Public Programme, 12 March 1996 New Delhi (India)

[Hindi to English translation]

My greetings to all of you, who are seeking the truth.

In India, from time immemorial, a search for truth has been going on. This is known from our scriptures. We searched for truth in different ways. Our country is spiritual in a very special way, the reason being many things are accessible in our country. We do not know how prosperous and how holy our country is and how simple and clean the people are. We used to call foreigners 'mlecchha’ because we noticed that those who came here tended to have unclean desires. In our time- now I have grown old- it was noticed that those who came from foreign countries how shallow they were, how shallow their vision was and how shallow their desires were. Gradually, this western culture also started to have a tremendous hold on our country. The reason for that was for three hundred years, these people ruled our heads and we slowly started believing that these people who have come to our country and were ruling us, were very great. In reality, these outsiders have got their work done by fooling us. We became cultureless because of other rituals, many bizarre practices and malpractices creeping into our society. Our culture slowly started disappearing.

 I could never imagine that so many seekers will come forward, especially in North India. The reason for this could be, in your previous lives, you might have been great seekers and you might have meditated hard and so today, you have suddenly become eager to know the truth. Even though every type of person in charge of religion and in the same way false people had spread so much false information in the country and so many people followed them, but today the time has come when people think they should seek only the truth. And we should know the definition of truth. If I tell you what is the truth, you should not believe it just because I am saying, but you must test it. 

The truth is that you are not this body, intellect, mind, ego and bad conditionings etc., but you are the spirit (atma). What is Atma? Atma is the reflection of God Almighty which is in you, that is you; you have to become that and all the rest is in vain. Until you recognise yourself, you cannot know the reality of anything. Even Mohammad saheb has said, ‘If you have not recognised yourself, then you cannot recognise God’. For this reason, first, you should know yourself. This recognition is a special state. 

Today, you are in the form of a human being and there must surely be some state above the human state. Looking at the type of turmoil the present-day world is facing and the type of degenerated, corrupt set-ups, there must surely be some way out where human beings can achieve their salvation. Sages and saints and also many big incarnations have talked about the salvation of human beings. Then when will that salvation take place and how?

It is not that I have proposed the Sahaja system. From time immemorial, this has been called Sahaj. What is to be achieved is ‘sahaj’- simple. In olden days, such types of people were there who used to take people on the wrong path. They would suggest to read a particular book or take a dip in the river Ganges or else create some fuss, for it to happen. This way they burdened people with different rituals and completely filled their minds. 

Now it is a small thing like ‘Satya-narayan puja’. People do not use their brains that when Narayan is truth itself, where is the need to add ‘Satya’ (truth)? Lots of such blind practices keep happening here. It is not as if these things happen only in Hindu religion, but it is more among Christians and even more among Muslims. Being stuck in old ways will not help get their salvation, never ever. Everyone forgets what has been said that you need to find and attain what is inside you. Things such as ‘striyachar’ (meaning unclear), being particular about what to eat or not to eat, shaving one’s head, wearing no clothes on the body etc., will not help you realise God. 

One should bear in mind a straight and simple fact that God is your father, and will any father wish his child to die of hunger? The father of all the fathers, from whom we get qualities of a father, and who grants us fatherhood will want you to shave your head and die of hunger! But man, does not think in the matter of religion. What are we gaining from the religion we are following? What have we got from it? We know that many followers of religions, who perform most difficult penance etc. in the name of religion, are so ill-tempered to such an extent that even approaching them is difficult and if you have to, you need to carry a cane or something similar because they can lose temper for anything! Recently, I have written about the reason for this. The scientific reason is that inside us is the database of genes and there are three things in that- one is carbohydrates, the other is nitrogen and another is phosphorus. When ‘asceticism’ gets into us, then water inside us burns and gets lost. The water in the cells is also lost. If the phosphorus is removed from the water, then it flares up and so do the people. Asceticism is against peace. It is a physical activity. You must have heard about the sage Durvasa, who used to curse. He only knew how to curse. I have not heard that he has helped anyone in getting salvation. That is not spirituality. 

The light of the spirit is not one-sided. It spreads in all directions and such a person is calm in his peace and glory. To get into this state, you do not have to sacrifice this or that. You do not have to sacrifice anything. Whatever is there in this world, it has its place. As soon as you get your spirit through the awakening of the Kundalini, you will see that you are related to everyone. You will start visualising such beautiful poetry, and you will be able to conceive such subtle things that you have not even thought of, seen or noticed in your attention. To get into this state, people used to try various methods, approached gurus, put in lots of effort but it did not help. 

It is completely true that Kundalini awakening is very difficult. Once someone asked Ramdas Swami, who was Shivaji’s guru, ‘how much time is needed for Kundalini awakening?’. He replied ‘instantly - the same moment. But there should be one to receive and there should be one to give it’. 

I can see those who want to receive it, they are sitting in front of me. Also, now the time is such, in this time humans are in such a dilemma. This period is in fact horrible with people stricken by the phases of Kali Yuga with everyone hating, troubling and oppressing each other- be it on the home front or outside, whether in politics or any other field. Many people do not even realise that they are committing wrong, that they are oppressing someone or they are being violent towards someone. This is happening in all religions. There is no one religion where there is no violence, no disaster and people are not ready to accept that their religion is not superior to other religions and that it is not special. If your religion is special then why are you getting killed? Why are you in such a situation? Why are you in trouble? Our religion is supreme. If tomorrow you are born in another religion, then will you say these things for that religion. That means fighting in the name of religion is an insult to God. A very big insult. That was another time and based on the requirements of those times, people have spoken those things. There is no greater sin than manipulating, presenting different things and fighting in the name of God. Killing others in the name of God, beating others up in the name of God, who is forgiving, kind and an ocean of compassion. Taking his name for indulging in such heinous acts is an insult, for any religion. What are they fighting for? Some are fighting for land. Those who believe in formless are fighting for land. When you believe in formless, then you are fighting for land? Let it go. But by saying all this, nothing is going to happen. Those who said this, failed. No one listened to it and no one believed in it. It remained as a mere speech, as a mere talk, as a mere lecture. But it made no impact. The reason is that man is in the darkness of ignorance. Kabir (Indian poet) said ‘how do I make them understand when the entire world is blind?’. 

I want to tell you that was the case with Delhi. Earlier, I used to think my efforts here are totally useless. But in the same Delhi, in my lifetime I am seeing these seekers. I do have words to express my joy. In this place, no one had heard of Kundalini. If you talked about Kundalini, they would say, ‘do you see horoscope? (‘kundali’ in Hindi), I will bring my horoscope’. Then I used to think how will it work out here, they have no idea about it? How will it happen here? But later I felt that there may have been some very great sages and saints from previous lives, great seekers, great religious people who have come to Delhi and they are now desiring to attain their spirit. They had a desire in their previous lives, that has got awakened. I could not understand it. 

I got married in Delhi and I used to think, ‘oh God, what city is this’. Here people talk only of clothes, jewellery, money, power and nothing else. They do not talk or bother about anything else. In the same Delhi, today you have all come for your self-realisation. This is the ultimate destiny for this country. A good fortune. Because India is a great country, a ‘yoga bhoomi’- land of yoga. But we do not know anything about it. If we do not know anything about this country, then how can we love it, how can we be vigilant about it?

I used to live in a place like London. England is so small. We can say there are very few people, unlike in India.  I was surprised, every person knows everything about the country, with great pride. But it is true that there is nothing glorious there. I asked someone, ‘where did you purchase this glass vessel?’, then he immediately told me, ‘there is a place in the North, and there is a factory and it is made there’. I was surprised. There, the neighbours do not talk to each other. But everyone knows his country. They know about everything, whether they are educated or not. There was a lady in the countryside. We went to her place. She did not know where Russia was. But she knew about London, though she lives in the rural part, knows about the entire country, what the country is about. It is very small, she knew everything about the country, about every issue of the country. 

In our country, we all behave like lords (sahebs), though we live in India. I don’t know what has happened? Nobody knows anything about anyone. They talk ill of neighbours. I am talking of earlier times not now, and if asked about anything they would say angrily, ‘we do not know’.  I asked a man, ‘where does so and so live?’. He replied, ‘Is he a clerk?’. I said, ‘I do not know but this is the address.’ He replied, ‘that is the community where clerks live’. I asked ‘who are you?’. He answered, ‘ I am a ‘head clerk’. I said, ‘OK’. People were so egoistical, so arrogant. Wherever I looked, even on small issues they would talk about themselves, ‘I am this, I am that. I am so and so’. That was the situation in Old Delhi. That was the situation in New Delhi. I do not know what they were arrogant about, but in a way, there was such an atmosphere, possibly you can call it an illusion. Everyone was in an illusion. ‘I am this, I am that, I am like that’. If you went to Old Delhi and asked a shopkeeper, ‘where is such and such a shop?’, they would reply, ‘why saheb, is our shop bad? Sit here’. If you talk like this who will sit here?  Such dilemma, such hatred, such evil. 

The same Delhi today wants to be better organised. They want to love one another. That integration is to be achieved, which is the gift of God. You tell me how I should be feeling? I have seen a lot of this world and I greet these people a thousand times.

Now you realise your responsibilities also. You live in such a city due to which the glory of this country is known all over the world. Whatever happens in Delhi is known to the whole world. What is happening here? How are the people here? If one person dies in Delhi, it will be known in the whole world, but even if 25 people are killed elsewhere it does not count. You are important. Your importance is that you are the representative of this country. You are the representative of this Yoga Bhumi (land of yoga)- India. Today you have come for receiving your self-realisation. Many of you would have possibly already got it. You should know that you have your own special place. People of Delhi have also a special place. I agree that you are in the capital city and those realised souls in the capital city, those who have achieved their spirit, should display a special splendour within – of truth and love. Truth and love are one and the same. When you know the truth, you will become peaceful spontaneously. When you know the truth, what is the difficulty in becoming pure and what can disturb you? Nothing. Because you know what is the truth. Truth and love are one and the same. Those who know the truth can only know it through love. When you love someone, you know everything about them- you know what they like, what they don’t, what you should say and or not say to them, what they eat and what they drink- you know everything. If you love them, you know everything about them. You will be diligent about them. 

When you know the truth through love, then only it is the truth. If you try to remove love, the truth will extinguish, it cannot be there anymore because the glow at the pinnacle of truth comes only from the burning of oil of love. Love does not mean I love my daughter, my son, my brother, my home- this is not love. In Sanskrit, there is a word ‘Nirvajya’, ‘nirlep’ meaning ‘alipt’ – detached. You will say, Mother if love becomes detached, many things will be missed. It is not like that. Look at a tree. Its stream of love, its sap goes all over the tree- to the roots, the branches, the leaves, the flowers, the fruits. But it does not stop. Either it gets dissolved in the sky or goes back to earth. It does not stop anywhere. Supposing it stops, because it likes a fruit or it likes a flower very much, the tree will die and fruits and flowers will die too. That is why give each one what is due. Give the sap- whatever is due to one- in your home, your family, your society, your country and the entire world. Give to each one what is due but do not get entangled in it. Getting entangled in a way as they say in English is an obsession, sticking. This leads to the power of love getting weakened, not strengthened.

 It is said ‘ Udaara charitanaam vasudhaiva kutumbakam’, meaning for a large-hearted person, the entire world, the entire creation is his family. This is the glory of love. If you know the glory of love, you will be surprised that this happens with the awakening of the spirit. I have seen that when people come to Sahaja Yoga, they first look for what shortcomings they have in themselves. They will come and tell me, ‘Mother look I am stupid, I have done these stupid things. I have done this’. I said, ‘I don’t want your confession, write it and keep it with you’. ‘Then I became like this, I cheated him, I oppressed him’. They tell me all this. ‘Earlier I could not see. But now it is as if my spirit stands in front of me like a mirror and now I am realising my mistakes. And I think how was I so bad?’ Then I said, ‘whatever has happened is in the past. There is nothing like past, leave it and it is finished. Now you are in the present. It is all cleaned. And just the way a lotus comes out of dirty water, full of fragrance and filling the environment with fragrance, now you have become like that. Forget it. Hence what has happened, what is past. Forget it.’ He forgets, but he forgets slowly. Slowly and slowly, as one progresses, one forgets.

I was in Russia and there was a coup and I asked the Sahaja yogis, ‘are you not disturbed? There was a coup here and we do not know who will rule and what will happen!’ They said, ‘Mother, we are sitting in the kingdom of God, what are we afraid of?’ They clearly said. We are sitting in the kingdom of God. This is a state- this does not happen with chatter. People will talk big, ‘we will do this, we will do that’- not like that. The biggest quality a person develops is he/she looks at himself without fear, he does not have fear. He will not think about what he is. He is detached from himself. The old self is gone and the new one has emerged and this new life which has emerged is extremely beautiful and glorious. It is self-respecting. It is not that he becomes master of all, it is not that. There is self-respect, (swabhimaan), and ‘swa’ (self) in ‘swabhimaan’ is ‘atma’ (spirit). Knowing the mechanism of ‘swa’ (self) is Sahaja Yoga. He who knows this mechanism becomes independent. The mechanism of ‘swa’ (self) means knowing the mechanism of Atma (spirit). 

So far, we were clinging to our intelligence or knowledge from our value system to understand it. Now our soul is awakened and with this awakening, we can see everything clearly. Firstly, we look at ourselves and then we look at our society. Now we have people from every religion- there are Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and followers of Mahavir. All kinds of people have come to this Sahaja yoga. And firstly, I have seen that they tell me about their society. Like if a Jain comes, he says, ‘Mother, please correct the brains of Jains’. If any Sikh comes, he says, ‘Mother, please correct the brains of Sikhs’. Some Christian comes and asks, ‘Mother, when will You set these Christians right?’. I have seen this in everyone- immediately, they distance themselves and look at the society, their home, then at the country and then, the whole world. They get involved in all global issues. ‘Mother, now we have this issue. Now, this is happening there. You have to do something or the other. You have to see.’ ‘I said now you are entrusting all the problems of the world to me.’ ‘Only You can do this, You have to solve it. This man is not right, fix him’. 

They get involved in issues which concern the whole world. It’s expected of a common farmer to talk about agriculture. But now he also started looking around and said, ‘OK, these people killed Rabin (Israeli Prime Minister). Why did they kill him? Mother, please do something for his peace.’ I was surprised and asked, ‘where did you read about this?’. He told with me with tears in his eyes, ‘it came in the papers that an ambassador of peace was killed’.

Who is the Ambassador whom he has never seen, does not know who he was. But he has read it in the newspaper. This way he identifies himself with the whole world. Atma (spirit) of the world is ‘vishwatma’ (world spirit) and he becomes one with it. When the spirit becomes despaired, he can feel it inside him.

He becomes large-hearted. He does not bother about small issues and difficulties. He will not think that he has this trouble or problem. He thinks how will these problems facing the world get solved. He becomes great. The power of God enters such a person. Even while he is thinking about it, the problem gets solved. The problem gets solved by itself because of his vastness. I have seen many people who said, ‘Mother, we had an issue that in such a country there was a fight like this. Then we thought let us pray, meditate, do something, wish, then the next day’s newspapers reported that it is all peaceful’.

Nobody will believe that anyone can do this. But why does a human being not believe this? Because, he does not know his vastness, his greatness. until he recognises himself, he cannot know his potential, his dignity, his powers. You can get all this only after self-realisation.

You know about what Kundalini is and also what chakras are and their manifestation after awakening. If we say that with this, your health improves, then people will say have you opened a hospital?! It’s no more the job of Sahaja Yoga to improve your health. Those times are gone now. Earlier, people used to request for curing even their distant relations, their alcoholism etc. Now it is not the case.

I am surprised how broad-minded people are becoming in this country. They are developing this broad outlook. Now you yourself see at one time in this country such people were there, such contemplating people, such visionaries- they used to concern themselves about world issues. They would not run after small, petty issues. Now you must listen to and see their explanations about issues.

In this country, we had such great people who always thought of great things, did great things. I do not know how we are trapped in such trough that we think such greatness is not possible at all. It is impossible. How can we be like that?  Why not? There were people at one time who could fight the British. They sacrificed so much for the country, can’t they return to our country? Which other country will they go to? They loved the country so much- can’t they be born in this country again? Those who have sacrificed so much for the country faced so many problems for the country, today they will again get awakened through Sahaja Yoga. 

I am fully hopeful that they will love the country reinstate order, and bring peace and serenity to this country. When this country gets corrected, then more countries will also follow suit. We will have world issues before us. But we have to see which country will lead, which country will be the flag bearer? Which country’s people will say we will make such an ideal country, where people will be at a high spiritual level? In Sahaja Yoga, ‘spiritual’ does not mean deserting the wife and children and running to the jungles. Not at all. We should introspect and achieve that high state - the special state, which is made for us and which we can achieve. There is no difficulty, nothing to be sacrificed but for stupidity and foolishness. You have to run away from your narrow mindedness, which makes you have selfish temperament; you should identify the narrow mindedness things in you.  After that, you will see that all your doubts will clear. You believe in God. Do you think that going to a temple or gurdwara and paying obeisance will help? It will not help. Whatever beliefs you have inside you, they should be a part and parcel of you. The greatness of this religion has made a large number of great people to come to this country. I say that no other country has produced so many great people. This means that our country can make a great contribution to the world.

I had been to China recently, I was very surprised that although Chinese may publicly nurse anti-India feelings, they say they have a lot of expectations from India, have lots of hopes. I asked, ‘’what expectations?’. They said, ‘We know there is a minefield of spirituality. But till now nobody has told us about it’. In our Sahaj Yoga stall, there were long queues where people came to ask what Sahaja Yoga was. It was published in newspapers. Americans were wondering what was there in it? Why were so many people gathering there?

You are seeing so many people in front of you; even foreigners, those who have benefitted from Sahaja Yoga and are singing the praises of India. You should also look at it.

In Sahaja Yoga, you will have no problem in getting your realisation because you are ready like a seed. You put it in Mother Earth and it will flourish. The seed has the power, as has Mother Earth. But it takes time to become a tree. That is necessary because your vastness will be visible only when you become a tree. For that, you have to get into meditation. You cannot do Sahaja Yoga with shallowness. You will enjoy it only when you dive into it. You get deep into it and then only you will enjoy Sahaja Yoga and then you will know what you are and how vast you are. In spite of everything, such peace and clarity will reside inside, that through this power alone, with your attention you can set things right. I can tell you that your attention will become so beautiful that wherever it goes, you can fix many things.  So, if you have to bring yourself out of selfish mode and if you want to come to a higher state you have to meditate without fail, not without meditation. Only through meditation, everything works out. 

People have said that men do a lot of meditation and women do less. It is surprising because I am a woman.  I have a home, I have children. Everything is there. Whilst managing everything, through meditation, I have worked out a system, where thousands can be given realisation. So, I humbly ask that if ladies meditate, children will also meditate. A woman is the concentration of energy (shakti). Where ladies do not meditate, there, children also do not meditate. Meditation is necessary to manage children. The husband does it anyway because he runs the home. And the lady protects. So, if the husband is meditating, the lady should also meditate, children should also meditate. The most important thing about Sahaja Yoga is that it is collective and does not work out alone that ‘I do pooja at home Mother, still I fell sick’. Not alone. When you come into the collective, when you believe in Sahaja Yoga collective, then it is the present-day Sahaja Yoga. Those days are gone when one individual somewhere is to get realisation. Thousands, lakhs (a lakh=100,000) and crores (a crore=ten million) of people have to get their realisation. So, we have to become collective and the power of collective is tremendous.

I am happy that Delhi has taken so well to Sahaja Yoga and understood it. People are very sensitive in Delhi. It is very surprising that in Maharashtra, where so many sages and saints were born, the people there have no wisdom, which you have in you and I am surprised at this. They think that they know everything. They have understood everything. There were nine ‘naths’ (great saints from the Nath ideology) there but in vain. There were so many sages and saints there but in vain. The way you have explained and developed, to spread this - you have to do individual meditation and participate in collective meditation.

I agree that we have a shortage of space. And we have to do something about it. Slowly and slowly everything fall will in place. But wherever you become collective, then you will not talk about anything else, you will only talk about Sahaja Yoga. This is only the beginning and after this, we will have our programmes everywhere. Those who can come, please do come.