Day: August 29, 2016

God – Giver of the fruits of meritorious and unmeritorious actions.

The respective results of bad and good actions are to be experienced in several fields. Viz.,1) of pains and pleasures; 2) of ignorance and enlightenment; 3) of disagreeable and agreeable environments;  4) of unrighteousness or righteousness; 5) of repulsiveness and attractivity, etc.some here and some in hell or heaven, hereafter.

A very vexing question is, whether a man is a free being or a bound one. Does he act according to the dictates of his own will and conscience, or that of God ( Mother ) ? If he acts under the prompting of God (Mother)’s will, why should be held responsible , and suffer for good or bad actions ? Does not happiness of some and miseries of some, lead to an imputation of partiality and mercilessness on the part of God (Mother) ?

The way out of this paradox is this. Do not mix up the two theories. First begin with “You are Master of your own fortune,” “Righteousness and unrighteousness depend on the doer.” “You suffer for what you have done now or before”. During this stage of yourself being the master, when you hear in this country of talks of all shades and opinions, that God does everything, understand it in this sense. “Everyone is able to do what he does, subject to the undoing or prohibition by higher authorities.” Under the same electric light, one is stealing valuables from a safe and other is taking out of purse, for handing it over to a charitable institute Secretary. The thief has succeeded in taking out money and  the donor has taken out the purse, both acts being indebted to the electric light. The thief has a serpent bite , and the donor sees before him his son rushing out with a revolver to finish him, if he is going to make him a beggar.

Both are free to act in the manner they like and yet there are some higher powers as well. The man does possess his free will, but it is within certain limits and again subject to circumstances , over which he has little control.

After realisation of the fact, that results are subject to higher control, the next stage for an aspirant should be “Whatever defective , undesirable and undeserved things are done, are done  by me; and whatever good is done by me is due to the promptings of the God ( Mother). ”

The third stage is “Whatever I do, good or bad, all that I do as prompted by God ( Mother). ”

If one has arrived at the third stage by actually wading through varied experiences , by the time he reaches that stage , all evil tendencies and passion have subsided, or even vanished, and it is impossible for him to think or do evil.

If you have honestly reached this stage, when you believe, that everything is done by you on prompting from the God ( Mother), you soon get suspicious about your own wrong thoughts, desires and actions as God ( Mother ) cannot prompt you to do evil things. Evil suggestions and decisions cannot be but yours.

Suppose that you have begun developing the idea that you are merely an instrument and that therefore you have left off censorship of your thoughts and actions, and further suppose that still some undesirable actions pass through your hands. In that case , if you are true to your belief, you have no right to question “why” when you suffer. To claim authorship of whatever good passes through your hands and to believe that the promptings of evil actions are from God ( Mother), and to further claim that you should not suffer for them, on the ground that those promptings are from God ( Mother), is simply unreasonable, unjust, foolish and selfish. If your action is of Her own will, your suffering also is of Her Own Will.

Be either wholly Hers, with cheerful and unconditional surrender to Her divine will, without questioning or hold yourself responsible for whatever happens to you. To reach from the latter inferior stage to the former superior stage ; there is an immediate supreme stage of “All good is Hers, All evil is mine.”

The former belief is that of Sharnagati शरणागती  or Prapatti प्रपत्ती. There you should stop thinking, and be prepared to live enjoy or suffering of God (Mother)’s desires. Say to yourself “Thy will be done.”Even this suffering may have a lofty purpose, which Mother alone knows.” “Mother will do nothing that is not finally for my welfare.” “I am not a true Sharanaagata शरणागत, if I ask why and even if dissatisfied with my lot. On the top of everything be positive and say” My joy is to see Her Divine Will satisfied, and to lay no claim to any concession, exemption or exception, making or raising a complaint of injustice or mercilessness.”

Man is bound in the larger circle and free in the smaller circle. He is given a certain field, certain capacities and certain latitudes and limitations. To give capacities that are much beyond what is possible for every human being to utilize, would be a waste and often a source of burden, repentance, dissatisfaction and misery. How to utilize those capacities, how far to use them or allow them to rest or waste, is the matter of the free will of the man.

What playing cards you get, is a matter beyond your control, and yet if you are a good or a bad player, you often win or lose within certain limits.

Given the same circumstances, it is up to the man, to ascend higher or to descend lower. In that sense he is free. In the sense however strongly he may will, it is impossible for him to go beyond certain limitations, he is bound.

It is just like two sons leaving home with the equal amount of capital, but one returning with rich and the other a pauper.

With the same body, means and intellect, you can be busy with worshipping or breaking a idol. You cannot do either if light or body fails and yet neither the light nor the body is responsible for your worshipping or breaking the idol.

“What you have” is Hers. “How you use is yours”. If you use well, you will be given better “have”s. 

Extract from the book : Mother and Mother’s Thousand Names

Author : Mai Swarup Mai Markand

Mai Niwas, Saraswati Road End, Santa Cruz west, Mumbai 400054 India.