Easy, natural (psuedo) enlightenment ...Not so easy

November 25, 2003

Hi Devotees,

When someone says they are enlightened..naturally, and that no effort

is necessary...use your discrimination...not in a judgemental way,

but in a practical way...are these people really "enlightened"? Are

they engaged in transcendental service to all beings 24 hours a day?

Are they able to look at you and know all of your future and past

births? Do they even believe in reincarnation..probably not. (The

current school of natural enlightenment, sort of dove tails with the

intellectual, scientific, existentialism schools. Very intellectual.)

Or are they just mentally peaceful and accepting. That's O.K, but it

isn't enlightened.

Amma really sets the bar on being self realized very high. At the

Detroit retreat that just passed during the Q&A a devotee said that

she was trying to see the children she works with as Amma does. Amma

responded by saying that "for you to see Amma's children as Amma does

is nearly impossible."

What is Amma's state? An indian physicist was chatting with Amma

about physics. He got slightly impatient with her over a issue, he

had adopted the role of a teacher teaching a village girl about a

complicated subject. She asked him, "Do you know who I am?" She asked

this question very intently twice. He became a little nervous. She

replied, "I have 330 million ishta devatars in each of the cells of

my body waiting for my command to create or destroy universes."

How enlightened are each of us, really, say, compared to Krishna?

(Many advaitans will say that Krishna is a myth!) Are we feeling

peaceful? That is good...but many Advaitans and Buddhists, no

judgement, just discrimination, have set their standards for

enlightenment very, very low. That is why a devotional attitude

towards the Supreme is just so beautiful. The creator, sustainer and

destroyer of all the universes will come to us as a loving mother!

Now that is something I still do not grasp.

On Namah Shivaya!!

Chris

November 25, 2003

-

ckeniley2003

Ammachi

Tuesday, November 25, 2003 7:32 PM

Easy, natural (psuedo) enlightenment ...Not so easy

Namaste, Chris and all,

I agree completely that the current understanding of "natural" enlightenment,

as you call it, could well be aligned with intellectualism and may not be true

enlightenment as Amma refers to it. But I also think, as Yogananda and Christ

both assert, it could also be accomplished within the twinkling of that

proverbial eye-and would be a very,very rare combination of a highly "evolved"

individual and a huge amount of divine grace.

There may also be a difference between a self-realized person and Mother-

Mother is God-realized, which I understand to be an entirely different. As you

said, Mother has the power to create and destroy- I don't think that is the case

with those who are "only" self-realized. Perhaps you hit on one of the

diffreences in your discussion; Amma asks that we (devotees) try to see Her in

the eyes of all we encounter - that does NOT mean that we can see others as She

does. Is it that we must look for Divine in all others and Mother knows there

isn't anything else-and that She is That? In one of the bios about Amma, she

tells a physicist that he would not be able to withstand all the vision of all

that She is - in my mind, I see the Divine Mother, in human form with a big grin

and hugs for all AND the "burning bush" when I think of Amma.

It does seem odd that One who could destroy universes would come to us in the

form of a loving Mother, but on the other hand, there aren't many things on

earth I'd less like to deal with than a mother protecting her young and its

environment! A poet named Robert Bly did some interesting work on the

Mother/Goddess archetype and here again, I certainly don't think I'd like to

mess with the Teeth Mother or a few other faces that the Mother/Goddess can

show.

Where I was going with this is beyond me now, but thank you for initiating a

good discussion. This entire area fascinates me. I just wish I knew what

self-realization will look like (presuming we all get there in some lifetime) -

and understand that God-realization will not be in most of our futures from now

til.....whenever comes next.

At Mother's feet,

Snehalata