After brother R took leave of us, we all proceeded to pay a visit to sister V. As we started walking down the stairs, we stumbled upon a person on the ground floor.
S introduced him to me saying, “He lives in the apartment right below yours.”
I greeted him with a namaskar and examined him. He appeared to be an orthodox Brahmin.
He asked S rather suspiciously, “Was the ceremony performed in accordance with the scriptures?”
As I was standing right next to him, S hesitated and just smiled back in reply.
Even though he did not ask me, I interfered and told him, “Yes, it was performed as per the scriptures, but our scripture is different.”
He again said suspiciously, “That’s it! I ask because I did not hear any mantras.”
“Our mantras cannot be heard outwardly,” saying so, I placed a copy of the book ‘Jabala Darsanopanishad’ in his hands and told him, “I recently wrote this book. Please read it.”
He asked, “Oh! Isn’t this an Upanishad? Where did you gather it from?”
I just smiled and replied, “From the Upanishads!”
Unable to understand what I was hinting at, he scowled a little. With the exhaustion of having faced hundreds of such people, I left him behind and led the group out onto the road.
This is how many people are! They think what they know is the ultimate truth. They are ignorant of the fact that there are several levels in the scriptures. I felt pity for their inability to grasp the real meaning of Mother’s teachings.
I remembered one of Mother’s sayings: “What you say is Mantra and what I do is Tantra,” she said this way back to some brahmin priests.
What she meant was that she gets the task accomplished without the need for mantras. Mantras only work as a medium between a seeker and God. They act as an aid to the mind that is struggling to become still. One who can go straight to the source, does not need any mantra. An able person can achieve anything directly with the help of Tantra, even that which cannot be achieved with the help of a mantra.
Just the thought of the variety of people that Mother had to deal with when she was alive, amused me. Laughing to myself, we continued to walk towards sister V’s house.
All rights reserved. This article has been translated by Sowjanya D, which was originally posted in teluguyogi.net on October 19, 2018. The content or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher.