Above: Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and Mr. Srivastava, her husband. 28th April 2006, London

"Once the Kundalini rises and you become one with the universal divine power, which is all-pervading, you start feeling a cool breeze of the Holy Ghost, which we call in Sanskrit as Adi Shakti, start flowing in the hand, as cool breeze. And once that starts flowing, then all these fingers, which look so simple to us, get enlightened and you find that in these fingers you get the enlightenment of these different centres. The left hand side and the right hand side have got five centres, six and seven. In the same way, right and left.

And then you can start seeing yourself, what centres are suffering within you and what centres are suffering in other people. You become collectively conscious. I don’t have to tell you [that] you are all human beings, children of one father. You just become. Is actualisation. It’s not lecturing or 'Alright, come along, I’ll baptise you.' Not all that. It just becomes an actual experience. But after that actual experience, you have to work it out."

Public Programme (PP) 13th June 1980, Stratford, London

"So, when you are enlightened, the conscious mind is something like a tree, into which the sap is now flowing. It may be that it is just like a leaf, or it may be it is like a flower, or maybe it is like a fruit. So it changes its forms, once he gets realisation. If a person gets realisation, then the conscious mind moves on, getting more and more light.

Say, for example, when the electricity comes, you can see this room, you can see another’s room, you can see another room. You can go round and see and again, again you will see it - all the rooms. Then you become aware of all the rooms, so you are conscious of all these. But in the beginning you are just conscious of the room where you are standing, isn’t it?

So the conscious mind’s definition cannot be given after realisation. A person like me, say for example, has a conscious mind that might envelop the whole world. Or a conscious mind of a person who is realised soul who is still not anywhere, just started, then he’s only conscious as to where is right, where is left, where is this. So, before the realisation, the conscious mind sees things around you.

Out of that, also, there are categories. Some people see, say for artists can see something and a scientist can see something. Another poet will see something. It depends on the conscious mind, how it is, has got the trend. But still it won’t see something that is subtle behind it and that only is possible after you get your realisation."

6th May 1987, Sydney, Australia