Guru puja, “Assimilating the Absolute Knowledge”, Cabella Ligure (Italy), 1 August 1999.

Since we have come to Cabella, it is the ten years completed! So you can imagine how, in these ten years, we have been able to progress in Sahaja Yoga.

Now, today, we are going to have a Guru puja. As I have said, you are all gurus and you want to worship me as your Guru – is alright – but the main thing one should understand [is] that you have become guru, no doubt, because you have the knowledge. You have the Absolute Knowledge, and so we can say you have become gurus, no doubt. But one has to understand that you have reached a state where you can raise the Kundalini, you can give Realisation to others. Also you know what is the Absolute Knowledge.

To know the Absolute Knowledge is very important and to assimilate is even much more important. Though we know the Absolute Knowledge, we cannot assimilate it that well. That means we cannot go deep into it. What is the reason for that? We have to realise that we have all come out of the heritage that was the animal kingdom.

From the animal kingdom you have evolved. So, there are so many things of the animal heritage [that] linger in us: the aggressiveness, the domination, peevishness, fear, grabbing. All these are our inheritance and they are within us, lingering. We want to grab things of others; not you people, of course not, but people who are not yet in Sahaja Yoga. They first used to grab lands, then they started grabbing people, making them slaves. Then they were not satisfied with that, so they were grabbing kingdoms, jewellery and all these things. So, just to grab now. They have no legal right, still they would grab. It seems very funny, it seems very inhuman, but it is there because of our inheritance.

Now there are so many other things, like jealousy. Among animals, there is very little of that. They don’t have jealousies so much as we have. While we have inherited this jealousy by our own reactions and thinking. People get jealous and they want to put down others. If they cannot achieve any height, they want to bring down the heights of others. This kind of jealousy, when it grabs human beings, they think [that] whatever is done in the name of jealousy is alright. They become very conscious that we are lower than another person, we lack in some talents than another person, and they try to overpower that other person because of the force of jealousy behind it.

Now the trouble is, though we are human beings, we have inherited so many animal qualities: like, we are ferocious, we are angry, and we get upset, as animals do. But, additional to that, human beings can react because of their thinking. They think, they can think, and by thinking, all these inherited properties become perverted. Like a person wants to put down another person: then, he doesn’t behave like an animal, in a straightforward way, but he will find out a device and method. He will think it over, how to do it.

The main problem with human beings is that they still have inherited very violent temper. This violent temper has to be controlled, has to be seen. When you see something which you don’t like, which is against your will, maybe something like that, immediately you flare up. Just now, I saw, instead of the camphor, they had put a sugar candy. To sugar candy, they were putting the match into it, matchstick. It would not take the fire. They tried and tried, it would not. So I said, “Let me see what is that.” So that was a sugar candy. If it was camphor, it would just flare up. So the quality of the person is known in the same way. If with the slightest provocation, he gets into temper and gets annoyed, then his quality is not very good as a guru.

As a guru, we should not flare up, we should not get angry, we should not try to oppress others. “But what can we do then?” people will ask. We have another method – what we call is ‘love’. Love. Instead of getting angry, if you show love and compassion to that person. So what happens [is] that it doesn’t give you any anger and the another person, you don’t make him angry also. The anger begets anger. If you get angry with somebody, that other person may not retort because he is afraid of you maybe there. But in his heart, he will keep a revenge in his mind, that, “One day, I will show him why should he get angry with me!”

So, in Sahaja Yoga, please remember that love is the only way we can solve the problem. Now, if something goes wrong, say, in the ashram, if you get angry with that person, what will happen? That person will bear a grudge against you, perhaps. If he is a good Sahaja Yogi, he may realise that it was a wrong thing to do. But if he is a bad Sahaja Yogi, not yet fully equipped to understand, then what will he do? He will just feel that, “This man has insulted me, he has deliberately put me down and I should try to take a revenge!”

Among animals, this activity is very limited. I don’t think they believe in revenge, except for a few animals. They say that, if you hurt a snake, it will take its respite. It will come back on you. That’s what is said. And this one is one quality of the snake. But as we have passed through all these different categories, we might be having some of the qualities of some of these animals within us. We may be even snake animals. If the snake is within us, then anybody who hurts you, you will remember it all your life, “He hurt me, so I’ll put him right one day. I’ll take a revenge!”  – if there’s a snake within us.

But now, if there’s a tiger within you: so you will become very ferocious. At the smallest thing, you will get angry, lose temper.

Now, this is not a very good situation: that we are still at the level of animals and our inheritance is still working in us. So we have to keep a watch, we have to be good gurus. And for a good guru, you have to have a very peaceful, compassionate, loving temperament. After all, one has to understand that people have this inheritance and some people have more, some people have this or some people have that. For that, if you get angry with that person it’s not going to help him or help you, but if you are loving and compassionate and you explain [to] that person what the problem is and what you want to do, I tell you, it will improve. He’ll definitely improve and he’ll feel your love.

Of course, sometimes, sometimes it’s necessary to also forgive such a person. Such a person is to be forgiven, absolutely. In that it doesn’t mean that, if he has done wrongs, all kinds of wrongs, you forgive him, and he goes on still with the same. It doesn’t mean that.

‘Forgiven’ means ‘forgotten’. Such and such a person has been misbehaving, so just forget. Forget it. Completely forget it! For a guru it is important, for a Sahaja Yogi guru.

I must say other gurus were not like that. They were absolutely, extremely hot-tempered and they used to lose temper on people. Once I met a guru and he told me, “Mother you are too kind to them and with this kindness you cannot create good people. I have had enough of it!” he said. “I had made two people into gurus. And one of them got lost in the money.” “Alright, what happened to the second?” “And second one got lost in the women.” So, I said, “Now it’s alright, if they are lost, they are lost. But if you can revive them with your love, affection and kindness, better get around them!”

I think if you open that door, people sitting outside can also hear me. Who are those sitting outside? Open it fully. Of course! Let them move to this side. Now, it’s better.

So as a guru, you must conclude that they are still lingering with their inheritance.

But the second problem is much worse because human beings can think. Of course, animals also think, but it is always conditioning. Whatever conditioning they have, accordingly they behave. But they don’t have ego, that kind, as human beings have developed.

So the gurus develop also a very bad ego. The first ego is, others gurus I have seen, they told me that, “We have done so much! We have worked so hard to achieve this state, and why should we give Realisations to others?” Or, if they have got Realisation, then, “What have they done? Why should they get Realisation?” It’s become a comparison between their own state and how they achieved it and how others have to achieve it. So they make all kinds of different torturing, troubling manoeuvres. For example, they may make the disciple stand on his head, give his family up, do this, do that. They’ll beat, they can beat also. They will make him stay in the water for a long time. Make him stand on one foot. Like this they punish. And [if] worse comes to worse, they may beat with sticks or with stones. They are like that. They don’t want to talk. They don’t want to understand what the another person has to say, or the ones who are seekers, how they should be treated.

All this anger and all these things might have been alright before, but after the advent of Sahaja Yoga, you must know, it is not necessary. It’s not at all necessary to give any physical punishment to your disciples. Now, also the mental punishment to your disciples should not be done. Like people start saying all kinds of things to their disciples. Like, say, there is a leader, and the leader finds something wrong with the disciple, then he goes on saying, “Now, you are like this. Your father was like this, your grandfather was like this, your great-grandfather was like this and you are also like this!” Or some sort of thing that will hurt him. By hurting a person, you are not going to help. Supposing, while walking, you are hurt – you can’t walk. In your spiritual ascent also, if you are hurt, you cannot go ahead. So not to hurt people is very important. Once you go on hurting others then you are not a good guru. You are not a one who is really being kind and understanding of the disciple.

In Sahaja Yoga, it’s a different thing altogether. Because you all have achieved Sahaja Yoga without doing any kind of penance, any kind of guilty consciousness, confessions, anything. Nothing! As you are, you got your Realisation. Nobody had to stand on their heads, give up their husbands, wives, their family – nothing of that kind. As you are, whatever dress you are wearing, whatever conditions you are, you are given Realisation – is a fact. You don’t have to pay for it. You don’t have to exert yourself. Don’t have to do anything. Just you get it, sitting down, wherever you are. After that, this kind of a happening should prove to you that you have a power of love, of compassion. Out of your love you have given Realisation to others. We have never realise that. Supposing we are anxious to give Realisation to people, we want to go to the villages, work there, and give them Realisation. Why? Why do we do it? It is not for any fame, not for any reward or anything, but just out of the love that is in your heart, that you feel, “Why am I enjoying everything? Why others are not enjoying?” And so you go out of the way to help people to get their Realisation. Now you have become a greater human being and you feel concerned [that] others are getting ruined, they are getting on the wrong path, they are doing wrong things, and that makes you feel very, very upset and you want to help them. And this understanding, once you have, then you will know how to deal with the person with whom you have to behave like a guru.

Mostly it is not necessary to say anything harsh to that person. At the most you can tell the mistakes that they are committing. But that doing in such a soft manner that a person doesn’t get any shock out of that.

All this thing of attachments also: Now, somebody has too much attachment, say, for the family, for the wife, for the husband, children or something. And once they come to Sahaj Yog, still they have the same amount of attachment – alright, doesn’t matter. But how far they will go with that attachment, how long it will continue, is the point.

You should be detached. If I say, you cannot be. It’s a state. It’s a state of mind when you are detached. But when it comes to doing something for them, you will go all out to help them. But you are not an attached person. Now what is the description of an attached person? An attached person is always worried about the other person. He goes on thinking about the other person. He cannot think of Sahaja Yoga, only think of the people with whom he is attached. Then he is very sensitive. You can’t say anything to his brother, sister or anyone, otherwise he jumps. Attachment is also with the name that he has. Supposing he has achieved a certain name, supposing, or some big position, then what does he do? You can’t challenge him [in] any way. You cannot, by any words, you can challenge him because he is so identified with that. He thinks he’s a big person who has achieved such a lot of positions in life. He’s so much attached that he wants the guru to pay respect to that attachment.

Now, which is the way you can solve that problem? Supposing somebody is very much attached to his wife, say, for example, then you should not discuss and argue with that person, not at all, because he is still coming up slowly, slowly, up to this stage. Such a person is not absolutely a perfect Sahaja Yogi. So what do you have to do? If he is attached to his wife, let it be. But the Divine will work it out and he will realise that what he has been thinking, doing and taking decisions is all wrong. And once he discovers it himself, then he will get detached. But if you go on telling him anything and trying to argue it out, it will never work out.

So you must understand that, as human beings, whatever we were, also as Sahaja Yogis, we have problems, and these should be slowly, slowly, should be dissolved. Not by argument, not by saying things, but by love and compassion.

If you have love for a person: you will be amazed, ninety-nine percent people value love. This is the third quality of human beings, I should say. First is his inheritance, second is he thinks and thirdly that he values love. Anybody who loves, the another person values that love, because he thinks that, “This particular person is loving me, not my wealth, not my beauty, not my this thing, but he is loving me!” And this idea of love, this is something that will get him completely detached from that person, easily. How? Now, it looks very funny that, if you like somebody, if you love somebody, and then you should get detached. It’s only possible in Sahaja Yoga.

In Sahaja Yoga, your state of mind is such that you are absolutely detached and absolutely attached. How? For example, now, say, I have my daughter: So I am detached. I never telephone to her, I am never bothered about her. Because in Sahaja Yoga you know how is that person. If the vibrations are right, why should you telephone? Why should you talk to her? Why should you ask for anything? No need. Only on vibrations, you will know how the person is. And so it will seem that you are absolutely detached. But when you will find the vibrations are showing or are indicating something serious about that person, what you will do [is] you will put full attention to that. Full attention! You put attention, but not attachment. So the attachment doesn’t solve the problem. What solves the problem is attention. But when you are not detached, then your attention is [an] attached attention. It’s an attention that is not available to everyone and [an] attention that gets stuck, absolutely stuck into that person with whom you are identified. Now try to understand it!

So to be identified with someone is not actually, what we can say, paying attention to that person. And then your attention will work. If you are of that level, whenever you put attention to that particular person who needs your attention, it will work out. But if you are all the time wasting your attention on a person because you are attached to that person, your attention will be tired, it won’t work out.

It’s a big paradox that if you are attached to someone, then your attention does not work. And if you are not attached to that person, you’ll do everything else. Now, you have to give lecture alright I’m giving lecture, then I have to do some cooking [so] I’ll do cooking; this, that, that and that. But all the time you are thinking about that person, all the time you want to have connection with that person. It’s not necessary. That person is alright. What is there to be so much worried about that person? After all, you have to do Sahaja Yoga, you have to do so many things, you have to raise Kundalini of so many. Now you are getting attached to one person somewhere. It’s not a very good thing? By that kind of attachment also, your attention becomes useless, absolutely useless.

So let the attention be free. Attention should not be bound by your attachments. Attention should be absolutely free so [that] it works automatically, automatically. And you will be amazed [that] even if you do not pay attention, the attention will work it out.

It is such a great thing to have that spiritual attention, which is nothing but love. It will just act. You will be amazed how it will acts.

It’s another world I am talking about, not this mundane world, but something higher, where your attention works and works so beautifully that you are amazed how it has worked. But you should not bound it by your attachments. If it is bound you can have a very limited sphere [of] only the people to whom you are attached, you are attached to those persons. That’s why identification (with others) is not the way a guru should work it out.

Now, there are ten disciples and one guru, and the guru only likes one. He thinks, “He is the best and he should be encouraged and should be given all the possible help.” But that’s not going to help! What, on the contrary, he should say is, “This is already a good fellow. He has risen very high. He has gone very deep.” So pay attention to those who are not so good and talk to them about it that. “You have to come up.” In a very sweet manner. You have to talk to these other people who are not yet there or who are still struggling. You have to understand them. You have to notice: What are they doing? Why is it they are not improving or rising in their attention? What is the problem? Why the Divine is not flowing through them? And you will find the reason for this – that people do not have good attention – is because it is focused on someone all the time, and they feel it is their responsibility that it should be focused. It’s just to give an explanation. It’s just an explanation to say that “You see, naturally, I have to be worried about this and worried about that!” It’s just an explanation. But if you really don’t fix your attention to one person or ten persons only then your attention looks after the whole world. It receives all the information and also it gives all the information [about] what is to be done to correct the situation.

So one has to rise into that state where you do not get angry, annoyed, upset. No, not at all. What happens to you [is] that you see a situation and in that you are not involved. You see the situation and you are away from it. Then you can solve their problem better. But if you are part and parcel of that problem, then you cannot solve. It’s like this, I was telling you, that those who are fighting cannot solve the problem, but a person who is not fighting can solve the problem. So it’s a very simple thing to understand that, if you are identified, if you are involved with one person or with one kind of a thing, then you are lost.

So our attention has to be always free and can be applied widely, wherever needed. That is the state one has to reach. If you reach that state of mind…It’s not I am saying you can do anything about it, it’s just a state of mind. Now, how do we do that? Only through introspection! Through introspection you will understand that you need help to solve your problems. Firstly, the problem is how to face yourself because you are a little bit shy or maybe nervous about it. As the time comes, you will be amazed that this nervousness has no meaning at all. When you try to be deliberate about it, then it won’t work out, but if you are sahaj it will work out.

So we come to the second point, apart from the attention, that we should leave everything into the hands of Paramchaitanya. Let the Paramchaitanya solve the problem. “This is the problem. Let Paramchaitanya solve the problem. We are not bothered!” So a detachment comes in. You give the whole thing to Paramchaitanya to solve. So you are not in it, you are away from it. Very, very simple things are there. If you understand that we suffer because everybody feels responsible for us. Everybody thinks they are responsible, they have to do this responsibility for us. Somebody says, this responsibility he has to do. All these things are worrying them and that is the reason, today, [that] we have a very complex society. They are suffering from all kinds of diseases, for which, only thinking is responsible. By this thinking, all the time – thinking about one person, thinking about one problem – you reach nowhere. At that moment, what you have to do is to leave it to the Paramchaitanya. If it goes to the Paramchaitanya, It will manage, It will solve the problem.

Now I will tell you one thing, an experience: this time I was in America and we wanted to have a puja there. So I said, “Alright, let them come for the puja. It’s nice if they want to come.” Then they told me that, “Mother, we want to bring presents for you, for the puja, so how can we bring the presents?” I said, “It’s very simple: you don’t bring!” But they wouldn’t listen to that. They said, “We’ll have to bring, and the customs will trouble us and do this and do that.” So there was only one building ahead, another building, where they were having a liquidation sale. I said, “This is something nice! One can have a look at it.” So I went in and I found things so cheap, unbelievable! Very, very expensive things for throw-away prices! I was amazed how it is there. So I told them, “I can purchase all these things. I’ll pay you. But you bring all these things to Canajoharie.” They agreed, “Alright, we’ll bring this to Canajoharie.” And they brought all the things, all packed nicely and gave it to Sahaja Yogis. We had no problem of Customs or anything. I paid them there.

How things can be improved by understanding what is the most important thing – is to love. But love is truth and truth is love. If you have love for somebody, genuine love, then anything you want to do with that person will be absolutely obvious because it will be truthful. Anything you say to such a person will be absolutely obvious, clear-cut, because it is absolutely truthful.

So when you are dealing with somebody, also, you should be extremely truthful. Of course, you need not say things that will hurt him, but you must use such ways and methods that will not, in any way, hurt the other person [but] which will have an effect on that person.

So this kind of a gurus we need now, very much, in Sahaja Yoga, because Sahaja Yoga has spread a lot. So first of all, our temper has to be brought into proper shape. A guru has no business, I mean the Sahaja Yogi guru, has no business to lose temper, at all, on any point whatsoever. If they can really do that much, it will save our so much of worry, so much of problems, so much of mess we create. All this can be solved very easily, but first we must have pure love in our heart, not love out of some gain or out of some sort of reward, but pure love, if we have, then we can work it out, very easily, anything that you want to do.

This is a very lengthy thing which can go on forever because, after all, the gurus have to know what are their duties and why they are gurus. It’s [a] very important, very important position that they are gurus. And they should use that position for exhibiting tremendous understanding of their disciple. And also their purpose should be clear-cut. People should not doubt him, should not think, “Why he is doing such and such things?” It should not be a mystery. It should absolutely be clear-cut.

All these things I am telling you today because today we have completed our ten years of stay in Cabella. Cabella has been extremely kind to me, brought lots of people to Sahaja Yoga, I tell you – very lots of people. It is a very far-fetched place. Everybody discarded it and said, “Where are you going to live?” and all that. But here only it has worked and that should be accepted as a very good indication that Sahaja Yoga does miraculous things – miraculous. But the foremost thing is [that] you must know vibrations. If you don’t know about vibrations then you can’t do it. For example, when I first came to Cabella, everybody told me, “Mother, [It’s a] very lonely place. There are mafias around. Only six, seven houses there. Where are you going? What is this?” They all warned me. So I came here and immediately I told the mayor, “I am going to buy it and tomorrow I’ll pay you the money.” He was surprised [as to] how can I do that. I said, “Don’t worry! It’s perfectly alright.” On vibrations it was. On vibrations I decided that this is a wonderful place and the vibrations helped me so much [at] that time. Though everybody discouraged me and everybody gave me a very big picture, a horrible one. But still, where is the mafia now? It’s gone, finished! Now, to know about the thing, you have to meditate and improve your vision, which should be clear-cut. It should not be something, a vision which is reflecting your particular ideas about particular things but it should be a vision which should be clear-cut to you.

With Sahaja Yoga one has to know the protection of the Goddess is on top of your head! Nothing can go wrong with you, nothing will happen to you, it will all work out. I am sure you will yourself experience it. You see, talking about Sahaja Yoga like this, you just get meditative, you just get meditative, and you feel that one day all of you should become like that – just meditative. And this meditative temperament, or whatever, is the state [which] emits vibrations. It emits and creates a path for you, for your work, for your life, for everything. You don’t have to struggle with anyone, you don’t have to fight with anyone, you don’t have to argue with anyone. Just try to meditate and achieve a state which I am describing to you, where you get completely surrounded by love and affection.

May God bless you all.

There’s one thing [which] is important to understand, that you should not go to extremes of everything – which is also a human quality. For example, if they are rational, they go on rationalising everything, “I can’t do this, I can’t do that,” something like that goes on. The second part of it is that they become very emotional and they become so emotional that they start doing wrong things in the name of emotionality. You have to overcome these two things. If you have not overcome that, what’s the use? What’s the use of calling yourselves Sahaja Yogis? Minimum of minimum, this much you must do.

Going to the extremes must be avoided. Keep a watch upon yourself. If you are going to the extremes, nothing will work out. You might develop cancer, then develop horrible diseases on one side. And on the other side you might become a very rational person and no Sahaja Yoga will enter your head. So you have to keep the balance all the time. And with that balance, like, somebody is a Sahaja Yogini and she has done something very wrong, then you should not become emotionally attached, “Oh, Mother. What is it? We should forgive her.” No. You tell her that, “You must improve your vibrations and must come to balance. And once you are in balance, then I will consider your case. Then I will say it is so or not.” But if he has no balance, he goes into rationality, he goes into emotional things. And this emotional business can take you to any nonsensical thing, as it is a psychological case. And one can go into very, very wrong things that they are doing out of this emotional thing. See, like even singing of songs that are neurotic, or anything, you see. All this emotional thing can take you anywhere. So to be emotional is not needed and you must love. And Left one is what you can call another extreme. One side is emotional, another is rational.

In rationality, you can start justifying anything, like Hitler did. He said, “No this was right. What I was doing was right!” He took something into his head and “Now, this is right!” This is rationality.

So both things are to be properly balanced and you should see that, whatever you are doing, are giving you a proper result.

So thank you very much again and again.

May God bless you.