Princess Diana and Ganesh, the Elephant God

At Kensington Palace, on a small table downstairs, Princess Diana kept a very beautiful crystal statue of the Indian elephant god, Ganesh. On our way out, she went and stood beside the statue and said to me, “I am sure you recognise him!” She was so happy to show the statue to me and so proud of it because she had bought it herself. I said, “Yes, this is our cosmic god Ganesh. It is he who fulfils our ordinary desires and, at the same time, gives us the highest realisation. In both cases, sincerity is of paramount importance.” In India, we have thousands of cosmic gods and goddesses, but we always invoke Ganesh first because of his infinite compassion.

God fulfilled so many of Princess Diana’s good desires: she was able to work for charity and she helped the poor and the suffering. Even after her death, God has continued to fulfil her desires, indirectly but proudly, by inspiring the Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997 to the organisation which was formed to oppose landmines.

With regard to Princess Diana’s last desire-adventure: it is my personal inner conviction that on the fateful night when she met with her death, Princess Diana had decided to give up her romance-life. Her eldest son, William, was determined to tell his mother on her return not to continue with that kind of life.

Although he is still quite young, he has so much wisdom-light. He wanted his mother to be universally loved and respected. I believe that just before her death, Princess Diana had also the same type of determination: to follow the path of sleepless self-giving to the world-family.