Shivaratri Puja 2002

Shivaratri Puja, Pune (India), 17 March 2002.

Tonight we have gathered here to do Shri Shiva Puja. Those people who have a clean heart can only do Shiva Puja. Those whose heart is not clean cannot do Shiva Puja. It’s a simple principle of Shri Shivaratri.
As you have seen yesterday, we have snakes, or, these are horrible snakes guiding behind the Shiva Linga. The significance is this – those who are clean in heart, who are full of love for others, are always guarded by the power of Shiva, which are the snakes. It’s a symbolic thing, to say, very symbolic. But I must say that animals understand Divine force much better than human beings, much better. Because they have a clean heart. Whatever is their lifestyle built by nature, they carry on with it. But there’s no malice, there’s no jealousy, there’s not all these mean things in their heart. They do it because it is supposed to be.

But the quality of human beings is only one – and that is how much they love and forgive. Loving capacity of human beings are such by which they conquer all their negative forces – they can, easily, see that it’s not good to have all these qualities, or maybe that they understand it’s not noble to indulge into all these inhuman behaviour. They are not bound to indulge into all these things. Neither they are asked to be, but suddenly they get lured by such things which has got hatred, jealously and greed.
You see how Shiva lives. He lives in the Himalayas. See what clothes He wears, what He eats. He has no demand for anything because He is complete, He is perfect. Such a personality is Shiva’s. And if you are worshipping Him, you should find out within your heart what sort of feelings you have, what sort of malice you nurture.
These days in India, greed has become the main point. They are so mean and so low. It’s impossible to understand that they think money is everything, which is not in the culture of Indians, no, no. In no way. But somehow they have picked it up, in the foreign countries perhaps, and it is spreading very much now, that money is the most important thing.
Think of Shiva. He never thought of money. He never wanted any money. He never wanted to show off himself. There is such a difference between Shiva and Shakti. In their whole attitude. Because Shiva is absolutely a liberated personality, he’s not bothered. If the people are indulging into wrong things, he’ll destroy – finished! He doesn’t want to cure, He doesn’t want to improve, nothing of the kind. But for the Shakti it is important, because this is Her child, this universe is Her child. All this is created by Her, so naturally She is worried and She doesn’t like people who try to take to mean things and nonsense.

First of all it was human beings started indulging in power. They moved from countries to country to empower themselves. Where is that power gone? Finished. Then, after that, what happened with them is that they left their style with others. And now it seems it is very common to see people shamelessly being greedy. For them, is the solution, is Shiva. All such people will be destroyed. First of all they will be exposed and then they will be destroyed, to the last bit of it.

Another thing is that Shiva respects a person who has a good character; a person with a good character. And if anyone is a bad character or indulges into bad things, Shiva won’t spare them. So the Shakti creates, protects, looks after them, brings them up. But Shiva is sitting there, just to destroy! Very important, this destruction is very important. The Shakti doesn’t show those qualities. She may destroy some rakshasas, but He can destroy nations after nations.
First of all the ego you have – who will destroy that? That too somehow. Shiva is in your Sahasrara. He is sitting in the Sahasrara; now remember, on top of everything. The other day I saw one gentleman from the Broadcasting, a newsman, who was very, very stupid and was talking, very harshly. And I saw his Ekadesha Rudra “My God” I said, “This one is now going to be in trouble.” What is Ekadesha is nothing but the eleven powers of Shiva. They build up here and give you all kinds of diseases; the worst of all is cancer. And I knew that this fellow is going to have a very bad time. He is not a Sahaja Yogi, how am I to tell him? How anybody has to tell him? But it comes from this Ekadesha Rudra.
Now these are eleven powers of Shiva, very well described. Now these powers start working on people, even on Sahaja Yogis, if they do not follow the principle of Sahaja Yoga. He is, I should say, watching everything. Every part of your life He watches. How you behave, what you do, what is your dharma – He watches all that. And so many saints have warned you, so many incarnations have warned you; but I tell you if don’t listen to them, then Shiva is not going to listen. He doesn’t listen to anyone. If he’s angry, he’s angry. Whatever it is, very difficult to convince Him that ‘Please spare this person, it’s alright. Forgive.’ But his basic quality is forgiveness, can you imagine. His basic quality is forgiveness. But if He doesn’t forgive, then you are finished. Up to a point maybe He might forgive, but after that .. It’s a very, very difficult situation.

And I find that people don’t realise what Shiva is. In the south we have two types of people worshipers. One are shaivaites, another vaishnavaites. They are having a big fight between them. Now it is less, much less. What is the work of Vishnu is to give you realisation, emancipation of human beings, evolution of human beings. But if you fail in your goodness, in your dharma, then Shiva comes in your life.

We have to understand that we are all surrounded by their powers, we are all made by their powers, is the Shakti who is protecting you. But to an extent. She cannot go above Shiva, She cannot cross Him.
These days you find so many people indulging into politics – it’s all money-making propositions. They all try to make money, it’s not politics! They don’t do any good to the whole communities, nowhere – either under fear or under abandonment. They behave in such a manner that they are not afraid of God, they are not afraid of His own attention on them. Perhaps they don’t know that they are under the attention of Shiva. He’s watching each and every person, whether you are Australian, English or Indian. Whatever religion you may follow, He’s watching them.
This is a thing one has to understand. And once you understand this, you will accept that you have to be good and dharmic people. You have to be good character people. Why people talk of good character? Try to understand! It’s stupidity these days when people don’t believe in it. People are doing all kinds of things, they are drinking, they are playing the money business. All kinds of things they are doing without having any fear of the wrath of God. And that wrath comes from Shiva.

I would like to warn you all, though you are all my children – be careful! Try to weigh every step that you take. Of course I am there to support you, to help you, to protect you. But, not beyond Shiva, I can’t go beyond Him. It’s such a power of Shiva, it’s such an authority of Shiva. And to worship Him means to worship goodness. The goodness could be compassion, could be love, could be forgiveness, anything. He likes only good people, and He will protect only good people.
For example, some people are very power oriented, some are money oriented and some are power oriented. And the power oriented also do it for money sometimes, that’s the aim. They’ll not stay in Sahaj. They will be displaced. They do it, and then come and ask for forgiveness, “Oh Mother forgive us, we have done it”. But try not to do anything of that kind. I, of course, forgive you, but Shiva, He won’t, He won’t. He will take you to task and then you will come to Me “Mother, You must save us!” It’s very difficult. From His clutches it is very difficult. Also He’s a very forgiving person. He forgives you, many things. Because of Me also He forgives. But, after some time when He takes over, there’s no appeal, there’s no safety.

I do not want to frighten you, but I want to tell you the truth, it is the truth. You have to try to be good people. You have to try to be really good character people. I am told some people who are in Sahaja Yoga indulge in money laundering and all that. Also some of them have very bad characters, they run after girls and they try to look at the girls and all sorts of things. Now this has ruined the west especially. Also our Indians are learning from it. As it is, we have to respect ourselves. If we don’t respect ourselves, and we try to misbehave, I can only help you with your Kundalini. But if you go too much beyond it, Ekadesha Rudra will catch, no doubt. It’s a very big barrier on your forehead. Eka-desha Rudra, and it is so effective nowadays, so much active. All kinds of diseases which are coming out, is all incurable, are because of Ekadesha. And also those who are suffering from possessions.

The other day I met somebody who was very much caught-up. And the Ekadesha was working. I found out that he is very fanatically influenced by something. I don’t want to name it, but these, we have found out, are not correct things. In every religion we have people who are spreading nonsensical ideas. Now if you don’t have discretion about it, nobody can help you. You should have a full discretion as to what is right and what is wrong. Then Shiva is with you. But if you indulge into all such nonsensical things, it is self-destructive, I must say. But to the Self which is destructive is the power of Shiva. What we call the Self here, is the power of Shiva.

He destroys by many ways, by many ways. You can lose your reputation, you can lose your health, you can lose your wealth, everything can happen to you till you are completely finished and ..?.. I have known people on the death-bed also, start talking about money, ‘What should she get, money, how will he get money, and this and that’. Instead of talking about God or Self Realisation, they are talking like this. It’s such a noble thing. But if you see Shiva, He doesn’t possess anything, He doesn’t want anything. Whatever you give to him, as a samarpana or anything, that He doesn’t accept, and He passes on to the Shakti, “You do whatever you want to do.”

She’s the one who is working out everything to benefit you, to make you happy. He’s not bothered. In this case, you have to please Shiva! He will not try to please you, you have to go all the way to please Him. It is a very difficult personality of Shiva. In the Koran, it is not written separately for Allah or for Shiva, it is not differentiated. Because the people with whom He had to deal were all uneducated, stupid people. So He didn’t give all the details that God is in different forms. So there is only one Allah they know. But they don’t do anything that shows the differentiations of their jobs and work. It is the Shakti who loves, I agree. But She too, can get angry very much. And once She gets angry, there is no end to it!

Now I have to tell you, as Sahaja Yogis, that you develop you qualities to please the Shiva. It’s too much of hankering, too much of ‘wants’. All this is not necessary. Of course I want you to live well, and beautifully, not stupidly – to go into jungles or to behave like hippies – that’s not the point. The point is, from your heart, the attachment to things must go away. A person who is a Shiva Bhakti – he doesn’t care for money, he doesn’t know about money. He is a very generous person, extremely. He’s just generous. People say he is stupid the way he goes on, the way he goes on. But I don’t think so. That’s not at all the description. The description of a man who is a bhakta of Shiva has no interest in money, is very generous. Anything you ask from that, he’ll give.

Mahavira’s was like that. Mahavira had gone for his meditation in his own garden and Vishnu as Shri Krishna came and told him that, “See, I have no clothes. You have got this cloth, why don’t you give me half of it?” He said, “All right, you can have it. You can have the whole.” Because he said this, “My house is here, I’ll just wear my clothes.” What he did was not to show that nudity is a very great thing. But if you see the Jains, what to do, they make big, big statues of Mahavira showing Him completely nude. I mean, this is the perversion of human mind. Why He did it, we should know. He was so detached, so detached, to give away the clothes, what is the harm? It was not to show-off or anything. But the generosity, people don’t understand. And the Jainies are the least generous!

So the quality of all these great incarnations is also not understood. Because a kind of an illusion is there. For example, Shiva is always with very few clothes, very few. And what does he eat? No-one knows. What is his desires and what does he want? No-one knows. A person with a great knowledge of music will sing before him, He’s alright. Or even any madcap comes and sings, He’s alright. For Him it doesn’t matter, He’s not meticulous about how the music is and what the notes are, whether it is alright or not, no. He is beyond all these things. He is beyond all these formalities that we have about everything, he is beyond. He is spirituality itself, he is beyond all these things. Whether you are a musician or you are an artist, whatever it is you are, He’ll enjoy. He’s the enjoyer, and He’ll enjoy – whatever is simple, whatever is given with the heart, He’ll enjoy. Whatever is expressed with the heart, He’ll enjoy. He is not a conditioned person, that it should be modern, it should be such and such. He is not conditioned. He doesn’t think that way like human beings who will sit down and make a meticulous everything, does it fit into it or not. Even, even for art, even for anything that is created out of somebody’s heart, they will try to discourage that person.

I have seen people, they have such conditioning. And one thing about Shiva, he has no conditioning of anything, nothing. That’s why they call him a mast-maulaa – He is not at all conditioned. If you have any conditioning in your mind, then you are not a Shivabhakta. It’s all right, you should dress up well, you should do this … but you should not have conditioning that ‘If you don’t do that you are being out of cast, out of fashion, out of this …’. It is very difficult for people not to accept. All kinds of fashions are coming nowadays, all kinds. I tell them, “What is this?” “Oh this is the fashion.” Is it some God behind this fashion, or is there some deity who is telling you these fashions? Today it comes, tomorrow it will disappear.
So, what I am saying, that if you have to worship Shiva, you should de-condition yourself. You are living in the world of Sahasrara. Now, somebody is not properly dressed – finished! Somebody is over-popularly dressed – finished! Human beings have a capacity to criticise everyone. And to criticise everyone, this is nothing fundamental because if you do it on vibrations, one can understand. But not on vibrations, just because ‘this is not the fashion, that is not the fashion’.

What is the fashion of Shiva, tell me. Has He any fashions? Anything you give Him, He’s happy. Whatever you give Him, He eats that. He is full of such appreciation because He is personified as Joy. He is peace and He is joy. If you are worshippers of Shiva, then you should not have any conditioning of any kind.
I mean, normally I also wear simple saris, very simple. And it happens that people think I am a very poor woman. I am poor because I don’t care for money, I don’t bother. So, we should know that Shiva is the poorest man, purest God. He doesn’t wear any alankaras, he doesn’t wear anything, just he lives with his own body. Because he is nothing but embodiment of enjoyment, nothing but complete form of enjoyment and joy.
So another quality of Shivabhakta* should be joy. You should be joyous about everything – whatever you see, whatever type of person you see. So the only way you can do, is give up human quality of criticism – to criticise others. Like if the English go into the Indian house, they say “We don’t like it.” “Yes, what, what you don’t like?” “We didn’t like the carpet.” ‘I don’t like it’ itself is against your Shakti. Then, if supposing an American goes to an English home, he’ll say, “I don’t like it.” It’s very common. All the people say “I don’t like it”, “I didn’t like that”. Who are you to say ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘I like it’. People don’t realise that by saying all these things, you are showing that you have no Shiva principle in you.

I can understand somebody who cannot walk, alright, for such a person is allowed to use some sticks or something, allowed. But if he says “I don’t like that person because he doesn’t use the stick.” Shows that he is such an egoistical fellow. Himself is using the stick and he wants to create what, warts (laws?) or what, in a democratic country, that people should walk with the sticks in their hands. It is very difficult.
In the west it is very common, you see, to have this kind of a hat, to have this kind of a dress, to wear this kind of a chiroot(?). All kinds of things have a conditioning. Nowadays the hairstyle has become very funny with women. Because they don’t put oil in their hair. They will not have any grease in their hair. If somebody’s going to meet them they will wash their hair. I don’t think it looks very nice. Of course I don’t say that you need not have so much of oil on your face and ears. But, what is so important?

In life, also there is another thing that we are very self-centred. We want to impress people. If I wear a dress or anything, it should impress. I mean, even it impresses – so what? If a snake comes along, he will bit you, whatever dress you might be wearing, whatever country you might be from. All this kind of identification, it doesn’t behove a Shivabhakta. A Shivabhakta has to be just absolutely lost in the raptures of joy. Very particular about hairdress, very particular about dresses – I don’t know what they are particular about. With all that, what do they gain? Nothing. Do they become popular? And this kind of popularity, which is so skin-deep, what’s the use?
You must have respect, respect of your being. As not only human beings, but as Sahaja Yogis. You are Sahaja Yogis. We are Shiva’s bhaktas, we don’t care. We are not bothered. Whatever it is, Shiva is there within us and we shine with that power within us that is of Kundalini. You may be very well dressed, you may be anything. If your vibrations are bad, what’s the use? If you cannot judge people by their vibrations, by nonsensical things like dress and moustaches, is it of any value?

In Sahaja Yoga your value system has to be Sahaj. I have seen many people, “I don’t like their house, I didn’t like this …” ‘I don’t like’ is the sentence, is nishidda, is to be given up by Sahaja Yogis. If you don’t like anything, you are not a Sahaja Yogi. Now, of course if there is somebody who is anti-Sahaj and all that, but still by saying ‘I don’t like’, what are you going to gain? It’s a waste of energy. Because of this, in Sahaja Yoga I have seen, people have created problems for Me, so many problems. Only because they are such much ‘self’ oriented. “This man is bad, that woman is bad, he is this, that …” Sometimes I am surprised. Because when those people come to me, I am amazed that they are very nice people.
But people are very self-centred, also. Like I have seen people who are not bothered to come to meetings, to pujas*. Because they have got work. Altogether there are eleven pujas, but they don’t come. Because they are very busy. At least to one puja you should come. But those who are Shivabhaktas only enjoy nothing but pujas. Nothing else. Their whole being is absolutely vibrated by Shiva bhakti. To them, that’s the most important thing to do.

Also there are people in Sahaja Yoga who are trying to make money out of Sahaja Yoga. Very wrong, very wrong, very wrong. Sahaja Yoga is to give you punyas, to give you blessings, and if that is not in your mind, better give up Sahaja Yoga. You can join some business or something of malpractices very easily, very easily. Till you end up in the jail you are there. But to enjoy your spiritual powers you must learn certain things. And one of them is de-condition yourself – ‘I don’t like it’ or ‘I like it’ – this sentence must go away from your tongue!
Likes and dislikes are only for people who have limited vision. You should learn to appreciate. Your power of appreciation will show how spiritually you are endowed. And your power of observation will show what do you observe. For example, some people will come and tell me, “I didn’t like that lady, she was wearing a funny sari.” I mean, what is this? “I didn’t like her, because she was putting her hand on her head”. So what? Because you make your own images of people, and you want everybody to be like that, otherwise you don’t like it. Whether you like it or don’t like it, nobody’s going to change. Why waste your energy?

Sometimes there are musicians who are not so good. I remember, once I went home and I asked my father, “How does this musician sing?” He says, “He’s very courageous, very courageous.” I said, “Why, what happened?” He said, “He sings without bothering about it and he goes out of tune sometimes, he goes out of taala, doesn’t matter, but he sings. He’s very courageous, himmatwala” So, that’s how he used to appreciate, I have seen. When this fellow started singing, I saw he was like that, but my father was saying “Wa-wa, wa-wa” and encouraging him. You see, I have seen in my father these divine qualities, how he used to tolerate, how he used to – I mean not tolerance also, just appreciation. Of any kind of thing he used to appreciate.
That’s what, if the Sahaja Yogis have that condition of appreciation they will enjoy everything. Because you kill your enjoyment, do you know that? You are all variety of people here, all variety of dresses, all variety of families and so many countries you are here. To Me you are nothing but Sahaja Yogis, my children, that’s all. Now I don’t go on judging you on your dress, or on what your hairstyle is, no. All modern things are extremely conditioning. And they condition you so much that you get irresponsible. As Sahaja Yogis you get irresponsible.

Your first and foremost responsibility is Sahaja Yoga. Because you should know what a work it is. It is such a great work, to transform the whole world – that is My vision. And this old age I think the same. Now, if that is My vision, what should be your attitude? That we should go all out to spread Sahaja Yoga. That’s the main thing. I call you for these pujas just to renovate, I should say, to give you more of energy and all that. But if you are just taking it as a great blessings and sitting at home it’s of no use. You must spread Sahaja Yoga!
I was surprised that they said in Lucknow there are only two hundred Sahaja Yogis. How can that be? First time I went to Lucknow, there were at least three thousand Sahaja Yogis and we had not fixed any hall or anything. And can you imagine, suddenly I find so many people [gone]. How is it there can be two hundred Sahaja Yogis? Either you are telling lies, or you are good for nothing.
So the responsibility of all the Sahaja Yogis, of all the Sahaja Yogis, first and foremost, is to spread Sahaja Yoga. How many people have you given realisation? Where have you talked about Sahaja Yoga? I have seen even in the plane, if you are travelling, anyone who is there will tell Me “My guru is this, you know, such a great guru, this that.” Openly, shamelessly, about horrible gurus! While you people are very shy to talk about Sahaja Yoga. Never publicly unless and until you have a programme, and public programme and all that. You have no time, also, for Sahaja Yoga, very busy people.

So, if you have to follow Shiva and His blessings all the time, His protection to you,, then you have to be Sahaja Yogis of very high quality. It shows when you go all out to spread Sahaja Yoga. That is the thing missing. I am very happy that in Australia Sahaja Yoga has spread so much. I don’t know what has happened. In a far fetched place like Australia. In the beginning I had some set-backs but now it has spread. Also in Austria it has spread. And also in Italy. But otherwise, just doesn’t spread. What’s the matter? The matter is the leaders are not going all-out. Say, for in England I travelled from north to south, east to west in all the directions. We have very poor, very poor Sahaja Yogis there. You have to go to universities, to younger people. If hippy-ism can spread, why not Sahaja Yoga? It spread like wild-fire, why not Sahaja Yoga?

All these things are there, which I have to warn you – be careful! If you have got Realisation, you have a responsibility – to give realisation to others, and to spread Sahaja Yoga.
If you can’t do it, then God save you. I have nothing to say. You have to introspect, ‘What have I done for Sahaja Yoga. What have I got from Sahaja Yoga?’ And I am sure after this Shiva puja, you will dedicate yourself to Shiva principle within you. Shiva principle doesn’t ‘stir out’, it’s very, very stern, it’s very powerful. You have to dedicate, and you have to surrender. Above every other job, above every other performance, the highest is this.
So, with this, I ask Shiva to give you blessings, complete blessings, so that you get transformed into the personality of Shiva.

May God bless you all.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 805