Daily Offerings from Alokda

The young aspirants were full of enthusiasm to spread the gospel of their Master. Was it not the best way for them to express their gratitude to Him who had shown them the Light? But the Master generally discouraged this. He would often say that Truth needs no advertisements and the sun needs none to announce its coming to the world. He would tell them jocularly that the crow and the cock remain the same even though they are among the first ones to feel the coming of the sun and wake up the entire neighbourhood by their shouts and cries.

‘But is it not our duty to announce to the world the truth that we have known?’ asked a few.

‘Yes, you must share the joy of your discovery. But reading of it or even hearing of it is not enough’, said the Master, and added, ‘first hear, then think and meditate till you can see and realize it in yourself. That is knowing.’

A few persisted. The Master left them free to discover the truth of His words their own way. For this was His method. He would suggest but never impose, counsel but never order. He left each one free to follow his own nature and led each according to their law of inner growth.

Some felt confused at this. Their small minds wanted a narrow rigid doctrine applicable to all. The Master would explain how such a thing would soon turn the truth of His words into a narrow sect and a religion. For the Divine does not act according to a fixed principle or dogma but in infinite freedom and liberty. His is not a dictatorial kingdom where all be compelled to obey Him. That would make a truly mechanical world of men who are more like robots than living and thinking creatures. God lives in freedom and gives this freedom to all as the first condition of growth.

‘But is this freedom not dangerous when we do not know what is good and what is bad for us’, asked someone who was a strict disciplinarian by nature. But the Master simply smiled and said, ‘Perhaps, but how else can there be authentic growth without the direct experience of things. And as of danger, did I not create them for man to overcome them and grow stronger through the difficulties! Man fears danger and is afraid of error and thereby man also limits his perfection. But God dallies with evil and sin to bring light and good and makes our errors the stepping stones upon the heavenward way.’

One among them who felt himself holier than others lamented as he observed how this freedom had spoilt the disciples. He mused under his breath if there was any difference at all between the life of the aspirants here and the life of ordinary men.

And the Master heard his unspoken thought and felt the disciple’s ego of holiness heave under his holy breast even as He spoke: ‘Be not deceived by appearances. Some sticks that seem straight outside are crooked below the water. Others that appear twisted and kinked at several places are so because they have entwined their life around the vast and complex body of the tree of Truth. Unable to clasp it they have thus entwined themselves around It and thereby appear crooked. Yet are they centered around Truth in their inner being!’

‘But sometimes we find no difference between some of us here and those who are outside leading an ordinary life. Is this too a deception of the eyes or is there a difference?’ Asked another, unable to fathom the diverse ways of the Master who dealt differently with each one, often defying a simple understanding based on standard norms and conventions.

‘Of course there is a difference. It is like the difference between the fertilized and the unfertilized egg. To all outer appearances they may look alike for a long time with common virtues and vices. But to an inward eye they are different. The aspirant however is like a fertilized egg in whom the seed of divinity has been cast. His inner being begins to get shaped by the power within it even though the outer nature may appear the same as anyone else. Then a time comes when all is ripe and something breaks free from within the fertilized egg and the chick is born. The soul-force is released and the resistances and barriers of the outer nature break under its growing pressure. But the unfertilized egg has been delivered prematurely. It remains the same until it is swallowed by the cosmic powers and dies to itself.’

And as a word of caution to their premature enthusiasm he added: ‘While the highest possibility of an unfertilized egg is to provide nourishment to another by its own destruction, the fertilized egg must avoid this. Its destiny is fulfilled by going under the brooding wings of the Divine Grace and wait with patience letting the new thing develop within. The heat of the Divine Tapas then prepares the chick and one day sets it free to grow into the likeness of its creator. Only then are they ready to go into the world and mingle amidst ordinary life and yet carry the seeds of Fire and Light that the Divine has put in them to places far and wide.’

Once again, the disciples had gathered under the cool shade of the banyan tree. The Master arrived as usual at the appointed time. It was not in his nature to make others, even if they be his disciples, to wait for him. The story session began with a discussion over the story of Amrita – Manthan which the disciples had heard the other day.

Disciple: – Master, you narrated the story of Amrita Manthan, the other day and it appeared perfectly natural that the Lord distributed the nectar to the gods while denying it to the titans. But hadn’t they too laboured for it and therefore deserved it equally? Then why was the Lord partial to the gods?

The Master seemed to be waiting for this question. He responded at once: “But the Lord was not being partial at all though it may seem so to the human eye. He was simply doing what ought to be done as the right thing to do. Then after a pause, he added. ‘Well he was rendering Divine Justice, if you like?’

‘Divine Justice’, a few disciples exclaimed as if puzzled for they had never thought that there could be several kinds of Justice.

The Master resumed: ‘Yes, each earthly value, whether Love, Charity, Kindness, Unity, Justice has its divine and a human counterpart. The Divine renders Justice as per the Divine vision which is as you all know a complete vision and a total knowledge. He sees not only the outer effort but also the inner motives, the hidden forces at play, the long-term results and above all the good of the earth. Even when he destroys, he destroys out of love. Man sees only the surface of things and has at most only a brief life’s vision therefore is he perplexed and confused at the ways of God. True, the titans laboured as fiercely and perhaps even more than the gods. But their motives were unclean had the nectar been given to them, that would have spelt disaster for earth and humanity on whom these beings of other dimensions cast their influence. Have you not heard what Sri Krishna has said in the Gita about the right course of action, dharma. This right, from the Divine point of view is what helps in the evolutionary march of mankind towards the ultimate Truth and Light and God. Have you not heard of the Lord’s incarnations as the dwarf child, Vamana avatar?”

One of the disciples inquired. “Tell us Master, the story of Vamana. I have heard about it as a child but couldn’t quite grasp the sense behind it.”

The disciples were all attention, expectantly waiting for another story. The Master got into the frame of telling another story, of another incarnation. As he spoke, a joy flowed from his body as if he experienced what he recounted:

‘The titan king Bali had not forgotten his defeat. He performed various forms of austerities to gain rare weapons. Then, armoured with these and gathering around himself a huge army, he marched towards Amravati, the city of deathless gods where Indra resides. Seeing the huge army and the rare weapons, Indra in consultation with the guru of gods, Brihaspati decided to abandon the city and go into a hide – out with the rest of the gods. Better be free even with nothing than be a slave to the titans which seemed imminent. Brihaspati, who knows the ways of the Vast, explained to Indra, the king of gods, thus: “After God’s will, one must respect Time for it is through the agency of Time that the great Lord works and acts. He who acts completely ignoring the conditions set forth by Tine in this huge cosmic play, brings only doom to oneself. For in all things Time works. There is a Time for victory, there is a Time also for defeat. And he who knows how to accept both, success and failure with grace and dignity, eventually masters Time itself.”

Brihaspati spoke, but Indra was still not fully convinced. The gods are not powerless, he thought. Why should not we fight. But Brihaspati, the wise said, “Look Indra, the time is not good right now for your victory. The Lord, in his mysterious way has brought you face to face with inevitable defeat. Perhaps he wants you and the gods to learn the lesson of humility. However powerful you may be, Time over-rides and overtops all things. So concede right now to avoid destruction of this beautiful city and its many inhabitants,”

Indra listened for the gods always obeyed their guru. Along with the other gods, he took refuge in devamata Aditi’s home. Aditi, the Mother of the gods, received them with Love and Compassion that is always there in her heart for all her children. The gods forgot all their pain and humiliations in Her presence but the ever kind mother carried the sorrow and anguish of the gods to the great lord, Narayana, “Wherefore this ignomy, and defeat, this humiliation and so now for my radiant children. Lord, you must intervene on their behalf for their kingdom has been snatched unjustly by the titans.”

The gracious Lord smiled and reassured Aditi, the mother of the gods: “What thou hast willed for them, I cannot refuse. It is granted. The kingdom of the gods will be returned to them in due course of time, for as thou knowest, my will executed by the trustee Time. The heavens have been snatched from the gods without a fight for the gods had to learn a lesson. It is Time and not the titan king who snatched it away. And it is Time who shall give it back to them without a fight.”

Thus assured the mother of the gods who ever mediates between the anguish of the gods and the ecstasies of the highest Being, returned and resumed her work of nurturing and strengthening the gods, pouring her Grace and Love upon them, healing all their anguish and sorrow.

Time rolled by. Meanwhile, a little child with an unusual radiance was born to Aditi. He emerged out of her womb a radiant god himself whose splendor was greater even than Indra, the king of gods. The earth, the moon, the sun, the fire, the mother goddess Parvati herself, Brahma and Siva all gave something of their aspect of energies to him. His form resembled Narayana himself and Aditi knew that the Time had come for the gods to get back their due. The little boy, well versed in the Veda love, remained dwarf-bodied, Vamana, but in his consciousness he was vaster than the skies and deeper than the oceans.

Meanwhile, king Bali who was now commanding the three worlds, the physical material world, the subtle word built of prana and the still subtler world mind, decided to perform a rare yajna that would make him invincible. The yajna was being presided over by the guru of the titans, Shukracharya. As master of all the elemental forces and material energies, Shukracharya wanted the titans to become invincible. As he thus proceeded on the Yajana, suddenly a dazzling radiance was seen approaching near the sacrificial fire.

The titans were perplexed for they were not accustomed to so much light. Some even fainted unable to bear the effulgence which, as it neared, was seen to be emanating from Vamana who was approaching the Yajnasala dressed in the barest of bare clothes, he held a Kamandalu in his hands and an umbrella made of reads over his head. His eyes were full of an unearthly joy and the countenance full of peace and radiance. A beautiful fragrance as of jasmine emanated from his body that had a lotus pink hue around it. As he approached the Yajnasala, the titan king was filled with a strange joy. Indeed he thought the little boy to be the fire-god himself. Offering his obeisance to the young bright Brahmin boy, the titan king asked him: “Who art thou, O young one? You seem to be celestial being or perhaps the Lord himself in a miniature form. Tell me what can offer you you as a due share of the yajna?”

At this the Master paused and elaborated a little about the Yajna: ‘Yajna is not merely an external rite as some see it. In principle it is a recognition of the fact that we are neither alone nor the only one in the universe. Through Yajna, the sacrificant offered what he had and what he could to others, to men of wisdom and valour, to men in need, to the subjects in one’s kingdom, to the gods and denizens of other worlds. The fire is the inner fire, the eternal witness, the Divine will in man. Through that as one’s witness, one makes the offering. But this is not a one – way process, for in return, the elements, the earth, the sun, the moon, the sea, the gods also gave to the giver something of their forces and their energies. Thus, each could grow into the All and the Whole enrich each element?

The disciples were amazed at the depth and profundity of this ancient wisdom that not only saw oneness behind all things but also provided a way to realize it, through, Yajna, as one of the powerful means.

The Master resumed: ‘To come back to our story, the radiant Vamana thus spoke to the titan king: “O great king, you are truly generous and large – hearted much like your father and grand-father. All that I need, however, is just three steps worth of land.”

Now, Vamana knew that the titans are readily carried away by praise. They are generous but their generosity is driven by the ego and done for the sake of self-flattery. Bali too felt flattered but also somewhat surprised at the small measure of the gift. He asked the little dwarf to reconsider and ask for more. But Vamana, the dwarf stood his ground.

Meanwhile, as the two were conversing, Shukracharya had perceived that this was no ordinary being and his measure need not be our measure. He advised the titan king not to grant what Vamana asked as there may be some trick to it. But the titan king would not listen. He was full of vanity and boastfulness. What trick can this little dwarf do with me, Bali, who rules the three worlds and of whom even the gods are afraid. If listen to my guru, I may bring shame to my family pride who were known to be generous kings. What will people speak of me, that the mighty king Bali did not keep his promise for mere three steps of land. Huh, he thought, my guru has lost his senses to thus advice me. I know better and thus, with the fire as witness and the water as the sanctifier, he promised Vamana to take three steps worth of space anywhere in the three worlds.

And Vamana smiled. He took out one step and his being seemed to tower to unimaginable heights. With his first step he measured the entire earth. His second step covered the heavens and all else in-between. The titan king was all amazed. Realizing that Vamana was none else but Narayana himself, he stood with folded hands, speechless and in wonder.

“Where do I place my third step, O! great and generous king.” He heard Vamana’s sweet and soft voice that was like celestial music to his ears.

Still held almost in trance, the king bowed his head and gestured that the third step may be placed there upon his head. This gesture meant that his ego may be completely demolished and his whole being reclaimed by the Lord himself.

Vamana, the Lord who had assumed the stature of a dwarf smiled as he granted to Bali the highest boom possible, by taking away the burden of ego, pride and vanity that man carries on his head.

“O! Great and noble king, the earth and the heavens were already mine. I have only reclaimed them from you who thought that they are yours. I give them now to the gods to govern and to you I give the highest of the nether worlds, Sutala where you will reign a while as my trustee. In return for you noble gesture, I promise that I will always be by your side, even in the nether worlds, for there is nothing small or dark where I cannot reside and even in the darkest mysterious and the fallen worlds I am there, hidden and masked. Now that you have chosen to surrender your ego to Me, I shall quickly purify your nature and after this cycle of creation withdraws, it is you whom I shall appoint as the guardian of heaven, the king a gods, Indra, for the next cycle.”

And Bali bowed his head in utter gratitude as the Lord placed his feet over his head and sent him to the nether worlds.

The Master paused for a while as in deep contemplation. Then addressing his disciples, he asked. “What would you call this – Divine Justice or Divine compassion, Retribution or Reward, taking or giving, disgrace or the greatest Grace?”

The disciples were unable to answer.

The Master resumed: For such is the wisdom that has built the world. Justice and injustice, these are human terms, needed for us, but the Lord sees and act differently and does what is needed for our growth.”

Evening was spreading fast. The master summarized, revealing the symbol of the story: “Vamana, the radiant portion, amsa of the Lord is man’s soul, his psychic being, and dwarf in appearance, but formidable in power and knowledge. So long as the ego is battling out between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’, the ‘bright’ and the ‘dark’ side of life, Vamana remains hidden to our sight. But a time comes when we are ready through suffering and humility, when the world – mother Aditi, intercedes on our behalf and Vamana, the soul in man emerges out of her and begins to spread its radiance and influence upon our life. He reclaims our nature for the Lord to whom everything belongs. And when we have offered our ego to him, He purifies us quickly and abides with us always wherever we are. Then sin and evil fall away from us and, whether in hell or in heaven, we become radiant instruments of God.

The Master fell silent but, the disciples felt a strange joy and peace invade their hearts and an urge to give themselves utterly and entirely to the Lord. Quietly, they stood up, one after another and walked for the last errands. It was night outside but inside all was light and happiness and peace.

Alok Pandey

The atmosphere was solemn but not heavy. There was a lightness and a Light that one always felt in the Master’s Presence. But the solemnness of the occasion was because of the Master’s ‘illness’. The Master had not been well for the last couple of weeks, and now he seemed to be withdrawing, suddenly, as a sun assumes the crimson golden hue of dawn just before setting in the western seas, the Master came back to his full outer awareness and smiled at the grave faces that had gathered around him in the dusk.

The Master broke the silence, or rather enriched it by his sweet and liquid voice that always seemed to come from some far-off world: ‘What makes your faces so grave?’ One among them answered with a rather low voice: ‘your illness Master and the fear we all share that you may leave us.’

There was a pause as if between the destruction and creation of worlds. The Master seemed to have lapsed again. But he came out of his trance soon enough. Slowly, he responded to the disciple’s anxiety:

‘But where am I leaving you? Do you think I am this body?’ The Master pinched his flesh at places while saying so, and continued: ‘None of us are mere physical bodies alone. Only you are not conscious of it whereas I am fully conscious of my deathless Self and the many births before. And the deathless Self is immortal. It does not die.’

The conversation had started. Another continued the thread: ‘you are God, aren’t you?’

The Master paused a while: ‘yes, but it is also true of all of you, only you do not know it.’

The disciple: ‘But you are God in a special sense, an avatar, the Supreme incarnated in a material body. You are not like us struggling from below upwards.’

The Master: ‘yes, but so were Krishna and Christ and Buddha avatar, conscious of their Godhead. Do you think an avatar is not subject to the laws of earth, when he takes up a human body.’

And the disciple: ‘we thought so, an avatar is free from the laws that govern us mortals.’

The Master said with a great force in his words: ‘None of us is a mortal. Bondage is an illusion, Death is an illusion. There is none bound, none dies. Have you forgotten the great injunction of Sri Krishna, “It is only forms that perish, the soul is immortal.” Did he not also say, “There was never a time when I or these kings were not there, nor when they will not”.’

The Master looked at them with a powerful gaze. Then as the glow softened, he continued: ‘Do you think that Sri Krishna, Christ, Buddha are dead and gone? Have I not told you my own encounters with them, especially with Sri Krishna, the eternal friend and lover of all mankind in whose arms of ecstasy I spent days and weeks. How could I if he were no more. In fact, an avatar never leaves the earth. He comes for the earth and stays here as a permanent part of the earth consciousness so that all who rightly strive may be helped by him and arrive.’

The disciples looked puzzled. Of course, they had read all this but somehow seemed to forget it. How foolish of them to believe that the Master could ever leave them. The Master as if read their thoughts: ‘How could I ever leave you. No, I will be present upon earth till the work for which I have come is done. Only you would not see me with your physical senses.’

‘That makes a great difference to us,’ one of them pleadingly complained.

But the Master reassured: ‘But my help will always be available just as ever those who have a subtle vision can even see me.’

‘But your physical presence….’

The Master revealed: ‘Do you think the Divine takes up a physical body only to guide a few handful of people who are near him? He can and does do that even without assuming a physical body. The experience of many devotees and saints testifies this.’

The disciple insisted ‘But still your physical presence makes a great difference.’

The Master looked at them with great compassion: ‘It does serve as a concrete example but one cannot profit by physical nearness alone. The Master is a doorway to help you discover the Divine Master within you. One too often forgets that simply because the Master is physically available and readily accessible. In fact, the help of the Master is not so much by the words he utters and the letters to which he replies for these can be readily misinterpreted. His real help reaches out as a silent but powerful influence to all who are receptive and open. And this help and influence is not dependent upon the physical Presence though men find it easier to open to someone who is concretely visible in flesh and blood. But that is man’s limitation, not the Master’s. He acts without hands and feet, speaks without the tongue and influences us even while he is bodiless. Indeed that is the Master’s mode of action even while he is in the body.’

A little puzzled the one with a logical reasoning asked: ‘Then why does God take up a body at all if He can guide men and the world without taking up a human body? And if He does, why does he seem to suffer and even fall ill and die like ordinary mortals?’

‘Oh that is another matter. It is not about Guidance but about doing something with physical matter or the earth substance. The Divine takes up a human body as a field of action directly upon Matter and the physical conditions of earth. Now also He acts but from behind, through many layers that clothe and conceal Him. Therefore the work upon earth seems so abominably slow, difficult, and painful. But by taking up a physical body, the Divine can bring the very physical substance and earth-nature directly in contact with the Divine Forces from another plane of a higher consciousness. That helps earth and embodied beings progress as a whole, collectively and not just few special chosen men. It makes the earth cover as if in one giant leap of a few decades or centuries what it would otherwise take millenniums to realise.’

‘Oh yes, we can see that; how your coming revolutionized the entire face of the earth. The very atmosphere has changed,’ a disciple observed, but then added, as if with a tinge of doubt: ‘That is why all the more we cannot understand your illness. We have seen and experienced your powerful Presence and its Influence several times ourselves and in the world. To say the least, we have seen you cure such intractable illnesses in others. So why or how could you not cure yourself!’

The Master spoke as if enigmatically: ‘May be I could cure myself but would not. May be I wish to experience all that human beings experience including illness and death so that I can change their law. How could I do it unless I experience it? How can how ca I change the law unless I fully know it? It is easy to pass beyond the law and remain above it, it is also easy enough to superimpose the law of one plane upon another, but it is extremely difficult to change the law of one plane into another.’

The disciples looked quizzically at each other: ‘What does that mean, we do not quite grasp that.’

The Master: ‘It is easy, for example for a yogi to keep his body alive and healthy for a long period by superimposing upon it the vital force, or else, to simply rise above his illness and be free within of all reactions. That is how miracles ordinarily work. But when you want to change the material laws, then it is another thing altogether. In the previous two, you rise above them or else momentarily suspend or hold them in abeyance for whatever period you wish to with a constant superior control. It is like policing. The presence of the police controls the thief so long as they are vigilant but it does not change a thief or criminal. For that you have to enter into the criminal’s mind and consciousness and know it by a kind of identification, of course without losing your own identity. It is a deliberate process. You do this not out of any weakness but out of strength, to understand how they think and operate, what is their origin due to. And all this so as to change them. That is transforming the law.’

‘But won’t that upset the balance,’ one reflectively demurred.

‘It would do so only if the law were such at the origin and fixed for all times. But that is not the case. Earth and physical life has become what it is not because it is radically and incurably false in its origin. Quite the contrary. Its origin, as indeed the origin of all things is Truth and Consciousness and Bliss. But, in the course of time it has become almost its opposite.’ The Master paused, reflectively, as if the whole course of earth’s history stood before him in one panoramic flash.

‘But why did this fall from Glory come out,’ someone steeped in tradition asked seizing upon the pause.

The Master once again turned towards them: ‘Oh! haven’t you read, I have written all that in great detail elsewhere.’ Some of them could notice the touch of gentle irony in the Master’s words, haven’t you read, as if observing human complacency. For these were his way, gentle and subtle yet unfailing in pointing us the road of Light.

He continued: ‘Nevertheless, the fact that everything has issued forth from the Divine and contains His Presence within it, therefore everything is not only potentially Divine but also destined to become more and more so through an evolutionary process. Matter too, despite all its inertness and unconsciousness is divine in its origin and in human beings it has already reached a point wherein it can be divinised. The Divine descends upon earth and takes a physical body to redeem matter and liberate the godhead concealed in it.’

With a flash of intuition one observed: ‘Oh! like that story of Ahalya who becomes stone due to a curse and then turns into a goddess by the grace of Lord Rama’s touch.’

But another ventured to ask: ‘Is that the reason why Divine comes again and again upon earth and takes up a physical body? Is this the second coming spoken of in the great traditions of Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism?’

The Master answered: ‘The second coming is not a religious event. It is not the resurrection of a certain creed or Church or a theology nor is it to save a particular religious group. The second coming is precisely this, — this complete victory of the Divine upon earth, this reign of Truth and Light in this world, the Divine advent in all His Glory and not as He is presently concealed in the thick cloak of a human body. The second coming is about the coming of the Divine in a divinised body, a body befitting the Mighty Presence.’

The disciples were awestruck. How much vast was the Master’s vision and how small and narrow our ignorant beliefs. After a long silence one asked, ‘So you will come again.’

The Master nodded in ascent, and added: ‘Yes in a divinised body. For only such a body can truly fuse and express all the diverse aspects of the One Divine who comes as Krishna, Christ, Buddha and the rest.’

One pleaded: ‘How will we recognise you?’

And the Master said: ‘That is one reason why I must depart. So that you open your inner eyes and find me there. For they who have this inner vision will always find me for they know me as the Supreme Godhead who has assumed this form. For them the form is the door to the worlds of Light and Truth. But those who see the form alone and know Me only by my external personality will try to make a cult and a religion or an intellectual creed and dogma and philosophy out of it. That is what man has always done so far with the Divine. But with the second coming all this will cease, for the Divine will no more be hidden by the form nor will He need the imperfect figures of idea and philosophy or religion to express Himself in this world. The second coming is the great return, the return of the Divine as the revealed and not a concealed sovereign and king upon earth. That will also be the establishment of the Divine Kingdom here, the dream of all religions and the hope of mankind.’

The Master’s words fell silent in the fast gathering night. But a hope stole in the heart of earth and the Light of a New Dawn waited in the Eastern sky for the appropriate hour.

Alok Pandey