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= Om Gurumayiji =
A SPIRITUAL STORY
(based on folklore)
Once the divine Shakti, who is forever enthralled in rapturous wonder at the magnificence of Her Lord, Param Shiva, was busy with Her dynamic activity of evolution of the multiple universes within Shiva’s being. Knowing everything fully and completely about Param Shiva as She was, after all, His very own dynamic power, the Devi was forever in the highest bliss, which is Her very nature.
Suddenly, Devrishi Narad Muni happened to chance by. Seeing the Devi so happily and inwardly engrossed, he stopped to offer his pranaam and salutations. “You look so very pleased today, O my Devi. What is the cause for this heightened joy?”, remarked Narad.
With glowing eyes the Devi acknowledged his salutation. “Greetings O Narad, I am always joyous and blissful. That is my very nature. I am forever doing the Lord’s work and knowing everything about Him and serving Him pleases me greatly”, responded Parvati.
“Ohhh…”, mused Narad with a gleam in his eye. “Indeed, O Supreme Mother, who could know our Mahadev as well as You do. as You know everything about the Lord, pray tell me something which I have longed to know since ages.”
“Surely Narad ji, of course I will, as nothing is concealed from me. My Lord loves you so dearly. What is it that you wish to know from me?”
“Beloved Mother, I have often wondered what is that garland of skulls that Lord Shiva wears around His neck? Why does He always wear it? Why does He never remove it even for an instant? I have always longed to know but somehow could never ask,” replied Narad Muni.
The Devi was astounded by the question. Suddenly she was confused and her face seemed ever so slightly to darken. She was surprised to note that here was something She knew nothing about. Indeed, the garland of skulls had always been around the neck of Param Shiva. Yet, She knew nothing about it. Nor had She ever tried to find out throughout these eons. She had thought it was just His way. he too had never mentioned it.
She focused hard within Herself, and within the very heart of Lord Shiva. But nothing came up that could throw light about this garland of skulls. No record about it seemed to exist in Shiva’s being. What could this be, she thought over and over again. A crease of concern came upon her forehead. This was impossible. The Lord shared everything with her. Yet what was this?
His work done, wearing a wry smile, Narad ji moved on elsewhere in the universes leaving a somewhat perplexed Devi behind.
This was a new situation for Her. Here She was, the supreme energy of All That Is, the ultimate knower, perceiver and experiencer of the Lord. Yet what was this? How had She missed this? No wonder when Devrishi Narad mentioned the skull garland to Her, he had taken Her by complete surprise.
So, at the next opportunity with all the devotion and curiosity at Her command, She went to the Lord. Offering deep salutations, She asked the Lord, “O great and benevolent Lord of the universe and of all of creation, my very own Swami and Master, I salute you again and again. Pray, grant me permission to ask a question?”
Emerging from samadhi Lord Shiva replied, “Yes of course, O beloved Parvati, ask what you will. Even though there is nothing about me hidden from You, do ask. It is always my great joy to reply to your loving questions. So much knowledge has flowed just because of your questions. What do you seek to know now?”
“Pray tell, me, O Lord”, asked the Devi, “What are these skulls that you wear around your neck? How is it that I know nothing of this mund mala, even though I am a part of and at cause of everything that you do? Pray enlighten me O great Divinity, for I am befuddled with this strange situation. My ignorance confuses me. I bow to You again and again”.
The Lord quickly looked away. Then, taking His time, He replied, “O magnificent Devi, you are the most precious part of me, exalted in every way and true to me in every sense. Nothing about me is hidden from you because you are so dear to me. But on this one matter, I implore you, O Devi, ask me anything else you wish to know or do. Just leave this question be. Just let it be.”
The Devi frowned. “What is this O mighty Param Shiva, my very Lord and Master? What is this that you wish not to share with me, when I alone am the one that knows you entirely. I am an intrinsic part of you, I am your very core, Yet, this matter is concealed from me, even though I am requesting you so humbly and with such deep love and the highest devotion. Why, O Lord, why?”
The Lord appeared perplexed and again said, “O immaculate One, there is nothing indeed that is kept from you for you yourself are the power, the Shakti, the dynamic force by which everything either comes into existence or ceases to exist. But this is a question that I again implore you to leave aside. Just let it be. Ask anything else.” And saying this the supreme Lord seemed to start preparing to revert back into his state of silent Samadhi.
However, this perplexed and alarmed the Devi even more. That Her very own beloved Lord and Master would not share something with Her was inconceivable. He had in fact kept this matter concealed from Her even though She was eternally His very own being, His very Self, His complete power of free action and expression. She frowned and sulked and went into a tizzy. The creative force of the universe was really upset that Her Lord had never let this matter emerge from within Himself and kept it concealed. Heaven alone knows what else He was hiding from Her!!
Her state started becoming a cause of concern and a silent rage started looming up within Her, threatening the whole of creation. The stability of entire worlds came under a cloud and dark days could soon descend on all living creatures, putting paid prematurely to Shiva’s desire to experience Himself fully and completely. The Devi was getting nervously angry. Her very status with Her Lord seemed in utter jeopardy.
Sensing this dangerous threshold, the Lord again brought Himself out of His meditative state. He could not put to risk the multiple universes that were alive and evolving within Himself. He was as yet very far from being satiated by the full experience of Himself and of His own grandeur. He knew He had a long way to go in watching, sciring and experiencing Himself experientially through the throbbing forth of the phenomenal worlds within Himself which the Devi was creating for Him. His Shakti, the Devi, was the actor playing out the countless creations that were His divine experiences. Besides the Devi was none other than Himself.
He realised there was no way out. He would have to respond to Her direct question. And He hoped it would calm Her. But to manage that, He would have to tell Her this secret that He had kept concealed so countless eons. It was evident that the Devi was at last ready to receive this knowledge from Him. She had now become fully enabled to face, accept and live up to this holy truth so far kept concealed from Her through esoteric ways unknown even to Her.
So, the Lord said,” Very well then, O beloved Devi. I can see that this has now become rather important to You. And as you are my very own being, the essence of my core and my dynamic power, I will respond to your desire. I will reveal this secret, though even now with some reluctance.”
“O Devi,” continued Lord Param Shiva, “these skulls are nothing but you – they are all Yours. All the skulls in my mund-mala are your skulls. They are you. In every cycle of creation, it is you that springs up within me to bring to fulfillment my creative urge to experience myself experientially. And then after uncountable eternities when I feel I have experienced myself fully by your impeccable actions to bring all nature of creation alive within me, then, after eons, when I have seen and experienced myself fully, I revert to focusing within myself again. And it is you who then brings the creative outflow to a halt, replacing it with an inner reversal of my energy. You stop surging forth from me, which you are now so ably doing, and instead commence to surge back within me, restoring all my energy back to me. Completing Me.
“The instant the whole of creation subsides back within me into my original essence and nature, then you, my beloved Devi, also merge back into my unperturbed pure essence, which is the pure energy that you and I are. All trace of your seemingly separate and temporary existence within me dissolves. And like that we remain in a state of potentiality till, yet again, another urge to know myself experientially takes seed.
“At that instant, another cycle of creation, very different from any previous cycle, commences. You acquire a newer dimension and spring into dynamic action to fulfill my every new desire. Evolution begins anew. You do revel in showing me to myself yet again. In doing so, you acquire a new aspect, a new form, though remaining formless, and through that cycle of creation you once again morph into a new being, a new essence, even as we continue to ever remain the same. And at the end of that cycle, after countless eons, you again merge back into our essential nature. As my dynamic aspect, you are always both the experience and the experiencer. These beautiful cycles go on forever and ever, O Parvati, with me as the end witness of Myself.
“However, O my beloved one, each time you restart a new cycle, all the previous creations are forgotten to you and forgotten to you is each of your own previous emergences in their entirety.
“So deep and unfathomable is my love for you, my eternal beloved, that I then take it upon Myself out of our love, to retain a remembrance of each version of yourself and of each of your creations. That is how special you are to me. Each skull I have is thus you in a different aspect of yourself. Each is you in one or the other avatar of your own self. While you do not remember them, O great Devi, I do. I remember all. For I love you and forever I wear your remembrances around my neck out of that love.
“This garland, O dear one, is my greatest embellishment, my greatest glory, my greatest and highest ornament. It is you, nothing but you, and I am nothing without you. Without you I would forever feel incomplete and be incapable of experiencing my own Self.
“These skulls are countless in number for countless are the times when You have sprung up within me to fashion from within myself a new creation in response to the re-emergence of the urge within me to yet again experience myself anew. What I am, I know fully mentally. But knowing by experience everything that I otherwise know, that you alone provide me, O my gazelle eyed One. Each period of creation and each period of my satiated quietude is an endless eternity and they too are brought about by You.
“You are thus me in every respect and each skull is you as my own Power in Action, my Shakti, my Energy. I am complete only by you and through you. I alone exist. You are me and I am you. Yet I can know myself only by you and through you.
“Around my neck is thus every creation that has ever come about in an endless past of an endless me.
“This secret is the only secret I keep to myself, O Devi. I have finally revealed it to you because you are so dear to me as the deepest and innermost essence of my being. Each skull is a hall mark of your infinite greatness, O Gauri.
“Know also that, in the same way that you hide, for some time, the truth of their divinity and exalted state from every soul or jiva that you create, so too do I hide this fact about you from you, for a-while. When at last you are ready and able to absorb this knowledge, I then reveal it to you as I now have.
“In the same way, at a point when a jiva can live no longer away from you or from me, and is focused on the inquiry of his or her true nature, you reveal their oneness with me to them and re-unify them back with my true nature and essence. So, in the same way, I too reveal Yourself to You only when you ask. By this our divine love grows.
“Just as every atom or quanta of creation is forced by you to forget that they are me when they enter the plane of physicality, only to return to me after thousands or millions of years, so too, O beloved Devi, to uphold your love and devotion, I too keep hidden from you the truth of your creations of yore until you specifically inquire from me. When you ask it is revealed, for essentially you are me and there is naught that is hidden from you.
“You too, reveal to every jiva their true essence and divinity of being one with me, one with citi, one with every other jiva, every other chitta, only when they ask and strive to find out what it is that they are beyond their physical and mental structures The trigger comes from them, and then you take over. Then you reveal to them their true essence and nature and facilitate their merging back within me.
“Whenever you ask me, I am left with no other recourse but to respond for I love you dearly. I then let you know of this aspect and immensity of yours. We now are ever united again as we always have been and now you know of your own eternal greatness in its fullest, O my beloved Parvati.
“Examine the skulls well, my Beloved. Examine each one anew, with love. See for yourself how you become my Force in dynamic action in every cycle of creation. Be enthralled by your own unlimited abilities and staunch discipline as you fulfill my every urge. See your Self in each of them. You are so dear and inseparable from me, O dearest one.
“These are not mere skulls, though they may appear to be. Each one represents an entire cycle of creation and evolution and it’s subsequent dissolution. I have long since stopped counting them; they are so many, so countless. Be you now in peace.”
Hearing the great Lord speak thus, the great Shakti, with Her divine heart again at peace and full of the deepest love, bowed again and again to Her Master and Lord. To Param Shiva. To Anuttara. To Supreme Reality. To the All That Is. To the Kundan, the Presence. To the Everything and to the Nothing.
She made a mental note to gratefully thank Devrishi Narad Muni when he visited Kailash next. He never does anything out of turn, She thought, or does he?
Enthralled by the Lord’s magnificence beyond words, content that She had always been in His full trust, the Devi went on with Her five duties of creation, of sustenance, of concealment, of revelation and of reabsorption with great exactitude and power, while remaining in the highest bliss and love.
And the Good Lord, with all Its powers, Energy and Shaktis, lives on through the ages forever absorbed in Its nature and in becoming even more of Its-Own-Self.
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And you and me? What of us? Remaining forever under God’s all-encompassing gaze, we too keep forever emerging and forever being reabsorbed. Forever forgetting our divinity, forever discovering it anew in a different way, yet we never cease to be God. Whether we are in a cycle of forgetting, or in a cycle of remembering, or in a cycle of resting within God in between those two cycles, we ceaselessly remain within God. So our revered Master teaches.
As Baba Muktananda says – nothing exists that is not Shiva, that is not God.
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