Spiritually Speaking With Liz

What's it like to have one foot in the state spiritual bliss and the other in the practical everyday world? Maetrayii-Ma shares her story

February 08, 2024 Liz Hill / Maetreyii-Ma Season 4 Episode 1
Spiritually Speaking With Liz
What's it like to have one foot in the state spiritual bliss and the other in the practical everyday world? Maetrayii-Ma shares her story
Show Notes Transcript

Welcome back to Season 4!

We kick off with a fascinating chat with Maetreyii-Ma, award-winning author, psychologist, and spiritual teacher who has developed a worldwide following, bringing forth the deep wisdom that manifests to her both through her inner guru, Baba and in her teacher, the renowned Indian mystic Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Baba.

Maetrayii-Ma talks openly about her spiritual journey, her connect with her 'Inner Baba' and with her teacher, the renowned Indian mystic Shrii Shrii Anandamurti Baba, who, although he passed away several years ago  he  has been side-by-side with her since her college years—long before she met him and after!

Join us for a truly fascinating chat with a remarkable woman who radiates love and peace.

Love
Liz x

Maetreyii-Ma can be contacted in the following ways:

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            BabaTalks Podcasts,
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Liz Hill:

Hi, this is Liz. Welcome back to my podcast, Spiritually Speaking with Liz. We're on to season four now. I can't believe how quickly that's flown. And we've had a little break, but I'm back with some amazing guests and I know you won't be disappointed. I've got a fabulous lady kicking off today and I've got. Oh, we're talking all sorts from medical intuition, Akashic records, angels, and more. I'm not going to give too much away because I want them to be surprised. So they will drop every couple of weeks as before. And I've also been asked in a few DMS for. Some tips from my, what I call my Mary Poppins toolkit bag. The little things that have helped me through the years, um, just short little snippets. I aim to do like five minutes, 10 minutes. If you'd be interested in that, let me know, send me a DM of what you'd be interested in or pop it in the comments below. And I'm happy to help where I can really. Okay, here we go.

Hi,

Liz Hill:

welcome back. This is Liz and I'm joined by a fabulous guest today. I'm just going to give you some information about her. So, Maitri Ma is an award winning author. She's a clinical psychologist and spiritual teacher who has developed a worldwide following, bringing forth the deep wisdom that manifests to her both through her inner guru, Baba, and in her teacher, the renowned Indian mystic, Sri Sri Anandamirti Baba. But this is where it gets fascinating. While she met and lived in the ashram of the Living Guru, Shri Shri Anandamurti Baba, in India for eight months, before he passed from this earth, the immortal spiritual consciousness he embodied has been side by side with her since her college years, long before she met him, and it has continued. Long after he passed over. So I'm so excited to meet you, Maitri Ma. And, and your story just fascinated me, jumped out at me and I was like, yes, I need to talk to you.

Maetreyii-Ma:

Yes. Well, thank you. It's wonderful to be here with you.

Liz Hill:

Oh, you're welcome. So can you tell us how, how did this begin? So from the beginning, can you tell us your

Maetreyii-Ma:

story? Well, um, My spiritual journey story really started when I was a child with a connection to, you know, I think a lot of us feel a connection to nature, a connection to animals. I love animals and I was lived in a bit of a country setting where I had animals and, uh, and a lot of nature around me. And so that's, that's really where it began. And when I was about. Oh, I'd say about 11 or 12. I started feeling this, um, spiritual presence around me. And, uh, I felt it's interesting because I lived in a, a, uh, suburb of Chicago. And, you know, it was very, it was. A time when there were, you know, it, there were no idea of reincarnation or anything like that, or, uh, none of these ideas were a part of the culture, but I, I had this feeling that I, this divine being that I'd been with this being before I felt this divine presence, there was no teaching, no, no, uh, guidance, just, uh, a presence, but When I felt it, it was so beautiful. I was immediately completely in love and that presence really, um, was something that was with me for some years when I was young and really, uh, Was formative for me. I fell madly in love and all I wanted to do was be with this presence that I felt and I would go for long walks at night. I talk about it in my book with this guiding presence that I felt even and I kind of saw this whitish figure a little bit, but sort of on a subtle plane, but I didn't have any, you know, um, Inner guidance from it. Uh, that was verbal was all. Did you know who it was then? No, you know, I didn't know there was no name given. There was no, you know, uh, I thought and I, the only being I'd ever heard of who would be like this being was Jesus, right? That was all I'd ever heard of. And, uh, that. Would be equivalent to the vibration that I felt in the, the presence in the love and the, the holiness. And so I thought maybe it was Jesus because I, I didn't know, you know, but I didn't really, there was no, uh, information given. And so, um, actually, I spent some time crying myself to sleep at night because I thought, oh, I'm 2000 years too late. Why did this happen to me? Oh, because I wanted to be with this being, you know, um, but then from later experience, I think it was the same presence that I've felt guiding my life for many, many years that came to me in my twenties, um, which I called Baba, gave the name to me, Baba, but I didn't know that then. Um, and yeah, I, I had a feeling that that one was my father and, uh, Mother nature and all of the universe was my mother. That was my feeling when I was young, but then I, you know, like all teenagers, I got a little older and I got very involved in the world and in my friends and boyfriends and, you know, the thing that that teenagers do. And I forgot about that and. Uh, extroverted my life for some years until I, yeah, yeah, you know, having fun, having friends, having boyfriends, having, you know, the kinds of things that teenagers like. And, uh, and I actually went through a period of searching in churches for this. God self that I felt and, uh, I became very disillusioned and I just kind of after a while felt there is no God, you know, I was very disillusioned with it all. And I became a beatnik and then I became a hippie and, you know, it went like that. So that's how, that's how I started out. Okay.

And

Liz Hill:

then, so from, from that point, you'd been the beatnik, you'd been the hippie. And then what was it, did, did you feel, so you felt Baba come back? What was the feeling, what happened that made you sort of get rid of all that disillusion and, and realize that? There was something

Maetreyii-Ma:

I started meditation. Okay. Um, I'm, I had a desire, a desire came to meditate, I, I had been through a period of psychedelics and I had some very profound mystical experiences, uh, with that, with psychedelics, um, with LSD, I had some very, very deep spiritual experiences and then I had some very deep disillusion and difficult experiences after that, when I That door closed. And I, I didn't know how to get back to that sense of divine presence and that sense of unity of all life that I felt on, on, on LSD and I didn't know how to bring that and that divine sense back into my life. And then I read about meditation, and I took a course on. Eastern religion at, at the college that I was at. And, um, that changed my life. I, I realized that, oh, other people had these types of experiences, uh, way back when I was reading the Bhagavad Gita in my course. And it made me realize, Oh, these are not just some weird thing that happened on LSD or, you know, some weird, this is something that happens to people and other people feel these same things. They feel there's a unitary whole of being and that there is a, a, a, a one self and a one love. And, um, I, I got excited about that and from, from this course I was taking and then I wanted to meditate. And of course I lived, I was going to Southern Illinois University and it's in the middle of nowhere and not the kind of place in those days you would find the 60s, late 60s really, that you would find a meditation teacher. Then I got that feeling. And then the next week, two meditation teachers showed up in town. One was a TM meditation teacher and the other was this orange robe Swami. Uh, they called him Daji, and he was a monk of my guru to be, which I didn't relate to the idea of guru at that point. I had no idea, but. There was this orange room monk and I felt inclined towards him and he seemed like the real deal, you know, so, so I, so I learned meditation from him. I got involved in a community of people meditating, um, or some ups and downs and all of that, but finally. In my meditation, um, I had gotten afraid about meditating, so I'd stopped for a while, and then I started again, and the reason I had gotten afraid is because I was having unusual experiences, and I thought, Oh, these aren't happening to other people. Something must be wrong with me, you know, so I got a little scared. Um, but then I started meditating and everything was going smoothly for many months and nothing weird was happening and it was all good. And then suddenly I came out of one meditation and I realized that there was this voice that had been. This immensely holy being who had been or presence that had been talking to me in my meditation and that I was completely in love. And, um, and that in fact, this being had been talking to me for months in meditation, but I would forget it the moment I came out of meditation. And then one meditation. I just remembered it. I remembered all of the, you know, the whole thing that I'd been forgetting. And if I hadn't been forgetting, I would have quit meditation. But by this time,

Liz Hill:

maybe that's why you were forgetting.

Maetreyii-Ma:

Divine guidance to, to cause me to forget so that, but by the time I remembered it all, I was so in love. I was so attracted to this divine presence that even though I thought, well, this is weird. And I never heard of anybody having inner voices. This is a long time ago now, you know, except crazy people. So I was quite frightened by the idea, but I was also really in love by that time. I felt this divine presence and I just wanted to be close to this presence. And so that's how my inner guide came to me. And, uh, a series of mystical experiences happened, and then, um, my guide, um, said to me to come to India and be with him in physical form. And so I was, uh, my husband at the time and I, um, sold everything we had and, uh, bought one way tickets to India. Yeah. And then I went to see my guru and that's a whole nother story. A lot of which I talk about in my book and all the different experiences in it. mystical things and miracles, even that I experienced around my physical guru and the sort of blending of energy. I really felt my physical guru had the same energy signature as my inner guru. Okay. It's very interesting that, you know, it's like all beings, all divine beings are, and our own self and everything is part of one integral whole, you know, there, to me, there's only one guru, and that is Brahma, that is the infinite divine. Essence of all that is that is the group and a physical person can embody that a subtle presence can embody that, uh, and they can come in lots of different flavors, like different flavor ice creams. Right? You know, but it, it, it is the 1, the 1 eternal 1 that embodies the truth. And, and, and the love and, uh, beauty of the divine. And um, I found that in a particular flavor, I would say, you know, like chocolate as opposed to vanilla. You know, I found it, found it in a particular flavor in my physical guru, Shri Shri Anandamurti. Uh, when I was in India and in my subtle guru, who this guiding divine presence, who came to me and gave me his name as Baba. And it was definitely a masculine vibration to the inner. Presence. Um, I knew it was male, but it even, even when I felt it as a child, it was a masculine vibration. It was interesting. Um, and so that is the particular form that the divine presence came to me and has guided me and taught me and comforted me over the years. Um, but through that teaching, I have come to know that, that that is. That is one form of eternal being and that, that presence has many forms, but the essence of what is divine is beyond form. It is, it is in form and it is eternal. It's, it's, it's always the same.

Liz Hill:

And yeah, I understand that totally. So when you, so many things I want to ask you from that. But when you actually went to India. And you met Shri Shri Anandamurti Baba, how was that? How did you have a, like a recollection or a knowing when you met him? How, how did it feel when you first laid eyes on him?

Maetreyii-Ma:

It was terrible. It was terrible. So my husband and I, um, got to India and we, you know, we settled in in this ashram and then we were going to Darshan to see our guru. And the first thing that happens is we get in there and they say, oh, the men sit over here and the women sit on the side over here. And I went, you know, so that was my first distress. This is what, you know, I have to go sit on the side. I can't even sit in front. And, you know, so I went over with the ladies section and sat on the side. Cause it was, you know, it was Patna. It was traditional India, Patna is the capital of Bihar. It was traditional India, very traditional at that point. You know, there was no refrigeration, no TV, no radio, no, uh. Basically, very, very few cars. It was mostly, uh, rickshaws and boxcarts and mud streets. And, you know, it was, um, it was authentic India of the day and men and women had the, the relationship of men and women is very different than in Western culture. And so I entered traditional India and, uh, suddenly I was shuffled over to the side. And, um, that was the first distress. And then Baba came and the first thing that happened to me, he gave darshan, which is sight of the guru. So it's basically, there's a talk twice a day. And, um, what happened the first week or two is that everything you wouldn't want to think in front of a being who, you know, knows all your thoughts would rise up to the surface in my mind. It was terrible. It was an awful experience. I went, Oh my God. Why am I thinking that? Exactly. Why am I thinking that? You know, like I felt like it was just being drawn out of me, you know? So that was my first experience. So that was not particularly exciting. And so I'm like, uh, where am I in this place? It's totally sexist. And I have to sit over to the side and I feel completely ignored. Having all these terrible thoughts. It was, it was miserable. But, but after a few weeks, um, It began to change, and I began to feel this, um, bliss. But what happened, so I sat over on the side, so Baba's, like, his chokhi, which is this, like, kind of platform bed kind of thing that people sit on, and then everyone else just sits on the floor. There were no chairs, no backjacks, no chairs. Unfortunately, I was young. I was in my early 20s. I don't think it'd be the same now. Um, and the men sat in front and the women sat over to the side here. So he's facing the front. And he does this namaskar when he's leaving like this, and he would come to me and he would do like this and I go, because my inner Baba was telling me, you have to do something about this situation. And I wasn't doing anything about it because I can't follow that inner guidance, you know, what if it's wrong and I, I'm just, you know, a stranger here and so physical Baba would go like this. When he was, and I knew that that meant that. I was clearly doing something wrong and I knew that what it was, was I was not following him internally telling me I had to do something about the sexist situation. So, so I ended up, this whole drama took place over a period of weeks. And, um, first, you know, I talked with all the other European and, and, uh, American people staying at the ashram. There were a bunch of us and I, um, We all got together and, you know, nobody liked the situation in India, the classical Indian situation. So we decided, I sort of stirred up trouble. I would say, and we decided because I was being guided to do that. And so we decided that we were going to, uh, all the men were going to sit over on the women's side and protest and we were. And, uh, and there's this Kirtan dance, which is a part of, uh, was introduced by Chaitanya Prabhu and, uh, in the Middle Ages as a part of the Bhakti yoga movement where people dance Kirtan, you know, Hare Krishna's do it, you know, you've probably seen the Hare Krishna, but it's a, it's a part of Bhakti yoga. And so dancing Kirtan. And singing a chant Baba Nam Kevalam was, uh, part of what we did. And so, um, but women were not allowed to stand up and dance. Only men, you know, it was traditional India. Women sat on the side quietly and were ignored, you know, and, and frankly, the culture was one that they, that in the presence of men, women wore their sari over their head and looked down and it was considered sexually provocative to look a man at. Look at a man directly, you know, it was very, I, I kind of thought at times that the, the cows had more privileges than the women were supposed to stay at home. Uh, and, and, uh, not even go out unless accompanied by their husband or their father. Or maybe their brother, you know, so it was, it was traditional India had been that way for a long time, you know, and India has changed completely, but at that time it was classic India. And so, but Baba was essentially guiding me to stir things up. So all the men came over and sat on the women's side and. Then I could tell that the Indian women were disturbed because they're part of that culture. That's their reality. You know, they were, the men were college educated. The women were illiterate, um, you know, it was the time in India and, um, here's all these Western men came and sat with them and. They were uncomfortable and so we all stood up and did Kirtan and then Baba was facing forward and he came and he namaskar'd like this around our section and as he did this wave came out and we all fell on the floor. Wow. Yeah, yeah. And then, and then, um, you know, so I kind of went back to the drawing board realizing that was correct. So, you know, and I got from from my inner Baba that we were disturbing the, the, the Indian ladies. And he didn't like that. This, the point was to change, not to do harm to them who were, you know, in their own cultural context. And he, he didn't like that we disturbed them. That's what I got from my inner Baba. And, um, so then the next thing we did, the next thing that happened is it was my habit to, uh, meditate for a couple of hours before Baba came in to give his talk in front of his, Seat his Choki, this, uh, platform bed. And, um, I'd have very deep meditation. And so Baba came in and he, or no, he didn't come in before he came in. Uh, you know, they would. Always say, Diddy, you must move. And there was a, a guard there, a facilitator who would insist that we move and we'd have to go to the other side. And so, so the next thing that happened after the, the, the one didn't work is we, but it was blissful because we, we sort of had this miracle happen, you know, when he did knock us all down, then there was this blissful feeling like, whoa, you know, but then. It was also a message that, no, this isn't right, but then I'm sitting in front and Baba says, don't move. And they said, Didi, you must move. Um, Baba saying, don't move, keep meditating and, and this, these men are getting really upset because Baba's going to come in soon. And there's like huddled around me saying, did you must move? You must move. Of course, they, you know, they can't touch me because, you know, in India, you don't do that, you know, but they were getting really angry and really upset. And Baba saying, just stay. Don't move. Don't move. And then these guys are just getting to the point of exploding. And then, then suddenly Baba's coming in the door and they all have to run and sit down. And I'm sitting right in front of Baba, right directly in front, in the first row, you know, right in front of where he sits. And, uh, the next day the central office announced that that would be where, um, where, uh, the Western women would have a section of half of the front in front of Baba. So, so it changed, he wanted it changed, but without some reason for it to change, some disturbance, there couldn't be a change. And so, that was the guidance I got within, and after that, I just felt immense bliss whenever Baba would come in the room and talk. I would just feel, I would just be lost in divine bliss. You know, I, I didn't even hear much of it, what he would say, you know, I was just, uh, in a deep state of, of, of bliss. Uh, Samadhi, when Baba would come and talk and I felt a shower of bliss from him and uh, yeah, so that's, that's kind of how it started and it just got deeper. He started as a little rebel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shaking things up. Yeah, but I wouldn't have done it except for the inner guidance, you know. Um. One thing

Liz Hill:

I want to ask, because you make it very clear that this, that you're not channeling, that this is this presence with you. So can you explain to us what the difference would be for people that don't understand, but what's the difference between somebody channeling, um, and what you are experiencing?

Maetreyii-Ma:

Well, I feel that when you experience the presence of divine presence, it's coming from Shushanandamurti, as a physical man, was embodying not only his personality as a being, but something greater. Something that didn't originate in that body mind complex. Something, and my inner guru, I feel, is also an embodiment. I, I view him like a doorway that opens to infinity, you know, and behind that form. There is infinity. That's why my book is Into the Heart of the Infinite, right? It's, it's, it's behind that door of form, which is the Bhakti Yoga, amygdala form that you can relate to. But behind that is, is essence, is, is infinity, is, is, is the one. And so, yeah. I don't think we channel the one. I think the one graces us with a flow that comes to me channeling and it may be incorrect. I think channeling is wonderful. And I think a lot of people channel very high, high levels of consciousness, but, but they perceiving it as a, as an entity. Entity that they're channeling. I don't feel that I'm channeling an entity. I feel that I'm connecting to the one, and the one has a convenient form for me, Baba, right? But, but it's the one. I understand.

Liz Hill:

So I know this is something that you struggled with and I'd like to hear directly from you, your sort of take on it, your doubt of how can this be happening to me? And how did you, how did you sort of get your head around it? Really? That, that this, Yeah. Infinite being is, is here talking to you, coming through you. How, how did you, how did you know it was real? I know you had the feeling, so you had the, the feeling of bliss, but how long did it take you to tell people? It must've been quite a, a, a tricky one, I

Maetreyii-Ma:

feel. It was. Um, because, you know, this was. A long time ago now, and in those days, there wasn't much, um, at least here, there wasn't much understanding of these kind of things. And, um, you know, channeling even wasn't a thing that, you know, that's become popular since then, but. People didn't have connection, you know, only thing when I was at Southern Illinois University in my early twenties, I had never heard of anything except people being schizophrenic. You know, and so I was frightened by these experiences, but I was also tremendously in love. And so I had the common and I was having profound mystical experiences. So I was following something. At what I realized and I was afraid would be the cost of my sanity and, and I, um, and I would go into the, when Baba would feel close and I would feel the love, then none of that mattered because I was really in this divine presence. But, but then when that presence would get a little further from me. Then I'd go into, Oh my God, I'm, I'm crazy. You know, I'm, I'm going crazy. I'm, I'm listening to inner voices and only crazy people do that. And, you know, I, I, I had, uh, a lot of doubt, a lot of struggle. And so I went between these two, but when I went to India. It's all much more acceptable in Indian culture. When I, when I read, and when I read the Bhagavad Gita and I took the course on Indian, uh, uh, mysticism, you know, on yogic mysticism, then I, then I really, uh, that gave me a lot of confidence. And when I went to India, it's a, it's a different culture that doesn't, it doesn't have that same norm that we had. And so I didn't feel as, yeah, Weird.

Liz Hill:

And so when you, when you say you were at college, were you studying psychology

Maetreyii-Ma:

then? No, I was an art major then.

Liz Hill:

Right. Okay. So when did psychology

Maetreyii-Ma:

come in? It came in much later. Um, I actually, uh, I wanted to talk a little bit more about how the doubt thing came later on. Please do. Um, and, and then I'll go, maybe can go into psychology, but, um, so then I had a lot of experiences. I went to India. I had years and years of raising a family, going back to school, getting my PhD in psychology. And the reason I did it is I wanted to be able to work using this spiritual knowledge and spiritual. Experience that I had. I wanted to be able to share it with people. And I thought that transpersonal psychology would be a way to do that. And so, um, I went back to school, got my PhD, you know, uh, had to 2 wonderful boys and, you know, let a family life. My medication went from 10 hours a day to maybe a half hour. You know, um. And then, uh, I went through a long 20 years or more of, you know, being grounded in the world, seeing lots of different gurus, keeping up spiritual stuff, but grounding in the world. And then I, then I, um, I began, then, then again, I began to have a lot of mystical experiences after I got my license. Uh, a period happened where this in all this inner presence began to be more prominent. I began to meditate every spare moment. Um, and, uh, I felt this divine presence much stronger and I began to have all these experiences feeling this energy rising up and. You know, openings in the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet and white light and chakras opening and all different types of experiences began to happen. And I felt a deep communion with Baba. That was deepening. And then. In that, I felt that there, there was, I felt that Baba as a physical person was going to leave this world, my physical guru, I could feel that, that in there, that he was going to be leaving the world. And, um, then I had the experience that I went to, he, he passed out of his body, I was having these mystical experiences. He was telling me that something was going to happen, that there was this. Passing of a flame, lots of different images were coming, but that there was something going on. And then I went to India to see to for his, uh, cremation called Mahapriyan and, uh, in that cremation. I had this experience, this very powerful spiritual experiences during that time before the cremation when I went to see the body and when I went to be there and for deep, deep meditation and Baba basically said to me that He was passing this guru shakti on to me and I had no, first of all, I didn't know what the term meant. Um, and then, um, but I had the feeling that it was some sort of passage of something and I, I freaked out and that's where doubt really came strong. I, I was grieving, deeply grieving the loss of. This physical person, because I felt like the anchor of that divine energy was leaving the earth. And I also, and I felt like I had some past life connection and why was I here without him. Then, then I, I felt, what is this Guru Shakti passing the flame, the mantle? What is all this? You know, I said, I am a really ordinary person. I'm, he had a huge organization, lots of thousands of monks and nuns. I had nothing to do with it. I was not even active in it. Um, so it's like, I'm not part of any of this. It's what. This doesn't, you know, this is some delusion I'm having, you know, I convinced my, so I went home. I was really struggling with this. I convinced myself after a while that it was a delusion because I was so struck. I was struggling with grief and I was struggling with this. You know, I'm an ordinary person. I'm, I'm just regular Western women. I'm not. Anybody special, how can this, this kind of thing can happen to me, you know, there's got to be somebody, somebody, you know, there's got to be fantasy. And so I had my doubt was extremely strong at that point, which I'd always struggled with over the years, you know, but now it was, and I had, I What I'd done is I'd kept my spiritual life under taps. I don't think hardly anybody knew that I had this inner guru relationship. I just didn't tell anybody. That's how I solved it. I was a very open person, except I didn't mention my spiritual life. And, um, I was psychologically very open. You know, I'll tell you about all my problems, but I wouldn't tell you about. My mystical experiences are spiritual life for my inner Baba. I didn't share that with people and, um, there I was. He was saying this was a seed. This was this Shakti was in seed form, and it would grow and bear fruit. And I went, I don't see any proof of this. There's nothing in the objective world to tell me. This is real. I must be, I finally lost it. I was working as a psychologist in a developmental center, very traditional, uh, work situation. Uh, and there were, I think 21 psychologists at that place. So it was, you know, it was a big facility and, um, I had peers and I, you know, so I confided in one of my peers and said, don't, I'm losing it here. And then she said, no, no, this is real, you know, I was, so, I'm going, no uh. But I slowly, I went through a period of just, no, this isn't real. I'm, I'm, I'm, I've gotten off into some delusion. I'm just going to block it all out. And then I started having panic attacks, terrible panic attacks. I was just, it was terrible. And I went through three months of panic attacks. And then I finally said, okay, enough, you know, I'm just going to, I'm going to accept this. I'm going to, whatever's happening, I just have to deal with it. And I have to accept that something's going on. And then over the next few years, this, this ability to, I would say, bring through this divine force, uh, grew and I found myself giving talks, um, and people recording them and, uh, The talks didn't come. And in a way, it's kind of like channeling because they didn't come from my rational mind. They weren't anything like I, I, I just have to trust. And, and that was the whole thing here is to bring my spiritual life out into the. Surface was the big challenge for me, I think. So there is something in the process of spiritual transformation, and that was the struggle and doubt and fear are part of the part of the journey that I think most of us deal with, you know, yeah. And, um, that's the way it came out for me and it's, uh, it's a real part of the journey. And, you know, I would encourage anybody when you really, when you face your own doubts and your own fears, you know, believe in spirit, you know, trust spirit, trust your own heart, trust the love inside of you because love is always stronger than fear. And that's what I learned, that love is stronger than fear, and that spiritual transformation is a real thing, and that when this began to happen, and my dharma, my, my path in life was to bring this through, and it wasn't from my rational mind, it's like it came from a higher mind, and this would sort of drop into my mind, and words would just flow. And so I never knew what I would say from one moment to the next, and it would just become a flow, a flow of energy. And that, that went on for many years. In fact, I still give these talks called, I'd call them Baba talks. And, uh,

Liz Hill:

We have a podcast at you on the YouTube channel, which I'll put

Maetreyii-Ma:

in the show notes. That's right. They're, they're on the podcast and they're on the YouTube channel for anyone who wants to see them. And my other books, I have one Living Law of the Yoga of Yama Nima, which I, I, I gathered all the talks that had flowed through on Yama, Yama and I, I, I made them into a book. I edited them to be relatable to a book and put them in a book. I have another one on Dharma. And you've done six books, haven't you? Yeah, I've done quite a few. These are the most, most edited ones. It's the one on Dharma for Awakening and Social Change and the one on Living Love, the Yoga of Yama and Niyama. But all these books are, um, these, this flow of knowledge that comes through and, um, from Baba. But I have to say, I don't see Baba as a person. I see Baba as a doorway. It's a form behind which there is. Infinity and through which channels, this love of the infinite for living beings and comes into words, as it drops through my mind. It's such a perfect. Yeah, and it. It's been, it's grace. That's what I really feel. It's grace. And I feel the teachings that come, come from grace. And so the books, the books, the podcast, the YouTube are my effort to just share that with people. Um, that grace it's, it's for everyone. And that's what happened. You know, the Guru Shakti that I, I so doubted was really this this flow. Um, and it, it was there, but it took a few years for it to fully manifest just like he said it would. And, uh, I had to go through my doubt, my fear and my, and then finally my acceptance. Yeah,

Liz Hill:

surrender and acceptance, I suppose, is, is the big thing, isn't it? And particularly when you've kept it, kept your spiritual life so quiet over the years, and then all of a sudden you're expected to be Here you

Maetreyii-Ma:

go. It was. Exactly. Exactly. It's very challenging, you know, but I think that so many of us in our own spiritual journey and our story, we have our own version of that, you know, we have our own version of, of doubt and fear and not trusting ourselves, not trusting spirit. And Maybe not being so open about all of this internal work that we're doing with spirit, right? In whatever manifest way it is coming. And then, and then there comes a point where you have to sort of integrate the inner and the outer. What tips could

Liz Hill:

you give to somebody for

Maetreyii-Ma:

that? Continue meditation. Meditation is really the doorway, you know, and, and then trust. Your own intuition, trust your own divine connection, trust the love. That is there that trust that there is within you an ocean of love, a deep truth, and a deep peace, which is your own true nature and trust that trust how it comes to you. Look for how it shows up for you because each one of us, it'll be different and, and, um, and meditate. Meditate. Because meditation is really deep meditation where you meditate, um, you know, it's good to start out with the body scanning and, uh, those types of meditations, but there comes a time when it's important to meditate on the God within, uh, meditate, meditate on divine love, meditate on infinite peace, meditate on divine presence. You might even see a form of the divine that is particularly resonant for you, um, and know that that presence. It's it is infinite being in it. It is. It is your essence. It's who you are. It's what everything is, you know, and, um, I think trusting that and trusting your own spirit, trusting your own intuition, um, rather than trusting fear. I think,

Liz Hill:

I think this is the battle at the moment as I see it, and I don't like using that word battle, but is between, um, all this on social media, news, mainstream media, we're all being. In my opinion, sort of encouraged to divorce from ourselves to, you know, to, to let the fear come in and then we give into to a higher, higher, as in the media, what they want us to understand. And I'm not a conspiracist and that sounds like I am, but I'm really not. But I think that to me, that's the massive thing at the minute where you see people where everything, any, like the younger generation, like in the twenties. Anything they want to know is the straight onto the phones and yes, there's a, there's an amazing source of, of information that they can find that, but there's no trust in anything anymore because it's, it's in that the answer they look for is in that it's not in themselves. And, and I think that that's a quite a hard thing for me and I'm in my fifties and that's been. My life's mission to learn to trust myself because it is a hard one. Like you say, there's a self doubt and we all go through it. But I do think about the ones in the twenties and think, how are they ever going to trust? There are some that are, but there are some that, you know, there's a real black and white. So the ones that aren't, how are they ever going to find their way home? How are they ever going to feel that love? How are they ever going to experience it?

Maetreyii-Ma:

I think it's hard for us of an older generation, um, to trust the universe. Things are changing, you know, and I, I feel that I can't, I can't really see and judge that relationship cause that's not. That's not my, I didn't grow up that way. Certainly I'm on my phone and all the stuff like everybody else but for younger people who that's been how they grew up, you know, then, and that's. What they know, I don't know. Maybe there's something transcendent in that if you go far enough, and if you go deep enough, you know, so if, if whatever age you are, if you embrace time from meditation, time to quiet the mind, time to contemplate your inner nature, and time to connect with your eternal being, then Whatever those things are, they become, they become, uh, you don't externalize as much, you, you, you have your own inner journey and then you can learn to listen to your own intuition as well as, um, you know, then maybe all of this can be integrated because ultimately everything is. Within the one everything is in eternal infinite being the blade of grass. I'm looking at a beautiful plant. The plant is within within the leaves of the plant are, you know, everything has its cosmic source. Everything is part of that source. You know, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear a bird singing a brook running. Everything can speak to us, you know, and even in technology there, you know, scientists find their, their connection to spirit by going so deep, you know, what are the Einstein's of the world doing? They're going so, so deep. And if you. See how a lot of the scientific discoveries have come. They've come in dreams. They've come in aha moments of intuition, you know, concentrate, concentrate, you concentrate, and then aha, right, you know, you connect with the divine, and you get the download. You know, and so it's hard to say where technology is going. Technology is, is a transition. It's part of the infinite too. And so I, I don't know where it's all going, you know, and, and, and how people will find their way. But I do know that spirit is strong and the love within us is and that everyone who wants to, who feels a calling to, who will, We'll find their way who's, who's, who's meant to find their way and it will find their way and the forms may be forms that are unusual to you and I, you know, it's hard to know. No, it really

Liz Hill:

is. Maitri Ma, I've absolutely loved chatting to you. Enthralled by what we're talking about everything, and I hope everybody else will, well, I know everybody else will be too. I'm going to put all your details in the show notes below. So there's lots of ways that you can connect with Maytree Mart. There's, um, like we've said, there's YouTube channels, there's the podcast, and there's three websites I'll put the details of. There's a whole, there's the books, there's a whole host of information out there. Um. That you're just going to love. So thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so grateful that you've taken the time out. I really, truly am.

Maetreyii-Ma:

Oh, it's been wonderful to

Liz Hill:

be with you. It really has been truly wonderful. I think we've been very blessed to have you and I really do appreciate it. And that's it for me for now. And I will be back again soon with another amazing guest. Thank you for joining us. Bye.