MAI-ISM CHART EXPLANATION
This Universal Religion Chart Explanation is freely distributed to serve as a prompter and pusher, as a guide or a referee, (1) for all ardent religious aspirants of any religion, (2) for all experimentators and experience - advocates of no-religion but born and bred with religious-minded natural tendencies, (3) for all practitioners of self-evolution and (4) for all painstaking human beings desirous of success in the matter of health, wealth, prosperity, peace, joy and happiness.
GENERAL
(1) MAI principally means God as Universal Mother, Universal Father, Universal Mother-Father or Universal Father-Mother of one and all human beings, one creatress or creator of all created beings or things, who is most pleased and showers peace, prosperity, health, wealth, joy and happiness on them that have been living the life of universal love and service to God's all children, and of devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender to the Divine Will of the Final-most God of any conception that any one accepts.
(2) This Mai-ism Chart now printed and published in 1963-64 has been one of the most important items of Mai Initiation along with Mai-ism, which is the 20th Century Universal Religion, declared on 2nd September 1932.
(3) This chart was intended to form an accompaniment to the Mai-ism Thesis, so very kindly invited by the Universal Religious Alliance, the Grand Patron whereof, H. H. Pr. OM Lind Schernrezig, held the Alliance World Congress in Cuba from 23rd October 1959 to 22nd January 1960.
(4) During the said Congress, Mai-ism was exhaustively discussed and commented upon by the Mai-ism Official Representative, Revered Sister Duchesse Blanche Ledran, who was then the Grand Chancellor, Spiritual Ministry of the Universal Religious Alliance Institute.
(5) The only principal change in this Chart from the Mai-ism Chart originally initiated by the Universal Mother Mai in 1932, is the substitution of the amplified denomination of "Universal Religious Alliance Fraternities and Societies" for the original general expression of a "Universal Religious Institute" representing the second black thick boundary limit-line of annular rings in the printed chart. All the rest, viz. the geometrical shapes, figures, words, expressions, etc., have remained practically the same as in the original Chart disclosed by Mai to Maiji (Mai-Swarupa) in 1932.
(6) Mai has infinite aspects, manifestations, forms, names and denominations and interpretations. Any religious or spiritual aspirant is welcome to consult and concentrate upon the Chart, with every right and option, in the matter of any addition and alteration to serve the purpose of expediting one's own self-evolution. ..
(7) Mai blesses every aspirant, a she or a he, with enough enthusiasm, to coin and insert any code words which she or he ultimately selects and accepts in respect of the corresponding expressions in the Chart.
(8) Any other select name of denomination in lieu of Mai or Mai-ism as one's own personal beloved God or accepted-lived-and adhered to religion, is quite an equally welcome and acceptable substitute, or substitution.
(9) The denominations of H.M., B.M., C.M., I.M., etc., in the Chart respectively mean Hinduistic Mai-ism, Buddhistic Mai-ism, Christian Mai-ism, Islamic Mai-ism, etc. and mean the following of the said individual religion with full regard to the Universal tenets of Mai-ism viz. Love, Service, Devotion and Unconditional cheerful Self-surrender. It may be very attentively noted that H.M., B.M. etc. extend beyond the "Universal Mai-ism" thick black bold letters ring. That relative situation goes to assert that the evolutionary stage of a H.M. etc. is higher than an ordinary routine Mai-ist.
(10) Whatever is shown or suggested or written in respect of one religion is true for all, although to avoid over-clumsiness, everything is not written as applicable to each religion.
(11) Mai-ism represents the Universal evolutionary path, common and agreeable to all.
(12) Mai-ism is not a new addition to the already existing numerous individual religions, but a synthetic, parental religion for reconciliation and unification of all individual religions. Mai-ism is the religion of reversion, from diversities to unity, and for developing the grand sum total of divine forces, on consolidation of all the centripetal forces scattered haphazardly, all over the universe.
(13) Anyone can most easily follow a universal religion concurrently with one's own personal religion in its entirety, as the purposes, activity-realms, aims and objects of both are quite separate. Any doctor can be an active member of a city-epidemic prevention Institute and yet have his own personal private dispensary and vice-versa.
(14) Individual religion is meant for individual issues and ends : Universal religion for universal issues and ends.
(15) There can be no contradiction in the concurrent living of one's life in accordance with both religions, individual and universal, for any person. Although one lives one's life as an individual, every one is most naturally expected to be the most rhythmic part-unit of the universal whole. Again, any truth, seemingly of an individual nature, cannot be contradictory to the Universal truth, in ultimate reality. No hand, foot or mind has wished any illness of the whole body or any other bodily part, and no body has wished its hand, foot or mind to get worse ill or useless.
(16) Mai-ism believes that man-to-God relationship without a preliminary sufficiently satisfactory man-to-man relationship is only a hypocritical delusion.
(17) True religion requires a life of selflessness with love and service to all children of one's Beloved God of whatever concept. There are obstructions, oppositions and sometimes even harmful results of making sacrifice out of Love and Service, with the universal-mindedness and selfless divine spirit. Mai-ism therefore adds the proviso "to the extent of one's possibility and practicability". Mai-ism recommends and insists upon accepting the ideal of Love and Service, which every Mai-ist has to try his best to approach and develop his individuality through trials, undergoings and successes, more and more. On greater and greater development one gets stronger and stronger, to meet the obstructions, oppositions and temporary losses and harms. There is the generation of a small circuit, in speedier and speedier working. You love and serve. There are worldly oppositions and abuses of your love and services, but your strength to conquer them proceeds from your Mai's and your Guru's grace and your own belief and faith in your protection by your Guru and your Mai, in as much as you have loved and served Her children, and She has promised accordingly under universal religion of Mai-ism.
(18) There is nothing like the superiority or exclusiveness or best-ness or the only-ness of any religion. As a preliminary natural human weakness, it may be considered excusable, that one's own birth religion may appeal to oneself as being the best. It should, however, never be forgotten that it can be the best for one's own self alone. In fact, it is the most divine Mai-istic arrangement with the universal principle of hastening the religious evolution of every soul, that the birth is given in that particular religion and religious society where there is the maximum facility for a particular type of development, most needed for any particular soul. ( Mai is sarva-mangala). This is however only a general principle with all possibilities of exceptions.
(19) Religious self-progress depends, not so much on what any particular religion prescribes or preaches, as on the untiring, unflinching, determined, continued, incessant, individual effort and struggling exertion, with which the strictly religious life is lived, as a result of the faith in the Divine Law, Grace and Mercy of Guru and God respectively and the love for one's God, Guru, and God's all children and reverence for all God-revealed Religions.
(20) Mai-ism which has as its principal tenets, Universality, Love and Service, dispenses with any indispensable pre-condition, about the belief in the very existence of God, provided one honestly and conscientiously lives the life of Universal Love and Service, to the extent of one's possibility and practicability. This represents the smaller circuit referred to above. Though smaller, the circuit is closed and complete in itself and remains ever revolving for the aspirant, to reach higher and higher stages.
(21) There is nothing like any superiority or inferiority, as between any Universal Religious Society, on one hand, and the Society of a Universal Religion, on the other.
(22) Both are complementary to each other. The only thing is that the nature of work, although directed towards the same goal, differs.
(23) The legitimate work falling within the purview of the former is that of the best man-to-man relationship, whereas the work of the latter is directed towards the best man-to-God relationship, after best man-to-man relationship has been achieved. (2) The latter represents the power by which the former expression is sought to be raised, as in the algebraic expression "raised to certain power".
(24) There is more or less the sameness because the world's welfare depends on the final product of (1) the units of persons and (2) the units of moral, religious and spiritual stage and strength.
(25) Mai-ism believes, that without at least a fairly workable mastery of morality, religiosity has very little usefulness and meaning, and without the advanced mastery of morality and religiosity together, spirituality means practically nothing.
(26) The smooth running and happiness of the world as one family, depends on three principal factors, viz. morality, religiosity and spirituality. The first can be the ruling realm of any Institute like the Universal Religious Alliance, federation, fraternity or society, the second, the ruling realm of any Universal Religion as Mai-ism, and the third, the ruling realm of any Institute like the Spiritual Council of Sages, or Universal Saints' Order etc. Unless all unitedly work together as one, the disproportion would surely forever create innumerable discords. Morality sows and saves, religiosity seeks and secures, and spirituality sums up and saturates, limitless peace and highest happiness.
(27) Mai-ism believes that all acts of virtue, goodness, morality, justice, truth, etc. or their opposites can be subsumed under any of the three classifications, viz. love, indifference and hatred. Love opens up the treasure-house of all goodness, virtue, peace of mind and true happiness. Hatred results in betrayals, defiance, condemnation, injuries and harmfulness of the most painful and oppressive nature.
(28) Mai-ism lays the highest emphasis on loving all and hating none, and enjoins leaving all questions of any injustice, any omission of return or remuneration or ingratitude, etc. to Mai, through the next two tenets of Devotion and Unconditional Cheerful Self-surrender.
(29) It is a practical universal truth, that love begets love and service is only the manifestation of Love, in the practical visible and describable form.
(30) As the aspirant advances, he should practise non-resistance even to all befalling sufferings, to the extent he can practically bear them, for even sufferings are Mai-sent and are blessings in disguise, for expediting one's perfection. Christ's Teachings of "Resist no evil" implies this point of guidance and wisdom.
(31) The whole working of the universe is being done by the one Final-most, Infinite Life-Power (one of the many aspects of Mai) through two principal aspects and elements, positive-negative and negative-positive, both manifesting themselves in the human world as man and woman, and in all other regions of any working, as forces, representable in forms of the genders of the masculine and the feminine. The greater the rhythmic unity of both, the greater the happiness of the world. Mai-ism therefore most strongly recommends spiritual coequal status of man and woman (The vertical axis of Mai-ism swastika) with as great emphasis, as on the universal-mindedness which represents the horizontal axis of the Mai-ism Swastika.
(32) Man and woman are the centrifugal and centripetal forces of human life. Both have certain virtues and vices in common but certain inherent natures are particularly man's or woman's. These should be fully studied and mutually adjusted, overlooked, tolerated, excused, kindly treated or appreciated with reciprocal love and service, and with mutual or self-volunteered devotion and surrender, if possible. This is indispensable, because no man or woman can live without the other's love, sympathy, help and co-operation, both being complimentary to and serving each other. The nearer any man and woman are, practically on the same plane of morality, religiosity and spirituality, without any topsy-turvying of the natural abilities and declivities, adaptabilities and fields of activities and duties of each, the happier both of them are on inter-communion. Individuality of each has to be accepted and respected with least disturbing and dabbling and unity has to be achieved with mutual sacrifice, love, service and faith.
(33) To repeat, voluntary self-surrender would generate great blessedness. Mai-ism has two special characteristics, one, the universality, and, the other, the spiritual and religious equality or the co-equal status of man and woman. These are invisibly represented in Mai-ism Swastika by the horizontal and vertical axis respectively. Swastika-living is the speediest and shortest Mai-ism scripture.
(34) Mai-ism is the 20th Century universal, psychological, rational religion, which respects reason, experience, conscience and science. Under Mai-ism, science does not mean merely materialistic, physical science, but includes all other sciences as well, say, metaphysical, occult, yogic, astrological, spiritualistic, psychic etc. A Mai-ist can assert "He does not believe a certain truth" but he can't at once discard anything or any science as "absurd, idiotic or impossible." Mai-ism is a religion of one God of all, for all religionists, or the religion of the entire humanity deified as God, for all lovers of humanity or both. Mai-ism advocates universal love and service as its principal tenets for a portion of mankind, viz. lovers of humanity. For another portion, viz. God-believers, Mai-ism suggests, in addition to universal love and service and not without these, the further two tenets of devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender to one's own select God, and God's Divine Will. True lovers of humanity alone, as well, can attain their perfection of infinite life, on gainng infinite light and infinite love, and on living their life in full accordance with Divine law-abidance and in spiritual communion, and in tune with the Infinity and Eternity. I. This Chart or the whole picture has to be conceived in two forms : the horizontal and (preferably) the vertical, for the purpose of achieving an inward march or an upward climb. The former conception means marching ahead through the several impenetrable circular fort-walls of various evolutionary stages, towards the destination of the central supreme, finalmost Reality, (Mai of Universal Mai-ism). The latter is similarly ascending to reach Reality, on the finalmost apex point of a pyramid or a cone, on the Top whereof, the aspirant is exerting to spirally climb from the base, to reach the Apex. The central point or the apex is, as it were, like the place or palace of the Highest Divinity (Mai) and the final-most abode of spiritual power, the finalmost force, peace, joy, happiness, etc. or whatever anyone craves for, or as the Finalmost Attaining-worth Excellence. The higher and higher upward or the more and more inward an aspirant goes, the thinner and thinner becomes the unreality, delusively posing and looking as reality ; and the lesser and lesser thins down the working influence of all the worldly differences of innumerable opposites.
II. The central point or the apex point is given the divine denominational appellation of "Mai", which is very generally interpreted, as stated in the immediately next annular rings of the Chart, around the central word "Mai", to mean "The All, The Everything, and The Only One". The Finalmost Attainable is God, The Omnipresent, The Omniscient and The Omnipotent, The Finalmost Infinite One Power that Creates, maintains and refashions, universes after universes. The One, from Whom anything and everything that bears name originates, in Whom it lives and to Whom it returns. The Supreme Consciousness, of Which all units of individual consciousness are mere reflections or fragments, The Highest Existence Knowledge and Bliss. The Infinity, Immortality and Eternity. The Finalmost God, Spirit, Truth or Unity, Highest Self and Soul, The Worthiest to be approached, attained and relished, The One to be known, loved, and identified with, the merged into, etc. etc. etc.
III. Anyone of any belief or conception about the Finalmost Being has to visualize his own conception under the universal abstract conception and denomination of Mai. Anyone may even substitute his own word for the word "Mai". The truth which Mai-ism means to specially hammer upon the heads and hearts of the whole humanity, is that it is the same God that anyone conceives, and that one's own God should be believed, to be the God of everyone of the entire humanity, by every Universal Religionist Mai-ism (U.R. Mai-ism) or every U.R. Mai-ist. The subtle difference of U.R. Mai-ism and U.R. Mai-ist, has been explained in the two general and adherents' oath booklets. "Mai-ist" implies appreciation and living out one's life, as per Mai-ism tenets and teachings. A Mai-ist can as well have along with the universal religion of Mai-ism his own religion. He may be, for instance, a Hindu Mai-ist. The word "Mai-ism" conveys the idea of the universal Mai-ism-following, as one's own fully accepted religion without any special consideration of any individual religion as one's own jointly. Mai-ism conveys the idea of sacraments and embracing Mai-ism as a religion with all the forces of any religion. "Mai-ist" conveys an optional living out of Mai-istic principles. In one word, as stated on page 9 of general oath booklet, "Mai-ist" implies "associated assimilation" whereas "Mai-ism" implies "perfected unification". The conviction, viz. that it is the same God, same Divine Law, same Justice and same Mercy, that governs one and all of the entire humanity, is the principal belief and guidance in life for the universal religionist (either Mai-ism or Mai-ist).
IV. Next we proceed to explain and comment upon the different portions of the Chart piece by piece only, as the Chart, its full interpretation and the subject matter are all entirely subtle and complicated.
It will be seen at a glance, that the Chart consists of annular rings and spaces between, proceeding from the outermost circular black doubly-thick line to the central point, mentioned as "Mai", "The All, The Everything, and The Only One" (as printed in the immediately next annular ring). It is towards Mai that the whole religious evolutionary progress is directed. The whole picture can be imagined as subdivided into three principal zones of Morality, Religiosity and Spirituality around the Supreme Mai Sphere.
Starting from the outermost double circular line, to which the twelve principal religions shown in lotus-shaped circles are attached, till we reach the outer thick fringe of the Universal Religious Alliance, the space between comprises the morality zone.
Starting from outer fringe of the Universal Religious Alliance, right upto the outer line of the ring comprising "Teachers, Saints, Sages, etc.", the space between represents the religiosity Zone.
Starting from the outer line of "Teachers, Saints, Sages", and including "incarnations" upto outer line of the Supreme Mai Sphere with the mention of "The All, The Everything, The Only One" the space between shows the spirituality zone.
Finally, we reach the Supreme Sphere of Mai.
MORALITY ZONE
1. The outermost circle of the Mai-ism Chart has along its circumference twelve principal religions, from each of which the aspirant progresses along the individual religion passage towards the centre. From the vast space outside, the black doubly thickened line, any individual comes up, to have quite a nominal allegiance to some religion, mostly, one's own birth religion, i.e. of one's society and community.
2. This passage starting from every religion-representing circle has as its object, the development of the most general requirements which are true for all beings without distinction of different religions. The passage has two aspects, the external and the internal.
The external aspect requires the practice and development of fundamentals viz. (a) Gratefulness (b) Greatness (of outlook), and (c) Goodness and (d) Givingness. These are the first four "Gs" out of the six Mai-ism "Gs".
In the internal subtler aspect, the progress has to be made fundamentally on the lines of conduct and behaviour, and thereafter of Honest, Virtuous, Moral Culture and Character.
V. While dealing with any person of whatsoever nearest relationship, who is not included in your "I", first ask to yourself these four questions : "Am I becoming ungrateful?" "Am I bankrupt in greatness?" "Am I mean minded, vindictive or punishing for something wrong done to me?", "Am I not treating him or her as all the good, better, best men in the past or present would have treated?" "Am I selfish?" "Am I for not giving?" Establish your severe censorship with these tests over your own self. After greater and greater practice with outsiders, extend the same practice, with them that are included in your "I". Finally, each soul has to answer for every other soul's treatment of any whatever nearest relationship or affection.
Just think, how many persons you have to deal with in a day; and what thoughts, feelings and decisions of action you have, say, in an hour regarding each? If the world rises only to this much Mai-istic understanding, viz. that anyone is religious, only to the extent one stands these tests, the world will be much happier. Just imagine how many would fall off only through the very first test of gratefulness! On the other hand, if you establish your censorship by the said four "G" guides of Mai-ism, you will find yourself and others will also find you, to be an entirely changed human worthy person or soul. You yourself will be wonders truck. The mystic law viz. that one good action prompts and strengthens you with yet stronger good forces, to do next ten good actions against the equally weakened evil forces, helps you immensely.
Mai-ism says "mere knowing, although the first requirement before any progress is undertaken, is nothing by itself alone." The natural human tendency is to seek self-happiness and it requires painful effort to keep anything naturally falling down. It requires first the knowledge, next the desire with determination not to descend and fall but to ascend and rise, next the necessary training, and finally the breaking of the forces of bad thoughts and habits and the mastering of sublime thoughts and suitable habits, and finally, the "do-or-die" untiringly pursued action and exertion.
In a word it is an uphill ascent-task. The various evolutionary uphill ascent-stages are shown under the Mai-is Universal Religion Chart. Since millions of centuries, this task has been undertaken by various religions for different parts of our world, even before societies and kingdoms, governments and legislatures and schools and universities came into being, for religion originally dealt with and is meant to deal with, each and every sub-realm of human happiness.
VI. Regarding the attainment and practice of virtue and morality, some general instructions are noted here.
(A) The most general first thing is that one has to try to conquer, by self-denial, his six internal enemies of desire, wrath, greed, pride, lust and jealousy with immense practice and dispassion or relishlessness and detachment.
(B) Primarily, there are ten propensities, practically governing each one of mankind : (1) self-preservation, (2) love for life and health, (3) home and family attachment, (4) sex-love, (5) friendship, (6) feeling of oneness for others of the same religion, nation, country, community and family, (7) combativeness (pushing forward of oneself and withstanding all opposition), (8) acquisitiveness (to be getting more and more), (9) seductiveness with secludingness and (10) constructiveness or destructiveness.
(C) The principal sentiments are : self-esteem, approbativenss, cautiousness, benevolence, veneration, constancy, conscientiousness, hopefulness, marchfulness, curiosity and imitation.
(D) Important elements of character are : strength, fairness, candour, faithfulness, ardor, ambition, austerity, amiability, courage, gentility, generosity, kindness, pridelessness, selflessness, creativeness, active ness, contentment, self-control, prudence, refinement, nobility, modesty, neatness, seriousness, equilibrium-restoringness, improvement, forgiveness, tolerance, cheerfulness, accommodative ness, etc. etc.
(E) Intellectual equipment, which enables one to undertake and achieve self-improvement is : observation, preciseness, simplicity, continued deep efficient industriousness, righteousness, healthy harmless profound powerful imagination, bold, absence of the blindness of "I" and "Mine", correct reasoning and mature judgment.
(F) the cardinal four virtues of Plato are : justice, wisdom, temperance and courage.
(G) The principal four virtues according to the popular Hinduism religious literature are : mortification, compassion, purity and charity.
(H) The seven immortal Christian virtues are : faith, hope, charity, justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude.
(I) The six helpers to success are : quiescence, self-control, relishlessness, endurance, faith and courage.
VII. When we turn to various religions, for virtue and morality specially enjoined, although associated with religiosity, we have the following most precious suggestions :
(A) The ten commandments of Christ under Christianity are : (1) I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt not have any false God before me, (2) thou shall not take the name of Lord thy God in vain, (3) remember that thou keepest holy, the Sabbath day, (4) honour thy father and thy mother, (5) thou shalt not kill, (6) thou shalt not commit adultery, (7) thou shalt not steal, (8) thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour, (9) thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife and (10) thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.
(B) The five commandments of Moses, under Judaism are Nos. (5), (7), (8), (9) and (10) above respectively. They are : don't kill, don't bear false witness, don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't covet another's anything.
(C) Mohammad commanded thus : (1) slay none except justice requires it, (2) avoid false words, (3) don't steal, (4) don't succumb to the Satan's device of intoxicants, (5) avoid unlawfulness in sex and (6) watchfully and resolutely control your senses.
(D) Gautam Buddha under Buddhism commands : (1) kill not, (2) bear not false witness, (3) don't slander, (4) don't lie, (5) speak truth, (6) maintain your inward purity, (7) give freely and have no greed, use no force, and practice no fraud, (8) shun drugs and drinks, (9) touch not your neighbor's wife, and (10) commit no sins of flesh, unlawful, unpermitted and unfitted.
(E) Mahavir under Jainism says : (1) refrain from taking life, (2) don't speak untruth, (3) don't take what is not willingly given, (4) refrain from unlawful love, (5) have no ownership of all things, beyond strict needs.
(F) Manu under Hinduism advises : harmlessness, truthfulness, non-stealing, honesty, purity (of thought, word and deed), non-shaking celibacy, and sense-control while the senses try to go on erring ways.
It is most evident that there is the greatest similarity and sameness amongst all religions at least as far as virtue and morality have been laid down under them. It is also most emphatically asserted under Mai-ism in respect of each religion, that true religionists should, in the first instance, be busiest with the requirements of constructing the basic, strongest foundation, on which alone the structure of true religiosity and spirituality can be erected.
Please note, under Mai-ism, about interpretation of the word "neighbour", that perhaps each Founder meant impliedly, in his final most broadest vision that even residents of extreme West and extreme East or extreme South and extreme North were all neighbours.
If it was not so, at least the universal Mai-ism enjoins the said universal interpretation.
The happiest thing that a serious practitioner enjoys, in respect of undertaking a rigid practice of mastering virtues and morality, is that the hard practice and mastery of any one principal virtue automatically brings so many other virtues, in fitting companionship therewith, on the newly elevated higher plane. NONE CAN KNOW THEE EXCEPT THYSELF. INTROSPECT AND ADVANCE AHEAD, WATCHING THY PROGRESS DAY TO DAY.
VIII. It will be seen from the Chart that the whole morality zone may be seen from one visual angle to be made up of four belts of space bounded with circular dotted lines. The first belt between the outermost thick circular double line and the first dotted circular line represents the portion of humanity consisting of persons that are united to one another, only because they have the common interest of a certain religion, common to all. Here the only principal consideration is neither morality, virtue nor character but the main most fact is that the united persons have one thing in common, viz. the same religion. The second belt between the first and second circular dotted line unites together persons who live together, for the sake of the safety and security, means of self-preservation and facilities of personal progress, which unity, naturally and automatically results from the close relationship of persons of the same plane of culture, calibre and character. Here the mere fact of being of the same religion does not mean so much as before, and carries a much smaller value than that of a virtuous moral character. Unless there are some extraordinary religious emotion, passion and fanaticism, this class of people, from amongst followers of any particular religion, would prefer to live in company of the similar righteous moral and religious people of any other religion, rather than of vicious, immoral and wicked people of one's own religion. That barbaric fanaticism has gone in their case and the "I" of the persons of this class, has been quite largely widened.
The third belt comprises of all great philanthropic, benevolent souls, that have as the aim of their life, the extension of love and service, after having fairly mastered virtue, morality and character. In the natural course, their activities, services, sacrifices are limited to those that are nearest or come in closest contact and are of the same community, country, nation and religion. The fourth belt has as its inmates, the highest souls that have dedicated their life to the noblest purpose of love and service, and further have transgressed all usual worldly limitations, on full development of the outlook of universality and have been living to promote unity, for the whole world's welfare.
IX. The world, as a whole, has advanced with a surprising speed, materially and intellectually, and, as a result thereof, the religious power and influence, which made most of the only fact of being of the same religion, have been greatly weakened. It may appear surely an improvement, that such religious powers and influences, (as at least for the general followers' mass had set quite an insignificant value to truth, justice, virtue and morality, in the immediate past), have, after the materialistic civilization, suppressed spirituality and spiritual values, vanished. It, however, is required to be decided, whether that is an outcome of any higher quality of tolerance or the lower quality of indifference to all things except those which only directly affect one's own personal selfishness, self-gain and self-aggrandisement. The present mentality of keeping out all the best that any religion can give to the world has most unfortunately brought down the world from the frying pan into the fire. The most mischievous mentality of belittling any existing good, is to make most of any exceptions, to justify breaking and to be deprecatingly babbling about the higher stages, which (breaking & bubbling) fascinates WILD REBELLIOUS imagination, and pulls mankind towards discontent and disobedience. The mentality of "no value for virtue and morality," with the highest premium set on easiest and ill-gotten wealth through corruption, sexual immorality, swindling, fraudulence, helplessness-exploitation, etc., (so very indispensable to satisfy the ever increasing craving of materialistic enjoyments of all varieties), perverseness of intellectual acrobatism to invent ways and means, and worshipping Mammon, Satan and Self : all this is much worse and primarily and fundamentally responsible for all the worst vices in home life, family life, business, politics, international relations, and every aspect of human misery. It results in quarrels, fights, cold and hot wars, peacelessness and constant terrors and consternations.
X. What the world wants is a full-fledged universal religion or consolidation of all that is best in all religions, after sifting and screening out all degenerated and corroded elements that have established their supreme rule, in all individual religions. The Universal Teaching principally of wisdom as of U.R.A. (U.R. Alliance) and the Universal Religion principally of love as Mai-ism. Wisdom governed by love should chalk out the living path- and by-paths.
The world, at this moment of life and death struggle, needs the biggest revolution, reformation and renovation, or practically the renaissance of a truly universal religion. It means changing of the old order and restoring the truest religiosity with a new re-unification of the entire world as one whole, and entrusting the above stated future task in the hands of the consolidated new saintly order, of the best religious, universal-minded, world-welfare-worried, selfless, highest souls, without any distinction of religion, nation, creed or colour. There is no other way left except to restore "God-fearing", "God-serving" and "God-loving", in their truest forms, neither hypocritically nor mechanically, nor narrow-mindedly.
XI. After passing through the narrow path of great patience of virtue, on attainment of a moral character, the aspirant begins to feel, less interested in his own personal or family life, and gets entirely disgusted with remaining all practically absorbed, in the smallest cess-pool or mud-pit of his own personal, routinistic, muddled and deadened life or that of his own little family. He feels, such a precious life-gift cannot be for such a cage-bird, self-restrictioned, wasteful living, even though he is leading the life of virtue and morality. God-gifted life is not to be slept over, with only the irreducible minimum use of various, potential, highest powers of man. From the well-frog life of a family or a society or community, he wants to plunge into a higher life, where he can have better opportunities to serve and to develop his possible, supernatural powers and sublimities of virtue, to undertake benevolent, altruistic activities, as would need super-human power and character, on having to stand and pass through higher and higher tests and even idealistic ordeals. He is gradually advancing. By gratefulness, he has begun to feel discontented and unhappy to live the life of a world-debtor. He has risen from the debtor's life to a desire to make at least some return and not to live and die a debtor and a beggar or a parasite. By greatness, he advances in his mentality and outlook to live as a plus item of the society. Goodness have developed the attitude of remaining always on the plus side, in whatever dealings he has with whomsoever. Now here, he is for the still higher stage, viz. that of givingness, which means selflessness, service, sacrifice, etc. The pigmy idea of restricting oneself, only to the returning of a good act for something already received, is now fast diminishing away. He feels great blessedness in always being the "GIVER".
In the loop, after passing through the narrow passage, he becomes a champion of Service and Love. Here the aspirant enters the third belt. Here the general virtues (Masculine and Feminine) acquired before, take the grander form of wisdom and affection, justice and mercy, courage and patience. This is the third belt of a philanthropic benevolent mind, heart and living. Here, the values of being of a same religion or society diminish in bitterness or estrangement. As the passion for love and service reaches a higher stage, the values even of remaining restricted only to the company and contact of the most virtuous and highly moral persons, get eliminated. He loses all fear of being contaminated, on contact with the lower stages and soon becomes (and gets the consciousness and conviction of having been) proof against evil. He takes little notice of what the world speaks of him. He is mindful, only of his conscience. He gets bold and heroic. He is for truth-abidance and not for the impressions which the world, in its own idiotic way, creates about him. He says, "If we remain always afraid of world's ever-changing fluctuating words and rumours, and preclude in any form, even the smallest contact with anyone or anything of a lower stage, how shall we be fully proof against and how shall we and who will lessen the world's evil?" He prefers to be known and dealt with as he really is, and not as he desires, on planning to create certain best opinions and impressions about him, by everyone of the world. He is no longer for living an artificial, secretive, furtive life. He is now directly dealing with himself and his God, his Guru, and conscience and is prepared, with boldness, to face all the results of his actions. He depends on himself. He has developed his fullest conviction, that to be happy or unhappy depends on his own inner self. He heroically says, "I am prepared to suffer for whatever wrong I do." He hates asking and begging of any human being, except his guide Guru and God.
Here is the stage much higher than remaining infatuatedly absorbed in one's own family work, with troubles and worries. He has mastered virtues to an appreciable extent, although not to the point of perfect mastery. He can bear injustice, ill-treatment, calumny, personal wear and tear or money-losses or even health set-backs. For persons of this plane, there is immeasurable work of relieving the distresses of the suffering. He is now proof against worldly sorrows, losses, scandals, misrepresentations and worldly calculations. Naturally enough, as the field of philanthropic undertakings becomes wider, the other values have automatically to be subordinated. This often results in jealousies and censure, oppositions and oppressions of so many others around and that again teaches him a new unprecedentedly wonderful lesson, which was not met with, or mastered in the lower stages. But, by now, he has a much greater value for the satisfaction of his conscience and the jot on achievement of the good that he has undertaken (as also the life-blessedness, on securing the grace of his God and Guru, if he happens to be religious, God-abiding and God-loving r atleast God-fearing). He develops his skin to be thicker and thicker to all obstructive and inimical actions, and evil talks of the world, and especially of those that get jealous of him.
It should be most markedly noted, that it should be only after one has reached the stages gone before, that the aspirant is recommended to be deaf to the public untrue censure. While any one is passing through the preliminary course, fear of the public dishonour or reproach and the sorrow on being censured, has so often a salutary effect, as it often saves a man from pacing his further steps in the wrong path in the wrong direction. Public censure on one hand and the aspirant's self-fear about the relations of unrighteousness on the other, is also a necessary and indispensable stage in self-evolution. The primitive staged man, who is quite blind about his own vices and bad actions, and on top of it, who gets wrathful if anyone points them out, is being trained under public's censuring habit, on seeing the evilness of evils, at least in others as he himself is blind to see himself. Censuring is an indirect practice of discrimination for the self-blind and public fear sets him right. Public censure has one great advantage. No single person remains exposed to the censured's vengeance. Any person addicted to evil has no fear, no shame and no thought of the future. So he needs a piercing goad. For a maddened mischievous elephant, that would crush to pieces any single individual, more than a dozen trainers are required to hit the elephant with arrows from distance, from unknown quarters, to bring him down to his knees and to his normal senses.
XII. Next the aspirant passes on to the still higher stage. He has now advanced enough to realize that fanaticism regarding one's own religion has no meaning without virtue, morality and character. He has also begun to feel the blessedness of his life, when he makes so much sacrifice, for those who are not of his own fold, and not even capable of remembering or returning his goodness. He gradually rises beyond all considerations of the lower planes. It is like the highest man trying to raise up the lowest man, which act in itself is a heroic sacrifice of one's social popularity, sympathy, time, money, ease, leisure, peace and even personal safety. He now begins to think in terms of the whole humanity and universality, setting least values to preliminary differences, which would be surely greatest, indispensable requirements for any aspirant engaged in self-evolution in the initial stage, but which should not be so adhered to, as to have any retarding and obstructing effects, while the work in hand is that of raising and lifting up the downtrodden persons, classes or communities. Now he thinks only with the most general outlook of the greatest good of the greatest number, and he widens his outlook to embrace universality and undertakes all activities which lead to unity of many, without any differences and barriers of the lower-planed. He now lives the life as a staunch advocate of all beliefs and activities, which are meant for the welfare purposes of, at least, the majority of the whole mankind. This is the fourth belt for the whole world's welfare.
Morality Zone Recapitulation
The whole Chart may be taken (on the miniature scale), as divisible into three zones of Morality, Religiosity and Spirituality, around the finalmost supreme sphere, entwining the central point indicated under the word "Mai". To summarise, the Morality Zone extends from the outermost double circular lined fringe to the thicker outerline of "the Universal Religious Alliance." It consists of four belts between the two said boundaries formed with three dotted circular lines. The first belt is that of different religions shown with lotus-circles. The second belt recommends (in the form of the feminine and masculine qualities) self-devotion on the lines of gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness in the exterior living and honest, virtuous, moral conduct and behavior, and culture and character in the interior living. The third belt, on the same analogy, is for service and love externally and wisdom and affection, justice and mercy, courage and patience, internally. The fourth belt is for the greatest good of greatest number of the whole humanity externally and unity and universality internally and for the whole world's welfare.
One thing very remarkably noted is that in the previous stages, we have never alluded to God and Religion except only tangentially or at the outermost fringes. We have referred to honesty, virtue, character, love, service, universality, unity, etc. directly and as independent requirements for general happiness and smooth running of one's own life and the world. Now comes up the stage of maturity when the further curtains are being gradually lifted. Till now, in one sense, God has been the whole humanity and all points of virtue, character, etc. have, as the justification for their desirability, only the superficial idea of seeing the whole world run smoothly and happily. Till now, we have been dealing with humanity, which under Mai-ism is, with great emphasis, stated to be one of the most important aspects of Mai, and which under Mai-ism can be best served through the daily censorsship and practice of the preliminary virtues of gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness, and further on living the life of the greatest good of the greatest number, with unity as the object and universality as its sphere.
And after so much advancement of self-evolution the aspirant enters the Religiosity Zone after full or at least passing-marks-mastery, all the while maintaining one's full hold over the mastered morality till the final destination is reached. om To start with the religiosity zone, it begins with the ring marked as "The Universal Religious Alliance". Till now, all the aspirants were supposed to be working mostly in their individual way or in association with others, in groups of comparatively much smaller number of persons. Next they ascend the higher stages in companionship of fellowship of higher types of persons that have enlisted themselves in or have sometimes dedicated their life to a much higher type of an Institute.
The Universal Religious Alliance, (in its both senses, as a proper noun or a common noun), at least as conceived under the Mai-ism Chart, and to which the Institute bearing the same denomination bears the greatest resemblance, aims at the fulfilment of the same purposes, aims and objects.It is, as it were, a circular theatre or arena to which numerous high-staged persons or Institutes of different countries, nations and religions affiliate themselves for, so to say, the post-morality graduate university course. The Universal Religious Alliance with which Mai-ism is in fully co-operative friendliness, is the Institute that has been and passed through the struggle of religion as against irreligion for over more than five decades, and has survived and gone ahead, in spite of numerous oppositions and obstructions. Determined enthusiasts and never-retreating heroes alone know the wonderful truth, that for every one unit of energy and dash to go ahead by one step towards the goal, more than ten such units are required to overcome and conquer the obstructions, temptations and oppositions. There are deadliest enemies, both in the inner world and inner self as also in the outer world and outer self. Evil forces are as existent, real and mighty, although so very invisible and indescribable and unprovable to the inexperienced, as the good forces, as the good forces. The constant, incessant fight between the good and the evil and the domination of the latter is responsible for all the miseries of individuals, nations and the whole world, in spite of innumerable best philanthropic persons of worldliness, saints, sages, rules and regulations of various brotherhood societies, so many homes of fraternities, so many universities and schools of philosophies, so many legislatures, so many religious commandments, so many Founders, and even so many Incarnations. While the highest importance of societies, religious societies, scriptures, religions, spiritual masters, imitation of the greatest souls, obedience with every reverence and humility to all higher souls, etc. is not at all under-rated, the essence of essences of all instructions, which Mai-ism hammers and hammers, in respect of going ahead, is that each one has to build one's own mansion oneself, with one's own exertions. None can satisfy one's own hunger except oneself. None can know what anyone is, what one thinks, intends or wills, except oneself. "Man, know thyself," "Physician, heal thyself," are the highest eye-opening truths. Mai-ism does not double the misery of the weeping man and, although fully helping and consoling him, sets up the most permanent belief in him, viz. "Thy happiness and misery, none else can give to thee nor is anyone responsible therefor, except thee thyself". None else can remove thy unhappiness, thy brunt and burden. Thou alone hast to bear, even though the guide Guru and God, will lighten it hundred-fold.
The Universal Religious Alliance, under the Mai-ism Chart, starts with the fullest assumption, that the aspirant beginning with only a nominal allegiance to certain religion, with some fragmentary, intellectual, religious knowledge and some automatic self-development, and some routinistic observances of religious requirements, and a soft corner of appreciation, love and reverence for all things and thoughts that bear the brand of at least one's own religion, has actually passed several years at a stretch and several hours every day, towards making oneself better and better in respect of the honest, virtuous, moral living and that thereafter, he has tried to live his life with some sacrifice, in the spirit of love and service, and that, finally, he has risen beyond the worldly limitations to be a natural rhyming element of universality and unity in the matter of the greatest good of the greatest number. Further, he has truly risen to the heights of being above self-overestimation, infatuation, pride and boast in respect of whatever point of a little superiority, he finds in himself, in his community, in his nation or in his religion.
It is quite impracticable that any test can be laid down to ascertain the strength of worthiness. But one thing can be generally said, that the person that has passed through the said exercises of self-improvement can at once be marked out by persons on the yet higher stage, as a much superior specimen, in the midst of, and out of many. Any loving heart and ever-helpful hand never remains unseen to the eyes experienced and anxious to search out souls of the same type of the calibre and culture as of oneself. The only practical test can be the personal, honest recommendation of the reliable, more experienced, high souls interested in enlarging the scope of the efficient working of any institute, and later personal contacts and experiences, while working together and, finally, the degree of efficiency, with which duties entrusted with heavy responsibilities are discharged. Any Universal Religious Alliance, in virtue of its denomination, at least, is expected to stand on a higher stage than a society or a fraternity. In the denomination itself of "Universal Religious Alliance", there are three heaviest words of universality, religiosity and "alliance". The last word giving more value than the other two words, strikes the hammer on the heads of the headful, about the final purpose and object of the Institute as being that of reconciliation, co-operative working and unification.
A society is the most moderate form of any association. The word "society" by itself does not convey any idea of sacredness or any benevolent and philanthropic purpose. It only implies some common interest and purpose to serve. There can be a society of literature or music or co-operative housing society or a trading society or a general stores-supplying society.
A fraternity gives an inkling about some religious tinge or a philanthropic purpose or service. In one sense, practically all religions have become (in this age) merely the institutes of nominal fraternities, although given a much higher name as "religion". There is very little work done in the direction of moulding the life of the followers on the lines of the pattern laid down in the religion or as the faithful imitation of the Founders, sages and saints of any religion. When we impartially and uninfatuatingly study the original history, without the glamour of the subsequent ages, we are so often inclined to believe that practically, all religions were in their original form, only various tribal fraternities.
The notion underlying "fraternity" is sometimes quite formidable. It has often meant in the past the combined unity of several groups of persons, to be fighting shoulder to shoulder to make the forward way for the worldly benefits of a certain fraternity. The sword or the diplomacy of divide and rule or the concealingly carried militarism in the garment-folds of trading and religiosity, have both proved, any limited fraternity to be the weapon of great persecution, terror and miserable enslavement.
There is a lot to be most cool-mindedly thought about the new fantastic, faddish "fraternity" theory, which starting in the West, since over a century, with a mushroom growth, has failed most miserably. Mai-ism so very hammeringly states that any talk or preaching about "brotherhood" without the basic, unshakable, firm foundation of "parenthood", "motherhood", or "fatherhood" is only an effort of extracting butter without milk, say from the sea sands. If I do not love and serve anyone as my mother or father, as one to whom I am indebted for my birth, nourishment during infancy, with reverence and faithful obedience, what loving heart-throbs shall I feel for someone approaching me as a brother, being my parents' son? If I am bred up in an orphanage and have never known or seen my any parent, mother or father, and if I have later become a multi-millionaire, with what more, shall I treat anyone claiming brotherhood, than the little courtesy of a sweet word ?
Brotherhood-preaching without parenthood is simply a self-delusion of happy dreams. Not only that, but even if parents are there actually alive, how much is the strength of an appeal on the ground of brotherhood, to one who has driven away his parents from his house after shameless abuses and severest beatings? What can help the world is acceptance, installation and recognition of the universal parent or a universal God, and a Universal Religion which would train, at least, the religious and devotional fraction of humanity to be obedient and faithfully carrying out the commandments and wishes of that Universal God with the unconditional cheerful self-surrender to the Universal God's Divine Will.
Why conceal, (out of light-thinking, no sufficient conviction of reality, self-prestige, fad and egotism,) the conscientiously felt conclusion arrived at, after fullest cool-minded consideration? So many high class religionists inwardly agree and even appreciate the conclusion about the indispensable need of a Universal God, accepted as such by at least the major portion of the truly religious world. They inwardly say to themselves, "Yes, we too feel the force of the Mai-istic truth, underlying the statement of "no universal brotherhood is possible without universal parenthood". Yes, it is also true, no universal religion and no universal God has been till now brought into the world's existence". However, they discourage, belittle, counteract, or oppose Universal Mai-ism, because they inwardly desire that their own individual God and religion be accepted by all, as the Universal God and Universal Religion. Out of self-infatuation, they never think, that would be never acceptable to every other religion. Such fewest as realize the impossibility of an easy acceptability, are inwardly for deciding the issue through intellectual might, ruling power or military strength with no soft corner of "live and let live". So much few ones close the subject with "if not, we and ours, represent universal religionists and U. religion, let us in every way see that there is none and nothing else in the matter of a Universal Religion or a Universal God except us and ours".
If at least so far, the wisest religious men are prepared to accept the starting assumption viz. that it is impossible to expect any of the existing religions and Gods, to be recognised as the Universal Religion and God, by all other religions, we have at least, some faintest clue in the direction of the search and decision in respect of a universal God and religion, for at least some really solid constructive work, to be nearer the goal. The mightiest religious world-thinkers of spiritual and religious living and experience, have immediately to turn to the first and most immediately needed measure, of uniting the best heads, hearts, spirits and souls to be put together, to work out the best reconciliatory universal scheme, and the most suitable form of the universal religion and most acceptable conception of the universal God.
All details, managements, organisations, powers and controls, super visions, instructions, properties and possessions, be left fully intact and entirely undisturbed, for all religious institutes, churches, temples, hermitages, ashrams, etc., with the only additional and superior requirements of the general abidance of the universal principles, beliefs, etc. laid down under the said finally decided universal religion and universal God. The principle to be worked out is the centralisation in respect of the spiritual, religious and moral protection and preservation of the world as one whole, and every most liberal decentralisation, in the matter of details, and de-facto workers, volunteers and in-charges and heads of all large and small religious institutes.
Universal Mai-ism is the newest and latest Twentieth century religion, most suitable to the new age, in as much as stated above, it is basically universal, it dispenses with even the belief of God's existence, provided one lives the life of universal love and service to the extent of one's practicability and again it recognises the right of every human being of selecting one's own line of self-evolution and leaves every personal religious freedom to all, so long as any act of such freedom is harmless and not inconsistent with the barest and fewest Mai-ism principles. On the top of all other principles, the one most specific and unique requirement of Mai-ism that gives perfection to all religious imperfections till now, is "Co-equal status of many and woman".
In the matter of organisation, institutes, societies, circles etc., for the purpose of out spreading Universalism, Mai-ism is for full independence and status-quo, in the matter of all conditions of each working institute. In the matter of details, controls, framing rules and regulations, managing properties and ownership rights and possessions, and even in the matter of elections of denominations and designations etc., Mai-ism is equally broad-minded. In terms of certain places, people and specific periods, Mai-ism has recommended and proclaimed the most magnanimous-headed, widest outlook.
Regarding the actual need of establishing a full-fledged universal religion, Mai-ism says : Please conceive the difference between two states of things. One state of things, viz. to be the known and at once recognisable follower of a full-fledged Universal Religion, which is universally known for its commandments of making no distinction between the followers of its own universal religion and those of all other individual religions, at least, so far as humane treatment of love and service is concerned ; and the other state of things, viz. to be an exception, being of a universal-minded nature, in midst of (and unlike) millions of other followers of any particular individual religion. You will surely find that both these stages of things are poles asunder.
When the knife is raised to be plunged, during butchering religious riots, it is not possible to assert or inform, for one, and to know or believe, for another, that there is universal-mindedness in the heart of the victim. A religion is a religion and a society is a society. We have never heard of any universal brotherhood society coming forward to effect a reconciliation during such religious riots. The most apparent reason is that they have no (locus standi). They are only some John, Dick and Harry, brought together for reasons only known to each one of them. They are not the staunchest religious representatives of any universal religion and Universal God of common parenthood. They have no religious authorization to appeal on behalf of any Universal Mother or Father or the universally recognized universal one a God of the whole universe, as the followers of the Universal Religion and worshippers or lovers of the universal God.
Regarding even the lighter requirements of creating and having universal-minded fraternal feelings, Mai-ism has stated the plain truths as under : "Mere shouting about brotherhood, without moral, religious no spiritual strength of the so-lived life, is only the deafening noise created by shop-keepers in a market, with loud gramophones, to sell their own commodities" "Mere words can have a vast progeny, but it would be of mere words alone." "Nature cannot be cheated or defrauded". "The person appealing in the name of brotherhood is required to have lived in that spirit, and with that belief as the ruling maxim of his life, ere long, and for many years before the circumstances arise for making the appeal and seeking help of the divine truth". "He must have an unseen authority, as a result of the austerity and sacrifice on having lived, that sort of life, much above the mundane plane of self-interest and struggle and entanglement of 'I' and 'Mine'".
"Reconciliation between any two antagonistic forces, becomes possible only when a much superior force, an overpowering force, makes each of them to be reminded of its comparative nothingness, before an all-covering, all-conquering, universal, final-most, supreme force of Divine Law and Nature, which always works in the interest of the humanity as one whole."
Universal Religious Alliance is the thickest transparent glass wall, which keeps the two sides thereof quite visible to each other and yet maintains the air-tight-proofness as between the morality zone with God as humanity alone, on the one side and as various Gods of different religions with their religious paraphernalia on the other. The Universal Religious Alliance neither asserts nor denies God. It leaves an option, but if at all one is truth-seeking and persistently questioning as to whether there is anything beyond virtue and morality and beyond living the life of gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness, and anything beyond the greatest good of the greatest number, Universal Religious Alliance most mildly unites its secret-packets and initiates the inquirer into the deeper inwardness-items, through inviting the earnest aspirant's attention to higher truths, through the study of all religions, their gospels, literature of saints and sages, of all religions and the intimate knowledge about the living ways of all followers of various religions, etc. It suggests, leads the aspirant to the acceptance of the forward steps of "One Truth, One Humanity, One Morality, One Life, One Golden Rule, One Divine Law and One Evolution Path". The Universal Religious Alliance is cautious enough, not to scare them away that would stick stubbornly to "nothing beyond this world and humanity" and yet tries to sow the seeds of the further stage of religiosity and godliness. The Universal Religious Alliance suggests the mastering of the various factors of religiosity and spirituality, without raising shallow shoutings in the names of godliness and spirit. While its greatest emphasis lies in "oneness" which is the practical meaningful word for "universality", it speaks with no less force, about the golden rule and divine law, which have their relevancy to religiosity and to evolution, and about one truth and one life which are related to spirituality. For them that are under hesitation, Universal Religious Alliance tries to convey undeniable suggestions about, "Do as you wish to be done by", "As you sow, so shall you reap". But that much accepted, it indirectly awakens the soul to discover the most evident truth, viz. that there can be no law without its legislator, judgment-giver and executor. In one word, the duties of the Universal Religious Alliance are most varied, complicated and hard. It has to separate and sort out innumerable persons of different mentalities and beliefs, and to help everyone to proceed ahead, one step forward, from whatever stage anyone stands on.
This is the all-told, all-pervading Mai-istic conception, and that points out the preamble. The first-most point of Mai-ism, of course, suggested as the only successful, practical remedy for the present, chaotic, degenerated religious state of the world, is helping the evolution of every one that resorts to Mai-ism. Ascertain first where everyone that approaches, stands. Mai-ism is for lifting anyone up, does not matter on which stage anyone is. Taking this particular small meaning, Mai-ism is principally for "self-evolution" as a soul. While each religion is the vastest tailoring house where a particular pattern of garmentation is imposed on every customer, Mai-ism first ascertains the requirements and tastes and suit abilities of each one, and makes up each garment to the approved order of each. In the present age, Mai-ism so very regretfully feels the conviction, that this is the only possible way of pushing every true aspirant one step forward towards the goal. Mai-ism pulls one from selfish individuality to humanity through a bit rigid but self-approved and accepted course of morality. As between humanity and truest religiosity, Mai-ism requires the enthusiastic aspirants to attain an almost perfect maturity, in the Universal a Religious Alliance's higher training university. As between religiosity and spirituality, there is a similar stage like the Universal Religious Alliance to pass through, which is indicated in the Chart with words "Teachers, Saints, Sages, etc." While Universal Religious Alliance is the higher university, individual-attention-discipleship in constant association and service of saints, sages, teachers and gurus confers the spiritual benefits of the highest training university.
Mai-ism thus aspires to create a huge machinery, which starts with taking the nominally religious persons, through morality, universality and humanity, and that represents the first stage. The second stage starts with the attainment of an almost perfect maturity in the higher training university of Universal Religious Alliance to the attainment of full religiosity. The third and final stage from religiosity to spirituality, begins with the spiritual life through the highest training university, in discipleship of Saints, Sages, Masters, etc.
With the almost perfected maturity in the training university of Universal Religious Alliance, the enthusiastic forward-marching aspirant resumes his journey in the chalked-out line of the particular religion, in which he has progressed till now, and he passes through an extremely narrow passage of quite a small length, shown on the Chart continuous to and after the Universal Religious Alliance circular ring. This passage space (I.O.P.) is too small to write the full words "Ideal Ordeal Pass". That narrow passage, however, represents the ideal and ordeal path of one's own particular religion's prescribed austerities, sacrifices, charities, denunciations, duties, etc. While wading one's way through this narrowest pass of greatest impediments, the aspirant has to pass through any of the three processes and practices, summarised under I.O.P., which means three varieties of activities or stages to be achieved.
I.O.P. means as stated the preliminary "Ideal Ordeal Pass" especially with reference to society and world.
At the higher stage, it means Introspective Occultism Practice and on yet higher stage it means "I" Obliteration-Perfecting.
It is an ordeal path because the aspirant has to pass through, as it were, a mountainous foot-path between two highest hills, one on each side. This is represented on the two sides of I.O.P., by annular ring pieces-like spaces in the Chart, wherein are written the words "Light, Love and Life of Spiritual Communion and Divine Law Abiding". For want of space and to avoid clumsy, eyes-troubling, over-crowding of written words of this writing too, the expression I.O.P. has been written at four places only. In the annular ring-piece spaces, on the right side of the I.O.P. narrow pass, stands another important expression. This smallest passage-passing of I.O.P. means, in one sense, the hardest alchemic transmuting life. The aspirant has now undergone a great sublimating transformation. Now he is only nominally or in the outer garment, the follower of a certain religion. Truly speaking, he is following a new form of religion made by himself, after he has tried to perfect himself, on passing through I.O.P. with its three varieties as is most suited, and surely the Universal Religious Alliance after university studies and examination passing (let that be with most liberally given grace marks).
This is quite an unbelievable truth for routinistic nominal religionists, viz. that if any one studies any highly religious soul of a certain religion, after the Universal Religious Alliance training, atom by atom, in his every though, belief and action, he would most likely be staggered to find that he is quite a different type of a most profound religionist, although he nominally wears the gown of his particular former religion. In fact, now he has made up his own religion, and he is most strictly following the same. On a detailed study, he would be found in certain views, matters and details to be having quite contradictory beliefs to what that particular religion which he is outwardly supposed to belong to, has, as per general beliefs and conceptions of the people, priests or pages of scriptures of that particular religion. In fact, all such highest souls that have systematically passed through the stages including the Universal Religious Alliance, have found so many inconsistencies in the particular religion, that, though with restrictions to themselves, they create a certain reformed miniature religion for themselves. So many highest religious thinking souls in the past have been condemned as disbelievers, irreligious and atheistic for the simple reason that they did not agree with and accept the prevalent routinistic religion, and especially the popular priestly interpretations, instructions and obedience, and in scriptural words or conventional forms. They were considered guilty of self-assertion and the most deplorable lack of faith and unquestioning obedience to the religious authorities.
If, as Mai-ism has so often suggested, any Institute undertakes the work of weeding out from the gospel books of all religions all superfluous, objectionable, unacceptable and impracticable portions, so as to revise each gospel to be acceptable to any experienced, wise, universal religionist, that would be a unique invaluable Mai-istic service to the universal religion of Mai-ism.
Mai-ism holds the said radical view, viz. that after the passing through the advanced stage of Universal Religious Alliance, while passing through the narrow idea ordeal passage, (I.O.P.) practically every one formulates his own personal religion for himself. By that term of "religion", he means in all seriousness, sincerity and determination, the "religion which he is prepared to follow at any cost and with any sacrifice", and which represents the detailed, revised, miniature religious form of his particular theoretically recognised and respected religion, and which is renovated in the light of the study of other religions, other religious people and his own personal experience. This explains the purifying and screening and decision-deriving process in the Ideal Ordeal Pass (I.O.P.) of silence and extremely speedy working, the undertaking of required ideal austerities, resulting in ideal soul-transmutation and thinning away of ones "I" and "Mine".
Once the aspirant has conquered the wavering indecisive mind through the extremely thought-occupied ordeal passage, the quieted, peaceful aspirant's main pursuit of life and living is developing his light of divine knowledge, practising and extending love to others, remaining absorbed, as much as possible, in spiritual communion and maintaining a keenly watchful eye in respect of "Divine Law-Abiding". This is the important expression to the right of I.O.P. The expression "spiritual communion" used here is extremely general and wide, with no distinction of religiosity and spirituality. Communion with one's deity or God in the spirit of intense devotion is implied, accepted and included in the said expression, which very commonly for some may mean only the spiritual communion with the spirit, or The All-through yoga practices and samadhi states, etc., referring to impersonal states alone.
On the said sort of practical living for a sufficient period in the Ideal Ordeal Passage (I.O.P.), the aspirant finally enters the truest or the most genuine universal religion of Mai-ism.
This ring of Mai-ism, expressed in the simplest and fewest principles or tenets, implies the Mai-ist's living with love and service, devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender.
Strictest Mai-ism represents a development stage arrived at, after fulfillment of the stages, as described before. It is a stage, after the attainments of the individual self-training under the morality zone, and the higher training in the Universal Religious Alliance, and thereafter the greatest possible development through the Ideal Ordeal Pass with light, love and life of spiritual communion and law-abiding. As stated before, by now, he has formulated his own personal religion, having formed his firm decision o every smallest detail of religious nature, and he has fully determined to work out his further evolution, by strictly following the lines he himself has laid down. The appreciable beauty and sublimity of Mai-ism that the above-stated formulation leads to, is that Mai-ism does not represent any particular type of religion at all, except in so far as the universally acceptable tenets are concerned. Mai-ism thus serves the purpose of a vast picnic spot to which any religionist or religionists are welcomed to enjoy their own dainties and menus, with every personal freedom and every encouraging, enthusiastic, co-operative, sympathetic, fraternal facility. In fact, it is a helpless pitiable misnomer to call Mai-ism a religion, at all, if that word is to be taken to mean what we have understood by the word "religion" since centuries. There is no suitable word to be fully suggestive of what Mai-ism represents. ( Page 40 ) Here, certain elucidation in respect of individual religions and the universal religions is essential to create the conviction about the indispensability of a universal religion. There is a certain egoistic unconquerable sense of "my-ness" regarding one's own religion, in which oneself and all one's nearest and dearest are born to live their life and die. It would be almost impossible and meaning-less to be in search of a universal religion on the lines of a new exclusive religion, as that would defeat its very purpose, by creating rivalry and adding one more religion to the already too many. Mai-ism can be faithfully pictured before one's eyes on imagining the drawing out of a larger circle, which includes all the smaller circles of individual religions but without tackling or even touching or disturbing the integrity of the smaller circles and with the highest reverence for God, gospel, saints and sages of each religion. Mai-is has an entirely different visual angle. It sets no value to the numerical strength of followers or proselytism. The outlook and purpose itself of Mai-ism is different from those of the individual religions. While individual religions represent diversities carved out of "unity", Mai-ism has undertaken just the reverse task of driving innumerable diversities of individual nations and religions towards unity. Its aim and object is to help mankind for each one's higher and higher evolution, in the evolutionary task of passing through the various succeeding stages.
Mai-ism has so very repeatedly stated about the recognition of all beings' right of demand and choice in respect of one's religion, evolution path, freedom, peace and happiness. That recognition does not originate out of any special extra goodness of Mai-ism but because, as stated in Mai-ism, it is its conviction that " All efforts in any other direction go futile without one's own faith, conviction, desire and determination and most enthusiastic exertion", especially in this intellectual self-assertive age.
Mai-ism, while emphasising the indispensability of six tenets, viz. One God, One Universal Outlook, Love, Service, Devotion and Unconditional Cheerful Self-surrender, leaves all the rest of details to be filled in, and acted in accordance with what one likes. In most clear words, Mai-ism has declared, " For all the rest except these six tenets, consult your Mai yourself".
Mai-ism makes it very clear that any person can, without any fear of any contradiction or collision whatsoever, live his life in rhyming with any individual religion for individual purposes, and universal religion for universal purposes. Not only that, but Mai-ism so very clearly perceives that the back-ground and the foundational social security and the educative self-improvement-helpfulness rendered by vast literature, customs, beliefs and guidance in smallest details, of individual religions, cannot be at all dispensed with. In fact, to be left to oneself with no detailed guidance for decision as to how to think and act in a certain perplexing situation is the most unbearable embarrassment, of course, to those who are truly religious. Thus, the conjunctivity of the various individual religions with the universal religion, is not only no contradiction, but a reciprocity of mutual helpfulness. The universal religion does the work of brushing out impurity, dusts, and decorating, crowning and perfecting the individual religions with the universal outlook and sense of justice and humanness. Not only that much, but as stated before, Mai-ism means that each one that has reached the stage of Mai-ism has already decided upon a certain pattern of a miniature religion that he has formed for himself and is determined to follow. On such issues in life, as create some confusing hesitancy, decision has to be made, either by direct approach to Mai or guru, and to one's own society and one's own individual religion.
Anyone can clearly see, with respect to Mai-ism that there is absolutely no particular, compulsory, stereo-typed garmentation, but it insists upon each one to have decided upon, which garmentation would suit and speed up his own evolution, the most. This fact becomes so very apparent, when one sees in the Chart that each religion has continued itself beyond Mai-ism ring, in the shape of another passage which has its corresponding denomination as, say, Hinduistic Mai-ism (HM), Christian Mai-ism (C.M.) and so on for each religion. To explain it in more clear words, one that has reached the stage of a H.M. or C.M. passage is one that has decided upon his own personal religion, on the basic foundation of the universalized Hinduism or universalized Christianity, after having creditably or with passing or grace marks, passed through all the previous stages shown in the Chart.
Here, too, the difficulty of space is solved, by printing JM, ZM, CM, etc. in the space in the case of all other religions, except the East, South, West, North religions' spaces. Her Mai-ism, say in J.M. of Jainism, to be more precise, JM of Jain-ism and so on, means universalized Jainism, with every priority given to love, service, devotion and self surrender with spiritual co-equal status of man and woman, and practical living one's life, with gratefulness, greatness, goodness, givingness, godliness and goingness and so on. The further immediately contiguous much larger spaces are utilised to read "Unconditional Cheerful Self-Surrendered living."
The ESWN corresponding spaces are utilised to mention "Supreme Hindu Mai-ism devotion", and so on.
Now the aspirant has reached a stage of Godliness marked in the Chart with single separated letters, "G" beginning with "G" from the space on the top of "Supreme Christian Mai-ism Devotion". The life of such a one as has reached this stage is that of renunciation, with very little of anything else, of any activity except "supreme devotion" and "unconditional cheerful self-surrendered living" (both shown in the Chart). The aspirant in now the man of "Godliness". Certain single letters of "Godliness" are in juxtaposition with "Supreme Devotion" or self-surrender or nearest.
It need not be repeated again and again that the very clay of universality, of which Mai-ism has made its body, makes it an entirely irrelevant consideration as to which religion, which God, which worshipping mode, which church or which religious authority, any one is resorting to. Mai-ism seeks mainly to develop and multiply the true religiosity. Mai-ism seldom uses the word "religion", and is enthusiastically anxious to raise up the "religiosity" of the religious persons of any religion. Mai-ism recommends "supreme devotion" and "unconditional cheerful self-surrender to the Divine Will", of any God, of any religion, any one chooses for oneself.
There is no hurrying and no impatience under Mai-ism. Let the aggressive consciousness of one's own individual religion, as mine own get smaller and smaller in the most natural course, as the conviction of the finally universal nature of any religion gets stronger and stronger, till that limited individuality consciousness finally disappears. A time does arrive, of course after a long period of practice of living the life of supreme devotion and full self-surrendering, when the highest illumination dawns in the heart, head and clearest understanding and perception, and the aspirant that has now reached climax, begins to wonder at his own earlier ignorance of limited notions of bestness and onlyness of one's own religion. He now fully realises with cent percent concurrence, that there can be no different Gods of different religions. If the God of any religion is not also the God of others under other religions, such a God is what priests have made for the people, or is a God made by any man for the satisfaction of his own mind, or by any religionist's mind, for the consolation of all men in general for one's own self. Such a God is only a mere created imaginary product of some man for his mind or by some mind for some men. Further, he realises that true God must be above and beyond being He or She or It. True God cannot be Father alone nor Mother alone. True God must be above being personal or impersonal and beyond all attributes as also possessing all attributes. This can be seen in the Chart, which shows the said stage ring above or beyond "H.M.", "C.M.", etc. with the words "Universal Mother, Universal Father, Universal Mother-Father, Universal Father-Mother, Personal, Impersonal, etc." While some theorists would like to conceive of either the Finalmost universal Mother or universal Father alone, there are also schools which stop with accepting both elements together as one, say, as Mother-Father or Father-Mother. The precedence of any one, viz. Mother or Father, signifies the belief of the higher position or superiority or the greater importance of one or the other aspect, as one's belief is formed. Under Mai-ism, the belief that of the spiritual co-equal status of both Mother and Father, with this exception that if any devotee has accepted the mother-child relationship to be best for the evolution of man to attain God, or for maximum happiness, Mother naturally has the priority. And there is nothing unusual about it, because so many highest saints have declared their experience about the superiority of God as Mother, to God as Father, as Mother is most merciful, all-forgiving, and all-sacrificing and a perfected ideal of love and service. Regarding the most childish objection, as to how can there be possibility of further creation without the father, it must be kept in mind that it is fully possible that Mai has in Herself the physical elementary arrangement of the productive process of both complementary activities, which view the modern science does not reject as absurd. But more sublime explanation is that Mother is only the grosser form which the Supreme force of mentality can bring into existence, whenever mental energy and spiritual force rise to the required state. Mai wished "Let there be light, creation etc." and there was light, creation etc. Existence takes place whenever mental spiritual forces rise to the required state.
RELIGIOSITY ZONE RECAPITULATION
As seen before, the morality zone principally means the different stages of evolution, viz. that of (1) honesty, virtue, morals, conduct, behaviour, culture and character, etc. (2) love and service (3) universality and unity. Speaking in general terms, morality zone treats with the development of gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness (Godliness is the soul of the religiosity zone and goingness leading mergence is the soul of the spirituality zone).
While we enter the religiosity zone, first we have the Universal Religious Alliance, where there is the preliminary initiation and training about Divine Law, Golden Rule, Evolution, etc. On transcending the Ideal Ordeal Pass (I.O.P.) from Universal Religious Alliance, with the practice of attaining more light and developing greater lovingness and living the life of spiritual communion (whenever that becomes possible) and living with law-abidance, the aspirant enters the Universal Religion ring of Mai-ism. On going through the further stage of supreme devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender, one finally reaches the climax of the religiosity zone, when all the differences of different Gods and different religions, or of one sex or the other or of being restricted to personal or impersonal form or of being with or without attributes, vanish. There is nothing else except the universal God Guru and one's own life. Religiosity has devotion and love as its important elements. Devotion at the preliminary stage gives the mentality of "Thou art mine". Next is the higher stage of "I am Thine". When we reach the highest stage of "Thou and I are one", we are on the fringe and on the common border of the religiosity and spirituality zones. In fewest cases God is both God and Guru. The normal truth is that Guru is indispensable.
Mostly, all religions are made up of similar constituents, so much so that it may be generally said that most of the difference are those of mere names, words and languages, and of the greater stress laid by certain religion on certain particular aspects, according to the needs, places, times, circumstances, special aptitudes, temperaments, conveniences, etc.So many different looking words, because of different religions and languages practically mean the same thing. Almost all religions have so much of similarities. Practically, all have their prayers, sacred name repetitions, rosaries, mystic words and formulas, rites and ceremonies, methods of worshipping, modes of seeking forgiveness, making confession and declaring repentance, fasting, celebrating certain days of events, experiences of dreams, visions, messages, inspirations, revelations, sacred feasting, congregations, expatiation traditions, mythologies, gospels, miracles especially about the Founders, saints, incarnations, sacredness of the worshipping place, insistence on the purity of body and mind, spiritual communion, symbolism, idols and images. Further, we have personifications and representations, sacred musics and literature, philosophies, histories, priests, charities, pilgrimage places, and beliefs of sacredness and sanctification about food, bath, etc. Yet further most of the religions have common items as processions, festivals, holidays, days of joy and sorrow, special ceremonies etc. Belief about God's consolation, guidance, suggestion, etc., going to hermitages, prostrating to hermits and monks, and beseeching their blessings and decisions etc. etc. are there.
One thing in common to the whole of mankind irrespective of religion, viz. that everyone practically is under some misery, which he is anxious to get rid of. And here, every religion, has its own prescription for the fulfilment of different desires or removal of different miseries.
In fact, it may be remarked with a humorous heart that in the present materialistic age of godlessness, the only thing that brings any swollen-headed atheist to bend his knees is the incurable misery in life. All atheism at once evaporates when misery holds its sword over his head. Mai-ism asserts, "Shout as much as you like, God and religion are indispensable, so long as man remains subject to unbearable miseries, unfulfillable ambitions, and constantly increasing and varying desires. He will always and ever be seeking and wandering to find out some eternal omnipotent success-giver and some most merciful misery-remover, and some most powerful desires-fulfiller. He will ever remain a beggar of certain miraculous strengths, supernatural powers, and of forgiving mercy-showerers. And for this reason alone, at least, a truest Mai-ist universal Guru becomes indispensable.
God and religion were there before man was born, and will continue to remain with at least some worshippers and some followers, even when the whole world would be condemning God and religion. The fact of facts is, that mankind after materialistic civilization has spiritually degenerated to be generally ungrateful, selfish and shameless. In fact, his own self (Ignorant and blind) has become his God. Under misery he is prepared to serve as a slave to saints, Gurus and Gods. Misery gone, Gods and Gurus are also gone. He is not so much for denying God. But he wants God to come in and go out as he rings his bell or orders dismissal. The Creator of mankind was never ignorant about the subsequent revolting and challengeful attitude of "man" and has from the commencement, along with "man" created the Divine Law to which mankind will have ever to remain subjected, with a little play of delusion and thereafter the humiliated defeat and surrendering. God has kept in reserve certain last lessons of visitations and divine dispensations, to bring the whole mankind again to its senses and bent-down knees.
Many religionists and philosophers have tried to base unification of all religions with the argument of similarities, described above, and so many efforts have been made on those lines for the past over half a century. Mai-ism, however, does not make much of the said similarities, as no two antagonistic armies ever came to peaceful terms on being enlightened about the similarities on both sides. The disease as also the remedy, have to be searched and sought in quite different directions and quarters. It is not the ignorance of similarities or the over consciousness of the dissimilarities that is responsible, but the ALL AND EVERY THING Possession-Greed. Mai-ism believes that no wrong can be righted in any other way except that of being righted, and that only a diamond can cut a diamond. Mai-ism does not fight over or even recognise the superiority or inferiority of cows on the basis of their various colours but weighs, measures analyses and, ascertains principally, the quality of milk. Mai-ism thinks in terms of the sum totals of morality, religiosity and spirituality of any individual, country, nation or the whole world, and makes no quarrelling differences between one religion and another. Mai-ism recognises religiosity and not religions, sugarcane juices and not sugarcanes, their sizes appearances colours or production countries etc.
While concluding this portion of the religiosity zone, Mai-ism would like to express its certain beliefs. The most important and prominent statement is that the trump card that conquers all evil and misery and attains the highest happiness in the end, is LOVE (with service). Happiness is the fruit of love. Every being wants joy and happiness practically as indispensably as air, water and food. Even indulging in evil, vice or wickedness is out of love for the little selfish pigmy self. The aim and object of morality, religiosity and spirituality is the evolution of the pigmy self to attain higher and higher stages. Mai-ism has to keep mum, lest its efforts towards the most difficult and almost impossible task of bringing the religious world together be shattered to pieces, in respect of talking about the other side after death. Some believe in this life alone ; some in the continuation of the evolution process in astral and other worlds ; and some in repeated rebirths. We leave all those questions to be viewed and believed as every one decides for oneself, as beliefs and faith can neither be superimposed by any outside agency, nor can be permanently created without actually passing through personal experiences. Any way, the evolution is eternal and ever in constant continuation.
The "butter-bread" man has no idea, that there are millions of stages from zero to minus and zero to plus. All stages of plus or minus beyond a certain practically negligible limit, above or below his own stage, he calls and considers as matters of blind faith, irrationalism, superstition, hallucination and is only a meaningless jargon. The wisest man does not pull any rubber string beyond its own limit of maximum elasticity, lest it may snap.
The highest knowledge, in comparison with which all other types of knowledge are like the stars before the full moon, is that God is Love. The world is run with love ; man cannot live without love ; and the most useful happyfying life-mission work is evolution from the lowest types of pigmy, selfish, little self's love to higher and higher staged love. Love begets love, and manifestation of love in the practical form is service. Love turned to God is devotion. And living the life of unconditional cheerful service to God is self-surrender.
When we turn to the parental conception, no wise, impartial man, howsoever hateful and full of disparagement for womankind, will disagree with Mai-ism that God as Mother is a more favourable conception for protection, mercy, forgivefulness service and love and especially for the mother-and-child relationship between God and man. If we intend turning the whole world towards evolutionary process of love and service and if we wish to turn a new page, to open a new chapter, and start with a new clean slate, let that be with A NEW RULERSHIP as well, of love, morality and mercy. Mai-ism suggests, at least the spiritual co-equal status of God as Mother and God as Father, and of woman and man.
This, too, is in no way compulsory but experience has led many to conclude, that of all relationships between God and man, that of mother-and-child has proved to be the most suited. at least to them.
The world as a whole, through the automatic process of evolution, has been, in spite of many efforts of opposition, drifting towards the higher and higher recognition of woman and the spiritual co-equal status of men and women. As Mai-ism puts it in the "World's Need and Mai-ism", "The motherhood-conception acceptance is the perfecting of the hitherto one-eyed and one-legged 'religion' ".
It is a general most common belief, that woman is more inclined towards morality and religion and is nearer God than man, because of her instinctive, emotional and inspiration-receptive nature and spiritualistic sensitivity and evidently as she is less contaminated with the outside life, which often necessitates fair and foul activities and involves succumbing to inevitable evil influences. There is surely a good deal of truth in this belief, and any nation is more truly religious and therefore much happier, where mothers are extremely religious in the true sense of the word.
One thing to be specially noted about "religiosity" is, that it represents the golden mean between "morality" and "spirituality", both of which derive their nourishment from "religiosity". Morality cannot go a long way without God and religion. It may exhibit a little dancing, in front of the laymen and the lame. But the enthusiasm and bearing power against suffering, gradually dies away. There comes up the need of some supernatural force and undreamt helpfulness, a craving for wonderful automatic betterment of worldly conditions and worldly powers, and at least full absence of any feeling of discontentment on being not sufficiently rewarded, (or now and now or here and here etc.) for every goodness done to others. All talks of joy, happiness and peacefulness of oneself, fall flat and become a mere sophistry, because there is no foundation of any conviction in the concealed basic reality, to be seen and experienced under truest religiosity and spirituality. If any man challengefully questions, "Why should I leave off my selfishness and why should I sacrifice my means of happiness, to help some hopeless idle idiotic fellow? Is it because you, under influence of a mere imaginary dream, with little sense of justice to me, "delude" me with a false notion that I am bound to call him and help him as my own brother?" There is no answer at all which anyone can give satisfactorily. Further, any mere moralist under uncontrollable temptation would very likely fail and yield, on being fully sure that none will know about it, anytime during his own life-time. The God-and-religion believer says to himself and his conscience pricks him to say, "None else sees me, but God has been surely seeing me and what I do, even in the deepest secret solitude". And he prays for strength to overcome the temptation and succeeds. Mere morality has never created any martyrs.
Maiji has a ready typed small illustration explaining this point.
"An atheist was kicking out from his home-steps a thoroughly devotional man reduced to begging at the atheist's door, when by chance, Maiji happened to be there. Maiji pleaded for mercy to the devotee to give at least a four-anna piece. The atheist strongly argued and even cursed indirectly all the interceders like Maiji on behalf of such idlers.
The devotee beggar was kicked out when by Mai's will the atheist received a telegram stating his wife was almost sure to die and he should start by plane. He broke fully into tears placing his head in the lap of Maiji. Maiji fully consoled him. The atheist asked piteously what he can do. Maiji said "Mai is most merciful. You serve Mai's any child, and Mai will save your wife. Call back the man you kicked. First give him food. Take him to carry your luggage to aerodrome. Pay him liberally and get his soul's blessing. Begin repeating from this very moment "Jay Mai Jay Markand Mai", with your recipient heart (even though temporary and mechanical). My humble prayers to Mai will most likely evade the misfortune. If on reaching your place you find so, at once wire me thanking my most merciful Mother Mai".
Mai did shower Her mercy and Maiji had the telegram.
That is the mercy of Mai, provided you are merciful to any of Her children.
Mai-ism has the experience of so many cases on record of the said "Life-restoration-Mai's mercy". One case that of a young girl who under delivery was declared sure to die in a hospital, by two eminent male doctors and one lady doctor. Sure to die due to spreading up of poison within four hours. The father wept like a child and Maiji promised she will be saved by Mai's mercy. Maiji was sitting fro prayers when the father returned to the hospital. Within four hours, his England-returned lawyer son came up shouting and running to Mai-Nivas "Daughter got saved". All poison had evaporated. It was a Mai worship day, Friday.
Maiji humbly expresses "It is not easy to have faith in God and Godliness. One may remain upto the last moment an inveterate atheist. But let him or her live with love and service to all Mai's children. Such one is fully honoured and recognised Mai-ist.
One of the Maiji's prayers is as under:
Karunaasen Abataka Badhaa, Karunaasen Mili Maai.
Karunaasen Dukha Marana Ho, Karunaa Chhuti Na Jaai.
Through mercy (of World by best people) till now, (I) have advanced ; through mercy (no worth of mine) (I) met (got) Maai (Most Merciful Mother). Through my mercy to any one, thy child, let any misery or death be (befall on me). (But), let not mercy be lessened (in my heart). That boon I crave for, Oh Mai.
Spirituality equally derives its strength from "religiosity". In fact, truest spirituality is based on the highest conception belief and self-mastery in respect of morality and religiosity.
Mai-ism does not insist upon any religious belief or practice exclusively. Mai-ism answers thus. To the question, "What is to be done for propitiating Mai through worship?" Mai-ism answers "Do whatever you like ; sing, dance, meditate, kneel, pray, prostrate. There is no particular method with Mai. You know best what will make you most absorbed in Mai".
As stated under Mai-ism by way of a reply to an extremely staunch devotee, "The distinguishing technicality of Mai-ism is that it has none. This arises from the Founder's conviction that you and I are mere mimics. Mother alone can worship Mother and that alone is the true worship in which the worshipper has been first made Mother by Mother, be it for however a small time-period and to however a small degree. The rest is mere mimicry and can therefor be of any type."
Taking an all-comprehensive view about religiosity, on the study of all religions, the first thing is to most sympathetically bear it in mind that, although the claims of most direct dictation of cent per cent truths from God by way of revelation, or messages through angels, may not be accepted by the rationalistic, materialistic and scientific world of to-day, it is beyond the smallest room for doubt that these religions have ruled the conduct, life and destiny of millions of mankind. At least out of that consideration (not small), there must be a feeling of the most profound reverence and a feeling of full indebtedness. For what the world is today, it has to thank the past workers in religion. All sorts of knowledge, arts, techniques, architecture, etc. and all the various sciences have owed to religion, quite immeasurably, as will be fully seen if histories are detailfully studied. It is not the religion but the abuse of spiritual religious and temporal powers derived from religion, that is responsible, for the unpopularity of, bitterness against, and the denial of God and religion. The world in its present advanced condition, is in a many times much better position today, with so much enlightenment through physical, occultistic and spiritual sciences. If religion of the past had not considered it a great sacrilege for anyone to be freely thinking, even in one's own mind, in respect of anything that was contradictory to the words of sacred books, or the wishes and interpretations and commands and orders of religious authorities, religion would not have degenerated in its present abysmal state. Formerly, decisions in the matter of religion were based on authorities of living persons and written words of scriptures alone. Neither science nor psychology no rationalism of others except religionists, had any voice or hearing. It was this and the slackness of morality, and pitiable gradually increasing bankruptcy of any spiritual powers, that was responsible for the day-to-day degeneration of all religions and the world as a whole.
While religion degenerated, the world made its strides and progress in materialistic civilization and science. Mai-ism is extremely optimistic that the world will again turn from science to religion, and now with a much superior understanding about the truest religion, helped through the enlightenment of various sciences.
Mai-ism has a thorough conviction about matter and spirit or materialism and spiritualism, most automatically following each other, as the illuminating day follows the darkest night, or as the hour hand on a clock, after descent to six, begins again to ascend to regain the climax stage of twelve.
Mai-ism believes that the true religiosity (let go all thoughts, differences and discords of so many religions, their sects and subjects), which the world can and will attain in future, after necessary reformation reconstitution and revision, with a rejuvenated ardour, vigour and spirit, is bound to be of a much higher order than before, because of these new elements, stated in "Mai-ism", Page 439 as under :
Firstly, because the universality or at least true universality was not there in the past in any religion, except merely talks of imaginary sublimities to exhibit the highestness of one's own individual religion. Best religious people had rather a limited vision, outlook and heart, although they were full of kindness, compassion, pity, goodness, charity, service and sacrifice, to their own people, much greater than today.
Secondly, the past religiosity was not of a hot, tried nature, and not of a tested (on being turned on all sides) type as there were no temptations and no handicaps, and no intellectual perversions of materialism, nor the rebellious urge of individualism, nor atheism, nor was there the haughtiness of capitalism, which would entirely ignore the divinity of any human being.
Thirdly, the future religiosity has and will have the benefit of the profoundest studies of all sister religions and religious institutes and the most wonderfully useful scientific aids, to help the understanding, getting convictions, and undertaking of religious exercises, with the help of the newly discovered means, to attain self-development and self-evolution, in mastering true religiosity.
Here the religiosity zone ends.
SPIRITUALITY ZONE
Next we enter the Spirituality Zone. It must be at once clear on seeing the Chart that it is a stage, in its truest meaning, that is attainable only after morality and religiosity stages have been passed creditably. To use the Mai-ism language, it is a stage after 1) "gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness" have been mastered under morality, (2) greatest number's greatest good is passed under universality, (3) preliminary grounding under Universal Religious Alliance has been brought up to the point of maturity in respect of one Truth, one Humanity, one Morality, one life, one golden rule, one Divine Law and one Evolution Path, (4) Mai-ism, the Universal Religion of Love, Service, Devotion and Un-conditional Cheerful Self-Surrender for the universal purposes, co-existent with one's own personal individual religion for individual purposes, and with general attitude of spiritual co-equal status of man and woman and (5) Personal or Impersonal Mother or Father or God of any conception, but God above the stage of different religions, philosophies, theologies, mythologies, traditions, etc. haven been passed through. As stated before, this stage of religiosity is "Godliness" under Mai-ism.
After these five stages are passed with credit, one comes face to face with the stage of true spirituality, which is "goingness" under. Mai-ism.
As stated in Mai-ism, a prince once spoke to his dearest friends, "I am presented with a nice elephant today by my mother-queen." Each one braggingly said, "I too have a very nice elephant". Each one boasted of having a nice elephant, in a playful mood ; and none would accept the smallest prosperity status. However, when the time for dispersing came up, the elephant of the prince alone came up, to take him and his friends home, to the palace and other respective places. Each one surely ha an elephant but some one had a wooden one, someone had of ebonite, and some had an elephant of a card-board. By "true elephant" the true aspirant should be satisfied with nothing short of a living elephant that will most easily and in no time, take him to his destination. By "true spirituality" we mean the living spirituality that would in the least possible time take the mater home without the least uncertainty and imperfection.
There are two processes of achieving one's evolution. One the easy but slow, and the other the hard but quick, the one, of playful progressing and the other, of a precipitous climbing. Which is the best for which aspirant, would depend on individual aptitudes, capacities, conditions, environments and circumstances, but it has been very generally experienced and authoritatively declared, that the path of religiosity is easier and that of spirituality, harder. To illustrate this, say, 10 packets are to be removed from the ground floor to the tenth floor. One method would be to take all the 10 packets to the 10th floor, floor by floor. The other method would be to take each one of the ten packets to the 10th floor at a stretch packet by packet. One process is that of all packets lifted floor by floor and the other of the hard labour of climbing to the 10th floor, packet by packet. The advantage of the first method is this. There is no going back, once you have taken all your packets from the lower to the immediately next higher floor, your packets are always with you. There is little hardest breathing and you do not stand the chance of any falling accidents, on being subjected to the blasphemy, censure or ridicule. In the other method, any one can be at any moment either on the lowest ground floor and at another moment on the topmost highest floor or at any intermediary moment on any floor between. Again, if there is an ill-luck, one would be remaining on the lowest ground floor. Mai-ism therefore, while admitting that there can be success, even in the direct method of spirituality, recommends the step by step progress, through religiosity and optionally under the guidance of the Guru and mercifulness of (Mai) God. Most direct attempts at attaining spirituality except through religiosity are not impossible and not unsuccessful, but that is true, for only the fewest-est prodigies and exceptions (with previous births' full preparations). However, here sometimes, the most natural delusions about one's own capacities and masteries, being highest, play the grading ruinous part. The aspirant on the path of religiosity is not one, working out his salvation in solitude, but has several comrades to consult, advise, help and protect. It is better to be sure of one's exceptional capacities through the tests of religiosity, before directly plunging into spirituality. The best test is that not ourselves but others of the higher stage should honestly and automatically show by their attitudes that they feel, the influence of our higher capacities. Even there, deception is possible either because they (others) themselves are laymen or they exaggerate, sometimes for some pleasure or interest. The real test is therefore the one, by the examiner himself, who is one's own Guru, if one is fortunate enough to have accepted Guru, for oneself.
Mai-ism therefore recommends slow but steady progress through logically carved out easy steps, i.e. through morality, universality, unity and religiosity, etc. etc. Character, morality, universality and religiosity have to be so solidly worked out, that anyone of any plane finally becomes a master with a certain stability as of a rock and a mountain, below which, he has no fear of slipping. Whatever sub-stage he believes, he has gained, he should have gained for eternity.
The man that has reached the stage of true spirituality, deals only with absolute truths and values. He is a chemist or druggist of his own laboratory, behind the hidden, obscure, closed doors, with the dumb-man's closed mouth, bent upon and busiest, with vacating out every bit of poison within himself, and sublimating every lingering poisonous element within him, to be the attribute of a nectar element. What the world thinks of him, how he is treated by the world, is all only a passing breeze. None counts or cares for him, nor does he care for the world. He has to be at a height much higher than even the highest worldly renowned or power-possessing persons. The world should be only a straw to him, in virtue of his being above various worldly desires. Often there arises the blunder of self-overvaluation, and any much stronger higher force, invisible and undreamt, topples over the less strong superstructure.
If morality is Earth, religiosity is Water and spirituality is Fire. Fire alone can consume earth and water impurities. Fire alone can finally urn off dirts and dusts that have dimmed and deadened the lustre and power of the spirit, soul or self. It is impurity, ignorance and evil that thickens the intermediary sheaths, created out of darkest ignorances, inordinate desires and self-centered, selfish, separated, individual existences. God of the religionist is not only God for the spiritualist, but also the Highest Self, the Highest Soul and the Highest Spirit, that governs universes macrocosmically.
To have an extremely clear idea about the subtlest distinction between religiosity and spirituality, the amplification is as under. While morality is for goodness against evil, virtue against vice, righteousness against wickedness for the reason that this life becomes happy and the world-working becomes smooth and peaceful, religiosity is for developing the advanced and additional idea, viz. that God is pleased and helps, blesses and manages, orders and adjusts one's life to be happy, if we abide by morality which is viewed with, a much higher estimation, than the Divine Law by the religionist, under religiosity. The spiritualist rises above his own personal happiness, pleasure, money-craving and desire-satisfying considerations. While under morality the basis is oneself against all others, and under religiosity the basis is oneself with reference to God in respect of all others, and God Himself, the basis under spirituality is macrocosm against microcosm, universal issues against individual ones, and spiritual practices, meditations, thinking, deep forces, influences, and final outcomes etc., as against materialistic corresponding ones. The spirituality-man's subjects of concentration are, reality against unreality, non-self against self, light against darkness, permanence against temporariness, unlimitedness against limitedness, eternity against short-termedness, finiteness against infinity, morality against immorality, disillusion against delusion, lovingness and law-abidingness against non-lovingness and law-floutingness, etc. His whole and sole macrocosmic ambition is to flee as speedily as he can from his state of bondage as the individual self, soul or spirit towards the Universal and Highest Self, Soul or Spirit. And that stage is mentioned under Mai-ism as "goingness" while starting and "Mergence" in Mai while ending. It should be, to the truly illuminated Mai-ists, extremely clear, that Mai is the Highest Soul, Self or the Spirit for the spirituality-aspirant, the very same whom as a religionist we know as God, and as a Mai-ist, as "Mother". The very same Mai for the universalist is "Humanity" and for the moralist "goodness and lovingness". As we go on advancing, our conception of "Mai" also has to advance and with the object of evading "confusions", we have also to give different denominations, meanings and conceptions. This is not only true but a most practical requirement for any evolution aspirant. A certain defined conception about the goal to be achieved is indispensable, as without it all efforts would be only aimless wanderings, to and fro, advancing and retreating, making and unmaking, etc.
The Chart will show two words "goingness" and "mergence" in the shape of a crescent moon at the top and bottom of the central word "Mai". "Goingness" is a higher stage over that of "Godliness" and so is spirituality over religiosity as the stage of "goingness". Goingness, finally culminates in "mergence" (practically, cessation of all miseries), say with every humility, and non-individualisation in the lotus feet of Mai, and therefore, below "Mai".
"Fanaa" or total "extinction" is also another word as a substitute for "mergence". The more common and familiar words are "emancipation", "salvation", "mukti", "nirvana", etc. Mai-ism leaves every one to believe as one likes, about this final stage, as none has returned from that stage, to illuminate the world about the finalmost true state. One thing, however, is certain, viz. that finally, a craving for "goingness" or "flying away to approach Mai or the Highest Self, Soul or Spirit" does hold its supremacy, with the conviction that the said "craving" forms the principal point or the central focus of an inevitable stage, and that in the end the "goingness" stage is visualised, as decidedly superior to that of "Godliness".
Any spiritual aspirant may begin with good conduct and behaviour, may develop his culture, heighten his virtues, may be established in character and morality. He may further enter through the academical university course like Universal Religious Alliance training, and may thereafter enter the realm of true religiosity. Here it may be that he starts with merely the routinistic religion and may later elevate himself to be the highest devotee with unconditional cheerful self-surrender. And yet that is not all. There is the love-madness about one's Beloved God and this madness is many times much more intense, full of overflowing uneasiness due to union-impatience and full of burningness in virtue of the separation-unbearability, than that of any the highest human love, which after all is of a finite and limited nature. The idea can never be wiped away, that even the highest human love is subject to hundreds of reasons for change, fluctuation and reduction and, even at its best, is after all, only for a limited period of the maximum human life. Even when religiosity ripens to the maximum God-living stage. there is the inmost desire of remaining a bit away and different from one's Beloved God for the sweetest joy of being either the enjoyer or the enjoyed. And that is a little imperfection in the idealistic notion of fullest perfection.
Even the highest God-lovers stop here. They say, "It is better to remain the humblest ant and be for ever tasting the sugar rather than be, a particle of the sugar itself".
The stage of spirituality goes yet one step ahead. It pushes the aspirant to be the particle of sugar itself. In the different stages of God-love there is the finalmost stage which is described as "the stage of impossibility to live separate from one's God." That stage is only the other name of the truest and highest spirituality. It is the stage of complete oneness, the absorption of the wave in the ocean.
Naturally enough, although it is a falling from the high Idealistic plane that we are on, we have to make a precautionary mention that quite a major portion of the direct plungers and divers into the spirituality waters are mere possessors of wooden, marble, card-board or paper elephants, and not of living elephants. Their greatest blunder is that they mistake parrot-like and philosophical word "knowledge" to include or dispense with any practice, experience, mastery, and possession of the Divine Truths. Under the smallest contact with the acid tests of wealth and woman, name and fame, power and personal praise, flattery or service, they fail so very miserably. Mai-ism is very severe as the theoretical Judge, although extremely kindest as the practical Jailor. If we find that the character, morality ad religiosity are only of quite an ordinary person's calibre, there is a lot of shakingness and fallingness underneath the tallest talks of spirituality, philosophy and fraternity.
Truest spirituality has certain qualifications of a distinguishing nature. First, the spiritualist's values about the worldly matters are extremely trivial. Joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, praises and censures, healthiness or illness, wealthiness or poverty, all these opposite points have almost no value or no pleasant or unpleasant nature or influence. In one word, worldly values stand practically denied and cast away. The mentality about the temporariness of everything and every situation and least or no difference between the various opposites must have formed quite an anti-worldly frame of mind, for true spirituality. The realities in the eyes of the world are unrealities in his eyes and vice versa. Where and when the world is hustling and bustling, he is passing as only a silent dreamlessly sleeping shadow. When the world is sleeping he is as watchful as a man watching the milk over the hottest fire. In a word, the night of the worldly people is his fully busy day and vice versa.
Notion of temporariness, proofness against adverse influences, least differences, if at all they are felt, entirely different type of goal to reach and ambition to fulfill ! The man of spirituality is bent upon making himself perfectly worthy to be unified with the Highest Spirit. That is his whole day-and-night one-thought. Call it even monomania! All his activities, thinking, deciding, willing are only based on that one consideration. He has closed his doors against the worldliness, with its delusive joys and pleasures and has turned his back on the world. He has exiled himself from the world and the world from himself. In as much as no man can live without some activity, he is all along busy about doing good to all, teaching the highest religiosity and spirituality, helping others to learn, realise, practise and master the highest eternal truths. He is for Spiritual Communion and Spiritual Union with Mai, The Highest Spirit, The Highest Soul and The Highest Self.
It may be noted in an extremely subtle manner that after any aspirant has reached the perfection of U.R.A., there are principally two paths of further progress. The one path is the usual ordinary, dealing with God, devotion, religion, gospel, priests, preachers, rites, ceremonies, mythologies, traditions, festivals. customs, etc. The other path is the direct approach to the Highest Spirit through various hardest exercises of renunciation, self-control, self-mortification, home-and-family-leaving, solitude-confining, etc. Of course the second path, practically of the Impersonal God, is most difficult. It is the path of spiritual meditation, spiritual communion and spiritual union, mostly through the spiritually scientific methods of Yoga, which word (Yoga) principally under Mai-ism means equilibrium and union.
The word "religiosity" or "religion" is extremely elastic and incorporates within itself all the different shades and conceptions, which one conceives under the denomination of the Finalmost Verity, which under varied experiences, receives different appellations as the Highest God, Soul, Self, Spirit, Truth or Consciousness, etc.
The fact of facts is that any one particular type of a path-pursuer is seldom or never entirely ignorant of, nor is most scrupulously avoiding the specific particular benefits and uses of any problems of theories or philosophies of all other paths, except his own. And that is so because if there are any differences, they are mainly of mere words and arguments, sequential orders and intensities or different degrees, and never of a practical contradictory nature, and hence never unacceptable, whenever useful. Every one utilises every truth of any head or dub-head, whenever its utility is in demand. A devotee (Bhakta) often speaks and acts as a divine-knowledge-possessor or a Gyani and vice versa. The only thing is that each one is known on the basis of the greater predominance of one or the other path, that one has principally resorted to. The highest truth to be borne in mind is, that no path leads you finally to success unless there is the thoroughest spreading, filling, ramming and consolidating of all requirements of morality and the U.R.A. training, each one of which truth is included as the very first principal basic belt of virtue, character, culture, etc. of the Morality Zone under Mai-ism.
It would interest those that are religiosity-relishful, that there is a rhythmic correspondence of similarities and resemblances in the Mai-ism Chart as one whole. The first belt of virtue, character, culture, etc. of the Morality Zone corresponds in the U.R.A. circular belt of the Religiosity Zone, with the narrow pass of I.O.P. and with the circular belt of "Teachers, Saints, Sages, Gurus, etc." in the Spirituality Zone. All of them represent the basic ground preparation through educative teaching serving and self-mortifying activity. This is exactly just as the same keynote in the first, second and third octaves in any musical instrument resonate most melodiously. Just similarly, "Love and Service" of the Morality Zone corresponds with "Mai-ism" of the Religious Zone and "Founders and Faiths" of the Spirituality Zone. Yet, just similarly, the "Universality and Unity" of the Morality Zone corresponds with the "Universal Mother, Universal Father, Personal or Impersonal Conception of God" in the Religiosity Zone and with the "Universal and Eternally working Incarnations" in the Spirituality Zone. "Morality" principally relates to acting, "religiosity" to acting with feeling most nobly and sanctimoniously, "spirituality" to practising, feeling, and single-mindedly and concentratedly meditating o Truth and Wisdom with relishfulness, on living every moment of life immersed in universal love and spiritual bliss.
In a way, it may be a better interpretation of the Chart ro see that after U.R.A. there are two principal paths as stated before. The one, the most beaten and most popular path of devotion, referred to before under religiosity zone as I.O.P. (Ideal Ordeal Pass). The same small narrow pass named briefly under the religiosity zone as "Ideal Ordeal Pass" is for the spirituality-man the period of "Introspective "I" Obliteration Purification" path (I.O.P.). The other path is that of Light, Love and Life of Spiritual Communion and Law-Abiding. According as the natural tendencies and faculties go, some take to the former path, some to the latter, and some utilise the advantages of both these paths. The former is comparatively easy and non-technical, pure and simple. The latter can be stated to be technical, in a way, being hard and requiring constant watchfulness and concentrated attention, as for any task work to be finished, on living with the strictly disciplined observance of certain rigid principles. In the case of the former, the path pursuer depends mostly on the grace and guidance of Guru and God. In the case of the latter, he depends mostly on his own self. In a sense, both may look to be a bit contradictory, but none is exclusively of a particular belief, as opposed to the belief of the other path. A devotee does see the futility of all his efforts, if he does not see God in his own self. The other path-pursuer does not ignore the truth that, even though he has to depend on himself, yet he cannot go ahead satisfactorily, without the grace of what he calls, as the Highest Self. The truth of truths is that the most mystic sublimation has its source in the unification, call it that of the devotee and his God or of the individual and lower self with the universal one highest Self. Practically only a different phraseology, of differences without distinctions. The devotee leaving himself to be shaped and illumined by God is made by God to pass through several stages of the "Ideal Ordeal Pass" or through the period of the experiences of introspective, I-obliteration purification path.
Be one going along the straight and easy path of devotion and religion or the other, both can go ahead only upto the outside border of the spirituality zone, marked as "Teachers, Saints, Sages, Gurus, etc." The pursuers of the second, exertionful, hard-disciplined, concentrated-living path, march ahead as if through the underground or overhead, subterranean or air-way paths, till they directly contact the outer border of the Spirituality Zone. While the aspirant on the common place path of religion marches ahead through various stages of religious preparation shown in the Chart. The other path-pursuer, as it were, dives into the obscure invisible space and travels forward, cutting up the distances through innumerable solitary, secluded, secret practices, till all at once he is seen swimming on the surface, just near the Spirituality Zone border.
True morality, true religiosity and true spirituality are all interconnected, interdependent and interpenetrating. Except for some subtlest differences of an argumentative nature, God, Self, Soul, Spirit, Truth, Consciousness, etc. point practically to the same one thing. Mai is the finalmost name for, God of Religiosity, Self of Humanity, Soul of the Highest Knowledge and Bliss, Spirit of all the Highest Powers with which the whole universe is governed and worked and adjusted, Truth of all the Subtlest Philosophies and Consciousness of the Highest Spiritual Communion and Union-practising Unionists (Yogis).
It may turn the brains of the swollen headed, atheistic modernists, to be told that to enter and proceed on the spirituality zone requires the help, guidance and grace of Teachers, Saints, Sages, Masters, etc. The modern world has simply boasted, out of blind and ignoranceful egotism about one's own powers and capacities beyond all measures, and has declared its complete independence, with no indebtedness and nothing of the Guru or God. As stated in Mai-ism, on the highest religious plane or the spirituality plane, you cannot take a single solid step without the two chariot wheels of (a) God's grace and (b) Guru's grace and that is the spirituality stage near the border zone of spirituality shown in the Chart. The said truth is fully realised, when the border is touched.
A poor ordinary pigmy creature, whose maximum outlook even in imagination does not go beyond a little hazy and nominal worldly idea of virtue, morality and character, or the man who thinks that life has reached its perfection on living a little virtuously and with a little sacrifice here and there, has absolutely no idea about the unfathomable potentialities of the human life and most intricate and most wonderful and invisibly working powerful machinery, which is at work under the bottom of the human life and destiny. the man if mere bread and butter, wealth and woman, name and fame, power and praise, with a full stop at the end of his worldly intellect, has no idea that human capacities can be developed beyond all visible and believable limitations, and behind the screen of what any ordinary man knows and calls as "man". There are so many occult powers, forces and energies within the different sheaths and bodies of "man", that the real "man" is entirely unknown till now. And one with quite an ant's outlook and complete ignorance about the man's unknown world within him, can never see the truthfulness of the truth, that beyond a certain stage, the Teacher, the Master or the Guru is entirely indispensable. It is only the swollen-headed childishness of little thinking, that resents the very word of a Guru, Teacher or Authority. In fact if the word Guru or Teacher be given the widest meaning, viz. the source form which one has learnt or received or can learn or receive any illumination on any subject, there is not a single person on the earth who can boast and truthfully swear that he has no Guru. When anyone says, "I have no Guru" it only means, "I have not accepted anyone as my Guru" or that "I have none as one single Guru" and not that there has been no source from which he has received any learning or illumination. Under Mai-ism the word "Guru" is used in such widest sense. Whatever illuminates, directs, guides, protects, saves and leads you towards your destination in any subject matter is your "Guru" for that subject, even though he may be only one step ahead of you. Mai-ism insist upon entertaining the concurrent notion of gratitude with possible return or remuneration, along with the notion of a "Guru". Under Mai-ism "Guru" does not necessarily imply perfection or supernatural powers, etc. Under Mai-ism, Guru and service with gratitude, which is the very first requirement of the six G's of Mai-ism, go together.
The popular opinion about full justification for the strongest opposition to the idea of a Guru or teacher, master, Saint or Sage is based on the pigmy outlook and pitiable ignorance about what an immeasurable vastness extends beyond what they call "the capacities of "man" and on the entirely selfish, snatching mentality of the ungratefulness and blind self-egotism. There is surely the other side as well, and it is that of cheating, exploiting, abusing and black-mailing wickedness of some scoundrels and black sheep, spreading havoc in the name of religion. But it goes without saying that such disappointing experiences of two-penny worth Gurus and disciples can have absolutely no relevancy or existence whatsoever, when we are discussing the need of a Guru for the highly exalted and advanced soul, that has passed through so many experiences and tests, as the Mai-ism Chart imposes on the aspirant.
It is very natural that when we are dealing with the subtlest and highest truths and almost perfected souls, it will be simply an idiocy of judging, to bring in any consideration of meanness of the rotten actions and reactions prevalent in the wicked conditions of the lower world-worm societies and planes. That would mean condemning a true principle or an important truth, because of some defective details or inappropriate application or working. It would be like condemning air-flying, because you happened to be once travelling in a plane with an incompetent, raw-hand pilot, and the plane reached your destination, say one full hour too late. It is simply foolish and that foolishness has been very unfortunately seen often among the most intellectual but irreligious giants. It is so very clear, that in the said case, your effort of reforming or setting one's house in order, should be to exert your hardest, to prepare best pilots and select them most critically, rather than to abruptly begin and end with the air-flying condemnation ! The underlying reason can only be that the denouncer looks upon that very act of air-flying with a disbelief and disgust. Mai-ism has most emphatically pressed its pronounced opinion, "Whatever highest spiritual benefit is reaped, has its source neither (or not only) in the Guru nor in the disciple, but in the best Guru-disciple relationship.
Yes then, at least Mai-ism declares, that any progressive religious aspirant, if he is determined to vehemently oppose the idea of a teacher or a master or a Guru, can at the most independently march ahead only upto the last border stage of morality and religiosity, but further beyond he has no access without the Guru, unless his progress is merely the academical, of theoretical knowledge, and unless he is not worthy of being turned through constant practice to be a truly spiritual soul. And that is so because there are deeper and deeper internal states of the advancing soul to be learnt, and experiences to be undergone and further, there are innumerable undreamt-of supreme powers to be attained and mastered. In a word there are technicalities, which have to be learnt, by all except such ones as are inborn with those knowledges and subtleties, and further have the unique fortune of an inherent boon, as of the blooming of buds, under the grace showers of their masters, direct or indirect, or invisible guidance of the Guru as a result of God's grace. As Mai-ism puts it, not a single step of self-advancement after a certain stage is at all possible, without the direct or indirect, perceptive or imperceptible, personal or impersonal grace of the Guru ; be that Guru, God Almighty Herself or Himself, in some countably fewest cases.
Can the highest ruler or President of a nation or any multi-millionaire, in virtue of his advantageous position, be automatically in possession of the clairvoyant or clairaudient powers?
No. It is a subject by itself, requiring quite an entirely different kind of teaching, study, practice, experience and mastery. Spirituality deals with certain powers latent within human beings, women and men, who have been specially God-gifted. No human effort can be of any avail. Spirituality carries with it the connotation of guidance and a guide. Spirituality is the subject of dealing and developing with the greatest concern with the internals of subtler bodies, other worlds, forces and energies, invisible Yogic transcendental centres of developing certain supernatural powers, etc. Any student, especially of spiritualism, has to-day amplest proofs of the future life after death, surviving bodies, other worlds, inmates thereof known as angels, guardians, spirits and guides of spiritual centres and other world's normal individuals. etc.
Spirituality is the subject of spirits, angels, deities, etc. All these facts should go to convince any one about the indispensability of "Teachers, Saints, Sages, etc." with the first mention whereof the spirituality zone begins. The next higher stage is that of "Founders and Faiths" and yet next higher stage is that of "The Incarnations". Each stage, as the aspirant advances confers greater and greater perfection till finally the Supreme Sphere of Mai is reached, which on the analogies of earth, water and fire, can be associated with the notion of "the subtlest ether or the highest spirit or the highest power."
One interesting fact to be noted is that till the point of highest spirituality is reached, you are not subjected to any severe and external test. You have called yourself to be highly moral, highly religious and so on. You have managed to be even so called and believed ; but you have not been actually tested like gold in the fire. You have believed yourself to be the sterling gold correctly or deludedly. Before you be accepted by Almighty and admitted into the innermost fold and entrusted with greatest responsibilities with most wonderful powers to help God in the infinite universe-running work, it is so very natural and in the fitness of things, and indispensable, that you be called to be put to tests of all types and oft times, even the severest. Hence, one has to pass through the stage of having to be declared by highest teachers and masters as worthy of the stage on which you stand. You have to be prepared, proposed, recommended and accepted, before you are one of the "Inmosts".
In a word true spirituality means Guru-and-disciple relationship of being perfected and tested and worthiness-declared. And when you accept discipleship, in spite of your having gone through so many previous stages yourself (while passing through which, you alone certified yourself), the Guru may want you to go over, though most hurriedly, through the very same course with a view to perfecting you to a much greater degree. Till now you were the examiner and you were the examinee and you gave to yourself the highest class and perhaps even the highest rank. The Guru now takes stock of your capacities, and points out to you, to what extent you are weak in any particular requirement and pulls you up to attain perfection. You have surely come up so far, but that has been only in self-approved desultory, unmethodical, unwatched, unguided, unilluminated, confused, confined, tumultuous, reckless ways, followed in your own faddish, self-centred most convenient and self-satisfying manner. The Guru carries you in the perfect manner from the very alpha stage till the stage you have reached, filling up hollow gaps, supplying missing links, clearing several unsolvable doubts and confusions and long-lived misunderstandings and delusions, enriching you with better substitutions, giving new instructions, etc. The Guru rakes up your material, does the picking up of the old worn out road-metal, before adding fresh new metal for the consolidation of the whole combination and unification of the old and the new stage. He tests your patience and the intensity and nature of your character, morality, religiosity and self-developed spirituality. He is anxious to see that you are not simply looking perfect on the surface, but that you are perfect in each and every smallest physical, moral, mental, intellectual, religious and spiritual element of yourself. Blessed are they who have the fortune of some Guru accepting them and ready to die for the disciple's spiritual welfare !
To speak in the language of Mai-ism, it is to be clearly borne in mind that although the words "religiosity" and "spirituality" are generally used interchangeably, in the more precise understanding, religiosity is the path of following a particular religion with the belief and devotion to a particular God, living the life, full of observances of whatever is demanded under that particular religion, and the religious evolution of oneself through that particular path, followed by millions.
Spirituality is a stage higher, and it deals principally with the evolution of the self through certain methods of the spiritual path, and is principally the path of Guru-discipleship. After the morality zone is successfully passed through, and after the basic grounding stage of U.R.A. of the religiosity zone has been mastered, there are several paths of proceeding ahead ; the principal two thereof may be taken to be (1) the path of the religion direct, and (2) the path of spirituality which practically means the path of self-evolution. With this small bifurcation, the pursuers of both these paths meet again (as stated before) at the border of the "spirituality zone" which begins with "Teachers, Saints, Sages" belt. The former goes through the million men's beaten path, and the latter through the solitude-path followed by self, mainly through the guidance of a Guru, the Spirituality Master.
Mai-ism accepts and assumes only the purest, unadulterated, unspoiled elements to be utilised and resorted to, and hence is most definitely of opinion, that taking the widest formerly-stated meaning of the word "Guru", there is none in the whole universe who has had or has no Guru. The only thing is the acceptance on both sides is extremely rare or rarest. Mai-ism insists that every one desirous of progress in any subject must have a Guru, let him be only fewest steps ahead of him, who is interested in his welfare and exerts his best to elevate the disciple, and watch and bring about the disciple's permanent and eternal worldly and spiritual welfare. The best formula for getting the highest grace of such a deserving, and capacious Guru is the universal Mai-istic formula of Love, Service, Devotion and Unconditional Cheerful Self-Surrender.
Leaving aside the small-staged Gurus in succession as the person advances, viewed from another angle, principally there can be three sources of Guru guidance (1) Any living Guru, (2) One's own self as one's Guru and (3) God or Mai as the Guru through Her powers and angelic or deity agency as a result of supreme devotion. In the sense of No. (2), the Guru is one's own self after periodical Spiritual Communion and Spiritual Union with the Highest Self, the Mai. Here the gross and dross self is the disciple, and the same self united with the Highest Self is the Guru. The lower mind or the ordinary pupil, and the higher mind or the senior pupil, who is made the monitor trained and authorised to keep order and carry out the teachers' instructions. The self becomes the disciple and friend of the self. The Self as the Guru emancipates the self as the disciple through the help of the self, one's own internal instruments of faculties, mind, heart, soul, etc. No.(1) is the living religious Guru, No. (2) is the self spiritual Guru and No. (3) is the God or Mai as Guru. In No. (2), it may appear, there is a contradiction, but higher souls on higher stages have the actual experience of the self acting both ways, through lower mind and the higher mind, the stirred-up self and the witness self, or the tempting self and the final control-commanding-self. While that is possible and even practical, the fact does not disappear that it is the most difficult task to split up the same self into two entities, with often times the contradictory nature. Thus Guru No. (1) is the easiest, No. (3) is next easier, and No. (2) is most difficult to deal with. No.1 requires love, faith and obedience, comparatively easy virtues, No. (3) requires love, service, devotion and self-surrender, and No, (2) requires self-control, constant watchfulness and perfect proofness against self-delusion. Practically for progressing forward, the higher self has all along to work and live as the enemy of the lower self.
To repeat again, the spirituality zone treats practically with Guru-disciple-working progress. Everything done before is being revised and sublimated, tested, perfected and set apart as finished and perfected potions of the self-evolution. The highest Mai-istic Guru first becomes, as it were, the disciple of his disciple and studies him fully inch by inch just as a mother studies her child. Under Mai-ism the Guru is Mother (Maiji). He first studies himself every smallest part of the most complicated machinery that has made up the disciple, before he sees himself up to the hardest task of perfecting the machinery. He is the expert who knows human nature and human machinery, and utilises any instruments and applies all the working engines and appliances, to repair the disciple's machinery and expedite his evolution. He knows every nook and corner, straight lanes and blind alleys of the unknown region, through which the disciple has to be led. He is the Mai-sent guide in response to the disciple's self-surrender, who is deputed to bring back Her forlorn, repentant child home. He utilise any conveyance - a plane, a train, a motor car, a carriage, a horse, a mule, and even a donkey in a mountainous pass. His only object is to bring the repentant child speediest and nearest the home. He is helping the "back-goingness".
Speaking in the widest all-comprehensive sense of "religiosity" which includes "spirituality", we have the following reconnaissance of the primary knowledge. In fact it is only since the last few centuries (less than five) that with the multi-sided intellectual development, it has been necessary to cut out different portions as morality and spirituality, from the parental old denomination of "religiosity".
As soon as any advancing soul begins to have a soft corner for God and religion, the very same code of morality and virtue is given a new shining colour. What was named "virtue" before God and religion were accepted, receives the new name of "merit" (punyah), say, the credited item in one's account with God, which propitiates God and secures God's grace, for being made happier and higher. Restricted to morality zone alone, none can satisfactorily reply the question, "Why anyone must be virtuous?", but Mai-ism connects up the need of virtue with the most natural desire of being happier and higher, so very universally there, for every human being. The idea not a new one, but the appealing and persuading argument is made most clear, intense and at once acceptable under Mai-ism. So much of results depends on intensities, priorities, proportions and associations with the conforming or contradicting basic ground, and environmental elements.
You are not bound at all and there is no reason why you should love and serve others and make a sacrifice of your possessions, comforts, etc. However, if you wish to be happier and relieved of your miseries, loving and serving others are the price to be paid for purchasing your own happiness and betterment, under Mai-ism. Its proof ? The proof lies in the eating of the pudding. No scriptures and no compulsions. There have been millions of the said experiences to and of so many. First, you have to study them for creating faith. Thereafter, you may as well try. You are free to accept or reject the truth after your own personal experiences. This is the Mai-istic stand.
Any man is principally calssifiable under any of the four types : he is practical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. He has the preponderance of either activity, feeling, thinking or self-absorbing. In the man-machinery, man's main factors are (physical) the hands and feet, etc. to act, (emotional) the heart to feel nobly, (intellectual) the head to think clearly and deeply and correctly and (spiritual) the Soul to realise the final Truth of Unity.
For a minute analyst of human psychology, it is interesting to note that each of these four classifications has millions of stages, on any particular one of each, or on which, each human being stands. There are certain human limitations, which are responsible for most of the miseries of human beings. The first thing is that we cannot read the minds of others, as clearly as the moon in the sky, and yet none remains satisfied with believing only those things which he most vividly sees. The idiotic man, neither a complete non-believer nor a believer, believes millions of things for which he has no direct convincing proof whatsoever. He imagines and lives in imaginations, about what every other person is, trusting too much on his own conclusions. Each person has one's own universe created by oneself, which is so often in conflict with God's natural creation. This inability to read others' mind has been so very stupendously and stupidly utilised for one's selfish ends, by hypocrites and wicked persons, mainly through words and speeches and outside false approaches, appearances, gestures and actions. The second limitation is that every one judges another practically on the same lines as what oneself is. A god man cannot see the evil and an evil man cannot see any good in others. The third limitation is that even though any one tried hard, he cannot see beyond his own stage for any longer range than the most negligible, either above or below. Another confusing factor is that there are millions of yes-no or no-yes stages between cent-per cent yes and no. A partly filled bottle is neither empty nor filled. And the very same condition looks "yes" to one and "no" to another. One further biggest human blunder is that any particular experience of oneself in one's little most living environment and special local and personal condition is taken to be true foe the whole world and humanity. or to put it in broad language mistaking individual beliefs, for universal and vice versa. The result is that we live in misunderstandings and delusions and commit often grossest, most harmful blunders, which often end in so many types of worst wishes, thoughts and actions, bad bloods, prejudices and hatreds.
The human world, looked from this point of view, is the greatest Babel Tower of eternity where each one lives in obedience to the promptings of one's own self-created creation, which has least of any reliable data and is often in clash with other man-made creations, and other men's individual creations and God's actual and real creation.
Much worse than even this is the unfortunate truth, that each man does not know even his own self-Blindness, and perversions stand piled over piles. Due to self-pride and self-infatuation, fewest men try to recount all their blunders or misunderstandings, even after they are known and exposed. The world's wheel of the said blindness, ignorance, vice and wickedness goes on revolving for eternity. Those that are disgusted, and tired and exhausted therewith, seek the higher path of religiosity and spirituality. The easiest, simplest and most fortunate happening in the individual's life is that, on living the life of gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness, with love and service to God's children, God Himself or Mai Herself so adjusts all circumstances, that the person under God's grace is somehow connected up with the Guru, who can lead him forward through the thickest, blackest, and most fearful darkness.
When a standing blind man is startled with shouts of "serpent ... serpent ... getaway ... take care", what is the best thing he can do? In which directions should he run? He is much more safe in the standing position, lest while running he tramples on the serpent, and the serpent bites him to death.
The wisest man's wisdom is to invoke the sympathy and help of God and Guru with full humility and to wind up his own little wisdom, knowledge and conclusion. He summons up all his faith and follows most faithfully. And that is the path of the Guru-discipleship. If most fortunately, there is a belief in God, the aspirant climbs over the spiritual staircase, jumping over a long series of steps at a time with the tight-most hand-grip over the two sides-railings of God and Guru. Guru is only an infinitesimal part and miniature of God. God is the ever-flowing river, religiosity and spirituality are the living nectar-like waters ; but without a vessel, viz. the Guru, mere prayers offered to the river cannot assuage your thirst. Guru without God and God without Guru are both least useful. Mai-ism recommends neither God alone, nor Guru alone, but both God and Guru. Guru is the nearest watr-jug to the thirsty bed-ridden, unlike the distant river.
Of course this is one of the views, with the predominance of the practical-working, and basis-mentality of religiosity and spirituality.
The Guru tries to discover the disciple, to ascertain where he is at his best. If he is a man principally of the active and physical type, he advises him and carries him ahead through certain propositions of a work-nature, of course till the point he can go therewith.
Such sorts of activities, enjoined under the name of "God and Religion", with or without Guru, or with small-planned and temporary time-being Gurus, are as under: (They give varied experiences of elevating and purifying the mind and the soul through occasions and opportunities offering themselves, while the progressive aspirant is engaged in the performance of the said religious works).
These are: scriptures-reading-attendances, gifts, charities, physical bodily troubles, self-mortifications, austerities, fasts, daily religious routines, church-attendances, pilgrimages, holy-bathings, poor-feedings, holy-men-helpings, hermitages-visits, saints-services, constant contacts with holiest persons in holiest places, provisions and arrangements for holy scriptures-readings or preachings, practising certain specific vows, etc. etc.
The observance of all these may be called "routinistic religion-observance". This is only the starting step of religion, but thousands remain under the delusion that they have practically reached the end or at least they are immensely superior to those who do not observe these religious requirements. They have little idea that there are so many other ways as well, of self-evolution and God-approach.
A bit higher than the routinistic plane, the disciple is introduced to rites and ceremonies (the activity part), prayers and worship, etc. (the emotional part), study of scriptures and philosophies (the intellectual part, and meditations (the spiritual part). After a continued observation of the shishya or disciple by the Guru or by the higher self of oneself, or one's God or worshipped deity, it becomes a decided point as to what the aspirant's faculties, likes and dislikes, temperaments and aptitudes are.
In the case of the past religions, we cannot say, whether certain evils crept in later and degeneration set in and both made their way to reduce the spiritual strength, or that there were certain defects from the very commencement. But one thing is certain, viz. it is a task of the great world-welfare wishers, to undertake a minute impartial universal-outlooked study of the religions, as they are today, and to form decisions as to what is the needful to bring the practice of various religions to their maximum efficiency. It is an interesting study. A general uproar of dissatisfaction cannot help us constructively. Of course, decrying religion is the most common and easily successful senseless activity for the religion-destructionists. Let us try to see through, analysing the various factors and influences.
The above-stated routine nature of religion brought in one great drawback. The followers as also the leaders placed such a high value on the benefits accruing from the observances of the routine religion that the importance of developing virtue, character, morality, honesty, etc. lost all its value and the greatest weapon of the religion-destructionists is to point out the staggering lapses of virtue, morality and character in the life of the routine religionists. The second evil was that service outside any purposes labelled as "religious" became entirely rarest. Any charitable routine religious man would spend hundreds and thousands over, say, sacrifices or holy-men-feastings, etc., but would not spend a single coin for the medicines of the dying, needy next-door neighbour. The psychology underlying was that whatever was spent or sacrificed for whatever was labelled as religious, was a lucrative, sure and safe investment for happiness in this life, or next, or in this world or above. This is an extremely subtle point to appreciate and most emphatically to note. Whatever is religionised or placed before the followers' world as the commandment of a religion, receives the maximum value and is followed to the letter by millions of followers, since innumerable ages. Love and Service, and that too universal, have never, never been till now "religionised" by any religion, and that is one of the greatest betterment changes, which Mai-ism has introduced, as Mai's very first commandment under the new Universal Religion of Mai-ism. The third devil that crept in was the fear of God's divine wrath on violation of certain requirements. As a result of the monopolisation of divine knowledge and details, and spreading of superstitions and increasing continuance of religious ignorance, this became the most powerful weapon in the hands of the custodians of religion. If we study the past history of different religions, we have the most disappointing and saddening pictures. The absence of any emphasis laid on morality, virtue, character, etc., by religion itself, the monopolisation of divine knowledge and ceremonial and scriptural details, the greater and greater narrowing down of the general outlook, the greater and greater dwarfishness of God, and diminution of the dimensions of "I" and "mine", of the religious followers in respect of persons and things, desires, thoughts, feelings and actions, etc. included therein, and further, the later exploitations by the religious preachers and the establishments of intellectual powerful machineries for spreading of superstition and ignorance, and finally, the terrorisations of the religious authorities through fears of divine wrath : all these added together have been responsible for the advent and advancement of the religion-destructionists, nausea at the very word of God or religion, and inward disgust and hatred on having the sight of a preacher or priest, etc.
But wiser counsels and considerations should prevail. We do not condemn air-flying because the pilots are not experts and true to their duties. We do not condemn house-building because masons are not efficient and materials are no reliable. We do not divert away a river from near our city because every year some few careless boys and girls are drowned. The pilots, masons, materials and the river-bathing boys and girls are to be better trained up ; and nothing would be more foolish than to condemn air-flying, house-building or going to bathe in the river. In a word, if any religion is bad, improve or substitute that religion, but to do away with religion itself is only a dark ignorance about the best advantages of a true religion, truly practised. During the pristine purity of each religion, what best benefits of civilisation each religion has conferred on humanity in the past can never be overestimated. Let us think deeply about what a universal religion is capable of doing in future, in full harmony, with all revised or renewed individual religions, and with newer illumination of science, psychology, rationalism, and comparative study of sister religions and the free religious history of the whole world. Once the natural aptitude is discovered, such high ambitioned souls as are naturally of the action and activity-temperament, should e turned to the particular groove, which deals with "Love and Service", which has been religionised now under Mai-ism. There are hundreds of instances, where persons most desirous and capable of rendering most efficient service to several biggest and noblest purposes, have no enthusiasm because there is no religious belief, about love and service as items of propitiating God. If there be any trifling value, surely it is not even one-tenth of the value assigned to any of the above-said routinistic undertakings. It is only a new teaching, started by the society reformers and dissenters from religion, viz. that work is now and recently called worship, just by way of self-defence, against routine-religion-irreligionists. Please also note, that even in mouth-gagging stunt statement, there is no clarity. "Work" is twisted to mean "service to others" to defend one's own act and attitude of evading or neglecting or even condemning worship. It is not a religious teaching but an anti-religious man's challengeful self-defending teaching. The Universal Religion of Mai-ism, on the other hand, sets a much higher value om universal love and service, than on any of the routinistic worldly undertakings, while worship is held in great esteem, provided, it is not without the basic living factors of universal love and service. That is one of the greatest differences, so prominently emphasised with illustrations, under Mai-ism.
Under Mai-ism running of an orphanage or widows' relief home or running to extinguish fires or jumping into the river to save a drowning man, are all, after all not only religious acts, but acts of a much greater showering of Mai's grace and protection. Under Mai-ism, universal love, universal service to God, Guru or God's children and devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender (to God and Guru) have many times much higher value than all the afore-stated routinistic religious undertakings.
The man of action has been connected up with religion and with all the benefits of religion and Mai's grace, through the very commandments under Mai-ism.
Next, we pass on to the man of the noblest (though most common-place) actions, thoughts and wishes, who in addition and principally is the man of superior moral and devotional qualities, sentiments and emotions of heart. This is the largest class of the religious followers, as in this subpath the progress is made without any great, hard and trying conditions to fulfill. Here, the progress is slow but with ease and only gradually increased voluntary self-imposed strictness, without any too much of discipline and severity, which the man of worldly responsibilities of family and profession, works, worries and woes, would not cheerfully hail, nor would be able to cope with. Any looseness and lackness of rigidity, discipline, and responsibility, the man of philosophical meditative nature would not appreciate associations with the over-consuming wastefulness of the most precious God's gift of life, through noisy never-ending wandering whirlful shuttle-cock-like shilly-shally, shiftingsful living. Hence this routine class under description stands and lives by itself and forms practically a much larger class, of persons living with emotional and routine religiosity, than that of men of action or of the highly religious, philosophical or meditational mood. The path of devotion is a rambling, playful path, where teaching is made most convenient and suited to the sweet will and high or low capacity of the taught.
The emotional path of devotion is as easy and pleasant as of serving some best songstress with fanning her (and oneself), when she is singing her most enchanting masterpieces to the richest audience. It is a path where the aspirant progresses with the tenderness of the noblest qualities of heart, while he himself is a part enjoyer and is free and without any crushing pressure, pull, strain, push or fall. This accounts for the largest number of religious followers in this particular branch of devotion. Places where devotion is most prominent are mostly sanctuaries and asylums and shelters for consolations and frogettingness of one's unbearable miseries, on surrendering oneself to the God and Guru. Here the progress is not so very quick and there are also chances of remaining under delusion about having progressed well, even though really there is only standstillism. It is the beaten path of the multitude and mass, of a public and crowd nature, where hypocrites and cheats, too, have a very large scope. Most of the religious preachers of the masses live upon their activity in this path. It is a path of no technicality, and of greatest familiarity. Success and progress in this path depend on softening the wildness of animalism through the intensification of that noblest element within the heart of every living person, which is known as "love". It is the poet's, musician's and artist's path of progressing in religion. The underlying working principle is that the various types of harmful and wasteful, immoral and base desires are withdrawn from innumerable quarters of attractions and infatuations, and are concentrated on one extremely sublime person or principle, as a result of the supreme attraction for that particular love-object. It is not the path of renunciation, asceticism or negation, but a higher and higher substitution of the subject of craving. There is no abruptness, snapping or suddenness of life. It is not the act of pouring out the inferior liquid contents of the life-bottle and filling it with the superior liquid (say, of throwing out water and filling in milk), but the gradual process of progressing from 9/10ths of water and 1/10th of milk to 9/10ths of milk and 1/10th of water and finally attaining the stage of the whole bottle being filled with the unadulterated and purest milk. It is most popular and claims its own place in the paths of self-evolution and religion for one great reason, viz. that it process is based on "love" with which no living person is born ungifted. Everyone likes, loves, at least "to be loved", if not to love. As a matter of fact, it is the most natural and automatic non-technical and social process of evolution. When any desire or attachment attains the stage of "love", that love exhibits the most wonderfully miraculous powers. As Mai-ism states, it is the highest and most wonderful force of love that makes a savage man and an ever-changeful emotional woman to be a He-deity and a She-deity.
"Love" is a limitless, mysterious, heaven-born sentiment lying most dormant, as if it is non-existent in every heart. It offers helpfulness to the object of love, learns patience, gets fearlessness, generates sincerity in its dealings and purifies the heart. It has its own nobility, grace, humility and charmfulness. During emergencies, it releases tremendous inward latent strength, and has the greatest power of transforming vices into virtues and evils into various shades of goodness. It derives its joy from giving and generosity, realises responsibility, prizes faithfulness at its highest, and remains contented with any poverty. It knows the art of conquering and unification and fully fulfills the purpose of human life.
Even lust, although so much condemnable, if sublimated, is at the end, found to be only the grossest form, but of love and hence if the sublimating process is pursued till the goal is reached, in the long run, even lust, to start with, takes the man to the supreme Soul or God or Mai. Just as any river, although by its own force carrying so many fallen tree-trunks, ordinary debris, etc. finally goes to the ocean, without any turn towards the banks for unburdening itself, uncarried materials being stuck up anywhere on the banks, so does this path slowly but surely take men to the final goal. It is the path of "accept me as I am", with fullest faith in the most forgiving highest excellence of the beloved God.
The aspirant on this path has most naturally his wife and children as the human objects of his love, with gradual intensification. After materialistic cravings and either after satisfaction or discontentment, he comes to realise a certain truth, with saddening experiences. That truth is that the feeling of love which he has developed towards the inferior objects should be turned towards higher and higher, more holy, and more saintly, pure and strong-minded superior souls. From persons and sources of pleasure and enjoyment, he turns to the virtuous, moral and high-charactered persons, and thereafter he tries to seek the company of religious persons and saints and yet thereafter, to some specific living Guru, who having passed him through the candidature of ardent and sincere discipleship, introduces him to God.
This path of evolution is that of attachment, love, service ad sacrifice for one's own Guru, to start with, and later to God and Guru, after the Guru initiates the aspirant to feel the existence and presence of God. The devotion to God gradually matures itself to be the divine-most love for God. Love for God manifests itself in the allround universal common love and service for all God's children.
Prayers, hymns-singing, dancing, etc. are the measures for propitiating God and are the earliest avenues for the flow of God-love. Nothing is more clear than the truth, that the devotee with true humility, faith, love and obedience, gradually acquires the same attributes as those of God, meditated upon. The man of heart and emotion has the spiritual benefit of being sublimated under the path of devotion and Divine Love, under religion.
The man with the subtlest thinking and meditational and discriminative faculties deals with Divine Knowledge through scriptures and philosophical literature. As so often stated, there are fewest possibilities of air-tight and water-tight compartments. Some aspirants are for soul-knowledge and some for God-knowledge, and some for both in varying proportions. Profound, deepmost truth-seeking, thoughtful absorption, study of experience of one-self and others, guidance through the scriptural lore, which practically means a detailed description of the experiences and final conclusions of the highest souls, and the detailed knowledge of their ways and means and measures, and God's and Guru's grace - these are the principal sources through which the Divine Knowledge is attained. To express the same in the fewest words, meditation-absorption, essence-churning from experience,and scripture-studies, but principally, God's and Guru's grace : are the four principal instruments of expediting progress on the path of spirituality.
It may be noted that just as the devotee neglects inferior matters, for deriving the maximum joy of remaining united with his subject of love, so also the man of meditational nature remains absent-minded and relishless in all matters except his own particular meditative mood, in respect of his meditational subjects, ideals, theories, propositions and various smallest details. Both are hundreds of miles away from and above the plane of the common worldly man of "eat-drink-and-be-merry" mentality.
What Mai-ism has discovered and felt as one of the greatest human misunderstandings with most of the religionists is, that they believe religious progress to be simply an easy matter as of turning coals into sugar candy-pieces, with the waving over of a magical wand.
If the most trivial thing as the equipment of oneself to get service of a few coins to maintain one's family requires constant study and devoting of so many of one's best years in schools and colleges, is it not an idiocy of belief, that the art of living one's life so as to attain maximum happiness and not be subjected to the smallest misery, be considered attainable with only a finger snip? Any university course training as of U.R.A. shown in the Mai-ism Chart is indispensable, before any recognisable stage is attained in the realm of true religiosity.
The second big misunderstanding is that almost all religionists have most pitiably erred in taking only a part which they represent, to be the whole, and pose themselves, to be the advocates of, the fullest whole. Surely, each part has the potentiality if sufficient provision required for fulfillment of the whole. But each part needs essentially, being unified with all other equally essential parts, to reach perfection, as one whole. No individual essential part can claim monopolisation as the entirely perfect whole.
Further, one practical error is that of the violation of the natural sequential order and hurriedly jumping up to the higher step without minding the most immature state on the lower step itself, which results in most deplorable and unmendable misplacement and disharmony, and slippery retrogressions.
If we consider the full man to represent "religiosity" in its widest sense as stated before, morality represents his hands and feet, religiosity in its ordinary afore-described sense, represents his heart, the path of Divine Knowledge represents his head, and truest spirituality represents his soul.
To repeat, the path representing the development principally of the soul or spirit is the path of spirituality. In its most familiar aspect it pre-eminently refers to the practice of the spiritual communion and spiritual union through the mysticism practices of what they call "Yoga". This word, most famous in the occult science, literally and especially under Mai-ism without so many deflections, means union (of the aspirant's self, soul and spirit with the Highest Self Soul and Spirit). Here, too, many have been the victims of the aforesaid error of misplacement or of placing the cart before the horse. So many have foolishly renounced the world, without the smallest practice of self-denial or of attaining mastery over vices or of regulating various desires or living a life of virtue and discipline and have till the end of their life remained under the delusion of having attained almost perfection.
Any student of Spiritual Communion or Union with God or Soul or God's Nature full knows, that the preliminary basic grounding has to be done with self-control (Yama) and regulated disciplined living (Niyama), which is particularly the same task as of mastering the requirements of the morality zone. The acceptance of the path of spirituality implies the craving for the communion or union, being ready to renounce everything that is obstructive, deadening the relishfulness of all carnal pleasures and maintaining every perseverance of energetically going through and mastering innumerable exercises in succession. Spirituality, as stated before, has to deal, to an enormous extent, with all inward elements which have most intimate relations with subtler and subtlest layers, vehicles, sheaths, bodies and worlds, etc. The spirituality aspirant studies all Divine Laws and tries to have the mastery of the various powers, forces, energies and strengths, working in the macrocosm and microcosm. The advanced aspirant who is desirous of going to the highest spirituality has no personal desires and fewest requirements, only to keep up the body, with every purity of head, heart and soul. There remains very little or nothing at the end of his achievement, as one man against another, or even as man against woman. He practically perceives only the soul within, whenever he deals with any one and the conception of sex-difference practically vanishes fully, for him. Once the natural aptitude is discovered, such high ambitioned souls as are naturally of the action and activity-temperament, should e turned to the particular groove, which deals with "Love and Service", which has been religionised now under Mai-ism. There are hundreds of instances, where persons most desirous and capable of rendering most efficient service to several biggest and noblest purposes, have no enthusiasm because there is no religious belief, about love and service as items of propitiating God. If there be any trifling value, surely it is not even one-tenth of the value assigned to any of the above-said routinistic undertakings. It is only a new teaching, started by the society reformers and dissenters from religion, viz. that work is now and recently called worship, just by way of self-defence, against routine-religion-irreligionists. Please also note, that even in mouth-gagging stunt statement, there is no clarity. "Work" is twisted to mean "service to others" to defend one's own act and attitude of evading or neglecting or even condemning worship. It is not a religious teaching but an anti-religious man's challengeful self-defending teaching. The Universal Religion of Mai-ism, on the other hand, sets a much higher value om universal love and service, than on any of the routinistic worldly undertakings, while worship is held in great esteem, provided, it is not without the basic living factors of universal love and service. That is one of the greatest differences, so prominently emphasised with illustrations, under Mai-ism.
Under Mai-ism running of an orphanage or widows' relief home or running to extinguish fires or jumping into the river to save a drowning man, are all, after all not only religious acts, but acts of a much greater showering of Mai's grace and protection. Under Mai-ism, universal love, universal service to God, Guru or God's children and devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender (to God and Guru) have many times much higher value than all the afore-stated routinistic religious undertakings.
The man of action has been connected up with religion and with all the benefits of religion and Mai's grace, through the very commandments under Mai-ism.
Next, we pass on to the man of the noblest (though most common-place) actions, thoughts and wishes, who in addition and principally is the man of superior moral and devotional qualities, sentiments and emotions of heart. This is the largest class of the religious followers, as in this subpath the progress is made without any great, hard and trying conditions to fulfill. Here, the progress is slow but with ease and only gradually increased voluntary self-imposed strictness, without any too much of discipline and severity, which the man of worldly responsibilities of family and profession, works, worries and woes, would not cheerfully hail, nor would be able to cope with. Any looseness and lackness of rigidity, discipline, and responsibility, the man of philosophical meditative nature would not appreciate associations with the over-consuming wastefulness of the most precious God's gift of life, through noisy never-ending wandering whirlful shuttle-cock-like shilly-shally, shiftingsful living. Hence this routine class under description stands and lives by itself and forms practically a much larger class, of persons living with emotional and routine religiosity, than that of men of action or of the highly religious, philosophical or meditational mood. The path of devotion is a rambling, playful path, where teaching is made most convenient and suited to the sweet will and high or low capacity of the taught.
The emotional path of devotion is as easy and pleasant as of serving some best songstress with fanning her (and oneself), when she is singing her most enchanting masterpieces to the richest audience. It is a path where the aspirant progresses with the tenderness of the noblest qualities of heart, while he himself is a part enjoyer and is free and without any crushing pressure, pull, strain, push or fall. This accounts for the largest number of religious followers in this particular branch of devotion. Places where devotion is most prominent are mostly sanctuaries and asylums and shelters for consolations and frogettingness of one's unbearable miseries, on surrendering oneself to the God and Guru. Here the progress is not so very quick and there are also chances of remaining under delusion about having progressed well, even though really there is only standstillism. It is the beaten path of the multitude and mass, of a public and crowd nature, where hypocrites and cheats, too, have a very large scope. Most of the religious preachers of the masses live upon their activity in this path. It is a path of no technicality, and of greatest familiarity. Success and progress in this path depend on softening the wildness of animalism through the intensification of that noblest element within the heart of every living person, which is known as "love". It is the poet's, musician's and artist's path of progressing in religion. The underlying working principle is that the various types of harmful and wasteful, immoral and base desires are withdrawn from innumerable quarters of attractions and infatuations, and are concentrated on one extremely sublime person or principle, as a result of the supreme attraction for that particular love-object. It is not the path of renunciation, asceticism or negation, but a higher and higher substitution of the subject of craving. There is no abruptness, snapping or suddenness of life. It is not the act of pouring out the inferior liquid contents of the life-bottle and filling it with the superior liquid (say, of throwing out water and filling in milk), but the gradual process of progressing from 9/10ths of water and 1/10th of milk to 9/10ths of milk and 1/10th of water and finally attaining the stage of the whole bottle being filled with the unadulterated and purest milk. It is most popular and claims its own place in the paths of self-evolution and religion for one great reason, viz. that it process is based on "love" with which no living person is born ungifted. Everyone likes, loves, at least "to be loved", if not to love. As a matter of fact, it is the most natural and automatic non-technical and social process of evolution. When any desire or attachment attains the stage of "love", that love exhibits the most wonderfully miraculous powers. As Mai-ism states, it is the highest and most wonderful force of love that makes a savage man and an ever-changeful emotional woman to be a He-deity and a She-deity.
"Love" is a limitless, mysterious, heaven-born sentiment lying most dormant, as if it is non-existent in every heart. It offers helpfulness to the object of love, learns patience, gets fearlessness, generates sincerity in its dealings and purifies the heart. It has its own nobility, grace, humility and charmfulness. During emergencies, it releases tremendous inward latent strength, and has the greatest power of transforming vices into virtues and evils into various shades of goodness. It derives its joy from giving and generosity, realises responsibility, prizes faithfulness at its highest, and remains contented with any poverty. It knows the art of conquering and unification and fully fulfills the purpose of human life.
Even lust, although so much condemnable, if sublimated, is at the end, found to be only the grossest form, but of love and hence if the sublimating process is pursued till the goal is reached, in the long run, even lust, to start with, takes the man to the supreme Soul or God or Mai. Just as any river, although by its own force carrying so many fallen tree-trunks, ordinary debris, etc. finally goes to the ocean, without any turn towards the banks for unburdening itself, uncarried materials being stuck up anywhere on the banks, so does this path slowly but surely take men to the final goal. It is the path of "accept me as I am", with fullest faith in the most forgiving highest excellence of the beloved God.
The aspirant on this path has most naturally his wife and children as the human objects of his love, with gradual intensification. After materialistic cravings and either after satisfaction or discontentment, he comes to realise a certain truth, with saddening experiences. That truth is that the feeling of love which he has developed towards the inferior objects should be turned towards higher and higher, more holy, and more saintly, pure and strong-minded superior souls. From persons and sources of pleasure and enjoyment, he turns to the virtuous, moral and high-charactered persons, and thereafter he tries to seek the company of religious persons and saints and yet thereafter, to some specific living Guru, who having passed him through the candidature of ardent and sincere discipleship, introduces him to God.
This path of evolution is that of attachment, love, service ad sacrifice for one's own Guru, to start with, and later to God and Guru, after the Guru initiates the aspirant to feel the existence and presence of God. The devotion to God gradually matures itself to be the divine-most love for God. Love for God manifests itself in the allround universal common love and service for all God's children.
Prayers, hymns-singing, dancing, etc. are the measures for propitiating God and are the earliest avenues for the flow of God-love. Nothing is more clear than the truth, that the devotee with true humility, faith, love and obedience, gradually acquires the same attributes as those of God, meditated upon. The man of heart and emotion has the spiritual benefit of being sublimated under the path of devotion and Divine Love, under religion.
The man with the subtlest thinking and meditational and discriminative faculties deals with Divine Knowledge through scriptures and philosophical literature. As so often stated, there are fewest possibilities of air-tight and water-tight compartments. Some aspirants are for soul-knowledge and some for God-knowledge, and some for both in varying proportions. Profound, deepmost truth-seeking, thoughtful absorption, study of experience of one-self and others, guidance through the scriptural lore, which practically means a detailed description of the experiences and final conclusions of the highest souls, and the detailed knowledge of their ways and means and measures, and God's and Guru's grace - these are the principal sources through which the Divine Knowledge is attained. To express the same in the fewest words, meditation-absorption, essence-churning from experience,and scripture-studies, but principally, God's and Guru's grace : are the four principal instruments of expediting progress on the path of spirituality.
It may be noted that just as the devotee neglects inferior matters, for deriving the maximum joy of remaining united with his subject of love, so also the man of meditational nature remains absent-minded and relishless in all matters except his own particular meditative mood, in respect of his meditational subjects, ideals, theories, propositions and various smallest details. Both are hundreds of miles away from and above the plane of the common worldly man of "eat-drink-and-be-merry" mentality.
What Mai-ism has discovered and felt as one of the greatest human misunderstandings with most of the religionists is, that they believe religious progress to be simply an easy matter as of turning coals into sugar candy-pieces, with the waving over of a magical wand.
If the most trivial thing as the equipment of oneself to get service of a few coins to maintain one's family requires constant study and devoting of so many of one's best years in schools and colleges, is it not an idiocy of belief, that the art of living one's life so as to attain maximum happiness and not be subjected to the smallest misery, be considered attainable with only a finger snip? Any university course training as of U.R.A. shown in the Mai-ism Chart is indispensable, before any recognisable stage is attained in the realm of true religiosity.
The second big misunderstanding is that almost all religionists have most pitiably erred in taking only a part which they represent, to be the whole, and pose themselves, to be the advocates of, the fullest whole. Surely, each part has the potentiality if sufficient provision required for fulfillment of the whole. But each part needs essentially, being unified with all other equally essential parts, to reach perfection, as one whole. No individual essential part can claim monopolisation as the entirely perfect whole.
Further, one practical error is that of the violation of the natural sequential order and hurriedly jumping up to the higher step without minding the most immature state on the lower step itself, which results in most deplorable and unmendable misplacement and disharmony, and slippery retrogressions.
If we consider the full man to represent "religiosity" in its widest sense as stated before, morality represents his hands and feet, religiosity in its ordinary afore-described sense, represents his heart, the path of Divine Knowledge represents his head, and truest spirituality represents his soul.
To repeat, the path representing the development principally of the soul or spirit is the path of spirituality. In its most familiar aspect it pre-eminently refers to the practice of the spiritual communion and spiritual union through the mysticism practices of what they call "Yoga". This word, most famous in the occult science, literally and especially under Mai-ism without so many deflections, means union (of the aspirant's self, soul and spirit with the Highest Self Soul and Spirit). Here, too, many have been the victims of the aforesaid error of misplacement or of placing the cart before the horse. So many have foolishly renounced the world, without the smallest practice of self-denial or of attaining mastery over vices or of regulating various desires or living a life of virtue and discipline and have till the end of their life remained under the delusion of having attained almost perfection.
Any student of Spiritual Communion or Union with God or Soul or God's Nature full knows, that the preliminary basic grounding has to be done with self-control (Yama) and regulated disciplined living (Niyama), which is particularly the same task as of mastering the requirements of the morality zone. The acceptance of the path of spirituality implies the craving for the communion or union, being ready to renounce everything that is obstructive, deadening the relishfulness of all carnal pleasures and maintaining every perseverance of energetically going through and mastering innumerable exercises in succession. Spirituality, as stated before, has to deal, to an enormous extent, with all inward elements which have most intimate relations with subtler and subtlest layers, vehicles, sheaths, bodies and worlds, etc. The spirituality aspirant studies all Divine Laws and tries to have the mastery of the various powers, forces, energies and strengths, working in the macrocosm and microcosm. The advanced aspirant who is desirous of going to the highest spirituality has no personal desires and fewest requirements, only to keep up the body, with every purity of head, heart and soul. There remains very little or nothing at the end of his achievement, as one man against another, or even as man against woman. He practically perceives only the soul within, whenever he deals with any one and the conception of sex-difference practically vanishes fully, for him.
To repeat what has been stated before, the spirituality aspirant does not mistake the unreality of the world for the reality of the spirit, and vice versa, sees no differences of the types, the world has for ever held and observed, and shatters all handicaps and barriers in the way of his realisation of the true reality. He is always ready to go ahead. His life routine during higher unoccupied hours is most intimately connected with problems and activities of the whole world's welfare. The universal outlook and all-lovingness form practically the whole substance of his personal life-mission-work.
He tries gradually to reduce the whole universe to the irreducible minimum, as he fully knows that it holds him in the grip of a delusion about its existence of reality. He tries to finally wipe out all differences except, I and Thou (his God), and in the end, he finally merges himself, and his "I" in his God, and realises the finalmost state of "I" and "Thou" viz that they have become one. In the case of the disciple of the Guru, on the same lines, the disciple first eliminates the whole universe leaving only three varieties, viz., himself, his Guru and his God. Next he identifies his Guru with his God. Thus three are reduced to two, viz., himself and his God (with double aspect including guru). Finally his "I" merges in his God and what remains is the eternal Omnipresent Omniscient and Omnipotent God, whose denomination for the universal religionists in Mai-ism or U.R.Ms., is Mai.
Just in a little lighter vein, the idea may be gathered from the following anecdotes about how the Saints turn in the end to be the truest, under the hardest practice of the spirituality.
One saint was wounded heavily by a robber when to the greatest luck an extremely charitable rich man came to his rescue. The Saint saw him, but due to greatest pain became unconscious. The charitable man took him to his place and treated him most royally. When the Saint regained his consciousness, the charitable man, out of great joy, inquired of him thus, to test the return of consciousness: "Revered Holiness, can you recognise me? Who am I?" The Saint in fullest serenity said, "Yes, you are the very same that wounded me," and "The very same that taking pity on me took me to his house". "The very same, who being overjoyed with the return of my consciousness, has been inquiring of me "who I am". The Saint had no differences as of hatred and love, cruelty or kindness, plundering or sheltering, experienced by him through the robber or the charitable man, respectively.
Saints of spirituality have very little personal desire to be satisfied. A saintly devotee was passing his time most miserably in utter poverty. His beloved Deity once took pity on him and appeared before him and said, "I am overpowered with thy devotion. Just demand anything you desire." The devotee implored and said, "Why did you take so much trouble for such a worthless creature? I want nothing." The Deity said, "Any way, let me do at least some service to you, now that I have come down to you." Said the Saint smilingly, "Quite right. Please put in this thread in this needle hole." The Saint was stitching his tattered clothes and wanted to nominally satisfy the desire of the Deity by giving some nominal easiest work. The Deity heartily smiled with the highest appreciation of his non-beggingness, but insisted and said, "I am pleased with you , my child. Ask any boon. I shall grant it. Ask for some substantial thing as wealth or health?" The Saint smiled in return with the familiarity of the full oneness and replied, "Well, please yourself with granting a boon. Please transfer my rheumatic pain from the left leg to the right leg."
The final stage of nearest-ness, same-ness and one-ness of the Spiritual High Soul and the Supreme Soul has been brought home to the final-most-staged persons, through the following masterpieces.
Asked one spiritual devotee, "How much still longer, shalt Thou (God) maintain this screen between us which keeps Thy charming face hidden behind the screen?" The reply was, "I am without any screen. The screen is thee thyself. That veil, thou thyself hast flung over Me, keeping Me unseen by thee." "Thou thyself hast to fling off the intervening curtain. (surely this instance is not for so many Hindu philosophy-swollen-headed perfection-believing-and-claiming-saffron-garmented fools).
One highest devotee knocked the door of God Almighty. the voice from within asked, "Who is there-" "It is I, Thy humblest slave" answered the devotee. The reply was "I can't open. Come next time with a better insight". This thing of turning him away repeated itself till one day the devotee answered to the question, who is there?", with "It is Thou Thyself, only in the limited manifestation of me". And the doors at once were flung open and God embraced his devotee.
God, too, cannot bear the idea of "inferiority" in the heart of His devotees. he refuses to embrace His devotees, on any lower plane than that of perfect unification, sameness and one-ness. Love reaches the climax of its joy only when fullest equality is established - SAMARASYA.
No philosophers can unravel the mystery, which the touch of Divine Love alone can, when God's grace showers. So long as the sense of the differences of "I" and "Thou" remains, it is not the fully perfected stage.
Prayed one highest spiritual devotee, "Grant that my conception of "Thou" may vanish, and vanish it so very completely that there may not remain even the distant-most smell of the once-existent notion of "I" and "Thou".
This then is the general conception about the spirituality with which the Spirituality Zone deals.
Descending to our normal intellectual plane, the Mai-ism Chart shows under the spirituality zone three belts which are explained as under.
The first belt comprises "Teachers, Saints, Sages, Gurus, Masters, Angels, Heirography, etc." or the world spiritual masters, etc.
Mai-ism believes, that it is possible for any aspirant to come right up to the Spirituality Zone, either in the open and direct multitudinous graded stages through religion noted in the religiosity zone, or through the most invisibly indirect solitary and secluded single-ness methods of airplane overhead or subterranean routes, on taking up the course of "Light, Love and Life of Spiritual Communion and Divine Law Abiding". But further beyond, there is an inevitable halt for one and all without any exception. Any the highest aspirant can thrust himself ahead independently and without the help of any guru so far, but here-beyond, a series of inevitable tests begins. Any disciple may be even much ahead of so many masters. The higher an aspirant goes, his own self has practically to be his own guru. The Guru only blesses, encourages, replenishes the spiritual energies and helps to pull the disciple up. All the same, the disciple is required to pass the certificate test. Here the aspirant has not only to attain perfection but has to be certified as having reached perfection, before being accepted in the innermost circle of God Almighty.
The second belt is that of the Founders and Faiths. After having received the final finishing touch by the Teacher, Saint, Guru or the Master in the first belt, the aspirant being considered fully worthy of being entrusted with specific work of spreading morality, religiosity or spirituality, all over the world is given final instructions and illuminations here, with innumerable supernatural powers to enable him to successfully render his most valuable services of assigned and strictly defined tasks, under special Divine deputations, to the cause of the world's spiritual welfare. Here the aspirants have their wonderful originality and supreme supernatural powers of creation, sublimation and transformation etc. Most of them, that are faithful and resolute and have successfully started new faiths of religions and sub-religions, religious sects and sub-sects, or religious Institutes of fraternities, brotherhood, etc. are and have been the worthiest inmates of this second belt.
The third belt comprises "Incarnations", and the highest souls that are the proved worthies of this belt are Emancipated Souls in this very life of theirs (Jivanmukta). The highest soul that has reached this stage enjoys the experiences of all states of waking, dreaming, sleeping, etc., even though in any one state. He is capable of performing external actions through the activities of all internal different faculties and organs of action, senses of knowledge, and mental thinking, wishing, discriminating and deciding powers. He is able to objectify the visions caused by the perception of ideas latent in the mind. He has the capacity of discrimination and overcoming the influence of any delusions, even while any one of the various states. He is ever in the enjoyment of the highest ecstasy, which is experienceable by other souls only for fewest moments, in a particular highest state. His ecstasy dripping from the highest state permeates all other inferior states as well. The static knowledge, experience and the working of the thinking, feeling and acting accumulates to form the intense notion of the extinction of all bodies. He has risen above the consciousness of any of the bodies, with an immeasurable enjoyment of an indescribable bliss. His physical life by its living itself, becomes religious observance and the highest blessedness conferred by his worthiest conversation is by itself his sacred words-repetition and his speech bu itself is a scripture and a never-failing highest awakener. He is the greatest elucidator of the highest Divine Knowledge and the performer of the unfathomable mysteries. He has the highest power of transformation and sublimation, without having recourse to words or resorting to any particular method. His will and grace are more than enough. In his presence any man feels as if enslaved, and vanquished under a unique irresistible charmful force. He shatters all the doubts, misgivings and misunderstandings and deficiencies and incorrectness of the deluded outlook etc., of the man on whom his full grace has showered, without any verbal explanations whatever. His little (?) self is to him, merely his own God's manifestation. His every breath is by itself the prayer to his God. His words of blessings are unfailing promises. His mind is the Divine Mother of activity. His body is the temple of his God. His enjoyments, are the offerings to his God. His sleep is his meditation of his God and his wanderings are circumambulations around around his God. Whatever he does, or he thinks, is only the worship of his God. Whatever he wishes is his god's divine will.
Here finishes the Spirituality Zone, and next we say a few words about the Mai's Supreme Sphere.
We are now nearing the fag end of the Mai-ism Chart. As stated in the Chart, Mai is The All, The Everything and The Only One. At the highest end of any individual soul's last-staged evolution, it speaks of the stage of "goingness" after the former states of gratefulness. greatness, goodness, givingness and Godliness, and of the concluding stage of "mergence".
Mai-ism Chart and Mai-ism's concluding quintessence.
The Chart has practically covered the whole field of what is known as "religion" in three zones of morality, religiosity and spirituality, with the topmost regional abide of Mai's Supreme Sphere. The world as it advances makes newer and newer discoveries through physical and occult sciences, and through the accumulation of experiences of the most advanced fewest in any of the realms. There is nothing so very apparent, as that the ways and beliefs or religion should be altered from time to time, in details, although the final eternal truths would remain , the same, as the world has greater and greater illumination. The most important truths that science and human experience and intimate knowledge of human nature have brought to the world are, that all different energies are only different manifestations of the same energy, that man and man are interpenetratingly interconnected to the most wonderful extent that was never imagined before, that there are invisible forces and energies and certain laws, to which the whole humanity and individuals are subject. There is again the greatest guidance in respect of human experience through history. Yet further, there is a new advance in the direction of psychological conclusions and spiritualism experiences. On the mere sociological side, there have been immense changes. Money-making, personal freedom, every one's rights, fights to the point of finish, relationship of man to man, ruler and the ruled, husband and wife, master and servant, all these things have entirely changed. The most important change is the shifting of the whole world more towards materialism than spiritualism, and the demand of rights by one faction against another, including those of women against men, etc.
If religion is to mean the most practical and efficient science for being translated into practice for the human happiness, nothing would appear more rationalistic than the fact that from time to time religion must be ever open to any required improvement, and religion itself at long intervals, should undertake even entire overhauling, after a detailed full study of all the new forces, new adjustments,new discoveries, new sciences and new theories, knowledge corollaries, and the new transformations in the mentalities of mankind, on passing through various immeasurable experiences through several centuries. Mai-ism has so very hammeringly declared, there is no last word under Mai-ism. Mai-ism anticipates and advises necessary pruning from age to age.
None disputes that the object of wearing garments, in all ages and climes would remain practically the same, but the varieties of garmentation is bound to be altered with the age, purpose, country, climate, etc.
Nothing is more evident than the fact, that as we approach the apex of a pyramid, the smaller differences of the inmates of the different facets are bound to vanish. Any universal religion, which respects, revers and leaves all the individual religions entirely undabbled with, as Mai-ism does, is bound to make the whole world happier. If that is denied, the denial would be only from them that are selfishly stubborn. Surely, no single man can be supposed to be in possession of all knowledge and all experiences ; because they being partial are sometimes conflicting due to limitations of certain conditions. Any hard and fast ruling or dictation to followers of any one, even a prodigy, cannot be fully satisfactory. The precaution against that flaw is that the requirements such of such a universal
religion should comprise such universal tenets as are universally acceptable and the simplest, and that every person's intellectual right of choice and freedom in respect of the attainment of peace and happiness shall be recognised. It needs repeating that there should be no silly notion, that the last word is given even by any universal religion under the final signature and seal. There must ever be enough scope for "pruning from age to age" and all the wisest suggestions should be welcomed, not only at the commencement periods but even after lapse of decades and centuries. Mai-ism holds an equally broadest view regarding the conception about God. It may be any recognised and followed conception. Mai-ism accepts all and any conception of God. In fact the Mai-ism salvation master
key is neither God's conception, nor any particular gospel or scripture. Lat any Mai-ist form his own God conception, let him think of God.
Any deep student of Mai-ism literature would see it under the limelight, that each one of the above-stated requirements and precautions, Mai-ism has provided for. Mai-ism enunciates the universality outlook; it recognises everyone's right of inquiry about the why and where-fore of everything, and it respects the individual right as stated above. Mai-ism leaves every freedom in the matter of the selection of one's own ideals, schools, systems, ways and means in respect of one's own religious progress, evolution and emancipation. Mai-ism wants to remain in full rhyming with reason, science, conscience and experience. Mai-ism lays the highest emphasis on the requirement of individual evolution. Under Mai-ism religion itself means evolution towards higher and higher ways of living one's life. Under Mai-ism, religion is a science of life and living, something not to be exhibited and preached, but to be ingrained in one's being and to be lived out. The special features of Mai-ism are its universality and simplicity, and even the dispensability of belief in the very existence of God, provided one lives his life with universal Love and Service. Mai-ism aspires, to bring forth the very change in the outlook of what religiosity and spirituality, today mean, and last but not the least, the spiritual co-equal status of man and woman, so often emphasised. This belief requirement fully refers to God as MOTHER and God as FATHER, equally also to the most practical equality of DAUGHTERS and SONS, as also of SISTERS and BROTHERS. The subterranean spring of Mai-ism, for the perennial supply of surviving stamina and security, springs itself from the sublime and supreme mother-and-child relationship.
Mai-ism believes that the world nations, families or individuals cannot be happy without religion and God's grace. All other remedies have humiliatingly failed. the extent of grace is directly dependent on the conception of the Grace-Showerer in your mind. So long as your conception is tied down with limitations imposed on the Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent Almighty by individual religions, full grace is an impossibility.
For them that have no experience, belief and sense of Reality behind God and Religion, everything is the same, just like the blackest coal-piece and the whitest chalk-piece to the blind. Here, however, we are speaking with them, that have the highest and subtlest sense of Reality. For those fewest, the sky and earth difference of (1) a universal religionist and (2) an individual religionist with a universal outlook, is thus explained under Mai-ism.
The former one No. (1) is like a universal man enjoying the full moon, while lying on the lovely spacious lawn, on the outskirts whereof some twelve beautiful palaces are situated. The latter one No. (2) is the rarest exceptional man, (one out of innumerable individual religionists) who at some seldom moment peeps at the moon through one of the slits of one of the windows of his particular palace. The latter can never have the full vision of the full moon, nor the blessed enjoyment of the nectar-like moonlight, for any appreciable length of time. He would be only taking a chance, when the full moon becomes visible from a particular slit of a particular window from a particular direction. No question, meditation for a continued long period would be impossible. Further worse, it is no knowing when the palace proprietor, pulls up his ear, eye and neck as the punishment for the violation of the palace routine and makes such peeping impossible in future, for all, by filling, by filling up the window itself with a wall, making the full moon enjoying through slit-peeping impossible. The difference is one like that of the forest monarch lion versus the circus lion, ever under the fear of the whip and starvation.
Universal God can have no particular name, mythology and tradition. For the grace of the Universal God, one has to be the possessor of a mind and heart, from which everything is erased & effaced and wiped out except the irreducible minimum of the fewest truths.
These are :
(1) God is the Creator, Nourisher and Destroyer of universes.
(2) God is the God of Love and Mercy for every being, animate or inanimate, of the creation.
(3) God loves, with individual attention, every one of the creation.
(4) God does require everyone of the creation to love Him.
(5) God does require every one of the creation to love, as far as it can, all other beings of the creation.
(6) God does require every one of the creation to be the most congenial element of this creation and an individual being that has been most obediently working out His Divine Will.
All the rest is mostly riff-raff. The grace of a Personal God is more easily attainable than the Impersonal God. In consonance with the above principles, the tenets of Mai-ism evolve themselves to be (1) Love All (2) Serve All (3) Devote yourself to your God and (4) with Unconditional Cheerful Self-Surrender. This can be done either directly or along with and as a part of one's own individual religion. Mai-ism so often states hammering-ly, that it is not confined to God as Mother alone and Mai-ism does include the Fatherhood of God. However, if the object in view of any religion is peace and happiness, Mai-ism gives priority to the relationship of God and man as mother and child and to the belief and the outlook of considering the whole humanity as one universal family.
The man who loves others, who is devout and lives the life of self-surrender is much more powerful than the man of all scriptures, mortifications, yogic practices, cave-solitude-living, constant
mantra-repetitions, elaborately detailed worships and costliest ceremonies. Everything can be questioned as to what God desires us to do, but it is beyond the smallest shadow of doubt that If I love God, God is bound to love me. If I do not murmur, complain or revolt against God and surrender myself to Him, God is sure to be most intensely pleased with me. And here there is no technique of any religion or the mysterious process of some ceremony or the incomprehensible deep thought or theory of any headache-creating philosophy of imagination-juggleries. Idiocy and weakness are more tolerable than intellectual wickedness and rebelliousness.
If every one of us is born and brought up with the staunchest conviction that we are religious and therefore entitled to God's grace-showering, but only to the extent we love God's children, as Mai-ism teaches, what a heaven this world of ourselves would be ! ! ! Selfish people may not like to love and serve but who does not like to be loved and served? They should be first persons to be advocating this universal Mai-ism religion of Love and Service. Mai-ism is founded on something which every human being knows, possesses and needs. viz. "Love".
They that cannot love Mother because they are not sure of Her existence, may love and serve Her children. If they cannot love, let them at least serve them mechanically, just as we serve our guests, out of consideration of our own gentility and general social prestige. Serve others even as mere dependents or refugees, but serve them all as far as you can. In many cases you may find, it would be impossible to love because of the wickedness of any person, as your love may be simply exploited and you may be harassed or swallowed up. Mai-ism does not want you to be indiscriminate in such cases, but your first and most natural assumption and attitude towards any one should be that of Love and Service and there must be a feeling of missingness and imperfection and our limitedness, whenever we have to helplessly recede from loving and serving all. In cases of fear of an abuse, try to help the men in distress, incognito and in untraceable concealed manner and anonymously, if you can safely serve them that way. If that too is not possible, pray to Mai for removing their wickedness as also their distress and difficulty. Serve with the notion, of course with every precaution, that the man intended to be served is a creditor for some unknown reason, of yourself or someone of yourself, to whom you are bound or are willing to serve. All noblest feelings of love and kind acts of service form the Mai-Bank-Spiritual Wealth. We deposit in a bank with one officer whom we do not know and we are given cash when we withdraw, by another officer, who, as well, does not know us nor saw us when we deposited. We know only the Mai-Bank and the Bank is fully trusted, to see that there is no injustice. Mai-Bank is the never-failing bank and gives the maximum interest. Mai-ism says Mai's path is a mystery of mysteries on account of such miraculous drastic measures as none can imagine or understand. Once you become Hers, She has Her own ways, Her own arrangements, adjustments and dispensations. Once you be Hers and the remaining task is Hers."
When Mai's grace dawns, an inexplicable fascination for the remembrances of Her and the repetitions of Her sublimating name possesses Her initiated child. Repetition of Her name flings open the gates of Her inner Court. The aspirant is on the way of becoming one as Hers, with all others that are already Hers. Mai's child rushes on the path of attaining Mai's grace. All mundane attractions and attachments, one after another, slip away. Constant contact and all-surrendered service of Mai's pets sharpens and sweetens the love of Mai's child to Mai. The intense feeling and craving for approaching Mai and having Her vision unveils Mai's personality. Constant meditation of Mai's personality enkindles in the heart of Her child, an intense desire of the most direct all-exclusive relationship. On that relation being established, nothing in all the worlds and universes remains covetable except full self-surrender in Mai's Lotus Feet and Mai's acceptance.
Mai-ism is the Universal Religion, which God Almighty, Mai the Universal Mother has given to the world, after not only the individual religions have failed to run the world smoothly, but after having been fully certain that they can never set their houses in order, after the irretrievable degeneration that the world has been brought to, through multifarious reasons and especially materialism, mammonism and satanism.
Till now almost every religion has more or less, as stated before, accepted the three parts, viz. the first that of meritorious religious actions with ceremonies, etc., the second, that of devotion, and the third that of the Divine Knowledge, which has been already dealt with, under the spirituality zone. Mai-ism adds two more paths to the already well known three paths, referred hereafter.
The universe shifts from spirituality to materialism and thereafter vice versa ad infinitum. The universe and therefore religions too have their states of growth, zenith, decay and death, which only means rebirth in a new body. We desire that even in old age, with the help of packets of medicines and various wonderful exercises, we may never die even after five hundred years. However, the Divine Laws make it inevitable that even the best built buildings, must be repaired and reconstructed and even pulled down, to build a new structure, utilising whatever materials of the old house are entirely sound and solid.
Mai-ism is the new form of the essence of all the principal individual religions with certain indispensable new elements. Mai-ism gives to the world two more paths (IN ADDITION) which are for the new materialistic mentality of believing in nothing else except one's own personal experience and therefore for the new mentality which believes in self-evolution only through self-suffering and in one's own independent free will, which knows no allegiance to any outside agency of the stereotyped routinistic human wisdom dictated under individual religions.
Mai-ism opens, for the new age with an entirely new mentality in new conditions, two more paths of effortful and effortless self-surrender, viz. the fourth path of self-surrender to God and Guru with every obedience to the Guru's suggestions and the fifth path of effortless self-surrender, leaving the whole burden on God and Guru. The surrendered of both types, are led actually by Mai through all the fearful forests of evolution after evolution. As Mai-ism says, the best and the most detailed teachings of any religion or even the sum total of all teachings of all religions put together are only "The first furlong formulae" of instructions on the infinite journey to the final destination. A stage comes when fully tired the traveler faints and swoons exhausted and none (not he himself) knows how and through what processes he has reached the destination. And that is God's and Guru's grace. For those first few furlongs, quite a nominal fraction of the whole journey, the evolution becomes quicker if the disciple effort fully exerts his best to carry out the instructions of the Guru. In fact, as stated in Mai-ism, Guru's grace is nothing without God's grace and vice-versa, even though compared to God, Guru is simply nothing. The guru helps making the beginning and God leads the disciple, after the Guru's work is done, to the final destination. In the case of the effortless disciple, the Guru has to exert much more. All the same, Guru as also God are both most anxious to lead the effortful or effortless soul to the final destination. And that is the mysterious truth behind the final-most remedy of self-surrender, which universal Mai-ism places before the whole world.
The effortless surrender path is also equally sure to take you to destination, although after a much longer period, even though superficially it may look impossible. The effortless path is described under Mai-ism in the type of its underlying mentality as under:
Oh, God, whatever I appear to have done is done by Thee. Thou art my promptor in whatever I do good or bad. I know nothing and I have to do nothing and I am responsible for nothing. I am nothing. It is Thy Will that Thou art using me to fulfil. The whole universe is only Thy sport, unfold or fold it up, unwind or wind it up as Thou wilt. What is that to me and how am I concerned? You do whatever you like with Thy universe and Thy progress and Thy sports. What is that to me? Do as Thou likest. Do not place any burdens on me. Leave me alone, to be only remembering and repeating Thy sacred and most blessed name, at my own sweet will." "Jaya Mai Jaya Markand Mai". Here the love and faith and complete self-surrender do the miraculous work.
The spiritual aspirant who has developed the above stated mentality has not only inwardly, though desultorily, unconsciously and effortlessly mastered the mentality of practically denying his own self; but has reached the stage of denying the authorship, actor ship, ownership or enjoyer-ship of himself. He remains ever joyful, attributing everything to God's Divine Will. He has eliminated from his mind everything else except himself and his God and Guru.
He has fullest faith that he has to be and will be actually lifted by God and Guru from whatever position he stands on. He is sure that God and Guru have to perfect him just as a mother has to do her best possible, in respect of a lame and blind, dumb and deaf, but pitiable and fully surrendered child. Under Mai-ism, Guru is the spiritual mother and the disciple, her child.
Mai bless the whole universe with the most righteous understanding and living, with universal religiosity, full of love, service, devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender; Mai bless the whole humanity with the highest stage of revived spirituality that would shatter the thickest and darkest clouds of rank materialism, selfishness, ignorance, evil and perverted intellect of vast wickedness.
Mai shower Her highest grace of gratefulness, greatness, goodness, givingness, Godliness and going-ness on one and all who try to understand and follow this Mai-ism Chart and to assimilate all instructions in this brochure of explanatory observations.
Bombay
23-12-1965
MAI-SWARUPA MAI-MARKAND
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