.
First,
a brief word about me to dispel any thoughts
that I have any unique spiritual or "holy"
qualifications for writing this.
I don't.
In fact, on
the spirituality scale I rank rather low.
I've
always been quite cynical about "religious leaders"
and especially organized religion.
I have long been aware of the incredible evil that's been done throughout
history in the name of religion. That has often made me wonder if the
world wouldn't have been better off without any kind of organized religion.
At the same time, I feel that people seem to have an innate sense
of right and wrong -- whether they want to heed it or not.
In my mind the only possibly redeeming value in most organized religions is
some of the people they were originally based on -- the Buddhas and Christs.
Unfortunately, their supposed followers have often ended up being radically and even
tragically different.
I'll refrain from getting started on that
other than to suggest that if you are a Christian and you don't believe that you
might want to read an impartial account of the Crusades, the
Inquisition, and the other warped atrocities carried
out in the name of Christianity. Of course,
some of other religions have ended up with the same sorted history.
I've been around quite a while at this point, and somewhere along the line I decided that I had pretty well
"seen it and done it." I had seen wars come and go --
after which I noticed that the world, minus quite a
few people, soon reverted to being no better off for
these ultimate sacrifices. Despite the influence and efforts of the world's
religions, human nature simply hasn't changed much.
Somewhere along the line I also got
the message from various people, including Ma (Ma
Anandamayi, who this is about), that
the object of this life game isn't to try to change
the world but to change ourselves.
From the time I first saw her photos and read her words, there was something about her that
haunted me. Later, I read something that confirmed what I was
feeling: "Even though you try to forget me, I
won't forget you; I will always be with you."
Still, as a student of abnormal psychology, there were major
things about her that bothered me. She would drop into what seemed to be a psychotic trance for hours and even days at a time. She
would talk with people who weren't there, she intuitively knew about distant happenings, and
she could read minds. Although she didn't flaunt her
paranormal abilities, sometimes she was "caught" doing things when the
need arose, such as being in two
places at the same time.
Even so, as anyone who has read the classic book,
Autobiography of a Yogi, knows, such things are not
unknown in India. The difference was that for Ma these
abilities did not result from decades of
meditation.
In her words:
 Before
I came on this earth...I was the same. As a little girl, I was the same.
I grew into womanhood, but still I was the same. When the family in which
I had been born made arrangements to have this body married, I was the
same... Ever afterward, though the dance of creation change[s] around me in
the hall of eternity, I shall be the same.
|
|
|
If there was ever a person who literally "wasn't from around here" and
"a
stranger in a strange land," it was Ma.
For years I studied her words along with some of my other interests, which included
cutting-edge physics (quantum physics, source field theory, etc.), I soon
realized there was
considerable overlap.
Although
our lifetimes overlapped, I didn't try to go to India to meet her. (Just
another my many regrets in life.)
Although Ma was virtually illiterate and had almost no education,
she impressed the greatest minds of her day -- people who
often traveled
thousands of miles to talk with her. Many said that just
being in her presence somehow changed them for the better.
To Part II of Introduction
>>>
To Index
Page ~ ©
2012, All Rights Reserved
