Shri Mahavira Puja, Barcelona (Spain), June 17th, 1990.

Today we have gathered here to do the puja of Shri Mahavira.

[Interruption for technical problems]

Today we are going to do the puja of Mahavira and we never had this puja before. The reason for this was that Mahavira’s life was an ascetic’s life, just like Buddha: even more than Buddha it would be. Because at the time when these two were born, the Brahminism of the Hinduism had taken a very funny form. People had become extremely ritualistic and they were worshipping all kinds of stones and all kinds of things instead of worshipping only the swayambhu.

Shri Mataji, [apart]: Who is that fellow eating food at the time [of puja]? There is a gentleman who is eating food at the time of this thing, please tell him.

The ascetic life of Mahavira was of a very, very extreme nature. He was the one who was born in a clan of warriors, kshatriyas, and then He was also married. Also, He had a daughter and then He decided — because He knew He had to do the work of the Divine — He decided to take a sanyasa. So, He took the permission of his brother, because his parents were dead. He was a king, so He gave up all his material wealth, everything, and He became a complete sanyasi. And He left his family, left his house, everything, behind and went alone with a little bowl for begging alms. And the people who joined Him were very few and He asked them that, “You have to also become ascetics, munis.”

He was a reincarnation of Saint Michael and He resides on the Left Side, on the Ida Nadi, and He looks after the whole of it, right from Mooladhara onwards up to the Sahasrara. So, Saint Michael was born as Mahavira, meaning “The Greatest Warrior”. But when He was born, the whole place got a lot of prosperity, that’s why He was called as Vardhaman, to begin with.

But his asceticism was there because of the Brahminism that was so prevalent in those days, and people were absolutely drowned into it. After Shri Krishna, these two persons, Buddha and Mahavira, both of them incarnated in India. As you know, their history is very far out because they were the children of Rama and they were two twins, called as Luv and Kush. So, Rama led a life of a very great king, benevolent king, and of lots of limitations: Maryada Purushottama. Because of that, people became extremely serious and also very closed — because of Rama’s following. Of course, after every incarnation, as they do not get their Realisation, they get deviated and start going to the extremes of everything. So, they went to the extremes and became very, very much, sort of, quiet people, wouldn’t talk to anyone and would be very formal people, because that was the life Rama had to lead. And because Rama left His wife, many people at that time felt that wife is not to be paid so much attention to.

So, Shri Krishna came. Actually, Rama took birth as Shri Krishna to overcome these conditionings. And He said, “All this is lila. This is all a play.” And that it is a play and you should have pure heart and you can play about. As long as you have pure character, nothing can go wrong if you mix up with people freely.

So, after Shri Krishna people started becoming very licentious and permissive and they created poems and things of Krishna’s love stories, which was all false. Because He lived with Radha at the age of five or six years, and in the Gokul. So all these false stories about Him were used for the licentiousness of the people.

So, now, the situation was such, that the whole place was getting completely drowned into immorality. The priests, the Brahmins themselves, had become extremely immoral and were indulging into all kinds of corrupt practices. Not only that, but they took to tantric manifestations of using spirits and things like that, and became very self-indulgent. At that time Buddha, Lord Buddha and Mahavira were born to decondition people from this kind of an extreme behaviour. Because whatever the incarnations tried people always went to the extremes.

So, they found out that people were very much indulgent in killing animals and eating flesh all the time and if you eat too much of flesh and all that you become a right sided personality and so then you become very aggressive and start killing others. Moreover the people who were very much attached to their family or to their children and all that, would not do the work of the Divine and it was a very intensive work which He had to do. So, He made very strict rules as Moses did. He said that nobody should kill any animal and eat it, first of all. Those who are becoming the munis or the bikshus should not even go on any bullock cart; should walk bare feet; should not even wear shoes. They should shave their head completely; should have only three changes, three dresses, with them, of a big tunic-like thing. Whether it is sun or rain they should not use any umbrellas. They should eat before six o’clock; before the sun sets. They should sleep only for five hours and all the time meditate and ascend and then try to do the work of the Divine. Then only they can do the work of the Divine. After they get their Realisation that, He called as Kevalagnyan (meaning) only the knowledge, only knowledge — means pure knowledge.

They will develop “Samyak darshan”, means ‘integrated personality’ and all the collective consciousness. He talked of all, all these things. But as He belonged to the Left Side, He has described Hell very clearly. Fundamentally, basically there are fourteen Hells according to Him and it’s horrible to read all that, what He has described, about Hell. Because He wanted to tell people that, “If you do all these wrong things you will go to hell”. And He talked about, not about God with form, but formless God, because He didn’t want people to again start ritualism but get right to the position where they could get their Self-realisation to cleanse themselves.

So, you can imagine how difficult, in those days of Mahavira, it was, even to be one of the candidates for Self-realisation. It’s frightening for you! That’s why I never had this puja. Because to do all these things first of all and to become absolutely pure, then only He would give Realisation. I wonder how many got Realisation!

But the way He made rules for people was so strict. Nobody would have followed Him, but He told them about the hell in which they will go if they don’t follow. So, they were so frightened that they joined Him and started following Jainism. ‘Jain’ means ‘the one who has known, who is enlightened — ‘gyan’. It’s the, the same word is ‘gnya’ means ‘to know’. ‘Ja’ – it means ‘to know.’ Just like the Jews: is the same word is the ‘Jew’ — means also ‘the one who knows’.

Moses also did the same. He didn’t say that you should not eat meat, but He said that if anybody is found with another woman he should be killed. The Muslims, they follow Sharia [which] is made by Moses, for the Jews, because they had become so self-indulgent. The Sharia that is followed by Muslims is made by Moses for the Jews because when He brought those ten commandments He found the Jews were indulging into all kinds of nonsensical things. But Jews very nicely put it on the shelf and the Muslims took to it.

So now, this Mahavira style went to the extreme as usual. Even Lord Buddha’s — same thing. Mahavira was the one who said that you should not kill any animal. So now, in India, we have people who are absolutely abstaining from even killing bugs, and killing even mosquitoes. How far human beings can go to stupidity can be seen from this.

Nowadays there’s a custom, very common in India, that they get hold of a Brahmin, put him in a hut and put all the bugs inside, and when these bugs have got completely fed up with the drinking of the blood of this Brahmin they just drop out. Then this Brahmin is paid a big amount by the Jains who have lots of money. They are vegetarians to such an extent that they don’t want to go to the bathroom, but they’ll go on some sort of an open space so that no animal should die — such ridiculous things they do. And in doing all this abstinence and all that, they are extremely money-oriented. Jains are just like Jews, in India. Jains and Jews are the same in their money-orientation. So, the Jains won’t kill even a bug or a mosquito, but they don’t mind harassing a man up to his death for their two rupees.

So, this extreme temperament is seen in every religion, and that comes because human beings start moving like a pendulum from one end to another. An incarnation comes in, tries to bring them in the centre, but again they start moving on the other side. They cannot remain in the centre, this is the problem of the human beings. And this is why all religions look so funny. When you see the way the Jains are, I mean, you are surprised and you can’t believe how stupid they are — educated people, doctors. But they never know that, they never understand that they are stupid.

So, this is the story of Mahavira where He has tried to bring in a kind…