Ma is Present
Thursday, September 13th, 2007This week I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting with Swami Nirgunananda who served as Anandamayi Ma’s secretary for the last three years of her life. Swamiji has a great sense of humor and a sweet demeanor. He also manifested the undistracted presence that is the fruit of years of honest contemplation and devotion to one path.
Swamiji shared with me a phrase in Bengali commonly uttered by Ma:
Mā āchhen. Kiser chintā?
As Swamiji translated it for me, it means: Ma is There. Why worry?
Upon looking it up, I saw that the first utterance could also be translated as “Ma is present.”
When a mother rushes to comfort a small child, she usually says: “I am here. Everything is fine now.”
As adults, we receive the news that “I am here,” for instance, when a friend is comforting us in a time of need, as an indication that we can relax. We are not alone. Someone else has come to our rescue. The world may be big and bad, but we have a friend.
But Anandamayi Ma says:
I am there. I am present. Why worry?
I am there, in your troubles, too. There is nothing but the Supreme I.
I am present in everything, as everything. There is nothing but the Supreme I.
If every happening is nothing other than I, why worry?
The Supreme Intelligence is All. I am your body, your life, your troubles, and your sadhana. You are never alone or apart.
This is not a concept. It can be experienced directly by anyone who is constant in doing sadhana. It can be felt, seen, understood, and lived.
At the same time, I am also this body and you are that body. This is one way of experiencing the Supreme Life. And this is the everyday experience of most human beings.
And so, Ma comes, in the form of Guru, in the form of a human mother, in the form of a friend. She plays the game of duality for her own delight and out of compassion for those who as of yet know nothing else.
She manifests here in an ordinary way, for us.
When Anandamayi Ma was asked: Why are you here? She would answer in the voice of the Supreme Self: Because you called me.
Self calls to Self and always answers in the appropriate form. When we call out for Mother or Guru, she inevitably arrives.
Worrying is one of the main “tools” we use to try to stop the flow of life and feel more secure. When we “worry” about something, we grab onto it and won’t let go. Worries live in our mind, filling up the void that we wish to avoid.
It is possible to live in the world, troubles and all, without worry, without continuously holding on, if we remember Ma is There.
These comings and goings, worries and crying out, are like waves in the ocean. They are, as Ma said, svamudra, the gestures or expressions of the Ocean of Self.
In the course of the process of unfoldment, our consciousness rests more in the form of the entire ocean. We may still worry at times, but we don’t worry so much about that.
Ma is Present.
Shambhavi
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