Daily Offerings from Alokda Archives - Page 2 of 18

Can I Come to the Mother by Surrendering First to My Ishta Devata?

Q: In my case, surrendering and devotion to lord Shiva comes to me more naturally. I know the base of this yoga is surrendering and opening to the Mother, but is there any problem if we surrender and open to our Ishta devatas instead, and since the divine is one, opening to the Mother?

ALOKDA: Each god comes into existence through a conscious self-limitation of the Supreme Divine. The Name and Form serve a certain function and purpose. Generally, the gods being fully conscious do not interfere with the function of other gods as it may create an imbalance in creation. Thus, if one seeks Moksha and Vairagya then Shiva is the power who destroys all illusion born of Ignorance.

Going beyond the gods is nothing new to Sanatan Dharma. This does not mean that it belittles the gods and their function in anyway. It simply means that one seeks to connect directly with the Supreme. Here however the goal is transformation of earth nature something that has never been done before. The power and the mandate for accomplishing this is with the Mother. Gods can help in their own way towards this but cannot accomplish this.

Surrender implies handing over oneself into the hands of the one to whom we surrender, opens us to the influence of the power embodied by the one at whose feet we surrender. Naturally, it has to be spontaneous and not under any outer compulsion. Generally, someone close to an ishta devata comes to the Mother because it is the ishta devata who knowing the true soul need or inner aspiration impels us towards the Mother.

Bhakti does not follow the norms of the mind and its list of do’s and don’ts. So do not worry. Follow the deepest instinct of your heart. You have been led to Sri Aurobindo by your ishta devata himself. Slowly your bhakti will deepen and grow into bhakti and surrender towards the Mother and Sri Aurobindo.

2024-10-02

Karna, the Fallen Great

The Master had just finished reading the Karna Parva (the book of Karna}. The story always carried a touch of sadness at the fall of a hero, an apparent inglorious death, in ways not befitting a hero. After all he was the eldest Pandava, who knew not his identity until the beginning of the war. He was trained by no less a warrior than Parashuram and, most of all, he was guarded by none other than the Sun-God whose child he was. Generous to a default, Karna’s only fault seems to have been standing by Duryodhana’s side and, thereby, helping the forces of adharma. But was it not in deference to his friendship and his promise to always be by the side of his friend Duryodhana? So, what was the reason for this strange fate that had punished virtue with a life of such ignominy? Though Bhisma too met an inglorious death and one that entailed great suffering, both physical and psychological, yet his fall was justified as if there ever was one person who could have stopped this war it was Bhisma. Instead, he chose to stand by his promise given to the throne of Hastinapur even if the dynasty was involved in adharma. The result was a bed of arrows at the hands of his most loved grandchild, who was aided by Shikhandi, the transwoman warrior. But Karna was simply following the law of friendship. Why should he have met such a death? The modern question was swirling in the heads of the disciples. For the men in the ancient times it was evident that the fate of a man standing by the side of adharma was a long-foregone conclusion. Even if he won for the moment as Shakuni and his scheming nephews did, eventually it was Truth that had the last stroke, satyameva jayate nanrtam, it is truth that wins and not falsehood. And Karna was surely standing on the wrong side of history. He stood with his shining armour to defend the indefensible and paid the price with his death. For the ancient mind this was clear. But the disciples were modern minded and demanded equal rights for everybody. They felt that destiny and God were unfair towards Karna.

The Master had seen this question brewing up in their mind. As was his way to address things often from examples of nature he pointed his fingers towards a storm that was brewing up in the far end of the sky.

“Look, how the storm is covering the sky and dimming the sun.”

The disciples nodded at the very evident phenomenon which they had often witnessed during this part of the year. But herein lay the difference between them and the Master. The Master saw in it a lesson of life that the wisdom hidden within Nature tries to reveal to us. But the average person saw only a natural phenomenon that can be explained by the laws of physics.

“Do you see how the sandstorm overpowers the mighty sun, even if temporarily? Of course, the sun remains untouched by it but its rays are unable to reach the earth in their fullness.”

The disciples had begun to notice the drift.

“So too”, the Master continued, “even the strong and the wise may be clouded by the storms of passion and ambition, lust and greed which may take block their intelligence and prevent it from making the right choice.”

The disciples were all ears. The Master continued, “This is what happened to Karna. Though high of birth and mighty in deeds, his stainless soul was clouded by his strong ambition to prove himself to the world that he is the greatest by defeating Arjuna. The chariot of his life began to be driven by ambition and had to meet its nemesis one day. He swerved away from Dharma as invariably ambition leads one away from the straight path of the soul. The result was that his journey ended abruptly, crashed as it were in the quagmire of ambition. Arjuna’s last blow, the fatal arrow only completed the work, hastening him back to his beautiful soul, in a way putting him on the right track preventing him from bearing the burden of adharma even more. In fact, Bhisma stopping him from the battle, Sri Krishna’s offer to him to switch over to the Pandava side was not only a ploy to ensure the safety of Arjuna who was an instrument of God in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but also to prevent Karna from bearing the tremendous burden of defending the champions of evil and thereby himself becoming a party to it.”

Then pausing for a moment in deep reflection, the Master added, “Karna was saved by his own death. He was destined to die because of his choice. Yet had he died normally it would have been a miserable death, a humiliating defeat. He had to die because he was standing between the Lord’s Will and haughty, ambition-driven, lust-laden Kuru clan typified in the likes of Duryodhana. By dying the way he did, at least his name was saved. It was an act of Compassion of Vasudeva, the indwelling Universal Divine, the lover of all mankind and the friend of all creatures.”

“But still wasn’t his choice based on his feeling of gratitude towards his friend Duryodhana?” asked one.

The Master gently smiled and looking towards the sky where the storm had begun to clear up, he asked the disciple if he really thought so? The disciple stood perplexed as the Master answered.

“Would it not have been a better expression of gratitude if he abstained from the unjust war and thereby, possibly prevented it? Should he have not counseled his friend that this war would not only do no good for him but bring ignominy and gloom? He did not, even though being the child of the sun-god he well understood which side stands for the truth and the right. He did not because he saw in the war his one chance of proving himself in a mortal combat with Arjuna that he is the greatest between the two. If he was feeling gratitude for having been given a kingdom by Duryodhana to satisfy his ambition, an even better choice would have been to return back the kingdom and unburden himself rather than take his side in an unjust war. Have you not heard the story of Esau and Jacob wherein Esau loses his birthright bartering it for a pot of porridge to appease his hunger? It is just the same story wherein one loses one’s soul, the birthright, for the sake of satisfying one’s ambition by joining the forces of evil.”

“But was not life unfair to him, his being cast away by his mother at the very moment of his birth?” One in the group observed in a half-hearted voice knowing that this had little to do with Karna’s eventual fate.

“Yes indeed, if you look at life from a human perspective of fair dealings, life was surely unfair to Karna. But was it not unfair to the Pandava brothers even more? And what did the prince Duryodhana do with whom life was more than fair? So you see, the game of life is not fair and unfair but about the challenges through which we grow by making our choices. The greater the possibility, the more challenging is the dice. The greater grow wiser and stronger by the stroke. The weak succumb to their desires and choose unwisely. That in short sums up the story of Karna.”
The Master paused and the storm had begun to calm and the sun was shown more clearly in the eastern sky. The rays had begun to dance again upon earth and one looking at the rays imagined Karna’s soul uplifted towards the sun through his death shedding his burdened cloak upon earth.

Alok Pandey

2024-10-02

Songs of the Soul: October 02, 2024

Mother Divine,
as the sun rises and its glory spreads over the sky cleaving all darkness and clouds, filling the earth with renewed hope and purpose and joy, so too many the sun of Thy Truth and Love rise within our heart freeing us from all ignorance and doubt.

May Thy Peace and Joy fill us with new effort and hope and all in us may turn towards the ocean of light that beckons.

May we be no more confined to smallness and pettiness and meanness and selfishness.

May we grow in vastnesses and unity and light and peace and love.

Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa

2024-10-02

What is the Best Way to Help Suffering Humanity Around Us?

Alokda: The issue of helping humanity can be seen at various levels. In a certain sense we all help each other, knowingly or unknowingly, we take care of those close to us physically or emotionally, help those in distress, express our gratitude towards some others through some means of help we may render. Thus seen, the urge to help is one of the impulses that characterises the nobler side of our humanity. It is also a first corrective to our grosser forms of egoism and reminds us that we are neither isolated nor alone. It is the very basis of any society, including a spiritual commune. The mistake that we however make is to believe that this kind of help is akin to leading a spiritual life. Helping humanity is directed towards human beings whereas true spiritual life is directed towards the Divine. This is the first point of divergence. Of course, the former can be a preparation for the latter. An altruist sacrificing his life at the altar of humanity or an ideal is getting ready, in this life or another, to sacrifice his ego-self at the altar of divinity. Yet the two are not the same nor always simply one step away. People who help others may be quite satisfied with this activity and may not feel the urge to go deeper within themselves to at least see the motive-forces behind their urge to help. They may even feel puffed up by their ‘helpfulness’ especially when ego-self is fed with praise from others for their helpful nature. Others may be doing it for cruder motives such as securing a seat in some higher world through altruism, or to be remembered by others for their philanthropy. It is then simply a kind of ambition for name and fame which is obviously a big stumbling block towards true spiritual life.

Does it mean that a spiritual man should not be helpful or that he must remain absorbed in his narrow spiritual goal which may be just another kind of selfishness? Then what about the Gita’s famous dictum that a spiritual man is engaged ever in the good of all creatures, sarvabhutahiteratah? Well, it all depends upon the motive that drives one towards spirituality? There is no doubt a spirituality often tainted by the selfish urge to have experiences, or being regarded as some kind of a yogi or siddha or at best to merge into nirvana and be freed from the chaos and confusions of worldly life. But there is another kind of spiritual life epitomised in the life and teachings of Sri Krishna and Sri Aurobindo. According to this line of spiritual self-evolution we must first and foremost concentrate on one’s own spiritual progress which runs for a while parallel with all our human activities but the central motive must change. Thus, even while we may be seemingly engaged in helping others it should not be a service of human beings, Nara-Sewa, but a service of the Divine through this, Narayana-Sewa. Though seemingly a small inner change it makes a vast difference for the growing spiritual life within us. In the latter we remain inwardly detached to our action and slowly the sense of doership and ownership which are the natural offshoots of rajasic egoism pass away from us. Then our – helping others’ no more binds us. Nor are we moved to help merely by pity or with the sense of moral superiority or sense of righteousness but simply as a natural expression of the Divine impulsion within us. In fact, when we are in that state then the valuation of things changes and we may well recognise that distributing blankets to the poor may be simply encouraging tamas whereas fighting a battle as Arjuna did may be a great help to propel humanity forward. In fact even the same activity such a feeding the poor may stem from either a very human motive or else by a deep spiritual angst and compassion towards suffering humanity. Much depends upon the inner motive that drives us to action. That is the second important thing in yoga. From the spiritual point of view it is not the action but the force that drives us to act, the motive and the state of consciousness behind it that gives determines whether it is spiritual or not.

Finally, what is the highest help that we can render to humanity? Isn’t it the gift of Light and Hope and Peace, to bring them into contact with the spiritual forces that would pull one out of Ignorance? Distributing blankets or feeding the poor may help the body in a certain limited way but awakening someone to the need of a spiritual change is a help that endures the rub and change of time and extends beyond a single lifetime of this body. But how are we going to do it if we ourselves have not directed our energies sufficiently to gather these spiritual forces or surrendered enough to be Her luminous channel freed from the ego-sense of ‘me and my-ness’.

2024-10-01

Ways of the Master

The disciples sometimes wondered about the Master’s behaviour. He would gather all kinds of people around him even those who seemed worse than ordinary men. One voiced his doubt. The Master smiled as he replied: “Wouldst thou measure the worth of a seed by the thickness of its casing, the height of a man by the size of his shoe, the dimensions of his inner being by the girth of his belly? So too judge not the inner truth of a man by his outer behaviour nor measure his soul’s aspiration by his outer virtues. A great light may throw up a great shadow behind it. And a most ordinary looking shell may hide beneath its wings a rare invaluable pearl.”

The sceptics wondered why some disciples progressed faster than others. The Master pointed at a rich harvest and answered: “The souls that come to me are like a seed. I am the farmer who ploughs the soil and sows the seeds giving an equal opportunity of the light of sun and the rain of Grace to all. Some seeds however are afraid of the Light and fail to burst open. Other are over eager to draw the sun to themselves and get burnt out. Some, the rare few, trust my hands and the time taken for fruition and do not cling to the dark womb of safety. They are the happiest and the luckiest ones that throw the richest harvest.”

“How does one know that the soul has awakened?” asked another. The Master pointed at the early morning sun and observed: “How does one know that the sun has arisen? By a light that illumines our sight driving away the grey phantom shadows of the night; by the song of the birds that greet the dawn. By the rush of a joy that is full of glad peace and a stillness that carries happiness in its bosom. By the silver lining of hope that begins to appear from behind the clouds. By a scattering of the fog and mist and the warmth of a glow within the heart. By the feeling of an urge to grow and an invitation to work and progress. By discovering the love that binds the sky to the earth and all that exists upon it. By seeing the Fire and Light ascend to higher and higher skies. So too with the awakening of the soul one feels a growing peace and joy within the heart, one begins to see hope behind even the darkest appearances, there is birth of faith and aspiration and prayer. A warmth and sweetness and enthusiasm for Godward effort and the urge for progress. Most of all love is born, true love, in the human heart and there is a smile in every circumstance.

2024-10-01

Songs of the Soul: October 01, 2024

Maa, Mother Divine, all our being lies prostrate and surrendered to Thee, at Thy Feet, in Thy Service.

A mixture of the animal past and the human present we carry within us the seeds of the future that Thou hast planted in the soil of our human nature. Maa, may these seeds of the New Creation sprout watered by the streams of Thy Love, lifted up by the rays of Thy Light, permeated and nourished by the Breath of Thy Grace.

Maa may the human in us be uplifted, transformed by Thy Hands of Mercy and Love. May the animal in us become Thy faithful servitor, Thy vehicle for the Divine Force to ride. And may this body become more and more Thy translucent lamp for Thy Light to radiate, a channel opal and hyaline for Thy Divine Forces to pour upon earth.

Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa

2024-10-01

Is there any meaning in performing religious rituals these days?

Q: My relatives complain that their life is not happy because my father didn’t perform religious ritual since he didn’t believe in them, and my mother is upset about all that. Is there any meaning in performing religious rituals these days?

ALOKDA: There are four types of rituals, and we can arrange them hierarchically in a graded manner.

The first kind of rituals, though the most common, are the mechanical rituals that people follow out of convention. To this also unconscious adherence there is often added some kind of fear of harm if the ritual is not done or a favour that the ritual is supposed to grant us if we observe it. Many of the fasts and common temple rituals are of this nature. Of course sometimes the element of faith and prayer comes in which gives it an uplifting feel. But most often it is done mechanically and hence hardly of any use other than giving us the illusion of being a religious person.

The second type of rituals are related to the occult vital worlds. These are special Pooja ceremonies wherein mainly entities and deities of the lower order are invoked. Even when sometimes the deity being invoked is regarded as some benevolent one, it is actually something else that comes because of the nature of the Pooja. These can be dangerous at times and they are best avoided for a seeker on the spiritual Path since sometimes one can come under the influence of these beings who may grant us wishes but start having a grip upon us because they have been given a foothold through the bait of desire.

The third type of rituals are largely individual and symbolic such as lighting a lamp or offering of flowers with the idea or aspiration that may darkness be dispelled from our life and may the flower of love and devotion and faith blossom within our heart. These are used in certain kind of tantric Pooja also and are generally good, provided we are doing it consciously with the meaning in our head and the feeling in our heart.

Finally, there are rituals or rather spontaneous gestures and bodily actions that are the expression of certain soul states within us. They arise naturally out of a great love or reverence for the Divine and flow outwards to include the bodily life in the aspiration that has already awakened in the our soul. These are the throwing of oneself at the Feet of the Divine or bowing down in a gesture of pranam to give oneself to the Lord and Master of our being. If done truly and with the real bhava they can be very powerful in moulding our spiritual life. They can hardly be called rituals though some may see it that way or even do it mechanically so to say.

2024-09-30

The Soul’s Dwelling Place

The disciple entered and found the Master cleaning the room. A little embarrassed, he rushed forward and offered help, “Oh, Master, please let me do this.”

The Master smiled while continuing to clean, “But this is nothing compared to the cleaning that I do every day in countless rooms of each one.”

A little quizzically, the disciple stood wondering at the deep import of the Master’s words. By now the work at hand was over. The Master gently kept the cleaning cloth aside, neatly folded as if it was his way of expressing love and gratitude towards the little objects that served him. How much care he bestowed on everyone and everything, men and physical objects, animals and plants and who knows the gods and demons alike as if He saw the indivisible unity of all things. There was nothing big or small in his eyes, nothing trivial and merely mundane.

By now the disciples had gathered around him returning from their respective workplaces. Just as cows return home from their pasture, these souls had flocked around the Master for the deeper nourishment of their famished souls.

As the Master settled in his chair, the disciple prompted, “Master, you were speaking about cleaning the rooms.”

With a faint smile curved upon his beautiful lips, the Master responded: “Oh, that! Men spend so much time and energy in procuring food and lodging for their bodies but do very little for nourishing their souls or cleaning the house in which their soul dwells.”

A brief pause followed. And the Master added: “All the values here are in an inverse order as if this world were an inverted image of God.”

“What house is this that you speak of Master, pray enlighten us?” asked one as if asking the obvious.

The Master said, “This bodily house in which the soul dwells.”

“But is not everyone busy taking care of this bodily house all the time,” asked another.

“Do we?” The Master countered. “We do not take care of this bodily house in which the soul dwells. We rather spoil it through excess preoccupations, anxiety and fear on one hand and through excess of thrill, pleasure and comfort on the other. You see this house is not built by matter alone. Nature has tried and tested a million forms over millions of years before she could build this form in which the gods consented to dwell and through which we could once again discover God.”

“Oh yes, there is that story in one of the Upanishads that speaks of the gods consenting to enter the human body. But we thought it is just a fable.” One among them wondered.

“Not just a fable but a deep psycho-spiritual truth. The gods are powers and aspects of the Divine. Their willingness to enter the human body means that they are willing and ready to express their powers and forces through this bodily instrument and to fashion it towards a higher perfection.” The Master responded. And then, a little pensively observed, “How soon do we spoil this wonderful instrument through wrong habits, wrong indulgences, wrong suggestions, through excesses and immoderations of every kind, through wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong impulses, and wrong will.”

One with a traditional background asked, “By wrong, you mean moral sins, isn’t it Master?”

The Master answered, a little to their astonishment, “No, for one can be moral and follow all the rules of living and yet he may not care for his house.”

“What does that mean, Master?” The discipline looked surprised. “If one leads a totally controlled and regulated bodily life and does not allow the body any form of immoral appetites, then is that not enough?”

“No, my child, it is not enough, for still he may live for the ego and the house may be given for the purposes of his selfish motives and not for the soul to dwell in it.” Spoke the Master who had seen through the dualities of nature as well as the unity behind all things.

Then after a pause, he added revealing new horizons of thought and sight, “As I said this body is not built by matter alone. And what is matter itself but a condensation of the spirit. We are all made of a spiritual substance. The flesh is nothing else but Spirit concretized.” The Master kept quiet for a moment while the disciples pondered, so accustomed were they to the idea of Spirit and matter as being opposed and antagonistic. Did they hear the Master right?

“We don’t quite understand!” exclaimed one, while the other demurred “We always thought that the body was a trap and a deceit, a useless garment that must be discarded as soon as possible like a worn-out cloth setting the spirit free!”

“Oh, this concept has done so much harm to this country and has weakened our hold on material realities. But this is a misreading of the ancient scriptures. After all, why would the Spirit create this or any other world at all if it had no purpose save a trap? And if it is really so, then one has to agree that it is not some All-wise spirit but an insane mind that created this world. But this is not true. The Upanishads boldly declare that the Spirit chose to enter into these countless worlds after it created them and chose to dwell within the human body.” The Master was in a mood to reveal truths unheard.

He continued, adding revelation upon revelation, “Yes, it is the Spirit that has become Matter and then entered into it and these countless worlds through many steps and each of its step is a world in its own right. Now, in return matter is trying to rediscover or become the Spirit and climbs through all the intermediary steps and their worlds whose influence kneads matter. This body itself is built not only by pure matter as you know it but also by an influence from life-worlds and mind-worlds and is now being moulded and prepared under the pressure of the spirit-world.”

One trying to grasp the subtlety of the truth asked, “Is that why our thoughts, impulses and feelings have an effect upon the body?”

“Yes, indeed,” the Master looked happy. “If our thoughts are ugly and unclean, our feelings narrow and turbulent, our will small and tied to petty gains and selfish aims, then the house of the soul becomes a thing small and dark, with little space or fresh air, with not enough sunlight, like a dingy and dusty corner full of the smoke of desires and passions, full of the fumes of anger and jealousy and hatred.”

“I see now, what you meant when you said that men spend a lifetime to build a house of mud but take little care of this bodily house. Perhaps that is why we remain so unhappy even in a palace.”

“Yes,” the Master’s face beamed again. “The joy, the delight one experiences is directly linked to the psychological space of your inner dwelling. If it is small and narrow, full of dust and smoke then one is perpetually restless and unhappy, stifled by the smoke. Naturally, gods do not like to dwell in such an atmosphere. They depart one by one leaving the house at ransom for dark and evil forces that are always waiting.”

“And what about the soul?” asked one.

“The soul silently witnesses and endures waiting for nature to be ready as it must one day, or else remains asleep, unable to express its beauty and goodness and light and truth in that stifling atmosphere. Till it too chooses to depart.” The Master paused: “This is the inner tragedy to be the world’s king but abandoned by one’s soul. But men run after worldly success and if they fail they think it is a tragedy though often worldly misfortune is a great blessing.”

“A blessing, but how?” asked someone.

“For through it, men can once again turn to their soul for support. When tragedy strikes and the charm of outer things is lost, then we have a chance to awaken to the inner realities.”
“But we always thought that success and a rich, comfortable life, free of failure is a gift from God, a reward of good deeds,” asked one steeped in traditions.

“That is why I said that this world is an inverse image of Truth and all its values are turned upside down.” The Master observed again and plunged into a deep Silence that brooded always in his atmosphere. And as he thus plunged, a hope arose in the hearts of those gathered around him. One voiced it, inversely again “How can this inversion be set right, Master, or is it always meant to be so?”

The Master lifted his compassionate gaze and looking as if far-off to some future dawn awaiting its hour guarded by the folds of darkness softly replied, “We shall leave this for some other time…”

2024-09-30

Songs of the Soul: September 30, 2024

Mother Divine, people find the sight of physical suffering distressing. But the psychological state in which most human beings dwell is much more distressing.

Instead of studying the real causes and finding a radical remedy, man launches himself into an struggle for material wealth and comforts hoping these will solve his problems. Little does he realise that he is entering into a terrible vortex from which it is even more difficult to come out. For while material wealth provides some temporary outer relief it comes at a heavy price of an inner servitude.

Very few can keep their soul alive and prevent their mind and heart from falling into a dull stupor once they enter into this dark and bottomless pit of desires that lights up the darkness by artificial lights, making it worse by thwarting our seeking for the true authentic light. Money and materialistic sciences are new gods promising a bright future for man, but they cannot deliver. By the time it becomes obvious to all, humanity may be pushed beyond the brink.

Seeing and contemplating all this miserable state of mankind a prayer rises from the heart. Save mankind, Maa, save man from himself. Save him from the route he has taken towards self-annihilation while thinking it is the high road to heaven. Save us Mother, save us from the civilisational catastrophe towards which we seem to be heading in the name of freedom and progress and happiness. Save us from ourselves.

Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa Maa

2024-09-30