During this Navaratri I advise you to walk barefoot in the Ashram. This is because we are doing poojas for Mother Earth and it is why we sow the nine grains in the soil. The nine grains are called navadaniyam. Each grain is a different kind of Shakti. These nine shaktis (energies) are now inside the nine kumbhams that we have set upon the blessed earth. The energies of the divine rivers are certainly in these kumbhams. You will realize this on the last day of the festival. When you make the kumbhams I also give them a spiritual vibration.
Many avatars and siddhas were born in this sacred land of India. So while you are living on this blessed earth, bring your mind to a good state. You have got a good opportunity to do this. However, behaving with ego, pride, jealousy, greed, anger, and not respecting or not welcoming others shows that you are not at a mature level. By being humble you will bring your mind to a mature stage. Receive the blessings of Divine Mother, Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati and live with peace and happiness, without disease, with a strong and steady health, with a pure mind, without a competitive attitude and without ego, jealousy, pride, or criticizing others.
Are you going to live for 100 years? No. You see, when we talk we always say “our relatives, our friends, brothers, sisters.” Really, all this is a lie. This world is false. If you don’t have money then no one will bother about you these days. This world is like that. If your parents have money people will have respect but if they are not wealthy, people will not respect them or think about them in a good way. Nowadays this world turns around this delusion.
Even the clothes we are wearing do not belong to us. Though we know this we say it is ours. If you die tomorrow morning, what will happen to the gold chain you are wearing? Somebody will remove it from your dead body, but we always say, “It is my gold chain.” Then that gold chain will laugh at you. The chain will think, “Once I belonged to the great kings of India and they also said I was theirs! Now you are wearing me and saying that I belong to you. You do not know, hereafter, who is going to own me but still you are attached to me.” The chain thinks like that and laughs at you.
Can we say that this land is ours? Do you know how many kings have ruled this land? But finally it did not belong to them. It has been sold to different people many times over and at last it became the Ashram. Then what belongs to whom? Nothing belongs to anything or anyone. The chains we are wearing do not belong to us. The land does not belong to us. In Sri Lanka they are still fighting over the land because they have not understood these things. Everything is there only until we die. Many saints, siddhas, sages, landlords, and millionaires, and even avatars, incarnations of God, have been born on this Earth. They also did not own anything!
Make the mind very clean and pure. In truth, I do not get angry, I do not have ego and I never cheat or lie to people. These feelings do not arise in me because I have purified my mind. When I instruct you in management I need to be strict, because you have to do your duty correctly, don’t you? I need to clean you so that you can do your duty in a pure way. I want to cleanse you all perfectly but you always have some dirt on you. Every day you all bathe using soap for your body, shampoo for your hair, and apply perfumes so that you would smell good. Every day you bathe but every day you again become dirty. Can you remove all that dirt once and for all? No. Why not? The body is created in that way. It is formed like that so that you will understand that the body is temporary and made up of impurities. However, I did not come to clean your body – I ask you to concentrate on cleansing your mind.
You are all intelligent people. There are so many visions and thoughts in your minds. I want to bring all these thoughts to one point. I am asking you to sharpen your intelligence. I want to mature you with the help of your intelligence. Your mind has become addicted to thoughts. Your mind has also become addicted to worldly life. Your mind always likes beauty, nice clothes, and status, but there is no end to these things. There is no limit to the stories that the mind likes to hear and no end to its imaginings. There are no barriers for your thoughts and the mind is always wavering. You have to bring this wavering mind to one point and then you can develop.
The Divine in the form of the Mother who governs this entire world (Akhila Loka Nayaki) shows us the good path during Navaratri. Everything happens through her grace. There is nothing that is done by you alone; it is all done with her grace.
Guru’s grace, too, is always sacred. Whether you understand the guru or not he is the spiritual master. You might blame him or joke with him – you may even trample on your guru! But the guru will always be a guru for you, however you may think. Guru is never upset by other people’s criticisms, or by sarcastic stories, or by accusations. Even if you walk all over him you cannot hurt him because the divine energy is with him. Only a person who has divine grace has the capacity to be immune to all these things. One who truly lives in grace is never afraid of the gossips and the accusers, or even of those who come to kill him with a knife. Why? Because they are not afraid of death. They know that all happens according to God’s wish. Even if we were to be in prison or wherever, it would be Lord Shiva’s and the Divine Mother’s wish. Whatever diseases we get, whatever problem we get, whatever sorrow we get, whatever difficulties we get – if we cannot find peace, if we become depressed, if we get confused, if we cry – we should realize that everything is God’s wish. This is one of God’s dramas and everything happens according to divine will. Nothing is according to our wishes. Like this the Divine is in control of everything that happens to us. No explanations are needed for divine actions. Do we have to know the reason why?
Laugh and live. Be happy and you will have no problems, disease, or sorrows. If you have happiness in your mind everything will go away. If your mind has many problems and sorrows, then you will get many diseases. Being happy is the greatest medicine for getting rid of any disease. Therefore, laugh and live and be happy. Don’t bother about what others do or say, and be happy. Don’t find faults or wrongs with others. Don’t try to correct people but try to correct yourself. Those who act according to this advice will have a good life.
I am there, close to you, but you all do not see me. Can you see this truth with your normal eyes? Open up your eye of wisdom and see.
Hari Om!
You can read more about Navaratri here :
http://sripremananda.org/celebrating-navaratri/
