Please enjoy the following extract of a Sahaja Yoga talk by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, which took place in Birmingham on the 9th July 1982:
Say, at a stage when Moses came on this earth, when the desperation was different, that they wanted to get out of slavery, it was a different style of understanding they had. How to organize a society on a particular pattern so you achieve the maximum amount of efficiency out of that society. And it was an emergency. It was a very touch and go position for the Jews at that time.
It has happened in many countries, in many generations, that they reached a state where they felt extremely desperate. The slavery of man was very apparent at that time. But before that, people didn’t feel bad about the slavery. They had accepted it. They had taken it for granted and then a time came when they felt, “this is slavery, and we are not going to have any more of it.” And a leader came, that leader worked it out for them.
Today in these modern times, we have a very subtle type of slavery which is every day eating us, which is so self-destroying that we are not even aware of it, and we get destroyed. This destruction is working in so many ways, that if we do not really awaken ourselves to the truth, there is a possibility that nothing will be left out of this creation.
There are people who give big lectures. I have met many big people from United Nations and from all these big, big agencies. They talk about the coming destruction, the future shock and this going to happen, they book, big books. They discuss. They sit on the street, they’ll discuss. They are in a pub, they are discussing. They are in a party, they are discussing. But they do not realize what it means. This destruction is a kind of a destruction that has never taken before. Because this destruction is going to come from within and not from without. We have reached a certain depth in our awareness and if we do not touch the source of our sustenance, this destruction is going to work out.
Now for many people it is, “Oh forget it, forget it, we’ll see about it.” Some people are of this opinion, “All right forget it, what destruction? All right doesn’t matter, we’ll see tomorrow.” And some of them I’ve seen are sitting down waiting, “Oh God, thank God there’s destruction, so this all is finished. Ha! We don’t have to bother our heads. Thank God there is destruction promised.”
Whatever attitude one may take, one has to realize that these are very serious things. The creation has reached its maximum growth now. The growth is expressed as human beings. These human beings are the actors on the stage. Whole nature is working out this new happening. Now only one thing has to happen to you, is that you have to get connected with the Divine. You have to get connected with the whole. You have to know your own meaning and you have to know your purpose. If this can happen to you, then you are in the other world.
You are made for this. You are made a human being with a purpose. We must think, all the scientists must ask once at least this question: why? Why are we made human beings? From animal stage, why have we come to this stage, what is the reason? This question is working in the unconscious of every seeker today, that’s how we have so many seekers all over the world. And these seekers are just trying to find out why are we here. Some of them find an answer sometimes in some material well-being. Say our strikes nowadays. Railways. Well it’s very narrow view of the whole thing, very narrow view. You want to have more pay, all right, have it, then what?Those who talk of Communism, I’ve been to Moscow, I am again going back. I mean if you ask them they say, “Oh we haven’t got joy as yet.” I am not against Communism or against Democracy. Both things are just jokes to me. You are neither communistic nor democratic. Only after Realization you can become both simultaneously, because you have no powers to be capitalistic or democratic, you have no power to vote. You don’t know anything about yourself. What are you voting for? You can’t see. Unless and until there is light, unless and until we can see, how are we going to vote for?
For example we vote a person, for what? “Oh! He’s a very nice man,” all right. What is nice about him? How do you know he’s a nice man? How do you know he will not be a bad man? Can you say that today the one who looks like a nice, a very nice person, will not emit scorpions or snakes all around him? A person who apparently looks a beautiful personality may turn out to be a horrid person. There is no absolute way of judging anyone. So how are we to vote any? If you think that you know how to judge, then I think you have to still learn. Because till you make lots of mistakes, you will not admit that “I don’t know.” That’s the point. Once you reach that stage of saying, “I don’t know. I say this is a nice man but I can’t say. I’m not sure about this person,” that’s the point where you reach, when you are unsure about it, that you want to know surely if something is really truthful and honest.
Our sense of honesty and everything is so superficial, is so superficial. For us, honesty means if you give me five pounds, I’ll return five pounds to you. Is done. Finished. Is honest. Everything is so superficial, that’s why we can never be satisfied, even if you get ten percent more pay or twenty percent more pay. You are not going to be happy, take it from me. Material things do not give us happiness. Never. But I do not say that we do not need material things. We need material things. But matter is something like a cup which has the nectar in it. If you are thirsty, you cannot take it from an empty cup, anything. It may be a cup of gold, what does it matter, difference to you? You must have something to quench your thirst and that thirst, unless and until it is quenched, you are not going to be happy. And what is that thirst? Is this: that still you have not known yourself. It’s a very unconscious thirst. It comes – you don’t know what you are seeking, you don’t know why you are unhappy, you don’t know what you want. That is the unconscious which is working it out.
But the time has come that you should know what you are and what is your glory, what is your greatness, what are your powers.