Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (born March 21, 1923) is the founder of Sahaja Yoga.

• How to do meditation, many people ask Me. Don't do anything, to just go into thoughtless awareness. Try to go to the thoughtless awareness. If you can get into that condition of thoughtless awareness you've done your job, because that's the point where you are with the truth, with the reality, with the joy, with everything that is so fundamental. When you meditate try not to, not to make some sort of a function out of it – no. Meditation is something silencing yourself, silencing your thoughts and going to that deep ocean which is within you itself. But supposing you don’t do that, if you don't meditate. I can make out immediately those who are meditating and those who are not, it's not difficult for Me. Those who do not meditate are always hesitating and they are confused, they can't understand; and that's why meditation is the most important thing in Sahaja Yoga. [Diwali Puja, 2002, Los Angeles, USA]

• Today on this day of Diwali I would say that you enlighten yourself with thoughtless awareness. It is not difficult. It's within you, because thoughts are coming from this side and that side and they are not the waves of your brain, no – just your own reactions. But in case you meditate in the real sense of the word, then you’ll get into that thoughtless awareness which is a very important point, and all these nonsensical thoughts which are of no use to you will disappear. They won't be there, and then your growth is possible and you'll grow very well. [Diwali Puja, 2002, Los Angeles, USA]

• But today is the day I declare that I am the one who has to save the humanity, I declare I am the one who is Adisakthi, who is the mother of all the mothers; who is the primordial mother; the Sakthi; the purest desire of God; who has incarnated on this earth. To give meaning to itself; to this creation; to human beings; and I am sure that through my love and patience and through my powers, I am going to achieve it. I was the one who was born again and again. But now I have come in my complete form and with complete powers. I have come on this earth, not only for salvation of human beings, not only for their emancipation, but for granting them the kingdom of heaven; the joy; the bliss that your father wants to bestow upon you. Those devotees of mine who worship me with no other thought and ever united with me, I look after not only their moksha, but their worldly well being as well. Leaving aside all worldly dharmas, surrender unto me and I will liberate thee from all sins, grieve not. http://www.tnsahaj.org/AdiSakthiByThirumoolar.htm

Attributed

• You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you.

• A star is shining within us and that is our Spirit..

• Either you lead a life which is luxurious on the material level or you lead a luxurious life of God's blessings - one of the two you have to choose, the time has come.

• The enjoyment of life is only possible if the world could get connected to the Spirit... You become the Spirit as Christ has said in simple words that you have to be born again.

• You are not this body, you are not this mind, - you are the Spirit... This is the greatest truth.

• Self realization is the first encounter with reality.

• Divinity is not a fashion. It is the way of life. It is the need of your being. You have to become that.

• Blossom time has come and many ancient seekers are today getting their self realization.

• You have to know your Spirit... For without knowing your Spirit you cannot know the truth!

• Now the stage today is to know that self realization gives you experiences and then your faith is established. Not blind but open enlightened faith.

• Self realization makes us humble... Replace temper with compassion... The more innocent you are, the more blissful you will be.

• Freedom is when you really get your own powers which are within you. In your central nervous system and in your conscious mind, you must feel the existence of the Spirit.

• Innately, within us resides the Spirit which wants to enlighten you, to give you the peace, the bliss and the joy of our being.

• Kundalini cures you, she improves you, she bestows all the blissful things upon you. She takes you away from the worries of grosser level.

• Meditation is the only way you can grow... Because when you meditate, you are in silence. You are in thoughtless awareness. Then the growth of awareness takes place.

• It's our duty to see that our children grow as great people. Greater than us. They have to look after the world. (from the book 'Education Enlightened')

• I am the Holy Ghost. I am the Adi Shakti. I am the One who has come on this Earth for the first time in this Form to do this tremendous task. The more you understand this the better it would be. You will change tremendously. I knew I'll have to say that openly one day and we have said it. But now it is you people who have to prove it that I'm that. [Sydney, Australia - March 21, 1983]

• Today is the nineteenth Sahasrara Day, if you count the day the Sahasrara was opened as the first. I have to tell you the story about the Sahasrara Day, about which it was decided long time back, before I incarnated. They had a big meeting in the heavens. All the thirty-five crores of gods, the Deities, were there present to decide what is to be done. "This is the ultimate that we have to do to human beings - to open their Sahasrara, to open their awareness to the Spirit, to the real Knowledge of the Divine, to remove the darkness of ignorance". And it had to be spontaneously because it has to work the living force of God. Also it had to be very quick. So all the Gods requested that I, the Adi Shakti, has to take the birth. They all tried their best. They did whatever was possible. The saints were made by them but very few. They incarnated and people made religions out of them which were perverted and brought them a bad name. No Reality in those religions. These religions were money oriented or power-oriented. There was no Divine Force working, actually it was all anti-divine. How to now turn human beings away from these superficial religions, these perverted paths of destruction? How to tell them about all these established organizations? For ages they have been ruling, making money, making power. It was a tremendous task; it had to be done with great patience and Love. It was very delicate work also - because they believed in those religions, innocent people, simple people - to blast them that this is all nonsense, they are not religions, they are against the Incarnations, against all the prophets, against all the saints. That's why all the real saints had to suffer. It's a powerful work that was to be done, and that's why the Adi Shakti had to take birth on this Earth. [Fregene, Italy - May 8, 1988]

• Now how can destructive powers be used for transformation ? First of all, when people know that there are destructive powers manifesting, they start fearing. They get afraid. That we'll be destroyed, so we must take to God. That's one of the ways. Secondly, if a person comes to know about any destructive disease like cancer, he wants to find out a method. And there is no method available on a human level. So then he thinks of God and wants to come nearer to God. The fear brings him closer to God. He depends on God more than on his rationality, than on his ego, or superego. And he wants to depend on God's powers to cure him or to save him from this destruction. So today we are going to pray that this force has to transform America through its capacity to frighten people so that they come to Sahaja Yoga. Because when things have reached this stage of ego, then when people say What's wrong? -Like in England when I started talking first, they said this is a Victorian woman, out of date, absolutely useless. I said "alright, I don't say anything. But you'll have such diseases that you'll have to come back". That was the time they pass the law that homosexuality should be allowed, permissiveness should be allowed, and all these things should be allowed. And now you have A.I.D.S. You have AIDS now here already operating. Now the AIDS has given the fear of the Ekadasha. Now have it ! What's wrong ! What about that ? So this awe and this fear is very important. Is an extremely important thing that you must have the awe and the fear that God is Almighty, and we are nothing before him. [17 September 1983, New York City]

• As today I told you, that it is necessary that you have to recognise me. And that recognition is fixed, that condition is fixed. I cannot change it. As Christ has already said, that 'Anything against me will be tolerated, will be forgiven, but anything against the Holy Ghost will not be'. It's a very big warning... a very big warning. [Cowley Manor Seminar, 31 July 1982]

• Those women who just are talking like men, can 'never' help in Sahaja Yoga. They have to be like this Mother Earth who allows you to do what you like with Her.... But then a time reaches where She becomes explosive, then She starts consuming people inside Herself. And when She is consuming people then you see the earthquake, droughts, this and that, all these things start coming in and people get engulfed into these problems which they blame Mother Earth for. ["Mother Earth" talk at Surbiton Ashram, 21 August 1983]

• So this Vishnumaya shows her strength. She does lots of things by which people are frightened. She can enter into any, any element, she can permeate. Supposing she enters into a water element, she can create a typhoon. She can create a, any kind of disasters, she can enter into Mother Earth and she can create a earthquake. She can do anything because she has a power to enter into anything. You know that she can enter into Mother Earth very well, she can enter into water very easily and when she gets into she becomes a catalyst and all these problems that you are facing today in America are because of left Vishuddhi, because of Vishnumaya.... So all these thundering that are coming from nature, anything, whether it is earthquake or it is landslide or it could be floods or it could be typhoon, anything is the work of this Vishnumaya or we can say all natural catastrophes are brought about by this Vishnumaya, she has this power to ... this is the only way they can shock people, but despite all that shocking people have to relate these disasters to their mistakes they have committed and have, have nicely kept it here not facing." NB: Shri Mataji claims that Vishnumaya (a Hindu Goddess) is one of her aspects. [Vishnumaya Puja, New York, 19 September 1992]

• As today I told you, that it is necessary that you have to recognise me. And that recognition is fixed, that condition is fixed. I cannot change it. As Christ has already said, that 'Anything against me will be tolerated, will be forgiven, but anything against the Holy Ghost will not be'. It's a very big warning... a very big warning. [NB: Shri Mataji claims to be the incarnation of the Holy Ghost and the mother of Christ.] ["Complete Dedication the Only Way" talk at Cowley Manor Seminar, 31 July 1982]

• Shri Ganesha punishes sometimes through earth quakes. Specially where people are fundamentalist or where people practice black magic. She mentioned the Turkey earth quake. Mother told the story of the quake in India (in Lahore ??) where there is a Ganesh festival and people have a special statue of Shri Ganesha. After the festivities, people got drunk and then they started singing all kinds of things to Shri Ganesha. After that there was the earth quake and so many of them were taken inside the earth. There is a Sahaja center there, but all around the centre the earth opened, but no Sahaja Yogi died. The center remained all right." [NB: Shri Mataji claims that Ganesha (the elephant-headed Hindu god) is both her son and one of her own divine aspects.] [Ganesha Puja, September 1999, Cabella]

• Shri Ganesha was created starting from the Earth Mother. Because of those who use black magic, who are fundamentalists or do not respect chastity, He causes earthquakes, but His understanding is such that Sahaja Yogis are not harmed. Just as each animal acts according to its nature, the human beings, who incorporates all the animals, can have behaviours unforeseeable and often very cheap. For example, in India, after a procession with a statue of Shri Ganesha, people started to drink and dance in an indecent way. An earthquake occurred, but the ashram and the yogis were saved. Ganas, who are in us, observe our bad behaviours. They leave us the possibility to be sorry, but Shri Ganesha severely strikes those who want to dislodge Him. [NB: Ganas are soldiers in the divine realm.] ["Through His Innocence, His Softness, He Changes People", translated from the 9 October 1999 issue of the Sahaja Yoga newsletter of France]

Quotes from Meta Modern Era: p. 145 top "Even small children [in the West] want to read pornographic magazines because they want to have knowledge of the great science of sex. This is the result of curiosity created by schools giving sex education openly."

p. 148 middle "If sex education is given openly it becomes a subject which children discuss and want to know from each other. They have no other topic but sex. Their innocences [sic] is lost completely."

p.p. 164-165 "Some frightened French Sahaja Yogis wanted to save their children from the immoral society of France and they send very few to our school of Sahaja Yoga, where children from all over the world come. But the Catholic Church had a blind folded [sic] organisation [sic] called ADFi [sic] who gave two [sic] much trouble for one boy that the school has no French children. They were afraid these children might become moral and maybe absolutely misfit in the Catholic traditions."

p. 202 bottom "Sex education in an open class room [sic] has the effect of exciting the children and inducing them to experiment with sex at a very early age. ... the children lose their sense of shame about sex which is an exceedingly private matter."

p. 205 bottom "I have found out that one of the causes of psychosomatic diseases like cancer, is the built-in fear children imbibe in their childhood."

p. 207 bottom "Children should be encouraged to read good books written by great and noble men of the whole world, not only of their own country. They should develop a great liking for books which are biographies and autobiographies, rather than science-fiction which is imaginary or some sort of a warmonger's life story."

Quotes from Puja speeches: On Shri Mataji's 60th birthday she offered humanity the following: "Bhoots can sometimes only go away with slapping. I have seen especially with children it happens. Two slaps on the face and they're all right. [Bhoots refers to evil spirits. The the bad behaviour of children in Sahaja Yoga is often attributed to possession by evil spirits.]

• Today is such a joyous day for me because we have children and we are dealing with children, most of them are born-realised, they are of a very special category, I've told you many a times. But we spoil them because we were not born-realised, so we don't know how to handle these special children, we spoil them. Not only we spoil them but we interfere with the school, we interfere with this, as if we are the wisest parents. Because we are SYogis we have to be much more sensible than other parents. How can you interfere with any school anywhere? But in SYoga you will! It is because there is no wisdom and no understanding of what is good and benevolent for your child. If you love your child then you must think of its benevolence. You must learn from the experience what happens to children if they are left like that. You cannot spoil your child, you cannot. Because its a special category of children they are. They are not children who can become vagabonds, they cannot become thieves. So you'll make them something funny they are neither here not there, they are born realised and they have to be channelised properly to achieve their complete manifestation of their spirit. So the possessiveness, and the stupid attachment to children must be given-up. There is no force on you , if you want to destroy your child you can destroy. But in an advice. If you are Ganeshas you would have understood it, I don't have to explain so much. What is good for your child, because we have to have beautiful children. They are born beautiful children, I tell you, if they are spoiled is because of you, you have spoiled them. You have ruined them. You are responsible. I know of many of so many children, they are very very sweet, I have conference with them also, and I find them much more congenial, I have a much better report that I can have with you: They never argue, never, they never say no, and they have very good information about all of you. [Shri Ganesha Puja in Cabella 15.9.91]

• They are realised souls, there is God who is looking after them, why are you so much worried about them? Leave them alone! Send them to the Indian school. Then the mothers are sitting there, teachers don't like it, no one likes it. They are just gone there. The mothers. No school allows such nonsense! But in SYoga they think they have the right. What right have they got? Have they paid for the school? Have they done anything for the school? What right have they got to go and sit in the school? So the discretion should be, we have to bring up our children according to Sahaj culture. The first of the principles of SYoga is fortitude. Sahaja Yoga is not meant for such: .... dainty darlings. You have to be soldiers of SYoga. Your children have to be the soldiers of SYoga. Not the dainty darlings, it's not meant for them. Though they are born realised you are ruining them by making them dainty darlings. You have to rough it out, you have to make them sturdy, you have to give them self-respect, you have to give them dignity and fortitude, forebearance. [Hamsa Puja, New York, 28.4.91]

Quotes from Puja speeches:

Hamsa Puja, New York, 28.4.91: "The woman has to be a Gruha Lakshmi and husband has not to be a Romeo, but a husband. He has to see how his wife behaves, correct her, that is his job, his duty."

"To test you she may marry you to funny people also. This testing has to be done. That's the job of a Mahamaya. She has to test you. Gold has to be tested. The diamond has to be tested. All that is valuable has to be tested. Without that how can you certify. It's not like going to the church. Somebody puts the water on your head, all right, now you are baptised, finished, now you are chosen."

"England when we went first we were shocked ! They had no shame about this, they said, I'm already divorced thrice and this is the fourth woman I'm living with. So shocking for us. Oh God ! To us a divorce means worse than leprosis ! Why are you divorced ? What's the problem ? How can you be divorced ? Such an auspicious thing is the marriage ! How can you do it, is such a big fall ! And that's how it works out."

Quotes from Meta Modern Era: p. 61 para. 2 "The original idea of homosexuality might have by some coincidence, where some man must have been misidentified for a woman by another man, as in the comedy Charlie's Aunt."

Quotes from Puja speeches: Ekadesha Rudra Puja 17th September 1983, New York City "...Now how can destructive powers be used for transformation ? First of all, when people know that there are destructive powers manifesting, they start fearing. They get afraid. That we'll be destroyed, so we must take to God. That's one of the ways. Secondly, if a person comes to know about any destructive disease like cancer, he wants to find out a method. And there is no method available on a human level. So then he thinks of God and wants to come nearer to God. The fear brings him closer to God. He depends on God more than on his rationality, than on his ego, or superego. And he wants to depend on God's powers to cure him or to save him from this destruction...

...So today we are going to pray that this force has to transform America through its capacity to frighten people so that they come to Sahaja Yoga. Because when things have reached this stage of ego, then when people say What's wrong? Like in England when I started talking first, they said this is Victorian woman, out of date, absolutely useless. I said alright, I don't say anything. But you'll have such diseases that you'll have to come back. That was the time they pass the law that homosexuality should be allowed, permissiveness should be allowed, and all these things should be allowed. And now you have AIDS. You have AIDS now here already operating. Now the AIDS has given the fear of the Ekadasha. Now have it ! What's wrong ! What about that ? So this awe and this fear is very important. Is an extremely important thing that you must have the awe and the fear that God is Almighty, and we are nothing before him..."

Quotes from Meta Modern Era: Shri Mataji's proposal for a new world order, p. 228-230 "Americans are not the right people to dominate the world, because they are very immature and very sex-oriented. We have to have another higher house for the U.N." "... If persons of high eminence, integrity, wisdom, character and intellect are elected to the proposed new high body to direct and guide the entire United Nations system, the people of the world may have a new chance of seeing the world governed by righteousness and dharma and not by narrow selfishness, greed and immorality. ... Such a high body which we may call the Supreme Council, will not be dominated by any one country, not even by America. ...what one sees in America now is that people need to become mature, and this maturity will only come if they take to Sahaja Yoga and not to some sort of evangelists or false gurus." "We cannot say with certainty that this Supreme Council which will be created to control the U.N. will be absolutely perfect. First of all, they will not be paid very highly, but an honorarium would be given and they may try to do something which is not honest if they are by any chance, money-oriented.

So the only conclusion one can reach is that this Supreme Council should be constituted by the election only of excellent Sahaja Yogis. They have all the requisite qualities in abundance - they are selfless, they are compassionate, they are devoted to public interest without the slightest bias on grounds of race, religion or nationality. They will thus always make sound and proper decisions. Most importantly, the Supreme Court [Council?] consisting of Sahaja Yogis, will spread the message of Sahaja Yoga throughout the world not merely by words but by deeds which will inspire all the people and thus ensure a new peaceful and just world order.

Sahaja Yoga is thus the only solution to world problems because it will ensure the transformation of all human beings and thus create a new highly evolved human race."

Quotes from Puja speeches: "Your newspapers are also really very heavy and very little news. But I've been watching it, I've been reading about it, trying to understand the politics and this and that, because I think it's quite complicated. In India they have already started one Sahaja Yoga political party. But it's not Sahaja Yoga. I told them not to take Sahaja Yoga's name. But Sahaja Yogis. They call it Satya Marga, meaning the path of truth, and two Sahaja Yogis are contesting elections. Only they are Sahaja Yogis, but I said don't take My name or take the name of Sahaja Yoga. We have to be careful about the name of Sahaja Yoga. Very important