Contents Vol
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Contents Vol. 32, No. 2 Selfless Service 5 “Isn’t all time Amma’s?” 7 swami amritaswarupananda puri The Bee Trapped in the Flower 14 swami tureeyamritananda puri “Remember Me and fight!” 15 swami amritageetananda puri The Lord’s Guarantee 19 br. devidasa chaitanya Sumantra 26 c.v. rajan, india Chapter 9: Yoga of the Royal Knowledge 35 prof. v. muraleedhara menon, india Lilas Around Amma 38 News 41 Some articles use the masculine pronoun when referring to God, in keeping with convention and to avoid the clumsiness of constructions such as ‘He or She’ or ‘Him or Her.’ Printed and Published by Swami Jnanamritananda Puri on behalf of M.A. Mission Trust, Amritapuri P.O., Kollam, Kerala 690 546, India. Printed at Amrita Offset Printers, Amritapuri P.O., Kollam, Kerala 690 546, India. Published at M.A. Math, Amritapuri P.O., Kollam, Kerala 690 546, India. Phone: (0476) 289 6278/7578/6399. Matruvani Office Phone: 08589003341 Editor: Br. Brahmamrita Chaitanya Letters and Submissions: [email protected] September 2020 3 4 Matruvani AMMA’S MESSAGE Selfless Service hildren, all religions give a lot of importance Cto selfless service. It purifies the mind and makes one worthy of God’s grace. However, the service we render should be without any expecta- tion. We should not expect even a word of thanks or appreciation. If we do, it will be like working for wages; such work will not help to purify the mind. When we act without any desire for personal gain, selfishness leaves our heart, at least while we are working. Such work purifies the mind. How- ever, if we engage in selfless service with an eye to gaining punya (spiritual merit), acknowledge- ment or remuneration, the very purpose of service becomes defeated. Many donate to temples or churches with ex- pectations of compliments or recognition. There are people who donate tubelights to temples and then print ‘Donated by so-and-so’ on them, thus dimming its brightness. Such people want others to know about their donation and will be displeased September 2020 5 Nothing belongs to us; everything belongs to God. We must be grateful to Him for giving us the ability and opportunity to serve. if they are not at least thanked only a tiny fraction of God’s for it. wealth, which you are hoarding. Once, a rich man went to You will receive His grace only pray in a temple. He gave a big if you can donate without pride. donation to the priest, who You ought to feel grateful that neither thanked him nor laud- you have received an opportu- ed him for the donation. The nity to serve God and His rich man started saying, “I’m devotees. If you don’t, it’s best sure no one has ever donated that you take the money back.” such a huge sum of money to It is the mind that must be this temple before…” surrendered to God. Offering The priest tolerated his self- to Him what the mind is at- glorification for some time. tached to is akin to offering But when the donor did not the mind itself. In truth, noth- look as if he was going to stop, ing belongs to us; everything the priest said, “Why brag like belongs to God. We must be this? Do you expect me to grateful to Him for giving us thank you for your donation?” the ability and opportunity to “What’s wrong with expect- serve. When we understand ing at least a word of appre- that even our body, mind and ciation for the sum I donated?” intellect are gifts from God, the rich man asked. we will become free of pride The priest said “You ought and selfishness. When we be- to be grateful that the temple come free of pride, we become accepted your donation. It is deserving of God’s grace. 6 Matruvani SATSANG “Isn’t all time Amma’s?” by swami amritaswarupananda puri uring an interview, a reporter asked Amma, “You person- Dally meet tens of thousands daily. You go to the darshan hall in the morning and remain there, listening to each one of them, until you have seen the last person in the queue. Only then do you get up from your seat. By the time darshan ends, September 2020 7 it’s usually late at night, past must cease. The ocean has hid- midnight sometimes. In addi- den pearls in its depths. To tion, you oversee the M.A. find them, we must slice the Math’s educational institu- ocean’s wavy surface and tions and humanitarian pro- plumb the vast depths of the jects. After you return to your sea. Similarly, we can appre- room, you read letters from hend Amma’s pearls of wisdom ashram residents and devotees. only when we go beyond the You give them necessary ad- superficialities of words and vice. You hardly eat or sleep. make the mind meditative. Amma, you live only for others. The ripples emanating from Don’t you ever wish you had Her sage words must have some time for yourself or a lit- touched our hearts, for I and tle time to rest?” a brahmachari who was pre- Flashing Her characteristic sent looked at each other with sweet smile, She said, “Amma’s amazement. I wonder what time and children’s time — are sublime heights of the soul there really two different Amma’s utterances touched… times? Isn’t all time Amma’s?” Time is vast and glorious. Those were the playful and Our acquaintance with the innocent words of a child. But riddle of time is confined to in those ‘playful’ words, Amma the ticking sounds of a clock had hidden something of great and the various phases of day import. She was pointing a and night. We are ignorant finger to a rarefied realm of about its entirety. awareness that the mind or Note this mantra from the intellect cannot easily grasp or Rg Veda: analyse. To understand even a nasadasinno little of what that state is or to sadasittadanim gain a tiny glimpse of it, the nasidrajo no dissonance within the mind vyoma paro yat 8 Matruvani kimavarivah kaha after that? This mantra from kasya sharmmannabhah the Taittiriyopanishad may have kimasidgahanam the answer: gambhiram so’kamayata bahusyam There was neither exist- prajayeyeti sa tapo’tapyata ence nor non-existence sa tapastaptva idam then. There was neither sarvamasrjata yadidam emptiness nor the radiant kinca sky. Where did every- tatsrshtva tadevanuprav- thing exist? On what did ishatu everything depend? Was tadanu pravishya sacca there a vast and shoreless tyaccabhavatu expanse of water then? niruktam caniruktam ca nilayanam canilayanam ca na mrtyurasidamrtam na vijnanam cavijnanam ca tarhi na satyam canrtam ca saty- ratrya ahna asit praketah amabhavatu anidavatam svadhaya yadidam kinca tatsyatyami- tadekam tyacakshate tasmaddhanyanna parah tadapeshya sloko bhavati kincanasa Pure Awareness resolved, Then there was neither “May I be born and death nor immortality, become many.” It per- day or night. The sub- formed tapas (austerities). stratum breathed with- From that tapas this out air. Nothing other universe came into being than That was. in all its variety. Thereaf- ter It entered into all. It If we believe that this was the became the manifest and state before what science calls unmanifest, the express- the ‘Big Bang,’ what happened ible and inexpressible, September 2020 9 the dependent and In fact, modern science has independent, the sentient yet to provide a precise defini- and insentient, the truth tion of time. The scientists who and untruth… It became have gone deep into the subject the ultimate truth and and gained at least a glimpse Brahman, the Supreme. into the underlying reality have sincerely recorded their This verse can be interpreted observations. to explain the origins of the When his close friend visible universe through the Big Michele Basso passed away, Bang. It is here, at the nub of Albert Einstein sent a condo- creation, that time originates. lence message to Basso’s fam- In his book, Cosmos, the ily: “He left this strange world famed astronomer Carl Sagan before I did. People like us, writes, “The Hindu religion is who believe in physics, know the only one of the world’s that the distinction between great faiths dedicated to the past, present and future is only idea that the Cosmos itself a stubbornly persistent illu- undergoes an immense, indeed sion.” an infinite, number of deaths But what secrets of the uni- and rebirths. It is the only re- verse were revealed to the in- ligion in which the time scales ner eye of the rishi (seer)? The correspond to those of modern ancient yogis contemplated so scientific cosmology. Its cycles deeply about the subtlest as- run from our ordinary day and pects of time, its structure and night to a day and night of constituent elements, as would Brahma, 8.64 billion years have confounded even modern long. Longer than the age of scientists! the Earth or the Sun and about Kali (Goddess), kala (time) half the time since the Big and Kalan ( L o r d o f Bang.” death) — these three are 10 Matruvani synonyms of Time, which de- have been born umpteen vours everything and makes times. You do not them manifest again. remember them whereas In ‘Vishwarupadarshana’ I know them all. (Yoga of the Cosmic Form), the 11th chapter of the Bhaga- The Lord’s assertion, “I know vad Gita, Lord Krishna says, them all,” indicates a state kalosmi lokakshayakrt beyond the limits and limita- pravrddho tions of time and space. lokan samahartumiha The story of Kakudmi pravrttah (Raivatan) from the Mahab- rte’pi tvam na bhavishyanti harata is well-known.