An ordinary man, without devotion or gnana ज्ञान , but with character, love and sacrifice , is much happier than and superior to a so called ordinary Bhakta भक्त or Gnanin ज्ञानी without character. The former has secured at least the world’s sympathy and co-operation from the world itself and has a vast storage of Punyam पुण्य because of his meritorious actions under the Divine give-and-take arrangement.Remain therefor extremely intent upon enriching your treasury of Spiritual wealth of Punyam पुण्य , utilising and even seeking opportunities of loving and serving Mother’s children.
You are moral, good, rational, harmless etc., that is your first step.It means you are saved from 80 per cent of miseries, that can befall you if you are otherwise. But there are miseries, say, the faithlessness of wife, or sudden death of your only son or the sinking of a Bank in which your monies are deposited . How to meet such shocks ? There is no other healing remedy, except devotion, saint’s contact or public service.The last thing means , turning your mind from misery-ful worldly subjects. Saint’s contact mostly means self-forgetfulness; whereas devotion means the transferring of heart and head to Divinity itself.
First character, then devotion ( Gauna गौण )and then Divine knowledge; then, the alternate innumerable layers of Service , Bhakti and Gyana ज्ञान , till they interpenetrate, and finally, the Parabhakti पराभक्ती ( Supreme Divine Love ), in which character with action, devotion, and Divine knowledge are all in perfect harmony and of the highest order.
We are here , for explaining the Gnana ज्ञान aspect.Don’t bring in Theologies and philosophies. Be extremely practical. Vedantism वेदान्ती and Adwaitism अद्वैती are names intelligible to Hindus alone . What is common to all and of any religion ? It is the annihilation of the mind. This expression is too hard. I would be satisfied with the ” the conquest of mind “. I want mind to give me the nectar-sweetness of devotion. It is enough for me if the mind stands up or sit down, as my finger goes up and down. And that is Sadhana साधना , which we are dealing with here.
That you must have the amplest leisure and strongest energy is the first requirement of any Sadhana साधना . Your occupation with worldliness should be the minimum. Start with an antagonistic contradiction of your mind. Rightly or wrongly, just be the opposite side of mind. Mind says ,” This dish is tasteful “; you say immediately ,” No it is injurious to health “. Your mind talk to you : ” Make your senior officer to retire soon ; you will get his post and you will be happier “. You immediately snub your mind with ,” No , you fool, have you no idea of or concern of my senior’s family ?” Even when mind says true matters , make a practice of your opposite stand . Why do I insist on the opposite stand even when the mind is right ? The mind is an expert cheat. It will carry you by the way along which you will have no objection and it will over topple you in your moment of in-alertness. So let your first practice be to be able to set your mind at defiance.
The greatest benefit of this mental practice is that the mind is not itself happy and ease-ful enough to be sitting on any pleasure for long, to be enamoured thereof and then to pull you in, towards pleasures , with its deceitful pictures of virtue, truth, goodness, duty, respectability etc. For sometime therefore, be a living enemy of your mind . If mind says ” Let us go in the north ” , you begin to walk in the south and so on , till the mind is finally conquered.
If the mind adjusts your visual angle to think things from your point of view , you begin to see, how matters will start to see in the eyes of your antagonists, others concerned and others unconcerned.
What is the final result ? Nothing takes root, nothing sets in , nothing catches you, nothing entangles you, nothing blindfolds you, nothing sprouts, nothing takes shape, nothing gets firm. Substantially, you are simply shattering whatever come before you good or bad.
Gradually the vision of temporariness dawns . what is this world ? What are so called good or bad things ? Flashlights of four seconds . the whole world is only dream like , nothing of the dream exists, when you wake up. You must have suitable instances before you. You have only some purpose to achieve – to train your mind to be thinking in a particular manner , to get a certain conviction about certain truths.The world has all the things. Take up only what helps you and reject the rest.
Coming next, after temporariness to truthfulness, if you have the highest definition of truthfulness , there is nothing in the world except downright cheating. The highest cheat is your own infatuation and the infatuator. Just be an unconcerned witness, as dry and immovable as a rock and go on studying the world-process of cheating.
The Sadhaka says to himself ,” If everything in substance is not what it seems to be on the surface , why not say and believe in general unprecise flinging and partial-truth- speaking manner that the world is unreal ? And why not go a step further and say in a disgustful spirit that the world does not exists at all. Is it anything else than only a bit exaggerated superlative term or expression for ‘Temporariness’ and ‘everchangingness’ and ‘deceptiveness’ ?
Gnanis ज्ञानी have their ‘Maya’ माया . Devotees have their ‘Leela’ लीला and worldly people have their ‘Prarabdha’ प्रारब्ध . All three are different words for one thing alone viz., ,” Unknowable ness of the unknown, nameable and thinkable ‘.
Let us make a definition convenient to us and for our purpose. Let us say, ” Whatever is temporary, changing, untruthful, unfruitful, is unreal and non-existent”. A little figurative personification and we come to the well-known ‘Maya’ माया .
Our mind can be trained to think of changefulness and fruitlessness.With changefulness the trust and the faith disappear ; change fulness may sometimes give you a temporary feeling of pleasure, but in absolute weighing, the notion of non-stability results in a disquietude. The pleasure of getting the thing, due to changefulness, has on its reverse side , the painfulness of loosing it. The Sadhaka साधक sees both sides and does not fall a pray.
Mai-ism duly appreciates the indispensability of training the mind of Adwaitistic principles and theories but only in the sense explained. However Mai-ism does not agree with the interpretation of unreality to mean, non-existence .Unrealism in the sense of non-existence, or a delusion, can be accepted only in a figurative or exaggerated sense.Otherwise the whole working of the world will be topsy-turvy. I would venture to state that the unrealism of the Adwaitist is also a temporary accepted mind-belief , for passing through a particular stage. After realism to unrealism, there is again returned to realism. When we reach a stage of a realisation of the highest truth, viz. that every thing is Mother, if Mother exists , everything has also its existence . What is non-existence or unreal is the distinction and difference. Ishwara-Srishti ईश्वर सृष्टी ( God’s creation ) is real. Jeeva-Srishti जीव सृष्टी ( soul’s creation ) is unreal. The most blessed one who, after passing through the temporarily accepted unrealism, reaches the stage of ” Everything is Mother ” again return to the belief of Realism.
EXTRACT : MAI-ISM AUTHOR : MAI SWARUP MAI MARKAND
MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTACRUZ WEST, MUMBAI 400054 INDIA.
God as Mother and Father in MAIISM AND HINDUISM 