04-July-2015 (Saturday)
Mother As I Saw Her – Swami Saradeshananda
The Meaning of the Human Weakness of Incarnations – 1

In the world, people make mistakes or act foolishly at some time or other, and become very sorry afterwards. It just happens in the ordinary course of events. “But why should it be so in the Lila of an Incarnation?” Such a doubt may naturally occur to a questioner’s mind. To people in general, the coming of an Incarnation is for the sole purpose of revealing to man what is beyond his intellectual understanding. So, the ordinary actions of an Incarnation seem to them to be of no purpose. Though from the ordinary point of view this seems to be true, to the heart of a devotee, the attraction and the feeling of wonder that these very actions produce are matters of supreme importance. The Lord comes down as a man to produce in the devotee’s heart the ‘sap of love’ and a feeling of ‘my-ness’ in regard to Him. This gradually destroys the separateness between the Lord and the devotee, and the feeling that ‘He is my every own’ grows to such an extent that ultimately it may even produce the realisation of the devotee’s oneness with the Lord! It is through the day-to-day behaviour of the Incarnation and His human actions that the beauty and sweetness of the Lila (divine play) is properly manifested. It is when the devotee sees the ignorance in the One who is ‘Knowledge personified’, the sorrow in the One who is ‘Ever-blissful’, the little desires in the One who is ‘Infinite’, the nervousness in the One who is the “Destroyer of all fear’, that one feels all the more drawn to Him, and one’s heart melts and gets completely merged at His feet. After this, is it ever possible to bring that heart back to this hard world again”? No, it can never be, however much one may try in this direction.

[Mother As I Saw Her (Being Reminiscences of Holy Mother Sarada Devi) – Swami Saradeshananda. Translated by Prof. J. N. Dey. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore Madras-600004: p 164]

Location: Bangalore, India