Sri Anandamayi Ma

[Davino]

“A person who expects this body to be always supernormal in its dealings with the world, will be disappointed, for this little girl acts according to her ‘kheyala’* - whatever it be at any time. In other words, accept what little service you may be able to receive from this child. In what light anyone sees this little girl depends on his ideas and attitude of mind. To her everything appears delightful.” 
 ~ Anandamayi Ma

*kheyala: (spontaneous intrinsically-egoless divine will). Sanskrit word very ofthen used by her, to explain why she did or did not do anything at all. Kheyala carries meanings such as impulse, spontaneity, improvisation and intuition. A famous type of Indian improvisational music is also called “kheyal.” This is one of the most repeated themes of her life. In her last days before mahasamadhi when asked why she didn't heal hearself as she had done in the past she simply said; There is no kheyala. While in the past she used to answer: you come to this body and I welcome you, so sickness comes to this body so I welcome sickness; There is nothing but God Alone. At other times, she made known and unknown yogic asanas and pranayamas, healing herself. In whatever scenario, everything was her Kheyala...

 

[Davino]

The individual self by its very nature, wishes for bliss. Because this bliss is present within Himself, that is why He can ask for it. Otherwise He would not. He cannot do without asking for it.

If noticed, the craving for bliss and peace will be seen in all living beings. Even lowly creations like insects and spiders do not wish to go near heat. They desire peace, security and rest. Creatures suffering in the heat of the sun, long for shade and cold water.

Likewise, being afflicted by the triple miseries, man also seeks for God, the abode of peace and the mine of bliss. 

Edited January 16 by Davino

[Davino]

"One day the 'kheyala' (spontaneous upsurge of divine will, see first post in page 5) came to inquire,

'How does this happen? (what causes things to happen as they do?)' and this body's mouth pronounced the answer, 'things, events, situations occur due to the interplay of 'mahashakti (divine power) and 'ichcha-shakti' (will power)'. Normally in a human being there is the interplay between these two forces. The 'will power' plays with one's desire, and the 'divine power' stands above one's desires and doubts and carries out the inevitable results of one's karma and 'sanskars' (Repeatedly skiing down the same path on a mountain creates a deeper and distinct line in the snow, called Sanskars in sanskrit, being the mountain your mind and psyche and each time you ski down an action). The 'lila' (divine play) of 'mahashakti' indicates permanence, unrestricted manifestation and absolute power to do anything. The nature of 'ichcha-shakti' is to exert intelligent thinking in order to fulfill desire. In other words 'mahashakti' denotes an absolute power beyond the ever-changing mind, whereas 'ichcha-shakti' denotes the exertion of individual will power within the context of the ever changing desires of the mind due to a sense of incompleteness and need.

On the path of 'sadhana' (spiritual practice), once success is attained by conducting activities perfectly with one's will power, then the play of divine power is experienced by oneself. At that stage all diversity in the world starts to dissolve into one undivided state of being and nothing remains for the 'sadhak' (one who does spiritual practices) except the single objective of one's goal. One has to wait for the final grace of 'Mahashakti' for merging into absolute Unity, as no final solution is possible by 'ichcha-shakti' alone. Just as no smoke can be seen without fire, so also these two complement each other as different aspects of the Supreme One."
 ~ Anandamayi Ma

[Davino]

There are two kinds of pilgrims 

on life's journey: 

the one like a tourist is keen on sight-seeing, wandering from place to place, flitting from one experience to another for the fun of it. 

The other traveller treads the path that is consistent with man's true being and which leads to his real home, to Self-knowledge. Sorrow will certainly be encountered on the journey undertaken for the sake of sight-seeing and enjoyment.

 

So long as one's real home has not been found, suffering is inevitable. The sense of separateness is the root-cause of misery, because it is founded on error, on the conception of duality. 

This is why the world is called du-niya - based on duality.

 

 What is wanted is genuine Awakening, an awakening after which nothing remains to be attained. . .

 

- Words of Ma Anandamayi. Short Comunications 2. Richard Lannoy.

[Davino]

 

[Davino]

This Body does not build ashrams. There is one all-pervading and all transcendent ashram - where whatever you say is there. Certainly all ashrams belong to This Body. You think that only those ashrams you have built are Her’s. Really the entire world is just an ashram of this body. Where is the second? – MA

[Davino]

Revelation of the whole ins and outs of the prayer path. Which means, calling God. For the form of God to manifest in Brahamn (Reality, another name for God). For the Self to manifest inside the Self. That at some point must happen, this must be your determination. Liberation will have to be granted to me.

Listen a few times to let it sink in

Edited January 21 by Davino

[Davino]

Question: We often hear you say: "think of God."

But surely God is unthinkable and formless.

What can be thought of must have name and form and therefore cannot be God.

 

Answer: Yes, without doubt, He is beyond thought, form and description, and yet I say: "think of Him!"

Why?

Since you are identified with the ego, 

since you think you are the doer, 

since you say: "I can do this and that," and since you get angry, greedy, and so forth, you therefore have to apply your "I-ness" to the thought of Him.

 

True, 

He is formless, nameless, immutable, unfathomable.

All the same 

He has come to you in the form of the Eternal Sound or the descent of God in the form of the Word, or in the form of an Avatar. These also are - He Himself and consequently, if you abide by His name and contemplate His form, the veil which is your "I" will wear out and then He, who is beyond form and thought, will shine forth.

 

 You think that you are engaging in sadhana, but actually it is He who does everything, without Him nothing can be done. And if you imagine that you receive according to what you do, this is not correct either, for God is not a merchant; with Him there is no bargaining.

 

- Discourse and Dialogue of 

Ma Anandamayi. Chapter 6. Richard Lannoy.

[Davino]

Ma Anandamayi revealed that one means for attaining the illuminating knowledge of the Self is through profound awareness 
of the life-breath. 
Thus, she has said:
“The Self, or God is unknowable to the ordinary intelligence, but 
He is not unknown to us as the life-breath. 
If one uses the rhythm of one’s breathing as a support in meditation, this increases one’s power. 
Therefore, one should daily sit in a meditative pose in a solitary place and turn the mind inward, and repeat the mantra in rhythm with one’s breathing, without straining, in a natural way. 
When through prolonged practice, the Name becomes inextricably linked with the breath, and the body is quite still; one will come to realize that the individual is part of the One Great-Life that pervades the Universe.”

- Mountain Path. July 2011.
Anandamayi Ma
The Teachings
Swami Mangalananda

[Davino]

As such, you and I are two. Again, you and I are one. The void that is between these two is in fact I.
 
~ Sri Anandamayi Ma 

[Davino]

Flowers and fruits come into existence only because they are potentially contained in the tree. The tree comes into existence only because it is potentially contained in the seed. Where do seeds come from? Please tell me
Therefore, you should aim at realising the One Supreme Element which will throw light on all elements.

 This world is itself but an embodiment of want; hence the heartache due to the absence of fulfilment must needs endure. This is why it is said that there are two kinds of current in human life:
one pertaining to the world in which want follows upon want,
the other of one's true being.

It is the very nature of the former that it can never end in fulfilment; 
on the contrary, the sense of want is perpetually re-stimulated. 
On the other hand, the latter aims to bring to completion the activities of man's true being, to establish man in his divine nature. Thus, if he endeavours to fulfil himself by entering the current of his true being, this current will eventually lead him to the perfect poise of his own true being.

- Dailogue and Discourses with 
Ma Anandamayi. (Richard Lannoy)

[Davino]

 

[Davino]

Only God is there, in the form of truth, happiness and bliss. The bliss of the ultimate reality is not conditional on anything except atmanand (bliss of the self). Nothing else can stand. If there stands anything that too is illusory – MA.

[Davino]

On Prayer 

 

Question: Why should one pray to God at all? He in any case does all that is necessary. 

 

Mataji: Yes, this is also true on one level. But prayer is good, for to pray means turning one's thoughts to God. 

 

There are various kinds of prayer. At first, man prays for material things like wealth, health, family, position, etc. On that level, if he did not pray for these and similar boons, he would not remember God at all. To be reminded of Him, no matter from what motive, is beneficial. 

 

Then there is a stage, especially in the line of Bhakti, when prayer spontaneously flows from one's heart. One yearns and pines for God and cannot help praying:

"I cannot bear to be without Thee, 

reveal Thyself! 

When will Thou bless me with Thy vision?" 

It is like a fever that cannot be allayed by anything but union with Him. 

 

The first type of prayer is of the ego; the second is still of the ego, but of the ego that is about to disintegrate; when its prayer is fulfilled, there will be no other prayer. 

 

There is another state when one prays: 

"Do what Thou wilt with me. I am a tool in Thy hand, only vouchsafe me the strength to endure whatever Thou mayst require of me."

 

There is a further state when one does not pray at all. 

One feels: "God does all that is necessary, so, for what am I to pray?" 

Then in the firm belief that He provides for all the needs of His creatures, one becomes free from worry and remains absorbed in deep meditation. 

 

- Ma Anandamayi

As the Flower Sheds its Fragrance. 

Dairy Leaves (Part II: Satsang at Solan May-June 1955). Atmananda

[Davino]

The Great Void (Mahashunya) is only His manifestation. The great void is not synonymous with nothingness. What is, what is not. Again, everything is there and not there. Negation of naught. Negation of everything. To obtain everything by way of losing everything – that too is required – MA.

[Davino]

But the most consistent theme which can be taken as Ma’s continual message was the repeated statement that all is a manifestation of the Divine. All that we experience, see or hear is only God in His manifest forms. 

 

“The Universal Body of the Lord comprises all things — trees, flowers, leaves, hills, mountains, rivers, oceans, and so forth. 

A time will come, must come, when one actually perceives this all-pervading 

Universal Form of the One. The variety of His shapes and guises is infinite, uncountable, without end. 

Just as ice is nothing but water, so the Beloved is without form, without quality, and the question of manifestation does not arise. When this is realized, one has realized one’s Self. For, to find the Beloved is to find my Self, to discover that God is my very own, wholly identical with myself, my innermost Self, the Self of my Self.”

 

“In all forms, in all diversity and disparity is He alone. The infinite variety of appearances and manifestations, of modes of becoming and states of being, of species and types, all the numberless distinctions as well as all identity are but He Himself. All things are but an expression, a guise of the One.”

 

- Anandamayi Ma

The Teachings

Swami Mangalananda

[Davino]

[Davino]

You may want to remove this body from your mind. But never will this body go away, goes away, and had gone away. One who loved this body once cannot wipe out the remembrance of this body even if he tries a hundred times. This body is ever in his memory and will remain as well. 

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma 
 

[Davino]

There is no difference between the earth and this body. I can even eat by placing (the food) on the ground or anywhere. The rules of conduct, devotion, cleanliness, dutifulness, etc. are needed for your learning; that is why things like these happen in me. 

 

~ Sri Anandamayi Ma 

 

[Davino]