Shri Ganesha Puja, “Your Innocence Will Save This World,” Cabella Ligure (Italy), 16 September 2000

Today, we have gathered here to do Ganesha Puja.

I know very well that Ganesha is the symbol of purity, of sanctity, and worshipping the innocence. When you are worshipping Shri Ganesh, you have to know that He is the embodiment of innocence.

I wonder if we understand the meaning of “innocence” or not. Innocence is a quality which is innate, which cannot be forced, which cannot be trained into. It’s just a quality, innate quality, within a human being. When he becomes Shri Ganesha’s disciple, he becomes an innocent person.

Maybe you say that innocent persons are attacked by the cunning, by the aggressive, but innocence is such a great thing that it cannot be destroyed. It’s the quality of the Spirit. Innocence is the quality of the Spirit, and when this Spirit within you is awakened, you get the power of innocence, by which you overcome all that is negative, all that is wrong, all that is detrimental to your growth, spiritual understanding.

So to be innocent is not possible. You have to be innocent, in the sense that you are innately innocent. This happens after Sahaja Yoga, after realization. And your power to fight all these wrong, negative feelings within you – and without – are absolutely supported, protected, by the Mother of Shri Ganesh.

It’s difficult these days to tell somebody about innocence. But you know the life of Christ: He was innocence. He didn’t know what sort of people He was around. He thought they were all innocent and so He was talking to them in a manner that nobody who was cunning would have done, because cunning always understands the cunning of others. And He said things which may not have been understood by people, but whatever He said had the vibrations of innocence. That should have put all these people in a proper sense, in a proper relationship with Him. But somehow, that was not the time perhaps for them to be realized souls.

So the innocence of Ganesha was not that, we should say, defeated, but very much created an atmosphere of such sanctity and beauty that you can see in the life of Christ.

I am happy you all have heard about your marriages. Why the marriage? What is the need to have a marriage? After all, these days people are living without marriage. But marriage means the sanctity of marriage; sanctity of your physical, mental, and emotional integration. If you do not have the sanctity and you live with a person, then it is not perfect. The children you will produce will not be all right. That’s why the marriage is necessary. And as you know, Christ went to attend a wedding. Why did He pay so much attention to a wedding? Because that sanctifies your relationships with each other. Anything is all right, but the relationship between husband and wife has to be sanctified, otherwise the children you produce could turn out to be anything. They may be robbers, they may be cheats, they may be liars, they may be very, very cruel people if there’s no sanctity about the marriage. 

That’s why He went to sanctify the marriage institution. But it’s absolutely wrong and nonsense that He created alcohol. What He did was to change the water into the taste of grape juice. Alcohol is called as “grape juice” in the Hebrew language. I mean, you can say, it is not called, but “wine” means alcohol as well as grape juice. But it cannot be, because instantly you cannot create alcohol. Alcohol takes time: it has to rot and rot and rot, then it becomes an alcohol. But if Christ has made it in such a Sahaj manner, spontaneously, how can it be an alcohol that intoxicates?

So, many people, especially in the Christian religion, believe that Christ sanctified wine, which is absolutely wrong. He never sanctified alcohol. He changed the grape juice [water] into wine [grape] taste. The other day I happened to meet a person, as you know him, Romano Battaglia. And he said, “Mother, You give me realization.” I said, “All right, get me some water.” He brought some water, I put My fingers into it, and then he tested and said, “Mother, it tastes like wine.” I said, “That’s it. That’s what Christ has done.” 

So, there is no sanctity of alcohol. How can you expect Christ to do something like that, by which your awareness absolutely goes wrong? Those people who drink, you know, are not normal people. Something goes wrong with their brains. When they drive, they create problems. When they are talking to somebody, you can make out that they are not normal. They try to be very aggressive. Sometimes they can be very passive also. Mostly they are very aggressive and very much behaving in a manner that doesn’t behove a human being.

So, we must understand that this wine, so-called, which is being fermented for days together, is very wrong and against the spiritual life. All those countries where alcohol is accepted as a very sanctified thing are just going to the dogs. It is against Shri Ganesh. It’s against innocence. And so such a person can become very cunning, very shrewd, very dominating—all kinds of bad things can come through him. And one cannot trust a person who drinks and becomes a drunkard. He can get after his wife, his children, anybody, and try to destroy their lives because he knows he is himself destroyed.

So the one thing one has to understand: innocence doesn’t allow you to have anything like that, that goes against your awareness. Your human awareness is very important. That must be respected. Anything that you take that spoils your awareness or spoils your health is all wrong, especially for Sahaj Yogis. You have to keep your health all right. How do you keep your health all right? By avoiding all such things which destroy your health.

So the married life is a sanctified life, is a life which is being blessed. Now we have priests, but I would say in Sahaja Yoga they [the marriages] are all blessed by Me. So one should understand that this is a very big thing that you have got. But there are many I have known who come round saying, “Mother, we want a divorce. We are trying to make up a good marriage.” All kinds of stories they tell me. If you know it’s a sanctified marriage – it is a marriage which has been done under all the ceremonies of Sahaja Yoga – it cannot be a bad marriage. But if you are bad, nobody can help you. 

If you have funny ideas about marriages, you should try to correct it. If you want to marry in Sahaja Yoga, then please see that you respect the sanctity of married life. I know sometimes women can be bad, men can be bad, there can be problems. But a person who is wise will try to endure all that because she wants or he wants to respect the sanctity of marriage.

This one is a very contradictory thing then, it comes to, that Christ was born without the marriage and Ganesha was also born without the marriage. They Themselves are sanctity. They don’t need any sanctity from outside. They are innocence, and for innocent people, they don’t need any kind of a ritual or a kind of a ceremony. That’s how They have been born – absolutely pure – of innocence. But that doesn’t mean that we should take Their example into ourselves. They were Divine personalities, and They were to be born like that. While we have to be sanctified and leading a sanctified life. This is a difference between an incarnation and a human being.

It’s easy to criticize incarnations. Very simple to criticize them. All incarnations have been criticized by human beings because human beings cannot understand them. But try to be really very pure and innocent, and then you will understand that why their lives were on a different line, different style.

Now if you say, “We can develop innocence, Mother,” you cannot. Which is the way to become innocent? In Sahaja Yoga, we have a proper method how we can become innocent. It happens through our thoughtless awareness. If you are in the state of thoughtless awareness, then what happens [is] you do not react, you do not get involved into wrong things, you do not get involved into any discussions, arguments, but you just watch and the innocence within you rises beautifully, like a lotus rises out of a dirty pond.

So whatever may be the circumstances, when you are in thoughtless awareness, you do not react. That is the sign of innocence. And people who do not react keep young. They will never show their age, they keep young. Because to react is not a very good thing; [it] makes you get involved into another person. But if you don’t react, if you are just watching and you are a witness, then you don’t get involved into anything, you are away from it. And that’s how your innocence grows and you get very confident.

I have read a story about a Chinese king who went to a saint and asked him that he wants some boon from him. He said, “What?” He said, “I want my son to be developed into a person who can face all kinds of people. Whatever people may do, he should be able to face them.” He said, “All right, you leave your son with me.” So, when the arguments started, when the fighting started, his son was just standing straight, watching everything in thoughtless awareness. So, everybody from the arena went back. They all went away. And they couldn’t stand the innocence of this boy, who was very young. And the king was surprised how his son could face all of them, all their arguments, all their aggression, and all kinds of horrible things they said to him.

If anybody says anything to you, you should just be innocent. At that time, your power of innocence will show that this person who is trying to dominate you, to trouble you, is very much in the wrong. And the person himself might realize that, “I am doing all these things and this fellow, the one on whom I am trying to dominate, is not taking any note of it.” So he feels very weak. He thinks he has no power to dominate a person.

So this is [what] we have now as Sahaj Yogis: we can get into thoughtless awareness. Try to reduce your reactions, [your] reaction to anything. People have such funny ideas about themselves that they react. Now for example, somebody showed me those carpets: I have started watching, I was very happy, and they told Me all the Sahaja Yoginis have made this with their hands, so beautifully. Well! It was really so joyful to know that they have done it. But if I was a very normal person, I would have said, “Oh, my God. What a colour! What a thing,” like that. So whatever they have done, I can’t even enjoy that. One thing is, the enjoyment is lost. 

For a child, enjoyment is complete. Whatever he sees, he makes a joyful thing out of it. You look at children: I have seen children, they find anything, they make a toy out of it. The other day, we had gone to Genoa and I saw there were big blocks kept there. Some children came from somewhere, they just climbed on that and made horses out of them and were enjoying them. You see, they find anything, any space, and they make a joyful thing for themselves, a play for them. For them, life is also a play, just a thing of enjoyment. And they make you also enjoy everything. If you are not in a good mood, they’ll come and behave in such a manner that you’ll have to come round and become a very simple, natural person.

So to see a simple, natural person, we always say that they are like children. This means they do not understand the cunning, they do not understand the stupidity of the people, and they live in their own world of innocence. In the same way, all the Sahaja Yogis have to develop that aura around them. Let people see you, how innocent you are, how sweet you are. No arguments, no quarrelling, no fighting is needed. It is just the inner satisfaction of thoughtless awareness.

Many people say, “Mother, we cannot become thoughtless.” Why? Why can’t you become thoughtless? Because all the time, whatever you see, you want to react. If you gradually start stopping reaction – introspect yourself. See for yourself. If you are all the time trying to react, tell your mind to behave itself. If there’s any reaction, you just don’t say anything. Keep quiet. Gradually, you will be amazed and surprised how you become thoughtlessly aware, how beautiful you become. And everybody who sees you will know that you are something different, you are not like the normal person.

But the normal reaction of human beings is that if there’s a quarrel going on, say, on the street, everybody will join in the quarrel. They like to fight. They want to be part and parcel of that quarrel or fight or whatever it is. They don’t want to get out of it. At that time, if you just have your innocence, that will act. I told you, innocence is the Spirit, and Spirit is the innocence, which cannot be destroyed by anything. The fact is that it cannot be destroyed by anything, and it can be re-established through Sahaja Yoga. You might have been a very aggressive person, you might have been a very unhappy person, you might have been a person who is all the time disturbing others, maybe, but after Sahaja Yoga, you can make your personality so sweet and beautiful that not only you can enjoy but others can also enjoy.

This innocence is something which is absolute, honest, intelligence. It is not that it works for some purpose, but it’s purposeless. It’s absolutely purposeless. And thus it achieves that height of joy because there is no purpose in anything. It sees the futility of all kinds of endeavours that we have and it just enjoys. “Why are people running up and down? Why are they fighting?” [It] just stands up and sees that, “Why should they do it?” – like that. Some may think they are all right, there’s nothing wrong with them, but it’s not so. 

Innocence is something, I told you, is an innate quality, and you should not deceive yourself by thinking you are innocent. On the contrary, you just put some introspection upon yourself and see for yourself: what have you been doing so far as far as others are concerned? What is your attitude?

I have already talked to you about emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the expression of innocence. It is the expression of Shri Ganesha within you. Children who are gifted with this will always try to please you. They know what you want, what you need. They’ll give you all the joy that you want. They’ll do all the things that you like, just to please you. They don’t have their own wants. They don’t want to have their own demands. They never say, “I want this,” “You do for me” – never. They just want to see what you want, what do you want to have, and they put all the effort to supply you with that, whatever you want. 

It’s very interesting how the children behave towards others, elders. Just like, I would say, a great understanding, we should say, like a very elderly personality. So, in innocence, you become extremely grown-up, matured. Very matured. With that maturity, you know what this person needs and what the other person should not have. And the way they establish is very interesting.

Children are the most interesting things, I think, in the world. For Me, roses are very beautiful, but children are the most interesting things. And they teach you so many things that you are surprised at their innocence. So many jokes are there about the children – how they behave, how they talk. And they are so innocent that they will tell everything to everyone. They have no way of hiding anything, it’s very difficult. 

I know one joke…a gentleman came to the house for dinner; so, the child was looking at him very intensely. And then he says, “Mother, he doesn’t eat like a horse, as you told me!” So everybody was shocked. “You see, he doesn’t eat like a horse!” Mother must have told him, “He eats like a horse.” So he looked at him, “He doesn’t eat like a horse.” You see, they are so innocent sometimes, they say things by which you can get exposed completely.

There are so many jokes about it. And if you write some books, writing the jokes of children, I tell you, people will just enjoy it because so innocently they say things which are nothing but the truth. And they cannot tell lies. They are so truthful. That’s the quality of innocence. They never tell lies. “You did this?” “Yes, I did.” “You didn’t do this?” “No, I didn’t do.” They never tell lies. It’s we, the grown-ups [that] teach them to how to tell lies, how to be cheating. 

Then we teach also our children another bad thing, that is: “You must possess everything.” Especially in the West [this] is a thing they do. They tell the child that, “This is yours. You should not give it to anyone, this is your own.” On the contrary, you should tell them, “You can do what you like.” Leave it to their innocence. You will be amazed: they will give up everything that they have. In such a beautiful manner they’ll behave, that you’ll be amazed how they try to please everyone, and try to do something to entertain you.

All their capacity of this is so great that sometimes one wonders how these little things have developed these capacities. It is the blessings of Shri Ganesha. It’s His blessings that children are so very sweet and so much entertaining, and so beautiful. Try to become like them. We have to be like them. 

You might have read many books, you might have got lots of degrees, you might be something great, but you are not childlike. You have to be a childlike person, otherwise no one likes your company. We call them “bores,” but actually boring comes with the people who have no innocence in their heart. They are trying to tell you, “You must do this. If you want to be successful, you do that.” All these lectures are useless for children.

In the same way, it should be within your own understanding that, “This is all nonsense they are talking.” As the children don’t care for what you suggest to them – to be nasty, to be horrid – in the same way, if you are innocent you will not accept it. You may listen to anything, let them tell you anything they want to, doesn’t matter. You will never do that, because you cannot—because you are innocent. And the innocence will guard you, it will give you proper guidance [of] what is to be done, what is not to be done.

Now try to introspect and see for yourself: are you innocent or not? People think that somebody is trying to overpower you, is trying to harm you, is trying to put you down. Nobody can put down innocence. Innocence is a quality that survives all kinds of nonsense. And not only that, but age, your health, your mind, your thinking, and your emotions are extremely innocent, and you enjoy yourself.

Nowadays there’s a big wave of shamelessness, sometimes. The people I have seen, they have no lajja. I don’t know, some men want to attract women and some women want to attract men. Children never do like that. They don’t know what is this, to attract men or to attract women, or attract anyone. They’ll try to please the dog, they’ll try to please a horse, but they are never, I have seen, going all out to attract someone. The reason is this: that their self-esteem is complete. They know about themselves fully. So why should they do all this nonsense of running after women, running after men, and creating problems for themselves? Their self-esteem is complete. 

Innocence is like that: it gives you a complete self-esteem. You don’t bow to anyone, nor you make anybody else to bow. This is the beauty of innocence, which works out so well within you. That’s why I always say that, “Worship Shri Ganesha.”

I know of somebody who was very highly placed and suddenly, I was surprised how he was paralyzed. What happened? He was a very good man; he should not have been paralyzed. Then I found out that he had very bad intentions about women and that’s how he got this problem. So I told him, “You’d better worship Ganesha. You worship Shri Ganesha.” Worshipping the Shri Ganesha improves your Mooladhara, improves your sense of shame, improves your own dignity, self-esteem. 

You dress up in a way that shows that you respect your body. You talk in such a way that shows that you respect your tongue, your language. You cannot have a foul mouth if you are an innocent person. You cannot have a mind that can abuse or can say horrible words. I have seen, in America, they talk in such a funny manner that you are shocked. There’s no need to use these dirty words to express yourself; with that, your tongue is spoiled, so innocence is gone from your tongue. If you have lost innocence from your tongue, whatever you say will never come true. Will never come true. But if you are innocent, and your tongue is innocent and respects.…

So the basic, as you can see: respect your innocence in every manner. Like, when you have to get angry with somebody or say something, just keep quiet – is the best way. Or else you must respect your tongue, respect your eyes. Some people have a very bad habit of roving their eyes all over, looking at women; or some women are like that. You don’t respect your eyes. Then they develop problems of the eyes. Not only that but the mind also. The mind gets so much ruined by this kind of behaviour that it has no sense. It cannot enjoy anything. Such a person cannot enjoy anything.

If you are a person who respects your eyes, your nose, your ears, I tell you, you will be amazed: everything is so enjoyable. In this world there are so many things to be enjoyed, but people can’t hear anything that is good. There are birds who are chirping – they can’t hear. There are trees which are growing – they can’t see. There are flowers which have fragrance – they cannot smell. Because they are so much low in their self-esteem, because they are very low-level people, I should say, who cannot enjoy everything around.

And they should be a source of enjoyment. You see children, how they are a source of enjoyment. Anybody who comes on the stage and runs about – how we enjoy. Why? Why do we enjoy a child running about? We don’t say he’s gone amok, or he’s drunk, but we enjoy the child. Why? What is the sweetness of that child that makes us so happy? Because that’s innocence. His power is innocence. And with that power he is just looking so sweet, so beautiful that it gives us the real joy within our heart.

So the second thing is that innocence is joy-giving. Innocence gives joy to people. Anything said innocently, anything done innocently, is very, very joy-giving. And in that, you see the person so transparent, so beautiful, that you enjoy that transparency and that sanctified innocence. That’s why Ganesha is worshipped first, because Ganesha was the first Deity that was created by Adi Shakti. Because if She has to create something, She must know that there has to be the power of innocence, otherwise people will go wrong, they’ll do all kinds of wrong things. So first She created Ganesha, whose innocence – we can call the vibrations – are so strong that it controls. 

Of course, there are people who have abandoned completely their innocence and they think no end of themselves. Forget about them. But normally, you are always guided by your innocence, whether you are aware of it or not. And that is such a sweet thing, such a sweet thing that it makes people rise in their nobleness, in their greatness. And that is what we have to develop in us, the Sahaj Yogis. When Sahaj Yogis go anywhere, try to do anything, meet anybody, any social work, anything, people should feel that joy that you have within yourself.

It’s for that joy only [that] the Adi Shakti created Shri Ganesha. Because that joy within you, of innocent joy – which doesn’t harm anybody, which doesn’t expect anything, which doesn’t demand anything, which doesn’t want anything, but is just emitting joy all over – that sort of a personality you should have.

There’s nothing wrong in wearing good dresses, nothing wrong in eating good food, nothing wrong in having conversation with people, but in all that, it is the respect of the innocence, the expression of innocence should be there. With this innocence, we can solve the problems. All the problems of the world can be solved. That’s why Shri Ganesha is so important.

If you do not have a proper understanding of Shri Ganesha, and if your Shri Ganesha is in a jeopardy, I don’t know what can happen to you. Today, these days, you see so many horrible diseases are coming because they are not sanctified, their relationships are not sanctified. Every relationship has to be sanctified with your innocence. Like, you have a sister, you have a mother, you have a brother, you have a father, you have all these relationships. And all these relationships, they are so good, so beautiful, and sanctified, because there is the relationship of innocence. 

You love your father out of innocence, and you love your daughter out of innocence, you love your mother out of innocence. Why should you love? For some sort of a gain? Then it’s cunning. For some sort of an overpowering? Then it’s cunning. It’s just love for love’s sake. That’s possible if you are innocent.

So now I am happy [that] tomorrow you are all going to get married. And those people who are getting married should understand that it’s a sanctified marriage. It’s very important. It’s not like any other marriage. It’s the marriage taking place in My presence. So be careful! 

Now, if you do not want to marry, all right, finish it. You have been given a chance to know the person, to understand him. But afterwards, if you try to be funny, it’s going to be very difficult for you and for Me. I may give up having marriages. So I don’t like people to talk of divorce from the very first day. But, if there is really a problem, it’s all right; in Sahaja Yoga, we have allowed divorce. Not, say, the Catholic Church, they don’t allow divorce, so men have all kinds of relationships and women have all kinds of relationships. That’s not there. Instead of doing this kind of a nonsense, you can have a divorce. but it should be a very innocent happening. That if you are divorcing a person because your innocence is challenged, it’s all right. There I agree with you, that you should have.

So preserve your innocence. In these modern times, it’s very important to preserve your innocence [so] that Shri Ganesh should be awakened within you, and also in other people. That is going to save this world. Nothing else, but the innocence that you have is going to save the world. 

Whatever you may know, whatever you may say, whatever you may write, please see that you are not hurting the innocence within you. It’s not necessary to lead a life of morality, this, that. What is needed is your innocence. Innocence itself gives you moral strength, moral understanding. You don’t have to read books for that, you don’t have to go to any guru for that. Innocence will guide you and tell you that, “This is what is Sahaj. This is what you have to have.”

You all have got realization. It’s a very big thing that has happened to so many people. And I always want you to worship Shri Ganesh within you. Shri Ganesh is your innocence, it is the Spirit within you. When you want to know your Spirit, it is [with] Shri Ganesha you become one, one with Shri Ganesh. It is within you, and is absolutely possible for all of you to be completely enlightened by the power of Shri Ganesha.

I am very happy that you have accepted all the marriages and you have decided to marry. But even now, if you say no, it’s better to finish it off. But don’t try any tricks and don’t try to be funny, because that is not going to help you in any way to enjoy your marriage. From the very first day, try to understand that you have to be very kind. Kind to your partner, very respectful, very caring, very loving. That’s a very important thing which people don’t understand. And do not take it for granted. It’s all right [that] because it’s a Sahaj marriage people take it for granted—no. Never take it for granted. If you want to have real joy, then have innocent love between yourselves, and enjoy yourself.

May God bless you. Thank you.