Shri Ganesha Puja, Lanersbach (Austria), 26 August 1990

Today we are celebrating the birthday of Shri Ganesha. You all know the story of His birth and I need not repeat it. But, as He was created by the Mother only, by Adi Shakti, in the same way you are all created after Him.

So, you are on the path of Shri Ganesha already. Your eyes sparkle the same way His eyes sparkle. You all have the beautiful glow on your face as He had. Whether you are small, big, or old makes no difference. All the beauty comes to us through the glow of Shri Ganesha. If He’s satisfied, then we don’t have to worry about any other deities, because the power of all the deities is Shri Ganesha. He’s like a vice-chancellor sitting on every chakra. Unless and until He signs, Kundalini cannot cross through, because Kundalini’s the Gauri and is the Virgin Mother of Shri Ganesh.

Now we have to understand that we are here in the Western society where so much has gone wrong because we never bothered to look after Shri Ganesha. Christ came and His message spread all over the world. He talked of things which are not practised by Christians, not at all. Because whatever they started is not based on truth. The truth is that Shri Ganesha took birth as Christ. If that is the truth, then they have to understand in the light of Shri Ganesha this great incarnation of Christ.

That is, He has told people that, “Thou shalt not have adulterous eyes.” Actually, for a saint, He doesn’t know what are adulterous eyes, because He just sees. He just sees. As Shri Gyaneshwara has beautifully said, “Niranjanapani”: to see without any reaction, just to see. That is the quality of innocence, which was brought to light by Christ, our Lord. But we did not imbibe any one of these qualities. 

Now supposing you are worshipping today Shri Ganesh. So why are you worshipping Shri Ganesha? You are worshipping because your Ganesha must be awakened—that you should have the qualities of Shri Ganesha within you, that you should feel that innocence in your eyes. Otherwise, you are a hypocrite. If you are sitting here and worshipping Shri Ganesha and you are not trying to put your attention to your ascent as Shri Ganesh, then it is useless.

And then He is an eternal child. He doesn’t have ego, He doesn’t have any conditionings. So He’s an eternal child. We have to become eternal children of our Mother. To get to that state, what do we have to do is simple: that to raise our Kundalini, fix it up, to do meditation, and keep our attention inside more, and not to react.

Now, to say not to react means just to watch. And when you watch without thinking about it, then the truth, which is really poetry, comes out. That’s why a poet sees much more than an ordinary person can see. The inner’s beauty just starts penetrating your vision and you start seeing it.

So, you have seen children, whatever may be their origin, from whatever country they might be coming – whether it is Japan or whether it is England, India, Australia, anywhere – see the children are normally very beautiful.

Once I went to Japan and there was a shrine they wanted Me to see. So I saw some ladies coming down – three, four ladies. They’re Western ladies.They said, “Don’t go. Don’t go. There are some children – horrible.”I said, “Why?”“They call you ‘witch!’ They called us all, ‘witches, witches, witches!’” – the Japanese children. 

I said, “How do you know? They must be saying in Japanese.”“No, we asked the meaning, so they told us it means ‘witches.’ We look like witches to them. So better not go!”I said, “It’s all right. Let Me go.”And when I went up, they all came running, clung to Me, kissed Me, this thing. They wouldn’t allow Me to go to the shrine. And then they walked all the way to the shrine, they came back. I didn’t know their language or anything. So sweet: kissing My sari, kissing My hand, so sweet they were. And I was surprised, that how is it they call the other ladies as witches, and to Us, to Me, and My daughters were also with us. And My daughters are very fond of children. So then they said, “You see, why to go to the shrine? We’ll play with the children.” I said, “No, let’s go to the shrine, after all.” 

So when we went up, these children also came with us and walked down. And their mothers were so surprised, you see, they said normally to all the foreigners, to all the foreigners they say “witches” or even to men they say they are devils: “Devils are coming!” Because Japanese are short people, you see, and the sizes of our Western people are quite big and perhaps maybe that is the reason, whatever it is – or maybe something else, I don’t know. And they wouldn’t, I mean, even talk to them. They all ran away, calling them “witches, witches” from the windows and from every corner.

Then I realized, you see, these small little children, their Ganesha is awakened in them. Everybody’s Ganesha is awakened when you are born. All the animals have their Ganesha intact with them, especially the birds. We never think how birds, all the way from Siberia, go to Australia. What direction comes to them, from where. They have got a magnet within themselves. That is Shri Ganesh. The magnet is Shri Ganesha.

So this magnet, which is within us, can attract innocent people and repel cunning, horrible, as they call witches and devils and all those. So this magnet has both the qualities: that it repels those who are not all right and it attracts those who are innocent. And that is why in Sahaja Yoga we find that we cannot tolerate some people somehow or other: “We try, we try, we try. You see Mother, some are a bit difficult, you know.” They don’t know what is the reason. The reason is Ganesha.Now, in the Western society, as you know, not that they’ve not paid any attention to their Ganesha quality, but they have talked too much about the perversion of Shri Ganesha. They talk on the television, they talk here, there, in every way. The children see it and so many small little children are suffering from Shri Ganesh problem, very small children. How do they get into these problems is because the atmosphere is full of it.

Now, in Sahaja Yoga also we have some people who just stick on hypocritically and they have Ganesha problem. And there are some who support. This fellow can say, “Oh, I was such a sick man, I have no wife,” or “I’ve had no love from my parents,” or anything, and others start supporting. This kind of sympathy is very dangerous, is extremely dangerous. First of all, this sympathy ruins that person, who cannot get over his problems, and gradually you also pick up these problems. Instead of helping him—that: “You do the meditation of Ganesha, you just sit on the Mother Earth, say Atharvasheersha, use the candle, your problem will go away”—instead of that, they start sympathizing. This is not sympathy. It’s sym-pathy. “Sym” means “to share”; “pathy” means “pathos.” So you share all the problems of that person yourself. So never support a wrong thing. If you really love that person, you care for that person, you have to tell that person: “This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong.”

Moreover, in Sahaja Yoga, I’ve seen people of seventy years also want to get married. I can’t understand, you know. After all, loneliness is not possible in Sahaja Yoga, you have so many Sahaja Yogis. Where is the loneliness? I never feel lonely. I would love to be sometimes. If you are not with Me, My family is with Me. I’m never alone, and I’m never alone when I’m alone, really. I enjoy Myself best when I’m alone because I have time to reflect back as to what we have achieved, as to how these moments were beautiful moments of meeting you all, all those beautiful places I visited with you, all the enjoyments.

So all such people who are explaining their problems of Mooladhara have to know one thing: that this is a sure certificate for them to go to hell. Absolutely. Because either from the Mooladhara, you know, all kinds of diseases come in which are incurable, according to the doctor. Say, you take multiple sclerosis. From multiple sclerosis through all the disabilities of the muscles, even cancers could be started by Mooladhara problem. Why is it [there is] so much cancer in the Western countries than in any other countries? Everybody has an explanation. Somebody said there are not so many doctors of cancer, that’s why there are. It’s not so.

Now, you see the disease of schizophrenia also can come from Mooladhara problem. Of course, you know AIDS is nothing but Mooladhara problem. But still, if you want to make a martyrdom out of that, that: “We are AIDS soldiers walking to our death,” then what can you do to such stupid people? And stupidity comes also from Mooladhara, because He is the giver of wisdom. How do you get the wisdom? Only by awakening your Shri Ganesh. He is the giver of wisdom.

Now, all kinds of people do stupidities, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Like in India recently I asked them for bigger bangles, for the ladies have bigger hands here, and they came back to say that these days all big bangles are going to America. I said, “Why?” Because the men have decided to wear bangles in America. Now in India, if you give one bangle to any man, means an insult to him, that “you are not a man.”

All such stupidities, hundred and one, I tell you, you see all over the world now because you have come out of it. All kinds of things come because their Mooladhara is not all right. In India now, for example, we all wear saris. Nobody knows. I mean, logically also we should wear saris because saris are made by villagers and they earn out of it and that’s how we support . . . this thing. Culturally, we like it also because it suggests we are shy women, we don’t want to expose our body too much. And thirdly, it’s very good for the mothers, that mothers can nurse the children and look after them.So, it has various aspects, but nobody thinks [about] the logic of it. They think it’s very practical and it has been there for traditions. Now, supposing you say, “All right, come along, give up your saris and wear something else,” they’ll say, “Now, tell us another! No, no. Nothing doing.” Nobody would accept it. Nobody would accept it, because they think that saris are more gracious, they make you look like a woman; there’s so much beautiful dress and it does give chance for the artist to express themselves. But this . . . only some intellectuals might be thinking. But normally in the villages, if you tell them that you change over, they say no. So nothing like a fashion can work out. Nothing like a fashion can work out because traditionally now they have reached a certain stage of wisdom: “Now, this is the best suited for us.” So they won’t accept any nonsense. Ha, if it is something sensible – which is never so, I would say, from the West – they may. But because the Western people have lost their wisdom, there is nothing sensible that comes to India, nothing. And whatever sensible [thing] they have, that is also going out.

Yesterday you heard such a beautiful waltz. I mean, who plays these days a waltz? Thousands will gather at some sort of a noisy pop, hard music, which can penetrate into your ears and can make you deaf. There’s no wisdom in all these things. They want all the time some sort of a sensation. I was told people come here for skiing. Now some, I saw people jumping with a parachute. Ask an Indian, he’ll say: “You better do it. I’m not here to break my legs.” That he understands the wisdom that, “My body is more important than anything else. What is this sensation for?” The skiing, so many people have seen, they’ve lost their kidneys. They have lost their legs. They’ll have artificial legs for skiing. This sensation comes as a great attraction for people who have no wisdom. It doesn’t appeal to the wisdom.

So, the people who are wise don’t take to stupid things. Though Shri Ganesha is the child, but He is the giver of wisdom. So we can say our children are the givers of wisdom if we keep them on the line of wisdom. You listen to them, how they talk, how wisely they talk. Sometimes they have a conference with Me and they tell Me all about you people, what you are up to, and they take Me into confidence completely and say that, “Don’t tell uncle or auntie, but we’ll tell you this.” And small, small things they say, that, “Auntie was wearing the sari You gave her and then, you know, she put it on the ground!” All little, little things they know; so sweet they are. See yesterday how they came rushing and kissed Me, so sweet. Without them the world would have been like a desert without any flowers, you know.So, Shri Ganesha has created you. Because of Him, you were born. He’s the one who looked after you when you were in the womb of the mother. He’s the one who saw to it that you are born at the right time. He’s the one who has looked after your nourishment, everything. He’s the one who has looked after your development of the foetus, of the brain and everything. All is done that by this great personality, Shri Ganesh. How much we owe to Him! Apart from that, He gives us the basic wisdom.I mean, a villager, supposing you talk to a villager who is not exposed to all these nonsensical sensations, you’ll find him extremely practical and wise. There’s a story that one villager was travelling by train with other boys who were very flamboyant and thinking that they were very smart. So, they were trying to tease the man. So, a boy asked a question to him: “Now, if the butter is selling for one pound, for a quarter of a pound, what will be the price of the egg in the next station?” He looked at him. He said, “All right, you tell me what. Then, you cannot tell the price of the egg, then can you tell me the price, can you tell me my age?”He looked at him. He said, “You must be twenty-two.”He said, “How do you know?”He said, “I have a brother who is eleven years and he is half mad, but you are full mad.”

So, an ordinary villager answered this smart fellow and the smart fellow didn’t know where to go. So, all this smartness and cleverness finishes off when it comes to innocence.

Now, many people have a feeling also that we have lost our innocence. That is something, an eternal quality you have got. You never lose your innocence. Maybe, as clouds can cover the whole sky, maybe your ego and conditionings and your mistakes might have covered it, but it is always there, always there. Only thing [is], it is for you to respect it, to behave in a manner that you respect your innocence. Not to feel shy about your innocence, never. Your innocence itself is a power and your innocence will definitely give you that wisdom by which you can solve all the problems without any difficulty.

But in a deeper way, if you see who is Shri Ganesha, He is the child of Adi Shakti. She created Him from the Omkara. Now, Omkara is the Logos, as you call it, is the first sound when Sadashiva and Adi Shakti separated, for creation. That sound is used as Omkara, which are vibrations, which have light in it. They have all the causals of all the elements, only on the right side. Then the left side, it has the power of your emotions. In the centre, it has the power of your ascent.

So it’s a very powerful Deity we have. And He’s playful. Children are seldom cruel. He’s not cruel, but if anything is done against the Mother, then He goes all wild. Then He punishes, and that is how the divine justice is brought to people.

Thus, if we surrender to Shri Ganesh, He protects us, He gives us wisdom, He gives a proper understanding [of] the protocol of the Mother. He does not know any other deity but His Mother. He doesn’t bother about any other deity but His Mother, and He knows that She’s the most powerful Deity. And this is His wisdom, which must be imbibed. When you pray, you must try to imbibe that.

For many people are still, in the West, anxious to copy other people, fall back into the wrong ideas, which have really kept them away from the truth. Thank God you all have come out of it. And when you see the hell into which the Western society has fallen, you try to understand and enjoy that you are at a different state altogether.

But still among you there will be some who will be dangling. Try to pull them out, not to throw them inside and go also with them. If you sympathize with them, you’ll go down with them. Try to pull them out and tell them that, “You have to come out.” It may be a little painful to them; doesn’t matter, but they’ll be saved. So you are here as saviours and you have the power of Shri Ganesha, which is to be used.

So today’s puja is specially to be done with a prayer in your heart, that:

“Shri Ganesha, please be kind and merciful and forgiving that You manifest within ourselves. Let all these hypocritical things, all these conditionings and all these wrong ideas we have or all the wrong life we have had, should just disappear like thin air, and let the beautiful moonlight of your soothing qualities of innocence be manifested through us.”

Let us manifest these qualities. This is what is to be asked.

Today is a great day. I’m very happy we are in Austria, which I call is the country of divine weapons. It’s a very wonderful country; as I told you before that there is no fundamentalism here. It’s very surprising, but I have discovered that in Austria there have been people from all over the world and they have been married here. It’s a small country, so they all kept together. It’s a very nice place, especially this place where we are. I heard that it’s called as the holy land of Tyrol. And we also saw lots of grace falling down with our eyes. Everybody could see them, the grace coming down. There was no rain, but you could see the grace.

Moreover, yesterday, the villagers remarked that this river overflows. The whole glacier comes down and this river overflows, but it did not. It kept to its maryadas. They are quite surprised how it has happened, that it kept to its maryadas. This is one thing. And the second thing is they said that they have never heard such great, absolutely volcanic, roaring of the clouds. They’ve never heard such reports before, and it was really remarkable: it rained so heavily, everything happened, and we are all right. Only in the central path of Sushumna it cleared out. Maybe because I had to walk through that, so it cleared out that part.

But on the whole, all our programs went off very well and we all enjoyed the last night’s program, and the musician also lost all count of time—he played for four hours on his own. I thought he’d just play one raga. He went on and he wanted to play more, but then, thank God, he thought of the puja perhaps and he stopped it.

So, let us try to be innocent within ourself. Be proud that we are innocent. We need not be smart people. Smartness is your mental attitude and innocence is your innate quality, which is connected with this all-pervading Power.

So, may God bless you all.

At least during the puja there should not be any movements outside or nearby. If the children are sitting, well and good, otherwise you can go out. But you shouldn’t disturb others because their attention goes to you. So, all those who are having any movements, all of you also should come and sit with your children. Why can’t your children sit down? They will sit; bring them in. Or if they are not sitting, you go behind the curtain. Because they get disturbed, you see, there are Sahaja Yogis still who get disturbed very easily with the slightest movement here and there.

So, the first thing is to open your heart for Shri Ganesha. As you see a child, how your heart opens. In the same way, please open your hearts.

All right.

See, one thing is that He has got a hunter [whip] in His hand and, if you remember, Christ used a hunter to hit all the people who were selling goods near the temple. He could have used any other weapon, but He used a hunter.