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First Night of Lakshmi
[On the first night of the worship of Mother Lakshmi, Holy Mother entered the Sanctuary, even more radiant and luminous than the Altar which was gloriously aglow with candle-lights and bountifully laden with cakes and fruit offerings to Mother Lakshmi.]
Valentina: [Charmingly, as the music of Fritz Kreisler ended] ...Fritz Kreisler. [Then vividly] Om Sakti! Om Lakshmi! Om Bounties! God bless everybody. ...Enough to know that the main significance of the worship of the Sakti called Lakshmi, the Divine Power called Lakshmi, amazing as it might sound to you, is renunciation. You may wonder how, with so many things of prosperity, comfort, luxury, art, beauty - where is the renunciation? I will tell you. Every religion stresses renunciation. There is a story of a nobleman who became a devout Christian, and he thought that renunciation is to give everything away, give everything to God, literally. So he gave everything he possessed. He was sitting once and his gaze turned to the sword, a precious sword which was a reward for his various exploits, an honourable one, which reminded also him his career at the court as the great militant figure. It was adorned with jewels, and that was the greatest pride of his life. And he looked at it and he thought, "Well, that too has to go, I'm not supposed to have anything." He took this sword and broke it in two and threw it away.
Well, what does it have to do with the renunciation I just mentioned as regards the adoration of the Goddess of Plenty? It would be wonderful if he, instead of breaking it in two, would bring it here to my Altar. [Laughter] It would be really the best. He would put it here and I would bless it for him, and I would say, "Count (or whatever he was), Prince So-and-so, pick it up, take it back now and put it at your altar!" You see, the point is, when you bring the best you have... [Spontaneously holding up Her hand] ...look, by the way, just look at this finger. See the big golden ring? [Child-like] So everything I bring there!
If you bring the symbol of human happiness to God, you are not bound by it, and here lays the renunciation and the wisdom of the worshipping that aspect of God which gives plenty, which gives abundance, which gives health, which gives beauty, which gives riches. But the point is that you are not supposed to use it without offering it to God first.
The idea of renunciation came because man forgets God through riches and plenty and glamour and brilliance. He really does forget God, he becomes immersed altogether in the outer allurements. Hence came the restriction, and the Messengers of God said, "Man, you'd better give it away, otherwise you will be corrupt altogether, you'll forget that you have an immortal Soul."
''Things are neither bad nor good but thinking makes them so.'' Shakespeare. Therefore, to give to God means not to claim for yourself, not to become drunk with it, not to be possessive of it. The point is to have the things and be able to be without them as well as with them - this is the renunciation acceptable to God. It is not to destroy the objects of art like fanatical Christians of a certain period of history used to do. Savanarola would burn everything beautiful because otherwise he thought he would be in hell. And so every pious, narrow-minded man very often thinks so. Christians of certain faith are still asked to almost invite the trouble, for through that you will have the heavenly reward after death.
By the way, here, at this moment of the worship of Lakshmi, who is benevolence personified, I bow to all religions. I learn from every creed, from every religion; I belong everywhere and nowhere. So when I mention to you rather the naive aspects of the exoteric Christianity, which has nothing to do with the esoteric one, or even with deeper understanding of it, it is not in criticism but it is for elucidation of my thought only.
So this very, very beautiful Altar, full of the symbols of prosperity and joy, is also a reminder that nothing here is yours - not one thing, not one relationship; not one object of beauty and worth is yours. It all is Mother's. So once a year we offer to Her that which She gives to us. Again, symbolically speaking, it is to rid yourself of every vice. You cannot, really and truly, give and then again be greedy. When you give food, it is a reminder that you are not to eat with greed. When you give jewels, it is a reminder that you are not to be allured by beauty. When you give anything at all which is intoxicating man ordinarily, you are renouncing it. You are renouncing it, you are declaring that you can be without it and with it as well, that there is nothing which will separate you from God. The main thing to give away is, of course, your ego. If you give away your ego, if you offer it at the Altar, then you are free, you are not bound by anything, you are joyous, you are completed. So this is the significance of the worship of Mother Lakshmi.
And of course, it influences your whole being. If you are able to meditate upon what I just told you - you have two more days and nights of Lakshmi worship - if you will get up early in the morning with the thought of gratitude for this Goddess (and here Christians would give me ''hell'' if I would say ''Goddess'' - "How come, Goddess! - she's worshipping Goddess!'' So Jewish people also would) - I say Goddess! - the Force of the Lord, call it like that if you are afraid of the word ''Goddess.'' Well, this Force of the Supreme Lord requires your gratitude, requires your gentility, requires everything which is of It. You cannot come near it without burning your sins. It can be done simultaneously.
As a matter of fact, the best way of approaching God is to be able, with utmost sincerity, to apologize to Her for many, many offenses. If you really can suffer for the offenses, if you really can be in turmoil within yourself, for you offend the Supreme Lakshmi, or for that matter, the Absolute Perfection of God, by various even subtle movements within you which are offensive to the transparent Perfection of God - so if you are able, with all your heart, to ask forgiveness and simultaneously to make ardent resolve not to repeat it, you are coming near God instantaneously. As a matter of fact, you are purged from your sins.
That is how confession came into existence in Catholic faith. It became almost commercial and gross and mechanical and stupid with many instances and yet, in its pristine purity and original meaning, it is a great thing. It is a possibility for a man who is full of those offenses to sob his heart in the presence of another man who symboli cally is taken as the judge as well as the confessor, the one who can absolve the sins in the name of Christ.
There is beauty in every faith. Because man is so short-lived on this earth and because his intellect is so extremely limited and because his feelings are so much in turmoil and there is no poise, it is impossible for him to embrace even his own creed, even his own religion, never mind to embrace everybody and everywhere. And that is the reason why there are so many faiths, and that is the reason why all of them are so primitive, so very naive, childish. If you will read the originals, you will see the depth and profoundness, but if you will ask an ordinary layman about his creed, he will tell you such things that it is really to blush and to be embarrassed.
Well, this shows the state of consciousness of man. Therefore, the expansion of consciousness is the only guarantee of understanding and all-embracingness. And you know by yourselves, although you are offered lavishly so many aspects of Truth here, the moment you are confronted with the day and its demands upon you, you forget everything. You take the unreality for reality, - you look at the cars, you look at the houses, you see man talking to you, very sometimes insignificant things, and you become it. You forget altogether Lakshmi, you forget Christ, you forget Moses, you forget Rosh Hashanah - everything! The esoteric aspect of it, the profound Truth, the aspect of God in it - you forget it! Yet you think that the meal is real, the shopping is real, the dentist is real, the court is real, the husband is real, the wife is real, the divorce is real - all those things are real, and God is unreal. Well, that is the reason why it is asked to renounce all those things.
And again, naive people think it is literally so. That poor man broke his great symbol of success and glory in this life in order to be nearer God. It is not to literally break things and renounce and throw them out in the gross way, in the physical, material way, but it is not to identify yourself with it. If you are able to be in the palace and to be as simple as the poorest man, you have it. If you are able to be the poor man and to have the outlook of a rich man, you have it, you have the truth... but few are able... few are able.
And here is an opportunity for you to reinforce your ability to remember the Truth regardless where you find yourself. And I will tell you that this opportunity to reinforce it does not come to you through your own effort. I tell you that many times. It is only by the Grace, and the Grace comes upon you when you are as simple, as quiet... (I won't say a child - they are all very noisy) ...as this rose [Gracefully touching the rose in front of Her]
[After listening to the recitation of the Devi Mahatmayam in the Garden]
Valentina: ...my prostrations to the Universal Mother who is not the property of one country or one religion, but who is the Cosmic Fact, who is the Breath of the Absolute God, who is the Creatoress of the Universe, who gives the power to various gods and Divine Forces to create, sustain and dissolve this Universe, who is All in all, who is eulogized consciously and unconsciously. When the scientists discover something scientifically, it is She, the Sakti, who moves them. When the poet sings his poems, it is She who prompts him. She is the moving, the activating Power.
And in this horrible battle, She is depicted verily as the upholder of justice and as the destroyer of falsehood. We bow to Ambika, who is in charge of all. Om Lakshmi.
On this night of Lakshmi we heard a lot of destructive work of the Devi, but I tell you that this Devi is manifold and all Her aspects are interrelated. And speaking personally to everyone, there is a battle between the Forces of Darkness and the Forces of Light in every human consciousness. And when you are submitting yourself to the Absolute Power of God, you are, even as the Divine Forces, the Devas, liable to win. But, if you are on your own, the Asuras will take over.
Om Lakshmi. May She protect you. ... [Silence]
[In the Garden, following several pieces of music by Schubert, Schumann and Scriabin]
Valentina: [To student] Tonight, you are a good conductor, very sensitively giving to Lakshmi. I will tell you why. You may know it and you may not! So I better tell you why. Wherever there is spontaneity and charm and simplicity, there is Lakshmi - absolute simplicity and yet exquisiteness. And all the music today was very simple, yet very exquisite with perfect rendering, of course. Of course, if not for this instrument, it would be still better. But aside from the gramophone which is not the perfect one, everything is very perfect in this rendering of the music.
Now, most of you, of course, take Navaratri rather theoretically. It is an exotic observance, and you take it with interest but without the conviction of its Truth. Yet if you will translate it into the parlance of forces which you, even in your limitations, do experience at times, it will become simpler. If, for instance, during the three days dedicated to certain force, you are alert to that particular force, you will experience its manifestation in your life. There will be science to it. During these three days of Lakshmi worship, in Navaratri, my personal experiences, there were so many indications of the Presence of the Divine Mother in that form that if I would start talking about it, it would be a big book of big poems - big in quality not in thickness. But I will not display it because otherwise it will lose its sacredness. Things which are very sacred should be kept under the key and lock. But still I can tell you for your inspiration that you too can experience that, - in its simplicity, its charm and its transparency, its loveliness, in whatever form.
How can you invoke that? By being that yourself. If, for instance, now during this hour, you have heard the music the way I've heard it, Lakshmi was there with you. If you had a single foreign thought aside from that music, She cannot be there. She is a very concentrated lover, and She concentrates all the time, this Force, on Love, on love of whatever is performed for Her glorification, for Her sake. If you give, you receive - this is the law. So if you give your attention, your total concentration, upon that which faces you...
Now, during the day, of course, a lot of turmoil and prose face you. It does not mean that in the turmoil and prose you cannot have a corner where yon worship, and this is the secret. If you can do it during the turmoil, during the prose, during the temptations, during the grossness, then be sure that you propitiated the Mother. If you can propitiate Her during the times of difficulty, how much more you can propitiate Her during the time of quiet, of beauty, of concentration on something which is She. You understand, the gross environment does not exclude the subtle feelings, because She is not gross, that's for sure. This Sakti, this Force, is very exquisite and you offend it all the time if you are not. That's how you invite the experiences. This Force is longing to dance, literally to dance, in front of you - either through the song or through the word or through the colour or through the harmony of any kind - in nature, in man, in animal, in a jewel, in music, in poem; in everything which is of beauty is Lakshmi.
Now in the simpler manifestation, it is any kind of plenty. The food is good - Lakshmi is there. The garment is good, of good taste, of good quality - Lakshmi is there. The income is good, of good, clean source - Lakshmi is there. The elegance, the cleanliness, the loveliness - Lakshmi is there! You propitiate Her in order to get this kind of Lakshmi by generosity, predominantly by generosity, for She gives generously, this Force of God. Now, if you don't, you don't get it. Generosity is not, my Children, in quantity, it is in quality. If you give and at the back you are sorry that you are giving, or you are calculat ing, or you have an argument before you give, you'd better forget it, you did not give anything. It is impossible, absolutely impossible!
And in these days I am very slighted if something is given to me without adoration. I just cannot receive it, cannot even look at it. If it would be a million of dollars, I would not be able to look at it. So that's what it is, because She is working through me now.
Now, if you want to propitiate Her for material prosperity, you have to spontaneously give. If you give only because you want to have a boon, you won't get it. [Turning to the student] By the way, do you have the Lakshmi "gelt" here?
Student: I forgot to bring it.
Valentina: [With surprise] You didn't bring it?!
Student: I'll run back and get it.
Valentina: Okay, one of the qualities of Lakshmi is alertness, my dear Secretary. One for the money!... In the meantime, you will give me again Scriabin. Stretch your arms, inhale, listen....
[The very loud roar of an airplane passing overhead drowns all sound of the music}
Now, for instance, during the course of the day, very often it happens that you start with the intention of cultivating peace and beauty, and suddenly some "boom-boom" like that - you are singing one tune and then comes the ugliest noise, even like this airplane, contradicting the gracefulness of the music. Now, does it mean that Lakshmi is defeated? Not at all! It means the noise is defeated if you do not notice it, if you ignore it. But it does not mean that you have to shout about it, that you have to assert your idea of loveliness or of peace. You do not have to condemn the noisy motor which at the moment interrupted you. Well, the noisy motor can be likened to the noisy conflict with either a person or a group of persons or a disturb ing opposition of any kind, opposition to that which you cultivate. In proportion that you do not accept the opposition, Lakshmi is clapping Her hands and saying, "Bravo!" And if you forget that you made a resolve to be lovely and start arguing or become defeated in some respect, then of course, it means that you did not propitiate Lakshmi, that it was theory, that you did not even understand what it is. She is Harmony, my Children.
Now, why do I stress it? I would rather thousand times be in silence today. I do it because it is the last night of Lakshmi and I adore this Goddess, or this Force of such profound yet subtle loveliness and charm that only a child, a small child, is up to it in its gracefulness. You notice how graceful are children up to five years old. If you want to make a child ungraceful, start teaching him something graceful - he sure will become clumsy. But his natural, spontaneous gracefulness is exactly that of this Force. And there are people who are graceful like that all their life - they are the beloved of this Lakshmi Force.
I do not mean the professional dancers, [Smiling] by no means, but I mean the gracefulness of the character which manifests even in the gracefulness of the body. Well, this is all Lakshmi - grace, generosity, loveliness in every possible aspect. If not for this Force, if not for this quality which is present in everybody in a hidden form, but very, very seldom expresses itself in life, but if not for that potential, really this life would be very, very difficult to bear. But because there are such qualities and because they are usually cultivated by people, at certain times at least... every human being is a little kinder when he is celebrating something - either his birthday or Christmas or Passover - anything like that where people become more hospitable, become more cheerful, everybody smiles, puts on a nice dress, congratulates another one with a greeting card. Well, all this is extremely naive, gross and seldom meant sincerely, yet there is an element of Lakshmi even in this. This gives a repose to people from turmoil, from the everydayness - wherever there is festivity, but please, no indulgence, festivity is different. Festivity can be without any indulgence whatsoever; it is just the spirit of victory over dullness. Lakshmi is the greatest lover, by the way, but no indulgence, no sex. How 'bout it! Inspiration! [Smiling] I hope you understand.
[Turning to the student who brought the coins]
All right. You brought the ''gelt.'' Come, give it to me... How did you present
it to me? Let me see. Is it enough for everybody? [With child- like play,
Valentina picks up hand-full after hand-full of the coins, letting them fall
through her fingers into the bowl] You see. I give my vibrations to it.
Okay! Now music and distribution of Lakshmi ''gelt'' for good luck and
prosperity!
[After the distribution] I hope you all are very glad now because you got a Lakshmi coin, a symbol of prosperity. Now this is only a symbol of the material prosperity. But listen, material prosperity is also quite a bit. Material prosperity is a force. It becomes also a damnation, a force of damnation, or it becomes a force of blessing. Why so? Certainly not because Lakshmi is changed, but it is you who is changed. It is said ''money is the source of all evil!'' Sure it is, a source of all evil for all evil people. Money is a source of great power for powerful people; money is a source of great benevolent power for generous people. Someone said, - a philosopher, ''How wonderful it is to have money because I can buy a lot of beautiful things and make a lot of beautiful people happy by giving them these beautiful things.''
So money is a manifold symbol. It can be a damnation when so much greed is covering its significance, so much possessiveness, so much hatred. A lot of people hate because the other man has money and you do not have it. A lot of people have it as a symbol of jealousy, hatred and greed - the money. And few people have it as a symbol of the Divine gain.
Now, in spiritual life, one is the giver; in unspiritual life, one is the taker. The giver becomes the receiver; the taker is never the receiver, because how can he receive when he grabs himself? What is it for him left to receive? He is the grabber, so he cannot receive, he takes it himself. The receiver does not take it himself, it is given to him. Now, there again is Lakshmi, She is the symbol of that gracious givingness - gracious, generous, pure, for giving can also be offensively impure when there is bigotry behind it or reluctance, calculation.
Lakshmi is a subtle Force, my Children, very subtle Force. It is extremely difficult to be up to Lakshmi. Even in this seemingly simple manifestation of Her quality, that prosperity, the power of material well-being, - even in this it is very difficult to please this Force, for prosperity is of different kinds. There is a deserved prosperity, and there is grabbed, stolen prosperity. It is an enormous difference.
So that is Lakshmi in one aspect, and then in the subtler aspects, there is an infinite gamut of nuances. It is something which one has to experience in order to understand even slightly what it is. It is loveliness in every possible respect. It is also a very touching, stirring Force, hiding behind things, the charm of it. I just mentioned a child, a game of a child or a young animal. There is gracefulness and strength and youth in Lakshmi. She is beautiful - that's all I can tell you.
We will perform a few Asanas and then in Her Name, we will listen to the exploit of the Divine Mother. Please give us some music.
[Following the Asanas] We'll start the Devi Mahatmayam, please. Those of you who want to really listen, please come nearer because it is very difficult to concentrate upon it. And I might stop and comment and I might not. The rhythm of it is extremely compelling and very beneficial. That is why I reluctantly interrupt it. This is already eighth chapter. On Vijaya Dasami, we will listen to the whole story - those of you who want really to benefit yourself should listen through every chapter. But now we go in sequence the way we stopped last time, so continue, please. [Recitation]
...That much I will explain, that the sound "Hummm" expresses tremendous despising force. She, Kali - She is called here by many Names, the Divine Mother; when She is a fighter, She is Kali, Durga, the Destroyer - all those are the Names of the Divine Mother. So instead of taking the weapon, She simply says "Hummm" on those Asuras and that made them perish. Come on! [Recitation]
...Saktis of various Deities. Now, for instance, there is Skanda - you all know that we worship Skanda. Skanda has His own Sakti. So does Brahma, so does Vishnu, so does Siva. And God is one but He can multiply Himself in various Forces, benevolent Forces, in order that in the manifested world everything goes harmoniously. The Asuric Forces are disharmonious forces; the Divine Forces are harmonious forces. Now, the Divine Mother, who issued forth from the bodies of all the Deities, who assumed the body from the Light of the Divine Forces, can, through Her Will, the Divine Will, multiply in many images and many forces. And that is what is now described here - that various Saktis, or Divine Forces, are appearing to aid the victory of the Mother. And they are now picturesquely described here. Come, now maybe you will understand better. [Recitation]
[Spontaneously interrupting, before going into the next chapter] The Devi won! Lie down and be grateful. [Schumann's Fantasia is played] The finale to end by Schumann - good! We will now perform Pranayama, please. [Pranayama]
...Now we shall conclude with a short meditation and the watching of our breath and a prayer. Let your prayer be the prayer of gratitude. Never say there is nothing to be grateful for. There certainly is very much to be grateful for, but everyone of you has to individually find out for what you are most grateful. And that you should do tonight before you go to sleep, for Lakshmi is also the Force of Gratitude - one of the most noble qualities.
Also prepare yourself for tomorrow, the first day of Saraswati Sakti. Study the books dedicated to Saraswati. Permeate yourself with certain atmosphere of enthusiasm as well as purity to propitiate that Sakti, the Sakti of Wisdom. Those of you who are of Jewish faith can very well use these three days to prepare yourselves for Yom Kippur. For Yom Kippur is culminating your ten days and is culminating parallelly with the Vijaya Dasami, the Saraswati leading you to this victory. Yom Kippur, in a sense, is also victory; it is a final intense ness of repentance which presupposes the victory behind it.
So these are the little hints for your prayer now. Close your eyes and watch your breath and have the background of thought which I have just suggested. God bless you.... [Silence]
Navaratri continues with: Saraswati Observance Go to First Night of Lakshmi Go to First Night of Durga Return to top of page
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