A certain family in Ahmedabad [ matter of February 1950 ] doing business was in rack and ruin. Its trading agency was ordered to be stopped from March 1950 which would mean a winding up of a business giving a net profit of Rs. 25,000 a year. The head of the family approached the Founder and explained the whole situation. Said the Founder, ” You prove your bonafides by offering Rs. 125 to Mother, before which I can’t do anything because I have the worst experience of the world, after their work is done.” A cheque was immediately passed. Said the man, ” To be saved from my present situation , I want a loan of three lakhs and an extension of my agency and the cancelling of the order of its termination by the end of March1950.”
Said the Founder,” You pray like this, installing Mother.” They prayed strongly all in one, the whole family, because , unless Mother helped , the family was going to be entirely ruined. None would advance even Rs. 50,000. All the property would be attached. In a less than a week, the German firm cancelled the order and extended the period to three months. Today’s death was shifted. There were letters of joyfulness and thankfulness and thanksgiving with a heart of devotion to Mother . The whole family took to the devotion and Mai Japa ” Jay Mai Jay Markand Mai ” ( daily one hour programme for the whole family at night ). The agency was renewed still further up to December 1950.
Further, before the usual nine Fridays’ time limit expired , the world was as I were overturned and a rich man of Bombay came forward to advance a loan of four lakhs.
Can we imagine greater mercifulness ? Mother has helped families out of calamities, beyond imagination, only on a mere appearance of self-surrender to Her.
The merchant came down to Bombay , saw the Founder with his daughter, and a nice Mother-worship which pleased the Founder most.
If anyone approaches the Founder and tears, true or feigned , trickle from his eyes – finished.; Founder starts a new clean slate with the man. Even with a person, who had run away with his cloths and fifty rupees in his college days , there was noting in the judgment of the Founder, in re-entertaining him as a guest , because he expressed sorrow. Has any Mother discarded her son because he is stingy, or loses his head frequently, or goes a bit immoral ? No. Her work is to improve him and not gnash Her teeth, provided he has obediently, lovingly and servingly surrendered himself to Her. He is to be chastened and not forsaken. That is Mother’s Love. He is to be punished, scolded, guided, but protected so long as he is Mother’s and continues to be Mother’s.
Once during college days, Founder was travelling in a train from Bombay [ Mumbai ] to Petlad. There was a co-passenger who had a basket of sweets , to be handed over to someone in Petlad. At Anand, a junction, the luggage inspector checked the luggage.; the excess was only due to sweet-meat package. The passenger lost his patience and decided to eat the sweets. The Founder intervened and said to the Railway inspector ,” You are punishing him for his greediness. He will ceased to be good. He does not take notice of you or me. Let him eat away , but should he not give something to me ? I had given him corner to sleep. First decide my complaint. ” All laughed. The inspector left. And the Founder made a note ,” This life of ours is a gift or a trust given to us by Merciful Mother like this sweet packet.”
Mother can set things in no time with a supreme command. But then where is the playfulness or joy ? Mother wants to enjoy the pleasure of seeing how people try to cheat Her, ignore Her. She tolerates our weakness but not our wickedness.
There are two issues : one, the abuse of Mother’s Grace and to make Mother carry your burdens. An abuse of Mother’s Grace results in most painful reaction. An educated man had wonderful experience of what can be achieved by repeating ” Jay Mai Jay Markand Mai ” attaching thereto a Sanskrit expression of desire. Several months later, the Founder had a letter from the man stating he had great bowels’ troubles, viz., constipation. He can not leave the place without pain. Many medicines were tried but the trouble became a great handicap. One night while praying , The Founder got a singular idea,” He must have troubled many while passing their motion.” The Founder wrote to him inquiring if it was his play to disturb people during their natural calls . The man admitted he was often trying on people who would be going in and get his faith regarding the Mantra efficacy increased “, on their immediately getting out confused. The Founder took him right and left, stating that a similar experience might have led Gurus in the past to be reluctant about giving Mantra Vidya. The only course open to you is to be repeating the Mantra with an expression of repentance and apologizing , when any people are in “. He had to do that and was cured.
Any pendulum has the same amplitude on both sides. If Mai Mantra is much more efficacious than other Mantras, it is also equally much more punitive for its abuse.
The above instance of a childish experiment-making mind of one of that class of proud men who usually consider other people as inferior. ” Others are not human beings ” is the disease of the rich educated world.
The other instance was that of his own cook in Dharwar. The cook heard Founder saying to his disciples ,” Mother will do anything for you; She will cook for you ” , was alone for two days when Founder had gone to Hubli. He kneaded the floor , turned it into dough and closed the doors of the kitchen saying,” Mother I am tired. you prepare breads.” He went out locking the door and returned after two hours . He found everything as he had left. He began to abuse Mother, as he heard Founder was sometimes doing in his ecstasy. In the night , he had a dream , ” Don’t be a fool. If you repeat the folly again, you will suffer heavily.” Partly with obstinacy and partly with a desire to finish the experiment, he persisted. After all, the Founder was there to save him. He repeated the same thing second night. He saw a terrible form and heard the words ” Have you this cheek after I had warned you ? ” He fell senseless and had high fever. He lay unconscious when Founder returned from Hubli . He got his senses after being treated and had fever for four or five days even after founder had prayed.
Saints advise transferring your burden to your deity in this sense : ” Consigning all worries, dedicating them, dispossessing yourself about them, leaving them to the deity, not to be further thought about. “. There can be even a remote idea of coercion for immature people ,” I am so much for Thee, canst Thou not do even so much for me ? Then, what art Thou far ? ” That is coercion. This view is not impossible. Ask your conscience.
The idea is that of renunciation and surrender and not that of compelling the deity or expecting the deity to do your work or transferring the management of your worries to God or Mother.
Has any man achieved anything without labor ? yet how foolishly does he consider spiritual progress to be the work of a magic wand ?This delusion is due to people seeing saints being worshiped, remaining all the while in the dark about how much they have suffered. Founder is therefor insistent up on having each saint’s laid down in black and white. Let at least Mai-ists wipe out all notions about Choo-Mantar mentality.
Your burden you have to lift and carry. Mother will only refresh you. The portion of work to be attributed to Mother has to be just by way of Her blessing your exertions with success. I have read imitation of Christ for times without number. When the above view was foremost in my mind, I came to a sentence ,” Come to me all Ye that labour and are burdened and I will refresh you .” Mother may do much more , but you are not justified in expecting anything more than being refreshed.
Regarding the resulting benefit, spiritual as also worldly, we sometimes hear complaints from beginners about no progress in spite of continued devotion. On analysis some reasons are these :
1] People want to buy heaven out of penny.
2] Progress is not seen till water actually flows from a well-pump although water has been rising in the pipe with every stroke
3] Spiritual benefit of cessation of worry is not counted as achievement although enjoyed.
4] People don’t differentiate between material and spiritual happiness.
5] Other people’s happiness for comparison is pictured in imagination in ignorance of facts.
6] Some won’t feel happy unless they happy in every manner perfectly.
7] Some have an extremely narrow view about the amount and type of labor required to achieve some solid progress. The whole difficulty arises from the fact that people do not know their real levels.
Whenever any one decides to be taking up the course of self-evolution, he usually commits the blunder of putting himself in a class much higher than his real one. His time and labour gets wasted. Just as there are physical limits, there are mental, moral, religious and spiritual limits. You can’t go beyond them The difference is that physical limits are too gross to be enlarged where as other limits can be enlarged.
The founder classified devotees into nine groups :
1] Mai- Darshan -Bhakta = is just for casually seeing things
2] Mai-Prasad- Bhakta = is for small gains and company pleasure
3] Mai- Arta -Bhakta = is the actually distressed
4] Mai – Laukika – Bhakta = is a good religious honest , honorable householder.
5] Mai – Sadhana – Bhakta = is one with religious goal who exerts his utmost to achieve spiritual progress
6] Mai – Vidharmi – Bhakta = is one who having achieved powers, loses his balance with as swollen head and begins to slip with a retrograde motion.
7] Mai – Jivana – Bhakta = is an established fixed soul who lives his life with religiosity, in thought, word and deed.
8] Mai – Sharanagata – Bhakta = lives his life as self – surrendered, caring for nothing except the welfare of the humanity ; he lives the life as Mother’s World Minister
9] Mai – Ananya – Bhakta = is engaged in nothing , except Mother and Mother’s personal work and contact and communion; he is in direct relationship with Mother and has retired from service rendered to the Universe
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK : MAI-ISM ; WRITTEN BY SAINT MAI SWARUPA MAI MARKAND [ EDITIONS : 1952 AND 2007 ] . PUBLISHED BY : MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTA CRUZ (WEST), MUMBAI – 400054 INDIA.
God as Mother and Father in MAIISM AND HINDUISM 