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[Valentina entered the Sanctuary on this first night of Navaratri Observance, Her whole Being reflecting deep silence and profound Inwardness]
Valentina: Om Durga.... I wish I would not have to talk, for I have very intense Silence, but in order to help you to share my Silence, I will have to say a word.
The Universal Mother, the Divine Sakti, the Spirit of rejuvenation, creation, re-channeling, renewing, destruction, as well as protection - that is all Mother. Last night, out of compassion, I said She is so gentle, and then when I read the transcription, I corrected it. She is not all that gentle! She is not always gentle. Sometimes it is necessary to slap and sometimes it is necessary to put the foot down. Why is it necessary? Because that is the only way to heal, and so She does this too. Then She is called Kali or Durga, and that is tonight. You can propitiate Her only through sincerity, repentance... and complete surrender to Her Wisdom. Durga does not care for weak people, for hypocrites, for phony people, for liars - She burns them. That is why She slaps - only such. She is most benevolent to those who can take the Cross and follow Him. She is that Force which makes man pure; Durga is... Durga. She cleanses, She purifies, She hurts... in order to heal. She performs operations. If you yourself want it, then it is painless, because, immediately, She becomes compassionate. But if you do not want it, you then suffer. For then, what happens? You become an asura! You raise your hand against Her; you slap Her. Wouldn't it be better that She slaps you... for your good?
This is poetically speaking. It is the Force; it is not the woman. God is not man or woman, but when It is manifested, It takes the aspect of this or that. God is only One Supreme Power. His manifestations are many, but only then they are His manifestations when they are His. You have to have sufficient discrimination; you have to have the ears to hear and the eyes to see. Otherwise you will follow the false prophets and you will become false yourself.
Now, how not to become false? It is absolutely simple for those who are pure, because they cannot do anything which takes them away from the Path, because they all the time watch and pray, not only on special occasions. Although it is very difficult to watch and pray all the time, but there are various nuances of watching and of prayer. That is why we have, in all religions, some elements of festivity in order to ease, to relax, to make it possible to stand the strain. In the lives of the great mystics, there is always a necessity for relaxation. That is why they are like children. They play with children, they play with animals, they play with flowers. Look at St. Francis speaking to the roses and to everything which God made. And that is how people liked him - they did not know how he was sobbing when he was worshipping God through the skull of a dead man! Nobody cares to listen about that. That was his Real; that was in his Silence. But when he was with people, he was relaxing, for this strain is impossible - impossible to stand without a little play. That is why a saint either is silent or else he smiles. I cannot think of a single saint who does not know how to smile and play.
Now, we have also, parallelly, the very wonderful Jewish observance - very, very wonderful, very profound, so much music and art is connected with it and so much deep repentance and profound prayer. And also then they go to "essen" [Laughter] because it is too much strain. It is extremely, extremely strenuous - the weeping and the repentance. Frail is the human organism; human mind and the human body are limiting adjuncts. They are veiling the soul. So the object of our being here is to overcome these limitations and let the soul pierce the limitations and not allow these limiting adjuncts to do anything more than innocent relaxation. Unfortunately, innocent relaxation, in the life of an ordinary mortal, becomes rather uninnocent indulgence. Well, this is what Durga does not allow! She says [With an expressive gesture] "Indulgence?!"
Let's listen to Devi Mahatmayam now - what I was reciting last night. It is a very mysterious and very mystical revelation, I would call it, - not scripture. It is esoteric. You cannot understand it literally. It is depicting the battle of the forces, and it sometimes is gruesome. This is to show that there is very much to burn in human life in order to heal the sores - very, very, very, very much - and that is why the Durga aspect, the aspect of Kali She is called also, God as such Force, is destructive. She destroys our sorrows, my Children. She destroys our afflictions; She destroys our sins. At times it has to be done in a rather violent way - She is a violent Force.
Last night I said [Humorously], "She is so ge-e-ntle." It is just not to scare you. It's tonight I have to scare you! [Smiling] She is gentle even when She smites you - She is, because She is very Divine; She loves. And man has to learn how to love through the Divine Mother. Now we will listen to Devi Mahatmayam and see what will happen. The black candles go out. See, they are dancing and they will be dripping soon....
Devi Mahatmayam. [Recitation]
[Interrupting the recitation]
...She is eternal and yet She incarnates in order to fulfill the purpose
of the Devas - that you have to understand. The Devas are the Forces of Light
of which I mentioned last night - that the Forces of Light are worshipped
by good people, the forces of darkness are followed and almost worshipped
by bad people, and the One Supreme is wor shipped by few, by the enlightened,
by sages and the wise ones. Now, the One Supreme can express Itself only
through the Sattwic, through the Forces of Light, not through Tamo-Rajasic
forces of darkness. Therefore, when the Forces of Light are oppressed and
persecuted by the forces of darkness, the Divine manifests Itself, and that
is what is meant, "When She incarnates for the purpose of the Devas," or
for the purpose of the angelic forces who are fought and who are persecuted
and abused by the forces of darkness.
Esoterically speaking, there is such thing as the Divine within every human being as well as the Divine above the human being, the Divine manifesting Itself in the core of the whole universe. Also there is opposition to this Divine - the chaotic forces which turned away from the Divine. Now in the case of man, when he is turning away from the Divine, he is very much suffering. His suffering sometimes wakes up his other forces and then he turns to the Devi, or to the Divine Mother, for help and shelter. And then comes the battle, a painful battle, where man has to be really and truly separated from the forces of the host of the devils and Asuras.
Now, this battle manifests itself variously. When man loses discrimination, he is full of sins which are mistakes. Sin is really nothing but a mistake; it is something which takes you away from the Devi, from the Divine Mother. Now, She has to remove everything which takes you away from Her. She destroys the intrusive forces in order to be able to manifest Herself fully through the Forces of Light - be it in the individual, or be it in the collective human life, or be it in the collective angelic life. So this is, in brief, [Smiling] a little cosmic situation! [Recitation]
...the Sakti. And it is Very charming the way it is said here - ''Yoganidra'' or the Divine Sakti who takes the turn and the force of repose, and so She put Vishnu to sleep. And Vishnu has to fight those terrible Asuras, and without the consent of the Divine Mother, he cannot. So Brahma, another Force of the Divine Trinity, is extolling and is eulogizing the Divine Mother so that She can wake up Vishnu who is the Protector of the universe and who now should not slumber [Child-like] because a lot of trouble is going on. And Brahma says many wonderful words to Yoganidra so that she wakes up Vishnu and Vishnu would take over! Otherwise everybody will know what's going on, because those Asuras are doing much harm - they destroy everything in the most nasty and ugly way in order to partake of everything which is pleasing them. They are robbers, they are thieves, they are... they're no good! Come on. [Recitation]
"...bewitched by MahaMaya.'' It means that there is the delusive power, the lower aspect which the Mother uses. In order to be enlightened, one has to go through tests. Now the Asuras, or the dark forces, are very easily bewitched. They are arrogant and stupid and therefore they go to fight the Divine, for they know not that there is no such thing as the ultimate victory of the undivine - that is stupidity. And thus it is said, they are "bewitched by MahaMaya" A nerve to make the Lord of the Universe to ask them for a boon! It means they were bewitched, because they do not know with whom they are dealing. Well, this is very, very typical of the asuric type of man. He is arrogant, he knows not his forces, he thinks that he can do that which he cannot do because he is bewitched by MahaMaya! Had he been not bewitched, he would have been modest; he would know the measure; he would be a gentleman and he would not push where he does not belong. That's all. Continue...
So they were bewitched by MahaMaya. And that is why they finally were slain, but it was a lot of trouble for Lord Vishnu. Come on! [Recitation]
...Well, [humorously] I think that was a nice little battle [Smiling] - there was not too much trouble really. It was trouble, but only five thousand years [Laughter] that's nothing! And so we will not go into more of it because it is real fierce and I do not think you have the guts for it for the whole night. I spent night and Brahmamuhurta in that and it did something to me which is my secret. It is very, very, very, very... so I will keep the secret and I will share with you the eulogy of the Divine Mother so that you can sleep well. We shall be listening to the Devi Mahatmayam every single night.
Now these three nights are in the name of the Durga aspect of the Divine Mother who is purifying you and purging you and cleansing you from all the afflictions. But you have to suffer a little bit; you have to repent. And here it goes together with the Jewish faith which I very much welcome, really, this parallel. Those of you who are of Jewish faith, take it very seriously and repent wholeheartedly; postpone the ''essen'' or [Smiling] eating till Lakshmi observance. Then we will celebrate together. And then on Yom Kippur we will again weep together. It is all parallelly. The ten days of the Navaratri and the ten days of the Jewish Rosh Hashanah show the cosmic calendar. Sometimes they do coincide - these autumnal observances.
It is very significant and very interesting. Man knows only the exoteric
aspect of it, and in his stupidity he thinks that only his faith is right
and no other faith is right. And even the learned people think so. Why is
that? MahaMaya bewitches them, you see! So what can they do! They are helpless.
But man of broader intellect cannot but wonder at these cosmic mysteries
which are so immense and so profound. Man of small intellect and of small
capacity and of undeveloped vision, no intuition, and so forth, can get only
little tiny bits through the formal religion. It is very little but it is
better than nothing. There are treasures hidden but it requires a profound
thinker to find them.
[Recitation from the Devi Mahatmayam]
Valentina: Now join me in my prayer to the Divine Mother. I bow to the Force which sustains everything, blesses everything, promotes everything, which is Love, the Force which manifests Itself variously. Limited and poor is human mind. It cannot comprehend the Immenseness of God and it should not attempt to. It can only praise God and, if fortunate, realize God - but not discuss God, not define God, not limit God. We can bow to the Divine Force which everyone of us can and should prove to himself. It is impossible to think that the Divine Mother, the Force of Love and Creation, as well as Dissolution can be limited by the three Saktis only. It is only that, popularly, man perceives Her as Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati. There are infinite manifestations of the Divine.
Man, encased in his flesh and bone, full of blood and various very humbling and very limiting physiological functions, definitely cannot soar all the time. I told you that last night - that a reaction comes and the man needs relaxation after even a little effort. So how can one hope to calculate and understand humanly, mentally, this greatest of all the mysteries - the Divine Mother of the Universe? But you can pray and you can praise.
Durga aspect is your conscience, is your corrector. Whatever you violate, She immediately makes you pay for. That is the Force without which man never would evolve. Man suffers as the result of his mistakes and that Force makes him suffer through and then come back to Her purified... Indeed the Divine Mother needs you, just as you need Her! Why should the Infinite need the finite?! Ah, because only the Infinite knows Love. And...Mother needs you to give you Her Love...
Let's listen from the Devi Mahatmayam now. That is a difficult esoteric revelation - difficult in the sense that you have to realize it prayerfully and inwardly. You cannot take it literally. At the same time it depicts to you your own life - the battle within you of all kinds of forces. Come, let's listen to it.
[Commenting during the recitation]
It is said that it is most auspicious to listen to it. Even if you do not
understand, the very rhythm of it purifies you. [Recitation]
...I want to stress particularly how difficult it is to realize the Devi. In this paragraph it is mentioned about the great sages, how all their lives are dedicated to the realization of the Devi, and great penances and great austerities and great self-restraint is the price for the realization of the Divine Mother. Now Durga, really and truly, smiles at you when you make at least a little penance, a little contribu tion, to Her Divine Plan. So on that night when we worship the Divine Mother, in Her form of Durga, let's now make a humble resolve: that we, during the week dedicated to the Divine Mother, during this nine days left, shall remember Her.
This is the second night of the Durga worship. Before you will go to bed, gratefully bow to the Divine Mother gratefully, for you heard a little bit of Her exploits. She, Herself, in the course of Devi Mahatmayam, stresses the necessity of listening to this particu lar recitation for those who are desirous to come near Her. And that's all what I want to tell you. Be even like a child; do not question much, for the intellect will not explain you anything. The only way of understanding this, which is now presented to you, is through purification of your heart and through stilling of your mind. It is wonderful to experience the touch of the Divine Mother by letting Her operate your life. The technique is not too difficult if you are full of faith and adoration. The technique is to become still and repeat: ''I am still, I am quiet, I am no more, Thou art the Doer.'' And then you might hear the ''still small voice'' of Durga who will tell you what to burn in yourself... And may She bless you tonight. Om Sakti. Om Mother...
Straighten up your spine and pray together with me...
Come, come, Mother,
The Fragrance of my Soul!
My Heart's Delight -
Come!
Settle in my Heart
So that I can see
Thy Face.
Mother! I suffered plenty
For life is rooted in suffering.
I delighted much, too,
For life is also rooted in Pleasure...
But, Mother, both are Thine, -
the joys and sorrows...
And.. .really, truly,
Mother, - both are
Unbearably hurting without Thee.
Oh Durga - remove both
And instill Thy
Supreme Reign
Of Knowledge, Love and Peace...
Here, Mother, right in
my Heart!
...Tonight is the third night of Durga, and She really is here for those who are aware of the Invisible Realm. It is very strange that very few are, but those who are aware of it, for them many strange things become quite natural.
Always I recollect Ramakrishna during these worships of mine of the Divine Mother. (In general, Ramakrishna is an extremely close connection with me. There are several great souls who are connected tangibly and are working through me and with me. Well... that's in parenthesis.
Sri Ramakrishna had his hands full with his youngsters, but fortunately for him and for the youngsters, the youngsters were unusual youngsters; they were not ordinary people. Among them, Vivekananda was a star, as I many times told you, but he also was a young man who did not experience spiritual devotion yet. He did experience, since his childhood, great attraction to spiritual life, but being a genius of intellect, he was all his youth enriching his intellect, exercising his erudition. He was more on the Path of Vedanta than of devotion, and even Vedanta did not come to him at that youth, but he was a scholar par excellence. Therefore, his approach to Ramakrishna's ecstatic moods was rather rational, not that there was lack of reverence - he was adoring the Master, but he could not comprehend Him; he could not embrace this calibre. And there were often discussions in the presence of the Master, and Vivekananda, being the boy of utmost integrity, never would conceal his feelings or his puzzlements.
[It is impossible to describe the way Valentina portrayed the dialogue between Master and disciple, miming the divine sage and child-like innocence of the Master and the youthful impetuosity of the disciple]
...And once when the Master was worshipping the Divine Mother, Vivekananda bluntly asked Him, "What is true and what is not true in the scriptures? There are so many contradictions!" And being a scholar and having a memory hundred, hundred, hundred percent, he would quote, from various scriptures, the passages which contradict each other. And Ramakrishna looked at him and said, "Devotion is not for those who think too much. It is a special gift; a devotee doesn't question."
"But how can you tell then?" "Ahh, you can. When there is a question in my heart," says Sri Ramakrishna, "I just go to Her, to the Divine Mother, and I just ask Her. I don't have to ask anybody, I don't have to ask myself. How do I know? I don't know. Ahh, She knows everything. So when I ask Her, She tells me and there is no mistake then."
Vivekananda, passionately and almost impudently, "But how do you know that you are not deluded?!"
Ramakrishna, "You don't, but I do. The "how" disappears when you have the answers which are so concrete and so clear-cut and so above and beyond the intellect that the questions do not arise any more."
As a matter of fact, that question of Vivekananda, Ramakrishna had to answer through the Divine Mother. He went to Her rather disturbed and says, "Mother, You know what? He doesn't believe me!" And then He closed his eyes and He saw graphically, in picture forms, all the answers. And then He came to Vivekananda again and told him about it.
He also said that the scriptures are seemingly contradicting, certain passages - one passage contradicts another, sometimes, because it is written or uttered at certain occasions, by certain sages, who were facing certain problems, and therefore, to approach them intellectually is just to waste your time. You have to raise above the intellect and to harmonize the seeming contradictions.
All this I tell you because, when you listen to Devi Mahatmayam, you also will be, of course, confronted by many questions or by puzzlements which you will not be able to solve. You have to just quieten down your intellect and go beyond it, which, of course, you cannot do. But [Smiling] that's your worry! You have to gradually expand the consciousness.
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