The message of Her Holiness Sadguru Sri Rama Devi is love, universal love which is born of the realization that all things, that are, are manifestations of the great divine, the eternal, “Who is strength, love and beauty”. She does not wish, so far as I could see, her disciples to seek God through austerity and torture, solitude or penance, but she asks them to seek Him in a place far beyond emotion, in the depths of his or her own heart, where verily is He. Her discourses to the disciples are striking illustrative of the fact that she herself has found Him in her own heart, and that in consequence, she finds Him everywhere, in every man, woman and child, in everything that moves or does not move. She attaches the highest value to doing your duty in whatsoever circumstances or station of life you happen to be placed. If you are a child, strive, she exhorts you, to behave as an ideal child should; if you are a young man or woman behave as an ideal young man or woman should; if you are wife or husband strive as far as possible to be perfect wife or husband, in fact strive as far as possible to live a godly life which is what the Holy Mother’s life is. Her discourses are not only spiritually highly stimulative but are full of practical wisdom and simplicity which is the inseparable associate of greatness.
I remember vividly the first time I was called up for an interview with the Holy Mother. I was, I must say, not very comfortable being a man busily engaged in the sordid job of making money and to a certain extent losing my soul in the process. I was agreeably surprised that the Mother, as if she knew my thoughts, put me with her first question quite at ease. “So you are Swarnam’s father?” Swarnam was a disciple of hers, “Swarnam is a simple girl”, said Mother. After sometime the Mother quietly asked me whether she could put a question to me. I said, “Of course, Mother, you may ”. Then she asked me, “Are you in the habit of meditating upon God and praying daily for at least a few minutes each day?” Honesty compelled me to state that I do not do it as a rigid rule of daily routine. Straight came the question. If parents do not do so, how can you expect the children to do it? This was unanswerable.
She then proceeded to point out to me that it did not matter much what time of the day I devoted for it. The great point is, the Mother explained, that prayer and meditation should form part of daily life, so that the thought of God might permeate it.
To sum up the message of the Holy Mother is “to be Lamps Unto Ourselves” and to do selfless work which is the best form of worship.
SRI KOMATTIL ACHUTHA MENON,
Retired Chief Secretary to Government
1961