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Editorial:
The Strangeness of the Stranger
'No one is a stranger, my child!'
These immortal words were uttered by the mortal mouth of Sri Sarada Devi the Holy Mother as her parting message to her children on the earth. As it is a part of the parting message it cannot be an impromptu sermon, laden as it is with her life-long intense practical experience. That's why this one sentence itself at once installs her on the throne of the Universal Mother. The first part of this sermon--'If you want peace, do not find fault with others.'--comes as the effect of our realization of the last part of it--'No one is a stranger, my child!'1 When the absurdity about a stranger is gauged by us at least at the intellectual level, our usual human behaviour changes and is elevated to a higher level. The Advaitic knowledge of oneness of all existence is the panacea for all evils created by the strange word 'stranger'. It is the divisive effect of a misunderstood duality that conceives the idea of more than one existence. Because, if there were two then one would be a stranger to the other. Each would have equal scope to validate strangerhood.
A stranger is one who is foreign to a thing or a group. It is perhaps the only disdainful word that is capable of freezing all warm ripples of one's emotions. The species of humanity is one. It is indivisible and uncountable. By no stretch of imagination, therefore, can a stranger be carved out of it. In spite of that if I dare to call anybody 'a stranger', so do I become, with new dimensions freshly whittled by me from the body of humanity. One man at his own sweet will cannot represent the whole. To imagine such a fanciful position one has to stand out alone against an imaginary world with one's etched out individuality. The Mother herself says, 'Man finds faults with others after bringing down his own mind to that level. Does anything ever happen to another if you enumerate his faults? It only injures you'.2 Swamiji tries to convince us saying, 'I am thoroughly convinced that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such an attempt has been made under false ideas of greatness, policy or holiness--the result has been disastrous to the secluding one .'3 ; Look at the irony of fate! Before one conjures up a stranger one has already become one. This is the strangeness of strangerhood.
One may argue: how far is this fantastic notion of yours logical? We feel that it militates against all human behaviour and practice. One may also point out: even the scriptures support the idea! The Hitopadesha says: Ajnata-kula-shilam cha vasadeyo na karhichit , i.e. no person with unknown lineage (introduction) and character (nature) should be allowed by anybody as a guest. We do not know even outwardly all of our neighbours, what to speak of our knowing the whole of humanity. To move about in a foreign country one is required to hold a visaed passport and is under compulsion to produce further credentials as and when demanded, necessarily or wantonly, courteously or discourteously. So your idea stands against both logic and human behaviour. To this we say: well, your idea may be right. Yet in the same human behaviour we refer to a sense of one humanity when we use such statements like: the sun is bigger than our world; there may not be such a life elsewhere in the cosmos as we have on our earth; some cosmic rays are enemies of humanity, etc. which unmistakably allude to some kind of oneness of the humanity and for that matter the unity of the whole creation. 'Behind each finite existence there is an idea of infinity'. Hence this much only can we say that though the idea of oneness of all existence is there, it is not commonly felt or used by us.
Cutting the Gordian Knot
However, we are interested to know how the Holy Mother could free herself from all ideas about strangers. The direct answer to this is: she was always free from it; she did not earn it by way of some extra addition to her being. And an indirect answer from the worldly point of view is: in order to rise to the lofty ideal of Universal Motherhood the Holy Mother had to elevate herself to a position above the contradictory human behaviour ( lokavyavaharah ). The lokavyavaharah 4 is preceded by the individualistic superimpositions that 'I am this body-mind complex' and 'all which are in any way connected with me are mine'. She, therefore, rose above the mortifying claims of her body and whatever she could claim as hers.
In her lifetime itself she was literally worshipped and adored as the Mother of the Universe. She could have, without causing the least danger to her position, easily led a cozy life. But she did not belong to the class of the so-called Babas and Matas . She remained the same ordinary Mother, only inspiring more and more reverence in the minds of all who used to be around her! Sri Krishna said in the Gita , 'Whatever the noblest persons do, the ordinary persons imitate. Though in all the three worlds I have no duty, still I am always engaged in work. Why? Because, if I did not ever continue in action unwearied, men all around would follow My way.' 5 Therefore, though her life was an example of ordinary down-to-the-earth living yet we find in it 'an illustration of the ideal of living in the world and being not of it'.
There is more to come into the bargain! She abandoned herself to a unique motherhood far removed from all classes of worldly mothers. She is a class by herself. Our experience tells us that an ordinary mother's affection is limited to her own children. Contrary to this, Holy Mother's motherhood includes not only us but also all our parents, grand-parents and practically all our ancestors and all descendants! As she refused to have children of her own body (a field for the superimposition of aham idam 'I am this body') to be claimed as her own (a field for the superimposition of mama idam 'All this belongs to me') there was left no obstacle on her way to become the mother of all.
It is not in a cosmetic sense that she is called Universal Mother. No one remained a stranger in the big list of her children. It includes birds, animals, ancestors, her in-laws and even her own husband! Her life is a saga of practical spirituality. She had made spirituality practical or, more correctly, lifted the practical to spiritual level. She has added life to life or, more correctly, filled life with the aspirations for a higher life. This she did with the glowing example of her own so ordinary yet sublime living. Hers was a life that admirably actualized the Vedantic principle of oneness of all existence leaving no room for a ridiculous strangerhood.
And should we say, this she had to do out of her own burning necessity. Either she should be the mother of all or she would simply lose her own existence! 'Maya is real, yet it is not real.'6 She had to accept the first proposition for her own survival. And how immaculately did she achieve it! When a film is projected on a screen the animated figures thereon owe their existence to the moving film. If the film denies any figure, its claim of origin on the film, then the film itself loses its meaning. Similarly Universal Mother would be bosh in case she validates strangerhood. That is why when she was called sarvanashi (all-destroyer) by her mad sister-in-law, she shot back, 'Don't call me an all-destroyer. I have children spread all over the world. It will harm them.'
In an anxious mood one day Sri Ramakrishna asked her, 'Have you come to drag me down to the worldly level?' Without the least hesitation on her part she assured him forever saying, 'No. Why should I? I have come to help you in your chosen path.'7 The answer is unique in the history of conjugal relation. The Empress knows her empire. She rightly staked her claim to the legacy of her husband's earthly mission. She is not a beggar; she is the rightful helpmate. Like an ordinary mother she did not brag for the motherhood of a few children. Sister Nivedita rightly comments, 'To conquer is to renounce'. Rabindranath Tagore has described the experience in an immortal poem: A poor land-holder was thrown out of his ancestral house by a decree in a false law suit in favour of the village zamindar. When the driven-out man stood outside the gate of his property, which was everything for him and which he had lost to the zamindar, he thought, 'God does not want me to be confined in a small hole of delusion. So He has written down in exchange the whole universe in my name!' Was not the Holy Mother extraordinary in this respect also? Sri Ramakrishna knew the answer as well. But to get it confirmed by her he put such an absurd question. 'Absurd' we say because he himself used to labour hard to hold his mind down to the empirical show.
What was it that distinguishes her as a Universal Mother when she trod on this earth as an 'ordinary' embodied being? It is nothing but purity and purity alone. Sri Ramakrishna and all the Master's children were never short of words to eulogize her purity. She was purity personified. Swamiji said, 'If you are pure, if you are strong, you, one man, are equal to the whole world.'8 If it is true in such an immense measure in the case of a common mortal what comparison can there be in the case of the Universal Mother?
Significant is her own testimony ( svayamchaiva bravishi! 9'You have yourself told') also. Once a Brahmin cook came to the mother and said, 'Mother, I have touched a dog. I must bathe.' Mother said, 'It is now late in the evening. Don't bathe. It is enough to change your cloth and wash your hands and feet.' The cook said, 'Oh, that won't do.' Persuasively the Mother advised, 'Then sprinkle some Ganga water on your body.' That also did not satisfy the cook. At last the Mother said to her, 'Then touch me!'10 The cook argued no more. How could he? 'Out of purity and silence comes the word of power,' says Swamiji.11
The Mother had to negotiate yet another stumbling block on her way to Universal Motherhood. The lokavyavaharah is conditioned by time and space. Those who are bound by time must have their inevitable ends. Sri Rama brought out the all-devouring nature of time thus, 'There is no entity in this world which does not fall a prey to this all-swallowing Time. Time is very terrible. Time swallows up everything that is visible, sparing none and nothing. It does not spare even outstanding personalities.' As a result, the Holy Hother had to tower above these two conditioning agents. In fact there is no duality but unity about time and space. Long before the confirmation by science about the conversion of space into time and vice versa, Shankara, in his commentary on the fifth verse of the Isha Upanishad had said: taddure, varsha-koti-shataih api avidusham aprapyatvat dure iva, i.e., That is far off--That seems to be far away , since It is unattainable by the ignorant even in hundreds of millions of years . The Yoga Sutras describes Ishwara, 'He is the guru of even the ancient teachers, being not bound by time.'12 That is how she became the Mother of even the ordinary mothers. She went beyond the relativity of time.
When she was getting ready for her final departure, she left her blessings for those of her children who had already come and also for those who would come in future. Further, she transcended all psychological barriers of space by accepting all the children of all mothers and, along with it, all the parents, as her own children; and by ignoring the divisions of nationality, colour and creed. She soared to the causal state and said, 'The same entity is the parent of all, my child, the same has taken shape as the fathers and mothers.'13
Finally she transcended even her own personality by becoming an ideal to be emulated by her children. She has assured us saying, 'Do you think that even when this body passes away, I can have any release unless every one of those, whose responsibility I have taken on myself [Has she ever refused to take up anybody's responsibility?], is out of bondage? I must constantly live with them. I have taken complete charge of everything, good or bad, regarding them. I cannot simply set aside those whom I have accepted as my own [And whom has she not?].'14 We may remember the reason why Sri Ramakrishna refused to learn arithmetic. He said, 'I do not like to learn mathematics. It teaches subtraction!' Calculations like 'Is he a friend or a stranger?' befit mean-minded persons ( ayam bandhuh paro veti ganana laghuchetasam 15). It gives rise to such foolish notions as 'This image of Krishna belongs to me, that to you', 'This temple of Krishna belongs to me, that to you', etc. and gradually to 'This is better than that' and 'We are better than you', under whose baneful influence 'the otherwise great people among us behave like demons'! And those who are yet to overcome such pettiness--how do they expect to overcome the obstacles in the spiritual path?
Quite clearly we can surmise that she is neither the end of an old order, nor is she the beginning of a new one; she is the same eternal mother constantly adapting herself to all newness about her children.
Children's Prerogative to Accept Her
In her innocent haste to guard her own home and children, or in order to protect her own relevance, as it were, the Mother, without her knowing, has thrown a challenge to her children: either they should accept her as the Mother of all, or court strangerhood! Swamiji points out this possibility when he says, 'Difference in identity means exclusion, and exclusion means limitation.'16 Though, from time immemorial, too many watersheds have rendered the life-current of humanity to flow into numerous channels, the source remains one and the same. How far can our family-tape rewind if not to the source? Practically speaking, it is impossible to remove the watersheds. But that does not preclude us from admitting and realizing the source as one. The truth of oneness and the law of unity flow everywhere, every molecule of life-water containing the unity.
This unifying essence as applicable to the practical, sentient world is termed as 'love'. Not just love but 'unconditional love' that does not fluctuate. The Mother said, 'In my love there is no ebb tide or flood tide.' Love blossoms in one's heart, a level higher than the physical. Unless one is a bit pure in mind one cannot have the urge for altruistic, unselfish love. Otherwise, one will find even a quid pro quo intention in the act of a benefactor! In order to save ourselves from alienation, it is incumbent on each one of us that we should realize this unity through the agency of love in the Mother.
In a family that which binds everybody is love, unseen but abiding. Swamiji says: Love is, therefore, the only law of life. The last and highest manifestation of Prana is love. The only medium through which spiritual force can be transmitted is love. Kindness and love can buy you the whole world. Love of the whole includes the love of the part. Love makes the universe as one's own home. When a person loves the Lord, the whole universe becomes dear to him, because it is all His.17
Love is universal. Even birds and animals understand the idiom of love. They understand love more easily than we humans do. We have many obstacles to overcome in the way of love. In his celebrated book The Jungle Lore Jim Corbett writes, 'No animal can be called mean for that is exclusively a human trait ... .' One who is able to cultivate love is able to steer clear of alienation. He or she finds none to cheat, none to hate, none to call a stranger. For such people the whole world transforms into one family ( udara charitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam ). For them all elders are respectable, contemporaries friendly and juniors lovable; all petty limitations fall apart and they discover their identity as universal belonging to the one family to which they really belong. The Yajurveda Vajasaneya Samhita records such a prayer, 'Revered One, make me strong. May all beings look on me with friendly eyes; may I look on all beings with friendly eyes. May we look on each other with friendly eyes.'18
In the case of the Mother, it is a unique opportunity that she has herself offered, by the instances of her own love for her children. Immediately the same love should surge in the hearts of her children. They are dead who have no response to the call of love. How do we feel when somebody looks at us grinning ear to ear? It is contagious; it calls for reciprocal reaction from us also. Sister Nivedita writes about the love of the Mother: Dear Mother! You are full of love! And it is not a flushed and violent love like ours, and like the world's,but a gentle peace that brings good to everyone, and wishes ill to none.
References:
1.Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Sarada Devi the Holy Mother (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 2000), 313
2.Her Direct Disciples, In the Company of the Holy Mother (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1980), 115
3. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vols. 8,7th ed.(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1987), 8:365; hereafter cited as CW
4.Shankara's preface to the Brahma Sutras , trans. Swami Gambhirananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1996), 1
5.Cf. The Gita , 3.22-24
6.Cw, 6:92
7.Swami Gambhirananda,Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1993), 46; hereafter cited as HM
8.CW, 6:145
9.Cf. The Gita, 10.13
10.Apostles, Monks, Scholars and Devotees, Sri Sarada Devi: The Great Wonder, 2nd ed.(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1994), 379
11.CW, 7:16
12.Cf. The Yoga Sutras, 1.26
13.HM, p.362
14.Swami Tapasyananda and Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Sarada Devi the Holy Mother: Life and Conversations (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1977), 367
15.The Suktiratnaharah , from Udattaraghavam , ed. K.Sambasiva Sastri (Trivandrum: Govt. of Travancore, 1938), 209
16.CW, 2:460
17.CW, 6:320, 6:129, 3:51, 6:404, 3:92, 5:78 & 3:81 each sentence respectively
18.Cf. Yajurveda Vajasaneya Samhita, 36.18
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