Love

The other day I was talking about love. Now the love, as it is understood, is in your heart as this; but do you know the ocean of love is your Sahastrara? When your Sahastrara is filled with love, then the life is changed. You don't become a very intelligent man, a very dynamic personality, but you are nothing but love, and this love is so self-satisfying. You are not bothered if others don't love you or they love you. You don't see to that part. What you see is the enjoyment from that love. It's a tremendous ocean of love. You all have got it. And once you have entered into Sahaja Yoga, you know that you have entered into Sahastrara. And Sahastrara is the - I tell you - the source of all the truth. Truth is there - the complete truth. Truth is the knowledge and also the truth is love.

If you love somebody, you know the truths about that person. You find out whether the person is good or bad or anything. It's very difficult. But if you love that person, then immediately you know what's wrong with that person, what's right from that person. But because of your love, you encompass the whole atmosphere between you and him or between you and others. You don't see the bad points easily - very difficult. ...

So residing in the Sahastrara, if you see the waves of love flowing, maybe some people might take advantage of it, doesn't matter, makes no difference. Some people can also mislead you, it's all right, all kinds of things they do, but, when there is love, you see, you are satisfied, you are not bothered, because you love everyone. ...

Anybody who has innocence would know the technique of love. If you are very clever, intelligent, you can answer back, you can correct people, do that. No. That's not the way. If you have love, you can correct people without saying anything to them, because love is a supreme intelligence. It gives you all the correct method. It works out that. The whole thing works out that, and then people say, 'Mother, it's a miracle how it has happened.' No, no, it's no miracle, is simple thing, that love has acted in its own way. Love is not a dead thing. It's not a dead sea. It not only thinks, but it acts and acts so beautifully. Sometimes I'm amazed at its working. We call it a miracle, this, that. Nothing - it's love. ...

Love should be just open. Then you will see where do you stand as far as your country's concerned, as far as your relationships are concerned. You will know everything. You need not harm, you need not say anything, you need not quarrel, fight, but you will know - because love gives you knowledge, complete knowledge about the person. You know the person, what he's up to, what he's doing, but you don't mind because you love that person. So you don't mind. 'All right, go ahead.' It's like a little child. It's going on the wrong way. Let it go.

Now with all these things, whatever you wear, you are very lucky people who have reached Sahastrara and that you all know everything about Sahaja Yoga. But without practicing Sahaja Yoga, you cannot work it out because then, by practicing it, you'll know about your Self. When you meditate you'll know your Self, and then you get just filled with love. But now, while sitting, you just start thinking, 'He's a very bad man. I hate him,' this thing. All such stupid ideas come into your head - or 'I must buy this ornament' or 'I must buy this particular car' and all that, then you are not loving. But if you love, then what happens is that whatever you need, you get. Whatever you want, you get.

You have to first love yourself, but that love should be pure love. As a result of that, you'll cleanse yourself. Sometimes you are so much identified with your temperaments, with your nature, with you personality, whatever it is, but then you realize, in that love, that 'This is not love. This is blind.'

Love gives you a complete idea about yourself. 'What am I? What problems I have? Why do I create problems? Why do I get into problems?' You'll be amazed that love has such a powerful light in it, that it is the truth and it is the knowledge. ...

And this love is universal. It has nothing to do with any particular type or particular style. It's universal. That is why Sahaja Yoga is universal. It is spreading everywhere. I want you to enjoy that love. ...

So I would request you to find out that ocean in your head at the Sahastrara, which is being filled by your heart. Do you know Heart and Sahastrara are very much in relationship with each other? Their style is such that if somebody's head is not all right, the heart won't be all right. If the heart is not all right, his head won't be all right. But is more reflection from the head to the heart.

They say that there's genes are bad or this - nothing of the kind. After Sahaja Yoga, your genes are changed, you are changed; everything is changed now. So your brain is filled with nothing but light. Your heart is filled with light and you are just bouncing with love, all the time with humor, with loving care. Every day, I mean, it's so different. But that you have achieved now, now you have got it. So just enjoy that. ...

I don't know what else to say. I mean, it is something I would like you to do, for you to get it, this kind of life where you just flow with your love.

May God bless you very well.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Birthday Felicitations, Delhi, 23/3/2002

(2002-0323)

Shri Mataji opens the Primordial Sahastrara (May 5, 1970)

extract from The Vision (2004)

Nargol, 1970

I used to think, “Why are men doing such a drama and what has happened to them? Why are they doing all this nonsense?” But to whom was I to say all these things? I was all alone then.
At the time when I arrived here [Nargol, 1970], the only confusion that I had must be done. After coming here, when I saw this rakshasa was mesmerizing people, I realized then if at that time somehow the Sahastrara was not opened, then God knows where these people would ultimately be lead. Moreover, the spell of his influence could not be ignored and also what would have been the fate of his disciples, those who were trying to seek God and the truth?
Then I decided to stay the night at the seashore. I was all alone and felt very good. There was no one around to say a word. And then in meditation, I felt that the time had arrived when the Sahastrara must be opened. The moment I desired for the opening of the Sahastrara, what I noticed was that the Kundalini rose like a telescope within me, opening one stage after the other, travelling upward – khat, khat, khat. The colour of it was like the mixture of all the colours of these lamps put together, with which you have decorated. It was like the colour of molten red-hot iron.
Then I saw the external structure of the Kundalini that kept on rising up, creating sounds at each chakra. The Kundalini rose up to pierce the Brahmarandhra. Piercing mine was not a big deal, but then I thought it would now become easier in the world.
I felt at that moment whatever energy was there above suddenly entered within me like a cool breeze from every direction. It was then I realized that now there was no harm in starting the work. ...

The confusion was all over. Yet not being completely certain about the decision, I thought with all calmness that at last the time had come now. “At most what will happen? People will protest or beat Me up. At maximum, they will laugh or make fun or, beyond that, they are going to kill me.” But then there was nothing to fear. This ultimately had to be done. I had come on Earth for this purpose only, to awaken the collective consciousness in human beings. I thought, until people received their Self Realization or understood their own Self, this task would be impossible.
Whatever else one would have tried to do in this world would be of no use at all. That was the reason to begin with that I worked it out on an old lady who knew me well. When she received her Realization, then I was then satisfied. I said to myself, “Well, at least one has received her Realization.” By any means was it an easy task to give Realization in this Kali Yuga? But then when one of them received Realization, I felt many others could also get their Realization. And especially at the level of collective consciousness, it would be easier to give awareness. It was easy to give Realization to one person. It was in fact very easy to make a person aware. But to work it out on a collective level on the masses, it demanded more work.
So I had to work a bit more with my acquired experiences with the humans. As a matter of fact, I felt that when I had to stop, what would be the factors that would be required to consider for taking out the bad habits or individual problems or conditionings from human beings. Because one individual had one type of problem, another had a second type, while the third had yet another type. I thought if it had to be worked out on a collective level, then everyone should get the benefit with a single en-masse Realization. Everyone should be able to gain out of it. Now I cannot explain it to you here, but it is true that these types of workings had never been done before on a collective level.
I had achieved all these through meditation.

H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extracts from Hindi talk at Diwali Puja 1995, Nargol, India.

with thanks to Divine Cool Breeze magazine

Forty years of Sahaja Yoga

1970: "I decided to stay the night at the seashore. I was all alone and felt very good. There was no one around to say a word. And then in meditation, I felt that the time had arrived when the Sahastrara must be opened."

1980: "I am telling you these things because you are deserving. And in that condition, you must understand that this is a great privilege that I am telling you all these things. I am giving you the key."

1990: "All these years, I have been waiting for this day. We have now the twenty-first Sahastrara Day, so is a very important turning point. As you know, every twenty-first day we change our calendars as far as the horoscope is concerned. And so now a new change has to come and you can see the announcement – a new understanding, an awareness of a very new dimension."

2000: "My vision is too great for one life. I want a global Realization. I want people all over the world to have Realization."

2008: "I have done my best and I think I won’t be able to do this again. It is not my old age, but I want to give you a complete freedom to spread Sahaja Yoga.... Use it for the betterment of people."

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

with thanks to Divine Cool Breeze magazine

You should know reality

So what is important is that you should know reality. You should know exactly what is right and what is wrong. For that, as I told you, there is this great power of Kundalini within you. She’s the one, she passes through all these centres, enlightens them first of all - so your awareness gets enlightened - and when she pierces through Sahastrara, she joins you to this all-pervading power, which is knowledge, which is love, which is truth.

So after that, you immediately know - some people don’t know immediately, but some people do - that what we have been thinking so far, of separating ourselves from others by thinking that they are not alright, they are wrong, they are whatever it is - this disappears. This disappears completely. And then you realize that your awareness itself, awareness itself is dominated by so many other circumstances. For example, where you were born, what your parents taught you, what experiences you have had. And then you realize that it was all wrong because it’s not reality.

Whatever feelings you have, whatever ideas you have about another person or about another nation, all of them are not correct. Because now your Sahastrara is awakened, it is connected now to the all-pervading power. So this starts flowing into you. This, I should say, enlightened awareness, it starts flowing down into your being, in your brain and then on your nerves you can feel that awareness.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Sahastrara Puja 1999

Higher than Sahastrara

Yogi: Shri Mother, could you say something about the Bindu and the higher chakras above that?

Shri Mataji: You see, I don't think you should worry too much about these. There's three stages higher than Sahastrara. I would suggest just now let us concentrate on Sahastrara, is a better idea. But Bindu, Ardha-Bindu and Valaya are the three stages in which one has to pass through later on, and you would pass gradually when you develop yourself horizontally. That's what we have started now, so let us keep to this idea that we have to develop ourself horizontally. We should see how we affect the other person, how we influence another person.
(The need to go deeper, Sydney, Australia, 6/5/87)


(replying to question in Hindi)
This is the trouble with you. You read some nonsensical books – Samadhi, Bindu, this, that, all that. Now please forget it, please forget all these things. Sama-dhi, Samadhi means, first is the Nirvichara Samadhi. First is Nirvichara Samadhi that you achieve and the Kundalini just comes out of your head. Sama-dhi means, the dhi means the buddhi. And when it has got enlightenment it means Samadhi. So first of all, the buddhi gets enlightened - I just now I told you about that only, the first enlightenment. Now, the Bindu and this and that are higher stages. Ardha Bindu, then Bindu and then Valaya. But you should not be futuristic, just now if you have read some book no use trying to show off that. That’s not a good thing. Just try to see what you are. Why do you want to talk about things which - which do not concern at this stage? Just now, supposing you are going by bullock cart, why do you want to ask about the aeroplane? Just now you go by bullock cart, then you get into the train, then you get into the airplane. All right? One by one, not like this.
(Q+A after Talk on Sahastrara Chakra, New Delhi, 4/2/83)


In Sanskrit language, a bangle is called as valaya and that is the last stage which one has to reach in one’s ascent. That means the complete.
(Shri Mahalakshmi Puja, Belgium, 21/9/86)


Sahastrara Puja 1983: The Fourteen Levels

Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra

No passport needed in Sahastrara land

Now also people have another very horrid, horrid conditioning apart from the religion – is of the countries, “I belong to India”, “I belong to Germany”, “I belong to England.” Everything is wretched. I mean, to say something like that means you are not yet grown up to the Sahastrara land. Those who start becoming some nationality do not know that your nationality is transformed, actually don’t need any passports. In the area where the Divine reigns no passport is needed, it’s writ large on your faces.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Hamsa Puja, Germany, 10/7/88

May 5th

Now, Sahastrara Day is on the fifth but we must celebrate today because everybody must have a Sunday holiday. According to our conveniences we have to work out everything. All right, doesn't matter, it’s permitted. The deities, they are working twenty-four hours, all the months and all the years round, continuously. Because they have a continuous supply of energy, which you can also have.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Sahastrara Puja, Italy, 8/5/88

more

The Coconut

If you see a coconut it is something like our Sahastrara and it's very auspicious because it can absorb lot of vibrations, as if it has got its realization. As you people can absorb my vibrations, this fruit can absorb also my vibrations, in the greatest amount.
H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk to Sahaja yogis, Alibag, India, 13/12/87

This fruit of coconut is called as shreephal, because it is the Sahastrara, and it's very surprising that this fruit knows and understands. It won't fall on any animal or on any person. If you are sleeping here, it will never fall on you. Nobody is hurt ever by this fruit. It is so sensible, more than human beings.
(Shri Lakshmi Puja, Alibag, 29/12/91)

In the heart resides the spirit, which is not yet flowing in our consciousness, in our central nervous system. It resides there. The joy itself. I don’t know if you have ever seen phosphorus taken out of the water and how it just gets ignited. It’s like that inside the maya, the illusion – that spark is sitting there and when this Kundalini rises and touches that spark, it starts emitting its joy, its auspiciousness. Unless and until you have that within you, you cannot feel the auspiciousness of others. Take a coconut, for example: put it the other way round, you won’t get vibrations. If you put it this way the coconut coming up you will get more vibrations. There are certain coconuts who give you very good vibrations, some give horrible ones. And you know human beings also have coconuts. Some of the coconuts give such beautiful vibrations and some of them do not. Some of them are tired. Some of them are nothing but like a balloon of Mr. Ego, or some of them have nothing but superego in them. So this coconut is to be made auspicious.
(Talk on Auspiciousness, Caxton Hall, London, 21/7/80)


Shri Mataji recommends coconut oil for the hair:
Coconut [oil], is the best for hair. It will make your hair thick.
(Vienna ashram, 9/6/88)

Better use some nice coconut oil, rub in your head nicely, and in the night and in the morning. ... So before you start getting bald, better try putting some oil in your head. That is some very important thing that Sahaja Yogis have to do. You can take vibrated oil if you like and I think olive oil is good, but better than olive oil, I find, it is coconut oil is better for the growth of the hair. But sometimes you can also put almond oil, is also good, almond oil for you because if you have any problem that you feel exhausted or your nerves need attention, you are nervous type of person, then almond oil is good for you.
(Advice to yogis, Italy, 4/5/95)

Sahastrara Puja 1984

It is so wonderful for your Mother to see you so many beautiful Sahaja Yogis assembled together on this day of Sahastrara. I think the first era of Sahaja Yoga has ended now and new has started. In the first era of Sahaja Yoga, the starting point was first the opening of the Sahastrara. And gradually moving towards the completion, I find there are so many who are great Sahaja Yogis today. It is a very natural process of growth that you have gone through. The first one was, we can say, is just the awakening of the Kundalini, and piercing the fontanel bone area. As you see on top of your head these bandhans that's how you too have in your head, the same way. And you have the chakras the same way, built in your Sahastrara. So in the first era of Sahaja Yoga, we have awakened the deities in your centers, in the medulla oblongata and also in the brain, but now the time has come for us to spread it on a horizontal level, and to move it on the horizontal level, we have to understand how to go about it. Like the seven colors of the rainbow, we have got seven colors of the light of these centers, of the chakras, and when we started from the back, from the Mooladhara, bringing it up to the, this side, Agnya, then it is placed in a different order, if you see it clearly. I mean to say that in the Sahastrara, because it's a concave placement, it’s important to understand, that the center of the fontanel bone area corresponds to our heart. So, heart is the pivotal point for the second era now. I hope you understand what I mean. So if you have to place your attention to Sahastrara, first thing you have to do is to pay attention to your heart. In the Sahastrara, the heart-chakra and the heart itself, the Atma, coincide. Means the Jagadamba becomes one with the heart, that is the Atma, so we see that here the yoga takes place. At this point of time, it is very important to understand that we have to take a bigger step. The whole Sahastrara moves in this way, all these chakras throw their lights in this way, in a clockwise manner and the axis is the heart.

So the essence of all the religions, of all the prophets, of all the incarnations, is compassion, and is placed in this chakra of heart. Thus we understand that in the second era now, we have to have compassion, is the manifestation now of the compassion. If God Almighty had no compassion, He would not have created this great universe. Actually His power, or the Adi Shakti, is the embodiment of His compassion, and this compassion has brought forth all the evolution to human level and even your emancipation as Sahaja yogis, and compassion is always completely covered with forgiveness. ...

In the first era of Sahaja Yoga, you needed to see me in person. As we say in Sanskrit, a Dhyeya, is the target, you wanted the target in front of you, whatever is to be achieved. So now when you wanted that all the time and you felt happy, secure, joyous, when you had that in person before you. Then, in the second era, now, you will not desire so much that Mother should be there. You'll take it over from me. This is the Divine Desire I'm telling you about, and you have to work on that from today onwards. I am with you, you know that, but need not be in this body, because I don’t know if I exist in this body or not. But once this desire starts working, you will see tremendous miracles happening.

When the child is born to a mother, automatically she gets milk. So the nature is so connected with the whole thing. In your divine desire also it is connected, and it is very evident when you are a divine person. So you may find me anywhere, you are walking on the street, suddenly you might find Mataji walking with you. So this is the second era we have started, and you should not be shocked if you see me sitting on your bed and putting my hand on your head, or you may see me in the form of Christ walking into your room, or as Shri Rama. That has to happen, so you should be prepared.

Already so many miracles have taken place on you, but on a grosser level. You have seen the light coming on my head and the photographs have shown some miracles to you, but many things will happen, that you will see something that you could never imagine. This has to happen just to convince you that you have reached a certain height of your evolution in the new area of Pragyalok because this is a new state into which now you will be entering on a horizontal basis.

In this area you will give up asking for gross things, and also for anything subtler, anything that is subtle, the asking will disappear, and that is the time you will become very powerful. Whatever I say happens as you know, only thing, I cannot command you to be evolved. The Kundalini's work in you has been done, quite a lot, now the new work of compassion, of spreading it to others, has to be done by you. As the light grows brighter and brighter, the area it covers becomes bigger and bigger. So you become the giver of compassion.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extracts from Sahastrara Puja 1984

Sahastrara Puja 1979

So today is a very, very important day, you know that. Because in the history of creation you know till the time of Christ, in the human awareness, only the sense of resurrection was created - that you can be resurrected or you can be reborn. That sense came down to them. I mean people recognized that it could happen to all of us sometime. But it did not happen. Actualization never took place. That was a problem and without you entering into the reality whatever one may talk about becomes imaginative. So one has to jump into the reality into the [truth]. This never had happened before and as I have told you that if it had happened to one or two people it makes no difference at all to the masses and nobody accepts it and like a small little river flowing in the dessert it disappears in the thin air, the truth also, whatever was found out, never had any roots. And all kinds of funny things started, with this reality, which these people preached.

So it was to be culmination of human consciousness where he becomes one with the Divine that he becomes one with himself - was to happen. And that too was to happen at the time, which was most importunate - best time. Because unless and until the human desire is very strong, human will is very strong and is asking for the reality, the reality does not going to [express it or be achieved?]. Other things of course, as far as the creation is concerned; creating the animals and all the trees and fruits and flowers - all these things are done. But the human evolution could not have matured earlier because there was not so much of seeking.

So when the time came when the necessity was so great that the necessity itself brought forth Sahaja Yoga. And it happened that I really saw the Sahastrara. Of course you know there’s a difference between your Sahastrara and mine. And I saw the Sahastrara, opened out beautifully and the petals were just like flames - rounded flames, rounded ones, rounded beautifully colored flames of different colors. That’s why I wore today blouse of many colors and sari of many colors. I saw so many permutations and combinations, so beautiful. And as if every petal was individually, absolutely complete and perfect, but so integrated. The way it opened out, and the movement was so rhythmic and so harmonious. There was no problem. Such a harmony was between them. No fluctuation anywhere as if they were dancing to the tunes, opened out. And the colors, all spread out their light around in the aura. In the center I saw the Agnya – you can say the Sun color and all the chakras were there, also emitting light but the chakras were darker in shades. They were so dark that they were all looking blackish you see, so dark. Such a condensed color they had. And they were also emitting light all over. But the light, as soon as the whole thing opened out, the light absolutely spread out then I saw the sky. It can be done. First I had to open out my Sahastrara. Then your Sahastraras could be opened out and then I felt that a tremendous flow of vibrations started flowing. So much rays falling upon me, a torrential rain you see falling on me. Absolutely I was so drenched in that joy, really I was lost, absolutely lost. Then I felt that the whole creation is now sounded with that universal consciousness, just felt. Everything was finished, only the joy is pervading. It was such a beautiful time and then I started my work.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Sahastrara Puja 1979.

The seven seats

Sahastrara ... is a very important center because it is in the core of your heart, it’s surrounding your heart, and all the seven chakras have got their seats there. These are the seats which receive the joy and communicate to the heart. In Sahastrara, if you are there, already so many things you have got. You’ve got your vibrations, you’ve got your powers… But it’s the most tricky center. It’s a Mahamaya – Kalki in a Mahamaya shape. Is a complete illusion. In the Sahastrara, the joy of Sahastrara is the joy of the entirety because all seven seats are there. If you can capture your Sahastrara, in complete recognition of this Mahamaya – complete recognition, which is a very difficult thing because always the maya is there. Then, there’s nothing to talk about. Then see how your heart enlarges, see now. Just recognize. See the expansion of your heart, it will cover all your entire being, just recognize.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Advice on All the Chakras, Mumbai, India, 30/12/79

The role of Mahamaya in resolving global problems

Sahastrara is the most powerful chakra because it is the seven chakras combination and many others. With the Sahastrara you can do anything. You can manage the sun, you can manage the moon, you can manage the earth, you can manage the temperatures, everything. But, through Mahamaya things work out very normally, very normally and they should work out normally. For example somebody can say, “Mother, there is atmosphere full of all these horrible ecological problems, why don’t you clear them?” If it is cleared people will go on producing. It is the problem of the human beings and if it is corrected by me they’ll take it for granted. They have to face those problems, they have to change their habits, they have to understand that they are the one who are destruct, destroying themselves. Otherwise, if somebody’s there just to cleanse it out they will never change. Also, miraculously, one can do lots of things. One can say, “Mother, as you solve the problems of Sahaja Yogis, why don’t you solve the problem of others?” No. To solve their problem is not the end of my work, nor is the purpose. But to make them equipped so that they can solve their own problem, that’s what I have to do.

As I’ve said that you have to be your own doctor, you have to be your own guru. Without Mahamaya you cannot do it because She knows how far to go in correcting, how far to go in controlling because human beings, at large, have their own freedom. Sahaja Yogis have not that kind of a stupid freedom, but they have the freedom of the spirit. So to solve their problems is perfectly all right because they must have more freedom and more freedom. But what’s the use of giving freedom to other people who are going on and on and on without realizing what wrong they are doing to the whole world? So, for them it is necessary to come to Sahaja Yoga and that’s why it’s a Mahamaya Swarupa.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Sahastrara Puja 1994

Chakras and the planets

Mooladhara Chakra: Mars
Swadisthana Chakra: Mercury
Nabhi Chakra: Jupiter
Anahat Chakra: Venus
Vishuddhi Chakra: Saturn
Agnya Chakra: Sun
Sahastrara Chakra: Moon

Source: Nirmal Fragrance (4th ed, 2006)

The Fourteen Levels

God has created fourteen levels within us. If you simply count them, then you know that there are seven chakras within us. Beside these, there are two more chakras, about which you do not talk much. They are the Chakra of Moon (Lalita) and Chakra of Sun (Shri) . Then there is Hamsa Chakra. Thus, there are three more. Seven plus three makes ten. Then there are four chakras above Sahastrara. And about these chakras also I have told you: Ardha-bindu, Bindu, Valaya, and Pradakshina. These are the four. After coming to Sahaja Yoga and after your Sahastrara has opened, you have to pass through these four Chakras, Ardha-bindu, Bindu, Valay, and Pradakshina. After passing through these four chakras only you can say that you have become a Sahaja yogi.
And if you see from another angle, we have to cross fourteen stages in reaching up to Sahastrara. If you divide them then there are seven chakras situated on the Ida Nadi and seven on the Pingala Nadi. ...
This 'fourteen' is very important in Kundalini Shashtra (science). Very important. It's a very important thing. We should fully understand that we become entitled to the blessings of Sahaja Yoga only after rising above these fourteen stages.

H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Talk on Sahastrara Day 1983, Bombay (now Mumbai), India

The Window and the Door

There’s another kind of a stupid thing, that people ask you to meditate here [Shri Mataji points to her Agnya Chakra]. Is absolutely wrong. ... Nobody should put attention here. Instead, put attention at the Door [Shri Mataji is putting her hand onto her Sahastrara Chakra]. What’s the use of looking at a window? You can’t get out of it, can you? If you have to look at anything be on a lookout for the Door. And the Door is here. The Door of Sahastrara is to be opened out.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Talk at Shri Krishna Puja, Switzerland, 23/8/86

Witness the Spark

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

The Himalayas

"The Himalayas are the Sahastrara that Mother Earth has created for you. This Sahastrara is to be worshipped. This Sahastrara is very great. I don't know if you can see vibrations emitting from it. I am completely engulfed by their vibrations that I cannot see anything else. There are only vibrations and vibrations. Nothing else. Those who are residing here are swimming in vibrations and seem like fish swimming in the ocean of vibrations. You cannot distinguish one from the other. I cannot describe in words the splendour of the beautiful vibrations that are spread here. This is indeed the blessings of the Himalayas .
The Himalayas are the Sahastrara of the whole Universe. They have given the whole Universe so much comfort and joy after which there is nothing more to be attained. With the help of this Sahastrara, I have opened your Sahastrara."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk at Talnoo, India, March 1985)

Sahastrara and Heart

"So your heart, that itself becomes the Sahastrara, and your Sahastrara, that itself, the Heart. What you think is in your heart; and whatever is in your heart, that only you think.
When your state becomes like this, then any kind of doubts, any kind of disbelief, any kind of fear - no such thing remains."
(H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk on Sahastrara Day, 1983)

Sahastrara as the Lotus

"Sahastrara is the most beautiful part of your being. It is a big lotus with one thousand petals of different colours appearing like inflated flames. It is a thing that has been seen by many people, but to see it pour that torrential rain was like these flames becoming a fountain, a fountain of colour, fountain of fragrance; when you think of a flower pouring its colour and its fragrance around. People have written very little about Sahastrara, because whatever they have seen is from outside, and it is not possible for them to see from inside. Even if you reach from inside and the whole Sahastrara is not opened out, you cannot see its beauty; because when it is closed, the whole of it, you just pass through an aperture and get out of it. But just imagine a huge big one thousand petalled lotus, and you are sitting inside on the corona and looking at all those petals, all very beautifully coloured, and fragrant, and pulsating with the bliss of joy. To remain on that position is the ideal position, but then after the silence you are filled with tremendous compassion and love, and you are drawn out to people who haven't yet known what is having eyes. And then you try to put your attention to the Sahastrara of millions of people; and then you start seeing the problems that exist in the Sahastrara. And even if you desire to open the Sahastrara, it is a very difficult thing, because the channelling of the Divine to human beings has to be done through human beings. The power may be with you, but it has to be channelled through human beings."
(H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Talk on Sahastrara Day 1982, France)

"Dearest, (in the pinda exist) the chakras of five lines, 16 lines, sixty four petals, the truly beautiful 100 petal (lotus)[Agnya?] and the beautiful thousand petal lotus [Sahastrara] and above this is a very brilliant 10,000,000 petal lotus. Above the 10 million petal lotus is a 30,000,000 petal lotus, each pericarp of which is similar to a flame. Above this is the all encompassing, eternal, undivided, independent, steady lotus – pervading all, stainless. By its will (sveccha) it causes creation and dissolution. Both the animate and inaminate are dissolved in this linga."
(Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra, third chapter, attributed to Matsyendranath, 11th century CE)

Photo: front cover of the music CD, 'Hindustani Saxophone' by Nicolas Buff (Melbourne, 2006)