Shri Ganesha Puja, Cabella Ligure, 22 September 2001. Today we have assembled here to worship Shri Ganesha. Shri Ganesha who is the Lord of Innocence. He is the ocean of innocence. And though’ he is such a young, little boy, he can fight the whole world, he can destroy all the negativity. That’s the sign of innocence. There have been stories that children who have fallen from a very great height were completely saved, nothing happened to them. Their innocence is such a powerful thing that it doesn’t harm anyone who is not to be harmed. It has all the wisdom of the world, all the understanding of the world; and anybody who tries to harm the innocence, the world, the whole world – which may not have cared so much for innocence, might not have worshiped innocence so much – but they all stand, stand up against anybody who tries to harm the innocence. You can see in your own lives around you, (if/when) anybody tries to trouble children – all of the them, whatever they are, whatever they are coming from, whatever maybe their nationality, they all jump, all jump to control and to safeguard that child. What is it? What is it within us that makes us so very conscious to protect the innocence? It’s really a shame, a great shame for us, when we find in this world that innocence is under attack. Anything else can be tolerated. Innocent people who have done nothing wrong, those who have no malice, who are living like little children, I should say, if they are attacked by anyone - not that the whole world reacts to that - but everyone of them cannot bear any innocent person or ‘innocent being’ being harmed. We don’t realise that within us there is the ocean of love and ocean of understanding for children. Why? Why should it be? Why should we feel like that, especially for children? Especially for innocence? There are people who are always attacking innocent people, innocent children, there are. But no-one wants to support them. No-one thinks that it’s proper to ill-treat children. And those who have done this have to suffer. They all suffer as a reaction. What is it within us that creates that reaction, that tremendous reaction, against (against those who are against*??) innocence? For example if there is a regular war, and if there are people fighting; in a regular war, they don’t have much sympathy. In the world also, they say “Alright, they are of that understanding, they are of that kind of a thing”. The greatest sympathy comes when innocence is being challenged. That’s what human beings have. Within themselves they have the power, power of Shri Ganesha, which gives you that feeling, that capacity, that understanding that you have to protect innocent (the innocent/innocence), innocent children, innocent people. And the whole world can rise against all such people who are trying to kill the innocent. There cannot be any doubt. If they cannot oppose such an attack, or criticise such a thing, then they are not yet human beings, I would say. The highest personality can sacrifice anything and can give up anything, but they cannot give up the feeling they have for innocence. It’s very remarkable. We don’t realise how much there is this ocean of protection and love for the innocent. What attracts the greatest strength is when we see an innocent person, innocent children, are under attack. That’s the beauty of human beings. Of course there are many human beings who can be cruel, who are, I would say, call them devils – maybe, maybe. But when it comes to children, and to innocent people, everyone feels his responsibility. It’s difficult for normal human beings to be innocent because they have a kind of an understanding that they are something great, that they understand everything, that they can analyse everything, and they could be crooks, they could be aggressive, they could be troublesome, they could be anything – and they can give explanation for that, doesn’t matter – but still, on the whole, they can never be respected and they can never be honoured for the thing they are doing. For us, the Sahaja Yogi, the Sahaj culture is to respect your innocence. You might feel a little bit cheated, you might feel a little bit dominated, you might feel a little bit disgraced, but Sahaja Yogi have to be innocent. Because with them lies the power of Shri Ganesha. They should not feel dejected if they are being used, insulted, tortured, dominated, it’s alright. They should not try to destroy the innocence of other people, of anyone. Automatically it will work. You will be amazed that when innocence is challenged, all the goodness of the world comes to the rescue of that. An example of this is the recent war, so-called war, of America. Where innocent people - they had done nothing wrong - have been tortured, have been killed. At that time, all over the world, it’s a big support for them. Every country, whether it believes in those people or not, is anxious to look after (for) those who have done this crime. They may not be belonging to the same religion, they may not be belonging to the same country, they may not be belonging to the same crimes, but at this moment, who does not take the side of the innocence will be singled out and will be destroyed – no doubt about it. Once and for all they will learn a lesson that ‘you cannot attack innocent people’. I have told you, in Sahaja Yoga, we should not ever be annoyed with out children. We should not, in no way punish them. Our main achievement should be that loving attention for children. All over the world, whether he belongs to your family or to some other family, or has some sort of detached attention with you, still because he’s a child, he’s innocent, the innocence within itself, your own innocence, will try to protect. It’s very surprising how people take to sacrificing their lives when it comes to the attack of innocence. Children should never be attacked. They have their own power to protect, no doubt. But you shouldn’t waste your energy on something that is extremely inauspicious, extremely cruel and extremely ugly. If you cannot love children, you cannot love anything. I have not come across anyone so far who says that they don’t love children – luckily! But maybe some might say “We love flowers”. Why? Why do you love flowers? Because they are innocent. Because that beauty of innocence is within them. You love nature - why? Because it is innocent. But the greatest innocence is seen among human beings who are Sahaja Yogi! It is easy to be cunning, very easy to be cunning. It’s very easy to be clever. But to be wise, one should understand the beauty of being innocent. Possibly one may say “Mother, one can get exploited if you are innocent”. No-one can exploit an innocent person. They may believe that they have done this, they have been very aggressive and all that, but they cannot. It is like a rock. It is like a rock that is not prevailed by any ocean of anger or any kind of revenge. It’s the rock that is being looked after and nourished by Shri Ganesha. I’ve told you before also, that the innocence within us never gets destroyed. Very surprising. You may be a sinner, you may be a very cruel person, you might be anything: but it does not get, it cannot get it. After innocence. It is a very, very secret thing that is put in us by the Divine. We play with our innocence very much. We think that by behaving any way we like, “It’s alright, after all it’s my own desire, my wish”. And we’ll go on, we go on all the time reducing our power, or we can say the hiding, or covering our power of innocence. And we think that we have done a great job, that we have befooled all the people by our tricky nature. This tricky nature cannot give you any satisfaction. It is not self-sufficient. When you try to trick someone, this trick works on you, it is repelled on you, and destroys your faith in innocence – which is the greatest faith, the greatest help or ......... (sounds like ‘wishud’) the greatest power on this earth. Those people who do not respect their innocence because they think it makes you weak, have not seen the power of innocence – how it works, how it acts. From all over the world, it reacts. But, so far, I think the human beings are not conscious of the power, power of innocence. But it is the highest thing to be innocent. And it acts as if the whole understanding, whole working-out of the be-ing is so beautifully achieved. Now you see in this world what says (is said), what people remember, what is respected. It is respected the high ideals. But if you see to the subtle side of these high ideals of people (who) have led a very, very beautiful life of very good character, of very good nature’ – all these people may have been harmed, may have been killed – but because of their innocence they shine, and shine through ages. You can see the life of all great men like that; they are all very simple, they are not deliberating anything – spontaneous they are in their behaviour, spontaneously they live. Nations after nations can be destroyed, but the power of innocence cannot be destroyed. Have faith in that. You have to have complete faith in yourself, and that ‘yourself’ is nothing but innocence. You may say that ‘innocent people get cheated’. Nobody can cheat innocence, because that is something of very eternal value. They might cheat you in money, might cheat you in something, but the thing that is the most eternal is your innocence. And you will be the most successful person in life when you are absolutely innocent and your are looking after your innocence. As I have told you, that innocence never gets destroyed. It can be covered by your ill thoughts, by ill doing, it might be covered for the time being. But if you can take out the clouds away from the sky of innocence, the whole thing becomes so obvious that you have won the whole world. We can take the case of Christ. He was crucified, he was insulted, he was tortured. Those who did this, where are they? Who knows them? Nobody even knows the name. Nobody is even bothered about them. A single one person was so much used and was so much tortured. But despite that, what has happened? He has got the respect from the whole world. The whole world respects. Nobody says that ‘Look at that, how he was crucified, what has he done ...’ Nothing of the kind. They just respect. And what do they respect? The essence, the essence of complete innocence. They say in Sahaja Yoga that he was the incarnation of innocence. He was the incarnation of Shri Ganesha – which can be verified. So, when we think that in our own ventures we can do what we like, and we don’t want to even remember that, we don’t want to even consider that it’s a wrong thing to do, we do not know what is ahead of us. What happened to Hitler also? He thought he can destroy the whole world, he can manage to kill so many people and still he will remain a very great personality. They are stupid not to understand who are the people really respected. Through ages, through history, no-one like (liked?) Hitler. He didn’t understand (that) if you wanted to have really the power over the world, and he wanted to have the reputation of a great man, he should have followed the great people. And the great people are those who are innocent. Their main power is innocence; take any one of them. I don’t know how to say that this power acts, because it acts in so many ways. You can pass through historical events, so many of them, and what will you find? A person who is so innocent, simple and wise is remembered all your life. I was a child, very small, when I was in school I used to go to the library and read about the lives of great men who have created some great things for us. So many of them. And I was so impressed how some of them were so simple, so child-like. For example Abraham Lincoln for whom I have tremendous, tremendous respect, was a man tortured by his wife also. She said “You don’t know, you are very clumsy, you don’t know how to dress up, you don’t know how to behave”. And she actually was very harsh on him, all the time torturing him. Ultimately he was also killed. So one can say, “You see, what’s the use of being Abraham Lincoln? Because he was killed, he was not successful.” Until today, all over the world, people know who was Abraham Lincoln. They don’t know his wife – maybe (laughter). But they knew who was Abraham Lincoln, everybody. Clumsy man, according to her, and all sorts of degradation for him. But nobody respects her, nobody thinks anything about her. Who is respected today is Abraham Lincoln. Why? ‘Actually he was murdered, he was killed, that shows that he had no strength to survive’ – but he survived through ages! So many years have passed, still he’s surviving. Take the case of all the great people who have been innocent; and that’s why they had ideals. To them their ideals were more important than anything else, even (than) their lives. Everything was nothing. Now the sense of ideals and idealism comes only from your innocence. That’s the one which teaches you what is your ideal; how you should exist; what kind of a life you should lead. It is not important that you have big authorities, or you have a very big positions as ministers and all that. There have been so many who came and died. They had so many people with ambitions and so many people who were oppressive, but where are they? Nobody’s bothered about them, nobody wants to look at them. If their photograph appears people close their eyes ‘No, no, we don’t want to see this man’. But if there’s a little boy, innocent child, who is talking in a very innocent manner, the whole world admires that child. And these great men are, really, they are the symbols of that innocence. Their main quality was innocence, from where the wisdom has come. Ganesha’s main quality is his wisdom. He knew what was success, through his, I should say, innocent qualities. Sometimes the innocent people are not even aware of their quality of innocence. It’s very surprising how the quality of innocence shines through human beings who may be very ordinary, who may be very simple, who may not look so intelligent and sharp, who may not become good diplomats, what ever it is – they are innocent! That’s were ends all the glory of human beings. To be innocent – (child crying and Shri Mataji says: “What’s the matter?) – so to be innocent, what do you do? People will say, “Mother, what do we do to be innocent?” Firstly, you can see for yourself how your mind works. What does it do? How it reacts. This is what one has to watch, which I call as ‘introspection’. What sort of plans your mind takes to? What does it think is the best? In that thinking, thought process, what is the most important way to look at yourself? The first and the foremost is that you should know how you react to someone. Is it an innocent reaction? Or it is a vindictive reaction. It is very easy to see yourself, because now you are all Sahaja Yogi. You can see for yourself how is your reaction to any aggression on you, or any kind of a trouble coming on you. How do you react to that? What is your behaviour? If you are a very powerful person, then your behaviour is – for that you are not bothered. You see for yourself its just a stupid thing people are doing to you. Absolutely stupid. And when they are doing stupid things, why should we bother about them? Why should we waste our energy about them? It comes to a point where their stupidity is found out, in such a manner that all their lives and afterwards they are treated with contempt. People don’t even want to take their names, they don’t want to have their photographs, they don’t want to have anything to do with them. At this time, at such a juncture, what happens is the people who are crooks, who are not innocent, who are against innocence, they start following them because it suits them better. It suits them to be aggressive, to be cunning and that’s how a new group is formed – which we can call ‘a satanic group’. And this satanic group also cannot do anything, anything whatsoever, to an innocent personality. There is a Sanskrit sloka like that – Nainam chidanti sashtrani – for the Spirit, ‘It cannot be killed by any weapon’. Nainam dahanti pavaka – ‘No fire can burn it’. Sayanam cleydayantaposh naso sathe maratha – Marutha is the air, or we can call it wind, ‘Wind cannot also suck it’, it is above all the nature, which is trying to destroy. But you will be amazed that nature understands. I told you, nature is innocent. It understands and it acts at the right moment, against the person who is aggressive, who is trying to malign or trouble an innocent person. In this way, we should know that we have to worship our innocence. I know sometimes one feels that you are dominated because of that. Sometimes one feels sad that, ‘Why you are put to this kind of a treatment by others’. All kinds of things come to your mind. But if you worship your innocence, then you will be always a happy person, always a kind person, always be humble person. So, one has to be careful. You are your own destroyer. You are the one who kills himself. What do you say to Hitler? Hitler destroyed himself; who else destroyed him? I mean, in any way, everybody has to die so he would have been dead. But who has destroyed it forever is himself. So, you kill yourself – through this you can save yourself and become very glorified if you are innocent. Have faith in the power of innocence. What is important is, how you show in your own life the power of innocence, how you behave towards each other, and that is what is what, is what I call ‘the love’. You cannot be compassionate unless and until you have this attitude towards yourself. You cannot be kind. Temporarily you might feel this, but a permanently compassionate temperament comes only through the permanent flowing of innocence through your character. It’s such a transparent thing in a human being and that it sustains, it overpowers all other things, leave (let) alone the time – thousands of years people will not forget you the Sahaja Yogi, if you show your valour and your strength of your innocence. I’m sorry for today’s programme being so late, but you know I was ready to come but the marriages are becoming the main function now. Because it came so late, that till the last minute we were deciding about marriages. But I am telling you this is the last time. Next time we’ll stop it. You must send your applications at least eight days before, and for Ganapatipule it is two weeks. Otherwise – there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and you cannot increase those! Now there is one humble request I have to make, that if you want to settle (have it arranged) your marriage, then please do it in a way that I can have time to see. Otherwise I’ll leave it to others to decide. If you like, it can be done. So a simple thing is this to understand, that marriage is a very important thing. You can create innocent children if you are married. But if you behave in this manner, little, little responsible – so I have to request you to understand the value of time. Because from next time I can assure you we cannot have marriages if you send your applications so late. It should be within one week’s time, I hope you’ll understand that. Thank you very much.