Inauguration of "The Advent". Versailles (France), 30 June 1985.

Sir C.P: My dear Sahaja Yogis, Sahaja Yoginis, my very dear friends. First of all I would like to express my profound gratitude by the great honor you have done me today by allowing me to participate in this beautiful function. [Excusez-moi. Je ne parle pas le Francais. Je parle l’Anglais]. It’s totally/wholly wrong to come to France and not to speak French but I do apologize. This is a very important occasion; very important occasion from many points of view. I look upon the function today in a certain historical perspective.

First of all about the book itself, “The Advent”, and the author I have had the privilege of knowing the author, the very distinguished author, the very learned author, Mr. Gregoire, for a number of years now. Well, I tell you, I have known many young men but his sparkling brilliance, his mastery of history – history of ideas, history of movements, his analysis of the past, his comprehension of the present and his vision of the future ? these are unique and I admire them and I respect them. His book has a message for the world, a message which is so needed today, a very important message. The inspirer of the message is sitting to his right but the one who has used his strong pen, beautiful pen, powerful pen to convey the message to the world is sitting here, Mr. Gregoire. I am very happy that this book is now being, has been published in French language after the English language and it’s my hope that other languages will follow. And may I thank and congratulate the distinguished publisher who is here with us for the contribution he is making in this glorious enterprise.

I mentioned a short while ago that I’ve viewed Sahaja Yoga and this book in a historical perspective and I’d like to explain to you very briefly why I do so. You know I serve the United Nations’ system and I believe very deeply in that system. I believe that this world is one, that we are all members of one human family. The very phrase, “United Nations”, means we have to be united together. We have to feel from the heart, not merely from the lip, that we are all regardless of borders, regardless of languages; we are all part of one single human family.

Now, my dear friends, look at the world as it is. There is on the one hand tremendous development in technology, in science, in means of production, in the availability of goods and services. There is a total revolution in communications: sitting in one place you can talk to anyone anywhere in the world in a moment. And with all this available to us one should normally expect the world to be happy, satisfied. But what do we see in the world? You take the daily newspaper in any country in any language and the first pages full of disasters, full of violence, full of things that none would like to hear. And what is the reason? If, if we are to ask ourselves honestly, sincerely what is the reason for this malice today, this great disturbance from the world, lack of peace, lack of harmony, lack of good will? What is the central reason?

Within the United Nations system all of us who have this great honor, great privilege, we all heads of various organizations sit together and talk about this: “What can we do to create peace in the world, to create harmony in the world, somehow to reduce if we can help it to reduce tension? Is there anything that we can do?” The economists of the world, the scientists of the world, the politicians of the world – they are all baffled by the situation today. But those who would like to know what the reason is, they can find the reason and the main reason is the human being. The human being has not received the attention that he should have, that he has not advanced ahead of science and technology; he has been left behind. You are all seekers; you are looking for something that will bring harmony and peace inside. What we need throughout the world is the kind of transformation which you have already gone through. This message of Sahaja Yoga needs to be spread around the world because we need a better world if we have to survive as human beings. When I am in the midst of yourselves I see a world which is far and away a glorious world, a wonderful world, a beautiful world, the world as it ought to be.

We human beings have the image of God in us. We need much more than mere material goods. Material goods are necessary; I don’t say they are not necessary. It’s very important to be able to live well. But that is not all. We have enough of that, and yet the more we have the less happy we are inside, aren’t we? It is within you; it is within you to realize yourself. The Kundalini is within you. The message is before you, is before the world. I frankly do not believe that the efforts that politicians, statesmen are making today will succeed unless attention is focused on the basic human problem, the problem of inner transformation in human beings so that they can live together collectively as brothers and sisters. And the transformation has to be very, very genuine; it’s not a transformation merely for the sake of saying it from the lips. It has to be totally from inside, from the heart.

What I saw yesterday evening, what a beautiful, glorious evening it was, absolutely beautiful. But what I saw in front of me, were faces – radiant, pure, chaste, honest, feeling together! Not artificially, but totally, really, genuinely. Now, this is the kind of thing which is needed by the world. So what you are doing is something historical. One should not be odd by the fact that you are a group small in relation to four billion people of the world. Good things begin only with small numbers. The important thing is that it has begun, that is moving. And I want to wish you the very, very best of success in this. And it’s for this reason that I greatly welcome the publication of this book in the French language and, as I said, I hope the mission will spread further.

Just a few words more and I would have finished. You’ve seen, I’ve talked about the author, I’ve told about the book, about Sahaja Yoga but I haven’t so far talked about the source, the inspiration, and for obvious reasons. When I talk about this lady whom you call “Shri Mataji” – well I, I can go on talking for hours and days and I don’t think I would do that, [I mean] in short. But we have been together now for very nearly forty years and I have seen Her when She was very young, I have seen her as She has grown up. She looks still very young; I have grown terribly old. But, well, the reason is obvious. She is ageless. She could have both in Her early childhood, youth or as She has grown up, She could have lived a very easy, comfortable life. Her father was a rich person, rich lawyer, and all the amenities were available to Her. But when it was the time for the country to fight for independence She went into the battle. And later on when She grew up and we got married – great privilege for me – She could still have lived a very, very easy life. By God’s grace, I belong to my country’s foremost public service; I’ve belonged. And so, things were available. We could have lived reasonably. But She was not the person to be content with just living. There has been that spark, the Divinity in Her from the very beginning. And wherever I was posted I was doing my official work and She was doing Her own work. And of course today She is even busier than I am. Selflessly and regardless of Her health, regardless of other things, and perhaps even regardless of the family, we, we now are both of us traveling all the time, I think the most traveled couple in the world perhaps today. But what She’s doing is so vital. And I am [here/right] talking just because She is my wife and I am Her husband. I have enough objectivity to be able to look at things the way they are. I feel sad, as a human being, someone who is involved in affairs of the world. I am a sad person, because no matter which way you go, no matter what you do within this system or that system, the world doesn’t seem to be able to get out of the morass in which it finds itself.

Well, She is looking for the revival of the hope of mankind. And what mission is there which is better than this? On this note, on this note I want to say how happy I am to inaugurate this new volume, how happy I am to wish it a great success, how happy I am to thank the distinguished publisher and how happy I am that you gave me the very great honor, the great privilege of being with you today. Thank you very much.

Translator: Let us thank you one more time, Mr. C.P. Shrivastava. Everybody is in a hurry to listen to you, Shri Mataji. But – which is a very pure French word ? let me just told you what happened a few weeks ago. It was here in Paris. Her Excellency, Mr. Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, came to inaugurate the “Year of India” in France. We hopeful expect that this year will understand, us French people, about the real culture and the richness of Indian people, coming from their heart and not through what we can see from the bad side who are traveling. And it gave a symbol. Sorry, it gave two symbols. The first one, Mr. Gandhi came with some water of the Ganga, and he let this water go into the Seine. As far as we know with our little knowledge what the Ganga means for Indian people, as for his action a blessing of God. The second symbol happened with the Eiffel Tower. After fireworks to close the “mela” which happened with your Prime Minister and our President the organizers showed with light spots the right side and the left side of the Eiffel Tower and the spots’ lights crossed at the seventh chakra at the third floor of the Eiffel Tower. Then it gave the third light spot coming from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. And this light spot rise three times up to the third floor and the third time it went through the third floor and enlightened the sky. It’s a symbol. I hope more and more French people will understand through Your knowledge. And please, Shri Mataji, let us have the honor to listen to You one more time.

Shri Mataji: Please be seated. Honored ladies and gentlemen, Sahaja Yogis and Sahaja Yoginis, I bow to all of you for you stand for the truth. I must congratulate Gregoire for taking this step to write this book in French language, which I think is a very important thing. I read about the French people long time back, but specially Emile Zola and also, I would say, Maupassant. Both of them impressed Me very much because they tried to bring the truth out of something that is ugliness. When I first came to France I was warned that, “Mother, you are always smiling and a very joyous person. French won’t like that, because it means You are not sensitive, that You are not knowledgeable, You don’t know under what shock we are living. I remember the book, “Les Miserables”, I had read before. All these miseries have a remedy. But our approach is not correct. For example on a tree if there’s some disease on some leaf, we do not treat the leaf. We treat the roots. The advancement in the West is that of the tree. In this book is the knowledge of the roots. If you have to enter into the root you have to be subtler personality. And so you have to have transformation to become that subtler being. All the religions, all the great prophets, all the philosophers, have said this. Because they missed the point, that’s why religions have become quite controversial. But there is no controversy in the essence of them. But first you have to become a subtler being to enter into your roots.

So now the second question comes in – how? As we have become human beings we have to become higher beings also. It is a natural consequence of our evolutionary process. And as scientists you must keep your minds open. Sometimes scientists also get conditioned by science. But if you are open-minded you can see that there is something beyond which is told to us by so many people. And that we are to be transformed and the transformation has to come true. It’s all written in all the prophecies. Even Mohammed Sahib has clearly said about the Resurrection Day, so clearly. He has described Resurrection Day at length, Doomsday very little. And He has said that when the Resurrection Day will come, when you’ll be resurrected, then your hands will speak. That’s what exactly happens to you when you get awakened. Any branch of knowledge, what we know is through our mental processes, is from outside.

Same with medicine. Medicine, whatever we know, is from outside. We do not know the inner sources which make us sick. Now the knowledge of the tree has grown quite a lot in the West. That’s why they are miserable and they are waiting for a shock. But in India people have been searching the roots, and the roots are much important to them than the tree. So if the root and the tree is not separated and is understood as one thing, then we must look to the roots with open mind. Now why our Prime Minister put the water of the Ganges in the river Seine? We believe that the River Ganges has been specially blessed and is like the vibrated water, as Sahaja Yogis know. And to distribute that sacredness, that holiness, that auspiciousness for the well being of the France, he did it. The second symbolic thing that you saw was also very interesting, that the left side and the right side. The left side of the emotions and the right side of the mind, combined together and through which pierced the light of the Kundalini which has given you the complete integration.

In the continent of Europe, I should say, whole of Europe, French are regarded as the people who have always provided thought for food. And this book in French, I am sure will attract their attention to see to the remedy for the malady. It is so much needed today. If you go to America, you go to the highest developed countries and you realize that there’s something really very much horrible awaiting their future. Despite the affluence, people are committing suicide out of sheer frustration. So many drug addicts who came to Sahaja Yoga and got cured told Me that it was out of frustration that they took to drugs.

As described by William Blake* about hundred years back there’s a special category of human beings born, thanks to the luck of this world. They are called as the seekers but he calls them “the men of God”. He says that men of God at this time will become prophets and they will have powers to make others prophets. These special category people are today everywhere in the world but more so in the West. So many are misled, I agree.

But there are three criterias to be applied to your seeking. First, that your seeking has to work out through the natural process of evolution living process. It is not how you dress up or what you eat, or what you talk or what you think. It is not a mental process by which you can achieve that. Secondly, you cannot achieve it through an emotional process by running after somebody and saying that, “He is my guide. He is my guru.” But it is the process which happens spontaneously, Sahaj. Like seed, it becomes the tree and the flower, ultimately the fruit. In the same way the flowers have to become fruit naturally. First and foremost thing is you cannot pay for it. How much do we pay to this Mother Earth who gives us fruits and all kinds of things throughout our lives? What did we pay to become human beings from amoeba state? Secondly, you cannot put in a human effort for it. It has to be the divine effort. Here the ego works. The person thinks, “I can do it.” You cannot.

Divine personality is a person who is enlightened. Like one candle is enlightened, it can enlighten another candle. What is there to feel that your ego is challenged? Once the another light is enlightened, can enlighten another light. But when it happens to you, you become, you become. You will know that it’s a becoming. You become collectively conscious, that is on your central nervous system, not only in your heart or brain but on your central nervous system you know that you are a collective being. You can feel the another person on your fingertips and yourself also. This is something so simple. And when you give Me tributes I really don’t know where to look, because I don’t think I have achieved anything. I was just born like this; the credit goes to the people who achieved something.

The function today has been very gratifying and the book has given Me great hopes that French people will read it and understand that there is a remedy for all these maladies which lies within yourself. We had another book, “Advent”, written in English and was declared opened by our ex-Prime Minister, Mr. Nanda, in India. But this is the edited book for the French, and I hope it will be a very interesting, entertaining, enjoyable book for you. But only reading it is not sufficient; you’ll have to get the fruit. Talking about the French cuisine is not sufficient; you have to eat it.

I am very much thankful to our publisher; the gentleman has really ventured to do this in such a big way. May God bless him. From my heart I bless you. I thank my husband now, because you know he is a very busy man and he is having a council meeting in which he doesn’t come home also. When Dr. Nagan Singh who is himself is a realized soul could not do it, he requested him that, “Why don’t you go in my place? I won’t be able to do it.” And I was surprised that he agreed. He has seen Sahaja Yoga working out. He’s seen how Sahaja Yogis have been transformed. But today I realized he has such tremendous faith and such tremendous understanding about Sahaja Yoga. Of course, he has been of great assistance to Me throughout, but still this kind of a thing has given me such a great faith in our bureaucracy. Because I always felt that they are so busy solving the problems that they don’t want to see to the other side of it. And this is the beginning of a very big era, I feel, today. And I hope with this, I hope with this the French people will take a new turn into their understanding about life.

Till the sixteenth century they were all connected with God; they were devoted to God. But then it divided into, I think, two or three types of people that some were fundamentalists, some were agnostics and some were nowhere. That you can see very clearly in the expression of your art also. Once you left God, the art became so funny. The art should not make you think. It should stop your thinking. Then it is real art. You cannot enjoy through mental efforts any art. This is what Zen has said. Thank God all of them have said everything for Me. And also I thank the modern times, whatever it has evolved socially, it cannot crucify Me. So today’s occasion should be a great milestone for the inner growth of man in such a way that he solves all his problems and remains in the domain of God’s kingdom in complete bliss, peace, joy and harmony.

I thank you all very much for making this function such a success. Mother’s job is to thank everyone. In these modern times, who listens to Mother? Because I am not an intellectual, nor am I a bureaucrat. I’m a simple mother. But perhaps it’s the mother only who can solve the problem for us, for the family. So only I have to say, I’ve done the cooking and you have it. If you are hungry you’ll have it fast, but if you want to discuss before it, also we can discuss but have the food first. And then I’ll tell you everything, everything. All this knowledge has to be exposed.

I have to thank again Gregoire and Mr. publisher, my husband specially and other people who are here to organize it with Mr. Aychala. And also my husband wants to thank the interpreter. Yes, that’s true. But the language of love – everyone understands. The divine love doesn’t speak. It is silent. It knows everything. It acts. It organizes. It works out everything for our good, for our betterment, for our peace, for our joy, for our emancipation. You cannot see it. You can feel it as cool breeze of the Holy Ghost. Even a glance of such a person can fill you up with that. You don’t need language there, only the heart to feel it, desire to know it. May God bless you all.

Translator: Shri Mataji, Mr. Shrivastava, I’ve been speaking too much between your different lectures. And it’s a coincidence that we ask Mr. Said Aychala who is an advocate in Algeria and is the same nationality as the publisher.

Mr. Aychala: Secretary General, Shri Mataji, distinguished guests, friends, it’s an honor for me to participate, to all these ceremonies organized by our Mother. And today I am going to be extremely short for three reasons: talking after Mother, words have no sense at all. But with Her permission, and I have been permitted to say a few words of thanks, then I will proceed. The second reason is that usually when the last speaker appears, there is nothing to say. Everything has been said already. The third one ? I think Mother has mentioned it ? lunch time is here. So I’m going to be extremely short.

I would like only to express regrets to not having Mr. Singh who is the president of the International Court of Justice. He was supposed to be with us today but unfortunately health reasons have prevented him from being with us in this very nice and important ceremony. However, it is my pleasure to notice that Mr. Secretary-General is here. I don’t think I will have to present him; he has been presented. I only say that we are very glad to have with us the man who is the husband of Shri Mataji, Her companion and a distinguished diplomat. For this reason and on behalf of all our brothers in Sahaja Yoga I would like to thank him very heartily for his presence, yesterday and today. And we enjoy it very much always his presence and I think people who know him have as many times as possible expressed their consideration, esteem and love. Thank you very much, Sir.

Well, today we all assembled here for the ceremony of the lancing the book which has already (been) published in English, “The Advent”, and translated in French as “L’avenement”. Gregoire doesn’t like congratulations but in passing I would like to present all my thanks for the good job that he did and the big efforts that he put in bringing out this beautiful edition in French which was timely anyway. I think the French should get to know what is Sahaja Yoga. Of course, as it has been said, without Mother this kind of book cannot be even thought about. And that’s the reason that on behalf of yourself and my person I would thank our Mother, for the permission that She gave to at first write to book and publish it in English and in French and I hope in other languages of the world. This is a beautiful book. Most of you have certainly read it in English and it helps. And anyway it helped me in understanding many things in life. Sahaja Yoga is a thing which is maybe new but very pugnacious, very effective, and so far people who came in contact with Sahaja Yoga had beautiful results and they felt completely, their life completely changed. And I think by understanding the ideas of Shri Mataji and the techniques of Sahaja Yoga which are public, contrary to other yogas whose techniques are more or less completely enveloped in secrecy and, because certainly they are not authentic. That’s the reason people are trying to, you know, to cover-up the whole thing. And as far as I am concerned, I know that Sahaja Yoga, when I came in contact with it, the ideal which we find our Mother that has been expressed a little while ago, is to change the individual in order to change the society, a group, and not the reverse. And of course, it helps understand the origin, the real sense and origin of all the religions which are not at all opposite or contradictory. On the contrary, it’s because people do not understand the substance of these religions that we get so many miseries in the, around the world.

So as I said I’ll be very short. This book is going to be sold and I’m sure in France it will have/held a success because, as I said, it’s a very timely book, a necessary book that will be helpful for so many French. And I think it would have a very good impact and on French society. Talking about the book, of course, we cannot omit to talk about the publisher. And thus it has been noted the publisher. I’m very pleased to us is a duty to join all the congratulations that have been extended to him. I went through the book; it is a very nice book, very clear, very well-presented. And personally I know that in Algeria we’ll try to have it in, on all stalls in libraries, and for this reason I join again in complimenting him for this good work and I am sure that he will help us later on to publish pamphlets and other books that will come in Sahaja Yoga. Of course, I would not finish without thanking our French friends who was, France who have organized the whole ceremony who has, who have given us a very beautiful...

Sahaja Yogini: [unclear]

Mr. Aychala: Yes...

Sahaja Yogini: You must thank the Sahaja Yogis, say, to Patrick.

Mr. Aychala: Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Sure. Patrick [Longtuare] and all his friends who have given us a very beautiful opportunity to meet, to improve our knowledge and, of course, being with our Mother it’s always very satisfying and our emotion is just risen to a point where words would certainly be lacking. And for that reason I thank you all very much for this nice ceremony and we hope we’ll meet in all Her/other ceremonies like this one. Thank you very much.

Sahaja Yogi: I just want to close this ceremony singing You a few songs. We dedicate to You as You are giving us so much.

[Some Sahaj bhajans are sung]

Sahaja Yogi: In the name of all the people we desire the publication of this book even in French or other languages. It has been published in English, it is not published in French and now very soon in Italian, in Spanish, in Dutch and all the languages of the world. Please, Mr. Shrivastava, thanks very much from our hearts of all the seekers.

*(about William Blake)