AT THE FEET OF THE MOTHER
Ask Alok da

Shakti – the divine mother is said to be omniscient, omnipotent and benevolent so why do we need to pray and worship her for invoking her grace? What stops her from showering her grace spontaneously on each one in need🙄?

It does act spontaneously if you look at the vast array of creatures. The animal doesn’t need to pray to get helped. Mechanisms are created by Nature that takes care of everything. The Divine Omniscience acts as sure instinct in animal and plants. However with man the Divine Mother intends something more. She wants us to evolve and become Divine himself. For this a two-way contact is needed to begin with. Then this mutual contact needs to deepen and develop into love which eventually leads to a growing identity. When we are in infancy then the Mother carries us in our unconsciousness through the game of life and death. But when the soul grows into adulthood then the same Mother changes her ways and lets us take the challenges. If She did all directly and spoon fed us then man will either remain an animal or a robot. 

Besides, the ability to pray and aspire is itself special Grace given to man. An intensity of aspiration, a prayer riding on a crest of emotion adds to the charm and joy of being human in an otherwise mechanically driven life tossed by desires and whiplashed to action by fear, egoism and all the rest. On the other hand conscious surrender to the Divine Mother makes the same journey so much more beautiful and delightful through the living contact with the Divine. 

Affectionately,

Alok Da

Share this…

Related Posts

I remember once reading in Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the Isha Upanishad that one cannot become a Brahmin without first becoming a Kshatriya. I believe that I never had the Kshatriya element developed sufficiently within me, and it has always been a source of embarrassment and insecurity for me as a man. 💪🙏🏻🪷[…]

He said both are needed. But these are things ingrained within us. Brahmin and Kshatriya are not  soul states, inner innate temperaments and not so much of outer actions. Nevertheless everything can be developed by practice. By taking the challenges of life, through vigorous physical exercises, by praying for strength, by reading …

Read More >

Bhaiya, Rishi Panchami fast is coming up, and I read the story behind it. Honestly, I found it quite absurd. The story talks about a woman unknowingly breaking certain rules during menstruation, cooking food that her husband eats, and then both of them facing severe karmic consequences in their next life. 🪷🙏🏻 […]

Yes, all these things have been added much later and have no authority in the main  Scriptures. It is a story added in some of the Puranas, mainly I suppose to enforce rules of hygiene for women during the menstrual period. This was one of the ways to instil certain hygiene practices through fear. It has no meaning now. Most of the fasts …

Read More >

How should we understand deities like Subrahmanyeshwara (Skanda/Murugan) and Vinayaka (Ganesha)? Are they individual divine beings, cosmic powers of the One Divine, or symbols of different aspects of consciousness? How should an aspirant in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga relate to them in practice? 🙏🏻✨

The four original gods, Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and, behind them all Krishna, are, in their origin, the four aspects of the One Divine, named in Indian spiritual thought as Sacchidananda. Sat (सत) is infinite existence from which Brahma ji emerges. Chit is Chit-tapas, Consciousness and Force from which Hari or Vishnu ji and Hara or Shiv ji …

Read More >