Talk to yogis (India tour). Aurangabad (India), 18 December 1989.

So now most of you are here and it’s a nice place for all of you to be here from different countries. Aurangabad has a special significance in My own life because My forefathers came from a place very near from here called as Paithan but originally known as Prathisthan.

I think about two years back we were there. And this is the place where Valmiki, who wrote the great epic of Ramayana, lived here and when Sita was taken away from Her house and when She was pregnant, there was another ashram of his in Nepal where She stayed and then She was brought here. That’s why you see a kind of a culture of Maharashtra going to the hills and also to Nepal through Her and Her children who went down – one to Russia and another to China.

The name of one who went to Russia was Lav and the one who went to China was Kush. So they are called as slavs and was mostly called as lave. And those who went to China are called as Kusha. So they lived here from their birth, till they became about say twelve years of age when Valmiki composed Ramayana and taught them how to sing that song of Ramayana. So then they went to Ayodhya and there they started singing the song. With that singing, Shri Rama was very much touched. They challenged Him in a way that there’s a lady who was such a chaste person who was driven out of, they didn’t know that was Rama was their Father. And they came back and stayed here for sometime and then went to, again to Nepal, because She was a Nepali lady. So I think Her Father must’ve arranged something for Her to stay in Nepal in that Valmiki ashram, which can be only approached from Bihar, which I’ve seen Myself.

Also that’s very important spot where this ashram was established by Valmiki. Because here there was a big struggle of evolution going on between the big animals like Mammoth and all those big, big animals. Between the others who were very quick to turn and who were very clever, intelligent and supple. They destroyed most of these big animals. And in that river there were lots of crocodiles and when the King of the elephant known as Gajendra was drinking in water, one of them – a big one, attacked to kill Him so that the whole clan or you can say the whole genre of these elephants would be destroyed.

That spot is very important because there Shri Vishnu appeared and He killed the crocodile and saved the elephant. So out of all these big animals only the elephant was saved and that’s why that place was called as Gajendra moksha.

So there’s a big quarrel going on because Valmiki had his ashrams in different places. Where was real Valmiki’s place? But actually Valmiki lived here in this area, on the other side of the Godavari River, which was going along the Paithan or the Prathisthan – the kingdom of Shalivahana. And he used to plunder people. And he was a plunderer, he was a fisherman and he was a plunderer. Then from there they say Narada came as a saint from there – from the other side and they plundered him also. So he said, “Why are you plundering Me?” Narada asked. He said, “Because I have to feed my children and I have to feed my wife. I have to feed my family. I have to look after them. I have large family. So how am I to maintain all that? I am the only person who is the earning member.” But he said, “Do you think they will sacrifice everything for you?” He said, “I am sure they will.” He said, “All right, now you become like a dead man” and they took his dead body – so called, four of them – four saints and put it in the house and told them that this fellow died in plundering us but there is a way to again bring him to life, that you have to promise that somebody from you has, you of all have to die in his place. If you agree that you will die in his place then one person has to replace him.” They tried, tried. Then somebody said, “No I cannot die, I am too young”. Another said, “No I have to look after my children”. Another said, “What will happen to my grand children?” All kinds of thing. And nobody offered themselves. So Valmiki got up and he realized that so far he has been really doing something wrong. So he said, “Then what should I say?” He said, “What would you say if you die?” He said, “I’ll say mara, mara, mara”. Means I am dead, I am dead, I am dead. He said, “All right say the other way, go on saying. So it came to – Rama, Rama, Rama, like that. But he said, “It wont work out you do a penance. Because you have done lots of bad things in your life and you have hurt many people so you have to do the penance.

So he sat down for penance on a big mountain here, which is called as a Valmiki mountain. And the termites ate up his body. And he became like a termite. Only his neck was up and he was saying that. The whole body was eaten up by termites. So then again Shri Vishnu appeared before him and removed his termites and gave him realization. And a termite in Sanskrit language is called as valmi. That’s why he was called as Valmiki. That’s why he was called as Valmiki.

So the story then afterwards reached to the coming of Sita there. So is a very important part of Ramayana was played here and is said that Shalivahana’s helped this Valmiki temple, Valmiki person to prosper and they treated him with great respect as their master. But actually their master was, long time back was one Shandilya, where we have taken a land near Mira River. So it’s a very ancient, I mean thousands of years back. Because Rama must’ve lived before Krishna say about eight thousand years back. So it’s a very ancient place this one is.

After that people remove all the trees and all that so it has become such a barren land and it is not sort of so fertile now. But one upon a time it was a beautiful forest here. In that forest Valmiki used to live.

So this is the story of this place. I hope you’ll be happy to know you are in a very historical place just now and I am trying to find out if you can on your way go to, also to this Paithan – the Prathisthan on your way maybe. I don’t know how because we are all running short of time because of airplane timings as you know. But in any case I am very happy that also Italians have arrived and they have taken so much trouble to come all the way directly from, to get to the puja, though I had arranged in Prathisthan all their food everything, breakfast. So that they could sleep in the night and early in the morning take the [train?] and come.

All these stories these people know very well. We all know everything about our country. This ancient times, you see were grand, beautiful. And the work of all these saints and all these seers has woven into the character of Maharashtrian people. So you’ll find them that they have certain gifts already to protect themselves, which has come because of the following of the saints and to following of a realized soul. And the people are very God fearing and they respect saints and they also know who is a real saint, mostly.

I hope you all will understand that when we think of the comfort of our Spirit the whole life is sort of penetrated with the light of the Spirit and we start changing our attitude towards life. Not only that, but also we have a kind of a tremendous confidence in our virtues and we enjoy them.

We do not indulge into any such thing. Though in a way we can say that the, in this culture there is not much of finesse, not much of artificiality. They won’t say ‘thank you’ hundred times. That’s not done. They don’t say ‘sorry’. They won’t even fold their hands to, normally women especially to men and say namaskar. Only to God they fold their hands. So there are certain things that all the time you go on shaking hands in the west, all the time you start bowing to everyone, saying ‘sorry’, ‘thank you’ and all that.

That you will find they don’t do. But at heart they are very simple people. They live among the rocks. So they have that rocky character. And I hope you’ll enjoy them.

May God bless you.

[Mother speaks in Marathi.]

H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi