Nichiren

Nichiren (1222-1282) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra as the means to enlightenment and established his own following. Nichiren was a vocal critic of the government officials and leaders of the Buddhist schools in Japan in his time. Many of his letters show empathy with the down-trodden of his day, and include letters to women believers who he encouraged to attain enlightenment in their lifetime. He also made a number of prophecies which have been interpreted in later centuries, eg.

When, at a certain future time, the union of the state law and the Buddhist Truth shall be established, and the harmony between the two completed, both sovereign and subjects will faithfully adhere to the Great Mysteries. Then the golden age, such as were the ages under the reign of the sage kings of old, will be realized in these days of degeneration and corruption, in the time of the Latter Law. Then the establishment of the Holy See will be completed, by imperial grant and the edict of the Dictator, at a spot comparable in its excellence with the Paradise of Vulture Peak. We have only to wait for the coming of the time. Then the moral law will be achieved in the actual life of mankind. The Holy See will be the seat where all men of the three countries [India, China and Japan] and the whole jambudvipa [world] will be initiated into the mysteries of confession and expiation; and even the great deities, Brahma and Indra, will come down into the sanctuary and participate in the initiation.

Bibliography

Selected writings of Nichiren, translated by Burton Watson and P.B.Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990);

Letters of Nichiren, translated by Burton Watson and P.B.Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)

‘The major writings of Nichiren Daishonin’ http://nichiren.info/gosho.html

Masahara Anesaki, Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1916; reprint: Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1966)

Jacqueline I.Stone, Original enlightenment and the transformation of medieval Japanese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii/Kuroda Institute, 1999), chapter 6

B.Petzold, The Buddhist prophet Nichiren – a lotus in the sun (Tokyo: Hokke Janaru, 1978)

from John Noyce, Saints, Sufis and Yogis, vol.2 (3rd ed., 2016)

Shri Buddha Puja with Shri Mataji

Q. Shri Mataji, what do you think of Buddhism?

A. Buddhism is very different from Buddha. Absolutely. Buddha first got his realization. First he became a Buddha and then he started Buddha religion. But the way people are doing Buddhism is the other way round. That you give up your wife, you give up your children, you give up even your dress, everything. To whom? To these people. Buddha started after his realization. After your realization only you can become Buddha, means a realized soul. And he said it the same way. He said Buddham Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to other realized souls, Buddham Sharanam Gachami. Then he said Sangham Sharanam Gachami, Dharmam Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to the religion which is within me, innate religion. And thirdly he says, Sangham Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to the collective. This nonsense of giving up this, giving up that, I mean, it’s too much. If you are holding onto something then you can give up. If you are not holding onto anything then what are you going to give up? Simple thing like that, for example, in Canada, one fellow came wearing that Buddhist’s dress. I don’t like it. A Sahaja Yogi said you’d better go and change, Mother will not give you realization if you are wearing this dress. So he came to Me and, “Mother, please forgive me, I have no other dress left.” I said, “Why?” “I have lost everything.” He was a big business man. “I’ve lost everything, I’ve given away to the Buddhists and I’m left with two pair of these clothes and if you don’t give me realization, what will I do?” Really, yes. So, what is there to give up is the point, what is there to give up? If you are not holding onto anything what are you going to give up? Simple thing like that. Buddha never gave up his clothes, nothing of the kind. But he wanted to find out, what is the truth. So he went round, I mean he tried his level best and everything, ultimately his Kundalini rose and he got the realization. But what he was doing there, he was just lying down under a banyan tree. Now, whatever mistakes he has committed, we need not do, that you give up your wife, you give up your child, give up this, give up that. Just the contrast of what really Buddha achieved, is a contrast. So Buddhism is not Buddha by any chance."

(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Q+A after Talk at Holland Park School, London, 27/9/2000)


The Buddha: Metta Sutta

The Buddha: Kalama Sutta

Buddha and Desire

Today, we have assembled here to do puja to Buddha. As you know Buddha was a son of a king. And one day he was shocked to see a very poor man, thin man, walking on the street, very unhappy person, and he felt very sad about it. Then he saw one person who was very sick and about to die; then he saw a man who was dead and people were carrying him to the cremation ground. This all upset him very much and he started thinking about it and seeking - what is the reason for all these happenings in human beings. Firstly, why do they become so miserable or sick? Or, why do they die so miserably? The reason he found out in his search. He went around the whole world, I should say, in the sense: he read Upanishadas, he read… went to many gurus, went to many places of spiritual education, Banares, everywhere he went. And ultimately, He was sitting under a banyan tree when suddenly his Kundalini was awakened, by Adi Shakti, and he got his realization; Then he realized that the reason for all this is the desire.

In Sahaja Yoga, we have now understood that all other desires are not pure desires. Firstly, whatever desires are fulfilled, we are not satisfied by it, first thing. And secondly, all these desires have a repercussion. So what is the pure desire? That, you all know, is the Kundalini. Kundalini is the power of pure desire, which fulfils your pure desire to be the Spirit, to be Buddha, to be enlightened. Buddha means a person who is enlightened. So Gautama become… became Buddha, as you people now have become Sahaja Yogis. But because he went through all these various penances, whatever he learned became part and parcel of him - but in Sahaja Yoga it is all sahaj. So we always conclude everything that, "This is, after all, sahaj." And when we try to work out anything, we always say, "Oh, it will work out spontaneously. It's alright, Mother will do for us and everything." This is a common failing in Sahaja Yoga.

So whether to put you all through that long process or to give you realization was a question before me. Because, in these days of confusion there cannot be much time to put you through all which Buddha had gone, and He was one individual, I had to put all of you. That would have been very difficult. I don't know how many would have sustained it. Most of them would have dropped out half way, or maybe quarter of the way. So it was done in a sahaj manner - you did not have to sit in a banyan tree - ultimately you got your realization. Your Kundalini was awakened and you got your enlightenment. But that enlightenment, which settled in Buddha, is not settled in us because our chakras were not cleansed as he had cleansed his chakras. We had the same body, the same mind and the same attitude when we got realization. As we were looking at the house of God, still we are looking at the house of God, but you have entered inside the house and you have to look out from the windows, this you forget. And though we are sitting now on a hilltop out of all the congestion and all the traffic, still you see a car, you get frightened. You don't know you are sitting on top of a hill where your Mother has put you nicely, and that is how you try to behave. ...

Buddha, as you know, is working on our right side, on our Agnya. Is very surprising, the deity like him, to work on the right side. First he said, for the right side, you should be detached, desireless. I mean, nobody would work if they have no desire and if they have no way of earning something out of it, I mean, in the normal sense. But desirelessly you have to work. Then only right side can be conquered - Very symbolic. Normally the right-sided people are extremely thin, but Buddha is very fat. Normally the right-sided people are extremely serious, very serious, even if you tickle them they won't laugh. But Buddha is laughing all the time with both his hands like this, enjoying himself. See the contrast. So when you are working without any desire, only then, this state can be achieved that you'll be all the time laughing ...(but) as you become subtler, the desires start becoming subtler and subtler and subtler. And if you are not careful, it just comes up. ...

When you're desireless you are happy because you are never disappointed, you are never nervous. So to be desireless doesn't mean that you become something absurd or ascetic or anything like that, but not to expect something.

H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Shri Buddha Puja, Belgium, 1991

(1991-0804)

Easter Puja 1996

Today we are doing Easter Puja. Today is a very important day for Sahaja Yogis because Isa-Messiah (Jesus) has shown us that redemption of human beings is possible, and for that redemption we should always put in an effort. There is also a meaning why He was crucified. He was crucified on the cross and this cross is a symbol of the Swastika on the Agnya chakra. He was crucified and He left His body there only. He told some important things at that time and one most important thing out of this was 'Wait for the Mother' - Think of the Mother'. (Behold the Mother?)

Everybody can interpret it in a different way, but it seems He said that He will send for us such a shakti (power) who has three channels - Trigunatmika, and that is described very beautifully. One of these Shaktis/powers will give us comfort. This comfort-giving power in us is Mahakali's power which gives us comfort, which cures our diseases, which corrects/solves many questions of our past. The second power, which He gave us, which He sent to us, was Mahasaraswati and to this Mahasaraswati Power, He called Counsellor, the one who will counsel you - that means, who helps us for Yognirupan (to see the form of Yoga). With the help of this second power, we will get Gyan (Knowledge), we will know the subtle knowledge. And the third power, (Mahalakshmi) with the help of which we will get our redemption.

Thus, He had talked about these three powers. Buddha also said that I will send you Matreya, that means three types of mothers - Matain-Ekritya-Matreya.
People did not understand what this Matreya is, and they made it Maitrya. This Matreya can be only in Adishakti - simultaneously - Adishakti, He must have told as Primordial Mother. But the one who corrected Bible, he made it as Holy Ghost - and made a dove instead of it. Because the one who corrected the Bible hated women and he did not believe that a woman could also do such a great work. Because of this hatred, he made a strange form of it (the Holy Ghost) and the second thing is that it is a dove and a dove means that she will be the messenger of peace. But He did not talk of a woman or that she will be a woman. But in our Shatras it is written „Sahasrare Mahamaya“, that means She will be in the form of Mahamaya. People will not recognize Her and you have to get your self realization to recognize Her. If you don't get your realization, you cannot recognize Her.

In His lifetime He (Jesus) explained everything in a very open manner, He could do. Many things He told and many things He didn't, but still some truth came out which they could not change. It was very necessary for Sahaja Yoga that Isa Messiah (Jesus) came. He was a Chir Balak (boy from olden times), and now it is proved that He was an incarnation of Shri Ganesha. Shri Ganesha incarnated only once in the world and that is in the form of Shri Jesus/Isa Messiah.

The work of these three(Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus(Isa)) was done at the level of Tapasya and therefore they worked in the Murdha of Virata (Brain), and there is a place of Tapasya in the work of all the three, that means human beings should do the Tapasya and they can cross through Agnya only with Tapasya. It was very necessary to pierce through Agnya chakra, without that, Kundalini cannot rise. Resurrection of Jesus facilitated the piercing of the Agnya chakra. First He died and then His resurrection took place. Therefore there is a great message from Easter that because of Resurrection of Isa-Messiah (Jesus), we could get our resurrection. The most difficult chakra in a human being is the Agnya chakra because a human being is always thinking. This continuous thinking results in a condition of vaporization of mind in the head and he cannot go beyond these thoughts. He cannot go beyond these thoughts.You can go beyond thinking only when the Agnya Chakra is opened. Therefore it can be said that Sahaja Yoga would have been very difficult if Isa (Jesus) would not have resurrected after leaving his body. However the work was done by all the Incarnations at their respective places and at respective times. But the work which was done by the resurrection of Isa(Jesus) was marvelous. That is the reason why it is not difficult to open Agnya. It is not difficult to go beyond Agnya. There have been many Gurus, many great Gurus. They did a great work. They did so many things so that people could get their Jagruti (awareness) to God and they could attract their attention to self-realization.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Hindi Talk, Easter Puja 1996, Kolkata

(1996-0414)

full translation

Ajanta caves

I am happy you went and saw Ajanta caves, should show you how people were dedicated to build all that in ten centuries. They had not seen Buddha at all. Buddha never came to the south of India. Just believing in Buddha what work they did, what sacrifices, how they built it. They had to go through very difficult times because there was no water, there was no communication, nothing. And they used the stones, you must have seen there of different colors and different hues which are created by Mother Earth and when you break them inside those egg like stones you get, beautiful semi precious stones. They dissolve them into some sort of a indigenous solvent and use it for painting. And that's how the paintings are today surviving. You can't see with out lights so how they must have painted at that time? What sort of eyes they must be having? Their dedication give them this power that they could build it. They carried on for ten centuries this work.

If Sahaja Yoga can be carried for ten centuries this world would be a different place. So one has to learn that we have to dedicate. We must fully dedicate ourselves.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Puja at Paithan, India tour 1987 (1987-0111)

Buddha

Gautama, Prince Siddhartha, known to history as The Buddha, (d. c.400BCE) was an Indian guru, and founder of what has become known as Buddhism. Shri Mataji has talked of the Buddha many times, in particular mentioning the sacrifices made by those who followed him:

They would go, get people from all the villages, whatever was possible, and would bring them to Buddha for a sermon – such sacrifices. They have lived in huts, caves, in terrible darkness, meditating; but they never got realization, very few got their realization. They were people who were sons of great princes and prince, dukes, what you call duchess, as you call – all very, very rich people. Women of very rich families followed him. And they walked for miles together with him in the thorny roads, because they felt that Buddha’s work was of such universal importance. (1985-0206)

Nb. Whilst the span of the Buddha's life is generally agreed as eighty years, his dates continue to be the subject of controversy, with the dates proposed by scholars now being up to two hundred years more recent than traditional datings.

from Saints, Sufis and Yogis: A Biographical Dictionary of Realised Souls

Luv and Kush

There’s one more point I would like to tell you, that here there are two more small chakras, one that belongs to, which we call as the Surya. Surya is the, means the Sun, the Sun center and the another as the Moon center on the left-hand side. And these two are governed or, we can say, is bestowed upon by two great people who are the disciple elements. And disciple elements were first, were born to Shri Rama and Shri Sita as the Luv and Kush. And then they incarnated many a times on this Earth as disciple. One of them is, we can say, was Shankaracharya, another was Kabira, like that. Then we can say, before Shankaracharya, they came as Buddha and Mahavira. Then Shankaracharya and then I told you, after Shankaracharya came the advent of Hassan and Hussain, who were the grandsons of Prophet. So these have been incarnating and they have been moving from one side to another and telling people that “This is extreme, leave it, this is extreme, leave it. Come in the center and be in the center.” That has been their job and they are the ones who are sort of imparting you that awareness by you become a perfect disciple.
H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from 'World of Bliss and Joy', talk at Caxton Hall, London, 30/5/79

So that’s the great part of Markandeya. He took his birth later on as Buddha, then he took his birth as Adi Shankaracharya, it’s the same personality. But he was actually the son of Rama, to begin with. He was Luv and he went to Russia and that is why they are called as Slavs. He ruled in Russia, that’s why they are called as Slavs. Another son was Kush, who went to China, that is why they are called as Kushan. Then they incarnated again and again, also as Hassan and Hussain, as Mahavira and Buddha, as Adi Shankaracharya and Jnaneshwara, like that."
(Talk, Vienna, 9/6/88)

After Shri Krishna these two persons, Buddha and Mahavira, both of them incarnated in India. As you know, their history is very far out because they were the children of Rama and they were two twins called as Luv and Kush.
(Shri Mahavira Puja, Spain, 17/6/90)

The 'God's Realisation' is the stage which, Gautam Buddha and Mahavira only had achieved and settled down in our brain. Christ is also here. These two are not incarnations. They are born as human beings. They were born to Sita, as Luva and Kusha. Then they were born as Buddha and Mahavira, and Adishakti was their Mother once again. Later on they were born to Fatimabi as Hasan and Husain. They are the two milestones you have got, by which you can know to what height a human being can rise. Now today they are like incarnations.
(Talk on Sat-Chit-Anand, New Delhi, 15/2/77)

Dharma

This is how I describe Dharma in short. Dharma is the sustenance of all things that are born or created. It is super nature that gives valences to atoms in an element. It is Dharma that is expressed as the quality of these elements. For instance, gold has a quality that it is untarnishable. The human beings are like perfected instruments, like computers. Of course, if their Dharma is in balance, they are the best receptors. You can understand that the divine awareness is like the main electrical current which starts the computer (Self-realization). If the Dharma in the instrument is lacking, self-realization does not give full results. It becomes like a second hand car. Dharma is the fulcrum and the one who is in Dharma never gets into imbalance. So the attention has to be on “ Dharma”, the point where the gravity of sin does not act.

The information of Dharma comes from the Unconscious but the movement from the fulcrum can take the human attention so much in one dimension or so much like a sea saw that ultimately the beam of life tilts towards one side, either towards hell or towards destruction. Because, if the extreme movements are like a sea saw, the delicate flower of human awareness becomes confused and people suffer from all kind of diseases.

So what must we do?

The human beings have to come to the state of Gautama who became the Buddha. He searched in all earnestness and honesty. He gave up first all fake worldly preoccupations. This is not required but when he gave up all hopes of searching, (the occupation of the mind), he accepted his defeat. He felt tired and fell at the feet of the Holy Ghost.

Buddha had dharma. His body was clean, his mind, the attention, did not find any joy in the worldly greed or desire. His cup was ready and it emptied when he was tired and surrendered and that was the moment: like torrential rain, the Shakti filled His cup and made him the Shakta, the Enlightened One. So, when you are talking of virtue, you are warning them to keep the cup intact and clean.

Sahaja yoga is the proof of all the scriptures that are challenged. But I had to come to explain, to give realization and to tell you the “know how”.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from a Letter to a follower, London, 1976

Buddha Purnima

Buddha Purnima (also known as Buddha Jayanti and as Vesak) is a festival celebrated each year on the full moon of the fourth lunar month in the Chinese calendar (month of Vaisakh) when three important events of Buddha's life are commemorated:
- His birth in 623BCE
- His enlightenment
- His attainment of Nirvana.


Sahaja links:
Buddha Purnima in Cabella, 2008
Buddha Purnima in UK, 2006: video and photos
Buddha’s Spiritual Seeking
Greta Mo're: My analogy of The Lord Buddha’s Middle Way to the path of Kundalini and Sahaja Yoga

Metta Sutta

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

The Buddha's teachings on Loving Kindness (Metta Sutta) are found in the Suttanipäta.
Translation by the Amaravati Sangha. Another translation with the Pali text can be found here.

Kalama Sutta

Do not believe anything on mere hearsay.

Do not believe in traditions merely because they are old and have been handed down for many generations and in many places.

Do not believe anything on account of rumours or because people talk a great deal about it.

Do not believe anything because you are shown the written testimony of some ancient sage.

Do not believe in what you have fancied, thinking that, because it is extraordinary, it must have been inspired by a god or other wonderful being.

Do not believe anything merely because presumption is in its favour, or because the custom of many years inclines you to take it as true.

Do not believe anything merely on the authority of your teachers and priests. But, whatever, after thorough investigation and reflection, you find to agree with reason and experience, as conducive to the good and benefit of one and all and of the world at large, accept only that as true, and shape your life in accordance with it.

Do not accept any doctrine from reverence, but first try it as gold is tried by fire.

The Kalama people of the town of Kesaputta asked the Buddha who to believe out of all the ascetics, sages, venerables, and holy ones who, like himself, passed through their town. They complained that they were confused by the many contradictions they discovered in what they heard. The Kalama Sutta is the Buddha's reply.

Condensed version by Beatrice Santorini

full translation

Kwan Yin

"... actually she is the one, who is the Vruddha, is described as Vruddha, she is the one, is the aged one. Because Kwan Yin was born to a king, she was the daughter of a king.
And she was the Virgin form of the goddess, and she would not marry, so her father got very angry with her, that she is not married, and he threatened her, because he had arranged her marriage with some great king, you see. And when the marriage did not take place, father was so angry and annoyed and felt very humiliated. So he took her to a hillside and threatened her that "I will throw you down." And actually she was thrown down from the hillside into a valley, and he thought, that she must have been dead. But there was a tiger, which held her, and he carried her along, and then he looked after her. And when she grew very old, quite old, then she came out of her hermitage and she started treating people, and many people got cured by her - but she was quite old, then the father recognized her, because father was sick. She went and treated the father also, and she started curing people, and that's the Kwan Ying. If you go to Hong Kong, you can see her statue, the face is very much like mine, absolutely, but she is older looking and her shoulders are bent, quite bent. But she came much before Christ, and the Buddhists felt, that people wouldn't give her up, because she was so much regarded as the Mother of Mercy. So they included her in the Buddha thing."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk in Vienna, 2/5/85)

For me, the thousand hand Kwan Yin has her merciful heart and mighty power and great anger and valour against evil, very similar to those of Shri Durga - a form of the Adi Shakti. Another form of Kwan Yin with the kumbha pouring divine fluid (blessing) is actually Shri Raja Laxmi or Shri Mahalaxmi. And another form of Kuan Yin with children around her may obviously be the form of Shri Gruha Laxmi. All of these reminds us of the Primordial Mother looking after her devotees. (Edwin, HK)

Kuan Yin (or Kuan Shih Yen) can be considered a translation of the Sanskrit name of her Indian Buddhist counterpart, Avalokitesvara (or Avalokita).

Buddhism is not Buddha

Q. Shri Mataji, what do you think of Buddhism?

A. Buddhism is very different from Buddha. Absolutely. Buddha first got his realization. First he became a Buddha and then he started Buddha religion. But the way people are doing Buddhism is the other way round. That you give up your wife, you give up your children, you give up even your dress, everything. To whom? To these people. Buddha started after his realization. After your realization only you can become Buddha, means a realized soul. And he said it the same way. He said Buddham Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to other realized souls, Buddham Sharanam Gachami. Then he said Sangham Sharanam Gachami, Dharmam Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to the religion which is within me, innate religion. And thirdly he says, Sangham Sharanam Gachami, I surrender myself to the collective.
This nonsense of giving up this, giving up that, I mean, it’s too much. If you are holding onto something then you can give up. If you are not holding onto anything then what are you going to give up? Simple thing like that, for example, in Canada, one fellow came wearing that Buddhist’s dress. I don’t like it. A Sahaja Yogi said you’d better go and change, Mother will not give you realization if you are wearing this dress. So he came to Me and, “Mother, please forgive me, I have no other dress left.” I said, “Why?” “I have lost everything.” He was a big business man. “I’ve lost everything, I’ve given away to the Buddhists and I’m left with two pair of these clothes and if you don’t give me realization, what will I do?” Really, yes. So, what is there to give up is the point, what is there to give up? If you are not holding onto anything what are you going to give up? Simple thing like that.
Buddha never gave up his clothes, nothing of the kind. But he wanted to find out, what is the truth. So he went round, I mean he tried his level best and everything, ultimately his Kundalini rose and he got the realization. But what he was doing there, he was just lying down under a banyan tree. Now, whatever mistakes he has committed, we need not do, that you give up your wife, you give up your child, give up this, give up that. Just the contrast of what really Buddha achieved, is a contrast. So Buddhism is not Buddha by any chance."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Q+A after Talk at Holland Park School, London, 27/9/2000)

Buddha and Mahavira

Advice given by H.H. Mataji Nirmala Devi:

"The 'God's Realisation' is the stage which, Gautam Buddha and Mahavira only had achieved and settled down in our brain. Christ is also here. These two are not incarnations. They are born as Human beings. They were born to Sita, as Luva and Kusha. Then they were born as Buddha and Mahavira, and Adishakti was their Mother once again. Later on they were born to Fatimabi as Hasan and Husain. They are the two milestones you have got, by which you can know to what height a human being can rise. Now today they are like incarnations."
(Talk on Sat-Chit-Anand, in English, New Delhi. 15/2/77. Nirmala Yoga no.2)

"So that’s the great part of Markandeya. He took his birth later on as Buddha, then he took his birth as Adi Shankaracharya, it’s the same personality. But he was actually the son of Rama, to begin with. He was Luv and he went to Russia and that is why they are called as Slavs. He ruled in Russia, that’s why they are called as Slavs. Another son was Kush, who went to China, that is why they are called as Kushan. Then they incarnated again and again, also as Hassan and Hussain, as Mahavira and Buddha, as Adi Shankaracharya and Jnaneshwara, like that."
(Talk, Vienna, 9/6/88)

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