A smile for the ages
This year, Spring equinox marked a round century since the birth of Shri Mataji. And what an extraordinary century it has been! This most transformative time in human history for every walk of human endeavour and life has created enormous inner and outer tensions for everyone, caused by the gap between the speed of those changes and our internal evolutionary capabilities. Throughout this accelerated movement it becomes more and more difficult to hold on to what each holds as most comfortable from the past. But it is also clear that we cannot throw away all eternal human values and content in order to always live on the cusp of the technological waves.
Shri Mataji came to offer the genuine solution to our dilemma. She triggered true inner evolution that raised our wisdom and discretion allowing us to navigate this new world and make the right choices for ourselves and, when called upon, for larger groups as well. She taught us how to keep the smile on through all of it. Not in a “commercial”, artificial way, but as the natural result of a combination of inner joy as well as detachment. This is to be tasted to be known, it is not something that can be meaningfully described in words. Just as the experience of Her own smile that, when directed at someone, carried the immense power of Her pure love and purifying capacity. This was experienced by countless people, including the writer of those lines.
Many years ago, at the end of a very busy week, I flew across the continent and then drove for a couple of hours to reach a venue in New York State where an event was taking place with Shri Mataji also present. By the time I reached the place an enormous migraine had set in, with a slow frequency jackhammer piercing both sides of my brain. After some time at a sitar concert the frequency had dampened a bit but the intensity was just the same. As the concert finished, Shri Mataji was on the way toward the exit, and then all of a sudden a direct line of sight opened between Herself and myself as She turned to the right. She then looked straight at me and smiled, for the 2 longest seconds, until the crowd closed the gap again. Within a few moments the pain was all gone and after another 10-15 minutes the overall feeling of heavy tightness in the head as well as heaviness in other parts of the subtle system had disappeared as well, replaced by wonderful lightness and coolness.
Beyond the obvious sheer delight of the moment and its immediate consequences, this was a great lesson that everything that is not right with us has its roots in the state of our subtle system and if the cause of the trouble disappears, the result disappears as well. Many people attending Sahaja Yoga meditation programs around the world had similar experiences, with different stubborn aches and pains gone by the end of the program. And eventually many other issues dissolve in the eternal smile of our true Self once we get to experience it and learn to keep it on. Shri Mataji embodied the complete power of the Self, thus Her smile offered complete solace and joy to others as well and it will always be remembered by everyone who had a chance to experience it in person as one for the ages.