Which Dada's Book to Read

Date: Thu 10 Apr 2008 23:19:38 -0000 To: AM-GLOBAL From: J.Young Subject: Which Dada's Book to Read Baba "A'loker a'nanda tumi dhara'te nebe esecho..." - P.S. 3104 Purport: O' Baba, the blissful Entity, the embodiment divine effulgence, You have advented on this dusty Earth. This is Your grace. You have saturated everything with Your flow of love and sweetness. You have changed the dry and stony heart into something very soft. Your sweet smile is unforgettable, Your voice is charming and attractive. Baba, everyone says that they love You--and I also tell like that with my heart. So why are You keeping me away. Whether You like me or not, but please do not continue to ignore and forget me. Baba, You are very close. Please make me aware how You are playing Your liila with my mind. Baba, You are bliss Personified. By Your grace You have advented on this Earth to inundate all with love and devotion...

== WHICH DADA'S BOOK TO READ ==

Namaskar, Everyone wants to get a deeper and better understanding of Ananda Marga; whatever one's current standard may be, we all want to increase our knowledge of Baba's divine teachings. Naturally then we will look for various books to read. And one obvious question that comes to mind is, 'Which Dada's or Didi's book should I read?'. Because we all want to read something that will enhance our understanding. So let us take a look--a brief overview of some of these publications-- and also evaluate what Baba says in this regard. Because Baba's straightforward declaration on this very topic is the very precise answer that we all need.

SOME SAY CANDRANATHJI'S BOOK

First up, some may say to read Dada Candranathji's book as that will give us a right interpretation of AM ideology. So with all due respect to our very dear Dada Candranathji who faithfully served Baba's mission as an esteemed family acarya and who lived a life of honesty, integrity, and humility, it is important that we look at Dadaji's own writings as many may try and seek guidance from his printed works. Unfortunately, when we look at Candranathhi's book we find various statements like, 'Mother Teresa was a sadvipra' & 'I went into nirvakalpa samadhi four times a day' etc. Immediately then we have to think and exercise caution. Because by now the verdict is out about Mother Teresa. Her many hundreds of correspondences over the decades which have now become public have revealed her own duplicity. In those letters she claims that she feels God has abandoned her and that she feels so far away and she even wonders if there even is a God. Yet on the podium she would regularly talk as if she and God were one. This was her showy way. Hence even the general society has come to understand her duplicity and unsaintliness. And all along in AM we had our doubts because she was not a vegetarian and because she failed to speak out against the many Christian dogmas. So her dubious and questionable character is now confirmed to be not at all good. Yet through it all, Candranathji put Mother Teresa & Mother Teresa alone as an example of a sadvipra in his book. Thus anyone reading his book will get an entirely wrong understanding of Baba's ideal of a sadvipra. Such is Candranathji's interpretation and applications of AM ideology. And the worst part is that if the book gets printed again, then that grave mistake will not be repaired. It will remain there, 'Mother Teresa was a sadvipra'. Next, in his book, Dada Candranathji proclaims that he himself regularly went into nirvakalpa samadhi 4 times daily. Basically he is claiming the highest realisation for himself-- i.e. someone who is beyond all the shackles of the lower vrittis etc. Yet we all know the various fears he had in organisational life and how he was so hesitant to take a stand on nearly any issue. He would never come forward to fight against groupism, scriptural distortions, or any malaise in AM until already many others erupted on that issue. Till that time, Candranathji remained quiet as a mouse. Not so much as a peep out of him was heard. In that case, how can anyone really think that respected Candranathji truly experienced nirvakalpa samadhi 4 times a day etc, since he himself was captive to such worldly fears. Yet that is what he wrote in his book and that gives the mistaken understanding of nirvakalpa samadhi. And indeed not just these two examples, but on nearly each and every page of his book there are so many erroneous statements either about religion, yama and niyama, or various topics. Keep in mind here that goal is not to put down Candranathji. He lived an ideal life in many respects and that cannot be disputed. Here our only aim is to see if by reading his book one can get a clearer understanding of Baba's ideology. Does his explanation and expression truly put forth the ideals of AM.

WHAT ABOUT BHASKARANANDA, ANAND MITRA & DHARMAVEDANANDA

Then, in brief, there are other noted authors in AM like Bhaskarananda, Ananda Mitra, & Dharmavedananda. Tragically they all bring in their baggage of their pre-AM life and spread that throughout their books. And it is not just that on one page their mistakes are printed but rather through the entire book more and more mistakes are brought to the fore. Take for example Dharmavedananda's book, "Travels with the Mystic Master. The essence of his entire book is that he is one of of the first westerners to enter into the Tantric cult and become an avadhuta. Yet throughout his book he goes against that very ideal. As he basks in countless childhood memories of his family life etc, yet the whole meaning of being an avadhuta is to take rebirth as a true tantrika and accept Baba as their everything, and not be bound or associate with one's prior worldly existence. But Dharmavedananda's books is like one big stroll down memory lane. By reading his book we learn about his high school friends, the extracurriculars he took, his mother's and father's occupations, plus we learn about his sister's interests and we even learn the name of his dog. All of this is written about in detail in his so-called memoir of an avadhuta. Plus he also describes meeting with his laokik family members outside of an AM jagriti after becoming avadhuta-- and that blatantly goes against the code being Avadhuta, as Baba says, 'no relation should exist with one's worldly family' (WT Conduct Rules). Thus Dharmavedananda's book is meant to shed light on what it means to be an avadhuta, yet his own printed page goes against the most fundamental pillars of being an avadhuta of Tantra. In that case is his book an appropriate description of Baba's ideal? And while this letter is getting long, suffice to say here that both Bhaskarananda and Didi Ananda Mitra both drag their own dogmatic attachments to Sufism & Hinduism (in the case of Dada B), and Christianity & Buddhism (in the case of Didi) in their explanations of AM ideology. that is why their books are also completely unreliable. And already in the past others have written extensively about this. In brief, on page 100-101 of his book Social Dynamics, Bhaskarananda writes that neo-humanism is nothing but a renaming of the ancient Hindu teachings. Dada B says that Baba's divine and revolutionary concept of neo-humanism is nothing but a reworking of Hindu theology etc. Obviously this is entirely wrong. And in so many instances Didi Ananda Mitra uses faulty Buddhist parables and references to Christ to wrongly explain Ananda Sutram. This grave error happens repeatedly, in basically every chapter and on every page.

ON GOING ERROR(S)

Thus by reading the books of our illustrious acaryas, unfortunately, one is not going to get a cleaner or more pristine understanding of AM ideology. Rather the whole thing will go in the opposite direction. One will be exposed to dogmatic concepts because all of the aforementioned "authors" and others drag their own previously dogma into AM when writing their books. That is the problem. And the other problem is that those mistakes do not get corrected from one printing to the next. Each edition of the book carries the same old problems. So their books are basically a mess from head to toe. Maybe their intentions were pure, but the fact stands that their works are riddled with innumerable errors-- too many to point out.

BABA'S DIRECTIVE

Considering all of the above and taking Baba as the Supreme Guru, the only way to proceed is to pay heed to His guideline and in the Senior Acarya Diary, Baba explicitly warns everyone that one should first study all the books of AM and develop a crystal clear understanding before going on to read other books. Because AM is dharma and other writings are not. And if we do not first properly understand that dharma of AM we will be confused or misguided by those other writings, such as those books written by our various acaryas etc. So the only way to proceed is to first study all of Baba's books. That is the only way to understand AM ideology and the dharma of life. And that is Baba's explicit guideline for us all to follow. Namaskar, Jagatmitra

****************************************** Really God's Favourite?

Baba says, "There are many philosophies which tend to crudify the human mind, and make people violent and inconsiderate. They make people believe that they are God's favourite children, whereas the rest of humanity are cursed. Although these views have philosophical sanction, they do not have the sanction of the A'tman (soul)...Intellectually such people are certainly slaves, and in the material world also they are slaves." (PNS-18, p.15) Note: This psychic disease is present in fundamentalist Jews, fundamentalist Christians, and fundamentalist Muslims etc. All are bad and guilty of this point; but especially the fundamentalist Jews & Muslims. They feel very negatively towards those who do not belong to their dogmatic beliefs. Muslims brand others as Quafir (demons) and Jews label non-Jews in their own derogatory language. Thus according to Baba the status of those fundamentalist Jews & Muslims is like slaves-- intellectually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. For more about this read Baba's discourse, 'The Continuous Effort to Promote Universal Well-Being-- Part 1'.

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