Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Vaitarna, India
18 February 1984 

…to organize. Yes, but I praise Indians very much and I also praise with you. But we have certain very bad qualities, and one of them is that we are very extremely untidy people. Our aesthetics are so horribly made that we don’t understand the difference between a plastic bag and a silver jug, such jumbled up things we have. And I think I would request you to insist on arranging things yourself, because then they will pick up and learn things that it is to be done. You have to learn a lot of things from them, but they have to also learn some things from you, and they are very important things. Because it all makes a coefficients, it makes an atmosphere, and a pleasing thing for the gods.

But this is the character of an Indian, Indian character, that whatever is wrong where, whatever is the condition, carry on. See no evil, speak no evil — it’s like that. If anything is bad, let it be as it is. Let it rust, let it absolutely till it becomes so rotten that it is going to fall on your head, then you may put a little support. That’s our character. We’re too tolerant with everything, and that has led us to this kind of an incapacity to work.

But if you see the ritambhara pragya, see the ritambhara pragya, how she works, how she beautifully does everything, how she creates everything so beautifully. There’s so much neatness if you go to a jungle, you will not find anything dirty, filthy, smelling — nothing. Everything washed up, cleaned up. The nature works in beautiful circles. Everything works out so much beautifully that when we call ourselves ‛natural“ we should understand that ritambhara pragya is the most natural thing. And how ritambhara pragya works is with complete neatness and complete cleanliness of the whole thing.

Indians will be personally very, very clean, extremely clean they are, no doubt. But collectively they don’t understand cleanliness. If you see their roads, if you see their outside of the houses, it’s all dirty. And that is what I will blame our Indian men, you see, they are extremely conscious that they are human beings. You see, we have only two races in India, women and men. There is no third race. Men are not supposed to do any work, inside, outside, anywhere. They don’t see to the outside of the house. Like in England I find men are all the time doing the sweeping, swabbing, everything outside. They do mowing of the lawn, looking after the garden, everything. Here the men will be just standing with their hands on their waist and ordering the wives, or if not the wife, the servants and all that.

And whatever may be, the wife may be dominating as far as money is concerned, but all these things the man is not going to do. He’ll just give up; he’ll say, ‛I am not supposed to do all these things.“ That’s why collectively in this country we can never be clean people, because our men will just sit down. They won’t do anything, just they won’t do anything. Only the women are supposed to do everything, and that’s how our collective cleanliness is zero, absolute zero.

For example, if there’s a W.C. not working in England, I can’t think of any man who will sit down for five minutes. He’ll himself do it, he’ll get a plumber, he’ll do somehow or other, try to manage. Here, it’s not all right — it doesn’t matter, it’s all right. No, see no evil — manage. This is how we have lived all centuries now I think, and it’s high time for all Sahaja yogis to change themselves.

Now, here there are many artists sitting in this part, but the men are not doing anything — puja the women are doing. And the women don’t know anything how to do it, so the whole thing can be absolutely wretched. It is not, it is a sort of a character with us, we do this way. But otherwise we have so many qualities. We have so many qualities that you can’t imagine how much we have got through our traditions. We are very humble people, we are extremely loving, affectionate, we’ll go to any extent to serve others. We are not cunning people, we are not meticulous, we don’t calculate. We are very hospitable. All these things are there, no doubt. But these things that we have to learn from you, it’s maybe gross, to look at it looks gross, but it’s not.

Just now as you see that if it is properly done, if it is nicely done, I mean, at least I feel very much pleased with it, and everybody feels pleased about it. And when somebody sees the film also, they’ll be pleased to see this kind of a film where there’s something sensibly put up and everything is nicely done, care has been taken. Also shows a kind of a understanding that this is the worship of the Adi Shakti, and you cannot take liberties with it. Imagine, in these ordinary temples they spend so much money; even the walls, the doors, the windows, everything made of silver. They do so much to create that. But if you people miss it — the Indians, I am saying — then it’s going to be very dangerous for you.

One must understand that you cannot just play about — just ‛Mother is coming.“ Nobody came to even call Me. Somebody should have come to call Me. I just walked on Myself. Here, this is not the way to behave, and the Indians must learn these things, that somebody must come to call Me. After all, you see, all these protocols they are going to learn from you, from the Indians; and if you don’t have any protocol about it, how are they going to get it?

So this is what one has to understand, that as English have to learn from French and French have to learn from Germans, and Germans have to learn from, say, Austrians, or Austrians have to learn from Swiss, whatever it is, it’s very important that the Indians must learn from the Western people. Certain things, that the way they respect their women — first of all that, the way they respect their women. Of course, one should not go to that limit that the women just dominate all the time. I mean, American women are, I have seen about women, they are horrible. But still I would say that one must learn, one must learn how to respect the women. Women are human beings. Your Mother is a woman, and you must learn how to respect a woman. And if you don’t know how to respect the woman, then in this country I’m sure there cannot be bliss, whatever you may try.

So the men must learn that, they must know how to talk to their sisters, to their mothers, to their wives. But if there’s a woman who is dominating, you see, if there’s a dominating woman then she becomes a prime minister in this country. That’s what we are. If you get a dominating woman then she can manage. If she’s a simple woman, she’s good, she’s religious, she’s submissive, then she’s finished. If she’s dominating, then men are afraid of such women. This is very sad and that gives a very bad images.

So I feel that as ritambhara pragya works out everything so well; in the nature if you see how she beautifully creates everything, how she chooses things, how she places things, how the colors change. You’ll never find anything loud, anything obstructing, anything that is destructive, vulgar, new — nothing. You find everything so beautifully done that it creates an inspiration in a human mind, in a human heart which can be of a stone also. Even French, you see, they get inspired by ritambhara pragya. So you can imagine people with stone hearts can get inspired, people who have very funny ideas about human beings can get inspired by ritambhara pragya. So why not we the Sahaja yogis should get inspiration from ritambhara pragya, and try to make everything look nice, beautiful, and must have coefficients by which we can have the proper channel for our vibrations.

And this is what I feel is lacking in the coordination between East and West. Let us give them this simple thing as to understand how you respect your women, how you respect the aesthetics, how you look after things. I know in the London, supposing I have to have a puja, I don’t want to see these things at all. On the contrary, I am enamored the way things are done — always. Here also they work out, I’m not saying always, but it could have been much better a little bit, because a film has to be done and all that.

But this is the trouble is that in our everyday look, outlook we are like that. You will see that everywhere you go in the villages the problem is, there are bathrooms, there are W.C.s, but never repaired. Once spoiled means spoiled once for all. Telephone is spoiled, it’s spoiled forever. At least in America people will go and buy; they will not repair, but they will go and buy new one. Here they will not buy new one, nor they will have any replacement — carry on with it throughout. That is a very bad character we have got, which we must change. We should try to see everything is working all right.

Now, come to the kundalini. Supposing the kundalini goes out of order, are we going to give it up? If one chakra is not good, are we going to give it up? If there’s something wrong with — that point Indians are very particular, much more than the Westerners — if the kundalini is out, they’ll get after it. If one chakra is out they’ll get after it, they’ll clean it. Because they are the roots, you see, and the root doesn’t bother about the beauty; but the tree has to look after the beauty. So this is a combination which has to be worked out properly by you both, and the things will work out very well, I think, if you understand what co-relationship you have with each other, what you have to learn from them and what they have to learn from you.

Now, today is a special day I thought of having a puja, because today is the moon — just see, in front of Me here — and today is the first day the moon is waxing *[ Shri Mataji may mean «waning.»] In the science of Sahaja Yoga, the moon is the spirit in our heart. It is the spirit in our heart, meaning in Marathi purnantara. It’s the spirit in our heart, and it shines when the sun reflects on it. When the sun — the sun, that is the sun of God. When the sun of God reflects on the heart, then the moon shines in the human heart. But when it shines as a moon, then Shiva Himself lifts it up and puts it on His head. So the human beings who are blessed by the sun of God, who are being awakened by the sun of God, that is you can say that it is Shri Ganesh or Lord Jesus Christ, any one of them, if they enlighten the heart of human beings, then it becomes a shining moon.

And the amavasya, the day when it’s the dark night, is when a man is not a realized soul at all. The realized soul is like the full moon. Now today is the day when the moon is slightly, one degree less. It’s a important day for us because this is the first day when it is waxing [waning.] And that is the day we have to fix up our moon within ourselves, that we start waxing [waning] by degrees. Into sixteen degrees we to go on waxing [waning.] And when that happens we don’t realize that there is no shining in there. The shining is going out. And we have to be careful, we have to look after it, and we have to work it out so that we worship that day when it starts waxing [waning.]

It can wax [wane] with many things. You see, we have so many ways of finishing off the light that God has given us in our heart, that is the spirit. One of them is, very great one is the thinking that we do about it. The first it starts when we start thinking about it, rationalizing about it. You must know that when I speak, I don’t speak: actually these are all mantras, and whatever I do, I work it out in such a way that what I’m saying works out within you. It’s the Krita Yuga, and it works out. When I say that, the whole machinery gets geared up. So when I say something, if you start reflecting it in your mind you are gone, because you are not receiving what I am trying to do. If it is a mantra, that means whatever I am saying, those sound waves will create that being within you that I am describing. So at that time, once you start thinking about it you cannot receive it, because you have put a barrier of your thought. So when I’m talking, just try to receive it. Just say ‛yes, yes“ inside, so that you receive it within yourself.

So this is one of the greatest problems of today, is that whatever you say everybody must answer, everybody must argue, everybody must say, ‛No, this could be that way, that could be, there are alternatives, this, that“ — everything goes on. There is no need at all to do all that. And when you start doing that, then all the gods and goddesses get angry one by one, and that’s how you start losing your light within yourself. So this is the most displeasing thing for gods and goddesses, that you don’t recognize Me, that you don’t recognize Me fully, that you still argue with Me. Still you start asking questions, still you start giving Me alternatives. Absolutely, this is just not necessary for you to go on arguing, to go on discussing it.

It is just that you assimilate whatever I am saying, and that assimilation itself will open out those new dimensions within you, which God wants to be opened out. So better surrender in that way your ego. Ego is the one that makes you say something, argue something, discuss something. And this is what is the biggest problem, what that I have seen when the first day of the waxing [waning] starts. So today is the first day when we should say that our ego should not start that drooping down.

It was nice to dance, enjoy, everything, but then when you sit down — while dancing you can’t think, thank God! But as soon as the whole thing is over you sit down, again the mind starts going on, ‛tck, tck, tck, tck,“ and then we start thinking. And once we start thinking, then we are losing that light which we have received. Sort of, the moon has started waxing [waning] and that point one has to be careful, because that’s the most important thing. If you do not allow it to happen first time, then it can stop. It’s very simple to understand that if you can stop a sari or a last bit of it, it will not blow out, because you are holding onto it. So at the very beginning of waxing [waning] of the moon, if you are careful about it, if you are alert about it, it will never happen; whatever you have achieved will be sustained, and then you can increase. But that’s the very important point which we miss, and that’s why we have lots of trouble and lots of problems in Sahaja Yoga.

So now as you are moving for your further journey, so many of you have come for the first time, I have to tell you: don’t think, don’t reflect. In this you must learn from Indians. They don’t think about these things. But they have to think, because when they think they’ll start thinking about gross things which they have to think. I mean you don’t think. You’ll be giving up all that is nonsensical that you have been thinking about.

So don’t think about it, don’t reflect, don’t bother. Try to be subtler and subtler and not misidentified with your tags that are outside — like hooks, you see. And the mind is like a hook. I have seen all of you have some one hook outside and all the yarns go, hook around it, again another yarn goes and hooks around it. And the whole mind is attached to that hook. That is Mr. Ego.

If you can cut your strings somehow or other and say, ‛I’m not going to think. I have come here for my spiritual ascent. Let me be what I am. If Mother says something I’ll listen to it, if She scolds me I’ll listen to it, She does something, whatever She does, let me see that as I have come here for chiseling out myself; let Her chisel me out, let the Nature chisel me out, let the whole atmosphere chisel me out, puja should chisel me out.“ But you just become like a beautiful, we can say, a jade in the hands of the Divine, and allow the Divine to take out all your beauty. Just allow the Divine to take out your beauty, and then you can enjoy your beauty. But if you hand over to all these old things, then it will be very difficult.

So as being the first day, I have started it on the day when the moon is about to wane, you see. So I hope you’ll be all very careful about it. Be alert. You have to be very alert. You have to go beyond time. You don’t have to think about food. Once in a while if you don’t eat, doesn’t matter. Nobody is going to die, I tell you! We don’t eat for days together, nothing happens to us. So food has not come, the breakfast time, the dinner time — I mean, there food is a religion, I think, so everything has a time. Here there is no time for anything. We’ll do whenever we feel like, you see? Let’s do that way.

So we have to be prepared for a nice thorough cleansing, and a very enjoyable time throughout. These two things can work hand in hand, if you just accept that you don’t have to think. If you don’t think, everything can be done without any problem, and you’ll enjoy life very much.

So that’s one thing.

* Note: This was the first day of the waning of the moon, and Shri Mataji did use the word ‛waning“ near the end of this talk (English part)’

(Shri Mataji contiues in Marathi)