Spiritual Training

But, before reaching the heights of perfect union, there always goes a specific kind of activity, an education which the spiritually stared soul is called for to undertake. The painter, the musician, the poet, however great their natural gifted powers, can hardly dispense with some 'technical' training so, too the spiritual seekers. For unless discipline and slow training of the will, the sudden isolated flashes of inspiration back them will not long avail for the production of great union with the Blissful consciousness. It is the want of such discipline and spiritual drill that is responsible for the mass of vague, ineffectual, and sometimes harmful mysticism that has always existed: a kind of limp spirituality hanging, as it were, on the outskirts of frequent emotional outbursts.


The education Mahamati prescribes for the seekers, consists in the gradual development of an extraordinary faculty of inward concentration, a power of spiritual attention. It is not enough as is commonly held by the intellectuals that one should be 'aware of the Absolute', unless one be able to contemplate on it: just as the mere possession of eyesight by the born-blind needs to be supplemented by trained powers of perception. Mahamati says that so long as we do not wilfully withdraw our interest from the pleasurs of the world, we are not able to make our journey towards the center. The kingdom of God, he says, is within you: seek it, then, in the most secret vault of the innerself.


The devotee has, at first, to learn so to concentrate all his faculties upon the blank silence abiding with his inner self so that the awakening of a faint glimmer of so-called conscience takes place to watch all his activities from morning to night. Brooding upon the sacred words of Tartamya Mantra and contemplating on the attributes of God help the mind to be protected by this holy meditation from the distracting dream of life and the seeker peers out into the spiritual universe.


No sooner does this inner journey commence than a kind of spiritual discontent and anguish takes birth that puts an end to one's fascination for the illusion. His attitude undergoes a change. Like a tourist ready to pack up for his return journey after his sight-seeing, the self-seeking devotee stays in the world always conscious of his backward return. He is no more interested in planning and scheming for any new adventure and just accepts whatever comes in his way without any complaint.

True love is Devotion to One Supreme

The purpose of soul's descent in this world is to acquaint her with the subtle joy of separation from her Lord. Having seen enough of the worldly sufferings, she takes recourse to the path of devotion to unite with her Lord. If a person is turning round in a circle, the first time he goes slow, the second time he goes faster, the third and fourth time he goes fasters, but the fifth or sixth time he will fall down. The first time he experiences the joy of turning, the second and third and fourth times he experiences more of it, till at last he is drunk with it and experiences it to the full and falls down. This is what the soul has been doing ever since the creation. Whatever she does she wishes to do more and more. A patriot wants to become greater patriot and a singer longs to sing more songs until she loses her voice. In every activity there is intoxication, having experienced which the soul wants to turn back from it, and then finally commences her homeward journey.


The female-mind makes the difference when one takes the return journey back home and moves on the path towards God. Every male has to become like a female, because he has to learn to wait and to trust; he has also to learn receptivity and acceptance; he has to learn non-aggression and passivity; he has to learn compassion, love and service-all the qualities of the female mind. The particular qualities associated with devotion such as meekness, compassion, obedience and readiness to serve are to be found prominently in woman. When a woman is most truly herself, she longs to give everything, claims nothing, surrenders herself, and renounces self-will. This is the true attitude of devotion (Bhakti) in the philosophy of Mahamati Prannath.


Mahamati, therefore, speaks of a bridal type of love for God. Because so long as our need of love would keep on looking for an ideal spouse in the world, our devotion to God shall fall short of the required intensity and single-pointedness. Jesus also says, 'The love of the bride and the bride-groom is the symbol of love between God and His chosen perple'. The devotees like Meera, Chaitanya, Kabir, Catherine, Teresa and others have always considered the soul to be the bride longing for union with her Supreme Lover. Mahamati emphasises that the heart of a devotee must necessarily be moulded into a heart of woman waiting with infinite patience to meet her separated husband.

Path of love

The religious person is life-affirmative. Nothing looks hostile to him. Even if it appears at times that certain acts of people are being performed due to some misunderstanding, he immediately perceives in him the will of the sporting divine love. He calls it a game of plurality without giving rise to any feeling of enemity and rancor. His affirmation to the existence is absolute and total. He knows that he has not heard the whole song, so some note appears to fall out of line. Since we do not know the whole story, some part of it may look not fitting with the whole. But everything has to be good in the end if it has originated from divine love. God is the guarantee of goodness.


The irreligious person is a no sayer to all that exists. He fights with the whole and tries to prove that he is something special. Ego arises out of disturbance when one is not filled with love. In the absence of love ego is always observed with a need to show the world that it is important. If someone loves us we feel fulfilled. We donot bother about others. If we are not loved we feel a vacuum inside us. We look into the eyes of other to fulfill it. We try to gather crowd around us. Through the crowd the leaders try somehow to fulfill their love need. But power cannot fulfill a love need.


Those who long to enter the temple of love by amassing wealth power and other worldly things always enter as a beggar. Love is an alchemical phenomenon, it can raise one to an emperor. For to love is to become a part of God, to allow love to happen is to float in the ocean of Reality. Ego simply does not exist with love. Love fulfills the heart so deeply that it ceases to yearn for anything else. But if that divine nectar is missing, one will try to fulfill it somehow by becoming great. One will hanker after music, literature and politics, or even one may lead a life of licentiousness and oppression of the weak.