Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Editorial, The Divine Delegates

Satyakama (of the Chhandogya Upanishad), the venerable father of Shvetaketu, repeated nine times the great saying, 'Thou art That (tat tvam asi)' to his son. Though born and raised in a non-duality-saturated upanishadic atmosphere, it took a long time for Shvetaketu to realize the meaning of the sentence. The time taken by him is due to the fact that he wanted not merely to understand the message intellectually, but to realize the truth. Satyakama fulfilled his duties as father by imparting and handing down to his son the great truth of the Upanishads. He did not pose as a delegate or medium to convey the command of the Almighty. At best, he acted as a good teacher. Madalasa, a queen of yore, used to chant into her new-born's ears the same truth, saying 'You are stainless (tvam asi niranjanah).' Similarly there are many such teachers and parents who set the tone of life for the posterity. Scores of such incidents abound in the Vedic lore.

We do not come across instances in the spiritual history of mankind where the imparting of the truth to successive generations was obstructed or obscured by any intervening agent or delegate. It was direct, addressing the core of the aspirant's being. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'Three words prick my flesh: guru, karta (master), and baba (father).' It is because the words, if not understood properly, may encourage the ego of doership in one. Yet he used to stress upon the need of having a guru saying, 'Even a thief needs a guru.' In modern parlance a guru is called a guide or mentor.

A spiritual guide is concerned with the spiritual lives of the disciples. In course of time the disciples' spiritual training will re-organize their whole lives in the spiritual mould and change them into spiritual personalities. On being asked by Sister Nivedita whether one is required to obey all the commands of the guru, Sri Sarada Devi told her that a disciple must obey the commands of the guru with regard to his/her spiritual life only. What a foresight did she have! At the same time, we should know that it is wrong to approach Divinity with a prayer for material benefit. Sri Ramakrishna would point to such foolishness saying, 'Will you ask God to give you vegetables like gourd and pumpkin?'

One day, Guru Govind Singh was sitting on the bank of the river Yamuna, lost in the thought of God. A rich disciple approached him with two gold bangles. Handing over the two bangles to the Guru as his humble gift, the disciple prostrated before him and sat down in expectation of a word of praise. Guru Govind Singh took the two bangles in his two hands and started juggling with them. The disciple was much elated. But, as ill luck would have it, one of the bangles slipped out of his hand and fell into the river. Without a moment's hesitation the disciple jumped into the river in search of the bangle. After a long struggle he came out of the river exhausted. 'No, I could not find it,' said he in despair. The Guru asked, 'Did you do a thorough search?' The astonished disciple said, 'Yes, My Lord!' Then pointing to a farther place in the river the Guru asked him, 'Have you searched there?' Saying this, the Guru threw the other bangle to identify that spot! No more lessons from the blessed teacher were required for the fortunate disciple to come to his senses. Such is the value of the Guru in spiritual life.

However, Sri Krishna promises in the Gita that He takes care of all the needs of a devotee who surrenders everything unto Him (yoga-kshemam vahamyaham). The Mundaka Upanishad¹ brings further hope while it says: those who are desirous of prosperity adore the holy ones (brahmavidam archayet bhuti-kamah), for whatever the knower of the Self wishes for himself/herself or for somebody else, will materialize.

In his early days at Dakshineswar, Swami Vivekananda (then Narendra) once entreated Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the Divine Mother for the material well-being of his (Naren's) mother and brothers who were in penury. The Master said to him, 'My child, I cannot say such words, you know. Why don't you yourself pray?' We know the fascinating story how Narendra failed to utter a prayer to the Divine Mother for the material needs of his family. So he pestered the Master to grant the boon himself. At long last Sri Ramakrishna said, 'Well, they will never be in want of plain food and clothing.'<sup>2</sup> After all, how much land does a man need! This particular incident of bestowing the boon sets two very significant examples--the giver should be a knower of the Self, and the boon should not be disproportionate to the bare minimum needed.

This brings home the idea of a mediator or, so to say, an agent in the realm of religion. But such a medium or delegate works as an agent for the aspirants, and not for God. God has sufficient ability and efficiency to communicate His fiats to the devotees. He does not need anybody to liaison between Him and His devotees. Truth has no delegate to represent It. Because there are none equal to It (na tasya pratima asti), or none superior. It is we who have invented and have been foolishly patronizing Divine Delegates to act as receiving stations for God's command to His followers. Of course, a god who has his locus in the clouds will be in need of deputing human agents to convey his order through. Gradually a day will come when he will himself find it difficult to control his own delegates. But in reality such a god with limited powers does not exist, what to speak of his delegates. Yet our delegates are very much there, alive and kicking!

What are the laws that form the life-line of such delegates? Believe it or not, there are laws of cosmic nature supporting the existence of Delegates, affecting all clans of religious belief. It is a world phenomenon. No religion is free from the menace of delegates; though, in some it is more, in others less. What are the specialities of such delegates? Let us recount some of the outstanding privileges that have been accorded to these delegates by us:

God tells the delegates that he requires total obedience from every one on earth! Those who do not know about his existence, power and qualities must be brought to his fold by hook or by crook, or killed for their own good! He [god] has said that questions about the authenticity of their [delegates'] command should not be raised! Because people are not to use their own intelligence to question the unqualified faith in them [the delegates], or question the validity of belief in the words of the delegates! He has said that if people show complete obedience to his command, they will be saved and given bounteous material for worldly enjoyments beyond the world of matter! He has said that if Rama has inflicted injury to you, it is not Rama but the Hindus who have done it! So perpetrate group-vendetta against them and their generations! And so on and so forth.

This psyche perfectly demonstrates the doubt Sri Krishna expressed in the Gita: 'Do not preach higher knowledge to ordinary people.' The idea behind this prohibition is that perverse people will misinterpret and abuse many of these great teachings to suit their nefarious designs. Take for example a teaching in the Gita³, 'He who thinks the self can be a slayer and who thinks it can be slain--both have no right knowledge. For the self does not slay, nor is the self slain.' This verse teaches us that we are not this perishable human body or any body in the worlds of the humans, the manes or even the gods. But the slayers of the bodies will be punished both here and hereafter. There is no escape from the sure fact of cause and effect. At the same time, murderers can wrongly interpret the verse to justify their anti-social and criminal acts. They can shift the moral responsibility to God and thus render such sublime teachings ridiculous. Swamiji has his inimitable explanation:

'Everyone comes to you, nowadays, and says he is inspired, and puts forth superhuman claims. How are we to distinguish between inspiratnion and deception? In the first place, inspiration must not contradict reason. The old man does not contradict the child, he is the development of the child. What we call inspiration is the development of reason. The way to intuition is through reason. Instinctive movements of your body do not oppose reason. As you cross a street, how instinctively you move your body to save yourself from the cars. Does your mind tell you it was foolish to save your body that way? It does not. Similarly, no genuine inspiration ever contradicts reason. Where it does it is no inspiration. Secondly, inspiration must be for the good of one and all, and not for name or fame, or personal gain. It should always be for the good of the world, and perfectly unselfish. When these tests are fulfilled, you are quite safe to take it as inspiration. You must remember that there is not one in a million that is inspired, in the present state of the world. I hope their number will increase.'⁴

That is exactly what is happening in the world today. All fundamentalism and terrorism harboured in the name of religion are an ugly show of such misinterpretation of noble teachings. The present day heinous crimes that are being done by the divine agents for and in the name of a kind and benign god are cause enough to identify and disqualify them as incompetent, worthless and anti-religious. These misanthropists are endowed with the ancient fear and therefore terrorize others (like all animals developing a defense system and reacting genetically to fear), and also with the gradually cultivated and competition-oriented hatred towards others. Modern politics steals the show by infusing 'greed' in its myriad forms into the delegates, completing their quota of woes, and causing division among the followers into two groups--the hardliners and the moderates.

Religions try to make people rational, by dealing with the whole gamut of the Existence vis-a-vis their position in the world. It instills in people the fear of God, an awe and wonder for the Infinite, to inspire them in taking up an ethical, moral, and value-based mutual living. Spiritual teachings are simple; even more simple are the realizations of the mystics. They inspire people to be simple for opening up their hearts to God, the Creator. This is perhaps the only weakness through which the invaders--the political hatred-based vendetta and the economic greed-dominated competition--enter the heart of simplicity. They fan the dormant fire of jealousy in the selfish genes of the delegates to exploit this simplicity in the very simple young people (who have offered simple faith in the delegates), and to indoctrinate them in the name of religion. Shrewd politics incites the vindictiveness in the delegates and money pours in from various sources, making the horrendous espousal of all odd matches possible.

Only in those religious beliefs where innocent people have offered their complete allegiance to these delegates, have occurred these unholy alliances. The Bible warns us to beware of the false prophets. Fiats to patronise casteism, fiats to harbour hatred towards other denominations even in the same religion, fiats to save people in the name of god, fiats to carry vendetta across generations--are all proof of the existence of such Delegates who have unholy nexus with unscrupulous politicians and financiers. A very relevant portion of Swamiji's saying comes to mind. He said, 'I hate this world, this dream, this horrible nightmare, with its churches and chicaneries, its books and blackguardisms, its fair faces and false hearts, its howling righteousness on the surface and utter hollowness beneath, and, above all, its sanctified shop-keeping.'⁵

There is a word called 'Nemesis' which, like the grace of God, does not discriminate between rich and poor, strong and weak, intelligent and dull, extra-ordinary and ordinary; in a very sure and just manner it descends on its right victim. History is replete with such instances. The sooner the Divine Delegates realize this and act in the right direction, the better. They are already down, foot, head and all, in the quagmire of worldliness. It requires the effort of a Varaha Avatara to pull them out of the mire.

As of now, a long experience of ours proves and also forebodes a terrible Nemesis as the sure outcome of our blind obedience and fanatic allegiance to such delegates. Let us understand that these delegates are not benefactors of even their own clans. They distance us from the basic goodness of the establishments, the commitments of a religious life, and the unique goal of religions. They are now thriving on our unqualified obedience. We know it, and know it very bitterly. Being an ardent seeker of spiritual life one cannot opt for a mass uprising or revolt. It is not easy or desirable even.

It is told that once Stalin was lecturing to his followers about his disapproval of the atrocities perpetrated by Lenin, when from among his audience someone asked, 'You were with him; why didn't you protest at that time?' Stalin brought out his pistol and training it on the audience he asked in a ferocious tone, 'Who are you that said this? Stand up.' Nobody rose. He looked around and again thundered the same horrible command, 'Stand up!' Still nobody rose. He then said, 'Precisely, this was my case then!'

Let us, as a sure remedy for it, distance ourselves from these worthless delegates, and let us individually practise our religion for our own good and for the good of humanity. Let us go back directly to our Creator, our Father or Mother, with the faith or Shraddha that He or She has the power, will and wisdom to talk directly to us and not through any delegate. Acharya Shankara explained the word Isha or God as 'the Lord, who controls from within, as the inmost Self of all.'⁶ Swamiji clarifies further: 'Identify yourself with Atman, not with human limitations. Dis-identify yourself with the body, and all pain will cease. This is the secret of healing. The universe is a case of hypnotisation; de-hypnotise yourself and cease to suffer.'⁷ This is the meaning of a spiritual life. Let us not be deluded by wolves in sheep's clothing, by the delegates of the Devil.

1. The Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.10.
2. Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, vols. 2, (Chennai, Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1995), 2:927-929.
3. The Gita, 2.10.
4. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vols 8, (Kolkata, Advaita Ashrama, 1985), 4:58-59. Hereafter, CW.
5. CW, 5:73.
6. The Isha Upanishad,1.
7. CW, 7:46.