Of God and Gurus

[Guest guest]

Dear Children of Amma

 

I've been on and off this list for a number of years.

I recently started these reading the mail after a long break and am

surprised at the content of the recent discussions on whether Amma is

promoting a " cult " , whether free questioning is allowed etc etc.

I've seen mails which advise people on how to live, pray etc.

 

I'm reminded of a conversation from the first chapter of the Gospel of Sri

Ramakrishna in which Sri Ramakrishna says:

 

" That's one hobby of you Calcutta people - giving lectures and bringing

others to the light ! Nobody ever stops to get the light himself. Who are

you to teach others ?

He who is the Lord of the Universe will teach everyone.......Why should you

get a headache over it ? You had better try for knowledge and devotion

yourself. "

 

 

With best wishes on your spiritual quest,

 

Girish

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Ammachi , Girish <girishsv wrote:

>

> Dear Children of Amma

>

 

> I'm reminded of a conversation from the first chapter of the Gospel

of Sri

> Ramakrishna in which Sri Ramakrishna says:

>

> " That's one hobby of you Calcutta people - giving lectures and bringing

> others to the light ! Nobody ever stops to get the light himself.

Who are

> you to teach others ?

> He who is the Lord of the Universe will teach everyone.......Why

should you

> get a headache over it ? You had better try for knowledge and devotion

> yourself. "

 

>

> Girish

 

Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!

 

Namaskarams!

 

good point Girish!! it does get rather tiresome after a while reading

all the " bringing others to the light " stuff, especially when it means

discrediting Amma or Her mission, or Her children, who are simply

trying to gather here and express with each other their love for Her,

in Her physical absence. For we children of Amma it is one of the ways

to keep Her loving Presence alive in our hearts, to read about Her and

to write about Her influence upon us.

 

that doesn't mean that we should have to be trying to convince anyone,

especially the sceptics, marxists,

left-wing rationalists and other such folks that we're right and

they're wrong...actually we've been feeling like we're FORCED into

defending Our Amma, and Her mission, as well as our own devotion to

Her, and have been called all sorts of nasty names for our troubles.

i don't think we or Amma deserve all this, and i wish simply that the

name callers and negative talkers would just move on to other pastures

so that we can continue our devotional sharing.

 

Sri Ramakrsna certainly had a way with His words!...and His timeless

wisdom is just as applicable today as it was back in the 1880's. all

too many folks are eager to usurp the Guru's seat, and tell us all how

to live, without having inherited the right from the Guru to do so.

too many long to be teachers before they have even become good

students...they don't actually listen to what Amma says, they don't

listen to what their own hearts say, they listen instead only to what

their egos, their minds say. and the problem with this is that the

ego, and the mind have no way of truly evaluating the benefits of

being with the Guru. Only the heart can melt in love in Her Presence.

the best that the mind can do is to stand back and be a witness to all

this, without any comments or objections...and definitely the mind

should not be usurping the heart's intuitions and longings, and

meltings and trying to explain them away as being nothing special.

 

if we follow the mind alone, we will only come to the conclusion that

Amma is nothing special, we are nothing special, spiritual practice is

nothing special, the Amma devotees are all in a cult and so on...

 

However if we actually look long and hard into our HEARTS, an entirely

DIFFERENT conclusion will spontaneously arise, bubbling up in amazed

Joy from the Heart. the Heart will tell us that Amma is our Beloved

Mother, and that we are nothing WITHOUT Her loving care and

guidance,and that those Hugs She gives us are slowly but surely

changing us from who we used to be, to more loving, caring, serviceful

people...this a slow process for most, and is difficult to see unless

we look back to where we were before we met Amma, and compare it with

who we are NOW.

 

we cannot judge AMMA or Her mission with our MINDS, because we will

simply arrive at an erroneous conclusion. Instead we must ask our

Hearts just what value Amma's Loving Presence in our lives may have.

 

if we can do that, simply ask our hearts, over and over, whenever the

mind may spring doubtfully up with all its stupid questions; if we can

just tell that annoying doubting Thomas mind to shut up and listen

rather than preach, and pay attention to what is happening in our

HEARTS instead, then Mother will have a good chance of slowly but

surely helping us to grow to be Her adorable children.

 

perhaps this is why She has sent us all these doubters and

discrediters to our list...to test our Faith in Her, and to show us

over and over, just how useless the intellectual mind is in attempting

to " judge " the values of what our Amma has been doing on this planet

for the last many years...only a dry, intellectual mind would be able

to witness what Amma has done, or to listen to Her sing Her

heartrending renditions of the Bhajans, see Her cry out to God in Her

singing, with tears in Her eyes, running down Her face, and see just

how kindly She receives the thousands of Her devotees who come to Her

bringing all their sorrows and troubles...(often Mother will cry with

the devotee going through some terrible times, wiping both the

devotee's and Her own face of the tears they are both crying, without

a word being said...Mother's loving presence, crying with these

devotees is often all they need to be lightened somewhat of their

sorrows); only a dry intellectual mind would be able to witness all

this and yet come to the conclusion that this is nothing special, or

that worse, Mother has founded a " cult " of " ammabots " and only other

dry intellectual minds would buy this nonsense and expound on it further.

 

if that isn't enough to convince our hearts, we can always read some

of Her books, or the books by the swamis and especially Swamini

Krishnamrita Prana's two books (i say especially just because i am

currently drinking in the nectareous offerings in these books)...if

after all this, we are still untouched in the heart...then we are hard

hearted indeed, and perhaps should just move on to some other

occupation...

 

however, again in all this, we should NOT be judging with the

intellectual mind, because Amma is way beyond that mind, She is

incomprehensible by that mind. Only the heart can comprehend Amma's

Love, and that only a little, like the ant trying to eat a mountain of

sugar, one grain at a time.

 

sending all my brothers and sisters a heart full of Amma's Divine Love

and in Her service too,

as ever,

your own Self,

 

visvanathan

 

Om Amrtesvaryai Namah!

[Guest guest]

--- kasi_visvanath <kasi_visvanath wrote:

 

ONS

 

Visvanath,

 

I always enjoy your sharings, they always penetrate

the heart of each situation.

 

It seems that this kind of intensity happened last

summer around this time as well, after Amma's tour.

 

This list was established as an online satsang and was

blessed by Amma, so this is her Ground...her

Clearing...as any other ashram or tour stop.

 

We should hold a sacred space for one another to share

and grow. For the most part, we have been doing this.

Is it not part of life to come face to face with the

shadow and the darker parts of ourselves and human

nature in general?

 

So why should this sacred ground of sharing and love

be any different.

 

My understanding of the Divine Mother is that She

Holds a space (or womb) for all growth to take place.

 

So even this most interesting string of intense

threads and the various reactions on the threads are

Her sacred Ground.

 

We must in a way welcome all to our satsang, and to

meet each one where they are in this moment from a

place of love and compassion.

 

And to thank each one for bringing something of Her to

our lives....

 

As how can we see anything other than Love in each of

the people who are on this list, and to each one who

is here sharing this Earth experience with us.

 

Like Amma, we must bow down to each person here who

has contributed in whatever way they have, as they too

are beautiful sparks of the One Divine Flame, that

Amma sees in each of us and that She so tirelessly

nurtures in Her many and varied ways....

 

Hopefully the ones who have come to our list to share,

regardless of what it is that they have actually said,

will come away from our list feeling a sense of

belonging....

 

Not scorn and anger from us.

 

Then and only then do we truly begin to understand the

reason for Amma's presence in our lives.

 

S