Shri Mataji on alcohol

Shri Mataji stressed alcohol as being the major hurdle in people getting Self Realization and staying in Sahaja Yoga. It is more dangerous than cigarettes, Shri Mataji explained, further adding that where cigarettes destroyed the physical body, alcohol took its toll on one's awareness and thus diminishing the possibility to evolve.

When people come to the first meetings, they should be told from start to stop drinking. Sahaja Yoga is not accessible to those who drink, and those who still prefer to continue with alcohol should be asked to not attend and to leave the meditation room. To continue with Sahaja Yoga one should be determined to stop drinking so as to follow on their spiritual path.

full report

Tagore and Einstein

In 1930 Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore met in Berlin.

An extract from one of their conversations is here

Sahaja Yoga in Ras Al-Khaimah (UAE)

Ed Saugstad writes:
An Austrian Sahaja Yogi gives self-realization to an Arab millionaire at a fair in Vienna, and is invited, cost free, to participate in a fair on the Persian Gulf ...

"Last Friday we did not have any center in RAK as Mrs. Swati went for her annual vacation for around 4 months, well... We did not know what to do and where to conduct the center, as there was no place, our seaside center also has to wind up as summer is on.
RAK Sahaja Yoga team sincerely prayed to Shri Mataji to solve the problem, and seems prayer is heard.
Possibly, during that time, Reinhold, a Sahaja Yogi from Austria, was participating in one of the Exhibition in Austria with Sahaja Yoga stall. Exhibitors approached him and invited him to participate in trade show in RAK - in a few days, he was on the plane to RAK (Hall…free-of- charge, returned air ticket… free-of-charge, hotel accommodation… free-of-charge, all from the exhibitor). He landed in RAK on 12th or 13th May.
We met him on 14th May, Wed., provided him with all the support material for the exhibition (including pullout chart of Medical and Certificates given to Shri Mataji around the world.)
13th May Tuesday, the day before Exhibition, in Hotel Al Hamara Fort, where Reinhold is staying, gave Self-Realisation to one of the richest man of RAK, and that gentlemen promised to come all the 3 days and learn how to do Meditation.
The exhibition started at 6 pm with opening ceremony by H.H. Sheikh Saqr Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah. What happened then is truly momentous: His Highness, visited our stall. After looking at extraordinary Picture of our Divine Mother, asked who is She? After explanation, he requested for some pamphlets, and Reinhold obliged, till 12 am Reinhold, Abhinav and Anita , were giving Self-Realisation. So far, around 350 people got their Self-Realisation (including 20 children), which includes Indian, locals and other Arab nationals.
The Center of attraction was the extraordinary and beautiful picture of HH Shri Mataji, which created such powerful aura of Vibration around, everybody was sort of drawn towards the stall. The most common question again was asked ‘Who is She?’
We did not have the interpreter to explain in Arabic, promptly that also was arranged. One Arab origin lady working in the nearby Paris Gallery shop, took her Self-Realisation. Soon she become part of our Sahaja Yoga stall and started talking about Sahaja Yoga in Arabic to all the Arab visitors.
Jai Shri Mataji!"

Ras Al-Khaimah: country profile

Sahaja Yoga UAE

Electricity

Advice given by H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi:

"We are so much dependent on electricity, is not a very good thing. So we should have always provision for something natural. We should keep some lanterns and things, and should try to live more with the Nature than with this electricity. I tell you, this electricity is responsible for spoiling our eyes very much. Supposing we had used those lights which older generation had used, we would never have strained so much our eyes as we are with this electricity, because, not that it gives us light, but also it takes away light from our eyes. So, too much use of electricity is made us like slaves to it. As you know that in America once the electricity failed and so many people died. So it’s more to depend on natural things, and this is a good trend that you have, that you try to have more natural surroundings, more natural places to live in."
(Shri Ganesha Puja, Gidgegannup, Perth, Australia, 9/2/92)

"Now, we have very sophisticated places in the West, very sophisticated. You know they have everything electrical, you push the button and everything is there. Specially in these modern planes when I travel, I don’t know which one to push because they are so slim and so delicate you see, need a special artist to do that. All this is for what for getting more money, and more money and impressing people. But at the same time people are fed up; when all these sophistications are on. They are fed up with computers, they are fed up with electricity, they are fed up with cement, they are fed up all kinds of artificial thing, is a fact. More, more, much more in the West than in the developing countries. They are just fed up. Now this is the force, this is the strength. Why are they fed up? They are fed up because they have realized it doesn’t give you joy. It doesn’t give you soothing feeling. It irritates them. So it is against human mind, human character or human civilization, something inhuman."
(Shri Adi Shakti Puja 1995)

"After some time you won't be using hands or head or anything, it will be that microchips will be going on. But with this kind of a thing, with this extreme behaviour, you'll become a machine yourself. A slave of the machine. Today the petrol is exhausted, tomorrow electricity is exhausted, then what are you going to do. You don't know even to count two plus two. So you are left without any counting, you'll become the same primitive man and I don't know what you will be doing, climbing on the trees and living like monkeys, I don't know what will happen."
(Talk, Caxton Hall, London, 18/5/81)

Energy conservation

"... every Sahaja Yogi should be conscious about how much energy he is using, of electricity, of telephones, or of water or of anything. We have to be frugal about it. If we do not take the responsibility of these things, then it will not penetrate anywhere else. It is for you to do it. You have to take it up in your everyday life as a part and parcel of your life that you try to save the energy of this Mother Earth. Is very important."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Navaratri Puja, Switzerland, 1990)

Yogi scholars

To bring benevolence in this world we must write benevolent things, write something idealistic, something higher, something hopeful, something which gives them a new dimension of understanding. All the Sahaja Yogis must start writing. Ramdas Swami has said that, “Every day you must write something.” Write diaries, write novels, write articles, do what you like - poems, poetry. All kinds of things you can do if you just know that you have to be yogi scholars, but not intellectuals. Intellectuals have the knowledge of others, but scholars built up their knowledge on the true knowledge of others. That’s the difference between a scholar and an intellectual. Intellectual has nothing of his own, he’s a confused person and he doesn’t want to say, because he’s so frightened that if he says anything that “This is what I think,” then people might say that he is a man of domination or something like that. You need not be a graduate, you need not be anything, but that quality is built within you, which is a very big thing and is very much connected.
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Sheffield, 21/9/85)

Buddha Purnima

Buddha Purnima (also known as Buddha Jayanti and as Vesak) is a festival celebrated each year on the full moon of the fourth lunar month in the Chinese calendar (month of Vaisakh) when three important events of Buddha's life are commemorated:
- His birth in 623BCE
- His enlightenment
- His attainment of Nirvana.


Sahaja links:
Buddha Purnima in Cabella, 2008
Buddha Purnima in UK, 2006: video and photos
Buddha’s Spiritual Seeking
Greta Mo're: My analogy of The Lord Buddha’s Middle Way to the path of Kundalini and Sahaja Yoga

Indic transliteration

Google India have launched their Indic transliteration service.
Automated transliteration between English and Hindi.
Also available for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, which are not Indic but Dravidian languages, as Indian bloggers are pointing out.

Akshaya Tritiya

Akshaya means the one who never diminishes. Tritiya is the third day of the bright half of the lunar month of Vaisakha.
Akshaya Tritiya is an auspicious and sacred day for inviting Goddess Lakshmi into our houses to obtain Her blessings. It is considered that projects begun on this day will be eternal.
Traditionally this day marks the beginning of Treta Yuga. It is also the day on which Shri Parashurama, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, incarnated Himself.

Sahaja links:
Prasad Rao describes Akshaya Tritiya
Akshaya Tritiya celebration in UK, 2006

Third eye

"Today we are going to understand the center of Agnya - Agnya Chakra which is placed on the crossing of the optic chiasma. The nerves that supply the eyes go backwards in the opposite direction and wherever they cross, this subtle center is situated. It has a continuous connection with the other center through the medulla oblongata. This center has got two petals. And this subtle center on one side acts through the eyes and at the back of the head where you have some protrusion. This is the physical side of this center is. Now the people who talk of the third eye, this is the third eye. So that we have two eyes with which we see and there’s a third eye, which is a subtler eye through which we can see.
If you see this eye, that means you are away from it. For example, if you can see your eyes, that means you are seeing your reflection, not the reality. If you see anything, that means you are looking at it. So those people who say they see an eye, for example people who take LSD and all such things, they start seeing another eye. They just see this eye and they think their third eye has opened. Actually you are very much away from the eye, that’s why you can see it. You go to a supraconcious level on the right side, and on the left side to the subconscious level you can see the eye. But in Sahaja Yoga you have to see through that eye, like a window, you can look at the window but if you see through the window, you can’t look at the window. So this illusion that people have that “we can see third eye and that’s why our Kundalini is awakened”, they are sadly mistaken.
This is a very narrow passage through which attention cannot pass normally. Is an impossible thing. Is a very narrow passage where the ego and superego fit onto each other and cross each other just like this. And there is no gap in between for the Kundalini to pass through. This superego and ego go back, go downward, and come to the Vishuddhi Chakra and circle round it and go in the same direction. So, you find that they come up to this place, they start from this place, go up to the Agnya Chakra and then they cross over. But here, they are in the same direction as they were. Here they cross over. So when you have a problem on the left hand side, you get the effects of that on the right hand side. ... So this third eye is to be penetrated through."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk on Agnya Chakra, Delhi, 1983)

Neem

I would like to tell you about these trees, are called as Neem trees. I don’t know if you can pluck them, but you might find them down below. This is what is the very good thing for driving out all the badhas, somehow or other. It has a very bitter taste and the badhas run away from it, but they’re very oxygen-creating plants and we use them as toothbrushes. See, there’s one twig is taken and chewed into and then we go on cleaning our teeth with it for about an hour or so, you see, (Laughter) while talking to people, early in the morning when they are going for a walk they just take it in their teeth and just go on chewing all of them talking together and sort of working it out. So the teeth can keep very well. They never go to dentists, Indians, don’t go to dentists. I've never been to a dentist myself. So this is a very nice thing and here also you get something called Neem toothpaste, I don’t know where you can get it, but that’s a very good thing for your teeth. So if you could get these trees down, below somewhere, you can pluck it out and you can just start use it for a nice brushing, try, if you can, but you have to chew it very well. So these are, these are the trees, these, this kind, you can see it. And if you have any sort of a scabies or any skin trouble, then we boil the water with this and give a bath. It's very good, for taking a bath, boil the water with this and take a bath. Is a bitter thing, if you don’t allow the water to go in your mouth, then it's perfectly all right, it's very good, it's very medicinal thing called as Neem - N-E-E-M – Neem. Try to find, if you can find the toothpaste somewhere.
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk to western yogis on India tour, 1/12/88)

Discover Neem
Neem Foundation: helping farmers in Maharashtra
Neem toothpaste safe, says firm

Metta Sutta

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

The Buddha's teachings on Loving Kindness (Metta Sutta) are found in the Suttanipäta.
Translation by the Amaravati Sangha. Another translation with the Pali text can be found here.