M., The Apostle: Vol. 9

19

WORLD PEACE IN THE KNOWLEDGE THAT JIVA IS SHIVA

Morton School, the roof on the fourth level. M. is seated on a chair with a number of devotees on benches. The twilight hour is approaching.

It is winter. M. has wrapped his head with a muffler. He has a Lal Imli sweater on his body, with a grey war flannel shirt over it and all these covered with an overall. He is talking of the Dakshineswar temple and the Cossipore Garden to the devotees. He has been to both places the previous day.

M. (to the devotees) Thakur practised different kinds of sadhanas in Dakshineswar of the Vedas, Puranas, Tantras different religious practices of different creeds. Besides, he also practised the spiritual disciplines of Islam and Christianity. He gained perfection in all these. And he said there, "As many creeds, so many paths" All religions, all creeds are different ways to attain God. However, they are paths, not God. God is only one without a second. He has only proved from it that there is only one source of all creatures, all men one True Existence. Why did he practice spiritual discipline? He saw that the whole world will become one family under the influence of science. If the members of family have love for each other and are sympathetic to each other, there is peace and permanent joy in that family. Then alone, peace, comfort and joy prevail there. Besides, if all members respect the head of the family and have love for him, there is no discord there. Similarly, if all the people of the world accept one God, if they know that there is only one God in reality, that He is many only in difference of names, then also, there is no discord they can all live in peace bound to each other by love. The object of the practice of different religions by Thakur was just this. Only this high feeling can bring about peace in the world. All men are the children of the same Father with this idea at the root, all the people with different natures and education, different kinds of food, different kinds of dress and with different religions can live together with peace and harmony. Politics by itself cannot bring about this unity. Diversity is the rule of the external world, but if in spite of these peculiarities, this high idea can persist that all human beings are the children of the God, then unity can live amidst diversity. And it can bring peace and joy, it can bring the bond of brotherhood among all.

"And the Cossipore Garden. It was there that ‘the establishment of the inner oneness of Thakur’ came to be manifested outwardly. Every devotee had love for Thakur. In spite of the difference in their natures and in their education, they all love Thakur. By loving one, they have got bound to each other. The real unity can accrue only by the love of God."

It is cold outside. M. comes to sit in the staircase room. Suddenly, they all hear Ginni Ma, M.’s wife, shrieking on the third level. M. also listens to that. M. knows the reason. Ginni Ma had made ‘baries’ in a husking mat. And had placed them on the roof of the tin cabin on the fourth level for drying. It is already dark, and it has started dewing, so one of the devotees sent it downstairs. Since else somebody has touched this mat, Ginni Ma has uttered a shriek. Overcome by anger she says, "This place has become the centre for the people of the (eastern) Bengal." M. just smiles on hearing the shriek. He says, "This is only a disturbance caused by shuchi vayu (over anxiety for ritual purity). You see, so many suffer from this feeling. While purity is good, this exaggerated feeling for it is not. Why purity is necessary is not their concern. One needs to be pure inwardly and outwardly for God this ideal is forgotten and the sense of purity takes the place of God."

M. (laughing) Thakur said, ‘He who has this exaggerated sense of purity cannot practice religion.’ And he also said that the puritans had no religion. Those who call themselves puritans were called dharmadhvaji (religious banners) by Thakur. They have no love for God within, outwardly they are moralists. Such people also have no religion.

M. (laughing to a bhakta) You only touched the husker not the baries. Where is the harm?

Ginni Ma has received Thakur’s grace and is an attendant of the Holy Mother. She is a very soft Mother-like person. In her early youth, she lost a son. This still upsets her at times. She becomes so impatient even on a slight pretext and gets easily angry. When Thakur saw that she was mentally imbalanced because of grief, he asked her to be with the Holy Mother. He also prescribed for her, massage with almond oil and sugar candy water to drink. Even then, she did not get over her trouble. At times, she gets very impatient and shrieks. However, M. has been putting up with it with a happy face like an expert player.

M. is silent for a while and then resumes the conversation.

M.(to the devotees) The mother of a sadhu also suffered from such notions of purity. This brought her many difficulties. When told about it, Thakur prescribed a remedy. He said, ‘If she is able to make a mark on the forehead with human refuse, she will get over such notions.’ The sadhu’s mother one day went to take her bath in the Ganga before it was dawn. After her bath, she used to make a mark with the clay of the Ganga. She did the same today, not with clay, but with a line of human excreta. When she returned home, her daughter’s daughter said to her, ‘I say, grandmother, you have made the mark with excreta! How it smells!’ Then she got rid of her notions of purity.

A Particular Bhakta He purified water with water. (All laugh).

Another Bhakta Such people don’t walk, they just frisk like birds, taking care lest the cloth on their body should touch somebody else.

Another Bhakta When these people take bath in the Ganga, they may make a child or somebody sit on the bank and say to him, ‘I am going to dive. Just see if my cloth keeps floating on the water.’

‘It is cold here too, let’s go into the room,’ saying so, they all go to the room. M. sits on a chair facing south near the door. The devotees the Doctor, Vinay, Jagabandhu, the Elder Jiten, the Younger Jiten and others take their seats on benches in front. M. says, "Let’s have a little reading from the Kathamrita." He opens the book at December 1883, Chapter seven, Volume IV. M. was then living under the shelter of his guru in his room in Dakshineswar. The reading is done mostly by Antevasi. Today he is feeling sleepy. So, M. asks the Doctor to read. It is eight in the evening.

The doctor reads: Sri Ramakrishna says to Mukherjee, ‘Cry for Him with the heart full of yearning. The water of the tears will wipe the dust off the mind. When it is quite clean, the magnet will draw the needle yoga (union with God) is bound to result.’

M. (to the bhaktas) This is Thakur’s personal prescription. He used to say, ‘It is the best for the Calcutta People. Now the man’s mind is weak, the span of life is short and he needs food. The practice of difficult spiritual disciplines is not possible.’ Thakur himself followed this path in the beginning. He used to say, ‘Everything here is for training others.’ Wasn’t Thakur an avatara? So, his work was to show the suitable way for this age to the bhaktas. So, he has recommended this. How firmly he has said, ‘The yoga is bound to come.’ He used to say, ‘The kumbhaka (holding of the breath) is bound to result itself from crying. Then comes his darshan samadhi is attained.’ He had shown the direct way, but who listens? Who follows it?

"And he has also asked to keep company of those who cry for Him. He has asked that the company of sadhus must be kept. He says, ‘This is very necessary.’ Even a sadhu needs the company of sadhu. The Mother’s Avidya Maya (illusion of ignorance) makes one forget always. Even so, it is very important for the householders. They all live in the circle of sensory enjoyment, within women and gold. By seeing the sadhus, you can compare their state with yours. When you develop love for them, this love will later lead your mind to God. The company of sadhus is an easy access to God.

"Thakur said to Mukherjee, ‘Give your power of attorney to God and cry longingly like a kitten.’ Thakur didn’t ask to read much. He would ask to practice it. One had to practice what one reads in the book. Otherwise, who will listen only to the ‘notation?’ Dharma means practising principles. Man is His son ‘the son of the Immortality’. One has to live this axiom of the Veda living in the world, one has to conduct oneself like His son, not merely talk about it. One has to act. Crying for Him is also an action. When the father sees that the son is not able to do, he does everything for him."

The Doctor reads: Mani asks Thakur whether the world is an illusion. Thakur replies, "Why should it be so? That is the path of reason one climbs the roof by the steps of ‘neti neti’ (Not this, not this). When He wipes out ‘the I-sense,’ what happens in that state nobody can tell by mouth. When you come downstairs, you realise that He himself has become brick, lime, brick-dust and the steps too. The Mother showed me all this. When I was in that state, I took a cat as the Mother Herself and fed her with luchis meant as offering to the Deity. She showed me that the jiva (creatures), jagat (the world) and all the twenty-four elements are the Mother itself. Even now whenever the Mother erases ‘the I-sense,’ the world disappears for me. I cannot tell what remains then."

The Doctor reads. M. now listens keeping quite. The seventh chapter has been read. M. has been to the Dakshineswar, the previous day. It appears that M. has lost himself in the joy of the memories of the past on hearing today’s narration and after visiting Dakshineswar yesterday. The reading of the eighth chapter is now taken up. After the song ‘Gaurang beautiful, of the hue of molten gold, the new Master Dancer’ is over, M. wakes up as if from sleep and exclaims, ‘Stop, that’s all.’

M. is not yet out of the intoxication of his bhava. Even so, one of the devotees takes courage to ask him some questions on today’s text.

The Devotee Some people say that the company of the guru brings the defects of the devotee to his notice. Thus, the defect is removed by the guru’s grace, is this true?

M. This happens only when the guru is a perfect man of jnana (spiritual wisdom). This is what we heard from Thakur’s mouth. Otherwise, it is like falling into the mouth of a water snake, which can neither devour the frog, not throw it out. Both die. Only, he who is perfect in spiritual wisdom can show the way.

The devotee Sir, my question is, whether the guru can take upon himself the sins of his disciple.

M. The answer to it is the same if the guru is himself perfect, he can do it, it is only possible for a perfect man of wisdom. Thakur took upon himself all the sins of his disciples. He enabled one of the bhaktas to transcend the senses he pulled out all sensual desire from him. Taking him to the Mother Kali, he sang this song and dedicated him to the Mother: ‘Your name as I have heard is Bhavatarini Bhaihara (the Redeemer, the Dispeller of fear). So, I cast my burden on you. Save me, save me, O, Mother, if You will.’ Actually, Thakur did it all but he did so in the name of the Mother. He would take no credit. He was a child in the arms of his Mother while the devotee is a householder.

"To some, he said that it would be enough if they just visit ‘here’ (him). He would pick out some quality of a bhakta and raise him high. In this way, all his defects would fall off. Raise up that is to say to God. So he said, ‘When love for God is generated, it devours all sins like the tiger devouring the goat.’ He also said, ‘Just as the wax melts as soon as the candle is lighted, similarly, all sensual desires melt way in the fire of bhakti.’ Thakur brought his bhaktas into this state."

Devotee Thakur used to say, ‘Worldly people also get samadhi sometimes, the unmana samadhi. Later on, the work and the senses pulling the mind out, bring a fall from Yoga.’ Do they loose the feeling of God then?

M. He did not say that they loose their feelings for God. It is only covered up. He said, ‘The lotus blooms when the sun rises and when it is cloudy, the flower closes again. And again, when the sun comes out, it begins to bloom.’ The feeling for God is not lost, it only gets covered.

"The Puranas narrate that Sanaka and other rishis went to Brahma for gaining spiritual knowledge. Brahma was then busy with many other matters. He said, ‘You have come at a wrong time. Never mind, wait.’ Then Brahma came in disguise of a swan and instructed them in spiritual knowledge.

"Outwardly, it seemed as if they had no jnana. Janaka also had this state sometimes. The devotees of Thakur are also in this state sometimes. But they retain their jnana inwardly.

"Thakur said, ‘A jnani bhakta in household is living in a glass house. Everything is visible, but, in between there is a glass. On the other hand, those who are standing in the open leaving all i.e. the all-renouncing persons stand amidst the flood of light. They have no other work but to meditate on God, for example Narada and Sukadeva.’

"They don’t loose any of their knowledge even while living in family. When a sannyasin is attending to work, he too has the same state. When the sword turns into gold, keep it where you will, it remains gold."

Bhakta Thakur said, ‘One has to be mad to attain God.’ A mad man does not distinguish between what is good for him and what is not. He only desires how to attain Him.

M. This is about one who is mad after sensuous enjoyment. Thakur was talking of those who are mad for God. Men of the world become mad thinking of wife, son, daughter and wealth. Similarly, he who ever calls upon God with a yearning in his heart like a mad man never loses his knowledge of God. The song says, ‘There is joy in that madness. Only when you are really mad, you will know Him. The mad Mother will hold you in her arms saying: Come on, my mad son.’

"Thakur himself became mad like this. Everybody called him mad but the Brahmin woman came and said: ‘This is the madness of love. Chaitanya Deva also had this same state.’ It was she who first called him an avatara.

"One is madness for worldly objects, the other the madness of the love of God.

"So Thakur used to sing, ‘O Mother make me mad with Thy love...’ Jesus, Moses and Sri Chaitanya these had the madness of love."

Monday, 1st December 1924,

10th of Agrahayana, 1331 (B.Y.),

The fifth day of the bright fortnight,

14 Dandas/48 Palas.