Shivaratri Puja, Pune (India), 16 March 2003.

Today, we are going to worship, Shri Shiva, Sadashiva. His quality is that, he is forgiveness personified. The amount of forgiveness He has, has helped many of us to exist, Otherwise this world, would have perished. so many would have been finished, because you know what is the condition of human beings. They don’t understand what is wrong, what is right. Apart from that, they cannot forgive. They go on making mistakes, doesn’t matter, But they cannot forgive others. This is what we have to learn from Shri Sadashiva.

[Translation from Hindi] Today we are going to worship Shri Sadashiva. His specific nature is that, His capacity to forgive is so much, that no human can compete with Him. He forgives all our mistakes. If He doesn’t, the whole world could have come to an end. Because within him there is a power, with which He can destroy the whole creation. Though forgiveness is His inherent quality, this power of distruction within Him, is active and keeps growing. This same power, with which He forgives, when it matures or rather when it grows in abundance, He can destroy the whole world also. So first of all we need to acquire his quality of forgiveness. For small, insignificant and forgivable matters, We keep fighting. We fight over very petty, unimportant subjects. But He is forgiving to the extent that, He keeps forrgiving until, He reaches the point, From where, the distructive powers within him awakens. With this same power He can destroy himself also. He can destroy the whole of the univese. Whatever has been created by Him, can totally be destroyed. So we shouid remember, that in case we don’t learn to forgive, and forgiveness is not established within us, then one day this destructive power will be awakened, in us. we will start destroying our own people. That’s why we should always be alert, we should keep in mind, keep an eye towards self, that we are not getting angry with others in vain? That we are not being wicked to others without a reason. Under any circumstances, You do not have a right to be angry with anyone. When Shiva doesn’t get angry, then why should you? But people get extremely angry, very often. Even animals do not get angry to this extent. Without a reason even animals do not harm. Similarly, when we, get angry over petty matters, then we should remember that, there is a power of Shiva, which is active within us. That is why, when we get upset with others for every thing, and get angry with them for everything, and can not forgive them at all, then, this kind of a person, what can he achieve? Wherever great wars have taken place, wherever people have faced hardship, In those places, the main reason has been that, the human race was oppressed, was destroyed. This power comes from the beginning. Without a reason one human starts destroying the other. everywhere. Why this attitude has come in human, and how it has come, we don’t need to think about that. We just have to remember that we, in this kind of inferior and trivial matters, have never got involved. In our lives, if we could stay peaceful, and tackle all the problems peacefully, then we also would be equally peaceful. our lives would be peaceful too. But the point is that human, do not have control over himself. He is unable to control himself. His nature itself is such that, he gets carried away, and feels pleased to think, that “I have punished everyone very nicely, I shouted at everyone, I was angry with everyone”. to such an extent that many countries have this issue. If a country gets annoyed with another country, or a single person gets angry with another , then the whole people from that country are behind him. For the benevolence no one will come forward, For the benevolence, none of the countries will come together, Only for fighting with one another, and getting upset, all will unite together. This is an amazing thing, If you tell someone that we have to work for emancipation, he will say “Okay, you do it, I will watch”. But if a person in his hands, has some weapon to hit others, then he will say “give me the weapon, I want to hit him too”. This nature of human is difficult to understand. To beat up someone and to trouble someone and to be angry with someone, what kind of pleasure a human being can get? But you just watch. While travelling, there is a crowd on the road. What happened? “Some quarrel is taking place”. “What are you doing there”? Some will say we are also part of it. some will say we are watching it. this very peculier nature which is within us, can be removed by only one God, and that is Shiv-Shankar. By adoring Him, by worshipping Him, and by recognising Him from the heart, the anger and aggression of human beings gets dissolved. It is very surprising that Krishna also, has said the biggest defect of human is anger. Krodhaat bi jayante. (sanskrit). along with anger all these negativities get awakened. 

Here people very proudly say that ” I was very angry with him”, ” I got very upset with him” Atleast I don’t see any humanity in this behaviour. But this is a very common thing to get angry, for every small matter, to find some or other excuse and get angry. And when this anger becomes collective, this colletive aggression can give rise to many troubles. wars may begin, many families  get destroyed, many of the family systems get ruined. With every passing day I see that human anger, instead of reducing, is going on increasing. and people proclaim with pride that ” we were very angry”. “We are very aggresive people”. 

[English] I know you want Me to speak in English language, only. But people who don’t know English are outnumbering you. What I’m trying to say, that it’s very important to understand when you are worshipping Shri Shiv Shankar that He is the complete embodiment of forgiveness. He forgives. He forgives everything very sweetly. As one would forgive all small children. He forgives. He doesn’t get angry. He’s not that easily perturbed. Also we have certain amount of prejudices. For example, a woman in India, if she speaks, then people don’t like it. A woman should not speak, a man can speak. And a woman can never beat, a woman can never beat a man, even if the man kills the wife. That is the criteria of a good wife in India, or a good woman. So, you can imagine how men are getting towards their destruction. All this kind of concession that is given, is very dangerous, is the destructive of the whole community. Same I’ve seen abroad. There are people who go on beating their wives, killing their wives – I don’t know all kinds of things. Because they have married somebody, they think they have every right to expect everything good from their wives, while they may not be at all good, and they go on torturing their wives. Not only that but in the school, the teachers, they ill-treat the students so badly, the students pick it up. And later on they carry on the tradition of beating others and troubling others. So every time you say, “I get very angry,” tell yourself you are on the wrong path. I’ve told so many times, to so many of you that to boast of your anger is the worst thing because it is like boasting about your sins you are committing. These are the sins. I can understand some people who are drunkards, or some who are mad, or some who are out of their minds. But a mad person you’ll find very, very sensible otherwise, can be very ferocious, can be very dangerous. It is difficult to say from where do you get these qualities, because none of the Divine Personalities had this kind of thing. For no rhyme and reason, they won’t lose their temper and even if They do, it has to be a very strong reason up to the point of destruction. But I can understand Them, because They have to maintain this world and They have to look after the people who are supposed to be human beings. But sometimes I’ve seen human beings are even worse than animals. They get provoked for nothing at all. What is the reason? Why are you angry? They’ll give you an excuse which is absolutely unreasonable. In this world you have come to enjoy peace and joy. Without peace, you can’t have joy. If you cannot give peace to others, how can you have joy? And the way people treat others in such a contemptuous manner, it’s very surprising, what do they think of themselves? Why should they think so low about other people? It’s beyond understanding to see a man losing temper on small, small things. But actually they are cowards. If it comes to some facing some real problem in life, they recede back. Then they cannot come forward. This is the biggest tragedy of the whole thing.

[Translation from Hindi]   In our country also, people recognise hot-tempered persons. In the villages they call them as he is a nagger, he is an angry man, he is aggressive. These kind of nick names he gets. And people want to keep away from such person. Alright, if somebody has done something wrong, forgive him. If somebody has done something which he should not have done, forgive him also. because tomorrow you do the same mistake, then who will be responsible for you? and who is going to punish you. So you should understand that we Sahajayogis do not have a right, to punish anyone at all. And preach them in any way, I have seen many people who pressurise others minds. Whoever has recognised Shiv Ji, he is the true realised soul. Whoever has ShivJi’s nature within him, he alone is realised. And for his protection also Shiv Ji is there. Those who are simple and straightforward by nature, he has no reason to be afraid of anything. Shri Shivshankar takes care of him, And He looks after him. So, this being the situation, why should you have any problem? Why do you get annoyed with anyone? It is very strange. A gentleman told me, I am very angry with this person. I asked what happened? He said, this man has taken all my father’s money. And I did not get anything. I said, your father should have thought about it, now this person has taken the money then let it be. Why are you getting annoyed? He said, that person should have refused to take, and told this money should come to me. Would you have done that? Could you do any such thing? Then why do you expect that the other person Should say that ” give this money back to him”. You expect all the good qualities only from others. All the bad qualities which are there, You can not forgive that at all. And who ever does anything wrong, for them you start wishing that he should be destroyed completely. Until, human does not get realization, he can not see what he is from within. If he is a human or an animal, he does not understand that also. I would say, even an animal never gets angry unnecessarily. Unless they are provoked. They don’t lose their tempers unnecessarily. They have plenty of Shiv Ji”s nature in them. But in human beings? In some human beings this is completely destroyed. They think that “we have a right to destroy thousands of people”. One such person was Hitler Saheb. Who knows, how many people he murdered? He could not even give birth to one small child, and he killed so many people. Why did he? What did he think of himself? And those he killed, their families got destroyed, meaning the whole country fell apart, So did he think he was the big Lord? Atleast 2-3 of this kind exist anyway. But you should not take thier examples. It is correct for you, you are Sahaja Yogis, So you should forgive every one. People who have an open heart, they forgive. Because forgiveness is very powerful. And this is the quality which Shiv Shankar has, that is why He is considered the greatest God. He does not want anything for himself. He can wear anything, or He will apply ash over his body, He can live in any situation. He does not need anything. But, if a person troubles anyone extremely, then, at the end He destroys that person. He has as much power to forgive, as he has the power to destroy. What is the reason behind it? The reason is, the human being should see Him and understand, that if you torture anyone excessively, You will be taken to task. Now, where did all these people vanish? The so called warriors, (rathi-maharathi), who came here? They did so many things and then where did they go? They earned great fame, They killed many, destroyed many. Many of the countries also were destroyed. Where are they today? No one even wants to keep their photo? Forget about erecting their statues, People do not even want to see their faces. You should not become the owner of this kind of a charecter. For some time you assume that because of your aggressive nature, it is possible that people get scared of you. And, out of fear, do your work. But whatever work is done out of fear, where is the fun in that? What is so special about it? This is someting to think about, that how many people in this world, have you gained and how many people have you destroyed? With how many people have you picked up a fight? There are some people, for whom to fight is their religion. day in and day out they keep fighting They have a crave within themselves, to fight with one person in the morning, another in the noon and yet another in the evening Those who have this kind of a nature, are kept at a distance by other people. If they see him coming towards them, they change their direction. Love can not grow out of this. Sahaja yoga is completely a work of total love. and we have great examples to follow. Jesus christ, on the cross said, that “Oh Lord! forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. Similarly, when this forgiveness will be established within us, Then we also will aquire, which can be said as, the true capabilities of Shri Shiva. We will obtain his qualities. To get angry, to be aggressive is not at all a great quality. So that is why, today, we all should consider, that, to what extent we dominate others, and want to destroy others. Perticularly in our country, men have tortured women to a great extent. And even now they are doing it. Sahaja Yogis should not get involved in this. This is a useless action, which has absolutely no meaning. Today, during the puja of Shri Shiva, all of you, take a vow in your mind that “we will never get angry”. Under any circumstace, we will not get angry. When there is no use in showing anger, then why should you do so? your health gets spoilt in doing so. So today, let us all remember Shri Shiva, and try to aquire his qualities. May God bless you all.