Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi  

Madrid, Spain
6 November 1987  

Materialism  

So today we have come here to Spain and there are so many other Spanish Sahaj Yogis here and you all have met them, by that they are very much strengthened in Sahaja Yoga that they feel that they have brothers and sisters all over the world, because in Spain there are very few Sahaj Yogis and they feel quite lost, because they are so few; but by your coming here it is a kind of a one hand helping another hand. Now Spain is developing materially and it is this time they have to be careful; they need not go all the way to the over-developed state and then suffer and that suffering should not become a kind of punishment to them, like in many affluent countries. Because as materialism grows, it tries to overpower human beings, but if after Realization, the materialism starts growing, you master the matter. Then matter doesn’t sit on your head, because with realization you have discretion and actually materialism is to be understood through Laxmi Tattwa, Laxmi principal. If you develop the wisdom in Sahaj Yoga, then you understand how far to go with materialism. Matter is for you, you’re not for the matter. Now I’ll tell you gradually how matter sits on our head. Before Realization, first we start using the matter for our comfort. Through science we develop ways and methods, by which we develop a life which gives you more comfort.

In the beginning it is alright that we get sufficient food and a proper house to live in, but by that time we have already become the slave of the matter. Matter is a dead thing; we just change the forms of matter – from dead to dead – but we cannot do any living work. Now this matter starts giving us habits, then we cannot get out of those habits and gradually we start becoming slave of matter; it does not go that far. Now if you have too many machineries you produce things out of proportion, like you have so many cars. In Paris everybody is on the road all day; as soon as you are on the road, you are on the road all the time. Better to be in the house. And you spend hours together, then you start producing other things. Like supposing they are producing clothes, the factories have to run – you cannot stop the factory. So then they start producing things such a lot, they don’t know how to sell it. Then they say that alright, let us have fashions, then these manufacturers float fashion houses. Now the fashion starts. With that, everybody changes their clothes every year; they have to be according to the fashion, such a lot of money is wasted, but we also lose our individuality.

In America they play another trick, also here I think must be everywhere. Every year they produce new type of handles, new type of tiles, new type of bathrooms. If you go to an American house, better ask about the bathroom, otherwise when you enter in may be you may be just drenched with water with some showers falling on you; or you may sit in the tub, and you may press it and the whole tub might come like that. Their beds are also funny, you may press on some button and the whole bed may come… (laughter); they have beds where they just can fold on this part, or that part – it is terrible, I mean you if you press some buttons you might be going into acrobats all the time. There is no need to do all that, but when you have out of proportion machineries, then you have to do it, but that is how you become slaves of these entrepreneurs.

But, in Sahaja Yoga, when you come in, you know how to do living work; like in the affluent countries, they use seeds which are hybrid. These hybrid seeds are of no nourishment to us, they are no good for our brains, they confuse us. Especially the hybrid animals, their milk confuses us. Hybrid animals themselves are very confused, but in Sahaja Yoga, you take the ordinary seeds and you vibrate them. If you vibrate them, then what happens that you start getting seeds which are even better than hybrid. I tried an experiment with a sunflower; so I developed a sunflower about 2 kilo weight, about one foot diameter and such big, big seeds, that you can’t make them out to be sunflower seeds, so the collective was so amazed at it and they felt that this kind of seed will solve all of our oil problem. Same thing happens with the animals.

You take ordinary cow, Indian ordinary cow and you give her vibrated water to drink and she gives about the same milk as an Australian cow, but the Australian cow’s milk can make you confused and mad, because we have seen that the Australian cows, when they are in India, they don’t know where they stand, they just run amok, so what must be their milk? But an Indian cow, if she gets Realization through this vibrated water, she gives milk which is very good for the brain. So that is how we improve the quality of our animals by Sahaja Yoga. Now regarding matter, we have to understand that matter is only good for giving it to others, but if it is given by a realized soul, it has tremendous effects. Before Gregoire wanted to write his book, I gave him a fountain pen and he said I never wrote a book and he started writing so well. Same with Rustum, he became a scholar. So Sahaja Yoga gives you an additional power, by which you can neutralize the bad effects of materialism.

Now, say, supposing, in India, in England, you have to offer drinks to people; so there are ten types of glasses you have to have; only one is sufficient; to drink anything why to have ten, it’s a headache. Now if you have to use spoons and forks then you have all elaborations and you can have ten place setting, but if you can use your hands they are very clean. Need not have so many elaborations, but these elaborations we have not because we want them, but because of these entrepreneurs; they force on us. But there is a deeper influence; how people control you through matter.

Now supposing they go to somebody’s house and they find a kind of a spoon missing, because there could be a spoon for avocado, say a special spoon for avocado. Now if that spoon is not there, they will say: “ Oh, these people have no sense.“ And they will ask: ‛Have you got a spoon for avocado?“ So it is very shameless and is very arrogant to insult another person. A housewife, supposing you are a guest, she will be more worried about her carpet than about her guests. And this kind of a thing can go too far and a person can become very dry. Such people are very disgusting and insulting type. There is another way they control you through matter. That they will say that now you have to say, for a husband: ‛you must get me this, otherwise I will be very angry.“ If the husband breaks one cup, the wife will be on his head, as if the cup is more important than the husband. She can get another husband, she can also get another cup.

See, the whole human dignity is reduced to matter and this kind of controlling goes on. Children also control parents; they see in the television some sort of a toy and they ask the parents. Now if the parents don’t give the toy they will not eat their food. They’ll cry and weep and trouble the parents. So then the parents alright get them toy, let them have it and the child plays with the toy, not with the parents. Now two friends will meet and they will say: ‛We must go and see a film together.“ They don’t talk to each other, there’s no rapport, there’s no friendship. They must have something in between them. There is no direct rapport between the children, between the friends, between husband and wife. Matter is to beautify your life, not to make it ugly and create problems between each other. Now the French will not like English because they use their fork and knives in a different way.

And English think no end of themselves because they know English language. All this kind of nonsensical feelings come in through this kind of materialism and we are no more collective and the collectivity gets lost. But then we find out wrong methods to get into collectivity, like we take to alcoholism, because after alcohol we feel abandoned and we can laugh and enjoy together. So otherwise, if not we go for holiday. All the women must show off their body to attract the attention of men. Men must show off their bodies to attract the attention of women, but no one knows no one; it’s a joyless pursuit, and the way they quarrel among themselves for all these small, small things, they are really joy killers. As a result of all these things, we have lost the art, we have lost the art, we have lost the deftness, the deftness and now wherever you go what you find are ugly things like the airport of Charles de Gaulle; it looks like a factory and I don’t know how you feel in that place.

There is no cosiness in the household; the house is so bare and so insipid and the people are so dry and stupid. There’s no joy in the family, so also the children run away from the houses at the age of eighteen, or sixteen, or whatever may be the truth. So instead of human beings, we start creating robots, you see, controlled by entrepreneur; this is the situation, that’s why you play into the hands of all kinds of things like psychologists, like Freud. Any new idea comes in, they jump at it and that’s how they suffer; the result is they have got aids now. There’s no logic in their heads. They don’t understand that this is just exploitation.

After Sahaja Yoga, you do understand this is exploitation. Now they have plastics and nylons and they don’t know what to do with the plastic, how to get rid of it; then they have acid rains and the trees are affected by that. Now in Switzerland, which is such a corrupt country, I should say, it is taking the money from, corrupt money from every country, who are absolute materialists are suffering from this acid rain. Most of their trees are destroyed and they have avalanches, all these big, big mountains that they have, the ice starts flowing downward because nobody can hold it; and now there are floods. The nature starts acting.

So whether they progress outward in this wrong direction, or they try things inwards like Freudian methods – both are dangerous, and are destructive and in this destruction who are lost are the people who are innocent. So one has to develop that wisdom within oneself, that we are human beings here, part and parcel of one whole and only the human beings can get self-realisation and can feel that oneness. And such a personality is a satisfied personality; they do not try to exploit other countries, other people; they live satisfied with themselves. They enjoy their compassion and their generosity. They open their houses to everyone, they open their hearts to everyone. They make their houses beautiful for others, not for themselves.

We were first in London in a country house and there were other six houses; there were quite rich people living there. Every Saturday, Sunday, the poor husband had to mow the lawn and wife would stand up telling him ‘Do it better’, and used to polish all the brass, you see, same with his wife and not even a rat would enter that house and they were surprised that in our house there were so many people coming and they came and saw our house and were surprised that our house was so beautiful and so neat and clean. I told them that if you really have a beautiful house, even children don’t want to disturb it; they treat the house like a temple. But if you do not make the house beautiful and acceptable to others, then you are only busy cleaning for yourself all the brass, all the crystal, all the glass everything yourself. And what is the purpose? Then Monday you are again tired, sitting very tired, but if you had kept the doors open to others, they would have enjoyed, then it had some purpose.

So purposeless life is absolutely joyless. That is the problem is that people get exhausted for nonsensical things. If one spoon is lost they will just die ten times. Thank God in India, we are not such materialists, yet. We might become, but we have now a short circuit, we are coming to Sahaja Yoga before we are developing. Now the culture is also very different and is an ancient culture. That should be the culture of Sahaj Yogis, will be that culture. Like, now if somebody spills any coffee say, nobody will say anything – ‘No it’s alright, it’s alright, no, no, no it doesn’t matter’, even if it’s a Persian carpet, until the guest is in the house, you will not wipe it. Even if children break something, we don’t punish them, that ‘You have broken this and it’s very wrong, you have broken that’, nothing of the kind, ‘it’s alright, you be careful’, that’s all’. We don’t scold them for that, but we tell them that: ‘You be careful, you might get hurt’. No importance is given to things. Also in language we cannot say to somebody: ‘I hate you’ That’s not allowed. Or; ‘I don’t like you’, or ‘I believe in this’, they will say: ‘Who are you? What do you think of yourself?’.

The parents will immediately correct and that is the correcting point which helps throughout the life. You don’t say harsh things like: ‘I don’t like this, I don’t like that’. We have to appreciate everything, learn to appreciate other human beings, to enjoy other people, to see to their good points. If you see only their bad points, you will get all their bad points; where is your attention? Instead of getting too many plastics, you have one little nice thing with you. That is something joy-giving. Keep your houses open to others, don’t get worried how your door is, if somebody touches the door it might spoil its polish, or something like that. Enjoy looking after others having concern for them.

They always say: ‘Mother, You look so young despite Your age and You work so hard’. It is because I love everyone much more than I care for Myself, because I have so much concern for everyone. That keeps Me very happy. If I could give something to others, that makes Me very happy. If I can cook for everyone, that’s very good, only I think, two years back I went to, first of all that’s about three years back, I went to Australia and cooked for five hundred people in two places and enjoyed really seeing them enjoy My food. It was such a joy giving thing. The greatest joy is in giving others. As soon as this attitude changes, you’ll be amazed the materialism will be at your feet, because in Sahaja Yoga it works that way. I’ll give you an example; once I was going for a Guru Puja and I wanted to take some presents for all the leaders. In London I don’t go out shopping, but I went out and I was exhausted, I couldn’t get anything and I came in the evening very tired and there was nothing I could find, and I thought that: ‘I better now open My storeroom and try to find out something there.’ And at that time a Sahaj Yogi just said: ‘Mother there’s some boy who wants to sell his paintings.’ I just came rushing down and he had beautiful paintings with him at a very reasonable price that I could afford and they were exactly the number I wanted, so I bought them. and you know in one of the Guru Pujas I gave beautiful paintings to everyone. This time I had no time to buy any presents for the leaders, I was going to France and here. I thought I must have something and now what to do? I have to take something for Jose Antonio and also for Patrick, so our plane was delayed, and I got beautiful fountain pens for both of them; I was so very happy I could buy them there.

It’s so nice see to buy for others. I find it difficult to buy anything for Myself. It is so many times I have seen how suddenly you get the things that you want and the matter is at your feet. I had bought some chocolates for children for the Puja in, not Puja but visit to Paris, and when they came in the evening for music, we forgot about it, but at the airport we suddenly found them, so I gave all that to small children and to big children also and we had a nice time at the airport. All these small, small things give so much of joy, such an ocean of joy. You just try these things.

In the beginning of Sahaj Yoga, I was, I had gone for a programme to meet the Sahaja Yogis at Gavin’s place, and his wife was no good for, she was cooking and all that, she, she was schizophrenic type, but Gavin said: ‘Mother will you please have Your dinner with us?’ So I thought he has cooked only for Me, so I allowed everybody to go away and he was in the kitchen and he came out and said: ‘Mother, where are they?’ I said: ‘Why they have gone away.’ He said: ‘See, Mother, I have cooked for all of them and why did they go away?’ You see his sweetness filled my heart with joy; I felt what a sweet man he is. He’s from Scotland, and they say that Scottish people are very miserly, but I found Gavin to be a very generous person. Like that I like when the Sahaj Yogis talk good of others, try to help them and try to be nice to each other, that is the most joy-giving thing. All these things will cut out the domination of matter upon us. We should not care for the matter.

Of course one should care for something that is given to you with love. One day Gregoire had given me two little, little horses then I came home I saw they were missing and I went round the whole house seeing them: ‘where are they’ I said, ‘where are they gone?’ So I had my servants, my domestics, they were surprised that: ‘there are so many things in the house, why is She worried about these two little horses?’ So My husband came back in the evening. I said: ‘Have you seen those two little horses that Gregoire had given Me?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ he said, ‘I have kept them properly in my cupboard because children were there, they would have broken and You would have felt bad about them.’ I had so much silver, so many expensive things, he didn’t bother about that, because it had an expression of love in that, which is much more than all the gold, all the silver put together. This is what we have to understand, that love is more important than anything else.

You must compete in loving each other more; compete in being kind to each other and compete in being humbler than each other, compete in doing something for others and in saying very sweet things to others. Try to think of doing something very sweet. Like once I went to buy a sari for Myself and then I found, you see for Myself I am quite miserly, I thought it was rather expensive and I didn’t buy it. And another Sahaja Yogi was there, with Me, I didn’t know, but he bought that sari and next day he brought it to Me and then that’s how he was so much appreciated by everyone. Maybe it had that love, this is what it is, we have to feel the power of love, then everything vibrates, the matter vibrates and you can feel the vibrations from a distance.

If you come and open My cupboard and try to arrange My saris, you will be all filled with vibrations. Anything that you touch will have vibrations. So it is important that we should learn to love and improve our vibrations, so that we can spread love all over and remove the people from the shackles of materialism. I wanted to talk to people in Spain about this and for all the other people I would say that they should come back because they have gone too far into it, because matter complicates you; it reacts and make you think more, it doesn’t allow your attention to be steady.

If you see anything beautiful, you just look at it without thinking, then you will realize what beauty lies in the matter. In the Zen system of meditation, [VIDITAHAVAN?] the one who was the founder of Zen system tried it; I think I’ve talked about it in some other lecture. With all my love to you, I would say that: ‘try to love each other’. And you have seen that, in India when you travel, it’s not so comfortable and we cannot give that comfort in the small places we go to, but still you all enjoy it so much; you don’t want comfort, you want the comfort of love. You enjoy each others company so much and that overflowing love of your host country that is India, Indians; that is the sign of good Sahaj Yogis, because there is a big purpose in our lives, greatest of all, what Abraham Lincoln did, or what Mahatma Gandhi did, your work is much greater and subtler, because you can do living work, so we don’t have to become sanyassis, we don’t have to give up anything, but we have to change our attitude. We have to develop that detachment.

May God bless you all.