No charge for spirituality

Guru: Any Guru or Swami or teacher of any worth will never charge you money for spiritual knowledge. Do not pay any money for spiritual enlightenment. It is a sin for us to get involved in monetary remuneration. We are here to serve you. I took this opportunity, when we planned to get together here in Kiental with Sister and Aina, I made absolutely certain that whatever charge was really for this building and the food was not going to be bounced up to make my trip or Swamis or Sisters free. I made absolutely certain that we also contributed towards that.

The Divine Mother gives me everything. And I am here to serve you and free you from that bondage that people have created in spirituality. And more than that, we chose people, some of them, who wouldn’t normally have afforded to come from Skanda Vale to Switzerland. Unfortunately, they were not able to come, so we made sure that their air passage and all their subsistence were paid by the community.

Our job is to help you. Our job here is not to see how we can extract anything from you. If you do anything, if you want to give anything, it must be totally voluntary without any reference to how we can extract funds from anybody. It must come from your heart for that is the way of giving. Then with the same dignity of giving, we will receive it. No other way!

I am free, my mind is free. The devotees of Skanda Vale and also the monks are free because they are not involved in Maha Maya. It is a wonderful, clean feeling inside us that when I see somebody I do not calculate how I can relieve a few pounds or thanks from that human being. I am free, I serve the Divine Mother. And if somebody wants to give something – that’s their problem, that’s their karma, they are fulfilling their own karma. And I am not involved in that.

Sorry for that deviation, but I thought that I take this opportunity to say how important it is for us to be disciplined. Not only you but for us, to be disciplined in our whole outlook. Religion must be a way for your liberation, not bondage. That freedom for you to make a choice about which way you want to go. Whilst we are giving advice to you, there is no imposition on you at all. We are here to guide you, to protect you, to help you on your journey. We are here as the servants of the Lord to help you through the hazards of living and tasks that you have to perform.

Yes – we want to share your karma so that your burden will be lessened, not made more for you. That is what we are here for, and I want you to take advantage of that and join us. Whenever you can – not only here but in Skanda Vale, when you come.

I’ll share with you a recent experience. We have an offer from a devotee in Italy who has got a monastery that they have renovated completely – nearly fifty rooms and want to give it to me. So I said to them: ‘I’ll let you know’. And my next thought was to the Divine Mother: ‘What do I want this ego-trip for? If You are not there in that monastery I don’t want it. So I want you, Mother to show me that You are going to be in that monastery’.

And from that moment onwards She took over that monastery, and that poor lady was going from one room to a room, shaking and getting Mother’s Shakti. She couldn’t understand what was happening with her. And she rang me up and said: ‘Guruji, I can’t understand what is happening. Since I spoke to you I am getting Shakti from the Divine Mother and I can’t even cook!’

I said: ‘Ah now we have got it right’. Because I don’t want to be anywhere where She is not going to be, I don’t want a grand palace. Because every time people create in their minds some fantasy of buildings and places – immediately what comes in my mind is: ‘How are we going to run it? Will the Divine Mother be there? If She is there, She will provide for us’.

And if I create restrictions by saying: ‘Oh, I want a nice building, I want a nice place…’ After you get the nice building and nice place then you have to have the running costs of that place and here begins the art of picking pockets. You impose such conditions and restrictions on your devotees. But they must be free. And that is why I say to you divine friends:

Free yourself from anybody who promises to give you enlightenment and spirituality, but who is attached to the conditions of monetary gain for themselves. Free yourself because God is free. The power of God is free. The energy of God is free. You can get it for yourself if you so desire.

The experience of the monks and nuns gives me the courage to hand everything to them so that they – I know they won’t make mistakes. I went to Germany last year and I wrote to the people in Germany and I said: ‘Don’t charge devotees for meditation! I will be so angry if you do so’.

And when I arrived Swami and I had a little chat and I said ‘Things aren’t right here!’ There were charging hundred and twenty marks from each devotee who was coming for a class. And immediately I gave a discourse to the devotees and I said ‘I have nothing to do with this charge that is happening. If the organisers have done so, it is entirely in their hands and I am not going to be associated with it’. They have been trying now to get me back to Munich – it will be another lifetime before that happens. No way! No way!

If I want money I tell the Divine Mother. She is the mountain of gold, She is the moonbeam on the mountain of gold and there are people whom She inspires to help us. And that is good enough.

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