Dedication is so Joy-giving, puja at Ashram, Melbourne (Australia), 9 March 1983.

I congratulate all the Sahaja Yogis of Melbourne for doing such a wonderful job of this ashram and working it out with such dedication.

Dedication is a very great, rewarding effort. Nothing can be more rewarding than dedication. It’s so [much a] joy-giving and peace-giving and satisfying effort or work you can call it. When it comes from the heart, with love, when you try to do something, it works out beautifully, and it shows its aesthetics, expresses. And anyone who sees that can see that it is done out of dedication.

Example of dedication is Ajanta and Ellora Caves. These were the people who were worshippers of Buddha. Of course they were not realised-souls as you are. They were just worshippers of Buddha and they wanted to have their moksha, nirvana — or what you have got already. But they worked in that cave with such attention and such love that, even when they were not in yoga, when they were not in union with God, they were so much blessed that in those dark caves, where we cannot see with our normal eyes — we can’t even see those things with ordinary lights: you have to use very strong lights to see that — in those days it worked out, in those dark caves, such beautiful murals, paintings, reliefs, statues, every sort of thing, that it is surprising how they could do it. When we walk in, we have to use very strong lights and because of these strong lights, that is fading now. But we can see the dedication that they had to God — they did not believe in God, but to Lord Buddha — so that they can get their moksha, their Self-realisation. Maybe, so many of them are born again today to get their realisation. And they might be some of the Sahaja yogis that we are meeting in Maharashtra: those who worked for Lord Buddha to express their love and dedication for him.

So dedication takes away all the vestige interests: like how much money we are going to get, what is our certificate, whether it’s going to be used in the worldwide range or not. All these things are finished off. You just do it for doing’s sake, and you don’t feel at all, at all, any pinch or any, what you can call the, screwing up of your energies. But you just float into it. This is what dedication is. And this dedication comes when you realise that you are a Spirit.

It’s much better, because that is the place where Shri Krishna has said, ananya bhakti — when there is not the other, [only] you and your God. In between there is nobody else, ananya, nobody else. You and your God are one. And that is the best time when the dedication works. That is the bhakti. That’s what He said that, “If you give me flower, if you give me water, or if you give me leaves, I accept everything.” But when it comes to His giving, He said we should get ananya bhakti. This is the blessing of God.

There’s one of the sayings about the Goddess is that, “Ya Devi Sarva bhuteshu, bhakti rupena samsthita.” The one who gives us that dedication, that sense of dedication. “You are the one who resides in everyone with that sense of dedication.” And it is such a joy that cannot be expressed, what this is, that one you feel when you are dedicated. Since morning, you all got up, you were all ready; all the children are happily dressed, everything was done. I saw everyone busy getting everything ready and working it out so beautifully. It’s something so loving. As if the Mother Earth gives flowers for the worship of your Mother. You, yourself, in your dedication look like flowers, yourself like lotuses. It’s so great to see this work being done, with such attention, with such care, with such love.

Melbourne I think is a word called from mal-born, we can say born out of mala (मल). And that is the name of the lotus, that it is born out of the dirt and the filth. Mala is the dirt or impurities. So this beautiful thing has come out of that. And you can see that this place was inhabited by people who were really in a mess (2). And out of that mess you have created such a beautiful thing like this ashram. And it’s so much, so much, one with the name of Melbourne, that this is a place is created by you people like a lotus comes out of the pond which is full of dirt and filth. And then this lotus fills the whole atmosphere with such fragrance that everyone forgets about the mala, they just think of the Nirmala which is [what] this flower is.

And this is what I felt about your ashram, the way you have done it with understanding, with such a lot of beautiful things. And admirable it is really, to see how your dedication has done.

Warren: There’s a lotus for you there, Mother.

Shri Mataji: Hmmm. I have seen that in the morning also, beautiful.

Now it’s started [emitting fragrance]. I told her that it will have fragrance.

I can see so many lotuses sitting before me. It’s so beautiful. So this is all in dedication you see. This comes out of that mala just for the worship of God.

And this ka-mala (कमल) (lotus), ka-mala: out of the mala. It is got ka-mala. The name is ‘kamala’. It’s called as kamala: means the one which is created out of mala.

Same is the name of Melbourne I think, the way it is said. I don’t know how this name has come — Melbourne (1). But you can say Mel-born, can be mala born, could be kamala like that. And it is really this place has become like that. Let anybody else come and see this and they will be amazed how the whole thing is so beautiful, so comforting, so vibrating and so assuring.

Now, we have already started doing such good work in Australia, and I am sure you are going to get lots of people for your ashram to stay here. And also you might get [a] lot of people also to work on them. But you have to be rather careful when you admit them here. You must see first of all how they work it out. You first work them out outside: see how their chakras are, how they are, how their behaviour is, and how they are attached to things. Once you find them all right, then you can have them inside. But be careful. You better send me their photographs; let me see for myself if they are all right. Because you might get some very good people, if you are lucky enough, you will get. As you have seen some very good have come already: such nice, solid people. I was so amazed to see these new people here that you can’t believe that they have been in Sahaja Yoga only for such a short time. And they are so good and so beautifully placed here. I hope you will get more like this, many more like this of the same value, same quality, and something good will come out of all their entry into your ashram.

I bless you for getting all the best people of Melbourne to be in your contact. Of very high level spirituality and seeking and purity and simplicity.

I find the people in Melbourne are very simple people, are extremely simple and very expressive. The simpler you are, you are much more expressive. The more complicated you are, the worse it becomes. And for your Mother it’s difficult to understand someone who is complicated [because] She can’t go round and round and round! So I like when it is a very simple expression of their love and joy [so] that I can perceive it so clearly, and it gives me a great love. Like the ripples of the shores, they return back, in the same way from my heart also; joy is rebounding again towards you.

It’s a kind of a beautiful rapport where nobody gains, nobody loses, everybody elevates oneself that’s all, sort of a thing. It’s something so different that it cannot be explained in any analogy.

Dedication to Sahaja Yoga, to your purity about it, without asking for any gains, [or] asking for any advantage, just working it out. Because now you are the gurus. You don’t have to ask anything, you have to just give. The more you give, the more you will get.

I don’t mean that you have to give any money or anything, but you have to give more love. The more love you give the more love you will get. And that is how it is going to work out for all of you.

I am sure a day will come when we will become extremely powerful in every place in Australia. Now we have chosen only four centres, and we have to work it out in a proper way without going into quarrels, fighting, backbiting, all these small things, and selfishness. Especially with children it happens, “It’s my child! It’s my child!” like that. Try to share. Try to understand others also.

If you bring sweets for one child, it should be for all of them. And also with food, also, don’t try to keep back anything, because children will also learn these bad habits, you see. Nothing to be kept back. Tell them how to share, that’s something one must learn, to teach the children, that they must know how to share, how to be gentle, how to be kind, how to be adjustable and not to be fussy. If some child is fussy, try to treat the child, because it’s a disease which must be got rid of.

So all these petty things if you just now to look after, then you will find your children are great, because they are born-realised. And it’s such a blessing to have born-realised children; because God’s attention is specially on you, because they are born-realised children.

So you must have full idea as to what is to be done with them, how to look after them, how to give them full nourishment of spirituality. You yourself should be so good that they should see you as a foundation and they should try to follow you.

It is not so much the precept of Sahaja Yoga which is important, one must know: it’s the practice. Because precepts are great, you know I am there. But the children are going to see you, not me so much. So it’s better that you also practice Sahaja Yoga in your everyday life.

And one simple word one has to remember is that you love your Mother and your Mother loves you. In the same way, you must love others. But there’s one thing that gives you the real idea of love — is discretion. Spoiling somebody is not love. Ruining somebody is not love. Love is that which elevates you, takes you higher. False sympathies, identifications, always spoil the lives of people.

But discreet love: and love is the thing that gives you the power, love itself gives you that wisdom to be discreet. Love itself teaches you how to be discreet. In a beautiful way you have to be discreet: not to be harsh, angry [or] in a temper. But in a proper, artistic way you must know how discreetly you emit your spirituality to your children, to your friends, to your surroundings, to Sahaja yogis and to the whole world.

But first step: your attachment should be with Sahaja yogis.

Never try to find faults with Sahaja yogis, as far as possible. But if one person becomes too much, then all of you should oppose him and see to it that he is out of this place. But there could be a few mishaps like that. Maybe some people, one person like that may go out. Then whosoever it may be, if he is harmful to Sahaja Yoga by any chance, and if you find there’s something going wrong, you should see that that person goes out of the circulation of Sahaja Yoga. He goes out of Melbourne is the best. Such a person should get out of this place and should go to another centre where he should be tried. That’s how you can shift people who are little funny and misbehaving.

For example, now as you told me about some other centre: send that person to Sydney or some other place to get corrected. If it doesn’t work out in these four centres, then that person should get out of Sahaja Yoga. That’s the only way for the time being: get out of it, stay out. Or maybe from one centre to another centre when you send that person ask him to get out of Sahaja Yoga, go and stay somewhere else, get lost. Maybe [then] that person will be all right. Because the negative forces are mostly entering through the people who are weak, who are low level or who are attacked by possessions or things like that. Because you know the water always goes towards the low level. In the same way negativity always flows to the low level people. And these low level people try to drag other people who have gone higher because they feel jealous of them.

If you find any such thing, then best thing is to ask such a person to get out of the ashrams, to go and stay somewhere else or go away from the city for some time and then return back, so they realise what it is without Sahaja Yoga and what it is in Sahaja Yoga; so they get full idea as to what they are doing.

Sometimes, you know, Sahaja Yoga can be very much taken for granted, because you get every blessing. You get yoga and kshema (welfare) too: you get children, you get beautiful houses, you get all the food, everything is organised for you. God does that. But then you take it for granted, and then you start thinking, “Oh, why this? Why that?” That time one should know that it’s not true. You must know it is God who is helping you in every way. You should be grateful to God for all that. But supposing if such a thing enters into anybody’s mind, then such a person should not get to those ideas and try to distribute them to others. It’s like a disease again. Such a person should get out of the ashram [and] go and see for oneself what is it outside, what is it without Sahaja Yoga, how you meet people, how they treat you, what’s your situation there. Then you will realise what Sahaja Yoga is, how great it is, how much it has helped you and how God is kind to you specially. Because those who are outside do not know these advantages of Sahaja Yoga, these blessings of Sahaja Yoga.

So, as you go out you will see them how they are, how funny they are, how absurd they are, and then when you come back you will realise the value of Sahaja Yoga. So one should not accept all these ideas because it takes then a very long time for a person to come back, very long time. Once he goes out of the circulation, he goes out. As I have told before, many a times, that we have two types of forces working: a centrifugal, and centripetal one. By [the] centripetal force you are taken inside the Sahaja Yoga, you are brought in with your Mother’s love. But there’s another force which is always equally working is the centrifugal, which makes you get out of the circulation of Sahaja Yoga and you go at a tangent. You see, when you are moving something, say a stone or something, fixed with a thread or with a rope and you are moving it, suddenly you find the same thing which you are controlling from the centre just gets out in a tangent.

In the same way, it happens in Sahaja Yoga. And once you go out it’s very difficult to be picked back and to put back into circulation. And such people are always suspected and never trusted and it’s a very difficult thing. It doesn’t work out for months together, sometimes years together. It’s a difficult thing.

So, I would suggest that even if you have certain doubts, you’d better keep them away. Try to fix your nails higher and higher and try to cling on to them and cling on to them. Because Sahaja Yoga is something so miraculous and so great! The whole thing is so great that it is not possible for human beings to conceive what they hvre achieved. You have really entered into the Kingdom of God. But you cannot conceive this, still, with your brain, what you have got. So, you must know that the greatest of greatest has happened to you. And to keep it up, you must try to achieve higher levels and higher levels of spirituality, and forget all that, forget other things. Just try to go higher and higher with your dedication to yourself and to Sahaja Yoga.

I bless you again and again for a higher ascent in your being, and a deeper enjoyment in life.

May God bless you.

How beautifully they have done everything! So beautiful it is!

Let them relax! Let them relax! You see, children would relax now because it’s so much in the vibrations. Let them relax! Don’t you worry. Let them relax! Let them do what they like. That’s all right. And whatever they are, they are angels. They’re all angels. Really they are angels, you don’t know.

Warren: Shall we worship You as Shri Ganesh first Mother and then as the Devi?

Shri Mataji: Yes, yes. It would be a good idea. This is such a nice idea I tell you. It has never struck Indians [to use marble]. We have so much of marble in our country. (Shri Mataji refers to a raised marble footstool) It’s a wonderful idea I tell you.

Shri Mataji: Can I have my watch?

Warren: Yes, Mother. Yes.

Shri Mataji: So let’s have it! It never starts before eleven, somehow. It’s always at five!, Today the sari was not ready for me to wear. I didn’t know what to do.

Warren: Who would you like to worship you first?

Shri Mataji: Oh, anything! I mean, first I wanted the children to do the job.

He wants to come also! Let him come.

Come here! This side is all of you. All right, we’ll do one [thing]. First the small children, then the bigger children. And let’s have four of them, three who are small now. One, two, three are small, all right? You three are big, so let’s have you three and the little one to wash my feet. All the punjabi dress people! (Laughter)

(Puja starts)

[1] the city of Melbourne was named after the British Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who took his title from the Lamb family home, Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire, England.

[2] the building housing the ashram had previously been a nursing home.