Shri Buddha Puja. Shudy Camps, near Cambridge (England). 31 May 1992. Today we have assembled here to do Shri Buddha Puja. I don't know how many of you have read of Buddha's life, and how ultimately He achieved His enlightenment. I don't know how many of you have really seen the Buddhists or have met them, those who call themselves Buddhist. As in every religion, all of them got lost into some sort of a fundamentalism, because none of them got realisation. And that's why everybody established their own style of religion, even you can say that Tao of Lao Tse also, or Zen of Bodhidharma, all of them are off-shoots of the same. We have to see how He first felt that one has to seek something beyond life, once we are very much satisfied with whatever we have. Because He was a king's son, He had a very nice wife, He had a son, and naturally anybody in that position would be quite satisfied. But He saw a very sick man one day, He saw a beggar and also He saw a dead man, and everybody crying for that dead person. He couldn't understand how this misery has come and what is the need to have this misery. So He gave up His family, He gave up His luxuries of life, everything He gave up and went in search of the truth, as many of you have done. He would have been lost also, I would say, because He read all the Upanishadas, and He read all the books that were possible for Him to say what is the truth is. But He couldn't get anything. He took a complete sanyasa in the sense, as far as the food is concerned, as far as entertainment is concerned, everything He gave up. And ultimately He was lying under a banyan tree and suddenly the Adi Shakti gave Him realisation, because He was so true and was one of the one marked for a special place in the Virata. He had to achieve that. Of course, I need not tell you about His previous lives, perhaps in so many of My lectures I have already talked about it, what was His previous life and how He achieved His own enlightenment about Himself. But what we have to see from His life is that He discovered and He found out that want is the reason, the desire is the reason of all the miseries. But He didn't know what was the real want, what was the pure want, what was the pure desire. And that's how He could not explain to people that they have to take to their awakening through their Kundalini. As He had followed such a ascetic life, that became the code for the Buddhists. The other day I was reading about Buddha when I was in Thailand, and I was surprised that the bhikshus – that means, the bhikshu is, actually in Sanskrit it means bhikshus, means the one who asks for alms, or a beggar you can call it, but religious beggar. So He used to carry thousands of people with Him, at least minimum of thousand – bare feet, without any provision for food, without any arrangements for stay, nothing – and they were supposed to shave off their heads completely, no moustaches, no hair on the body at all. And moreover, they were supposed to wear only one dress, one long dress they had to tie up like this and cover themselves, whether it was cold season or it was a warm season, whatever it was. They were not allowed to sing or to dance, or to entertain themselves by anything. And food was just collected from the village, whatever they visited, whatever they got, very minimum. Whatever they got, that was cooked for them, and they would offer their guru first and then eat that food. Imagine, thousand people going like that, bare feet, in the scorching heat or in the mud, or in rain, in all season they used to walk, giving up all their family relationships. Even if the husband and wife, both of them joined the sangha, then they were not supposed to live like husband and wife. So to give up all other physical wants, mental wants, emotional wants was the way they tried to follow, because He said the want creates it. But if you see the Buddhists, they do all these things. You’ll be amazed, even if he is a king he does that. And many kings who joined at that time –one of them was Ashok, from India – he dressed up like that, he became like that, he started travelling in the same manner and tried to lead a complete ascetic life. Very difficult life it was, and they thought that by doing all that they will achieve their realisation. They say that two of His disciples did achieve, their names are Moggallana and Sariputta. These two people got their realisation. But the whole thing was absolutely a life dry and insipid; it had no fun in it. No children were allowed, no family life was allowed. So it became a very secluded, very harsh, I can say, very dry life. Though it was called as a sangha, means the collectivity; but in that collectivity there was no rapport as such because they were not supposed to talk too much, they were not supposed to discuss anything about, say, politics or economics or anything. Only they could talk about meditation, of achieving the highest life. So you can imagine what sort of life they had to lead to become enlightened, and that idea continued in so many religions. Specially, it then started making people take away the money of the householders by saying that you have to give up everything. Of course, at the time of Buddha also they had to give up everything and join the sangha; but here it was a genuine effort of Buddha to take them to enlightenment, to make them people who were knowledgeable about the absolute realities. But did not happen, and that is the reason why we find that Buddhists have gone into different types of funny Buddhism. For example, now we have some Buddhism, say, in Japan, where it was not allowed to kill any animal. So they said, “All right, we are not killing any animal but we can eat killed animals,” you see. They found out a solution out of that. Then also, then they can, they could kill human beings, because “it’s not allowed to kill animals, but we can kill human beings.” So Japanese become experts in killing human beings, you see. How people find out loopholes, you can see this very clearly. Then the second type of Buddhism came, where this Lao Tse taught about Tao. But Tao actually is – He’s the only one who started talking about Kundalini. Tao is the Kundalini. But that, too, was too much for these people. They just couldn't understand what He was talking about. But the way He expressed Himself in paintings and other things, just to deviate from that kind of a harsh Buddhism. But somehow, despite that, it never took proper roots; and I have met people who follow Tao and absolutely don't understand how these people are following the path of Kundalini. There's a river called Yangtze by which, when you travel, you find variety of things. After every five minutes the scene changes, all the beautiful mountains take another form, and you have lots of waterfalls, and it’s very interesting. That is the Kundalini. Tao is that river. But it’s said that you should not divert your attention to these temptations which are outside. You should see them, but move. And that is what is Tao, which He brought in. But they got lost because they started painting all those things and doing all kinds of, more into art. Basically, Buddha never thought of any art, He never wanted to have any art, and He didn't want to do anything with art. He said, “Only thing is that you have to introspect and go within and deep down, and find out what is the absolute truth.” So the whole thing started deviating like this. Then this Zen system was the same as mixed up with kundalini, which Viditama, one of His great disciples, who started in Japan. Now the Zen system is that they used to put – I mean, I sometimes hit also on the back of the, what you call the spinal cord, on the charkas - and they would try to raise the kundalini. All kinds of horrible things, in the Zen system they developed very harsh methods of raising the kundalini. It went to such a limit that I have met people who have broken their spinal cords. Then kundalini will never rise in any case, if the spinal cord- [Shri Mataji to someone on Her right hand side:] Please pay attention here. One lady walks out, then attention goes out. I mean, if your attention is so poor ! Please pay attention here, do you understand that? If one person walks out your attention should not go; and please don’t come inside to disturb. You see, the trouble is we must understand that our attention has to be steady. Any lady walks out, if your attention moves out, then understand that you have to meditate more. Please keep the attention. So now, then this Viditama Zen also took a very different form. I met with the head of the Viditama Zen system, and I was surprised because – they called Me because he was very sick, so they said: “Mother, please help him to cure.” But I found he was not at all a Realized soul and did not know a word about kundalini. So I said, “How are you the head? How is it that you have become the head when you do not know the meaning of kundalini?” So he said: “What is kundalini?” He couldn’t understand anything. I said : “What is Zen?” “Zen is to meditate, dhyana.” I said, “All right, but what about it?” “Yes, yes, there is.” I mean, so confused he was. Then I asked him, “You are not a Realized soul, then how is it you are the head?” He said, “We never had any Realized soul for, now, ages. Only for six centuries we had some kashyapas” – they call them kashyapas – “and after that we had no Realized souls at all.” So just think, under what circumstances you got your Realization. Without sacrificing anything, without giving up anything, without working out any one of these tapasyas – penances. Because Buddha is the tapah. These three deities on your Agnya Chakra: Christ, Mahavira and Buddha, three of them are tapah. “Tapah” means penance. You have to do penance. And penance now in Sahaja Yoga doesn’t mean that you give up your wife or give up your husband, give up your children, give up your family; but here tapah means meditation. And for meditation, you must know when to get up, that should be the most important thing for a Sahaja Yogi. The rest of the thing automatically will work out, and you’ll understand: to grow your depth you have to meditate, is a absolutely simple thing. You don’t have to shave your head, you don’t have to starve yourself, you don’t have to walk bare feet. You can sing, you can dance; I mean, you can entertain yourself with music. There you are not even allowed to see a drama or a play or anything like that. I mean, so many things, if you see the list you’d go really crazy: how could people exist? But there were thousand peoples with Him who were traveling with Him, and they became so poor, they were just wearing rags. Ultimately, a big trader was passing by and he saw them and he thought, “What poor people these are, just beggars. God knows, they are lepers or what are they?” And he had a great feeling for them. And he gave them some food to eat and everything, and still he did not know that it was the Tagata – means it was Buddha who was going. So the Buddha's main thing – “buddha” itself means “bodh”, from “bodh.” And the “bodh” means, “to know the reality on your central nervous system” is the bodh. You all have become now buddhas without giving up anything, because whatever He gave up was all nonsense. It was a myth. If it was a myth, what's the use of giving up the myth? What does it matter if you listen to music, what does it matter if you dance? It doesn't matter at all. But these ideas went so deep into these people that you really feel such pity and such compassion, that “look at them, where are they getting lost?” They don't eat their food, they have their food only once in a while and they are starving, they look like really worse than TB patients. But while you people look like really roses, beautifully all of you are enjoying life and everything is there. But still one has to know that we have to have that principle of Buddha within ourselves. And what is that principle of Buddha is that we have to do tapah. Tapah doesn't mean, I don't say you starve yourself. But also if you have too much interest in food, is better to take to little fasting. I never said that you should not enjoy music, never. No question – you should. But then you should enjoy music which is for your emancipation, for your awakening, for your ascent. I don't say “don't do” because yourself now, you are a buddha. Buddha was not to be told anything. He told everyone, but He was not to be told. In the same way, I don't have to tell you. It is only you have to understand. But sometimes we are really bound by so many conditionings that I find very difficult for people to understand what is the spirit. Spirit is boundless. It is a free expression of God's love. So when it comes to the free expression of God's love, the compassion, the love, then one has to understand, do we do that or not? Even now there are many conditionings which are still working in us. For example, some of you are like this that “I belong to this nationality, to that nationality. I am this, I am that.” We are very proud of that. We cannot mix up with other people, we are too high for the other people – or something like that. You are now become a universal being; so you, how can you have these stupid limitations which are mythical again? So one must see, introspect and find out if you are having- [What’s the matter with her? Take her away.] Also with your children you must see, you see, very important how they behave, if they are aggressive or how they behave. Is very important because they are also buddhas, they are also Realised souls. But they have certain conditionings in them, and they are behaving according to those conditioning. Now as it is, we can see there is light within us. What happens, that we start seeing what's wrong with us and we just drop it out. But even when you see that, if you cannot drop it out then must know that you need more of power. Then you must learn how to raise your Kundalini, how to be connected with the divine Power all the time, so that you are in thoughtless awareness and that you grow within yourself inner depth. I find the conditioning that is very much lurking still is “my and mine” in, still in Sahaja Yogis. Like before this what I had heard about, say, English or all Western people – because I am talking to the Western people here – that they didn't care for their family, their wives, their children; every third day they were divorcing, or fourth day they are running off with some other husbands or something like that. Now I find they stick like glue. Wife becomes very important, husband becomes very important, “my house” becomes very important, “my children” become very important; and first they were not interested in children, now they are sticking onto children like as if with some glue. It's impossible for them, to tell that “See, children belong to the sangha, to the collectivity.” You don't think this is your child. Once you start thinking like that, then you are limiting yourself and getting into problems. The country-wise also, the problems are reducing very much, I should say. Also we are, we don't like to be racist. I know people hate those who are racist, they want racialism to go away. As in India I’ve seen Sahaja yogis want all the caste system must go away, because these are self-destructive. So we start seeing in ourselves what is self-destructive: what will destroy me, then what will destroy my family, then what will destroy my country, and what will destroy the whole world. All these ventures which are just the opposite of your constructive life, you start seeing. You see your derailment, you see you are going towards destruction, and you can stop it. And that is very important – only possible if you try to introspect yourself and meditate, and see: have I got this quality? Some of them are very proud of their certain temperaments, like “I am like this; what to do, Mother? I am like this.” No more! Now all your beautiful qualities have been awakened by your Kundalini. Shows that nothing was dead, nothing was finished, they were all there intact; and when the Kundalini started rising, she just awakened all those beautiful qualities. Apart from that, in the Guru Puja I'll tell you what all has happened. Of course, you must have seen in Sahastrara Puja I told you about yourself, that what you have achieved – you have no idea as to what powers you have got. But in Guru Puja I'll definitely tell you what is the thing that is Sahaja Yoga. It's one of the most precious thing that a human being should have known long time back. It is not only talking about God, it is not only saying there's divinity within you, but the effectiveness of that. So you don't need any science – you have any problem: all right, give a bandhan, finished. So simple! If you want anything just give a bandhan, it’s finished. You want to give realisation, you raise that; that’s Kundalini is raised. Everything that you can do with science, you can do with Sahaja Yoga. We are also computers. Sometimes I say something – say, “Mother, how do You know?” I say, “I am a computer, no doubt.” But you all are computers, only thing you have to develop your depth. Now you are on the right lines, so we don't need this science which can destroy all of us. Everything can be done through Sahaja Yoga. And this is what I'll explain to you in Guru Puja, how you become so capable. So please have self-esteem. You must have self-esteem and understand that you are a Sahaja yogi now. First and foremost you are a Sahaja yogi, and as Sahaja yogi you have to achieve that state where you become absolutely capable of doing whatever science can do, whatever anybody could do. This is the real siddhi, means you become a embodiment of all the powers. There's some people who come and tell Me, “Mother, we can’t open our heart.” I mean, I don't say you have an open heart surgery! But “to open my heart” means just see what's wrong with you. Can't you feel compassion? But I’ve seen people having an open heart for a dog or for a cat, but they don't have open heart for their children sometimes. Now, how can you not have open heart in Sahaja Yoga? That's the first place where the spirit exists and it emits its light, and when it emits its light that's the first place where you see the life of a person who is full of love. So how can it be, there is this problem that “I can't open my heart”? This must be coming because you have only ego but no self-esteem. So, Buddha is the one who is the killer of ego. He's the killer of ego. He is, as you have seen it, He is moving on your Pingala Nadi and comes and then settles down on this side, the left side. He's the one who is the controller of our ego, and how He has tried to compensate this right side. First of all, you must have seen the laughing Buddha. He’s very fat; and a person who’s right-sided is very thin. He’s never laughing, never smiles even – even if you tickle, he may not! So they have shown Buddha as a person, and He'll have many children sitting on His stomach, all over His body and everywhere, and He’ll be laughing. So just see how they have shown the compensation of Buddha, the one who is the controller of our right side. So, how He controls our right side, just laughs out of it. He makes fun of Himself, He makes fun of everything, anything they see. For example now, as He said, “Don't see any drama.” All right. I say, “You see every drama.” But in that you see with your enlightened consciousness, you can see the stupidity of it and enjoy the stupidity. For example, this Elisabeth lady was married eight times, or something – nine, I don't know how many times she was married, I’ve lost count. So these stupid people went there – three, four thousand, imagine, more than you people – and were standing around, and there were helicopters who were sending parachutes, you see, down and everybody was so much enamored. And the parachuters were falling on the trees, sometimes falling on the people. And it was all in the newspaper, a big news for these Americans, you see. So you should see the stupidity of that. If you could see the stupidity, then it's all right. But if you become one of those spectators and think that “Oh, what a thing is the – what a luck that I have been able to see this lady” – such an inauspicious person – “going for her honeymoon,” you see. Then, you see, anything you see: now, say, I went to Rio and I, they showed Me the way they are having carnival – My God, I felt like vomiting, it’s so repulsive. So how you react to thing depends on your attention – buddha chitta, means the one which is enlightened attention – how you react. Of course, if it is something divine then you have a rapt attention. Absolutely you won't put your attention in there. To you it does not matter, whatever may happen in the whole world; a complete attention on that. But if it is something stupid you can see the essence of it, if it is something humorous you can see the essence of it. So what happens with that attention that you see to the essence of the whole thing, related to reality: compared to reality, it is stupid. In the light of reality, it is stupid. It can be mythical, it could be false, it could be hypocritical; all kinds of things which are not reality. But if you are a Sahaja yogi, you should be able to see that point and enjoy. I've seen children do that very easily and they understand up to a certain age, then I don't know what happens to them. But, say, when I had My children, they used to go to see a Ramlila, you see. Very small they were, they were school-care students. Every day they would go with our servant to see. All the servants would have a Ramlila and they would go and see, and they would come back and tell Me all the fun about it. And they said, “Today Dasarath and his wife, you see, had such a fight, and suddenly we discovered both were men in that fight, you know! They were fighting each other.” Something like that, and every time they used to tell Me the fun of it. But My servant said, “Look at our ...” – this “baby” they call them – “the babies. See how they were enjoying! All the time they were laughing, they were so enjoying this Ramlila as we were enjoying.” You see, see the difference? These girls were laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, while this fellow was thinking that they were really enjoying it and all that whole thing. So this is the understanding. Same thing when you see what is your reaction. That depends on your chitta, on your attention which is enlightened. An enlightened attention reacts in a very different manner than a stupid attention or a confused attention, or the attention which is full of negativity. So, one has to judge how you react. Like I saw one funny punk fellow coming to Me, and I said, “Why do you do like this?” So one Sahaja yogi said, “Mother, You shouldn't say like that.” I said, “Why?” “You see, after all, that’s his religion.” I said, “Really, this is his religion?” So the fellow says, “What's wrong?” I said, “Wrong is that you have no identity. You have no self-esteem, that's why you try to paint yourself and try to show that you are this and you are that, which you are not. Why don't you become what you are?” And that fellow became a Sahaja yogi later. And this is what we have to see, that we have to accept what we are, and we are the spirit. If we are the spirit, then we have to live and enjoy and do whatever is necessary. But there are four things which Buddha has said very nicely, which all of you should say every morning, I think, to understand. So first He says, “Buddham sharanam gacchami” – “I surrender myself to Buddha”: means “I surrender myself to my awakened attention, to my awakened consciousness. Buddham sharanam gacchami.” Is very important to know that He said it again and again. Then He said, “Dhammam sharanam gacchami.” That is, “I surrender myself to my dharma.” Dharma is not what is outside – these religions which are mythical and which are gone into some sort of a perversions – but the religion within myself, the innate religion. I surrender myself to that: which is righteousness, which you know very well what are the real things within us, which gives us all the value system. Then the third thing He has said, "Sangham sharanam gacchami." “I surrender myself to collective.” You have to meet. I’m trying My level best to get some place where you can all meet, even in the name of a picnic or anything, at least once a month. “Sangham sharanam gacchami” is very important, because then you’ll know that you are part and parcel of the whole; that a microcosm has become the macrocosm; that you are a part and parcel of the Virat – that you become aware of it. And that is how things work out very fast, that is how we help each other. That is how we discover a person who is negative, that's how we discover who is not. We discover a person who is egoist, who is not egoist. That's how we discover the people who are not at all Sahaja yogis, claim themselves to be Sahaja yogis, and we just give them up, we understand. Without coming to the collective, without being collective, you can never understand the value of collectivity. It is so great. It gives you so many powers, it gives you so much satisfaction and joy that one must in Sahaja Yoga first pay attention to collectivity. Even supposing there's something missing, doesn't matter; you just become collective. While coming to collective you don't have to criticise others, you don't have to call names of others, you don't find faults with them. But you introspect yourself and know that “Why, when everybody is enjoying themselves, why am I the one sitting down and trying to find faults? Must be something wrong with me.” If you can just pay attention to yourself as far as the defects are concerned, then I am sure you will become much more collective than when you start seeing the defects in other people. And no use, I mean no use seeing. Supposing I have a spot on My sari, I better clean it. But if you have a spot on your sari, what's the use of looking at it? I cannot clean it; you have to do it yourself. Is a simple thing, it’s a very practical thing, and this kind of a practical ... (Can you hear Me, all of you?) It’s such a practical thing has to be done to understand that Sahaja Yoga is the most practical, is the most practical, because it is absolute reality. So with all these powers, with all these understandings, with all this compassionate love, you have to be sure about yourself, and know that you are all the time protected, guided, looked after, nourished, and helped to grow by this divine Power, which is all-pervading. May God bless you all. (Please, can you send somebody? They would like to come; they must be ready by now.) H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi