Sugata Bose : Does flattering the Goddess enable one to winning Her favour? Then why do monks flatter Holy Mother at every bend and turn?
Indrani Dey : What is the answer to this question?
Sugata Bose : The answer lies in sincere adoration and not frivolous display of mere verbal effusion in public which are the outflow of superficiality of character and insincerity of expression thereof. This, however, is my flawed personal opinion, perhaps, and necessarily subject to future amendment if better sense prevails. Also, this special treatment to the One who can liberate is mere spiritual business and cannot be regarded as a worthwhile method of pleasing the Divine Mother, although, I reiterate that I am but a fool to thus voice my opinion. Who knows what the will of the Mother is but then critics are critics and often they miss the mark.
One more word, though. I wish ordinary people were treated better as divinities which we hear men preach but do not quite see such as being the case when it comes to the practice of such lofty spiritual principles. It is bounden on the laity as much to keep their self-dignity intact and not go about in cringing servility before monastics. My personal take in this matter is that nobody respects the one who does not respect himself. It is our individual responsibility to maintain a sense of sanity when it comes to reverencing monks and not sell our self-respect in the bargain. I do not mean to imply that we must therefore be aloof from monks or be egotistic enough not to pay them their due respects but we must in the bargain not stoop so low in prostration that we stoop in self-estimation as well. Ours is the right to respect both monk and laity and, above all, the Self within that shines as the Guru and as God. Tasmin tushtey jagat tushtam (Lord, be Thou pleased and the world will be pleased).
In so far as the answers to the questions that I have raised in the post proper, my idea is that the Goddess cannot be fooled as men imagine and mere habitual references to Her in effusive terms may not suffice in winning Her grace. But again it is grace we are talking of and that knows no law. Perhaps, that is what impels monks to keep chancing their luck in verbal adoration however flimsy in core emotional content at that and sprayed about extensively hither and thither in speeches and discourses galore.
Anyhow, I am of a high-strung material, the artistic temperament being my elemental nature and am prone to picking forever the grain from the chaff in every movement of life. This hyper-tendency for refinement in culture and excellence calls for my criticism of relative grossness in expression and approach wherever I chance to detect them for I hold it to be my responsibility as an artist to uphold culture in a society which is witnessing its precipitous fall. The rest the Mother knows.
Who knows what pleases Her save She? For my part I know that I do not flatter my earthly mother to be loved by her which she does at any rate, and I do not see how it may be different with my eternal Mother who is infinitely more abounding in love for me, a mere spray of which all motherhood on earth holds to shower on their progeny and so make this life a veritable heaven on earth. So, off thou go, dear flattery, from my universal set of emotions whether monk or laity do it the same way or otherwise.
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