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Coward: Part 2

Date: 06 Apr 2009 23:34:26 -0000 From: "Shivadayal Singhal" To: am-global@earthlink.net Subject: Coward: Part 2 Baba "Toma'r tarei kato vyatha' tumi ki ja'no na' balo more..." (P.S. 3636) Purport: Baba, You are the all-loving and omniscient One. Then how is it that You do not know how much longing and pain I have for You in my heart, please tell me. Days come with the hope that You will be coming with Your sweet smiling face, and I will receive You by offering a garland. In his hope my days pass in waiting, but in the end the night come and my eyes floats in my tears. The whole night passes in my unfulfilled longing for You. Baba what a tragedy I have brought upon myself by loving You. Why I love You I do not know. My whole life has passed crying in longing. Even then my mind does not want to forget You. You have tied me in the bond of Your love. In the distant sky the shining of crimson sum tells me that 'I am not alone'. O' my eternal Sakha*, across the cimmerian ocean You are ever-awake. Baba please grace me; without Your grace I cannot reach unto You... *Sakha = Baba says, "'Samapranah sakha smrtah'. Where love and devotion are so overwhelming that it appears as if there is only one entity in two bodies, such a pair of is known as 'sakha'. The bhakta, the devotee, is the sakha of Parama Purusa, because the bhakta can never think of Him as a separate entity from Him. Here he altogether forgets that he is separated from God. That is why Parama Purusa is also a sakha to His bhaktas and the bhakta is the sakha of Parama Purusa...You should also know-- you should remember this truth-- that the only well-wisher that you have in this universe...the only sakha is Parama Purusa." (AVM-6, p. 75-6)
== COWARD: PART 2 ==
Note: This entire letter is related with two of our AM magazines: Bhakta Samaj & Delhi English Prout. Unfortunately, both are compromising with dogma. Namaskar, By Baba's divine grace a new era is coming onto this earth: People no longer like to follow dogma. Dogmatic approaches are being dropped by the wayside. Some still remain no doubt, but every day more and more dogmas are being discarded. For instance, Baba was the first to strongly oppose so many dogmatic Hindu rituals. Back then it was totally unheard of to oppose the dogma of caste, sacred hair, and sacred thread etc. But now, only a few decades later, the very children of those brahmin families have zero interest in following those dogmatic, ritualistic traditions. Because in this 21st century - from east to west - the crusty ideas of old are step-by-step being tossed into the trash bin. People, especially youths, want to live in a rational, modern manner - that is the banner of the new day - and they want to brush aside the dirt of dogma. By Baba's grace their minds are changing: We see this happening everywhere. That is why it is so concerning that our AM magazines are highlighting various old dogmas and embracing pop pseudo-culture etc. In their silly way, the publishers of these magazines feel that by propagating Hindu dogma and western pop culture along with AM ideas in the same publication, then we will be able to attract more and more people. This is their faulty strategy. Apparently they are now aware that Baba's approach is to wipe out all dogma and never compromise AM ideals.
BABA'S DHARMIC APPROACH
One day, a margii approached Baba and explained how he was experiencing many trials and terrible opposition in his local area, in his regional samaj. The people did not want to accept neo-humanistic ideas. The margii wanted a solution. Hearing his tale of woe, Baba vigorously directed that margii to adhere to the ideals of AM and walk away from those regional people if they are still stuck in their dogma. Baba said, "Create your own flow - the flow of AM - and that will be your samaj - you will have your own samaj in that area." Baba's guideline is: Never compromise with dogma, follow AM dharma, and good people will join. By His grace Baba has come and wiped out the dogmas and put forth a comprehensive code of dharma. Both Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna walked this earth only to have their teachings dismantled by crude priests and opportunists. Baba has corrected those wrongs and guided us to hold the AM flag upright and never compromise our ideals. It should not be that He has to come again to right the dogma that we allow to enter into AM. That is why we should adamantly address the way our magazine editors are printing dogma on the pages of AM magazines. Again, their foolish folly is that by compromising with dogma then more people will join - but that is a silly notion. By that theory, we should serve meat and alcohol in our jagrtis in hopes that would entice more to come to dharmackra.
EXAMPLES FROM OUR AM MAGAZINES
Our AM magazines are a platform for our ideology- period. They are not a place for casual or personal discussion with the people, but a strict presentation of Guru's ideals. No one has the right to pollute these dharmic magazines. Now take a look at what some publishers are doing to our magazines. As a reminder, in the initial letter in this series, it was pointed out how the Bhakta Samaj magazine has fallen prey to so many dogmatic portrayals and presentations of Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna. Here are more points: 1. "BE A FIRST CLASS PERSON": In various discourses Baba guides us to be a "First Class Person" not a B-grade or C-grade person, but an A-Grade person whose thoughts, words, and deeds are all the same. In the Delhi English Prout Magazine (Vol: 19, Issue: 9, Page 40), the publishers have printed Baba discourse on this topic from AV-1. So far so good. But then, to exemplify this point, they inserted a clear, color photo of the Sikh preceptor Guru Govind Singh, as if that is the ideal we should all strive for. That is the dogmatic touch of these publishers. In nearly 100,000 pages of AM scripture, Baba never mentions that we should live like Guru Govind Singh as this Sikh leader has inserted countless dogmas into society. Guru Govind Singh is not a Dharma Guru. Rather he started a dogmatic religion and his photo should not adorn the pages of our AM magazines as if his is the example we should all aspire to. But those publishers put his picture in our AM magazine either because they themselves are confused or because they thought dogmatic readers from the general society would appreciate it if we highlighted this dogmatic guru. 2. DOGMATIC GURU STORY: On page 5 of Delhi English Prout (Vol: 19, Issue: 8) there is a story about a king who goes to see one local saint / guru. The guru hands the king a dirty, leather pouch made out of cow skin and tells the king to drink the water from it. The sentient-minded king is repulsed but does not want to show his displeasure so he merely pretends to drink the water from that disgusting pouch. In the end of the story, the water from that yucky rotten pouch gets on the hands of the washerman's daughter and she goes in samadhi. The point being that the king should have actually drank the water from that dirty pouch; the king should have followed the guru blindly. That is what this story says. But this is just one dogmatic guru story. In India, so many crude gurus has given countless teachings that have ruined the lives of the people and led society astray. And always such gurus demand blind obedience. Baba rejects such things. Our AM is filled with rational, logical teachings and Baba wants us to use our vivek and intellect and not follow anything blindly. Baba says, "Even if a boy says something logical, it should be accepted; and even if the lotus-born Brahma [the mythological creator of the universe] says something illogical it should be rejected like a straw." So ours is the path of rationality, not blind obedience. But the dogmatic story the publishers put in Delhi Prout Magazine runs contrary to Baba's ideal.
MORE EXAMPLES FROM OUR AM MAGAZINES
3. SENSUAL FEMALE DOING ASANAS: On pages 44-45 (Delhi English Prout, Nov '08), they have printed Baba's teachings from Yoga Cikitsa (Yogic Treatments and Natural Remedies) about Heart Disease. To show what asanas should be done, the publishers display color pictures of one young, sensual woman wearing skin-tight clothing. All the curves of her body are quite apparent and her arms are totally bare. Needless to say, this is the wrong type of picture to put in our AM magazines. Baba is very strict on points related with the dignity of women and to display one half-naked female model on the pages of Baba's magazine is totally wrong and against the code. But to attract the public or for whatever reason, the publishers have indulged in this crude scene. 4. RELIGIOUS JOKE: We all know that Baba guides us to respect all the religions. Of course we are not to follow their dogma, but nor should we make jokes about them. Baba says, "Never attack the religious beliefs [or feelings] of anyone. Make the person understand gradually with logic. If you attack a person’s religious beliefs, it means you have attacked Ananda Marga." (CC-2, 'Society', Pt #9) Unfortunately on page 41 of the Delhi English Prout Magazine (Vol: 19, Issue: 9), they have printed a tasteless joke about a Jew talking to a Christian priest. The joke is all about making fun of the dress of the priest. It is totally tasteless and against the teachings of AM for the publishers to put this on the pages of our AM magazine - a publication that is meant to uphold Baba's divine teachings.
WE MIGHT AS WELL DO HAJJ OR CHRISTMAS
We have to remember that our AM magazines like Bhakta Samaj and Delhi English Prout are magazines which Baba Himself has founded to highlight the teachings and preachings of Ananda Marga. These publications have no other purpose than to highlight AM ideals. The publishers are to respect and follow this code. But to entice dogmatic readers and bring crude habits into the Marga, these publishers compromise on our AM teachings on nearly every page, as if this is the way to make our Marga popular with the people. But Baba never appreciates or values such an approach. Baba does not want even one speck of dogma to enter our Marga. But the publishers have their own stand - they think by highlighting the dogma of the people then our numbers will increase. But what they forget is that then it will not be Ananda Marga. It will just be a crowd. Then we might as well: a) Start sacrificing goats in our jagritis in order to attract Muslim radicals. b) Host Christmas parties in our centers and sing songs about Christ to lure Christians. c) Show crude movies on Friday nights to attract party-happy materialists. d) Participate in dogmatic Islamic ritual of Hajj in hopes that those dogmatic Muslims will join our Ananda Purnima celebrations. Indeed according to the defective psychology of such publishers, we should indulge in every dogma on this earth in order to make our AM popular with the people. But this approach will not do and our Magazines should not be prisoner to this ill manner. Our AM magazines are only for Baba's teachings and AM ideals - they have no other purpose. Nobody has the right to dilute or ruin the presentation of these AM publications. If anyone wishes to dilute Baba things, then that is not Baba's idea, and it should be put in some other magazine - or better yet tossed aside. But under no circumstances should it appear on the pages of our AM magazines. Tragically, both Bhakta Samaj and Delhi English Prout magazines have fallen into the wrong hands and their pages have been filled with so many dogmas. Walking this path is a slippery slope and those doing this will undergo the consequences.
WAY TO MOVE AHEAD
Ours is that path of courage and bravery where we hold our head high and stick to AM ideals - never compromising with dogma. Baba says, "The characteristic of good people is to fight against injustice, to firmly adhere to truth and righteousness, to protect the helpless and fight against all evil persons. Those who are merely simple and are of a meek and goody-goody nature are not good people." (AFPS-5) Unfortunately the publishers or our AM magazines do not live up to this precept. Rather again and again they compromise with dogma. Either because they are embarrassed or shy to hold up the banner of AM, or because they think it best to compromise our teachings to appeal to the dogmas of the masses. Please excuse me, but on this point many other ashrams do better than us. Their teachings may or may not be proper, but at least they sincerely follow their guru and they do not compromise with their own rules and statutes. Let us always remember that there are countless good people in the world who are waiting for good teachings and good practices. But if we resort to propagating the dogmas of old, then those rational people will keep their distance from us. They will not enter our jagritis. Best then is to be bold and hold up the flag of AM - then all the good people will join us and Baba will be pleased.
BABA'S BLESSING
Following the slippery slope of dogma like our magazine editors are doing is not at all good. Baba says, "All dogma must be rooted out. You should start a revolution against dogma. But to start a revolution you need courage. So gather that courage and start a revolution against dogma." (PNS-16) Namaskar, Shivadayal
****************************************** Money and Peace
Baba says, "With the acquisition of money people still feel that they have nothing; in spite of possessing a huge amount of money they often beat their chests in despair. So it is not money they seek-- what they truly desire is peace, not happiness. But it is only rarely that people attain peace in life...The answer [then] is that by attaining Parama Purus'a one no longer has any unsatiated hunger or unqueched thirst." And that is the stage of perfect peace. (SS-12, p.38)
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