From ‘Mother of All’ by Richard Schiffman

Since I had come all the way from a distant country, he allowed, perhaps an exception could be made in my case. It was the same gratuitous hospitality to foreigners which I had come across so many times before in India

The words of the Hindu Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, came to mind: “Beyond hope, beyond fear … the steadfast sage.” Just sitting and watching, something of Amma’s settled pace worked on the mind like a balm. It was easy to understand why the Hindu scriptures say that at the feet of the sage the devotee finds a true haven. Here I felt sheltered, secure.

….Ramana Maharshi, has explained: “Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterized by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a rapidly rotating top. Its speed is too quick to be followed by the eye and so it appears to be still.”

Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi ….said, “I give you what you want, so that you might come to want what I have come to give.”

…Sri Aurobindo once put it succinctly, “Great saints performed miracles; greater saints have railed at them; the greatest saints have both railed at them and performed them.”

Mother’s sayings about herself

No thought has ever troubled me. I have never tried to avoid thoughts. They come, but they never disturb me.

…..I experience pain and pleasure, attachment and bereavement just as you do. The only difference is that I don’t try to shun pain and sorrow. I abandon myself to them without the least inhibition.

It has never occurred to me that human life is higher and other forms of life are lower. Neither do I feel that all things have been created for man’s sake. Every form of life has the intelligence which is appropriate to it, not only humans. And no thing in creation is greater than any other thing. That is the glory of creation.

Divinity manifests itself in us so long as we perceive the divinity in others.

The mind that is free from all weighing and judging is itself God.

Nobody utters as many lies as I do. I speak differently to different people. I never reveal the whole truth to anybody, though I seem to. I have not given myself over to anyone. My life is unlimited; my history is limited.

Scriptures don’t create experience in us; spiritual experience, however, creates scripture. There is no necessity that I should teach only what is in scripture. There is no need for me to verify whether what I say accords with scripture. For me, experience is primary. Experience is the only true authority.

I do not teach. Morality is not acquired through hearing lectures. We cannot do as we are told. Time alone discloses what must be done. We must do whatever He causes to be done.

Anything that you do in your daily routine with attention and care is a spiritual discipline.

Brahmacharya (being a monk) is not escape from marriage. It means transcending the distinctions of sex, form and touch.

Brahmacharya means “living in Brahman.” A real Brahmachari is one who lives in Brahman and finds bliss in Brahman, which is the Self. Why should such a one look outside for external sources of happiness? Celibacy is certainly one aid among so many other aids on the spiritual path.

…….by “no mind” is meant that the feeling, “I am doing,” or “I am perceiving,” has vanished.

Who knows whether earth and stones have the capacity to think? You don’t even know my thoughts, though I am sitting next to you – so how can we speak of rocks? … In my view, nothing is lifeless.

It is not by dwelling on the ego that you can get rid of the ego. But put your mind on God, and the ego will take care of itself (that is, it will dissolve)

When your faith is not contingent upon the state of the one in whom you have faith, then the strength of your faith is what grants you protection and happiness.

All of the myriad rites, observances, sacrifices, practices, and forms of worship are but training exercises so that we may ultimately come to see god everywhere.