Public Program, Strasbourg, France. 9 October, 1985.

nb. no video exists due to technical problems.

I bow to all the seekers of truth. You are the lovers of truth and you have been seeking in these modern times. It is a special category of human beings who are seeking, beyond materialism, beyond power, beyond emotional enterprises, because the times are such that we have reached the epitome of our evolution and the breakthrough has to be found. But the way we understand breakthrough in modern times is through our mental understanding because today the human beings are more mental. It analyzes, reflects and tries to understand the truth. But we do not realize that mental projections are always linear. They move on one line up to a point and then they recoil back, (back) upon us, like science has evolved to create hydrogen bombs.
Everything ends up in self-destruction or in collective destruction. Even on political level when we talk of democracy we find it has become demonocracy and when we talk of communism it has become autocracy. So where did we go with all this? We have to reflect again to understand that there must have been some mistake.
The truth that is known through our reading or through our thinking is a partial truth, because partial truth is more dangerous than ignorance. Like you see a land and you think that is the road and when you walk on that little land, you fall into a big ditch. So this is when you see darkness, you don’t want to go there – that’s why say “ignorance is bliss” in a way. So we can say all this knowledge which is extrovert knowledge through our mental understanding and emotional attachments has been the knowledge of the tree. And the tree has grown too big. It has grown so big that it has now to face the truth that it has lost its roots. If the tree becomes so big that the roots are not nourishing it – it has no knowledge of the roots – then the tree will be destroyed. That is the reason why people have turned round to seek what is the truth, the knowledge of the roots. The roots are our nerves. Whatever we know through our nervous system is the truth to us on a very gross level. If I know that this is cold then it is cold. And for everyone it will be cold unless and until he is mad.
Now the knowledge of the roots has to be such that you get new enrichment to the nerves. In your evolution also you must get your enrichment to your nervous system. Like human beings can understand the beauty. If you want to take an animal through a dirty lane it’s very easy, but to take a human being it’s very difficult.
But what is the difference then we have to see that we have developed a new awareness within us about filth and dirt. So if anything has to happen to us as a discovery of truth that we should have a new awareness on our central nervous system. But it should not be like – some people tell me – that we have seen the light. If you have seen the light means that you are not the light. Or some people say that “I start jumping on my chair.” All kinds of funny experiences people think is the experience of the spirit. But what did you gain by that experience is the point. Did you understand this power? Did you know what you are doing? Are you under some sort of a mesmeric power or some other power that is controlling you and you do not know what you are doing?
What did you gain out of it is the problem. If it is awareness you must exactly know what you are doing and what you’ve got. So the people who are of this special category whom I call as seekers, are the epitome of evolutionary process, are attacked, are absolutely under attack by other marketing people! Nowadays God is for sale and the more expensive it is, the better it sells. So in the modern times when a person has become mental, he wants everything new. It doesn’t want to concern itself with any tradition… doesn’t want to concern itself to any tradition nor does he want to know about anything that has happened before!
We must have discretion to know there is tradition and convention and when we find anything wrong in the tradition it has to be dropped – I agree there. Supposing you are climbing on a staircase and you are moving fast and suddenly you find that your progress is stopped, then you want to remove the hurdle. But if you jump down all the staircase, avoiding everything, saying tradition is all wrong, and think your progressing downward is a progress, then you are in for destruction.
So it has little to relate to our traditional ideas of truth also. We have to go to our scriptures which are maybe very ancient or may not be that ancient. And then we find it is everywhere described that you are to be born again. But today the life is so artificial that people certify themselves born again and walk about, “I am born again,” certifying! Like in lunatic asylum they certify that you are a real mad. In the same way there are organizations which certify that you are born again. But what has happened to you that you think you are born again? Supposing somebody gives you a piece of ordinary glass and say this is diamond. You go on proclaiming, “I have got the diamond”. Who is going to believe you? What is the value of that? That is what you have to evaluate when you find that this is the truth – that is the truth – evaluate.
When I come to the West I feel that in this fascination for new things people are becoming absolutely sometimes too big. For a naïve housewife like me it’s very surprising and stunning and very saddening, too, to see such great people who are seekers are accepting something only because it is new. “What’s wrong?” This also happens in India sometimes, when on the fringes, when people come from the West and give such ideas they can go really crazy.
Now to understand that we are progressing properly, as I told you, something has to happen to our nervous system of which we should be completely in control. We can go to some psychologist. Thank God they have found out about Freud. Thanks to AIDS that Freud was wrong. Thank God the Americans have learnt a lesson of their lives. It’s a very hard way to learn but it has happened.
When I first went to America, they were so angry with me in 1973. They said that, “You are a Victorian old woman. Don’t tell us all this stories.” I said, “But old can be sometimes wise.” And I warned them that there is going to be this disease which is going to come very soon. Be careful – don’t listen to this half-baked man, Mr. Freud. Now those who challenged me in ’73 are – half of them are diseased and half are dead. So one has to realize that whatever is the truth, your life is going to be enriched. Enrichment only comes through purification. So the life gets much more purified and beautiful. But anything absurd and new that comes to you, you should not accept it headlong – it’s dangerous!
Now regarding the infrastructure within us we have to know that in our evolution everything is built in for our second birth. Nature has done everything so far for us. We have become human beings from amoeba. How? They say we have become human beings from monkeys. Did we cut our tails? What did we do? We just became human beings spontaneously. In the same way we are going to become the higher human beings spontaneously – sahaja. We cannot put in any effort there. Have you noticed the miracle of one seed becoming a big tree? What do we have to do? Just sow the seed in the soil and it sprouts and becomes the tree. Does the seed stand on its head or does any other acrobats or any thinking or reading book? Nothing! It just becomes the tree. It is very simple knowledge.
So if you can eat your food this way then why go round and round and round and then eat it? There is a natural way of doing it but we take to natural ways when we are in emergency. But when we are not aware of the emergency we take life very easy. Now supposing I have to come to Strasbourg – I could also go to Norway, Sweden all these places then go to Paris – have a nice time there and then come slowly to Strasbourg. But if there is emergency then immediately I’ll find out how to reach Strasbourg immediately. And that is the time today – I call it a blossom time -but it is the time of emergency. And this infrastructure is going to work it out in this emergency if you just pay attention to yourself.
Now this is the infrastructure you have. This is the infrastructure you have, and this infrastructure is within you. I am telling you this is the knowledge of the roots. In the medical terminology we can say that we have got autonomous nervous system. Doctors are good at giving names. But if you ask them who is this auto, we say it is automobile, that means the driver can drive it. But who is the driver? We accept whatever comes to us through these doctors, physicians, you can say scientists ….. everything. But why not we see the source from where the knowledge comes in? Why not go to the mains and find out? Is there a way to be connected to the mains? Connection with the mains itself means yoga, means connection, means union. Also the word yoga means the deftness, the art of knowing how to handle the power. Like this instrument has to be connected to the mains. Simple thing is that you are to be connected to the mains and to work out the power. We see in the nature the manifestation of a power that brings forth all kinds of seasons and so many things happen but we take it for granted! But what I have to say, that this is the power of the Divine that does all the work. That is the power that loves. That is the power which has made us human beings. That is the power which has created this infrastructure. But we have never felt that divine power, that subtle power on our nerves, on our finger tips – we have never felt it. And how can we feel that power? What is the way to feel that power? Even if I say there is a power you’ll say you can’t feel it. So we have got a little jumping left – a little breakthrough left which occurs at this time en masse. You need not be a great intellectual. You need not be anything – it can happen to you as long as you are a human being.
Now here in the triangular bone, as you say, is the power which is actually the motherly power, what we call is the reflection of the Holy Ghost which gives you this ascent or, we can call it, the second birth. It is a happening. It is actualization of baptism – actualization. It is not just putting a hand on your head and saying now you are saved. Those certificates are not going to work out. You have to feel on your finger tips this all-pervading power. How? Your spirit is to be connected with your attention. Your spirit which is in your heart has to come in your attention. So who does the connection is this power which we call in Sanskrit language as Kundalini.
Now even about Kundalini, the amount of nonsense people have written, I am myself amazed. Again, mental projection – write what you like, after all, who is going to challenge about spiritual life, write what you like about anything you want to write, who is going to challenge because nobody knows anything? All kinds of stupid things have been done but who is going to challenge them? This Kundalini is your mother. She is anxiously waiting to give you your own second birth. She is your own. All this property that is heavenly is your own. There is nothing to be paid for. How much are you going to pay for something which is so precious? It is so vital and so spontaneous, then why not have it? If it is so, if you have to get your second birth, you better have it. You may try anything else – you’ll never be satisfied. As you know, the law of economics says that in general wants are not satiable. In economics there is a law that in general the wants are not satiable … in general.
So these desires we have are not pure desires. There is only one pure desire we have and that desire is to become one with the Divine. That’s the only desire. When it happens, you become the light and you start giving the light. You get the power of the light. In that light you see what’s wrong with you and if you know how to correct yourself, you’re all right. You can feel others on your finger tips and you can say what’s wrong with that person on different subtle centers. And if you know the second part of it, how to get it corrected, you put the whole humanity right. What is the advantage of protesting against hydrogen bomb and all those things? We are actually protesting against human awareness, which is limited, which is individualistic, but once you become the spirit you become collectively conscious. Again I say, you become. You are not just certified, but you really become. You can feel another person within yourself and then you become aware that you are part and parcel of one whole personality.
Does this finger tries to kill this finger? If this finger is in pain and if I rub it, do I feel that I have done a great obligation on this finger? So as soon as we all become – again, I say, become collectively conscious – then we realize that we are all part and parcel of one great Primordial Being. As we say, microcosm has to become macrocosm. But we forget the word, “become”. We think mentally if we decide that we have become macrocosm, we’ll become. This is the general folly of human brain. Like if I ask them they’ll say, “I am a capitalist,” or they will say, “I am a communist”. I said, “What is the capital you have? It’s just your mental understanding that you are a Capitalist”. I say I am the Capitalist because if I have my powers I am the Capitalist. And how are you a communist? What can you communicate? This money? That’s all? Here I communicate through my capital. I share it – without sharing because I cannot enjoy – it’s not mental. I do it for no principle but because I enjoy it innately. Whatever joy I have I want to share it with everyone, because otherwise I cannot enjoy it fully. I don’t have to tell myself, I don’t have to educate myself, I don’t have to say that this is a very big principle of life, nothing. It is a nature with me. And that is the nature of the spirit with all of us, and all of you can have that nature manifested.
You must have heard that in Sahaja Yoga all kinds of diseases get cured and also mental problems are solved and emotional problems are solved. But that is just a side effect. But the mainly a flower becomes a fruit, and when it matures, thousands of seeds again plant themselves and become new trees. This is how the whole world has to change.
May God bless you all. In my one lecture I cannot tell you all about it. But thank God now there is a book in French language about Sahaja Yoga. And I hope we’ll make it possible to read it though I do not know much of French. And I would request you all to come forward in this new awareness to show to the whole world that France has been always towards spirituality – always cared for spirituality. Specially Strasburg has been known historically to be interested in spiritual ascent. May God Bless you.
Now it is a custom in our lectures we always ask people to ask questions but I don’t know what is the situation today is. But invariably we have seen in the West that this being a new knowledge some terrorist get up and start throwing bombs at Me because in modern times you cannot legally crucify me like Christ. So they take to all sorts of funny ways, but all this is against yourself. I am here for your benevolence, for your good. So why not have it? So we would like to have some questions from you which are related to what I have said. Thank you very much.
Oh! They are great, aren’t they? So you all want your realization is it? ….Oh! It’s so joy giving.
Question from audience – INAUDIBLE
All right, you see, French have been always concerned with the death. We are dealing with life, and the soul is the spirit which is enveloped by the five elements and so many other things when we die, but just now we are all living. So better have it when we are living.
Now you ask Me in English. I mean, you understand what is living is. You see, just now in the present, be in the present, do not try to take out the cover of a hair … splitting the hair, you see. Try to understand that the…..[end of side A]
SIDE B I’ll give you an example. Once I was in the Kashmir and I tremendously I felt the Divine vibrations in a very forlorn place in a lonely place, in a wilderness, you can call it. And I asked the driver, “Is there some temple here? Is there something that is very religious here?” He said, “No, there isn’t any. It’s all wilderness. But the vibrations grew stronger and stronger. So, I asked him that, “You move in this direction on this road,” and we went to a place where there were some poor Muslims living. So I asked them, “Is there any temple? Is there any mosque that I feel here? There is something great, is there?” So they said, “No. About five miles away from here, maybe, there is a mosque of one hair of Mohammed Sahib – Hazrat Iqbal, one hair of Mohammed Sahib.” And I went there. Normally, they don’t allow anyone but a Muslim to enter in but nobody said anything to Me – I just walked in nicely. So you cannot analyze it before becoming the spirit. After becoming the spirit, after getting the light, you can see because if you have not the light how will you understand the colors and the hues, even the minimum of minimum?
So body also becomes important of such a person. Even a glance of this person. Even the nails of such a person becomes important. The fragrance of such a personality overpowers every material thing.
[Someone from the audience raises a question]
Shri Mataji: Can you get up, please? I can’t –
Q: The desire to seek, to find this way – still a desire [Unclear : inaudible – French language]
Shri Mataji: Yes – till you have found it, but now it’s like a – with the seekers, it’s like a guru-shopping. If you have seen Charlie Chaplin’s picture – Modern Times – have you seen? He used to fix some bolts on a moving belt and when he had fixed it and he would stop working – still for about 15 minutes he would be just going on like this. So some of them when they seek and they find it still they go on like Charlie Chaplin for a while. I have seen that – agreed. I have seen all types, but I have seen people who have such pure intelligence that immediately it’s so evident to them – they jump on to it, just like this. So every type I have faced – it’s all right. All kinds of permutations and combinations. All right, now – there is one gentleman, he said, please …
Q: In most of the spiritual paths which are proposed, the paths are very long and very difficult and no result is guaranteed but in Sahaja Yoga, the light is promised right away.
Shri Mataji: (laughing) So why not do it? It is like this – in the olden times if you had to go, say, from Portugal to India, you may land up in America. But modern times you can even go to moon. As you have grown outside, the Kundalini has also grown like a jet. I am myself amazed how it is working out. It is something great – better have it.
Yes, Madam. She is still asking questions after this. She’s not a seeker.
Q: What do you think about reincarnation?
Shri Mataji: Now I will answer this later on. It’s nothing important, Madam. You are thinking about death. Why are you thinking of your death just now? Think of your rebirth, not of your death. Don’t think that you are going to die just now and don’t think that you are going to be reincarnated. Don’t worry on that point. I am saying, take your rebirth, then we’ll talk.
All right, in one lecture how much can I tell you about everything A to Z? What I’m saying, you better take your rebirth. All right, if you are hungry, you’ll say, “All right, Mother, if you have done the cooking, I’ll have it” – if you are hungry. But if you are not hungry you’ll ask ten questions. “Oh! From where did you get it? What do you think of this?” Whatever I think of it is not important. What you get is the important.
It is important what you are going to be benefited with, not what I am saying. Now if I say I believe in it or do not believe in it, why should you believe in Me like that? I am just preparing you to understand that you can become like the tree out of a seed. That’s simple.
Now there was another question here, was there? Some gentleman asking? All right…
Q: Ma, he is saying that, how it is that God is for sale?
Shri Mataji: Now you know that, I mean I need not tell you. Every – I mean I have made a mistake, I mean, should say every time God has been for a sale – that’s better but it’s worse now, because people think if they pay for it they can get to God. You know BBC people – they came to interview Me and they told Me that Anglo-Saxon brain cannot understand spirituality without paying for it. Because I do not take any money, no Anglo-Saxon brain is going to accept me. Are you all Anglo-Saxons? I tell you, every brain is made by God. You cannot say that some Anglo-Saxon brains are of different variety.How much did we pay for Christ? Such a great incarnation we had. We sold him. That is what I am meaning today that people are selling it in the market.
Now this lady is too much. She is not a seeker. Now, keep quiet. You see, this is just too much now. You have over-read useless things. This is useless. You see, why do you worry about death so much? I can’t understand.
When I first went to Paris, what they told me, do you know, about French? They said, “Mother, don’t say that You are joyous. You must pull a long face and say you are miserable because nobody is going to believe You when you say You are joyous. They will think You are ignorant.” Yes, I remember the book written in French – “Les Miserables”. I said, “All Les Miserables,” and on the street when I was walking first time, lots of people were sitting outside with drawn faces, very seriously indulging into some sort of a self-made misery. And I said, “What are they talking?” “Oh, they are discussing now the eight stars who are going to meet and we are all goin