Shri Mataji
I realised today that one of the films nominated for an Oscar is exactly the type of film that Shri Mataji is describing when She asks, “Why don’t they make movies about love after marriage?”.
In the case of this film, it is love after forty years of marriage. The film is Away from Her. It is a Canadian film. It is directed by Sarah Polley, based on a short story by Alice Munro and starring Julie Christie and perhaps this country’s greatest actor, Gordon Pincent. (Julie Christie is nominated for best actress and Sarah Polley for best adapted screenplay – a tough category.)
The film is about a married couple slowly distanced by Alzheimer’s disease. It is a
story of love in its deepest expression, not a story about infatuation or attraction.
“I never wanted to be away from her,” the husband remembers, now finding that he is, as her memory fades.
Anyone who feels that Canadian films are weak, anyone who feels that filmmaking is a superficial medium, anyone who has seen too many fighting pirates and so-called “romantic comedies,” should have a look at this. This is the real thing. Young or old, you will cherish the people around you.
Away from Her (released in 1997) is available on DVD.
Richard Payment
(Photograph: yorku.ca)
The power of the Goddess that you have got within yourself has now to be deliberately projected….
The power of the Goddess is of love. Whatever She does with the whole world is through her compassion and love. The whole body, the whole being of the Goddess is made of compassion and love and nothing else. This power gives full understanding of the reality and also this enlightenment inside and outside.
For example, if you love somebody, you know everything about that person. It has nothing to do with money. It’s the highest, most valuable, very important power that you have. Even when you think about something noble, something benevolent, this power is filled into that thought and then this thought fills in, into the universe, into your country, into individuals.
The aim of this compassion and love is only one: to see everyone joyous – that’s all, joyous in the real sense of the word. This power cares for the collective as well as for the individual. It cares for the whole world as well as a particular nation. All the time this power works – especially in modern times – to better the lives of the people of the whole world …. So it’s like an ocean of love and compassion that wants to touch every shore. It wants to touch every heart but some are just like stones….
Thus, this love is the power of the Goddess. It is very subtle, silent, but it manifests…. It is this Goddess who is ruling this universe, who is in your centre heart, who looks after you and looks after the whole universe. It is nothing but the pure desire of love. It knows how to express. It knows how to act. You don’t have to do anything. It is spontaneous. What goes against it is your mental activity because the mental activity will say, “Oh my, how can you love somebody like this? It’s no use.” It’s a mental activity which gives you funny ideas. The mental activity is limited and linear. Everybody has different fixed ideas. That’s why they are fighting. That’s why they are having wars. But this power, which is of love, gives you the absolute truth. Then how can you fight? So what we need is this power because our power is very limited.
Shri Mataji, 1995
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)
Today is the day where we celebrate the change of the axis of the sun, and that he moves towards the Tropic of Cancer. Tropic of Cancer is the one which represents the motherhood, the motherhood of the earth. This Tropic of Cancer has passed through quite a big area of land, while the Tropic of Capricorn has not. And the area through which it has passed it has created different beautiful manifestation of the mother qualities on this earth. We celebrate this change because the sun has now moved into the new dimension, so that all over the world there will be the warmth of the sun.
Warmth of the sun represents the warmth of God’s love. This is the reason why we celebrate this festival by giving you some sort of a sweet made out of sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are given because they are also heat-giving, and now as we are coming from the cold we come to the hot season, in a way hotter season, so to prepare you with that warmth of the sun.
This special things are made out of the seed of sesame to represent the oncoming warmth, and the warmth of the sun. Though in India the heat is too much, still people are waiting for this time to come in and they celebrate it with such a warm heart. At this time it is said that they give you this sesame seed and the sugar to eat, but now you must speak in a sweet manner ….
Speaking in the sweet manner is very important. Some people think it is smart to speak in a rude manner, or is very intelligent to shout on people but no one likes this kind of a personality. You may be intelligent. You may be very sharp or smart. Maybe on a television people may like to see you, but not as companions, as friends. To speak in a very sweet manner is a sign of good breeding, good culture and fear of God. Those who fear God will never speak rudely to another person, because in another person also the same spirit is shining; and why should we be sharp or angry with another person who is created by God Almighty as we are created?
So this loving, beautiful co-relationship that we have with each other after Sahaj Yoga specially, let us express in talking to each other sweetly. There are so many ways by which we could be sweet. There are little, little things if you do, you can create lot of sweetness, but you need not a sharp tongue, but a sharp memory. I try these things many a times.
Shri Mataji, 1987