Saints, Sufis and Yogis. 3rd ed. Vol.2: I-P

John Noyce

This is the first edition of a biographical dictionary of enlightened Sufis from Persia, Turkey, India, and Africa. Revised second edition (2020) available from lulu.com.

In the Void are stored our conditionings and illusions, that make us to what we are now. Shri Mataji even says that "we are born in the Void". That's why the Great (or Primordial Masters) incarnated on earth to warn us not to deviate to the left or right channel. But to our knowledge Shri Mataji never split them up into those who are present in the left or right side; they are "Incarnations" of Shri Adi Guru Datatreya; wé maybe put them there, depending on the state of our Void. In fact Shri Mataji was talking about the Ekadesha Rudras, who control the side channels.

SAHAJA YOGA, A UNIQUE DISCOVERY “Sahaja” means ‘spontaneous’: you are born with it, it is your birthright. “Yoga” means ‘connection’. Connection with what/ with whom? Most forms of yoga have their origin in India. In essence they are meant to be spiritual, but from the 19th century on they have become more and more materially oriented. In many Western translations they have become more body-oriented than spirit oriented. In all human beings is a strong yearning for balance, happiness, joy, good luck, peace, equanimity, serendipity, good health … but they seldom know/feel how to reach it and follow all kinds of devious ways. Some of them – a few individuals only – found a way to reach this ‘paradisiacal’ state by diving deep into themselves to discover their spiritual heritance. They were able to awaken the “Divine Spark” or “Spirit” and get ‘enlightened’ or ‘self-realized’. But in human history they were exceptions … up to the 5th of May 1970, because at that moment Shri Adi Shakti took up Her role as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and started to give self-realization ‘en masse’. Today there are millions of people that got their self-realization: (re)connection [yoga] to their highest Self (Spirit) and their Creator and dó live their daily life in a more spiritually balanced way. This way is called Sahaja Yoga, as a method to reach Vishwa Nirmala Dharma: a worldwide pure religion that would incorporate all religious movements that have ever existed.

History Enlightened - Volume Fifteen Saints, Sufis and Yogis 3rd edition Volume 2: I - P Compiled by John Noyce 1 Copyright John Noyce 2016 The compiler can be contacted: johnnoyce@hotmail.com http://stores.lulu.com/sahajhist 2 Dictionary I - P 3 Ibn al-‘Arabi (Muyi l-Din b. al-Arabi) 1165-1240 Born in 1165 in Andalucia in Spain into an influential and religious family - two of his uncles were Sufis. Ibn al-Arabi was educated in Seville, then a great centre of Islamic culture and learning, where studied with many Sufi masters, including two women shaikhs, Shams of Marchena and Fatima of Cordoba, the latter being like a spiritual mother to him. In 1200 responding to a dream, he left Spain for good. The following year he reached Mecca where, whilst circumambulating the Ka’ba, he met Nizam, a gifted young woman of great beauty who he saw surrounded by a heavenly aura of spiritual light, and realised that she was a living embodiment of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom. His poems in praise of Nizam as a manifestation of Divine Wisdom drew the wrath of the Muslim orthodoxy, but have eternalized her memory. She has confused all the learned of Islam Everyone who has studied the Psalms Every Jewish Rabbi Every Christian priest. Even to think of her harms her subtlety. If this be so, how can she correctly be seen by such a clumsy organ as the eye? 4 Her fleeting wonder eludes thought. She is beyond the spectrum of sight. After spending several years in Mecca, Ibn al-Arabi travelled extensively, settling eventually in Damascus in Syria, where he passed from this life in 1240. Ibn Al-Arabi wrote extensively throughout his life and many of his writings have survived. Bibliography ‘The writings of Ibn ‘Arabi’ [website] http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/works.html Sufis of Andalusia: the Ruh al-quds and al-Durrat al-fakhirah of Ibn Arabi’, translated by R.W.J.Austin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971) R.W.J. Austin, 'The Sophianic Feminine in the work of Ibn 'Arabi and Rumi', in The heritage of Islam, edited by Leonard Lewisohn (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), v.2:233-245 William C. Chittick, Imaginal Worlds: Ibn Al-Arabi and the problem of religious diversity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994) William C. Chittick, ‘The Spiritual Path of Love in Ibn al'Arabi and Rumi’ Mystics Quarterly 19(1), 1993:4-16 https://www.academia.edu/7340861/The_Spiritual_Path_of_L ove_in_Ibn_Arabi_and_Rumi William C. Chittick, The Sufi path of knowledge: Ibn al‘Arabi’s metaphysics of imagination (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1989) Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi (1958 in French; English translation: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969) 5 Y.Dadoo, ‘Religious pluralism for Ibn 'Arabī: the outcome of Divine Love and Mercy’ Religion & Theology 14(1-2), 2007:116-146 Stephen Hirtenstein, ‘Ibn Al-‘Arabi’ in Biographical encyclopaedia of Islamic philosophy, edited by Oliver Leaman (London: Thoemmes Continuum, 2006) v1:216-226 Hulya Kucuk, ‘From his Mother Nūr al-Anāriyya to his Say Faima bt. Ibn al-Muanna: important female figures around Muyi l-Din b. al-Arabi (d. 638/1240)’ Arabica 59(6):685-708 Huda Lutfi, ‘The feminine element in Ibn Arabi’s mystical philosophy’ Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics no.4, 1985:7-19 6 Ikkyu (Ikkyu Sojun) 1394-1481 Born the illegitimate son of a Japanese emperor, this maverick Japanese Zen Buddhist priest and poet/calligrapher became a Zen master. He has become a folk hero in Japan, popularising Zen in society and in new artistic forms that incorporate the spirit of Zen. It is said that he was one of the creators of the formal Japanese tea ceremony. There is no such thing as becoming one with God; there is the realisation that the mystic is already one with God. 7 This is why we speak of 'realisation' and not transformation, though external transformation occurs. One night our Master heard the cry of a crow and attained enlightenment. He quickly reported this to his master and Kaso replied, ‘You have reached the stage of an arhat but not that of a Master. Ikkyu answered, ‘Then I am perfectly happy as an arhat and don’t need to be a Master.’ Kaso responded, ‘Well, then, you really are a Master after all. Bibliography Wild ways: Zen poems of Ikkyu, translated by John Stevens (Boston, Mass: Shambala, 1995) Ikkyu and the Crazy Cloud anthology: a Zen poet of medieval Japan, translated by Sonja Arntzen (Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1986) John Stevens, Three zen masters: Ikkyu, Hakuin, and Ryokan (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1993) Peipei Qiu, ‘Aesthetic of unconventionality: Furya in Ikkyu’s poetry’ Japanese Language and Literature 35(2), 2001:135156 James Sanford, ‘Mandalas of the heart: two prose works by Ikkyu Sojun’ Monumenta Nipponica 35(3), 1980:273-298 Donald Keene, ‘The portrait of Ikkyu’ Archives of Asian Art v20, 1966:54-65 8 Hazrat Inayat Khan 1882-1927 Born into an Indian Muslim family of musicians, Inayat Khan became a Sufi in the Nizamiyya sub-branch of the Chishti order. With the encouragement of his shaykh (teacher), he left India in 1910 to go to the West, travelling first as a touring musician and then as a teacher of Sufism, visiting Europe and North America, and eventually settling in Paris. His message of divine unity through love and wisdom was attractive to many seekers in the West, and he founded the ‘Sufi Order in the West’, now known as the Sufi Order International. Inayat Khan expressed the view that: 9 There is no line of work or study which woman in the West does not undertake and does not accomplish as well as man. Even in social and political activities, in religion, in spiritual ideas, she excels man. … I can see as clear as daylight that the hour is coming when woman will lead humanity to a higher evolution. Bibliography The Sufi message of Hazrat Inayat Khan (London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1960-1969. 12v) http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/index.htm The heart of Sufism: essential writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan (Boston: Shambhala/ Random House, 1999) Marcia Hermansen, ‘Two Sufis on molding the new Muslim woman: Khwaja Hasan Nizami (1878-1955) and Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927)’ in Islam in South Asia in practice, edited by Barbara D.Metcalf (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), chapter 25 Carl W.Ernst and Bruce B.Lawrence, Sufi martyrs of love: the Chishti order in South Asia and beyond (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) 10 Indrabhuti 11th century? There are several siddhis with this name so some care is needed. This entry refers to the siddhi who wrote the Sahajasiddhi. Known variously as ‘Indrabhuti III’ and ‘Indrabhuti the younger.’ (Dowman 2010:233-234) The Indrabhuti of the 10th/11th centuries begins his commentary, the Sahajasiddhi, with a lineage list that indicates that he was the receptor of a teaching on Sahaja that began with a princess and her five hundred ‘ladies in waiting’ receiving awakening into the nature of sahaja from a rishi in the forest monastery of Ratnalamkara. (Davidson 2002) It is likely that this Indrabhuti was a disciple of Kambalapada, also known as Lawapa, a Buddhist teacher active in Bengal in the tenth century. (Choudhury 2007:6) Bibliography Janmejaya Choudhury, ‘The antiquity of Tantricism’ Orissa Review Sept-Oct 2007:5-7 Ronald M.Davidson, ‘Reframing Sahaja: genre, representation, ritual and lineage’ Journal of Indian Philosophy v30, 2002:45-83 Keith Dowman, Masters of Mahamudra: songs and histories of the eighty-four Buddhist siddhis (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2010) 11 Isaac the Syrian (Isaac of Ninevah) 7th century CE Icon of Isaac the Syrian Christian ascetic and monk, of the Assyrian Church of the East, regarded as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox churches. Born in what is now Qatar on the western shore of the Persian Gulf, Isaac became a monk, before briefly serving as the bishop of Ninevah, in Assyria. He then departed south for ascetic life, living for many years as an anchorite on Mount Matout. 12 He ended his days as a monk in the monastery of Rabban Shabur, where his reflections on inner spirituality were written down by his fellow monks. Be at peace with your own soul then heaven and earth will be at peace with you. Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and you will see the things that are in heaven, for there is but one single entry to them both. The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your soul... Dive into yourself and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend. Bibliography The Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian, translated by D.Miller (Boston, Mass, 1984; rev. ed., 2011) Mystic treatises by Isaac of Nineveh, translated by A.J.Wensinck (Amsterdam: Koninklijke akademie van wetenschappen, 1923; reprinted 1969). https://archive.org/details/IsaacOfNinevehMysticTreatises Hilarion Alfeyev, The spiritual world of Isaac the Syrian (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000) Sebastian P. Brock, ‘St.Isaac of Nineveh’ [2012] http://syri.ac/brock/isaac Sebastian P.Brock, The wisdom of St.Isaac of Nineveh (Kottayam, 1995; Oxford: Fairacres Publications, 1997; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006) 13 Patrik Hagman, The Asceticism of Isaac of Nineveh (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) ‘Isaac of Syria’ http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Isaac_of_Syria 14 Jose Francisco de Isla 1703-1781 This Spanish Jesuit is best known as a satirical writer on aspects of the Spanish society of his day. His major work, a novel titled Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes (1758), and known today after the principal character, Friar Gerundio, is a biting satire on the popular preaching friars of the day. Within two years the book was added to the Catholic Church’s infamous Index of Prohibited Books. When the Jesuits were expelled from Spain in 1767, Isla moved to Italy where he settled in Bologna. He lived there in extreme poverty until his death in 1781. In 1990 in conversation with members of the Department of Religion at the University of Sydney, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi refered to Isla: 15 “Now you are taking Spanish people – Isla, have your read Isla? That’s the one who is a realized soul. He is a realized soul. I mean, you can see it is a realized soul. I mean, your take his book and you have vibrations in your hands.” (1990-0315) Bibliography Rebecca Haidt, Seduction and sacrilege: rhetorical power in Fray Gerundio de Campazas (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2002) John Dowling, Review of Fray Gerundio (Madrid: Gredos, 1992), South Atlantic Review 58(2), 1993:187-189 Russell P.Sebold, ‘Naturalistic tendencies and the descent of the hero in Isla’s Fray Gerundio’ Hispania 41(3), 1958:308314 Ralph Steele Boggs, ‘Folklore elements in Fray Gerundio’ Hispanic Review 4(2), 1936:156-169 16 Jabir (Jabir ibn Haiyan) (Geber) (Dza-bir) 721-815 15th century European portrait of ‘Geber’ A Persian Islamic alchemist renowned for his experimental contributions to chemistry, whose books may have influenced medieval European alchemists who knew him as Geber, the Latinised form of Jabir. There are many books attributed to Jabir/Geber, however the authenticity of some has long been questioned. It is probable that most of these Arabic works were texts by later Ismaili writers, as demonstrated by Kraud (1943). According to Tibetan Buddhist tantric sources, Dza-bir (or Dza-ha-bir) was a yogi born in Nagarkot in western India, possibly the son of a king, who may have settled in eastern India and become known as a Sufi alchemist. 17 As a yogi he is known as Manikanatha or Mahasiddha Jabir. Bibliography E.J.Holmyard, The Arabic Works of Jabir ibn Hayyan, translated by Richard Russel in 1678. (New York: E.Dutton, 1928) E.J.Holmyard, ‘Some chemists of Islam’ Science Progress in the Twentieth Century 18(69), 1923:66-75 Paul Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayyan: contribution a l’histoire des idees scientifiques dans l’Islam et la science grecque (Paris, 1943-44. 2v. Reprint: Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1986) Syed Nomanul Haq and David E.Pingree, Names, natures and things: the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan and his Kitab al-Ahjar (Book of Stones) (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994) Michael Walter, ‘Jabir, the Buddhist yogi. Part one’ Journal of Indian Philosophy v20, 1992:425-438 Michael Walter, ‘Jabir, the Buddhist yogi. Part two. “Winds” and immortality’ Journal of Indian Philosophy v24, 1996:145-164 18 Ravindra Jain 1944-2015 Born blind into the family of a well-known Sanskrit scholar, Ravindra Jain became a well-respected composer, lyricist, and singer for Hindi films from the 1970s onwards. He also composed many popular Jain bhajans. From the 1980s onwards he composed music for many television serials, mostly in association with Sagar Films, especially the Ramayana series (1980s; and 2008). As a realized soul he is remembered for the song Vishwa Vandita which was included on the cassette album Sahaj Dhara (1991). Ravindra Jain wrote, played and produced this album with the singer, Hemlata. 19 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi praised Ravindra Jain and in particular his composition, Vishwa Vandita which contains new names of the Devi. Shri Mataji explained the meaning of the names Yoganirupana and Dharma Vikasini during a Meditation with Sahaja yogis in Cabella Ligure, Italy (1991-0922). Visiting the Sahaja Yoga exhibition at the National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest in 1992, Shri Mataji commented on Vishwa Vandita: It is written by a blind poet, very famous. And he has written also, he has composed and written poetry for Ramayana, epic film. It’s a … I can’t understand this man, because he just met me three times and he has seen such things very deeply about me that really I was amazed. He has described me in such a manner that some people have not seen those points which he has seen. (1992-0722) In Brazil in 1992 Shri Mataji explained Vishwavandita in detail (1992-1014): This song (was composed) by a very famous music director, who directed the the epic of Ramayana in Ramayan film. And he is a blind man. Now this blind man I don’t know how, he met me only thrice and then he wrote this song. And he says that in the many names that are not even in Her one thousand names. 20 First is Vishwa Vandita: The word Vishwa means the Universe and Vandita means worshiped, worshiped by the whole world. Now I am convinced because is a fact. Sarva Pujita means that everyone does her Puja. Sarva means everyone is doing her Puja. Brahma Swarupini means She is the form of this Bhamachaitanya. This is a new one, now, Yoga Nirupini is not in the thousand names. Yoga Nirupini, means she explains and proves the Yoga. It’s not in the thousand names, this a new name again. Shubadham Varadam Namoh Namah, meaning : She is the one who is the giver of auspiciousness and She is the one who is giver of blessings. Varada, Varad means blessing. Namoh namah, you know means. means I worship Her. Jagata Janani Nirmala, means She is the Mother of the whole world. Moola Prakriti Akileshvaraki: Akileshvara is the God Almighty and She is the basic nature of God Almighty. Parashakti Parameshwari : She is – para means, even beyond the power of God Almighty. Vishwa Dharini Mangala Karini: She is the One who sustains the whole world. Vishwa Ddharini. Mangalakarini : and She makes benevolence of all them. Then again Shubadham Varadam Namoh Namaha, means giver of auspiciousness and also of blessings. Alright. Now Sahaja Yogini Nirmala: She is a Sahaja Yogini Herself. She has got her yoga in a sahaj way, means spontaneous way. She is Sahaja Yogini. 21 Nirashraya Sarveshwari: She is supportless, without any support. But She is the Goddess of everything, Sarveshwari. Premamurti Bhakta Vatsala, She is the image of love and She is very fond of Her bhaktas, devotees. Premamai Mateshvari: She is full of love and the Goddess of all the Mothers. Mateshwari is the Goddess of all the Mothers. Bhakti Pradayini Mukti Pradayini: She is the giver of devotion, Bhakti. She gives Bhakti. And Muktipradayini: She is the one who gives you salvation. Then again Shubadham Varadam Namoh Namaha, means the same thing, giver of auspiciousness and of blessings, we bow to Her. Now Pragata Saguna Nirguna; She is; She, the formless has become manifested in form through Her. Formless. Nirguna is formless. Ridhi Siddhi ki Dhatri hai: means She is the giver of Siddhis. Siddhis means by which you get powers, to give realization to people, to cure people, to manifest all the Divinity, Siddhis. And Riddhi is by which contentment, peace, joy. Means that you grow into that, Riddhi. Saumya Sarala Mahamana, She is a very gentle person and a simple, innocent person and very gentle, Saumya. Mahamana: She is, She is the greatest mind. Patanjali Gunapatri hai. She is the possessor (of ) all the qualities that Patanjali has spoken about. Ghataghata Vasini: Ghata means here – is actually the Kumbha – but here it is meaning She resides in every body’s heart. Atma Vikasini: She expands the Spirit. 22 Shubadham Varadam Namoh Namah, again the same thing. Giver of – She is the giver of auspiciousness and also of blessings, I bow to Her. … Shri Mataji: Have you got the complete tape of it? Sahaja yogi: Yes Shri Mataji. Shri Mataji: I’m really surprised now he has described so many things, which are not even in the one thousand names of the Goddess. (1992-1014) Bibliography Haresh Pandya, ‘Ravindra Jain. 71. Bollywood film composer’ New York Times October 11, 2015:A28 [obituary] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/11/arts/music/ravindra-jainbollywood-film-composer-dies-at-71.html ‘1992-0703 Sahaja Yoga public program, Brussels. Part 1: Music by Hemlata’ https://vimeo.com/42914919 ‘1992-0704 Sahaja Yoga public program, Brussels. Music by Hemlata’ https://vimeo.com/42912942 23 James (James the Just) 1st century CE Brother of Jesus. James became the leader of the (Jewish) followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. James practiced a severe ascetic lifestyle in accordance with Jewish traditions. He clashed with Saul/Paul (who had not known Jesus) regarding the latter's missionary zeal in taking Christianity to the gentiles, or non-Jews. As the New Testament of the Christian Bible begins to take shape, its contents, the gospels and letters, reflect the Paulian version of Christianity, and James and Jewish Christianity gets removed from the historical story of Jesus. Bibliography Pierre-Antoine Bernheim, James, brother of Jesus (London: SCM Press, 1997) Jeffrey J. Butz, The brother of Jesus and the lost teachings of Christianity (Rochester, VT : Inner Traditions, 2005) Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner, The brother of Jesus : James the Just and his mission (Louisville, KY : Westminster John Knox Press, 2001) Robert Eisenman, James, the brother of Jesus: the key to unlocking the secrets of early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: VikingPenguin, 1997) Robert Eisenman, James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (Leiden: Brill, 1986) T.D.Kendrick, St.James in Spain (London: Methuen, 1960) 24 Matti Myllykoski, 'James the Just in history and tradition: perspectives of past and present scholarship' [Parts I and II], Currents in Biblical Research 5(1), 2006:73-122; 6(1), 2007:11-98 John Painter, Just James : the brother of Jesus in history and tradition (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1997) Roy Bowen Ward, ‘James of Jerusalem in the first two centuries’ Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt v2.26.1, 1992:779-812 25 Raja Janaka Date unclear. The Janakas were a lineage of sage-kings of Mithila or Videha in ancient northern India. The best known was Seeradhwaja Janaka, more popularly known as Raja Janaka or King Janaka (c.600BCE). He is mentioned in the Ramayana as the father of Sita. The Ashtavakra Gita is a dialogue between the sage-guru, Ashtavakra and his disciple, King Janaka. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Raja Janaka was an incarnation of the Primordial Master. It is unclear whether this refers to the historical Raja Janaka (c.600BCE) or to an earlier king. I will tell you a story of Raja Janaka who was a great king in India. He was called as Bidehi - means an ascetic. And he was a king and whenever he went to any ashram the saints used to get up and touch his feet. So one disciple of a guru got very angry ─ his name was Nachiketa ─ and he said, “How can you all touch his feet when he is a king and enjoying the life like a king, living like a king, wearing a crown? How can you touch his feet?” So the guru said that. “He is the primordial master.” To him it does not matter whether he lives in a palace or on the street. (1983-0910) Raja Janaka eventually gave realization to Nachiketa (1979-0720) after the latter had achieved detachment from worldly desires through many tests (1980-1023). 26 Shri Mataji described the relationship of Raja Janaka and Nachiketa a number of times in lectures. (eg. 1993-1015; 1994-1204; 1996-0716) The Sanskrit text known as the Ashtavakra Gita documents in twenty chapters a dialogue between the sage Ashtavakra and king Janaka on the nature of soul, reality and conditionings. This text is also known as the Ashtavakra Samhita. Bibliography Geoffrey Samuel, The origins of yoga and tantra: Indic religions to the thirteenth century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), chapter 4, esp. 69-71 ‘Who was Raja Janaka? King or Ascetic?! Four relevant stories with Guru Janaka and Nachiketa – the disciple’ http://www.free-meditation.ca/archives/12537 Ashtavakra Gita, translated by Baij Nath (1904) http://www.scribd.com/doc/70956639/The-Ashtavakra-GitaBaij-Nath Ashtavakra Gita, translated by John Richards (1994) http://sanskritdocuments.org/all_pdf/ashteng.pdf http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ashtavakra_Gita Ashtavakra Samhita, translated by Swami Nityaswarupananda (Mayavati: Advaita Ashrama, 2nd ed., 1958) http://www.scribd.com/doc/21428811/Ashtavakra-Samhita 27 Janardan Swami 1504-1575 Maratha guru of Eknath. Janardan served as governor of the hill fort at Daulatabad (previously known as Devgiri) in what is now Maharashtra, whilst it was ruled by a Muslim king. He was respected by both Hindus and Muslims for his ability to attend to both spiritual and material matters with equanimity. He was a devotee of Dattatreya. The tomb where he entered samadhi is inside the Daulatabad fort. Bibliography R.D.Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra (Poona, 1933; reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988):214-215,218-220 Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978):99-102 28 Jani (Janabai) similar dates to Namdev (1270-1350) Janabai was the maid-servant from childhood of Damset and his son Namdev, caring for the child Namdev and later the adult Namdev, being treated more like a daughter, gaining her spiritual realisation from him. As a woman saint she is regarded as being second only to Muktabai. There are about three hundred abhangas (songs) attributed to Jani which have remained popular in Maharashtra, most of which can be found in the Namdev Gatha, and some have been translated into English. One of Janabai's most popular verses depicts Lord Vitthal or Vithoba as a loving parent to his devotees: My Vithoba has many children a company of children surrounds him. He has Nivritti sitting on his shoulder, and holds Sopan by the hand. Jnaneshvara walks ahead, and beautiful Muktai behind. Gora the potter is in his lap, and with him are Chokha and Jiva. Banka sits on his back, and Namdev holds his finger. Jani says, look at this Gopal who loves his bhaktas. Jani’s most famous abhanga is the extraordinary text translated into English by the twentieth century Maratha 29 poet, Arun Kolatkar, who conveys the essence of the original through the starkness of his imagery: i eat God i drink God i sleep on God i buy God i count God i deal with God God is here God is there void is not devoid of God Jani says: God is within God is without and moreover there is God to spare. Bibliography Vidyut Bhagwat, ‘Marathi literature as a source for contemporary feminism’ Economic and Political Weekly 30(17), April 29, 1995):WS24-WS29, esp.WS26 Philip Engblom and Eleanor Zelliot, ‘A note on Arun Kolatkar’ Journal of South Asian Literature 17(1), 1982:109110 Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978):50-54 30 Arun Kolatkar, ‘Translations from Tukaram and other saintpoets’ [including Jani] Journal of South Asian Literature 17(1), 1982:111-114 R.D.Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra (Poona, 1933; reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988):190,205-207 Sarah Sellergren, ‘Janabai and Kanhopatra’, in Images of women in Maharashtrian literature and religion, edited by Anne Feldhaus (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996):213-238 Vilas Sarang, ‘Janabai (ca.1298-1350)’ Indian Literature 36(5), 1993:73-74 [translations] Ruth Vanita, ‘Three women sants of Maharashtra: Muktabai, Janabai, Bahinabai’, Manushi no.50-52, 1989:45-61 31 Jeanne d’Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle)(Joan of Arc) c1412-1431 French mystic and patriot, who never called herself 'Jeanne d'Arc' but rather 'Jeanne la Pucelle' (Joan the Maid). As a teenager she led resistance to the English in 142930. Later captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English. Burnt at the stake in Rouen by the English in 1431. A contemporary account by an English soldier states that when Joan expired, a white dove was seen to come out of the pyre and fly towards France. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented that Joan of Arc was a 'special, blessed person by the Divine' and that she 'should be worshipped as a goddess or as a deity which has looked after France and its independence.' (1998-1024) Bibliography Ann W.Astell and Bonnie Wheeler, eds., Joan of Arc and spirituality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) Deborah A.Fraioli, Joan of Arc: the early debate (Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2000) Edward Lucie-Smith, Joan of Arc (London: Allen Lane, 1976) Margaret Joan Maddox, Portrayals of Joan of Arc in film: from historical Joan to her mythological daughters (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2008) 32 Stephen Richey, Joan of Arc: the warrior saint (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003) Craig Taylor, ed. and trans., Joan of Arc, La Pucelle (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006) Devarshi Abalain adds: Joan of Arc didn't teach anything. Her life, known through many accounts of the time, still does. One could speak of a proof of the intervention of God in History. An oxymoron would better hit the essence of the character: Joan's life seems like a well-documented fairy tale. Many traces from the chronicles should of course be taken with care as any document of the time. Still, how are we to consider the marginal drawing by Clement de Fauquembergue of a maid in arms illustrating his mention on May 10th 1429 of the siege of Orleans for the records of Paris' Parliament? And what about the acts of her trials from January to May 1931? Well documented indeed. Fairy tale? Let's not take all the legend for what it pretends. Joan was no foolish and superstitious girl from the country. There are even good traces of her staunch common sense if not scepticism. Asked about a miraculous tree in her village here is her answer: 33 “What have you to say about a certain tree which is near to your village?" "Not far from Domremy there is a tree that they call 'The Ladies' Tree' - others call it 'The Fairies' Tree'; nearby, there is a spring where people sick of the fever come to drink, as I have heard, and to seek water to restore their health. I have seen them myself come thus; but I do not know if they were healed. I have heard that the sick, once cured, come to this tree to walk about. It is a beautiful tree, a beech, from which comes the 'beau may.' It belongs to the Seigneur Pierre de Bourlement, Knight. I have sometimes been to play with the young girls, to make garlands for Our Lady of Domremy. Often I have heard the old folk - they are not of my lineage - say that the fairies haunt this tree. I have also heard one of my Godmothers, named Jeanne, wife of the Marie Aubery of Domremy, say that she has seen fairies there; whether it be true, I do not know. As for me, I never saw them that I know of. If I saw them anywhere else, I do not know. I have seen the young girls putting garlands on the branches of this tree, and I myself have sometimes put them there with my companions; sometimes we took these garlands away, sometimes we left them. Ever since I knew that it was necessary for me to come into France, I have given myself up as little as possible to these games and distractions. Since I was grown up, I do not remember to have danced there. I may have danced there formerly, with the other children. I have sung there more than danced. There is also a wood called the Oak-wood, which can be seen from my father's door; it is not more than half-a-league away. I do not know, and have never 34 heard if the fairies appear there; but my brother told me that it is said in the neighborhood: 'Jeannette received her mission at the Fairies' Tree.' It is not the case; and I told him the contrary.” She is not under the spell of the spirits, but instead, when asked by the captain of Vaucouleur at the beginning of her mission : “Who is your Lord ?” she simply replies: “The King of Heaven.” She also knows what is to be done: stop the British and Burgundy's territorial progress and domination on the Kingdom of France and bring Charles the Seventh to Reims for his coronation. There her earthly mission stops and she achieved it. http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/ http://www.stjoan-center.com/Trials/null03.html 35 Jesus Christ (Jesu) (Yesu) (Issa) 1st century CE Palestinian spiritual teacher and founder of the movement that became Christianity, who, as a young man, travelled widely in India and elsewhere, this being subsequently recorded in the Divine memory that was accessed by Levi Dowling when writing the Aquarian Gospel. In India he is also known as Mahavishnu. According to the Bhavisya Purana, he met King Shalivahan who encouraged him to return to Palestine where he was killed (crucified). After his resurrection, he returned to India, specifically Kashmir, where his tomb is said to be. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has spoken of Jesus Christ many times: What was Christ? He was a son of a carpenter. He never got education. But what did he do? He was the Spirit. He reflected God within him and that’s why he got himself crucified also. (2000-0820) His name Christ comes from the word Krishna, Krist, and the second one is Jesus. Krishna had a foster mother whom Radha loved very much. Her name was Yeshoda, we also call her as Jeshoda. Christ is called also as Yesu in India. The short form of Jeshoda is Yesu or Jesu. … From there the name Jesus has come. … Moreover the 36 word Jesu or Yesu is very important. Je in Sanskrit language means, every word has a meaning in Sanskrit language, means to know, is to know, the knowledge, Gyana. … The one who knows. Su means “that brings auspiciousness, that brings blessings”. Jeshu is the one who knows how to bring auspiciousness on this Earth. (1981-1006) This Agnya Chakra is a gate, is the door of Heaven. And everyone has to pass through it. Now on this chakra resides the great incarnation of our Lord, Jesus Christ. In our Indian Shastras, He is called as Mahavishnu, the son of Radhaji. ... He is the embodiment of innocence. (1983-0203) Bibliography The Gospel of Thomas: annotated and explained by Stevan Davies (Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2002) The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, by Levi H.Dowling (Los Angeles: E.S.Dowling, 1908) https://archive.org/details/aquariangospelof00levirich The Life of Saint Issa in Nicholas Notovich, The unknown life of Jesus Christ (New York: R.F.Fenno, 1890; many reprints by various publishers, eg. Stepney, SA, Australia: Axiom, 2007; Mineola, NY: Dover, 2008) Arun, ‘Indian sources on the life of Jesus Christ’ in India’s ancient past, edited by Shankar Goyal (Jaipur: Book Enclave, 2004):461-486 Fida Hassnain and Dahan Levi, The Fifth Gospel (Srinagar, Kashmir: Dastgir, 1988; rev. ed: Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin, 2006) Holger Kersten, Jesus lived in India (in German, 1983; Longmead, UK: Element, 1986) 37 Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus: sayings and stories in Islamic literature (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2001) Martin Palmer, The Jesus sutras: rediscovering the lost religion of Taoist Christianity (London: Judy Piatkus, 2001) Neal Robinson, Christ in Islam and Christianity: the representation of Jesus in the Qurán and the classical Muslim commentaries (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1991) 38 Jijabai (Jijamata) 1594-1674 The mother of the great Maratha leader, Chhatrapati Shivaji. His strong character was built under Jijabai's guidance and care. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented: So we must understand: “Are we allowing our children to grow big? Are they generous? Are they saints? Are they beautiful? How do they talk to others? Are they confident?” Tomorrow they are going to be the leaders of Sahaja Yogis. Like Shivaji’s mother, like Jija Mata. 39 How she made the son great. It’s the mother who makes the children great. (1990-1020) … you must have heard about Shivaji, and his mother was Jijabai, a very powerful woman. (1982-1026) Bibliography Kamalabai Deshpande, 'Great Hindu women in Maharashtra', in Great women of India, edited by Swami Madhavananda and Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1954):343-361, esp.356-358 Kalyani Devaki Menon, ‘"We Will Become Jijabai": historical tales of Hindu nationalist women in India’ Journal of Asian Studies 64(1), 2005:103-126 40 Jnaneshwara (Jnandev) (Dnyaneshwara) (Gyaneshwara) c.1275-1296 The first, and some say the greatest, of the saints in the Maratha Varkari tradition was Jnaneshwara, also known as Jnanadeva. [the variant names are based on three Sanskrit words: Jnana meaning knowledge, -ishvar used in the sense of lord, and deva, god. The Marathi can also be transcribed in western (roman) script as Dnyan, thus Dynaneshwara; also Gyan in Hindi, thus Gyaneshvara, or Gyandeo. Additionally, the ending –vara can be transcribed as –wara, thus Jnaneshwara.] Born in 1275 in his mother’s village, Alandi, near Pune, this young saint achieved much in his short life taking his samadhi in 1296. He received his Kundalini awakening from his brother Nivritti, who had earlier received his awakening from a Nath yogi, Gahininath. It is Jnaneshwara who provides a detailed description of the awakening of the Kundalini in the language of the ordinary people (Marathi) in the sixth chapter of the Jnaneshwari. After several centuries of handwritten manuscript copying, this sixth chapter had been removed from the text by the Brahmin pundits. Acting on a dream, Eknath revised the text to re-include the controversial sixth chapter and its description of Kundalini awakening. 41 Mallinson is of the view that the combination of yogic teachings (ascribed to Gorakh) and vedantic discourse to be found in the Jnaneshwari is similar to that found in two early texts associated with the Naths, the Vivekamartanda and the Goraksasataka. Both texts are ascribed to Gorakh and are likely to have originated from Maharashtra and date to the thirteenth century. In the epilogue to the Jnaneshwari, known as the Pasayadan, Jnaneshwara desires mass-realisation for the entire world and the rebirth of the saints who will give their blessings (realisation) to the whole world. Let universal friendship reign among all beings. Let the darkness of evil disappear. Let the sun of true religion rise in this world. Let all beings obtain what they desire. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has indicated that this is a description of the Sahaja yogis in modern times. (19941002, 1994-1009). In his Amritanubhava (Experience of the Ambrosia), Jnaneshwara attempted to describe the beauty of the Sahaja state, that oneness with the Divine. The Changadeva Pasashti, Jnaneshwara's sixty-five verse letter to the great siddhi yogi, Changadeva, is often published with the Amritanubhava. Jnaneshvara is best known to Maharashtrians through his abhangas. These are devotional lyrics in which the innermost feelings of the heart are expressed, particularly in relation of the soul to God. There are some 1100 42 abhangas credited to him, of which one tenth are translated by P.V.Bobde in his Garland of Divine Flowers (1987). There is also the Haripath, a sequence of some twenty-seven four-line verses of the abhanga type. There are two texts attributed to Jnaneshwara on Nath yogic themes: the Lakhota (‘Sealed Letter’) and the Yoghapar Abhangamala (a collection of abhangas on yoga). There is also the Anusthanapath (‘Litany of Observances’), a group of yoga-related songs in the Jnandev Gath that are probably by later writers in the Varkari tradition. Shri Mataji has observed that "to understand Jnaneshwara, I would say, first you must have your self realization. Otherwise you can never understand him." (1996-1125) Jnaneshvara had two brothers, Sopandev, and a sister, Muktabai. Nivrittinath and Bibliography Jnaneshwari, translated by M.R.Yardi (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2nd ed., 1995) http://www.bvbpune.org Jnaneshvari, translated from the Marathi by V.G.Pradhan; edited by H.M.Lambert (London: Allen and Unwin, 1967; Bombay: Blackie and Son, 1978; Albany: SUNY Press, 1987) Sri Jnanadeva's Bhavartha Dipika, otherwise known as Jnaneshwari, translated from Marathi by R.K.Bhagwat (Madras: Samata Books, 1979) 43 Jnaneshwar's Gita: a rendering of the Jnaneshwari by Swami Kripananda (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989) Sri Jnanadeva's Amritanubhava, with Changadeva Pasashti, translated from Marathi by R.K.Bhagwat (Madras: Samata Books, 1985) Garland of divine flowers: selected lyrics of Saint Jnanesvara, [translated by] P.B.Bobde (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987) B.P.Bhahirat, The philosophy of Jnanadeva (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1956) Hemant V.Inamdar and Dinkar K.Peshpande, An introduction to Saint Poet Dnyaneshwar and his Dnyaneshwari (Pune: Mansanman Prakashan, 1999) S.V.Dandekar, Dnyanadeo (New Delhi: Maharashtra Information Centre, 1985) Catharina Kiehnle, Jnandev Studies, vols. I and II: Songs on Yoga: Teaching of the Maharastrian Naths; vol. III: The Conservative Vaisnava: Anonymous Songs of the Jnandev Gatha (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998. 3v in 2) James Mallinson, ‘Nath Sampradaya’ in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Religions, vol.3 (Leiden: Brill, 2011) http://www.khecari.com/resources/Nath-Sampradaya.FP.pdf James Mallinson, ‘Hathayoga’s philosophy: a fortuitous union of non-dualities’ [2012 – submitted to Journal of Indian Philosophy] https://www.academia.edu/1906199/Ha%E1%B9%ADhayoga s_Philosophy_A_Fortuitous_Union_of_Non-Dualities R.D.Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra (Poona, 1933; reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988), chapters 2-5 P.Y.Deshpande, Jnanadeva (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2nd ed., 1982) 44 Joachim of Fiore (Gioacchino da Fiore) 1135-1202 This Italian Christian abbot proposed a three-age (status) theory of the world which has resonated down the centuries in much of the apocalyptic and prophetic activity in Christian Europe. The first of the three status of which we speak was in the time of the Law when the people of the Lord served like a little child for a time under the elements of the world. They were not yet able to attain the freedom of the Spirit until he came who said: “If the Son liberates you, you will be free indeed” [John 8:36]. The second status was under the Gospel and remains until the present with freedom in comparison to the past but not with freedom in comparison to the future. … The third status will come toward the End of the world, no longer under the veil of the letter, but in the full freedom of the Spirit when … those who will teach many about justice will be like the splendour of the firmament and like the stars forever. In that [third] status the Holy Spirit will seem to call out in the Scripture “The Father and the Son have worked until now; and I am at work.” [Joachim’s version of John 5:17] The letter of the Prior Testament [Old Testament] seems by a certain property of likeness to pertain to the Father. The letter of the New Testament pertains to the Son. So the spiritual uderstanding that proceeds from both pertains to the Holy Spirit. (Liber Concordie, chapter 5) 45 Bibliography Warwick Gould and Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the myth of the Eternal Evangel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, rev ed. 2001) Bernard McGinn, The Calabrian abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the history of Western thought (London: Macmillan, 1985) Bernard McGinn, ‘Who was Joachim of Fiore?’ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/e xplanation/joachim.html R.Orioli, 'Gioacchino da Fiore', Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani http://www.treccani.it/Portale/ricerche/searchBiografie.html Gian Luca Potesta, Il tempo dell'Apocalisse : vita di Gioacchino da Fiore (Roma : Editori Laterza, 2004) Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the prophetic future (London: SPCK, 1976) Marjorie Reeves, ‘The originality and influence of Joachim of Fiore’ Traditio v36, 1980:269-316 46 Marjorie Reeves, The prophetic sense of history in Medieval and Renaissance Europe (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999) [collection of articles] Stephen E.Wessley, Joachim of Fiore and monastic reform (New York: Peter Lang, 1990) Delno C.West, ed., Joachim of Fiore in Christian thought (New York: Burt Franklin and Co., 1975) Delno C.West and Sandra Zimdars-Swartz, Joachim of Fiore: a study in spiritual perception and history (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983) 47 John of Patmos late 1st century CE Author of the Book of Revelations, also known as the Apocalypse of John, found in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. John asserts that he wrote this text on the small island of Patmos, off the coast of Turkey. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented that the original text of Revelations may have been longer than the version found in the Bible (1994-0709), and has noted that John had limited the places in Heaven to 144,000. (1982-0502) Bibliography Revelation, introduction, translation and commentary by J.Massyngberde Ford (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975) (Anchor Bible) Karen L. King, The secret Revelation of John (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2006) Elaine Pagels, Revelations: Visions, prophecy, and politics in the Book of Revelations (New York: Viking Penguin, 2012) 48 John the Baptist early 1st century CE Jewish prophet and seer who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan river. He baptised Jesus and is seen by Christians as having prepared the way for him. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that John the Baptist was a realised soul who used the water to raise the Kundalinis of those he baptised (1981-0817, 1983-0203) and who had the authority of the Divine (1980-0611, 1982-0419, 1983-0525). The people who talk of Baptism, like John the Baptist, he was really a realised soul and when he raised the Kundalini and put the water on the head, he really gave them realisation. That is ‘baptism’. Christian means a baptised person, but not any Dick, Tom and Harry can put his hand on your head and say you are realised. (1983-0203) Only you will be saved by God if you are authorized. You must get your second birth. You must really get your real living baptism. John the Baptist, he tried it. He tried, didn’t work out, didn’t work out. He was the only person, who was a realized soul. He tried. (1980-0929) The work of John the Baptist is best described in the Gospel of the Ebionites, one of the early Christian texts that were excluded from the Bible. 49 It happened in the days of Herod the king of Judaea, that John came, baptizing with the baptism of repentence in the river Jordan. It was said of him that he was of the lineage of Aaron the priest, the son of Zacharias and Elisabeth: and everyone went out to him. ... After the people had been baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And as he came up from the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that descended and entered into him. And a voice sounded from Heaven that said: "You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased." And again: " I have this day begotten you". And immediately a great light shone round about that place. When John saw this, it is said, he said unto him : "Who are you, Lord?" And again a voice from Heaven rang out to him: "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And then, it is said, John fell down before him and said: "I pray thee, Lord, baptize me." But he withstood him and said: "Let it be; since it is necessary that everything will be fulfilled." (Gospel of the Ebionites) Shri Mataji has said that John the Baptist reincarnated in India as Gagangiri Maharaj (c.1911-2008). (1982-0603, 1984-0818) 50 Bibliography Joan E.Taylor, The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997) John C.L.Gibson, ‘John the Baptist in Muslim writings’, The Muslim World 45(4), 1955:334-345 John P.Meier, ‘John the Baptist in Josephus: philology and exegesis’ Journal of Biblical Literature 111(2), 1992:225-237 Charles H.H.Scobie, John the Baptist (London: SCM Press, 1964) Robert L.Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet: a sociohistorical study (Sheffield, UK: JSOT Press, 1991) Walter Wink, John the Baptist in the gospel tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968) 51 Melvin Jones 1879-1961 American businessman who founded the Lions Clubs International in 1917. During a speech in a Sahaja Yoga public program held in a Lions Club in Calcutta in 1986, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi commented: … this “lion” word makes me understand that the gentleman who has founded this, Mr. Melvin Jones, must have been a great personality and in his vision he perhaps has seen that one day you might come to Sahaja Yoga to understand the working of this organization. Just like Confucius wanted to establish a quality of people, a category of people who would have a feeling 52 for others and we say in samajikata or the public-minded people. (1986-1009) Bibliography ‘Melvin Jones Biography’ http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/who-we-are/mission-andhistory/melvin-jones.php Zander Campos da Silva, Lions Club: the great idea of Melvin Jones (Goiania, Brazil: Grafica e Editora Unica, 1984; Dog Ear Publishing, 2014) 53 Bhimsen Joshi 1922-2011 Indian classical singer famous for his renditions of Marathi and Hindi songs. Born in 1922 in the town of Ron in Karnataka, Bhimsen Joshi received his musical training in north India with several well-known singers, and in particular with Sawai Gandharva, the main disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Gandharva and his cousin Abdul Wahid Khan were the founders of the Kirana Gharana school of Hindustani music. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi enriched the Kirana gharana by adding his own distinctive style, and adapting characteristics from other gharanas. He was also an exponent of Khayal style of singing. 54 Pandit Bhimsen Joshi sang for Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in India and in England. (1982-1228, 1985-0930). There’s one musician – some singer, famous. And his name is Bhimsen Joshi. And he has sung one song which is a Bhairavi, he said, at least one thousand times. And every time he has sung it differently. Very spontaneous. That’s why very rigorous training is needed in Indian music. You have to start very early, and a very rigorous training, you see. People have to practice for hours and hours. So once you become an Indian musician, your life is completely dedicated to it. You can’t get out of it. (1988-0610) Bibliography ‘Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Indian musician’ http://www.indianetzone.com/6/pandit_bhimsen_joshi.htm Abhik Majumdar, Bhimsen Joshi: a passion for music (New Delhi: Rupa, 2004) Mohan Nadkarni, Bhimsen Joshi: the man and his music (Bombay: Prism, 1983) Mohan Nadkarni, Bhimsen Joshi: a biography (New Delhi: Indus, 1994) 55 Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross) (Juan de Yepes y Alvarez) 1542-1591 Spanish Christian mystic, Carmelite friar, and contemporary of Teresa of Avila. Known for his writings on introspection, best exemplified in the phrase 'Dark Night of the Soul'. In the poem 'O living flame of love' he describes union with the Divine. In a song found in a manuscript of his works, Juan de la Cruz writes of that mystical state known to yogis as nirvikalpa: I entered not knowing where. And I remained not knowing. Beyond all science knowing. I did not know where I entered, But when I saw myself there, Not knowing where I entered, Many things I suddenly learned; I will not say what these things were, For I remained not knowing, Beyond all science knowing. It was peace, it was love, It was the perfect knowledge, In deep loneliness I saw with wisdom; It was a thing so secret I was left babbling and trembling, 56 Beyond all science knowing. I was so far beyond, So lost and absorbed, I lost all my senses I was of all sensing dispossessed; And my spirit was filled With knowledge not knowing, Beyond all science knowing. ... And this exalted wisdom Is of such excellence, That no faculty of science Can hope to reach it; But he who learns to conquer himself With this knowledge of not knowing, Will always go beyond all science knowing. Bibliography St.John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz): alchemist of the soul, translated by Antonio T. De Nicholas (New York: Paragon House, 1989) The collected works of St.John of the Cross, translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, rev. ed., 1991) Elizabeth Teresa Howe, Mystical imagery: Santa Teresa de Jesus and San Juan de la Cruz (New York: P.Lang, 1988) ‘A poem by Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591): verses written about an ecstasy of high contemplation’ [I entered where I did not know], translated by Willis Barnstone Chicago Review 14(2), 1960:67-68 James B.Anderson, ‘The Spanish mystical aesthetic’ Mystics Quarterly 19(3), 1993:115-122 57 Daniel A.Dombrowski, St.John of the Cross: an appreciation (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992) Deidre Green, ‘St. John of the Cross and mystical 'unknowing'’ Religious Studies 22(1), 1986:29-40 Luce Lopez-Baralt, ‘St.John’s nocturnal beloved could have been named “Layla”’ Medieval Encounters 12(3), 2006:436461 John J.Murphy, ‘St John of the Cross and the philosophy of religion: love of God and the conceptual parameters of a mystical experience’ Mystics Quarterly 22(4), 1996:163-186 Evelyn Toft, ‘Some contexts for the ascetical language of John of the Cross’ Mystics Quarterly 17(1), 1991:27-35 58 Carl Jung (Carl Gustav Jung) 1875-1961 Swiss psychologist and mystic. Founder of the analytical psychology now known as Jungian psychology. Jung emphasised the need to explore the spiritual and religious nature of the human psyche so as to achieve balance and harmony. Throughout his life he explored the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, Eastern and Western philosophy and religion, as well as alchemy, astrology, sociology, and literature. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has mentioned Jung many times in her talks, in particular in a talk to the C.G.Jung Society in New York (1983-0916). She has stated that Jung achieved his realisation (1990-1017). Jung (is) one of the greatest psychologists and I respect him very much. He has done a lot of work on the unconscious and 59 he has taken many years to experiment on thousands and thousands of people to find out how the unconscious works through dreams and symbols. ... He also found out another thing about the Universal Unconscious, that it always gives you a balance, by different experiments. (1976-1222) Bibliography The portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell (Viking) The Cambridge companion to Jung, edited by Polly YoungEisendrath and Terence Dawson (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed., 2008) Deirdre Bair, Jung: a biography (London: Little, Brown, 2004) John Henshaw, 'Carl Jung and the Kundalini, Knowledge of Reality, no.12 [n.d. – 1990s] http://www.sol.com.au/kor Anthony Stevens, On Jung (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, new ed., 1999) Anthony Stevens, Jung. A very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) 60 Kabir (Kabir Das) c.1440-1518 Widely regarded as the greatest of the North Indian bhakti saints, Kabir was a disciple of Ramanand. He was a weaver by trade. There are many references to Sahaja in his songs: Where there is neither sea nor rains, Nor sun nor shade; Where there is neither creation Nor dissolution; Where prevails neither life nor death, Nor pain nor pleasure; Beyond the states of Sunn and trance; Beyond words, O friend, Is that unique state of Sahaj. 61 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has spoken of Kabir many times, describing him as "a great, great Sahaja yogi" (2002-0724) who was "an outspoken fellow" (19780606) who fearlessly exposed the shortcomings of the society of his day (1985-1128). Kabir was born to a weaver, they say they don’t think he was born to him but he was found by a weaver – whatever it is – and he belonged to Muslim family. But he realized that the Muslims as they are practising their Islam, is not going to give him what he wants. He has to seek his self. He has to know himself. So what did he do is to go on the bank of river Ganges in Benares and he stayed there waiting for a great realized soul called Ramanand. Swami Ramanand. When this Swami Ramanand came back after his bath, he immediately caught hold of his feet. After bath if somebody catches the feet of any Brahmin, he would shout at him. But he was a saint, he was not a brahmin. He said my son what do you want? He said: “Sir, give me initiation. I want self realization”. And Swami Ramanand immediately agreed. All the other people said: “Sir, he is a Muslim. He is an orphan brought up in a Muslim family, how can you give realization. He’ll not accept any of the principles which look like coming from Hindu religion.” Ramanand looked at Kabir, he could see a great seeker there. He said “You don’t know him, I know him”. And he took him with him and Kabira became a great saint after that. He is accepted by Hindus and Muslims, because he had that power of wisdom. He went to a man who was not belonging to his religion, who may have 62 not accepted him, who might have just thrown him in the river. Also possible. But he knew also through his wisdom that this man is the one who will love me, because I am a seeker of Truth. (1993-0721) Kabir Dasa has written all about Kundalini and everything. Like he says that when the Kundalini rises, it breaks the epitome of your physical being that is the brahmarandhra and you go into a complete nirvichara samadhi. Clearly he has said it, absolutely clearly. There cannot be more clear writings than Kabira’s. (19861009) There was a great poet called Kabir in India and whatever he told was so much misunderstood by people that you can not imagine what interpretations they do. He said in one of his poetry ‘my beloved went away and I…` Now people think beloved means a lover; so he was saying about the death while people understood it is some sort of a beloved he is talking about. (2001-0425) Bibliography The Bijak of Kabir, translated by Linda Hess and Shukdev Singh (San Francisco, 1983; Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986) One hundred poems of Kabir, translated by Rabindranath Tagore (Calcutta: Macmillan, 1970) Songs of Kabir from the Adi Granth, translated by Nirmal Dass (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1991). 63 John Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of the saints of India (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), chapter 2 Muhammad Hedayetullah, Kabir: the apostle of Hindu-Muslim unity (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977) Linda Hess, ‘The cow is sucking at the calf’s teat: Kabir’s upside-down language’, History of Religions v22(4), 1983:313-337 Saral Jhingran, ‘Spiritual experience, ethics and social vision of Kabir: a medieval bhakti saint of India’ Religious Studies and Theology 16(2), 1997:5-18 Prabhakar Machwe, Kabir (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 3rd ed.,1984) Vijay Mishra, ‘Kabir and the bhakti tradition’ in Bhakti studies, edited by G.M.Bailey and I.Kesarcodi-Watson (New Delhi: Sterling, 1992):82-235 K.Schomer, ‘Kabir in the Guru Granth Sahib: an exploratory essay’ in Sikh studies, edited by M.Juergensmeyer and N.G.Barrier (Berkeley: Graduate Theological Union, 1979):7586 Charlotte Vaudeville, A weaver named Kabir (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993) Charlotte Vaudeville, Kabir. Volume I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974) 64 Kanaung 1820-1866 Prince Kanaung was crown prince of Burma and heirapparent (ein-she-min) during the reign of his brother, King Mindon. An experienced soldier, he was commander-in-chief of the Burmese army at a time when the British were seeking to consolidate their conquest of the coastal and southern part of Burma. Having studied international affairs and law, Kanaung become a noted jurist, regularly presiding over the royal court (hlut-daw). It was during a full session of this court that he was assassinated by two of his nephews in an unsuccessful uprising. 65 The Burmese-born Australian Sahaja yogini, Greta More is of the view that Kanaung was a realised soul. Bibliography Maung Htin Aung, A history of Burma (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), chapter 11: ‘The British conquest of Burma’, esp. pp 243-244 D.J.M.Tate, The Making of Modern South-east Asia. Volume One: the European Conquest (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971), esp. p415. 66 Cheikh Hamidou Kane (Sheikh Hamidou Kane) 1928- This Senegalese writer is best known for his prizewinning autobiographical novel L'Aventure ambiguë (Ambiguous Adventure), written in France, and published in Senegal in 1961. The novel is about the interactions of western and African cultures. Its hero is a Fulani boy who goes to study in France. There, he loses touch with his Islamic faith and his Senegalese roots. Born in 1928 in a noble Fulani clan in Matam in Senegal, Hamidou Kane received a traditional Muslim education until the age of ten, followed by the local French primary school, and secondary school in Dakar, before leaving Senegal for Paris to study law at the 67 Sorbonne, receiving degrees in law and philosophy. Returning to Senegal in 1959, Kane served as a commissioner of planning, as a regional governor, and as a minister of planning. Bibliography Cheikh Hamidou Kane, L’Adventure ambigue (Paris: Rene Juillard, 1962). English translation by Katherine Woods: Ambiguous Adventure (New York: Macmillan/ Collier, 1969) Rebecca Masterton, ‘Islamic mystical readings of Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s Ambiguous Adventure’ Journal of Islamic Studies 20(1), 2009:21-45 John D.Erickson, ‘[Review of] Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s L’Adventure ambigue’ Yale French Studies no.53, 1976: 92101 68 Kanha (Kanhapa, Kanipa) 8th 10th centuries CE Little is known of the original Sahajiya Buddhists, save that they lived in the 8th and 9th centuries CE in Bengal in eastern India. Saraha, Kanha, Bhusuka, Lui, Tilo, and others, are known today only through their dohas and caryas (short songs), written in a now defunct northern Indian language known as Apabrahmsa, and in Old Bengali. Many of the themes used by the Sahajiya Buddhists can also be found in the songs and sayings of later north Indian saints such as Kabir and Dadu. In some Nath traditions, this siddhi yogi is known as Kanipa Nath, and is said to have been a contemporary of Gorakhnath. He who has made his mind steady in samarasa which is the Sahaja, becomes at once perfect, no more will he suffer from disease and death. --Say, how can Sahaja be explained? (For) neither body nor speech nor mind can enter into it. In vain does the Guru preach to the disciple, for, how can he explain that which transcends the capacity of all verbal means? 69 Bibliography S.Das Gupta, Obscure religious cults (Calcutta: Firma K.L.Mukhopadhyay, rev ed.1969) ‘Kanipa Nath’ https://sites.google.com/site/nathasiddhas/kanipa-nath A.Mojumder, The Caryapadas: a treatise on the earliest Bengali songs (Calcutta: Naya Prokash, 2nd ed.,1973) Yoga Nath, ‘Kanipa Nath’ https://sites.google.com/site/nathasiddhas/kanipa-nath M.Shahidullah, Les chants mystiques de Kanha et de Saraha (Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1928) (English translation: Kolkata: Asiatic Society, 2007) 70 Kanhopatra mid 15th century. This Maratha saint was the beautiful daughter of a dancer who came to the attention of a Muslim king. Rather than submit to his desires, she took her eternal samadhi at the foot of the altar in the temple in Pandharpur, and is buried in the grounds of the temple, where a strange tree subsequently grew. She left some abhangas (songs) of which only a few have been translated into English, including her final abhanga: O Lord of the fallen, why do you torment your devotees so? They are, O Lord, but your other form. Who else O Pandarinath, is there to go to? Also, who is to blame if the jackal has taken the share of the lion? Kanhopatra says, take me from my body which I offer at your feet! Bibliography Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978): 90-93 Mahipati, ‘Kanhopatra’ in Stories of Indian saints: translation of Mahipati’s Marathi Bhaktavijaya, translated by Justin E.Abbott and Narhar E.Godbole (Pune, 1933; reprinted: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982), v2:78-84 R.D.Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra (Poona, 1933; reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988):190-191,208 71 Bondada Janardhana Rao, ‘Saint Kanhopatra’ [2014] http://medievalsaint.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/saintkanhopatra.html Sarah Sellergren, ‘Janabai and Kanhopatra’, in Images of women in Maharashtrian literature and religion, edited by Anne Feldhaus (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996):213-238 72 Amir Khusrau (Amir Khusro) (Amir Kusrow Dehlawi) 1253-1325 Nizamuddin and Amir Khusrau Amir Khusrau became the devoted disciple of the Sufi saint, Nizamuddin, as well as being a respected poet, musician, and scholar in the royal courts of the Delhi Sultanate. His tomb can be found near to that of Nizamuddin in Delhi. Khusrau’s verses are in a wide range of poetic styles, mostly in Persian, but some also in Hindi. He also spoke Arabic and Sanskrit. He was one of the first poets in India to write in the ghazal style. His poems are contained in the multi-volume Panj Ganj (Five Treasures). His other 73 multi-volume collection is the Samaniyyah Khusraviyyah (eight khusravi mathnavis). As a musician, he is regarded as the ‘father of qawwali’, and is said to be the originator of the tabla. The attribution of the origin of the sitar to Amir Khusrau is erroneous; the correct attribution being to a later musician of similar name. In the third chapter of the Nur Siphr, Khusrau writes: Indian music, the fire that burns heart and soul, is superior to the music of any other country. Foreigners, even after a stay or 30 or 40 years in India, cannot play a single Indian tune correctly. Indian music charms not only men but beasts also. Deer have been hypnotized and hunted simply by music. (trans. by M.W.Mirza; Singh 1995:117) Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has indicated her admiration for his poetry. (1993-0321, 1994-1210): And his [Nizamuddin] disciple was Amir Khusrau, was another very, very great Sufi gentleman and I always have admired his poetry and also the way Nizamuddin led his life of dignity and divinity. (1993-0321) 74 If there is a paradise on earth, It is this, it is this, it is this [India]. Whenever he visits my place, wakes me up from my sleep, He sings the song of separation. Is it the Beloved, O friend? No, its mosquito. I become you You become me, I become the soul, you the heart; How can they now claim, I am apart, you are apart? Bibliography In the Bazaar of Love: the selected poetry of Amir Khusrau, translated from Persian and Hindavi by Paul Losensky and Sunil Sharma (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2011) Aziz Ahmad, ‘Muslim Attitude and Contribution to Music in India’ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 119(1), 1969:86-92 Amir Kusrau: memorial volume (Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 1975) Jon Barlow and Lakshmi Subramanian ‘Music and society in North India: from the Mughals to the Mutiny’ Economic and Political Weekly 42(190), May 12-18, 2007:1779-1787 Barbara Brend, Perspectives on Persian painting : illustrations to Amir Khusrau's Khamsah (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003) 75 D.V.Chauhan, ‘Sanskrit influence on Amir Khusrau’ Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 51(1-4), 1970:51-58 Alyssa Gabbay, Islamic tolerance : Amir Khusraw and pluralism (London: Routledge, 2009) Mohammad Habib, Hazrat Amir Khusrau of Delhi (New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 2004) Shakeel Hossain, ed., Jashn-e-Khusrau 2013 : celebrating the genius of Khusrau (New Delhi: Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2014) Shakeel Hossain, ed., World of Khusrau: innovations and contributions (New Delhi: Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2014) Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman, Amir Khusrau as a genius (Delhi: Idarah-i Adabiyat-i Delli, 1982) Yousuf Saeed, ‘Amir Khusrau Website’ [1998-] http://www.angelfire.com/sd/urdumedia/ Sunil Sharma, 'Amir Khusraw and the genre of historical narratives in verse', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 22(1-2), 2002:112-118 Sunil Sharma, Amir Khusraw : the poet of sufis and sultans (Oxford: Oneworld, 2005) 76 Martin Luther King, Jr 1929-1967 American black civil rights leader who advocated nonviolent resistance in the pursuit of equality for all peoples. Best known for his 'I have a dream' speech. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi refered to ‘Mr.King’ several times: So now today the hero is, say, someone like Mahatma Gandhi or you had Mr King here [USA], all such people, or I would say Abraham Lincoln, he is coming up as a hero. What is so special about these people, we have to 77 see. They were all realized souls no doubt but one thing more they had was that they imbibed in them the capacity to emit compassion, love, nourishment, and soothing capacity of the Mother Earth. Because of that only they were today respected, they are today respected as great heroes. (1983-1001) Bibliography A testament of hope: the essential writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by James Melvin Washington (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986) The autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Clayborne Carson (London: Abacus, 2001) Coretta Scott King, My life with Martin Luther King, jr (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969) David L.Lewis, Martin Luther King: a critical biography (London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 1970) ‘The Nobel Peace Prize 1964: Martin Luther King Jr’ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/kingbio.html Michael J.Nojeim, Gandhi and King: the power of nonviolent resistance (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2004) 78 Lalla (Lalleshwari) (Lal Ded) 1320-1390 Kashmiri saint and yogi whose teachings are preserved in the Lalla Vakh (Wise sayings of Lalla), written in Old Kashmiri, which includes coded references to chakras and the ascending Kundalini: I held firm the reigns of my horse, the mind, I controlled well the pranas coursing through the ten nadis, Then did the nectar of the mystic moon melt and flow, suffusing my whole being, The mind thus curved, My void merged with the void of pure consciousness. Married at a young age, Lalla renounced that life to become an ascetic, a naked yogi under the guidance of Sidh Srikanth. She eventually gave up her secluded life and became a wandering preacher with thousands of followers, both Hindu and Muslim, who memorized her vakhs (verses) which have become the basis of Kashmiri literature and folklore. According to P.N.Kaul Bamzai, more than thirty percent of Kashmiri idioms and proverbs are derived from her sayings. Lalla awakened the Kundalini of the Kashmiri Sufi, Nund Rishi who observed in one of his popular verses: That Lalla of Padmanpore who had drunk to her fill the nectar, she was an avatar of ours. O God, grant me the same spiritual powers. 79 Bibliography Mystical verses of Lalla: a journey of self-realization, translated by Jaishree Kak (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2007) ‘Lal Ded’s Vakhs’ http://www.koausa.org/Saints/LalDed/article7.html The ascent of self: a reinterpretation of the mystical poetry of Lalla-Ded, translation and commentary by B.N.Parimoo (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, rev ed., 1987) P.N.Kaul Bamzai, ‘Lalleshwari: forerunner of medieval mystics’ Koshur Samachar [n.d.] http://www.koausa.org/Saints/LalDed/article2.html Jayalal Kaul, Lal Ded (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1973) Jaishree K.Odin, Lalla to Nuruddin: Rishi-Sufi poetry of Kashmir (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2013) Jaishree K. Odin, To the other shore: Lalla's life and poetry (New Delhi: Vitasta, 1999) B.N.Parimoo, Lalleshwari (Delhi: National Book Trust, 1987) Charles M.Ramsey, ‘Rishiwaer: Kashmir, the Garden of the Saints’, in South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and Destiny, edited by Clinton Bennett and Charles M.Ramsey (London: Continuum, 2012):197-210 Michelle Voss Roberts, ‘Flowing and crossing: the somatic theologies of Mechthild and Lalleswari’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76(3), 2008:638-663 80 David Lange 1942-2005 As Prime Minister (1984-1989) of New Zealand, Lange reformed his county's administration, including the passing of the nuclear-free legislation which is his legacy. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented on the meeting at the United Nations in 1985 of the two realised leaders, Rajiv Gandhi and David Lange: So a person who has a Sahaja culture is not only spontaneous, but is inspired, is a inspired personality. A person who is of that kind, an inspired visionary, then other people get impressed by such a person that, "See, there's a man who's inspired, who talks in an inspired way, in a way that is something very different from others." Something new he says, new that is nourishing. 81 Such a personality - like the other day, you see, we heard the lectures of so many people, and when the New Zealand Prime Minister [David Lange] was coming C.P. [Shri Mataji’s husband] said, "Now let's go back, because we'll have a little tea or something." I said: "No, you listen to this man. He's a realized soul." He said, "Really?" I said, "Yes, you listen to him." ... Within two minutes he captured everybody's attention, you see, and he was bubbling with everything, so beautifully, and he spoke all the points so much different, and so much new and so much better. C.P. was amazed. He said, "How do you know?" I said, "I know, because when I was in New Zealand I told them he's a realized soul." And our own Prime Minister [Rajiv Gandhi] is also a realized soul. You'll be surprised, after our Prime Minister finished his lecture and all that, after two or three lectures he was to go; then he turned round and went to this New Zealand Prime Minister, only him, went and congratulated him, congratulated him. Congratulated and said something very close to him. And the fellow again, you see, flew up into joy. We see it's all there. And then he came away. Why? Because one realized soul understands another realized soul, and everybody was amazed: why did he turn to this man alone, and went and congratulated him? So such a large country like India represented by our Prime Minister, goes down all the way to a little country like New Zealand which is nothing compared to India, and congratulates. And that's a developed country, this is a developing country. Is something people did not 82 understand. And the whole joyous atmosphere both of them shaking hands created. This is Sahaja culture, in which you recognize a realized soul, the dignity of a realized soul. (1985-1026) [David Lange addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations at its 40th anniversary session in 1985, when he and Rajiv Gandhi (1944-1991) were the only speakers from countries outside the permanent membership of the Security Council.] Bibliography David Lange, My life (Auckland, NZ: Viking, 2005) David Lange, Nuclear free: the New Zealand way (Auckland, NZ: Penguin, 1990) Michael Bassett, Working with David: inside the Lange cabinet (Auckland: Hodder Moa, 2008) ‘The Meeting’ http://sahaj-az.blogspot.com/2008/06/meeting.html 83 Lao Tse (Laozi) 6th century BCE Lao Tse ('Old Master') is traditionally considered the author of the Tao te ching, the seminal text of the Taoist tradition. He is considered to be a contemporary of Confucius. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Lao Tse is one of the ten incarnations of the Primordial Master, and that the Tao is the Kundalini: Lao Tse in China has very beautifully described Tao, meaning the Kundalini. And I have had a voyage through the Yangtze River through which Lao Tse had gone many times. I know he was trying to show that this river which is the Kundalini, is flowing towards the sea and one should not be tempted by the nature that is around. The nature around the Yangtze River is very, very beautiful, no doubt, but one has to go through the river. Also there are lots of currents which flow and can be quite dangerous and we need a good navigator who should take his ship across to the point where it is nearer the sea. At that stage it becomes very silent and extremely simple in its flow. (1995-0913) In 1990 in Hong Kong, Shri Mataji observed that Lao Tse was working out the left side, and that Confucius was working out the right side. (reported by Alex Henshaw) 84 There is one thing that is invariably complete. Before Heaven and Earth were, it is already there: so still, so lonely. Alone it stands and does not change. It turns in a circle and does not endanger itself. One may call it 'the Mother of the World’. I do not know its name. I call it TAO. … (Tao te ching 25) The world has a beginning: that is the Mother of the World. Whosoever finds the mother in order to know the sons; whosoever knows the sons and returns to the mother: he will not be in danger all his life long. (Tao te Ching 52) Bibliography Tao Te Ching: the book of meaning and life, translation by Richard Wilhelm and H.C.Oswald (London: Arkana (Routledge), 1985) Tao Te Ching, translated by Ellen M.Chen (Paragon House, 1989) Alan Chan, ‘Laozi’ [2013] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/ E.M.Chen, ‘Tao as the Great Mother and the influence of motherly love in the shaping of Chinese philosophy’, History of Religions 14(1), 1974:51-73 ‘Confucius and Lao Tse’ 85 http://sahaj-az.blogspot.com/2007/11/confucius-and-laotse.html Catherine Despeux and Livia Kohn, Women in Daoism (Cambridge, MA: Three Pines Press, 2003) Alex Henshaw, ‘The left and right side’ in Eternally Inspiring Recollections of our Divine Mother, edited by Linda J.Williams (London: Blossomtime Publishing, 2nd ed., 2013), vol.5:125 86 Latif Shah 16th century This Maratha Muslim was a follower of Eknath and a fervent devotee of Lord Krishna. The only biographical details are in the miracle recorded by the pandit Mahipati (1715-1790) in the Bhaktavijaya. Latif Shah is also mentioned in the Sanmani Mala of the poet Moropant (1729-1794) who says that Latif was admired by Tukaram. Only three Hindi poems and one Marathi abhanga have survived. None have been translated into English. Bibliography Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978):173-174 Narayan H.Kulkarnee, ‘Medieval Maharashtra and Muslim saint-poets’ in Medieval bhakti movements in India, edited by N.N.Bhattacharyya (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989): 198-231, esp. 226-227 Y.M.Pathan, ‘Contribution of the Muslim saints of Maharashtra to early devotional literature in Marathi’ in Bhakti in current research, 1979-1982, edited by Monica Thiel-Horstmann (Berlin, 1983):295-300 87 Shah Abdul Latif (Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai) 1689-1752 This Sufi lived in Sind (now in Pakistan) and travelled throughout northwest India, especially Gujarat and Rajasthan, settling in the town of Bhit Shah in Matiaru (now in Pakistan) where his shrine is located. Shah Abdul Latif is regarded as the greatest poet in the Sindh language. His collected poems were assembled in the compilation Shah Jo Risalo, which exists in numerous versions and has been translated into English, Urdu, and other languages. He has eloquently described his meetings with the yogis in several verses: In the world are yogis who worship light: In the world are yogis who worship fire. Without the holy men who lit the fire, the holy men, I cannot live. That these were Nath yogis is clear from another verse of Shah Latif’s: If you want to be a yogi, follow the guru, forget all desires, and proceed to Hinglaj. The yogis respond to an ancient call that was given even before Islam; They have given up everything, to be one with Gorakhnath. 88 Shah Latif ultimately was given realisation by an unnamed yogi who became his guru: In this life we enjoyed a rare boon – the company of a Yogi; The one, with whom we had a spiritual tie, revealed himself to us. Bibliography Shah Abdul Latif, Seeking the Beloved, translated by Anju Makhija and Hari Dilgir (New Delhi: Katha, 2005) Kalyan B.Advani, Shah Latif (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2nd ed., 1982) S.Q.Fatimi, ‘Shah ‘Abd al-Latif Bhitai and the East India Company’ Islamic Studies 41(3), 2002:495-505 Motilal Jotwani, Shah Abdul Latif: life and work (Delhi: University of Delhi, 1975) ‘Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai [1689-1752]. Poet Laureate of Sindh’ http://www.sufism.org.pk/shah-abdul-latif-bhittai/ H.T.Sorley, Shah Abdul Latif of Bhit (Lahore: Oxford University Press, 1940) G.M.Syed, Shah Latif and his message (Lahore: Saeen Publishers, 1996) http://www.sindhudesh.com/gmsyed/latif/saeen-book4.htm 89 Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin) 1870-1924 Russian leader, revolutionary and Marxist theoretician. One of the founders of the Soviet Union. Shri Mataji has refered to Lenin as a realised soul who did not write about spirituality; instead he wrote about political struggle, which resulted in thousands of people being killed. (1987-1025). Lenin was a realized soul, you will be surprised, but he was forced by all his party members. He was alone, you see. And, all of them forced him to take a course of line which was 90 really proved wrong later on. But whatever was his state, (he) talked about stateless state and all that was his dream and that’s coming true. He was also a realized soul. But he went onto a wrong line and it took so much time for them to come back and they had horrible despotic people. (1990-0811) Bibliography Sebastian Budgen, et al., eds., Lenin reloaded: towards a politics of truth (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007) Christopher Read, Lenin: a revolutionary life (London: Routledge, 2005) Robert Service, Lenin: a biography (London: Macmillan, 2000) Beryl Williams, Lenin (New York: Longmans, 1999) Tony Cliff, Lenin (London: Pluto Press, 1975-1979) 91 Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519 (self portrait) Italian painter, sculptor, scientist, mathematician, engineer who has come to represent the wide-ranging nature of the Italian Renaissance. Born in Anchiano, near the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, little is known of Leonardo’s upbringing before his move to Florence in the late 1460s where he served his apprenticeship in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo was in Milan between 1482 and 1499, and in Florence again in the period 1500-1516, ending his life in Amboise in France, under the protection of King Francois I. 92 Leonardo is best known as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are among the most reproduced of all time. He is also renowned for his technological ingenuity and inventiveness as shown in his notebooks. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has described this artist as having been born realised. (1996-0728) Bibliography Leonardo da Vinci: the Codex Leicester: notebook of a genius (Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 2000) Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: the marvellous works of nature and man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) Charles Nicholl, Leonardo da Vinci: flights of the mind (London: Allen Lane, 2004) Frank Zollner, ed., Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: the complete paintings and drawings (Koln: Taschen, 2003) 93 C.S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis) 1898-1963 This English academic, a specialist in medieval literature and colleague of J.R.Tolkien, wrote several novels incorporating a Christian morality. One novel, The Great Divorce: a dream (1946) is of interest for a passage which can be interpreted as a prophetic description of the Advent of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, which was confirmed by Shri Mataji in India in 1986: The other day I described to them the procession that was described by one of the English poets. In his vision he saw our procession and when I told them they are very happy that already an English poet like Lewis could see these points and written in such details the whole description. (1986-1227) 94 The reason why I asked if there were another river was this. All down one long aisle of the forest the undersides of the leafy branches had begun to tremble with dancing light; and on earth I knew nothing so likely to produce this appearance as the reflected lights cast upward by moving water. A few moments later I realised my mistake. Some kind of procession was approaching us, and the light came from the persons who composed it. First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers - soundlessly falling, lightly drifting flowers, though by the standards of the ghost-world each petal would have weighed a hundredweight and their fall would have been the crashing of boulders. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys on one hand, and girls on the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who reads that score would ever grow sick or old. Between them went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done. … ‘And who are all these young men and women on each side?’ ‘They are her sons and daughters.’ ‘She must have had a very large family, Sir.’ ‘Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.’ ‘Isn’t that a bit hard on their own parents?’ ‘No. There are those that steal other people’s children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. … ‘Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.’ I looked at my teacher in amazement. ‘Yes’, he said, ‘It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, 95 and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life’." (The Great Divorce) Bibliography C.S.Lewis, The Great Divorce: a dream (1946) C.S.Lewis, The allegory of love: a study in medieval tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1938) Colin Duriez, The C.S.Lewis handbook (Eastbourne, UK: Monarch, 1990) Gilbert Meilaender, The taste for the other: the social and ethical thought of C.S.Lewis (Vancouver, Canada: Regent College Publishing, 2nd ed., 2003) 96 Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 American president who successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has spoken highly of Lincoln, describing him as born-realised. (1983-0925, 1985-0315, 1999-0615) Abraham Lincoln, a man we call him very great. What was the thing about him? He was very big. Why? Because he could see that when I do not want to be enslaved, why should I have a slave? (1977-1231) Abraham Lincoln believed that everybody must have freedom, and the government should be for the public, for the people. Whatever he talked, he practised it. Whatever he 97 believed in, he worked it out and gave his life for it, that’s why he’s a great man. (1983-1106) You have Abraham Lincoln. What a man! I think his blessings should work out one day in this country [USA]. A saint. What a personality. (1984-0818) When I see Abraham Lincoln I think he was a great brother to the Statue of Liberty. The way he fought for women in such pure love and without taking any money, without charging them anything, to punish the husbands who were drunkards. That’s just like a very good, powerful brother to behave. (1987-0809) Bibliography The collected works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P.Basler (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953) http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln Richard Carwardine, Lincoln: a life of purpose and power (New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 2006) David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995) ‘Abraham Lincoln: a resource guide’ http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/lincoln/bibliogr aphy.html 98 Lui (Luyipada) 8th-10th century A Sahajiya Buddhist who probably lived in Bengal in eastern India. May have been the disciple of Saraha. Little is known of him other than some surviving verses (caryas): The body is like the finest tree, with five branches. Darkness enter the restless mind. Strengthen the quantity of the Great Bliss, says Lui. Learn from the Guru. Why does one meditate? Surely one dies of happiness or unhappiness. Set aside binding and fastening in false hope. Embrace the winds of the Void. Lui says: I have seen this in meditation. Darika may have been a disciple of Lui, as he writes in one carya: "Darika has received the twelfth world in the palace of Lui." Bibliography S.Das Gupta, Obscure religious cults (Calcutta: Firma K.L.Mukhopadhyay, rev ed.1969) A.Mojumder, The Caryapadas: a treatise on the earliest Bengali songs (Calcutta: Naya Prokash, 2nd ed.,1973) 99 Martin Luther 1483-1546 German religious reformer who challenged the corrupt and powerful Christian church of his day, thereby initiating the Protestant Reformation. His translation of the Bible from Latin into German made it more accessible to ordinary people. His marriage set a model for married clergy in the Protestant churches. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has described Luther as a realised soul (1983-0904). The Roman Catholics started a suppressed type of institution where they preached complete celibacy. Martin Luther came in, he said, “No, this is wrong, it should be spontaneous.” He was correct. At that point he was correct, but he went wrong, that he did not recognize Mother of Christ. That was the greatest mistake, because from where do you get the sense of celibacy, from where do you get the sense of holiness, in what relationship? In the Mother and the Son. (1977-0223) Bibliography Martin Luther: selections from his writings, edited by J.Dillenberger (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961) Robert Kolb, Martin Luther: confessor of the faith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) Michael A.Mullett, Martin Luther (London: Routledge, 2004) Donald K.McKim, ed., The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 100 Mahavira (Prince Vardhamana) Dates unclear. 6th or 5th centuries BCE. Born into a royal family, this Indian sage established the central philosophy of the Jain tradition as the twentyfourth and last Tirthankara (saviour or perfect being). Mahavira (Great Hero) was a contemporary of the Buddha. He is referred to in Buddhist sources as Nigantha Nataputta. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented: The ascetic life of Mahavira was of a very, very extreme nature. … He was a king, so he gave up all his material wealth, everything, and he became a complete sanyassi and he left his family, left his house, everything behind and went alone with a little bowl for begging alms. And the people who joined him were very few and he asked them that you have to also become ascetics, munis. He was a reincarnation of St. Michael and he resides on the left side on the Ida Nadi. And he looks after the whole of it, from Mooladhara onwards up to the Sahasrara. So Saint Michael was born as Mahavira meaning the greatest warrior. After Shri Krishna these two persons, Buddha and Mahavira, both of them incarnated in India. … They were the children of Rama and they were two twins called as Luv and Kush. (1990-0617) 101 Mahavira is the incarnation of Bhairavanath, or you call him as Saint Michael. Now these two saints as you know one as the Gabriel, Hanumana, and another is Saint Michael. One is placed on the Pingala Nadi and another one, Saint Michael, on the Ida Nadi. So, Mahavira had to go through lots of search. (1991-0328) The dates of Mahavira's life remain controversial. The traditional dates in the Jain tradition are 599-527BCE. Western scholars use a range of dates including 480408BCE. Bibliography Hiralal Jain, Mahavira, his times and his philosophy of life (New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith Publication, 1974) Kastur Chand Lalwani, Sramana Bhagavan Mahavira: life and doctrine (Calcutta: Minerva, 1975) 102 Haji Malang 12/13th century. Baba Abdur Rehman Malang was a Sufi who arrived in India during the twelth century, having travelled from the Middle East. One legend has it that he came from Yemen. His dargah (shrine) is on the side of a mountain near Kalyan, now part of Greater Mumbai, and is notable for being one of the few dargahs where a Hindu vahivatdar (a traditional priest from the Hindu Karandekar family) and a Muslim mutavalli (claiming to be a distant kin of the saint) both officiate at ceremonies. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has described Haji Malang, who She also refers to as Haji Mullah, as a realized soul. (1983-0203; 1988-0814) … Haji Mullah, who is very near Bombay, who was a realised soul. He too realised the fanaticism of the Shiyas. `Shiya’ word comes from Siya; in U.P. [Uttah Pradesh] Sita is called as Siya. Sitaji is called as `Siya’. They also did not realise that they are saints who are not, so called, Muslims but they are saints. So they could not get out of it. So we have another one called Haji Mullah who was worshipped by Hindus. Some Muslims also go there, no doubt. This Haji Mullah was quite worried about the fanaticism of the Shiyas. So he appointed some 103 Hindus to worship him, just to counter balance. They did all kinds of things. (1988-0814) Wherever there is a saint we believe in him. Think about Haji Malang, he was a Muslim. And I am surprised in Bombay, there is this Mr. Thackeray, he recognizes Haji Malang. He goes and prays at his tomb. (1994-0731) Bibliography Eugene D’Souza, ‘Haji Malang Gad – destination for pilgrimage and adventure’ (2008) http://www.daijiworld.com/chan/exclusive_arch.asp?ex_id=7 47 ‘Denying a shared past’ Combat April 1999 http://sabrang.com/cc/comold/april99/cover1.htm Asad Bin Saif, ‘Attack on syncretic culture – case of Haji Malang’ Economic & Political Weekly 31(32), August 10, 1996 104 Nelson Mandela (Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela) 1918-2013 South African anti-apartheid revolutionary born in the Thembu royal family of the Xhosa people. Politically active in the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party during the 1950s, Mandela was arrested in 1962 and was imprisoned on Robben Island and in other prisons for 27 years, being released in 1990. In the early 1990s Nelson Mandela took part in negotiations to abolish apartheid. In the multiracial elections held in 1994, he led the African National 105 Congress to victory and became president of South Africa as part of the Government of National Unity. During this time he created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. After serving five years as President, Mandela declined a second term, and became an elder statesman, focusing on charitable work to combat poverty and HIV/AIDS through the Nelson Mandela Foundation. A controversial figure for much of his life, Nelson Mandela became an internationally respected statesman. He is held in deep respect in South Africa, where he is often refered to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba, or as Tata (Father), often being described as “the father of the nation.” Bibliography Nelson Mandela, Conversations with myself (London: Macmillan, 2010) Nelson Mandela, The struggle is my life: his speeches and writings brought together to mark his 60th birthday (London: International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, 1978) Nelson Mandela, No easy walk to freedom (London: Heinneman, 1965; London: Penguin, 2002) Anthony Sampson, Mandela: the authorized biography (London: HarperCollins, 1999) Martin Meredith, Nelson Mandela: a biography (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1997) 106 Tom Lodge, Mandela: a critical life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) David James Smith, Young Mandela (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010/ London: Phoenix, 2011) Websites Nelson Mandela Foundation http://www.nelsonmandela.org/ Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela http://www.mandela.gov.za/ 107 Mani 216-277 CE Born in the province of Babylon (now Iraq), of noble (Arsacid) birth, in a Jewish-Christian sect, the Elchasaites, Mani travelled widely as a physician and promulgated a syncretic view of religion that included elements of the teachings of earlier teachers, notably Zarathushtra, Buddha, Jesus, and the Jewish prophets. His travels took him throughout Persia and Baluchistan and may have reached northern India. His missionaries introduced his teachings to the whole of the area bordering the eastern Mediterranean, into Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and into northern Arabia; then into North Africa, Armenia, Asia Minor, and even to Rome; also throughout Central Asia, into the Sogdian empire of Samarkand, and on into western China. It even became the state religion of the Turkish Uigur kingdom, Bogu Khaghan, based in Mongolia, in the eighth century. In all, the religion of Mani (Manichaeism) lasted for a thousand years. Bibliography Jes P. Asmussen, Manichaean literature (New York: Scholars' Facismiles and Reprints, 1975) Mehmet-Ali Atac, 'Manichaeism and ancient Mesopotamian "Gnosticism"', Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 5, 2006:1-39 Jason BeDuhn, The Manichaean body : in discipline and ritual (Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) 108 Jason BeDuhn, ed., New light on Manichaeism : papers from the Sixth International Congress on Manichaeism, organized by the International Association of Manichaean Studies (Leiden: Brill, 2009) Iain Gardner and Samuel N.C.Lieu, eds., Manichaean texts from the Roman Empire (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004) Manfred Hutter, ‘Manichaeism in the early Sasanian Empire’ Numen 40(1), 1993:2-15 Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic texts from Central Asia (San Francisco: Harper, 1993) Paul Allan Mirecki and Jason BeDun, eds., Emerging from darkness : studies in the recovery of Manichaean sources (Leiden: Brill, 1997) David Scott, ‘Manichaeism in Bactria: political patterns and east-west paradigms’ Journal of Asian History 41(2), 2007:107-130 109 Maria Theresa 1717-1780 Austrian queen and Dowager Empress of the Holy Roman Empire who was a key figure in the power politics of eighteenth century Europe. Maria Theresa brought unity to the Habsburg Monarchy and was considered one of its most capable rulers. Her sixteen children included Marie Antoinette, Queen consort of France. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented that Maria Theresa was a realised soul who manifested the qualities of a Raja Lakshmi: 110 As you know that it [Austria] was a very great country and Austria was regarded as one of the motherly countries. You’ve been a very balanced country. You had Maria Theresa, as a very great, great queen, I think, and all this happened there, there was a Raja Lakshmi there. (1984-0202: Talk to Austrian SYs in Bordi, India) Even your Queen, who lived during the time of Mozart was a realised lady, perhaps you do not know about her. (1984-0906: Public program in Vienna) If I say that Maria Theresa, the queen, was a realized soul, you can feel it. Your hands act like the antennae of a computer. (1985-0906) Bibliography Olivier Bernier, Imperial mother, royal daughter: the correspondence of Marie Antoinette and Maria Theresa (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986) Edward Crankshaw, Maria Theresa (New York: Viking, 1970) P.G.M.Dickson, Finance and Government under Maria Theresa, 1740-1780 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. 2v) Michael Yonan, Empress Maria Theresa and the politics of Habsburg Imperial art (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2011) 111 Marie Antoinette 1755-1793 Daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, this French queen and wife of Louis XVIII was killed by the mob in Paris during the revolutionary period. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that the French were wrong to kill Marie Antoinette: I would say French were wrong because Marie Antoinette, whatever she did, she did as a queen. ... She was extremely creative person. She gave so much work to the artists. She gave them so many ideas. She made beautiful furniture. She decorated her palaces with such 112 beautiful things. … When I went to see [the palaces], I saw the greatness of this lady. (1987-0817) I’m told they are celebrating the French Revolution that took place. If you ask me there was no need to have revolution of that kind to kill Marie Antoinette. It was not necessary. If they had killed or not killed, it would have been all right. But they had to kill her. Why? Because according to them she spent lot of money in Versailles and created some beautiful furniture. Today only they are showing that furniture. What is there to show in this France? As soon as you come, they say, “Have you seen her palace? … She made such nice beautiful things. She was not going to carry it with her. Now, when you murdered her, then you ask me to go and see those beautiful things. We have to learn from history that it was stupid to kill her. What was the need to kill her? When you have taken over the government, all right, stop at that point and then you start governing. With that revolution you think world has improved for us? Anywhere in the world, do you think things have improved? Also, the revolution should have been to change the government. All right! But to go to that limit was not necessary.” (1989-0709) 113 Bibliography Imperial mother, royal daughter: the correspondence of Marie Antoinette and Maria Theresa, edited by Olivier Bernier (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986) Nancy N.Barker, ‘"Let Them Eat Cake": The mythical Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution’ The Historian 55(4), 1993 Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: the journey (New York: N.A.Talese/Doubleday, 2001) Evelyne Lever, Marie Antoinette : the last queen of France (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000) 114 Markandeya Dates unknown. Indian sage of ancient times whose conversations and prayers are contained in the Markandeya Purana and the Bhagavat Purana. He is also mentioned in the Mahabharata. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Markandeya incarnated on a number of occasions: He was the first who wrote about Adi Shakti. All these things that you read about [in] Shankaracharya and all that, he took it from Markandeya. He was the first who wrote about Kundalini, first about Realization, he was the first who did all that. … So that’s the great part of Markandeya. He took his birth later on as Buddha, then he took his birth as Adi Shankaracharya, it’s the same personality. But he was actually the son of Rama, to begin with. He was Luv and he went to Russia and that is why they are called as Slavs. … Another son was Kush, who went to China, that is why they are called as Kushan. Then they incarnated again and again, also as Hassan and Hussain, as Mahavira and Buddha, as Adi Shankaracharya and Jnaneshwara, like that. (1988-0609) 115 Bibliography Markandeya Purana, translated with notes by F.Eden Pargiter (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1904; reprint: Delhi: Indological Book House, 1969) ‘Story of Markandeya’ http://sahaj-az.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/story-ofmarkandeya.html 116 Mary According to the Gospel of Mark (16:1) the term 'Three Marys' refers to the three companions of Mary, Mother of Jesus. Namely, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and Mary, known also as Salome. The Gnostic view was different: Three women always walked with the Master [Jesus]: Mary his mother, (his) sister, and Mary of Magdala, who is called his companion. For Mary is the name of his sister, his mother, and his companion. Gospel of Philip 59:6-11 Bibliography April DeConick, ‘Let's remember the biblical women at Easter’ Huffington Post March 27, 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/april-d-deconick/letsremember-the-biblical-women-at-easter_b_2839014.html F. Stanley Jones, ed., Which Mary? The Marys of the early Christian tradition (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002) Stephen J. Shoemaker, 'Rethinking the 'Gnostic Mary': Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in early Christian tradition', Journal of Early Christian Studies 9(4), 2001:555-595 Elizabeth Fletcher, ‘Women in the Bible’ (Melbourne: HarperCollins, 1997). Revised text online: http://www.womeninthebible.net 117 Mary of Nazareth 1st century BCE/1st century CE Mother of Issa/Jesus. Said to be the daughter of Joachim and Anne. The circumstances of her birth are recorded in the Protevangelium Jacobi, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James. Known in Christianity as the Virgin Mary. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has said: It’s so important that Mahalaxmi came on this earth. First as Sita, then as Radha, then as Mother Mary. (19920930) Christianity has failed because they did not recognize the powers of Mary. (1993-0908) Bibliography Jaroslav Pelikan, Mary through the centuries: her place in the history of culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) Laurence Cross, 'St Mary in the Christian East', Australian EJournal of Theology no.9, 2007 http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/aejt_9/Cr oss.htm Sherry L.Rheames, ed., Legends of St.Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 2003) 118 Mary of Magdala (Mary Magdalene) 1st century CE. Disciple of Jesus whose biographical details have through the centuries been confused with those of other women in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The Gospel of Mary (of Magdala) is an incomplete text probably written early in the second century CE, known principally from a Coptic translation in a papyrus codex acquired in Cairo in 1896 and now housed in Berlin, together with two papyrus fragments in Greek found later in Oxyrhynchus in lower (northern) Egypt. The first section (7,1-9,24) describes the dialogue between the (risen) Jesus Christ and the disciples. He answers their questions concerning matter and sin. The second section of the text (10,1-23; 15,1-19,2) contains a description by Mary of special revelation given to her by Jesus. At Peter's request, she tells the disciples about things that were hidden from them. The basis for her knowledge is a vision of the Lord and a private dialogue with him. Unfortunately four pages of the text are missing here so that only the beginning and end of Mary's revelation are extant. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has said: When Mary Magdalene came to Christ, she was transformed completely into a beautiful, sinless person. (1983-0909) 119 Christ, his left Vishuddhi is expressed through his relationship with Mary Magdalene. When He stood up and said that “Those who have not committed any sin can stone her,” so this is his power. The sin of the people just crashed them completely; they were finished, because the sin was there. And the sin was of left Vishuddhi. There was no purity. And when there is no purity, the person who is so pure says such a thing, all these people lost their powers; they couldn’t even stone. (1981-1101) Bibliography Dan Burstein, and Arne J. de Keijzer, eds., Secrets of Mary Magdalene: the untold story of history’s most misunderstood woman (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2006; London: Orion Books, 2007) [anthology] Esther De Boer, The Mary Magdalene cover-up: the sources behind the myth (in Dutch, 2006; English trans: London: T&T Clark, 2007) Esther De Boer, The Gospel of Mary: beyond a gnostic and biblical Mary Magdalene (London: T. & T. Clark, 2005) Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary Magdala: Jesus and the first woman apostle (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 2003) Marvin Mayer, with Esther A. De Boer, The Gospels of Mary: the secret tradition of Mary Magdalene, the companion of Jesus (San Francisco: Harper, 2004) Christopher Tuckett, 'The Gospel of Mary', Expository Times 118(8) 2007:365-371 120 Juan Mascaro 1897-1987 Born on the Spanish island of Majorca, Juan Mascaro studied languages at Cambridge, working subsequently in Ceylon and Spain. After the Spanish Civil War he settled in England, living at Cambridge. He is best known for his English translations from the Sanskrit of the Bhagavad Gita (1962), and some of the Upanishads (1965). He also translated the Buddhist text, the Dhammapada, into English from the Pali (1973). Juan Mascaro’s English translation of a section of the Tao Te Ching, published in his Lamps of Fire (1958), 121 was set to music (on the suggestion of Mascaro) by the English musician George Harrison (1943-2001) as ‘The Inner Light’ and recorded in Bombay (Mumbai) with classical Indian musicians in January 1968. It was released as the b-side to the Beatles’ single, Lady Madonna. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has spoken approvingly of this realised soul, who recognised Her when they met in 1980 (1980-0719), describing him as a "very wonderful person" (1992-0223). … you might have heard the name of Mascaro who has translated Gita and other Upanishadas. He lives very near Cambridge. I went to see him. He is about seventy five years old. He is very great, very great. He gave me a rose and he had prepared some nice sweets for me. He was so sweet to offer them. For five minutes I couldn’t talk to him, my eyes were filled with tears. I asked him: “What do you me want to do Mascaro for you?” He said “Mother, give them light, please give them light.” He said that Krishna has said that “Those who cannot see can never see. They are seekers but they fall in the trap to something wrong.” He wrote a very beautiful poemlike letter to me requesting me to give light. He has a friend who has got a Nobel price for producing some sort of a reactor or something. He said: “When he has no eyes, he cannot see. He cannot feel the reactor of God that emits this all pervading power of His love, which is so very dynamic and beautiful.” (1980-0919) 122 A contemporary account of this meeting by the English Sahaja yogi, Jim Thomas: I was a seeker for as long as I can remember. When travelling in India I found some books translated into English by a Cambridge University Professor named Juan Mascaro. These books not only made the most sense to me, but also gave me such joy that I could not put them down. They were the Dhammapada, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads. About a year after getting self realisation from Shri Mataji in Caxton Hall in London, in October 1979, my wife and I were living in Cambridge and we attended a lecture given by Juan Mascaro. As soon as he walked into the room and began reciting passages from the Gita and Upanishads in Sanskrit, the whole room lit up around him. When Shri Mataji came to Cambridge some time later for a programme, in June 1981, it was only natural that I would want Mr Mascaro to meet Her, so I arranged a meeting that would occur the day after the programme, at his house. As it turned out an interview for Shri Mataji had been arranged in the morning with a lady from a local BBC studio, and it went on much longer than we had anticipated. Afterwards we got caught in a traffic jam, all of which resulted in Shri Mataji's desiring to have a nap before departing for Norwich, a city some sixty miles northeast of Cambridge, where we had arranged another public programme that evening. Shri Mataji seemed to sleep quite soundly and we knew it was inauspicious to wake Her. 'I slept so soundly, it must be quite late,' Shri Mataji said when She awoke. I replied that it was, and that we would not have time to go see Mr Mascaro. 'Better go and phone him,' She said. I could feel his sadness and disappointment over the phone but we agreed to make it 123 some other time. When I reported back to Shri Mataji, She said 'Well, he is an older man, better phone him again and tell him I will come'. By this time my emotions had gone through the entire spectrum and I reported back to Mr Mascaro. I couldn't tell whose relief and joy was the greater – his or mine! When we all arrived at his very humble thatched cottage in a small village about ten miles from Cambridge, he was standing in the doorway with a single, beautiful white rose that he had picked from his garden. To our amazement and delight he began to sing the ancient shloka that we Sahaja Yogis were very familiar with, as we used to sing it to Shri Mataji following the aarti at pujas! There were no dry eyes that observed that scene, I can assure you. After presenting Shri Mataji with the rose, he invited Her, then us, inside and what was to follow was even more amazing. The vibrations in the room were so strong that I envisioned the walls of the house collapsing from the power of it. It was as if a long lost son finally had found his Mother. At this point any hope of getting to Norwich anywhere near the scheduled meeting time was so far out of the question that I almost thought about calling the hall to tell the caretaker to put out a sign saying that the meeting was cancelled. I was resigned to fact that we were going to be very, very late and that if anyone did show up they would have left hours ago. The drive to Norwich was very beautiful but normally it would take between an hour and a half and two hours. In the car, on the way to the meeting Shri Mataji made this statement. 'It's very rare that a great scholar should also be a great realised soul.' I do not know how long it actually took us to get to Norwich that day, but I do know two things: that the meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 pm and as I opened the door to let Shri Mataji out of the car at the front 124 entrance to the hall, the clock on the church tower across the street began to chime seven times! 'How many times do I have to tell you people that we are not bound by time?' joked Shri Mataji. Bibliography George Harrison, I, me, mine (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980; San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002):118 ‘Juan Mascaro’ http://sahaj-az.blogspot.com/2008/12/juan-mascaro.html David Kopacz, ‘”The Blessing of Stillness and Silence”: an interview with George Kirazian about his literary friendship with Juan Mascaro’ http://beingfullyhuman.com/2015/10/06/the-blessing-ofstillness-and-silence/ ‘The Inner Light (song)’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_(song) 125 Matsyendranath (Machindranath) 10/11th century A possibly legendary yogi regarded as the founder of the Nath yogis together with his disciple, Gorakhnath. In the Kaulajnananirnaya, attributed to Matsyendranth, we find mention of the higher chakras, namely Sahasrara and beyond: Dearest, (in the pinda exist) the (cakras) of five lines, 16 lines, sixty four petals, the truly beautiful 100 petal (lotus) and the beautiful thousand petal lotus [Sahasrara] and above this is a very brilliant 10,000,000 petal lotus. Above the 10,000,000 petal lotus is a 30,000,000 petal lotus, each pericarp of which is similar to a flame. Above this is the all encompassing, eternal, undivided, independent, steady lotus- pervading all, stainless. By its will (sveccha) it causes creation and dissolution. Both the animate and inanimate are dissolved in this linga. (3:5-10) In the Gorakhbodh there is a dialogue between Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath on the Sahaja state: Gorakhnath: Had there been no night, where would the day have come from? Without the day, where would the night merge? When the lamp is extinguished, where does light dwell? 126 Matsyendranath: Without night, the day would have merged into Sahaj; had there been no day, the night would have passed into (Sahaj). (29-30) Several regional traditions claim the Nath yogis as originating in their area, notably Bengal in eastern India; the Deccan in southern/western India; Nepal in the Himalayan mountains; and the Punjab and adjoining areas in the northwest. Having extensively reviewed a wide range of primary sources, Mallinson (in his ‘Nath Sampradaya’ and ‘Hathayoga’s philosophy’) observes that the majority of the early textual and epigraphic references to Matsyendranath and Gorakh are from the Deccan and related areas in southern India, with the others being from Bengal in eastern India, and Nepal. The earliest textual references are from the 13th century and from the Deccan or south India. These include the Marathi Jnaneshwari (c.1290), the Kannada Ragales (poems) of Harihara (c.1200-1220), the Matsyendrasaṃhitā of Matsyendranath, and the Marathi Lilacaritra. Mallison is therefore of the view that Matsyendranath lived in southern India, probably the Deccan, in the 9th to 10th centuries, and that Goraksa (Gorakh in vernacular languages) also lived in the Deccan region in the 11th to 12th centuries. In forming this view Mallinson is in agreement with the Maratha historian R.C.Dhere who, using mostly Marathi-language primary sources, also locates Matsyendra and Gorakh in the Deccan area. 127 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has said: I went to Kiev [Ukraine] of all the places and they told us there were two saints who came from India, they told also the names of them, their names were Machindranath and Gurunath and they told us about this. (1996-0919) Bibliography Matsyendranath, Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra [translated by Mike Magee] http://www.shivashakti.com/kaula3.htm Akshaya Kumar Banerjea, Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha (Gorakhpur: Mahant Dig Ijai Nath Trust, 1962; reprinted: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983) Karunesh Shukla, ‘The Natha Yoga in the Indian tradition’, Journal of the Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapetha v42, 1986:38-55 George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata yogis (Calcutta, 1938; reprint: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973) R.C.Dhere, Nath Sampradayacha Itihas [History of the Nath sect (in Maharashtra)] (in Marathi: 1959; enlarged edition: Pune: Padmagandha Prakashan, 2001). English abstract: http://rcdhere.com/Nath_Sampradayacha_Itihas_deliverable/ Nath_Sampradayacha_Itihas_deliverable_1.html Csaba Kiss, ‘The Matsyendrasamhitā: A yoginī-centered thirteenth-century text from the South Indian Śāmbhava cult’ in Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Naths edited by David N.Lorenzen and Adrian Munoz (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011): 143-162 James Mallinson, ‘Nath Sampradaya’ in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Religions, vol.3 (Leiden: Brill, 2011) http://www.khecari.com/resources/Nath-Sampradaya.FP.pdf 128 James Mallinson, ‘Hathayoga’s philosophy: a fortuitous union of non-dualities’ [2012 – submitted to Journal of Indian Philosophy] http://oxford.academia.edu/JamesMallinson 129 W.Somerset Maugham 1874-1965 Born in Paris, of Irish ancestry, this English writer of novels, plays and short stories had an ability to convey relationships, greed and ambition with startling reality, basing his stories in various parts of the world, particularly in the by then decaying British empire. In 1938, whilst in India, Somerset Maugham visited the Indian sadhu, Ramana Maharshi. The visit had a profound impact on him, and he based his novel, The Razor's Edge (1944) on the visit: How grand the sight was that was displayed before me as the day broke in its splendour... I was ravished with the beauty of 130 the world. I'd never known such exaltation and such a transcendent joy. I had a strange sensation, a tingling that arose in my feet and traveled up to my head, and I felt as though I were suddenly released from my body and as pure spirit partook of a loveliness I had never conceived. I had a sense that a knowledge more than human possessed me, so that everything that had been confused was clear and everything that had perplexed me was explained. I was so happy that it was pain and I struggled to release myself from it, for I felt that if it lasted a moment longer I should die; and yet it was such rapture that I was ready to die rather than forego it. How can I tell you what I felt? No words can tell the ecstasy of my bliss. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi was very much impressed by Maugham’s writings and read most of his novels "because he was very much there."(1984-0708) The Canadian yogini, Liallyn Fitzpatrick has commented that Maugham is "one of the most subtle writers of the spiritual inner life that I've ever encountered. His Writer's Notebook is marvellous, and Razor's Edge is brilliant." Bibliography W.Somerset Maugham, The razor's edge: a novel (London: Heinemann, 1944) Robert Calder, Somerset Maugham and the quest for freedom (London: Heinemann, 1972) Richard Albert Cordell, Somerset Maugham: a biographical and critical study (London: Heinemann, 1961) 131 David Godman, ‘Somerset Maugham and The Razor’s Edge’ The Mountain Path 1988:239-245 http://www.davidgodman.org/rteach/smaugham.shtml Selina Hastings, The secret lives of Somerset Maugham (London: John Murray, 2009) Jeffrey Meyers, Somerset Maugham: a life (New York: Knopf, 2004) Samuel J.Rogal, A companion to the characters in the fiction and drama of W.Somerset Maugham (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1996) 132 Guy de Maupassant (Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant) 1850-1893 Maupassant was one of the foremost writers of the naturalist school of literature and is considered by many as the greatest short story writer of the French language. His particular brand of wit was the inspiration for many writers after him including W.S. Maugham. Maupassant instilled a deep realism in his depiction of scenes. What was remarkable was his ability to accomplish this with very few words and a unique sense of humor. His masterpiece and first published work, Boule de Suif is a notable example of this remarkable talent. Other iconic works include With the Dead, an 133 ironical view of Schopenhauer’s signature pessimism as well as the hilarious In family. He also wrote novels, including Belami, possibly his most widely known work globally. In it, he depicts the social ascent of a young journalist within a corrupt society. In his novels, A Woman’s Life and Mount Oriol, Maupassant lays bare the myth and delusion of falling in love, particularly from the point of view of women who are constantly being deceived by men. His portrayal of women is so sensitive that Maupassant is often considered a great champion of women way before his time and also a great psychologist of the feminine mind. In a few notable works like the short story Le Horla, Maupassant vividly describes (using the first person) a split personality as a real case of a possession. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has described Maupassant as a ‘great writer’ who ‘tried to point out the poisons of the society’ (1981-0620) by showing both sides whilst himself remaining in the centre (1992-0223). She recommended French yogis to read his books. (Gwen Verez) 134 Bibliography Guy de Maupassant, A Parisian affair and other stories, translated by Sian Miles (London: Penguin, 2004) Guy de Maupassant, A life: the humble truth, translated by Roger Pearson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999) Guy de Maupassant, edited by Harold Bloom (Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004) 135 John McEnroe 1959 – American tennis player and art collector. Renowned for his volatile temperament during his early tennis career and his famous phrase addressed to umpires: “you cannot be serious!” In a radio interview in Santa Cruz (CA, USA) in 1983, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi refered to John McEnroe: … So, they are the people who are realized souls. You have some tennis players who are realized souls also, perhaps you… Interviewer: Tennis players? 136 Shri Mataji: Yah! MacEnroe is a realized soul and Borg is also. And, my grandchild told me, “You know, why Borg has retired? Because another Sahaja yogi has come now, the younger one, so give chance to him and that’s why he is very honorably retired.” [laughter] Is because when MacEnroe speaks, you must have seen, he tells himself “John, now behave yourself.” They are in the third person. And, that’s why people don’t understand him and he doesn’t like to be insulted. And, that’s very true. Anybody who is a saint doesn’t like him to be insulted. (1983-1001) Bibliography John McEnroe and James Kaplan, You cannot be serious (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 2002). Also published as Serious (London: Little, Brown, 2002) John McEnroe, But Seriously (New York: Little, Brown/ London: Orion, 2014) 137 Mechtild of Magdeburg 1207-c.1282 This mystic was born in the German diocese of Magdeburg in 1207, of wealthy and possibly aristocratic parents. In 1230 she moved to the town of Magdeburg to begin her life as a Beguine where she remained for forty years. Towards the end of life, in 1270, she entered the Cistercian convent at Helfta, remaining there until her passing in c.1282. At Helfta she joined a remarkable group of gifted women mystics and visionaries including Gertrude the Great (1256-1302), Mechtild of Hackeborn (1241-1299), and Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn (12321292). Mechtild’s writings are collected in the Fliessende Licht der Gottheit (Flowing Light of the Godhead) which consists of seven books written in low-German dialect. The original has not survived, but the text has been preserved in a high-German version created in Basle in 1343-5, and in a Latin translation of books 1-6 made in the Dominican house at Halle, not long after Mechtild’s death. The circulation of books 1-6 had made Mechtild many friends, but also some enemies, and it was for this reason that she moved to the relative safety of the Cistercian convent at Helfta. Her writings incorporate visions of considerable intensity of the soul’s longing for Divine Love. The later books incorporate bridal mysticism and the Song of Songs, in a way that would 138 have scandalized the society of her day, and even now can be viewed as having considerable erotic intensity. One chapter, entitled ‘Of the Soul’s journey to court, in the course of which God reveals Himself’ describes the Soul being received in the heavenly court and merging with the Lord. Then He puts her into His glowing heart. When the great Lord and the little maid thus embrace and are mingled as water and wine, then she becomes nothing and is enraptured. (quoted by Hellgardt 2014:146) Bibliography Mechthild of Magdeburg, Flowing light of the Godhead, translated by Frank Tobin (New York: Paulist Press, 1998) Elizabeth A.Andersen, The voices of Mechthild of Magdeburg (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2000) Fiona Bowie, Beguine Spirituality: mystical writings of Mechthild of Magdeburg, Beatrice of Nazareth, and Hadewijch of Brabant (New York : Crossroad, 1990) Jane Duran, ‘Mechthild of Magdeburg: women philosophers and the visionary tradition’ New Blackfriars 87(1007), 2006:43-49 Ernst Hellgardt, 'Latin and the vernacular: Mechthild of Magdeburg - Mechthild of Hackeborn - Gertrude of Helfta' in A Companion to Mysticism and Devotion in northern Germany in the late Middle Ages, edited by Elizabeth Andersen, et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2014):130-147 Amy Hollywood, The soul as virgin wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart (Notre Dame, USA: University of Notre Dame, 1995) 139 Bernard McGinn, ed. Meister Eckhart and the Beguine mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete (New York: Continuum, 1994) Bernard McGinn, The Presence of God: a history of Western Christian Mysticism. Vol.III: The Flowering of Mysticism: men and women in the new mysticism (1200-1350) (New York: Crossroad, 1998), esp. chapter 5: ‘Three Great Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch, Mechthild, and Marguerite. Sara Poor, Mechtild of Magdeburg and her book : gender and the making of textual authority (Philadelphia, Pa : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004) Donna Ray, ‘”There is a threeness about you”: Mechthild of Magdeburg’s theological vision’ Magistra 15(1), 2009:77-103 Michelle Voss Roberts, ‘Flowing and crossing: the somatic theologies of Mechthild and Lalleswari’ Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76(3), 2008:638-663 Frank Tobin, Mechthild von Magdeburg: a medieval mystic in modern eyes (Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1995) 140 Dmitrii Merezhkovskii (D.S.Merezhkovsky) 1865-1941 Russian Symbolist poet and writer. The prophetic nature of the third-age theory is best seen in the writings of the exiled Russians, Merezhkovskii and his wife, Zinaida Gippius, for whom the 'power of three' had both a personal and a spiritual significance. They believed in a forthcoming period of time when the Third Testament would disclose itself to humanity. Thus Merezhkovskii could write: Christianity separated the past eternity of the Father from the future eternity of the Son, the earthly truth from the heavenly 141 truth. Will they not be united by that which comes after Christianity, the revelation of the Spirit – Eternal Womanhood, Eternal Motherhood? Will not the Mother reconcile the Father and the Son? From exile in France he was to announce in Tayna Trekh (Mystery of the Three) (1925): The Father has not saved the world, The Son has not saved it, The Mother shall save it; The Mother is the Holy Spirit. Towards the end of their lives, still living as Russian exiles in Paris as warclouds gathered over Europe, Merezhkovskii and Gippius were to write, in their play on the Italian poet Dante, published in 1939: The fearful knot of social inequality which especially in our times threatens to tighten into a noose of death and so strangle humanity, may be untied only in the Third Testament – in the Kingdom of the Holy Ghost. Bibliography C.H.Bedford, The Seeker: D.S.Merezhkovskiy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1975) C.H.Bedford, ‘Dmitry Merezhkovsky, The Third Testament and the Third Humanity’ The Slavonic and East European Review 42(98), 1963:144-160 Warwick Gould and Marjorie Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the myth of the Eternal Evangel in the nineteenth and 142 twentieth centuries (Oxford: Clarendon Press, rev ed. 2001):330-331 Judith E.Kalb, ‘Dmitri Sergeevich Merezhkovsky’, Dictionary of Literary Biography v.295:307-318 Temira Pachmuss, D.S.Merezhkovsky in exile: the master of the genre of biographie romancee (NY: Peter Lang, 1990) Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Dmitri Sergeevich Merezkovsky and the Silver Age: the development of a revolutionary mentality (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975) 143 Michelangelo (Michelangelo Buonarroti) 1475-1564 Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet, regarded as one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance, working first in Florence for the Medici family, and then in Rome for successive popes. Best known for his 'Last Judgement' in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and for sculptures such as 'David' and the 'Pieta'. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Michelangelo was a realized soul who showed Christ in a real way in his paintings, as in the Sistine Chapel: 144 In Rome I went and I located many, many of the deities in the paintings of Michelangelo. …He was a realized soul and he had inspiration from his unconscious. He was honest and he painted that. (1980-1002) Michelangelo was another realized soul who painted Christ like the way He was, a huge person, person who was healthy, full of vigor and joy, and not a miserable pitiable caricature. (1982-0930) I would say Michelangelo has done a very great painting in Sistine Chapel where you can see very clearly how he has shown the whole Kundalini and in Mahavishnu standing at Christ here, throwing the people at Agnya chakra on left and right, they are coming down from left and right and how those who are saved are going above with the help of the Angels. It is so clearly how he saw the vision, he was a great thrastha and he saw it. (19830128) You see, those people who have been realized souls have created eternal art. Like we can say, Michelangelo was a realized soul. So his work is eternal art. And, they produce art which creates vibrations. You can feel vibrations from him. In the whole church if you go you feel horrid, but when you go to Sistine Chapel and see his work, the whole thing fills you up with vibrations. They are creators of vibrations. Imagine! (1983-1001) In Sistine Chapel I saw Michelangelo has made such a huge beautiful Sistine Chapel, with a Christ with such a 145 healthy body standing there. Because Michelangelo was a realized soul. (1989-0725) Bibliography George Bull, Michelangelo: a biography (London: Penguin, 1996) Marcia B.Hall, ed., Michelangelo's 'Last Judgement' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling (London: Chatto and Windus, 2002) Umberto Baldini, The complete sculpture of Michelangelo (London: Thames and Hudson, 1982) Giulio Carlo Argan and Bruno Cotardi, Michelangelo: architect (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993) 146 Mirabai (Meera) 1503-1546 Married at an early age into the royal family of the Rajput kingdom of Mewar in Rajasthan in north India. After much abuse from her in-laws, Mirabai left the palace to become a bhakta and sannyasin, singing of her devotion to Lord Krishna. There is some evidence in her surviving songs that she became a yogi: Your secret, yogi, I have still not found. I’ve sat in a cave, taken a yogic pose, and trained my thoughts on Hari With beads around my neck, a bag of beads in my hand, and body smeared with ash. Mira’s Lord is Hari, the indestructible. Fate is written on my forehead, and that is what I’ve found. 147 Bibliography Mirabai: ecstatic poems, versions by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield (Boston, Mass: Beacon Press, 2004) Mira Bai and her padas, translated by Krishna P.Bahadur (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1998) For love of the Dark One: songs of Mirabai, translated by Andrew Schelling (Boston: Shambhala, 1993) The devotional poems of Mirabai, translated by A.J.Alston (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980) Aditya Adarkar, ‘The ethics of steadfastness in the hagiography of Mirabai’ in Revisiting mysticism, edited by Chandana Chakrabarti and Gordon Haist (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), chapter 3 John Stratton Hawley, Three Bhakti voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in their times and ours (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005) John Stratton Hawley, ‘Mirabai as wife and yogi’ in Asceticism, edited by Vincent L.Wimbush and Richard Valantasis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995):301319; also in Hawley, Three bhakti voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in their time and ours (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005), chapter 5 S.M.Pandey, ‘Mirabai and her contributions to the bhakti movement’ History of Religions v5, 1965:54-73 Winand M.Callewaert, ‘The ‘earliest’ song of Mira (15031546)’ Journal of the Oriental Institute, M.S.University of Baroda 39(3-4), 1990:239-253 Kumkum Sangari, ‘Mirabai and the spiritual economy of bhakti’ Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay) 25(27), July 7, 1990:1464-1475 Parita Mukta, Upholding the community of Mirabai (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994) 148 Mohammad (Muhammad) (The Prophet) 570-632 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has indicated that Mohammad was an incarnation of the Primordial Master who came on this earth to establish the religion known as Islam: Today is a special day of Guru Nanaka’s birthday. We have celebrated one Guru puja, and as you know that Guru Nanak was also the incarnation of the Primordial Master, the same spirit came on this earth, and He’s the one who tried to re-establish the work of Mohammed. Mohammed was the incarnation of the same spirit, the Primordial Master. He came on this earth to establish the religion. Islam is the name of that religion, is the religion of every Sahaja Yogi, of every Christian, of every Hindu. We all belong to one religion which believes in expanding our awareness to the new perception of collectivity. (1980-1123) Shri Mataji observed that there are two important concepts in the life of Mohammad Sahib. The first one is called as Meraj which is nothing but the awakening of the Kundalini, absolutely clearly. And the second one He has talked about is jihad. Jihad means killing your bad things, killing your bad nature, killing all the shadripus (six enemies of the soul) within you. It 149 doesn’t mean that you become a Muslim and kill yourself. It’s the stupidest thing to do. (2001-1225) Bibliography Harald Motzki, The biography of Muhammad: the issue of the sources (Leiden: Brill, 2000) Javed Khan, Islam enlightened (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1998) Martin Lings, Muhammad: his life based on the earliest sources (London: Islamic Texts Society/Allen and Unwin, 1983) Tariq Ramadan, The messenger: the meanings of the life of Muhammad (London: Allen Lane, 2007) Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad (London: Penguin, 2nd English ed., 1996) Irving M.Zeitlin, The historical Muhammad (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2007) 150 Sheikh Mohammed (Shaikh Mohammad Shrigondekar) 1560-1650 This Maratha Muslim was a contemporary of Tukaram and Ramdas. He had a good knowledge of the yogic and bhakta traditions. He is regarded as the most prominent of the Muslim Marathi sants. Born into a Qadiri Sufi family, Sheikh Mohammed was a disciple of Chand Bodhle who taught him the fundamental unity of Islam and the Hindu tradition. He preached against ritualistic religion and cruel social practices. In his view, spiritual knowledge and enlightenment had no caste or religion. Sheikh Mohammed wrote mainly in Marathi, but also in Hindi, Urdu and Persian. His major work is the Yogasangrama, written in 1645. Other works include Pavanavijaya and Nishkalanka Prabodha. His style is influenced by the Jnaneshvari, and he often refers to Eknath’s Bhagavata. He sings in praise of Lord Vitthala in the style of the Warkari sants. In his poem, Kavitasangraha, he says of himself: Through the grace of Gopala, I have transgressed all notions of purity and impurity. The jack-fruit has a thorny skin, but inside it Are lumps of sugar. The bee-hive with all its humming bees contains the very 151 Nectar inside. (So also) Sheikh Mohammed may be an avindha, But in his heart he has the very Govinda. Bibliography Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978):174-175 Narayan H.Kulkarnee, ‘Medieval Maharashtra and Muslim saint-poets’ in Medieval bhakti movements in India, edited by N.N.Bhattacharyya (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989): 198-231, esp. 217-219 Y.M.Pathan, ‘Contribution of the Muslim saints of Maharashtra to early devotional literature in Marathi’ in Bhakti in current research, 1979-1982, edited by Monica Thiel-Horstmann (Berlin, 1983):295-300 152 Moliere (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) 1622-1673 Considered by many as France's greatest writer of comedy, Molière profoundly inspired French literature, so much so, that today the French language is often referred to as the language of Molière. In a vast body of work spanning thirty three theatrical plays--written both in verse and prose--Molière lays bare the extent of the human ego. With his unique talent, he would explore issues and societal mores and infuse them with hilarity and comedic brilliance. Three hundred years on, his timeless masterpieces continue to bring joy to audiences and his plays are never far from the stage. 153 But beyond the satire, Molière’s plays are real indictments of the poisons of human society. * In Tartuffe he depicts the hypocrisy of a religiously devout in failing to uphold any kind of moral code. He further points out that the public is turning a blind eye to his actions and continue to revere him. * In The Miser he laughs at those who treasure money above all else including the sacrifice of family. * In The Bourgeois Gentilhomme he shows how ridiculous the Nouveau Riche can be as they attempt to assimilate with the elite by pretending to be cultured when it is clear they have no capacity for improvement. * In Georges Dandin he shows the level of cruelty, cynicism and immorality of the Nobility exploiting the Bourgeoisie. * In the School for Wives, considered as one of his greatest masterpieces, he exposes the misogyny of society. One of the key underlying themes present in most of Moliere’s works is the desire to appear sophisticated at the expense of authenticity. He takes up issue with the fathers willing to marry their daughters to increase their social capital instead of concern for their happiness. He also shines a light on servants in his plays, showing them to be much wiser and more sensible than their masters; and took a remarkably feminist stance on the role of 154 wives in society as bringing back their foolish husbands to reality. But perhaps his favourite target for his plays were physicians, whom he often depicted as frauds preying on the naivety of patients. Naturally, his satirical plays triggered the hostility of many powerful groups including the Clergy. However, he was able to continue his work unimpeded thanks to the unconditional support and protection of the reigning King Louis XIV who found his plays amusing and entertaining. Just like Shakespeare in English, Molière's plays must be seen and heard rather than read. Only then can you appreciate the lyricism and beauty of the language he used. They make his characters ridiculously comical but at the same time tragic, and therein lies the genius of Molière, in being able to understand and depict the complexity of the human mind. During a performance in the late 1990s of Such Afflicted Ladies - where Molière mocks at the main characters, two ladies refusing marriage to lead a more sophisticated life of romance - Shri Mataji was in laughter from the beginning to the end. She praised Molière as a great artist second only to Shakespeare. (Gwen Verez) 155 Bibliography David Bradby and Andrew Calder, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Moliere (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006) James F.Gaines, The Moliere encyclopedia (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2002) Brander Matthews, Moliere: his life and works (New York: Russell and Russell, 1973) Larry F.Norman, The public mirror: Moliere and the social commerce of depiction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999) Virginia Scott, Moliere: a theatrical life (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000) 156 Claudio Monteverdi 1567-1643 Italian composer of madrigals, opera, and church music. Born in Cremona, Monteverdi studied music in Cremona Cathedral, and published collections of motets, canzonettas, and sacred madrigals while still in his teens. By 1592 he had obtained an appointment as suonatore di vivuola (viol and/or violin player) in the court of Duke Vincenzo of Mantua, travelling with his patron to Austria and Hungary in 1595, and to Flanders in 1599. He published five books of madrigals between 1587 and 1605. His first opera, L’Orfeo, was produced in Mantua in 1607, together with a second, L’Arianna, performed in 157 1608 in Mantua to celebrate the homecoming of Francesco Gonzaga with his bride, Margaret of Savoy. After Duke Vincenzo’s death, Monteverdi was dismissed by his successor, Francesco, in July 1612. In 1613 Monteverdi was appointed to the post of maestro di cappella at St.Mark’s Cathedral in Venice where he resided for the rest of his life. In addition to his duties at St.Mark’s, he received some commissions from Mantua where Duke Francesco had been succeeded by his brother Ferninando, with whom Monteverdi was well acquainted. His ballet, Tirsi e Clori, was performed in Mantua in 1616, and two other dramatic works were left unfinished. His seventh book of madrigals was published in 1619. Other dramatic works were left unfinished in the 1620s. A small collection of vocal music, Scherzi musicali, was published in 1632, the same year that Monteverdi took holy orders. In 1637 public opera houses were opened in Venice, thus providing a new outlet for Monteverdi’s dramatic works in the following years. A retrospective collection of his secular music was published in 1638 along with an eighth book of madrigals. A retrospective collection of his church music appeared in 1641. Monteverdi is known for his madrigals, of which eight books were published during his lifetime, and a ninth posthumously in 1651. These show the development from the Renaissance polyphonic music to the monadic style of the Baroque. 158 With his opera L’Orfeo, Monteverdi created an entirely new style of music, the dramma per musica (musical drama). He composed at least eighteen operas, the majority of which have not survived. His greatest work remains the Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin)(1610) which compares with other examples of devotional music such as Handel’s Messiah, and J.S.Bach’s St.Matthew Passion. Bibliography Claudio Monteverdi, songs and madrigals, translated by Denis Stevens (Long Barn Books, 1998) The letters of Claudio Monteverdi, translated by Denis Stevens (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) Denis Arnold, Monteverdi (London: Dent, 1975) Tim Carter, Monteverdi ((Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000) Denis Stevens, Monteverdi in Venice (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001) John Whenham and Richard Wistreich, eds., Cambridge companion to Monteverdi (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007) Chris Whent, ‘Claudio Monteverdi [Monteverde] (15671643)’ http://www.hoasm.org/VB/VBMonteverdi.html Richard Wistreich, ed., Monteverdi (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011) 159 Moses 13th century BCE Jewish leader, prophet and lawgiver who led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the desert. Famous throughout history for delivering the Ten Commandments to his people. Historical sources for the life of Moses are exclusively Jewish. The Ten Commandments occur in Exodus 20:117 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21; the Song of Miriam at the Sea of Reeds is in Exodus 15:21; the sayings about the ark in Numbers 10:15-36; and the Song of Sihon in Numbers 21:27-30. Nothing is known from Egyptian sources. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Moses was an incarnation of the Primordial Master, noting that: Moses had (a) problem with people who were very indulgent people, so he had to pass laws of Shariat. ... Moses had to pass these laws … to make the people follow religion precisely. So he did not argue, he did not say why you should do it, didn’t give any explanation. “You do it!” Like that. … So the people who were at the time of Moses, when he had gone to get the Ten Commandments, started indulging into very, very immoral character, extremely immoral character. They were very immoral and were doing such horrible things that nobody can believe that anybody who tried to escape from the Egyptians were worse than the Egyptians 160 themselves. So he gave this Shariat to them, to change. (1989-0524) Bibliography ‘Moses’, Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971) v.12:371-411 Levi Meier, Moses - the Prince, the Prophet: his life, legend, and message for our lives (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishers, 1998) Elias Auerbach, Moses (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975) Shera Aranoff Tuchman and Sandra E.Rapoport, Moses' women (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav, 2008) 161 Lord Mountbatten (Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma) 1900-1979 Born Prince Louis of Battenburg, this member of the British royal family changed his name to Louis Mountbatten in June 1917 when the British royal family stopped using their German names and titles and adopted the more British-sounding ‘Windsor’. He was a longserving naval officer and statesman, best known for serving as the last Viceroy of British India, prior to partition and independence in August 1947, and the first governor-general of India from August 1947 to June 1948. 162 After his time in India, Mountbatten returned to his career as a senior naval officer, retiring as First Sea Lord (1955-1959). He subsequently served as Chief of the Defence Staff (1959-1965); and then was appointed Governor, and later Lord Lieutenant, of the Isle of Wight. He was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army in 1979. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Lord Mountbatten was a realized soul (1981-0703) and a lakshmipati (1980-1027): Lord Mountbatten was a realized soul, I told some people about it, just by-the-way. And one day we were watching the TV and some of the Sahaja yogis were sitting. Suddenly they got vibrations they said, “What?” I said, “This is it.” (1981-0703) This Lakshmi who is a Mother, wears a white sari, very elegant, with a gold border. … She’s standing on a lotus. Imagine any human being standing on a lotus! That means that She’s so light in Her behaviour towards others. She’s so delicate, She touches people with such delicacy, that people don’t feel hurt, they are not in any way pressurised by the riches of people. But you know it’s just the opposite, if your so-called ‘rich’ you see! Horrible! If somebody’s coming in here I would like to get out of that door. They try to pressurise because they have money. … This pressurising is a sign that he is not a lakshmipati, he has nothing to do with Lakshmi. So he’s so gracious. I have seen such people. I have seen 163 some people like that. I have seen one in England you will be surprised to know. I have just seen him once. He was a gentleman who was some lord and something and later on he came to India and he was a Viceroy. (19801027) Bibliography Louis Mountbatten, ‘A military commander surveys the nuclear arms race’ International Security 4(3), 1979-80:3-5 Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten (London:Collins, 1985) Lord Zuckerman, ‘Earl Mountbatten of Burma, K. G., O. M. 25 June 1900-27 August 1979’ Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society v.27, 1981:354-364 164 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791 Associated with the city of Salzburg in Austria, this musical composer, keyboard-player, violinist, and conductor was a child prodigy of exceptional musical precocity. He composed in a wide range of musical styles: operas, orchestral symphonies, church music, chamber music, and solo pieces for piano. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Mozart was born-realised: I had to go to Salzburg ... because of Mozart. One man, one man like him has made such a tremendous difference to this country [Austria]. See what he writes, how 165 beautifully he feels; as if he’s died with Christ to see what Christ must have faced. (1986-0705) The other day I said that Mozart was a born realized. So they said, "How do we know?" I said, "Just put your hands and think of Mozart", and immediately tremendous vibrations start flowing. When such realized souls play any music or paint any paintings, for a realized personality it is the greatest source of joy – because you don't think about it. But the essence of the creator of that joy becomes one with yours. You feel the bliss flowing in you. And you enjoy it only for joy's sake because Spirit is the joy within you. (1982-0930: Vienna) I would say Michelangelo was a realized soul, Mozart was a realized soul. When I listen to music of Mozart, I cannot think. I feel only the joy of its creation that's flowing in my being and enriching me. Or else, when I see the Sistine Chapel in Rome, I don't start seeing in a way normally people see it, but what I just see the joy of the artist as well as the great artist behind him who has created that beautiful painting in this Sistine Chapel. So joy of matter, which the creator has put in it, manifests within our mind, when we are thoughtless. You forget what race you come from or what education you have had, it's pure joy that is within you, which starts flowing within you. (1983-0906: Vienna) 166 [Mozart was] a great master. (1988-0322) Bibliography David Cairns, Mozart and his operas (London: Allen Lane/Penguin, 2006) Peter Gay, Mozart (New York: Viking, 1999) Piero M. Melograni, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) John Rosselli, The life of Mozart (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998) Stanley Sadie, Mozart: the early years, 1756-1781 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) Maynard Solomon, Mozart: a life (New York: HarperCollins, 1995) 167 Muktabai 1279-1297 Sister of Jnaneshwara, Nivritti and Sopandev, and spiritual sister of Namdev. Guru of Changadeva. Preserved in short verses handed down in the oral tradition through successive generations of Maratha women, Muktabai’s observations are timeless and profound. They also contain coded references to the inner subtle system and the ascending Kundalini, as one would expect from a realised yogi of the Nath tradition. In one extraordinary song, Muktabai sings of the ant rising to the Sun to describe the ascent of the Kundalini to the Sahasrara: An ant [Kundalini] flew to the sky and swallowed the sun Another wonder - a barren woman had a son. A scorpion went to the underworld And the Shesh Nag [thousand-headed serpent] fell at its feet A fly gave birth to a kite [bird] Having seen it all, Mukta smiled. Muktabai is best known for the Tatiche Abhanga (Song of the door). She addressed this song to her brother, Jnaneshwara, who, upset by the abuse of the brahmins (priests), had retired to a hut. The song begins: Yogis pure in mind put up with people’s offences Cheerfully becoming as water a saint quenches the world’s burning anger Enduring the onslaught of weaponlike arrows 168 the saint treats even these as teachings The universe a cloth, Brahma the thread Open the door, O Jnaneshwara! Bibliography Vidyut Bhagwat, ‘Marathi literature as a source for contemporary feminism’ Economic and Political Weekly 30(17), April 29, 1995:WS24-WS29, esp.WS26 Vidyut Bhagwat, ‘Man-woman relations in the writings of the saint poetesses’ [of Maharashtra]. New Quest no.82, 1990:223-232 Suhasini Irlekar and Chandrashekhar Jahagirdar, ‘From freedom to salvation: the poetry of Saint Muktabai’ Indian Literature 43(1), 1999:178-195 B.G.Kher, ‘Maharashtra women saints’ in: Women saints of east and west (London: Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, 1955):58-63 Vijaya Ramaswamy, ‘Women within the Warkari panth’ Indian Historical Review 22(1-2), 1995:77-104 Ruth Vanita, ‘Three women sants of Maharashtra: Muktabai, Janabai, Bahinabai’, Manushi no.50-52, 1989:45-61 169 Muruganar (C.K.Subramania Iyer) 1890-1973 This well-respected Tamil scholar and poet, formerly known as C.K.Subramania Iyer, was granted his realisation by Ramana Maharshi in 1923. From then on his writings were exclusively in praise of his guru. Bibliography Ramana Maharshi and Muruganar, Ramana Puranam [1930s] http://davidgodman.org/rteach/ramanapuranam.shtml Muruganar, Pupadesa Tiruvahaval [early 1930s] http://davidgodman.org/rteach/Tiruvahaval.pdf 170 V.Ganesan, ‘Obeisance to the poet-saint: Muruganar’ The Mountain Path 10(4), 1973:202-203 https://ramanafiles.s3.amazonaws.com/mountainpath/1973%2 0IV%20Oct.pdf David Godman, The Power of the Presence (Boulder, Co: Avadhuta Foundation, 2001), extract: http://www.realization.org/page/doc1/doc102a.htm K.Swaminathan, ‘In Memorium: Sri Muruganar (1890-1973)’ The Mountain Path 10(4), 1973:198-199 https://ramanafiles.s3.amazonaws.com/mountainpath/1973%2 0IV%20Oct.pdf 171 Namdev c.1270-1350 Companion of Jnaneshwara, Muktabai, Janabai, and other Maratha saint-yogis. Disciple of Visoba Khechara. Like Muktabai, Namdev includes coded references to the subtle system and Kundalini awakening in his songs: in the beginning is the ant [Kundalini] mouth of the triple river [the three nadis] is the mouth of the ant Around 1300, after his companions took their eternal samadhi, Namdev moved north to the Punjab where he continued to compose songs with hidden yogic meanings, these being in Hindi: Moving the sun to the moon, Making firm the mind, the breath, the spinal column, effortlessly I rose through the Sushumna [central nadi] to the star-cluster [Sahasrara chakra] thus slaying desire. Dwelling in the skies [Sahasrara chakra] I have made my home in the Sahaja. My heart is rapt in the music within. Rare is the yogi who hears it. Some of his Hindi songs can be found in the Sikh holy book, the Adi Granth. This saint is not to be confused with a later brahmin of the same name (16th century). 172 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented: My mother-tongue is Marathi and, thank God, I have been born in Maharashtra. Because it is a country of saints. Spirituality is the tradition of that country where a very simple poet called Namdev was born. He was a tailor, just an ordinary tailor. But he has written many sweet poems. (19830331) Bibliography The Hindi Padavali of Namdev: a critical edition of Namdev’s Hindi songs with translation and annotation [by] Winand M.Callewaert and Mukund Lath (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989) Songs of the saints from the Adi Granth, translated by Nirmal Dass (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000):25-82 J.R.Uri and V.K.Sethi, Saint Namdev (Punjab: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1978) M.A.Karandikar, Namdev (New Delhi: Maharashtra Information Centre, 1970) O.P.Ralhan, Sant Namdeva (New Delhi: Anmol, 2004) R.N.Maurya, Namdev, his mind and art: a linguistic analysis of Namdev’s poetry (New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1988) Winand M.Callewaert, ‘Namdev's repertoires and the Guru Granth’ Journal of Sikh Studies 13(2), 1988:7-17 Ram Chandra Mishra, ‘The padas of bhagat Namdeva: a comparative study based on Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Gaathaa Panchak’ Journal of Sikh Studies 3(2), 1978:41-51 173 Christian Lee Novetzke, A cultural history of Saint Namdev in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008); published in India as History, bhakti, and public memory: Namdev in religious and secular traditions (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009) Christian Lee Novetzke, ‘Divining an Author: The idea of authorship in an Indian religious tradition’ [on Namdev] History of Religions 42(3), 2003:213-242 Christian Lee Novetzke, ‘The theographic and historiographic in an Indian sacred life story’ [Namdev] Sikh Formations 3(2), 2007:169-184 174 Nanak 1469-1539 Nanak lived in the Punjab, northern India. He is regarded as the founding guru of what has become the Sikh religion, whose holy book is the Adi Granth. There are many references to Sahaja in his songs and writings, as in Nanak's dialogue with a group of visiting yogis, known as the Siddha Goshta: In the calm of sahaja’s cave you can discover the True One, says Nanak, the True One loves the truthful. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has stated that Guru Nanak was an incarnation of the Primordial Master who was born in the Punjab where "people were unaware of God's ways" and where Hindus and Muslims were quarreling. (1982-1101), and that he talked about the Goddess, the Devi, as Adya. Adya is the Adi Shakti. (2001-1225) Obeisance, obeisance to Him, the Primal, the Immaculate, without beginning, without end, constant through all ages. The One Mother existed Alone in some mysterious way and She created the Three deities. One was the Creator, one the Sustainer and one the Destroyer. The world moves as He ordains and as He pleases. He see all, but no one sees Him; this is a great wonder. (Japuji 30) 175 Bibliography Hymns of Guru Nanak, translated by Khushwant Singh (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1969; Bombay: Orient Longman/Sangam books, 1978) Hymns from Guru Granth Sahib, edited by Gobind Singh Mansukhani (New Delhi: Hemkunt Press, 1975) Gurbachan Singh Talib, Guru Nanak (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1984) R.K.Arora, ‘The concept of Sahaja in the Adi Grantha’, Ganga Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth 1989;34(1-2): 133-151 Niharranjan Ray, ‘The concept of Sahaja in Guru Nanak’s theology and its antecedents’ in: Medieval bhakti movements in India, edited by N.N.Bhattacharyya (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1989):17-35 Dewan Singh, ‘Guru Nanak’s concept of Sahaj’ [nd] https://www.allaboutsikhs.com/sikhism-articles/guru-nanaksconcept-of-sahaj-gateway-to-sikhism 176 Narapatisithu (Narapati Cansu)(Sithu II) d.c.1210 This Burmese ruler was the last of the important kings of the Pagan kingdom, and reigned from c.1173 until c.1210. His reign appears to have been a time of general peace and prosperity during which the kingdom was expanded by conquest, thus increasing the agricultural basis. To do this the army was expanded. One inscription of King Narapatisithu mentions his command of 30,000 cavalry. During this period, Burmese culture reached its highest level. It was at this time that the Pali, Sanskrit and Mon languages were discarded and Burmese replaced them as the language of inscriptions. Monumental architecture reached a qualitative (and quantitative) standard not achieved by later dynasties. Narapatisithu was a devout Buddhist who reformed parts of the wealthy landowning Buddhist monkhood, but otherwise avoided conflict with the various Buddhist sects. He travelled throughout his kingdom worshipping at and repairing important pagodas. During his reign a common system of Burmese law was established by the monk Sariputta who compiled the Dhammavilasa Dhammathat. 177 The Burmese-born Australian Sahaja yogini, Greta More is of the view that Narapatisithu was a realised soul. Bibliography Maung Htin Aung, A history of Burma (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), esp. chapter 3. Michael Aung-Thwin, Pagan: the origins of modern Burma (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985) Keith W.Taylor, ‘The early kingdoms’ in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Volume One, Part One: From early times to c.1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, rev. ed, 1999), chapter 3, esp. pp164-168. 178 Isaac Newton 1643-1727 English scientist who established the universal laws of motion and gravitation, and made significant contributions in optics, calculus, algebra and telescopy. In his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687), also known as the Principia, Newton expounded on his three laws of motion. In 1704 he published Optiks, which compiled all his work on the nature of light and optics. Newton also had a deep and long-lasting interest in alchemy, the significance of which is only now being 179 understood by historians of science through an examination of his surviving manuscripts. Bibliography ‘The Newton Project’ http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=1 ‘The Chymistry of Isaac Newton’ http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton ‘Sir Isaac Newton’ [portraits] http://www-groups.dcs.stand.ac.uk/history/PictDisplay/Newton.html Rob Iliffe, Newton: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) Gale E.Christianson, Isaac Newton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) I.Bernard Cohen and George E.Smith, eds., Cambridge companion to Newton (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002) James E.Force and Richard H.Popkin, eds., Newton and religion: context, nature and influence (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1999) B.J.T. Dobbs, The foundations of Newton's Alchemy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) 180 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (Mrs. Nirmala Srivastava) 1923-2011 Born in Nagpur in central India into the Salve family who were active in the struggle against British rule in India, this saint married and became a wife and mother as Mrs.Nirmala Srivastava, only beginning her spiritual work after her daughters had become adults. From 1970 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi lectured extensively in India and throughout the western countries on Kundalini awakening, whilst teaching the principles and practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation. 181 Shri Mataji has described the opening of the Sahasrara in 1970: As soon as the Sahasrara was opened, the whole atmosphere was filled with tremendous chaitanya, and there was tremendous light in the sky, and the whole thing came on this earth as if a torrential rain or a waterfall with such tremendous force as if I was unaware and got stupefied. The happening was so tremendous, and so unexpected that I was stunned and got totally silent at the grandeur. I saw the primordial Kundalini rising like a big furnace, and the furnace was very silent but a burning appearance it had, as if you heat up a metal and it has many colours. In the same way, the Kundalini showed up as a furnace like a tunnel, as you see these plants you have for coal burning that create electricity; and it stretched like a telescope and came out one after another, Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! Just like that. Then the deities came and sat on their seats, golden seats, and then they lifted the whole of the head like a big dome and opened it, and then this torrential rain completely drenched me - I started seeing all that and got lost in the joy. It was like an artist seeing his own creation, and I felt the joy of great fulfillment. After coming out of this beautiful experience, I looked around and saw human beings so blind and I became absolutely silent, and desired that I should get the cups to fill the nectar, not all stones. (1982-0505) 182 Bibliography Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, The Creation [1975] (Unfinished mss, edited for publication by some yogis as The Book of the Adi Shakti. Cabella Ligure: La Cultura della Madre, 2013; available through lulu.com) http://mothersfirstbook.blogspot.com.au Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Meta modern era (New Delhi: Ritana Books, 1997; available through lulu.com) http://www.metamodernera.com Yogi Mahajan, The face of God: a biography of Her Holiness Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (Pune: Vishwa Nirmala Dharma, 2nd ed., 1995) H.P.Salve, My memoirs (New Delhi: Life Eternal Trust, 2000) 183 Nichiren (Nichiren Daishonin) (Nichiren Shonin) 1222-1282 Japanese Buddhist monk who taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra as the means to enlightenment and established his own following. Nichiren was a vocal critic of the government officials and leaders of the Buddhist schools in Japan in his time. Many of his letters show empathy with the down-trodden of his day, and include letters to women believers who he encouraged to attain enlightenment in their lifetime. He also made a number of prophecies which have been interpreted in later centuries. When, at a certain future time, the union of the state law and the Buddhist Truth shall be established, and the harmony between the two completed, both sovereign and subjects will faithfully adhere to the Great Mysteries. Then the golden age, such as were the ages under the reign of the sage kings of old, will be realized in these days of degeneration and corruption, in the time of the Latter Law. Then the establishment of the Holy See will be completed, by imperial grant and the edict of the Dictator, at a spot comparable in its excellence with the Paradise of Vulture Peak. We have only to wait for the coming of the time. Then the moral law (kaiho) will be achieved in the actual life of mankind. The Holy See will be the seat where all men of the three countries [India, China and Japan] and the whole jambudvipa [world] will be initiated into the mysteries of confession and expiation; and even the great deities, Brahma and Indra, will come down into the sanctuary and participate in the initiation. 184 Bibliography Selected writings of Nichiren, translated by Burton Watson and P.B.Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990); Letters of Nichiren, translated by Burton Watson and P.B.Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996) ‘The major writings of Nichiren Daishonin’ http://nichiren.info/gosho.html Masahara Anesaki, Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1916; reprint: Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1966) Jacqueline I.Stone, Original enlightenment and the transformation of medieval Japanese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii/Kuroda Institute, 1999), chapter 6 B.Petzold, The Buddhist prophet Nichiren – a lotus in the sun (Tokyo: Hokke Janaru, 1978) 185 Nivritti (Nivrutti) 1273-1297 Maratha teenage saint. As a boy, Nivritti received his realisation from the Nath yogi, Gahininath, in the Gorakhagumpha cave at Brahmagiri in what is now Maharashtra. He became guru to his brothers Jnaneshwara and Sopandev, sister Muktabai, and fellow saint, Namdev. There are Maratha traditions that report a connection extending over several generations between Nivritti's family, in particular his father, Vitthal, his grandfather, Govindpath, and great-grandfather, Trimbakpant, and the Nath yogis, Gorakhnath and Gahininath. Bibliography R.D.Ranade, Mysticism in Maharashtra (Poona, 1933; reprinted Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1988):29-35, 166-167 M.S.Mate, Temples and legends of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962):145-146 http://www.hindubooks.org George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata yogis (Calcutta, 1938; reprint: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973):241-242 Savitribai Khanolkar, Saints of Maharashtra (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1978):7-10 186 Nizamuddin Aulia (Nizam al-Din Awliya) 1238-1325 A famous Sufi of the Chishti order, who lived in Delhi. Nizamuddin had many disciples, some of whom were part of the royal court, such as the Sufi-poet, Amir Khusrau. His spiritual precursor was Baba Farid. Shri Mataji visiting the dargah in 1993 Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has commented that in India the Shi'ia Muslims respect the auliyas, the Sufi saints, some of whom, such as Nizamuddin, were realised souls. (1977-0321, 1988-0814, 1997-0321, 1999-0331). 187 Khwaja Nizamuddin Saheb was a great Auliya - no doubt about it. (1977-0321) So we reach a stage where I have to tell you that faith is not mental, it is not emotional, it is not physical, but it is a state of your own being which we can call as a spiritual state. In the spiritual state nothing can disturb you, nothing can overpower you, nothing can dominate you; because that state if you have, that means you are part and parcel of reality. Then you are an honored member of the God's kingdom. Then you are the most revered personality. Then you are like a deity. Then you are like a gana. In that state when you are - it's a state, again I say, beyond the human state - you are extremely powerful. There's a story about Nizamuddin - great Auliya, great Sufi in India. There was a horrible king, Shah he called himself; and he [Nizamuddin] would not go and bow to him. So he [the king] was very angry. He [Nizamuddin] said, "I can only bow to God and to nobody else." This Shah said, "If you don't come and bow to me tomorrow, I will cut your throat." And that night, the throat of this king was cut. It's a story, but it's a real story. Somebody came and cut his throat - it was not Nizamuddin Sahib; he would not do that. (1996-1020) In 1993 Shri Mataji visited the dargah (shrine) of Nizamuddin in Delhi (1993-0320) and on the following day talked to the Sahaja yogis about the visit: So many things you have seen get organized because also this Paramchaitanya has come into Krita Yuga where it is working it out. It’s acting. And this activity, also, is absolutely supportive to you. For example, the police people told us that there are Muslims living here and you might have some danger from them. They might do some harm to you. I said, “Which Muslims are they?” So they said, “Nizamuddin Aulia’s people are here.” 188 I said, “They’ll never harm us.” [They] said, “Why? [Shri Mataji answered] Because he was a Sufi and he was a great realized soul and the people who are along there, must be, most of them are, at least, believers of Sufism. How can they harm us?” So I said, “Tomorrow, early in the morning, you go and put a chador, as they call it, all of you,” and they were so impressed that you saw in the evening they came here all the way, morning time, and they were so respectful. Then they called me, they gave me another chador, this, that and they said that we are yours and this and that, all kinds of things. And his disciple was Amir Khusrau, was another very, very great Sufi gentleman and I always have admired his poetry and also the way Nizamuddin led his life of dignity and divinity. All these Muslims who were there put hands towards me like this and they said, “We are feeling the cool breeze.” I said, “This is Ruh.” [They said] “Ah, this is Ruh.” Once these people start getting Ruh, they will all become Sahaja yogis very soon and you may have to have … [applause] (19930321). Bibliography Nizam ad-din Awliya: morals for the heart : conversations of Shaykh Nizam ad-din Awliya recorded by Amir Hasan Sijzi, translated by Bruce B. Lawrence (Paulist Press, 1992) Laxmi Dhaul, The Dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya (New Delhi: Rupa, 2006) Marc Gaborieau, ‘Un sanctuaire soufi en Inde : le dargah de Nizamuddin a Delhi’ Revue de l'histoire des religions 222(4), 2005:529-555 Glenn Lowry, ‘Delhi in the 16th century’ Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre 1984:7-17 189 https://archnet.org/library/documents/onedocument.jsp?document_id=9303 M.Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1967), chapters 6 and 7 Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, Sheikh Nizamuddin Auliya (Delhi: National Book Trust, 2004) ‘Shri Mataji visits Nizamuddin Shrine 1993’ http://sahaj-az.blogspot.com/2009/01/shri-mataji-visitsnizamuddin-shrine.html 190 Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg) 1772-1801 This German Romantic poet and writer drew on the writings of the Boehmian theosophists to incorporate Sophia and the feminine Divine into his literary writings alongside the ideas of the emerging naturphilosophie. Novalis was profoundly affected by the death of his fiancee, Sophie von Kuhn. In his diary he recorded a vision he had had at her grave, and he used this experience in the third of his Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns of the Night). In his novel, Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1800), Novalis wrote: Sophie said: “The great mystery has been revealed to all, and yet remains eternally unfathomable. The new world is born from suffering and the ashes are dissolved in tears to become the drink of eternal life. The heavenly Mother dwells in 191 everyone, in order that each child be born eternally. Do you feel the sweet birth in the beating of your hearts?” … Finally Sophie said: “The Mother is among us. Her presence will bless us forever. Follow us into our dwelling; in the temple there we shall dwell eternally and guard the mystery of the world.” Bibliography Henry von Ofterdingen: a novel, translated by Palmer Hilty (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1964) Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Arthur Versluis, ‘Novalis’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Leiden: Brill, 2005):869-871 James R.Hodkinson, Women and writing in the works of Novalis: transformation beyond measure? (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2007) William Aectander O'Brien, Novalis, signs of revolution (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995) Walter D. Tov, ‘The mysticism of Novalis’, Studies in Philology v.15, 1918:14-22 Graham Brown, 'Novalis' spiral path', Knowledge of Reality no.19. http://www.sol.com.au/kor 192 Nund Rishi (Sheikh Nooruddin Wali)(Sahazanand) (Nuruddin Nurani) c.1378-1438 Sheikh Noor ud-Din Wali, better known as Nund Rishi, was a Kashmiri Sufi who used yogic techniques, having had his Kundalini awakened by the Shaivite yogini, Lalleshwari, also known as Lal Ded. As Nund Rishi remarks in one of his popular verses: That Lalla of Padmanpore who had drunk to her fill the nectar, she was an avatar of ours. O God, grant me the same spiritual powers. His Hindu followers remember him as Sahazanand, ‘the blissful one’, and believe that he was nominally a Muslim but in reality a sanyasi. His sayings have been preserved in the Rishi Nama written in the Kashmiri Sharda script. The chief disciples of Nund Rishi founded the Rishi Sufi Order which is indigenous to Kashmir. The Rishis’ spiritual practices were almost identical to those of the Hindu sanyasis. As the Kashmiri historian Rafiqi has noted, “All they (Rishis) seem to have added to the Natha framework was the name of Allah or huwa.’ (cited by Ramsay 2012:199). Nund Rishi believed Hindus and Muslims were all children of the same God, who they called by various 193 names. Some of his shruiks (verses) have survived and have been translated into English. Several of these verses critique the empty ritualism of the Hindu priests, the Brahmins, and of their Muslim counterparts, the Mullahs and Sheikhs. Do not go to Sheikh and priest and Mulla, Do not feed the cattle on arkhor leaves, Do not shut yourself up in mosques or forests, Enter your own body with breath controlled in communion with God. Bear with the calls from the compound, friend. Respond to your inner voice: As you sow here, so shall you reap there. Sow and reap, sow and reap. Bibliography ‘Nund Reshi’s Shruks’, translated by P.N.Razdan http://www.koausa.org/KashmiriGems/NundReshi2.html Prem Nath Bazaz, ‘Influence of Shaivism on Nund Rishi’ Indian Literature 16(1-2), 1973:256-267 G.N.Gauhar, Sheikh Noor-ud-din Wali (Nund Rishi) (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1988) Fida M.Hassnain, ‘The Rishi Sufi Order of Kashmir: Kashmir’s gift to mysticism’ (2005) http://sufinews.blogspot.com/2005/12/rishi-sufi-order-ofkashmir-kashmirs.html Jaishree K.Odin, Lalla to Nuruddin: Rishi-Sufi poetry of Kashmir (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2013) Charles M.Ramsey, ‘Rishiwaer: Kashmir, the Garden of the Saints’, in South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and 194 Destiny, edited by Clinton Bennett and Charles M.Ramsey (London: Continuum, 2012):197-210 PN.Razdan, Gems of Kashmiri literature and Kashmiriyat (the Trio of Saint Poets) (New Delhi: Samkaleen Prakashan, 1999). Section 2: Sheikh Ul-Alam (Nund Reshi) http://www.koausa.org/KashmiriGems/index.html Yoginder Sikand, ‘Kashmiri Sufism: theological resources for peace-building’ (2006) http://www.countercurrents.org/kashmir-sikand210706.htm 195 Nur Jahan 1577-1645 Nur Jahan with Emperor Jahangir Born in Kandahar (in present-day Afghanistan) into a Persian noble family as Mehr-un-Nissa. She became a lady-in-waiting to Empress Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, the first wife of Emperor Akbar, and step-mother to Emperor Jahangar. After several years in the Mughal court, she came to the attention of Jahangir and became his twentieth and last wife with the title Nur Jahan (‘Light of the World’). 196 Jahangar’s affection and trust of Nur Jahan led to her wielding considerable power in the affairs of the Mughal court and its administration. She consolidated that power by placing members of her family in positions of importance throughout the court and the administration. After Jahangar’s death, Shah Jahan became the new Mughal emperor in 1628. Nur Jahan was confined to a mansion where she lived with her daughter until her passing in 1645. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has refered to Nur Jahan as one of the great women of India. (1979-0528, 19860713) Bibliography Ellison Banks Findly, Nur Jahan: empress of Mughal India (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) Yogi Mahajan, Great women of India (Milan, Italy: Life Eternal Trust, 1991):49-50 Chandra Pant, Nur Jahan and her family (Allahabad: Dandewal Publishing House, 1978) Shyam Singh Shashi, Jahangir and Nur Jahan (New Delhi: Anmol, 1999) Mohammad Shujauddin and Razia Shujauddin, The Life and Times of Noor Jahan (Lahore: Caravan Book House, 1967) 197 Seji Ozawa 1935- Japanese conductor of western classical music, especially modern composers of the 20th century. Best known for his work as music director with the Boston Symphony Orchestra between 1973 and 2002. Shri Mataji has commented that Seji Ozawa is born realised, as recalled by the American Sahaja yogini Kristine Kirby from 1983: We were walking. Shri Mataji wanted to do some shopping, so we went to Bloomingdales in Chestnut Hill in the Boston area and wandered through the store. She was particularly interested at that time in freshwater pearls and was looking at a beautiful freshwater pearl 198 necklace where all the pearls were perfect. Then we wandered to a different part of the store where they had goods, cutlery and things like that, and as we were there, Seiji Ozawa, then the director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and quite a famous director, passed by us. I recognized him. ‘Shri Mataji, that is the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’, I said. ‘I think that one is a realised soul. He must be a realised soul – born realised,’ She said. ‘Really, Shri Mataji?’ I replied. ‘Yes, because his pupils dilated when he saw me, when he walked past.’ Bibliography Lincoln Russell and Caroline Smedvig, eds., Seiji: an intimate portrait of Seiji Ozawa (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998) Kristine Kirby, ‘I think that one is a realized soul’ in Eternally Inspiring Recollections of our Divine Mother, edited by Linda J.Williams (London: Blossomtime Publishing, 2nd ed., 2013), vol.2:356 199 Paracelsus (Phillipus Aureolis Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim) c.1493-1541 This Swiss spiritual alchemist contemplated the essence of nature in terms of the four wombs (‘matrices’, ‘mothers’) of fire, air, water, earth; and a tripartite scheme reflecting the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). For Paracelsus, a human being consists of three essences: soul, body and spirit. Alchemically, these correspond to sulphur, salt, and mercury. The following extracts are from the Philosophia ad Athenienses: The primary matter of all things is the “great mystery” … Like children are born to the mother, from the “great mystery” issues all things, with or without feelings, as well as the other things, all in the same manner. The “Great mystery” is the only mother of all mortal things. Everything is the product of one universal creative effort … there is nothing dead in Nature. Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism. Nature, being the Universe, is ONE, and its origin can only be the one eternal Unity. It is an organism in which all things harmonize and sympathize with each other. It is the Macrocosm. Man is the Microcosm. And the Macrocosm and the Microcosm are ONE. 200 Paracelsus travelled widely throughout Europe as a healer and alchemist. Bibliography Paracelsus: essential readings, translated by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (Wellingborough, UK: Crucible, 1990) Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 14931541): essential theoretical writings, translated by Andrew Weeks (Leiden: Brill, 2007) Jonathan Bain ‘The cosmos according to Phillipus Aureolis Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus) (14901541)’ http://ls.poly.edu/~jbain/mms/handouts/mmspara.htm Udo Benzenhofer and Urs Leo Gantenbein, ‘Paracelsus’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Leiden: Brill, 2005):922-931 Carlos Gilly, ‘‘Theophrastia Sancta’: Paracelsianism as a religion in conflict with the established churches’ (2003) http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl//c/p/res/art/art_01.html Heinrich Schipperges, ‘Paracelsus and his followers’, in Modern esoteric spirituality, edited by Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman (New York: Crossroad, 1992):154-185 Charles Webster, Paracelsus: medicine, magic and mission at the end of time (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2008) 201 Patacara 4th century BCE. Buddhist nun and disciple of the Buddha. This verse from the Therigatha describes her enlightenment: When they plow their fields and sow seeds in the earth when they care for their wives and children young brahmans find riches. But I've done everything right and followed the rule of my teacher. I'm not lazy or proud. Why haven't I found peace? Bathing my feet I watch the bathwater spill down the slope. I concentrate my mind the way you train a good horse. Then I took a lamp and went into my cell, checked the bed, and sat down on it. I took a needle and pushed the wick down. When the lamp went out my mind was freed. Bibliography Hellmuth Hecker, Buddhist women at the time of the Buddha (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1982) http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/hecker/wheel292.h tml Susan Murcott, First Buddhist women (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 2006):43-51 202 Patanjali 2nd century CE Compiler of an historically important collection of sutras (verses) on yoga. Whilst there had been earlier breath control and meditation traditions, Patanjali was the first to bring a systematic yoga into textual form in his Yoga sutras. This Patanjali is probably different from the earlier grammarian of the same name. Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thoughts. (Yoga Sutras 1:2) The Yoga Sutras were widely copied in the ancient and medieval periods, being translated into forty Indian languages and two non-Indian languages: Old Javanese and Arabic. In the modern period the text has been translated into English and other western languages, and continues to be popular and widely studied, particularly in the physical yoga culture of the USA. Bibliography Edwin F.Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (New York: North Point Press, 2009) Christopher Key Chapple, Yoga and the luminous: Patanjali's spiritual path to freedom (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2008) 203 P.Y.Deshpande, The authentic yoga: a fresh look at Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with a new translation, notes and comments (London: Rider, 1978) Mircea Eliade, Patanjali and yoga (in French, 1962; New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1969) Geoffrey Samuel, The origins of yoga and tantra: Indic religions to the thirteenth century (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008):221-223 Jeffrey Clark Ruff, History, text, and context of the 'Yoga Upanisads' (Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002):17-18,256 David Gordon White, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: a biography (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014) 204 Francesco Petrarch 1304-1374 Petrarch was an Italian poet, philosopher and biographer, who can be regarded as a major figure in humanist philosophy and the early Italian Renaissance. In his best known work, Secretum (The Secret), a Divine Lady visits the writer: Often have I wondered with much curiosity as to our coming into this world and what will follow our departure. When I was ruminating lately on this matter, not in any dream as one in sickness and slumber, but wide awake and with all my wits about me, I was greatly astonished to behold a very beautiful Lady, shining with an indescribable light about her. She seemed as one whose beauty is not known, as it might be, to mankind I could not tell how she came there, but from her raiment and appearance I judged her a fair virgin, and her eyes, like the sun, seemed to send forth rays of such light that they made me lower my own before her, so that I was afraid to look up. When she saw this she said, Fear not; and let not the strangeness of my presence affright you in any wise. I saw your steps had gone astray; and I had compassion on you and have come down from above to bring you timely succor. 205 Petrarch and Laura (from a fifteenth century mss) This Divine Lady is in the tradition of Boethius and his Lady Philosophy. It has also to be noted that, like Dante and his Beatrice, Petrarch had his earthly muse, a woman he saw in Avignon in 1327 whom he called Laura. Is Laura a literary device (as argued by Paul Olson) introduced by Petrarch to act as his Truth-like instructor? Another reading of this extract would be more literal, namely as an account of a visionary appearance by Divine Wisdom to guide one of her devotees. 206 Bibliography Secretum (Petrarch's Secret), translated by William H. Draper (London Chatto & Windus, 1911) Nancy Bisaha, ‘Petrarch's vision of the Muslim and Byzantine East’ Speculum 76(2), 2001:284-314 Paul A.Olson, The journey to Wisdom: self-education in patristic and medieval literature (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), esp. p242, note 7 Mariann Sanders Regan, Love words: the Self and the Text in Medieval and Renaissance poetry (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), chapter 5 207 Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Spanish artist famous for his inventive and conceptually abstract paintings, drawings, etchings, and sculptures. The Australian writer and Sahaja yogi, Brian Bell has written about Picasso: After his apprentice years spent copying great artists, he became famous for sad, left-sided, blue and rose paintings. Then he moved into the right, exploring cubism and collage and painting harshly-coloured abstracts, before settling, through an interest in neoclassicism, into a balance where he gained his self-realisation. 208 Bibliography Brian Bell, ‘From Left to Right to Centre’ [2007] http://www.sahajayoga.com.au/news/2007/02/17/from-left-toright-to-centre Jonathan Brown, ed., Picasso and the Spanish tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) Brigette Leal, et al, The ultimate Picasso (New York: Harry N.Abrams, 2000) John Richardson, A life of Picasso (New York: Random House, 1991/ New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 2007) 209 Pipa (Pipaji) 1383-1453 A Rajasthani king who gave up his throne to follow a religious life as a disciple of Ramanand. The later Rajasthani saint, Sundardas recorded that: That perfectly pure Sahaja is in everything and with that Sahaja all religious people gather together. ... Devotees like Sojha, Pipa, Sena and Dhana all have drunk of this Sahaja-bliss in the natural way. There is a song by Pipa in the Adi Granth. Bibliography Songs of the saints from the Adi Granth, translated by Nirmal Dass (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2000): 181-184 David N.Lorenzen, 'The lives of Nirguni saints', in Bhakti religion in north India: community identity and political action, edited by David N.Lorenzen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995):181-211 210 Marguerite Porete d.1310 Mystic and probable Beguine from northeastern France. As the thirteenth century progressed, attitudes towards the Beguines changed. The elderly Mechtild of Magdeburg felt it prudent to enter the Cistercian convent at Helfta once her book had begun to circulate and attract critical attention. For Marguerite Porette there was nowhere to hide once her book, the Mirouer des simples ames (Mirror of simple souls), began to circulate. Or perhaps she did not want to hide in a convent. Sometime before 1306 the book had been condemned by the bishop of Cambrai and publicly burnt. Marguerite then revised and extended her text, and this was approved by three (male) theologians. But there were powerful forces of intolerance at work in French society at that time, and in 1310 extracts from Mirouer were judged to be heretical. This led to Marguerite being burnt at the stake in Paris. The Mirouer survived as an anonymous work, only being reattributed to Marguerite in the mid-twentieth century. The book outlines the seven states through which the Soul reaches God, and this is summarised in chapter 118 which begins: I have promised, says this Soul, ever since Love has overpowered me, to say something about the seven stages we call states, for so they are. And these are the degrees by which 211 one ascends from the valley to the height of the mountain, which is so isolated that one sees nothing save God. Each degree of being has its own level. In the first state the Soul is touched by Grace and stripped of her power to sin. She feels she has a full time job keeping the commandments to love God with all her heart, and love her neighbor as herself. In the second state the Soul “considers that God counsels His special lovers to go beyond what He commands.” She abandons possessions, mortifies nature, and despises riches, delights and honours, so that she can “accomplish the perfection of the evangelical counsel of which Jesus Christ is the exemplar.” In the third state the Soul has to conquer her will and love the work of perfection by which “her spirit is sharpened through a boiling desire of Love in multiplying in herself such works.” Thus “it is necessary to be pulverized in breaking and bruising the self in order to enlarge the place where love would want to be.” In the fourth state the Soul is “drawn by the height of love into the delight of thought through meditation.” Here she believes that there is no higher life, but Marguerite points out that the Soul is deceived and that there are two further stages which are given by God and which are greater and nobler and that these can be obtained by what she calls Fine Love. The fifth stage is the stage of Nothingness. Here the Soul realizes that apart from God she is nothing. 212 Now such a Soul is nothing, for she sees her nothingness by means of the abundance of Divine Understanding, which maker her nothing and places her in nothingness. And so she is all things, for she sees by means of the depth of understanding of her own wretchedness, which is so deep and so great that she finds there neither beginning nor middle nor end, only a bottomless abyss. There she finds herself, without finding znd without bottom. One does not finds oneself who cannot attain this. The sixth stage is one of clarification. The Soul now knows where it stands. Once it reaches the sixth stage it is safe. It can return to the fifth stage, but is not in danger of falling to the fourth or lower. So now Divine Love and the Soul now work together to put an end to reason, and the Soul becomes a Divine Mirror: … God sees Himself in her by His divine majesty, who clarifies this Soul with Himself, so that she sees only that there is nothing except God Himself who is, from who all things are. And so The Soul is at the sixth stage, freed and pure and clarified from all things – but not at all glorified. The seventh stage is that of glorification. Here Love keeps within herself in order to give it to us in eternal glory, of which we will have no understanding until our soul has left our body. 213 Although in the decades following Marguerite’s condemnation the Mirouer continued to be regarded as suspect by church authorities, it was to become widely circulated throughout Europe in Latin and in numerous translations as the work of an anonymous Carthusian monk. Ascribed to an anonymous male member of a conservative religious order, the book was acceptable, even admired; written by a lay woman it was deeply suspect. And so the situation continued until the mid twentieth century when the Italian historian Romana Guarnieri established Marguerite’s authorship in an article published in 1946. Guarnieri continued to work on this text, publishing the first critical edition of the Old French text in 1965;and the full critical edition of the Old French and Latin with Middle English notes in 1986. Whilst an English translation had been published in 1927, this was before Marguerite’s authorship had been established. In 1993 an English translation by Ellen Babinsky was published, and since then this text has continued to be critically studied and acknowledged as a masterpiece of women’s spiritual writing. Several modern scholars have observed similarities between Marguerite’s Mirouer and the writings of Meister Eckhart, with similar phrasing to be found in both. Eckhart arrived in Paris in the year after Marguerite’s death, and he is known to have shared a house at this time with a member of the Inquisition that had tried and condemned her. Although there is no direct evidence, it seems likely that Eckhart had access to the text of the Mirouer. Most of his surviving sermons are 214 from the later period of his life, from 1310 to his death, c.1328. Clearly he was influenced by Marguerite’s ideas, although his own condemnation for heresy was to be posthumous. (in 1329). Bibliography The mirror of simple souls, translated by Ellen L.Babinsky (New York: Paulist Press, 1993) Laurent Brun, ‘Marguerite Porete: bibliographie’ http://www.arlima.net/mp/marguerite_porete.html Gwendolyn Bryant, ‘The French heretic Beguine: Marguerite Porete’ in Medieval women writers, edited by Katharine M.Wilson (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984):204-226 Francesca Caroline Bussey, "The World on the End of a Reed": Marguerite Porette and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations - a reassessment (PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 2007) http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/3875 Jan Jorritsma, ‘Marguerite Porete in the context of female religiosity and the heresy of the Free Spirit’ UCSC History Annals: a journal of undergraduate research Journal (University of California Santa Cruz) v6, 2014-5 http://history.ucsc.edu/undergraduate/undergraduateresearch/electronic-journal/journal-pdfs/1415_Jorritsma.pdf Jonathan Juilfs, ‘”Reading the Bible differently”: appropriations of biblical authority in an heretical mystical text, Marguerite Porette’s The Mirror of Simple Souls’ Religion & Literature 42(1-2), 2010:77-100 David Kangas, ‘Dangerous Joy: Marguerite Porete’s Goodbye to the Virtues’ Journal of Religion 91(3), 2011:299-319 Zan Kocher, ‘The Virgin Mary and the perfect Meulequin: translating a textile analogy in Marguerite Porete’s The 215 Mirror of Simple Souls’ Philological Quarterly 90(1), 2011:119 Rina Lahav, Collaboration and Coercion: Marguerite Porete, mendicants and devout women in northern France in the late thirteenth century (PhD thesis, Monash University, 2011) Juan Marin, ‘Annihilation and Deification in Beguine theology and Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls’ Harvard Theological Review 103(1), 2010:89-109 https://www.academia.edu/260516/Annihilation_and_Deificat ion_in_Beguine_Theology_and_Marguerite_Poretes_Mirror_ of_Simple_Souls Jennifer Schulberth, ‘”Holy church is not able to recognize her”: the virtues and interpretation in Marguerite Porete’s Mirror’ History of Religions 52(3), 2013:197-213 Justine L.Trombley, ‘The Master and the Mirror: the influence of Marguerite Porete on Meister Eckhart’ Magistra 16(1), 2010:60-102 Patrick Wright, ‘Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls and the subject of Annihilation’ Mystics Quarterly 35(3-4), 2009:63-98+ 216 217 218

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