Christmas Puja. Pune (India), 25 December 1987.

[English Translation from Marathi - missing]

[English Transcript]

Today is the great day, when a great son of the Goddess was born, at least it is celebrated today. And you are all assembled here to celebrate the birthday of Christ.

You already know how He came on this earth, and what was His great work. But we must see to the subtle side of Christ. What was His power? Christ’s power was, of course, Omkara. His power was Pranava.

But the essence of Christ was tapasya, tapasvita. He is the incarnation of tapasya, and in that incarnation is a sinless personality. He’s sinless.

Of course incarnations never commit sins. But apparently things that look like sins are also not in His life story.

Like one can say that Shri Rama gave up His wife, so it is a sinful thing.

Of course those who understand the subtleties of Shri Rama’s life will know that it’s stupid to say such a thing.

Or Shri Krishna’s life, they might say He married so many women.

But in Christ’s life you do not find anything that could be pointed out as a mistake, even a slightest mistake. It’s a very straightforward life, absolutely pure life and doing no commitments of ambiguous nature.

But it’s very surprising that Christianity is just the opposite of what Christ wanted it to be. They painted Him so differently, brought Him out so differently and made a mess of His life. Terrible mess I must say, because He was the person who tried to keep to the maryadas of the dharma to the maximum.

And while the Christians stretched their imagination to such an extent that their sinful life is shocking, the kind of sins they commit is extremely shocking.

For example, He said in a very subtle way, "Thou shalt not have adulterous eyes."

Even in Sahaja Yoga I find people still have this problem.

What a sinful thing to do to Christ. For Christians to have such eyes which are adulterous, and they are the people who have the maximum number of this sin.

Not only that, but they generate it, they give it to others. Those who go to them, they develop it. Those who meet them, they take it up as something very great and elite. It's such an infectious horrible stuff, and even after coming to Sahaja Yoga if you do not understand, I cannot say what one can achieve in life.

Because he’s the gate. You may cross over all your chakras, but if you are closed at that chakra you cannot get out.

The kind of sinful life people are leading in the western country has to be absolutely condemned and has to be thrown out of it, and nobody should explain it. Nobody should say that it is something, is just a sin, and all right, Mother will forgive, all this kind of a nonsense. Is the greatest wrong you are doing to yourself and to Christ.

The abandonment of your character, which was just the opposite of the golden character of Christ. He burnt Himself like chandan, sandalwood. Like gold He came out of that fire of hell to burn away all that is sinful.

So the first attention of anybody who wants to cross the Agnya has to be a sinless life, and that is what one has to realize that how, in the West, they have become all anti-Christ.

On this day of His birth, one has to say that a great life, a great personality, was not only wasted, but perverted, misused.

Just can’t believe, how can you use the life of Christ for doing all kinds of nonsensical things.

We have one instance where Christ converted water into wine. I can do it also - very easy. The wine is not the alcohol. Alcohol is the rotten wine. You have to rot it for days together and the more rotten it is, the more old it is, then it is regarded as something very expensive.

The whole idea is so ridiculous, I tell you, so repulsive, absolutely below the dignity of human level to bring down Christ into all these social lives that you are leading there.

For you it is important now, all the Sahaja Yogis from the West, to stand up and make your life pure, make yourself pure, and hate all that is created in the name of Christianity.

Actually, thank God, they have found out now the book written by Thomas who has described the Gnostic way of life, where “gna” means “to know”. In Sanskrit language, “gn” means “to know”, “gnya”. So he has described very nicely the gnostic light.

This Gnostic Bible, or whatever you may call it, says about a personal experience of achieving God realization, self realization. It talks about Sahaj Yog out and out.

Thomas on his way to India, went to Egypt and there he has put this in a big vessel of some metal. Thank God it was done in Egypt, otherwise in any other place they would have used it for some other purpose. And already it would have been a perverted thing.

It’s important, and very important for all of us to understand that the first and foremost thing for us is to purify our attention. And for that Tukarama has said, “Thank God, if I become blind is better.”

He was born in a very humble place because He was a tapasvi. For a tapasvi it doesn’t matter where you are, whether you are in a humble place or you are in an elaborate place. It doesn't matter where you are born in a very humble way.

And this humility of His is never, never expressed in the western lives. On the contrary, I find they despise people who are humble, the humble abodes are despised.

Now it is for you people to bring back the glory of Christ, to bring back the dharma of Christ, to reflect the great image of Christ.

When people say that you had no ideals, I’m amazed. Who could be a better ideal than Jesus Christ? Can’t think of anybody better, but nobody tries to follow Him, only try to use Him for wrong purposes.

Christmas means they are all must be drunk already everywhere, already drunk, and maybe they might have had all kinds of programs to show that they are absolutely insulting Christ.

So today we have to pray for them, that may God give them some sense, not to do these things in the name of Christ. They can do in the name of Satan is all right, but in the name of Christ to do all these things is extremely wrong.

So coming to His Mother, She was the power behind it. And in India still all those people who believe in Christ do respect Her as something like a Goddess. But other Indians, who are not Christians, really think Her to be Goddess, and they visit Her temples all over.

She was Mahalakshmi. And She was Mahalakshmi, which shows that people who follow the Mahalakshmi principle are beyond the material understanding of life, beyond the Lakshmi principle. On the contrary, what we find, they are extremely conscious about the material wealth.

You should see how it shows so clearly. Anything that they will buy, they would like to buy something that can sell. It must have a guarantee.

Even if they want to have anything like a small little spoon, they would like to see a brand behind it. All the time they are thinking what can they sell and what can they buy to sell it. The attention doesn’t go beyond that. Moreover, they are very much impressed by people who wear something rather expensive or unique.

One day I was wearing a ring, I think, it’s an old ring of mine. For me it was nothing, I mean I just thought it's an old ring and was matching with the sari, so I wore it. Everybody started saying Me, "Madam, Madam, Madam." I said, "What has happened?"

Started looking, I'm wearing a simple sari, what is it? Then one lady asked me, "Is that a real ring?" I said, "Yes, yes, yes, so?"

"Oh Madam, Madam, Madam!"

I was amazed. Otherwise, I had no value. Except for that ring, for which I had no value at all. I just wore it by chance. It's an old ring from my family. All right, it might be real. So what? Immediately you become "madam" if you wear a ring.

It's very surprising. But in this country if you are going in a big car, people don't like you much. If you are going in a big car, and you want to buy some vegetables, they will say, "Oh, how much black market money have you got?" Not much respect for people who have money. Of course you are expected to dress up according to your status in life. But that's all.

Those who wear do not have the consciousness, and those who see them do not have the consciousness.

It is something very surprising, that where you are supposed to be worshipping the Mahalakshmi principle, people just get absolutely blown off if they see something extraordinary.

I have seen people, I mean very, supposed to be, you can say high class ambassadors and all that.

If they come to My house they would like to turn the plate to see from where it comes, or they would like to, even to see the spoon from where it comes. It's very surprising.

Actually, we do not know in this country what comes from where, what is the mark. We don't have any marks, nothing of the kind.

And we are existing alright, nothing wrong with us. This kind of mental attitude towards life and the mental projections towards life makes you absolutely gross, while Christ was the subtle, complete subtle. It was nothing but subtlety itself personified.

He was so subtle, He was such a sukshma that He walked on the water. He was nothing but pranava, just vibrations. He walked on the water.

There was no jada tattwa in Him. There was no gross principle in Him, and while the people who follow Him are following nothing but the jada tattwa.

I have to now request you all today to understand that when we are celebrating the birthday of Christ, we have to imbibe his qualities, his subtleties, his greatness.

Also, I would request Indians, because they are also becoming westernized now, thinking that western people are the wisest. They have to understand also that we should try to be subtler and subtler, and not gross, and this is what is important in Sahaja Yoga culture.

In Sahaja Yoga culture, our attention is on the subtle things. On the beautiful varieties of subtleties. To see all the sweetness and the goodness, all the artistic, aesthetic projections of human mind. Not the gross, not the grotesque.

It is going to be a new culture for us. We have started the dharma all right. But every dharma has to have a culture and we are the culture of sukshma, of the subtler life. That doesn't mean we should be untidy or any way funny type, (very?) funny looking people. Subtler people are the most beautiful, are the most congenial, are the most idealistic, and are the most honorable like Christ.

So for us the ideal is Christ. Of course, I don’t expect you to crucify yourself. But always willing to sacrifice, coping with all the discomforts and problems and not talking about yourself, not worrying about yourself, not discussing other and judging others, but giving assurances to people, that now we are at this level, we’ll be at a higher level, and all the world has to come up to that level.

Very positive talking, very positive thinking and very positive doing is the way you can really follow Christ. Whatever He had to do, He did it with such grace and beauty. That is what it is.

So we have to be born like Christ today. You are all born like Christ because you are born without the Father, by the Holy Ghost, just like Christ was born. But look at Him and look at yourself, born the same way as He was born.

So you must respect yourself as He respected Himself. And the way He worked out His resurrection. In the same way, you all have to work out your resurrection, and that is very important.

Today you have to just ask just one thing from Me, that “Oh, Mother, today we ask you to give us that power of penance, of tapasya of Christ.” I wish this would be granted today and you will become tapasvis.

May God bless you all.

(At the end of the puja, before Aarti, Shri Mataji does namaste and says)

Happy Christmas to you.

Yogis: Happy Christmas, Shri Mataji.

Shri Mataji: Today you have sucked my vibrations alright. May God bless you all.

(After Aarti)

May God bless you all.

[Note in the original transcription: After the puja, Shri Mataji commented that this was one of the two most powerful pujas we have ever had. She also said that it's easy to be Christ, but it's most difficult to become the Mahalakshmi, and at this puja, that was accomplished.]