I have had a bad time, I tell you, with my husband’s job. I never liked it. What is there to talk to these men, after all? I don’t know anything about banking, I don’t know shares, I don’t know stock exchange what it is. I don’t know profits, and this and that. That part is zero. Then, I don’t know about office. I don’t know many other things men talk about, so what is there to talk to them? So very difficult. And whenever I said something, I really dropped a brick.

Once in a party, they were offering drinks to everyone, so I said, “I’ll have some soft drink.” So the valet came and gave me a soft drink. The valet was having a bow, and a white shirt: that’s all absolutely asahaja methods. Black bow, white shirt, black coat, black pant—all just the same, whether it’s an ambassador or a valet. You can’t make it out who is who. So I drank, you know, and when it was finished I gave it to an ambassador, a very well-known ambassador.

To me, there was no difference at all. They were just the same, walking the same way, talking the same way. So asahaja the whole thing is.

See, they say they have so many embassies, for what I don’t know. And there, what they have: always drinks, parties; shake hands, shake hands. Your hands will break, I tell you. Most asahaja method is to shake hands. Why not say Namaste? Is better. And you know me, sometimes I used to get such heat. Like yesterday you have shown that the ice melted. Same thing used to happen to me. Mostly they were very hot people and I didn’t know what to do. I used to stand on one side, you know, just feeling shy.

But this method of hand shaking is absolutely asahaja. And worse than that is French method, is to kiss. You like it or not, you are kissed. Or to hug somebody. First time I gave realization to one English gentleman, he just lifted me up like that. I said, “Alright, it’s just out of joy he has done it, it’s alright.”

But there is no openness, there is no openness of heart. You go to a party, you have to be dressed up like this only. If you are not dressed up like that, then you are useless.

If you go for a death, also. Somebody died, a great friend, very nice man. So I was told I have to wear black sari, black blouse, everything black. I said, “I have no sari black without border, you know.” So they said, “You don’t come.” I said, “Very good idea.”

Because I don’t know these asahaja methods. You are not supposed to cry or weep there. No, you have to keep quiet. Then, when you go there, the body is lying there, and after a prayer is said you are supposed to drink champagne. I mean, imagine it. How can you? No feelings for that body which is lying there dead. And everybody very happy. And, if somebody looked unhappy, they would ask: “What’s wrong, are you alright?” No consciousness that we have lost a friend here.

This is the asahaja style when it comes to grief. When it comes to joy it is asahaja. When it comes to grief it is asahaja.

We have to be Sahaja, in the sense that whatever we do, we do it spontaneously. Not with deliberations.

We have some very anglicized people in India, also. And, the lady of the house died and I went to see. In India the body is taken down on the ground. So they were discussing what to do, what time to start the funeral and all that. So one lady, who is a very well-known person in India, she said, “You should not do it before 12 o’clock.” I said, “Why”? She said, “Because I’ll have to wear white.” “That’s true.” “And I’ll have to go to the bank to get my diamonds to match with the white sari.” I said, “What is this?” Such filth of materialism.

It is going too far. We are going away from our feelings, from our emotions, which are genuine; which are there all the time. You don’t have to think about them. They exist all the time. But you think, “Now, should I cry or not? Should I laugh or not?”

It’s so spontaneous. If you have joy, you are spontaneous. You express your joy spontaneously. Of course, not in an uncultured way, but in a very cultured way.

Now, what’s the meaning of the Sahaja culture? Culture is something that is—you are groomed. You are brought up in a very natural manner, that you develop a culture. It’s more like a child-like, simple innocent behavior.