“Mother, we have so many weaknesses and blemishes; we commit so many mistakes and yet we come to you to beg for your pardon. You can do nothing but pardon” said a brother once to Mother.
“There is nothing like pardoning children on the part of Mother. A true mother does not find fault with her children or for that matter with anybody in the world. Don’t worry.” replied Mother consolingly.
According to AMMA, Mother means the beginning and the end. She is the very source of the Energy that transforms into the manifest and unmanifest worlds. The ONE CAUSE that is responsible for the emergence of the entire universe is to be blamed or praised for good or bad. Because everything is a part and parcel of that ONE CAUSE, or to be precise, that cause itself. If we see that One Cause in everything and everywhere where is the room for finding faults with others? ‘The so-called good or – bad is but the manifestation of the Energy for which there is only one cause. I see only that one thing in all of you and so I cannot find fault with you. In my view, your worship to me is the worship to the very symbol of that ONE THING.’
It is from this view-point that Mother gives us consolation and also infinite courage to meet any challenge in life. A person who can understand even a little bit of the above explanation given by Mother will never waste his time in finding faults with others but go on doing his duty which he consciously feels that it is ordained for him.
Here I am reminded of a beautiful saying uttered by Mother Seeta the beloved wife of Lord Rama “Na kaschit – – naaparadhyati”, meaning no one is above error. The incident that prompted Her to say so was this in a nut-shell: when Rama was crowned with success, Hanuman approached Seeta, and asked Her permission to torture the Rakshasa women that tormented Her earlier in the Asoka garden. Humbling Hanuman. Seeta gave him a long lesson. The crowning part of it is given here in the famous translation of the Rt. Hon. V. S. Srinivasa Sastri – “A; righteous man ought not to be turned down from the right by the sin of a sinner. The rule of honor is inviolable. Good men have only one jewel, their unblemished conduct, and they must guard it come what may. Be they good men or bad, be they deserving of death, still must they be pardoned and treated with mercy by one claiming to be an Arya, For no one is above error. So then let us give up the idea of retaliation or retribution and abstain from injury even to miscreants and persecutors of mankind.
Here we notice a happy resemblance between the mental attitudes of Amma and Seeta. Now I quote a similar or rather more excellent incident that took place during Amma’s childhood :
When Amma was hardly five or six, she, decorated with gold ornaments, happened to go to the sea-shore near Bapatla. A fisher-man saw this beautiful innocent child and took her into his arms affectionately. When he began to talk to her his eyes were drawn towards the glittering gold ornaments. Offering the child a sweet fruit, he slowly took all the ornaments into his hand and packed them in his loin-cloth. Then he said to himself, “This little girl can talk. She may tell anybody about my misdeed”. “I must do away with her”- suddenly a cruel thought arose in his mind and instantly hurled her into the raging sea. In a twinkling, his eyes were dazzled with a sudden flash of light in the sea and he fell down unconscious. Gaining his consciousness in a few seconds, he saw the little girl whom he hurled just then into the sea, standing on the sea shore and smiling sweetly and benignly at him. The fisher-man saw something unusual and supernatural in her looks and shuddered at the very thought of his theft and prostrated before her not knowing what he was doing and begged for her pardon. Casting benign looks at him, Amma said – “My child, do not worry. You are in need of money. I’ll not tell anybody of you. You can have the ornaments. You did nothing to me. Protection and destruction are in the hands of only ONE FORCE which is responsible for the entire creation. Do not grieve”. Of course, the fisherman repented for his past misdeeds also. He adorned Amma with the ornament and escorted her to her house. So goes the story.
Here we find a splendid example of Mother’s love and affection which crossed all limitations of cause and motive. This type of causeless and motiveless love when applied to God is called Bhakti, when applied to the service of humanity is called karma yoga and when applied to the pursuit of truth is called Jnana.
It is this kind of love that Amma inculcates in us through Her short and pithy sayings. In fact, all sayings of Mother are pregnant with lofty meanings provided we have an eye that can unravel them.
May AMMA bless us at least with an understanding of this love if not with its practice.
(One of the rare articles of Dr. Pannala Radhakrishna Sarma in English. Reproduced from ‘Matrusri’ (English) Journal of April 1978)