Powerful quotations & extracts from Shri Mataji's public talks and interviews. Shri Mataji a spiritual master, who founded Sahaja Yoga, and is known for her system of learning which is open-source and free to teach forward.
Personality Cults & False Teachers: A Checklist
Suffering & Pain: Left Side Off Balances
This is the left side, which we get, and ultimately with this left side problems we get physical pains. It’s very painful to have left sided problems. It’s very, very painful. The pain cannot be explained, no one can understand, nobody can cure it, you can’t tell anyone and people think that you are fussing, they give you psychological treatments; you just don’t understand why this pain is within you. And this pain comes to you from left side, the subconscious. The beyond subconscious is the collective subconscious. And this collective subconscious is the one where whatever is created from the beginning up to today in the creation is within you. And once you go to the subconscious you just get lost there. You are so overpowered by this power of subconscious that it is beyond you to understand it, beyond you to get out of it and beyond you to, not to succumb to it. And it goes on increasing.
What is Self Realization? How to Achieve Totality?
Self realization means to bring your Spirit into your conscious mind....
So to understand the totality what should happen to us? We should achieve that state where we can see the totality. Like if I have to see now, for example, the whole of Brighton, what should I do? I should go on a plane and see it from that height; I can see the whole. In the same way in your awareness, in your understanding you should rise to that point from where you can see the whole. If you cannot see the whole, the partial vision or we can say, a little that you see can create confusion, can create problems, and some of them could be of a very, very serious nature. Because as human beings, we do not know what are we. This is the greatest problem of human beings that they say, “I don’t like it.” Now, which one is this “I”? Is that your Spirit or is that your ego? What is the part that is not liking it? Or is it your conditioning, because you were brought up in a particular way, so you don’t like this? Which part of you is not liking it? And you’ll be amazed that it is not your Spirit. Because if Spirit likes, how will you know? It’s only through your vibrations. When you can feel the vibrations, then only you will say, “Yes, my Spirit likes it, because the vibrations are emitted.”
So we are still in a transition state as human beings. We have not achieved that state which is called as the state of Self Realization, where you become the Spirit. The becoming is the point. When you become the Spirit you know what you like, you really know what you really like. Because you are now the reality, you are not any conditioning, you are no more a ego, but you are what you are really and that is your Spirit. And surprisingly this Spirit is a collective being. It’s no artificial collectivity within us, that also, “All right, we belong to all Brighton so we are one.” Or “We belong to one street so we are one.” It’s not like that, but it’s something that you are, absolutely you are a collective being and you start feeling that collectivity within you, with these different centers working it out. And you can feel it – others. You can feel the others on your fingertips, can you believe it? In the Bible it’s written that, “Your hands will speak.” The description of these days is that “your hands will speak”. Why not people go and find out what does it happen, how can your hands speak? This is what happens that on your fingertips you start feeling and understanding what is reality, what is beauty, what is joy, what is love
What is Self Realization?
The Three Channels Within Us
Hermits and Recluses
Some people, I find, suddenly become morose, recluses in Sahaja Yoga. They will never be forgiven because God has given you so much. Supposing somebody gives you a diamond, you are proud, you put it on, and show off.
V4.20.Mar84.p6
You are Emancipators
But the highest above everything is the hope of your Mother that you are going to emancipate the whole world. Give attention to that. Think about it, that you are going to do it! You have to be walking, talking, moving forests of that Divine Love, that Ritambhara Pragya. V4.20.Mar84.p15
The Canvas of Our Being
It is your Attention that has to come up, and has to grow. So, Attention is the whole canvas of your being. Complete canvas. How much you have gone into it, how much you have discovered it, how far you have raised it - is a different point.
V4.20.Mar84
Principle of Collective Growth
It is essential for you to understand that if anybody who is a Sahaja Yogi is in trouble, you are in trouble. It is a threat to your growth, because it is the whole that is growing. V4.19 Jan.84.p17
We cannot be Hermits and Recluses
Now as Sahaja Yogis, you are powerful entities. You are very powerful people. We have got problems in the whole world. You know that very well. It’s not necessary (that) you have to be great intellectuals, or you have to be people who are some sort of politicians, or something. But you must be on the lookout for the problems, which are troubling this world. You have to. You cannot live in your own world, that you are a saint, “Now I am in Niranand,” that’s not possible. You can’t just be in Nirananda. You have to know that you have to live in this world. And you have to know all the problems of this world. And you have to think about them, not only your problems that, “Mother how will I be able to do this and how will I be able to do that?” But you have to worry about the whole world. You have to think, what’s happening in the world. What are the problems of the world? You are responsible for that.
Not only that, but you have to pray. In your prayers you have to say, “Mother solve this problem.” Collectively, individually, you have to take your attention from yourself, from your smaller life, to a much wider thing. Then you are a saint. And you have to think that it is your duty to ask for Divine help, that all these problems should be solved. This is your job for which you are selected. Your asking is your going to work out because as you know, I am desireless. You have to desire for it. Whatever you desire will work out. The protection, the affection, the compassion of Mother is with you. But you have to look after this world and show the concern that you have, not to live with very limited areas, and with very limited ways. ... Your problems extend to all the places wherever there is Sahaja Yoga. And you have to worry about all of them. ...
You have to stretch your attention outside, not inside, just worried about yourself, about your family, about your house, about your children. As soon as you spread your attention outside, your problems are solved in the house, in the smallest circumstance. You have to pay attention outside. ...
There are important things that are happening which you can see for yourself. You can scan it out, what are the world problems, and you can see for yourself where you have to put your attention. You should become aware of your personality, it’s not a personality that can be completely involved into a very small area. Your personality such should get involved into all the problems of the universe, all the problems there are. And you’ll be amazed that everything can work out in a very collective way. ...
So stretch out your vibrations. Stretch out your attentions. And you’ll be amazed that all other stupid problems that you have will be finished.
H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Introspection and Meditation, Shudy Camps, UK, 18/6/88
Throat Chakra: Know the Whole as its Part
Most of us have bad Vishuddhis, because we do not take the responsibilities. One has to understand that the child is your responsibility, you have to look after the child (Collective Spirit), and the Whole is also your responsibility.
V4. 19 Jan.84.p17
Faith and Belief
Do you believe in yourself? Perhaps that is missing. Because the Self is not there. If you know yourself you will believe in them [ed: Christ, Moses & other Spiritual Incarnations]. V5.no 26. Mar85.p35
Valuing your Attention
PURIFY. Once you start purifying, whatever falls out, I look after that. This is just one assurance, but not a guarantee. If it deserves My attention, I will definitely look after it. YOU HAVE TO VALUE YOUR ATTENTION AS I VALUE MINE.
Y3.V14.Mar83.p6
Wasting Time
If you want to waste your time, I will allow you to waste your time. but if you want to have the ascent, fast, first of all one must remember that these relations, which are absolutely worldly, this is not your pure desire.
Y3.V14.Mar83.p6
The Mirage of Impure Desires
Your desire should be so intense that they should emit out the pure vibrations of Mahakali Shakti which is the pure desire of attaining the Spirit. That‚s the real desire. All other desires are like a mirage. Y3.V14.Mar.83
Pragyaloka: The Second Era
ROUEN , FRANCE
MAHA SAHASRARA DAY PUJA
THE START OF NEW ERA
(Revised)
Read Full Talk: http://www.box.net/s/ttcd7irtnddds61h7dgp
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Obit
(more obits at the bottom)
On Wednesday, 23 February, Mrs Nirmala Srivastava, better known throughout
the world as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, the founder of Sahaja Yoga, passed
away at her home in Genoa, Italy.
She was born Nirmala Salve on 21 March 1923 in Chindwara, Maharashtra, India
to Prasad and Cornelia Salve, a Christian couple who were direct descendents
of the royal Shalivahana dynasty. Her mother was the first woman in India to
receive the Honours degree in Mathematics, while her father was a renowned
scholar who spoke 14 languages and translated the Koran into his native
Marathi. The family was closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi and lived in
Gandhi's ashram for several years. As a youth Nirmala played an active part
in Gandhi's freedom struggle and in 1942 joined the Quit India Movement,
which led to her arrest and imprisonment. Her father was later a member of
the Constituent Assembly of India and helped to write India's first
constitution. Her siblings all went on to hold important roles in public
life. Nirmala studied medicine and psychology at the Christian Medical
College in Ludhiana
Medical College in Lahore
1947, shortly before independence, she married Chandrika Prasad (CP)
Srivastava, a high-ranking civil servant. The couple had two daughters,
Kalpana and Sadhana, and Mrs Srivastava spent the following years as a
housewife, raising her children and caring for her husband in his new role
as principal secretary to the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Her family were not only great scholars but also great supporters of the
arts, and of music in particular. In 1961, Mrs Srivastava launched the Youth
Society for Films to infuse national, social and moral values in young
people through the medium of cinema. She was also a member of the Indian
Film Censor Board
Throughout her life she continued to support the music and the arts, hosting
concerts with some of the greatest names in Indian classical music, as well
as building a music and arts academy in her father's name.
On 5 May 1970 a new chapter in Mrs Srivastava's life began. After seeing how
some unscrupulous men posed as gurus and preyed on often unsuspecting young
tourists visiting India in search of spiritual enlightenment, she went into
a state of profound meditation at Nargol, a beach in Gujarat that has now
been declared a protected eco-zone. During this meditation she said she
witnessed the rising of the Adi Kundalini, the primordial energy that
sustains the universe. Describing the experience she said, "I saw my
kundalini rising very fast like a telescope opening out and it was a
beautiful colour that you see when the iron is heated; a red rose colour,
but extremely cooling and soothing." In this state she realised that it was
her mission in life to share this spiritual awareness with humanity and that
it could be done by giving Self Realisation (enlightenment) to anyone who
desired it through a process of en-masse awakening of the kundalini. Shortly
after that experience, she returned to Bombay (Mumbai) where she began
practising the new technique she called sahaja yoga (spontaneous union) with
a handful of interested people and became known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.
In 1972 Shri Mataji travelled to the US and publicly warned against the
proliferation of "gurus" coming from India whose main interest was in making
money without the ability to give enlightenment. In 1974, her husband, who
at the time was the chief executive of the Shipping Corporation of India,
was elected Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization
(IMO), a United Nations agency based in London. He was re-elected to that
position a record four times and in 1990 was awarded the title of Honorary
Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished order of St Michael and St George
(KCMG) for his services to shipping. During her time in London, not only did
she play her part as a diplomatic wife, hosting functions for international
dignitaries, but also began her work of spreading Sahaja Yoga, starting out
with "seven hippies", as she called them. From these beginnings, through
free meetings held in small halls around London, the technique began to
spread and Shri Mataji started travelling throughout the UK, at her own
expense, holding lectures and imparting the experience of self realisation.
During the '80s, Sahaja Yoga grew exponentially as Shri Mataji travelled
extensively through Europe, Australia and America. She also toured
throughout India, where she was revered and worshipped as a living goddess,
from the smallest villages to the largest cities. Western practitioners were
invited to join her on these tours to experience India and its culture in
its purest form. At the beginning of the 90s she and her husband bought a
house in Cabella Ligure, in the Italian countryside. She continued to travel
the world, also visiting Russia and China, to spread her message of peace,
collective consciousness and enlightenment, aided by the growing number
yogis practicing her technique of awakening kundalini, which she described
as "one candle enlightening another". She filled venues as varied as
London's Royal Albert Hall and sports arenas in Russia and India. By the
turn of the century, numbers had grown from hundreds, to thousands, to tens
of thousands and her summer home in Italy became a place of pilgrimage. In
2004 she decided to curtail the touring and public lectures she had been
tirelessly giving without recompense for thirty years. As with all people,
age was starting to take its toll on her body. She withdrew from public life
to spend more time with her family and let the movement she had started grow
organically, but she was always there to offer guidance.
Over a forty-year period, her vision for a world of peaceful, enlightened
people has grown from a handful of devotees to an internationally recognised
movement, which led to her nomination for the Nobel Peace Price. She has
built hospitals, schools, music and art academies, shelters for abused women
and children, based around the practice of sahaja yoga, as well as the
all-important centres for meditation.
She will be remembered, by the thousands who personally met her, for her
wisdom, her laughter and great sense of humour, and her unfathomable
knowledge on almost any subject that could confound even the greatest
experts. Although she may not have lived to see her vision of world peace
fully realised, she never faltered from the quest. She was eloquent,
pragmatic and compassionate. Her forthrightness could court controversy, and
celebrity and riches did not sway her. Her concern was for the genuine
seekers of truth, and she would never turn them away. Her generosity, both
spiritually and materially, knew no bounds because, above all, she was a
mother who could not stop loving all her children in equal measure.
Shri Mataji is survived by her husband, her two daughters, four
grandchildren and great grandchildren. She will be laid to rest in her
beloved India.
Marathi Newspaper Saamna:
http://www.saamana.com/2011/February/25/Link/Main9.htm
USA Newsrelease, seen at Yahoo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20110225/bs_prweb/prweb5107064_3
Times of India- Mataji Nirmala Devi passes away
Blogosphere Tributes:
1000 Petals Blog
Divine Economics, Divine Politics
The economics and politics of God have to be understood. In his economics, generosity is the keynote. He enjoys His generosity. Material things are to express your generosity, isn’t it? The most enjoyable thing is to give, and when you will give you will your economic problems will be solved completely.
V5.no 26. Mar85
Entering the Fourth Dimension
So this is the 4th dimension, is a great potential, becoming a kinetic force, like an egg becoming a bird. So the egg, we can see the egg has no way of flying out, but a bird can. V5.no 26. Mar85.p39
Surrender is of the Heart
It is not the surrender of your mind through your mind, but the surrender of your heart. It is absolutely the surrender of your heart. Y3.V14.Mar83.p9
- by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Spiritual Benchmarking
Your outlook should be: how much have I contributed to this? Am I still thinking of other people? Am I still thinking of petty small problems, or am I thinking of my Spirit? Y3.V14.Mar83.p8
The Fragrance of a Prophet
This assumption has to be established, that we are prophets. If you could just assume what you are, what you have become, you’ll emit the Glory of God! Like a flower when it blossoms, it has its fragrance which flows automatically
V4.20.Mar84
Your Light Shines Through
When conditioning of heart is reduced, as if the glass of a lamp becomes clean, rays of ever-resplendent Spirit awaken Sahasrara sheath and the light of bliss spreads, which is felt in Sahasrara. This light enlightens all sides of Colourful Heart. -- Y3.V14.Mar83.p11
Be a Lighthouse
How can those Sahaja Yogis have enlightenment who are using Sahaja Yoga to solve their own petty problems? And why should God give them enlightenment? Lighthouses do not show light to themselves even for a moment.
Y3.V14.Mar83.p11
What Surrender Means
Give up this ego, that’s all, and it will work out. I am trying to push Myself into your heart and I will definitely settle down there! Y3.V14.Mar83.p9
The First Principle of Enlightenment
You should understand a simple principle. How can a big fire be lit with a small matchstick? Will a wick hold the flame if the water is mixed with oil?
Y3.V14.Mar83.p11
Be a fountain of joy
How much joy do we create? How much joy do we give to others? Very deep down within us lies that source of joy. Go deep down, it’s there, enjoy it and then give it to others. Like a fountain of joy you should give.
V4.20.Mar84.p11
Our only competitor
The quality of competition and jealousy should be brought round. There should be competition between yourself, the one who you were, and what you are. V4.20.Mar84.p7
Glory of your personality
The sinner is dead, the egoistical is not there, the frightened one is gone for ever. You are a prophet. Rise in the Glory of that personality.
V4.20.Mar84.p5
What is our protection?
All that attention has to become chastity, which is your power, which is your protection, which is your connection with the Divine. Not forced chastity, but a chastity of balance and understanding. V4.20.Mar84.p6
The First Principle of Enlightenment
You should understand a simple principle. How can a big fire be lit with a small matchstick? Will a wick hold the flame if the water is mixed with oil? Y3.V14.Mar83.p11 |
What Surrender Means
Be a Lighthouse
Y3.V14.Mar83.p11