Speech made during Autumn Navaratri, on 25 September 1987, at Sarveshwari Samooh, Ganesh Pith, Parav, Varanasi.

Respected Mothers and dear brothers,

in this Navaratri evening between the second and third day of this lunar period, just on this occasion some reserved people have expressed their intimate thoughts. Me too, I want that people don’t hide their thoughts but that they express them clearly. You too are aware that this is samsara: from the body to the mind, samsara is appearance, where everything is shrouded in maya and nothing has a real meaning, indeed. So living beings are a prey to maya’s power of attraction and to escape its heavy bond we keep on doing these devotions. O Mother, despite all the things we know and we also understand, we are forced not to be aware of what kind of actions we are doing, what we are doing; according to my grasp this is good, but maybe for any other person this could even be bad and for someone else it could even be blameworthy. For our personal happiness, for our individual peace, give us the right inspiration.

If we reflect a lot upon a thing, considering every point of view, we can fully understand our speech, as it is just from it that we must begin. Therefore consider that when you have come here, you could meet me, so we can know and understand each other, so I can speak about what I have understood and known, but what I haven’t understood nor have I known or what I know by hearsay or is reported as rumour, doesn’t deserve to be told, neither as a thought nor as someone else’s rumour, because it is concretely unfounded.  So, brothers, during Navaratri we must make founded speeches referring to this special occasion; what is the use of talking about this and that or about futile arguments?

For my devotional practice, I am absorbed in my mental concentration here in this ashram, so I noticed that many people wear red, whereas many others wear white clothes. Then I asked a couple of persons whether they knew that wearing black is a sign of Bhairava and his devotees wear this way, while the devotees of Mother Shakti, or Devi, wear red and sitting they do their meditation (dhyana) and their mental contemplation. Whites clothes stand for Absolute Brahaman, Parameshvara (Absolute Lord), instead and it is a clothing symbol of the image of that Guru. In the same way the meditation of Shiva in his immaculate form is done wearing white clothes. In milk-white and snow-white clothes they are absorbed, and in a very Himalaya-white colour they meditate.

In their forehead they meditate the Guru and in their heart the Shakti, whose great omniscience and wisdom is duly kept from us and from you and whenever we strive to know and understand her, such a confusion arises that our mind, our intellect start to think of completely different things so, as we don’t concentrate, meditation fails and when it isn’t correctly done, memory isn’t imprinted,too and even samadhi fails. Instability is our mental condition.

You know the two Satchandi’s characters, king Surat and merchant Samadhi, through whom you ask for the peace of your soul. Shakti has different forms, attributes and names, and in several ways some people did a critical quest and were inspired by the knowledge they acquired. We know that, but in spite of that we are ignorant and unaware, then when we have something to do, we are weighed up and evaluated; don’t you know why this happens? The way to eliminate it is what the dialogue between Jaimini and Martanda-Markandeya (a sage) reveals, while one was addressing the other referring to the subject of their discussion, Shakti entered this context and intervened as destroyer of the wickedness originated from an evil body and mind. We can understand it, because sattvic qualities are in our body, mind and heart.

On this earth, in human form, for our satisfaction, for our prosperity and to make power of senses dissolve towards us all, let’s pray. I am aware that by meditating (dhyana) and emptying my mind I get mental concentration and by making ‘chitt’ (mind and heart) clear and bright I can reach the feet of the Mother who is shrouded in Prana; I can know and catch that Prana, I know that it is just so and that it is like the rule and the touchstone and that its weight or its lack of weight is Shakti.

After grasping all that, if it was fixed and lasting inside, then we could have the right understanding. In this way, to reach a person, it spreads in space, but it cannot be kept and stabilized. But we don’t reach it, or we reach it only very late, but if we were able to reach it, we could seize it, if we managed to keep it. If, after reaching it, we were taken by a sort of shake or unexpected movement, we couldn’t keep it, so our temporary attempt could even give us pain and therefore seriously disturb our mind. Consequently it is essential that we manage to ‘stop’ and keep the prana. From it we have strong relief and benefit and we have to learn to enjoy it inside.

In old Hindi it was said: “City teaches even a policeman”. A newcomer can learn from people living in the city, where there are thieves hanging about, where sadhus meet, where there can be gentlemen or criminals. So, if you keep attention and mental concentration, virtues hidden in your mind will become stronger and clearer, and through the mind of heart every crime or every criminal intention will dissolve bit by bit, every tendency or bent for crime will be rooted out.

To strengthen our sattvic side, we need a virtuous “mental sharpness”. After learning something from this and breaking the chains which keep our life prisoner to Great Maya’s attraction and illusions and make good progress, we should do something more, achieve something absolutely necessary: a great faith!

Brothers, look, maybe you don’t understand or don’t know well my life, or, although you know or have read about it, you would ignore it without considering it. To fill my life with energy and splendour, to do my Puja to God Agni, I carried out my own mission and, while doing it, I bought and carry my luggage, I prepared my bread, I begged, I accomplished all my goals. If you too want that your life is full of joy, peace and prosperity and also want gods’ blessing, you will have to show kindness and loving compassion towards yourself, too, and give yourselves help and support, then you will succeed in  accomplishing all your actions.

We have to infuse Her image into the whole body, so in our mind Her will, Her thought and Her image will appear and always be close to us as a beneficial light. Her rays and vibrations will completely fixed to ourselves and by keeping Citt (the mind of heart) under control for that time and emptying the mind, if we stay for five, ten minutes absorbed, making all the senses dissolve, then Citt will become very splendent, free and pure, so there won’t be feelings of hate, envy and dislike towards anyone and we won’t get in touch with wicked persons, but if we have some connection, no doubt we will have it with good persons.

Come on, brothers, we cannot see, me too, I smoked ganja before and my companions have become smoking addict, they were poisoned as well as me and now my companions are poisoned as well as me, but the companions of mine who are still smoking are only a few, while then they were many; as they went out, in groups, they met and got together; I know that when you start to react this way, only few of the people close to you will come, as the number of those who react is very small, three or four persons at most.

Gems, diamonds and pearls are very rare and they aren’t sold as they were fruits or vegetables. Virtuous men, saints, sages aren’t many, their value is inestimable, only  mind can understand their value, because they are peerless. Therefore, brothers, the ideals of virtuous behaviour, wisdom and qualities of the original Shakti are the ‘touchstone’.

Impure people are very aggressive, are weighed down with pain, greed and hostility, are always in trouble, make a fool of themselves when they get in touch with people and contaminate other people’s mind; so we should do every possible effort to shun the company of these impure persons, and on the contrary, to apply ourselves to do it, we should try to live with virtuous persons having purity and sattvic qualities. During this Navaratri, as long as we stay in the ashram, until we do Puja and are absorbed in Parameshvara meditation, we respect all the rules, the big and the small ones, but when we are with our family, if these rules constitute an obstacle, we will ignore them; we will apply ourselves to do what will be easy and more suitable for us.

Within six, seven days, when your ascetic practice (sadhana) is over you will be able to respect or not these rules. You needn’t base all your life on that ascetic practice: come on, brothers, there is a limit even to the practice. If our practice lasts five-ten days, one year and a half or two years and if we do this activity in five minutes, then all the work we did can get lost really. It won’t get lost in relation to the time we have devoted to it and to the possible merit we have accumulated, even if we don’t need merits nor praises.

It is usually said that those who renounce three attributes and three Siddhis (powers) as if they were straws become great ‘detached’ persons. If we get this detachment, we don’t need appreciation nor praises, besides our Parameshwari Devi too has given relief and praise quite before this religious ceremony  we must do just on this day. Brother, let’s think of the actions, way and time rites and Puja in this Navaratri require, we will actually need succeeding. Who doesn’t know that by meditating Bhagvati wearing yellow, we will get wellbeing and prosperity; that by meditating Bhagvati wearing blue, our mind from restless will turn to calm and quiet; that wearing red or orange, we will get our inner enemies destroyed?

This must be how you are going to do your meditation. Particularly I am going to tell you that this is an act that brings wellbeing and happiness, so experience that there is no friend nor enemy; if we are pervaded with this feeling, the rest will be good,too. But if my mind is agitated and restless like choppy sea, then, wearing blue clothes, I meditate on Mother Bhagvati and until my mind is restless and hectic, wearing red or yellow clothes, I meditate on Bhagvati provided with her trident to destroy the ‘enemies’ attacking me from everywhere. If now your mind should become calm, why should you annihilate it completely and zero it? Under no circumstances I have to start cultivating some of that enemy’s virtues, as it scares, as well; will these virtues finish? They will go on existing in the whole family, in all the brothers, too, so cultivate this religion and I will do the same as long as I live; and exactly those religious qualities have always influenced those persons, all their life has been influenced by them, but they have kept being corrupt.

Brother, I know you are a man and that human being is destined to live in impurity and, although we are contaminated by our impurities, we do rites, we pray and meditate and we seek refuge at Mother Devi’s feet; we say our prayers not for ourselves, nor we address the Mother, nor, going to see the Guru, we plead with Him for freeing us from the pains we are beset by. King Surath, after being deposed, with a merchant who had been turned out by his sons and nephews who were blind with avarice, went to see the sage Sumedha and pleaded with him for revealing some devotional rites that allow them to calm their mind; the king explained that his treasure had been stolen by Mlecchas (foreign barbarians) and the merchant told that since his sons and nephews because of their greed had turned him out, his mind wasn’t stable any more and that he couldn’t be so anxious.

Brother, this is exactly the condition of human beings. Sons, cousins, brothers and relatives I know, and after my feelings for them have now lessened, don’t feel so much affection for me. I am aware that the affection I feel for them is still burning in me, as they are sons or daughters and male or female cousins of mine; but none of them is here sharing these feelings of joy and pain with me. We shouldn’t see vices or faults in other people; the great and the humble have many vices and faults; during the eclipse, when moon is in the shade, there is the phenomenon of tide; so we see other people’s faults but not their good qualities. If people showed their qualities, there could be great wellbeing and prosperity, so virtuous persons would become authors of this precious success.

I truly want to devote myself to all the things worthy of devotion and worship; this will live with me, will be my support and the staff of my old age, the ship that will allow me to cross the ocean of Samsara. Otherwise I will be weighed down with fear and troubles and will suffer an immense grief and unspeakable evils. If we are aware of all this, we will be able to be humble servants at Mother Mohini’s feet who will really do good to us.

I greet with respect and I say goodbye to all sort of known or unknown, divine, human or semi-human (naga) things present here, in the guise of man, woman, child, adult or elderly person.