Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Birmingham, UK
20 April 1985 

So this is how Mahamaya plays. They had planned everything. They had all the arrangements made and the sari was missing. All right. So they came and told Me that the sari’s missing, so now what to do? You can’t have puja without the sari, according to them. So I said, ‛All right, let’s wait. If it arrives in time we’ll have it; otherwise we can have it later. But I was least disturbed, least upset. Because I do not have a mental conception of it. But if you have a mental conception, ‛Oh, we have programmed everything, arranged everything. We have done this and now it’s fizzling out.“ Doesn’t matter. Nothing is fizzling out. [laugh]

But that is what we cannot do. Because you asked Me today, ‛What is Mahamaya?“, this is what it is. [laugh]

You must learn to accept whatever comes your way. That’s one of the things. And here where we feel frustrated, angry, upset and spoil our joy, one of the things, because we make a mental projection. Mentally we calculate something. This has to be. And it’s really in a way a subtle ego feeling. Because I thought, ‛That’s what is destined, all right. We’ll have it tomorrow. What does it matter?“ In any case I told Mr. Srivastava that I’ll be back only about two o’clock.

He said, ‛Why not in the morning?“

‛I don’t think it will be feasible.“

So this is how you become avyagra – Vyagra means person who is worried – The one who is not worried. So we worry because of two things. Firstly, we worry that what will happen in the future?. Future doesn’t exist. If you have made up your mind that this should happen in the future, then you get upset. That’s one thing. But you have not made any mental picture, you will see what comes on the scene. You’ll watch whatever appears. Then you’re not worried, because you’re anxious to see what’s going to happen. That’s one way, that you feel hurt, that you’re worried.

Secondly you worry when you have built up a myth, picture of that ‛Oh, we’re going to have a puja now, and we are not having it.“ So you are upset. What difference does it make? And then you cannot enjoy My talk today and the puja tomorrow. Because today you think it was going to be puja. We are all dressed up well. Very nice.[laugh]

We spend so much time to get ready for the puja. All right, we’ll have it tomorrow. What does it matter? We really decorated ourselves well. We were all ready for the puja, we were sitting here for the puja, and now what has happened!

I didn’t wear My sari for puja at all. I knew what was coming [laugh] So, it’s all right to see you like this. Because normally in the puja, I never see you dressed like this, I’m busy with Myself. Now I can see you nicely dressed. I feel very happy about it.

And these mental things are responsible for frustrating us. Like as I was telling you about money. Same thing happens. In India people come. They keep so much money for buying things. You see, sometimes they come loaded just like what you call traders. The customs are so kind, I mean Sahaj Yogis have a free pass, whether in India, or in England or anywhere. And then they have a mental picture, ‛We’ll buy this.“ All right? ‛And see so much we’ll spend.“ And if they have to spend some money for something else, they get upset because they have decided to spend so much. So then they might go to spend some money. That’s also, you see how Mahamaya works, you see? It has happened with all of you. So they go and buy something.

I’ll tell you Gavin bought once a image. I don’t know he paid about, I think 500 rupees – no how much have you paid about 4,000 or I don’t know. How many pounds you paid for that?

Gavin: Forty pounds.

Forty pounds. He paid forty pounds for that thing. I would not even pay five pounds for that. And I said, ‛What’s this? How did you buy?“ ‛Oh, it’s a very nice thing, Mother. We got it in Agra.“

I said, ‛It is from Nepal. If you buy it in Agra, I think it is very expensive and it’s such a waste.“ But the worst was the vibrations were very bad. They thought they’ve bought something great. And the vibrations were very bad and I noticed it. So he said, ‛All right, Mother. I’ll keep it in Your house and You improve the vibrations.“ I tried. It would not work out. I said, ‛Gavin, what to do now? You sink it in the Thames. I don’t know what.“ And then luckily it happened C.P. said that, ‛I have to take some present of Buddha to Japan.“ I said, ‛These Japanese exhibitors are good for nothing. No bhoot is going to trouble them.“ So he said, ‛Can I buy something?“

I said, ‛Buddha’s things means it’s not easy to get here.“ ‛But I have avlokhiteshwara. Would you like to take that?“ He said, ‛What is the price?“

I said, ‛Forty pounds.“ He said, ‛All right. All right. I’ll take it. And he bought it for forty pounds. I said, ‛All right. Give it to the Japanese fellow.“ He was a very nasty person. I said, ‛Good for him.“ And I found it out that, you see because I knew that it will have some purpose somewhere.

So this is how our mental images are so rigid that there’s no flexibility in our understanding. And if you start making it flexible then (and this is very early stages when Gavin had gone to India, very early. Now he’s different.) So if you become flexible, then what happens you see the joy of it. You see how things get adjusted. But if it is rigid, then you get caught up into your own rigidity. And you can never enjoy it, because there’s no movement for the Mahamaya power. And that’s how then you feel frustrated. You see it is all your own creation. The mental projection is your creation, and also the destruction is your creation. Nobody is responsible for that. You are responsible. But who does that is Mahamaya, ‛Sankalpa vikalpa karo“, you do decide something.

You say, ‛Now today I will go to Birmingham. I have to go to Birmingham. I can’t come for a meditation. I have to.“ After some time you will find that it’s impossible to do something, but to do what is needed for Sahaj Yoga. Because whenever you will try to do something, you will find it will frustrate you, it will upset you. If not, then it will make you realize what is important, what you’ve missed. Sometimes you get lost on the way. You think that, ‛Oh God. We have lost the way. What to do? Now where to go?“

If I was you, I would say, ‛All right. We’ve lost the way. Must be to find something else.“ And there I find something else which I’ve been looking for, for days together. I just see that there.

So if you trust your joy giving quality of your Spirit, that you’re not going to lose that quality of the Spirit, at any cost. Then that acts as a guide and you understand the flexibility of all these worldly, transitory things. They are all changeable, only you cannot change because you are the Spirit.

Today I wanted to talk about Mooladhara, which is very important subject. I think I have talked about it many a times. But in the West I must say, because of our wrong attitudes and the acceptance of wrong mental projections of other people who are very dominating, we have very much ruined our Mooladhara.

Despite the fact that Kundalini has risen with whatever weaker power that Mooladhara had, and has sustained itself, we must know that we can always fall a trap to our different bifurcations which we had created before. It’s a very serious matter that the Mooladhara chakra has been really shattered, and we have created pathways into which our attention can go if we are not very careful. Now supposing if somebody is a dishonest person, or a miserly person, or money oriented, it is very gross and you can see it so clearly. You see yourself and you get shocked how, ‛Why did I say such a thing? Why did I do such a thing?“

But when it comes to the left side nonsense, sin against the Mother, it’s a secretive action that’s only between you and yourself. Nobody knows what goes on in your mind, except for you. Nobody knows what you are going to do next moment in your privacy when you are alone.

Nobody can look into you except for your Mother. I also only feel your Mooladharas.

To be very frank with you, that’s one center I find it difficult to feel Myself. The reason is, I have a very, very strong Mooladhara, which is not so sensitive, I would say. It is not bothered. The attention of My Mooladhara doesn’t go near any other Mooladhara. It just recedes back, that’s the action it plays all the time. So I also, unless and until it is very badly off, I mean the person is very close to Me, then I feel the Mooladhara very strongly. But still I can. Supposing you give Me something, that thing is used by you, immediately I can feel it. So the correction of Mooladhara entirely depends on you. And without a strong Mooladhara you cannot rise high.

Do what you like.

Now for people who are Indian, who have respected their Mooladharas, there are so many methods and ways given how to raise the power of Mooladhara. But that won’t work out with the Western people, because it’s a damaged one. It’s one which is a shattered one, and which does not work on the physical side of the Mooladhara, but on the emotional side as we call the ‛Mana“, the left side. So, even you may not talk in that way, but your mind is still in that realm. And you still think on that realm. Even mentally, you are in it. Or you are seeing things, wanting to see such things, wanting to enjoy such things. That lurking attraction is still there. Your Mooladhara cannot strengthen. And we have to realize that I’m talking to Western people. I would not say the same to the people from India.

So now we have to work out much harder. To be on the watch-out, to deal with yourself. And it is more a mental activity – ‛mental“ meaning I mean the emotional side. You have to watch your mind. In English, it’s a very funny word ‛mind“ is, but ‛Mana“, through which we cater to our emotional side, to our desires. Where is it going? Where is this movement of our mind? What is it doing? You have to stand against your mind, stand against your desires, or you can face it and see for yourself clearly what’s happening. It’s for you to decide. Nobody is going to correct you on this point. I know you people have been confessing to Me. I never read your letters, to be very frank. Whatever letters you sent, I would not read it. Whatever confessions you have made, I burnt all those letters. I haven’t got any idea as to what you did. Nor do I want to know about it. That’s not My concern. My concern is that now you do not dwell upon the same ideas, on the same level, or on any level whatsoever, we can say.

It is in thoughtless awareness you can combat the thoughts that come to you from wrong type of Mooladhara.

Maybe some of you have got bhoots on your Mooladhara. And we have some physical treatment for such bhoots also, which I’ll tell to Gavin sometime, which you can ask. But you cannot always say that, ‛It is a bhoot and I’m all right. I’m away from the bhoot.“ You are not. Whenever you say, ‛I have a bhoot,“ means you yourself you’re siding with the bhoot.

You see a person as a Sakshi. That means you see that person but you do not get a reaction, which is killer of joy. You yourself can feel your Mooladharas very well. You can feel it on your fingertips also. And be alert about it. If you want to be kind to yourself, know that you have to divert your attention towards a sane married life. But also that should not be too much. Because what I have learnt now, that in the West people have devised methods of transferring their attention from one person to another. Mental acrobatics of different type they have devised to destroy their pure attention. Don’t play onto these.

There are so many other things by which we express that we are still under the trap of a bad Mooladhara. The way you dress up, the way you walk, the way you sit, the way you talk, the way you behave, to impress other people. I am to be impressed by other people in Sahaja Yoga itself. The only impression that should really work is the height of ascent that others have achieved. You can do it; it’s not difficult. When the Kundalini can rise with all such shattered Mooladharas, I’m sure you can cure your Mooladhara completely. But your question is first of all of strengthening the Mooladhara, for which I think you all have to go into a kind of tapasya.

That’s why I say sometimes that the Western people should take to less of meat, especially the red meats and beefs, and horses, and dogs – and I don’t know what else you eat.[LAUGHS] Take more to vegetarian food. I’m not saying vegetarianism, you understand that. Take more to things which do not give you so much heat in the body. Even fish is very [degrading?]. So take to a life which is in a way ascetic, but don’t take to these horrible health foods also. I can’t tolerate them I tell you. They’re not meant for human beings, but for animals I think. They churn your stomach completely, and it’s horrible. This Country Store thing I took once and I said, ‛had enough of it!“ Country Store – the whole country went into My stomach. [LAUGHS]

So for you people where to go?

Those who are suffering from Mooladhara must know that food does make a difference in the powers of Mooladhara. So if you have to get it cured, first of all you have to soothe it down, it is over-excited, over-excited. Any man you touch, any woman you touch, any woman you look at … I just don’t understand, it’s worse than monkeys. Horrible. You have to soothe it down, cool it down, so that Ganesha bestows His blessings upon your Mooladhara. There’s no grace. But it’s not so outside that I can say that, ‛you must respect yourself.“ It cannot work out with those words I know. You have to sit down, do meditation and try to soothe it down. I’ll discuss with Gavin and I’ll tell him what things can be done about it, because I can’t tell you in the open like this. But still this is all physical. Mentally you must be on the watch to see where does this mind go – to dirty things. Why does it always go to this sensation? See the birds, see the flowers, see the nature, see the beautiful people, just see them.

Another horrible thing in the West is that the women must expose their body to get men excited. Men do the same I think. They always try to excite each other and live in a stupid excitement. You have to expose beautiful things, like flowers, beautiful ornaments. All right? But you’re not a thing! It’s your private property. You don’t put all your gold on the streets, do you? Better try that, sometimes. You will mind people plundering your gold, but you don’t mind your chastity being plundered. Everyone looking at you with dirty eyes. You don’t feel insulted. Because ego is a dirty stuff. It does not mind. It feels happy that people are watching you. They are plundering you. They are looting your chastity. But Sahaja Yogis are not like that. But still I must say you must cleanse your hearts, cleanse your minds, take yourself out of it.

The minds are very funnily placed, and that’s why the greatest complications there are in the brains of people. They are very confused, very confused people. Because there is no wisdom in this kind of life. You become just a sex-oriented personality. It is actually just the other way round. If you are money-oriented, you want to preserve money. If you are possession-oriented you want to preserve it. If you get one little antique piece you want to preserve it. And why not this property of yours which is the highest of all, to be preserved, to be adorned, to be worshipped?

I’m quite worried on that point that secretly people are indulging into such things. And they’re hypocritical sometimes, they don’t mind being hypocritical about it. They are Sahaja Yogis, all right, but in this matter they think they can go about the way they like. And sometimes some of them say that ‛Mother has said it’s all right.“ I never said so! There’s one point I cannot compromise is this. You must have a chaste outlook towards yourself, towards your life, towards your being, towards your personality. You are saints. And if a saint doesn’t have a good character – I call it the character, the essence of character – is not a saint.

So this purity has to be maintained. There cannot be any compromise on that. You cannot hit at the roots of everything. If it works out, in a collective way, nobody cheats oneself, nobody deceives oneself and puts the mind into right track of ascent. Thinking about the ascent, how you are going to rise, thinking of the moments when you had the joys, thinking of the day where you met Me first, thinking of all the other beautiful and holy things, your mind can be cleansed. And whenever such a thought comes in, you have to say, ‛not this, not this, not this.“ It’s more mental than physical, I tell you. I know it’s difficult, but if you can get realization why not this also?

You all have to understand that there is no compromise on this. And a day may come, if you continue with it, you will be thrown away completely, just like any other devil is thrown out. So there is no compromise. Tell yourself, don’t deceive yourself, don’t cheat yourself. You cannot ascend if there is any lurking thing within you. You will be dragged down, because that’s your weakness, and you will become weaker, and weaker and weaker.

Only question is ‛where is your attention?“ Divert. Divert your attention. First you will need some exercise, some effort, and afterwards it will come automatically. You won’t have to exert, you won’t have to worry. On the contrary, it will become impossible how to be otherwise. So much conditioning is there. We have played into the hands of conditioning, we have ruined ourselves. This conditioning is the subtlest of all, and the worst of all. It’s impossible to combat in Sahaja Yoga, unless and until you individually take up the responsibility of looking after it.

Mooladhara is one of the most delicate, and the most powerful chakra. It has so many folds and it has so many dimensions. If your Mooladhara is not all right, your memory will fail. If your Mooladhara is not all right, to begin with, your wisdom will fail. You will have no sense of direction. The insanity that is now crawling up in America before they become forty years of age is because their Mooladharas are out. Most of the diseases which are incurable come because of weak Mooladharas, on the physical side. On the mental side, most of the mental problems we saw there, most, I would say ninety percent, are due to weak Mooladhara. If a person has a strong Mooladhara, powerful Mooladhara, it doesn’t get into trouble. Because you know there’s a very strong hold of the Mooladhara in the back there.[SHRI MATAJI PLACES HER HAND ON THE BACK OF HER HEAD].

And when your mind goes off, you blame the brain. It’s not the brain, mostly it is the Mooladhara. So for physical safety and for your emotional safety also, you have to have a sane type of attitude towards Mooladhara. That’s why I’m very anxious that you all should get married, and after marriage, after a few days, you find that your attention starts diverting to other problems of married life.

But not if you are not a Sahaja Yogi, because the sensationalization has become the main theme of modern life. And you are tossed about on the rough sea of all these deliberate actions of the people. Media, books, ideas, everything, creates this horrible excitable temperament within you.

Such a person doesn’t have any patience, doesn’t have any balance. Actually he’s hypocritical, and has a very bad left Vishuddhi. So many complications take place with this. Before realization, forget the past. Whatever you have done, forget it. Just don’t worry. But remember one thing, that you have damaged your Mooladhara. So you have to look after it, you have to soothe it down, you have to bring it to normalcy. You have to make it a healthy, balanced center, so that Shri Ganesha can rule over it.

Talking about Shri Ganesha, you know vibrations become too much for Me.

We talk of innocence, but to awaken innocence within ourselves we must be on the full watch, on the full alertness about our minds. What is it thinking? Where is it going? Where is this thief going? Is he trying to do some tricks? Is he up to some tricks? All right! You have to be alert, very alert.

I’ve been thinking of talking about it since long. But now I have to tell you one thing. That you’ll be exposed. That is another quality of Mahamaya. She’ll expose you. You’ll be exposed if you try to play tricks with Me. ‛With Me“ means with your Kundalini. If you try to play tricks with your Kundalini, you’ll be exposed. And you’ll be ashamed of yourself. So please be careful, very careful about it, that you again make your Mooladhara very healthy, and powerful.

May God bless you!

So our prayer should be that ‛Let our Mooladhara be healthy and strong.“ That’s all. Let’s pray.

There are certain exercises for Mooladhara. I will explain to Gavin who is your leader in England. Then he will pass it on to you. It should be done verbally. It should not be written down. The leaders of the ashrams and other places should come and see him every month sometime, and these things should be talked. Because it’s a secret, not to be discussed openly. It’s a secret, between you and yourself. It should not be written down anywhere. It should not be mentioned, but should be worked out by all of you, in such a way that you enjoy the bliss of Shri Ganesha. Is more for the ladies, I would say, than for the men. Because men suffer much more than women do. And that’s why women must be very careful. Develop very good relationships with your brothers. Unless and until you really establish your high character, men cannot be improved.

You have seen in India women don’t like it if anyone tries to look at them, or tries to touch them. They don’t like it. Women have killed themselves, burnt themselves up, thousands of them, because they thought some other people may come and touch their body. It’s so related to your Atma, to your Spirit. As if it is the body, innocence is the body of your Spirit. You all can be that, because you have become yoginis now. They were not yoginis, but they knew one thing – the power of their chastity. It’s more for ladies here, that they should try to generate that feeling of nobility, of chastity, of holiness around them, so that the men themselves respect them and develop that feeling within themselves.

Thank you very much.

Such vibrations. As if there has been a Puja.