“The Role of Tongue, Sight and Feet in Spiritual Evolution”. Delhi (India), 2 April 1976.

I was telling about how difficult it is to be a Mother and a Guru, because both are very contradictory functions. And specially for a person who wants to be in charge of your salvation, to be the Moksha Dayini, it is extremely difficult. Because the path is so delicate and so treacherous that all of you have to come yourself, walk across. And if you fall this side or that side there is disaster for you. I am watching your climbing, and I see you coming up, with a Mother’s heart and a Guru’s hand. And then I get the glimpses of people falling. I try to tell them, “Come up”. Sometimes I shout, sometimes I pull them up, sometimes I love them, caress them. You can yourself judge, within yourself, how much I have worked on you, how much I have loved you. But how much do you love yourself is the point.

I have told you that, for a Sahaja Yogi, the whole thing should be decided by the witnessing power. Now the witnessing power is silent, it doesn’t talk. If you are a very talkative person, then it’s not going to help you much. You have to come in balance. For the first time in this incarnation I have started talking, and I get so troubled because I am not used to this kind of talking. So, for you people, it is necessary that you should not talk unless and until you feel like talking. And very few sentences, conclusive.

As I told you before, the tongue is the master of all the organs of distractions. If you could master your tongue you have mastered all of them, in a way. Because everything has to be palatable. For example, you look at a woman: if she is not palatable, then she may be beautiful but you don’t want to look at her. She decides, the tongue decides, about a person.

If you want to eat some food, if it is not palatable, then you don’t want to eat that food. It has to be palatable.

Then a thought also. A thought has to be palatable. If it is not palatable, you are not going to have it.

So, the deciding factor is the tongue. The root of the tongue goes up to the Vishuddhi chakra, which controls your ego and superego. Or you can say that the tongue is reflected in superego and ego in a way. Through your tongue, when you speak, one can make out whether you are in the realm of ego or superego. She expresses, she decides.

But if you understand her, then you know how to handle her. She is your friend. And Sarasvati Herself resides in your tongue.

If you know how to handle your tongue then Sahaja Yoga can rise very high up. Because when others meet you, as Sahaja Yogis, they also see the way you talk, the way you eat, the way that things are palatable to you.

It is the tongue that decides. If you are really very much evolved, you will be amazed that, if you eat some food somewhere, immediately the tongue will immediately throw it out. It won’t have it if it is something wrong.

If some “prasad”, so-called, is given to you, which is given by some wrong type of a man, immediately your tongue will throw it away. It won’t be able to take it in. And even if you take, somehow or other, and it’s forced down in the stomach, still the tongue will inform the brain that, “Throw it out!” and the brain will inform the stomach that, “Throw it out!” It will be unpalatable.

So, the reaction of Vishnu in the stomach, up to the action of Shri Krishna – I mean, the same personality – is all judged by your tongue. So, you must know how pure, holy, your tongue should be. But when you take the name of your Mother with this tongue, you must know it has to be the holiest of holy.

It is very important how you use your tongue. Those who talk very bluntly are just the same [as] those who talk very sweetly: to get something out of you is the intention.

As I have told you, it controls ego and superego. Even the Sahaja Yogis understand that The Witness is also here at the Vishuddhi chakra: so your witnessing power will increase and decrease according to your tongue.

Of course, it controls sixteen sub-plexuses. It also controls the muscles of the eyes, it controls all these muscles, it controls the palate, it controls the teeth. It controls the ears. But [with] ears, you hear something [but] you cannot control it. With tongue you can, because that is the thing which releases, which goes out. With the ear you cannot give anything to others, that is just one way. This [tongue] is double way thing: you take in something and also can throw out something. It has a double purpose. It is a very important organ and that’s why we have to look after our tongues.

When the Kundalini is rising that means one thing is there, that your attention has become subtle: from gross to subtle. But it has to become subtler and subtlest, and then it has to go beyond that. By becoming subtle only, it comes up through the Agnya. Because Agnya is just like a hole in a needle. So it penetrates through that, through the subtle there. Because of that subtleness, your attention sees everything, but in a subtle form. Now, this is a new experience for you, that’s why you do not recognise what is that.

In a group of Sahaj Yogis, you can witness these things very carefully and clearly. There is one person whose eyes are roving still, around: he’s a Sahaj Yogi; he’s sitting down, he’s looking here, looking there, looking that side, who is coming, who is going. Of course, this person is still in the gross state you can say. Though he’s got his attention up here by Mataji’s pulling it out, you see, and hanging onto it! (Laughing) But still the person himself is still dragging outside into the gross. So, don’t bother about that type.

But even the person who is now, say, attentive: we can say attentive, because, you see, words are not so precise. Even if you notice such a person, you will find his two forces in a very subtle way are acting: one is his subtle ego, another is a subtle superego. When you become subtle, suddenly you get, also, powers of the subtle.

Let us see the ego side of it. You start feeling, inside yourself – in a very subtle way, that you do not recognise that it is ego, [as] it is too subtle to be recognised – that you have got powers now to cure. You start feeling that now you have powers to raise the Kundalini. See how it goes down sedimenting into you. Then you start feeling you have powers to express yourself, because you think you have learnt Sahaj Yoga, and now you know the essence of it and you can talk about it. This subtle ego develops into you.

And the fourth type of subtle ego develops when you see the other person’s superego is developing. That is the most dangerous!

It so happens that some people, whose superego develops now, because they have had previous gurus, previous problems: the way they have been following religion, some mistakes and all that. Because of their mistakes, their superego develops. You see something happening to them. Say Mr. X sees Y: that a superego is coming onto him, some negativity is flowing into him, so his ego starts developing against that force, in a subtle way.

Now he calls it a positive force, it is a positive force, no doubt, but he over-crosses it. When he over-crosses that side, he tries to push the superego [of] another person [and] he trips over. He thinks he is doing the right thing. Of course, he is doing in a way, but [only] to a point. And then he becomes very hot-tempered. He goes on passing remarks about others. He says harsh things. That’s how the subtlest point starts. To a point is all right, to a point, because, in this I would say Ganesh and Jesus should be treated as the judging points.

Christ did not mind when He was crucified. Not only that but He asked for forgiveness for all those. But if His Mother was even touched by somebody, He would have taken out His Eleven Rudras and killed them. That’s the point.

When it comes to your Mother then, of course, your ego and superego both have a meaning. But beyond that, if it starts [becoming] directed at every Sahaj Yogi, then you don’t know where to have the balance. For example then, such people, anything done to them also, they identify themselves with Mother, and they think, “No, no, he has said it to me, that means it is to Mother also.” It is not.

You must know where you are criticised and where your Mother is criticised. These are two things. That’s why I said [the] judging point is Christ. When He was crucified, He accepted it, though He was so much one with His Mother. But still He could strike that lining (balance). When you are crucified, you are not Christ. But if anybody says anything against the Mother, then of course.

Now try to understand yourself. Now you are watching yourself. Whatever I am saying, you are watching yourself. It is for your good. That is how you find somewhere a person who gets a superego invasion. First of all, superego invasion is very, very deep and subtle, it’s extremely deep. It comes into you in such a manner, that you do not understand it.

The other person who is very positive, so-called, will think that, “That person has got a negativity.” But he won’t know that he is over-crossing his positivity towards negativity itself. Because once you cross this line you go to this side. Once you cross this line you go to this side.

So immediately you are becoming negative once you cross this point. And it’s the Sahasrara, is the Brahmarandhra. Beyond the Brahmarandhra, if you are pushing down, then you are crossing to the other side. You are playing into hands of other people.

Now, you must judge yourself and see, “Now, Hello Mr. X, how are you behaving now?” Immediately you become a witness, you see, witness of yourself. Now, how the superego and ego? You see sometimes in some people sometimes the ego presses the superego and the superego presses the ego. I have seen it. They don’t know whether they are egoistical or whether they are dominated. They really do not know. They cannot decide, because it’s such a wobbling going on all the time.

That’s why I say, “Baithak.” [Meaning that] you must sit down, settle down. See for yourself. “Am I settled?”. Watch in yourself.

Even you can feel the force, actually you can feel the force moving from this side to this side. You’ll feel the force moving from this side to this side. Try to bring it in the centre.

Now, ego and superego, when they go on like that, you can say wobble from one to another, it happens like this: at one moment you start feeling dejected, frustrated, fed up with yourself: “Nonsense! Get out!”. The other moment you sit on yourself, sit on other people. You ask others to, “Get out! This is bad! I didn’t like that man!” “That fellow came, that fellow caught me!” “That thing happened, this thing happened!” Two extremes you move to. That’s not the way to Sahaj Yoga.

Sahaj Yoga – Saha-ja means that you are a witness. Saha-ja. It has double meaning. Sahaj is normally used for a word which is ‘simple’ – sahaj. You are in a sahaj method, means you are a witness, you watch it. Look at these trees, they are just witnessing, they are not saying anything, they are just there. It is ‘to be’. It is just to be at this point. Are we that?

Every movement, dealing with anything. Then you will not have any organisational problems. We have organisational problems because you are not a witness.

You will find two types of people; one who will say, “I am suffering too much”, the others who will say, “No, not me!” Then they interchange also, their attitudes interchange. They can mix up (She laughs). But you can just know where to stop it. You become a witness, silent.

After talking for one minute you just become silent. That’s the best way, I think, I can say, a practical way. It’s for your tongue to be silent. As far as possible to be silent and be watching. But some people are silent and brooding, that’s the worst thing that you are doing. No, silent and watching. Neither brooding, not planning how to hurt others. And then suddenly your sentence will come out which would be so filthy, so cutting, so horrid, so full of venom, that you think, “From where it has come? Oh God!” Such silence is absolutely useless.

It should be like a river flowing. The river has its own depth and on top it is flowing. It’s such one mass. That kind of a silence one should have. Not a forced one, but a silence of a witness. Even such a person is talking [but], inside, the flow of the silence is there. You are one with that silence, it is filling you up all the time. And you can witness that in every leaf, in every movement of the leaf, you see the silence flowing. They do not speak even, but they manifest. In the same way, you do not speak, you manifest. Of course, human beings are higher than them because they speak, but if speech becomes a burden, a problem, a cutting instrument, it is better not to speak.

Another thing a Sahaja Yogi must know, that eyes are very important for Sahaj Yoga. When the Kundalini rises, then the dilatation of the pupils takes place, because you have seen the children how their eyes are dilated at you. They keep gaping at everything that is happening – just gaping, silence, the complete silent seeing goes on through the eyes.

And that’s why eyes are very important. You must learn to fix your eyes within yourself, in your heart. Humble down, in your heart. Fix your eyes in your heart. I say that way, but I don’t know if you can do it. I don’t know if you can do it. But if you could do that’s a very good way of doing things.

Looking at everyone, gazing at everyone, seeing this, seeing that, is a very bad exercise for your eyes, it’s a very bad habit. Try to keep your eyes low, on the Earth, Mother Earth, watching the lower part of the body than the face. Because face, if you are made that way that you can watch the face it’s all right, but you are not yet made. Best thing is to see to the feet. And your eyes will touch their gross sense, feet, from where the sensation of vibrations go up, upward, and the Kundalini rises better.

Actually those who suffer from low Kundalini rising, if they could rub oil on their feet and wash their feet, it’s a very good thing. That’s why Christ washed the feet of His disciples. I wish I could do that, if you allow Me in subtlety. Because the whole grossness is in the feet, and if you touch somebody with your eyes, Realised people I am saying, their feet, most of their grossness will disappear. And you won’t have that much problem with them. That’s why Christ washed the feet of His disciples. You also wash your feet and keep them clean so that the grossness drops out.

I have explained in brief way, but if you want to ask me questions, ask, because still I find that the Sahaja Yogis are not rising as fast as they could.

Because the bringing Kundalini up to this, and up to this, is possible for Me, but taking it back into your gross being is your own job which you have to do it. In Marathi as they say, “Da adi karatza maga paiya”– I have built the top, the dome for you, and the dome is now to be supported by you. I have taken you to the dome, but you cannot bring it down, because either you are frustrated with yourself – but being frustrated what are you going to gain? – or else, you are frustrated with others. Just be silent and be witnessing. As Sai Baba has said, “saburi”, patience, it comes in.

H. H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi