God as Mother : 20. Sri Swami Chidananda.
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Saturday, August 13, 2022. 07:40.
Essence of Devi Mahatmyam
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FIFTH NIGHT -
20. A Stern Warning.
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20. A Stern Warning :
Similarly, in the individual’s spiritual life, however much it may be true in the ultimate
reaches of realisation that he is not this physical body, he is Pure Atman which is beyond body and
mind, yet we find that if the aspirant is foolish enough to start with this basis in his life of practical
spiritual Sadhana he will come to grief very soon. For the law of this physical world is very exacting
and a transgression in this law will at once claim its price. Thus, if one flies away into a Vedantic
attitude and neglects his physical body and does not care to maintain its health and give it proper
rest or nourishment and thinks he has already attained the consciousness of Atma, he will wake up
too late to find out his mistake and he will find that the one superlative instrument of all Yoga
Sadhana, viz., this physical body through which one has to do selfless service in order to attain the
much-desired purity of heart and character, becomes damaged beyond repair and his progress in
Yoga Sadhana becomes severely hampered. In such a case it is only the Grace of the Lord that will
have to save him and somehow he will have to make amends for his mistake.
Just as in the individual a neglect of this aspect of the physical factor which may later on
have to be transcended brings very undesirable results, even so, in the national life it was necessary
to have realised this and to have avoided this degeneracy into Tamas. By the bitter way the Indian
society has learnt the lesson and now the very welcome trend of this robust activism, activity based
upon Dharma, upon selflessness, motiveless activity, as is now being exemplified by all great
leaders, social leaders, political leaders, as well as spiritual leaders like our Gurudev, has now
created a new constructive wave in the society and this nation, which augurs well for our ultimate
rising up into the realm of Saraswati, where through this activity a state of peace, prosperity,
national health and well-being, national literacy and higher education of all people will come into
existence and through this a national spiritual regeneration will be made possible. For, without the
widespread manifestation of Lakshmi in the society and the nation there can be no hope of the
manifestation of the Goddess Saraswati in Her aspect of higher spiritual knowledge coming into
existence, because as they have said, religion cannot be preached to hungry stomachs and bare
backs.
Therefore, we have first of all to have a realistic approach to this problem of national and
social life. We must give to the nation and to people those aspects of Lakshmi by which alone they
will live a life of health, of well-being, and in such a state of all-round prosperity, literacy and
health, higher aspirations will begin to sprout up, These aspirations are there; but they are all
dormant and due to the absence of Lakshmi in the land and in the society the aspirations are given
no chance to manifest themselves in the heart of man; for, poverty stultifies all higher aspirations
and when hunger pinches man’s stomach there can be no thought of higher idealism.
Therefore, this very great and significant importance of the visible manifestation of
Lakshmi or Vishnu-Shakti in the life of every race and nation has to be recognised upon its own
merits, with discrimination and Vairagya, and through Lakshmi one must approach Saraswati
which is the ultimate aim of the Bharatiya Samskriti.
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Next-SIXTH NIGHT
GODDESS OF AUSPICIOUSNESS AT HOME AND AT HEART :
To be continued ...
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