Be like a child. Sit in the lap of the Mother and let the Mother do everything for you.....

What´s the use of having great knowledge if you can´t even comprehend yourself? If knowledge can´t bring you to understand yourself fully, hold tight to the devotion, to the faith that you have inside of you. The more faith you have - towards yourself, towards the Divine within you - the more Love there will be. Then you will see how easy spirituality is. You don´t need to run very far. You run just from the mind to the heart. Mahavatar Babaji is always asking " Why are people wasting time? Why don´t they just surrender to Love?"  If animals can do that, humans can do it also and better. You all know how to love, don´t you? Who doesn´t know to love? Everybody knows. Once your mind is calm, you will feel it. You should stop trying to understand the Divine with your mind; let Him reveal Himself to you. During Navaratri, I was saying " Be like a child. Sit in the lap of the Mother and let the Mother do everything for you." Well, we are all babies, you know. That´s what Christ said " To enter the Kingdom of God, you have to be like a child," and He is perfectly right. When you are in the state of a child, you surrender to the Divine will, you surrender to the Mother´s will. The Mother will hold you, she will carry and feed you, but you have to swallow. The same is true with the Master. Everybody follows different Masters, different paths. All paths are right. All paths are good, but the Master will not walk for you. He will show you the way, but you have to walk. Sometimes the Master will carry you - it depends on how much you have surrendered - but the Mother will always carry you. That´s the Love of the Mother. So, let the Divine Love awaken and sincerely, with pure Love, ask God for Himself or Herself.

The ninth form of the Divine Mother is Siddhidatri Devi......

  The ninth form of Maa is Siddhidatri, which is also an aspect of Mahalakshmi. She is seen sometimes sitting on a lotus or sometimes mounted on a lion. She is four armed. After having performed the worship to the other forms, the devotee then starts the worship to Her. She is One with the forces of sustenance and salvation of Mahavishnu and so She is the One who delivers all forms of success. “Siddhi” means power. For “siddhi” to become “riddhi” (prosperity) one needs “buddhi”, i.e. intelligence.  So Mother Siddhidatri gives also wisdom. Once we have our mind surrendering to the Divine, She blesses us with ultimate success.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the eighth form of Maa called Mahagauri Devi.....

 The Divine Mother's eighth form is known as Mahagauri. Her complexion is totally white. Her garments are also white. White symbolises the purity of the true Self which is without any stain or impurity. She is mounted on an ox and has four arms.  Parvati had turned dark after doing intense penance for obtaining Lord Shiva as her husband. Shiva then bathed Her in the Holy Ganges, She turned fair and became known as Mahagauri.  Due to the Mother’s Grace the devotee crosses the barrier of limitation and attains supernatural salvation. He is relieved from all his pains, fatigue and previous sins. The devotee wins pure virtue and becomes ever free.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the seventh form of the Divine Mother called Kalaratri Devi.....

 Maa´s seventh form is Kalaratri. Her complexion is as dark as the night, symbolizing infinity. Her cascading hair is let loose and she is seen wearing a garland that radiates light as bright as lightning. She is mounted on an ass. She has four arms. Although she has a menacing appearance, her devotees need not fear her. In this form Devi is always ready to give anything you ask. She accepts everything from the devotee, not only the good, but all the bad, negative qualities. She just absorbs them, so that we can be free, free from the little demons that we create in our mind and who are all jumping left and right.

Sri Katyayani Devi is the sixth form of the Divine Mother.....

Goddess Katyayani is the sixth form of Maa and her name stems from being the daughter of sage Katyayan. Her complexion is as bright as gold. She has four arms. The top right hand is positioned in a gesture of providing courage and another hand is positioned in a gesture of rendering a boon. She is mounted on a lion. As a war Goddess She is associated with the fierce form of Shakti which also includes Bhadrakali and Chandi. Sri Katyayani Devi is the destroyer of diseases, sorrow and fear and worshipping Her helps one to free oneself from the sins one may have committed over the cycles of births and rebirths.

Skandamata Devi is the fifth form of Maa.....

 The fifth form of the Divine 'Mother is known as Skandamata. She is the mother of Ganesha and Skanda (more known as Muruga or Kartikeya), She is referred to as ‘Skandamata’. She is fair, has four arms, holds her son Skanda in her lap and is mounted on a lion.Skandamata is the Mother who gives the power to vanquish all negativity. By holding Muruga, She is not only holding Him, She is holding all of us. 

If we sincerely – like a child - ask Her to let us sit in Her lap, She will also hold us and do everything for us.

Something about the fourth form of Maa called Kushmanda Devi.....

Kushmanda Devi is the fourth form of the Divine Mother and appeared smilingly at the moment of the creation of the Universe. The Goddess has eight arms and rides on a lion. Amongst the sacrificial vegetables that are offered in Her worship, pumpkin (Kushmandam’ in Sanskrit) is the one with which Devi Kushmanda is most pleased. Worship of this form of the Devi exterminates sorrow and diseases and augments life, fame and strength. She is appeased with the slightest of devotion and if any one whole-heartedly worships Her, he will certainly gain her favour so to find true happiness and true joy.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the third form of the Divine Mother called Chandraghanta Devi....

 Chandraghanta Devi is the third form of the Divine Mother. Her Name is connected to a bell shaped crescent moon on her forehead. The colour of her body is golden. She has ten arms which brandish different weapons and is mounted on a lion. Chandraghanta Devi establishes justice. It is believed that a devotee who manages to earn Her blessings can set himself free from his sins and hazards that he has committed or may face in his life. The devotee gains the power to sense the supernatural, to see it and even smell the eternal fragrance. He is also able to distinguish the otherwise inaudible celestial sounds.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the second form of the Divine Mother called Brahmacharini Devi.....

 The second form of the Divine Mother is Brahmacharini Devi. She is showing us how important our Sadhana is, as an expression of devotion to the Divine. She is holding a japa mala (chanting and remembrance of God’s name) in Her right hand and the kamandalu water pot (life-giving Shakti) in Her left hand.  Brahmacharini is the Goddess of discipline. She gives the devotees success and willpower to come out victorious in times of utter distress. She helps to make our faith strong and helps those who are sincerely looking for Her. 

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about the first form of Divine Mother of Navaratri called Shailaputri Devi....

 Shailaputri Devi is the first form of the Divine Mother. ‘Shaila’ is another name for the Himalayas, ‘Putri’ means ‘the daughter’. Shailaputri was born as the daughter of King Himavan, the Lord of the Mountains. She holds a trident in her right hand and a lotus in her left hand. She is mounted on an ox. She is the most powerful and glorified of all the nine forms of Durga. In the form of Shailaputri She is destroying the pride of the Gods, which is none other than our own pride.

Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

We have been singing Jai Ma as the great feast day of the Divine Mother, the Mother which is seated inside your heart – not the mother who has given you this body, well she is also the mother – but the Mother who has given you this soul, who has given you the spirit, has given you this body to dwell in this world and has given you such a beautiful world to be in. At the same time a mother wants the child. A mother is always ready to care for the children. How can we make this Divine Mother happy? She doesn’t ask too much from us. She doesn’t ask that we change ourselves for Her. The only thing that She asks is that each one, by oneself, decides to change not for Her sake, but for their own sake. I was traveling and I went to a big city, looking at how people were busy on the outside. I asked myself this question “Do they really know that there is something greater than just this life that they are living?” I was asking my Guru about it. We can say “Yes.” Here, we are all thinking we know there is something greater in the life of man even if you, as a human being, have not realised it, yet you have this sense of feeling that yes, there is something greater and you want to achieve, to attain this. While walking, I was thinking how many among these people were really living a human life. How many were really knowing that life is not just what they were living? There is much more than that. They can be really eternally happy. They can really find this great joy, which nothing can take away. How many? I was wondering. Then a friend said something about a philosopher, a Greek philosopher, Diogenes. He went around during the day with his lamp and of course, everybody would laugh at him. They would laugh at him; they would ridicule him. He didn’t bother about anything and one day somebody asked him “Why are you going around in daylight with your torch lit, because it is funny!” His answer was very simple and clear “I’m looking for a human being!” There are many humans, but there are only a few human beings. What is the difference between a human and a human being? An animal can also be counted as a human. It has a body, it breathes, but we call an animal, an animal and a human, a human. The faculty of looking for something greater is only in the human being. But when you go around, as I was singing before in one verse of the song, that illusion, Maya, has caught us. Maya has caught human beings and she is making human beings play to the tune that she wants. This is exactly how it is on the outside, until you start to really search for the truth of your Self. When you start searching for the truth of your Self, then you disengage yourself from that grief of Maya, but as you know very well, it is not an easy task. It’s not something that is very easy to do at all. Everybody would like to, lots of spiritual people would like to, but only a few succeed. Why? Because their determination is weak. If your determination for the Divine is strong, nothing can move you, but if your determination is weak, then you will be weak, because you make yourself weak, like I said before. If you fully believe in yourself, if you fully have trust in yourself, you will fully believe and trust in God. Then of course, the Divine will always help you.

“Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me”

There was once a devotee of Kali who lived around Dakshineshwar. It was not Ramakrishna. It was a priest, and his Love for the Divine Mother was  so  great that he would praise the Mother wherever he was. In his house there was no food, so he went and begged, but people refused to give him food. The Divine Mother disguised Herself as a fruit seller and went to his house where She gave some vegetables to the wife and said “Cook them. Your husband sent me here.” When the husband came back to their home, the wife said to him, “Oh, thank you for sending this lovely lady who brought some vegetables and some rice, but now, I don’t see her anymore and she went without saying "Bye". Later, when they opened the door of the temple, they saw that the clothes that the Lady had been wearing were now on the statue of Kali. Once this same man wanted to build a fence, but he needed some help. He called first his daughter, but she was far away. Suddenly he saw her coming and she was saying “Father, sing some songs for me” and in divine ecstasy he sang for the Divine Mother. As he was singing, he was in deep meditation with the Mother and he forgot about the fence, but the Divine Mother with Her shakti, with Her power, made everything right and disappeared. Later the daughter came and said “Father, you were calling me, what can I do for you?” The father said “But you were just here, right now. Before, you were just here, helping me!” Then he realised that it was not his daughter who had been there – it was the Divine Mother. Like that story, there are many stories in each of the saint’s lives. If each one of you became a saint, you would also have nice stories to tell. This is your aim to be, pray to God, tell Him “Yes, I want to become a saint” and ask for help. Ask the Divine Mother, ask God, ask Christ for help. They will help you. They are here all the time to help people to advance, to help all their children, all the brothers and sisters to reawaken the Divine qualities. That’s what they want that you all become, again, saintly. Say “Yes, I want to become a saint” and you will become! As long as you see sainthood far away, if you see that God is far away, you keep God away, but if you feel Him near to you and say to your mind “Yes mind, listen, God is near me and I will listen only to what I feel inside my heart. I will listen only to what God wants from me,” and clear this mind by chanting the name of God. Clear it by thinking positively, firstly about yourself and also about others around you. Like that, you will see that your heart will open up and this unconditional Love will also grow more and more. It’s like a river when it comes out from the source: it’s always small, but the more it advances towards the sea, what happens to it? It becomes larger and larger because on the way many rivers have joined together. On your spiritual path more and more streams of grace will join coming towards you and you will grow and grow. This is what you have to do – advance. Stop limiting yourself. Start saying “No” to your mind and make it positive.

Learn to trust and move with this trust.......

He’s there all the time... inside of you, know that whatever you

do, He loves you. He is always next to you like a mother is

near her child. The child only needs to call to the mother

and the mother rushes to the child.

When the child is crying, does the child run to the mother or the mother run to the child? Wherever the mother is, when she hears that the child is crying, she will run.  It doesn’t matter what is in the way, the mother will run to the child. 

Here we are talking about the Divine – the Divine, which is even a thousand times greater than a mother – imagine how close He is. We have just to learn to trust that He is always present.

Through this trust you will have the awareness of Him and you will know that nothing in this world is wrong – well, apart from the mind of Man – but whatever nature does is right. Learn to trust and move with this trust. This is one of the things to change if you really want to change. If either you have changed or you want to change, learn to trust.

It brings me great joy to see this surrender, you know...

Yesterday, during darshan, I was holding a little baby. It was so sweet to look at how the child was. She

came to me, she had the candy, and the moment she turned to the mother and looked at the mother,

she didn’t even want the candy, you know. She wanted to go to the mother. It brings me great joy to see this surrender, you know. Then I said to the people: Imagine if the whole world would be like that, if they saw the Reality. If they knew about God and they knew the illusion, you know, they would let go of the illusion and

run towards God-Realisation. It was really great. The child didn’t bother about the sweet, or the chocolate, nothing! No toys even mattered to the child, because the mother was the most important. That’s why whenever we do things, it comes to a point where we lose this satisfaction, because whatever we do on the outside, which is just material-centred, has a limit and it is finished after some time. When we do something with our heart, the simple things that we do will give us joy. So, be always simple and loving.

Sri Swami Vishwananda talks about........

All our Shakti (Power) always comes from God, but we have to know that all negative energy like hatred, fustration, anger or jealousy can also be transformed into postivite energy like love, joy or bliss.
Sri Swami Vishwananda is adressing us to find this deep Love inside of us, which will help us not only to have a beautiful environment and harmony, but also to develop a loving relationship to the Divine.

A Mother is lovely, but a Mother also can be strict and disciplined. Often we see a woman always frail and not that strong. The men always think of themselves being more strong.
It’s just an illusion, because when a woman gets angry, what does she become like? Bhadrakali, no? (laughter) Where does this power come from? You know about it, no Matajis? (laughter) (Some: Yes) (laughing) You are well experienced about that. Ma is very calm, but She has different aspects. Like yesterday we were saying if you have this negativity inside of you, of course you will never see Her in Her calmness. You will see Her always in Her terrifying aspect, because She takes this terrifying aspect not towards you, not towards you who you are. Because all is just Her. She knows that. But this terrifying aspect is the negativity of yourself, of your mind. That’s why She appears terrifying.
If your mind is pure, even if Bhadrakali comes in front of you, She will be as beautiful as all the other Goddesses. But when you look at Maha Kali, you look at Her picture, you see how terrifying She is, no? I know very well in Mauritius many people told me “You know Swamiji, we don’t like to pray to Kali.” And I asked them “Why?” Then they said “I am scared of Her.”(laughter)
Well… why are you scared of Her? She is the Mother. She is not terrifying.