It has always been my tradition not to invite people for entertainment. Previously I used to invite people for yoga gatherings, but now I have left yoga behind. Now I invite people here with only one objective, and that is that grace should descend on them from the Almighty Lord, somehow or other.
Humankind can get everything in life, and he knows the ways, but the most precious thing that humankind needs today is the Lord's grace. It is only by grace that a person can become something and achieve things. Happiness, sorrow, disease, poverty are all part of life. Grace means something different. Did Sri Rama have no suffering? Didn't Sri Krishna pass through suffering? Didn't the saints have to face suffering? They did and they accepted it. But the Lord's grace is the one thing that, if it is there, is present in every situation. Wherever there is grace in any work, in any house, in any family, then at least one thing is always there and that is happiness, peace. That is why our rishis and munis found the way to obtain grace.
Many ways were devised to obtain grace, but the most powerful amongst them all was the worship of the Divine Mother. Mother is always an embodiment of compassion and kindness; that is the pure image of mother love. She is the ocean of forgiveness. Whether it is the Divine Mother or my mother, wherever there is mother's energy it is always in the image of love and kindness, but the most important thing is that she is the embodiment of forgiveness. A child does a lot of naughty things. She may slap him once or twice, but her real form is forgiveness.
We are downtrodden people. We are full of mischief, passion and ill will. The weaknesses are there and some bad habits. The body of course is dirty. The mind too is dirty. We speak positively but the mind is full of poison. Even then we want to be forgiven, but this pardon we can only get from the Mother. And that is why one form of God is that of Mother.
The form of God as Mother is the form that was there at the beginning of creation. The Divine Mother is the Adi Shakti. She is the Adi Janani of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, and exists in the heart of all beings. This Devi Shakti is the answer to all humankind's difficulties, poverty and sickness. This is what our rishis and munis of India have told us since time immemorial.
23 November 2000, Rikhiapeeth, India