Shri Ganesha Puja. Borivali, Mumbai (India), 15 January 1984. It is so Sahaj today that the day of celebration has fallen onto the birthday of Shri Ganesh. Every month they celebrate the fourth day of the moon as the birth date of Shri Ganesh. And today is that date. Luckily, we are here for the puja of Shri Ganesha on His birthday. I have said a lot about Shri Ganesha and His importance in our life. He is the giver of wisdom, but this wisdom comes from our innocence—innocence that is innate within us. As children, we are innocent. But as we grow, we start exerting ourselves in a manner that we start losing our innocence. We lose it in two ways: once we have lost our innocence, we cannot believe that others could be innocent. Another is, that we think innocence is not important. Innocence is the sustenance, is the basis of spirituality. If a person doesn’t have innocence, he cannot rise in spirituality. That’s why the first job of Sahaja Yoga is to establish Shri Ganesha within you, to awaken Him. As soon as the Kundalini awakens, you must know that Shri Ganesha comes into being. Without His awakening within you, Kundalini cannot be raised. But it could be temporary, or it could be a permanent thing. It could be very temporary with people who are not yet adjusted to the new method, or to the ways of God’s love. Those who have not understood, or those who have not gone through those traditions, it is rather difficult for them to establish Shri Ganesha within them. At this point, I find, there are people who fight with their problems, and try to overcome the outward problems and establish Shri Ganesha. But there are other people who are still not there; they start doubting others’ innocence. In Sahaja Yoga [this] is a very common failing. I have seen people complaining about others, saying that their innocence is not established—[this] is the first sign that your own innocence is in danger. Because you doubt yourself, you are doubting others. If you are doubting others, then be sure that you are not going to gain anything. Your job is to look after yourself, and not others. And if you start doing like this, gradually, in your Mooladhara, there will be lots of these bhoots that will just jump in. And they’ll give you more ideas and more ideas of doubting others. By doubting others, you can never correct them, and never yourself. So those people who indulge into this kind of practice go away from their innocence. They try to find out what others are doing, what are their ways of using other people in Sahaja Yoga for their own purposes. Or some sort of a funny spy-like attitude they develop. In Sahaja Yoga, you have to only spy yourself, and not others. Those who start spying themselves, criticizing others, will never rise higher than what you are. In the beginning, I have seen many Sahaja Yogis who come also try to do this, to criticize others; this is the sign of their immaturity, sign of their, also, poor awakening of their Shri Ganesha. So those who come for the first time should be very careful: that still we have to achieve a lot, and we should not start doubting others, making remarks about others. Because in innocence, people can be very, very simple, very friendly, but inside their hearts there is no malice, there’s no filth. But those who come for the first time, sometimes have the filth within them. And they see the reflection of their own filth in other people. I had gone to a program in Kolhapur. And you know how your Mother is innocent and pure. And a gentleman came and he told Me that he has a Nabhi problem. So I said, “All right, you put your hand on My Nabhi.” He put his hand there, and the women there, who were really funny women, they said, “Why should Mother allow another man to touch Her knee?” They could not understand, that how could anybody touch a lady’s knee? But once you are at that level, you don’t really know that there is bad in it. And you just say, “All right, it’s all right, you can touch my knee.” And the fellow got all right with his trouble with his Nabhi. So, you see, the thing is, if your eyes are clean, you can understand what is clean and what is unclean. But if your eyes are not clean, you start seeing something that you want to see. Or sometimes you see something that never exists. So I would request all the new Sahaja Yogis who are here, not to criticize the old Sahaja Yogis. And this is a very anti-God activity. Never say a word about the old Sahaja Yogis. Because I have heard complaints, people came and complained to Me, and I was amazed. Those who are just now there, how can they start criticizing other Sahaja Yogis? That means you are trying to hit the roots of Sahaja Yoga. And this is not the way you are going to help. So, I have to request you, please, look after your own vibrations, look after your own ascent, look after what you have done for Sahaj Yoga, and then talk. Suddenly, if you just enter into Sahaja Yoga and start criticizing others about their innocence, you are hitting the Ganesha at the root of it. So be careful. Of course, you’ll be hit, no doubt. And such people who have done like this, I have seen, have ended up with cancer. Because Ganesha is the one, when He gets angry, the first thing you get is cancer. So be careful. I’m warning you, don’t try these tricks anymore. Try to improve your spirituality, so that you can enjoy the joy of Shri Ganesha. This is one side. And the second side is that to keep Shri Ganesha intact, we have to have certain maryadas. Everybody must have certain maryadas. Like that, I would say that I will ask a lady to put her hand even up to My heart point from the front. But I would not ask a man to do that, because there is a maryada: if you are a man, you are not supposed to touch My front side, but you can touch My back side. There are maryadas for everything. And if you do not observe these maryadas, or these boundaries, then you are apt to get out of it, despite the fact that you are pure. And you might create a problem unnecessarily. I’ll give you a very good example of Shri Mahavira, who was the incarnation of Bhairava. Himself, Bhairava, took on this work. And to Bhairava, what is cloth, what is dress? I mean, He is a person – to Him the whole universe is His clothes, or the whole directions are His clothes; He is a Digambara. To Him, what does it matter? He is so innocent. He is absolute innocence Himself. And the innocence that is destructive, that will destroy. Through Him only you get your cancer, when you start misbehaving. So it’s such a simple man like Him, in the sense that He never knew what was impurity, who didn’t know what sin was. Such a personality came on this earth to teach people to be innocent, to be dharmic, to be good. Now this one, once had to go to some forest where half of His cloth got caught up in the bushes. So He had to cut it off, and He was left with half of the cloth. And when He came out on the village outskirts, He met a person – who was actually Shri Krishna – who tried to take His pariksha, just came there, and He said that, “Why should you have any cloth? There is no need, but I am a human being, I have no clothes on My body. So, You are a God, You are an Incarnation, so why don’t You give your cloth to Me?” He said, “All right, take it.” He gave away the part that was there. And that’s how for a very short time He was without clothes – very short time. But that, people have exploited, and are making Him nude, and making all His private parts in such details. All nonsense they are doing. Now many people ask Me, “How is it that Jains indulge into this nudity and all that?” This is all absurdity; it’s nothing, nothing anywhere near Mahavira. Nobody’s a Mahavira to become even nude, even for a short time. So why should they do it? Because everybody tries to find out something that is a loophole, just to cover up their own weaknesses. And all such weaknesses tell upon the progenies. Now that has gone so far that they cannot understand that Shri Mahavir, He was a Digambara, He was a person who did not need any clothes. Still, just to keep the samayachar, He did wear His cloth throughout, and later on also. But, for a short time, He gave away His clothes. That doesn’t mean that in the public He became nude, suddenly He took out His clothes and all that. It doesn’t mean that. He respected the public and that . . . not only, but He respected His parents to begin with. Before He took to real sannyasa, He respected His parents, and He said that, “Now the time has come for Me to give up this worldly life He had – I have been indulging into worldly affairs, and I have to take to sannyasa.” Sannyasa doesn’t mean that He was not a sannyasi – He was – but means that the worldly life of His parents and other people, He had to give up. Because if you have to indulge sometimes into this life – like in the Hindu tradition, after a certain age, say seventy-five, they say, you have to take a sannyasa, in the sense that your family, your children are settled down now, there’s no problem, so you have to take a sannyasa. But for that, the wisdom has to be gathered in young age; otherwise, in old age, still there is no wisdom, and you are behaving like a young man of sixteen years – is better you don’t take sannyasa. So the whole understanding about life in India has to be very subtle. And to understand these great and great people, you have to be a little bit greater than what you are. If you are just mud, how can you see the goal? You cannot. So you have to remove this mud from your eyes. This is a very common feature in the West, that either they are suspicious, or they are in it – there’s nothing in between. Either the people who are suspicious of others, or there are people who are indulging into it. So have it a middle way. First thing I have to request, because you are the first Sahaja Yogis now who have come for the first time to India, that this soil of our country is full of the rhythm of Shri Ganesh – you are sitting on it – you have to vow, that: “I will establish my Ganesha.” Don’t worry about others; your attention on others is wrong. “I’ll establish my Ganesha, and let this Mother Earth give me the full strength to establish my Shri Ganesh.” This is very important, because unless and until your Shri Ganesh is established, you cannot be connected to the whole. Nor can you have the enjoyment of your Spirit. You will be a half-baked personality, which you should not be. So far, I’ve seen that the Western Sahaja Yogis are extremely assiduous. And they take things very seriously. They get to it, because they know if they have to have joy, they have to work it out. So you have to be an introvert as far as you are concerned. And as far as others are concerned, you have to be just seeing the good points of others. Always see the good points, not the bad points. Otherwise, you’ll create problems for yourself, and a day will come you’ll have to get out of Sahaja Yoga. It has happened with many who tried these things. And they are out, absolutely out of Sahaja Yoga. If you have to be in Sahaja Yoga, you have to understand that to be one with the whole, try to look after yourself. Another thing I have told you, that in every country I have to have somebody on whom I have to depend. Just like Shri Ganesha, I depend on Him for many things, He looks after many things, in the same way, in every country, I have to have somebody there. I do not like that all the time you are complaining about a person with whom I’m in connection. You need not correct that person; I have told you a hundred times: “Don’t correct that person.” I know, because I’m in contact, I know what that person is; you don’t know anything. I know everything about that person and I can correct that person. But I was surprised, in London also some people came and said something, you know, funny about others, and I was surprised that they think I don’t know. I know each and every thing. You leave it to Me. It is not your job to do such things, and this is a very mediocre approach to Sahaja Yoga, extremely mediocre. And if you are going to be mediocre, I cannot help it. But a day will come you might have to get out of Sahaja Yoga. This is the first warning I want to give you, because now we are going into the interior of Maharashtra. You will see women and men never sit together in Maharashtra, they sit separately. They keep a distance with them. We must learn those things. In the West, we are very open people; it’s all right, you could be open. There are methods and ways, how we are open, how we keep distances. Like I’ll be much more free with the son of Dr. Sanghvi, but with him I’ll keep a little distance. [It] is a style that a lady, her elders she must keep a distance. And a man, must keep a distance from the younger – younger generation. This is a system by which this country has worked out its innocence, and we all should try to follow this point, that: keep a distance with the ladies who are younger to you, and keep a distance from the gentlemen who are older than you. Is a – I mean, there, even an eighty-year-old woman marries an eighteen-year-old girl, such a confused state of affairs where you cannot talk of these things. But here when we are trying to sort out our confusions, our mistakes, we should try to adhere to a certain pattern which has helped people. Our social life is much better. And to understand why the social life is better, is because of Shri Ganesha’s importance. Where Shri Ganesha is not there, you’ll find even Sahaja Yoga does not work out. Say, in the north of India, there is no Shri Ganesh much worshipped. So the Muslims came in; if Shri Ganesha was there, they would have fought the Muslims. They accepted Islamic culture, and when that culture came in from the Nawabs and all that, licentious people, it all trickled down. But not to that extent; still I would say that there is a sense of chastity in people in India, and we all should have that sense of chastity. But the most thing is that in your heart, in your mind, don’t allow funny ideas to come in. First of all, watch what’s in your mind. It will give you ideas like: “This man is not good, that man is not good.” Just don’t listen to these things. Just listen to yourself, that: “Where am I? What am I doing? What have I done for Sahaja Yoga? My vibrations – are they all right? Am I helping others? Where is my attention?” The attention has to be: “What am I doing with what Mother has given to me?” So today is a very great day. We must all pray to Shri Ganesh that He should give His blessings, because He is the source of joy, He is the source of joy. He is Christ, He is in your heart, resides as Spirit. So He is the one, the innocence you have to achieve. And that is the beginning of Shri Krishna – Shri Ganesha’s being, which evolves at the head here, you see on this place as Aum it becomes. So, the same Shri Ganesha ultimately becomes Aum within ourselves. So to have the purest form of enjoyment of your Spirit, we must try to see that we establish our Shri Ganesha. And let everyone follow a proper pattern; you don’t try to correct each other. That’s a very wrong attitude in Sahaja Yoga and it’s very detrimental to the growth of Sahaja Yoga. Anybody who tries this is thrown out of Sahaja Yoga in no time, by some way or some other. And also I have seen people getting cancer. And they asked Me, “Mother, how is it we were doing Sahaja Yoga and how did we get cancer?” Because of this nonsense. Don’t try to go against other Sahaja Yogis; [you] must respect, they are all saints. And respect the older Sahaja Yogis because they have been there. You have to learn a lot. They have worked very hard to establish Sahaja Yoga. So I have to make a very simple announcement today, that on this day of Shri Ganesh, all My children, who are born like Shri Ganesh only, in the same pattern, should become dynamic like Him, innocent like Him, great like Him, working twenty-four hours. This little Child is working throughout the day and night to give you this source of joy. May God bless you all.