Arati

[Guest guest]

Q: The Jains, when they do arati, they do not pass the light around.

They just do the arati and keep it there.

 

A: Different traditions have different ways of religious expression.

But all these religious actions have only one end as their aim, and

that is to perceive reality as it is and not as it appears to us.

That Reality is God, therefore we have to see God in everything.

 

I remember some incidents in the life of Ramana Maharshi. He was a

man of God. Sometimes dogs used to come to his ashrama and he would

not drive them away. But when someone would take a stick and try to

beat them to make them go away, he would say, " Don't do that. God has

come, covering Himself with this skin, don't you see it? You have

come covered with one type of skin and the same God has come in

another form. " That's why he never used to address them in the third

person. You know, in Sanskrit, we have three ways of addressing

persons: with reverence, with a sense of equality, and as an

inferior. But Ramana Maharshi always used to address animals such as

squirrels, monkeys, peacocks and all those animals in the most

respectful form. This is the kind of divine sight he had.

 

Sri Ramakrishna used to see Divine Mother even in prostitutes. He saw

a cat going into the shrine, and when others would drive it away, he

said, " Mother, you have come in this form. Please accept these

offerings. " He fed the cat with the offerings which were meant for

Mother Kali. There was a big complaint against him - that he was

feeding only cats and dogs!

 

You see, that is the altered vision. When we become spiritually

advanced we see God, that's all. We don't grow two horns. If we grow

horns, that is very bad - it means we are going down!

 

- Swami Dayatmananda