Jayashri Ma and the Primordial Mother: part 4

[Guest guest]

Fusion of the Soul: Jayashri Ma and the Primordial Mother

by June McDaniel

 

" Jayashri Ma describes her relationship with the goddess

Adya Shakti as ekatmika bhava....'single fused-soul

state'. " " The bond with the god[dess] is not easily

made, and in Jayashri's case, it was stabilized by her

guru during his " heart-to-heart " transmission of power.

The panchamunda asana, the seat of five skulls, is

traditionally used by tantrikas who are involved in the

conquest of instinct and the passions. In this case, the

guru's attainment of detachment was transmitted to the

disciple in the symbolic setting in which spirit conquers

desire. "

 

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 4

 

Jayashri Ma is in many ways typical of the holy woman

in the Bengali Shakta tradition. There is no set religious

institution or organization in Shaktism, and women

mystics become valued for their states of ecstasy (bhava

or devabhava), their trance states (pronounced bhor,

transliterated bhar), and their close relationship with a

guru or other religious figure. Women gurus are often

charismatic figures, who tend to gather relatives and

friends around them as devoted followers.

 

Like many holy women whom I interviewed in West

Bengal, Jayashri described her religious experiences as

bhava or devabhava, divine states of mind, rather than

bhor or mere possession trance. Bhava implies a

conscious union with a deity, a merger in which the

individual mind is opened to the deity's mind, and

usually filled with devotional love (bhakti or prema),

during this process. Bhor, on the other hand, implies that

the practitioner has a weaker or more primitive mind,

unable to stand the surge of divine energy that occurs

during the deity's visit. When the person is in a state of

bhor, or trance descends (bhor nama), the mind

disappears or sleeps, and the person is taken over by the

deity without participating consciously in the event. The

person becomes merely a tool for the deity to use, and is

submissive before the deity's power. This is unlike the

active cooperation involved in bhava, in which both

centers of consciousness work together within a single

body.

 

Jayashri Ma describes her relationship with the goddess

Adya Shakti as ekatmika bhava. The notion of ekatmika

bhava or " single fused-soul state " is dependent upon a

religious anthropology that divides the self into two

major parts. The atma (or atman, or sometimes

paramatman), the deeper soul, is an eternal part of the

divine ocean of consciousness-indeed, from a certain

perspective it is the entirety of that ocean. The jiva, or

individual soul, is the culturally determined soul or self

that carries karma from life to life, the aspect of the self

bound up in time, relationship, and history. The atma in

the devotional or bhakti tradition is pure spirit. It is like

Augustine's idea of the " god-shaped hole " -there is a

place in its center where the powerful atma or svarupa

(true form) of a god may dwell, permeating the human

atma with divine light and personality. In the state of

ekatmika bhava, the fusion or permeation of the human

atma by the divine atma causes a continuous awareness

of the deeper and more powerful god-identity within the

human identity. Sometimes this state is called

akhandatma (undivided atma), ekprana (one shared life

energy), or abhinna hridaya (not-separate or not-

different hearts).

 

The bhava of union with a god or a goddess may be full

(purna), in which the person is considered to be a

complete incarnation of the deity (purna avatar), or

partial (amsa), in which there is a temporary conscious

fusion that recurs but falls away. In the Indian

devotional tradition, the people in the highest spiritual

states are often called full avatars (though Jayashri's

disciples did not refer to her in this way, calling her guru

ma instead).

 

The state of full fusion described by Jayashri Ma gives

continual access to the divine light and personality. This

allows consolation in misery and diminution of pain,

which is replaced by joy. It is not easy to attain,

however. It is typical of Indian holy women, especially

those with strong devotional or tantric experiences, that

adolescence is a time of chaos, full of uncontrolled

trances, visionary experiences, emotional intensity, and

sensory confusion (in Bengali terms, the senses literally

" go away " ). The bond with the god is not easily made,

and in Jayashri's case, it was stabilized by her guru

during his " heart-to-heart " transmission of power. The

panchamunda asana, the seat of five skulls, is

traditionally used by tantrikas who are involved in the

conquest of instinct and the passions. In this case, the

guru's attainment of detachment was transmitted to the

disciple in the symbolic setting in which spirit conquers

desire.

 

Although this bhava of fusion with the Mother may be

attained by both genders, it appears to be more frequent

among women. In Bengali Shaktism, women are

understood more often than men to be incarnations of

the goddess, whereas the male devotee or saint is more

frequently called the goddess's son, and his religious

experience is one of relationship rather than identity.

Women are believed to have more natural religious

sensitivity than men, who are limited by their pride and

power. As a woman can hold a child inside her, near her

heart, so can she hold a god or goddess. Whereas male

possession is often marked by strength and the

endurance of pain, female possession is more often

marked by healing and by statements of love of the guru

and compassion for the world.

 

This may have to do with the deities involved in the

possession. In the tantric tradition, it is said that " All

men are (the god) Shiva, and all women an (the goddess)

Shakti. " This also tends to hold true for the religious

practitioners. Men unify with Shiva, lord of detachment,

lord of the burning ground, of yoga, of the dance, and of

endurance. They demonstrate Shiva's presence by

enduring ordeals. Women unify with Shakti, the mother

of the world and the essence of power, goddess of

creation and destruction. In the Hindu saint

Ramakrishna Paramhamsa's famous image, she stands

with a baby in one hand and a sword in the other,

showing the fertility and death that are part of the

natural world. Female possession often involves

materialization of food or medicine, as well as healing

and prediction of the future. Such mediumship may

incorporate the imagery of a benign or wrathful Mother,

but the benign side is seen much more frequently. The

destructive side may involve predictions of death,

illness, and apocalypse.

 

Bhakti or devotional mysticism, often mixed with tantric

and folk elements, seems to be the most prominent form

of mysticism in modern India. The older traditions of

Vedanta and Patanjali's raja yoga are known to scholars

but rarely practiced in the towns and villages. Instead,

we see devotion, especially among older people. In the

dharmic tradition, life after retirement was intended for

spirituality, and devotion to home and family is later

transformed into devotion to god and goddess.

 

Among renunciants and serious practitioners, there is a

variety of possible relationships with the deity. Most are

devotees, who often practice austerities (tapas) to rid

themselves of bad karma and the vasanas (traces of past

actions) from previous lives by undergoing suffering.

Among practitioners that I have encountered, male tapas

tends to focus on actively causing that suffering,

especially by means of ordeals and vows, whereas

female tapas tends to involve passive endurance of

suffering, especially that due to disease, isolation, family

obligations, and the jealousy of others. Both male and

female practitioners often have to undergo exorcism, but

I have heard of it used more frequently on women. The

notion of exorcism in India is different from the idea of

it in the West. In India, it is not used to get rid of

demons (as there are no Christian-|style demons who are

followers of Satan in Indian thought), but rather to expel

ancestors and angry ghosts. If the person can get through

an exorcism and continue his or her religious claims,

then those claims are believed to be proved by the

person's resistance to the exorcism. The cause of the

visionary experience and possession is shown not to be a

ghost or ancestor but rather a deity. With holy women,

exorcisms are usually paid for by her natal family or her

in-laws. Jayashri avoided this by not marrying and by

coming from a religious family in which her trance

states and visions were accepted. Such tolerance is rare

in Indian families.

 

Jayashri is unusual for an Indian holy woman, for she is

a working woman with independence-she earns her

own money and has her own apartment. She is therefore

not subject to the kinds of harassment and testing

normally given to women who claim special religious

status. In older, more traditional areas, women gurus and

mystics either lived in large families, were tied to

ashrams and guru/disciple relationships, or gained

independence by claiming madness and wandering

alone. A religious calling was not usually sufficient

reason for a woman to gain independence. The modern

world of West Bengal forces Jayashri to live a double

life, keeping her spiritual life largely underground, but it

allows her an independence not seen among women

living in joint families or ashrams. Her money comes

from her job-she does not accept money from her

disciples, and she would not accept an offering from me.

 

As a guru, Jayashri Ma sees people coming and asking

for boons and blessings. People hear about her by word

of mouth, but the number who know of her must be

limited. She maintains a low profile in order to keep her

job and avoid harassment. People ask her for good

marriages, success in lawsuits, new jobs, raises in pay.

She despairs at this, and wishes that they would ask for

spiritual knowledge, but very few do. She becomes

exhausted from sending spiritual blessings to people,

and her brother controls the secular traffic, acting as

doorkeeper. When she is exhausted, he tells people to

wait.

 

Part 1:

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Part 2:

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Part 3:

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[to be continued]

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Thanks for posting these!

 

Max

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Max Dashu

Suppressed Histories Archives

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