Guru puja. Avignon (France), 8 July 1990. In Sahaja Yoga the Guru puja has a very different significance from any other guru puja. When you worship your Guru you are also worshiping the Guru within you. This is not in any other guru-disciple system because, in you, the Guru, the Master has been awakened. And so, when you are worshipping your Guru, then this Master within you is also worshipped, you respect it, you glorify it, you awaken it, and you manifest it. This we have to realise that - in Sahaja Yoga - if you are a Sahaja Yogi. Now, the quality of Guru, first and foremost, is that he makes you meet God: means he raises the Kundalini and establish the relation between the All-pervading Power. And as your Guru is Adi Shakti, you make that person meet, also, the Adi Shakti. So you have a double advantage that, at the same time, when you give them Realisation, not only that you make them feel the union with the Divine Power, but you can make them meet the Divinity Itself, the source of Divine Power. So your responsibility, as Sahaja Yogis, is very great because in you is there is the Guru. Now in our mantras we say that, “Mother, I am my own Guru.” But, saying that, do we realise that: if I am my own Guru, this "I" and "my Guru," between the two, what have I achieved? Where am I? Can I guide myself? Have I got the light of the Spirit on my attention so well established and manifested that I can guide myself and guide others later on? First of all, in the Guru principle it is important that you see to yourself - the introspection: Can I be my own Guru? Have I become my own Guru? Now, in your case, your Guru is a Mother, a woman, so, it has to be among women that the development of their Guru qualities have to be very well manifested. But it's just the way it is not. For them, they are still the mothers or they are the wives or they are Sahaja Yoginis. But they don't realise that you are also the Gurus. And, because your Mother is a Guru, because She is a woman; and you have to be also of that quality, that people should say, “Look at this woman, she's such a Guru.” But still, as I hear from the different leaders that the ladies are absolutely still very much far away and are very few who can be called as real Sahaja Yoginis. It's a sad thing to hear. Because if you still keep to all these mundane things of womanhood and the drawbacks of womanhood, which has come out of domination maybe, because of always they were shown to be something lower. Specially in the Christian religion they were never regarded as something holy. They have this kind of a diffidence in them that they don't understand that dharma can be established more by women than by men. And the Guru's work is to establish the dharma - in the society, in the family, in relationships. All these Gurus, which are representing all these great symbols here, have done nothing but have established dharma. But, first of all, before establishing the dharma, we should watch ourselves - have we got dharma within ourselves or not? First of all, the quality of a person who has dharma is that he listens to others, he obeys. And this is something [that] has gone wrong with the Western women, I think, that they have forgotten how to listen to others, how to obey others. That's why their children also don't obey them. Obedience, if you do not have, nobody's going to obey you. First, you must learn to obey. A person like Kabira, because he was born of a unknown cast, people didn't know what he was born from, and he could not go directly to any Guru. So, he heard about Ramanand, a great Guru of those days, who used to go to the river Ganges every morning to have his bath. So one day on his steps Kabira kept lying, and in the darkness the Guru could not see, and he touched him with his feet. He said, “Who are you?” So he said, “I'm Kabir, and I'm your disciple.” And he caught hold of his feet. And when he caught hold of his feet, he [Ramanand] said, “Alright, come along!” And then he became such a great saint in India. People know him more than they know his Guru; he became so great. The basic thing is humility. Yesterday you saw how the musician [Nishat Khan] was humble. All the time he was humble. He didn't know how to express his humility every time. All the time he was humble. Because in humility only you can receive the blessings, you can receive the quality that is of your Guru. Now, for a Guru as you have seen that, in My own way, in My own image, you have to come up. First of all your life should be absolutely transparent. Transparency is the essence of Sahaja Yoga. Everybody should know what you are doing, where you are going, what is the way you live, what is the way you are behaving. I have seen people, who are gurus, also in the sense that we call them leaders, or we can call them sub-gurus, or they can not be called as priest, but I can say ‘communication centres’ as they are. In them you find that they are very fussy type of people. Always think about their body, always think about their comfort, always grudge about - nobody looked after them - as if they suffer from persecution-mania! Or they will grudge about food, “I didn't eat my food for one day!” Doesn't matter! For a Guru it's better to starve for about three, four days nicely, so that you get over this idea of hunger. You'll be surprised since I'm here I have not eaten anything much, and just drinking something, because just the Guru has no hunger. Because it is in your stomach the Guru, vibrations, are so much that you don't feel like eating anything. So then, what do you eat and how do you eat and all these things that we have given up to come to Sahaja Yoga. So even if leaders have this nonsense in their head [like] what do you get to eat! I mean, this is the basics, absolutely! And when I hear some people telling Me, oh, what did they eat and how did they eat and all! It's like I feel they are like tourists in Sahaja Yoga. Just come in Sahaja Yoga like tourists, you see, to see places and go round and to know where you get, in what restaurant, you get good food and cheaply. All this is so basically, absolutely not a manifestation of Guru Principle. Now you have seen your Guru as She is. I do not know what I eat, what they give Me, what I want. They go on giving Me whatever they think I like, and I just don't know if I like that thing or not, or what is it. If they ask Me, “Mother, what will You have?” I said, “What will I have, I don't know really, what will I have? Anything!” So there has to be no choices. First of all not to waste your attention on choices. Of course, only on vibrations. I mean, supposing, you go to a restaurant, find all kinds of funny vibrations there, people are getting drunk or anything, then of course you should say. But all the choices must be based on vibrations and not on material things. That you get something nice there, “Let's go there,” and they'll travel for fifty miles to go eat something nonsensical. It should be all nonsense for all Sahaja Yogis. And when I said “Sahaja Yogi” it means also Sahaja Yoginis. So the food part of it is aswadha. You should not have any taste for any special food. Specially in France to say that people may not like, but French are very, very conscientious or aware about the food part. I don't know how far they make really good food, but at least they think they eat very good food. So, the eating of good food is a kind of a addiction. It's a kind of an addiction; it's something like drug - that you must have good food. So Zen started this system of what they call the tea ceremony. In the tea ceremony what they did, I mean, I have been through that and it's really quite a test of people. With Me it was alright, but the rest of them got really frightened. That in the tea ceremony whatever rituals they do they give you a tea, which is so bitter, and we can say [like] quinine raised to power 108! It’s like that. And they give you very nicely, handle you with such ritual that you have to take it. So first they say, “You see the cup without thinking.” So he tried to make thoughtless awareness through the cup. I don't know how much one can achieve with that. But that tea if you take once, your tongue is good for anything. And to compensate it they give you something sweet, which is again sweetness raised to power 108, so sweet that it becomes bitter! So sweet. So this is just to conquer the tongue [that] Zen must have thought that better give them this tea ceremony where there is no tea, there's nothing but just you really give such shocks to your tongue, so that after that you can eat whatever you get. And that's why you must know that Japanese can eat anything. They have solved their food problem because they can eat anything! They can just fish out some crabs or could be some prawns, just peel them out like peanuts and eat them like that. I think Zen has solved this problem for them, because they have food shortage and this is how they can eat everything: they can eat the bark of the tree, they can eat the snake, they can eat the lizards, they can eat the frogs, everything they can eat, so all their eating problems are solved in that country by Zen, I think, because you have no taste. But in this I think the worst are, in the whole world are Indians. They are the fussiest people for food. Because their women have spoiled them. They know very good cooking and they know how to handle their husbands by cooking very well. And the way they cook food for them, you see, the men have to go back to Indian food. Even if they travel the whole world, they'll need Indian food, they can't get over their tongues. It is such a big conditioning in India of food that I just don't know how will they get out, the, absolutely, the basics which are important. Gandhiji tried that very much in the ashram (laughing). He used to give horrid food, boiled food with the oil of mustard on top and then nobody could eat that. Raw! And he used to make everybody eat that. Not only that, he would make them clean the bathrooms, WC's, everything so that you get rid of your nose also, that you need everything. Because so many people you will, while eating also in India will put something to their noses, and they smell everything. So they are oversensitive to their tongue and to their nose. But not to their eyes, to eyes they are not. For eyes I would say the most sensitive people are Japanese and Chinese and also the Western people are very much sensitive because they don't like to see anything dirty, filthy or ugly. Indians won't mind any dirt, filth, anything, just like dogs and what you call, horses or buffalos! They can walk through any dirt, filth - anything! Nothing matters to them, anything ugly, any ugly building or an ugly dress or anything is alright for them. It doesn't matter, to their eyes it doesn't matter at all. Only thing [is that] kitchen should be clean and they are all the time in the kitchen. So we don't have to learn all these bad things from Indians. There are some good things they have, but there are certain things [which] are very bad conditionings. And the next to that are, I think, the French. But if you eat English food you can become quite good because there's no taste in English food (laughter and applause). So, I have no problem anywhere because I think I have no taste at all and I can eat anything any way it is cooked, it's alright, I don't bother about what is cooked, what is not cooked. But if you have some French people for a dinner in a restaurant they will spend forty-five minutes deciding what they are going to eat, and what a waste of energy! Forty-five minutes just to decide what they are going to eat! After all what is so great, what you are going to eat? It's all there. Just one thing that everybody should have. So for Sahaja Yogis it's important to give up this idea, “I will have this.” First of all nobody should ask, “What will you have?” To Me also. I do not like people asking Me questions [like], “What will You have?” Because I've to think about it and I want to be in Nirvichara (laughter and applause). So, this is a, one, big ordeal, which we do not understand: how much we are attached to food. And food goes in the stomach. And not only that it spoils our guru system, but also spoils our physical system. So we should try not to look at food. That's why fasting was told to the all the people who wanted to develop their Gurupada, so that they should not fast. But they do not fast normally because they think of food, so there's no fasting. I mean, fasting means that you go into nirvichara and don't think of food. But they are all the time thinking of food, so it has no meaning and you are just the same whether you eat it or not, your mind is eating it all the time. Then you start thinking, “When will I end my fast and know where will I go to have what?” So this is a very basic thing that we should get rid of our habits, of our conditionings - what we are going to have and what food we are going to have. Our children also should be given a proper training about it that - it's alright, sometimes there is no salt, sometimes there's no sugar, doesn't matter. And sometimes there's nothing, doesn't matter. Nothing [is] important for a Sahaja Yogi, you can live without food for days together, no problem. So for a Sahaja Yogi there's nothing like taste of food and hunger. There's only one hunger is to be purified, to be clean. This is one of the things that dirties our mind, we should say, that we think about food all the time. Even in Russia I found people carried all Indian things there, they were cooking all Indian things, and I am, poor thing, I can't eat anything. So they cooked, brought everything for Me, thinking I'm an Indian, but they don't know I am Zen - I cannot, I do not, have sense of taste. So once, to get over taste one has to work out. It's an experiment you have to do with ourselves. Unless and until we introspect ourselves and do experiments we cannot rise. Because though the Kundalini is trying her level best, but your conditionings are so great that it cannot pierce through and cannot make you onto that Guru level. If you see the lives of all these Gurus: they were married, they had children, they lived a normal life but in their own personal life they were absolutely detached people. So, first detachment should come from food. And there whatever you like you just don't eat. That's the best way. Because already because of liking something...supposing if somebody's fond of ice-cream. He must have already spoiled his liver; so then, give [it] up now. If you like pasta, give up pasta. If you like something else, just give up, don't ask for it and don't eat it at all; so that, you see, your mind will get little bit detached from it. It's very easy to achieve this detachment, I think, if you work it out in a sensible way. Just try to punish your body. You see, if you are your Guru, you better take hold of first of all your body and your conditionings. You have to treat your body with this thing. I am told many girls who have married abroad are still making their Indian food and eating that. It’s horrible it is! They should starve. If they starve for say about five, six days or maybe eight days, then they'll eat any food in any case. That's why the fasting is given. So one should adjust oneself to any kind of food you can have. And if you want to survive then you eat anything, so just make it a point that you get rid of this very simple conditioning you have - of liking the food that you want to eat and you don't want to have anything else. I think as Sahaja Yogini or Sahaja Yogi who cannot get rid of this little thing, then how can you call him a Sahaja Yogi? I don't know. He's very asahaj. Because the other day I met one lady. I said, “What is the matter, where have you been?” She said, “I have been looking out for some sort of an Indian ingredient.” I said, “How can you get it here in this Spain? You cannot.” “Why?” “Because they asked me to make Indian food.” “Alright. Then without that can't you make Indian food? What is the need to run all the way, whole day for a one small little thing called hing (asafoetida)?” There's a big name for that, it's a small little thing. Just to get that she had to run all over the places to get it! So for people who are Sahaja Yogis if they are sahaj, whatever is available you can make something nice out of it and eat it. So that shows what? It shows sagacity, shows trupti (तृप्ति - contentment), shows your satisfaction. And that is one of the manifestations of a Guru that he's a satisfied soul. He's just self-contained, he doesn't bother. Now, for example, some people, specially in the West, thank God, they are not spoiled by their wives so much. They don't have so much of conditioning, they can eat anything. I've seen that when they come on the India tour, all the Indians say, “Horrid food was given and the poor things were eating that horrid food and this and that.” And I asked them, “Which place you like the best?” They said, “Brahmapuri.” I said, “Eh? They were saying Brahmapuri had the worst food and everybody is complaining.” “No, no. Brahmapuri was the best, because we could bathe in the river and we could sing and we could enjoy it!” You see, that's the sign of one thing, to get rid of your bad habits of food business. Now the second part is for the body you need comforts. I must congratulate the Western Sahaja Yogis that they may be coming from any walk of life - I must say, the Indians have to learn from them - they may be coming from any position or status. All of them enjoy the comfort of the Spirit when they travel in the Tour. They do not ask for, “I haven't got a chair, I haven't got a bed, I haven't got a proper things here.” In this way, you see, you will realise that the body comfort is of no importance. It’s, we have just spoilt our body, there's no need, no need. Body you put it anywhere, will sleep in any case. If you cannot sleep for two nights, alright, put on some music for one night or two nights as we had here, you will sleep anyway! (laughter and applause as everybody fell asleep during the Nishat Khan performance the night before) So this is the second point is that we have to give up body comfort. But the third point where I think the Western people falter is their materialistic attitude. Materialistic attitude and their fondness of their eyes. So one of them is the worst of all. I mean, the worst in worst of all is that you can never have, that's such a big blot if you have that is to have a roving eye and things like that. It’s out of question. That’s out of question for women or for men. They are not Sahaja Yogis by any chance. They have to have very clean eyes. That part is alright. And the second part is the greed, lust and greed. Of course, with Sahaja Yoga maybe the lust part is over, but greed is still there with so many who get lost. So I would say Indians do not have this lust problem, but they still have greed, greed problem - means they want to buy something like a radio or some electrical stuff they must buy. If they come abroad they must buy something. It's alright, if you get it, well and good, if they don't get it, well and good. It should be [that attitude]. But for a Westerner, you see, he would not like to give up his furniture, which his great grandmother had it. Though he can't sit on it because it's so old. If he sits on it, it will be break. But he must keep it to show off that, “I had a great grandmother who gave this unique chair.” According to Indian standards it's junk! Absolute junk. Because it is good for nothing you put it in the drawing room, nobody can sit on it and it looks junky. But according to the Western mind the older it is, the better - whether it is a junk or anything - he'll have so many junks in the house and they will sell like hot cakes. Because there's a very subtle materialistic attitude towards matter that, “This will sell like hot cakes if I sell it,” because there must be another mad Westerner who would like to buy that junk. You see? So this junk that you have in the house it’s better to get rid of, because God knows how many people must have used [it]. It’s like a grave in the house. It's a grave. So to have then also the antique jewellery. Antique jewellery is another mad, antique is a - what you can say - is the fad or addiction of the Western people - antique. For us nothing is antique because we still produce antique things, beautiful things so Indians don't understand the value of antiques. They don't understand how these people are so mad after torn things and broken things and dirty things and filthy things! But the Western mind has been brought up that way. Now, in these antique things I have seen that, once I went to somebody's house, you see, and he asked Me with very great honour to sit on his chair. And as soon as I sat on the chair I thought there were snakes and there were scorpions all biting Me. I got a fright, I got up. I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is from great, great, great grandmother, you see, she gave us this thing.” I said, “It will break, I better sit outside.” (laughter) So this also madness of this antique is so much that it is unbelievable how people go into it. So there's a joke in India there's a very great writer called as Premchand, he wrote about two Englishmen going on the road of Benares when they were hit by a lota (metal pot), that they use for their bathrooms, fell on their feet. And it fell on their feet. And jokingly he says, “on the feet where all the bureaucrats fall.” Means, all Indian bureaucrats used to fall at the feet of the English at that time! So he made a joke. But doesn't matter. Then the English, you see, looked at that thing and they were very angry and immediately they took to law, “You have to come to the courts, you have to come to the police and we're going to report this has fallen there, it has hit us,” and all that. So there was a clever man, he knew the English or the Western mind, he said, “Sir, do you know this, this lota has very valuable!” He said, “Why?” “Because this one was used by Akbar the Great. So ancient it is. ” He said, “Really?” “Yes it is and, you know, you just don't quarrel with them. And ask them for this lota.” And he told in Indian language to them that, “I have befooled these people, I have told them that this lota belonged to Akbar and you have to take this lota and use this lota to just to befool them.” So then they asked, “But alright, we'll forgive you, we'll not take you to any courts or anything, but you just give us this lota.” They said, “No, we can’t." He said, “Why?” “Because it's such an antique piece, you see.” In India you won't find anybody respecting antique pieces, especially in Benares nobody bothers. (Laughter) So they said, “Really?”, “Yes, it belonged to Akbar and, you know, my father was, my forefathers worked with him, so he gave us this lota, we can't give you, we are sorry, you see.” “No, no, no, no, please give us, you see, and we'll no take you to the police.” “Alright, you charge us, whatever money you charge us,” and all that. In those days they paid one thousand rupees, you see, this is equal to, now, one crore (10 million), I think. They gave, these English paid them and bought that lota, which had nothing to do with Akbar or anyone. So this madness of antique has to go away from our minds. It's such a built-in thing within us, that we always talk of antiquities. Perhaps maybe because of wars everything was destroyed and whatever was in the olden times was something very beautiful and good and now we are not making very good things, perhaps, maybe that is the reason. But now we are making nice things, we can make. Now in England I was surprised the old crafts are coming up, everywhere I go the old crafts are coming up. So to respect antiques means you just stop making the old craft revive. Because you pay so much to the antiques, the same thing made today won't fetch the same price as it was. Now this has ruined our creativity, ruined our handwork and it has ruined our whole - I think the quality of our life, because the way we are mad after antiques. So this also should go from your head that anything antique is something good. It's a very superficial value - if you see to it. Because people think that antique is something expensive. It's just a marketing style that people have felt that this is expensive, that is expensive, so it's something great to wear something stupid and to say that, “this is antique jewellery,” and go about. I mean, God knows how many people must have used it and must have worn it and what must be the feelings of that person. So we have to understand that this conditioning that we have in our heads, that we must have something antiques with us, keep something of such value. I mean, these questions never arose before, so it's not written in any books. Anyone of the books of the Gurus is not written that, “Don't care for antiques.” They have written, “Don't drink, don't smoke,” all other things which spoils your Nabhi. They've written all these things. But they have not written that, “Don't worry about antiques so much.” You see, and I find that's a craze nowadays and so we have to tell people that we have to be careful. Moreover I feel the way people have gone to drugs and that, maybe that because they used so much antiques that the bhoots from the antiques must have caught them. Can't understand that why people are so melancholy, all the time crying, weeping, and all that. So the conditionings of these matter as we think it to be is to be absolutely taken out. Of course, I mean in certain countries we should say that the antique things [that] were made were good and nice. But, only because something is antique it should not be respected, [but] because of its intrinsic value of aesthetics, it's alright. But one has to see first of all the vibrations of everything. If the vibrations are good then you should accept, otherwise not, because we have the language of vibrations and we have to use the language of vibrations. Once you start using the language of vibrations you'll be surprised how you will get the complete picture as to what is to be done. So to get rid of these three conditionings too, for our body is very important. And the worst thing for a Sahaja Yogi [is] to think that he's sick: is a, sort of a, tarnishing the name of Sahaja Yoga. If you still feel you are sick you better get out of Sahaja Yoga! Because either you get well or you are not a Sahaja Yogi, one of the two things. If you are a Sahaja Yogi you have to see that you get well and if there are certain problems also - doesn't matter. Now, for example, supposing, I have certain problems, which I know, because of Sahaja Yoga, because of My position as the Mother, position as Adi Shakti: certain physical things I have to face, parasympathetic working I have to face, but I go through it! Is accepted. You have to accept your body as it is and you are not to sort of say that, “I'm not well,” and “There's something wrong with me,” and go on complaining like some old hag! Never think you are old, first of all. Never think that you have gone old or you are no good. Look at your Mother. I never think that way. Yesterday half of you were sleeping, still I was alert and listening to the music and today I'm again alert here. So if you have a Guru then that image should be with you that: “Look at our Mother. She's so old, how much She travels, how much She does!” Alright, you might say, She's the Adi Shakti! But little bit of shakti you too have. And that shakti is to be shown by your full dynamism. If you have no dynamism and if you still feel very weak that means you are not a Sahaja Yogi. So just ask for, ask for any amount of energy - it can come to you. That dynamism, it should be there. Now this I would say, for the physical self that one has to know that you are all younger and getting younger and younger, but not the stupidity of youth, but gravity, the gravity of the age. Actually I have seen children who are born realised, they are very grave, they won't do anything that is not dignified. And they will never, I've never heard them talking to some of - the Sahaja Yoginis have a bad habit of talking, “tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk,” among themselves. It's a very bad habit. Which shows that they [are] still very much lacking. Just wearing saris or wearing bindis you do not become a Sahaja Yogini. First of all, what is the gravity? You should only speak whenever it is necessary. So I have seen these Sahaja Yogis who are born realised children they stand like this before Me. And they say very few words, but beautiful words they speak. And say things, which you can remember all the time. They just do not go on wasting anything. And they are extremely obedient. So from them one can learn that these are born realised and the way their Guru principle is acting, are we also acting the same way? Or we are doing something that is not good for our ascent? So even after coming to Sahaja Yoga if you do not try hard to introspect yourself, you have missed the point that you compare yourself with your Guru - all the time. Now. Then everything has to be understood in the right perspective that we are Sahaja Yogis. Now for a Sahaja Yogi first and foremost thing [is] that he has to have love. First. For others, not for himself. If you are all the time worried about yourself, “My body is such, my this thing such, and I have to do this and that,” then you don't love others. But do you see to the comfort of others? Do you feel the compassion of other Sahaja Yogis? Do you feel, “What have I to bring for them? What is missing in them?” Do you work it out? Do you go out of the way to help them? First of all Sahaja Yogi s. Now Sahaja Yogis are different things. I have seen many Sahaja Yogis will go and take the side of the non-Sahaja Yogis and try to debase the Sahaja Yogis. Is a very wrong thing. You belong to this new race and the people who do not belong to this new race and if they are attacking anybody: these are your hands, your feet, your head, and if they attack it, it is duty bound that you help them instead of helping the others. Maybe something wrong with this person, doesn't matter. You need not show all the fair play there. In that place you should support a Sahaja Yogi out and out. Later on you may correct and you may tell that person, “You should not have done like this, it was wrong.” So this dignity and this understanding comes only through silence. But if you are chirping all the time, talking “tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk,” it can never, never can make you a deeper person. You'll be just flying in the air with all that. So for women now is best is to take to mauna, is to keep quiet, just keep quiet. They all the time want to talk. This I've heard from all the leaders that is a big problem with women. They just go on talking stories, telling stories. But if you ask them to come and speak, they will start shaking. How many can give speeches? Women? If you understand that if you cannot give a speech, you better not talk also. You should be able to give a speech because your Mother is a woman, She gives speeches. Why can't you give some speech? You cannot. If I make you stand here, you’ll be shaking, I know that. But if it comes to murmuring souls, you are there. So that is one thing women have to be very careful [about]. And as today is the Guru puja I have to tell you things, not as a Mother but as your Guru. That, if you have to ascend the best thing is for you to stop talking. “Maunam sarvatha sadhanam.” ‘Maun’ means to keep quiet. It gives you all kinds of facilities, just keep quiet. If somebody's talking too much, just keep quiet. If somebody's trying to criticise, keep quiet. That's your silence, that's your right, that's your domain that you can keep silent. Just watch that person. If it comes then to answer, then you can answer better. But if somebody's trying to attack ,you just keep silent. But this silence has to be established and one should only establish by not talking too much. I have seen also when I am sitting here, I have seen women talking among themselves, and this is very wrong. You must learn the silence. Like yesterday I saw so many ladies also were walking out, walking in. In the church will you do that? You won't do it. In the church there is no Christ, there's a horrible priest sitting there, but you cannot do it. You all keep quiet, you sit there nicely. I've never seen anybody walking out here and there and doing all kinds of things, putting the children in front like that, making them sleep. Never! Can you do that in the church? What a discipline people observe in that church, which is an artificial place. And where you are now, that kind of a silence has to be there and that kind of understanding, that depth, that awe has to be there. But because we have not yet developed that Guru thing. If we had developed it then immediately it will work out. You will see your gravity will show in your behaviour. So this is for our attention not to be wasted. To discuss somebody, to discuss about others' characters, we have no business. Do we discuss the character of one hand to another hand? To discuss about what has happened about marriages, things like that. Also marriage is just...in Sahaja Yoga it's not such an important thing. Some people pay too much attention to marriage, you see, and marriage becomes a headache. Also then, “What about my marriage?” Then again ten minutes you see that person, “What about my marriage?” Again after ten minutes, “What about my marriage?” You want to run away. I mean, you see, it's something becomes like a mania for people, “What should we do?” And the whole thing is, all depends, and the whole programming depends on how you are going to get married. So you have come to Sahaja Yoga, you are sanyasis. You are not married people in a way. You are married only to Sahaja Yoga, that's your husband, that's your wife. And the so-called husband and wife are there. But if they are not Sahaja Yogis then you are unmarried, definitely. So too much attention is paid in Sahaja Yoga to marriages. I have seen that before, marriage, before Sahaja Yoga, marriage was a joke; every third day there was a divorce and people would run away and do all kinds of things. Then when they got married after Sahaja Yoga they are the greatest romantic people ever known in the whole world! I mean, all ‘Romeo, Juliets' going about. I just don't understand. Even in the Indian villages people complain that, “What sort of these people are? I mean, they have no sense at all and the way they go round, are they the saints?” So that saintliness, that sanyasta, that asceticism has to be expressed in our married life. I don't mean that you don't have relationship with your husband but in a very private way. It's has to be extremely private and it should not be such a great thing to go into romanticism. You'll ruin the whole of Sahaja Yoga in the West if you start doing that nonsense! Because also there's an idea about it that, you see, you fall in love. But then you'll fall! That's the first point is. You will fall [but] you want to rise. So this attachment and this worry about the husband and this and that, I mean, you can carry on with any kind of a husband and wife if you are a Sahaja Yogi, should be able to. I mean, I know that's very simple. It’s a...your husband is a study, wife is a study, that's all. You study a person, what sort of a person he is. But for that you have to have the witness state and you have to see, you have to be detached. So in marriages one has to be detached. But, on the contrary, I find that just after the marriage they want to organise some special thing for them to go to some sort of a honeymoon or some sort of a thing! I don't know how these ideas crawl up. These are coming from the old conditionings of things and after honeymoon they come and say, “Mother, this marriage is not going to work out.” So it's better to do slow and steady and then decide. Because you just jump into honeymoon mood and come back and say, “Mother, this, I have started thinking and I don't think.” I know of a lady who was jumping with a Indian gentleman and she was on her way to Australia. In Singapore, she telephones that, “Mother, I don't think this marriage will work out.” And here everybody complained to Me, “Mother, these two are behaving in such a manner that Indians are rather embarrassed.” So the sense of shame you must learn from Indians. They never... husband and wife never sit together in India, is regarded as bad manners and it should be with you also. That, even in the puja, even in anything they are sitting in the public, what is the need to show your relationship in the public? It's only in the private. This is one of the things one, if you start understanding, there will be a proper adjustment. Men should be with men in the public, women should be with the women together. But the women or men, whatever they are, whatever are their bad, bad points should not be brought back. Like, I would say the men have jealousies and they have power orientation and they discuss about leadership and they, every, they get a shock if you tell them that you are not going to be a leader, as if they think leadership is something very concrete. It's the greatest myth ever going, is this leadership! There's nothing like leaders in this Sahaja Yoga, it's just a joke. And your Mother is very good at playing serious jokes. So be careful! Don't be childish about it. You have to understand that this is a big joke going on and it's just a testing point and if I test you wrong, you can tell Me, but I think this has worked well, because I can test people very well on that level and immediately I know when the person gets onto the horse of ego. So, for your mental attitude, has to be different and our priorities have to change. Our priorities have to change. What are our priorities? First and foremost thing is our ascent, is the first priority. For our ascent whatever is needed has to be done. If you have to punish your body, alright. If you have to punish yourself, alright. If you have a conditioning, get rid of it. Just introspect yourself, that is Self-realisation, is to know yourself. When you know yourself and know what is clinging onto it, just to remove it completely. Work it out the way you like. Work it out the way you like. You see, it is very important that the body, mind, everything should be your slaves. Nothing should dominate you. You should be on top of everything. How dare your body ask for anything? How dare your mind tells you anything? How this conditioning works on you? “I am a Sahaja Yogi, I'm above everything.” Like the lotuses have come out of the ponds, you have come out of it. We have so many proofs to show that you are realised souls. I'll show you some photographs that I have to show that there is light. I can put light into you, they are all enlightened people. But in My presence if you become the light, you must carry the light outside. Not only in My presence, but when you go out. But one of the reasons, I think, when I tell something people just start thinking about whom Mother is talking, they never think, “She is talking about me.” That's the only way you can penetrate within yourself when you see that, “Mother is talking about me, She's correcting me all alone and She's telling me.” Then only it will penetrate and it will work out. The priorities have to be changed and the first and foremost is your ascent and the Spirit and Sahaja Yoga. The rest is negligible, nothing important. Then the faith that there is this All-pervading Power, which is looking after us, is very important. This time the musicians came all the way. I must tell you the story of their travel. They came and they said that there's a train from Kiev and they also bought the tickets so got into the train and they were off-loaded before the Hungarian border. They didn't know what to do, they had no visas, nothing and not so much money also. They thought, “We are on the train.” They said, “No, you have to go cross over and go to Budapest,” and they didn't know where, they were standing on the road. And, but they were all laughing and enjoying, “must be something in store for us.” Nobody felt that they were in trouble or in anything. So surrendered. “So, suddenly,” they said, “the custom people came and surrounded them,” and they said, “What's the matter, how are you here with all these bags and baggages?” So they said, “Why are you here?” They said, “We have come for a concert and this, and musicians we are and all.” And some or other they started melting away. And then they gave them Realisation! Six of them got Realisation. Now can you believe: the power of love. And the custom officers they offered their own cars, took them down to the other side. It's never happened with custom officers! Imagine! It would be like shaving their teeth off, I tell you, the way (laughing) if you can do that to the custom officer! But it happened. And they came to the other side and left them there. Now they didn't know what to do. They wanted to go to Budapest, they had to walk about two miles or something to the station. So they were waiting there well, they said that, “Mother, You sent maybe, two Yugoslavs came in a big bus of 49 people - all vacant.” They stopped the bus and said, “What is it, why are you here?” So they said, “This is our problem and we have to go.” So they got into the bus. When he was driving them down, they thought of talking to him that, “Why not you take us to Milan?” And they managed! (laughter) And they were in Milan. It's so remarkable. So to have faith completely in yourself and in that Power, which is surrounding you. And once you have that faith you will realise that, though it is so helpful to you, it is so kind to you, on the same level if you think it, it can be very harmful. So then never listen to the Guru ninda, means anybody talks anything ill about your Guru, just put your hands to your ears, absolutely immediately. I have known of a person who did that [and] got cancer, another now in jail, another one there. So anybody is saying like that, just put your hands. Because now you know that - what is your Guru. So you should never hear anything against your Guru from anyone. The other day one gentleman asked Me a question, a newsman. He said that, “I am told you have made a castle for Yourself.” I said, “I have paid for it, I have made it also. It was a horrid place, no doubt. But there are only Sahaja Yogis staying there, I am not staying there. That's the best part.” But that's all I said. But on the contrary, they never go and ask these questions to any gurus on anything. Because the disciples say, “Yes, so what? We want to give to our guru money and this and that.” They never ask. But, through Sahaja Yoga, or [by] Myself, I have cured so many people of incurable diseases - I could have minted money. For curing one cancer patient I could have made a castle, Myself. So when people say like that you should say, “Do you know how many people She has cured? How much money She could have taken from them if She was a doctor or She was a false Guru? How much money She would have made out of all of them?” Then they will understand. You see, because they are being materialistic they talk like that. And their attitude is very different and so, to tell them off is the best way. Because I have seen that these press people are absolutely harassed by the disciples of the false Gurus. Just they cannot criticise, they cannot say a word against such false Gurus. While I find that Sahaja Yogis still lack that complete faith in themselves and complete assertion. Where you have to assert you must assert. For example, anybody says something wrong against Me, you have to assert; must say, “No, not possible. It’s not!" But I have seen some people asking Me funny questions who are ‘Sahaja Yogis’ also! So the first part is that to see how much we are sensitive to spirituality. I have seen Sahaja Yogis supporting somebody who is so negative, you can't even bear that person and, [to them], such a person is something great, while somebody who is so good they cannot make it out. So what's the use? Your computer is so faulty, you'll do...I mean, the planes will have to run up and down if you have such a computer as Sahaja Yogis are! Because they just judge the other way round. A person who is good in Sahaja Yoga, who has got vibrations, he may be simple, he may be unassuming, he may not be so rich, he may not be so educated, may not be from some good universities or anything, but you must see the vibrations of that person! What sort of vibrations that person has, and then you should judge. Instead of that if you judge that person only because he's very good to talk and he talks well and very scholarly or something like that, that's not the point. The point is what are his vibrations! And once you see those vibrations and judge them on vibrations, then you are a Sahaja Yogi, otherwise I would not call you at all a Sahaja Yogi. But for a Guru it is very important. I have seen sometimes even the leaders supporting somebody who is absolutely horrid! I can't bear that person even for five minutes! But here the Guru sends him over to Me, “Oh, Mother, he's so good, you know, he donated so much money.” It doesn't matter. You donated money, so what? Who asked him to donate money? But he should not donate his bhoots to us now anymore! We don't want his bhoot! So that's what it is. So the judgment should be correct about a person when you say that this man is not good or that is not good. But mostly ‘gurus’ themselves are caught up and then they are ambitious and if somebody doesn't listen to them or somebody wants to give a lecture at a wrong time and somebody says, “You shouldn't talk like this,” or something, then they get angry. They are very hot tempered and they provoke people, they say things sometimes. And then when people react they say, “You are a bad Sahaja Yogi.” That's not the way. First of all a guru or a leader has to be himself a very mild, gentle, and a good person. He has to be in such a way [that] he should not demand anything, should not ask for anything. Never demand anything! Anybody who demands can not be a guru. Respect is to be commanded and not to be demanded. And so, everything works out well if you understand that - once you rise in your ascent, in your wisdom, in your awareness and in your Spirit - automatically all these things happen! You don't have to ask for anything, you don't have to plead for anything, you don't have to complain for anything, everything works out. You are looked after by all the ganas, by all the angels. They are there. You are on the stage. But if you are halfway then they play tricks with you. You see, they play tricks, they make you falter, you have problems, you go here, you go there, all these things happen and then you say, “Mother, how is it this happened?" Because they are also jokers, so they play jokes with you and they make problems for you just to make you understand that you are doing wrong. So we are on a stage where there's a beautiful security, everything is there and we have to give to the world such a great thing like Sahaja Yoga, which is for the emancipation of the whole world, as you realise, and so also I hope you realise your responsibilities. There are so many things one has to understand, how one has to be as a guru, how he has to act and how he has to work out. Now I have given so many lectures on Guru things, but, for today's lecture, only I have to say that, first thing, to have a guru system, you must have complete humility. Now, with Me, I would say, I am too simple and I am Mahamaya, so you be very careful. You cannot take liberties with Me. You cannot take. If you try to take too much liberties that means you are not a disciple. A disciple has to keep a distance from the Guru. You cannot just take liberties, walk into My room every time, sit there for hours together, chit-chat with Me - nothing! You have no right. Only when I call you, when I ask for you, you should come. Then you should not force things on the Guru that, “Please, come and listen to this,” or, “Do this!” that should not be said. For example, yesterday nobody told Me there are going to be these music programs or everything arranged. So we have to report everything to your leader, or to Me, all those things that you want to do. And it should be really transparent. Like this hand knows everything that this hand is doing, and this hand knows everything that this hand is doing. In the same way everybody should know each other. Then the gurus should not have jealousies for each other. This I'm just telling you because also I found out that there are certain jealousies. And when they talk there is a little bit of, “Ha, he's good, but this, this, this.” When they enjoy each other's company because they have reached a certain state and they understand, “This is the state we are in.” When they enjoy each other's company fully and appreciate each other much more than anybody else - the guru's company. All the company of the leaders, if they enjoy each other and there's no jealousy, there's no fight, there's no problem but just the enjoyment of the company, then they should know that they have become a guru. Now all of them never fought with each other. They supported. Actually it is one Principle was born again and again. But only the satanic people - they'll fight among themselves, not the godly. And also they will talk against the person who is a realised soul or who is an Incarnation, but never against themselves. It's very surprising that the satanic people though they fight among themselves, there are jealousies, they’ll never talk of each other. But here I find that in Sahaja Yoga we have freedom. But freedom is not abandonment, is the freedom with complete rules and regulations of the Divine, with us, and we have to know them that this is the Divine Law. So all of us are now sitting like in a big vimana, like an aeroplane, and we all have to land into the beautiful area. But first of all we have to develop that humility in your heart; complete humility and surrender, that's very important. Unless and until you have that humility and surrender in your heart, Guru principle can not be awakened. First you have to be the disciple and then the guru. So you have to develop that humility. And that humility comes very easily if you love Me, respect Me. It's not only love, but respect. That respect has to be there and then people will respect you. May God bless you! (Later after puja, Shri Mataji speaks about music performance of the concert the night before) This is a very, you see, pure raga and the purity of it, to be maintained, is very difficult as he has shown here little bit here and there to slip out in the playing of notes. It forms another raga, you see, it's very delicate raga. Like somebody says the path of God is like a very, very slim road. One side is a big, a huge mountain, another side is a big valley. In the same way this raga is a - raga which can only be taught by a very good guru, and only can be learned very well by a very good disciple, also. Because it is so delicate that slipping this side or that side you just get into another raga as he has shown you just now. So the purity of it and this is the real beauty of this raga is. I had heard this raga once upon a time by a very great singer, called Roshanara Begum and the one he was singing - just I asked My sister, “What is the bondage?", because I remember the song, but didn't remember the exact words, you see. Just now she told Me. And she is another great, great singer, Roshanara Begum, and the way she was singing, you know, as if the whole Puriya - the whole building of Puriya she made it manifest - really. She made it manifest - the whole Puriya raga. Say, such a beautiful thing and that is what it is that here is a sign of a person who has done it so much with that purity of raga, is the point - the purity of raga. And it's very good for Sahaja Yogis to know that the purity of understanding of that if you go a little bit this side, a little bit this side you get away from Sushumna. (After puja explanation Sahaja Yogis show the miracle photographs and Shri Mataji explains them) When the changes taking place, actually it's My name in Arabic, the changes taking place now. This is another one. This is My name, this one is My name in Arabic language in the other, in other direction. Then it becomes, then it becomes Omkara in other direction and Omkara becomes like a heart and with so many lines, there were no lines, nothing. The lights become Omkara. Now, this is before the puja they started with the photograph. This is another series. So the music started and the photograph started changing. Started going into different shapes. This one is easy languishes. The lights going into shapes. This is before that. Now they are writing My name, these lights are writing My name, started writing. Now this is another one. How the form's changing. Now see how the forms have changing. Here the vibrations are dancing. Vibrations are dancing, just see there. Then the Sahasrara. Then I disappear into light. One, two, three and then they all become lights which show one by one. ... These are the vibrations.