go all the way and looking for her. It didn’t take much time, about 15 minutes, but still. So he said: “What do you think?” This is the blood of my country, I cannot allow it to be wasted.
http://www.freemeditation.ca/news/2009/06/24/interview-with-shri-mataji-in-vienna/
What Shri Mataji did and continues to do relentlessly and tirelessly is helping to bring about our own personal transformation and to raise our awareness to a higher level.
Interview with Shri Mataji in Vienna. July 9, 1986
Those of us who have not heard or read about Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi could be surprised that the personality of such a stature has not reached their awareness before… And rightfully so – the impact of her work and her contribution to the well-being of humanity as a whole is hard to estimate.
What Shri Mataji did and continues to do relentlessly and tirelessly is helping to bring about our own personal transformation and to raise our awareness to a higher level.
Her discovery of a simple technique to trigger the awakening of the primordial energy, often referred to as “Kundalini“, within each human being has already transformed millions around the world and many more are to come. This simple technique transcends the heights of scientific discoveries and artistic achievements. It transforms our societies on the fundamental level, brings us back to our roots so our future development can be balanced, empowering and harmonious among ourselves and towards nature. It is not a book or a lecture – it is a living process which is waiting to happen within each and every one of us.
Knowledgeable in science, art, politics, economics, sociology, medicine, Shri Mataji maintains that peace in our societies can only be brought about through discovering peace within ourselves. After thousands of lectures and programs, Shri Mataji is leaving us a treasure of knowledge so vast and profound that generations to come will draw wisdom and inspiration from her words. Like a magician with a gentle movement of her wand, she left us examples of what to aspire to. Yet, her ultimate magic, the awakening of our Kundalini energy, leaves us speechless about her greatest stature.
1. Can you speak about your whole life?
I’m a story teller (Shri Mataji laughs) It is something like an autobiography.
2. Can you describe the circumstances during your childhood?
I belong to a family of very enlightened people. My father was a linguist and he was master of fourteen languages. He knew about 26 languages and he translated even Koransharif into Hindi language. My mother was in those days, was a honors in mathematics. So both they were very well-educated and enlightened people.
At the time of my birth my mother dreamed something which she could not explain. But after that she had a great desire to go and see a tiger in the open field. My father was a great hunter, because tigers were a menace in the area where we were living. It was a hill-station called Chindwara. So there was a king who was very much interested in my father.
Somehow or another a letter came that there is a tiger, very big tiger and they are frightened of him that he might be a maneater. So my father took my mother and moved to that place. And they were sitting in what we call as a Machan. Where they built something for people to sit on top of a tree, from where they can shoot nicely. And then my mother tells me that a big huge tiger, of very big size, very beautifully appeared on the field and she felt tremendous love for the tiger.
It was a full moon day and she felt extremely compassionate towards the tiger and when my father raised his gun to shoot, she stopped and she wouldn’t allow him. The tiger went away and he never came to that forest again.
But that made my father think, because he himself is a realized soul. That must be somebody what we call a goddess Durga, who is fond of the tiger must be born to my mother, because the symptoms where rather funny that the lady should like to see a tiger. So he told my mother: “Now are you satisfied?” Because they were struggling with the gun. He said: “Is there of Durga sitting in your womb, that you are trying to protect a tiger?” She said: “Yes, yes stop it now, I won’t allow you!”.
Shri Mataji with her family
Like that there were many incidents in my life, because I am of a Christian family, Protestants and when I was born my mother didn’t feel any labour-pains or anything just I was born. She did not know how and I had no blood on my body, nothing. I was clean washed that is why they called me as Nirmala.
But my grandmother said that she should be called as Nishkalanka. That means the one which has no spots on her. But that is the name of a man. So they said alright we call her Nirmala meaning the same – Immaculate.
Now all these incidents. And then my father, being a realized soul, he felt tremendous vibrations from me and he felt that this life is great and that she will do something great in this life. I do not know why, but I don’t know if he dreamed or he understood it, but all the time if I remember when he talked to me, he used to say that: “You have to find out the way of giving “en mass” realisation all the time.
As I told you, he was a great scholar of so many things and a very wide read man, so he gave me a good education in religion, in different religions, and also a good education about human beings. What are their problems? Why did they act like this? Why don’t they take to God? Why are they hypocritical? All kind of things he talked to me.
He also knew about Kundalini. But not so much. Of course when I was born, I knew all about Kundalini myself. I knew all about it, from my very childhood. So I was a very aware person – extremely aware. I did not know how to talk to, because – you see – people did not have that awareness, you can’t talk to everyone like that.
So I was regarded as a very joyful person at the same time very serious also, very deep and then I started my studies as a child. I was not very much interested in the studies, though I used to do them very well. But I used to read lives of great men and things like that.
At a very young age I read Bernard Shaw. When people were reading their expectations I was reading Bernard Shaw. But as such I did not have any interest in particular, in reading some text books, because I thought they were childish and there was nothing to be read about it. Then I told my father that I have to do medicine. So he said: “Why?” I said: “Because I have to talk to doctors.” He said: “You have to talk to doctors?” “Yes!”, I said.
Shri Mataji lived in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi when she was 7.
But it so happened in my childhood, when I was about 7 years of age. My father was a congressman, he had joined congress when I was 4 years of age. He used to live with a style very westernized – you see. He threw away everything and became a real Indian and started leading a life of a martial. Then he made us study our languages, Sanskrit he made us study in an Indian school not in a missionary school.
Because missionary is very, very unkind. They threw us out of the school, when my father was in the congress. They were against us completely. Then at the age of seven years, I happened to go with my father to Mahatma Gandhi. He was about 70 miles living with us. But the first time he took me down and Mahatma Gandhi, he liked me very much. He said: “Leave this child here!”
So I had not taken clothes or anything to stay there and my father sent to me everything. And he was very fond of me. But I was a little girl. But he understood that there was something about me. He consulted me on very serious problems sometimes, surprisingly. Like one day he wanted to make me a prayer-book alright, so he asked me: “How should I put these series and all that.” So I told him, how to put the series and he put the series in that way.
I used to go back for my school and again to go back to Gandhiji. Every year like that. And he called me Nepali. He gave me a name “Nepali”. Everybody used to call me Nepali that time. Then I grew up with him very intimately, he was a very, very kind person for children.
Otherwise an extremely strict man, with himself and with others, very strict. A big disciplined man. And he would make everybody get up at 4 o’clock, have your baths everything be ready for your morning prayers at 5 o’clock – you see – and he used to walk very fast. I also learned walking fast with him. In his company I had to walk fast.
And he had been extremely loving and a very nice person. And he would listen to me, because I was a child. Supposing I had forced him to eat more or something then he would have laughed and accepted. Very kind person.
But with others, he was very strict and I used to tell him that: “Why are you strict with them too much?” He said: “But you are a little girl, you got up in the morning, why can’t they get up?” I said: “I am little, that’s why I get up, they are big, so they can’t get up.” Like that you see a little child.
Then my father went to jail and my mother also went to jail five times. My father went to jail twice. Once for about two and a half years and he was the only supporting member of the family. By the way we came from a very old royal family, which is called as Shalivahanas. They have a calender also in India.
And then, when they took my father to jail we had to leave our house and we had to live in huts and had all kind of problems. But also me, they pestered a lot because I helped many people there. I joined effort to movement and in a very serious way I became the leader there. But we were young people.
I thought unless and until I take a very positive stand, it may not work out with them. It is not gracious to say how they tortured me. What they did to me. But they really tortured me. I was a young girl of nineteen years that time. It is over now, so it is finished. After that my father went to jail again and then when he came back, he got elected as the member of the central assembly, later on as the constructor of the assembly and then of the parliament.
My brother was also member of the parliament later on, now recently he was the minister in the cabinet. Another brother is a high-court judge in Bombay. They are all doing well despite the fact, that our parents neglected us in a way, because they gave their lives to the country, but that never deterred as from studies and we came up very well.
When I was in 1942 two movement my college justicabled me from the college and threw me out and I had to go to another college to study far away from my house. Then I studied for two years science. Then I did my medical. I didn’t do fully, because just after that the 1947 riots broke out. So college was closed and I did not want to know more, because what I wanted to know, I think to know about it. So I did not need, and I got married.
Sir C.P. Srivastava - Husband of Shri Mataji
You must have heard my husband work is now the secretary in general of the International Maritime Organization. He held very high positions. He was also secretary to Shastri who was our prime minister, who was another very great man. But he did not survive long. If he had survived things would have been different, I think, for our country, because he was a Gandhian, out and out Gandhian.
I mean he lived like an ideal Gandhian personality. So that’s how my life went on. But inner being was still seeking the way and methods of giving “en mass” realization.
My father said: “Before you do not develop this technique of giving “en mass” realization do not talk about religion. Let nobody know that you know anything about it, because they will crucify you or….” He was rather worried that people won’t understand, or you may write another Bible or Gita – no use.
First of all you must give them realization. If they get their realization then they will realize that there is something about it, about this human awareness. For example, he always used to give an analogy. Supposing we are born on the tenth storey and everybody is on the ground. You must at least make them climb two storeys so they know that there is something above. Otherwise no use talking about it.
And he said: “This is the mistake between the saints and the incarnations was, that they never realized that these people are still on the ground. They have to still enter into the medium. So that is what you have to be very careful that first of all you must give realization to them.”
So I was seeking the ways and methods, working it out inside myself through my own style of meditation in the sense that I would work out all the permutations and combinations and when I met one person then I would see what problems that person had, how you can overcome it, like that I would try to study that person internally.
And I went to many people to find out, but I found they were great hypocrites. I saw so many of these Gurus, most of them. When I saw them, I was surprised they were all hypocrites. Money making and also. I went to Rash Neesh also to see him and he said that I should come to his program. I did not know what sort of man, because he was talking about Gita and I thought he might be knowing something about it.
I went there but my husband said: “No, I won’t allow you to go to this program. So he arranged his own…….. There I could see all the things which were going on. And that is the day somehow or another I said: “I must open the last chakra!” So the last chakra was opened and I saw the Kundalini, which is the primordial force within us, which is the Holy Ghost within us, rising, like a telescope opening out. And then I saw the whole thing open and a big torrential rain of beams started flowing through my head all over.
I felt I am lost, I am no more, there it’s only the grace is there, that is there. I saw it completely happening to me. But I was amazed that when I went to Rash Neesh, because he forgot even to say good bye, because he never realized what had happened or anything, so I was surprised, I said: “This man doesn’t know anything about God!” and then I discovered that they are all hypocrites and they are telling lies.
So in 1970, 5th of May this happened and just after that we had a very big lecture in Carnagy Hall. This is a very big hall and thousands of people had come and I told them very frankly that these are all thugs and hypocrites, some of them are demonic, some are evil people. I told their names everything. I told them: “Do not go near them!” There were some foreigners also.
And there were so many others whom I told these things very clearly and they got frightened. They said: “You should not say like this. They will come and murder you.” But nobody did anything and nobody even went to the courts. And that’s how they try to bring bad name to me. They paid money to the newspapers to publish things against me, because I said: “You cannot pay money!” So they thought that I was trying to harm them by saying such a thing that you can’t take money in the name of God.
If it is a job you can do it, but Gods work is not a job. And the struggle started from the day I started giving realization. And I started with one lady who got realization first. Then we got about twelve people who got realization. In two years got only about 14 people realization. Then gradually when 14 people got realization then many others started getting realization.
Six of the first seven Western Sahaja Yogis
But I started also curing people, because that was helping a lot. Then my husband got elected to this post and we had to come to London.
So when I came to London we had one program. So the Indians abroad are not so much interested in God, they are more interested in money. So none of the Indians stayed there. They all run away and only the foreigners who were there, were about seven hippies and so I had to work on them – seven hippies – for four years I was working on them to give them the realization. They were difficult, their liver was bad, their head was off, terrible time. But in between I used to go to India.
And in India also the work was done. For three month always I have been in India. So we started working in the villages, specially surprisingly were my forefathers were ruling in that area. There we started moving in a very big way. And there then we started taking the people from India.
And some people came from Australia to India, like that and the work started moving in those directions. Gradually the work improved and people found that this is the way we can transform ourselves. Many people were taking drugs, or alcoholics or mad people all kinds of people. They felt better and they got cured. It was established that Sahaja Yoga is something very important.
Now, when I travel all over the world first my husband used to pay for everything, wherever I went he had to pay – any expenses he used to do for me. Gradually now this people pay for my travel, but otherwise they do not have to pay for anything else. That is how we started our work. There was lot of opposition and the media-people would never understand it. Because it was not such a sensation as you can say, nothing to people feel exited but in a way it is a very great thing, because this is the solution of the whole world, one should try to do it.
Then we had very great people who came to Sahaja Yoga, like we can say the main high court judge, who is now the president, who has given Nicaragua some judgment and many lawyers and even barrister. We have one barrister here from Algeria and doctors and then they took over and they started helping me out how to propagate Sahaja Yoga.
A public program in India
But it was a difficult task in the west. Of course in India it is spreading very fast in the villages, but the city people in India also the people are westernized and they will start analyzing. They don’t know much about our past, they don’t know anything about our heritage that we have our Kundalini.
But some people do know about Self-realization. But these Gurus could not stick on in India because nobody would accept them. So they all run away abroad. And that was something a blessing for me also, because I did not have to fight them there. And it started working out and then people found that it helps in every way and they found so many miracles about it and that’s how Sahaja Yoga was settled quite a lot.
But still I would say that we have not been to certain countries so far and in the west, I would say that so much work has to be done there, because as soon as you start any work in any place first of all they want me to cure people and to help them with cure. Now if I pay attention more to that then the main work is to create doctors out of everyone that is neglected then you become unpopular. They think: “Oh, she’s not sympathetic”, this and that.
But now as we have everybody can cure now everyone. I don’t cure anyone directly. But they don’t like it, they want I should be there and their ego to be pampered and all these things are there, it’s rather difficult. We are not running any lecture like we should please others, sort of things, not that, but whatever is reality. If a person has intelligence, pure intelligence, he can see that this is something very different.
And for that one has to understand that you cannot force on anyone that you get your realization in the same way you cannot force me that I give you realization, because if does not work, it does not work, it’s such a living force. And that upsets them very soon. I feel that the way this industrial revolution has come in the west. People have lost their knowings perhaps they are so confused with all these gurus coming down here confusing them and all kind of new things coming. They don’t know where to look.
Unless and until you get your evolution completed. Unless and until you reach that absolute state of understanding the chaos will remain.
So one has to try to get to that. But one must understand: You cannot pay for it. There is no effort. After getting realization they feel so satisfied, they forget about it. But after that you must know how to give it to others. As Christ has said: “The light which is enlightened you do not put it under the table!”
That’s how what happens that, though I give realization to some hundred people, only out of them five, six will come forward to help us out. But still I must say, a lot of work has been done. Especially Austria. I am very proud of Austria, and the way they have never given me any problem, never – very good people have come out of Austria. Very balanced, level headed people. Very level headed.
They are not extremists, they don’t go to extremes, so there is no fanaticism about them. They are sensible people. And something so lucky that Austria was found out. Because I never expected that in Austria there will be so many people. But somehow – like water finds it’s own level, Sahaja Yoga finds its own level. We just come down to Austria. We haven’t been to Norway, to Sweden, to Denmark, Finland. I visited those places, because of my husbands job but I have not …….
Now we have sixteen centers in Australia. And Australia is a very progressive Sahaja Yoga thing. We have got schools now there. They are running schools and the teachers are extremely well-behaved and visionaries and they look after the children very well. The government people sent somebody for observation and they have remarked that whatever they proclaim that’s what they manifest. And they have given good certificates to us.
But the greatest achievement on the outward life is this that Cambridge University has accepted Sahaja Yoga for research work with respect. By one doctor Lee who is doing the research about Sahaja Yoga in Cambridge University – he is already doctor. And there is another great thing has happened in Delhi University that the Delhi University has accepted that a person can do, only a doctor can do a P.H.D. of we can say a doctorat in Sahaja Yoga and he gets the highest degree, called the doctor of medicine. And perhaps after some time they will allow anyone to do that. This is about the medicine part of it.
Shri Mataji experimented with sunflowers in her farmhouse in Pune, in the late 1980’s, and produced tremendously big ones, more than 12 inches in diameter. They were very heavy and gave on the average 250 mm. of oil. This was reported in the newspaper. The photo shows Shri Mataji with the outsize sunflowers.
In agriculture we have done lots of research by say, we have somebody here, an expert of agriculture. He has also done a lot of research and he found out that with vibrations he started after realization. If you vibrate the water and if you water the plants with that then sometimes you might get even ten times more breed that’s what they did in India. In one of the agriculture universities. But here also they found out that there is tremendous difference between the growth of an ordinary plant.
Another thing that I found out in agriculture that if you give vibrations, then even an ordinary cow can give lot of milk. But if you have hybrid cows than you see it’s not good for the brain, because a person who takes hybrid milk also, gets hybrid. I mean his brain gets little wobbly. So better to have a pure milk from a cow which is not been put to this kind of an experimentation.
Moreover food also, if you eat hybrid food it’s not very good for us, for that spoils our nerves I think. But ordinary seeds you cannot use, because they have weakened and they cannot reproduce. So, when we vibrate them, they produce very well, just like – better than even sometimes hybrid things and the food tastes very well, and it doesn’t give those complications.
So this can help in agriculture in India and the government has allotied us a lot of land where we are going now to experiment and we are going to start experimentation there to show that how we can use this. But many farmers who are Sahaja Yogis have done a lot of job and they have discovered that even animals and this what you call farming, everything is helped very much by vibrations.
So it improves the lives of people. We have on the other side, social side, I can tell you that we have marriages, international marriages. We arrange international marriages between people, they have to know each other and they are together and first of all they are together for one and half month with us on the tour.
They can see each other and the marriages are fixed and we have seen that such marriages are extremely successful. 99 % marriages are successful. Once in a while maybe a mishap but mostly there are no divorces that take place. Once in a while, if it’s not successful we have no objections to divorce also.
But mostly they are successful and they get children who are very intelligent and who are themselves born-realized children mostly. So the problem is much less and the family life improves. The quality of life is 1000 times better. People are very joyous, happy, they do not complain and they enjoy life and they give to others. They share what joy they have.
3. What do you think are the important points in the education of children? What is important to be given to the children?
First if they get realization. If they are already born realized no problem, but if they have been given their realization then they will start to see things from a different level. They become the Spirit. So their self respect awakens. Such children behave in a very dignified manner. They talk in a very elderly manner. They see solutions of all kinds and they are tremendous beings. But we have to guide them properly by our own behaviour.
Shri Mataji with children
How we behave, the greatest thing is how we behave that’s how the children like. We put the children to some tests how they are. We find out if they have any physical problems, we cure them. If they have mental problems we cure them. If they have any other problems, social problems or anything, we try to help them out. So that basically if a human being is alright in childhood then fundamentals are alright for the child.
The foundation is laid down then to build a child up in a good quality is not difficult. So now we find like great artists are there. There are great musicians. At a very young age, they have started playing violin. I mean suddenly they have become dynamic also and very humble. They are very humble and self respected and very well behaved.
Surprising how the atmosphere is and how it works out. And the other day a lady asked me about the women then I told her that a woman’s power as a mother is very great. She felt hurt about it and I did not mean that you should be just a mother. She is a mother, means she is compassionate. She is kind. She is not aggressive like men. That is a very big quality that is a very big power in a woman, that’s what I was suggesting. That that is what we have to have. Is not to compete with men. This is Madness. To compete with men, and to go about like that.
So we have to understand that life has to be enjoyable. Life should be a blessing, not to be a misery. We create our own miseries by these false ideas by our own conflictions, we have in our mind mental projections we have in our mind or our own obstinacy, whatever it is. All these things can be cured if you take to Sahaja Yoga, because you become a balanced person, level headed, mild person and you become a witness. The whole thing becomes like a show, like a drama and you become fearless, you start seeing the whole thing like a drama. This is what a human being has to achieve.
We talk of peace, we talk of no war, we talk of many things like this, atomic bomb, this and that. All that is not going to work out. Only what is going to work out is the transformation of human beings. If the human beings are transformed things will work out absolutely first class. Not only that, but that they will enjoy the bliss of life.
We are missing the point all together. This is a very important thing that human beings must say one thing: “What have you achieved out of all this?” Just for a minute to stop and think.
4. What are the causes of illness?
The physical, mental, emotional, all illnesses are caused by the imbalances that live within us. By our extreme behaviour. And supposing, say now cancer. Cancer is caused by the over activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Supposing a person is a very sad person, he cries and weeps and all the time feels guilty and thinks he is the worst person ever born. He has committed so many sins and all sorts of nonsense. Then he goes to the left side, according to us, and crosses over to the collective subconscious area and there, according to us, what they call as Protein 58 and Protein 52.
Doctors call it that way, but we call it as the dead souls. They exist there and they catch hold of you and they trigger the cancer. But supposing by any chance you can bring the attention fully away from that in the centre. You can get cured. So it is the centres within us which are subtle, which are basically seven centres. There are many others, but basically seven. If you can put them right you cannot have any sickness or illness of any kind.
5. Can you explain. You said, that your parents supported you very much in your learning and in your studies? Is it correct?
Yes, of course!
6. Is it normal that the parents support their child in a form like this?
In India all parents support their child.
7. And you can learn everything what you want to?
Yes, yes, I mean that is true. But the basic thing is: Parents are very benevolent to their children, very kind to their children. And to them the child’s education, the child’s upbringing and the child’s life is very important. That’s why we know they are so we depend on them, they look after us and they are very wise people. They sacrifice everything for us. So whatever they say, we think it’s nice and by doing this, we have not lost anything so far.
In India if you find Indian children, when they came abroad they always stop. They are very obedient children and they behave very well. We don’t have all this problem. Teenage-problem, homosexuality, we don’t know even these problems. Because we are so close with the parents all the time. They all the time watch us we don’t have drug problems. None of these – only in the cities little bit it happens and it disappears. Because parents are all the time with their children. They live together, the whole family lives together.
And not only with the parents, but all the relations and all the people in the village and in the city everyone knows each other. Such a joyful system we have, that we do not normally fall, sort of go to wrong ways and methods and we do not become obstinate also.
8. But you grew up in a Christian family! It’s not a normal situation that Indian people are Christian?
Yes, I know, I was born in a Christian family deliberately, because I personally think that protestants are the greatest fanatics. They are very sophisticated, their fanaticism is in their brain. Nobody can make them out that they have fanaticism, that they are very great fanatics, the greatest of all. But that times were very enlightened people they understood Christ very well.
They say, I told you about Paul when I was ….. First time I took the Bible in the hand and I asked my father: “Who is this Paul?” He said: “It’s an imprudor, forget it, don’t believe him at all.” So they understood all these things very well because my father was a realized soul like Khalil Gibran.
If you read Khalil Gibran he says the same thing about Paul, the same thing. So if you are an enlightened person you see the essence of everything. Whatever religion you are born, you don’t ignore any other religion, you try to learn about other religion and then you find the essence is the same in every religion.
What is there to fight? And that’s how you belong to no religion, you belong to every religion that’s what happens. But my parents were very enlightened people I must say, and I was very lucky to choose them as my parents.
9. You have been an enlightened child – is it correct?
Yes, I have been born as an enlightened child.
10. You don’t feel sometimes very lonesome, because all the others are different?
No, No. If you know how to share with others. Actually I was like a mother to them from my very childhood. When my father and mother went to jail, I was about 5 1/2 years of age. So I had all the duties of the house in my little frock and I used to get all the duties like the grandmother. I never felt lost. My life on the whole is very collective on temperament I am extremely collective. I can live anywhere, I can sleep anywhere and I can live in the jungles, I have no problems or that I am extremely collective.
I was expressing my temperament from very childhood. I was very friendly with all the people from that area where we were living and my mother was known as Nirmala’s mother. Father was known as Nirmala’s father. So they said: “We have lost our identity because of her.”
So I was a very friendly person. I never felt lonely and when I am with myself I am never lonely at all. I enjoy myself very much.
11. When you have been to that ashram with Gandhi. What were your impression, you remember about Gandhi?
Oh, Gandhiji was a tremendous man and I used to learn a lot from him. He was not at all hypocrite that’s one thing. And he was not like politicians who say something do something wrong. He was very outspoken and always he put himself on the testing point. And he used to confess if he made mistakes immediately. One very great incident I remember when I was a small child. They were having a meeting together and we girls were there sitting, only giving them water and things to all the people. People were there like Jawaherlal Nehru and Mollana Azad. All these people were sitting there. They were discussing something and then suddenly Mahatmaji Gandhiji said: “I was very late, we will have lunch here.” So they said: “Yes we will have lunch here.”
They had to go to the guest house which was far away. So Mahatmaji Gandhiji asked for “Baa”. She had gone out. So he got up, he had a key with him always of the store-room, he opened the store and he asked the people who were in charge of cooking to measure everything according to the people there are, properly everything. And then they measured it out everything was done.
Then he put the key back and then he went and sat there nicely. So these people said: “Bapu, we did not know you have to take so much troubles. You see to go all the way and looking for her. It didn’t take much time, about 15 minutes, but still. So he said: “What do you think?” This is the blood of my country, I cannot allow it to be wasted.
http://www.freemeditation.ca/news/2009/06/24/interview-with-shri-mataji-in-vienna/
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Two Wolves
Two Wolves
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life…
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
“One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
“The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
“This same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf will win?”
The old chief replied,”The one you feed.”
and another version of the same story:
A young Cherokee Indian boy came to his grandfather angry at an injustice a friend had done to him.
His Grandfather said, “At times, I too have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. It is as if there are two wolves inside me. One is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him, and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way. But the other wolf? He is full of anger. The littlest thing will put him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger,for his anger will change nothing. Sometimes, it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.”
The boy looked into his Grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which one wins, Grandfather?”
The Grandfather smiled and quietly said, “The one I feed.”
Saturday, June 6, 2009
A musician is born
6.6.09
A musician is born
The noted bhajan singer Sanjay Talwar describes an early encounter with Shri Mataji:
My first musical encounter with the Adi Shakti happened in the car in which I drove Shri Mataji to the interior of Rajasthan. It was a cold December morning in 1986. Shri Mataji had woken up early at the residence of Mrs. Pardal, the Sahaja Yoga leader for Jaipur, and had sent word to me to get ready to drive Her through the heart of Rajasthan, as She had fixed appointments with various house owners to see their homes which had jharokas (artistically hand-crafted windows), that She wanted for making Her own home, Pratishthan in Pune.
I had woken up that morning with a severe stomach ache. I did not want to miss the golden opportunity of driving Shri Mataji and so I did not disclose my problem to anyone. We left early morning with my wife, Aradhana, Manish Singh and Mrs. Pardal sitting at the back, and Shri Mataji opting to sit in the front seat next to me. I had a small Fiat car with two bucket seats in the front. It was not just an ordinary journey, but really the journey of my life had just begun.
Remember, I had an upset stomach. As I started to drive, my stomach started rumbling and I was in pain. Shri Mataji immediately asked me to stop the car, although I wasn't complaining. She got out of the car and went across to a nearby medical shop and brought me some Ayurvadic tablets. She asked Manish to fetch me some buttermilk. As soon as I had it, I immediately felt better.
“Now,” She said, “it is a long journey ahead, so why not have a song from you?" That was the first time ever I got to sing in front of Shri Mataji. I asked Her, “Mother, what would you like me to sing?” She said, “Sing any song you like.” So I started singing Hamein Tum Se Pyaar Kitna. It was a romantic song from an Indian film.
She interrupted me briefly and told me to try changing the words a little so that it could be directed to the Devi. I could not fathom what She meant and I just stopped singing. She then gave me the words, which my wife started to jot down in the back seat. Thus started a journey where Shri Mataji continued to give the words and I continued to sing them. The meanings that came out were simply divine. She would stop in the middle and ask everyone in the car to check the vibrations. She then explained to me the meaning of the words.
I shook my head and said, “Yes, Mother, this sounds great. Can I do more such songs?” “Yes,” She said. “Now you carry on making the songs as we drive along and make sure that what you are creating is what the seekers will listen to and take their Self Realization.”
I was thrilled at the prospect – all this, while Mother kept Her hand on my Vishuddhi from the back, sometimes massaging my shoulders and at times running Her hand over my back Agnya. She would occasionally ask me, “How does it feel? Don't you feel your voice opening up?” “Yes, Mother!” I exclaimed. “I cannot believe this is my voice.”
Shri Mataji had worked on my Vishuddhi for hours as I drove. That day we travelled for twelve hours non-stop until we reached Makrana. Thus were born my very first Sahaj musical compositions.
My first musical encounter with the Adi Shakti happened in the car in which I drove Shri Mataji to the interior of Rajasthan. It was a cold December morning in 1986. Shri Mataji had woken up early at the residence of Mrs. Pardal, the Sahaja Yoga leader for Jaipur, and had sent word to me to get ready to drive Her through the heart of Rajasthan, as She had fixed appointments with various house owners to see their homes which had jharokas (artistically hand-crafted windows), that She wanted for making Her own home, Pratishthan in Pune.
I had woken up that morning with a severe stomach ache. I did not want to miss the golden opportunity of driving Shri Mataji and so I did not disclose my problem to anyone. We left early morning with my wife, Aradhana, Manish Singh and Mrs. Pardal sitting at the back, and Shri Mataji opting to sit in the front seat next to me. I had a small Fiat car with two bucket seats in the front. It was not just an ordinary journey, but really the journey of my life had just begun.
Remember, I had an upset stomach. As I started to drive, my stomach started rumbling and I was in pain. Shri Mataji immediately asked me to stop the car, although I wasn't complaining. She got out of the car and went across to a nearby medical shop and brought me some Ayurvadic tablets. She asked Manish to fetch me some buttermilk. As soon as I had it, I immediately felt better.
“Now,” She said, “it is a long journey ahead, so why not have a song from you?" That was the first time ever I got to sing in front of Shri Mataji. I asked Her, “Mother, what would you like me to sing?” She said, “Sing any song you like.” So I started singing Hamein Tum Se Pyaar Kitna. It was a romantic song from an Indian film.
She interrupted me briefly and told me to try changing the words a little so that it could be directed to the Devi. I could not fathom what She meant and I just stopped singing. She then gave me the words, which my wife started to jot down in the back seat. Thus started a journey where Shri Mataji continued to give the words and I continued to sing them. The meanings that came out were simply divine. She would stop in the middle and ask everyone in the car to check the vibrations. She then explained to me the meaning of the words.
I shook my head and said, “Yes, Mother, this sounds great. Can I do more such songs?” “Yes,” She said. “Now you carry on making the songs as we drive along and make sure that what you are creating is what the seekers will listen to and take their Self Realization.”
I was thrilled at the prospect – all this, while Mother kept Her hand on my Vishuddhi from the back, sometimes massaging my shoulders and at times running Her hand over my back Agnya. She would occasionally ask me, “How does it feel? Don't you feel your voice opening up?” “Yes, Mother!” I exclaimed. “I cannot believe this is my voice.”
Shri Mataji had worked on my Vishuddhi for hours as I drove. That day we travelled for twelve hours non-stop until we reached Makrana. Thus were born my very first Sahaj musical compositions.
With permission from SAHAJ A-Z
What is the meaning of Nirmala?
1. What is the meaning of Nirmala?
It is the Name of the Goddess which means without impurity. Shri Mataji gave a comprehensive explanation of Her name in a conference in Marathi translated into English: (This was then translated into French, and back again into English)
Nirmala integrates the three gunas. NI for the right channel, LA for the left
and MA for Sushumna.
"The first part, NIH means negation. It is the negation. It is the
negation of existence, which is illusion, maya (...) NIH shakti is the power of
Shri Brahmadeva, ie Shri Shakti Saraswati. NIH implies complete
detachment. You must become completely detached. "
"LA comes from Lalita which is a blessing and a weapon of the Goddess. When the Shakti
becomes Lalita, meaning active, then the vibration increase in Her, these
are the vibrations you feel in the palm of your hands (...). When the
power of love becomes active, it becomes LA Shakti. It is LA Shakti that does
all the work, it is thanks to Her that you have your Realisation. "
"Shakti is the power of love. It is activated by NIH Shakti which is the
power of action. "
"The syllable MA is between NIH and LA. MA is the syllable of Mahalakshmi which is the
power of the Dharma and the power of evolution. In MA Shakti, you must
understand, assimilate and this requires mastery.
For example, an artist conceives the idea of his creation with LA Shakti, he
constructed with NIH Shakti and then uses MA Shakti to bring it to his original idea while improving it. This improvement is evolution and this implies an effort.
The two powers (NIH and LA) only become active when you develop
by the power of evolution. You must fully understand and develop MA
Shakti. You must achieve a balance between the NIH and MA Shaktis."
"MA is the first syllable of Mataji, Mother. This has been made possible only through
MA Shakti within me. This would not have been possible with only the LA
Shakti and Shakti NIH. I have come with these three powers but it is MA Shakti
which is at the summit."
(Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)
************
Friday, April 3, 2009
Sahaja Meditation Online
Online learning will take you on a journey in which you will learn the first steps towards the purest form of meditation, Sahaja Meditation. All knowledge and experience are introduced through videos and audio recordings. All the images, music and sounds of nature are so chosen to help guide you and to give you a feeling of peace.
This online course is an introduction to Sahaja Meditation and focuses on the awakening of the kundalini energy, achieving the state of mental silence, feeling the vibrations of your chakras and your inner being, and eventually learning how to meditate.
Make some time if you want to experiment at home. Because what you could find is something which can give your life a new dimension, a new meaning.
© Copyright Freemeditation.ca | Online Learning 2009 |
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Christ & Kundalini
Contrary to popular Christian dogma, Christ did teach about Karma, reincarnation, self-realisation and the Divine Feminine as Holy Ghost -- God the Mother. Christ's teachings are more Eastern than the Churches would have us believe or would like to admit.
The two centuries after Christ, saw the Christian Gnostic teachings of spiritual awareness disseminated alongside the blind faith doctrines of Paul's formulation. In the third Century, the Roman Church's council of Nicaea acted to stamp out the Gnostics and their anti-dogmatic approch to spirituality.
The Gnostic's were declared heretical, their texts destroyed and the Gnostics themselves persecuted into extinction. However, a small amount of Gnostic teachings survived, hidden in caves or in watered-down form in other "heretical" texts (broadly labelled as "Apocrypha").
The Christian Gnostics practiced a spirituality more similar to Eastern traditions than to the Western Christianity we know today. "Gnostic" is Greek for "knower" and it is "Gnosis" or "Knowledge" that they were seeking. Unlike the blind faith demanded by today's Churches, 'Gnosis' meant direct, mystical experience of the divine, which was to be found by individual spiritual evolution to Self-Realisation, and not within the confines of intellectual dogma. The experience of Gnosis was trans-rational and non-intellectual.
From the Nag Hammadi Library, the Book of Thomas, Christ tells us "For whoever does not know self, does not know anything, but whoever knows self, already has acquired knowledge about the depth of the universe". Compare this with a tract from the Upanishads, the Indian metaphysical treatise on Self Realisation: "It is not by argument that the self is known... Distinguish the self from the body and mind. The self, the atman, the highest refuge of all, pervades the Universe and dwells in the hearts of all. Those who are instructed in the self and who practice constant meditation attain that changeless and self effulgent atman ( spirit/ self). Do Thou Likewise, for bliss eternal lies before you..."
In another gnostic text, the Secret Gospel of Thomas, Christ promises us spiritual fulfilment "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched and what has never arisen in the human mind." This description is not unlike the Upanishadic experience "the Self is devoid of birth and death, it neither grows old nor decays and the accidents of life do not affect it. The Self transcends space and time; what is great is not too great for it to comprehend and what is small is not too small to escape its attention. It is the Self of All".
Just as Christ warned us against sin and encourages moral perfection in the pursuit of spiritual fulfilment, so too do the Eastern texts "No intellectual acumen can help one realise it, it can be realised only by those who surrender to it and who make themselves worthy by grace, by desisting from all that is sinful, who engage in the practice of perfection by constant meditation"( Upanishads).
The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas,of India, tell us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness is called 'Self-Realisation'. The Self Realised person lives in direct experience of reality -- this is called "Jnana" ( a traditional sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a "Jnani" ('knower ' or 'gnostic' ) or "dwijaha" ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self Realisation, into the plane of mystic awareness- gnosis! ). The traditional Indian texts extol the 'Divine Mother' as the Cosmic Matriarch, bestower of the highest treasure of Self Realisation upon Her deserving children. Many Indian mystic traditions say this same goddess is represented within the human being as the divine feminine power called Kundalini.
What of Western tradition? In the Secret Book of John Christ explains that human redemption before the Heavenly Father occurs by the mediation of a Divine Feminine principle, which he calls the Earthly Mother. It is the Earthly Mother who removes the sins of the children that they can become worthy of their divine heritage; "when all sins and all uncleanesses are gone from your body, your blood shall become as pure as our Earthly Mother's blood and as pure as the river's foam sporting in the sunlight. And your breath shall become as pure as the breath of odorous flowers; your flesh as pure as the flesh of fresh fruits reddening upon the leaves of trees; the light of your eye as clear and bright as the brightness of the sun shining upon the blue sky. And now shall all the angels of the Earthly Mother serve you and your breath, your blood, your flesh shall be one with the breath, the blood and the flesh of the Earthly Mother, that your spirit also become one with the Spirit of your Heavenly Father. For truly no-one can reach the Heavenly Father unless through the Heavenly Mother. Even as the newborn babe cannot understand the teaching of his father until his mother has suckled him, bathed him, nursed him, put him to sleep and nurtured him". The Earthly Mother is a divine mediator through which the seekers, the Sons of Man, are raised to the Heavenly Father. Another part of the same text says "Honour your Earthly Mother and keep her laws that your days may be long on this earth and honour your Heavenly Father, that eternal life may be yours in the Heavens. For the Heavenly Father is a hundred times greater than all the fathers by seed and by blood, and greater is the Earthly Mother than all mothers by the body". The Holy Trinity, then is God the Father, God the Son (ie. Christ) and, it seems, God the Mother. The Divine Mother particularly is the means and power of spiritual evolution.
The Secret Book of John relates Christ's description of the Divine Feminine as the power of God Almighty. "She is the first power. She preceded everything, and came forth from the Father's mind as forethought of all. Her light resembles the Father's light; as the perfect power She is the image of the perfect and invisible Virgin Spirit. She is the first power, the glory, Barbello, the perfect glory among the worlds, the emerging glory, She glorified and praised the Virgin Spirit for she had come forth through the Spirit. She is the first thought, image of the Spirit. She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is here described as the Divine Power of God Himself. This power is maternal in its character (universal womb, She, the common parent) and all powerful as the 'first emanation of God'. More so, She is pure (Virgin) and She glorifies purity. So ancient christian tradition seems to tell us that the holy spirit is actually the Divine Mother!
One cannot overlook the Eastern parallels. God Almighty in Indian mythology is represented as Sada-Shiva. His state is eternal perfection (Sat Chit Ananda). His power is the Adi Shakti (primordial power) who is His feminine counterpart or spouse. It is She who does all things. She created the universe and the gods who attend over it (for example, the triune Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu). The Adi Shakti is the Mother of all things. She gave birth to the universe and is the feminine power of every deity and celestial being (usually represented as their spouse). The Secret Book of John parallels this "She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit, the triple male (Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu?) the triple power (Parvati, Saraswati, Lakshmi, who are spouses of the triple males-or the triple Goddess of Western mythological tradition?)". Thus the Christian mystics understood that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, the Universal Mother herself. The Syriac Christians worshiped the Holy Ghost as the Great Mother. Phillip suggests that Mary Herself is the Holy Spirit (for who else but God the Mother can give birth to God the Son?). Other Apocryphal Scriptures describe Mary as the focus of Temple activities. Her early life was punctuated by auspicious portents all implying her own Divinity.
The two centuries after Christ, saw the Christian Gnostic teachings of spiritual awareness disseminated alongside the blind faith doctrines of Paul's formulation. In the third Century, the Roman Church's council of Nicaea acted to stamp out the Gnostics and their anti-dogmatic approch to spirituality.
The Gnostic's were declared heretical, their texts destroyed and the Gnostics themselves persecuted into extinction. However, a small amount of Gnostic teachings survived, hidden in caves or in watered-down form in other "heretical" texts (broadly labelled as "Apocrypha").
The Christian Gnostics practiced a spirituality more similar to Eastern traditions than to the Western Christianity we know today. "Gnostic" is Greek for "knower" and it is "Gnosis" or "Knowledge" that they were seeking. Unlike the blind faith demanded by today's Churches, 'Gnosis' meant direct, mystical experience of the divine, which was to be found by individual spiritual evolution to Self-Realisation, and not within the confines of intellectual dogma. The experience of Gnosis was trans-rational and non-intellectual.
From the Nag Hammadi Library, the Book of Thomas, Christ tells us "For whoever does not know self, does not know anything, but whoever knows self, already has acquired knowledge about the depth of the universe". Compare this with a tract from the Upanishads, the Indian metaphysical treatise on Self Realisation: "It is not by argument that the self is known... Distinguish the self from the body and mind. The self, the atman, the highest refuge of all, pervades the Universe and dwells in the hearts of all. Those who are instructed in the self and who practice constant meditation attain that changeless and self effulgent atman ( spirit/ self). Do Thou Likewise, for bliss eternal lies before you..."
In another gnostic text, the Secret Gospel of Thomas, Christ promises us spiritual fulfilment "I shall give you what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no hand has touched and what has never arisen in the human mind." This description is not unlike the Upanishadic experience "the Self is devoid of birth and death, it neither grows old nor decays and the accidents of life do not affect it. The Self transcends space and time; what is great is not too great for it to comprehend and what is small is not too small to escape its attention. It is the Self of All".
Just as Christ warned us against sin and encourages moral perfection in the pursuit of spiritual fulfilment, so too do the Eastern texts "No intellectual acumen can help one realise it, it can be realised only by those who surrender to it and who make themselves worthy by grace, by desisting from all that is sinful, who engage in the practice of perfection by constant meditation"( Upanishads).
The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas,of India, tell us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness is called 'Self-Realisation'. The Self Realised person lives in direct experience of reality -- this is called "Jnana" ( a traditional sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a "Jnani" ('knower ' or 'gnostic' ) or "dwijaha" ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self Realisation, into the plane of mystic awareness- gnosis! ). The traditional Indian texts extol the 'Divine Mother' as the Cosmic Matriarch, bestower of the highest treasure of Self Realisation upon Her deserving children. Many Indian mystic traditions say this same goddess is represented within the human being as the divine feminine power called Kundalini.
What of Western tradition? In the Secret Book of John Christ explains that human redemption before the Heavenly Father occurs by the mediation of a Divine Feminine principle, which he calls the Earthly Mother. It is the Earthly Mother who removes the sins of the children that they can become worthy of their divine heritage; "when all sins and all uncleanesses are gone from your body, your blood shall become as pure as our Earthly Mother's blood and as pure as the river's foam sporting in the sunlight. And your breath shall become as pure as the breath of odorous flowers; your flesh as pure as the flesh of fresh fruits reddening upon the leaves of trees; the light of your eye as clear and bright as the brightness of the sun shining upon the blue sky. And now shall all the angels of the Earthly Mother serve you and your breath, your blood, your flesh shall be one with the breath, the blood and the flesh of the Earthly Mother, that your spirit also become one with the Spirit of your Heavenly Father. For truly no-one can reach the Heavenly Father unless through the Heavenly Mother. Even as the newborn babe cannot understand the teaching of his father until his mother has suckled him, bathed him, nursed him, put him to sleep and nurtured him". The Earthly Mother is a divine mediator through which the seekers, the Sons of Man, are raised to the Heavenly Father. Another part of the same text says "Honour your Earthly Mother and keep her laws that your days may be long on this earth and honour your Heavenly Father, that eternal life may be yours in the Heavens. For the Heavenly Father is a hundred times greater than all the fathers by seed and by blood, and greater is the Earthly Mother than all mothers by the body". The Holy Trinity, then is God the Father, God the Son (ie. Christ) and, it seems, God the Mother. The Divine Mother particularly is the means and power of spiritual evolution.
The Secret Book of John relates Christ's description of the Divine Feminine as the power of God Almighty. "She is the first power. She preceded everything, and came forth from the Father's mind as forethought of all. Her light resembles the Father's light; as the perfect power She is the image of the perfect and invisible Virgin Spirit. She is the first power, the glory, Barbello, the perfect glory among the worlds, the emerging glory, She glorified and praised the Virgin Spirit for she had come forth through the Spirit. She is the first thought, image of the Spirit. She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is here described as the Divine Power of God Himself. This power is maternal in its character (universal womb, She, the common parent) and all powerful as the 'first emanation of God'. More so, She is pure (Virgin) and She glorifies purity. So ancient christian tradition seems to tell us that the holy spirit is actually the Divine Mother!
One cannot overlook the Eastern parallels. God Almighty in Indian mythology is represented as Sada-Shiva. His state is eternal perfection (Sat Chit Ananda). His power is the Adi Shakti (primordial power) who is His feminine counterpart or spouse. It is She who does all things. She created the universe and the gods who attend over it (for example, the triune Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu). The Adi Shakti is the Mother of all things. She gave birth to the universe and is the feminine power of every deity and celestial being (usually represented as their spouse). The Secret Book of John parallels this "She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit, the triple male (Shiva, Brahma, Vishnu?) the triple power (Parvati, Saraswati, Lakshmi, who are spouses of the triple males-or the triple Goddess of Western mythological tradition?)". Thus the Christian mystics understood that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, the Universal Mother herself. The Syriac Christians worshiped the Holy Ghost as the Great Mother. Phillip suggests that Mary Herself is the Holy Spirit (for who else but God the Mother can give birth to God the Son?). Other Apocryphal Scriptures describe Mary as the focus of Temple activities. Her early life was punctuated by auspicious portents all implying her own Divinity.
The Early Life of The Virgin Mary
The most comprehensive stories about the early childhood of Mary are attributed to the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of James. This has been documented by historians as being written prior to the year 200AD.
In a document called God the Father of Mercy there is an entire chapter devoted to Mary, the Holy Trinity’s Sign of Mercy. Mary is the object of God’s mercy. This document states:
“Mary becomes the prophet of God’s mercy, as well as it’s icon. She,more than anyone else knows the mystery of mercy that reaches its climax on Calvary. The Virgin who became the Mother of Jesus at Christmas, enabling God’s mercy to become incarnate.”
The qualities of mercy, compassion, comforting and counselling have long since been seen as feminine qualities, all of which Mary emanated. They are also the qualities of the future incarnation promised by Christ, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, shall teach you all things” (John 14:26) Could it be that he was telling then of the age of the Mother, when the feminine power of God would grace this earth.
Why then has the significance of the Virgin Mary been slowly eroded away by the church? If God Almighty deemed Her pure enough to bear his Son, then it could be suggested that She has a special place in the Holy Trinity. We talk much of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We have this trinity in the birth of Christ – God the Father, Christ the Son and Mary the Mother. This begs the question: “Is the Holy Ghost a feminine power, a mothering power that came on this earth to bear the Son of God and teach mankind of the mercy and love of God?”.
According to tradition Mary has been called upon as the Mother of Mercy since the 3rd century.
Churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary have been well documented; for example the Emperor Justinian built a splendid church dedicated to Mary in the Temple area in Jerusalem. It was dedicated on November 21, 543AD but was destroyed by the Persians within a century. Mary was also held in the highest regard by early church Fathers praising her – “ She was planted in the House of God, nourished by the Holy Spirit and kept her body and soul spotless to receive God in her bosom. He Who is all-holy rests among the holy.”
In a document called God the Father of Mercy there is an entire chapter devoted to Mary, the Holy Trinity’s Sign of Mercy. Mary is the object of God’s mercy. This document states:
“Mary becomes the prophet of God’s mercy, as well as it’s icon. She,more than anyone else knows the mystery of mercy that reaches its climax on Calvary. The Virgin who became the Mother of Jesus at Christmas, enabling God’s mercy to become incarnate.”
The qualities of mercy, compassion, comforting and counselling have long since been seen as feminine qualities, all of which Mary emanated. They are also the qualities of the future incarnation promised by Christ, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, shall teach you all things” (John 14:26) Could it be that he was telling then of the age of the Mother, when the feminine power of God would grace this earth.
Why then has the significance of the Virgin Mary been slowly eroded away by the church? If God Almighty deemed Her pure enough to bear his Son, then it could be suggested that She has a special place in the Holy Trinity. We talk much of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We have this trinity in the birth of Christ – God the Father, Christ the Son and Mary the Mother. This begs the question: “Is the Holy Ghost a feminine power, a mothering power that came on this earth to bear the Son of God and teach mankind of the mercy and love of God?”.
According to tradition Mary has been called upon as the Mother of Mercy since the 3rd century.
Churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary have been well documented; for example the Emperor Justinian built a splendid church dedicated to Mary in the Temple area in Jerusalem. It was dedicated on November 21, 543AD but was destroyed by the Persians within a century. Mary was also held in the highest regard by early church Fathers praising her – “ She was planted in the House of God, nourished by the Holy Spirit and kept her body and soul spotless to receive God in her bosom. He Who is all-holy rests among the holy.”
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