Shri Krishna Puja. Cabella Ligure (Italy), 16 August 1998.

Today we are going to have Shri Krishna Puja. It is a very important thing about the power of Shri Krishna that gives you a witness state. This is very important also because in these days of Kali Yuga and complete confusion of value system, all kinds of turmoil makes a very complex conditions to exist. The state of witnessing is only possible through meditation. You reach the state of thoughtless awareness. It is combined together.

Now the witness state is such a state where you just do not react. If you react, then the problem starts. It’s a very simple thing to understand that we react through our ego or through our conditioning. Otherwise there is no way to react. Anything. Now, for example there is a beautiful carpet here. As soon

as I look at it, if I use my ego I’ll start thinking, “Now, from where did they get it? How much they paid it?” This is the first reaction. Then you can even go further with it. Anger can come in. “Why did they bring such a nice carpet? What was the need to put it here?” Goes on like that, one after another. Now in my conditioning if I see these things, I would say that this color is not suited for Krishna Puja. They should have had another color for this Krishna Puja. So this kind goes on from one to another to another. But that means this conditioning is built up within us.

All our problems of our conditioning are really horrible. For example, racialism. We have racialism-in America it’s very much more-you can feel it, though they don’t say. But if you go, say from Italy, you feel it. If you go from India also, you can feel it. Now, why this racialism is there? What is the reason? Why do we react to this kind of horrible hatred for another community or another color which is only skin deep? Now with rationality you might be able to explain, “Oh God, these people, they are absolutely useless,” or “They have come to our country and are just troubling us.” All these conditionings are there. But if you see when they talk of immigrants, the Americans must know they are immigrants, all of them. America never was their country. And they threw away all the other red Indians, took away their land and very nicely they are the owners of America. But the reaction is, those who are not white-complexion, they are all to be condemned, tortured.

Now, if they are by nature violent then also this conditioning of violence comes in. Then they start killing each other. They have killed ruthlessly so many people thinking that they have a right to go into any country and kill everyone and take the land that is not their own. Actually, land doesn’t belong to anybody as such, but nobody has right to go and occupy it and throw away the people who do not belong to that country.

Yesterday was the Independence Day of India. And I have seen the flag going up-our national flag, and the British flag going down. All that has happened after so much of struggle, so much of sufferings of the people. Because they came to India, landed nicely there and became the masters. So this is also a kind of a conditioning that comes in a collective way-that you go into anybody’s country, throw away the people from there or sort of occupy that place and become the masters. It’s like going into somebody’s house that belongs to somebody and throw away the people who are inside and nicely settle there as the owners and the masters. Because they have better intelligence- perhaps, the cunning more in them. With that cunning, if the white people think they can rule the black people is not where you can develop a witness state.

So this kind of conditioning is like a plague and moves from one country to another country where some people think they’re superior and make people look inferior. And the people also are there who accept this kind of a situation, accept this kind of a position where they are supposed to be equal. I would say, take the example of America because this has been celebrated by Americans, and because Krishna is the ruler-Krishna is the ruler of America. He, himself, was a dark person, Himself was on the black side. And in the same country where He rules, another great thing is that they don’t realize that if all the black, all the Asians get out of that country now, I don’t know what will happen to them. All their sports are managed by the blacks. If you want to see any American sport, 99% are black people. Then if you want to also see the music, because these black people, though they have black color, which is all right-as you have white, they have black color but they have a voice which the white people don’t have. They can sing so well that no white people can compete with them. It’s a full justice done to the color. Now if you take out the Asians, all doctors, all nurses, all architects, all accountants, all of them will disappear. Now, what will remain?

You have to understand that it is color which is nothing to do, nothing to do with your intelligence, with your value system, with your spirit. We are here to achieve our spirituality. The spirit doesn’t understand color because it is so superficial and it is so very cruel to condemn someone for the color. Same now is happening as the reaction. Every action has a reaction. So what happens is that you find the blacks are reacting. They are reacting and their reaction can be very dangerous. Every day I read the reactions are coming up so badly- not in America but all over they are now thinking they must rise and oppose this domination. But in their own country where they have people of different colors-little variation, I think. They are all black people, but little variation maybe. So they form groups and they start cutting each others’ throats. I have seen on the television how ruthlessly they kill. I don’t know what is the difference of color is, but somehow they have formed groups and this group will go and kill that and that group will come and kill. It’s not like Kauravas and Pandavas. It’s not two types of people absolutely opposite. It’s not that the negative and the positive is there. It’s not. They’re all negative whether they’re white or black. And they start quarreling and fighting with each other.

Now this violence is growing so much. I think violence is the only weapon they use now to express themselves. You see here, something happens so somewhere there you find they explode bombs and kill so many innocent people. It’s very, very sinful to do like that. Even the slightest violence is sinful, and this kind of a violence in the eyes of Shri Krishna are absolutely to be punished very badly. Now, this comes through ego. You think because you belong to one clan, another clan you can kill, or something like that. A funny idea into human mind comes in and you decide that you have a right to kill another person. One may say this comes from hatred, but hatred is an outcome of ego. When the ego starts acting, it collects all these things like hatred, also possessiveness, anger, violence. All these starts coming out of the ego, which actually blinds the person. You become blind to the fact that there is no need to have violence, no need to hate someone, no need to kill anyone because of this ego that is there.

Now one may say, “Mother, how does this ego build up?” Of course, mostly it is due to reactions. Also, it is due to the conditioning. If the child is told from the childhood that, “You should hate these people, they are to be hated. They are wrong people, they are bad people.” They just start doing that. When they grow up they start showing that hatred is now like a cactus, growing very big and is killing others.

There’s no justification for this kind of a behavior by human beings. If they are human beings, they have to have human qualities. And that is what is possible only if you learn how to just witness and not to react. For example, you see two cocks are fighting. You enjoy that. Two cocks are fighting. People are enjoying. One cock dies-they are very happy, as if the one which died had killed his parents or did something like that. Very surprising. Now in Spain, even now there are these bullfights going on every year. Six bullfights every year and the hall contains more than ten times more than we have here. And is always full. And now the women have taken to fight the bulls. Now if the bull is not killed, they allow the bulls to go on the street and kill people. This kind of a violent enjoyment is still lingering into the minds of the people. It is so sad to see people who are now talking of humanity, talking of peace, talking of joy, are still enjoying these violent acts. Either they are doing, or they want to watch.

So then you go to these films and things that have been created of a horrible violence and people enjoy it, enjoy such films and such films are again created. Now, if you really become a witness state, if you are in a witness state, then what will happen? If you watch any such things that are happening, it will subside. If you are in a witness state and if that level, then no accident will take place in your sight. Even if there is an accident, then you can save the person, you can help the person very actively. That’s in a very small scale. But even in a very large scale, you can do it-something wonderful.

I remember I was not very old at that time, but we were living in a house very close to the Secretariat where they had a strike. And they were asking for separate Maharashtra or something. So the police was standing there and, by the order of the chief minister, they were shooting at everyone who was coming. Anyone who passed through that road, they were shooting. They were enjoying a shooting game, all of them. I saw all this and I just couldn’t bear it. I just went down, went down and asked the police to stop it. They stopped!

You’d be amazed. They stopped. Then I carried those people who were wounded up in My house, took out their bullets and all that, called the ambulance and saved them. But for that, one thing was there-I was in a state of witnessing, so you become fearless.

There is no fear at all once you learn how to have the state of witnessing. Because when you are not witnessing, you get disturbed, you get upset, you get excited. You may join, also, this wrong type of people. But if you are in a state of witnessing-that, itself, is a power. And that witnessing state helps you to win over so many difficulties of other people.

There’s a Chinese story about a saint. So one king brought his cock to him and said, “You train my cock in such a way that he should win.” He said, “All right.” So he kept the cock with the king for one month. And when the show started, different cocks came from different places and they all started fighting. This cock just stood up and was watching, just watching. And other cocks got such a fright. They couldn’t understand how this fellow is not disturbed. He’s just watching, he’s standing, he’s doing nothing. So all they disappeared from the arena and he was declared as the successful one. So this is the best way to bring nonviolence. In violent places, you go and stand steadily there, facing all the things that are happening. And that witness state acts, acts and stops that kind of a violence that is going on.

But witness state is not a mental state. It is a state of a spiritual ascent where you become a witness. Best way to practice witness state is not to criticize anyone. Not to criticize. I’ve seen people who are all the time criticizing others. They cannot criticize themselves so they start criticizing others so much so that they don’t even see what’s wrong with them. They don’t even say what wrong they have done to others because they think they have a right to criticize others. And they enjoy this criticism very well. Actually, there’s nothing to be criticized. You just watch and see for yourself. That’s all is your right. You have no right to criticize anyone or anything. But some people think if you do not criticize, then it will go on like this and it will never stop. It’s not that. Once you watch the thing yourself-only just watch-your attention itself is enlightened now. With that enlightened attention you can just watch and stop the nonsense that is there. But we are always conscious that we are something great and we have to do this and we have to do that. Under these circumstances, what happens is that you become another problem. Because what can you do? You can’t do anything. But what you can do is to watch.

By watching and by just seeing things as they are you really develop a very different state of being. Firstly, all such people who are just witness, what happens to them is very interesting-that their memory loss is much less because whatever they see becomes like a picture to them-like a, we can say, they can tell you even the color, the folding, everything. Whatever they see is so much in their mind, like a photo, and they can tell you exactly what they have seen. And your memory is not lost. While if you react onto everything, your memory becomes horrible. People are so much habituated with reacting. Like I know of one gentleman, he had a habit of reacting and I was going with him in the car. So he was reading every advertisement, every name of every shop, every person, every thing he was just telling who is that, what is that, this, that. I was wondering, “Look at this gentleman, he’s talking so much. What will happen to him?”But ultimately I found that all such people who are all the time reacting become-actually they have I think senile decay or maybe they become forgetful, very forgetful.

But this is not the only loss we have. With this kind of people when they are formed into a collective, they can be very dangerous people. Because with that kind of a nature, they have to do something. They must do something because, after all, they are combined together for a purpose or, we can say, for some reactions which all of them have built up. In small things, in big things, you’ll find people do like that. And some people who are very much, very much developed in this kind of behavior, can collect lots of people and do any amount of harm to others.

I would get the picture of Hitler. For nine years this fellow was watching what wrongs Jews are doing. He wouldn’t watch what Germans are doing-what wrong they are doing to the society. And that time the society also was very bad because they were having all kinds of licentiousness. Now he was noting down, “These Jews are like this, they do this, they take money, they’re lending money.” All kinds of things he got into his head. As a result of that, he built up a reaction into him that, “We must somehow or other see that these people go away from Germany.” But then he thought, “Even if they go away from Germany, they’ll prosper again. So, why not kill them?” I mean, to such an extent that even, you know, you cannot see such films. You cannot see anything of that nature that Hitler did. But he did it. And people who followed him also did it-without feeling any hitch as if it was a matter of great pleasure or joy, or maybe it’s a duty. How could they get duty-bound to such a horrible thing like killing thousands and thousands of Jews? What Jews had done to them? They could have corrected it. But why did they indulge into such violence and they wanted to finish all the Jews of the world?

It can be very, very dangerous because once you start losing your witness state, you can fall into negative collectivity. And thus this negative collectivity acts, acts in such a bad manner that all the conflicts of the world, all the problems of the world, perhaps, are related with this. So as Sahaj Yogis, what should we do? We should not react. We should not react. If you see something wrong-all right, you meditate on that. You meditate. If you find anything wrong happening, all right, meditate on that. If somebody is unkind to you, at that moment do not react. Afterwards, when that person is quieter you tell him. Or tell her. Because at that time when he is so volatile or she’s volatile, if you tell, nothing will happen. Gradually-I don’t say always-you can win over such people. But gradually you may be able to make them understand that it’s wrong, it’s wrong to do things which they have been doing.

In a way, you see, the reaction to anything which is stupid also can be very self-destroying. Like some people have built in reactions, like you have seen this Mr. Clinton behaving. I mean you can’t understand a man of his stature, of his level, should have such reactions. But must be from his childhood or I don’t know how he built it up. Now he’s in trouble. Very shameful. This also is, I think perhaps, comes from a very great indulgence into reactions. Why should you react? To a woman, I can’t understand, or to a man. And this is one of the biggest problems of today’s culture, especially in all the developed countries-that all the time men are looking at women, women are looking at men. For what? Perhaps they look at women because they want to see how many women are looking at them. Or they look at men, perhaps maybe that how many men are looking at them. Why? Why is this happening? Because they have some inferiority complex in them or that they want to attract the attention of everyone.

I mean horrible things are done these days to attract the attention of others, to get the sympathy of others. I mean if you see the level of your awareness, where it goes, you’ll be amazed. Like they say one lady killed her eight children just to get sympathy from others. Think of such horrible things people are doing! Now if you want others to have reaction, you do this. That they want others to see you or to react to-I don’t know-to give you importance, you can say. But what’s the use of such an empty importance? But people are seeking it. And it’s a very common disease of modern life. All the time-how you should look, how you should appear, how you should walk. Everything is so stupid and wastage of energy.

God has created human beings very, very different. None of them are copies, none of them. Even in the nature you find the leaves of trees, they are so unique you cannot match them with another. So that’s how human beings are created-differently. They are made like that. One has to accept. Whatever you are, it’s all right. Why do you want to look like another person? This kind of reaction is extremely stupid, I think-that we are spoiling our energy and life for something absolutely worthless.

Now you being Sahaja Yogis, your worth is great. You have come here to emancipate human beings from these silly ideas and foolish ways. The way people are behaving, I don’t know whom to blame, but suddenly our attention has become very diversified. Our reactions have become very, very funny. One doesn’t know why people react like that and then why do we worry about what people react. All these things are not only on individual level but also on a collective level. As a result, you see, new kinds of value system has been created.

Now for a mother, say for example, she’ll boast of how many men are running after her. Or she would think she’s a great actress. I don’t know what they think of themselves. And the way they talk about themselves is something surprising. If she is a mother, she has to be a good mother and she has to look like a mother, but they’re so much engrossed, or they are so much standing on the basis that they have to be extremely attractive, they have to be the queens or I don’t know what, what a position they want to have.

Same with the men. You see, if you have something within you, if there is any quality within you, is there anything that can qualify you as a great man, it will be showing. You don’t have to advertise. You don’t have to pamper it. Nothing. It will be showing. So that indifference if you have towards the public opinion, I think you can achieve a lot. Most of the frustrations will disappear.

In Sahaja Yoga, also, I have seen people want to show off a lot. I know who does that. But they should know. Once you do not react to outside, you start reacting to inside and introspection will start properly. When you see yourself, you’ll be amazed how admiring you are, how happy you are. Now if you go beyond that a little more, then you don’t think about these things, you just become thoughtless and you just stand up as a person who is respected, whose company is wanted, who is loved and who is cared for. So one should not worry as to what people react, what they say about you, what they think about you. You should just introspect and see for yourself. After some time you don’t need even introspection.

It is a kind of a state I’m talking about where Shri Krishna told Arjuna that, “I will not fight. So in between Me and the army, My army, you have to select.” So Kaurava said, “No, we’ll take your army. You give us your army and we’ll strengthen our army.” But Arjuna said, “I don’t want army. I want You. You don’t want to fight, it’s all right.” Because though He will be there in a witness state only, He won’t be fighting but His Power will act. He doesn’t have to fight. He doesn’t have to do anything. But His own Power which is outwardly is silent but will act. And that is how we will win the war.

So this power of witnessing you all should develop. Try to develop it-that when you are reacting, stop reaction. Stop reaction about everything. You’ll be amazed. You will find yourself a very, very powerful perso-in the sense you’ll have no ambitions, you’ll have no desires, you’ll have no special fondness or anything. But just you are witnessing the drama. It’s very interesting to witness also. Because then you understand the humor behind everything. You understand the stupidity behind everything. You understand also how people have been so violent and you’ll just laugh at it. You don’t get upset, excited, nothing. Just laugh at it. After some time you’ll be amazed. Your witness state will increase. And when in the collective all of you have that witness state, you can do wonders without doing anything, without saying anything, without acting. Only your presence, itself, can work it out. I don’t say that it will have effect on everyone. No, can’t say. But most of the people.

Any person who is in that state, he is the one who brings peace, he brings joy. I’ll tell you a story of a Sahaj Yogi who was going to another island-he was living in an island-for Sahaj Yoga work. And he found the whole sky was covered with very black clouds, thundering clouds. So he just looked at them like this and he said, “Wait ’til I come back. I am going to do Mother’s work.” He went to another island. He did the program. Everything happened and when he came back he wanted to sleep and suddenly it started raining and thundering. Even the nature understands. Nature understands that you are in that great state of witnessing.

But if you are very ambitious-even in Sahaja Yoga I have known people who are very ambitious. They want to become leaders-I don’t know what else. Actually it’s all a myth. All mythical things they want to get to and worry their heads about mythical things. Once you learn how to witness, you’ll know the myth. You will know the absurdity. You’ll know the maya. So to overcome the problems of personality, the best thing is to witness. Practice witnessing. Everything. Before talking, practice witnessing. Before giving any comments, just start witnessing. It’s a very, very satisfying attitude.

In Shri Krishna’s life, the greatest Power He was a witnessing personality. Without doing anything, without taking a sword in His hands, without talking about fighting, He’s the one who has helped Pandavas to win the war. Not only but through His Gita He has tried to tell us what we have to do to win the war over evil. Whole Gita is the witness state He has described about. If you read it, Gita now, from this angle, you’ll be amazed to find that everywhere He is like a witness, describing everything, whatever He sees. And He will tell you how this witness state has helped Him to understand, also, human beings.

He is a man who was, we should say, was not such a big businessman. Because first He told you that how to become Sthita Pragnya. Sthita Pragnya is the one who is in the witness state. If you see all these verses on Sthita Pragnya it’s nothing but a person who is in witness state-how he lives, how he is happy, how he looks at things. It’s interesting, very interesting. First He describes that-not like the shop people who will describe first the bad thing, but He starts with the best. Then He goes down to other things and tells you that whatever are the three aspects.

The first he talks about karma and many people get stuck at that point-that whatever karmas we are doing, we’ll get the punyas out of it. He’s not. He didn’t say that. If you know Him, then you know He never meant that way. What He says that, “Whatever karmas you have to do, you can do it, but leave the results to the Divine Power.” Results are from the Divine Power. Now maybe that some people think that they have got money because they have done good karmas and start doing all kinds of bad karmas with that money. He didn’t say that. He said, “Leave the results to the Divine Power.” Because Divine Power knows best what is for you. And so, if you think you have done something good- you have served somewhere to the poor, you have done something really good for the women, or anything-the result of that, you leave it at the Feet of the Divine Power. Means that you don’t build up an ego for whatever you have done. Very well He has written this but to understand Him, one should have again the witness state to see what He has written about karma.

Then He has written about gnyana. Gnyana means where you know. But that doesn’t mean you go on reading books-never. Gnyana means to know what you are. That means you have to be a Sahaj Yogi by which you know so many things through vibrations. Gnyana doesn’t mean reading books. By reading books you become more ignorant. So gnyana means that you must know your Self. If you do not know your Self, you do not know anything. So it comes to that you must get your Self-Realization. You must know your Self. It’s the second thing He has said.

Lastly, He talks about bhakti. Bhakti is devotion. That, too, is another trick of Shri Krishna, the way He described bhakti. Now you find people on the street, “Hare Rama, hare Krishna” singing. In one word He has concluded, He says you must do ananya bhakti. Ananya means when there is not the other. That means when you submerge yourself into the Divine. You are one with the Divine, then you should do bhakti, otherwise I do not accept. He says that if you give Me patrum-some leaves, or some fruits, or some flowers, I will accept. I will accept, but for Him the real bhakti is only possible when you become one with the Divine. Otherwise, it’s just a show. So the third bhakti part also comes after Self-Realization.

Now in the bhakti, you see, there is no “what is the value is” and “how much you paid for it” and “how you bought it.” It’s not important. For that a great example is of Shri Rama when He went in the jungles. There was an old lady from the shidul’s class-means she was one of the bhilni, as they call it-these people live in the jungles. So she brought some berries and offered it to Shri Rama. And she said that, “I have tasted all of them and they are not sour. All of them I’ve tasted.” Now after tasting something in India people call it, it’s become not to be eaten. I mean we cannot taste something and give it to somebody else. It’s not done according to Indian culture. But Shri Rama took it. He took it. He said, “What beautiful fruits! I’ve never eaten such fruit!” So Lakshmana got very angry. He said, “You stupid woman. You have eaten these fruits and that’s what you are giving to Shri Ram. Why do you do that?” So Sita was watching. So she asked Him, “Why don’t you give me some of these fruits?” He gave. She said, “My God, what nice fruits these are! I’ve never eaten such good fruits.” So then Lakshmana also His temper came down and He said, “Can You not give me some?” She said, “Why? You were so angry, why should I give you?” So ultimately, She gives him that fruit. So what did He see in those fruit was the love, the love of this old lady living in the forest, her love which was important. So when you want to give something also, it is your love which is important. Not how much you paid, what value you have spent-nothing-is the love with which you do it.

And that love should be evident. If such things can happen, even with Shri Krishna the same thing happened. He went to-they called them Hastinapur in those days where these Kauravas were living. And the king was Duryodhana. And he asked Him, “You come and stay with us and have food.” He said, “No, no I won’t be able to come.” He goes to another person, Vidura, who was the son of a maid servant. Vidura. Because Vidura was a realized soul. He was a realized soul. So He went and ate in his house where he had cooked very simple food. Because he was a realized soul, to Him he was the best to have food with.

So your value system should be based on such things like love. Where you can get love, you should be attached to that person. Where you get a realized soul, you should be attached to them, and not to worldly people who think no end of themselves and think they are great. They may be. But to you as Sahaja Yogis, it’s the love of people which should be respected, should be understood and to be felt. But if you have no witness state, then you’ll see how much money this man has got, how many cars he has got, what clothes he’s wearing. All these considerations will be there. But in a witness state, you will understand that you’ll get vibrations from this person. You will understand that person is spiritual. And that’s how you will stick to such a person. You will not go for artificial things, but genuine personalities that are there.

May God bless you all. Thank you.

[Before Shri Mataji left the hall, She said:]

Hello. I would say that after this Puja, I expected all of you to keep quiet. But everybody was talking. I don’t know why, what had happened to you? You must enjoy the silence within yourself. I hope you’ll understand that. Thank you.