*NAVARATRI WEEK* Some personal thoughts

[Guest guest]

Vanakkam Sarabhaanana

 

My sincere thanks to you for correcting us. I hope you will continue

to do service for MOTHER by correcting us more often, as I believe

we learn from our mistakes. After all we ( or rather me in

particular ) is just an inexperience Sadhak, So who am I to say what

is right, and what is wrong. But I remember a quote which says

"what

we know is just a grains of hand, what we don't know is the whole

lot

out there !!" And I carry this quote with me all the time.

 

I am not in the position to quote from scriptures but one thing is

that, there are many scriptures. And different people can interprete

the same scriptures differently, as our beloved member blu-ochs once

mentioned in his message 2978 " why there exists so many

different

interpretations of classic scriptures like the Bhagavadgita, Brahma

Sutras, the Upanishads, Shiva Sutras, Devi Mahatmya, etc... Everyone

of us cannot avoid imposing a fraction of our subconscious attitudes

and values on all that we read"

 

So ….. to me to argue or even to debate about it will not serve

any

purpose. Our learned former member Nsrravi once remind us in his

message 2594 "This forum is being sometimes used to show off

erudition……. The aim of such elevated forums as these should be

to

trascend maya. I request the highly accomplished Sadhakas to ensure

that this happens…. "

 

But I believe in one thing and that is to respect other people's

opinion. So I would never go around saying "Sick and tired of

hearing

this again and again" or " I am telling you again and

again".

 

A wise elderly man told me once

1. " if you go to a temple or somebody's house and you

don't

like what they are doing or say, just leave quietly."

2. "if you have nothing nice to say to anyone, then it is best

to maintain silence" which reminds me the wise words of Swami

Rama "The best of all knowledge, the greatest of all powers, come

from silence"

 

And Swami Rama remind us again: "A person walking on the path of

self-

transformation should be aware of the dangers of egoism. Even while

practicing the great virtues of truthfulness and nonviolence, a

person can feed the ego. The ego related to the realm of spirituality

is more subtle and injurious than the ego related to one's

worldly

success"[sadhana: the essence of Spiritual life]

 

"Only pictures show her as riding tiger. Remember that pictures

are

drawn by artists and painters not necessarily by well learned

shaktas"

 

I see it as this : a tiger and a lion are from the same group we

called CATS or the latin word Felius Catus ( Domesticated Cat) and

Felius Vercata Maniculata ( Wild Cats) but for short we called them

FELIDS. I am a great lover of Black Cat and a founder of one of the

black cat group. There are big and small cats. House cats and wild

cats. Within that CATS family itself there are various other

classifications of cats based on their breed and their colour. But

they are CATS. The first true cats were found at the beginning of the

Pliocene Period, which was about 12 million years ago and scientist

believe that a small "weasel-like" animal called "Miacis" roamed

the Earth. They are now convinced that this animal was the ancestor

of today's domestic cats, as well as the ancestor for other mammals

including raccoons, dogs and bears. It was about 40 million years ago

that actual members of the cat family first appeared. The Egyptians

were believe to be the first group of people to domesticate a cat.

They even have a Cat Goddess called Bastet.

 

So instead of trying to strain our head about tigers and lions (

unless of course you are passionate about them), and why is Devi

riding on a tiger instead of a lion as the scriptures says, I like to

look beyond these forms and instead focus on the symbolism behind it.

Even our most learned member Adi Shakthi16 have reminded us many many

times in her message "we must look beyond names and forms".

Why

don't explore this symbolism of tiger/lion. A member asked me

once,

why Tiger/Lion or specifically Cat in general associated with EGO.

Well I told him, you are talking to a person who is born in the year

of the Cat : The Tiger. As we all know almost all cultures associated

ferociousness, fierceness and power with Cats. I like to share a

joke : "Dogs believe they are human, Cats believe they are

GOD!".

Well I have another joke which goes "GOD gives a DOG to human to

teach him about companionship, GOD gives human a CAT to teach him

humility". This is a long joke, if anybody interested email me

and I

will send it to you.

 

Okay lets be serious now !!! So when I see MOTHER with either a

Tiger or Lion, I am seeing myself. A reminder that if I surrender

the "Tiger" or the "Lion" in me to MOTHER, SHE will

guide me through.

 

"drawn by artists and painters not necessarily by well learned

shaktas"

Let me tell you a story :

 

When Devi Bhakta showed me the picture of Matangi Devi [ the one that

he painted himself ] he was full of doubts, as to weather anybody

would accept it. To me I accepted it immediately. I am seeing a

beautiful work from a person who have a pure love for MOTHER. But

you see I am a close friend, so my acceptance still have not

convinced him. He exclaimed once during our chat session "who am

I?

I am not a learned person. Others will asked : how dare him … to

even paint Mother !!!!" .

 

I went back home and showed it to my father in law, who manages a

modest Kali Shrine. I didn't even tell him that the picture is

from a

good friend. But I could see his eyes shine with delight when he saw

that picture. He looked and smile continuously only then I told him

about the painter. He left the picture in the family pooja room and

went to the shrine that Friday evening. My brother in law called the

next day to asked me about the picture and he said that his father

has been talking about it to everybody who came to the temple. He is

never like that. Always a modest and quiet man. I spend sometime

rationalizing this "irrational" behaviour of my

father-in-law. You

see Sarabhaanana this is a very simple minded person. He is not an

intellectuals who would come to the and discuss about

religious issues. What he have is pure devotion for MOTHER. And when

he sees an image of MOTHER he accepts it, as Shre Ramakrishna

himself says, once you have realize MOTHER, you will see MOTHER in

everything. And for this simple minded person to have the talent to

paint MOTHER, that person must be guided, other wise MOTHER herself

would not allow him to touch it. And for him to have a daughter in

law who knows the painter of that particular image he is so

"crazy"

about is an honour to him, something for him to be proud about. It

might not be for others, but to him it is for he is just A SIMPLE

MINDED MAN !!!!. And I personally believe simplicity itself is

MOTHER. MOTHER is Simplicity. It is us human who likes to make simple

matters so complex. We fight and argue over trival issues. As one

ancient sayings goes "War is little man quarrels magnified a

million

times"

 

In one of your message you remarked "if you cannot follow this,

then

stick to the scriptures" Ironic though, I have the opportunity to

chat with an aghore who remarked : "don't get yourself stuck

with the

scriptures, must expand your mind" But this is the net

Sarabhaanana.

I have learned that in the net people can claim to be anybody or

anything. This is a good place where people can have their

"fantasy"

come true. That is why we have to be very very careful