Baba
Regarding stories
Namaskar,
First of all we should remind ourselves of Sadguru Baba's teaching:
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "A study of history will make it clear that a strong and healthy society has not yet evolved on this planet. This is mainly due to the inadequate propagation of an ideology. Although at different times a few people thought of establishing a strong and healthy society, they...ultimately ended up projecting themselves instead of the ideology. Thus the ideology became secondary and was ultimately swept away ….]. Due to the absence of an ideology a strong society could not be established, and many defects crept into individual life." (1)
Public did opposite of what Lord Shiva & Krsna taught
This earth has witnessed the arrival of so many sages and great personalities who offered dharmic teachings for the people. Yet time and again their guidelines were washed away and the only thing that remained was magical tales about those great yogis, rishis, and Mahasambhutis etc. As a result, the common people suffered. Keeping this in mind, step by step, we should understand how those followers destroyed the teachings of their gurus.
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When Mahasambhuti Lord Shiva came, He gave countless teachings on tantra, meditation, music, arts, society building etc. Yet when He left this earth, those followers only propagated magical tales of Lord Shiva. In result, due to a lack of understanding of Shiva’s teachings, the public suffered from the ills of dogma and did the exact opposite of what Lord Shiva taught. They started worshipping dogmatic idols instead of doing dharma sadhana. And verily, the common people suffered in all spheres of life. And Lord Shiva’s teachings were lost forever - and only magical tales of Him remained. Ultimately, the public remained blind, encountered untold miseries, and could not be benefited from Lord Shiva’s innumerable dharmic teachings. This shows us that the ideology should be propagated.
And verily, when Mahasambhuti Lord Krsna took advent, the same thing happened. He preached yama and niyama, asanas, pranayama, yoga, and meditation etc. But those followers only propagated magical tales of Lord Krsna. In result, due to a lack of understanding of Krsna’s teaching, the public fell into misery and did the exact opposite of what Lord Krsna taught. They made idols and started doing idol worship. Verily, the people suffered in various ways. All told, Lord Krsna’s teachings were lost forever - and only magical tales of Him remained. The public was kept in the blind, suffered from the ills of dogmas, and could not be benefited from Lord Krsna’s innumerable teachings. So we see once again the importance of propagating the ideology.
In both of these aforementioned cases, Mahasambhuti’s teachings went into oblivion as those followers only recounted magical tales and grandiose stories about Lord Shiva and Lord Krsna. Their philosophies were not passed on just those magical stories. So the common people could never learn and did the exact opposite of what those Mahasambhutis preached. In their ignorance, they built idols of those Mahasambhutis and worshiped idols and suffered on so many fronts. Unfortunately, the masses of humanity did not get an ounce of dharmic teaching or spiritual guidelines. This is the poisonous effect of telling only magical stories. That approach brings no benefit, only harm, pain, and suffering. So AM ideology should be propagated.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
What distinguishes AM from dogmatic religions
Unfortunately, similar things are going on nowadays in our Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha. Baba is Mahasambhuti, and all our Baba stories are 100% correct. But these factual Baba stories are being propagated alone instead of Baba’s ideological teachings with Baba stories. And, for this reason, our Marga society is not getting benefitted by Sadguru Baba’s innumerable teachings. Rather, they got exploited by special interest groups and faced tortures and suffering.
Remember, on the point of stories alone, people will not be convinced about the greatness of our Ananda Marga ideology. Although our stories are factual, that alone is not enough. Neither the common public nor dogmatic religious followers will be fully convinced by our stories. Because those various religions have their own mythical stories - albeit false stories. Whereas what truly distinguishes Ananda Marga teachings from those dogmatic religions is our unparalleled ideology. That is the main thing.
If one knows thousands of stories about Sadguru Baba, but is not following Ananda Marga ideological teachings and practices, then that is a very poor outcome. Ananda Marga philosophy covers every point of human life from dawn to dusk, sunset to sunrise, and birth to death. And if those teachings are not propagated then all is lost. Yet that is the sad plight that is unfolding nowadays. Certain people are just propagating factual stories of Baba and not His divine teachings accompanied by Baba stories. In result, people are not getting His dharmic teachings, unfortunately.
As a case in point: All around India, in their houses, some margiis have images of countless Hindu deities on their puja table along with Baba’s photo. And they light the ritualistic lamps of those religious deities and they also light ritualistic lamps instead of doing sadhana. Instead of being sincere in Ananda Marga sadhana, they have committed themselves to those fruitless religious rituals, which Baba condemns in His ideological teachings.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Here the point is that along with recounting a Baba story, Ananda Marga ideology should be taught. Sadly those promoting and sharing Baba stories are not including His ideological teachings with it. And that is the problem: the people suffer at the hands of dogma..
Are factual Baba stories useless?
The question arises: Really are all these factual Baba stories useless? The answer is that these factual Baba stories can be told but only in association with dharmic teachings. The story should be accompanied by an analysis of what the real story means on the philosophical level, and how one can instill that dharmic teaching in their own practical life.
All-knowing Baba warned that His teachings and ideology should be propagated - not just factual stories of His greatness and glory in place of AM teachings etc. Sadly, nowadays, there are some in Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha who are not aware of Sadguru Baba’s warning and guideline.
What is an example of a factual Baba story? There are numerous stories that are propagated where Baba touched a sadhaka and that person was automatically fully cured of their debilitating disease. Or Baba touched His stick and the cancer was all gone from a severe patient. These are some of our factual Baba stories. But verily every religion has such types of stories, although surely their stories are mere myths, i.e. untrue. But all religions have countless mythical stories - even wildly outlandish tales. And although their stories are just outlandish myths and not factually correct, but their followers fully believe those stories to be accurate and true. So by our Baba stories alone, we cannot impress them and bring those followers into Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Whereas if a given factual Baba story is appended with ideological teachings that comprehensively and conclusively unearth the why, where, how, and what behind those factual Babga stories, then that is quite meaningful. The common people will be spared so much suffering. Telling a story under such conditions holds a lot of value. But if that rigorous ideological examination is not present, just telling the story by itself is not enough. And the people face numerous troubles.
So there has to be a proper ideological explanation that accompanies each and every factual Baba story. The relevant philosophical explanations should be given such as: How samskara theory works, what are cakras, the science of rebirth etc. Depending on the story, the appropriate teaching and scriptural references should be presented. If all such explanations are present then that makes telling the story meaningful. In that case, the story holds great value as people will not just hear a story but learn the ideology as well.
Conclusion
With regards to the various religions and magical tales etc, we have to examine how this is operating. For example, in the Hindu religion, the monkey god is completely mythical but those followers really believe that the monkey god has all the occult powers and goes everywhere by flying like a bird from point A to point B etc. Although this is obviously mythical, those religious believers hold it to be real. In that case how can we convince or inspire them by telling them our factual Baba stories and tales when their fictitious stories are so much more dramatic. That is why it is highly needed to always propagate the ideology along with the factual Baba story - not just the story alone, undressed. That will be very convincing and produce the desired effect. By this way the society will be able to follow those teachings and get the benefits.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Namaskar,
At His lotus feet,
Prabhu Deva
Buddha’s teachings also lost
Likewise Lord Buddha arrived on this earth, performed dharma sadhana, and preached his doctrine of not slaughtering animals. But after his death, his followers merely shared magical tales of Him. They did not propagate Buddha’s teachings or ideals. Buddha’s teachings were cast aside. Lacking proper guidelines, the common people fell into woe and started doing the exact opposite of what Buddha preached. They began eating meat and doing idol worship. And now we see those followers are mostly meat-eaters and worshipers of the idols of Buddha. Instead of being benefited by Buddha’s teachings, those teachings were lost and the people suffered.
This same cycle has repeated itself so many times with respect to Kabir, Caetanya Mahaprabhu, and countless other rsis (risis) and sages. They preached a dharmic message that was forgotten after their death. All that was left was magical tales of their greatness - not any moral or righteous teaching. In the absence of any proper guideline, in their day to day life, the people faced so much hardship and went against the very tenets of those rsis and sages. And now just idol worship is done. Their dharmic message was forgotten, and the people faced innumerable troubles and tortures. To avoid this same type of disaster, Ananda Marga ideology should be propagated. Here again we should remind ourselves of Baba's teaching.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Ananda Marga philosophy states, "A study of history will make it clear that a strong and healthy society has not yet evolved on this planet. This is mainly due to the inadequate propagation of an ideology. Although at different times a few people thought of establishing a strong and healthy society, they...ultimately ended up projecting themselves instead of the ideology. Thus the ideology became secondary and was ultimately swept away because people started worshipping them as mahátmas [elevated souls] or mahápuruśas [spiritual beings]. Due to the absence of an ideology a strong society could not be established, and many defects crept into individual life." (2)
References
1. Prout in a Nutshell - 5, The Responsibility of Society
2. Prout in a Nutshell - 5, The Responsibility of Society
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The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
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== Section 2: Prabhat Samgiita ==
Divine fountain of refulgence
“Álor jharańá námiá eseche, tomári krpáy he dayámay…” (Prabhat Samgiita #0811)
Purport:
O' Dayámaya, by Your infinite, causeless grace the divine fountain of refulgence is showering ceaselessly upon everyone. O’ Merciful, all minds are rushing fearlessly undaunted towards that endlessly sweet luminescence. The whole cosmos has been drenched by Your love and compassion.
In the water, land, air, and across the vast blue sky, in ideation and resonance, in the aerial realm, and in fire, O’ Cinmaya in Your liilá rasa You exist in everything and everywhere. There is no place where You are not. And there is no one who resides outside of Your mind. You are within and without each and every entity, animate or inanimate.
In the congregation of stars, in the far away nebulae, with Your divine play You have showered Your refulgence. All are touched by Your magical spell. O’ Karuńámaya, sitting alone, seeing all in Your mind, You create, maintain, destroy and withdraw all by Your mere thought. You are the supreme controller in charge of each and every iota of this vast cosmological order. With Your boundless care and limitless compassion, You watch over one and all…
== Section: Important Teaching ==
Longing for power & post invites ruination
Ananda Marga ideology states, "Human beings take form according to the characteristics of their object of ideation...Those who have an ambition for power, are called raks'a. Suppose a man has grown old but still has an ambition for power. He thinks he should become this, he should become that, he thinks he should attain this status or that status. After death what shall this person become? He shall become raks'a-- that is raks'as'a." (1)
Note: Sadly, those running after post, power, prestige status etc will ultimately become lowly microvita. As sadhakas - as well-wishers of the humanity - we should guide and teach such persons not to crave after worldly status and degenerate themselves. It is our duty to help them. We should serve them and teach them to think about Parama Purusa - and not lust after power, prestige, social status, post etc. This should be our approach. Thus when some of our Central Dadas and others are craving for post and power we should intervene and save them from their terrible fate. They should be taught the ways of neo-humanism, otherwise they will plunge themselves into a dark future and face so many negative consequences.
Reference
1. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 5, The Psycho-Spiritual Evolution of Humans
== Section: Important Teaching ==
Mean thoughts make you an animal
Note: This teaching has four distinct aspects.
(a) The river of mind flows either from the mountain peaks to the valley basin or from the valley basin to the mountain peaks. It goes both directions.
(b) Human thinking has extraordinary power and works both the ways. If one’s thinking is proper then they become Parama Purusa and if one’s thinking is bad then one can be turned into stone.
(c) Most of the population has come directly from animal life. That is why they indulge the whole day in animal works: eating, drinking, procreating etc. For this reason they will return back to animal life in their next birth.
(d) As a human, if we utilise the potentiality of our thinking power we can become elevated and become one with Parama Purusa. Intelligent people progress towards life divine while foolish people degenerate and revert back to animal life due to their mean thoughts.
For more about this please read Baba’s below teaching:
Ananda Marga ideology guides us, “In human society there are many people whose mentality is somewhere between that of forest primates and that of humans. Some have just evolved from animal life to that point, in the process of pratisaiṋcara; while others have reverted to that point from a more developed human level, due to their mean thoughts. If they continue to allow mean thoughts to dominate their minds, they will degenerate to the even cruder stage of inert matter, becoming bricks, stone or wood. Just as animals have no scope to elevate their thoughts or practise spirituality, similarly human beings who make their minds animal-like through animalistic thinking are unable to pursue spiritual practices. Even after receiving spiritual initiation or receiving an education, they behave like ignorant fools. But those who are by mentality undeveloped human beings, but not animals, will if they receive initiation carry on spiritual practices, and will if they receive education behave like intelligent people.” (1)
Reference
1. Ananda Marga Ideology & Way of Life - 8, Sádhaná
== Section 4: Links ==
Other topics of interest
