Guru principle is extremely strict, and the strict­ness made many people could not conform to the ideals of a disciple. In those days the guru had to be, absolutely, the authority, and it was the guru who would decide which disciples he’ll have. And one had to go into great tapasya, to great penances, to even become a disciple. And, this hardship was the only way the guru used to judge.

Gurus would always live in jungles and they would select their disciples—very few, very very few—and they had to go and beg food from the neighboring villages, and cook food for their guru with their own hands, and feed the guru.

That sort of guru business is not in Sahaja Yoga.

That basically we must understand that the difference between those styles of guruship and that we have now is this: that very few individuals were given the chance to become the guru—very few. And these few also were selected out of quite a lot of people and they felt that they were something really special that they are being selected, chosen, and that whatever they will have to go through is all welcome. With this idea they became the disciples.

But Sahaja Yoga is a very different thing. I would say just the opposite. First of all, your guru is a Mother and who suffers from Sandrakaruna. At the slightest things that happen to you My eyes get filled with tears.

So, as a Mother, to be a guru is a very difficult thing. At the same time, for you to achieve heights is also difficult. Because, you get lost when I love you so much, and in that love you forget sometimes that the progress in your being is very slow.

It is important that in Sahaja Yoga you have to be strict with yourself. That’s why I’ve said that you have to be your own guru, which people do not understand what it means. “You have to be your own guru” means you have to guide yourself. You have to treat yourself as your disciple. And, you have to trim yourself. If you do not understand the responsibility as Sahaja Yogi, of working it out yourself everything, you cannot move very fast, because it is a different type of relationship between the guru and the disciples.

So first I have always said you become your own guru. So you have to make a lot of introspection and fix your ideals. Before you I am sitting. You have seen Me, how I am. I can eat anything. I need not eat at all for days together. I can sleep anywhere. I may not sleep at all. I travel for miles together, untiringly. I have this energy because I’m a guru of Myself, also.

So the first thing is that there should be lot of introspection. “What’s wrong with me?” Not wrong with others. “What’s wrong with me? Am I seeking the comfort of my body? The attention, is it on my body or on my Spirit? If so, what am I doing?” I think best thing is to write it down. “Can I sleep on the grass? Can I sit on the stone?” You have to make this body work. “Can I sleep anytime I like, and can I keep awake anytime I like?”

I’ve seen people doze off. The reason is this, not that they are bad or in any way indisciplined people, but because inside they are tired. If you are tired inside then you feel tired all the time. You’ll see on the television, if you see people in the West, they’re always, “Huhhh,” sitting like this. Because they are so very tired. Why are they so tired? They don’t work so hard.

So, introspect how you behave. Now when you start introspecting yourself, you’ll also start introspecting your surroundings and your styles and your methods, and what you are doing to yourself because of the conditionings of the outside.