Shri Krishna puja. Nirmal Nagari, Canajoharie, New York (USA), 29 July 2001.

Today we have gathered here to worship Shri Krishna, the One who was Virata, who fought all kinds of evil without entering into the arena. Shri Krishna’s life, in itself, is a very beautiful, creative and loving thing, but to understand Him, it is not easy.

For example, in Kurukshetra, where the war was going on and Arjuna became depressed and he said that: “Why should we fight, fight our own kith and kin, fight our own close relations, friends and our gurus? Is it religion? Is it Dharma?”

Before that, in Gita, Shri Krishna has described a personality which is a sage. We can call him a Saint. Or He called it a Sthita Pragna. So, when asked what is the definition of the sthita Pragna, the description He gave was about a person who is absolutely at peace with himself and at peace with his atmosphere.

It’s very surprising. All this knowledge He gave in first place in the Gita. That is—that is the best, that He called as the Gnyana Marga. That is Sahaja Yoga, by which you get the subtle Knowledge. But at the same time, when you see Him advising Arjuna, it is very surprising that here He’s talking only of spirituality, of complete detachment and there He’s telling Arjuna that: “You go and fight. They are already dead people. Whom are you fighting?”

This conflict is difficult to understand, that how could Shri Krishna, the same person who is preaching that: “You have to all become Sthita Pragna”, suddenly starts telling Arjuna that: “You go and fight the force!”? One side it is complete detachment and another side is the war. How will you explain this? It’s Shri Krishna’s own words, one can say, that once you are a Realized Soul and you have reached that highest position in your awareness, to you everything is futile.

But just now, what you have to do is to save the Dharma—not the Dharma that people talk about—but the Dharma means evolutionary process of human beings, which is going on. And, if all the good people, those who stand for righteousness, are finished, then how will this evolutionary power be saved? So you have to save them and for that, if you have to kill, you don’t kill anybody, they’re already dead, because they’re not evolved souls and they don’t care for their Realization.

So you have to fight them. You have to fight the negative forces. You have to fight the wrongdoers. All this He explains in a very beautiful manner, that we have within us three kinds of powers, which we also know, and by the middle one that we have, we rise above all these material, physical, mental, emotional—all these problems facing us into a new realm of spirituality. And that’s what He wanted to save from the cruel people, from the aggressive, who were also misleading others.

It’s a very good understanding, if you have, that: “Who is your relation? Who is your brother? Who is your sister?” Those who are evolved souls are your relations. They are your own and, for them, if you have to fight the people who are aggressive, you better do it. You have to do it. That is the way of Dharma.

So we have three paths, as you know, in Sahaja Yoga.

The one is of Bhakti. Bhakti is where you sing the praise of God, have devotion, do all kinds of rituals, everything and you think that you are very close to God. This is one which is being accepted by many, many people and by many so-called religions, that: “We must have complete dedication for God.” How did- you are not yet connected to God. How, what are you doing? How can you have any dedication to God, with whom you are not at all connected?

The second one was the Karma, that you do your work. You go on doing your work with a detached mind. I mean it’s not possible, but that’s what they say and we are doing our Karmas, good Karmas, we do all kinds of good things, go to various places for our cleansing, meet many great people of spirituality, go to all various places and pray, visit all auspicious places which are being described. All kinds of rituals, we do for that. That is the Karma Yoga. And that is what the Karma Yoga, according to us, is the right side. Many people, as you know, are right-sided. Right-sided people are the people who are, as you know, full of ego, arrogance and think no end of themselves—very difficult to correct them. They also never see anything wrong with them. Whichever way they act, they think is all right. That is the Karma Yoga.

But He has said that, “Whatever Karmas you do, whatever its fruits are, that you cannot say”. He said it in a very uncertain manner, because, definitely if He had said it with certainty, people would never have understood Him. So He said: “It is not possible that whatever Karmas you are doing could be the Karmas which will get you the blessings of the Divine.” “Karmineya paleshu ma kadajanye”, He has said it. So then, which Karmas we should do? Or should we give up all the Karmas? All the action, we should give up? People were in two minds. This is the style of Shri Krishna, is to put people in two minds, so they use their discretion.

And third one is the discretion, which He calls as the Gnyan marga, is the central path, by which you evolve. You evolve into a new state, into a new state of your mind, a new state of your being, by which you become absolutely above every nonsense. Also you are endowed with power to fight whatever is bad, whatever is corrupting, whatever is killing this one. At that stage, you are equipped with a Divine Power that you can finish off anything that is negative around you.

This is to be understood that that’s a state. That’s not just talking. That’s not just believing that: “I am that”, but it’s a state. If you come up to that state where you are beyond all these things and you have all the knowledge, pure knowledge, the subtle knowledge of being, this is the Gnyan marga.

Many people say that everybody cannot go to Gnyan marga and, for that, you have to have a special type of personality, but this is very misleading. Everyone can go into Gnyan marga. It is very, very innately built within us, this evolutionary attainment. It is within us and all of us can have that. Only thing is we have no confidence perhaps, that we go on avoiding it and go to cheaper things, like becoming devoted to something, doing some sort of a ritual, going to some sort of a holy place, all kinds of nonsense, which doesn’t give you the evolutionary ascent, by which you know the Knowledge, the pure Knowledge, the real Knowledge.

So far, whatever you have known was written in the book, whatever your parents told you or whatever you have explored outside. But the knowledge which is the purest, which is the real Knowledge, which is the Gnyana, that you can only get through your ascent and establishing yourself properly in that state. If you go on denying it, you cannot get it. But everyone has right to get it. You need not be educated, you need not be a very simple person, you need not be very rich or poor, makes no difference, as long as you are a human being and a humble human being, thinking that you have to achieve that state. You all can get that state, which you know very well.

And at that state you become absolutely knowledgeable, knowledgeable about yourself, knowledgeable about others, knowledgeable about everything that goes around. But this state must be maintained, and try to go above that state where you have no more doubts left in you. This is what Shri Krishna taught and this is what one has to achieve, but He, being a diplomat, He tried to tell you other stories: “Try this, try that, this, that.” But actually, what He has praised is Gnyan marga.

Ours is a Gnyan marga. That is the Knowledge, the path of Knowledge in which you have to know all the Knowledge. Unless and until you have the whole Knowledge, you are not yet a Gnyani, a person who knows. In this way, He has established that our evolutionary process has to come beyond all other human awareness.

Other human awareness is of no value for a spiritual personality. Now he knows something, say how many miles it is from here, say, to New York or what trains go there. All this knowledge is not real – how much this cloth will cost, how much this carpet will cost, in what shop you can get. All this knowledge is just useless, is not the real Knowledge. Such a person doesn’t know this kind of knowledge, but what he knows is the Knowledge about your being, Knowledge about the whole universe, which is not how many stars there are or how many universes there are. No – it is the subtle inner personality of everything, he knows. In that subtlety, he discovers so many new things which he may not even heard about and, thus, you reach a state of great knowledgeable personality. This is what we have to achieve.

We are born as human beings and we know so many things already. People know so many things, but they don’t know the actual. This Knowledge doesn’t come through your reading or through your intellectual pursuit or for your emotional movement—No! It is ‘shashvat’ [eternal]: it is all the time there, it exists, it will exist. And it is just to be understood, just to be known to yourself what it is. It cannot change. It cannot be remoulded. It is what it is. And that is what you know now. Nobody would doubt that, because those who haven’t got this state, they may doubt, they may call you crazy, they may think anything, but with the open eyes, whatever you say is the Truth. In the same way, with the open heart and a open brain, when you know that, that is the real Truth and that is what is to be known.

For that, according to Shri Krishna, you have to go through various tests. One is, “You go on praying to Him.” He says, “You go on praying to Me and if you give Me flowers, I’ll take. If you give Me water, I’ll take. Whatever you’ll give Me, I’ll take.” He says clearly, but what will you gain out of that is very important. He doesn’t say: “If you give Me something, I’ll give you something.” He doesn’t say that.

So what should be the state? What should be the condition? He said: “If you praise Me, if you have Bhakti for Me, you are giving Me presents, you are doing all sorts of things, you are very dedicated, but you should do Ananya Bhakti.” Word is ‘Ananya’. Ananya means when there is not the other, when we are one, when we are connected, then the Bhakti you do that time, whatever music you have of devotion, whatever flowers you give, whatever expression you have, it should be Ananya.

That’s the word He said, that: “Do Ananya Bhakti! Pushpam palam toyam. Whatever you give Me, I’ll take.” He’ll take everything. He’s the one who is the only Bhokta, means He is the only enjoyer. But what will you get, He says, “when you do Ananya Bhakti”? Means “when you are one with Me.” That means you are connected with Him.

That’s how He has explained Bhakti, what is Bhakti is very clearly. But people don’t understand. They think that Bhakti means you go on singing on the street: “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna”, this and that, is Bhakti. Is not. If that was real, they would have achieved something, but they did not. Now, don’t blame Krishna for that! He has clearly said it should be Ananya Bhakti.

Only by changing your dress, wearing a particular type of style, that’s not it. That’s all so outward. It’s just to show off. But actually Ananya Bhakti is within yourself, when you are in that state, when you are one with the Divine. Unless and until that state you have achieved, not only that, but have established, it doesn’t give you anything.

Many people have told Me, “We are doing so much of Bhakti Yoga, Mother. We don’t get anything”. “Really, what sort of Bhakti Yoga we do?” Read Shri Krishna’s Gita. Every morning, get up at four o’clock, take bath, read Krishna’s Gita, do this, do that. Then we sing bhajans, this. We never get anything. So what is the reason?” Reason is that you are not one with God. And when you are one with God, then what does He give you? He won’t give you cheap things, which will vanish in no time, but of some eternal nature. So, He gives you peace, peace of the heart. He gives you balance. Also He gives you a tranquil temperament, joy of life. All these things are there within us if we have the Bhakti, which is after being united, after the Yoga, with the Yogeshwara. This is what one has to understand.

Now, there are many Karma Yogis who go on working mad, absolute madly. They think, “We are doing, after all, nishkamaseva, without any desire we are serving people, we are serving the nation, we are serving this”. Ultimately, what do you get? What you get may be money. Might be you might get a good house, maybe all these things, but you don’t get peace of heart. You don’t get peace of mind. You don’t get that joy, that joy which has no boundaries, which cannot be explained, which cannot be described, that boundless joy, you don’t have. And you don’t get that eternal peace, which can stop wars. Completely, it can abolish this cruel nature of human beings. That you don’t get.

But apart from that, you get the powers. You get the Knowledge—Knowledge, the subtle Knowledge about everyone. You know about everyone, where are they missing the point. You know about yourself and about others. This Knowledge you get, not in the college or in the schools, but within yourself is the Ocean of Knowledge and, whichever way you want to see, whichever you want to achieve, is there, there present.

That is what is the real Knowledge, what we call that you achieve through the Sukshma Gnyana—means the subtle Knowledge, Knowledge about Chakras, Knowledge about the Universe. Everything you can get out of this. But then you get more interested in giving Knowledge to others. You don’t want to know so many things then. What is the need to know about banking, say, about who is the richest man in the whole world? All these things you don’t want to know. Your whole attitude changes and what you get is nothing but a kind of a tranquil mind, which knows everything that is to be known. That is what one has to achieve.

Now this country of yours, America, is very ‘Karmakandi’. It goes on doing work, work, work. They’re workaholics. They work so hard and what do you get? You get children who are drug addicts. You get wives who are running here and there. You get broken families and no peace. You support wars. Only thing is that, so far, this country is being protected in a way, but also you have destroyed so many aboriginals, so many fundamental things that you should have preserved.

A day may come when they will realize that: “This is what they have been doing and this was very wrong.” A day will come when we’ll have so many Realized Souls in America. But just now the situation is the people are just gone mad with the idea of making money and they discover that now no more, finished. So now what to do? What to do? Come to Sahaj Yog!

Do Sahaja Yoga, then you will get the treasures of your being, which are within you, which will give you all the comfort, all the joy and all the supremacy that any amount of money, any amount of power can’t give. This is what we have to do, is to take to Sahaja Yoga and make others also Sahaja Yogis, so that they also get that peace, joy and satisfaction. And this madness of running from one thing to another will be finished, because you can never be satisfied with that. Want to buy today one thing, then tomorrow want another thing, then want to doing another thing. You are never satisfied. You don’t get any joy out of what you have desired.

So your pure desire, it should be to be one with the Divine. That is how it will work out.

Shri Krishna’s specialty was that He always supported people who were Realized Souls, who were on the right path, who were doing righteous things. He would never support anybody who may be well off, who may be great thing. Like a great king was Duryodhana. He invited Shri Krishna to his house, to his big palace to be his guest. Shri Krishna said: “I am sorry.” He went to Vidhura, who was the son of a maid, Dasiputra, because Vidhura was a Realized Soul. Because he was a Realized Soul, to Him he was much higher, much greater than Duryodhana who was a ruler, because he was a crook, because he was a bad man.

So, the discrimination between good and bad becomes one in your mind, becomes one of your inner temperament, then you are always very much satisfied, because you know you have not been doing something which is wrong. The discrimination is the gift of Shri Krishna. Apart from anything else, He gives us the gift of discrimination. That is His style, I should say, to teach you how to discriminate and then you become experts on ‘discrimination on vibrations’. On vibrations, you can judge everything so clearly, so beautifully. Others may not agree with you—that’s a different point—but you know what is right and what is wrong. And that is what Shri Krishna’s gift is.

As it is, you know He is controlling sixteen sub-Chakras within us. He controls everything. He controls your throat, nose, eyes, ears. All these things He controls, but ultimately, what does He say? He says He is the Virat. Virat means the One who is the great, great lord, what we call “Akbar” and that’s why, in the Muslim thing, they accept that: “Allah Hou Akbar”. I mean, because it is in a poetry, it’s partly clear, partly not clear, but He was a Virata and He showed His form to Arjuna and Arjuna was amazed to see His form, that He’s the Virata. He’s the One who is great, absorbing everything and He’s the One who is taking out everything. He’s Yama. He is the One who is the God of death. He has so many. You know His names are there written down.

All these powers are within, which He uses, wherever it is needed.

So, the Sahaja Yogis first have the power of satisfaction. It’s tremendous practice, satisfaction. Imagine in this place, you are all enjoying so much, you are living here so happy. Shows what? You are so satisfied. Otherwise nobody would like. They would say: “No, we want to have some nice place. What is this? We don’t want to live here with everyone.” But to live with others, this collectivity also is the blessing of Shri Krishna. He teaches you to be collective, the fun of collectivity, the enjoyment of collectivity.

A person who is secluded, who keeps himself off, like a drunkard, is not the one who worships Shri Krishna. The one who is one with Shri Krishna enjoys everybody who are there, specially if they are all Realized Souls, that person enjoys their company very much. That is something so easily understood in your lives, if you see how you live happily, morally, absolutely perfect. In no way, you do anything immoral, steal anything or have bad feelings for other people. It’s something surprising that has happened to you, that you are all living so happily in one place together with Satya.

His collectivity is to be understood, because I always say that Shri Krishna is the deity of America. America is also very collective. Like, it will be interested in every country. It will be bothered about everyone, but in a wrong way tries to help. Always it is never in the right way. Now, supposing there is a country where they are producing lots of drugs. Why not invade that country, instead of invading other countries? It’s like that. Discrimination is missing.

Unless and until you have that, you cannot use your power of collectivity properly. Though they are collective, but what collective work have they done? Even now, they want to say they are separate, they are different: “Whatever problems we are facing are our own.”

So this collectivity has been so much minimized in a country of Shri Krishna itself. Though they have that within themselves, a feeling that they should talk about every country, they should give lead to every country, they should consult every country, but always take a wrong decision about those countries. This comes because they are not discriminating. They should be discriminating.

So many things can be said about Vishuddhi Chakra, but specially I am more concerned about two Chakras on two sides. One of them is, as you know, is the Lalita Chakra on left side and Shri Chakra on the right side.

I’ve always told ladies that, “Please keep these covered!” It looks so simple, but it’s very important. Don’t expose these, because power of these should be preserved—Shri Chakra and Lalita Chakra, they’re very important. They are, I should say, feminine powers and they are the feminine powers of Shri Krishna, which must be understood that, whatever way you respect your body, that is the way your Chakras are and that is the way you suffer.

For example, you do not respect Shri Ganesha, you will suffer. And if you respect Ganesha and do not behave in a manner that you should behave, you will suffer, you’ll have problems. So the whole body reacts. Body reacts to outside influences in such a manner that you start seeing there is something wrong somewhere and that’s why you behave like this.

Apart from that, eyes are supplied by this Chakra also. So, when you look at something, it should be very pure glance. The purer it is, the better you will enjoy. But if the glance is not pure, is shifty, going from here to there, there to there, then you are actually going against your Dharma, against your evolutionary process. And one day will come when you might become blind. You might develop cataracts, you might develop all kinds of diseases of the eyes, which are ‘very’ important to pay attention to.

Then this connection also goes to the tongue. The tongue is looked after. But those people have a very bad habit of suddenly saying horrible things, of suddenly saying very bad words, or sometimes getting after somebody with the very bad remarks. All such things are very bad for the tongue and this is what Shri Krishna doesn’t like. In case you use your tongue for saying harsh things to others, being sarcastic, being harsh on others, using abusive word, your tongue, one day, I don’t know how it will react. It will react in different ways. God knows, it might become thick. It won’t move. God knows, it might be sucked inside.

That’s the physical side of it, but also mental side of it, that you won’t know what you are talking about. If you say something, you’ll say something else. It’s possible with your tongue. It’s quite possible that we may not be able to talk, may not be able to say anything. Anything is possible if you try to trouble your tongue like that, using it for wrong purposes. Tongue is not for being used for abusive things, as well as for… Some people try to be extra kind and gentle and this and that, to achieve some ends. This kind of thing also is very, very much—is dangerous for the tongue and you might develop blisters on your tongue, to such an extent that people who even go on saying harsh things to others and all that can develop a kind of a cancer.

Some people think that, if you bear up, everything is good. Is not. If somebody is trying to oppress you, don’t try to bear it. Throw it away, because, if you bear also, you can move to the left and you can get horrible things like cancer. You can get cancer. Those who are aggressive, they can get also diseases and those who are very much, I should say, bearing type also get into trouble.

So you should be in a balanced state, should not accept anything. Supposing anybody calls you names, just keep quiet, look at that person—that’s all. Know that he’s a stupid fool. But don’t accept it. If you accept it and go on crying about it and weeping about it, then you can get cancer. But supposing somebody says something, you should know he is a stupid fool, just keep out of it, then nothing can happen. So, both ways, one has to be careful, because Krishna is playing around and He sees how far you can go.

Now throat—throat is very important. We should look after it. Those people who shout, scream, ultimately can lose their power of speech, can become frantic with their problems of the throat. Specially throat can develop horrible disease by which you just—neck can just get swollen up. We call it snake disease and you feel

So when you talk to someone, talk clearly, in a sweet manner, but don’t shout at the person, never! Neither you try to show peevishness in your speech. If you are peevish, then cancer can set in. So, both ways, you have to be careful. As you are Sahaja Yogis, you have to have this knowledge, that you will not do, bear anything nonsensical if somebody speaks—means, you should not accept it. One may say something to you. It’s all right. And sometimes you should tell him off that: “You were saying like this, it’s not so.” It’s best, is not to bear it up and to suffer. You’re not Christ. You don’t have His powers. Because if you do that, you’ll develop cancer.

So try to be, in a way, just in the centre, watching everything, if there’s aggression or if there’s recession—one of the two things—you must not give in to any of these attitudes, but develop an attitude of standing very firmly on your own grounds.

For example, there was a Chinese story I read that there once was a king, wanted his two cocks to win in a race, so they said: “You send them to a sage and train them up.” So he has sent them to a sage. They were trained very well. And when they were brought, they stood in the arena and many cocks were there, who started attacking them, but these two were standing like this, least bothered. They tried and tried, but these two were standing like this. As a result, all of them ran away.

So that’s what is the character you should have. Is not to bend to something, because somebody is aggressive and also not to aggress others, not to torture other, not to sit on somebody’s head. It’s very, very dangerous for your throat and such a throat will always, will always be in danger of getting some horrible diseases.

All this I’ve told you because so many things we know about, we should reach it. We have—but we have very subtle knowledge about Vishuddhi Chakra. We should also have little gross, that what can happen to our Vishuddhi Chakra if we try not to look after it.

So, this is what is Shri Krishna’s work. Also teeth He looks after. Ears He looks after. You know what is to be done about the teeth and the ears. These are His own sixteen, we can say, works. We can call them as karyas, sixteen on which He works on different, different levels. And you must try to develop our powers of our Vishuddhi Chakra by so many ways and so many exercises, by understanding what goes wrong with us when we do not understand and value our Vishuddhi Chakra.

Now America is the Vishuddhi of the whole world, so it is very important that the people who are in charge here should know all the powers of Vishuddhi, plus how to preserve it and how to expand it to the whole world.

With these, two hands also are from Vishuddhi Chakra and, with that, you have to spread Sahaja Yoga. You have to go to different worlds, different countries, to- even to small villages you have to spread Sahaja Yoga. Only in the hands first, you see the cool breeze. That means it is you feel the universal power of the Divine in your life. So this is the collective, universal love that comes to your hand and teaches you. So it’s such an important Chakra is this.

In the same way, America’s very important and, as citizens of America, you should try to maintain the religion, the Dharma here and to create a great understanding for world problems and try to give love to all the people, from whatever country they will be coming.

May God bless you all!