Divine Mother's Message

Part five of Amma's benedictory address in Amritapuri on the occasion of Her 47th birthday

Surrender Children, nowadays, we become troubled, worrying about so many things. If we have a cut on our hand, it will not heal if we just look at it and worry about it, or if we cry over it. The wound may become septic. We must clean the wound and apply some medicine. Today, worrying unnecessarily about many things has become a habit, increasing our mental tension. Children, understand that stress and tension can adversely affect us, mentally and physically. Tension is the cause of most diseases

Freedom from tension is possible only through surrender. Surrendering to God will reduce all our burdens. Actually, nothing ever happens the way we want it to. Even our next breath is not a certainty. Therefore, the only thing that we can do is to surrender everything to God and do our duty. However, we should not feel that "I (the ego) am doing this deed." Instead, our attitude should be that the work is being done with God's power. We should work looking upon it as worship of God. We must nurture this attitude of surrender.

God is the antaryamin (inner ruler) residing in everyone. From there, It lovingly speaks to us every moment in soft voice and simple words. But we do not have the patience to pay attention to that divine voice. Neither do we have the ears that are needed to hear it. Because of this, we keep repeating our mistakes; we experience sorrow. In order to hear the divine counsel and act accordingly, we should awaken the disciple-hood within us. When this attitude arises in us, and when we are ready to approach and follow God with shraddha (alert faithfulness), devotion, love and humility, God assumes the bhava (divine mood) of a Guru to lead us.

Arjuna and Krishna grew up together, like friends. Yet Krishna did not impart the Gita to Arjuna during that time at all. The Lord did so when the attitude of a disciple awakened in Arjuna. Therefore, we need to awaken this disciple-hood in ourselves. To be a disciple is to surrender. Then everything in the cosmos becomes our Guru. Every experience becomes our Guru. Without this attitude, we will not learn anything no matter how many experiences come our way

The story of Radha comes to mind. When Krishna left Vrindavan for Mathura, He took neither Radha nor the gopis (milkmaids) with Him. Because of that, they became very sad. During this time, Uddhava, who had come to Vrindavan from Mathura, asked Radha, "The gopis have sent messages to the Lord asking Him to return or else to take them to Mathura. But I have received no such message from you. Why?"

Radha replied, "When the master of the house goes out, he may or may not take the servant with him. If the master does not take the servant with him, what will the latter do? He or she will clean the house and the surroundings, perform all the tasks that have been entrusted to him or her, and await the master's return. I am the Lord's maid-servant. As such, it is up to Him to decide whether or not He wants to take me along with Him. If He had taken me with Him, nothing else would have given me greater happiness. At the same time, I am not despondent because He did not take me with Him. I await His return, having cleaned the altar of my heart and lighted the lamp of love. As a maid-servant, this is my duty. That is why I am not sending any message to the Lord."

Such is the attitude we should have towards God. This is the attitude of a true devotee — the attitude of a servant. Only through such surrender can we attain the knowledge of the Self.