Balaiah, Narasimharao (teacher) and others were sitting with
Amma.
Mother: I said that poverty is a goddess and fortune also is a goddess.
Balaiah: Then, who is the goddess you want to have?
Mother: I want the goddess of poverty only. I have to go through troubles. I should give happiness to all. Balaiah: In that case, did all these goddesses emerge from one & the same – power or did they originate separately? Emerge individually?
Mother: All are there in that power only.
Balaiah: Do they (really) exist?
Mother: Aren’t we experiencing? Though we are all children of that power, if we touch fire, it will burn. Just as fire has the power to burn, poverty, too, troubles us.
Balaiah: Fire is a necessity. But why poverty?
Mother: Why riches? For the same reason, poverty. Balaiah: But, then, what is the necessity for that power/energy to create poverty?
Mother: Since creation willed it, as needed, it is there.
(conversation ‘Ammato Sambhashanalu’ by Dr. Sripada Gopalakrishna Murty, Matrusri Publications No. 25)
Mother’s explanation for the existence of poverty will puzzle even seasoned economists like Professor Amartya Sen! While all attempts, all over the world, are being desperately made to remove poverty, here is Mother saying affluence exists always as indigence does? The Shakti which is the origin of the cosmos (defined in terms of chaos) is also the source of both these factors. Factors which our world is experiencing right from the beginning in spite of our repeated efforts to bring the same standard of affluent living to all.
Then, if both exist and are available for choice, Amma chooses poverty. She desires to go through troubles. Do any one of us dare to embrace poverty? I doubt it. This raises the question of not only choice but also the strange case of opting for poverty. Strange? No, because both are creations of the same power. If you really believe this, whether poverty is your lot, or riches is your luck, choosing one often hardly matters. Our choice is, in fact, non-existent. Both are Mother’s creations. If you firmly believe that, your choice is immaterial. “All are there in that power only”.
Balaiah now poses what looks like a clever question. “Do they really exist?” Implying that, embracing (false) Advaita, you can embrace the belief that both are maya: Cosmic Illusions. Are they? Amma takes an analogy: fire is Nature’s creation and we touch it, it burns. In short, we experience poverty: it is an experiential reality. Each has its characteristic quality: fire burns, poverty troubles. So both poverty and riches are “willed” realities intentionally created, as any other pair, in this dualistic world by the same Shakti. Shakti created it because it is needed.
What is the need? The need is there because the world is built to take a clue from Sri Ram Sir with the bricks of dualism. In this dualism, if the existence of one is negated, the other one also ceases to exist. In fact, “poverty is a preservative of riches”. So Mother experiences poverty to secure our happiness. But mind you, you have to accept concurrently what, according to Mother, makes you happy! Professor Amartya Sen is as much needed as the mass of people who live in poverty all over the globe. Choose to eradicate it: It is your choice. Not Amma’s.