Mother,
How do you remember me amidst so many of your children after such a long time?” some- one asked Mother. When the shepherd remembers all his sheep individually, should it be sur prising that the Mother should remember everyone among her children” she replied.
“Jesus, hast thou come?” exclaimed a leper woman in the leper home in Bapatla, looking on an unusual visitor. “Nay. it’s the one that begot Jesus. it’s Mary” said her neighbour. The unusual visitor was none other than Mother. She visited the leper home a few years ago at Bapatla.
As thoughts of the fast opp- roaching Christmas cross my mind, I am tempted to reflect on the basic similarities between the two manifestations of God Mother and Jesus Christ in wha tever clime or time they might have appeared. As lights aglow with the same Light that is God, they are basically identical though outwardly the colour the Maker had imparted to the indi vidual bulbs might vary. As long as the bulbs are aglow with Illumination, they are one with the Light that is God. Jesus Christ who was free from origi na sin’ and Mother who is Perfect even at her birth are like the bulbs that never ceases to glow i. e. that never cease to be one with the Light that is God. This Christ described ast acting according to the will of the Father in heaven and the fulfilment of the scriptures’. This’, Mother describes as the fulfilment of the ‘Adi Samkalpa of the Word which was in the Beginning, the Word that is God. By This’ I mean the res pective manifestations of God Jesus Christ in the first instance and Mother in the second. This eternal abidance in the ‘one- ness’ with God is what Jesus described as attainment of the kingdom of God which he said is within and it is what Mother calls the Sahaja State or Salaja Samadhi i. e. the state in which Samadhi or the highest level of consciousness is permanently established in one as one’s natural state. The lives of Jesus Christ and the Holy Mother have stri- king similarities, In both the cases their birth was preceded by divine intimations to their parents. An angel appeared to John in his dream and said that which is conceived in her (Mary) is of the Holy Ghost…he shall save his people from their sins, So it was with Mother’s brith, Once when Sri Seethapathi was sitting under a tamarind tree in Ponnur, he had a vision in which he saw a girl of seven transfign red herself into Lord Chennake swara and Goddess Lakshmi and again attained the form of the girl. He could not understand the purport of the vision and expained it away that it was a recollection of the seven year old daughter who died some time earlier. Later when his wife Rangamma was pregnant, he had a dream in which the whole of his house was cleared of all its furniture and in the middle of the house, a middle aged woman was sitting with a big round of Kumkum on her forehead. Who are you?’ he asked. I am the Mother’ she replied. My mother?’ he again asked. I am the Mother of all she replied. The dream ended. Later Sri Seethapathi sought a learned Brahmin for the purport of the dream and was told that a Divine Child is about to take its birth in the family, one who would bestow salvation on many souls. As he recounted these experiences to me later, Sri Sethapathi remarked that the forms he had seen in the vision. and in the dream later proved to be exactly those of Mother when she was a girl of seven and when she is a housewife. No wonder that before his death, Sri See thapathi worshipped Mother i.e. his own daughter as his beloved Lord
The divine nature of both the infants Mother and Jesus were revealed early to one and all. Mother’s birth synchroni sed as though by accident with a festive celebration in the temple of Mamava. Flags were hoisted, conches were blown, bells were sounded and the deity was brought out of the sanctum sanctorum and at that moment. of her birth she bestowed divine visions and experience to every one there as recounted under the feature “The Descent of the Divine’ in the earlier issues of ‘Matrusri’. Later when Mother visited Tiruvallur at the age of five, a Sadhu recognised her divinity and indicated it to her father. So too when Jesus was born the star of Bethlehem guided the Wisemen of the East to Jesus. Angelic Visions inti mated the birth of Christ to the shepherds in the vicinity. When the child was taken to the temple the pious old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna fore told the future glory of the child Jesus
At quite an early age hoth displayed a profound depth of intellect. When he was barely twelve years old, Jesus gave a slip to his parents in Jerusalem and was found three days later. discussing with great doctors, Mother’s dialogues with her grandfather Sri Chidambar Rao even as a girl of four, her conver- sation with a pontiff like Sri Kalyanananda Bharati of Guntur when she was barely seven years old bear a close resemblance. Jesus, being asked by his parents as to why he tarried, replied that he was after his Father’s busi- ness. Mother being asked by Kolyanananda Bharati as to why she addressed him as child replied that was Her mission.
Though both of them were born Perfect, none came to be recogni sed early in life. When Christ was past thirty there went out a fame of him through all the region round about” (St. Luke 4:14). Mother too came to be known to all only when she was thirty three.
The parallel does not end at that. There is a fundamental unity in their teaching. Thongh both of them are above all tradition and righteousness by virtue of their Perfection, both stand for the fulfilment of righ teousness. *I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me” John asked Jesus: “it becameth us to fulfil all right eousness replied Jesus. Mother’s attitude towards Sri B. Nage swara Rao is that of a perfect Indian housewife towards her husband. Every morning Mother is seen to offer oblation to Her Mangala Sutra and partake of that water as theertha!
Yet Christ was criticised for violating certain of the Jewish traditions like partaking of his food without cleansing his hand, eating on the day of fasting, healing the sick on the sabbath day and eating in the company of publicans and sinners. The hard boiled orthodox Hindus. have similar comments to make against Mother. They forget the scriptural authority that what. ever path a Perfect one treads becomes perfect. She is accused of not advocating observance of caste differences. It is a strange irony that, every time, a divine incarnation is missed by those who are blindfolded with conce. pts of their own making. They are hated because both of them exploded the ignorance hypocra ey, and even curruption that are hidden under the garb of orthodoxy and tradition.
Once again it is a strange similarity between them that while both are not understood by the learned who are blinded by their learning, their divinity is perceived more readily by the innocent, and the simpleminded and the humble ones. Brother Raju sang of Her “How strange! you are not known to those that knew much. But are known to those who knew not!”
“I thank thee. O father’ said Jesus “that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” “(-St. Luke 10:21)
As with Mother, so it was with Jesus that his ministration was specially for sinners. When some visitor said to Mother that grace goes more to the ‘deserved’, Mother replied “If I were to talk in terms of deser vedness, there is none that can step this side of the seventh mile. In fact, though the Mother’s love is equal towards all Her children, She is more anxious about Her ‘lost’ sons. Those whom you call sinners need my love more than the virtuous”. In fact, in the eyes of the Mother, the children never seem wicked or else she is not a mother,” Jesus said “joy shall he in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick; I came not to call the right-. eous but the sinners to repenta nce,” he declared, (St. Mark2:17) When people wanted to stone an adulterous woman to death he told them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her (St. John 8: 7) and there was none! This is the purport of Mother’s words, Mother says good or evil is what is given by the Creator to man and man has no responsibility and he cannot help being what he is. Such seems the purport of these words of Jesus:- for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.” Jesus himself says that Judas was ordained to betray him and that Peter shall deny him thrice before the cock crew; and so they did
Mother said that Her mission is not ‘Sikshana (punishing the wicked) but Rakshana (prote ction). I came not to judge the world but to save the world’ said Jesus. Again when his disciples offered to burn the Samaritans who did not wel come Jesus, with fire from heaven, Jesus rebuked them, the Son of man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. Resist not evil is Mother’s method with the wicked and strangely eigh those who bitterly hated Her without cause overcan e their hatred and became Her beloved children. Her active goodness succeeded in turning wicked ones into good.
When someone spoke of their finding Mother by their good fortune, Mother told them that ‘finding’ Her did not rest with them; but that it was She that chose to receive them. She even told a whole batch of visi tors from Chirala that after a particular period they would not be able to visit Her even if they wished: for their time was draw ing to a close. I did happen so. She even said. I can not be known: ye know me only when I reveal myself to you. Ye have not chosen me: but I have chosen you.’ declared Jesus. He also said, no man knoweth the Son, but the father: neither knoweth any man the Father, Save the and he to whomso ever the Son will reveal him.
Now we come to miracles that they had worked. Christ declared that he only executed the Will of God and did nothing by himself. The same idea is conveyed by Mother when she usually says it is destined to happen and so it happened; I did nothing. What seems a miracle to you seems very natural to me. What greater miracle can be there than Creation? Miracles are not done; they happen because they are ordained’. Yet to those whom She graced with absolute faith in Her divinity, She frankly admits, What is there to be attained through me! I am the Mother. What is there to be attained through Mother? Seeing Mother is attaining! Mother means that which has no Beginning and no End: That which is the Beginn- ing and the End; that which has become everything and which cannot be comprehended! Simi- larly did Jesus declare I and my Father are one (St. John 10: 30). He that hath seen me hath seen the Father: and how sayest thoue then, Shew us the Father? (St. John 14:9). T am the truth, I am the way and I am the life’ (St. John 14:6).
This close parallel between their statements must suffice to dispel the mistaken notion that while Mother speaks identifying of children to the barren ing Herself with God, Christ always spoke of Him as a sepa rate entity, as a Father.
Of the type of miracles that they had done, there are many similarities. Christ multiplied five loaves of bread and two fishes so as to serve several thousands. He is said to have healed the sick, raised the dead and even empowered his apostles to work those miracles. In the carly days when Mother. was cooking food for all, several people wanted to catch her unawares. They would arrive in large numbers at odd hours and demand food in haste. Coolly she would welcome them to sit; and out of a vessel of rice that would hardly feed four, she used to serve food for any number. A similar incident took place on some festive occasion. One Mr Dattatreyulu of Guntur, who was serving for the multi tude complained to Mother that a milk preparation is insufficient for all to be served. But sh wanted him to serve. What ha feared would not be sufficient even for a hundred, he served on for a thousand and that, to their satisfaction, and still a little was left! Mother smiled and evaded by saying “Probably they ate little. Healing the sick, grant and such cases are countless. And like Jasus, Mother always enjoined secrecy on those to whom she admitted the miracle to be her doing or attributed it to their faith in Her. After making a dumb, deaf man whole, Christ Charged them that they should tell no man’. But they declared his greatness the more. Not so in Mother’s case. If she enjoins secrecy, nothing comes out. The experiences of devotees like Krishnavenamma (Published in the July issue of Matri Sri’) would not have come out if ? Mother were not to be persuaded into permitting them to recount their experiences. So even if there were to be cases of raising the dead- I was told by a relia- ble authority that there were, it is with the greatest difficulty that they can be known, if at all. Like Mother, Christ also often attributed a miracle to the faith of the disciple: ‘thy faith hath made thee whole he declared often. In the matter. of healing the sick, people say about Mother, that She some- times takes the ailments on Herself and suffers for our sake though Mother denies it as she denies every thing. So too it is written by St. Matthew (8:16-17) thus he healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying Him self took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses’. And like Christ, She is sometimes said to take the suffering on while healing and not at other times,
Christ wielded power over the forces of Nature; he is said to have effectively rebuked a storm to calm down. Mr. R. Lakshminarayana of Guntur recounted a similar incident. He was one of a group of four who were enjoying the presence of Mother on a moonlit night and that the sky was clear. When Mother brought something for them to eat they insisted on sitting in the moonlight and partaking of it. It may rain’. She said. But the sky is quite clear, there is not a single clond above they asserted. Alright she said and after serving the dishes to them, when they were about to eat, she lifted Her hands to the sky and waved and said ‘Come rain! Come!! Swiftly very small cloud swam Across the sky, rested above them and poured down heavily when they were forced to run for shelter She laughed and laughed. They had to cat in the place whither She first directed them! Similarly as something boils on the owen, She puts Her hand deep into it and the heat does not hurt Her.
Concerning the subject of miracles I once argued with Herself Mother that if she were to own the miracles and frankly shower them on us, our faith would in crease and hence we will be bene fited. Mother told me that faith does not always spring from witnessing a miracle or enjoying a favour therefrom; that, such faith is equally liable to be lost if miracles do not continuously take place; and that faith can be directly induced without displaying miracle which in fact constituted the real miracle. At first I thought that it is Her usual bit of escapism. But on reflection I realised that there were those that saw but believed not Christ and his miracles and there are among the devotees of Mother those faith was spontaneous and unconditioned by any miraculous experience. Later when I studied The Bible these words of Jesus seemed to touch the rare truth that Mother had pronounced: Jesus said to Tho- mas, who did not believe till he saw, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’ (st. John 20: 29)
Parallels can thus be endlessly drawn between the two. But what had been said is sufficient to reveal the essential unity that underlies all the manifestations. of God. To try to assess which of the two is the more complete manifestation is fruitless. For we are incompetent for that. And if we venture, the result. would be a sad betrayal of our prejudices against the one or the other. It is enough if we prost rate before them that our minds may be enlightened.