Shri Mataji
I met an elderly couple whilst doing my junk mail run. We started chatting whenever I reached their letter box, until they stopped being in their garden when I walked past.
Weeks went by before Mr Jones called out to me and came to talk. He told me that his wife had been very sick and since then she had “terrible nerves and couldn’t do anything”. She wasn’t even leaving the house and just wanted to stay in bed. He said that he had been told that I taught meditation and asked me if I would come to their house and teach his wife to meditate to see if that would help her. Normally, I would never agree, but these people were in their 80s, and I could feel how much concern and love he had for his wife. So I agreed.
Mrs Jones invited me to sit next to her on the lounge. We began talking, and I explained how Sahaja Yoga worked. I showed her the green meditation card with the photograph of Shri Mataji and explained the process of Self-realisation. I put the card down as I showed her where to place her hands and explained the affirmations. I felt the vibrations flowing as we closed our eyes for her to receive her realisation. The vibrations became very strong, and so I guided her through a short meditation. Finally, we opened our eyes. I looked at Mrs Jones. Her eyes were filled with tears. I asked her how she felt. She replied with a smile, “I feel relaxed for the first time since…” She never finished the sentence but just took hold of my hand.
We sat and enjoyed another short meditation. Then I left, telling her that I would come back in a week. When I returned Mrs Jones told me that she had been meditating twice a day and that she felt a lot better.
A few days later I saw the local doctor.
“Look at you!” she exclaimed. “I feel like I’m looking at a completely different person! What have you been doing?” I told her that I was still meditating. For some reason, I mentioned Mrs Jones. The doctor replied, “Yes, I know. I saw her yesterday. It’s remarkable what you have done for her.”
I felt so humbled because I knew that I had not done a thing. I wandered into the chemist shop to buy soap. To my amazement, I received the same kind of reception from the chemist. I gave the same reply to the question of what I had been doing. Once again, I was incredibly humbled and, to be honest, stunned as the chemist said, “It’s amazing to see the change in Mrs Jones. She told me about the meditation and said that she’s been out gardening, and she’s even had her hair done.”
This experience reminded me that it is just pure desire and thoughtless awareness that enables Self-realisation and nothing more. We actually do nothing. I also learned that you are never too old to be transformed. Mrs Jones was proof that Sahaja Yoga absolutely transforms a person, including the person “giving” realisation.
Lisa Barron
Shri Mataji
In all humour we should understand what this stupid thing called ego is. In all humour, not in seriousness, for I don’t want you to again feel guilty…. This is the art of living. This is the art of living a Sahaja yogi life. It is the art of living it, how with little few things you see how to manage.
Now you must have seen how in my lectures I say quite serious things. But in your bubbles of laughter, it just settles down in your mind. That is how you should do it, because humour is one of the greatest things that push the thing through, makes the people understand, and it does not harm anyone. That is how things improve.
Shri Mataji, 14 September, 2002
I have been practising Sahaja Yoga for more than twenty years, and I am still amazed and humbled by the experiences that it brings. Sahaja Yoga truly connects us to an entirely new dimension. Our brains wrestle with this concept. We still think that we have to solve our problems, especially the mundane ones. However, if we surrender and truly believe that, just as Shri Mataji says, we are protected and that the Divine is just waiting to help us, then every little thing that is good for our ascent is taken care of in ways that our brains could not even imagine. These two experiences show just how the Divine is aware of everything, even our most basic, mundane needs.
I am on what I used to call “a very tight budget”. As a result, I found myself with two very hungry dogs and no money to feed them. I also desired to eat chicken soup from the local Malaysian restaurant. I had no money to buy either and began to feel stressed about the dogs (not so much about the soup).
I realised that I had forgotten once more that our needs are taken care of. I drove to the local pet shop and stopped my negative thoughts. I stood in the aisle where the dog food was. Just as I began to wonder what on earth I expected to happen, the owner of the store approached me.
He stood beside me and took down a large bag of dog food, saying, “I am so sorry, but I mixed up the order this week, and we don t have your usual dog food. Here, take this one – on the house.”
The old me would have panicked and blurted out the fact that I couldn’t afford it, but this new me just stayed silent and let him do all the speaking.
I walked out feeling totally humble and filled with joy. My ignorant brain was thinking that things could not get any better. Little did it know!
I started driving home when I received a text message. I stopped the car to read it. The text was from a friend who lived above the local restaurant that made the soup which, by now, I had forgotten all about. The restaurant had made too much of this soup that I desired and had given her the surplus which was too much for her to eat. She wanted me to come to her house to get some! I drove home, totally humbled, with enough soup for two and enough dog food to last for two weeks.
The other experience involved a food processor. I hadn’t had one for more than twelve months, and I really wanted to buy one as I missed the meals I used to prepare with it.
Finally, I had enough money to buy one and they were on special. I felt that another desire was being taken care of, but somehow it didn’t feel right to go ahead with buying it.
The next morning a lady who had been coming to the Sahaja Yoga programs at the local library rang and asked me to go to an exhibition at an art gallery. The following morning, we met at my house for meditation. We were chatting over a cup of tea when she began to talk about cooking and recipes. I mentioned my plans to buy a food processor. She asked why I wanted one, and I explained that I missed making hummus and falafels. She said that she had a food processor that she never used and that she would like me to have it because she always felt bad that it was never used.
Within half an hour I owned a food processor! My gut feelings had been correct: I wasn’t meant to buy a food processor; I was simply meant to “get” one.
Since then I never refer to my tight budget. I don’t have a tight budget at all. I simply have a Divine one!
Lisa Barron
(Photograph: causak.com)
The generosity of loving others, the generosity through compassion – compassion does not mean that you should pity someone, but compassion means the sharing of personality, the sharing of love personality. And that is where we miss the point, that compassion means somebody has to be helped. Sahaja Yoga compassion is not that. Sahaja Yoga compassion is sharing.
First is the forgiveness…. Second is – you can call it the compassion or the detachment leading to compassion…. Thirdly is the compassion. These are the wheels of your chariot which moves you. These are the wheels you should remember.
Now, if you go further with it, with the detachment – supposing it works out in you – even you become compassionate. Even if that comes, still what is the judging point? How do you know that you are all right? How do you measure? How do you find out that you are all right? What do you call to take the bearing of the ship? How do you know? You must have peace. You should be a peaceful person.
Agitation should be outside, but you should be an absolutely peaceful person. If you are not a peaceful person, then be sure that you are not yet there where you should have been….
So if you still have a temper, then know that your progress is very slow….
If you are argumentative, then know that you are not yet there where you have to be. A peaceful person goes to a point and then argues it out. If you are argumentative, then your progress is not all right.
So a person has to be absolutely peaceful, and this peace is the most effective thing. We are seeking the peace of the universe…. You can only achieve it through the spirit, which is the source of all the peace…. Peace is the greatest powerful thing on this Earth….
Shri Mataji, 22 April 1984, London UK