FATALISM?

Dr Sripada Gopalakrishna Murthy
Magazine : Matrusri English
Language : English
Volume Number : 2
Month : October
Issue Number : 7
Year : 1967

‘WHAT should I do Mother, if the mind is not steady, while I do japam?’

‘An attempt has started. has it not? A feeling has arisen in the mind that it is not steady, and that it has to be s’eadied to help you do something. This feeling was not there hitherto it started now. That great initiative, which has started this feeling itself will give you, rt the proper’ time, what it has in store for you.”

***

I tell you, do what you feel you can. There is nothing, however, which we can do by yourselves. When I say so, you may get discouraged. Listen; you can’t do anyway the particular saadhana which I might prescribe for you. Directives like, ‘Do this japa this way every day’, ‘sit steady, holding your breath’ etc are no good; you can’t do so any way. That is why I am asking you to do what you could; for is He not the initiator of all (human) initiative?”

***

These and like words from Mother make us believe that she is a fatalist. “She would have us trust that things will take their predetermined course and so there is nothing that could be done in the matter; one has only to go through life’s experiences as they overtake him. This is the philosophy of a helpless housewife, who is denied even the thought of pleasure all through her life!” we exclaim. But one significant fact must not be lost sight of here. She does not ask a saadhaka to site quiet, in anticipation of divine action. She even says, you can’t sit quiet. If you believe you can, just try and let me know the result!” Man can’t sit quiet. he must be doing something all the time.

The two gentlemen spoke of above have been trying to do some jepa or dhyanum. One found his mind unsteady and another found that his practice did not give quick returns. One asks for a recipe to steady his mind, and another for upadesam from mother direct. Doesn’t their attitude look like a patient’s Lear a doctor? They are asking for pills to swallow. They would, on leir part swallow the pill, and thereafter the pill itself must work, not they. Mother know their attitude too well and so she said Do what you feel fit to do. Some persons put questions to Mother just to satisfy their companions as to their ability to put a question to her. Some others may ask just to oblige her by cliciting an opinion from her! A practical diffi culty in saadana is rarely put forth to her. For instance, one lady asked her, ‘How could one attain to adraita siddhi, while staying with a family? That lady could not have realised what she was asking to know. She has heard about Advaita Siddhi’ from a pouraanika, and that she is in samsaara. How could I atten?? might have been her immediate question. Now that she has come to the ‘learned’ lady of Jillellamudi, she must present that problem to her! Notwithstanding any such background, Mother gives her an answer. Enough if one treats her daughter and daughter-in law alike’. This however is the hackneyed boast of every house” wife. So, that lady asked, ‘is that enough? Mother replied, i that is first achieved, the rest can be looked to later!’ What does a mother look at in her daughter someone that is her’s! She looks at her daughter-in-law as not hers but someone else’s! Mother tells her that when a daughter and daughter-in-law are considered equally her own, everything else could be her own too, and this is advaita siddhi! In Mother’s replies to the first two gentlemen as well, there is a useful reply. To the first one she meant, “you are on your way; you have reached the stage of not being satisfied with the little steadiness you got. You want a way to keep the mind steadier. And that again for what?- for concentrating it on Him Now, listen. It is He, who is responsible for all acts. He will help you to steady your mind. Pray to Him. Ther is nothing like someone else (like me or another) giving a recipe to concentrate on, or consecrate to God. There need not be an inter mediary between you and God. God is accessible always’. To the second one, her directive is, probably, There are methods and methods to reach God. Methods have been preached since centuries, No amount of discussion will help you go forward even by an inch. Progress is an approach to God, not just a doing. Without a hearty dedication, no progress is possible. You can’t dedicate yourself to what another asks you to do. So, continue what you are able to do. When everything we see is aatman, where is the need for you. to ask someone else for a path? Your sincere doing is a path. Don’t worry about other paths. Worry, about the goal. That itself is a path.’

To a devotee Yellamanda by name, Mother told, you don’t do anything (to increase this feeling of devotion), my chill. That Force its: If will do all’. She does not approve of a Yantra or exercise to increase devotion. Devotedness to God will itself iner as devotion. A disciple approached a muslim saint and requested him, kindly permit me to take this gentleman towards Gd. The saint promptly replied ‘Allow him to go towards God. Don’t words. btract him towards you.’ That is implicit in Mother’s words.

Turning to Mo: Ler’s talk about the absence of individual effert, this is not new. In the pantheistic concept every initiative, every result, every thing is God. There is none else but God. Krishna explicitly tells Arjuna, I have already killed them all, you be just a pretext’. ‘Responsibility for neither the act nor the result is vested by the libhu on the individual; only srabhava makes him arrogate both to himself, It is this swabhart only that made Hiranya Kashipu deny any God other than himself. (We could exolain also by saying tha to Hiranya, worlly strength alone. Fignified divinity, and he founded on it). This was the case of svabhara swinging to one extreme. Modern denials of God are denials of godliness interpreted. but not godliness inherent in the universe.

Every point in a wavefront is the source of a wave itself And the wave-front that advances is the resultant of all the wavelets, starting from all over the anterior wavefront. The truth about individual human effort is almost this. Where the result accords to the effect of a wave starting from an individual point, it is attributed to the individual, by passing the phenomenon of narrowing down of the gap of circumstances, which gives a result pointing at individual effort. Scientific philosophy is tending towards supporting the idea of macroscopic determinism inspite of obvious evidence of a sort of free-will in mi roscopic phenomena like the radioactive and quantum processes. If that is not an indictment of free-will, why is Mother’s teaching one?

In saying Karmani era adhikaraka the, the Gita concedes initiative (for the time being), to the individual in order that ho might first learn that results are hot in the field of his manouvre. Krishna urges Arjuna to do his duty. Why? Because it will be acting in conformity with chama or G will. Mother does not recommend inaction: she asks us to do every act as service to God or as God would have us do. The emphasis is on God, not on individual initiative nor on inaction. She replaces the idea, I shall do by If it pleases you, my Lord, help me do this. She marshalls us into God’s army, but not into individual commanders acting on our own’. Her’s is 1.ot fatalism but monism. The former is defeatist, while the latter is conformist. The former leads to vaikalya. the latter to Kaivalya. Advocacy of free-will leads to a chaotic and random integration, while determinism gives an ordered, if stable picture.

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