Dear Family,
We wish everyone a wonderful Shri Shivaratri Puja all around Australia!
Let’s all open our hearts completely and collectively dissolve into the ocean of Shiva Tattwa.
(H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi – Shivaratri Puja Newcastle Australia 1992)
“We have to open our hearts to allow for the principle of Shiva, which is joy, to be contained in our hearts.”
Happy Shivaratri 2019!
Shivaratri Puja, Bombay (India), 14 February 1988.
(This part was spoken in Hindi)
Today we are all come together to celebrate the Shiva Tattwa Puja. Nowadays, in Sahaja Yoga, what we have achieved is by the Grace of the Shiva Tattwa. Shiva Tattwa is the ultimate goal (establishment, completion) of pure desire. When the Kundalini gets awakened in us, pure desire takes us near and keeps us at the Shiva Tattwa. Beyond Shiva Tattwa is the safe refuge of the Atma. The new dimensions of the Spirit are slowly seen and start working out. And when a man is fully engrossed (absorbed?) in the Shiva Tattwa, he gets surrendered without doing anything. Kundalini Shakti is the reflection of Adi Shakti within us and Shiva Tattwa is the light of the almighty (Paramatma). Like as there is a small twinkling light in the gas lamp, and when the gas comes into it then you can see the light. But before you cannot notice the gas passing through. For this it is necessary that the Kundalini should be awakened. When we have the sensation of (can feel the?) Kundalini then the light shines out. For this it is necessary that within you there is Kundalini awakening and then this light is there.
Today I have given a new example so that we could understand. In its own place Kundalini can do no work. Just like a gas, it cannot do anything on its own. In this way the twinkling also cannot do any work. But the light comes in our chit (attention) with the combination of these two. Nowadays this is a matter of every day life, but Sahaja Yoga is a cycle by which the Kundalini awakens and touches our Atma Tattwa. At that time the light of Shiva Tattwa spreads in us. When the Kundalini comes in the Bramarandra and pierces it, at that time the Atma Tattwa’s place is at the feet of Sada Shiva, on our Brahmarandra. This is the place that is made for it but its reflection is in our heart. Just as a thing is situated in one place but its reflection is in our heart. In this way when the Atma touches us at that time, its light spreads in our heart.
He whose heart is small, whose heart is not fully surrendered, in whose heart there are doubts, in such water the reflection of the Atma cannot be attained (gained) and however much light we put there it is of no use. And that is why we keep our hand on our hearts and say: “Mother I am the Spirit”. But only by just saying I am the Spirit or by saying the same mantra you have not entered the Atma Tattwa. There is only one way, (or solution), that we should become one with the Atma Tattwa. Become one with it. Just like when we put salt in the sea-water it gets dissolved in it completely, in this way you should be dissolved in this infinite ocean, and concentration should come in us. At first all these things will be in that Samadhi state, when man would achieve the state of the Brahmarandra by closing the eyes. But the speciality of Sahaja Yoga which is a very beautiful experiment and which is a strange method of Parameshwari Shakti, with the help of this, man, without going into the Samadhi state achieves this tattwa of experiencing this Brahmarandra tattwa within himself. In seeing this we find that we have achieved a dream, or in a dream we have achieved it. This bliss is beyond explanation.
Once when I was reading the Nadi Grantha, and in it the gentleman named Bhujander has made a point that this work will start after 1922, and you must know that I was born in 1923. And then a “Sakshat parama chaitanya avatar” would come and with the help of this avatar Kundalini will be awakened easily, without going into the Samadhi state they will achieve the Brahmarandra tattwa. And it is also said that there will be no trouble, nor any difficulty. Men will achieve the blessings of the param chaitanya and will reach this very high state for which men have been seeking for thousands of years, When you read the Nadi Grantha you will be surprised that this was written 16,000 years ago – and as if a Sahaja Yogi has been mentioned. The rishi-munis had also written that in 1970 this work would be started. They know it due to their awareness of Atma Shakti because they were avadute, and they with their Atma Shakti, foresaw this new yuga of bliss and wrote about this Maha Yoga.
You can now gain much more awareness (greater Yoga) than these avadutas. Within all of you is the unconscious (unlimited?) state of mind (?) but the shortcomings of Sahaja Yoga is, due to the excess of the Mother’s love, the children get spoilt. Mother has given all these powers in Her love: you have achieved it in Sahaj. You didn’t have to undergo any sufferings for this, you didn’t have to take any trouble, you didn’t have to undertake any work for which you could feel guilty. You have achieved your Atma Tattwa through our simple and spontaneous, or easy way. This is the fault of it, that we miss it in its true evaluation. What we have really attained, and what a great thing we have got. We cannot really imagine because we have got this in Sahaj (spontaneously) only. It is not true with everybody however, but for a few people who have the punyas of previous lives, just as Shri Namdev has said: “Purva janme amhi bahu”, “on the basis of that treasure of their past punyas, some people achieve great depths in this ocean”.
Those who have less of these past punyas, the heritage of past punyas, cannot go to such depth in Sahaja Yoga. Sometimes they come for a little while and then they go away, and they are not prepared to take any sort of Sahaja responsibility.
They don’t want to take an active part in anything. And if they are sitting on the shore sometimes they put their feet in the water and then draw away out of it. They have not learnt to get into the water and learnt to swim. With this half baked and half hearted way you cannot enjoy the full bliss and blessings of Sahaja Yoga. Before achieving the Atma Tattwa, man was full of faults. Those faults are now disappearing. The troubles (cares) have also been reduced, their questions are answered, and yet they have not left the shore. A person who has completely submerged himself in the ocean of Sahaja bliss, for him there cannot remain any problem or question left unanswered because this is the ocean of Shiva Tattwa. This is the ocean of Shiv Tattwa. This is the ocean of tremendous Shakti (power) and this tremendous Shakti is of the love of Lord Shiva, it is of the ocean of Shiva Tattwa and is the Shakti of the love of the Lord.
In this, once you dissolve, you get dissolved and start emitting this shakti of love. You get into a state of ecstasy and that shakti starts manifesting from every part of your being. You can rise much more than those great seers and all the great saints of the past because I was not sitting before them. But there is so much lacking in surrender that the people just think of their jobs, then of their families, children, wives, relations and then if they are left with any time they come to Sahaja Yoga. But, as against this, if you surrender everything to Sahaja Yoga, then this tremendous shakti will correct your children, your homes, your jobs, your trade, your health etc, all will be looked after. And it will enlighten you so much that people will say: “How enlightened his life is”!
And after this it has been written in the Nadi Grantha, that after the third world war, when all the people will become fed up with it, then at some big city a big conference will be held (organised) in which the ambassadors and politicians will have no place, but the yogijans (realised souls) will decide what is the world policy (what is to be done). The wars will be completely banished and finished. You are the people who are going to decide about the destiny of the world. You are going to solve all the problems of the world. But of all the shortcomings, the greatest fault is the stupidity of foolishness. This stupidity is just anti Shiva Tattwa absolutely. This stupidity is absolutely anti-Shiva. Shiva is “must” (detached, not bothered, completely in His own bliss), and “bhola” (innocent). But in the absence of Shiva Tattwa, even the Virata cannot be enlightened. The light is provided only by the Shiva Tattwa, which then enlightens the chit, and this in turn enlightens the Virata, otherwise it will remain in darkness. You can only get it through surrender. Surrender never means that you should give me something. What can you give Me?
Surrender means that those concepts of stupidity, of Maha stupidity, that narrow circle, small environment, that is the speciality of Indians and “my relations” and “my father’s relations’ relations”, rhese signs of the highest stupidity, this you must keep outside. For once you may bring your shoes in but please keep this highest stupidity outside. Alongside with this highest stupidity there is another great shortcoming which exists in us and this is that we do not possess a loving heart at all. Then how can Shiva come into your hearts? Shiva who is absolute, verily the epitome and personification of love (the highest manifestation of) who is the very “murti” image or expression of the highest love.
You have neither the purity nor cleanliness nor love in your heart. How can Shiva take his place in your heart when there is no purity or love there? It is only love which purifies everything.
Suppose you do not love a thing or a person, then you cannot have the ability to judge its purity. In the same way, all the impurities and dirt which reside in our hearts can only be cleansed through the Universal Love. I said “through the Universal Love”, not that “I am a Maharastrian” or “I am a Brahmin”, or “I am an Indian”. Again you start being narrow minded, to the extent that you start identifying as a Kaista (for westerners, typist explains that a Kaista is the name of one of the castes in India) and out of the Kaistas I am living in Worli (a suburb of Bombay) and a special narrow branch of the Kaistas. How can such a restricted heart contain that magnificent shakti of Shiva? How can that great Shakti be contained in a small irregular broken vessel? (word used is teramera, which means a muddle, or a mess). You should have a vast and large heart. Only a person with a large and open heart is capable of sustaining Shiva Tattwa. When your heart chakra gets caught up then you must say “Mother, you must please come into my heart”. This is inviting the Kundalini. Only when Kundalini enters the heart can the light start glowing, and we will be able to see it and will enjoy the bliss. Only in the light of God can we witness the drama and play of the world.
Life is so beautiful, it is only the viewpoint that makes the difference. All that is subtle, all that is great, is not visible to our eyes if a foreign particle of dust is present in our eyes we cannot even see the skies. In the same way the doubt and selfishness which is residing in our hearts, unless we remove this completely and throw them away, this Shiva Tattwa will not be enlightened in our hearts.
I am talking to the Indians today. The greatest fault that we have is casteism, (this idea) that a man belonging to a particular caste is good, similarly you see even in Sahaja Yoga, just as you find the blocks of guer (Rough brownish yellow sugar, jaggery), so like this the Sahaja Yogis cluster together. In Sahaja Yoga all the jaggery gets mixed and it should homogenise, but if you are forming these blocks then you have not yet reached Shiva Tattwa. That Shiva Tattwa which melts and dissolves even a stone within it, that Shiva Tattwa you have not yet reached.
Then when you have not gained anything in Sahaja Yoga, why should you touch My Feet? What have I given you? That is, I have not even given you Shiva Tattwa.
In Shiva Tattwa the minute mariadas break down and man achieves a vast, all pervading universal personality. And this all of you can achieve. You are making excuses about yourselves and are getting yourselves bogged down with them. It is like this that you have put a stone around your neck, and have then jumped into the sea and you say “We cannot swim”.
But when you have yourself hung a stone around your neck, then how can you swim? There is no answer to such utter stupidity. The answer to this is, have a look at yourself, and see if what we are indulging in is in fact such stupidity at every moment. Do we want to get out of this stupidity? Do we want to get out of these tiny petty artificial mariadas that we have created for ourselves? We have to break down all this in every way. You may call it folly or superstition, religiouse bigotry or stupid ignorance. Call it by any name but the thing that you are indulging in, that will influence you. There is nothing in the name, the reality is the blackness in our heart. We have to get rid of that.
But after my lecture you will become as you were – you see that everyone is in the same viscious circle. It is difficult to understand this after doing so much work. You must know today that I have been working in Bombay for about seventeen years and still I find that pettiness is in so many people. Although we may say that there are many Sahaja Yogis, and many do my Puja, and many attend programmes and also meditate and do Puja at home. But what do they achieve in this Puja? “My sister has become alright, my brother has got the blessings,” but did YOU get Shiva-anand? (the joy of the Spirit?) Have you been able to establish yourself in this anand? (bliss). Have you achieved the joy been got of niranand? That is what the Mother wishes, that you get the joy of the Sahasrara. When this happens all the other problems go and faults depart. If there is a spot on the cloth then you remove it so that I may redecorate it, and make it beautiful. And thus everything automatically works out. But that doesn’t mean that you continually get spots and I continually go on removing them. You go on painting your face black and I go on washing it clean!
“What is my ideal?” There are some Sahaja Yogis who have never been seen smiling, let alone talk about the anand. They have not even been seen to do namastey (greet) to others. This is a very limited way of living, with a small heart, sort of dry, just like a shallow desert place. There is no need to save or preserve in Sahaja Yoga. Act open-heartedly and then no-one can take advantage of you. If someone does take advantage of a good Sahaja Yogi I will teach him a lesson, but if you yourself are a cheat, then you should be cheated. If you have a hot temper then people should show anger towards you. So I make arrangements, and play such a game so that the hot tempered has to face the hot tempered, and a cheat a cheat so that when they fight between themselves you may give them a stick to beat each other so they can break each other’s heads. After they have hurt each other I will dress their wounds. First break your heads. Because he whose head is not open, then how can I talk about the praises of love and the splendour of love? And how can I describe the bliss of the Shiva Tattwa?
I within myself, am enjoying the Shiva Tattwa. I am in it, I am witnessing it, and I am enjoying its bliss. As a Mother I feel that my children should also enjoy this. They join Me and enjoy it as I am enjoing it. These are My own children to whom I have given birth. May they achieve this and may they now mature from small children into great saints.
When I wish like this, then sometimes I feel that My expectations are too high, or maybe that the next generation may bring such people, but you are the foundations stones of this work, who should be solid, dedicated people, otherwise the whole building will remain unstable. When you slip even in very petty things, how will this pettiness bring you greatness? If you will try with your pettiness to become great it will be like a frog trying to become a bull. If you have not the strength of great-heartedness, then what work can I do? You must enter into this ocean of joy in everything. In every city, at every time, at every function, the waves of joy will be continuously rising through you because you have become submerged into the ocean of joy. You look this side, everything is joy, you look that side, everything is joy, everything is joy in every place. By doing the Shiva Tattwa Puja you will get this great joy. (Next sentences not very clear until ‘ sign)
Everything that we are getting from our heart is enlightened……Until a Sahaja Yogi decides to do this he will not rise (?) to become one with (?) the Virata. After this riches will mean nothing, as if he is a child …… (some missing here)…… ‘
When you do some work then you have a thought that in what way can I economise or show miserliness?” Some people will say “Mother we will come to Ganapatipule for two days only and we will stay outside and how much should we contribute?” Is it a hotel? Where you came for a day then went out for two days and again came and we only took one japatti …. And when I hear that these are Sahaja Yogis …….. Are these Sahaja Yogis or are they petty iron merchants? (tinkers) Unless and until everyone has got his realisation, how will it work out? If only a handful of people understand it, then what was the need to have given collective and en masse realisation. Even in this if they think that they can save some money, they will think that they have done a remarkable job.Also, it is only once a year that you come to Ganapatipule.
Others are much better than us, whose Guru is dead. These people will come from all over the world and assemble together even if the functions take place every month. Compared to us people from other sects are much better because for example they go to the Haj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) after collecting so much money and spending so much money. And they go every year, they fast for a month and will do namas (pray) five times a day. And those are better, who go to the sacred temples and camp on the bank of the river Chandra Nibha (at Pandaphur) and put themselves to so much trouble. They will continue to cry “Vitthala” until they are hoarse, or crying the names of the Devi. They will cry Vitthala until they spoil their throats. In this one sense they are much better than Sahaja Yogis, they have emotional enthusiasm.
In Sahaja Yoga the majority of the people consist of half baked or completely unbaked people, they haven’t any emotional enthusiasm (bhavana). Ask yourself “What have I done for Sahaja Yoga”? “Yes we have given money for the food.” “For what food?” “Yes, here is the receipt.” Alright, so they have given money for their food, it is a great obligation for Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva must be fasting these days. All these things come to mind, then the thought comes to Me that ‘Were you really ready for Sahaja Yoga?’ If you were, then you should examine and ask yourselves every day, “What have I done for Sahaja Yoga today?” Ask every minute, every second, that, “What have I done?”
The Hariram Harikrishna people are better than you – we cannot talk to them because if we do they just answer “Hariram”. But you on the other hand have to find time for Sahaja Yoga. It is a matter of great surprise and amazement (I am aghast) that you have got so much benefit from it, so that you should start feeling so much devotion and gratitude from within so as to completely cleansed you. With the ecstasy of that you should be completely cleansed, white – otherwise, how will we win this war or revolution by using the camp followers of the soldiers?”
I am saying this to you individually and am not saying it to others – but to you directly. We are here to worship Lord Shiva, Shiva who has spent all His energy in creating this Universe, who has poured all His love into decorating this Universe. He is the one who has filled everyone in this Universe with joy. We are here to worship that Shiva. We are here to spread His joy to the whole world. We are here to kindle that joy in our hearts. After getting blessed with this anand we will distribute it to the whole world. Are you thinking that after filling ourselves we will distribute it to the people of the world and give them this manifestation of Shiva? What Shiva has given to us, can we give it to them? Shiva has neither a caste or a class. He is beyond time. He is established in the Virata.
To achieve that Shiva, to completely imbibe him within us, do we possess in our bag that majesty, that large-heartedness, magnanimity, that Shakti?(power?) If you want, you can do everything. Within you the Kundalini has been awakened, you have also achieved Shiv Tattwa and it is possible that today during the Puja we may be thrown in to that ocean. But then you will get out and again sit on the shore. I ask: “Why?” and you reply “We have to get our clothes dried, Mother”. You are playing with your life and you are also playing with the collective life.
You took your birth for such a high purpose and this is the goal of your life. And in your pettiness and incompleteness you are destroying it. Again and again I have to say this because sometimes I start doubting and wondering if Mother has spoiled Her children in Her love. Sometimes I begin to doubt Myself. Whatever I say out and express in collectivity, that I know fully about every single individual,but I don’t say it. I know about every individual, how much he is surrendered, how much is his potential of receiving, how incomplete he is, and how helpful he is. I know about everyone, but I don’t speak out because I think that he will soon correct himself, this is my expectation. I also know each one of you from inside fully and beyond this I know what subtle powers you have within you.
You have a great ocean which is being enlivened – I keep a full knowledge of that. When you take a small boat and the way you take a small bout and then return, this also I know fully about every individual but I do not say it out. Never think that if Mother has not said it then Mother does not know. I have full knowledge of you even if I don’t say it, and if this is so there must be a clear reason for it. Maybe there would be no purpose served, like pouring water over upturned and slippery pots. Sometimes I feel that the children’s eyes are not yet fully opened. But 17 years have passed and there are only very few people about whom I can say that they have completely surrendered or lost themselves in Sahaja Yoga.
Is Vitthala alive and living at Pandapur today? Now he exists there in the form of a statue but the people go there for a whole month and shout his name. If I tell the Sahaja Yogis to come and shout the name of Mataji, not for a month but for one single day, not one of them will come and be prepared to do it. Now everybody has a vehicle – tomorrow they will all have cars. Then they will have a house, then they will have brides and children through Sahaja Yoga. In that way you will become prosperous through Sahaja Yoga. But through Sahaja Yoga you are coming down because the power of enjoyment is diminishing and getting destroyed within you.
When the power of enjoyment is completely finished, then even after getting all the kingdom, you cannot have any enjoyment. Therefore you are not able to enjoy your happiness.. Now therefore you should become more respectful towards yourself and try to understand what you are, and “What have I got?” “What do I have to do to get into its Joy?” And be kind to this which is yourself, be kind to it. To make your life great you have not got to goin for study or learning, you do not need anything for this. It develops automatically by itself. But if you suppress it then how will your heart open? It cannot open out. Today we are talking about our heart and about the Shiva Tattwa that is residing in our heart. Every one of you should put your attention towards your heart and find out within your heart, not in others, within yourself, within your inner being. You have to ask, you have to find out “What shortcomings exist within me?” and “How far do I have to go?”
After that, whatever you achieve, that you will continue to achieve and enjoy it. But you cannot describe it. You will continue to taste it, it has been described as ‘Dumb man’s jaggery’. If a dumb man eats jaggery, then how will he describe the taste? Such is the Joy of Shiva Tattwa. How is it possible to describe it in these small words? Today is a great day and my endless blessings are on you, and will be on you and will remain on you (with you) that you please achieve this great tattwa. I wish you to achieve this maha tattwa from the highest possible level and that you may imbibe it. Forget everything else, but remember that you have got your rebirth in Sahaja Yoga.
(This part was spoken in English)
Now, for the Western Sahaja Yogis I have to say that we have to open our hearts to allow for the principle of Shiva, which is joy, to be contained in our hearts. If you are a small hearted person, if you are egotistical, then the ego compresses the heart, it makes your heart grow small. You don’t have some of the problems that we have in this country which are really stupid and artificial, but you have another kind of superficiality and artificiality in the West. Whether it is here or there, the similiarity is that it affects your heart. It limits you, you cannot enjoy the beauty of Shiva within you, and this is detrimental to your own spiritual growth and also to the great flowering of this universe.
You are all in the foundation of this great building of spirituality. And those who are weak should get out of Sahaja Yoga and should not come to oblige us, sometimes to show their faces just like the moon appearing on one day. So that we at least put the solid people into this foundation and let the history record all these half baked Sahaja Yogis who are absolutely useless for Sahaja Yoga. Increase your dimensions, increase your understanding, increase your wisdom – but how? By surrendering. How do you surrender when you have such a small little heart? Open your heart, open it and forget that you are Westerners, you are Indians, you are this caste, that religion. All this is nonsense, man-made, hopeless. What is reality? We are all made by one Mother. All have been given birth by one Mother, who has a very, very large heart. That’s how I would say; forgive everyone, forget all the past and forgive yourself, and now allow your heart to become open (?) Do not get dissolved into the realm of ego, but be in the realm of the divine which is the ocean of joy. It’s a powerful ocean of powerful love that looks after you every moment, every time, and your attention is purified by itself.
I hope this Shiv Puja is done everywhere in the world. All over the world people are doing the Shiv Puja at this time. I bless all of them and think of them at this hour. They are all part and parcel of my being as you all are. But if something is outgrowing and something that is useless, like the nails of the fingers, you have to cut them out. So please try to keep in the collective, be friendly with everyone, open your heart, learn to smile, learn to be humble, learn to be kind, learn to enjoy each other’s company.
Just like the flowers are enjoying each other’s fragrance without (?) quarrelling (or?) bothering. In the same way you all enjoy the beautiful fragrance of beautiful flowers – I don’t even know if you have the noses even to smell the fragrance of your friends or if you have that kind of heart that can never have that sensitivity. I am sorry, I am sorry at this sometimes, that still you indulge into very small useless things which are meant for the little worms and not for the Sahaja Yogis. In many ages now you have come out from the worm stage to the human stage and now you are again going to become the worms? You have to become the lotuses, beautiful lotuses of Mine.
I bless you all that you open your heart, absolutely, open it without any fear, without any justification, without any argument about it. Just open it out and receive the blessings of Shiva today.
May God bless you.
I am getting lost into my own joy!
H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Love
Lyn and Andre