Excerpt of a talk by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Melbourne (Australia) 17/3/1985
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So the principle of ascent is to be in the center, to be in the balance, to be in the maryadas of the center. To be in the boundaries of the center is the principle. So what happens when we do not keep to the boundaries, to the maryadas? Then we get caught up. If we keep to maryadas we can never be caught up. Many people say, “Why have the maryadas?” Say we have the maryadas, the boundaries of this beautiful ashram here and somebody is attacking you from all the sides, on all the sides of the void, so if you go out of the void you get caught up. That’s why you have to keep to the boundaries, and to keep to the boundaries is difficult when you have two problems: one is the ego, another is the superego. Now as in the West superego is not such a problem. Ego is the problem, and it has very, very subtle implications now, I can see the complicated styles of egos we have. One is a gross, like Khomeini style, which is dry, is obvious, evident, everybody can condemn. That one is the one, either one corrects or gets completely destroyed. But ego, if it is of a stupid person, then he behaves in this manner only that he doesn’t know how to hide his ego in sophistication.
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Today though the day is of celebration so in all humor we should understand what this stupid thing called ego is. In all humor, not in seriousness, for I don’t want you again to feel guilty. Now as I was explaining in the morning how ego becomes the Left Vishuddhi. I mean even before going to the hall, My attention on the hall, I get a big lump here - just, just painful horrible, excruciating. I mean all the time it has been there since I’ve been in the West. Can you imagine? It has never vanished. So this chakra is all the time working, poor thing is so much now tired, Vishnumaya’s chakra. So what happens really, we should see the physical side of it, it’s very important to understand. You see from childhood if we are taught in a society like this, where you are an extrovert, you have to achieve something, some success or this and that, then the idea of strength is given to you, that it is weakness to tolerate something. Imagine in Christian nations that’s the best part of it, “I’m sorry I will kill you,” sort of a thing. In Christian nation, you see, they have this thing, theory that it is weakness that if you tolerate anything. It is a weakness if you get dominated by someone. You can never be successful if you do like that. So unless and until you are possessed you can never be obedient. This is what it is. Somebody has to possess you, absolutely possess you like Hitler, then you can be obedient; otherwise everybody has a big ego, as I had told you the story of the garbage cleaner.
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So now this poor thing ego has a limited, limited thing. That is, this ego has a balloon, which is limited. But it bursts when you get your paralysis and all those things it does burst, but it is flexible also. So when the ego starts getting too much on top of the superego, then the superego can go up to a point, it is also there. So to get rid of the ego people take drinks, drugs just to push it back so, increase the superego so the ego comes down. So you are playing between, then you have a hangover, then it goes on like this, you see, works out. This is the modern solution they find for ego, all right. Otherwise ego is too much. So when somebody says something to you, instead of facing up to it - supposing you find you have not been able to, say, find a glass for Me, a simple thing like, take it like that. You sulk. Why? Why should you sulk for that? Because there’s another place where this ego can go is when you come round, you see here it crosses at Vishuddhi, so when it is suppressed from the other side it goes into that Vishuddhi part. So then you get the Left Vishuddhi, it is nothing but pure ego. Believe Me, it’s pure ego, because it has no other way to get in, it goes there and that’s how you sulk and think. Think so you get more ego, you fill up your left side and you sulk, you never face. Now, the practical way the central path is established by being in reality. Now as a matter of habit you must develop. Supposing something has gone wrong, tell yourself, “Yes it has gone wrong, because I’ve done the mistake. All right, why did I do the mistake? Because of this, so next time no.”