Shri Mataji
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Purity is your Mother’s name [1]. You know that my name is purity. And this purity is such that it purifies everything. It just purifies. The purity should be such that it should purify; otherwise that purity has no meaning.
For example, a soap purifies, but you don’t purify the soap … Water is the purifier. Water purifies us physically. And also all our poisons are driven out of our liver by water. Water is a very great element in removing all problems [2]. You use water for so many things. You know how it works out.
So this Lakshmi [3], which is purification, was born out of water. That’s why she was called as Mary [4]. And I’m also called Nira [5], meaning “born out of water”.
So one has to understand … that we inculcate purity. We should not cheat ourselves. It is easy to cheat, but we should inculcate purity within ourselves as a matter of our own maturity, as our own decoration, as our own beauty and not just because it’s a laborious thing or it is a very hard thing. It is not like that. It should be achieved with great pleasure and happiness…
We like to have a bath or to be clean and to be presentable. In the same way, we should try to clean our thoughts. Just by paying attention to them, we can clean them. Thoughts must be made clean. First of all, why have thoughts at all? But even if you have, have clean and pure thoughts. Even if you have to have, don’t have thoughts full of arrogance, aggression or of fear…
Our purification of our mind comes through certain methods of understanding. First of the understandings one has to have is that we are born in a family, born in a society … So all these fixations have put into us a certain amount of impurities, which may give us ego, superego. Anything it might give us. So to keep it pure and simple, take to the water element [5] as much as you can. It helps both ways. It helps the ego. It helps the superego. Take to the water element. And that is what Lakshmi is…
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Diwali Puja, 1981
Notes:
1. Shri Mataji’s name, “Nirmala”, means “pure”.
2. The element of water is used in simple cleansing practices in Sahaja Yoga.
3. The Goddess, Lakshmi, is worshipped at the time of Diwali Puja. Lakshmi was born out of the sea.
4. The name, “Mary”, comes from the Latin word for sea.
5. “Nira” comes from Shri Mataji’s name, “Nirmala”.
Shri Mataji
It is a very unique thing that has happened, that your Sahasraras were opened out. There were very few people in this whole world. There were some Sufis, there were some saints, some other people also in China, I know, but very few. Very few got their Sahasrara opened out. So whatever they said or wrote was never understood by the people. They actually tortured them. They crucified them and did all kinds of horrible things because they couldn’t bear somebody getting this realisation…
So nowadays the world is full of turmoil, as you see, full of nonsensical people coming up, full of quarrelsome people. Dominating people are overpowering. At this time, if you just see this in the witness state, this will disappear because you are very powerful. But you must know, first of all, that you must have the equipment to use the power. If you have the equipment within you, you can do it. But with your ego you cannot.
Ego is the greatest hurdle for your ascent. You can see that ego is at a place where you have to just cross to go to the Sahsrara. And to break the Sahasrara is very easy otherwise. But if there is ego, you are already lost in that ego. So against all this, one has to understand to “watch yourself”. Is it egoistical? What does it think about itself? Ego is very limited. It makes you limited and you do not see the purpose of your life. Why have you become a realised soul? You do not understand. You just are involved in your own affairs, in your family, in your children, in your something like that – very low. But if you have, if you have a ego-less temperament, then you are very effective; the whole power works. What I have seen, the power of Sahasrara is so great. In some people it has worked wonders…
Now, as it is, I am here to tell you about it. In those days when these saints came in, nobody was there to guide them, to tell them anything. On the contrary, they were so much destroyed by the surroundings, and people never understood why they did not have any ego, why they were so humble; so they were misused. But now you have powers. You must know how to use your powers. But that should not give you, by any chance, any ego that you have powers. On the contrary, you should be humble. You have the power to be humble and you can be humble…
Shri Mataji, Cabella, Italy, 5 May 2002
Shri Mataji, founder of Sahaja Yoga
It is the love that you give and the love that you receive, which is not a love which is entangled into anything with any purpose, with any idea. But just to feel that love, pure love within yourself and within others is the greatest gift of the Divine. All other things are useless.
Shri Mataji, Delhi, 21 March 1996
If you think that by standing on your heads or paying me some money you can achieve your realisation, I am sorry that this is not the shop that sells it. This is a gift from God. It is a grace of God which is bestowed upon you, which you have to receive. As you have received everything else, you are going to receive it also.
Shri Mataji, London, 30 June 1979
You must know one thing, that I cannot take anything from you. I cannot receive. My nature is not to receive, but just to give. So you take it from me; it is a gift. Just take it and have it and enjoy it. This what you have been seeking, not in this life, but many lives before. And the time has come and the chance has come.
Shri Mataji, Cabella, Italy, 10 September 1995
Shri Mataji, founder of Sahaja Yoga
I do not have to say anything for love. Love is an absolute gift, a gift of just feeling others. There is no talking about, discussing about it, nothing. You just feel that love. To feel the love, I would say, one has to have a heart.
But how can you have a heart? It is not your own doing. It is all there. So it is something which is already gifted to you. You have it, that you can feel that love. It is so much joy-giving, peace-giving.
Love has its own qualities and one of the qualities is that love understands. Its understanding is not in words, not in thought, but it understands within. It can feel within, which is very important. This is the most important part one has to realise: that love, you can only feel it. You cannot talk about it. You cannot show about it. But it is within and you can feel it…
That feeling is within. And only within you can feel that. So we have to understand it is not the show. It is nothing else, but just the feeling within that you know that you have the love of the Divine.
This you can have because it is just there. No one can give it to you. No one can sell it… It is just there.
And that love has to be felt and shared. It has nothing to do with others. Whether the other loves you or not makes no difference. It is within yourself, this feeling. This depth is there which you enjoy.
Shri Mataji, Cabella, Italy, 4 July, 2004