Greetings to all the devotees, students, and participants of SRV Association’s movement and its events – and aloha from Hawaii:
In the wake of our previous gathering in October, and in anticipation of our next meeting over Christmas and New Year’s, I hereupon take this welcome opportunity to write words of both appreciation and encouragement to all of you. Here in our world, in Saradaramakrishna Loka, we are fortunate to be able to live an extraordinary life of sadhana and service, each of these accomplished selflessly and meticulously under the Brahman-banner of dharma and its incomparable tenets. What a great and gracious boon this is! It has been conferred upon us by the Mother of the Universe Herself, She who came to earth again as Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, gracing the world of name and form as recently as the 1920’s. And She came as both the Universal Mother in Her own right, and as the consort of the Avatar, Sri Ramakrishna, Himself an incarnation of Mother Kali and the manifestation of Ram and Krishna conjoined. To quote Swami Vivekananda, a paragon of Truth and truthfulness himself:
Behold, Sita’s Beloved has come again.
The one whose knowledge remains ever perfect
and whose selfless love embraces all,
even those who are fallen and lowly, shunned by society….
In the translucent Light of this completely positive vision and realization, beings who have embodied in this age of troublesome propensities need have no fear. The comings and goings of phenomena and the ever-changing conditions of maya simply have no hold or effect on them, the only criterion for such a blissful state being the maintenance of a delusion destroying spiritual practice combined with an unimpeachable upholding of the worthy Ideal one has committed to – sadhana and Ishta-nishta. In brief, do your practice (daily) and remain devoted to your Ishtam (eternally) and all will go well. That is a promise, not only of your mantri guru, but of all the saints, seers, and sages who have attained the ultimate goal of perpetual illumination over the countless ages that this mayic show has been marching and posturing before the mind and senses. To put a finer point on it, the march is a mere mimicry; the posturing is all pretense. Only Brahman is real, and “Thou art That.”
Such is my message, now and always, and I will thus leave it short and sweet.
Bhavatarini Ma, Annapurna Sarada, Loke Ma and myself – your helmsmen at the rudder of SRV’s ship of spiritual progress and fulfillment – are constantly sending our meditated prayers for boundless spiritual blessings upon all beings, blessings centered in Christ and the other luminaries of all sacred religious traditions as we approach the auspicious holy days of December, year’s end. Let us all meet next month, then, and celebrate both our divine nature and the teachings which keep us in touch with It amidst the many challenges and vicissitudes of this ever-changing world.
Peace x’s 3 (shanti, shanti, shantih),
Babaji