Guru Puja. Dollis Hill Ashram, London (UK), 8 July 1979. Today is the day of Guru Purnima. It is a full moon day, that’s why it’s called as purnima. The guru has to be like a full moon: means completely grown, completely matured. There are sixteen kalas, or the phases, of the moon, and when the complete purnima comes in, the full moon day, all the sixteen kalas are completed. You also know that in the Vishuddhi chakra there are sixteen sub plexuses. When Krishna is described as Viraata, He’s called as the Sampoorna: the complete incarnation of Vishnu’s aspect. Because He’s got the sixteen phases completely done. So today’s number is sixteen. Six plus one is seven. Now we have to understand the importance of guru. Why should we have a guru when we have God? We have got shakti, then why should we have a guru? What is the need to have a guru? ‘Guru’ means the weight, the weight. We get our weight from the magnetic forces of the gravity of the Mother Earth. So guru means gravity, the gravity in a person. Why do we need a guru? Because to know God is easy, specially in Sahaja Yoga, to be one with Him. As soon as you get your Self-Realisation in Sahaja Yoga, the modern Sahaja Yoga, immediately you become entitled to give Realisations to other people. It was said that guru is the person who makes you meet the Divine. But it’s not true, because any Self-realised person in the Sahaja Yoga can raise the Kundalini and can give Self-realisation to others; immediately after they have touched the Sahasrara or opened the Sahasrara. But normally a realised-soul cannot do it. Any born-realised soul cannot do it on its own. It has to have authority of me, as I am today That’s why it was said that guru is a person who makes you meet God: means raises the Kundalini and makes you one with God. Because in those days when the gurus were Self-realised, when the gurus were realised, they had the authority and power of raising the Kundalini only after they had reached a very great state of evolution: complete purification, complete detachment. So it was not possible for people to give Realisation when they just touched the realised state. Most of the gurus in the olden days started by first cleansing the people. First cleansed them, one by one, raised the Kundalini, brought it to every chakra and then gave them Realisation. It was a different technique altogether. You can say it was a bullock cart technique. And that’s why one mantra was given for a particular chakra: where was the problem, where the Kundalini was stopping. For about, some people used to get it even for ten years they would work out on one chakra. I have known people who have been working on Agnya for ten years, twenty years. But you know in Sahaja Yoga we clear it out just like that. That has something to do with your particular ?? and ??. So the first conception that a person who makes you meet God is the guru has to be a little bit advanced. Because for you now it’s the child’s play to raise the Kundalini and make them one with the Divine. But still you don’t become guru in the Sahaja Yoga terminology. Even if you have vikalpas, you have doubts, about Sahaja Yoga still you can do it if you raise your hand. Even when your chitta, attention, is not clear cut still you can do it. You can still do it. How? How it has worked out that way, so beautifully? It has worked out, I would say, at this stage only. Maybe later on I will tell you. But its pure Divine, which is not contaminated by whatever state you may be in, its flowing: absolutely pure Divine. With others it was different, they had to cleanse it, clear it out. As an instrument you are perfect, but as a guru you are not. Whatever may be your defects or whatever you maybe lacking, you raise your hand and the Kundalini will rise, at your beck and call. On your fingers it is going to move. You get tremendous power. You can ask anyone, they’ll tell you they are surprised. They are jealous of you. They can’t understand that how, by raising your fingers, that you are perfect instruments. Because you are created by somebody really perfect. But you are not perfect gurus: that one has to understand. And that is why you need a guru to tell you all that, what is the perfection. Now as I have told you, that guru means gravity. You cannot say where is the axis of Mother Earth is? You cannot see it. I mean you cannot see it, you cannot feel it. But they say there is an axis on which the Mother Earth rotates. So it’s an energy, an energy on which this Mother Earth rotates. In the same way you have an axis, which is your Sushumna, which gives you the gravity. The first important thing for a guru is that your gravity point is one. Everything centres on gravity. Unless and until your attention is completely fixed on to that gravity point within you — which is called as dhrugva, is a fixed point — you cannot become a guru. So the gravity in you comes to you by clearing your attention, by looking at your attention where does it go? How do you reach your gravity point or anything that has a gravity point? How do we discover it? We go on balancing it, and when the balance is complete, that time we say this is the gravity point. In the same way your attention should hold your gravity point in complete balance. So the first thing is that you should be a balanced person. But a balanced person is not a fixed person, he is not rigid. But an imbalanced person is a person who runs here, there, there, even after coming to Sahaja Yoga: running after this, running after that, running after that. Such a person cannot achieve much. Fix your gravity points, the balancing point, with Sahaja Yoga. That is much [more] important than knowing anything else. First of all fix your gravity point then you will be amazed that, whatever you see apart from Sahaj Yoga, in the light of Sahaja Yoga, you will realise that, how it relates to Sahaja Yog as it relates to you gravity point. Say it is against it, still you will see where it is against. If it is for it, you will see where it is for. For example you will read books: immediately you will know what is the truth, what is not the truth. But if you do not have that point fixed or attained, then you will be slipping down this side or that side. Anything else can attract you, you can slip down from Truth. So that point has to be fixed first of all within yourselves: dhruvapada as they call it; the position of the fixed point from which we understand that everything radiates from it, everything is controlled from here. The light within us by which we see what is darkness and what is reality. But do all this, even if you glorify and say all the names and chant everything, it has no meaning unless and until you develop discipline about it. Discipline is the sthai bhav or you can say the emotion of permanence for a guru state, guru seva, or for becoming a guru. You must discipline your body, discipline your mind, discipline yourself. Sahaja Yoga is such a simple thing to have: I mean you are just connected with me. But you are not a guru. So how do you discipline yourself? Some people have awkward way in their bodies, then they should get to it, that they have a proper way in their body. Mould your body. It is not to torture your body but to master your body. For example, I would not say that you go and sit in the cold ice water. Its wrong, to freeze yourself and make your bones horrible. But you must do all that is required to give you a supple body and a body that can live under any circumstances. A little bit of course you have to exert also, that you should be able to sit on the ground properly, that you should be able to sleep on the ground properly. There should be no problem about these things. You have to discipline. Sahaja Yoga is a real blessing, but can be sometimes a blessing in disguise. If you take it for granted you will drift out, you wont go very further. So the body should be such that it should be able to take lot of load upon itself, should be able to do a lot of work. This is for you to decide about your own body. Now you see your gurus body how it is: I take lot of work out of my body. I can work for hours together. I can keep awake for hours together. I’ll never even once say that my body is no good. It’s such a nice friend I have. But there is a very great tapasya state, penance we have to have, tremendous penance. Because this is a human body which had to work out lots of things. You know at the time of Rama, He had to walk bare feet all the way. He was a King and He had to live in a hut. So do not be dominated by luxuries and comforts. I do not mean to say that you unnecessarily torture your body, that’s not the point at all. Because I must bring the balancing point, always. But do not pamper your body that it becomes a hurdle for your penance. Keep your body clean, respect your body, and it will be very happy when it will know that you have used it for the Divine purpose. There’s an Indian word for which we call it: a ‘bhaitak’ here. I don’t know, there is no English equal to that. But bhaitak means the power to sit: that’s the gravity within you. How long can you sit in one posture, what is your bhaitak. Like any studies or anything they’ll ask, “What is your bhaitak?” “Have you got the bhaitak?” Is the power to be seated on one point: how long you can sit continuously. That is how you judge your gravity. Unless and until you have a bhaitak you cannot be a guru. So the body is to be brought round properly. It has to be disciplined. It's no question of becoming thin or fat, but the body should be such that you should be able to use it for your purpose as a guru. Sometimes, you will find you can’t sleep on the ground: then you [should] sleep on the ground for three, four days, then the body will be very happy. It will pain [for] one or two days. But do not insult your body. This is the other side of the discipline: we don’t take our bath, we don’t keep ourselves all right. Then you are insulting your body. Look after it. You may have to look after its softness, the gentleness of the body. Treat it with respect. By becoming barbaric you are insulting your body. So the body is very important, this is made of five elements, and all these five elements within us, as gurus, has to be sparkling. I can go on like this but now you think about it: in future, what have you to do with your body. How you are going to use the five elements within your body, to cleanse them, make then beautiful so that your light sparkles. The gravity comes to you in your body this way: that you start generating your power or your principle of gurutva, principle of your mastery, through this point of your gravity. The second point is your attention should have that gravity. Your attention is very important. A person who is easily disturbed is not a deep person. Or easily taken to something, like say emotions. Or easily to some other, say, intellectual pursuit. As gurus there will be temptations for you. People will be challenging your state. A person comes out with a very big intellectual ‘truth’ or something, then immediately you feel challenged about it and you will say, “All right let me handle the situation.” Handle it at the Sahaja Yoga point, on your gravity. Just sit down on your gravity and see for yourself. Immediately you will know how to handle the situation. You need not talk to that person, you’ll handle the situation all right: not on [the] intellectual level but on your gravity. If the attention has the gravity, it pulls down the ego and the superego of other people. Then you will not be frustrated or frantic. Also if you can start from the outside it may work out with human beings; it works out like that. Like study your behaviour how you behave towards others. Or study your attention how it behaves towards outside: what attracts your attention, what attracts your attention. Study your attention. By that study you will be able to fix your attention in its maryada, in its boundaries. Once you put the boundaries to the attention then the depth starts developing. The person who has no boundaries can never have depth, he will be spreading just like that, always; no depth at all. So you have to put boundaries by understanding your attention, that, “No not more than that.” “All right not more than that.” Like some people in Sahaja Yoga I have seen, they get interested in a patient, then for them that patient becomes important. Or get interested in some person that he must get Realisation: “my mother,” “my father,” “my, my” . And all the time they are talking about it: “my jobs,” “my clothes,” some sort of a ‘my’. And they don’t know how to draw the line. You must know where to draw the line, is maryadas. Otherwise the whole thing will fritter away. You will become a frivolous person. There won’t be any gravity in you. So you must know how far to go with a person when you are dealing as a guru, then you are a master. But if you do not know where to draw the line, you may be crossing the line and getting into his clutches. So the best way to handle the situation is to get into thoughtless awareness, again and again and again and again, and you establish that clearly. Now, some of them complain to me that it’s not an easy thing to do. It’s the easiest thing to do, if you give up all other useless things that you are doing. And then gravity will give you the wisdom to do the right thing at the right time. Ashram is a place where one has to learn to be a guru. But I find it is not always a good experiment for people. Once they have an ashram they take it for granted. They think, “This is the place for us to nicely come and live and some people will work, some will be enjoying. Some will pay some will not pay.” It’s most surprising. You must immediately find out the person who really has the spiritual authority and try to follow that person. And instead of that we try to meet up with people who are of lower spiritual authority. And [if] he sleeps till nine o’clock, everybody sleeps! In an ashram nobody should sleep after six o’clock: is an absolute thing. Absurd! You must sleep early and get up early. Otherwise you can stay outside. You all must get up at six o’clock. Do you know what time your Mother gets up? And what I find: nobody is up here. In India they all get up very early. But I find nobody is up here and my attention is all wasted. And you don’t realise how important all these things are. This is the training time for you. For this you are born, you have been seeking this for ages now. You have got it now, you must discipline yourself. But I have seen in ashramas where people pay a big amount, they get up at six o’clock, 4 o’clock, 3 o’clock. Because in Sahaja Yoga everything has to come from you. This is the style it is. At the most I can ask people who are not all right, to go out for a while, live outside, and then the join ashram. That helps some people. But not more than that; because I am also a Mother though I am a Guru. It is you who should mature yourself. You’ll mature much faster than [if] I force things on you. Finding faults with others but not with yourself. You must have a discipline, a time in the morning to get up, do little a puja or something. At least spend half an hour, all of you together. You should be ready by 6 or 6.30, sit down, do meditation. I have to lay down rules for you now, because you do not want to lay it down. I am also amazed that many people do not know even my aarti, after so many years, by heart. That is what Sahaja Yoga is, because it’s a Mahamaya. So you have to learn it yourself. You have to do it yourself. It’s easy to talk about Sahaja Yoga, very simple: stand up and talk. Because you have heard from your Mother, your talk. But it will have no impression on another person! It will fritter away. Because it must come from your centre of gravity. This is the greatest thing you can do to yourself: is to discipline yourself fully. And compete in disciplining yourself; and make your body all right, your attention correct Attention is corrected by many ways. As I said: watch your attention, where does it go. Now what else are we going to talk but Sahaja Yoga? Is there anything more beautiful or more interesting, more manifesting than Sahaja Yoga is? And what is the job of a guru? Is nothing but to expose the Parabrahma Itself, the whole working of the Divine; that is the job of a guru. To expose the complete working of the Parabrahma is the job of a guru in the modern times, not only raising the Kundalini. But after raising the Kundalini you should be able to tell all about the Divine powers and everything. For that you have to learn, you have to read, you have to understand. Do you understand now the difference between the old gurus and modern gurus? Because they were brought with such tremendous discipline and hardly one or two used to be great gurus. They went through such studies and such interrogations and examination and tests that by the time they were 75 or so they became gurus. But we have to do it quick and the best way is to do it yourself. Perhaps the tradition of the Western countries do not give you much impetus for disciplining. That’s called cutting out yourself perhaps. But a disciplined person is the only one who can be a Sahaj Yogi. Spontaneity works best in a disciplined person. A disciplined person is the one who knows the technique, and the energy is the spontaneity. But a person who is frittered away what will spontaneity do with it? It cannot work it out; the instrument is so horrible. So you discipline yourselves so that others would be disciplined by your behaviour. Once you have disciplined yourself, when you become a guru, you have certain privileges as a master. And it was used as a weapon by many masters before, you need do that. I am just telling you as a side issue — is the temper. All the gurus had tremendous temper. It was expected of the guru. Like I would tell you about Allauddin Khan Sahib who was a great musician, was the master of Ravi Shankar and all these people. And my father was the political advisor to this Maharaja of Maihar. And we went down there, I was there also. That time Ravi Shankar was an artist was playing a little bit here and there. I mean he was quite a good artist still. So his guru had a great respect for my father. He used to treat my father very great reverence. So he was playing something, he was very good at Mridangam. So he played the Mridangam for my father. So in that the tune or the lehara is there, the tune one has to play, the simple tune; just to play the mridangam, to be played on that (as an accompaniment). So my father asked Ravi Shankar to play and he got out of the situation. When his guru went away he came and told my father, “See this one here? The big lump coming out in the head.” He said, “He has broken my sitar on my head this morning because I played one swara, one note, in a wrong way.” This is the gurupad! You know? You cannot take liberties with your guru at all, and at the slightest [mistake] they will take up this and hit you, you see. So people used to be very careful. If they were sitting near the stone. The people would stay away from them. They would throw stones. They’ll keep a chimta, big chimta like this. Anybody coming near them they would hit them. At the slightest thing they gave a chimta to a disciple. It was a long thing, you know, made out of iron and a chimta is a double pronged thing. And they would hit the person, “Tham!” like this. It was the situation before I came in here as your guru. It is difficult to be a guru and a Mother, I cannot do both things together! (laughing) But that was the situation, even those great artist today who are playing great things like you’ll hear now Vilayat Khan Sahib: you go and ask him about his guru, how much time he was beaten up, absolutely beaten up any swara they did wrong was: absolute chastity, absolute discipline. If the guru said, “Five o’clock tomorrow,” even if guru comes or not, five o’clock you have to be there. For any art in the Indian style was like that, complete discipline. Without discipline not even education was imparted: terrible taskmasters. And that’s what they used which you need not here in Sahaja Yoga. There is no need to use temper in Sahaja Yoga because I have not given you, imparted, any knowledge to you with temper. Perhaps there could be hardly anyone who has seen me in a temper. So that is not the way we Sahaja Yogis are going to impart knowledge to others. We have to be very mild and sweet, because in the pattern of your own Guru, because She’s sweet, She’s very mild and She’s very persuasive and kind. In the same way you have to be, because that pattern you haven’t learned. That’s why don’t take to that kind of a pattern where people are in a big temper and they come out with a big temper. It doesn’t behove a Sahaj Yogi to be like that. I mean, they had such tremendous powers also that they could just make somebody into ashes; with such a temper they lived. And they had one guru somewhere like a Rock of Gibraltar, that you face him and you hit your head. At least one or twice you must have a big hitting from him, otherwise he’s not your guru. That was the system. Now we have a great artist sitting here. You must be also remembering his guru, who must have really beaten him nicely before he imparted knowledge. They said, “Without you hit and chisel, you cannot make a good disciple.” And this time we are going to challenge that and to prove that our Mother was extremely kind and still we are chiseled out beautifully, by your own chisel. That’s why I request you to do it yourself because I cannot do it as a Mother. And that’s why it is your responsibility to do it that way. Today is the day where we all have to decide that we are going to be gurus now. I am going to retire as a guru. It’s all right to be a Mother to you people. Now you have to be gurus of other people, and for that you must know what you should achieve. You have all the powers within you, you can manifest them also. But you cannot have a following unless and until you become a guru. This is the only difference [there] is. If you want to have a following then you must chisel out yourself in that fashion that, as soon as people see you, they should say, “Here is [somebody] with that gravity.” I think that should be sufficient for today’s Guru puja. Only thing, the last, most important thing is, that you cannot make a drama out of it. It has to be a reality. By standing like a big, imposing person, you do not become that. On the contrary people will think you are mad. It should be from within that you should develop that dignity within yourself, that poise, that balance, that understanding, within yourself. A kindly poise, a beautiful personality, benevolent. But standing above everyone else by it’s gravity, depth, gentlemanliness, generosity, proper bearing, neatness, cleanliness [and] above all, love: a heart like an ocean, most forgiving. I am sure next year we’ll have some gurus here who have already got some disciples around them. May God bless you.