![Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), whose name means “Bliss-Permeated Mother.” “One day [She] was showing the various ways of saluting God and said: ‘Lose yourself altogether when bowing down to God with a single-minded devotion and you will obtain joy and power in proportion. If you cannot do anything else, at least morning and evening at the appointed time, lay down your body, mind and life before Him in salutation and surrender, and think of Him just a little.’](http://25.media.tumblr.com/43990895417128d245871f9465447e1e/tumblr_mexn4iNtHT1r1g33co1_500.jpg)
Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), whose name means “Bliss-Permeated Mother.”
“One day [She] was showing the various ways of saluting God and said: ‘Lose yourself altogether when bowing down to God with a single-minded devotion and you will obtain joy and power in proportion. If you cannot do anything else, at least morning and evening at the appointed time, lay down your body, mind and life before Him in salutation and surrender, and think of Him just a little.’
One of the best movie characters ever, Walter Crow Horse, from the movie Thunderheart (1992), played by one of the greatest actors of our time, Graham Greene. Walter Crow Horse is one of those characters I’d love to have as a friend, and to be like - deeply human, connected to my community, passionate, keenly observant, sharp as a razor, a person of action, profoundly spiritual. Happened to catch this on a cable movie channel in the last month; got the DVD and could watch this again and again and marvel at the wonder of it all, such a beautiful film.
According to new research the notion of time flowing on its own is wrong; European scientists recently asserted time is merely a measure of the numerical order of change. In other words, time doesn’t exist beyond the clocks we humans create. Meanwhile, other physicists are putting out credible theories that our universe endlessly expands and implodes, whether as part of an infinite number of Big Bangs, or, alternatively, expanding and contracting with no beginning and no end.
So what? First, we live in eternity, we inhabit “forever” now, as Joseph Campbell and others have stated. The jewel is in the lotus and all that. Do you know what this means? If we live in eternity, and what we call our universe repeatedly is created and destroyed (or expands and implodes, if that’s more accurate) over and over again - lather, rinse, and repeat literally forever - it stands to reason that in the infinite or eternal cycle of the universe’s creation and destruction, even after we die we may very well come to exist again.
What? Well, is it logical to assume that with the universe being created over and over again infinitely, it follows that it is likewise infinitely possible that our galaxy, our planet, or at least “us,” one’s consciousness or being-ness, have endless possibilities to be recreated, re-manifested? Which is to say, all of my atoms and molecules have all eternity to rearrange themselves back into “me” somehow - and into a world where we can meet again - as part of this endless cycle?
Or am I just kidding myself, and that when we die, that’s it?
— Image: Van Gogh’s “Sorrowing Old Man (‘At Eternity’s Gate’), 1890.
I know I am born of the stuff of the universe and so through whatever mystery I was created I am aware my dissolution is guaranteed.
What is most painful to me is not the fear and anxiety of oblivion - which is terrifying on its face - but the sadness that everyone, every creature that I love is similarly fated. Buddhists, Hindus and others say we are all one; Campbell says the gods are beyond names and forms and we must surrender to and be annihilate in the universal will. Still, one can participate in the mystery of the universe and of life, knowing we face the unknown when we die, and still weep at the notion the ones we love may experience oblivion when they, too, complete the cycle.
The woman was emaciated / The sign hung from her neck / ‘Selling my daughter for 100 won’ / With the little girl standing next to her / The woman stood in the market place.
The woman was a mute / She gazes at her daughter / Her maternal feelings are being sold / Cursed at by passers-by / The woman stares only at the ground / The woman has no more tears.
Clutching her mother’s skirt / ‘My mother’s dying,’ cries the daughter / The woman’s lips tremble / The woman knows no gratitude / The soldier gave her 100 won, saying / ‘I’m not buying your daughter, I’m buying your motherly love’ / The woman grabs the money and runs off.
The woman is a mother / With the 100 won she received for the sale of her daughter / She hurries back, carrying bread / She shoves the bread into her daughters mouth / ‘Forgive me,’ wails the woman.
"— Jang Jin-sung poem translated by Kevin Kim; 100 North Korean won is roughly equivalent to 73 US cents or 47p. (Shout-out to the BBC for covering.)
A still from Notorious (1946), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. One of the greatest films ever.
— Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
For some reason this depresses me beyond words, and calls into high relief that everything fades and passes away and we are all doomed to die. On the other hand, it does feature Grant Goodeve and the mighty Dick Van Patten.
In looking to religions old and current what has helped me to understand the meaning of good and evil is the Norse myth of Ragnarok. In sum, the gods know that in their final, world-ending battle against giants and other forces of evil that they are destined to lose, to die. Yet they go to their doom willingly, refusing to side with the forces of evil who ultimately will prevail.
In my own reasoning, searching, and worrying about whether or not consciousness is eternal or if there is an afterlife, this seems instructive for each of us. We know that the forces of darkness - death - will consume every one of us, there is no escaping our fate. And thus we have a choice: live to satiate our desires, our wants and needs heedless of the consequences to ourselves and others, or live to help others, to spread kindness and compassion for the general good. We are unified in our fate in that we will all face our own Ragnarok, and when we die we may not know what, if anything, comes next, but in our acceptance of what is foretold we can embrace what is good and adds to the vitality of life for all of us everywhere.
Why do we seek to control others, whether through the imposition of moral, religious, political, or other rules? First consider, how much control do we exert over our own selves? Should we expend ourselves forcing others to live as we believe they ought, or use the force and energy of our wills to live up to our own high standards for human behavior? The freedom to think and act as one believes they best should while respecting the liberty of others to do the same is a radical, blissful state!
Do you yearn to express the inexpressible?
Bangladesh is one of the world’s childhood malnutrition hotspots; UNICEF estimates that 48 percent of all Bengali children under five years old are...
