Universal Divine Mother Mai

Glory to the Finalmost Mother, Mother of Knowledge, Prosperity and Conquest, Glory to Mother of Love,Light, Desire and Action.

AIM HREEM SHREEM KLEEM JAYA MAI

Mother Bless All.

Mother’s meditation – couplet repeated during Mother’s worship is as under :-

Vaatsalyaamrit Varshinim, Rasamayim,  Kaarunya Kallolinilm. || Bhaktaanandakarim, Cha Vishvajanaim, Paapaat Kalau Taarinim, || Maayaa Shakti Paraam, Prapatti Sulabhaam, Prityaa Rataam Sarvatah, || Maarkandeya-Nutaam Smitaam Varayuktam, Maaeem Vayam Samshritaah.||

Mother’s Lodge is indebted for this Mantra to Mother’s ardent, Sacred lore-learned and ritual-proficient devotee Shreeyut Kaushikaraambhaai V. Mehtaa, (President, Mother’s Lodge, Ahmedabad) who was dictated this couplet, during meditation, by Mother. The meaning is as under.

“She that showers nectar of motherly love, She that is full of joy-creating-treasures and pleasures of all varieties, She that is full of compassion and gaiety, She that causes the devotees to become ever joyful and jolly, by removing all their calamities of all kinds, She that is the best Saviour from sins during the Kali age, She that is beyond Maayaa and Power and yet She that is quite easily approachable by Self-Surrender, She that is pleased by love (and service) to all, She that has been rejuvenated by Maarkandeya, She who is ever smiling and ever ready with boons to grant, to such Mai, we all unitedly surrender.

Some devotees interpret the last two lines as under : –

She that is raised above the popular conception, by being conceived and preached as beyond Maayaa and Shakti, and She that is described by Maarkand, as easily attainable by surrender and devotion on being pleased by “Loving All” (and serving all), and She that smiles on Her devotees with boons to be readily granted, on being praised (Nutaa), through Maarkandeya, or as preached by Maarkandeya, to such Mai we all unitedly surrender ourselves.

I bow down to the Sportive Mother, the supporter of the universe, the ruler of creation, preservation and reconstruction. I prostrate myself to Mother (Mai) as bright and cool, as illuminating and buoyancy creating, as millions of rising suns and moons. I kneel to Mother armed with Lotus, Boon, Goad and Banner.

The distinguishing feature of Mother Mai is that She has harmless holdings in Her hand. The significance of the said things in hands is this :-

(1) The beginning aspirant commences with Lotus which symbolizes Love or Devotion, (2) Mother on being satisfied with however little the devotee is able to do, uplifts Her second hand to pleasingly say :Enough” and grants boons;(3) On receiving boons, after a time when the devotee becomes an over fondled child, Mother gives him the power in the shape of goad to set his mad elephant of mind in order, and (4) finally he has the banner of success.

Looked from another angle of vision, the Lotus in first hand means love to humanity and devotion to Mother; second hand is a hand which is emblematic of service and charity; the elephant-hook in the third hand is the self-controlled Devotion and the strict observance of the universal code of morality and religion; and the flag in the fourth hand is the universal banner under which the Mai-ists highest ambition is to serve Mother and Her children with unconditional cheerful surrender to Her Divine Will.

The Shloka that explains these significances  and interpretations, which has been dictated by Mother and is repeated during Mai worship is as under : –

Baalaprema Samullasachcha hridayam. Yaagena Padmashriyaa  || Nishkaamam cha Varena Vishvajanataa, Shushrushanam Yatnatah.|| Bhaktim Samyama Mankrushena Sharanam, Svaaham Parityaagatah. || Dhyaayaamo Dishatim Dhvajena Paramaam, Mayeem Jagat-Paavanim ||

Mother, whose heart overflowing with joy and maternal love, on being worshipped with lotus (loving others, and loving Her);

Mother who being so worshiped with what  little one can, gets so over satisfied that She raises Her hand to say “enough”, and grants all that is desired on striving to render service disinterestedly to the whole humanity of the universe ;

Mother that perfects the devotion by handling over the elephant-goad to control the mad elephant of one’s mind.

Mother that invites Her devotees to be under Her Banner by complete Unconditional Self-Surrender and by abandoning one’s self;

We meditate on such Mother, who shows and enlightens the way thus – The Mother, The Highest, The Supreme-most, The Mother, The Purifier and The Saviour of universes.

The worship of universal Mother is the only method of attaining all human desires; the repetition of Her secret and sacred names is the best way to approach Her.

“I praise Mother who is the treasure house of love and energy to human beings, who is of rosy complexion, whose limbs resemble those of Cupid, who is ever praised by all deities, whose salvation ways are most mysterious, who dwells in the Atom and who manifests the Universe.”

Mother body is formed of pure and concentrated Satva without any admixture of Rajas and Tamas; whereas the other deities merely have a preponderance of the Sattva quality over the other two (Rajas and Tamas) and are not of pure Satva. Hence She is the highest, the proto-type of Parabrahman of the Vedantits. The very Parabrahman in the Active State after awakening of “Who am I ?” “How shall I find pleasure?” and ” What shall I do?” i.e. after the modifications arising from Knowledge, Desire and Action.

Sattvik quality means fearlessness, purity of heart, settlement in religious understanding, charity, self-restraint, sacred study, penance , uprightness, harmlessness, veracity, wrathlessness, renunciation, slanderlelessness, sympathy for life, relishlessness, gentleness, modesty, ficklelessness, lustre, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, non-interference and absence of self-esteem.

Rajas is the originator of activity mostly for self which often times makes Sattva to yield to Tamas and sometimes Tamas to yield to Sattva. Tamas is nescience, ignorance, indolence, perversion or worldwormness.

Mother’s conception differs from the popular Hindu conception in the following (1) It is centred round the idea of Love and Mercy and not Power, (2) Universal approachability, (3) No belief of a chosen race (4) No Vaama Maarga,(5) Not Father’s wife, (6) Preponderance of devotion over rituals, (7)Religiosity to reflect in living and not in superficially observing certain customs, (8) No pride or hallucination of one’s own religion being a big ocean and other religions being mere pits (9) More of practicability and activity than academic exhibitions and self-confinement under the self deception of having attained Sattvik Nivritti, etc. (10) Spiritual equality of man and woman and (11) Helpfulness and not obstructivity of woman to man, etc.

Mother is called “Mai”. She has no other name by way of delimitation, and the name “Mai”, is appropriate not only as the Hindi word for mother but because repetition of Her sacred name gives the most efficacious mystic word “AIM.” On repetition “Mai, Mai, Mai,” becomes “Aim, Aim, Aim,” and vice versa “AIM”Mantra (sanctified sound)is as sacred as Aum. That the efficacy of even “Aum” is ultimately connected with the meditation of Mother, and can be seen from the word itself.Re-writing infinitely without a break “Aum, Aum, Aum,” becomes “Umaa, Umaa, Umaa,” which is the well-known Hindu name of one of he manifestations of Mother (Desire, Energy and Creative Power).

EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK : MOTHER AND MOTHER’S THOUSAND NAMES MAI AND MAI SAHASRANAMA
AUTHOR : MAI SWARUP MAI MARKAND ; FIRST EDITION :1939 & SECOND EDITION : 1962
PUBLISHER : MAI ADHERENTS’ INSTITUTE, MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTACRUZ (WEST), MUMBAI 400054, INDIA.