Yantra Represents...

[Guest guest]

Namaste Aaron,

Last night it dawned on me, what Yantras really are. It's so obvious,

I'm just kind of amazed that it took me this long to realize this:

 

a yantra is merely an abstracted symbol for the geometric pattern

created by the sound of the mantra associated with it. That's why

mantras & yantras are INSEPARABLE!

 

There is a branch of Science known as Cymatics, or the study of the

vibrational wave pattern created by sound. Sound vibrations create

certain geometric shapes. As perfect as snowflakes!

 

The ancient Rishis were able to "see" (with their inner vision) the

geometric shapes created by the sounds of certain mantras. The sound

of mantras (or ANY sound) literally has a geometric shape. This

geometric shape is simplified and abstracted to form a Yantra. So a

Yantra is the sound of the mantra made visible.

 

Astraea

[Guest guest]

The Holy Mother

A Symbol of An Ideal Motherhood

by Mrs. Jai Kishori Pandit

The Holy Mother, Shri Sarada Devi, symbolizes the ideal motherhood of women,

ancient and modern. Her life is an enigma. On the surface, it appears to be

just the homely life of a Bengali Brahmin lady, mostly in a rural setting.

Yet her deportment discloses unmistakable marks of dignity and love of an

order that may easily be called superhuman. In the galaxy of the greatest

women of the world the Holy Mother shines apart in conspicuous luminosity.

Perhaps such a life appeared at this critical moment in the history of India

to illumine the way out of the present welter of cultural conflicts.

Born in a tiny village of Bengal, lapped in Nature's beauty, but devoid of

modern amenities, the little girl, Sarada, had something out of the ordinary

in her mental make-up. The momentous event of Sarada's early life was her

marriage to Shri Ramakrishna at the age of 5. A shocking piece of news to

the modern world and particularly to its western section. The sequel of

Sarada Devi's marriage is replete with scenes and incidents remote from

ordinary life. The pathos of anxious expectation and worrying misgivings

relieved by happy and dramatic turns of events, the hazards of dangerous

hurdles in the way eased by peaceful solutions and safe endings - all these

made her advance firmly and steadily towards peace and blessedness.

 

Shri Ramakrishan's life was a boon to humanity, Sarada Devi seems to have

come as a Iministering angel. She focussed all her mental and physical

resources for preserving the precious life of Shri Ramakrishna, there-by

setting a brilliant example of one-pointed service of a wife to her husband.

Unfathomable love was at the back of her scrupulous service.

 

Cast in the mould of absolute selflessness like Shri Ramakrishna she stood

out in unique splendour as an endearing mother, enfolding all who came to

her with her limitless affection which was not reserved for any particular

group. Broad as the sky and deep as the ocean her heart was open to all.

Finding that her niece, Nalini, blinded by the prejudice of untouchability,

could not serve food to a Muslim dacoit Amjad by name, with due regard, the

Holy Mother volunteered to do it herself and she went so far as to clean the

place after the meal was over. In her eyes Amjad was as much her child as

Swami Shardananad, a worthy monastic disciple of the Master and her own

devoted attendant. Equality in her eyes of these two persons shows

unmistakably the superhuman stand which she took during the days of intense

orthodoxy.

 

According to the scriptures motherhood sanctifies a woman. It is the

consummation of her life, when a woman becomes a mother; her feelings and

emotions get more purified than in wifehood. She becomes free from all

taints of body-consciousness. That is why motherhood is sacred. It requires

every woman to unfold herself as a mother and not as just a woman. Shri

Sarada Devi was an universal mother who served her disciples with the same

care as a mother serves the children she gives birth to.

 

She would strive her most to provide her children with the best food

available in the place that would suit the requirements of different

individuals. Like a true Indian mother, she would not take her meals before

her children were fed. The tenderest feelings of her heart were, however,

vividly exhibited when any of her children would take leave of her. Indeed,

a person who had the good fortune of tasting her motherly love at Jayrambati

or any other place could enrich his assets for his lifelong spiritual

journey. This exquisite sweetness embodied in the Holy Mother was

wonderfully matched by her dignified bearing as well as her sagacious

dealing with people and their affairs. Though a wife, she was really a nun

with the purest heart fixed for ever on God; without actually being a

mother, she was in every sense the loving mother of numberless children. For

all practical purposes she appeared to be an ideal householder. Her concern

for her brother's family, particularly for some of its members, would at

times look like earthly attachment even to the eyes of a sincere spiritual

aspirant. This wonderful synthesis of contradictory elements in her life

presents a unique manifestation of perfection on the human plane.

 

No barrier of caste, creed or colour could stand before the unimpeded flow

of her limitless love. Freed entirely from the shackles of society, the Holy

Mother had liberty, equality and fraternity as the very breath of her life.

In her life, and in her teachings she has left a balm for suffering

humanity. She was very courteous and liberal in her attitude towards others.

This was demonstrated again and again through her actions. As a widow in the

last century coming from a small village in Bengal, the Holy Mother accepted

two foreign ladies as her own, so much so that sister Nivedita felt so close

to her that she would behave like a little child and always sit nearest her

feet.

 

The Holy Mother was an embodiment of patience, disinterestedness and

selfless service calmness and love. Her life is a typical example of how

women can serve the family and the society. Her patience with the members of

her family and certain devotees was something not attainable by ordinary

human beings. Her courtesy and kindness and consideration to all, whether

good qr bad, have no comparison. Her forgiving nature was something divine

which itself is an external manifestation of her high spiritual attainment.

 

Her disinterested love and compassion were not confined to her relations and

disciples only. There was a woman suffering from foul - smelling cancer of

the ear, whom even her relations had discarded but the Holy Mother saw to it

that this woman was taken to the nursing - ashram. Sympathy and love for

others in distress were the chief characteristics of her nature. Gentle and

patient as she was she could never tolerate cruelty and injustice. When she

heard the cries of a woman who was beaten by her drunken husband, she ran to

the police and raising her voice, asked the man to desist. The man

immediately obeyed the Holy Mother. The women of our day should draw

inspiration from her and emulate her life.

 

We have to cull out these virtues from Holy Mother's unique life and see how

they can be useful to us; we have to practise them in our own lives.

According to Swami Vivekananda putting such noble ideas into practice is

practical vedanta.

 

The Holy Mother was endowed with all the feminine virtues which have been

traditional good qualities of an Indian woman and mother. She has shown by

her life that India is travelling towards a greater possibility which will

create a better culture and civilisation, showing the way for fulfillment of

woman's destiny as an ideal mother.

 

(Courtesy Koshur Samachar)