THE SPIRIT

Some days are so special that when you wake up, you start feeling that it is going to be a special day. Today 10 Jan 2012 was one of those days.

It was a foggy morning in Bahrain. After a deep meditation and while driving to office, looking at the weather, felt like sharing these thoughts which was running in my mind.

It was foggy but not cold

It was chill but no wind

There was light but no sun

The world was moving, yet the weather was unmoved

If we have to give form to spirit,

often I wondered how it will look like?

Today's weather was like our spirit

It feels the Joy, yet does not jump

There is light in our spirit, yet does not shine

Sorrow or happiness Yet is unmoved

Spirit is only a reflection of self

when the self disappears

Spirit starts showing, yet cannot see.

What is Adi Sakthi?

Thanks to Shri Mataji's 1993 puja video on the occassion of Adi Sakthi Puja at Cabella. During the speech many of the misnomers about the meaning and powers of Adi Sakthi was cleared. I will try to narrate below to the benefit of viewers.

The word Adi is derived from Sanskrit (Deva Lipi), the language of Gods, which means the Primordial, the supreme, which has no beginning, no end, which is omnipresent, which cannot be destroyed or created, which just exist. The word Sakthi means power. Together, we can call it as the primordial power or energy or force.

Everything is created out of this power. It can expand and recede at its will. Adi Sakthi is nothing but the power of pure love and compassion. Adi Sakthi was created out of the pure desire of Lord Shiva. The power of Adi Sakthi is immeasurable and as a reflection it is present in all living beings, but it is at a much developed state in human beings. The reflection of Adi Sakthi in human beings is nothing but Kundalini energy. When this kundalini energy is awakened it enlightens the Spirit (Atma) within us.

When the Spirit gets enlightened, it is expressed as eternal joy, love and compassion.

For analysis sake, let's think it over, If each and every human being is a reflection of Adi Sakthi, then Shri Mataji is Adi Sakthi Herself.

When we say Adi Sakthi, then the typical human mind (the Indians mainly) try to equate this and imagine as a Deity armed with full weapons and sitting on a Tigress or Lion. This is due to the ignorance and past teachings of our Elders. Adi Sakthi can be felt at our finger tips and on all our chakras, whenever we sit in Meditation. In other words, when the Kundalini connects herself to the Primordial force, we can say, we are entering into the world of Adi Sakthi.

Shri Mataji says, when she took birth on this earth in Human form, even she was worried as to how she is going to open the Sahastrar (Bramharandra/fontanel bone area)of humans? since in those days, at least in India people were just worried about their life and worldly affairs. Then she decided that the power of Adi Sakthi is much greater the problems we humans face. However, whenever she tried to explain this to people, they never understood the concept. At a later stage, due to the sheer power of Adi Sakthi, regardless of the problems a person is facing, it started acting when Kundalini pierced the fontanel bone area.

She has mentioned that till now the seekers even from the ancient times in their search of Adi Sakthi had reached only up to the principle of "Bhagavati", means they have understood only about Bhagavathi. So the principle of Adi Sakthi is much greater and still to be understood in proper sense.

No amount of reading or soul searching will reach us to Adi Sakthi. Then how are we going to attain that stage?

Shri Mataji says, it is very simple... Just be in silence and meditate more. You are automatically connected to Adi Sakthi. The manifestation and expression of true love within us is a reflection of Adi Sakthi itself. When the Diety is sitting in front of us, do we need to search outside?

Ask yourself the following as an introspection?

Are we in true love with others or we just do it superficially?
When we speak to someone, do we really mean it or just doing it artificially?
In our compassion, do we really forgive people or we still carry that grudge in our heart and wait for an opportunity to take revenge?

If we are not truthful to our spirit, then whatever we plan and do will be defeated by the power of Adi Sakthi.

This is explained as "Sankalpa Vikalpa Virodhi'. She is against any planning and conditioning as Adi Sakthi is spontaneous. If we attempt to do anything which is against the will of Adi Sakthi, then she defeats such plans.

I recommend each and every Sahaja Yogi, even non Sahaja yogis to watch the DVD mentioned in the start of this blog.

Happy Adi Sakthi Puja 2010.....

Why Mother is so important in our life?

Around the world, the word Mother invokes an instant emotion. Mother is the source of endless joy, love and compassion. In the history, we have heard of bad son, bad husband, wife etc. have we ever heard of bad mother? never we will hear also.

A son can become husband, father in due course of his life, however the relationship between the Mother and her children will never change. A mother remains a mother always to her children. If father is the identity behind every name, Mother is the one who first identify father to her children. The child starts believing from then on.

Let's look at how mother is respected as per Indian culture.

In the order of worship, Mother is placed first in the vedas followed by father, guru and God. In indian language, it is Matha, Pitha, Guru and Deivam.

Even those who have renounced the worldly life and took to saintlyhood, whenever they see their Mother, they can prostate at their Mother's feet, whereas if the saints happen to meet their father, they should not do so on the contrary, the father should prostate before the saint, even if it happnes to be his own son.

The saints cannot perform funeral rites as we normal humans do for our own parents, relatives etc. since they have renounced all bondage, however if the deceased happens to be the saint's mother, they are allowed to perform the funeral rites.

Mother is given the highest respect in any society. If we have to prosper in our life, please try to get your mother's love and grace which will protect us in the long run. No mother will curse her children, however if it happens, then your life is doomed for generations together.

Similarly for our spiritual ascent too, it is very very important that we follow the advises of our Holy Mother Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, who happens to be a compassionate Mother as well as our Guru.

Through her Grace, let's awake the inner mother within us, the mother kundalini and through that light, let us enlighten our spiritual knowledge.

No Pains no gains

I had a thought provoking week, thanks to the fracture on my toe. We had a sahaj program in British School of Bahrain last week. Prior to the start of the program, I had an injury on my toe, however considering the importance of doing Mother's work, I just ignored and attended the program. Even though I had little difficulty in walking, I din't experience any major pain as our attention was more on the new seekers to help them get their self realisation.

The next day when I visited the hospital, the Doctor confirmed fracture on my toe and the following whole week, I was struggling with pain. However, thanks to Shri Mataji's various lectures and video, I could divert my attention at home and forget the pain inflicted by the injury. This was the moment I experienced that our body is different from the Spirit. The spirit does not experience any pain at all, rather it is joyous when you do Mother's work. Prior to this experience, I had read about many saints who could differentiate between their body and spirit and nothing deterred their spirit. For example, Ramana Maharishi underwent surgery without anasthescia. Similary Paramacharya underwent eye surgery without any anasthescia. I was always fascinated how this is possible? It would be a mockery to compare myself with those great saints, however the point I want to stress here is about body and spirit and both has no connection. Regardless of the state of your body, the spirit can be kept joyous provided you take your inner attention to a higher level.

The Next week, on my follow up visit to the Doctor, since he was relaxed a bit, we had little chat about pain in physical as well as in philosophical sense. I repeat the Doctor's golden words here..
"Even though pain is an unpleasant feeling, it is a blessing from God as Pain can be experienced only by Living beings and not by Dead things".

This was the second thought provoking moment. It is true that behind every pain, there is a gain. In my case in the physical sense, the pain I underwent was a proof that my toe was on its way to normalcy, it's part of the repair process. That is a confirmation that my toe would soon be back to normalcy.

Similarly even in our lives, behind every pain, there is a gain. It's the test of endurance. Pain gives you strength to face the challenge and succeed. If you look at the History, after every War there was peace, life bubbled to normalcy and humans in their quest to conquer nature invented so many things which prevented a repeat act.

Face the pain, accept the pain with a smile and work out your way to succeed the pain as you will gain sooner. Even if nothing happens, least we would learn a lesson.

On the videos and speeches I watched, I was amazed by Mother's usage of words which are truly divine and each word is a Mantra by itself. Some of it I re produce below for the benefit of readers:-

"The divine is more interested in a little worm which is alert and lives outside than a dead one at King's palace"

"The little feather weighs much more than the ship" - This is about realization process and benefits of kundalini awakening.

"The powers of Adi Sakthi is much greater than the problems we (humans) face" - Adi sakthi puja 1993, Cabella.

"If you do not meditate with such intensity that I feel you in my Body, then you have no right to question me" - Adi sakthi puja 1993, Cabella.

"If you meditate regularly with intensity, then I'm responsible for your ascent" - Adi sakthi puja 1993, Cabella.

I'll try to describe about adi sakthi and our mis-conception in my next blog.

Your comments and feedback are most welcome and will be a source of encouragement.

THE ESSENCE

Ganesha is the essence of mooladhara
Brahmadev saraswati is the essence of swadistan
Mahalakshmi is the essence of Nabhi
Dattatreya is the essence of Void
Sadashiv is the essence of Anahat
Krishna is the essence of Vishudhi
Lord Jesus is the essence of Agnya
Kalki is the essence of Sahastrar.

Mataji is the essence of Sahaj
She is the essence of Purity
She is the essence of True Love and compassion

Our mother is the ocean of Joy
Let's bask in her glory

Choice after Self Realisation

I was listening to a very old speech CD of Shri Mataji. The title was Sat, Chit, Anand, the speech delivered in India, way back in 1977.

Prior to listening to this CD, I was always wondering, how after realisation, the human qualities does not change and very much linger around the age old habits and thoughts? Why the kundalini awakening does not necessitate change in the human qualities for better? In some cases, after realisation, why certain people were exposed? Does it not bring bad repute to the self realisation process?

Shri Mataji, explains this beautifully in her talk. After self realisation, you have two options, either you become a self realised person, or you become a rakshasa(person with negative thoughts and deeds). So, the choice is ours as to what we want to become.

To become a self realised person, one need not do much than keeping his attention on his spirit and be in thoughtless state, which is without reaction. Also this is called witness state. It's a vicious circle, be in thoughtless state to achieve witness by not reacting. If any one of this cycle is broken, then your mind falls at the hands of your thoughts.

Your thoughts start controlling your mind and action which will lead to do wrong things, wrong advise to others and if person who is listening is not strong enough in his meditation, will automatically listen to this person and as Mother says, it's a fratenity of Bhoots. (negative minds together).

She has quoted Ravana as classic example of a realised person turning into Rakshasa. Despite his realisation, despite his boons from Lord Shiva, still he was conquered by his thoughts. He was unable to control his thoughts through interrospection. He captured Sita, wife of Lord Rama and had to pay a heavy price. Not only he lost his life, kingdom and family but also the hard earned good name as a realised person. In short he lost connection with the divine.

It is upto us as to what we want to become. Interrospection plays a vital role in achieving that. Every night, before going to bed, if we take a stroll mentally as to what we achieved today(sahaj activities) what we spoke? Did we hurt anyone by our talks? Did we listened to the advises of wrong person? Did we react without being in witness?

Spirit does not lie. If you ask your spirit the above questions(being in thoughtless state), you will get a clear answer. The better option would be not to get into those situation again, be in witness state.

As mother kundalini tests us all the time, we need to be careful in our words and deeds.

On this day of Shri Mataji's birthday, let's take a vow to be a better sahaj yogies.

The above statements are purely based on my interrospection. Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

THOUGHTLESS STATE

An enlightened personality, I can tell you, is a person who is beyond his mind. And he is in contact completely with this all-pervading power of divine love. As a result everything in that person is guided, helped by that divine love. That power is so great that it looks after you, it organizes everything, it thinks, it understands, it is wisdom of all the things. You become a person who is so collectively conscious.

Today we need people like that. Otherwise you always think about yourself. About others you can only think when you are collectively conscious. But these days there are so many people marketing their spirituality, you see. That’s also there. And just people jump to it, I don’t know why. Why don’t they find out what is the gain, what did you gain out of it? Nobody wants to know.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Press Conference, London, July 1999

The above golden words of Mother can be understood only if we are in a state of collective conscious and not self centered. Great men do not need words to communicate. Their thoughts are enough. This can be narrated by means of a short story.

Once Swami Vivekananda was travelling by train. His fellow passenger said that those in ochre robes, who never did any work, had no right to eat food and sustain themselves. Why should they eat, when they did nothing productive, but lived off the labour of other people, he asked.

Vivekananda said that the man was not providing him with food, and should not concern himself about what others gave. But the man would not give up criticising Vivekananda. He said that if Vivekananda did not beg, would he get any food? Vivekananda said that he would get food without asking.

At the next station, Vivekananda got off the train, and walked up and down the platform. When the train was about to leave, a man came running, calling out to him. The man had a packet with him, which he gave to Vivekananda. He explained that he had had a dream, in which he had seen Vivekananda, who had asked him for food. He did not know who the person in the dream was. All he knew was that there was someone in the railway station, who was hungry, and that he would have to bring him some food. Thus, Vivekananda was able to communicate merely by thinking. He did not need words to communicate.

Only great men can communicate in this way. But our thoughts can sometimes be discerned even by animals. When we are afraid, a smell emanates from our body, not sensed by human beings, but clearly smelt by animals. They can sense that we are afraid, and that encourages them to attack us. We see paintings of sages, surrounded by wild animals, and wonder how the animals did not harm them. These sages had passed beyond the stage of thoughts of any kind. They had attained the state of nirvana. So, since they did not experience any fear, the animals did not attack them.

But we are victims of our thoughts. Our thoughts wake up even before we do. The moment we awake in the morning, we have different thoughts taking control of our minds. If it is not worry, it is envy. If it is not envy, then it is anger. If it is not anger, it is greed. How can we know peace then?

Shri Mataji's Golden words about Thoughtless Awareness:

Now, to become a Guru, what do we have to do after our realization? Guru word means gravity. Gravity means a person who is grave, who is deep, who is magnetic. Now as you have learnt in Sahaja Yoga that realization takes place in complete effortlessness. So normally a Guru tries to make his disciples effortless, which is called as Prayatna Shaithilya - means "relax your efforts.” Without doing anything you got your Prayatna Shaytilya, otherwise Kundalini would not have risen.

Then the second stage is Vichara Shaithilya - the thoughtless awareness. This also you got it without doing anything. And the third is complete negation of thought - Abhava - and the bliss of peace. So one has to understand that you have to pass them, through three stages. First, when you get your realization all these things come spontaneously, for that moment. When you raise the Kundalini of others, these things happen to them spontaneously. You too have that power now to raise the Kundalini of people and to establish it in them. But we must understand why it has to be done that way, why we have to have Vichara Shaithilya.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Guru Puja 1984.

To attain thoughtless stage we need to meditate regularly.

How do you attain nirvichar (thoughtlessness) in meditation?

In meditation? There is no vichar (thoughts) during meditation. Why should thoughts come in meditation? You are not to seek anything during meditation. It is only to be felt within. It is you who have to discriminate whether you have realised this or not during meditation. In meditation, first you will come to know your own mistakes, where you were wrong, and where you were right. When you start realising your own mistakes, then you are on the right track. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you see yourself. What is the use of seeing others? The trouble with us is, we always like to see others in the mirror. Then how will you identify your own faults if you start to see others in the mirror?

(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi Shri Krishna Puja 2003, Pratisthan, Pune, India)

To attain this thoughtless stage meditation is the best method. But by mere reading of books will not help us to attain these thoughtless state. We need to meditate regularly to experience this blissful state.