Self-surrender of the distressed is a case of Artaprapatti अार्तप्रपत्ती . Against this no hypocrite of Nishkama Bhakti निष्काम भक्ती ( devotion without desire ) should take objection, unless he is really a theoretical Pandit पण्डीत ( scholar ) . Mai-ism admits and accepts Sakama Bhakti सकाम भक्ती ( Devotion with desire ) , or better still, it concedes and changes the definition of ‘ Necessities ‘ and ‘ desires ‘ .The Bhakti is Sakama ( with desire ) or Nishkama ( without desire ) , not by the point blank fact of making or not making a demand. The demand may be for a necessity or a desire. A necessity is something which you can not pull on without, and which not only you but all around you, would call a reasonable necessity. Under Mai-ism the demand for necessity is not Sakama सकाम. It is only variety of Artaprapatti.
There are two other issues which decide the nature to be the one or the other. According as you remain agitated or unagitated , always occupied or least occupied with anxiety about the thing demanded an according as how you take the consequences in case the demand is not fulfilled, your Bhakti is Sakama or Nishkama.
Everything depends , on what you make your God to be to you, and your relationships with your God and your stage. If God is Mother to you , then, there is no meaning in the belief of pleasing Her , with a loveless sycophant’s servile recitation of Her virtues and glories in an intellectual ornamental manner. None acts that way with one’s own Mother .There is every right for a child to demand enough food to satisfy hunger and to be protected against actual calamities and to demand and enforce Her not leaving you during your illness and hardest calamities. To be running to Her and weeping out all ebullitions of one’s grief in Her lap; to be making every confession of one’s folly and misdeed with every confidence or fearlessness; to be seeking protection and to be praying to be accepted , however wicked : – this is every child’s claim on Mother. Your rights and claims on your Mother are proportionate to and based on your love, service , devotion and surrender to Her as your Mother.
Thus in a word , it is not for you to weigh justice, while you live the life of mercifulness to one and all. You have surely to suffer in some cases, but you have all along the protection of the Divine Mother and the neutral world. Take now the other view. Even as it is , for a man of a spiritual aptitude , how poor is his brutal strength to hold his own against the wicked world ? Why not then make a virtue and a claim of what people call a weakness ?
Regarding Akartritvam अकर्तुत्वम [ non-doership], ( KARTRITVA-BHAAVANAA-VIHINATVAM कतृत्व-भावना-विहीनत्वम ) , the irreligious man jumps and pounces and argues : ” In that case we are not responsible for all wrong, bad and sinful acts that we do “.
If you want to be really great , create the intermediate mentality : ” All my good actions are by Mother, all my bad actions are mine “. There are three mentalities for the spiritual aspirant in this connection. First,” I am responsible for the good and bad actions “, Second, ” Whatever defective things are done , are done by me, whatever good is done by me is due to promptings of Mother “. Third , ” Whatever I do good or bad , that I do as prompted by Mother “. If one has arrived at the third stage , by actual wading through the experiences , by the time he reaches that stage , all evil tendencies and passions have subsided or even vanished .”
If you have honestly reached that stage ,’ When you believe that every thing is done by you on prompting from Mother, you soon get suspicious , about your wrong thoughts desires and actions as Mother can not be prompting you to do evil things . Evil suggestions and decisions can not be but yours.Suppose you have begun developing the idea that you are merely the instrument and that therefore you have left off all your censorship of your thoughts and actions. Further suppose by the remotest chance that some undesirable actions pass through your hands; in that particular case, if you are true to your belief , you have no right to question ” Why “, when you have to suffer. If your that action is of Her own will , your suffering also of Her will.
Akartritvam ( non-doership ) should not mean hand-folded sittingness, irresponsibility for bad actions or injustice crying about punishment for the same. And that is so because in fact, in the womb what appears to us as a complete non-doership, there has been always invisible sub-consciousness of doership.
In religious true understanding , there are so many seeming confusions and contradictions , which are removable only by the Unseen hand , that works wonders with an extremely delicate working , which laughs at the human limitations of cause and effect, logic and reason , experiment and conclusion , proof and judgement.
The whole indefiniteness of our religious thinking arises as under : 1] Opposites often lie interpenetrating 2] All our judgement are relative 3] The full data are never before us. 4] We always think with preconceived mind. 5] We are pulled away to one extremity or another. 6] So many truths can never be realised without actual experience etc.
Each teaching has its own relative value, for a particular mentality at a particular stage and at a particular moment. A layman finds contradictions because whereas all the teachings are huddled up in a book or a talk a few hours , his mind can not transform itself to see the consequential order between the seemingly contradictory things . whenever you have religious difficulties, the best thing is to try to solve them yourself. Mostly you will succeed in finding the true solution. If you don’t then place your difficulty before your Guru maintaining every decorum and delicacy with your humility approach and respectful loving attitude. When God’s Grace opens up your eyes , Guru’s one word becomes more than sufficient with illumination.
Hence , Mai-ism insists God and Guru both, neither God alone , nor Guru alone. It is the spiritual Chaitanya that alone works . The spirit flows from God to Guru and from Guru to Shishya.
Teaching varies not only from one teacher to another, but from the same teacher to one man or another, not only that, but from the same teacher to the same man , according he is at one stage or another after some progress. The underlying truth is the aspirant is gradually led from on stage to another.
Instead of spending our life in a foolish impulsive way it is desirable to follow the Guru’s teachings of “Be doing righteous actions ” and of ” Don’t leave your duties “. We should not forget that we can not remain silent or action less even if we so determined.
But when we see the fruit which we believe to be the result of our action is adverse , we get despondent, sorrowful and dis-spirited.Here the Guru holds us up by giving us a second teaching . He says,” You can’t keep up your working vigourousness without the idea of fruit., and there is no certainty that every good action if yours will be unfailing crowned with a good result.The best mid-way therefore , is that you continue to have the consciousness of the fruit, but you dedicate away that fruit to God. ” Doing once duties leaving the fruit as dedicated to God is a satisfactory and countable stage.
But the aspirant can not all the time remain satisfied , with a stop there. He gradually entertains a desire to pass from the realm of action into that of inaction.He gradually practices the renouncing the idea not only of the fruit but also the ownership and authorship and thereafter the memory of action. Gradually he begins feeling,” I can do nothing “. And finally believing ” I am nothing “. He has to remain yoked to action, even while advancing in stages till actions leave him. The religious alchemy is ” dis-interested and God dedicated action ” Be doing action ,yet don’t permit its actionness to degenerate you, that requirement is secured through God-dedication.”
On the soul reaching the higher stage, it is yet kept linked up with action. Then nothing can be so agreeable as taking up the work of public religious welfare . Finally a time comes , when the highly advanced soul’s devotion and desirelessness and the consciousness of nothingness becomes so very overpowering, that it is impossible for him to do any miscellaneous inferior duties. It is only when that stage is reached that the teaching about ‘ Remain absorbed in Me ” becomes applicable.
This is only a rambling specimen of various kinds of weavings that can be made out of religious highest truths.
Man with all his boasts of Science with microscopes etc. has yet remained blind and his blindness is endless. Till now, man has not been able to bring peace , happiness or goodness. Evil has not been eradicated. Founder says,” Take therefore the cash and let the credit go.” Live your life as straight as you can, conquer your mind . You have to practice theses principles of Love and Surrender with Service and Devotion spread around you with a universal outlook.
Regarding Akartritvam , let your prayer be : I know neither virtue nor vice , nor I can withstand the falling into the clutches of the latter. My only consolation is that I have burnt out all my egoism of being the actor and developed my faith in believing ,” I am doing what thou drivest me to do.”
On 2 – 7 – 1943 , in Hubli the lady whom the Founder had accompanied to Ramanashram, was discussing the subtle-most subject of Sakama Bhakti. Said the Founder,” not only begging is bad , but the very offering of the demand prayer , in the first place means, you are discrediting Mother with not being able to know what is passing in your mind.Further, if you are a devotee yourself , you are discrediting Mother with a bankruptcy of Mercifulness. When we are praying with a demand we exhibit our ignorance , distrust and funkiness from self-surrender. When we are meditating, we are pulling the Formless and Attributes Mother , to be having form and attribute. When we are reciting hymns , we are trying to limit and deform the indescribable Mother.When we say, we are going to Mother, we are denying Her omnipresence. A true devotee of a Divine Knowledge is only in a whirlpool, what to consider ‘ as ought to be done ‘.
” I only pray to Mother in that stage of helplessness, thus : ” Take my mind to be Thy weakest child. Let my body be Thy temple , consider my any words to be Thy prayers , consider my walking moment to be the holy Pradakshinaa प्रदक्षिणा circumscribing around Thee. Consider my any enjoyment to be an offering to Thee. “
” Sharanaagati ” शरणागती ( Surrender ) and Mother’s Karunaa करूणा ( Mercifulness showering ) are one – exactly balanced. One thing is the other side of the other. MAI SHARANAAAGATI KARUNAA EKA माई शरणागती करूणा एक Self-surrender is the bedrock of Mother’s religion. Self-surrender means ” Thy Will, and my joy in seeing that Thy Will is fulfilled”. Outwardly it is below all merit, but inwardly , the most efficacious remedy. As a matter of fact self surrender is an independent royal way as good as Karma, Gyana, Bhakti or Yoga.
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK : 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 