Jayashri Ma and the Primordial Mother: part 3

[Guest guest]

Fusion of the Soul: Jayashri Ma and the Primordial Mother

by June McDaniel

 

[Jayashri] said, " Now, I do not feel that I am really in a

human body. Instead, I am pure Shakti, I feel that I am

Adya Ma. I am the universal mother, and all of creation

is my child. If you do meditation, you too can realize

that you are really Adya Ma. Ma divided herself

throughout creation, and everybody has a piece of the

goddess inside. In the end, all will come back together

again, and when everybody realizes this, they will all

become the goddess. "

 

The Graceful Guru

Hindu Female Gurus in India and the United States

Edited by Karen Pechilis

Oxford University Press, 2004

ISBN: 0-19-514537-2

 

Part 3

 

After her sadhana with her guru, she also developed

some abilities at mediumship. She said that she has had

the saints Mira Bai, Annada Thakur, Trailanga Swami,

and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa speak through her.

Adya Shakti Kali is always there, in the background, and

the god Shiva often visits. These gods and goddesses

give information and suggestions to her disciples; she

keeps a journal of their words (the entries are often

written by her disciples, as she may be unable to write).

She says that they speak a variety of languages,

including fluent English, whereas Jayashri speaks little

English (and none during her discussions with me).

 

She also continues to have a close relationship with her

guru, though he is dead. Several female gurus I have

interviewed maintain relationships with their dead gurus,

who are believed to travel in spiritual bodies. She says,

" Whenever I feel love, he comes to me. When I am

sleeping, the guru comes and strokes my head. If I wake,

I try to grab his hand, but I cannot. I always speak with

him and see him. I feel that he has come now, even

while we are speaking, and he is watching us. He always

knows when I am in pain from my illnesses, and this

causes him pain because of his love for me. " One of her

disciples described a past event, when she was writhing

in pain from the colitis. Suddenly the pain ceased and

she began to speak-but it was the guru's words coming

from her mouth. She was not aware of this, but she was

aware that the pain had ceased. Instead of pain, she felt

ananda, bliss, which showed its power by being able to

erase her pain.

 

Another disciple described a time when the Shakta saint

Vamaksepa came to speak through Jayashri. He told the

disciple that when he went to Tarapith, he should not eat

at a certain hotel because the brothers who owned the

hotel were evil people who had murdered their own

father. Instead he should fast, and go directly to speak to

Nagin Bagchi, the respected tantric sadhu at Tarapith.

He told him of the story that Vamaksepa told through

Jayashri as medium, and Bagchi told him that the story

was accurate, though not well known: the brothers had

indeed murdered their father.

 

Jayashri often feels distant from the world. She said,

" Now, I do not feel that I am really in a human body.

Instead, I am pure Shakti, I feel that I am Adya Ma. I am

the universal mother, and all of creation is my child. If

you do meditation, you too can realize that you are

really Adya Ma. Ma divided herself throughout creation,

and everybody has a piece of the goddess inside. In the

end, all will come back together again, and when

everybody realizes this, they will all become the

goddess. " This is to occur at the end of the Kali Yuga,

the time of universal destruction. The end-time may only

come when there are no more sadhus to pray and

meditate. Because this time is coming, Adya Kali has

been withdrawing Shakta sadhus and sadhikas (holy

men and women) from the world-their prayers and

meditation avert the time of destruction. Jayashri also

noted that Adya Shakti Kali is a goddess who appeared

recently-she did not wish to appear earlier, it was not

her desire (iccha). Jayashri believes that Adya Shakti

Kali has come to earth to preside over the end of the

yuga. As such, she is understood to be the goddess of

the Indian apocalypse.

 

Jayashri is both a tantrika and a devotee (bhakta), and

her ishtadevi (chosen form of the divine) is Adya Shakti

Kali. She finds Tantra to be a good practice, for it

ignores the concerns with caste status and impurity

found in more mainstream dharmic Hinduism (although

she is herself upper caste). Tantra accepts everybody

and everything. She performs neither materializations

(which are often seen with holy people in India) nor

initiations. She avoids publicity, partly because most

people who have visited her on the basis of her

reputation have wanted favors-children, good marks on

exams, new jobs. She spends her private life surrounded

by photos of saints and pictures of gods, and finds her

greatest happiness in meditation. She believes she has

remained alive in spite of her illness and the pain it

brings because her disciples need her presence and

guidance.

 

Jayashri must live in relative secrecy, because of the

activist students and the anti-superstition clubs

organized by communist groups at the high schools in

her area. They disturb yogis and sadhus in meditation,

accusing them of being social parasites and preaching

false beliefs, and several known to Jayashri have been

chased out of town. Indeed, she says that if her

colleagues at school knew of her spiritual practice, she

would be dismissed from her job. West Bengal is a

Communist state that was once rich in religious

traditions, and a major center of goddess worship in

India, but much has been suppressed over the past few

decades. Indeed, overt politicizing begins in the

elementary schools, where children join political clubs

sponsored by the various parties. This politicizing has

been especially prominent over the past ten years; in

1984, the Shakta tantric group Kali-kula was still a

living tradition with many members, whereas in 1994 I

could find few members remaining, and local informants

said that the practitioners had either been killed or had

disappeared from the area without a word.

 

Part 1:

/message/28676

Part 2:

/message/28677

 

[to be continued]