In Sahaja Yoga the Guru Puja has a very different significant from any other Guru Puja. When
you worship your Guru, you are also worshiping the Guru within you. This is not in any other Gurudisciple system, because in you, the Guru, the master has been awakened. And so, when you are
worshiping your Guru, then this master within you is also worshipped, you respect it, you glorify it,
you awaken it, and you manifest it. This, we have to realize that in Sahaja Yoga, if you are a Sahaja
Yogi.
Now, the quality of Guru first and foremost is that he makes you meet God, means he raises the
Kundalini and establish the relation between the All Pervading Power, and as your Guru is Adi Shakti,
you make that person meet also the Adi Shakti. So you have a double advantage, that at the same time,
when you give them Realization, not only that you make them feel the union with the Divine Power,
but you can make them meet the Divinity Itself, the source of Divine Power. So your responsibility as
Sahaja Yogis is very great, because in you is - there is the Guru. Now in our mantras we say that,
“Mother, I am my own Guru”.
But saying that, do we realize that, “If I am my own Guru,” this “I” and “my Guru,” between the
two, “What have I achieved? Where am I? Can I guide myself? Have I got the light of the Spirit on my
attention so well- established and manifested that I can guide myself and guide others later on?” First
of all, in the Guru principle it is important that you see to yourself the introspection:
“Can I be my ownGuru? Have I become my own Guru?”
Guru's work is to establish the dharma - in the society, in the family, in relationships. All these Gurus,
which are representing all these great symbols here, have done nothing but have established dharma.
But first of all, before establishing the dharma, we should watch ourselves, “Have we got dharma
within ourselves or not?”
Now, for a Guru as you have seen that in My own way, in My own image you have to come up.
First of all your life should be absolutely transparent. Transparency is the essence of Sahaja Yoga.
Everybody should know what you are doing, where you are going, what is the way you live, what is
the way you are behaving. I have seen people, who are Gurus, also in the sense that we call them
leaders, or we can call them sub-Gurus, or they cannot be called as priest, but I can say communication
centers as they are. In them you find that they are very fussy type of people. Always think about their
body, always think about their comfort, always grudge about what's - nobody looked after them, as if
they suffer from persecution-mania. Or they will grudge about food, “
I didn't eat my food for one
day.” Doesn't matter. For a Guru it's better to starve for about three, four days nicely, so that you get
over this idea of hunger. You'll be surprised since I'm here I have not eaten anything much, just
drinking something because just the Guru has no hunger, because it is in your stomach the Guru -
vibrations are so much that you don't feel like eating anything. So, then what do you eat and how do
you eat and all these things that we have given up to come to Sahaja Yoga. So even if leaders have this
nonsense in their head, “What do you get to eat,” I mean, this is the basics, absolutely, and when I hear
some people telling Me, “Oh, what did they eat and how did they eat” and all, it's like I feel they are
like tourists in Sahaja Yoga. Just come in Sahaja Yoga like tourists, you see, to see places and go round
and to know where you get, in what restaurant you get good food and cheaply.
So, this is a one big ordeal, which we do not understand, how much we are attached to food and
food goes in the stomach. And not only that it spoils our Guru system, but also spoils our physical
system. So we should try not to look at food. That's why fasting was told to the all the people who
wanted to develop their Gurupada, so that they should not fast. But they do not fast normally because
they think of food, so there's no fasting.
I mean, fasting means that you go into nirvichara and don't
think of food, but they are all the time thinking of food, so it has no meaning and you are just the same
whether you eat it or not, your mind is eating it all the time. Then you start thinking, “When will I end
my fast and know where will I go to have what?”
So this is a very basic thing that we should get rid of our habits, of our conditionings, “What we
are going to have and what food we are going to have.” Our children also should be given a proper
training about it that it's all right, sometimes there is no salt, sometimes there's no sugar, doesn't
matter. And sometimes there's nothing, doesn't matter, nothing important for a Sahaja Yogi, you can
live without food for days together, no problem
If you see the lives of all these Gurus, they were married, they had children, they lived a normal
life. But in their own personal life they were absolutely detached people. So first detachment should
come from food. And there whatever you like you just don't eat. That's the best way, because already
because of liking something. Supposing if somebody's fond of ice-cream. He must have already
spoiled his liver, so they give up. If you like pasta, give up pasta. If you like something else, just give
up, don't ask for it and don't eat it at all so that you see your mind will get little bit detached from it. It's
very easy to achieve this detachment, I think, if you work it out in a sensible way. Just try to punish
your body. You see,
if you are your Guru, you better take hold of first of all your body and yourconditionings. You have to treat your body with this thing. I am told many girls who have married
abroad are still making their Indian food and eating this, horrible it is. They should starve. If they
starve for say about five-six days or maybe eight days, then they'll eat any food in any case. That's why
the fasting is given.
So one should adjust oneself to any kind of food you can have.
Now the second part is for the body you need comforts. I must congratulate the Western Sahaja
Yogis that they may be coming from any walk of life, I must say, the Indians have to learn from them.
They may be coming from any position or status. All of them enjoy the comfort of the Spirit when they
travel in the Tour. They do not ask for, “ Why I haven't got a chair, I haven't got a bed, I haven't got a
proper things.” In this way you see you will realize that the body comfort is of no importance. It's we
have just spoilt our body, there's no need, no need. Body you put it anywhere will sleep in any case. If
you cannot sleep for two nights, all right, put on some music for one night or two nights as we had
here, you will sleep anyway.
So this is the second point is that we have to give up body comfort
So this also should go from your head that anything antique is something good. It's a - it's a very
superficial value if you see to it. Because people I have seen think that antique is something
expensive. It's just a marketing style that people have felt that this is expensive, that is expensive, so
it's something great, to wear something stupid and to say that this is antique jewelry and go about. I
mean, God knows how many people must have used it and must have worn it and what must be the
feelings of that person. So we have to understand that this conditioning that we have in our heads, that
we must have something antiques with us, keep something of such value. I mean, these questions
never arose before, so it's not written in any books. Anyone of the books of the Gurus is not written
that, “Don't care for antiques.” They have written, “
Don't smoke”, do not drink, all other things which
spoils your Nabhi. They've written all these things. But they have not written that, “Don't worry about
antiques so much.” You see, and I find that's a craze nowadays and so we have to tell people that we
have to be careful. Moreover I feel the way people have gone to drugs and that, maybe that because
they used so much antiques that the bhoots from the antiques must have caught. Can't understand that
why people are so melancholy, all the time crying, weeping, and all that.
So the conditionings of these matter as we think it to be is to be absolutely taken out.
reference-Guru Pooja Talk by Mataji on 8th July 1990 at Avignon, France.
