Navaratri Puja. Cabella (Italy), 13 October 1991

Today we have gathered here to do the Navaratri puja.

There were nine times when the major incarnations of the Mother of this universe were manifested. They are manifested with a purpose. That purpose is to protect Her bhaktas, Her disciples, Her children. This was a binding love, She could not escape it. Mother’s love is binding, She cannot escape it. And She has to manifest it, work it out and give that protection to all her children.  This protection in the modern times has taken another form.

In those days the evil was trying to harm, to destroy, the people who were righteous, who were bhaktas, who were doing good things, who wanted to lead a very religious life. So, to save them She incarnated. To protect them She incarnated. But they knew what was good, they knew what was wrong and they wanted to preserve their good life, their precious life. They didn’t care for money, they didn’t care for power, but just they wanted their life, means they wanted to be alive, to worship the Goddess. And when they were troubled or harmed or destroyed by these evil forces, She had to manifest.

But in modern times it’s become very complicated as the modern times are complicated. First of all, in the mind, in the lifestyle, in the society of good human beings, righteous human beings, fear of the wrong has entered. Like, they are afraid, say, of their priests, of their churches, of their temples, of their mosques, which are all false. They are not afraid of God. They don’t believe in God. They think that they have created God and they can manage God, so who is God? The way they behave you can see clearly that they do not recognise the existence of God, God Almighty who is a wrathful God. They are not at all worried as to what will happen to them. They don’t even believe in the second life, they don’t believe in the resurrection. They are very short sighted, evil people doing all kinds of evil things.

So, somehow or other, as soon as you are born, you are born into some sort of a brand: you are this, you are that, you are that, you are that – as soon as you are born.

So the first brand [which] comes onto this modern man is of a religion to which he belongs. He can’t avoid it. He has to be jolly well belonging to some religion.  You go anywhere, even in the passport – nowadays they have stopped it [but] otherwise – they used to ask, “What is your religion?” And in India if you said you had no religion, they would not give you a passport because you are not yet a qualified evil person or you are not following qualified evil people. So that very simple, gullible, good people, very righteous, believers of God, develop this kind of a fear, which was put into their heads by these false people, that, “If you don’t do like this, if you don’t pay money to us, then God will bring wrath on you.” “If you do not come to the confession then God will be angry with you.” “If you do not tolerate our nonsense, God will be angry with you.” All these things started going into the brains of the people very easily.

In some religion they believe there is no sin in drinking. In some religion they believe there’s no sin in marrying many women. In some religion they believe that you can have caste system. All is anti-God, absolutely anti-God activity, perpetuated into the society by these priests who are supposed to be in charge of the religion.

So the first horrible conditioning we have when we start Sahaj Yoga is this. So to start something afresh, they find it very difficult. So the first protection Mother had to render is from this conditioning.

The second one is that of the country. Either you belong to this country to that country or to that country. And these days every country is competing with each other in all kinds of corruption, mafia; all kinds of things, every country. Suddenly you discover. You have faith in one country, [then] you find, “Oh, no, no! They were supporting certain person secretly.” So whether they are democratic or anything, there is a kind of a mafia working everywhere under some name.

So the so-called laws also are only for people who are simple, gullible, pure citizens and not for the people who put those laws on them. They take bribes, they take all kinds of things, but still they are supposed to be in charge of law; doing all this kind of illegal things. Because they have made the law, so they know how to be illegal. So this is the second type of fear that is in the minds of the modern type.

Then the third thing was the war. Wars after wars came in. So, many people developed a kind of a fear about war and, as a reaction, they developed a kind of a stupid ego just, they said, to protect themselves. In protecting themselves they have built up a big ego and they are now becoming very aggressive people.

So this kind of a wider range of fear…it can be directed into any direction, it can be directed towards anyone. Then comes the fear of race – racialism. Now I am told that neo-Nazism is taking its own course and is coming up like a little snake. So this is another area, which is very dangerous now, working out.

Now, in the minds of seekers, and in their seeking they have been to many gurus, they have read all kinds of books, but they were seeking, you know. In seeking you can drink any kind of water, develop all kinds of diseases. What can you do? You are seeking, after all. You’re thirsty. It has to be excused. And that’s how they develop lots of problems, not only in their body, but also in their brain. And now it’s a very delicate thing – if you tell somebody that, “You have been to such and such guru,” he doesn’t want to hear, because for him, now the guru has become the last word. You cannot say anything against his guru. Now, when he starts suffering, then he may accept, but to take it out, that guru, is also very delicate because, if you want to take out that guru, then he might be hurt. So it’s a very delicate operation.

Then the modern society: the less said the better! The norms of modern society are given to us by people who were characterless, like Freud, who had no sense of morality, or by drunkards, though they don’t have any statues of drunkards, but most of them – if you see the abandonment of our value system – comes through drinking. And the drinking was there, but not to this extent. I mean, everybody was not a drunkard. These days everybody can be a drunkard. And there’s no shame about it. With that drinking, our value system started dropping down, and people have accepted now the normal thing is abandonment. This is another view.

Formerly, the parents used to support the person if he would take to God, if he would take to righteous life or to something higher and if they saw these qualities in their child, they used to be happy. But these days [it’s] the other way round – the parents don’t like it. As if the parents have lost everything in themselves, so they want to hold onto their children, grandchildren and possess them. And brainless creatures, because their brain has been already been washed off. There’s nothing in their brains. To fight the parents also is a big problem.  So this kind of a fear is also there that, “My mother should not know, my father should not know, this thing.”

You can say from all sides the fear is burning like flames. And we are now here in Kali Yuga. We have started Sahaj Yog.

So the way we have to work out for our protection has to be mutual. Mother, of course, is there to protect you all the time. Her powers are there to protect you. But surprisingly, in the modern times, there’s one condition, which has to be fulfilled. Because in those days good were good and evil were evil. There was no mixing up. So once they asked for Goddess, they accepted Her, She came in her real form and She worked it out. But in modern times you must know that all these evil things are also lingering in your head, little bit here and there. People are extremely superficial. They are very much prone to the mass attitude, fashions, things like that. Sort of, their personality is not that developed as that of those bhaktas who knew they were right, who knew they were righteous, who knew whatever they were doing was correct and were standing on their legs, firm.

So, the modern Sahaj Yogi is very different from the Sahaj Yogi of olden times, because in the olden times it was not easy to get realisation – one in a billion or in a trillion – and they had to work very hard. So, as they worked hard, very hard, they got cleansed and built up themselves and toiled. Like any art piece which takes time, is done with care, is definitely thousand times better than these modern artists just putting two, three lines like this. So today’s human being is like a modern artist. You put one line and you say, “You must see this in that person, you must have an identity!” I mean what identity you can have? With one line? You say, “Find out the identity.”

So the Sahaj Yogis which are today here have to realise that all these things are surrounding us and these evil forces are also there. They are some within us, some are without. So it looks to be a very difficult task, but is not, because one condition, if you can understand, is that you have to recognise me.

I know I am Mahamaya. I am really very clever at it! But I am truthful, I do not have crocodile tears: I cannot have. I am truthful. But still I am Mahamaya. So to recognise me, what should we do? If we recognise, then you are protected.

And the cleansing is the simplest thing in Sahaj Yoga is to be collective. If you are not collective, then know that something [is] wrong with you. If you are collective, then as if you are taking your bath in the River Ganges. You don’t have to go to Himalayas, you don’t have to do individual sadhana much, you don’t have to – just be collective!

If you are collective, if you are enjoying the collective, then you should know that you are clean; no blemishes there. You are absolutely all right!

Now the second part of this Mahamaya business: I had to be very close to you. I had to be extremely close, talk to you, to have a rapport, to tell you everything about yoga, to make you absolutely aware of yourself. This had to be done and, with all these complications within your mind, within your heart, within your body, I had to work it out.

To come close, in the real form would have been very dangerous, so one had to be a Mahamaya. But despite that, if you could recognise me, to understand me, that I am [a] Divine personality, it’s an incarnation, that’s all the Deities want. Then they’ll look after you in every way. They’ll give you all the powers. They’ll give you all the satisfaction, all the protection that you want.

This is the condition, which for a rational mind is very difficult to understand, that, “How can Adi Shakti be in one body? How can the infinite become finite?” But human beings cannot do that. Only human beings [cannot]. God can do it. He’s God, after all! And if so, you have so many miracles, you have so many photographs, so many things to see, but this is what one has to recognise.

Now I see people, when I talk to them, they start talking to me a little frivolously, not with that depth, not with that feeling that I am Mahamaya. Then some of them even answer me. Some of them, if I tell them something, they are ready to give an answer, explanation. Of course, this freedom I have given you deliberately, but you must understand that you to talk me in a way that you would talk to Adi Shakti – very important.

Then how you behave is very important. It should not be artificial. It should not be superficial. But best is to put your hand on your heart, both the hands, and just try to feel it: your Mother is Adi Shakti, She has created all this Universe, She has created all this world and She is for your protection.

Even Shri Krishna could not protect Pandavas. They had to go in the forest, they had to suffer, but not Sahaj Yogis. As soon as I come to know about your problems, my attention can work on you. Shri Rama Himself had to go to jungles.

All this is given to you, this protection, because you are seekers of truth and the truth is that I am the Adi Shakti incarnated.

Once this truth becomes one with yourself there’s nothing to fear because all the Deities know this fact. They know about this incarnation very well. They are all prepared for it and they’ll do anything to substantiate your belief.

In every way they are trying to give you my photographs, in the sky, this, that, I mean all sorts of things. God knows what they are going to do today! They are so anxious. They are behind the stage, before the stage, all sides of the stage, listening to me, feeling happy that I am telling you the truth. But the way they recognise and the way they act, they never disobey. If you behave in the same manner, you are completely protected from all these problems I have told you about.

Now I won’t say you shouldn’t hate anyone, you shouldn’t do…nothing of the kind. I wouldn’t say you should not steal something. I wouldn’t say that you don’t make money out of Sahaj Yoga. Nothing. I don’t even say don’t drink, don’t smoke, I never said so. But automatically, once you know whom you are facing, in whose protection you are, automatically you will drop that – automatic. You will have no fear. Once you have recognised, you will have no fear from anyone. And the more you show that recognition, the more you realise it, you get higher and higher, not only spiritually, but every way, mentally, socially, economically, politically.

It’s very remarkable that, not only that you recognise me as a Mother who loves you very much, but a Mother who is powerful to protect you, She’s very powerful. If you realise that and if you feel that within your heart [then] supposing I correct you sometime, instead of feeling sad you should see that, “How fortunate I am that Adi Shakti Herself is correcting me! She’s taking interest in me. How fortunate I am to be born at this time, to be with Her in Her great work! What have I done [to deserve this]?”  This recognition itself will fulfil all the incarnations of Navaratri.

So today we are worshipping the Durga, Kali, all these great Goddesses. These powers. Even Radha. It was Radha who killed Kamsa, not Shri Krishna. He had to ask Radha to come and kill him. It’s the power that kills.

So if you realise that your Mother is the Adi Shakti.

I know of so many people. There’s one gentleman who is working in London airport. Someone tried to trouble him. He said, “You see, be careful, my Mother is very powerful, you don’t know.” The next day that man lost his job, lost his business, lost this, lost this. And he came to him and said, “Now which is you Mother? Let me see her!”

There was a farmer near Rahuri and in the night three men came to steal some sugarcane, and next day they came and they said, “Which Goddess do you worship?” He said, “Why?” “There were three hefty people watching your, guarding your field and we came just to…and we thought better take some of this sugarcane. After all, it looks so nice. And they beat us. Of course, we never got hurt.”

So just behind this recognition is all the powers. There are so many, so many stories I can tell you [of] how things have happened, how it has worked out. But if you are doubting still, halfway this, that, then things won’t be all right.

You shouldn’t worry about your reputation. Just go with full speed into any direction knowing one thing, that you are my child and that I am Adi Shakti. Everything that looks horrible will become better. We have seen it now in this France case and all that, what has happened.

Don’t worry about anything! Just know that I am the Adi Shakti. That all the powers of God and Goddesses and all that are within me, and they are within me and they are all looking after you.

But if that recognition is not there, they are not going to recognise you either.

So, for today’s Navaratri, I have to tell you that – just try to keep in mind that today you are worshipping the Adi Shakti and not only Durga. And you are worshipping Durga and all these Goddesses to thank them because, if they had not saved you that time, you had been so frightened, you would have become bad people and would not have been here. That is why we are thankful to them for saving us and giving us this protection at that time when we were very helpless.

May God bless you!