Matri Vani (Fragments of Personal Advice and Suggestions by Sri Anandamayi Ma) (Volume 1)

Foreword

The present booklet contains fragments of personal advice and suggestions tendered by Sri Anandamayi Ma to some of Her devotees at different times. As these formed part of letters (in Bengali) dictated by Mother in reply to their own supplications, their language bears upon it the native simplicity and freshness of the original messages without the least deterioration owing to the mechanism of transmission.

An analysis of the booklet would show that Mother's words are concerned with various situations arising in a man's life when under the pressure of circumstances he feels himself utterly helpless, hopeless and forlorn. Bereavements, disillusionments and a feeling of frustration in life, attacks of hostile force within, waning of faith, vagaries of an uncurbed and erratic mind, protracted physical ailments these are some of the necessary evils incidental to ordinary human existence on earth. In every case it will be found that Mother has suggested practically the same sovereign remedy - viz, the cultivation of the habit of remembering God and taking His Holy Name supplemented by an unconditional surrender to His Will and an unshaken belief that all His dispensations are wise and for our good. It is true that the instructions conveyed in this collection were given to particular individuals and under particular circumstances; nevertheless, they have about them the ring of an eternal and universal appeal to mankind, irrespective of caste, cred, sex, age or nationality. These who have the good fortune of knowing Mother more closely are aware that she has not on Her part any personal bias towards an particular line of approach as against the others and that if in the case of a sadhaka the exigencies of individual predisposition and competence demand exclusiveness in a particular direction she never hesitates to recommend it.

Mother accepts the Supreme Ideal of man as one and the same. But she says that on account of difference of outlook consequent on and ways of thought, paths of attainment become necessarily different. All these differences are true; but they are only superficial. What really counts for in each case is, whether one has or has not the sincerity of heart, a truth-seeking spirit and a genuine thirst of the soul coupled with unceasing activity and undaunted faith and a stainless moral character. Detachment from worldly affairs and devotion. To the Divine Ideal are the chief assets for a pilgrim on the path of the Infinite.

In every age, on every occasion, in every turn of fortune, in the field of action and in the stillness, a man should therefore have a single Aim before him on which his mind's eye may be set and it should shine as if it were the pole-star in his mental firmament. To him it should be like the majestic lordship of the Supreme Father, like the abounding Grace of the great Mother, like the ever flowing sweet Spring of the Eternal Beloved; it may also be like the impersonal but self-conscious Bliss of the Divine Being; it may even be like the hidden Essence of his own soul. It is in the direction of this Supreme Objective that a man should always be consciously striving - through action, through knowledge and through love. In whatever condition a man may happen to find himself at the moment of awakening he should bear in mind that his path really stretches out before him from there; he has only to exert himself to the best of his powers and proceed along the path. If it is true that a man through his limited action cannot reach upto the Goal, it is also true that no effort, however insignificant, goes in vain if it is sincere. Every genuine effort, however imperceptible in its littleness, has a value of its own as a means to the End; and when it is rightly put forth, this End is bound to be realized in its own time. But the supreme End is above all means. We have to move forward along the path and utilize the resources accessible to us. For who knows at what Great Moment the Supreme Reality will reveal Itself in all its resplendent glory? When once the Vision dawns upon the soul, the defilements and impurities clinging to it from the immemorial last and accumulated through the ages will vanish in a single instant like mists at dawn before the rays of the rising sun. The finite assumes the role of the Infinite when the Infinite smiles upon it and, being freed from all limitations and disabilities of mundane life, it begins to live, move and have its being within to live, move and have its being within the Infinite. One has naturally to start with a definite plan of self-discipline suited to one's tastes and capacities and arranged in a certain order of temporal and logical sequence, but when once His Grace shows Itself, the stiff formalities of rigid conventions sink into insignificance. All fetters are then snapped asunder and the "Impossible" not only becomes possible, but enters into the actual fiber of our being. Peace and Freedom are eternally restored to the soul and man realizes the Highest Goal of his existence.

This tittle book is verily a lustrous string of precious pearls fit to be always worn round the neck by every devoted child of Mother. I heartily welcome its publication and congratulate both the compiler and the translator on the exquisite sense of propriety they have shown in the selection and rendering of the pieces