Shri Rukmini

In Maharashtra, and specifically at the pilgrimage town of Pandharpur, Vitthala is worshipped as the Lord; and Rukmini is his consort, or power. At Pandharpur, Rukmini has her own temple. In some traditions, Vitthala (or Vithoba) is said to be derived from Vishnu, and Rukmini (or Rakhumai) is derived from Lakshmi.

Now when we have our Vishuddhi problems we have to know what are the deities on both the sides and what were their qualities which are lacking in us – that’s why we are suffering. Let’s see the right side Vishuddhi when we catch. Shri Krishna’s essence is sweetness – madhuriya. And His power was Radha. Ra is energy, dha means the one who has sustained the energy. And Her power was, She was called as Ahlada. Ahlada means joy giving qualities She had. So Shri Krishna’s qualities were that He was Yogeshwara, so He was the witness and sweetness. Now a person who shouts and screams and talks loudly and loses his temper in a very loud voice, or who speaks very loudly all the time, they all suffer from the right Vishuddhi. So one should understand that even when you have to scold somebody, you have to just say, “What are you doing? Why are you doing like this?” Otherwise “I give you, oh do like this?” Finished! Right Vishuddhi over. It’s finished now.
So for the right Vishuddhi we use the mantra of Vitthala and Rukmini, these two persons. You see it is very significant that also, because they say that there was a Pundalikaksh, one boy who was serving his parents. And his parents were sleeping, he was pressing their feet when Vitthala and His power Rukmini, they appeared in the door. But he said, “Now keep quiet. My parents are sleeping so you stay there!” So he had one brick near him which he threw and asked them, “You stay on that.” So They kept quiet, They kept quiet because they are sleeping. Now this is the thing. On the right side if you are talking loudly, if you talk too much, if you intimidate people with your talking then you catch on right Vishuddhi. So for that best is to take some rest and give some rest to your right Vishuddhi by stopping your talk. Go into mauna they say, just don’t talk. For some time if you don’t talk you will see that your Vishuddhi will be improved, your problems will be improved.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, extract from Shri Krishna Puja 1989, England (1989-0814)


Today I think is a very great day for all of us because this place is the place of Virat, of Shri Vitthala. Is the place where Shri Vitthala appeared to a devoted son and when he asked Him that "You better stand on a brick," He stood there. And they say that He stood there waiting. Some people say that the statue that we see came out of the Mother Earth on this sand and that's what Pundalikaksh carried saying that "These are the ones who came to see me and my parents; I was busy with them, so they are standing on the same brick which I threw." Now the whole story has to be taken in a very sensible way, with the common-sense in it. That God Himself is capable of all kinds of miracles. ...
My idea of coming to Pandharpur for Shiv Puja was this: that Shiva represents the Spirit, and the Spirit is residing in all of you in your hearts. The seat of Sadashiva is on top of your head but is reflected in your heart. Now, your brain is the Vitthala. So to bring Spirit to your brain means enlightenment of your brain. Enlightenment of your brain means the limited capacity of your brain has to become unlimited, in its capacity to realize God. I will not use the word understand – to realize God - how powerful He is, how miraculous He is, how great He is.
(extract from Shivaratri Puja 1984, Pandharpur) (1984-0229)


Panduranga Vittala of Pandharpur

Vithoba of Pandarpur

Pandharpur Yatra, Glories of Lord Vithal/Vithoba

Marathi Glossary

Abhanga - Marathi four- or -six-line verse.

Amritanubhava - a text by Jnaneshwara.

Bhajan – devotional song.

Bhaktavijaya and Bhaktilamrita - two important compilations by the 18th century pandit, Mahipati, of information on the Marathi saints.

Bhavarthadipika - also known as the Jnaneshwari, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita written by Jnaneshwara.

Bharud - dramatic poem in Marathi, much used by Eknath.

Charita - a biography of a notable person, thus Eknath Charita.

Dasbodha - the major text by Guru Ramdas.

Daulatabad – hill fort. Also known as Devgiri, trans: Hill of the Gods. 

Dehu - town in the Pune district of Maharashtra where Tukaram lived. His temple is on the edge of the Indayani river.

Devnagiri – the standard script for Marathi and several north Indian languages including Hindi.

Dharur - a hill fort.

Fakir - Muslim holy man.

Ganapatipule - ancient pilgrim centre on the western coast of Maharashtra.

Gatha - a collection of works by an author, thus Tukaram Gatha.

Jejuri – a pilgrimage town in Maharashtra.

Jijabai – mother of Shivaji.

Johar - a form of the bharud used by Eknath.

Kirtan(a) - a sung performance of abhangas, bhajans, bharuds, in the Marathi tradition.

Kohlapur – pilgrimage town with a temple dedicated to Mahalakshmi.

Maharashtradharma - term used by Guru Ramdas to install a sense of integrity and greatness in the Maratha people.

Mahars - the untouchables of Maharashtra. Chokha is their best known saint.

Manache Shloka  - also known as Manobodha,  a text by Guru Samartha Ramdas.

Mumbai (Bombay) – major city on the west coast of Maharashtra.

Nasik – town in Maharashtra.

Naths – yogis.

Ovi – verse.

Pada – verse (Sanskrit).

Paithan – pilgrimage town with a temple dedicated to Eknath. Originally known as Pratishthan, the capital of the Shalivahana kings.

Pandharpur – pilgrimage town with a temple dedicated to Lord Vithoba (Vittala).

Pandit (pundit) – scholar and teacher. 

Pasayadan - epilogue to the Jnaneshwari.

Povada - a narrative song usually chronicling heroic achievements.

Pratishthan (Paithan) -  a city in Maharashtra, once the capital of the Shalivahana kings.

Pune (Poona) – a city in Maharashtra, once the capital of the Marathas.

Purana - a sacred text.

Qadiriya – an order of Sufis active in Maharashtra.

Sant – holy person; similar, but not identical, to the English saint.

Shalivahana (a.k.a. Satavahana) - royal dynasty in Central India. Pratishthan was their capital.

Shivaji -  Maratha leader who unified his people.

Shloka – verse.

Shudra – lowest of the four castes in traditional Indian society.

Skanda - section (chapter) of a purana.

Stotra - prayer.

Stotramala - a collection of stotras.

Varkari  - a devotee of Vittala (the Lord) who goes on annual pilgrimage to Pandharpur.

Vedas – the four oldest books in the Hindu scriptures.

Vittala (Vithoba) -  the Lord as worshipped in the Varkari tradition.

from John Noyce,   The Saints of Maharashtra (2017)

Detachment

My idea of coming to Pandharpur for Shiv Puja was this: that Shiva represents the Spirit, and the Spirit is residing in all of you in your hearts. The seat of Sadashiva is on top of your head but is reflected in your heart. Now, your brain is the Vitthala. So to bring Spirit to your brain means enlightenment of your brain. Enlightenment of your brain means the limited capacity of your brain has to become unlimited, in its capacity to realize God. I will not use the word understand – to realize God - how powerful He is, how miraculous He is, how great He is. The another is that the brain of man can create, of course out of the dead; but when the Spirit comes into brain, then you create living things, living work of Kundalini. Even the dead start behaving like living, because you touch the Spirit in the dead.

Like the nucleus inside every atom or a molecule has the Spirit of that molecule. And if you become your Spirit - we can say the brain of a molecule and an atom is like the nucleus, body of the nucleus. But the one that controls the nucleus is the Spirit that resides within the nucleus. So now you have got the attention or the body - the whole body of the atom, then the nucleus, and inside the nucleus is the Spirit. In the same way - we have this body, the attention of the body, and then we have the nucleus - is the brain, and the Spirit is in the heart. So the brain is controlled through the Spirit. How? That around the heart there are seven auras which can be multiplied into any number, seven raised to power sixteen hundred, which are the ones which watch the seven chakras, raised to power sixteen thousand.

Now this Spirit is watching through this aura. Watching, I am again saying “watching” through this aura. This aura is watching the behavior of your seven centers in your brain. Is also watching all the nerves that are working in the brain - “watching”, again. But when you bring the Spirit into your brain, then you go two steps ahead, because when your Kundalini rises, She touches the Sadashiva and Sadashiva informs the Spirit. Informs in the sense - reflects in the Spirit. So that's the first state where the watching auras start communicating through your different chakras in the brain and integrating it. But when you bring your Spirit to your brain this is the second state. Then you really become self-realized, in the full way, in the full way, because then your Self, that is the Spirit, becomes your brain. Action is very dynamic, it opens then, the fifth dimension in the human being.

First when your become realized, collectively conscious, and start raising the Kundalini, you are in, you cross the fourth dimension. But when your Spirit comes into your brain, then you become the fifth dimension - means, you become the doer. Our brain, now, for example says, "All right, lift this thing up." So you touch it with your hand, you lift it up. You are the doer. But when the brain becomes the Spirit, the Spirit is the doer, and when Spirit is the doer, then you become a complete Shiva - self-realized.

In that state, if you get angry, you are not attached. You are not an attached person to anything whatsoever. If you possess anything, you are not attached. You cannot attach, because Spirit is detachment, complete detachment. You don't bother about any attachments whatsoever. Even for a second, you are not attached. Now I would say, to understand the detachment of Spirit, we should study ourselves very well, clearly. How are we attached? We are attached, firstly, by our brain, mostly by our brain, because all our conditionings are in our brain and all our ego is also in our brain. So all emotional attachments are through our brain and all our egoistical attachments also are through our brain. That's why it is said that after Realization one must try to practice the Shiva Tattwa by practicing detachment. Now how do you practice this detachment?

Because we get attached to something, of course through our brain, but through our attention. So we try to do what we call chitta nirodh, is to control your attention. Where is it going? In the practice of Sahaja Yoga, if you have to rise higher you have to improve your own instrument and not the instrument of others. This is one thing one should know, for definite. Now, you just watch your attention. Where is it going. Watch yourself. As soon as you’ll start watching yourself, your attention, you’ll become more identified with your Spirit. Because if you have to watch your attention, you will have to be your Spirit, otherwise how will you watch it? ...

The detachment is to be watched and seen through your own attachments. Now, because you are realized souls, not yet the Spirit, has not come into your brain of course, but still you are realized souls. So what you can do is at least to watch your attention, you can do that. You can watch your attention very clearly by seeing where your attention is going. And then, controlling your attention, also, you can do. Very simple. To control your attention you have to just remove your attention from this to that. Try to change your priorities, all this has to be done now, after Realization - a complete detachment.

So the body demands comfort, try to make body uncomfortable a little bit, try. What you think it to be comfortable, try to make it little uncomfortable. That's why people went to Himalayas. You see, coming to this place itself has caused us lot of problems. So going to Himalayas - you can imagine. So after Realization they used to take their body to Himalayas, "All right, go through all this. Let's see how you act." So what you call the penance side starts now. In a way, it's a penance which you can do very easily because now you are realized souls. With enjoyment, little, try to make this body. ...

So it is the ocean that is the Spirit, while your brain is limited. So the detachment from your limited brain has to be brought in. All limitations of brain should be broken so that when this ocean fills that brain it should break that little cup, and every bit of that cup should become colorful. The whole atmosphere, everything, whatever you locate, should be colorful. Color of the Spirit is the light of the Spirit and this light of the Spirit acts, works, thinks, coordinates, does everything.

This is the reason today I decided to bring Shiva Tattwa to the brain. The first procedure is to take your brain towards the Shiva Tattwa by telling it, "See where are you going, Mr. Brain? Putting attention to this, putting attention to that, getting involved! Now detach, become the brain yourself. Only the brain. Detach, Detach."

And then, take this detached brain, completely filled with the color of the Spirit. It will automatically happen. As long as you'll have these limitations to your attention, it will not happen. So one has to really, deliberately do this tapasya. Every individual. I'm with you, so you don't need any puja that way. But that state has to be achieved, and for achieving that state, you need the puja.

I hope so many of you will become the Shiva tattwas in my lifetime. But don't think I'm asking you to suffer. There is no suffering in this kind of an ascent. If you understand that this is the complete joyous state, that is the time when you become Niranand. That's the joy named in the Sahastrara, the name of the joy is Niranand, and you know your Mother's name is Nira. So you become Niranand.

H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Shivaratri Puja 1984, Pandharpur, India

Nirananda

Advice given by H.H.Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi:

I hope so many of you will become the Shiva tattwas in my lifetime. But don't think I'm asking you to suffer. There is no suffering in this kind of an ascent. If you understand that this is the complete joyous state, that is the time when you become Niranand. That's the joy named in the Sahastrara, the name of the joy is Niranand, and you know your Mother's name is Nira. So you become Niranand.
(Shivaratri Puja, Pandharpur, India, 1984)

All faces look like little, little flowers to me, holding my heart in their delicate petals. I didn't know how to control my tears, it was too much of joy. And they say, at Sahastrara one feels Nirananda. Nira is my name and the joy of nira. Today I experienced it on your faces which was reflecting in my heart, just as if the love has woven such beautiful poetry, so pure. And then Gregoire said that you are all going to meet me. I was very happy to know that we are all going to meet. ...
So now we have to realize that the Sahaja yogis have done so much, so much to channelize this Nirananda all over the world, so much. So I am very thankful to you for all that. And now we look forward to the people who are coming. They are coming here to enjoy the Nirananda and we have to see to it that we give them all that is Niranand. Niranand means just Kevalam. Kevalam. Ananda Kevalam is Nirananda. Kevalam, sheer, sheer joy, I mean nothing but joy, it's Nirananda. And this word “delight” itself is "of light," "comes out of the light" is, see, light and the joy, so much.
So this is: We are all enlightened. We are all Nirmalites and that's how you all are (in) joy. In everything that you see, you feel the joy pouring in. You can't understand how. You see something that you see everyday and there is joy.
(Talk on Nirananda, Vienna, 2/5/85)

It’s so nice to see so many of you here but a mother always has a little fear behind her mind. I hope there are not some people hiding behind the curtain in the garb of Sahaja Yogis and are going to bite sometime or are going to take away some good souls. So be careful, be watchful. Could be the jackals may be in your own mind, could be outside. We have to be careful. A day should come when nothing should disturb us, nothing should spoil us. I’m sure it will happen; all of us would be in that state, enjoying the complete bliss and emitting total joy - Niranand.
(Evening address, Guru Puja seminar, Gmunden, Austria, 5/7/86)

To enjoy Sahaja Yoga, in Niranand – absolutely without anything else but joy – then one has to know that he should give up all the myths with which he is living. All kinds of myths there are.
(Navaratri Puja 1994)