Sad Vani: A Collection of Teaching of Ma Anandamayi

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There is nothing in the word that can be called new. Revolving ceaselessly on the wheel of time, the old appears again and again clothed in ever new forms. This is even more obvious concerning the dissemination of Supreme Wisdom (Parama Tatwa). Time after time, expressed in many different ways, there have been numerous attempts throughout the ages to proclaim the Eternal Truth of the ONE in the many. This ancient Truth (satya) has ever purified and enlightened the human mind. To this category belongs the teaching set forth in the ‘Sad Vani’. May it bring Superme Joy to all its readers!

Sri Sri Anandamayi Ma, at whose Holy Feet I sat, listening to Her words collected in this small book, has said: “The search after Truth becomes easy for one who can be completely one-pointed and firmly concentrated under all circumstances, no matter what path may have been chosen, “It is well to remember this. That to which the mind is attached, ever appears delightful to man.

Seeing the radiant face of Ma Anandamayi and hearing Her laughter, you guess that She is an incarnation of joy. Touched by the caress of Her glance you know that Her heart is over flowing with love for all beings. Listening to Her teaching, so simple and clear, you understand that she is in possession of all wisdom. But one cannot say, whether it is Joy, Love or Wisdom that is the source of all this, for with Her all three are inextricably and indissolubly mingled–one could not exist without the others.

The Joy which Ma Anandamayi lives is not that which we know in the worldly life, where pleasure and pain, hope, regret and disillusionment, attraction and repulsion follow on each other’s heels, born one of another.

Nor is it an ego-centric calm of the stoic rigidity that erects around itself a rampart of indifference. Here is an overflowing irrepressible Joy that expresses itself in gaiety, that knows no obstacles, because it is deeply rooted in the Absolute, beyond the dualities of good and evil, I and not-I, of pleasant and unpleasant, because its unshakable base is Love and Wisdom.

The love which Ma Anandamayi radiates is not the selfish, demanding attachment that men feel, that passion which often generates hate, which leads to bitterness and despair more easily than to peace. Nor is it the haughty, protecting benevolence of one who enjoys giving, but would consider it degrading to receive. Hers is a living, active, generous Love that links with a constant warm flow the heart that opens to it. For the Love of Ma Anandamayi is rooted in the fact of Unity; the oneness of all creatures, the oneness of man with God, the oneness of the lover with the beloved; and in all difference it sees only the joyous play of the Divine, for it is unshakably based on Joy and Wisdom.

The Wisdom of Ma Anandamayi is not the knowledge found in books, always incomplete and hesitant, which all the time discovers yet unexplored regions, stumbles over contradictions, destroys its hypotheses in order to set up new ones and is not concerned whether its achievements lead to benefit or to cataclysm. Nor is it ethereal vision, been out of ecstasy, which has no connection with the world in which other human beings live and struggle. It is Wisdom which at the same time embraces the most arduous metaphysical subject, the most agonizing problems of morality as well as the smallest details of daily life; which sees everything in its right relation. because it knows the Reality of which our world is an appearance and of which all beings, all facts, all becoming, are but partial and changing manifestations, distorted by our senses and our thoughts and to these also She has the key. This Wisdom has a clear and intimate knowledge of all that is, because, it is firmly based on Joy which realizes all unity.

Since Ma Anandamayi lives infact integrally and not only intellectually in that “consciousness of Oneness”, She is no longer tempted to identify Herself, as men do, with Her own body and Her own mind. And this depersonalisation makes it possible for Her to fix Her centre of consciousness at once in the minds of those who come to Her for guidance, Identifying Herself with them She sees at the same time the true being of the one who questions (that is his divine perfect nature) and its appearance (that is the illusion in which he fights with all sorts of problems). And therefore to questions put to Her, She replies almost simultaneously on three planes: monistically on the plane of the noumenal reality of monism, and dualistically on the plane of the religlous attitude, and on the plane of practical morality. It is for him who asks to follow the advice that corresponds with his own state of consciousness-to live in Unity, to listen to the voice of God or to obey the rules of social life.

The following pages contain some replies of Ma Anandamayi, collected and compiled by J.C. Roy (“Bhatji”) in the little book “Sad Vani”. Their precision is so great that, in spite of their terseness, they convey a clear picture not only of the problems dealt with but also of the men and women submitted to them. Ma Anandamayi’s advice is uncompromising for, while She has first-hand knowledge of the delicious fruit of Self-realization, She also knows that the razor-edge path that leads to it is rough and demands sustained and unfaltering effort, But Her words which penetrate into the most secret recesses of one’s being are always uttered with a joyous voice and accompanied by Her glance of love. She knows that everyone has the possibility of attaining to ananda and She assists every pilgrim with Her whole heart and strength.

May Her example and Her instructions prove helpful to the readers!