creativity
Shri Mataji
Then the second chakra [Swadishtan], when it is awakened within you, you have a special quality of creativity. Because when the second chakra is awakened, you are actually thoughtless. There’s no thought in your mind, so you start looking at anything without thinking. You start looking at anything that is created without any ripple of thought in your mind. Like all that is created round the lake of your mind is completely reflected in that ripple-less lake, and you see the complete reflection of that creation as well as the joy that is bubbling in that creation. So your creativity becomes tremendous, you start seeing things but not thinking about it.
Now, see if you come to this hall, and you start seeing something, you like it, then you start thinking, “Oh God, this is a beautiful thing, but how much it must have cost, and now how old it is? Is it going to last or not? Is it insured or not?”
All sorts of funny ideas will come to you, and you’ll never enjoy watching it. But supposing you have no thought about it, you just watch it, you just see. What happens? The creation that of the artist who has created this beautiful thing, the joy of that creation that the artist had, who might be dead now, you start enjoying that joy. The whole thing can be filled in you with that bubbling joy that he wanted to put there with his own heart. And that’s what happens because there is no thought, so the creativity becomes tremendous. But it’s not only that the creativity is tremendous, but your techniques even. For example, a musician can become a tremendous musician. People who have never done any work can become extremely powerful….
Like Mona Lisa now. We like her, Mona Lisa. According to modern standards she cannot be a beauty because she was a very plump lady, an elderly lady. But today also, if you go there, you cannot see her painting. It’s so crowded; everybody’s anxious to see Mona Lisa. And if you go and feel the vibrations, from distance you’ll get vibrations, because the coefficients of her body, face and everything is made so well, that you get the vibrations.
Now people are very anxious to create new ideas, new type of things, and this, but these things do not sell and even if they sell temporarily, they have no eternal value. So the people with this chakra enlightened, start creating things of very eternal values, of universal values. Anywhere you take such a thing – you’ll take it to India, you take it to China, you take it to Japan or you take it to America, anywhere – any human being who sees that, sees the beauty of the Spirit, because it gives you joy in your Spirit. So the pure art is produced too. That’s the purity, or I would say the holy art is produced too. When you start producing that holy art, then you should believe that you have got an enlightenment on that chakra…..
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)
The festival of Vasant Panchami is celebrated every year on the fifth day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Magha (January – February).
This “Panchami” is also known as Saraswati Day, because it is believed that on this day the Goddess was born. As Diwali is to Shri Lakshmi and Navaratri is to Shri Durga, Vasant Panchami is to Shri Saraswati, the Goddess of art, creativity, knowledge and learning. She represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness. She is the Mother of the Vedas, and chants to Her often begin and end Vedic lessons.
Saraswati literally means “the flowing one”. In the Rigveda it is said She represents a river and the deity presiding over it. In later mythology, Shri Saraswati was identified with Vach or Speech. The “flowing one” in an allegorical sense may mean speech also – perfect speech which denotes intelligence.
On this Vasant Panchami day, Lord Brahma is said to have created His consort Goddess Saraswati, infused speech into Her and bestowed the Veena in Her hands. She was thus named as Veena Vandini (veena player) and Vani Dayyani (recipient of speech). As the spouse of Brahma and the Goddess of wisdom and eloquence, She is known by various names such as Veenapani (holding the veena), Sharada (giver of essence), Vagisvari (mistress of speech), Brahmi (wife of Brahma) and Mahavidya (knowledge supreme).
The colour yellow is given special importance on Vasant Panchami. On this day, Shri Saraswati is dressed in yellow garments and worshipped. Books, articles, instruments of music and arts are placed before Her. In the evening after the Puja is over, the idol is immersed in the sea with serenity.
In all educational institutions of music, arts and science in India, Saraswati Puja is observed with great reverence. Saraswati Puja is also performed during the Navaratri or Dusshera. In India, Hindus prefer to wear yellow clothes on this holy day. Sweets of yellowish hues are distributed among relatives and friends.
Children are taught their first words on this day, for it is considered an auspicious day to begin to learn how to read and write.
Vasant means “spring”, and Vasant Panchami heralds springtime in India, a time of renewal and creativity of life in nature.
(Photograph: freewebs.com)
Mankind, with all its creativity and discipline,
Cannot create a thing as beautiful as a flower.
How to fashion each perfect part?
The shape, the hue, the texture,
The symmetry, the angularity,
The flamboyance, the staid?
The abundance, the rarity,
The variety, the uniformity?
These are beyond the minds
And imaginations of humankind.
Our dabbled attempts at art
Are nothing compared with
The wondrous palette
Of a simple, domestic garden.
The creative genius of God
Is beyond our comprehension
And evades our clumsy attempts
At portraying the Divine Art.
Melody Anderson