Guru Puja. Cabella Ligure (Italy), 20 July 1997.

Today’s puja is very important for us. You all have got your self realisation, you have all the knowledge that is necessary to give realisation to others. You have to know what you have already, that’s very important, because if you do not try your hand and if you do not try to give realisation to others, firstly you will have no faith in yourself – you’ll have no self esteem also.
The second part is that, you try giving vibrations to other persons but don’t get involved with that person. I’ve seen some people get too much involved . If they give realisation to one person they think they have done a great job and they start working on that person, his family, his relations and this. So, so far as you must have learnt, that one may be related, one may be closer to one person but not necessarily he will have that much of a chance of self realisation.

Only way to grow is to be collective, there’s no other way out. If people think that by staying away from ashrams, alone living somewhere, they will achieve much, that’s not the way Sahaja Yoga is meant. Formerly people used to go to Himalayas and most of them were separated and only one or two persons were chosen for spiritual growth. Here it is not a question of spiritual growth, it is a question of your collectivity growing in you. That is how you become a person who is collective, who enjoys collective, who works on collective and lives with collective. Such a person develops new kinds of powers and these powers are such that they are very subtle but they penetrate into any molecule, atom or human beings anywhere. And their penetration is only possible if you have a temperament which is collective. Without being fully collective you cannot achieve that height, which is very necessary today for Sahaja Yoga. As you know there are problems and problems all over, as if we feel that the world is going to sink. Especially when I went to America I felt that “my goodness this is a hell that they have created here, it’s just a hell”. Because they have no dharma -they don’t believe in any dharma. Completely they worship adharma – and this kind of climate is flowing all over. All over the world you get reactions of American adharmic life – and people think there is nothing wrong in it. Whatever you tell them they will not believe. Nor will they think there is any worth in it. But they don’t see the destruction from the very basis of their life, their families, their societies, the whole country I feel is filled with such ugly type of adharmic nature that one cannot even imagine how such ideas came into their heads. And these ideas, I need not tell you, you know them very well.

But if you have to save your children you have to be an ideal guru yourself. If you just talk of Sahaja Yoga and if you try to assume that you are a Sahaja Yogi, also you try to propagate Sahaja Yoga without all these powers being awakened in you, it would be a failure. So how to develop these powers within us we should see?

It’s rather embarassing for me to tell you how you have to behave towards your guru. I think people have told you. But naturally, spontaneously, as soon as you get your realisation and grow in it – naturally you develop a very humble attitude. Also an attitude through which you achieve lots of qualities of your guru. Now supposing the guru is at a particular height, and if you try to go on to the same height, nothing will move towards you. So you must sit at a place which is much lower than the guru’s. Some people take too much advantage of my good nature, I should say. And so many people have pointed out to me that you must correct these people, they talk to you at equal level and all that. I said “they will learn a lesson, they will learn a lesson” but sometimes it doesn’t work out and they start talking in the same manner as if they are talking to your friend, or to your equal. First is complete humility. You have to be a humble person, extremely humble. Now you check on that, when you talk to others, are you humble? When you think of others, are you humble? When you look after your wife and children, are you humble? That’s a very important thing for every person who thinks he is a guru. Humility is the first quality, or I should say, the ocean into which you must jump. Some people think that if you are humble, Mother, then people will take advantage of you . Nobody can take advantage of you because you have to remember another point, that you are protected all the time, looked after by Paramchaitanya.

I know you know that, but how many really believe that there is Paramchaitanya with us? If you really believe that there is Paramchaitanya, then you don’t get frightened, you don’t get worried. You are not subjected to all kinds of nonsensical ideas also. But if you think that you are not protected, what will happen? How will things happen? Then Paramchaitanya leaves you alone. You have to see the whole drama. How Paramchaitanya works out – how it works out, how you are behaving. Supposing you are not in a proper shape and you try to show off too much. Then what happens? Then you’ll get the reward for it, not that I do anything, but it’s the Paramchaitanya which will teach you a lesson that you will remember, that you should have been a little different from what you have been. After all we have to know why we have come to Sahaja Yoga. To begin at the root of it, we have come to Sahaja Yoga because we wanted to know the absolute truth. And this absolute truth has been now known to you through your vibrations. You know it through your vibrations, what is the absolute truth. And you should work everything on that line, that absolute truth, whatever you feel on your vibrations you have to follow.

But unfortunately I have seen many people who think that their vibrations are all right – they are all right, and whatever they are receiving on their vibrations is first class. Now how to correct that point is very difficult – it comes from ego. When you have ego you can never find anything wrong with you. And even if the vibrations are telling you something it might be somebody else who’s telling you something, because you are not there, your ego is there, and your ego is just spoiling you and teaching you things which normally you would see clearly that – “I`m doing something wrong, I should not have done it”. In this process of correction and improvement, when you indulge you should see, are you getting subtler or grosser? That is the best way to judge.

Now I have seen people who go on judging all these small things on vibrations, like whether these vibrations are alright or not in this tree, or on these flowers or on this land, all these material things they want to see the vibrations. But for what are you seeing the vibrations? You are seeing vibrations because of some sort of a material gain. You think that if you check the vibrations and the vibrations are alright, then you are quite safe. You’ll not lose this, you’ll not lose that. It’s not true. Because vibrations are not meant to judge all these worldly things and worldly matters. It’s absolutely cheapening the vibrations. You should not cheapen them, because vibrations can suggest things which may be detrimental to your growth, very much.

Once I wanted somebody to go somewhere and so he said, “I didn`t go Mother” I said “Why? “because I saw the vibrations were very bad”. I said “that’s why I asked you to go! If the vibrations were good, what was your use going there? I said “The reason I asked you to go there was so that you could help, but before that you judged yourself, judged your vibrations and then you didn’t want to go.” So what happens, we want to have an easy cosy life and all our problems must be solved by Sahaja Yoga otherwise we think Sahaja Yoga is of no use. Whatever is our desire must be fulfilled. So now the desires are mostly personal, my child is not well, so the child should be alright. My husband is misbehaving, so the husband should be alright, or I have no house, I must get a house. See how we are moving our mind. It’s still on a very consumer society, as they call it. We are all the time thinking now, I should have a son now instead of a girl, and then you get a son and you’ll blame Sahaja Yoga for that. Anything that according to your desire doesn’t work out, then you think that it is Sahaja Yoga that has done the harm and you are suffering because of Sahaja Yoga – or this faith in Sahaja Yoga gets a little moving, or we can say in a way, it’s not that deep. But if you are deeply embedded in Sahaja Yoga then what happens? What may come, I will be a Sahaja Yogi!

Supposing somebody dies. Normally in Sahaja Yoga it is difficult for people to die also, I must tell you. Even if they want to die they can’t die. It’s the Paramchaitanya which decides for you. But supposing you take up a position like that, still you must know that that wish may not be fulfilled, and if that is not fulfilled then you feel disturbed and you think, what’s wrong? But your wish is not the wish of God Almighty. While Paramchaitanya is the wish of God Almighty.

Now for example, I went to America, take it like this, and America attacked me, a little bit it troubled me, for all these days I’m suffering, so called, and I’ve had pain and I’ve had all kinds of things. But that I had to do because now the American Sahaja Yogis will realise how much one has to pay to make this dumb head of Americans to rise. How stupid they are and how foolish they are, who are enamoured by people who are taking money . So many people came to me and told me “Mother if you start saying that ‘this I can give for $300.–’, you’ll get thousands and thousands of disciples of yours”. I said “They’ll not be my disciples. If they come for money, thinking that because I’m taking money, it is worth this or this, that means that they are absolutely stupid”. Sahaja Yoga, you cannot get it by money. This is the first principle they don’t understand, most of them – most of them don’t understand that you can get self realisation without paying any money.

There were some Gujurati rich people in New Jersey and they asked questions to Sahaja Yogis that “how is it possible to get is so easily? It’s not possible because it’s a very difficult thing. All the Shastras have said, everybody has said, it is very difficult to get your realisation – alright, if so, how is it you’re giving it so easily, why?” Nobody knew how to answer these people. You should have said like this, “Alright, it is difficult, it’s very difficult, and you cannot give mass – true. But if somebody’s doing it, then you have to think about it, how somebody’s doing it?”. So these kind of stupid questions are there and still if they go on, you have to really tell them in a very humble way, “Sir, one has to be WORTHY also!”.

So they will run after people who are just making money out of them, making a fool of them – and they boast,“we have 3 gurus”, somebody says “we have 7 gurus” – and I wondered what must be their condition. So the people who are extremely stupid, in Sanskrit they’re called “Muhr”, people who are brainless, cannot get their realisation. So give them up. If they are arguing with you, you just give them up. It’s not their right to argue with you. Their right is to get realisation, but not their right to argue with you, ask you foolish questions and stupid questions. But you should always remember that with that humility, you must have your dignity intact because you are a guru. Once you know you are a guru one thing should be there – that you will not behave like a joker all the time. Your behaviour will be dignified. At the same time it will be a very pleasant face or a pleasant personality. It won’t be an annoying type. Your personality itself will suggest that there is something special about you.

Now how to develop that kind of a personality? The biggest problem in the West is ego and the biggest problem in the East is superego. Now this ego business I don’t know from where it has come. In all walks of life they show how egotistical they are. For example, I went to America and I was surprised that there is a racial problem and the blacks are treated in a different manner and the whites in a different manner. I mean, colour is given by God, and somebody has to be black and white. If everybody looked the same it would look like a regiment. There should be some variety. There should be some change in the face and also in the expression. One has to be a person carrying better or different expressions otherwise you will be bored with such a world where everyone looks the same, just the same. But so much of racialism there that I was surprised that how it has worked into human mind.

So as a guru you must develop a complete detest for racialism, complete detest. It’s very easy to understand that anybody who has a fair complexion could be the cruellest man or the cruellest woman, and could be the cruellest mother also and the one who is black could be very kind and generous. It doesn’t go with the colour. Temperament doesn’t go with colour. But because the blacks have been ill treated so much that they react, and they react naturally sometimes in such a manner that it is very crude and very cruel. But this kind of attention, this kind of a, we can say, wrong type of attitude towards human beings, even towards animals, they won’t bear it . So towards human beings, to have such an attitude, itself shows that you are not worthy of Sahaja Yoga at all. So anyone of you, who has such a feeling that somebody’s black and somebody’s white, cannot be a guru in Sahaja Yoga.

Then in India we have caste system. Equally bad and horrible. It has no sense in it, no basis whatsoever. But in India we have people who believe that some castes are higher and some castes are lower. Every caste people can do all the worst possible things, there is no demarcation for them, and every low caste can be very very good. We have had many great poets and sufis in the lowest caste in India. These castes are man made, you know that man made cloth doesn’t suit us, and all these man made ideas are not going to suit us, and it will lead us to a great, I wouldn’t know if it is discretion, but I would say to a complete destruction. Because hatred breeds hatred, and it goes on increasing and increasing. If you cannot get rid of your hatred then I would say you are not a Sahaja Yogi. These are all conditionings, you were born in a white family, so you are white. You were born into a christian family that’s why you are a christian. You were born into a jewish family that’s why you are a jew. All this is just because you were born in that. But does that mean you are higher or lower? All the problems of the world today, if you see, are because of human attachment to nonsensical ideas of superiority. Only through collective living will it change. For example, I would say, in an ashram, we should have all colours of people living together, with equal rights, with an equal understanding and love and affection. If that’s not there it’s no use calling it an ashram.

Once they asked me, “Mother, will you come and give a lecture in Harlem?” I said “Why not?” So some Sahaja Yogis said “Harlem? Mother do you know what Harlem is?” I said “I know, there’s no harm”. They said, “you know the blacks are there and….” I said, “I’m also black!” You could call me black or you can call me white. But the LOVE is such a thing, love is such a thing, that cleanses all these ridiculous ideas we have about other people. To brand anyone as black and white shows that you have no eyes to see. Any person with depth, any person with a loving heart cannot see these superficialities – cannot see.

Today is a day where we are celebrating the Gurus’ greatness. Now look at all the gurus, how they were, how they behaved. We have many in India and many others, many sufis in other countries. These sufis or these saints that we have had never believed in any caste system. Never believed in black and white. Christ – He never believed in black and white. Buddha never believed in black and white. Nobody believed in any kind of man made ideas. These are all man made ideas which we have accepted and even after realisation we try to carry on with them. Now by saying, we do not get rid of it, but acting we can. Just see how we work out these stupid ideas within us, and how we can get rid of them. Very simple is, in meditation you should sit down and see how many people you love, and why do you love them. Not out of pity, but just with love, how much you care for others. I have seen some very beautiful examples of that but still I must say that there are certain fixed ideas which are to be dislodged completely – very important for every person who is a guru in Sahaja Yoga. Means he has to be a clean-hearted, open-hearted, loving-hearted, fellow. His heart should play the tune of Paramchaitanya. If his heart is full of all these man made ideas, I don’t know what will happen. Even when they transplant a heart they cannot do it with a man made one, they have to do use a real, natural one. So you can imagine when you try to take to all these odd ideas, just divisive, they will never give you collectivity. So introspection has to be made. Are we one or are we judging each other? Now the judgement is quite a lot also. Now all this can be seen only when you live together. Otherwise how will you know? When you start living together you start discovering what is missing in you. What is not there. What has to be there. It is so peaceful to have a heart which is full of love, because every movement of that heart is so much joy giving, so much joy giving.

There is a story of Shri Rama that he ate the beeres, a kind of fruit, which were first tasted by an old lady, with such love. Shows what? Shows that a person like Shri Rama, who was the king of the highest heritage, and this old lady who was just say of the lowest caste gives him these fruits with such love, and when he eats that he starts praising it. So his wife says “give me some”, he says “alright”. But the brother is still half way, I think, in Sahaja Yoga, so he doesn’t like it . He doesn’t like it and he gets angry. Then she eats and she says “Brother- in law, it is wonderful fruit, I must say” He says “Alright give me some”. But Rama says “Why should I give you some now?” First you get very angry, so why should I give you these fruits to eat?” The story shows that the level of your personality as a guru is judged by your CLEAN heart, by your loving heart, by your highest remarkable personality. In the personality it is not something that is to be built in artificially. It is not artificial. It is natural, absolutely natural. Whatever you do has to be natural. So this artificiality of certain ways of talking or certain ways of living together, creates problems. For example, we had an ashram in America, in New York and there was a lady who was very strict, everything should be tip top, it should be here, spoons should be here, the forks should be here and all sorts of things. And she hurt many people. It is not important, these cultural, we can call it, taboos, are not important in Sahaja Yoga. Because now you have become a guru. A guru, he can stay anywhere, live anywhere, eat anything, anytime. That should be the case. But also I have seen in Sahaja Yoga there are many who are very anxious to eat the food as soon as it is served. Once it happened, I was there, they had served the food, and just they started removing the plates. I said “What’s the matter? I have to eat it.” “Oh you have not eaten Mother?“ “No I haven’t yet touched it even!” So it’s a sort of, first is the very lowest type of desire, we should say, is the hunger. Now a guru doesn’t bother, whatever you give it is alright. Whatever you don’t want to give is alright. Even if you don’t want to give, it’s alright. But one has to develop that by killing your ego. People feel very hurt if you serve them a little later than another person. It’s all kind of funny things I have seen in Sahaja Yoga. On the contrary it is the lowest type of a desire, you should not be very much catered to if you want to be a real guru.

Of course many problems are solved as I’ve seen so far that they do not take drugs, and do not take to drinking and all such things. This is such a blessing because if I had to start from that level I do not know how deep I would have gone, from where I would have pulled you out. But that is of course a very big thing, that is quite a nice thing. But still, to make a beautiful life out of it, which will attract the attention of everyone . How you talk, how you behave, how you love. So again one has to say that Guru Padwa comes only through the love that you have. Like they’ll have say 10 people, for anything – for a drama supposing. And they have it only from a particular country or from a particular group. Then there’s no fun , there’s no fun. For example, they’ll have a music group, so from the particular one caste could be or could be one religion could be one school or anything. So that shows that you are still not there – as a guru you should like every kind of culture, every kind of beauty and that has to be brought into our daily lives. You should not look down upon anyone for their colour, for their race, for their status, class consciousness. All this has been shown in the lives of all these gurus and saints who lived. Tukarama said “Oh God thank God you have made me a Siddhu caste”: He was not, but he just said so . All of us all the time should not be conscious of what has been our birth, what has been our personality, or what has been our beginning. One should not be able to make out of it who is a saint and who is not. Even people are proud that they are saints.

I was surprised, that in America also, very much, that the Russians who have gone there are a very different quality of people. They wouldn’t raise their eyes to me, wouldn’t raise their eyes, and very deep, very very deep. Vibrations were very deep. The reason is I think that they have been oppressed during Communism, perhaps, maybe. And now they have come to America where they have seen this so called freedom and what nonsense it is doing. So, knowing these two extremes, I think they have gone very deep into their own being. And they have such strength and such unity among themselves. I was surprised that I had never met them before. They didn’t come from Russia, only they were there. So what is it that has kept them like that is that they had no religion in their heads. They had no religion. To them every religion is the same and they had no religion to follow. So a guru cannot belong to any religion because these religions are also man made. They have created such a problem all over and they are all fighting amongst themselves. How can they be divine? So you should not get involved into some sort of a religious bias. I’ve seen it, that a Sahaja Yogi say, if he’s a christian – then the bias will be so that he is a christian, you can make it out. If he is a jew, you can make it out. So what’s the use of coming to Sahaja Yoga? Their attention, if it goes inside, they’ll find out. You have to dissect yourself, to see what’s wrong with you and why is it that you are not very successful as a guru.

The success of the guru is, he doesn’t bother about time. Every time is the holy time. For he’s not bothered if somebody is late, or has come early. He’s not a slave of watches and time. This is also man made. There were no watches about I think, say 300 years back. And nobody was so particular about the timing. So first thing, he is beyond time, “Kalateet”. Then he is also “Gunateet”. “Gunateet” means he doesn’t belong to the left side or to the right side or to the centre. He is beyond these three – beyond these gunas, where he stands and sees everything in the divine light, everything. If something good happens to him, he says the divine light has done it, if something bad happens to him, he says the divine light wanted this way. Everything he leaves for the divine light. He is beyond the gunas. Like supposing there is a person who is on the right side, egotistical. Then he’ll start saying “Ah how is it? I wanted this, this didn’t work out and how?” He will challenge. Another one will start crying, the left-sided one, that “I am very sorry this has happened to me, it should not have happened, and all”. Or in the centre also, he might also think, “Oh how far are my vibrations? How could I not know and all that?”

But a person who is a real guru, he looks at it as a drama, as just a witness of the drama, “It has happened, it was to happen. So, it has happened”. Now what do we get out of it? Is we get something, the lesson that this was not right or this was wrong. That’s all. For that moment, not to go on churning it in your head. That’s all one gets and he’s not bothered about anything else. So he goes beyond his gunas. Beyond the gunas, he lives. He eats anywhere, sleeps anywhere, he’s not bothered where he lives. He’s not bothered whether he goes by car or he goes by bullock cart. He doesn’t feel that he is not being honoured if they give him a garland of few flowers, he’s not bothered. Because nothing can enhance his personality. Nothing. You give them something simple, it’s all right. Or even if you don’t give, it’s all right. It is not that he judges himself through your eyes, but he judges himself through his own eyes. And he sees for himself the joy of enjoying himself. What is there to be so particular about anything? What is so great to be hankering after anything? It just works out in its own time, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. What does it matter? Just think of it.

Also, in Sahaja Yoga, a guru has to be a binding force. There are two types of people I have seen, which go on breaking relations. It is very easy for them, they go on complaining. But there are others who have a power to bind people together, in such a sweet manner that the people are brought closer together. Not that they have to forgive. It automatically works out. It just works out like that, and people go on joining such a man.

I was surprised that in America there were very very few Sahaja Yogis. They spent, they said $50,000 and got 50 Sahaja Yogis. $1,000 for one Sahaja Yogi in America – so a very bad shape. But still you see we have to hope for them because there are lots of seekers, and lost in the wilderness of seeking. But, I thought that maybe it’s a circle. They have to pass through this circle of stupidity and then definitely they will see the point. And it has happened. We had about 4,000 people for my lecture, which has never happened there in that country. Nobody has got such a lot of audience they said. But still not many came, but they got their realisation. So I think gradually, even in America, it may start growing. And the Sahaja Yogis must not only worry about their houses, and where they live and all that, but go all out to them. I would say that some of the Sahaja Yogis who could afford to go should go to America and work out this outside work. Maybe if there are outsiders who come and talk about Sahaja Yoga they might be impressed.

There are so many false gurus that you can’t count them. And they have accepted them. It is very surprising. Though they have suffered, they have lost in money and everything, still they have accepted – “after all he is our guru”. So there is basically something wrong with their brains, that they don’t understand what is to be expected. I have written one book, perhaps it may reach them, but in any case you all can write your experiences and things and can publish it. Maybe it might help them to open their eyes. While writing anything you have to remember that it should show your quality of Sahaja Yoga. How you are. In that, one should not feel that you are putting them down or trying to say some things which will hurt them, but say it in such a manner that it corrects them, and helps them. For a guru it is important that he should not have any false ideas about himself. He might be from a poor family, he might be from a rich family, whatever it is he should not be conscious of that because once you become that. You see, look at Kabira, he was just a weaver. Look at Tredas? he was just a shoemaker. You see in India these a very low caste, supposed to be. He has written beautiful poetry. Then Namadeva, he was a tailor, just think of that. All these people have written the same thing with great beauty of poetry. How have they achieved it? Because now they have entered into that great realm of spirituality.

You people also write some very good poetry, I know. But some of the people who have written good poetry turned out to be very obstinate, very egotistical people. This is something I couldn’t understand. You are writing here beautiful poetry and you are full of ego, so from where the poetry is coming – God knows. So first of all is yourself, your personality, has to be something that people should say “this is a real guru we have met”. For that you know very well, you don’t have to give up your family, don’t have to give up anything. But ego if it is still there – I don’t know what to say, but you must get rid of it, completely. And collectively also ego should be driven out – collectively. It’s a thing that people are egotistical secretly within themselves, but sometimes it shows. It’s a very subtle nonsensical disease that people have, and they just indulge into it.

On this day of Guru Puja I have to say now that one has to work very hard, very hard. The most important thing is how much you have dedicated your life, your time, to Sahaja Yoga. Then only you will achieve that state of guru. Look at me I am a housewife, and I have my family responsibilities, problems, but despite that I am all the time thinking about Sahaja Yogis, Sahaja Yoga, and all that is this emancipation of human beings in the whole world. Not only here or there. In the whole world. So that should be your widened vision. Not for only your school, college or university, or this or that. But a very widened vision one should have. And that you have to develop through your working into every type of circumstance, every type of problems you have. Once you develop that kind of personality, then you’ll be amazed how you can help so many people. I know there are so many Sahaja Yogis here who are worthy of praise and really I love them very much and they also love me very much. But one should always see that, as you are now going to be the gurus, you have to be careful not to think that you are a guru. You should never think you are a guru already. Once you think again that you are a guru your ego comes up. So once you decide “I am nothing, I am just a little ripple in the heart of my Mother” If such a humble feeling you get, then all your problems can be solved, and things will work out. Because your attention and your behaviour is going to impress other people. Nothing else. Whatever you may try, it is you who is going to get Sahaja Yoga further.

There’s so much to be said about how to become a good guru and all that but I think I’ll keep it for next Guru Puja.

Thank you very much.