Mahashivaratri Puja (Marathi). Pune (India), 8 March 1986. This punya nagari is called as Pune but in our scriptures, it is known as Punyapatnam. The Punyas of the entire world are flowing through this Punya nagari and you all are the carriers of those punyas. It is a great divine coincidence that you are having the puja of Shri Shiva who is the source of Punyas in this place. Unless and until a person gets the Shiva Sthiti (state of Shiva), unless and until he gets his Self-Realization, he exists like a blind man. Any human belief is illusory like a shadow and man spends his entire life holding onto and following that belief. Until one attains the Atma Tattva, he cannot know the essence of the world. Not only that, he cannot know the essence of even his daily life and daily routine. This Shiva Tattva (Essence of Shiva) is reflected in the heart of every human in the form of the Spirit. Without knowing this reflection of the Spirit of the Universe which is in the heart, we cannot understand even the thread that binds the Creation. We keep walking in the dark and do not understand each other, do not recognize each other and do not have any understanding that is absolute. We are under illusions in that darkness. To get this Absolute Experience, we have to take to the Spirit. Only the Spirit can give us this experience in each and every nerve of our body. Without the power of the Spirit, we cannot get that which is called as 'Vid' in the Vedas in every nerve of our body. Whatever we may say today like 'let us end caste discrimination' or take those things known as 'issues' like international issues concerning 'destruction of all bombs' or 'a single country in the whole world' or any such thing, how much ever we work it out on the outside, yields no fruits. The reason is that the person who made this or the humanity that made this, is still not on that level where it can understand the oneness of the Universe. The Spirit of the Universe is present in our heart. Through this Spirit, we can know that this universe has been made by one God and a small part of that same God is present within all of us as the Spirit. On the outside, how much ever we say that we are one and we are all brothers and sisters, it remains superficial. Now the Spirit is sitting in our hearts and only when the light of the Spirit comes into our attention, we truly understand that we are part and parcel of one Body. Now, we have established the Vishwa Dharma (Universal Dharma). It rests only on those people in whom the reflection of the oneness of the universe is present. If you make anything like this outwardly then it does not bear fruits as it does not have the nectar of Truth. So, first of all, the Spirit has to be completely awakened within us. It is awakened but its awakened state should come into our attention. People say that it is possible to achieve that state by working on the outside but I feel that it happens from within. This awakening can come only from within. This awakening is the awakening of the Kundalini. The Kundalini shakti within us is in a dormant (sleeping) state. When She rises then, just as a spark in a stove gives light when in contact with the gas, the entire attention gets enlightened. Until this light spreads in our behaviour, in our lifestyle, in our society, in our country and in the entire world, there is no use of being a Sahaja Yogi. Your nature might have become peaceful by this light within you. Perhaps your mental state or physical state or material state would have become alright. Inspite of that you have not got the Shakti of Shiva. By this shakti, we understand the oneness of the world. This understanding is not mental but the experience comes from within that we are one. This is the most important quality of Shiva that he is spread all throughout the universe. His work is so full of understanding and wisdom that he knows everyone. For example, if we light a lamp, then the flame does not know how far its light should go or to which place its light should go. These thoughts don't come to the lamp. But it is not so for the Spirit. Once your Spirit is enlightened, then it starts flowing through your hands as chaitanya. Its enlightened intelligence that flows through the chaitanya tells where you are going wrong and where you are going the right way. This means that the intelligence of God starts flowing through the Spirit. Also, all the work in the world which is done by God flows through your hands now and works out. That's why first of all, we have to take to the Spirit, take to Shiva. Now we have to see, how we can go to Shiva on the outside. We get to know the Truth through the Shiva Tattva. That's because I told that all the shaktis in the world are as if they are flowing in one body. Due to this, no matter what happens where, you can know the truth through collective consciousness. You can know the Absolute Truth which tells you what is true and what is false through the Spirit. The special quality of this light is that when it comes into the heart, man gets drowned in Joy. Waves of joy start flowing in his body. His intelligence, his behaviour all start shining. A special personality is awakened within him who is charming and who has great principles. A person who comes near such a personality gets emancipated. He takes to the righteous path. All this happens spontaneously. The company of such a personality itself works out such a thing. Such a personality is always immersed in joy. There is no duality to joy, it is absolute, which we call as Niranand. Absolute joy means that it does not have happiness and unhappiness like two sides of a coin. The person is in an absolute state and this state is the state of joy (anand). In this state he is like a witness who just sees the waves of happiness and unhappiness like a person sitting in a boat sees and enjoys the waves of the sea. Once you attain this state you understand what the waves of joy are, what is the comfort of joy and what is the kingdom of joy. Despite achieving that state we do not get fulfilled with joy. The reason is that the one who is the source of the Spirit is the Spirit of the Universe. So until we take this joy to every shore of the world, we cannot get completely one with this joy. For example, if a flower falls into the sea, then it floats from one shore to another. That is the path it takes and that is what it enjoys. In the same way, once a person gets into the kingdom of God, he feels, 'whose heart I should touch','whom should I tell', 'whom should I meet','which country I should go to ' and tell them to take to their Self-Realization. So, until we attain the Universal status (Vishwa swarupa), we can't say that we are Realized Souls. Those who call themselves as Sahaja Yogis are still holding on to this caste-creed thing. They say, 'marriage should take place within OUR caste', 'OUR caste', 'OUR this' and 'OUR that.' We have to come out of this limitation. 'We are Indians', 'We are Englishmen', 'we are superior, you are inferior', 'we are from north, you are from south' , all these distinctions have been formed by man, not God. He created these different countries only to give variety to His beautiful Creation. But the human mind is always looking to create classes and differences. So, now there are Pune residents and there are Mumbai residents. Within Pune residents, there are Sadashiv Peth residents and within that also, people might be classified based on the well they have. A Sahaja Yogi should not live in a well but he should be like a flower in a lake. The Sahaja Yogi who is still living in a well like this should understand that he has not yet taken to Sahaja Yoga completely. So first of all, we must acknowledge the form of the Universe within us, only then we can get to the Shiva Tattva. Through meditation, we can understand how to get to this state from the outside. When we meditate, the attention should be on ourselves, not on others. We should look at ourselves and see what thoughts are coming into our head. What sort of beliefs we have built into our minds. 'I am this', I am that', 'I am from this caste', 'I am from that religion', every person thinks himself to be smart. So you should ask ,' Am I involved in all this? ''Am I a citizen of some country or some small street in some city or am I a citizen of God's Kingdom?' When we pay attention to ourselves in meditation, because we are now connected with the Spirit, as soon as we put forth this question, the light of the Spirit will shine before you and you will be surprised that 'No, I am part and parcel of one world.' Why don't you feel that a small drop should dissolve into a great ocean and enjoy? Instead why does the attention go into separating the molecules and atoms of that drop? The reason is that many things ego, superego etc. have developed in the mind of man. So because of all this, his intelligence or his mind has developed certain limitations. He is not capable of breaking those limitations. He does not have the strength to overcome these limitations (maryadas). 'What will my society say?', 'What will my parents say?' So to destroy these limitations, Adi Shankaracharya said that 'I don't have a father nor mother, I am Shiva tattva.' This means that in Shiva tattva, there are no limitations. He is Amaryad (beyond limitations), eternal. I am Shiva. So he who is this Ananta Shiva, should not even think about such petty, limiting things. Even if such thoughts come, he should not feel bad that 'why didn't I do this?', 'I am from this religion or that.' So, all these limitations arise within us because of our beliefs or the things that we believe in. From childhood, we are taught which caste is bad. Once it sits in our head, then it does not move. Once these conditionings set in then even if someone tells us, they don't go. But once you see the joy in the light of this Vishwa Dharma, then you feel, 'Why was I indulging in these false beliefs like a fool?' When this state comes, we can say that our development is towards emancipation. So, first of all, our intelligence must be completely enlightened with the light of the Spirit. The darkness present in us should go away and for that we have to simply pay attention to ourselves. Suppose, there is a very angry person and he is short tempered since childhood. It may be so because in his childhood, the environment was such that he had to be hot tempered. So suppose that he was troubled by mother or his father or there was some other reason. So, if he is still troubled by that anger then the sword of the Spirit has not come in him. This sword is that of Love and is decorated with flowers. So the third thing to be kept in mind is that Sprit is the embodiment of Love. Only love. But we need Self-Realization to understand that love. "Atmanneva atmana drishtaha" means only through the Spirit the Spirit can be known. It is like this- if you don't have eyes then you can't see your own eyes in a mirror, in the same way, if you don't know the Spirit, you cannot understand the swarupa of the Spirit which is love. The main form of the Spirit is that it is a storehouse of love. It is love. But this love is not the love that we know of. This love does not have any greed or lust, any pressure or any expectation. This love flows eternally and the benevolence in this love is worked out. While giving this benevolence, the Spirit does not have any jealousy and does not pressurize anyone. The working is spontaneous. Once this love starts flowing in a Sahaj (spontaneous) way then you will be surprised to see that everything works out by itself and you don't need to do anything. First we have to see the kind of love that we are giving to someone. First of all, it should be unconditional. I will give a small example. I bought some saris from America. Then I told someone that 'See, I have brought 11 saris, so find some ladies to whom I can give these.' So he chose his mother, wife, daughter then sister-in-law and relatives like these and gave me the list. So I told him, 'it is alright if at least the surnames are different... How did you find so many people with the same surname?' Then he told, 'Mother, I know them that's why I gave their names.' I said, 'Is it so? But aren't you a Sahaja Yogi? How don't you know others?' So I called someone else and he did the same thing. I was in a dilemma as to what to do. So the love has to be unconditional. Now, how does this unconditional love look like? Wherever there is a feeling of 'my', like 'MY brother', 'MY son', 'MY wife', there this unconditional love does not exist. Now, whatever relation you have with someone is there but you should not stick to it. I have given this example many times that if the sap in a tree sticks to just one flower, not only will the tree die but also the flower will die. So this unconditional love flows everywhere and gives a person whatever he wants. Now see, all of you are sitting here and we have this electricity here. This electricity is flowing through the small lights, the big lights, the videocamera, this mike, the fans etc. whichever device needs it, it gets the electricity. Does it stick to any one device? This power does not stick to one place. But when it becomes living then it starts sticking. Especially in human beings. Sometimes I say that man should be called 'chikku' (sticky) as it fits him. He wants to stick to everything. Any small thing happens, he wants to stick to it. This stickiness takes away his power and deforms him. First it is ' MY son, MY son' and finally it is 'Mataji, somehow get me rid of this son, he is ill-treating me.' So, even this gets cured, it is not as if it does not get cured. So we must know that this unconditional love should be present in man. If it is your child, then fulfil your responsibility, there is no need to have any expectations. Secondly, don't say that it is MINE. Tomorrow, if someone else's daughter comes to your house then you must know to love her also. Then you are unconditional. This is the beginning but the joy that comes out of spreading your love to the whole world only God can describe. It is in His love that He has created this universe. In fact, this Creation is like a headache. First create the world, then make human beings, then they come to hit you, they behave like mad, then you make them alright, give them Realization, even then they run here and there like mad, then somehow make them sit and tie them up and even then their heads are going here and there! But all this is a play for Him as His love is unconditional. The only thing is that God does the Bhakti of Love. He is in the joy of Love. His joy is that 'I Love.' He resides in that love. He does not think that he hit me or he said something to me. He says, 'I have love for you, do what you want.' This is the quality of God. This quality when it comes to Sahaja Yoga, is called as Nirapekshita (without any expectations). But we don't see this. If you behave rudely with someone, then you continue with the same thing. You can't get rid of it. So, it again becomes stickiness. If you are behaving in a nice way with someone else then you continue to do so but with the first person you still behave rudely. Suppose two brothers had fight before coming to Sahaja Yoga, then even in Sahaja Yoga they continue with the same feelings. Then why did you come to Sahaja Yoga? To get to the Spirit. What is the Spirit? Spirit is the source of love within you. So we should accept it and enjoy it. We should accept it this way that whatever is there in me is for the Bhakti of the love of the Spirit. Let the Spirit do as much Bhakti of love as it wants. Nothing like - this is my body, mind etc. but let me see and enjoy the Bhakti of the Spirit. Most importantly, we should know that we are sitting in the court (darbar) of Love. Hatred, anger, attachment all are the same. I don't see the difference between a person who you like or don't like. They are the same. The only difference is that one seems good and the other seems bad. But both types are the same. Love should be unconditional. Secondly, love should have sweetness. If someone gives two slaps on another's face and says,' I have slapped you in love.' That's not love. Moreover there are certain customs like if you meet a person then he continues to shake your hand till half its weight is reduced! What a way to meet! But there is nothing in the heart, it is all superficial. In that superficiality, they shake your hand saying 'Oh I am so glad to meet you!' and you are only worried about when your hand will break! But there is nothing in the heart. The love should be in your heart. The love should flow from your heart. It should not be superficial. Sometimes because of this superficiality, man fools himself into thinking, ' Oh I am such a good person! I am so loving and behave lovingly with everyone!' If it his business, then obviously he has to behave nicely with people. But in love, a person is extremely sweet, both inside and outside. Inside and outside. He is compassionate. Even his harshness seems sweet. So until this sweetness comes into Sahaja Yogis, no one will be ready to even believe you. There are too many people in our country who give lectures, who give big talks and the common man is tired of it. In every street you can find such a person. You will get many such in Pune itself. But do we get any satisfaction out of it? It is all false, superficial. So, the love needs to come from the heart. Now I get many letters saying, 'Mataji, let the love flow from our hearts.' Now how am I supposed to do that? First open your hearts. I will tell you how to open your hearts. Start with a small thing. Make a list of the people whom you love and whom you hate. Then write a loving letter to the ones whom you hate... (Yogis start laughing) very difficult thing! Extremely difficult! Write to them saying, ' I remember you a lot as you are great.' It is ok even if they are not, nothing wrong in saying so! Then say,' I will feel very nice if you send an answer to this letter.' Try it out. It will work out because the Spirit has made you capable of that love. There should be no superficiality. He should not feel that ,' Oh, today he has sent a good letter so tomorrow's is going to be horrible. This first letter is an introduction to what will follow!' So, you should send a heartfelt letter full of love. Send to those people whom you hate or feel bad about. But start with Sahaja yogis. Firstly, they should be Sahaja yogis. But you will be surprised that when you write for the first time, there will be at least one line expressing that anger of the past. So write one more, then a third and after a hundred letters, there will be at least one letter where this anger is not at all expressed. We should open our hearts to the person with whom we are angry. We should see, what he did, am I also doing? If you have done, then what is the need to be angry? If he has behaved like that then I won't behave in the same way. In reality, you must love him. Now, in our country, so many problems are there because we do not know the real concept and definition of love. One of the main problems is that of the women’s status in our country. We have both types of women in our country. The third type I have not seen, if I see it will be a lot better. One is dominating and the other is submissive. There is no one in the middle. The one who dominates sits on the head and the submissive one goes under the feet. Due to this, the society has become extremely strange. The society goes on torturing the submissive one and goes under the feet of the dominating one. Then, unknowingly, you are committing a very great sin. The sin is that God cannot accept the torture of a woman who is forbearing. There are many such problems. Now we have this caste problem. In order to get rid of all these things, we have to see, how much love we have. This love has been described by many incarnations. (This child is unhealthy please take him to the back, I feel that he has some negativity, he is not able sit in front of Me. Take him slowly, no need to hurry) So, how many people can we cover with the cloak of love. How many people are close to our hearts? The other day, in Mumbai, I asked a question that men generally feel that their friendship is much deeper than that of women, so I asked a man, who is your friend? He told ,'This gentleman here.' I told,' Really, but just now he was complaining about you to Me. How is he your friend? So the friendship in which one friend does not see the bad qualities of another, if it deepens, then your heart opens up. Next, is the generosity. Generosity means the power to give. Your Mother is famous for Her generosity but you try being generous. If you have five saris and another woman has less then just give her a sari and see. If your heart is open then you will have the good fortune of getting 100 saris. We should have the power to give. Go on giving. This generosity starts in Sahaja Yoga when people's hearts start opening out in Pujas. They say, 'Mataji, I have made this kheer (a dessert made from rice) especially for you, this puran poli (another dessert) I have made especially for you.' This is the beginning. But if you make the same thing for another Sahaja Yogi, then I feel more joyous. I feel extremely joyous when you distribute this love amongst yourselves. When you say something nice about a Sahaja yogi, I feel very joyous. When you praise him then I feel extremely joyous. But yes, if you are wrong then I will warn you to be careful. But I have seen many times, that these special moments come rarely. When you people enjoy each other's company, friendships and good qualities, then I feel that the Kingdom of Love has begun. We have not so far known this kingdom nor have we used it so far. We have not yet accepted its power. We don't pay attention to its tremendous dynamism. Its power is so great that whatever big empires you have set up or whatever big bombs you have and whatever is a product of hatred will all be completely destroyed. All these will be razed to the ground. But you must know how to use it. You should experience its power. You should say,'I am a priest of Love. I don't want anger, hatred and anything of the sort but I only want to do the Bhakti of love. Our Mother has told us this and She has made us one with Her in that Bhakti. We should get completely immersed in that love. Then 'this caste and that caste' all drop off. In hatred, if someone sees a bad quality then he sticks on to that. But try to remember even one incident that has love like 'How sweetly he talked to me that day!' and build your building on that. To build the building of the heart, just think 'how lovingly he talked with me!' But if you talk harshly to someone, then he can never have good thoughts for you. How does it not come into our attention that if we speak bad about someone then obviously he is going to speak bad about us. Is he going to say ,' Oh what a good thing that he has given me abuses!' With a simple intelligence we have to understand that if we talk against a person in such a harsh way then is he going to put a garland around our necks? So while opening your heart, you must keep this much in attention that 'I have given this person a place in my heart.' Now this heart has the power of love which purifies. This power will purify this person. Leave it to that power. Now he may trouble you a bit but try a bit harder. It is not difficult to try. You will be surprised; you will feel 'Have I become like the entire world or what?' As a child, I used to always feel, 'How will this universal work take place? How will I meet people?' Then my heart used to expand so much that I would feel as if the whole universe is coming into it. At the moment I used to feel so joyous. I used to see only pictures then but now I can see it with my own eyes. In every place there are thousands of Sahaja Yogis who are enjoying this bliss. May you also give the same amount of love to everyone. On this special occasion of Shiv Puja, make a promise in your heart that now onwards, I will love everyone. Mother has said so and I will do the Bhakti of love. In that love if I face any troubles then it is like a penance and I will bear it. I will love the whole world unconditionally. I won't say 'my', 'mine' like a frog in a well but I will do all that is possible for others in love. Sometimes, people will treat you harshly, they have done so with Me also but the power of love is tremendous and you must give this love with complete faith and bhakti in its power. So now the time for the Puja has come and I have decided to build a house in Pune. (applause) In the whole world, India is a yoga-bhoomi. The Kundalini of the whole world is in Maharashtra and any amount of description of this great land is less. Pune is the heart of Maharashtra and it is here that we have to establish Shri Shiva. It is my desire that once I build a house over here, Kailash should come down here and everyone should help me in doing that. The residents of Kailash are those of cool nature, a cool temperament and Sahaja yogis should become like that. People should say that in Pune, the Kingdom of Shri Sadashiv is present. With this hope, I have decided to build a house over here and I request everyone to help me.