Self-Examination

The journey to the centre of the heart – the abode of the Atman-through the graceful instrumentality of the Guru, who takes one to the sublime state of the Brahman, is the ultimate journey towards immortality. This process or evolution involves one in self-examination and metaphysical disquisition; discussion and deliberation leading to the motivation for self-realization. The Paramatman incarnated himself as an Avatar Purusha; the Avatar Purushas took birth as ordinary individuals in our land and led a multitude of people on the righteous path to raise them to a sublime level before they cast off their mortal coil to merge with the resplendent light of the Brahman. The cult of so many devotees who surrendered to him –the daasa group – the countless number of shishyas (pupils) and a host of holy men and women came under the powerful and sacred spell of such fortunate Purushas, found themselves in an ocean of kindness and love and ultimately left the material plane of this holy land. If we examine the tale of their tall order culminating in their liberation from bondage, we will have to conclude that our fortunate land and abode are indeed those where “gold grows”. In fact all these are matters germane to the discussion of subtleties of the self.

Have you seen the countless forms of creation by the Mother of the universe – and specially inside this earthly planet – such as mud and wood, gold and gems, tank and bund, hill and hillock, river and ocean, animal and bird, worm and vermin? If only we can visualize her indescribable and illimitable love, the greatness of our mother-land, the fortunate people who are linked with this land, their footprints on the sands of time that radiate the light of knowledge and the incense that spreads the fragrance of wisdom across the world, we are carried away by the romance of an awe-inspiring note that brings together our both hands into a reverential fold of namaskaram to Mother India. What is the wealth of knowledge gathered and acquired by many a Mahatma’s thapas or sacrificial exercise and how many schools of thought have they left behind? What is the import of words of effervescence that came forth from the daasa cult that cornered glory for the veritable virtue of equality of vision? Whither body of bhaktas who came on the scene as personifications of kindness? Whither magnificent men of peace and tranquillity who stood for monumental truth and who redeemed themselves from bondage during their very existence to earn the greatest appellation as jeevanmuktas? Accordingly how do we place poetic emperors like Kalidasa, Kamba, Valmiki and other celebrities who “spilled” an ocean of nectarine energy and filled a very vast field of literature? Where do we place Adi Shankarabhagavatpada who succeeded in transcending limitations of doctrinaire approach of his time and shed new light of enlightenment and tolerance as part of his preaching?

Mercy of the Mother of universe

Is it possible to measure the mercy of the Universal Mother who has placed, for our guidance, so many monumental pillars of path and adorned the creation? Doesn’t my Mother continue to illuminate the inner frame of every individual? In a huge empire called the world, she shines somewhere as the atom within an atom; if the ultimate particle is enlarged or multiplied, she constitutes an illimitable number; also. She constitutes herself into an innumerable number of living beings. She has been protecting an infinitely huge family of living beings constituting the macrocosm (brahmanda) that is beyond the limits of our comprehension and the microcosm (pindanda) indicative of the countless number of individuals.

She indeed is the supreme protector of dharma. She is the one responsible for and sustainer of millions and millions of living beings spread across the macro cosmic world; as she continues to protect and nurture them, she puts them in a cradle of enlightenment and rocks it, feeds all beings and sends them to sound sleep. She brings about cyclical fluctuations of day and night, but not without showing her identity. Being the cause behind the emergence of all forms of life, she keeps them all on her lap to own up every one, and tolerates everything.

She then shows herself up as the presiding or innate deity of the Sun of enlightenment, pervading the solar medium in the process of day-dawning and waking up everyone and everything. She has created not only the Moon that shines in the dusk and during nights, but also the countless number of stars that look like myriads of topaz lights, besides the grandeur of galaxies which she enlivens and pervades; can you see the Universal Mother’s overflowing kindness? Can we limit it to make it amenable to assessment?

What is of fundamental importance is that kindness of a quality that overflows should spring from within the heart and emotional frame of everyone of the multitudes of persons sporting the name of man of this world. The state of emotional outburst, “Oh Mother! Mother!, the cry that can melt a piece of stone and capture a heart must descend on everybody! And one should get the feeling of emotional integration and identity with the motherly divinity!

Whoever has the instinctual sound of life surging forth from the centre of the heart with the articulations of amma addressed to the Mother Divine to say, “Mother! I must see you! I am overwhelmed with the thoughts of seeing you; what else do I need except coming face-to-face with  you? Even to see and understand your form, whatever the manifestation, will you give me the capacity to know it? Did you create the individual called ‘mother’ for all so that everyone could see you in the external words? Dear Mother! I have started on my mission to see you. “Amma! My Mother! My Mother! My Mother! My Mother!” and proceed to call her likewise thrice, all the time making a silent appeal to her: “ My dear Mother! If I can see your form and if in that divine form, I happen to merge and in accordance with Vedic declarations and Vedantic proclamations, I become one with your effulgence, then with your inward vision, will you radiate your graceful looks as a fountain of kindness? For, when you do so, oh,Mother! The whole universe moves in harmony. Being the cause of all movements in every world, you literally put the universe on the move, and as the harbinger of that dynamism, you proceed to sing various songs of melody commensurate with your inner tunes. You are the mother of music, mood and melody! Everything in this world reflects your magnificent form! That magnificence pervades everything in full!”

With this level of maturity to be attained, all must endeavour to enter and tread the thoughtful path. This is the incomparable beauty which many great devotees like the dasaas of dasaas found! Many a Mahatma translated personal experiences into reality, installed them as spiritual paths in this world and left after preaching the merits of righteous company, equality of outlook and righteous path.