Alan Watt’s videos are a great source of wisdom. This short one is no exception. He speaks here about attachment, and how we humans hang on to things. We grasp at fleeting happiness that, like a butterfly, flits in and out of our lives leaving only memories. Neither things nor people make us really happy. We need to learn happiness from those who are masters in that department. Anandamayi Ma was a master of happiness or what she called bliss.
In the book The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma, the author, Alexander Lipski has given many wonderful accounts of her mastery and her teachings on non-attachment. Anyone who was fortunate enough to meet Anandamayi Ma – and there are many fortunate ones still living – knows that something of her teaching is in her very person. She was the living embodiment of “A Blessing”, a gift to mankind. I wish there were more like her alive today, but it seems as the darkness of the age has drenched us with uncertainty and fear, so the great masters have retreated from our world. We are left with their words and timeless wisdom, in those we need to find solace in this age of Kali.
Ananadamayi Ma
From Selected Discourses – Anandamayi Ma..
Question: “Please explain the nature of worldly and divine happiness.”
Mataji: “Divine happiness is pure, unalloyed bliss, happiness in its own right.”
Question: “But surely, there is happiness in the world too!”
Mataji: “Then why do you make this remark?”
Question: “Why do people run after material happiness?”
Mataji:
“You know this happiness from experience, and hence your question. But the Divine is gracious and makes you see that this so-called happiness is not happiness. He kindles discontent and anguish in you, which is due to the want of communion with the Divine. Worldly happiness is derived from the countless manifestations of God. People talk and marvel about those who renounce the world, but in actual fact it is you yourself who have renounced everything. What is this “everything”? God! Leaving Him aside, everyone is literally practicing supreme renunciation. It is only natural that the sence of want should awaken. Even in the midst of comforts and pleasures one feels homesick in a foreign land. There is distress even in happiness, one’s possession are not really one’s own – this is what He causes man to feel. It is said, it is not, that on being hit one recovers one’s senses, one learns by receiving blows.
When He manifests Himself as worldly happiness, one does not feel contented, for along with it He appears as the sense of want. But divine happiness, even the tiniest particle of a grain of it, never leaves one again; and when one attains to the essence of things and finds one Self – this is supreme happiness. When it is found, nothing else remains to be found; the sense of want will not awaken anymore, and the heart’s torment will be stilled forever. Do not be satisfied with fragmentary happiness, which is invariable interrupted by shocks and blows of fate: but become complete, and having attained to perfection, be YOURSELF.”
A Parable:.
A precious necklace was seen flashing from the bottom of a lake. Many felt tempted to recover the valuable ornament and dived deep into the water for it, but found no necklace anywhere. Yet it was clearly visible to everyone from the edge of the lake. They were all puzzled. Eventually they realized that there was no necklace at the bottom of the lake; what they saw was its reflection in the water. They looked up and discovered the precious ornament hanging from a tree. A bird must have picked it up from somewhere and deposited it there.
God who dwells within you is the source of true happiness. In the objects of the senses this happiness is merely reflected. The individual, misled by birth after birth by having only a glimpse of this reflected joy, thinks that this is the real thing, namely sensuous delight. So long as one believes that true happiness can be had in sense objects without searching within, one will never taste true happiness. The kingdom of God, hence of happiness, is within you.
– Anandamayi Ma, the Mother Bliss – Incarnate, by Anil Ganguli
Anandamayi Ma’s attitude towards death is far removed from ours. As she says, “The pilgrim on the path of immortality never contemplates death. By meditation on the Immortal, the Divine, the fear of death recedes far away. It will serve us well to remember that In the measure that our contemplation of the One becomes uninterrupted, we will advance towards full, unbroken realization.”
Man’s spiritual evolution is greatly affected by the thoughts he harbours at the time of death. “Just as a leech does not leave its place without hooking on to something else, so the soul at the time of leaving the body hooks on to some kind of new existence according to the state of mind of the dying person.”
Let no one conclude, however, that he can live according to his whims, indulging in sense pleasures oblivious to God, and that at the moment of death he will be able to catapult himself into the Divine presence by thinking the right thoughts. This is a miscalculation, for man is a creature of habit and therefore at death his mind will dwell on those thoughts that have occupied him most during his life.
To substantiate this point Anandamayi Ma told the story of a greedy old woman, an oil vendor, who lay upon her death bed. All her life she had sold oil in the bazaar. At no time had she granted anyone credit, and never had she given away even the smallest quantity of oil. When beggars asked her for oil, she used to reply: “Not a drop will I give, not a drop.” While she was on the verge of dying, her relatives, concerned about her spiritual welfare, tried, to make her repeat “Rama” or “Krsna,” but all she was capable of uttering was: “Not a drop will I give, not a drop.” This had become her mantra.
This account is meant to show that man’s day-to-day thoughts and activities throughout his life determine his state of consciousness and his spiritual destiny.
Daskalos on Thought Forms
Every thought, emotion and desire creates and transmits an elemental – also called thought-form – that carries on an existence of its own. We create and regenerate two types of elementals. When negative emotion prevails over thought, we have created emotional thought-forms, or desire-thoughts. When our ideas, desires and emotions pass through reason and love, we create reasoned thought-forms, or thought-desires. An elemental can never be destroyed, only disenergized (when no longer fed with etheric vitality). Elementals of a kind collect to form powerful group elementals. If an individual, or a collection of individuals, are vibrating at the same frequency, they will attract such group elementals. Archangels also create elementals (e.g. nature spirits and angels) in the service of the Divine Plan.
Alexander Lipski wrote in his book “The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma”: The days I stayed in the Ashram of Anandamayi Ma flew by. Throughout my stay I had a feeling of utter contentment and peace – world problems were temporarily eclipsed. As though in the presence of a gigantic spiritual magnet by mind was engrossed in the Divine. When thinking of the blissful experiences I had there, there flashes even now through my mind a scene of a kirtana with Mataji. And I hear her chanting “He Bhajavan” ” to the accompaniment of a harmonium. Her chanting is the very expression of divine love and ecstasy and prompts me to echo the words of the Persian inscription on the Divan-i-Khas:
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“If on Earth be an Eden of bliss, it is this, it is this, none but this” … Here is an excerpt from Lipski’s book on the topic of suffering.
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Anandamayi Ma’s view on suffering and poverty are so diametrically opposed to the whole philosophy of modern western man that it would require revolutionary changes in his attitude for him to agree with her. All our attempts to wipe out poverty and the doctors’ frantic quest for eliminating physical pain are undertaken in the belief that perfection can be attained by physical means. They are based on a ritualistic view of the universe which labels certain things as evil without acknowledging their redeeming potential. Above all, this applies to modern western man’s aversion to suffering, which is regarded as an unmitigated evil.. In contract, Andanadmayi Ma holds up to us the attitude toward pain as exemplified in India’s great epic, the Ramayana. There, Hanuman, the loyal devotee of Rama built a bridge to Sri Lanka, in order to rescue Sita, Rama’s consort, who had been abducted and taken to Sri Lanka by the demon King Ravana. During the construction of the bridge, Hanuman accidentally hurt a squirrel. The squirrel thereupon complained to Rama and demanded that in punishment Rama step upon Hanuman. Rama did so and told Hanuman not to commit such a deed again, if he did not want to suffer similar punishment. But Hanuman retorted: “I will very often commit such faults so that I may repeatedly feel the pressure of your feet.”
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Further to stress the purifying effect of suffering, Anandamayi Ma tells the story of a pitcher which became a puja vessel. Originally it had been just an ordinary clump of earth on which people trampled and into which people dug with sharp spades. Later the earth was taken to a potter who kneaded it and put it on a potter’s wheel, turned it around, moulded it and fired it to make it hard and solid. Only then was it fit to be used as a puja vessel and sacred Ganges water poured into it. Similarly human vessels have to be moulded to become fit instruments for the divine spirit. “Be enduring as earth, then divine life will be awakened in you.” By looking at suffering from a truly monistic point of view, another dimension emerges: “Who is it that loves and who is that who suffers? He alone stages a play with himself. The individual suffers because he perceives duality. Find the One everywhere and in everything and there will be an end to pain and suffering..
Since Anandamaya Ma urges man to start upon the return trip to the Divine One, does she imply that man has free will successfully to undertake the journey by his own efforts?
As we well know, theologians across the centuries have disputed this thorny question. She makes it clear that there is a subtle interrelationship between free will and grace, free will being, in the ultimate sense, a part of grace, as contradictory as this may sound, and thus She states:
“Verily, everything in the world is achieved by will-power. If, by determination and patience, someone can translate his highest ideals into life, his actions will be inspired. Such a worker is backed by divine power.”
As long as we are in ignorance, we are seemingly free in minor matters only. Our weaknesses, our inadequacies bind us. We are the slaves of our moods, cravings and impulses and our old thinking patterns. If we have had fame or a fortune etc., we will cling to this, no matter what, until we discover that these old thought patterns of past karmas are a hinderance to us. All our unresolved problems from the past should be met with courge and overcome. This will allow us to continue on our spiritual journey. Any weaknesses or refusal to deal with our karmas will result in failure. Thus, a strong will power is essential on the spiritual path…
Anandamayi Ma likens the average man’s freedom to that of a cow which is tied by a rope to a post. Within the limits of the rope she (the cow) has freedom. But, of course, were the cow able to break loose from the rope, she would gain complete freedom. Similarly, the person who makes the right spiritual efforts can cut the finite world of pseudo-happiness and attain freedom.
Might add this is New Year’s Eve in Puttaparthi… Could be Bombay or London. (smile) – So few people for the morning bhajans and vedas, but so many out eating in restaurants and doing all the partying stuff. I really cannot understand why these folks, when given the chance to lap up the many blessings here in Puttaparthi at the moment, don’t take more advantge of it. But folks, that’s the way it goes. I did notice this doesn’t happen at ‘Krishna Consciousness’ Centres and temples – perhaps because they make their own food… 🙂
Will be hopefully offering more positive reports in the upcoming days….
New Year’s day update:
Happy New Year to one and all… Very nice darshan this morning. The Hall was only half-full until 9 a.m. The VIPs were few in number today but Baba’s family came to enjoy the concert. They sit opposite to where I sit on the ledge beside the chair ladies. The boy’s brass band gave a short concert of interesting music. They actually played very well and kudos to them for their choice of tunes….. (popular 1930’s blues music… ) Now everyone is off for the New Year lunch/brunch and once more Puttparthi is thrown into chaos. I had an appointment with the massage ladies and spent my time relaxing and taking a steam bath. Hopefully, the massages will help relieve my 18 month bout of tendonitis in my knee.
I want to mention again the decorations in the hall are still up and dancing in the breeze. Today they added even more pretty ones all around the Samadhi – a really colourful selection of joyous colours and shapes that took my eye. We were able to watch the morning activities from the large video screen on the ladies side.
I will be posting later on next week on morning darshans. This is the time when I feel the best vibes are in the hall. The peace and quiet reminds me of days of old when Baba used to come out from the temple and be with us. Yes, for me anyway, the mornings, here right now, are a good reminder of those far off days.
Also will be doing a New Years report on all those ‘famous’ or well known devotees who have generously shared their videos and books with us over the years. Sometimes too generously but there you go, we can forgive that… 🙂 Many of them are now Old-Age Pensioners and some have already left for the celestial planes. So I feel it’s time to take a short walk down Memory Lane “Sai Wise”…. There is no one quite like George Harrison, who was a Krishna Consciousness devotee, to add to our list, but none-the-less, we have a few goodies. I will probably start with Al Drucker, who is my all-time favourite early devotee. His erudite writings are a joy to read and have inspired many. Now he resides in Florida in the USA and has been heavily involved with the the teachings of The Course In Miracles. – Well more later….
It’s raining again so i decided it was time to create a video of my garden. I can’t sit in my garden this summer, it’s far too wet, but I can look at my photos. Actually, i spent the morning weeding and cutting back tree branches, until the skies opened and drenching rain poured down, putting an end to the weeding work. I am sure my 1/3rd of an acre garden has been the biggest joy and sense of achievement in my life, although it is hard work.
I don’t expect to live here for too many more years. But I have such fond memories of sweet summers and dazzling golden falls, through my collection of digital photos. Now with you tubes on line, we ‘all’ can capture our pleasant moments and keep them forever. We’re Really blessed that way.
This you tube, should you decide to watch is better seen on LARGE screen.
One day someone asked me, “How can I progress in spite of everyday difficulties?” I gave the somewhat hard answer, “How can you get to the second floor in spite of the stairs?” So the real question on the path is: “How can I progress on the Way thanks to every day difficulties.”
– Arnaud Desjardins
My thanks to Michel Tardieu for this wonderful website and introducing me to French Advaita Vedanta Master Arnaud Desjardins. My impression of him is that he was the “real deal” (he passed away just last year) and that one on the advaitan path could learn so much from such a wise and good-hearted teacher.
Swami Prajnanpad was a traditional Hindu monk who lived on a tiny ashram outside of Calcutta. He was virtually unknown outside of his small circle of students. Prior to this while teaching science at the University level, Swamiji discovered and studied the work of Sigmund Freud. He later incorporated critical elements of early psychoanalysis into the traditional spiritual path of non-dualism that he offered. Arnaud absorbed Swami Prajnanpad’s precise and potent Advaita Vedanta teachings over a period of nine years and was then sent to teach in his own right. For the following thirty years Arnaud guided his body of students, which grew to be about 2000 in number, and inspired other teachers and students from many different paths. Arnaud left his body in August of 2011, though his widespread influence continues to inspire practitioners all over the world. His wisdom and instruction are sought through his French books and films as well as these teachings in English. His senior students sustain his ashrams in France and Canada and continue making Arnaud and Swami Prajnanpad’s teachings available.
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Arnaud Desjardin Speaking to Enlightenment Magazine
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Though Sri Mataji Anandamayi Ma was not, strictly speaking, my guru, she certainly played a major role, to say the least, in my life and my sadhana [spiritual practice]. In fact, she still does today. Her memory is alive deep within my heart and there are several pictures of her on the walls of the ashram where I now teach.From my first physical encounter with her, in 1959, to the day in 1965 when she gave me her blessing to go to Sri Swami Prajnanpad (1891-1974), a relatively unknown master who was to become my guru—though I’d rather say of whom I gradually became the disciple—I considered Mataji as my guru. During those years, I repeatedly stayed with her for extended periods of time. Even after meeting Swami Prajnanpad, I always felt her active influence and kept visiting her, up to my last trip to India a few years before she left her body.To state things simply, I could say that, though in the course of my search and travels I have had the privilege to closely approach quite a few extraordinary beings—Tibetans, Sufis, Hindu gurus and Zen masters, many of whom left a deep imprint in my heart—to me Anandamayi Ma was and remains the embodiment of transcendence, the living proof of the actual existence of a transcendental reality. “Extraordinary,” “superhuman,” “divine”. . . I still feel today that no adjective is big enough to describe her presence, particularly when I met her, in the full blossoming of her radiance. I could barely believe that such a being could walk the earth in a human form, and I have no difficulty understanding how a whole theology was developed around her. I never, never met a sage whose divine appearance I admired so much. In truth, I admired her beyond all words.Thousands of pilgrims were of course similarly touched by her extraordinary presence, but I’d rather insist here on another aspect of Mataji: the relentless way in which she sometimes crucified the ego of those who wanted more than her occasional blessing. In fact, in her ashram, there was a very clear distinction between two kinds of visitors: those who came for her darshan [personal audience] and who received a warm welcome, and those who insisted on being considered her disciples, who were challenged and put on edge, to the limit of what they were able to bear—but never beyond. No guru wants to bring someone to absolute despair or to leaving the path because of unbearable trials. During the years when Denise Desjardins and myself were spending several months within the ashram as candidates to discipleship rather than as mere visitors, we went through a lot of that “special treatment.”Of course I realize, as I am about to recall a few examples of that treatment, that these stories may look very innocent, not so terrible to casual readers. The truth is, it is always easy to hear descriptions of someone else’s sadhana and to imagine: “Oh, had I been in this situation, I would not have been affected in such a way. I would have immediately taken it as a lesson, a challenge to my ego, etc. . . .” When you actually are tested, when your mind and ego are being provoked through situations which sometimes are in themselves very simple disappointments and difficulties, you are not hearing a story anymore. You’re in the fire, plunged into what constitutes the essence of all sadhanas: a persistent, sometimes harsh challenging of your ego and mind through situations which call into question your present identifications and attachments.
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In those years, I was a professional filmmaker, working for French television. One of the things Mataji used to crucify my ego and teach me was the film I was shooting in her ashram. She sometimes granted me exceptional opportunities and then caused me to waste my last rolls, which I had very much been counting on. This was hard to accept. Following the advice of one of her ashramites, I had preciously saved three rolls of film until the very end of my stay. This had caused me to renounce shooting scenes which could have been important. Then, during those last days, every time I started filming, Anandamayi Ma, in front of everybody, either turned her head or winced. This was all the more cruel to me since I believed the person who had asked me to save those rolls had been inspired by Ma. Eventually, Ma only allowed me to shoot one roll. As this was after sunset, I was convinced there would be no visible image on the film. Incredible as it may seem, there was something: three of what may well be the most beautiful shots of the whole film, where Ma can be seen at night surrounded by a few disciples. These miraculous forty seconds were worth the sacrifice of those three rolls. Once she asked me to project the images which to me were most precious with some worn-out Indian equipment, when I knew for sure that it would irremediably damage the film.
I also remember a particular incident. I had always dreamed of meeting what I then called true yogis—not yoga teachers, but yogis having attained mastery over certain energies or developed certain powers. To me, those yogis embodied the whole legend of India. They lived in the high valley of the Ganges where I had not yet been able to go, since the Indian government had not granted me the special permit then necessary to travel to that region. One of those famous yogis was about to come down to the plains to visit Anandamayi Ma. On this very day, Ma asked me if I could travel with my Land Rover to a distance of some 150 kilometers where I was to pick up some luggage and bring it back. The roads were not tarred, it was raining, there was mud all over, so that when I left the ashram, the yogi had not arrived, and when I came back, he had already left. To me, at the time, this was a terrible disappointment indeed, a broken dream.
Every time my ego desperately wanted to be acknowledged by Ma, circumstances were such that I could not see her privately for weeks. But once, when, after having gone through what one usually calls intense pain, I at last changed my inner attitude, she herself took me for a ride in the car. I was alone with her, the driver, and a great pundit whom I very much admired. She had me sit next to her and did not allow anyone else to go with us.
We often had the impression that others were also brought to teach us and that the whole world was consciously or unconsciously serving Mother’s purpose. She was an incredible source of energy, the center of a huge activity.
It is difficult to imagine what surrender to Anandamayi Ma, as some of her closest disciples were living it, could mean. I remember one monk whose ideal of life was to meditate. He had been meditating in an isolated ashram in the Himalayas and was very happy, until Ma appointed him as the swami in charge of the Delhi ashram. Every day, he had to deal with curious visitors, Europeans, people from the embassies and consulates. He was forced to be no longer a meditator but an administrator, immersed head to toe in active life—the exact opposite of what he had been aspiring to. He was working twenty hours a day and I even once saw him slowly fall down. He had simply fallen asleep while walking. Just contemplating Anandamayi’s radiant smile, one could not imagine the pressure she put on some—in the name of ultimate freedom.
To conclude, I’d like to say that, remembering Ma as well as my guru, Swami Prajnanpad, I feel especially grateful for the occasions when they caused me pain, when they brought suffering to my ego. They, of course, never did me any harm. On the contrary, everything they did, whether they smiled or were angry at me, served my ultimate good. But they certainly made me feel severely hurt at times.
And the truth is, one cannot make any progress in one’s sadhana if one’s ego and mind are not sometimes painfully shaken.
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Arnaud Desjardins is the author of many books, including two which have been translated into English: Toward the Fullness of Life (Threshold Books) and The Jump Into Life: Moving Beyond Fear (Hohm Press). He resides and teaches at his ashram, Hauteville, in the south of France. (died in 2011)
-Source Enlightenment Magazine
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An adult is one who has lost the grace, the freshness, the innocence of the child, who is no longer capable of feeling pure joy, who makes everything complicated, who spreads suffering everywhere, who is afraid of being happy, and who, because it is easier to bear, has gone back to sleep. The wise man is a happy child. ~ Arnaud Desjardins
Vedanta teaches Oneness of Existence,Unity in Diversity. Also teaches that God is infinite existence, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss. The term for this impersonal, transcendent reality is Brahman, the divine ground of being. Yet Vedanta also maintains that God can be personal as well, assuming human form in every age.
Most importantly, God dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our failings nor affected by the fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or despair or disease or ignorance. Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within the human heart.
♥♥♥♥♥~Divine Inspirations ♥♥♥♥♥
The Source Of Vedanta
There is a story in Mundaka Upaishad that runs like this: Once in a tree there were two birds, one at the upper branch, serene, majestic and divine, and the other at a lower branch, restlessly pecking fruits, sometimes sweet sometimes bitter. Every time, when the restless bird ate a bitter fruit, it looked at the upper bird and climbed a branch up. This occurred a number of times and eventually the bird reached the topmost branch. There it was not able to differentiate itself from the divine bird, and then it learned that there was only one bird in the tree, the upper bird, which is described as divine, the real form of the other restless bird. This is the thought of Vedanta. The fruits in the story are Karma, the restless bird denotes a human soul, and the majestic bird denotes the Absolute. ~ Wikipedia…
♥♥♥♥♥~Divine Inspirations ♥♥♥♥♥
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Just added a wonderful website with old bhajans sung by the incredible Anandamayi Ma. This is a real treat for me. 🙂 I must thank my friend, Michel Tardieu for this wonderful piece of history.
Click the link above, then follow down the page to the music sections with a list of bhajans, and “Menu.” Then press the bhajan button. There are several bhajans to choose from. You will also hear Ma’s explosive laugh after the first two bhajans. I don’t know what the joke is about, I cannot tell. She is really having fun with her bhajans though and her laugh is quite hilarious. The first bhajan is Ram Ram Ram, He Baghavan, Hari Bol, Sita Ram, and one more…
Children Of Light 