Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
On 12 February 2009 Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday was celebrated in Springfield by America’s new 44th President, Barack Obama.
Shri Mataji has paid tribute many times to Abraham Lincoln and his achievements. Here are some quotations from her talks.
But I would say when I see Abraham Lincoln I think he was a great brother to the Statue of Liberty. The way he fought for women in such pure love and without taking any money, without charging them anything, to punish the husbands who were drunkards. That’s just like a very good, powerful brother to behave. But those feelings are now dying out, I think.
Shri Mataji, 1987
So you are very different from all others, because a Spirit has given birth to your Spirit. You have been cleansed by the Spirit. So you cannot live like that, like all other human beings are living. All the clashes, all the problems of human beings are because they are not what they talk. Ideals are out, out of their life. That is how a Sahaja Yogi will show himself off, compared to anybody else.
Take an example say of Abraham Lincoln, all right? Abraham Lincoln believed that everybody must have freedom and the government should be for the public, for the people. Whatever he talked he practised. Whatever he believed in he worked it out, and gave his life for it. That’s why he’s a great man. Think of Mahatma Gandhi. They were not like Christ, Incarnations. Think of any great man. Think of Shivaji Maharaj, any one of the Saints. They were human beings. But once they knew this is the principle on which we have to live, they become one with the principles. They do not compromise.
Shri Mataji, 1983
February 12 is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Shri Mataji recognised Abraham Lincoln as one of those special people who were born-realised souls and who have contributed so much for the good of humankind. Here is a collection of comments that Shri Mataji has made about Abraham Lincoln over the years. They help us to understand the significance of the contribution he has made, and how much it has affected our lives and the societies in which we live.
We have had so many great people who were born-realised before. Also Abraham Lincoln was a born-realised fellow. We had people everywhere in the world. Like I would say that Michelangelo was a realised soul, Mozart was a realised soul. I mean … so many people were realised souls, but nobody knew about them.
They were effective because they were above all that, and they created these tremendous things because they were one with the Divine Power that is creative, that is not only creative — it is protective. It is the one that thinks, that understands, co-ordinates, co-operates and works out.
Shri Mataji, 1985
And you have Abraham Lincoln. What a man! I think his blessings should work out one day in this country [United States of America]. What a saint. What a personality. And that’s what you had, people, great people in this country, and that greatness, that vision is lost now. Have confidence in yourself.
Shri Mataji, 1984
I was a child, very small. When I was in school I used to go to the library and read about the lives of great men who have created some great things for us. So many of them. And I was so impressed how some of them were so simple, so child-like. For example, Abraham Lincoln for whom I have tremendous, tremendous respect was a man tortured by his wife also. She said, “You don’t know. You are very clumsy. You don’t know how to dress up. You don’t know how to behave”. And she actually was very harsh on him, all the time torturing him. Ultimately he was also killed. So one can say, “You see, what’s the use of being Abraham Lincoln? Because he was killed, he was not successful.”
Until today, all over the world, people know who was Abraham Lincoln. They don’t know his wife… But they knew who was Abraham Lincoln, everybody. Clumsy man, according to her, and all sorts of degradation for him. But nobody respects her, nobody thinks anything about her. Who is respected today, is Abraham Lincoln. Why? Actually, he was murdered. He was killed. That shows that he had no strength to survive, but he survived through ages. So many years have passed; still he’s surviving.
Take the case of all the great people who have been innocent; and that’s why they had ideals. To them their ideals were more important than anything else, even their lives.
Shri Mataji, 2001
(Photograph: lincoln.thefreelibrary.com)