Dearest Family,
Jai Shri Mataji!
Happy Easter!
The Australian Collective is so incredibly fortunate to have been blessed with the opportunity to worship Shri Mataji in Her Sakar Form on the occasion of Easter Puja within Australia in 1992 and in 1994.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi – Easter Puja, 23 March 2008, Nagpur
As we prepare to celebrate Easter Puja through today’s national Puja, broadcast from Canberra, into our homes, we recognise the importance of observing Puja protocols in our hearts and in our homes. These protocols ensure we please the deities and our Divine Mother in our worship of Her.
One simple and established protocol of Sahaja Yoga is the provision of Guru Dakshina at every collective Puja. As our Pujas are now online, let’s now also offer our Dakshina online.
Traditionally, the Shishyas (disciples) looked after their Guru, and that’s why a little money (Dakshina) is offered. In Sahaja Yoga, the Guru Dakshina offering is a form of reciprocity and exchange between Sahaja Yogis and our Guru, our Divine Mother.
If you haven’t already setup your monthly Guru Dakshina direct payment (as advised by your State Councilors), then please consider to do so in time for today’s Easter Puja.
How to make Dakshina offerings
We can do this by direct deposit into our State Collective bank accounts – each State Collective’s banks details are provided below. When making an online Dakshina payment, please specify “Dakshina <your initial and surname> e.g. Dakshina J. Smith.
The suggested voluntary monthly Dakshina amount is $35 per adult except for students, pensioners and the unemployed. The latter groups can contribute according to their own discretion.
If this is something you now find unaffordable in these times then of course only put something you can afford or when you find you can.
Pujas will be online for the forseeable future so we recommend Yogis arrange to set up a direct deposit into the Sahaja Yoga bank account for each of the 12 major Pujas celebrated through the year. Yogis may wish to deposit Dakshina at the start of each month immediately before each Puja.
Importance of Dakshina
In 1992, during Easter Puja, Shri Mataji outlined the direct importance for us as Yogis to contribute financially to Sahaja Yoga projects:
“So there are many people who come to My program, I am told, but do not pay for My programs. It’s very wrong. If you do not pay, I tell you, immediately you’ll suffer, and that is in money matters, because if you do not give, money doesn’t come. Those people who have been generous with their hands have been very prosperous, even in Australia, even in India. So I have to tell you, even this is not a temptation to you, but when people say, “Mother, our thing is not coming up, this is not working out” – so there’s something wrong, somewhere wrong.
…
So it is the morality of your, I should say, financial morality.”
HH Shri Mataji Ester Puja 1992 Sydney
“….Dakshina’ has to be given, because, see, Guru has to be looked after by the ‘Chelas’. The Guru is after all, is not at all attached to your wealth or to anything that you give. But it is the duty of the Shishyas [disciples] to look after the Guru, and that’s why a little money is also… was to be given, to a Guru. I mean, of course they are now misusing the whole stuff, because the Guru has to live somewhere; he has to have a house and, all these things. So a little money was also given, called as Dakshina.”
HH Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Guru Puja, Dollis Hill, London, UK, 2 December 1979
We kindly ask that you read this email with the loving and supportive attention with which it is written. As a dynamic Collective that has been blessed with so many amazing properties we have ongoing and increasing maintenance expenses that increase with the age of our buildings as well as those administrative expenses such as insurance. This is, on top of our promotions and advertising budgets, ie Facebook adverts, professional website and email hosting, for online public programs.
We will promote Sahaja Yoga up to the amount our Collective is able to donate. So much is possible in these important times and we kindly ask for your generosity.
State Collective’s banks details for Dakshina offerings
When making an online Dakshina payment, please specify “Dakshina <your initial and surname>” e.g. Dakshina J. Smith.
Queensland
Bank: ANZ
BSB: 012245
A/c No: 348910611
A/c Name: Life Eternal Trust Qld
Victoria
Bank:CBA
BSB – 063539
ACC – 10293993
A/c name: Life Eternal Trust
New South Wales
Bank: ANZ
BSB: 012 245
Account number: 2217 67344
Account: Life Eternal Trust – NSW Promotions
Australian Capital Territory
BSB No. 801 009
Account No. 100037498
A/c name: Life Eternal Trust Australia
Western Australia
BSB 016 484
A/c no: 2573 65611
A/c name: Life Eternal Trust WA
South Australia
Bank – ANZ
BSB 015-310
A/c No: 469637017
A/c Name: Life Eternal Trust SA
Lots of Love
Lyn and Andre on behalf of your Australian Council