A popular religion to suit the modern world should have the following characteristics
(1 ) Religion must have a definite form and should not be an idealistic, incomprehensible, chaos-creating, airy and hazy something.
(2) Religion should not be a source of superstition.
(3) Relation of man to man must be hundred times much better. Be we first a man, then a brother and thereafter alone, a religious man.
(4) Religion should be recognised to mean the essence and the experience of life lived.
(5) Everyone should be and should be considered under the direct protection and guidance of God.
(6) Preachers should be witnesses and not lawyers and professors.
(7) As few limitations as possible should be set on the conception of God and on the innocent harmless and free latitude and living of men.
(8) All adornments and adjuncts should be gradually slackened and even removed, as soon as, at the stage when they are found to be obstructive, is reached.
(9) Religion should be accommodative, constructive and progressive. Religion must provide for pruning from age to age.
(A) Mai-ism is the psychological religion for one and all of any religion or no religion without caste, creed or colour. There can be a Hindu Mai-ist, a Mohamedan-Mai-ist, a Christian Mai-ist and so on. With full reverence to and while following one’s own religion, one can be a Mai-ist. Mai-ism is one’s own personal religion to be adopted after the age of discretion and not one’s ancestral religion of one’s birth.
( B ) Under Mai-ism, there is no place, by its very postulates, for the condemnation of Harijans as ‘ Untouchables, Woman’s subjugation by Man or condemnation by routine religion as ” Narakasya Dwaram “( Hell’s Gate ) has no room, as every Mai-ist is expected to look upon every woman ( except his own wife ) as representative form of Mother and as under Mai-ism the co-operation of man and woman in the Mother worship is the highest spiritualising force. The spirit underlying the words ” Heathen “, ” Kafir “, ” Mlechcha ” ” Durvan “, etc., has no existence under Mai-ism.
(C) One who does not believe in God, but who do believe in the common-tie of Humanity and practises service and extends Love to all, is a ” Mai-ist “,
(D) The six tenets of Mai-ism are:–
1) God is more merciful when approached as Mother;
2) Mother is mother of all, without caste, creed or colour;
3) Mother smiles, on one’s trying to love All, to one’s best;
4) Mother saves, on one’s trying to serve All, with one’s best;
5) Mother showers Her Grace, on one’s devotion to Her.
6) Mother serves, on one’s living the life of universal Love and Service, with Devotion to Her and Unconditional Cheerful Self-Surrender to Mother’s Divine Will.
(E) BASIC BELIEFS OF A MAI-IST ARE : –
(1) Unity of all Religions.
(2) Universal relation of all human beings as members of One Family.
(3) No Communalism. No Provincialism. No Nationalism and No Racialism.
(4) For Mother’s Love, Grace, Devotion and Mercy, the daily practice of universal sisterhood and brotherhood, is an indispensable requirement.
(5) Everyone must have the right of selecting one’s own line of evolution.
(6) Precise evaluation of essentials and non-essentials of one’s religiosity, with test-stones of fundamental and eternal truths.
(7) Religion not to be permitted being made a cause for disunion, domination, prejudice, exploitation or superstition, and not to fail respecting science, reason, conscience, experience, human psychology and individual merits and demerits.
(8) One’s superiority to be least thought of, being trivial, transitory, circumstantial and not single-handedly earned.
(9) Not making most of the little differences of high and low, which are often prejudicial, and sometimes even imaginary.
(10) One’s cheerfulness never to be lost as nothing is irreparable or unachievable under Mother’s Grace.
(11) Be ever optimistic. The highest difference between man and man is nothing compared to what Mother’s Grace can make in a moment. A sinner can be a saint at the second moment and a saint may turn out to be a devil after a day.
(12) Destruction is for re-construction, doubting for believing, evil for good, sinfulness for sinlessness.
(13) Rise above all superstitions. There is no ‘Choo-Mantar'(magic) for a true Mai-ist, except the repetition of ‘ Jai Mai’, Guru’s Grace, Mother’s Mercy, one’s own highest exertion, and the world’s sympathy.
(14) Mai-ist’s highest initial grounding – Motherhood of God, Universality.
Mai-ist’s highest life-maxims – Love, Service, Devotion, unconditional and cheerful self- Surrender to Mother’s Divine Will.
Some of the practical measures for practical Mai-ists are :
– (1) Holding common prayers, Bhajans or Kirtans of God in any name or form and of any saints or devotees, holding classes, delivering lectures and undertaking tours for the general spiritual uplift.
(2) Introducing common prayers in Schools, Colleges and in masses.
(3) Holding Mother worship, personal or impersonal in any form, as may be agreed upon by one and all.
(4) Convening social of sisters or brothers or combined or of families, without caste, creed or colour.
(5) Promulgation of common religious and allied literature and encouragement of studies of all religions by individuals of different religions. Publication of extracts from sacred books of all religions.
(6) Helping poor or bereaved families, deserving students, orphanages, opening celibate Mai-ist Schools, starting widow-homes, offering medical aid to the needy, guiding wedded pairs to-wards spiritual matrimonial living, praying for the peace of the departing or departed souls etc.
(7) Promotion of immensely practical universal sisterhood and brotherhood in daily life.
(8) Abolition of racial, national, provincial, social and religious prejudices and intercession for bringing about honourable peace and equitable compromise.
(9) Constructing, opening or encouraging to open Mother’s Lodges, temples, Homes and Colonies under any denomination religious, national or communal, of any people, in any place.
The process of evolution of Mother’s followers on attainment of Guru’s Grace and Mother’s Mercy is as under : –
(1) Acquisition of merit ( Punya ) by doing religious acts , Japa, worship, charity, services etc. which will lead in the first instance to the fulfillment of all legitimate and moral desires, next to patience and proofness, and then to the appreciation of the virtuous, religious and saintly people and their ways of living.
(2) The actions and qualities of Love, Service, Devotion and Self-surrender having fairly matured by practice, Mother will so bring about circumstances and opportunities that the follower will be lifted up from his routine and worldly life and will be ushered into the company of virtuous, religious, devotional and saintly people.
(3) Constant contact of religious people and their Service, their Imitation and their Grace will create a proper understanding of good and evil, truth and untruth, righteousness and unrighteousness etc. , and these will introduce one to Godliness after sufficient practice and disciplinary training in goodness, virtue etc.
(4) This introduction to godliness will ultimately result in the great liking for godliness, virtuous, devotional, unselfish and higher living and finally in the germination of Love towards God.
(5) Devotion to and Love of God will perfect the true understanding about soul-knowledge and will bring the Supreme Self of God and the individual self of the follower much nearer, through faith and conviction strengthened by Mother, often through miraculous Grace.
(6) Love of God will result in the Love to God’s creation.
(7) Feeling the finger or hand of God in all arrangements, getting the sight of God occasionally, feeling oneness with God on self-surrender and the inward satisfaction of ‘ having been accepted ‘.
(8) Establishing a perpetual relation with God and helping God in all grand work with the Power and Love which God is pleased to confer.
It is thus the greatest joy of the Founder of Mai-ism, Mai Swarup, that his work and universal love and service Mission has not only been appreciated by one of the greatest universal religious institutes but that both institute heads have practically been united to be the indispensable complements of each other.
As stated in the last correspondence, Maiji, with the grand patron, U. R. A., represents the great university of religious teachings whereas Mai-ism is for creating, developing and multiplying the divine love through the practical living of mutual love and service with morality and virtue, etc. What the world most indispensably needs today is the universal religion of wisdom and love. The first thing that Mai-ism sees is the greatest necessity of, picking out truly religious-minded, God-fearing men from the God-denying, religion rebellious persons and collecting the former together to create religious strong irreligion overpowering forces. This cannot be done till all the existing scattered religions instead of cancelling the benefitting works and creating conquering forces against each other, begin to see the wisdom of uniting all these now scattered) together. Custodians of individual religions have never shown any sympathetic attitude in this direction, by either working themselves or helping others towards the same goal. Unfortunately, they have not come out of their delusion and pride, namely, “theirs’s is the only best religion and the only one that can give salvation”.
The first easiest qualification that Mai-ism prescribes for being a Mai-ist is, whether you believe in God or not or if you do, which God, which religion, which philosophy, which guru, which temple, which worshipping mode, all these are only subsidiary matters for Mai-ism. It is enough that you have the universal outlook and you try your best to love and serve all that you have to deal with.
Mankind can be classified from the point of soul evolution as under, and Mai-ism is for lifting the sincerely aspiring follower from the lowest plane to the highest plane through successive ladder rungs.
First, we have the lowest standard of persons who only know how to keep themselves happy. They have no idea or belief in God or divine love or inward happiness on living a virtuous life or any considerations about life after death or answerability to higher powers of hell or heaven. They are of the “eat, drink and be merry” type. This class has only one goal in life, viz., how to attain maximum happiness and minimum misery in life, which is the only life existing or at best to be absorbed in.
They utilize all their available and applicable gifts, capacities etc., to the said purpose. Their action, speech, intention, trickiness, diplomacy, feet, hands, mind and head, their capacities and virtue and vice, even their invocation of spiritual or Godly powers are all dedicated to one supreme goal viz., how to become happiest principally in this world and in this life.
This class is dealt with under Mai-ism with the only said requirement of universally loving and serving any one that it comes in contact with, to the extent of one’s practicability. The Mai-ism tenet of universality or universal-mindedness, means for that class making no distinction of religion, country, community, etc. This is ample enough for that class. If people are brought to this much stage in daily living, there will be a great increase in peace and happiness of the whole mankind. This, therefore, is the most preliminary first step of Mai-ism.
Second, Mai-ism comes to the best man to man relationship. Here, one has to deal with virtue and character or in the words of Mai-ism, with the four “C’s”, namely, gratefulness, greatness, goodness and givingness. This second stage also requires and also includes developing self-control in the matter of wrath, lust, pride, greed and infatuation, envy, etc. and living the most harmless, virtuous and helpful, benevolent life. Here is the life-long practice of evolving oneself to better and better stages in developing one’s understandings, beliefs, convictions and masteries, as one has to pass through so many troubles, trials, temptations, tribulations and acid tests.
Third, stage is religious wisdom and divine knowledge. It is here that U.R.A. has helped the world immensely and can help Mai-ism most thoroughly. U. R. A. has the advantage of not only of the most intimate knowledge of all the eastern and western philosophies, but has also the upto-date knowledge of the occult and esoteric sciences of western, newly developed subjects, viz. psychology, spiritualism, hypnotism, clairvoyance, etc. U. R. A. has made immense sacrifice in the matter of spreading useful spiritual knowledge. Here, U. R. A., by its co-operation with Mai-ism can immensely enrich the devotional world and convince modern mind about the indispensability of God, religion, virtue, selflessness, etc. The new world wants everything made anew and requires first to be convinced before being asked to follow any instructions through mere blind faith.
The fourth stage is of course of religiosity consisting mainly of devotion with unconditional cheerful self-surrender known as “Godliness” in the six “G’s’ of Mai-ism after “givingness”.
The fifth stage in that of spirituality known as goingness in the “G’s” of Mai-ism. It is the final stage of self-mergence in the finalmost “The all and the only one”; call that “The all and the only one”
by any name – Mai or Fai or Mai-Fai or Fai-Mai under the parental conception or Hinduism Brahman in the impersonal, transcendental conception or any name of any religion which is based on and which develops the personal conception of God, or Mai of the Universal Religion of Mai-ism, who is above being He, She or It, above being personal or impersonal, above attributes and with attributes above any name or form, etc, Such a conception of God has been there with some few religions but it is confined only to some individual religion whereas in the case of the universal religion of Mai-ism, Mai is the god who is “The all and the only one”, above being He, She or it or above being personal or impersonal or above attributes and with or without attributes or above any or individual person, name, etc.
To explain Mai-ism in few words, it aims in its outermost crust at the synthesis of all religions and in its innermost crust at truest religiosity. Till now we have 12 principal religions. Let us conceive of them as palaces and that in each one of them there are 7 floors. Till now, each palace has acted in rivalry, hostility and hatred with all the eleven others. Maiism wants not only to establish unity amongst the 12 religions but wants to bring about harmony of the different indwellers of all the different 12 palaces and floors. To explain the matter clearly in terms of alphabets and numbers, let us think of the 12 religions as a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, and 1 and of the seven floors of each of them as al, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6, and a7, or bl, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, and b7, etc. The present position is that neither a and b see eye to eye nor even al and a2 indwellers of the same palace (religion) but on different floors. Maiism wants to establish harmony not only between a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, and l or between al, a2, etc., of the same one religion, but also between the indwellers of the same numbered floor of all the palaces (religions), a to 1. Mai-ism does not ignore human nature, the most difficult task is the establishment of harmony between the indwellers of say the first floor and the seventh floor but maximum possible harmony can be achieved by appealing to the fact of both being of the same palace (religion), for instance between say, al, and a7 and appealing to the same fact of the stage difference of evolution and common happiness and miseries although falling in the different man-made groups of different religions.
Of course, this may look extremely idealistic and impossible. All the same, whatever efforts are made are never yet to go in vain, although it is true that the success is bound to be proportionate to the effort and sacrifice.
By God’s grace, we may reach the highest stage of evolution of the whole world although perfection will ever remain far distant and even impossible for all human beings. Anyway, individuals by themselves do fully realize the results of their individual desire, action, effort and sacrifice. Any effort in the direction of true religiosity has sound advantages. Firstly, not even the smallest effort or service or the good wish of pure and disinterested love to others goes unremunerated multifold Secondly, whatever you have gained in virtue, wisdom, love, devotion and self-surrender to Mai’s will is never lost unlike worldly gains and efforts, which would bring highest success at one moment and that success may turn into the worst miseries at another as we have often seen in the fluctuations of world wars, where the highest efforts, brains, militaries, etc., are putting their maximum intellects, activities and maximum sacrifices. Thirdly, the most mysterious and invisible manner in which the eternal never-failing divine law adjusts all conditions, environments, associations, relations and even destinies, including parentage, birth-place, etc., with fullest regard to what you really are, and on which rung of the evolution ladder you are actually standing on at a particular moment. The natural automatic result is that the higher you go by your efforts, so many miseries automatically cease to exist for you and so many new avenues are opened out to you. The most unfortunate fact is that we have no idea whatsoever, as to which miseries have automatically passed out of existence for us and which sources of happiness have been opened out to the religious aspirants, as they rise higher and higher. In a word, there is no going back
Mai bless all, especially the most conscientious religious aspirants and bring forth the strongest unity of U. R. A. and Mai-ism to outspread the universal religion of wisdom and love or of U. R. A.-Mai-ism or Fai-Maiism or whatever name one chooses for oneself.
Soon after installation of Universal Divine Mother Mai on 2 September 1932, the Founder (Saint Shri Mai Swarupa Mai Markand) was deputed to go Belgaum, Dharwad etc., for official duties. In the very train, Mother was worshipped at Belgaum by a large number of ladies, with garlands, sweet offerings and Arati. “Prasad ” was carried away by people right up to Madras (Chennai). The Founder was entirely joyful. One has never heard of an instance of a Divine worship on a railway station in the train by the varied (unknown-to-each-other) train travelers, including especially ladies.
At Belgaum the Founder was taken to a Ganapathi-devotee-Sannyasin whose predictions were reported to be wonderfully correct. The Founder had his turn and the Sannyasin told him, “Believe my words if you start within one month from now, a religious institution “.
On return to Poona (Pune), he was pressed by all that had seen Mother’s miracle of the sisters’ social, to start an institution for universal prayers and lectures on different religions and spreading Mother’s conception. In less than a month from the meeting with the Mahatma of Belgaum, a Mother’s Lodge was started on 27-3-1933. Meetings were held every Sunday with printed handbills distributed and mention in the local papers. Lectures were mainly about Devotion, Love, Service and Surrender as emphasized in different religions. The Founder dealt with Harijans by various lectures and Mother’s worship in the mission.
A few experiences may be narrated to show Mother does help Her devotees-in-distress most miraculously.
A Parsi Lady (Rev. Sister Mithibhai) who served as a chairwoman in sisters’ social had one night a trouble. Her brother (Rev. Brother Jahangir) asked her for Rs. 500/ as he was in difficulty. It was Friday night. She said she would paid off his bills but would not give cash because he was sure to loose that in the race-course. The brother got wrathful and ran shouting she may read in the papers the next day the result of her refusal. The lady was terrified. How could she run after him? In her despair she shouted for the Founder, ” Oh my brother, Oh my Mother, who can save me? Who would bring my brother back?” She decided to go the Founder, when, in the bungalow itself, she saw Mother who told her , “My son is just now having a nap after a long exhaustion. Don’t trouble him. I will bring your brother back in an hour and a half. ” The brother who had gone to Bund Garden with a determination not to return home, returned. All of them motored to the Founder and joined in Friday prayers. They narrated experience to their friends and that added a lot of popularity of Mai-ism.
One of the Mother’s devotee’s (Rev. Bro. L.S. Prasad) brother (Rev. Brother Sankarlal) was in some great prosecution difficulty though he was innocent. He was praying as initiated. Once he was so much unnerved that he decided to run down to Poona (Pune) to be blessed. He had a dream in which there was a room in which the Founder (whom he had not seen) was sleeping and Mother was patrolling and guarding the Founder. He entered the room. She asked him, “why are you here?” He said,” I want the Founder as I am in great difficulty “. Said She,” Don’t disturb my son,. He is fast asleep after a bitter weeping for me. You want acquittal, is it not? Well, I promise you; you now walk off. Let him sleep.”
The man wrote about the dream to the Founder and asked his meaning and whether he should come down to Poona for blessings. The Founder asked him details of the room, direction, things lying, the posture of the Founder etc. as he saw in the dream. Details came forth. The Founder had three pillows; he had a blanket which was brown with black squares. He was sleeping with Mai’s picture by his side. These and other details equally tallied. The Founder said,” You need not come down to Poona, but pray, pray and pray “. He was later acquitted.
There was plague in Poona. People left the city. The Founder lived on Toddiwala road. One day a lady came and told and told him that Mother had appeared in the dream and said,” Those who want to save their families should attend my Friday Prayers.” The Founder told her,” I have very small space here. Your own desire has materialized in the dream.” With all reverence, she was a bit wrathful. She spoke words which showed she was severely distressed. “Do you think, Mai, that we are not fit and Mother will not talk to us in the dream and that you are alone have all the monopoly? However small we may be for Her Grace, there is no question of worthiness; I tell youMother is actually living in your house. If you like you may see test.She is going out at 5 a.m. and moves in the garden and returns within few minutes. “
The Founder gave the substance of this talk to his cook and his servant and asked them to keep watch and shout for him if they saw Mother. At about five next morning both of them heard a sound near the door as if someone was unloosening the chain and they saw the door opened and closed quite speedily and the chain swinging and hanging vertically. They ran out, looked all round but could see none. They reported to the Founder. The Founder used a lock, kept the key with him. The next night, the cook and the servant shouted. The lock was opened and there was the sound of the doors striking freely as if they were broken open most angrily. The Founder ran up, saw the doors wide open and the lock opened, hanging loose one side and the chain on the other. He ran in the garden and saw Her just before disappearing. He danced like a mad man with joy and composed a poem which is sometimes sung in Mother’s Lodge meetings. ” Bagan me fool chunan jaye meri Maiya: in the garden, flowers to pluck, goes my Mother.” Orders were issued not to close the doors by night or to open them at 4 a.m. The predicting woman was obeyed. Friday prayers began in a spacious terrace and there was no case of a plague attack in the vast number of families that attended.
However the most wonderful and interesting experience of the Founder was this. One young man who had lost his equilibrium due to his wife’s death was in the spiritual service of the Founder, after he was restored to normality. One night he made a very strange statement. He said,” Mother just passed in front our door in a royal splendid car and She told me, You come over with your Kakaji (Founder) to the Globe Cinema Theater (in Poona-Pune). I am going there. Bring him without fail.He thinks a religious preacher loses all his austerity and Punya by seeing the Cinema.He needs a relief now. Don’t fail.” The Founder thought the young man’s head had again turned. He thought all his labours of recovery on him were lost. He tried to make that man forget but the latter would not leave him. Both went to Globe Cinema. The picture was ‘Maya Machendra”. The other man had absolutely no peace of mind. He would go out of the theater and come in every five minutes till finally he came shouting : ” Mother came in just now in the very same car. Few minutes later, the man shouted,” See, See, See there,She is sitting just in that balcony all alone.” The Founder was more than stupefied as he saw Mother there all alone in gem-becked easy chair. Both were steadily gazing at Her. After 4 to 5 minutes, they saw Mother getting up most hurriedly. Said the other man, “Kakaji, Mother is going away” and rushed out. The Founder also ran after him.They saw Mother getting into the car with a lightning speed and the car flew off.
There will be no end to narration of all the Founder’s experiences.
To those that have some mystic knowledge of occult religious nature, it is known fact that visions and dreams are powerful avenues of divine communications. Deities and dead or distant Guru carry their work through dreams, regarding the interpretations of which the wisest are often at their wits’ end.
Dreams themselves are often untrue, but sometime true, sometimes a picture of own desires, imaginations and ambitions, and sometimes actually by way of a command, message or guidance, or even initiation by the higher souls. There is no seal of certainty about its source, and every dream has to be dealt with most cautiously, neither with blind faith, nor with nothing-caring-indifference. The best thing is to consult and take decision from one in whom you believe and who is more advanced religious soul, higher than yourself.
In the case of the Founder( Shri Markand Dholkia – the author of this book & the Founder of Universal Religion Mai-ism, popularly known as Mai Swarup Mai Markand or Maiji), dreams and visions have played an extremely important part, as would be seen from so many instances narrated already and to be narrated hereafter.
The very belief in the existence of a Final most element beyond this visible world, was the rich first fruit of the Divine dream given by Bhadrakali at Ahmadabad. His acceptance as a son by Bahucharaji Mother was through the dream in the temple.
His being permanently established as a devotee of Mother was the most invaluable Grace through theDirect Vision of Mother Herself,at the moment of his suicide leading despair.
In the very installation of Mai, it was the dreams of Her two devotees, one from Calcutta and the other from Shemoga (Mysore) that had played the important part of convincing the Founder about Mother’s determined Will.
Further, he convened the Sisters’ Social at Poona (Pune), simply because he took the dream-command as realistically as a General’s command to his humble servant. The Madras (Chennai) Sisters’ Gathering on 1-10-1949 (Dussehra day) was also the result of a later command in dream.
The activities in respect of the latter were enthusiastically taken up by leading Madras (Chennai) sister, (a resident of Mambalam) because she had a dream.
In Poona (Pune) Sisters’ Social, one rich Parsi lady, eighty one years of age , was actually carried by her grand-daughters to the meeting because she had a dream ( as narrated by her grand-daughter during the meeting) to the purport attendance in that meeting was the highest expiation of all sins , for anyone belonging to any religion.
Seeing dreams in which Mother and Founder would be seen sitting together and sometimes playing some indoor or outdoor game and sometimes “hide and seek”, was one variety. Mother teasing the Founder and the latter getting wrathful and running to catch Her and hit Her and Mother eluding the grip and laughing at his inability to cope with Her lighting speed – another variety.
In 1942 a lady from Karachi, and in 1944 a gentleman from Surat, came right down to Bombay (Mumbai) and Hubli respectively, simply because in their dreams they saw Mother sitting with an old devotee, who on description to someone knowing the Founder, was believed to be he . On seeing the Founder in person, they expressed their happiest wonder and joyfully narrated their details of identification, while talking about the “dream-devotee” and the devotee-before-their-eyes.
Someone,with open eyeswhile meditating on Mother saw Her in life-size behind the Mother’s worship picture. Her heart opened slowly as a thin mist of cloud scatters away to show the moon behind, and in Her heart’s cavity, that one saw a small size bust of the Founder. Few seconds after, the heart closed up, setting a seal, as it were, over the heart protecting its beloved treasure.
Someone from Belgaum, who had been the Founder’s guest, once heard words like this in his ears “Bachchako Jagaav. Bolo Do Niwaalaa Khaake So”. -“My son, awaken; tell him two morsels having eaten, sleep”. This was in his wonderful hearing on one of the Navaraatra nights, when the Founder had not taken his regular meal by day and being tired with work and worry about the success of the Poona Sisters’ Social (9-10-1932), he lay on his cot half-hungry but half-sleepy and tired.
Someone would see the most graceful living slim figure of Mother as in the Maai picture, with the face of Founder. The Founder’s face in that case would be quite young and beautiful, without wrinkles and grey hairs.
Someone would see the beautiful Mother’s face and body up to the waist from below in green sari and the upper body would be covered under the Founder’s usual thin white shirt. Some would see half-Mother half-Founder. A layman in this matter may, for a time, argue, such dreams as are narrated above, may be the creation of their own mental thoughts, but we can’t explained away like that, when the Founder actually experienced a vast, striking change in the attitude of the persons before and after their experience.
I am referring to the dream experience of Mysore (Shimoga) devotee, who carried the Mother -Installing message, referred to before. This young man happened to come to the hotel as a casual visitor, like one of so many passers-by where the Founder was residing. The Founder also, by chance, just went to the dinning -floor, at the time that man was dinning.
As soon as that man saw the the Founder quickly returning to his place, he suddenly left his half-meal and ran after the Founder. Most abruptly, he talked to Founder,” Are you a devotee of a Devi?” Founder also made no delay, ” Yes, not only a devotee, but a passionate, most uneasy devotee”. Still more abruptly the man said, ” I come from Mysore. I have a message to hand over to you from your Mother”. The Founder got dumb-founded. “Yes, please come up to my room”. The man followed. The message was communicated.
Said the man,” I have come down so far. Would you not favor me with the spark of Love for Mother? I have enough of divine knowledge (Jnana) and Ritualistic Bhakti, just for my purposes (this was only his modesty). Said Founder,” Are you prepared? Would you sit with me on the bench of the Sheikh Sulla bridge (in Poona – Pune) during night hours?” He agreed. The Founder was sitting with him in exposure from 11 P.M. to 4 A.M. on a wooden bench.
The man went to his place. He was at the highest pitch of his desire that he may have a vision of Mother, at least in the dream. He had a dream, on sleeping. Mother appeared before him and said,” You are now longing for my Darshan (vision). Who was talking to you for hours on the bridge? That was myself. You have not only seen me, but talked with me for hours.” The man full of devotion and with tears in his eyes, narrated the event forthwith to the Founder, at the early dawn.
The reader may feel inclined to know similarly about the Calcutta message-bearer. With the command to carry the message in a dream, he came over to Poona (Pune). Finding no place in any other hotel, he had come over to the hotel where Founder resided.
With greater despondency as to how to find the man in such a large unknown city, he fell into sleep at 10 P.M. He had a dream.”Don’t be afraid and losing heart. I have brought you to the man.” Just at 12 mid-night, you see things through the slits of the common door between your room and the front room. You have to hand over the message to the man there in the morning. Make a bold statement of what you see and the message.”
The man saw the Founder at the said hour in communion, full of solicitations to Mother “to find some other man to install etc. “and in lamentation and in his part of unconsciousness and ground-falling in swoon.
In the morning, he delivered the message in a bold convincing manner and that evening he left for Nagpur.
Once a great yogi arrived at the Founder’s, in Hubli, as a distinguished rare guest. He was a master of English and Sanskrit in his young days. He had relinquished the world and was moving from place to place. He lived on milk, fruit and wet gram pulse uncooked.
The Founder remained all the while in high humility with his two hands folded and attended him as a waiter. Like Totapuri in Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s life, he was talking to the Founder, almost spurningly or atleast belittlingly about Founder’s devotional madness and absence of regularity, looseness in daily routine trivial matters, over-kindness to undeserving, mind weakness, etc. It was in the manner of a Gyani or a Yogi with an extreme superiority complex, talking from the terrace to a foot-path man. All this took place during the day time, on the first-arrival-day.
They slept that night at 2 A.M. Founder is a late riser. He usually sleeps after 3 A.M. and gets up between 8 and 9 in morn. As soon as Founder woke up, the Yogi made a long prostration, and began to speak in humblest words,’ Forgive me. Forgive my impudence, my folly, my swollen-headedness. For the first time in my life, I have a cause to repent.Even a house holder can be a highest religious man. Thou art the Divine Mother, in human form”.
The Founder was shocked at such a change in few night hours. The Yogi told him, he had a dream. “With his Yogic powers, he was soaring high along a big mountain and was standing near the edge of the plateau. Somehow his foot slipped and he rolled most hurtfully along the slope. He was being crushed with ice-blocks falling on him. He came rolling at the foot of the mount. He had got senseless. When he got consciousness, he saw that one most beautiful Mother was nursing him. She lifted him and carried him to a long deep cave and placed him lying just at the cave-mouth. The Mother shouted hard to someone in the cave, ‘Come out quick, a great Yogi has slipped from the mount and is most seriously hurt.’ Out came a simple dressed quite an ordinary-looking man, with childlike lustrous face.”
The Yogi at this point began to ask the Founder” Who do you think or guess this Savior man might be?” The Founder gave some two or three names, Kali Kamaliwala, Lord Anand, etc. The Yogi impatiently said, “No. No”, and then with an outburst of lamentation frantically prostrated to the Founder and catching his feet said,” Who else can he be??? It was you, you, you with merciful heart for anyone, even the worst sinners. You, human Merciful Mother.” And he wept profusely.
There was one interesting instance of a lady. She was supposed to be the Mataji. We have so many of them amongst Hindus, ladies in whose body some Devi would appear periodically. All will worship her, ask questions, advice and blessings, this was in a much earlier period. Whereas the Yogi incident was in 1944, this one was in 1936 in Poona (Pune). Somehow Founder was introduced to the lady, and she began to take him “right and left”. She attacked him ruthlessly,” Do you think mere knowledge is God’s Grace?? Does any Maataaji favour you with Her Grace by making you yourself the Mataji? Can you tell me now what is going on at a certain place and a certain hour? Show me what you are capable of .” The Founder was more than “ground-dusted”. He prostrated to her saying “I am simply a worthless nothing “. This took place at about 3 p.m. on a Sunday, at some common friend’s house. The next day, she was found in her motor at the very door of the Founder’s office. Founder was surprised. He took her in. There was no prostration, but full humility in her eyes. She asked pardon in the honorable manner that a lady, and one who was herself worshipped as Mataji, can do.
She explained herself. She had a dream in the night in which she saw her own living Guru in Mount Abu. He was “red and hot” and telling her,” What a foolish thing have you done!!! You have insulted and humiliated a great devotee whom I myself would consider a great privilege to meet. Find him out and immediately run to demand pardon “.She said she had no sleep for the rest of night. She knew only the office address and she had been there to ask his pardon at the first available moment.
On 15-9-1950, the Ganapati Installation Day, a distinguished Swamiji of Madras (Chennai) city, who had seen the Founder only twice at Madras (Chennai) when he went for the first time to Madras for Sister’s gathering on Dussehra day (1-10-1949), had a dream at 4.30 A.M. ; he wrote it out to the Founder. It was nearly ten months since they had any correspondence whatsoever. The substance was: ” I was sitting on a sea-shore. Something took place and I was hurled down into the sea – life itself being in danger and practically lost. I began to struggle hard with hands and feet and to repeat with the highest intense devotion, the most effectious hymns and mantras of Shri Tripura Sundari, Ambika and Ganapati. All hope lost, but finally Mother was pleased to save me. There was an upward push which brought me near up to the surface. I was over joyful on being practically saved. I saw Mother Herself on the shore, with “one”. That “one” jumped into the sea and clasped my hand and pulled me out on the shore “.
The Swamiji further wrote, “Who do you think that “one” was?? I am myself so joyfully surprised to find who that “one” was. It was Mai-Swarup Mai Markand, Founder and President of Mother’s Lodge. You are the most Beloved Soul of Mother. You are the replica, you are Her embodiment “, etc. etc.
The most important incident wherefrom the history of Mai movement starts, took place in the latter months of 1931 ( September and October ) in Poona (India).
The wife of Founder(Markand Ratanlal Dholkia)’s college friend and boss (Late Revered Sister Taraben Soparkar) was on death-bed suffering from Septicemia. The friend got the Founder (Markand Dholkia) transferred from Ahmedabad to Poona to help in the calamity. The wife was lying upstairs. She said to her husband, I am hearing the Mantra repetitions from some Matajee’s devotee. I am on death-bed so please find him out round about our bungalow streets and let me have his Darshan”. The friend took the Founder and went round in search and assured her that there was none: “Not only I but even ‘Dholkia Kaka’ accompanied me for the search”. She exclaimed, “What, has he come? It must be than he. Please call him up”.She repeated the same shloka of Sapta Shati fourth Adhyaya which the Founder was then repeating mentally unheard by anyone. This shloka was repeated by her to assure the Founder that he was a recognised devotee and that she was worthy recipient of his Darshan and blessings.
A drawing professor was coaching the friend’s daughter. He inquired of the future of the lady from a Pandharpur saint. The saint foretold, that her days were finished but added, “There is however a saint in his house. out of courtesy to whom She is not being taken away. The day he leaves the bungalow. she would expire.” The friend enlightened by the first experience suspected that the saint in his bungalow was none other than the Founder and as he was the head of the department, kept him all hours confined to his bungalow by way of precaution. asking him to do his official work at that place.
On 3-October-1931, the case was entirely serious. Three eminent doctors declared she would die within an hour or so. The worst news was broken by the husband to his friend who tried to strengthen his courage to meet the calamity. The husband vociferated, “What a coward talk? I am sure, if you heartily pray, she will at least live longer and give me sufficient time to prepare for the worst.” The Founder had a very little of confidence in the efficacy of his prayers for the most impossible change, but he had to follow him upstairs. He prayed with his whole heart and devotion standing near the pillow of the lady in midst of nearly twenty weeping relatives. The pulse, speech and vision had left the body. On prayer, the Founder’s tears fell in her mouth, the pulse speedily went up, vision and speech returned and the eyes opened. Her word were,”How can I like to leave this world leaving behind me the un-cared-for children? I see Mataji standing before me. She says if you fast for a day she will give me a week’s extension. Will you not promise doing that for me?” The promise was given hand in hand and the improvement began with most unimaginable speed. Just half and hour after, she asked for milk, fruit-juice etc. It was an unprecedented family joy.
Some believed, and some did not, in God’s hand in all these. But almost everyone including husband thought she was saved permanently. On the 7th day, the temperature however rose up from the morning. The husband was too shrewd to remain any longer under delusion. The whole story looked true. She was to go that day. He had a hysteric fit from he was made to recover to composure after consolation by his friend. At 3 p.m., there was a phone from the Secretariat asking the husband to send certain confidential office files under lock and key. He could not possibly leave her. The Founder was given keys and the motor driver was ordered to drive fast and the Founder was given strict orders not to waste a single minute in the office. On reaching office, the head clerk informed him that the lady expired as soon as he has placed his feet outside the bungalow.
Here was a continued episode which baffled all human solutions. She was a great devotee of Matajee. She actually heard the Mantra which the Founder was simply mentally chanting. The prophecy of the Pandharpur saint and its fulfilment were wonders. She saw Mother and heard Her words. A fast of a particular devotee earned the Mother’s Grace of the boon of a week’s life extension. All these happenings began revolving in Founder’s mind, finally resulting an overpowering sense of his ingratitude to Mother.
Said he, “Should I be simply living pleasure-dipped and fully ungrateful to my Mother? She has so often protected me all along and shown Herself to me and I have not breathed a single syllable to the world about Her mercifulness and Her dying for Her devotees. This one idea drove off all other ideas, even those required to sustain himself in daily routine. He became semi-lunatic, weeping day and night and beating his forehead, sometimes against walls rolling on ground and saying only one thing, I am a wretch, most ungrateful creature, Even such a simple thing glorification of Thyself, I have not done.”
He had to go on a long leave. Doctors consulted diagnosed that he had no disease whatever. He had divine madness. The best medicine was constant talk about Mother and Mother’s occupation within his hearing and seeing. This was a furnace period, during which there was a wholesale drastic change, in the Founder’s religious outlook. All the pride of Hindu-ism, Vedas, Brahmins (he himself being a Nagar the highest Brahmin in Gujerat) and the belittling of other religions evaporated. Strangely and wonderfully. Mother finally commanded him to install Her as Mai The Universal Divine Mother.
“God as Mother, Mother of all, propitiable with universal love, service, devotion and unconditional cheerful self-surrender”. These six words and expressions he would often hear in the air and would read written on walls and on the ceiling between joist-gaps and on closed doors and windows. He pleaded his full unworthiness to such an innovation. The more he tried to evade , the more did Mother sit on his heart and head till the sweet talk became artificially embittered and wrathful. “What do you prefer ? Installing me as Mai with the dictated six tenets or life-long present semi-lunacy ?
The Founder finally gave the promise to Mother and so to say escaped, on giving a promise, in order to avert semi-lunacy. His recovery was marvelously quick after promise and he returned to Poona (Pune) and rejoined his service. He had a world of reminders from Mother almost every week. But he was too conscious of the crushing responsibility, to so easily yield. He went on procrastinating. Two persons one in Calcutta and the other in Mysore (Shimoga) were given command in dreams to go over to the city of Poona (Pune) and deliver Her Message of Installing Mother.
The Calcutta message-bearer came over to Poona (Pune). Finding no place in any other hotel, he had come over to the hotel where Founder resided. With great despondency as how to find the man in such a large unknown city, he fell into sleep at 10 p.m. He had a dream ; “Don’t be afraid and losing heart. I have brought you to the man. Just at twelve midnight, you see things through the slit of common door between your room and the front room. You have to hand over the message to the man there in the morning. Make a bold statement”. The man saw the Founder at the said hour in communion, full of solicitations to Mother,” To find some other man to install etc.” In the morning he delivered the message and left.
The Mysore devotee who carried the message happened to come to the hotel as a casual visitor. The Founder by chance went to the dining floor at the time the man was dining. As soon as that man saw the Founder returning to his place , he suddenly left his half-meal and ran after the Founder. Most abruptly he talked, “Are you a devotee of Devi?” Founder also made no delay: “Yes, not only a devotee but a passionate, most uneasy devotee”. Still most abruptly the man said,” I come from Mysore. I have a message to hand over to you from Mother.” The Founder got dumb-founded. “Yes please come to my room. The man followed: the message was communicated. Said the man,” I have come so far. Would you not favor me with the spark of Love for Mother? I have enough of divine knowledge for my purpose (this was only his modesty). Said the Founder,” Are you prepared? Would you sit with me on the bench of the Sheikh Sulla bridge during night hours ?” He agreed.
The Founder was sitting with him from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on wooden bench. The man went to his place. He was at the highest pitch of desire that he may have a vision of Mother at least in a dream. He had a dream in the sleeping. Mother appeared and said, “You are now longing for my Darshan. Who was talking to you for hours on the bridge? That was myself. You have not only seen me but talked with me”. The man narrated the event to the Founder at early dawn.
Two persons coming down for only the purpose of delivering the message was something too great to be taken lightly. That put the Founder to an indescribable shame about his obstinacy and suspiciousness. Said he with a sigh,” I am surely a man without faith. I have a faith in reality what I have seen and heard, but I have no faith in Mother making me fully fitted for the uphill unique task”. He was extremely nervous and terribly afraid of how people would consider his act and of their defaming him by attributing highest impudence, hypocrisy and blasphemy.
He decided to be tricky with Mother and to get to Her agree to let her fad go once for all, but he could not succeed. On the hand Mother directly repeated Her treat, “Tell me in one word once for all, what do you prefer – Installation or lunacy ?”
The Founder had no go and with a sorrowful laughter he set down to stipulate terms with Mother, as he had done before, when he had begun hundred repetitions of Saptashati. He made a Sankalpa ( a resolution ) pouring sacred water offering to the Mother, ” If there is an entirely new building of which the first in-dweller is myself, if I enter it on a Friday, if by evening there is a dazzling light, if there is a basket of ‘mithai’ and fruits received that day, if three girls and two men knock my door at 9.30 p.m., if they press me to install Thee, if at 10 p.m., I find Mother’s picture in any shop, if at 11 p.m., I find some shop open wherefrom I can purchase worshipping materials and lastly if at 11.30 p.m.. some ‘Mali’ (garland hawker) brings me a most beautiful garland befitting Thee and the occasion, then I shall not hesitate and I shall not fail to Install Thee and declare Thee and Thy Religion.
Each and every condition was so very wonderfully and admirably fulfilled. He was getting surer and surer as one condition after another came up attaining fulfilment and when finally a hawker shouted out “Har Har’ (Garland, Garland), he burst into tears on hearing that shout. He began to beat his breast and forehead. “Mother, Thou hast finally caught me. Could you not find any other man, who is more worthy than myself?”The five persons consoled him with the sweetest words, “She would do Her own work. Who is more blessed than yourself ? Why should you loose heart and courage ? Where is the question of your worthiness or unworthiness, at all sir, when She Herself has chosen you?”
Mother was installed at 12 midnight on 2-9-1932. Said he to all that had gathered, ” From today, I am a Mai-ist, from today my religion is ‘ God as Mother, Mother of all, propitiable on living the life of universal love and service, with devotion and unconditional cheerful self surrender’. Krishna, Mohammad, Christ, Jarthost, Buddha and every Founder of any religion is my Mother’s (Mai’s) illustrious son. From now, Bible, or Koran is as venerable and worshippable to me as Geeta. A Mohammedan lady will find the same shelter in my home as a Hindu lady under communal riot (This actually happened).
I will continue to pray God as I have prayed till now, whether in a Hindu Mandir, or a Mohammedan Masjid or a Christian Church or a Zoroastrian Agiari or an Israelite Synagogue. No more religious differences; the devotion of Mother is necessarily the devotion of Mother’s Children. I am a changed religious man from this moment.” Said the Founder,” I install Mai today. I declare Mai-ism today.Let it be to known to one and all of my friends. Let the world if so minded now commence the work of ridiculing, defaming, censuring, suppressing, harassing and crushing me and the Mai movement.”
News spread around. The nearest people were Theosophists and Harijans. Some educated Harijans had the most reverential regard for the Founder, the man who was Love and Mercy himself with an innocent childlikeness and who was happily blessed with the most intense devotion. People began calling him “Second Ramakrishna”, ‘Mother’s child’, ‘Mother’, or ‘Mataji’.
The Founder had a terrible exhaustion after the installation night which lasted for three days. On the third night he had a pleasant dream, in which he saw a vast open lawn in which there were innumerable ladies of all religions. He interpreted this to mean the Mother desired a congregation of ladies in strict purdah (with no gents and or boys) of all religions, in commemoration of Her installation. In spite of so many difficulties, a sisters’ social of over 300 sisters of all religions presided by Mrs. Choudhary of Bengal on Dusshera day (9-10-1932) became a fait accompli. By one and all that attended, it was called “Mother’s Miracle”.
The Founder attaches great religious importance to this novelistic idea of a congregation of all ladies without distinction of caste, creed and color, in strict purdah without any gents or boys, meeting together in the spirit of religious sisters to have religious discourses and thought exchanges, prayers, worships, refreshments, prasads etc, on a Dusshera day. The requirement of a purda has a deep significance to provide safety against any unusual custom or belief. If that provision is not there, Muslim sisters stand precluded; so also Hindu ladies of royal orthodoxies as also ladies whose husbands and relations are strictly against their womenfolk freely with men.
EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK : MAI-ISM
AUTHOR : MAI SWARUP MAI MARKAND / ABRIDGED BY U.R.M. U.G.MENON PUBLISHER : UNIVERSAL MAI-ISM TRUST, MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTA CRUZ (WEST), MUMBAI -400054 INDIA.
The Founder of Mai-ism , Markand Ratanlal Dholkia (Mai Swarup Mai Markand) began his devotion of Hindu Mother since his tender age of twelve. He began his sadhana साधना from the very first rung of the ladder, with shouting in solitude, “Mother. Tell me, dost Thou exist or not? “at that young age in Petlad, his native place in Gujarat, near Cambay.
He had proof of Mother’s existence by being saved from the attack of two robbers on his way home from that place of solitude to that of his home, one night, through the intervention of a tall, fearful woman. She walked over between the boy and the two robbers for a few furlongs till the boy was safe near the outskirts of his village. Most wonderfully, the same terrible black woman disappeared in the air immediately after the boy’s safety.
The incident did not go beyond creating a suspicion and a wonder, but at least the idea of the possibility of the existence of God, deities, angels, spirits, other worlds etc., took its roots. It took three years of strong devotion of Jagadamba जगदम्बा Kali काली and Chamuda चामुण्डा one after another to make the boy ripened enough to have a doubtful belief about the existence through the second incident mentioned below.
The boy in a busy crowd in Ahmadabad अहमदाबाद was shoutingly warned by a dog-cart driving European pair, to set aside. The boy failing, the European took off his long whip determined to beat the boy out. The merciless man, however, lost the grip of the whip, the whip encircled the foot of the horse and the dog-cart fell to the ground. The boy terribly afraid ran away from the crowd and tremblingly concealed himself in Bhadra Kali भद्रकाली temple corner, the nearest safe place.
With his whole frame shattered, the boy had the very night, a dream in which the whole scene of accident repeated itself and ended with the daily repeated question, ” Mother, do Thou exist or not?” The Mother (The Bhadra Kali Image), in the dream, answered,” I DO NOT EXIST “. The boy asked,” Who is then speaking? “Mother then smilingly asked,” Whom then are you asking this question tiring me and yourself for the last over the three years.? “
The boy got confidence about the existence of God at the age of 15. He began to believe it was the intervention of Kali that had saved him from robbers. The boy was busy trying to secure God’s grace and recognition as devotee through devotion to any of the usually worshipped Hindu deities, viz., Rama, Shiva, Krishna and others. He was, however, as it were, passed on from one deity to another without retention till; he concluded MATAJI alone would accept him.
The conception of Hindu Devi or Mataji is that of sternness, terror and destructivity though united with benignity and mercifulness and everything-asked-givingness and all-desire-fulfillingness. Mataji is restricted to Hindus alone and She is the personification of Power. Mai or Maij is Universal and a Personification of Mother, God himself as Mother and not God’s Power. Mataji is mostly a Goddess of fear and power, whereas Maiji is the Goddess of parental love and permanent welfare. Except for the common element of the feminine-sex, the conceptions of Mataji and Maiji are entirely different and dissimilar, if not contradictory.
The mention of this distinction becomes indispensable here as otherwise it would not be realized how much terror-stricken the boy was at the idea that the none of the Sattvik सात्विक deities as Shiva, Rama or Krishna had accepted him and that on the other hand he was so much favored and cared for by Matajee, the most prominent feature of whole traditional mythology was the destruction of demons and terrible fighting in the battle-fields. The boy had none of the requirements of a fearful sadhana.
The boy, then eighteen, was shuddering at the idea of being a devotee of a terrible deity. Said he,” Let me cast the gambler’s throw. I will perform a hundred repetitions of Saptashati सप्तशती. If Mataji accepts me as Her son with no displeasure, no freaks, no terrible wrathfulness and no vengeance for consciously or unconsciously done offences, I become Hers. Otherwise, I live my life as an atheist or an agnostic, with all goodness, morality, broad-mindedness, fellow-feeling etc. “
At eighteen he began the experiment. On thirty repetitions, he had a telegram, at Poona (Pune), where he was studying in the Engineering College, from his maternal uncle who was the Revenue Collector of the Baroda State of Mehesena मेहेसाणा near Ahmedabad. It was about his mother’s illness and asking him to start immediately. On the way railway station, where his uncle had come to receive him, the former received the telegram from the Baroda Government to immediately proceed to Bahucharaji Mataji बहुचराजी माताजी ( the second most popular Goddess worshipped in Gujarat) as the Revenue Collector of the district and to do certain arrangements. The young lad was taken directly to the place, as his mother become fairly all right, as soon as he has started from Poona (Pune) by Mother’s Grace. The illness was a pretext utilized by Mother to force him to come down as he had determined not to leave Poona (Pune), although all students had left in their vacation. He had refused going home, as he was determined to finish the experiment in the same place, without any break or interruption. There, in the temple, the boy was given an assurance by Mataji in a dream that She would be to him purely and unadulteratedly a loving and living mother. He returned to Poona full of hair-erect bristling joys.
Since that day, the supernatural and occult powers of prediction and blessing which were inherent in him from the very childhood became more effective, intense and acute. He could bring two persons at daggers drawn going to a criminal court for cross suits to be friends in a two-hour talk. Once he wanted 63 rupees (his Money Order, not arriving at a proper time from parents before the last date of college fee payments). He prayed at 9 p.m. and at 11 p.m. he had a heap of about Rs. 800 because the Bengali and Gujarati quarters took a fright at 10 p.m. (there were some robbers preparing to loot the quarters from behind, seen gathered on desolate railway lines). Though a big cipher in drawing (the most essential subject in Engineering), his drawing to be finally examined with marks-giving at the annual University examination would be prepared by the best students with the full permission and cognition of the very supervisors and even the principal. Once Mataji dictated to him the whole of the chemistry paper the previous night.
He was a voracious reader but he was more of a mathematician, a poet, a thinker, a philosopher and a songster than an engineer by his very birth. What did he care for he had Mother’s protection? His repeated failures in spite of his hardest work trained him to realize nothingness of himself and life and left no drop of cheerfulness about life with all its varied pleasures. He ceased to be a responsible actor of the world and became a superficial spectator of his own life, allowing it to be drifted as Mother desired according to his past Karmas, with nothing as the goal of life, at such a tender age, – usually full of follies and passions, spirits and storms.
At twenty-two, he had the most calamitous, and yet the final hardest hammer under which he would have succumbed, but for Mother’s Grace. He happened to read Yoga-Vasistha योग वसिष्ठ and Vedantism वेदान्त, the terrible teaching of “AHAM BRAHMA ASMI ‘ अहं ब्रह्मास्मी and his head turned. His intellect got clouded by the controversy of the new teaching. He thought he was all along under a delusion and pitiable victim of a huge cheat by Mataji, the Maya deity. He threw away his deity picture, scriptural Saptshati सप्तशती, wooden seat, worshipping materials and vessels in the river Mula-Mutha Sangam मुळामुठा संगम behind his living place. He changed his course from devotion to Divine Knowledge. He began repeating “AHAM BRAHMA ASMI” day and night and interviewed so many religious teachers on the subject.
Some decades ago divine Knowledge and Devotion were at daggers drawn. It is now, things have now changed and religious teachers have accepted the policy of harmonizing both. The Advaitists have seen that unless they equally appreciate and preach devotion, their popularity and maintenance of Ashrams would be an impossibility. That deprecating manner of saying,” Devotion is only just a stepping stone, which has now disappeared, was it then at its shouting pitch. It is now only very recently that Sanyasis and Yogis and Karma Margis all have gradually pitched their tents in the open airy yellow lawn of devotion. That preaching of one-ness of Atma आत्मा and Paramatma परमात्मा , that idea of inferiority of devotion and deities, that sophistry about the fruitlessness or unreality or the delusion of the Universe and all allied teachings, so very forceful than, were more than overpowering for the young boy of twenty-two who had seen nothing of the world in its true natural colors.
The young boy had never had to pass through a more terrible time. He experienced that, as a result of his faithless desertion of Mother, the whole world has changed to be worse for him. Even his best friends and relations disliked, displeased and deserted him; no miraculous powers, no happy meditations, no devotional effusions, no good-lucks. His morality, goodness, character, religiosity all stood before him threatening him with leaving him as a corpse. The contrast of his faculties before and after, all led him to the highest desperation. One day, in Petlad, he tore off his garments and sacred thread, threw off his shirt and dhoti and cap in the street and ran away from the house as one determined to mend or end his life, to be Sannyasin or to commit suicide. What might have been the climax of his sorrow, disappointment and disgust of life and world, at twenty-two, can be better imagined than described. He was however caught by his most revered father who ran after him with all the force he can command in the street, weeping and shouting out on losing his son and by his mother, weeping and madly running after his father. He was brought home and confined in a room for a week and greatly smoothened and solaced by his parents. After a promise not to be a Sannyasin, he was permitted to return to Poona for studies. His mother with tears in her eyes said,” You have never been telling a lie. You never break your promise. If you are determined to be a Sannyasin, first stab me and then go. If you wish I may live, promise me, you will never leave home.” This promise did not leave him undisturbed whenever he got the idea of taking Sannyasa.
One idea alone, about his greatest ungratefulness to the Mother who had been protecting him all along, and without whose protection what the world would be to him, he had experienced and realized, that one mania seized him. This one idea acted like the most violent attack of an unbearable shock. He decided to drown in the very same river unless Mother reaccepted him. In the midst of the excruciating pains, he got an imaginary idea like lightning in the darkest cloudy night. “Will not Mother save me? Will She not tell me She has re-accepted me?” All this was a matter of few hours, before determination and preparation for action. He went to commit suicide in the river. He ran in towards the river water depth with a speed which had never before used. Just then, he was caught in the sweetest trans-heavenly Embrace of Mother – The Visible, The infatuating Beautiful Mother. She admonished him strongly never to be so reckless and senseless in future and assured him he was never disowned by Her, although his head had turned. Not only that, but She told him, She was carrying him through certain experiences which were indispensable. Mother knew his fickle mindedness and did the preventive needful. Retracing to his room, he expressed to himself, though most stealthily, wishing none to know it, not even his own mind to hear him, his inmost suspicion which proved his greatest ungratefulness even after Mother had been merciful enough by saving him from committing suicide. He asked himself,” What did I see? What did I hear? Is this not all a mental derangement? Is this all not a false vision because of a mental despair?” Mother had anticipated this and had kept the answer ready to convince him of Her Embrace and Her Word and Her Promise.
Most surprisingly, on opening the room he saw the very same deity picture, the very same scriptural book of Saptashati सप्तशती, the very same wooden-seat, the very same worshipping articles at the very same place as they were and where they were before, the very same things which he had thrown away in the river with contempt about six weeks before.
From this moment onwards, he linked himself with and riveted himself to Mother. His conception then was a Hinduistic one, viz., that of power, although with the additional personally secured concessional advantage of Mother’s protection to him as Her son. That was however just as a lioness has her love to her cub though not with a devouring ferocity. “Mother” was however to him an honorific name for a feminine sex deity with no conception of a mother-and-child relationship for one and all.
The period from this event in 1907 up to 1932 was that of a common man’s living with a gradual progressive development in religiosity. Hindu Mataji माताजी (Power) was gradually transforming Herself with him to be the Universal Mother Mai. Universalization of one’s ideal is not merely a matter of tongue-twist. Universality means a complete absence of the idea of one man being different from another exactly similar man on the mere ground of such two men’s belonging to two different religions. Universality to be effective must be the supreme quality of one’s whole vision and entire intellectual outlook with a belief and a conviction about its highest value. Universality should not be the outcome of a policy, a temporary acceptance, or a delusion creativeness, for some specific object in a view. It should be an impossibility to assume a different colour after some attainment or after a lapse of some long time.
The difference, the superiority and inferiority complexes, prejudices and prepossessions, likes and dislikes, as a result of different persons following different religions, require be uprooting, wiping out and forgetting as if they were never in existence. The Founder brought about a reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims over a mosque question at Nasik in a few hours, which was a standing cause of unrest for 12 to 15 years. That was possible only because the Founder was Universal-minded, in every moment of his living, after 1932 and because he was a Mai-ist, the Founder and follower of a religion which has Universal-mindedness as its main-most commandment.
The subtle difference is to be noted here. It is not that some few Hindus or Muslims are not there that are universal-minded, but the presumption holding sway in the minds of both the communities in terms of millions of hearts is that Hindu is a Hindu and a Muslim is a Muslim, during butchering riots. When the knife is raised is to be plunged, it is not possible for one to know or to inform that he is not an enemy, at the moment of life and death. Mai-ism emphasizes the need for a solid working through organizations during peace periods.
There the whole difference comes in. To be the known follower of a religion (or even a society) which makes no distinction of that nature, on the one hand, and on the other, to be an exception to the usual beliefs about a religion or a society by the co-religionists or members are poles asunder. That you are above such animosities must have been a proved fact known to the world at large, much before an incident.
That supreme stage of Universal outlook, once attained, along with other sterling virtues, carries with it, its own wonderful silent supernatural power over the hearts of average men. The man appealing to brotherhood must have actually lived in that spirit and with that belief as the maxim of his life. Reconciliation between two antagonistic forces become possible only when a much superior force makes each of them is reminded of its comparative nothingness.
The spiritual force of a Religious Universal-minded man is of a much stronger powerful-ness than that of the Life force or the Will-force or Soul-force. It derives its strength from the divinity itself.
During the college sub-period (from 1908 to 1912) there were many convincing proofs of Mataji’s Grace.
During his second-year examination, one day he was in the devotional mood, which made him entirely uncomposed to be able to attend the examination hall, in Bombay [Mumbai] at the appointed hour. When he could compose himself in his home, the examination hour had passed. He washed his face dressed in his home and took a tram. In hot haste, his T-square which was shoved in the drawing board the wrong way fell off on the ground. Some Seth picked it up and ran in a Victoria after the tram and caught it at the next halt. The boy was overwhelmed with gratefulness. The Seth said,” Mataji माताजी, bless me with a son “. Said the Founder,” Mother Grace shower Welfare “. The devotee ran to the hall and found that he was 40 minutes late. Soon after him came the Registrar with the question paper packets. He was admitted to the hall. The printing machinery unprecedentedly had gone wrong to give the boy sufficient time to recover his normal plane.
The second instance was in respect of the special train carrying the students on a geographical tour in the final year. The students had encamped in Agra and were awaiting the arrival of a special train expected to arrive within an hour or so. The boy got flying news that Mathura was near. Said he,” I must go for Darshan of my beloved Lord Krishna.” The train time that day to Mathura had passed away. Like a madman, he said,” I will go to the station. “Two friends accompanied him. The first station, the station staff laughed at their ignorance of the scheduled timings. Second station people called them mad. The third station, the engine was lying “sick”. On purchase of tickets and hurried sitting in a coal wagon, the engine came to order and whistled. The despondency that has arisen on the booking-clerk advising not to purchase tickets as the engine had gone useless turned to cheerfulness with a joyful hurrah. However, the cause of standing suspense and anxiety did not altogether cease. They would be detected on the arrival of a special train as absconders and be even punished. They had not enough money to return Bombay [Mumbai] from Agra with fresh tickets. From 4 P.M. to 9 P.M. of the next day, the special train could not be ready in spite of the repeated telegrams by the influential professor-in-charge of the tourists, till they returned. The in-charge was hot with the boy for having bolted away but his popularity came to his aid.
His reputation as a devotee of Mataji माताजी had become widespread and established. In the direction of Divine Knowledge, he took a very active part in all religious matters. He was in close touch with Theosophy both in Ahmadabad and Poona and wrote several thought-provoking and instructive articles in “Meher Message मेहेर मेसेज ” such as ” Ignorant Adverse Criticism”, ” Misfortunes of the modern mumukshus मुमुक्षु “, ” Facts for the fatigued “, “Divine Love”, “Happiness ” etc. and ” God and God attainment Remedies ” in “Kalyan” कल्याण of Gorakhpur गोरखपुर and “Dharma Darshan” धर्मदर्शन in Sharada Peetha शारदा पीठ etc.
He had several occasions to have a personal eye-to-eye vision of the Divine Mother, in waking state, oftentimes in the most painful mood and moments. One of them may be narrated as a specimen.
His services as a municipal engineer in Surat were to be discharged as a result of a new fad of Government to lend engineers along with the Municipal Commissioners. He resigned before a notice is served. He was anxious that he had an appointment somewhere, before his leaving; but nothing would come forth in reply to his applications. It was Navaratri 9th day. Brahmins were on the wooden seats for dinner after all the ceremony. He sent word to his wife and relations that he could not join the brahmins. “Serve them with all heart and liberality,” He told Mother,” What more do you want? Should I break my head at Thy feet? “. Just then the door was knocked. A telegram of appointment was there. The whole scene was changed. He ran up to weep out his gratitude to Mother. And what did he see and hear? “Will you not at least now come with me down for the dinner?” The form and the sound both disappeared in less than a second; leaving him again lost in a labyrinth, Divine meditation and ecstasy.
Extract from the book : ABRIDGED MAI-ISM (EDITION 1981)
(1) ‘ MAI-ISM ‘ is the Book written and published by the Revered Shri Mai Swarup Mai Markand, Founder of ‘ Mai-ism ‘ and President, ‘ Mother’s Lodge’. The subject matter is divided into 3 Parts ( in all, 12 chapters covering 734 pages ) all in one handy neat volume, with a ‘ Prologue ‘ by the esteemed Author himself, and an ‘ Appreciation ‘ from the Honorable Mr Justice N.S. Lokur.
The said Book is a ‘ composition ‘ of the autobiography of the Founder of MAI-ISM and the gospel thereof, both interwoven together – in the Founder’s words, his ‘ summation ‘ of the teachings under Mai-ism for the present day suffering world. Full of details, it is exhaustive and, at the same time, full of originality, and clarity fresh, intensely – spirited – no vague and conventional old stereotyped expressions – so as to be complete in itself and invigorating, to any layman or woman, who knows English. His own personal experiences and anecdotes are very striking.
(2) No question of ‘ Proselytism ‘ at all. Anyone, even an atheist, can be a ‘ Mai-ist ‘ without interfering with one’s birth-religion. ‘ MAI ‘ means ‘ Universal Supreme Divine Mother of the whole Humanity ‘ – GOD, conceived as Mother of all, propitiable on living the life of Love and Service to all, and on Devotion and Unconditional Cheerful Self – surrender. The nearest in the recent Indian History of a similar conception of ‘ Mother and Child ‘ attitude and the relationship was, perhaps, in Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s life and sayings.
(3) Maiji ( as the Founder is popularly called ) is for the natural, spontaneous, gradual, spiritual advancement of oneself through ‘ Sadhana ‘ under God’s and Guru’s Grace. At whatever level one may be, he prescribes systematic practice, with dispassion, and non-attachment, in the midst of temptations – easily said – but a practice which is steady and sure, though slow. He is not for throwing away any worldly duties and responsibilities, or for running away from home, family and world, but for living above worldliness; and he advises the strongest preparations before entering the world. He attaches no special value whatever to one ‘ living the home ‘and assuming ‘ Sanyasin – garb ‘.
(4) About ‘ Wealth ‘ he is not for renouncing the same in the present age ( Kali-yuga ), – barring rarest exceptions – but for making the most righteous and benevolent use thereof, remaining ever alert about ‘ entanglement and neck catching ‘. About ‘ Woman ‘ he is not for hating or shunning ( evading ) woman, but for developing the motherliness eye. I commend the perusal of Chapter XII ( pages 651 to 663 ) to those who speak of ‘ Kanak and Kanta,’ or ‘ Kanchana and Kamini ‘ under the traditional religious licence, and to those who condemn womankind sweepingly.
(5) Maiji’s highest emphasis is in living one’s life ( no matter, in what circumstances one is placed ) in universal minded manner, with love and service. The six tenets of Mai-ism lived out in every moment of life ( as far as possible ) are sufficiently powerful remedies against all miseries, and for the attainment of all spiritual grades, right up to ‘ Salvation ‘. He remarks that we have greatly neglected the ‘ preliminary grounding ‘ and a highly- developed character and that the practically – lived life and the honest work and service, are much below our talks and imagination. ‘ Self – dying’, ‘ making your own mansion with your own hands ‘ under God’s and Guru’s Grace are indispensable and are insisted on.’ You can not succeed unless you yourself exert and die ‘. ( I quote from Maiji’s sayings).
(6) Here is one whom we call the ‘New -Mother’s Child- Messenger’ of an entirely new and Universal Intense Faith; and for Hindus, of what can be termed ‘ Renovated Hinduism ‘, suited to the Modern Age, after the amalgamation of the Eastern and Western ideals. For the new world, with all its new circumstances and innumerable problems and miseries, here is a straight, direct, short and speedy approach to the Almighty.
(7) Maiji just looks and lives as an ordinary, simple worldly man; no insignia of a Saint or a Guru or Sadhu; he assumes no ‘high-brow dignity’; very amiable and accessible to anyone and at all times; no formalities, no ceremonies, never tired of talking or writing and corresponding direct. But, he has the Prophets and Messenger’s ‘outlook’ and has a Universal Mind; there is no question that he is a fully God-realised person or a God-man, a (motherly) Saint, a Perfect Master.His expositions of ‘Annihilation of the Mind’ (‘Mano-Nasha’) and of ‘ one pointed concentratedness in one’s devotion and faith, as Sadhana’, in such a marvellous and practically helpful modes, are admirable. Notwithstanding the general miseries in this world, if the nectar of Divine truth that flows through him from ABOVE being assimilated, and if the Infinite Resourcefulness of Universal Mother (Mai) be probed, the world would undoubtedly be a ‘ Heaven in itself ‘ at least for the select individuals. At a time, when the lights of all Religions appear to have dimmed, when every shadow portends unforeseen inhuman calamities, the Founder, in the name of Mai, and under the inspiration, guidance, Divine Force of Authority and protection of Mai, has come forward to raise the Clarion-call of Love, Service, Devotion and Self-surrender ‘ You will never be happy without Religion and God’s Grace’. It is also the Founder’s faith that Mai can and does if Mai so pleases and wills, disregard or overrule, in rare and exceptional cases, the Laws of Karma, Fate, Prarabdha, of Action and Reaction, of Evolution, of planetary influences, and can and does work miracles.
(8) He abhors showiness, shuns dead routinism, long ceremonies and everything that is not solid substantial work; he craves for a living spark in them that approach. Saints and Yogis are to be practical workers for bringing redress and relief to the suffering individuals and the aggrieved public. He is keenly intent upon a standing, constitutionally formed steady and strong Religious Iron-Machinery, with only the most general and broad notions around one Comprehensible Unit, its aim and object being retaining and rising of the all-pervading ‘religiosity’, before all the Saints’ eyes. Maiji has fearlessly recorded his experiences, views and opinions, without mincing matters, whether they be palatable or not, being fully familiar also with the trends and subtleties of the modern life and thought. I quote him below, again : –
‘ Believe me, when I say that the man who LOVES and SERVES others, who is DEVOUT, and who lives the life of SELF-SURRENDER, is many times much MORE POWERFUL even in altering his own circumstances, environments, tendencies etc.THAN the man who has learnt all the SCRIPTURES, who has mortified himself by sitting in the midst of FIVE FIRES, who has mastered PRANAYAM ( breathing exercises ), who has shut himself up in the CAVES, who has awakened his KUNDALINI AND WHO HAS REPEATED MILLIONS OF DIFFERENT mantras million times and who has performed most mysterious, expensive and elaborate CEREMONIES for the fulfilment of different specific DESIRES ‘ .
(9) Though incapable of perception, at first sight, he is a ‘ Mystic ‘ of a very high ‘ order ‘ with ‘ continued communion ‘ with Universal Mother, and had his ‘ initiation ‘ direct from Divine Mother Herself. To quote an eminent person, he is veryly ‘ the Accredited Representative of Mai ‘. ‘ What he assures or promises or wishes, must fulfil. ‘But, he has an extremely rational mind. keeps clear and separate ideas of Mysticism and Rationalism, Devotion and Divine Knowledge, Dwaitism and Adwaitism, Personal and Impersonal aspects of Almighty, and, on the mass-plane, of the Eastern and the Western mentalities, his mind and outlook are wide and universal; he has no prejudices ; he is an independent thinker and a reformer, but’ in no sense, one who tries to upset customs, manners or traditions of any family, community, religion and country. He advocates no zigzags, or roundabout rambling, but direct approach to God, under the guidance of Guru, through the most natural, easily accessible and approachable, and most familiar relationship of ‘ Mother and child ‘. Who is to be ‘Guru ‘? Anyone, although only a little superior to you. He is dead against all mischiefs under the name of Religion, and also what he, discouragingly calls ‘ Choo-mantars ‘.
(10) Few, there are, in this world who have no miseries or wants and who no need to request anything of the Almighty. Maiji is for each one asserting the claim of a child on a mother or all legitimate, reasonable, morally-justifiable demands, through intense prayers, worship, thanksgiving, sadhanas, meditation, and communion, etc. He plainly concedes that unless soul passes through’ Sakama Bhakti ‘, ‘ Bhuktrupti ‘ ( satiation of all desires ), and Personal God’s perfected Grace, there can be no genuine ‘ Nishkam Bhakti ‘, or the worthiness of ‘ Mukti ‘, or the attainment of Impersonal God.
(11) One who finds the time and the inclination to go the pages of any chapter or any few pages or paragraphs of the book will notice how deeply Maiji has penetrated into the mysteries and diversities of human nature and of Religion. If asked to state which are the important Chapters, one can point to Chapters I, II, VIII, XI and XII. ‘ Religion ‘ he says, ‘ is much higher than logic or intellect ‘.’ Religion ‘ is the unshakable conviction of the head and the heart, in perfect unison with the Supreme Will and Divine Laws. ‘Religiosity is the practice of Religion and the attainment of the fruits and benefits through the practice ‘.
Mai-ism revers all religions, but principally, it is science and religious machinery of attaining true religiosity.
(12) To Maiji, Religion is mostly ‘ Reunion ‘. Faith is only the sublimated stage of the heart that has once tasted the spiritual sweetness and has attained full conviction about the infallibility of the Divine Laws. He draws the very subtle distinction of the various gradations and requirements, from time to time, on the ladder of spirituality. He does not vainly believe in large fantastic golden promises, for example, of the world automatically getting better, and better, without our efforts. ‘ Unless there is an upward Divine push or pull, no drowning man has risen to the surface.’
(13) The world by itself generally, as a whole, may go up or down, but millions of men and women have, nevertheless, each individually, so often collectively also, been saved through Religiosity, on constant contact with Saints, Sat-purushas gurus and perfect Masters, and on each such individual living a religious life ‘ with religiosity ‘ of Universal Love, Service, Devotion and Unconditional Cheerful Self-surrender.
(14) Many ‘ misconceptions have been sought to be removed; clear, explanatory and thought-provoking, are his impartial and considered expositions on all problems and subjects and on the conflicting views in modern practical life ; there is, so-to-say, a fresh and a new, optimistic, brighter and larger vision for tackling the modern day problems or questions. Mother bless us all!
JAY MAI JAY MARKAND MAI!!
DEDICATED IN MADRAS ON 28/29 SEPT. 1952 BY
IN ALL HUMILITY MISS. S. MYTHILI, B.A., M.Ed. ( Servant and devotee of Maiji ).
~ EXTRACT FROM:- MOTHER’S MESSAGE
PUBLISHER – UNIVERSAL MAI-ISM TRUST, MAI NIWAS, SARASWATI ROAD END, SANTA CRUZ (WEST), MUMBAI 400054. INDIA
Mai-ism was represented at All Faiths’ Conference at Nasik ( India ) in 1933 and the Indian Philosophical Congress at Poona ( India ) in 1934. Maiji was invited to Japan for the World Religious Congress in 1955. Maiji was the Sub-Councillor-in-Chief of the International Religious Federation which was started in Japan in 1955.
Maiji had been elected as VICE PRESIDENT and spiritual MINISTER for PEACEFUL HUMAN RELATIONSHIP & Universal Religious Alliance ( U.R.A. ) in Havana, Cuba for SIX YEARS FROM 1959 TO 1965.
The most appreciated representation of Mai-ism was at the Universal Religious Alliance World Congress held at Havana in Cuba from 23 October 1959 to 22 January 1960. Mai-ism was explained, discussed and commented upon in the World Congress by Revered Sister Duchesse Blanche Ledran, the Grand Chancellor of the Universal Religious Alliance. Mai-ism received the greatest approbation in this World Congress of the Universal Religious Alliance, which has a standing of over five decades. In fact it is one of the most important universal religious institutes. As stated in the Preliminary Report pertaining to the Congress held on 23 October 1959, the complete attendance at the Congress was around 3800 persons 2184 of which intergrated about 318 different official delegations, which came from 96 different countries. The representation was of 449 different sections and sub-sections of religious and various organizations. Further more, 43 countries had sent their official observers. Appreciation and truest understanding about Mai-ism by the said World Congress would be evident from these words; ” We have received valuable literature from all quarters of the world, which amply reveals that the regeneration of man is at hand, as well as that a new age ( Aquarian )is being ushered in taking the shape of a brand new Spiritual Civilisation. We recommend such sources of research. We recommend Mai-ism and the Mai Institute of Santa Cruz West, Bombay – 54, India”. ~ Extract from MOTHER’S MESSAGE.
MAI-ISM 
