Shri Mataji
In Sahaja Yoga we learn to witness our own “Dialogue with God” which becomes actually the fragrant and colourful “Contact with God” through this beautiful world that is breathing in and out the Paramchaitanya, the ever-present power of God. We become the thoughtlessly and joyfully aware children of the Adi Shakti. We are part and parcel of this on-going Divine Plan, complex, diverse and simple. We are spreading the Fragrance of God while longing for the force of gravity that is keeping us grounded to the Divine Mother.
In the last few days I was introduced more deeply than ever to the amazing beauty of the Canadian sky, the canvas for the breath-taking, colourful and playful nature of Mother Earth. I was watching in awe – sometimes in the mornings, sometimes during the day, sometimes in the evenings – the display of ethereal arts. These were moments when one could say, “That’s it!” Meditation started simply by a glance at the Sky, just because God was there, present in the upper Present.
All these days I have wanted to share these simple joys, found above, of clouds and horizons and celestial objects, sometimes soft, surreal portals of Divine Creativity. It was almost like taking a peek into the Adi Shakti’s work of creating the world, witnessing Genesis again and again, in a variety of versions.
Another lesson-experience from the sky was that sometimes Oneness feels not completely self-sufficient if it is not also collective. It triggers the built-in need, based on Love, to gather all the people and pull them in so that the One becomes the Whole. In a complete collective of Love it becomes merely Existence, because each single time the need to share was there. And in a way, I was given the answer to the question, “Why the Creation?”
“Whole world is created because there was love,” Shri Mataji has said. “Sahaja Yoga means ‘We are One’. We are all Sahaja Yogis but not separately – together.”
Ioana Popa
(Photograph courtesy of Tanya Andersson)
So we come to the subtler side. And the subtler side of Sahaja Yoga is extremely simple. Is Compassion. Is Forgiveness. Is Love.
But the greatest of all is the Service to God.
We are doing the work of God. How can we be tired?
The dynamic is flowing through us. That Compassion is so fulfilling, that love is so beautifying, that how can we not do it?
We should run to do it.
But have to know that this love has a tremendous urge within itself.
Shri Mataji, 1984
The following is a beautiful talk by Baba Mama, Shri Mataji’s beloved brother who brought the creative arts, especially music, to the forefront in the Sahaj family. He encouraged and inspired Sahaja Yogis to greater and greater creative heights. One can say he was the embodiment of music in Sahaja Yoga.
You believe that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and all-pervading. In fact, you believe that He is in every atom. As natural corollary of this belief you must also know that God knows what you want or what your need is. If the first proposition is true, then second proposition has to be true. It would follow, therefore, that those who know that God is omnipotent and all-pervading are bound to accept that God is all-knowledgeable and therefore is aware of all your problems.
In spite of this fact, we always go to God with certain expectations. Expectations can be of various types, but are basically self-centred or are pertaining to people or relations you are attached to, and then you pray to God that He should grant you a particular relief, or a job promotion, or some benefit to you or your near ones, etc. When you go with this frame of mind, then most of the time you are disappointed. Hypothetically speaking, if your expectations are symbolized in A and what you get is, let us say, B; then A minus B is your disappointment. And then you have to attribute this disappointment to someone. The pessimists will attribute it to their bad luck and will always curse themselves for not being worthy of God’s favour. The optimists will straight away blame God Himself, and they say that this God is not good and that we should shift to some other God. In this way you keep on shifting from God to God, but disappointment is always there. This may even make you anti-God and an atheist, ultimately. Now take a case where you do not go to God with any expectations. Therefore, the expectations are zero, and let us say that you get B as the reward. Therefore, B minus zero is B which is always surplus.
You should also distinguish between your expectations and desires and pure desires. Pure desire is always for the benefit of the other, and therefore you are entitled to carry pure desires to the Divinity. I once remember, I was travelling with Shri Mataji from Sydney to Canberra, and it was very hot and the air conditioning of the car was thoroughly inadequate. Shri Mataji was sweating and I was fanning Her with a newspaper, but I somehow felt that the heat was oppressive and that the weather should give some respite to Her. Reading my mind, She asked me a question as to what I was thinking, to which I told Her frankly that I was unable to see Her suffer because of heat. So She told me that I should make a pure desire and the weather would change. So I closed my eyes and made a pure desire that the weather should change. Within five minutes, dark clouds gathered from nowhere and it started raining, and the intensity of heat was thus reduced, and Shri Mataji said, “See, if you make a pure desire, then it will always be fulfilled.”
Coming back to expectations, I may mention here that once you are connected to your Divinity through your Self-realization, you should feel assured that you have been admitted into the Kingdom of God, that you are His subject and therefore He is duty-bound to look after you, irrespective of what you expect of Him.
Baba Mama, 1999
First of all, you have to be austere with yourself;
just separate yourself from yourself.
Separate yourself as a Spirit and look at your ego and superego.
Now you start watching the ego and superego –
do not maintain it; they are the destroying forces.
Now when you see the play as a witness of these destroying forces
you will know how to also maintain yourself better.
To separate yourself is easier when you take to austerity.
Shri Mataji, 1985