Let us think of the third stage :and please note that as Dwaitism and Adwaitism are not different schools , but the latter is continuation of the former , so here, too,any higher stage is attainable only after the lower stage is gone through, even though for an extremely short period and most progressively. After ‘ not hating and evading ‘ ( first stage ), ‘ Killing all desires ‘ ( second stage ), comes the third stage : ” Why not ask Mother to kill the demon for you ? You be doing what mother bids you to do , but let Mother kill the demon “. That is the secret of secrets and remedy of remedies and that is Mai-ism.
Next fourth stage.Don’t entertain inimical feelings even for your foibles. Deal with them gently, but resolutely, successfully and conqueringly. Beside the laborious way of killing desires though Gnana, there is the further devotional way of love and sweetness all around with non-attachment and surrender. When you become inmate of Mother’s Mansion and a child of a Royal palace , you are safe.
In the normal course, without special effort and practice one can come to a high level of character ; but at a higher stage, he requires God , Guru, Divine Knowledge , devotion , religion etc. for these reasons. So often the turn of circumstances shows, as if the world were seeking out good and virtuous men to be easiest victims of their exploitation. There are so many miseries for which a good man is not responsible . After several sad experiences he concludes, there is something higher than mere acquisition of virtues, strong character and goodness. He sees vast difference between man and man. He has become an inmate interested with Universe and whole humanity. He studies stages of evolution of men.
The first stage man is happy. If he gets bodily happiness and attaches highest value thereto. that is only avenue of happiness to him.
The second stage man wants the pleasures of his organs of action and sense in addition to what the first stage man wants.
The third stage man wants intellectual pleasure as well.
The fourth stage man wants the pleasures of heart and sublime emotions as well.
The fifth stage man wants the pleasures of the highest type of philosophy, spirituality and religiosity, in which God, Guru, Self, Religion, Universe etc. the major-most elements , have their highest part and play.
The advance man realises the importance of the training of the mind.He takes it up, and there the street man and the higher man come in. There the distinction of sinlessness and sinfulness, good and evil, truth and falsity,action and inaction, righteousness and wickedness, all get in before him, with their so many different shades and various coloured illuminations.
For the man who is seriously intent upon making a substantial progress , guidance and grace of Guru, Mother’s Mercy and the most intimate and subtle knowledge of spiritual lore become indispensable. Guru will lead you to Mother. Mother will send you back to the Guru and by repetitions of such alternate swinging , you would be rising higher and higher.
God, Guru and Disciple are practically one . Guru-Shishya relationship is a personal one of love, service, devotion and surrender.Guru in the real sense can not at time more than one. Guru’s Grace is to be understood exactly like the grace marks in an examination. the minimum should always be there , to justify the grace marks being given. Love, faith and one-ness are the main requisites for the best results of the relationship.
The most practical definition of Guru in this age of greatest struggle is this. He is your guru, from whom, you get teachings about approaching Almighty, whose given Mantra you repeat , to whom you fly for spiritual help and Divine consolation and by whose hand placed on your head you feel blessed. There are no registration offices for , and no documents of , guru- disciple relationship. It is true living in day to day life of that relationship, that does the work and that is indispensable. The nature and extent of mutual dealings decide the nature of relationship; not mere words and mere appearances.
Oneness with reference to which there is the greatest ignorance, light – heartedness or duplicity, even in high-class educated devotional circles, Mai-ism emphasises. One God, one Guru, one Method, one Mantra, one Scriptural Authority and one Guide – has its own wonderful working force , which few can realise. There is a living psychological working underneath which very few can see, and which is an indispensable requirement for Sadhana. Tulsidas and Meerabai never bowed their heads to any other incarnations of the very same God, save and except the one they were worshipping , although it would be foolishly ridiculous to suppose that the sameness was not known to them. A lover of God or Guru says,” I will starve but won’t beg anyone except my own beloved Mother “. A still higher lover is more forceful and he says,” Does not Mother know that I am starving ? Is She not ashamed to bring me down to beg of Her ? ” A yet higher lover says, with every cheerfulness ,” Let Her please Herself My love and surrender will not budge an inch.”
You can not be tolerated putting your wedding diamond ring in the box meant for your shoes, shaving materials and pant-clips. This love between a Devotee and a Deity , or between Guru and Shishya is of an extremely high voltage and its action and also reaction is of wonderfully supreme nature. You are sure to repent if you trifle therewith. Nothing is more punishable in God’s eyes than ‘ Guru-droha ‘ ( Faithlessness or treachery to the Guru ). Some truths are truths for all times. Let us however take recent instances and experiences.
A Guru had an extremely pet Shishya , staying with him since childhood. The Guru left no occult or divine art or mantra or science, untaught and nothing of his personal life unfold. The Guru had negative imperfection. The devotional world around , cherished and spread the belief that their Maharaj lived on milk and fruit only.The consensus became too strong which impelled him to revere and accept this fanciful , popular idea and the Guru began to take his meals at midnight unknown to all except the disciple. Said he,” I need not break their faith and love. I am not harming anyone directly. If anyone directly puts me the question, I will never tell a lie.” The popularity increased , leaps and bounds , but the Satan of jealousy crept his way into the heart of the Shishya. On a suitable huge night festival, the Shishya saw an opportunity for the Guru’s exposure and ground-dusting his Guru in midst of vast crowds. He put an agitating powder in his food which excited vomiting and on such vomiting , brought forth all the substance eaten.The Shishya furtively invited the attention of some ; and the talk, with amazement, ridicule and contempt spread like a wild-fire. The Guru was stunned and saw through the mischief . Said he cool mindedly to the Shishya , almost weeping , ” My child , what you have done ? If you had only breathed a word to me , I would have left this disciple world to you, as my successor and would have gone away somewhere. Confess immediately. My forgiving is already there. I am not wrathful but broken-hearted. I will be left alone in my old age. Speak, Oh speak out, earliest in time , so that God’s wrath may not overtake you. Little time is left for me and for you to pray together to move our Deity to forgive you “. The Shishya was however overwhelmed and could not decide all at once how to act. The greater his Guru pressed the point with feverish haste , the greater was his confusion , obstinacy and petrifaction. Immediately after an hour , the Shishya had a painful vomit and he suddenly died of heart-failure. The Guru wept immensely beating his breast and forehead all the way to the ” Smashaan Yaatraa ” स्मशान यात्रा ( funeral procession ). He left the place all at once and retired in the deepest solitude., in one of the caves in the banks of the sacred river [ Narmada नर्मदा ] with a life-long resolution, never to entertain any Shishya and never to be the Guru of any shishya.
Mankind is usually selfish. Where there is just ordinary merry-making while going crowd saints , men are as loud as hawkers. where something substantial is to be gained as from true saints and true Gurus , they do not want competitors and sharers . Spiritual jealousy religious passion of monopolisation , preclusion of all others desirous of approaching a true Saint or a Guru, and even the displeasure at the idea of one’s own Guru getting more and more popular , are all at least imaginable things for the modern man , with no knowledge an depth about the unknown waters of the Guru – Shishya , or deity – devotee love relationship. The greatest of the world’s folly is seen , when it judges a saint’s true worth by uncontrollable rush of visitors and heaps of garlands. Be on the safe side. Surely over crowded saint is a high saint, but don’t reject the saintliness that you see in some obscure saint, simply because there is no astounding paraphernalia around him. Your decision about a jewel should not be based on the jewel box.
Every saint is by himself a spiritual lake and the healthiness or unhealthiness of the waters depends on the all told cumulative degree of purity or impurity of its residents and users ; the saint himself remains an uncontaminable Lotus Leaf. Deity’s , Saint’s or Guru’s Grace is like an overflow in a canal with slopes on both sides , over which dry stones are lying for years, with Love and Service to God , Guru and Saint. Greater the volume of Grace , the greater the height of the deluged slope, stones lying whereon get wetted and transformed. Nearer to the bottom a stone on the slope is, the quicker the chance for the stone to be transformed. A still higher relationship is there , when the Shishya surrenders himself to the Guru , remaining in the constant contact , when the Guru is so much moved with the love and service of the Shishya , he actually sits down with the chisel and a hammer, to caret his own image on the individuality of his Shishya . Rarest cases.
We have practically finished with training of mind and we broach the subject of still higher nature – the nature of man.
EXTRACT FROM : MAI ISM AUTHOR : MAI SWARUP MAI MARKAND
MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTA CRUZ WEST , MUMBAI 400054 INDIA.
God as Mother and Father in MAIISM AND HINDUISM 