Shri Krishna Puja. Englewood (USA), 2 June 1985.

Today we are going to do the worship of Shri Krishna.

Shri Krishna came at a time on this earth when in India the people were very much ritualistic. They had become slaves of the so-called Brahmins who had no idea about God at all because they started a theme that a Brahmin can have a Brahmin son. So, the birth determined the caste of a person. Before that, it was not that a Brahmin would have a Brahmin as his son. It’s also true that if you are a Realized soul, in the real sense, if you are a really Realized soul, then you must have a child which is a Realized soul. And that is how also if it was said that if the father is a Brahmin, is a Realized soul, his son also becomes a Brahmin.

Because you are a Sahaja Yogi now you can understand that a Sahaja Yogi’s son normally becomes a Sahaja Yogi. So it was agreed that children of a Brahmin will be called as a Brahmin. Gradually, it amounted to this that any child born out of a Brahmin was called as Brahmin.

Now, we have seen that many Sahaja Yogis also don’t have Realized souls as their children. Maybe their own karmas, maybe the child, anything it is, but even I have seen some Sahaja Yogis having horribly devilish children.

So, it shows that it is not through your birth you can claim that you are a Brahmin or the one who has known the Brahma. Brahma is the All-pervading power. So you have to be a Brahmin by your karma, by what you do. That is how we have got Valmiki who was just a fisherman. He wrote Ramayana, he was a great Brahmin. Then you have got Vyasa who wrote Gita. He was an illegitimate son of a fisherwoman and he wrote Gita.

So this idea was flouted by Shri Krishna’s incarnation. He wanted to flout this idea that Brahmins are the ones who can only worship God. So, to put another extreme to what Rama has created, to bring people into the centre – because through Rama, they went to another rigid form and rigidity of ritualism and too much of fundamentalism. So, to put an end to that, he wanted to bring the society to another extreme. Of course, Shri Rama himself incarnated as Shri Krishna.

So he started a new theme of which was absolutely eventual, it was just absolutely evolutionary that such a new theme should come up. And this new theme was that the whole thing is nothing but a Lila. It’s just a play, it’s a Lila. So not to be taken that seriously, not to be so rigid, not to be fundamental, not to be so particular about something. So, the whole thing is a Lila. And on this theme he worked out everything to establish that it is a play.

And that is what you see in America, very common that for people it has become a joke, life has become a joke. And they think that life is not to be taken seriously, there is more fun in doing all kinds of things than in getting into any kind of inhibitions, as they call it, or maybe some sort of forms or patterns. But it is a myth with Americans now because for that you have to have Shri Krishna, you have to have Realization. Like, if you are standing in the water, the waves of the water are there absolutely real for you and you- if you think it’s an illusion you’ll be completely finished. The illusion will prove that it’s not an illusion by asserting itself. But if you are in the boat, then the water that is around is an illusion. So, it’s the state at which you are.

If you are in the state of Self-realized mind, then everything is an illusion, but otherwise, it is not. It is a reality. So, what they forgot this point, that you are not in that state to call it an illusion. So to call everything an illusion is just to delude yourself, thinking that it’s an illusion and doesn’t matter, what’s wrong, so what. It’s quite symbolic that in Shri Krishna’s place this thing should be so commonly accepted that everything is an illusion. So who is wrong? Who is bad? Nothing is wrong! There is nothing like evil, nothing like good. And some people go to that limit to say that there’s nothing like a “bhoot”, nothing like a rakshasa, nothing like an evil force.

Now, for Shri Krishna how did he look at things was this way that for him even to kill a rakshasa was a play. To destroy a rakshasa was also a play. In that play, he was to be destroyed. So, he discriminated in a way that what play is to be destroyed, what not to be destroyed. The play of the evil he destroyed by his own play. So, to say there was nothing evil is also wrong. Like even if you think everything is a play, what happens that your attitude towards it is like a spectator. You see the whole thing as a spectator like in a drama you sit down and you watch everything as a spectator, but you know what is depicting tragedy and what is depicting comedy. You are not inert to that, then you are good for nothing. That doesn’t mean that you become inert to that. You have a sense of discretion to know what is a comedy and what is a tragedy.

But if you are an actor, then to you it is not, it is not a comedy or a tragedy, it is a work for you. If you are acting then you are acting and you are an actor, you’re involved in it. So, it is not, for you do not know the discretion between the tragedy and the comedy. For you, you are just an actor as long as you are paid well, if you do your job well then, it’s a comedy, otherwise, it’s a tragedy.

So, there are two types of awareness. Now, of one of a spectator, another of the one who is in it. So, one has to understand in that light, that when Krishna said the whole thing is a play, he was meaning for him, not for others. For him, it is a play. And that’s why when they talk to you about the play and the illusion you must tell them then, why did he kill Kamsa? Why did he kill Jarasandha? Why did he kill all the people who were following Kamsa? So, to him it was a play, everything was a play and he did it in his own attitude of a play.

So, the first thing, if you are awakened by Shri Krishna’s powers, then the first thing that should happen to you is wisdom. Now, the wisdom is something you cannot describe. You cannot say what is wisdom. It’s very difficult to describe it or to delimit it. Wisdom is a temperament, is a quality of a personality which comes to you by balancing yourself, by trial and error method. All traditional countries innately have much more wisdom than people who are not traditional. But Krishna broke all the traditions. That’s why you people are here without much tradition. He broke all the traditions, but he was Shri Krishna, so he did not need any tradition at all. But for you, you have to understand from the people who have tradition what is wisdom. So, we do trial and error. We make mistakes, from that, we learn. But when the ego is so strong in a country like America, when we do wrong, we do not want to accept it was wrong, it was against our ascent, it was against our higher goals. We get satisfied with the lower goals.

Like I’ve seen people who do some funny things in Sahaja Yoga. They don’t realize that this is absolutely against them, whatever they are doing is against them, they should not do this, it was wrong to do it. On the contrary, they catch on the left Vishuddhi that is another catch they have on the Vishuddhi chakra. So, because you are indiscreet, you do wrong things. To develop discretion, outcome of all, this is discretion, you make mistakes. When you make mistakes, instead of developing the discretion about it that this was a mistake, next time we should not do it, facing up to it, what we do is to feel guilty about it, so you escape it, spoiling the other chakra also.

That is how people get a problem on the left Vishuddhi, and left Vishuddhi is that you feel guilty. It’s very good to feel guilty than to do anything about it. That’s the best way to escape it. Actually, we have seen that mostly left Vishuddhi comes from ego. When ego is too much, you can’t bear your ego, so you put it in the guilty side of it, and you say, “I’m very guilty, I should not have done it.”

Now, the another side which is also very dangerous is the right Vishuddhi. Right Vishuddhi is the one by which we try to justify all our indiscreet behaviour. So, “What’s wrong?” “What is wrong in this?” “So what!” All these things are right Vishuddhi problems. So, it’s very common you tell somebody that it is wrong to do, for example, they paint their hair. You tell them, “Don’t do this, it will spoil your eyes.” They will say, “So what, we have a right to spoil ourselves, we have a right to destroy ourselves,” as if they are Shri Krishna, that they can destroy themselves, can they? They cannot even create a little ant, leave alone ant, they can’t even create a stone. And how do they have right to destroy themselves? So, this is the right thing where we think that we have the right to destroy.

As I told you about eyes yesterday, it’s very important that eyes are the ones which give you the play of Shri Krishna, the power of Shri Krishna. Even a glance, a little glance of a person who has Krishna consciousness, as they call it, if he has Krishna consciousness, then should be able to awaken the Kundalini, should be able to redeem, should be able to comfort, should be able to cure anyone. Even a glance, a side glance can do it, if it has Krishna consciousness. But not self-certified ones who say, “We are Krishna consciousness,” all the time taking the name of Shri Krishna or any mantra.

So, on the left-hand side, the escape is feeling guilty. When you feel guilty, they try to find out some method of expression. So, they say they go to some guru and then the guru gives them some sort of a mantra, and they accept that mantra, they go on saying. As a result of that, they catch more on the left Vishuddhi. Because if you go on saying mantra without the connection, you get completely caught up. So, the left Vishuddhi is again gone and your mantras are absolutely useless, they’re destroying them. Actually, many people I’ve seen who get to heart attacks, who get anginas and also who get cancer are the people who have been doing mantras like this, without the connection with the Divine. If you’re not connected, say for example this is not connected and I start using it too much, it will get spoiled. In the same way, the centre on the left-hand side gets spoiled when you start saying any mantra without being connected, without feeling the power of that mantra. So, in Sahaja Yoga, we’ve got mantras to neutralize these mantras on the left-hand side.

Right-hand side comes when we talk big. It’s a common thing with your politicians, they talk very big. They think they are very responsible people and do all irresponsible things. So, when you want to spoil that chakra, one has to do some irresponsible talk. So, like that, we can say, “I will do this for you, I will do that. I like it, I can find this, I can manage this,” finished. When you start saying, in the ego-form that, “I have to do this, I will do this,” then our ego shows up. But on the contrary, if you say, “I have to do for you, Father; I have to do for you, Mother, it’s your work I’m doing,” then the whole thing disappears and you get that beautiful thing called “surrender” which is “Islam”. “Islam” is nothing but surrender. So, you surrender yourself by saying, “This is your work, Father; I’m working for you, I’m your instrument, I’m your flute.” So, you play the melody of God.

But, for that also, the central point of discretion has to be used: every time you go back to discretion. Like, some people do all kinds of wrong things and they say, “Mother, we did it for you.” How can it be? Like somebody wants to drink. He says, “I got drunk because Mother I wanted to help you.” Or Hitler can say that, “I killed so many people because I wanted to remove all the Jews who killed Christ.” So, this right Vishuddhi gives you a kind of a mind which tries to justify everything and tries to explain everything, every action can be explained. “Why did you murder?” “Because this.” “Why did you do that?” “Because of this.” Once you start justifying your wrong deeds, right Vishuddhi goes up to your brain. And then, whatever you do has a justification.

Like, if I say that the Americans came to this country, they actually robbed the other people of their land and now very nicely settled down. Now, when I say that, immediately most of them will go to the left Vishuddhi. “Oh, we are very guilty, we did this, we did that.” But a real Sahaja Yogi won’t do that. A real Sahaja Yogi, what he will do, he’ll say, “Alright, this is done by my forefathers, I did not do it. But I can try to rectify it, I’ll try to be beyond racialism; I’ll look after these people who have been robbed, I’ll try to give them whatever is possible.” This is the way you face and not just to say, “Oh, I’m so guilty that my forefathers did this and all that.” But what are you doing about it?

Like I went to Switzerland and I said, “Don’t feel guilty.” So, one lady said that “I’m feeling guilty for Vietnam.” I said, “What did you do there? Why are you feeling guilty for Vietnam, of all the things, at least you did not go to fight there? Why did you feel guilty about it?” So, she says, “I’m feeling just guilty because I think we have done a wrong thing.” I said, “But how do call yourself ‘we’?” So, this is also another point which comes out of indiscretion that we suddenly become a personality which is a part and parcel of the whole. So, we think that “Oh, we Americans are of the world.” Alright, how? The day you become the world most of the problems will be solved. They are the greatest headaches like Russians are. Both are headaches to the whole world. If they become the whole world, there’s no problem, there’s no problem because then they become the love.

But just assuming a situation where we think, “we are”, “we”. Who are the “we”? Husband and wife can’t live together. Children and father cannot live together. Mother cannot live with the children. What are “we”? Where are “we”? Such fragmentations! They’ll fight over small things like a pen-knife or something, which pen-knife to be bought. For that, they will fight. How are they “we”? There’s no unison, there is no concord. Just the opposite of all that is the Vishuddhi chakra.

So, from the very beginning, if you see that a person who is a Realized soul should see everything as a play. Even the destruction of evil is important, even the killing of the evil is important. If you do not kill the evil, the evil will rule. Do you think Hitler should have been saved and should have been put in charge of God? He’s saved by killing him. Because he was destroyed, because everything was destroyed, he’s saved.

This is to be understood in his life, Krishna’s life, that this is first thing happens so that for you people, evil is to be finished. So, what you have to pray that, “O Lord, finish all the evil of the world, all the destruction of the world, all the minds which build up our destruction, please try to neutralize it.” This is what a Sahaja Yogi should ask for. Instead of that, they try to sometimes identify themselves with these ideas. That’s not correct. You have to stand up and you have to say, “That it’s wrong. “We are not to destroy anyone, we are not to kill anybody, we have no right. So, when Krishna told Arjuna that, “You kill everyone who are related to you, who are your friends and who look like your gurus, but they’re already dead.” It was Shri Krishna who said, it was the incarnation of Shri Krishna said it. That doesn’t that you start killing everybody, becoming Arjuna, you are not Arjuna.

That is how “Anand Marg” [Tantric movement], this thing organization came up, which started killing everyone, thinking that they have a right to kill. How? You have no sense of right and wrong. How can you kill anyone or how can you save any? First of all, try to save instead of killing. Supposing you are faced with a boat which is in danger, people are getting drowned and you find that you have to save the people. Will you kill the people there or you try to salvage them? There is no occasion for killing now. You don’t have to worry about killing, let God do that job. What you have to do is to save people. You have to save as many as possible all the time. And those who are wrong type of people, you just forget about them. You just move them out. Take them away. Have nothing to do with them. Do what you like, but do not kill them.

So, that is one thing one has to understand as Sahaja Yogis, that you are not here to kill anyone, to destroy anyone, to trouble anyone or to do something that is not proper. Even, there is no need to say harsh words. God is going to look after. He’s so anxious today, you are on the stage and He’s so anxious to help you in every way because you’re doing his work. But doing his work, you don’t take up his sword into your hands and start killing everyone.

That’s a very common thing we do it, in Sahaja Yoga, I’ve seen people become very aggressive, they talk very aggressively. Especially the newcomers who come in, in a program. Instead of being kind, nice, compassionate, good to them, immediately they’ll say, “You’re a “bhoot”!” Very common. You won’t find me doing that anytime, do I? Then you start aggressing each other also, which is against the principle of Vishuddhi. You are not to aggress. You see, because whole thing becomes discretion. What is discretion, it’s diplomacy. The divine diplomacy is expressed through your discretion. If you have a sense of discretion, now you know – this man is dangerous, he is troubling you. Now, if you have a proper sense, you will remove that person in such a way from amidst yourself, that there won’t be any more discussion or destruction.

But on the contrary, what you do is to challenge that person, and a big fight starts. And Sahaja Yogis then fight, I tell you, sometimes I don’t know what to say about their fights. So must have discretion, must understand. A situation develops, for example, a situation develops where you find somebody is telling you, “You see, this person has said this about you.” Then the same person goes and tells another person, “That person has said this about you.” Then you start quarrelling instead of finding out the basic reason, instead of finding out, “Why? Why this is happening, why such a situation has come between ourselves. We were friends, what has happened?” Instead of that, one starts fighting, getting angry. That’s not the sign of any Realized soul expression. Realized souls expressions have to be extremely discreet, delicate, beautiful.

Nobody should notice that you have been in any way effective, and that’s how you’ll work it out. So, the incarnation of Shri Krishna, as we say, is the incarnation of the divine diplomacy.

So, he plays. Give you an example of how he plays.

There was a rakshasa, a devil, who had a blessing from Shiva that nobody can kill him. And only a saint who has never opened his eyes all his life, if he puts his eyes on him, he will be killed.

So, there was a saint who had a blessing that: “You go into your Yoga, “Yoga nidra” [sleep], sleep in your yoga sleep, and once you open your eyes on whomsoever it will fall, such a person will die.” “All right.”

So, Shri Krishna was very clever. He was fighting this devil and this devil was about to kill Shri Krishna. And Shri Krishna knew all about this, his background. So, he started running away from the field, so he’s got a name called Ranchodas, the one who runs away from the battle field, is regarded as something really derogatory, because it’s not something great to run away from the battle field. So, he didn’t mind, he ran away and then this devil started following him. And he went into the cave where this great saint was sleeping in his “Yoga nidra”. And he removed his shawl and put it slowly, delicately, on that saint and hid himself.

So, this rakshasa came behind him. He saw him lying down there. He thought this was Shri Krishna. He said, “Ah, so now, you’re tired, you’re lying down here. Come along now, open your eyes!” And as soon as he pulled the shawl with little strength, you see, this fellow got up and his eyes looked at him and he just was burnt.

And he did not mind getting the bad name of Ranchodas. That is the sign of diplomacy. So, the whole discretion of his is playing throughout his life. The whole discretion, “what he should do? What is right? What is wrong?” is: he doesn’t have this problem.

Then he had to have his powers, all of them brought on this earth. So, he played a trick. He got all those powers in the form of women, young women. And he made one king, you see, drag these women into his own court for him to use them. But he could never touch them. So, Shri Krishna went and defeated this man. He has to have justification also; he has to have a religious justification for doing something. So, he killed this king, brought all these women and they all became his wives, so-called. All kinds of tricks he used to play. I’ll tell you the Radha’s trick that he played.

Today, I’m wearing a dress like Radha, because she’s Viratangana, she’s the one who protects our Sushumna Nadi. She’s the Mahalakshmi and she wears the sari like this to protect. She wears this way, while she leaves her left hand open because this is the Shakti of Mahakali and the right hand she closes because the right hand is the Shakti of Mahasaraswati, meaning the power of creation, because creation has been done already: She’s created the earth and she’s created human beings, everything is done, now, that is stopped.

And in India, Brahmadeva is not worshipped except there’s one temple where they worship Brahmadeva, otherwise, Brahmadeva has no temple or anything. So, she closes this side [right side], she preserves it within herself and she opens her left side. And in front of her is the complete protection made for all her disciples. This is the whole big “anchal” [the end-piece of the sari] she makes. Normally, the “anchal” is other side of it, where the child is kept inside, hidden in other sari. But in this one, the one that they have here, is the child is kept underneath this, so the whole ascent takes place of Mahalakshmi. And that’s why this is the Radha’s powers is shown.

So, I’ll tell you the last story about her which will conclude this talk about Radha and Shri Krishna. That, one day, one of the wives of Shri Krishna was befooled by Narada, and Narada said, “See, Krishna doesn’t love you, he only loves Radha. He’s just telling you stories that he loves you, that you are his wives, but he is not. He is only attached to Radha.”

So, the rumour, you see, went into the women. All of them started feeling that, “O really, it is so.” So, they went and told Shri Krishna that “You don’t love us, you just love Radha.” He said, “Who told you?” They said, “Narada.” “No, no, who told you this.” They said, “Narada.” He said, “Narada is just telling you lies, you see, he is just trying to make some quarrel between you and me, so don’t listen to him.” They said, “No, no, it’s true, we can prove it.” He said, “All right. I don’t know that, but just now I got terrible pain in the stomach, terrible pain, I can’t get over it.” So, they got all worried. They said, “What’s the matter? What sort of a pain it is, what can we do to overcome this pain?” He said, “There’s very simple thing that you’ll have to give me the dust of your feet to drink. If you can take out the dust of your feet and give me to drink, then I’ll be saved.”

So, these ladies used their brains. They said that “Already, he doesn’t love us and then if we give him the dust of our feet, we’ll be committing sins and then it is going to be much worse. So, what’s the use of playing into his hands, he’s very diplomatic, it’s better to forget about it.”

They said, “No, no, no we don’t want to do such a sinful thing, is to give you the dust of our feet, it’s non–protocolish, we have nothing to do like that, you don’t teach us all bad things.” You see, so they stopped him.

So Narada came, he said, “Now what to do, how to get rid of your pain in the stomach.” He said, “There’s only way out to go to Radha and tell her that I’ve got a pain in the stomach and this is the medicine.”

So, he went to Radhaji and he said to her that, “You see, Shri Krishna is very sick, he’s got pain in the stomach and what you have to do is to give the dust of your feet.” She said, “Yes, why not? Take it. For that pain, of course, why not?” So, he said, “Aren’t you worried about your punyas? Aren’t you worried that you’re committing sin?” he said, “You don’t know this Shri Krishna, he has no sense of sin at all. He makes me do sin morning till evening. What am I to worry about sins? I’m not going to worry about that. You’d better take this for him, this is his worry.” So, he took the dust of Radha’s feet and took it down to Shri Krishna.

Shri Krishna: “Did she give you.” He said, “Did she give you?” He said, “Yes, she has, I’m surprised, but she’s not worried about her sins, she’s not worried.” He said, “That I know.” So, he said, “But how do you explain it?” He said, “You’ll understand just now.” He took the dust of Radha’s feet, you see Radha’s feet were dusted or were full of dust of Vrindavan [sacred place where they grow the holy basil or tulasi], and Vrindavan has got yellow kind of clay, you see, the soil is yellowish and the whole yellow thing was on her feet which she removed and took it. So, when Shri Krishna drank that dust, Narada saw in the heart of Shri Krishna, Radha was lying down and playing with her feet on the lotus of his heart. The lotus had the pollen, the pollen of the lotus was touching her feet and was making it yellow. That’s what she said that “What is it when I’m in his heart, my feet are in his heart, so what is the sin I can commit?” And when the ladies heard this, they realized that their idea about Shri Krishna is still not sufficient. They have to be Radha to understand him. And this is how he plays diplomacy, there are simple tricks, here and there, by which he did it.

And to introduce the beauty of Lila, he started Ras. Ras is, “ra” is energy, “sa” means “with”. So, he made Radha dance- stand there with him, give him the power and everybody danced. And they looked like as if Radha and Krishna are dancing. And this is what he started. And then to make it culminate it, he made a festival of Holi in which he said, “Abandon everything! For a minute you abandon everything.” And that abandonment has now become a- that’s for only one day you have to abandon, here it has become a year-long Holi. So, people are busy with a year-long Holi without Shri Krishna and Radha.

So, what will be the situation of such a place? And that’s why I think, what happens that when you try to attract others by all these stupid things, only the “bhoots” have to get attracted and they get into you. And once they get into you, you get funny, you don’t know why you behave like this, why things work out that way. This is why we have to understand that we have to be attractive to God. And you’ll be only attractive to God if you have got your Spirit. If the Spirit is shining, then only you can be attractive.

So may God bless you all.