SARADESHWARI 4

Holy Mother had famously said,"He who has, let him measure out; he who has not, let him chant." This simple utterance is a dictum unto humanity from the Divine Mother and an imperative to follow in life as we traverse the tortuous paths of Maya en route to the summit of realisation, the Self seated in majestic splendour atop the high hills of contemplation. Veiled in modesty, unobtrusive, completely covered from the profane gaze of the world, the Mother yet spelt out in definitive terms the gospel of life, one which, if followed, will save us from the trauma of earthly existence and set us up on the plane of spiritual perfection.

There is so much suffering, so much of disparity, so much hunger, squalor, misery, destitution, poverty that the sane mind loses poise in reflecting on the confused state of things we call civilisation. Yet, this earth is our temporary habitat and not our permanent abode. Here we are but visitors, guests for a couple of days, the first day of birth and growth and the next day of decay and death. With clenched fist we hold on to our earthly possessions when even the very hand we use to hold onto things is not ours but is a borrowed instrument from Nature whose governor Holy Mother is. Everything belongs to her and we have been leased out our possessions which essentially are hers and, therefore, they must be dispensed with in the manner she decrees. Yet, gentle as the spring flow, scented as the summer breeze, pure as the dropping dew are her words, an exhortation more, a command less, an urging of her children to love one another and to care through sharing of what appears to be theirs but what truly is hers.

But the whispering of the ego goes on. Through the thick and thin of this battle of life the vision of the Self gets blurred and the omnipotent ego replaces it as the sovereign principle of life. The kingdom of God is usurped and the demons of desire drive away the gods and goddesses of higher aspiration from their heavenly habitat. Heaven is rendered unto hell which this earth is, a battlefield of barbarous forces where the righteous suffer and the rogues reign supreme, unleashing on earth a regime of unreason, savage tyranny and enforced uniformity in the shape of supposed revelation of ignorant archaic times. And there is the other tyranny too, the torment of applied science in the hands of barbarians masquerading as the civilised citizenry of the world who have held the world to ransom, their malefic motives of global domination dressed up as democracy when primitive power-play fuels nations to empire-building, sending captive colonies into disarray. Two forces opposing each other are locked in a titanic tussle for eventual supremacy and the resolution of it is life. The water boils, becomes steam, but the chalice of man is never emptied as fresh water is added unto it to perpetuate the process. Life, its pleasure and pain, its delight and despair, its growth and decay, in alternate bands of light and shade, in opposite modes of expansion and contraction, carries on. The tussle seems determinate and indeterminate too but ends up in freedom for the individual from this thraldom of Maya although collective freedom has to wait till the aggregate karma is resolved out to nothingness.

This then being the state of things, a perpetual undulation of progression in alternate cycles of rise and fall, the wave-crest and the wave-trough and all the intermediary phases leading to such, what is our duty towards our fellow-beings? Must we stand mute spectators to the spectacle of human suffering when we are on the delight-phase of life, allowing our brethren to bear their cross brought upon them by their so-called own karma, or, ought we to lend a helping hand, nay, a serving soul to alleviate their misery a wee bit? Are their misery not ours as well? Are we not manifestations of the same Being, the limbs of a single divine corporeal frame, the Vishwarupa (Cosmic Form) of the Lord? Then ought we to allow blockage of the social artery through consumptive capitalism at the crown of the economic hierarchy and paralysis at the base? Before the masses rise up in arms against the privileged classes it is our duty to not merely theoretically abolish social inequities but to actually do away with all forms of grotesque gaps between the rich and the poor through concrete programmes of social and economic uplift of the poor and the powerless. Mere franchise every five years is not enough for economic empowerment of the masses. Dependence solely on governmental machinery is also not a foolproof way of alleviating the misery of the masses. What is needed is public participation, sincere service and sharing of our wealth handsomely for the betterment of our brethren who are our flesh and blood, the form and substance, the life and sustenance of our nation.

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi is the mother of all. When her children suffer, she suffers. We say we love her. Now let us testify to ourselves our love for our mother by serving her children as we would have served her were she there today in our midst. And yet she lives on in her countless children, deprived of food and shelter, culture and clothing, care and comfort. If we follow her dictum,"He who has, let him measure out; he who has not, let him chant," we will have served her well enough and she will be pleased with us. What more, my countrymen, do we need but the pleasure of the Mother as we wage this war of levelling out disparities to give suffering humanity space to live and ourselves a clearer conscience to go about the business of life which in essence is the search for God. May Mother bless us all in our endeavour to be worthy children of hers! Jai Ma!