Daily Offerings
A World of Sorrow and of Hate
A warrior in the dateless duel’s strife,
He entered into dumb despairing Night
Challenging the darkness with his luminous soul.
Alarming with his steps the threshold gloom
He came into a fierce and dolorous realm
Peopled by souls who never had tasted bliss;
Ignorant like men born blind who know not light,
They could equate worst ill with highest good,
Virtue was to their eyes a face of sin
And evil and misery were their natural state.
A dire administration’s penal code
Making of grief and pain the common law,
Decreeing universal joylessness
Had changed life into a stoic sacrament
And torture into a daily festival.
An act was passed to chastise happiness;
Laughter and pleasure were banned as deadly sins:
A questionless mind was ranked as wise content,
A dull heart’s silent apathy as peace:
Sleep was not there, torpor was the sole rest,
Death came but neither respite gave nor end;
Always the soul lived on and suffered more….
“Our enemies are fallen, are fallen,” they sang,
“All who once stayed our will are smitten and dead;
How great we are, how merciful art Thou.”
Thus thought they to reach God’s impassive throne
And Him command whom all their acts opposed,
Magnifying their deeds to touch his skies,
And make him an accomplice of their crimes.
There no relenting pity could have place,
But ruthless strength and iron moods had sway,
A dateless sovereignty of terror and gloom:
This took the figure of a darkened God
Revered by the racked wretchedness he had made,
Who held in thrall a miserable world,
And helpless hearts nailed to unceasing woe
Adored the feet that trampled them into mire.
It was a world of sorrow and of hate,
Sorrow with hatred for its lonely joy,
Hatred with others’ sorrow as its feast;
A bitter rictus curled the suffering mouth;
A tragic cruelty saw its ominous chance.
[Savitri: Book Two Canto 8]
What is Unchangeable and Universal
February 27, 1914
O Lord, I sense the infinite happiness which is the portion of those whose life is entirely consecrated to Thee. And this does not depend upon outer circumstances but on one’s own state of being and its greater or lesser degree of illumination. A perfect consecration to Thy law cannot but bring about modifications in the totality of circumstances, yet it is not these which make possible and express this perfect consecration. I mean that it is not under certain circumstances, always the same for all, that Thy law is manifested; for every one this manifestation is different according to his temperament, that is, according to the mission which for the moment is assigned to him in physical life.
But what is unchangeable and universal is the happy peace, the luminous and immutable serenity of all those who are solely consecrated to Thee, who no longer have any darkness, ignorance, egoistic attachment or bad will in them.
Oh, may all awake to this divine peace.
[Prayers and Meditations of the Mother]
Words and Their Real Understanding
There is a world of ideas without form and it is there that you must enter if you want to seize what is behind the words. So long as you have to draw your understanding from the forms of words, you are likely to fall into much confusion about the true sense; but if in a silence of your mind you can rise into the world from which ideas descend to take form, at once the real understanding comes. If you are to be sure of understanding one another, you must be able to understand in silence. There is a condition in which your minds are so well attuned and harmonised together that one perceives the thought of the other without any necessity of words. But if there is not this attunement, there will always be some deformation of your meaning, because to what you speak the other mind supplies its own significance. I use a word in a certain sense or shade of its sense; you are accustomed to put into it another sense or shade. Then, evidently, you will understand, not my exact meaning in it, but what the word means to you. This is true not of speech only, but of reading also. If you want to understand a book with a deep teaching in it, you must be able to read it in the mind’s silence; you must wait and let the expression go deep inside you into the region where words are no more and from there come slowly back to your exterior consciousness and its surface understanding. But if you let the words jump at your external mind and try to adapt and adjust the two, you will have entirely missed their real sense and power. There can be no perfect understanding unless you are in union with the unexpressed mind that is behind the centre of expression.
[The Mother: CWM 3]
Songs of the Soul: September 28, 2024
Maa, Mother Divine what is there that is impossible for Thy Grace? There is no difficulty, no defect, no weakness that cannot be overcome with the help of Thy Grace. Yet if some difficulties tend to linger long before being conquered it is because something in us supports it from behind, like a contradictory will or a secret whisper from the subconscient caves that our nature receives unconsciously and follow habitually. This defeatist murmur that rumbles within us like winds passing through narrow passages can rise up sometimes as a hurricane and sully the upper chambers. These small little narrow gaps must be detected and sealed, this habitual, almost mechanical activity of the subconscient must be detected and conquered through persistent offering for the complete and decisive victory. This is the hidden storehouse of darkness that draws its poison fumes from the Inconscient and hopes to throttle the divine child growing within man. But the divine child grows through everything. It is the unslayable indestructible divine portion within us.
What we need is to endure with complete faith in Thy Grace, never to entertain even the slightest trace of doubt and the victory will be sooner. Give us such an unshakeable faith and endurance, the faith that never allows even a grain of doubt and the endurance that refuses to give up before any difficulty.
May all grow in faith. May all difficulties be conquered in us and in all.
The Dwarf with Three Strides
Once again, the disciples had gathered under the cool shade of the banyan tree. The Master arrived as usual at the appointed time. It was not in his nature to make others wait for him, even if they were his disciples. The story session began with a discussion over the story of Amrita–Manthan which the disciples had heard before.
Disciple: “Master, you narrated the story of Amrita-Manthan the other day and it appeared perfectly natural that the Lord distributed the nectar to the gods while denying it to the titans. But hadn’t they too laboured for it and therefore deserved it equally? Then why was the Lord partial to the gods?”
The Master seemed to be waiting for this question. He responded at once, “But the Lord was not being partial at all though it may seem so to the human eye. He was simply doing what ought to be done as the right thing.” Then after a pause, he added, “well, he was rendering Divine Justice, if you like?”
“Divine Justice,” a few disciples exclaimed as if puzzled for they had never thought that there could be several kinds of Justice.
The Master resumed, “Yes, each earthly value, whether Love, Charity, Kindness, Unity, Justice has its divine and a human counterpart. The Divine renders Justice as per the Divine vision which is a complete vision and a total knowledge. He sees not only the outer effort but also the inner motives, the hidden forces at play, the long-term results and above all the good of the earth. Even when he destroys, he destroys out of love. Man sees only the surface of things and has at most only a brief life’s vision, therefore, is he perplexed and confused at the ways of God. True, the titans laboured as fiercely and perhaps even more than the gods, but their motives were unclean. Had the nectar been given to them, that would have spelt disaster for earth and humanity on whom these beings of other dimensions cast their influence. Have you not heard what Sri Krishna has said in the Gita about the right course of action, dharma? This right, from the Divine point of view, is what helps in the evolutionary march of mankind towards the ultimate Truth and Light. Have you not heard of the Lord’s incarnations as the dwarf child, Vamana avatara?”
One of the disciples inquired, “Tell us, Master, the story of Vamana. I have heard about it as a child but couldn’t quite grasp the sense behind it.”
The disciples were all attention, expectantly waiting for another story. The Master got into the frame of telling another story, of another incarnation. As he spoke, a joy flowed from his body as if he experienced what he recounted:
“The titan king Bali had not forgotten his defeat. He performed various forms of austerities to gain rare weapons. Then, armoured with these and gathering around himself a huge army, he marched towards Amravati, the city of deathless gods where Indra resides. Seeing the huge army and the rare weapons, Indra in consultation with the guru of gods, Brihaspati, decided to abandon the city and go into a hideout with the rest of the gods. Better be free even with nothing than be a slave to the titans which seemed imminent. Brihaspati, who knows the ways of the Vast, explained to Indra, the king of gods, thus: ‘After God’s will, one must respect Time for it is through the agency of Time that the great Lord works and acts. He who acts completely ignoring the conditions set forth by Time in this huge cosmic play brings only doom to oneself. For in all things, Time works. There is a Time for victory, there is a Time also for defeat. And he who knows how to accept both, success and failure with grace and dignity, eventually masters Time itself.’”
“Brihaspati spoke, but Indra was still not fully convinced. The gods are not powerless, he thought. Why should not we fight? But Brihaspati, the wise said, ‘Look Indra, the time is not good right now for your victory. The Lord, in his mysterious way, has brought you face to face with inevitable defeat. Perhaps he wants you and the gods to learn the lesson of humility. However powerful you may be, Time over-rides and overtops all things. So concede right now to avoid destruction of this beautiful city and its many inhabitants.’”
“Indra listened, for the gods always obeyed their guru. Along with the other gods, he took refuge in devmata Aditi’s home. Aditi, the Mother of the gods, received them with Love and Compassion that is always there in her heart for all her children. The gods forgot all their pain and humiliations in Her presence as the ever kind mother carried the sorrow and anguish of the gods to the great Lord, Narayana, ‘Wherefore this ignominy, defeat and humiliation for my radiant children. Lord, you must intervene on their behalf for their kingdom has been snatched unjustly by the titans.’”
“The gracious Lord smiled and reassured Aditi, the mother of the gods: ‘What thou hast willed for them, I cannot refuse. It is granted. The kingdom of the gods will be returned to them in due course of time, for as thou knowest, my will executed by the trustee, Time. The heavens have been snatched from the gods without a fight, for the gods had to learn a lesson. It is Time and not the titan king who snatched it away. And it is Time who shall give it back to them without a fight.’”
“Thus, assured the mother of the gods who mediates between the anguish of the gods and the ecstasies of the highest Being, returned and resumed her work of nurturing and strengthening the gods, pouring her Grace and Love upon them, healing all their anguish and sorrow.”
“Time rolled by. Meanwhile, a little child with an unusual radiance was born to Aditi. He emerged out of her womb, a radiant god himself whose splendour was greater even than that of Indra, the king of gods. The earth, the moon, the sun, the fire, the mother goddess Parvati herself, Brahma and Shiva all gave something of their aspect of energies to him. His form resembled Narayana himself and Aditi knew that the Time had come for the gods to get back their due. The little boy, well versed in the Veda, remained dwarf-bodied, Vamana, but in his consciousness, he was vaster than the skies and deeper than the oceans.”
“Meanwhile, king Bali who was now commanding the three worlds, the physical material world, the subtle world built of prana and the still subtler world of mind, decided to perform a rare yajna that would make him invincible. The yajna was being presided over by the guru of the titans, Shukracharya. As a master of all the elemental forces and material energies, Shukracharya wanted the titans to become invincible. As he thus proceeded on the yajna, suddenly a dazzling radiance was seen approaching near the sacrificial fire.
“The titans were perplexed for they were not accustomed to so much light. Some even fainted unable to bear the effulgence which, as it neared, was seen to be emanating from Vamana who was approaching the Yajnasala dressed in the barest of bare clothes, he held a Kamandalu in his hands and an umbrella made of reeds over his head. His eyes were full of an unearthly joy and the countenance full of peace and radiance. A beautiful fragrance of jasmine emanated from his body that had a lotus pink hue around it. As he approached the Yajnasala, the titan king was filled with a strange joy. Indeed he thought the little boy to be the fire god himself. Offering his obeisance to the young bright Brahmin boy, the titan king asked him: ‘Who art thou, O young one? You seem to be a celestial being or perhaps the Lord himself in a miniature form. Tell me what can be offered to you as a due share of the yajna?’”
At this, the Master paused and elaborated a little about the yajna: “Yajna is not merely an external rite as some see it. In principle, it is a recognition of the fact that we are neither alone nor the only ones in the universe. Through yajna, the sacrificant offered what he had and what he could, to others, to men of wisdom and valour, to men in need, to the subjects in one’s kingdom, to the gods and denizens of other worlds. The fire is the inner fire, the eternal witness, the Divine will in man. Through that as one’s witness, one makes the offering. But this is not a one-way process, for, in return, the elements, the earth, the sun, the moon, the sea, the gods also gave to the giver something of their forces and their energies. Thus, each could grow into the All and the Whole”
The disciples were amazed at the depth and profundity of this ancient wisdom that they not only saw oneness behind all things but also provided a way to realize it through yajna, as one of the powerful means.
The Master resumed: “To come back to our story, the radiant Vamana thus spoke to the titan king, ‘O great king, you are truly generous and large-hearted, much like your father and grandfather. All that I need, however, is just three steps worth of land.’”
“Now, Vamana knew that the titans are readily carried away by praise. They are generous but their generosity is driven by the ego and displayed for the sake of self-flattery. Bali too felt flattered but was also somewhat surprised at the small measure of the gift. He asked the little dwarf to reconsider and ask for more. But Vamana, the dwarf stood his ground.”
“Meanwhile, as the two were conversing, Shukracharya had perceived that this was no ordinary being and his measure need not be our measure. He advised the titan king not to grant what Vamana had asked for as there may be some trick behind it. But the titan king would not listen. He was full of vanity and boastfulness. What trick can this little dwarf do with me, Bali, who rules the three worlds and of whom even the gods are afraid of? If I listen to my guru, I may bring shame to my family pride who were known to be generous kings. What will people speak of me, that the mighty king Bali did not keep his promise for mere three steps of land?” He thought, ‘My guru has lost his senses to thus advise me. I know better,’ and thus, with the fire as a witness and the water as the sanctifier, he promised Vamana to take three steps worth of space anywhere in the three worlds.”
“And Vamana smiled.
“He took one step and his being seemed to tower to unimaginable heights. With his first step, he measured the entire earth. His second step covered the heavens and all else in-between. The titan king was all amazed. Realizing that Vamana was none else but Narayana himself, he stood with folded hands, speechless and in wonder.”
“‘Where do I place my third step, O! great and generous king.’ He heard Vamana’s sweet and soft voice that was like celestial music to his ears.”
“Still held almost in trance, the king bowed his head and gestured that the third step may be placed thereupon his head. This gesture meant that his ego may be completely demolished and his whole being reclaimed by the Lord himself.”
“Vamana, the Lord who had assumed the stature of a dwarf smiled as he granted to Bali the highest boon possible, by taking away the burden of ego, pride and vanity that man carries on his head.”
“O! Great and noble king, the earth and the heavens were already mine. I have only reclaimed them from you who thought that they were yours. I give them now to the gods to govern and to you, I give the highest of the nether worlds, Sutala where you will reign a while as my trustee. In return for your noble gesture, I promise that I will always be by your side, even in the nether worlds, for there is nothing small or dark where I cannot reside and even in the darkest, mysterious and the fallen worlds, I am there, hidden and masked. Now that you have chosen to surrender your ego to Me, I shall quickly purify your nature and after this cycle of creation withdraws, it is you whom I shall appoint as the guardian of heaven, the king of gods, Indra, for the next cycle.”
“And Bali bowed his head in utter gratitude as the Lord placed his feet over his head and sent him to the nether worlds.”
The Master paused for a while as in deep contemplation. Then addressing his disciples, he asked, “What would you call this — Divine Justice or Divine Compassion, Retribution or Reward, taking or giving, disgrace or the greatest Grace?”
The disciples were unable to answer.
The Master resumed, “For such is the wisdom that has built the world. Justice and injustice, these are human terms, needed for us, but the Lord sees and act differently and does what is needed for our growth.”
The evening was spreading fast. The Master summarized, revealing the symbol of the story, “Vamana, the radiant portion, amsa of the Lord is man’s soul, his psychic being, dwarf in appearance but formidable in power and knowledge. So long as the ego is battling out between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’, the ‘bright’ and the ‘dark’ side of life, Vamana remains hidden from our sight. But a time comes when we are ready through suffering and humility, when the world — mother Aditi, intercedes on our behalf and Vamana, the soul in man emerges out of Her and begins to spread its radiance and influence upon our life. He reclaims our nature for the Lord to whom everything belongs. And when we have offered our ego to him, He purifies us quickly and abides with us always wherever we are. Then sin and evil fall away from us and, whether in hell or in heaven, we become radiant
instruments of God.”
The Master fell silent but, the disciples felt a strange joy and peace invade their hearts and an urge to give themselves utterly and entirely to the Lord. Quietly, they stood up, one after another and walked for the last errands. It was night outside but inside all was light, happiness and peace.
Alok Pandey
How Do We go Within?
Question: Today somebody shared with me the following Mother’s message:
“To be aware of the liberation of your soul means that you are sufficiently conscious of your soul to feel that something deep in you is quite free, independent from people and circumstances, untouched by grief, displeasure or anger, always calm and with a quiet contentment. This feeling can come suddenly or progressively and can stay for more or less time—all depends on how much and how often your consciousness is in contact with your soul. The aim is that it should be constant, but this comes later on and little by little when all the parts of your being turn towards your soul instead of turning to the exterior, the physical consciousness and being caught in it. The best way to hasten this change is the habit of going within.”
Please explain how do we go within?
ALOKDA:
It comes with practice of interiorisation. What one has to do is to fix a suitable time and place for regular concentration. It is best if the time and place are constant. Of course it need not be rigid but it certainly helps since when we fix a time and place the forces of nature within and without are in a receptive state. A little quiet corner with an atmosphere of Her Presence through Her photograph, music, incense could be created. The seat should be neither too hard as to make one uncomfortable nor too soft to make one feel sleepy. For the same reasons a state of hunger or a state of having eaten too much are not advisable.
One could start the process by taking the help of thought or idea that breathes of divinity, a phrase or a mantra to start the inner connection. One could read Savitri or Her prayer to enter such a state gradually. Then one starts going within by concentrating upon Her Name or Image in the center of the chest (heart centre) or the head (anywhere on the crown area). Practice initially for the minutes bringing the mind back from its wanderings. Do it twice a day and later increase the time to 20 minutes and if possible thrice a day.
Persist despite resistance or absence of immediate result.
To truly succeed one has to do it as an act of love or with a heart with sincere aspiration. this is possible only if one loves the goal. Practice of equanimity and niskama karma (desireless action) is a great help to prepare the ground.
Recent Posts
