Helping or Hurting...

From: "Ramlal Sharma" To: am-global@earthlink.net Subject: Helping or Hurting... Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:00:57 Baba NEW AUDIO FILE ON BLOG: PS SONG #883 The audio file of this below Prabhat Samgiita #883 is now on our AM-GLOBAL Blog (http://www.am-global-01.blogspot.com/). So be sure to carefully review the below purport and listen to or download the song. Then you will have the complete package for this Prabhat Samgiita. For those interested in the word and line meanings, kindly write us: am-global@earthlink.net PS Intro: When a sadhaka's mind is ensonced in bliss then everything & anything seems blissful to that bhatka. In contrast, when the mind is dry then everything & anything appears to be dreary and dry. When any sadhaka does sadhana sincerely, then the feelings expressed in this below song naturally arise in the sadhaka's mind and they will actually feel that this entire world is full of bliss. All because their mind is in an extremely devotional and blissful flow. Without proper sadhana, then everything expressed in the below song will just be theoretical only. To experience Prabhat Samgiita, one must be sincere in sadhana. "Tava a'gamane udvela parama'n'u a'nande dhara' holo ye a'tmaha'ra'..." (PS 883) Purport: Baba, by Your grace, You have come. With Your divine arrival, each and every atom in this universe is ensconced and charmed by Your presence. The entire world has become lost in the bliss of getting You. O' my Dearmost, everyone is enthralled by Your grand arrival. The effulgence of the crimson dawn tells the flowers to pour more and more nectar. Baba, because of Your arrival, everyone & everything is floating in divine bliss. O' Divine One, because of Your advent, the nectar of devotion is pouring in hundreds and hundreds of directions, and that is making everybody restless for You. Due to Your irresistible attraction, due to the pouring of Your nectar, everyone yearns for You. Baba, Your overflowing love, Your unconditional love, is showering ceaselessly and spreading the effulgence of devotion in each and every nook and corner of this universe. Baba, because of Your arrival, there is sweet music all around. In the lonely place, through the sound of chirping, someone is singing with great joy and happiness. O' Baba, Your arrival is unparalleled. Baba, because of Your grace, today, on this pre-winter morning, the coo-coo bird is singing its most beautiful tune in this off season, because usually, the coo-coo bird only sings in the spring. In the forest, all the wild deer are taking notice and watching for Your presence. The entire natural world is charmed by Your arrival. Baba, by Your grace, today Your divine songs, which are saturated in beauty and melody, have been brought in the basket of tunes, by Your divine compassion. Baba, You have come...

IS THE WAY THE EDITORS ARE TRANSLATING BABA'S SHLOKAS HELPING OR HURTING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF BABA'S DISCOURSES

Namaskar, Nowadays mroe and more, everyone is realising the way in which some of the translations have been done for the shlokas in our various AM books. For example in Baba's Namami Krsna Sundaram book there is one section where Baba recites a Bengali poem in His discourse and thereafter a translation of this poem is given by the editors. The actual Bengali poem reads as follows:

"Man gariiber kii dos' a'che! Tumi ba'jikarer meye shya'ma', Yeman na'ca'o temni na'ce." (NKS, '97 Edition, p.182)

And here following is the translation as given by the editors: "[How could one fault this poor mind? You are the magician's daughter, I dance as You make me dance.]" (NKS, '97 Edition, p.182)

THE ODDITY OF THE ABOVE SHLOKA AND ITS TRANSLATION

After reading this Bengali poem and the editor's translation in the Namami Krsna Sundaram text, a few points of question arise whichn are noted below. Firstly, in the Bengali poem the term Shya'ma' is used and Shya'ma' is one dogmatic deity of the Hindu religion. But we Ananda Margis don't follow any God/Goddess worship, "devi worship", or "shakti puja", etc. This is Baba's teaching. However the deity Shya'ma' is but one of the hundreds of Hindu gods and goddesses which have been invented. Means over the course of history of the Hindu religion, countless such deities have been created. So this Shya'ma' is an imaginary figure; but, innumerable Bengali dogmatic people worship this Shya'ma' deity. And many dogmatic people link her with Lord Shiva. So this is a curious point because we know that Baba's teachings are 100% dharma. They are perfect and pure. So then the question comes how is it this dogmatic Bengali poem has appeared in His Namami Krsna Sundaram book. Plus there is the matter about the integrity of the editor's translation of that Bengali poem. For instance, in the editor's translation of the sloka, it is stated that by the grace of the "magician's daughter" various things happened. However when we Ananda Margiis know everything happens by the grace of God, then what is the need of this "magician's daughter"? There is no question of the "magician's daughter" doing anything. In all His teachings, Baba guides that only one God is there. And yet here in the editor's translation there is a second god. Means we Ananda Margiis know that there is only one Supreme Controller, and He makes everybody dance. But in the editor's translation, how is it that this "magician's daughter" got the supreme authority to make others dance. So what is told in the editor's translation of the sloka is pure dogma. Of course in these sorts of dogmatic religious slokas there are not one but hundreds of gods and goddesses. But we Margis know this is just the dogma of Hinduism. So it is looking like our the editors/ publishers of this book were involved in something peculiar. Thus the question still persists about why the sloka and its translation have been given by the Publication Dept. At one seminar some family acaryas and senior margiis have given the following analysis.

BABA'S USE OF EXAMPLES

In all Baba's discourses, He is explaining His Ananda Marga philosophy. When Baba wants to make any point more, then He gives examples. These examples may be from history or from a poem, or from the old scriptures. Anything which the audience will understand well. To that end, when Baba is giving a discourse in Bihar then He will give an example which is known to the local audience there. And if instead He is giving His discourse in Bengal, then according to the understanding of that particular audience, He will give the example. And similar is the case in overseas countries. So depending upon the local environment Baba gives appropriate examples to illustrate His point. And of course sometimes Baba gives universal examples which all can easily understand.

BABA'S IMPORTANT RULE ABOUT HIS USE OF SLOKAS

In Subhasita Samgraha part two Hindi edition, in the beginning of the book Baba has written a special author's note. There Baba clearly mentions that in His books, His intention is not to explain or write commentary of the sloka which He cites in His discourse. But rather, He has given slokas from which, just one word or a few words are useful to illustrate the AM philosophy in that very discourse. This above is one very important point, which Baba Himself has given in the beginning of SS-2 Hindi edition. The sense is, that when Baba cites a sloka, His intention is to use the sloka or some part of it, to explain AM philosophy. Baba's purpose here is to make clear the AM teachings. And to fulfill that purpose, He makes example of parts of various slokas. In many cases Baba gives a sloka to illustrate His point and then, He explains more about the matter than what has been written in the sloka itself. Other times He takes one word from the sloka from several thousand years ago and explains that, ignoring the rest of the sloka He has just cited. In either case, this shows how Baba's purpose is to highlight AM philosophy. So whatever section of the cited sloka serves Baba's purpose, He takes help from that part only. Plus He has told the following in His Ananda Vacanamrtam series Baba says, "I am not using the exact vocabulary of the slokas. I just want to amplify the truth." (AV-2, p.34)

MORE ABOUT HOW SLOKAS ARE USED

Suppose He chooses a sloka from the vedas, to explain or give an example during His discourse. He will say the sloka during His discourse. And then from that sloka which He gave, He will take one word only and He goes on explaining far more than what has been expressed in that sloka. So such things happen when the explanation of the sloka is limited. But He goes on explaining more and more. Because to give more explanation is needed for making that very point which He wants to tell related with AM philosophy. It is sometimes the case that the rsi who made the sloka, did not have the depth of understanding which was required for making the point of AM ideology which Baba is giving. So in that case the sloka literally says something very limited. And Baba explains far more than that. So the conclusion is, sometimes He takes just a few words from the sloka and the rest he does not touch. Because that other aspect of the sloka had some dogmatic meaning and was off the mark. And sometimes Baba explains more than what has been written in the sloka because He feels further elaboration is needed for society to benefit from the teaching.

HOW THE CONFUSION CAME: ABOUT THE EDITORS INSERTS

But the main problem comes when sometimes the editor translates the entire sloka and prints their own purport of the line by line meaning of that whole sloka of those dogmatic religious books and treatises. Whereas Baba cited that sloka intending to teach only one particular word of the sloka. And if with the intention to teach one word, Baba cited that very sloka. And then the editors print the whole dogmatic literal meaning of in the book -- when Baba did not Himself give the meaning in the discourse-then it creates more confusion. Just like in the above Bengali poem translation, it happened. Here it is again.

"Man...na'ce."

That time when Baba actually delivered the discourse then He did not give any translation of the sloka, and went on to talk about His own point of AM ideology. But in the printed version of the discourse, the publishers translated and printed the literal meaning of the sloka. They wrote: "[How could one fault this poor mind? You are the magician's daughter, I dance as You make me dance.]" So by this way anyone can see that the editor's translation goes off the mark. Because Baba's whole entire in purpose in citing the Bengali poem is to show how since several hundred years this idea was there in the people's mind, that everything is controlled by God. And it is Baba's way of speaking, that when He is giving any discourse then He cites local examples for the audience. So those local people hundreds of years ago, they had their own dogmatic way of expressing the idea that God is controlling everything. Baba did not want to give any attention to the details of their dogmatic understanding; only He wanted to show that they had this deep belief that God controls all. And that is why Baba cited that Bengali poem: To highlight the fact that that people understood that God is One and the Supreme Controller. But the publishers printed their literal translation of the sloka and by that way, they introduced elements that are going against AM teachings and the meaning of the discourse. Naturally then anyone reading those editor's translations will get confused.

DOGMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF OLD

Because those dogmatic people were thinking that Shya'ma' deity is the God, and that Shya'ma' is linked with Shiva, so that's why the "magician's daughter" in their dogmatic understanding, is doing everything. For that reason they composed the sloka like this hundreds of years ago. But Baba's sense was only to show that since hundreds of years this idea was there in the people's mind that everything is controlled by God. So here there was no need to translate all of this about "Shya'ma'" deity and the "magician's daughter". Unnecessarily, those who published the book printed all of this. Which is completely confusing and side-tracking for any reader of the discourse. By Baba's grace in the due course and with the sincere input of one and all, we will step by step clear up all these matters regarding the integrity of our AM books.

BABA'S BLESSING

Baba says, "Human beings will certainly achieve rapid progress...human beings have no reason for despair...they must march ahead vigorously with firm steps, keeping a synthetic goal ever before them. Caraveti, caraveti-- 'March forward, march forward'." (AFPS-4, p. 6) Namaskar, Ramlal Note 1: On numerous occasions Baba teachings express far more than was given in those old slokas from centuries past. One excellent example of this is His lengthy discourse on the Guru Puja sloka as given in Ananda Vacanamrtam-3. Note 2: It is not just in Namami Krsna Sundaram but there are numerous examples from various books where the editors gave a translation of slokas that went against the spirit of AM teachings and Baba's discourse.