Hamsa: the power of Discretion

1988-0710 Hamsa Chakra Puja from Sahaja Library

Today we have decided to have a Hamsa Puja in Germany. We have never yet paid much attention to this center of Hamsa, which is, I think, very important for the Western world, rather than for the Indian or the Eastern. The reason is, at the Hamsa chakra, part of the Ida and Pingala come out and manifest - means the expression of Ida and Pingala is given through the Hamsa chakra.

So this Hamsa chakra is the one that, as if has not gone up to the Agnya, but is holding on certain threads or certain parts of the Ida and Pingala. And they start flowing through your nose, expressing through your eyes, from your mouth and from your forehead. So you know that Vishuddhi chakra has got sixteen petals which look after the eyes, nose, throat, tongue, teeth. But the expression part of it comes through the Hamsa chakra, of all these. So it’s a very, very important thing in a Western mind, to understand Hamsa chakra. There’s a beautiful couplet about this in Sanskrit, Hansa kshveta ha, baka ha kshveta ha. ko bhedo hansa bakayo ho. Neera ksheera vivek e tu. Hansa ha hansaksh, baka ha baka ha. Meaning ‘The crane and the swan, both are white. And what makes a difference between the two? If you mix the water and the milk together the hamsa (swan) will just suck in the milk. So it can discriminate between the water and the milk while the bakha, means the crane, cannot’. It’s a very significant thing for Sahaja Yogis to understand.

Discretion is to be understood very deeply within ourselves. And how we develop discretion is very important in Sahaja Yoga. But before we go to that let us see how this discretion plays a part, very much, in the manifestation of our expressions outside. We are the people, in the West, who always try to express ourselves outside. It’s very important how you look, it’s very important where you look, what you look at, what you see. It’s very important that your appearance should be good. [They are] very particular, they spend lots of time in improving their appearance. This is the minimum. Then they have a method by which we call the Medias. The country speaks or manifests through the Medias. And the Medias have to have a training. Every country has it’s specialty one better than the other. And when you see all of them you find they lack discretion completely. Also in our speech, in our expression of literature, expression of poetry, expression of our relationships with others, any kind of expression, requires discretion which is a deep-seated knowledge or wisdom. ...

So it comes to the discretion how to use your Ida Nadi and Pingala Nadi and discretion to understand what is good and what is bad. Now let us see the Ida Nadi. Ida Nadi is very important because the discretion in this can only come through traditional understanding. Ida Nadi starts from the Ganesha’s point – Mooladhara.

So first we miss the biggest support, the biggest help, the biggest nourishment of holiness and auspiciousness, at Mooladhara, if we have no discretion. We always take to a thing, which is detrimental to our growth, and also which may destroy us, not only us but the whole country. We like people who are destructive, when there is no discretion. Discretion means that you must choose the things which are good for you, which are benevolent to you, which are good for the collective, which are good for your ascent.

The discretion of the Ida Nadi is intuition. If you develop that discretion within you, through your meditative powers, you develop intuition. And intuition is nothing but the help of the Ganas, which are surrounding you. If you learn to take help from the Ganas you can become very intuitive and without much intelligence of yours you can say the right thing. The whole of Sahaja Yoga, I would say fifty percent at least out of that, is based on intuition. ...

For that you have to develop a proper sense of Shri Ganesh. Shri Ganesh in it’s right sense you have to understand. From there it starts because he’s Ganapati, he’s the one who is the master, is the chief of all the Ganas. So the Ganas give you the intuition.

If you are discrete you will not take to fashions, you’ll not take to stupid ideas. You have your own personality You are a Sahaja Yogi. You don’t listen to people who are non-Sahaja Yogis. That is the ‘hum’‘hum’ part – ‘I am’ - not the ego part. But the ‘hum’‘hum’ - to understand that “I’m a Yogi and I know so many things which normally people don’t know and so I have nothing to do with them. I’ve not to take any lessons from them. They are not to teach me anything. There’s nothing that they know, I know much more.” To be aware of your Self is ‘hum’’hum’.

So that comes from the right side I would say. The discretion of right side is ‘hum’, and the discretion of left side is ‘Sa’. ‘Sa’ means You. Means ‘You are The One’. In your case you know who is the ‘You’. But for every human being, ‘You’ is the Divine. ‘You are The One’. This comes from the left side, is ‘Sa’. So the word ‘Hamsa’ is made of two types of discretion where to see ‘I am’ and where to see ‘You are’. On these two balances, as they have shown here beautifully, the Moon and the Sun. In the center is the cross, which gives you the balance, which gives you the dharma. How all these things are connected, one after another, in layers after layers; you can see how dharma is connected with discretion. ...

So on one side we have the help of Shri Krishna to give us the discretion, and on the other side we have Christ. In between is placed this Hamsa. So we have two great incarnations within us who are the embodiment of discretion. So one side is Shri Krishna who is the one who looks after the conditioning side of it. And on the other side is Christ who starts looking after the ego side of it. The One who says on the cross, “Oh, God, forgive them because they do not know. Oh, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” Is the same one who takes a hunter in his hand and hits people, starts beating them, because they are making money in the name of God. See the discretion. That’s Jesus. Same Shri Krishna, who with his Sudarshan chakra can kill thousands and thousands of rakshasas, becomes the driver of Arjuna. The contrast of their behavior is the beautiful saga of Their discretion. ...

It’s a very, very delicate line of discretion. But once you know as a state within yourself, you are discrete; you cannot be indiscrete even if you want to be. And that is what is the ascent part. So once you come out of this chakra and pass through your Agnya, you enter into Sahastrara where you have to be discrete. Whatever then comes out from there – blessed, whatever expression comes out – blessed, from the Sahastrara is all discrete and beautiful. ...

I have to request you that - come to your joyous condition. Be happy, that you are in that condition. ... In joy you do not have unhappiness or happiness; it’s just joy, absolute joy. I cannot keep Myself even serious for more than one minute, I try to be serious but it’s difficult because so much joy is bubbling all the time, that I find it difficult to show that I’m not very happy or I’m angry. So I would request you to be completely lost in the ocean of joy. Give up all your conditionings, all your nonsensical ideas but just be joyous and be happy with yourself and with all the rest of the Sahaja Yogis and with me.

So this is the greatest discretion, today, we have to learn is to be joyous and happy.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extracts from Talk at Shri Hamsa Puja, Germany, 10/7/88