“Restraint is the key: think less, speak less, do less. Be more, meditate more. Practise silence and serve others.”

In fact, we are more truly ourselves when we are in the mode of being rather than doing.

“Too many possessions take too much of your time,” Mother believed. “You have to clean them, look after them, use them, store them; if you are always busy with material things, when do you have time for reflection, meditation and service to the community?”

“The world is a mystery, knowledge is limited, life is a journey of constant discoveries. One need not fear uncertainty and unpredictability. What we know is relative and constrained by the facts available to us at any given time. When we discover new facts we need to discover ourselves in a fresh manner. This is the way to keep our knowledge

Water is so powerful, so overwhelming, yet the duck swims right through it, and water just rolls off its back. So we can learn from the duck how to swim in the sea of sorrow and remain joyful.”

Every year a snake leaves its old skin behind and moves swiftly away from it. In the same way, the nature of life is such that we develop a skin of attachments, expectations, ambitions, so we need to do what a snake does, keep leaving this skin behind so that our soul can touch the ground of joy, ananda. As long as we are in this body, in this

“Uma is also mother Saraswati, the benevolent and beautiful. She is gloriously riding a swan and playing music on the vina. Saraswati gives birth to imagination, poetry, music, arts, crafts, and the creativity of people and nature.

Dharma is to be good rather than do good.

“In the same way we human beings have to let go of our pride, our separateness, and not bother about our individual identity. If we immerse ourselves in the process of life, and trust the process of the universe, and identify ourselves with others, we can become the tree of a thousand branches and a million plums.”