Nature versus Material Life

"Now, you notice in the nature it's so matching, you know. Nothing gross, nothing loud - it's so beautiful, this is red but it has green to match it. This Mother Earth knows everything, She understands everything, She does everything, but what do we do for Mother Earth? - Is to run after artificial things, machinery, this thing - and now a new thing has come, is computer. It's all right if you want to write letters to someone, but otherwise it's quite maddening, you know. And this computer will make our brain absolutely zero. We'll be paralyzed, we won't be able to think 2 + 2. So, anything that you want to use also, should have its maryadas, don't go beyond it.

If you take to swimming, you'll go on swimming till you get sick. If you are horse riding, you'll go on horse riding till you fall down. You see, this is also a kind of a life which has no maryadas - like greed has no maryadas, that's how also this kind of nonsense, 'I am only fond of this, I am only fond of this.' You are a human being, you should never say like that. On the contrary you should say 'I must learn this, I must know this, what is this all about?' It is very important, otherwise your personality will be a dwarf personality - and ultimately people end up in money. I don't understand, I can't even count 200 notes, can't even. I don't know about money, I should say, but I'm good at mathematics but I don't know whatever money you are giving goes direct to them and they do it what they like. Now, if somebody says, 'How much you got for this?' I don't know? 'How much for royalties?' I don't know, because I'm not interested. I'm not interested. What is there to be so much interested in money? But I get money, all right, no problem, never a problem."

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - 4 October 1997, extract from evening before Navaratri talk, Cabella, Italy.