To a Child the Mother ComesYear 1898. Place Kshir- Bhavani Temple in Kashmir. Swami Vivekananda stands pondering over the remains of the tabernacle and the profanation wrought by the Muslim raiders. Distressed at heart, he thinks “ How could the people have permitted similar sacrilege without offering emphatic resistance? If I were then also, I would noway have allowed similar effects. I would have laid down my life to cover the mama. ” No sooner this study strikes him than he hears a voice deep inside his heart the voice of the Divine Mother
“ What indeed if questioners should enter my tabernacles and defile my images! What's that to you? Do you cover me? Or do I cover you? ”
In the same sanctum, on another day, the Mother speaks to him again. When Swamiji thinks of erecting a new tabernacle to the mama on the same spot where the dilapidated tabernacle stands, the Mother’s voice comes to him
“ My child! If I wish I can have innumerous tabernacles and magnific monastic centers. I can indeed this moment raise a seven-fabled golden tabernacle on this veritably spot. ”
The scales are removed from Swamiji’s eyes. “ No more ‘ Hari Om! ’ It's all ‘ Mother ’ now ” he latterly says. “ All my nationalism is gone. Everything is gone. Now it's only ‘ Mother! mama! ’ I'm only a little child! ”
Back in Kolkata, he tells a convert, “ Since hearing that godly voice, I cherish no further plans. The idea of erecting cloistered., I've given up. As Mother wills, so it'll be. ” This sets the convert thinking of earlier occasions when he'd heard Swamiji say that whatever bone
sees or hears is but the echo of what’s going on within. He asks, “ Swamiji, but you used to say that godly voices are the echo of our inward studies and passions. ” Swamiji’s grave reply
“ Whether it be internal or external, if you actually hear with your cognizance such a disembodied voice, as I've done, can you deny it and call it false? Divine Voices are actually heard, just as you and I are talking. ”
On another occasion we find Swamiji saying, “ These gods aren't simply symbols! They're the forms that addicts have seen! ”( The Master as I Saw Him, 166)
How perplexing these statements appear when we compare them with Swamiji’s lectures on Advaita Vedanta, where he ruthlessly demolishes all adhering to names and forms, and affirms the supreme reality, Brahman, who's further all names, beyond all forms, the absolute, the One without-a-second( ekam eva advitīyam)! Where and how does the Divine Mother fit into the Vedantic scheme?
Swamiji himself had at one time difficulty accepting the Divine Mother. also came the great event of which we know nearly nothing — Sri Ramakrishna “ devoted ” him to Mother.
“ How I used to detest Kali!( Swamiji said) And all her ways! That was the ground of my six times ’ fight ─ that I would not accept her. But I had to accept her at last! Ramakrishna Paramahamsa devoted me to her, and now I believe that she guides me in every little thing I do, and does with me what she'll Yet I fought so long!.
“ No, the thing that made me do it's a secret that will die with me. I had great mischances at that time It was an occasion She made a slave of me. Those were the very words — ‘ a slave of you. ’ And Ramakrishna Paramahamsa made me over to her ”( CW 8. 263)
After Mother took charge of Swamiji’s life, it was she who did everything for him, he was only her little child, hugely dependent on her. And she noway deserted him indeed for a moment. Wherever he turned, he formerly said, he was conscious of the presence of Mother, as if she were a person in the room( The Master as I Saw Him, 124). How were Brahman and the Divine Mother conformed in Swamiji’s mind? The answer isn't veritably clear. maybe the two can noway be conformed through bare intellect. Swamiji formerly appertained to this paradoxical situation as “ concinnity in complexity. ” This is what he said
“ You see, I can not but believe that there's nearly a great Power that thinks of herself as womanlike, and called Kali, and Mother And I believe in Brahman too But is it not always like that? Is it not the multitude of cells in the body that make up the personality, the numerous brain- centers, not the one, that produce knowledge( of the objective world)? Unity in complexity! Just so! And why should it be different with Brahman? It's Brahman. It's that One. And yet ─ and yet ─ it is the gods too! ”( CW 8. 264)
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Now, these aren't veritably philosophical statements. But gospel is guided by sense to help us understand and occasionally it may not represent the reality of effects. In his addresses at the Thousand Island Park, in upstate New York, Swamiji returns again and again to this theme gospel vs religion. “ Religion begins, ” he says, “ where gospel ends ”( CW 7. 44). After all, gospel can take me only as far as my intellect can go. Spiritual life really begins when I transcend the walls of my mind and intellect. Religion isn't simply an acceptance of, or faith in, a certain gospel, or in dogmas and rituals, but the factual experience( anubhūti) of God. “ Religion consists solely in consummation ”( CW 7. 96).
No quantum of reason can falsify a genuine experience, and Swamiji’s hassle with the Divine Mother was an inarguable experience for him. Swamiji’s “ mama ” can noway be understood singly of Sri Ramakrishna’s “ Mother. ” “ He who's Brahman is verily Śakti, the Divine Mother herself! ” ─ this key is the pivot round which Sri Ramakrishna’s training( as recorded in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) revolve. His conception of the Divine Mother has special applicability to our times.
God as Mother
What does the Divine Mother mean to you and me? Certain effects come egregious at formerly. First, the relationship with God as Mother has certain distinct advantages over other types of connections. In spiritual textbooks, several similar spiritual approaches or connections( bhāvas) are mentioned ─ śānta( a tranquil relationship), dāsya( being God’s menial), sakhya( being God’s friend), vātsalya( being God’s mama ), and madhura( being God’s nut). We learn about the benefits of cultivating a close relationship with God, and are advised to direct our lives and conduct, our studies and words, in a manner applicable to the relationship.
Every one of these forms has specific characteristics. innumerous addicts have attained perfection through the practice of one or the other of these bhavas, backed no doubt by God’s grace in prostrating certain inhibiting features present in them. We find in these bhāvas either an unbridgeable gap between God and the sucker, or too important of closeness which shuts off the “ rescuer ” aspect of the Divine we need in times of torture and disaster. Both these factors are taken care of when the sucker looks up to God as Mother. There's no gap to be bridged between a baby and her mama , and there's no bone
the baby turns to for protection more than her mama .
The civilization of relationship with God as Mother( mātṛ- bhāva) isn't a new miracle. The roots of mama- deification are traced back to Neolithic times. Sri Ramakrishna revived this ancient ideal in a big way through his training and further through his life. putatively, God as Mother has a special applicability in the times we live in. rigorously speaking, the spiritual station of a child should be called santāna- bhāva. This would be valid irrespective of whether God is looked upon as the Father or the Mother. The use of the term mātŗ- bhāva precludes this nebulosity, and should be understood to mean “ the spiritual relationship of a child towards God as Mother. ” Sri Ramakrishna is known to have used both the terms — mātŗ- bhāva and santāna- bhāva — with reference to his own practice.
Why is the motherly aspect of God superior to the other aspects of divinity? The answer is that the Divine Mother meets all of our conditions. As mama she's veritably close to us, her children, but her closeness doesn't stand in the way of her being our companion and rescuer. As mama she loves us as none differently can, and yet her love for us doesn't stand in the way of her chastising us for our good when necessary. As mama she's most intimate with us, and yet her closeness doesn't stand in the way of her keeping frosty from all our levity.
As her children we feel free to protest and argue with her, our mama, knowing sharp well that she'd understand. Our outbursts at the plant or at home may not always be understood, but the Mother always understands. Others may neglect us, betray us, desert us, revile us but the Mother, noway ! She puts up with all the sins, all the flightiness, all the faults of her children. No matter how numerous times we fall down, she's there to pick us up and hold us. In some ways, a child always remains a part of her or his mama , indeed after birth. Some unnoticeable bond binds the two throughout their lives. What more can addicts ask for than the knowledge that they're eternally connected to the Divine Mother, that they're an thick part of her?
The topmost incarnation of love, the purest and the most selfless love we can conceive of, is the mama ’s love for her child. What wonder then that we look upon God as our own mama? That seems to be only a natural way we can reach out to the Supreme Being who gives us birth, nourishes us, and to whom we eventually return. God as Mother scores a march over all other aspects in a most natural way.
sucker as a Child
Looking upon God as Mother obviously implies looking upon oneself as her child. I can not say God is my mama without feeling that I'm her child. Although we're all ─ every one of us, with no exceptions — her children, it must be admitted that to be always conscious of the fact that we're her children isn't easy. It's delicate because we've purposely or unconsciously put on several masks over ourselves. Worse still, we've forgotten that these are only masks. We take them to be our true characters, while the real tone ─ the Mother’s child ─ remains retired outside, unknown, uncared for.
The important point to note is that I do n’t have to come a mama’s child, I'm formerly her child. What I must do is just remove the false masks covering my true personality. When all the masks fall down, the Mother’s child is revealed. However, they generally end up adding one further mask over their formerly multi-masked personality, If anyone tries to come a mama’s child. A child- mask can not give me the feeling that I'm a child, although I may maybe succeed for a time in making others believe that I am.
Indeed I may be led to believe that. similar tone- deceptions do do. How pathetic a sight it's to see growing men and women trying to hide their age with makeup, dress and life! They may refuse to accept for a time the fact that they're no longer youthful and continue to sashay around as youths. But sooner or latterly they're forced to accept the reality. A masked face is just like that. A child- mask can not endure eternally. It's a mask, after all. Eventually or the other it must fall. When it does, it reveals the other masks beneath. generally people keep shuffling their masks to suit different occasions and situations.( In a weird kind of way, this is what we're doing at present with the physical masks forced upon us by the epidemic.)
To be a mama’s child isn't to put on the mask of a child, but to remove all the masks and let the child within breathe freely. Nonage is a stage of life everyone passes through. Physically everyone outgrows that stage after a time. That's necessary. The tragedy is that we also outgrow the innocence, faith and chastity of nonage. To be a child of the Divine Mother is to recover that innocence, faith and chastity. Then, again, it's to be flashed back that these aren't rates to be acquired. Vedanta says that we do n’t have to come innocent, we're that formerly. We do n’t have to acquire faith, we formerly have that within us. We do n’t have to come pure, we're pure formerly. Certain obstacles are blocking the way and precluding these essential rates, which are our true nature, from manifesting themselves. Our task is only to remove the obstacles, and our true nature ─ pure, joyful, eternal ─ will shine forth by itself.
This is the chorus in one of Śri Śaṅkara’s hymns to the Divine Mother( Devyaparādha- kṣamāpaṇa- stotra)
कुपुत्रो जायेत क्वचिदपि कुमाता न भवति ।
Kuputro jāyeta kvacid api kumātā na bhavati.
“There may be a bad child, but never has there been a bad mother.
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