Anandamayi Ma
Everything is in God’s hands, and you are His tool to be used by Him as He pleases. Try to grasp the significance of “all is His,” and you will immediately feel free from all burdens. What will be the result of your surrender to Him? None will seem alien, all will be your very own, your Self.
Either melt by devotion the sense of separateness, or burn it by knowledge—for what is it that melts or burns? Only that which by its nature can be melted or burnt; namely the idea that something other than your Self exists. What will happen then? You come to know your Self.
By virtue of the guru’s power everything becomes possible; therefore seek a guru. Meanwhile, since all names are His Name, all forms His Form, select one of them and keep it with you as your constant companion. At the same time He is also nameless and formless; for the Supreme it is possible to be everything and yet nothing.
So long as you have not found a guru, adhere to the name or form of Him that appeals to you most, and ceaselessly pray that He may reveal Himself to you as the Sadguru. In very truth the guru dwells within, and unless you discover the inner guru, nothing can be achieved.
If you feel no desire to turn to God, bind yourself by a daily routine of sādhanā, as school children do, whose duty it is to follow a fixed time-table. When prayer does not spontaneously flow from your heart, ask yourself: “Why do I find pleasure in the fleeting things of this world?”
If you crave for some outer thing or feel specially attracted to a person, you should pause and say to yourself: “Look out, you are being fascinated by the glamour of this!” Is there a place where God is not?
Family life, which is the āśrama (life stage) of the householder, can also take you in His direction, provided it is accepted as an āśrama. Lived in this spirit, it helps man to progress towards Self-realization.
Nevertheless, if you hanker after anything such as name, fame, or position, God will bestow it on you, but you will not feel satisfied. The kingdom of God is a whole, and unless you are admitted to the whole of it you cannot remain content. He grants you just a little, only to keep your discontent alive, for without discontent there can be no progress.
You, a scion of the Immortal, can never become reconciled to the realm of death, neither does God allow you to remain in it. He Himself kindles the sense of want in you by granting you a small thing, only to whet your appetite for a greater one. This is His method by which He urges you on.
The traveler on this path finds it difficult and feels troubled, but one who has eyes to see can clearly perceive that the pilgrim is advancing. The distress that is experienced burns to ashes all pleasure derived from worldly things. This is what is called tapasyā.
What obstructs one on the spiritual path bears within itself seeds of future suffering. Yet the heartache, the anguish over the effects of these obstructions, are the beginning of an awakening to consciousness.
Excerpted from ‘The Essential Sri Anandamayi Ma: Life and Teachings of a 20th Century Indian Saint’ by Alexander Lipski. The 124th birth anniversary of Anandamayi Ma was observed on April 30.
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