“It is a living process and a living process of a living God!"
.jpg "The Great Adi Shakti Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi")
The Paraclete Shri Mataji “So to feel that All-Pervading Power the thing lacking in us is that we have not felt so far the connection, and this connection has to be established — that is possible. Built within us is the Power, what we call Kundalini, which is coiled three and a half, and which rises through six centres to pierce through your fontanel bone area, and you start feeling the Cool Breeze (Ruach/Pneuma/Qi/ Prana/Riah Al-Qiyamah) in your hand. And also the Cool Breeze starts coming out of your head so you have to certify yourself. Nobody is going to certify you!
This is the first sprouting of the seed. It is a living process and a living process of a living God! It sprouts [from the base of the spinal column (the coccyx)] spontaneously as a seed sprouts spontaneously. Then you start seeing the effects of it on your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual self which is tremendous, fantastic. It is such a vision that even the flight of your imagination cannot reach it; but you are that. You are that glorious thing. You have that glory within yourself.”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji
The Spirit of God and the spirit of man
"Almost wherever one starts, the discussion of Christian experience leads without much delay to some question about the Spirit of God. One might do worse than start by reflecting that English conventions often force a decision as to when to use a capital S for Spirit, indicating it as divine, and when to spell it with a small initial...
However, perhaps it will be more profitable to introduce the theme of spirit and Spirit, human and divine, by comparing certain phrases in Psalm 51, from the Old Testament, with a passage in 1 Cor. 2, from the New. There are merits in this comparison. It illustrates the important conviction that there is a certain kinship between God and man—between Spirit and spirit. 'The Hebrew-Jewish thought', wrote H. W. Robinson, 'had found its own way of relating man to God, and of conceiving God as actively present in human consciousness and life'. 'Spirit' is one of the words used in Hebrew and Jewish literature, alongside such terms as Word' and Wisdom', to help the mind to bridge the gap between a transcendent God and his creation. It is a mediating word; and the fact that in both Ps. 51 and 1 Cor. 2 words for 'spirit' are used with reference both to God and to man is significant. But comparison of Ps. 51 and 1 Cor. 2 is further instructive, because it illustrates the new and distinctive dimension given to the word by the Christian situation...
Four times the Hebrew word ruach is used in Ps. 51... What is specially significant here, for the present purpose, is that the psalmist sees ruach, spirit, as within him and as part of him—almost as an attitude or character; and yet, the same word stands for something that belongs to God and may even be taken away by God. This suggests that even what may be called a man's spirit is not necessarily his own, or inherently his; it may be God's Spirit in him.” (Moule 2000, 7-8)
"In reality, giving baptism means the awakening of the Kundalini power so that after it rises and pierces the Sahasrara (Kingdom of God), there is the union of the all-pervading power of God and the Kundalini power. This is, in fact, is the final job of the Kundalini power.
But the clergy know nothing about this. On the contrary, they are vainly trying to do something which they are not even authorised to do. Otherwise you will find these clergymen involved in all sorts of acts of kindness- kindness to animals, service of the poor, service of patients and so on. You would say, 'Mataji, these are all noble deeds'. Yes, certainly they are noble deeds, but then, it is not the work of God. It is not the work of God to serve the poor by paying them money. The real work of God consists in helping the people to enter the Kingdom of God, and to enable them to unite with God.”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji
Shri Kundalini Shakti and Shri Jesus Christ
Translation of Shri Mataji's advice given in Marathi at Hinduja Auditorium, Bombay—September 26, 1979.
"We said that ruach, meaning breath, indicates that which is most intimate and secret in God, just as it indicates what is most intimate and unrevealed in human beings: the very principal of life, the soul. This is the sense in which it is used where we read that no one knows the secret thoughts, the depths, of a person but the person's own spirit and no one knows the secret depths of God but the Spirit of God (see Cor 2:11).
The Scripture begins at a relatively late stage to speak of the divine Spirit as one who enters human beings in order to dwell or remain with us in an uninterrupted way...
This, stripped of all metaphor and human imagining, is what intimacy with God means: God in us, and we in God, due to the presence of the Holy Spirit. (The Latin word intimus, intimate, is the superlative form of intus, inside.)" (Cantalamessa 2003, 15-16)
“It is important to understand about your own Kundalini, as Self-realisation is Self-knowledge. And the one who gives Self-knowledge is your own Kundalini because when She rises, She points out what are the problems on your chakras. Now we say that it is pure desire. It is your chaste desire. It has no lust or greed in it. That power is your Mother and She Is settled down in the triangular bone. She knows everything about you just as a tape recorder. She is absolute knowledge. Because She is so pure that whatever chakra She touches, She knows what is wrong with that chakra before hand; so She is quite prepared and She adjusts herself fully so that you do not get a problem by the awakening. If any chakra is constricted, She waits and goes on slowly opening that chakra.
The Kundalini is the primordial power and is reflected in you. In a human being, it is like many strands of energy, like rope. This energy is all twisted together to form that Kundalini. In a human being the strands are 3 x 7 = 21 Nadis raised to the power of 108. When your kundalini rises, one or two strands out of this come up and pierce the fontanelle bone. It has to pass through the innermost nadi known as Brahma Nadi. It is a spiral movement throughout. The kundalini is spiral and nadis are also like a spiral. The outermost nadi is the right-side nadi, Pingala Nadi. The second innermost is Ida Nadi. She starts sending these threads through Brahma Nadi; by that they relax the centre. By relaxing of centre, the sympathetic nervous system also starts relaxing, your pupils start dilating and when it has pierced the Agnya, then the eyes will be completely dilated and shining. Then She enters into Sahasrara (Kingdom of God).
It is absolutely the pure light of knowledge of love, compassion and attention. All these things are in that energy. We know of many energies like electrical, light energy etc. These energies cannot think. They cannot adjust and work on their own. They have to be handled by us. But this energy itself is the living energy and knows how to handle itself. It thinks. If you see a seed being sprouted you will find at the tip of the seed there is a small little cell which knows how to go around the soft places, how to encircle the stones, and how to find its way towards the source. That cell has got a little Kundalini in it. But within you a tremendous force of Kundalini exists.
When a realised soul says that he should have more compassion, 'as my compassion is not alright; my concern about others, my generosity is not alright, I have exploited other's love', then this energy starts moving, giving you that greater dimension of love and compassion. If you do not want to grow in your awareness then She does not supply the energy which is stored in you.
The Kundalini is there to nourish you, look after you, and make you grow by giving you a higher, wider and deeper personality. All Her power is nothing but love. She gives the power to forgive. Even when you think, the energy for thinking comes from Kundalini because you are asking Her help.
The power of Kundalini is absolute purity, auspiciousness, holiness, chastity, self-respect, pure love, detachment, concern, enlightened attention to give you Joy. As a mother will try whatever is possible to give joy to her child. In the same way, this Kundalini has only one power and that is how to give Joy to Her own children. When we talk in the light of Kundalini, we have to understand that this light spreads in your life, outside your life and expresses itself in a very beautiful manner.
When you worship Adi Kundalini, the reflection in you, which is your Kundalini, is very happy. Also the deities feel happy.
The power of Kundalini which is your own Mother has to rise and manifest itself because of your pure desire. In your introspection, pujas, and in your meditation, you should see for yourself why are you in meditation. It is for pure desire of compassion and love to be awakened within us. The growth has started and you will find that this shell which is human conditioning and ego will just break open. It is in the triangular bone, which comes up, manifests and can save the whole world. Just see the magnificence, the expansion, the greatness of this Kundalini which was within you and which came up in its full strength and has shown tremendous things.
The joy we feel during music recitals is because Kundalini is dancing. She gets happy because you ask for nothing but enjoyment of collectivity.
You are yourself fully connected when you are absolutely detached and your Kundalini is dancing. You are alone and never alone. This oneness with the whole gives you all the security and joy you want. That's why the Kundalini awakening means collectivity. Unless and until you want pure collectivity in your being Kundalini won't rise.
When you worship Adi Kundalini, you are trying to cleanse your Kundalini, as well and please the deities. This is an object. It cannot be changed. But the reflector can change. The movement of Kundalini depends on temperament of person. Kundalini can give you honesty, and faith in honesty by actualising the experience. Supposing you want to go to a garden and you are suddenly there. Then you will know that your desire is pure and it has worked out. All such miracles happen. The pure desire works out because it is powerful.
When it works, the whole thing works out and you develop faith. That faith is within you. Nobody can challenge you if you have faith. It will be done. Your pure desire is now being fulfilled, you are now connected, and you are now Divine. You are realised souls. You are different from others. For you, all this subtle knowledge is being absorbed, because your Kundalini is absorbing it. Whatever is absorbed is absorbed back by me. But that becomes like a barometer. You immediately know without thinking, asking, you know about anyone because Kundalini is the reflector. The better a reflector you become the more the Kundalini shows. Though Kundalini is an individual Mother, in Her functions and methods She is just the same. You cannot cheat the Kundalini; She knows you out and out. We must meditate to get into thoughtless awareness by which we allow the Kundalini to grow.”
The Paraclete Shri Mataji
Philadelphia, USA—Oct 15, 1993
"Jesus revealed what He wants for us—'another Comforter.' The word 'another' is a translation of the Greek word allon, which means 'one of the same kind.' Jesus was saying He was going to send a Comforter to His disciples, a Helper like Himself. The Greek word translated 'Comforter' is parakletos and describes someone who is called to the side of for the purpose of helping. Commentators often refer to the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete because of the Greek word used here for the Holy Spirit. The word implies that the Holy Spirit will give Jesus' disciples everything they need for every circumstance of life. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will help you, doing for you what you cannot do for yourself...
The Lord lives in you through the power and presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul exhorted the church at Corinth, 'Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?' (1 Corinthians 3:16). Once you have been born again spiritually, your body literally houses the Spirit of God Himself. It is a sacred temple, a sanctuary. Such an amazing act of God does not come about by chance but by His own purposeful intent and desire. God loves you and desires to live with you, know you, and fellowship with you forever. That is why John said, 'Indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ' (1 John 1:3). How does He live in you? Through the indwelling Holy Spirit.” (Martin 2007, 82/87)
"Jesus constitutes those around him as the community in which the presence of the living God will be known"
"The Johannine theology of the Spirit reaches its full height in the Farewell Discourses, where Jesus promises that by sending the Spirit he will enfold his followers within the intimate personal fellowship that he already enjoys with the Father. Having declared in chapters 2 and 12 that the present Temple is redundant, Jesus constitutes those around him as the community in which the presence of the living God will be known—known by the Spirit, the Paraclete, who will be in them and with them. What the Temple had apparently offered—the presence of the living God and the sacrificial system by which the worshiper was renewed as a member of God's people—in now to be attained by a different route, namely the self-offering of Jesus and his resulting gift of the Spirit. The negative verdict on the Temple, already adumbrated in chapters 2 and 12, is sealed with the declaration of the chief priests, 'We have no king, but the emperor!' (19:15). The positive verdict on Jesus and his followers is established with the resurrection, the gift of the Spirit, and the launching of the worldwide mission in chapters 20 and 21. Just as 'the Word become flesh and tabernacled (eskenosen en hemin) in our midst' (1.14, my translation), so the Spirit now tabernacles within the followers of Jesus, fulfilling all that the Temple had been within a radical new reality.
All this points back to a cryptic but powerful statement in John 4:19-26. The Samaritan woman raises with Jesus, as well she might, given the previous four hundred years of smoldering controversy, the question of the location of true worship: Samaria or Jerusalem? Jesus, while insisting the Jews have the inside track on worship because they remain the bearers of God's promises of salvation, insists also that's the question is wrongly posed. This is not because of some generalizing or Platonizing downgrading of the notion of sacred place, but because of the eschatology now inaugurated around Jesus himself. The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship in Spirit and truth. This insistence, before the sequence of festivals has already got under way, means that the reader should already know, on Jesus' subsequent visits, that the program announced in chapter 2, of Jesus replacing the Temple with his own (dying and rising) body, will mean the fresh location of worship itself, not in one geographical spot but wherever people hear Jesus' words, believe in him, and so come to worship the Father.
What then of John 3:1-15, where the language of baptism and Spirit comes thick and fast? In some later traditions, as other chapters of this book explore, a supposedly 'Johannine' view of baptism, based on John 3, has sat in uneasy tension with a supposedly 'Pauline' view based on Romans 6, with John's language about birth from a mother's womb contrasting with Paul's talk of dying and rising with Christ. This is, I believe, a false antithesis. John 3 needs to be set within the larger context in which believers pass through death to new life. Romans 6, as we shall see, is part of a larger unit in which the idea of new birth plays a leading part (8:18-27). What John 3 does give us, within the limits if our present topic, is a statement of baptism and the Spirit that can only be understood in terms of inaugurated eschatology: ordinary human birth, and within that ethnic Jewish birth into the ancient people of God, is not enough, because God's kingdom is coming as a new thing, and God is reconstituting his people around Jesus, who is himself marked out by baptism and the Spirit (John 1:33). This passage thus develops the dense statement in the prologue: the Word was in the world, but the world did not know him; he came to his own, but his own did not receive him; but to all who received him, and believed in his name, he gave the power to become God's children, who were born not by the usual human method, or from a particular ethnic descent, but from God. John 3 is not, strictly speaking within our narrow limits, about 'worship' itself, but it explains the ground on which the later passages are standing.
The regular Johannine theme of 'receiving Jesus' or 'believing in Jesus,' which runs from the prologue right through to near the end of the gospel, is ultimately to be subsumed within the larger, though less frequently state, theme of worshipping the Father. Believing in Jesus in the present will lead to the fresh gift of the Spirit once he is glorified; from then on, all those who believe, whoever and wherever they may be, will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, and will themselves become conduits of the Spirit in an outward flow of world-renewing grace. Those who belong to Jesus, who believe in him and follow him, are constituted as the new or renewed humanity, worshipping the creator God through Jesus in and through the Spirit. By that same Spirit, and in consequence of that worship, they are enabled to be the bearers of new life for the world.”
The Spirit in Worship: Worship in the Spirit
Teresa Berger, Bryan D. Spink, Liturgical Press (Dec. 1, 2009) p. 9-11
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