Baba
Our new tradition?
Namaskar,
Here below in the photo, family, friends, and relative of a Muslim man are performing and paying respects for the annual death day / shraddhainjali / mahaprayan ceremony of a Muslim man.
Shraddhainjali in CC: understanding
In the appendix to the altered post-1990 edition Caryacarya 1, Tiljala publishers used the term shraddhainjali to describe their mahaprayan divas program.
Since the shraddhainjali term is not used in any of Baba's discourses or Ananda Marga philosophy, many Ananda Margiis may not know what shraddhainjali is. More about that is below.
In the below photo, the Islamic tomb is covered with flowers, just as is done in Tiljala. And in each of those five flower bouquets the term "shraddhainjali" is written in big red letters. And there are many garlands on top of the tomb. And mourners are gathering around the tomb, just as in Tiljala to pay shraddhainjali / mahaprayan to the deceased. You can see how our Muslim brothers have their hands in prayer position as they pray to the deceased. Also, it is our Islamic tradition to wear a cap before visiting a shrine or tomb. So many of our devout muslim brothers are wearing a cap and in traditional dress. And kids are also present wearing maroon clothing and white cap. This is a decorated tomb. This is part of a massive gathering as the big crowd facing the mullah (long white garb) has been cut from the photo (front and left portion). In long white garb the mullah is extending his hand and asking from the deceased inside the tomb to bless them.
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So the needed ingredients for shraddhainjali are:
1. Dead person Because one cannot do shraddhainjali of a living person.)
2. Casket or tomb
3. Flowers (real or artificial / paper or plastic), small or large amount
4. Toys (if the deceased is a child)
5. Scents
6. Water (optional)
7. Chants (Recited in Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, or Sanskrit - or done in the local language if needed.)
8. Head priest, or mullah, or senior avadhuta, or purodha pramukha (any single one is enough)
9. Mourners (minimum one and maximum as much as possible). To show greater respect people hire or rent mourners. They do this for various leaders; those rented mourners will raise the slogan in favour of the deceased or cry out loud as requested.
The above points are inherent to any shraddhainjali dogma. So by placing shraddhainjali in the post 1990 Caryacarya appendix, the insinuation is that all these things will be done.
Note: Here it should be understood that shraddhainjali refers to the annual commemoration of the death - year after year.
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MPD / Shraddhainjali: non-existent in AMPS pre-1990
Prior to 1990, this shraddhainjali dogma was non-existent in Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha. This was transplanted from Islam in the last week of October 1990.
Sadly, just as the above Muslims are performing shraddhainjali / mahaprayan / death ceremony, in Tiljala this same type of event is going on. The mahaprayan organisers do an annual shraddhainjali function. Effectively, our Dadas have grabbed onto the Islamic dogma of shraddhainjali and inserted into our AMPS. First our Dadas fast-tracked it into Caryacarya and then our Dadas actively promote their shraddhainjali / mahaprayan / tomb worship event, year after year after year.
That is the story how the Muslim nasty ritual of shraddjainjali / mahaprayan / tomb worship has made its way into our Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha.
With your efforts and by joining with others, this shraddhainjali / mahaprayan / annual death day dogma must be wiped from the books - it has no place in our Ananda Marga way of life.
Namaskar,
in Him,
Jaideva
(Kazi Zulfikar Ali)
* In this email both spellings of the term program / programme have been used.
Open questions to Sarvatmananda - the father of MPD dogma
Here are three key points everyone should know about the mahaprayan / shraddhainjali dogma:
Attending means supporting the cause
(A) Some wrongly justify that, “What is wrong, I am just going to Tiljala for the kiirtana, not for the sake of the mahaprayan program.” Here it should be clear: Going to the annual mahaprayan gathering for the sake of doing kiirtan is a bogus justification. Merely attending that mahaprayan gathering signifies your wholehearted support of that event. The fundamental equation is if anyone is doing anything anywhere and you go to their location and do what they are doing, it means you are supporting their cause. That is the basic formula that can be applied to countless of situations.
Let’s look at this from another angle. Who can forget when Baba was in jail and our Ananda Margii brothers and sisters from all over converged on-site to protest the injustices. Margiis sang kiirtan. And participation in those kiirtan rallies demonstrated support for the greater cause. Those days Jai Prakash Narayan called the police on margiis and had them arrested on the basis that their participation in that kiirtana meant they were the supporters of the political protests against Baba’s incarceration.
Later on, after the rally, that same kiirtan would be sung for purely spiritual purposes during dharmacakra etc. Here the point is that doing kiirtan or raising the slogan at a rally means supporting that issue or cause.
Of late, both H and B group have used kiirtana programs as a strategy to reclaim and recapture various AMPS buildings for their group cause. And those who participate in that kiirtana are their pawns for their groupist agenda. That is what happened in Goddha, Ananda Nagar, Bhopal, and numerous other places where H and B are battling for control of that jagriti etc. Kiitana programs are their main arsenal for capturing those properties from the opposite group. This happened so many times in the past and will happen in the future also as this is their cherished strategy.
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In CCI, II, III no annual death day ceremony
(B) 12 day shraddha: The period of mourning should not extend beyond twelve days. That is the rule as per Baba’s guideline in Caryacarya
Ananda Marga Caryacarya states, "The period of mourning should not extend beyond twelve days." (Caryacarya - 1, Shráddha Ceremony)
So by hosting an annual death day / mahapraryan / shraddhainjali prorgram our Dadas are directly contravening Baba’s teaching in Caryacarya.
Falsely justifying MPD by deception
(C) The organisers and inventors of the shraddhainjali / mahaprayan (মহাপ্রয়াণ) / tomb worship dogma, repeatedly resort to a particular quote when justifying the existence of their annual tomb day ceremony. Dadas want to prove that the mahaprayan term is God’s command - God’s term. To prove that our Dadas found one pravacan of Fiesch and wts told that in this discourse the term mahaprayan has been used so it is a holy term and the mahaprayan function is approved. In this way Sarvatmananda’s stooges brainwashed Bengali-speaking margiis.
Ananda Marga ideology states, "Táraka Brahma comes here on a particular date, leaves this earth also on a particular date, takes the birth of His quinquelemental body, the death of His quinquelemental body." (Ananda Vacanamrtam - 12, The Coming of Táraka Brahma, EGD 13 May 1979 Fiesch)
The above quote was originally delivered by Baba in English. So those cunning MPD organisers translated the above teaching in Bangla and inserted the term mahaprayan in association with Táraka Brahma. This was their scheme or ploy to try and validate the mahaprayan programme. Dadas lay claim that Baba Himself used the term mahaprayan. But that is outrightly false. Sarvatmananda dada manipulated the translation and inserted the term “mahaprayan” in hopes of befooling people into thinking that mahaprayan is really something legit - when really it is just one awful ritual.
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~ In-depth study ~
Now see in the general society how shraddhainjali came into being. This letter reveals how the dogma shraddhainjali is performed in Bengal and whether this refers to living or dead people - as well as whether it can be used with Sadguru, Taraka Brahma, and Mahasambhuti.
MPD / Shraddhainjali dogma wrongly inserted into Caryacarya
Here is the paragraph from the appendix of post-1990 Caryacayra-1 where our Dadas have added shraddhainjali.
Post-1990 polluted Caryacarya says, "Programmes on this day shall include nagar kiirtana, devotional songs of Prabhát Saḿgiita (without dance) appropriate to the solemnity of the occasion, akhańd́a kiirtana, shraddháiṋjali, vánii exhibition, bookstall, tree-planting, sadávrata, other welfare activities, prasáda distribution, Bábá stories (satsauṋga), tattvasabhá, conferences and symposia." (1)
And see here below how those days all the purodhas approved of this bogus, nasty ritual addition to Caryacarya.
Post-1990 polluted Caryacarya says, “The above appendix on Maháprayáńa Divasa - 21st October 1990 - [...] was discussed and passed as a resolution on 25th August 1991 unanimously by all members of the Central Committee of Ánanda Márga Pracáraka Saḿgha, and it was decided that this (resolution) should be added as an appendix to Caryácarya Part 1. (CC Resolution, 25/8/1991, Calcutta.) –Trans.” (2)
So we can see how our purodhas were and are. Because of their “standard”, our AMPS organisation has been pulverised into pieces because of our purodhas. Their qualification was put on display in the very last week of October. Their first work was to impose this dogma and turn AMPS into a religion. That is the sad story.
As we all now know, shraddhainjali is just a death day / mahaprayan / tomb worship type of program. When any human being dies then shraddhainjali is performed for the deceased.
Since shraddhainjali is not part of Baba's discourses or Ananda Marga philosophy, many Ananda Margiis may not know what the dogma of shraddhainjali is. That is what our Purodha Dadas were hoping as our Dadas wanted to befool margiis on this matter. But, with every passing day more and more are becoming aware.
In the appendix to the post-1990 edition Caryacarya 1, our purodhas Dadas unanimously added shraddhainjali to describe their mahaprayan divas program.
Shraddhainjali is done by Muslims for a death ceremony. So the nasty ritual of shraddhainjali is a death / mahaprayan / shraddha ceremony or tomb worship for any human being.
In our pre -1990 Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha there is no scope to do any type of annual death ceremony.
References
1. Post-1990 Caryacarya -1, Appendix
2. Post-1990 Caryacarya -1, Appendix
== Section: Prabhat Samgiita ==
प्रभात संगीत 4116 कतो लीला कोरे चलेछो, तुमि..
हे परमपुरुष ! तुम्हारी लीला की कल्पना नहीं की जा सकती। उसका आरम्भ और अन्त ही नहीं है। तुम्हारी यह लीला अन्तहीन है। तुमने कोमल फ़ूलों को अमृत से भरी सुगन्ध से भर दिया है। तुमने आकाश को चमचमाते शीतल चन्द्रमा से सजाया है। अपनी सृष्टि में तुमने कोई भी स्थान अनदेखा नहीं किया है। प्रत्येक चीज सभी प्रकार से आकर्षण और मधुरता से भरी है।
तुम्हारी लीला की तुलना नहीं की जा सकती है। हे मेरे प्रभु ! हे बाबा ! मेरे सूखे हृदय की वीणा कभी नहीं बजी। उसमें कभी भी तुम्हारे लिए प्रेम नहीं उमड़ा। परन्तु तुमने उसे भक्ति भाव से सींच कर आनन्द से भर दिया है। यह तुम्हारी कृपा है। अब वही मेरा सूखा हृदय भावों से भर गया है। प्रभु प्रेम में आँसू आ रहे हैं।
जो लोग घने मोह में डूबे अन्धविश्वासों में उलझकर तुमको नहीं जान पा रहे थे, उन पर तुमने कृपा की। जो अपने वास्तविक अस्तित्व अर्थात मूल रूप को जानने की इच्छा भी नहीं कर रहे थे कि वे कौन हैं, क्या हैं , वे यहाॅं धरती पर क्यों आए हैं उन्हें तुमने आशीष दिया। भावजड़ता के सूखे हृदय में तुमने अमृत उड़ेल दिया। तुमने अहैतुकी अर्थात बिना कारण कृपा कर सबको आशीष दिया। तुम्हारी लीला को नापा नहीं जा सकता है। (1)
Reference
1. Hindi purport translated by Dr. T.R. Sukul from original English purport by Ananda Marga Universal.
== Section 2: Links ==
Other topics of interest
More important letters
About Shravanii Purnima (26 Aug 2018) & cemetery sadhana
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