Comments: on AOW book

Baba

Errata 8/10/19: This below posting, originally titled as 'A. Ruciirá befuddled", misidentified Avadhútiká Ánanda Rucirá Ácárya as the author of the book, "The Awakening of Women". However, Didi is an editor, and Shrii Shrii Anandamurti ji is the author. In addition, while the Publisher’s Note does address goddess worship, it was also wrongly claimed that Didi equated goddess worship with Prabhat Samgiiita. The below letter has been updated accordingly. 

Comments: on AOW book

Namaskar,

Throughout the ages, great bhaktas and spiritualists - like Vidyapati , Miira, Surdas, Kabir das, Mahadeviyakka, Chandidas, Rūpa Gosvāmi etc describe the ecstasy of divine love. And Baba has validated this approach.


Sadhakas should know metaphors

Given the widespread use of metaphors in spiritual songs, poetry, and literature, it is the duty of those with greater spiritual insight to unravel those metaphors so all can understand what is being conveyed. Moreover, it needs strong sadhana to understand and explain those metaphors. The same can be said of Prabhat Samgiita. Deeper realisation is needed to give a proper purport of those spiritual compositions.

Unfortunately, a few invariably put forth their own interpretation that misguides the common people. We even see this happening within our Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha. If a common citizen simply misunderstands a spiritual poem or passage, that can be easily forgiven and corrected. But when a person of a certain post or social status broadcasts their misguided interpretation to advance a particular agenda, that has to be addressed in a strong manner.

We all know that the grand world of Prabhat Samgiita describes the full range of realisations, emotions, and spiritual states felt by sadhakas. Through Prabhat Samgiita, the Composer is communicating and giving us a medium to express our most intimate feelings.

So many sincere sadhakas have developed a link with the spiritual compositions of Prabhat Samgiita, and this has greatly enhanced their sadhana and feelings of bhakti. Yet there are some others who have severely misinterpreted those songs. Here are a few examples where they could not understand the spirit of Prabhat Samgiita.


Myth: this PS is only for females

There is a genre within Prabhat Samgiita that depicts a sadhaka waiting desperately for Parama Purusa to come in dhyana. The sense is that the sadhaka has (a) done half-bath, (b) sung bhajans and Prabhat Samgiita, (c) performed shuddhis and the various sadhana lessons, and now that sadhaka is yearning for Parama Purusa’s presence in dhyana. To convey this idea in His Prabhat Samgiita lyrics, the metaphor of a female is sometimes used. The female has prepared her hair nicely with braids and flower garlands and has done so much to attract her Beloved, but alas that Divine Entity is not coming.

In the above metaphor, the image of a female is used to represent the longing of a sadhaka in sadhana. This is an everyday, common example that everyone can understand; and it represents the universality of longing in sadhana. This song demonstrates the type yearning one should have in their life to reach the higher states of bhakti. It is out of the question to think that this song is exclusively for female sadhakas.

The teaching in this song is about a'kuti, strong spiritual longing. Just as the female has anxiously prepared her hair and dress in great anticipation for her rendez-vous, a sadhaka has done so many preparations like half-bath, kiirtan, 3rd lesson etc in order to get the Supreme Entity in dhyana. The Prabhat Samgiita compositions like Toma'r ta're nishi ja'ga' (PS #1068), are songs for all sadhakas, regardless of one's gender. And more about the inner meaning of this Prabhat Samgiita has been explained further down in this letter.


The publisher is not up to the mark

Now let’s take a look at what is expressed in the Publisher's Note to the book "Awakening of Women".

Didi A'nanda Rucirá and her fellow editors write, “The chapter on “Rádhá's Devotion”... conveys much to us about spiritual devotion from the feminine perspective.” (Awakening of Women, Publisher’s Note)

According to Didi, the chapter on Radha is related with the female outlook or approach. Next, kindly contrast this with Baba’s below guideline.

Ananda Marga ideology guides us, “When with the help of Rádhiká shakti the microcosm comes in contact with the nave Krśńa Puruśottama, then we say it is the union of Krśńa and Rádhá. Krśńa is not a male being of Vrindavan, and Rádhá is not a lady. You should understand it properly.” (1)

Baba has clearly said that in the realm of spiritual realisation, the term Radha is purely metaphorical and has nothing to do with being female or the feminine perspective. According to AM teachings, the term Radha in spiritual parlance refers to the microcosm when it comes in contact with Purusottoma, the Cosmic Nucleus.

Sadly, in the Publisher's Note to the book "Awakening of Women", the editor Didi A'nanda Rucirá has unfortunately misunderstood the inner meaning and metaphorical language of Baba’s teachings on spirituality. She and her esteemed colleagues on the editorial board portrayed Baba’s deeply spiritual teachings on Radha to be related with the female perspective. And that is 100% wrong according to Ananda Marga philosophy.

About PS #1068 & metaphors in Prabhat Samgiita

The spiritual cult of Ananda Marga does not differentiate between male and female sadhakas. The sublime teachings are for all and universal in nature, regardless of one's gender. Anyone with any spiritual insight will easily understand that this a common metaphor to teach the people that this same type of yearning is also present in the realm of bhakti - except it is much deeper.

That is the idea that is being conveyed in this type of Prabhat Samgiita composition like PS #1068, “Toma'r ta're nishi ja'ga'”. It is only because this intimate feeling is not easy to put into words, the analogy is given of a young maiden in love. That way people can easily connect with the feeling of the song and cultivate the notion that such strong longing is an essential facet of deep sadhana.

The metaphor is used to teach from known to unknown. The common people are well aware about intimate relations between men and women. So that relation is used as a metaphor to describe how in sadhana one can experience spiritual bliss, which is infinitely superior. So although that spiritual bliss is unknown to the common people and far beyond their present life experience, they can begin to imagine what it might be like because of the use of this metaphor.

So this Prabhat Samgiita composition is not guided towards female sadhakas. But Didi Ananda Rucira seems to have completely misunderstood this point.

Didi wrote, “Of the 5018 Prabháta Saḿgiita songs composed by the author, seventeen have been included in Songs of the New Dawn in which there is a definite feminine outlook…the feelings and situations peculiar to the woman's experience.” (Awakening of Women, Publisher’s Note)

Rather, just as Baba explains in His analogy of Radha and Krsna, this song is not limited to the female perspective but is for all high-grade bhaktas who have a deep yearning to receive Parama Purusa in a very personal and intimate way. Those with the requisite degree of bhakti easily grasp the inner spirit of this ideal. It is unfortunate that someone who misunderstood this metaphor has written the Publisher's Note to Baba’s book, thereby misguiding sadhakas about this song. As if only females can easily understand the highest bhakti, not males.


Sadhana is needed to understand

In order to understand Prabhat Samgiita or any of Sadguru’s mystical teachings, strong sadhana is needed. Practical experience is required to understand the subtle theory and philosophy. It is just like how one cannot understand the taste of something sweet until it is eaten. Likewise, in the realm of bhakti, theory alone is not enough.

One must sincerely practice sadhana to understand spiritual-cum-mystical guidelines. When sadhana is high then one can see and understand different aspects of bhakti in Ananda Marga literature, including Prabhat Samgiita. During sadhana, higher feelings naturally arise in the mind. And in that more sublime state, one can understand His indirect teachings in the proper way. Those who do not practice sadhana properly cannot appreciate the idea of bhava. So they fail to understand the subtle points and metaphors used in Prabhat Samgiita.

If any common person makes a mistake due to their own limitation then that is excusable. Whereas if a public official is openly promoting a misguided idea like pornography then the situation is very serious and must be addressed strongly. Thus when certain people - i.e. a few people - in Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha are promoting wrong ideas, and when such people are long-time acaryas, famous performers, or leaders of a group etc, then the situation is very grave and those matters must be met head on, lest common sadhakas get misled and swayed by those wrong preachings.


Conclusion

The overall aim is to clarify the use of indirect language and metaphors in Baba’s teachings on bhakti and in His compositions of Prabhat Samgiita. When one practices sadhana sincerely they can easily understand the metaphors and allegories used in spiritual teachings like Prabhat Samgiita. Lacking the requisite sadhana or degree of bhakti, one is prone to misunderstand these analogies and metaphors.

Namaskar,
Laksmii

~ In-depth study ~

Injustices due to misuse of Prabhat Samgiita

(a) Using Prabhat Samgiita as a so-called mahaprayan theme song;
(b) Singing Lord Krsna & Lord Shiva songs for AM spiritual practices;
(c) Songs of spiritual longing directed towards crude relations;
(d) Declare and label a song according to one’s own dogma;
(e) Singing Prabhat Samgiita as filmy / radio songs.

What is true love / prema

Ananda Marga philosophy states, “The true characteristic of love is supra- physical – beyond the bondage of any limitation. When artists become absorbed in the essence of love and try to convey it to the people through their language, rhetoric and subtle suggestions, the sweetness of their artistic genius reaches the apex of expression. But then this creation of the artist cannot be regarded as popular literature or art, because the subtle sense which is capable of comprehending that transcendental feeling is, in fact, undeveloped in most people. We do find at places in the literature of Rabindranath Tagore some semblances of this pure, supra-physical love, but whenever Rabindranath tried to give expression to it, he became unintelligible to the masses. The transcendental thoughts and ideas of the sweet, graceful shlokas [couplets] of the Upanishads are also incomprehensible to the common people.”

“This sublime love has established itself for all eternity beyond the limits of time, space and person. Infinite love is the ultimate ecstatic expression of finite love. This sense that artists try to awaken in the popular mind, when they devote themselves to the task of establishing the link between the finite and the infinite, between the mundane and the transcendental – this awareness, though not purely transcendental, is of the greatest importance in the realm of art. Because it gradually leads that sweetness of the human mind which is apprehensible to ordinary intelligence to a dreamland that is beyond the senses. Rabindranath’s poem “Úrvashii” is a composition of this type. There is no dearth of physicality in the poem, nor is it difficult to understand, and yet its crude material expression gradually expands into a subtlety beyond understanding.”

“Love that is completely physical is not love at all according to philosophy. Therefore philosophy will not, and perhaps should not, entertain such love at all. But can an artist ignore it? An ordinary person feels pleasure or pain in every great or small incident of life. Even love concerned with the body cannot be completely isolated from pleasure and pain. How then can the artist, whose job it is to portray human happiness and sorrow, who is dedicated to giving form to the impact of human grief and pain, hopes and desires, neglect physical love? Regarding this, no artist or sáhityika can dispute the statement of Rabindranath:”

Ore kavi sandhyá haye ela,
Parakáler bhálamandai gańi.

[“O poet! evening has come. Your hair is streaked with grey. Are you listening to the call of the other world, As you sit and gaze at the sky?” “Ah yes, evening has come,” replied the poet. “And here I sit, with limbs tired and frail, Waiting for a sudden call from yonder village – A call that might come even today. “If here under this shady bakul (sweet-scented olive) tree, Two young hearts meet in longing, And two pairs of eyes seek to merge as one In the eloquent melody of song, “Who will play on the strings of the vina, Who will echo the strings of their hearts, If I sit on the shores of the ocean of time And ponder the virtue and vice of my life?”] (2)


Kabir's use of metaphor

In the great poet Kabir's songs and writings, he often employs metaphors, indirect language, and double-entendre, something that can be interpreted in two ways. In one particular song, it is stated: My blanket is raining and the water is drenching. Taken literally, this does not make sense.

With a more spiritual application of mind though, we can understand the meaning as, "I am crying for the Lord, my tears are raining down into my palms, my palms are drenched in those tears of love."

One of the main sources of confusion stems from the fact that the word for hand and water is the same. Yet those who have done sadhana and understand Kabir's intention can properly understand and translate his poems. They will be linked with the spiritual message of Kabir's writings.


Key misnomers about Prabhat Samgiita

Here are some other points and misunderstandings about Prabhat Samgiita.

1) The Prabhat Samgiita songs about Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna are not meant to be sung by Ananda Margii. These are not our songs for our spiritual life. Those songs are for the bhaktas of Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna. In Prabhat Samgiita, there is something for everyone - including followers of Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna. A few margiis seem to think that songs of Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna are for their personal practices and they sing them at paincajanya and dharmacakra etc, but this is not the proper approach. We should keep a strict, one-pointed spiritual approach and only sing for Sadguru Baba.

2) In many, many songs, indirect language is used such as the terms Bandhu (Friend), Sakha (Friend), Priyo (Dear), Priyatama (Dearmost) etc. But we understand that these words have dual meanings and apply the right one in our ideation. We do not think that the song is for our friend at work. Rather one understand to goad the mind to a more intimate relation with Parama Purusa like that of friend or dearmost.


These songs are not about mahaprayan

There is an entire genre of Prabhat Samgiita that fall within the category of melancholic songs. In such songs, the sadhaka is in a high state of mind - a deeply mystical bhava - and feels the close proximity of Parama Purusa, but not the extreme closeness that he yearns to have with Baba. Because of this, the sadhaka feels a sense of separation and pain, i.e. melancholia. And in that deep state of bhakti and melancholic longing, the sadhaka may say, "My dearmost Parama Purusa, where have You gone, why have You left me."

The inner meaning is that, "Baba even if you are one inch away from me that is too far, or even if you are coming in my dhyana, still that is not enough, I want you even more close. I want to lose myself in You completely."

That is the direction in which those songs are moving. With a sadhana oriented mindset one can easily understand the subtle nature of these melancholic songs. They represent an intimate connection between the bhakta and Parama Purusa. The meaning is not that Parama Purusa has really left or gone away somewhere - forever. Rather this is a common, easy-to-understand metaphor to depict a sadhaka's longing in sadhana.

Yet some in the Tiljala camp have propagandized these melancholic songs as so-called mahaprayan songs as a means to justify their dogmatic program that Baba has left. Either they really think that Baba has gone so they feel that these melancholic songs point in that direction, or they are so infatuated with making the Kolkata mahaprayan program into a huge event that they are even willing to ruin Prabhat Samgiita to suit their group agenda. Both are negative.

The main idea is that in Prabhat Samgiita, it is not the Parama Purusa has really left. Dry-minded people might interpret it that way. But those with even a little spiritual wealth know that melancholic songs describe the intimate longing between bhakta and Parama Purusa, and there is no question that the Supreme Entity has really left. Rather such songs depict a deeply personal state wherein the bhakta's mind is suffused with deep longing for and intimacy with Parama Purusa - yet in His liila Parama Purusa is not coming as close as the bhakta desires. Hence, the sadhaka's longing multiplies and is expressed in a melancholic tone.

To use such spiritual compositions for so-called mahaprayan is a blatant misinterpretation of Prabhat Samgiita.


What is Madhupur

Ananda Marga philosophy states, “Where is Hari [the Lord]? He is in Madhupur. “Madhupur” means the sahasrára cakra. In Vaeśńava Tantra, the sahasrára is “Madhupur”. From “Madhupur”, “Madhura” and “Mathura” have been derived. So Mathura is not only the town in Uttar Pradesh, it is also the sahasrára cakra. Háma kulabálá – “I am kulabálá,” that is, “I am the jiivashakti [divinity of the individual] sleeping in the last vertebra.” Kulabálá does not here mean “the daughter of a family”.

Vidyápati has said:
Nayanak nind gel gayának hás
Sukh gel piyásauṋga dukh morá pásh.

“Hari lives very far above, Parama Puruśa or Paramashiva is so far above, and the jiivabháva is so far below, at the lowermost point. For that reason it has no sleep, no happiness. It has only suffering, pain and suffering.” When will this suffering come to an end? When the jiivabháva merges in the Shivabháva. This is the ultimate end of sádhaná, the sweetest end. The separate existence of the individual is no more.” (3)


Not about boyfriend or girlfriend relation

In Prabhat Samgiita, there is a distinct longing and attraction involved - i.e. the desire to get Parama Purusa. This simple message every sadhaka in Ananda Marga understands. Yet certain performers like the lesbian Jyotsna (SUVA) sing Prabhat Samgiita in night clubs and pubs to wild crowds of drunken youths who are bound up in lustful desires; and the lesbian Jyotsna is teaching and guiding them that these songs describe what they are feeling.

This is gross injustice to Prabhat Samgiita and if the lesbian Jyotsna has recently stopped this approach of hers then that is great and a public apology will be delivered. But tragically for years and years, the lesbian Jyotsna has been using Prabhat Samgiita for her own fame as a nightclub superstar and sending the wrong message to the people.

We have to remember that in the days of old - especially in India - people were very strict in such matters so those poets would use the analogy or metaphor of worldly love without fear that people would indulge or misunderstand the message. But now in this present era of extreme materialism, everything gets twisted in a sensual context - from songs to movies to advertisements etc. So people easily think any type of attraction must refer to that type of lustful experience.

Such misunderstanding also happened with (a) tantra, (b) the Krsna - Radha metaphor, and (c) so many other concepts. That is why it is forbidden to play Prabhat Samgiita on the radio or use those compositions as filmy songs. The common mass would misunderstand those songs.

Thus when anyone is promoting Prabhat Samgiita in nightclubs or any other type of venue, then they are directly going against dharma. It is our duty to intervene and oppose the use of Prabhat Samgiita in such arenas.

Baba explains the carvings

When Baba visited the famous Ajanta caves of Maharashtra, during His field walk He talked about the carvings on the walls of the caves. Those carvings graphically display male and female bodies engaged in a deep embrace and union. And Baba told those present on that field walk that these carvings depict divine love.

Baba pointed out that if one looks at the facial expression and manner of the eyes, then it is quite clear that those spiritually-awakened artists were not referring to sensual affairs but a high state of bhakti, i.e. love for the Supreme Entity. Those artists used the metaphor of physical attraction to convey the ecstasy that can be experienced in sadhana. They had no other words nor images by which to communicate this idea to the common people. And those citizens, with their insight and curiosity, understood that those high-minded sages and artists had a more subtle message to share.


Great ancient bhakta Mahadevi

Here is an excerpt about the 12th century poet-saint of the Karnataka region of India, Mahadevi, also known as Mahadeviyakka.

~ Courtesy of Brittanica ~

“Married to a local king against her will, Mahadevi subsequently left her husband and renounced the world. She wandered, singing songs of passionate love for her “true husband,” the god Shiva. Her devotional songs revolve around a theme typical of the Indian devotional tradition—the interplay between, on the one hand, love in separation and the longing for the divine lover and, on the other hand, love in union and the inexpressible bliss it brings: “When he’s away I cannot wait to get a glimpse of him. Friend, when will I have it both ways, be with Him yet not with Him.”” (Courtesy of Brittanica)

References
1. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 23, Rádhiká Shakti
2. A Few Problems Solved - 1, The Practice of Art and Literature
3. Discourses on Krsna & the Giita, Krśńa Unparalleled

== Section 2: Links ==

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